orgotten memories," he went on, in a reminiscent tone, puffing
out clouds of smoke. "I recall dozens of poor fellows--hunters,
trappers, and explorers--who set out with hopeful hearts to conquer the
perils of the wilderness, and have not been heard of to this day. Their
trunks and boxes are still in the fort--their bones are scattered in the
solitudes of the Great Lone Land. Of course a greater number turned up
again, and it is quite likely that some of the missing ones are alive.
You see, their property may not have been worth sending for."

I began to see the drift of Mr. Barley's questioning.

"You knew these men?" he asked.

"Yes; at the time."

"And you have no recollection of Osmund Maiden? He would have been a
young man of about twenty--handsome and spirited, well educated."

"I have told you before, sir," replied the factor, "that the name is
strange to me. I should probably recall him if he had passed through the
fort, for I have a very keen memory."

"Twenty-nine years is a long time--long enough for much to slip the
mind," said Mr. Burley. "I have been in the Canadas for the better part
of a year, sir, and I have made not the slightest advancement in the
matter that brought me from England. It is strange that a man should
vanish with leaving a clew behind him, and I will not confess that I am
beaten. My task, gentlemen, is to find Osmund Maiden alive, or to
discover clear proof of his death. And it occurred to me to-night that
he may have been one of those luckless travelers who passed through Fort
Garry to tempt fortune in the wilderness."

"It is not impossible," replied Macdonald. "I could not swear to the
contrary."

"It seems like enough," said I. "At that period few went to the far
north except by way of Fort Garry."

Mr. Burley gave me a grateful glance, and regaled himself with a second
pinch of snuff.

"I will come to the point, Mr. Macdonald," he resumed. "These unclaimed
trunks and boxes--you say they are in the fort?"

"Yes; they are stored in an upper room of this very house--at least, the
greater part of them. All that were deposited here during the last five
or six years are in another building."

Mr. Burley's relief and satisfaction were visible on his face.

"I presume that a record was kept of such deposits?" he asked.

"Yes, from the first," the factor answered. "It was done in a
business-like way. Every man who left a trunk or a box here was given a
receipt. Then his name