"I guess he won't bother me any; I'm here to stay."
"No, he won't be apt to _bother_ you any. Probably kill you, though,
if you don't keep your eyes open. But don't worry about that, because
if he does I'll get him."
"He can't bluff me. I served with the engineers in Russia."
"You'll be servin' with the devils in hell, too, if you don't quit
makin' enemies of men like Alex Thumb."
"They didn't use up _all_ the brains, when they made the Mounted,
Captain."
"_Corporal_'ll do me," corrected the officer. "I wasn't with the
engineers--in Russia. I was only in the trenches--in France."
As Downey slung his pack to his shoulders the following morning he
stepped close to Murchison. The trading room was deserted save for
those two, but the officer lowered his voice. "Wentworth ain't the
only one around here that needs watchin'," he said warningly.
"What do ye mean?"
"I mean your clerk ain't the fool he lets on he is. That room you put
me in was next to his. The chinkin's fallen out in spots, an' his
light was lit late, so I just laid in my bunk an' glued my eye to the
crack. He was readin'--an' enjoyin' what he read. He'd lay down the
book now an' then an' light a good briar pipe. I'd get a good look
into his face then, an' he's no more a fool than you or I. He's damned
smart lookin'. An' the books he had laid out on the table wasn't books
a fool would be readin'. He was careful to hide 'em away when he
rolled in--an' he cleaned his fingernails with a white handled dingus,
an' brushed his teeth, an' put the tools back in a black leather case
that had silver trimmin's. Believe me, there's somethin' comin' off
here between now an' summer, an' I'm goin' to ask for the detail!"
Murchison laughed. "Come on back, Downey, and you'll see the fun. An'
I ain't so sure you won't be needed in your official capacity. But
don't bother your head over Sven Larson. Remember this: it takes a
smart man to play the fool, an' play it right. That's why John McNabb
sent him up here. An' his name ain't Larson; it's Hedin. He's John's
right-hand man--an' if I mistake not someday he'll be his son-in-law."
"Oh, I'll be back all right," grinned Downey. "I've got a hunch that
maybe I'll be needed."
"Ye wouldn't be sorry to have to arrest Wentworth for some kind of
thievery, would ye, Downey? I could see ye distrusted him from the
moment ye laid eyes on him."
"U-m-m-m," answered Downey. "I was thinkin' more of, maybe, bringin'
in Alex Thumb--for murder."
A week later Murchison accompanied Wentworth upon a ten-day trip,
during the course of which they visited the proposed mill site, the
McNabb holdings, and a great part of the available pulp-wood territory
adjoining. With Murchison's help, Wentworth sketched a map of the
district that showed with workable accuracy the location of lakes and
streams, together with the location of Government and Hudson's Bay
Company lands. This done, he secured an Indian guide and proceeded to
lay out and blaze the route of the wagon road to the railway.
By the middle of May the snow had nearly disappeared, and the first of
June saw the rivers running free of ice. It was then that Wentworth
"borrowed" Sven Larson from the factor and dropped down Gods River in a
canoe to its confluence with the Shamattawa. Camp was made at the head
of the rapids. Thereafter for five days Hedin worked under Wentworth's
direction, while the engineer ran his levels and established his
contour. In the evenings as they sat by the campfire smoking, Hedin
preserved the same stolid silence that he had studiously observed since
the coming of Wentworth.
"Murchison says you know all about fur," Wentworth suggested one
evening. "And the finished fur? Do you know that, too--about, well,
for instance kolinsky, and nutria, and Russian sable?"
"Kolinsky and nutria are no good. We do not have them here. Russian
sable, and sea otter, and black fox, they are the best furs in the
world. We do not have them here, either, except once in a while a
black, or a silver fox."
"A coat of Russian sable would be very valuable?"
"Yes. Real Russian sable, dark, and well silvered, would be very
valuable."
"How much would one be worth?"
"Nobody can tell unless they can see it. It is all in the matching."
For a full minute Wentworth studied the face across the little fire,
the face with the unkempt beard, and the far-off, pondering eyes.
"I have a Russian sable coat," ventured Wentworth.
The factor's clerk gazed at him with unwinking blue eyes, and the head
wagged slowly. "No. Russian sable is woman's fur. They do not make
men's coats of Russian sable."
"But this is a woman's coat," explained Wentworth. "I got it in Russia
when I was in the Army. She was a Russian princess and I helped her
escape from the country at great risk to myself. It was in the winter,
in the dead of night, and a terrible blizzard was raging. When she
safely crossed the border she thanked me with tears in her eyes and
begged me to take her coat in payment, as she had no money. I refused,
but she tossed it into my arms, and disappeared into the night."
"Maybe she died in the storm without her coat."
"Why, no--you see, she had--that is, I had arranged for a car--a
sleigh, I mean, to meet her there with plenty of robes. But what I
want to get at, is this. If I show you this coat will you promise not
to say a word to Murchison about it? I do not want him to know I have
it. He would want to buy it, and he is my friend and I do not want to
refuse him. But I do not want to sell the coat, because sometime I am
going to return it to its original owner. But first I should like you
to tell me what it is worth. Can you tell me that? And can you
remember never to tell Murchison that I have the coat?"
Hedin nodded. "Yes, I can tell you how much the coat is worth when I
see it and feel it. And I will not tell Murchison. That is why I am
smart, and others are foolish. Because they tell me what they know,
and I listen, and pretty soon I know that, too. But I do not tell what
I know, and they cannot listen. So I know what they know, and they do
not know what I know, and that is why I am wise and they don't know
hardly anything at all."
"Everything coming in, and nothing going out," laughed Wentworth.
"That's right, Sven; you've got the system. We will finish here
to-morrow, and then we will return to the post, and you can come to my
cabin, and I'll show you the fur."