"That's all you know," he said indignantly.
"But they'll arrest you for murder!"
"What of that! If I let these silly savages trade for guns, they'll waste the furs on imitation jewelry, sham silk handkerchiefs, liquor, all sorts of foolishness. They'll come back with two or three old fukes, and say that arrows are better. Of course I'll have to go."
He heard a chirp like that of a squirrel, cheeky, truculent.
"You're laughing at me," he said peevishly.
"T-t. T-t. T-t. Krr-aw-aw! Storm, dear, your mother is with me."
"Humph! What does she want?"
"She says that long ago, in the big-canoe-on-the-salt-water, you had an enemy."
"Silas? Oh, we were pretty good friends after."
"Yes. When you loved your enemy. Then, when you came within three suns' journey of my lodge, you stayed three years to nurse a fat old man."