"Thirty-five miles to the north and west of us there is what the Indians call 'Muchemunito Nek'-- the Devil's Nest.

It's a Free Trader's house.

A man down in Montreal by the name of Lang owns a string of them, and his agent over at the Devil's Nest is a scoundrel of the first water.

His name is Thoreau.

There are a score of half-breeds and whites in his crowd, and not a one of them with an honest hair in his head.