260 A MORAL DIFFICULTY. 



towards him, and evidently meditated poling it into 

 the mouth of the creek. 



Bending out of sight behind a clump of brushwood, 

 Jake could presently hear the grating of the sweeps 

 against the raft, and the rustling of the branches which 

 it forced aside in its passage. 



In a few moments the savages were abreast of him 

 and immediately below him. With bated breath he 

 listened as the party passed, and cautiously rising he 

 could perceive the raft slowly driven up the narrow 

 creek by the three Indians, who each applied his 

 strength to a long pole or oar which he plunged against 

 the bottom. The trees which grew on either bank 

 closed their branches overhead, and completely over- 

 arched the stream, which here and there glittered as a 

 moonbeam fell through a chink in the foliage, and 

 elsewhere was black as ebony. 



For a little time the trapper watched the retreating 

 raft ; and as it passed beneath the chinks in the foliage 

 through which fell the silvery light of the moon, he 

 noted that the various articles of the freight, the 

 bundles of furs and their other effects, were still intact, 

 and piled together in the centre. 



Jake was now somewhat puzzled as to what course 

 to pursue. In his old scalping days no difficulty would 

 have presented itself. The circumstances would have 

 afforded a perfect justification, in his eyes, for the 

 immediate despatch of the Indians. But since he had 

 become a convert to Christianity he had developed a 



