The girl on the Fontenelle was evidently enjoying the situation, and Danvers discovered at once that she was holding court on her own boat as well as commanding tribute from the Far West. The men about him stared eagerly at the slender, imperious figure, while Burroughs procured a glass from the mate and feasted his eyes.
"I'm goin' to see her at closer range," he declared, and soon had persuaded the captain to let him have a rowboat.
Philip and Latimer, by this time good friends, watched the trader go on board and disappear into the cabin.
"The nerve of that man amazes me!" declared Latimer. "What can he be thinking of?"
"Of the girl, and the first chance at Fort Benton!" answered the doctor, who joined the two in time to catch the remark. "If you'd known Bob Burroughs as long as I have at Fort Benton, you wouldn't be surprised at anything. He's determined to win, wherever you put him, and he'll make money easy enough."
"But his eagerness and offensiveness——" began Danvers.
"It isn't so much ignorance," explained the doctor, always ready to give credit wherever due. "He can talk English well enough when he thinks there is any occasion. He's one of the self-made sort, you know. But he doesn't estimate men correctly—puts them all a little too low—and that's where he's going to lose the game."
When Burroughs came back he was met with a fusillade of questions.
"Who is she, Bob?"
"Major Thornhill's daughter, Eva Thornhill."