s if
to bear him to the ground. He hugged him, and Keith hugged, and then
for a minute they stood pumping hands until their faces were red, and
Duggan was growling over and over:

"An' you passed me there at McCoffin's Bend--an' I didn't know you, I
didn't know you, I didn't know you! I thought you was that cussed
Conniston! I did. I thought you was Conniston!" He stood back at last.
"Johnny--Johnny Keith!"

"Andy, you blessed old devil!"

They pumped hands again, pounded shoulders until they were sore, and in
Keith's face blazed once more the love of life.

Suddenly old Duggan grew rigid and sniffed the air. "I smell bacon!"

"It's in the pack, Andy. But for Heaven's sake don't notice the bacon
until you explain how you happen to be here."

"Been waitin' for you," replied Duggan in an affectionate growl. "Knew
you'd have to come down this valley to hit the Little Fork. Been
waitin' six weeks."

Keith dug his fingers into Duggan's arm.

"How did you know I was coming HERE?" he demanded. "Who told you?"

"All come out in the wash, Johnny. Pretty mess. Chinaman dead. Johnny
Keith, alias Conniston, alive an' living with Conniston's pretty
sister. Johnny gone--skipped. No one knew where. I made guesses. Knew
the girl would know if anyone did. I went to her, told her how you'n me
had been pals, an' she give me the idee you was goin' up to the river's
end. I resigned from the Betty M., that night. Told her, though, that
she was a ninny if she thought you'd go up there. Made her believe the
note was just a blind."

"My God," breathed Keith hopelessly, "I meant it."

"Sure you did, Johnny. I knew it. But I didn't dare let HER know it. If
you could ha' seen that pretty mouth o' hern curlin' up as if she'd
liked to have bit open your throat, an' her hands clenched, an' that
murder in her eyes--Man, I lied to her then! I told her I was after
you, an' that if she wouldn't put the police on you, I'd bring back
your head to her, as they used to do in the old times. An' she bit.
Yes, sir, she said to me, 'If you'll do that, I won't say a word to the
police!' An' here I am, Johnny. An' if I keep my word with that little
tiger, I've got to shoot you right now. Haw! Haw!"

Keith had turned his face away.

Duggan, pulling him about by the shoulders, opened his eyes wide in
amazement.--"Johnny--"

"Maybe you don't understand, Andy," struggled Keith. "I'm sorry--she
feels--like that."

For a moment Duggan was silent. The