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"Not sorry him!" cried Bela. "He not care for nobody. Got hard heart!" "If you let me tak' team I lak go see him." Bela stared at him full of excitement at the idea, but suspicious. "W'at you want see him for?" "Maybe I bring him back." "Don' you tell him I want him back," she said. "I hate him!" "Can I tak' horses?" "Yes," she cried suddenly. "Go tell Sam I crazy 'bout Mahooley.
Stiffy and Mahooley were a pair of "good hard guys," but here the resemblance ended. Stiffy was dry, scanty-haired, mercantile; Mahooley was noisy, red-faced, of a fleshly temperament, and a wag, according to his lights. "I'd give a dollar for a new newspaper," growled Mahooley. "That's you, always grousin' for nothin' to do!" said his partner. "Why don't you keep busy like me?"
At the door Stiffy said, as a matter of form: "Coming, Mahooley?" Mahooley, glancing obliquely at the inscrutable Bela, decided on a bold play. "Don't wait for me," he said. "I'll stop and talk to Bela for a while. Musq'oosis will play propriety," he added with a laugh. Bela made no remark, and the shack emptied except for the three of them. Mary Otter had gone to call at the mission.
"Well, I suppose I've got to let you cook for us and for the gang that's comin'. You'll find everything in the kitchen across the road. Go and get acquainted with it. By Gad! you can be thankful you run up against a soft-hearted man like me." Sam murmured an inquiry concerning wages. "Wages!" roared Mahooley with an outraged air. "Stiffy, would you look at what's askin' for wages! Go on, man!
She did not come back until the supper guests were arriving. With a glance of defiance toward Musq'oosis, Bela welcomed Mahooley with a sidelong smile. That, she wished the Indian to know, was her answer. The red-haired trader was delighted. To-night the choicest cuts found their way to his plate.
"If you go wit' Mahooley, Sam get a white wife," went on Musq'oosis carelessly. "Maybe him send letter to chicadee woman to come back." "All right," said Bela with an air of indifference, "I promise wait six days. I don' want go wit' Mahooley before that, anyhow." They shook hands on it. The sun looked over the hills and laid a commanding finger on Sam's eyelids.
Opening it, Mahooley read: This is to certify that I have awarded the Indian Musq'oosis the contract to freight all my supplies from Grier's Point to my camp on Beaver Bay during the coming summer at twenty-five cents per hundredweight. Dominion Surveyor. Mahooley whistled. This was no longer a joke. He looked at the old man with new respect. "Well, that's a sharp trick," he said.
"You can't get me easy as them," said Bela. Mahooley laughed and dropped her wrist. "Oh, you want a bit of wooing!" he cried. "All right. You're worth it." Bela changed her tactics again. She smiled at him dazzlingly. "Go now. Come to-morrow." He went willingly enough. He did not know it, but he was well on the way of being tamed. "Go!" said Bela to Musq'oosis. "I got talk to you," he said.
"I'll go with them and come back after," whispered Mahooley. "No you don't," said Bela quickly. "W'en they go I lock the door. Both door." "Sure! But it could be unlocked for a friend." "Not for no man!" said Bela. "Not to-night any'ow," she added with a sidelong look. "You devil!" he growled. "Don't you fool yourself you can play with a man like me. A door has got to be either open or shut."
Mahooley was obliged to swallow his curiosity. "Well, who are you going to get to drive?" he asked. Musq'oosis's air for the first time became ingratiating. "I tell you," he returned. "Let you and I mak' a deal. You want me do somesing. I want you do somesing." "What is it?" demanded Mahooley suspiciously. "You do w'at I want, I promise I tell the Fish-Eaters come to your store."
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