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Updated: May 3, 2025
Gibeault, nettled, outbid his rival for the next skin, and thus it went on, first one and then the other raising the prices higher and higher, much to the delight of the Indians. Oo-koo-hoo had already sold a number of skins for more than their market value before it dawned on the white men that they were playing a losing game. Though glaring savagely at each other, both were ready to capitulate.
Thinking the opportunity a favourable one, Gibeault assumed an air of friendly solicitude and said: "The Company has cheated your people so many hundred years that they are now very rich. No wonder they can afford to give you high prices for your furs. Free Trader Spear is a poor but honest man.
You will do well to encourage opposition to the Great Company, and thus raise the price of furs." The half-breed then presented the hunters with several plugs of "T & B," some matches, tea, sugar, flour, and a piece of "sow-belly." For some time Oo-koo-hoo sat holding a little fresh-cut tobacco in his hand, until Gibeault, taking notice, asked him why he did not smoke it.
"The Great Company always gives me a pipe," replied the hunter. The runner for the free trader, not to be outdone, gave him a pipe. "I suppose," began Oo-koo-hoo, "that your heart is glad to see me." "Yes," replied Gibeault, "and I want to get some of your fur." "That is all very well, but I will see which way you look at me," returned the Indian. "Have you much fur?" asked the half-breed.
Having read the note Gibeault brought me from Free Trader Spear, I hastened to hand the half-breed my reply, accepting Mr. and Mrs. Spear's invitation to be their guest for a few days when everyone would be gathering at Fort Consolation to attend the New Year's dance; and again I wondered if "Son-in-law" would be there.
Tell me now why and from whence you come?" The half-breed replied: "My brother, I come from the Border Lands where the plains and the forests meet and my name is Gibeault. I have come to trade regularly with you as I am now working for Free Trader Spear, whose post, as you know, is near Fort Consolation.
No wonder you are great masters; it seems to me that it takes great rogues to become great masters." The angry Lawson, to save a quarrel, bit his moustache, smiled faintly and, presenting the hunter with even more than Gibeault had given, said: "Never mind, my brother, you're a pretty smart man."
He calculates that it puts the Indian in a good humour and in the end gives the trader a chance of getting ahead of the native. That is just what Lawson did, and Gibeault refused to raise the bid. "My brother," said the Indian addressing the latter, "you had better go home if you cannot pay better prices than the Great Company."
Lawson took the bundle without opening it, as it would not be checked over until he delivered it at Fort Consolation. Resenting the Indian's attitude toward Gibeault he began: "I see, now that there's another trader here, it's easy for you to forget your old friends. The free trader comes and goes. Give him your furs, an' he doesn't care whether you're dead to-morrow.
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