arry when
there is a strong north-east wind. I came across with Father once,
when we thought we must have been swamped every minute."

"Do not worry yourself, my dear boy," laughed Katherine, "I shall
not attempt to cross if the weather is very rough; I shall skirt
the shore all the way. It is miles farther, of course, but it is
safe, and that is the main thing."

"I wish you were not going, or that I could come with you," Miles
said in a worried tone. "Look here; couldn't Phil manage the store
for one day with Nellie's help, then we would take an extra pair of
oars, and I would help to row?"

Katherine shook her head. "It is not to be thought of, dear. I
expect some of those Indians from Nackowasset Creek will be over
the portage to-day; then Wise Eye is in the neighbourhood, I know,
and if he as much as caught a glimpse of both of us going down
river in a boat he would fairly haunt the store until we came back,
and Phil would have a tottering time of it."

"That Nackowasset lot are a horrible set of thieves," said Miles.

"Yes, and neither Phil nor Nellie would be up to all their tricks;
so, you see, you will be quite indispensable. I shall get on very
well; don't worry about me in any case, for if the storm should
prove terrifically bad we could even stay at Fort Garry all night,"
Katherine replied.

The last pelt was tucked away under the canvas sheet, Phil
scrambled aboard and crouched down in the most convenient place he
could find, and Katherine nodded a bright farewell to Miles, who
lingered on the bank with a very dissatisfied look on his face;
then the boat moved out into the current and began to slip quickly
down river. At present they felt little or nothing of the wind,
but when the hut of Oily Dave was in line with them they began to
feel the influence of the freshening puffs of wind on their
progress, and Katherine decided to take a middle course across the
open water to the fort; that is, she would not venture so far out
as usual, nor would she hug the shore entirely.

But although the wind came sighing and moaning over the water, it
was nothing more at present than a fairly stiff breeze, and,
finding it so much better than she had expected, Katherine took
heart again, and was glad that she had persevered in her
undertaking; for she was anxious to get the furs off her hands.
Every place at the store was so crowded now, from the shipments
which had recently come in, that it was really a re