“You expect to have them of me!” he cried, getting his voice at last.

“Certainly,” assured his interlocutor, crossing his legs comfortably.  “Don’t you see the logic of events forces me to think so?  What other course is open to you?  I am in this country entirely within my legal rights as a citizen of the Canadian Commonwealth.  Unjustly, I am seized by a stronger power and condemned unjustly to death.  Surely you admit the injustice?”

“Well, of course you know—­the customs of the country—­it is hardly an abstract question—­” stammered Crane, still without grasp on the logic of his argument “But as an abstract question the injustice is plain,” resumed the Free Trader, imperturbably.  “And against plain injustice it strikes me there is but one course open to an acknowledged institution of abstract—­and concrete—­morality.  The Church must set itself against immorality, and you, as the Church’s representative, must get me a rifle.”

“You forget one thing,” rejoined Crane.

“What is that?”

“Such an aid would be a direct act of rebellion against authority on my part, which would be severely punished.  Of course,” he asserted, with conscious righteousness, “I should not consider that for a moment as far ay my own personal safety is concerned.  But my cause would suffer.  You forget, sir, that we are doing here a great and good work.  We have in our weekly congregational singing over forty regular attendants from the aborigines; next year I hope to build a church at Whale River, thus reaching the benighted inhabitants of that distant region.  All of this is a vital matter in the service of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  You suggest that I endanger all this in order to right a single instance of injustice.  Of course we are told to love one another, but—­” he paused.

“You have to compromise,” finished the stranger for him.

“Exactly.” said the Reverend Crane.  “Thank you; it is exactly that.  In order to accomplish what little good the Lord vouchsafes to our poor efforts, we are obliged to overlook many things.  Otherwise we should not be allowed to stay here at all.”

“That is most interesting,” agreed Ned Trent, with a rather biting calm.  “But is it not a little calculating?  My slight familiarity with religious history and literature has always led me to believe that you are taught to embrace the right at any cost whatsoever—­that, if you give yourself unreservedly to justice, the Lord will sustain you through all trials.  I think at a pinch I could even quote a text to that effect.”

“My dear fellow,” objected the Reverend Archibald in gentle protest, “you evidently do not understand the situation at all.  I feel I should be most untrue to my trust if I were to endanger in any way the life-long labor of my predecessor.  You must be able to see that for yourself.  It would destroy utterly my usefulness here.  They’d send me away.  I couldn’t go on with the work, I have to think what is for the best.”