"Time you made a change then. He thinks he's got you cinched."
"Gilbert Beattie my good friend."
"Hell! Ain't I your friend, too? You don't know me. Have a cigar. Sit down. What do you want to see Beattie about in such a rush?"
"I goin' buy team and wagon," said Musq'oosis calmly.
Mahooley laughed. "What are you goin' to do with it? I never heard of you as a driver."
"I goin' hire driver," asserted Musq'oosis. "I sit down; let ot'er man work for me. So I get rich."
This seemed more and more humorous to Mahooley.
"That's the right ticket," he said. "But where will you get the business for your team?"
By way of answer Musq'oosis produced a folded paper from inside the capote. Opening it, Mahooley read:
This is to certify that I have awarded the Indian Musq'oosis the contract to freight all my supplies from Grier's Point to my camp on Beaver Bay during the coming summer at twenty-five cents per hundredweight.