"I dunno if you be or not," said Dextry. "Better watch McNamara."

"What!" The younger man stopped and stared. "What do you mean?"

"Go on. Don't stop the horses. I ain't blind. I kin put two an'
two together."

"You'll never put those two together. Nonsense! Why, the man's a
rascal. I wouldn't let him have her. Besides, it couldn't be.
She'll find him out. I love her so much that--oh, my feelings are
too big to talk about." He moved his hands eloquently. "You can't
understand."

"Um-m! I s'pose not," grunted Dextry, but his eyes were level and
held the light of the past.

"He may be a rascal," the old man continued, after a little; "I'll
put in with you on that; but he's a handsome devil, and, as for
manners, he makes you look like a logger. He's a brave man, too.
Them three qualities are trump-cards and warranted to take most
any queen in the human deck--red, white, or yellow."

"If he dares," growled Glenister, while his thick brows came
forward and ugly lines hardened in his face.

In the gray of the early morning they descended the foot-hills
into the wide valley of the Nome River and filed out across the
rolling country to the river bluffs where, cleverly concealed
among the willows, was a rocker. This they set up, then proceeded
to wash the dirt from the sacks carefully, yet with the utmost