Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/46

 ,” commented another friend. “He does not care much who he shoots, that Jake he  doesn’t.”

“I would just like to meet up with him somewhere,” Peterson returned quickly. “A man can’t do nothing when they sneak up on him in  the dark, but if I ever have the chance, why, I’ll  just show him once. I wouldn’t have sold those furs for less than seven hundred dollars, I swear. And that bear skin, I tell you, was a prize.”

“Wass it so beeg?” asked an old Swede, sitting in the corner near Hugh.

“No, sir, it wasn’t big, but it was rare. Just a bear cub it was, but a cub that had turned out  blond by some freak and surprised his old black  mother some. I’ll be bound. Not the brown, even, that grizzly bears are, but a light, gold, yellow brown. The Indian who had it vowed he wouldn’t sell it, not for any price, but at last I  got it away from him. And I’d like just to meet the fellow that stole it from me. Shooting would be too good, I’d—”

Miss Christina opened her window at this point