of which he had so suddenly stepped,
blinded him for a moment, while to those who sat staring at him it
brought out with vivid distinctiveness every feature of his strong
and, save for a certain hardness of expression, handsome face. It was
evident that the man, whoever he was and whatever he might be, was
under the pressure of some impulse or conviction which had urged him
on to the Trapper's cabin and the Trapper's presence. For, no sooner
had he closed the door and shaken the snow, with which he was covered,
from his garments, than, regardless of those who sat staring in
startled interrogation at him, he strode to the head of the table
where the Old Trapper sat, and, looking him straight in the face,
said:--

"Do you know who I am, John Norton?"

"Sartinly," answered the Trapper, "ye be Shanty Jim, and ye have
camped these three year and more at the outlet of Bog Lake."

"Do you know that I am a thief, and a sneak thief at that?" continued
the newcomer, speaking with a fierce directness that was startling.

"I've conceited ye was," answered the Trapper, calmly.

"Do you know it, know it to a certainty?" and the words came out of
his mouth like the thrust of a knife.

"Yis, I know that ye be a thief, Shanty Jim," replied the Trapper,
"know it to a sartinty."

"Do you know that I have stolen skins from you, old man, skins and
traps both?" continued the other.

"I laid in ambush for ye once at the falls of Bog River, and I seed ye
take an otter from a trap that I sot," replied the Trapper.

"Why didn't you shoot me when I stood skin in hand?" queried the
self-confessed thief.

"I can't tell ye," answered the Trapper, "fer my eye was at the sights
and my finger on the trigger, and the feelin' of natur' was strong
within me to crop one of yer ears then and there, Shanty Jim, but
somethin', mayhap the sperit of the Lord, staid my finger, and ye went
with yer thievin' in yer hand to yer camp ontetched and onhindered."

"Do you know what brought me to this cabin and to your presence--the
presence of the man whose skins and whose traps I have stolen--and
made me confess to his face and before these men here that I am a
thief and a scoundrel; do you know what brought me here, a miserable
cuss that I am and have been for years, John Norton?" And the man's
speech was the speech of one who had been educated to use words
rightly and was marked with intense, even dramatic, earnestness.

"I can't conceit, onless the