The Challenge of the North | Page 2

He just sat there leanin' back in his chair, bringin' the points of his
fingers together an' drawin' 'em apart again, an' lookin' me square in the
face with them pale blue fishy eyes of his. When I'd used up all the
oaths an' epithets in common use, an' some new ones, an' had to quit, he
says, in the same cold, even voice that he'd used in layin' down his
terms, he says, 'You're a little excited now, John, and I'll not hold it
against you. Just drop in sometime to-morrow or next day and we'll fix
up the papers.'"
"I walked out of the bank with a wild scheme in my head of going to
Detroit or Chicago for the money. But I knew it was no use--and so did
Orcutt. He thought he had me right where he wanted me--an' so did I.
Meanwhile, an' about six months previous, a young fellow named
Charlie Bronson--president of the First National now--had opened up a
little seven-by-nine bank in a tin-covered wooden shack that I'd passed
a dozen times a day an' hadn't even looked into. I'd met Bronson once
or twice, but hadn't paid no attention to him, an' as I was headin' back
for the store, he stood in his doorway. 'Good mornin' Mr. McNabb,' he
says. I don't think I'd of took the trouble to answer him, but just then his
bank sign caught my eye. It was painted in black letters an' stuck out
over the sidewalk. I stopped an' looked past him through the open door

where his bookkeeper-payin'-an'-receivin'-teller-cashier, an' general
factotum was busy behind the cheap grill. Then I looked at Bronson an'
the only thing I noticed was that his eyes was brown, an' he was smilin'.
'Young man,' I says, 'have you got any money in that sardine can?'
"'Quite a lot,' he answers with a grin. 'More than I wish I had.'
"'You got a hundred thousand?' I asks--it was more than I needed, but I
thought I'd make it big enough to scare him.
"'More than that,' he answers, without battin' an eye. 'But--what's the
matter with the Wolverine?'
"'The Wolverine?' I busted out. 'Young man, if I was to tell you what I
think of the Wolverine here on the street, I'd be arrested before I'd got
good an' started.'
"'Better come inside, then,' he grins, an' I followed him into a little box
of a private office. 'Of course,' I says later, when I'd told him what I
wanted, 'most of my collateral is pine timber, an' I suppose, as Orcutt
says, it's depreciated----'
"'Depreciated?' he asks. 'Why has it depreciated? It's all standin' on end,
ain't it?' he says. An' it ain't gettin' no smaller, is it? An' they're layin'
down the pine a damn sight faster than God Almighty can grow it, ain't
they?' An' when I admitted that such was the facts, he laughed. 'Well
then, we'll just go over your reports an' estimates, an' I don't think we'll
have any trouble about doin' business.'
"An we never have had no trouble, an' we've been doin' business every
day since."
"But the coat?" reminded Hedin, after an interval of several minutes.
"I'm coming to that. Orcutt ain't human, but his wife is. When he found
out I'd slipped out of his clutches an' swung all my business over to
Bronson's bank he never by so much as a word or a look let on that he
even noticed it. They still have an account at the store; they can't help it,

because no other store in Terrace City keeps the stock we do. But Mrs.
Orcutt does all her real shoppin' in New York or Chicago."

II
Oskar Hedin loved fur, and the romance of fur. From his earliest
recollection he had loved it as he had curled up and listened to the
stories of his father, a great upstanding Viking of a sailor man, who
year after year had forced his little vessel into the far North where he
traded with the natives, and who had lost his life in the ice floes of the
frozen sea while sailing with Nordenskjold.
Furs were to Hedin an obsession; they spoke a language he knew. He
hated the grosser furs, as he loved the finer. He despised the trade tricks
and spurious trade names by which the flimsiest of furs are foisted
upon the gullible purchasers of "seal," "sable," "black fox," "ermine,"
and "beaver." He prided himself that no misnamed fur had ever passed
over his counter, and in this he was backed up by his employer. The
cheaper furs were there, but they sold under their true names and upon
their merits.
In the social democracy of the town of twenty thousand people Oskar
Hedin