time of his life, an'
I hated to spoil it. An' besides, while he was talkin', truck after
truck was rollin' off down the tote-road haulin' material to my mill
site that I'll buy in at ten cents on the dollar. Orcutt'll pay for
his fun!"

"But--your face--when he told you that you had lost the timber! It
positively went gray!"

"Poker face," laughed McNabb. "But run along now--the two of ye. It's
many a long day since Dugald an' I have had a powwow with our feet
cocked up on bales of Injun goods." As the two walked arm in arm
toward the door, McNabb called to the girl, "Here, lass, take your
coat!" He tossed the Russian sable which the girl caught with a glad
cry. "Ye'll be needin' it up here agin winter comes."

"Winter! Up here! What do you mean?"

"Oskar says he isn't goin' back to Terrace City," he explained.
"Except maybe for the weddin'. The North has got into his blood, an'
the McNabb Paper Company needs a competent manager."

XXV

When Wentworth left the trading room he went straight to his cabin, and
disregarding his open trunk, he lifted a pack-sack from the floor and
swung it to his shoulders. It was the pack he had deposited there
scarcely an hour before when he had trailed in from the mill site, and
he knew that it contained three or four days' supply of rations.

On the Shamattawa he had heard from a truck driver that an old man and
a girl had started for Gods Lake post, and he instantly recognized
McNabb and Jean from the man's description. Thereupon he made up a
pack and headed for the post for the sole purpose of baiting the two,
and of flaunting his prowess as a financier in their faces.

An angry flush flooded his face as he realized how completely the
tables had turned. Then the flush gave place to a crafty smile, as he
remembered the bills in his pocket. "McNabb's money, or Orcutt's," he
muttered under his breath, "it's all the same to me. Three hundred and
fifty thousand is more money than I ever expected to handle. And now
for the get-away."

Closing the door behind him he struck across the clearing toward the
northeast. At the end of the bush he paused. "Hell!" he growled. "I
can't hit for the railway. Cameron said he had wired Orcutt at the
bank, and I might meet him coming in." For some time he stood
irresolute. "There's a way out straight south," he speculated, "about
three hundred miles, and a good share of it water trail. I'll be all
right if I can p