at the town
where we were to take the boat, he offered to help her off with Aggie's
cat basket, which she was carrying, she snubbed him.

"I can do it myself," she said coldly; "and if you know when you're well
off you'll go back to where you came from. Something might happen to you
here in the wilderness."

"I wish it would," he replied in quite a tragic manner.

[As Tish said then, a man is probably often forced by circumstances into
hateful situations. No spy can really want to be a spy with every brick
wall suggesting, as it must, a firing-squad.]

Well, to make a long story short, we took the little steamer that goes
up the river three times a week to take groceries and mail to the
logging-camps, and the spy and the red-haired detective went along. The
spy seemed to have quite a lot of luggage, but the detective had only a
suitcase.

Tish, watching the detective, said his expression grew more and more
anxious as we proceeded up the river. Cottages gave place to
logging-camps and these to rocky islands, with no sign of life; still,
the spy stayed on the steamer, and so, of course, did the detective.

Tish went down and examined the luggage. She reported that the spy was
traveling under the name of McDonald and that the detective's suitcase
was unmarked. Mr. McDonald had some boxes and a green canoe. The
detective had nothing at all. There were no other passengers.

We let Aggie's cat out on the boat and he caught a mouse almost
immediately, and laid it in the most touching manner at the detective's
feet; but he was in a very bad humor and flung it over the rail. Shortly
after that he asked Tish whether she intended to go to the Arctic
Circle.

"I don't know that that's any concern of yours," Tish said. "You're not
after me, you know."

He looked startled and muttered something into his mustache.

"It's perfectly clear what's wrong with him," Tish said. "He's got to
stick to Mr. McDonald, and he hasn't got a tent in that suitcase, or
even a blanket. I don't suppose he knows where his next meal's coming
from."

She was probably right, for I saw the crew of the boat packing a box or
two of crackers and an old comfort into a box; and Aggie overheard the
detective say to the captain that if he would sell him some fishhooks he
would not starve anyhow.

Tish found an island that suited her about three o'clock that afternoon,
and we disembarked. Mr. McDonald insisted on helping the crew with our
stuff, whic