he greeted, brusquely. "I called around to see our friend.
How is he?"

"Why," stammered Charley. "He's--he's dead."

"When?"

"Just a few moments ago."

"He is, is he? I'll have to look into that." And the long-nosed man
pushed by Charley and strode through the hall. Charley could do
nothing but follow. He found the man confronting Mr. Adams. The
figure on the sofa had been covered by a cloth.

"The kid says our friend has passed over," rather roughly spoke the
long-nosed man. "How about it?"

"Yes, sir," answered Mr. Adams. "There he is."

"Huh!" And walking across, the long-nosed man peeped in under the
cloth. "All right," he said. "Now's our chance to divvy, then, isn't
it?"

"Just what do you mean, sir?" demanded Mr. Adams, flushing--and Charley
knew that his father was angry.

"I mean you get half and I get half, and no questions asked. Where are
those sacks?"

"No, sir!" returned Mr. Adams, decidedly. "There'll be no such
performance. I shall put those sacks and their contents, just as they
are, on deposit with the bank or other authorities, subject to the
heirs. They're neither mine nor yours."

"He gave them to me, anyway," blurted Charley, angrily, to the man.
"There's $1000. And he----"

"Charley, be quiet," ordered his father, sternly. "It doesn't concern
us how much there is, or what he did. He wasn't in his right mind."

"What else did he do, bub?" queried the man.

But Charley held his tongue.

"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," continued Mr. Adams, severely,
to the long-nosed man, "trying to take the hard-earned gains of a poor
fellow who probably has left a needy family somewhere, and was going
back to them! If you think we'll be partners with you, you're highly
mistaken. Understand? I've never yet taken advantage of anybody in
misfortune, and I've never yet robbed a guest, most of all a dead man.
Now you'll oblige me by clearing out."

The long-nosed man sneered.

"Oh, yes," he said. "I see. You've got the swag, and no doubt he's
told you about some mine, and you count on getting that, too! But your
high and mighty virtue doesn't down, with me. My name's Jacobs: Jasper
Jacobs. I've lived on the frontier. I'm half wild hoss and half
Mississippi alligator; and I'm a bad man to cross. I'm going to watch
you, and when this swag comes to light again I'll have my share. See?
Put that in your pipe and smoke it."

"Look here, sir," answered Mr. Adams,