ed of their charge by the time
they passed him off as the sick employe of an American firm, at the
nearest station to the Washington border. When Black showed signs of
waking up he was soothed with medicated liquor, and his guardians, who
several times had high words with the conductor, at last unloaded him
in a station hewn out of the forests encircling Puget Sound, where they
managed to hoist him into a spring wagon. Black leaned against one of
the men, for he was feeling distressfully ill. His head throbbed, his
vision was hazy and his throat was dry. Blinking down at the rows of
wooden houses among the firs, and the tall spars of vessels behind
them, he said: "This isn't 'Frisco--not half big enough. Somebody made
mistake somewhere. Say! Lemme out; I'm going back to the depot."

"You're coming along with us," was the decided answer. "Sit down at
once before we make you."

Black slowly doubled up a still formidable fist, and grasping a rail,
lurched to and fro unsteadily. "Lemme out 'fore I kill somebody.
Claim rightsh of British citizensh," he said.

"You'll get them if you're not careful," was the threat, and the
speaker jerked Black's feet from under him. "I was told to remind you
if you made trouble that a sheriff on this side of the frontier had
some papers describing you. There's one or two patrolmen yonder handy."

"It was an accident," temporized Black, endeavoring to pull his
scattered wits together.

"Juss so!" was the answer, given with a gesture of indifference. "I
was only told a name for the patrolmen, and to remind you that a man,
who knows all about it, has got his eye on you."

Black leered upon him with drunken cunning, then his face grew stolid,
and he said nothing further until the wagon drew up in a by-street,
before a door, hung across with quaint signboards of Chinese
characters. The door opened and closed behind him when his companions
knocked, and Black, who recognized a curious sour smell, choked out,
"Gimme long drink of ice watah!"

He drained the cool draught that was brought him, then flinging himself
on a pile of matting in a corner of a dim room, sank forthwith into
slumber. He had intended to pretend to sleep, but to lie awake and
think. His custodians, however, had arranged things differently, and
Black's wits were not working up to their usual power.

Whenever railroad extension or mining enterprise provided high wages
for all strong enough to earn them and c