pretty, gents. Pardners is pardners and that's doin' it
handsome. Put up your hands an' we won't shoot.'

"For answer, Bull snaps his rifle to his shoulder an' fires.

"A volley rings out, an' Bull drops dead, a dozen bullets through him.
I wasn't two yards away, but not a shot touched me.

"Then this road-agent, a tall thin galoot, heavily masked, comes down
to where I'm standin' alone.

"'It was a dirty bit o' shootin'!' says I, indignant.

"'You've no cause to complain,' says he, 'nothin' hit you! I like your
spunk in standin' by your pardner. He seems to ha' been a he-man, too,
even if he was a fool. Had he any folks?'

"'A baby girl back in Montana,' I tells him.

"'I'm not robbin' babies,' he says to that. 'She gets my share o' the
loot. I give my word. Do you know the address?'

"I reaches down into Bull's coat, takes a letter from it what he'd
written to his sister, what was lookin' after the kid, an' hands this
bandit the envelope. He reads it, nods an' puts it in his pocket."

"Did he ever send the money?" suddenly interrupted Owens.

"He did. I heard, years after, that the sister received thirty
thousand dollars in cash, in a registered letter, sent from Skagway,
an' in the envelope a slip o' paper 'From the Chief o' Circle.'"

"What happened next, Jim?" queried Clem, excitedly.

"What, after I'd given the galoot the envelope? He makes a sign an'
half a dozen o' his gang comes down out o' the rocks where they've
been hidin'. They gather up the guns an' the bags o' dust lyin' on the
beach, while some more o' them goes over an' searches the other four
men.

"'What's the next turn?' I asks the chief.

"'I don't do things in a small way,' he says. 'Your nerve's good. For
bein' willin' to stand by your pardner, when the rest run like
rabbits. I'll leave you five thousand in dust, an' see you get back to
the border. Unless you want to join our band?'

"'I don't!' I answers, snappy like.

"But he was as good as his word. He weighs out an' hands over the
dust, an' two of the gang takes me back to the line. There they gives
me back my shootin'-irons, though, o' course without any ammunition.
Next day I'm back in Forty-Mile."

"And the other four men?" queried Owens.

"Two joined the gang, an' later, started to get funny on the Canadian
side. A Vigilance committee strung 'em up. The other two turned up at
Circle City and I never heard no more about 'em.

"I staked out another claim--though there