al showed more fight
than I expected, and might have injured me severely had not your shot
taken effect, though it narrowly missed my head, I suspect."

"Very glad to have been of use to you, but here's the person you should
thank," said the Dominie, pointing to me.

"I confess that it would have been more prudent not to have fired, for
fear of hitting you," I answered as he shook me by the hand.

"Though it was a risk, I am equally thankful. The shot was well aimed,
and you have the right to the venison, my young friend," he said,
looking at me.

We told him that we had no wish to deprive him of it, but he insisted
that the deer should be ours. We settled the point, however, by making
him take a haunch, which was all he would accept.

We now sent off Dio to bring up the horses, that we might load them with
the meat: we in the meantime set to work to flay and cut up the animals,
assisted by the stranger.

"You will come to our camp and pass the night with us," said the Dominie
as we were thus engaged.

To our surprise the stranger declined our invitation.

"I should prove but a poor companion, for I have been too long
accustomed to live by myself to have any desire to join the society of
my fellows," he answered, turning aside; "if I find that you are exposed
to danger from the redskins, I will give you warning, and may be of
assistance in enabling you to escape from them."

We in vain pressed him to alter his decision. He waited until the
horses arrived, and having assisted us in packing the meat, took his own
share, put up in a piece of skin, and after bidding us farewell went off
in an opposite direction to our camp. We had forgotten to mention the
mark of the moccasin we had seen in the morning, but we had little doubt
that the stranger had gone over the ground, and our apprehensions of
Indians being in the neighbourhood were dispelled. We, however, kept as
usual a strict watch at night. As our camp was placed in the recesses
of the wood, we knew that our fire could not be perceived at any
distance beyond it.

As we sat round the cheerful blaze of the fire, we naturally talked of
the stranger, wondering who he could be. His dress was that of a
Canadian trapper, but he spoke without any French accent, and the
Dominie remarked that he recognised a touch of the Irish brogue on his
tongue.

"It is odd that he should prefer camping out by himself, to joining us,
when he might sleep in much greater se