"It was in London in the place of Levinski, the furrier. Pollak and I
worked for him in the sorting of skins. The ship took me to Port
Nelson. It was a Hudson's Bay Company ship, and I hired out to the
Company and they sent me here to Gods Lake. I like it here."

"So that's it, is it? Well, now you listen to me. We'll just forget
the black eye and make a little trade. You keep still about the sable
coat, and about hitting me, and I'll keep still about your killing
Pollak. Mind you, if I should tell Murchison you had killed a man he
would send you back to London, and they would hang you."

"Yes, they would hang me because I killed Pollak. But I do not tell
Murchison things that I know. If you do not tell him I killed Pollak,
he will not send me back to get hung."




XVI

When John McNabb read Wentworth's report, he reached for his telephone
and called Detroit. "That you, Beekman?" he asked, recognizing the
voice of the senior partner of one of the foremost engineering firms in
the country. "How about you--all set for that Gods Lake job? Just got
the preliminary report. Everything O. K. Plenty of water, plenty of
head, and we can get it without spreading the reservoir over the whole
country. Hustle that road through as fast as you can. Hundred miles
of it--only about eight or ten miles of swamp. We can truck the
material in quicker than by shipping it clear around through the Bay