smiled,
accepting the veiled raillery, "for you well know that we of the Company
are above them, though it was but yesterday that an Indian brought word
of a trapper at Isle a La Crosse being maltreated in the woods by a
couple of their sneaking cutthroats and two packs of beaver taken from
him for which they laughingly offered him in payment a bundle of mangy
skins cast out from the summer's pickings. 'Twas Peter Brins and I'll
wager that those two are marked for a long reckoning when the tables
turn. And by the same Indian I hear that the young blade from Montreal
with his light-haired brigade who stumbled upon us a while back, has
reached his post on the Saskatchewan and has taken hold with a high
hand, doing his utmost to intercept our Indians and turn the tide of
the Company's furs into the trading-rooms of the Nor'westers. I think
it will be a bootless process, for we hold our people with the hand of
surety."

"Aye, but what of the Nakonkirhirinons, making their initial trip by
way of Rapid River and Deer Lake, coming through the country of the
Saskatchewan and held by no bond of loyalty? I see trouble ahead if this
young De Courtenay gets wind of their coming, for they will be rich in
peltry and they are a warlike tribe."

"But they are to celebrate the Peace Dance in the lodges of the
Assiniboines. Surely they will come straight to their friends before
trusting their trade to any."

Edmonton Ridgar shook his head.

"Hey fear nothing, these Nakonkirhirinons, and would as soon enter trade
with one as another, having come for trade, if the values were above
those at York and Churchill. I hope they swing eastward to Winipigoos
and thus miss that young hot-brain on the Saskatchewan."

"By the way, Ridgar, Pierre Garcon says that Bois DesCaut is at Seven
Isles on the Qui Appelle with Henderson. Since telling that wanton lie
to the Nor'wester he has not had enough to show his face here. A bad lot
Bois, and one to be watched for tricks."

"Aye, a bad lot, but salted with a prudence that savours of cowardice.
His tricks are all turncoats that slip danger like an old garment."

But for all Ridgar's hope, at that very moment the great tribe from the
far north country, even twelve leagues beyond the Oujuragatchousibi,
was swinging down through the wilderness bound for the lodges of the
Assiniboines, burdened with a wealth of peltry to make a trader's eyes
stand out and clad in all the glory of the visiting tribes, a