ght. But there's a man at our place who is pretty
bad, I guess. I found him last night on that old cut-off when I was
visitin' my snares. He had a sprained ankle, an' couldn't walk. I got
the steers and toted him to our place. Guess he got a bad cold while
he was layin' there in the snow, fer he took awful sick in the night
with chills, an' ma's afraid he'll die. She kept Jimmy to help her an'
sent me to git you to fetch the doctor."

"But why didn't you get one of your nearby neighbours to go?" Jasper
enquired. "You have lost valuable time already."

"H'm, I guess you don't know our neighbours. They're kind enough an'
would do all they could. But their horses are about as slow as oxen.
So ma says, 'Steve, you jist hustle fer Mr. Jasper. He's got a horse
that goes like a streak of lightin'. He'll go all right when ye tell
him you're Betty's brother.' So I took the short-cut through the
woods, an' here I am. Will ye go?"

"Sure," Jasper replied as he reached for his coat and hat. "But who is
that man? And where did he come from?"

"I don't know; never saw him before. He's quite oldish, though."

"Didn't your mother ask him what he was doing there alone in the woods?"

"No; she didn't like to ask him. She thought maybe he was goin' to
Camp Number Three, which is not far from our house, an' on our land,
too."

Jasper paused in the act of lighting the lantern and looked into
Steve's face.

"Why, didn't you go there for help?" he asked.

"What! go to them skunks fer help?" and the boy clenched his fists.
"Never! They're stealin' our logs an' we can't do nothin'. De'ye
think we'd ask old Pete Sinclair's men to do anything fer us? We'd die
first. Jimmy an' me's been waitin' fer some time fer old Pete to come
our way. An' when he does----" Steve's clenched right fist shooting
out straight before him supplied his lack of suitable words to express
the depth of his feelings.

An idea suddenly flashed into Jasper's mind with a startling intensity.

"What does that man look like?" he demanded in a voice which surprised
the boy.

"Oh, he's somewhat oldish, as I told ye; rather thick-set; has a heavy
moustache, an' looks as if he has always had plenty of good things to
eat. I don't know as I can tell ye much more about him."

Jasper had blown out the lamp and opened the door before Steve had
finished speaking. He was now very impatient to be away. There was
only one man, he felt quite sure, wh