The Challenge of the North

an influential relative was commissioned a captain of engineers, and assigned to duty in one of the larger cantonments. In due course of events he was sent overseas, and was attached

ver passed. The abrupt termination of hostilities caught him with a formidable and inexplicable discrepancy of company funds-which discrepancy was

and looks, but when this grew unproductive of ready cash,

promptly employed him. Thereafter all went well until McNabb's ultimatum brought the Nettle River project to as sudden a termination as the armistice had brought the war. Whereupon Wentworth fo

, himself, was no connoisseur of fur, but at least he knew a Russian sable whe

ain-a scheme which, if successful, would work the utter ruin of Hedin, and l

tered McNabb's store by another door just in time to see old John rush from the

open for business until a late hour, McNabb's closed at noon. Passing unnoticed down the aisle, Wentworth's eyes darted here and there in search of a place o

into the private office, closed the door softly behi

d by twos and threes. He could hear the opening of the door, and the click of the lock as it closed behind them. The footsteps ceased. He drew his watch and waited. Noises from the street reached him, sounding far off and muffled, but the store was silent as a tomb. Twelve minutes

aring no sound, closed his watch and dabbed at his forehead with the handkerchief which he drew from his sleeve. Turning the knob, he stepped out upon the uncarpeted floor. The sound of his footsteps upon the hardwood seemed to reverberate through the whole building. He walked a few steps on tiptoe, and then decided that i

s fixed a huge roll of wrapping paper, he proceeded to make the coat into a package. This done, he hastened toward the stairway with the package under his arm. Down the stairs he flew, t

e undoing of a rival, but at the sudden realization of his status in the eyes of the world, a new t

d clutching his package tightly, hurried down the street. He had entirely gained his composure by the time he reached his hotel, and hastening to his room, placed the pack