me; and
what could a poor man do?"

Minnie looked at him with disgust, and shivered as she snatched one of her
hands from his grasp. "It was very good of your sister, Ralph," she said,
"and I knew you would forgive me for borrowing the horse; he is there in
the stable, and Tetley will find Tom another. It was an awful journey,
even before we reached Fairmead, where I hid him in the bottom of the
sleigh; and they brought me in here almost frozen stiff."

"I thought she was gone, poor thing!" said Mrs. Tetley, who was cooking
something on the stove; and her husband broke in: "She looked like it.
Cuss them police! But we euchred them. A young trooper rides up to the
door and drives me round prospecting with a lantern. Of course, he found
nothing, and when he rode off I began to tumble. Found your friends in the
log-trail and brought them in, knowing them blame troopers wouldn't come
back again. Sergeant Angus is a smart man, but he doesn't know everything,
and I'll see Fletcher and his missis safe in the hands of a friend who
will slip them over the border."

"I'm not going," said Minnie. "Ralph--and you all can listen--my husband
came to me desperate and hopeless in fear of the law. Oh, it's no secret,
all the prairie knows that he used me scandalously--but he was my
husband--and I could not give him up. So I took the few dollars I had and
hired the sleigh, and when the horse fell dead lame we came to Fairmead. I
knew, though we had wronged you, I could trust you. Now he's in safe
hands; I'm going no further with him. There are some things one cannot
forget. I shall tell the story to the people who employed me; they are
kind-hearted folk, but it doesn't matter if they give me up. I'm sick of
this life, and nothing matters now."

She broke out half-sobbing, half-laughing wildly, and though Fletcher
growled something sullenly, hanging his head with the air of a whipped
hound, I fancied that he seemed relieved at this decision, and was
slightly surprised to see he had even the decency to appear ashamed of
himself. Then, knowing that the people she worked for would do their best
for Minnie, I determined to write to them, and I asked Tetley to bring out
the horse.

"Can't I give you a shakedown in the stable until morning?" he said. "The
missis will look after Mrs. Fletcher, and see she gets back safe," and he
added so that the others could not hear him, "Fletcher's meaner than
poison, and I'd let the troopers have him a