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"Ah, cut it out!" said Mahooley. "It's just a business proposition." On the way up the lake the surveyor's party had been driven to seek shelter in the mouth of Hah-wah-sepi by a westerly gale. They found the other York boat lying there.
"You could come and tak' her 'way from him maybe." "Nothing doing," said Sam grimly. "Mahooley maybe not marry her honest," suggested Musq'oosis. A spasm passed over Sam's face. The horses strained back, startled, from his hand. "Oh, for God's sake, I've told you a dozen times it is nothing to me!" he cried. "Nobody can make Bela do what she doesn't want to do.
He proposed getting up a search-party for Sam. The idea was laughed down. Nice fools they'd make of themselves, opined Mahooley, setting out to look for a man in good health and in the full possession of his faculties who hadn't committed any crime. There was a good attendance at Bela's dinner, and a full house at night. To their undiscerning eyes Bela seemed to be her old self.
Nobody, however, suspected as yet that there was anything more than coincidence in this. The main thing was Bela was known to be an A1 cook, and the grub at the French outfit was rotten. Mahooley himself confessed it. Within two hours six men, including Big Jack and his pals, arrived for dinner. Bela was not at all discomposed. She had already laid in supplies from the company.
Sam smiled swiftly in his white, set face, and gripped the old man's hand hard. "Good man!" he said. "You're the best!" Mahooley, Birley, and another, abashed by this little scene, now stepped forward. Sam waved them back. "Musq'oosis is my second," he said. "Straight Marquis of Queensberry rules," said Big Jack. "No hitting in the break-away." This was an advantage to Sam.
Within he saw a long oilcloth-covered table reaching across the room, with half a score of men sitting about it on boxes. "Hey, fellows! Look who's here!" cried Mahooley. A chorus of derisive welcome, more or less good-natured, greeted the new-comer. "Why, if it ain't Sammy the stolen kid!" "Can I believe my eyes!" "There's pluck for you, boys!" "You bet!
You don't know me. Have a cigar. Sit down. What do you want to see Beattie about in such a rush?" "I goin' buy team and wagon," said Musq'oosis calmly. Mahooley laughed. "What are you goin' to do with it? I never heard of you as a driver." "I goin' hire driver," asserted Musq'oosis. "I sit down; let ot'er man work for me. So I get rich." This seemed more and more humorous to Mahooley.
For a while Mahooley passed the time in idly teasing Musq'oosis after his own style. "Musq'oosis, they tell me you were quite a runner in your young days." "So," said the old man good-humouredly. "Yes, fellow said when the dinner-bell rang in camp, you beat the dog to the table!" Mahooley supplied the laughter to his own jest. "Let him be," said Bela sullenly.
Before Stiffy and Mahooley had a chance to see any of these arrivals or hear their news, quite an imposing caravan hove in view across the river from the store, and shouted lustily for the ferry. There were four wagons, each drawn by a good team, beside half a dozen loose horses. The horses were in condition, the wagons well laden.
"We kep' him in it, you mean." "What for did you want to give him the job of teaming, Mahooley?" asked Mattison. "Matter of business," replied the trader carelessly. "He was on the spot." "Well, you can get plenty more now. Why not fire him?" Mahooley looked a little embarrassed. "Business is business," he said. "I don't fancy him myself, but he's working all right."
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