ose articles of
merchandise most likely to seem of worth in savage eyes and brought,
with such infinite labour by canoe and portage, from those favoured
lower points whose waters admitted the yearly ships--namely, rifles and
ammunition, knives of all sorts, bolts of bright cloth and beads of
the colour of the rainbow, great iron kettles such as might hang most
fittingly above an open fire, and bright woven garments made by hands
across seas.

At the back of the big room was the small one where McElroy and Ridgar
had their living, furnished scantily with a bed and table, an open
fireplace and crane, some rude, hand-made chairs, and a shelf of books.

And to this post of De Seviere had come in the dusk of the previous
night a little company of people.

They were tired and travel-stained, with their belongings in packs on
the shoulders of the men, and the joy of the venturer in their eager
faces.

From far down in the country below the Rainy River they had come,
pushing to the west in that hope of gain and desire of travel which
opens the wilderness of every land. They had met the factor at the great
gate and entered in to rest and feast, as is the rule of every fire. By
morning had come the leaders of the party to McElroy, and there had been
talk that ended in an agreement, and the tired venturers had dropped
their burden of progress.

When they had rested, there were to be three new cabins squeezed somehow
into the already overcrowded stockade, and five more men and six women
would belong to Fort de Seviere.

As he walked toward the factory the young man was thinking of all this.
Of a surety the tall girl, had come with the strangers, yet he had not
noticed her until that moment outside the stockade wall, when he had
caught the striking picture in the morning sun.

Name? Most certainly it would be in that list which the leader of the
party had promised him by noon. When he entered the big room the man was
there before him, a picturesque figure of a man, big and graceful and
dark of brow, with long black curls beneath his crimson cap. As McElroy
went forward he straightened up from his lounging position against the
railing and held out the paper he had promised.

"For enrollment, M'sieu," he said simply.

The factor took the proffered slip and read eagerly down its length,
done neatly in a finished hand.

"Adventurers," he read, "from Grand Portage on Lake Superior, bound for
the west,--agreed to stop for the