“It’s a tough camp in a tough country,” he said deliberately.  “It’s a camp where you’ll get just as good a time as you choose to earn.  The boy who runs it learnt his job in the forests of Quebec, and you’ll likely understand what that means.  Well, you’re going right off now.  But there’s this I want to tell you before I see the last of you—­for a year.  I know you, Idepski.  I know you for all you are, and all you’re ever likely to be.  You’re an unscrupulous blackmailer and crook.  You’re a parasite battening yourself on the weakness of human nature, taking your toll from whichever side of a dispute will pay you best.  You’re taking Hellbeam’s money in the dispute between him and me, and you’ll go on taking it till you pull off the play he’s asking, or get broken in the work of it.  That’s all right as far as I’m concerned.  You’ve nerve, you’ve courage, or you wouldn’t be the crook you are.  I guess you’ll go on because I’ve no intention of competing with Hellbeam for your services.  But I want you to understand clearly you’ve jumped into a mighty big fight.  This is a country where a fight can go on without the prying eyes of the laws of civilisation peeking into things.  And by that I take it you’ll understand I reckon to make war to the knife.  You came here prepared to use force.  That’s all right.  We shan’t hesitate to use force on our side.  And we’re going to use it to the limit.  If peace is only to be gained at the cost of your life you’re going to pay that cost—­if it suits me.  That’s all I’ve to say at the moment.  For the present, for a year, you’ll be safely muzzled.  You see, I don’t need to worry with those boys you brought with you.  You best go along with Bat now.  He’ll fix things ready for your trip.”

The dismissal was complete, and Bat was prompt to accept his cue.  He moved towards the man smoking at the table, much in the fashion of a warder advancing to take possession of his prisoner after sentence of the court.

It was at that moment that the cold mask of indifference fell from the agent.  Hardy as he was, the contemplation of his momentary failure, which was about to cost him twelve months of hardship in one of the roughest lumber camps in Labrador, robbed him of something of that nerve which was his chief asset.  He glanced for the first time at the burly figure of Bat.  He contemplated the rugged features of the man whose battling instinct was his strongest characteristic.  He read the purpose in the grim set of the square jaws, and in the unyielding light of the grey eyes peering out from under shaggy brows.  And that which he read reduced him to a feeling of impotence.  He flung a look of fury and hate at the man behind the desk.