ng the note.

"Mike, if you please, Michael Cole, if you don't mind; and the note is
from the boss, Mr. Macdonald, who has gone up the country, and can't be
here to welcome you."

"Gone up the country!" roared the colonel; "what the blank, blank, does
he mean by going up the country at this particular time?"

But Mr. Michael Cole was quite undisturbed by the colonel's wrath. "You
might find the reason in the note," he said, coolly, and the colonel,
glaring at him, opened the note and read:

"MY DEAR COLONEL THORP: I am greatly disappointed in not being able to
meet you. The truth is I only received your letter this week. Our mails
are none too prompt, and so I have been unable to re-arrange my plans.
I find it necessary to run up the river for a couple of weeks. In the
meantime, thinking that possibly you might like to see something of
our country, I have arranged that you should join the party of the
Lieutenant Governor on their trip to the interior, and which will take
only about four weeks' time. The party are going to visit the most
interesting districts of our country, including both the famous mining
district of Cariboo and the beautiful valley of the Okanagan. Mr. Cole,
my clerk, will introduce you to Mr. Blair, our member of Parliament for
Westminster, who will present you to the rest of the party. Mr. Blair, I
need not say, is one of the brightest business men in the West. I shall
meet you at Yale on your return. If it is absolutely impossible for you
to take this trip, and necessary that I should return at once, Mr. Cole
will see that a special messenger is sent to me, but I would strongly
urge that you go, if possible.

"With kind regards."

"Look here, young man," yelled the colonel, "do you think I've come all
this way to go gallivanting around the country with any blank, blank
royal party?"

"I don't know, Colonel," said young Cole, brightly; "but I tell you I'd
like mighty well to go in your place."

"And where in the nation IS your boss, and what's he after, anyway?"

"He's away up the river looking after business, and pretty big business,
too," said Coley, not at all overawed by the colonel's wrath.

"Well, I hope he knows himself," said the colonel.

"Oh, don't make any mistake about that, Colonel," said young Cole; "he
always knows where he's going and what he wants, and he gets it." But
the colonel made no reply, nor did he deign to notice Mr. Michael Cole
again until they had arrive