Down a pathway leading beside the storehouse came McGlenn, the factor,
and his assistant, Johnson. They reached the window wherein Bigbeam was
reposing and stopped in their tracks! They could not believe their eyes!
Were they in Bond or Regent Street again! Never had they seen such
magnificent display of costly furs before, never one so barbaric, unique
and striking, and, withal, so honest in its richness! They did not
hesitate a moment. They rushed around to the main entrance, tore their
way profanely through the dense groups of Indians, and reached the
window wherein they had seen displayed the marvel. Then they started
back appalled! The interior appearance of that window afforded, perhaps,
as vivid and complaining contrast to its exterior as had ever been
presented since views had rivalry. The thongs about the neck of the
swart Bigbeam had become undone, and her normal front filled all the
window's broad interior. That front, to put it mildly, though
picturesque, was not attractive. It afforded an area of greasy and dirty
brown cuticle and of moose skin, if possible dirtier and greasier still.
The two white men could not understand themselves. Was there witchcraft
about; had they been drinking too much of the Scotch whisky in the
stores? They forced their way outside and looked at the window again,
and discovered that they were sane. There, pressed closely against the
window by the weight of the sleeping Bigbeam, still extended in all its
glory the wonderful robe of furs. Again they entered the post and
unceremoniously pulled from her pleasant resting place the helpmate of
Red Dog, the hunter. The cloak was seized upon and the two men hurried
with it to the inner apartments, where it was studied carefully and with
vigorous expressions of admiration.
"He's got it!" exclaimed McGlenn. "He's got it, the foxy rascal! It's
only a trick of Red Dog's; but the buck who knows furs as well as that
and who lives in a region where such furs can be found, and who's been
sharp enough to utilize his squaw for a scheme like this, deserves the
new post anyhow. You'll have to go up there, Johnson, and take some of
the voyageurs with you, as soon as the river is open to the head, and
establish a new post there. There'll be profit in it." Then Red Dog was
ordered to come in.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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