ompany. God help him!"

But the captain's thoughts almost immediately turned to his own
case. What was that old Indian saying? He listened.

"In the past history of the Company, when a rival appeared, there
had been much killing. Murder, violence, Intrigue, conspiracy--all
these have flourished when a rival took the field. We may look for
them now, and he who strikes first forestalls the other. It is, of
course, impossible for this Captain McTavish to reach Fort Dickey
or Fort Severn again. Three sentences from him, and we are discovered,
and the chase begun. We are not strong enough yet for open conflict.
By spring, perhaps, but not now. McTavish must never tell. A strong
arm, a well-directed blow--"

"But, my good brother, you do not counsel murder in cold blood?"
asked Seguis, in a tone of horror. "To kill our old friend, Captain
McTavish, because he has happened to come upon us here--oh, no,
no, no! It is impossible. But, yet," he added, "he must not tell
what he has seen."

He turned to McTavish.

"Will you give an oath never to reveal what you have seen and heard
here?"

"No," Donald said bluntly. "I won't."

"By refusal, you sign your own death-warrant," warned the half-breed,
not unkindly. "For the sake of all of us, give this oath."

"Seguis," replied Donald, just as quietly, "you know you ask the
impossible. Let's not waste any more time over it. Decide what you
are going to do with me--and do it!"

"Why not keep him with us here a prisoner?" suggested an old buck;
only to be cried down loudly as a doddering dotard, whose blood
had turned to water.

"What?" one shouted, wrathfully. "Have another mouth to feed all
winter, while the owner of it stays idle? Never! Anyone that eats
with us must work."

For a long minute, Seguis sat with his chin in his hand, meditating.
Then, he ordered Donald's captors to take their prisoner back to
the little room, saying:

"I have a plan in mind, which we must discuss--privately, out of
the captain's hearing." He turned to the Hudson Bay man, and spoke
decisively: "You shall hear our decision to-night, sir, whatever
it is."

Without answer, Donald wheeled, and walked away in the company of
his guards to the room that served as a cell, where again he was
left in solitary confinement.

CHAPTER V

DEATH TRAIL

It was, perhaps, an hour later when Donald, just beginning to drowse
before his little fire, heard someone approach and unlock his door,
for t