e you goin' to make her a
de--your wife?"

There was a look in Jean's eyes that brooked no denial or evasion. He
had driven straight to the point, nor was there any likelihood of his
drawing back.

"You're pretty rough," said Victor, with an unpleasant laugh. He was
inwardly raging, but, like all men of no great moral strength, feared
the direct challenge of the other.

"We ain't polished folk hereabouts," retorted Jean. "We've played the
dirty game o' the White Squaw for you' clear out. Davi's most as dead
sick of it as me, but wher' she went into it fer a frolic an' to please
you, I had my notions, I guess. I come clear away down from Peace River
nigh on two summers ago jest fer to see that you acted squar' by that
misguided girl. An' that's why I done all your dirty work in this White
Squaw racket. Now we've got the boodle you're goin' to hitch up wi'
Davi', or--"

"Or--what?" broke in Victor contemptuously.

"Or not one blazin' cent o' the stuff in this chest'll you touch."

Victor sprang from his seat and his eyes shone furiously.

"You--you--" But his fury was baffled by the solemn, determined stare of
the other. A moment more and he dropped back in his seat.

Then the great Jean lowered his eyes to the hewn chest upon the floor.
The lid had been forced open and the bags of gold dust, so carefully
arranged by the Westleys, were displayed within. Presently he looked
back at the angry figure bending towards the stove.

"Guess I'll git blankets out o' your store," he said.

Victor remained rapt in moody silence.

"Ther' ain't room fer two to sleep comfort'ble in that bed o' yourn," he
added significantly, as the other showed no inclination to speak.

At last Victor looked up and the dark half-breed blood slowly mounted
and flushed his narrow face.

"You're goin' to stop here--wher' the stuff is?"

"I guess."

The trader looked long into the cavernous moose-eyes of the Hooded Man
while he choked down the rage which consumed him. He knew that he was a
prisoner in his own store. Resistance would be utterly useless against
such a man as Jean Leblaude.

In his scheme for obtaining wealth Victor had omitted to take into
consideration one of the great factors of a life of wrong-doing. A man
may not engage in crime with those whom he has wronged.

Victor had sought to obtain good service, forgetting the manner in which
he had treated the sister of Jean. The ways of the half-breed are loose
in the matter