ts at as high a price as he could afford with a
reasonable profit. This price would always be certainly double, and
often four or five times, that which the Company was accustomed to
allow.

Bob, thus forming his Utopian plans, forgot the tedium of the trail.
No person is so happy as when doing something to make some other
person happy. And Bob was happy because he believed he was to be the
means of bringing happiness to many. Making a comfortable living
himself, he would make it possible for his neighbours to make a
comfortable living, also.

It never occurred to him that failure was possible, or that, with the
amount of capital which he believed was still at his disposal, the
plan was unpractical. Young, highly optimistic, and somewhat
visionary, his dreams assumed the status of reality.

Bob's mind was thus pleasantly occupied when at the end of the first
week in February he returned to the river tilt to find Ed Matheson and
Bill Campbell back from Eskimo Bay, and Dick Blake, just in from his
trail, drawing off his frost-encrusted adicky.

"An' there's Bob, now!" exclaimed Ed, as Bob appeared in the doorway.

"'Tis grand, now, t' see you back," said Bob, his face beaming welcome
as he shook the hands of the returned travellers. "Dick an' me's been
missin' you wonderful."

"'Twere grand, now, t' see th' tilt when Bill an' me comes in last
evenin'. 'Twere th' hardest pull up from th' Bay with our loads we
ever has, an' we was tired enough t' drop when we gets here. Where's
Shad?"

"Wi' th' Injuns yet, an' I'm worryin' about he not comin' back. They
must ha' gone a long ways down north lookin' for deer, or they'd been
back before this. How'd you find th' folks at th' Bay, Ed?"

"Fine--all of un fine. Your mother's wantin' wonderful bad t' see you.
But when I tells she you'm all right, she stops worryin'. I were
forgettin' t' say anything about th' trouble wi' th' Mingens, though;"
and Ed grinned.

"Forgettin' a purpose?" asked Bob, smiling.

"Maybe so," admitted Ed. "What's past don't do nobody no good t' know
when they's nothin' for un t' make right. 'Twouldn't ha' helped none
for she t' know about th' Mingens, so I just naturally forgets un."

"I'm glad o' that. Mother'd 'a' worried an' been thinkin' all sorts o'
things happenin' what never would happen;" and, greatly relieved, Bob
asked, "An' when'd you make th' Bay?"

"'Twere just New Year. Bill an' me cruises along fast, bein' light,
an' takin' shor