otruded a stout, black handle.

"No fear of me," laughed the other. "I'm too eager for the rest of them
fine furs which we must try to get. Can't you work the girl for them,
Buster?"

"I'll try. In the meantime get the dogs together to-morrow and feed 'em
up. They're lookin' thin. I hope to hear from Dan in a day or two as
regards that creek and what he's found in it. Then I'm off to the nest
of my turtle dove, for the bridegroom is hungry for his bride, eh,
pard?" winked the dark-browed fellow, still smoking heavily.

"You're a dandy, sure!" retorted the man designated as "pard" by the
trader. "I see your finish if your squaw's people up country find out
your doin's here."

"They never will. The Yukon is many 'sleeps' away, and there is no
communication between these Eskimos and the Indians."

"You're makin' good the sayin' that a sailor has a wife in every port
aint you Buster?" continued the man who in the absence of better
employment delighted in teasing his partner.

"Wife be blowed! What's got into you to-night? Go along to bed!"

"Thank you I'm there," mockingly from the other, while tumbling into his
bunk in the cabin corner, and pulling away at his smudgy cob pipe after
retiring.

The two men understood each other. "Buster", as he was nicknamed, was
shameless. He respected neither God nor man. Whatever he willed to do,
he did, regardless of results, and was well known in Alaska by the white
inhabitants. The other was a trifle weaker though not less wicked. He
could stand beside Buster and urge him on, while hesitating to do the
same acts of lawlessness. There is small difference in these degrees of
sinning. If any, it may be in favor of the Busters, who possibly deserve
credit for fearlessness where the others are cowardly.

The scant mock marriage was soon over. The smiling little bride said
good-bye to her people, who wept around her; climbed into the dog-sled
of her new master, and rode proudly away southward.

With the summer her friends might come on a fishing trip to visit her,
and renew their acquaintance in her new home.

She wanted to convince them of the wisdom of her selection. She felt
that she could do so--if not now, then by the time of their coming.

[Illustration: "_Upon his mother's back beneath her parkie_"]

Poor child! She had not yet learned that it is best to feel confident of
nothing.

Two years passed, and a small, black-eyed toddler kept Estella company.
He wore a red c