Hugh Pendexter

“ You have refused a very reasonable request in declining to stop trading for skins taken on X. Y. debts. Without intending to do so, you have given me the advantage. I'll strip your spring hunters of their furs. The N. W. will have some unpaid debts as well as the X. Y."
Tender, gentle women arouse one's pity when they attempt defiance. She struck sparks with every word.
"Rum against superstition," I challenged, hungering to trade with her and to best her. ”

“ This is a trading-post."
"Quite so—and you approve of Black Chabot's way of fighting women for their furs," she sneered.
"You know better. I have never fought with women. There is a vast difference between holding up a woman and taking her furs by force, whether she owes them on a debt or is free to trade where she will, and trading for skins voluntarily brought here."
"Then you refuse to stop trading with Indians who have not settled their debts with us?" ”

“ We cannot fight against the Chippewa medicine. We only want to stay where we can hear the Voice."
For several nights I remained awake, hoping the phenomenon would be repeated. As nothing happened, the edge of my interest wore off and I became busy with the ordinary humdrum which occupies the attention of the bourgeois of a post, as the French called a manager. We turned the horses out to graze on the plains and fired the dead grass along the east bank of the river. Two skin canoes, loaded with beaten meat and a few skins, came down the Pembina from the hills hut. ”

“ I resented it.
"You can't prove your experiment a success if I stop trading rum," I argued. "If your medicine is strong, the only way you can prove it is by overcoming opposition."
"I believe I understand that much quite thoroughly," she gravely said, yet making me feel she was laughing at me all the time.
"Are you afraid of the Indians? Angus wouldn't be much help in time of danger. The Rat is—well—a rat." ”

“ The Crees and Assiniboins bring me trade as a bribe to me to send the Voice back to Rivière Qu'Appelle. The Chippewas bring their hunt to keep the Voice on the Red. So far as being in any danger, you should know I am a medicine woman to them. My hair is very great medicine. Old Tabashaw says I am a spirit-medicine. ”

“ Men long in the wilds will be overwhelmed by the femininity expressed by the first woman they meet on returning to civilization. Although I was hungry for the companionship of a woman, I could find no commonplaces about Miss Dearness which my zeal could transmute into ideals. ”

“ I sent back several kegs of mixed wine and orders for our man to keep the Indians there, to tell them they would get nothing to drink if they came to the post.
That the X. Y. was pursuing its silly policy of attempting to carry on trade without rum was again evidenced by the arrival of several small bands of Indians, Chippewas who were bringing their hunt to me although they had taken debts from the opposition. They denounced the X. Y. for refusing them liquor, and again I marvelled that Angus did not come to me and borrow a few kegs. ”

“ She snapped her eyes, and he replied—
"All but four of them, Miss Dearness."
"Now I understand why my Indians haven't come in," I confessed. "Yet it's only half a test. This thief has brought his hunt to you." I pointed at the Robe. "If he hadn't stolen the rum he would have returned here and stolen the skins back to trade to me for high wine. You've started a dangerous game. I shall stick to what I've told them—no rum without skins. Rum they will have, and they can't steal skins at our post. You're responsible for anything that happens down here." ”

“ A risk is a risk, and danger is a danger, but when she's got all the Chippewas, Crees and Assiniboins believing she's a great tribal medicine, when the whole outfit is willing to murder every white in the Northwest if she gives the word—— But what's the use of talking all this to you? ”

“ We stop at nothing which does not involve premeditated murder. Your father, you know, advised Little Crane to kill me for preventing his trading our skins to you."
"Very likely, although I did not hear him," she coolly commented. "I'm glad to get your point of view. I've said I thought you were making a mistake in trading for our skins. I meant a mistake that would hurt you morally. Now I'll make a little prophecy. You've made a mistake in a business sense. I see fur coming back to the X. Y. post on the Scratching. And I thank you."
"For what?"
"For helping me bring the trade to our post." ”

“ The remarkable hair, the fine texture of her skin despite the Red River sun, wind and storms, all such may be found in many women. In addition to these physical charms, however, was an indefinable quality that Strangely affected me. ”

“ He was accused of one trick I never had been guilty of—using a mug half filled with tallow on an Indian too drunk to realize he wasn't getting a full drink. But then, Chabot did it, too. The annoying fact remained that by some influence she had compelled Black Robe to bring back the stolen liquor. I would have given twenty kegs if the rascal, on striking the woods, had kept on going. I wouldn't tickle her vanity by asking how she did it; I did say, however—
"I'll send down to you the next furs offered me by an Indian owing you a debt." ”