whose skin was nearly as dark as his own and whose greying
temples bespoke almost a as many years as the chief's black locks could
boast.

In the eyes of both, as they regarded each other, were memories known
to no one else. McElroy wondered what they were and what that year, of
which Ridgar had spoken only once, had held.

The trader spoke their tongue as easily as he spoke any other that came
to the post, naturally and with quiet fluency.

So deep was the apparent pleasure of the meeting that, when the
interpreting was done and the ceremonies over, Ridgar went with the
Indian among the tepees and no more did McElroy see him until he came to
the factory at dusk.

"Mother of Heaven!" he ejaculated, flinging himself down at the table in
the living-room where Rette's strong coffee tempted the nostril; "such
furs! Beaver in countless packs, all the fat winter skins, no Bordeaux,
no Mittain. Fox, also of the best only,--black fox, fine and shining,
fox of those far-north regions where they hunt beyond the sun, white as
the snow it runs on, and Mon Dieu, McElroy! Seven silvers as I hope for
salvation! Verily are they a prize beyond price, these Indians that have
come in to us, and I fancy that young Nor'wester is swearing at his luck
in losing them. Old Quamenoka struts as if their wealth belonged to his
meek Assiniboines.... But the furs! Ermine and nekik and sakwasew and
wapistan, all the little fellows that, taken from those virgin north
lands, are worth their weight in gold! Nowhere have I seen a common
pelt. They are connoisseurs, these wild Nakonkirhirinons, and they carry
a king's ransom in their long canoes. White bear and brown arctic wolf
and everywhere the best of its kind! To-morrow's trade will be worth
while--but keep the guns in evidence and quiet above all things."

"Ah!" said McElroy, "what is there to fear, think you? Is not the chief
bound to you by all ties of ceremony and regard?"

"Most assuredly," returned Ridgar quietly, "but those young braves
are strung like a singing wire and swift as a girl to take suspicious
fright; and there are somewhere near five hundred of them, as near as I
can make out from the numbers seething among the lodges. They are in a
strange country and watching every leaf and shadow."

Thus the sun went down on De Seviere, with the eager maids and women
passing and repassing near the gate to peep out at the rustling throng,
at the tepees with their fine skin coverings pain