le
to come and see him. We've our snowshoes, and mine and the girls',
besides Macartney's, that I guess he's done with. I think we could
manage along as far as the Halfway in the morning, if we made a travois
of boughs for Wilbraham!"

"But," I stared at him, "Macartney's picket's there!"

"Oh, Charliet and Dunn were going to clear them out with Miss
Wilbraham's rifle, while I got after her, when she broke away on to
Macartney's track here," Collins returned calmly. "I expect that's all
right, and they've run. Anyhow, you've got Macartney's gun! You can go
ahead and see."

But I had no need to. An abandoned picket has a way of knowing when the
game is up, and Macartney's men had cleared out on the double, even
before Charliet's first rifle bullet missed them. We caught them
afterwards, half dead in the bush,--but that doesn't come in here. I
walked into the Halfway with my dream girl beside me, and both of us
jumped as Dudley suddenly poked his pig-eyed face between us.

"You needn't hop, you two," he commented irritably; "you can have your
Old Nick, Paulette, for all me! What I'm thinking of's that boy--and
Baker! I guess they saved my life all right between them, and I'm going
to set them up for what's left of theirs. Got anything to say against
that, hey?" with his old snarl.

"Not much," I returned soberly. But Paulette clasped both Dudley's podgy
hands in hers.

"Oh, _dear_ Dudley," she said softly. But there were tears in her eyes.

I know; for I kissed them away afterwards, when we were alone.

THE END

End of Project Gutenberg's The La Chance Mine Mystery, by Susan Carleton Jones

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