emeal ahead of him.
And me powerless to protect myself! Ain't that an outrage! But when I
meet him on the trail I'll put it to him!"

"There are newspapers here, too," Stonor pointed out. "No man coming in
next spring would send himself last year's papers."

"Where is he, then?" they asked.

The question was unanswerable.

"Well, I'd like to see any lily-handed doctor guy from the outside face
the river trail in the winter," said Ben bitterly. "If he'll do that,
I'll carry his outfit for him. But he'll need more than his diploma to
fit him for it."

At any rate they had a brand-new subject for conversation at the post.

* * * * *

About a week later, when Hairy Ben had started back up the river, the
routine at the post was broken by the arrival of a small party of Kakisa
Indians from the Kakisa or Swan River, a large unexplored stream off to
the north-west. The Kakisas, an uncivilized and shy race, rarely
appeared at Enterprise, and in order to get their trade Gaviller had
formerly sent out a half-breed clerk to the Swan River every winter. But
this man had lately died, and now the trade threatened to lapse for the
lack of an interpreter. None of the Kakisas could speak English, and
there was no company employee who could speak their uncouth tongue
except Gordon Strange the bookkeeper, who could not be spared from the
post.

Wherefore Gaviller welcomed these six, in the hope that they might prove
to be the vanguard of the main body. They were a wild and ragged lot,
under the leadership of a withered elder called Mahtsonza. They were
discovered by accident camping under cover of a poplar bluff across the
river. No one knew how long they had been there, and Gordon Strange had
a time persuading them to come the rest of the way. It was dusk when
they entered the store, and Gaviller, by pre-arrangement with Mathews,
clapped his hands and the electric lights went on. The effect surpassed
his expectations. The Kakisas, with a gasp of terror, fled, and could
not be tempted to return until daylight.

They brought a good little bundle of fur, including two silver fox
skins, the finest seen at Enterprise that season. They laid their fur on
the counter, and sidled about the store silent and abashed, like
children in a strange house. With perfectly wooden faces they took in
all the wonders out of the corners of their eyes; the scales, the stove,
the pictures on the canned goods, the show-cas