rthy priest, one reproved him with instances of
concrete perdition. He never reproved him again.

"Eet may be so, _mon pere_," he made answer. "An' Ah t'ink Ah go troo
hell a-snappin', lak de hemlock troo de fire. Eh, _mon pere_?"

But all bad things come to an end as well as good, and so with Black
Leclere. On the summer low water, in a poling boat, he left McDougall
for Sunrise. He left McDougall in company with Timothy Brown, and
arrived at Sunrise by himself. Further, it was known that they had
quarrelled just previous to pulling out; for the _Lizzie_, a wheezy ten-
ton stern-wheeler, twenty-four hours behind, beat Leclere in by three
days. And when he did get in, it was with a clean-drilled bullet-hole
through his shoulder muscle, and a tale of ambush and murder.

A strike had been made at Sunrise, and things had changed considerably.
With the infusion of several hundred gold-seekers, a deal of whisky, and
half-a-dozen equipped gamblers, the missionary had seen the page of his
years of labour with the Indians wiped clean. When the squaws became
preoccupied with cooking beans and keeping the fire going for the
wifeless miners, and the bucks with swapping their warm furs for black
bottles and broken time-pieces, he took to his bed, said "Bless me"
several times, and departed to his final accounting in a rough-hewn,
oblong box. Whereupon the gamblers moved their roulette and faro tables
into the mission house, and the click of chips and clink of glasses went
up from dawn till dark and to dawn again.

Now Timothy Brown was well beloved among these adventurers of the North.
The one thing against him was his quick temper and ready fist--a little
thing, for which his kind heart and forgiving hand more than atoned. On
the other hand, there was nothing to atone for Black Leclere. He was
"black," as more than one remembered deed bore witness, while he was as
well hated as the other was beloved. So the men of Sunrise put an
antiseptic dressing on his shoulder and haled him before Judge Lynch.

It was a simple affair. He had quarrelled with Timothy Brown at
McDougall. With Timothy Brown he had left McDougall. Without Timothy
Brown he had arrived at Sunrise. Considered in the light of his
evilness, the unanimous conclusion was that he had killed Timothy Brown.
On the other hand, Leclere acknowledged their facts, but challenged their
conclusion, and gave his own explanation. Twenty miles out of Sunrise he
an