the bag isn't for him! And all addressed just so!"

They looked at each other a little blankly. All this evidence had the
effect of creating an apparition there in their midst. There was an
appreciable silence.

"Must be somebody who started in last year and never got through," said
Mathews. He spoke with an air of relief at discovering so reasonable an
explanation.

"But we hear about everybody who comes north of the Landing," objected
Gaviller. "I would have been advised if he had a credit here."

"Another doctor!" said Doc Giddings bitterly. "If he expects to share my
practice he's welcome!"

At another time they would have laughed at this, but the mystery teased
them. They resented the fact that some rank outsider claimed Fort
Enterprise for his post-office, without first having made himself
known.

"If he went back outside, he'd stop all this stuff coming in, you'd
think."

"Maybe somebody's just putting up a joke on us."

"Funny kind of joke! Subscriptions to these magazines cost money."

Stonor read off the titles of the magazines: "_The Medical Record_; _The
American Medical Journal_; _The Physician's and Surgeon's Bulletin_."

"Quite a scientific guy," said Doctor Giddings, with curling lip.

"Strange, he gets so many papers and not a single letter!" remarked
Father Goussard. "A friendless man!"

Gaviller picked up a round tin, one of several packed and addressed
alike. He read the business card of a well-known tobacconist. "Smoking
tobacco!" he said indignantly. "If the Company's Dominion Mixture isn't
good enough for any man I'd like to know it! He has a cheek, if you ask
me, bringing in tobacco under my very nose!"

"Tobacco!" cried Stonor. "It's all very well about papers, but no man
would waste good tobacco! It must be somebody who started in before
Ben!"

Their own mail matter, that they had looked forward to so impatiently,
was forgotten now.

When Ben Causton came back they bombarded him with questions. But this
bag had come through locked all the way from Miwasa Landing, and Ben,
even Ben, the great purveyor of gossip in the North, had heard nothing
of any Doctor Imbrie on his way in. Ben was more excited and more
indignant than any of them. Somebody had got ahead of him in spreading a
sensation!

"It's a hoe-axe," said Ben. "It's them fellows down at the Landing
trying to get a rise out of me. Or if it ain't that, it's some guy
comin' in next spring, and sendin' in his outfit piec