pendent people, who
recognized no law save that of might, would be exceedingly foolish to
show signs of boasting. It was man to man now, and money did not count
in the comparison.

"Yuh wanted tuh meet up with me, yuh say?" the other observed, with
sarcasm in his tones. "Wall now yuh see me, p'raps yuh don't jest like
my looks. If so be I thort them coward hounds up-river sent yuh down
hyah tuh spy on us, an' inform thet rail-rid sheriff how he cud git tuh
cotch us on the sly, I'd jest lay a cowhide acrost yer backs till the
welts they stood up like ropes."

"I have nothing to do with the people of that town," declared Phil,
resolutely. "So far as I saw of their actions, they are a lot of
cowards, who could chase after a half-grown boy, but draw the line at
coming down here to meet men."

"Then tell me why did yuh pick out this yer stream tuh bring yer boat
down; I reckons they be heaps o' others thet'd suited better?" demanded
McGee.

"Why, I told you that I wanted to see you and that it was with that
plan in my mind I selected this river of them all," replied the boy.

Tony was hovering near. He had not even attempted to escape when that
iron hand of his father loosened its clutch on his shirt. Of course he
understood to what end all these things must lead; and that it was now
a mere matter of seconds when the fact must be disclosed that the boy
with whom he had been associating was in reality the only son and child
of the man these squatters hated above every human being on earth.

And he could imagine the effect of that explosion on the hot temper of
McGee. No wonder then that Tony felt alternate flushes of heat, and
spasms of cold pass over his body, as he hung upon every word Phil gave
utterance to. He dreaded what his father might be tempted to do in the
first flash of his anger; and Tony was holding himself ready to jump
into the breach. He was accustomed to feeling the weight of the
McGee's displeasure, but it pained him to think that it must fall on
his best of benefactors, and his new found chum.

The man again flirted the lantern forward, as he took another look into
the calm face of the boy. Phil met the piercing gaze of McGee with a
steadiness that doubtless impressed him; for of a certainty McGee must
be a reader of character, since he had never had a school education.

He knew that this was no ordinary young fellow who had come down the
river on board the new-fangled boat that needed n