so
long.

"Why does our daddy make Bell River, mother?" she demanded. "It's a
question I'm always asking myself. He's told me it's not a place for
man, devil, or trader. Yet he goes there. Say, he makes Bell River
every year. Why? He doesn't get pelts there. He once said he'd hate
to send his worst enemy up there. Yet he goes. Why? That's how I'm
always asking. Say, mother, you ran this trade with our daddy before
Murray came. You know why he goes there. You never say. Nor does
daddy. Nor Murray. Is--it a secret?"

Ailsa replied without raising her eyes.

"It's not for you to ask me," she said almost coldly.

But Jessie was in no mood to be easily put off.

"Maybe not, mother," she replied readily. "But you know, I guess. I
wonder. Well, I'm not going to ask for daddy's secrets. I just know
there is a secret to Bell River. And that secret is between you, and
him, and Murray. That's why Alec had to stop right here at the Fort.
Maybe it's a dangerous secret, since you keep it so close. But it
doesn't matter. All I know our daddy is risking his life every time he
hits the Bell River trail, and, secret or no secret, I ask is it right?
Is it worth while? If anything happened to our daddy you'd never,
never forgive yourself letting him risk his life where he wouldn't send
his worst enemy.'"

The mother laid her work aside. Nor did she speak while she folded the
material deliberately, carefully.

When at last she turned her eyes in her daughter's direction Jessie was
horrified at the change in them. They were haggard, hopeless, with a
misery of suspense and conviction of disaster.

"It's no use, child," she said decidedly. "Don't ask me a thing. If
you guess there's a secret to Bell River--forget it. Anyway, it's not
my secret. Say, you think I can influence our daddy. You think I can
persuade him to quit getting around Bell River." She shook her head.
"I can't. No, child. I can't, nor could you, nor could anybody. Your
father's the best husband in the world. And I needn't tell you his
kindness and generosity. He's all you've ever believed him, and
more--much more. He's a big man, so big, you and I'll never even
guess. But just as he's all we'd have him in our lives, so he's all he
needs to be on the bitter northern trail. The secrets of that trail
are his. Nothing'll drag them out of him. Whatever I know, child,
I've had to pay for the knowing. Bell River's been my nightm