I couldn't buy my life with his, not if he was a nigger."

"So be it," Baptiste the Red made answer. "I have given you grace and
choice. I shall come presently, with my priests and fighting men, and
either shall I kill you, or you deny your god. Give up the priest to my
pleasure, and you shall depart in peace. Otherwise your trail ends here.
My people are against you to the babies. Even now have the children
stolen away your canoes." He pointed down to the river. Naked boys had
slipped down the water from the point above, cast loose the canoes, and
by then had worked them into the current. When they had drifted out of
rifle-shot they clambered over the sides and paddled ashore.

"Give me the priest, and you may have them back again. Come! Speak your
mind, but without haste."

Stockard shook his head. His glance dropped to the woman of the Teslin
Country with his boy at her breast, and he would have wavered had he not
lifted his eyes to the men before him.

"I am not afraid," Sturges Owen spoke up. "The Lord bears me in his
right hand, and alone am I ready to go into the camp of the unbeliever.
It is not too late. Faith may move mountains. Even in the eleventh hour
may I win his soul to the true righteousness."

"Trip the beggar up and make him fast," Bill whispered hoarsely in the
ear of his leader, while the missionary kept the floor and wrestled with
the heathen. "Make him hostage, and bore him if they get ugly."

"No," Stockard answered. "I gave him my word that he could speak with us
unmolested. Rules of warfare, Bill; rules of warfare. He's been on the