"Slue Foot!"
"Yes, I forgot to tell you that Slue Foot is an I. W. W., too. I didn't know it myself 'til tonight. You see, when I got back to camp and found that Hurley's prisoners had made a get-away, I knew right then why you had turned off the back trail from Willow River. I knew they'd treat you like they did Hurley, or worse, so I hit the trail."
"Wasn't they no one else handy you could of brung along?" asked Saginaw, drily.
"The whole camp would have jumped at the chance—and you know it! And you know what they'd have done when they caught 'em. I knew I could travel faster and make less noise than a big gang, and I knew I could handle the job when I got there. I had slipped up and was watching when Pierce took you into the timber. He did that because they heard someone coming. It was Slue Foot, and he brought 'em a grub stake and some blankets. They knew he was an I. W. W., and they'd managed to slip him the word that they were loose. They wanted him to stake them to some money, too, but Slue Foot said he didn't have any, and told them to get a job up on Willow River. He told them they'd be safer there than they would anywhere down along the railroad."
"Yes, but how'd you know they'll go there?"
"They can't go any place else," laughed the boy. "They're broke, and they've only got a little bit of grub."
"When we goin' up an' git 'em?" persisted Saginaw.
"We'll let the sheriff do that for us, then the whole thing will be according to law."
"I guess that's right," assented the man, as the two swung down the tote road.