"Tell me more," demanded Ainley sharply, as an unpleasant suspicion shot into his mind.
"I not know more," protested the half-breed. "I see heem not ver' close; an' I travel fast. I give heem an' girl one look, cry bonjour! an' then he is past. Vous comprenez?"
"Yes," replied the white man standing there with a look of abstraction on his face. For a full two minutes he did not speak again, but stood as if resolving some plan in his mind, then he looked at the half-breed again.
"You are going up the river?" he asked.
"Oui!"
"Then I want you to do something for me. A day's journey or so further on you will find a camp, it is the camp of a great man of the Company——"
"I know it," interrupted the half-breed, "I haf seen it."
"Of course, I had forgotten you had been in the neighbourhood of it! Well, I want you to go there as fast as you can and to take a note for me. There will be a reward."
"I will take zee note."
"Then you must wait whilst I write it."