A tall, slenderly-built man, with a red, dissipated face, watery red-lidded eyes, and longish red hair was holding out a string of beads and jabbering in his own language to a tall, handsome young Indian who had an otter pelt over his arm.
"Aw, don't you do it," Joe burst out suddenly. "He's stringin' you! That string of beads ain't worth twenty-five cents."
The young Indian turned and looked at him, and the man, turning several shades redder than before, wheeled upon him with an oath.
"Mind your own business, you little pup," he roared, "who's askin' your advice!"
Whether he understood what had been said or not, Joe did not know, but the Indian turned and walked away, carrying the pelt with him. The man strode up to Joe with a menacing attitude.
"I'll teach you to interfere in my business again, you meddlesome young fool," he shouted, and raised his clenched fist. At this moment Mr. and Mrs. Peniman came out of the store, followed by Ruth, Sara, and Nina Carroll. Joshua Peniman, seeing his son threatened, hurried to his side, and the man, with another great oath, turned and faced him.
As he did so the oath died on his lips, his eyes flew wide and his mouth fell open, and the fiery color receded from his face, leaving it grey and ashen.
Joe, staring at him, saw that his eyes were fixed upon Nina, with the look of a man who sees an apparition from another world.
"What's the matter here?" cried Joshua Peniman. "Joe, what has this man been doing to you?"
"Nothing," answered Joe with a laugh, "he's just mad because I busted up his trade with an Indian. Say, what do you think, the old cheat was tryin' to trade that young buck out of a splendid otter skin for a string of nasty little cheap yellow beads!"