you don't," I laughed. "Parson or pal, no man living knows or
will know where it is till he helps me haul it away. I'll trust
none of you."

"I'm not a thief," he pouted.

"No," I said, "but you're blasted hard up, and I don't intend to
place temptation in your way."

He laughed good-naturedly and turned the subject aside just as Lige
Smith and Jack Jackson came in with an unusual companion that put
a stop to all further talk. Women were never seen at night time
around Jake's; even his wife was invisible, and I got a sort of
shock when I saw old Cayuga Joe's girl, Elizabeth, following at the
boys' heels. It had been raining and the girl, a full blood Cayuga,
shivered in the damp and crouched beside the stove.

Tom Barrett started when he saw her. His color rose and he began to
mark up the table with his thumb nail. I could see he felt his fix.
The girl--Indian right through--showed no surprise at seeing him
there, but that did not mean she would keep her mouth shut about it
next day, Tom was undoubtedly _discovered_.

Notwithstanding her unwelcome presence, however, Jackson managed to
whisper to me that the Forest Warden and his officers were alive
and bound for the Reserve the following day. But it didn't worry me
worth a cent; I knew we were safe as a church with Tom Barrett's
clerical coat in our midst. He was coming over to our corner now.

"That hundred's right on the dead square, Dan?" he asked anxiously,
taking my arm and moving to the window.

I took a roll of bank notes from my trousers' pocket and with my
back to the gang counted out ten tens. I always carry a good wad
with me with a view to convenience if I have to make a hurried exit
from the scene of my operations.

He shook his head and stood away. "Not till I've earned it, McLeod."

What fools very young men make of themselves sometimes. The girl
arose, folding her damp shawl over her head, and made towards the
door; but he intercepted her, saying it was late and as their ways
lay in the same direction, he would take her home. She shot a quick
glance at him and went out. Some little uneasy action of his caught
my notice. In a second my suspicions were aroused; the meeting had
been arranged, and I knew from what I had seen him to be that the
girl was doomed.

It was all very well for me to do up Cayuga Joe--he was the Indian
whose hundred dollars' worth of cordwood I owned in lieu of
six quarts of bad whiskey--but his women-folks were entitle