are what I makes my bed of while out huntin'."

"And are you quite certain there is nothing under those
blankets?--nay do not protest--you cannot answer for what
may have occurred while your back was turned, on your
way to the hut for the rifle."

"By hell," exclaimed the settler, blusteringly, "were
any man to tell me, Jeremiah Desborough, there was any
thin' beside them blankets in the canoe, I would lick
him into a jelly, even though he could whip his own weight
in wild cats."

"So is it? Now then, Jeremiah Desborough, although I have
never yet tried to whip my own weight in wild cats, I
tell you there is something more than those blankets;
and what is more, I insist upon seeing what that something
is."

The settler stood confounded. His eye rolled rapidly from
one to the other of the officers at the boldness and
determination of this language. Singly, he could hare
crushed Henry Grantham in his gripe, even as one of the
bears of the forest, near the outskirt of which they
stood; but there were two, and while attacking the one,
he was sure of being assailed by the other; nay, what
was worse, the neighborhood might be alarmed. Moreover,
although they had kept their cloaks carefully wrapped
around their persons, there could be little doubt that
both officers were armed, not, as they had originally