"Still, he may have earned the right to do so," said the girl.

"Well," said Alton grimly, "most of that kind I've met with seemed to
have stolen it, and one or two of them had, for a few thousand dollars,
sent good men to their death. When you've seen your comrades sickening
and starving on rotten provisions in the snow, or washed out down the
valley by the bursting of a dam that was only built to sell, you begin
to wonder whether it would be wrong to wipe out some of that crowd with
the rifle."

The veins swelled on his forehead, and there was a smouldering fire in
his eyes, while the girl suspected he was alluding to some especial
member of the class, and noticed that his eye seemed to follow the
smoke of the Tyee. Then he laughed.

"I guess I'm talking nonsense again, but there's a little behind it,
and I feel that you can pick it out," he said. "Now I'm not good at
amusing women, but you and Mrs. Jimmy seem to understand me."

"Who is Mrs. Jimmy, and does her husband belong to Somasco?" asked the
girl, with a smile.

Alton laid down the paddle, and took off his hat. "Jimmy," he said
solemnly, "is dead. He was my partner, and his wife is a friend of
mine. She was in some ways very like you."

"They had a ranch up here?" said Miss Deringham languidly.

"No," said Alton. "It wasn't often they had ten dollars. She was a