that men should do to other men
what they wish other men to do to them?"

"Truly, that is so," answered Egede.

"If I were very wicked," continued Angut, "and had done many evil deeds,
I should like to be forgiven and set free; therefore, let us forgive
these men, and set them free."

We know not with what feelings the robbers listened to the inhuman
proposals that were at first made as to their fate, but certain it is
that after Angut had spoken there was a visible improvement in the
expression of their faces.

Considerable astonishment and dissatisfaction were expressed by the
majority of the Eskimos. Even Egede, much though he delighted in the
spirit which dictated it, could not quite see his way to so simple and
direct an application of the golden rule in the case of men who had so
recently been caught red-handed in a cold-blooded murder. While he was
still hesitating as to his reply to this humane proposal, an event
occurred which rendered all their discussion unnecessary.

We have said that fifteen robbers had been captured; but there were
sixteen who had entered the camp and joined the meeting. One of these
had, without particular motive, seated himself on the outskirt of the
circle under the shadow of a bush, which shadow had grown darker as the
twilight deepened. Thus it came to pass that he had been overlooked,
and, when the melee took place, he quietly retreated into the
brush-wood. He was a brave man, however, although a robber, and scorned
to forsake his comrades in their distress. While the discussion above
described was going on, he crept stealthily towards the place where the
captives had been ranged.

This he did the more easily that they sat on the summit of a bank or
mound which sloped behind them into the bushes. Thus he was able to
pass in a serpentine fashion behind them all without being seen, and, as
he did so, to cut the bonds of each. Their knives had been removed,
else, being desperate villains, they might now have attacked their
captors. As it was, when the cords of all had been cut, they rose up
with a mingled yell of laughter and triumph and dashed into the bushes.

The hunters were not slow to follow, with brandished knives and spears,
but their chief called them back with a Stentorian roar, for well he
knew that his men might as well try to follow up a troop of squirrels as
pursue a band of reckless men in the rapidly increasing darkness, and
that there was nearly as muc