The Challenge of the North | Page 7

crazy about it. What kind of a marten did you say it is?
Everybody will be asking me, and I want to be able to tell them what
my own coat is."
"Baum marten," answered Hedin stiffly, heartily wishing the coat safe
in its accustomed place. In vain he regretted the wild impulse that had
led him to substitute the sable coat for the marten. The impulse had
come when the girl told him that Mrs. Orcutt was to be one of the
theatre party. The plan had flashed upon him with overwhelming
brilliance. He knew that Jean would in all probability never notice that
the coat was not a marten. And he knew that Mrs. Orcutt most certainly
would, for McNabb had once publicly compared it with her coat, much
to the New York coat's detriment and Mrs. Orcutt's humiliation. It was
not altogether loyalty for his employer that led him to plot the woman
an uncomfortable evening, for he owed her a grudge on his own
account. Ever since the coming of Wentworth, whom she had taken
under her special patronage, Hedin had been studiously omitted from

her scheme of social activities--and Jean McNabb had been as
studiously included. He knew that McNabb was leaving town to be
gone until the following evening, and that the chance of his seeing the
garment was exceedingly small, and he had invented the fiction of the
low collar in order to get the coat back on Monday morning when he
would, of course, substitute the baum marten and return the sable to its
safe. But now he felt vaguely uneasy.
Hedin saw that Wentworth was staring at the coat with a swiftly
appraising eye. "It's a baum marten," Jean went on. "It took me a long
time to choose between this and a squirrel. There was one that was a
luscious gray, but I like this better--don't you?"
Wentworth nodded. "I certainly do," he agreed. "And I do not believe it
would have taken me long to decide between that and a squirrel." He
turned to Hedin. "What do you think, Mr.--ah--Haywood? That the
choice was a wise one? This is certainly a handsome--er--what did you
say it is?"
"Baum marten," snapped Hedin, with scarcely a glance at the
questioner, as he turned and began to replace the coats that lay upon the
table. Wentworth watched Hedin return the baum marten to its place,
and Jean stepped swiftly to Hedin's side.
As she spoke, he saw that her eyes were flashing angrily.
"If your surly mood doesn't change," she whispered, "you will not add
much to the enjoyment of our coasting party."
"I shall neither add to, nor detract from it," answered Hedin, meeting
her gaze squarely. "Please don't wait for me. I find that I shall not be
able to attend."

V
The United States Government formally entered the world war in April,
and the following month Ross Wentworth had been graduated from a

technical college, and through the auspices of an influential relative
was commissioned a captain of engineers, and assigned to duty in one
of the larger cantonments. In due course of events he was sent overseas,
and was attached to the forces operating in northern Russia. During the
sixteen months of his service in the land of the erstwhile Czar, he
acquired a fund of military terms, both official and slang. Also he built
and maintained in a state of inutility, nine and one-half miles of
military swamp road, over which no gun nor detachment of troops ever
passed. The abrupt termination of hostilities caught him with a
formidable and inexplicable discrepancy of company funds--which
discrepancy was promptly and liberally met by the aforementioned
relative. Whereupon, Captain Wentworth was honorably discharged
from the service of his country.
For many months after his discharge he lived by his wits and looks, but
when this grew unproductive of ready cash, he decided to seek
employment in his accredited vocation.
This decision he arrived at while sojourning in the home of a wealthy
fruit-grower who was interested in the Nettle River project, and who
furnished him a letter of recommendation to Orcutt, who promptly
employed him. Thereafter all went well until McNabb's ultimatum
brought the Nettle River project to as sudden a termination as the
armistice had brought the war. Whereupon Wentworth found himself in
the uncomfortable predicament of having no available assets and many
pressing liabilities, incurred in the course of his endeavor to win the
good graces of the wealthy Jean McNabb.
While scarcely knowing Hedin, Wentworth recognized him as a
possible rival. He, himself, was no connoisseur of fur, but at least he
knew a Russian sable when he saw one, and as he preceded Jean down
the aisle, his brain worked rapidly.
By the time he reached