that we should get clean away from pop's old life, and
she did all the brain work of wiping the slate clean and coming away off
here. We were a couple of years doing it, trying a lot of other places
all over the country before they struck this ranch and felt safe. Pop's
living straight; you needn't think he isn't, but he's got a queer
hankering to see the sort of men he used to train with. It's natural, I
suppose."

"I suppose it is. But you must have suffered; I can imagine how you
feel," said Archie, who had listened to her long speech with rapt
attention.

"Well, I don't know that I've suffered so much," she replied slowly,
"but I do feel queer sometimes when I'm around with young folks whose
fathers never had to duck the cops. Not that they've any suspicions, of
course; I guess pop stands well round here."

"I can understand perfectly how your father would like to see some of
the old comrades now and then and even give them shelter and help them
on their way. That speaks highly for his generosity. It's a big thing
for me right now to be put up here. I'm in a lot of trouble, and this
gives me a chance to get my bearings. I shall always remember your
father's aid. And you don't know how wonderful it is to be sitting
beside you here and talking to you just as though nothing had ever
happened to me; really as though I wasn't a lost sheep and a pretty
black one at that."

"I'm sorry," she answered. "When I told you you'd better go and do your
time and get done with it, I didn't mean to be nasty. But I was thinking
that a man as sensitive as I judge you to be would be happier in the
long run. Now pop had an old pal who drifted along here a couple of
years ago, and pop had it all figured out to shoot him right up into
Canada, but, would you believe it, that man simply wouldn't go! The very
idea of being in a safe place where he was reasonably certain of not
being bothered worried him. He simply couldn't stand it. He was so used
to being chased and shot at it didn't seem natural to be out of danger,
and pop had to give him money to take him to Oklahoma where he'd have
the fun of teasing the sheriffs along. And he had his wish and I suppose
he died happy, for we read in the papers a little while afterward that
he'd been shot and killed trying to hold up a bank."

Archie expressed his impatience of the gentleman who preferred death in
Oklahoma to a life of tranquillity in the Canadian wilds.

"Oh, they never learn anyt