Hedin rose to his feet and held the handkerchief to his bleeding nose.  McNabb’s hand gripped his shoulder.  “Ye done fine, lad!  Ye done fine!” he exclaimed.

Dropping to his knees, Hedin slipped his hand into the unconscious man’s pocket and withdrew a key which he tossed to one of the Company Indians who had come running in at the sound of battle.  “Here, Joe Irish,” he said, “go to the cabin and unlock the trunk that is there and bring back the coat of fur.”

A few moments later Hedin handed the garment to McNabb.  “Here is your missing coat,” he said, as Jean threw her arm about his shoulder.

“Oskar, dear—­” she whispered, and the next moment Hedin’s arms were about her and she could feel the wild pounding of his heart against her breast.

There was a movement on the floor near their feet, and releasing the girl Hedin reached swiftly down.  McNabb’s hand stayed him before he could seize hold of Wentworth, who was crawling toward the door.

“Let him go, lad,” advised the old man.  “We’ve got the coat.  An’—­an’—­we’re all happy!”

“But the money?  He’s got the three hundred and fifty thousand!” cried Hedin.

McNabb grinned.  “Suppose we just let Orcutt worry about that,” he said.

“I told you Oskar was innocent!” cried Jean triumphantly, as the door closed behind the slinking form of Wentworth.  “I told you so from the first!  I just knew he never took that coat!”

McNabb’s eyes were twinkling.  “I knew it, too, lass,” he answered.  “That’s why I bailed him out an’ sent him up here with two hundred an’ fifty thousand dollars in negotiable paper in his pocket to close this deal for me.”

“And you knew all the time,” cried the girl, staring at her father in amazement, “when Orcutt was gloating over you back there, that you, and not he, owned the timber?  And you let him go on and humiliate you to your face!”

“Sure I did,” grinned McNabb.  “He was havin’ the time of his life, an’ I hated to spoil it.  An’ besides, while he was talkin’, truck after truck was rollin’ off down the tote-road haulin’ material to my mill site that I’ll buy in at ten cents on the dollar.  Orcutt’ll pay for his fun!”

“But—­your face—­when he told you that you had lost the timber!  It positively went gray!”

“Poker face,” laughed McNabb.  “But run along now—­the two of ye.  It’s many a long day since Dugald an’ I have had a powwow with our feet cocked up on bales of Injun goods.”  As the two walked arm in arm toward the door, McNabb called to the girl, “Here, lass, take your coat!” He tossed the Russian sable which the girl caught with a glad cry.  “Ye’ll be needin’ it up here agin winter comes.”

“Winter!  Up here!  What do you mean?”

“Oskar says he isn’t goin’ back to Terrace City,” he explained.  “Except maybe for the weddin’.  The North has got into his blood, an’ the McNabb Paper Company needs a competent manager.”