“I’m Saunders, of the Hudson Bay Company,” said he, “and I suppose you’re the nephews of Mr. Wilcox, an engineer, who has gone down the river?”
“Yes, sir,” said Rob; “we have just come down, and we expected to meet him below here.”
“I have a letter for you,” said Captain Saunders. “Mr. Wilcox came up from Little Slave awhile back, and went down to Fort Vermilion with us on our last trip—I’m the captain of the boat over yonder. He asked me to bring you down to Vermilion on our next run. I suppose the letter explains it all.”
“Yes, sir,” said Rob, after reading it and handing it to the others. “That’s about the size of it. We thought our trip was ended here, but he asks us to come on down and meet him at Fort Vermilion! It seems a long way; but we’re very glad to meet you, Captain Saunders.”
They all shook hands, and the grizzled veteran smiled at them quizzically.
“Well, young gentlemen,” said he, “I hardly know what to think about your trip, but if you really made it, you’re lucky to get through in as good shape as you have.”
“We had a perfectly bully time, sir,” said Rob. “We lost one of our boats west of the cañon, but we got another this side, and we’re all safe and sound, with every ounce of our property along.”
“You have the best of me, I must admit,” said the Hudson Bay man, “for I have never been west of St. John myself, although we make the Dunvegan run regularly all the time, of course. They tell me it is pretty wild back there in the mountains.”
“Yes, sir,” said Rob. “The water’s pretty fast sometimes; but, you see, we had two good men with us, and we were very careful.”
“You had pretty fair men with you, too, didn’t you, Alex?” smiled Saunders, as the tall half-breed came up at that time.