“What did you say?” asked Katherine, who then began to wonder if their fish had really wasted through being stolen, instead of having merely been used too fast.

“Oh, I didn’t commit myself!  Mrs. Jenkin has a good heart, but her head is as soft as blubber, so I was pretty careful not to say much,” Miles answered, with a wag of his own head, which he thumped with his fist to show that at least he was not topped with blubber.

“It is maddening whichever way one looks at it!” cried Katherine.  “If Oily Dave stole our fish, and Waywassimo stole it from him again, then I have been buying our own property, and paying for it at a rather stiff price.  I simply could not beat that poor wretch down, he looked so sad and hungry.  Oh, Miles, what shall we do?  If this business leaks out we shall just be the laughing-stock of the whole place.”

“It is not going to leak out; I’ll take good care of that,” retorted the boy, squaring his jaws.  “If we say nothing about it, who is to be any the wiser?  Was there anyone here when you bought the fish?”

“Not a soul.  How very fortunate!” cried Katherine, beginning to smile again.  “It is quite bad enough to be taken in by such a trick, but it would be simply intolerable to have other people knowing about it and laughing at our misfortunes.”

Miles nodded.  This was just his own opinion, and he would have suffered tortures if the wits of Seal Cove had been able to taunt him about his clever sister having bought her own fish.  Then he said slowly, as if he had been giving the matter profound consideration; “There isn’t a scrap of doubt in my mind that if Oily Dave took the fish he took the lard as well.”

“Then I wish Waywassimo would steal that too!” said Katherine with a laugh.

CHAPTER VII

Another Clue

It was fully a fortnight after this before Katherine and Miles found any opportunity for going fishing.  Then there came a day when they had to take a load of stores up beyond the second portage, to the house of Astor M’Kree, and they decided to bring a load of fish back with them if possible, as the store which Katherine had bought from Waywassimo was beginning to run low.  Their father seemed better that day, and was able to look after the store with the help of Phil.

Katherine too was bright and lively this morning, as if there were no dark shadow of trouble in her life.  Sometimes she was fearfully sick at heart with the remembrance of her father’s confidence, and a dread of what the summer might bring; but at other times, on days like this, she took comfort in the ice, the snow, and the searching cold.  Winter was not nearly over yet, a hundred things might happen before the summer came, and so her high spirits pushed the dark shadow to one side and for a brief space forgot all about it.  She was especially blithe of heart to-day, and so had donned a skirt of scarlet blanket cloth, which matched in hue the woollen cloud she wrapped about her head.  On other days, when her mood was more sombre, she wore a dark-blue skirt, like the thick, fur-lined coat which was put on every time she left the house.