" I told him. "Personal appearance doesn't
go for much when you're in the woods."

"Ain't it the truth?" he agreed. "In trade?"

"Carrying despatches between Fort Pitt and Governor Dunmore just now.
Surveying before that."

"Then, by Harry, sir! You could be in better business," he snapped. "What
with Dunmore at the top, and thieving, land-grabbing settlers at the
bottom, this country is going to the devil! Dunmore cooks up a war to make
a profit out of his land-jobbing! Settlers quit good lands on this side
the mountains to go land-stealing in the Kentucky country and north of the
Ohio. It riles my blood! I say you could be in better business than
helping along the schemes of Dunmore and that trained skunk of his, Jack
Connolly."

I smiled pleasantly, beginning to remember that Ericus Dale was always a
freely spoken man.

"Do you mean that there is no need of this war? You say it is cooked up."

"Need of war?" he wrathfully repeated. "In God's mercy why should we have
war with the Indians? All they ask is to be let alone! Ever see a single
piaster of profit made out of a dead Indian unless you could sell his
hair? Of course not. The Indians don't want war. What they want is trade.
I've lived among 'em. I know. It's Dunmore and the border scum who want
war. They want to steal more land."

I had no wish to quarrel with the man, but I, too, had been among the
Indians; and I could not in decency to myself allow his ridiculous
statements to go unchallenged.

"How can the country expand unless the settlers have land? And if the
Indians block the trail how can we get the land without fighting for it?
Surely it was never intended that five or more square miles of the fairest
country on earth should be devoted to keeping alive one naked red
hunter."

He fairly roared in disgust. Then with an effort to be calm he began:

"Land? Settlers? You can't build a profit on land and settlers. Why, the
colonies already refuse to pay any revenue to England. Line both sides of
the Ohio with log cabins and stick a white family in each and what good
does it do? Did the French try to settle Canada? No! The French weren't
fools. They depended on trade."

"But they lost Canada," I reminded.

"Bah! For a purely military reason. The future of this country is trade.
England's greatness is built up on trade." His trick of jumping his voice
on that word "trade" was very offensive to the ears.

"Pennsylvania has the right idea. Pennsyl