illed it so that only the tops of the tallest pines were lighted by
the sun. The lonesome gloom deepened and the pines swung their limber
tops and talked with the sound of moving waters along a sandy shore.

An owl flapped heavily into a tall pine near by, settled his feet
comfortably upon a smooth place in the limb, craned his neck and
blinked into the wind, fluffed his feathers and in a deep baritone
voice he called aloud upon his errant mate.

"Who! Who! Who-who!"

Mike jumped and swung his rifle toward the sound! "Oh, yuh needn't
think yuh can fool me, makin' si'nals like an owl," he cried in his
indistinct gobble. "I know what you're up to. Yuh can't fool me!"

Far across the basin the mate, in a lighter, more spirited tone,
called reassuring reply:

"Who-who-who-o-o!"

"Who! Who! Who-who!" admonished the owl by the cabin, and flapped away
to the other.

Mike's sandy hair lifted on the back of his neck. His face turned
pasty gray in the deep gloom of the cabin. Spies they were, and they
were laying their trap for him. The one who had called like an owl was
Hank Brown. The one who had answered across the flat was the girl,
maybe--or perhaps it was that other spy up on top of the mountain;
Mike was not sure, but the menace to himself remained as great,
whichever spy answered Hank Brown. Hank Brown had trailed him to the
cabin, and was telling the others about it. Mike was so certain of it
that he actually believed he had seen Hank's form dimly revealed
beside a pine tree.

He waited, the gun in his hands. He did not think of supper. He did
not realize that he was cold, or hungry, or that as the evening wore
on his tortured muscles cried out for rest. The sight of Hank Brown
talking intimately with Marion--allied with the spies, as Mike's
warped reason interpreted the meeting--had given him the feeling that
he was hedged about with deadly foes. The sudden eagerness which
Marion had shown when she saw him, and the way she had run after him,
to him meant nothing less than an attempt to capture him then and
there. They would come to the cabin when he was asleep--he was sure of
it. So he did not intend to sleep at all. He would watch for them with
the gun. He guessed they didn't know he had a gun, because he never
used it unless he went hunting. And since the county was filled up
with spies on the government he was too cute to let them catch him
hunting out of season.

He waited and he waited. After a long whi