ods. Leaving their purchases at Uncle Joe's wagons under the care of
his teamsters, they went to his hotel to spend the night.

After supper Hank, who had shown a restlessness very foreign to him,
said that he was going out to take a walk and would return soon. When
Tom offered to go with him he shook his head, grinned, and departed.

The evening passed very pleasantly for Tom, who needed nothing more than
Patience's presence to make him content, and after she had said good
night he accompanied her uncle to the bar for a night-cap. As he
entered the room he thought he saw a movement outside the window, down
in one corner of the sash, and he slipped to the door and peered out. As
he cogitated about scouting around outside he heard Uncle Joe's voice
calling to him over the noise of the crowd and he made his way back to
the bar, drank to the success of the coming expedition, and engaged in
small talk with his companion and those around them. But his thoughts
were elsewhere, for Hank had been gone a long time.

"Uncle Joe, how long have you known your wagoners?" he asked.

"Long enough to know 'em well." The trader regarded him quizzically.
"Not worryin' about your merchandise, are you?"

"I'm wondering where Hank is."

"In some trapper's rendezvous; he'll show up in th' mornin' with nothin'
worse than a headache."

"I'm not treating him right," soliloquized Tom. "A man shouldn't forget
his friends, especially when they're as close as Hank is. I'm goin'
lookin' for him. Good night."

Uncle Joe watched him push his way directly through the crowd, leaving a
few scowls in his wake, and pop out of the door; and the older man
nodded with satisfaction. "A man shouldn't, Tom, my boy," he muttered.
"Stick to them that's stuck to you--always--forever--in spite of hell.
That's good medicine."

A tour of the places where trappers congregated was barren of results
until he had reached the last of such resorts that he knew, and here he
found Enoch Birdsall and Alonzo Webb, who welcomed him with such
vociferous greetings that he knew they had nearly reached the
quarrelsome stage. To his inquiries as to the whereabouts of his partner
they made boisterous replies, their laughter rattling the windows.

"Ol' beaver's settin' a-top his house--no, 'tain't no house. Settin'
a-top yer pile o' goods cached with Cooper's--you tell 'im," yelled
Alonzo, slapping Enoch across the back and nearly knocking him out of
the chair. "You tell 'im