had that persuasive way
with him! And he knew so much more than me! You'd think a man 'ud feel
shame to tell such stories on himself; but no! he'd make out as you
ought to like him for bein' such a good-for-nothing waster; and by Gum!
in the end you did! Never see such a feller!

"Well, all summer we travelled, me and him; him always behind me on the
trail; and I hadn't any fault to find. But come September I had a rush
lot up to Whitefish Lake; and at the same time there was some stuff
wanted in a hurry in Pentland's camp over on the Great Smoky. So for the
first time we divided. I sent him to Pentland's over this very trail!

"I got back long before he did. After a while word come from Pentland,
where in thunder were the goods? It was after the first snow before
Mabyn come back. He was a wreck and the horses were just alive, and no
more. He told a story how his wagon capsized in the river, and he lost
everything; but the whiskey gave the lie to that. By and by we found
he'd buried a keg of it, outside the Settlement. In the Spring when it
was too late to do anything, it all come out through a breed. Seems away
up by Fort St. Pierre, he met one of them crooked traders, that
sometimes sneaks acrost the mountains; and he sold him the stuff for a
keg of rot-gut. When I hear that I was thankful he brought back the
horses at all. The business near busted me; for I had to make good three
hundred worth of groceries to Pentland; and sacrificed the second team,
'count of the shape they were in. That was what Bert Mabyn cost _me_!"

"Didn't you have him arrested?" asked Garth indignantly.

Tom shrugged. "What were the use of that? The inspector was after me to
prosecute; but it was too late to get my money back, and put flesh on
the horses--besides, I was too busy. Of course, it weren't just the same
as robbin' me in cold blood," he added in the tone of one who must be
fair; "for it were the whiskey, you see."

Natalie kept her face averted from the old man. "And what has become of
this man since?" she asked, steadily controlling her voice.

"Oh, he hung around the Settlement, sponging on one and another till he
were kicked out; then he come down to the breeds. It was a great honour
for them to have a white man of any kind runnin' after them, you see, so
they put up with him. Then he drifted West, up Ostachegan way; and
lately, I understand, he's taken up a deserted shack he found on
Clearwater Lake, away up on the bench t