ering Sea,--that's where the Yukon empties,--and
from there it won't be hard to get back to civilization. Take my word
for it and get out of here as fast as God'll let you."

"He who carries the Lord in his heart and the Gospel in his hand hath no
fear of the machinations of man or devil," the missionary answered
stoutly. "I will see this man and wrestle with him. One backslider
returned to the fold is a greater victory than a thousand heathen. He
who is strong for evil can be as mighty for good, witness Saul when he
journeyed up to Damascus to bring Christian captives to Jerusalem. And
the voice of the Saviour came to him, crying, 'Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me?' And therewith Paul arrayed himself on the side of
the Lord, and thereafter was most mighty in the saving of souls. And
even as thou, Paul of Tarsus, even so do I work in the vineyard of the
Lord, bearing trials and tribulations, scoffs and sneers, stripes and
punishments, for His dear sake."

"Bring up the little bag with the tea and a kettle of water," he called
the next instant to his boatmen; "not forgetting the haunch of cariboo
and the mixing-pan."

When his men, converts by his own hand, had gained the bank, the trio
fell to their knees, hands and backs burdened with camp equipage, and
offered up thanks for their passage through the wilderness and their safe
arrival. Hay Stockard looked upon the function with sneering
disapproval, the romance and solemnity of it lost to his matter-of-fact
soul. Baptiste the Red, still gazing across, recognized the familiar
postures, and remembered the girl who had shared his star-roofed couch in
the hills and forests, and the woman-child who lay somewhere by bleak
Hudson's Bay.

III

"Confound it, Baptiste, couldn't think of it. Not for a moment. Grant
that this man is a fool and of small use in the nature of things, but
still, you know, I can't give him up."

Hay Stockard paused, striving to put into speech the rude ethics of his
heart.

"He's worried me, Baptiste, in the past and now, and caused me all manner
of troubles; but can't you see, he's my own breed--white--and--and--why,
I couldn't buy my life with his, not if he was a nigger."

"So be it," Baptiste the Red made answer. "I have given you grace and
choice. I shall come presently, with my priests and fighting men, and
either shall I kill you, or you deny your god. Give up the priest to my
pleasure, and you shall depart in pea