h--him?" and again I felt a vague shudder of apprehension
at this silent, uncompromising man's purpose.

The camp fires were dead. Not a sound came from the men in the woods and
there was a gray light on the water with a vague stirring of birds
through the foliage overhead. Now I would not have any man judge us by
the canons of civilization. Under the ancient rule of the fur companies
over the wilds of the north, 'twas bullets and blades put the fear of
the Lord in evil hearts. As we stooped to gather up the tell-tale
flasks, the drunken knave, who had lightly allowed an innocent white
woman to go into Indian captivity, lay with bared chest not a hand's
length from a knife he had thrown down. Did the Nor'-Wester and I
hesitate, and look from the man to the dagger, and from the dagger to
the man; or is this an evil dream from a black past? Miriam, the
guiltless, was suffering at his hands; should not he, the guilty, suffer
at ours? Surely Sisera was not more unmistakably delivered into the
power of his enemies by the Lord than this man; and Sisera was
discomfited by Barak and Jael. Heber's wife--says the Book--drove a tent
nail--through the temples--of the sleeping man--and slew him! Day was
when I thought the Old Volume recorded too many deeds of bloodshed in
the wilderness for the instruction of our refined generation; but I,
too, have since lived in the wilderness and learned that soft speech is
not the weapon of strong men overmastering savagery.

I know the trader and I were thinking the same thoughts and reading each
other's thoughts; for we stood silent above the drunk man, neither
moving, neither uttering a word.

"Well?" I finally questioned in a whisper.

"Well," said he, and he knelt down and picked up the knife. "'Twould
serve him right." He was speaking in the low, gentle, purring voice he
had used in the tent. "'Twould serve him jolly right," and he knelt over
Louis hesitating.

My eyes followed his slow, deliberate motions with horror. Terror seemed
to rob me of the power of speech. I felt my blood freeze with the fear
of some impending crime. There was the faintest perceptible fluttering
of leaves; and we both started up as if we had been assassins, glancing
fearfully into the gloom of the forest. All the woods seemed alive with
horrified eyes and whisperings.

"Stop!" I gasped, "This is madness, the madness of the murderer. What
would you do?" And I was trying to knock the knife out of his hand,
w