CHAPTER

       I June fever
      II fort enterprise
     III Colina
      IV the meeting
       V an invitation to dine
      VI the dinner
     VII two interviews
    VIII in Ambrose’s camp
      IX lovers
       X another visitor
      XI Alexander Selkirk and family
     XII gathering shadows
    XIII the quarrel
     XIV Simon Grampierre
      XV the plan of Campaign
     XVI Colina commands
    XVII the staff of life
   XVIII A bloodless capture
     XIX woman’s weapons
      XX UNDERCURRENTS
     XXI the subtlety of Gordon strange
    XXII the “Tea dance”
   XXIII fire and rapine
    XXIV Colina relents
     XXV accused
    XXVI convicted
   XXVII A change of jailers
  XXVIII A gleam of hope
    XXIX Nesis
     XXX free
    XXXI the alarm
   XXXII the trap
  XXXIII the test
   XXXIV another change of jailers
    XXXV the jail visitor
   XXXVI Colina’s enterprise
  XXXVII Marta
 XXXVIII the finding of Nesis
   XXXIX the trial
      XL am unexpected witness
     XLI from dumb lips
    XLII the avenging of Nesis
   XLIII newspaper clippings

THE FUR BRINGERS

CHAPTER I.

June fever.

The firm of Minot & Doane sat on the doorsill of its store on Lake Miwasa smoking its after-supper pipes.

It was seven o’clock of a brilliant day in June.  The westering sun shone comfortably on the world, and a soft breeze kept the mosquitoes at bay.

Moreover, the tobacco was of the best the store afforded; yet there was no peace between the two.  They bickered like schoolboys kept indoors.

“How many link-skins in the bale you made up today?” asked Peter Minot.

“Three-seventy-two,” his young partner answered in a surly tone that was in itself a provocation.

“I made it three-seventy-three,” said Peter curtly.

“What’s the difference?” demanded Ambrose Doane.

“Seven dollars,” said Peter dryly.

“Well, you can claim the extra one, can’t you,” snarled Ambrose, “and make an allowance if it’s found short?”

“That’s not the way I like to do business!”

“Too bad about you!”

The older man frowned darkly, clamped his teeth upon his pipe, and held his tongue.

His silence was an additional aggravation to the other.  “What do you want me to do,” he burst out with an amount of passion absurdly disproportionate to the matter at issue, “cut it open and count it over and bale it up again?”

“To blazes with it!” said Peter.  “I want you to keep your temper!”

“I’m sick of this!” cried Ambrose with the wilful abandon of one hopelessly in the wrong.  “You’re at me from morning till night!  Nothing I do is right.  Why can’t you leave me alone?”