they'll give
you at the post in _trade_. I'll pay _cash_."

"I'll not sell un. I'll keep un till Dad comes home, and let he sell
un."

"Four hundred fifty," said Marks, and he drew forth a roll of bills and
counted out the money. "There's the cash. Take it. I want this fur. It's
a big price."

"I can't take un," Toby declined, unmoved. "I'm not doubtin' 'tis a fair
price, but I'll not sell un. The fur's for Dad to sell when he comes
home."

"You're a stubborn young fool!" blurted the man in a burst of temper.

"I'm not doubtin' that either," grinned Toby. "I'm a bit stubborn
whatever about not sellin' the fur. 'Tis for Dad to sell."

"All right. We'll call you stubborn and not a fool but foolish. That's
what I mean to say. You're turning down the best offer you'll ever get
for that skin, and your father will say so, and he would want you to
sell it if he were here."

The man smiled in an effort to appear agreeable, though Charley thought
there was something sinister and unpleasant in the curl of his lips.

"I'll not sell un whatever without Dad's tellin' me to sell un."

At his request Toby displayed to Marks his other pelts.

"I'll pay you twenty-five dollars apiece for your marten skins, and take
them as they run," Marks offered. "That's cash I'm offering, not trade."

"I can't sell un," Toby declined. "We owes a debt at the Company shop,
and we has to use un to pay the debt. They gives us thirty dollars for
un there."

"But that's trade," said Marks. "I offer cash, and twenty-five in cash
is more than thirty-five in trade."

"Not for us," objected Toby. "If we takes twenty-five dollars in cash we
only buys twenty-five dollars' worth with un. If we trades un in we gets
thirty dollars' worth with un, whatever."

"I can't argue with you, I see," and the man appeared to relinquish his
effort to buy the fur.

Marks made no further reference to the pelts, indeed, until after Mrs.
Twig and Violet had retired that evening to the inner room and to bed.
Then for nearly an hour he sat smoking and telling the boys stories of
adventures up and down the coast, until Charley, yawning, suggested that
he was sleepy, and saying good night retired to the bunk which he and
Toby occupied.

While Toby was spreading a caribou skin upon the floor near the stove as
a protection for Marks's sleeping bag, Marks suggested:

"Let me see that silver again. I'd like another look at it."

Toby obligingly brought it forth, an