to the southward and I shall not
interfere--carry it northward, and you shall hear from me.

"Should you find yourself in danger from your enemies--or, your
_friends_"--he shot a swift glance toward Lapierre, who had remained a
pace behind the girl--"send for me. Good day."

Chloe Elliston was furious. She had listened in a sort of dumb rage as
the man's words stung, and stung again. MacNair's uncouth manner, his
blunt brutality of speech, his scornful, even contemptuous reference to
her work, and, most of all, his utter disregard of her, struck her to
the very depths. As MacNair turned to go, she stayed him with a voice
trembling with fury.

"Do you imagine, for an instant, I would stoop to seek _your_
protection? I would die first! You have had things your own way too
long, Mr. Brute MacNair! You think yourself secure, in your smug
egotism. But the end is in sight. Your petty despotism is doomed.
You have hoodwinked the authorities, bribed the police, connived with
the Hudson Bay Company, bullied and browbeaten the Indians, cheated
them out of their birthright of land and liberty, and have forced them
into a peonage that has filled your pockets with gold."

She paused in her vehement outburst and glared defiantly at MacNair, as
if to challenge a denial. But the man remained silent, and Chloe felt
her face flush as the shadow of a twinkle played for a fleeting instant
in the depths of the hard eyes. She fancied, even, that the lips
behind the black beard smiled--ever so slightly,

"Oh, you needn't laugh! You think because I'm a woman you will be able
to do as you please with me----"

"I did not laugh," answered the man gravely. "Why should I laugh? You
take yourself seriously. You believe, even, that the things you have
just spoken are true. They _must_ be true. Has not Pierre Lapierre
_told_ you they are true? And, why should the fact that you are a
woman cause me to believe I could influence you? If an issue is at
stake, as you believe, what has sex to do with it? I have known no
women, except the squaws and the _kloochmen_ of the natives.

"You said, 'you think, because I am a woman, you will be able to do as
you please with me.' Are women, then, less honest than men? I do not
believe that. In my life I have known no women, but I have read of
them in books. I have not been to any school, but was taught by my
father, who, I think, was a very wise man. I learned from him, and
from the b