Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/45

 hundred dollars I would 'a’ got for them, just that little bale, not a cent less—and when I come  to myself again every hide and hair of them was  gone

“And you can’t tell who took them?” questioned one of his audience.

“I can’t tell but I could guess right enough. I didn’t see nobody, only a billion or two stars when I was hit over the head in the dark, and  that was all. There’s only one man around here who will do that kind of dirty work and he hails  from Jasper Peak. That’s the kind of fur trading he likes to do, let some other man go through the snow and the cold, spending his good money,  risking his life, tramping along his line of traps  or from one Indian camp to another, wheedling  the red rascals into selling their furs, and just as  a fellow’s nearly home again, dreaming about the  profit there’s going to be this time, here comes  some one sneaking behind in the dark and the  whole thing’s gone!”

“You was lucky he did not shoot you, Ole