packet of correspondence, "but I have evidently left it--I
gather," he resumed, "from your last letter that he did not make
a very favourable impression. I can't understand it," he went on
seriously, "for he was recommended by one of the vice-presidents of
one of our Canadian companies, a man whom I have had dealings with
by letter for years. I should hesitate to believe he would recommend
anyone to us whom he did not thoroughly know about--who, shall we say,
was sharp in his dealings."

Holcomb for a moment did not reply. Then suddenly he looked straight
into the eyes of his employer.

"I know a man may sometimes be wrong in sizing up another," he began,
"but Bergstein seems to me to have considerable of the peddler in
him."

"And yet you say, Billy, the horses he sent were sound, and the price
fair."

"The price he asked was not," replied Holcomb. "I gave him what I knew
they were worth--he wasn't long in taking it. That's where the peddler
part of it struck me."

Thayor made no attempt to reply; he was listening as calmly as a
lawyer to a defence.

"There are a lot of the boys here who think Bergstein is all right,"
Holcomb continued, "but neither Freme, Hite, nor myself liked his
looks from the first. He's too mysterious in his movements--whanging
off at night to catch a train and turning up again--sometimes before
daylight."

"Yet you say he is a good worker," interrupted Thayor, settling in his
chair.

"There isn't a lazy bone in him," confessed Holcomb. "He's all hustle,
and smarter than a steel trap--that's why I put him in charge of the
gang in the lower shanty--besides, I saw the boys wanted him."

"I must see Mr. Bergstein in the morning," was Thayor's reply.

"He left day before yesterday," said Holcomb. "He told me an uncle
of his had died in Montreal; he'll be back, he said, in three or four
days."

"Ah, indeed," said Thayor with a nod. "I trust we are all mistaken
in the fellow. You know, my boy," he said turning suddenly about,
"we must all learn to be tolerant of others--of their ignorance. I've
found in life a true philosophy in this. It's my creed, Billy--'Be
tolerant of others, even of those who at times seem intolerable to
you.'"

Holcomb was not the man to censure another without the strength of
his conviction. He had been frank in giving his opinion of Bergstein,
since Thayor had put the question point blank to him. Their talk
before the fire had been a genial one, save for this