He had been well-nigh staggered at the wealth of his discovery, and he had laughed in sheer amazed amusement that of all people such should fall to his lot. The discovery had been his alone. Not even Usak had shared in it. There had been no reason for secrecy, so he had been prepared to give the story of it broadcast to the world.
He had shown his specimens, and he had enjoyed the mystery with which he had enshrouded his discovery when he displayed them to Jim McLeod, the factor at Fort Cupar, and a small gathering of trailmen. This had been at first. And chance alone had saved him from revealing the locality of his discovery. It came in a flash when he had witnessed the staggering effect which the two great nuggets he offered for inspection had had upon his audience. In that moment he had realised something of the potentiality of the thing that was his.
Instantly re-action set in. Instantly he was himself transformed. The missionary fell from him. He remembered his baby girl, and became at once a plain adventurer and—father. Someday Felice would grow to womanhood. Someday he would no longer be there to tend and care for her. What could he give her that she might be freed from the hardships waiting upon a lonely girl in a world that had so little of comfort and sympathy to bestow upon the weak? Nothing. So, when they pressed him for the locality whence came his discovery, he—deliberately lied.
More than ever now was he concerned for his secret. More than ever was he concerned for the thing which the savage understanding of Usak had instilled into his simple mind. His secret must be safeguarded at once. Whatever the future might have in store for him personally he must make safe this thing for—little Felice.
A sound came to him from within the house. It was the movement of the moccasined feet of Usak’s woman, Pri-loo. He spoke over his shoulder without leaving the doorway.
“Does she sleep, Pri-loo?” he inquired in a low voice. The answer came in the woman’s deep, velvet tones.
“She sleep, boss.”
The man bestirred himself. He turned about, and the woman’s dusky beauty came under his urgent gaze.
“Then I go,” he said. “I’m going right over to see Jim McLeod, at the Fort. You just sit around till Usak comes back from the farm. You won’t quit this doorway till he comes along. That so? I’ll be back in a while, anyway. Felice’ll be all right? You’ll see to it?”
“Oh, yes. Sure. Felice all right. Pri-loo not quit. No.”