ffright lest my sleeping had offended him. His
eyes were fastened on Lord Selkirk with a piercing, angry gaze. His
Lordship was not nodding, not a bit of it. How brilliant he seemed to my
childish fancy! He was leaning forward, questioning those Nor'-Westers,
who had received him with open arms, and open hearts. And the wine had
mounted to the head of the good Nor'-Westers and they were now also
receiving the strange nobleman with open mouths, pouring out to him a
full account of their profits, the extent of the vast, unknown game
preserve, and how their methods so far surpassed those of the Hudson's
Bay, their rival's stock had fallen in value from 250 to 50 per cent.

The more information they gave, the more His Lordship plied them with
questions.

"I must say," whispered Uncle Jack to Sir Alexander MacKenzie, "if any
Hudson's Bay man asked such pointed questions on North-West business,
I'd give myself the pleasure of ejecting him from this room."

Then, I knew his anger was against Lord Selkirk and not against me for
sleeping.

"Nonsense," retorted Sir Alexander, who had cut active connection with
the Nor'-Westers some years before, "there's no ground for suspicion."
But he seemed uneasy at the turn things had taken.

"Has your Lordship some colonization scheme that you ask such pointed
questions?" demanded my uncle, addressing the Earl. The nobleman turned
quickly to him and said something about the Highlanders and Prince
Edward's Island, which I did not understand. The rest of that evening
fades from my thoughts; for I was carried home in Mr. Jack MacKenzie's
arms.

And all these things happened some ten or twelve years before that wordy
sword-play between this same uncle of mine and the English colonel from
the Citadel.

"We erred, Sir, through too great hospitality," my uncle was saying to
the colonel. "How could we know that Selkirk would purchase controlling
interest in Hudson's Bay stock? How could we know he'd secure a land
grant in the very heart of our domain?"

"I don't object to his land, nor to his colonists, nor to his dower of
ponies and muskets and bayonets to every mother's son of them," broke in
another of the retired traders, "but I do object to his drilling those
same colonists, to his importing a field battery and bringing out that
little ram of a McDonell from the Army to egg the settlers on! It's bad
enough to pillage our fort; but this proclamation to expel Nor'-Westers
from what is