tective. "What might you be wantin' of me, stranger?"

"I have--hush!--I have some money for you, Beel Turner. Can you take me
where we can talk so that nobody will overhear us?"

Turner eyed him suspiciously for a moment; then he turned abruptly away
with the remark:

"Come along with me, stranger."

Nick walked beside him through the town to the very end of the main
street. Then they turned into a roadway, which led up a steep hill for
some distance, and which presently brought them to a modest cottage that
was almost hidden under the brow of the hill.

"Here is where I live," said Turner. "I live here all alone, 'cept a cat
and two dogs. But the dogs hev got old like me, now, and they can't go
out among the hills as they used to; although, bless you, I reckon I kin
walk jest as fur as ever I could, if I try. Come in."

Nick followed him inside, and Turner offered him a rocker near the open
window. The whole house was as neat and clean as if it had the care of a
woman.

"Now, mister," said Turner, "what hev ye got on yer mind?"

"In the first place," replied Nick, in his natural voice, "I am not what
I seem to be. I am not a lumberman, or a Frenchman--or a Canadian. I am
a detective."

"Sho! You don't say so. Well, that beats me. Sure, ye do it fine,
mister. I would never hev suspected at all that you are not what you
seem. But go on."

"I have come here after that gang of hoboes who infest the neighborhood
for fifty or sixty miles around this place. I am principally after the
woman who is their chief. Do you know who I mean?"

"I reckon ye must be referrin' to that there Black Madge and her gang."

"That's right."

"Well, yer up agin' a proposition. That's all I kin say about it."

"I know that; and what I want of you is to get you to help me with that
proposition, Bill Turner."

"Ain't I too old?"

"Not a bit of it."

"Is there good pay in it?"

"The very best; and there is fifty dollars down for you right now--if
you are inclined to do as I want you to do."

Nick took a roll of bills from his pocket as he spoke, and laid it on
the table before the avaricious glances of the old man.

"Well, sir," said Turner slowly, "all I've got to say is this: If I can
do what you want done, I'll do it. I want that money as bad as anybody
could want it and not grab it right now where it is lying; but I have
never had a penny in my life that I didn't get honestly, and I am afraid
that I'm too old to do wha