es of jewellery and candy.
Candy they recognized, and, again like children, they discussed the
respective merits of the different varieties in their own tongue.
Gaviller, warned by his first mistake, affected to take no notice of
them.

The Kakisas had been in the store above an hour when Mahtsonza, without
warning, produced a note from the inner folds of his dingy capote, and,
handling it gingerly between thumb and forefinger, silently offered it
to Gaviller. The trader's eyes almost started out of his head.

"A letter!" he cried stupidly. "Where the hell did you get that?--Boys!
Look here! A note from Swan River! Who in thunder at Swan River can
write a white man's hand?"

Stonor, Doc Giddings, Strange, and Mathews, who were in the store,
hastened to him.

"Who's it addressed to?" asked the policeman.

"Just to the Company. Whoever wrote it didn't have the politeness to put
my name down."

"Maybe he doesn't know you."

"How could that be?" asked Gaviller, with raised eyebrows.

"Open it! Open it!" said Doc Giddings irritably.

Gaviller did so, and his face expressed a still greater degree of
astonishment. "Ha! Here's our man!" he cried.

"Imbrie!" they exclaimed in unison.

"Listen!" He read from the note.

"GENTLEMEN--I am sending you two silver fox skins, for which
please give me credit. I enclose an order for supplies, to be
sent by bearer. Also be good enough to hand the bearer any mail
matter which may be waiting for me.

"Yours truly,
"ERNEST IMBRIE."

The silence of stupefaction descended on them. The only gateway to the
Swan River lay through Enterprise. How could a man have got there
without their knowing it? Stupefaction was succeeded by resentment.

"Will I be good enough to hand over his mail?" sneered Gaviller. "What
kind of elegant language is this from Swan River?"

"Sounds like a regular Percy," said Strange, who always echoed his
chief.

"Funny place for a Percy to set up," said Stonor drily.

"He orders flour, sugar, beans, rice, coffee, tea, baking-powder, salt,
and dried fruit," said Gaviller, as if that were a fresh cause of
offence.

"He has an appetite, then," said Stonor, "he's no ghost."

Suddenly they fell upon Mahtsonza with a bombardment of questions,
forgetting that the Indian could speak no English. He shrank back
affrighted.

"Wait a minute," said Strange. "Let me talk to him."

He