favor, even with the roughest of the crew. Then Parker
described how he had been rescued and brought back to life by the old
man whom Gideon Ward had so abused.

"And now, my men," he concluded, "I am come back among you; and I ask
you all to stand back, so that it may now be man to man--so that I may
take this brutal tyrant who has abused us all, and deliver him over to
the law that is waiting to punish him as he deserves."

He leaped down, seized a halter, and advanced with the apparent
intention of seizing and binding the colonel.

"Are ye goin' to stand here, ye hunderd cowards, an' see the man that
gives ye your livin' lugged away to jail?" Gideon shouted, retreating.
He glared on their faces. The men turned their backs and moved away.

He crouched almost to the floor, brandishing his fists above his head.
"I've got ten camps in this section," he shrieked, "an' any one of them
will back me aginst the whole United States army if I ask 'em to! They
ain't the cowards that I've got here. I'll come back here an' pay ye off
for this!"

Before any one could stop him, for the men had left him standing alone,
he precipitated his body through the panes of glass of the nearest
window, and almost before the crash had ceased he was making away into
the night Connick led the rush of men to the narrow door, but the mob
was held them for a few precious moments, fighting with one another for
egress.

"If we don't catch him," the foreman roared, "he'll be back on us with
an army of cut-throats!"

But when the crew went streaming forth at last, Colonel Ward was out of
sight in the forest. Lanterns were brought, and the search prosecuted
earnestly, but his moccasined feet were not to be traced on the frozen
crust.

The chase was abandoned after an hour, for the clouds that had hung
heavy all day long began to sift down snow; and soon a blizzard howled
through the threshing spruces and hemlocks.

"It's six miles to the nearest camp," said Connick, when the crew was
again assembled at Number 7, "an' in order to dodge us he prob'ly kept
out of the tote-road. I should say that the chances of Gid Ward's ever
get-tin' out o' the woods alive in this storm wa'n't worth that!" He
snapped his fingers.

"It is not right for us to come back here an' leave him out there!"
cried the brother.

"He took his chances," the foreman replied, "when he went through that
window. There's a good many reasons why I'd like to see him back here,