“Please pardon me for keeping you waiting,” she said, turning with smiling apology to Mr. Selincourt; “but that is Wise Eye from Ochre Lake, and he is the wiliest thief on the river.  Ah, I thought so!  He is coming back again.  Quick! stand back in that corner behind the stove, and you will see some fun.”

Mr. Selincourt promptly flattened himself into a small space between a bag of meal and a barrel of molasses, while Katherine dived into a recess by the bean bin, and then they waited, holding their breath as children do when playing hide-and-seek.

It was a good long wait, for Wise Eye was a shrewd rogue.  Then Mr. Selincourt from his corner saw a figure on all-fours coming over the doorstep.  At first he thought it was a dog, because of the peculiar sniffing sound it made, but a second glance showed it to be Wise Eye in search of plunder.  Gradually, gradually he edged himself inside, creeping so silently that there was no sound at all, and a thievish hand had just shot out to annex a bag of rice that stood within reaching distance, when Katherine emerged into view and said quietly:  “You can’t have that rice unless you pay for it, Wise Eye; we don’t give things away.”

The red man erected himself with a shocked look, as if insulted by the bare mention of stealing, and, opening a dirty hand, showed half a dollar tucked away in his palm.

“Wise Eye not want the rice, nor anything, but what he pay for,” he answered loftily; “but he drop his money here and come look for it, just to find it lying close to rice bag, and now he find it he say good morning and go.”

Katherine laughed, for, angry as Wise Eye’s depredations made her, it was amusing to find him bowled out once in a while.

“Had the fellow really lost his money?” asked Mr. Selincourt, coming out from his hiding-place very sticky on one side and very floury on the other.

“He has none to lose except that one bad coin, which is his greatest treasure, and which he has tendered in payment so often that I am quite sick of the sight of the thing,” Katherine replied.  “But he keeps the coin ready as an excuse, do you see?  I guessed he would try coming back, because you said that you had come to see the furs, and he knows we do not keep those out here in the store.”

“Well, he is a wily rogue!  What are you going to do now?” asked Mr. Selincourt, as she moved across to the door.

“Turn the key on him; it is the only thing to do.  These Indians are really a great trial; we have to keep such a sharp lookout always.  It is because of them that we never dare leave things outside unless there is someone to watch.”

“Your father is sitting out there in the sun,” said Mr. Selincourt, who could never seem to realize the extent of ’Duke Radford’s limitations.

“I know, but he would not understand, poor dear; he never notices things like that,” Katherine answered, with a mournful drop in her voice, as she turned the key and led the way to the stockroom.