the only ones for being wanted."

"I have been studying over this matter," answered McLean. "I am not so
sure but that a man no older than you and similar in every way could do
this work very well, if he were not a coward, and had it in him to be
trustworthy and industrious."

Freckles came forward a step.

"If you will give me a job where I can earn me food, clothes, and a
place to sleep," he said, "if I can have a Boss to work for like other
men, and a place I feel I've a right to, I will do precisely what you
tell me or die trying."

He spoke so convincingly that McLean believed, although in his heart he
knew that to employ a stranger would be wretched business for a man with
the interests he had involved.

"Very well," the Boss found himself answering, "I will enter you on my
pay rolls. We'll have supper, and then I will provide you with clean
clothing, wading-boots, the wire-mending apparatus, and a revolver.
The first thing in the morning, I will take you the length of the trail
myself and explain fully what I want done. All I ask of you is to come
to me at once at the south camp and tell me as a man if you find this
job too hard for you. It will not surprise me. It is work that few men
would perform faithfully. What name shall I put down?"

Freckles' gaze never left McLean's face, and the Boss saw the swift
spasm of pain that swept his lonely, sensitive features.