he’s going to stay here the rest of the day and part of to-morrow with us. And after that—I got to talk to the others and think it over a little before I can say exactly what will happen.”

But what did happen was that on the following afternoon, timing themselves so that they would arrive in camp late at night, David and Hank drove away with the man from Wallula and Mrs. Mills knew that on the next day Goliath was to make the same journey with the partners’ mules and buckboard. Also that if she feared to be left alone she could accompany him and visit the camp for which she had no very pleasant recollections.

The “Real-Estate-and-Specialty-in-Mining-Properties” office of Thomas Shaughnessy stood at almost the end of the business portion of the main street, modestly, inconspicuously, as befitted a place of such importance that sooner or later all must visit it. It was later—much later—at nearly three o’clock in the morning when David visited it, while Hank kept a watchful eye up Main Street for the solitary night watchman who seldom strolled that far because frequent visits were not necessary, and—Wallula paid his wages because Shaughnessy had so dictated. David, being a very amateur burglar, had a bunch of door keys big enough to open the doors of a city, all of which he had purchased at the county seat. Patiently he tried about twenty keys before he found one that opened the rear door of Shaughnessy’s office after which, carefully using an electric torch, he pulled down the shades over the front window and with an air of relief went into Shaughnessy’s rear office and made straight for the letter files.

He paid not the slightest attention to the small safe in the corner, but did pay much to the letter files. For a time he began to fear that what he sought could not be found and then, with a chuckle of satisfaction, came to a compartment, made the correspondence therein into a roll, and pocketed it before returning the letter file to the exact position in which he had originally found it. Cautiously he put the shades up again, cautiously passed out of the rear door and with the same caution locked it. Five minutes later he and Hank were slipping through the back streets to the cabin of a friend which had been put at their disposal during its owner’s absence, and there, safe, secure, unalarmed, they gloated over their theft.

Shaughnessy on the following day was unaware that he was under constant espionage; that the espionage became more rigid as dusk fell; that it continued while he ate his lonely meal in a restaurant and made a tour of various resorts where it was his 

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