eless calm. He might have a dull ache in the bottom of his
breast, but the wild struggle was over. The matter was disposed of for
good.

After breakfast he and Ed hitched up the team and went to the pine
ridge to haul the logs Ed had cut the day before. They had returned
with a load, and were throwing them off at the site of the proposed
house, when Ed suddenly cocked his head to listen.

"Horses," he said, "and wheels."

"Some of the natives," suggested Sam.

Ed shook his head. "No occasion for them to bring a wagon. They come
horseback."

Sam scowled; dreading, hoping--what he knew not.

By and by the team and wagon clattered into view from among the trees
along the river.

"My horses!" cried Sam involuntarily. Filled with a kind of panic, his
eyes sought the hills.

A second glance showed him both the figures visible in the wagon-box
were of men. He calmed down. Whether his principal feeling was of
relief or disappointment, he could not have said. Ed was looking at
him curiously.

"Not mine," said Sam, blushing. "I mean the team I used to drive."

As the horses mounted the rise, Sam called in a softened voice:
"Sambo! Dinah!"

The little black pair pricked up their ears and whinnied. Sam went to
meet them. The two men he dimly remembered as breed-boys around the
settlement. Scarcely regarding them, he pulled the horses' ears and
rubbed their noses, while they nozzled him capriciously with delicate
whickerings.

"Old boy! Old girl!" whispered Sam. "You haven't forgotten me, eh?
Maybe you miss me just the same as I miss you!"

"How did you come by this team?" he demanded of the driver.

As he looked up he saw that a third head and shoulders had risen above
the edge of the box. He saw a face incredibly wrinkled, framed in
long, straggling grey hair. The bright eyes twinkled merrily.

"Hello, Sam!"

"Musq'oosis!" cried Sam, recoiling. Fearful of other surprises, he
hastened to look in the wagon-box. There was nothing more in it save
their bedding and grub.

Musq'oosis clambered down and shook hands with Sam and Ed.

"Tell them to unhitch," said Sam, mindful of the duties of
hospitality.

Musq'oosis shook his head. "Got go back," he said. "Got sleep to-night
on Little Prairie. Home to-morrow night."

Sam felt relieved. His ordeal was not to be long continued then.
Whatever colour might be given it, he knew what Musq'oosis had really
come for.

Ed, out of a sentiment of delicacy, retired to fi