Page:Hendryx--Connie Morgan with the Mounted.djvu/36

18 shoulder. “Yes, son,” he said. “Your dad had plenty of friends in the North. There’s many a man’s a better man for knowin’ Sam Morgan. He never made no big hurrah, Sam didn’t. Jest went ahead an’ done the thing he thought ort to be done—an’ he smiled when he done it.”

“Ye said a mouthful then, Sarg,” acquiesced Rip Wade. “Me—I know!”

“An’ when we head off this here Squigg, you’re goin’ back to Ten Bow?” asked McKeever.

“Why, yes—I suppose so. It will be awful lonesome without Waseche, but”

“It sure will!” interrupted the officer. “Why not join the Mounted?”

“Join the Mounted!” exclaimed the boy. “Why, I’m too young, and too little.”

“Wait a bit! ’Course, you couldn’t ’list regular—that’s a five-year job, an’ you are too young. But there’s Special Constables, an’ they’re appointed. I’ll speak to the Superintendent, onct we get to Dawson. You might be young—an’ little, too—but, By Thunder! The Mounted needs ’em like you! Brains an’ nerve is worth more than beef in the service. That hair-trigger stunt you pulled up river this mornin’ meant