Something like a smile moved the tramp’s stubby beard.  “So she’s that kind, is she?  Well, if she could have a soft spot for a dog that had bit her, and an enemy’s dog at that, it stands to reason that she wouldn’t object to some harmless travellers a-sleeping in an empty cabin a couple of nights.  S’pose’n you show us the place, sonny, and we’ll be moving on.”

“Oh, it wouldn’t be right not to ask her first,” exclaimed Malcolm.  “She’ll be here in such a little while.”

The man looked uneasy.  Presently he walked over to the window and scraped a peep-hole on the frosted pane with his dirty thumbnail.  “Sun’s down,” he said.  “I’d like to get that bear’s foot fixed comfortable before it grows any darker.  I’d like to mighty well.  It’ll take some time to heat water to dress it.  Is that cabin far from here?”

“Not if we go in at the back of the place,” said Malcolm.  “It’s just across the meadow, and over a little hill.  If we went around by the big front gate it would be a good deal longer.”

The man shifted uneasily from one foot to another, and complained of being hungry.  He was growing desperate.  For more reasons than one he did not want to be at the station when the train came in.  That long red scar across his face had been described a number of times in the newspapers, and he did not care to be recognised just then.

The boys could not have told how it came about, but in a few minutes they were leading the way toward the cabin.  The man had persuaded them that it was not at all necessary to wait for their Aunt Allison’s permission, and that it was needless to trouble their grandmother.  Why should the ladies be bothered about a matter that the boys were old enough to decide?  So well had he argued, and so tactfully had he flattered them, that when they took their way across the field, it was with the feeling that they were doing their highest duty in getting these homeless wayfarers to the cabin as quickly as possible, on their own responsibility.

[Illustration:  “Across the snowy fields.”]

“We can get back in time to meet the train, if we hurry,” said Malcolm, looking at his watch again.  “There’s still fifteen minutes.”

No one saw the little procession file out of the waiting-room and across the snowy field, for it was growing dark, and the lamps were lighted and the curtains drawn in the few houses they passed.  Malcolm went first, proudly leading the friendly old bear.  Jonesy came next beside Keith, and the man shuffled along in the rear, looking around with suspicious glances whenever a twig snapped, or a distant dog barked.

As the wind struck against Jonesy’s body, he drew the bit of blanket more closely around him, and coughed hoarsely.  His teeth were chattering and his lips blue.  “You look nearly frozen,” said Keith, who, well-clad and well-fed, scarcely felt the cold.  “Here! put this on, or you’ll be sick,” Unbuttoning his thick little reefer, he pulled it off and tied its sleeves around Jonesy’s neck.