no more surprised than Tom, whose wooden face was expressionless.

"Goddlemighty! Ain't I jus' been tellin' you how he wrecked the whole
show--how he sold out to that bunch of spies the Canadian Gov'ment has
done sent up there?" exploded West.

"Oh, I don't guess he did that," Morse, Senior, said lightly. "We
got to remember that times are changin', West. Law's comin' into the
country an' we old-timers oughta meet it halfway with the glad hand.
You can't buck the Union Jack any more than you could Uncle Sam. I
figure I've sent my last shipment of liquor across the line."

"Scared, are you?" sneered the trail boss.

"Maybe I am. Reckon I'm too old to play the smuggler's game. And I've
got a hankerin' for respectability--want the firm to stand well with
the new settlers. Legitimate business from now on. That's our motto,
boys."

"What church you been j'inin', C.N.?"

"Well, maybe it'll come to that too. Think I'd make a good deacon?"
the merchant asked amiably, untwining his legs and rising to stretch.

West slammed a big fist on the table so that the inkwell and the pens
jumped. "All I got to say is that this new Sunday-school outfit you
aim to run won't have no use for a he-man. I'm quittin' you right
now."

The foreman made the threat as a bluff. He was the most surprised man