the earth. He attempted to rise, but, with a
yell that sounded more like the war-cry of a savage than the wrathful
shout of a civilised man, Macgregor knocked him down again, and,
springing at his throat, began to strangle him.

Up to this point, McLeod refrained from interfering, for he was not
sorry to see the murderer receive such severe punishment; but, having no
desire to witness a second murder, he now seized his master, and, with
the assistance of two of the men, succeeded in tearing him off from
Larocque, and in conveying him, as respectfully as possible in the
circumstances, to his private chamber.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

AN ARGUMENT ON ARGUMENTATION--ALSO ON RELIGION--BOUNCE "FEELOSOPHICAL"
AGAIN--A RACE CUT SHORT BY A BULLET--FLIGHT AND PURSUIT OF THE REDSKINS.

When McLeod returned to the square, he found that the trappers had
adjourned with the men of the establishment to enjoy a social pipe
together, and that Theodore Bertram was taking a solitary, meditative
promenade in front of the gate of the fort.

"You seem in a pensive mood, Mr Bertram," said the fur trader on coming
up, "will you not try the soothing effects of a pipe? Our tobacco is
good; I can recommend it."

He offered a plug of tobacco to the artist as he spoke.

"Thank you, I do not smoke," said Bertram, declining the proffered
luxury. "Tobacco may be good--though I know it not from experience.
Yet, methinks, the man is wiser who does not create an unnatural taste,
than he who does so for the purpose of gratifying it."

"Ah! you are a philosopher."

"If judging of things and questions simply on their own merit, and with
the single object of ascertaining what is truth in regard to them,
constitutes a philosopher, I am."

"Don't you find that men who philosophise in that way are usually deemed
an obstinate generation by their fellow-men?" inquired the trader,
smiling as he puffed a voluminous cloud from his lips.

"I do," replied Bertram.

"And don't you think the charge is just?" continued the other in a
jocular tone.

"I do not," replied the artist. "I think those who call them obstinate
are often much more truly deserving of the epithet. Philosophers, in
the popular sense of the word, are men who not only acquire knowledge
and make themselves acquainted with the opinions of others, but who make
independent use of acquired knowledge, and thus originate new ideas and
frequently arrive at new conclusions. They thus often com