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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18366.txt b/18366.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c240c8c --- /dev/null +++ b/18366.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4267 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Challenge of the North, by James Hendryx + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Challenge of the North + +Author: James Hendryx + +Release Date: May 10, 2006 [EBook #18366] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHALLENGE OF THE NORTH *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +THE CHALLENGE OF THE NORTH + + +BY + +JAMES HENDRYX + + + + + +GARDEN CITY --------- NEW YORK + +DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY + +1922 + + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY + +DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY + + + +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION + INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN + + + +PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES + +AT + +THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y. + + +_First Edition_ + + + + +The Challenge of the North + +I + +Oskar Hedin, head of the fur department of old John McNabb's big store, +looked up from his scrutiny of the Russian sable coat spread upon a +table before him, and encountered the twinkling eyes of old John +himself. + +"It's a shame to keep this coat here--and that natural black fox piece, +too. Who is there in Terrace City that's got thirty thousand dollars +to spend for a fur coat, or twenty thousand for a fox fur?" + +Old John grinned. "Mrs. Orcutt bought one, didn't she?" + +"Yes, but she bought it down in New York----" + +"An' paid thirty-five thousand for a coat that runs half a dozen shades +lighter, an' is topped an' pointed to bring it up to the best it's got. +Did I ever tell ye the story of Mrs. Orcutt's coat?" + +"No." + +"It goes back quite a ways--the left-handed love me an' Fred Orcutt has +for one another. We speak neighborly on the street, an' for years +we've played on opposite sides of a ball-a-hole foursome at the Country +Club, but either of us would sooner lose a hundred dollars than pay the +other a golf ball. + +"It come about in a business way, an' in a business way it's kept on. +Not a dollar of McNabb money passes through the hands of Orcutt's +Wolverine Bank--an' he could have had it all, an' he knows it. + +"As ye know, I started out, a lad, with the Hudson's Bay Company, an' +I'd got to be a factor when an old uncle of my mother's in Scotlan' +died an' left me a matter of twenty thousand pounds sterling. When I +got the money I quit the Company an' drifted around a bit until finally +I bought up a big tract of Michigan pine. There wasn't any Terrace +City then. I located a sawmill here at the mouth of the river an' it +was known as McNabb's Landin'. + +"D'ye see those docks? I built 'em, an' I've seen the time when they +was two steamers warped along each side of 'em, an' one acrost the end, +an' a half a dozen more anchored in the harbor waitin' to haul McNabb's +lumber. The van stood on this spot in the sawmill days, an' when it +got too small I built a wooden store. Folks began driftin' in. They +changed the name from McNabb's Landin' to Terrace City, an' I turned a +many a good dollar for buildin' sites. + +"The second summer brought Fred Orcutt, an' I practically give him the +best lot of the whole outfit to build his bank on. The town outgrew +the wooden store an' I built this one, addin' the annex later, an' I +ripped out the old dam an' put in a concrete dam an' a power plant that +furnished light an' power for all Terrace City. Money was comin' in +fast an' I invested it here an' there--Michigan, an' Minnesota, an' +Winconsin pine, an' the Lord knows what not. Then come the panic, an' +I found out almost over night that I was land poor. I needed cash, or +credit at the bank, or I had to take a big loss. I went to see Fred +Orcutt--I banked with him, those days, an' he knew the fix I was in. +Yes, the bank would be glad to accommodate me all right; if you could +of been there an' heard Fred Orcutt lay down his terms you'd know just +how damn glad they'd of been to accommodate me. It kind of stunned me +at first, an' then I saw red--the man I'd befriended in more ways than +one, just layin' back till he had me in his clutches! Well, I lit out +an' told him just what I thought of him--an' he got it in log camp +English. It never fazed him. He just sat there leanin' back in his +chair, bringin' the points of his fingers together an' drawin' 'em +apart again, an' lookin' me square in the face with them pale blue +fishy eyes of his. When I'd used up all the oaths an' epithets in +common use, an' some new ones, an' had to quit, he says, in the same +cold, even voice that he'd used in layin' down his terms, he says, +'You're a little excited now, John, and I'll not hold it against you. +Just drop in sometime to-morrow or next day and we'll fix up the +papers.'" + +"I walked out of the bank with a wild scheme in my head of going to +Detroit or Chicago for the money. But I knew it was no use--and so did +Orcutt. He thought he had me right where he wanted me--an' so did I. +Meanwhile, an' about six months previous, a young fellow named Charlie +Bronson--president of the First National now--had opened up a little +seven-by-nine bank in a tin-covered wooden shack that I'd passed a +dozen times a day an' hadn't even looked into. I'd met Bronson once or +twice, but hadn't paid no attention to him, an' as I was headin' back +for the store, he stood in his doorway. 'Good mornin' Mr. McNabb,' he +says. I don't think I'd of took the trouble to answer him, but just +then his bank sign caught my eye. It was painted in black letters an' +stuck out over the sidewalk. I stopped an' looked past him through the +open door where his bookkeeper-payin'-an'-receivin'-teller-cashier, an' +general factotum was busy behind the cheap grill. Then I looked at +Bronson an' the only thing I noticed was that his eyes was brown, an' +he was smilin'. 'Young man,' I says, 'have you got any money in that +sardine can?' + +"'Quite a lot,' he answers with a grin. 'More than I wish I had.' + +"'You got a hundred thousand?' I asks--it was more than I needed, but I +thought I'd make it big enough to scare him. + +"'More than that,' he answers, without battin' an eye. 'But--what's +the matter with the Wolverine?' + +"'The Wolverine?' I busted out. 'Young man, if I was to tell you what +I think of the Wolverine here on the street, I'd be arrested before I'd +got good an' started.' + +"'Better come inside, then,' he grins, an' I followed him into a little +box of a private office. 'Of course,' I says later, when I'd told him +what I wanted, 'most of my collateral is pine timber, an' I suppose, as +Orcutt says, it's depreciated----' + +"'Depreciated?' he asks. 'Why has it depreciated? It's all standin' +on end, ain't it?' he says. An' it ain't gettin' no smaller, is it? +An' they're layin' down the pine a damn sight faster than God Almighty +can grow it, ain't they?' An' when I admitted that such was the facts, +he laughed. 'Well then, we'll just go over your reports an' estimates, +an' I don't think we'll have any trouble about doin' business.' + +"An we never have had no trouble, an' we've been doin' business every +day since." + +"But the coat?" reminded Hedin, after an interval of several minutes. + +"I'm coming to that. Orcutt ain't human, but his wife is. When he +found out I'd slipped out of his clutches an' swung all my business +over to Bronson's bank he never by so much as a word or a look let on +that he even noticed it. They still have an account at the store; they +can't help it, because no other store in Terrace City keeps the stock +we do. But Mrs. Orcutt does all her real shoppin' in New York or +Chicago." + + + + +II + +Oskar Hedin loved fur, and the romance of fur. From his earliest +recollection he had loved it as he had curled up and listened to the +stories of his father, a great upstanding Viking of a sailor man, who +year after year had forced his little vessel into the far North where +he traded with the natives, and who had lost his life in the ice floes +of the frozen sea while sailing with Nordenskjold. + +Furs were to Hedin an obsession; they spoke a language he knew. He +hated the grosser furs, as he loved the finer. He despised the trade +tricks and spurious trade names by which the flimsiest of furs are +foisted upon the gullible purchasers of "seal," "sable," "black fox," +"ermine," and "beaver." He prided himself that no misnamed fur had +ever passed over his counter, and in this he was backed up by his +employer. The cheaper furs were there, but they sold under their true +names and upon their merits. + +In the social democracy of the town of twenty thousand people Oskar +Hedin had earned a definite place. After graduating from the local +high school he had entered the employ of McNabb, and within a very few +years had been promoted to head his department. At the Country Club he +could be depended upon to qualify with the first flight in the annual +golf tournament, and the "dope" was all upset when he did not play in +the finals on the courts. He lived at the city's only "family hotel," +drove his own modest car, and religiously spent his Sundays on the +trout streams. + +Hedin picked up the coat and reverently deposited it in the fur safe. +"It's a coat fit for a queen," he decided as he closed and locked the +door. And Jean was the one woman in the world to wear it. Jean with +the red blood coursing through her veins, her glow of health, and the +sparkle of her eyes--McNabb's own daughter. "And, yet, I can't suggest +it because--" Hedin muttered aloud and scowled at the floor. "I'd have +asked her before this," he went on, "if that Wentworth hadn't butted +in. Who knows anything about him, anyway? I'll ask her this +afternoon." He stopped abruptly and smiled into the eyes of the girl +who was hurrying toward him down the aisle. + +"Oh, Oskar, I've just got a minute. I stopped in to remind you that +this is Saturday, and we're going tobogganing this afternoon, and I've +asked Mr. Wentworth and some of the crowd, and there'll be four or five +toboggans, and it will be no end jolly. And this is my birthday, and +you're a dear to think of it and send me all those flowers, and I'm +going to wear 'em to-night. Listen, Elsie Campbell is giving a dinner +for me this evening and of course you're not invited because it's just +too funny the way she has snubbed you lately, and there's a show in +town and after dinner we're going. Of course it won't be any good, but +she's making a theatre party of it, and it sounds grand anyway. And I +must hurry along now because I must remind Dad that he promised me a +fur coat the day I was twenty-one, and I'll be back after a while and +you can help me pick it out. Good-by, see you later!" And she was +gone, leaving Hedin gazing after her with a smile as he strove to +digest the jumble of uncorrelated information of which she had +unburdened herself. "Wentworth, and some of the crowd! Oh, it will be +jolly, all right--damn Wentworth!" + +Old John McNabb looked up from his papers as his daughter burst into +his private office and, rushing to his side, planted a kiss squarely +upon the top of his bald head. "I came in to tell you I'm twenty-one +to-day," she announced. + +"Well, well, so ye are! Ye come into the world on the first of March, +true to the old sayin', an' ye've be'n boisterous ever since. +Twenty-one years old, an' tell me now, what have ye ever accomplished? +When I was your age I'd be'n livin' in the bush north of 60 for two +years, an' could do my fifty miles on snowshoes an' carry a pack." + +"Maybe I can't do fifty miles a day on snowshoes, and I'm sure it isn't +my fault I don't live north of 60. But I'm in a hurry; I promised to +help Mr. Wentworth pick out a toboggan cap. I stopped in to remind you +that you promised me a fur coat on my twenty-first birthday." + +The old man regarded her thoughtfully. "So I did, so I did," he +repeated absently. "This Wentworth, now--he's been kickin' around an +uncommon lot, lately. Tell me again, who is he? What does he do for a +livin'?" + +"Why, he's a civil engineer--hydraulic work is his specialty. He has +been employed by some company that intended to put in a power plant of +some kind on Nettle River, and either the company broke up, or they +found the plan was not feasible, or something, and they abandoned it. +So Mr. Wentworth isn't doing anything, at present. But he is a fine +fellow--so jolly, and so good looking, and he has a wonderful war +record. He was with the engineers in Russia." + +"U-m-m, where d'ye get hold of his war record?" + +"Why--why--he--he has told us about the things they did--his company." + +"Um--hum," Old John was stroking his nose. + +"But, if he's civil engineer, an' out of a job, you might tell him to +stop in a minute--after he gets the right color of a toboggan cap +picked out." + + + + +III + +When the door closed behind the girl old John readjusted his nose +glasses and leaned back in his chair. "A clever engineer he is, beyond +a doubt," he mused. "For I kept my eye on him while he was layin' out +Orcutt's Nettle River project. If he'd made a botch of the job 'twould +have saved me offerin' my plant to the city. But he has the look of a +man ye couldn't trust in the dark--an' 'twould be clever engineerin' to +marry a million. I'll set him a job that'll show the stuff that's in +him. If he's a crook, I'll give him the chance to prove it." Reaching +into a pigeon-hole of his desk, McNabb withdrew a thick packet of +papers and removed the rubber band. + +A few moments later Jean entered, the office followed by a rather well +set up young man, whose tiny mustache was chopped square, like a +miniature section of box hedge. "This is Mr. Wentworth, Dad," +introduced the girl. "And now I'll leave you two men, because Oskar +has promised to help me pick out a coat, and it's after ten o'clock. +And, by the way, Dad, what kind of a coat shall I get? I want a good +one." + +"I'll warrant ye do! Well, just you tell Oskar to let you pick out a +pony, or a crummer, or a baum marten, or a squirrel. They're all good." + +As the door closed behind his daughter, old John McNabb motioned the +younger man to a chair. "My daughter tells me you're an engineer," he +began. + +"Yes, sir, temporarily unemployed." + +"Come up here on the Nettle River project, I hear. What's the matter? +Couldn't you dam the river?" + +"Oh, yes. The Nettle River presents no serious engineering problem. I +spent four months on the ground and reported it favorably, and then all +of a sudden, I was informed that the project had been abandoned, at +least for the present. The trouble, I presume, was in the financing. +It certainly was not because of any physical obstacles." + +"What was the idea in building the dam in the first place?" + +"Why, for power purposes. I believe it was their intention to induce +manufacturing enterprises to locate in Terrace City, and to furnish +them electric power at a low rate----" + +"An' underbid me on the lightin' contract--an' then unload onto the +city at a big profit." + +Wentworth smiled. "I was not advised as to the financial end of it. I +suppose, though, that that would have been the logical procedure." + +Old John chuckled. "You're right, it would, with Fred Orcutt mixed up +in it. But they didn't catch me nappin', an' I slipped the word to the +city dads that I'd sell out to 'em, lock, stock, an' barrel, at a +figure that would have meant a loss to Orcutt's crowd to meet. So I'm +the one that busted the Nettle River bubble, an' seein' I knocked ye +out of a job, it's no more than fair I should offer ye another." + +"Why, thank you----" + +"Don't thank me yet," interrupted McNabb. "Ye may not care to tackle +it. It's a man's size job, in a man's country. Part of it's the same +kind of work you've been doin' here--locatin' a dam to furnish power to +run a pulp mill. Then you'll have to check up the land covered by that +batch of options, an' explore a couple of rivers, an' locate more +pulpwood, an' get options on it. An' lay out a road to the railway. +It's in Canada, in the Gods Lake Country, three hundred miles north of +the railhead." + +"How soon would you expect me to start?" + +"Monday wouldn't be none too soon; to-morrow would be better. It's +this way. I've got options on better than half a million acres of +pulpwood lyin' between Hayes River an' the Shamattawa. Ten years ago I +cut the last of my pine, an' I got out my pencil an' begun to figure +how I could keep in the woods. I pig-ironed a little--got out hardwood +for the wooden specialty factories to cut up into spools, an' +clothes-pins, an' oval dishes an' whatnot--an' then I turned my +attention to the pulpwood. I figured it wouldn't be long before the +papermills would be hollerin' for raw materials the way they was +turnin' out the paper, so I nosed around a bit an' bought options on +pulpwood land here an' there. An' now's the time to get busy, with the +big newspapers an' the magazines all howlin' for paper, an' all the +mills workin' overtime." + +"Do you mean that you're going to manufacture paper yourself--way up +there? How do you expect to get your product to market?" + +"Easy enough. Make the paper in the woods, an' float it a little +better than a hundred miles to Hudson Bay in barges, or scows. You +see, the Shamattawa runs into Hayes River, an' Hayes River empties into +the Bay just across a spit of land from Port Nelson. And the railway +from The Pas to Port Nelson is being pushed to completion. With the +paper on the Bay, I can ship by rail or boat to the market." + +"And you want to locate the mill on the Hayes River?" + +"No; the Hayes runs too flat. Either on the upper Shamattawa, or on +Gods River, which lies between the two, an' flows into the Shamattawa. +There's plenty of water in either one, an' I think both or 'em have got +fall enough. I want the mill where it will be easy to get the wood to +it, an' at the same time, where we'll have a good head of water--an' +it's got to be done quick. The options expire the first of August, an' +I've nosed around an' found out there's no chance to renew 'em on +decent terms. When you get the mill located, then you've got to slip +down the river an' find out what kind of scows we'll need, an' lay out +a road to the new Hudson Bay Railway that's headed for Port Nelson. +We'll haul in the material an' save time. An' when you've finished +that, you can make a survey of the pulpwood available outside our +present holdin's." + +"Quite a job, take it all in all." + +"Yes--an' takin' it all in all, it'll take quite a man to fill it," +retorted McNabb brusquely. "The man that puts this through won't never +need to hunt another job, because this is only the beginnin' of the +pulpwood game for me----" The telephone on the desk rang, and after a +moment's conversation, McNabb arose and tossed the packet of papers +into Wentworth's lap. "I've got to step out for a matter of ten or +fifteen minutes," he said. "Here's the papers, an' a map of the +country. Look 'em over, an' if you care to tackle it, let me know when +I come back." + +Alone in the office, Wentworth studied the map fully five minutes; then +he read over the option contract. Suddenly, he straightened in his +chair, and read the last clause of the contract carefully: + +Be it further agreed that if the said John McNabb, or his authorized +representative, does not demand fulfillment of the terms of this +agreement, and accompany the said demand by tender of at least ten +percent of the purchase price named herein, on or before noon of the +first day of July, nineteen hundred and twenty-one, this agreement +shall automatically become null and void in its entirety. + +Be it further agreed between the said John McNabb, and the said +Canadian Wild Lands Company, Ltd., that aforementioned demand and +tender of payment shall be made at and in the store of that trading +post of the Hudson's Bay Company, situated upon the north shore of Gods +Lake, and known as Gods Lake Post. + +Swiftly Wentworth stepped to the desk and, lifting the receiver from +its hook, called a number. "Hello! Wolverine Bank? I want to speak +with Mr. Orcutt. Hello, Mr. Orcutt? This is Wentworth--No, I don't +want any money. Listen, I must see you at once. I'm on the trail of +something big, and I need you to help swing it. There's a million in +it--can't say more now. What? One o'clock at the bank? Right, I'll +be there. Good-by." + +A few moments later McNabb entered the office. "Well, did you look the +proposition over? Ye see by the map how we can get the paper to the +Bay. What d'ye say? Take it, or leave it?" + +"I'll take it," answered Wentworth. + +"An' ye'll start to-morrow?" + +"Why--it's pretty short notice--but--yes, I'll start to-morrow." + +Old John McNabb drew a check which he handed to Wentworth. + +"Expenses, an' a month's advance salary," grunted the older man. + +"And when do you want a report on the mill site?" + +"As soon after the ice goes out as you can make it." + +"And you will be up during the summer?" + +"Some time in July--I've got to be there on the first of August to +close that option. Take those location papers with ye. Ye'll need +them, an' the map--I have another copy in the vault at the bank. I'll +bring 'em up when I come, so if somethin' comes up so you couldn't be +at the post on the first of August, it won't hold up the deal. Run +along now, I must catch the 11:45 train for Grand Rapids--see you in +July." + + + + +IV + +Upstairs in the fur department Oskar Hedin paused in the act of +returning some fox pieces to their place, and greeted the girl who had +halted before the tall pier glass to readjust her hat and push a +refractory strand of hair into place. "Back again?" he smiled. "And +now for the coat!" + +"Now for the coat," she repeated. "What kind of a coat do I want, +Oskar? I want to try on lots of them. I don't know a thing in the +world about furs. All I know is that I've seen some I liked, and some +that I didn't care much for." + +For half an hour Jean tried on coats, until her choice had narrowed +down to a handsome dark baum marten, and a shimmery gray squirrel. + +"I think they're both lovely, and I can't quite make up my mind," she +said at last, in a tone of mock despair. "It's worse than picking out +toboggan caps. I just helped Mr. Wentworth select one--and, oh, by the +way, I believe dad is going to find a place for him." + +"For who?" asked Hedin, and Jean noticed tiny wrinkles gather between +his eyes. + +"Why, for Mr. Wentworth, of course. You see, I told dad that he'd just +lost his position with that old Nettle River thing they were trying to +put through, and Dad said if he was a civil engineer, and out of a job, +to tell him to drop in and see him, so I took him in and introduced him +and I guess they're still talking." + +"Humph," grunted Hedin. + +"You don't need to be so grumpy about it. Mr. Wentworth is awfully +nice, and all the girls are crazy about him." + +"I don't think that gives you any call to rave much over him when it +was Fred Orcutt that brought him here, and he brought him for no other +purpose than to knife your father," replied Hedin dryly. + +Jean laughed. "You take Dad too seriously. He really believes Mr. +Orcutt has it in for him, and he sees an ulterior motive in everything +he does in a business way. But, really, the Orcutts are all right. +There was some business deal, years and years ago, in which Dad fancied +Mr. Orcutt tried to get the best of him, and he has never forgotten it. +You see, Dad is the dearest thing that ever lived, but he is sort of +crusty, and it isn't everybody that knows how to take him. Why, Mr. +and Mrs. Orcutt are going to be at dinner this evening, and are going +to the theatre, too. They know it is my birthday party, so that +doesn't look as though they were such fierce enemies of the McNabbs, +does it? + +"Let's get back to the subject of coats. This squirrel is beautiful, +but I believe I like the dark fur the better. I think I'll try that +marten again." + +Hedin was thinking rapidly. He had known from the first that the +darker fur was the fur for her, yet he had refrained from making any +direct suggestion. + +"Just a moment, please," he said. "Won't you button that coat once +more, I want to get an artificial light effect." As he spoke, he moved +toward the windows and drew the shades. Returning in the gloom, he +reached swiftly into the fur safe and withdrew the Russian sable coat +which he deftly deposited on top of the marten coat that lay with +several others upon a nearby table. As the girl turned from the glass, +he switched on the light. + +"All right," he said, a moment later. "If you care to try on the +marten again, we'll see how that shows up under the artificial." +Deftly he lifted the squirrel from her shoulders, and, picking up the +Russian sable, held it while she slipped her arms into the sleeves. As +she buttoned it, he stepped back, and viewed the result through +critically puckered eyes. With an effort he refrained from voicing his +enchantment with the living picture before him. Old John was right--it +was a coat fit for a queen! + +"I like this one best. I'll take it." + +Hedin agreed. "I think you have chosen wisely," he answered, adding, +as she started to loosen the garment at the throat, "Just a minute--the +set of the collar in the back----" He stepped behind her, raised the +collar a trifle with his fingers, smoothed it into place, and stepped +aside to note the effect. "Just a trifle low," he said, "but it's too +late to have it altered to-day." + +"Oh, bother! I think the set is all right. Who would ever notice it? +Let it go." + +Hedin smiled. "You can wear it to-night, all right, but you must +promise me to send it down the first thing Monday morning for the +alteration. + +"I will bring it to the house this afternoon." + +A sudden caprice seized her. "Why, I think I'll wear it!" she +answered. "Just help me on with it, Oskar. And thank you so much for +helping me select it. Here comes Mr. Wentworth, now. I wonder whether +he will like it. I'm crazy about it. What kind of a marten did you +say it is? Everybody will be asking me, and I want to be able to tell +them what my own coat is." + +"Baum marten," answered Hedin stiffly, heartily wishing the coat safe +in its accustomed place. In vain he regretted the wild impulse that +had led him to substitute the sable coat for the marten. The impulse +had come when the girl told him that Mrs. Orcutt was to be one of the +theatre party. The plan had flashed upon him with overwhelming +brilliance. He knew that Jean would in all probability never notice +that the coat was not a marten. And he knew that Mrs. Orcutt most +certainly would, for McNabb had once publicly compared it with her +coat, much to the New York coat's detriment and Mrs. Orcutt's +humiliation. It was not altogether loyalty for his employer that led +him to plot the woman an uncomfortable evening, for he owed her a +grudge on his own account. Ever since the coming of Wentworth, whom +she had taken under her special patronage, Hedin had been studiously +omitted from her scheme of social activities--and Jean McNabb had been +as studiously included. He knew that McNabb was leaving town to be +gone until the following evening, and that the chance of his seeing the +garment was exceedingly small, and he had invented the fiction of the +low collar in order to get the coat back on Monday morning when he +would, of course, substitute the baum marten and return the sable to +its safe. But now he felt vaguely uneasy. + +Hedin saw that Wentworth was staring at the coat with a swiftly +appraising eye. "It's a baum marten," Jean went on. "It took me a +long time to choose between this and a squirrel. There was one that +was a luscious gray, but I like this better--don't you?" + +Wentworth nodded. "I certainly do," he agreed. "And I do not believe +it would have taken me long to decide between that and a squirrel." He +turned to Hedin. "What do you think, Mr.--ah--Haywood? That the +choice was a wise one? This is certainly a handsome--er--what did you +say it is?" + +"Baum marten," snapped Hedin, with scarcely a glance at the questioner, +as he turned and began to replace the coats that lay upon the table. +Wentworth watched Hedin return the baum marten to its place, and Jean +stepped swiftly to Hedin's side. + +As she spoke, he saw that her eyes were flashing angrily. + +"If your surly mood doesn't change," she whispered, "you will not add +much to the enjoyment of our coasting party." + +"I shall neither add to, nor detract from it," answered Hedin, meeting +her gaze squarely. "Please don't wait for me. I find that I shall not +be able to attend." + + + + +V + +The United States Government formally entered the world war in April, +and the following month Ross Wentworth had been graduated from a +technical college, and through the auspices of an influential relative +was commissioned a captain of engineers, and assigned to duty in one of +the larger cantonments. In due course of events he was sent overseas, +and was attached to the forces operating in northern Russia. During +the sixteen months of his service in the land of the erstwhile Czar, he +acquired a fund of military terms, both official and slang. Also he +built and maintained in a state of inutility, nine and one-half miles +of military swamp road, over which no gun nor detachment of troops ever +passed. The abrupt termination of hostilities caught him with a +formidable and inexplicable discrepancy of company funds--which +discrepancy was promptly and liberally met by the aforementioned +relative. Whereupon, Captain Wentworth was honorably discharged from +the service of his country. + +For many months after his discharge he lived by his wits and looks, but +when this grew unproductive of ready cash, he decided to seek +employment in his accredited vocation. + +This decision he arrived at while sojourning in the home of a wealthy +fruit-grower who was interested in the Nettle River project, and who +furnished him a letter of recommendation to Orcutt, who promptly +employed him. Thereafter all went well until McNabb's ultimatum +brought the Nettle River project to as sudden a termination as the +armistice had brought the war. Whereupon Wentworth found himself in +the uncomfortable predicament of having no available assets and many +pressing liabilities, incurred in the course of his endeavor to win the +good graces of the wealthy Jean McNabb. + +While scarcely knowing Hedin, Wentworth recognized him as a possible +rival. He, himself, was no connoisseur of fur, but at least he knew a +Russian sable when he saw one, and as he preceded Jean down the aisle, +his brain worked rapidly. + +By the time he reached the street, a daring scheme was half-formed in +his brain--a scheme which, if successful, would work the utter ruin of +Hedin, and leave him a clear field with the girl. At the first corner +he excused himself. + +Hardly was the girl's back turned when Wentworth dodged around the +corner and entered McNabb's store by another door just in time to see +old John rush from the building, bag in hand, and hurry down the street +in the direction of the station. + +McNabb's was the only big store in Terrace City, and being a department +store, it kept city hours, so while on Saturday evenings all the other +stores remained open for business until a late hour, McNabb's closed at +noon. Passing unnoticed down the aisle, Wentworth's eyes darted here +and there in search of a place of concealment, until at length he took +up a position close beside McNabb's private office, the door of which, +he noted with satisfaction, stood slightly ajar. + +Watching his opportunity, Wentworth slipped unnoticed into the private +office, closed the door softly behind him, and sank comfortably into +McNabb's desk chair. + +A gong sounded, and was repeated, dimly, upon the floors above. +Wentworth could hear the tramp of feet in the aisles as the clerks +poured from the building through a door that gave on to a side street. +In a few minutes the rush was over, and then they came scatteringly, +singly, and by twos and threes. He could hear the opening of the door, +and the click of the lock as it closed behind them. The footsteps +ceased. He drew his watch and waited. Noises from the street reached +him, sounding far off and muffled, but the store was silent as a tomb. +Twelve minutes ticked away. A footstep sounded. Wentworth could trace +it descending the stairs, and walking the length of an aisle. Followed +the sound of the opening door, and the click of the latch. Some +belated department head, he thought. Possibly Hedin, himself--and he +grinned at the thought. + +In the silence of the great building Wentworth suddenly realized that +he was nervous. It was all well enough to plan a thing, but the +carrying out of the plan was quite another matter. He took a silent +turn or two the length of the office, his footsteps making no sound +upon the soft carpet. He waited twenty minutes and, hearing no sound, +closed his watch and dabbed at his forehead with the handkerchief which +he drew from his sleeve. Turning the knob, he stepped out upon the +uncarpeted floor. The sound of his footsteps upon the hardwood seemed +to reverberate through the whole building. He walked a few steps on +tiptoe, and then decided that in case anyone should see him, the +tiptoeing would look furtive. So he walked to the foot of the +stairway, his footsteps sounding in his ears like the ring of a hammer +on an anvil. As he ascended the stairs he called out, "Hey, isn't +there any one here? I am locked in, and can't get out! Hello! +Someone show me the way out!" + +Swiftly he ascended to the third floor and crossed to the fur case. +Silently he slid back the door and lifted the baum marten coat from its +place, and stepping to a counter upon which was fixed a huge roll of +wrapping paper, he proceeded to make the coat into a package. This +done, he hastened toward the stairway with the package under his arm. +Down the stairs he flew, taking them two and three at a time, down the +next flight, and across the floor, until he brought up panting at the +door with the spring lock by which the employees had left the building. + +Thought of material gain had not until this point entered into the +scheme. He had merely plotted the undoing of a rival, but at the +sudden realization of his status in the eyes of the world, a new +thought struck him. "If I can get away with it--why not? A Russian +sable! Why, it's worth _thousands_!" + +It took a concentrated effort to open the door a tiny crack and peer +through. Swiftly opening the door, Wentworth stepped onto the +sidewalk, closed the door behind him, and clutching his package +tightly, hurried down the street. He had entirely gained his composure +by the time he reached his hotel, and hastening to his room, placed the +package in his trunk and turned the key. He glanced at his watch. It +lacked three minutes of one, and remembering his appointment with +Orcutt, he hastened to the Wolverine Bank. + + + + +VI + +Orcutt greeted his caller without enthusiasm. For despite the +assurance over the telephone that Wentworth wanted no money, he felt +that he was in for a touch. + +The younger man was quick to note the attitude, and hastened to dispel +it. "In the first place, Mr. Orcutt, I am going to ask you to cash a +check for three thousand dollars, but----" + +"Three thousand!" exclaimed Orcutt, his eyes narrowing. "Whose check +is it?" + +"John McNabb's." + +"John McNabb's!" A look of suspicion flashed into his eyes. + +"Yes--isn't it good?" + +"Good! Hell--yes, of course it's good! But what are you doing with +McNabb's check for three thousand?" + +Reaching into his pocket, Wentworth drew out the packet of papers and +held it in his hand. "Eight or ten years ago McNabb bought options on +a half million acres of pulp-wood lying between two certain rivers. He +sent for me--said he heard I was out of a job, and that as he was the +one that was responsible for my losing out, it was only fair that he +should offer me another. Then he went on to outline the whole +proposition, told me the options expired on August first; then he was +called out of the office for a minute and asked me to look over the +maps and papers and let him know if I wanted to tackle it or not. + +"In going over the contract, I found that the options expire on July +first, instead of August first, as he said. It was then I called you +up, for the whole scheme hit me like a flash. Don't you see it? If I +worked for him, I'd draw a salary, and a good one--and nothing more. +But if I should interest sufficient capital to step in on the first day +of July when those options expire, and buy up the whole tract, where +would McNabb be?" + +Orcutt tapped thoughtfully upon his desk pad with the tip of his +pencil. "I wonder," he muttered aloud, more to himself than to +Wentworth, "I wonder if John has made a slip at last?" + +"That is just what he has done! And he is so cocksure of his ground +that he didn't even glance at the papers to refresh his memory--I doubt +if he has looked at them since he made the deal." + +The banker eyed the younger man shrewdly. "And in case I should +interest myself in the proposition to the extent of organizing the +capital to swing the deal, what would you expect out of it?" + +"A share in the business, and a salary of ten thousand a year." + +"You don't want much!" exclaimed Orcutt. + +"Not any more than you could well afford to give me. You don't realize +what a big thing this is--it's going to take a lot of capital to swing +it." + +"About how much?" + +"You'll have to get your figures on the paper mill from someone that +knows more about it than I do. The pulp-wood will cost, I imagine, +somewhere between six and ten dollars an acre. McNabb's options call +for purchase at five dollars, and he told me he could not renew at that +figure. But even at ten dollars, there is a mint in it. You will have +to pay down ten percent of the purchase price in cash." + +Orcutt whistled. "Ten percent of the purchase price, at say, ten +dollars, would be half a million. Besides the cost of the mill and the +interest on four million and a half!" + +"It is a big proposition," agreed Wentworth. "If it is too big for you +to handle, I can find someone who will. I have a friend in Detroit +whose father will jump at the chance. It isn't too big for McNabb." + +"Who said anything about it being too big?" snapped Orcutt. "If McNabb +could find the money, I can. But, mind you, I'm not going to spend a +damned cent on the proposition until after McNabb's options have +expired and we've got our hands on the pulp-wood. Mind you; you don't +draw any advance money." + +"Not a cent," agreed Wentworth. "But you'd better have the money right +on hand on the first day of July; those options expire at noon, and we +don't want any delay about getting hold of the property. And, by the +way, I want a written contract--make my share a ten percent interest in +the business." + +After some demurring on the part of Orcutt, he called a stenographer +and drew a contract, which he duly signed and handed to Wentworth, who +thrust it into his pocket with the packet of papers. + +"Let's see those papers of McNabb's," said Orcutt. + +Wentworth smiled. "That is hardly necessary, do you think? I will +vouch for the date--and the location need not concern you at present. +All you need to know is that at noon on the first day of July, you, or +your legal representative, must be at the Gods Lake post of the +Hudson's Bay Company, with a half million dollars in cash, or its +equivalent--and you'd better have all your arrangements made in +advance, and allow plenty of time to get there." + + + + +VII + +On the whole the afternoon was a disappointing one for Jean McNabb. +She had been deeply hurt by Hedin's curt refusal to attend the coasting +party, and Wentworth had proved a very luke-warm cavalier. She had +started out to be extremely vivacious so all might see that the absence +of Hedin was a matter of no concern, but Wentworth's preoccupied manner +soon dampened her ardor, until for her the coasting party became a +monotonous affair. + +She breathed a sigh of relief when it was over, and after a walk, +during which neither ventured a word, she parted from Wentworth at the +gate and rushed to her room. She was furious with Hedin, furious with +Wentworth, and furious with herself for being furious. + +When he parted from Jean McNabb after the coasting party, Wentworth +proceeded to the railway station, where he purchased his ticket and +arranged with a truckman to call for his trunk at exactly eight +o'clock. Hastening to the hotel, he dressed for dinner. + +This accomplished, he carefully locked his door, removed the coat from +his trunk, concealed it within the folds of his own overcoat, and sat +down to smoke a cigarette as he went over, step by step, his hastily +conceived plan. When the hands of his watch indicated that he would be +precisely fifteen minutes late, he left the hotel, carrying the +overcoat upon his arm. + +The street into which he turned was deserted, and proceeding to a point +opposite the Campbell residence, he stepped behind a huge maple tree +and surveyed the brilliantly lighted house across the way. + +"They're late getting started. I hope they are not waiting on my +account," he grinned, and drew closer into the shadow of the trees as a +lone pedestrian passed along the opposite sidewalk. Faintly to his +ears came the sound of laughter, and then there was a general exodus +toward the dining room. With a sigh of relief, Wentworth crossed the +street, rang the doorbell, and was admitted. + +"That you, Captain Wentworth?" called his hostess. "We waited for you +until just this minute." + +"Awfully sorry to be late--detestable thing to do--going away in the +morning--thousand-and-one things to attend to--be down in a moment to +offer humble apology." + +Swiftly and silently Wentworth removed the coat from within his own, +crossed the hall, substituted the baum marten for the Russian sable, +and reentered the gentlemen's dressing room, where it was but the work +of a moment to conceal the garment within the folds of his coat. Then +he descended the stairs, entered the dining room, and seated himself in +the vacant chair beside Jean McNabb. + +The dinner went as dinners do and was brought to a rather abrupt +termination by someone's discovery that it lacked but five minutes to +eight. As the guests rose from the table Wentworth gave a startled +exclamation. + +"In my haste in dressing I forgot my pocketbook. I distinctly +recollect removing it from my pocket and tossing it upon the bed, and +there I must have left it." He turned to Elsie Campbell. "I hope you +will pardon me if I hurry away but really, that pocketbook contains a +rather large sum--expense money you know--and, I am almost certain that +I neglected to lock my room. I will join you at the door of the +theatre; I can easily reach there before you, if I hurry." + +A moment later he rushed from the house with his overcoat upon his arm, +and hurried to the hotel where, lifting the tray of his trunk, he +deposited the sable coat, replaced the tray, locked and strapped the +trunk, and finished just in time to respond to the knock of the +truckman. Five minutes later he was waiting at the theatre for the +others, who appeared just before the rise of the curtain on the first +act. + + + + +VIII + +When Oskar Hedin left the store at the closing hour, he went directly +to his hotel, bolted a hasty luncheon, slipped into outdoor togs and a +half hour later was silently threading an old log-trail that bit deep +into the jack-pines. Mile after mile he glided smoothly along that +silent winding white lane, his skis making no sound in the soft, deep +snow. + +Just beyond a swamp, in the centre of a wide clearing, surrounded upon +three sides by the encroaching jack-pines and poplars, and upon the +fourth by a broad bend of the river, Hedin removed his skis and seated +himself upon a rotting log of a tumbled-down cabin, there to think. + +So, that's why she wanted a new coat? She was going out for the +evening with Wentworth. And she invited Wentworth to go tobogganing, +on this particular afternoon of all others, when he had intended to +whisper in her ear, as the toboggan flew down the steep grade, the +thing that had been uppermost in his mind for a year. And she had +asked her father to give him a job. Of course, what could be simpler? +A man can manage to exist, somehow, without a job--but with two a job +is essential. + +He laughed, a short, hard laugh that ended in a sneer. Well, he had +been a fool--that's all. He had served her purpose, had been the poor +dupe upon whom she had practised her wiles, a plaything, to be lightly +tossed aside for a new toy. Some day, too late perhaps, she would see +her mistake, and then she would suffer, even as he was suffering +now--but, no, to suffer one must first love, and woman had not the +capacity to love. "To hell with them!" he cried aloud. "To hell with +my tame job! And to hell with Terrace City, and with the civilization +that calls a man from the wild places and sets him to selling women +baubles to deck themselves out in." + +The jack-pine shadows reached far into the clearing as Oskar fastened +on his skis and headed back along the tote-road. It was not too +late--he was only twenty-five. He, too, would live like a man, would +go into the North, and henceforth only the outlands should know him. +He would resign Monday morning. The thought caused a pang of regret at +parting with McNabb. + +Darkness found him still upon the tote-road. He emerged from the +jack-pines and paused at the long smooth hill, as was his wont, to look +down upon the brilliant lights of Terrace City. His momentum carried +him skimming across a flat meadow, and he slowed to a stand at the very +end of the main street where, in the white glare of an arc light he +removed his skis, and stepped onto the sidewalk. + +Well, he would see her once more, arrayed in the coat of matched +sable--and he would carry the picture with him to far places where the +stars winked cold in the night sky. + +Fully twenty minutes before time for the curtain Hedin was in his +place, tenth row on the middle aisle, eagerly scanning the patrons as +they were ushered to their seats. The theatre boasted only two boxes, +set just above the stage level, and Elsie Campbell had engaged them +both. + +As time for the curtain to rise drew near, Hedin found himself +fidgeting nervously. Had the theatre party been called off? The house +was already well filled; surely there was no block of vacant seats that +would accommodate a dinner party. Then, as he had about given up hope, +he raised his eyes to a box just as Jean McNabb entered, followed +closely by Wentworth. Hedin stared as if petrified, brushed his hand +across his eyes as though to clear his vision of distorting film, and +stared again. For Wentworth was lifting a coat from Jean's shoulders, +but it was not a sable one. Seizing his hat and coat, Hedin rushed +from the building, narrowly avoiding collision with an usher. + +Without pausing to put on his coat, he dashed for the store and letting +himself in, took the stairs three at a time. Upon the second flight, +he met the night watchman who, recognizing him, allowed him to pass, +but noting his evident agitation and unaccountable haste, silently and +discreetly followed and took up a position where he could watch every +move of the excited department head. Hastening to the fur safe, Hedin +unlocked and threw it open. He switched on the light, and peered into +the interior. The Russian sable coat was not in its accustomed place. +And a hurried search of the safe showed that it was in no other place. +Closing the door, he inspected the case that contained the less +valuable furs, and it was but the work of a moment to discover that the +baum marten coat was missing. Dumbfounded, he stared at the empty +space where the coat should have been. His brief inspection in the +theatre had told him this was the coat Jean McNabb was wearing--but +where was the sable? He distinctly remembered replacing the marten +with his own hands, and of seeing the girl pass down the aisle wearing +the sable. + +He sank into his chair and, leaning forward, buried his face in his +arms upon his desk. He tried to think clearly, but found himself +entirely incapable of thought. How did it happen? Where was the sable? + +Calling the watchman, Hedin questioned him for half an hour, but +learned nothing. He even made a personal inspection of every door and +window in the store, and sent the watchman to the basement on a tour of +similar inspection. When the man returned and reported nothing +disturbed, Hedin left the store and proceeded directly to his room, +where he spent a sleepless night in trying to solve the mystery. + +After breakfast the following morning Jean McNabb sat before the little +dressing table in her room when the doorbell rang, and the maid +announced Mr. Hedin. + +"Tell Mr. Hedin I can't see anyone this morning," she said, without +looking up. + +Again the maid tapped at the door, and entering, handed the girl a +hastily scribbled leaf torn from a notebook. Jean read it at a glance, +and her face flushed with swift anger. No salutation, only a few +scrawled words: "Must see you at once. Purely matter of business--very +important--about the coat." + +Crossing to her desk the girl scribbled upon the reverse side of the +paper. "Never talk business on Sunday. Coat will be at store as per +agreement." + + + + +IX + +On Monday morning old John McNabb entered his private office to find +Hedin awaiting him. He glanced at the younger man inquiringly--"What +ails ye, lad? Ye look like ye hadn't slept for a week." + +"I haven't slept for two nights," answered Hedin. "There is no use +beating around the bush. As a matter of fact, the Russian sable coat +is missing, and I am to blame for it." + +The old man stared incredulously. "Missin'!" he exclaimed. "An' +you're to blame! What d'ye mean?" + +Hastily, in as few words as possible, Hedin recited the facts as he +knew them, while an angry flush mounted to the old man's face. + +McNabb reached for the telephone and called a number. "Hello! Is that +you, Jean? Come to the store at once, and bring your new fur coat--to +my office. . . . What? No, that won't do, at all. Bring it +yourself--I'm waitin'." + +"I'll step outside while Jean--while Miss McNabb----" + +"Ye'll stay where ye are!" snapped McNabb. + +The older man turned to his desk, where for ten minutes he opened and +closed drawers and rustled papers viciously. Then the door opened and +Jean herself stepped into the room with the fur coat over her arm. +"Well, Dad, here's the coat." She paused abruptly, glanced inquiringly +at Hedin, nodded coolly, and continued, "Oskar said it needed a little +tailoring, and that I was to bring it down this morning, but I didn't +think there was any tearing hurry about it." + +Her father took the garment, smoothed the fur with his hand, and asked +casually, "Is this the coat ye wore from the store?" + +"Why, of course it is." + +"An' the one ye wore to the show?" + +"Yes, yes," answered the girl impatiently. "I haven't so many fur +coats that I would be apt to get them mixed." + +McNabb ignored the impatience. "Ye've had no other coat in your +possession since you selected this one?" + +"No, I haven't. What's all this about?" + +"Did Oskar tell you what kind of a coat you were gettin'?" + +"Yes, a baum marten. Why, isn't it a baum marten?" + +McNabb nodded. "Yes, it's a baum marten. Run along now. I just +wanted to see which coat ye'd got. Here, take it along with ye. The +tailor can wait." + +With a puzzled glance at the two men, Jean took the coat, and with a +toss of the head left the office. + +McNabb turned to Hedin. "What have ye got to say now? Did the girl +tell the truth?" + +"Absolutely." + +"Then that was the coat she wore from the store?" + +"No--but she thinks it was. She doesn't know the difference." + +For a long time John McNabb spoke no word but sat staring at his desk, +pecking at the blotter with his pencil. He prided himself upon his +ability to pick men. He knew men, and in no small measure was this +knowledge responsible for his success in dealing with men. He had been +certain that Jean and Hedin would eventually marry, and secretly he +longed for the day. He had watched Hedin for years and now, despite +the improbability of the story, he believed it implicitly. And it was +with a heavy heart that he had watched the studied coldness of each +toward the other. McNabb was a man of snap decisions. He would teach +these young fools a lesson, and at the same time find out which way the +wind blew. With a clenching of his fists, he whirled abruptly upon +Hedin. + +"What did ye do with the coat?" he roared. "It'll go easier with ye if +ye tell me!" + +"What do you mean?" cried Hedin, white to the lips, meeting McNabb's +gaze with a look of mingled surprise, pain, and anger. + +"I mean just what I say. Ye've got the coat--where is it?" + +Hedin felt suddenly weak and sick. He had expected McNabb's anger at +his foolish whim, and knew that he deserved it--but that McNabb should +accuse him of theft! Sick at heart, he faltered his answer, and in his +own ears his voice sounded strange, and dull, and unconvincing. "You +think I--I stole it?" + +"What else am I to think? What will the police think? What will the +jury think when they hear your flimsy yarn--an' the straightforward +evidence of my daughter? They'll think that the coat she wore to the +show, an' that she still has, is the coat she wore from the store, an' +that you've got the other. An' when Kranz tells of your midnight visit +to the store, what'll they think then?" McNabb finished and, reaching +for the telephone, called the police headquarters. A few minutes later +the chief himself appeared, accompanied by the night watchman, Kranz, +whose story of the nervous and agitated appearance of Hedin on his +midnight visit to the store forged the strongest link in the chain of +circumstantial evidence. + +After the watchman had been dismissed, Hedin was subjected to a +bullying at the hands of the burly officer that stopped just short of +personal violence, and through it all he stubbornly maintained his +innocence. + +After another brief telephone conversation, the three visited the +private room of the judge where, waiving a preliminary hearing, the +prisoner was bound over to await the action of the grand jury, and his +bail fixed at ten thousand dollars. + + + + +X + +At the mouth of the alley that led from a side street to the rear of +the jail, the policeman plucked at Hedin's sleeve, and turned in. +Mechanically Hedin fell in beside him. Someone passed upon the street. +"See who that was?" asked the officer maliciously, for he knew all the +town gossip. Hedin scarcely heard the question. "It was McNabb's gal. +Her throwin' you over fer this here Wentworth didn't give you no +license to steal her old man's fur coat, all right--but maybe you ain't +so onlucky, at that. Folks says she's all right--a little gay an' the +like of that--but runnin' the streets at midnight, like she was a +Saturday, with a guy that goes after 'em like Wentworth! Call it gay +if they want to, but if it was anyone but old McNabb's daughter, they'd +be callin' it somethin' else." + +Smash! Hedin's fist drove with terrific force into the flappy jaw, and +the big officer reeled, and crashed into the snow between a row of ash +barrels, and a dilapidated board fence. The young man stared in +surprise as he waited for the other to regain his feet. The officer's +words had roused a sudden flash of fury, and with nerves already +strained to the breaking point, he had struck. But the man, +grotesquely sprawled behind the barrels, made no move. + +Hedin glanced up and down the alley. It was empty. He was free! +Swiftly he proceeded down the alley, passed the jail, and turned into +the street. Here he slackened his pace, and walking leisurely to his +hotel, hastily made up a light pack. Passing around to the rear, he +took his skis from their place, walking to the edge of town, fastened +them on, and was soon swallowed up in the jack-pines. For an hour he +glided smoothly over the snow, and upon the edge of a balsam thicket +sat down on a log to rest. + +There were two courses open. Either he could return to Terrace City +and face the charge against him as best he could, or he could keep +going. It was only a few miles across country to Pipe Lake, where he +could catch the P.M. for Detroit. + +His thoughts turned abruptly from the problem of flight, and plunged +into the problem of the missing coat. It was not conceivable that the +garment had been destroyed; therefore it was still in existence. If in +existence, somebody had it. Who? One by one, Hedin considered the +personnel of the theatre party, and one by one he eliminated them until +only Wentworth was left. Wentworth! If he could only prove it! He +remembered that someone had casually remarked that morning at breakfast +that Wentworth had gone North for old John McNabb. He had heard McNabb +mention some pulp-wood lands in the North. Gods Lake, wasn't it? Why, +Gods Lake post was old Dugald Murchison's post! Hedin remembered +Murchison well. It was only last year he had spent a week as the guest +of his old friend McNabb, and nearly every evening at dinner Hedin had +sat at meat with them, and listened in fascination to the talk of the +far outlands. He remembered the shrewd gray eyes of Murchison--eyes +that bespoke wisdom, and justice tempered with mercy. + +He smote his leg with his mittened fist. He would go North, straight +to old Dugald Murchison, and he would tell him the whole story. +Murchison would help him, and if Wentworth were innocent, then he, +Hedin would return to Terrace City and give himself up. He would not +be a fugitive from justice, for justice owed him the chance to prove +his innocence. + +Once his mind was made up, Hedin rose to his feet and slung the light +pack to his back. Then he lowered the pack, and stood thinking. He +would hit for Pipe Lake, but Hanson, the storekeeper at Pipe Lake, +would recognize him. Tossing his pack aside, he scooped a hole in the +snow, built a tiny fire of balsam twigs, and melted some water in his +drinking cup. Then, setting a small hand mirror upon the log, he +produced his razor and proceeded to shave off his mustache. This done, +he grinned at himself in the mirror, as he reflected that Hanson had +never seen him except in conventional clothing, and that he would never +recognize him in mackinaw and larrigans, with his mustache gone. + +Once more he stood up, kicked snow over his fire, swung the pack to his +back, and started to skirt the swamp. Then suddenly he halted in his +tracks. There was a mighty crackling of dry twigs close at hand, and a +voice commanded gruffly, "Hands up!" + +Instinctively Hedin elevated his hands as he stared into the muzzle of +a revolver. Beyond the revolver he saw the grinning face of Mike +Duffy, erstwhile lumberjack, then bootlegger, and now policeman; under +the Hicks regime. + +"Shaved her off, eh?" taunted the man. "Well, mebbe you'd 'a' fooled +most folks, but you hain't fooled me none, special' as I be'n layin' in +the brush watchin' you fer half an hour. You'd of got away from the +rest of 'em too." + + + + +XI + +Old John McNabb had not been long at his desk when the telephone bell +rang and he picked up the receiver. + +"Hello--who? Hicks? He--what? Where is he now? Got away! Well, you +get him! Get him, or I'll get you! If he ain't back in jail to-day, +off comes your buttons to-morrow--do you get that?" Old John banged +the receiver onto the hook, and launched what would undoubtedly have +been a classic of denunciatory profanity, had it not been interrupted +in its inception by Jean, who had slipped into the office unnoticed at +the beginning of the telephone conversation. + +"Why, Dad!" exclaimed the girl laughing, as the red-faced man whirled +upon her in surprise. "What a beastly temper you are in this morning! +Who got away, and why are you so anxious to have him caught?" + +"Oskar got away," he growled, apparently somewhat mollified by his +daughter's tone. "Hicks started for jail with him an' Oskar knocked +him down in the alley an' got away." + +"Oskar! Jail! What do you mean?" + +"I mean just what I say," answered McNabb, meeting the girl's startled +gaze squarely. "A thirty thousand dollar sable coat is missing from +the store, and no one except Oskar and I had access to the fur safe. +He made up a cock-an'-bull story about letting you wear it Saturday to +show up Mrs. Orcutt. He claims he went to the theatre to enjoy the +effect on Mrs. Orcutt, when he discovered that you were wearing, not +the Russian sable that you had worn from the store, but a baum marten +coat. He hurried to the store to find that both the sable and the +marten coats were gone----" + +Old John noticed that as he talked the color receded slowly from the +girl's face, leaving it almost chalk white, and then suddenly the color +returned with a rush that flamed red to her hair roots. But he was +totally unprepared for the sudden fury with which she faced him. + +"And you had him arrested! Oskar arrested like a common thief! Are +you crazy? You know as well as I do that he never stole a pin----" + +"No, he never stole a pin, but there's some little difference in value +between a pin and a thirty thousand dollar coat. They say every man's +got his price." + +"It's a lie!" cried the girl, stamping her foot. "But even if it were +true, his price would be so big that there isn't money enough in this +world to even tempt him! You ought to be ashamed of yourself! Think +what people will say!" + +"I don't care what they say. He's got that coat, an' I'm right here to +see that he gets just what's comin' to him." + +"Well, what people will say won't hurt Oskar!" cried the girl. +"They'll all know he didn't steal your coat! They'll say you're a +fool! That's what they'll say--and they'll be right, too! It won't +take him long to prove his innocence, and then what will people think +of you?" + +"He ain't got a show to prove his innocence," retorted McNabb. "Your +own testimony will convict him. Didn't ye tell me right here in this +room within the hour that the coat ye brought in was the one ye wore +from the store, an' the one ye wore to the theatre?" + +"And I thought it was," flared the girl. "But if Oskar says it wasn't +then it wasn't. And let me tell you this--if you're depending on my +testimony to convict him, you might as well have him turned loose right +this minute! Because I won't say a word at their old trial. They can +put me in jail, too, but they can't make me talk. The whole thing is +an outrage, and I'm going right straight down to the jail and tell them +to let him out this minute----" + +"He's out all right," retorted McNabb. "He knocked Hicks down and +escaped on the way to jail." + +"I'm glad of it! I hope he broke that nasty old Hicks's head! And if +they catch Oskar you had better see that they let him go at +once--unless you want to see your own daughter married to a jailbird!" + + + + +XII + +It was nine o'clock that evening when, growling and grumbling, Hicks +himself moved heavily down the short corridor of the jail, and unlocked +the door of the cell that held Oskar Hedin. "Come on out!" he +commanded. + +Hedin stepped in the corridor, and looked inquiringly into the +officer's face. "What's up?" he asked. + +"Bailed out," growled Hicks. + +"Bailed out! Why, who----?" + +"I don't know, an' don't give a damn. Someone that's got more money +than brains. I wouldn't trust you as far as I could throw a bull by +the tail, an' you needn't think I've forgot the poke in the jaw you +give me. I'll git you yet." + +Hedin paused upon the steps of the police station and glanced across +the street where a light burned in the office of Hiram P. Buckner, +attorney-at-law. Buckner held the reputation of being by far the most +able lawyer in the vicinity, and Hedin's first impulse was to retain +him. He crossed the sidewalk and paused abruptly as he remembered that +Buckner was McNabb's attorney. Of course, the prosecution of his case +would be in the hands of the state, but--why jeopardize his own case by +employing a man who stood at the beck and call of the very man who was +pushing his prosecution? He turned and proceeded slowly toward his +hotel, and as he passed down the street a man stepped from the office +of the attorney and followed. He was a large man, muffled to the ears +in a fur coat. He followed unnoticed, into the hotel and up the +stairs, and when Hedin entered his room and switched on the light the +man stepped across the threshold and closed the door behind him. He +turned and faced Hedin, throwing back the collar of his coat. Hedin +gasped in amazement. The man was old John McNabb, and to his utter +bewilderment, Hedin caught a twinkle in the old Scot's eye. + + + + +XIII + +"'Tis the truth, I'd never ha' know'd ye, an' ye hadn't told me who ye +was," welcomed old Dugald Murchison, as he gripped Hedin's hand in the +door of the little trading post on the shore of Gods Lake. "Knock the +snow from your clothes an' come in to the stove. You're just in time, +for by the signs, the storm that's on us will be a three days' +nor'easter straight off the Bay. Ye'd of had a nasty camp of it if +ye'd of been a day later." + +"The guide saw it coming, and we did double time yesterday, and to-day +we didn't stop to eat." + +Murchison nodded. "Ye come in up the chain of lakes from the south. +'Tis a man's job ye've done--this time o' year. Ye come up from Lac +Seul, an' by the guide ye've got, I see the hand of John McNabb in your +visit. For old Missinabbee won't go into the woods with everyone, +though he'd go through hell itself for John McNabb. But come on in an' +get thawed out while the Injun 'tends to the dogs, an' then we'll eat." + +"Has Wentworth arrived yet?" asked Hedin, as he followed the factor +toward the stove at the rear of the trading room. + +Murchison shook his head. "Ye're the first this winter. But who's +Wentworth? An' what'll he be doin' here? An' what are ye doin' here +yourself? I suppose it had to do with John's pulp-wood, but the +options don't expire till sometime in the summer. Why didn't he come +himself?" + +It was a long story Hedin unfolded as he and Murchison sat late over +their pipes beside the roaring stove in the long, low trading room. +The factor puffed in silence without once interrupting until the +younger man had finished. + +"So John is really goin' to build a paper mill up here? But why did +John hire this Wentworth if he figured he couldn't trust him, an' why +did he have ye under arrest an' bail ye out? Unless----" + +The old factor paused and puffed at his pipe the while his eyes were +fixed upon the deep shadows at the far corner. + +"Unless what?" asked Hedin eagerly. "I thought, at first, that he +believed me guilty of stealing the coat," he went on when Murchison +didn't answer. "I know now that he didn't, but when I asked him the +reason for my arrest, he only laughed and said that it was all part of +the game." Then the younger man's voice dropped, and Murchison noted +that the look of eagerness had faded from his face. "As to the hiring +of Wentworth," continued Hedin, "that is another matter." + +The factor rose slowly and, crossing to the door, opened it and hastily +closed it again as a swirl of fine snow-powder enveloped him. Hedin +caught the muffled roar of the wind, and in the draught of cold air +that swept the room, the big swinging lamp flared smokily. Murchison +returned to his chair and filled his pipe. "How's John's daughter +comin' along?" he asked between puffs of blue smoke. + +"Why, Miss McNabb is very well, I believe," answered Hedin, a bit +awkwardly. "You were right about that storm," Hedin hastened to change +the subject. "I'm mighty glad we made Gods Lake to-day, or we would +have been held up for the Lord knows how long." + +Murchison suppressed a smile, and hunched his chair a bit nearer the +stove. "When all's said an' done then, the case stands about like +this. This engineer will be along in a few days to begin work locatin' +the power dam, an' lookin' up more pulpwood. John believes that +Wentworth will let the options expire, an' then swing the stuff over to +this man Orcutt an' his crowd--an he's sent you up to block the game." + +Hedin nodded. "That's it." + +"You're my clerk, an' your name's Sven Larson--that's a good +Scandinavian name--an' you don't know nothin' about pulp-wood, nor +options. I guess it would be best if we could put him up right here. +We could be watchin' him all the while without seemin' to." + +"I wonder when Wentworth will be here?" speculated Hedin. + +"There's no tellin'. It's accordin' to the outfit he packs an' the +guide he's got. They'll have to camp for the storm, an' the snow will +slow them up one-half. The storm will last three days or four, an' +after that, a day, mebbe a week. Anyways, 'twill give ye time to learn +the duties of a factor's clerk, which is a thing the Company has never +furnished at Gods Lake, but if John McNabb foots the bill, they'll not +worry. 'Twould be better an' ye could play the dolt--not an eediot, or +an addlepate--but just a dull fellow, slow of wit, an' knowin' nought +except of fur." + +Hedin laughed. "That won't bother me in the least." + +Murchison shook his head. "'Twill not be so easy as ye think. Askin' +foolish questions here an' there, forgettin' to do things ye're told to +do, ponderin' deep over simple matters, an' above all ye're to neither +laugh nor take offense when I berate ye for a dullard. Ye get the +idea--your knowledge of fur is your only excuse for livin'?" + +"I get it," smiled Hedin. + +Murchison studied the younger man intently. "This Wentworth--how well +did ye know him? Or, rather, how well did he know you?" + +"You are wondering whether he will recognize me?" + +The factor nodded. "Yes, I would not have known ye, for as I remember +ye wore a mustache, an' were smooth of chin an' jaw, an' of course, ye +wore city clothes. But one who had known ye well wouldn't be so easy +fooled." + +"He won't recognize me. We have met only a few times. But even if he +had known me much better I wouldn't be afraid, because when I left +Terrace City dressed in these togs, and carrying a lumberjacks' turkey +on my back, I stopped into a cigar store and inquired the way to the +station. The clerk who has seen me every day for years pointed out the +way without a flicker of recognition in his eyes--and I didn't have +this stubby beard then either." + +Murchison seemed satisfied, and after showing his new clerk to his bed, +he returned to the stove and knocked the ash from his pipe. "John is +canny," he grinned. "As canny in the handlin' of women, as of men. +He'll have the son-in-law he wants, an' careful he'll be that he's the +man of the lass's own choosin'." + + + + +XIV + +On the day after the big storm old Missinabbee returned to the +southward, and the following day Wentworth arrived at the post, cursing +his guide, and the storm, and the snow that lay deep in the forest. +The half-breed refused to stop over and rest, but accepted his pay and +turned his dogs on the back-trail. And as Murchison accepted McNabb's +letter of introduction from Wentworth's hand in the door of the post +trading room, his eyes followed the retreating form of the guide. For +he had caught a malevolent gleam of hate that flashed from the narrowed +black eyes as the man had accepted his pay. + +"Ye have not seen the last of yon," he said, turning to Wentworth with +a nod of his head toward the breed. "Alex Thumb is counted a bad man +in the North. I would not rest so easy, an' he was camped on my trail." + +Wentworth scowled. "Worthless devil! Kicked on my bringing my trunk. +Wanted me to transfer my stuff into duffle bags and carry a pack to +ease up on his dogs; and then to top it off with, he wasn't going to +let me ride on the sled. But I showed him who was boss. I hired the +outfit and believe me, I rode whenever I felt like it. He may have you +fellows up here bluffed, but not me." + +"Well, 'tis none of my business. I was only givin' ye a friendly +warnin'. Come on now till I get my glasses on, an' we'll see what +ye've got here." + +Presently he folded and returned the brief note. "An' now what can I +do for ye? Will ye be makin' your headquarters here, or will ye have a +camp of your own down on the river?" + +"I think I'll stay here if there's room. When I'm exploring the river +I can take a light outfit along." + +"There's plenty of room. There's an empty cabin beside the storehouse, +an' I'll have a stove set up, an' your things moved in. Ye'll take +your meals with me. There's only a couple of Company Injuns, an' my +clerk." Murchison paused. "Sven!" he called. "Sven Larson! Where +are ye? Come down out of that fur loft! I've a job for ye." + +Slow, heavy footsteps sounded upon the floor above, and a moment later +two feet appeared upon the ladder, and very deliberately the clerk +negotiated the descent. + +"Sven Larson, this is Mr. Wentworth. He's from the States, an' he's +goin' to live in the cabin. Take Wawake an' Joe Irish an' set up a +stove in there, an' move the stuff in that lays outside." + +Hedin acknowledged the introduction with a solemn bob of the head, and +as he stared straight into Wentworth's face he blinked owlishly. + +"This stove?" he asked, indicating the huge cannon stove in which the +fire roared noisily. + +"No! No! Ye numbskull! One of them Yukon stoves. An' be quick about +it." + +"What stuff?" + +"The stuff that lays outside the door--Wentworth's stuff, of course!' + +"In the cabin?" + +"Yes, in the cabin!" cried the factor impatiently. "Ye didn't think ye +was to put it in the stove, did ye?" + +Hedin moved slowly away in search of the Company Indians, and Wentworth +laughed. "Hasn't got quite all his buttons, has he?" he inquired. "I +should say the Company had treated you shabbily in the matter of a +clerk." + +"Well, I don't know," replied Murchison. "I could have had worse. +'Tis not to be gainsaid that he's slow an' heavy of wit in the matter +of most things, but the lad knows fur. More than forty years I've +handled fur, an' yet to-day the striplin' knows more about fur, an' the +value of fur, than I ever will know. An' then there's the +close-mouthedness of him. Ye tell him a thing, an' caution him to say +naught about it, an' no bribe nor threat could drag a word of it from +his lips. So, ye see, for the job he's got, I could scarce hope for +better." + +"I presume he knows only raw furs," said Wentworth casually. "He +could, of course, have no knowledge of the finished product." + +"An' there ye're wrong. Of his early life I know nothing except that +he's a foreigner, raised in the fur trade. He can spot topped or +pointed furs as far as he can see them, an' as for appraisin' them, he +can tell almost to a dollar the value of any piece ye could show him. +But----" + +The door opened and Murchison turned to greet a newcomer. "Hello, +Downey!" he called. "'Tis a long time since ye've favored Gods Lake +with a visit. Come up to the stove, lad, an' meet Mr. Wentworth. + +"Mr. Wentworth, this is Corporal Downey, of the Royal Northwest Mounted +Police." At the word police Wentworth started ever so slightly, but +caught himself on the instant. He searched the keen gray eyes of the +officer as he extended his hand, but if Downey noticed the momentary +trepidation he gave no sign. + +"So you're Wentworth," he remarked casually, as he swung the light pack +from his shoulders. + +"_Captain_ Wentworth." + +"Oh," Downey accorded him a slanting glance, and entered into +conversation with Murchison. + +"You knew my name, do you want to see me?" Wentworth interrupted after +a wait of several minutes. + +"No, not in particular. Only if I was you I'd beware of a dark-haired +man, as the fortune-tellers say." + +"What do you mean?" + +"I met Alex Thumb a piece back on the trail." + +"Well, what of it? What has that got to do with me?" + +"I don't know. He mentioned your name, that's all. An' I just kind of +surmised from the way he done it that you an' him didn't part the best +of friends." + +"I hired him for a guide, and he undertook to give me my orders on the +trail. But I soon showed him where he stood." + +Downey nodded. "He's counted bad medicine up here." + +"I guess he won't bother me any; I'm here to stay." + +"No, he won't be apt to _bother_ you any. Probably kill you, though, +if you don't keep your eyes open. But don't worry about that, because +if he does I'll get him." + +"He can't bluff me. I served with the engineers in Russia." + +"You'll be servin' with the devils in hell, too, if you don't quit +makin' enemies of men like Alex Thumb." + +"They didn't use up _all_ the brains, when they made the Mounted, +Captain." + +"_Corporal_'ll do me," corrected the officer. "I wasn't with the +engineers--in Russia. I was only in the trenches--in France." + +As Downey slung his pack to his shoulders the following morning he +stepped close to Murchison. The trading room was deserted save for +those two, but the officer lowered his voice. "Wentworth ain't the +only one around here that needs watchin'," he said warningly. + +"What do ye mean?" + +"I mean your clerk ain't the fool he lets on he is. That room you put +me in was next to his. The chinkin's fallen out in spots, an' his +light was lit late, so I just laid in my bunk an' glued my eye to the +crack. He was readin'--an' enjoyin' what he read. He'd lay down the +book now an' then an' light a good briar pipe. I'd get a good look +into his face then, an' he's no more a fool than you or I. He's damned +smart lookin'. An' the books he had laid out on the table wasn't books +a fool would be readin'. He was careful to hide 'em away when he +rolled in--an' he cleaned his fingernails with a white handled dingus, +an' brushed his teeth, an' put the tools back in a black leather case +that had silver trimmin's. Believe me, there's somethin' comin' off +here between now an' summer, an' I'm goin' to ask for the detail!" + +Murchison laughed. "Come on back, Downey, and you'll see the fun. An' +I ain't so sure you won't be needed in your official capacity. But +don't bother your head over Sven Larson. Remember this: it takes a +smart man to play the fool, an' play it right. That's why John McNabb +sent him up here. An' his name ain't Larson; it's Hedin. He's John's +right-hand man--an' if I mistake not someday he'll be his son-in-law." + +"Oh, I'll be back all right," grinned Downey. "I've got a hunch that +maybe I'll be needed." + +"Ye wouldn't be sorry to have to arrest Wentworth for some kind of +thievery, would ye, Downey? I could see ye distrusted him from the +moment ye laid eyes on him." + +"U-m-m-m," answered Downey. "I was thinkin' more of, maybe, bringin' +in Alex Thumb--for murder." + +A week later Murchison accompanied Wentworth upon a ten-day trip, +during the course of which they visited the proposed mill site, the +McNabb holdings, and a great part of the available pulp-wood territory +adjoining. With Murchison's help, Wentworth sketched a map of the +district that showed with workable accuracy the location of lakes and +streams, together with the location of Government and Hudson's Bay +Company lands. This done, he secured an Indian guide and proceeded to +lay out and blaze the route of the wagon road to the railway. + +By the middle of May the snow had nearly disappeared, and the first of +June saw the rivers running free of ice. It was then that Wentworth +"borrowed" Sven Larson from the factor and dropped down Gods River in a +canoe to its confluence with the Shamattawa. Camp was made at the head +of the rapids. Thereafter for five days Hedin worked under Wentworth's +direction, while the engineer ran his levels and established his +contour. In the evenings as they sat by the campfire smoking, Hedin +preserved the same stolid silence that he had studiously observed since +the coming of Wentworth. + +"Murchison says you know all about fur," Wentworth suggested one +evening. "And the finished fur? Do you know that, too--about, well, +for instance kolinsky, and nutria, and Russian sable?" + +"Kolinsky and nutria are no good. We do not have them here. Russian +sable, and sea otter, and black fox, they are the best furs in the +world. We do not have them here, either, except once in a while a +black, or a silver fox." + +"A coat of Russian sable would be very valuable?" + +"Yes. Real Russian sable, dark, and well silvered, would be very +valuable." + +"How much would one be worth?" + +"Nobody can tell unless they can see it. It is all in the matching." + +For a full minute Wentworth studied the face across the little fire, +the face with the unkempt beard, and the far-off, pondering eyes. + +"I have a Russian sable coat," ventured Wentworth. + +The factor's clerk gazed at him with unwinking blue eyes, and the head +wagged slowly. "No. Russian sable is woman's fur. They do not make +men's coats of Russian sable." + +"But this is a woman's coat," explained Wentworth. "I got it in Russia +when I was in the Army. She was a Russian princess and I helped her +escape from the country at great risk to myself. It was in the winter, +in the dead of night, and a terrible blizzard was raging. When she +safely crossed the border she thanked me with tears in her eyes and +begged me to take her coat in payment, as she had no money. I refused, +but she tossed it into my arms, and disappeared into the night." + +"Maybe she died in the storm without her coat." + +"Why, no--you see, she had--that is, I had arranged for a car--a +sleigh, I mean, to meet her there with plenty of robes. But what I +want to get at, is this. If I show you this coat will you promise not +to say a word to Murchison about it? I do not want him to know I have +it. He would want to buy it, and he is my friend and I do not want to +refuse him. But I do not want to sell the coat, because sometime I am +going to return it to its original owner. But first I should like you +to tell me what it is worth. Can you tell me that? And can you +remember never to tell Murchison that I have the coat?" + +Hedin nodded. "Yes, I can tell you how much the coat is worth when I +see it and feel it. And I will not tell Murchison. That is why I am +smart, and others are foolish. Because they tell me what they know, +and I listen, and pretty soon I know that, too. But I do not tell what +I know, and they cannot listen. So I know what they know, and they do +not know what I know, and that is why I am wise and they don't know +hardly anything at all." + +"Everything coming in, and nothing going out," laughed Wentworth. +"That's right, Sven; you've got the system. We will finish here +to-morrow, and then we will return to the post, and you can come to my +cabin, and I'll show you the fur." + + + + +XV + +Ever since the evening in camp when Wentworth had confided in him that +he had the coat, Hedin had been debating his course of procedure. His +first impulse had been to denounce Wentworth to his face, to seize the +coat and obtain the engineer's arrest. He knew that Downey expected to +return to the post--but there was Jean to consider. Jean--the girl of +his fondest dreams, who had forsaken him and fallen under the spell of +the courtly manners of the suave soldier-engineer. What would Jean +think? If she loved the man she would never believe in his guilt. She +would believe, with a woman's irrational loyalty, that he, Hedin, had +in some manner contrived to place the coat in Wentworth's possession, +and he knew that the engineer would never cease to proclaim that he had +been made the dupe of a scheming lover. The case against the man must +be plain. When Jean could be shown that Wentworth deliberately +endeavored to cheat her father, she would then believe that he stole +the coat. She would be saved from throwing herself away, and +he--Hedin's lips moved, "I will hire out to the Company, and ask to be +sent to the northern-most post they've got." + +Upon his arrival at the post, Wentworth made out two reports, one to +McNabb and the other to Orcutt, which he dispatched to the railway by a +Company Indian. Late in the afternoon, as he was polishing his +instruments in the little cabin, the figure of Sven Larson appeared in +the doorway. The engineer motioned him to enter and close the door +behind him. "Where is Murchison?" he asked, glancing through the +window toward the post. + +"He has gone in a boat with Wawake to set the fish nets." + +Without a word Wentworth stepped across the room, unlocked his trunk, +and from its depths drew the sable coat that Hedin had last seen upon +the shoulders of Jean McNabb as she walked from the store upon that +memorable Saturday. With a conscious effort he controlled himself, and +reaching out his hand took the coat and carried it to the window. He +was conscious that the engineer's eyes were fastened intently upon him +as, inch by inch, he carefully examined the garment whose every +skin--every hair, almost--was familiar to him. Still holding the coat, +he spoke more to himself than to Wentworth. "A fine piece. All good +dark Yakutsk skins. And the matching is good. Only one skin a shade +off----" + +"What's it worth?" asked Wentworth abruptly. "I don't care a damn +about the specifications. They don't mean anything to me. I knew it +was a fine garment the minute I spotted it, and I knew Hedin was lying +when he said it was a marten." + +"Hedin?" queried the clerk. "Was that the name of the princess? She +must be a fool to say this is a marten." + +"No, no! Hedin is a man. And he is a fool, all right. Fool enough to +let a damn fool girl make a fool of him----" + +Wentworth suddenly saw a blinding flash of light. He felt himself +falling; then he lay very still as a shower of little star-like sparks +flowed upward from a black abyss. + +The instant he struck, Hedin realized the folly of his act. He would +have given all he possessed to have recalled the blow. McNabb had +trusted him to carry out a carefully laid plan--and he had failed. He +remembered how the old Scot had told him frankly that Jean had fallen +in love with Wentworth, and personally, while he believed him to be a +good engineer, he wouldn't trust him out of his sight. And then he had +outlined the scheme he had laid for showing him up so that Jean would +be convinced of his crookedness. And now he had spoiled it all. + +The man on the floor stirred restlessly. The thought flashed into +Hedin's brain that there might still be a chance. If he played his +part well, it was possible. + +The next thing Wentworth knew, Sven Larson was bending over him, +bathing his face with a large red handkerchief saturated with cold +water. "What in hell happened?" muttered the man, as he brushed +clumsily at his fast discoloring eye with his hand. With the help of +the factor's clerk he sat up. "You hit me! Damn you! What did you +hit me for?" + +"I am sorry I hit you," answered Hedin heavily. "It is in here--the +thing that makes me strike." He rubbed his forehead with his fingers. +"It is like many worms crawling inside my head, when one speaks ill of +women. My eyes get hot, and the red streaks come, and then I strike. +It was such a thing that made me strike Pollak. But I had a hammer in +my hand and I looked and saw that Pollak was dead, so I ran away from +there and climbed onto the ship. I am glad I did not have a hammer in +my hand to-day." + +Wentworth regained his feet and glanced at his fast closing eye in the +bit of mirror that hung above his wash bench. "So am I," he seconded, +forcing a smile. "Where did all this happen? Who was Pollak, and +where did the ship take you?" + +"It was in London in the place of Levinski, the furrier. Pollak and I +worked for him in the sorting of skins. The ship took me to Port +Nelson. It was a Hudson's Bay Company ship, and I hired out to the +Company and they sent me here to Gods Lake. I like it here." + +"So that's it, is it? Well, now you listen to me. We'll just forget +the black eye and make a little trade. You keep still about the sable +coat, and about hitting me, and I'll keep still about your killing +Pollak. Mind you, if I should tell Murchison you had killed a man he +would send you back to London, and they would hang you." + +"Yes, they would hang me because I killed Pollak. But I do not tell +Murchison things that I know. If you do not tell him I killed Pollak, +he will not send me back to get hung." + + + + +XVI + +When John McNabb read Wentworth's report, he reached for his telephone +and called Detroit. "That you, Beekman?" he asked, recognizing the +voice of the senior partner of one of the foremost engineering firms in +the country. "How about you--all set for that Gods Lake job? Just got +the preliminary report. Everything O. K. Plenty of water, plenty of +head, and we can get it without spreading the reservoir over the whole +country. Hustle that road through as fast as you can. Hundred miles +of it--only about eight or ten miles of swamp. We can truck the +material in quicker than by shipping it clear around through the Bay +and track-lining it up the river. Few small bridges, and one motor +ferry. Make it good for heavy work. Put on men enough to complete the +road in a month at the outside. Most if it will only be clearing out +timber and stumps. As soon as the road is done we'll begin to shoot in +the cement. Get at it on the jump now, an' I'll see you in a day or +two." + +The days following the return of Wentworth and Hedin from the survey of +the rapids were busy ones at the little post on Gods Lake. For it was +the time of the spring trading, and from far and near came the men of +the outlands, bringing in their harvest of fur. + +The post flag floated gaily at the staff head, and in the broad +clearing about its base were pitched the tepees of the fur bringers. + +Each rising sun brought additional wilderness gleaners from afar, and +additional children, and many additional starving dogs. For these days +were the gala days of the Northland; days of high feast and plenty, of +boastings, and recountings, and the chanting of weird chants. + +The crudity, the primitive savagery of the scene gripped Hedin as +nothing had gripped him before. He was astonished that the setting +held for him so little of surprise. He fitted into the life naturally +and perfectly as though to the manner born. But his own astonishment +was as nothing as compared to the astonishment of Murchison, who stood +close as Hedin broke open and sorted the packs of fur. Time and again +his swift appraisal of a skin won a nod of approval from the factor, +who received the skins from his hands and paid for them in tokens of +made beaver. + +"I do not understand it," said Murchison, between puffs of his pipe, as +at the end of a day he and Hedin sat in the doorway of the trading room +and watched the yellow flames from a hundred campfires stab the black +darkness of the night, and send wavering shadows playing in grotesque +patterns upon the walls of the tepees. The harsh din of the encampment +all but drowned the factor's words, and Hedin smiled. + +"Do not understand what?" he asked. + +"'Tis yourself I do not understand. Ye've never handled raw fur, yet +in the handling of thirty packs I have not changed the rating of a +skin. By your own word, 'tis your first venture into the North, yet +since the day of your coming ye have behaved like a man of the North. +The Indians distrust a new-comer. They are slow to place confidence in +any white man. An' yet, they have accepted your judgment of fur +without question. An' a good half of them ye call by name. 'Tis a +combination unheard of, an' to be believed only when one sees it." + +"And yet it is very simple," explained Hedin. "For years I have +studied fur--finished fur--and in the study I have read everything I +could find about fur, from the habits of the animals up through their +trapping, and the handling of the skins in every step of their +preparation. And as for the Indians themselves, I have merely moved +about among them and got acquainted, as I would do in a city of white +men." + +Murchison interrupted him with a snort. "An' a thousand would try it, +an' one succeed! 'Tis no explanation ye've given at all. Ye cannot +explain it. 'Tis a something ye have that's bred in the bone. Ye're a +born man of the North--an' God pity ye for the job ye've got! Cooped +up in a store all day with the fanfare of a city dingin' your ears from +dawn till midnight, an' beyond! An' what's the good of it? When ye +might be living up here in the land that still lays as God made it. +The Company can use men like you. You could have a post of your own in +a year's time." + +For many minutes Hedin puffed at his pipe. "I am glad to hear that," +he said at length, "for I am not going back." + +"Not going back!" cried Murchison. "D'ye mean it? An' what about that +lass of John McNabb's?" + +"That lass of John McNabb's has chosen another," answered Hedin in a +dull tone. + +It was the seventh of June when Wentworth had dispatched the Indian +with the reports to McNabb and to Orcutt, and thereafter he settled +himself for three weeks of waiting. The activity at the post bored and +annoyed him. He complained of the noisy yapping of the night-prowling +dogs, cursed the children that ran against his legs in their play, and +when necessity compelled him to cross the encampment, he passed among +the tepees, obviously avoiding and despising their occupants. + +Upon the fifth or sixth day, to rid himself of annoyance, Wentworth +essayed a journey to the rapids, and because no one could be spared +from the post, he ventured forth alone. When not more than ten miles +from the post, he turned his head, as he topped a rock-ribbed ridge for +a casual survey of the broad _brule_ he had just crossed. The next +instant he brought up rigidly erect as his eye caught a swift blur of +motion far back on his trail at the opposite edge of the _brule_. He +looked again but could make out only an army of blackened stumps. +Entering the scrub with a vague sense of uneasiness, he circled among +the stunted trees and took up a position under cover of a granite +outcropping that gave him a view of his back trail. He had hardly +settled himself before a man stepped from behind a stump and struck out +rapidly upon his trail. The man was traveling light, apparently +studying the ground as he walked. Wentworth glanced about him and +noted that the rocky ridge would give the man scant opportunity for +trailing him to his position. The figure was coming up the ridge now. +As it passed a twisted pine, Wentworth got a good look into his face, +and the sight of it sent cold shivers up his spine that prickled +uncomfortably at the roots of his hair. For the face was that of Alex +Thumb, and at close range Wentworth could see that the black eyes +glittered evilly. Icy fingers gripped the engineer's heart. He felt +suddenly weak and cold. + +Raising a shaking hand to his forehead, Wentworth withdrew it wet and +glistening with sweat. His brain conjured fantastic stories of the +powers of the Indian tracker, and fearfully he scanned the rocks over +which he had come. Suddenly it occurred to him that if the man were +still upon his trail, he would have come up with him before this. +Evidently the tracker was wasting no time on the broad rocky ridge, but +taking it for granted that his quarry would proceed on his way, figured +on picking up the trail again in the softer ground of the next valley; +in which case he would soon discover his error and circle to correct +it. Discarding his pack, the terrified man swiftly descended the ridge +and crossed the _brule_ at a run. Gaining the shelter of the forest he +paused and looked back. The wide clearing was tenantless, and +regaining his breath, he resumed his flight, crashing through patches +of underbrush, and splashing through streams until, just at dusk, the +lights of the Gods Lake campfires came into view. + +Completely done up, he staggered into his cabin and, closing the door, +fell sprawling upon his bunk, where for an hour he lay while his +overtaxed muscles slowly regained their strength. Then he stood up, +lighted his candle, and proceeded to remove the record of his mad +flight from his scratched skin and torn clothing. + +That evening at supper he was surprised to find that Downey had +returned to the post. And he wondered if he only fancied that the +officer eyed him meaningly. + +He said nothing of his experience, but thereafter he was content to +remain at the post, never venturing alone beyond the boundaries of the +clearing. He became more and more nervous with the passing of the +days. One by one, he checked them off, and during the latter days of +June he spent hours pacing restlessly up and down, or making the round +of the clearing, shunned by Indian dogs and Indian children, and +ignored by their elders. And always three questions were uppermost in +his mind: Would Orcutt come? Would McNabb come? Would they both come? +And finding no answer, he would continue his restless pacing, or raise +the imaginary stakes in his game of solitaire to stupendous proportions. + +He became more and more irritable as the tension increased. The +breaking of a shoe lace called forth a flow of profanity, and when the +mainspring of his watch snapped, he hurled the instrument against the +log wall in his senseless rage. + + + + +XVII + +The morning of June 29th brought Cameron, armed with credentials which +empowered him to transact any and all business connected with the +pulp-wood holdings of the Canadian Wild Lands Company, Ltd. Murchison +introduced him to Wentworth, who insisted that the man share his cabin. + +"So you are McNabb's man?" queried Cameron with a smile, as he swung +his pack to the floor and seated himself upon the edge of a bunk. "Do +you know, we rather hoped I would not find you here." + +"Why?" asked Wentworth, returning the smile. + +"Pulp-wood has gone up since that contract was made. If the stuff were +to revert to us we could do much better with it." + +"How much better?" + +Cameron shot a keen glance at his questioner. "Well, considerably," he +answered non-committally. + +"A dollar an acre?" + +"Two of them." + +A brief silence ensued, during which Wentworth was conscious that the +eyes of the other were upon him. "Seven dollars an acre," he said. +"Pretty high, isn't it, when you consider the inaccessibility to your +markets?" + +Cameron laughed. "Inaccessibility to markets don't seem to be worrying +McNabb any. Bringing his paper mills into the woods seems to have +solved that problem. I was talking to the engineer in charge of his +road construction day before yesterday----" + +"Engineer in charge of road construction!" exclaimed Wentworth. "What +road construction--where?" + +"Why, north of here. You knew he was building a tote-road, didn't you? +I followed the blazed trail clear down to the rapids of the Shamattawa. +And he's pushing it, too--got twenty-five or thirty miles of it ready +for traffic." + +"No--I didn't know he had begun construction," admitted Wentworth. "I +knew there was to be a road--laid it out myself. But I did not know +that the work had started." + +"Well, it has, and we may as well conclude out business." + +"But the options do not expire until noon of July first." + +"No, but what is to be gained by waiting here until the last minute? +He intends to close the deal, so why not get at it? I suppose you were +provided with the necessary funds to make the initial payment?" + +Wentworth shook his head. "No," he answered. "In fact I have nothing +whatever to do with the transaction. I am an engineer sent up here to +locate the mill site, lay out the tote-road, and incidentally, to make +a survey of additional pulp-wood holdings. I am surprised to hear that +McNabb has begun construction of the road." + +Cameron stared at the man in astonishment. "What do you mean?" he +asked, "that McNabb has added the expense of road construction to the +money he put into the options, without making provision for acquiring +title to the property? That does not sound like McNabb--what I've +heard of him." + +"He has until noon of the first," reminded Wentworth. + +"Yes, but where is he? He knows the North, and the hundred-an'-one +things that can happen to upset a schedule. If I had as much invested +in this thing as he has, you may believe I would have been here with +plenty of time to spare." + +Wentworth nodded. "So would I. But in case he does not show up, what +then? The first man that offers seven dollars an acre, and is prepared +to make a substantial payment takes the property?" + +"Just so. If McNabb, or his representative, is not here on the stroke +of twelve, the day after to-morrow, with tender of a cash payment of +ten percent. of the purchase price as stipulated in his contract, then +he is out of the reckoning altogether. But why do you ask? You speak +as though there were some doubt in your mind as to McNabb's appearance?" + +"You can never tell," answered Wentworth. "He told me he would be here +himself to close the deal at the proper time. If he does not come, it +is no affair of mine, except that I should be out of a job. I need the +job, so I tipped off his chief rival capitalist as to the date of +expiration, and told him that in case for any reason McNabb fell down +on the proposition, he had better show up here at the post on the first +day of July with a big bunch of coin." He paused and grinned at +Cameron. "I was merely playing safe. If McNabb shows up, well and +good. If he don't, well and good again--I still have a job, and you +get seven dollars an acre, instead of five." + +"But will the other be here?" + +Wentworth shrugged. "That is what I have been asking myself for a +week. Will McNabb come? Will Orcutt come? Or will they both come? +In the latter case I may have let myself in for some unpleasant +complications. But I had to take a chance--to avoid taking a chance." + +Cameron laughed. "Let us hope for your sake that only one of the +parties arrives, and for my sake, that it is the rival, for the +additional two dollars an acre will mean an additional million for my +company." + + + + +XVIII + +Along toward the middle of the following afternoon Orcutt appeared at +the post, accompanied by two guides and two operatives of a detective +agency, who were ostensibly merely members of a party of three, but who +in reality were the guardians of a certain thick packet of large bills +that reposed in the very bottom of a waterproof rucksack. + +Into the trading room he stamped, cursing the black flies and +mosquitoes whose combined and persistent attack had left his face and +neck red and swollen. Hedin was behind the counter, and without a hint +of recognition Orcutt inquired the whereabouts of Wentworth. Upon +being informed that he was probably in his cabin, he turned on his heel +and stamped from the room. + +"This is a hell of a country!" he said in greeting, as Wentworth opened +his door to admit him. "The damned flies and mosquitoes just naturally +eat a man alive!" + +"It isn't so bad when you get used to it," laughed Wentworth, and +turned toward the man who had risen from his chair. "Mr. Orcutt, this +is Mr. Cameron, representative of the Canadian Wild Lands Company." + +"Wild lands is right," grinned Orcutt as he acknowledged the other's +greeting. "I never saw so much timber or so many insects in my life. +And now," he continued, meeting Cameron's eyes, "I'm a busy man, and +the sooner I get out of this God-forsaken country, the better I'll like +it. Why can't we go ahead and get the business over with?" + +"You forget, Mr. Orcutt, that the McNabb options do not expire until +noon to-morrow," Cameron answered. + +Orcutt nodded impatiently. "Yes, yes, I suppose we've got to wait. +But as far as that goes, I don't think we've got to worry any. I +always make it my business to keep an eye on the other fellow, and I +know to certainty that John McNabb will not be here. As a matter of +fact, he has mistaken the day his options expire. He believes he has +until the first of August." + +Cameron whistled. "Are you sure?" he asked incredulously. "I don't +know him personally, but his reputation for shrewdness----" + +"And ninety-nine times out of a hundred he's as shrewd as his +reputation calls for," interrupted Orcutt, "but this is the hundredth +time! He is so dead sure he is right that I don't suppose he has +examined his papers in years. John McNabb makes damned few +mistakes--I've been more than twenty years waiting for him to make this +one. And now, by God, I've got him! What do you hold the timber at?" + +"Seven dollars an acre." + +"Make it six, and I'll take it. It ought to be worth something not to +have to hunt up a buyer." + +"It is," answered Cameron. "But seven dollars is the price. In a +month--two months it will be eight." + +"About two percent down?" + +"Ten." + +"Ten percent!" raved Orcutt. "Three hundred and fifty thousand +dollars! Do you think a man takes a jaunt into the woods with any such +amount of money as that in his possession?" + +"I think you did. If not, then as you people say in the States, you +are out of luck." + +"I'll buy an option on it." + +Cameron shook his head. "No, the time has come for a sale. We can't +afford to hold timber ourselves, and as to finding purchasers, I know a +dozen men who would snap it up at seven dollars." + +"All right," growled Orcutt. "Make out your papers and I'll sign 'em. +At least, we can get the routine business all finished to-day so all +there will be left to do to-morrow noon will be to sign up and pay over +the money." + +"No harm in that," agreed Cameron. "I shall proceed at once to draw up +a contract of sale. Just a question or two will give me all the +information I need. In the first place, is the prospective purchaser +an individual or a corporation?" + +"Corporation. The Eureka Paper Company." + +"And their home office?" + +"Orcutt, Canada." + +"Orcutt? Where is Orcutt?" + +Orcutt smiled. "There isn't any--now. But there will be one as soon +as we start construction of the mill. The enterprise will be of +sufficient magnitude to necessitate a town at the mill site, and the +name of that town will be Orcutt." + +"Very good. I think that is all I need to know." + +"About the subsequent payments----" began Orcutt, but Cameron +interrupted him: + +"Let us not discuss that now. The better way will be for you to allow +me to draw up the contract, and then to-morrow morning we can go over +it, clause by clause." + +"Good idea," agreed Orcutt. "Come on, Wentworth," and leading the way +from the cabin, he spent half an hour strolling about among the tepees +viewing their owners, their _lares_, _penates_ and offspring as he +would have inspected an exhibit at a fair. Tiring of this, he led the +way to a fallen log at the edge of the clearing, and produced his cigar +case. + +"How is everything in Terrace City?" asked Wentworth, as he lighted his +cigar. + +"Oh, about as usual, I guess. Been so damned busy getting this paper +deal in shape for the last two months that I haven't had much time to +keep track of things. By the way, you remember Hedin--that clerk in +old John McNabb's fur department?" + +"Yes, I believe I do." + +"Well, old John trusted him to the limit--made a kind of a pet of +him--and what does the fellow do but slip up to the store one night and +steal a Russian sable coat, worth somewhere around thirty thousand. +Then the damned fool, instead of getting out of the country, stayed +right on the job. Of course old John missed the coat next day, and the +night watchman told of Hedin's visit to the store." + +"Did he confess?" asked Wentworth a shade too eagerly. + +"Confess nothing! He swears he's innocent. But there's nothing to it. +They've got the goods on him--everything but the coat. They can't find +that, and they never will. I got the story from Hicks, the police +chief. Old John had him arrested and he knocked Hicks down and got +away. They caught him again, and Judge Emerson fixed his bail at ten +thousand. Someone furnished the bail that same night, and Hedin has +skipped out, slick and clean. They sure put one over on McNabb--ten +thousand for bail, twenty thousand to divide between them, and McNabb +is holding the bag." + +"And we'll leave him holding the bag again," grinned Wentworth. + +"That's what we will. He's been a hard man to down. I don't mind +saying it to you, I've laid for him ever since I've been in Terrace +City, and I've never been able to get him. Several times I've thought +I had him, but he always managed to wriggle out someway. But now he +seems to have let down all of a sudden. Either his luck has deserted +him, or he has begun to break." + +"You are pretty sure he will not be here to-morrow?" + +Orcutt nodded. "Dead sure. You were right about his believing that he +has till the first of August on those options. I overheard him telling +Bronson on the golf links that he had to be in Canada on August first, +and that he would leave about the middle of July." + + + + +XIX + +After breakfast on the morning of the first of July, Orcutt and Cameron +repaired to the cabin where, with the rough pine table littered with +maps, they discussed the terms and conditions of the contract of sale. +While Wentworth, palpably nervous, paced the clearing; his eyes were +upon the trails that led into the forest, and out upon the lake, for a +sign of a canoe from the southward. + +When at last the pros and cons had all been threshed over, clauses +inserted, and clauses struck out, Orcutt drew from his pocket a heavy +gold watch, and snapping it open, detached it from its chain and laid +it upon the table between them. "Half past eleven," he announced. "I +suppose you insist upon waiting until the uttermost minute ticks to its +close." + +"Yes," answered Cameron. "McNabb's options hold good until twelve +o'clock." + +"I am anxious to get back," said Orcutt, offering his cigar case, "but +I don't want to return without having a look at the mill site. How far +is it from here?" + +"About forty miles. If you leave here right after noon you will make +it before noon to-morrow." + +"I'll do it, and return the following day." + +The two men smoked with their eyes upon the minute hand that slowly +crept toward twelve. Now and then Cameron's glance strayed through the +window toward the trading post, as though he half expected to see John +McNabb step to its door. + +"Twelve o'clock!" announced Orcutt, in a voice that held a ring of +triumph. "And I don't mind telling you that, sure as I was that McNabb +would not be here, I am breathing easier now than I was two minutes +ago." + +Leaning forward, Cameron verified the announcement, and dipping the pen +in ink, he signed the contract and passed the instrument across to +Orcutt, who hastily affixed his signature. Then from the fat bundle +upon which his elbow had rested, the banker removed the wrapping and +counted out three hundred and fifty thousand dollars in gold +certificates of five- and ten-thousand dollar denominations. Cameron +recounted, and receipted for the money, and after depositing it in his +pocket he extended his hand. "I congratulate you, Mr. Orcutt, upon +your purchase, and trust that you have launched upon an enterprise that +will prove immensely profitable to yourself and your associates. But +for the life of me, I cannot understand McNabb's failure to put in an +appearance." + +Orcutt's eyes flashed. "Nor can I, except on the theory that he is +breaking--losing his grip on affairs. For years we have been business +rivals, and for years I have tried to get the upper hand of him, but +until this moment I have always failed. It will be a different story +from now on," he added vindictively. "Never again will he have the old +confidence, the nerve and sureness that has been his chief asset. John +McNabb is done. But I'm wasting time. I should right now be on my way +to the mill site." + +"You will wait for dinner?" + +"No. We can eat as we travel," he answered impatiently. "Good-by!" +And stepping to the door, he called to Wentworth and the guides and +plainclothes-men who waited beside the door. + +"Come on! We strike out at once for the mill site. The deal is +closed, and we're wasting time. We've got a forty mile hike ahead of +us! We'll snatch a lunch later. By the way, Cameron, you may not be +here when I return, so I will inform you now that until further notice +Mr. Wentworth will be our accredited representative in the field. If +anything should come up that needs my attention, take it up with him." + +"Just put it on paper, Mr. Orcutt," advised the canny Scot, and with a +show of impatience Orcutt scribbled the memorandum. + +"Where are we going?" asked Wentworth. + +"To the mill site. I want to look it over and return here by the day +after to-morrow. All ready?" + +The guides swung their packs to their backs and struck into the timber, +followed closely by the others of the party. + +The following day, Orcutt and Wentworth stood at the head of the rapids +and Orcutt listened as the engineer, with the aid of his field notes +and maps, explained the construction of the dam, and roughly indicated +the contour of the reservoir. "But what's this line--the dotted one, +that crosses the river just above us?" + +"That is our western property line. It crosses about a mile above +here, and we are standing about the same distance above the mill site." + +"Do you mean that we own only a mile of timber on the big river above +this point?" + +"Just about a mile. Our property runs a long way up Gods River, and +both sides of the Shamattawa below the dotted line." + +Orcutt studied the map for a moment. "Who owns the land above here?" +he asked sharply. + +"The Hudson's Bay Company on the north side, and the Government on the +south." + +"Well, what in hell is to prevent someone--McNabb, for instance--from +buying up that land and starting operations above us? Even if they +didn't put in a dam they could raise the devil with us by driving their +stuff through. John McNabb knows every trick of the logging game, and +when he finds out what has happened he'll go the limit to buck us." + +Wentworth considered. "I guess he could do that, all right. We would +have to let his stuff through--" + +"I'll fix him!" cried Orcutt. "I'll beat him to it! Where do we do +business with the Government and the Hudson's Bay Company?" + +"With the Government in Ottawa, and the Company in Winnipeg." + +"Hell's bells!" cried Orcutt. "That means we'll be gallivanting all +over Canada for the next week or ten days. Well, it can't be helped. +I know John McNabb well enough not to leave any loop-hole for him to +take advantage of." He called to the guides. "Hey, you Injuns! +What's the quickest way to the railroad?" + +The guides pointed due north. "Mebbe-so wan hondre mile," announced +one. + +"But," cried Wentworth, "we're going back by way of the post, aren't +we?" + +"We're going to hit for the railway the quickest way God will let us!" + +"But, I--I left something--that is, I have nothing to travel in but +these field clothes, and they're shockingly soiled and tattered." + +"Soiled and tattered--hell! What's that got to do with saving years of +trouble at the mill? Maybe you ain't as pretty as you'd like to +be--but, you've got enough on so they can't arrest you----" + +Wentworth felt a decidedly uncomfortable thrill at the word "arrest." +He was thinking of a certain Russian sable coat that lay in his trunk +at the cabin, and guarded from prying eyes by only a flimsy trunk lock. +He thought, also, of Downey--and wondered. He would have given much to +have returned to that cabin, but a single glance into Orcutt's face +stilled any thought of further objection, and he reluctantly acquiesced. + +"We can follow the line of the tote-road," he said. "I blazed it to +the railway, and by the way, Cameron said that McNabb had already +started construction--had twenty or thirty miles of it completed +several days ago." + +"Started construction?" cried Orcutt. "Construction of what?" + +"The tote-road. He figured it would be quicker and cheaper to haul his +material for the mill in from the new railway than to ship by boat +around through the Bay to Port Nelson, and then drag it up the river by +scow." + +"And you mean to say he's started the work? Laid out good money on top +of what his options cost him--and forgot to take up the options?" + +"That's just what he's done, according to Cameron." + +Orcutt burst out laughing. "We'll let him go ahead and build the +road," he cried. "Every dollar he puts in will be ninety cents saved +for us. It may be two or three weeks before he finds out that he has +lost the timber, and possibly the road will be completed by that time. +Then I'll buy it in for almost nothing. McNabb has certainly gone +fluie! And in the meantime we will use his road to haul in our own +material. I'll wire Strang to begin hustling the stuff through." + + + + +XX + +After watching Orcutt depart, Cameron folded his maps and his papers +and walked around to the trading room where Murchison and his clerk +were comparing the skins of a silver gray and a black cross fox. + +The clerk greeted him with a smile. "Just the man I wanted to see, Mr. +Cameron. In fact I was about to go in search of you." + +Cameron stared at him in surprise. During the day or two he had spent +at the post, he had come to regard the clerk as a stupid, morose +individual, whose only excuse for existence, as Murchison had said, was +his knowledge of fur. But here was this unkempt clerk actually +smiling, and addressing him as a man of affairs. He glanced +inquiringly at Murchison before replying. "And why should you go in +search of me?" + +"As accredited representative of the Canadian Wild Lands Company, I +have business to transact with you." Hedin stepped forward and +extended a paper. "I represent John McNabb." + +"John McNabb!" cried Cameron, staring at him as though he had taken +leave of his senses. "You mean----" + +Hedin interrupted him, speaking crisply. "I mean that this paper, as +you will note, is a power of attorney which gives me authority to +transact any and all business for Mr. McNabb, concerning the purchase +of certain pulp-wood lands." + +"Dut, man!" cried Cameron excitedly. + +Ignoring the interruption, Hedin continued. "And I hereby, in the +presence of Mr. Murchison, tender payment of ten percent, of the +purchase price, as provided in the terms of the option contract." + +"But you're too late!" roared Cameron. "McNabb's options expired at +noon! The land has been sold and payment accepted! Good Lord, man! +Do you mean that McNabb sent you up here to close the deal, and you +deliberately neglected to attend to it until the options had expired?" + +"Too late?" smiled Hedin. "What do you mean, too late? The options do +not expire until noon," he paused and glanced up at the clock that +ticked upon the wall, "and it still lacks twenty-five minutes of +twelve." + +Cameron stared at the clock. "It is a trick!" he cried. "You turned +the clock back! What time have you, Murchison?" + +The factor meticulously consulted his watch. "Twenty-four minutes to +twelve," he announced. + +"You are into it, too!" + +Murchison smiled. "Look at your own watch," he suggested. "What time +have you got?" + +Cameron drew out his timepiece and stared at it blankly. "He laid his +watch on the table between us," he said in a bewildered tone, "and not +until the hands reached twelve were the papers signed and the money +paid." + +"What do you mean?" asked Hedin. "The papers signed, and the money +paid?" + +"Why Orcutt, president of the Eureka Paper Company, bought the land +after McNabb's options expired. Wentworth is his representative." + +"But McNabb's options have not expired," insisted Hedin. "His payment +has been tendered in the presence of a witness before the time of their +expiration. Any sale or contract entered into with Orcutt or anyone +else concerning title to these lands is, of course, void." + +Cameron continued to stare at his watch. "I do not understand it," he +muttered. + +"I think I do," offered Hedin. "Was it Orcutt's watch you consulted?" + +"Yes, he laid it on the table, and we watched the hands mark off the +time." + +"And you were an hour fast! Orcutt carried Terrace City time, which is +an hour faster than standard. It is the so called daylight saving plan +adopted by many cities and villages in the United States by act of +council. All that, of course, has no bearing on McNabb's options, so +there is nothing for you to do but accept payment and return Orcutt his +money." + +"But you were here all the time!" cried Cameron. "And you must have +known what was going on. Why didn't you make yourself known? Why did +you let me go ahead with Orcutt? We could have had the business over +and done with two days ago--and no complications." + +Hedin laughed. "You will have to take that up with Mr. McNabb. I was +following out instructions to the letter. And those instructions were +very specific about not closing the deal within half an hour of the +expiration of the options." + +"But what was his idea?" + +"As I said before, you will have to ask him. He had a reason, you may +be sure. I have noticed in my association with John McNabb that there +is generally a reason for the things that he does--though in many +instances the reason is beyond me." + +Cameron's exasperation at the sudden turn of events subsided. He even +managed a smile. "He was within his rights," he admitted, "and as you +say, he must have had a reason. But I don't understand it. Wentworth +was McNabb's man too--until he swung over to Orcutt. Yet he never +suspected you were anything but Murchison's clerk." + +Hedin laughed. "The reputation of being a fool doesn't hurt anyone. +It is rather an advantage at times." + +"You have played your part well," admitted Cameron. "And McNabb has +played his part well--whatever that part is. Orcutt said he was losing +his grip, was in his dotage. Well, he will not be the first man that +has had to change his mind. He has gone to inspect the mill site and +will return day after to-morrow. Wentworth accompanied him. I imagine +we will have an interesting half-hour when they find out that the deal +is off." + +The formalities of payment were soon over with, and the moment they +were completed, Hedin despatched a messenger with a telegram to his +employer. + +When John McNabb received the message he grinned broadly, and for +several minutes sat at his desk and stabbed at his blotter with his +pencil point. "So, Orcutt, Wentworth & Company set out to down poor +old John McNabb," he muttered. "I kind of figured rope was all +Wentworth wanted to hang himself with--an' rope's cheap. But Orcutt +an' his Eureka Paper Company--now he must have gone to quite a little +bother, first an' last, an' some expense. Too bad! But I won't worry +about that--he ought to 'tend to his bankin'. Guess I'll be startin' +North in about ten days." + +A week later McNabb got another wire from the engineer in charge of his +road construction. As he read and reread it, a slow smile trembled +upon his lips and widened into a broad grin. + +"Sixty-five miles of road completed. Eureka Paper Company cement and +material piling up at road head. Have their own trucks. Shall we let +them use road?" + +The grin became an audible chuckle. "I don't understand it. Orcutt +must have cleared out so quick he don't know the deal is off." Then he +called a messenger and sent two telegrams. The first in answer to the +one just received. + +"Double your force and hurry road to completion in shortest possible +time. Allow all Eureka Paper Company goods to be delivered as fast as +received. Facilitate delivery same to mill site in every way possible." + +The other telegram was to the home office of the engineering firm and +read: + +"Hold off on purchase of material for mill until further notice. +Writing full particulars." + +Then he closed his desk and went home where, a few minutes later, his +daughter found him packing his outfit in a well worn duffle bag. + + + + +XXI + +Ever since Jean's outburst of passion upon the day of Hedin's arrest, a +certain constraint had settled upon father and daughter that amounted, +at times, to an actual coldness. Neither had mentioned the name of +Hedin in the other's hearing, but each evening at dinner, which was the +only meal at which they met, the studied silence with which the girl +devoted herself to her food bespoke plainer than words that the thought +of him was never out of her head. + +So it was with some measure of surprise that Old John looked up from +his packing at the girl's question: "Where are you going, Dad?" + +"North, into Canada. I've business there that needs my attention." + +"Will you take me with you?" + +"Take ye with me!" he cried in astonishment. "An' what would ye be +doin' in the wild country, with the black flies an' mosquitoes in the +height of their glory. They'd eat ye alive! An' the trailin'--why, +ye've never been outside a town in ye're life!" + +"And that is just why I want to go outside one!" answered the girl. +"Please, Dad, take me with you. I can keep up on the trail, really I +can. Don't I play golf, and tennis, and paddle a canoe, and do +everything that anyone can do to keep themselves in shape? I bet right +now I can walk as far as you can in the woods or out of the woods. And +as for flies and mosquitoes, they won't eat me any worse than they will +you, and if worse comes to worst, I can plaster myself with that smelly +old dope you carry in that bottle--but I'd almost rather be eaten." + +Old John grinned. "Well, I don't know. Maybe the trip would do ye +good. An' when ye get there ye may not find it so dull. Wentworth is +there an' he'll prob'ly show ye around." + +"I don't need Captain Wentworth to show me around," she replied, and +McNabb was not slow to note her tone. "Of all people I ever met, I +think he's the biggest bore! I don't see what you hired him for." + +Old John stared at her in amazement. "Why, it was on your own +recommendation--that, an' the fact that I found out he done some really +good work on the Nettle River project. But you asked me in so many +words to give him a job!" + +"Well, if I did, I was an idiot," she replied. "And I guess you'll +wish you never hired him. You'll find you've made a grand mess of +things!" A high-pitched, nervous quality had crept into the girl's +voice, and McNabb saw that she was very near to tears. "Do you know +what they're saying?" she cried. "They're saying that Oskar has jumped +ten-thousand-dollar bail that some friend put up for him! They're +liars, and I hate them! Wherever he is, he'll come back at the proper +time. He'll show them--and he'll show you, too!" With an effort, the +girl steadied her trembling voice. "And when he does come back, he'll +find he's got one friend--and I'll--I'll make up for the rest. I'm +going to get ready now. I want to get away from it all. When do we +start?" + +"To-night," answered old John, "on the late train." And when the door +closed behind his daughter, he grinned and winked at himself in the +mirror. + +When old John McNabb and his daughter stepped off the sagging +combination coach at the siding which was the northern end of the new +tote-road, the first man they saw was Orcutt, resplendent in striped +mackinaw, Stetson hat, and high-laced boots. As the banker came toward +them, McNabb stared about him in evident perplexity, his glance +shifting from the piles of tarpaulin-covered material, to the loaded +trucks that with a clash and grind of gears were just pulling out upon +the new tote-road that stretched away between the tall balsam spires to +the southward. + +"Hello, John," Orcutt greeted, lifting his Stetson in acknowledgment of +the presence of Jean. "Well, what do you think of it?" + +McNabb continued to stare about him. "I don't seem to quite get the +straight of it," he said slowly. "Eureka Paper Company," he read the +legend emblazoned upon the trucks and tarpaulins scattered all over the +foreground. "What does it mean, Orcutt? An' what in the devil are you +doin' here? An' what business have those trucks got on my tote-road?" + +Orcutt laughed, a nasty, gloating laugh, as he rubbed his hands +together after the manner of one performing an ablution. "It means, +John," he answered, in a voice of oily softness, "that at last I have +caught you napping. The Eureka Paper Company is my company, and the +pulp-wood that you held options on is my pulp-wood. I've been waiting +a long time for this day--more than twenty years. It's only fair to +give the devil his due, John--you've been shrewd. Time and again I +almost had you, but you always managed somehow to elude me. There have +been times when I could have murdered you, gladly. It wouldn't have +been so bad if you had gloated openly when you put one over on me, but +your devilish way of apparently ignoring the fact--of acting as though +outwitting me were too trifling an occurrence to even notice, at times +has nearly driven me crazy--that, and that damned secret laughter I see +in your eyes when we meet. Oh, I've waited a long time for my day--but +now my day has come! And to think how nearly I missed it! I go back +in an hour on the same train that brought you in." + +McNabb had listened in silence to the tirade. "But I--I don't +understand it. My options----" + +"Your options," interrupted Orcutt, and his voice rasped harsh, +"expired at noon on the first day of July. At one minute past twelve +on that day, the property passed into the hands of the Eureka Paper +Company of which I am president. I signed the contract and paid over +the money myself at Gods Lake Post." + +"Was it July?" mumbled McNabb, apparently dazed. "But--there was +Wentworth. He had the papers. Surely he must have known." + +Orcutt laughed. "Yes. Wentworth knew. He knew the day you hired him. +And he knew that you thought you had until the first of August. It was +Wentworth that tipped the deal off to me." + +"But--why should he have double-crossed me?" + +"Mere matter of business," replied Orcutt. "Figure it out for +yourself. If he stayed with you the best he could expect would be a +fair salary. With us he was in position to dictate his own terms. +They were stiff terms, too, for Wentworth is shrewd. But he has been +worth all he cost. He is now secretary of the Eureka, and a very +considerable stockholder." + +McNabb was silent for what seemed a long time. When at length he +spoke, it was in a voice that sounded dull and tired. "But, Orcutt, +the tote-road is mine. I built it. It cost me a hundred thousand +dollars--that road did. If you hold the property the road is no good +to me, and it is valuable to you. Will you buy it?" + +"Sure, I'll buy it. I'll buy it for just what I figure it is worth to +me. It cost you a thousand dollars a mile. It's worth a hundred to +me. Ten thousand dollars is my limit. Take it or leave it. Ten cents +on the dollar, John; you may as well save what you can out of the +wreck." + +"Is that the best you can do by me? Man, it's robbery! I can't afford +to lose ninety thousand. It'll cripple me. An' I stood to make a +million!" + +"Cripple you, eh? Well, it won't hurt my feelings to see you limping. +That's the very best we can do. You better take it, and go back to +selling your thread. You're getting too old for real business, +John--you're done!" + +McNabb nodded slowly. "Aye, maybe ye're right, maybe ye're right." +The voice sounded old, tired. "I'll let ye know in a few days, Orcutt. +Now that I'm up here I think I'll slip down for a visit with my old +friend Murchison. He's the factor at Gods Lake. We were boys +together, an' together we worked for the Company. He's a friend a man +can trust. An' I feel the need of a friend. Ye'll not begrudge us a +ride down on one of ye're trucks, will ye, Orcutt?" + +Before Orcutt could reply Jean, who had been a silent listener to all +that had passed, leaped forward and faced Orcutt with blazing eyes. +"You sneak!" she cried. "And all the time I thought you and Mrs. +Orcutt were my friends! And all the time you were lying in wait to +ruin an old man! You couldn't fight him in the open! You were afraid! +But my father is used to fighting men--not cowardly thieves! And as +for riding in one of your trucks, I would die first!" She turned to +McNabb. "Come on, Dad, we'll walk!" + +"But, daughter, it's a hundred miles!" + +"I don't care if it is five hundred miles! I'll walk, or crawl if I +have to, rather than accept anything from that--that rattlesnake! See, +there is a little store. We can lay in some provisions for the trip +and it will be loads of fun. It will remind you of your old days in +the North." + +The girl took his arm, and the two turned abruptly away, leaving Orcutt +standing in his tracks watching their departure with somewhat of a grin. + +As they came out of the store with bulging pack sacks, they saw him +step into the stuffy coach, and a moment later they watched the wheezy +little engine puff importantly down the track. Then, side by side they +stepped onto the tote-road and were swallowed up between the two walls +of towering balsams and spruces. + +A mile farther on, a Eureka truck passed them, and the girl, scorning +the driver's offer of a lift, brushed its dust from her clothing as +though it were the touch of some loathsome thing. + +That night they camped on a little hardwood knoll beside a stream, well +back from the road. Old John seemed to have regained his usual +spirits, and to her utter astonishment the girl surprised a grin upon +his face as he put up the shelter. He built a fire, and producing hook +and line from his pocket, jerked half a dozen trout from the water, +which were soon sizzling in the pan from which rose the odor of frying +bacon. + +"Do you know, Dad," began the girl, after the dishes had been washed +and the man had thrown an armful of green bracken upon the fire to +smudge away the mosquitoes. "Do you know I think you are simply +wonderful?" She was leaning against his knee, and her eyes looked into +his. + +"Tush, girl, what ails ye?" said the man, removing his pipe to send a +cloud of blue smoke to mingle with the gray of the smudge. + +"I mean it, Daddy, dear. You are just wonderful. Oh, I know how +disappointed you are. I know just how it hurts to have a man like +Orcutt get the best of you. I saw it in your face." + +"Did Orcutt see it, d'ye think?" + +"Of course he did--and he just gloated." + +"U-m-m," said McNabb, and his lips twitched at the corners. + +"And on top of all that you can smile!" + +"Yup, isn't it funny? I can even grin." + +"But, Dad, will it--ruin you? Not that I care a bit, about the money. +We can be just as happy, maybe happier, without it. I'm not the little +fool you think I am. I have always spent a lot of money because I had +it to spend, but if we didn't have it, I could be just as happy making +what little I did have go as far as it could. Maybe we'll have to come +up here and live in a cabin. I love the North already, and I've hardly +seen it. We could have a cabin in the woods, and get some furniture +when we could afford it, and then we could arrange it so cozily. +Really, I would be crazy about it. And we could have trout every day, +and wild ducks, and venison. If we could afford a screened porch we +could eat and sleep on it, and in the living room we could have a +table----" + +"Good Lord, girl, arrangin' furniture again!" cried old John. "An I'd +come home some night an' break my neck before I could find the +matchbox. If we was to live in a cabin I'd spike the stuff to the +floor! But--maybe it won't be so bad as all that." + +"I've been hateful to you of late, Dad, because of--of Oskar. But +really, you made an awful mistake. I should think you would know that +he couldn't have taken that coat. It isn't in him!" + +"I never said he ate it," grinned the man. + +"Oh, don't joke about it! Dad, I love Oskar. He's--oh, he's +everything a man should be, and it hurts me so to have them saying he +is a thief. He isn't a thief! And the time will come when he will +prove it. Promise me, Dad, that when he does prove it, you will make +every effort in your power to right the wrong you have done him." + +Old John's hand rested for a moment upon the girl's head. "I promise +all that, girl. Surely ye know I can be just. If it is as ye say, +I'll more than make it up to him. I promise ye, his name shall not +suffer." + +"I love you, Dad. I know you are just--but you're a hard-hearted old +Scot, just the same. You don't make many mistakes, but you have made +two--about Oskar, and about hiring that Wentworth. I told you you'd be +sorry." + +"Well, maybe ye're right," and John McNabb never blinked an eye. + +"See, didn't I just say you were hard-headed? You won't admit you made +a mistake even after what Orcutt told you to-day. But tell me +honestly, Dad, are you ruined?" + +"Well, we won't worry about that, lass. D'ye hear the hoot-owl? I +like to hear them of nights. I found one's nest once an' I took the +three eggs out an' slipped them under a hen that Mother McFarlane had +settin'. It was at Long Lake post, Mother McFarlane was the factor's +wife, an' I was his clerk. The eggs had been sat on a long time an' +they hatched out before the hen eggs. Ye should have seen Mother +McFarlane's face when she caught sight of them chickens! It was one of +the best jokes I ever made." + +"And here you ought to be as solemn as an owl yourself, and you are +talking of jokes. I don't understand you at all." + +"Maybe I should be an owl. D'ye notice in the stories, they make the +Scots say, 'hoot'? But about Wentworth, now. If we should meet up +with him, don't let on ye know anything about my deal with Orcutt. +Treat him nice an' pleasant----" + +"After what he has done to you?" cried the girl, her eyes flashing. + +"Just so. Be nice an' friendly to him--d'ye know what a poker face is?" + +"Why, of course! Everybody plays poker in Terrace City." + +"Mind ye, ye're settin' in a big game right now----" + +"You mean," cried the girl, "that there's a chance? A chance to beat +Orcutt yet? Oh, if you only could!" + +"Well, we're still settin' in the game--me an' you, daughter. An' +let's don't neither one of us throw down our hand till after the draw." + + + + +XXII + +Toward evening of the fourth day after leaving the railway, the two +stepped into the broad clearing that surrounded the Gods Lake post. + +"Oh, real Indians!" cried Jean, as she caught sight of the dozen or +more tepees that were pitched between the lake and the low log trading +post. + +"Aye, real Injuns, lass--an' good it is to see them again. It will be +the remnant of the spring tradin'. 'Tis about over now, but always +there's some of the Injuns will hang around the post all summer." + +"They're cooking over open fires, and look, there comes one from the +lake with some fish! Oh, don't you just love it?" + +They were crossing the clearing, and old John glanced at his daughter +with approval. "Aye, I love it. An' proud I am that you love it, too. +Ye've taken to the North like a duck takes to water. Ye've trailed +like a real sourdough, an' never a word of the hard work an' the +discomfort. 'Tis born in ye, lass--the love of the bush--an' I'm glad. +I've come to know ye better the last four days than I have in +twenty-one years of school, an' dancing an' all the flibberty-jibbitin' +nonsense ye carry on." + +They had reached the door of the trading room, and the man interrupted +her laughing reply. "Wait ye here a minute while I see if Dugald is +inside." + +Oskar Hedin paused in the act of putting the finishing touches on the +edge of his belt ax, and as John McNabb entered the room, he rose +hastily to meet him. + +"Where's Murchison?" asked the newcomer, and Hedin noted that no +slightest hint of recognition flickered in his employer's eyes. + +Repressing the desire to laugh, he answered in the slow, dull-witted +manner of Sven Larsen. "He is in there," pointing to the door of the +factor's room. + +"Tell him to come out here," commanded McNabb brusquely. + +"Do you want to see him?" + +"What in the devil d'ye think I'm waitin' here for? Hurry, now, an' +don't be standin' there gawpin'." + +Hedin grinned broadly as he entered Murchison's door, and a moment +later McNabb's hands were gripped by the two hands of the factor. +"It's glad I am to see ye, John. An' how does it feel to get home once +more?" + +"Ye'll be knowin' yourself how it feels to a man that's been thirty +years out of the bush. But where's Hedin?" + +"He'll be here directly," answered Murchison. "John, I want ye to meet +my clerk, Sven Larsen. He's the best clerk I ever had." + +McNabb glanced into the bearded face that blinked stupidly at him. "Ye +haven't be'n over favored with clerks, I'd say, Dugald. But how are ye +fixed for quarters?" + +Murchison laughed. "I guess we can rig up a bunk for ye, John." + +"It ain't myself I was thinkin' about. It's the lass. She's had four +pretty hard days on the trail, an' she'd be the better for a +comfortable bunk." + +"The lass!" exclaimed Murchison. + +"Jean! Here!" Strong fingers gripped McNabb's arm, and he stared in +astonishment into the face of Sven Larsen. The loose-lipped, vapid +expression was gone, and the blue-gray eyes stared into his own with +burning intensity. + +"You don't mean----? Why, Oskar lad!" + +"Sh--sh. But she mustn't know! Promise me--both of you! She will be +going to bed early, and after supper I'll see you at the landing." + +McNabb studied the face quizzically. "Ye fooled me, all right, but I'm +doubtin' ye can fool Jean." + +"At least, I can try," answered the clerk. "I'll see you at supper," +and without waiting for a reply, he ascended the ladder that led to the +fur loft. + +"Where is the lass? Fetch her in, John." Murchison's eyes twinkled as +he stepped closer. "He thinks he's lost her," he whispered. "But tell +me, John, d'ye think the lass cares for this damned Wentworth?" + +"Who can say?" grinned McNabb. "'Twill not be long now till we can see +for ourselves," and stepping to the door he called Jean, who was trying +to make friends with a group of Indian children. + +"She'll have my room," said Murchison, as he followed McNabb to the +door. "An' no bunk, either, but a brass bed that I bought in Winnipeg +out of respect for my old bones an' the weakening flesh that covers +'em. You an' me will pitch a tent, an' 'twill be the first time in +many years, John, we've slept under canvas together." + +The next moment he was welcoming the girl with a deference he would +have scarce accorded to royalty. + + + + +XXIII + +Supper over, McNabb left Jean to be entertained by Murchison, and +strolled down to the landing to join Hedin. "Well, how's everything +comin'?" he asked, as he seated himself beside the clerk upon a damaged +York boat. + +"I wired you that the deal was closed, and the pulp-wood is safe. But +there have been complications that you could never suspect." + +"So?" + +"Yes. In the first, you were dead right about Wentworth--about not +trusting him. And you knew who he expected to let in on the deal?" + +"Why, Orcutt, of course," replied McNabb. "I know all about that. +That's why I told ye to hold off till the last minute about closing." + +"But you couldn't have foreseen that Orcutt wouldn't bother to set his +watch back, or that they would use his watch in concluding their deal." + +McNabb shook his head. "No, an' I don't know yet what ye're talkin' +about. All I know is, that Orcutt thinks he has got title to the +pulp-wood. We met him back at the railway, an' he took pains to tell +me about it. What puzzles me is, how did ye work it so that after two +weeks have gone by he still thinks he owns the timber?" + +"I didn't work it. He came up here on the twenty-ninth and waited +around until the first of July. Then he and Cameron went over to the +shack and concluded the deal, using Orcutt's watch, which was Terrace +City time--an hour fast. Then Orcutt and Wentworth hit straight for +the mill site, saying they were coming back in two days. Half an hour +later I called Cameron's attention to the error in time and took up the +options for you. After the papers were signed he decided to wait for +the return of Orcutt and Wentworth. But they didn't return. He waited +for a week, and then went to look for them. They haven't shown up yet." + +Old John was chuckling aloud. "An' the Eureka Paper Company's stuff is +rollin' down my tote-road as fast as they can unload it." + +"Do you mean they've started to haul the material for their mill?" + +"Aye, not only material but machinery." + +"But what's become of Cameron?" + +"Losh, lad, I don't even know the man. We won't worry about him." + +"But why did you want to put off the closing till the last minute?" + +McNabb grinned. "Why did you let Jean wear the sable coat?" he asked +in return. "'Twas only to string Orcutt along, thinkin' he had me +bested till the last minute--then bring him up with a jolt. I didn't +know it would work out so lucky for me." + +"How do you mean--lucky?" + +"You wait an' see," grinned McNabb. "D'ye know, Orcutt offered me ten +thousand dollars for my tote-road? An' it cost me a hundred thousand!" + +A long silence followed McNabb's words, during which Hedin cleared his +throat several times. The older man smoked his pipe, and cast covert +glances out of the tail of his eye. Finally he spoke. "What's on +ye're mind, lad? Speak out." + +Hedin hesitated a moment and plunged into the thing he had dreaded to +say. "Mr. McNabb, I've been up here several months now--" he +hesitated, and as the other made no comment, proceeded. "I have come +to like the country. It--I don't think--that is, I don't want to go +back to Terrace City. You can understand, can't you? You have lived +in the North. I wasn't born to be a clerk. I hate it! My father was +a real man. He lived, and he died like a man. This is a man's +country. I am going to stay." Hedin had expected an outburst of +temper, and had steeled himself to withstand it. Instead, Old John +McNabb nodded slowly as he continued to puff at his pipe. + +"So ye're tired of workin' for me. Ye want to quit----" + +"It isn't that. I would rather work for you than any man I ever knew. +You have been like a father to me. You will never know how I have +appreciated that. I know it seems ungrateful. But the North has got +me. I never again could do your work justice. My heart wouldn't be in +my work. It would be here." + +"An' will ye keep on workin' for Murchison? What will he pay ye?" + +"It isn't the pay. I don't care about that. I have no one but myself +to think of. And Murchison said that with my knowledge of fur the +Company would soon give me a post of my own." + +"But--what of the future, lad?" + +Hedin shrugged. "All I ask of the future," he answered, and McNabb +noted just a touch of bitterness in the tone, "is that I may live it in +the North." + +"H-m-m," said McNabb, knocking the ashes from his pipe, "I guess the +North has got ye, lad. An' I'm afraid it's got Jean. The lass has +been rantin' about it ever since we left the railway. But--who is +that? Yonder, just goin' into the post? My old eyes ain't so good in +the twilight." + +"Wentworth!" exclaimed Hedin, leaping to his feet. "Come on! The time +has come for a showdown!" + +Hedin's voice rasped harsh, and McNabb noticed that the younger man's +fists were clenched as he laid a restraining hand upon his arm. "Take +it easy lad," he said. "Maybe it's better we should play a waitin' +game." + +"Waiting game!" cried Hedin. "I've been playing a waiting game for +months--and I'm through. Good God, man! Do you think my nerves are of +iron? I love Jean--love her as it is possible for a man to love one +woman. I have loved her for years, and I will always love her. And +I've lost her. That damned cad with his airs and his graces has won +her completely away. But, by God, he'll never have her! I'll show him +up in his true colors----" + +"An' with him out of the way, lad, ye'll then----" + +"With him out of the way she'll despise me!" interrupted Hedin. "She +will never marry him out of loyalty to you, when she finds out he has +tried to knife you. I haven't told you all I know--when he falls, +he'll fall hard! But I know what women think, and I know she'll +despise me for disguising myself and spying on him." + +"If ye know what women think, lad, ye're the wisest man God has yet +made, an' as such I'm proud to know ye." + +"It is no time to joke," answered Hedin bitterly. "That's a thing I've +never been able to fathom, why you always joke in the face of a serious +situation, and then turn around and raise hell over some trivial matter +that don't amount to a hill of beans." + +McNabb grinned. "Do I?" he asked. "Well, maybe ye're right. But +listen, lad, I know ye've regard for me, an' I'm askin' as a personal +favor that ye hold off a bit with your denouncement of yon Wentworth. +Just play the game as ye've been playin' it. Keep on bein' Sven +Larsen, the factor's clerk, heavy of wit, an' able with fool questions. +Ye've a fine faculty for actin'; for all durin' supper the lass never +suspected ye. Keep it up for a while; it won't be for long." + +"But what's the good of it? We know as much as we'll ever know. Man, +do you know what you're asking? Loving Jean as I love her, I must +stand about and play the fool, while that damned thief basks in her +favor under my very eyes! If there were a good reason, it would be +different. But Wentworth and Orcutt can go no farther; they're +done----" + +"Aye, but they're not done," interrupted McNabb. "Ye'll be knowin' me +well enough to know I always have a reason for the things that I do. +It's a hard thing I'm askin' of ye, an' in this case I'll show ye the +reason, though 'tis not my habit. D'ye mind I told ye that the Eureka +material was rollin' down the tote-road by the truck load? Thousands +of dollars worth of it every day is bein' delivered at the mill site. +Why? Because for some reason Orcutt has not yet found out that he does +not own the timber. The minute he does find out, not another pound +will be delivered." + +"You mean----?" + +"I mean that portland cement, an' the reinforcin' steel, an' plate an' +whatever else goes into the construction of a paper mill is bein' set +down on the Shamattawa, one hundred miles from a railway at Orcutt's +expense. And that every ton of it is stuff that won't pay its way out +of the woods. The freight an' the haulin' one way doubles the cost. +An' even if he tried to take it out, he'd have a hundred miles of +tote-road to build. Eureka freight travels only one way on McNabb's +tote-road--an' that way is in!" + +Hedin stared at the man in astonishment. "And you can buy it at your +own figure!" he cried. "Why, you can prevent even his empty trucks +from going back. God, man, it will ruin Orcutt!" + +"'Tis his own doin's," answered the man. "'Twill serve him right. He +should have 'tended to his bankin' instead of pickin' on poor old John +McNabb, that should be back of his counter sellin' thread, as he told +me himself. Ten cents on the dollar he offered for my tote-road." + +"I'll do it!" exclaimed Hedin. "It will be hard, but it will be worth +it, to see that crook get what's coming to him. And then I'm going +away. Murchison will give me a letter, and I'll strike the Company for +a job." + +McNabb nodded. "I guess ye're right, about not goin' back to the +store," he said slowly. "Your heart is in the North." + +There was a strange lump in Hedin's throat. He glanced into the face +of his employer, and was surprised at a certain softness in the shrewd +gray eyes that gazed far out over the lake. After a time the old man +spoke, more to himself than to him. "Ye could both run down for a +month or two in the winter!" + +"What?" asked Hedin, regarding the speaker with a puzzled expression. +"Both of who? A factor only gets away in the summer." + +"So they do--so they do," answered McNabb, absently. "Well, we'll be +goin' back now. My engineer, maybe, will be wantin' a conference." + + + + +XXIV + +A rather strained silence greeted the entrance of McNabb into the +trading room. Jean and Murchison occupied the only two chairs the room +boasted, and Wentworth leaned against the counter, a half-sneering +smile on his lips. McNabb advanced to the group beneath the huge +swinging lamp, and Sven Larsen lingered in the shadows near the door. +The half-sneer changed to a look of open defiance, as Wentworth faced +McNabb. "It seems," he said truculently, "that I am guilty of a +serious _faux pas_ in mentioning a bit of Terrace City scandal that +reached my ears concerning the elopement of your estimable fur clerk, +Hedin, and a Russian sable coat. The idiot didn't have the brains to +get away with it. If you'd have been wiser you would have waited until +you could have laid hands on the coat, and then locked up your fur +clerk." + +"H-m-m, maybe ye're right," answered McNabb. + +"And," continued Wentworth, emboldened by the placidity of the other's +tone, "if you had been wiser, you wouldn't have lost your pulp-wood +holdings. Oh, there's no use beating about the bush--I knew the minute +Jean told me you had come in by the tote-road, that you had seen the +Eureka trucks hauling in Eureka material. We put one over on you, +McNabb, and you might as well be a sport and make the best of it." + +The old Scot nodded thoughtfully. "Maybe ye're right," he admitted. +"But wasn't it a bit scurvy trick ye played me, acceptin' my money an' +usin' it to double-cross me?" + +"Business, my dear man! Merely business! I saw my chance, and I took +it, that's all. Ten thousand a year, and a ten percent interest in a +paper mill isn't so poor--and I'm not yet thirty. It takes brains to +make money, and you can bet I'll make my money before my brain begins +to slip cogs. It's expensive--this slipping of cogs." + +"Maybe ye're right," repeated McNabb. + +"I'll tell the world I'm right! It won't be but a few years till I'll +be the big noise around this part of Canada! Brains to figure out a +proposition, and nerve to carry it through--that's all it takes to make +this old world pay up what it owes you." + +"How he hates himself!" exclaimed Jean, and from his position in the +shadows, Hedin saw that her eyes flashed. + +His heart gave a great bound, and it was with an effort that he +restrained himself from pushing into the group. Was it possible--? A +step sounded outside, and the next moment the screen door swung open to +admit the figure of a man who strode into the lamp-light and glanced +about the faces of the assembly. + +The man was Cameron. + +"A fine two days' stay you made of your trip to the mill site," he +grumbled, addressing Wentworth. "I waited here for a week for you or +Orcutt to show up, and then I decided to hunt you. I followed you to +Winnipeg, and from there to Ottawa, and back again to the head of the +tote-road. Orcutt had left for the States the day before I got there, +but they said you were down at the mill site. I rode down on a truck +only to find that you had come over here for your outfit." + +"Well, now you've found me, what's on your mind?" grinned Wentworth. + +"I have a memorandum here in my pocket signed by Orcutt in which he +authorized you to transact any and all business regarding the pulp-wood +lands." + +"That's correct," admitted Wentworth. "I am a stockholder, an officer +in the company, and its sole representative in the field. Fire away. +What's this business that's so all-fired important as to send you +chasing all over Canada to reach me?" + +"My business," replied Cameron gravely, "is to return to you as +representative of the Eureka Paper Company, three hundred and fifty +thousand dollars, which amount was paid over to me by Mr. Orcutt, and +which represents the initial payment of ten percent of the purchase +price of certain pulp-wood lands described in the accompanying contract +of sale." + +"Return the money!" cried Wentworth. "What do you mean?" + +"Simply, that the deal is off. Or, rather, no valid transaction was +ever consummated." + +Every particle of color faded from the engineer's face at the words. +As he glanced wildly about him his eye caught a twinkle in the eyes of +McNabb. The color flooded his face in a surge of red, and his eyes +seemed to bulge with rage as he groped for words. "It's a damned lie!" +he cried. "A trick of McNabb's!" He turned upon the older man: "I +thought you took your defeat too easy, but you'll find you can't put +anything over on me! The deal stands--and we'll fight you to the last +court! If you've found some petty technicality in the contract, you +better forget it. We've gone ahead in good faith and spent a million. +We can employ as good lawyers as you can, and the courts won't stand +for any quibbling! It's a case for the equity courts." + +Cameron smiled grimly. "I am a lawyer, and as such you will permit the +smile at your mention of the equity court. You would not be allowed to +enter its doors. For its first precept is: He who comes into equity +must come with clean hands. Are your hands clean? I think +not--neither your hands nor Orcutt's. But, the matter will never reach +the courts. There is no question of a technical error in the contract, +because there is no contract. The instrument I drew, and which was +signed by Orcutt and myself, has no legal existence. No valid contract +could have been drawn relative to the disposal of those lands until the +options held by Mr. McNabb had expired----" + +"But they had expired!" cried Wentworth. "They expired at twelve +o'clock, noon, of July first, and the contract was not signed until two +or three minutes after twelve." + +"By Orcutt's watch," retorted Cameron. "And Orcutt's watch was an hour +faster than official time. I had no reason to suppose his watch was +wrong, and believed the time had expired, until I was confronted, after +your departure, by the accredited representative of McNabb. I was +dumbfounded until I established the fact that he was within his rights +in tendering payment and closing the transaction for his principal. +Then there was no course open to me but to accept McNabb's money and +conclude the transfer to him. Murchison, here, is a witness, that the +facts are as I have stated them." + +Wentworth's eyes flew to the face of the factor, who nodded +emphatically. Again the color left his face. "It's a damned trick!" +he muttered. "Why didn't you notify us at once, instead of waiting +nearly three weeks and allowing us to spend more than a million +dollars?" + +"Orcutt told me he would return to the post in two days. I waited, and +when a week went by I used every means in my power to reach him. I +followed him by train. I learned his address and wired the facts to +his bank. The fault is his own. I am sorry you have lost so +heavily----" + +"It isn't my money," Wentworth cried savagely. Then he suddenly +paused, and for upwards of thirty seconds the room was in dead silence. +When he spoke again, it was in a voice palpably held in control. + +"I guess you have got us," he said. "There seems to be nothing for me +to do but accept the money." He held out his hand as Cameron slowly +counted out the big bills. Then without recounting, Wentworth thrust +them into his pocket, and with quick, nervous strokes of his pen signed +the receipt which Cameron placed before him. Then in a voice trembling +with suppressed rage he faced McNabb. "Damn you!" he cried. "I +thought--Orcutt said you were beginning to slip!" + +"Well, maybe he's right," admitted McNabb, and the engineer saw that +his lips twitched at the corners. + +"Who was your representative?" he demanded abruptly. "And, how did it +come that he arrived just in the nick of time?" + +"Why, his name is Sven Larsen. He's Murchison's clerk," answered the +Scot. "And he was here all the time." + +"Sven Larsen!" yelled Wentworth. "That half-wit! Why, he hasn't got +sense enough to come in out of the rain!" + +"Maybe ye're right," admitted McNabb, "but that isn't what I hired him +to do." + +With an oath, Wentworth pushed past Cameron and started for the door to +find himself suddenly face to face with Sven Larsen. "Get out of my +way, damn you!" he cried. "Go up in the loft and wallow in your +stinking furs!" + +"Furs!" repeated the clerk dully, but without giving an inch. "Oh, +yes, furs." He was looking Wentworth squarely in the eyes with a heavy +stare. "Some fur is good, and some is bad. A Russian sable is better +than a baum marten." At the words, Jean McNabb, who had been a silent +but fascinated listener to all that transpired, leaned swiftly forward, +her eyes staring into the uncouth face of the speaker, who continued, +"And when the coat is dark, and of matched skins, it is very much +better than any baum marten. And when one receives the sable coat on a +winter's night from the hands of a beautiful Russian princess whom one +is helping to escape through a roaring blizzard in a motor car--or was +it a sleigh?" + +"Stop, damn you!" In the lamp-light the on-lookers saw that the face +of the engineer had gone livid. His words came thickly. "You fool! +Are you crazy? Have you forgotten Pollak, and what happened in the +shop of Levinski, the furrier? Where is Pollak?" + +A slow grin overspread the face of Sven Larsen. "I invented Pollak to +cover a mistake I made. There never was any Pollak, Wentworth, but +there is a Russian sable coat. The coat is in your trunk in the cabin. +It is the coat you stole from Miss McNabb on the night of the Campbell +dinner." + +"Oskar!" cried Jean, leaping from her chair at the moment that +Wentworth hurled himself upon Hedin. Her cry was drowned in the swift +impact of bodies and the sound of blows, and grunts, and heavy +breathing. McNabb and Cameron drew back and the bodies, locked in a +clench, toppled to the floor, overturning a chair. + +"Oh, stop them! Stop them!" shrieked the girl. "He'll kill him!" + +"Who'll kill who?" grinned McNabb, holding her back with one hand, +without taking his eyes from the struggling, fighting figures that +writhed almost at his feet, overturning boxes and bales in their +struggles. + +"He'll kill Oskar! He's bigger----" + +"Not by a damn sight, he won't!" roared McNabb. "Look at um! Look at +um! Oskar's on top! Give him hell, lad!" + +Jean had ceased her protest, and to her own intense surprise she found +herself leaning forward, watching every move. She cried out with pain +when Wentworth's fist brought the blood from Oskar's nose, and she +applauded when Hedin's last three blows landed with vicious thuds +against the engineer's upturned chin. + +Hedin rose to his feet and held the handkerchief to his bleeding nose. +McNabb's hand gripped his shoulder. "Ye done fine, lad! Ye done +fine!" he exclaimed. + +Dropping to his knees, Hedin slipped his hand into the unconscious +man's pocket and withdrew a key which he tossed to one of the Company +Indians who had come running in at the sound of battle. "Here, Joe +Irish," he said, "go to the cabin and unlock the trunk that is there +and bring back the coat of fur." + +A few moments later Hedin handed the garment to McNabb. "Here is your +missing coat," he said, as Jean threw her arm about his shoulder. + +"Oskar, dear--" she whispered, and the next moment Hedin's arms were +about her and she could feel the wild pounding of his heart against her +breast. + +There was a movement on the floor near their feet, and releasing the +girl Hedin reached swiftly down. McNabb's hand stayed him before he +could seize hold of Wentworth, who was crawling toward the door. + +"Let him go, lad," advised the old man. "We've got the coat. +An'--an'--we're all happy!" + +"But the money? He's got the three hundred and fifty thousand!" cried +Hedin. + +McNabb grinned. "Suppose we just let Orcutt worry about that," he said. + +"I told you Oskar was innocent!" cried Jean triumphantly, as the door +closed behind the slinking form of Wentworth. "I told you so from the +first! I just knew he never took that coat!" + +McNabb's eyes were twinkling. "I knew it, too, lass," he answered. +"That's why I bailed him out an' sent him up here with two hundred an' +fifty thousand dollars in negotiable paper in his pocket to close this +deal for me." + +"And you knew all the time," cried the girl, staring at her father in +amazement, "when Orcutt was gloating over you back there, that you, and +not he, owned the timber? And you let him go on and humiliate you to +your face!" + +"Sure I did," grinned McNabb. "He was havin' the time of his life, an' +I hated to spoil it. An' besides, while he was talkin', truck after +truck was rollin' off down the tote-road haulin' material to my mill +site that I'll buy in at ten cents on the dollar. Orcutt'll pay for +his fun!" + +"But--your face--when he told you that you had lost the timber! It +positively went gray!" + +"Poker face," laughed McNabb. "But run along now--the two of ye. It's +many a long day since Dugald an' I have had a powwow with our feet +cocked up on bales of Injun goods." As the two walked arm in arm +toward the door, McNabb called to the girl, "Here, lass, take your +coat!" He tossed the Russian sable which the girl caught with a glad +cry. "Ye'll be needin' it up here agin winter comes." + +"Winter! Up here! What do you mean?" + +"Oskar says he isn't goin' back to Terrace City," he explained. +"Except maybe for the weddin'. The North has got into his blood, an' +the McNabb Paper Company needs a competent manager." + + + + +XXV + +When Wentworth left the trading room he went straight to his cabin, and +disregarding his open trunk, he lifted a pack-sack from the floor and +swung it to his shoulders. It was the pack he had deposited there +scarcely an hour before when he had trailed in from the mill site, and +he knew that it contained three or four days' supply of rations. + +On the Shamattawa he had heard from a truck driver that an old man and +a girl had started for Gods Lake post, and he instantly recognized +McNabb and Jean from the man's description. Thereupon he made up a +pack and headed for the post for the sole purpose of baiting the two, +and of flaunting his prowess as a financier in their faces. + +An angry flush flooded his face as he realized how completely the +tables had turned. Then the flush gave place to a crafty smile, as he +remembered the bills in his pocket. "McNabb's money, or Orcutt's," he +muttered under his breath, "it's all the same to me. Three hundred and +fifty thousand is more money than I ever expected to handle. And now +for the get-away." + +Closing the door behind him he struck across the clearing toward the +northeast. At the end of the bush he paused. "Hell!" he growled. "I +can't hit for the railway. Cameron said he had wired Orcutt at the +bank, and I might meet him coming in." For some time he stood +irresolute. "There's a way out straight south," he speculated, "about +three hundred miles, and a good share of it water trail. I'll be all +right if I can pick up a canoe, and I can get grub of the Indians." +Skirting the clearing, he entered the bush and came out on the shore of +the lake at some distance below the landing, where several canoes had +been beached for the night. Stooping, he righted one, and as he +straightened up he found himself face to face with Corporal Downey of +the Mounted. For a moment the two stood regarding each other in +silence, while through Wentworth's brain flashed a mighty fear. Had +McNabb changed his mind and sent Downey to arrest him for the theft of +the coat? He thought of Orcutt's big bills in his pocket, and his +blood seemed to turn to water within him. Then suddenly he remembered +that for the present, at least, he held those bills under color of +authority. In the deep twilight that is the summer midnight of the +North he searched the officer's face. Damn the man! Why didn't he say +something? Why did he always force another to open a conversation? +Wentworth cleared his throat. + +"Hello, _Corporal_," he said sourly. "Aren't you out pretty late?" + +"Not any later than you are, _Captain_. An' I'm headed in. Put over +any more big deals lately?" + +"What do you mean?" + +"Oh, I run onto Cameron about a week back. He was huntin' you or +Orcutt. He told me how you beat old John McNabb out of his +pulp-wood--almost. You ought to be ashamed--a couple of up-to-date +financiers like you two, pickin' on an' old man that's just dodderin' +around in his second childhood." + +Wentworth flushed hot at the grin that accompanied the words. + +"To hell with McNabb--and you, too!" he cried angrily, and carrying the +canoe into the water, he placed his pack in it. When he returned for a +paddle, Downey was gone, and stepping into the canoe, he pushed it out +into the lake. "Of course, he'd have to show up, damn him!" he +muttered as he propelled the light craft southward with swift strokes +of the paddle. "And now if Orcutt should show up within the next day +or two, Downey will know just where to follow, and even with a two +days' start, I doubt if I could keep ahead of him. They say he's a +devil on the trail. But I'll fool him. I'll leave the canoe at the +end of the lake, and instead of striking on down the river I'll hit out +overland. Once I get to the railway, they can all go to hell!" + +The mistake Wentworth made on the trail when he first came into the +North was not so much the insisting upon bringing in his trunk, nor his +refusal to carry a pack; it was in striking Alex Thumb with the +dog-whip when he refused to pull the outfit in the face of a blizzard. +Thumb's reputation as a "bad Injun" was well founded. The son of a +hot-tempered French trader and a Cree mother, his early life had been a +succession of merciless beatings. At the age of fourteen he killed his +father with a blow from an ice chisel, and thereafter served ten years +of an indeterminate sentence, during the course of which the unmerciful +beatings were administered for each infraction of reformatory rules, +until in his heart was born a sullen hatred of all white men and an +abysmal hatred of the lash. When Wentworth struck, his doom was +sealed, but as Murchison said, Alex Thumb was canny. He had no mind to +serve another term in prison. + +All through the spring and summer he trailed the engineer, waiting with +the patience that is the heritage of the wilderness dweller for the +time and the place to strike and avoid suspicion. And as time drew on +the half-breed's hatred against all white men seemed to concentrate +into a mighty rage against this one white man. There had been times +when he could have killed him from afar. More than once on the trail +Wentworth unconsciously stood with the sights of Alex Thumb's rifle +trained upon his head, or his heart. But such was his hatred that +Thumb always stayed the finger that crooked upon the trigger--and bided +his time. + +Thus it was that half an hour after Wentworth pushed out into the lake +another canoe shot out from the shore and fell in behind, its lone +occupant, paddling noiselessly, easily kept just within sight of the +fleeing man. When daylight broadened Wentworth landed upon a sandy +point and ate breakfast. Upon another point, a mile to the rear, Alex +Thumb lay on his belly and chewed jerked meat as his smouldering black +eyes regarded gloatingly the man in the distance. + +Gods Lake is nearly fifty miles in its north and south reach, and all +day Wentworth paddled southward, holding well to the western shore. + +At noon he rested for an hour and ate luncheon, his eyes now and then +scanning the back reach of the lake. But he saw nothing, and from an +aspen thicket scarce half a mile away Alex Thumb watched in silence. + +As the afternoon wore to a closer the half-breed drew nearer. The +shadows of the bordering balsams were long on the water when Wentworth +first caught sight of the pursuing canoe. His first thought was that +Orcutt had arrived at the post and that Downey had taken the trail. He +ceased paddling for a moment and his light canoe swung into the trough +of the waves and rocked crankily. + +The other canoe was only a half mile behind, and Wentworth saw with +relief that its occupant was not Downey. Some Indian fishing, he +thought, and resumed his paddling. The south shore was only an hour +away now, and tired as he was, he redoubled his efforts. + +Farther on he looked back again. The canoe still followed. Surely no +Indian would set his nets so far from his camp. Yet the man was an +Indian. He had drawn closer and Wentworth could distinguish the short, +jabbing strokes of the paddle. + +Another quarter of an hour and Wentworth looked again--and as he +looked, the blood seemed to freeze in his veins. The pursuing canoe +was close now, and he was staring straight into the eyes of Alex Thumb. +The half-breed was smiling--a curious, twisted smile that was the very +embodiment of savage hate. Wentworth's muscles felt weak, and it was +with difficulty that he drove them to the task of forcing the canoe out +of the trough of the waves. Mechanically he paddled with his eyes +fixed on the ever nearing south shore. He was very tired. He would +soon make land now. But when he did make land--what then? He cursed +himself for going unarmed. He could hear the slop of the waves on +Thumb's canoe. He turned his head and saw that the man was only two +lengths behind him. What would he do? With the mechanical swing of +his arms the words of Murchison and Downey repeated themselves in his +brain. "Serving with the devils in hell; serving with the devils in +hell," with a certain monotonous rhythm the words kept repeating +themselves through his brain. Why had he ever come North? Why hadn't +he told McNabb that he would have nothing to do with his pulp-wood? +The half-breed's canoe was alongside, but its occupant did not speak. +He merely jabbed at the waves with his paddle and looked with that +devilish twisted smile. + +Wentworth hardly knew when his canoe grated upon the gravel. Stiffly +he half walked, half crawled to the bow and lifted out his pack. Alex +Thumb stood upon the gravel and smiled. + +"What do you want?" faltered Wentworth, his voice breaking nervously. + +The half-breed shrugged. "You no lak no pardner on de trail?" he asked. + +"Where are you going?" + +Thumb pointed vaguely toward the south. "Me--I'm lak de pardner on de +trail." + +"Look here," cried Wentworth suddenly. "Do you want money? More money +than you ever saw before?" + +The breed shook his head. "No. De money can't buy w'at I wan'." + +"What do you want?" + +Again came the twisted smile. "Mebbe-so we eat de suppaire firs'. I +got som' feesh. We buil' de fire an' cook 'um." + +The meal was eaten in silence, and during its progress Wentworth in a +measure recovered his nerve. + +"You haven't told me yet what you want," he suggested when they had +lighted their pipes and thrown on an armful of greens for a smudge. + +Between the narrowed lids the black eyes seemed to smoulder as they +fixed upon the face of the white man. "I wan' you heart," he said, +casually. "Red in my han's I wan' it, an' squeeze de blood out, an' +watch it splash on de rocks. Mebbe-so I'm eat a piece dat heart, an' +feed de res' to my dog." + +Wentworth's pipe dropped to the gravel and lay there. He uttered no +sound. The wind had died down and save for the droning hum of a +billion mosquitoes the silence was absolute. A thin column of smoke +streamed from the bowl of the neglected pipe. In profound fascination +Wentworth watched it flow smoothly upward. An imperceptible air +current set the column swaying and wavering, and a light puff of breeze +dispersed it in a swirl of heavy yellow smoke from the smudge. Dully, +impersonally, he sensed that the half-breed had just told him that he +would squeeze the red blood from his heart and watch it splash upon the +rocks. His eyes rested upon the rocks rimmed up by the ice above the +gravelly beach. The blood would splash there, and there, and those +other rocks would be spattered with tiny drops of it--his blood, the +blood from his own heart which Alex Thumb would squeeze dry, as one +would wring water from a sponge. He wondered that he felt no sense of +fear. He believed that Alex Thumb would do that, yet it was a matter +that seemed not of any importance. He raised his eyes and encountered +the malevolent glare of the breed. The black eyes seemed to glow with +an inner lustre, like the smoulder of banked fires. + +With a start he seemed to have returned from some far place. The words +of Corporal Downey flittered through his brain: "You'll be servin' with +the devils in hell if you don't quit makin' enemies of men like Alex +Thumb." And there was Alex Thumb regarding him through narrowed +smouldering eyes across the little fire. Alex Thumb would kill him! +Would kill _him_--Ross Wentworth! The whole thing was preposterous. +If the man had really meant to kill him he would have done it before +this. He wouldn't dare; there were the Mounted. Other words of Downey +came to him, "If he does kill you, I'll get him." So there was a +possibility that the man would kill him. Why not? Who would ever +know? They would think he disappeared with Orcutt's money--would even +institute a world-wide search from him--but not in the bush. Thought +of the money nerved him to speak. + +"How much will you take to get into your canoe and paddle back the way +you came?" he asked. + +The breed laughed. "Wen I'm keel you I'm got you money, anyway. But +I'm ain' wan' so mooch de money. I'm wan' you heart." A dangerous +glitter supplanted the smouldering glow of the black eyes. "Me--I'm +stay ten year in de prison, for 'cause I'm keel my own fadder, an' dat +dam' good t'ing. For why I'm keel heem? 'Cause he whip me wit' de +dog-whip. In de prison de guards whip me mor' as wan t'ousan' tam. In +de night w'en I ain' can sleep 'cause my back hurt so bad from de whip, +I'm lay in de dark an' keel dem all. Every wan I ha' keel wan hondre +tam dere in de dark w'en I lay an' t'ink 'bout it. An' I know how I'm +goin' do dat. Den you hit me wit de whip on de trail. All right. I'm +ain' kin keel de guards. I keel you here in de bush; I shoot you in de +head, an' I'm cut de heart out before he quit jumpin'." + +Wentworth moistened his lips with his tongue. "Downey will take you +in, if you do. And they'll hang you--choke you to death with a rope." + +"No. Downey ain' kin fin'. I'm bur' you in de bush--all but de heart. +I'm keep de heart all tam." + +"Good God, man, you couldn't kill me like that--in cold blood!" Beyond +the fire the half-breed laughed, a dry evil laugh that held nothing of +mirth. With a scream of terror Wentworth leaped to his feet and +crashed into the bush. + +Beside the fire Alex Thumb laughed--and spread his blankets for the +night. + +Four hours later the breed wriggled from his blanket and lighted the +fire. While the water heated for his tea, he carried the two canoes +back into the scrub and cached them, together with the two packs. He +swallowed his breakfast and picking up his rifle walked slowly into the +bush, his eyes on the ground. A mile away the lips twisted into their +sardonic grin as he noted where the fleeing man had floundered through +a muskeg, the flattened grass telling of his frequent falls. In a +balsam thicket he lifted a scrap of cloth from a protruding limb, and +again he smiled. Where Wentworth forded a waist-deep stream he had +lain down to rest on the sand of the opposite bank. The trail started +toward the south. By midforenoon Thumb noted with a grin that he was +traveling due east. + +At noon he overtook Wentworth, mired to the middle in a marl bed, +supporting himself on a half sunken spruce. + +Laying aside his rifle, the breed cut a pole with his belt ax and after +some difficulty succeeded in dragging the engineer to solid ground. +Wentworth was muttering and mumbling about a Russian sable coat, and +Thumb had to support him as he bound him to a spruce tree. + + +On the edge of the lake Corporal Downey picked up the trail. He +located the cached canoes, and returning to the fire, he reached down +and picked Wentworth's pipe from the gravel. "It's Thumb, all right," +he said, as he stood holding the pipe. "I know his canoe. They were +both here at the same time. I don't savvy that, because Wentworth left +first. Thumb's trail is only three hours old. Maybe--if I hurry----" + +From far to the southeastward came the sound of a shot. Downey +straightened, and for the space of minutes stood tense as a pointer. +The sound was not repeated--and swiftly the officer of the Mounted sped +through the bush. + + + + +AN EPILOGUE + +Two days later, into the trading room of the Hudson's Bay Company's +post on God's Lake, burst Orcutt, white of face, shaken of nerves, and +with his disheveled garments bespeaking a frenzied dash through the +timber. + +"What's the meaning of this?" he cried, holding out a telegram. + +McNabb reached for the message and read it. "It means just what it +says," he answered. "Cameron has stated it plain." + +"But where is Cameron? Where is the three hundred and fifty thousand I +paid him? Where is Wentworth?" + +"Cameron is not here. He left after turning over your money to +Wentworth. He said he held a paper that constituted Wentworth your +legal representative." + +"But--where is Wentworth?" gasped Orcutt. + +"He left the night he got the money--a week ago to-night, wasn't it, +Dugald?" + +"Good God!" The words were a groan. "I'm ruined. Ruined, I tell you! +There's just one chance. John, the material that's on your mill site. +Will you take it over?" + +"Sure, I'll take it," answered McNabb. "On the same terms you offered +for my tote-road. Ten cents on the dollar, wasn't it, Orcutt?" + +"But, man, you don't understand!" + +"I understand that the shoe is on the other foot," answered McNabb, +coldly. "Listen to me, Orcutt; by your own admission you've been +trying for more than twenty years to ruin me. I've let you go, never +turning out of my way to injure you. I'm not turning out of my way +now. If you're squeezed it is because of your own deeds--not mine." + +"Squeezed!" sobbed the banker hysterically. "I'm ruined! It means the +bank--my home--everything! It means--more. I was so sure--I--I'm into +the bank's money for thousands! It means--the penitentiary!" + +McNabb looked at the cringing man, whose knees seemed to sag beneath +the weight of his woe. Coldly his eyes traveled the length of him: +"Maybe ye're right," he said, and his words cut icy cold. Then, +deliberately he turned his back upon the man and strode through the +door. + +Upon that same day, also came Corporal Downey, of the Royal North West +Mounted Police, and in his custody he held a man. The man was the +half-breed Alex Thumb. + +"We've got the goods on him this time," Downey told the factor. "And a +damned peculiar case. I picked him up a few miles south of the lake. +I heard a shot, and an hour later I located him and crept up through +the brush. He had just finished burying Wentworth's body all but the +heart--that was dryin' on a little stick beside the fire. There was an +empty shell in his rifle. But--what I can't make out is this." He +paused and withdrew from his pocket a small tin box, and opening it, +disclosed a handful of ashes and the half of a United States gold +certificate for ten thousand dollars. "He was holdin' it over a little +fire," explained the officer. "I located him by the smoke smell. I +covered him, and he dropped this last fragment to throw up his hands. +It's money. I didn't know they made 'em so big. But why in hell +should he burn it?" + +Murchison examined the fragment with its burned edge. "Alex Thumb was +canny," he muttered. "The bills was too big. He didn't dare to spend +'em." + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Challenge of the North, by James Hendryx + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHALLENGE OF THE NORTH *** + +***** This file should be named 18366.txt or 18366.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/3/6/18366/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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