nd your business!" Bela cried passionately. "Keep out of my
business. I know where you been to-day. You been lookin' for Sam.
Everybody t'ink I send you look for Sam. That mak' me mad. I wouldn't
go to Sam if he was bleed to death by the road!"

"Nobody see me," said Musq'oosis soothingly.

"Everyt'ing get known here," she returned. "The trees tell it."

"I know where he is," Musq'oosis murmured with an innocent air.

Bela made a clatter among the dishes.

After a while he said again: "I know where he is."

Bela, still affecting deafness, flounced into the kitchen.

She did not come back until the supper guests were arriving.

With a glance of defiance toward Musq'oosis, Bela welcomed Mahooley
with a sidelong smile. That, she wished the Indian to know, was her
answer. The red-haired trader was delighted. To-night the choicest
cuts found their way to his plate.

When she was not busy serving, Bela sat on a box at Mahooley's left
and suffered his proprietary airs. Afterward they sat in front of the
fire, whispering and laughing together, careless of what anybody might
think of it.

This was not particularly entertaining to the rest of the crowd, and
the party broke up early.

"Bela is changed," they said to each other.

At the door Stiffy said, as a matter of form: "Coming, Mahooley?"

Mahooley, glancing obliquely at the inscrutable Bela, decided on a
bold play.

"Don't wait for me," he said. "I'll stop and talk to Bela for a while.
Musq'oosis will play propriety," he added with a laugh.

Bela made no remark, and the shack emptied except for the three of
them. Mary Otter had gone to call at the mission.

For a while Mahooley passed the time in idly teasing Musq'oosis after
his own style.

"Musq'oosis, they tell me you were quite a runner in your young days."

"So," said the old man good-humouredly.

"Yes, fellow said when the dinner-bell rang in camp, you beat the dog
to the table!"

Mahooley supplied the laughter to his own jest.

"Let him be," said Bela sullenly.

"Don't mak' stop," observed Musq'oosis, smiling. "I lak hear what
fonny thoughts come in his head."

Mahooley glanced at him narrowly, suspecting a double meaning.

When the rumble of the last wagon died away in the distance, Mahooley
said carelessly: "Well, Musq'oosis, you know the old saying: 'Two is
company, three is none.'"

Musq'oosis appeared not to have understood.

"In other words, your room is preferred to your company