n
phrase, and was also a "timber looker" for a lumber company. Lucetta had
withdrawn to the privacy of her tent, and Prime could not divest himself
of the idea that the small man whose tongue had been so suddenly
loosened was merely sparring for time, time in which to accomplish some
end of his own. In due course the battery was unmasked.

"You say you begin _voyageur_ on ze big lake. W'ere you leave Jules
Beaujeau an' Pierre Cambon, eh, w'at?"

"I don't know them," said Prime, telling the simple truth.

"Dis Pierre Cambon's gon," said the little man, suddenly tapping the
weapon he had been inspecting. "She 'ave hees name on ze stock. An' ze
birch-bark down yonder; she's belong' to Jules Beaujeau. You buy 'um?"

Prime scarcely knew what to say; whether to tell the truth, which would
not be believed, or to make up a lie, which might be believed. As a
compromise he chose a middle course, which is always the most dangerous.

"I don't know these two you speak of, by name; but the two men who owned
the canoe and the guns are both dead."

The supper guest sprang up as if a bomb had been exploded under him and
quickly put a safe distance between himself and the camp-fire.

"You--you kill 'um?" he demanded.

"No; come back here and sit down. They had a fight and killed each
other."

The man returned hesitantly and squatted beside the fire to press
another live coal into the bowl of his pipe. Prime switched the talk
abruptly.

"You'd better change your mind about the offer I made you and pilot us
to the nearest town. We will pay you well for it."

"You got money?" was the short question.

"Plenty of it."

At this the "ver' great trapper" assumed to take the proposal under
consideration, smoking other pipes, chaffering and bargaining and
prolonging his stay deep into the night. When he finally took his leave,
saying that he must go on to his camp, which was a few miles up one of
the smaller tributaries of the main stream, it was with a half promise
to come back in the morning for the piloting.

Prime took counsel of prudence and did not settle himself for the night
immediately after the sharp-eyed one had gone. Laying his pipe aside, he
crept cautiously out to the river-bank and assured himself that his late
visitor was doing what he had said he would do, namely, heading off up
the river with clean, quick strokes of the paddle, which soon sent his
light craft out of sight. Prime climbed down the bank, satisfied