One day Louis Napoleon sent them on along the trail while he went up the
mountain to a trap among the trees. He rejoined them--not as his custom
was, shouting inaudible conversation for the last hundred yards or so,
but in silence. They wondered at that, and at the one clumsy gesture
that flourished something darkly grey at them. What had happened
to the man? Whatever he had caught he was hugging it as one
hugs a cat, and stroking it. "Ugh!" he said deeply, drawing near. "Oh!"
A solemn joy irradiated his face, and almost religious ecstasy found
expression.
He had got a silver fox, a beautifully marked silver fox, the best luck
of Labrador! One goes for years without one, in hope, and when it comes,
it pays the trapper's debts, it clears his life--for years!
They tried poor inadequate congratulation....
As they sat about the fire that night a silence came upon Louis
Napoleon. It was manifest that his mind was preoccupied. He got up,
walked about, inspected the miracle of fur that had happened to him,
returned, regarded them. "'M'm," he said, and stroked his chin with his
forefinger. A certain diffidence and yet a certain dignity of assurance
mingled in his manner. It wasn't so much a doubt of his own correctness
as of some possible ignorance of the finer shades on their part that
might embarrass him. He coughed a curt preface, and intimated he had a
request to make. Behind the Indian calm of his face glowed tremendous
feeling, like the light of a foundry furnace shining through chinks in
the door. He spoke in a small flat voice, exercising great self-control.
His wish, he said, in view of all that had happened, was a little
thing.... This was nearly a perfect day for him, and one thing only
remained.... "Well," he said, and hung. "Well," said Trafford. He
plunged. Just simply this. Would they give him the brandy bottle and let
him get drunk? Mr. Grenfell was a good man, a very good man, but he had
made brandy dear--dear beyond the reach of common men altogether--along
the coast....
He explained, dear bundle of clothes and dirt! that he was always
perfectly respectable when he was drunk.