enacing utterances, the
little party reached the door of the fur-house.

Upon this, Mr. Macrae struck hard with his pistol-butt, calling out:
'Hector, laddie, are ye there?'

Instantly there came back from the interior a muffled cry of joy, and
the faint words: 'Father! oh, father! is that you?'

There was a stout padlock fastening the door, but Mr. Macrae quickly
prised this off, and tore the door open. Out of the interior darkness
rushed Hector and flung himself, half-sobbing, into his father's arms.

Andrew returned the embrace warmly, and then asked in a tone of
surprise and concern: 'Was no' Dandy with you?'

'Why no, father!' replied Hector. 'The man that shut me up took both
Dour and Dandy away with him.'

'Then we maun find the dog,' was the resolute rejoinder. 'Here, Dour,
gude dog, call Dandy.' Without a moment's hesitation, the well-trained
creature poured forth a volley of barks that meant as plainly as
possible, 'Dandy, where are you? Tell us.'

'Now listen, friends, for the answer,' said Mr. Macrae, with a grim
smile.

There was no doubt about the response, for out of the surrounding gloom
burst a chorus of canine music that fairly made the welkin ring, and
how Dandy's particular contribution could be distinguished seemed a
hopeless problem.

But Mr. Macrae waited silently until the commotion had somewhat
subsided, and then, pointing to the northern end of the enclosure, said
confidently: 'There's whaur they've got Dandy.'

Dour evidently approved of their going thither, and presently, turning
the corner of one of the most remote buildings, they found the object
of their search, half-strangled in his frantic efforts to break the
thong that held him fast.

'God be thanked--we've found all three, and they're nane the waur of
it,' said Mr. Macrae, in a tone of fervent gratitude; and then, his
voice changing to righteous indignation, 'by the morn we'll find out
why this was done to ma laddie, and who did it.'

With the morn, however, came strange and startling events, that caused
Hector's peculiar experience to be entirely forgotten. To understand
these aright, a little explanation is necessary. Although the great
Hudson's Bay Company claimed full ownership of the North-West, their
right to this vast wilderness was vigorously disputed by a company
formed in Lower Canada and called the North-West Fur Company. The
rivalry between the two companies for control of the fur-trade was
intense