t if we can, or fight to the death if we can't?"

"Sure an' _I'm_ ready to fight," interposed Squill, "or to follow ye to
the end o' the world, an' further; but if I do I'll have to leave my
legs behind me, for they're fit for nothin'. True it is, I feel a
little stronger since your friend Hendrick got the bastes to increase
our allowance o' grub, but I'm not up to much yet. Howsiver, I'm strong
enough p'r'aps to die fightin'. Anyhow, I'll try."

"So will I," said Little Stubbs. "I feel twice the man I was since you
found us."

"Putt me down on the list too, cap'n," said Fred Taylor, who was perhaps
the least reduced in strength of any of the prisoners. "I'm game for
anything short o' murder."

Similar sentiments having been expressed by his other friends, the
captain's spirit was somewhat calmed.

Leaving them he went into the woods to ponder and work out his plans.
There he met Paul and Hendrick.

"We are going to visit the prisoners," said the former.

"You'll find 'em in a more hopeful frame of mind," observed the captain.

"I wish they had better ground for their hopes," returned his friend,
"but Bearpaw is inexorable. We are to have a final meeting with him
to-morrow. I go now to have a talk with our poor friends. It may be
that something in their favour shall be suggested."

Nothing, however, was suggested during the interview that followed,
which gave the remotest hope that anything they could say or do would
influence the savage chief in favour of his prisoners. Indeed, even if
he had been mercifully disposed, the anger of his people against the
seamen--especially the relatives of Little Beaver and those who had been
wounded during the attack on Wagtail settlement--would have constrained
him to follow out what he believed to be the course of justice.

When the final meeting between the visitors and the chief took place,
the latter was surrounded by his principal warriors.

"Hendrick," he said, in reply to a proposal that execution should be at
least delayed, "the name of the white hunter who has mated with the
Bethuck girl is respected everywhere, and his wishes alone would move
Bearpaw to pardon his paleface foes, but blood has been shed, and the
price of blood must be paid. Hendrick knows our laws--they cannot be
changed. The relations of Little Beaver cry aloud for it. Tell your
paleface friends that Bearpaw has spoken."

When this was interpreted to Paul Burns a sudden thought flash