The Fur Bringers. Footner Hulbert

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      Even as he said it his heart accused him of disloyalty. He suddenly changed his mind.

      "Come on!" he whispered gruffly. "We'll chance our luck together. If you open your head I'll brain you! Wait here a minute."

      Job understood perfectly. He crept down to the lake shore at his master's feet as quiet as a ghost. Seeing the loaded boat he hopped delightedly into his accustomed place in the bow.

      During June it never becomes wholly dark in the latitude of Lake Miwasa. An exquisite dim twilight brooded over the wide water and the pine-walled shore. The stars sparkled faintly in an oxidized silver sea. There was no wind now, but the pines breathed like warm-blooded creatures.

      Ambrose's breast hummed like a violin to the bow of night. The poetic feeling was there, though the expression was prosaic.

      "By George, this is fine!" he murmured.

      Job's curly tail thumped the gunwale in answer.

      "I'm glad I brought you, old fel'," said Ambrose. "I expect I'd go clean off my head if didn't have any one to talk to!"

      Job beat a tattoo on the side of the boat and wriggled and whined in his anxiety to reach his master.

      "Steady there!" said Ambrose.

      Presently he went on: "Three hundred miles! Six days for Poly to come with the current; nine days to go back! Fifteen days at the best! Anything might happen in that time. … Poly said no danger from any of the men there. But some one might come down the river! … If wishing could bring an aeroplane up north!"

      After a silence: "I wish I could get my best suit pressed! … It's two years old, anyway. And she's just come in; she knows the styles. … Lord, I'll look like a regular roughneck!"

      Next morning when Peter Minot threw open the door of the store he found the note pinned to the door-frame. It was brief and to the point:

      DEAR PETE:

      You said I ought to go by myself till I felt better. So I'm off. Don't expect me till you see me. Charge me with 50 lbs. flour, 18 lbs. bacon, 20 lbs. rice, 10 lbs. sugar, 5 lbs. prunes,½ lb. tea,½ lb. baking powder, and bag of salt. Please take care of my dog. So long! AD

      P.S.—I'm taking the dog.

      Peter, like all men slow to anger, lost his temper with startling effect. Tearing the note off the door and grinding it under foot, he cursed the runaway from a full heart.

      Eva, hearing, hastily called the children indoors, and thrusting them behind her peeped into the store. Peter, purple in the face, was wildly brandishing his arms.

      Eva closed the door very softly and gave the children bread and molasses to keep them quiet. Meanwhile the storm continued to rage.

      "The young fool! To run off without a word! I'd have let him go gladly if he'd said anything—and given him a good man! But to go alone! He'll break an arm and die in the bush! And to leave me like this with the year's outfit due next week!

      "I'll not see him again until cold weather—if I ever see him! Fifty pounds of flour—with his appetite! He'll starve to death if he doesn't drown himself first! He'll never get to Enterprise! Oh, the consummate young ass! Damn Poly Goussard and his romantic stories!"

CHAPTER III.

       Table of Contents

      COLINA.

      John Gaviller and Colina were at breakfast in the big clap-boarded villa at Fort Enterprise.

      They were a good-looking pair, and at heart not dissimilar, though it must be taken into account that the same qualities manifest themselves differently in a man of affairs and a romantic, irresponsible young woman.

      They were secretly proud of each other—and quarreled continually. Colina, by virtue of her reckless honesty, frequently got the better of her canny father.

      "Well," he said, now with a gesture of surrender, "if you're determined to stay here, all right—but you must live differently."

      At the word "must" an ominous gleam shot from under Colina's lashes.

      "What's the matter with my way of living?" she asked with deceitful mildness.

      "This tearing around the country on horseback," he said. "Going off all day hunting with this man and that—and spending the night in native cabins. As long as I considered you were here on a visit I said nothing—"

      "Oh, didn't you!" murmured Colina sarcastically.

      "—But if you are going to make this country your home, you must consider your reputation in the community just the same as anywhere else—more, indeed; we live in a tiny little world here, where our smallest actions are scrutinized and discussed."

      He took a swallow of coffee. Colina played with her food sulkily.

      Her silence encouraged him to proceed: "Another thing," he said with a deprecating smile, "comparatively speaking, I occupy an exalted position now. I am the head of all things, such as they are. Great or small this entails certain obligations on a man. I have to study all my words and acts.

      "If you are going to stay here with me I shall expect you to assume your share; to consider my interests, to support me; to play the game as they say. What I object to is your impulsiveness, your outspokenness with the people. Remember, everybody here is your dependent. It is always a mistake to be open and frank with dependents. They don't understand it, and if they do, they presume upon it.

      "Be guided by my experience; no one could justly accuse me of any lack of affability or friendliness in dealing with the people here—but they never know what I am thinking of!"

      "Admirable!" murmured Colina, "but I'm not a directors' meeting!"

      "Colina!" said her father indignantly.

      "It's not fair for you to drag that in about my standing by you and supporting you!" she went on warmly. "You know I'll do that as long as I live! But I must be allowed to do it in my own way. I'm an adult and an individual. I differ from you. I've a right to differ from you. It is because these people are my inferiors that I can afford to be perfectly natural with them. As for their presuming on it, you needn't fear! I know how to take care of that!"

      "A little more reserve," murmured her father.

      Colina paused and looked at him levelly. "Dad, what a fool you are about me!" she said coolly.

      "Colina!" he cried again, and pounded the table.

      She met his indignant glance squarely.

      "I mean it," she said. "I'm your daughter, am I not?—and mother's? You must know yourself by this time; you must have known mother—you ought to understand me a little but you won't try—you're clever enough in everything else! You've made up an idea for yourself of what a daughter ought to be, and you're always СКАЧАТЬ