s, he was also to learn, had been
made the previous fall by a dozen men who arrived in half as many
poling-boats loaded with provisions. Here they had found the blind
trapper, on the site of Two Cabins, and about his cabin they had built
their own. Later arrivals, mushing up the ice with dog teams, had
tripled the population. There was plenty of meat in camp, and good
low-pay dirt had been discovered and was being worked.

In five minutes, all the men of Two Cabins were jammed into the room.
Smoke, shoved off into a corner, ignored and scowled at, his hands and
feet tied with thongs of moose-hide, looked on. Thirty-eight men he
counted, a wild and husky crew, all frontiersmen of the States or
voyageurs from Upper Canada. His captors told the tale over and over,
each the center of an excited and wrathful group. There were mutterings
of: "Lynch him now! Why wait?" And, once, a big Irishman was restrained
only by force from rushing upon the helpless prisoner and giving him a
beating.

It was while counting the men that Smoke caught sight of a familiar
face. It was Breck, the man whose boat Smoke had run through the rapids.
He wondered why the other did not come and speak to him, but himself
gave no sign of recognition. Later, when with shielded face Breck passed
him a significant wink, Smoke understood.

Blackbeard, whom Smoke heard called Eli Harding, ended the discussion as
to whether or not the prisoner should be immediately lynched.

"Hold on," Harding roared. "Keep your shirts on. That man belongs to me.
I caught him an' I brought him here. D'ye think I brought him all the
way here to be lynched? Not on your life. I could 'a' done that myself
when I found him. I brought him here for a fair an' impartial trial, an'
by God, a fair an' impartial trial he's goin' to get. He's tied up safe
an' sound. Chuck him in a bunk till morning, an' we'll hold the trial
right here."

Smoke woke up. A draught that possessed all the rigidity of an icicle
was boring into the front of his shoulders as he lay on his side facing
the wall. When he had been tied into the bunk there had been no such
draught, and now the outside air, driving into the heated atmosphere
of the cabin with the pressure of fifty below zero, was sufficient
advertizement that some one from without had pulled away the
moss-chinking between the logs. He squirmed as far as his bonds would
permit, then craned his neck forward until his lips just managed to
reach t