be sure to sell them to you, if they sell them to
anybody; but I don't want you to buy them," said Elam. "They belong to
me, and I've worked hard for them."

The sutler leaned his elbows on the counter, placed his chin on his
hands, and looked out at the door, whistling softly to himself. Elam
waited for him to say something, but as he did not, the boy continued:

"I don't want you to buy them skins. You heard what I said to you, I
reckon?"

"Oh, yes, I heard you," said the sutler, straightening up and jingling a
bunch of keys in his pocket; "but I don't see how I can help you. When
hunters come here with furs to sell, I never ask where they got them,
for it is none of my business. Besides, I don't know these men who you
say robbed you."

"I will be here to point them out to you," said Elam quickly. "I would
know them anywhere."

"But I couldn't take your unsupported word against the word of two men,"
continued the sutler. "If they told me that the property belonged to
them, I should have to believe them."

"But I will be here," said Elam indignantly.

"Well, you must get somebody to prove that the skins are yours."

Elam looked down at the counter, turning these words over in his mind,
and when he had grasped their full import, it became clear to him that
he had no one to depend on but himself. It became evident to him that
the arm of the law was not extensive enough to reach from the States
away out there to the fort, and, as the sutler would not lend him
assistance, he must either take the matter into his own hands or stand
idly by and see the proceeds of his work go into the pockets of rascals.
That he resolved he would never do. The very thought enraged him.

"Look a-here, Mr.--Mr. Bluenose," said Elam--Elam did not know the
sutler's name, and this cognomen was suggested to him by the most
prominent feature on the man's face, which was a dark purple, telling of
frequent visits to a private demijohn he kept in the back room--"you
shan't never make a cent out of that plunder of mine, because it will
not come into this fort!"

"Don't get excited," said the sutler.

"I aint. I'm only just a-telling of you."

"What are you going to do?"

"Well, the major wouldn't make them two fellows give back my furs, and
so I asked him if he would raise a furse in case I got them back in my
own way, and he said he wouldn't," said Elam. "That's all I've got to
say."

"I'll tell you what's the matter," said the sutle