Bend. A man doesn't have to approve all another
man does, to befriend him when he's down and a bunch of men--not as
good as he--set out to finish him. I haven't got any apologies to make
to anybody for protecting Abe when he was wounded--and if he wasn't
wounded, no man would talk any kind of protection to him. But you've
been fed up with stories about it--I know that--so," he added grimly,
"I'm going to tell you one story more.

"I grew up in this country when the mining fever was on--everybody
plumb crazy in the rush for the Horsehead Camp in the Falling Wall
country. One winter five hundred men in tents were hanging around
Sleepy Cat waiting for the first thaw, to get up to the camp. That's
when I got acquainted with Abe Hawk. Abe was carrying the mails to the
mines. He hadn't a red cent in the world. My father had just died; I
was a green kid with a pocketful of money. Abe didn't teach me any bad
habits--I didn't need any teacher. One night we were sitting next to
each other, with Harry Tenison dealing faro.

"I heard Abe was going up over the pass to Horsehead with the Christmas
bag. The few miners that got in the fall before had hung up a fat
purse for their Christmas mail and Abe needed the money. He was the
only man with the crazy nerve to try such a thing. And there were
twenty men, with all kinds of money, crowding him to take them along:
to beat the bunch in might mean a million dollar strike to any
tenderfoot in Sleepy Cat.

"Abe wouldn't hear a word of it, not from anybody--and he could talk
back awful rough. He was sure he could make the trip alone. He was
the strongest man in the mountains. I never saw the day I could handle
Abe Hawk. But the pass in December was not a job for any ordinary
mountain man--let alone a bunch of greenhorns. Just the same, I made
my play to go with him. He cursed me as hard as he did anybody and
turned me down.

"One night, after that, I was at Tenison's again. I was losing money.
Hawk was near me. He saw it. I waited for him to come out. I knew
he'd be starting soon and I was desperate. I tackled him pretty
strong. He swore if I talked again about going with him he'd kill me.
Old Bill Bradley ran the livery. My horse was in the same barn with
Abe's and Bill promised to tip me off when Abe was ready to start. He
waited for a blizzard. When it passed he was ready. But I got ahead
of him, out of town, and trailed him--I knew how. Only it snowed