lly anxious to know how the
fishing is going."

"Well, you won't have to wait long, for here he comes, I
fancy--although it seems funny that I should remember his step
after so many months," said Mary, as a firm tread sounded on the
path coming up through the bushes from the water's edge.

"Is that you, Ferrars?" asked Mr. Selincourt eagerly, his
sleepiness vanishing as if by magic.

"Yes, sir," responded a voice, and the next moment Jervis Ferrars
appeared in sight.

"I'm sorry that I was not on hand to welcome you when you arrived,"
he said.

"No matter, no matter at all!" exclaimed Mr. Selincourt, shaking
hands with him; but Mary only vouchsafed a nod in response to the
young man's courteous salutation.

"My welcome is only a little belated, but it could not be more
sincere. You have come just at the right time, I think," Jervis
went on; and at the suggestion of Mr. Selincourt the two sat down
on the bench side by side, while Mary remained leaning against the
doorpost as before.

"How is the fishing?" asked Mr. Selincourt.

"It is going very well indeed, and you will get a very good return
for your money this year, and a much better one next season. I
have been away on Akimiski all day, and I have been simply amazed
at the amount of fish which could be caught, cured, and marketed if
only we had the necessary plant."

"What sort of fish? Everyone is saying that Hudson Bay is played
out for seal and walrus, while whales are getting scarcer every
year," said Mr. Selincourt, who had bought out the old company
cheaply because of this growing scarcity.

"That may be," replied Jervis, "although, being a stranger to these
waters, I'm not in a position to give a reliable opinion. But of
lesser fish, such as cod, halibut, lobster, salmon, and that sort
of thing, there is enough going to waste to feed a nation."

"I tell you what we will do!" exclaimed Mr. Selincourt. "We will
order the necessary plant, and we will start a curing factory. Of
course we are out of the world for nine months in every year, but
that won't make much difference in the end; and we got our fishing
rights cheaply enough to enable us to make a very good thing indeed
out of our venture before we have done."

"Don't you think it is rather grasping of you to want to make more
money, Daddy, when you have got so much already?" broke in Mary, in
a playful tone, yet with some underlying seriousness of purpose.

"Not a bit of it, my dear.