man checked himself and stood watching until she
was lost to view.

There was a thoughtful look in his blue eyes which suddenly gave way as
he smiled.

"A tinted Venus!" he murmured to himself. "I wonder where she belongs."

Looking round, away across the willows, planted on the meadow above the
marshy banks, he caught sight of the tops of a couple of moose-hide
tepees, and nodded to himself.

"Come with the family to barter the winter's fur-catch."

For a moment he stood there with his eyes fixed on the skin-tents.
There was a reflective look upon his face, and at the end of the moment
he made a movement towards the path along which the girl had fled. Then
he stopped, laughed harshly at himself, and with the old look back on
his face, turned again to his canoe, unloaded it, and began to pitch
camp.

At the end of half an hour, having lit a pipe, he strolled towards the
trading-post. Entering the Square of the enclosure he looked
nonchalantly about him. Two men, half-breeds, were sitting on a
roughly-made bench outside the store, smoking and talking. Inside the
store a tall Indian was bartering with a white man, whom he easily
guessed to be the factor, and as he looked round from the open door of
the factor's house, emerged a white woman whom he divined was the
factor's wife. She was followed by a rather dapper young man of medium
height, and who, most incongruously in that wild Northland, sported a
single eyeglass. The man fell into step by the woman's side, and
together they began to walk across the Square in the direction of the
store.

The man from the river watched them idly, waiting where he was, puffing
slowly at his pipe, until they drew almost level with him. Then he
stiffened suddenly, and an alert look came in his eyes.

At the same moment the other man, apparently becoming aware of his
presence for the first time, stared at him calmly, almost insolently.
Then he started. The monocle dropped from his eye, and his face went
suddenly white. He half-paused in his stride, then averting his gaze
from the other man hurried forward a little. The factor's wife, who had
observed the incident, looked at him inquiringly.

"Do you know that man, Mr. Ainley?"

The dapper young man laughed a short, discordant laugh.

"He certainly bears a resemblance to a man whom I knew some years ago."

"He seemed to recognize you, Mr. Ainley. I saw that much in his eyes."

"Then probably he is the man whom I used to know