to go to the Settlement
for a fresh supply."

"Well you go to Jonesy of the French outfit," bellowed Nick; "and tell
him to give you my prices!"

Nick kept the boy at his side all day, flattering and cajoling him with
an immense patronage, that, coming from the great man of the country,
was meant to turn the head of this, the youngest of its settlers. In
this Nick had a double purpose: he wished, of course, to secure the
boy's interest to himself; but he also wished Garth and Natalie to see
what a fine, generous fellow he could be when he got half a chance.
There was a great deal of the child in the self-indulgent trader; and
he had not lived among the breeds for twenty-five years without imbibing
many of their characteristics. As to the boy, Garth and Natalie felt
not a moment's uneasiness; Charley met Nick's advances with a kind of
imitative bluster, that was a source of great secret delight to Natalie.

The day's journey was uneventful. Grylls kept himself forward of the
mast, and made no attempt to address either Garth or Natalie. Indeed,
he appeared to ignore their presence on the boat altogether; which,
considering the shortness of the distance separating them, was not
without its ridiculous side. Garth, refusing to be deceived by this
apparent indifference, kept himself quietly on the alert. The breeze
continued favourable but very light; and the day waxed hotter and
hotter. By nightfall they had covered perhaps another thirty miles of
the way. There had been one "spell" on shore, during which Garth and
Natalie elected to remain on board, satisfied with a cold lunch. No
further offers were made by Hooliam to delay the journey; indeed, such
was now their apparent anxiety to complete it, it was announced late in
the afternoon that they would sail all night. They did not even wait
for their supper on shore, but brought it off from the fire in a wading
procession of frying pans, and steaming pails.

A lovely night succeeded. The velvety floor of heaven was strewn
lavishly with bright stars; and later, the moon, just past the full,
rose out of the lake astern and hung, a lovely pale globe, in the
eastern sky. The breeds fell asleep one by one; and for the first, the
jabbering, the _ki-yi-ing_ and the maddening stick-kettle were all
stilled. The _Loseis_ hovered over the lake with her gigantic wing
spread, like some great bird of the night. The only evidences that she
moved at all were the flecks of foam that drif