without turning, "that I shall
take a run over to Shuter's store for a little while."

"I'd like to say a few words to you before you go."

Harry turned good-humoredly, and sat down on the bench again.

Covering his companion's knee with his great hand, Joe said gravely,
as he looked down into his face: "I've not had much edication, as you
know, Harry; but I've larned a mighty lot that schools don't teach,
and one thing that I've got a mighty good hold of is sizin' up people,
and if ever I met a bad egg Bill Shuter's one. You must know something
about him yourself by this time, for he got you to gamble, and he's
well-nigh won all you've made since you came to camp. If he'd won it
fairly it'd been bad enough--seein' you were a greenhorn--but in my
heart I believe he cheats you. I've tried to catch him at it, but he's
too mighty sharp."

Joe's sombre countenance and equally sombre words were more than Harry
could stand, and leaning his head against the giant's shoulder, he
laughed incredulously.

"I happen to know," Joe went on doggedly, when his companion's
laughter had died away, "that you don't gamble because you love it;
but to please his daughter Nellie, who"--his remarks were interrupted
by Harry springing to his feet and nervously pacing the tent.

But Joe had warmed up to his subject, and was not to be stopped; "As I
said," he went on, "you gamble only to please his daughter, who is in
league with her father. I've heard that she's told others, that are as
sweet on her as you, that the best way to keep the old wolf quiet, and
allow her to be courted, is to gamble with him. I tell you, Harry,
that she's foolin' you, and that in truth she's as bad as he is,
and--"

The interruption this time was effective enough: "It's cowardly of
you, Joe Swan, to speak of her like that." Harry's eyes were gleaming
with anger. "You are presuming on the kindnesses you have done me," he
went on, halting in front of him, "and if her father and a few of his
friends had been here, you would not have dared to speak in that
manner. You know I love Nellie Shuter, and nothing you can say will
make me break with her."

With this he almost ran out of the tent, leaving Joe dragging at his
heavy blonde moustache and gazing at the patches in the canvas tent.

The minutes sped on, and still he continued to think. Finally he took
the pipe out of his mouth, put it absently into his pocket and said to
himself, as though he had solved a di