because they are in league with him. They fear him. They fear his
hold upon the Indians. So long as he maintains a permanent post a
hundred and seventy-five miles to the northward--more than two hundred
and fifty by the water trail--they know that he will not seriously
injure the trade at Fort Rae. With me it is different. I trade here,
and there, wherever the children of the wilderness are to be found.
Therefore I am hated by the men of the Hudson Bay Company who would
have been only too glad had MacNair killed me."

Chloe, who had listened eagerly to every word, leaped to her feet and
looked at Lapierre with shining eyes. "Oh! I think it is splendid!
You are brave, and you stand for the right of things! For the welfare
of the Indians! I see now why the factor warned me against you! He
wanted to discredit you."

Lapierre smiled. "The factor? What factor? And what did he tell you?"

"The factor at the Landing. 'Beware of Pierre Lapierre,' he said; and
when I asked him who Pierre Lapierre was, and why I should beware of
him, he shrugged his shoulders and would say nothing."

Lapierre nodded. "Ah yes--the company men--the factors and traders
have no love for the free-trader. We cannot blame them. It is
tradition. For nearly two and one-half centuries the company has stood
for power and authority in the outlands--and has reaped the profits of
the wild places. Let us be generous. It is an old and respectable
institution. It deals fairly enough with the Indians--by its own
measure of fairness, it is true--but fairly enough. With the company I
have no quarrel.