"Well," said Jordan dryly, "we'll fix up the thing. I've had to come here with my schooner for this man, and I'll charge my time to you at forty dollars the day besides what Motter stole from me. We'll figure he has been working here two months, anyway, and he'd have got 'bout two dollars and a half for every day of it in our country. Then there's the months you kept him on the other coast without giving him a show to make out his innocence, and his damaged feelings. That will run to five hundred dollars, anyway, and it's very moderate. You can't do things of that kind to a Canadian without it costing something. Still, the trading folks aren't going to lose anything, because the Government's bound to pay them. Now, have you got any roubles with you?"
"Very few," said the dark-skinned man in French. "We pay the natives in provisions."
Jordan nodded. "Then I'll work it out in seals," he said. "Now I'm wanting that pistol and your sword from you."
The blue-eyed officer laid his hand upon the blade. "You can have my word—a six hour's truce—but this only in one way."
"Well," said Jordan with a little laugh, "I guess I can trust you, because we've got your men's rifles, and I'll leave enough of the boys to take care of you. Montreal, you'll stop with four of them, and the rest will come along with me. It's going to take a good many holluschackie to square this deal."
The Russian nodded, and lighted another cigarette, and the lads went out with the rest into the misty night.
CHAPTER XX
THE NEXT MEETING
The men stopped at last at the head of the slope to the sea, and the lads discovered that the task before them was a good deal less simple than they had fancied. There were the seals—they could see them dimly lying in groups on the shingle or shambling about—but it became evident that their destruction could not be undertaken in a haphazard fashion, for Jordan sent two of the men to work round between them and the sea.
"We'll give them 'bout ten minutes, boys, and then start in. I'm entitled to so many skins, but I've no use for spoiling the whole herd," he said.