AND MYSTERIOUS DIFFERENCES OF OPINION.

Crossing the open ground in front of the Mountain Fort, Bounce and
Bertram entered the wood beyond, and traversed it with comparative ease,
by means of a bridle-path which had been cut there by the fur-traders.
A few minutes' gallop brought them to the other side of the wood, which
was one of those narrow strips or clumps of forest which grow, more or
less thickly, on the skirts of the Rocky Mountains, forming that fine
picturesque region where the prairie and the forest meet and seem to
contend for the mastery.

The plain beyond this belt of wood was open and level--at least,
sufficiently so to enable the two horsemen to see for a considerable
distance around them. Here, in the far distance, they descried their
companions, sweeping over the turf at their utmost speed, and making
towards a low hill or ridge that intercepted the view of the more
distant country.

"They'll have to draw in a bit," said Bounce, turning to his comrade.
"Horses no more nor men can't go helter-skelter up a hill without takin'
breath; so rouse up your beast, Mr Bertram, an' we'll overtake 'em
afore they gits to the t'other side."

Bertram obeyed his friend's command, but made no rejoinder, his thoughts
being too deeply engaged at that moment in a controversy with his
conscience as to the propriety of the business he had then in hand.

The young artist had a deep veneration for abstract truth--truth pure
and simple, not only in reference to morals, but to all things
terrestrial and celestial; and he was deeply impressed with the belief
that what was right was right, and what was wrong was wrong, and could
not, by any possibility, be otherwise. He felt, also, that the man who
recognised truth and acted upon it must go right, and he who saw and did
otherwise _must_ go wrong!

Holding this simple creed very tenaciously, and, as we think, very
properly, Bertram nevertheless found that his attempts to act up to it
frequently involved him in a maze of perplexities.

On the present occasion, as he and Bounce thundered over the green turf
of the flowering plains, scattering the terrified grasshoppers right and
left, and causing the beautifully striped ground-squirrels to plunge
with astonishing precipitancy into their holes, he argued with himself,
that the mere fact of a murderous deed having been done was not a
sufficient reason, perhaps, to justify his sallying forth with a
reckless band of desperate