Part 13 (1/2)

”I said I wouldn't go t' Birds' Nest Islands,” said Billy Topsail, ”an' I won't”

”Ah, come on, Billy,” Archie pleaded

”I said I wouldn't,” Billy repeated, obstinately, ”an' I won't”

”That ain't nothink,” Bagg argued

”Anyhow,” said Billy, ”I won't, for I got my reasons”[3]

David Grey, a bent old felloas now long ”past his labour,” as they say in Newfoundland, sat within hearing Boy and man he had been in the service of the Hudson Bay Company, as hunter, clerk, trader, explorer, factor; and here, on the coast where he had been born, he had settled down to spend the rest of his days He was not an ignorant ent one, educated by service, wide evening study of books, and hard experience in the great wildernesses of the Canadian Northwest, begun, long ago, when he was a lad

”You make me think of Donald McLeod,” said he

The boys drew near

”It was long ago,” David went on ”Long, long ago,” the old man repeated ”It ay back in the first half of the last century, for I was little e, a remote post, situated three hundred miles or more to the northeast of Lake Superior, but now abandoned And a successful, fair-dealing trader he was, but so stern and taciturn as to keep both his helpers and his half-civilized customers in awe of him It was deep in the wilderness--not the wilderness as you boys know it, where a ht and day without fear of wild beast or savage, but a vast, unexplored place, with dangers lurking everywhere

”'Grey,' he said to me when I reported for duty, fresh from headquarters, 'if you do your duty by me, I'll do mine by you'

”'I'll try to,' said I

”'When you know me better,' said McLeod, with quiet emphasis, 'you'll know that I stand by my word'

”We dealt, of course, with the Indians, who, spring and fall, brought their furs to the fort, and never failed to res in the fashi+on that best pleased their fancy

”Even then the Indians were degenerate, given over to idleness and debauchery; but they were not so far sunk in these habits as are the dull, lazy felloho sell you the baskets and beaded moccasins that the squaws eful, and they were alery, for the only law they kneas the law our guns enforced Some authority was vested in the factor, and he was not slow to exert it when a flagrant offense was committed near by

”'There's no band of Indians in these parts,' I was told, 'that can scare McLeod He'll see justice done for and against thee was set in a wide clearing It was built of logs and surrounded by a high, stout stockade Adate, which was closed proarrison regularly stationed there to defend us In all, it may be, we could muster nine men--McLeod, two clerks, and a number of stout felloho helped handle the stores Moreover, were our gate to be closed and our fort surrounded by a hostile force, we should be utterly cut off froht couard, and we knew that once ere overcome, whatever the object of the attack, the wares and our lives would be lost together

”'But we can stand a long siege,' I used to think; and indeed there was good ground for conable to an attack by force, no doubt; but as it soon appeared, it was no y of the Indians One night, when I had shut the gates and dropped the bars, I heard a long-drawn cry--a scream, in which it was not hard to detect the quality of terror and great stress It cae of the forest When it was repeated, near at hand, my heart went to my mouth, for I knew that a band of Indians was enca for a week past Then ca

”'Let me in! Open! Open!' I heard a man cry

”I had ate when McLeod came out of his house

”'Stop!' he shouted

”I withdrew froate He approached, waved me back, and put his own hand on the bar