ur knife!"

"Oh! that is different, Pepe. Some of these would have robbed me of my
peltries--others would have taken my scalp, and came very near doing so,
as you see--besides, it is blessed bread to clear the prairies of these
red vermin; but I have never sought to revenge myself against one of my
own race and colour. I never hated one of my own kind sufficiently to
kill him."

"Ah! Bois-Rose; it is just those of one's own race we hate most--that
is when they have given us the reason for doing so--and this man has
furnished me with such motives to hate him as can never be forgotten.
Twenty years have not blunted my desire for vengeance; though, on
account of the great distance that separated us, I supposed I should
never find an opportunity of fulfilling my vow. Strange it is that two
men, with relations like ours, should turn up together in the middle of
these desert plains. Well! strange though it be, I do not intend to let
the chance escape me."

Pepe appeared to have fixed his resolution upon this matter, and so
firmly that his companion saw the folly of attempting to dissuade him by
any further advice. The Canadian, moreover, was of an easy disposition,
and readily yielded to the arguments of a friend.

"After all," said he, "perhaps, if I fully understood your motives, I
might entirely approve of the resolution you have made."

"I can give them in two words," rejoined he whom the Canadian was
addressing as Pepe. "It is just twenty years, as I have already told
you, since I was a carabinier in the service of her Catholic majesty. I
should have been content with my position and the amount of pay, had it
only been _paid_ which unfortunately it was not. We were obliged to do
the duty of coast-guard as well, and this would have done well enough
had there been any smuggling, with the capture of which we might have
indemnified ourselves; but there was none. What a fool a smuggler would
have been to have ventured on a coast, guarded by two hundred fellows at
their wits' end with hunger! Well, then I reasoned that if any smuggler
was to land it could only be with the concurrence of our captain, and I
suspected that the captain would make no objection to such an
arrangement--for he himself was, like the rest of us, a creditor of the
government. In such case he would cast around among us for the man in
whom he _could most_ confide, and that would be he who was noted as
being most careless upon his post. I