rapids along still place to
first creek you'll know it cause there's an old cabin just below and
my canoe landing. Half mile up, in creek bed, is the pocket and new
cabin. And don't tell no one in Snowy Gulch who you are and where
you going. Go quick brother Ez and put up a stone for me at Snowy
Gulch.

Your brother

HIRAM MELVILLE.

There was a long pause after Ezram's voice had died away. Ben's eyes
glowed in the moonlight.

"And you haven't heard--whether your brother is still alive?"

"I got a wire the hotel man sent me. It reached me weeks before the
letter came, and I guess he must have died soon after he wrote it. I
suppose you see what he means when he says to carry a copy of this
letter, instead of the original."

"Of course--because it constitutes his will, your legal claim. Just the
fact that you are his brother would be claim enough, I should think, but
since the claim isn't recorded, this simplifies matters for you. You'd
better make a copy of it and you can leave it in some safe place. And of
course this claim is what you offered to let me in on."

"That's it. Not much, but all what I got. What I want to know is--if
it's a go."

"Wait just a minute. You've asked me to go in with you on a scheme that
looks like a clear quarter of a million, even though I can't give
anything except my time and my work. You found me in a penitentiary,
busted and all in--a thief and a gangster. Before we go any further,
tell me what service I've done you, what obligation you're under to me,
that gives me a right to accept so much from you?"

It might have been in the moonlight that Ezram's eyes glittered
perceptibly. "You're in my charge," he grinned. "I guess you ain't got
any say comin'."

"Wait--wait." Ben sprang to his feet, and caught by his earnestness,
Ezram got up too. "I sure--I sure appreciate the trust you put in me,"
Ben went on slowly. "For my own part I'd give everything I've got and
all I'd hope to ever get to go with you. It's a chance such as I never
dared believe would come to me again--a chance for big success--a chance
to go away and get a new start in a country where I feel, instinctively,
that I'd make good. But that's only the beginning of it."

The dark vivid eyes seemed to glow in the soft light. "Forgive me if I
talk frank; and if it sounds silly I can't help it," Ben continued.
"You've never been in prison--with a five-year sentence hanging over
you--and nob