d stopped,
conscious of the inanity of this address. What a stupid thing to have
said! I must have aroused his suspicions immediately.

He begged my pardon and called a man from another part of the shop.
And that gave me my chance over again, for I realized that he had not
understood my English.

"Do you remember," I asked the newcomer, "selling a collar to a young
lady recently--no, some long time ago--a dog-collar, I mean?"

The proprietor shrugged his shoulders. "I sell a good many dog-collars
during the year," he answered.

I took the plate from my pocket and set it down on the counter. "The
collar was set with silver studs," I said. "This was the plate." Then
I remembered the name Leroux had used and flung it out at random. "I
think it was for a Mlle. Duchaine," I added.

The shot went home.

"Ah, _monsieur_, now I remember perfectly," answered the proprietor,
"both from the unusual nature of the collar and from the fact that
there was some difficulty in delivering it. There was no post-office
nearer the _seigniory_ than St. Boniface, where it lay unclaimed for a
long time. I think _madamoiselle_ had forgotten all about the order.
Or perhaps the dog had died!"

"Where is this _seigniory_?"

"The _seigniory_ of M. Charles Duchaine?" he answered, looking
curiously at me. "You are evidently a stranger, _monsieur_, or you
would have heard of it, especially now when people are saying that----"
He checked himself at this point. "It is the oldest of the
_seigniories_," he continued. "In fact, it has never passed out of the
hands of the original owners, because it is almost uninhabitable in
winter, except by Indians. I understand that M. Duchaine has built
himself a fine chateau there; but then he is a recluse _monsieur_, and
probably not ten men have ever visited it. But _mademoiselle_ is too
fine a woman to be imprisoned there long----"

"How could one reach the chateau?" I interpolated.

He looked at me inquiringly as though he wondered what my business
there could be.

"In summer," he replied, "one might ascend the Riviere d'Or in a canoe
for half the distance, until one reached the mountains, and then----"
He shrugged his shoulders. "I do not know. Possibly one would inquire
of the first trapper who passed in autumn. In winter one would fly.
It is strange that so little is known of the _seigniory_, for they say
the Riviere d'Or----"

"The Golden River?"

"Has vast wealth in it, and f