“Hello!  Who are you?  And what do you want here at this time of the night?” Jasper demanded.

“I’m Steve Bean, Betty’s brother,” the boy replied as he stepped briskly into the cabin.  “My, that was a hard run!” he added.  “I left home jist a quarter to twelve an’ I don’t think I’ve been over twenty minutes comin’.”

“Is it that late?” Jasper asked in surprise, as he drew forth his watch.  “Why, it’s half-past twelve!  I didn’t think I was asleep that long.  But, say, boy, what do you want at this time of the night?”

“I want ye to go fer the doctor as quick as ye can.”

“Go for the doctor!” Jasper gasped.  “Who’s sick?  Your mother?”

“Oh, no; she’s all right.  But there’s a man at our place who is pretty bad, I guess.  I found him last night on that old cut-off when I was visitin’ my snares.  He had a sprained ankle, an’ couldn’t walk.  I got the steers and toted him to our place.  Guess he got a bad cold while he was layin’ there in the snow, fer he took awful sick in the night with chills, an’ ma’s afraid he’ll die.  She kept Jimmy to help her an’ sent me to git you to fetch the doctor.”

“But why didn’t you get one of your nearby neighbours to go?” Jasper enquired.  “You have lost valuable time already.”

“H’m, I guess you don’t know our neighbours.  They’re kind enough an’ would do all they could.  But their horses are about as slow as oxen.  So ma says, ’Steve, you jist hustle fer Mr. Jasper.  He’s got a horse that goes like a streak of lightin’.  He’ll go all right when ye tell him you’re Betty’s brother.’  So I took the short-cut through the woods, an’ here I am.  Will ye go?”

“Sure,” Jasper replied as he reached for his coat and hat.  “But who is that man?  And where did he come from?”

“I don’t know; never saw him before.  He’s quite oldish, though.”

“Didn’t your mother ask him what he was doing there alone in the woods?”

“No; she didn’t like to ask him.  She thought maybe he was goin’ to Camp Number Three, which is not far from our house, an’ on our land, too.”

Jasper paused in the act of lighting the lantern and looked into Steve’s face.

“Why, didn’t you go there for help?” he asked.

“What! go to them skunks fer help?” and the boy clenched his fists.  “Never!  They’re stealin’ our logs an’ we can’t do nothin’.  De’ye think we’d ask old Pete Sinclair’s men to do anything fer us?  We’d die first.  Jimmy an’ me’s been waitin’ fer some time fer old Pete to come our way.  An’ when he does——­” Steve’s clenched right fist shooting out straight before him supplied his lack of suitable words to express the depth of his feelings.

An idea suddenly flashed into Jasper’s mind with a startling intensity.

“What does that man look like?” he demanded in a voice which surprised the boy.

“Oh, he’s somewhat oldish, as I told ye; rather thick-set; has a heavy moustache, an’ looks as if he has always had plenty of good things to eat.  I don’t know as I can tell ye much more about him.”