ige them to converge, and
at these points, I regret to say, my kinsmen! the Bethuck Indians, lie
in wait and slaughter them in great numbers, merely for the sake of
their tongues and other tit-bits."

"There is no call for regret, Master Hendrick," said Captain Trench.
"Surely where the deer are in such numbers, the killing of a few more or
less don't matter much."

"I think it wrong, captain, to slay God's creatures wantonly," returned
the hunter. "Besides, if it is continued, I fear that the descendants
of the present race of men will suffer from scarcity of food."

That Hendrick's fears were not groundless has been proved in many
regions of the earth, where wanton destruction of game in former days
has resulted in great scarcity or extinction at the present time.

In a few days a pair of snowshoes for each traveller was completed, and
the party was prepared to set out with renewed vigour on their return to
the hunter's home.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

TELLS OF A TREMENDOUS STORM AND A STRANGE SHELTER, ETCETERA.

Proverbial philosophy teaches us that misfortunes seldom come singly.
Newfoundland, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, does not seem
to have been a place of refuge from the operation of that law.

On the morning of the day in which the explorers meant to commence the
return journey, a storm of unwonted rigour burst upon them, and swept
over the land with devastating violence--overturning trees, snapping off
mighty limbs, uplifting the new-fallen snow in great masses, and hurling
it in wild confusion into space, so that earth and sky seemed to
commingle in a horrid chaos.

The first intimation the travellers had of the impending storm was the
rending of a limb of the tree under which they reposed. The way in
which Oliver Trench received the rude awakening might, in other
circumstances, have raised a laugh, for he leaped up like a harlequin,
with a glare of sudden amazement, and, plunging headlong away from the
threatened danger, buried himself in the snow. From this he instantly
emerged with an aspect similar to that of "Father Christmas," minus the
good-natured serenity of that liberal-hearted personage.

"Daddy!" he gasped, "are you there?"

The question was not uncalled for, the captain having made a plunge like
that of his son, but unlike his son, having found it difficult to
extricate himself quickly.

Paul and Hendrick had also sprung up, but the latter, remaining close to
the stem