eir canoe into the storm-tossed
bay, barely escaping with their miserable lives to the marshy peninsula.
Here, on their enemy's ground, skulking in the rushes, or lying close
behind tussocks, they at last reached the fringe of forest below the
settlement. Here, too, sorely pressed by hunger, and doggedly reckless
of consequences, they forgot their caution, and a flight of teal fell to
Jim's gun on the very outskirts of the settlement.

It was a fatal shot, whose echoes awoke the forces of civilization
against them. For it was heard by a logger in his hut near the
marsh, who, looking out, had seen Jim pass. A careless, good-natured
frontiersman, he might have kept the outcasts' mere presence to himself;
but there was that damning shot! An Indian with a gun! That weapon,
contraband of law, with dire fines and penalties to whoso sold or gave
it to him! A thing to be looked into--some one to be punished! An Indian
with a weapon that made him the equal of the white! Who was safe?
He hurried to town to lay his information before the constable, but,
meeting Mr. Skinner, imparted the news to him. The latter pooh-poohed
the constable, who he alleged had not yet discovered the whereabouts
of Jim, and suggested that a few armed citizens should make the chase
themselves. The fact was that Mr. Skinner, never quite satisfied in his
mind with his son's account of the loss of the gun, had put two and
two together, and was by no means inclined to have his own gun possibly
identified by the legal authority. Moreover, he went home and at once
attacked Master Bob with such vigor and so highly colored a description
of the crime he had committed, and the penalties attached to it, that
Bob confessed. More than that, I grieve to say that Bob lied. The Indian
had "stoled his gun," and threatened his life if he divulged the theft.
He told how he was ruthlessly put ashore, and compelled to take a trail
only known to them to reach his home. In two hours it was reported
throughout the settlement that the infamous Jim had added robbery with
violence to his illegal possession of the weapon. The secret of the
island and the trail over the marsh was told only to a few.

Meantime it had fared hard with the fugitives. Their nearness to
the settlement prevented them from lighting a fire, which might have
revealed their hiding-place, and they crept together, shivering all
night in a clump of hazel. Scared thence by passing but unsuspecting
wayfarers wande