“A visitor!”
“A visitor?” echoed Walter, entering close behind his comrade.
“Yes, and I have found out about the new skull on Buffalo Head.”
“That is more than we have done,” Louis admitted, shaking the snow from his capote. “There have been Indians here?”
“No, a white man.”
Louis and Walter were too amazed even to exclaim. They stared unbelievingly at Neil.
“A white man,” the Scotch boy repeated. “He came a little while after you left. I didn’t know he was anywhere around till he knocked on the door. I was surprised, I can tell you, when I heard that knock. An Indian would have walked right in, so, even before I opened the door, I knew there must be a white man there. And there was,—a broad-shouldered fellow with a shaggy beard. He said ‘Bo jou’ and I said ‘Bo jou, come in.’ Then we stood and looked at each other. Just as I opened my mouth to ask him where he came from, he began asking me questions.”
“What kind of questions?” Louis interrupted.
“Who I was, and what I was doing here, if I was trapping or trading with the Indians. He could see the pelts all around the room. He was so sharp about it, I thought he might be a Hudson Bay man out on the track of free traders. I told him we hadn’t seen an Indian since we came and didn’t expect to see one. Then he wanted to know what we were going to do with our furs. Of course I said we were going to take them to the Company at Pembina.”
“Did that satisfy him?”