thered as much as was possible in her arms, and
staggered with her load from the store, and as Factor Rodwell nodded to
him, Hubert Stane moved up the counter, and began to give his order.
The factor wrote it down without comment, glancing at his customer from
time to time with shrewd appraising eyes, and when Stane had paid for
the goods which were to be ready before noon, he asked a question.

"New to the district, aren't you?"

"I wintered here," replied Stane briefly.

"Then you did no trapping," said the factor with a laugh, "or you'd
have brought your pelts in. I guess you must be prospecting?"

"I have done a little," agreed Stane, a touch of reserve in his manner.

"A lonely job!" commented the factor.

"Yes," was Stane's reply, then he nodded and turned towards the door.

The factor watched him go with frowning eyes, then turned to his
assistant.

"Not a very sociable sort, hey, Donald?"

The assistant grinned, and shook his head. "Tongue-tied, I guess."

"I wonder where he has his location."

"Somewhere North!" answered Donald. "He came upstream, I saw him."

The factor said no more to him, but passed out of the store towards the
warehouse. As he did so he caught sight of Stane standing in the Square
watching a canoe far out on the river. The factor's eyes were good and
he recognized the occupants of the craft quite easily, and as he saw
Stane's interest in them, the frown gathered about his eyes once more,
and he muttered to himself:

"I wonder what Mr. Ainley's little game means?"

Then as he was unable to find any answer to his question he turned
again to his own affairs.

As for Hubert Stane he stood in the Square for quite a long time
watching for the return of the canoe, determined to have speech with
Ainley. Then, as it still lingered, he turned and made his way to his
own camp.

It was quite late in the afternoon when the opportunity he sought was
given to him. Impelled by the merest curiosity he had strolled over to
the Indian tepees and had there encountered Miskodeed teaching a
puppy-dog tricks. He had stopped to speak to her, and was still engaged
in a rather one-sided conversation, when the sound of English voices
caused him to turn round.

The governor's party, accompanied by the factor, was moving towards the
tepees. His first impulse was to go away, then seeing Ainley among the
little knot of people, he decided to remain, and to serve his own end,
kept Miskodeed in conversa