CHAPTER XVII.
WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY--MUCIUS SCAEVOLA--WHAT'S TO BE DONE ?--BRUTUS TORQUATUS AND PETER THE GREAT--AUSTRALIA, BOTANY BAY, AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN--NEW GUINEA AND THE BUCCANEER--VANCOUVER'S ISLAND--WHITE SKINS--DANGER OF LANDING ON A WAVE--HANGED OR DROWNED--ROUTE TO HAPPINESS--OMENS.
The old saw, _Where there's a will there's a way_, means--if it means anything--that a great deal may be effected by energy.

A man without energy is a helpless character, and invariably lags behind his fellow mortals in the stream of life; like a cork in an eddy, he is rebuffed here and jostled there, and goes on travelling in a circle to the end of the chapter.

Not so the man of action; no jostling thwarts him, no rebuffs retard him; he breaks through all sorts of obstacles, and floats along with the current.
Such a man was Becker.

Though surrounded with dangers, and harassed by the elements, almost alone he had converted a wilderness into fertile fields; he pursued the track that his judgment suggested, and followed it up with invincible resolution; he manfully resisted the severest trials, and cheerfully bore the heaviest burdens; his reliance on Truth or Virtue and on God were unfaltering; but had he provided for every emergency?
Is mortal power capable of overcoming every difficulty?
We shall see.
A day or two after the entertainment at Rockhouse, Becker whispered to the Pilot-- "Willis, take a rifle, and come along with me; I have something to say to you." They walked a quarter of an hour or so without uttering a word, when Willis broke the silence.
"You seem sad, Mr.Becker." "Yes, Willis, I am almost distracted." "Still, you seem well enough; you are as hale and hearty as if you had just been keel-hauled and got a new rig." "It is not my body that is suffering, Willis; it is my mind." "Whatever is the matter ?" "Willis, _my wife is dying_." And so it was.

For a long period Becker's wife had been a prey to racking pains, which, so to speak, she hid from herself, the better to conceal them from others, just as if suffering had been a crime.