n to put an end to this. You
don't seem to be quite sure which of you is the best man. You shall
settle that question this day, on this spot, and within this hour. So
set to, you rascals! Fight or shake hands. _I_ will see fair play!"

Jack blazed up at this point, and stepped up to the men with such a
fierce expression, that they were utterly cowed.

"Fight, I say, or shake hands, or--" Here Jack paused, and his teeth
were heard to grate harshly together.

The two bullies stood abashed. They evidently did not feel inclined to
"come to the scratch." Yet they saw by the peculiar way in which their
master grasped his cudgel, that it would be worse for both of them if
they did not obey.

"Well," said Ladoc, turning with a somewhat candid smile to Rollo, "I's
willin' to shake hands if _you_ be."

He held out his hand to Rollo, who took it in a shamefaced sort of way
and then dropped it.

"Good," said Jack; "now you may go back to the hut; _but_, walk arm in
arm. Let your comrades _see_ that you are friends. Come, no
hesitation!"

The tone of command could not be resisted; the two men walked down to
the river arm in arm, as if they had been the best of friends, and
little Francois followed--chuckling!

Next day a man arrived on foot with a letter to the gentlemen in charge
of Fort Desolation. He and another man had conveyed it to the fort in a
canoe from Fort Kamenistaquoia.

"What have we here?" said Jack Robinson, sitting down on the gunwale of
a boat and breaking the seal.

The letter ran as follows:--

"Fort Kamenistaquoia, etcetera, etcetera.

"My Dear Jack,

"I am sorry to tell you that the business has all gone to sticks and
stivers. We have not got enough of capital to compete with the
Hudson's Bay Company, and I may remark, privately, that if we had, it
would not be worth while to oppose them on this desolate coast. The
trade, therefore, is to be given up, and the posts abandoned. I have
sent a clerk to succeed you and wind up the business, at Fort
Desolation, as I want you to come here directly, to consult as to
future plans.

"Your loving but unfortunate friend,

"J. Murray."

On reading this epistle, Jack heaved a deep sigh.

"Adrift again!" he muttered.

At that moment his attention was arrested by the sound of voices in
dispute. Presently the door of the men's house was flung open, and
Rollo appeared with a large bundle on his shoulders. The bundle