, but if you decline to
guide me to the nest of this gang I must treat you still as a prisoner."

"May I have a little time to think over the matter before answering?"

"So that you may have a chance of escaping me?" replied the Captain.

"Nothing was further from my thoughts," said Charlie, with a flush of
indignation.

"I believe you, Mr Brooke," rejoined the Captain with gravity. "Let me
know any time before twelve to-day what course you deem it right to
take. By noon I shall sound boot and saddle, when you will be ready to
start. Your nautical friend here may join us if he chooses."

Now, while this investigation into the affairs of one prisoner was going
on, the other prisoner, Jake, was busily employed investigating his own
affairs with a view to escape.

How he fared in this investigation we reserve for another chapter.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

JAKE THE FLINT IN DIFFICULTIES.

The man who, at the time we write of, was known by the name of Jake the
Flint had acquired the character of the most daring and cruel scoundrel
in a region where villains were by no means rare. His exploits
indicated a spirit that was utterly reckless of life, whether his own or
that of his fellow-men, and many were the trappers, hunters, and
Redskins who would have given a good deal and gone far to have the
chance of putting a bullet in his carcass.

But, as is not unfrequently the case with such men, Jake seemed to bear
a charmed life, and when knife, bullet, and rope, cut short the career
of many less guilty men, Jake had hitherto managed to elude his
captors--at one time by strategy, at another by a bold dash for life,
and sometimes by "luck." No one had a kind word for Jake, no one loved,
though many feared, admired, and hated him. This may seem strange, for
it is usually found that even in the case of the most noted outlaws
there is a woman or a man, or both--who cling to them with affection.

Perhaps the fact that Jake was exceptionally harsh and cruel at all
times, may account for this, as it accounted for his sobriquet of Flint.
He was called by some of those who knew him a "God-forsaken man." We
merely state the fact, but are very far from adopting the expression,
for it ill becomes any man of mortal mould to pronounce his fellow-man
God-forsaken.

In the meantime we feel it to be no breach of charity to say that Jake
had forsaken God, for his foul language and bloody deeds proved the fact
beyond all question. H