"What do you intend to do with him?" he asked.
"Vat vould you have done mit him yourself had your purse been as full as your stomach?" asked the other, impudently.
"I would have found for him a home in which he might be taught Christianity and civilization, and then I would have taken the first opportunity for sending him back to his own land."
"Mayhap those be the very things I also vould do by the young heathen; who knows?" replied the furrier, with a leer. "At any rate, I have charge of him now, and vill take him at once to my happy home. You may set him ashore for me, captain."
"Not I," responded Captain Dermer. "I have no longer aught to do with him. Take him ashore yourself."
Thus confronted with his new responsibility, the man approached Nahma and, seizing him roughly by an arm, said, "Come mit me, heathen."
With a quick motion the young Indian wrenched himself free and faced his new master with so fierce a look that the latter involuntarily quailed beneath it and stepped back.
"Ah!" he snarled, "that's your game, is it? Ve'll see who comes out best."
With this he called to some men of his employ who were hoisting out bales of furs and bade them come to him, bringing a stout cord.