fered
him, and chewed it with nervous fierceness, his eyebrows working, as
he looked at the other eagerly. Deadly as his purpose was, and grim and
unvarying as his vigil had been, the loneliness had told on him, and he
had grown hungry for a human face and human companionship. Why Sinnet
had come he had not thought to inquire. Why Sinnet should be going north
instead of south had not occurred to him. He only realised that Sinnet
was not the man he was waiting for with murder in his heart; and all
that mattered to him in life was the coming of his victim down the
trail. He had welcomed Sinnet with a sullen eagerness, and had told him
in short, detached sentences the dark story of a wrong and a waiting
revenge, which brought a slight flush to Sinnet's pale face and awakened
a curious light in his eyes.

"Is that your shack--that where you shake down?" Sinnet said, pointing
towards a lean-to in the fir trees to the right.

"That's it. I sleep there. It's straight on to the Juniper clump, the
front door is." He laughed viciously, grimly. "Outside or inside, I'm on
to the Juniper clump. Walk into the parlour?" he added, and drew open a
rough-made door, so covered with green cedar boughs that it seemed of a
piece with the surrounding underbrush and trees. Indeed, the little but
was so constructed that it could not be distinguished from the woods
even a short distance away.

"Can't have a fire, I suppose?" Sinnet asked.

"Not daytimes. Smoke 'd give me away if he suspicioned me," answered the
mountaineer. "I don't take no chances. Never can tell."

"Water?" asked Sinnet, as though interested in the surroundings, while
all the time he was eyeing the mountaineer furtively--as it were, prying
to the inner man, or measuring the strength of the outer man. He lighted
a fresh pipe and seated himself on a rough bench beside the table in the
middle of the room, and leaned on his elbows, watching.

The mountaineer laughed. It was not a pleasant laugh to hear. "Listen,"
he said. "You bin a long time out West. You bin in the mountains a good
while. Listen."

There was silence. Sinnet listened intently. He heard the faint drip,
drip, drip of water, and looked steadily at the back wall of the room.

"There--rock?" he said, and jerked his head towards the sound.

"You got good ears," answered the other, and drew aside a blanket which
hung on the back wall of the room. A wooden trough was disclosed hanging
under a ledge of rock, and