"Apache and me has come to an agreement, as he says, to go out on the trail, and though we ’ve chummed together a heap——" "In the manner of wolves," said Apache, with a half sneer. "Yes," said Donoghue, "a good bit like that, too. Well, but on this trail we can’t go alone. It’s too all-fired far and too all-fired lonely." His gaze wandered to the mountains behind the town and Apache took up the discourse. "You see the idea? We want a companion to help us to keep the peace. Foolish—eh? Well, I don’t blame you if you don’t quite understand. You ’re new here. You ’ve never been in the mountains, day in day out, with a man whose soul an altogether different god or devil made; with a man that you fervently hope, if there’s any waking up after the last kick here, you won’t find in your happy hunting-ground beyond. You won’t have to come in between and hold us apart, you know. The mere presence of a third party is enough." He looked on me keenly a space and added: "Somehow I think that you will do more than keep off the bickering spirit. I think you ’ll establish amicable relations." It was curious to observe how the illiterate Donoghue took his partner’s speech so much for granted. "What’s amicable?" he said. "Friendly," said Apache Kid. "Amicable, friendly," said Donoghue, thoughtfully. "Good word, amicable." "The trip would be worth a couple of hundred dollars to you," said Apache, with his eyes on mine. "And if we happened to be out over two months, at the rate of a hundred a month for the time beyond." "Well, that’s straight enough talk, I guess," said Donoghue. "Is the deal on?" My financial condition itself was such as to preclude any doubt. Had I been told plainly that it was to the Lost Cabin Mine we were going and been offered a share in it I would, remembering Apache Kid and Donoghue of the verandah, as I may put it, in distinction from Apache Kid and Donoghue of to-night—well, I would have feared that some heated sudden turn of mind of one or the other or both of these men might prevent me coming into my own. Donoghue especially had a fearsome face to see. But there was no such suggestion. I was offered two hundred dollars and, now that the night fell and the silence deepened and the long range of hills gloomed on us, I thought I could understand that the presence of a third man might be well worth two hundred dollars to two men of very alien natures among the silence and the loneliness that would throw them together closely whether they would or not. "The deal is on," I said. We shook hands solemnly then and Donoghue looked toward Apache Kid as though all the programme was not yet completed. Apache Kid nodded and produced a roll of bills. The light was waning and he held them close to him as he withdrew one. "That’ll make us square again," he said, handing me the roll. "I ’ve kept off a five; so now we ’re not obliged to each other for anything."