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Mr Macdougall," he added aloud, "I beg your pardon for what I said just now in the heat of the moment, and I hope you'll excuse it, as I was greatly flurried, and do not feel very well yet. What position did you place the vessel in to-day, by the way, when you took your observation at noon?"
MacDougall was not looking, and did not see the convulsive twitching of the other's face, or the terrible light that shot for an instant into his eyes. "A woman Mac " "A YOUNG woman," said MacDougall, with emphasis. "I don't know who she is, but I do know that she hasn't a right there or she wouldn't sneak in like a thief. I'm going to be blunt damned blunt.
"I tell you," said I, positively, with perhaps a good deal of bumptiousness, "we're heading on straight for those rocks there marked on the chart!" "Why, ye're mad a stork staring loon!" retorted Mr Macdougall, in the most irritating way; "ye'd better gang awa' to schule again." "I think you had," I answered; "I have forgotten more than you ever learned!"
Wearied as he was by struggle and disappointment, this prospect allured him, and yet he could not quite accept it. He felt vaguely the fact that in selling his lands, he would be selling out to fate, he would be surrendering to MacDougall, to the gringos, he would be renouncing all his high hopes and dreams.
The girl obediently went up stairs without shaking hands, and a few minutes later Ramon went away, feeling more of misery and less of self-confidence than ever before in his life. He almost wholly neglected his work. Cortez brought him a report that MacDougall had a new agent, who was working actively in Arriba County, but he paid no attention to it.
Unfortunately for Lieutenant-Governor Macdougall, owing to the outbreak of armed rebellion at Red River, it was postponed without his knowledge, and it was not until the 15th of July, 1870, that the whole country finally became a part of the Dominion of Canada. With the latter date the annals of Prince Rupert's Land and the North-West Territory end, and the history of Western Canada begins.
But he knew that Cortez spoke the truth. “All right Antonio,” he said with dignity. “I’ll be careful.” The next day he got a letter which emphasized the value of his henchman’s warning and made Ramon really thoughtful. It was from MacDougall, and made him another offer for his land.
"Yes, Mr Macdougall, it's me," said I. "Do you feel better now?" But he did not answer me for a moment, although I felt a tremble go through his frame. A moment afterwards, with what sounded like a sob, he cried out, "You brave laddie! To theenk that you of all ithers should ha' coom to save a reckless loon lik' me, the noo!
"Then your sextant must have been out of order, or your calculations wrong," replied the skipper, shortly. "We are evidently much to the westwards of your reckoning. How did you observe the danger was there a man on the look-out?" "Nae, sir, I didna think we required yon," answered Macdougall, now at his wit's end for a reply.
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