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Pulp Fiction, 1915 · page 110 of 228

Adventure, November 1915 — page 110: what you’re looking at

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aT i VA te ee j i? : ee Fata gta Sl faa ha : - . bee : ee A Xt aA, tee MNT 1 bey ht Ata ae J Wee? . 5* : 7 s 7 “¥ . Ee z Mt < F es 6 i“ : a aS a bling 9 ty Ce “ 2 - “oe em . ‘g- <= ea Pen E- a ; . >t? fy ; wf : . a TR gle ENE EE it ee an NE Ie PE AD OTN AE IE AMEE tn Sag Me age SR 2 See PES > ee 5 f = —S - 108 like stones. Let us go back to the begin- ning, to this Cambrian Lake post of yours.” He drew forward upon the table a map of the Ungava Peninsula and pointed to the expansion of the Kaniapiskau River. “You went up here——”’ “After the Arctic Fur Company sacked my Opawika Post,” interrupted Dubawni, his eyes burning. Helbaud made a deprecating gesture. . “What did you expect?” he demanded. “The Opawika was our territory. “You were a poacher, and you would heed no warning.’ “And I heed no warning now!” roared Dubawni. “You drove me out of Quebec to the unclaimed land, and in that un- claimed land I have worked up my trade. Now you try to interfere with me again. You offered me amalgamation, you offered me absorption a hundred times, and I told you to go to the devil. I tell you so now and in all finality. “T am a free man in a free country. These are not the old lawless days when the Northwesters, the Hudson’s Bay, the Little Company, the X Y Company and a score of other concerns ravaged each other’s posts and spilt each other’s-blood. And look you, the French government of Quebec to which you are so fond of claiming alle- giance has no authority over the territory in question. It is under the jurisdiction of Newfoundland. I am Newfoundland French of the purest strain, and I stand within my rights.” ; “So?”’ sneered Helbaud. ‘Wiser heads than yours or mine have been cracked over that same question. But I am no lawyer or judge. My business is organization, and you interfere with it. See—” laying a fin- ger on the location of Dubawni Post—“‘it is ‘a strategic point, and I admit that your choice of it was a stroke of genius. “The Kaniapiskau is the great highway of that central basin; and you command the approaches to it on three sides, east, west and south. But in commanding them, you tap our trade at its source. You divert our furs to your post, and the bales you have just grown so wrathy over were in all pro- bability taken in the first place by men upon our books. put it mildly, trade seduction. We propose to stop it. We would like to stop it with- out interfering with you, but that on ac- count of your attitude seems impossible. It is a hardship. It is, to. Adventure Why not consider the thing sanely, Dubaw- ni? Why not make some compromise be- fore it is too late?” ‘And give up my status as a free man?” snarled Dubawni. ‘Become a hireling of yours like these hundreds upon the portage, like that gorilla Betarde we met or—or that hulking Lavergne?”’ Masita started and looked around, but Francois had not followed them in. Was he ashamed, she asked hetself? Her cheeks burned at the thought, and the eyes of Hel- baud shrewdly fastening on her only made the flush flame deeper. .. “Ho, ho!” exclaimed Helbaud meditative- ly. “He has caught your eye, eh? I have always wondered what there was in mere size to attract a woman’s eyes: For size is not the man, and——”’ “Will you “quit!” flashed Masita. “Turn to the business in hand. And be quick, lest my father does not contain himself.” “As you like!’ returned Helbaud, with a spark of passion. “I will be quick and plain. Dubawni, I offer you a price from the Arctic Fur Company for your furs and post. In other words, you will merge with us, your post will go upon our district, and you will run it in our interests.” “TY will run nothing in your interests,’ spurned Dubawni. “TI will make no alliance with you. My post stands independent, as it always did. And just to prove to you that there is not the remotest chance of co- ercing me, I will tell you that I have turned down the very same offer from a bigger and more honorable company than yours.” “The Hudson’s Bay?” grated Helbaud. ‘The Hudson’s Bay! And the offer was made through a bigger and more honorable man than you. Look you, do you think I yield to your arguments when the voice: of Ivan Trevor failed to move me?” Ivan Trevor! How the council-hall stilled to his name, a name that had rung across the North as no name had rung before. Helbaud’s associates glanced about furtive- ly, one to another and back again, and Hel- baud himself half swung around to the door as if expecting to see the Chimo Factor arise from nowhere and step in to confront him. But the council-hall was empty, and in its stillness the din of the dining-room ad- jacent to it rose ina tumult. Men laughed, joked and shouted as they ate, and the clash of the serving of tin dishes echoed like the sound of cymbals. CONnnICLOOOkS (C©) = 3 > ine - — = —- - 4