one of the team leaders
postillionwise, and was correspondingly elevated, when Jim joined him,
on the Mexican plug, which appeared--no doubt a part of its wicked
art--heavily docile, and even slightly lame.

"How much," said Jim, in a tone of gloomy confidence,--"how much did you
reckon to make by stealin' that gal-baby, sonny?"

"Nothing," replied Clarence with a smile. Perhaps it was an evidence of
the marked influence that Jim was beginning to exert over him that
he already did not attempt to resent this fascinating implication of
grownup guilt.

"It orter bin a good job, if it warn't revenge," continued Jim moodily.

"No, it wasn't revenge," said Clarence hurriedly.

"Then ye kalkilated ter get er hundred dollars reward ef the old man and
old woman hadn't bin scelped afore yet got up to 'em?" said Jim. "That's
your blamed dodgasted luck, eh! Enyhow, you'll make Mrs. Peyton plank
down suthin' if she adopts the babby. Look yer, young feller," he said,
starting suddenly and throwing his face forward, glaring fiendishly
through his matted side-locks, "d'ye mean ter tell me it wasn't a
plant--a skin game--the hull thing?"

"A what?" said Clarence.

"D'ye mean to say"--it was wonderful how gratuitously husky his voice
became at this moment--"d'ye mean ter tell me ye didn't set on them
Injins to wipe out the Silsbees, so that ye could hev an out-an'-out gal
ORFEN on hand fer Mrs. Peyton ter adopt--eh?"

But here Clarence was forced to protest, and strongly, although Jim
contemptuously ignored it. "Don't lie ter me," he repeated mysteriously,
"I'm fly. I'm dark, young fel. We're cahoots in this thing?" And with
this artful suggestion of being in possession of Clarence's guilty
secret he departed in time to elude the usual objurgation of his
superior, "Phil," the head teamster.

Nor was his baleful fascination exercised entirely on Clarence. In
spite of Mrs. Peyton's jealously affectionate care, Clarence's frequent
companionship, and the little circle of admiring courtiers that always
surrounded Susy, it became evident that this small Eve had been secretly
approached and tempted by the Satanic Jim. She was found one day to
have a few heron's feathers in her possession with which she adorned her
curls, and at another time was discovered to have rubbed her face and
arms with yellow and red ochre, confessedly the free gift of Jim Hooker.
It was to Clarence alone that she admitted the significance and purport
of these