The Indian's face grew very stern as he remembered. His tone became as hard as the expression of his face. He looked at Mr. Cabot and clenched his fist. "When our men came to the storekeeper, they walked all about the store. 'I'll take that fine dress,' said one. 'Give me that shotgun,' said another. 'I will have this bag of tobacco,' said a third. Some took flour, and some chose bright ornaments for their wives, and others took candy, and one man got a talking-machine. Some chose the best clothes in the store. They also took much food of every kind, and ammunition for the guns. "They made great piles of the things on the floor, to take them to the canoes. "Then they brought out their money to pay for all these things. "'What is that stuff?' said the storekeeper. "'That? It is our money. It is what a trader paid us for our furs.' "'What was his name?' "'That we do not know. We did not ask. We do not care who buys from us; all we care is that he buys. One man's money is as good as another's.' "Then the storekeeper laughed in their faces. And he said: 'You have been fooled. You have been fooled as easily as little children. Do you know what this "money" is that you have given me?' "'No,' they said. "'It is not money at all,' he told them. 'It is nothing but labels from beer bottles. You cannot have those things you have piled up on the floor. I will take them back and keep them here until you bring me real money for them.' "Then they said to him, 'But it is all we have. We cannot go back to our people with nothing.' "He said: 'I cannot help that. It is no fault of mine.' "They wanted to fight--but it would do no good to kill the agent or drive him away. There would be no one from whom to get things another year. "'You ought to have brought your furs to me. I would have given you real money for them,' said the agent. "They went away very sorrowful. After many days they came back to us again. We were very glad when we saw them coming--but we wondered that their canoes were not piled high with the things we had told them to buy. "When we heard their story we were very sorrowful. We talked about it a great deal. We said, 'What shall we do?' "Then we made up our minds. This is what we decided. We said: 'The next white man that comes among us we shall hold. We shall not let him go until he pays to us a sum of money, seven hundred dollars, equal to that which we have lost. Since he is a white man he or his friends must make up to us that which we have lost at the hands of a white man.' "So now you see--you are the man. And it is you that must pay back to us the money." "But I haven't seven hundred dollars." "Then you must promise that you will pay it, or get your friends to pay it. These many years you have come here among us. We will trust you for that. It is much that we should trust you--when it is one of your own people who brought such suffering and loss upon us."