"Injun Jake turns back after leavin' and shoots Pop and takes the
silver," he concluded, "and I'm goin' to get the silver whatever, even
if I has to shoot Injun Jake to get un!"

"Is you sure, now, 'twere Injun Jake does un?" asked Thomas, unwilling
to believe his friend and partner capable of such treachery. By
disposition Thomas was naturally cautious of passing judgment or of
accusing anyone of misdeed without conclusive proof.

"There's no doubtin' that!" insisted Eli. "There was nobody else to do
un. 'Twere Injun Jake."

A shift of wind to the southward assisted Eli on his way. Early that
evening he reached the Hudson's Bay Company's post, twenty miles west
of The Jug. Here he stopped for supper and learned from Zeke Hodge,
the Post servant, that Indian Jake had passed up Grand Lake in his
canoe two days before. Zeke expressed doubt as to Eli's finding the
half-breed at the Nascaupee River. He stated it as his opinion that if
Indian Jake were guilty of the crime, as he had no doubt, he was
planning an escape and had in all probability immediately plunged into
the interior, in which case he was already hopelessly beyond pursuit
and had fled the Bay country for good and all. Like Eli, Zeke
convicted the half-breed at once.

The Eskimo Bay Post of the Hudson's Bay Company is the last inhabited
dwelling as the traveller enters the wilderness; he might go on and on
for a thousand miles to Hudson Bay and in the whole vast expanse of
distance no other human habitation will he find. His camps will be
pitched in the depths of forests or on desolate, naked barrens; and
always, in forests or on barrens, he will hear the rush and roar of