"Just as I was doing," I put in. "I saw that boat come up,--as you must have seen it, George,--I went to the door, and, in the moonlight, I saw you come out and take the back path. Later still, I heard noises and the cursing of these men. "I became afraid that something was wrong, so I dressed, took up my little revolver and followed you. "I was at the window of Jake's cabin all the time he was being forced to drink and while you were tied up. I had to get out of the way when they came out." At the door of Mary's house I took her hand in mine. "We are quits now, Mary. Those blackguards certainly would have finished me off but for you. "Where did you learn to shoot, you wild and woolly Westerner?" I asked. "Why! Didn't I ever tell you? For quite a while, when I was a youngster, I lived on a ranch in the Western States. Everybody could shoot down there." "But, what would you have said had you killed that big black robber or winged me?" I asked. "We were all in a higgledy-piggledy mix-up when you fired." She smiled. "I can generally hit what I aim at." I nodded my head. "Ay! And I think you can hit sometimes even when you don't aim." "George!" she admonished, "we were referring simply to shooting with a gun,--not with a bow and arrows." CHAPTER XXII Jake Stops the Drink for Good By the time I got back to Jake, he had his bed hammered up into position again. He insisted that I, as his guest, should occupy it, while he would enjoy nothing so well as being allowed to curl himself up in a blanket on the floor, in the company of the convalescing Mike. "Say, George!--before we turn in, I want you to write two letters for me. I ain't goin' to have no more hold-ups round this joint. Them ten thousand bucks is goin' to your bank;--what do you call it?" "The Commercial Bank of Canada," I answered. "Write a letter to them and ask them to send somebody up to take this darned chest away. A receipt looks good enough to me after this scrap." He smoked his pipe reflectively as I wrote out the letter to the Bank Manager, asking him to send up two men to count over Jake's hoard and take it back with them, giving him a receipt to cover. "Know any good lawyers, George? Most of them ginks are grafters from away back,--so I've heard,--but I guess maybe there's one or two could do a job on the level." "Of course there are, Jake. Dow, Cross & Sneddon for instance. They are Mr. Horsfal's lawyers and solicitors. They are straight, honest business men, too." "Guess they'll fill the bill, all right." "What is on your mind, Jake?" I asked. "Write them as well, George. Tell them to send up a man who can draw up a will. I ain't dead yet,--not by a damn' sight,--but some day I'll be as dead as a smelt, and what's the good o' havin' dough if you ain't got nobody to leave it to?"