onfessed, when he chanced to
meet Smoke in front of the Elkhorn. "Look at Bill Saltman there acrost
the way--just dyin' to look, an' keepin' his eyes down the street all
the time. Wouldn't think he'd knowed you an' me existed, to look at him.
But I bet you the drinks, Smoke, if you an' me flop around the corner
quick, like we was goin' somewheres, an' then turn back from around the
next corner, that we run into him a-hikin' hell-bent."

They tried the trick, and, doubling back around the second corner,
encountered Saltman swinging a long trail-stride in pursuit.

"Hello, Bill," Smoke greeted. "Which way?"

"Hello. Just a-strollin'," Saltman answered, "just a-strollin'.
Weather's fine, ain't it?"

"Huh!" Shorty jeered. "If you call that strollin', what might you walk
real fast at?"

When Shorty fed the dogs that evening, he was keenly conscious that from
the encircling darkness a dozen pairs of eyes were boring in upon him.
And when he stick-tied the dogs, instead of letting them forage free
through the night, he knew that he had administered another jolt to the
nervousness of Dawson.

According to program, Smoke ate supper downtown and then proceeded to
enjoy himself. Wherever he appeared, he was the center of interest, and
he purposely made the rounds. Saloons filled up after his entrance and
emptied following upon his departure. If he bought a stack of chips at
a sleepy roulette-table, inside five minutes a dozen players were around
him. He avenged himself, in a small way, on Lucille Arral, by getting
up and sauntering out of the Opera House just as she came on to sing
her most popular song. In three minutes two-thirds of her audience had
vanished after him.

At one in the morning he walked along an unusually populous Main Street
and took the turning that led up the hill to his cabin. And when he
paused on the ascent, he could hear behind him the crunch of moccasins
in the snow.

For an hour the cabin was in darkness, then he lighted a candle, and,
after a delay sufficient for a man to dress in, he and Shorty opened the
door and began harnessing the dogs. As the light from the cabin flared
out upon them and their work, a soft whistle went up from not far away.
This whistle was repeated down the hill.

"Listen to it," Smoke chuckled. "They've relayed on us and are passing
the word down to town. I'll bet you there are forty men right now
rolling out of their blankets and climbing into their pants."

"Ain't