Page:Hugh Pendexter--Kings of the Missouri.djvu/213

. At the end of seven days Baker and his party returned with eight packs of beaver, running a hundred pounds to the pack and worth about ten dollars a pound in St. Louis.

Baker announced having seen Indian signs, several smokes, and said a large number of Blackfeet were watching the rendezvous through spies and were discouraged from attacking only because of the large number of reds and whites. Lander, not given to drink, made an ideal whisky clerk from a trader's point of view. He found the work too repulsive and asked Bridger to give him other employment.

"Some one had to do it," said Bridger. "It's about all you can do. If no trader did it we could git beaver without it. But so long as one does it all must do it or make no trade. However I'll find something else for you."

If Bridger was inclined to resent Lander's fastidiousness he quickly changed when Black Arrow and a hundred braves rode into camp and announced that they had robes to trade, but would do business with no one but the Medicine Knife. Lander, under Bridger's tutelage, quickly traded the robes. Lander enjoyed this experience much as no liquor figured in the deal.