Tells of Terrible Suspense—Violent Intentions and Religious Discussion.  
“Now I tell you what it is, Master Hendrick,” said Captain Trench, the day after their arrival at the Indian camp. “I see this is goin’ to be an ugly business, an’ I give you fair warning that I’m goin’ to git surly. I won’t stand by quietly and see Grummidge and my men slaughtered before my eyes without movin’ a finger. I’ll keep quiet as long as there’s any chance of all your palaverin’ resulting in anything, but if the worst comes to the worst I’ll show fight, even if I should have to stand alone with all the red devils in Newfoundland arrayed against me.”
 
“I honour your feelings, Captain Trench, but doubt your judgment. How do you propose to proceed?”
 
“Will you join me? Answer me that question first.”
 
“I will join you in any scheme that is reasonable,” returned Hendrick, after a pause, “but not in a useless attempt to fight against a whole colony of Indians.”
 
“Then I’ll keep my plans of procedure in my own noddle,” said the captain, turning away with an indignant fling, and taking the path that led to the cave or prison-house of his shipmates, for as yet they were allowed free intercourse with their friends.
 
“Grummidge,” said he, in a stern voice, as he squatted down on the floor beside the unfortunate seaman, “things look bad, there’s no doubt about that, an’ it would be unkind deception to say otherwise, for that villain Bearpaw seems to git harder and harder the more they try to soften him. Now what I want to know is, are you an’ the others prepared to join me, if I manage to cut your cords an’ give you weapons, an’—”
 
“Shush! clap a stopper on your mouth, cappen,” said Grummidge in an undertone, “the redskins are listening.”
 
“An’ what then? They know no more about English than I know about Timbuctoosh,” returned the captain irascibly. “Let ’em listen! What I was a-goin’ to say is, are you an’ the other lads ready to follow me into the woods an’ bolt 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 flashed into his mind, and standing forth with flushed countenance and raised arm, he said—
 
“Hendrick, tell the chief of the Bethucks that when the Great Spirit formed man He made him without sin and gave him a just and holy law to obey; but man broke the law, and the Great Spirit had said that the price of the broken law is death. So there seemed no hope for man, because he could not undo the past, and the Great Spirit would not change His law. But he found a way of deliverance. The Great Spirit himself came down to earth, and, as the man Jesus Christ, paid the price of the broken law with His own blood, so that guilty, but forgiven, man might go free. Now, if the Great Spirit could pardon the guilty and set them free, would it be wrong in Bearpaw to follow His example?”
 
This was such a new idea to the Indian that he did not at first reply. He stood, with folded arms and knitted brow, pondering the question. At last he spoke slowly—
 
“Bearpaw knows not the thing about which his paleface brother speaks. It may be true. It seems very strange. He will inquire into the matter hereafter. But the laws that guide the Great Spirit are not the laws that guide men. What may be fit in Him, may not be fit in them.”
 
“My dark-skinned brother is wrong,” said Hendrick. “The law that guides the Great Spirit, and that should guide all His creatures, is one and the same. It is the law of love.”
 
“Was it love that induced the palefaces to kill Little Beaver and steal Rising Sun?” demanded the chief fiercely.
 
“It was not,” replied Hendrick; “it was sin; and Bearpaw has now an opportunity to act like the Great Spirit by forgiving those who, he thinks, have sinned against him.”
 
“Never!” returned the chief vehemently. “The palefaces shall die; but they shall live one day longer while this matter is considered in council, for it is only children who act in haste. Go! Bearpaw has spoken.”
 
To have secured even the delay of a single day was almost more than the prisoners’ friends had hoped for, and they resolved to make the most of it.
 
“Now, Hendrick,” said Paul, when they were in the tent that had been set aside for their use, “we must be prepared, you and I, to give the chief a full account of our religion; for,............