Lead me to this said mountain with the seventy-dollar job holding down
the peak."

Ross looked at him dubiously as though he detected a false note
somewhere. Good looking young fellows with the tangible air of the
towns and easy living did not, as a rule, take kindly to living alone
on some mountain peak. He stared up into Jack's face unwinkingly,
seeking there the real purpose behind such easy acceptance.

Jack stared back, his eyes widening and sobering a little as he
discovered that this man was not so easily put off with laughing
evasion. He wondered if Ross had read the papers that morning, and if
he, like the tall man at the postoffice, was mentally fitting him into
the description of the auto bandit that was being trailed.
Instinctively he rose to the new emergency.

"On the level, I want work and I want it right away," he said. "Being
alone won't bother me--I always get along pretty well with myself. I
want to get ahead of the game about five hundred dollars, and this
looks to me like a good chance to pile up a few iron men. I'm game for
the lonesomeness. It's a cold dollars-and-cents proposition with me."
He stopped and eyed the other a minute. "Does that answer what's in
your mind?" he asked bluntly.

Forest Supervisor Ross turned away his glance and reached for his pen.
"That's all right," he half apologized. "I want you to understand what
you're going up against, that is all. What's your name?"

Having the question launched at him suddenly like that, Jack nearly
blurted out his own name from sheer force of habit. But his tongue was