Northern Lights | Page 7

The Company asked
me to lay it all before you, and Lablache here will buy out your share of
the business, at whatever your partner and you prove its worth. You're
young; you've got everything before you. You've made a name out here
for being the best trader west of the Great Lakes, and now's your time.

It's none of my affair, of course, but I like to carry through what I'm set
to do, and the Company said, 'You bring Dingan back with you. The
place is waiting for him, and it can't wait longer than the last boat
down.' You're ready to step in when he steps out, ain't you, Lablache?"
Lablache shook back his long hair, and rolled about in his pride. "I give
him cash for his share to-night someone is behin' me, share, yes! It is
worth so much, I pay and step in--I take the place over. I take half the
business here, and I work with Dingan's partner. I take your horses,
Dingan, I take you lodge, I take all in your lodge--everyt'ing."
His eyes glistened, and a red spot came to each cheek as he leaned
forward. At his last word Dingan, who had been standing abstractedly
listening, as it were, swung round on him with a muttered oath, and the
skin of his face appeared to tighten. Watching through the crack of the
door, Mitiahwe saw the look she knew well, though it had never been
turned on her, and her heart beat faster. It was a look that came into
Dingan's face whenever Breaking Rock crossed his path, or when one
or two other names were mentioned in his presence, for they were
names of men who had spoken of Mitiahwe lightly, and had attempted
to be jocular about her.
As Mitiahwe looked at him, now unknown to himself, she was
conscious of what that last word of Lablache's meant. Everyt'ing meant
herself. Lablache--who had neither the good qualities of the white man
nor the Indian, but who had the brains of the one and the subtilty of the
other, and whose only virtue was that he was a successful trader,
though he looked like a mere woodsman, with rings in his ears, gaily
decorated buckskin coat and moccasins, and a furtive smile always on
his lips! Everyt'ing!--Her blood ran cold at the thought of dropping the
lodge- curtain upon this man and herself alone. For no other man than
Dingan had her blood run faster, and he had made her life blossom. She
had seen in many a half-breed's and in many an Indian's face the look
which was now in that of Lablache, and her fingers gripped softly the
thing in her belt that had flashed out on Breaking Rock such a short
while ago. As she looked, it seemed for a moment as though Dingan
would open the door and throw Lablache out, for in quick reflection his
eyes ran from the man to the wooden bar across the door.
"You'll talk of the shop, and the shop only, Lablache," Dingan said
grimly. "I'm not huckstering my home, and I'd choose the buyer if I was

selling. My lodge ain't to be bought, nor anything in it--not even the
broom to keep it clean of any half-breeds that'd enter it without leave."
There was malice in the words, but there was greater malice in the tone,
and Lablache, who was bent on getting the business, swallowed his
ugly wrath, and determined that, if he got the business, he would get
the lodge also in due time; for Dingan, if he went, would not take the
lodge- or the woman with him; and Dingan was not fool enough to stay
when he could go to Groise to a sure fortune.
The captain of the Ste. Anne again spoke. "There's another thing the
Company said, Dingan. You needn't go to Groise, not at once. You can
take a month and visit your folks down East, and lay in a stock of
home- feelings before you settle down at Groise for good. They was
fair when I put it to them that you'd mebbe want to do that. 'You tell
Dingan,' they said, 'that he can have the month glad and grateful, and a
free ticket on the railway back and forth. He can have it at once,' they
said."
Watching, Mitiahwe could see her man's face brighten, and take on a
look of longing at this suggestion; and it seemed to her that the bird she
heard in the night was calling in his ears now. Her eyes went blind a
moment.
"The game is with you, Dingan. All the cards are in your hands; you'll
never get such another chance again; and you're only thirty," said the
captain.
"I wish