The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Challenge of the North, by James Hendryx

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Challenge of the North

Author: James Hendryx

Release Date: May 10, 2006 [EBook #18366]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHALLENGE OF THE NORTH ***

Produced by Al Haines

THE CHALLENGE OF THE NORTH

BY

JAMES HENDRYX

GARDEN CITY --------- NEW YORK

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY

1922

COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION
INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES

AT

THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.

_First Edition_

The Challenge of the North

I

Oskar Hedin, head of the fur department of old John McNabb's big store,
looked up from his scrutiny of the Russian sable coat spread upon a
table before him, and encountered the twinkling eyes of old John
himself.

"It's a shame to keep this coat here--and that natural black fox piece,
too. Who is there in Terrace City that's got thirty thousand dollars
to spend for a fur coat, or twenty thousand for a fox fur?"

Old John grinned. "Mrs. Orcutt bought one, didn't she?"

"Yes, but she bought it down in New York----"

"An' paid thirty-five thousand for a coat that runs half a dozen shades
lighter, an' is topped an' pointed to bring it up to the best it's got.
Did I ever tell ye the story of Mrs. Orcutt's coat?"

"No."

"It goes back quite a ways--the left-handed love me an' Fred Orcutt has
for one another. We speak neighborly on the street, an' for years
we've played on opposite sides of a ball-a-hole foursome at the Country
Club, but either of us would sooner lose a hundred dollars than pay the
other a golf ball.

"It come about in a business way, an' in a business way it's kept on.
Not a dollar of McNabb money passes through the hands of Orcutt's
Wolverine Bank--an' he could have had it all, an' he knows it.

"As ye know, I started out, a lad, with the Hudson's Bay Company, an'
I'd got to be a factor when an old uncle of my mother's in Scotlan'
died an' left me a matte