hinking if that were all their joke they were welcome
to it, for I had already found my breeches and leggings mighty handy
for getting through the bush with and for tumbling in and out of leaky
rowing boats.

I grinned. "All right, fellows," I cried, "laugh all you want and I'll
leave you a legging each as a legacy when I die."

"Say, sonny,--you're all right!" he exclaimed.

Good humour returned all round.

"We're from No. 2 Camp at Cromer Bay and we want a bunch of stuff."

"Where is your list and I'll try to fill it?" I inquired.

The Swede handed over a long order, badly scrawled on the back of a
paper bag. The order was unstamped and unsigned, and not on the
company's order form.

"This is not any good," I said. "Where is the company's order?"

The Swede looked blankly at the Irishman, and the Irishman gazed
dreamily at the Swede.

"Guess that's good enough. Ain't it, Dan?"

"Shure!" seconded Dan.

"It can't be done, boys," I said. "Sorry,--but I have my instructions
and they must be followed out."

I handed back the list.

The Swede stared at it and then over at me.

"Ain't you goin' to fill this?"

"No!"

"Well, I'll be gosh-dinged! Say! sonny,--there'll be a hearse here for
you to-morrow. The boss wrote this."

"How am I to know that?" I retorted.

"Damned if I know," he returned, scratching his forelock. "But it'll
be merry hell to pay if we go back without this bunch of dope."

"And it might be the devil to pay, if I gave you the goods without a
proper order," I followed up.

"Some of this stuff's for to-morrow's grubstake," put in the Swede,
"and most of the hardware's wanted for a job first crack out of the box
in the morning."

"Sorry to disoblige you, fellows," I said sincerely, "but your boss
should not have run so close to the wind. Further, I am going to work
this store right and that from the very beginning."

"And you're not goin' to fill the boss's own caligeography, or whatever
you call it?" reiterated the Irishman.

"No!"

"Wouldn't that rattle ye?" exclaimed Dan to his friend.

"It do," conceded the Swede, who put his hand into his pocket and
tossed fifteen cents on to the counter.

"Well,--give us ten cents chewing tobacco, and a packet of gum."

I filled this cash order and immediately thereafter the two walked out
of the store and sailed away without another word or even a look behind
them.

I was worried over the incident, for I did not like to th