oughs and been cleaned out of my pile, he put his hand into
his pocket and pulled out two hundred dollars. I told him I never could
pay him back, and he said if I ever found some other fellow in need just
to give him a lift. I've done it, and it squares me. But it's a mean
business anyway."

"Why don't you go on with me instead of going up the Ohio River to
Cincinnati?"

"To Fort Gibson?" exclaimed Bolton in astonishment.

"I suppose that's where I am going, aint it?"

"Well, you see, Bub, they've got a little document against me up there,"
said the gambler, with a laugh. "It is a document which the sheriff
doesn't hold against me, but which the people do."

"Are they going to lynch you?"

"Anyway, that is what they call it."

"Well, by gracious!" said Tom, settling back in his chair and watching
the clouds of smoke that ascended from the gambler's lips. "What sort of
men have I become associated with? This man lynched! I would as soon
think of my uncle's being lynched."

"So now, you see, I naturally keep away from there," continued Bolton.
"But I'll tell you what I'll do. If you will go on to Fort Hamilton,
which is as far as navigation is open now, I will give you something
that will introduce you to Black Dan. He's a gambler, you know."

"Oh, I can't do anything to assist him in gambling," said Tom. "I don't
know one card from another."

"Why, bless you, I don't want you to do anything to assist him in his
work. I want you to keep just as far away from cards as you know how,"
said Mr. Bolton, fumbling with his neck-handkerchief. "Do you see that?
It's a kinder pretty pin, isn't it?"

Tom took the ornament and looked it over. It was rather large for a pin,
the body of it being formed of some metal which Tom did not recognize,
but the diamonds in the middle of it, six of them in all, were what made
it so valuable.

"That pin is worth five hundred dollars," said Mr. Bolton. "Put it on; I
want to see how it looks on you."

"But what do you want me to do with it?" enquired Tom.

"I want you to take it up and give it to Black Dan when you see him. You
are bound to meet him if you go to Fort Hamilton."

"I can't take it. You have already done more for me than I had any right
to expect."

"Never mind that," said the gambler, taking the pin from Tom's hand and
fixing it in his neck-handkerchief. "You see, he got into a little
rucuss a few nights before I came away, and the fellow grabbed him in
there and