uiet industry and toil
rather than a fighter or a talker. A peaceful creed had been his,
and he had perhaps never before raised a hand in anger against a
fellow creature.

This made the sudden wild and passionate outburst the more strange
and awful to Humphrey. It was almost as though Charles was no
longer the brother he had known all these years, but had been
transformed into a different being by the swift and fearful
calamity which had swept down upon them during these past few
hours.

"I will avenge--I swear it! As they have done, so shall it be done
unto them. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life--is not that
written in the Scriptures? The avenger of blood shall follow and
overtake. His hand shall not spare, neither his eye pity. The
evildoer shall be rooted out of the land. His place shall be no
more found. Even as they have done, so shall it be done unto them."

He stopped, and suddenly raised his clasped hands to heaven. A
torrent of words broke from his lips.

"O God, Thou hast seen, Thine eyes have beheld. If it had been an
open enemy that had done this thing, then could I perchance have
borne it. If it had been the untutored savage, in his ignorant
ferocity, then would I have left Thee, O Lord, to deal with him--to
avenge! But the white brother has risen up against his own flesh
and blood. The white man has stood by to see. He has hounded on the
savages! He has disgraced his humanity! O Lord God, give him into
my hands! let me avenge me of mine adversary. Let the ignorant
Indian escape if Thou wilt, but grant unto me to slay and slay and
slay amid the ranks of the white man, who has sold his soul for
gain, and has become more treacherous and cruel than the Indian
ally whose aid he has invoked. Judge Thou betwixt us, O Lord; look
upon this scene! Strengthen Thou mine arm to the battle, for here I
vow that I will henceforth give my life to this work. I will till
the fields no more. I will beat my pruning hook into a sword. I
will slay, and spare not, and Thou, O God of battles, shalt be with
me. Thou shalt strengthen mine arm; Thou shalt give unto me the
victory. Thou shalt deliver mine enemy into mine hand. I know it, I
see it! For Thou art God, and I am Thy servant, and I will avenge
upon him who has defied Thee this hideous crime upon which Thine
eyes have looked!"

Humphrey stood by silent and awed. An answering thrill was in his
own heart. He had averted his eyes from the ghastly spectacle of