ve got their traitors, as you know. Danvers is
sort of unusual, that's all."

"He ain't my style!" was the retort.

"No," was the dry comment, "I shouldn't presume he was." But the sarcasm
was lost on his hearer.

"What was eatin' Scar Faced Charlie, anyway?"

"He's squiffy." Bill had heard the conversation between Me-Casto and
Charlie on the trail, but was in no mind to retail it.

"I'm goin' out," said Burroughs, presently, and at this broad hint Bill
rose.

"I'm in yer debt," he began awkwardly.

"That's all right." The trader knew and Bill knew that the paid fine was
another cord to bind him. "An' now we'll make a pile o' money 'f we're
careful. Joe's inside the fort an' you an' me are outside, an' the
Injuns are always dry--see? This deal's goin' to be pretty hard on me,
what with the government confiscatin' all them nine hundred gallons of
whiskey; but we've got more comin', an' we'll have to mix it a little
thinner, that's all."

Burroughs went toward the Indian lodges and soon discovered Charlie also
sneaking thither.

No superfluous words were spoken. "What'd yeh do it fer?" The angry
trader whirled, the teamster facing him.

"You let Pine Coulee alone!" mumbled Charlie, far gone in liquor.

"That's it, eh?" commented the enlightened Burroughs, turning away
contemptuously. "Like hell I will!"

Not long after Arthur Latimer answered a recent letter from the doctor
in Fort Benton. He gave a vivid account of recent events and of a dinner
that had been given at the military post on Christmas day to which he
had been invited.

_"After the dinner," he continued, "the boys sang for an hour or
more. They have good voices, and it was worth a long journey to
hear them sing 'The Wearing of the Green.'_

_"Colonel Macleod seemed to enjoy the music immensely, and (I don't
see how he happened to think of it) he called Danvers up and asked
him if he knew anything from 'Il Trovatore.' Phil saluted and said
that he had heard it in London. Thereupon the colonel asked him if
he could sing any of the airs. Phil hesitated, but the commanding
officer's request is tantamount to a command, and after a moment he
began the 'Miserere.' The men were still as death. Probably they
had never heard it before. You, of course, remember that superb
tenor solo--the haunting misery, the despair! And what do you
think? When he got to the duet I took Leonora's part. P