One great disappointment had already come. I was sure that I should learn something either of Nat, or of the fair, mysterious captive. When I questioned Jim, he answered with such apparent sincerity and truth, that I was pretty well convinced he knew nothing of either. In regard to the latter he laughed; the former he merely shook his head; he knew nothing of either. Sometimes when I fell into a deep reverie, and suddenly awoke, I could see Jim lift his eyes quickly from me, as though he had been endeavoring to satisfy himself of my identity. He questioned me artfully, and I told him all. At last, I resolved to put the question direct. “Jim, didn’t you and another warrior, some weeks ago, pass down the river, some distance south, with a white woman?” There was a perceptible start at this question, but he answered promptly: “Don’t know nothing ’bout ’em.” “Why, I was pretty sure that I saw you.” He shook his head. There was nothing to be gained by further questioning, and I gave it up. But I was satisfied he knew more of Nat and the sweet captive than he was willing to tell--and I was not mistaken. Shortly after this conversation, Jim told me that he and several of his tribe were in the employ of the Hudson Bay Fur Company, and traded numerous furs with them every spring. I asked him whether he was not in the territory of the Northwest Fur Company. He replied that that made no difference; each trespassed upon the other’s grounds, and he had been engaged for both.[2] [2] The Hudson Bay Company, established two hundred years ago, by Prince Rupert, divided its territory into four compartments--the Northern, including all the country of the Far North; the Southern, extending south to Lake Superior; the Montreal, including the country along the northern shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence; and the Columbia Department, comprehending all the country west of the Rocky Mountains, including Oregon, in which, I believe, they still trade.