reg'lar way. He's
nigh onto thirty, and you'll not believe me, I know, but he ain't never
even learned to spit right."

"Is he yours?" inquired Nancy.

"Gosh! no, miss--beggin' pardon. He's jest workin' for me."

"Did he know you were coming to kick him when he hid?"

"Hid? What's that?" The man's eyes narrowed again into points. "You
folks seen him hide?" he said to Clallam.

"Why, of course; didn't he say anything?"

"He didn't get much chance," muttered Jake. "What did he hide at?"

"Us."

"You, begosh!"

"I guess so," said Mart. "We took him for the ferry-man, and when he
couldn't hear us--"

"What was he doin'?"

"Just riding along. And so I fired to signal him, and he flew into the
door."

"So you fired, and he flew into the door. Oh, h'm." Jake continued to
pack the second horse, attending carefully to the ropes. "I never knowed
he was that weak in the upper story," he said, in about five minutes.
"Knew his brains was tenas, but didn't suspect he were that weak in the
upper story. You're sure he didn't go in till he heerd your gun?"

"He'd taken a look and was going away," said Mart.

"Now ain't some people jest odd! Now you follow me, and I'll tell you
folks what I'd figured he'd been at. Billy Moon he lived in that cabin,
yu' see. And he had his stuff there, yu, see, and run the ferry, and a
kind of a store. He kept coffee and canned goods and star-plug and this
and that to supply the prospectin' outfits that come acrosst on his
ferry on the trail to the mines. Then a cloud-burst hits his boat and
his job's spoiled on the river, and he quits for the mines, takin' his
stuff along--do you follow me? But he hed to leave some, and he give me
the key, and I was to send the balance after him next freight team that
come along my way. Leander--that's him I was kickin'--he knowed about
it, and he'll steal a hot stove he's that dumb. He knowed there was
stuff here of Billy Moon's. Well, last night we hed some horses stray,
and I says to him, 'Andy, you get up by daylight and find them.' And he
gits. But by seven the horses come in all right of theirselves, and
Mr. Leander he was missin'; and says I to myself, 'I'll ketch you, yu'
blamed hobo.' And I thought I had ketched him, yu' see. Weren't that
reasonable of me? Wouldn't any of you folks hev drawed that conclusion?"
The man had fallen into a wheedling tone as he studied their faces.
"Jest put yourselves in my place," he said.

"Then what was he af