CHAPTER IX
DALE AND OWEN SPEAK THEIR MIND
Dale and Baptiste Ducrot did not meet until two hours later, when the young lumberman was sent to a tool house to get a new ax.
They came face to face, and each stared hardly at the other. Ducrot seemed on the point of passing on, but then changed his mind.
"Hah! so you work dis place?" he said, his eyes searching Dale's features keenly.
"Yes, I work here," was the cold answer. "What is that to you?"
At this Baptiste Ducrot shrugged his lean shoulders.
"I not care, no, so long you not take my job."
"I don't want your job!" exclaimed Dale angrily. "You keep your distance and leave me alone, and I'll leave you alone."
At this the French-Canadian muttered something under his breath in his own tongue. "I not afraid of you," he added, in English.