r
that reckless Nor'wester on the Saskatchewan? They had come, past all
his blandishments of trade, to Fort de Seviere, and their coming spelled
a number of furs this season far in advance of any other for that small
post. If he wondered at first how they had held out against De
Courtenay it was all made plain when among the strangers he espied many
Assiniboines and saw in the great canoe of the chief Negansahima, old
Quamenoka, who had boasted of the coming of this tribe to De Seviere as
his work.

He had spoken truly and had evidently made his word good by meeting the
approaching columns and returning with them.

To him alone was due the failure of De Courtenay, McElroy felt at once,
and determined in his mind on that present which he had promised for
this zeal.

With the coming of the strangers Fort de Seviere was put under military
rule. The half-moon to the right of the gate, with its small cannon,
received a quota of men who strayed carelessly all day within reach of
the low rampart; a guard lounged in the great gate, ready at a moment's
notice to clang it shut, and seemingly matter-of-course precautions were
taken throughout, for these Indians were as uncertain as the flickering
north lights crackling in a frosty sky.

There was a scene not to be likened to any other outside the region of
the Hudson Bay country, where strange relations existed between white
trader and savage, when Edmonton Ridgar met the canoe of the chief at
the landing.

Savage delight overspread the eagle features of Negansahima as he beheld
the white man.

Towering mightily in the prow of his canoe, the sweeping head-dress of
feathers crowning him with a certain majesty, he fixed his keen glance
on Ridgar and came gliding toward him across the rippled water.

As the canoe cut cleanly up and stopped just short of scraping on the
stones at the edge, obeying the paddles like a thoroughbred the bit, the
chief trader of De Seviere stepped forward and held out his arms.

"Who art thou?" he called.

Deep and guttural as thunder from the broad chest, naked under the lines
of elk teeth, came the reply,

"Thy father,"

"And master of my goods. The heart of thy son melts as the snow in
spring. Wiskendjac has sent thee."

McElroy, standing near, saw the face of his friend illumined with a
real affection as the savage landed and, contrary to the custom of the
Indians in the lower country, embraced with every sign of joy the lean
white man