At his request Toby displayed to Marks his other pelts.
"I'll pay you twenty-five dollars apiece for your marten skins, and take them as they run," Marks offered. "That's cash I'm offering, not trade."
"I can't sell un," Toby declined. "We owes a debt at the Company shop, and we has to use un to pay the debt. They gives us thirty dollars for un there."
"But that's trade," said Marks. "I offer cash, and twenty-five in cash is more than thirty-five in trade."
"Not for us," objected Toby. "If we takes twenty-five dollars in cash we only buys twenty-five dollars' worth with un. If we trades un in we gets thirty dollars' worth with un, whatever."
"I can't argue with you, I see," and the man appeared to relinquish his effort to buy the fur.
Marks made no further reference to the pelts, ind
