“I’ll pay that back—­the other I can’t,” said Pollock with sudden feeling.  “Here, have a cup of coffee.”

Bob swallowed the hot coffee gratefully.  Without speaking further, Pollock arose and led the way.  When finally they had reached the open forest above the camp, the mountaineer squeezed Bob’s fingers hard.

“Good-bye,” said the younger man in a guarded voice.  “I won’t see you again.  Remember, even at best it’s a long wait in jail.  Think it over before you decide!”

“I’m in jail here,” replied Pollock.

Bob walked thoughtfully to camp.  He found a fire burning and Elliott afoot.

“Thank God, you’re here!” cried that young man; “I was getting scared for you.  What’s up?”

“You are and I am,” replied Bob.  “Couldn’t sleep, so I went for a walk.  Think that bogy-man of yours had got me?”

“I surely began to.”

“Nothing doing.  I guess I can snooze a little now.”

“I can’t,” complained Elliott.  “You’ve got me good and waked up, confound you!”

Bob kicked off his boots, and without further disrobing rolled himself into his gray blanket.  As he was dropping asleep two phrases flashed across his brain.  They were:  “compounding a felony,” and “accessory after the fact.”

“Don’t feel much like a criminal either,” murmured Bob to himself; and after a moment:  “Poor devil!”

XII

Two days later, from the advantage of the rock designated by California John, Elliott reported the agreed signal for their recall.  Accordingly, they packed together their belongings and returned to headquarters.

“We’re getting short-handed, and several things have come up,” said Thorne.  “I have work for both of you.”

Having dispatched Elliott, Thorne turned to Bob.

“Orde,” said he, “I’m going to try you out on a very delicate matter.  At the north end lives an old fellow named Samuels.  He and his family are living on a place inside the National forests.  He took it up years ago, mainly for the timber, but he’s one of these hard-headed old coons that’s ‘agin the Government,’ on general principles.  He never proved up, and when his attention was called to the fact, he refused to do anything.  No reason why not, except that ’he’d always lived there and always would.’  You know the kind.”

“Ought to—­put in two years in the Michigan woods,” said Bob.

“Well, as a matter of fact, he gave up the claim to all intents and purposes, but now that the Yellow Pine people are cutting up toward him, he’s suddenly come to the notion that the place is worth while.  So he’s patched up his cabin, and moved in his whole family.  We’ve got to get a relinquishment out of him.”

“If he has no right there, why not put him off?” asked Bob.

“Well, in the first place, this Samuels is a hard old citizen with a shotgun; in the second place, he has some shadow of right on which he could make a fight; in the third place, the country up that way doesn’t care much for us anyway, and we want to minimize opposition.”