ent for the other man after that, for he had been living
lonely, loving her all the time, and you'd better believe he went."

"Ha! Dat's fine! Dat's dam' fine!" said the other. "I'll bet dere's
hell to pay den--w'at?"

"Yes, there was a kind of reckoning." The old man lapsed into moody
silence, the younger one waiting eagerly for him to continue, but there
came the sound of voices down the trail, and they looked up.

"Here comes Lee," said Gale.

"Wat happen' den? I'm got great interes' 'bout dis woman," insisted
Poleon.

"It's a long story, and I just told you this much to show what I said
was true about a good girl and a bad man, and to show why I want Necia
to get a good one. The sooner it happens the better it will suit me."

Neither man had ever spoken thus openly to the other about Necia
before, and although their language was indirect, each knew the other's
thought. But there was no time for further talk now, for the others
were close upon them. As they came into view, Gale exclaimed:

"Well, if he hasn't brought Runnion along!"

"Humph!" grunted Doret. "I don' t'ink much of dat feller. Wat's de
matter wit' 'No Creek,' anyhow?"

The three new arrivals dropped down upon the moss to rest, for the
up-trail was heavy and the air sultry inside the forest. Lee was the
first to speak.

"Did you get away without bein' seen?" he asked.

"Sure," answered Gale. "Poleon has been here two hours."

"That's good; I don't want nobody taggin' along."

"We came right through the town boldly," announced Stark; "but if they
had seen you two they would have suspected something, sure."

Runnion volunteered nothing except oaths at the mosquitoes and at his
pack-straps, which were new and cut him already. As no explanation of
his presence was offered, neither the trader nor Doret made any comment
then, but it came out later, when the old miner dropped far enough
behind the others to render conversation possible.

"You decided to take in another one, eh?" Gale asked Lee.

"It wasn't exactly my doin's," replied the miner. "Stark asked me to
let Runnion come 'long, bein' as he had grub-staked him, and he seemed
so set on it that I ackeressed. You see, it's the first chance I ever
had to pay him back for a favor he done me in the Cassiar country.
There's plenty of land to go around."

It was Lee's affair, thought the trader, and he might tell whom he
liked, so he said no more, but fell to studying the back of the man
ne