in three months, you will please send this one, with the box in my room,
to the address on the envelope. This is for a solicitor in Montreal,
which you will also forward as soon as possible; and this last one
is for yourself; but you will not open it until the three months have
passed. Have I your permission to lead these men? They would not go
without me."

"I know that, I know that, Hume. I can't say no. Go, and good luck go
with you."

Here the manly old factor turned away his head. He knew that Hume had
done right. He knew the possible sacrifice this man was making of all
his hopes, of his very life; and his sound Scotch heart appreciated the
act to the full. But he did not know all. He did not know that Jaspar
Hume was starting to search for the man who had robbed him of youth and
hope and genius and home.

"Here is a letter that the wife has written to her husband on the chance
of his getting it. You will take it with you, Hume. And the other she
wrote to me--shall I keep it?" He held out his hand.

"No, sir, I will keep it, if you will allow me. It is my commission, you
know." The shadow of a smile hovered about Hume's lips.

The factor smiled kindly as he replied: "Ah, yes, your
commission--Captain Jaspar Hume of--of what?" Just then the door opened
and there entered the four men who had sat before the sub-factor's fire
the night before. They were dressed in white blanket costumes from head
to foot, white woollen capotes covering the grey fur caps they wore.
Jaspar Hume ran his eye over them and then answered the factor's
question: "Of the White Guard, sir."

"Good," was the reply. "Men, you are going on a relief expedition. There
will be danger. You need a good leader. You have one in Captain Hume."

Jeff Hyde shook his head at the others with a pleased I-told-you-so
expression; Cloud-in-the-Sky grunted his deep approval; and Late
Carscallen smacked his lips in a satisfied manner and rubbed his leg
with a schoolboy sense of enjoyment. The factor continued: "In the name
of the Hudson's Bay Company I will say that if you come back, having
done your duty faithfully, you shall be well rewarded. And I believe you
will come back, if it is in human power to do so."

Here Jeff Hyde said: "It isn't for reward we're doin' it, Mr. Field, but
because Mr. Hume wished it, because we believed he'd lead us; and for
the lost fellow's wife. We wouldn't have said we'd do it, if it wasn't
for him that's just called us the