d.

"But if there was one man I detested, it was Stackpole, and he had often
riled me as a kid, by his leering ways, and his sneaking method of
hanging around when my father was out looking after his traps.

"I don't know what put it into my head, but somehow I seemed to finally
believe the fellow had been actually sent up into the wilderness by some
one high in authority at the post just to annoy my father and bring him
to his knees, which nothing had been able to do in the past.

"So I came to follow Stackpole when he did not dream I was around, and
pretty soon I found that he was trying to steal my father's stock of
furs during his absence, having arranged it with a halfbreed Cree to
pull his chestnuts out of the fire, and avoid responsibility.

"I had been afraid that his evil eye had been turned upon my pretty
mother, so that, after all, it was something of a relief to find that he
only wanted to take the bundle of valuable furs that would mean a living
for us during the next summer; but I've never believed anything else
than that he was sent there by old Alexander Gregory to reduce us to a
state where my parents would have to knuckle down, swallow their Scotch
pride, and accept favors at his hands, something father had sworn he
would die before doing.

"Well, I caught the rascal in the act of carrying the furs off, though
he always swore that I wronged him, and that he had in reality rescued
them from a thief of a Cree who had snatched the lot; but I notched his
ear with a shot, and put another in his right leg--you remember Eli
noticed that he had a decided limp on that side.

"They had to nurse the old villain all through his spell, and he never
forgave me for the double dose I gave him, though pretending it was all
right, and that, thinking as I did, I had done the proper thing.
Stackpole kept shy of our place after that, but I knew he would never
forgive me, and if the time ever arrived when he could get even he would
take the chance gladly. That was why I kept an eye on him all the time
he was with us, and warned you to look out, for the fellow is really a
thief, and has a bad reputation all over the region of the
Saskatchewan."

"And you really think he may be the cause of Eli staying away? After we
treated him so well, too. The skunk has no gratitude in his make-up,
then, that's all I can say. Catch me giving him another cup of our
lovely Java; it's like casting pearls before swine," declared the oth