"Be reasonable," said Mahooley plaintively. "I suppose you want a year's credit. I've got to count that."
Mahooley stared. "Where the hell will you get it?"
Mahooley finally came down to six hundred, and Musq'oosis went up to five-seventy-eight. There they stuck for an hour.
"Five-seventy-eight!" said Mahooley sarcastically. "Why don't you add nineteen cents or so?"
"Tak' it or leave it," said Musq'oosis calmly.
Mahooley finally took it. "Now, let me see the colour of your money," he said.
Musq'oosis produced another little paper. This one read:
I promise to pay the Indian, Musq'oosis, five hundred and seventy-eight dollars ($578.00) on demand.
Mahooley looked discomfited. He whistled.
"That's good money, ain't it?" asked Musq'oosis.
"Sure! Where did you get it?" demanded the trader. "I never heard of this."
"Beattie and me got business," replied Musq'oosis with dignity.
Mahooley was obliged to swallow his curiosity.
"Well, who are you going to get to drive?" he asked.
Musq'oosis's air for the first time became ingratiating. "I tell you," he returned. "Let you and I mak' a deal. You want me do somesing. I want you do somesing."
"What is it?" demanded Mahooley suspiciously.
"You do w'at I want, I promise I tell the Fish-Eaters come to your store."
Mahooley's eyes gleamed. "Well, out with it!"
"I want you not tell nobody I buy your team. Nobody but Stiffy. I want hire white man to drive, see? Maybe he not lak work for red man. So you mak' out he workin' for you, see?"
"All right," agreed Mahooley. "That's easy. But who can you get?"
Mahooley indignantly exploded. Sam, the white slave, the butt of the whole camp, the tramp without a coat to his back or a hat to cover his head. He assured Musq'oosis more than once that he was crazy.
It may be that with his scorn was mixed a natural anxiety not to lose a cheap cook. Anyhow, Musq'oosis, calm and smiling, stuck to the point, and, of course, when it came to it the chance of getting the Fish-Eater's trade was too good to be missed. They finally shook hands on the deal.
Of the night that followed little need be said. As a result of the day's excitement the crowd stopping at the kitchen was in an uplifted state, anyway, and from some mysterious source a jug of illicit spirits was produced. It circulated in the bunk-room until far into the night.