a loss to
the factor, and _vice versa_; therefore by Robert Pilgrim he was not
greatly beloved.

Pilgrim was a man of conservative principles, who looked back with
longing to the days when a factor was supreme in his own domain,
holding discretionary powers over all his people's lives, who, after
the giving of a third warning to an independent trader found poaching
in his district, could dispose of him more or less barbarously
according to his choice. Now that every man, whatever his company, had
an equal right to gather furs in the Canadian North, he considered
that he and his employers were being robbed; wherefore he made it his
business to see that no friendship existed between any of his
subordinates and the man at Murder Point. Hence it happened that in
summer when the canoes and York boats, and in winter when the
dog-teams and runners from God's Voice, went up and down river by the
free-trading store of Garnier, Parwin and Wrath, no head was turned,
and no sign given that anyone was aware that a white man, yearning for
a handshake and the sound of spoken words, was regarding them with
sorrowful eyes from the wind-swept spit of land.

Two years and a half ago, on his first arrival, Granger had laughed at
the factor's petty persecution and had pretended not to mind. Since
then, as his isolation had grown on him, his temper had changed, his
pride had given way, until, in the January of the present year, he had
journeyed down to the Company's fort, and had implored them to speak
to him, if only to curse him, that his reason might be saved. The
gates of the fort had been clanged in his face, and he had been
silently threatened with a loaded rifle, till resurrected shame had
driven him away.

He had since heard that Pilgrim had said on that occasion, "I knew
that he would come and that this would happen sooner or later. I've
been waiting for it; but he's held out longer than the last one."

This remark explained to Granger how it was that, when he had arrived
in Winnipeg, having just returned from the Klondike, and had applied
to his acquaintance Wrath for employment, his request had been so
readily granted. He had marvelled at the time that he, who had had
next to no experience in Indian trading, should have met with
immediate engagement, and have been given sole charge of an outpost.
Now he knew the reason; he had been given his job because his
employers could get no one else to take it. From the first day of his