And yet-- He smiled grimly, and his hands clenched tighter.

After all, was not his power sufficient?
Would even Pierrot dare stand up against that?
If Pierrot objected, he would drive him from the country--from the trapping regions that had come down to him as heritage from father and grandfather, and even before their day.

He would make of Pierrot a wanderer and an outcast, as he had made wanderers and outcasts of a score of others who had lost his favor.

No other Post would sell to or buy from Pierrot if Le Bete--the black cross--was put after his name.
That was his power--a law of the factors that had come down through the centuries.

It was a tremendous power for evil.