The missioner was displeased with Fingers.
Last night, noticing a light in his shack, he had walked down to see him.

And he had found three men closely drawn up about a table with Dirty Fingers.

One of them was Ponte, the half-breed; another was Kinoo the outcast Dog Rib from over on Sand Creek; the third was Mooie, the old Indian trailer.

Kent wanted to jump up and shout, for those three were the three greatest trailers in all that part of the Northland.
Fingers had lost no time, and he wanted to voice his approbation like a small boy on the Fourth of July.
But his face, seen by Father Layonne, betrayed none of the excitement that was in his blood.

Fingers had told him he was going into a timber deal with these men, a long-distance deal where there would be much traveling, and that he could not interrupt himself just then to talk about Kent.