ars. No other place in all this wide
country makes me feel as this place does."

Again he fell into a reverie. I, meanwhile, busied myself with supper;
and as soon as this was prepared, the two of us enjoyed it as only
woodmen can.

"If you know me," I said, "we are no strangers to each other, for I know
you. Who draws the steadiest bead with a rifle; who is the best boatman
who ever feathered paddle, and who is as honest a man as ever drew
breath?--who, but John Norton, whom I have always been wanting to meet.
No man could be as welcome to my camp."

"Well, well," laughed the old man, "when you're at home you must be one
of them detective fellows. I see we aren't no strangers to each other.
And if while in these woods old John Norton can teach you any trick of
huntin' or of fishin' or of trappin', be sure he will do so for the
welcome you have give him."

So we sat on either side of the fire, silent for a few moments. Then the
old trapper said:

"I am thinking of the things that happened here long years agone.
Strange things have come to pass on this very point. It is eleven year
this very night that me and the hound slept here, and a solemn night it
was, too. . . . God of heaven, man, what is that?"

The old man's startled ejaculation brought me to my feet as if a panther
were upon me. Glancing at the spot he had indicated by look and gesture,
I beheld only the shattered portion of the Keg. Not knowing what to make
of the trapper's excited action, I said: "That? That is only a Keg I
picked up in the lake this evening."

John Norton rose in silence to his feet and went over to where the
staves lay. One of these he picked up and held contemplatively in his
hand.

"The ways of the Lord are past the knowing of mortals," he said. "But
perhaps in the long run He brings the wrong to the right, and so makes
the evil in the world to praise him. Henry," said the Old Trapper,
looking keenly at me, "I have a mind to tell you the story of the man
who owned that Keg. A strange tale it be, but a true one, and the
teachings of it be solemn."

Eagerly I urged him to give me the story, a part of which, at least, I
felt that I already knew.

"It was eleven year agone, in this very month, that I came down the
inlet yonder into the lake. The moon was nigh her full, and everything
looked solemn and white just as it do now. Lord knows I little thought
to meet a man in these solitudes when I run agin what I am telling ye
of.