ting on them. They won't find it. I'll
see to that, and what I don't see to the Northern trail will. If you
don't see the sense of this, it's up to you, and anyway, as I'm needing
to pull out early, I'll take a draft on the bank for those dollars. I'll
be along down again this time next year."

He rose from his chair preparatory to departure, and picked up the warm
seal cap he had flung aside.

For a moment the trader sat lost in thought. Then, quite suddenly, he
stirred, and reached the check book lying on the desk. He wrote rapidly,
and finally tore the draft from its counterfoil and blotted it. Then he
looked up, and his smiling amiability was uppermost once more.

"Thanks, Brand," he said. "I'm not sure you aren't right. It's hoss
sense anyway. You aren't given to talk most times. I wanted to know how
you stood about that stuff. I'm glad you told me. What's more, I guess
it's true. Still, what I figger to do in the future don't concern anyone
but me. All I can say is I built this enterprise up on a definite hard
rule. I never compromise with a rival trading concern, particularly with
a free-trading outfit. I trade with 'em, but I'm out to beat 'em all the
time."

The other accepted the draft and signed a receipt. Then he thrust his
cap over his head and his steady eyes smiled down into the amiable face
smiling up at him.

"That's all right, Harris," he said easily. "The feller who don't know
wins a pot now and again. But it's the feller who knows wins in the long
run. You back the game if you feel that way. You won't hand me a
nightmare. Later you'll wake up and get a fresh dream. The game's lost
before you start. So long."

* * * * *

Alroy Leclerc beamed on the man who was perhaps the greatest curiosity
amongst the many to be found in Seal Bay. His "hotel" had sheltered the
trader, who called himself Brand, for three days. A fact sufficiently
unusual to stir the saloon-keeper to a high pitch of cordiality. For all
his most liberal sources of revenue came from the scallywags of the
town, Alroy, with sound instinct, infinitely preferred the custom of the
stable men of the Northern world. Brand was more than desirable.

It was early morning. Much too early for Alroy. He felt lonely in the
emptiness of the place. A grey daylight, peering in through the window
of the office, scarcely lit the remote corners of the room. Brand had
breakfasted by lamplight. The saloon-keeper was mor