as
wrinkled and weather-beaten to the equivalent of tanned hide. He wore
great, long, drooping moustaches snow white in colour. His eyes were
limpid blue.

"It's you, Mr. Horsfal," he mumbled rather thickly, in a voice that
seemed to come from somewhere underground; "didn't know you in the
distance."

"Jake,--shake with Mr. George Bremner;--he's going to supervise the
place and the new store, same as I explained to you two weeks ago.
Hope you make friends. He's to be head boss man, and his word goes;
but you'll find him twenty-four carat gold."

"That's darned fine gold, boss," grunted Jake.

He held out his horny hand and grasped mine, exclaiming heartily enough:

"Glad to meet you, George."

He pulled out a plug of tobacco from his hip pocket, brushed some of
the most conspicuous dirt and grime from it, bit off what appeared to
me to be a mouthful and began to look me over.

"He's new," he grunted, as if to himself; "but he's young and big. He
looks tough; he's got the right kind of jaw."

Then he turned to Mr. Horsfal. "Guess, when he gets the edges rubbed
off, he'll more than make it, boss," he said.

K. B. Horsfal laughed loudly.

"That's just what I thought myself, Jake. Now, give us the keys to the
oil barns and the new store. Go and help unload that baggage and truck
from the launch. You can follow your usual bent after that, for I'll
be showing George over the place myself."

I found the prospective store just as it had been described: a large,
plain, front room, now fitted with shelves and a counter, and all
freshly painted. Everything was in readiness to accommodate the stock,
most of which was due to arrive the next afternoon. Where a door had
been, leading into the other parts of the house, it was now solidly
partitioned up, leaving only front and back entrances to the store.

We spent the afternoon in the open air, inspecting the property, which
was perfectly situated for scenic beauty, with plenty of cleared,
fertile land near the shore and rich in giant timber behind.

In the early part of the evening, after a cold lunch aboard the launch,
we went back to the house and, for the first time, Mr. Horsfal inserted
a key into the front door of the dwelling proper.

I had been not a little curious regarding this place and I was still
wondering where it was intended that I should take up my quarters.

Jake Meaghan seemed all right in his own Klondikish,
pork-and-beans-and-a-blanket