one; a thousand
articles seemed to be crowded into the apartment, so that there was
little spare room on either side of the passage leading straight up to
the great desk, where the factor held his court, flanked by account
books that doubtless would have been rich reading to anyone interested
in figures connected with the prices paid the Indians for furs.

Through a door Cuthbert could see an adjoining room that was evidently
used for a general audience chamber in the wintry season, perhaps a
bunkroom also, for it had an enormous stove that was well calculated to
warm things when started.

Only a cursory glance did he bestow upon these inanimate things, for his
attention was immediately wrapped up in the lone figure sitting back of
the big desk, the factor of the whole region, Alexander Gregory, the
mysterious man whose past seemed to be connected in some way with that
of their new Canadian chum, Owen Dugdale.

Cuthbert rather prided himself on his ability to read faces, and it was
in this spirit that he approached the Scotch resident boss.

He saw a bearded face, with the sandy hue thickly sprinkled with
gray--a face marked with strong individuality, and passions such as were
common in the days of the Bruce and the Wallace of whom we read; indeed,
just such a sturdy character as he had expected to discover in this
strange man of the Northwest, judging from all the stories he had heard.

And yet he quickly discerned a bit of a twinkle in the corners of those
cold gray eyes that told Cuthbert the other was not wholly a man of
iron--there was another vein to his character not often seen by his
fellows, but which could be played upon by touching the right chord, if
one but knew what that was.

In that one moment of time Cuthbert knew that here was a man worthy of
his best efforts in the line of study, and that perhaps before he
quitted this faraway post on the frontier he would be able to see the
strong elements constituting Alexander Gregory's make-up unmasked.

Cuthbert was something of a diplomat, and he knew just how best to
address a man of authority whom he desired to placate; accordingly he
gave his name as well as that of his companion, told of the folly that
had brought him to the wilderness, and that he desired to see a genuine
trading post of the great company, now that he found himself in the
neighborhood, and that he was pleased to meet the factor, of whom he
had heard so many things in connection with