ght,
smoking and thinking. A distant clock had just pealed eleven when I
heard the unbolting of a door downstairs--the house had been closed for
the night. A little later, after the stir and sound of voices had died
away, light footsteps fell on my ear, and there was a rap at the door. I
hurriedly lit a candle.

"Come in!" I cried, thinking I knew what it meant.

Captain Rudstone entered, closing the door softly behind him. With a nod
he threw himself into a chair, helped himself to a pipeful of my
tobacco, and looked inscrutably at me through a cloud of smoke.

"So you are still up?" he began. "I expected to find you in bed. Have
you been away from the hotel?"

"Not outside of the door," I replied.

"I have left my old lodging," he went on, "and Monsieur Ragoul has given
me a room next to yours."

"I rejoice to hear it," I said politely. "And have you learned anything
to-day?"

"Mr. Mackenzie will demand satisfaction for that blow," the captain
answered coolly.

"He shall have it," said I.

"He is a skilled swordsman and a deadly shot, Mr. Carew."

"I will meet him with either weapon," I declared hotly.

"There must be no fighting, if it can be avoided," replied the captain.

"That is a matter which rests with me," said I. "But how do you know all
this?"

"I put a man on the track," was the reply. "He overheard Mackenzie
talking with two boon companions who are as deep in the plotting of the
Northwest Company as himself. Unfortunately, he learned no more than I
have told you, and he lost the trail at an early hour this evening in
the upper town."

"I shall depend on you to see me through the affair," said I.

"I fear there is mischief brewing in another quarter," the captain
replied. "To be frank, Mr. Carew, you and I, and Miss Hatherton are in a
decidedly unpleasant situation. Or, to leave the girl out of it, you and
I must decide a very delicate question. Shall we stand by our honor, or
shall we choose the best interests of the company we serve?"

"Make your meaning plainer," said I. "As yet I am in the dark."

"The point is this," the captain answered gravely. "If we wait for the
company's ship, which sails in a week, serious things may happen--not to
speak of the duel. I happen to know that a trading-vessel leaves the
river to-morrow morning for the Bay. The captain is a friend of mine,
and he will give the three of us a passage."

"This is the last proposition I should have looked for from y