lood of a Bethuck has
been shed; the blood of the palefaces must flow."

"But tell him that that is not just even according to his own views,"
said Paul. "The blood of one paleface ought to suffice for the blood of
one Bethuck."

This was received in silence. Evidently it had some weight with the
chief.

"The paleface is right," he said, after a minute's thought. "Only one
shall die. Let the prisoners decide among themselves who shall be
killed. Go, Bearpaw has spoken--waugh!"

A few minutes later, and the prisoners, with their friends, were
assembled in the cave discussing this new phase of their case.

"It's horrible!" said Grummidge. "D'ye think the chief is really in
earnest?"

"There can be no doubt of it," said Hendrick.

"Then, my lads, I'll soon bid ye all farewell, for as I was your leader
when the so-called murder was done, I'm bound in honour to take the
consequences."

"Not at all," cried Squill, whose susceptible heart was touched with
this readiness to self-sacrifice. "You can't be spared yet, Grummidge;
if any man shud die it's the Irishman. Shure it's used we are to bein'
kilt, anyhow!"

"There'll be none o' you killed at all," cried Captain Trench, starting
up with looks of indignation. "I'll go and carry out _my_ plans--ah!
you needn't look like that, Olly, wi' your poor mother's reproachful
eyes, for I'm determined to do it, right or wrong!"

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

DELIVERANCE.

Fortunately for Captain Trench, and indeed for the whole party, the
execution of his plan was rendered unnecessary by an incident the full
significance of which requires that we should transport the reader to
another, but not far distant, part of the beautiful wilderness of
Newfoundland.

Under the boughs of a spreading larch, on the summit of a mound which
commanded a wide prospect of plain and morass, sat an Indian woman. She
might have been taken for an old woman, so worn and thin was she, and so
hollow were her cheeks; but the glossy blackness of her hair, the
smoothness of her brow, and the glitter of her dark eyes told that she
was yet in her youthful years.

She sat perfectly listless, with a vacant yet steadfast expression on
her thin features, as if she were dreaming with her eyes open. The view
before her was such as might indeed arouse the admiration of the most
stolid; but it was evident that she took no notice of it, for her eyes
were fixed on the clouds above the horizon.

Lon