he woman return to her work,
and calling Bill back from the bank. The two Indians in the canoe moored
it on the edge of the eddy, while its white occupant, conspicuous by his
gorgeous head-gear, came up the bank.

"Like Paul of Tarsus, I give you greeting. Peace be unto you and grace
before the Lord."

His advances were met sullenly, and without speech.

"To you, Hay Stockard, blasphemer and Philistine, greeting. In your
heart is the lust of Mammon, in your mind cunning devils, in your tent
this woman whom you live with in adultery; yet of these divers sins, even
here in the wilderness, I, Sturges Owen, apostle to the Lord, bid you to
repent and cast from you your iniquities."

"Save your cant! Save your cant!" Hay Stockard broke in testily. "You'll
need all you've got, and more, for Red Baptiste over yonder."

He waved his hand toward the Indian camp, where the half-breed was
looking steadily across, striving to make out the newcomers. Sturges
Owen, disseminator of light and apostle to the Lord, stepped to the edge
of the steep and commanded his men to bring up the camp outfit. Stockard
followed him.

"Look here," he demanded, plucking the missionary by the shoulder and
twirling him about. "Do you value your hide?"

"My life is in the Lord's keeping, and I do but work in His vineyard," he
replied solemnly.

"Oh, stow that! Are you looking for a job of martyrship?"

"If He so wills."

"Well, you'll find it right here, but I'm going to give you some advice
first. Take it or leave it. If you stop here, you'll be cut off in the
midst of your labors. And not you alone, but your men, Bill, my wife--"

"Who is a daughter of Belial and hearkeneth not to the true Gospel."

"And myself. Not only do you bring trouble upon yourself, but upon us. I
was frozen in with you last winter, as you will well recollect, and I
know you for a good man and a fool. If you think it your duty to strive
with the heathen, well and good; but, do exercise some wit in the way you
go about it. This man, Red Baptiste, is no Indian. He comes of our
common stock, is as bull-necked as I ever dared be, and as wild a fanatic
the one way as you are the other. When you two come together, hell'll be
to pay, and I don't care to be mixed up in it. Understand? So take my
advice and go away. If you go down-stream, you'll fall in with the
Russians. There's bound to be Greek priests among them, and they'll see
you safe through to B