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“Well?” he demanded impatiently, as Dawson entered.

“I came to know what you want done with HIM,” said Dawson, indicating the fugitive with a contemptuous finger.

“Take him to your cabin!”

“My cabin! HIM?” ejaculated Dawson, turning sharply on his chief.

The major’s light eyes contracted and his thin lips became a straight line. “I don’t think you understand me, Dawson, and another time you’d better wait until I’m done. I want you to take him to your cabin–and then CLEAR OUT OF IT YOURSELF. You understand? I want him NEAR ME AND ALONE!”

III.

Dawson was not astonished the next morning to see Major Overstone and the half-breed walking together down the gully road, for he had already come to the conclusion that the major was planning some extraordinary reprisals against the invaders, that would ensure the perpetual security of the camp. That he should use so insignificant and unimportant a tool now appeared to him to be quite natural, particularly as the service was probably one in which the man would be sacrificed. “The major,” he suggested to his companions, “ain’t going to risk a white man’s skin, when he can get an Injun’s hide handy.”

The reluctant hesitating step of the half-breed as they walked along seemed to give some color to this hypothesis. He listened sullenly to the major as he pointed out the strategic position of the Bar. “That wagon road is the only approach to Wynyard’s, and a dozen men along the rocks could hold it against a hundred. The trail that you came by, over the ridge, drops straight into this gully, and you saw what that would mean to any blanked fools who might try it. Of course we could be shelled from that ridge if the sheriff had a howitzer, or the men who knew how to work one, but even then we could occupy the ridge before them.” He paused a moment and then added: “I used to be in the army, Tom; I saw service in Mexico before that cub you got away from had his first trousers. I was brought up as a gentleman–blank it all–and HERE I am!”

The man slouched on by his side, casting his surly, furtive glances from left to right, as if seeking to escape from these confidences. Nevertheless, the major kept on through the gully, until reaching the wagon road they crossed it, and began to ascend the opposite slope, half hidden by the underbrush and larches. Here the major paused again and faced about. The cabins of the settlement were already behind the bluff; the little stream which indicated the “bar”–on which some perfunctory mining was still continued–now and then rang out quite clearly at their feet, although the bar itself had disappeared. The sounds of occupation and labor had at last died away in the distance. They were quite alone. The major sat down on a boulder, and pointed to another. The man, however, remained sullenly standing where he was, as if to accent as strongly as possible the enforced companionship. Either the major was too self-absorbed to notice it, or accepted it as a satisfactory characteristic of the half-breed’s race. He continued confidently:–

“Now look here, Tom. I want to leave this cursed hole, and get clear out of the State! Anywhere; over the Oregon line into British Columbia, or to the coast, where I can get a coasting vessel down to Mexico. It will cost money, but I’ve got it. It will cost a lot of risks, but I’ll take them. I want somebody to help me, some one to share risks with me, and some one to share my luck if I succeed. Help to put me on the other side of the border line, by sea or land, and I’ll give you a thousand dollars down BEFORE WE START and a thousand dollars when I’m safe.”

The half-breed had changed his slouching attitude. It seemed more indolent on account of the loosely hanging strap that had once held his haversack, which was still worn in a slovenly fashion over his shoulder as a kind of lazy sling for his shiftless hand.