A Countess from Canada | Page 4

for a moment, and then he
had got his features into control, so she hastily averted her head lest he
should see her looking, and think that she was trying to pry into what
did not concern her. He swallowed down the rest of his coffee at a gulp
and rose to go. But his manner now was so changed and uneasy that
Katherine must have wondered at it, even if she had not caught a
glimpse of that dreadful look on his face when Astor M'Kree
announced the change in the ownership of the fishing fleet.
The journey home was taken in a different style from the journey out:
the two sledges were tied together, and both pairs of snowshoes piled
on the hindmost; then, Katherine and her father taking their places on
the first, the dogs started off at a tearing gallop, which made short work
of the two miles of level track, and gave Katherine and her father
plenty of occupation in holding on. But when they reached the broken
ground the pace grew steadier, and conversation became possible once
more.
'Duke Radford began to talk then with almost feverish haste, but he
carefully avoided any mention of the news contained in the
boatbuilder's letter, and a sickening fear of something, she knew not

what, crept into the heart of Katherine and spoiled for her the glory of
that winter afternoon. The sun went down in flaming splendours of
crimson and gold, a young moon hung like a sickle of silver above the
dark pine forest, and everywhere below was the white purity of the
fresh-fallen snow.
Supper was nearly ready when they got back to Roaring Water Portage,
but there were two or three customers in the store, and Katherine went
to help her father with them, while Miles unharnessed and fed the four
dogs. Oily Dave was one of the people gathered round the stove
waiting to be served with flour and bacon, and it was his voice raised in
eager talk which Katherine heard when she came back from the
sitting-room into the store.
"If it's true what they are saying, that Barton, Skinner, & Co. are in
liquidation, then things is going to look queer for some of us when the
spring comes, and the question will be as to who can claim the boats,
though some of them ain't much good."
"I suppose that you'll stick to your'n, seeing that it is by far the best in
the fleet," said another man, who had a deep, rumbling laugh.
Katherine looked at her father in dumb surprise. She had been
expecting him to announce the news of the fishing boats having been
bought by the Englishman with the remarkable name, instead of which
he was just going on with his work, and looking as if he had no more
information than the others.
Lifting his head at that moment he caught his daughter's perplexed
glance, and, after a moment, said hastily: "I wouldn't be in too much
hurry about appropriating the boats if I were you."
"Why not?" chorused the listeners.
"Barton & Skinner have been bought out, and the new owner might not
approve of his property being made off with in that fashion," 'Duke
Radford replied.

"Who's bought it? Who told you? Look here, we want to know," one
man burst out impatiently.
"Then you had better go up to the second portage and ask Astor
M'Kree," rejoined 'Duke Radford slowly. "It was he who told me about
it, and he has got the order to build four more boats."
"Now that looks like business, anyhow. Who is the man?" demanded
Rick Portus, who was younger than the others, and meant "to make
things hum" when he got a chance.
'Duke Radford fumbled with the head of a flour barrel, and for a
moment did not answer. It was an agonizing moment for Katherine,
who was entering items in the ledger, and had to be blind and deaf to
what was passing round her, yet all the time was acutely conscious that
something was wrong somewhere.
The head of the barrel came off with a jerk, and then 'Duke answered
with an air of studied indifference: "An Englishman, Astor M'Kree said
he was; Selincourt or some such name, I think."
A burst of eager talk followed this announcement, but, her entries made
in the ledger, Katherine slipped away from it all and hurried into the
sitting-room, where supper was already beginning. But the food had
lost its flavour for her, and she might have been feeding on the sawdust
and pine cones of which Mrs. M'Kree had spoken for all the taste her
supper possessed. She had to talk, however, and to seem cheerful, yet
all the time she was shrinking and shivering