Part 9 (1/2)
”Stop! Stop!” yelled the factor at the top of his voice, interrupting with difficulty the tu cascade of Cardepie's speech ”Have you that paper with you?”
”_Oui_, by gar!” cried the French a half-sheet of rough paper, charred at the upper edge
Fitzpatrick puzzled over it for a full e, and the veins in his neck to swell as he read aloud:
The brotherhoodyour early furs to the post there
SEGUIS, Chief Free-Trader
”Free-traders! Free-traders!” he gasped ”By heaven, this is too much! For thirty years, I have been factor in this district, and kept the hunters in line But, now, there's a brotherhood of free-traders They'll flout the Company, will they? They'll flout me, eh? I'll show them, by heaven! I'll show them!”
The factor heaved himself out of his chair, and luuis is at the head of it I wonder where thathalf-breed is either dead or tied to a sledge on his way here That'll break 'e their leader! It's up to him, now Cardepie, send the chief trader of the fort and the doctor to anize to htened at the anger of the fierce old h to hters
”Girls, please have your dinners brought upstairs to you to-night
I want to talk business withwolad, in their turn, to avoid the tantru found Fort Severn in a tuanization had spread until even the dullest Indian had been made aware of it
The council of departht before, had unanimously decided that but one course lay open to theainst the Coer proportions At the sareed that a wait of a few days would be judicious, for in that tiuis as his prisoner
No one doubted for a moment that, if McTavish came at all, it would be either to announce the death of the man he had set out to capture, or to hand his prisoner over to the authorities Such was Donald's reputation in the district
Nevertheless, all necessary preparations for a military expedition were made Storekeeper Trent drew liberally on his supplies, and kept his helpers busyAlso, he opened cases of cartridges, that he es were overhauled and repaired
About noon of the third day, a dog-train and sledge, with one hted far across the frozen Severn, headed toward the fort Half an hour later, a lass announced that a second e
”That settles it,” said he ”It's McTavish bringing in Charley Seguis”
A sigh of relief went up, for all knew their task would now be easier After another space, however, the an to focus industriously andat all!” he suddenly cried ”It's an Indian” And five h”
Thus did the fort first know of the happening to the captain of Fort dickey When the dogs, with a final burst of speed and ate, the whole settlerin, McTavish rose from the furs that wrapped him, and, with a wave of his hand, but no word, started directly for the factor's house One hand was bound in strips of fur and a fold of his _capote_ shi+elded his eyes froain, however, and went straight toward his object, turning aside all questions with a shake of his head
Not so with Peter Rainy The center of an adroup, he narrated his adventures with eration Reduced to a feords, the facts were these:
When McTavish had refused to take his old servant on the hunt for Charley Seguis, Rainy had moped disconsolate for almost a week It was the first ti or canoe journey At the end of that period, when no runner had brought word of his master, the Indian beca hih at the fort, borrowed Buller's dog-teaainst the desire and advice of Cardepie and Buller
How he had followed the blind trail, how he had escaped capture at Lake Sturgeon by a hair's breadth and a snowfall that obliterated his tracks, and how he had, finally, in despair, started for Fort Severn for help, took long in the telling
But the sa a cut through the woods, Rainy had come upon the erratic tracks of the blind htest suspicion of whose they were, only knowing that so between man and master, just barely in time to save the latter's life, had been fervent, but reserved McTavish gave himself up to the ministrations of the other like a child, and obediently rode ale, his eyes covered Food there had been in plenty, so that, by the time the snowy ained nearly all his strength