3 J THE PATHFINDER. " He had originally got a position where he might aim with deadly effect through the leaves, and where he could watch the movements of his enemies." Page 58. THE PATHFINDER THE ISTLA^D SEA BY J. FENIMORE COOPER WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY SUSAN FENIMORE COOPER Here the heart May give a useful lesson to the head, And Learning wiser grow without his books. COWPEB. " OF THE "$^\ UFI7BBSIT S!SaO> BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1876, Br SUSAN FENIMORE COOPER RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY H- o. HOUQIITON AND COMPANY. PREFACE. FOLLOWING the order of events, this book should be the third in the series of " The Leather-Stocking Tales." In "The Deerslayer," Natty Bumppo, under the sobriquet which forms the title of that work, is represented as a youth, just commencing his forest career as a warrior ; having, for several years, been a hunter so celebrated, as already to have gained the honorable appellation he then bore. In " The Last of the Mohicans " he appears as Hawkeye, and is present at the death of young Uncas ; while in this tale, he reappears in the same war of 56, in company with his Mohican friend, still in the vigor of manhood, and young enough to feel that master passion to which all conditions of men, all tempers, and we might almost say, all ages, sub mit, under circumstances that are incited to call it into ex istence. " The Pathfinder " did not originally appear for several years after the publication of " The Prairie," the vi ork in wrhich the leading character of both had closed his career by death. It was, perhaps, a too hazardous experiment t< recall to life, in this manner, and after so long an interval a character that was somewhat a favorite with the reading world, and which had been regularly consigned to bis grave, like any living man. It is probably owing to thig severe ordeal that the work, like its successor, " The Deer slayer," has been so little noticed ; scarce one in ten of those who know all about the three earliest books of the ieries having even a knowledge of the existence of the last *t all. That this caprice OJL taste and favor is in no waj FSiiFACE. t on merit, the writer feels certain ; for, though the trorld will ever maintain that an author is always the worst judge of his own productions, one who has writ ten much, and regards all his literary progeny with more or less of a paternal eye, must have a reasonably accurate knowledge of what he has been about the greater part oi his life. Such a man may form too high an estimate of his relative merits, as relates to others; but it is not easj to jee why he should fall into this error, more than another its relates to himself. His general standard may be raised too high by means of self-love ; but, unless he be disposed to maintain the equal perfection of what he has done, as probably no man was ever yet fool enough to do, he may very well have shrewd conjectures as to the comparative merits and defects of his own productions. This work, on its appearance, was rudely and maliciously assailed by certain individuals out of pure personal malig nancy. It is scarcely worth the author s while, nor would it have any interest for the reader, to expose the motives and frauds of these individuals, who have pretty effectually vindicated the writer by their own subsequent conduct. But even the falsest of men pay so much homage to truth, as to strive to seem its votaries. In attacking " The Path finder," the persons alluded to pointed out faults, that the author, for the first time has now ascertained to be real ; and much to his surprise, as of most of them he is entirely innocent. They are purely errors of the press, unless, in deed, the writer can justly be accused of having been a careless proof-reader. A single instance of the mistake i he means may be given in explanation of the manner in which the book was originally got up. The heroine of this tale was at first called " Agnes/ Jn ie fifth or sixth chapter this name was changed to " Ma bel," and the manuscript was altered accordingly. Owing io inadvertency, however, the original appellation stood n several places, and the principal female character of the book, uutil HOW, has had the advantage of going bj two PBEFACE. Tfl aames ! Many other typographical errors exist in the ear lier editions, most of which, it is believed, are corrected in this. There are a few discrepancies in the facts of this work, as connected with the facts of the different books of the series. They are not material, and it was thought fairer to let their stand as proof of the manner in which the books were originally written, than to make any changes in the XiXt. In youth, when belonging to the navy, the writer of this book served for some time on the great western lakes. He was, indeed, one of those who first carried the cockade of the republic on those inland seas. This was pretty early in the present century, when the navigation was still con fined to the employment of a few ships and schooners. Since that day, light may be said to have broken into the wilderness, and the rays of the sun have penetrated to tens of thousands of beautiful valleys and plains, that then lay in " grateful shade." Towns have been built along the whole of the extended line of coasts, and the traveller now stops at many a place of ten or fifteen, and at one of even fifty thousand inhabitants, where a few huts then marked the natural sites of future marts. In a word, though the scenes of this book are believed to have once been as nearly accurate as is required by the laws which govern fiction, they are so no longer. Oswego is a large and thriv ing town ; Toronto and Kingston, on the other side of the lake, compete with it ; while Buffalo, Detroit, Cleveland, IMilwaukie, and Chicago, on the upper lakes, to say nothing of a hundred places of lesser note, are fast advancing to the level of commercial places of great local importance, [u these changes, the energy of youth and abundance is quite as much apparent as anything else ; and it is ardently to be hoped that the fruits of the gifts of a most bountiful Providence may not be mistaken for any peculiar qualities in those who have been their beneficiaries. A just appre ciation of the first of these facts will render us grateful and viii PREFACE. meek ; while the vain -glorious, who are so apt to ascribe all to themselves, will be certain to live long enough to ascer tain the magnitude of their error. That great results are intended to be produced by means of these wonderful changes, we firmly believe ; but that they will prove to be the precise results now so generally anticipated, in consult ing the experience of the past, and taking the nature of man into the account, the reflecting and intelligent may b< permitted to doubt. It may strike the novice as an anachronism, to place ves sels on Ontario in the middle of the eighteenth century, but, in this particular, facts will fully bear out all the license of the fiction. Although the precise vessels men tioned in these pages may never have existed on that water, or anywhere else, others so nearly resembling them as to form a sufficient authority for their introduction into a work of fiction, are known to have navigated that inland sea, even at a period much earlier than the one just mentioned. It is a fact not generally remembered, however well known it may be, that there are isolated spots along the line of the great lakes, that date, as settlements, as far back its many of the oldest American towns, and which were the seats of a species of civilization long before the greater portion of even the original States was rescued from the wilderness. Ontario, in our own times, has been the scene of impor tant naval evolutions. Fleets have manoeuvred on those waters, which, half a century since, were desert wastes ; and the day is not distant, when the whole of that vast range of lakes will become the seat of empire, and fraught with all the interests of human society. A passing glimpse, even though it be in a work of fiction, of what that rast region so lately was, may help to make up the sum of knowledge by which alone a just appreciation can be formed of the wonderful means by which Providence is clearing the way for the advancement of civilization acrosa the whole American continent. INTRODUCTION. BY SUSAN FENIMORE COOPER. THE fertile country south of Lake Ontario, lay overshad owed by a beautiful leafy canopy, during untold ages. When the wondering pale-faces first landed on the shores of that inland sea, they beheld boundless forests stretching before them, forests made up of oak, ash, chestnut, pine, and maple, of the most noble growth. More than two centuries passed away after the discovery of the St. Law rence, and still that region preserved the same character of a grand, shadowy wilderness. Slowly and reluctantly as it were, those great old trees dropped their limbs, bowed their heads, and stretched their giant trunks on the earth. That fluttering, leafy canopy, vast in its proportions, beauti ful and delicate in texture, ever-varying in its aspects under the successive changes of storm and sunshine, of spring and autumn that living canopy was not to be folded, and laid aside in one century. The brawny arms >f hundreds of thousands of woodmen were needed to do the work, half a dozen generations or more toiled out a life-time, one after the other, and lay down in their grairei ere the task was done. It was not until the first years of ihe present century that the soil of that region was hor* .vighly opened to the light of the sun. Meanwhile stirring scenes were enacted within the thady limits of those forests. There were grand hunts in which whole tribes were engaged. There were wars in which ex- ensive confederacies were in arms, wars in which entire clans were exterminated. Council fires were lighted, at X INTRODUCTION. which envoys from tribes a thousand miles distant appeared to negotiate peace or war. And, very soon after the plant ing of the first colonies on the St. Lawrence and the Hud- eon, the pale -faces came along those foot-paths, stretching out one hand for the peltries, and offering the fire-water with the other. Stealthily, and treacherously, the astute diplomacy of Versailles came creeping along those forest- trails. In shrewd foresight the statesmen of France far surpassed those of Holland and England. Far-seeing, far reaching, were the plans skillfully woven in the gilded cabi nets of Versailles or St. Germain, for the ultimate mastery of the Continent of North America, at least so far south as Mexico. And thoroughly were those plans carried out by subordinate legions selfish traders, daring adventurers, gallant soldiers, and devout missionaries, whether consciously or unconsciously, tens of thousands of these were working for the extension of French power in North America. And what has it all availed ? One touch of the finger of Providence and the proud fabric so cunningly raised has vanished like the bubble blown by a child. The flag of France is an alien flag to-day, throughout North America. The possession of the southern shore of Lake Ontario was early deemed of great importance by the Canadian gov ernment. But here they met a foe who not only faced them bravely, but who at one period even threatened utterly to uproot the French Colonies on the St. Lawrence. The Konoshioni, the United People, or the Iroquois tribes as thoy were called by their French neighbors, held the whole country to the southward of the lake. They were brave and fierce in war. They were astute in policy. During nearly a century, the French made little impression on them. At length the Jesuit Missionaries penetrated into she heart of the Iroquois country, about the middle of the seventeenth century. And they came by the river, which Uow bears the name of the Oswego. These good men were early employed by the Canadian authorities in a semi-dip lomatic character, and it was the intention to obtain INTRODUCTION. XI permanent foot-hold in the country, through their influence, and to establish colonies on the shores of Lake Onondaga. This effort failed. But still for many years the Canadian government kept their eyes fixed upon that southern shore, eagerly watching for an opportunity to seize some one favorable point as a nucleus for future operations. The mouth of the Oswego River was the site they most coveted as the key to the whole Iroquois country. Choueguen, as they named the spot, held a prominent place in their plans and is constantly mentioned in their older records. Scarce a meeting between the sachems of the upper tribes, and the agents of the French, whether at Onondaga or at Montreal, in which Choueguen is not named. But the rude diploma tists at the Council fire of Onondaga, were very unwilling to yield this ground to the French. A wild Indian village, insignificant in size, and chiefly occupied by fishing parties, was found there by the first French missionary explorers, and continued for nearly a century, the only human habita tions at the mouth of the river. Fort Frontenac was built on the northern shore of the lake in 1672, but still the Ko- noshioni warned off the pale-faces from the coveted ground at Choueguen. In 1687 the French built a small fort at Niagara, but it was demolished a year later to satisfy the jealousy of the Indians. Thirty-three years afterwards, in 1720, the French again took possession of the same ground. u We come to you howling," said the Indian sachems to the Governor of New York, " and this is the reason we howl, because the Governor of Canada encroaches on our land ! " The rebuilding of the fort at Niagara caused the " howling." Governor Burnet remonstrated with the French authorities, but without effect. He resolved to weaken the importance of this French fort by building a stronger one At the mouth of the Oswego River. It appears that it had been the intention of King William to build a fort at Oswego, some thirty years earlier, and the plate and furni ture for a chapel in connection with the fort were sent ovei from England. But the death of the King prevented th rii INTRODUCTION. plan from being carried out. The work was now to be done, however. The Canadian government were thrown into great agitation on learning Governor Burnet s inten tion. Agents and spies passed to and fro, and penetrated into the Iroquois country ; one hundred English with sixty canoes were found in the Oswego River in October, 1725 at which the French agent was highly indignant. The only result of the French negotiation with the Iroquois was the permission obtained from the sachems to build at Niag ara a large stone house and two small vessels barques. In the summer of 1726 there were three hundred English at Oswego. In the spring of 1727, a strong stone fortified house was built at the mouth of the river. Permission was asked, and obtained from the Iroquois, for the erection of this fort. Sixty soldiers with a captain and two lieutenants were sent to protect the workmen. Two hundred traders, already on the ground, were also embodied as militia. A permanent garrison of twenty men, under an officer, was stationed there when the work was completed. In the course of the summer M. de Beauharnais, Gov ernor of Canada, sent a formal remonstrance in true diplo matic style to Governor Burnet upon his having built a " Redout " at Choueguen, which he chose to consider a vio lation of the treaty of Utrecht. He knew from spies of his own, the nature of the works. This redoubt was in fact a very substantial stone building of rough masonry and clay, sixty feet by twenty-four, with walls four feet thick, and with galleries and loop-holes. There were at that time o r twenty batteaux and eight bark canoes lying in the little harbor. There were tents for the troops, and seventy cabins for Dutch and English traders. All this excited tine diplomatic ire of M. de Beauharnais to the highest degi ee. He had sent a formal summons to surrender, to the com mander of the fort at Oswego, a week before writing to Governor Burnet, which to us at the present day appears rather a singular mode of proceeding. The English offi cer was ordered to withdraw his garrison and demolish his INTRODUCTION. ilii redoubt " within a fortnight," failing in which the severest measures would be taken to punish his " unjust usurpation/ To the remonstrance of M. de Beauharnais, Governoi Burnet sent a very good answer quoting the treaty of Utrecht, which declared the Five Nations to be subject to the dominion of Great Britain. The question was referred to London and Versailles, and like other matters of dispute between the two Crowns, was held in abeyance to be dis posed of at some future day by the sword. Meanwhile fort and garrison were unmolested. In 1743 the French had three sailing vessels of fifty cr sixty tons on Lake Ontario. The first English vessel on the lake was a small schooner, forty feet keel, with four teen sweeps and twelve swivels. She was launched on the 28th of June, 1755. The following year the English had three flat-bottomed gun-brigs afloat, and were preparing to build others. The fortifications at Oswego were gradually much strength ened and enlarged. A new fort of logs, twenty or thirty inches thick, was built on the height above the eastern bank of the river ; the wall was fourteen feet high, and protected by a ditch fourteen feet wide. A third fort was also built to the westward of the older one, with a rampart of earth and Btones, twenty feet thick, and twelve feet high, with a ditch in front fourteen feet wide, and ten feet deep. Cannons and mortars defended these forts. It was now resolved in the councils of Canada that Choueguen should be attacked. But the defeat of General Dieskau at Lake George in 1755 delayed the expedition. It was only delayed, however. " From the hour of its foundation, Choueguen is the rallying ground of the Indian tribes," wrote the Governor of Canada, M. de Vaudreuil. "From Choueguen come all the belts and messages that the English scatter among the far nations. It is always at Choueguen that the English hold councils with the Indians." .... In fine Choueguen is the direct cause of ill the troubles that have befallen the colony. Choueguen must fall. XIV INTRODUCTION. In March, 1756, as a preliminary step, the Governor of Canada sent M. de LeVy with three hundred men to attack Fort Bull, where the English kept large supplies of provis ions for Oswego. This party crossing the St. Lawrence on skates, and marching one hundred and twenty leagues through the forest on snow-shoes, suddenly appeared before Fort Bull with a summons to surrender. They were an swered by a brisk fire of musketry. M. de Lery then forced the gate and took the fort by storm, put many of the garri son to death, and burned or destroyed a very large amount, of provisions and ammunition. As the spring opened, in April, M. de Vaudreuil sent a force of four or five hundred men to hang about Oswego. in order still farther to cut the communication between that fort and its entrepots. The whole Colony of New York was thrown into agitation by the intelligence of these move ments. From that moment mixed parties of Canadians and Indians were constantly hovering about Oswego, and in the forests along the river. In May, M. de Villiers, a Canadian officer with some thousand men, landed at Hungry Bay, Niaoure, as the French named it, and took up a permanent position there, some fifteen leagues from Oswego. Although France and England had been virtually in a state of warfare on the high seas and in the colonies, during the last two years, yet it was only now that a formal declaration of war took place in Europe. In June and July there were fre quent skirmishes on shore, and constant cruisiugs on the lake. The French naval force varied. Their two largest vessels were the Marquise de Vaudreuil carrying eight 8-pounders, 8 sixes, and 8 swivels, and the Huron, with 8 sixes, 4 forra and 8 swivels. They had also a schooner with 6 fours and 4 swivels, and several smaller craft. The English* vessels at the same period were the Ontari-3 the Oswego, the London, a brigantine, the Vigilant, a barque, imd other smaller craft. A naval incident which occurred in June, threatened a battle ; two English vessels, the On INTRODUCTION. X* *<ario and the Oswego, with a small schooner were out on a cruise, when they were met by four French vessels of greater force. The English made sail for Oswego, the enemy gave chase but without other success than taking the small schooner. The French report of this affair is amusing. " Our little fleet on Lake Ontario, in number about five vessels, having met the English fleet amounting to ten, gave them battle. We have taken the English Ad miral, put the other to flight, and obliged two to run ashore with all sails set, near Fort Oswego." On the 3d of July, Colonel Bradstreet with two hundred batteaux, and three hundred boatmen, was attacked some miles above Oswego by a Canadian and Indian force, vari ously stated by the French themselves as numbering from four hundred to nine hundred men, M. de Vaudreuil giving the latter number. The defense was a gallant one, and very creditable to the boatmen. Colonel Bradstreet took posses sion of a small island where he defended himself against three separate attacks, and subsequently drove the French from a swamp where they had posted themselves, routed and dispersed them. The English lost forty men killed and wounded. The loss of the French was probably larger. Such was the .report of Colonel Bradstreet, which would seem to have been essentially correct. For the amusement of the reader we give the other side of the picture, which taken in all its details makes a very entertaining little bit of history : " M. de Villiers, who did not lose any opportunity to an noy the enemy, having learned from his scouts that the Choueguen River was covered with batteaux, designed to await the enemy at a portage, but a party of Indians did not give him time to do so. They fired, when the Cana dians were ordered to fire also. The enemy threw them selves with their batteaux on the opposite side of the river. So great was the impetuosity of the Indians that eleven flung themselves in, swimming. They were on the island sur rounded by the English. M. de Villiers waded across witb XVI INTRODUCTION. fifty men, and some officers, and released the Indians. We sent word to the English to surrender, they preferred to throw themselves into their batteaux. Our Indians and Frenchmen rushed into the water, and each made many prisoners. The loss of the enemy from data in our posses sion amounts to twenty-six scalps, and thirty prisoners. De serters report our having put more than four hundred of their men hors du combat. This may allow of a margin. Their detachment cons ; sted of twelve or thirteen hundred men returning from victualling Choueguen. Our detach ment amounted to four hundred, including Canadians and Indians." Another variation follows : " Sieur de Villiers, being on che 2d of July at the head of four hundred Frenchmen and some Indians, fell in with about five hundred batteaux and thirteen hundred English, whom he attacked so vigorously that he left four hundred and fifty of them dead, and took forty prisoners. The remainder threw themselves on the opposite side of the river, and abandoned their batteaux, which were burnt. We have lost six men, and two wounded in this affair." A third bulletin to the Ministry at Versailles is in the same strain : " This detachment has had occasion to harass the enemy, who, at the close of June, were attacked on their way by water, though numbering nearly two thousand. They lost four hundred men, and we not more than four or five." The veracious report of an Abbe*, a private letter, must conclude these variations upon History : " In the beginning of July, while M. de Villiers, a Canadian Captain, was ly ing in ambush, in the river Choueguen, with a detachment of eight hundred men, our Indians fired too soon. The enemy amounted to fifteen hundred, whom we have de> feated ; eight hundred were killed, about five hundred bat teaux and provisions were taken and burned. We lost ten men." Let us now resume a grave face, and return to the actua 1 INTRODUCTION. iege of Oswego, which fortunately for our task has been recorded with much more accuracy than the reports of the prowess of M. de Villierg, in his encounter with Colonel Bradstreet. Regiments had been sent forward from Quebec early io the summer. One of the French officers recently arrived in America, declares himself charmed with the beauty of the country on the banks of the St. Lawrence. The mos quitoes were not so much to his taste ; his regiment had several men in the hospital in consequence of the bites of those insects, and three or four officers were suffering severely from tumors caused in the same way. Montreal delighted him ; it was a large town ; but appeared to him in great danger of being destroyed by fire, " as all the houses are of wood." In July the whole French force was moving nearer to the threatened fort at Choueguen. On the 29th of July M. de Montcalm arrived at Frontenac. On the 6th of August, he crossed the lake to Niouare or Sandy Creek. The force under his command was about three thousand men. Among his artillery were guns taken from General Braddock, arid a portion of the cannon balls were marked with the broad arrow of England. On the 10th of August, the vanguard advanced to a cove within a mile or two of Oswego. The next day Fort On tario on the eastern bank was invested by a force of Cana dians and Indians. On the 12th the military works of the enemy were carried on vigorously ; batteries were erected ; a park of artillery was placed in position ; and the trencher were begun. The fire of the English was very brisk. The English cruisers were hovering about the mouth of the river. Suddenly about midnight, the fire from Fort Or tario ceased the garrison stationed there was ordered, by a signal from Colonel Mercer, to abandon the fort and move across the river to Port Oswego. The movement was successfully performed, although it became necessary to abandon the guns. The French immediately took po- I XV111 INTRODUCTION. session of this eastern fort, and turned their whole forca against Forts Oswego and George on the western bank. A large battery was built for the purpose of attacking Fort Oswego in the rear ; to complete this work twenty pieces of cannon were transported to this battery during the night by the strong arms of the men, the whole army excepting those in the trenches being engaged in this severe task. At daylight on the 14th, M. de Montcalm ordered the Cana dians and Indians to ford the river and harass the enemy from the surrounding woods. Accordingly with M. de Rigawd at their head, they waded across, raising frightful yells, which the Indians called Salaquois ; probably the death-whoop, said by those who have heard it in our own day to be tha most fearful sound ever uttered by human beings. The fire of the English was briskly kept up until ten o clock. At this hour they unexpectedly hoisted the white fhg, and sent two officers to offer capitulation. The French were surprised by this early surrender after a fire so brisk on the part of the besieged. But ijj.c death of Colonel Mercer, the brave commander, appears to have been the principal cause of the step which could r^ot under the circumstances have been long delayed. The groat rapidity of the French movements in opening the trenches, on ground so difficult to work, and in moving their artillery without horses, with the skillful manreuvres of M. de Mont- calm, seems to have produced the impression in the fort, that the besieging army was much larger than their real number. A French account declared that " Choueguen has fallen, or rather surrendered to the yells of the Canadians and In dians." " It is to be concluded," says M. de Montcalm, * that the English when transported, are no longer brave ; This was a very important success for Canada. Tho French appear to have lost about eighty killed and wound- id. M. de Vaudreuil, however, in his official despatches to France, says, " three killed, and two by accident ! " The English lost one hundred and fifty killed ; prisoners, sixteen hundred ^nd forty, among whom were eighty military men INTRODUCTION. xix and twelve naval officers. There were also one hundred and twenty women in the fort. Six vessels were captured, one of eighteen guns, one of sixteen, two of ten, one of eight, and two hundred barges or batteaux. The number of guns taken was large ; seven pieces of bronze, forty- eight of iron, fourteen mortars, forty-four swivels. The loss of ammunition was very great. A large amount of provis ions was found in the fort, including nearly fourteen hun dred barrels of Hour, and biscuit, nearly the same number of barrels of pork, with peas, etc., etc. There were thirty- two oxen and eleven hogs in the fort, such was the condi tion of things at this frontier fort. Three military chests of specie were also captured. The prisoners were to be sent to Montreal, and there exchanged. In connection with the surrender of Oswego, rumors of a massacre of some of the prisoners, by the Indian allies of M. de Montcalm, soon spread through the colonies. These reports were generally believed by the English at the time. They have been recently contradicted. And yet there is good authority for believing that some painful vio lation of the articles of capitulation actually occurred. One of the reports sent to the French government has the fol lowing passage ; " The Indians have massacred more than a hundred persons included in the capitulation, without our being able to prevent them." Another report says : " The enemy have had one hundred and fifty killed, including those who, wishing to escape during the capitulation, were massa-. cred by the Indians." M. de Montcalm himself observes : " The Indians wished to violate it," i. e., the capitulation. " I put an end to that affair." Such passages as these would not have been sent to France in official papers, if the rumor* had been entirely without foundation. On the other hand there has been found among the papers of Sir William John son the deposition of John Vale, an eye-witness, taken it* October, 1756, which declares that the threatened massacre was prevented by M. de Montcalm, who ordered his men to ftre upon the Indians about, to attack the prisoners, 1 robtk- X INTRODUCTION. blj some of the English were killed by the Indians, before M. de Montcalm resorted to severe measures of restraint, but the number could not have been as large as the colonists of that day believed. The French, to gratify the Iroquois tribes, destroyed all the works at Oswego. The fort on the western bank was filled with condemned pork and set on fire. By the 21st of August the work of destruction was completed, and the. army reembarked for Montreal. A large cross had been raised, however, by the Abbe* Picquet, on the site of the fort, xiih the inscription " In hoc signo vincunt," and near it a jolo with the arms of the king of France, and the words " Bring lilies with full hands." As the French fleet sailed away towards Frontenac, they looked back upon these proofs of their prowess. The lilies of France, however, did not take root in that soil, they were a mere passing trophy of war. The standards taken at Oswego were carried in triumph through the streets of Montreal by the Indians and then taken to the doors of the cathedral ; the Indians declaring that these flags were not worthy to enter the church as they were not " Christians." They were, how ever, hung up at a later day in the churches of Montreal and Quebec. Oswego was soon rebuilt by the English. In 1751), Gen eral Prideaux arid Sir William Johnson marched against the French fort at Niagara, which surrendered July 25. On the 7th of August, Sir William Johnson, left in com mand by the death of General Prideanx, returned to Os wego. The place had been more or less frequented by tho traders and Indians during the last three years, and the new fort was now planned and the work commenced undei the order of General Gage, who arrived about the middle of the month. It was at this period, between the rebuilding of the fort and the final cession of Canada to England in 1763, that Natty is supposed to have been employed as a scout on tho frontier. During those years Major Lundie was in com- INTRODUCTION. XXI mand of the fort Then it was that Pathfinder, and Jasper Fresh-water, and Mabel, and the old Sergeant, and Cap, and Arrowhead, made the eventful cruise in the Scud, re corded by the author of the " Pilot." The country between the banks of the Mohawk and the shore of Lake Ontario was still a wilderness, as described in the " Pathfinder." It was at this very period that a little girl and her mother, the daughter and wife of an offi cer in the garrison, made the journey between Albany and Oswego ; and half a century later the little girl, then Mra, Grant of Laggan, wrote and printed her recollections of the expedition. It is difficult for us of the present day to think of that fertile blooming region of Western New York as one vast forest. A few extracts from Mrs. Grant s volume may amuse the reader, as they will lead him over the same track passed by Mabel and her sailor uncle. " The first day we came to Schenectady, a little town situated in a rich and beautiful spot, and partly supported by the Indian trade. The next day we embarked, and pro ceeded up the river with six batteaux, and came early in the evening to one of the most charming scenes imaginable, where Fort Hendrick was built, so called in compliment to the principal sachem, or king of the Mohawks. The castle of this primitive monarch stood at a little distance on a rising ground surrounded by palisades. He resided at the time in a house which the public workmen, who had lately built this fort, had been ordered to erect for him. We did not fail to wait upon his majesty, who, not choosing to de part too much from the customs of his ancestors, had not permitted divisions of apartments, or modern furniture, to profane his new dwelling. It had the appearance of a good barn, and was divided across by a mat hung in the middle. King Hendrick, who had indeed a very princely figure, and a countenance that would not have dishonored royalty, was Bitting on the floor beside a large heap of wheat, surrounded with baskets of dried berries of different kinds ; beside him, his son, a very pretty boy, somewhat older than myself, INTRODUCTION. was caressing a foal, which was unceremoniously introduced into the royal residence. A laced hat, a fine saddle and pistols, gifts of his good brother, the great king, were hung round on the cross-beams. He was splendidly arrayed in a coat of pale blue, trimmed with silver ; all the rest of hia dress was of the fashion of his own nation, and highly em bellished with beads and other ornaments. All this suited my taste exceedingly, and was level to my comprehension I wa"s prepared to admire King Hendrick, by having heard him described as a generous warrior, terrible to his enemies and kind to his friends : the character of all others calcu lated to make the deepest impressions on ignorant inno cence, in a country where even infants learned the horrors of war, from its proximity. Add to all this that the mon - arch smiled, clapped my head, and ordered me a little bas ket, very pretty, and filled by the officious kindness of hiu son, with dried berries. Never did princely gifts, or the smile of royalty, produce more ardent admiration and pro found gratitude. I went out of the royal presence over awed and delighted, and am not sure but I have liked kings all my life the better for this happy specimen to whom I was so early introduced. " This journey, charming my romantic imagination by its very delays and difficulties, was such a source of interest and novelty to me that above all things I dreaded its conclu sion, which I well knew would be succeeded by long tasks and close confinement. Happily for me we soon entered Wood Creek, the most desirable of all places for a traveller who loves to linger, if such another traveller there be. This is a small river which winds irregularly through a deep a.nd narrow valley of the most lavish fertility. The depth and richness of the soil here were evinced by the loftiness and the nature of the trees, which were hickory, butternut, chestnut, and sycamores of vast circumference, as well as height. These became so top-heavy, and their roots were io often undermined by this insidious stream, that in every tempestuous night some giants of the grove fell prostrate INTRODUCTION and very frequently across the stream, where they lay in all their ponip of foliage, like a leafy bridge, unwithered, and forming an obstacle almost invincible to all navigation. The Indian lifted his light canoe, and carried it past the tree, but our deep-loaded batteaux could not be so man aged. Here my orthodoxy was shocked, and my anti-mili tary prejudices revived, by the swearing of the soldiers ; bu! then again, my veneration for my father was if possible io creased, by his lectures against swearing, provoked by tht-ii transgression. Nothing remained for our heroes but tc attack these sylvan giants axe in hand, and make way through their divided bodies. The assault upon fallen great ness was unanimous and unmerciful, but the resistance was tough, and the process tedious ; so much so that we were three days proceeding fourteen miles, having at every two hours end, at least, a new tree to cut through. These de lays were a new source of pleasure to me. It was October ; the trees we had to cut through were often loaded with nuts ; and while I ran lightly along the branches to fill my royal basket with their spoils, which I had great pleasure in dis tributing, I met with multitudes of fellow plunderers in the squirrels of various colors and sizes, who were here num berless. This made my excursions amusing. We, travelled from one fort to another ; but in three or four instances, to my great joy, they were so remote from each other that we found it necessary to encamp at night OH the bank of the river. This, in a land of profound solitude where wolves, foxes, and bears abounded, and were very much inclined to consider and treat us as intruders, might seem dismal to riser folks. But I was so gratified by the bustle and agi tation produced by our measures of defense, and actuated by the love which all children have for mischief that is not fatal, that I enjoyed our night s encampment exceedingly, We stopped early, wherever we saw the largest and most combustible kinds of trees. Cedars were great favorites, and the first work was to fell and pile upon each other an incredible number, stretched lengthways ; while every one IX1V INTRODUCTION. that coul 1 was busied in gathering withered branches of pine, to fill up the interstices of the pile, and make the green wood burn faster. Then a train of gun-powder was laid along to give fire to the whole fabric at once, which blazed and crackled magnificently. Then the tents were erected close in a row before this grand conflagration. This was not merely meant to keep us warm, though the nights did begin to grow cold, but to frighten wild beasts and wandering Indians. In case any such, belonging to hostile tribes, should see this prodigious pile, the size of it was meant to give them an idea of a greater force than we pos sessed. " In one place, when we were surrounded by hills with Bwamps lying between them, there seemed to be a general congress of wolves, who answered each other from opposite hills in sounds the most terrific. Probably the terror all savage animals have of fire, was exalted into fury by seeing so many enemies whom they durst not attack. The bull frogs, those harmless but hideous inhabitants of the swamps, seemed determined not to be outdone, and roared a tremen dous bass to this bravura accompaniment. This was almost too much for my love of the terrible sublime; some women who were our fellow-travellers, shrieked with terror ; and finally the horrors of that night were ever after held in aw- *ul remembrance by all who shared them." More than half a century passed away after the journey recorded by the officer s daughter, whose narrative was pub lished in 1808. And still the region about Oswego was essentially a wilderness. During that very year 1808, a young American naval officer, the future author of tho " Pathfinder," made the same journey, in company with a party of messmates who had been ordered to Lake Ontario. Oswego was still very thoroughly a frontier station, beyond the pale of civilization. The young officers had a weary tramp of a week or two over ground which may now be passed in a few hours. There was neither canal, steamboat, uor .railroad to shorten the distance between Albany and INTRODUCTION. XXV Oswego, when this party moved from the sea-board to the Lake shore. But the young officers enjoyed extremely the noyelty of the change, and the spice of adventure con nected with it. They considered it a piece of especial good luck for sailors to find themselves drifting through a forest, and all in the way of duty. Many were the amus ing anecdotes told by Mr. Cooper in later years in connec tion with this service on Lake Ontario ; he always looked hack to it with pleasure, and continued through life ou the most friendly terms with the officers belonging to the ex pedition. More than one of these gentlemen declared at a later day that he had been the life and soul of their mess ; of a gay and buoyant nature, he was overflowing with vivacity, and full of conversation. His physical activity was also remarkable. So vigorous and sound was his con stitution that his cojmrades declared that he rarely encum bered himself with cloak or overcoat, even with the ther mometer below zero. In those days travellers moving towards the western wilda on Lake Ontario, or the Genesee country, very generally embarked at Schenectady, ascending the Mohawk in what were still called batteaux. The Erie Canal had already been thought of. Among those who had given the subject no little attention was the father of the young midshipman then slowly ascending the Mohawk. In a letter of Judge Cooper, written apparently about the year 1805, the following passages occur relating to this important question. Speaking of the valley of tbf Mohawk and the western lakes, he says : " The trade of this vast country must be divided between Montreal and New York, and the half of it thus lost to ue United States, unless an inland communication can bo tbrmed from Lake Erie to the Hudson. This project worthy of a nation s enterprise has been some time medi tated by individuals. Of its practicability there can be no doubt, while the world has as yet produced no work so noble, nor has the universe such another situation to inv XXVI INTKODUCTiUTN. prove. Its obvious utility will hereafter challenge more attention ; men of great minds will turn their thoughts, and devote their energies to its accomplishment, and J do-M, not that it will be one day achieved. " The surface of Lake Erie is elevated about two hun dred and eighty feet above the Hudson at Albany. A canal large enough for sloops of fifty tons burden, will not only bring the produce of these great and rich tracts of land in the State of New York to its capital, but will secure all the trade and productions of the vast country which sur rounds the lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior. Were this once effected, a sloop might then perform an in land voyage of seventeen hundred miles ! " The trade of Lake Erie already supports twenty three ships, brigs, snows, and sloops ; and Ontario twelve. " The United States have millions o acres in the Michi gan country, of which the produce by this operation would be transportable to a market. " How, you ask, and by what funds is this great work to be accomplished ? Without presuming that my opinion should be the guide in so important a concern, it is enough if I can point out one way in which it may be possible, and I think the mode I am about to propose not only possible, but very practicable. The State of ISew York may cede the track of this canal to the United States, and the United States may then grant a charter to a company, with strong rights and immunities, and the fullest security the gen^r^i laws will admit of in short whatever would encourage the European capitalist to adventure in this magnificent en terprise. Let the United States take shares to the amour t of ten millions of dollars, which will serve as an encourage ment and security to the foreign capitalist and be a safe guard against the effects of those fluctuations in councils, and public opinions, to which the affairs of men are every where liable. " The banks of this canal would become a carriage- road, and one of the most beaniful in the universe. That inoal INTRODUCTION. XXT11 attractive and gratifying object, the falls of Niagara, would of itself create a thoroughfare, and the product of the tolls on the turnpikes, and canal gates, would raise a revenue sufficient, in a very short time, to requite the undertakers. No stranger but would make this tour his object, and no traveller of taste would leave it uncelebrated. But, as Ih. s ipeculatiou lies in the province of fancy, and may be treated B a vision, I leave it." Different indeed was the aspect, and the whole character of the valley of the Mohawk in those days, from what it has since become. If the canal was considered visionary, what would have been thought of the railroads, and of the tele graph which only thirty years later was planned by a friend of the young midshipman, then slowly moving up the troubled current of the stream. There were two kinds of boat, then in general use on the Mohawk, by which the produce of the interior moved down the stream towards the Hudson, and the manufactures of the sea-board were car ried to Utica and the small towns farther west. The Sche- nectady boat was small, flat-bottomed, and rigged with an ungainly sail, though depending chiefly on the muscular power of the boatmen with their oars or poles. The Dur ham boat, of which there were large numbers, was long, shallow, and nearly flat-bottomed. These batteaux, as they were called, were chiefly worked by means of a pole, ten feet long, shod with iron, and crossed at short intervals with small bars of wood ; the men would place themselves ut the bow, two on each side, thrust their poles into the Channel, and grasping the wooden bars successively, work their way towards the stern, impelling the boat forward by this laborious movement. These Durham boats found (heir way from the Mohawk to the St. Lawrence, arid were much used on the Canadian waters. And it was said that one of these craft went into the Missouri River, makirg an inland voyage of six weeks, from the rude wharf at Sche- nectady. The Mohawk boatmeu were singularly fckillful in those tiiueb ; they made the trip to Utica, about one hundred xxviii INTRODUCE ON. miles, against current and rapids, and returned in nine days! Two miles and a half in an hour, was the usual speed against the current. The young midshipman was the guide of the party as they moved slowly up the river. He was thoroughly famil iar with the valley of the Mohawk, his own home among the Otsego Highlands lying some five and twenty miles to the southward. The two fine stone houses semi -for tilled, built by Sir William Johnson more than half a century earlier, were passed. And in the same reach of the river a singular Indian antiquity was observed, which is no longer visible ; it was a picture writing, on a rock in a con spicuous position, representing a canoe with seven warriors in it. The coloring was red, the figures rude as usual, but every line had its meaning to the Indian eye. It was said to have been painted by some Mohawk war party about the middle of the last century. At the mouth of the Schoharie, a little fort and church built in the time of Queen Anne, for the benefit of the Mohawks, were still standing. In those days the boatmen generally stopped at this point, for a supply of water from a peculiarly fine spring. At Fort Plain, the little block house which has given its name to the village was still in good condition. At Little Falls the travellers came to one of the first steps in internal improve ment undertaken in our State. There was a succession of five canal locks at the Portage as it was formerly called, for the passage of loaded boats to and fro. They were first used in 1803. General Schuyler had superintended this work, which was a first step towards the Erie Canal. These ,ocks had been originally built of wood, but in 1808 they were rebuilt of stone. The cost of each lock was $10,000. the tolls in 1808 were $4,700. In the course of three months some two hundred and fifty boats would pass. Only six days were required for this voyage between Schenectady and Utica ! This was a pleasant little village, inhere twenty years earlier there was only one house. It oouid now boast some two hundred and fifty houses, and INTPODUCTJON. XX ix fifteen hundred inhabitants. It WSLB not considered o weJl built, however, as Cooperstown, a sister village in Otsego county. The batteaux still moved up the Mohawk to Rome, the site of Fort Stanwix ; here, at one hundred and six miles from Schenectady, the first stage of the voyage was com pleted oil the seventh day. Here in the last century was a famous portage, between the head waters of the Mohawk, and those of the Wood Creek. A cluster of forts had arisen one after the other about this portage, but they were already in u ruinous condition. And here again, were a cluster of locks, and a bit of canal to connect the eastern and the western waters. The travellers and their batteaux were soon float ing on that dark and sluggish stream, the Wood Creek, and on the evening of the second day they reached the Oneida Lake, a broad sheet of dark-colored water, unwholesome to drink, and strangely blended with small dark particles called the Lake blossom, by the boatmen. It was very rich in fish, the boatmen asserting that more than a hundred large salmons would sometimes be caught in a day, by a small party with a seine. These hundred fish would sell for $75. It was a day s voyage, with the oars and poles, across the lake, against a head wind. Another day was needed to bring the boats to " Three River Point," where the Oneida uid Seneca unite, to form the Oswego River, which is twenty-five miles long, full of rocks and rapids, and at that period flowed through a country still essentially wild. Vast reaches of unbroken forest lay on either side, east and west. The Oswego Fall, with its rocks and foaming waters, mak ing a descent of twelve feet, was passed on foot ; the boats with a light lading were carried down safely by very skill ful pilots. Some months later a large cannon, a thirty-two Viounder, was carried safely down the fall in a boat, the officers standing on the shore anxiously watching its descent. The twelfth day the boats reached the port of Oswego. The little village had an odd aspect. The old fortifica tions on both sides of the river were entirely in ruio. INTRODUCTION, There were ruins also of old Dutch trading-houses, of som strength ; these buildings were of stone, built around a long square, upon which all their doors opened within, for secu rity. One of these houses bore the date of 1711, some six teen years before the building of the first English fort. The foundation of the American village did not take place until twenty years after the Peace, in 1803. The old est settler had many adventurous stories to tell the young officers, of the hardships he and his family had undergone in the dark ages, five years earlier. He rode forty miles to mill. He had not one neighbor when he built his solitary dwelling. The nearest market, for common necessaries, was one hundred miles distant. There was, however, quite a brisk trade at the wharves in 1808, some nine or ten vessels belonging to the port passing constantly to and fro. Many of them were laden with Onondaga salt. And, strange to say, others carried tea and Chinese and East Indian goods to Canada. Upper Canada depended chiefly upon Osvvego for these luxuries. There were several small taverns, and about a dozen houses, with a few log huts. There were several large warehouses iilled with salt, tea, etc., etc. But in winter these were shut up. The whole village went to sleep like the bears, during cold weather ! Wild animals still prowled through the adjoining forest; bears, wolves, and panthers were riot wanting. Of deer there was an abundant supply. And one or two f esh beaver-dams were only a short distance from the banks of the river. The officers supplied their mess bountifully with venison, and bear s meat, to say nothing of grouse and water-fowl ; and few days passed without a fishing-party. The fish in the Ontario were excellent, and stories were tol. of the capture of sturgeon weighing nearly a hundred rounds-, of the celebrated muscalonge of half that weight, und of salmon very nearly as large, to say nothing of the white-fish, the Oswego bass, and rock bass. While throw ing himself with all his usual spirit Mito these hunting and INTRODUCTION XXX) fishing expeditions, the young midshipman was never much of an angler. He generally required something more of movement and excitement in his out-door recreations. He was particularly fond of cruising and exploring expedi tions along the lake shore. But whether afloat or ashore the mess led a merry life, they were all young, ou excel lent terms with each other, and their duties at the moment were light. In later years Mr. Cooper often mentioned with plea&urft little incidents connected with this period of half garrison, half sailor life. On one occasion while on a journey through the wilderness to Buffalo, they stopped for the night at a rude frontier inn perchance on ground which has now become the heart of a large city. Mr. Cooper acting as caterer for the party, inquired into the state of the larder. Mine host shook his head ruefully ; he could promise very little ; had they come a few weeks earlier he could have done better, but there was nothing to speak of in the house that day. " Give us what you eat yourself; you must have food of some kind ! " Mine host looked melancholy ; on his honor, he assured the officers, he had absolutely nothing to eet before them, but grouse, venison steaks, and brook- trout ; and maybe his wife could find cranberries for a tart ! A month earlier they could have had fried pork fit for the President, with a pumpkin ] ie after it ; but they must not expect any delicacies now. " Game s plenty, but nothing else ! " added the publican with a sigh. Mine host was pining for salt pork! There was at that time an amusing character in the new village, who afforded no little entertain ment to the young officers ; this was a half-fledged medical genius, from New England, with long lank figure, strongly .narked face, full of small professional vanities and preten sions, and with an intensely nasal twang in his pedantic speech ; but withal a good fellow in the main. The Doctor s visits to the mess were always a very especial entertainment. When writing the " Pioneers " at a later day, Mr. Cooper rentured to introduce this old Oswego acquaintance to tii XXXll INTRODUCTION. reader, under the name of Dr. Elriathan Todd. It was sam that he had meanwhile removed further west, changed his profession, grown rich, and would probably not have known himself, if he ever read the book. The servant of the mess was a very raw Irish lad, but recently landed ; he was a thor ough Paddy of the most amusing sort, full of blarney and blunder, an unceasing source of amusement to the young men. On one occasion the table-cloth took fire ; Paddy was at the moment filling a tea-pot on the table, from an ample kettle in his hand. " Pour the water on the cloth, Pat ! " called out one of the officers. " Shure the wather is hot, your honor!" exclaimed Pat in great dismay, holding the kettle at a very safe distance from the bla/ing cloth, his face meanwhile exhibiting the most ludicrous expression of the bull physiognomy that could well be imagined. Mr. Cooper often laughed heartily at the mere recollection of the poor fellow s bewildered countenance. The bright idea of giving a ball occurred to the young gentlemen. A fiddle and a ball-room were procured with out much difficulty. With flags and evergreens the bare walls could be made to look festal. The lights were a diffi culty. Pine knots were proposed by a wag. This idea was indignantly rejected. By skillful strategy, a large number of dip tallow candles were secured, sufficient for quite a bril liant illumination ; all sorts of original ideas wf3re resorted to, some military, some culinary, to provide candlesticks and impromptu chandeliers. Thus far the plan looked prom ising; but, where were the ladies to grace the rebels? Alas. ladies in northern New York were then very few, and very far between ! After counting over every woman in the new village who could be supposed capable of dancing, there still remained not a few of the dancing men likely to be partner less. But a dance they were resolved to have, and more over by sending out two or three ox-teams, accustomed to wading small rivers and making their way through swamps hopes were held out of securing a dozen more damsels from ft diitance; boats skillfully commanded were also sent along INTRODUCTION. XXX111 the coast and up the river, to capture a few more. The eventful evening came. A delicate point had to be decided, How, and by what rules, so many miles from a regular drawing-roorn, were the honors of the evening to be allotted ? Mr. Wolsey proved himself equal to the occasion. lie issued his orders to the Master of Ceremonies : *" All ladies sir, provided with shoes and stockings, you are to lead to the head of the Virginia reel ; ladies with shoes but without stockings are to be considered in the second rank ladiea without either shoes or stockings, you will lead, gentlemen, to the foot of the country-dance ! " The especial duty for which this naval party had been sent to Oswego is thus alluded to in the " History of the Navy:" "In the course of the summer of 1808, it wag thought prudent to make a commencement towards the em ploy men t of a force on the lakes ; England already posses sing ships on Ontario and Erie. Ther-6 being no especial law for such an. object, advantage was taken of the discre tionary powers granted to the President, under the act for building gun-boats. A few officers were placed under the orders of Lieutenant M. T. Wolsey, and that gentleman was empowered to make contracts for the construction of three vessels, one of which was to be built on Lake Ontario and the other two on Lake Champlain. The two vessels constructed on Lake Champlain were ordinary gun boats, but that built on Lake Ontario was a regular brig of war. The latter was of about two hundred and forty tons meas urement, was pierced for sixteen guns, and when delivered by the contractors in the spring of 1809 to the sea officers or dered to receive her, she mounted sixteen twenty-four pour.rt ;arronades. In consequence of an arrangement that \\ (\t made about this time, with England, but which was not mr 6ed in Europe, this vessel, which was called the Oneiitn, wua aot equipped and sent upon the lake till the following year." The Oueida was driven ashore by the ice, about a year after she was launched. The Canadian government, to pre- their superiority on the lake, soon after the launch of INTRODUCTION. ihe Oneida built a brig of nearly double her force, carrying ihirty guns. An amusing anecdote was told in connection with Eng lish ship-building on the lake, about that period, but whether relating to the rival of the Oueida, or some later vessel, we cannot say. The frame and blocks were actually sent over at great expense from England, by the Admiralty, as if there were no timber on the lake shore. And by au absurdity still more glaring each British vessel on the lake was carefully provided with a full supply of English water casks, and moreover, with apparatus foi distilling salt water ! ! There is good Canadian authority for this state ment More than thirty years after this cruise on Lake Ontario the author of the " Pilot," while sitting in his library at Ot- sego Hall, planned a new work in which Indians and sailora were to be thrown together on the waters of the " Inland Sea," and in which Natty was again to appear before the reader in the difficult character of a lover. In the course of the year 1840, the "Pathfinder" waa written and published. " Mercedes of Castile," a romance of the days of Columbus, was aho written in 1840. COOPERSTOWN, 1872. THE PATHFINDER CHAPTER I. The turf shall be my fragiant shrine, My temple, Lord ! that arch of thine ; My censer s breath the mountain airs, And silent thoughts my only prayers. MOORK. THE sublimity connected with vastness is familiar to Bvery eye. The most abstruse, the most far-reaching, per- baps the most chastened of the poet s thoughts, crowd on the imagination as he gazes into the depths of the illimit able void. The expanse of the ocean is seldom seen by the novice with indifference ; and the mind, even in the obscu rity of night, finds a parallel to that grandeur which seems inseparable from images that the senses cannot compass. With feelings akin to this admiration and awe the off spring of sublimity were the different characters with which the action of this tale must open, gazing on the scene before them. Four persons in all, two of each sex, they had managed tc ascend a pile of trees, that had beeD uptorn by a tempest, to catch a view of the objf cts that s.ir- rounded them. It is still the practice of the country to call these spots wind-rows. By letting in the light of heaven upon the dark and damp recesses of the wood, they form a sort of oases in the solemn obscurity of the virgin forests of America. The particular wind-row of which we are writ ing, lay on the brow of a gentle acclivity, and it had opened the way for an extensive view to those who might occupy its upper margin, a rare occurrence tc the traveller in the woods. As usual, the spot was small, but owing to th 2 THE PATHFINDER. circumstances of its lying on the low acclivity mentioned, and that of the opening s extending downwards, it offered more than common advantages to the eye. Philosophy has not yet determined the nature of the power that so often lays desolate spots of this description .- some ascribing it to the whirlwinds that produce water-spouts on the ocean while others again impute it to sudden and violent passages of streams of the electric fluid ; hut the effects in the woods are familiar to all. On the upper margin of the opening to which there is allusion, the viewless influence had piled tree on tree, in such a manner as had not only enabled the two males of the party to ascend to an elevation of some thirty feet above the level of the earth, but, with a little care and encouragement, to induce their more timid companions to accompany them. The vast trunks that had been broken and driven by the force of the gust, lay blended like jack- straws ; while their branches, still exhaling the fragrance oi wilted leaves, were interlaced in a manner to afford sufficient support to the hands. One tree had been completely up rooted ; and its lower end, filled with earth, had been cast uppermost, in a way to supply a sort of staging for the four adventurers, when they had gained the desired distance from the ground. The reader is to anticipate none of the appliances of peo ple of Q edition in the description of the personal appear ances of the group in question. They were all wayfarers in the wilderness ; and had they not been, neither their pre vious habits nor their actual social positions would have ac customed them to many of the luxuries of rank. Two oi the party, indeed, a male and female, belonged to the native owners of the soil, being Indians of the well-known tribe of the Tuscaroras; 1 while their companions were a man, who here about him the peculiarities of one who had passed his days on the ocean, arid this, too, in a station little, if any, above that of a common mariner ; while his female associate was a maiden of a class in no great degree superior to his ovrn ; though her youth, sweetness of countenance, and : modest but spirited mien, lent that character of intellect and refinement which adds so much to Mie charm of beauty ii! 1 v^ce A|>pcinlix .Note A. THE PATHFINDER. 8 the sex. On the present occasion her full blue eye reflected the feeling of sublimity that the scene excited, and her pleasant face was beaming with the pensive expression with which all deep emotions, even though they bring the most grateful pleasure, shadow the countenances of the ingenuous and thoughtful. And, truly, the scene was of a nature deeply to impress the imagination of the beholder. Towards . the west, iii which direction the faces of the party were turned, and in which alone could much be seen, the eye ranged over an ocean of leaves, glorious and rich in the varied but lively verdure of a generous vegetation, and shaded by the luxr-- riant tints that belong to the forty-second degree of latitude* The elm, with its graceful and weeping top, the rich varieties of the maple, most of the noble oaks of the American forest, with the broad-leafed linden, known in the parlance of the country as the bass-wood, mingled their uppermost branches, forming one broad and seemingly interminable carpet of foliage, that stretched away towards the setting sun, until it bounded the horizon, by blending with the clouds, as the waves and the sky meet at the base of the vault of heaven. /Here and there, by some accident of the tempests, or by a caprice of nature, a trifling opening among these giant members of the forest permitted an inferior tree to struggle upwards towards the light, and to lift its modest head nearly to a level with the surrounding surface of verdure. ^Of this class were the birch, a tree of some account in regions less favored, the quivering aspen, various generous nut-woods, and divers others that resembled the ignoble and vulgar, thrown by circumstances into the presence of the stately and great. Here and there, too, the tall, straight trunk of the pine pierced the vast field, rising high above it, like &ome grand monument reared by art on a plain of leaves^ It was the vastness of the view, the nearly unbroKOD surface of verdure, that contained the principle of grandeur. The beauty was to be traced in the delicate tints, relie ved by gradations of light and shadow; while the solemn repose induced the feeling allied to awe. " Uncle, said the wondering, but pleased girl, addressing 4 THE PATHFINDER. her male companion, whose arm she rather touched than leaned on, to steady her own light but firm footing, " this is like a view of the ocean you so much love ! " "So much for ignoranst^ and a girl s fancy, Magnet," a term of affection the sailor often used in allusion to his niece s personal attractions ; " no one but a child would think of likening this handful of leaves to a look at the real At lantic. You might seize all these tree-tops to Neptuue c jacket, and they would make no more than a nosegay for his bosom." " More fanciful than true, I think, uncle. Look thither ; it must be miles on miles, and yet we see nothing but leaves ! what more could one behold, if looking at the ocean ? " " More ! " returned the uncle, giving an impatient gesture with the elbow the other touched, for his arms were crossed, and the hands were thrust into the bosom of a vest of red sloth, a fashion of the times, " more, Magnet ? say, rather, what less ? Where are your combing seas, your blue water, your rollers, your breakers, your whales, or your water spouts, and your endless motion, in this bit of a forest child?" "And where are your tree-tops, your solemn silence, your fragrant leaves, and your beautiful green, uncle, on the ocean ? " " Tut, Magnet ; if you understood the thing, you would know that green water is a sailor s bane. He scarcely relishes a greenhorn less." " But green trees are a different thing. Hist ! h-it aouud is the air breathing among the leaves ! " " You should hear a nor wester breathe, girl, if you fancy wind aloft. Now, where are your gales, and hurricanes, a id trad 3s, and levanters, and such like incidents, in this bit of a forest, and what fishes have you swimming beneath y onder tame surface ! " " That there have been tempests here, these signs around us plainly show ; and beasts, if not fishes, are beneath those leaves." "I d:> not know that," returned the uncle, with a sailor i THE PATHFINDER. 5 dogmatism. " They told us many stories at Albany, of the wild animals w* should fall in with, and yet we have seen nothing to frighten a seal. I doubt if any of your inland animals will compare with a low latitude shark ! " " See ! " exclaimed the niece, who was more occupied with the sublimity and beauty of the " boundless wood than with her uncle s arguments, " yonder is a smoke curl ing over the tops of the trees ; can it come from a house 2 * "Aye, aye; there is a look of humanity in that smoke," returned the old seaman, " which is worth a thousand trees j I must show it to Arrowhead, who may be running past a port without knowing it. It is probable there is a caboose where there is a smoke." As he concluded, the uncle drew a hand from his bosom, touched the male Indian, who was standing near him, lightly on the shoulder, and pointed out a thin line of vapor that was stealing slowly out of the wilderness of leaves, at a distance of about a mile, and was diffusing itself in almost imperceptible threads of humidity, in the quivering atmos phere. The Tuscarora was one of those noble-looking warriors that were oftener met with among the aborigines of this continent a century since, than to-day ; and, while he had mingled sufficiently with the colonists to be familiar with their habits, and even with their language, he had^ lost little, if any, of the wild grandeur and simple dignity of a chief. Between him and the old seaman the intercourse had been friendly, but distant, for the Indian- had been too much accustomed to mingle with the officers of the different military posts he had frequented, not to understand that his present companion was only a subordinate. So imposing, indeed, had been the quiet superiority of the Tuscarora s reserve, that Charles Cap, for so was the seaman named, in his most dogmatical or facetious moments had not ventured on familiarity, in an intercourse that had now lasted more than a week. The sight of the curling smoke, however, bad struck the latter like the suddeii appearance of a sail fct sea. a;\d x for the first time since they met, he ventured to the warrior, as has been related. The quick eye of the Tuscarora instantly caught a sighl 6 THE PATHFINDER. of the smoke, ana for quite a minute he stood, slightly raised OD tiptoe, with distended nostrils, like the buck that scents a taint in the air, and a gaze as riveted as that of the trained pointer, while he waits his master s aim. Then falling back on his feet, a low exclamation, in the soft tones that form so singular a contrast to its harsher cries in the Indian warrior s voice, was barely audible ; otherwise, he was undisturbed. His countenance was calm, and his quick, dark, eagle eye moved over the leafy panorama, as if tc take in at a glance every circumstance that might enlighten his mind. That the long journey they had attempted tc make through a broad belt of wilderness was necessarily attended with danger, both uncle and niece well knew; though neither could at once determine whether the sign that others were in the vicinity was the harbinger of good or evil. " There must be Oneidas or Tuscaroras near us, Arrow head," said Cap, addressing his Indian companion by his conventional English name ; " will it not be well to join company with them, and get a comfortable berth for the night in their wigwarn ? " " No wigwam there," Arrowhead answered, in his un moved manner ; " too much tree." " But Indians must be there ; perhaps some old mess - mates of your own, Master Arrowhead." "No Tuscarora no Oneida no Mohawk; pale-face ere." " The devil it is ! well, Magnet, this surpasses a seaman s philosophy ; we old sea-dogs can tell a soldier s from a sailor s quid, or a lubber s nest from a mate s hammock ; but I do not think the oldest admiral in his Majesty s fleet can lell a king s smoke from a collier s!" The idea that human beings were in their vicinity in that ocean of wilderness, had deepened the flush on the blooming cheek and brightened the eye of the fair creature at his g de, but she soon turned with a look of surprise to her rel ative, and said hesitatingly, for both had often auinired the Tuscarora s knowledge, or we might almost say, instinct, " A pale-face s fire ! Surely, uncle, he cannot know that ! " THE PATHFINDER. 7 " Ten days since, child, I would have sworn to it ; but uow, I hardly know what to believe. May I take the lib erty of asking, Arrowhead, why you fancy that smoke, now^ a. pale-face s smoke, and not a red-skin s ? " " Wet wood," returned the warrior, with the calmness frith which the pedagogue might point out an arithmetical demonstration to his puzzled pupil. " Much wet much smoke ; much water black smoke." . " But, begging your pardon, Master Arrowhead, .he smoke is not black, nor is there much of it. To , my eye, now, it is as light and fanciful a smoke as ever rose from a captain s tea-kettle, when nothing was left to make the fire but a few chips from the dunnage." " Too much water," returned Arrowhead, with a slight nod of the head : " Tuscarora too cunning to make fire with water ; pale-face too much book, and burn anything ; much book, little know." u Well, that s reasonable, I allow," said Cap, who was no devotee of learning : " he means that as a hit at your read ing, Magnet, for the chief has sensible notions of things in his own way. How far, now, Arrowhead, do you make us. by your calculation, from the bit of a pond that you call the Great Lake, and towards which we have been so many days shaping our course ? " The Tuscarora looked at the seaman with quiet superior ity, as he answered, " Ontario, like heaven ; one sun, and the great traveller will know it." " Well, I have been a great traveller, I cannot deny, but of all my v y ges this has been the longest, the least profit able, and the furthest inland. If this body of fresh water is so nigh, Arrowhead, and at the same time so large, ane might think a pair of good eyes would find it out, for, ap parently, everything within thirty miles is to be seen from this lookout." " Look," said Arrowhead, stretching an arm before him with quiet grace ; " Ontario ! " " Lucle, you are accustomed to cry Land ho ! * but not 4 Water ho ! and you do not see it," cried the niece, laugh ing aa girls will laugh at their own ile conceits. 8 THL PATHFINDKK. " How now, Magnet ! dost suppose that I shouldn t know my native element, if it were m sight ? " <( But Ontario is not your native element, dear uncle, foi you come from the salt water, while this is fresh." " That might make some difference to your young man iier, but none in the world to the old one. I should kuov water, child, were I to see it in China." u Ontario !" repeated the Arrowhead, with emphasis, 1 again stretching his hand towards the northwest. Cap looked at the Tuscarora, for the first time since their acquaintance, with something like an air of contempt, though he did not fail to follow the direction of the chiefs eye and arm, both of which were pointing, to all appear ance, towards a vacant spot in the heavens, a short distance above the plain of leaves. " Aye, aye ; this is much as I expected, when I left the coast to come in search of a fresh-water pond," resumed Cap, shrugging his shoulders like one whose mind was made up, and who thought no more need be said. " Onta rio may be there, or, for that matter, it may be in my pocket. Well, I suppose there will be room enough, when we reach it, to work our canoe. But, Arrowhead, if there be pale-faces in our neighborhood, I confess I should like to get within hail of them." The Tuscarora now gave a quiet inclination of his head, and the whole party descended from the roots of the up- torn tree, in silence. When they had reached the ground. Arrowhead intimated his intention to go towards the fire, and ascertain who had lighted it, while he advised his wife and the two others to proceed to a canoe, which they had left in the adjacent stream, and await his return. " Why, chief, this might do on soundings, and in an offing where one knew the channel," returned old Cap, " but in an unknown region like this, I think it unsafe to trust the pilot alone too far from the ship ; so, with your leave, we will not part company." " What my brother wai: t ? " asked the Indian, gravelv though without taking offense at a distrust that was suffi ciently plain. 1 See Appendix. Note IV flit PATHFINDER. 8 u Your con pany, blaster Arrowhead, and no more. I will go with you, and speak these strangers." The Tuscarora assented without difficulty, and again he directed his patient and submissive little wife, who seldom turned her full, rich black eye on him, but to express equally her respect, her dread, and her love, to pi oceed to the boat. But here Magnet raised a difficulty. A thougl spirited, and of unusual energy under circumstances of trial, she was but woman, and the idea of being entirely deserteo by her two male protectors, in the midst of a wilderness, that her senses had just told her was seemingly illimitable, became so keenly painful, that she expressed a wish to ac company her uncle. " The exercise will be a relief, dear sir, after sitting so long in the canoe," she added, as the rich blood slowly re turned to a cheek that had paled, in spite of her efforts to be calm, " and there may be females with the strangers." " Come, then, child ; it is but a cable s length, and we shall return an hour before the sun sets." With this permission, the girl, whose real name was Mabel Dunham, prepared to be of the party, while the Dew-of-June, as the wife of Arrowhead was called, pas sively went her way towards the canoe, too much accus tomed to obedience, solitude, and the gloom of the forest, to feel apprehension. The three who remained in the wind-row now picked their way around its tangled maze, and gained the margin of the woods, hi. the necessary direction. A few glances of the eye sufficed for Arrowhead, but old Cap deliberately Bet the smoke by a pocket compass, before he trusted him self within the shadows of the trees. " This steering by the nose, Magnet, may do well enough fLr an Indian, but your thorough -bred knows the \irtue of the needle," said the uncle, as he trudged at the heels of the light stepping Tuscarora. " America would never have been discovered, take my word for it, if Columbus had been nothing but nostrils. Friend Arrowhead, didst ever see fa machine like this ? " The Indian turned, cast a glance at the compass, which 10 THE PATHFINDER. Cap held in a way to direct his course, and gravely an swered, A pale-face eye. The Tuscarora see in his head. The Salt-water " for so the Indian styled his companion " all eye now ; no tongue/ " He means, uncle, that we had needs be silent ; perhapi he distrusts the persons we are about to meet." "Aye tis an Indian s fashion of going to quarters, You perceive he has examined the priming of his rifle, and it may be as well if I look to that of my own pistols." Without betraying alarm at these preparations, to which she had become accustomed by her long journey in the wilderness, Mabel followed with a step as light and elastic as thai of the Indian, keeping close in the rear of her com panions. For the first half mile no other caution beyond a rigid silence was observed, but as the party drew nearer to the spot where the fire was known to be, much greater care became necessary. The forest, as usual, had little to intercept the view be low the branches, but the tall straight trunks of trees. Everything belonging to vegetation had struggled towards the light, and beneath the leafy canopy one walked, as it might be, through a vast natural vault that was upheld by myriads of rustic columns. These columns, or trees, how ever, often served to conceal the adventurer, the hunter, or the foe, and as Arrowhead swiftly approached the spot where his practiced and unerring senses told him the stran gers ought to be, his footsteps gradually became lighter, his eye more vigilant, and his person was more carefully con- tealed. " See, Salt-water," he said exultingly, pointing at the same time through the vista of trees, " pale-face fire ! " "By the Lord, the fellow is right 1 " muttered Cap; " there they are, sure enough, and eating their grub ai quietly as if they were in the cabin of a three-decker." " Arrowhead is but half right," whispered Mabel, " foi there are two Indians and only one white man." " Pale-face," said the Tuscarora, holding up two fiugeri * red-man," holding up one. THE PATHFINDER 11 Well," rejoined Cap, " it is hard to say which is right and which is wrong. One is entirely white, and a fine comely lad he is, with an air of life and respectability about him ; one is a red-skin as plain as paint and nature can majse him ; but the third chap is half-rigged, being neither brig nor schooner." " Pale-face," repeated Arrowhead, again raising two fingers ; " red-man," showing but one. " He must be right, uncle, for his eye seems never to fail. But it is now urgent to know whether we meet as friendi or foes. They may be French." " One hail will soon satisfy us on that head," returned Cap. " Stand you behind this tree, Magnet, lest the knaves take it into their heads to fire a broadside without a parley, and I will soon learn what colors they sail under." The uncle had placed his two hands to his mouth to form a trumpet, and was about to give the promised hail, when a rapid movement from Arrowhead defeated the intention by deranging the instrument. " Red-man, Mohican," said the Tuscarora ; " good ; pale faces, Yengeese." " These are heavenly tidings," murmured Mabel, who little relished the prospect of a deadly fray in that remote wilderness. " Let us approach at once, dear uncle, and proclaim ourselves friends." " Good ! " said the Tuscarora ; " red-man cool, and know ; pale-face hurried, and fire. Let squaw go." " What ! " said Cap, in astonishment, " send little Magnet ahead, as a lookout, while two lubbers, like you and me, lie-to, to see what sort of a land-fall she will make ! If I do, I " " It is wisest, uncle," interrupted the generous girl, " and I have no fear. No Christian, seeing a woman approach alone, would fire upon her, and my presence will be a pledge of peace. Let me go forward, as Arrowhead wishes, and all will be well. We &ra\ as yet, unseen, and the surprise of the strangers will noi partake of alarm." " Gcbd ! " returned Arrowhead, who did not conceal hi* approt at/on of Mabel s spirit. 12 THE PATHFINDER. "It lias an unseaman-like look," answered Cap, * but, being in the woods, no one will know it. Jf you think, Mabel " " Uncle, I know there is no cause to fear for me ; and you are always nigh to protect me." , Well, take one of the pistols, then " "Nay, I had better rely on my youth and feebleness," said the girl, smiling, while her color heightened under her feelings. " Among Christian men, a woman s best guard i her claim to their protection. I know nothing of arms, and wish to live in ignorance of them." The uncle desisted ; and, after receiving a few cautious instructions from the Tuscarora, Mabel rallied all her spirit, and advanced alone towards the group seated near the fire. Although the heart of the girl beat quick, her step was firm, and her movements, seemingly,, were without reluctance. A death-like silence reigned in the forest, for they towards whom she approached were too much occupied in appeasing tfiat great natural appetite, hunger, to avert their looks, for an instant, from the important business in which they were all engaged. When Mabel, however, had got within i\ hundred feet of the fire, she trod upon a dried stick, and the trifling noise that was produced by her light footstep caused the Mohican, as Arrowhead had pronounced the Indian to be, and his companion whose character had been thought so equivocal, to rise to their feet, as quick as thought. Both glanced at the rifles that leaned against a tree, and then each stood without stretching out an ar% *s his eyes fell on the form of the girl. The Indian uttered a few words to his companion, and resumed his seat and his meal as calmly as if no interruption had occurred. On the contrary, the white man left the fire, and came forward to meet Mabel. The latter saw, as the stranger approached, that she was Jtliout to be addressed by one of her own color, though hia dress was so strange a mixture of the habits of the two races, that it required a near look to be certain of the fact, He was of middle age, but there was an open honesty, a total absence of guile, in his face, which otherwise would not have been thought handsome, tht at once assured Magne* THE PATHFINDER. 13 ohe was in no danger. Still she paused, in obedience to a law of bur habits if not of nature, which rendered her averse to the appearance of advancing too freely to meet one of the other sex, under the circumstances in which she waa placed. "Fear nothing, young woman," said the hunter, for such his attire would indicate him to be, " you have met Chris tian men in the wilderness, and such as know how to treat all kindly that are disposed to peace and justice. TIL a man well known in all these parts, and perhaps one of my names may have reached your ears. By the Frenchers, and the red-skins on the other side of the Big Lakes, I am called La Lougue Carabine ; by the Mohicans, a just-minded and upright tribe, what is left, of them, Hawkeye ; while the troops and rangers along this side of the water call me Pathfinder, 1 inasmuch as I have never been known to miss one end of the trail, when there was a Mingo, or a friend who stood in need of me, at the other." This was not uttered boastfully, but with the honest con fidence of one who well knew that by whatever name others might have heard of him, he had no reason to blush at the reports. The effect on Mabel was instantaneous. The moment she heard the last sobriquet^ *he clasped her hands eagerly and repeated the word, " Pathfinder ! " * So they call me, young woman, and many a great lord has got a title that he did not half so well merit ; .though, if truth be said, I rather pride myself in finding my way where there is no path, than in finding ,^ where there ia* But the regular troops be by no means particular, and half the time they don t know the difference atween a trail and a path, though one is a matter for the eye, while the other j little more than scent." " Then you are the friend my father promised to send to moot us ! " " If you are Sergeant Dunham s daughter, the great Prophet of the Delawares never uttered a plainer truth." 4 * 1 am Mabel, and yonder, hid by the trses, are my uncle, who*e name is Cap, and a Tusczirora, called Arrowhead. 1 bee Appendix, Note C. 14 THE PATHFINDER. "We dil not hope to meet you until we had nearly reached the shores of the lake." " I wish a juster-minded Indian had been your guide," said Pathfinder, " for I am no lover of the Tuscaroras, who have travelled too far from the graves of their fathers always to remember the Great Spirit : and Arrowhead is an ambitious chief. Is Dew-of-June with him ? " " His wife accompanies us, and a humble and nUd creature she is." y " Aye, and true-hearted ; which is more than any who know him will say of Arrowhead. Well, we must take the fan? that Providence bestows, while we follow the trail of life. I suppose worse guides might have been found than the Tuscarora ; though he has too much Mingo blood for one who consorts altogether with the Delawares." " It is then, perhaps, fortunate we have met," said Mabel. " It is not misfortinate at any rate ; for I promised the sergeant I would see his child safe to the garrison, though I died for it. We expected to meet you before you reached the falls, where we have left our own canoe; while we thought it might do no harm to come up a few miles, in order to be of sarvice if wanted. It s lucky we did, for T doubt if Arrowhead be the man to shoot the current." " Here come my uncle and the Tuscarora, and our parties can now join." As Mabel concluded, Cap and Arrowhead, who saw that the conference was amicable, drew nigh, and a few words sufficed to let them know as much as the girl herself had learned from the strangers. As soon as this was done, the party proceeded towards the two who still remained car the firo TH1 PATHFINDER. 15 CHAPTER H. Yea ! long as nature s humblest child _ -^ Hath kept her temple undefiled By simple sacrifice, Earth s fairest scenes are all his own ; He is a monarch, and his throne Is built amid the skies ! WILSON. THUS Mohican continued to eat, though the second white man rose, and courteously took off his cap to Mabel Dunham. He was young, healthful, and manly in appearance ; and he wore a dress, which, while it was less rigidly professional than that of the uncle, also denoted one accustomed to the water. In that age real seamen were a class entirely apart from the rest of mankind ; their ideas, ordinary language, and attire \ being as strongly indicative of their calling, as toe opinions, speech, and dress of a Turk denote a Mussul man. Although the Pathfinder was scarcely hi the prime of life, Mabel had met him with a steadiness that may have been the consequence of having braced her nerves for the interview ; but, when her eyes encountered those of the young man at the fire, they fell before the gaze of admira tion with which she saw, or fancied she saw, he greeted her. Each, in truth, felt that interest in the other, which simi larity of age, condition, mutual comeliness, and their novel situation, would be likely to inspire in the young and in genuous. " Here," said Pathfinder, with an honest smile bestowed oj. Mabel, " are the friends your worthy father has sent to oi9et you. This is a great Delaware ; and one that has had honors as well as troubles in his day. He has an Injiii name fit for a chief, but as the language is not always easy for the inexperienced to pronounce, we nat rally turn it into English, and call him the B : g Sarpent. You are not to 16 THE PATHFINDER. suppose, however, that by this name we wish to say that he is treacherous, beyond what is lawful in a red-skin, but that he is wise, and has the cunning that becomes a warrior. Arrowhead, there, knows what I mean." While the Pathfinder was delivering this address, the two Indians gazed on each other steadily, and the Tuscaroia advanced and spoke to the other in an apparently friendlj manner. " I like to see this," continued Pathfinder ; " the salutes of two red-skins in the woods, Master Cap, are like the hail ing of friendly vessels on the ocean. But, speaking of water, it reminds me of my young friend, Jasper Western, here, who can claim to know something of these matters, seeing that he has passed his days on Ontario." " I am glad to see you, friend," said Cap, giving the young fresh-water sailor a cordial gripe ; " though you must have something still to learn, considering the school to which you have been sent. This is my niece, Mabel ; I call her Mag net, for a reason she never dreams of, though you may pos sibly have education enough to guess at it, having some pre tensions to understand the compass, I suppose." " The reason is easily comprehended," said the young man, involuntarily fastening his keen, dark eye, at the same time, on the suffused face of the girl ; " and I feel sure that the sailor who steers by your Magnet, will never make a bad land-fall." . " Ha ! you do make use of some of the terms, I find, and that with propriety and understanding ; though, on the whole, I fear you have seen more green than blue water ! " " It is not surprising that we should get some of the phrases that belong to the land, for we are seldom out of *ight of it twenty -four hours at a time." " More s the pity, boy ; more s the pity. A very little land ought to go a great way with a seafaring man-. Now, if the truth were known, Master Western, I suppose there is more or less land all round your lake." " And, uncle, is there not more or less land all round the ocean ?" sa ; d Magnet, quickly ; for she dreaded a premature display of the old seaman s peculiar dogmatism, not to say pedantry THF PATHFINDER. 17 " No, child, there is more or less ocean all round the land 1 th ifr s what I tell the people ashore, youngster. They are living, as it might be, in the midst of the sea, without know ing it ; by s- /erance, as it were, the water being so much the more r /rerful, and the largest. But there is no end to conceit this world, for a fellow who never saw salt water iften fancies he knows more than one who has gone round die Flora. No, no ; this earth is pretty much an island, and ill that can be truly said not to be so, is water." Young Western had a profound deference for a mariner of the ocean, on which he had often pined to sail ; but he had, also, a natural regard for the broad sheet on which he had passed his life, and which was not without its beauties in his eyes. " What you say, sir," he answered, modestly, " may be true, as to the Atlantic ; but we have a respect for the land up here, on Ontario." " That is because you are always land-locked," returned Cap, laughing heartily. " But yonder is the Pathfinder, as they call him, with some smoking platters, inviting us to share in his mess ; and I will confess that one gets no veni son at sea. Master Western, civility to girls, at your time of life, comes as easy as taking in the slack of the ensign halyards ; and if you will just keep an eye to her kid and can, while I join the mess of the Pathfinder and our Indian friends, I make no doubt she will remember it" Master Cap uttered more than he was aware of at the time Jasper Western did look to the wants of Mabel, and *>he long remembered the kind, manly attention of the young sailor, at this their first interview. He placed the end of a log for a seat, obtained for her a delicious morsel of the renison, gave her a draught of pure water from the spring, ind, as he sat near and opposite to her, fast won his way to her e.steem by his gentle but frank manner of manifesting Ms care; homage that woman always wishes to receive, but tvhich is never so flattering, or so agreeable, as when it .omes from the young to those of their own age ; from the manly to the gentle. Like most of those who pass their time excluded from the society of the softer sex, young 18 THE PATHFINDER. Western was earnest, sincere, and kind in his attention!, which, though they wanted a conventional refinement that perhaps Mabel never missed, had those winning qualities that prove very sufficient as substitutes. Leaving these two inexperienced and unsophisticated young people to be come acquainted through their feelings, rather than their expressed thoughts, we will turn to the group in which the ancle, with a facility of taking care of himself that never deserted him, had already become a principal actor. The party had taken their places around a platter of * enison steaks, which served for the common use, and the discourse naturally partook of the characters of the differ ent individuals that composed it. The Indians were silent and industrious, the appetite of the aboriginal American for venison being seemingly inappeasable ; while the two white men were communicative and discursive, each of the latter being garrulous and opinionated in his way. But, as the dialogue will serve to put the reader in possession of cer tain facts that may render the succeeding narrative more clear, it will be well to record it. " There must be satisfaction in this life of yours, no doubt, Mr. Pathfinder," continued Cap, when the hunger of the travellers was so far appeased that they began to pick and choose among the savory morsels ; " it has some of the chances and luck that we seamen like, and if ours is all water, yours is all land." " Nay, we have water too, in our journeyings and marches," returned his white companion : " we border-men \iandle the paddle and the spear almost as much as the rifle tad the hunting-knife." " Aye ; but do you handle the brace and the bow-line ; the wheel and the lead-line ; the reef-point and the top-rope ? fke paddle is a good thing, out of doubt, in a canoe, but it* what use is it in the ship ? " " Nay, I respect all men in their callings, and I can be lieve the things you mention have their uses. One who LAS lived, like myself, in company with many tribes, under stands differences in usages. The paint of a Mingo is not .he paint of a Delaware ; and he who should exoect to se THE PATHFINDER. 19 B warrior in the dress of a squaw, might be disapp inted. 1m not very old, but I have lived in the woods, and have some acquaintance with human natur . I never believed much in the laming of them that dwell in towns, for I never yet met with one that had an eye for a rifle or a trail." " That s my manner of reasoning, Master Pathfinder, to a yarn. Walking about streets, going to church of Sun- iays, and hearing sermons, never yet made a man of a hu man being. Send the boy out upon the broad ocean, if you wish to open his eyes, and let him look upon foreign na tions, or what I call the face of natur , if you wish him to understand his own character. Now, there ia my brother-in- law, the sergeant ; he is as good a fellow as ever broke a bis cuit, in his own way ; but what is he, after all ? why, noth ing but a soger. A sergeant, to be sure, but that is a sort of a soger, you know. When he wished to marry poor Bridget, my sister, I told the girl what he was, as in duty bound, and what she might expect from such a husband ; but you know how it is with girls, when their minds are jammed by an inclination. It is true, the sergeant has risen in his calling, and they say he is an important man at the fort ; but his poor wife has not lived to see it all, for she has now been dead these fourteen years." " A soldier s calling is an honorable calling, provided he has fi t only on the side of right," returned the Pathfinder ; " and as the Frenchers are always wrong, and his sacred Majesty and these colonies are always right, I take it the ergeant has a quiet conscience, as well as a good character. I have never slept more sweetly than when I have fi t the Mingos, though it is the law with me to fight always like a nhite man, and never like an Injin. The Sarpent, here, iius hia fashions, and I have mine ; yet have we fou t side y side, these many years, without cither s thinking a hard thought, consaruing the other s ways. I tell him there is but one heaven and one hell, notwithstanding his traditions, though there are many paths to both." That is rational, and he is bound to believe you, though I fancy most of the roads to the last are on dry land 20 THE PATHFINDER. The sea is what my poor sister, Bridget, used to call a 1 purifying place, and one is out of the way of temptation when out of sight of land. I doubt if as much can be said in favor of your lakes, up here-away." " That towns and settlements lead to sin, I will allow ; but our lakes are bordered by the forests, and one is everj day called upon to worship God in such a temple. Thai men are not always the same, even in the wilderness. 1 must admit, for the difference atween a Mingo and a Dela ware is as plain to be seen as the difference atween the sun and moon. I am glad, friend Cap, that we have met, how ever, if it be only that you may tell the Big Sarpent, here, that there be lakes in which the water is salt. We have been pretty much of one mind since our acquaintance be gan, and if the Mohican has only half the faith in me that I have in him, he believes all that I have told him, touch ing the white men s ways and uatur s laws ; but it has always seemed to me that none of the red-skins have given as free a belief, as an honest man likes, to the accounts of the Big Salt Lakes, and to that of there being rivers that flow up stream." " This comes of getting things wrong end foremost," answered Cap, with a condescending nod. " You have thought of your lakes and rifts, as the ship, and of the ocean and the tides, as the boat. Neither Arrowhead nor the Serpent need doubt what you have said concerning both, though I confess, myself, to some difficulty in swallowing the tale about there being inland seas at all, and still more that there is any sea of fresh water. I have come this iong journey, as much to satisfy my own eyes and palate concerning these facts, as to oblige the sergeant and Mag net ; though the first was my sister s husband, and I love the last like a child." " You are wrong you are wrong, friend Cap ; \ er j wrong, to distrust the power of God in anything," returned Pathfinder, earnestly. " Them that live in the settlements ind the towns get to have confined and unjust opinions con- laming the might of his hand ; but we who pass our tima in his very presence, as it might be, see things differently THE PATHFINDER. 21 I mean such of us as have white iiatur s. A red-skin has his notions, and it is right that it should be so ; and if they are not exactly the same as a Christian white man s, there is no harm in it. Still, there are matters that belong alto gether to the ordering of God s providence, and these salt and fresh water lakes are some of them. I do not pre tend to account fur these things, but I think it the duty of all to believe in them. For my part, I am one of them who think that the same hand which made the sweet watei v can make the salt." " Hold on there, Master Pathfinder," interrupted Cap, not without some heat ; " in the way of a proper and manly faith, I will turn my back on no one, when afloat. Al though more accustomed to make all snug aloft, and t& show the proper canvas, than to pray, when the hurricane comes, I know that we are but helpless mortals at times, and I hope I pay reverence where reverence is due. All ] mean to say, and that is rather insiniated than said, is this^ which is, as you all know, simply an intimation that, being accustomed to see water in large bodies salt, I should like to taste it, before I can believe it to Refresh" " God has given the salt lick to the deer, and He has given to man, red-skin and white, the delicious spring at which to slake his thirst. It is onreasonable to think that He may not have given lakes of pure water to the west, and lakes of impure water to the east." Cap was awed, in spite of his overweening dogmatism, by the earnest simplicity of the Pathfinder, though he did not relish the idea of believing a fact which, for many years, he had pertinaciously insisted could not be true. Unwilling to give up the point, and, at the same time, un able to maintain it against a reasoning to which he was unac cwstomed, and which possessed equally the force of truth, faith, and probability, he was glad to get rid of the subjeci by evasion. " Well, well, friend Pathfinder," he said, " we will nipper the argument where it is ; and, as the sergeant has sent you to give us pilotage to this same lake, we can only try the irater when we reach it. Only mark my words : I do 1101 22 THE PATHFINDER. say that it may not be fresh on the surface; the Atlantic ID sometimes fresh on the surface, near the mouths of great rivers ; but rely on it, I shall show you a way of tasting the water many fathoms deep, of which you never dreamed ; and then we shall know more about it." The guide seemed content to let the matter rest, and th conversation changed. " We are not over-cousated consarning our gifts," observed the Pathfinder, after a short pause, " arid well know that such as live in the towns, and near the sea " " On the sea," interrupted Cap. " On the sea, if you wish it, friend have opportunities that do not befall us of the wilderness. Still, we know our own callings, and they are what I consider nat ral callings, and are not parvarted by vanity and wantonness. Now, mj gifts are with the rifle, arid on a trail, and in the way of game and scoutin ; for, though I can use the spear and the paddle, I pride not myself on either. The youth, Jasper, there, who is discoursing with the sergeant s daughter, is a different creatur , for he may be said to breathe the water, as it might be, like a fish. The Indians and Frenchers of the north shore call him Eau-douce, on account of his gifts in this particular. He is better at the oar, and the rope too, than in making fires on a trail." " There must be something about these gifts of which you speak, after all," said Cap. " Now this fire, I will acknowl edge, hats overlaid all my seamanship. Arrowhead, there, said the smoke came from a pale-face s fire, and that is a piece of philosophy that I hold to be equal to steering in a lark night by the edges of the scud." "It s no great secret it s no great secret," leturned Pathfinder, laughing with great inward glee, though habitual caution prevented the emission of any noise. " Nothing is easier to us who pass our time in the great school of Prou dence, than to 1 arn its lessons. We should be as useless on * trail, or in carrying tidings through the wilderness, as so many woodchucks, did we not soon come to a knowledge of these niceties. Eau-douce, as we call h rn, is so fond of the , that he gathered a damp stick or two for our fire, and THE PATHFINDER. 23 there be plenty of them, as well as those that, are thoroughly dried, lying scattered about ; and wet will bring dark smoke, as I suppose even you followers of the sea must know. It s no great secret it s no great secret; though all is mynteij to such as doesn t study the Lord and his mighty ways \\itli humility and thankfulness." " That must be a keen eye of Arrowhead s to see so slight a difference." " He would be but a poor Injin if he didn t ! No, no ; it is war-time, and no red-skin is outlying without using Lia senses. Every skin has its own natur , arid ev( ry uatur ; has its own laws, as well as its own skin. It was many years afore I could master all them higher branches of a forest 3dication, for red-skin knowledge doesn t come as easy to white-skin natur as what I suppose is intended to be white- skin knowledge ; though I have but little of the latter, hav ing passed most of my time in the wilderness." " You have been a ready scholar, Master Pathfinder, as is seen by your understanding these things so well. I suppose it would be no great matter, for a man regularly brought up to the sea, to catch these trifles, if he could only bring his mind fairly to bear upon them." " I don t know that. The white man has his difficulties in getting red-skin habits, quite as much as the Injin in get ting white-skin ways. As for the raal natur , it is my opin ion that neither can actually get that of the other." " And yet we sailors, who run about the world so much, say there is but one nature, whether it be in the Chinaman or a Dutchman. For my own part, I am much of that way of thinking too ; for I have generally found that all nations like gold and silver, and most men relish tobacco." " Then you seafaring men know little of the red-skins. Have you ever known any of your Chinamen who could sing their death-songs, with their flesh torn with splinters oiud cut with knives, the fire raging around their naked bod ies, and death staring them in the face ? Until you can find me a Chinaman, or a Christian man, that can do all this, you cannot find a man with red-skin natur , let him look ever so valiant, or know how to read all the books that waa ever printed." 24 THE PATHFINDER. " It is the savages only that play each other such hellish tricks ! " said Master Cap, glancing his eyes about him un easily at the apparently endless arches of the forest. " No white man is ever condemned to undergo these trials." " Nay, therein you are ag in mistaken," returned thg Path finder, coolly selecting a delicate morsel of the venison as his bonne louche ; " for though these torments belong only to the red-skin natur , in the way of bearing them lik< braves, white-skin natur may be, and often has been, ago \ized by them." " Happily," said Cap, with an effort to clear his throaty " none of his Majesty s allies will be likely to attempt such damnable cruelties, on any of his Majesty s loyal subjects. I have not served much in the royal navy, it is true ; but I have served and that is something ; and, in the way of privateering and worrying the enemy in his ships and car goes, I ve done my full share. But I trust there are no French savages on this side the lake, and I think you said that Ontario is a broad sheet of water ? " " Nay, it is broad in our eyes," returned Pathfinder, not caring to conceal the smile which lighted a face that had been burnt by exposure to a bright red, " though I mistrust that some may think it narrow ; and narrow it is, if you wish it to keep off the foe. Ontario has two ends, and the enemy that is afraid to cross it will be sartain to come round it." " Ah ! that comes of your d d fresh-water ponds ! " growled Cap, hemming so loud as to cause him instantly to repent the indiscretion. " No man, now, ever heard of a pirate s or a ship s getting round one end of the At* lantic ! " " Mayhap the ocean has no ends ? " * That it hasn t; nor sides, nor bottom. The nation tin- \ anugly moored on one of its coasts need fear nothing froi the one anchored abeam, let it be ever so savage, unless i possesses the art of shipbuilding. No, no ; the people wht (ive on the shores of the Allan tic need fear but little foi their skins or their scalps. A. man may lie down at night, m those regions, in the hop* of finding the /iair on his head m the morning, unless he wears a wig." THE PATHFINDER. 25 "It isn t so here. I don t wish to flurry the young woman, and therefore I will be no way particular, though she seems pretty much listening to Eau-douce, as we call him; but without the edication I have received, I should think it, at this very moment, a risky journey to go over the very grouud that lies atween us and the garrison, in the present state of this frontier. There are about as many Iroquois on this side of Ontario as there be on the other It is for this very reason, friend Cap, that the sergeant haf engaged us to come out and show you the path." " What ! do the knaves dare to cruise so near the gum of one of his Mu^sty s works ? " " Do not the ravens resort near the carcass of the deer, though the fowler is at hand ? They come this-away, as it might be, nat rally. There are more or less whites passing atween the forts and the settlements, and they are sure to be on their trails. The Sarpent has come up on one side of the river, and I have come up the other, in order to scout for the outlying rascals, while Jasper brought up the canoe, like a bold-hearted sailor, as he is. The sergeant told him, with tears in his eyes, all about his child, and how his heart yearned for her, and how gentle and obedient she was, until I think the lad would have dashed into a Mingo camp, single- handed, rather than not a-come." " We thank him, we thank him ; and shall think the bet ter of him for his readiness ; though I suppose the boy has run no great risk, after all." " Only the risk of being shot from a cover, as ho forced the canoe up a swift rift, or turned an elbow in the stream, with his eyes fastened on the eddies. Of all the risky journeys, that on an ambushed rive!" is the most risky, in m^ judgment, and that risk has Jasper run." " And why the devil has the sergeant sent for me to u-ivel a hundred and fifty miles in this outlandish manner i jive me an offing, and the enemy in sight, and I ll play Aith him in his own fashion, as long as he pleases, long )owls or close quarters ; but to be shot like a turtle asleep, is ,iot to my humor. If it were not for little Magnet there, I would tack ship this instant, make tho best of nay way 26 THE PATHFINDER. oack to York, and let Ontario take care of itself, salt watei or fresh water." u That wouldn t mend the matter much, friend mariner^ as the road to return is much longer, and almost as bad as the road to go on. Trust to us, and we will carry you through safe, or lose our scalps." Cap wore a tight, solid queue, done up in eel-skin, whik the top of his head was nearly bald, and he mechanical!} passed his hand over both, as if to make certain that each was in its right place. He was at the bottom, however, a brave man, and had often faced death with coolness, though never in the frightful forms in which it presented itself, under the brief but graphic pictures of his companion. It was too late to retreat ; and he determined to put the best face on the matter, though he could not avoid muttering inwardly a few curses on the indifference and indiscretion with which his brother-in-law, the sergeant, had led him into his present dilemma. " I make no doubt, Master Pathfinder," he answered, when these thoughts had found time to glance through his mind, " that we shall reach port in safety. What distance may we now be from the fort ? " " Little more than fifteen miles ; and swift miles, too, as the river runs, if the Mingos let us go clear." " And I suppose the woods will stretch along, starboard and larboard, as heretofore ? " " Anan ? " u I mean that we shall have to pick our way through these damned trees ! " " Nay, nay ; you will go in the canoe, and the Oswego has been cleared of its flood-wood by the troops. It will be floating down stream, and that, too, with a swift cur r ent." " And what the devil is to prevent these minks, of which you speak, from shooting us as we double a headland, or are busy in steering clear of the rocks ? " " The Lord ! He who has so often helped others ii. greater difficulties. Many and many is the time that inj head would have been stripped of hair, skin and all, liaii THE PATHFINDER. 27 the Lord fi t of my side. I never go into a friend mariner, without thinking of this great ally, who can do more in battle than all the battalions of the 60th. werp they brought into a single line." ** Aye, aye ; this may do well enough for a scouter ; but we seamen like our offing, and tc go into action with noth ing in our minds but the business before us ; plain broad side and broadside work, and no trees or rocks to thicker the water." " And no Lord, too, I dare to say, if the truth was knowii Take my word for it, Master Cap, that no battle is tin worse fou t for having the Lord on your side. Look ai ihe head of the Big Sarpent, there ; you can see the mark of a knife all along by his left ear ; now, nothing but a bullet from this long rifle of mine saved his scalp that day, for it had fairly started, and half a minute more would have left him without the warlock. When the Mohican squeezes my hand, and intermates that I befri nded him in that matter, I tell him, no ; it was the Lord, who led me to the only spot where execution could be done, or his necessity be made known, on account of the smoke. Sartain when I got the right position, I finished the affair of my own accord, for a friend under the tomahawk is apt to make a man think quick, and act at once, as was my case, or the Sai- pent s spirit would be hunting in the happy land of his peo ple at this very moment." 44 Come, come, Pathfinder, this palaver is worse than be ing skinned from stem to stern ; we have but a few hours of sun, and had better be drifting down this said current of yours, while we may. Magnet, dear, are you not read) to et under wajr ? " Magnet started, blushed brightly, and made her prepara tions for an immediate departure. Not a syllable of the Discourse just related had she heard, for Eau-douce, as >oung Jasper w;is oftener called than anything else, had lecn tilling her ears with a description of the yet diutant tort towards which she was journeying, with accounts oi tier father, whom slit- had not seen since a child, and with *bj manner of life <>1 those who lived in the frontier garri- 28 THE PATHFINDER. sons. Unconsciously, she had become deeply interested, and her thoughts had been too intently directed to these interesting matters, to allow any of the less agreeable sub jects discussed by those so near to reach her ears. The bustle of departure put an end to the conversation entirely, and the baggage of the scouts, or guides, being trifling, in a few minutes the whole party was ready to proceed. As they were about to quit the spot, however, to the surprise of even his fellow guides, Pathfinder collected a quantity of branches, and threw them upon the embers of the fire, tak ing care even to see that some of the wood was damp, ii >rder to raise as dark and dense a smoke as possible. " When you can hide your trail, Jasper," he said, " a otnoke at leaving an encampment may do good, instead of harm. If there are a dozen Mingos within ten miles of us, some on em are on the heights, or in the trees, looking out for smokes ; let them see this, and much good may it do them. They are welcome to our leavings." " But may they not strike, and follow on our trail ? " asked the youth, whose interest in the hazard of his situa tion had much increased since the meeting with Magnet. " We shall leave a broad path to the river." " The broader the better ; when there, it will surpass Mingo cunning even to say which way the canoe has gone ; up stream or down. Water is the only thing in natur that will thoroughly wash out a trail, and even water will not always do it, when the scent is strong. Do you not see, Kau-douce, that if any Mingos have seen our path below the falls, they will strike off towards this smoke, and that they will nat rally conclude that they who began by going up stream, will end by going up stream ? If they know anything, they now know a party is out from the fort, and .t will exceed even Mingo wit to fancy that we have come up here, just for the pleasure of going back again, and that, too, the same day, and at the risk of our scalps." " Certainly," added Jasper, who was talking apart with the Pathfinder, as they moved towards the wind-row, " they cannot know anything about the sergeant s daughter, for th greatest crecy has been observed on her account." THE PATHFINDER. 2l " And they will 1 arn nothiug here," returned Pathfinder, causing his companion to see that he trod with the utmost care on the impressions left on the leaves by the little foot of Mabel, " unless this old salt-water ilsh has been taking his niece about in the wind-row, like a fa o playing by the side of the old doe." " Buck, you mean, Pathfinder." " Isn t he a queerity ? Now, I can consort with such I sailor as yourself, Eau-douce, and find nothing very contrary in our gifts, though yours belong to the lakes, and mine to the woods. Harkee, Jasper." continued the scout, laughing hi his noiseless manner ; " suppose we try the temper of his blade, and run him over the falls ? " " And what would be done with the pretty niece in the mean while ? " " Nay, nay ; no harm shall come to her ; she must walk round the portage, at any rate ; but you and I can try this Atlantic oceaner, and then -all parties will become bet ter acquainted. We shall find out whether his flint will strike fire, and he may come to know something of frontier tricks." Young Jasper smiled, for he was not averse to fun, and had been a little touched by Cap s superciliousness ; but Mabel s fair face, light agile form, and winning smiles, stood like a shield between her uncle and the intended experi ment. " Perhaps the sergeant s daughter will be frightened," he Baid " Not she, if she has any of the sergeant s spirit in her. She doesn t look like a skeary thing at all. Leave it to me, Eau-douce, and I will manage the affair alone." " Not you, Pathfinder ; you would onlv drown both. If the canoe goes over, I must go in it." " Well, have it so, then ; shall we smoke the pipe of a^eement on the bargain ? " Jasper laughed, nodded his head, by way of consent, and the subject was dropped, for the party had reached the tanoe, so often mentioned, and fewer words had determined much greater things between the parties. 30 THE PATHFINDER. CHAPTER IH. Before these fields were shorn and tilled, Full to the brim our rivers flowed; The melody of waters filled The fresh and boundless wood ; And torrents dashed, and rivulets played, And fountains spouted in the shade. BRYANT. IT is generally known that the waters wliich flow into the southern side of Ontario are, in general, narrow, slug gish, and deep. There are some exceptions to this rule, for many of the rivers have rapids, or, as they are termed in the language of the region, rifts, and some have falls. Among the latter was the particular stream on which our adventurers were now journeying. The Oswego is formed by the junction of the Oneida and the Onondaga, both of which flow from lakes ; and it pursues its way, through a gentle undulating country, a few miles, until it reaches the margin of a sort of natural terrace, down which it tumbles some ten or fifteen feet, to another level, across which it glides, or glances, or pursues its course with the silent, stealthy progress of deep water, until it throws its tribute nto the broad receptacle of Ontario. The canoe in which Cap and his party had travelled from Fort Stanwix, thp last military station on the Mohawk, 1 lay by the side of this river, and into it the whole party now entered, with the ex ception of Pathfinder, who remained on the land, in older jo shove the light vessel off. ." Let her starn drift down stream, Jasper," said the man of the woods to the young mariner of the lake, who had dispossessed Arrowhead of his paddle, and taken his OWD station as steersman ; " let it go down with the current, Should any of them infarnals, the Mingos, strike our trail, or follow it to this pom t, they will not fail to look for the l See Appendix, JSote D. THE PATHFINDER. 31 gigns in the mud, and if they discover that we tee left the shore with the nose of the canoe up stream, it .s a natural belief to think we went that-away." This direction was followed ; and, giving a vigorous shove, the Pathfinder, who was in the flower of his strength and activity, made a leap, landing lightly, and without dis- *urbing its equilibrium, in the bow of the canoe. As soon s it had reached the centre of the river, or the strength of the current, the boat was turned, and it began to glide noiselessly down the stream. The vessel in which Cap and his niece had embarked foi their long and adventurous journey, was one of the canoes of bark 1 which the Indians are in the habit of constructing, and which, by their exceeding lightness, and the ease with which they are propelled, are admirably adapted to a navi gation in which shoals, flood-wood, and other similar ob structions so often occur. The two men who composed its original crew had several times carried it, when emptied of its luggage, many hundred yards ; and it would not have exceeded the strength of a single man to lift its weight. Still it was long, and, for a canoe, wide, a want of steadi ness being its principal defect in the eyes of the uninitiated. A few hours practice, however, in a great measure reme died this evil, and both Mabel and her uncle had learned so far to humor its movements, that they now maintained their places with perfect composure ; nor did the additional weight of the three guides tax its powers in any particular degree, the breadth of the rounded bottom allowing the necessary quantity of water to be displaced, without bring ing the gunwale very sensibly nearer to the surface of the stream. Its workmanship was neat ; the timbers were small, and secured by thongs ; and the whole fabric, though it was so slight and precarious to the eye, was probably capable of conveying double the number of persons that it MOW contained. Cap was seated on a low thwart, in the centre of the _29Jtf)e ; the Big Serpent knelt near him. Arrowhead and his Vile occupied places forward of both, the former having reliwmished his post aft. Mabel was half reclining on some v Appeudix, Note ii. 32 THE PATHFINDER. of her own effects, behind her uncle, while the Pathlinde and Eau-douce stood erect, the one in the bow and th other in the stern, each using a paddle, with a long, stead} noiseless sweep. The conversation was carried on in lo: u>nes, all the party beginning to feel the necessity of pru ience, as they drew nearer to the outskirts of the fort, au lad no longer the cover of the woods. The Oswego, just at that place, was a deep, dark strean yf no great width, its still, gloomy-looking current wiucTii its way among overhanging trees, that, in particular spot almost shut out the light of the heavens. Here and fhei some half-fallen giant of the forest lay nearly across its sui face, rendering care necessary to avoid the limbs ; and inoa of the distance, the lower branches and leaves of the tree of smaller growth were laved by its waters. The pictur- which has been so beautifully described by our own admi rable poet, and which we have placed at the head of thi chapter, as an epigraph, was here realized ; the earth fat tened by the decayed vegetation of centuries, and black with loam, the stream that filled the banks nearly to over flowing, and the " fresh and boundless wood," being all as risible to the eye, as the pen of Bryant has elsewhere vividly presented them to the imagination. / In short, the entire scene was one of a rich and benevolent nature, be fore it has been subjected to the uses and desires of man ; lux uriant, full of wild promise, and not without the charm of the picturesque, even in its rudest state./ It will be remembered that j this was in the year 175-, or long before even specula tion had brought any portion of western New York within the bounds of civilization, or the projects of the adventur ous. At that distant day, there were two great channels of military communication between the inhabited portion of the colony of New York, and the frontiers that lay adja/cent to the Canadas : that by Lakes Champlain and George, and that by means of the Mohawk, Wood Creek, the Oneida, and the rivers we have been describing. Along both these lines of communication military posts had been established, though there existed a blank space of a hundred miles between the last fort at <:he head of the Mohawk, and THE PATHFINDER. 83 tho outlet of the Oswego, which embraced most of the dis tance that Cap and Mabel had journeyed under the protec tion of Arrowhead. " I sometimes wish for peace again," said the Pathfinder, " when one can range the forest without s arching for any other enemy than the beasts and fishes. Ab s me ! many is the day that the Sarpent, there, and I have passed hap pily among the streams, living on venison, salmon, and trout, without thought of a Mingo or a scalp ! I sometimef wish that them bJessed days might come back, for it is not my raal gift to slay my own kind. I m sartain the ser geant s daughter don t think me a wretch that takes pleasure in preying on human natur ? " At this remark, a sort of half interrogatory, Pathfinder looked behind him ; and, though the most partial friend could scarcely term his sunburnt and hard features hand some, even Mabel thought his smile attractive, by its simple ingenuousness, and the uprightness that beamed in every lineament of his honest countenance. " I do not think my father would have sent one like those you mention, to see his daughter through the wilderness," the young woman answered, returning the smile as frankly as it was given, and much more sweetly. " That he wouldn t, that he wouldn t ; the sergeant is a man of feelin , and many is the march and the fight that we have stood shoulder to shoulder in, as he would call it; though I always keep my limbs free, when near a Frencher or a Mingo." " You are then the young friend of whom my father lias spoken so often in his letters ? " " His young friend the sergeant has the advantage of me by thirty years ; yes, he is thirty years my senior, and Afi many my better." "Not in the eyes of the daughter, perhaps, friend I ath- luuier," put in Cap, whose spirits began to revive when he found the water once more flowing around him. " The thirty years that you mention are not often thought to be AD advantage in the eyes of girls of nineteen." Mabel colored, and in turriiig aside her face, to avoid the 34 THE PATHFINDER. looks of those in the bow of the canoe, she encountered the admiring gaze of the young man in the stern. As a last resource her spirited, but soft blue eyes, sought refuge in iLe water. Just at this moment a dull heavy sound swept up the avenue formed by the trees, borne along by * light air that hardly produced a ripple on the water. That sounds pleasantly," said Cap, pricking up his can like a dog that hears a distant baying ; " it is the surf or the shores of your lake, I suppose ? " " Not so not so," answered the Pathfinder ; " it it merely this river tumbling over some rocks, half a mile below us." " Is there a fall in the stream ? " demanded Mabel, a still brighter flush glowing in her face. " The devil ! Master Pathfinder, or you, Mr. Oh-the- Deuce," for so Cap began to style Jasper, by way of en tering cordially into the border usages, " had you not better give the canoe a sheer, and get nearer to the shore ? These water-falls have generally rapids above them, and one might as well get into the Maelstrom at once as to run into their suction." " Trust to us trust to us, friend Cap," answered Path finder ; " we are but fresh-water sailors, it is true, and I cannot boast of being much, even of that ; but we understand rifts, and rapids, and cataracts ; and in going down these, we shall do our endeavors not to disgrace our edication." " In going down ! " exclaimed Cap ; " the devil, man ! you do not dream of going down a water-fall in this egg shell of bark ! " " Sartain ; the path lies over the falls, and it is much easier to shoot them than to unload the canoe, and to carry that, and all it contains, around a portage of a mile, by hand," Mabel turned her pallid countenance towards the young man in the stern of the canoe, for just at that moment a fresh roar of the fall was borne to her ears, by a new cur rent of the air, and it really sounded terrific, now that the cause was understood. * We thought that by landing the females and the twc THE PATHFINDER, 85 Indians," Jasper quietly observed, " we three white men, all of whom are used to the water, might carry the canoe :ver ha safety, for we often shoot these falls." " And we counted on you, friend mariner, as a main stay." said Pathfinder, winking at Jasper over his shoulder, " for you are accustomed to see waves tumbling about, and without some one to steady the cargo, all the finery of the sergeant s daughter might be washed into the river, and be lost." Cap was puzzled. The idea of going over a water-falJ was perhaps more serious, in his eyes, than it would have been in those of one totally ignorant of all that pertained to boats ; for he understood the power of the element, and the total feebleness of man when exposed to its fury. Still, his pride revolted at the thought of deserting the boat, while others not only courageously, but coolly, proposed to con tinue in it. Notwithstanding the latter feeling, and his innate as well as acquired steadiness in danger, he would probably have deserted his post, had not the images of Indians tearing scalps from the human head taken so strong bold of his fancy, as to induce him to imagine the canoe a sort of sanctuary. " What is to be done with Magnet ? " he demanded, affection for his niece raising another qualm in his con science. " We cannot allow Magnet to land, if there are enemy s Indians near ? " " Nay ; no Miugo will be near the portage, for that is a spot too public for their deviltries," answered the Pathfinder, confidently. " Natur is natur , and it is an Injin s natur to be found where he is least expected. No fear of him or a beaten path, for he wishes to come upon you when unpre pared to meet him, and the fiery villains make it a point to deceive you, one way or another. Sheer in, Eau-douce ; we will land the sergeant s daughter on the end of that log, wher? she can reach the shore with a dry foot." The injunction was obeyed, and in a few minutes the wbole party had left the canoe, with the exception of Path- Jinder and the two sailors. Notwithstanding his professional oride, Cap would have gladly followed, but he did not lik 36 THE PATHFINDER. to exhibit so unequivocal a weakness in the presence of a fresh-water sailor. " I call all hands to witness," he said, as* those who had landed moved away, " that I do not look on this affair as anything more than canoeing in the woods. There is no seamanship in tumbling over a water-fall, which is a feat the greatest lubber can perform as well as the oldest mariner." Nay, nay ; you needn t despise the Oswego Fallu, neither," put in Pathfinder, " for though they may not be Niagara, nor the Genesee, nor the Cahoos, nor Glenn s, noi them on the Canada, they are narvous enough for a new beginner. Let the sergeant s daughter stand on yonder rock, and she will see the manner in which we ignorant backwoodsmen get over a difficulty that we can t get unaer. Now, Eau- douce, a steady hand and a true eye, for all rests on you, seeing that we can count Master Cap for no more than a passenger." The canoe was leaving the shore, as he concluded, while Mabel went hurriedly and trembling to the rock that had been pointed out, talking to her companion of the danger her uncle j unnecessarily ran, while her eyes were riveted on the agile and vigorous form of Eau-douce, as he stood erect in the stern of the light boat, governing its move ments. As soon, however, as she reached a point where she got a view of the fall, she gave an ; nvoluntary but sup pressed scream, and covered her eyes. At the next instant, the latter were again free, and the entranced girl stood immovable as a statue, a scarcely breathing observer of all that passed. The two Indians seated themselves passively on a log, hardly looking towards the stream, while the wife of Arrowhead came near Mabel, and appeared to watch the motions of the canoe with some such interest as a child v^ards the leaps of a tumbler. As soon as the boat was in the stream, Pathfinder sank mi his knees, continuing to use the paddle, though it waa slowly, and in a manner not to interfere with the efforts of hie companion. The latter still stood erect, and, as he kept hia eye on some object beyond the fall, it was evident that he was carefully looking for the spot proper for their pas- THE PATHFINDER. 87 " Further west, boy ; further west," muttered Pathfinder * there where you see the water foam. Bring the top of the dead oak in a line with the stem of the blasted hem lock/ Eau-douce made no answer, for the canoe was in the cen tre of the stream, with its head pointed towards the fall, and it had already begun to quicken its motion, by the increased torce of the current. At that moment Cap would cheerfully havo renounced every claim to glory that could possibly be acquired by the feat, to have been safe again on shore. He heard the roar of the water, thundering as it might be, behind a screen, but becoming more and more distinct, louder and louder ; and before him he saw its line cutting the forest below, along which the green and angry element seemed stretched and shining, as if the particles were about to lose their principle of cohesion. " Down with your helm down with your helm, man ! " he exclaimed, unable any longer to suppress his anxiety, as the canoe glided towards the edge of the fall. " Aye, aye ; down it is, sure enough," answered Path finder, looking behind him for a single instant, with his silent, joyous laugh ; " down we go, of a sartainty ! Heave her starn up, boy ; further up with her starn ! " The rest was like the passage of the viewless wind. Eau-douce gave the required sweep with his paddle, the canoe glanced into the channel, and for a few seconds it seemed to Cap that he was tossing in a caldron. He felt the bow of the canoe tip, saw the raging, foaming water, career ing madly by his side, was sensible that the light fabric in which he floated was tossed about like v an egg-shell, and then, not less to his great joy than to his surprise, he discovered that it was gliding across the basin of still water, below the fall, under the steady impulse of Jasper s paddle. The Pathfinder continued to laugh, but he arose from his knees, and, searching for a tin pot and a horn spoon, he began deliberately to measure the water that had been taken in in the passage. " Fourteen spoonfuls, Eau-douce ; fourteen fairly mea 38 THE PATHFINDER. ured spoonfuls. I have, you mv:st acknowledge, known you to go down with only ten." " Master Cap leaned so hard up stream," returned Jas per, seriously, " that I had difficulty in trimming tht canoe." " It may be so it may be so ; no doubt it was so, since you say it ; but I have known you go over with onlj ten." Cap now gave a tremendous hem, felt for his queue, as if to ascertain its safety, and then looked back, in order to examine the danger he had gone through. His impunity is easily explained. Most of the river fell perpendicularly ten or twelve feet ; but near its centre, the force of the current had so far worn away the rock, as to permit the water to shoot through a narrow passage, at an angle of about forty or forty-five degrees. Down this ticklish descent the canoe had glanced, amid fragments of broken rock, whirlpools, foam, and furious tossings of the element, which an unin structed eye would believe menaced inevitable destruction to an object so fragile. But the very lightness of the canoe favored its descent ; for, borne on the crests of the waves, and directed by a steady eye and an arm full of muscle, it had passed like a feather from one pile of foam to another, scarcely permitting its glossy side to be wetted. There were a few rocks to be avoided ; the proper direction was to be rigidly observed, and the fierce current did the rest. 1 To say that Cap was astonished, would not be expressing half his feelings. He felt awed, for the profound dread of rocks, which most seamen entertain, came in aid of his admiration of the boldness of the exploit. Still he was indisposed to express all he felt, lest it might be conceding too much in favor of fresh water, and inland navigation ; wid DO sooner had he cleared his throat with the aforesaid hem, than he loosened his tongue in the usual strain of superiority. " I do not gainsay your knowledge of the channel, Master l Lest the reader suppose we are dealing purel) in fiction, the writer will add that he has known a long thirty-two pounder carried over these same falls in perfect safety. THE PATHFINDER. 39 Oh-the-Deuce," for such he religiously believed to be Jasper s sobriquet, " and, after all, to know the channel in such a place is the main point. I have had coxswains with me who could come down that shoot too, if they only knew f .he channe) " " It isn t enough to know the channel, friend mariner," said Pathfinder ; " it needs narves and skill to keep the canoe straight and to keep her clear of the rocks, too. There isn t another boatman in all this region that can shoot the Oswego, but Eau-douce, there, with any sartainty; though, now and then, one has blundered through. I can t do it myself, unless by means of Providence, and it needs Jasper s hand and Jasper s eye to make sure of a dry pas sage. Fourteen spoonfuls, after all, are no great matter though I wish it had been but ten, seeing that the sergeant s daughter was a looker-on." " And yet you conned the canoe ; you told him how to head and how to sheer." " Human frailty, master mariner ; that was a little of white-skin natur . Now, had the Sarpent, yonder, been in the boat, not a word would he have spoken, or thought would he have given to the public. An Injin knows how to hold his tongue ; but we white folk fancy we are always wiser than our fellows. I m curing myself fast of the weak ness, but it needs time to root up the tree that has been growing more than thirty years." " I think little of this affair, sir ; nothing at all, to speak my mind freely. It s a mere wash of spray to shooting London Bridge, which is done every day by hundreds of persons, and often by the most delicate ladies in the land. The king s Majesty has shot the bridge in his royal person." w Well, I want no delicate ladies or king s majesties (God bless em) in the canoe, in going over these falls; for a boat s breadth, either way, may make a drowning matter of it. Eau-douce, we shall have to carry the sergeant s brother over Niagara yet, to show him what may be done on a frontier ! " " The devil ! Master Pathfinder, you must be joking, 40 THE PATHFINDER. now ! Surely it is not possible for a bark canoe to go ovei that mighty cataract ! " " You never were more mistaken, Master Cap, in your life. Nothing is easier, and many is the canoe I have seen go over it, with my own eyes, and, if we both live, I hope to satisfy you that the feat can be done. For my part, I think the largest ship that ever sailed on the ocean might be carried over, could she once get into the rapids." Cap did not perceive the wink which Pathfinder ex changed with Eau-douce, and he remained silent for some time ; for, sooth to say, he had never suspected the possi bility of going down Niagara, feasible as the thing mu*t appear to every one, on a second thought, the real difficulty existing in going up it. By this time, the party had reached the place where Jasper had left his own canoe concealed in the bushes, and they all reembarked ; Cap, Jasper, and his niece in one boat, and Pathfinder, Arrowhead, and the wife of the latter, in the other. The Mohican had already passed down the banks of the river by land, looking cautiously and with the skill of his people, for the signs of an enemy. The cheek of Mabel did not recover all its bloom, until the canoe was again in the current, down which it floated swiftly, occasionally impelled by the paddle of Jasper. She witnessed the descent of the falls with a degree of terror that had rendered her mute, but her fright had not been so great as to prevent admiration of the steadiness of the youth who directed the movement, from blending with the passing terror. In truth, one much less quick and sensitive might have had her feelings awakened by the cool and gallant air with which Eau-douce had accomplished this clever exploit. He had stood firmly erect, notwithstanding the plunge ; and to those who were on the shore, it was evident that by a timely application of his skill and strength, the canoe had received a sheer that alone carried it clear of a rock, over which the boiling water was leaping in jets ffeau, now leaving the brown stone visible, and now covering it with a limpid sheet, as if machinery controlled the play of the element. The tongue cannot always express THE PATHFINDER. 41 what the eyes view, but Mabel saw enough, even in that moment of fear, to blend forever in her mind, the pictures presented by the plunging canoe, and the unmoved steers man. She admitted that insidious sentiment which binds woman so strongly to man, by feeling additional security in finding herself under his care ; and for the first time since leaving Fort Stanwix, she was entirely at her ease in the frail bark in which she travelled. As the other canoe kept quite near her own, however, and the Pathfinder, by float" ing at her side, was most in view, the conversation was principally maintained with that person ; Jasper seldom gpeaking unless addressed, and constantly exhibiting a wari ness in the management of his own boat, that might have been remarked by one accustomed to his ordinary confident, careless manner, had such an observer been present to note what was passing. " We know too well a woman s gifts, to think of carrying the sergeant s daughter over the falls," said Pathfinder, look ing at Mabel, while he addressed her uncle ; " though I ve been acquainted with some of her sex, in them regions, that would think but little of doing the thing." " Mabel is faint-hearted, like her mother," returned Cap, "and you did well, friend, to humor her weakness. You will remember the child has never been at sea." " No, no ; it was easy to discover that, by your own fearlessness ; any one might have seen how little you cared about the matter ! I went over once with a raw hand, and he jumped out of the canoe, just as it tipped, and you may judge what a time he had of it ! " " What became of the poor fellow ? " asked Cap, scarce knowing how to take the other s manner, which was so dry, while it was so simple, that a less obtuse subject than the i)ld sailor might well have suspected its sincerity. " One ,vho has passed the place knows how to feel for him." " He was a poor fellow, as you say ; and a poor frontier- inan, too, though he came out to show his skill among us ignoranters. What became of him ? Why, he went down ihe falls topsy-turvy like, as would have happened to a court-house or a fort" 42 THE PATHFINDER. " If it should jump out of a canoe," interrupted Jasper smiling, though he was evidently more disposed than his friend to let the passage of the falls be forgotten. "The boy is right," rejoined Pathfinder, laughing in Mabel s face, the canoes being now so near that they almost touched ; " he is sartainly right. But you have not told us what you think of the leap we took ? " " It was perilous and bold," said Mabel ; " while looking At it> I could have wished that it had not been attempted, though, now it is over, I can admire its boldness, and the steadiness with which it was made." " Now, do not think that we did this thing to set our selves off in female eyes. It may be pleasant to the young to win each other s good opinions, by doing things that may seem praiseworthy and bold ; but neither Eau-douce nor myself is of that race. My natur , though perhaps the Sar- pent would be a better witness, has few turns in it, and is a straight natur ; nor would it be likely to lead me into a vanity of this sort, while out on duty. As for Jasper, he would sooner go over the Oswego Falls without a looker-on, than do it before a hundred pair of eyes. I know the lad well, from use and much consorting, and I am sure he is not boastful or vain-glorious." Mabel rewarded the scout with a smile that served to keep the canoes together for some time longer, for the sight of youth and beauty was so rare on that remote frontier, that even the rebuked and self-mortified feelings of this wanderer of the forest were sensibly touched by the bloom ing loveliness of the girl. " We did it for the best," Pathfinder continued ; " twas a^.l for the best. Had we waited to carry the canoe across the portage, time would have been lost, and nothing is so precious as time; when you are distrustful of Mingos." " But we can have little to fear, now ! The canoes move swiftly, and two hours, you have said, will carry ua down to the fort." " It shall be a cunning Iroquois who hurts a hair of your head, pretty one, for all here are bound to the sergeant, an 3 most, I think, to yourself, to see you safe from harm. H THE PATHFINDLB. 43 Ean-douce ; what is that in the river, at the lower turn, yonder, beneath the bushes, I mean standing on the rock ? " " Tis the Big Serpent, Pathfinder ; he is making signs to us, in a way I don t understand." " Tis the Sarpent, as sure as I m a white man, and he wishes us to drop in nearer to his shore. Mischief is brewiri , or one of his deliberation and steadiness would never take this trouble. Courage, all ! we are men, and must meet deviltry as becomes our color and our callings. Ah ! I n sver knew good come of boastin ; and here, just as I was vauntin of our safety, comes danger to give me die lie." 44 THE PATHFINDER. CHAPTER IV. Art, stryring to compare With nature, did an arber greene dispred, Framed of wanton yvie flowing fayre, Through which the fragrant eglantines did spred. SPWCSKB. THE Oswego, below tlie falls, is a more rapid, unequal Btream than it is above them. There are places where the river flows in the quiet stillness of deep water, but many shoals and rapids occur ; and, at that distant day, when everything was in its natural state, some of the passes were not altogether without hazard. Very little exertion waa required on the part of those who managed the canoes, ex cept in those places where the swiftness of the current and the presence of the rocks required care ; when, indeed, not only vigilance, but great coolness, readiness, and strength of arm became necessary, in order to avoid the dangers. Of all this the Mohican was aware, and he had judiciously se lected a spot where the river flowed tranquilly, to intercept the canoes, in order to make his communication without hazard to those he wished to speak. The Pathfinder had no sooner recognized the form of his red friend, than, with a strong sweep of his paddle, he threw the head of his own canoe towards the shore, mo tioning for Jasper to follow. In a minute both boats were silently drifting down the stream, within reach of ihe bushes that overhung the water, all observing a profound silence ; some from alarm, and others from habitual cau tion. As the travellers drew nearer the Indian, he made a sign for them to stop ; when he and Pathfinder had a short but earnest conference, in the language of the Dela- wares. " The chief is not apt to see enemies in a dead log," THE PATHFINDER. 45 observed the white man, to his red associate ; " why does he tell us to stop ? " " Mingos are in the woods." " That we have believed these two days : does the chief know it?" The Mohican quietly held up the head of a pipe, formed of stone. " It lay on a fresh trail that led towards the garrison ; * foi so it was the usage of that frontier to term a military work, whether it was occupied or not. " That may be the bowl of a pipe belonging to a soldier. Many use the red-skin pipes." " See," said the Big Serpent, again holding the thing be had found up to the view of his friend. The bowl of the pipe was of soap-stone, 1 and it had been carved with great care, and with a very respectable degree of skill. In its centre was a small Latin cross, made with an accuracy that permitted no doubt of its meaning. " That does foretell deviltry and wickedness," said the " Pathfinder, who had all the provincial horror of the holy symbol in question that then pervaded the country, and which became so incorporated with its prejudices, by con founding men with things, as to have left its traces strong enough on the moral feeling of the community, to be dis covered even at the present hour ; " no Injin who had not been parvarted by the cunning priests of the Canadas would dream of carving a thing like that on his pipe ! I ll warrant ye, the knave prays to the image every time he wishes to sarcumvent the innocent, and work his fearfhl wickedness. It looks fresh, too, Chingachgook?" The tobacco was burning when I found it." " That is close work, chief ; where was the trail ? " The Mohican pointed to a spot not a hundred yards dis tant from that where they stood. The matter now began to look very serious, and the (wo principal guides conferred apart for several minutes, when both ascended the bank, approached the indicated spot, and examined the trail with the utmost care. After dug investigation had lasted a quarter of an hour, the 1 See Ainiemlix Not* V 46 THE PATHFINDER. man returned alone, his red friend having disappeared in the forest. The ordinary expression of the countenance of the Pathfinder was that of simplicity, integrity, and sincerity blended in an air of self-reliance, that usually gave great confidence to those who found themselves under his care ; but now a look of concern cast a shade over his honest face, that struck the whole party. " What cheer, Master Pathfinder ? " demanded Cap, per mitting a voice that was usually deep, loud, and confident, to sink into the cautious tones that better suited the dan gers of the wilderness; "has the enemy got between us and our port ? " " Anan ? " " Have any of these painted scaramouches anchored off the harbor towards which we are running, with the hope of cutting us off hi entering ? " " It may be all as you say, friend Cap, but I am none the wiser for your words ; and, in ticklish times, the plainer a man makes his English, the easier he is understood. I know nothing of ports and anchors, but there is a direful Mingo trail within a hundred yards of this very spot, and as fresh as venison without salt. If one of the fiery devils has passed, so have a dozen ; and what is worse, they have gone down towards the garrison, and not a soul crosses the clearing around it that some of their piercing eyes will not discover, when sartain bullets will follow." " Cannot this said fort deliver a broadside, and clear everything within the sweep of its hawse ? " " Nay, the forts this-away are not like forts in the set tlements, and two or three light cannon are all tlsey Lave down at the mouth of the river ; and then, broadsides fired at a dozen outlying Mingos, lying behind logs, find in a forest, would be powder spent in vain. We have but one coarse, and that is a very nice one. We are judgmatically placed, here, both canoes being hid by the high bank and the bushes, from all eyes except them of any lurker directly opposite. Here, then, we may stay, without much present fear ; but how to get the blood-thirsty devils up the stream THE PATHFINDER. *7 again ? Ha ! I have it I have it. If it loes no good, it can do no harm. Do you see the wide-top chestnut, heie, Jasper, at the last turn In the river ? On our own side of the stream, I mean." " That near the fallen pine ? " "The very same. Take the flint and tinder-box, creep along the bank, and light a fire at that spot ; maybe the smoke will draw them above us. In the mean while, we will drop the canoes carefully down beyond the point below, and find another shelter. Bushes are plenty, and covers are uasy to be had in this region, as witness the many arnbush- ments" " I will do it, Pathfinder," said Jasper, springing to the shore. " In ten minutes the fire shall be lighted." " And, Eau-douce, use plenty of damp wood this time," half whispered the other, laughing heartily, in his own peculiar manner ; " when smoke is wanted, water helps to thicken it." The young man, who too well understood his duty to delay unnecessarily, was soon off, making his way rapidly towards the desired point. A slight attempt of Mabel to object to the risk was disregarded, and the party immedi ately prepared to change its position, as it could be seen from the place where Jasper intended to light his fire. The movement did not require haste, and it was made leisurely, and with care. The canoes were got clear of the bushes, then suffered to drop down with the stream, until they reached the spot where the chestnut, at the foot of which Jasper was to light the fire, was almost shut out from view, when they stopped, and every eye was turned in the direc tion of the adventurer. " There goes the smoke ! " exclaimed the Pathfinder as a current of air whirled a little column of the vapor from the land, allowing it to rise spirally above the bed of the river. " A good flint, a small bit of steel, and plenty of dry leaves, make a quick fire ! I hope Eau-douce will have the wit to bethink him of the damp wood, now, when it may sarve us ali a good turn." " Too much smoke too much cunning," said Arrow head, sententious! y. 48 THE PATHFINDER. " That is gospel truth, Tuscarora, if the Mingos didn t know that they are near soldiers ; but soldiers commonly think more of their dinner, at a halt, than of their wisdom and danger. No, no ; let the boy pile on his logs, and smoke them well too ; it will all be laid to the stupidity of some Scotch or Irish blunderer, who is thinking more of his oatmeal or his potatoes than of Injin sarcumventions or Injin rifles." " And yet I should think, from all we have heard in the towns, that the soldiers on this frontier are used to the artifices of their enemies," said Mabel ; " and have got to be almost as wily as the red-men themselves." " Not they not they. Exper ence makes them but little wiser ; and they wheel, and platoon, and battalion it about, here in the forest, just as they did in their parks at home, of which they are all so fond of talking. One red skin has more cunning in his natur than a whole rijiment from the other side of the water that is, what I call cunning of the woods. But there is smoke enough, of all conscience, and we had better drop into another cover. The lad has thrown the river on his fire, and there is danger that the Mingos will believe a whole rijiment is out." While speaking, the Pathfinder permitted his canoe to drift away from the bush by which it had been retained, and in a couple of minutes the bend in the river concealed the smoke and the tree. Fortunately a small indentation in the shore presented itself within a few yards of the point they had just passed ; and the two canoes glided into it, under the impulsion of the paddles. A better spot could not have been found for the purpose of the travellers, than the one they now occupied. The bushes were thick, and overhung the water, forming a com plete canopy of leaves. There was a small gravelly stran J at the bottom of the little bay, where most of the party landed to be more at their ease, and the only position from which they could possibly be seen, was a point on the river directly opposite. There was little danger, however, of discovery from that quarter, as the thicket there was even THE PATHFINDER. 49 denser than common, and the land beyond it was so wet and marshy, as to render it difficult to be trodden. This is a safe cover," said the Pathfinder, after he had taken a scrutinizing survey of his position ; " but it may be necessary to make it safer. Master Cap, I ask nothing of you but silence, and a quieting of such gifts as you may have got at sea, while the Tuscarora and I make provision for the evil hour." The guide then went a short distance into the bushes, ic* sompanied by the Indian, where the two cut off the large: stems of several alders and other bushes, using the utmost care not to make a noise. The end of these little trees, for such in fact they were, were forced into the mud, outside of the canoes, the depth of water being very trifling ; and in the course of ten minutes a very effectual screen was inter posed between them and the principal point of danger. Much ingenuity and readiness were manifested in making this simple arrangement, in which the two workmen were essentially favored by the natural formation of the bank, the indentation in the shore, the shallowness of the water, and the manner in which the tangled bushes dipped into the stream. The Pathfinder had the address to look for bushes that had curved stems, things easily found in such a place ; and by cutting them some distance beneath the bend, and permitting the latter to touch the water, the artificial little thicket had not the appearance of growing in the stieam, which might have excited suspicion ; but one passing it would have thought that the bushes shot out horizontally from the bank before they inclined upwards towards the light. In short, the shelter was so cunningly devised, and so artfully prepared, that ^one but -in anusually distrustful eye would have been turned for an instant towards the spot, in quest of a hiding-place. " This is the best cover I ever yet got into," said the Pathfinder, with his quiet laugh, after having been on the outside to reconnoitre ; " the leaves of our new trees fairly touch the bushes over our heads, and even the painter who has been in the garrison of late, could not tell which belong o Providence and ,vh ; ch are our n. Hist ! yonder comei &0 THE PATHFINDER. Eau-douce, wading, like a sensible boy as he is, to leave his trail in the water ; and we shall soon see whether our covei is good for anything or not." Jasper had, indeed, returned from his duty above, and missing the canoes, he at once inferred that they had dropped round the next bend in the river, in order to get out of sight of the fire. His habits of caution immediately suggested the expediency of stepping into the water, in order thai there might exist no visible communication between the marks left on the shore, by the party, and the place wtere he believed them to have taken refuge below. Should the Canadian Indians return on their own trail, and discover that made by the Pathfinder and the Serpent, in their ascent from, and descent to, the river, the clue to their movements would cease at the shore, water leaving no prints of foot steps. The young man had therefore waded, knee-deep, as tar as the point, and was now seen making his way slowly down the margin of the stream, searching curiously for the spot in which the canoes were hid. It was in the power of those behind the bushes, by plac ing their eyes near the leaves, to find many places to look through, while one at a little distance lost this advantage ; or, even did his sight happen to fall on some small opening, the bank and the shadows beyond prevented him from detecting forms and outlines of sufficient dimensions to expose the fugitives. It was evident to those who watched his motions from behind their cover, and they were all in the canoes, that Jasper was totally at a loss to imagine where the Path finder had secreted himself. When fairly round the curva ture in the shore, and out of sight of the fire he had lighted above, the young man stopped, and began examining the bank deliberately and with great care. Occasionally he ad vanced eight or ten paces, and then halted again, to renew the search. The water being much shoaler than common, he stepped aside, in order to walk with greater ease to him self, and came so near the artificial plantation, that he might iaave touched it with his hand. Still he detected nothing and was actuaDy passing the spot, when Pathfinder made sin opening beneath the branches, and called to him, in a low roice, to enter. THE PATHFINDER. 51 * This is pretty well," said the Pathfinder, laughing ; * though pale-face eyes and red-skin eyes are as different as human spy-glasses. I would wager with the sergeant s daughter, here, a horn of powder agin a wampum belt for her girdle, that her father s rijimeut should march by this ambushment of our n, and never find out the fraud ! But, if the Mingos actilly get down into the bed of the river, where Jasper passed, I should tremble for the plantation. It will do for their eyes even, across the stream, howsever, and will not be without its use." " Don t you think, Master Pathfinder, that it would be wisest after all," said Cap, " to get under way at once, and carry sail hard down stream, as soon as we are satisfied these rascals are fairly astern of us ? We seamen call a stern chase a long chase." " 1 wouldn t move from this spot until we hear from the Sarpent, with the sergeant s pretty daughter, here, in our company, for all the powder in the magazine of the fort below ! Sartain captivity or sartain death would follow. If a tender fa n, such as the maiden we have in charge, oould thread the forest like old deer, it might, indeed, do to quit the canoes, for by making a circuit we could reach the garrison before morning." " Then let it be done," said Mabel, springing to her feet, under the sudden impulse of awakened energy. "I am young, active, used to exercise, and could easily outwalk my dear uncle. Let no one think me a hindrance. I can- oot bear that all your lives should be exposed on my Account/ "No, no, pretty one; we think you anything but a kiindrance, or anything that is onbecoming, and would willingly run twice this risk to do you and the honest sergeant a service. Do I not speak your mind, Eau- douce ? " u To do her a service ! " said Jasper, with emphasis. * Nothing shall tempt me to desert Mabel Dunham, until the is safe in her father s arms." " Wei] said, lad ; bravely and honestly said, too ; and I join 11 it, heart and hand. No, no you are not the firit 62 THE PATHFINDER. of your sex I have led through the wilderness, aud nevei but once did any harm befall any of them ; that was a ^ad day, sartainly ; but its like may never come again ! " Mabel looked from one of her protectors to the other and her fine eyes swam in tears. Frankly placing a hand in that of each, she answered them, though at first her voice was choked, " I have no right to expose you on my account. My dear father will thank you I thank you God will re ward you ; but let there be no unnecessary risk. I can walk far, and have often gone miles, on some girlish fancy ; why not now exert myself for my life nay, for your precious lives?" " She is a true dove, Jasper," said the Pathfinder, neither relinquishing the hand he held until the girl herself, in native modesty, saw fit to withdraw it, " and wonderfully winning ! We get to be rough, and sometimes even hard hearted, in the woods, Mabel ; but the sight of one like you brings us back ag iii to our young feelin s, and does us good for the remainder of our days. I dare say Jasper, here, will tell you the same ; for, like me in the forest, the lad sees but few such as yourself, on Ontario, to soften his heart, and remind him of love for his kind. Speak out, low, Jasper, and say if it is not so." " I question if many like Mabel Dunham are to be found anywhere," returned the young man gallantly, an honest sincerity glowing in his face, that spoke more eloquently than his tongue ; " you need not mention woods and lakes so challenge her equals, but I would go into the settlements 4nd towns." " We had better leave the canoes," Mabel hurriedly rejoined ; " for I feel it is no longer safe to be here." " You can never do it you can never do it. It would De a march of more than twenty miles, and that too of tramping over brush and roots, and through swamps, in the dark; the trail of such a party would be wide, and we might have to fight our way into the garrison, a ter all WQ will wait for the Mohican." Kuch appearing to be the decision of him to whom all THE PATHFINDER. 68 in their present strait, looked up for counsel, no more was said on the subject. The whole party now broke up into groups; Arrowhead and his wife sitting apart under the bushes, conversing in a low tone, though the man spoke sternly, and the woman answered with the subdued mild ness that marks the degraded condition of a savage s wife. Pathfinder and Cap occupied one canoe, chatting of their different adventures by sea and land, while Jasper and Mabel sat in the other, making greater progress in intimacy in a single hour, than might have been effected under other circumstances in a twelvemonth. Notwithstanding their situation as regards the enejmy, the time flew by swiftly, and the young people in particular were astonished when Cap informed them how long they had been thus occupied. " If one could smoke, Master Pathfinder," observed the old sailor, " this berth would be snug enough ; for, to give the devil his due, you have got the canoes handsomely and-locked, and into moorings that would defy a monsoon. The only hardship is the denial of the pipe." " The scent of the tobacco would betray us ; and where is the use of taking all these precautions against the Mingos eyes if we are to tell them where the cover is to be found through the nose ? No, no ; deny your appetites, deny your appetites, and learn one virtue from a red-skin, who will pass a week without eating even, to get a single scalp. Did you hear nothing, Jasper ? " " The Serpent is coming." " Then let us see if Mohican eyes are better than them of a lad who follows. ;he water." The Mohican made his appearance in the same direction as that by which Jasper had rejoined his friends. Instead of coming directly on, however, no sooner did he pass the bend, where he was concealed from any who might be dgher up stream, than he moved close under the bank, and, using the utmost caution, got a position where he could ook back, with his person sufficiently concealed by the ashes to prevent its being seen by any in that quarter. "The Sarpent sees the knaves !" whispered Pathfinder i as I m a Christian white man they have bit at the bait, td have ambushed the smoke ! " 54 THE PATHFINDER. Here a hearty, but silent laugh, interrupted his words, and nudging Cap with his elbow, they all continued to watch the movements of Chingachgook in profound stillness. The Mohican remained stationary as the rock on which he stood, fully ten minutes ; then it was apparent that some thing of interest had occurred within his view, for he drew back with a hurried manner, looked anxiously and keenly along the margin of the stream, and moved quickly down it, taking care to lose his trail in the shallow water. He was evidently in a hurry and concerned, now looking be hind him, and then casting eager glances towards every spot on the shore where he thought a canoe might be coi - cealed. u Call him in," whispered Jasper, scarce able to rcstrait his impatience ; " call him in, or it will be too late. See, he is actually passing us." " Not so not so, lad ; nothing presses, depend on it," returned his companion, " or the Sarpent would begin to creep. The Lord help us, and teach us wisdom ! I do believe even Chingachgook, whose sight is as faithful as the hound s scent, overlooks us, and will not find out the am- bushment we have made ! " This exultation was untimely, for the words were no sooner spoken, than the Indian, who had actually got sev eral feet lower down the stream than the artificial cover, suddenly stopped, fastened a keen riveted glance among the transplanted bushes, made a few hasty steps backwards, and, bending his body and carefully separating the branches, ho appeared among them. " The accursed Mingos ! " said Pathfinder, as soon as his friend was near enough to be addressed with prudence. " Iroquois," returned the sententious Indian. " No matter, no matter ; Iroquois, devil, Mingo, Mengwes, or furies, all are pretty much the same. I call all rascals Mingos. Come hither, chief, and let us convarse ration ally." The two then stepped aside, and conversed earnestly in the dialect of the Delaware*. When their private commit uication was over, Pathfinder rejoined the rest, and made them acquainted with all he had learned. . THE PATHFINDER. 55 The Mohican had followed the trail of their enemies some distance towards the fort, until the latter caught a sight of the smoke of Jasper s fire, when they instantly retraced their steps. It now became necessary for Chingachgook, who ran the greatest risk of detection, to find a cover where he could secrete himself until the party might pass. It was, perhaps, fortunate for him that the savages were so intent on this recent discovery, that they did not bestow the ordinary attention on the signs of the forest. At all events, they passed him swiftly, fifteen in number, treading lightly in each other s footsteps ; and he was enabled again 10 get into their rear. After proceeding to the place where the footsteps of Pathfinder and the Mohican joined the principal trail, the Iroquois had struck off to the river, which they reached just as Jasper disappeared behind the bend below. The smoke being now in plain view, the sav ages plunged into the woods, and endeavored to approach the fire, unseen. Chingachgook profited by this occasion to descend to the water, and to gain the bend in the river also, which he thought had been effected undiscovered. Here he paused, as has been stated, until he saw his enemies at the fire, where their stay, however, was very short. Of the motives of the Iroquois, the Mohican could judge only by their acts. He thought they had detected the arti fice of the fire, and were aware that it had been kindled with a view to mislead them ; for, after a hasty examinatior of the spot, they separated, some plunging again into the woods, while six or eight followed the footsteps of Jasper along the shore, and came down the stream towards the place where the canoes had landed. What course they might take on reaching that spot, was only to be conjec tured, for the Serpent had felt the emergency to be too pressing to delay looking for his friends any longer. From some indications that were to be gathered from their ges- .ures, however, he thought it probable that their enemies aight follow down in the margin of the stream, but could ,ot be certain. As the Pathfinder related these facts to his companions, the professional feelings of the two other white men came 56 THE PATHFINDER. uppermost, and both naturally reverted to their habits, in quest of the means of escape. " Let us run out the canoes at once," said Jasper, eagerly u the current is strong, and by using the paddles vigorously we shall soon be beyond the reach of these scoundrels ! " " And this poor flower, that first blossomed in the clear- in s shall it wither in the forest ? " objected his friend, with a poetry that he had unconsciously imbibed by his long association with the Delawares. " We must all die first," answered the youth, a generous color mounting to his temples ; " Mabel and Arrowhead s wife may lie down in the canoes, while we do our duty, like men, on our feet." " Aye, you are actyve at the paddle and the oar, Eau douce, I will allow, but an accursed Mingo is more actyve at his mischief; the canoes are swift, but a rifle-bullet is swifter." " It is the business of men engaged as we have been, by a confiding father, to run this risk " " But it is not their business to overlook prudence." * Prudence ! a man may carry his prudence so far as to forget his courage." The group was standing on the narrow strand, the Path finder leaning on his rifle, the butt of which rested on the gravelly beach, while both his hands clasped the barrel, at the height of his own shoulders. As Jasper threw out this severe and unmerited imputation, the deep red of his com rade s face maintained its hue unchanged, though the young man perceived that the fingers grasped the iron of the gun with the tenacity of a vice. Here all betrayal of emotion "You are young and hot-headed," returned the Path- tinder, with a dignity that impressed his listener with a keek sense of his moral superiority ; " but my life has been passed among dangers of this sort, and my exper ence and gifts are not to be mastered by the impatience of a boy. As for courage, Jasper, I will not send back an angry and unmean ing word, to meet an augry and an unmeaning word, for I know that you are true, in your station and according to THE PATHFINDER. 67 your knowledge ; but take the advice of one who faced the Mingos when you were a child, and know that their cun ning is easier sarcuinvented by prudence than outwitted by foolishness." * I ask your pardon, Pathfinder," said the repentant Jasper, eagerly grasping the hand that the other permitted him to seize ; " I ask your pardon, humbly and sincerely. Twas a foolish, as well as wicked thing to hint of A Tc.au whose heart, in a good cause, is as firm as the rocks on the lake shore." For the first time the color deepened on the cheek of the Pathfinder, and the solemn dignity that he had assumed, under a purely natural impulse, disappeared in the expres sion of the earnest simplicity that was inherent in all his feelings. He met the grasp of his young friend with a squeeze as cordial as if no chord had jarred between them, and a slight sternness that had gathered about his eye dis appeared in a look of natural kindness. " Tis well, Jasper, tis well," he answered, laughing. " I bear no ill-will, nor shall any one in my behalf. My natur is that of a white man, and that is to bear no malice. It might have been ticklish work to have said half as much to the Sarpent here, though he is a Delaware, for color will have its way " A touch on his shoulder caused the speaker to cease. Mabel was standing erect in the canoe, her light but swell ing form bent forward in an attitude of graceful earnest ness, her finger on her lips, her head averted, the spirited eyes riveted on an opening in the bushes, and one arm ex tended with a fishing-rod, the end of which had touched the Pathfinder. The latter bowed his head to a level with a lookout near which he had intentionally kept himself, and then whispered to Jasper, " The accursed Mingos ! Stand to your arms, my men, but lay quiet as the corpses of dead trees ! " Jasper advanced rapidly, but noiselessly, to the canoe, and with a gentle violence induced Mabel to place herself in such an attitude as concealed her entire body, though it have probably exceeded his means to induce the girl 68 THE PATHFINDER. so far to lower her head that she could not keep her gaze fastened on their enemies. He then took his own post near her, with his rifle cocked and poised, in readiness to fire. Arrowhead and Chingachgook crawled to the cover, and lay in wait like snakes, with their arms prepared for service, while the wife of the former bowed her head between hei knees, covered it with her calico robe, and remained passive and immovable. Cap loosened both his pistols in their belt, but seemed quite at a loss what course to pursue. The Pathfinder did not stir. He had originally got a position where he might aim with deadly effect through the leaves, and where he could watch the movements of his enemies ; and he was far too steady to be disconcerted at a moment so critical. It was truly an alarming instant. Just as Mabel touched the shoulder of her guide, three of the Iroquois appeared in the water, at the bend of the river, within a hundred yards of the cover, and halted to examine the stream below. They were all naked to the waist, armed for an expedition against their foes, and in their war-paint. It was apparent that they were undecided as to the course they ought to pursue, in order to find the fugitives. One pointed down the river, a second up the stream, and the third toward* the opposite bank. THE PATHFINDEB. 69 CHAPTER V. Death is here, and death is there, Death is busy everywhere. SHELLBT, IT was a breathless moment. The only clue the fagitive* possessed to the intentions of their pursuers was in their gestures, and the indications that escaped them in the fury of disappointment. That a party had returned already on their own footsteps, by lacd, was pretty certain ; and all the benefit expected from the artifice of the fire was necessarily lost. But that consideration became of little moment, just then, for the secreted were menaced with an immediate discovery by those who had kept on a level with the river. All the facts presented themselves clearly, and as it might be by intuition, to the mind of Pathfinder, who perceived the necessity of immediate decision, and of being in readi ness to act in concert. Without making any noise, there fore, he managed to get the two Indians and Jasper near him, when he opened his communications in a whisper. " We must be ready we must be ready," he said. "There are but three of the scalping devils, and we are five, four of whom may be set down as manful warriors for such a skrimmage. Eau-douce, do you take the fellow that is painted like death ; Chingachgook, I give you the chief ; and Arrowhead must keep his eye on the young one. There must be no mistake ; for two bullets it the same body would be sinful waste, with one like the sergeant s daughter in danger. I shall hold myself in resarve agin accidents, lest a fourth riptyle appear, for one of your hands may prove unsteady. By no means fire until I give the word ; we must not let the crack of the rifle be heard ex in the last resort, since all the rest of the miscreant* 60 THE PATHFINDER. are still within hearing. Jasper, boy, in case of any move ment behind us, on the bank, I trust to you to run out the canoe, with the sergeant s daughter, and to pull for the gar rison, by God s leave." The Pathfinder had no sooner given these directions than the near approach of their enemies rendered profound silence necessary. The Iroquois in the river were slowly descend ing the stream, keeping of necessity near the bushes that overhung the water, whilst the rustling of leaves and the snapping of twigs soon gave fearful evidence that another party was moving along the bank at an equally graduated pace, and directly abreast of them. In consequence of the distance between the bushes planted by the fugitives and the true shore, the two parties became visible to each other, when opposite that precise point. Both stopped, and a con versation ensued, that may be said to have passed directly over the heads of those who were concealed. Indeed, nothing sheltered the travellers but the branches and leaves of plants so pliant, that they yielded to every current of air, and which a puff of wind, a little stronger than common, would have blown away. Fortunately the line of sight carried the eyes of the two parties of savages, whether they stood in the water or on the land, above the bushes ; and the leaves appeared blended in a way to excite no suspicion. Perhaps the very boldness of the expedient prevented an exposure. The conversation that took place was conducted earnestly, but in guarded tones, as if those who spoke wished to defeat the intentions of any listeners. It was in a dialect that both the Indian warriors beneath, as well as the Path finder, understood. Even Jasper comprehended a portion of what was said. " The trail is washed away by the water ! " said one from helow, who stood so near the artificial cover of the fugitives, (hat he might have been struck by the salmon-spear that lay in the bottom of Jasper s canoe. " Water has washed it so clear, that a Yengeese hound could not follow." " The pale-faces have left the shore in their canoes," / gwered the speaker on the bank. "It cannot bo. The rifles of our warriors below are oertAin." THE PATHFINDER 61 The Pathfinder gave a significant glance at Jasper, and he clenched his teeth in order to suppress the sound of his own breathing. " Let my young men look as if their eyes were eagles ," said the eldest warrior among those who were wading jp the river. " We have been a whole moon on the war-path, and have found but one scalp. There is a maiden among them, and some of our braves want wives." Happily these words were lost on Mabel, but Jasper s frown became deeper, and his face fiercely flushed. The savages now ceased speaking, and the party that was concealed heard the slow and guarded movements of those who were on the bank, as they pushed the bushes aside in their wary progress. It was soon evident that the latter had passed the cover ; but the group in the water still re mained, scanning the shore with eyes that glared through their war-paint, like coals of living fire. After a pause of two or three minutes, these three began also to descend the stream, though it was step by step, as men move who look for an object that has been lost. In this manner they passed the artificial screen, and Pathfinder opened his mouth, in that hearty but noiseless laugh, that nature and habit had contributed to render a peculiarity of the man. His triumph, however, was premature ; for the last of the retir ing party, just at this moment casting a look behind him, suddenly stopped ; and his fixed attitude and steady gaze at once betrayed the appalling fact that some neglected bush had awakened his suspicions. It was, perhaps, fortunate for the concealed, that the warrior who manifested these fearful signs of distrust was young, and had still a reputation to acquire. He knew the importance of discretion and modesty in one of his years, and most of all did he dread the ridicule and contempt that would certainly follow a false alarm. Without recalling any of hia companions, therefore, he turned on his own foot steps, and while the others continued to descend the river ; he cautiously approached the bushes, on which his looks were stiil fastened, as by a charm. Some of the leaves wnich were exposed to the su-\ had drooped a little, and 62 THE PATHFINDER. this slight departure from the usual natural laws hdd caught the quick eyes of the Indian ; for so practiced and acute do the senses of the savage become, more especially when he is on the war-path, that trifles, apparently of the most in significant sort, often prove to be clues to lead him to his object. The trifling nature of the change which had aroused the suspicion of this youth, was an additional motive foi not acquainting his companions with his discovery. Should he really detect anything, his glory would be the greater for being unshared : should he not, he might hope to escape that derision which the young Indian so much dreads. Then there were the dangers of an ambush and a surprise, to which every warrior of the woods is keenly alive, to render his approach slow and cautious. In consequence of the delay that proceeded from these t-ombined causes, the two parties had descended some fifty or sixty yards before the young savage was again near enough to the bushes of the Pathfinder to touch them with his hand. Notwithstanding their critical situation, the whole party behind the cover had their eyes fastened on the working countenance of the young Iroquois, who was agitated by conflicting feelings. First came the eager hope of obtaining success, where some of the most experienced of his tribe had failed, and with it a degree of glory that had seldom fallen to the share of one of his years, or a brave on his first war path ; then followed doubts, as the drooping leaves seemed to rise again, and to revive in the currents of air ; and dis trust of hidden danger lent its exciting feeling to keep the eloquent features in play. So very slight, however, had been the alteration produced by the heat on bushes of which the stems were in the water, that when the Iroquois actually laid his hand on the leaves, be fancied that he had been de ceived. As no man ever distrusts strongly, without using all convenient means of satisfying his doubts, however, ths young warrior cautiously pushed aside the branches, and advanced a step within the hiding-place, when the forms of the concealed party met his gaze, resembling so many breathless statues. The low exclamation, the slight start, and the glaring eye were hardly seen and heard, before the THE PATHFINDER. 63 arm of Chingachgook was raised, and the tomahawk of the Delaware descended on the shaven head of his foe. The Iroquois raised his hands frantically, bounded back wards, and fell into the water at a spot where the current swept the body away, the struggling limbs still tossing and writhing in the agony of death. The Delaware made a vigorous but unsuccessful attempt to seize an arm, with the hope of securing the scalp, but the blood-stained waters whirled down the current, carrying with them their quiver ing burden. All this passed in less than a minute ; and the events were so sudden and unexpected, that men less accustomed than the Pathfinder and his associates to forest warfare, would have been at a loss how to act. " There is not a moment to lose ! " said Jasper, tearing aside the bushes, as he spoke earnestly, but in a suppressed voice. " Do as I do, Master Cap, if you would save your niece ; and you, Mabel, lie at your length in the canoe." The words were scarcely uttered, when, seizing the bow of the light boat, he dragged it along the shore, wading him self while Cap aided behind, keeping so near the bank as to avoid being seen by the savages below, and striving to gain the turn in the river above him, which would effectually conceal the party from the enemy. The Pathfinder s canoe lay nearest to the bank, and it was necessarily the last to quit the shore. The Delaware leaped on the narrow strand, and plunged into the forest, it being his assigned duty to watch the foe in that quarter, while Arrowhead motioned to his white companion to seize the bow of the boat, and to follow Jasper. All this was the work of an instant. But when the Pathfinder reached the current that was sweeping round the turn, he felt a sudden change in the weight he was dragging, and looking back he found that both the Tus- carora arid his wife had deserted him. The thought of treachery flashed upon his mind, but there was no time to pause ; for the wailing shout that arose from the party be low, proclaimed that the body of the young Iroquois had floated as low as the spot reached by his friends- The re- tort of a rifle followed ; and then the guide saw that J* 64 THE PATHFINDER. per, having doubled the bend in the river, was crossing the stream, standing erect in the stern of the canoe, while Cap was seated forward, both propelling the light boat with vig orous strokes of the paddles. A glance, a thought, and an expedient followed each other quickly, in one so trained iu the vicissitudes of the frontier warfare. Spriiififi^w 1 into the stern of his own canoe, he urged it by a vigorous shove intc, ilie current, and commenced crossing the stream himself, al a point so much lower than that of his companions, as to offer his own person for a target to the enemy, well know ing that their keen desire to secure a scalp would control all other feelings. u Keep well up the current, Jasper," shouted the gallant guide, as he swept the water with long, steady, vigorous strokes of the paddle ; ." keep well up the current, and pul] for the alder bushes opposite. Presarve the sergeant s daughter before all things, and leave the Mingo, knaves tc the Sarpent and me." Jasper nourished his paddle, as a signal of understanding, while shot succeeded shot in quick succession, all now be ing aimed at the solitary man in the nearest canoe. " Aye, empty your rifles, like simpletons as you be/ baid the Pathfinder, who had acquired a habit of speaking when alone, from passing so much of his time in the soli ,ude of the forest ; " empty your ritles, with an onsteady aim, and give me time to put yard upon yard of rivei between us. I will not revile you, like a Delaware or a Mohican, for my gifts are a white man s gifts, and not an Injin s ; and boasting in battle is no part of a Christiau varrior ; but I may say, here, all alone by myself, that you are little better than so many men from the town, shooting at robins in the orchards ! That was well meant," throw ing back his head, as a rifle bullet cut a lock of hair from trie temple ; " but the lead that misses by an inch is as use- less as the lead that never quits the barrel. Bravely done, Jasper ! the sergeant s sweet child must be saved, even if we go in without our own scalps." By this time the Pathlinder was in the centre of the river, and almost abreast of his enemies, while the other " While shot succeeded shot in quick succession, all now being aimed at the solitary man in the nearest canoe. 1 Page 64. THE PATHFINDER. 6& canoe, impelled by the vigorous arms of Cap and Jasper, had nearly gained the opposite shore at the precise spot that had been pointed out to them. The old mariner now played his part manfully ; for he was on his proper element, loved his niece sincerely, had a proper regard for his own person, and was not unused to fire, though his experience certainly lay in a very different species of warfare. A few strokes of the paddles were given, and the canoe shot into the bushes, Mabel was hurried to land by Jasper, and, for the present, all three of the fugitives were safe. Not so with the Pathfinder. His hardy self-devotion had brought him into a situation of unusual exposure, the haz ards of which were much increased, by the fact that just as he drifted nearest to the enemy, the party on the shore rushed down the bank, and joined their friends who stood still in the water. The Oswego was about a cable s length in width at this point, and the canoe being in the centre, the object was only a hundred yards from the rifles that wore constantly discharged at it, or at the usual target dis- mce for that weapon. In this extremity the steadiness and skill of the Path- luder did him good service. He knew that his safety de pended altogether on keeping in motion ; for a stationary object, at that distance, would have been hit nearly every shot. Nor was motion of itself sufficient ; for, accustomed to kill the bounding deer, his enemies probably knew how to vary the line of aim so as to strike him, should he con- iinue to move in any one direction. He was consequently compelled to change the course of the canoe, at one mo- aient shooting down with the current, with the swiftness of an arrow, and at the next checking its progress in that di- reotioii, to glance athwart the stream. Luckily the Iroquois 3ould not reload their pieces in the water, and the bushes that everywhere fringed the shore rendered it difficult tc keep the fugitive in view when on the land. Aided by .hese circumstances, and having received the fire of all nis f oes, the Pathfinder was gaining fast in distance, both down- vards and across the current, when a new danger suddenly, if not unexpectedly, presented itself, by the appearance of 6 66 THE PATHWNDER. the party that had been left in ambush below, with a view to watch the river. These were the savages alluded to in the short dialogue that has been already related. They were no less than ten in number, arid understanding all the advantages of their bloody occupation, they had posted themselves at a spot where the water dashed among rocks and over shallows, in a way to form a rapid, which, in the language of the country, u called a rift. The Pathfinder saw that if he entered this rift he should be compelled to approach a point where the I roquois had posted themselves, for the current was irresisti 61e, and the rocks allowed no other safe passage, while death or captivity would be the probable result of the attempt All his efforts, therefore, were turned towards reaching the shore, the foe being all on the eastern side of the But the exploit surpassed human power, and to at tempt to stem the stream would at once have so far dimin ished the motion of the canoe, as to render aim certain. In this exigency the guide came to a decision with his usual cool promptitude, making his preparations accordingly. In stead of endeavoring to gain the channel, he steered towards the shallowest part of the stream, on reaching which he seized his rifle and pack, leaped into the water, and began to wade from rock to rock, taking the direction of the west ern shore. The canoe whirled about in the furious current, now rolling over some slippery stone, now filling, and then emptying itself, until it lodged on the shore, within a few yards of the spot where the Iroquois had posted themselves. In the mean while the Pathfinder was far from being out of danger ; for the first minute, admiration of his prompti tude and daring, which are high virtues in the mind of an Indian, kept his enemies motionless ; but the desire of re- renge, and the cravings for the much-prized trophy, soon overcame this transient feeling, and aroused them from their ifoipor Rifle flashed after rifle, and the bullets whistled around the head of the fugitive, amid the roar of the waters. Still, he proceeded like one who bore a charmed life, for while his rude frontier garments were more than once cu^ his skin was not rased. THE PATHFINDER. tf As the Pathfinder, in several instances, was compelled to wade in water that rose nearly to his arms, while he kept his rifle and ammunition elevated above the raging current, the toil soon fatigued him, and he was glad to stop at a large stone, or a small rock, which rose so high above the river, that its upper surface was dry. On this stone he pi iced his powder-horn, getting behind it himself, so as to have the advantage of a partial cover for his body. The western shore was only fifty feet distant, but the quiet, swift, dark current that glanced through the interval, sufficiently showed that here he would be compelled to swim. A short cessation in the firing now took place on the part of the Indians, who gathered about the canoe, and, baring found the paddles, were preparing to cross the river. " Pathfinder ! " called a voice from among the bushes, at the point nearest to the person addressed, on the western shore. " What would you have, Jasper ? " " Be of good heart ; friends are at hand, and not a single Mingo shall cross without suffering for his boldness. Had you not better leave the rifle on the rock, and swim to us before the rascals can get afloat ? " " A true woodsman never quits his piece, while he has any powder in his horn or a bullet in his pouch. I have not drawn a trigger this day, Eau-douce, and shouldn t relish the idea of parting with them riptyles, without causing them to remember my name. A little water will not harm my legs ; and I see that blackguard, Arrowhead, among the scamps, and wish to send him the wages he has so faithfully earned. You have not brought the sergeant s daughter down here in a range with their bullets, I hope, Jasper ! " u She is safe, for the present at least ; though all depend* on our keeping the river between us and the enemy. They must know our weakness, now ; and should they cross, no doubt some of their party will be left on the other side." " This canoe.ng touches your gifts rather than mine, boy, though 1 will handle a paddle with the best Mingo that ever struck a salmon. If they cross below the rift, why can t we cross in the still water above, and keep playing at dodge and turn with the wolves ? " THE PATHFINDER. " Because, as I have said, they will leave a party on tlw other shore ; and then, Pathfinder, would you expose Ma oel to the rifles of the Iroquois ? " " The sergeant s daughter must be saved," returned the uide, with calm energy. " You are right, Jasper ; she has jo gift to authorize her in offering her sweet face and ten der body to a Mingo rifle. What can be done, then ? They nust be kept from crossing for an hour or two, if possible, tfhen we must do our best in the darkness." " I agree with you, Pathfinder, if it can be effected ; but *re we strong enough for such a purpose ? " " The Lord is with us, boy the Lord is with us ; and it is onreasonable to suppose that one like the sergeant s daughter will be altogether abandoned by Providence, in such a strait. There is not a boat between the falls and the garrison, except these two canoes, to my sartain knowl edge ; and I think it will go beyond red-skin gifts to cross in the face of two rifles, like these of your n and mine. I will not vaunt, Jasper, but it is well known on all this fron tier that Killdeer seldom fails." " Your skill is admitted by all, far and near, Pathfinder, but a rifle takes time to be loaded ; nor are you on the land, aided by a good cover, where you can work to the advantage you are used to. If you had our canoe, might you not pass to the shore with a dry rifle ? " " Can an eagle fly, Jasper ? " returned the other, laughing in his usual manner, and looking back as he spoke. " But it would be onwise to expose yourself on the water, for them miscreants are beginning to bethink them again of powder and bullets/ " It can be done without any such chances. Master Cap has gone up to the canoe, and will cast the branch of a tree nto the river to try the current, which sets from the poin) above in the direction of your rock. See, there it comes already ; if it float fairly, you must raise your arm, when the canoe will follow. At all events, if the boat should pass you, the eddy below will bring it up, and I can recover it." While Jasper was still speaking, the floating branch came in sight, and quickening its progress with the increasing THE PATHFINDER. 39 velocity of the current, it swept swiftly down towards the Pathfinder, who seized it as it was passing, and held it in the air as a sign of success. Cap understood the signal, and presently the canoe was launched into the stream, with a caution and an intelligence that the habits of the mariner fitted him to observe. It floated in the same direction as the branch, and in a minute was arrested by the Pathfinder. "This has been done with a frontier-man s judgment. Jasper," said the guide, laughing ; " but you have your gifts, which incline most to the water, as mine incline to the woods, Now let them Mingo knaves cock their rifles and get rests for this is the last chance they are likely to have at a man without a cover." " Nay, shove the canoe towards the shore, quartering the current, and throw yourself into it as it goes off," said Jasper, eagerly. " There is little use in running any risk." " I love to stand up face to face with my enemies like a man, while they set me the example," returned the Path finder, proudly. " I am not a red-skin born, and it is more a white man s gifts to fight openly than to lie in ambush- men t." And Mabel ? " " True, boy, true ; the sergeant s daughter must be saved ; and, as you say, foolish risks only become boys. Think you that you can catch the canoe where you stand ? " " There can be no doubt, if you give a vigorous push." Pathfinder made the necessary effort, the light bark shot across the intervening space, and Jasper seized it as it came to land. To secure the canoe, and to take proper positions in the cover, occupied the friends but a moment, when they shook hands cordially ; like those who had met after a long separation. " Now, Jasper, we shall see if a Mingo of them all dare cross the Oswego in the teeth of Killdeer ! You are hand ier with the oar, and the paddle, and the sail, than with the rifle, perhaps ; but you have a stout heart and a steady band, and them are things that count in a fight." " Mabel will find me between her and her enemies," *aid Jasper, calmly. 70 THE PATHFINDER. " Yes, yes, the sergeant s daughter must be protected. 1 like you, boy, on your own account, but I like you all the better that you think of one so feeble, at a moment when there is need of all your manhood. See, Jasper, three of the knaves are actually getting into the canoe ! They must believe we have fled, or they would not surely ven- tur so much, directly in the very face of Killdeer ! " Sure enough, the Iroquois did appear bent on venturing across the stream, for, as the Pathfinder and his friends now kept their persons strictly concealed, their enemies began to think that the latter had taken to flight. The course was that which most white men would have followed ; but Mabel was under the care of those who were much too well skilled in forest warfare, to neglect to defend the only pass that in truth now offered even a probable chance for pro tection. As the Pathfinder had said, three warriors were in the canoe, two holding their rifles at a poise, kneeling in readi ness to aim the deadly weapons ; the other standing erect in the stern to wield the paddle. In this manner they left the shore, having had the precaution to haul the canoe, pre viously to entering it, so far up the stream, as to get into the comparatively still water above the rift. It was appar ent, at a glance, that the savage who guided the boat was skilled in the art, for the long steady sweep of his paddle sent the light bark over the glassy surface of the tranquil river, as if it were a feather floating in air. " Shall I fire ? " demanded Jasper, in a whisper, trembling with eagerness to engage. " Not yet, boy not yet. There are but three of them and if Master Cap, yonder, knows how to use the pop-guug he carries in his belt, we may even let them land, and thei we shall recover the canoe." " But Mabel ? " " No fear for the sergeant s daughter. She is safe in the hollow stump, you say, with the opening judgmatically hid by the brambles. If what you tell me of the manner LB which you concealed the trail be true, the sweet one might lie there a month, and laugh at the Mingos." THE PATHMNDER. 71 " We are never certain ; I wish we had brought her nearer to our own cover ! " " What for, Eau-douce ? To place her pretty little head and leaping heart among flying bullets ? No, no ; she is better where she is, because she is safer." " We are never certain we thought ourselves safe bo hind the bushes, yet you saw that we were discovered." " And the Mingo imp paid for his cur osity, as them knaves are about to do " At that instant tha sharp report of a rifle was heard when the Indian in the stem if the canoe leaped high intc the air, and fell into the water, howling the paddle in his hand. A small wreath of smoke floated out from amon^ the bushes of the eastern shore, and was soon absorber by the atmosphere. " That is the Sarpent hissing ! " exclaimed the Path finder, exultingly. * A bolder or a truer heart never beat in the breast of a Delaware. I am sorry that he interfered, but he could not have known our condition he could not have known our condition." The canoe no sooner lost its guide, than it floated with the stream, and was soon sucked into the rapids of the rift. Perfectly helpless, the two remaining savages gazed wildly about them, but could offer no resistance to the power of the element. It was, perhaps, fortunate for Chingachgook that the attention of most of the Iroquois was intently given to the situation of those in the boat, else would his escape have been to the last degree difficult, if not totally impracticable. But not a foe moved, except to conceal his person behind some cover, and every eye was riveted on the two remaining adventurers. In less time than has been necessary to record these occurrences, the 3anoe was whirling and tossing in the rift, while both the savages had stretched themselves in its bottom, as the only means of preserving the equilibrium. This natural expe dient soon failed them ; for striking a rock, the light craft rolled over, and the two warriors were thrown into the river. The water is seldom deep on a rift, except in par ticular places where it may have worn channels, and there T2 THE PATHFINDER. was little to be apprehended from drowning, though their arms were lost, and the two savages were fain to make the best of their way to the friendly shore, swimming and wad ing as circumstances required. The canoe itself lodged on a rock, in the centre of the stream, where, for the moment, it became useless to both parties. " Now is our time. Pathfinder," cried Jasper, as the two Iroquois exposed most of their persons while wading in the shallowest part of the rapids ; " the fellow up stream is mine, and you can take the lower." So excited had the young man become, by all the inci dents of the stirring scene, that the bullet sped from his rifle as he spoke, but uselessly, as it would seem, for both the fugitives tossed their arms in disdain. The Pathfinder did not fire. " No no Eau-douce," he answered ; " I do not seek blood without a cause, and my bullet is well leathered and carefully driven down, for the time of need. I love no Mingo, as is just, seeing how much I have consorted with the Delawares, who are their mortal and nat ral enemies ; but I pull no trigger on one of the miscreants, unless it be plain that his death will lead to some good end. The deer never leaped that fell by my hand wantonly. By living much alone with God in the wilderness, a man gets to feel the justice of such opinions. One life is sufficient for our present wants, and there may yet be occasion to use Kill- deer in behalf of the Sarpent, who has done an untimor- eorne thing to let them rampant devils so plainly know that he is in their neighborhood. As I m a wicked sinner, there is one of them prowling along the bank, this very moment, like one of the boys of the garrison skulking behind a fallen tree to get a shot at a squirrel ! " As the Pathfinder pointed with his finger, while speak ing, the quick eye of Jasper soon caught the object toward which it was directed. One of the young warriors of the enemy, burning with a desire to distinguish himself, had stolen from his party towards the cover in which Chingach- gook had concealed himself; and as the latter was deceived by the apparent apathy of his foes, as well a? engaged in THE PATHFINDER. 73 some further preparations of his own, he had evidently ob tained a position where he got a sight of the Delaware. This circumstance was apparent by the arrangements the Iroquois was making to fire, for Chingachgook himself was not visible from the western side of the river. The tift was at a bend in the Oswego, and the sweep of the eastern shore formed a curve so wide that Chingachgook was quite near to his enemies in a straight direction, though separated by several hundred feet on the land, owing to which fact air lines brought both parties nearly equidistant from the Pathfinder and Jasper. The general width of the river being a little less than two hundred yards, such necessarily was about the distance between his two observers and the skulking Iroquois. " The Sarpent must be thereabouts," observed Pathfinder, who never turned his eye for an instant from the young warrior ; " and yet he must be strangely off his guard to allow a Mingo devil to get his stand so near, with manifest signs of bloodshed in his heart." " See," interrupted Jasper ; " there is the body of the Indian the Delaware shot ! It has drifted on a rock, and the current has forced the head and face above the water." " Quite likely, boy ; quite likely. Human natur is little better than a log of drift-wood, when the life that was breathed into its nostrils has departed. That Iroquois will never harm any one more ; but yonder skulking savage is bent on taking the scalp of my best and most tried friend" The Pathfinder suddenly interrupted himself, by i aising ins rifle, a weapon of unusual length, with admirable precis ion, and firing the instant it got its level. The Iroquo .s on the opposite shore was in the act of aiming when the fatal messenger from Killdeer arrived. His rifle was discharged, it is true, but it was with the muzzle in the air, while the man himself plunged into the bushes, quite evidently hurt, if not slain. " The skulking riptyle brought it on himself," muttered Pathfinder, sternly, as dropping the breech of his rifle, he carefully commenced reloading it. " Chingacbgook and I 74 THE PATHFINDER. have consorted together since we were boys, and have fou t in company, on the Horican, the Mohawk, the Ontario, and all the other bloody passes between the country of the Frenchers and our own ; and did the foolish knave bel eve that I would stand by and see my best friend cut off in an ambushment ! " " We have served the Serpent as good a turn as he served us. Those rascals are troubled, Pathfinder, and are falling back into their covers, since they find we can reach them across the river." u The shot is no great matter, Jasper no great matter Ask any of the 60th, and they can tell you what Killdeei can do, and has done, and that too when the bullets were flying about our heads like hail-stones. No, no ; this is no great matter, and the onthoughtful vagabond drew it down on himself." "Is that a dog, or a deer, swimming towards this shore?" Pathfinder started, for, sure enough, an object was cross ing the stream above the rift, towards which, however, it was gradually setting by the force of the current. A second look satisfied both the observers that it was a man, and an Indian, though so concealed as at first to render it doubtful. Some stratagem was apprehended, and the closest attention was given to the movements of the stranger. " He is pushing something before him, as he swims, and his head resembles a drifting bush ! " said Jasper. " Tis Injin deviltry, boy ; but Christian honesty shall sar- cumvent his arts." As the man slowly approached, the observers began to doubt the accuracy of their first impressions, and it was only when two thirds of the stream were passed, that the truth was really known. " The Big Sarpent, as I live ! " exclaimed Pathfinder, looking at his companion, and laughing until the tears came into his eyes, with pure delight ati the success of the artifice. " He has tied bushes to his head so as to hide it, put the horn on top, lashed the rifle to that bit of log he is pushing before him, and has come over to join his friends. Ah THE PATHiiNDEB. T5 me! The Limes and times that he and I have cut such pranks, right in the teeth of Mingos raging for our blood, iik the great thoroughfare round and about Ty ! " " It may not be the Serpent, after all, Pathfinder ; I can see no feature that I remember." " Featur ! Who looks for featur s in an Injin ? No, no ; boy ; tis the paint that speaks, and none but a Dela- ware would wear that paint. Them are his colors, Jasper, just as your craft on the lake wears St. George s Cross, and the Frenchers set their table-cloths to fluttering in the wind, with all the stains of fish-bones and venison steaks upon them. Now, you see the eye, lad, and it is the eye of a chief. But, Eau-douce, fierce as it is in battle, and glasny as it looks from among the leaves," here the Pathfinder laid his finger lightly but impressively on his companion c arm, "I have seen it shed tears like rain. There is a soul and a heart under that red skin, rely on it ; although they are a soul and a heart with gifts different from our own." " No one, who is acquainted with the chief, ever doubted that." "I know it," returned the other, proudly, "for I have consorted with him in sorrow and in joy ; in one I have found him a man, however stricken ; in the other, a chief who knows that the women of his tribe are the most seemly in light merriment. But hist ! It is too much like the people of the settlements to pour soft speeches into another s ear ; and the Sarpent has keen senses. He knows I love him, and that I speak well of him behind his back ; but a Delaware has modesty in his inmost natur , though he will brag like a sinner when tied to a stake." The Serpent now reached the shore, directly in the front 0^ his two comrades, with whose precise position he must have been acquainted before leaving the eastern side of the river, and rising from the water he shook himself like a dog, and made the usual exclamation, ; < Hugh ! " 76 THE PATHFINDER CHAPTER VI. These, as they change, Almighty Father, these Are but the varied God. TiiOMsoie. As the chief landed he was met by the Pathfinder, who addressed Jiim in the language of the warrior s people. " Was it well done, Chingachgook," he said, reproach fully, " to ambush a dozen Mingos alone ! Killdeer seldom fails me, it is true ; but the Oswego makes a distant mark) %nd that miscreant showed little more than his head and shoulders above the bushes, and an onpractysed hand and eye might have failed. You should have thought of this, chief you should have thought of this ! " " The Great Serpent is a Mohican warrior; he sees only his enemies, when he is on the war-path, and his fathers have struck the Mingos from behind, since the waters began to run ! " " I know your gifts I know your gifts, and respect them, too. No man shall hear me complain that a red-skin obsarved red-skin natur , but prudence as much becomes a warrior as valor ; and had not the Iroquois devils been ooking after their friends who were in the water, a hot trail they would have made of your n ! " What is the Delaware about to do ? " exclaimed Jas per, who observed, at that moment, that the chief suddenly left the Pathfinder, and advanced to the water s edge, apparently with an intention of again entering the river " He will not be so mad as to return to the other shore for any trifle he may have forgotten ! " " Not he not he ; he is as prudent as he is brave, in the main, though so forgetful of himself in the late ambush- went. Harkee, Jasper," leading the other a little aside THE PATHFINDER. 77 just as they heard the Indian s plunge into the water, " harkee, lad ; Chingachgook is not a Christian white man, like ourselves, but a Mohican chief, who has his gifts and traditions to tell him what he ought to do ; and he who con sorts with them that are not strictly and altogether of his own kind, had better leave natur and use to govern hi* comrades. A king s soldier will swear, and he will drink and it is of little use to try to prevent him ; a gentleman likes his delicacies, and a lady her feathers, and it does not avail much to struggle agin either; whereas an Indian s natur and gifts are much stronger than these, and no doubt were bestowed by the Lord for wise ends, though neither you nor me can follow them in all their windings." " What does this mean ? See, the Delaware is swim ming towards the body that is lodged on the rock. Why does he risk this ? " u For honor, and glory, and renown, as great gentlemen quit their quiet homes, beyond seas, where, as they tell me, heart has nothing left to wish for, that is, such hearts as can be satisfied in a clearin , to come hither to live on game and fight the Frenchers." " I understand you ; your friend has gone to secure the scalp." " Tis his gift, and let him enjoy it. We are white men, and cannot mangle a dead enemy ; but it is honor in the eyes of a red-skin to do so. It may seem singular to you, Eau-douce, but I ve known white men of great name and character manifest as remarkable ideas consarning their honor, I have." " A savage will be a savage, Pathfinder, let him keep what company he may." ** It is well for us to say so, lad, but, as I tell you, white honor will not always conform to reason, or to the will " f God. I have passed days thinking of them matters, out i> the silent woods, and I have come to the opinion, boy, that, as Providence rules all things, no gift is bestowed without some wise and reasonable end. If Iiijins are of no use, Injins would not have been created; and I do suppose, could one dive to the bottom of things, it would be fouu j 78 THE PATHFINDER. that even the Mingo tribes were produced for some rational and proper purpose, though I confess it surpasses my meana to say what it is." " The Serpent greatly exposes himself to the enemy, in order to get his scalp ! This may lose us the day." " Not in his mind, Jasper. That one scalp has more honor. in it, According to the Sarpent s notions of warfare than a field s.. vered with slain, that kept the hair on thei; heads. Now, there was the fine young captain of the 60ii that threw away his life, in trying to bring off a three pounder from among the Frenchers, in the last skrimmage we had ; he thought he was sarving honor ; and I have known a young ensign wrap himself up in his colors, and go to sleep in his blood, fancying that he was lying on some thing softer even than buffalo-skins ! " " Yes, yes ; one can understand the merit of not hauling down an ensign." " And these are Chingachgook s colors ; he will keep them to show his children s children " Here the Path finder interrupted himself, shook his head in melancholy, and slowly added, " Ah s me ! no shoot of the old Mohican stem remains ! He has no children to delight with his tro phies ; no tribe to honor by his deeds ; he is a lone man in this world, and yet he stands true to his training and his gifts ! There is something honest and respectable in these, you must allow, Jasper ; yes, there is something decent in that." Here a great outcry from among the Iroquois was sue ceeded by the quick reports of their rifles ; and so eager did the enemy become, in the desire to drive the Delaware hack from his victim, that a dozen rushed into the river, several of whom even advanced near a hundred feet into the foaming current, as if they actually meditated a serious ortie. But Chingachgook continued as unmoved, as h-? -vimained unhurt by the missiles, accomplishing his task with the dexterity of long habit. Flourishing his reeking trophy, he gave the war-whoop in its most frightful intonations, and for a minute the arches of the silent woods, and the deep ?ista formed by the course of the river, echoed with criea so THE PATHFINDER. 79 terrific that Mabel bowed her head in irrepressible fear, while her uncle for a single instant actually meditated ilight. " This surpasses all I have heard from the wretches," Jasper exclaimed, stopping his ears, equally in horror and disgust. " Tis their music, boy ; their drum and fife, their trump ets and clarions. No doubt they love them sounds, for they stir up in them fierce feelings, and a desire for blood," re turned the Pathfinder, totally unmoved. " I thought them rather frightful when a mere youngster, but they have got to be like the whistle of the whip-poor-will, or the song of the cat-bird in my ear now. All the screeching riptyles that could stand atween the falls and the garrison, would have no effect on my narves, at this time of day. I say it not ir boasting, Jasper, for the man that lets in cowardice through the ears, must have but a weak heart, at the best ; sounds and outcries being more intended to alarm women and chil dren, than such as scout the forest, and face the foe. I hope the Sarpent is now satisfied, for here he comes with the scalp at his belt." Jasper turned away his head as the Delaware rose from the water, in pure disgust at his late errand, but the Path finder regarded his friend with the philosophical coolness of one who had made up his mind to be indifferent to things he deemed immaterial. As the Delaware passed deeper into the bushes, with a view to wring his trifling calico dress, and to prepare his rifle for service, he gave one glance of tri umph at his companions, and then all emotion connected with the recent exploit seemed to cease. " Jasper," resumed the guide, " step down to the station of Master Cap, and ask him to join us ; we have little time for a council, and yet oar plans must be laid quickly, for it will not be long before them Mingos will be plotting our ruin." The young man complied, and in a few minutes the foui were assembled near the shore, completely concealed from the view of their enemies, while they kept a vigilant watch over the proceedings of the latter, in o"der to consult OD iheir own future movements. 80 THE PATHFINDER. By this time the day had so far advanced, as to leave but a few minutes between the passing light and an obscurity that promised to be even deeper than common. The sun had already set, and the twilight of a low latitude would soon pass into the darkness of deep night. Most of the hopes of the party rested on this favorable circumstance, though it was not without its dangers also, as the very ob scurity which would favor their escape would be as likely to conceal the movements of their wily enemies. " The moment has come, men," Pathfinder commenced, " when our plans must be coolly laid, in order that we may act together, and with a right understanding of our errand and gifts. In an hour s time, these woods will be as dark as? midnight, and if we are ever to gain the garrison, it must be done under favor of this advantage. What say you. Master Cap ? For though none of the most exper enced in combats and retreats in the woods, your years entitle you to speak first, in a matter like this, and in a council." " And my near relationship to Mabel, Pathfinder, ought to count for something " " I don t know that I don t know that. Regard is re gard, and liking, liking, whether it be a gift of natur , or come from one s own judgment and inclinations. I will say noth ing for the Sarpent, who is past placing his mind on the women ; but as for Jasper and myself, we are as ready to stand atween the sergeant s daughter and the Mingos as her own brave father himself could be. Do I say more than the truth, lad ? " " Mabel may count on me to the last drop of my blood," said Jasper, speaking low, but with intense feeling. " Well, well," rejoined the uncle, " we will not discuss this matter, as all seem willing to serve the girl, and deeds are better than words. In my judgment, all we have to do is to go on board the canoe, when it gets to be so dark the enemy s lookouts can t see us, and run for the haven as winn and tide will allow." " That is easily said, but not so easily done," returned the guide. " We shall be more exposed in the river than by following the woods, and then there is the Oswego rift THE PATHFINDER. J beiow us, and I am far from sartain that Jasper himself can carry a boat oafely through it, in the dark. What say you, lad, as to your own skill and judgment ?" " I am of Master Cap s opinion about using the canoe. Mabel is* too tender to walk through swamps, and among roots of trees, in such a night as this promises to be, and then I always feel myself stouter of heart, and truer of ey when afloat than when ashore." " Stout of heart you always be, lad, and I think tolerablj true of eye for one who has lived so much in broad sun- *--hine, and so little in the woods. Ah s me ! the Ontario ^as no trees, or it would be a plain to delight a hunter s heart ! As to your opinion, friends, there is much for, and ag inst it. For it, it may be said water leaves no " What do you call the wake ? " interrupted the pertina cious and dogmatical Cap. "Anan?" " Go on," said Jasper ; " Master Cap thinks he is on the Dcean ; water leaves no trail " " It leaves none, Eau-douce, here-away, though I do not pretend to say what it may leave on the sea. Then a canoe is both swift and easy, when it floats with the cur rent, and the tender limbs of the sergeant s daughter will be favored by its motion. But, on the other hand, the river will have no cover but the clouds in the heavens, the rift is a ticklish thing for boats to venture into, even by daylight, and it is six fairly measured miles, by water, from this spot to the garrison. Then a trail on land is not easy to be found in the dark. I am troubled, Jasper, to say which way we ought to counsel and advise." " If the Serpent and myself could swim into the river, and bring off the other canoe," the young sailor replied, " it would seem to me that our safest course would je the water." " If, indeed ! and yet it might easily be done, as socn a it is a little darker. Well, well, considering the sergeant s daughter, and her gifts, I am not sartain it will not be the best. Though, were we only a party of men, U would be 82 THE PATHFINDER. like a hunt to the lusty and brave, to play at hide-and-seek with yonder miscreants, on the other shore. Jasper," con tinued the guide, into whose character there entered no in gredient that belonged to vain display or theatrical effect, " will you undertake to bring in the canoe ? " " I will undertake anything that will serve and protect Mabel, Pathfinder." " That is an upright feeling, and I suppose it is natur The Sarpent, who is nearly naked already, can help you and this will be cutting off one of the means of them devils to work their harm." . , This material point being settled, the different members of the party prepared themselves to put the project into execution. The shades of evening fell fast upon the forest, and by the time all was ready for the attempt, it was found impossible to discern objects on the opposite shore. Time now pressed, for Indian cunning could devise so many ex pedients for passing so narrow a stream, that the Pathfinder was getting impatient to quit the spot. While Jasper and his companion entered the river, armed with nothing but their knives and the Delaware s tomahawk, observing the greatest caution not to betray their movements, the guide brought Mabel from her place of concealment, and bidding her and Cap proceed along the shore to the foot of the rapids, he got into the canoe that remained in his posses sion, in order to carry it to the same place. This was easily effected. The canoe was laid against the bank, and Mabel and her uncle entered it, taking their seats as usual ; while the Pathfinder, erect in the stern, hold by a bush, in order to prevent the swift stream from sweeping them down its current. Several minutes of in tense and breathless expectation followed, while they await<3d the result of the bold attempt of their comrades, It will be understood that the two adventurers were compelled to swim across a deep and rapid channel, ere they could reach a part of the rift that admitted of wading. This portion of the enterprise was soon effected ; and Jas per and the Serpent struck the bottom, side by side, at th same instant. Having secured firm footing, they took hold THE PATHFINDER. 83 of each other s hands, and waded slowly and with extreme caution, in the supposed direction of the caLoe. But the darkness was already so deep, that they soon ascertained they were to be but little aided by the sense of sight, and that their search must be conducted on that species of in stinct which enables the woodsman to find his way, wheu the sun is hid, no stars appear, and all would seem chaos tc one less accustomed to the mazes of the forest. Under these circumstances, Jasper submitted to be guided by the Delaware, whose habits best fitted him to take the lead. Still it was no easy matter to wade amid the roaring ele ment at that hour, and retain a clear recollection 01 the localities. By the time they believed themselves to be in the centre of the stream, the two shores were discernible merely by masses of obscurity denser than common, the outlines against the clouds being barely distinguishable by the ragged tops of the trees. Once or twice the wanderers altered their course, in consequence of unexpectedly step ping into deep water, for they knew that the boat had lodged on the shallowest part of the rift. In short, with this fact for their compass, Jasper and his companion wan dered about in the water for near a quarter of an hour, and at the end of that period, which began to appear intermi nable to the young man, they found themselves apparently no nearer the object of their search than they had been at its commencement. Just as the Delaware was about to stop, in order to inform his associate that they would do well to return to the land, in order to take a fresh depart ure, he saw the form of a man, moving about in the water, almost within reach of his arm. Jasper was at his side^ and he at once understood that the Iroquois were engaged on the same errand as he was himself. " JVIingo ! " he uttered in Jasper s ear : " the Serpent will show his brother how to be cunning." The young sailor caught a glimpse of the figure at that instant, and the startling truth also flashed on his mind. Understanding the necessity of trusting all to the Delaware chief, he kept back, while his friend moved cautiously in the direction m wh ; ch the strange form had vanished. In 84 THE PATHFINDER. another moment, it was seen again, evidently moving towards themselves. The waters made such an qproar, that little was to be apprehended from ordinary sounds, and the Indian, turning his head, hastily said, " Leave it to the cunning of the Great Serpent." " Hugh ! " exclaimed the strange savage, adding, in the language of his people, " the canoe is found, but there were none to help me. Come, let us raise it from th< rock." * Willingly," answered Chingachgook, who understood the dialect, " lead ; we will follow." The stranger, unable to distinguish between voices and accents, amid the raging of the rapid, led the way in the necessary direction, and, the two others keeping close at his heels, all three speedily reached the canoe. The Iro- quois laid hold of one end, Chingachgook placed himself in the centre, and Jasper went to the opposite extremity, as it was important that the stranger should not detect the pres ence of a pale-face, a discovery that might be made, by the parts of the dress the young man still wore, as well as by the general appearance of his head. " Lift," said the Iroquois, in the sententious manner of his race ; and by a trifling effort the canoe was raised from the rock, held a moment in the air to empty it, and then placed carefully on the water, in its proper posi tion. All three held it firmly, lest it should escape from .heir hands, under the pressure of the violent current ; while the Iroquois, who led of course, being at the upper snd of the boat, took the direction of the eastern shore, or towards the spot where his friends waited his return. As the Delaware and Jasper well knew there must b several more of the Iroquois on the rift, from the circum stance that their own appearance had occasioned no surprise in the individual they had met, both felt the necessity of GUreme caution. Men less bold and determined would have thought that they were incurring too great a risk, by thus venturing into the midst of their enemies ; but these hardy borderers were unacquainted with fear, were accus tomed to hazard, and so well understood the necessity of al THE PATHFINDEK. 85 least preventing their foes from getting the boat, thai they would have cheerfully encountered even greater risks to secure their object. So all-important to the safety of Ma bel, indeed, did Jasper deem the possession or the destruc tion of this canoe, that he had drawn his knife, and stood ready to rip up the bark, in order to render the boat tem porarily unserviceable, should anything occur to compel the Delaware and himself to abandon their prize. In the mean time, the Iroquois, who led the way, pro ceeded slowly through the water in the direction of his own party, still grasping the canoe, and dragging his reluctant followers in his train. Once, Chingachgook raised his toma hawk and was about to bury it in the brain of his confiding and unsuspicious neighbor, but the probability that the death-cry or the floating body might give the alarm, induced that wary chief to change his purpose. At the next mo ment he regretted this indecision, for the three who clung to the canoe suddenly found themselves in the centre of a party of no less than four others who were in quest of it. After the usual brief, characteristic exclamations of satis faction, the savages eagerly laid hold of the canoe, for all seemed impressed with the necessity of securing this impor tant boat, the one side in order to assail their foes, and the other to secure their retreat. The addition to the party, however, was so unlocked for, and so completely gave the enemy the superiority, that, for a few moments, the ingenu ity and address of even the Delaware were at fault. The live Iroquois, who seemed perfectly to understand their errand, pressed forward towards their own shore, without pausing to converse ; their object being in truth to obtain the pad dles, which they had previously secured, and to embark three $>r four warriors, with all their rifles and powder-horns, the yyant of which had alone prevented their crossing the river by swimming as soon as it was dark. In this manner the body of friends and foes united reached the margin of the eastern channel, where, as in the case of the western, the river was too deep to be waded. Here a short pause succeeded, it being necessary to determine the in which the canoe was to be carried across. One 86 THE PATHFINDER. of the four who had just reached the boat, was a chief, and the habitual deference which the American Indian pays to merit, experience, and station, kept the others silent until this individual had spoken. The halt greatly added to the danger of discovering the presence of Jasper, in particular, who, however, had the pre caution to throw the cap he wore into the bottom of the canoe. Being without his jacket and shirt, the outline of his figure, in the obscurity, would now be less likely to at* tract observation. His position, too, at the stern of the canoe, a little favored his concealment, the Iroquois natu rally keeping their looks directed the other way. Not so with Chingachgook. This warrior was literally in the midst of his most deadly foes, and he could scarcely stir without touching one of them. Yet he was apparently unmoved, though he kept all his senses on the alert, in readiness to escape, or to strike a blow at the proper moment. By carefully abstaining from looking towards those behind him, he lessened the chances of discovery, and waited with the indomitable patience of an Indian for the instant when he should be required to act. " Let all my young men, but two, one at each end of the canoe, cross and get their arms," said the Iroquois chief. " Let the two push over the boat." The Indians quietly obeyed, leaving Jasper at the stern, and the Iroquois who had found the canoe at the bow of the light craft, Chingachgook burying himself so deep in the river, as to be passed by the others without detection. The splashing in the water, the tossing arms and the calls of one to another, soon announced that the four who had last joined the party were already swimming. As soon as this fact was certain, the Delaware rose, resumed his former sta tion, and began to think the moment for action was come. One less habitually under self-restraint than this warrior would probably have now aimed his meditated blow ; but Chingachgook knew there were more Iroquois behind him on the rift, and he was a warrior much too trained and ex perienced to risk anything unnecessarily. He suffered the Indian at the bow of the c*noe to push off into the deep THE PATHFINDER. 87 water, and then all three were swimming in the direction .*f the eastern shore. Instead, however, of helping the canoe across the swift current, no sooner did the Delaware and Jasper find themselves within the influence of its great est force, than both began to swim in a way to check their further progress across the stream. Nor wait this done sud denly, or in the incautious manner in which a civilized man would have been apt to attempt the artifice, but warily, and so gradually that the Iroqu-ois at the bow fancied at first he was merely struggling against the strength of the current. Of course, while acted on by these opposing efforts, the canoe drifted down stream, and in about a minute it was floating in still deeper water at the foot of the rift. Here, however, the Iroquois was not slow in finding that some thing unusual retarded their advance, and looking back, he first learned that he was resisted by the efforts of his com panions. That second nature, which grows up through habit, in stantly told the young Iroquois that he was alone with ene mies. Dashing the water aside, he sprang at the throat of Chingachgook, and the two Indians, relinquishing their hold of the canoe, seized each other like tigers. In the midst of the darkness of that gloomy night, and floating in an ele ment so dangerous to man, when engaged in deadly strife, they appeared to forget everything but their fell animosity, and their mutual desire to conquer. Jasper had now complete command of the canoe, which flew off like a feather impelled by the breath, under the violent reaction of the struggles of the two combatants. The first impulse of the youth was to swim to the aid of the Delaware, but the importance of securing the boat pre sented itself with tenfold force, while he listened to the heavy breathings of the warriors as they throttled each other, and he proceeded as fast as possible towards the western shore. This he soon reached, and after a short search, he succeeded in discovering the remainder of the party, and in procuring his clothes. A few words sufficed to explain the situation in which he had left the Delaware, and the manner in whicn the canoe had been obtained. 88 THE PATHFINDER. When those who had been left behind had heartf the explanations of Jasper, a profound stillness reigned among them, each listening intently, in the vain hope of catching some clue to the result of the fearful struggle that had just taken place, if it were not still going on in the water. Nothing was audible beyond the steady roar of the rushing river ; it being a part of the policy of their enemies on the opposite shore to observe the most deathlike stillness. " Take this paddle, Jasper," said Pathfinder, calmly, though the listeners thought his voice sounded more mel ancholy than usual, " and follow with your own canoe. It is unsafe for us to remain here longer." "But the Serpent?" " The Great Sarpent is in the hands of his own Deity, and will live or die according to the intentions of Provi dence. We can do him no good, and may risk too much by remaining here in idleness, like women talking over their distresses. This darkness is very precious " A loud, long, piercing yell came from the shore, and cut short the words of the guide. " What is the meaning of that uproar, Master Path finder ? " demanded Cap. " It sounds more like the out cries of devils than anything that can come from the throats of Christians and men." " Christians they are not, and do not pretend to be, and do not wish to be ; and in calling them devils you have scarcely misnamed them. That yell is one of rejoicing, and it is as conquerors they have given it. The body of the Sarpent, no doubt, dead or alive, is in their power ! " "And we] " exclaimed Jasper, who felt a pang of gen erous regret, as the idea that he might have averted the calamity presented itself to his mind, had he not deserted his comrade. " We can do the chief no good, lad, and must }uit this tpot as fast as possible." " Without one attempt to rescue him ! v r ithout even knowing whether he be dead or living ? " " Jasper is right," said Mabel, who could speak, though her voice sounded huskily and smothered ; " I have 09 THE PATHFINDER. 89 tears, ancle, and will stay here until we know what has become of our friend." "This seems reasonable, Pathfinder," put in Cap. " Your true seaman cannot well desert a messmate ; and I am glad to find that motives so correct exist among those A esh-water people." " Tut, tut ! " returned the imputient guide, forcing the janoe into the stream as he spoke ; " ye know nothing, and ye fear nothing. If ye value your lives, think of reaching Jie garrison, and leave the Delaware in the hands of Providence. Ah s me ! The deer that goes too often to the li 4 meets the hunter at last I " BC THE PATHFINDER CHAPTER VII. And is this Yarrow? this the stream Of which my fancy cherished So faithfully a waking dream ? An image that hath perished ? O that some minstrel s harp were near, To utter notes of gladness, And chase this silence from the air, That fills my soul with sadness. WORDSWOBTB. THE scene was not without its sublimity ; and the ar* dent, generous-minded Mabel felt her blood thrill in he* veins, and her cheeks flush, as the canoe shot into the strength of the stream to quit the spot. The darkness of the night had lessened by the dispersion of the clouds ; but the overhanging woods rendered the shores so obscure that the boats floated down the current in a belt of gloom that effectually secured them from detection. Still, there was necessarily a strong feeling of insecurity in all on board them ; and even Jasper, who by this time began to tremble in behalf of the girl, at every unusual sound that arose from the forest, kept casting uneasy glances around him, as he drifted on, in company. The paddle was used lightly, and only with exceeding care, for the slightest sound, in the breathing stillness of that hour and place, might apprise the watchful ears of the Iroquois of their position. All the accessories added to the impressive grandeur of her situation, and contributed to render the moment much the most exciting that had ever occurred in the brief existence of Mabel Dunham. Spirited, accustomed to self- relianco, and sustained by the pride of considering herself a soldier s daughter, she could hardly be said to be under the influence of fear; yet her heart often beat quicker than common, her fine blue eye lighted with an exhibition of a THE .AiHFlNDER. 91 resolution that was wasted in the darkness, ani her quick eiied feelings came in aid of the real sublimity that be longed to the scene, and to the incidents of the night. u Mabel ! " said the suppressed voice of Jasper, as th$ two canoes floated so near each other that the hand of the young man held them together, " you have no dread, yoi trust freely to our care, and willingness to protect you ? " " I am a soldier s daughter, as you know, Jasper Western^ and ought to be ashamed to confess fear. * " Rely on me on us all. Your uncle, Pathfinder, the Delaware, were the poor fellow here, I myself, will risk everything rather than harm should reach you." " I believe you, Jasper," returned the girl, her hand un consciously playing in the water. " I know that my uncle loves me, and will never think of himself until he has first thought of me ; and I believe you are all my father s friends, and would willingly assist his child. But I am not BO feeble and weak-minded as you may think ; for though only a girl from the towns, and, like most of that class, a little disposed to see danger where there is none, I promise you, Jasper, no foolish fears of mine shall stand in the way of your doing your duty." " The sergeant s daughter is right, and she is worthy of being honest Thomas Dunham s child," put in the Path finder. " Ah s me ! pretty one, many is the time that your father and I huve scouted and marched together on the fianks and rear of the enemy, in nights darker than this, and that, too, when we did not know but the next moment would lead us into a bloody ambushmeut. I was at his side when he got the wound in his shoulder, and the honest fellow will tell you, when you meet, the manner in which we contrived to cross the river that lay in our rear, in order to save his scalp." " He has told me," said Mabel, with more energy per haps than her situation rendered prudent. "I have hia letters, in which he has mentioned all that, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the service. God will remember it, Pathfinder ; and there is no gratitude lhat you can ask of the daughter, which she will not cheer fully repay for her father s life." 92 THE PATHFINDER. " Aye, that is the way with all your gentle and pure- hearted creatur s ! I have seen some of you before, and have heard of others ! The sergeant, himself, has talked to me of his own young days ; and of your mother, and of the manner in which he courted her, and of all the crossings and disapp intments, until he succeeded at last." " My mother did not live long to repay him for whai he did to win her," said Mabel, with a trembling lip. " So he tells me. The honest sergeant has kept mothing back, for being so many years my senior, he has looked on me, in our many scoutings together, as a sort of son." " Perhaps, Pathfinder," observed Jasper, with a huski- ness in his voice that defeated the attempt at pleasantry, " he would be glad to have you for oae, in reality." " And if he did, Eau-douce, where would be the sin of it ? He knows what I am on a trail, or a scout, and he has seen me often face to face with the Frenchers. I have sometimes thought, lad, that we all ought to seek for wives ; for the man that lives altogether in the woods, and in com pany with his enemies, or his prey, gets to lose some of the feelin of kind, in the end." " From the specimen I have seen," observed Mabel, " I should say that they who live much in the forest forget to learn many of the deceits and vices of the towns." " It is not easy, Mabel, to dwell always in the presence of God, and not feel the power of his goodness. I have attended church sarvice in the garrisons, and tried hard, as becomes a true soldier, to join in the prayers ; for though no enlisted sarvant of the king, I fight his battles and sarve his cause, and so I have endeVored to worship garrison- fashion, but never could raise within me the solemn feelinga and true affection that I feel when alone with God in the forest. There I seem to stand face to face with my Master ; all around me is fresh and beautiful, as it came from his hand, and there is no nicety of doctrine to chill the feelin s. No, no ; the woods are the true t ample, a ter all, for there the thoughts are free to mount higher even than the clouds." "You speak the truth, Master Pathfinder," said Cap THE PATHFINDER. 93 * and a truth that all who live much in solitude know. What, for instance, is the reason that seafaring men, in general, are so religious and conscientious in all they do, but the fact that they are so often alone with Providence, and have BO little to do with the wickedness of the land ! Many and many is the time that I have stood my watch, under the equator perhaps, or in the Southern Ocean, when the nights are lighted up with the fires of heaven ; and that is the time, I can tell you, my hearties, to bring a man to hii bearings, in the way of his sins. I have rattled down mine, again and again, under such circumstances, until the shrouds and lanyards of conscience have fairly creaked with the strain. I agree with you, Master Pathfinder, therefore, in saying if you want a truly religious man, go to Bea, or go into the woods." " Uncle, I thought seamen had little credit, generally, for their respect for religion." " All d d slander, girl ! Ask your seafaring man what his real, private opinion is of your landsmen, parsons and all, and you will hear the other side of the question. I know no class of men who have been so belied as sea faring men, in this particular ; and it is all because they do not stay at home to defend themselves, and pay the clergy. They haven t as much doctrine, perhaps, as some ashore, but as for all the essentials of Christianity, the seaman beats the landsman, hand-over-hand." " I will not answer for all this, Master Cap," returned Pathfinder, " but I dare say some of it may be true. I want no thunder and lightning to remind me of ray God, nor am I as apt to bethink me most of all his goodness, in trouble and tribulations, as on a calm, solemn, quiet day, hi a forest, when his voice is heard in the creaking of a dead branch, or in the song of a bird, as much, in my ears at least, as it is ever heard in uproar and gales. How is it with you, Eau-douce? you face the tempests as well as Master Cap, and ought to know something of the feelin ft of storms." " I fear that I am too young and too inexperienced, to be able to say much on such a subject," modestly answered Jasper. 94 THE PATHFINDER. " But you have your feelings ? " said Mabel, quickly You cannot no one can live among such scenes without feeling how much they ought to trust in God ! " " I shall not belie my training so much as to say I do not sometimes think of these things, but I fear it is not as often, or as much as I ought." " Fresh water ! " resumed Cap, pithily ; " you are not to expect too much of the young man, Mabel. I think they call you, sometimes, by a name which would insinuate all this. Eau-de-vie, is it not ? " " Eau-douce," quietly replied Jasper, who from sailing on the lake had acquired a knowledge of French, as well as of several of the Indian dialects. " It is a name the Iroquois have given me to distinguish me f^om some of my compan ions who once sailed upon the sea, and are fond of filling the ears of the natives with stories of their great salt-water lakes." " And why shouldn t they ? I dare say they do the savages no harm. They may not civilize them, but they will not make them greater barbarians than they are. Aye, aye Oh-the-Deuce ; that must mean the white brandy, whi^-h is no great matter after all, and may well enough be called the deuce, for deuced stuff it is ! " " The signification of Eau-douce is sweet water, or water that can be drunk, and it is the manner in which the French express fresh water," rejoined Jasper, a little nettled at the distinction made by Cap, although the latter i^as the uncle of Mabel. "And how the devil do they make water out of Oh-the- Deuce, when it means brandy in Eau-de-vie ? This may be the French used here-away, but it is not that they use ID Burdux and other French ports ; besides, among seamen Eau always means brandy, and Eau-de-vie, brandy of a high proof. I think nothing of your ignorance, young man, foi it is natural to your situation, and cannot be helped. If you will return with me, and make a v y ge or two on the Atlantic, it will serve you a good turn the remainder of your days, and Mabel, there, and all the other young women, near the coast, will think all the better of you, THE PATHFINDER. 96 ihould you live to be as old as one of the trees in this forest." " Nay, nay," interrupted the single-hearted and generoun guide, " Jasper wants not for friends in this region, I cao assure you ; and though seeing the world, according to his habits,, may do him good as well as another, we shall think none the worse of him if he never quits us. Eau-douce or Eau-de-vie, he is a brave, true-hearted youth, and I alwayu ileep as sound when he is on the watch as if I was up and si \rring myself; aye, and for that matter, sounder too, sergeant s daughter, here, doesn t believe it necessary the lad to go to sea in order to make a man of him, or one who is worthy to be respected and esteemed." Mabel made no reply to this appeal, and she even looked towards the western shore, although the darkness rendered the natural movement unnecessary to conceal her face. But Jasper felt that there was a necessity for his saying something; the pride of youth and manhood revolting at the idea of his being in a condition not to command the respect of his fellows, or the smiles of his equals of the other sex. Still he was unwilling to utter aught that might be considered harsh, to the uncle of Mabel ; and his self-com mand was, perhaps, more creditable than his modesty and spirit. " I pretend not to things I don t possess," he said, " and lay no claim to any knowledge of the ocean, or of naviga tion. We steer by the stars and the compass on these lakes, running from headland to headland, and, having lit tle need of figures and calculations, make no use of them. But we have our claims, notwithstanding, as I have often heard from those who have passed years on the ocean. In the first place we have always the land aboard, and much of the time on a lee-shore, and that I have frequently heard nmkes hardy sailors. Our gales are sudden and severe, ind we are compelled to run for our ports at all hours " " You have, your leads," interrupted Cap. " They are of little use, and are seldom cast." "The deep seas" " I have heard of such things, but confess I never saw ne." i*8 1HE PATHFINDER. * Oh-the-Deuce, with a vengeance. A trader, and no deep sea ! Why, boy, you cannot pretend to be anything of a mariner. Who the devil ever heard of a seaman with out his deep sea ? " " I do not pretend to any particular skill, Master Cap" " Except in shooting falls, Jasper except in shooting fells and rifts," said y Pathfinder, coming to the rescue ; " in which business even you, Master Cap, must allow he ha8 gome handiness. In my judgment, every man is to be es teemed or condemned according to his gifts ; and if Master Cap is useless in running the Oswego Falls, I try to remem ber that he is useful when out of sight of land ; and if Jasper be useless when out of sight of land, I do not forget that he has a true eye and steady hand when running the falls." " But Jasper is not useless would not be useless when out of sight of land," said Mabel, with a spirit and energy that caused her clear sweet voice to be startling amid the solemn stillness of that extraordinary scene. "No one can be useless there who can do as much here, is what I mean ; though I dare say he is not as well acquainted with ships as my uncle." " Aye, bolster each other up in your ignorance," returned Cap, with a sneer ; " we seamen are so much outnumbered when ashore that it is seldom we get our dues; but when you want to be defended, or trade is to be carried on, there is outcry enough for us." " But ; incle, landsmen do not come to attack our coasts ; so that seamen only meet seamen." " So much for ignorance ! Where are all the enemies Jjat have landed in this country, French and English; let m 9 i uquire, niece ? " " Sure enough, where are they ! " ejaculated Pathfinder. None can tell better than we who dwell in the woods. Master Cap. I have often followed their line of march by bones bleaching in the rain, and have found their trail by graves, years after they and their pride had vanished together Ginirals and privates, they Jay scattered throughout the THE PATHFINDER. 97 land, so many proofs of what men are when led on by their love of great names, and the wish to be more than their fellows." u I must say, Master Pathfinder, that you sometimes uttei opinions that are a little remarkable, for a man who lives by the rifle ; seldom snuffing the air but he smells gunpowder, or turning out of his berth but to bear down on an enemy." " If you think I pass my days in warfare against my kind, you know neither me nor my history. The man that lives in the woods, and on the frontiers, must take the chances of the things among which he dwells. For this I am not ac countable, being but an humble and powerless hunter, and scout, and guide. My real calling is to hunt for the army on its marches, and in times of peace ; although T am more especially engaged in the service of one officer, who is now absent in the settlements, where I never follow him. No, no ; bloodshed and warfare are not my real gifts, but peace and marcy. Still, I must face the enemy as well as another, and as for a Mingo, I look upon him as man looks on a snake a creatur to be put beneath the heel, whenever a fitting occasion offers." " Well, well ; I have mistaken your calling, which I had thought as regularly warlike as that of a ship s gunner. There is my brother-in-law, now; he has been a soldier since he was sixteen, and he looks upon his trade as every way as respectable as that of a seafaring man, which is a point I hardly think it worth while to dispute with him." " My father has been taught to believe that it is honor able to carry arms," said Mabel, " for his father was a sol dier before him." " Yes, yes," resumed the guide, " most of the sergeant s gifts are martial, and he looks at most things in this world oyer the barrel of his musket. One of his notions now, is to prefar a king s piece to a regular double-sighted, long- barreled rifle. Such consaits will come over men, from long habit : and prejudice is perhaps the commonest failing of human natur ." " Ashore, I grant you," said Cap. " I never return from A v*y ge but I make th3 very same remark. Now, the last 98 THE PATHFINDER. time I caine in, I found scarcely a man in all York who would think of matters and things in general as I thought about them myself. Every man I met appeared to have bowsed all his idees up into the wind s eye, and when he did fall off a little from his one-sided notions, it was commonly to wear short round on his heel, and to lay up as close as ever on the other tack." " Do you understand this, Jasper ? " the smiling MabeJ half whispered to the young man, who still kept his own canoe so near as to be close at her side. " There is not so much difference between salt and fresh *?ater, that we who pass our time on them cannot compre hend each other. It is no great merit, Mabel, to understand the language of our trade." " Even religion," continued Cap, " isn t moored in exactly the same place it was in my young days. They veer and haul upon it ashore, as they do on all other things, and it is no wonder if now and then they get jammed. Everything seems to change but the compass, and even that has its variations." " Well," returned the Pathfinder, " I thought Christianity and the compass both pretty stationary." " So they are, afloat, bating the variations. Religion at sea is just the same thing to-day that it was when I first put my hand into the tar-bucket. No one will dispute it who has the fear of God before his eyes. I can see no difference between the state of religion on board ship now, and what it was when I was a younker. But it is not so ashore, by any means. Take my word for it, Master Pathfinder, it is a difficult thing to find a man I mean a landsman who views these matters to-day, exactly as he looked at them forty years ago." 4 And yet God is unchanged ; his works are unchanged ; his holy word is unchanged ; and all that ought to bless and honor his name, should be unchanged too ! " " Not ashore. That is the worst of the land ; it is all the while in motion, I tell you, though it k oks so solid. If you plant a tree, and leave it, on your return from a three years you don t find it at all the sort of thing you left it. THE PATHFINDER. 9* The towns grow, and new streets spring up ; the wuarves are altered ; and the whole face of the earth undergoes change. Now a ship comes back from an India v y ge just the thing she sailed, bating the want of paint, wear and tear, and the accidents of llie sea. " That is too true, Master Cap, and more s the pity./ Ah s me ! the things they call improvements and betterments, are undermining and defacing the land ! The glorious works of God are daily cut down and destroyed, and the hand of man seems to be upraised in contempt of his mighty will. They tell me there are fearful signs of what we may all come to, to be met with west and south of the Great Lakes, though I have never yet visited that region \/ " What do you mean, Pathfinder ? " modestly inquired Jasper. " I mean the spots marked by the vengeance of Heaven, or which, perhaps, have been raised up as solemn warnings to the thoughtless and wasteful, here-aways. They call them prairies ; and I have heard as honest Delawares as I ever knew, declare that the finger of God has been laid so heavily on them, that they are altogether without trees. Tliis is an awful visitation to befall innocent arth, and can only mean to show to what frightful consequences a heedless desire to destroy may lead." " And yet I have seen settlers who have much fancied these open spots, because they saved them the toil of clear ing. You relish your bread, Pathfinder, and yet wheat will QOt ripen in the shade." ;< But honesty will, and simple wishes, and a love ci God, Jasper. Even Master Cap will tell you a treeless plain inuar resemble a desert island." " Why that as it may be," put in Cap. " Desert islands, too, have their uses, for they serve to correct the reckonings by. If my taste is consulted, I should never quarrel with a plain for wanting trees. As nature has given a man eyes to look about with, and a sun to shine, were it not for ship building, and now and then a house, I can see no great use in a Xree ; especially one that don t bear monkeys or fruit." To this remark the guide made no answer, beyond a low 100 THE PATHFINDER. sound, intended to enjoin silence on his companions. While the desultory conversation just related had been carried on in subdued voices, the canoes were dropping slowly down with the current, within the deep shadows of the western shore, the paddles being used merely to preserve the desired direction and proper positions. The strength of the stream varied materially, the water being seemingly still in places, while in other reaches it flowed at a rate exceeding two. or even three miles in the hour. On the rifts it even dashed forward with a velocity that was appalling to the unpracticed eye. Jasper was of opinion that they might drift down with the current to the mouth of the river in two hours from the time they left the shore, and he and the Pathfinder had agreed on the expediency of suffering the canoes to float of themselves for a time, or at least until they had passed the first dangers of their new movement. The dialogue had been carried on in voices, too, guardedly low ; for, though the quiet of deep solitude reigned in that vast and nearly boundless forest, nature was speaking with her thousand tongues, in the eloquent language of night in a wilderness. The air sighed through ten thousand trees, the water rippled, and, at places, even roared along the shores ; and now and then was heard the creaking of a branch, or a trunk, as it rubbed against some object similar to itself, under the vibra tions of a nicely balanced body. All living sounds had ceased. Once, it is true, the Pathfinder fancied he heard the howl of a distant wolf, 1 of which a few prowled through these woods ; but it was a transient and doubtful cry, that might possibly have been attributed to the imagination. When he desired his companions, however, to cease talking, *_n the manner just mentioned, his vigilant ear had caught he peculiar sound that is made by the parting of a dried >ranch of a tree, and which, if his senses did not deceive lim, came from the western shore. All who are accustoms I o that particular sound, will understand how readily the tar receives it, and how easy it is to distinguish the tread which breaks the branch from every other noise ..f the forest. " There is the footstep of a man on the bank," said Path- 1 See Appendix. Note (J. THE PATHFINDER 101 finder to Jasper, speaking in neither a whisper nor yet in a voice loud enough to be heard at any distance. " Can the accursed Iroquc is have crossed the river, already, with their arms, and withoat a boat ? " " It may be the Delaware ! He would follow us of course down this bank, and would know where to look for us. Let me draw closer in to the shore, and reconnoitre." " Go, boy, but be light with the paddle, and on no account rentur ashore on an onsartainty." " Is this prudent ? " demanded Mabel, with an impet uosity that rendered her incautious in modulating her sweet voice. " Very imprudent, if you speak so loud, fair one. I like your voice, which is soft and pleasing, after listening so long to the tones of men ; but it must not be heard too much, or too freely, just now. Your father, the honest sergeant, will tell you, when you meet him, that silence is a double virtue on a trail. Go, Jasper, and do justice to your own character for prudence." Ten anxious minutes succeeded the disappearance of the canoe of Jasper, which glided away from that of the Path finder so noiselessly that it had been swallowed up in the gloom before Mabel allowed herself to believe the young man would really venture alone on a service that struck her imagination as singularly dangerous. During this time the party continued to float with the current, no one speaking, and it might almost be said no one breathing, so strong was the general desire to catch the minutest sound that should come from the shore. But the same solemn, we might indeed say sublime, quiet reigned as before ; the washing of the water, as it piled up against some slight obstruction, and the singing of the trees, alone interrupting the slumbers of the forest. At the end of the period mentioned the snapping of dried branches was again faintly heard, and the Path finder fancied that the sound of smothered voices reached aim. " I may be mistaken," he said, " for the thoughts often .fancy what the heart wishes ; but them were notes like the low tones of the Delaware ! " 102 THE PATHFINDER. " Do the dead of the savages ever walk ? * demanded Cap. " Aye, and run, too, in their happy hunting-grounds, but nowhere else. A red -skin finishes with the arth after the breath quits the body. It is not one of his gifts to linger around his wigwam when his hour has passed." " I see some object on the water," whispered Mabel, whose eye had not ceased to dwell on the body of gloom with close intensity since the disappearance of Jasper. " It is the canoe ! " returned the guide, greatly relieved. " All must be safe, or we should have heard from the lad." In another minute the two canoes, which became visible co those they carried only as they drew near each other, again floated side by side, and the form of Jasper was rec ognized at the stern of his own boat. The figure of a sec ond man was seated in the bow, and as the young sailor so wielded his paddle as to bring the face of his companion near the eyes of the Pathfinder and Mabel, they both rec ognized the person of the Delaware. " Chingachgook my brother ! " said the guide, in the dialect of the other s people, a tremor shaking his voice that betrayed the strength of his feelings. " Chief of the Mohi cans ! my heart is very glad. Often have we passed through blood and strife together, but I was afraid it was never to be so again." " Hugh ! Mirigos squaws ! Three of iheir scalps hang at my girdle. They do not know how to strike the Great Serpent of the Delawares. Their hearts have no blood, and their thoughts are on their return path, across the waters of the Great Lake." " Have you been among them, chief ? and what has be come of the warrior who was in the river ? " " He has turned into a fish, and lies at the bottom with ilie eels ! Let his brothers bait their hooks for him. Path finder, I have counted the enemy, and have touched theii rifles." " Ah ! I thought he would be venturesome ! " exclaimed the guide, in English. " The risky fellow has been in the midst of them, and has brought us back their whole history THE PATHFINDER. 103 Speak, Chingachgook, and I will make our friends as know ing as ourselves." The Delaware now related in a low, earnest manner the substance of all his discoveries since he was last seen strug gling with the foe in the river. Of the fate of his antag onist he said no more, it not being usual for a warrior to boast in his more direct and useful narratives. As soon as he had conquered in that fearful strife, however, he swam to the eastern shore, landed with caution, and wound his way in amongst the Iroquois, concealed by the darkness, unde tected, and, in the main, even unsuspected. Once, indeed, he had been questioned, but answering that he was Arrow head, no further inquiries were made. By the passing re marks he soon ascertained that the party was out expressly to intercept Mabel and her uncle, concerning whose rank, however, they had evidently been deceived. He also ascer tained enough to justify the suspicion that Arrowhead had betrayed them to their enemies, for some motive that it was not now easy to reach, as he had not yet received the reward of his services. Pathfinder communicated no more of this intelligence to his companions than he thought might relieve their appre hensions, intimating at the same time that now was the moment for exertion, the Iroquois not having yet entirely recovered from the confusion created by their losses. " We shall find them at the rift, I make no manner of doubt," he continued, u and there it will be our fate to pass them or to fall into their hands. The distance to the garri son will then be so short, that I have been thinking of the plan of landing with Mabel, myself, that I may take her in by some of the by-ways and leave the canoes to their chancea in the rapids." u It will never succeed, Pathfinder," eagerly interrupted Jasper. u Mabel is not strong enough to tramp die ivoods in a night like this. Put her m my skiff, and I will lose my life, or carry her through the rift safely, dark as it is." " No doubt you will, lad ; no one doubts your willingness to do anything to sarve the sergeant s daughter : but it must \>e the eye of Providence, and not your own, that will take you safely through the Oswego Rift in a night like this." 104 THE PATHFINDER. " And who will lead her safely to the garrison if she land? Is not the night as dark on shore as on the water ? or do you think I know less of my calling than you know of yours ? " " Spiritedly said, lad ; but if I should lose my way in the dark, and I believe no man can say truly that such a thing ever yet happened to me but, if I should lose my way, no other harm would come of it than to pass a night in the for est, whereas a false turn of the paddle, or a broad sheer of the canoe, would put you and the young woman into the river, out of which it is more than probable the sergeant s daughter would never come alive." " I will leave it to Mabel, herself ; I am certain that she will feel more secure in the canoe." " I have great confidence in you both," answered the girl, " and have no doubts that either will do all he can to prove to my father how much he values him ; but I confess I should not like to quit the canoe, with the certainty we have of there being enemies like those we have seen in the forest. But my uncle can decide for me in this matter." " I have no liking for the woods/ said Cap, " while one has a clear drift like this on the river. Besides, Master Pathfinder, to say nothing of the savages, you overlook the sharks." " Sharks ! who ever heard of sharks in the wilderness ! " " Aye ! sharks, or bears, or wolves no matter what you call a thing, so it has the mind and power to bite." " Lord, lord, man ; do you dread any creatur that is to be found in the American forest ? A catamount is a skeary animal, I will allow, but then it is nothing in the hands of a practysed hunter. Talk of the Mingos and their deviltries, if you will ; but do not raise a false alarm about bears and wolves." " Aye, aye, Master Pathfinder, this is all well enough, for you, who probably know the name of every creature you would meet. Use is everything, and it makes a man bold when he might otherwise be bashful. I have known sea men in the low latitudes swim for hours at a time among sharks fifteen or twenty feet long, and think no more of THE PATHFINDER. 106 what they were doing than a countryman thinks of whom he is amongst, when he comes out of a church-door of a Sunday afternoon." " This is extraordinary ! " exclaimed Jasper, who in good sooth had not yet acquired that material part of his trade, the ability to spin a yarn. " I have always heard that it was certain death to venture in the water among sharks ! " I forgot to say that the lads always took capstan-bars, or gunners handspikes, or crows with them, to lap the beasts over the noses, if they got to be troublesomo. No, no ; I have no liking for bears and wolves, though a whale, in my eye, is very much the same sort of fish as a red herring, after it is dried and salted. Mabel and I had better stick to the canoe." " Mabel would do well to change canoes," added Jasper. " This of mine is empty, and even Pathfinder will allow that my eye is surer than his own, on the water." "That I will, cheerfully, boy. The water belongs to your gifts, and no one will deny that you have improved them to the utmost. You are right enough in believing that the sergeant s daughter will be safer in your canoe than in this ; and, though I would gladly keep her near myself, 1 have her welfare too much at heart, not to give her honest advice. Bring your canoe close alongside, Jasper, and I will give you what you must consider a very precious treasure." " I do consider it," returned the youth, not losing a mo ment in complying with the request ; when Mabel passed from one canoe to the other, taking her seat on the effects which had hitherto composed its sole cargo. As soon as the arrangement was made, the canoes sepa rated a short distance, and the paddles were used, though mth great care to avoid making any noise. The conversation gradually ceased, and as the dreaded rift was approached, all Vecarne impressed with the gravity of the moment. That .:ieir enemies would endeavor to reach this point before :hem, was almost certain ; and it seemed so little probable any one should attempt to pass it, in the profound obscurity wmcb reigned, that Pathfinder was coi fident parties were 106 THE PATHFINDER. on both sides of the river, in the hope of intercepting the* when they might land. He would not have made the pro posal he did, had he not felt sure of his own ability to convert this very anticipation of success into a means of defeating the plans of the Iroquois. As the arrangement now stood, however, everything depended on the skill of those who guided the canoes; for should either hit a rock, if not split asunder, it would almost certainly be upset, and then would come not only all the hazards of the river itself but, for Mabel, the certainty of falling into the hands of her pursuers. The utmost circumspection consequently became necessary, and each one was too much engrossed with his own thoughts to feel a disposition to utter more than was called for by the exigencies of the case. As the canoes stole silently along, the roar of the rift became audible, and it required all the fortitude of Cap to keep his seat, while these boding sounds were approached, amid a darkness that scarcely permitted a view of the out lines of the wooded shore, and of the gloomy vault above his head. He retained a vivid impression of the falls, and his imagination was not now idle, in swelling the dangers of the rift to a level with those of the headlong descent he had that day made, and even to increase them, under the influence of doubt and uncertainty. In this, however, the old mariner was mistaken, for the Oswego Rift and the Oswego Falls are very different in their characters and violence; the former being no more than a rapid, that glances among shallows and rocks, while the latter really deserved the name it bore, as has been already shown. Mabel certainly felt distrust and apprehension ; but her entire situation was so novel, and her reliance on her guide BO great, that she retained a self-command that might not have existed had she clearer perceptions of the truth, 01 been better acquainted with the helplessness of men, when placed in opposition to the power and majesty of nature. k That is the spot you have mentioned ? " she said to Jasper, when the roar of the rift first came fresh and dis tinct on her ear. ** It is ; and I beg you to have confidence in me. W THE PATHFINDER, 107 re not old acquaintances, Mabel, but we live many days in one, in this wilderness. I think already that I have known vou years ! " " And I do not feel as if you were a stranger to me. Jasper. I have every reliance on your skill, as well as on your disposition to serve me." "We shall see we shall see. Pathfinder is striking the rapids too near the centre of the river. The bed of the water is closer to the eastern shore ; but I cannot make him hear me i>rw. Hold firmly to the canoe, Mabel, and fear nothing." At the next moment, the swift current sucked them into the rift, and for three or four minutes the awe-struck, rather than the alarmed girl, saw nothing around her but sheets of glancing foam ; heard nothing but the roar of waters. Twenty times did the canoe appear about to dash against some curling and bright wave, that showed itself even amid that obscurity, and as often did it glide away again, un harmed, impelled by the vigorous arm of him who governed its movements. Once, and once only, did Jasper seem to lose command of his frail bark, during which brief space it fairly whirled entirely round ; but, by a desperate effort, he brought it again under control, recovered the lost channel, and was soon rewarded for all his anxiety by finding himself floating quietly in the deep water below the rapids ; secure from every danger, and without having taken in enough of the element to serve for a draught. " All is over, Mabel," the young man cheerfully cried. " The danger is past, and you may now, indeed, hope to meet your father this very night." " God be praised ! Jasper, we shall owe this great hap* piness to you ! " " The Pathfinder may claim a full share in the merit ; but what has become of the other canoe ? " " I see something near us on the water ; is it not the boat of our friends ? " A few strokes of the paddle brought Jasper to the side of the object in question. It was the other canoe, empty and bottom upwards. No sooner did the young man ascer 108 THE PATHFINDER. tain this fact, than he began to search for the swimmers, and, to his g~eat joy, Cap was soon discovered drifting dowK with the current; the old seaman preferring the chances of drowning to those of landing among savages. He was hauled into the canoe, though not without difficulty, and then the search ended ; for Jasper was persuaded that the Path- tinder would wade to the shore, the water being shallow, in preference to abandoning his beloved rifle. The remainder of the passage was short, though made amid darkness and doubt. After a short pause, a dull roar ing sound was heard, which at times resembled the mutter- ings of distant thunder, and then again brought with it the washing of waters. Jasper announced to his companions that they now heard the surf of the lake. Low, curved spits of land lay before them, into the bay formed by one of which the canoe glided, and then it shot up noiselessly upon a gravelly beach. The transition that followed was so hurried and great, that Mabel scarce knew what passed. In the course of a few minutes, however, sentinels had been passed, a gate was opened, and the agitated girl found her self in the arms of a parent who was almost a Granger to her. THE PATHFINDER. 109 CHAPTER VIII. A land of love, and a land of light, Withouten sun, or moon, or night; Where the river swa d a living stream, And the light a pure celestial beam : The land of vision, it would seem A still, an everlasting dream. QUEEN S WAKX. THB rest that succeeds fatigue, and which attends a lewly awakened sense of security, is generally sweet and dsep. Such was the fact with Mabel, who did not rise from her humble pallet, such a bed as a sergeant s daughter might claim in a remote frontier post, until long after the garrison had obeyed the usual summons of the drums, and had assembled at the early parade. Sergeant Dunham, on whose shoulders fell the task of attending to these ordinary and daily duties, had got through all his morning avoca tions, and was beginning to think of his breakfast, ere his cliild left her room and came into fresh air, equally be wildered, delighted, and grateful, at the novelty and security of her new situation. At the time of which we are writing, Oswego was one of the extreme frontier posts of the British possessions on this continent. It had not been long occupied, and was garrisoned by a battalion of a regiment that had been originally Scotch, but into which many Americans had been received, since its arrival in this country, an innovation that had led the way to Mabel s father filling the humble, but responsible, situation of the oldest sergeant. A few young officers, also, who were natives of the colonies, were to be found in the corps. The fort itself, like most works of that character, was better adapted to resist an attack of a vages than to withstand a regular siege ; but the great 110 THE PATHFINDER. Difficulty of transporting heavy artillery ani other necessa ries, rendered the occurrence of the latter a probability so remote, as scarcely to enter into the estimate of the engi neers who had planned the defenses. There were bastions of earth and logs, a dry ditch, a stockade, a parade of con siderable extent, and barracks of logs, that answered the double purpose of dwellings and fortifications. A few light field-pieces stood in the area of the fort, ready to be con veyed to any point where they might be wanted ; and one or two heavy iron guns looked out from the summits of the advanced angles, as so many admonitions to the audacious to respect their power. When Mabel, quitting the convenient, but comparatively retired hut, where her father had been permitted to place her, issued into the pure air of the morning, she found herself at the foot of a bastion that lay invitingly before her, with a promise of giving a coup d aeil of all that had been concealed in the darkness of the preceding night. Tripping up the grassy ascent, the light-hearted as well as light-footed girl found herself at once on a point where the sight, at a few varying glances, could take in all the ex ternal novelties of her new situation. To the southward lay the forest through which she had been journeying so many weary days, and which had proved so full of dangers. It was separated from the stockade by a belt of open land, that had been principally cleared of its woods to form the martial constructions around her. This glacis, for such in fact was its military uses, might have covered a hundred acres, but with it every sign of civilization ceased. All beyond was forest ; that dense, interminable forest that Mabel could now picture to herself, through her recollections, with its hidden, glassy lakes, its dark, rolling streams, and its world of nature ! Turning from this view, our heroine felt her cheek fanned by a fresh and grateful breeze, such as she had not experienced since quitting the far-distant coast. Here a new scene presented itself; although expected, it was not without a start, and a low exclamation indicative of pleas- are, that the eager eyes of the girl drank in its beauties, THE PATHFINDER. Ill To the north, and east, and west, in every direction, in short, over one entire half of the novel panorama, lay a Held of rolling waters. The element was neither of that glassy green which distinguishes the American waters in general, nor yet of the deep-blue of the ocean ; the color being of a slightly amber hue, that scarcely affected its limpidity. No land was to be seen, with the exception of the adjacent coast, which stretched to the right and left, in an unbroken outline of forest, with wide bays, and low headlands or points ; still, much of the shore was rocky, and into its caverns the sluggish waters occasionally rolled, producing a hollow sound, that resembled the concussions of a distant gun. No sail whitened the surface, no whale or other fish gamboled on its bosom, no sign of use or service rewarded the longest and most minute gaze at its boundless expanse. It was a scene, on one side, of ap parently endless forests, while a waste of seemingly in terminable water spread itself on the other. Nature had appeared to delight in producing grand effects, by setting two of her principal agents in bold relief to each other, neglecting details ; the eye turning from the broad carpet of leaves to the still broader field of fluid, from the endless but gentle heavings of the lake, to the holy calm and poet ical solitude of the forest, with wonder and delight. Mabel Dunham, though unsophisticated, like most of her countrywomen of that period, arid ingenuous and frank as any warm-hearted and sincere-minded girl well could be, was not altogether without a feeling for the poetry of this beautiful earth of ours. Although she could scarcely be said to be educated at all, for few of her sex, at that day, md in this country, received much more than the rudiments of plain English instruct) -m, still she had been taught much more than was usual for young women in her own station in life, and, in one sense certainly, she did credit to her teaching. The widow of a field-officer, who formerly be longed to the same regiment as KeTTather, had taken th child in charge at the death of its mother ; and under t care of this lady, Mabel had acquired some tastes, an many ideas, which otherwise might always have remain 112 THE PATHFINDER. strangers to her. Her situation in the family had :ieen less that of a domestic than of an humble companion, and the results were quite apparent in her attire, her language, her sentiments, and even in her feelings, though neither perhaps, rose to the level of those which would properly characterize a lady. She had lost the coarser and less refined habits and manners of one in her original position, wilhou*. having quite reached a point that disqualified her I for the situation in life that the accidents of birth and fortune would probably compel her to fill. All else that was distinctive and peculiar in her, belonged to natural character. /^^With such antecedents, it will occasion the reader no / wonder if he learn that Mabel viewed the novel scene / before her with a pleasure far superior to that produced by L vulgar surprise. She felt its ordinary beauties as most would have felt them, but she had also a feeling for its sub limity ; for that softened solitude, that calm grandeur and eloquent repose, that ever pervade broad views of natural objects which are yet undisturbed by the labors and strug gles of man. " How beautiful ! " she exclaimed, unconscious of speak ing, as she stood on the solitary bastion, facing the air from the lake, and experiencing the genial influence of its fresh ness pervading both her body and her mind. " How very beautiful ; and yet how singular ! " The words, and the train of her ideas, were interrupted by a touch of a finger on her shoulder, and turning, in the expectation of seeing her father, Mabel found Pathfinder at ber side. He was leaning quietly on his long rifle, and laughing in his quiet manner, while, with an outstretched #rm, he swept over the whole panorama of land and water. " Here you have both our domains," he said, " Jasper s and mine. The lake is for him, and the woods are for me. The lad sometimes boasts of the breadth of his dominions, but I tell him my trees make as broad a plain on the face of this arth, as all his water. Well, Mabel, you are fit for cither, for I do not see that fear of the Mingos, or night marches, can destroy your pretty looks," THE PATHFINDER. 113 u It is a new character for the Pathfinder to appear in, to compliment a silly girl." " Not silly, Mabel ; no, not in the least silly. The ser geant s daughter would do discredit to her worthy father, were she to do or say anything that, in common honesty, could be called silly," " Then she must take care and not put too much faith in treacherous, flattering words. But, Pathfinder, I rejoice to see you among us again ; for, though Jasper did not seem to feel much uneasiness, I was afraid some accident might have happened to you and your friend, on that fright ful rift." " The lad knows us both, and was sartain that we should not drown, which is scarcely one of my gifts. It would have been hard swimming, of a sartainty, with a long-bar reled rifle in the hand ; and what between the game, and the savages, and the French, Killdeer and I have gone through too much in company, to part very easily. No, no ; we waded ashore, the rift being shallow enough for that, with small exceptions, and we landed with our arms in our hands. We had to take our time for it, on account of the Iroquois, I will own ; but, as soon as the skulking vaga bonds saw the lights that the sergeant sent down to your canoe, we well understood they would decamp, since a visit might have been expected from some of the garrison. So it was only sitting patiently on the stones, for an hour, and all the danger was over. Patience is the greatest of virtue* in a woodsman." "I rejoice to hear this, for fatigue itself could scaicely make me sleep, for thinking of what might befall you." " Lord bless your tender little heart, Mabel ! But this is ue way with all your gentle ones. I must say, on my part, however, that I was right glad to see the lanterns come ;1own to the water-side, which I Knew to be a sure sign of your safety. \Ve hunters and guides are rude beings, but v r e have our feelin s, our idees, as well as any giniral in the Hrmy. Both Jasper and I would have died, before you should have come to harm, we would." " I thank you for all you did for me, Pathfinder ; from 8 114 THE PATHFINDER. the bottom of my heart, I thank you, and depend on it my father shall know it. I have already told him much, but still have a duty to perform on this subject." " Tush, Mabel ! The sergeant knows what the woods be, and what men, true red-men be, too. There is little need to tell him anything about it. Well, now you have met your father, do you find the kouest old soldier the sort of person you expected to find ? " " He is my own dear father, and received me as a soldier And a father should receive a child. Have you known him long Pathfinder?" * That is as people count time. I was just twelve when the sergeant took me on my first scouting, and that is now more than twenty years ago. We had a tramping time of it, and as it was before your day, you would have had no father, had not the rifle been one of my nat ral gifts." " Explain yourself ! " " It is too simple for many words. We were ambushed, and the sergeant got a bad hurt and would have lost his scalp, but for a sort of inbred turn I took to the weapon. We brought him off, however, and a handsomer head of hair, for his time of life, is not to be found in the rijiment than the sergeant carries about with him, this blessed day." " You saved my father s life, Pathfinder ? " exclaimed Mabel, unconsciously, though warmly, taking one of his hard sinewy hands into both her own. " God bless you for this, too, among your other good acts." " Nay, I did not say that much, though I believe I did gave his scalp. A man might live without a scalp, and so 1 tannot say I saved his life. Jasper may say that much con- san ing you ; for without his eye and arm the canoe would iiever have passed the rift in safety on a night like the last. The gifts of the lad are for the water, while mine are for .he hunt and the trail. He is yonder in the cove, there, looking after the canoes, and keeping an eye on his beloved little craft. To my eye there is no likelier youth in these parts than Jasper Western." For the first time since she had left her room, Mabel now turned her eyes beneath her, and got a view of what might THE FATHFINDER. 115 be called the foreground of the remarkable picture she had been studying with so much pleasure. The Oswego threw its dark waters into the lake between banks of some height ; that on its eastern side being bolder arid projecting further north than that on its western. The fort was on the latter, and immediately beneath it were a few huts of logs, which as they could not interfere with the defense of the place., had been erected along the strand for the purpose of receiv ing and containing such stores as were landed or were in tended to be embarked in the communications between the different ports on the shores of Ontario. There were two low, curved gravelly points that had been formed with sur prising regularity by the counteracting forces of the north erly winds and the swift current, and which, inclining from the storms of the lake, formed two coves within the river. That on the western side was the most deeply indented, and as it also had the most water, it formed a sort of picturesque little port for the post. It was along the narrow strand that lay between the low height of the fort and the water of this cove, that the rude buildings just mentioned had been erected. Several skiffs, batteaux, and canoes were hauled up on the shore, and in the cove itself lay the little craft, from which Jasper obtained his claim to be considered a sailor. She was cutter-rigged, might have been of forty tons bur den, was so neatly constructed and painted as to have some thing of the air of a vessel of war, though entirely without quarters, and rigged and sparred with so scrupulous a regard U> proportions and beauty, as well as fitness and judgment, as to give her an appearance that even Mabel at once dis tinguished to be gallant and trim. Her irould was admi rable, for a wright of great skill had sent her drafts fron, England at the express request of the officer ivho hao nused her to be constructed ; her paint dark, warlike, ana neat ; and the long coach-whip pennant that she wore at once proclaimed her to be the property of the king. Hei name was the Scud. k - That, then, is the vessel of Jasper ! " said Mabel, who associ-Ued the master of the little craft quite naturally with the cutter itself. " Are there many others on this lake? " 116 THE PATHFINDER. " The Frenchers have three ; one of which they tell me is a real ship, such as are used on the ocean, another a brig, and a third is a cutter like the Scud, here, which they call the Squirrel, in their own tongue, however ; and which seems to have a natural hatred of our own pretty boat, for Jasper seldom goes out that the Squirrel is not at his heels." " And is Jasper one to run from a Frenchman, though he appears in the shape of a squirrel, and that, too, on the wuter ! " " Of what use would valor be without the means of turn ing it to account ? Jasper is a brave boy, as all on this frontier know ; but he has no gun except a little howitzer, and then his crew consists only of two men besides himself, and a boy. I was with him in one of his trampooses, and the youngster was risky enough, for he brought us so near the enemy that rifles began to talk ; but the Frenchers carry cannon, and ports, and never show their faces outside of Frontenac without having some twenty men, besides their Squirrel, in their cutter. No, no ; this Scud was built for flying, and the major says he will not put her in a fighting humor by giving her men and arms, lest she should take him at his word and get her wings clipped. I know little of these things, for my gifts are not at all in that way ; but I see the reason of the thing I see its reason, though Jasper does not." " Ah ! here is my uncle, none the worse for his swim, coming to look at this inland sea." Sure enough, Cap, who had announced his approach by a couple of lusty hems, now made his appearance on the bastion, where, after nodding to his niece and her compan ion, he made a deliberate survey of the expanse of wate: Defore him. In order to effect this at his ease, the mariner mounted on one of the old iron guns, folded his arms across his breast, and balanced his body, as if he felt the motion of a vessel. To complete the picture, he had a short pipe in his mouth. "Well, Master Cap," asked the Pathfinder innocently for he did not detect the expression of contempt that vai THE PATHFINDER. 117 gradually settling on the features of the other, " is it not a beautiful sheet, and fit to be named a sea ? " " This, then, is what you call your lake ? " demanded Cap, sweeping the northern horizon with his pipe. " I say, is this, really, your lake ? " " Sartain ; and, if the judgment of one who has lived on the shores of many others can be taken, a very good lake it is." " Just as I expected ! A pond in dimensions, and a scut- de-butt in taste. It is all iii vain to travel inland, in the hope of seeing anything either full-grown or useful. I knew it would turn out just in this way." " What is the matter with Ontario, Master Cap ? It is large, and fair to look at, and pleasant enough to drink, for those who can t get at the water of the springs." " Do you call this large ? " asked Cap, again sweeping the air with the pipe. " I will just ask you what there is large about it ? Didn t Jasper himself confess that it was only some twenty leagues from shore to shore ? " " But uncle," interposed Mabel, " no laud is to be seen, except here on our own coast. To me it looks exactly like the ocean." " This bit of a pond look like the ocean ! Well, Magnet, that from a girl who has had real seamen in her family is downright nonsense. What is there about it, pray, that has even the outline of a sea on it ? " " Why, there is water water water ; nothing but water, for miles on miles, far as the eye can see." " And isn t there water water water, nothing but water, for miles on miles, in your rivers, that you have been canoeing through, too ? aye, and * as far as the eye can see, ID the bargain ? " " Yes, uncle, but the rivers have their banks, and there *re trees along tljem, and they are narrow." u And isn t this a bank where we stand ; don t these sol diers call this the bank of the lake, and aren t there trees iii thousands, and aren t twenty leagues narrow enough of all conscience ? Who the devil ever heard of the banks of the ocean, unless it might be the banks that are under lht< water ? " 118 THE PATHFINDER. " But, uncle, we cannot see across this /ake, as we can gee across a river." " There you are out, Magnet. Aren t the Amazon, and Oronoco, and La Plata rivers, and can you see across them ? Harkee, Pathfinder, I very much doubt if this stripe of water here be even a lake ; for to me it appears to be only a river. You are by no means particular about your geog raphy, I find, up here in the woods." There you are out. Master Cap. There is a river, and a noble one too, at each end of it ; but this is old Ontario before you, and, though it is not my .gift to live on a lake, to my judgment there are few better than this." " And, uncle, if we stood on the beach at Rockaway, what more should we see, than we now behold ? There is a shore on one side, or banks there, and trees, too, as well as those which are here." " This is perverseness, Magnet, and young girls should steer clear of anything like obstinacy. In the first place, the ocean has coasts, but no banks, except the Grand Banks, as I tell you, which are out of sight of land ; and you will not pretend that this bank is out of sight of land, or even under water ! " As Mabel could not very plausibly set up this extrav agant opinion, Cap pursued the subject, his countenance beginning to discover the triumph of a successful dispu- iant. " And tnen them trees bear no comparison to these trees. The coasts of the ocean have farms, and cities, and country- seats, and, in some parts of the world, castles and monaster ies, and light-houses aye, aye, light-houses, in particular, on them ; not one of all which things is to be seen here. No, no, Master Pathfinder, I never heard of an ocean that hadn t more or less light-houses on it, whereas, here-away, there is not even a beacon." " There is what is better there s what is oelier : a for est and noble trees, a fit temple of God." " Aye, your forest may do for a lake, but of what use would an ocean be, if the earth all around it were forest ? Ships would be unnecessary, as timber might be floated in THE PATHFINDER. US rafts, and there would be an end of trade, and what would a world be without trade ! I am of that philosopher s opin ion who says human nature was invented for the purposes of trade. Magnet, I am astonished that you should think this water even looks like sea-water ! Now, J dare say that there isn t such a thing as a whale in all your lake, Master Pathfinder ! " " I never heard of one, I will confess, but I am no judge of animals that live in the water, unless it be the fishes of the rivers and brooks." " Nor a grampus, nor a porpoise even ; not so much as a poor devil of a shark ? " " I will not take it on myself to say there is either. My gifts are not in that way, I tell you, Master Cap." " Nor herring, nor albatross, nor flying-fish," continued Cap, who kept his eye fastened on the guide, in order to see how far he might venture. " No such thing as a fish that can fly, I dare say ? " " A fish that can fly ! Master Cap Master Cap, do not think because we are mere borderers, that we have no idees of natur , and what she has been pleased to do. 1 know there are squirrels that can fly " " A squirrel fly ? the devil, Master Pathfinder ! Do you suppose that you have got a boy on his first v y ge, up here among you ? " " I know nothing of your v y ges, Master Cap, though I suppose them to have been many ; but, as for what belongs to natur in the woods, what I have seen I may tell, and not fear the face of man." " And do you wish me to understand that you have seen squirrel fly ? " " If you wish to understand the power of God, Master .ap, you will do well to believe that, and many other things uf a like natur , for you may be quite sartain it is true." " And yet, Pathfinder," said Mabel, looking so pretty ind sweet even while she played with the guide s infirmity, that he forgave her in his heart, " you, who speak so rever ently of the power of the Deity, appear to doubt that a fish oan fly ? " 120 THE PATHFINDER. " I have not said it I have not said it ; and if Cap is ready to testify to the fact, unlikely as it seems, J am willing to try to think it true. I think it every man s duty to believe in the power of God, however diffi cult it may be." " And why isn t my fish as likely to have wings as your squirrel ? " demanded Cap, with more logic than was his wont. " That fishes do and can fly, is as true as it is rea Bonable " Nay, that is the only difficulty in believing the story " rejoined the guide. " It seems onreasonable to give an animal that lives in the water wings, which seemingly can be of no use to them." " And do you suppose that the fishes are such asses as to fly about under water, when they are once fairly fitted out with wings ? " " Nay, I know nothing of the matter, but that fish should fly in the air seems more contrary to natur still, than that \ they should fly in their own quarters ; that in which they i were born and brought up, as one might say." " So much for contracted ideas, Magnet. The fish fly out of water to run away from their enemies in the water ; o-ud there you see not only the fact but the reason for it." " Then I suppose it must be true," said the guide, quietly. - How long are their flights ? " " Not quite as far as those of pigeons, perhaps, but far enough to make an offing. As for those squirrels of yours, we ll say no more about them, friend Pathfinder, as J sup pose they were mentioned just as a make-weight to the fish in favor of the woods. But what is this thing, anchored aere under the hill ? " " That is the cutter of Jasper, uncle," said Mabel, hur riedly ; " and a very pretty vessel I think it is. Its name ; too, is the Scud." " Aye, it will do well enough for a lake, perhaps, but it s DO great affair. The lad has got a standing bowsprit, and who ever saw a cutter with a landing bowsprit before ! " " But may there not be some good reason for it, on i*ke like this, uncle ?" THE PATHFINDER. 121 " Sure enough ; I must remember this is not the ocean, though ft does look so much like it." " Ah ! uncle, then Ontario does look like the ocean, after all I " " In your eyes, I mean, and those of Pathfinder ; not in the least in mine, Magnet. Now you might set me down out yonder, in the middle of this bit of a pond, and that too in the darkest night that ever fell from the heavens, and in the smallest canoe, and I could tell you it was only a lake. For that matter the Dorothy " the name of his vessel " would find it out as quick as I could myself. I do not believe that brig would make more chan a couple of short stretches at the most, before she would perceive the differ ence between Ontario and the old Atlantic. I once took her down into one of the large South American bays, and she behaved herself as awkwardly as a booby would in a church, with the congregation in a hurry. And Jasper sails that boat ? I must have a cruise with the lad, Magnet, be fore I quit you, just for the name of the thing. It would never do to say I got in sight of this pond, and went away without taking a trip on it." "Well, well, you needn t wait long for that," returned Pathfinder; "for the sergeant is about to embark with a party, to relieve a post among the Thousand Islands; and, as I heard him say he intended that Mabel should go along, you can join company too." " Is this true, Magnet ? " " I believe it is," returned the girl, a flush so imperceptible as to escape the observation of her companions, glowing on her cheeks, " though I have had so little opportunity to talk with my dear father, that I am not quite certain. Here he comes, however, and you can inquire .of himself." Notwithstanding his humble rank, there was something in the mien arid character of Sergeant Dunham that com manded respect. Of a tall, imposing figure, gra^e and saturnine disposition, and accurate and precise in his acts %nd manner of thinking, even Cap. dogmatical and super cilious as he usually was with landsmen, did not presume to take the same liberties with the old soldier as he did with 122 THE PATHFINDER. his other friends. It was often remaiked that Sergeam Dunham received more true respect from Duncan of Lun die, the Sojtch laird who commanded the post, than mosi of the subalterns ; for experience and tried services were of quite as much value in the eyes of a veteran major, aa birth and money. While the sergeant never even hoped to rise any higher, he so far respected himself and his present station, as always to act in a way to command attention ; and the habit of mixing so much with inferiors, whose passions and dispositions he felt it necessary to restrain by distance and dignity, had so far colored his whole deport ment that few were altogether free from its influence. While the captains treated him kindly, and as an old com rade, the lieutenants seldom ventured to dissent from his military opinions ; and the ensigns, it was remarked, actually manifested a species of respect that amounted to something very like deference. It is no wonder then that the an nouncement of Mabel put a sudden termination to the singular dialogue we have just related, though it had been often observed that the Pathfinder was the only man on that frontier, beneath the condition of a gentleman, who presumed to treat the sergeant at all as an equal, or even with the cordial familiarity of a friend. " Good morrow, brother Cap," said the sergeant, giving the military salute, as he walked in a grave, stately manner on the bastion. " My morning duty has made me seem forgetful of you and Mabel, but we have now an hour or two to spare, and to get acquainted. Do you not perceive, brother, a strong likeness in the girl to her we have so long " Mabel is the image of her mother, sergeant, as I nave always said, with a little of your firmer figure ; though for that matter the Caps were never wanting in spring and *cthity." Mabel cast a timid glance at the stern, rigid countenance of her father, of whom she had ever thought as the warm hearted dwell on the affection of their absent parents, and, as she saw that the muscles of his face were working, not withstanding the stiffness and method of his manner, lie? THE PATHFINDER. 123 irery heart yearned to throw herself on his bosom, and to weep at will. But he was so much colder in externals, so much more formal and distant than she had expected to find s him, that she would not have dared to hazard the freedom, even had they been alone. " Yo i have taken a long and troublesome journey, brother, on my account, and we will try to make you com fort able while you stay among us." "I hear you are likely to receive orders to lift your anchor, sergeant, and to shift your berth into a part of the world where they say there are a thousand islands ? " " Pathfinder, this is some of your forgetfulness ? " "Nay, nay, sergeant; I forgot nothing, but it did hot seem to me necessary to hide your intentions so very closely from your own flesh and blood." " All military movements ought to be made with as little conversation as possible," returned the sergeant, tapping the guide s shoulder, in a friendly, but reproachful manner. " You have passed too much of your life in front of the French, not to know the value of silence. But, no matter ; the thing must soon be known, and there is no great use in trying, now, to conceal it. We shall embark a relief party, shortly, for a post on the lake, though I do not say it is for the Thousand Islands, and I may have to go with it ; in which case I intend to take Mabel to make my broth for me, and I hope, brother, you will not despise a soldier s fare, for a month or so." " That will depend on the manner of marching. I have no love for woods and swamps." " We shall sail in the Scud ; and, indeed, the whole service, which is no stranger to us, is likely enough to please one accustomed to the water." " Aye, to salt water, if you will, but not to lake water. If you have no person to handle that bit of a cutter for you, I have no objection to ship for the v y ge, notwith standing, though I shall look on the whole affair as so much time thrown away ; for I consider it an hnposition to call ailing about this pond, going to sea." tt Jasper is every way able to marage the Scud, brothel 124 THE PATHFINDER. Cap, and in that light I cannot say that we have need of your services, though we shall be glad of your company You cannot return to the settlements until a party is sent in, and that is not likely to happen until after my return. Well, Pathfinder, this is the first time I ever knew men on tlie trail of the Miiigos, and you not at their head ! " " To be honest with you, sergeant," returned the guide, uoc without a little awkwardness of manner, and a percep tible difference in the hue of a face that had become so uniformly red by exposure, " I have not felt that it was my gift, this morning. In the first place, I very well know that the soldiers of the 55th are not the lads to overtake Iroquois in the woods, and the knaves did not wait to be surrounded, when they knew that Jasper had reached the garrison. Then, a man may take a little rest, after a sum mer of hard work, and no impeachment of his good will. Besides, the Sarpent is out with them, and if the miscreants are to be found at all, you may trust to his inmity and sight : the first being stronger, arid the last nearly, if not quite, as good as my own. He loves the skulking vaga bonds as little as myself ; and, for that matter, I may say that my own feelin s towards a Mingo are not much more than the gifts of a Delaware grafted on a Christian stock. No, no ; I thought I would leave the honor, this time, if honor there is to be, to the young ensign that commands, who, if he don t lose his scalp, may boast of his campaign in his letters to his mother, when he gets in. I thought I would play idler once in my life." " And no one has a better right, if long and faithful ser vice entitles a man to a furlough," returned the sergeant Kindly. " Mabel will think none the worse of you, for pre ferring her company to the trail of the savages ; and, I dare say, will be happy to give you a part of her breakfast, if you are inclined to eat. You must not think, girl, however, that the Pathfinder is in the habit of letting prowlers around the fort beat a retreat, without hearing the crack of hi? rifle." " If I thought she did, sergeant, though not mu ch given to showy and parade evolutions, I would shoulder Killdeer THE PATHFINDER. 125 and quit the garrison before her pretty eyes hud time to frown. No, no ; Mabel knows me better, though we are but new acquaintances, for there has been no want of Mingos to enliven the short march we have already made in company." " It would need a great deal of testimony, Pathfinder, to make me think ill of you in any way, and more than ail in the way you mention," returned Mabel, coloring with the sincere earnestness with which she endeavored to remove any suspicion to the contrary from his mind. " Both father and daughter, I believe, owe you their lives, and believe me tJxat neither will ever forget it." " Thank you, Mabel, thank you with all my heart. But I will not take advantage of your ignorance neither, girl, and therefore shall say I do not think the Mingos would have hurt a hair of your head, had they succeeded by their deviltries and contrivances in getting you into their hands. My scalp, and Jasper s, and Master Cap s, there, and the Sarpent s too, would sartainly have been smoked ; but as for the sergeant s daughter, I do not think they would have hurt a hair of her head ! " " And why should I suppose that enemies known to spare neither women nor children, would have shown more mercy to me than to another ? I feel, Pathfinder, that I owe you my life." u I say nay, Mabel ; they wouldn t have had the heart to hurt you. No, not even a fiery Mingo devil would have had the heart to hurt a hair of your head ! Bad as I sus pect the vampires to be, I do not suspect them of anything so wicked as that. They might have wished you nay, forced you to become the wife of one of their chiefs, and t int would be torment enough to a Christian young woman ; but beyond that I do not think even the Mingos themselves woi.ld have gone." u Well, then, I shall owe my escape from this great mis fortune to you," said Mabel, taking his hand into her own, frankly and cordially, and certainly in a way to delight the honest guide. "To me it would be a lighter evil to be killed, than to become the wife of an Indian." 126 THE PATHFINDER. " That is her gift, sergeant," exclaimed Pathfinder, turn ing to his old comrade, with gratification written on every lineament of his honest countenance, " and it will have its way. I tell the Sarpent, that no Christianizing will ever make even a Delaware a white man ; nor any whooping and yelling convart a pale-face into a red-skin. That is the gift of a young woman born of Christian parents, and it ought to be maintained." " You are right, Pathfinder ; and so far as Mabel Dunham is concerned, it shall be maintained. But it is time to break your fasts, and if you will follow me, brother Cap, I will show you how we poor soldiers live, here on distant frontier." THE PATHFINDER. 127 CHAPTER IX. Now my co-mates and partners in exile, Hath not old custom made this life more sweet Than that of painted pomp ? Are not these wooda More free from peril than the curious court ? Here feel we but the penalty of Adam. As You LIKE IT. SERGEANT DUNHAM made no empty vaunt when he gave the promise conveyed in the closing words of the last chapter. Notwithstanding the remote frontier position of the post, they who lived at it enjoyed a table that, in many respects, kings and princes might have envied. /At the period of our tale, and indeed for half a century later, the whole of that vast region which has been called the West, or the new countries, since the war of the Revolution, lay a comparatively unpeopled desert, teeming with all the living productions of nature that properly belonged to the climate, man and the domestic animals excepted. The few Indians that roamed its forests then could produce no visible effects on the abundance of the game ; and the scattered garrisons, or occasional hunters that here and there were to be met with on that vast surface, had no other influence than the bee on the buckwheat field, or the humming-bird on the flnver. / The marvels that have descended to our own times, in the wuy of tradition, concerning the quantities of blasts, birds, and fiahes, that were then to be met with, on the shoies of the Great Lakes in particular, are known to be sustained by the experience of living men, else we might hesitate about relating them ; but having been eye-witnesses of some of hese prodigies, our office shall be discharged with the con- Qdence that certainty can impart Oswego was particularly veil placed to keep the larder of an epicure amply supplied 128 THE PATHFINDER. Fish of various s)rts abounded in its river, and the sports man had only to cast his line to haul in a bass, or some other member of the finny tribe, which then peopled the waters, as the air above the swamps of this fruitful latitude is known to be filled with insects. Among others was the salmon of the lakes, a variety of that well known species that is scarcely inferior to the delicious salmon of northern Europe. Of the difFeient migratory birds that frequent forests and waters, there was the same affluence, hundreds of acres of geese and ducks being often seen at a time, in the great bays that indent the shores of the lake. Deer, bears, rabbits, and squirrels, with divers other quadrupeds, among which was sometimes included the elk or moose, helped to complete the sum of the natural supplies, on which all the posts depended, more or less, to relieve the unavoidable pri vations of their remote frontier positions. In a place where viands that would elsewhere be deemed great luxuries were so abundant, no one was excluded from their enjoyment. The meanest individual at Oswego habit ually feasted on game that would have formed the boast of a Parisian table ; and it was no more than a healthful com mentary on the caprices of taste and of the waywardness of human desires, that the very diet which in other scenes would have been deemed the subject of envy and repinings, got to pall on the appetite. The coarse and regular food of the army, which it became necessary to husband on ac count of the difficulty of transportation, rose in the estima tion of the common soldier, and at any time he would cheer fully desert his venison, and ducks, and pigeons, and salmon, to banquet on the sweets of pickled pork, stringy turnips, and half-cooked cabbage. The table of Sergeant Dunham, as a matter of course, partook of the abundance and luxuries of the frontier as well as of its privations. A delicious broiled salmon imoked on a homely platter, hot venison steaks sent up their appetizing odors, and several dishes of cold meats, ail of which were composed of game, had been set before the guests in honor of the newly arrived visitors, and in vindi cation of the old soldier s hospitality. TliE 1 ATHFINDER. 129 44 You do not seern to be 011 short allowance in this quar ter of the world, sergeant," said Cap, after he had got fairly initiated into the mysteries of the different dishes ; " your salmon might satisfy a Scotsman." " It fails to do it, notwithstanding, brother Cap ; for among two or three hundred of the fellows that we have IL this garrison, there are not half a dozen who will not swear that the fish is unfit to be eaten. Even some of the lads who never tasted venison, except as poachers, at home, turn up their noses at the fattest haunches that we get here." " Aye, that is Christian natur , put in Pathfinder, " and I must say it is none to its credit. Now, a red-skin never repines, but is always thankful for the food he gets, whether it be fat or lean, venison or bear, wild turkey s breast or wild goose s wing. To the shame of us white men be it said that we look upon blessings without satisfaction, and consider trifling evils matters of great account." " It is so with the 55th, as I can answer, though I cannot say as much for their Christianity," returned the sergeant. tt Even the major himself, old Duncan of Lundie, will some times swear an oatmeal cake is better fare than the Oswego bass, and sigh for a swallow of Highland water, when, if so minded, he has the whole of Ontario to quench his thirsi, in." " Has Major Duncan a wife and children ? " asked Mabel, whose thoughts naturally turned towards her own sex in her new situation. " Not he, girl ; though they do say that he has a betrothed at home. The lady, it seems, is willing to wait rather than tuffer the hardships of service in this wild region, all of which, brother Cap, is not according to my notions of a woman s duties. Your sister thought differently, and had it pleased God to spare her would have been sitting at this moment on the very camp-stool that her daughter so well becomes." " I hope, sergeant, you do not think of Mabel for a sol- uier s wife," returned Cap. gravely. " Our family has done its share in that way already, and it s high time that the sea was again remembered." 130 THE PATHFINDER. u I do not think of finding a husband for the girl in the 55th, or any other regiment, I can promise you, brother though I do think it getting to be time that the child were respectably married." Father ! " " Tis not their gifts, sergeant, to talk of these matters n so open a manner," said the guide, " for I ve seen it verified by exper ence, that he who would follow the trail of a vir gin s good-will must not go shouting out his thoughts behind her. So, if you please, we will talk of something else." " Well, then, brother Cap, I hope that bit of a cold roasted pig is to your mind ; you seem to fancy the food." " Aye, aye, give me civilized grub, if I must eat," returned the pertinacious seaman. " Venison is well enough for your inland sailors, but we of the ocean like a little of that which we understand." Here Pathfinder laid down his knife and fork, and in dulged in a hearty laugh, though always in his silent manner ; then he asked, with a little curiosity in his manner, " Don t you miss the skin, Master Cap don t you miss the skin ? " " It would have been better for its jacket, I think myself, Pathfinder; but I suppose it is a fashion of the woods to serve up shoats in this style." " Well, well, a man may go round the arth and not know everything ! If you had had the skinning of that pig, Mas ter Cap, it would have left you sore hands. The creatur is a hedge-hog ! " " Blast me, if I thought it wholesome natural pork, either," returned Cap. " But then I believed even a pig might lose dome of its good qualities, up here-away, in the woods. It Bsemed no more than reason that a fresh-water hog should DDt be altogether so good as a salt-water hog. I suppose sergeant, by this time, it is all the same to you ! " u If the sidnning of it, brother, does not fall to my duty Pathfinder I hope you didn t find Mabel disobedient on the march ? ** " Not she not she. If Mabel is only half as well satis- Bed with Jasper and the Pathfinder, as the Pathfinder and THE PATHFINDER. 181 Jasper art) satisfied with her, sergeant, we shall be friends for the remainder of our days." As the guide spoke, he turned his eyes towards the blush ing girl, with a sort of innocent desire to know her opinion, and then, with an inborn delicacy that proved he was far superior to the vulgar desire to invade the sanctity of fena- oine feeling, he looked at his plate, and seemed to regret his own boldness. " Well, well, we must remember that women are not men, my friend," resumed the sergeant, " and make proper allow ances for nature and education. A recruit is not a veteran. Any man knows that it takes longer to make a good soldier than it takes to make anything else ; and it ought to require unusual time to make a good soldier s daughter." " This is new doctrine, sergeant," said Cap, with some spirit. " We old seamen are apt to think that six soldiers, aye, and capital soldiers too, might be made, while one sailor is getting his education." " Aye, brother Cap, I ve seen something of the opinions which seafaring men have of themselves," returned the brother-in-law, with a smile as bland as comported with his saturnine features ; " for I was many years one of the gar rison in a sea-port. You and I have conversed on the sub ject before, and I m afraid we shall never agree. But if you wish to know what the difference is, between a real soldier and man in what I should call a state of nature, you have only to look at a battalion of the 55th, on parade this afternoon, and then, when you get back to York, examine one of the militia regiments making its greatest efforts." " Well, to my eye, sergeant, there is very little difference, mt more than you ll find between a brig and a snow. To me they seem alike ; all scarlet, and feathers, and powder, aiid pipe-clay." " So much, sir, for the judgment of a sailor," returned the sergeant with dignity ; " but perhaps you are not aware that it requires a year to teach a true soldier how to eat." " So much the worse for him ! The militia know how to eat 1 1 starting ; for I have often heard that, on their marches, they <ommonly eat all before them, even if they do nothing else." 132 THE PATHFINDER. " They have their gifts, I suppose, like other men," ob served Pathfinder, with a view to preserve the peace, which was evidently in some danger of being broken, by the obsti nate predilection of each of the disputants in favor of his own calling ; " and when a man has his gift from Provi dence, it is commonly idle to endeavor to bear up agin it. The 55th, sergeant, is a judicious rijiment, in the way of bating, as I know, from having been so long in its company though I dare say militia corps could be found that would outdo them in feats of that natur too." " Uncle," said Mabel, " if you have breakfasted, I will thank you to go out upon the bastion with me agam. We have neither of us seen the lake, and it would be hardly seemly for a young woman to be walking about the fort, the first day of her arrival, quite alone." Cap understood the motive of Mabel, and having, at the bottom, a hearty friendship for his brother-in-law, he was willing enough to defer the argument until they had been longer together, for the idea of abandoning it altogether never crossed the mind of one so dogmatical and obstinate. He accordingly accompanied his niece, leaving Sergeant Dunham and his friend, the Pathfinder, alone together. As soon as his adversary had beaten a retreat, the sergeant, who did not quite so well understand the manoeuvre of his daughter, turned to his companion, and with a smile that was not without triumph, he remarked, "The army, Pathfinder, has never yet done itself justice; and, though modesty Necomes a man whether he is in a red coat or a black one, or, for that matter, in his shirt-sleeves, I don t like to let a good opportunity slip of saying a word in its behalf. Well, my friend," laying his own hand on one of the Pathfinder s, and giving it a hearty squeeze, "ho^ do you like the girl ? " " You have reason to be proud of her, sergeant ; you have reason to be proud at finding yourself the father of so handsome and well-mannered a young woman. I have seen many of her sex, and some that were great and beau tiful, but never before did I meet with one, in whor thought Providence had so well balanced the diffe* gift*." THE PATHFINDER. 133 * An 1 tho good opinion, I can tell you, Pathfinder, is mutual. She told me last night all about your coolness, and spirit, and kindness, particularly the last; foi kindness counts for more than half with females, my friend, and the first inspection seems to give satisfaction on both sides. Brush up the uniform, and pay a little more attention to the outside, Pathfinder, and you will have the girl hea*t and hand." " Nay, nay, sergeant, I ve forgotten nothing that you have told me, and grudge no reasonable pains to make myself as pleasant in the eyes of Mabel, as she is getting to be in mine. I cleaned and brightened up Killdeer, this morning, as soon as the sun rose ; and, in my judgment, the piece never looked better than it does at this very moment ! " " That is according to your hunting notions, Pathfinder ; but fire-arms should sparkle and glitter in the sun, and I never yet could see any beauty in a clouded barrel." " Lord Howe thought otherwise, sergeant ; and he was .^pcounted a good soldier ! " " Very true ; his lordship had all the barrels of his regi ment darkened, and what good came of it? You can see his scutcheon hanging in the English church at Albany I N&, no, my worthy friend, a soldier should be a soldier, and at no time ought he to be ashamed or afraid to carry about him the signs and symbols of his honorable trade. Had you much discourse with Mabel, Pathfinder, as you came along in the canoe ? " " There was not much opportunity, sergeant, and then I f ound myself so much beneath her in idees, that I was afraid to speak of much beyond what belonged to my own gifts." " Therein you are partly right and partly wrong, my friend. Women love trifling discourse, though they like to have most of it to themselves. Now, you know, I m a man that do not loosen my tongue at every giddy thought, and yet there were days when I could see that Mabel s mother thought none the worse of me, because I descended a little from ray manhood. It is true, I was twenty-two yeari ir then, than I im to-day ; and, moreover, instead of i See Appendix Note ii. 134 THE PATHFINDER. oeing the oldest sergeant in the regiment, I was the young est. Dignity is commanding and useful, and there is no getting on without it, as respects the men ; but if you would be thoroughly esteemed by a woman, it is "necessary to condescend a little, on occasions." " Ah s me ! sergeant ; I sometimes fear it will nevei do!" " Why do you think so discouragingly of a matter on which I thought both GUI minds were made up ? " We did agree that if Mabel should prove what you told nie she was, if the girl could fancy a rude hunter and guide, that I would quit some of my wandering ways, and try tc humanize my mind down to a wife and children. But since I have seen the girl, I will own that many misgivings have come over me ! " " How s this ! " interrupted the sergeant, sternly ; " did I not understand you to say that you were pleased ? And is Mabel a young woman to disappoint expectation ? " " Ah ! sergeant, it is not Mabel that I distrust, but my self. I am but a poor ignorant woodsman, after all, and perhaps I m not, in truth, as good as even you and I may think me ! " " If you doubt your own judgment of yourself, Path finder, I beg you will not doubt mine. Am I not accus tomed to judge men s characters ? Is it not my especial duty, and am I often deceived ? Ask Major Duncan, sir, if you desire any assurances in this particular." " But, sergeant, we have long been friends ; have fou t side by side a dozen times, and have done each other many sarvices. When this is the case, men are apt to think over-kindly of each other, and I fear me that the daughter may not be so likely to view a plain, ignorant hunter as favorably as the father does." " Tut, tut, Pathfinder ! you don t know yourself, man. and may put all faith in my judgment. In the first place, you have experience, and as all girls must want that, no prudent young woman would overlook such a qualification. Then you are not one of the coxcombs that strut about when they first join a regiment, but a man who has v seen THE PATHFINDER. 135 service, and who carries the marks of it on his person and countenance. I dare say you have been under fire some thirty or forty times, counting all the skirmishes and am bushes that you ve seen." " All of that, sergeant, all of that ; but what will it avail in gaining the good-will of a tender-hearted young female ? " "It will gain the day. Experience in the field is as good in lova as in war. But you are as honest-hearted and as loyal a subject as the king can boast of God bless him!" * That may be too that may be too ; but I m afeard I m too rude, and too old, and too wild like, to suit the fancy of such a young and delicate girl as Mabel, who has been unused to our wilderness ways, and may think the settlements better suited to her gifts and inclinations." " These are new misgivings for you, my friend, and I wonder they were never paraded before." " Because I never knew my own worthlessness, perhaps, until I saw Mabel. I have travelled with some as fair, and Lave guided them through the forest, and seen them^n their perils and in their gladness ; but they were always too much above me to make me think of them as more than sq many feeble ones I was bound to protect and defend. The case is now different. Mabel and I are so nearly alike, that I feel weighed down with a load that is hard to bear, 1 at finding us so unlike. I do wish, sergeant, that I was ten v years younger, more comely to look at, and better suited to please a handsome young woman s fancy ! " " Cheer up, my brave friend, and trust to a father s knowledge of womankind. Mabel half loves you already, ind a fortnight s intercourse and kindness, down among the elands yonder, will close ranks with the other half. The girl as much as told me this herself, last night." 4 Can this be so, sergeant ? " said the guide, whose meek <nd modest nature shrank from viewing himself in colors 10 favorable. " Can this be truly so ! I aic but a poor hunter, and Mabel, I see, is fit to be an officer s lady. Do you think the gal will consent to quit all her beloveu settlement usages, and her visitin s, and her church-gom s, 136 THE PATHFINDER. to dwell with a plain guide and hunter, up here-away, in the woods ? Will she not, in the end, crave her old ways, and a better man ? " " A better man, Pathfinder, would be hard to find," re turned the father. " As for town usages, they are soon forgotten in the freedom of the forest, and Mabel has just spirit enough to dwell on a frontier. I ve not planned this marriage, my friend, without thinking it over, as a general ioes his campaign. At first, I thought of bringing you into the regiment, that you might succeed me when I retire, which must be sooner or later ; but on reflection, Path finder, I think you are scarcely fitted for the office. Still, if not a soldier in all the meanings of the word, you are a soldier in its best meaning, and I know that you have the good-will of every officer in the corps. As long as I live, Mabel can dwell with me, and you will always have a home, when you return from your scoutings and marches." " This is very pleasant to think of, sergeant, if the girl can only come into our wishes with good-will. But, ah s me ! it does not seem that one like myself can ever be agreeable in her handsome eyes ! If I were younger, and more comely, now, as Jasper Western is, for instance, there might be a chance yes, then, indeed, there might be some chance." " That, for Jasper Eau-douce, and every younker of them in or about the fort ! " returned the sergeant, snapping his fingers. " If not actually a younger, you are a younger looking, aye, and a better looking man than the Scud s master " " Anan ! " said Pathfinder, looking up at his companion with an expression of doubt, as if he did not understand hig meaning. " I say, if not actually younger in days and years, you ook more hardy and like whip-cord, than Jasper, or any of them; and there will be more of you, thirty years hence, than of all of them put together. A good con science will keep one like you a mere boy all his life." " Jasper has as clear a conscience as any youth I know sergeant ! and is as likely to wear, on that account, ai %ny young man in the colony." THE PATHFINDER. 137 " Then you are my Mend," squeezing the other s hand * my tried, sworn, and constant friend." " Yes, we have been friends, sergeant, near twenty years , before Mabel was born." * True enough before Mabel was born we were well- tried friends, and the hussy would never dream of refusing to marry a man who was her father s friend before she was horn!" " We don t know, sergeant, we don t know. Like loves like. The young prefar the young for companions, and the old the old." " Not for wives, Pathfinder ! I never knew an old man, now, who had an objection to a young wife. Then you are respected and esteemed by every officer in the fort, as I have said already, and it will please her fancy to like a man that every one else likes." " I hope I have no enemies but the Mingos," returned the guide, stroking down his hair meekly, and speaking thoughtfully. " I ve tried to do right, and that ought to make friends, though it sometimes foils." " And you may be said to keep the best company, for even old Duncan of Lundie is glad to see you, and yon pass hours in his society. Of all the guides, he confides most in you." " Aye, even greater than he is have marched by my side for days, and have conversed with me as if I were their brother; but, sergeant, I have never been puffed up by their company, for I know that the woods often bring men to a level, who would not be so in the settlements." " And you are known to be the greatest rifle-shot that ever pulled a trigger in all this region." " If Mabel could fancy a man for that, I might have no jjreat reason to despair ; and yet, sergeant, I sometimes think that it is all as much owing to Killdeer as to any skill of my own. It is sartainly a wonderful piece, and might do as much in the hands of another." " That is your own humble opinion of yourself, Path finder ; but we have seen too many fail with the same weapon, and you succeed too often with the rifles of other 138 THE PATHFINDER. men, to allow me to agree with you. We will get up a shooting match in a day or two, when you can show your skill, and then Mabel will form some judgment concerning your true character." " Will that be fair, sergeant ? Everybody knows that Killdeer seldom misses, and ought we to make a trial of this sort, when we all know what must be the result ? " u Tut, tut, man ! I foresee I must do half this courting for you, For one who is always inside of the smoke, in a skirmish, you are the faintest-hearted suitor I ever met with. Remember, Mabel comes of a bold stock ; and the girl will be as likely to admire a man as her mother was before her." Here the sergeant arose, and proceeded to attend to his never-ceasing duties, without apology ; the terms on which the guide stood with all in the garrison, rendering this free dom quite a matter of course. The reader will have gathered from the conversation just related, one of the plans that Sergeant Dunham had in view, in causing his daughter to be brought to the frontier. Although necessarily much weaned from the caresses and blandishments that had rendered his child so dear to him, during the first year or two of his widowhood, he had still a strong, but somewhat latent, love for her. Accustomed to command and to obey, without being questioned himself or questioning others concerning the reasonableness of the mandates, he was, perhaps, too much disposed to believe that his daughter would marry the man he might select, while he was far from being disposed to do violence to her wishes. The fact was, few knew the Pathfinder intimately, without secretly coming to believe him to be one of extraor dinary qualities. I Ever the same, simple-minded, faithful, atterly without fear, and yet prudent, foremost in all war rantable enterprises, or what the opinion of the day consid ered as such, and never engaged in anything to call a blush to his cheek, or censure on his acts ; it was not possible to live much with this being, who, in his peculiar way, was a sort of type of what Adam might have been supposed to -**OZjZmiSi******^f~~~~* *" A f niir -i i r - be before the fall, though certainly not without sin, and not THE PATHFINDER. 189 feel a respect and admiration for him, that had no reference to his position in life. It was remarked that no officer passed him without saluting him as if he had been his equal ; no common man, without addressing him with the confi dence and freedom of a comrade. The most surprising pe culiarity about the man himself, was the entire indifference with which he regarded all distinctions that did not depend on personal merit/ He was respectful to his superiors from habit, but had often been known to correct their mistaken and to reprove their vices, with a fearlessness that proved how essentially he regarded the more material points, and with a natural discrimination that appeared to set education at defiance. /In short, a disbeliever in the ability of man to distinguish between good and evil without the aid of in struction, would have been staggered by the character of this extraordinary inhabitant of the frontier. His feelings appeared to possess the freshness and nature of the forest in which he passed so much of his time, and no casuist could have made clearer decisions in matters relating to right and wrong ; yet he was not without his prejudices, which, though few, and colored by the character and usages of the individual, were deep-rooted, and had almost got to form a part of his nature. But the most striking feature about the moral organization of Pathfinder, was his beauti ful and unerring sense of justice. This noble trait (and without it no man can be truly great ; with it, no man other than respectable) probably had its unseen influence on all who associated with him ; for the common and unprincipled brawler of the camp had been known to return from an ex pedition made in his company, rebuked by his sentiments, woftened by his language, and improved by his example. As might have been expected, with so elevated a quality, hi* fidelity was like the immovable rock. Treachery in him waa classed among the things that are impossible, and as he sel dom retired before his enemies, so was he never known, inder any circumstances that admitted of an alternative, to abandon a friend. The affinities of such a character were, as a matter of course, those of like for like. His associates and intimates, though more or less determined by chance, 140 THE PATHFINDER. were generally of the highest order, as to moral propensi* ties ; for he appeared to possess a species of instinctive dis crimination that led him insensibly to himself, most proba bly, to cling closest to those whose characters would best reward his friendship. j[n short, it was said of the Path finder, by one accustomed to study his fellows, that he was a fair example of what a just-minded and pure man might he, while untempted by unruly or ambitious desires, and left to follow the bias of his feelings, amid the solitary grandeur and ennobling influences of a sublime nature; neither led aside by the inducements which influence all to do evil amid the incentives of civilization, nor forgetful of the Almighty Being, whose spirit pervades the wilderness as well as the towns.f Such was the man whom Sergeant Dunham had selected as the husband of Mabel. In making this choice he had not been as much governed by a clear and judicious view of the merits of the individual, perhaps, as by his own lik ings ; still, no one knew the Pathfinder as intimately as himself, without always conceding to the honest guide a high place in his esteem, on account of these very virtues. That his daughter could find any serious objection to the match, the old soldier did not apprehend ; while, on the other hand, he saw many advantages to himself, in dim per spective, that were connected with the -decline of his days, and an evening of life passing among descendants who were equally dear to him through both parents. He first made the proposiLioii to his friend, who had listened to it kindly, but who, the sergeant was now pleased to find, already be trayed a willingness to come into his own views, that was proportioned to the doubts and misgivings proceeding from hi* humble distrust of himself. THE PATHFINDER. Ill CHAPTER X. Think not I love him, though I ask for him: "Kg but a peevish boy: yet he talks well But what care I for words ? A WEEK passed in the usual routine of a garrison. Mabel was becoming used to a situation that, at first, she bad found not only novel but a little irksome ; and the offi cers, and men, in their turn, gradually familiarized to the presence of a young and blooming girl, whose attire and carriage had that air of modest gentility about them which she had obtained in the family of her patroness, annoyed her less by their ill-concealed admiration, while they grati fied her by the respect which, she was fain to think, they paid her on account of her father ; but which, in truth, was more to be attributed to her own modest, but spirited de portment, than to any deference for the worthy sergeant. Acquaintances made in a forest, or in any circumstances of unusual excitement, soon attain their limits. Mabel found one week s residence at Oswego sufficient to deter- .nine her as to those with whom she might be intimate, and those whom she ought to avoid. The sort of neutral posi tion occupied by her father, who was not an officer while he ras so much more than a common soldier, by keeping her aloof from the two great classes of military life, lessened the number of those whom she was compelled to know, and made the duty of decision comparatively easy. Still, she soon discovered that there were a few, even among those that could aspire to a seat at the commandant s table, who were disposed to overlook the halbert, for the novelty of a well turned figure, and of a pretty, winning face ; and by the end of the first two or three days, she had admirers even among the gentlemen. The quartermaster, in par tic- 142 THE PATHFINDER. nlar, a middle-aged soldier, who had more than once tried the blessings of matrimony, but was now a widower, was evidently disposed to increase his intimacy with the ser geant, though their duties often brought them together ; and the youngsters among his messmates did not fail to note that this man of method, who was a Scotsman of the name of Mutr was much more frequent in his visits to the quar ters of his subordinate than had formerly been his wont A laugh, or a joke, in honor of the " sergeant s daughter/ however, limited their strictures ; though " Mabel Dun ham " was soon a toast that even the ensign or the lieuten ant did not disdain to give. At the end of the week, Duncan of Lundie sent for Ser geant Dunham after evening roll-call, on business of a na ture that, it was understood, required a personal conference. The old veteran dwelt in a movable hut, which, being placed on trucks, he could order to be wheeled about at pleasure, sometimes living in one part of the area within the fort, and sometimes in another. 1 On the present occasion, he had made a halt near the centre, and there he was found by his subordinate, who was admitted to his presence without any delay, or dancing attendance in an antechamber. In point of fact, there was very little difference in the quality of the accommodations given to the officers and those allowed to the men, the former being merely granted the most room, and Mabel and her father were lodged nearly, if not quite, as well as the commandant of the place himself. " Walk in, sergeant, walk in, my good friend," said old Lundie, heartily, as his inferior stood in a respectful attitude at the door of a sort of library and bedroom hi to which he bad been ushered ; " walk in, and take a seat on that stocL I have sent for you, man, to discuss anything but rosters and pay-rolla this evening. It is now many years since we have been comrades, and auld lang syne should count foi something even between a major and his orderly, a Scot und a Yankee. Sit ye down, man, and just put yourself at your ease. It has been a fine day, sergeant ? " 1 This circumstance is a real incident taken from the American L-fidy 01 Mra. Grant, of Laggan. See Appendix, Note I. THE PATHFINDER. 143 a It has indeed, Major Duncan," returned the other, who, though he complied so far as to take the seat, was much too practiced not to understand the degree of respect it was nec essary to maintain in his manner ; " a very fine day, sir, it has been, and we may look for more of them, at this sea son." " I hope so, with all my heart. The crops lock well, as it is, man, and you ll be finding that the 55th make almost as good farmers as soldiers. I never saw better potatoes in Scotland, than we are likely to have in that new patch of ours." " They promise a good yield, Major Duncan, and in that light a more comfortable winter than the last." " Life is progressive, sergeant, in its comforts, as well a& in its need of them. We grow old, and I begin to think it time to retire and settle in life. I feel that my working days are nearly over." " The king, God bless him, sir, has much good service in your honor, yet." " It may be so, Sergeant Dunham, especially if he should happen to have a spare lieutenant-colonelcy left." " The 55th will be honored the day that commission is given to Duncan of Lundie, sir." " And Duncan of Lundie will be honored the day he re ceives it. But, sergeant, if you have never had a lieutenant- colonelcy, you have had a good wife, and that is .the next thing to rank, in making a man happy." " I have been married, Major Duncan ; but it is now a long time since I have had no drawback on the love I bear his Majesty and my duty." " What, man, not even the love you bear that active, lit tle, round-limbed, rosy-cheeked daughter, that I have seen in the fort, these last few days ! Out upon you, sergeant ! .)ld fellow as I am, I could almost love that little lassie my- rielf, and send the lieutenant-colonelcy to the devil." " We all know where Major Duncan s heart is, and that is in Scotland, where a beautiful lady is ready and willing to make him happy as soor as his own sense of duty shall permit." 144 THE PATHFINDER. " Aye, hope is ever a far-off thing, sergeant," returned the superior, a shade of melancholy passing over his hard Scottish features as he spoke ; " and bonny Scotland is a far-off country. Well, if we have no heather and oatmeal in this region, we have venison for the killing it ; and salmou as plenty as at Berwick-upon-Tweed. Is it true, sergeant, that the men complain of having been over-venisoned and over-pigeoned of late ? " " Not for some weeks, Major Duncan, for neither deer nor birds are so plenty at this season as they have been. They begin to throw their remarks about concerning the salmon, but I trust we shall get through the summer with out any serious disturbance on the score of food. The Scotch in the battalion do, indeed, talk more than is pru dent of their want of oatmeal, grumbling occasionally of our wheaten bread." " Ah ! that is human nature, sergeant ; pure unadulter ated Scottish human nature. A cake, man, to say the truth, is an agreeable morsel, and I often see the time when I pine for a bite myself." " If the feeling gets to be troublesome, Major Duncan, in the men I mean, sir, for I would not think of saying so disrespectful a thing to your honor, but if the men ever pine seriously for their natural food, I would humbly recom mend that some oatmeal be imported, or prepared in this country for them, and I think we shall hear no more of it. A very little would answer for a cure, sir." " You are a wag, sergeant ; but hang me if I am sure you are not right. There may be sweeter things in this world, after all, than oatmeal. You have a sweet daughter, Dunham, for one." " The girl is like her mother, Major Duncan, and will pass inspection," said the sergeant, proudly. " Neither wa;- brought up on anything better than good American floin The girl will pass inspection, sir." " That would she, I ll answer for it. Well, I may as well tome to the point at once, man, and bring up my reserve into the front of the battle. Here is Davy Muir, the quartermaster, is disposed to make your daughter his wife, THE PATHFINDER. 145 and he Las just got me to open the matter to you, being fearful of compromitting his own dignity ; and I may as well add, that half the youngsters in the fort toast her, and talk of her from morning till night." " She is much honored, sir," returned the father, stiffly, " but I trust the gentlemen will find something more worthy of them to talk about, ere long. I hope to see her the wife of an honest man, before many weeks, sir." " Yes, Davy is an honest man, and that is more than can be said of all in the quartermaster s department, I m think ing, sergeant," returned Lundie, with a slight smile. " Well, then, may I tell the Cupid-stricken youth that the matter is as good as settled ? " " I thank your honor, but Mabel is betrothed to an other." " The devil she is! That will produce a stir in the fort; though I m riot sorry to hear it, either, for to be frank with you, sergeant, I m no great admirer of unequal matches." " I think with your honor, and have no desire to see my daughter an officer s lady. If she can get as high as her mother was before her, it ought to satisfy any reasonable woman." " And may I ask, sergeant, who is the lucky man that you intend to call son-in-law ? " " The Pathfinder, your honor." " Pathfinder ! " " The same, Major Duncan ; and in naming him to you, I give you his whole history. No one is better known on this frontier, than my honest, brave, true-hearted friend." " All that is true enough ; but is he, after all, the sort of person to make a girl of twenty happy ? " " Why not, your honor ? the man is at the head of his calling. There is no other guide, or scout, connected with the army, that has half the reputation of Pathfinder, or who deserves to have it half as well." " Very true, sergeant ; but is the reputation of a scout exactly the sort of renown to captivate a girl s fancy ? n " Talking of girls fancies, sir, Is, in my humble opinion, much like talking of a recruit s judgment. If we were to 146 THE PATHFINDER. take the movements of the awkward squad, sir, as a guide, we should never form a decent line in battalion, Major Duncan." " But your daughter has nothing awkward about her ; for a genteeler girl, of her class, could not be found in old Albin itself. Is she of your way of thinking, in this matter ? though I suppose she must be, as you say she is betrothed." " We Vve not yet conversed on the subject, your honor, but I consider her mind as good as made up, from several little circumstances that might be named." "And what are these circumstances, sergeant?" asked the major, who began to take more interest than he had at first felt in the subject. " I confess a little curiosity to learn something about a woman s mind, being, as you know, a bachelor myself." " Why, your honor, when I speak of the Pathfinder to the girl, she always looks me full in the face ; chimes in with everything I say in his favor, and has a frank, open waj with her, which says as much as if she half considered him, already, as a husband." " Hum ! and these signs you think, Dunham, are faithful tokens of your daughter s feelings?" " I do, your honor, for they strike me as natural. When I find a man, sir, who looks me full in the face, while he praises an officer for, begging your honor s pardon, the men will sometimes pass their strictures on their betters and when I find a man looking me in the eyes as he praises his captain, I always set it down that the fellow is honest, and means what he says." " Is there not some material difference in the age of the intended bridegroom and that of his pretty bride, sergeant ? " " You are quite right, sir ; Pathfinder is well advanced towards forty, and Mabel has every prospect of happiness that a young woman can derive from the certainty of pos sessing an experienced husband. I was quite forty myself, your honor, when I married her mother. * " But will your daughter be as likely to admire a green hunting-shirt, such as that our worthy guide wears, with a fox-skin cap, as the smart uniform of the 55th ? " THE PATHFINDER. 147 u Perhaps not, sir ; and therefore she will have the merit of self-denial, which always makes a young woman wiser and better." " And are you not afraid that she may be left a widow while still a young woman ? What between wild beasts and wilder Ravages, Pathfinder may be said to carry his life in his hand." " Every bullet has its billet, Lundie," for so the majci was fond of being called, in his moments of condescension, and when not engaged in military affairs, " and no man in the 55th can call himself beyond, or above, the chances of sudden death, In that particular, Mabel would gain nothing by a change. Besides, sir, if I may speak freely on such a subject, I much doubt if ever Pathfinder dies in battle, or by any of the sudden chances of the wilderness." " And why so, sergeant ? " asked the major, looking at his inferior with the sort of reverence which a Scot of his day was more apt than at present to entertain for mysterious agencies. " He is a soldier, so far as danger is concerned, and one that is much more than usually exposed ; and, being free of his person, why should he expect to escape, when others do not ? " " I do not believe, your honor, that the Pathfinder con siders his own chances better than any one s else, but the man will never die by a bullet. I have seen him so often, handling his rifle with as much composure as if it were a shepherd s crook, in the midst of the heaviest showers of bullets, and under so many extraordinary circumstances, that I do not think Providence means he should ever fall in that manner. And yet, if there be a man in his Majesty s do minions who really deserves such a death, it is Pathfinder ! * " We never know, sergeant," returned Lundie, with a countenance that was grave with thought, " and the less wa say about it, perhaps, the better. But will your daughter Mabel, I think you call her will Mabel be as willing to accept one, who, after all, is a mere hanger-on of the army, as to take one from the service itself? There is no hope of promotion for the guide, sergeant ! " " He is at the head of his corps already, your honor 148 THE PATHFINDER. In short, Mabel has made up her mind on this subject, and, as your honor has had the condescension to speak to me about Mr. Muir, I trust you will be kind enough to say that the girl is as good as billeted for life." " Well, well, this is your own matter, and now Se** geant Dunham ! " " Your honor," said the other, rising, and giving the cus tomary salute. " You have been told it is my intention to send you down among the Thousand Islands, for the next month. All the old subalterns have had their tours of duty in that quarter ill that I like to trust, at least and it has, at length, come to your turn. Lieutenant Muir, it is true, claims his right, but being quartermaster, I do not like to break up well- established arrangements. Are the men drafted ? " " Everything is ready, your honor. The draft is made, and I understood that the canoe which got in last night, Drought a message, to say that the party already below is looking out for the relief." " It did, and you must sail the day after to-morrow, if not to-morrow night. It will be wise, perhaps, to sail in the dark." " So Jasper thinks, Major Duncan, and I know no one more to be depended on, in such an affair, than young Jasper Western." " Young Jasper Eau-douce ! " said Lundie, a slight smile gathering around his usually stern mouth. " Will that lad be of your party, sergeant ? " " Your honor will remember that the Scud never quits port without him." "True, but all general rules have their exceptions. Have I not seen a seafaring person about the fort within the last fow days ? " " No doubt, your honor ; it is Master Cap, a brother-in law of mine, who brought my daughter from below." " Why not put him in the Scud for this cruise, sergeant, and leave Jasper behind ? Your brother-in-law would like the variety of a fresh-water cruise, and you would enjoy more of his company. * THE PATHFINDER. 149 " I intended to ask your honor s permission to take him along, but he must go as a volunteer. Jasper is too brave a lad to be turned out of his command without a reason, Major Duncan ; and I m afraid brother Cap despises fresh water too much to do duty on it." " Quite right, sergeant, and I leave all this to your own discretion. Eau-douce must retain his command, on second thoughts. You intend that Pathfinder shall also be of the party ? " " If your honor approves of it. There will be service for both the guides, the Indian as well as the white man." " I think you are right. Well, sergeant, I wish you good luck in the enterprise ; and remember, the post is to be de stroyed and abandoned when your command is withdrawn. It will have done its work by that time, or we shall have failed entirely, and it is too ticklish a position to be main tained unnecessarily. You can retire." Sergeant Dunham gave the customary salute, turned on his heels as if they had been pivots, and had got the door nearly drawn-to after him, when he was suddenly recalled. " I had forgotten, sergeant, the younger officers have begged for a shooting match, and to-morrow has been named for the day. All competitors will be admitted, and the prizes will be a silver-mounted powder-horn, a leathern flask ditto," reading from a piece of paper, " as I see by the pro fessional jargon of this bill, and a silk calash for a lady. The latter is to enable the victor to show his gallantry, by making an offering of it to her he best loves." " All very agreeable, your honor, at least to him that succeeds. Is the Pathfinder to be permitted to enter ? " " I do not well see how he can be excluded, if he choose to come forward. Latterly, I have observed that he takes uo share in these sports, probably from a conviction of his twn unequaled skill." " That s it, Major Duncan ; the honest fellow knows then is not a man on the frontier who can equal him, and ho does not wish to spoil the pleasure of others. I think we may trust to his delicacy in anything, sir. Perhaps it may be as well to let him have h^ own way " 150 THE PATHFINDER. " In this instance we must, sergeant. Whether he will be as successful in all others, remains to be seen. I wish you good evening, Dunham," The sergeant now withdrew, leaving Duncan of Lundifl to his own thoughts. That they were not altogether dis agreeable, was to be inferred from the smiles which occa sionally covered a countenance that was hard and martial in its usual expression, though there were moments in which all its severe sobriety prevailed. Half an hour might have passed, when a tap at the door was answered by a direction to enter. A middle-aged man, in the dress of an officer, but whose uniform wanted the usual smartness of the pro fession, made his appearance, and was saluted as " Mr. Muir." " I have come, sir, at your bidding, to know my fortune," said the quartermaster, in a strong Scotch accent, as soon as he had taken the seat which was proffered to him. " To say the truth to you, Major Duncan, this girl is making as much havoc in the garrison as the French did before Ty ; I never witnessed so general a rout, in so short a time ! " " Surely, Davy, you don t mean to persuade me that your young and unsophisticated heart is in such a flame, after one week s ignition ! Why, man, this is worse than the affair in Scotland, where it was said the heat within was so intense that it just burnt a hole through your own precious body, and left a place for all the lassies to peer in at, to see what the combustible material was worth." " Ye ll have your own way, Major Duncan, and your father and mother would have theirs before ye, even if the enemy were in the camp. I see nothing so extraordinar in young people s following the bent of their inclinations and wishes. " But you ve followed yours so often, Davy, that I should iliink, by this time, it had lost the edge of novelty. Includ ing that informal affair in Scotland, when you were a lad. you ve been married four times already." " Only three, major, as I hope to get another wife ! I ve not yet had my number ; no, no only three." " I m thinking, Davy, you don t include the first affair I mentioned ; that in which there was no parson." THE PATHFINDER. 161 " And why should I, major ? The courts decided that it was no marriage, and what more could a man want 1 The woman took advantage of a slight amorous .propensity, that may be a weakness in my disposition, perhaps, and inveigled me into a contract that was found to be illegal." " If I remember right, Muir, there were thought to bo two sides to that question, in the time of it ! " " It would be but an indifferent question, my dear major, that hadn t two sides to it ; and I ve known many that had thres. But the poor woman s dead, and there was no issuo, so nothing came of it, after all. Then I was particularly unfortunate with my second wife I say second, major, out of deference to you, and on the mere supposition that the first was a marriage at all but first or second, I was particularly unfortunate with Jeannie Graham, who died in the first lustrum, leaving neither chick nor chiel behind her. I do think if Jeannie had survived I never should have turned my thoughts towards another wife." " But as she did not, you married twice after her death, and are desirous of doing so a third time." " The truth can never justly be gainsaid. Major Duncan, and I am always ready to avow it. I m thinking, Lundie, you are melancholar , this fine evening ? " " No, Muir, not melancholy absolutely, but a little thoughtful, I confess. I was looking back to my boyish days, when I, the laird s son, and you the parson s, roamed about our native hills, happy and careless boys, taking little heed to the future ; and then have followed some thoughts, that may be a little painful, concerning that future, as it has turned out to be." " Surely, Lundie, ye do not complain of your portion of it? You ve risen to be a major, and will soon be a lieu tenant-colonel, if letters tell the truth; while I am just one step higher than when your honored father gave me my first commission, and a poor deevil of a quartermaster. * " And the four wives ? " " Three, Lundie ; three only that were legal, even under our own liberal and sanctified laws." then, let it be three, ^e know, Davy," said 152 THE PATHFINDER. Major Duncan, insensibly dropping into the pronunciation and dialect of his youth, as is much the practice with educated Scotchmen, as they warm with a subject that cornea near the heart, " ye know, Davy, that my own choice has long been made, and in how anxious and hope-wearied a manner I ve waited for that happy hour when I can call the woman I ve so long loved a wife ; and here have you with out fortune, name, birth, or merit I mean particular merit " " Na, na ; dinna say that, Lundie the Muirs are of gude bluid." " Well, then, without aught but bluid ye ve wived four times " " I tall ye but thrice, Lundie. Ye ll weaken auld friend ship if ye call it four." " Put it at ye r own number, Davy, and it s far more than ye r share. Our lives have been very different on the Bcore of matrimony, at least ; you must allow that, my old friend." " And which do you think has been the gainer, major, speaking as frankly the gither as we did when lads." " Nay, I ve nothing to conceal. My days have passed in hope deferred, while yours have passed in " " Not in hope realized, I give you mine honor, Major Duncan," interrupted the quartermaster. "Each new experiment I have thought might prove an advantage, but disappointment seems the lot of man ! Ah ! this is a vain world of ours, Lundie, it must be owned ; and hi nothing vainer than in matrimony." " And yet you are ready to put your neck into the noose for the fifth time ? " " I desire to say it will be but the fourth, Major Duncan," said the quartermaster positively ; then instantly changing the expression of his face to one of boyish rapture, he added, " But this Mabel Dunham is a rara avis ! Our Scotch lassies are fair and pleasant, but it must be owned these colonials are of surpassing comeliness." " You will do well to recollect your commission and Wood, Davy ; I believe all four of your wives " THE PATHFINDER 158 " I wish, my dear Lundie, ye d be more accurate in your arithmetic ; three times one make three." "All three, then were what might be termed gentle- women." " That s just it, major. Three were gentlewomen, as you gay, and the connections were suitable." "And the fourth, being the daughter of my father s gardener, the connection was unsuitable. But have you no fear that marrying the child of a non-commissioned officer who is in the same corps with yourself, will have the effect to lessen your consequence in the regiment ? " " That s just been my weakness through life, Major Duncan ; for I ve always married without regard to conse quences. Every man has his besetting sin, and matrimony, I fear, is mine. And now that we have discussed what may be called the principles of the connection, I will just ask if you did me the favor to speak to the sergeant on the trifling affair?" " I did, David, and am sorry to say for your hopes that I see no great chance of your succeeding." " Not succeeding ! An officer, and a quartermaster into the bargain, and not succeed with a sergeant s daughter ! " " It s just that, Davy." " And why not, Lundie ? will you have the goodness to answer just that ? " "The girl is betrothed. Hand plighted, word passed, love pledged no, hang me if I believe that either ; but she is betrothed." " Well, that s an obstacle, it must be avowed, major ; though it counts for little if the heart is free." " Quite true ; and I think it probable the heart is free in this case, for the intended husband appears to be the choice of the father rather than of the daughter." " And who may it be, major ? " asked the quartermas ter, who viewed the whole matter with the philosophy and coolness that are acquired by use. " I do not recollect any plausible suitor that is likely to stand in my way." " No, you are the only plausible suitor on the frontier Davy The happy man is Pathfinder." L5 i THE PATHFINDER. * Pathfinder, Major Duncan ? " " No more, nor any less, David Muir. Pathfinder is th man ; but it may relieve your jealousy a little to know that, in my judgment at least, it is a match of the father s, rather than of the daughter s seeking." " I thought as much ! " exclaimed the quartermaster, drawing a long breath, like one who felt relieved ; " it s .qaite impossible, that with my experience in human na ture " " Particularly hu-woman s nature, David ! " " Ye will have ye r joke, Lundie, let who will suffer ! But I did not think it possible I could be deceived as to the young woman s inclinations, which I think I may boldly pronounce to be altogether above the condition of Path finder. As for the individual himself why, time will show." " Now, tell me frankly, Davy Muir," said Lundie, stop ping short in his walk, and looking the other earnestly in the face, with a comical expression of surprise, that ren dered the veteran s countenance ridiculously earnest, "do you really suppose a girl like the daughter of Sergeant Dunham can take a serious fancy to a man of your years, and appearance, and experience, I might add ? " " Hout, awa , Lundie, ye dinna know the sax, and that s the reason ye r unmarried in ye r forty-fifth year. It s a fearfu time ye ve been a bachelor, major ! " " And what may be your age, Lieutenant Muir, if I may presume to ask so delicate a question ? " " Forty-seven ; I ll no deny it, Lundie ; and if I get Ma bel, there ll be just a wife for every twa lustrums ! But I didna think Sergeant Dunham would be so humble-minded, a-s to dream of giving that sweet lass of his to one like the Pathfinder ! " " There s no dream about it, Davy ; the man is as serioua as a soldier about to be flogged." " Well, well, major, we are auld friends," both ran into the Scotch, or avoided it, as they approached or drew away from their younger days, in the dialogue, " and ought to kiiow how to take and give a joke, off duty. It is possible THE PATHFINDER. 155 the worthy man has not understood my hints, or he never would have thought of such a thing. The difference be tween an officer s consort and a guide s woman is as vast as that between the antiquity of Scotland and the antiquity of America. I m auld bluid, too, Lundie." " Take my word for it, Davy, your antiquity will do you no good, in this affair ; and as for your blood, it is not older than your bones. Well, well, man, ye know the sergeant s answer, and so you perceive that my influence, on which you counted so much, can do naught for ye. Let us take a glass the gither, Davy, for auld acquaintance sake, and then ye ll be doing well to remember the party that marches the morrow, and to forget Mabel Dunham as fast as ever yov can." " Ah ! major, I have always found it easier to forget wife than to forget a sweetheart ! When a couple are fairly married, all is settled but the death, as one may say, which must finally part us all ; and it seems to me awfu irrever ent to disturb the departed ; whereas, there is so much anx- ety, and hope, and felicity, in expectation like, with the las- rie, that it keeps thought alive." " That is just my idea of your situation, Davy, for I never supposed you expected any more felicity with either of your wives. Now, I ve heard of fellows who were so stupid as to look forward to happiness with their wives, even beyond the grave. I drink to your success, or to your speedy recovery from this attack, lieutenant ; and I admon ish you to be more cautious in future, as some of these vio lent cases may yet carry you off." " Many thanks, dear major ; and a speedy termination to an old courtship, of which I know something. This is real mountain-dew, Lundie, and it warms the heart like a gleam of bonny Scotland. As for the men you ve just mentioned, they could have had but one wife apiece, for where there *re several, the deeds of the women themselves may carry them different ways. I think a reasonable husband ought to be satisfied with passing his allotted time with any par ticular wife, in this world, and not to go about moping for tilings unattainable. I m infinitely obliged to you, Major 156 THE PATHFINDER. Duncan, for this and all your other acts of friendship ; and if you could but add another, I should think you had not altogether forgotten the playfellow of your boyhood." " Well, Davy, if the request be reasonable, and such as a superior ought to grant, out with it, man." " If ye could only contrive a little service for me down among the Thousand Isles for a fortnight or so, I think thw matter might be settled to the satisfaction of all parties. Just remember, Lundie, the lassie is the only marriageable white female on this frontier ! " " There is always duty for one in your line at a post, however small ; but this below can be done by the sergeant as well as by the quartermaster general, and better too." " But not better than by a regimental officer. There is great waste, in common, among the orderlies." " I ll think of it, Muir," said the major, laughing, " and you shall have my answer in the morning. Here will be a fine occasion, man, the morrow, to show yourself off before the lady ; you are expert with the rifle, and prizes are to be won. Make up your mind to display your skill, and who knows what may yet happen before the Scud sails." " I m thinking most of the young men will try their hands hi this sport, major ? " " That will they, and some of the old ones, too, if you appear. To keep you in countenance I ll try a shot or two myself, Davy ; and you know I have some name that way." " It might, indeed, do good ! The female heart, Major Duncan, is susceptible in many different modes, and some times in a way that the rules of philosophy might reject. Some require a suitor to sit down before them, as it might be, in a regular siege, and only capitulate when the place can hold out no longer ; others again like to be carried by storm ; while there are hussies who can only fee caught by leading them into an ambush. The former is the most creditable and officer-like process, perhaps ; but I must say I think the last the most pleasing." " An opinion formed from experience, out of all question And what of the storming parties ? " THE PATHFINDER. 157 " They may do for younger men, Lundie," returned the quartermaster, rising and winking, a liberty that he often took with his commanding officer on the score of a long intimacy ; " every period of life has its necessities, and at forty-seven it s just as well to trust a little to the head. I wish you a very good even, Major Duncan, and freedom from gout, with a sweet and refreshing sleep." " The same to yourself, Mr. Muir, with many thanks. Remember the passage of arms for the morrow." The quartermaster withdrew, leaving Lundie in his library to reflect on what had just passed. Use had so accustomed Major Duncan to Lieutenant Muir and ail his traits and humors, that the conduct of the latter did not strike the former with the same force as it will probablj strike the reader. In truth, while all men act under one common law that is termed nature, the varieties in their dispositions, modes of judging, feelings, and selfishness are infinite* 158 THE TATHFINDEB. CHAPTER XL Compel the hawke to sit that is unmann d, Or make the hound, untaught, to draw the deere, Or bring the free against his will in band, Or move the sad a pleasant tale to heere, Your time is lost, and you no whit the neere! So love ne learnes, of force the heart to knit: She serves but those that feel sweet fancies fit. MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES. IT is not often that hope is rewarded by fruition as completely as the wishes of the young men of the garrison were met by the state of the weather on the succeeding day. It may be no more than the ordinary waywardness of man, but the Americans are a little accustomed to taking pride in things that the means of intelligent comparisons would probably show were, in reality, of a very inferior quality, while they overlook or undervalue advantages that place them certainly on a level with, if not above, most of their fellow-creatures. Among the latter is the climate, which, as a whole, though far from perfect, is infinitely more agreeable, and quite as healthy as those of most of the countries which are loudest in their denunciations of it. The heats of summer were little felt at Oswego, at the period of which we are writing ; for the shade of the forest, added to the refreshing breezes from the lake, so far re duced the influence of the sun, as to render the nights always cool, and the days seldom oppressive It was now September, a month in which the strong gales of the coast often appear to force themselves across the country as far as the Great Lakes, where the inland sailor sometimes feels that genial influence which charac terizes the winds of the ocean; invigorating his frame, cheering his spirits, and arousing his moral force. Such a lay was that on which tho garrison of Oswego assemble^ THE PATHFINDER. 159 to witness what its commander had jocularly called a " passage of arms." Lundie was a scholar, in military matters at least, and it was one of his sources of honest pride to direct the reading and thoughts of the young men under his orders, to the more intellectual parts of their profession. For one in his situation, his library was both good and extensive, and its books were freely lent to all who desired to use them. Among other whims that had found their way into the garrison, through these means, was a relish for the sort of amusement in which it was now about to indulge ; and around which some chronicles of the days of chivalry had induced them to throw a parade and romance, that were not unsuited to the characters and habits of soldiers, or to the insulated and wild post occupied by this particular garrison, j While so earnestly bent on pleas ure, however, they on whom that duty devolved did not neg lect the safety of the garrison. One standing on the ram parts of the fort, and gazing on the waste of glittering water that bounded the view all along the northern horizon, and on the slumbering and seemingly boundless forest, that filled the other half of the panorama, would have fancied the spot the very abode of peacefulness and security ; but Duncan of Lundie too well knew that the woods might at any moment give up their hundreds, bent on the destruction of the fort and all it contained, and that even the treacherous lake offered a highway of easy approach, by which his more civilized and scarcely less wily foes, the French, could come upon him at an unwelcome and unguarded moment. Parties were sent out, under old and vigilant officers, men who cared little for the sports of the day, to scour the forest ; and one entire company held the fort, under arms, with Drders to maintain a vigilance as strict as if an enemy of superior force was known to be near. With these precau tions, the remainder of the officers and men abandoned themselves, without apprehension, to the business of the morning. The spot selected for the sports was a sort of esplanade, a little west of the fort, and on the immediate bank of the lake. It had been cleared of its trees and stumps, that it 160 THE PATHFINDER. might answer the purpose of a parade ground, as it po- sessed the advantages of having its rear protected by the water, and one of its flanks by the works. Men drilling on it could be attacked, consequently, on two sides only ; and AS the cleared space beyond it, in the direction cf the west and south, was large, any assailants would be compelled to quit the cover of the woods, before they could rnaka an if proach sufficiently near to render them dangerous. Although the regular arms of the regiment were muskets, some fifty rifles were produced on the present occasion, Every officer had one, as a part of his private provision for amusement ; many belonged to the scouts and friendly Indians, of whom more or less were always hanging about the fort ; and there was a public provision of them, for the use of those who followed the game with .the express object of obtaining supplies. Among those who carried the weapon, were some five or six, who had reputations for knowing how to use it particularly well so well, indeed, as to have given them a celebrity on the frontier ; twice that number who were believed to be much better than common ; and many who would have been thought expert, in almost any situation, but the precise one in which they now happened to be placed. The distance was a hundred yards, and the weapon was to be used without a rest ; the target, a board, with the customary circular ILoes in white paint, having the bull s- eye in the centre. The first trials in skill commenced with challenges among the more ignoble of the competitors, to display their steadiness and dexterity in idle competition. None but the common men engaged in this strife, which had little to interest the spectators, among whom no officer had yet appeared. Most of the soldiers were Scotch, the regiment having been raised at Stirling and its vicinity, not many years oofore ; though, as in the case of Sergeant Dunham, many Americans had joined it, since its arrival in the colonies. A.S a matter of course, the provincials were generally the most expert maiksmen ; and after a desultory trial of half an hour, it was necessarily conceded, that a youth, who had THE PA/HFINDEB. 161 been born in the colony of New York, and who, coming of Dutch extraction, bore the euphonious name of Van Valk- enburg, but was familiarly called FoLlock, was the most expert of all who had yet tried their skill. It was just as this opinion prevailed, that the oldest captain, accompanied by most of the gentlemen and ladies of the fort, appeared on the parade. /A train of some twenty females of humbler condition followed, among whom was seen the well-turned form, intelligent, blooming, animated countenance, and neat, becoming attire of Mabel Dunham. Of females who were officially recognized as belonging to the class of ladies, there were but three in the fort, all of whom were officers wives ; staid matronly women, with the simplicity of the habits of middle life singularly mixed in their deportment with their notions of professional superior ity, the rights and duties of caste, and the etiquette of rank. The other women were the wives of non-commissioned officers and privates ; Mabel being strictly, as had been stated by the quartermaster, the only real candidate for matrimony among her sex. There were a dozen other girls, it is true, but they were still classed among the children, none of them being yet of an age to elevate them into ob jects of legitimate admiration. Some little preparation had been made for the proper re ^ eeption of the females, who were placed on a low staging of planks, near the immediate bank of the lake. In this vicinity the prizes were suspended from a post. Great care ^ was taken to reserve the front seat of the stage for the three . iadies and their children ; while Mabel, and those who be- v^ longed to the non-commissioned officers of the regiment, oc cupied the second. The wives and daughters of the pri vates were huddled together in the rear, some standing, and ^ some sitting, as they could find room. Mabel, who had alreardy been admitted to the society of the officers wives, oo the footing of an humble companion, was a good deal noticed by the ladies in front, whc had a proper apprecia tion of modest self-respect and gentle refinement, though they were all fully aware of the value of rank, more pai- ticularly in a garrison. 11 162 THE PATHFINDEK. As soon as this important portion of the spectators had got into their places, Lundie gave orders for the trial of skill to proceed, in the manner that had been prescribed in his previous orders. Some eight or ten of the best marks men of the garrison now took possession of the stand, and began to fire in succession. Among them were officers and men indiscriminately placed, nor were the casual visitors in the fort excluded from the competition. As might have been expected of men whose amusements and comfortable sub sistence equally depended on skill in the use of their weap ons, it was soon found that they were all sufficiently expert to hit the bull s-eye, or the white spot in the centre of the target. Others, who succeeded them, it is true, were less sure, their bullets striking in the different circles that sur rounded the centre of the target, without touching it. According to the rules of the day, none could proceed to the second trial who had failed in the first ; and the adju tant of the place, who acted as master of the ceremonies, or marshal of the day, called upon the successful adventurers by name, to get ready for the next effort, while he gave no tice that those who failed to present themselves for the shot at the bull s-eye would necessarily be excluded from all the higher trials. Just at this moment, Lundie, the quar termaster, and Jasper Eau-douce appeared in the group at the stand, while the Pathfinder walked leisurely on the ground, without his beloved rifle ; for him, a measure so unusual as to be understood by all present as a proof that ne did not consider himself a competitor for the honors of the day. All made way for Major Duncan, who, as he ap proached the stand, in a good-humored way took his station, leveled his rifle carelessly, and fired. The bullet missed the required mark by several inches. * Major Duncan is excluded from the other trials ! " pro- cJaimed the adjutant, in a voice so strong and confident, that all the elder officers and the sergeants well understood that this failure was preconcerted, while the younger gentlemen and the privates felt new encouragement to proceed, on ac count of the evident impartiality with which the laws of the loorta were administered, nothing being so attractive to tha THE PATHFINDER. 163 unsophisticated as the appearance of rigorous justice, and nothing so rare as its actual administration. " Now, Master Eau-douce, comes your turn," said Muir " and if you do not beat the major, I shall say that your hand is better skilled with the oar than with the rifle." Jasper s handsome face flushed, he stepped upon the stand, cast a hasty glance at Mabel, whose pretty form he ascer tained was bending eagerly forward, as if to note the result, dropped the barrel of his rifle, with but little apparent care, into the palm of his left hand, raised the muzzle for a single instant, with exceeding steadiness, and fired. The bullef passed directly through the centre of the bull s-eye, much the best shot of the morning, since the others had merely touched the paint. " Well performed, Master Jasper," said Muir, as soon as the result was declared ; " and a shot that might have done credit to an older head and a more experienced eye. I m thinking, notwithstanding, there was some of a youngster s luck hi it, for ye were no partic lar in the aim ye took. Ye may be quick, Eau-douce, in the movement, but ye r not philosophic nor scientific in ye r management of the weapon. Now, Sergeant Dunham, I ll thank you to request the ladies to give a closer attention than common, for I m about to make that use of the rifle which may be called the intellect ual. Jasper would have killed, I allow ; but then there would not have been half the satisfaction hi receiving such t shot, as hi receiving one that is discharged scientifically." All this time the quartermaster was preparing himself for the scientific trial ; but he delayed his aim until he saw that the eye of Mabel, in common with those of her com panions, was fastened on him in curiosity. As the others left him room, out of respect to his rank, no one stood near the competitor but his commanding officer, to whom he now aid in bis familiar manner, " You see, Lundie, that something is to be gained by exciting a female s curiosity. It s an active sentiment, ia curiosity, aud properly improved may lead to gentler in- tlinations in the end." ** Very true, Davy ; but ye keep us all waiting wliile ye 164 THE PATHFINDER. make your preparations ; and here is Pathfinder drawing near to catch a lesson from your greater experience." " "Well, Pathfinder, and so you have come to get an idea too, concerning the philosophy of shooting ! I do not wish to hide my light under a bushel, and ye re welcome to all ye ll learn. Do ye no mean to try a shot yerseP, man ? " " Why should I, quartermaster why should I ? I want none of the prizes ; and as for honor, I have had enough of that, if it s any honor to shoot better than your self. I m not a woman, to wear a calash." " Very true ; but ye might find a woman that is precious in your eyes to wear it for ye, as " " Come, Davy," interrupted the major, " your shot, or a retreat. The adjutant is getting to be impatient." " The quartermaster s department, and the adjutant s department, are seldom compilable, Lundie ; but I m ready ; stand a little aside, Pathfinder, and give the ladies an op portunity." Lieutenant Muir now took his attitude with A good deal of studied elegance, raised his rifle slowly, lowered it, raised it again, repeated the manrauvres, and fired. " Missed the target altogether ! " shouted the man whose duty it was to mark the bullets, and who had little relish for the quartermaster s tedious science. "Missed the target!" " It cannot be ! " cried Muir, his face flushing equally with indignation and shame ; " it cannot be, adjutant ; for I never did so awkward a thing in my life. I appeal to the ladies for a juster judgment." " The ladies shut their eyes when you fired," exclaimed the regimental wags. " Your preparations alarmed them." " I will na believe such a calumny of the leddies, njr sic w reproach on my own skill," returned the quartermaster, growing more and more Scotch, as he warmed with his feel ings ; " it s a conspiracy to rob a meritorious man of his " It s a dead miss, Muir," said the laughing Lundie, a and ye U jist sit down quietly with the disgrace." " No, no, major," Pathfinder at length observed, " the quartermaster is a good shot, for a slow one, and a meaa THE PATHFINDER. 165 ured distance ; though nothing extr ornary, for raal sar- vice. He has covered Jasper s bullet, as will be seen, if any one will take the trouble to examine the target." The respect for Pathfinder s skill, and for his quickness and accuracy of sight, was so profound and general, that the instant he made this declaration, the spectators began to distrust their own opinions, and a dozen rushed to the tar get, in order to ascertain the fact. There, sure enough, it was found that the quartermaster s bullet had gone through the hole made by Jasper s, and that, too, so accu rately as to require a minute examination to be certain of the circumstance ; which, however, was soon clearly estab lished, by discovering one bullet over the other, in the stump against which the target was placed. " I told ye, ladies, ye were about to witness the influence of science on gunnery," said the quartermaster, advancing towards the staging occupied by the females. " Major Duncan derides the idea of mathematics entering into tar get shooting ; but I tell him philosophy colors, and enlarges, and improves, and dilates, and explains, everything that be longs to human life, whether it be a shooting match or a sermon. In a word, philosophy is philosophy, and that is saying all that the subject requires." " I trust you exclude love from the catalogue," observed the wife of a captain, who knew the history of the quarter master s marriages, and who had a woman s malice against the monopolizer of her sex ; " it seems that philosophy las little in common with love." " You wouldn t say that, madam, if your heart had expe rienced many trials. It s the man or the woman that has had many occasions to improve the affections that can best ipeak of such matters ; and, believe me, of all love, philo- tophical is the most lasting, as it is the most rational." u You would then recommend experience as an improve ment on the passion ? " " Your quick mind has conceived the idea at a glance. The happiest marriages are those in which youth, and oeauty, and confidence on one side, rely on the sagacity, moderation, and prudence of years middle age, I meaa. 166 THE PATHFINDER. madam, for I ll no deny that there is such a thing &s a hus band s being too old for a wife. Here is Sergeant Dun ham s charming daughter, now, to approve of such senti meiits, I m certain, her character for discretion being already well established in the garrison, ihort as has been her residence among us." " Sergeant Dunham s daughter is scarcely a fitting inter locutor in a discourse between you and me, Lieutenant Muir," rejoined the captain s lady, with careful respect foi her own dignity ; " and yonder is the Pathfinder about to take his chance, by way of changing the subject." " I protest, Major Duncan, I protest " cried Muir, hur rying back towards the stand, with both arms elevated by way of enforcing his words "I protest, in the strongest terms, gentlemen, against Pathfinder s being admitted into these sports with Killdeer, which is a piece, to say nothing of long habit, that is altogether out of proportion, for a trial of skill against government rifles." " Killdeer is taking its rest, quartermaster," returned Pathfinder, calmly, " and no one here thinks of disturbing it. I did not think myself of pulling a trigger to-day ; but Sergeant Dunham has been persuading me that I shall not do proper honor to his handsome daughter, who came under my care, if I am backward on such an occasion. I m using Jasper s rifle, quartermaster, ,as you may see, and that is no better than your own." Lieutenant Muir was now obliged to acquiesce, and every eye turned towards the Pathfinder, as he took the required station. The air and attitude of this celebrated guide and hunter were extremely fine, as he raised his tall form and leveled the piece, showing perfect self-command, and a thor- otgh knowledge of the power of the human frame, as well %s of the weapon. Pathfinder was not what is usually termed a handsome man, though his appearance excited so much confidence, and commanded respect. Tall, and even muscular, his frame might have been esteemed nearly per fect, were it not for the total absence of everything like flesh. Whip-cord was scarcely -jaore rigid than his arms and legs, or, at need, more pliable ; but the outlines of his per- THE PATHFINDER. 167 BOD were rather too angular for the proportion that the eye most approves. Still, his motions being natural, were graceful ; and being calm and regulated, they gave him an air of dignity that associated well with the idea that was sr prevalent of his services and peculiar merits. His honesti open features \^ere burnt to a bright red, that comported with the notion of exposure and hardships, while his sinewy hands denoted force, and a species of use that was removed from the stiffening and deforming effects of labor. Although no one perceived any of those gentler or more insinuating qualities which are apt to win upon a woman s affections, as he raised his rifle, not a female eye was fastened on him, with out a silent approbation of the freedom of his movements, and the manliness of his air. Thought was scarcely quicker than his aim, and, as the smoke floated above his head, the breech of the rifle was seen on the ground, the hand of the Pathfinder was leaning on the barrel, and his honest coun tenance was illuminated by his usual silent, hearty laugh. " If one dared to hint at such a thing," cried Major Dun can, " I should say that the Pathfinder had also missed the target ! " " No, no, major," returned the guide, confidently, " that would be a risky declaration. I didn t load the piece, and can t say what was in it ; but if it was lead, you will find the bullet driving down those of the quartermaster s and Jasper s ; else is not my name Pathfinder." A shout from the target announced the truth of this as sertion. : That s not all that s not all, boys," called out the guide who was now slowly advancing towards the stage occupied by the females ; " if you find the target touched at all, I ll own to a miss. The quartermaster cut the wood, but you ll find no wood cut by that last messenger." " Very true, Pathfinder, very true," answered Muir, who was lingering near Mabel, though ashamed to address her particularly, in the presence of the officers wives. " The quartermaster did cut the wood, and by that means he opened a passage for your bullet, which weut through the hole he had made, " 168 THE PATHFINDEK. " Well, quartermaster, there goes the nail, and we ll see who can drive it closest, you or I ; for, though I did not think of showing what a rifle can do to-day, now my hand is in, I ll turn my back to no man that carries King George s commission. Chingachgook is outlying, or he might force me into some of the niceties of the art; but as for you, quartermaster, if the nail don t stop you, the potato will." " You re over boastful this morning, Pathfinder ; bnt you ll find you ve no green boy, fresh from the settlements and the towns, to deal with, I will assure ye ! " " I know that well, quartermaster ; I know that well, and shall not deny your experience. You ve lived many years on "Jie frontiers, and I ve heard of you in the colo nies, and ah*ong the Injins, too, quite a human life ago." " Na, na," interrupted Muir, in his broadest Scotch, " this is injustice, man. I ve no lived so very long, neither." " I ll do you justice, lieutenant, even if you get the best in the potato trial. I say you ve passed a good human life, for a soldier, in places where the rifle is daily used, and I know you are a creditable and ingenious marksman; but then you are not a true rifle-shooter. As for boasting, I hope I m not a vain talker about my own exploits ; but a man s gifts are his gifts, and it s flying in the face of Provi dence to deny them. The sergeant s daughter, here, shall judge atween us, if you have the stomach to submit to so pretty a judge." The Pathfinder had named Mabel as the arbiter, because he admired her, and because, in his eyes, rank had little or no value ; but Lieutenant Muir shrank at such a reference n the presence of the wives of the officers. He would gladly keep himself constantly before the eyes and the imag ination of the object of his wishes ; but he was still too much under the influence of old prejudices, and perhaps too wary, to appear openly as her suitor, unless he saw something very like a certainty of success. On the discretion of Ma jor Duncan he had a full reliance, and he apprehended no betrayal from that quarter ; but he was quite aware, should it ever get abroad that he had been refused by the child of THE PATHFINDER. 169 * non -commissioned officer, he would find great difficulty in making his approaches to any other woman of a condition to which he might reasonably aspire. Notwithstanding these doubts and misgivings, Mabel looked so prettily, blushed so charmingly, smiled so sweetly, and altogether presented so winning a picture of youth, spirit, modesty, and beauty, that he found it exceedingly tempting to be kept so prominently before her imagination, and to bo abl to address her freely. " You shall have it your own way, Pathfinder, he an swered, as soon as his doubts had settled down into deter mination ; " let the sergeant s daughter his charming daughter, I should have termed her be the umpire then ; and to her we will both dedicate the prize, that one or the other must certainly win. Pathfinder must be humored, ladies, as you perceive, else, no doubt, we should have had the honor to submit ourselves to one of your charming society." A call for the competitors now drew the quartermaster and his adversary away ; and in a few moments the second trial of skill commenced. A common wrought nail was driven lightly into the target, its head having been first touched with paint, and the marksman was required to hit it, or he lost his chances in the succeeding trials. No one was permitted to enter on this occasion who had already failed in the essay against the bull s-eye. There might have been half a dozen aspirants for the honors of this trial ; one or two who had barely succeeded in touching the spot of paint, in the previous strife, prefer ring to rest their reputations there ; feeling certain that they could not succeed in the greater effort that was now exacted tf them. The three first adventurers failed, all coming quite near the mark, but neither touching it. The fourth person who presented himself was the quartermaster, who, after going through his usual attitudes, so far succeeded as to carry away a small portion of the head of the nail, plant ing his bullet by the side of its point. This was not consid ered an extraordinary shot, though it brought the adventurer rithin the category. 170 THE PATHFINDER. " You ve saved your bacon, quartermaster, as they saj in the settlements of their creatur s," cried Pathfinder laughing, "but it would take along time to build a house with a hammer no better than your n. Jasper, here, will show you how a nail is to be started, or the lad has lost some of his steadiness of hand and sartainty of eye. You would have done better yourself, lieutenant, had you no 4 been so much bent on sogerizing your figure. Shooting is a nat ral gift, and is to be exercised in a nat ral way." " We shall see, Pathfinder ; I call that a pretty attempt at a nail ; and I doubt if the 55th has another hammer, as you call it, that can do just that same thing over again." " Jasper is not in the 55th but there goes his rap ! " As the Pathfinder spoke, the ballet of Eau-douce hit the nail square, and drove it into the target, within an inch of the head. u Be all ready to clench it, boys," cried out Pathfinder, stepping into his friend s tracks the instant they were vacant. " Never mind a new nail ; I can see that, though the paint is gone, and what I can see, I can hit at a hun dred yards, though it were only a mosquito s eye. Be ready to clench ! " The rifle cracked, the bullet sped its way, and the head of the nail was buried in the wood, covered by the piece of flattened lead. " "Well, Jasper, lad," continued Pathfinder, dropping the breech of his rifle to the ground, and resuming the discourse, as if he thought nothing of his own exploit, " you improve 3aily. A few more tramps on laud, in my company, and the best marksman on the frontiers will have occasion to look keenly, when he takes his stand agin you. The quartermaster is respectable, but he will never get anj further ; whereas you, Jasper, have the gift, and may one isy defy any who pull trigger." " Hoot hoot ! " exclaimed Muir, "do you call hitting the head of the nail respectable only, when it s the perfec- -, tion of the art ? Any one, in the least refined and elevated in sentiment, knows that the delicate touches denote the master ; whereas your sledge-hammer blows come from th< THE PATHFINDER. 171 Aide ani uninstructed. If l a miss is as good a mile, a hit ought to be better, Pathfinder, whether it wound or kill." " The surest way of settling this rivalry will be to make another trial," observed Lundie, " and that will be of the potato. You re Scotch, Mr. Muir, and might fare better were it a cake or a thistle ; but frontier law has declared for the American fruit, and the potato it shall be." As Major Duncan manifested some impatience of manner, Muir had too much tact to delay the sports any longer with his discursive remarks, but judiciously prepared himself for the next appe-al. To say the truth, the quartermaster had little or no faith in his own success in the trial of skill that was to follow, nor would he have been so free in presenting himself as a competitor at all, had he anticipated it would have been made. But Major Duncan, who was somewhat of a humorist, in his own quiet Scotch way, had secretly or dered it to be introduced, expressly to mortify him ; for, a laird himself, Lundie did not relish the notion that one who might claim to be a gentleman, should bring discredit on his caste by forming an unequal alliance. As soon as every thing was prepared, Muir was summoned to the stand, and the potato was held in readiness to be thrown. As the sort of feat we are about to offer to the reader, however, may be new to him, a word in explanation will render the matter more clear. A potato of large size was selected, and given to one, who stood at the distance of twenty yards from the stand. At the word " Heave," which was given by the marksman, the vegetable was thrown with a gentle toss into the air, and it was the business of the adventurer to e&uae a ball to pass through it, before it reached the ground. The quai ermaster, in a hundred experiments, had once succeeded in accomplishing this difficult feat, but he now es sayed to perform it again, with a sort of blind hope, that was fated to be disappointed. The potato was thrown in tho usual manner, the rifle was discharged, but the flying target was untouched. " To the right about, and fall out, quartermaster," said Landie, smiling at the success of his own artifice ; " the honor of the silken calash will lie between Jasper Eau- douce ami l j atli!iti<k r." 172 THE PATHFINDER. "And how is the trial to end, major?" inquired the lat ter. " Are we to have the two-potato trial, or is it to be settled by centre and skin ? " " By centre and skin, if there is any perceptible differ ence ; otherwise the double shot must follow." " This is an awful moment to me, Pathfinder," observed Jasper, as he moved towards the stand, his face actually losing its color in intensity of feeling. Pathfinder gazed earnestly at the young man, and then begging Major Duncan to have patience for a moment, he led his friend out of the hearing of all near him, before he spoke. " You seem to take this matter to heart, Jasper ? " the hunter remarked, keeping his eyes fastened on those of the youth. " I must own, Pathfinder, that my feelings were never before so much bound up in success." " And do you so much crave to outdo me, an old and tried friend ? and that, as it might be, in my own way ? Shooting is my gift, boy, and no common hand can equal mine ! " " I know it I know it, Pathfinder ; but yet " " But what, Jasper, boy ? speak freely ; you talk |to a friend." The young man compressed his lips, dashed a hand across his eye, and flushed and paled alternately, like a girl con fessing her love. Then squeezing the other s hand, he said calmly, like one whose manhood has overcome all other sen sations, " I would lose an arm, Pathfinder, to be able to make an offering of that calash to Mabel Dunham." The hunter dropped his eyes to the ground, ancj as he walked slowly back towards the stand, he seemed to ponder leeply on what he had just heard. " You never could succeed in the double trial, Jasper ! " fte suddenly remarked. " Of that I am certain, and it troubles me." " What a creature is mortal man ! He pines for things which are not of his gift, and treats the bounties of Prov THE PATHFINDER. ITS idence lightly. No matter no matter. Take your sta tion, Jasper, for the major is waiting ; and, harkee, lad, I must touch the skin, for I could not show my face in the garrison with less than that." " I suppose I must submit to my fate>" returned Jasper^ flushing and losing his color, as before ; " but I will make the effort, if I die." " What a thing is mortal man ! " repeated Pathfinder falling back to allow his friend room to take his aim ; " ho overlooks his own gifts, and craves them of another ! " The potato was thrown, Jasper fired, and the shout that followed preceded the announcement of the fact, that he had driven his bullet through its centre, or so nearly so as to merit that award. " Here is a competitor worthy of you, Pathfinder," cried Major Duncan, with delight, as the former took his station, " and we may look to some fine shooting, in the double trial." " What a thing is mortal man ! " repeated the hunter, scarce seeming to notice what was passing around him, so much were his thoughts absorbed in his own reflections. "Toss!" The potato was tossed, the rifle cracked it was re marked just as the little black ball seemed stationary in the air, for the marksman evidently took unusual heed to his aim and then a look of disappointment and wonder suc ceeded among those who caught the falling target. " Two holes in one ? " called out the^major. " The skin the skin ! " was the answer : " only the skin ! " " How s this, Pathfinder ! Is Jasper Eau-douce to carry off the honors of the day ! " " The calash is his," returned the other, shaking his head, and walking quietly away from the stand. "What a crea ture is a mortal man ! Never satisfied w ; .th his own gifts, but forever craving that which Providence denies ! " As Pathfinder had not buried his bullet in the potato, but had cut through the skin, the prize was immediately adjudged to Jasper. The calash was in the hands of the Utter, when the quartermaster approached, and with a pol- 174 THE PATHFINDER itic air of cordiality, he wished his successful rival joy of his victory. " But now you ve got the calash, lad, it s of no use to you," he added ; " it will never make a sail, nor even an ensign. I m thinking, Eau-douce, you d no be sorry to see its value in good silver of the king ? " "Money cannot buy it, lieutenant," returned Jasper whose eye lighted up with all the fire of success and joy, "I would rather have won this calash than have obtained iifty new suits of sails for the Scud ! " " Hoot, hoot, lad ! you are going mad like all the rest of them. I d even venture to offer half a guinea for the trifle, rather than it should lie kicking about in the cabin of your cutter, and, in the end, become an ornament for the head of a squaw." Although Jasper did not know that the wary quarter master had not offered half the actual cost of the prize, he heard the proposition with indifference. Shaking his head in the negative, he advanced towards the stage, where his approach excited a little commotion, the officers ladies, one and all, having determined to accept the present, should the gallantry of the young sailor induce him to offer it. But Jasper s diffidence, no less than admiration for another, would have prevented him from aspiring to the honor of complimenting any whom he thought so much his superiors. " Mabel," he said, " this prize is for you, unless " "Unless what, Jasper?" answered the girl, losing her own bashfulness in the natural and generous wish to relieve his embarrassment, though both reddened in a way to betray strong feeling. " Unless you may think too indifferently of it, because it U offered by one who may have np right to believe his gift will be accepted/ " I do accept it, Jasper ; and it shall be a sign of the danger I have passed in your comp iny, and of the gratitude I feel for your care of me your care, and that of the Pathfinder." " Never mind me, never mind me," exclaimed the latter * this is Jasper s luck and Jasper s gift ; gi <j him fu!l credit THE PATHFI1 >EK. 175 for both. My turn may come another day ; mine and the quartermaster s, who seems to grudge the boy the calash, though what he can want of it, I cannot understand, for he has no wife." u And has Jasper Eau-douce a wife? Or have you a wife yoursel , Pathfinder? I may want it to help to get a wife, or as a memorial that I have had a wife, or as proof bow much I admire the sex, or because it is a female gar ment, or for some other equally respectable motive. It s not the unreflecting that are the most prized by the thought ful, and there is no surer sign that a man made a gooi husband to his first consort, let me tell you all, than to see him speedily looking around for a competent successor. The affections are good gifts from Providence, and they that have loved one faithfully, prove how much of this bounty has been lavished upon them, by loving anothev as soon as possible." " It may be so it may be so. I am no practitioner in such things, and cannot gainsay it. But Mabel, here, the sergeant s daughter, will give you full credit for the words. Come, Jasper, although our hands are out, let us see what the other lads can do with the rifle." Pathfinder and his companions retired, for the sports were about to proceed. The ladies, however, were not so much engrossed with rifle-shooting as to neglect the calash. It passed from hand to hand ; the silk was felt, the fashion criticised, and the work examined, and divers opinions were privately ventured concerning the fitness of so handsome a tiling s passing into the possession of a non-commissioned officer s child. " Perhaps you will be disposed to sell that calash, Mabel, when it has been a short time in your possession ? " inquired the captain s lady. " Wear it, I should think, y ou nevei can." " 1 may not wear it, madam," returned our heroine mod estly, " but I should not like to part with it, either." "I dare say Sergeant Dunham keeps you above tht necessity of selling your clothes, child; but, at the sajue time, it is money thrown away to keep an article of dresi you can never wear." If6 THE PATHFINDER. " I should be unwilling to part with the gift of a friend." " But the young man himself will think all the better of you, for your prudence, after the triumph of the day is forgotten. It is a pretty and a becoming calash, and ought not to be thrown away." " I ve no intention to throw it away, ma am, and, it you please, would rather keep it." " As you will, child ; girls of your age often overlook their real advantages. Remember, however, if you do deter mine to dispose of the thing, that it is bespoke, and that I will not take it, if you ever even put it on your own head." " Yes, ma am," said Mabel, in the meekest voice imagina ble, though her eyes looked like diamonds, and her cheeks reddened to the tints of two roses, as she placed the for bidden garmen^ over her well-turned shoulders, where she kept it a minute, as if to try its fitness, and then quietly removed it again. The remainder of the sports offered nothing of interest. The shooting was reasonably good, but the trials were all of a scale lower than those related, and the competitors were soon left to themselves. The ladies and most of the officers withdrew, and the remainder of the females soon followed their example. Mabel was returning along the low flat rocks that line the shore of the lake, dangling her pretty calash from a prettier finger, when Pathfinder met her. He carried the rifle which he had used that day, but his manner had less of the frank ease of the hunter about it than usual, while his eye seemed roving and uneasy. After a few unmeaning words concerning the noble sheet of water before them, he turned towards his companion with strong interest in his countenance, and said, " Jasper earned that calash for you, Mabel, without much irial of his gifts." It was fairly done, Pathfinder." " No doubt, no doubt. The bullet passed neatly through the potato, and no man could have done more; though others might have done as much." * But no one did as much ! " exclaimed Mabel, with ac animation that she instantly regretted, for she saw by th ^ :TT " Here, where they cross each other, in sailing about, he added, cocking ,rt raisina his rifle : the two the two : now look ! Page 177- and raising his rifle ; the two the two THE PATHFINDER. 177 pained look of the guide, that he was mortified equally In the remark, and by the feeling with which it was uttered. " It is true it is true, Mabel, no one did as much ftien, but yet, there is no reason I should deny my gifts which come from Providence ; yes, yes no one did as much there, but you shall know what can be done here. Do you ob serve the gulls that are flying over our heads ? " " Certainly, Pathfinder ; there are too many to escape notice." " Here, where they cross each other, in sailing about," he added, cocking and raising his rifle; "the two the two ; now look ! " The piece was presented quick as thought, as two of the birds came in a line, though distant from each other many yards ; the report followed, and the bullet passed through the bodies of both the victims. No sooner had the gulls fallen into the lake, than Pathfinder dropped the breech of the rifle, and laughed in his own peculiar manner, every shade of dissatisfaction and mortified pride having left his honest face. " That is something, Mabel, that is something ; although I ve no calash to give you ! But ask Jasper himself; I ll leave it all to Jasper, for a truer tongue and heart are not in America." "Then it was not Jasper s fault that he gained the prize ! " " Not it. He did his best, and he did well. For one that has water gifts, rather than land gifts, Jasper is oncom- monly expart, and a better backer no one need wish, ashore or afloat. But it was my fault, Mabel, that he got the calash; though it makes no difference it makes no differ ence, for the thing has gone to the right person." " I believe I understand you, Pathfinder," said MabeL blushing in spite of herself, " and I look upon the calash as the joint gift of yourself and Jasper." " That would not be doing justice to the lad, neither. He won the garment, and had a right to give it away. The most you may think, Mabel, is to believe that had I won it, t would have gone to the same person." 19 178 THE PATHFINDER. " I will remember that, Pathfinder, and take care that others know your skill, as it has been proved upon the poor gulls, in my presence." " Lord bless you, Mabel, there is no more need of your talking in favor of my shooting, on this frontier, than of your talking about the water in the lake, or the sun in the heavens. Everybody knows what I can do in that way, and your worda would be thrown away, as much as French wouW be thrown away on an American bear." " Then you think that Jasper knew you were giving him this advantage, of which he has so unhandsomely availed himself?" said Mabel, the color which had imparted so much lustre to her eyes gradually leaving her face, which became grave and thoughtful. " I do not say that, but very far from it. We all forget things that we have known, when eager after our wishes. Jasper is satisfied that I can pass one bullet through two potatoes, as I sent my bullet though the gulls ; and he knows no other man on the frontier can do the same thing. But with the calash before his eyes, and the hope of giving it to you, the lad was inclined to think better of himself, just at that moment, perhaps, than he ought. No, no ; there s nothing mean or distrustful about Jasper Eau-douce, though it is a gift, nat ral to all young men, to wish to appear well in the eyes of handsome young women." " I ll try to forget all, but the kindness you ve both shown to a poor motherless girl," said Mabel, struggling to keep down emotions that she scarcely knew how to account for herself. " Believe me, Pathfinder, I can never forget all you have already done for me you and Jasper and this new proof of your regard is not thrown away. Here here is a brooch that is of silver ; I offer it as a token that I owe you life or liberty." "What shall I do with this, Mabel ?" asked the bewil dered hunter, holding the simple trinket in his hand. " I have neither buckle nor button about me, for I wear nothing but leathern strings, and them of good deer-skins. It s pretty to the eye, but it is prettier far on the spot it cam* than it can be about m&" THE PATHFINDER. 179 " Nay, put it is your hunting-shirt ; it will become it well. Remember, Pathfinder, that it is a token of friend ship between us, and a sign that I can never forget you or your services." Mabel then smiled an adieu, and, bounding up the bank, he was soon lost to view behind the mound of the fort 180 THE PATHFINDER. CHAPTER XH. Lo ! dusky masses steal in dubious sight, Along the leaguered wall, and bristling bank Of the armed river; while with straggling light, The stars peep through the vapor, dim and dank. BTBOB. A FEW hours later, Mabel Dunham was on the bastion that overlooked the river and the lake, seemingly in deep thought. The evening was calm and soft, and the question had arisen whether the party for the Thousand Islands would be able to get out that night or not, on account of the total absence of wind. The stores, arms, and ammuni tion were already shipped, and even Mabel s effects were on board ; but the small draft of men that was to go was still ashore, there being no apparent prospect of the cutter s getting under way. Jasper had warped the Scud out of the cove, and so far up the stream as to enable him to pass through the outlet of the river whenever he chose ; but there he still lay, riding at single anchor. The drafted men were lounging about the shore of the cove, undecided whether ->r not to pull off. The sports of the morning had left a quiet in the garrison that was in harmony with the whole of the beautiful scene, and Mabel felt its influence on her feelings, though probably too little accustomed to speculate on such sensations, to be aware of the cause. Everything near appeared lovely and soothing, while the solemn grandeur of the silent forest and [ !acid expanse of the lake lent a sublimity that other scenes might have wanted. For the first time, Mabel felt the hold that the towns and civilization had gained on her habita sensibly weakened, and the warm-hearted girl began to think that a life passed amid objects such as these around her might be happy. How far the experience of the last ten THE PATHFINDER. 181 days came in aid of the calm and holy even-tide, and con tributed towards producing that young conviction, may be suspected, rather than affirmed, in this early portion of our legend. " A charming sunset, Mabel," said the hearty voice of her uncle, so close to the ear of our heroine as to cause her to start ; " a charming sunset, girl, for a fresh-water concern, though we should think but little of it at sea." " And is not nature the same, on shore, or at sea ; on a lake like this, or on the ocean ? Does not the sun shine on all alike, dear uncle, and can we not feel gratitude fcr the blessings of Providence as strongly on this remote frontier as in our own Manhattan ? " " The girl has fallen in with some of her mother s books ! though I should think the sergeant would scarcely make a second march with such trumpery among his baggage. la not nature the same, indeed ! Now, Mabel, do you imagine that the nature of a soldier is the same as that of a seafar ing man ? You ve relations in both callings, and ought to be able to answer." " But, uncle, I mean human nature " " So do I, girl ; the human nature of a seaman, and the human nature of one of these fellows of the 55th, not even excepting your own father. Here have they had a shoot ing match target firing I should call it this day, and what a different thing has it been from a target firing afloat ! There we should have sprung our broadside, sported with round shot, at an object half a mile off at the very nearest; and the potatoes, if there happened to be any on board, aa quite likely would not have been the case, would have been left in the cook s coppers. It may be an honorable callingj, that of a soldier, Mabel, but an experienced hand sees many follies and weaknesses in one of these forts. As for that bit of a lake, you know my opinion of it already, and I wish to disparage nothing. No real seafarer disparages any thing ; but d e if I regard this here Ontario, as they call it, as more than so much water in a ship s scuttle-butt. Now, look you here, Mabel, if you wish to understand the difference between the ocean and a lake, I can make you 182 THE PATHFINDER. comprehend it with a single look: this is what one may call a calm, seeing that there is no wind; though, to own the truth, I do not think the calms are as calm as them we get outside " " Uncle, there is not a breath of air ! I do not think it possible for the leaves to be more immovably still than those of the entire forest are at this very moment." " Leaves ! what are leaves, child ? there are no leaves at sea. If you wish to know whether it is a dead calm or not, try a mould candle your dips flaring too much and then you may be certain whether there is or is not any wind. If you were in a latitude where the air was so still that you found a difficulty in stirring it to draw it in, in breathing, you might fancy it a calm. People are often on a short allowance of air in the calm latitudes. Here, again, look at that water ! It is like milk in a pan, with no more motion now than there is in a full hogshead before the bung is started. On the ocean the water is never still, let the air be as quiet as it may." " The water of the ocean never still, uncle Cap I not even in a calm ? * " Bless your heart, no, child. The ocean breathes like a living being, and its bosom is always heaving, as the poet- izers call it, though there be no more air than is to be found in a siphon. No man ever saw the ocean still like this lake ; but it heaves and sets as if it had lungs." " And this lake is not absolutely still, for you perceive there is a little ripple on the shore, and you may even hear the surf plunging, at moments, against the rocks." " All d d poetry ! One may call a bubble a ripple, if he will, and washing decks a surf; but Lake Ontario is no more the Atlantic than a Powles Hook periagua is a first-rate. That Jasper, notwithstanding, is a fine lad, and wrants instruction only to make a man of him ! " " Do you think him ignorant, uncle ? " answered Mabel, prettily adjusting her hair, in order to do which Bhe was obliged, or fancied she was obliged, to turn away her face. * To me, Jasper Eau-douce appears to know more than most of the young men of his class. He has read but little, fo* THE PATHFINDER. 183 books are riot plenty in this part of the world but he has thought much ; at least so it seems to me, for one so young." ^ " He is ignorant he is ignorant, as all must be who navigate an inland water like this. He can make a flat knot and a timber hitch, it is true ; but he has no more notion of crowning a cable, now, or of a carrick bend, than you have of catting an anchor. No, no, Mabel ; we both owe something to Jasper and the Pathfinder, and I have been thinking how I can best serve them, for I hold ingrat itude to be the vice of a hog. Some people say it is the vice of a king ; but I say it is the failing of a hog ; for treat the animal to your own dinner, and he would eat you for the dessert." " Very true, dear uncle, and we ought indeed to do all we can to express our proper sense of the services of both these brave men." " Spoken like your mother s daughter, girl, and in a way to do credit to the Cap family. Now, I ve hit upon a trav erse that will just suit all parties, and as soon as we get back from this little expedition down the lake, among them there Thousand Islands, ] and I am ready to return, it is my intention to propose it." " Dearest uncle ! this is so considerate in you, and will be so just ! May I ask what your intentions are ? " " I see no reason for keeping them a secret from you, Mabel, though nothing need be said to your father about them, for the sergeant has his prejudices, and might throw difficulties in the way. Neither Jasper, nor his friend, Pathfinder, can ever make anything here-abouts, and I pro pose to take both with me down to the coast, and get them fairly afloat. Jasper would find his sea-legs in a fortnight, and a twelvemonth s v y ge would make him a man. Al though Pathfinder might take more time, or never get to bo rated able, yet one could make something of him, too, par ticularly as a lookout, for he has unusually good eyes*" u Uncle, do you think eUher would consent to this?** laid Mabel, smiling. u Do I suppose them simpletons ? What rational being l See Appendix, Note J. 184 THE PATHFINDER. would neglect his own advancement ? Let Jasper alone to push his way, and the lad may yet die the master of som,3 square-rigged craft." " And would he be any the happier for it, dear uncle ? How much better is it to be the master of a square-rigged craft, than to be the master of a round-rigged craft ?" " Pooh pooh, Magnet, you are just fit to read lectures about ships before some hysterical society ; you don t know what you are talking about; leave these things to ras, and they ll be properly managed. Ah ! here is the Pathfinder himself, and I may just as well drop him a hint of my be nevolent intentions as regards himself. Hope is a great encourager of our exertions." Cap nodded his head, and then ceased to speak, while the hunter approached, not with his usual frank and easy manner, but hi a way to show that he was slightly embar rassed, if not distrustful of his reception. "Uncle and niece make a family party," said Pathfinder, when near the two, " and a stranger may not prove a wel come companion ? " " You are no stranger, Master Pathfinder," returned Cap, "and no one can be more welcome than yourself. We were talking of you but a moment ago ; and when friends speak of an absent man, he can guess what they have said." " I ask no secrets I ask no secrets. Every man has his enemies, and I have mine, though I count neither you, Master Cap, nor pretty Mabel, here, among the number. As for the Mingos, I will say nothing ; though they have iio just cause to hate me." "That I ll answer for, Pathfinder, for you strike my fancy as being well disposed and upright. There is a method, however, of getting away from the enmity of even tk 3se Mingos, and if you choose to take it, no one will more willingly point it out than myself, without a charge for my advice either." " I wish no inimies, Salt-water," for so the Pathfinder had -jegun to call Cap, having, insensibly to himself, adopted the term by translating the name given him by the Indians in. and about the fort, " I wish no inimies. I m as ready t THE PATHFINDER. 185 bury the hatchet with the Mingos as with the French, though you know that it depends on one greater than either of us so to turn the heart as to leave a man without inimifts." " By lifting your anchor, and accompanying me down to the coast, friend Pathfinder, when we get back from this short cruise on which we are bound, you will find yourself beyond the sound of the war-whoop, and safe enough from fhe Indian bullet." w And what should I do on the salt water ? Hunt in your towns ! Follow the trails of people going and coming from market, and ambush dogs and poultry ! You are no friend to my happiness, Master Cap, if you would lead me out of the shade of the woods, to put me in the sun of the clearin s ! " " I did not propose to leave you in the settlements, Path finder, but to carry you out to sea, where only a man can be said to breathe freely. Mabel will tell you that such was my intention, before a word was said on the subject." " And what does Mabel think would come of such a change ? She knows that a man has his gifts, and that it is as useless to pretend to others, as to withstand them that rome from Providence. I am a hunter, and a scout, or a guide, Salt-water, and it is not in me to fly so much in the face of Heaven as to try to become anything else. Am I right, Mabel, or are you so much of a woman as to wish to see a natur altered ? " " I would wish to see no change in you, Pathfinder," Ma bel answered, with a cordial sincerity and frankness that went directly to the hunter s heart ; " and much as my uncle Kdraires the sea, and great as is all the good that he thinks uaay come of it, I could not wish to see the best and noblest hunter of the woods transformed into an admiral. Remain what you are, my brave friend, and you need fear nothing, yhort of the anger of God." " Do you hear this, Salt-water? Do you hear what the bergeant s daughter is saying ? And she is much too upright, and fair-minded, and pretty, not to think what she says. .Ho long as she is satisfied with me as I am, I shall not fly in the face of the gifts of Providence, by striving to become 186 THE PATHFINDER. anything else. I may seem useless here, in n garrison, but when we get down among the Thousand Islands, there may be an opportunity to prove that a sure rifle is sometimes a God-send." " You are then to be of our party ? " said Mabel, smiling so frankly and so sweetly on the guide, that he would havo followed her to the end of the earth. " I shall be the only fens/lie, with the exception of one soldier s wife, and shall feel nons the less secure, Pathfinder, because you will l*e among our protectors." "The sergeant would do that, Mabel, the sergeant would do that, though you were not of his kin. No one will over look you. I should think your uncle, here, would like an expedition of this sort, where we shall go with sails, and have a look at an inland sea ? " " Your inland sea is no great matter, Master Pathfinder, and I expect nothing from it. I confess, however, I should like to know the object of the cruise, for one does not wish to be idle, and my brother-in-law, the sergeant, is as close- mouthed as a freemason. Do you know, Mabel, what all this means ? " " Not in the least, uncle. I dare not ask my father any questions about his duty, for he thinks it is not a woman s business ; and all I can say is, that we are to sail as soon as the wind will permit, and that we are to be absent a month." " Perhaps Master Pathfinder can give me a useful hint, lor a v y ge without an object is never pleasant to an old Bailor." " There is no great secret, Salt-water, concerning our port %pd object, though it is forbidden to talk much about either in the garrison. I am no soldier, however, and can use my tongue as I please, though as little given as another to idle uonversation, T hope ; still, as we sail so soon, and you are toth to be of the party, you may as well be told where you Are to be carried. You know that there are such things as f he Thousand Islands, I suppose, Master Cap ? " " Aye, what are so called here-away, though I take it foi granted that they are not real islands, such as we fall in THE PATHFINDER. 187 mth on the ocean ; and that the thousand means some sach matter as two or three, like the killed and wounded of a great battle." " My eyes are good, yet have I often been foiled in try ing to count them very islands." " Aye, aye ; I ve known people who couldn t count be yond a certain number. Your real land-birds never kno^f their own roosts, even in a land-fall at sea ; they are what I call all things to all men. How many times have I seen the beach, and houses and churches, when the passengeri have not been able to see anything but water ! I have no idea that a man can get fairly out of sight of land on fresh water. The thing appears to me to be irrational and im possible." " You don t know the lakes, Master Cap, or you would not say that. Before we get to the Thousand Islands, you will have other notions of what natur has done in this wilderness." " I have my doubts whether you have such a thing as a real island in all this region. To my notion, fresh water can t make a bony fidy island ; not what / call an island." " We ll show you hundreds of them not exactly a thousand, perhaps, but so many that eye cannot see them all, or tongue count them." " And what sort of things may they be ? " " Land, with water entirely around them." " Aye, but what sort of land, and what sort of water ? I ll engage, when the truth comes to be known, they ll turn out to be nothing but peninsulas, or promontories, or conti nents ; though these are matters, I dare say, of which you know little or nothing. But islands or no islands, what ia the object of the cruise, Master Pathfinder ? " " Why, as you are the sergeant s brother, and pretty Ma bel, here, is his da hter, and we are all to be of the party there can be no harm in giving you some idea of what we are going to do. Being so old a sailor, Master Cap, you ve beard, no doubt, of such a port as Fronteuac ? " " Who hasn t ? I will not say I ve ever been inside kbn uarhor, but I ve frequently been off the place." 188 THE PATHFINDER. " Then you are about to go upon ground with which you Are acquainted, though how you could ever have got there from the ocean, I do not understand. These Great Lakes, you must know, make a chain, the fvater passing out of one into the other, until it reaches Erie, which is a sheet off here to the westward, as large as Ontario itself. Well, out of Erie the water comes, until it reaches a low mountain like, over the edge of which it passes " " I should like to know how the devil it can do that ? " " Why, easy enough, Master Cap," returned Pathfinder, laughing, " seeing that it has only to fall down hill. Had I said the water went up the mountain, there would have been natur agin it ; but we hold it no matter for water to run down hill that is, fresh water." " Aye, aye ; but you speak of the water of a lake s com ing down the side of a mountain ; it s in the teeth of reason, if reason has any teeth." " Well, well ; we will not dispute the point ; but what I ve seen I ve seen : as for reason s having any teeth, I ll say nothing ; but conscience has, and sharp ones too. After getting into Ontario, all the water of all the lakes passes down into the sea by a river ; and in the narrow part of the sheet, where it is neither river nor lake, lie the islands spoken of. Now, Frontenac is a post of the Frenchers above these same islands ; and as they hold the garrison be low, their stores and ammunition are sent up the river to Frontenac, to be forwarded along the shores of this and the other lakes, in order to enable the enemy to play his deviltries among the savages, and to take Christian scalps." " And will our presence prevent these horrible acts ? " demanded Mabel, with interest. " It may, or it may not, as Providence wills. Lundie, as they call him, he who commands this garrison, sent a party down to take a station among the islands, to cut off some of the French boats ; and this expedition of ours will be jhe second relief. As yet they ve not done much, though two batteaux loaded with Indian goods have been taken ; but a runner came in, last week, and brought such tidings that the major is about to make a last effort to sarcumvent THE PATHFINDER. 189 the knaves. Jasper knows the way, and we shall be in good hands, for the sergeant is prudent, and of the first quality at an ambushment yes, he is both prudent and alert." " Is this all ? " said Cap, contemptuously ; " by the preparations and equipments, I had thought there was a forced trade in the wind, and that an honest pennj might be turned, by taking an adventure. I suppose there are no shares hi your fresh- water prize-money ? " Anan ? " " I take it for granted the king gets all in these sogering parties and ambushments, as you call them ? " " I know nothing about that, Master Cap. I take my share of the lead and powder, if any falls into our hands, and say nothing to the king about it. If any one faro* better, it is not I ; though it is time I did begin to think of a house and furniture, and a home." Although the Pathfinder did not dare to look at Mabel while he made this direct allusion to his change of life, he would have given the world to know wkether she were listening, and what was the expression of her countenance. Mabel little suspected the nature of the allusion, however ; and her countenance was perfectly unembarrassed, as she turned her eyes towards the river, where the appearance of some movement on board the Scud began to be visible. " Jasper is bringing the cutter out," observed the guide, whose look was drawn in the same direction, by the fall of some heavy article on the deck. " The lad sees the signs of wind, no doubt, and wishes to be ready for it." " Aye, and now we shall have an opportuning of learning seamanship," returned Cap, with a sneer. " There is a nicety in getting a craft under her canvas, that shows the thcrough-bred mariner as much as anything else. It s like * soger buttoning his coat, and one can see whether he begins at the top or the bottom." " I will not say that Jasper is equal to your seafarers be low," observed Pathfinder, across whose upright mind an unworthy feeling of envy or jealousy never passed ; " but be is a bold boy, and manages his cutter as skillfully as ai)j 190 THE PATHFINDER. man can desire, on this lake at least. You didn t find him backward at the Oswego Falls, Master Cap, where fresh water contrives to tumble down hill with little difficulty." Cap made no other answer than a dissatisfied ejaculation, and then a general silence followed, all on the bastion study ing the movements of the cutter with the interest that waa natural to their own future connection with the vessel. It was still a dead calm, the surface of the lake literally glitter ing with the last rays of the sun. The Scud had beei warped up to a kedge that lay a hundred yards above the points of the outlet, where she had room to manoeuvre in the river, which then formed the harbor of Oswego. But the total want of air prevented any such attempt, and it was soon evident that the light vessel was to be taken through the passage under her sweeps. Not a sail was loosened, but as soon as the kedge was tripped, the heavy fall of the sweeps was heard, when the cutter, with her head up stream, began to sheer towards the centre of the current ; on reaching which, the efforts of the men ceased, and she drifted towards the outlet. In the narrow pass itself, her movement was rapid, and in less than five minutes the Scud was floating outside of the two low gravelly points that intercepted the waves of the lake. No anchor was let go, but the vessel continued to set off from the land, until her dark hull was seen resting on the glassy surface of the lake, fully a quarter of a mile beyond the low bluff which formed the eastern extremity of what might be called the outer harbor, or roadstead. Here the influence of the river current ceased, and she became virtually stationary. " She seems very beautiful to me, uncle," said Mabel, whose gaze had not been averted from the cutter for a single moment, while it had been thus changing its position ; " 1 dare say you can find faults in her appearance, and in the way she is managed ; but to my ignorance both ai e perfect ! " " Aye aye ; she drops down with the current well enough, girl, and so would a chip. But when you come to niceties, au old tar like myself has no need of spectacles, to find fault." THE PATHFINDER. 191 "Well, Master Cap," put in the guide, who beldcm lieard anything to Jasper s prejudice without manifesting a disposition to interfere, "I ve heard old and experienced salt-water mariners confess, that the Scud is as pretty a craft as floats. I know nothing of such matters myself, buc one may have his own notions about a ship, even though they be wrong notions ; and it would take more than one wi nes* to persuade me Jasper does not keep his boat in good order." " I do not say the cutter is downright lubberly, Master Pathfinder; but she has faults, and great faults." " And what are they, uncle ? if he knew them, Jasper would be glad to mend them." " What are they ? Why, fifty ; aye, for that matter, a hundred. Very material and manifest faults." " Do name them, sir, and Pathfinder will mention them to his friend." " Name them ? it is no easy matter to call off the stars for the simple reason that they are so numerous. Name them, indeed ! Why my pretty niece, Miss Magnet, what do you think of that main-boom now ? To my ignorant eyes, it is topped at least a foot too high ; and then the pennant is foul; and and aye, d e, if there isn c a topsail gasket adrift ; and it wouldn t surprise me at all if there should prove to be a round turn in that hawser, if the kedge were to be let go this instant ! Faults, indeed ! No seaman could look at her a moment, without seeing that bhe is as full of faults as a servant that has asked for his discharge." " This may be very true, uncle, though I much question L f Jasper knows of them. I do not think he would suffer these things, Pathfinder, if they were pointed out to him." " Let Jasper manage his own cutter, Mabel ; let him manage his own cutter. His gifts lie that-away, and I ll answer for it, no one can teach him how to keep the Scud out of the hands of the Froritenackers, or their devilish Mingo friends. Who cares for round turns in kedges, and for hawsers that are topped too high, Master Cap, so long & the craft sails well, and keeps clear <vf the Frenchers? 192 THE PATHFINDER. I will trust Jasper against all the seafaiers of the *;oast up here on the lakes, but I do not say he has aiy gift for the ocean, for there he has never been tried." Cap smiled condescendingly, but he did not think it necessary to push his criticisms any further just at that moment. His air and manner gradually became more supercilious and lofty, though he now wished to seem indifferent to any discussions on points of which one of the parties was entirely ignorant. By this time the cutter had begun to drift at the mercy of the currents of the lake, hei head turning in all directions, though slowly, and not in a wfy to attract particular attention. Just at this moment the jib was loosened and hoisted, and presently the canvas swelled towards the land, though no evidences of air were yet to be seen on the surface of the water. Slight, how ever, as was the impulsion, the light hull yielded, and in another minute the Scud was seen standing across the current of the river, with a movement so easy and moderate as to be scarcely perceptible. When out of the stream, she struck an eddy, and shot up towards the land, under the eminence where the fort stood, when Jasper dropped his kedge. " Not lubberly done ! " muttered Cap, in a sort of solil oquy, " not over-lubberly, though he should have put his helm a-starboard instead of a-port, for the vessel ought always to come- to with her head off-shore, whether she is a league from the land or only a cable s length, since it has a careful look ; and looks are something in this world." " Jasper is a handy lad," suddenly observed Sergeant Dunham at his brother-in-law s elbow ; " and we place great reliance on his skill in our expeditions. But come, one and all ; we have but half an hour more of daylight to PDi^ark in, and the boats will be ready for us by the time * a arc ready for them." On this intimation the whole party separated, each to fmd those trifles which had not been shipped already. A few taps of the drum gave the necessary signal to the iol diers, and in a minute all were in motion. THE PATHFINDER. 193 CHAPTER XIII. The goblin now the fool alarms, Hags meet to mumble o er their charms, The night-mare rides the dreaming ass, And fairies trip it on the grass. COTTON. THE embarkation of so small a party was a matter of no great delay or embarrassment. The whole force confided to the care of Sergeant Dunham consisted of but ten pri vates and two non-commissioned officers, though it was soon positively known that Mr. Muir was to accompany the expedition. The quartermaster, however, went as a vol unteer, while some duty connected with his own depart ment, as had been arranged between him and his commander, was the avowed object. To these must be added the Pathfinder and Cap, with Jasper and his subordinates, one of whom was a boy. The males of the entire party, con sequently, consisted of less than twenty men, and a lad of fourteen. Mabel and the wife of a common soldier were the only females. Sergeant Dunham carried off his command in a large batteau, and then returned for his final orders, and to see that his brother-in-law and daughter were properly attended to. Having pointed out to Cap the boat that he and Mabel were to use, he ascended the hill, to seek hiu A ast interview with Lundie. The major was on the bastion so often mentioned : leaving him and the sergeant together for a short time, we will return to the beach. It was nearly dark when Mabel found herself in the boat that was to carry her off to the cutter. So very smooth was the surface of the lake, that it was not found necessarj lo bring the batteaux into the river to receive their freights, out the beach outside being totally without surf, and th 194 THE PATHFINDER. water as tranquil as that of a pond, everybody embarked there. As Cap had said, there was no heaving and setting, no working of vast lungs, nor any respiration of an ocean for, on Ontario, unlike the Atlantic, gales were not agital ing the element at one point, while calms prevailed a another. This the distances did not permit ; and it is the usual remark of mariners, that the sea gets up faster and goes down sooner, on all the great lakes of the west, than on the different seas of their acquaintance. When the boat left the land, therefore, Mabel would not have known that she was afloat on so broad a sheet of water, by any move ment that is usual to such circumstances. The oars had barely time to give a dozen strokes, when the boat lay at the cutter s side. Jasper was in readiness to receive his passengers, and, as the deck of the Scud was but two or three feet above the water, no difficulty was experienced in getting on board her. As soon as this was effected, the young man pointed out to Mabel and her companion, the accommodations prepared for their reception, and they took possession of them. The lit tle vessel contained four apartments below, all between decks having been expressly constructed with a view to the transportation of officers and men, with their wives and families. First in rank was what was called the after-cabin, a small apartment that contained four berths, and which en joyed the advantage of possessing small windows, for the admission of air and light. This was uniformly devoted to females, whenever any were on board ; and as Mabel and her companion were alone, they had ample space and ac commodation. The main-cabin was larger, and lighted from above. It was now appropriated to the uses of the quarter- mastei the sergeant, Cap, and Jasper ; the Pathfinder roamiig through any part of the cutter he pleased, the female apartment excepted. The corporals and common soldiers occupied the space beneath the main hatch, which had a deck for such a purpose ; while the crew were berthed, as usual, in the forecastle. Although the cuttei did not measure quite fifty tons, the draft of officers and men was so light, that there was ample room for all ^u THE PATHFINDER. 195 board, there being space enough to accommodate treble the number, if necessary. As soon as Mabel had taken possession of her own really ,nnfortable and pretty cabin, m doing which she could not {jstain from indulging in the pleasant reflection that somo uf Jasper s favor had been especially manifested in her be half, she went on deck again. Here all was momentarily in motion ; the men were roving to and fro, in quest of their knapsacks and other effects ; but method and habit soon re duced things to order, when the stillness on board became even imposing, for it was connected with the idea of future adventure, and ominous preparation. Darkness was now beginning to render objects on shore indistinct, the whole of the land forming one shapeless black outline, of even forest summits, that was to be distinguished from the impending heavens only by the greater light of the sky. The stars, however, soon began to appear in the latter, one after another, in their usual mild, placid lustre, bringing with them that sense of quiet which ordinarily ac companies night. There was something soothing as well as exciting in such a scene ; and Mabel, who was seated on the quarter-deck, sensibly felt both influences. The Path finder was standing near her, leaning, as usual, on his long rifle, and she fancied that, through the glowing darkness of the hour, she could trace even stronger lines of thought than usual, in his rugged countenance. " To you, Pathfinder, expeditions like this can be no great novelty," she said, " though I am surprised to find how silent and thoughtful the men appear to be." "We Tarn this, by making war agin Injins. Y^ur militia are great talkers, and little doers, in gin rai ; but the soger who has often met the Mingos, Tarns to know the value of a prudent tongue. A silent army, in the woods, is doubly strong ; and a noisy one, doubly weak. If tongues made sogers, the women of a camp would generally carry *he day." " But we are neither an army, nor in the woods. There can be no danger of Miiigos in the Scud." \Ask Jasper how he got to be master of this cutter, and 196 THE PATHFINDER. you will find yourself answered as to that opinion ! No one is safe from a Mingo who doesn t understand his very natur* and even then he must act up to his own knowledge, and that closely. Ask Jasper how he got command of this very cutter ! " " And how did he get the command ? " inquired Mabel, with an earnestness and interest that delighted her simple- minded and true-hearted companion, who was never better pleased than when he had an opportunity of saying aught in favor of a friend. " It is honorable to him that he has reached this station while yet so young." " That, is it ; but he deserved it all, and more. A frig ate wouldn t have been too much to pay for so much spirit and coolness, had there been such a thing on Ontario, as there is not, howsever, or likely to be." " But Jasper you have not yet told me how he got the command of the schooner ? " " It is a long story, Mabel, and one your father, the ser geant, can tell much better than I, for he was present, while I was off on a distant scoutin . Jasper is not good at a story, I will own that ; I ve heard him questioned about this affair, and he never made a good tale of it, although everybody knows it was a good thing. No, no ; Jasper is not good at a story, as his best friends must own. The Scud had near fallen into the hands of the French and the Mingos, when Jasper saved her, in a way that none but a quick-witted mind and a bold heart would have attempted. The sergeant will tell the tale better than I can, and I wish you to question him some day, when nothing better offers. As for Jasper himself, there will be no use in worrying the lad, since he will make a bungling matter of it, for he don t know how to give a history at all." Mabel determined to ask her father to repeat the inci dents of the affair that very night, for it struck her young fancy that nothing better could well offer than to listen to the praises of one who was a bad historian of his own ex ploits. " Will the Scud remain with us when we reach the island ? " she asked, after a little hesitation about the pro priety of the question, " or shall we be left to ourselves ? " THE PATHFINDER. 197 "That s as may be. Jasper does not often keep the cutter idle, when anything is to be done, and we may expect activity on his part. My gifts, however, run so little to wards the water, and vessels gin rally, unless it be among rapids and falls, and in canoes, that I pretend to know noth ing about it. We shall have all right, under Jaspei I make no doubt, who can find a trail on Ontario as well as a Dela ware can find one on the land." " And our own Delaware, Pathfinder the Big Serpent why i? he not with us to-night ? " Youi question would have been more nat ral had you aid, why are you here, Pathfinder ? The Sarpent is in his place, while I am not in mine. He is out with two or three more scouting the lake shores, and will join us down among the islands with the tidings he may gather. The sergeant is too good a soldier to forget his rear, while he is facing the enemy in front ! It s a thousand pities, Mabel, your father wasn t born a gin ral, as some of the English are who come among us, for I feel sartain he wouldn t leave a Frencher in the Canadas a week could he have his own way with them." " Shall we have enemies to face in front ? " asked Mabel, smiling, and for the first time feeling a slight apprehension about the dangers of the expedition. " Are we likely to have an engagement ? " " If we have, Mabel, there will be men enough ready and willing to stand atween you and harm. But you are a sol dier s daughter, and we all know have the spirit of one. Don t let the fear of a battle keep your pretty eyes LTODH sleeping." " I do feel braver out here in the woods, Pathfinder J than I ever felt before, amid the weaknesses of the towns/] although I have always tried to remember what I owe to my dear father." " Aye, your mother was so before you ! You will find Mabel like her mother, no screamer, or a faint-hearted girl to trouble a, man in his need, but one who would encourage her mate, and help to keep his heart up when sorest pressed by danger said the sergeant to me, before I 198 THE PATHFINDER. jver laid eyes on that sweet countenance of yours he did!" " And why should my father have told you this, Path finder ? " the girl demanded, a little earnestly. " Perhaps he fancied you would think the better of me, if you did not believe me a silly coward, as so many of my sex love to make themselves appear." Deception, unless it were at the expense of his enemies :r_ the field, nay, concealment of even a thought, was so little in accordance with the Pathfinder s very nature, that he was not a little embarrassed by this simple question. To own the truth openly, he felt, by a sort of instinct, for which it would have puzzled him to account, would not be proper ; and to hide it, agreed with neither his sense of right nor his habits. In such a strait he involuntarily took refuge in the middle course, not revealing that which he fancied ought not to be told, nor yet absolutely conceal ing it. " You must know, Mabel," he said, " that the sergeant and I are old friends, and have stood side by side or if not actually side by side, I a little in advance, as became a scout, and your father, with his own men, as better suited a soldier of the king on many a hard-fought and bloody day. It s the way of us skirmishers to think little of the fight, when the rifle has done cracking ; and at night, around our fires, or on our marches, we talk of the things we love, just as you young women convarse about your fan cies and opinions, when you get together to laugh over your dees. Now it was natural that the sergeant, having such a daughter as you, should love her better than anything else, and that he should talk of her often er than of anything else, while I, having neither daughter, nor sister, nor mother, acr kith nor kin, nor anything but the Delawares to love, I Laturally chimed in, as it were, and got to love you, Mabel, before I ever saw you yes, I did just by talking about you so much." " And now you have seen me," returned the smiling girl, whose unmoved and natural manner proved how little sh$ was thinking of anything more than parental or fraternal THE PATHFINDER. 199 regard, ** you are beginning to see the folly of forming friendships for people before you know anything about them, except by hearsay." " It wasn t friendship it isn t friendship, Mabel, that I feel for you. I am the friend of the Delawares, and have been so from boyhood ; but my feelings for them, or for the best of them, are not the same as them I got from the ser geant for you ; and especially now that I begin to know you better. I m sometimes afeard it isn t wholesome for one who is much occupied in a very manly calling, like that of a guide, or a scout, or a soldier even, to form friend- fihipt for women, young women in particular, as they Beem to me to lessen the love of enterprise, and to turn the feelings away from their gifts and natural occupa tions." " You surely do not mean, Pathfinder, that a friendship for a girl like me would make you less bold, and more UP willing to meet the French, than you were before ? " " Not so not so. With you in danger, for instance, I fear I might become foolhardy ; but before we became s^ intimate, as I may say, I loved to think of my scoutin s, and of my marches, and outlyings, and fights, and other adventures ; but now my mind cares less about them ; I think more of the barracks and of evenings passed in dis course, of feelings in which there are no wranglings and bloodshed, and of young women, and of their laughs, and their cheerful soft voices, their pleasant looks, and their winning ways ! I sometimes tell the sergeant, that he and uifl daughter will be the spoiling of one of the best and most experienced scouts on the lines ! " ij Not they, Pathfinder ; they will try to make that which Ife already so excellent, perfect. You do not know us, if you think that either wishes to see you in the least changed. Remain, as at present, the same honest, upright, conscien- tio is, fearless, intelligent, trustworthy guide> that you are, and neither my dear father nor myself can ever think of you differently from what we now do." It was too dark for Mabel to note the workings of tho uouut^ance of her listener, but her own sweet face wai 200 THE PATHFINDER. turned towards him, as she spoke with an energy equal to her frankness, in a way to show how little embarrassed were her thoughts, and how sincere were her words. Her coun tenance was a little flushed, it is true, but it was with ear nestness and truth of feeling ; though no nerve thrilled, no limb trembled, no pulsation quickened. In short, her man ner and appearance were those of a sincere-minded and frank girl, making such a declaration of good-will and re gard for one of the other sex, as she felt that his service! and good qualities merited, without any of the emotion tha* invariably accompanies the consciousness of an inclination which might lead to softer disclosures. The Pathfinder was too unpracticed, however, to enter into distinctions of this kind, and his humble nature was encouraged by the directness and strength of the words he had just heard. Unwilling, if not unable to say any more, he walked away, and stood leaning on his rifle, and looking up at the stars, for quite ten minutes, in profound silence. In the mean while, the interview on the bastion, to which we have already alluded, took place between Lundie and the sergeant. " Have the men s knapsacks been examined ? " demanded Major Duncan, after he had cast his eye at a written re port, handed to him by the sergeant, but which it was too dark too read. " All, your honor ; and all are right." " The ammunition arms ? " " All in order, Major Duncan, and fit for any service." "You have the men named in my own draft, Dun ham?" " Without an exception, sir. Better men could not be wind in the regiment." " You have need of the best of our men, sergeant. This experiment has now been tried three times ; always under me of the ensigns, who have flattered me with success, bat have as often failed. After so much preparation an* 3 ex pense, I do not like to abandon the project entirely , but this will be the last effort: and the result will mainly de pend on you and on the Pathfinder." THE PATHFINDER. 201 " You may count on us both, Major Duncan. The duty you have given us is not above our habits and experience, and I think it will be well done. I know that the Path finder will not be wanting." " On that, indeed, it will be safe to rely. He is a most extraordinary man, Dunham one who long puzzled me ; but who, now that I understand him, commands as much of my respect as any general in his Majesty s Bervice." " I was in hopes, sir, that you would come to look at the propose I marriage with Mabel, as a thing I ought to wish and forward." " As for that, sergeant, tune will show," returned Lundie, smiling, though here, too, the obscurity concealed the nicer shades of expression ; " one woman is sometimes more difficult to manage than a whole regiment of men. By the way, you know that your would-be son-in-law, the quarter master, will be of the party ; and I trust you will at least give him an equal chance in the trial for your daughter s smiles." " If respect for his rank, sir, did not cause me to do l his, your honor s wish would be sufficient." " I thank you, sergeant. We have served much to gether, and ought to value each other in our several sta tions. Understand me, however : I ask no more for Davy Muir than a clear field and no favor. In love, as in war, each man must gain his own victories. Are you certain that the rations have been properly calculated ? " " I ll answer for it, Major Duncan ; but if they were not, we cannot suffer with two such hunters as Pathfinder and the Serpent in company." " That will never do, Dunham," interrupted Lundie, aharply, "and it comes of your American birth and Ameri can training ! No thorough soldier ever relies on anything out his commissary for supplies ; and 1 beg no part of my -egimeiit may be the first to set an example to the con- -rary." " You have only to command, Major Duncan, to be obeyed ; and yet, if I might presume, sir " * Sp^ak freely, sergeant, you are talking with a friend." 202 THE PATHFINDER. " I was merely about to say, that I find even the Scotch soldiers like venisou and birds quite as well as pork, when they are difficult to be had." " That may be very true ; but likes and dislikes have nothing to do with system. An army can rely on nothing but its commissaries. The irregularity of the provincials has played the devil with *Jke king s service too long to be winked at any longer." " General Braddock, your honor, might have been acL vised by Colonel Washington." " Out upon your Washington ! You re all provincials together, man, and uphold each other as if you were of a sworn confederacy." " I believe his Majesty has no more loyal subjects than the Americans, your honor." "In that, Dunham, I m thinking you re right; and I have been a little too warm, perhaps. I do not consider you a provincial, however, sergeant; for, though born in America, a better soldier never shouldered a musket." u And Colonel Washington, your honor ? " " Well ; and Colonel Washington may be a useful sub ject, too. He is the American prodigy ; and I suppose I may as well give him all the credit you ask. You have no doubt of the skill of this Jasper Eau-douce ? " " The boy has been tried, sir ; and found equal to all that can be required of him." " He has a French name, and has passed much of his boyhood hi the French colonies : has he French blood in his veins, sergeant ? " " Not a drop, your honor. Jasper s father was an old comrade of my own, and his mother came of an honest and loyal family, in this very province." " How came he then so much among the French, and whence his name? He speaks the language of the Caiia- das, too, I find ! " " That is easily explained, Major Duncan. The boy was left under the care of one of our mariners in the old war, and he took to the water like a duck. Your honor knows that we have no ports on Ontario, that can be named ai THE PATHFINDER. 203 k,uch, and he naturally passed most of his time on the othei side of the lake, where the French have had & few -vessels these fifty years. He learned to speak their language, as a matter of course, and got his name from the Indians arid Canadians, who are fond of calling men by their qualities, fts it might be." " A French master is but a poor instructor for a Britisn sailor, notwithstanding ! " " I beg your pardon, sir ; Jasper Eau-douce was brought up ui^der a real English seaman ; one that had sailed under the king s pennant, and may be called a thorough-bred : that is to say, a subject born in the colonies, but none the worse at his trade, I hope, Major Duncan, for that." " Perhaps not, sergeant ; perhaps not ; nor any better. This Jasper behaved well, too, when I gave him the com mand of the Scud ; no lad could have conducted himself more loyally, or better." " Or more bravely, Major Duncan. I am sorry to see, sir, that you have doubts as to the fidelity of Jasper." " It is the duty of the soldier who is intrusted with the care of a distant and important post like this, Dunham, never to relax in his vigilance. We have two of the most artful enemies that the world has ever produced, in their several ways, to contend with the Indians and the French ; and nothing should be overlooked that can lead to injury." " I hope your honor considers me fit to be intrusted with any particular reason that may exist for doubting Jasper, since you have seen fit to intrust me with this command." " It is not that I doubt you, Dunham, that I hesitate to reveal all I may happen to know, but from a strong reluctance to circulate an evil report concerning one of whom I have hitherto thought well. You must think well of the Path- Quder, or you would not wish to give him your daughter ? " " For the Pathfinder s honesty, I will answer with my life, sir," returned the sergeant firmly, and not without a dig nity of manner that struck his superior. " Such a man doesn t know how to be false." " I believe you are right, Dunham, and yet this last infor- 204 THE PATHHNDEK. mation has unsettled all my old opinions. I have an anonymous communication, sergeant, advising me to be on my guard against Jasper Western, or Jasper Eau-douce, asi he is called ; who, it alleges, has been bought by the enemy, and giving me reason to expect that further and more pre cise information will soon be sent." " Letters without signatures to them, sir, are scarcely to be regarded in war." " Or in peace, Dunham. No one can entertain a lower opinion of the writer of an anonymous letter, in ordinary matters, than myself. The very act denotes cowardice, meanness, and baseness ; and it usually is a token of false hood, as well as of other vices. But, in matters of war, it is not exactly the same thing. Besides, several suspicious circumstances have been pointed out to me " " Such as is fit for an orderly to hear, your honor ? " " Certainly, one in whom I confide as much as in yourself, Dunham. It is said, for instance, that your daughter and her party were permitted to escape the Iroquois, when they came in, merely to give Jasper credit with me. I am told that the gentry at Frontenac will care more for the capture of the Scud, with Sergeant Dunham and a party of men, together with the defeat of our favorite plan, than for the capture of a girl, and the scalp of her uncle." " I understand the hint, sir, but I do not give it credit. Jasper can hardly be true, and Pathfinder false ; and as for the last, I would as soon distrust your honor, as distrust him!" " It would seem so, sergeant ; it would indeed seem so. But Jasper is not the Pathfinder after all, and I will own, Dunham, I should put more faith in the lad, if he didn t speak French ! " " It s no recommendation in my eyes, I assure your honor ; but the boy learned it by compulsion, as it were, and ought uot to be condemned too hastily, for the circumstance, by your honor s leave. If he does speak French, it s because he can t well help it." u It s a d d lingo, and never did any one good at no British subject ; for I suppose the French then* THE PATHFINDER. 205 solves must talk together in some language or other. I should have much more faith in this Jasper did he know nothing of their language. This letter has made me uneasy ; and, were there another to whom I could trust the cutter, I would devise some means to detain him here. I have spokeu to you already of a brother-in-law who goes with you, ser geant, and who is a sailor?" " A real seafaring man, your honor, and somewhat preju diced against fresh water. I doubt if he could be induced to risk his character on a lake, and I m certain he neve* could find the station." " The last is probably true, and then, the man cannot know enough of this treacherous lake to bc> fit for the em ployment ! You will have to be doubly vigilant, Dunham. I give you full powers, and should you detect this Jasper in any treachery, make him a sacrifice at once to offended justice." " Being in the service of the crown, your honor, he ia amenable to martial law " " Very true ; then iron him, from his head to his heels, and send him up here, in his own cutter. That brother-in- law of yours must be able to find the way back, after he has once travelled the road." " I make no doubt, Major Duncan, we shall be able to do all that will be necessary, should Jasper turn out as you seem to anticipate; though I think I would risk my life on his truth." " I like your confidence ; it speaks well for the fellow ; but that infernal letter ! There is such an air of truth about it nay, there is se much truth in it, touching other matters " " I think your honor said it wanted the name at the bot tom ; a great omission for an honest man to make." " Quite right, Dunham, and no one but a rascal, and a cowardly rascal into the bargain, would write an anony mous letter, on private affairs. It is different, however, in war. Despatches are feigned, and artifice is generally allowed to be justifiable." * Military, manly artifices, sir, if you will ; uch a? anv 206 THE PATHFINDER. bushes, surprises, feints, false attacks, and even spies ; but 1 never heard of a true soldier who could wish to undermine the character of an honest young man, by such means aa these ! " " I have met with many strange events, and some stranger people, in the course of my experience. But fkre-you-well, sergeant ; I must detain you no longer. You are now on your guard, and I recommend to you untiring vigilance. I think Muir means shortly to retire, and should you fully succeed in this enterprise, my influence will not be wanting in endeavoring to put you into the vacancy, to which you have many claims ! " " I humbly thank your honor," coolly returned the ser geant, who had been encouraged in this manner, any time for the preceding twenty years, " and hope I shall never dis grace my station, whatever it may be. I am what nature and Providence have made me, and I hope I m satisfied." " You have not forgotten the howitzer ? " " Jasper took it on board this morning, sir." "Be wary, and do not trust that man unnecessarily. Make a confidant of Pathfinder at once ; he may be of ser vice in detecting any villainy that may be stirring. His simple honesty will favor his observation, by concealing it He must be true." " For him, sir, my own head shall answer, or even my rank in the regiment. I have seen him too often tried to doubt him." " Of all wretched sensations, Dunham, distrust, where one is compelled to confide, is the most painful. You have bethought you of the spare flints ? " " A sergeant is a safe commander for all such details, your honor." " Well, then, give me your hand, Dunham. God blesa you, and may you be successful. Muir means to retire by the way, let the man have an equal chance with your daughter, for \\ may facilitate future operations about the promotion. One would retire more cheerfully with such a companion as Mabel, than hi cheerless widowerhood, and with nothing but ono s self to love, and such a self, too, 01 THE PATHFINDER. 207 " I hope, sir, my child will make a prudent choice, and I t hink her mind is already pretty much made up in favor of Pathfinder. Still, she shall have fair play, though disobe dience is the next crime to mutiny." " Have all the ammunition carefully examined and Iried, as soon as you arrive ; the damp of the lake may affect it ; and now, once more, farewell, sergeant. Beware of that Jasper, and consult with Muir in any difficulty. I shall expect you to return triumphant, this day month." " God bless your honor ! if anything should happen to me, I trust to you, Major Duncan, to care for an old sol dier s character." " Rely on me, Dunham ; you will rely on a friend. Be vigilant ; remember you will be in the very jaws of the lion pshaw ! of no lion, neither ; but of treacherous tigers : in their very jaws, and beyond support. Have the flints counted and examined in the morning and farewell, Dunham, farewell." The sergeant took the extended hand of his superior with proper respect, and they finally parted ; Lundie hastening into his own movable abode, while the other left the fort, descended to the beach, and got into a boat. Duncan of Lundie had said no more than the truth, when he spoke of the painful nature of distrust. Of all the feel ings of the human mind, it is that which is the most treach erous in its workings, the most insidious in its approaches, and the least at the command of a generous temperament. While doubt exists, everything may be suspected, the thoughts having no definite facts to set bounds to their wan derings ; and distrust once admitted, it is impossible to say to what extent conjecture may lead, or whither credulity may follow. That which had previously seemed innoceiit, assumes the hue of guilt, as soon as this uneasy tenant has taken possession of the thoughts ; and nothing is said or done, without being subjected to the colorings and disfigu rations of jealousy and apprehension. If this is true in or dinary affairs, it is doubly true when any heavy responsibil ity, involving life or death, weighs on the unsettled mind of its subject ; as in the case of the military commander, OF 208 THE PATHFINDER. the agent in the management of any great political interest It is not to be supposed, then, that Sergeant Dunham, aftef he had parted from his commanding officer, was likely to forget the injunctions he had received. He thought highly of Jasper, in general ; but distrust had been insinuated be tween his former confidence and the obligations of duty ; i^d, <ts he now felt that everything depended on his own vigilance, by the time the boat reached the side of the Scud, he was in a proper humor to let no suspicious circumstance ^p unheeded, or any unusual movement in the young sailoi pass without its comment. As a matter of course, he viewed things in the light suited to his peculiar mood ; and his precautions, as well as his distrust, partook of the habits, opinions, and education of the man. The Scud s kedge was lifted as soon as the boat, with the sergeant, who was the last person expected, was seen to quit the shore, and the head of the cutter was cast to the east ward by means of the sweeps. A few vigorous strokes of the latter, in which the soldiers aided, sent the light craft into the line of the current that flowed from the river, when she was suffered to drift into the offing again. As yet, there was no wind, the light and almost imperceptible aii from the lake, that had existed previously to the setting of the sun, having entirely failed. All this time, an unusual quiet prevailed in the cutter. It appeared as if those on board of her felt that they were entering upon an uncertain enterprise, in the obscurity of night ; and that their duty, the hour, and the manner of their departure, lent a solemnity to their movements. Dis cipline also came in aid of these feelings. Most were silent; and those whc said anything, spoke seldom and in low voices. In this manner, the cutter set slowly out into the lake, until she had got as far as the river current would carry her, when she became stationary, waiting for the usual Lmd breeze. An interval of half an hour followed, during the whole of which time the Scud lay as motionless as a log, floating on the water. While the little changes jus* mentioned were occurring in the situation of the vessel, not withstanding the general quiet that prevailed, all converse THE PATHFINDER. 209 tion had not been repressed ; for Sergeant Dunham, Laving first ascertained that both his daughter and her female com panion were on the quarter-deck, led the Pathfinder to the after-cabin, where, closing the door with great cauticn, and otherwise making certain he was beyond the reach of eaves droppers, he commenced as follows : " It is now many years, my friend, since you began to experience the hardships and dangers of the woods in my company." " It is, sergeant ; yes, it is. I sometx.nes fear I am too >ld for Mabel, who was not born until yofc and I had fou t the Frenchers as comrades." " No fear on that account, Pathfinder. I was near your age before I prevailed on the mind of her mother ; and Mabel is a steady, thoughtful girl, one that will regard char acter more than anything else. A lad like Jasper Eau- douce, for instance, will have no chance with her, though he is both young and comely." " Does Jasper think of marrying ? " inquired the guide, simply, but earnestly. " I should hope not at least not until he has satisfied every one of his fitness to possess a wife." " Jasper is a gallant boy, and one of great gifts in his way ; he may claim a wife as well as another." " To be frank with you, Pathfinder, I brought you here to talk about this very youngster. Major Duncan has received some information which has led him to suspect that Eau- douce is false, and in the pay of the enemy ; I wish to hear your opinion on the subject." " Anan ! " " I say the major suspects Jasper of being a traitor a French spy or what is worse, of being bought to betray as. He has received a letter to this effect, and has been charging me to keep an eye on the boy s movements, for he fears we shall meet with enemies when we least expect it, iud by his means." " Duncan of Luiidie has told you this, Sergeant Dun ham ? " " lie has, indeed, Pathfinder ; and though I have been 14 210 THE PATHFINDER. loath to believe anything to the injury of Jasper, I have feeling which tells me I ought to distrust him. Do yon believe in presentiments, my friend ? " ** In what, sergeant ? " ; Presentiments a sort of secret foreknowledge of events that are about to happen. The Scotch of our regi ment are great sticklers for such things ; and my opinion of Jasper is changing so fast that I begin to fear there must be ome truth in their doctrines." " But you ve been talking with Duncan of Lundie con- saining Jasper, and his words have raised misgivin s." Not it not so in the least. For while conversing with the major, my feelings were altogether the other way ; and I endeavored to convince him all I could that he did the boy injustice. But there is no use hi holding out against a presentiment, I find ; and I fear there is something in the suspicion after all." " I know nothing of presentiments, sergeant, but I have known Jasper Eau-douce since he was a boy, and I have as much faith in his honesty as I have in my own, or that of the Sarpent himself." " But the Serpent, Pathfinder, has his tricks and am bushes in war, as well as another ! " " Aye, them are his nat ral gifts, and such as belong to his people. Neither red-skin nor pale-face can deny natur ; but Chingachgook is not a man to feel a presentiment agin." " That I believe ; nor should I have thought ill of Jasper this very morning. It seems to me, Pathfinder, since I ve taken up this presentiment, that the lad dees not bustle abou . his deck, naturally, as he used to do ; but that he is silent, and moody, and thoughtful, like a man who has a bad on his conscience." " Jasper is never noisy, and he tells me noisy ships are generally ill-worked ships. Master Cap agrees in this, too. No. no ; I will believe naught against Jasper until I see it. Send for your brother, sergeant, and let us question him in this matter ; for to sleep tvith distrust of oue s fri nd in the heart, is like sleeping with lead there. I have 110 faith in your presentiments." THE PATHFINDER. 211 The seigeant, although he scarce knew, himself, with what object, complied, and Cap was summoned to join in the consultation. As Pathfinder was more collected than his companion, and felt so strong a conviction of the good faith of the party accused, he assumed the office of spokes man. " We have asked you to come down, Master Cap," he commenced, " in order to inquire if you have remarked any thing out of the common way, in the movements of Eau- douce, this evening." " His movements are common enough, I dare say, for fresh water, Master Pathfinder, though we should think most of his proceedings irregular, down on the coast." " Yes, yes ; we know you will never agree with the lad about the manner the cutter ought to be managed ; but it is on another p int we wish your opinion." The Pathfinder then explained to Cap the nature of the suspicions which the sergeant entertained, and the reasons why they had been excited, so far as the latter had been communicated by Major Duncan. " The youngster talks French, does he ? " " They say he speaks it better than common," returned the sergeant, gravely. " Pathfinder knows this to be true." " I ll not gainsay it I ll not gainsay it," answered the guide, "at least they tell me such is the fact. But this would prove nothing agin a Mississagua, and least of all agin one like Jasper. I speak the Mingo dialect myself, having 1 arnt it while a prisoner among the riptyles; but who will say I am their friend ! Not that I am an inimy, either, according to Injin notions ; though I am their inimy, I will admit, agreeable to Christianity." " Aye, Pathfinder, but Jasper did not get his French as a prsouer : he took it in, in boyhood, when the mind is easily impressed, and gets its permanent notions ; when nature has a presentiment, as it were, which way the character is likely to incline." " A very just remark," added Cap, " for that is the time of life when we all learn the catechism, and other moral improvements The sergeant s observation shows that he 212 THE PATHFINDER. understands human nature, and I agree with him perfectly it is a damnable thing for a youngster, up here on this bit of fresh water, to talk French. If it were down on the At lantic now, where a seafaring man has occasion sometimes to converse with a pilot, or a linguister, in that language, I should not think so much of it, though we always look with suspicion, even there, at a shipmate who knows too much of the tongue ; but up here on Ontario, I hold it to be a most suspicious circumstance. 1 " But Jasper must talk in French to the people on the other shore," said Pathfinder, "or hold his tongue, as there are none but French to speak to." " You don t mean to tell me, Pathfinder, that France lies here-away on the opposite coast ? " cried Cap, jerking a thumb over his shoulder, in the direction of the Canadas ; " that one side of this bit of fresh water is York, and the other France ! " " I mean to tell you this is York, and that is Upper Can ada ; and that English and Dutch and Indian are spoken in the first, and French and Indian in the last. Even the Mingos have got many of the French words in their dialect, and it is no improvement, neither." " Very true ; and what sort of people are the Mingos, my friend ? " inquired the sergeant, touching the other on a shoulder, by way of enforcing a remark, the inherent truth of which sensibly increased its value in the eyes of the speaker ; " no one knows them better than yourself, and I ask you what sort of a tribe are they ? " " Jasper is no Mingo, sergeant." " He speaks French, and he might as well be, in that particular. Brother Cap, can you recollect no movement of this unfortunate young man, in the way of his calling, tha . would seem to denote treachery ? " " Not distinctly, sergeant, though he has gone to work wrong end foremost, half his time. It is true that one of his hands coiled a rope against the sun, and he called it curling a rope, too, when I asked him what he was about ; but 1 am not certain that anything was meant by it ; though I dare say the French coil half their running rigging th TIIE PATHFINDER. 21o wrong way, and may call it * curling it down, too, for that matter. Then Jasper, himself, belayed the end of the jib- halyards to a stretcher in the rigging, instead of bringing them in to the mast, where they belong, at least among British sailors." " I dare say Jasper may have got some Canada notions, about working his craft, from being so much on the other side," Pathfinder interposed, " but catching an idee or a word isn t treachery and bad faith. I sometimes get swi idee from the Mingos themselves ; but my heart has always been with the Delawares. No, no, Jasper is true ; and the king might trust him with his crown, just as he would trust his eldest son, who, as he is to wear it one day, ought to be the last man to wish to steal it." " Fine talking fine talking," said Cap, rising to spit out of the cabin-window, as is customary with men when they most feel their own great moral strength and happen to chew tobacco, " all fine talking, Master Pathfinder, but d d little logic. In the first place, the king s Majesty cannot lend his crown, it being contrary to the laws of the realm, which require him to wear it at all times, in order that his sacred person may be known, just as the silver oar w necessary to a sheriff s officer afloat. In the next place it s high treason by law, for the eldest son of his Majesty ever to covet the crown or to have a child, except in lawful Wedlock, as either would derange the succession. Thus you Bee, friend Pathfinder, that in order to reason truly, one must get under way, as it might be, on the right tack. Law is reason, and reason is philosophy, and philosophy is a steady drag ; whence it follows that crowns are regulated by law, reason, and philosophy." " I know little of all this, Master Cap ; but nothing short of seeing and feeling will make me think Jasper Western a traitor." "There you are wrong again, Pathfinder, for there is a way of proving a thing much more conclusively than by either seeing or feeling, or by both together : and that is by a circumstance." " It may be s<i in the settlements ; but it is not so here, Dn the lines." 214 THE PATHFINDER. " It is so in nature, which is monarch over all. Now according to our senses, young Eau-douce is this moment on deck, and by going up there either of us might see and feel him ; but, should it afterwards appear that a fact waa communicated to the French at this precise moment, which fact no one but Jasper could communicate ; why, we should be bound to believe that the circumstance was true, and that our eyes and fingers deceived us. Any lawyer will tell you that." " This is hardly right," said Pathfinder ; " nor is it possi ble, seein that it is agin fact." " It is much more than possible, my worthy guide ; it ia law; absolute, king s law of the realm, and as such, to be respected and obeyed. I d hang my own brother on such testimony; no reflections on the family being meant, ser geant." " God knows how far all this applies to Jasper ; though I do believe Mr. Cap is right as to the law, Pathfinder; circumstances being much stronger than the senses on such occasions. We must all of us be watchful, and nothing sus picious should be overlooked." "Now I recollect me," continued Cap, again using the window, " there was a circumstance just after we came on board this evening, that is extremely suspicious, and which may be set down at once as a make-weight against this lad. Jasper bent on the king s ensign with his own hands, and while he pretended to be looking at Mabel and the soldier s wife, giving directions about showing them below, here, and all that, he got the flag union down." " That might have been accident," returned the sergeant, " for such a thing has happened to myself ; besides, the hal yards lead to a pulley, and the flag would have come right or not, according to the manner in which the lad hoisted it." " A pulley " exclaimed Cap, with strong disgust, * I wish, Sergeant jt)unham, I could prevail on you to use propei terms. An ensign-halyard-block is no more a pul ley than your halbert is a boarding-pike. It is true, that by hoisting on one part another part would go uppermost but I look upon that affair of the ensign, now you have THE PATHFINDER. 215 mentioned your suspicions, as a circumstance, and shall bear it in mind. I trust supper is not to be overlooked, however, even if we have a hold full of traitors." "It will be duly attended to, brother Cap; but I shall count on you for aid in managing the Scud, should anything occur to induce me to arrest Jasper." " I ll not fail you, sergeant ; and in such an event you 11 probably learn what this cutter can really perform ; for aa yet, I fancy it is pretty much matter of guess-work." " Well, for my part," said Pathfinder, drawing a heavy sigh, " I shall cling to the hope of Jasper s innocence, and recommend plain dealing, by asking the lad, himself, with out further delay, whether he is or not a traitor. I ll put Jasper Western agin all the presentiments and circum stances in the colony." " That will never do," rejoined the sergeant. " The re sponsibility of this affair rests with me, and I request and enjoin that nothing be said to any one, without my knowl edge. We will all keep watchful eyes about us, and take proper note of circumstances." " Aye, aye ; circumstances are the things after all," re turned Cap. " One circumstance is worth fifty facts. That I know to be the law of the realm. Many a man has been hanged on circumstances." The conversation now ceased, and after a short delay, the whole party returned to the deck, each individual disposed to view the conduct of the suspected Jasper in the moat suited to his own habits and character. 216 THE PATHFINDKB CHAPTER XIV. such a man, so faint, so spiritless, So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone, Drew Priam s curtain in the dead of night, And would have told him, half his Troy was burned. SHAKE ALL this time, matters were elsewhere passing in their usual train. Jasper, like the weather, and his vessel, seemed to be waiting for the land breeze ; while the sol diers, accustomed to early rising, had, to a man, sought their pullets hi the main hold. None remained on deck but the people of the cutter, Mr. Muir, and the two females. The quartermaster was endeavoring to render himself agreeable to Mabel, while our heroine herself, little affected by his assiduities, which she ascribed partly to the habitual gal lantry of a soldier, and partly, perhaps, to her own pretty face, was enjoying the peculiarities of a scone and situation, that to her were full of the charms of novelty. The sails had been hoisted, but as yet not a breath of air was hi motion, and so still and placid was the lake, that not the smallest motion was perceptible in the cutter. She had drifted in the river current to a distance a little exceeding a quarter of a mile frpm the land, and there she lay, beautiful in her symmetry and form, but like a fixture. Young Jas per was on the quarter-deck, near enough to hear occasion ally the conversation which passed, but too diffident of his own claim, and too intent on his duties, to attempt to min gle m it. The fine blue eyes of Mabel followed his motions in curious expectation, and more than once the quartermas- "er had to repeat his compliments, ere she heard them, so jntent was she on the little occurrences of the vessel, and, we might add, so indifferent to the eloquence of her com panion. At length even Mr. Muir became silent, and ther THE PA7.1FINDER. 217 was a deep stillness on the water. Presently an oar-blade fell in a boat, beneath the fort, and the sound reached tho cutter as distinctly as if it had been produced on her deck- Then came a murmur, like a sigh of the night, a fluttering of the canvas, the creaking of the boom, and the flap of the jib. These well-known sounds were followed by a slight heel in the cutter, and by the bellying of all the sails. " Here s the wind, Anderson," called out Jasper to the oldest of his sailors ; " take the helm." This brief order was obeyed ; the helm was put up, th cutter s bows fell off", and in a few minutes the water was beard murmuring under her head, as the Scud glanced through the lake at the rate of five miles in the hour. All this passed in profound silence, when Jasper again gave the order to " Ease off the sheets a little, and keep her along the land." It was at this instant that the party from the after-cabin reappeared on the quarter-deck. " You ve no inclination, Jasper, lad, to trust yourself toe near our neighbors the French," observed Muir, who took that occasion to recommence the discourse. " Well, well, your prudence will never be questioned by me, for I like the Canadas as little as you can possibly like them your self!" " I hug this shore, Mr. Muir, on account of the wind. The land breeze is always freshest close in, provided you are not so near as to make a lee of the trees. We have Mexico Bay to cross, and that, on the present course, will give us quite offing enough." " I m right glad it s not the Bay of Mexico," put in Cap, " which is a part of the world I would rather not visit in one of your inland craft. Does your cutter bear a weather helm, Master Oh-the-Deuce ? " " She is easy on her rudder. Master Cap, but likes look iug up at the breeze as well as another, when in lively mo tion." " I suppose you have such things as reefs, though you can hardly have occasion to use them ? " Mabel s bright eye detected the smile that gleamed for an 218 THE PATHFINDER. instant on Jasper s handsome face, but no one else saw tliat momentary exhibition of surprise and contempt. " We have reefs, and often have occasion to use them,* 1 quietly returned the young man. " Before we get in, Master Cap, an opportunity may offer to show you the manner in which we do so, for there is easterly weathex brewing, and the wind cannot chop, even on the ocean itself, more readily than it flies round on Lake Ontario." "So mudi for knowing no better! I have seen the wind in the Atlantic fly round like a coach-wheel, in a way tc keep your sails shaking for au hour, and the ship would be come perfectly motionless from not knowing which way to turn." " We have no such sudden changes here, certainly," Jas per mildly answered ; " though we think ourselves liable to unexpected shifts of wind. I hope, however, to carry this land-breeze as far as the first islands ; after which, there will be less danger of our being seen and followed by any of the lookout boats from Frontenac." " Do you think the French keep spies out on the broad lake, Jasper ? " inquired the Pathfinder. " We know they do ; one was off Oswego, during the night of Monday last. A bark canoe came close in with the eastern point, and landed an Indian and an officer. Had you been outlying that night, as usual, we should have secured one, if not both of them." It was too dark to betray the color that deepened on the weather-burnt features of the guide, for he felt the con sciousness of having lingered in the fort that night, listening to the sweet tones of Mabel s voice, as she sang ballads to her father, and gazing at a countenance that, to him, was radiant ttith charms. Probity, in thought and deed, being the distinguishing quality of this extraordinary man s mind* while he felt that a sort of disgrace ought to attach to hip idleness, on the occasion mentioned, the last thought that could occur would be to attempt to palliate, or deny, his negligence. " I confess it, Jasper, I confess it," he said, humbly * Had I been out that night, and I now remnmber no sulft THE PATHFINDER. 219 dent reason why I was not, it might, indeed, have turned out as you say." "It was the evening you passed with us, Pathfinder, * Mabel innocently remarked ; " surely one who lives so much of his time in the forest, in front of the enemy, may be excused for giving a few hours of his time to an old friend and his daughter." " Nay, nay, I ve done little else but idle since we reached the garrison," returned the other, sighing ; " and it is well that the lad should tell me of it ; the idler needs a scoldin yes, he needs a scoldin V " Scolding, Pathfinder ! I never dreamed of saving any thing disagreeable, and least of all would I think of rebuk ing you, because a solitary spy, and an Indian or two, have escaped us ! Now I know where you were, I think your absence the most natural thing in the world." " I think nothing of it, Jasper, I think nothing of what you said, since it was desarved. We are all human, and all do wrong." " This is unkind, Pathfinder." " Give me your hand, lad, give me your hand. It wasn t you that gave the lesson ; it was conscience." "Well, well," interrupted Cap, "now this latter matter is settled to the satisfaction of all parties, perhaps you will tell us how it happened to be known that there were spies near us so lately. This looks amazingly like a circumstance ! " As the mariner uttered the last sentence, he pressed a foot slyly on that of the sergeant, and nudged the guide with his elbow, winking, at the same time, though this sign was lost in the obscurity. " It is known, because their trail was found next day by the Serpent, and it was that of a military boot and a moc casin. One of our hunters, moreover, saw the canoe cross ing towards Frontenac next morning." " Did the trail lead near the garrison, Jasper ? " Path finder asked, in a manner so meek and subdued, that it resembled the tone of a rebuked schoolboy. " Did the trail lead near the garrison, lad ? " a We thought not ; though, of course, it did not cross ths 220 THE PATHFINDER. rher It was followed down to the eastern point, at tLe river*s mouth, where what was doing in port might be seen ; but it did not cross, as we could discover." "And why didn t you get under way, Master Jasper/" Cap demanded, " and give chase ? On Tuesday morning it blew a good breeze ; one in which this cutter might have run nine knots." u That may do on the ocean, Master Cap," put in Path finder, " but it would not do here. Water leaves no trail, and a Mingo and a Frenchman are a match for the devil in a pursuit." " Who wants a trail, when the chase can be seen from the deck, as Jasper, hers, said was the case with this canoe ? and it mattered nothing if there were twenty of your Mingos and Frenchmen, with a good British built bottom in their wake. I ll engage, Master Oh-the-Deuce, had you given me a call, that said Tuesday morning, that we should have overhauled the blackguards." " I dare say, Master Cap, that the advice of as old a sea man as you might have done no harm to as young a sailor as myself, but it is a long and a hopeless chase that has a bark canoe in it." " You would have had only to press it hard to drive it ashore." " Ashore, Master Cap ! You do not understand our lake navigation at all, if you suppose it an easy matter to force a bark canoe ashore. As soon as they find themselves pressed, these bubbles paddle right into the wind s eye, and before you know it you find yourself a mile or two dead under their lee." " You don t wish me to believe, Master Jasper, that any dne is so heedless of drowning, as to put off into this lake, in one of them egg-shells, when there is any wind ? " " 1 have often crossed Ontario in a bark canoe, even when there has been a good deal of sea on. Well managed, they are the driest boats of which we have any knowledge." Cap now led his brother-in-law and Pathfinder aside, when he assured him that the admission of Jasper concern ing the spies was a " circumstance," and " a strong circum- THE PATHFINDER. 221 stance," and a,s such, deserved his deliberate investigation ; while his account of the canoes was so improbable, as to wear the appearance of browbeating the listeners. Jasper spoke confidently of the character of the two individuals who had landed, and this Cap deemed pretty strong proof that he knew more about them than was to be gathered ftom a mere trail. As for moccasins, he said that they were worn, in that part of the world, by white men, as wol j as by Indians; he had purchased a pair himself; and boota it was notorious, did not particularly make a soldier. Al though much of this logic was thrown away on the sergeant, still it produced some effect. He thought it a little singular himself that there should have been spies detected so near the fort, and he know nothing of it ; nor did he believe that this was a branch of knowledge that fell particularly within the sphere of Jasper. It was true that the Scud had once or twice been sent across the lake to land men of this char acter, or to bring them off; but then the part played by Jasper, to his own certain knowledge, was very secondary, the master of the cutter remaining as ignorant as any one else, of the purport of the visits of those whom he had carried to and fro ; nor did he see why he, alone, of all present, should know anything of the late visit. Pathfinder viewed the matter differently. With his habitual diffidence he reproached himself with a neglect of duty, and that knowledge of which the want struck him as a fault in one whose business it was to possess it, appeared a merit in the young man. He saw nothing extraordinary in Jasper s knowing the facts he had related; while he did feel it was unusual, not to say disgraceful, that he himself now heard of them for the first time. " As for moccasins, Master Cap," he said, when a short pause invited him to speak, " they may be worn by pale faces as well as by red-skins, it is true, though they never leave the same trail on the foot of one as on the foot of the other. Any one who is used to the woods can tell the footstep of an Injin from the footstep of a white man, whether it be made by a boot or a moccasin. It will need better evidence than this to make me believe that Jasper is false." 222 THE PATHFINDER. "You will allow, Pathfinder, that there are such things in the world as traitors," put in Cap, logically. " I never knew an honest-minded Mingo ; one that you could put your faith in, if he had a temptation to de ceive you. Cheatin seems to be their gift, and I sometimes think they ought to be pitied for it, rather than parse- cuted." " Then why not believe that this Jasper may have the burne weakness? A man is a man, and human nature is sometimes but a poor concern, as I know by experience ; I may say, well know by experience ; at least I speak for my own human nature." This was the opening of another long and desultory conversation, in which the probability of Jasper s guilt or innocence was argued, pro and con, until both the sergeant and his brother-in-law had nearly reasoned themselves into settled convictions in favor of the first, while their compan ion grew sturdier and sturdier in his defense of the accused, and still more fixed in his opinion of his being unjustly charged with treachery. In this there was nothing out of the common course of things, for there is no more certain way of arriving at any particular notion, than by undertak ing to defend it ; and amongst the most obstinate of our opinions may be classed those which are derived from dis cussions in which we affect to search for truth, while in reality we are only fortifying prejudice. By this time, the sergeant had reached a state of mind that disposed him to view every act of the young sailor with distrust, and he soon got to coincide with his relative in deeming the pecul iar knowledge of Jasper, in reference to the spies, a branch of information that certainly did not come within the ciicle of his regular duties, as a " circumstance." While this matter was thus discussed near the tanrail, Mabel sat silent by the companion-way ; Mr. Muir having gone below, to look after his personal comforts, and Jaspei standing a little aloof, with his arms crossed, and his eyea wandering from the sails to the clouds, and the clouds to the dusky outline of the shore, from the shore to the lake and from the lake back again to the sails. Our heroine THE PATHFINDER. 223 too, began to commune with her own thoughts. The ex. citeinent of the late journey, the incidents which marked the day of her arrival at the fort, the meeting with a father who was virtuall) a stranger to her, the novelty of her late situation in the garrison, and her present voyage, formed a vi&ta for the mind s eye to look back through, that seemed lengthened into months. She could with difficulty beliovd that she had so recently left the town, with all the usages of civilized life ; and she wondered, in particular, that the incidents which had occurred during the descent of the Oswego, had made so little impression on her mind. Too inexperienced to know that events, when crowded, have the effect of time, or that the quick succession of novelties that pass before us in travelling, elevates objects, in a mea ore, to the dignity of events, she drew upon her memory for days and dates, in order to make certain that she had known Jasper, and the Pathfinder, and her own father, but little more than a fortnight. Mabel was a girl of heart, rather than of imagination, though by no means deficient hi the last, and she could not easily account for the strength of her feelings in connection with those who were lately strangers to her ; for she was not sufficiently accustomed to analyze her sensations, to understand the nature of the in fluences that have just been mentioned. As yet, however, her pure mind was free from the blight of distrust, and she had no suspicion of the views of either of her suitors ; and one of the last thoughts that could have voluntarily dis turbed her confidence, would have been to suppose it possi ble either of her companions was a traitor to his king ind country. America, at the time of which we are writing, was re markable for its attachment to the German family that then Hat on the British thiv ue ; for, as is the fact with all piovinces, the virtues and qualities that are proclaimed near the centre of power, as incense and policy, get to be a part of political faith with the credulous and ignorant, at a dis tance. This truth is just as apparent to-day, in connection with the prodigies of the republic, as it then was in cor. nectiou with those distant rulers whose merits it was alwayi 224 THE PATHFINDER. safe to applaud, and whose demerits it was treason to re veal. It is a consequence of this mental dependence, that public opinion is so much placed at the mercy of the design ing ; and the world, in the midst of its idle boasts of knowl edge and improvement, is left to receive its truths, on all such points as touch the interests of the powerful and managing, through such a medium, and such a medium only, as may serve the particular views of those who pull thj wires. Pressed upon by the subjects of France, who were then encircling the British colonies with a belt of forts and settlements that completely secured the savages for allies, it would have been difficult to say whether the Americans loved the English more than they hated the French ; and those who then lived probably would have considered the alliance which took place between the cis-Atlantic subjects and the ancient rivals of the British crown, some twenty years later, as an event entirely without the circle of prob abilities. In a word, as fashions are exaggerated in a province, so are opinions : and the loyalty that at London merely formed a part of the political scheme, at New York was magnified into a faith that might almost have moved mountains. Disaffection was, consequently, a rare offense ; and, most of all, would treason, that should favor France or Frenchmen, have been odious in the eyes of the provincials. The last thing that Mabel would suspect of Jasper, was the very crime with which he now stood secretly charged ; and, if others near her endured the pains of distrust, ehe, at least, was filled with the generous confidence of a woman. As yet, no whisper had reached her ear to disturb the feeling of reliance with which she had early regarded the young sa lor, and her own mind would have been the last to sug gest such a thought, of itself. The pictures of the past and of the present, therefore, that exhibited themselves so rapidly to her active imagination, were unclouded with a shade that might affect any in whom she felt an interest; and ere she had mused, in the manner related, a quarter of an hour, the whole scene around her was filled with un alloyed satisfaction. The season and the night, to represent them truly, wer THE PATHFINDER. 226 of a nature to stimulate the sensations which youth, health, and happiness are wont to associate with novelty. The weather was warm, as is not always the case in that region even in summer, while the air that came off the land hi breathing currents, brought with it the coolness and fra grance of the forest. The wind was far from being fresh , though there was enough of it to drive the Scud merrilv ahead, and perhaps to keep attention alive, in the uncer tainty that, more or less, accompanies darkness. Jasper, however, appeared to regard it with complacency, as was apparent by what he said in a short dialogue that now occurred between him and Mabel. " At this rate, Eau-douce " (for so Mabel had already learned to style the young sailor), said our heroine, " we cannot be long in reaching our place of destination." " Has your father told you what that is, Mabel ? " " He has told me nothing ; my father is too much of a soldier, and too little used to have a family around him, to talk of such matters. Is it forbidden to say whither we are bound ? " " It cannot be far while we steer in this direction, for sixty or seventy miles will take us into the St. Lawrence, which the French might make too hot for us ; and no voy age on this lake can be very long." " So says my uncle Cap ; but to me, Jasper, Ontario and the ocean appear very much the same." " You have then been on the ocean, while I, who pretend to be a sailor, have never yet seen salt water ! You must have a great contempt for such a mariner as myself in your beart, Mabel Dunham ! " ** Then I have no such thing in my heart, Jasper Eau- douce. What right have I, a girl without experience 01 knowledge, to despise any, much less one like you, who are trusted by the major, and who command a vessel like this ! [ have never been on the ocean, though I have seen it ; and, I repeat, I see no difference between this lake and tha Atlantic." " Nor in them that sail on both ? I was afraid, Mabel, your uncle has said so much against us fresh-w:ter sailors 15 226 THE PATHFINDER. that you had begun to look upon us as little better than pretenders." " Give yourself no uneasiness on that account, Jasper for I know my uncle, and he says as many things against those who live ashore when at York, as he now says against those who sail on fresh water. No, no ; neither my father nor myself think anything of such opinions ! My uncle Cap, if he spoke openly, would be found to have even a worse notion of a soldier than of a sailor who never saw the sen." " But your father, Mabel, has a better opinion of soldiers than of any one else ; he wishes you to be the wife of a soldier." " Jasper Eau-douce ! I, the wife of a soldier ! My father wishes it ! Why should he wish any such thing ; what sol dier is there in the garrison that I could marry that he could wish me to marry ? " " One may love a calling so well, as to fancy it will cover a thousand imperfections." " But one is not likely to love his own calling so well, aa to cause him to overlook everything else. You say my father wishes me to marry a soldier, and yet there is no soldier, at Oswego, that he would be likely to give me to. I am in an awkward position, for while I am not good enough to be the wife of one of the gentlemen of the garrison, I think even you will admit, Jasper, I am too good to be the wife of one of the common soldiers." As Mabel spoke thus frankly, she blushed, she knew not why, though the obscurity concealed the fact from her com panion ; and she laughed faintly, like one who felt that the subject, however embarrassing it might be, deserved to be treated fairly. Jasper, it would seem, viewed her position differently from herself. " It is true, Mabel," he said, " you are not what is called a lady, in the common meaning of the word " " Not in any meaning, Jasper," the generous girl eagerly interrupted ; " on that head I have no vanities, I hope. Providence has made me the daughter of a sergeant, and J am content to remain in the station in which I was born." THE PATHFWDER. 227 u But all do not remain in the statioi s in which they were born, Mabel, for some rise above them, and some fall below them. Many sergeants have become officers even generals; and why may not sergeants daughters become officers ladies ? " " In the case of Sergeant Dunham s daughter, I know no better reason than the fact that no officer is likely to wish io make her his wife," returned Mabel, laughing. " You may think so ; but there are some in the 55th that know better. There is certainly one officer in that regi ment, Mabel, who does wish to make you his wife." Quick as the flashing lightning, the rapid thoughts of Mabel Dunham glanced over the five or six subalterns of the corps, who, by age and inclinations, would be the most likely to form such a wish ; and we should do injustice to her habits, perhaps, were we not to say that a lively sensa tion of pleasure rose momentarily in her bosom, at the thought of being raised above a station which, whatever might be her professions of contentment, she felt that she had been too well educated to fill with perfect satisfaction. But this emotion was as transient as it was sudden, for Mabel Dunham was a girl of too much pure and womanly feeling, to view the marriage tie through anything so worldly as the mere advantages of station. The passing emotion was a thrill produced by habit, while the more settled opinion which remained, was the offspring of nature and principles. " I know no officer in the 55th, or any other regiment, who would be likely to do so foolish a thing; nor do I think I myself would do so foolish a thing as to marry an officer." Foolish, Mabel ! " "Yes, foolish, Jasper. You know, as well as I can know, what the world would think of such matters, and I should be sorry, very sorry, to find that my husband ever regretted that he had so far yielded to a fancy for a face or n figure, as to have married the daughter of one so much his inferior as a sergeant." " Your husband, Mabel, will not be so likely to think of tbe father, as to think of the daughter." 228 THE PATHFINDEB. The girl was talking with spirit, though feeling evidently entered into her part of the discourse ; but she paused for near a minute after Jasper had made the last observation, before she uttered another word. Then she continued in a manner less playful, and one critically attentive might have fancied in a manner that was slightly melancholy : " Parent and child ought so to live as not to have two hearts, or two modes of feeling and thinking. A common interest in all things, I should think as necessary to happi ness in man and wife, as between the other members of the same family. Most of all, ought neither the man nor the woman to have any unusual cause for unhappiness, the world furnishing so many of itself." " Am I to understand, then, Mabel, you would refuse to marry an officer merely because he was an officer ? " " Have you a right to ask such a question, Jasper ? " said Mabel, smiling. " No other right than what a strong desire to see you happy can give, which, after all, may be very little. My anxiety has been increased from happening to know that it is your father s intention to persuade you to marry Lieu tenant Muir." " My dear, dear father can entertain no notion so ridic ulous ; no notion so cruel ! " " Would it, then, be cruel to wish you the wife of a quartermaster ? " " I have told you what I think on that subject, and can not make my words stronger. Having answered you so frankly, Jasper, I have a right to ask how you know that DV father thinks of any such thing ? " " That he has chosen a husband for you, I know from his own mouth; for he has told me this much during our fre juent conversations, while he has been superintending the shipment of the stores : and that Mr. Muir is to offer for you, I know from the officer himself; who has told me as much. By putting the two things together, I have come to the opinion mentioned." u May not my dear father, Jasper," Mabel s face glowed like fire while she spoke, though her words escaped her THE PATHFINDER 22U slowly, and by a sort of involuntary impulse, "may not my dear father have been thinking of another ? It does not follow, from what you say, that Mr. Muir was in his mind." " Is it not probable, Mabel, from all that has passed ? What brings the quartermaster here ? He has never found it necessary before, to accompany the parties that have gone below he thinks of you for his wife ; and your father has made up his own mind that you shall be so. Yen must *3e, Mabel, that Mr. Muir follows you ? " Mabel made no answer. Her feminine instinct had, indeed, told her that she was an object of admiration with the quartermaster, though she had hardly supposed to the extent that Jasper believed ; and she, too, had even gath ered from the discourse of her father, that he thought seriously of having her disposed of in marriage ; but by no process of reasoning could she ever have arrived at the inference that Mr. Muir was to be the man. She did not believe it now, though she was far from suspecting the truth. Indeed, it was her opinion that the casual remarks of her father which had struck j,ier, had proceeded from a general wish to have her settled, rather than from any desire to see her united to any particular individual. These thoughts, however, she kept secret ; for self-respect and feminine reserve showed her the impropriety of making them the subject of discussion with her present companion. By way of changing the conversation, therefore, after the pause had lasted long enough to be embarrassing to both parties, she said, " Of one thing you may be certain, Jasper ; and that it ^ is all I wish to say on the subject : Lieutenant Muir, though he were a colonel, will never be the husband of ptr-/ Mabel Dunham. And now, tell me of your voyage ; wheii / . . will it end r> " " That is uncertain. Once afloat, we are at the mercy cf the winds and waves. Pathfinder will tell you, that be who begins to chase the deer in the morning, cannot tell where he will sleep at night." * But we are not chasing a deer; nor is it moiuing: to Pathfiuder s moral is throwu away." 230 THE PATHFINDER. " Although we are not chasing a deer, we are after that which may be as hard to catch. I can tell yoi no more than I have said already ; for it is our duty to be close- mouthed, whether anything depends on it or not. I am afraid, however, I shall not keep you long enough in the Scud, to show you what she can do in fair and foul." " I think a woman unwise who ever marries a sailor,"" said Mabel, abruptly, and almost involuntarily. u This is a strange opinion ; why do you hold it ? " " Because a sailor s wife is certain to have a rival in hit vessel. My uncle Cap, too, says that a sailor should never marry." " He means salt-water sailors," returned Jasper, laugh ing. " If he thinks wives not good enough for those who sail on the ocean, he will fancy them just suited to those who sail on the lakes. I hope, Mabel, you do not take your opinions of us fresh-water mariners from all that Master Cap says." " Sail, ho ! " exclaimed the very individual of whom they were conversing ; " or boat, ho ! would be nearer the truth." Jasper ran forward; and, sure enough, a small object was discernible about a hundred yards ahead of the cutter, and nearly on her lee bow. At the first glance, he saw it was a bark canoe ; for though the darkness prevented hues from being distinguished, the eye that had got to be accus tomed to the night, might discern forms at some little distance ; and the eye which, like Jasper s, had long been familiar with things aquatic, could not be at a loss in dig- covering the outlines necessary to come to the conclusion he did. "This may be an enemy," the young man remarked s * and it may be well to overhaul him." " He is paddling with all his might, lad," observed the Pathfinder, " and means to cross your bows and get to windward, when you might as well chase a full-grown buck on snow-shoes ! " " Let her luff ! " cried Jasper, to the man at the helm. ** Luff up, till she shakes, there, steady, and hold aL that" THE PATHFINDER. 281 The helmsman complied, and as the Scud was now dash ing the water aside merrily, a minute or two put the canoe so far to leeward as to render escape impracticable. Jasper now sprang to the helm himself, and by judicious and care ful handling, he got so near his chase that it was secured by a boat-hook. On receiving an order, the two persons who were in the canoe, left it, and no sooner had they reached the deck of the cutter, than they were found to be Arrow kfl*d and b ia wife. 282 THE PATHflNDEB CHAPTER XV. What pearl is it that rich men cannot buy, That learning is too proud to gather up ; But which the poor and the despised of all Seek and obtain, and often find unsought? Tell me and I will tell thee what is truth. COWPKB. THE meeting with the Indian and his wife excited no surprise in the majority of those who witnessed the occur rence ; but Mabel, and all who knew of the manner in which this chief had been separated from the party of Cap, simultaneously entertained suspicions, which it was far easier io feel, than to follow out by any plausible clue to cer tainty. Pathfinder, who alone could converse freely with the prisoners, for such they might now be considered, took Arrowhead aside, and held a long conversation with him, concerning the reasons of the latter for having de serted* his charge, and the manner in which he had been since employed. The Tuscarora met these inquiries, and he gave his an swers with the stoicism of an Indian. As respects the separation, his excuses were very simply made, and they seemed to be sufficiently plausible. When he found that the party was discovered in its place of concealment, ha naturally sought his own safety, which he secured by plung ing : nto the woods, for he made no doubt that all who could not effect this much, would be massacred on the spot. In a word. ; he had run away, in order to save his life. " This is well," returned Pathfinder, affecting to believe the other s apologies ; " my brother did very wisely ; but his woman followed ? " " Do not the pale-faces women follow their husbands Would not Pathfinder have looked back to see if one ho ioved was coming ? " THE PATHFINDER. 288 This appeal was made to the guide while he was in A most fortunate frame of mind to admit its force ; for Mabel, and her blandishments and constancy, were getting to be image? familiar to his thoughts. The Tuscarora, though he could not trace the reason, saw that his excuse was admitted, and he stood, with quiet dignity, awaiting the next inquiry. " This is reasonable and natural," returned Pathfinder, in English, passing from one language to the other, insensibly to himself, as his feelings or habits dictated ; " this is nat ural, and may be so. A woman would be likely to follow the man to whom she had plighted faith, and husband and wife are one flesh. Mabel, herself, would have been likely to follow the sergeant, had he been presvmt, and retreated in this manner ; and, no doubt, no doubt, f .he warm-hearted girl would have followed her husband Your words are honest, Tuscarora," changing the language to the dialect of the other. " Your words are honest, and very pleasant, and just. But why has my brother been so long from the fort ? his friends have thought of him often, but have never seen him ! " " If the doe follows the buck, ought not the buck to fol low the doe ? " answered the Tuscarora, smiling, and laying a finger significantly on the shoulder of his interrogator. " Arrowhead s wife followed Arrowhead ; it was right in Arrowhead to follow his wife. She lost her way, and they made her cook in a strange wigwam." " I understand you, Tuscarora. The woman fell into the hands of the Mingos, and you kept upn their trail." " Pathfinder can see a reason as easily as he can see the moss on the trees. It is so." " And how long have you got the woman back, and in what manner has it been done ? " " Two suns. The Dew-of-June was not long in coming, wrhen her husband whispered to her the path." " Well, well, all this seems nat ral and according to mat rimony. But, Tuscarora, how did you get that canoe, and why are you paddling towards the St. Lawrence instead of che garrison ? " Arrowhead can tell his own from that of another. 234 THE PATHFINDER. This canoe is mine ; I found it on the shore, near the fort." " That sounds reasonable, too, for the canoe does belong to the man, and an Injin would make few words about tak ing it. Still, it is extr ornary that we saw nothing of the fsllow and his wife, for the canoe must have left the river before we did ourselves." This idea, which passed rapidly through the mind of the guide, was now put to the Indian in the shape of a ques tion. " Pathfinder knows that a warrior can have shame. The father would have asked me for his daughter, and I could not give him to her. I sent the Dew-of-June for the canoe, and no one spoke to the woman. A Tuscarora woman would not be free in speaking to strange men. All this, too, was plausible, and in conformity with In dian character and Indian customs. As was usual, Arrow head had received one half of his compensation previously to quitting the Mohawk ; and his refraining to demand the residue was a proof of that conscientious consideration of mutual rights that quite as often distinguishes the morality of a savage as that of a Christian. To one as upright as Pathfinder, Arrowhead had conducted himself with delicacy and propriety, though it would have been more in accord ance with his own frank nature, to have met the father, and abided by the simple truth. Still, accustomed to the ways of the Indians, he saw nothing out of the ordinary track of things in the course the other had taken. " This runs like water flowing down the hill, Arrowhead," he answered, after a little reflection, " and truth obliges me to own it. It was the gift of a red-skin to act in thig way, though I do not think it was the gift of a pale-face. You would not look upon the grief of the girl s father ? " Arrowhead made a quiet inclination of the body, as if to Absent. " One thing more my brother will tell me," continued Pathfinder, u and there will be no cloud between his wig wam and the strong-house of the Yengeese. If he can blow away this hit of fog, his friends will look at him, as he sits THE PATHFINDER. 235 by hi8 OWD fire, and he can look at them, as they lay aside their arms, and forget that they are warriors. "Why was the heid of Arrowhead s canoe looking towards the St. Law jence, where there are none but enemies to be found ? " " Why were the Pathfinder and his friends looking the same way ? " asked the Tuscarora, calmly. " A Tuscai ora may look in the same direction as a Yengeese." " Wliy, to own the truth, Arrowhead, we are out scouting k like ; i^.t is sailin in other words, we are on the king s business, a*id we have a right to be here, though we may not have a right to say why we are here." " Arrowneaa saw the big canoe, and he loves to look on ihe face of Eau <icuce. He was going towards the sun at evening, in order to 3t>ek his wigwam ; but finding that the young sailor was going iHe other way, he turned that he might look in the same clii action. Eau-douce and Arrow head were together on the last trail." " This may all be true, Tuscarora, and you are welcome. You shall eat of our venison, and then we must separate. The setting sun is behind us, and both of us move quick : my brother will get too far from that which he seeks, unless he turns round." Pathfinder now returned to the others, and repeated the result of his examination. He appeared himself to believe that the. account of Arrowhead might be true, though he admitted that caution would be prudent with one he disliked } but his auditors, Jasper excepted, seemed less disposed to put faith in the explanations. u This chap must be ironed at once, brother Dunham," sai 1 Cap, as soon as Pathfinder finished his narration ; * he must be turned ovei to the master-at-arms, if there is any such officer on fresh water, and a court-martial ought to be )rderod as soon as we ^each port." " I think it wisest tc detain the fellow," the sergeant an- ..wered, " but irons are unnecessary so long as he remains hi the cutter . In the morning the tcatier shall be inquired ii\to." Arrowhead was now summoned and told the decision. The Indian listened gravely, and made no objections. On 236 THE PATHFINDER. die contrai y, he submitted with the calm and reserved dig nity with which the American aborigines are known to yield to fate ; and he stood apart, an attentive but calm observer of what was passing. Jasper caused the cutter s sails to be tilled, and the Scud resumed her course. It was now getting towards the hour to set the watch, and when it was usual to retire for the night. Most of the party went below, leaving no one on deck but Cap> the ser geant, Jasper, and two of the crew. Arrowhead and his wife also remained, the former standing aloof in proud reserve, and the latter exhibiting, by her attitude and pas- siveness, the meek humility that characterizes an Indian woman. " You will find a place for your wife below, Arrowhead, where my daughter will attend to her wants," said the ser geant, kindly, who was himself on the point of quitting the deck ; " yonder is a sail, where you may sleep your self." " I thank my father. The Tuscaroras are not poor. The woman will look for my blankets in the canoe." " As you wish, my friend. We think it necessary to de tain you, but not necessary to confine, or to maltreat you. Send your squaw into the canoe for the blankets, and you may follow her yourself, and hand us up the paddles. As there may be some sleepy heads in the Scud, Eau-douce," added the sergeant, in a lower tone, " it may be well to secure the paddles." Jasper assented, and Arrowhead and his wife, with whom resistance appeared to be out of the question, silently com- plisd with the directions. A few expressions of sharp rebuke passed from the Indian to his wife, while both were employed in the canoe, which the latter received with sub missive quiet, immediately repairing an error she had made, by laying aside the blanket she had taken, and searching another that was more to her tyrant s mind. " Come, bear a hand, Arrowhead," said the sergeant, who stood on the gunwale, overlooking the movements of the two, which were proceeding too slowly for the impatience of a drowsy man ; " it is getting late ; and we soldiera THE PATHFINDER. 237 have such a thing as reveille early to bed and early to rise." " Arrowhead is coming," was the answer, as the Tucarora stopped towards the head of his canoe. One blow of his keen knife severed the rope which held the boat, when the cutter glanced ahead, leaving the light bubble of bark, which instantly lost its way, almost station ary. So suddenly and dexterously was this manoeuvre per formed, that the canoe was on the lee quarter of the Scud, before the sergeant was aware of the artifice, and quite in her wake, ere he had time to announce it to his compan ions. " Hard-a-lee ! " shouted Jasper, letting fly the jib-sheet with his own hands, when the cutter came swiftly up to the breeze, with all her canvas flapping, or was running into the wind s eye, as seamen term it, until the light craft was a hundred feet to windward of her former position. Quick and dexterous as was this movement, and ready as had been the expedient, it was not quicker or more ready than that of the Tuscarora. With an intelligence that denoted some familiarity with vessels, he had seized his paddle, and was already skimming the water, aided by the efforts of his wife. The direction he took was southwesterly, or on a line that led him equally towards the wind and the shore, while it also kept him so far aloof from the cutter, as to avoid the danger of the latter s falling on board of him, when she filled on the other tack. Swiftly as the Scud had shot into the wind, and far as she had forged ahead, Jasper knew it was necessary to cast her, ere she had lost all her way ; and it was not two minutes from the time the helm had been put down, before the lively little craft was aback forward, and rapidly falling off, in order to allow her sails to fill on the opposite tack. : He will escape ! " said Jasper, the instant he caught a glimpse of the relative bearings of the cutter and the canoe " The cunning knave is paddling dead to windward, and the Scud can never overtake him ! " " You have a canoe 1 " exclaimed the sergeant, manifest ing the eagerness of a boy to join in the pursuit, " let ui launch it, and give chase 1 " 238 THE PATHFINDER. " Twill be useless. If Pathfinder had been on leek, there might have been a chance, but there is none now. To launch the canoe would have taken three or four minutes, and the time lost would have been sufficient for the purposes of Arrowhead." Both Cap and the sergeant saw the truth of this, which wovld have been nearly self-evident even to one unaccus tomed to vessels. The shore was distant less than half a mile, and the canoe was already glancing into its shadows at a rate to show that it would reach the land ere its pur suers could probably get half the distance. The canoe, itself, might have been seized, but it would have been a use less prize ; for Arrowhead in the woods would be more likely to reach the other shore without detection, than if he still possessed the means to venture on the lake again ; though it might be, and probably would be, a greater bodily labor to himself. The helm of the Scud was reluctantly put up again, and the cutter wore short round on her heel, coming up to her course on the other tack, as if acting on instinct. All this was done by Jasper in profound silence, his assistants understanding what was necessary, and lending their aid in a sort of mechanical imitation. While these manoeuvres were in the course of execution, Cap took the sergeant by a button and led him towards the cabin-door, where he was out of ear-shot, and began to unlock his stores of thought. " Harkee, brother Dunham," he said, with an ominous face, " this is a matter that requires mature .thought, and vrach circumspection." " The life of a soldier, brother Cap, is one of constant thought and circumspection. On this frontier were we to overlook either, our scalps might be taken from our heads in the first nap." " But I consider this capture of Arrowhead as a circum stance ; and I might add his escape as another. This Jas per Fresh- water must look to it ! " " They are both circumstances, truly, brother ; but they tell different ways. If it is a circumstance against the lad, that the Indian has escaped, it is a circumstance in his favoi that he was first taken." THE PATHFINDER. 239 44 Aye, aye, but two circumstances do not contradict each other like two negatives. If you will follow the advice of an old seaman, sergeant, not a moment is to be lost in tak ing the steps necessary for the security of the vessel and all on board of her. The cutter is now slipping through the rater at the rate of six knots, and as the distances are so short on this bit of a pond, we may all find ourselves in a French port before morning, and in a French prison before night." " This may be true enough ; what would you advise me to do, brother ? " " In my opinion you should put this Master Fresh-water under arrest on the spot, send him below under the charge of a sentinel, and transfer the command of the cutter to me. All this you have power to perform, the craft belonging to the army, and you being the commanding officer of the troops present." Sergeant Dunham deliberated more than an hour on the propriety of this proposal ; for, though sufficiently prompt when his mind was really made up, he was habitually thoughtful and wary. The habit of superintending the per sonal police of the garrison had made him acquainted with character, and he had long been disposed to think well of Jasper. Still, that subtle poison, suspicion, had entered his soul, and so much were the artifices and intrigues of the French dreaded, that, especially warned as he had been by his commander, it is not to be wondered the recollection of years of good conduct should vanish under the influence of a distrust so keen, and seemingly so plausible. In this em barrassment the sergeant consulted the quartermaster, whoso opinion, as his superior, he felt bound to respect, though, at the moment, independent of his control. It is an unfortu nate occurrence for one who is in a dilemma, to ask advice of another who is desirous of standing well in his favor, the party consulted being almost certain to try to think in tho manner which will be the most agreeable to the party con- gulting. In the present instance it was equally unfortunate as respects a candid consideration of the subject, that Cap, instead of the sergeant himself, made the statement of the 240 THE PATHFINDER. case ; for the earnest old sailor was not backward in letting his listener perceive to which side he was desirous that the quartermaster should lean. Lieutenant Muir was much too politic to offend the uncle and father of the woman he hoped and expected to win, had he really thought the case ad mitted of doubt ; but in the manner in which the facts were submitted to him, he was seriously inclined to think thai it would be well to put the control of the Scud tempora rily into the management of Cap, as a precaution against treachery. This opinion then decided the sergeant, who forthwith set about the execution of the necessary measures. Without entering into any explanations, Sergeant Dun ham simply informed Jasper that he felt it to be his duty to deprive him, temporarily, of the command of the cutter, and to confer it on his own brother-in-law. A natural and in voluntary burst of surprise, which escaped the young man, was met by a quiet remark reminding him that military service was often of a nature that required concealment, and a declaration that the present duty was of such a character that this particular arrangement had become indispensable. Although Jasper s astonishment remained undiminished, the sergeant cautiously abstaining from making any allusion to his suspicions, the young man was accustomed to obey with military submission ; and he quietly acquiesced, with his own mouth directing the little crew to receive their further orders from Cap until another change should be effected. When, however, he was told the case required that not only he himself, but his principal assistant, who, on account of his long acquaintance with the lake, was usually termed the pilot, were to remain below, there was an alter ation in his countenance and manner that denoted deep jiortification, though it was so well mastered as to ieave even the distrustful Cap in doubt as to its meaning. As 9 matter of course, however, when distrust exists, it was not long before the worst construction was put upon it. As soon as Jasper and the pilot were below, the sentinel at the hatch received private orders to pay particular atten tion to both ; to allow neither to conie on deck again with- out giving instant notice to the person who might then be THE PATHFINDER. 241 in charge of the cutter, and to insist on his return below as soon as possible. This precaution, however, was uncalled for, Jasper and his assistant both throwing themselves silently on their pallets, which neither quitted again that night. * And now, sergeant," said Cap, as soon as he found him self master of the deck, " you will just have the goodness to give me the courses and distances, that I may see the bi*< keeps her head the right way." " I know nothing of either, brother Cap," returned Dun ham, not a little embarrassed at the question. " We must make the best of our way to the station among the Thou sand Islands, where we shall land, relieve the party that is already out, and get information for our future govern ment. That s it, nearly word for word, as it stands in the written orders." " But you can muster a chart something in the way of bearings and distances, that I may sec the road ? " " I do not think Jasper ever had anything of the sort to go by-" " No chart, Sergeant Dunham ! " " Not a scrap of a pen, even. Our sailors navigate this lake without any aid from maps." " The devil they do ! They must be regular Yahoos. And do you suppose, Sergeant Dunham, that I can find one sland out of a thousand, without knowing its name or its position without even a course or a distance ? " " As for the name, brother Cap, you need not be particu lar, for not one of the whole thousand has a name, and so a mistake can never be made on that score. As for the posi tion, never having been there myself, I can tell you nothing about it, nor do I think its position of any particular conse quence, provided we find the spot. Perhaps one of the hands on deck can tell us the way." "Hold on, sergeant hold on, a moment, if you please, Sergeant Dunham. If I am to command this craft, it must be done, if you please, without holding any councils of war *rith the cook and cabin-boy. A shipmaster is a ship master, and he must have an opinion of his own, even if it b 16 212 THE PATHFINDER. a wrong one. I suppose you know service well enough to understand that it is better in a commander to go wrong, than to go nowhere. At all events, the Lord High Admi ral couldn t command a yawl with dignity, if he consulted the coxswain every time he wished to go ashore. No, sir, if I sink, I sink ; but d e, I ll go down ship-shape and with dignity." " But, brother Cap, I have no wish to go dcwn anywhere, anless it be to the station among the Thousand Islands, whither we are bound." " Well, well, sergeant, rather than ask advice, that is, direct, barefaced advice, of a foremast hand, or any other than a quarter-deck officer, I would go round to the whole thousand and examine them one by one, until we got the right haven. But, there is such a thing as coming at an opinion without manifesting ignorance, and I wih 1 manage to rowse all there is, out of these hands, and make them think, all the while, that I am cramming them with my own experience. We are sometimes obliged to use the glass at sea when there is nothing in sight, or to heave the lead long before we strike soundings. I suppose you know in the army, sergeant, that the next thing to knowing that which is desirable, is to seem to know all about it. When a youngster, I sailed two v y ges with a man who navigated his ship pretty much by the latter sort of information, which sometimes answers." " I know we are steering in the right direction, at pres ent," returned the sergeant, " but in the course of a few hours we shall be up with a headland, where we must feel our way with more caution." " Leave me to pump the man at the wheel, brother, and you shall see that I will make him suck, in a very few minutes." Cap and the sergeant now walked aft, until they stood bj the sailor who was at the helm, Cap maintaining an ah of security and tranquillity, like one who was entirely con fident of his own powers. " This is a wholesome air, my lad," Cap observed, as it might be incidentally, and in the manner that a superior <n THE PATHFINDER. 243 board a vessel sometimes condescends to use to a favored inferior. " Of course you have it in this fashion, off the land, every night ? " " At this season of the year, sir," the man returned, touch ing his hat, out of respect to his new commander and Ser geant Dunham s connection. " The same thing, I take it, among the Thousand Islands ? The wind will stand of course, though we shall then have land on every side of us." " When we get further east, sir, the wind will probably shift, for there can then be no particular land breeze." " Aye, aye so much for your fresh water ! It has always some trick that is opposed to nature. Now, down among the West India Islands, one is just as certain of hav ing a land breeze as he is of having a sea breeze. In that respect there is no difference, though it s quite in rule it should be different up here, on this bit of fresh water. Of course, my lad, you know all about these said Thousand Islands ? " " Lord bless you, Master Cap, nobody knows all about them, or anything about them. They are a puzzle to the oldest sailor on the lake, and we don t pretend to know even their names. For that matter, most of them have no more names than a child that dies before it is christened." " Are you a Roman Catholic ? " demanded the sergeant, sharply. " No, sir ; nor anything else. I m a generalizer about religion, never troubling that which don t trouble me." " Hum ! a generalizer ; that is, no doubt, one of the new vscts that afflict the country ! " muttered Mr. Dunham, whose grandfather had been a New Jersey Quaker, his father a Presbyterian, and who had joined the Church if England himself, after he entered the army. " I take it, John," resumed Cap /our name is Jack, I talieve ? " " No, sir ; I am called Robert." " Aye, Robert ; it s very much the same thing Jack or Bob we use the two indifferently. I say, Bob, it s good holding-ground, is it. down at this same station fof which \vo arc bound ? " 244 THE PATHFINDER. " Bless you, sir, I kmw no more about it than one of th* Mohawks, or a soldier of the 55th." " Did you never anchor tohere ? " " Never, sir. Master Eau-douce always makes fast to th* shore." " But in running in for the town, you kept the lead going, out of question, and must have tallowed as usual ? " " TVJlow ! and town, too ! Bless your heart, Master Cap, there is no more town than there is on your chin, and L 9t half as much tallow." The sergeant smiled grimly, but his brother-in-law did mi detect this proof of facetiousuess. " No church-tower, nor light, nor fort, ba ! There is a garrison, as you call it here-away, at least." " Ask Sergeant Dunham, sir, if you wisb to know that. All the garrison is on board the Scud." " But, in running in, Bob, which of the channels do you think the best, the one you went last, or or or aye, or the other ? " " I can t say, sir. I know nothing of either " " You didn t go to sleep, fellow, at the wheel, did you ? * " Not at the wheel, sir, but down in the for^ peak, in my oerth. Eau-douce sent us below, sogers and all, with the exception of the pilot, and we know no more of the road than if we had never been over it. This h-i has always done, in going in and coming out ; and, for the life of me, I could tell you nothing of the channel or o r the course, after we are once fairly up with the islands. N ", one knows anything of either, but Jasper and the pilot." " Here is a circumstance for you, sergeant ! said Cap, leading his brother-in-law a little aside ; " there is no one on board to pump, for they all suck from ignorance, at the firs* stroke of the brake. How the devil am I to find the way to this station ? " " Sure enough, brother Cap ; your question is mort, easily put than answered. Is there no such thinft as figur ing it out by navigation ? I thought you salt-water mariners were able to do as small a thing as that ! I have often read of their discovering islands, surely." THE PATHFINDER. 246 " That you have, brother ; that you hai e ; and this dis covery would be the greatest of them all, for it would not only be discovering one island, but one island out of a thou sand. I might make out to pick up a single needle on this deck, old as I am, but I much doubt if I could pick one out of a haystack." " Still, the sailors of the lake have a method of finding tl > places they wish to go to." " If I have understood you, sergeant, this station, ot block-house, is particularly private ? " " It is, indeed ; the utmost care having been taken to prevent a knowledge of its position from reaching the enemy." " And you expect me, a stranger on your lake, to find this place without chr.rt, course, distance, latitude, longitude, or soundings aye, d e, or tallow ! Allow me to ask if you think a mariner runs by his nose, like one of Path finder s hounds ? " " Well, brother, you may yet learn something by ques tioning the young man at the helm ; I can hardly think that he is as ignorant as he pretends to be." " Hum this looks like another circumstance ! For that matter, the case is getting to be so full of circumstances, that one hardly knows how to foot up the evidence. But we will soon see how much the lad knows." Cap and the sergeant now returned to their station near the helm, and the former renewed his inquiries. " Do you happen to know what may be the latitude and longitude of this said island, my lad ? " he asked. " The what, sir ? " " Why the latitude or longitude ; one or both ; I m noi particular which, as I merely inquire in order to see how ihoy bring up young men on this bit of fresh water." u I m not particular about either, myself, sir, and so I do not happen to know what you mean." " Not what I mean ! You know what latitude is ? " " Not I, sir," returned the man, hesitating, " though I believe it is French for the upper lakes." " Whe-e-e-w ! " whistled Cap, drawing out his breath, lik* THE PATHFINDER. rZ$V^i the broken stop of an organ ; " latitude, French for upper lakes ! Harkee, young man ; do you know what longitude means ? " " I believe I do, sir ; that is five feet six, the regulation height for soldiers in the king s service." " There s the longitude found out for you, sergeant> in the rattling of a brace-block ! You have some notion about a degree, and minutes, and seconds, I hope ? " " Yes, sir ; degree means my betters, and minutes and seconds are for the short or long log-lines. We all know these things as well as the salt-water people." " D e, brother Dunham, if I think even Faith can get along on this lake, much as they say it can do with moun tains. I m sure character is in no security. Well, my lad, you understand the azimuth, and measuring distances, and how to box the compass." " As for the first, sir, I can t say I do. The distances we all know, as we measure them from point to point ; and as for boxing the compass, I will turn my back to no admiral in his Majesty s fleet. Nothe-nothe and by east, nothe- nothe-east, nothe-east and nothe, nothe-east ; nothe-east and by east, east-nothe-east, east-and-by-nothe, east " " That will do that will do. You ll bring about a shift of wind, if you go on in this manner. I see very plainly, sergeant," walking away again, and dropping his voice, " we ve nothing to hope for from that chap. I ll stand on two hours longer on this tack, when we ll heave-to, and get the soundings ; after which we will be governed by circum stances." To this the sergeant, who, to coin a word, was very much of an idiosyncratist, made no objections ; and, as the wind grew lighter, as usual with the advance of night, and there were no immediate obstacles to the navigation, he made a bed of a sail, on deck, andVas soon lost in the sound sleep of a soldier. Cap continued to walk the deck, for he was one whose iron frame set fatigue at defiance, and not once that night did he close his eyes. It was broad daylight when Sergeant Dunham awoke, and the exclamation of surprise that escaped him, as he rose THE PATHFINDER. 247 to his feet, and began to look about him, was stronger than it was usual for one so drilled to suffer to be heard. He found the weather entirely changed ; the view bounded by driving mist, that limited the visible horizon to a circle of about a mile in diameter, the lake raging and covered with foam, and the Scud lying-to. A brief conversation with his brother-in-law let him into the secrets of all these sud den changes. According to the account of Master Cap, the wind had died away to a calm about midnight, or just as he was thinking of heaving-to, to sound, for islands ahead were be ginning to be seen. At one A. M. it began to blow from the northeast, accompanied by a drizzle, and he stood off to the northward and westward, knowing that the coast of New York lay in the opposite direction. At half-past one, he stowed the stay-sail, reefed the mainsail, and took the bon net off the jib. At two he was compelled to get a second reef aft ; and by half-past two he had put a balance reef in the sail, and was lying-to. " I can t say but the boat behaves well, sergeant," the old sailor added ; " but it blows forty-two pounders ! I had no idee there were any such currents of air up here on this bit of fresh water, though I care not the knotting of a yarn for it, as your lake has now somewhat of a natural look, and " spitting from his mouth, with distaste, a dash of the spray that had just wetted his face "and if this d d water had a savor of salt about it, one might be comfortable." " How long have you been heading in this direction, brother Cap ?" inquired the prudent soldier; "and at what rate may we be going through the water ? " " Why, two or three hours, mayhap, and she went like a dorse for the first pair of them. O! we ve a fine offing now, for, to own the truth, little relishing the neighborhood of them said islands, although they are to windward, I took the helm myself, and run her off free, for some league or two. We are well to leeward of them, I ll engage. I say to lee ward, for though one might wish to be well to windward of one island, or even half a dozen, when it comes to a thon 248 THE PATHFINDER. Band, the better way is to give it up at once, and to slide down under their lee as fast as possible. No, no ; there they are, up yonder in the drizzle, and there they may stay, for anything Charles Cap cares." " As the north shore lies only some five or six leagues from us, brother, and I know there is a large bay in that quarter, might it not be well to consult some of the crew coucerning our position, if indeed we do not call up Jasper Eau-douce, and tell him to carry us back to Oswego ? It is quite impossible we should ever reach the station with this wind directly in our teeth." " There are several serious professional reasons, sergeant, against all your propositions. In the first place, an admis sion of ignorance on the part of a commander would destroy discipline. No matter, brother, I understand your shake of the head, but nothing capsizes discipline so much, as to con fess ignorance. I once knew a master of a vessel who went a week on a wrong course, rather than allow he had made a mistake ; and it was surprising how much he rose in the opinions of his people, just because they could not under stand him." " That may do on salt water, brother Cap ; but it will hardly do on fresh. Rather than wreck my command on the Canada shore, I shall feel it my duty to take Jasper out of arrest." " And make a haven in Frontenac ! No, sergeant, the Scud is in good hands, and will now learn something of seamanship. We have a fine offing, and no one but a mad man would think of going upon a coast in a gale like this. I shall wear every watch, and then we shall be safe against all dangers but those of the drift, which, in a light, low craft like this, without top-hamper, .will be next to nothing. Leave it all to me, sergeant, and I pledge you the character cf Charles Cap, that it will all go well." Sergeant Dunham was fain to yiold. He had great con fidence in his connection s professional skill, and hoped that he would take such care of the cutter as would amply jus tify his good opinion. On the other hand, as distrust, like love, grows by what it feeds on, he entertained so much THE PATHFINDER. 249 apprehension of treachery, that he was quite willing any one but Jasper should, just then, have the control of the fate of the whole party. Truth, moreover, compels us to admit another motive. The particular duty on which he was now sent should have been confided to a commissioned officer, of right ; and Major Duncan had excited a good deal of dis content among the subalterns of the garrison, by having confided it to one of the sergeant s humble station. To re turn without having even reached the point of destination, therefore, the latter felt would be a failure from which he was not likely soon to recover ; and the measure would, aA once, be the means of placing a superior in his shoes. 260 THE PATHFINDER. CHAPTER XVI. Thou glorious mirror, wherr the Almighty s form Glasses itself in tempests; in all time, Calm or convulsed in breeze, or gale, or storm, Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime Dark heaving ; boundless, endless, and sublime The image of Eternity : the throne Of the Invisible ; even from out thy slime The monsters of the deep are made ; each zone Obeys thee ; thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, aJooe. BTBOM. As the day advanced, that portion of the inmates of the yessel which had the liberty of doing so, appeared on deck. As yet, the sea was not very high, from which it was in ferred that the cutter was still under the lee of the islands ; but it was apparent to all who understood the lake, that they were about to experience one of the heavy autumnal gales of that region, f Land was nowhere visible ; and the hori zon, on every side, exhibited that gloomy void which lends to all views, on vast bodies of water, the sublimity of mys tery, ll The swells, or as landsmen term them, the waves, were short and curling, breaking of necessity sooner than the longer seas of the ocean ; while the element itself, in stead of presenting that beautiful hue which rivals the deep tint of the southern sky, looked green and angry, though wanting in the lustre that is derived from the rays of the sun. The soldiers were soon satisfied with the prospect, and one by one they disappeared, until none were left on deck but the crew, the sergeant, Cap, Pathfinder, the quarter* master, and Mabel. There was a shade on the broAv of the latter, who had been made acquainted with the real state of things, and who had fruitlessly ventured an appeal in favor of Jasper s restoration to the command. A night s rest and THE PATHFINDER 251 ft night s reflection appeared also to have confirmed the Path finder in his opinion of the young man s innocence, and he, too, had made a warm appeal in behalf of his friend, though with the same want of success. Several hours passed away, the wind gradually getting to be heavier, and the sea rising, until the motion of the cutter compelled Mabel and the quartermaster to retreat also. Cap wore several times ; and it was now evident that the Scud was drifting into the broader and deeper parts of the lake, the seas raging down upon her in a way that none but a vessel of superior mould and build could have long ridden and withstood. All this, however, gave Cap no uneasiness ; but like the hunter that pricks his ears at the sound of the horn, or the war-horse that paws and snorts with pleasure at the roll of the drum, the whole scene awakened all that was man within him ; and instead of the captious, supercilious, and dogmatic critic, quarreling with trifles, and exaggerating immaterial things, he began to ex hibit the qualities of the hardy and experienced seaman that he truly was. The hands soon imbibed a respect for his skill ; and though they wondered at the disappearance of their old commander and the pilot, for which no reason had been publicly given, they soon yielded an implicit and cheer ful obedience to the new one. " This bit of fresh water, after all, brother Dunham, has some spirit, I find," cried Cap, about noon, rubbing his hands in pure satisfaction at finding himself once more wrestling with the elements. " The wind seems to bean honest old-fashioned gale, and the seas have a fanciful re semblance to those of the Gulf Stream. I like this, ser geant, I like this ; and shall get to respect your lake if it hold out twenty-four hours longer in the fashion in which it has begun." " Land, ho ! " shouted the man who was stationed on tho forecastle. Cap hurried forward ; and there, sure enough, the land was visible through the drizzle, at a distance of about half a mile, the cutter heading directly towards it. The first im pulse of the old seaman was to give an order to " Stand by 252 THE PATHFINDER. to wear off shore ; " but the cool-headed soldior restrained him. * By going a little nearer," said the sergeant, " some of as may recognize the place. Most of us know the Ameri can shore, in this part of the lake ; and it will be something gained to learn our position." <: Very true very true ; if, indeed, there is anj chance of that, we will hold on. What is this off here, a little on our weather bow ? It looks like a low headland." " The garrison, by Jove ! " exclaimed the other, whos trained eye sooner recognized the military outlines than the less instructed senses of his connection. The sergeant was not mistaken. There was the fort, sure enough, though it looked dim and indistinct through the fine rain, as if it were seen in the dusk of evening, or the haze of morning. The low-sodded, and verdant ram parts, the sombre palisades, now darker than ever with water, the roof of a house or two, the tall, solitary flag-staff, with its halyards blown steadily out, into a curve that ap peared traced in immovable lines in the air, were all soon to be seen, though no sign of animated life could be discovered. Even the sentinel was housed ; and, at first, it was believed that no eye would detect the presence of their own vessel. But the unceasing vigilance of a border garrison did not slumber. One of the lookouts probably made the interesting discovery ; a man or two were seen on some elevated stands, and then the entire ramparts, next the lake, were dotted with human beings. The whole scene was one in which sublimity was singu larly relieved by the picturesque. The raging of the tem pest had a character of duration that rendered it easy to im agine it might be a permanent feature of the spot. The roar of the wind was without intermission, and the raging water answered to its dull but grand strains with hissing spray, a menacing wash, and sullen surges. The drizzle made a medium for the eye which closely resembled that of a thin mist, softening and rendering mysterious the images it .evealed, while the genial feeling that is apt to accompany a gale of wind on water, contributed to aid the milder innV THE PATHFINDER, 253 ences of the moment. The dark, interminable forest hove up out of the obscurity, grand, sombre, and impressive while the solitary, peculiar, and picturesque glimpses of life that were caught in and about the fort, formed a refuge for the eye to retreat to, when oppressed with the more impos : ng objects of nature. " They see us," said the sergeant, " and think we have returned on account of the gale, and have fallen to leeward of the port Yes, there is Major Duncan himself, on the northeastern bastion ; I know him by his height, and bj the officers around him ! " " Sergeant, it would be worth standing a little jeering, A we could fetch into the river, and come safely to an anchor ! In that case, too, we might land this Master Oh-the-Deuce, and purify the boat." " It would indeed ; but poor a sailor as I am, I well know it cannot be done. Nothing that sails the lake can turn to windward against this gale ; and there is no anchor age outside, in weather like this." " I know it, I see it, sergeant, and pleasant as is that sight to you landsmen, we must leave it. For myself, I am never as happy, in heavy weather, as when I am certain that the land is behind me." The Scud had now forged so near in, that it became indis pensable to lay her head off shore again, and the necessary orders were given. The storm-staysail was set forward, the gaff lowered, the helm put up, and the light craft, that seemed to sport with the elements like a duck, fell off a lit tle, drew ahead swiftly, obeyed her rudder, and was soon flying away on the top of the surges, dead before the gale. While making this rapid flight, though the land still re mained in view on her larboard beam, the fort, and the groups of anxious spectators on its rampart, were swallowed up in the mist. Then followed the evolutions necessary to bring the head of the cutter up to the wind, when she again began to wallow her weary way towards the north shore. Hours now passed before any further change was made, the wind increasing in force, until even the dogmatical Cap fairly admitted it was blowing a thorough gale of wind 254 THE PATHFINDER. About sunset the Scud wore again, to keep her off the north shore during the hours of darkness ; and at midnight her temporary master, who, by questioning the crew in an indirect manner, had obtained some general knowledge of the size and shape of the lake, believed himself to be about midway between the two shores. The height and length of the seas aided this impression ; and it must be added that Cap, by this time, began to feel a respect for fresh wa.er that twenty-four hours earlier he would have derided as impossible. Just as the night turned, the fury of the wind became so great that he found it impossible to bear up against it, the water falling on the deck of the little craft in such masses as to cause her to shake to the centre, and, though a vessel of singularly lively qualities, to threaten to bury her beneath its weight. The people of the Scud averred that never before had they been out in such a tem pest ; which was true ; for, possessing a perfect knowledge of all the rivers and headlands and havens, Jasper would have carried the cutter in shore, long ere this, and placed her in safety, in some secure anchorage. But Cap still dis dained to consult the young master, who continued below, ietermining to act like a manner of the broad ocean. It was one in the morning when the storm-staysail was igain got on the Scud, the head of the mainsail lowered, and the cutter put before the wind. Although the canvas now exposed was merely a rag in surface, the little craft nobly justified the use of the name she bore. For eight hours did she scud, in truth ; and it was almost with the ve locity of the gulls that wheeled wildly over her in the tem pest, apparently afraid to alight in the boiling caldron of the lake. The dawn of day brought little change ; for no other horizon became visible than the narrow circle of drizzling sky and water already described, in which it seemed as if the elements were rioting in chaotic confusion. During this time the crew and passengers of the cutter were of necessity passive. Jasper and the pilot remained below; but the motion of the vessel having become easier, nearly all the rest were on deck. The morning meal had been taken in Hence, and eye met eye as if their owners asked each other THE PATHFINDER. 255 in dumb show, what was to be the end of this strife in the elements. Cap, however, was perfectly composed, and his face brightened, his step grew firmer, and his whole air more assured as the storm increased, making larger demands on his professional skill and personal spirit. He stood oil the forecastle, his arms crossed, balancing his body with , a seaman s instinct, while his eyes watched the caps of the seas as they broke and glanced past the reeling cutter, itself ill such s\v ift motion as if they were the scud flying athwart the sky. At this sublime instant one of the hands gave the unexpected cry of " A sail ! " There was so much of the wild and solitary character of the wilderness about Ontario that one scarcely expected to meet with a vessel on its waters. The Scud herself, to those who were in her, resembled a man threading the for- ist alone, and the meeting was like that of two solitary hunters beneath the broad canopy of leaves that then cov ered so many millions of acres on the continent of America. The peculiar state of the weather served to increase the romantic, almost supernatural, appearance of the passage. Cap alone regarded it with practiced eyes, and even he felt his iron nerves thrill under the sensations that were awakened by the wild features of the scene. The strange vessel was about two cables length ahead of the Scud, standing by the wind athwart her bows, and steering a course to render it probable that the latter would pass within a few yards of her. She was a full-rigged ship ; and seen through the misty medium of the tempest, the most experienced eye could detect no imperfection in her gear or construction. The only canvas she had set was a dose-reefed main-topsail and two small storm-staysails, one forward and the other aft. Still, the power of the wind pressed so hard upon her as to bear her down nearly to her beam-ends, whenever the hull was not righted by the buoy ancy of some wave under her lee. Her spars were all in their places, and by her motion through the water, which might have equaled four knots in the hour, it was apparent that she steered a little free. " The fellow must know his position well," said Cap, 256 THE PATHFINDER. as the cutter flew down towards the ship with a velocity almost equaling that of the gale, " for he is standing boldly to the southward, where he expects to find anchorage or a haven. No man in his senses would run off free in that fashion, that was not driven to scudding like ourselves, who did not perfectly understand where he was going." " We have made an awful run, captain," returned the man to whom this remark had been addressed. " That is the French king s ship, Lee-My-calm (Le Montcalm), aud she is standing in for the Niagara, where her owner has a garrison and a port. We ve made an awful run of it ! " " Aye, bad luck to him ! Frenchman-like, he skulks into port the moment he sees an English bottom." " It might be well for us if we could follow him," returned the man, shaking his head despondingly, " for we are getting into the end of a bay up here at the head of the lake, and it is uncertain whether we ever get out of it again ! " " Poh ! man, poh ! We have plenty of sea room, and a good English hull beneath us. We are no Johnny Cra- pauds to hide ourselves behind a point or a fort, on account of a puff of wind. Mind your helm, sir ! " The order was given on account of the menacing appear ance of the approaching passage. The Scud was now head ing directly for the fore-foot of the Frenchman ; and, the distance between the two vessels having diminished to a hundred yards, it was momentarily questionable if there was room to pass. " Port, sir port ! " shouted Cap. " Port your helm and pass astern ! " The crew of the Frenchman were seen assembling to windward, and a few muskets were pointed, as if to order the people of the Scud to keep off. Gesticulations were observed, but the sea was too wild and menacing to idmit of the ordinary expedients of war. The water was dripping from the muzzles of two or three light guns on board the ship, but no one thought of loosening them for service in such a tempest. Her black sides, as they emerged from the wave, glistened and seemed to frown, but the wind howled through her rigging, whistling the thoi* THE PATHFINDER. 257 sand notes of a ship ; and the hails and cries that escape a Frenchman with so much readiness, were inaudible. " Let him halloo himself hoarse ! " growled Cap. " This is no weather to whisper secrets in. Port, sir, port I " The man at the helm obeyed, and the next send of tho sea drove the Scud down upon the quarter of the ship, so near her that the old mariner himself recoiled a step, in a 7 ague expectation that, at the next surge ahead, she would Irive bows foremost into the planks of the other vessel. But this was not to be. Rising from the crouching posture she had taken, like a panther about to leap, the cutter dashed onward, and, at the next instant, she was glancing past the stern of her enemy, just clearing the end of her spanker-boom with her own lower yard. The young Frenchman who commanded the Montcalm leaped on the taffrail, and with that high-toned courtesy which relieves the worst acts of his countrymen, he raised his cap, and smiled a salutation as the Scud shot past. There were bo?ihomie and good taste in this act of courtesy, when circumstances allowed of no other communications ; but they were lost on Cap, who, with an instinct quite as true to his race, shook his fist menacingly, and muttered to himself, " Aye, aye ; it s d d lucky for you I ve no armament on board here, or I d send you in to get new cabin-win dows fitted. Sergeant, he s a humbug." " Twas civil, brother Cap," returned the other, lowering his hand from the military salute which his pride as a sol dier had induced him to return, " twas civil, and that o as much as you can expect from a Frenchman. What he ideally meant by it, no one can say." ;< He is not heading up to this sea without an object,, niither! Well, let him run in, if he can get there; we a? ill keep the lake, like hearty English mariners." This sounded gloriously, but Cap eyed with envy the glit- raring black mass of the Montcalm s hull, her waving top sail, and the misty tracery of her spars, as she grew less and less distinct, and finally disappeared in the drizzle, in a form as shadowy as that of some unreal image. Gladly 17 258 THE PATHFINDER. would he have followed in her wake, had he dared ; for to own the truth, the prospect of another stormy night in the midst of the wild waters that were raging around him, brought little consolation. Still, he had too much profes sional pride to betray his uneasiness, and those under his care relied on his knowledge and resources, with the implicit and blind confidence that the ignorant are apt tc feel. A few hours succeeded, and darkness came again to in tjrease the perils of the Scud. A lull in the gale, however, had induced Cap to come by the wind once more, and throughout the night the cutter was lying-to, as before, head-reaching as a matter of course, and occasionally wear ing to keep off the land. It is unnecessary to dwell on the incidents of the night, which resembled those of any other gale of wind. There were the pitching of the vessel, the hissing of the waters, the dashing of spray, the shocks that menaced annihilation to the little craft as she plunged into the seas, the undying howling of the wind, and the fearful drift. The last was the most serious danger ; for, though exceeding weatherly under her canvas, and totally without top-hamper, the Scud was so light, that the combing of the swells would seem, at tunes, to wash her down to lee ward with a velocity as great as that of the surges them selves. During this night, Cap slept soundly and for several hours. The day was just dawning, when he felt himself shaken by the shoulder, and arousing himself, he found the Pathfinder standing at his side. During the gale, the guide had appeared little on deck, for his natural modesty told him that seamen alone should interfere with the manage ment of the vessel ; and he was willing to show the same eliance on those who had charge of the Scud, as he ex pected those who followed through the forest to manifest in his own skill. But he now thought himself justified in interfering, which he did in his own unsophisticated and peculiar manner. " Sleep is sweet, Master Cap," he said, as soon as the oyee of the latter were fairly opened, and his consciousnesi THE PATHFINDER. 259 Lad sufficiently returned, " sleep is sweet, as I know from experience, but life is sweeter still. Look about you, and say if this is exactly the moment for a commander to be off his feet." " How now how now, Master Pathfinder ! " growled Cap, in the first moments of his awakened faculties; " are you, too, getting on the side of the grumblers 9 When ashore, I admired your sagacity in running through the worst shoals without a compass, and since we have been afloat your meekness and submission have been as pleasant as your confidence on your own ground ; I little expected such a summons from you." " As for myself, Master Cap, I feel I have my gifts, and I believe they ll interfere with those of no other man ; but the case may be different with Mabel Dunham. She has her gifts, too, it is true ; but they are not rude like ours, but gentle, and womanish, as they ought to be. It s on her account that I speak, and not on my own." " Aye, aye ; I begin to understand. The girl is a good girl, my worthy friend, but she is a soldier s daughter and a sailor s niece, and ought not to be too tame or too ten der in a gale. Does she show any fear ? " " Not she not she. Mabel is a woman, but she is reasonable and silent. Not a word have I heard from her, concerning our doings ; though I think, Master Cap, she would like it better if Jasper Eau-douce were put into his proper place, and things were restored to their old situation, like. This is human natur ." " I ll warrant it ! Girl-like, and Dunham-like, too. Any thing is better than an old uncle, and everybody knows <nore than an ol<i seaman ! This is human natur , Master Pathfinder, and d e, if I m the man to sheer a fathom, starboard or port, for all the human natur that can be found in a minx of twenty, aye, or " lowering his voice a little u for all that can be paraded in his Majesty s * oth regiment of foot. I ve not been at sea forty years, to come up on this bit of fresh water to be taught human natur . How this gale holds out ! It Llows as hard, at this moment, as if Boreas had just clapped his hand upon 260 THE PATHFINDER. the bellows. And what is all this to leeward ? " rubbing his eyes ; " land, as sure as my name is Cap ; and high land, too ! " The Pathfinder made no immediate answer, but shaking his head, he watched the expression of his companion s face* with a look of strong anxiety in his own. " Land, as certain as this is the Scud ! " repeated Cap. * a lee shore, and that, too, within a league of us, with as pretty a line of breakers as one could find on the beach of all Long Island ! " " And is that encouraging, or is it disheartening ? " -de manded the Pathfinder. " Ha ! encouraging, disheartening ? Why, neither. No, no ; there is nothing encouraging about it ; and, as for dis heartening, nothing ought to dishearten a seaman. You never get disheartened or afraid in the woods, my friend ? " " I ll not say that I ll not say that. When the danger is great, it is my gift to see it, and know it, and to try to avoid it ; else would my scalp, long since, have been drying in a Mingo wigwam. On this lake, however, I can see no trail, and I feel it my duty to submit ; though I think we ought to remember there is such a person as Mabel Dun ham on board. But here comes her father, and he will nat rally feel for his own child." " We are seriously situated, I believe, brother Cap," said the sergeant, when he had reached the spot, " by what I can gather from the two hands on the forecastle. They tell me the cutter cannot carry any more sail, and her drift is BO great we shall go ashore in an hour or two. I hope their fears have deceived them ? " Cap made no reply, but he gazed at the land with a rue ful face, and then looked to windward, with an expression f ferocity, as if he would gladly have quarreled with the leather. " It may be well, brother," the sergeant continued, " to send for Jasper and consult him as to what is to be done. There are no French here to dread, and, under all circum- ttances, the boy will save us from drowning, if possible." u Aye, aye : tis these cursed circumstances that have done THE PATHFINDER. 261 all the mischief! But let the fellow come; let him come; a Tew well managed questions will bring the truth out of him, I ll warrant you." This acquiescence on the part of the dogmatical Cap was no sooner obtained, than Jasper was sent for. The young man instantly made his appearance, his whole air, counte nance, and mien, expressive of mortification, humility, and, as his observers fancied, rebuked deception. When he first itepped on deck, Jasper cast one hurried, anxious glance around, as if curious to know the situation of the cutter ; and that glance sufficed, it would seem, to let him into the secret of all her perils. At first he looked to windward, as is usual with every seaman ; then he turned round the horizon, until his eye caught a view of the highlands to lee ward, when the whole truth burst upon him at once. " I ve sent for you, Master Jasper," said Cap, folding his arms, and balancing his body with the dignity of the fore castle, " in order to learn something about the haven to leeward. We take it for granted, you do not bear malice so hard, as to wish to drown us all, especially the women ; and I suppose you will be man enough to help us to run the cutter into some safe berth, until this bit of a gale has done blowing?" " I would die myself, rather than harm should come to Mabel Dunham," the young man earnestly answered. " I knew it ! I knew it ! " cried the Pathfinder, clapping his hand kindly on Jasper s shoulder. " The lad is as true as the best compass that ever run a boundary, or brought a man off from a blind trail ! It is a moral sin to believe otherwise." " Humph ! " ejaculated Cap, " especially the women ! As if they were in any particular danger. Never mind, young man ; we shall understand each other by talking like two plain seamen. Do you know of any port under our lee ? " " None. There is a large bay at this end of the lake, but it is unknown to us all ; and not easy of entrance." " And this coast to leeward it has nothing particular to recommend it, I suppose ? " " it is a wilderness until you reach the mouth of the 62 THE PATHFINDER. Niagara, in one direction, and Fronteiiac in the other North and west, they tell me, there is nothing but forest and prairies, for a thousand miles." " Thank God, then, there can be no French. Are there many savages, here-away, on the laud ? " " The Indians are to be found in all directions ; though they are nowhere very numerous. By accident, we might find a party at any point on the shore ; or we might pasi months there, without seeing one." " We must take our chance, then, as to the blackguards but, to be frank with you, Master Western, if this little unpleasant matter about the French had not come to pass, what would you now do with the cutter ? " " I am a much younger sailor than yourself, Master Cap," said Jasper, modestly, " and am hardly fitted to advise you." " Aye, aye ; we all know that. In a common case, per haps not. But this is an uncommon case, and a circuin stance ; and on this bit of fresh water, it has what may be called its peculiarities ; and so, everything considered, you may be fitted to advise even your own father. At all events, you can speak, and I can judge of your opinions, agreeably to my own experience." " I think, sir, before two hours are over, the cutter will have to anchor." " Anchor ! not out here, in the lake ? " " No, sir ; but in yonder, near the land." "You do not mean to say, Master Oh-the-Deuce, you * ould anchor on a lee shore, in a gale of wind ! " " If I would save my vessel, that is exactly what I would ilo, Master Cap." " Whe-e-e-w ! this is fresh water, with a vengeance. Harkee, young man, I ve been a seafaring animal, boy and man, forty-one years, and I never yet heard of such a thing I d throw my ground-tackle overboard, before I would be guilty of so lubberly an act ! " " That is what we do on this lake," modestly replied Jas per, " when we are hard pressed. I dare say we might do better, had we been better taught." THE PATHFINDER. , 268 * That you might indeed ! No ; no man induces me to commit such a sin against my own bringing up. I should never dare show my face inside of Sandy Hook again, had I sommitted so know-nothing an exploit. Why, Pathfinder, here, has more seamanship in him than that comes to. You can go below, again, Master Oh-the-Deuce." Jasper quietly bowed and withdrew ; still, as he passed down the ladder, the spectators observed that he cast a linger* ing, anxious look at the horizon to windward, and the land to leeward, and then disappeared with concern strongly ei preised in evei\ lineament of his face. 264 THE PATHFINDER CHAPTER XVIL His still refuted quirks he still repeats; New raised objections with new quibbles meetr, Till sinking in the quicksand he defends, He dies disputing, and the contest ends. COWFEB. As the soldier s wife was sick in her berth, Mabel Dun* ham was the only person in the outer cabin when Jasper re turned to it : for, by an act of grace in the sergeant, he had been permitted to resume his proper place, in this part of the vessel. We should be ascribing too much simplicity of character to our heroine, if we said that she had felt no dis trust of the young man, in consequence of his arrest ; but we should also be doing injustice to her warmth of feeling, and generosity of disposition, if we did not add, that this distrust was insignificant and transient. As he now took his seat near her, his whole countenance clouded with the uneasiness he felt concerning the situation of the cutter, everything like suspicion was banished from her mind, and she saw in him only an injured man. " You let this affair weigh too heavily on your mind, Jasper," she said eagerly, or with that forgetfulnpss of self, with which the youthful of her sex are woni to betray their feelings, when a strong and generous interest has attained the ascendency ; " no one, who knows you, can or does be lieve you guilty. Pathfinder says he will pledge his life for you." " Then you, Mabel," returned the youth, his eyes flashing fire, " do not look upon me as the traitor that your father seems to believe me to be ? " " My dear father is a soldier, and is obliged to act as one. My father s daughter is not, and will think of you as she ought to think of a man who has done so much to serve her already." THE PATHFINDER. 265 " Mabel, I m not used to talking with one like you, or saying all I think and feel with any. I never had a sister, and my mother died when I was a child, so that I know little what your sex most likes to hear" Mabel would have given the world to know what lay be hind the teeming word, at which Jasper hesitated ; but the indefinable and controlling sense of womanly diffidence made her suppress her womanly curiosity. She waited in silence for him to explain his own meaning. " I wish to say, Mabel," the young man continued, aftar a pause which he found sufficiently embarrassing, " that I am unused to the ways and opinions of one like you, and that you must imagine all I would add." Mabel had imagination enough to fancy anything, but there are ideas and feelings that her sex prefer to have ex pressed, before they yield them all their own sympathies and she had a vague consciousness that these of Jasper s might properly be enumerated in the class ; with a readiness that belonged to her sex, therefore, she preferred changing the discourse to permitting it to proceed any further, in a manner so awkward and so unsatisfactory. " Tell me one thing, Jasper, and I shall be content," she said, speaking now with a firmness that denoted confidence not only in herself, but in her companion ; " you do not deserve this cruel suspicion which rests upon you ? " " I do not, Mabel," answered Jasper, looking into her full blue eyes with an openness and simplicity that might have shaken strong distrust. " As I hope for mercy hereafter, 1 do not." . " I knew it I could have sworn it," returned the girl warmly. " And yet my father means well : but do not let this matter disturb you, Jasper." " There is so much more to apprehend from another juai ter, just now, that I scarce think of it." "Jasper!" " I do not wish to alarm you, Mabel, but if your uncle could be persuaded to change his notions about handling the Scud and yet, he is so much older and more experienced than I am, that he ought, perhaps, to place more reliance on his own judgment than on mine." 266 THE PATHFINDER. " Do you think the cutter in any danger ? " demanded Mabel, quick as thought. " I fear so at least she would have been thought in great danger by us of the lake ; perhaps an old seaman of the ocean may have means of his own to take care of her." " Jasper, all agree in giving you credit for skill in manag" ing the Scud ! You know the lake, yon know the cutter ; you must be the best judge of our real situation ! " " My concern for you, Mabel, may make me more cowardly than common ; but, to be frank, I see but one method of keeping the cutter from being wrecked in the course of the next two or three hours, and that your uncle refuses to take, After all, this may be my ignorance ; for, as he says, On tario is merely fresh water." " You cannot believe this will make any difference. Think my dear father, Jasper ! Think of yourself, of all the ives that depend on a timely word from you to save them ! " " I think of you, Mabel, and that is more, much more, than all the rest put together," returned the young man, with a strength of expression and an earnestness of look, that uttered infinitely more than the words themselves. Mabel s heart beat quick, and a gleam of grateful satis faction shot across her blushing features ; but the alarm was too vivid and too serious to admit of much relief from hap pier thoughts. She did not attempt to repress a look of gratitude, and then she returned to the feeling that was naturally uppermost. "My uncle s obstinacy must not be permitted to occasion this disaster. Go once more on deck, Jasper, and ask my father to come into the cabin." While the young man was complying with this request, Mabel sat listening to the howling of the storm and the dash ing of the water against the cutter, in a dread to which she had hitherto been a stranger. Constitutionally an excellent sailor, as the term is used among passengers, she had riot, hitherto, bethought her of any danger, and had passed her time, since the commencement of the gale, in such womanly employments as her situation allowed ; but now alarm was seriously awakened, she did not fail to perceive that nevei THE PATHFINDER. 267 before bad she been on the water in such a tempest. The ninute or two that had elapsed ere the sergeant came ap peared an hour, and she scarcely breathed when she saw him and Jasper descending the ladder in company. Quick as language could express her meaning, she acquainted her father with Jasper s opinion of their situation, and entreated him, if he loved her, or had any regard for his own life, or for those of his own men, to interfere with her uncle, and to induce him to yield the control of the cutter, again, to its proper commander. "Jasper is true, father," she added earnestly, "and if false, no could have no motive in wrecking us in this dis tant part of the lake, at the risk of all our lives, his own included. I will pledge my own life for his truth." " Aye, this is well enough for a young woman who- is frightened," answered the more phlegmatic parent ; " but it might not be so prudent or excusable in one in command of an expedition. Jasper may think the chance of drown ing in getting ashore fully repaid by the chance of escaping as soon as he reaches the land." " Sergeant Dunham ! " " Father ! " These exclamations were made simultaneously, but they were uttered in tones expressive of different feelings. In Jasper, surprise was the emotion uppermost; in Mabel, reproach. The old soldier, however, was too much accus tomed to deal frankly with subordinates to heed either; and, after a moment s thought, he continued, as if neither had spoken. " Nor is brother Cap a man likely to submit to be taught his duty on board a vessel." " But, father, when all our lives are in the utmost jeopardy ! " " So much the worse. The fair- weather commander is no great matter ; it is when things go wrong, that the best officer shows himself in his true colors. Charles Cap will Dot be likely to quit the helm because the ship is in danger Besides, Jasper Eau-douce, he says your proposal, in itself, has a suspicious air about it, and sound? more like treachery .than reason." 268 THE PATHFINDER. " He may think so, but let him send for the pilot, and hear his opinion. It is well known I have not seen the man since yesterday evening." "This does sound reasonably, and the experiment shall be tried. Follow me on deck, then, that all may be honest and above-board." Jasper obeyed, and so keen was the interest of Mabel, that she, too, ventured as far as the companion-way, where her garments were sufficiently protected against the violence of the wind, and her person from the spray. Here maiden modesty induced her to remain, though an absorbed witness of what was passing. The pilot soon appeared, and there was no mistaking the look of concern that he cast around at the scene, as soon as he was in the open air. Some rumors of the situation of the Scud had found their way below, it is true ; but in this instance, rumor had lessened, instead of magnifying the dangers. He was allowed a few minutes to look about him, and then the question was put as to the course that he thought it prudent to follow. " I see no means of saving the cutter but to anchor," he answered simply, and without hesitation. " What, out here, in the lake ? " inquired Cap, as he had previously done of Jasper. " No, but closer in ; just at the outer line of the breakers." The effect of this communication was to leave no doubt in the mind of Cap, that there was *a secret arrangement between her commander and the pilot to cast away the Scud ; most probably with the hope of effecting their escape. He consequently treated the opinion of the latter with the indifference he had manifested towards that of the former. " T tell you, brother Dunham," he said, in answer to the remonstrances of the sergeant against his turning a deaf ear to this double representation, " that no seaman would give such an opinion honestly. To anchor on a lee shore, in a gale of wind, would be an act of madness that I could never excuse to the underwriters, under any circumstances, THE PATHFINDER. 269 aft long as a rag can be set ; but to anchor close to break ers would be insanity." " His Majesty underwrites the Scud, brother, and I am responsible for the lives of my command. These men are better acquainted with Lake Ontario than we can possibly be, and I do think their telling the same tale entitles then) to some credit." " Uncle ! " said Mabel, earnestly, but a gesture from Jasper induced the girl to restrain her feelings. " We are drifting down upon the breakers so rapidly," said the young man, " that little need be said on the sub ject. Half an hour must settle the matter, one way or the other ; but I warn Master Cap that the surest-footed man among us will not be able to keep his feet an instant on the deck of this low craft, should she fairly get within them. Indeed, I make little doubt that we shall fill and founder before the second line of rollers is passed ! " " And how would anchoring help the matter ? " de manded Cap furiously, as if he felt that Jasper was respon sible for the effects of the gale, as well as for the opinion he had just given. "It would at least do no harm," Eau-douce mildly re plied. " By bringing the cutter head to sea we should lessen her drift; and even if we dragged through the breakers, it would be with the least possible danger. I hope, Master Cap, you will allow the pilot and myself to prepare for anchoring, since the precaution may do good, and can do no harm." "Overhaul your ranges if you will, and get your anchors clear, with all my heart. We are now in a situation that cannot be much affected by anything of that sort. Sergeant, a word with you aft here, if you please." Cap led his brother-in-law out of ear-shot, and then,, with more of human feeling in his voice and manner than he was apt to exhibit, he opened his heart on the subject of their real situation. " This is a melancholy affair for poor Mabel," he *aid, blowing his nose, and speaking with a slight *remor ; "yon and I, sergeant, are old fellows, and used to being 270 THE PATHFINDER. near death, if not to actually dying. Our trades fit us for such scenes; but poor Mabel, she is an affectionate and kind-hearted girl, and I had hoped to see her comfortably settled and a mother, before my time came. Well, well ; we must take the bad with the good in every v y ge, and the only serious objection that an old seafaring man can with propriety make to such an event, is that it should happen on this bit of d d fresh water." Sergeant Dunham was a brave man, and had shown his spiri* in scenes that looked much more appalling than this. But on all such occasions he had been able to act his part against his foes, while here he was pressed upon by an enemy whom he had no means of resisting. For himself he cared far less than for his daughter, feeling some of that self-reliance which seldom deserts a man of firmness, who is in vigorous health, and who has been accustomed to per sonal exertions in moments of jeopardy. But as respects Mabel he saw no means of escape, and with a father s fondness he at once determined that if either was doomed to perish, he and his daughter must perish together. " Do you think this must come to pass ? " he asked of Cap, firmly, but with strong feeling. " Twenty minutes will carry us into the breakers, and look for yourself, sergeant, what chance will even the stoutest man among us have in that caldron to leeward ! " The prospect was, indeed, little calculated to encourage hope. By this time the Scud was within a mile of the shore, on which the gale was blowing at right angles, with a violence that forbade the idea of showing any additional canvas with a view to claw off. The small portion of the mainsail that was actually set, and which merely served to< keep the head of the Scud so near the wind as to prevent the waves from breaking over her, quivered under the gusts as if at each moment the stout threads which held the complicated fabric together were about to be torn asunder. The drizzle had ceased, but the air for a hundred feet ftbove the surface of the lake was filled with dazzling spray > which had an appearance not unlike that of a brilliant mist while, abovfc ail, the sun was shining gloriously in a cloud THE PATHFINDER. 271 less sky. Jasper had noted the omen, and had foretold that it announced a speedy termination to the gale, though the next hour or two must decide their fate. Between the cutter and the shore the view was still more wild and appalling. The breakers extended near half a mile ; while the water within their line was white with foam, the ah above them was so far filled with vapor and spraj as to render the laud beyond hazy and indistinct. Still, it could be seen that the latter was high, not a usual thing for the shores of Ontario, and that it was covered with the verdant mantle of the interminable forest. While the sergeant arid Cap were gazing at this scene in silence, Jasper and his people were actively engaged on the forecastle. No sooner had the young man received permis sion to resume his old employment, than, appealing to some of the soldiers for aid, he mustered five or six assistants, and set about in earnest the performance of a duty that had been too long delayed. On these narrow waters anchors are never stowed inboard, or cables that are intended for service unbent, and Jasper was saved much of the labor that would have been necessary in a vessel at sea. The two bowers were soon ready to be let go, ranges of the cables were overhauled, and then the party paused to look about them. No changes for the better had occurred ; but the cutter was falling slowly in, and each instant rendered it more certain that she could not gain an inch to windward. One long, earnest survey of the lake ended, Jasper gave new orders in a manner to prove how much he thought that the time pressed. Two kedges were got on deck, and hawsers were bent to them ; the inner ends of the hawsers *rere bent in their turns to the crowns of the anchors, and everything was got ready to throw them overboard at the proper moment. These preparations completed, Jasper s manner changed from the excitement of exertion to a look of calm but settled concern. He quitted the forecastle, where the seas were dashing inboard at every plunge of the vessel, the duty just mentioned having been executed with V\ie bodies of the crew frequently buried in the water, and to a dryer part of the deck aft. Here he was met 272 THE PATHFINDER. by the Pathfinder, who was standing near Mabel and the quartermaster. Most of those on board, with the exception of the individuals who have already been particularly men tioned, were below, some seeking relief from physical suffer ing on their pallets, and others tardily bethinking them of their sins. For the first time, most probably, since her keel had dipped into the limpid waters of Ontario, the voice of prayer was heard on board the Scud. " Jasper," commenced his friend the guide, " I have been of no use this morning, for my gifts are of little account, as you know, in a vessel like this ; but, should it please God to let the sergeant s daughter reach the shore alive, my acquaintance with the forest may still carry her through in safety to the garrison." " Tis a fearful distance thither, Pathfinder!" Mabel rejoined, the party being so near together that all that was said by one was overheard by the others. " I am afraid none of us could live to reach the fort." " It would be a risky path, Mabel, and a crooked one ; though some of your sex have undergone even more than that, in this wilderness. But, Jasper, either you or I, or both of us, must man this bark canoe ; Mabel s only chance will lie in getting through the breakers in that." " I would willingly man anything to save Mabel," answered Jasper, with a melancholy smile ; " but no human hand, Pathfinder, could carry that canoe through yonder breakers, in a gale like this. I have hopes from anchoring, after all ; for once before have we saved the Scud in an extremity nearly as great as this." " If we are to anchor, Jasper," the sergeant inquired, " why not do it at once ? Every foot we lose in drifting now would come into the distance we shall probably drag, whe/i the anchors are let go." Jasper drew nearer to the sergeant, and took his hand, pressing it earnestly, and in a way to denote strong, almost uncontrollable feelings. " Sergeant Dunham," he said, solemnly, " you are a good man, though you have treated me harshly in this business. You love your daughter? * THE PATHFINDER. 273 " That you cannot doubt, Eau-douce," returned the ser geant, huskily. " Will you give her give us all, the only chance for life that is left ? " " What would you have me to do, boy ; what would you have me to do ? I have acted according to my judgment hitherto ; what would you have me do ? " " Support me against Master Cap for five minutes, and all that man can do towards saving the Scud, shall V done." The sergeant hesitated, for he was too much of a disci plinarian to fly in the face of regular orders. He disliked the appearance of vacillation, too ; and then he had a pro found respect for his kinsman s seamanship. While he was deliberating, Cap came from the post he had some time occupied, which was at the side of the man at the helm, and drew nigh the group. " Master Eau-douce," he said, as soon as near enough to be heard, " I have come to inquire if you know any spot near by, where this cutter can be beached ? The moment has arrived when we are driven to this hard alternative." That instant of indecision on the part of Cap secured the triumph of Jasper. Looking at the sergeant, the young man received a nod that assured him of all he asked, and he lost not one of those moments that were getting to be so very precious. " Shall I take the helm ? " he inquired of Cap, " and see if we can reach a creek that lies to leeward ? " " Do so do so," said the other, hemming to clear his throat, for he felt oppressed by a responsibility that weighed all the heavier on his shoulders, on account of his ignorance. a Do so, Oh-the-Deuce, since, to be frank with you, I can see nothing better to be done. We must Deach o* gwamp ! " Jasper required no more ; springing aft, he soon had the Uller in his own hands. The pilot was prepared for what was to follow, and, at a sign from his young commander, the rag of sail that had so long been set was taken in. At that moment, Jasper, watching his time, put the helm up, the It 274 THE PATHFINDER. head of a stay-sail was loosened forward, and the light cutter, as if conscious she was now under the control oi familiar hands, fell off, and was soon in the trough of the sea. This perilous instant was passed in safety, at>d at the next moment the little vessel appeared flying down towards the breakers, at a rate that threatened instant destruction. The distances had got to be so short, that five or six minute* sufficed for all that Jasper wished, and he put the heln. down again, when the bows of the Scud came up to the wind, notwithstanding the turbulence of the waters, as grace fully as the duck varies its line of direction on the glass} pond. A sign from Jasper set all in motion on the fore castle, and a kedge was thrown from each bow. The fear ful nature of the drift was now apparent even to Mabel s eyes, for the two hawsers ran out like towlines. As soon as they straightened to a slight strain, both anchors were let go, and cable was given to each, nearly to the better- ends. It was not a difficult task to snub so light a craft, with ground tackle of a quality better than common ; and in less than ten minutes from the moment when Jasper went to the helm, the Scud was riding, head to sea, with the two cables stretched ahead in lines that resembled bars of iron. " This is not well done, Master Jasper ! " angrily ex claimed Cap, as soon as he perceived the trick that had been played him, " this is not well done, sir ; I order you to cut, and to beach the cutter, without a moment s de lay." No one, however, seemed disposed to comply with thia order, for so long as Eau-douce saw fit to command, his own people were disposed to obey. Finding that the men remained passive, Cap, who believed they were in the ut most peril, turned fiercely to Jasper, and renewed his re monstrances. " You did not head for your pretended creek," he added, after dealing in some objurgatory remarks that we do not deem it necessary to record, " but steered for that bluff, where every soul on board would have been drowned, had we gone ashore ! " THE PATHFINDER. 275 " And you wish to cut, and pul every soul ashore, at that very spot ! " Jasper retorted, a little dryly. " Throw a lead-line overboard, and ascertain the drift ! " Cap now roared to the people forward. A sign from Jas per sustaining this order, it was instantly obeyed. All on deck gathered round the spot, and watched, with nearly breathless interest, the result of the experiment. The lead was no sooner on the bottom than the line tended forward, and in about two minutes it was seen that the cutter had drifted her length, dead in towards the bluff. Jasper looked grave, for he well knew nothing would hold the vessel did she get within the vortex of the breakers, the first line of which was appearing and disappearing about a cable s length directly under their stern. " Traitor ! " exclaimed Cap, shaking a finger at the young commander, though passion choked the rest. " You must answer for this with your life ! " he added, after a short pause. " If I were at the head of this expedition, sergeant, I would hang him at the end of the main-boom, lest he escape drowning." " Moderate your feelings, brother be more moderate, I beseech you ; Jasper appears to have done all foi the best, and matters may not be as bad as you believe them." " Why did he not run for the creek he mentioned ; why has he brought us here, dead to windward of that bluff, and to a spot where even the breakers are only of half the .ordinary width, as if in a hurry to drown all on board ? " I headed for the bluff, for the precise reason that the breakers are so narrow at this spot," answered Jasper, mildly, though his gorge had risen at the language the other held. " Do you mean to tell an old seaman like me, that this cutter could live in those breakers ? " " T do not, sir. I think she would fill and swamp, if driven into the first line of them ; I am certain she would nfcTer reach the shore on her bottom, if fairly entered I bope to keep her clear of ;iiem altogether." tt With a drift of hei length in a minute ! " 276 THE PATHFINDER. " The backing of the anchors does not yet fairly tell, nor do I even hope that they will entirely bring her up." " On what do you rely ? To mcor a 3raft, head and stern, by faith, hope, and charity ? " " No, sir ; I trust to the under-tow. I headed for the bluff, because I knew that it was stronger at that point than at any other, and because we could get nearer in with the land without entering the breakers." This was said with spirit, though without any particular ghow of resentment. Its effect on Cap was marked, the feeling that was uppermost being evidently that of surprise. " Under-tow ! " he repeated, " who the devil ever heard of saving a vessel from going ashore by the uuder-tow ! " " This may never happen on the ocean, sir," Jasper an swered, modestly, "but we have known it to happen here." " The lad is right, brother," put in the sergeant ; " for though I do not well understand it, I have often heard the sailors of the lake speak of such a thing. We shall do well to trust to Jasper, in this strait." Cap grumbled and swore, but as there was no remedy, he was compelled to acquiesce. Jasper being now called on to explain what he meant by the under-tow, gave this account of the matter. The water that was driven up on the shore by the gale, was necessarily compelled to find its level by returning to the lake by some secret channels. This could not be done on the surface, where both wind and waves were constantly urging it towards the land, and it necessarily formed a sort of lower eddy, by means of which it flowed back again to its ancient and proper bed. Thi* inferior current had received the name of the under-tow; and as it would necessarily act on the bottom of a vessel >.hat drew as much water as the Scud, Jasper trusted to the tid of this reaction to keep his cables from parting. In short, the upper and lower currents would, in a manner counteract each other. Simple and ingenious as was this theory, however, as yet there was little evidence of its being reduced to practice, The drift continued ; though as the kedges and hawseri THE PATHFINDER. 277 with which the anchors were backed, took the strains, it became sensibly less. At length the man at the lead an nounced the joyful intelligence, that the anchors had ceased to drag, and that the vessel had brought up ! At this pre cise moment, the first line of breakers was about a hundred feet astern of the Scud, even appearing to approach much nearer, as the foam vanished and returned on the raging surges. Jasper sprang forward, and casting a glance over the bows, he smiled in triumph, as he pointed exultingly to the cables. Instead of resembling bars of iron in rigidity, as before, they were curving downwards, and to a seaman s senses it was evident that the cutter rose and fell on the seas as they came in, with the ease of a ship in a tides-way when the power of the wind is relieved by the counteract ing pressure of the water. " Tis the under-tow ! " he exclaimed with delight, fairlj bounding along the deck to steady the helm, in order that the cutter might ride still easier ; " Providence has placed us directly hi its current, and there is no longer any dan ger ! " " Aye, aye, Providence is a good seaman," growled Cap., " and often helps lubbers out of difficulty. Under-tow 01 upper-tow, the gale has abated, and fortunately for us all, the anchors have met with good holding ground. Thet this d d fresh water has an unnatural way with it." Men are seldom inclined to quarrel with good fortune, but it is in distress that they grow clamorous and critical. Most on board were disposed to believe that they had beou saved from shipwreck by the skill and knowledge of Jas per, without regarding the opinions of Cap, whose remarks were now little heeded. There was half an hour of uncertainty and doubt, it is irue, during which period the lead was anxiously watched; and then a feeling of security came over all, and the weary llept without dreaming of icstant death 278 THE PATHFINDER. CHAPTER XVHL It U to be all n*xde of sighs and tears ; It is to be all made of faith and service: U is to be all made of fantasy, All made of passion, and all made of wishes: All adoration, duty, and observance; All humbleness, all patience, and impatience, All purity, all trial, all observance. SHAKESPKARB. IT was cear noon when the gale broke ; and then its force abated as suddenly as its violence had arisen. In less than two hours after the wind fell, the surface of the lake, though still agitated, was no longer glittering with foam ; and in double that time, the entire sheet presented the ordinarj scene of disturbed water, that was unbroken by the violence of a tempest. Still, the waves came rolling incessantly to wards the shore, and the lines of breakers remained, though the spray had ceased to fly ; the combing of the swells was more moderate, and all that there was of violence proceeded from the impulsion of wind that had abated. As it was impossible to make head against the sea that was still up, with the light opposing air that blew from the eastward, all thoughts of getting under way that afternoon were abandoned. Jasper, who had now quietly resumed the command of the Scud, busied himself, however, in heaving up to the anchors, which were lifted in succession. The kedges that backed them were weighed, and everything was got in readiness for a prompt departure, as soon as the state of the weather would allow. In the mean time, they wno had nc concern with those duties sought such means of amusement as their peculiar circumstances allowed. As is common with those who are unused to the confine ment of a vessel, Mabel cast wistful eyes towards the shore nor was it long before she expressed a wish that it were pos- THE PATHFINDER. 279 sible to land. The Pathfinder was near her at the time, and he assured her that nothing would be easier, as they had a bark canoe on deck, which was the best possible mode of conveyance to go through a surf. After the usual doubts and misgivings, the sergeant was appealed to ; his opinion, proved to be favorable, and preparations to carry the whim into effect were immediately made. The party that was to laud consisted of Sergeant Dun ham, his daughter, and the Pathfinder. Accustomed to the canoe, Mabel took her seat in the centre with great steadi ness, her father was placed in the bows, while the guide as sumed the office of conductor, by steering in the stern. There was little need of impelling the canoe by means of the paddle, for the rollers sent it forward, at moments, with a violence that set every effort to govern its movements at defiance. More than once, ere the shore was reached, Ma bel repented of her temerity, but Pathfinder encouraged her, and really manifested so much self-possession, coolness, and strength of arm himself, that even a female might have hesi tated about owning all her apprehensions. Our heroine was no coward, and while she felt the novelty of her situation, she also experienced a fair proportion of its wild delight. At moments, indeed, her heart was in her mouth, as the bubble of a boat floated on the very crest of a foaming breaker, appearing to skim the water like a swallow, and then she flushed and laughed, as, left by the glancing element, they appeared to linger behind, ashamed of having been out done in the headlong race. A few minutes sufficed for this excitement, for, though the distance between the cutter and the land considerably exceeded a quarter of a mile, the in termediate space was passed in a very few minutes. On landing, the sergeant kissed his daughter kindly, for ho was so much of a soldier as always to feel more at home on terra firma than when afloat, and taking his gun, he an nouuced his intention to pass an hour in quest of game. " Pathfinder will remain near you, girl, and no doubt he will tell you some of the traditions of this part of the world, or some of his own experiences with the Mingos." The guide laughed, promised to have a care of Mabel 280 THE PATHFINDER. and in a few minutes the father had ascended a steep ao clivity, and disappeared in the forest. The others took an other direction, which, after a few minutes of sharp ascent also, brought them to a small naked point on the promon tory, where the eye overlooked an extensive and very pe culiar panorama. Here Mabel seated herself on a frag ment of fallen rock, to recover her breath and strength, while her companion, on whose sinews no personal exertion seemed to make any impression, stood at her side, leaniug in his own and not ungraceful manner on his long rifle. Several minutes passed, and neither spoke ; Mabel, in par ticular, being lost in admiration of the view. The position the two had attained was sufficiently elevat ed to command a wide reach of the lake, which stretched away towards the northeast in a boundless sheet, glittering beneath the rays of an afternoon s sun, and yet betraying the remains of that agitation which it had endured while tossed by the late tempest. The land set bounds to its limits, in a huge crescent, disappearing in distance towards the southeast and the north. Far as the eye could reach, nothing but forest was visible, not even a solitary sign of civilization breaking in upon the uniform and grand magnifi cence of nature. The gale had driven the Scud beyond the line of those forts with which the French were then endeav oring to gird the English North American possessions ; for, following the channels of communication between the great lakes, their posts were on the banks of the Niagara, while oui adventurers had reached a point many leagues westward of that celebrated strait. The cutter rode at single anchor, without the breakers, resembling some well imagined and accurately executed toy, that was intended rather for a glass case than for the struggles with the elements which she had &c lately gone through ; while the canoe lay on the narrow beach, just out of reach of the waves that came booming upon the land, a speck upon the shingles. " We are very far, here, from human habitations ! " ex claimed Mabel, when, after a long and musing survey of the s^mie, its principal peculiarities forced themselves on her active and ever brilliant imagination ; " this is, indeed, be ing on the frontiei . " THE PATHFINDER. 281 u Have they more sigitly scenes than this, nearer the sea, and around their large towns ? " demanded Pathfinder, with an interest he was apt to discover in such a subject. " I will not say that ; there is more to remind one of his fellow beings there than here ; less, perhaps, to remind one of God." " Aye, Mabel, that is what my own feelings say. I am but a poor hunter, I know ; untaught and unTarued ; but God is as near me, in this my home, as He is near tht king in his royal palace." " Who can doubt it ? " returned Mabel, looking from the view up into the hard-featured but honest face of her com panion, though not without surprise at the energy of his manner ; " one feels nearer to God, in such a spot, I think, than when the mind is distracted by the objects of the towns." "You say all I wish to say myself, Mabel, but in so much plainer speech that you make me ashamed of wishing to let others know what I feel on such matters. I have coasted this kke in s arch of skins, afore the war, and have been here already ; not at this very spot, for we landed yonder, where you may see the blasted oak that stands above the cluster of hemlocks " " How ! Pathfinder, can you remember all these trifles so accurately ! " " These are our streets and houses ; our churches and palaces. Remember them, indeed ! I once made an ap pointment with the Big Sarpent, to meet at twelve o clock at noon near the foot of a certain pine, at the end of six months, when neither of us was within three hundred miles i)f the spot. The tree stood, and stands still, unless the judgment of Providence has lighted on that too, in the .uidst of the forest, fifty miles from any settlement, but in a nost extraordinary neighborhood for beaver." " And did you meet at that very spot and hour ? " " Does the sun rise and set ? When I reached the tree, * found the Sarpent leaning against its trunk, with torn leg gings and muddied moccasins. The Delaware had got into swauap, aiid it worried him not a little to find hia way out 282 THE PATHFINDER. of it but, as the sun, which comes over the eastern hills in the morning, goes down behind the western at night, so was he true to time and place. No fear of Chingachgook when there is either a friend or an enemy in the case. He is equally sart in with each." " And where is the Delaware now why is he not with us to-day ? " u He is scouting on the Mingo trail, where I ought to have been too, but for a great human infirmity." " You seem above, beyond, superior to all infirmity, Pathfinder ; I never yet met with a man who appeared to be so little liable to the weaknesses of nature." " If you mean in the way of health and strength, Mabel, Providence has been kind to me ; though I fancy the open air, long hunts, active scoutings, forest fare, and the sleep of a good conscience, may always keep the doctors at a dis tance. But I am human a ter all ; yes, I find I m very human in some of my feelin s." Mabel looked surprised, and it would be no more than delineating the character of her sex, if we added that her sweet countenance expressed a good deal of curiosity, too, though her tongue was more discreet. " There is something bewitching in this wild life of yours, Pathfinder," she exclaimed, a tinge of enthusiasm mantling her cheeks. " I find I m fast getting to be a frontier girl, and am coming to love all this grand silence of the woods. The towns seem tame to me ; and, as my father will proba bly pass the remainder of his days here, where he has al ready lived so long, I begin to feel that I should be happy to continue with him, and not return to the sea shore." " The woods are never silent, Mabel, to such as under- 4 tend their meaning. Days at a time, have I travelled them alone, without feeling the want of company ; and, as for conversation, for such as can comprehend their language, there is no want of rational and instructive discourse." " I believe you are happier when alone, Pathfinder, than when mingling with your fellow-creatures." " I will not say that I will not say exactly that ! I h*ve seen the time when I have thought that God was Buffi* THE PATHFINDER. 283 went for me in the forest, and that I craved no more than his bounty, and his care. But other feelin s have got up permost, and I suppose natur will have its way. All other creator s mate, Mabel, and it was intended man should do so, too." " And have you never bethought you of seeking a wife, Pathfinder, to share your fortunes?" inquired the girl, with the directness and simplicity that the pure of heart, and the undesigning, are the most apt to manifest, and with that feeling of affection which is inbred in her sex. " To me, it seems, you only want a home to return to, from your wan derings, to render your life completely happy. Were I a man, it would be my delight to roam through these forests at will, or to sail over this beautiful lake." " I understand you, Mabel ; and God bless you for think ing of the welfare of men as humble as we are. We have our pleasures, it is true, as well as our gifts, but we might be happier ; yes, I do think we might be happier." " Happier ! in what way, Pathfinder ? In this pure air, with these cool and shaded forests to wander through, this lovely lake to gaze at, and sail upon, with clear consciences, and abundance for all the real wants, men ought to be noth ing less than as perfectly happy as their infirmities will allow." " Every creatur has its gifts, Mabel, and men have their n," answered the guide, looking stealthily at his beau tiful companion, whose cheeks had flushed and eyes bright ened under the ardor of feelings excited by the novelty of Uer striking situation ; " and all must obey them. Do you Bee yonder pigeon that is just align tin on the beech, here in a line with the fallen chestnut ? " " Certainly ; it is the only thing stirring with life in it> besides ourselves, that is to be seen in this vast solitude." " Not so, Mabel, not so ; Providence makes nothing that ives, to live quite alone. Here is its mate, just rising on -he vting; it has been feedin near the other beech, but it vill not long be separated from its companion." " 1 understand you, Pathfinder," returned Mibei, smiling jweotly, though as calmly as if tho discourse was with her 284 THE PATHFINDER. father. " But a hunter may find a mate, even in this wild region. The Indian girls are affectionate and true, I know, for such was the wife of Arrowhead, to a husband who oftener frowned than smiled." " That would never do, Mabel, and good would never come of it. Kind must cling to kind, and country to coun try, if one would find happiness. If, indeed, I could meet with one like you, who would consent to be a hunter s wife, and who would not scorn my ignorance and rudeness, then, indeed, would all the toil of the past appear like the sport ing of the young deer, and all the future like sunshine ! " " One like me ! A girl of my years and indiscretion would hardly make a fit companion for the boldest scout and surest hunter on the lines." " Ah ! Mabel, I fear me that I have been improving a red-skin s gifts, with a pale-face s natur ! Such a character would insure a wife, in an Injin village." " Surely, surely, Pathfinder, you would not think of choosing one as ignorant, as frivolous, as vain, and as inex perienced as I, for your wife ! " Mabel would have added, " and as young/ but an instinctive feeling of delicacy re pressed the words. " And why not, Mabel ? If you are ignorant of frontier usages, you know more than all of us of pleasant anecdotes and town customs ; as for frivolous, I know not what it means, but if it signifies beauty, ah s me ! I fear it is no fault in my eyes. Vain you are not, as is seen by the kind manner in which you listen to all my idle tales about scout- ings and trails ; and as for experience, that will come with years. Besides, Mabel, I fear men think little of these mat ters, when they are about to take wives, I do." " Pathfinder ! your words your looks surely all this is meant in trifling you speak in pleasantry ! " "To me it is always agreeable to be near you, Mabel, aad I should sleep sounder this blessed night, than I have dons for a week past, could I think that you find such dis course, as pleasant as I do." We shall not say that Mabel Dunham had not believe** herself a favorite with the guide. This her quick, feminine THE PATHFINDER. 285 sagacity had early discovered, and perhaps she had occasion ally thought there had mingled with his regard and friend ship, some of that manly tenderness which the ruder sex must be coarse indeed not to show, on occasions, to the gentler ; but the idea that he seriously sought her for his wife had never before crossed the mind of the spirited and ingenuous girl. Now, however, a gleam of something liko the truth broke in upon her imagination, less induced by thf words of her companion, perhaps, than by his manner. Looking earnestly into the rugged, honest countenance oi the scout, Mabel s own features became concerned and grave, and when she spoke again, it was with a gentleness of manner that attracted him to her even more powerfully than the words themselves were calculated to repel. " You and I should understand each other, Pathfinder," she said, with an earnest sincerity, " nor should there be any cloud between us. You are too upright and frank to meet with anything but sincerity and frankness in return. Surely, surely, all this means nothing, has no other connec tion with your feelings, than such a friendship as one of your wisdom and character would naturally feel for a girl like me ! " " I believe it s all nat ral, Mabel ; yes, I do ; the ser geant tells me he had such feelings towards your own mother, and I think I ve seen something like it, in the young people I have from time to time guided through the wilderness. Yes, yes ; I dare say it s all nat ral enough, and that makes it come so easy, and is a great comfort to me. " Pathfinder, your words make me uneasy ! Speak plainer, oi change the subject forever. You do not cannot mean that you cannot wish me to understand" even the tongue of the spirited Mabel faltered, and she shrank with maiden shamfe from adding what she wished so earnestly to lay. Rallying her courage, however, and determined to know all as soon and as plainly as possible, after a moment s hesitation she continued, " I mean, Pathfinder, that you do oot wish me to understand that you seriously think of me as a wife ? w 286 THE PATHFINDER. " I do, Mabel ; that s it that s just it, and you have pm the matter in a much better point of view than I, with my forest gifts and frontier ways, would ever be able to do. The sergeant and I have concluded on the matter, if it is agreeable to you, as he thinks is likely will be the case, though I doubt my own power to please one who deserver the best husband America can produce." Mabel s countenance changed from uneasiness to sui prise, and then by a transition still quicker, from surprise to pain. " My father ! " she exclaimed. " My dear father has thought of my becoming your wife, Pathfinder ! " " Yes, he has, Mabel ; he has indeed. He has even thought such a thing might be agreeable to you, and has almost encouraged me to fancy it might be true." "But you, yourself you certainly can care nothing whether this singular expectation shall ever be realized or not?" Anan?" " I mean, Pathfinder, that you have talked of this match more to oblige my father than anything else ; that your feelings are no way concerned, let my answer be what it may ? " The scout looked earnestly into the beautiful face of Mabel, which had flushed with the ardor and novelty of her sensations, and it was impossible to mistake the intense admiration that betrayed itself in every lineament of his ingenuous countenance. " I have often thought myself happy, Mabel, when rang ing the woods, on a successful hunt, breathing the pure au f the hills, and filled with vigor and health, but I now feel that it has all been idleness and vanity compared with the delight it would give me to know that you thought better of me than you think of most others." " Better of you ! I do indeed think better of you, Path- tinder, than of most others ; I am not certain that I do not think better of you than of any other ; for your truth, hon esty, simplicity, justice, and courage are scarcely equaled bj any of earth." THE PATHFINDER. 287 * Ah ! Mabel ! These are sweet and encouraging words from you, and the sergeant, a ter all, was not as near wrong as I feared." " Nay, Pathfinder, in the name of all that is sacred and just, do not let us misunderstand each other, in a matter of BO much importance. While I esteem, respect nay, rev- eience you, almost as much as I reverence my own dear fa-t her, it is impossible that I should ever become youi w J C that I" The change in her companion s countenance was so suvl- den and so great, that the moment the effect of what she had uttered became visible in the face of the Pathfinder, Mabe- arrested her own words, notwithstanding her strong desire to be explicit, the reluctance with which she could at any time cause pain being sufficient of itself to induce the pause. Neither spoke for some time, the shade of disap pointment that crossed the rugged lineaments of the hunter amounting so nearly to anguish, as to frighten his com panion, while the sensation of choking became so strong in the Pathfinder, that he fairly griped his throat, like one who sought physical relief for physical suffering. The convul sive manner in which his fingers worked actually struck the alarmed girl with a feeling of awe. "Nay, Pathfinder," Mabel eagerly added, the instant she could command her voice, " 1 may have said more than I mean, for all things of this nature are possible, and women, they say, are never sure of their own minds. What I wish you to understand is, that it is not likely that you and I should ever think of each other, as man and wife ou^ht to (link of each other." " I do not I shall never think in that way again, Ma bel," gasped forth the Pathfinder, who appeared to utter hia words like one just raised above the pressure of some suf focating substance. " No, no ; I shall never think of you, or any one else, again, in that way." " Pathfinder dear Pathfinder, understand me ; do not attach more meaning to my words than I do myself ; a match like that would be unwise unnatural, perhaps." " Yes, unnat ral agin natur ; and so I told the sergeant^ but he would have it otherwise." 288 THE PATHFINDER. " Pathfinder ! ! this is worse than I coda nave imag ined ; take my hand, excellent Pathfinder, and let me see that you do not hate me. For God s sake, smile upon me again ! " " Hate you, Mabel ! Smile upon you I Ah s me ! " "Kay, give me your hand your hardy, true, and manly hand ; both, both, Pathfinder, for 1 snail not be easy until I feel certain that we are friends again, and that all this ha8 been a mistake." " Mabel/ said the guide, looking wistfully into the face of the generous and impetuous girl, as she held his two hard and sunburnt hands in her own pretty and delicate fingers, and laughing in his own silent and peculiar manner, while anguish gleamed over lineaments which seemed incapable of deception, even while agitated with emotions so conflict ing, " Mabel, the sergeant was wrong ! " The pent-up feelings could endure no more, and the tears rolled down the cheeks of the scout like rain. His fingers again worked convulsively at his throat, and his breast heaved, as if it possessed a tenant of which it would be rid, by any effort, however desperate. " Pathfinder ! Pathfinder ! " Mabel almost shrieked, " any thing but this anything but this. Speak to me, Path finder ; smile again say one kind word anything to prove you can forgive me." " The sergeant was wrong ! " exclaimed the guide, laugh ing amid his agony, in a -way to terrify his companion by the unnatural mixture of anguish and light-heartedness. " I knew it I knew it, and said it ; yes, the sergeant was wrong, a ter all." u We can be friends, though we cannot be man and wife," continued Mabel, almost as much disturbed as her compan ion, scarce knowing what she said ; " we can always be friends, and always will." I thought the sergeant was mistaken," resumed rhe Pathfinder, when a great effort had enabled him to command himself, " for I did not think my gifts were such as would please the fancy of a town-bred gal. It would have been better, Mabel, had he not over-persuaded me into a different THE PATHFINDER. 28 n notion ; and it might have been bettei, too, had yea not been so pleasant and friendly, like ; yes, it would." " If I thought any error of mine had raised false expec tations in you, Pathfinder, however unintentionally on my part, I should never forgive myself ; for, believe mo, I would rather endure pain in my own feelings than you should tuffer." " That s just it, Mabel ; that s just it. These speeches tnd opinions, spoken in so soft a voice, and in a way I m eo unused to in the woods, have done the mischief. But I now see plainly, and begin to understand the difference be tween us better, and will strive to keep down thought, and to go abroad ag in as I used to do, looking for the game and the inimy. Ah s me ! Mabel, I have indeed been on a false trail since we met ! " " But you will now travel on the true one. In a little while you will forget all this, and think of me as a friend who owes you her life." " This may be the way in the towns, but I doubt if it s nat ral to the woods. With us, when the eye sees a lovely sight, it is apt to keep it long in view, or when the mind takes in an upright and proper feeling, it is loath to part with it." " But it is not a proper feeling that you should love me, nor am I a lovely sight. You will forget it all, when you come seriously to recollect that I am altogether uusuited to be your wife." " So I told the sergeant ; but He would have it other wise. I knew you was too young and beautiful for one of middle age, like myself, and who never was comely to look It, even in youth ; and then your ways have not been my ways, nor would a hunter s cabin be a fitting place for one who was edicated among chiefs, as it were. If I were younger and comelier, though, like Jasper Eau-douce " " Never mind Jasper Eau-douce," interrupted Mabel, im patiently ; " we can talk of something eise." " Jasper is a worthy lad, Mabel ; aye, and a comely," re turned the guileless guide, looking earnestly at the girl, aa If be d strusted her judgment in speaking slighting) y of hi* 19 290 THE PATHFINDER. friend. " Were I only half as comely as Jasper Western, my misgivings in this affair would not have been so great, and they might not have been so true." " We will not talk of Jasper Western," repeated Mabel, the color mounting to her temples ; " he may be good enough in a gale or on the lake, but he is not good enough to talk of here." " I fear me, Mabel, he is better than the man who i likely to be your husband, though the sergeant says that never can take place. But the sergeant was wrong once, an I he may be wrong twice." a And who is likely to be my husband, Pathfinder ? This u scarcely less strange than what has just passed between us!" " I know it is nat ral for like to seek like, and for them that have consorted much with officers ladies, to wish to be officers ladies themselves. But, Mabel, I may speak plainly to you, I know, and I hope my words will not give you pain, for, now I understand what it is to be disappointed in such feelings, I wouldn t wish to cause even a Mingo sor row, on this head. But happiness is not always to be found in a marquee, any more than in a tent; and though the officers quarters may look more tempting than the rest of the barracks, there is often great misery between husband >nd wife, inside of their doors." " I do not doubt it in the least, Pathfinder ; and did it rest with me to decide, I would sooner follow you to some cabin in the woods, and share your fortune, whether it might be better or worse, than go inside the door of any officer I know, with an intention of remaining there as its master s " Mabel, this is not what Lundie hopes, or Lundie thinks ! " " And what care I for Lundie ? He is major of the 55th, an.l may command his men to wheel and march about as he pleases, but he cannot compel me to wed the greatest or the meanest of his mess: besides, what can you know of Lundie s wishes on such a subject : " " From Lundie s own mouth. The sergeant had told THE PATHFINDER. 291 him that he wished me for a sou-in-law ; and the major being an old and a true friend, conversed with me on the subject ; he put it to me plainly, whether it would not be more ginerous in me to let an officer succeed, than to strive to make you share a hunter s fortune. I owned the truth, I did ; and that was, that I thought it might ; but when he told me that the quartermaster would be his choice, I would not abide by the conditions. No, no, Mabel ; I know Davy Muir well, and though he may make you a lady, he can never make you a happy woman, or himself a gentleman. I say this honestly, I do ; for I now plainly see that the sergeant has been wrong." " My father has been very wrong if he has said or done aught to cause you sorrow, Pathfinder ; and so great is my respect for you, so sincere my friendship, that were it not for one I mean that no person need fear Lieutenant Muir s influence with me. I would rather remain as I am to my dying day, than become a lady at the cost of being his wife." " I do not think you would say that which you do not feel, Mabel," returned Pathfinder, earnestly. " Not at such a moment, on such a subject, and least ol all to you. No ; Lieutenant Muir may find wives where he can my name shall never be on his catalogue." " Thank you thank you for that, Mabel ; for though there is no longer any hope for me, I could never be happy were you to take to the quartermaster. I feared the com mission might count for something, I did, and I know the man. It is not jealousy that makes me speak in this manner, but truth, for I know the man. Now, were you to fancy a desarving youth, one like Jasper Western, for in stance " " Why always mention Jasper Eau-douce, Pathfinder ? he can have no concern with our friendship ; let us talk of yourself, and of the manner in which you intend o jass the winter." " Ah s me ! I m little worth at the best, Mabel, unless it may be on a trail, or with the rifle ; and less worth now that I ve discovered the sergeant s mistake. There is no ueed, therefore, of talking of me. It has been very pleasant 292 THE PATHFINDER. to me to be near you so long, and even to fancy that the sergeant was right ; but that is all over now. I shall go down the lake with Jasper, and then there will be business to occupy us, and that will keep useless thoughts out of the mind." " And you will forget this forget me no, not forget me either, Pathfinder ; but you will resume your old pur suits, and cease to think a girl of sufficient importance to disturb your peace ? " " I never know d it afore, Mabel, but girls, as you 2all them, though gals is the name I ve been taught to use, are of more account in this life than I could have believed. Now, afore I know d you, the new-born babe did not sleep more sweetly than I used to could ; my head was no sooner on the root, or the stone, or mayhap on the skin, than all was lost to the senses, unless it might be to go over, in the night, the business of the day, in a dream, like ; and there I lay till the moment came to be stirring, and the swallows were not more certain to be on the wing with the light, than I to be afoot at the moment I wished to be. AJ1 this seemed a gift, and might be calculated on, even in the midst of a Mingo camp ; for I ve been outlying, in my time, in the very villages of the vagabonds." " And all this will return to you, Pathfinder ; for one so upright and sincere will never waste his happiness on a mere fancy. You will dream again of your hunts, of the deer you have slain, and of the beaver you have taken." " Ah s me, Mabel, I wish never to dream again ! Before #e met I had a sort of pleasure in following up the hounds, in fancy, as it might be ; and even in striking a trail of the Iroquois ; nay, I ve been in skrimmages and ambushments in thought, like, and found satisfaction in it according to my gifts ; but all those things have lost their charms since I ve made acquaintance with you. Now, I think no longer of anything rude in my dreams, but the very last night we stayed in the garrison, I imagined I had a cabin in a grove of sugar maples, and at the root of every tree was a Mabel Dunham, while the birds that were among the branches gang ballads, instead of the notes that natur* gave, and eveo THE PATHFINDER. 293 the deer stopped to listen. I tried to shoot a fa an, but Killdeer missed fire, and the creatur laughed in my face. as pleasantly as a young girl laughs in her merriment, and then it bounded away, looking back as if expecting me to follow." " No more of this, Pathfinder we ll talk no more of these things," said Mabel, dashing the tears from her eyes ; for the simple, earnest manner in which this hardy woods man betrayed the deep hold she had taken of his feelings, nearly proved too much for her own generous heart. " Now let us look for my father ; he cannot be distant, as I heard Ms gun quite near." " The sergeant was wrong yes, he was wrong, and it s of no use to attempt to make the dove consort with the wolf." " Here comes my dear father," interrupted Mabel ; " let us look cheerful and happy, Pathfinder, as such good friends ought to look, and keep each other s secrets." A pause succeeded ; the sergeant s foot was heard crush ing the dried twigs hard by, and then his form appeared shoving aside the bushes of a copse quite near. As he issued into the open ground the old soldier scrutinized his daughter and her companion, and speaking good-naturedly, he said : " Mabel, child, you are young and light of foot look for a bird I ve shot that fell just beyond the thicket of young hemlocks on the shore ; and as Jasper is showing signs of an intention of getting under way you need not take the trouble to clamber up this hill again, but we will roset you on the beach in a few minutes." Mabel obeyed, bounding down the hill with the elastic *>^p of youth and health. But, notwithstanding the light ness of her steps, the heart of the girl was heavy, and no gooner was she hid from observation by the thicket, than she threw herself on the root of a tree and wept as if her heart would break. The sergeant watched her imtil slw disappeared, with a father s pride, and then turned to hi? companion with a smile as kind and as familiar as his habiti would allow him to use towards any. 294 THE PATHFINDER. " She has her mother s lightness and activity, my frieiid, with somewhat of her father s force," he said. " Her mother was not quite as handsome, I think myself ; but the Dunhams were always thought comely, whether men or women. Well, Pathfinder, I take it for granted you ve not overlooked the opportunity, but have spoken plainly to the girl ? Women like frankness in matters of this sort." " I believe Mabel and I understand each other, at last, sergeant," returned the other, looking another way to avoid the soldier s face. " So much the better. Some people fancy that a little doubt and uncertainty make love all the livelier, but I am one of those who think the plainer the tongue speaks, the easier the mind will comprehend. Was Mabel sur prised?" " I fear she was, sergeant ; I fear she was taken quite by surprise yes, I do." " Well, well, surprises in love are like an ambush in war, and quite as lawful ; though it is not as easy to tell when a woman is surprised, as to tell when it happens to an enemy. Mabel did not run away, my worthy friend, did she ? " " No, sergeant, Mabel did not try to escape ; that I can say with a clear conscience." " I hope the girl was not too willing, neither ! Her mother was shy and coy for a month, at least but frank ness, after all, is a recommendation in man or woman." " That it is that it is and judgment, too." " You are not to look for too much judgment in a young creature of twenty, Pathfinder, but it will come with expe rience. A mistake in you, or in me, for instance, might not be so easily overlooked, but in a girl of Mabel s years one is not to strain at a gnat lest they swallow a camel." The muscles of the listener s face twitched as the sergeant ivas thus delivering his sentiments, though the former had now recovered a portion of that stoicism which formed so large a part of his character, and which he had probably imbibed from long association with the Indians. His eyea rose and fell, and once a gleam shot athwart his hard fea tures, as if he were about to indulge in his peculiar laugh THE PATHFINDER. 295 but the joyous feeling, if it really existed, was as quicklj lost in a look allied to anguish. It was this unusual mixture of wild and keen mental agony, with native, simple joyous- ness, that had most struck Mabel, who, in the interview just related, had a dozen times been on the point of believing that her suitor s heart was only lightly touched, as image a of happiness and humor gleamed over a mind that was almost infantine in its simplicity and nature ; an impression, however, that was soon driven away by the discovery of emotions so painful and so deep that they seemed to harrow the very soul. Indeed, in this respect, the Pathfinder was a mere child : unpracticed in the ways of the world, he had no idea of concealing a thought of any kind, and his mind received and reflected each emotion with the pliability and readiness of that period of life ; the infant scarcely yield ing its wayward imagination to the passing impression with greater facility than this man, so simple in all his personal feelings, so stern, stoical, masculine, and severe, in all that touched his ordinary pursuits. " You say true, sergeant," Pathfinder answered ; " a mis take in one like you is a more serious matter." " You will find Mabel sincere and honest in the end, give her but a little time." " Ah s me, sergeant ! " " A man of your merits would make an impression on a rock, give him time, Pathfinder." " Sergeant Dunham, we are old fellow campaigners, that is, as campaigns are carried on here in the wilderness ; and we have done so many kind acts to each other that we can afford to be candid ; what has caused you to believe that a girl like Mabel could ever fancy one as rude as I am ? " " What ? why, a variety of reasons, and good reasons, too, my friend/ Those same acts of kindness, perhaps, and the campaigns you mention ; moreover, you are my swort and tried comrade." " All this sounds well, so far as you and I be consarned, but they do not touch the case of your pretty da hter. She may think these very campaigns have destroyed the little comeliness I may once have had and I am not quite 296 THE PATHFINDER. sartain that being an old friend of her father would lead any young maiden s mind into a particular affection for a suitor. Like loves like, I tell you, sergeant, and my gifts are not altogether the gifts of Mabel Dunham." " These are some of your old modest qualms, Pathfinder, and will do you no credit with the girl. Women distrust men who distrust themselves, and take to men who distrust nothing. Modesty is a capital thing in a recruit, I grant you, or in a young subaltern who has just joined, for it prevents his railing at the non-commissioned officers before he knows what to rail at ; I m not sure it is out of place in a commissary or a parson, but it s the devil and all when it gets possession of either a real soldier or a lover. Have as little to do with it as possible, if you would win a woman s heart. As for your doctrine that like loves like, it is as wrong as possible in matters of this sort. If like loved like, women would love one another, and men also. No, no, like loves dislike," the sergeant was merely a scholar of the camp, " and you have nothing to fear from Mabel on that score. Look at Lieutenant Muir ; the man has had five wives already, they tell me, and there is no more modesty in him than there is in a cat-o -nine-tails." " Lieutenant Muir will never be the husband of Mabel Dunham, let him ruffle his feathers as much as he may." " That is a sensible remark of yours, Pathfinder, for my mind is made up that you shall be my son-in-law. If I were an officer myself, Mr. Muir might have some chance ; but time has placed one door between my child and my self, and I don t intend there shall be that of a marquee also." " Sergeant, we must let Mabel follow her own fancy ; she is young and light of heart, and God forlrd that any wish of mine should lay the weight of a feather on a mind that is all gayety now, or take one note of happiness from Her laughter." " Have you conversed freely with the girl ? " the ser geant demanded quickly, and with some asperity of man ner. Pathfinder was too honest to deny a truth plain as thai THE PATHFINDER. 297 Which the answer required, and yet too honorable to betray Mabel, and expose her to the resentment of one whom he well knew to be stern in his anger. " We have laid open our minds," he said, " and though Mabel s is one that any man might love to look at, I find little there, sergeant, to make me think any better of my- self." " The girl has not dared to refuse you to refuse hoi fether s best friend?" Pathfinder turned his face away to conceal the look of anguish that consciousness told him was passing athwart it, but he continued the discourse in his own quiet, nanly tones. " Mabel is too kind to refuse anything, or to utter harsh words to a dog. I have not put the question in a way to be downright refused, sergeant." "And did you expect my daughter to jump into your arms before you asked her ? She would not have been her mother s child had she done any such thing, nor do I think she would have been mine. The Dunhams like plain deal ing as well as the king s Majesty, but they are no jumpers. Leave me to manage this matter for you, Pathfinder, and there shall be no unnecessary delay. I ll speak to Mabel myself this very evening, using your name as principal in the affair." " I d rather not I d rather not, sergeant. Leave the matter to Mabel and me, and I think all will come right in the ind. Young gals be like timorsome birds, they do not over-relish being hurried or spoken harshly to, neither. Leave the matter to Mabel and me." " On one condition I will, my friend ; and that is, that you promise me on the honor of a scout, that you will put the matter plainly to Mabel, the first suitable opportunity, and no mincing of words." " I will ask her, sergeant yes, I will ask her, on condi tion that you promise not to meddle in the affair ; yes, I will promise to ask Mabel the question whether she will marry me, even though she laugh in my face at my doirg so, Or that condition." 298 THE PATHFINDER. Sergeant Dunham gave the desired promise very cheer fully, for he had completely wrought himself up into the be lief that the man he so much esteemed and respected him- self, must be acceptable to his daughter. He had married a woman much younger than himself, and he saw no unfitness in the respective years of the intended couple. Mabel was educated so much above him, too, that he was not aware of the difference which actually existed between the parent and child, in this respect ; for it is one of the most unpleasant features in the intercourse between knowledge and ignorance, taste and unsophistication, refinement and vulgarity, that the higher qualities are often necessarily subjected to the judg ments of those who have absolutely no perception of their existence. It followed that Sergeant Dunham was not alto gether qualified to appreciate his daughter s tastes, or to form a very probable conjecture of the direction taken by those feelings, which oftener depend on impulses and passion than on reason. Still, the worthy soldier was not so wrong in his estimate of the Pathfinder s chances, as might at first appear. Knowing, as he well did, all the sterling qualities of the man, his truth, integrity of purpose, courage, self- devotion, disinterestedness, it was far from unreasonable to suppose that qualities like these would produce a deep im pression on any female heart, where there was an oppor tunity to acquire a knowledge of their existence ; and the father erred principally in fancying that the daughter might know, as it might be, by intuition, what he himself had ac quired by years of intercourse and adventure. As Pathfinder and his military friend descended the hill to the shore of the lake, the discourse did not flag. The latter continued to persuade the former that his diffidence alone prevented complete success with Mabel, and that he had only to persevere in order to prevail. Pathfinder wa* much too modest by nature, and had been too plainly though so delicately, discouraged, in the recent interview, k believe all he heard ; still the father used so many argumenti that seemed plausible, and it was so grateful to fancy that the daughter might yet be his, the reader is not to be sur prised when he is told that tMs unsophisticated being did not THE PATHFINDER. 299 view Mabel s recent conduct in precisely the light in which he may be inclined to view it himself. He did not credit all thut the sergeant told him, it is true ; but he began to think virgin coyness, and ignorance of her own feelings, might have induced Mabel to use the language she had. "The quartermaster is no favorite," said Pathfinder, in answer to one of his companion s remarks. "Mabel will never look on him as more than one who has had four or Sve wives already." " Which is more than his share. A man may marry twice, without offense to good morals and decency, I allow, but four times is an aggravation." " I should think even marrying once, what Master Cap calls a circumstance ! " put in Pathfinder, laughing in his quiet way, for by this time, his spirits had recovered some of their buoyancy. " It is indeed, my friend, and a most solemn circumstance toa. If it were not that Mabel is to be your wife, I would advise you to remain single. But here is the girl herself and discretion is the word." * Ah s me ! sergeant, I fear you are mistaken 1 " 800 THE PATHFINDER CHAPTER XIX. Thus was this place A happy rural seat of various view. MlLTOB. MABEL was in waiting on the beach, and the canoe waa soon launched. Pathfinder carried the party out through the surf in the same skillful manner he had brought it in; and, though Mabel s color heightened with excitement, and her heart seemed often ready to leap out of her mouth again, they reached the side of the Scud without having received even a drop of spray. Ontario is like a quick-tempered man, sudden to be an gered, and as soon appeased. The sea had already fallen, and though the breakers bounded the shore far as the eye could reach, it was merely in lines of brightness, that ap peared and vanished like the returning waves produced by a stone that has been dropped into a pool. The cable of the Scud was scarce seen above the water, and Jasper had already hoisted his sails, in readiness to depart, as soon as the expected breeze from the shore should fill the canvas. It was just sunset as the cutter s mainsail flapped, and its stem began to sever the water. The air was light and southerly, and the head of the vessel was kept looking up along the south shore, it being the intention to get to the eastward again, as fast as possible. The night that suc- jceded was quiet, and the rest of those who slept, deep and tranquil. Some difficulty occurred concerning the command of the vessel, but the matter had been finally settled by an ami cable compromise. As the distrust of Jasper was far from being appeased, Cap retained a supervisory power, while the young man was allowed to work the craft, subject at all THE PATHFINDER. 301 times to the control and interference of the old seaman. To this Jasper consented, in preference to exposing Mabel any longer to the dangers of their present situation ; for, now that the violence of the elements had ceased, he well knew that the Montcalm would be in search of them. He had the discretion, however, not to reveal his apprehensions on this head, for it happened that the very means he deemed the best to escape the enemy, were those which would be most likely to awaken new suspicions of his honesty, in the minds of those who held the power to defeat his intentions. In other words, Jasper believed that the gallant young Frenchman who commanded the ship of the enemy, would quit his anchorage under the fort at Niagara, and stand up the lake, as soon as the wind abated, in order to ascertaio the fate of the Scud ; keeping midway between the two shores, as the best means of commanding a broad view; and that, on his part, it would be expedient to hug one coast or the other, not only to avoid a meeting, but as affording a chance of passing without detection, by blending his sails and spars with objects on the land. He preferred the south, because it was the weather shore, and because he thought it was that which the enemy would the least expect him to take, though it necessarily led near his settlements, and in front of one of the strongest posts he held in that part of th? world. Of all this, however, Cap was happily ignorant, and the sergeant s mind was too much occupied with the details of his military trust to enter into these niceties, which so properly belonged to another profession. No opposition was made, therefore, and, ere morning, Jasper had appar ently dropped quietly into all his former authority, issuing his orders freely, and meeting with obedience without hesita tion or cavil. The appearance of day brought all on board on deck again, and, as is usual with adventurers on the water, the opening horizon was curiously examined, as objects started out of the obscurity, and the panorama brightened under ihe growing light. East, west, and north, nothing wa but water, glittering in the rising sun ; but south- 802 THE PATHFINDER. ward, stretched the endless belt of woods that then held Ontario in a setting of forest verdure. Suddenly an open ing appeared ahead, and then the massive walls of a chateau- looking house, with outworks, bastions, block-houses, and palisadoes, frowned on a headland that bordered the outlet of a broad stream. Just as the fort became visible, a little cloud rose over it, and the white ensign of France was seen fluttering from a lofty flagstaff. Cap gave an ejaculation as he witnessed this ungrateful exhibition, and he cast a quick, suspicious glance at his brother-in-law. " The dirty tablecloth hung up to the air, as my name is Charles Cap ! " he muttered, " and we hugging this d d shore, as it were our wife and children, met on the return from an India v y ge ! Harkee, Jasper, are you in search of a cargo of frogs, that you keep so near in to this New France ? " " I hug the land, sir, in the hope of passing the enemy s ship without being seen, for I think she must be somewhere down here to leeward." " Aye, aye ; this sounds well, and I hope it may turn out as you say. I trust there is no under-tow here ? " " We are on a weather shore, now," said Jasper, smiling ; " and I think you will admit, Master Cap, that a strong under-tow makes an easy cable : we owe all our lives to thd under-tow of this very lake." " French flummery ! " growled Cap, though he did not care to be heard by Jasper. " Give me a fair, honest, Eng lish- Yankee-American tow, above board, and above water too, if I must have a tow at all, and none of your sneaking drift that is below the surface, where one can neither see nor feel. I dare say, if the truth could be come at, that this late escape of ours was all a contrived affair." " We have now a good opportunity, at least, to recon noitre the enemy s post at Niagara, brother, for such I take this fort to be," put in the sergeant. " Let us be all eyea in passing, and remember that we are almost in the face of the enemy." This advice of the sergeant s needed nothing to enforce THE PATHFINDLu. 303 it, for the interest and novelty of passing a spot occupied by human beings, were of themselves sufficient to attract deep attention in that scene of a vast but deserted nature. The wind was now fresh enough to urge the Scud through the water with considerable velocity, and Jasper eased her helm as she opened the river, and luffed nearly into the mouth of that noble strait, or river, as it is termed. A dull, distant, heavy roar came down through the opening in the banks, swelling on the currents c? the air, like the deeper notes of some immense organ, and occasionally seeming to cause the earth itself to tremble. " That sounds like surf on some long, unbroken coast ! " exclaimed Cap, as a swell deeper than common c&me to mV " Aye, that is such surf as we have in this quarter of the world," Pathfinder answered. " There is no uuder-to\v there, Master Cap, but all the water that strikes the rocks stays there, so far as going back ag in is consarned. That is old Niagara that you hear, or this noble stream tumbling down a mountain ! " " No one will have the impudence to pretend that thip fine, broad river falls over yonder hills ? " " It does, Master Cap, it does ; and all for the want of stairs, or a road, to come down by. This is natur , as we have it up here-away, though I dare say you beat us down on the ocean. All s me ! Mabel ; a pleasant hour it would be if we could walk on the shore some ten or fifteen miles ap this stream, and gaze on all that God has done there ! " " You have, then, seen these renowned falls, Pathfinder ? " the girl eagerly inquired. " I have yes. I have ; and an awful sight I witnessed at that same time. The Sarpent and I were cut, scouting about the garrison there, when he told me that the tradi tions of his people gave an account of a mighty cataract in this neighborhood, and he asked me to fary from the line of march a little to look at the w )nder. I had heard some marvels consarning the spot, frond the soldiers of the 60th, which is my nat ral corps like, and not the 55th, with which I have sojourned so much of late ; but there are so many 304 THE JPATHFINDER. terrible liars in all rijiinents, that I hardly believed half they told rne. Well, we went ; and though tve expected to be led by our ears, and to hear some of that awful roaring that we hear to-day, we were disapp inted, for natur waa iiot then speaking in thunder, as she is this morning. Thus it is, in the forest, Master Cap ; there being moments when God seems to be walking abroad in power, and then, again, there is a calm over all, as if his spirit lay in quiet along the arth. Well, we came suddenly upon the stream, thort distance above the fall, and a young Delaware, who was in our company, found a bark canoe, and he would push into the current, to reach an island that lies in the very centre of the confusion and strife. We told him of his folly, we did, and we reasoned with him on the wickedness of tempting Providence by seeking danger that led to no ind ; but the youth among the Delawares are very much the sanvs as the youth among the soldiers, risky and vain. All we could say did not change his mind, and the lad had his way. To me it seems, Mabel, that whenever a thing is really grand and potent, it has a quiet majesty about it, that is altogether unlike the frothy and flustering manner of smaller matters, and so it was with them rapids. The canoe was no sooner fairly in them, than down it went, as it might be, as one sails through the air on the arth, and no skill of the young Delaware couid resist the stream. And yet he strug gled manfully for life, using the paddle to the last, like the deer that is swimming to cast the hounds. At first, he shot across the current so swiftly that we thought he would r*-e. vail, but he had miscalculated his distance, and whei the truth really struck him, he turned the bead up stream, and struggled in a way that was fearful to look at. I could have pitied him even had he been a Mingo ! For a few momenta his efforts were o frantic, that he actually prevailed over tLe power of the cataract ; but natur has its limits, and one faltering stroke of the paddle set him back, and then he lost ground, foot by foot, inch by inch, until he got near the spot where the river looked even and green, and as if it were made of millions of threads of water, all bent over some hug* rock, when he shot backwards like an arrow and disappeared THE PATHFINDER. 805 the bow of the canoe tipping just enough to let us see what had become of him. I met a Mohawk, some years later, who had witnessed the whole affair from the bed of the stream below, and he told me that the Delaware continued to paddle in the air, until he was lost in the mists of the falls ! " " And what became of the poor wretch ? " demanded Ala* bel, who had been strongly interested by the natural elt- queuce of the speaker. 44 He went to the happy hunting-grounds of his people, iio doubt ; for though he was risky and vain, he was also just and brave. Yes, he died foolishly, but the Manitou of the red-skins has compassion on his creatur s as well as the God of a Christian ! " A gun at this moment was discharged from a block-house near the fort, and the shot, one of little weight, came whis tling over the cutter s mast, an admonition to approach no" nearer. Jasper was at the helm, and he kept away, smiling at the same time as if he felt no anger at the rudeness o/ the salutation. The Scud was now in the current, and her outward set soon carried her far enough to leeward to avoid .he danger of a repetition of the shot, and then she quietly continued her course along the land. As soon as the river was fairly opened, Jasper ascertained that the Montcalm wa not at anchor in it ; and a man sent aloft came down with the report that the horizon showed no sail. The hope was now strong that the artifice of Jasper had succeeded, and that the French commander had missed them by keeping the middle of the lake as he steered towards its head. All that day the wind hung to the southward, an the cutter continued her course about a league from the land, running six or eight knots an hour in perfectly smooth water. Although the scene had one feature of monotony, die outline of unbroken forest, it was not without its interest .iid pleasures. Various headlands presented themselves, and the cutter, in running from one to another, stretched across bays so deep as almost to deserve the name of gulfs, but no where did the eye meet with the evidences of civilization. Rivers occasionally poured their tribute into the great 10 806 THE PATHFINDER. voir of the lake, but their banks could be traced inland fbi miles by the same outlines of trees ; and even large b;\yg that lay embosomed in woods, communicating with Ontario ouly by narrow outlets, appeared and disappeared without bringing with them a single trace of a human habitation. Of all on board, the Pathfinder viewed the scene with the most unmiugled delight. His eyes feasted on the endles? line of forest, and more than once that day, notwithstanding he found it so grateful to be near Mabel, listening to her pleasant voice, and echoing, in feelings at least, her joyous laugh, did his soul pine to be wandering beneath the high arches of the maples, oaks, and lindens, where his habits had induced him to fancy lasting and true joys were only to be found. Cap viewed the prospect differently. More than once he expressed his disgust at there being no light-houses, church-towers, beacons, or roadsteads with their shipping. Such another coast, he protested, the world did not contain ; and taking the sergeant aside, he gravely assured him that the region could never come to anything, as the havens were neglected, the rivers had a deserted and useless look, and that even the breeze had a smell of the forest about it, which spoke ill of its properties. But the humors of the different individuals in her did not stay the speed of the Scud. When the sun was setting, she was al -eady a hundred miles on her route towards Oswego, into which river Sergeant Dunham now thought it his duty to go, in order to receive any communications tLtt Major Duncan might please to make. With a view to effect this purpose, Jasper continued to hug the shore all night ; and though the wind began to fail him towards morning, it lasted long enough to carry the cutter up to a point that was known to be but a league or two from the fort. Here the breeze came out light at the northward, and the cutter hauled a little from the land in order to obtain a safe offing should it come on to blow, or should the weather again get to be easterly. When the day dawned, the cutter had the mouth of the Oswego well under her lee, distant about two miles, and jus* is the morning gun from the fort was fired, Jasper gave the THE PATHFINDER. 807 order to ease jff the sheets, and to bear up foi his port. At that moment a cry from the forecastle drew all eyes towards the point on the eastern side of the outlet, and there, just without the range of shot from the light guns of the works, with her canvas reduced to barely enough to keep her stationary, lay the Montcalm, evidently in waiting for their appearance. To pass her was impossible, for, by lilling her sails, the French ship could have intercepted them in a few minutes; and the circumstances called for a prompt decision. After a short consultation, the sergeant again changed his plan, determining to make the best of his way towards the station for which he had been originally des tined, trusting to the speed of the Scud to throw the enemy so far astern, as to leave no clue to her movements. The cutter, accordingly, hauled upon a wind, with the least possible delay, with everything set that would draw. Guns were fired from the fort, ensigns shown, and the ram parts were again crowded. But sympathy was all the aid that Lundie could lend to his party ; and the Montcalm, also firing four or five guns of defiance, and throwing abroad several of the banners of France, was soon in chase, under a cloud of canvas. For several hours the two vessels were pressing through the water as fast as possible, making short stretches to wind ward, apparently with a view to keep the port under their lee, the one to enter it, if possible, and the other to inter cept it in the attempt. At meridian, the French ship was hull-down dead to lee ward, the disparity of sailing on a wind being very great, and some islands were near by, behind which Jasper said it vould be possible for the cutter to conceal her future move ments. Although Cap and the sergeant, and particularly Lieutenant Muir, to judge by his language, still felt a good leal of distrust of the young man, and Frentenac was not distant, this advice was followed, for time pressed, and the quartermaster discreetly observed that Jasper could not well betray them, without running openly into the enemy s har- hor ; a step they could at any time prevent, since the only cruiser of force the French possessed, at the moment wa* 808 THE PATHFINDER. under their lee, and not in a situation to do them any imme ^iate injury. Left to himself, Jasper Western soon proved how much was really in him. He weathered upon the islands, passed them, and, on coming out to the eastward, kept broad away. with nothing in sight in his wake or to leeward. By sunset, again, the cutter was up with the first of the islands that lie in the outlet of the lake, and ere it was dark she was running through the narrow channels on her way to the long sought station. At nine o clock, however, Cap insisted that they should anchor, for the maze of islands became so complicated and obscure, that he feared, at every opening the party would find themselves under the guns of a French fort. Jasper consented cheerfully, it being a part of his standing instructions to approach the station under such circumstances as would prevent the men from obtaining any very accurate notions of its position, lest a deserter might betray the little garrison to the enemy. The Scud was brought-to in a small, retired bay, where it would have been difficult to find her by daylight, and where she was perfectly concealed at night, when all but a solitary sentinel on deck sought their rest. Cap had been so harassed during the previous eight-and-forty hours, that his slumbers were long and deep, nor did he awake from his first nap until the day was just beginning to dawn. His eyes were scarcely open, however, when his nautical instinct told him that the cutter was under way. Springing up, he found the Scud threading the islands again, with no one on deck but Jasper and the pilot, unless the sentinel be ex- cepted, who had not in the least interfered with movements *.hat he had every reason to believe were as regular as they ^ere necessary. " How s this, Master Western ? " demanded Cap, with sufficient fierceness for the occasion ; " are you running us into Frontenac at last, and we all asleep below, like so many marines waiting for the sentry go ? " " This is according to orders, Master Cap, Major Duncan having commanded me never to approach the station unlesa at a moment when the people were below ; for he does not THE PATHFINDER. 309 wish there should be more pilots in these waters than the king has need of." " Whe-e-w ! a pretty job I should have made of running down among these bushes and rocks, with no one on deck ! Why a regular York branch could make nothing of such a channel." " I always thought, sir," said Jasper, smiling, " you would have done better had you left the cutter in my hands until ghe had safely reached her place of destination." " We should have done it, Jasper ; we should have done it, had it not been for a circumstance ; these circumstances are serious matters, and no prudent man will overlook them." " Well, sir, I hope there is now an end of them. Wo shall arrive in less than an hour, if the wind hold, and then you ll be safe from any circumstances that I can con trive." " Humph ! " Cap was obliged to acquiesce, and as everything around him had the appearance of Jasper s being sincere, there was not much difficulty in making up his mind to submit. It would not have been easy, indeed, for a person the most sensitive on the subject of circumstances to fancy that the Scud was anywhere in the vicinity of a port as long estab lished, and as well known on the frontiers, as Frontenac. The islands might not have been literally a thousand in number, but they were so numerous and small as to baffle calculation, though occasionally one of larger size than com mon was passed. Jasper had quitted what might have been termed the main channel, and was winding his way with a good stiff breeze, and a favorable current, through passes that were sometimes so narrow that there appeared to be barely room sufficient for the Scud s spars to clear the trees, while at other moments he shot across little bays, and bur ied the cutter again amid rocks, forests, and bushes. The water was so transparent that there was no occasion for the lead, and being of equal depth little risk was actually run, though Cap, with his maritime habits, was in a constant fever lest they should strike. 810 THE PATHFINDER. " I give it up ! I give it up, Pathfinder ! " the old seaman at length exclaimed, when the little vessel emerged in safety from the twentieth of these narrow inlets, through which she had been so boldly carried ; " this is defying the very na ture of seamanship, and sending all its laws and rules to tha d 1 ! " * Nay, nay, Salt-water ; tis the parfection of the art. You perceive that Jasper never falters, but, like a hound with a true nose, he runs with his head high, as if he had a strong scent. My life on it the lad brings us out right in the ind, as he would have done in the beginning had we given him leave." " No pilot, no lead, no beacons, buoys, or light-houses, no" " Trail ! " interrupted Pathfinder, " for that to me is the most mysterious part of the business. Water leaves no trail, as every one knows, and yet here is Jasper moving ahead as boldly as if he had before his eyes the prints of moccasins on leaves as plainly as we can see the sun in the heaven." " D e if J believe there is even any compass ! " " Stand by to haul down the jib," called out Jasper, who merely smiled at the remarks of his companion. " Haul down ! starboard your helm starboard hard so ; meet her gently there with the helm touch her lightly ; now jump ashore with the fast, lad no, heave ; there are some of our people ready to take it." All this passed so quickly as barely to allow the specta tors time to note the different evolutions, ere the Scud had been thrown into the wind until her mainsail shivered, next cast a little by the use of the rudder only, and then she set bodily alongside of a natural rocky quay, where she was im mediately secured by good fasts run to the shore. In a word, the station was reached, and the men of the 55th were greeted by their expecting comrades with the satisfac tion that a relief usually brings. Mabel spiang upon the shore with a delight which she did not care to express, and her father led his men after her with an alacrity which proved how wearied he had become THE lATHFINDEB. 31 J of the cutter. The station, as the place was familiarly termed by the soldiers of the 55th, was indeed a spot to raise expectations of enjoyment among those who had been cooped up so long in a vessel of the dimensions of the Scud. None of the islands were high, though all lay at a sufficient elevation above the water to render them perfectly healthy and secure. Each had more or less of wood, and the greater number at that distant day were clothed with the virgin forest. The one selected by the troops for their pur pose was small, containing about twenty acres of land, and by some of the accidents of the wilderness it liad been partly stripped of its trees, probably centuries before the period of which we are writing, and a little grassy glado covered nearly half its surface. It was the opinion of the officer who had made the selection of this spot for a mili tary post, that a sparkling spring near by had early caught the attention of the Indians, and that they had long fre quented this particular place, in their hunts, or when fishing for salmon a circumstance that had kept down the second growth, and given time for the natural grasses to take root, and to gain dominion over the soil. Let the cause be what it might, the effect was to render this island far more beau tiful than most of those around it, and to lend it an air of civilization that was then wanting in so much of that vast region of country. The shores of Station Island were completely fringed with bushes, and great care had been taken to preserve them, as they answered as a screen to conceal the persons and things collected within their circle. Favored by this shelter, as well as by that of several thickets of trees and different copses, some six or eight low huts had been erected, to be used as quarters for the officer and his men. co contain stores, and to serve the purposes of kitchen, hos pital, etc. These huts were built of logs, in the usual man- ler, had been roofed by bark brought from a distance, lest the signs of labor should attract attention, and as they had now been inhabited some months, were as comfortable ai Iwellings of that description usually ever get to be. At the eastern extremitv o *hc island, however, wv a 312 THE PATHFINDER. small, densely wooded peninsula, with a thicket of under brush so closely matted as nearly to prevent the possibility of seeing across it so long as the leaves remained on the branches. Near the narrow neck that connected this acre with the rest of the island, a small block-house had beer erected with some attention to its means of resistance. The logs were bullet-proof, squared and jointed with a care to lea 76 no defenseless points ; the windows were loop-holes : the door massive and small ; and the roof, like the rest of the structure, was framed of hewn timber, covered properly with bark to exclude the rain. The lower apartment, as usual, contained stores and provisions; here, indeed, the party kept all their supplies ; the second story was intended for a dwelling as well as for the citadel **nd a low garret was subdivided into two or three rooms, And could hold the pallets of some ten or fifteen persons. All the arrangements were exceedingly simple and cheap, but they were sufficient to protect the soldiers against the effects of a surprise. As the whole building was considerably less than forty feet high, its summit was concealed by the tops of the trees, except from the eyes of those who had reached the interior of the island. On that side the view was open from the upper loops, though bushes, even there, more or less concealed the base of the wooden tower. The object being purely defense, care had been taken to place the block-house so near r TI opening in the limestone rock that formed the base of the island, as to admit of a bucket s being dropped into the water in order to obtain that great essential in the event of a siege. In order to fa cilitate this operation, and to enfilade the base of the building, the upper stories projected several fee f beyond the lower .in the manner usual to block-houses, and pieces of wood filled the aperturss cut in the log flooring, which were intended as loops and traps. The communications between the different stories were by means of ladders. If we add that these block-houses were inten \d as citadels, for garrisons or set tlements to retreat to in cases of attack, the general reader will obtain a sufficiently correct idea of the arrangement* it & our wish to explain. THE PATHFINDER. 313 But the situation of the island itself formed its principal merit as a military position. Lying in the midst of twenty others, U was not an easy matter to find it, since boats might pass quite near, and, by the glimpses caught through the openings, this particular island would be taken for a part of some other. Indeed, the channels between the *slands that lay around the one we have been describing, were so narrow, that it was even difficult to say which portions of the land were connected, or which separated, even at one stood in their centre, with the express desire of ascertaining the truth. The little bay in particular, that Jasper used as a harbor, was so embowered with bushes and shut in with islands, that, the sails of the cutter being lowered, her own people, on one occasion, had searched for hours before they could find the Scud, in their return from a short excursion among the adjacent channels, in quest of fish. In short, the place was admirably adapted to its present uses, and its natural advantages had been as in geniously improved as economy and the limited means of a frontier post would very well allow. The hour that succeeded the arrival of the Scud was one of hurried excitement. The party in possession had done nothing worthy of being mentioned, and wearied with their seclusion, they were all eager to return to Oswego. The sergeant and the officer he came to relieve had no soonei gone through the little ceremonies of transferring the com mand, than the latter hurried on board the Scud with hia whole party ; and Jasper, who would gladly have passed die day on the island, was required to get under way forth with, the wind promising a quick passage up the river, and across the lake. Before separating, however. Lieutenant Muir, Cap, and the sergeant had a private conference with *he ensign who had been relieved, in which the latter was made acquainted with the suspicions that existed against the fidelity of the young sailor. Promising due caution, .he officer embarked, arid ic less than three hours from the dme when she had arrived, the cutter was again in motion. Mabel had taken possession of a hut, and with female "aadiness arid skill she made all the simple little domestic b!4 THE PATHFINDER. arrangements of which the circumstances would Admit, not only for her own comfort, but for that of her father. To save labor, a mess table was prepared in a hut set apart for that purpose, where all the heads of the detachment were to eat, the soldier s wife performing the necessary labor. The hut of the sergeant, which was the best on the island, being thus freed from any of the vulgar offices of a household, admitted of such a display of womanly taste, that for the first time since her arrival on the frontier, the girl felt proud of her home. As soon as these important duties were discharged, she strolled out on the island, taking a path that led through the pretty glade, and which conducted to the only point that was not covered with bushes. Here she stood gazing at the limpid water, which lay with scarcely a ruffle on it at her feet, musing on the novel situation in which she was placed, and permitting a pleas ing and deep excitement to steal over her feelings, as she remembered the scenes through which she had so lately passed, and conjectured those which still lay veiled in the future. " You re a beautiful fixture, in a beautiful spot, Mistress Mabel," said David Muir, suddenly appearing at her elbow "and I ll no engage you re not just the handsomest of the two." " I will not say, Mr. Muir, that compliments on my per son are altogether unwelcome, for I should not gain credit for speaking the truth, perhaps," answered Mabel, with spirit, k but I will say that if you will condescend to address to me some remarks of a different nature, I may be led to believe you think I have sufficient faculties to understand * Hoot ! your mind, beautiful Mabel, is polished just like the barrel of a soldier s musket, and your conversation is only too discreet and wise for a poor d - 1 who has been chewing birch up here these four years on the lines, instead of receiving it in an application that has the virtue of im parting knowledge. But you are no sorrv T take it, young lady, that you ve got your pretty foot on rerra firma cno more." TEE PATHFINDER. 316 * I thought so, two hours since, Mr. Muir but the Scud looks so beautiful, as she sails through these vistas of trees, ihat I almost regret I am no longer one of her passengers." As Mabel ceased speaking, she waved her hankerchief in return to a salutation from Jasper, who kept his eyes fastened on her form, until the white sails of the cutter had swept round a point, and were nearly lost behind its greeu fringe of leaves. " There there go, and I ll no say Joy go with them, but roay they have the luck to return safely, for without them we shall be in danger of passing the winter on this island ; unless, indeed, we have the alternative of the castle at Quebec. Yon Jasper Eau-douce is a vagrant sort of a lad, and they have reports of him in the garrison that it pains my very heart to hear. Your worthy father, and almost as worthy uncle, have none of the best opinion of him." " I am sorry to hear it, Mr. Muir ; I doubt not that time will remove all their distrust." " If time would only remove mine, pretty Mabel," re joined the quartermaster, in a wheedling tone, " I should feel no envy of the commander-in-chief. I think if I were in a condition to retire, the sergeant would just step into my shoes." "If my dear father is worthy to step into your shoes, Mr. Muir," returned the girl, with malicious pleasure, " I m sure that the qualification is mutual, and that you are every 57 ay worthy to step into his." " The deuce is in the child ! you would not reduce mu to the rank of a non-commissioned officer, Mabel ! " "No, indeed, sir, I was not thinking of the army at all, as you spoke of retiring. My thoughts were more egotist leal, and 1 was thinking how much you reminded me of m^ dear father, by your experience, wisdom, and suitableness to take his place as the head of a family." " As its bridegroom, pretty Mabel, but not as its parent or natural chief. I see how it is with you, loving your repartee, and brilliant with wit Well, I like spirit in a young woman, so it be not the spirit of a scold. This Pathfinder is an extraordinair, Mabel, if truth may e sattf of the man." 316 THE PATHFINDER. " Truth should be said of him, or nothing. Pathfinder is my friend my very particular friend, Mr. Muir, and no evil can be said of him, in my presence, that I shall not deny." I shall say nothing evil of him, I can assure you, Mabel ; but, at the same time, I doubt if much good can be said in his favor." " He is at least expert with the rifle," returned Mabel, smiling. " That you cannot deny." " Let him have all the credit of his exploits in that way, if you please ; but he is illiterate as a Mohawk." " He may not understand Latin, but his knowledge of Iroquois is greater than that of most men, and it is the more useful language of the two, in this part of the world." " If Lundie himself were to call on me for an opinion which I admired most, your person or your wit, beautiful and caustic Mabel, I should be at a loss to answer. My admiration is so nearly divided between them, that I often fancy this is the one that bears off the palm, and then the other ! Ah ! the late Mrs. Muir was a paragon in that way, also ! " " The latest Mrs. Muir, did you say, sir ? " asked Mabel, looking up innocently at her companion. " Hoot hoot ! That is some of Pathfinder s scandal. Now, I dare say that the fellow has been trying to persuade you, Mabel, that I have had more than one wife already." " In that case, his time would have been thrown away, sir, as everybody knows that you have been so unfortunate as to have had four." " Only three, as sure as my name is David Muir. The fourth is pure scandal or, rather, pretty Mabel, she is yet in petto, as they say at Rome ; and that means in matters of love, in the heart, my dear." " Well, I m glad I m not that fourth person, in petto, or in anything else, as I should not like to be a scandal ! " "No fea" of that, charming Mabel; for were you the fourth, all tht others would be forgotten, and your wonder ful beauty and mer .t would at once elevate you to the first No fear of yot^ Iwvug the fourth in anything." THE PATHFINDER. 317 " There is consolation in that assurance, Mr. Muir," said Mabel, laughing, " whatever there may be in your other assurance ; for I confess I should prefer being even a fourth rate beauty to being a fourth wife." So saying, she tripped away, leaving the quartermaster to meditate on his want of success. Mabel had been induced to use her female means of defense thus freely, partly be cause her suitor had of late been so pointed as to stand in need of a pretty strong repulse, and partly on account of his innuendoes against Jasper and the Pathfinder. Though full of spirit and quick of intellect, she was not naturally pert ; but, on the present occasion, she thought circumstances called for more than usual decision. When she left her companion, therefore, she believed she was now finally re leased from attentions that she thought as ill bestowed as they were certainly disagreeable. Not so, however, with David Muir ; accustomed to rebuffs, and familiar with the virtue of perseverance, he saw no reason to despair, though the half menacing, half self-satisfied manner in which he shook his head towards the retreating girl, might have be trayed designs as sinister as they were determined. White he was thus occupied, the Pathfinder approached, and gol within a few feet of him, unseen. " Twill never do, quartermaster, twill never do ! " com menced the latter, laughing in his noiseless way ; " she is young and actyve, and none but a quick foot can overtake her. They tell me you are her suitor, if you re not her follower." " And I hear the same of yourself, man, though the jre- sumption would be so great that I scarce can think it true." " I fear you re right, I do ; yes, I fear you re right ! when I consider myself what I am how little I know, and how rude my life has been, I altogether distrust my claim, even to think a moment, of one so tutored, and gay, %nd light of heart, and delicate " " You forget handsome," coarsely interrupted Muir. " And handsome, too., I fear," returned the meek and self- abased guide ; " I might have said handsome, at once, among her other qualities, for the young fa an, just it leanas to 818 THE PATHFINDhiu bound, is not more pleasant to the eye of the hunter thin Mabel is lovely in mine. I do indeed fear that all th thoughts I have harbored about her are vain and presump tuous." " If you think this, my friend, of your own accord, and natural modesty, as it might be, my duty to you as an old fellow-campaigner compels me to say " " Quartermaster," interrupted the other, regarding hit companion keenly, " you and I have lived together much be lli nd the ramparts of forts, but very little in the open woods, or in front of the inimy." " Garrison or tent, it all passes for part of the same cam paign, you know, Pathfinder ; and then my duty keeps me much within sight of the store-houses, greatly contrary to my inclinations, as ye may well suppose, having yourself the ardor of battle in your temperament. But had ye heard what Mabel has just been saying of you, ye d no think another minute of making yourself agreeable to the saucy and uncompromising hussy." Pathfinder looked earnestly at the lieutenant, for it was impossible he should not feel an interest in what might be Mabel s opinion ; but he had too much of the innate and true feeling of a gentleman, to ask to hear what another had said of him. Muir, however, was not to be foiled by this self-denial and self-respect ; for, believing he had a man of great truth and simplicity to deal with, he determined to practice on his credulity, as one means of getting rid of his rivalry. He, therefore, pursued the subject, as soon as ko perceived that his companion s self-denial was stronger than his curiosity. " You ought to know her opinion, Pathfinder," he con tinued ; " and I think every man ought to hear what his friends and acquaintances say of him ; and so, by way of proving my own regard for your character arid feelings, IT just tell you, in as few words as possible. You know that Mabel has a wicked, malicious way with those eyes of her own, when she has a mind to be hard upon one s feelings." " To me her eyes, Lieutenant Muir, have always seemed winning and soft, though I will acknowledge that they some- THE PATHFINDER. 319 Hmes iaugh yes, I have known them to laugh ; and that right heartily, and with downright good-will." " Well, it was just that, then ; her eyes were laughing with all their might, as it were, and in the midst of all her fun, she broke out with an exclamation to this effect I hope twill no hurt your sensibility, Pathfinder ? " * { 1 will not say, quartermaster, I will not say ; Mabel s opinion of me is of more account than that of most others." " Then I ll no tell ye, but just keep discretion on the sub ject; and why should a man be telling another what hii friends say of him, especially when they happen to say that which may not be pleasant to hear ? I ll not add another word to this present communication." " I cannot make you speak, quartermaster, if you are n* t so minded, and perhaps it is better for me not to know Ma bel s opinion, as you seem to think it is not in my favor. Ah s me ! if we could be what we wished to be, instead ol being only what we are, there would be a great difference in our characters, and knowledge, and appearance. One may be rude, and coarse, and ignorant, and yet happy, if he does not know it ; but it is hard to see our own failings in the strongest light, just as we wish to hear the least aboui them." " That s just the rationale, as the French say, of the mat ter ; and so I was telling Mabel, when she ran away and left me. You noticed the manner in which she skipped off, aa you approached ? " " It was very observable," answered Pathfinder, drawing a lc:ig breath, and clenching the barrel of his rifle, as if th* fingers would bury themselves in the iron. * It was more than observable, it was flagrant that s just the word, and the dictionary wouldn t supply a hotter after an hour s search. Well, you must know, Pathfinder, for I cannot reasonably deny you the gratification of hearing *his so you must know, the minx bounded off in that unanner, in preference to hearing what I had to say in your justification." " And what could you find to say in my behalf, quarter master ? " 320 THE PATHFINDER. " Why, d ye understand, my friend, I was ruled by cir cumstances, and no ventured indiscreetly into generalities but was preparing to meet particulars, as it might be, witl particulars. If you were thought wild, and half-savage, or of a frontier formation, I could tell her, ye know, that it came of the frontier, wild, half-savage life ye d led ; and all her objections must cease at once, or there would be a sort if a misunderstanding with Providence." " And did you tell her this, quartermaster ? " " I ll no swear to the exact words, but the idea was preva lent in my mind, ye ll understand. The girl was impatient, and would not hear the half I had to say ; but away she skipped, as ye saw with your own eyes, Pathfinder, as if her opinion were fully made up, and she cared to listen no longer. I fear her mind may be said to have come to its conclusion." " I fear it has, indeed, quartermaster, and her father, after all, is mistaken. Yes, yes ; the sergeant has fallen into a grievous error." " Well, man, why need ye lament, and undo all the grand reputation ye ve been so many years making ? Shoulder the rifle that ye use so well, and off into the woods with ye, for there s not the female breathing that is worth the heavy heart for a minute, as I know from experience. Tak the word of one who knows the sax, and has had two wives, that women, after all, are very much the sort of creatures we do not imagine them to be. Now, if you would really mortify Mabel, here is as glorious an occasion as any re- : <5cted lover could desire." " The last wish I have, lieutenant, would be to mortify Well, ye ll come to that in the end, notwithstanding for it s human nature to desire to give unpleasant feelings to them that give unpleasant feelings to us. But a better occasion never offered to make your friends love you, thau is to be had at this very moment, and that is the certain means ot causing one s enemies to envy us." " Quartermaster, Mabel is not my inimy ; anc 7 ;f she was. fche last thing I could desire would be to give her an uneasy moment." THE FATHF1NDKK. 821 "Ye say so, Pathfinder ye say so, and I dare say ye think so ; but reason and nature are both against you, as ye ll find in the end. Ye ve heard the saying of * Love me, love my dog : well, now, that means, read backwards, Don t love me, don t love my dog. Now, listen to what is in your power to do. You know we occupy an exceedingly precarious and uncertain position here, almost hi the jawr of Jhe lion, as it were ? " " Do you mean the Frenchers, by the lion, and this island as his jaws, lieutenant ? " " Metaphorically only, my friend, for the French are no lions, and this island is not a jaw unless, indeed, it may prove to be, what I greatly fear may come true, the jaw bone of an ass ! " Here the quartermaster indulged in a sneering laugh that proclaimed anything but respect and admiration for his friend Lundie s sagacity in selecting that particular spot for his operations. " The post is as well chosen as any I ever put foot in," said Pathfinder, looking around him as one surveys a picture. "Ill no deny it I ll no deny it. Luudie is a great soldier, in a small way ; and his father was a great la vd, with the same qualification. I was born on the estate, and have followed the major so long, that I ve got to reverence all he says and does. That s just my weakness ye ll know, Pathfinder. Well, this post may be the post of an ass, or of a Solomon, as men fancy ; but it s most critically placed, as is apparent by all Lundie s precautions and injunctions. There are savages out, scouting through these thousand islands, and over the forest, searching for this very spot, as is known to Lundie himself, on certain information ; and the greatest service you can render the 55th, is to discover their trails, and lead them off on a false scent. Unhappily, Sergeant Dunham has taken up the notion, that the danger is to be apprehended from up stream, because Frontenac lies above us ; whereas, all experience tells us, that Indians come on the side that is most contrary to reason, and, con sequently, are to be expe< ted from below Take your canoe, therefore, and go down stream, among the islands, that *ve 91 322 iIIE PATHFINLER. may havt notice if any clanger approaches from that quarter If you should look a few miles on the main, especially on the York side, the information you d bring in would be all the more accurate, and, consequently, the more valuable." " The Big Sarpent is on the lookout in that quarter, and as he knows the station well, no doubt he will give us timely notice, should any wish to sarcumvent us in that direction. u He is but an Indian, ifter all, Pathfinder, and this is an affair that calls for the knowledge of a white man. Lundie will be eternally grateful to the man that shall help his little enterprise to come off with flying colors. To tell you the truth, my friend, he is conscious it should never have been attempted, but he has too much of the old laird s ob stinacy about him to own an error, though it be as manifest as the morning star." The quartermaster then continued to reason with his companion, in order to induce him to quit the island without felay, using such arguments as first suggested themselves, sometimes contradicting himself, and not unfrequently urg ing at one moment a motive that at the next was directly opposed by another. The Pathfinder, simple as he was, detected these flaws in the lieutenant s philosophy, though he was far from suspecting that they proceeded from a desire to clear the coast of Mabel s suitor. He met bad reasons by good ones, resisted every inducement that was not legitimate, by his intimate acquaintance with his peculiar duties, and was blind, as usual, to the influence of every incentive that could not stand the test of integrity. Ho did not exactly suspect the secret objects of Muir, but ho was far from being blind to his sophistry. The result was that the two parted, after a long dialogue, unconvinced an I listrustful of each other s motives, though the distrust of the uido, iike all that was connected with the man, partook of his owi. upright, disinterested, and ingenuous nature. A conference that took place, soon after, between Ser L eanl Dunham and the lieutenant, led to more consequences- When it was ended, secret orders were issued to the men, the block-house was taken possession of, the huts werf occupied, and one accustomed o the movements of soldien THE PATHFINDER. 823 might have detected that an expedition was in the wind, lu faci, just as the sun was setting, the sergeant, who had >een much occupied at what was called the harbcr, oame into his own hut, followed by Pathfinder and Cap, anl as he took his seat at the neat table that Mabel had piejxired p or him, he opened the budget of his intelligence. " You are likely to be of some use here, my child," the old 3idier commenced, " as this tidy and well ordered supper can testify ; and, I trust, when the proper moment arrives, you will show yourself to be the descendant of those wio kno w how to face their enemies." "You do not expect me, dear father, to play Joan of Aie, and to lead the men to battle ? " " Play whom, child ? did you ever hear of the person Mabel mentions, Pathfinder ? " "Not I, sergeant; but what of that? I am ignorant and unedicated, and it is too great a pleasure to me to listen to her voice, and take in her words, to be particular about persons/ " I know her," said Cap, decidedly ; " she sailed a priva teer out of Morlaix, in the last war ; and good cruises she made of them." Mabel blushed at having inadvertently made an allusion that went beyond her father s reading, to say nothing of her uncle s dogmatism ; and, perhaps, a little at the Pathfinder s simple, ingenuous earnestness ; but she did not forbear the \ess to smile. " Why, father, I am not expected to fall in with the mer md to help defend the island ? " * And yet, women often have done such things, in this quarter of the world, girl, as our friend, the Pathfinder here, will tell you. But, lest you should be surprised at Uot seeing us, when you awake in the morning, it is propel that I now tell you we intend to march hi the course of this very night." " We, father and leave me and Jennie on this island done ! " * No, my daughter, not quite as unmilitary as that W nhall leave Lieutenant Muir brother Cap, Corporal Me Nab, 324 THE PATHFINDER. And three men, to compose the garrison during our absence, Jennie will remain with you in this hut, and brother Cap will occupy my place." " And Mr. Muir ? " said Mabel, half unconscious of what ghe uttered, though she foresaw a great . deal of unpleasant persecution in the arrangement. " Why, he can make love to you, if you like it, girl ; for ho is an amorous youth, and having already disposed of four wives, is impatient to show how much he honors their memories, by taking a fifth." " The quartermaster tells me," said Pathfinder, innocently, " that when a man s feelings have been harrowed by so many losses, there is no wiser way to soothe them, than by ploughing up the soil anew, in such a manner as to leave no traces of what have gone over it before." "Aye, that is just the difference between ploughing and harrowing," returned the sergeant, with a grim smile. " But let him tell Mabel his mind, and there will be an end of his suit. I very well know that my daughter will never be the wife of Lieutenant Muir." This was said in a way that was tantamount to declar ing that no daughter of his ever should become the wife of the person in question. Mabel had colored, trembled, half laughed, and looked uneasy ; but, rallying her spirit, she said in a voice so cheerful as completely to conceal her agitation, " But, father, we might better wait until Mr. Muir mani fests a wish that your daughter would have him, or rather a wish to have your daughter, lest we get the fable of sour grapes thrown into our faces." " And what is that fable, Mabel ? " eagerly demanded Pathfinder, who was anything but learned in the ordinary lore of white men ; " tell it to us in your own pretty way , 1 dare say the sergeant never heard it." Mabel repeated the well-known fable, and, as her suitor ,iad desired, in her own pretty way, which was a way to Keep his eyes riveted on her face, and .the whole of his honest corjitenance covered with a smile. was like a fox !" cried Pathfinder, when she hud THE PATHFINDER /.eased, " aye, and like a Mingo, too, cunning and cruel ; that is the way with both the riptyles. As to grapes, they f.re vour enough ik this part of the country, even to them that ,;an get at them, thougli I dare say there are seasons, and "\nes, and places, where they are sourer to them that can t. . sh3uld judge, now, my scalp is very sour hi Mingo eyes/ " Tke sour grapes will be the other way, child, and it ii Mr. Muir who will make the complaint. You would never marry that man, Mabel ? " " Not she," put in Cap ; " a fellow who is only half * sol dier, after all ! The story af them there grapes is quite 44 circumstance." " I think little of marrying any one, dear father, and dear uncle, and would rather talk about it less, if you please. But, did I think of marrying at all, I do believe a man whose affections have already been tried by three or four wives would scarcely be my choice." The sergeant nodded at the guide, as much as to say, You see how the laud lies ; and then he had sufficient con sideration for his daughter s feelings to change the subject. " Neither you nor Mabel, brother Cap," he resumed, " can have any legal authority with the garrison I leave behind, on the island ; but you may counsel and influence. Strictly speaking, Corporal McNab will be the commanding officer, and I have endeavored to impress him with a sense of his dignity, lest he might give way too much to the superior rank of Lieutenant Muir, who, being a volunteer, can have no right to interfere with the duty. I wish you to sustain the corporal, brother Cap, for should the quartermaster once break through the regulations of the expedition, he may pretend to command me as well as McNab." " More particularly, should Mabel really cut him adrift while you are absent. Of course, sergeant, you ll leave everything that is afloat under my care ? The most i le confusion has grown out of misunderstandings between corninanders-in-chief ashore and afloat." "In one sense, brother, though in a general way, the curpon.1 is Commander-in-chief. History does indeed tell as that a division of command leads to difficultier, and J 32t> THE PATHFINDER. shall avoid that danger. The corporal must command, but you can counsel freely, particularly in all matters relating to the boats, of which I shall leave one behind, to secure your retreat should there be occasion. I know the corporal well ; he is a brave man, and a good soldier ; and one that mAj be relied on, if the Santa Cruz can be kept from him. But then he is a Scotchman, and will be liable to the quartermaster s influence, against which I desire both you and Mabel to be on your guard." " But why leave us behind, dear father ? I have come thus far to be a comfort to you, and why not go further ? " u You are a good girl, Mabel, and very like the Dun hams ! But you must halt here. We shall leave the island to-morrow before the day dawns, in order not to be seen by any prying eyes coming from under cover, and we shall take the two largest boats, leaving you the other and one bark canoe. We are about to go into the channel used by the French, where we shall lie in wait perhaps a week to intercept their supply-boats that are about to pass up, on their way to Frontenac, loaded in particular with a heavy amount of Indian goods." " Have you looked well to your papers, brother ? " Cap anxiously demanded. " Of course you know a capture on the high seas is piracy, unless your boat is regularly com missioned either as a public or a private armed cruiser." " I have the honor to hold the colonel s appointment as sergeant-major of the 55th," returned the other, drawing himself up with dignity, " and that will be sufficient even for the French king. If not, I have Major Duncan s written orders." " No papers them, for a warlike cruiser." " They must suffice, brother, as I have no other. It i& sf vast importance to his Majesty s interests in this part of lUe world, that the boats in question should be captured and :*nied into Oswego They contain the blankets, trinkets, rifles, ammunition in short, all the stores with which the French bribe their accursed savage allies to commit their unholy acts, setting at naught our holy religion and its precepts, the laws of humanity, and all that is sacred and THE PATHFINDER 327 dear among men. By cutting off these supplies we shall derange their plans, and gain time on them; for the articles cannot be sent across the ocean again this autumn." " But, father, does not his Majesty employ Indians also ? " asked Mabel, with some curiosity. " Certainly, girl, and he has a right to employ them God bless him! It s a very different thing whether an Englishman or a Frenchman employs a savage, as every body can understand." " That is plain enough, brother Dunham ; but I do not see my way so clear in the matter of the ship s papers." " An English colonel s appointment ought to satisfy any Frenchman of my authority ; and what is more, brother, it shall." " But I do not see the difference, father, between an Eng lishman s and a Frenchman s employing savages in war." " All the odds in the world, child, though you may not be able to see it. In the first place, an Englishman is naturally humane and considerate, while a Frenchman is naturally ferocious and timid." " And you may add, brother, that he will dance from morning till night, if you ll let him." ** Very true," gravely returned the sergeant. " But, father, I cannot see that all this alters the case. If it be wrong in a Frenchman to hire savages to fight his enemies, it would seem to be equally wrong hi an English man. You will admit this, Pathfinder ? " " It s reasonable it s reasonable, and I have never been one of them that has raised a cry agin the Frenchers for doing the very thing we do ourselves. Still, it is worse to consort with a Mingo than to consort with a Delaware. If any of that just tribe were left, I should think it no sin to send them out agin the foe." " And yet they scalp and slay young and old women rod children ! " " They have their gifts, Mabel, and are not to be blamed for following them. Natur is natur , though the different tribes have different ways of showing it. For my part, I am white, and endeavor to maintain white feelings." 828 THE PATHFINDER. 44 ITiis is all unintelligible to me," answered Habei. * What is right in King George, it would seem, ought to be right in King Louis." "The King of France s real name is Caput," observed Cap, with his mouth full of venison. " I once carried a great scholar as a passenger, and he told me that these Lewises thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth, were all hum bugs, and that the men s real name was Caput ; which is French for head ; meaning that they ought to be put at the foot of the ladder, until ready to go up to be hanged." " Well, this does look like being given to scalping, as a nat ral gift," Pathfinder remarked, with the air of surprise with which one receives a novel idea, " and I shall have less compunction than ever in sarving agin the miscreants, though I can t say I ever yet felt any worth naming." As all parties, Mabel excepted, seemed satisfied with the course the discussion had taken, no one appeared to think it necessary to pursue the subject. The trio of men, in deed, in this particular, so much resembled the great mass of their fellow-creatures, who usually judge of character equally without knowledge and without justice, that we might not have thought it necessary to record the discourse, had it not some bearing in its facts on the incidents of the legend, and in its opinions on the motives of the charac ters. Supper was no sooner ended than the sergeant dismissed his guests, aad then held a long and confidential dialogue with his daughter. He was little addicted to giving way to die gentler emotions, but the novelty of his present situa tion awakened feelings that he was unused to experience. The soldier, or the sailor, so long as he a cts under the im mediate supervision of a superior, thinks little of the risks ae runs ; but the moment he feels the responsibility of .jommand, all the hazards of his undertaking begin to as sociate themselves in his mind with the chances of success or failure. While he dwells less on his own personal dan ger, perhaps, than when that is the principal consideration, he has more lively general perceptions of all the risks, and submits more to the influence of the feelings which douUf THE PATHFINDER. 329 creates. Such was now the case with Sergeant Dunham, who, instead of looking forward to victory as certain, ac cording to his usual habits, began to feel the possibility that he might be parting with his child forever. Never before had Mabel struck him as so beautiful as she appeared that night. Possibly she never had displayed so many engaging qualities to her father ; for concern on his account had begun to be active in her breast, and then her sympathies met with unusual encouragement through those which had been stirred up in the sterner besom of the veteran. She had never been entirely at her ease with her parent, the great superiority of her education, creating a_sdrt of chasm, which had been widened by the military severity of manner he had acquired by dealing so long and intimately with beings who could only be kept in subjection by an unremitted discipline. On the present occasion, how ever, or after they were left alone, the conversation between the father and daughter became more confidential than usual, until Mabel rejoiced to find that it was gradually be coming endearing ; a state of feeling that the warm-hearted girl had silently pined for in vain, ever since her arrival. " Then, mother was about my height ? " Mabel said, as she held one of her father s hands in both her own, looking up into his face with humid eyes. " I had thought hei taller." " This is the way with most children, who get a habit of thinking of their parents with respect, until they fancy them larger and more commanding than they actually are. Your mother, Mabel, was as near your height as one wom^n could be to another." " And her eyes, father ? " " Her eyes were like thine, child, too blue and soft, iiul inviting like ; though hardly so laughing." " Mine will never laugh again, dearest father, if you do not take care of yourself in this expedition." " Thank you, Mabel hem thank you, child ; but J >ttust do my duty. I wish I had seen you comfortably married before we left Oswego ! my mind would b 330 THE PATHFINDER. " Married ! to whom, father ? " " You know the man I wish you to love. You may meet with many gayer, and many dressed in finer clothes but with none with so true a heart and just a mind." - None, father ? " " I know of none ; in these particulars Pathfinder has few equals, at least." " But I neecf not marry at all. You are single, and I can remain to take care of you." " God bless you, Mabel ! I know you would, and I do not say that the feeling is not right, for I suppose it is ; and yet I believe there is another that is more so." " What can be more right than to honor one s par ents?" "It is just as right to honor one s husband, my dear child." " But I have no husband, father." " Then take one as soon as possible, that you may have a husband to honor. I cannot live forever, Mabel, but must drop off in the course of nature ere long, if I am not carried off in the course of war. You are young, and may yet live long ; and it is proper that you should have a male protector, who can see you safe through life, and take caro of you in age as you now wish to take care of me." " And do you think, father " said Mabel, playing with his sinewy fingers with her own little hands, and looking down at them as if they were subjects of intense interest, though her lips curled in a slight smile as the words came from them " and do you think, father, that Pathfinder is just the man to do this ? Is he not within ten or twelve years as old as yourself ? " * What of that ? His life had been one of moderation and exercise, and years are less to be counted, girl, than constitution. Do you know another more likely to be your protector ? " Mabel did not ; at least another who had expressed a de- tire to that effect, whatever might have been her hopes and her wishes. " Nay, father, we are not talking of another, but of th THE PATHFINDER. 331 Pathfinder," she answered evasively. " If he we? a(younge> I think it would be more natural for me to think ofEm for a husband." " Tis all in the constitution, I tell you child : Pathfinder is a younger man than half our subalterns." " He is certainly younger than one, sir Lieuteaant Muir." Mabel s laugh was joyous aiid light-hearted, as if jusv then she felt no care. " That he is young enough to be his grandson ; he is younger in years, too. God forbid, Mabel, that you should ever become an officer s lady, at least until you are an officer s daughter." " There will be little fear of that, father, if I marry Pathfinder ! " returned the girl, looking up archly in the sergeant s face again. " Not by the king s commission, perhaps, though the man is even now the friend and companion of generals. I think I could die happy, Mabel, if you were his wife." Father ! " " Tis a sad thing to go into battle with the weight of an unprotected daughter laid upon the heart." " I would give the world to lighten yours of its load, my dear sir ! " " It might be done," said the sergeant, looking fondly at his child, "though I could not wish to put a burden on yours in order to do so." The voice was deep and tremulous, and never before had Mabel witnessed such a show of affection in her parent, fhe habitual sternness of *he man lent an interest to his emotions that they might otherwise have wanted, and the Daughter s heart yearned to relieve the father s mind. " Father, speak plainly," she cried, almost convulsively. * Nay, Mabel, it might not be right your wishes and mine may be very different." " I have no wishes know nothing of what you mean ; would you speak of my future marriage ? " " If I could see you promised to Pathfinder know that fou **ere pledged to become his wife, let my own fate be 832 THE PATHFINDER. what it might, I think I could die happy. But I will ask no pledge of you, my child I will not force you to do tvhat you might repent. Kiss me, Mabel, and go to your oed." Had Sergeant Dunham exacted of Mabel the pledge that he really so much desired, he would have encountered a re sistance that he might have found difficult to overcome. but, by letting nature have its course, he enlisted a power ful ally on his side, and the warm-hearted, generous-minded Mabel was ready to concede to her affections, much more than she would ever have yielded to menace. At that touching moment she thought only of her parent, who was about to quit her, perhaps forever ; and all of that ardent love for him, which had possibly been as much fed by the imagination as by anything else, but which had received a little check by the restrained intercourse of the last fort night, now returned with a force that was increased by pure and intense feeling. Her father seemed all in all to her ; and to render him happy, there was no proper sacrifice that she was not ready to make. One painful, rapid, almost wild gleam of thought shot across the brain of the girl, and her resolution wavered ; but endeavoring to trace the foundation of the pleasing hope on which it was based, she found nothing positive to support it. Trained like a woman, to subdue her most ardent feelings, her thoughts reverted to her father, and to the blessings that awaited the child who yielded to a parent s wishes. " Father," she said quietly, almost with a holy calm, " God blesses the dutiful daughter I " " He will, Mabel ; we have the Good Book for that" " I will marry whomsoever you desire. "Nay, nay, Mabel you may have a choice of your " I have no choice that is none have asked me to have a choice, but Pathfinder and Mr. Muir ; and between ikem^ neither of us would hesitate. No, father i I will marry whomsoever you may choose." " Thou knowest my choice, beloved girl ; none other can make thee as happy as the noble-hearted guide" THE PATHFINDER. 88u " Well, then, if he wish it if he ask me again for, fatner, you would not have me offer myself, or that any one should do that office for me," and the blood stole across the pallid cheeks of Mabel, as she spoke, for high and gen erous resolutions had driven back the stream of lile to her heart, " no one must speak to him of it ; but if he seek me igain, and, knowing all that a true girl ought to tell the mat. she marries, and he then wishes to make me his wife. I will be his." " Bless you, my Mabel God in heaven bless you, am] reward you as a pious daughter deserves to be rewarded." " Yes, father, put your mind at peace j go on this expedi tion with a light heart, and trust in God. For me, you will have now no care. In the spring I must have a little time, father but, in the spring, I will marry Pathfinder, if that noble hearted hunter shall then desire it." " Mabel, he loves you as I loved your mother. I have seen him weep like a child, when speaking of his feelings towards you." " Yes, I believe it ; I ve seen enough to satisfy me that he thinks better of me than I deserve ; and certainly the man is not living for whom I have more respect than for Pathfinder ; not even for you, dear father." " That is as it should be, child, and the union will be blessed. May I not tell Pathfinder this?" " I would rather you would not, father. Let it come of itself come naturally; the man should seek the woman, and not the woman the man " The smile that illuminated Mabel s handsome face was angelic, as even her parent thought, though one better practiced in detecting the pass ing emotions, as they betray themselves in the countenanc^ might have traced something wild and unnatural in it. " No, no, we must let things take their course ; father, you have iny solemn promise." "That will do that will do, Mabel; now kiss me; God bless and protect you, girl ; you are a good daughter. * Mabel threw herself into her father s arms, it was the ilrst time in her life, and sobbed on his bosom like an infant The stern old soldier s heart was melted, and th* 834 THE PATHFINDER. tears of the two mingled; but Sergeant Dunham soon started, as if ashamed of himself, and gently forcing his daughter from him, he bade her good night, and sought his pallet. Mabel went sobbing to the rude corner that had been prepared for her reception, and in a few minutes the hut was undisturbed by any sound, save the heavy breathing f the veteran THE PATHFINDER. 835 CHAPTER XX- Wandering, I found on my ruinous walk By the dial stone, aged and green, One rose of the wilderness left on its stalk, To mark where a garden had been. C AMI BELL IT was not only broad daylight when Mabel awoke, but the sun had actually been up some time. Her sleep had been tranquil, for she rested on an approving conscience, and fatigue contributed to render it sweet ; and no sound of those who had been so early in motion had interfered with her rest. Springing to her feet, and rapidly dressing herself, the girl was soon breathing the fragrance of the morning, in the open air. For the first time she was sensibly struck with the singular beauties as well as with the profound retirement of her present situation. The day proved to be one of those of the autumnal glory so common to a climate that is more abused than appreciated, and its Jifluence was in every way inspiriting and genial. Mabel was benefited by this circumstance, for, as she fancied, her heart was heavy on account of the dangers to which a father, whom she now began to love, as women love when confidence is created, was about to be exposed. But the island seemed absolutely deserted. The previous night, the bustle of the arrival had given the spot an ap pearance of life that was now entirely gone ; and our heroine had turned her eyes nearly around on every object in sight, before she caught a view of a single human being to remove the sense of utter solitude. Then, indeed, she beheld all who were left behind, collected in a group, around a fire which might be said to belong to the camp. The person of her uncle, to whom she was so much accus tomed, reassured the girl, and she examined the remaindoT 8-1.6 THE PATHFINDER. with a curiosity natural to her situation. Besides Cap and the quartermaster, there were the corporal, the tnree sol diers, and the woman who was cooking. The huts were silent and empty, and the low, but tower-like summit of the block-house rose above the bushes, by which it was half concealed, in picturesque beauty. The sun was just casting its brightness into the open places of the glade, anl the vault, over her head, was impending in the soft subLmity of the blue void. Not a cloud was visible, and she secretly fancied the circumstance might be taken as a harbinger of peace and security. Perceiving that all the others were occupied with that great concern of human nature, a breakfast, Mabel walked unobserved towards an end of the island, where she was completely shut out of view by the trees and bushes. Here she got a stand on the very edge of the water, by forcing aside the low branches, and stood watching the barely perceptible flow and re-flow of the miniature waves that laved the shore ; a sort of physical echo to the agitation that prevailed on the lake fifty miles above her. The glimpses of natural scenery that offered, were very soft and pleasing ; and our heroine, who had a quick and true eye for all that was lovely in nature, was not slow in selecting the most striking bits of landscape. She gazed through the different vistas formed by the openings between the islands, and thought she had never looked on aught more lovely. While thus occupied, Mabel was suddenly alarmed by fancying that she caught a glimpse of a human form among the bushes that lined the shore of the island that lay directly before her. The distance across the water was not a hundred yards ; and though she might be mistaken, and her fancy was wandering when the form passed before her sight, still she did not think she could be deceived. Aware vhat her sex would be no protection against a rifle-bullet, ihould an Iroquois get a view of her, the girl instinctively drew back, taking care to conceal her person as much as possible by the leaves, while she kept her own look riveted on the opposite shore, vainly waiting for some time in the fixpectation of the stranger. She was about to quit ho/ THE PATHFINDER 837 post in the bushes, and hasten to her uncle in order to acquaint him of her suspicions, when she saw the branch of an alder thrust beyond the bushes, on the other island, and waved towards her significantly, and, as she fancied, in token of amity. This was a breathless and a trying mo ment, to one as inexperienced in frontier warfare as our heroine, and yet she felt the great necessity that existed foi preserving her recollection, and of acting with steadiness and discretion. It was one of the peculiarities of the exposure to vhisb those who dwelt on the frontiers of America were liable to bring out the moral qualities of the women to a degree that they must themselves, under other circumstances, have believed they were incapable of manifesting; and Mabel well knew that the borderers loved to dwell, in their legends, on the presence of mind, fortitude, and spirit, that their wives and sisters had displayed, under circumstances the most trying. Her emulation had been awakened by what she had heard on such subjects ; and it at once struck her, that now was the moment for her to show that she was truly Sergeant Dunham s child. The motion of the branch was such as, she believed, indicated amity ; and, after a moment s hesitation, she broke off a twig, fastened it to a stick, and, thrusting it through an opening, waved it in re turn, imitating, as closely as possible, the manner of the other. This dumb show lasted two or three minutes on both sides, when Mabel perceived that the bushes opposite were cautiously pushed aside, and a human face appeared at an opening. A glance sufficed to let Mabel see that it was the countenance of a red-skin, as well as that of a woman. A second and a better look satisfied her that it was the face of the Dew-of-June, the wife of Arrowhead. During the tiino she had travelled in company with this woman, Mabel had been won by the gentleness of manner, the meek simplicity, and the mingled awe and affection with which she regarded her husband. Once or twice, in the course of the journey, she fancied the Tuscarora had manifested towards herself %n unpleasant degree of attention ; and on those ocoaeioni 888 THE PATHFINDER. it had struck her that his wife exhibited soirow *nd mortifi cation. As Mabel, however, had more than compensated for any pain she might, in this way, unintentionally have caused her companion, by her own kindness of manner and attentions, the woman had shown much attachment to her, and they had parted, with a deep conviction on the mind of our heroine, that in the Dew-of-June she had lost > friend. It is useless to attempt to analyze all the ways by which the human heart is led into confidence. Such a feeling, however, had the young Tuscarora woman awakened in the breast of our heroine ; and the latter, under the impression that this extraordinary visit was intended for her own good, felt every disposition to have a closer communication. She no longer hesitated about showing herself clear of the bushes, and was not sorry to see the Dew-of-June imitate her confidence, by stepping fearlessly out of her own cover. The two girls, for the Tuscarora, though married, was even younger than Mabel, now openly exchanged signs of friend ship, and the latter beckoned to her friend to approach, though she knew not the manner, herself, in which this object could be effected. But the Dew-of-June was not slow hi letting it be seen that it was in her power ; for, disappearing a moment, she soon showed herself again in the end of a bark canoe, the bows of which she had drawn to the edge of the bushes, and of which the body still lay in a sort of covered creek. Mabel was about to invite her to cross, when her own name was called aloud, hi the sten torian voice of her uncle. Making a hurried gesture for the Tuscarora girl to conceal herself, Mabel sprang from the bushes, and tripped up the glade towards the sounds, and perceived that the whole party had just seated themselves at breakfast; Cap having barely put his appetite under sufficient restraint to summon her to join them. That this was the most favorable instant for the interview flashed on the mind of Mabel ; and, excusing herself on the plea of not being prepared for the meal, she bounded back to the thicket, and soon renewed he^ communications with the young Indian woman. THE PATHFINDER. 389 Dew-of-June was quick of comprehension ; and with half a dozen noiseless strokes of the paddles, her canoe was concealed in the bushes of Station Island. In another minute, Mabel held her hand, and was leading her through the grove towards her own hut. Fortunately, the latter was so placed as to be completely hidden from the sight of those at the fire, and they both entered it unseen. Hastily explaining to her guest, in the best manner she could, the necessity of quitting her for a short time, Mabel, first plac ing the Dew-of-June in her own room, with a full certainty that she would not quit it until told to do so, went to tho fire, and took her seat among the rest, with all the com posure it was in her power to command. " Late come, late served, Mabel," said her uncle, between two mouthfuls of broiled salmon, for though the cookery might be very unsophisticated on that remote frontier, the viands were generally delicious ; " late come, late served : it is a good rule, and keeps laggards up to their work." " I am no laggard, uncle, for I have been stirring near an hour, and exploring our island." " It s little you ll make o that, Mistress Mabel," put in Muir, " that s little by nature. Lundie, or it might be better to style him Major Duncan in this presence " this was said in consideration of the corporal and the common men, though they were taking their meal a little apart " it might be better to style him Major Duncan in this presence, has not added an empire to his Majesty s domin ions in getting possession of this island, which is likely to equal that of the celebrated Sancho, in revenues and profits Sancho of whom, doubtless, Master Cap, you ll often have been reading in your leisure hours, more especially in calms, and moments of inactivity." " I know the spot you mean, quartermaster ; tencho s Island coral rock, of new formation, and as bad a land fell, in a dark night and blowing weather, as a sinner could wish to keep clear of. It s a famous place for cocoa-nuts and bitter water, that Sancho s Island ! " " It s no very famous for dinners," returned Muir, repress ing the smile that was struggling to his lips, out of respec* 340 THE PATHFINDER. to Mabel, " nor do I think there ll be much to choose be tween its revenue and that of this spot. In my judgment, Master Cap, this is a very unrnilitary position, and I look to some calamity s befalling it, sooner or later." " It is to be hoped not until our turn of duty is over," observed Mabel. " I have no wish to study the French language." 4< We might think ourselves happy, did it not prove to be the Iroquois I have reasoned with Major Puncan on the occupation ot this position, but A willfu man maun ha his way. My first object, in accompanying this party, was to endeavor to make myself acceptable and useful to your beautiful niece, Master Cap ; and the second was to take such an account of the stores that belong to my particular department, as shall leave no question open to controversy, concerning the manner of expenditure, when they shall have disappeared by means of the enemy." " Do you look upon matters as so serious ? " demanded Cap, actually suspending his mastication of a bit of venison, for he passed alternately, like a modern elegant, from fish to flesh and back again, in the interest he took in the answer. " Is the danger pressing ? " " I ll no say just that ; and I ll no say just the contrary. There is always danger in war, and there is more of it at the advanced posts than at the main encampment. It ought, therefore, to occasion no surprise were we to be visited by the French at any moment." " And what the devil is to be done in that case ? Sir *nen and two women would make but a poor job in defend ing such a place as this, should the enemy invade us, as no doubt, Frenchman-like, they would take very good care to come strong-handed." " That we may depend on. Some very formidable force, at the very lowest. A military disposition might be made, iu defense of the island, out of all question, and according to the art of war, though we would probably fail in the force necessary to carry out the design, in any very creditable manner. In the first place, a detachment should be sent ^S to the store, with orders to annoy the enemy in landing THE PATHFINDER 341 A strong party ought instantly to be thrown into the block house, as the citadel, for on that all the different detach ments would naturally fall back for support, as the Frenc advanced; and an entrenched camp might be laid cu around the stronghold, as it would be very unmilitary indeed to let the foe get near enough to the foot of the walls to mine them. Chevaux-de-frise would keep the cayalry in check, and as for the artillery, redoubts should be thrown up, under cover of yon woods. Strong skirmishing parties, moreover, would be exceedingly serviceable in retarding the march of the enemy ; and these different huts, if properly picketed and ditched, would be converted into very eligible positions for that object." " Whe-e-w ! quartermaster. And who the d 1 is to find all the men to carry out such a plan ? " " The king, out of all question, Master Cap. It is his quarrel, and it s just he should bear the burden o it." " And we are only six ! This is fine talking, with a vengeance. You could be sent down to the shore to oppose the landing, Mabel might skirmish with her tongue at least, the soldier s wife might act chevaux-de-frise, to entangle the cavalry, the corporal should command the entrenched camp, his three men could occupy the five huts, and I would take the block-house. Whe-e-e-w, you describe well, lieutenant, and should have been a limner instead of a soldier ! " " Na I ve been very literal and upright In my exposi tion of matters. That there is no greater force here to carr} out the plan is a fault of his Majesty s ministers, and none of mine." " But should our enemy really appear," asked Mabel, with more interest than she might have shown had she not remembered the guest in the hut, " what course ought we to pursue ? " " My advice would be to attempt to achieve that, pretty Mabel, which rendered Xenophon so justly celebrated." " I think you mean a retreat, though I half guess at your allusion." " You ve imagined my meaning from the possession of a itrong native sense, young lady. I am aware that your 342 THE PATHFINDER. worthy fa,ther has pointed out to the corporal certain mode* and methods by which he fancies this island could be held in case the French should discover its position ; but the excellent sergeant, though your father, and as good a man in his duties as ever wielded a spontoon, is not the great Lord Stair, or even the Duke of Marlborough. I ll no deny the sergeant s merits in his particular sphere, though I can not exaggerate qualities, however excellent, into those of men who may be, in some trifling degree, his superiors. Sergeant Dunham has taken counsel of his heart instead of his head, in resolving to issue such orders ; but if the fort fall the blame will lie on him that ordered it to be occupied, and not on him whose duty it was to defend it. Whatever may be the determination of the latter, should the French and their allies land, a good commander never neglects the preparations necessary to effect a retreat; and I would advise Master Cap, who is the admiral of our navy, to have a boat in readiness to evacuate the island if need comes to need. The largest boat that we have left carries a very ample sail, and by hauling it round here and mooring it under those bushes there will be a convenient place for a hurried embarkation, and then you ll perceive, pretty Mabel, that it is scarce fifty yards before we shall be in a channel between two other islands, and hid from the sight of those who may happen to be on this." " All that you say is very true, Mr. Muir ; but may not the French come from that quarter themselves ? If it is so good for a retreat, it is equally good for an advance." " They ll no have the sense to do so discreet a thing," returned Muir, looking furtively and a little uneasily around him ; " they ll no have sufficient discretion. Your French are a head-over-heels nation, and usually come forward in a random way ; so we may look for them, if they come at all, on the other side of the island." The discourse now became exceeding desultory, touching principally, however, on the probabilities of an invasion and the best means of meeting it. To most of this Mabel paid but little attention, though ihe felt some surprise that Lieutenant Muir, an officei whose THE PATHFINDER. 343 character for courage stood well, should openly recommend an abandonment of what appeared to her to be doubly a duty, her father s character being connected with th. defense of the island. Her mind, however, was so Erich occupied with her guest that, seizing the first favorable mo ment, she left the table and was soon in her own hut again. Carefully fastening the door, and seeing that the simple cur tain was drawn before the single little window, Mabel next led the Dew-of-June, or June, as she was familiarly termed by those who spoke to her in English, into the outer room, making signs of affection and confidence. " I am glad to see you, June," said Mabel, with one of her sweetest smiles, and in her own winning voice ; " very glad to see you what has brought you hither, and how did you discover the island ? " " Talk slow," said June, returning smile for smile, and pressing the little hand she held with one of her own, that was scarcely larger, though it had been hardened by labor, " more slow too quick." Mabel repeated her questions, endeavoring to repress the impetuosity of her feelings, and she succeeded in speaking so distinctly as to be understood. " June, friend," returned the Indian woman. " I believe you, June : from my soul I believe you ; what has this to do with your visit ? " " Friend come to see friend," answered June, again smil ing openly in the other s face. " There is some other reason, June ; else would you never run this risk, and alone ; you are alone, June ? " " June wid you no one else. June come alone, paddle aoe." " I hope so I think so nay, I know so. You would not be treacherous with me, June ? " " What treacherous ? " " You would not betray me would not give me to the French to the Iroquois to Arrowhead " June shook her head earnestly " you would not sell my scalp ? " Here June passed her arm fondly around the slender of Mabel, and pressed her to her heart, with a tender- 344 THE PATHFINDER. ness and affection that brought tears into the eyes of our heroine. It was done in the fond, caressing manner of a woman, and it was scarcely possible that it should not ob tain credit for sincerity, with a young and ingenuous person of the same sex. Mabel returned the* pressure, and then held the other off at the length of her arm, looking her steadily in the face, and continued her inquiries. If June has something to tell her friend, let her speak plainly," she said. " My ears are open." " June fraid Arrowhead kill her." " But Arrowhead will never know it." Mabel s blood mounted to her temples, as she said this ; for she felt that she was urging a wife to be treacherous to her husband. " That is, Mabel will not tell him." " He bury tomahawk in June s head." " That must never be, dear June ; I would rather you should say no more than run this risk." " Block-house good place to sleep good place to stay." " Do you mean that I may save my life by keeping in the block-house, June ? Surely, surely, Arrowhead will not hurt you for telling me that. He cannot wish me any great harm, for I never injured him." " Arrowhead wish no harm to handsome pale-face," re turned June, averting her face, and, though she always spoke in the soft, gentle voice of an Indian girl, permitting its notes to fall so low as to cause them to sound melancholy and timid ; " Arrowhead love pale-face girl." Mabel blushed, she knew not why, and, for a moment, her questions were repressed by a feeling of inherent deli cacy. But it was necessary to know more, for her appre hensions had been keenly awakened, and she resumed her inquiries. " Arrowhead can have no reason to love or to hate vie? she said. " Is he near you ? " " Husband always near wife, here," said June, laying her hand on her neart. " Excellent creature ! But, tell me, June, ought I to keep in the block-house to-day this morning now ? " " Block-house very good ; good for squaw. Block-housi got no scalp." i THE PATHFINDER. 845 " I fear I understand you only too well. Do you wish to ee my father ? " " No here ; gone away." " You cannot know that, June ; you see the island Is full of his soldiers." " No full ; gone away," here June held up four of her fingers ; " so many red-coats." " And Pathfinder would you not like to see the Path finder ? he can talk to you in the Iroquois tongue." " Tongue gone wid him," said June, laughing ; " keej tongue in his moutV There was something so sweet and contagious in the in fantile laugh of an Indian girl, that Mabel could not refrain from joining in it, much as her fears were aroused by all that had passed. " You appear to know, or to think you know, all about us, June. But, if Pathfinder be gone, Eau-douce can speak French too. You know Eau-douce ; shall I run and bring him to talk with you ? " " Eau-douce gone, too, all but heart ; that there." As June said this, she laughed again, looked in different direc tions, as if unwilling to confuse the other, and laid her hand on Mabel s bosom. Our heroine had often heard of the wonderful sagacity of the Indians, and of the surprising manner in which they noted all things, while they appeared to regard none, but she was scarce prepared for the direction the discourse had so singularly taken. Willing to change it, and, at the same time, truly anxious to learn how great the danger that im- )ended over them might really be, she rose from the camp- otcol on which she had been seated, and, by assuming an ^attitude of less affectionate confidence, she hoped to hear more of that she really desired to learn, and to avoid allu sions to that which she found so embarrassing. " You know how much or how little you ought to tell me, June," she said, " and I hope you love me well enough to give me the information I ought to hear. My dear uncle, coo, is on the island, and you are, or ought to be, his friend, as well as mine ; and both of us will remember your conduct when wo get back to Oswego. " 846 THE PATHFINDER. " Maybe never get back who know ? " This was said doubtingly, or as one lays down an uncertain proposition, and not with a taunt, or desire to alarm. " No one knows what will happen, but God. Our lives are in his hands. Still I think you are to be his instrument m saving us." This passed June s comprehension, and she only looked her ignorance, for it was evident she wished to be of use. " Block-house very good," she repeated, as soon as her countenance ceased to express uncertainty, laying strong emphasis on the two last words. " Well, I understand this, June, and will sleep in it to night. Of course I am to tell my uncle what you have said." The Dew-of-June started, and she discovered a very manifest uneasiness at the interrogatory. " No, no no, no," she answered, with a volubility and vehemence that was imitated from the French of the Canadas, " no good to tell Salt-water. He much talk and long tongue. Think woods all water ; understand not ing. Tell Arrowhead, and June die." " You do my dear uncle injustice, for he would be as lit tle likely to betray you as any one." " No understand. Salt-water got tongue, but no eye, uo ear, no nose, not ing but tongue, tongue, tongue/ Although Mabel did not exactly coincide in this opinion, she saw that Cap had not the confidence of the young In dian woman, and that it was idle to expect she would con sent to his being admitted to their interview. " You appear to think you know our situation pretty well, June," Mabel continued, " have you been on the island be fore this visit ? " " Just come." * How, then, do you know that what you say is true ; my father, the Pathfinder, and Eau-douce, may all be here within the sound of my voice, if I choose to call them." " All gone," said June, positively, sinHing good-humorediy %t the same time. " Nay, this is more than you can say certainly, not h*v ing been over the island to examine it." THE PATHFINDER. 847 * Got good eyes ; see boat with men go away see ship with Eau-douce." " Then you have been some time watching us ; I think, however, you have not counted them that remain." June laughed, held up her four fingers again, and then pointed to her two thumbs ; passing a finger over the first, she repeated the words " Red-coats," and touching the last, she added, " Salt-water," " Quartermaster." All this was being very accurate, and Mabel began to entertain serious doubts of the propriety of her permitting her visitor to de part without her becoming more explicit. Still it was so repugnant to her feelings to abuse the confidence this gentle and affectionate creature had evidently reposed in her, that Mabel had no sooner admitted the thought of summoning her uncle than she rejected it, as unworthy of herself, and unjust to her friend. To aid this good resolution, too, there was the certainty that June would reveal nothing, but take refuge in a stubborn silence, if any attempt were made to coerce her. " You think, then, June," Mabel continued, as soon as these thoughts had passed through her mind, " that I had better live in the block-house ? " " Good place for squaw. Block-house got no scalp. Logs t ick." " You speak confidently, June, as if you had been in it, and had measured its walls." June laughed, and she looked knowing, though she said nothing. " Does any one but yourself know how to find this island ? have any of the Iroquois seen it ? " June looked sad, and she cast her eyes warily about her> as if distrusting a listener. " Tuscarora everywhere Oswego, here, Frontenac. Mohawk everywhere. If he see June, kill her." " But we thought that no one knew of this island, and that we had no reason to fear our enemies while on it." " Much eye, Iroquois." " Eyes will not always do, June. This spot is hid from urdinary sight, and few of even our OWE people know how to find it." 348 THE PATHFINDER. "One man can tell some Yengeese talk .Preach." Mabel felt a chill at her heart. All the suspiciors against Jasper, which she had hitherto disdained entertain ing, crowded in a body on her thoughts, and the sensation that they brought was so sickening, that for an instant she imagined she was about to faint. Arousing herself, and re membering her promise to her father, she arose and walked up and down the hut for a minute, fancying that Jasper s delinquencies were naught to her, though her inmost heart yearned with the desire to think him innocent. 16 1 understand your meaning, June," she then said ; " you wish me to know that some one has treacherously told your people where and how to find the island." June laughed, for in her eyes artifice in war was oftener a merit than a crime ; but she was too true to her tribe her self, to say more than the occasion required. Her object was to save Mabel, and Mabel only, and she saw no suffi cient reason for " travelling out of the record," as the law yers express it, in order to do anything else. " Pale-face know now," she added ; " block-house good for girl no matter for men and warriors." " But it is much matter with me, June, for one of these men is my uncle, whom I love, and the others are my countrymen and friends. I must tell them what has passed." " Then June be kill," returned the young Indian quietly, though she spoke with concern. " No they shall not know that you have been here. Still, they must be on their guard, and we can all go into the block-house." " Arrowhead know see everything, and June be kill ; June come to tell young pale-face friend, not to tell men. Every warrior watch his own scalp. June squaw, and tell squaw ; no tell men." Mabel was greatly distressed at this declaration of her wild friend, for it was now evident the young creature un derstood that her communication was to go no further. She was ignorant how far these pec pie considered the point of honor interested in her keeping the secret ; and, most o/ all, was she unable to say how far any indiscretion of hei THE PATHFINDER. awn might actually commit June, and endanger her life. All these considerations flashed on her mind, and reflection only rendered their influence more painful. June, too, man ifestly viewed the matter gravely, for she began to gaAer up the different little articles she had dropped, in taking Mabel s hand, and was preparing to depart. To attempt detaining her was out of the question, and to part from her, after all she had hazarded to serve her, was repugnant to all the just and kind feelings of our heroine s nature. " June," she said eagerly, folding her arms round the gen tle, but uneducated being, " we are friends. From me you have nothing to fear, for no one shall know of your visit. If you could give me some signal just before the danger comes, some sign by which to know when to go into the block-house how to take care of myself " June paused, for she had been in earnest in her intention to depart ; and then she said quietly, " Bring June pigeon." " A pigeon ! Where shall I find a pigeon to bring you ? " " Next hut bring old one June go to canoe." " I think I understand you, June ; but had I not better lead you back to the bushes, lest you meet some of the men?" " Go out first count men one, two, t ree, four, five, six ; " here June held up her fingers and laughed ; " all out of way good ; all but one call him one side. Then sing, and fetch pigeon." Mabel smiled at the readiness and ingenuity of the girl, and prepared to execute her requests. At the door, how ever, she stopped, and looked back entreatingly at the In dian woman. " Is there no hope of your telling me more, June ? " she said. " Know all now ; block-house good pigeon tell , Arrow head kill." The last words sufficed ; for Mabel could not urge fur ther communications, when her companion herself told her that the penalty of her revelations might be death by the hand of her husband. Throwing open the door, she made a 850 THE PATHFINDER. sign of adieu to June, and went out of the hut. Mabel re sorted to the simple expedient of the young Indian girl, to ascertain the situation of the different individuals on the isl and. Instead of looking about her with the intention of recognizing faces and dresses, she merely counted them; and found that three still remained at the fire, while two had gone to the boat, one of whom was Mr. Muir. The sixth man was her uncle ; and he was coolly arranging some fish ing tackle, at no great distance from the fire. The woman was just entering her own hut ; and this accounted for the whole party. Mabel now, affecting to have dropped some thing, returned nearly to the hut she had left, warbling an ah", stooped as if to pick up some object from the ground, and hurried towards the hut June had mentioned. This was a dilapidated structure, and it had been converted by the soldiers of the last detachment into a sort of store-house for their live stock. Among other things, it contained a few dozen pigeons, which were regaling on a pile of wheat that had been brought off from one of the farms plundered on the Canada shore. Mabel had not much difficulty in catching one of these pigeons, although they fluttered and flew about the hut, with a noise like that of drums ; and, concealing it in her dress, she stole back towards her owa hut with the prize. It was empty ; and, without doing more than cast a glance in at the door, the eager girl hur ried down to the shore. She had no difficulty in escaping observation, for the trees and bushes made a complete cover to her person. At the canoe she found June, who took the pigeon, placed it in a basket of her own manufacturing, and repeating the words, " Block-house good," she glided out of the bushes and across the narrow passage as noiselessly as she had come. Mabel waited some time to catch a signal of leave-taking or amity, after her friend had landed, but none was given. The adjacent islands, without exception, were as quiet as if no one had ever disturbed the sublime repose of nature ; and nowhere could any sign or symptom be discovered, as Mabel then thought, that might denote the proximity of the sort of danger of which June had given notioe. THE PATHFINDER. 351 On returning, however, from the shore, Mabel was struck with a little circumstance, that, in an ordinary situation, would have attracted no attention, but which, now that her (suspicions had been aroused, did not pass before her uneasy eye unnoticed. A small piece of red bunting, such as is used in the ensigns of ships, was fluttering at the lower branch of a small tree, fastened in a way to permit it to blow out, or to droop like a vessel s pennant. Now that Mabel s fears were awakened, June herself could not have manifested greater quickness in analyzing facts that she believed might affect the safety of the party. She saw at a glance that this bit of cloth could be observed from an adjacent island ; that it lay so near the line between her own hut and the canoe, as to leave no doubt that June had passed near it, if not directly under it ; and that it might be a signal to communicate some important fact connected with the mode of attack, to those who were probably lying in ambush near them. Tearing the little strip of bunting from the tree, Mabel hastened on, scarce knowing what duty next required. June might be false to her ; but her manner, her looks, her affection, and her disposition as Mabel had known it in the journey, forbade the idea. Then t came the allusion to Arrowhead s admiration of the pale-face beauties, some dim recollections of the looks of the Tuscarora, and a pain ful consciousness that few wives could view with kindness one who had estranged a husband s affections. None of these images were distinct and clear, but they rather gleamed over the mind of our heroine than rested in it, and they quickened her pulses, as they did her step, without bringing with them the prompt and clear decisions that usually fol lowed her reflections. She had hurried onwards towards the hut occupied by the soldier s wife, intending to remove at once to the block-house with the woman, though she could persuade no other to follow, when her impatient walk was interrupted by the voice of Muir. " Whither so fast, pretty Mabel," he cried, " and why so given to solitude? the worthy sergeant will deride my breeding, if he hear that his daughter passes the mornings alone and unattended to, though he well knows that it is my 352 THE PATHFINDER. ardent wish to be her slave and companion, from the begin ning of the year to its end." " Surely, Mr. Muir, you must have some authority here,* Mabel suddenly arrested her steps to say. " One of youi rank would be listened to, at least, by a corporal." I don t know that - I don t know that," interrupted Muir, with an impatience and appearance of alarm that ] night have excited Mabel s attention at another moment Command is command, discipline, discipline, and authority, authority. Your good father would be sore grieved did he find me interfering to sully, or carry off the laurels he is about to win ; and I cannot command the corporal, without equally commanding the sergeant. The wisest way will bo for me to remain in the obscurity of a private individual in this enterprise ; and it is so that all parties, from Lundio down, understand the transaction." " This I know, and it may be well ; nor would I give my dear father any cause of complaint, but you may influence the corporal to his own good." " I ll no say that," returned Muir, in his sly Scotch way ; " it would be far safer to promise to influence him to his injury. Mankind, pretty Mabel, have their peculiarities, and to influence a fellow-being to his own good, is one of the most difficult tasks of human nature, while the opposite is just the easiest. You ll no forget this, my dear ; but bear it in mind for your edification and government ; but what is that you re twisting round your slender finger, as you may be said to twist hearts ? " " It is nothing but a bit of cloth a sort ot flag a trifle that is hardly worth our attention at this grave mo ment if" " A trifle ! It s no so trifling as ye may imagine, Mistress Mabel," taking the bit of bunting from her, and stretching h at rail length with both his arms extended, while his face grew grave, and his eye watchful. " Ye ll no ha been find- vng this, Mabel Dunham, in the breakfast ? " Mabel simply acquainted him with the spot where, and the manner in which she had found the bit of cloth. While he was speaking, the eye of the quartermaster was noli THE PATHFINDER. 353 quiet for a moment, glancing from the rag to the face of our heroine, then back again to the rag. That his suspicions were awakened was easy to be seen, nor was he long in let ting it be known what direction they had taken. " We are not in a part of the world where our ensigns and gauds ought to be spread abroad to the wind, Mabel Dunham ! " he said, with an ominous shake of the head. " I thought as much myself, Mr. Muir, and brought away the little flag, lest it might be the means of betraying our presence here to the enemy, even though nothing is intended by its display. Ought not my uncle to be made acquainted with the circumstance ? " " I no see the necessity for that, pretty Mabel, for as you justly say it is a circumstance, and circumstances sometimes worry the worthy mariner. But this flag, if flag it can be called, belongs to a seaman s craft. You may perceive that it is made of what is called bunting, and that is a description of cloth used only by vessels for such purposes, our colors being of silk, as you may understand, or painted canvas. It s surprisingly like the fly of the Scud s ensign ! And now I recollect me to have observed that a piece had been cut from that very flag ! " Mabel felt her heart sink, but she had sufficient self-com mand not to attempt an answer. " It must be looked to," Muir continued, " and after all, I think it may be well to hold a short consultation with Mas ter Cap, than whom a more loyal subject does not exist ID the British empire." " I have thought the warning so serious," Mabel rejoined * that I am about to remove to the block-house, and to take the woman with me." " I do not see the prudence of that, Mabel. The block house will be the first spot assailed, should there really be au attack ; and it s no well provided for a siege, that must be ill owed. If I might advise in so delicate a contingency, I i?ould recommend your taking refuge in the boat, which, as you may now perceive, is most favorably placed to retreat by that channel opposite, where all in it would be hid by the islands, iu one or two minutes. Water leaves no trail, S3 354 THE PATHFINDER. as Pathfinder well expresses it, and there appear to be so many different passages in that quarter, that escape would be more probable. I ve always been of opinion that Lira die hazarded too much, in occupying a post as far advanced, and as much exposed, as this." " It s too late to regret it now, Mr. Muir, and we have only to consult our own security." " And the king s honor, pretty Mabel. Yes, his Maj esty s arms, and his glorious name, are not to be overlooked 01. any occasion." " Then I think it might be better, if we all turned our eyes towards the place that has been built to maintain them, in stead of the boat," said Mabel, smiling ; " and so, Mr. Muir, I am for the block-house, with a disposition to await there the return of my father and his party. He would be sadly grieved at finding we had fled, when he got back, successful himself, and filled with the confidence of our having been as faithful to our duties as he has been to his own." " Nay, nay, for Heaven s sake, do not misunderstand me, Mabel," Muir interrupted with some alarm of manner, " I am far from intimating that any but you females ought to take refuge in the boat. The duty of us men is sufficiently plain, no doubt, and my resolution has been formed from the first, to stand or fall by the block-house." " And did you imagine, Mr. Muir, that two females could row that heavy boat in a way to escape the bark canoe of an Indian ? " " Ah ! my pretty Mabel, love is seldom logical, and its fears and misgivings are apt to warp the faculties. I only ,aw your sweet person in possession of the means of safety, and overlooked the want of ability to use them. But you ll no be so cruel, lovely creature, as to impute to me as a fault my intense anxiety on your own account S " Mabel had heard enough. Her mind was too much oc- . u pied with what had passed that morning, and with her fears, to wish to linger further to listen to love speeches, hat, in her most joyous and buoyant moments, she would have found unpleasant. She took a hasty leave of her companion, and was about to trip away towards the hut of THE PATHFINDER. 355 the other woman, when Muir arrested the movement, by laying a hand on her arm. "One word, Mabel," he said, "before you leave me. This little flag may, or it may not, have a particular mean ing ; if it has, now that we are aware of its being shown, may it not be better to put it back again, while we watch vigilantly for some answer, that may betray the conspiracy ; and if it mean nothing, why nothing will follow." " This may be all right, Mr. Muir, though if the whole is accidental, the flag might be the occasion of the fort s being discovered." Mabel stayed to utter no more, but she was soon out of sight, running into the hut towards which she had been first proceeding. The quartermaster remained on the very spot, and in the precise attitude in which she had left him, for quite a minute, first looking at the bounding figure of the girl, and then at the bit of bunting, which he still held be fore him, in a way to denote indecision. His irresolution lasted but for this minute, however, for he was soon beneath tne tree, where he fastened the mimic flag to a branch again ; though from his ignorance of the precise spot from which it had been taken by Mabel, he left it fluttering from a part of the oak where it was still more exposed than before, to the eyes of any passenger on the river, though less in view from the island itself. 856 THE PATHFINDER CHAPTER XXI. one has had his supping mean The cheese is put iuto the press, The pans and howls clean scalded all, Reared up against the milk-house wall. COTTOH. IT seemed strange to Mabel Dunham, as she passed aloug on her way to find her female companion, that others should be so composed, while she herself felt as if the respon sibilities of life and death rested on her shoulders. It is true, that distrust of June s motives mingled with her fore bodings ; but when she came to recall the affectionate and natural manner of the young Indian girl, and all the evi dences of good faith and sincerity that she had seen in her conduct, daring the familiar intercourse of their journey, she rejected the idea, with the unwillingness of a generous dis position to believe ill of others. She saw, however, that she could not put her companions properly on their guard, without letting them into the secret of her conference with Tune ; and she found herself compelled to act cautiously iind with a forethought to which she was unaccustomed more especially in a matter of so much moment. The soldier s wife was told to transport the necessaries into the block-house, and admonished not to be far from it, at any time during the day. Mabel did not explain her reasons. She merely stated that she had detected some signs in walking about the island, that induced her to appre hend that the enemy had more knowledge of its position than had been previously believed, and that they two, at least, would do well to be in readiness to seek a refuge at the shortest notice. It was not difficult to arouse the appre hension of this person, who, though a stout-hearted Scotch woman, was ready enough to listen to anything that con THE PATHFINDER. 857 firmed her dread of Indian cruelties. As soon as Mabel believed that her companion was sufficiently frightened to make her wary, she threw out some hints, touching the in expediency of letting the soldiers know the extent of their own fears. This was done with a view to prevent dis cussions and inquiries that might embarrass our heroine ; she determining to render her uncle, the corporal, and hia men, more cautious, by adopting a different course. Un fortunately, the British army could not have furnished a worse person for the particular duty that he was now re quired to discharge, than Corporal McNab, the individual who had been left in command during the absence of Ser geant Dunham. On the one hand he was resolute, prompt, familiar with all the details of a soldier s life, and used to war ; on the other, he was supercilious as regards the pro vincials, opinionated on every subject connected with the narrow limits of his professional practice, much disposed to fancy the British empire the centre of all that is excellent in the world, and Scotland the focus of, at least, all moral excellence in that empire. In short, he was an epitome, though in a scale suited to his rank, of those very qualities which were so peculiar to the servants of the crown that were sent into the colonies, as these servants estimated themselves in comparison with the natives of the country ; or, in other words, he considered the American as an animal inferior to the parent stock, and viewed all his notions of military service, in particular, as undigested and absurd. Braddock, himself, was not less disposed to take advice from a provincial, than his humble imitator ; and he had been known, on more than one occasion, to demur to the directions and orders of two or three commissioned officers of the corps, who happened to be bora in America, dmply for that reason ; taking care, at the same time, with true Scottish wariness, to protect himself from the pains and penalties of positive disobedience. A more impracticable subject, therefore, could not well have offered for the pur pose of Mabel, and yet she felt obliged to lose no time io cutting her plan in execution. " My father has left you a responsible command, corporal, 858 THE PATHFINDER. she said, as soon as she could catch McNab a little apart from the rest of the soldiers ; " for should the island fall into the hands of the enemy, not only would we be captured, but the party that is now out would in all prob ability become their prisoners also." v It needs no journey from Scotland to this place, to know the facts needful to be o that way of thinking," re turned McNab, dryly. " I do not doubt your understanding it, as well as myself, Mr. McNab ; but I m fearful that you veterans, accustomed as you are to dangers and battles, are a little apt to over look some of the precautions that may be necessary in a situation as peculiar as ours." " They say Scotland is no conquered country, young woman, but I m thinking there must be some mistak in the matter, as we, her children, are so drowsy-headed, and apt to be o ertaken when we least expect it." " Nay, my good friend, you mistake my meaning. In the first place, I m not thinking of Scotland at all, but of this island; and then I am far from doubting your vigilance when you think it necessary to practice it ; but my great fear is that there may be danger to which your courage will make you indifferent." " My courage, Mistress Dunham, is doubtless of a very poor quality, being nothing but Scottish courage; your father s is Yankee, and were he here amang us, we should see different preparations beyond a doubt. Well, times are getting wrang, when foreigners hold commissions and carry halberds in Scottish corps ; and I no wonder that battles are lost, and campaigns go wrang end foremost." Mabel was almost in despair, but the quiet warning of June was still too vividly impressed on her mind to allow her to yield the matter. She changed her mode of operat ing, therefore, still clinging to the hope of getting the whole p>irty within the block-house, without being compelled to betray the source whence she obtained her notices of the necessity of vigilance. " I lare say you are right, Corporal McNab," she ob served, " for I ve often heard of the heroes of your country THE PATHFINDER. 359 who have been among the first of the civilized world, if v hat they tell me of them is true." " Have you read the history of Scotland, Mistress Dun ham?" demanded the corporal, looking up at his pretty companion, for the first time, with something like a smile on his hard, repulsive countenance. " I have read a little of it, corporal, but I ve heard much more. The lady who brought me up had Scottish blood ? n her veins, and was fond of the subject ! " " I ll warrant ye, the sergeant no troubled himself .0 eij^tiate on the renown of the country where his regiment was raised ? " " My father has other things to think of, and the little I know, was got from the lady I have mentioned." She ll no be forgetting to tall ye o Wallace ? " " Of him I ve even read a good deal." " And o Bruce and the affair o Bannock-burn ? " " Of that, too, as well as of Culloden-muir." The last of these battles was then a recent event, it hav ing actually been fought within the recollection of our heroine ; whose notions of it, however, were so confused that she scarcely appreciated the effect her allusion might produce on her companion. She knew it had been a victory, and had often heard the guests of her patroness mention it with triumph ; and she fancied their feelings would find a sympathetic chord in those of every British soldier. Unfortunately, McNab had fought throughout that luckless day, on the side of the Pretender ; and a deep scar that garnished his face, had been left there by the sabre of a German soldier, in the service of the House of Hanover. He fancied that his wound bled afresh at Mabel ? alluwou ; ind it is certain that the blood rushed to his ace : A .orrent, as if it would pour out of his skin at the cicatrix. " Hoot ! hoot awa ! " he fairly shouted, " with your Cul* oden and Sherif-muirs, young woman ; ye ll no be ur der- standing the subject at all, and will manifest not only wisdom, but modesty, in speaking o your ain country and i:s many failings. King George has some loyal subjects in the colonies, na doubt ; but twill be a lang time bafore he or hears any guid of them." 860 THE PATHFINDER. Mabel was surprised at the corporal s heat, for she had not the smallest idea where the shoe pinched ; but she was determined not to give up the point. " I ve always heard that the Scotch had two of the good qualities of soldiers/ she said, "courage and circumspec tion ; and I feel persuaded that Corporal McNab will sus tain the national renown." " Ask ye r own father, Mistress Dunham : he is acquaint with Corporal McNab, and will no be backward to point out his demerits. We have been in battle the gither, and He is my superior officei, and has a sort o official right to give the characters of his subordinates." " My father thinks well of you, McNab, or he would not have left you in charge of this island and all it contains, his own daughter included. Among other things I well know that he calculates largely on your prudence. He expects the block-house, in particular, to be strictly attended to." " If he wishes to defend the honor of the 55th behind logs, he ought to have remained in command himsal ; for, to speak frankly, it goes against a Scotsman s bluid and opinions, to be beaten out of the field even before he is at tacked. We are broadsword men, and love to stand foot to foot with the foe. This American mode of fighting, that is getting into so much favor, will destroy the reputation of his Majesty s army, if it no destroy its spirit." " No true soldier despises caution. Even Major Duncan himself, than whom there is none braver, is celebrated for his care of his men." " Lundie has his weakness, and is fast forgetting the broadsword and open heaths, in his tree and rifle practice. But, Mistress Mabel, tak the word of an old soldier, who has seen his fifty -fifth year, when he tails ye, that there is DC Hurer method to encourage your enemy than to seein to fr,ar him ; and that there is no danger in this Indian warfare, that the fancies and imaginations of your Americans have iiot augmented and enlarged upon, until they see a savage in every bush. We Scots come from a naked region, and have no need, and less relish for covers, and so yell be see* ing, Mistress Dunham " THE PATHFINDER. . 361 The corporal gave a spring into the air, fell forward on his face, and rolled over on his back the whole passing so suddenly, that Mabel had scarcely heard the sharp crack of the rifle that sent a bullet through his body. Our heiX)ine did not shriek did not even tremble ; the occurrence was too sudden, too awful, and too unexpected for that exhibition of weakness : on the contrary, she stepped hastily forward, with a natural impulse to aid her companion. There was just enough of life left in McNab to betray his entire con sciousuess of all that had passed. His countenance had the wild look of one who had been overtaken by death, by sur prise ; and Mabel, in her cooler moments, fancied that he showed the tardy repentance of a willful and obstinate sinner. " Yell be getting into the block-house as fast as possi ble," McNab whispered, as Mabel leaned over him, to catch his dying words. Then came over our heroine the full consciousness of her situation, and of the necessity of exertion. She cast a rapid glance at the body at her feet, saw that it had ceased to breathe, and fled. It was but a few minutes run to the block-house, the door of which Mabel had barely gained, when it was closed violently in her face by Jennie, the sol dier s wife, who, in blind terror, thought only of her own safety. The reports of five or six rifles were heard while Mabel was calling out for admittance ; and the additional terror they produced, prevented the woman within from undoing quickly the very fastenings she had been so ex pert in applying. After a minute s delay, however, Mabel found the door reluctantly yielding to her constant pressure, -d she forced her slender body through the opening, the Distant it was large enough to allow of its passage. By this time, Mabel s heart ceased to beat tumultuously, and she gained sufficient self-command to act collectedly. In stead of yielding to the almost convulsive efforts of her companion to close the door again, she held it open long enough to ascertain that none of her own party was in b ght, or likely, on the instant, to endeavor to gain admis sion ; she then allowed the opening to be shut. Her orders ind proceedings now became more calm and rational. But 862 THE PATHFINDER. a single bar was crossed, and Jennie was directed to stimj in readiness to remove even that, at any application from a friend. She then ascended the ladder to the room above, where, by means of loop-holes, she was enabled to get as good a view of the island as the surrounding bushes would allow. Admonishing her associate below to be firm and steady, she made as careful examination of the environs as her situation permitted. To her great surprise, Mabel could not, at first, see a liv ing soul on the island, friend or enemy. Neither French man nor Indian was visible, though a small straggling white cloud that was floating before the wind, told her in which quarter she ought to look for them. The rifles had been discharged from the direction of the island whence June had come, though whether the enemy were on that island, or had actually landed on her own, Mabel could not say. Going to the loop that commanded a view of the spot where McNab lay, her blood curdled at percehing all three of his soldiers lying apparently lifeless at his side. These men had rushed to a common centre at the first alarm, and had been shot down almost simultaneously by the invisible foe, whom the corporal had affected to despise. Neither Cap nor Lieutenant Muir was to be seen. With a beating heart, Mabel examined every opening through the trees, and ascended even to the upper story or garret of the block-house, where she got a full view of the whole island, BO far as its covers would allow ; but with no better suc cess. She had expected to see the body of her uncle lying on the grass, like those of the soldiers, but it was nowhere visible. Turning towards the spot where the boat lay, Ma bel saw that it was still fastened to the shore ; and then she supposed that, by some accident, Muir had been prevented from effecting his retreat in that quarter. In short, the island lay in the quiet of the grave, the bodies of the sol diers rendering the scene as fearful as it was extraordinary. " For God s holy sake, Mistress Mabel," called out the woman from below, for, though her fear had got to be too ungovernable to allow her to keep silence, our , heroine s superior refinement, more than the rp.gitno.nf.q] gfafinp nf U ei THE PATHFINDER. 868 still controlled her mode of address ; " foi his holy sake, Mistress Mabel, tell me if any of our friends are liv ing ! I think I hear groans that grow fainter and fainte^ and fear that they will all be tomahawked ! " Mabel now remembered that one of the soldiers was this woman s husband, and she trembled at what might be the immediate effect of her sorrow, should his death become suddenly known to her. The groans, too, gave a little hope, though she feared they might come from her uncle, who lay out of view. " We are in his holy keeping, Jennie," she answered, u We must trust in Providence, while we neglect none of its benevolent means of protecting ourselves. Be careful with the door ; on no account open it, without my direc tions." " O ! tell me, Mistress Mabel, if you can anywhere see Sandy ? If I could only let him know that I m in safety, the guid man would be easier in his mind, whether free or a prisoner ! " Sandy was Jennie s husband, and he lay dead in plain view of the loop, from which our heroine was then look ing. " You no tell me if you re seeing of Sandy," the woman repeated from below, impatient at Mabel s silence. " There are some of our people gathered about the body of McNab," was the answer, for it seemed sacrilegious in her eyes to tell a direct untruth, under the awful circum stances in which she was placed. " Is Sandy amang them ? " demanded the woman, in * voice that sounded appalling by its hoarseness and energy. " He may be certainly for I see one, two, three, four, and all in the scarlet coats of the regiment." " Sandy ! " called out the woman frantically ; " why d ye no care for yoursal , Sandy ? Come hither the instant man, and share your wife s fortunes, in weal or woe. It s no a moment for your silly discipline, and vain-glorious notions of honor ! Sandy ! Sandy ! " Mabel heard the bar turn, and then the door creaked on ita hinges. Expectation, not to say terror, held her in 364 THE PATHFINDER. suspense at the loop, and she soon beheld Jennie rushing through the bushes, in the direction of the cluster of dead. It took the woman but an instant to reach the fatal spot. So sudden and unexpected had been the blow, that she, in her terror, did not appear to comprehend its weight. Some wild and half-frantic notion of a deception troubled her fancy, and she imagined that the men were trifling with her fears. She took her husband s hand, and it was still warm, while she thought a covert smile was struggling on his lip. " Why will ye fool life away, Sandy ? " she cried, pulling at the arm. " Ye ll all be murdered by these accursed Indians, and you no takin to the block like trusty soldiers ! Awa ! awa , and no be losing the precious moments." In her desperate efforts, the woman pulled the body of her husband in a way to cause the head to turn completely over, when the small hole in the temple, caused by the entrance of a rifle bullet, and a few drops of blood trickling over the skin, revealed the meaning of her husband s silence. As the horrid truth flashed, in its full extent, on her mind, the woman clasped her hands, gave a shriek that pierced the glades of every island near, and fell at length on the dead body of the soldier. Thrilling, heart-reaching, appall ing as was that shriek, it was melody to the cry that fol lowed it so quickly as to blend the sounds. The terrific war-whoop arose out of the covers of the island, and some twenty savages, horrible in their paint and the other devices of Indian ingenuity, rushed forward, eager to secure the coveted scalps. Arrowhead was foremost, and it was his tomahawk that brained the insensible Jennie, and her reek ing hair was hanging at his girdle as a trophy, in less than two minutes after she had quitted the block-house. His companions were equally active, and McNab and his soldiers no longer presented the quiet aspect of men who slumbered. They were left in their gore, unequivocally butchered aorpsos. All this passed in much less time than has been required to relate it, and all this did Mabel witness. She had stood riveted to the spot, gazing on the whole horrible scene, ai if enchained by some charm, nor did the idea of self, or of THE PATHFINDER. 36 her own danger, once obtrude itself on her thoughts. But no sooner did she perceive the place where the men had fallen, covered with savages, exulting in the success of theii surprise, than it occurred to her that Jennie had left the block -house door unbarred. Her heart beat violently, for that defense alone stood between her and immediate death, and she sprang towards the ladder, with the intention of de scending to make sure of it. Her foot had not yet reached the floor of the second story, however, when she heard the door grating on its hinges, and she gave herself up for lost. Sinking on her knees, the terrified but courageous girl en deavored to prepare herself for death, and to raise her thoughts to God. The instinct of life, however, was too strong for prayer, and while her lips moved, the jealous senses watched every sound beneath. When her ears heard the bars, which went on pivots secured to the centre of the door, turning into their fastenings, not one, as she herself had directed, with a view to admit her uncle, should he apply, but all three, she started again to her feet, all spirit ual contemplations vanishing hi her actual temporal condi tion, and it seemed as if all her faculties were absorbed in the sense of hearing. The thoughts are active, in a moment so fearful. At first Mabel fancied that her uncle had entered the block-house, and she was about to descend the ladder and throw herself into his arms ; then the idea that it might be an Indian, who had barred the door to shut out intruders, while he plundered at leisure, arrested the movement. The profound stillness below was unlike the bold, restless movements of Cap, and it seemed to savor more of the artifices of an enemy ; if a friend at all, it could only be her uncle or the quartermaster ; for the horrible conviction now presented itself to our heroine, that to these two, and herself, were the whole party suddenly reduced, if, indeed, the two latter survived. This consideration held Mabel in check, and foi quite two minutes more, a breathless silence reigned in the building. During this time, the girl stood at the foot of the upper ladder, the trap which led to the lower opening on the opposite side of the floor ; the eyes of Mabel were riveted on this spot, for she now began to expect to sec at 866 THE PATHFINDER. each instant, the horrible sight of a savage face at the hole. This apprehension soon became so intense, that she looked about her for a place of concealment. The procrastination of the catastrophe she now fully expected, though it were only for a moment, afforded a relief. The room contained several barrels, and behind two of these Mabel crouched, placing her eyes at an opening by which she could still watch the trap. She made another effort to pray, but the moment was too horrible for that relief. She thought, too, that she heard a low rustling, as if one were ascending the lower ladder, with an effort at caution so great as to betray itself by its own excess ; then followed a creaking, that she was certain came from one of the steps of the ladder, which had made the same noise under her own light weight, as she ascended. This was one of those instants, into which are compressed the sensations of years of ordinary existence. Life, death, eternity, and extreme bodily pain, were all standing out in bold relief, from the plane of every-day occurrences ; and she might have been taken, at that mo ment, for a beautiful, pallid representation of herself, equally without motion, and without vitality. But, while such was the outward appearance of the form, never had there been a time in her brief career, when Mabel heard more acutely, saw more clearly, or felt more vividly. As yet, nothing was visible at the trap ; but her ears, rendered exquisitely sensitive by intense feeling, distinctly acquainted her that some one was within a few inches of the opening of the floor ; next followed the evidence of her eyes, which beheld the dark hair of an Indian rising so slowly through the passage, that the movements of the head might be likened to that of the minute-hand of a clock ; then came the dark skin and wild features, until the whole of the swarthy face had risen above the floor. The human countenance seldom appears to advantage when partially concealed, and Mabel imagined many additional horrors as she first saw the black, roving eyes, and the expression of wildness, as the savage countenance was revealed, as it might be, inch by inch ; bull when the entire head was raised above the floor, a second I and better look assured our heroine that she saw the gentlft . anxious, and even handsome face, of June. THE PATHFINDEB. 867 CHAPTER XXn. Spectre though I be, I am not sent to scare thee or deceive; But in reward of thy fidelity. WORDSWO: IT would be difficult to say which evinced the most satis* faction, when Mabel sprang to her feet and appeared in the centre of the room our heroine on finding that her visitor was the wife of Arrowhead, and not Arrowhead himself, or June, at discovering that her advice had been followed, and that the block-house contained the person she had so anx iously and almost hopelessly sought. They embraced each other, and the unsophisticated Tuscarora woman laughed in her sweet accents, as she held her friend at arm s length, and made certain of her presence. " Block-house good," said the young Indian ; " got no scalp." " It is indeed good, June," Mabel answered with a shud der, veiling her eyes at the same time, as if to shut out a view of the horrors she had so lately witnessed. " Tell me, for God s sake ! if you know what has become of my dear uncle ? I have looked in all directions without being able to see him." " No here, in block-house ? " June asked, with some cu riosity. " Indeed he is not I am quite alone in thia place Jsnnie, the woman who was with me, having rushed out to join her husband, and perishing for her imprudence." ** June know June see, very bad ; Arrowhead no fee for any wife no feel for his own." " Ah ! June, your life, at least, is safe ! " " Don t know Arrowhead kill me if he know all." " God bless and protect you June ; He will bless and 368 THE PATHFINDER. protect you for your humanity. Tell me what is to be done, and if my poor uncle is still living ? " " Don t know. Salt-water has boat ; maybe he go on river." " The boat is still on the shore, but neither my uncle nor the quartermaster is anywhere to be seen." " No kill, or June would see. Hide away. Red-man hide ; no shame for pale-face." It is not the shame that I fear for them, but the oppor tunity. Your attack was awfully sudden, June ! " " Tuscarora ! " returned the other, smiling with exulta tion at the dexterity of her husband. " Arrowhead great warrior ! " " You are too good and gentle for this sort of life, June you cannot be happy in such scenes ! " June s countenance grew clouded, and Mabel fancied there was some of the savage fire of a chief in her brow as she answered : " Yengeese too greedy take away all hunting-grounds chase Six Nation from morning to night ; wicked king wicked people. Pale-face very bad." Mabel knew that, even in that distant day, there was much truth in this opinion, though she was too well instructed not to understand that the monarch, in this as in a thousand other cases, was blamed for acts of which he was most probably ignorant. She felt the justice of the rebuke, therefore, too much to attempt an answer, and her thoughts naturally reverted to her own situation. " And what am I to do, June ? " she demanded. " It cannot be long before your people will assault this build ing. <r Block-house good got no scalp." u But they will soon discover that it has got no garrison, too, if they do not know it already. You yourself told me the number of people that were on the island, and doubtiesi you learned it from Arrowhead." " Arrowhead know," answered June, holding up six fin gers to indicate the number of the men. " All led-men know. Four lose scalp already two got em yet I " THE PATHFINDER. 369 " Do not speak of it, June ; the horrid thought curdles n.y blood. Your people cannot know that I am alone in the block-house, but may fancy my uncle and the quarter master with me, and may set fire to the building, in order to dislodge them. They tell me that fire is the great dan ger to such places." " No burn block-house," said June, quietly. " You cannot know that, my good June, and I ha^e no means to keep them off." " No burn block-house. Block-house good got no scalp." " But tell me why, June ; I fear they will burn it ! " " Block-house wet much rain logs green no burn easy. Red-man know it fine t ing ; then no burn it to tell Yengeese that Iroquois been there. Fader come back, miss block-house, no found. No, no ; Injin too much cun ning ; no touch anything." " I understand you, June, and hope your prediction may be true ; for as regards niy dear father, should he escape perhaps he is already dead or captured, June ? " " No touch fader don t know where he gone ; water got no trail red-man can t follow. No burn block-house block-house good got no scalp." " Do you think it possible for me to remain here safely until my father returns ? " " Don t know daughter tell best, when fader come back." Mabel felt uneasy at the glance of June s dark eye, as she uttered this, for the unpleasant surmise arose that her com panion was endeavoring to discover a fact that might be use ful to her own people, while it would lead to the destruction of her parent and his party. She was about to make an evasive answer, when a heavy push at the outer door sud- lauly drew all her thoughts to the immediate danger. " They come ! " she exclaimed ; " perhaps, June, it is my incle, or the quartermaster. I cannot keep jut even Mr Muir at a moment like this." " Why no look ? plenty loop-bole made purpose." Mabel took the hint, and going to one of the downward 24 370 THE PATHFINDER. loops that had been cut through the logs in the part that overhung the basement, she cautiously raised the little block that ordinarily filled the small hole, and caught a glance at what was passing at the door. The start and changing countenance told her companion that some of her own peo ple were below. " Red-man," said June, lifting a finger in admonition to be prudent. Four ; and horrible in their paint and bloody trophies. Arrowhead is among them." June had moved to a corner where several spare rifles were deposited, and had already taken one into her hand, when the name of her husband appeared to arrest her move ments. It was but for an instant, however, for she imme diately went to the loop, and was about to thrust the muzzle of the piece through it, when a feeling of natural aversion induced Mabel to seize her arm. " No, no, no, June," said the latter ; " not against your own husband, though my life be the penalty." " No hurt Arrowhead," returned June, with a slight shudder ; " no hurt red-man at all. No fire at em only scare." Mabel now comprehended the intention of June, and no longer opposed it. The latter thrust the muzzle of the rifle through the loop-hole, and taking care to make noise enough to attract attention, she pulled the trigger. The piece had no sooner been discharged than Mabel reproached her friend for the very act that was intended to serve her. " You declared it was not your intention to fire," she said, " and you may have destroyed your own husband." " All run away before I fire," returned June laughing^ and going to another loop to watch the movements of her friends, laughing still heartier. " See get cover every warrior. Think Salt-water and quartermaster here. Take good care now." " Heaven be praised ! And now, June, I may hope for a little time to compose my thoughts to prayer, that I may not die like Jennie, thinking only of life and the things of the world." THE PATHFINDER. 371 June laid aside the rifle, and came and seated herself near the box on which Mabel had sunk, under that physical reaction which accompanies joy as well as sorrow. Sho looked steadily in our heroine s face, and the latter thought Uiat her countenance had an expression of severity ningled with its concern. "Arrowhead great warrior," said the Tuscarora s wife "All the gals of tribe look at him much. The pale face beauty has eyes too ? " " June ! what do these words that look imply ? what would you say ? " " Why you so fraid June shoot Arrowhead ? " " Would it not have been horrible to see a wife destroy her own husband ! No, June ; rather would I have died myself." " Very sure, dat all ! " " That was all, June, as God is my judge ; and surely that was enough. No, no ; there have been sufficient horrors to-day, without increasing them by an act like this. What other motive can you suspect ? " " Don t know. Poor Tuscarora gal very foolish. Arrow head great chief, and look all around him. Talk of pale face beauty hi his sleep. Great chief like many wives." " Can a chief possess more than one wife, June, among your people ? " " Have as many as he can keep great hunter marry often. Arrowhead got only June now, but he look too much see too much talk too much of pale-face gal ! " Mabel was conscious of this fact, which had distressed her not a little in the course of their journey ; but it shocked her to hear this allusion, coming, as it did, from the mouth of the wife herself. She knew that habit and opinions made great differences in such matters, but, in addition to the pain and mortification she experienced at being the unwill ing rival of a wife, she felt an apprehension that jealousy would be but an equivocal guarantee for her personal safety, in her present situation. A closer look at June, however, reassured her ; for while it was easy to trace in the un- pacticed Matures of this unsophisticated being, the pain of 872 THE PATHFINDER. blighted affections, no distrust could have tortured the ear* nest expression of her honest countenance into that of treachery or hate. " You will not betray me, June ? " Mabel said, pressing the other s hand, and yielding to an impulse of generous confidence. " You will not give up one of your own sex to the tomahawk t " No tomahawk touch you. Arrowhead no let em. If June must have sister-wife, love to have you." " No, June ; my religion, my feelings, both forbid it ; and, if I could be the wife of an Indian at all, I would never take the place that is yours, in a wigwam." June made no answer, but she looked gratified, even grateful. She knew that few, perhaps no Indian girl, within the circle of Arrowhead s acquaintance, could compare with herself in personal attractions ; and though it might suit her husband to marry a dozen wives, she knew of no one, be sides Mabel, whose influence she could really dread. So keen an interest, however, had she taken in the beauty, winning mariners, kindness, and feminine gentleness of our heroine, that when jealousy came to chill these feelings, it had rather lent strength to that interest, and, under its way ward influence, had actually been one of the strongest of the incentives that had induced her to risk so much, in order to save her imaginary rival from the consequences of the attack that she so well knew was about to take place. In a word, June, with a wife s keenness of perception, had detected Arrowhead s admiration of Mabel ; and instead of feeling that harrowing jealousy that might have rendered her rival hateful, as would have been apt to be the case with a woman unaccustomed to defer to the superior rights of the lordly sex, she had studied the looks and character of the pale-face beauty, until, meeting with nothing to repel her own feelings, but everything to encourage them, she had got to entertain an admiration and love for her, which, though certainly very different, was scarcely less strong than that of hei husband. Arrowhead himself had sent her to warn Mabel of the coming danger, though he wai ignorant that she had stolen upon the island hi the rear of THE PATHFINDER. 373 the assailants, and was now intrenched in the citadel along with the object of their jo^nt care. On the contrary, he supposed, as his wife had said, that Cap and Muir were in the block-house with Mabel, and that the attempt to repel him and his companions had been made by the men. " June sorry the Lily " for so the Indian, in her poet ical language, had named our heroine "June sorry the Lily no marry Arrowhead. His wigwam big, and a great chief must get enough wifes to fill it." "I thank you, June, for this preference, which is not according to the notions of us white women," returned Mabel, smiling in spite of the fearful situation in which she was placed ; " but I may not, probably never shall, marry at all." " Must have good husband," said June ; " marry Eau- douce, if don t like Arrowhead." " June ! this is not a fit subject for a girl who scarce knows if she is to live another hour or not. I would ob tain some signs of my dear uncle s being alive and safe, if possible." " June go see." " Can you ? will you ? would it be safe for you to be seen on the island ? is your presence known to the warriors ? and would they be pleased to find a woman on the war-path with them ? " All this Mabel asked in rapid connection, fearing that the answer might not be as she wished. She had thought it extraordinary that June should be of the party, and, improbable as it seemed, she had fancied that the woman had covertly followed the Iroquois in her own canoe, and had got in their advance, merely to give her the notice which had probably saved her life. But in all this she wa* mistaken, as June, in her imperfect manner, now found means to let her know. Arrowhead, though a chief, was hi disgrace with his own peop?e. ; and was acting with the Iroquois temporarily, though with a perfect understanding. He had a wigwam, it is true, but was seldom in it ; feigning friendship for the he had passed the summer ostensibly in their 874 THE PATHFINDER. service, while he was, in truth, acting for the French, and his wife journeyed with him in his many migrations, most of the distances being passed over in canoes. In a word, her presence was no secret, her husband seldom moving without her. Enough of this to embolden Mabel to wish that her friend might go out, to ascertain the fate of her uncle, did June succeed in letting the other know ; and it was soon settled between them, that the Indian woman should quit the block-house with that object, the moment a favorable opportunity offered. They first examined the island, as thoroughly as their position would allow, from the different loops, and found that its conquerors were preparing for a feast, having seized upon the provisions of the English, and rifled the huts. Most of the stores were in the block-house, but enough were found outside to reward the Indians for an attack attended by so little risk. A party had already removed the dead bodies, and Mabel saw that their arms were collected in a pile, near the spot chosen for the banquet. June suggested that, by some signs she understood, the dead themselves were carried into a thicket, and either buried, or concealed from view. None of the mora promi nent objects on the island, however, were disturbed, it being the desire of the conquerors to lure the party of the sergeant into an ambush, on its return. June made her companion observe a man in a tree, a lookout, as she said, to give timely notice of the approach of any bqat, although the departure of the expedition being so recent, nothing but some unexpected event would be likely to bring it back sg soon. There did not appear to be any design to attack the block-house immediately ; but every indication, as under stood by June, rather showed that it was the intention of the Indians to keep it besieged until the return of the sergeant s party, lest the signs of an assault should give a warning to eyes as practiced as those of Pathfinder. The boat, however, had been secured, and was removed to the spot where the canoes of the Indians were hid in the bushes. June now announced her intention of joining her frienda, PATHFINDER. 375 the moment being particularly favorable for her to <juit the block-house. Mabel felt some distrust as they descended the ladder ; but, at the next instant, she was ashamed of the feeling as unjust to her companion, and unworthy of hersalf : and by the time they both stood on the ground, her confidence was restored. The process of unbarring the door was conducted with the utmost caution ; and when the last bar was ready to be turned, June took her station neai the spot where the opening must necessarily he. The bar was just turned free of the brackets the door was opened merely wide enough to allow her body to pass, and June glided through the space. Mabel closed the door again, with a convulsive movement; and, as the bar turned into its place, her heart beat audibly. She then felt secure , and the two other bars were turned down in a more delib erate manner. When all was fast again, she ascended to the first floor, where alone she could get a glimpse of what was going on without. Long and painfully melancholy hours passed, during which Mabel had no intelligence from June. She heard the yells of the savages, for liquor had carried them beyond the bounds of precaution ; occasionally caught glimpses of their mad orgies through the loops, and at all times was conscious of their fearful presence, by sounds and sights that would have chilled the blood of one who had not so lately witnessed scenes so much more terrible. Towards the middle of the day, she fancied she saw a white man on the island, though his dress and wild appearance at first made her take him for a newly arrived savage. A view of his face, although it was swarthy naturally, and much darkened by exposure, left no loubt that her conjecture was true ; and she felt as if there was now one of a species more like her own present, and one to whom she might appeal for succor in the last emergency. Mabel lithe knew, alas ! how small was the Influence exercised by the whites over their savage allies, when the latter had begun to taste of bloo; or how slight, indeed, was the disposition to divert them from their cruel ties. The daj seemed a mouth, by Mabel s computation ; and 876 THE PATHFINDER. the only part of it that did not drag were the minutes spent ui prayer. She had recourse to this relief from time to time ; and at each effort she found her spirit firmer, her mind more tranquil, and her tendency to resignation more confirmed, She understood the reasoning of June, and believed it highly probable that the block-house would be left unmolested until the return of her father, in order to entice him into an am buscade ; and she felt much less apprehension of immediate danger, in consequence. But the future offered little ground of hope ; and her thoughts had already begun to calculate the chances of her captivity. At such moments, Arrowhead, and his offensive admiration, filled a prominent place ifi the background ; for our heroine well knew that the Indians usually carried off to their villages, for the purposes of adoption, such captives as they did not slay ; and that many instances had occurred, in which individuals of her sex had passed the remainder of their lives in the wigwams of their conquerors. Such thoughts as these invariably drove her to her knees, and to her prayers. While the light lasted, the situation of our heroine was sufficiently alarming ; but as the shades of evening gradually gathered over the island, it became fearfully appalling. By .this time, the savages had wrought themselves up to the point of fury, for they had possessed themselves of all the liquor of the English, and their outcries and gesticulations were those of men truly possessed of evil spirits. All the efforts of their French leader to restrain them were entirely fruitless, and he had wisely withdrawn to an adjacent island, where he had a sort of bivouac, that he might keep at a safe distance from friends so apt to run into excesses. Before quitting the spot, however, this officer, at great risk to A is own life, succeeded in extinguishing the fire, and in se curing the ordinary means to relight it. This precaution lie took, lest the Indians should burn the block-house, the m cservation of which was necessary to the success of hia future plans. He would gladly have removed all the arms also, but this he found impracticable, the warriors clinging to their knives and tomahawks with the tenacity of met irho regarded a point of honor, as long a^ a faculty was left THE PATHFINDER. ST l and to carry off the rifles, and leave behind him the verj weapons that were generally used on such occasions, wouk have been an idle expedient. The extinguishing of the fire proved to be the most prudent measure, for no sooner was the olficer s back turned, than one of the warriors, in fact proposed to fire the block-house. Arrowhead had also with drawn from the group of drunkards, as soon as he found that they were losing their senses, and had taken possession of a hut, where he had thrown himself on the straw, and sought the rest that two wakeful and watchful nights ren dered necessary. It followed that no one was left among the Indians to care for Mabel, if indeed any knew of her ex istence at all ; and the proposal of the drunkard was re ceived with yells of delight by eight or ten more, as much intoxicated and habitually as brutal as himself. This was the fearful moment for Mabel. The Indians, in their present condition, were reckless of any rifles that the block-house might hold ; though they did retain dim recollections of its containing living beings, an additional incentive to their enterprise, and they approached its base whooping and leaping like demons. As yet they were ex cited, not overcome by the liquor they had drunk. The first attempt was made at the door, against which they ran in a body ; but the solid structure, which was built entirely of logs, defied their efforts. The rush of a hundred men, with the same object, would have been useless. This Ma bel, however, did not know, and her heart seemed to leap into her mouth, as she heard the heavy shock, at each re uewed effort. At length, when she found that the door re sisted these assaults as if it were of stone, neither trembling nor yielding, and only betraying its not being a part of the wrall by rattling a little on its heavy hinges, her courage re vived, and she seized the first moment of a cessation, to look lown through the loop, in order, if possible, to learn the ex- lent of her danger. A silence, for which it was not easy to Account, stimulated her curiosity, for nothing is so alarming to those who are conscious of the presence of imminent iauger, as to be unable to trace its approach. Mabel found that two or three of the I"oquois had been 578 THE PATHFINDER. raking the t^nbers, where they had found a few small coal*, aud with these they were endeavoring to light a fire. The interest with which they labored, the hope of destroying, and the force of habit, enabled them to act intelligently and in unison, so long as their fell object was kept in view. A white man would have abandoned the attempt to light a fire in despair, with coals that came out of the ashes resembling sparks; but these children of the forests had many expedi ents that were unknown to civilization. By the aid of a few dry leaves, which they alone knew where to seek, a blaze was finally kindled, and then the addition of a few light sticks made sure of the advantage that had been ob tained. When Mabel stooped down over the loop, the In dians were making a pile of brush against the door, and as she remained gazing at their proceedings, she saw the twigs ignite, the flame dart from branch to branch, until the whole pile was cracking and snapping under a bright blaze. The Indians now gave a yell of triumph, and returned to their companions, well assured that the work of destruction was commenced. Mabel remained looking down, scarcely able to tear herself away from the spot, so intense and engrossing was the interest she felt in the progress of the lire. As the pile kindled throughout, however, the flames mounted, until they flashed so near her eyes as to compel her to retreat. Just as she reached the opposite side of the room, to which she had retired in her alarm, a forked stream shot up through the loop-hole, the lid of which she had left open, and illu minated the rude apartment, with Mabel and her desolation. Our heroine now naturally enough supposed that her hour <vas come, for the door, the only means of retreat, had been Mocked up by the brush and fire, with hellish ingenuity, and he addressed herself, as she believed for the last time, to her Maker in prayer. Pier eyes were closed, and for more than a minute her spirit was abstracted ; but the interests uf the world too strongly divided her feelings to be alto gether suppressed ; and when they involuntarily opened again, ahe perceived that the streak of Harm* was no longer , Wring in the room, though the wood around the little aper ture had kindled, and the blaze was slowly mounting undei THE PATHFINDER. 379 the impulsion of a current of air that sucked inward. A Darrel of water stood in a corner, and Mabel, acting more by instinct than by reason, caught up a vessel, filled it, and pouring it on the wood with a trembling hand, succeeded in extinguishing the fire at that particular spot. TLe smoke prevented her from looking down again, for a couple of min utes ; but when she did, her heart beat hign with delight and hope, at finding that the pile of blazing brush had been overturned and scattered, and that water had been thrown on the logs of the door, which were still smoking, though no longer burning. " Who is there ? " said Mabel, with her mouth at the loop. " What friendly hand has a merciful Providence sent to my succor ? " A light footstep was audible below, and one of those gen- *Je pushes at the door was heard, which just moved the mas sive beams on the hinges. u Who wishes to enter ? Is it you, dear, dear uncle ? " " Salt-water no here. St. Lawrence sweet water," was ;he answer. " Open quick want to come in." The step of Mabel was never lighter, or her movements more quick and natural, than while she was descending ihe ladder and turning the bars, for all her motions were ear nest and active. This time she thought only of her escape, and she opened the door with a rapidity that did not admit of caution. Her first impulse was to rush into the open air, in the blind hope of quitting the block-house, but June repulsed the attempt, and entering, she coolly barred the door again, before she would notice Mabel s eager efforts to embrace her. " Bless you bless you, June! " cried our heroine most fervently ; " you are sent by Providence to be my guar dian angel ! " " No hug so tight," answered the Tuscarora Troman. Pule-face woman all cry, or all laugh. Let June fasten aoor." Mabel became more rational, and in a few moments the lwi> were again in the upper room, seated as before, hand in Uand, all feeling of distrust or rivalry between them being 880 THE PATHFINDER. banished, on the one side by the consciousness of favors re ceived, and on the other by the consciousness of favors con ferred. " Now tell me, June," Mabel commenced, as soon as she had given and received one warm embrace, " have you seen or heard aught of my poor uncle ? " " Don t know. No one see him ; no one hear him ; no one know auyt ing. Salt-water run into river, I t ink, fo? I no find him. Quartermaster gone too. I look, and look, and look ; but no see em, one, t other, nowhere." Blessed be God ! They must have escaped, though the means are not known to us. I thought I saw a Frenchman on the island, June ? " Li Yes ; French captain come, but he go away, too. Plenty of Injin on island." " O ! June, June, are there no means to prevent my beloved father from falling into the hands of his enemies ? " " Don t know ; t ink dat warriors wait in ambush, and Yengeese must lose scalp." " Surely, surely, June, you, who have done so much for the Daughter, will not refuse to help the father ! " " Don t know fader don t love fader. June help her own people, help Arrowhead ; husband love scalp." "June, this is not yourself! I cannot, will not believe that you wish to see our men murdered ! " June turned her dark eyes quietly on Mabel, and, for a moment, her look was stern, though it soon changed into 04ie of melancholy compassion. " Lily Yengeese gal ? " she said, as one asks a question. " Certainly, and as a Yengeese girl, I would save my countrymen from slaughter/ " Very good if can. June no Yengeese ; June Tus- ^arora got Tuscarora husband Tuscarora heart Fus carora feeling all over Tuscarora. Lily wouldn t run and tell French dat her fader was coming to gain victory ? " .Perhaps not," returned Mabel, pressing a hand on a braifl that felt bewildered, "perhaps not; but you serve jae, aid ine, have saved me, June ! Why have you done this, if you only feel as a Tuscarora ? " THE PATHFINDER. 381 u Don t only feel as Tuscarora feel as a gal - feel aa iquaw. Love pretty Lily, and put it in my bosom." Mabel melted into tears, and she pressed the affectionate creature to her heart. It was near a minute before she could renew the discourse, but then she succeeded in speak ing more calmly and with greater coherence. " Let me know the worst, June," she said. " To-niglit, j our people are feasting - what do they intend to do to- fliorrow ? " " Don t know afraid to see Arrowhead afraid to ask question ; t ink hide away, till Yengeese come back." " Will they not attempt anything against the block-house? You have seen what they can threaten if they will? " " Too much rum. Arrowhead sleep, or no dare ; French captain gone away, or no dare. All go to sleep, now." " And you think I am safe for this night, at least ? " " Too much rum. If Lily like June, might do much for her people/ " I am like you, June, if a wish to serve my countrymen can make a resemblance with one as courageous as your self." " No, no, no," muttered June, in a low voice ; " no got heart, and June no let you, if had. June s moder prisoner once, and warriors got drunk ; moder tomahawk d em all. Such the way red-skin women do, when people in danger and want scalp." " You say what is true," returned Mabel, shuddering, and unconsciously dropping June s hand. " I cannot do that. I have neither the strength, the courage, nor the will, to dip piy hands in blood." " T ink that too ; then stay where you be block-house good got no scalp." " You believe, then, that I am safe here, at least untij uiy father and his people return ? " * Know so. No dare touch block-house in morning. Hark ! all still now drink rum till head fall down, and sleep like log." " Might I not escape ? Are there not several canoes on the island? might I not get one, and go and give my father notice of what has happened ? " 882 THE PATHFINDER. " Know how to paddle ? " demanded June, glancing he* eye furtively at her companion. " Not so well as yourself, perhaps ; but enough to get out of sight before morning." " What do then ? couldn t paddle six ten eight mile ! " " J do not know ; I would do much to warn my father, and the excellent Pathfinder, and all the rest, of the dange* they are in." " Like Pathfinder ? " " All like him who know him ; you would like him, nay love him, if you only knew his heart ! " " No like him at all. Too good rifle too good eye too much shoot Iroquois, and June s people. Must get his scalp if can." " And I must save it if I can, June. In this respect, then, we are opposed to each other. I will go and find a canoe the instant they are all asleep, and quit the island." " No can June won t let you. Call Arrowhead." "June! you could not betray me ; you would not give me up, after all you have done for me ? " " Just so," returned June, making a backward gesture with her hand, and speaking with a warmth and earnestness Mabel had never witnessed in her before. " Call Arrow head in loud voice. One call from wife wake a warrior up. June no let Lily help enemy no let Injin hurt Lily." " I understand you, June, and feel the nature and justice of your sentiments ; and after all, it were better that I should remain here, for I have most probably overrated my strength. But tell me one thing ; if my uncle come in the night and ask to be admitted, you will let me open the door of the block-house that he may enter ? " " Sai tain ; he prisoner here, and June like prisoner bei ter than scalp ; scalp good for honor, prisoner good foi Reeling. But Salt-water hide so close, ne don t know where he be himself." Here June laughed in her girlish, mirthful way, for to her scenes of violence were too familiar to leave impressions iutficiently deep to change ner natural character. A long THi) PATHFINDKR. 383 and discursive dialogue now followed, in which Mabel endeavored to obtain clearer notions of her actual situation, under a faint hope that she might possibly be enabled to turn some of the facts she thus learned to advantage. June answered all her interrogatories simply, but with a rmition which showed she fully distinguished between that \\ hich was immaterial, and that which might endanger the safety or embarrass the future operations of her friends. On heroine was incapable of making an attempt to entrap her companion, though she plainly perceived that, could she have been guilty of the meanness, she would have found the undertaking one of extreme difficulty. June, however, was not required to exercise more than a discreet discrimination about what she revealed ; and the substance of the iiiforma tion she gave may be summed up as follows. Arrowhead had long been in communication with the French, though this was the first occasion on which he had ever entirely thrown aside the mask. lie no longer intended to trust himself among the English, for he had discovered traces of distrust, jTarticularly in Pathfinder ; and with Indian bravado, he now rather wished to blazon than to conceal his teachery. Pie had led the party of war riors, in the attack on the island, subject, however, to the supervision of the Frenchman who has been mentioned, though June declined saying whether he had been the means of discovering the position of a place that had been thought to be so concealed from the eyes of the enemy or not. On this point she would say nothing ; but she admitted that she and her husband had been watching the departure of the Scjd, at the time they were overtaken and captured by the cutter The French had obtained their information of the precise position of the station, but very recently ; and Mabel felt a pang like that of some sharp instrument piercing hei heart, when she thought that there were covert allusions of the Indian woman, which would convey the meaning that the intelligence had come from a pale-face in the employ- oent of Duncan of Lundie. This was intimated, however, ather than said ; and when Mabel had time to reflect on ier companion s words, a ld to remember how sententioui 384 THE PATIIFIIsbER. and brief her periods were, she found room to hope that sht had misunderstood her, and that Jasper Western would yet come out of the affair freed from every injurious imputation. June did not hesitate to confess that she had been sent 10 the island to ascertain the precise number, and the occu pations of those who had been left on it ; though she also betiayed, in her naive way, that the wish to serve Mabel Lad induced her principally to consent to come. In conse quence of her report, and information otherwise obtained, the enemy was aware of precisely the force that could be brought against them ; they also knew the number of men that had gone with Sergeant Dunham, and were acquainted with the object he had in view, though they were ignorant of the spot where he expected to meet the French boats. It would have been a pleasant sight to witness the eager desire of each of these two sincere females to ascertain all that might be of consequence to their respective friends, and yet the native delicacy with which each refrained from pressing the other to make revelations that would have been improper, as well as the sensitive, almost intuitive feeling, with which each avoided saying aught that might prove injurious to her own nation : as respects each other, there was perfect confidence ; as regarded their respective people, entire fidelity. June was quite as anxious as Mabel could be on any other point, to know where the sergeant had gone, and when he was expected to return ; but she abstained from putting the question, wjth a delicacy that WjOuld havedone honor to the highest civilization ; nor did she once frame any otner inquiry "in a way to Tead^inclirectly, to a betrayal of the much desired information, on that par ticular point ; though, when Mabel, of her own accord, touched on any matter that might, by possibility, throw a light 01 the subject, she listened with an intentness thai almost suspended respiration. In this manner, the hours passed away unheeded ; for both were too much interested to think of rest. Nature as serted her rights, however, towards morning ; and Mabel was persuaded to lie down on one of the straw beds pro vided for the soldiers, where she soon fell into a deep sleep THE PATHFINDER. 885 Juno lay near her ; aiid a quiet reigned on the whole island, as profound as if the dominion of the forest had never been invaded by man. When Mabel awoke, the light of the sun was streaming in through the loop-holes ; and she found that the day was considerably advanced. June still lay near her, sleeping as tranquilly as if she reposed on we will not say down, for the superior civilization of our own times repudiates the simile but on a French mattress ; and as profoundly as if she had never experienced concern. The movements of Mabel, notwithstanding, soon awakened one so accustomed to vigilance ; and then the two took a survey of what waa passing around them, by means of the friendly aperture*. 386 THE PATHFINDER. CHAPTER XXIII. What had the Eternall Maker need of thee, The world in his continuall course to keepe, That doest all things deface ? ue lettest see The bsautie of his worke? ludeede in sleepe, The slouthfull body that doth love to steepe His lustlesse limbs, and drowne his baser mind, Ooth praise thee oft. and oft from Stygian deepe, Calles thee his goddesse, in his errour blind, And great dame Nature s hand-maide, chearing every kind. FAEKIK Qux*. THE tranquillity of the previous night was not contra- dieted by the movements of the day. Although Mabel and June went to every loop-hole, not a sign of the presence oi a living being on the island was at first to be seen, them selves excepted. There was a smothered fire on the spot where McNab and his comrades had cooked, as if the smoke that curled upwards from it was intended as a lure to the absent ; and all around the huts had been restored to former order and arrangement. Mabel started involuntarily, when her eye at length fell on a group of three men, dressed in the scarlet of the 55th, seated on the grass, in lounging at titudes, as if they chatted in listless security ; and her blood curdled, as, on a second look, she traced the bloodless faces and glassy eyes of the dead. They were quite near the block-house; so near, indeed, as to have been overlooked at the h rst eager inquiry; and there was a mocking levity in the : r postures and gestures, for their limbs were stiffening in different attitudes, intended to resemble life, at which the soul revolted. Still, horrible as these objects were to those near enough to discover the frightful discrepancy between their assumed and their real characters, the arrangement had been made with an art that would have deceived a negligent observer, at the distance of a hundred yards. After care- THE PATH KIND ETC. 387 fally examining the shores ot the island, June pointed out to her companion the fourth soldier, seated with his feet hanging over the water, his back fastened to a sapling, and holding a fishing-rod in his hand. The scalpless heads were covered with the caps, and all appearance of blood had been carefully washed from each countenance. Mabel sickened at this sight, which not only did so much violence to all her notions of propriety, but which was in itself so revolting, and so opposed to natural feeling. She withdrew to a seat, and hid her face in her apron for sev eral minutes, until a low call from June again drew her to a loop-hole. The latter then pointed out the body of Jennie, seemingly standing in the door of a hut, leaning forward as if to look at the group of men, her cap fluttering in the wind, and her hand grasping a broom. The distance was too great to distinguish the features very accurately ; but Mabel fancied that the jaw had been depressed, as if to dis tort the mouth into a sort of horrible laugh. " June ! June ! " she exclaimed, " this exceeds all I have ever heard or imagined as possible, in the treachery and ar tifices of your people." " Tuscarora very cunning," said June, in a way to show ,hat she rather approved of than condemned the uses to which the dead bodies had been applied. " Do soldier no harm now ; do Iroquois good ; got the scalp, first ; now make bodies work. By and by, burn em." This speech told Mabel how far she was separated from her friend in character ; and it W 7 as several minutes before she could again address her. But this temporary aversion was lost on June, who set about preparing their simple breakfast, in a way to show how insensible she was to feel ings in others, that her ow r n habits taught her to discard. Mabel ate sparingly, and her companion as if nothing had happened. Then they had leisure again for their thoughts, and for further surveys of the island. Our heroine, though devoured with a feverish desire to be always at the loops, seldom went that she did not immediately quit Jiein in dis gust, though compelled by her apprehensions tr, return again in a few minutes, called by the rustling of leaves, or thfl 888 THE PATHFINDER sighing of the wind. It was, indeed, a solemn thing to look out upon that deserted spot, peopled by the dead in the pan oply of the living, and thrown into the attitudes and acts of careless merriment and rude enjoyment. The effect on our heroine was much as if she had found herself an observer of the revelries of demons. Throughout the livelong day not an Indian nor a French man -was to be seen, and night closed over the frightful but silent masquerade with the steady and unalterable progress with which earth obeys her laws, indifferent to the petty actors and petty scenes that are in daily bustle and daily occurrence on her bosom. The night was far more quiet than that which had preceded it, and Mabel slept with an in creasing confidence, for she now felt satisfied that her own fate would not be decided until the return of her father. The following day he was expected, however, and when our heroine awoke, she ran eagerly to the loops in order to as certain the state of the weather and the aspect of the skies, as well as the condition of the island. There lounged the fearful group on the grass ; the fisherman still hung over the water, seemingly intent on his sport ; and the distorted countenance of Jennie glared from out the hut in horrible contortions. But the weather had changed. The wind blew fresh from the southward, and though the air was bland, it was filled with the elements of storm. " This grows more and more difficult to bear, June," Ma bel said, when she left the window. " I could even prefer to see the enemy than to look any longer on this fearful array of the dead." " Hush ! here they come. June thought hear a cry, like a warrior s shout when he take a scalp." " What mean you ! There is no more butchery I Thure can be no more." " Salt-water ! " exclaimed June, laughing, as she stood peeping through a loop-hole. JL " My dear uncle ! Thank God, he then lives. O ! June June, you will not let them harm him ? " " June poor squaw. What warrior t ink of what she ay ? Arrowhead bring him here." THE PATHFINDER. 389 By this time Mabel was at a loop, and sure enough there were Cap and the quartermaster in the hands of the In dians, eight or ten of whom were conducting them to the foot of the block ; for by his capture the enemy now wel 1 knew that there could be no man in the building. Mabel scarcely breathed until the whole party stood ranged di rectly J>e?;/re ^<3 door, when she was rejoiced to see that the French officer was among them. A low conversation followed, in which both the white leader and Arrowhead spoke earnestly to their captives, when the quartermaster na led out to her, in a voice loud enough to be heard. " Pretty Mabel ! Pretty Mabel ! " he said ; " look out of one of the loop-holes, and pity our condition. We are threatened with instant death, unless you open the door to the conquerors. Relent then, or we ll no be wearing our scalps half an hour from this blessed moment ! " Mabel thought there were mockery and levity in this appeal, and its manner rather fortified than weakened her resolution to hold the place as long as possible. " Speak to me, uncle," she said, with her mouth at a loop, " and tell me what I ought to do ? " "Thank God! thank God!" ejaculated Jap ; "the sound of your sweet voice, Magnet, lightens my heart of a heavy load, for I feared you had shared the fate of poor Jennie. My breast has felt the last four-and-twenty hours as if a ton of kentledge had been stowed in it. You ask me what you ought to do, child, and I do not know how to advise you, though you are my own sister s daughter ! The most I can say just now, my poor girl, is most heartily to curse the day you or I ever saw this bit of fresh water." " But, uncle, is your life in danger do you think I ought to open the door ? " " A round turn and two half-hitches make a fast belay ; and I would counsel no ^ne who is out of the hands of these rl, -\ to unbar or unfasten anything, in order to fall .~._ .V^. As to the quartermaster and myself, we are both elderly men, and not of much account to mankind in general, as honest Pathfinder would say ; and it can mako no great odds to him whether he balances the purser s booki 390 THE TATRFINDKR, this year or th next ; and as for myself, why if I were on the seaboard I should know what to do but up here ID This watery wilderness, I can only say that if I were behind that bit of a bulwark, it would take a good deal cf Indian logic to rowse me out of it." " You ll no be minding all your uncle says, pretty M.* bel," put in Muir, " for distress is obviously fast unsettling his faculties, and he is far from calculating all the necosn ties of the emergency. We are in the hands here of vei 3 considerate and gentlemanly pairsons, it must be ackriowl edged, and one has little occasion to apprehend disagreeable violence. The casualties that have occurred are the com mon incidents of war, and can no change our sentiments of the enemy, for they are far from indicating that any injus tice will be done the prisoners. I m sure that neither Mas ter Cap nor myself has any cause of complaint since we have given ourselves up to Master Arrowhead, who reminds me of a Roman, or a Spartan, by his virtues and modera tion ; but ye ll be remembering that usages differ, and that our scalps may be lawful sacrifices to appease the manes of fallen foes, unless you save them by capitulation." " I shall do wiser to keep within the block-house until the fate of the island is settled," returned Mabel. " Our enemies can feel no concern on account of one like me, knowing that I can do them no harm ; and I greatly prefer to remain here, as more befitting my sex and years." " If nothing but your convenience were concerned, Ma bel, we should all cheerfully acquiesce in your wishes ; but these gentlemen fancy that the work will aid their opera tions, and they have a strong desire to possess it. To be .Tt\nk with you, finding myself and your uncle in a very peculiar situation, I acknowledge that, to avert consequences, I Hive assumed the power that belongs to his Majesty s com mission, and entered into a verbal capitulation, by which 1 have engaged to give up the block-house and the whole .si and. It is the fortune of war, and must be submitted to ; BO open the door, pretty Mabel, forthwith, and confide your- Belf to the care of those who know how to treat beauty and virtue in distress. There s no courtier in Scotland mor THE PATHFINDER. 391 complaisant than this chief, or who is more familiar with the laws of decorum." " No leave block-house," muttered June, who stood at Mabel s side, attentive to all that passed. " Block-house good ; got no scalp." Our heroine might have yielded, but for this appeal ; for it began to appear to her, that the wisest course would be to conciliate the enemy by concessions, instead of exasper ating them by resistance. They must know that Muir and her uncle were in their power ; that there was no man in the building ; and she fancied they might proceed to batter down the door, or to cut their way through the log% with axes, if she obstinately refused to give them peaceable ad mission, since there was no longer any reason to dread the rifle. But the words of June induced her to hesitate ; and the earnest pressure of the hand, and entreating looks of her companion, strengthened a resolution that was faltering. " No prisoner yet," whispered June ; " let em make prisoner, before ey take prisoner talk big ; June mau- e em." Mabel now began to parley more resolutely with Muir, for her uncle seemed disposed to quiet his conscience by holding his tongue ; and she plainly intimated that it was not her intention to yield the building. " You forget the capitulation, Mistress Mabel," said Muir ; " the honor of one of his Majesty s servants is con cerned ; and the honor of his Majesty, through his servant You will remember the finesse and delicacy that belong to military honor ? " " I know enough, Mr. Muir, to understand that you have no command in this expedition, and, therefore, can have no right to yield the block -house ; and I remember, moreover, Jo have heard my father say, that a prisoner loses all bis authority, for the time being." " Rank sophistry, pretty Mabel, and treason to the King, as well as dishonoring his commission, and discrediting hii name. You ll no be persevering in your intentions, when your better judgment has had leisure to reflect, and to make conclusions on matters and circumstances " 392 THE PATHFINDER. "Aye," put in Cap, "this is a circumstance, and ta d d to it ! " " No mind what e uncle say," ejaculated June, who wag occupied in a far corner of the room. " Block-house good ; got no scalp." " I shall remain as I am, Mr. Muir, until I get some tid ings of my father. He will return in the course of the next ten days." " Ah ! Mabel, this artifice will no deceive the enemy, who, by means that would be unintelligible, did not our suspicions rest on an unhappy young man with too much plausibility, are familiar with all our doings and plans, and well know that the sun will not set before the worthy ser geant and his companions will be in their power. Aweel ! Submission to Providence is truly a Christian virtue ! " " Mr. Muir, you appear to be deceived in the strength of this work, and to fancy it weaker than it is. Do you desire to see what I can do in the way of defense, if so disposed ? " " I dinna mind if I do," answered the quartermaster, who always grew Scotch as he grew interested. " What do you think of that, then ? Look at the loop of the upper story." As soon as Mabel had spoken, all eyes were turned up wards and beheld the muzzle of a rifle cautiously thrust through a hole June having resorted again to a ruse that had already proved so successful. The result did not disappoint expectation. No sooner did the Indians catch a sight of the fatal weapon, than they leaped aside ; and in less than a minute every man among them had sought a cover. The French officer kept his eye on the barrel of ths piece, in order to ascertain that it was not pointed ir hU particular direction, and he coolly took a pinch of snuff As r either Muir nor Cap had anything to apprehend from the quarter in which the others were menaced, they kept their ground. " Be wise, my pretty Mabel, be wise," exclaimed the for mer, " and no be provoking useless contention. In the Dame of all the kings of Albin, whom have .ye closeted with THE PATHFINDER. 393 you In that wooden tower, that seemcth so bloody-minded ? There is necromancy about this matter, and all oiir char acters may be involved in the explanation." " What do ye think of the Pathfinder, Master Muir, for a garrison to so strong a post ! " cried Mabel, resorting to an equivocation that the circumstances rendered very ex cusable. "What will your French and Indian ccmpaniona think of the aim of the Pathfinder s rifle ? " " Bear gently on the unfortunate, pretty Mabel, and do not confound the king s servants may Heaven bless him and all his royal lineage ! with the king s enemies. If Pathfinder be indeed in the block-house, let him speak, and we will hold our negotiations directly with him. He knows us as friends, and we fear no evil at his hands, and least of all to myself; for a generous mind is apt to render rivalry in a certain interest a sure ground of respect and amity ; since admiration of the same woman proves a community of feel ing and tastes." The reliance on Pathfinder s friendship did not extend beyond the quartermaster and Cap, however, for even the French officer, who had hitherto stood his ground so well, shrank back at the sound of the terrible name. So un willing indeed did this individual, a man of iron nerves, and one long accustomed to the dangers of the peculiar warfare in which he was engaged, appear to be to remain exposed to the assaults of Killdeer, whose reputation throughout all that frontier was as well established as that of Marlborough in Europe, that he did not disdain to seek a cover, insisting that his two prisoners should follow him. Mabel was too glad tc be rid of her enemies to lament the departure of her friends, though she kissed her hand to Cap, through the loop, and called out to him in terms of affection as he moved glowly and unwillingly away. The enemy now seemed disposed to abandon all attempts on the block-house for the present; and June, who had ascended to a trap in the roof, whenor the best view was to be obtained, reported that the whole party had assembled to eat, on a distant and sheltered part of the island, where Muir and Cap were quietly sharing .in the good things that THE PATHFINDER. were going, as if they had no concern on their minds. This information greatly relieved Mabel, and shel)egan to turn hei thoughts again to the means of effecting her own escape, or at least of letting her father know of the danger that awaited him. The sergeant was expected to return that afternoon, and she knew that a moment gained or lost might decide big fkte. Three or four hours flew by. The island was again buried in a profound quiet, the day was wearing away, and yet Mabel had decided on nothing. June was in the base ment preparing their frugal meal, and Mabel herself had ascended to the roof, which was provided with a trap that allowed her to go out (*i the top of the building, whence she commanded the best view of surrounding objects thai the island possessed. Still it was limited, and much ob structed by the tops of trees. The anxious girl did not dare to trust her person in sight, knowing well that the unrestrained passions of some savage might induce him to send a bullet through her brain. She merely kept her head out of the trap, therefore, whence, in the course of the afternoon, she made as many surveys of the different channels about the island, as " Anne, sister Anne," took of the environs of the castle of Blue Beard. The sun had actually set, no intelligence had been re ceived from the boats, and Mabel ascended to the roof, to take a last look, hoping that the party would arrive in the darkness ; which would at least prevent the Indians from rendering their ambuscade as fatal as it might otherwise prove, and which possibly might enable her to give some more intelligible signal by means of fire, than it would other wise be in her power to do. Her eye had turned carefully round the whole horizon, and she was just on the point of drawing in her person, when an object that struck her aa new caught her attention. The islands lay grouped so closely, that six 01 eight different channels or passages between them were in view ; and in one of the most covered, con cealed in a great measure by the bushes of the shore, lay what a second look assured her, was a bark canoe. It con tained a human being beyond a question. Confident that, THE PATHFINDER 395 Lf an enemy, her signal could do no harm, and, if a friend, that it might do good, the eager girl waved a little flag to wards the stranger, which she had prepared for her father, taking cure that it should not be seen from the island Mabel had i ipeated her signal eight or ten times in vaia and she began to despair of its being noticed, when a sign is.*s given in return, by the wave of a paddle, and the inai] so far discovered himself, as to let her see it was Chingach- gook. Here, then, at last, was a friend ; one, too, who was able, and she doubted not would be willing to aid her! From that instant her courage and her spirits revived. Tho Mohican had seen her ; must have recognized her, as he knew that she was of the party ; and no doubt, as soon as it was sufficiently dark, he would take the steps necessary to re lease her. That he was aware of the presence of the enemy was apparent by the great caution he observed, and she had every reliance on his prudence and address. The principal difficulty now existed with June, for Mabel had seen too much of her fidelity to her own people, relieved as it was by sympathy for herself, to believe she would con- sent to a hostile Indian s entering the block-house, or indeed to her leaving it, with a view to defeat Arrowhead s plans. The half hour that succeeded the discovery of the presence of the Great Serpent, was the most painful of Mabel Dun ham s life. She saw the means of effecting all she wished, as it might be within reach of her hand, and yet it eluded her grasp. She knew June s decision and coolness, not withstanding all her gentleness and womanly feeling, and at last she came reluctantly to the concision that there was no other way of attaining her end, than by deceiving her tried companion and protector. It was revolting to one as sincere and natural, as pure of heart, and as much disposed to ingenuousness as Mabel Dunham, to practice deception on a friend like June ; but her own father s life was at stake, her companion would* receive no positive injury, and she had feelings and interests directly touching herself, that would have removed greater scruples. As soon as it was dark, Mabel s heart began to beat with violence ; and she adopted and changed her plan of pro- 390 THE PATHFINDER. ceedinga at least a dozen times in the course of a single hour. June was always the source of her greatest em barrassment ; for she did not well see, firstly, how she was to ascertain when Chingachgook was at the door, where she doubted not he would soon appear ; and, secondly, how she was to admit him without giving the alarm to her watch ful companion. Time pressed, however ; for the Mohicau might come and go away again, unless she were ready to receive him. It would be too hazardous to the Delaware to remain long on the island ; and it became absolutely necessary to determine on some course, even at the risk of choosing one that was indiscreet. After running over various projects in her mind, therefore, Mabel came to her companion and said, with as much calmness as she could assume : " Are you not afraid, June, now your people believe Pathfinder is in the block-house, that they will come and try to set it on fire ? " " No t ink such t ing. No burn block-house. Block house good ; got no scalp." " June, we cannot know. They hid because they believed what I told them of Pathfinder s being with us." " Believe fear. Fear come quick, go quick. Fear make run away ; wit make come back. Fear make warrior fool, as well as young girl." Here June laughed, as her sex is apt to laugh, when any thing particularly ludicrous crosses their youthful fancies. " I feel uneasy, June ; and wish you yourself would go up again to the roof and look out upon the island to make rnrtain that nothing is plotting against us ; you know the signs of what your people intend to do better than I." " June go, Lily wish ; but very well know that Indian sleep ; wait for fader. Warrior eat, drink, sleep, all time, when don t fight, and go on war-trail. Den never sleep, eat, drink never feel. Warrior sleep, now." " God send it may be so ; but go up, dtur June, and look well about you. Danger may come when we least iipect it," June arose and prepared to ascend to the roof; but alit THE PATHFINDER. 397 paused, with her foot on the first round of the ladder. Ma bel s heart beat so violently that she was fearful its throbs would be heard ; and she fancied that some glearuings of her real intentions had crossed the mind of her friend. She was right, in part; the Indian woman having actually stopped to consider whether there was any indiscretion iu what she was about to do. At first, the suspicion that Ma bel intended to escape flashed across her mind ; then she re jected it, on the ground that the pale-face had no means of getting off the island, and that the block-house was much the most secure place she could find. The next thought was, that Mabel had detected some sign of the near ap proach of her father. This idea, too, lasted but an instant ; for June entertained some such opinion of her companion s ability to understand symptoms of this sort symptoms that had escaped her own sagacity as a woman of high fashion entertains of the accomplishments of her maid. Nothing else in the same way offering, she began slowly to mount the ladder. Just as she reached the upper floor, a lucky thought sug gested itself to our heroine ; and, by expressing it in a hur ried, but natural manner, she gained a great advantage in executing her projected scheme. " I will go down," she said, " and listen by the door, June, while you are on the roof; and we will thus be 011 our guard, at the same time, above and below." Though June thought this savored of unnecessary caution, well knowing no one could enter the building unless aided from within, nor any serious danger menace them from tho exterior, without giving sufficient warning, she attributed vhe proposition to Mabel s ignorance and alarm ; and as it was made apparently with frankness, it was received with out listrust. By these means our heroine was enabled to descend to the door, as her friend ascended to the roof; and June felt no unusual inducement to watch her. The distance between the two was now too great to admit of con versa tion ; and for three or four minutes, one was occupied iu looking about her as weh as the darkness would allow, mid the other in listening at the door, with ad much intent- 398 THE PATHFINDLR. ness as if all her senses were absorbed in the single faculty of hearing. June discovered nothing from her elevated stand ; the obscurity, indeed, almost forbade the hope of such a result but it would not be easy to describe the sensation with which Mabel thought she perceived a slight and guarded push against the door. Fearful that all might not be as she wished, and anxious to let Chingachgook know that she was near, she began, though in tremulous and low notes, to sing. So profound was the stillness at the moment, that the sound of the unsteady warbling ascended to the roof, ami in a min ute June began to descend. A slight tap at the door was heard immediately after. Mabel was bewildered, for there was no time to lose. Hope proved stronger than fear, and with unsteady hands she commenced unbarring the door. The moccasin of June was heard on the floor above her, when only a single bar was turned. The second was re leased as her form reached half-way down the lower ladder. " What you do ! " exclaimed June, angrily. " RUE away mad leave block-house ? Block-house good " The hands of both were on the last bar, and it would have been cleared from the fastenings, but for a vigorous shove from without, which jammed the wood. A short struggle ensued, though both were disinclined to violence. June would probably have prevailed, had not another and a more vigorous push from without forced the bar past the trifling impediment that held it, when the door opened. The form of a man was seen to enter, and both the females rushed up the ladder, as if equally afraid of the consequences. The stranger secured the door, and first examining the lower room with great care, he cautiously ascended the ladder. June, as soon as it became dark, had closed the loops of the principal floor, and lighted a candle. By means of this dim taper, then, the two females stood in expectation, waiting to ascertain the person of their visitor, whose wary ascent of the ladder was distinctly audible, though sufficiently deliber ate. It would not be easy to say which was the most as tonished on finding, when the stranger had got through the trap, that Pathfinder stood before them. THE PATHFINDER. 399 * God be praised ! " Mabel exclaimed, ijr the idea that the block-house would be impregnable with such a garrison, at once crossed her mind. " ! Pathfinder, what has be come of my father ? " " The sergeant is safe as yet, and victorious, though it is not. in the gift of man to say what will be the ind of it. Is not that the wife of Arrowhead, skulking in the comer iJhore?" " Speak not of her reproachfully, Pathfinder ; I owe her my life - my present security ; tell me what has happened to my father s party, why you are here, and I will relate all the horrible events that have passed upon this island." " Few words will do the last, Mabel ; for one used to Indian deviltries needs but little explanations on such a subject. Everything turned out as we had hoped with the expedition, for the Sarpent was on the lookout, and he met us with all the information heart could desire. We am bushed three boats, druv the Frenchers out of them, got possession and sunk them, according to orders, in the deep est part of the channel ; and the savages of Upper Canada will fare badly for Indian goods this winter. Both powder and ball too, will be scarcer among them than keen hunters and actyve warriors may relish. We did not lose a man, or have even a skin barked ; nor do 1 think the inimy suffered to speak of. In short, Mabel, it has been just such an ex pedition as Lundie likes ; much harm to the foe, and little harm to ourselves." " Ah ! Pathfinder, I fear when Major Duncan comes to ear the whole of the sad tale, he will find reason to regret je ever undertook the affair ! " " I know what you mean I know what you mean; but by telling my story straight you will understand it better. As soon as the sergeant found himself successful, he sent me and the Sarpeut off in canoes to tell you how matters had turned out, and he is following with the two boats ; which being so much heavier, cannot arrive before morning. I pin ted from Chingachgook this forenoon, it being agreed that he should come up one set of channels, and I another, to see that the path was clear. I ve not seen the chief iince." 400 THE PATHFINDER. Mabel now explained the manner in which she hud dis covered the Mohican, arid her expectation that he would yet come to the block-house. " Not he not he ! A regular scout will never get be hind walls or logs, so long as he can keep the open air and find useful employment. I should not have come my sell, ftiabel, but J promised the sergeant to comfort you, and (o look a ter your safety. Ah s me 1 I recounoitered the (al and with a heavy heart this forenoon ; and there was a bit ter hour when I fancied you might be among the slain." ** By what lucky accident were you prevented from pad- dling up boldly to the island, and from falling into the hands of the enemy ? " kt By such an accident, Mabel, as Providence employs to ;ell the hound where to find the deer, and the deer how to throw off the hound. No, no ; these artifices and deviltries with dead bodies may deceive the soldiers of the 55th, and the king s officers ; but they are all lost upon men who have passed their days in the forest. I came down the channel in face of the pretended fisherman, and, though the riptyles have set up the poor wretch with art, it was not ingenious enough to take in a practysed eye. The rod was held too high ; for the 55th have learned to fish at Oswego, if they never knew how before ; and then the man was too quiet for one who got neither prey nor bite. But we never come in upon a post blindly ; and I have lain outside a garrison a whole night, because they had changed their sentries and their mode of standing guard. Neither the Sarpent nor my- belf would be likely to be taken in by these contrivances, jvhieh were most probably intended for the Scotch, who are cunning enough in some particulars, though anything but vritches when Indian sarcumventioiis are in the wind." " Do you think my father and his men may yet be de ceive- 1 ? " said Mabel, quickly. " Not if I can prevent it, Mabel. You say the Sarpent ii on the lookout too ; so there is a double chance of our succeeding in letting him know his danger ; though k is by \o means sartaiu by which channel the party may come." " Pathfinder," said our heroine solemnly, for die irightfu. THE PATHFINDER. 401 icenes she had witnessed had clothed death with unusual horrors, " Pathfinder, you have professed love for me a wish to make me your wife ! " " I did veiitur to speak on that subject, Mabel, and the sergeant has even lately said that you are kindly disposed ; but I am not a man to parsecute the thing I love." " Hear me, Pathfinder ! I respect you honor you revere you ; save my father from this dreadful death, ;md I can worship you. Here is my hand as a solemn pledge for my faith, when you come to claim it." " Bless you bless you, Mabel ; this is more than I de- sarve ; more, I fear, than I shall know how to profit by, as I ought. It was not wanting, however, to make me sarve the sergeant. We are old comrades, and owe each other a life ; though I fear me, Mabel, being a father s comrade is not always the best recommendation with the daughter ! " " You want no other recommendation than your OWL. acts your courage your fidelity; all that you do and say, Pathfinder, my reason approves, and the heart will, nay, it shall follow." " This is a happiness I little expected this night; but we are in God s hands, and He will protect us in his own way. These are sweet words, Mabel, but they were not wanting to make me do all that man can do, in the present sarcuin stances ; they will not lessen my endeavors neither." " Now we understand each other, Pathfinder," Mabel added hoarsely, " let us not lose one of the precious mo ments, which may be of incalculable value. Can we not get into your canoe, and go and meet my father ? " * That is not the course I advise. I don t know by which channel the sergeant will come, and there are twenty ; rely n it, the Sarpent will be winding his way through then ail. No, no, my advice is to remain here. The logs of this block-house are still green, and it will not be easy to sr.t them on fire ; and I can make good the place, bating a buining, agin a tribe. The Iroquois nation cannot dislodge me from this fortress, so long as we can keep the flames off it. The sergeant is now camped on some island, and will not come in until morning. If we hold the block, we M 402 THE PATIIFINDO. can give him timely warning, by firing rifles for instance and should he determine to attack the savages, as a man of his temper will be very likely to do, the possession of this building will be of great account in the affair. No, no ; my judgment says remain, if the object be to sarve tht? sergeant ; though escape for our two selves will be no very difficult matter." " Stay," murmured Mabel, " stay, for God s sake, Path finder. Anything everything, to save my father ! " " Yes, that is natur . I am glad to hear you say t-hisj Mabel, for I own a wish to see the sergeant fairly sup ported. As the matter now stands, he has gained himself credit ; and could he once drive off these miscreants, and make an honorable retreat, laying the huts and block in ashes, no doubt, no doubt, Lundie would remember it, and sarve him accordingly. Yes, yes, Mabel, we must not only save the sergeant s life, but we must save his ripitation." " No blame can rest on my father, on account of the surprise of this island ! " " There s no telling there s no telling ; military glory is a most unsartain thing. I ve seen the Delawares routed, when they desarved more credit than at other times when they ve carried the day. A man is wrong to set his head on success of any sort, and worst of all, on success in war. I know little of the settlements, or of the notions that men nold in them ; but, up here-away, even the Indians rate a warrior s character according to his luck. The principal \hirig with a soldier is, never to be whipt ; nor do I think mankind stops long to consider how the day was won or (ost. For my part, Mabel, I make it a rule when facing the inirny, to give him as good as I can send, and to try to be moderate as I can, when we get the better ; as for- feel- jig moderate after a defeat, little need be said on that score as a flogging is one of the most humblir/g things in natur The parsons preach about humility, in the garrisons ; but if humility would make Christians, the king s troops ought to be saints, for they ve done little, as yet, this war, but akii lessons from the French, beginning at- Fort du Quesue^ %nd ending at Ty ! " THE PATHFINDER. 403 " My father could not have suspected that the position of the island was known to the enemy," resumed Mabel, whose thoughts were running on the probable effect of the recent events, on the sergeant. "That is tru^ ; ror do I well see how the Frenchers found it out. TLe spot is well chosen, and it ia not an easy matter, even for one who has travelled the road to aid from it, to find it again. There has been treachery, I fear ; yes, yes, there must have been treachery ! " " O ! Pathfinder, can this be ? " " Nothing is easier, Mabel, for treachery comes as nat ral to some men, as eating. Now, when I find a man all fair words, I look close to his deeds ; for when the heart a right, and raally intends to do good, it is generally satisfied to let the conduct speak, instead of the tongue." " Jasper Western is not one of these," said Mabel, im petuously. " No youth can be more sincere in his manner, or less apt to make the tongue act for the head." " Jasper Western ! tongue and heart are both right with that lad, depend on it, Mabel ; and the notion taken up by Lundie, and the quartermaster, and tYie sergeant, and your ancle, too, is as wrong, as it would be to think that the sun shone by night, and the stars shone by day. No, no ; I ll answer for Eau-douce s honesty with my own scalp, or, at need, with my own rifle." " Bless you bless you, Path.lnder ! " exclaimed Mabel, extending her own hand, and pressing the iron fingers of her companion, under a state of feeling that far surpassed her iwn consciousness of its strength. " You are all that is generous all that is noble ; God will reward you for it." "Ah ! Mabel, I fear me, if this be true, I should not tovet such a wife as yourself, but would leave you to be *ued for. by some gentleman of the garrison, as your de jurts require! " "We will not talk of this any more to-night," Mabel answered, in a voice so smothered as to seem nearly choked. w We must think less of ourselves, just now, Pathfinder, and more of our friends.- Rut I rejoice from my soul that you believe Jasper innocent. Now let us talk of other things ought we not to release June? * 404 THE PATHFINDER. " I ve been thinking about the woman, for it will not bf safe to shut our eyes and leave hers open, on this side of the block-house door. If we put her in the upper room and take away the ladder, she ll be a prisoner at least." " I cannot treat one thus who has saved my life. It would be better to let her depart ; I think she is to< much my friend to do anything to harm me." 4 You do not know the race, Mabel ; you do not know the race. It s true she s not full-blooded Mingo, but she consorts with the vagabonds, and must have 1 arned some of their tricks. What is that ? " " It sounds like oars some boat is passing through the channel ! " Pathfinder closed the trap that led to the lower room, to prevent June from escaping, extinguished the candle, and went hastily to a loop, Mabel looking over his shoulder in breath less curiosity. These several movements consumed a min ute or two ; and by the time the eye of the scout had got a dim view of things without, two boats had swept past, and eh*t up to the shore, at a spot some fifty yards beyond the block, where there was a regular landing. The obscurity prevented more from being seen ; and Pathfinder whispered to Mabel, that the new comers were as likely to be foes as friends, for he did not think her father could possibly have arrived so soon. A number of men were now seen to quit the boats, and then followed three hearty English cheers, leaving no further doubts of the character of the party. Pathfinder sprang to the trap, raised it, glided down the lad der, and began to unbar the door with an earnestness that proved how critical he deemed the moment. Mabel had followed, but she rather impeded than aided his exertions, and but a single bar was turned when a heavy discharge of rifles was heard. They were still standing in breathless sus- l>ense, as the war-whoop rang in all the surrounding thickets* The door now opened, and both Pathfinder arid Mabel rushed into the open air. All human sounds had ceased. After listening half a minute, however, Pathfinder thought he heard a few stifled groans near the boats ; but the wind blew so fresh, and the rustling of the leaves mingled BO much THE PATHFINDER. 405 with tne murmurs of the passing air, that he was far from certain. But Mabel was borne away by her feelings, aiid she rushed by him, taking the way towards the boats. " This will not do, Mabel," said the scout in an earnest but low voice, seizing her by an arm, " this will never do. Sartain death would follow, and that without sarving any one. We must return to the block." " Father ! my poor, dear, murdered father ! " said the girl wildly, though habitual caution, even at that trying mo ment, induced her to speak low. " Pathfinder, if you lo\ me, let me go to my dear father ! " " This will not do, Mabel. It is singular that no one speaks ; no one returns the fire from the boats and I have ieft Killdeer in the block ! But of what use would a rifle kSe when no one is to be seen ! " At that moment the quick eye of Pathfinder, which, while he held Mabel firmly in his grasp, had never ceased to roam over the dim scene, caught an indistinct view of five or six dark, crouching forms, endeavoring to steal past him, doubt less with the intention of intercepting their retreat to the block-house. Catching up Mabel, and putting her under an arm as if she were an infant, the sinewy frame of the woods man was exerted to the utmost, and he succeeded in entering the building. The tramp of his pursuers seemed immediately at his heels. Dropping his burden, he turned, closed the door, and had fastened one bar, as a rush against the solid mass threatened to force it from the hinges. To secure the other bar was the work of an instant. Mabel now ascended to the first floor, while Pathfinder remained as a sentinel below. Our heroine was in that state in which the body exerts itself apparently without the con trol of the mind. She relighted the candle mechanically, as her companion had desired, and returned with it below, fcrhere he was waiting her reappearance. No sooner was Pathfinder in possession of the light than he examined the place carefully, to make certain no one was concealed in the fortress, ascending to each floor in succession, after assuring himself that he left no enemy *n his rear. The result was the conviction that the block-house now contained no one 406 THE PATHFINDER. but Mabel and himself, June having escaped. When per- fectly convinced on this material point, Pathfinder rejoined our heroine in the principal apartment, setting down the light, and examining the priming of Killdeer before he seated himself. " Our worst fears are realized," said Mabel, to whom the hurry and excitement of the last five minutes appeared to contain the emotions of a life. " My beloved father, and all his party, are slain or captured ! " " We don t know that morning will tell us all. I do not think the affair as settled as that, or we should hear the vagabond Mingos yelling out their triumph around the block- hou&a. Of one thing we may be sartain ; if the inimy has really got the better, he will not be long in calling upon us to surrender. The squaw will let him into the secret of our situation, and, as they well know the place cannot bo fired by daylight so long as Killdeer continues todesarve his reputation, you may depend on it, that they will not be backward in making their attempt while darkness helps them." " Surely, I hear a groan ! " " Tis fancy, Mabel, when the mind gets to be skeary, especially a woman s mind, she often consaits things that have no reality. I ve known them that imagined there was truth in dreams " " Nay, I am not deceived ; there is surely one below, and in pain ! " Pathfinder was compelled to own that the quick senses of Mabel had not deceived her. He cautioned her, however, to repress her feelings ; and reminded her that the savages were in the practice of resorting to every artifice to attain their ends, and that nothing was more likely than that the groans were feigned with a view to lure them from the block- house, or at least to induce them to open the door. " No, no, no," said Mabel, hurriedly, " there is no artifice in those sounds, arid they come from Anguish of body, if uot of spirit. They are fearfully natural." " Well, we shall soon know whether a friend is there or not. Hide the light again, Mabel, and I will speak the per son from a loop." THE PATHFINDEtt. 407 Not a little precaution was necessary, according to Path finder s judgment and experience, in performing even this simple act, for he had known the careless slain by their want of proper attention to what might have seemed to the igno rant, supererogatory means of safety. He did not place his month to the loop itself, but so near it that he could be heard without raising his voice, and the same precaution was observed as regards his ear. "Who is below?" Pathfinder demanded, when his ar rangements were made to his mind. " Is any one in suffer ing? If a friend, speak boldly, and depend on our aid " " Pathfinder ! " answered a voice that both Mabel and the person addressed at once knew to be the sergeant s, w Pathfinder, in the name of God, tell me what has become of my daughter ? " "Father, I am here ! unhurt safe; and O! that I could think the same of you ! " The ejaculation of thanksgiving that followed was dis tinctly audible to the two, but it was clearly mingled with a groan of pain. "Mj worst forebodings are realized !" said Mabel, with a sort of desperate calmness. " Pathfinder, my father must be brought within the block, though we hazard everything Lo do it." " This is natur , and it is the law of God. But, Mabel, be calm, and endivor to be cool. All that can be effected for the sergeant by human invention, shall be done. I only ask you to be cool." " I am I am, Pathfinder. Never in my life was I more calm, more collected, than at this moment. But re member how perilous may be every instant; for Heaven s take, what we do, let us do without delay." Pathfinder was struck with the firmness of Mabel s tones, und perhaps he was a little deceived by the forced tranquil lity and self-possession she had assumed. At all events he did not deem any further explanations necessary, but de scended forthwith, and began to unbar the door. This deli cate process was conducted with the usual caution, but as tto warily permitted the mass of timber to swing back on 408 THE PATHFINDER. the hiiigcs, he felt a pressure against it that had Ros.fl? in duced him to close it again. But catching a glimpse of (.he cause through the crack, the door was permitted to swing back, when the body of Sergeant Dunham, which wus propped against it, fell partly within the block. To drr,w in the legs and secure the fastenings, occupied the Path- tinder but a moment. Then there existed no obstacle to their giving their undivided care to the wounded man. Mabel, in this trying scene, conducted herself with the sort of unnatural energy that her sex, when aroused, is apt to manifest. She got the light, administered water to the parched lips of her father, and assisted Pathfinder in form ing a bed of straw for his body, and a pillow of clothes for his head. All this was done earnestly, and almost without speaking ; nor did Mabel shed a tear until she heard the blessings of her father murmured on her head, for this ten derness and care. All this time, Mabel had merely con jectured the condition of her parent. Pathfinder, however, showed greater attention to the physical danger of the ser geant. He ascertained that a rifle ball had passed through the body of the wounded man; and he was sufficiently familiar with injuries of this nature, to be certain that the chances of his surviving the hurt were very trifling, if any " When the body of Sergeant Dunham, whirh xv:is propped against it, fell partly within the block. To draw in the legs and secure the fastenings, occupied Pathfinder but a moment." Page 228. TJHIVEKSIT7 THE PATHFINLEB. 409 CHAPTER XXIV. Then drink my tears, while yet they fall ; Would that my bosom s blood were balm ; And well thou knowest I d shed it all, To give thy brow one minute s calm. MOORE., THE eyes of Sergeant Dunham had not ceased to follow the form of his beautiful daughter from the moment that the light appeared. He next examined the door of the block, to ascertain its security ; for he was left on the ground be low, there being no available means of raising him to the upper floor. Then he sought the face of Mabel ; for as life wanes fast, the affections resume their force, and we begin to value that most which we feel we are about to lose for ever. " God be praised, my child, you at least have escaped their murderous rifles ! " he said ; for he spoke with strength, and seemingly with no additional pain. " Give ine the history of this sad business, Pathfinder." " All s me, sergeant ! it has been sad, as you say. That I there has been treachery, and the position of the island has been betrayed, is now as sartain, in my judgment, as that we still hold the block. But" " Major Duncan was right," interrupted Dunham, laying u hand on the other s arm. " Not in the sense you mean, sergeant no, not in that p int of view ; never. At least, not in my opinion. I know that natur is weak human natur , I mean and that we should none of us vaunt of our gifts, whether red or white ; but I do riot think a truer hearted lad lives on the lines than Jasper Western." " Bless you bless you for that, Pathfinder ! " burat forth from Mabel s very soul, while a flood of tears gave 410 THE PATHFINDER. vent to emotions that were so varied, while they were so violent: " O, bless you, Pathfinder, bless you! The brave should never desert the brave the honest should sustain the honest." The father s eyes were fastened anxiously on the face of his daughter, until the latter hid her countenance in hei apron to conceal her tears ; and then they turned with in quiry to the hard features of the guide. The latter merely wore their usual expression of frankness, sincerity, and up rightness ; and the sergeant motioned to him to proceed. "You know the spot where the Sarpent and I left you, sergeant," Pathfinder resumed ; " and I need say nothing of all that happened afore. It is now too late to lament what is gone and passed; but I do think if I had stayed with the boats, this would not have come to pass ! Other men may be as good guides ; I make no doubt they are : but then natur bestows its gifts, and some must be better than other some. I dare say poor Gilbert, who took my place, has suffered for his mistake." " He fell at my elbow," the sergeant answered, in a low, melancholy tone. " We have, indeed, all suffered for our mistakes ! " " No, no, sergeant, I meant no condemnation on you ; for men were never better commanded than your n, in this very expedition. I never beheld a prettier flanking ; and the way in which you carried your own boat up agin their howitzer might have teache^l Lundie himself a lesson." The eyes of the sergeant brightened ; his face even wore an expression of military triumph, though it was of a de gree that suited the humble sphere in which he had been an actor. " Twas not badly done, my friend," he said ; " we carried th^ir log breast-work by storm ! " " Tvvas nobly done, sergeant ; though I fear when all the truth comes to be known, it will be found that these va <T a- O bonds have got their howitzer back ag in. Well, well, put a stout heart upon it, and try to forget all that is disagree able, and to remember only the pleasant part of the matter That is your truest philosophy ; aye, and truest religion THE PATHFINDER. 411 too. If the inimy has got the howitzer ag in, they ve only got what belonged to them afore, and what we couldn t help. They haven t got the block-house yet, nor are they likely to get it, unless they fire it in the dark. Well, ser geant, the Sarpent and I separated about ten miles down the river ; for we thought it wisest not to come upon ever a friendly camp without the usual caution. What has be oome of Chingachgook, I cannot say ; though Mabel tells ine he is not far off; and I make no question the noble hearted Delaware is doing his duty, although he is not now visible to our eyes. Mark my word, sergeant ; before this matter is over, we shall hear of him at some critical time, and that in a discreet and creditable manner. Ah ! the Sarpent is, indeed, a wise and virtuous chief; and any white man might covet his gifts, though his rifle is not quite as sure as Killdeer, it must be owned. Well, as I came neai the island, I missed the smoke, and that put me on my guard ; for I knew that the men of the 55th were not cun ning enough to conceal that sign, notwithstanding all that has been told them of its danger. This made me more careful, until I came in sight of this mock-fisherman, as I ve just told Mabel ; and then the whole of their infernal arts was as plain before me, as if I saw it on a map. I need not tell you, sergeant, that my first thoughts were of Mabel , and that, finding she was in the block, I came here, in order to live or die in her company." The father turned a gratified look upon his child, and Mabel felt a sinking of the heart that, at such a moment, he could not have thought possible, when she wished to lx?]ieve all her concern centered in the situation of her par ent. As the latter held out his hand she took it in her own, and kissed it. Then kneeling at his side, she wept as if her heart would break. " Mabel," he said, steadily, " the will of God must bo done. It is useless to attempt deceiving either you or-my self ; my time has come, and it is a consolation to me to die like a soldier. Lundie will do me justice, for our good friend Pathfinder will tell him what has been done, aud how all came to pass. You do not forget our last conver sation ?" 412 THE PATHFINDER. " Nay, father, my time has probably come, too," exclaimed Mabel, who felt just then as if it would be a relief to die. " I cannot hope to escape ; and Pathfinder would do well to leave us, and return to the garrison, with the sad news, while he can." " Mabel Dunham," said Pathfinder, reproachfully, though he took her hand with kindness. "I have not desarved (his; I know I am wild, and uncouth, and ungainly" " Pathfinder ! " " Well well, well forget it ; you did not mean it ; you could not think it. It is useless, now, to talk of escaping, for the sergeant cannot be moved ; and the block-house must be defended, cost what it will. Maybe Lundie will get the tidings of our disaster, and send a party to raise the siege." " Pathfinder Mabel ! " said the sergeant, who had been writhing with pain, until the cold sweat stood on his fore head, " come both to my side. You understand each other, I hope ? " " Father, say nothing of that it is all as you wish." " Thank God ! Give me your hand, Mabel here, Pathfinder, take it. I can do no more than give you the girl in this way. I know you will make her a kind hus band. Do not wait on account of my death; there will be a chaplain in the fort, before the season closes ; let him marry you at once. My brother, if living, will wish to go back to his vessel, and then the child will have no protector. Mabel, your husband will have been my friend, and that will be some consolation to you, I hope." " Trust this matter to me, sergeant," put in Pathfinder ; fi leave it all in my hands, as your dying request ; and de - peud on it, all will go as it should." " I do I do put all confidence in you, my trusty friend, and empower you to act, as I could act myself, in ever} particular. Mabel, child hand me the water you will never repent this night. Bless you, my daughter God bless and have you in his holy keeping ! " This tenderness was inexpressibly touching to one oi Mabel s feelings ; aid she felt at that moment, as if he" THE PATHFINDER. 41 b future union with Pathfinder had leceived a solemnization that no ceremony of the Church could render more holy. Still, a weight, as that of a moiiiitajiijjay upon her heart jand_she thl^ghT^Tlvaul^^ to die. Then fol lowed a short pause, when the sergeant, in broken sentences briefly related what had passed since he parted with Path finder and the Delaware. The wind had come more favor able, and instead of encamping on an island, agreeably t< the original intention, he had determined to continue, and reach the station that night. Their approach would have been unseen, and a portion of the calamity avoided, he thought, had they not grounded on the point of a neighbor ing island, where, no doubt, the noise made by the men, in getting off the boat, gave notice of their approach, and enabled the enemy to be in readiness to receive them. They had landed without the slightest suspicion of danger, though surprised at not finding a sentinel, and had actually left their arms in the boat, with the intention of first secur ing their knapsacks and provisions. The fire had been so close, that notwithstanding the obscurity, it was very deadly Every man had fallen ; two or three, however, subsequently arose, and disappeared. Four or five of the soldiers had been killed, or so nearly so as to survive but a few minutes ; though, for some unknown reason, the enemy did not make the usual rush for the scalps. Sergeant Dunham fell with others ; and he had heard the voice of Mabel, as she rushed from the block-house. This frantic appeal aroused all his parental feelings, and had enabled him to crawl as far as the door of the building, where he had raised himself against the logs, in the manner already mentioned. After this simple explanation was made, the sergeant wai so weak as to need repose ; and his companions, while they ministered to his wants, suffered some time to pass in silence. Pathfinder took the occasion to reconnoitre from the loopa and the roof, and he examined the condition of the rifles, of which there were a dozen kept in the building, the soldiers having used their regimental muskets in the expedition. But Mabel never left her father s siie for an instant, and when, by his breathing, she fancied he slept, she bent her knees and prayed. 414 THE PATHFINDER. The half hour that succeeded was awfully solemn ^i<l still. The moccasin of Pathfinder was barely heard over head, and occasionally the sound of the breech of a rifle fell upon the floor, for he was busied in examining the pieces, with a view to ascertain the state of their charges, and their primings. Beyond this nothing was so loud as the biealh ing of the wounded man Mabel s heart yearned to be ii : communication with the father she was so soon to lose, and yet she would not disturb his apparent repose. But Dunham slept not ; he was in that state when the world sudden Ij loses its attractions, its illusions, and its power ; and the unknown future fills the mind with its conjectures, its reve lations, and its immensity. He had been a moral man for one of his mode of life, but he had thought little of this alb important moment. Had the din of battle been ringing in his ears, his martial ardor might have endured to the end ; but there, in the silence of that nearly untenauted block house, with no sound to enliven him, no appeal to keep alive factitious sentiment, no hope of victory to impel, things began to appear in their true colors, and this state of being to be estimated at its just value. He would have given treasures for religious consolation, yet he knew not where to turn to seek it. He thought of Pathfinder, but he dis trusted his knowledge. He thought of Mabel ; for the parent to appeal to the child for such succor, appeared like reversing the order of nature. Then it was that he felt the full responsibility of the parental character, and had some clear glimpses of the manner in which he himself had discharged the trust towards an orphan child. While thoughts like these were rising in his mind, Mabel, who watched the slightest change in his breathing, heard a guarded knock at the door. Supposing it might" be Cbin ijachgook, she rose, undid two of the bars, and held the third in her hand, as she asked who was there. The an swer was in her uncle s voice, and he implored her to give him immediate admission. Without an instant of hesita tion, she turned the bar, and Cap entered. He had barely passed the opening, when Mabel closed the door again, and secured it as before, for practice had rendered her expert in this portion of her duties. THE PATHFINDER. 415 Tlie sturdy seaman, when he had made sure of the state of his brother-in-law, and that Mabel as well as himself was safe, was softened nearly to tears. His own appearance he explained by saying that he had been carelessly guarded, under the impression that he and the quartermaster were sleeping under the fumes of liquor with which they had been plied, with a view to keep them quiet in the expected engagement. Muir had been left asleep, or seeming to sleep ; but Cap had run into the bushes, on the alarm of the attack, and having found Pathfinder s canoe, had only succeeded, at that moment, in getting to the block-house, whither he had come with the kind intent of escaping with his niece by water. It is scarcely necessary to say, that he changed his plan when he ascertained the state of the ser geant, and the apparent security of his present quarters. "If the worst comes to the worst, Master Pathfinder," he said, " we must strike, and that will entitle us to quarter. We owe it to our manhood to hold out a reasonable time, and to ourselves to haul down the ensign in season to make saving conditions. I wished Master Muir to do the same thing, when we were captured by these chaps you call vag abonds, and rightly are they named, for viler vagabonds do not walk the earth " " You ve found out their characters ! " interrupted Path finder, who was always as ready to chime in with abuse of the Mingos, as with the praises of his friends. " Now, had you fallen into the hands of the Delawares, you would have Famed the difference." " Well, to me they seem much of a muchness ; blackguards fore ai .d aft, always excepting our friend the Serpent, who ia a gentleman, for an Injin. But, when these savages made tV=-3 assault on us, killing Corporal McNab and his men, aa if they had been so many rabbits, Lieutenant Muir and myself took refuge in one of the holes of this here island, of which there are so many among the rocks, regular geological underground burrows made by the water, as tho lieutenant says, and there we remained stowed away like two leaguers in a ship s hold, until we gave out for want of grub. A man may say that grub is the foundation 416 THE PATHFINDER. of human nature. I desired the quartermaster to make terms, for we could have defended ourselves for an hour or two in the place, bad as it was ; but he declined, on the ground that the knaves wouldn t keep faith if any of them were hurt, and so there was no use in asking them to. T consented to strike, on two principles ; one, that we might be said to have struck already, for running below is gen erally thought to be giving up the ship ; and the other, that we had an enemy in our stomachs that was more for midable in his attacks than the enemy on deck. Hunger is d d ble circumstance, as any man who lias lived on it eight-and-forty hours will acknowledge." " Uncle ! " said Mabel, in a mournful voice, and with an expostulatory manner, "my poor father is sadly, sadly hurt ! " " True, Magnet, true ; I will sit by him, and do my best at consolation. Are the bars well fastened, girl ? on such an occasion, the mind should be tranquil and undisturbed." " We are safe, I believe, from all but this heavy blow of Providence." " Well, then, Magnet, do you go up to the deck above, and try to compose yourself, while Pathfinder runs aloft and takes a lookout from the cross-trees. Your father may wish to say something to me, in private, and it may be well to leave us alone. These are solemn scenes, and inexperi enced people, like myself, do not always wish what they say- to be overheard." Although the idea of her uncle s affording religious con solation by the side of a death-bed, certainly never obtruded itself on the imagination of Mabel, she thought there might be a propriety in the request with which she was unac quainted ; and* she complied accordingly. Pathfinder had already ascended to the roof to make his survey, and the brothers-in-law were left alone. Cap took a seat by the Bide of the sergeant, and bethought him seriously of the grave duty he had before him. A silence of several minutes succeeded, during which brief space the mariner was digest- ing the substance of his intended discourse. " I must say, Sergeant Dunham," Cap at length co*o THE PATHFINDER. 417 menced, in his peculiar manner, "that there has been mis management somewhere in this unhappy expedition, and, the present being an occasion when truth ought to be spoken, and nothing but the truth, I feel it my duty to say as much in plain language. In short, sergeant, on this point there cannot well be two opinions ; for, seaman as I am, and no soldier, I can see several errors myself, that it need/ no grea 4 education to detect." " What would you have, brother Cap ? " returned tha other, in a feeble voice; "what is done is doie ; it is now too late to remedy it." " Very true, brother Dunham, but not to repent of it ; the Good Book tells us it is never too late to repent; and I ve always heard that this is the precious moment. If you ve anything on your mind, sergeant, hoist it out freely, for you know you trust it to a friend. You were my own sister s husband, and poor little Magnet is my own sister s daughter ; and, living or dead, I shall always look upon you as a brother. It s a thousand pities that you didn t lie off and on with the boats, and send a canoe ahead to recon noitre ; in which case your command would have been saved, and this disaster would not have befallen us all. Well, sergeant, we are nil mortal ; that is some consolation, [ make no doubt ; and if you go before a little, why, we must follow. Yes, that must give him consolation." " I know all this, brother Cap ; and hope I m prepared to meet a soldier s fate ; there is poor Mabel " " Aye, aye that s a heavy drag, I know ; but you wouldn t take her with you, if you could, sergeant ; and sc the better way is to make as light of the separation as you car. Mabel is a good girl, and so was her mother bt.fore her she was my sister, and it shall be my care to see f hat her daughter gets a good husband, if our lives and sca!pa are spared ; for I suppose no one would care about entering into a family that has no scalps." " Brother, my child is betrothed she will oecome the wile of Pathfinder." " Well, brother Dunham, every man has his opinions, and hii manner of viewing things ; and to my notion this in%*cb 27 418 TIIK PATHFINDER. will be anything but agreeable to Mabel; I have no objec tions to the age of the man; I m not one of them that thinks it necessary to be a boy to make a girl happy, but on the whole I prefer a man of about fifty for a husband ; still, there ought not to be any circumstance between the parties to make them unhappy. Circumstances play .the devil with matrimony ; and I set it down as one, that Path finder don t know as much as my niece. You ve seen bu1 little of the girl, sergoant, and have not got the run of her knowledge ; but let her pay it out freely, as she will do when she gets to be thoroughly acquainted ; and you ll fall in with but few schoolmasters that can keep their lufTs in her company." " She s a good child a dear, good child," muttered the sergeant, his eyes filling with tears ; " it is my misfortune that I have seen so little of her." " She is, indeed, a good girl, and knows altogether too much for poor Pathfinder, who is a reasonable man, and an experienced man in his own way ; but who has no more idea of the main chance than you have of spherical trigo nometry, sergeant." " Ah ! brother Cap, had Pathfinder been with us in the boats, this sad affair might not have happened ! " " That is quite likely ; his worst enemy will allow that the man is a good guide ; but, sergeant, if the truth must be spoken, you have managed this expedition in a loose way, altogether : you should have hove-to off your haven and sent in si boat to reconnoitre, as I told you before. That is a matter to be repented of; and I tell it to you because truth, in such a case, ought to be spoken." " My errors are dearly paid for, brother ; and poor Mabel, I fear, will be the sufferer. I think, however, that the calamity would not have happened had there not been \reason. I fear me, brother, that Jasper Eau-douce haa played us false ! " ki That is just my notion ; this fresh-writer life must sooner or later, undermine any man s morals. Lieutenant Muir and myself talked this matter over, while we lay in a bit oi a hole, out here, on this island ; and we both cani to THE PATHFINDER. 419 the conclusion that .lothing short of Jasper s treacher/ could have brought MS all into this infernal scrape. Well, ser geant, you had better compose your mind, and think of other matters ; when a vessel is about to enter a strange port, it is more prudent to think of the anchorage inside than to be under-running all the events that have turned up during the v y ge ; there s the log-book, expressly to note all these matters in ; and what stands there must form the column of figures that s to be posted up, for or Hgainst us. How^ now, Pathfinder ! is there anything in the wind, that you come down the ladder like an Indian in the wake of a scalp ? " The guide raised a linger for silence, then beckoned to Cap to ascend the first ladder, and to allow Mabel to tako nis place at the side of the sergeant. " We must be prudent, and we must be bold, too," he said, in a low voice. " The riptyles are in earnest in their intention to fire the block, for they know there is now nothing to be gained by letting it stand. I hear the voice of that vagabond Arrowhead, among them, and he is urging them to set about their diviltry this very night. We must be stirring, Salt-water, and doing too. Luckily, there are four or five barrels of water in the block, and these are something towards a siege. My reckoning is wrong, too, or we shall yet reap some advantage from that honest fellow ) the Sarpent, being at liberty." Cap did not wait for a second invitation, but stealing away, he was soon in the upper room with Pathfinder, while Mabel took his post at the side of her father s humble bed. Pathfinder had opened a loop, having so far concealec the light that it would not expose him to a treacherous shot, and, expecting a summons, he stood with his face near the hole, ready to answer. The stillness that succeeded,, wa& at length broken by the voice of Muir. " Master Pathfinder," called out the Scotchman, " a friend summons you to a parley. Come freely to me of the loops, for you ve nothing to fear so long as you are in converse with an officer of the 55th." u What is your will, quartermaster what is y ur will ? 420 THE PATHFINDKR. I know the 55th, and believe it to be a brave regiment, though I rather incline to the 60th, as my favorite, and to the Delawares more than to either. But what would you have, quartermaster ? It must be a pressing errand that brings you under the loops of a block-house, at this hour of the night, with the sartainty of Killdeer s being inside of it." O ! you ll no harm a friend, Pathfinder, I m certain, and that s my security. You re a man of judgment, an-.J have gained too great a name on this frontier for bravery, to feel the necessity of foolhardiness to obtain a character. You ll very well understand, my good friend, there is as much credit to be gained by submitting gracefully, when re sistance becomes impossible, as by obstinately holding out contrary to the rules of war. The enemy is too strong for us, my brave comrade, and I come to counsel you to give up the block, on condition of being treated as a prisoner of war." " 1 thank you for this advice, quartermaster, which is the more acceptable, as it costs nothing. But I do not think it belongs to my gifts to yield a place like this, while food and water last." " Well, I d be the last, Pathfinder, to recommend any thing against so brave a resolution, did I see the means of maintaining it. But ye ll remember that Master Cap has fallen " " Not he not he ! " roared the individual in question through another loop; " so far from that, lieutenant, he has risen to the height of this here fortification, and has no mind to put his head of hair into the hands of such barbers again, so long as he can help it. I look upon this block-house as a circumstance, and have no mind to throw it away." " If that is a living voice," returned Muir, " I am glad to hear it, for we all thought the man had fallen in the late tearful confusion ! But, Master Pathfinder, although ye ro enjoying the society of your friend Cap, and a great pleasure do I know it to be, by the experience of two days and a uight passed in a hole in the earth, we ve lost that of Ser geant Duuham, who has fallen, with aU the brava men h THE PATHFINDEK 421 lod hi the late expedition. Lundie would have it so, though it would have been more discreet and becoming to send a commissioned officer in command. Dunham was a brave man, notwithstanding, and shall have justice done his mem ory. In short, we have all acted for the best, and that is as much as could be said in favor of Prince Eugene, the Duke of Marlborough, or the great Earl of Stair himself." " You re wrong ag in, quartermaster you re wicng agfiii," answered Pathfinder, resorting to a ruse to magnify his force. " The sergeant is safe in the block too, where one might say the whole family is collected." " Well, I rejoice to hear it, for we had certainly counted the sergeant among the slain. If pretty Mabel is in the block still, let her not delay an instant, for Heaven s sake, in quitting it, for the enemy is about to put it to the trial by fire. Ye know the potency of that dread element, and will be acting more like the discreet and experienced war rior ye re universally allowed to be, in yielding a place you canna defend, than in drawing down ruin on yourself and companions." " 1 know the potency of fire, as you call it, quartermaster, and am not to be told, at this late hour, that it can be used for something else besides cooking a dinner. But I make, no doubt you ve heard of the potency of Killdeer, and the man who attempts to lay a pile of brush agin these logs will get a taste of his powder. As for arrows, it is not in their gift to set this building on fire, for we ve no shingles on our roof, but good solid logs and green bark, and plenty of water besides. The roof is so flat, too, as you know yourself, quartermaster, that we can walk on it, and so no danger oil Jiat score while water lasts. I m peaceable enough if let alone, but he who endivers to burn this block over my head ivill find the fire squiuched in his own blood." " This is idle and romantic talk, Pathfinder, and ye ll no maintain it yourself when ye come to meditate on the reali ties. I hope ye ll no gainsay the loyalty or the courage of the 55th, and I feel convinced that a council of war would decide on the propriety of a suiTender forthwith. Na, na, Pathfinder, foolhardiness is na inair like the braverj jf 422 THE rATHHNDEB. Wallace or Bruce, than Albany on the Hudson is like the town of Edinbro ." " As each of us seems to have made up his mind, quarter master, more words are useless. If the riptyles near you are disposed to set about their hellish job, let them begin at once. They can burn wood, and I ll burn powder. If I were an Injiu at the stake, I suppose I could brag as well as the rest of them, but my gifts and natur being both whito, my turn is rather for doing than talking. You ve said quit) enough, considering you carry the king s commission ; ami should we all be consumed, none of us will bear you aiiy malice." tf Pathfinder, you ll no be exposing Mabel, pretty Mabc I Dunham, to sic a calamity ! " " Mabel Dunham is by the side of her wounded fathe , and God will care for the safety of a pious child. Not a hair of her head shall fall, while my arm and sight remain true ; and though you may trust the Mirigos, Master Muir, I put no faith in them. You ve a knavish Tuscarora in your company there, who has art and malice enough to spoil the character of any tribe with which he consorts, though he found the Mingos ready ruined to his hands, I fear. But, enough said ; let each party go to the use of his means and gifts." Throughout this dialogue Pathfinder kept his body cov ered, lest a treacherous shot should be aimed at the loop and he now directed Cap to ascend to the roof in order to be in readiness to meet the first assault. Although the lat ter used sufficient diligence, he found no less than ten blaz ing arrows sticking to the bark, while the air was filled with the yells and whoops of the enemy. A rapid discharge of rifles followed, and the bullets came pattering against th< logs, in a way to show that the struggle had indeed seriously commenced. These were sounds, however, that appalled neither Path finder nor Cap, while Mabel was too much absorbed in her affliction to feel alarm. She had good sense enough, too, to understand the nature of the defenses, and fully to ap preciate then- importance As for her father, the familiar THE PATHFINDER. 423 noises revived him, and it pained his child, at such a moment, to see that his glassy eye began to kindle, and that the blood returned to a cheek it had deserted, as he listened to the uproar. It was now Mabel first perceived that his reason began slightly to wander. 4 Order up the light companies," he muttered, " and let the grenadiers charge ! Do they dare to attack us in our fcn t ? Why does not the artillery open 011 them ? " At that instant, the heavy report of a gun burst on the night ; and the crashing of rending wood was heard, as a heavy shot tore the logs in the room above, arid the whole block shook with the force of a shell that lodged in the work. The Pathfinder narrowly escaped the passage of this for midable missile, as it entered ; but when it exploded, Mabel could not suppress a shriek ; for she supposed all over her head, whether animate or inanimate, destroyed. To in crease her horror, her father shouted, in a frantic voice, to Charge ! " " Mabel," said Pathfinder, with his head at the trap, " thi is true Miugo work more noise than injury. The vaga bonds have got the howitzer we took from the French, and have discharged it agin the block ; but, fortunately, they have fired off the only shell we had, and there is an ind of its use, for the present. There is some confusion among the stores up in this loft, but no one is hurt. Your uncle is still on the roof; and as for myself, I ve rim the gauntlet of too many rifles to be skeary about such a thing as a how itzer, and that in Injin hands." Mabel murmured her thanks, and tried to give all her at tention to her father, whose efforts to rise were only coun teracted by his debility. During the fearful minutes that succeeded, she was so much occupied with the care of the invalid, that she scarce heeded the clamor that reigned around her. Indeed, the uproar was so greut that, had not hor thoughts been otherwise employed, confusion of faculties, rather than alarm, would probably have been the conse quence. Cap preserved his coolness admirably. He had a pro found and increasing respect for the power of the savages. 424 THE PATHFINDER, and even for the majesty of fresh water, it is trut but hii apprehensions of the former proceeded more from his dread of being scalped and tortured, than from any unmanly fear of death : and as he was now on the deck of a house, if not on the deck of a ship, and knew th.it there was little danger of boarders, he moved about with a, fearlessness and a rash exposure of his person that Pathfmuer, had he been aware rf the fact, would have been the first to condemn. Instead of keeping his body covered, agreeably to the usages of In dian warfare, he was seen on every part of the roof, dashing the water right and left, with the apparent steadiness and unconcern he would have manifested had he been a sail- trimmer exercising his art in a battle afloat. His appear ance was one of the causes of the extraordinary clamoi among the assailants, who, unused to see their enemies so reckless, opened upon him with their tongues like the pack that has the fox in view. Still he appeared to possess a charmed life; for, though the bullets whistled around him on every side, and his clothes were several times torn, noth ing cut his skin. When the shell passed through the logs below, the old sailor dropped his bucket, waved his hat, and gave three cheers ; in which heroic act he was employed as the dangerous missile exploded. This characteristic feat probably saved his life ; for from that instant the Indians ceased to fire at him, and even to shoot their naming arrows at the block having taken up the notion simultaneously, and by common consent, that the " Salt-water was mad ; " and it was a singular effect of their magnanimity, never to lift a. hand against those whom they imagined devoid of reason, The conduct of Pathfinder was very different. Every* thing he did was regulated by the most exact calculation*, the result of long experience and habitual thoughtful ness.. His person was kept carefully out of a line with the loops, and the spot that he selected for his lookout was one that was quite removed from danger. This celebrated guide had often been known to lead forlorn hopes ; he had once stood at the stake, suffering under the cruelties and taunts of sav age ingenuity and savage ferocity, without quailing; and legends of his exploits, coolness, and daring, were to be THE PATHFINDER. 425 heard all along that extensive frontier, or wherever men dwelt and men contended. But on this occasion, one who did not know his history and character, might have thought his exceeding care and studied attention to self-preservation proceeded from an unworthy motive. But such a judge would not have understood his subject. The Pathfinder be- thought him of Mabel, and of what might possibly be the consequences to that poor girl, should any casualty befall himself. But the recollection rather quickened his intel lect than changed his customary prudence. He was, ir fact, one of those who was so accustomed to fear, that h never bethought him of the constructions others might put upon his conduct. But while, in moments of danger, he acted with the wisdom of the serpent, it was also with the simplicity of a child. For the first ten minutes of the assault, Pathfinder never raised the breech of his rifle from the floor, except when he changed his own position for he well knew that the bul lets of the enemy were thrown away npovi the massive logs of the work ; and, as he had been at the capture of the howitzer, he felt certain that the savages had no other shell than the one found in it when the piece was taken. There existed no reason, therefore, to dread the fire of the assail ants, except as a casual bullet might find a passage through a loophole. One or two of these accidents did occur, but the balls entered at an angle that deprived them of all chance of doing any injury, so long as the Indians kept near the block ; and if discharged from a distance, there was scarcely the possibility of one in a hundred s striking the apertures. But when Pathfinder heard the sound of nioc- zasined feet, and the rustling of brush at the foot of the building, he knew that the attempt to build a fire against die logs was about to be renewed. He now summoned Cap from the roof, where indeed all the danger had ceased, and directed him to stand in readiness with his water at a hole immediately over the spot assailed. One less trained than our hero would have been in a uurry to repel this dangerous attempt also, and might have esorted to his means prematurely ; not so with Pathfinder 426 TUE PATHFINDER. His aim was not only to extinguish the fire, about which he felt kittle apprehension, but to give the enemy a lesson that would render him wary during the remainder of the night. In order to effect the latter purpose, it became necessary to wait until the light of the intended conflagration should di rect his aim, when he well knew that a very slight effort of his skill would suffice. The Iroquois were permitted to collect their heap of dried brush, to pile it against the block. to light it, and to return to their covers, without molestation All that Pathfinder would suffer Cap to do was, to roll a barrel tilled with water to the hole immediately over the spot, in readiness to be used at the proper instant. That moment, however, did not arrive, in his judgment, until the blaze illuminated the sin-rounding bushes, and there had been time for his quick and practiced eye to detect the forms of three or four lurking savages, who were watching the prog ress of the names, with the cool indifference of men accus tomed to look on human misery with apathy. Then indeed he spoke. u Are you ready, friend Cap ? " he asked. " The heat begins to strike through the crevices, and, although these green logs are not of the fiery natur of an ill-tempered man, they may be kindled into a blaze if one provokes them too much. Are you ready with the barrel ? See that it has the right cut, and that none of the water is wasted." * All ready ! " answered Cap, in the manner in which a Beaman replies to such a demand. " Then wait for the word. Never be over impatient in a Critical time, nor fool-risky in a battle. Wait for the word." While the Pathfinder was giving these directions, he was rtlao making his own preparations, for he saw it was time to act. Killdeer was deliberately raised, pointed, and dis charged. The whole process occupied about half a minute, find, as the rifie was drawn in, the eye of the marksman was applied to the hole. ** There is one riptyle the less ! " Pathfinder muttered lo himself; " I ve seen that vagabond afore, and know him jo be a marciless devil. Well, well ; the man acted accord ing to his gifts, and lie has been rewarded according to nil THE PATHFINDER. 427 gifts. One more of the knaves, and that will sarve the turn for to-night When daylight appears, we may have hotter work." All this time, another rifle was getting ready; and as Pathfinder ceased, a second savage fell. This, indeed, suf ficed ; for, indisposed to wait for a third visitation from the same hand, the whole band, which had been crouching in the bushes around the block, ignorant of who was and who was not exposed to view, leaped from their covers, and fled to different places for safety. " Now, pour away, Master Cap," said Pathfinder ; " I ve made my mark on the blackguards, and we shall have no more fires lighted to-night. " Scaldings ! " cried Cap, upsetting the barrel with a care that at once and completely extinguished the flames. This ended the singular conflict ; and the remainder of the night passed in peace. Pathfindei and Cap watched al ternately, though neither can be said to have slept. Sleep, indeed, scarcely seemed necessary to them, for both were accustomed to protracted watchings ; and there were seasons and times when the former appeared to be literally insensi ble to the demands of hunger and thirst, and callous to the effects of fatigue. Mabel watched by her father s pallet, and began to feel how much our happiness, in this world, depends even or things that are imaginary. Hitherto, she had virtually lived without a father, the connection with her remaining parent being ideal, rather than positive ; but, now that she was about to lose him, she thought, for the moment, that the world would be a void after his death, and that *be could never be acquainted with happiness again. 428 THE PATHFINDOL CHAPTER XXV. There was a roaring in the wind all night; The rain came heavily, and fell in floods; But now the sun is rising calm and bright; The birds are singing in the distant woods. WORDSWORTH. AS the light returned, Pathfinder and Cap ascended agaii* to the roof, with a view once more to reconnoitre the state of things on the island. This part of the block-house had a low battlement around it, which afforded a considerable protection to those who stood in its centre ; the intention having been to enable marksmen to lie behind it, and to fire over its top. By making proper use, therefore, of these slight defenses slight as to height, though abundantly ample as far as thoy went the two lookouts commanded a pretty good view of the island, its covers excepted ; and of most of the channels that led to the spot. The gale was still blowing very fresh at south; and there were places in the river where its surface looked green and angry, though the wind had hardly sweep enough to raise the water into foam. The shape of the little island was generally oval, and its greatest length was from east to west. By keeping in the channels that washed it, in consequence of their several courses, and of the direction of the gale, it would have been possible for a vessel to range past the island on either of its principal sides, and always to keep the wind very nearly abeam. These were the facts first noticed by Cap, and explained to his companion ; for the hopes of both now rested on the chances of relief sent from Oswego. At this instant, while they stood gazing anxiously about them, Cap cried out in his lusty, hearty manner, Sail, ho ! " THE PATHFINDER. 4 29 Pathfinder turned quickly in the direction of his com panion s face, and there, sure enough, was just visible tb*a object of the. old sailor s exclamation. The elevation en abled the two to overlook the low land of several of the adjacent islands; and the canvas of a vessel was seeu through the bushes that fringed the shore of one that lay to the southward and westward. The stranger was under what seamen call low sail : but so great was the power of the wind, that her white outlines were seen flying past the openings of the verdure with the velocity of a fast-travel ling horse ; resembling a cloud driving in the heavens. " That cannot be Jasper ! " said Pathfinder, in disappoint ment : for he did not recognize the cutter of his friend, in the swift passing object. " No, no ; the lad is behind the hour ; that is some craft that the Frenchers have sent to aid their friends, the accursed Mingos." " This time you are out in your reckoning, friend Path finder, if you never were before," returned Cap, in a man ner that had lost none of its dogmatism by the critical cir cumstances in which they were placed. " Fresh water or Bait, that is the head of the Scud s mainsail, for it is cut with a smaller gore than common ; and then you see that the gaff has been fished quite neatly done, I admit, but fished." " I can see none of this, I confess," answered Pathfinder, to whom even the terms of his companion were Greek. No ! Well, I own that surprises me ; for I thought your eyes could see anything ! Now, to me, nothing is plainer than that gore and that fish ; and I must say, my honest friend, that, in your place, I should apprehend that my sight was beginning to fail." " If Jasper is truly coming, I shall apprehend but little. We can make good the block against the whole Mingo aation, for the next eight or ten hours; and, with Eau-douce to cover the retreat, I shall despair of nothing. God sent ;*Mit the lad may not run alongside of the bank, and fall into an ambushment, as befell the sergeant ! " u Aye ; there s the danger. There ought to have been signals concerted, and an anchorage-ground buoyed out, and 430 THE PATHFINDER. even a quarantine station, or a lazaretto, would have been useful, could we have made these Minks-ho respect the laws. If the lad fetches up, as you say, anywhere in the neighborhood of this island, we may look upon the cutter as lost. And, after all, Master Pathfinder, ought we not to set down this same Jasper as a secret ally of the French, rather than as a friend of our own ? T know the sergeant views the matter in that light, and I must say this whole affair looks like treason ! " " We shall soon know we shall soon know, Master Cap, for there indeed comes the cutter, clear of the other island, and five minutes must settle the matter. It would be no more than fair, however, if we could give the boy some sign in the way of warning. It is not right that he should fall into the trap, without a notice that it has been laid." Anxiety and suspense, notwithstanding, prevented either from attempting to make any signal. It was not easy, truly, to see how it could be done ; for the Scud came foaming through the channel, on the weather side of the island, at a rate that scarce admitted of the necessary time. Nor was any one visible on her deck to make signs to ; even her helm seemed deserted, though her course was as steady as ker progress was rapid. Cap stood in silent admiration of a spectacle so unusual. But, as the Scud drew nearer, his practiced eye detected the helm in play, by means of tiller-ropes, though the person who steered was concealed. As the cutter had weather boards of some little height, the mystery was explained ; no doubt remaining that her people lay behind the latter, in order \o be protected from the rifles of the enemy. As this fact showed that no force, beyond that of the small crew could be on board, Pathfinder received his companion s ex planation with an ominous shake of the head. " This proves that the Sarpent has not reached Oswego," he said, " and that we are not to expect succor from the garrison. I hope Lundie has not taken it into his head to displace the lad, for Jasper Western would be a host of himself, in such a strait. We three, Master Cap, ought to make a manful warfare : you, as a seaman, to keep up the THE PATHFINDER. 431 Intercourse witli the cutter ; Jasper, as a laker, who knows all that is necessary to be done on the water ; and I, with gifts that are as good as anv among the Minxes, let me be what I may in other particulars. I say, we ought to make a manful fight in Mabel s behalf." "That we ought, and that we will," answered Cap, heartily, for he began to have more confidence in the secu rity of his scalp, now that he saw the sun again ; f set clown the arrival of the Scud as one circumstance, ami the chances of Eau-<iouce s honesty as another. This Jasper i? a young man of prudence, you find, for he keep=; a good offing, and seems determined to know how matters stand on the island, before he ventures to bring up." " I have it I have it ! " exclaimed Pathfinder with ex altation ; there lies the canoe of the Sarpent on the cut ter s deck, and the chief has got 01^ board, aiul no doubt has given a true account of our condition ; unlike a Mingo, a Delaware is sartain to get a story right, or to hold his tongue." Pathfinder s disposition to think well of the Delawares, and to think ill of the Mingos, must, by this time, be very apparent to the reader. Of the veracity of the former he entertained the highest respect, while of the latter he thought, as the more observant and intelligent classes of this country are getting pretty generally to think of certain scribblers among ourselves, who are known to have been so long in the habits of mendacity, that it is thought they can uo longer tell the truth, even when they seriously make the effort. "That canoe may belong to the cutter," said the captious eeaman ; " Oh-the-Deuce had one on board when we sailed." " Very true, friend Cap ; but, if you know your sails and masts by your gores and fishes, I know my canoes and iry paths by frontier knowledge. If you can see new cloth in a sail, I can see new bark in a canoe. That is the boat of the Sarpent, and the noble fellow has struck off for the gar rison, as soon as he found the block besieged, has fallen in with the Scud, and after telling his story, has brought the cutter down here to see what can be done. The Lord grant that Jasper Western be still on board her I " 432 THE PATHFINDER. " Yes, yes ; it might not be amiss ; for, traitor or loyal the lad has a handy way with him in a gale, it must be owned." " And in coming over water-falls ! " said Pathfinder nudging the ribs of his companion with an elbow, and laughing in his silent but hearty manner. " We will give the boy his due, though he scalps us all with his own hand ! " The Scud was now so near that Cap made no reply. The scene, just at that instant, was so peculiar that it merits a particular description : which may also aid the reader in forming a more accurate idea of the picture we wish to draw. The gale was still blowing violently : many of the smaller trees bowed their tops, as if ready to descend to the earth, while the rushing of the wind through the branches of the groves resembled the roar of distant chariots. The air was filled with leaves which, at that late season, were readily driven from their stems, and flew from island to island like flights of birds. With this exception, the spot seemed silent as the grave. That the savages still remained, was to be inferred from the fact that their canoes, together with the boats of the 55th, lay in a group in the little cove that had been selected as a harbor. Otherwise not a sign of their presence was to be detected. Though taken en tirely by surprise by the cutter, the sudden return of which was altogether unlocked for, so uniform and inbred were their habits of caution while on the war-path, that the in stant an alarm was given every man had taken to his cover, with the instinct and cunning of a fox seeking his hole. The same stillness reigned in the block-house, for though Pathfinder and Cap could command a view of the channel, the) took the precaution necessary to lie concealed. The unusual absence of anything like animal life on board the Scud, too, was still more remarkable. As the Indians wit nessed her apparently undirected movements, a feeling of awe gained a footing among them, and some of the boldest of their party began to distrust the issue of an expedition that had commenced so prosperously. Even Arrowhead, THE PATHFINDER. 433 accustomed as lie was to intercourse with the whites on both Bides of the lakes, fancied there was something ominous in the appearance of this unmanned vessel, and he would gladly at that moment have been landed a^ain on the main. O In the mean time the progress of the cutter was steady and rapid. She held her way mid-channel, now inclining to the gusts, and now rising again, like the philosopher that bends to the calamities of life to resume his erect attitude as they pass away, but always piling the water beneath her bows in foam. Although she was under so very short can vas, her velocity was great, and there could not have elapsed ten minutes between the time when her sails were first seen glancing past the trees and bushes in the distance, and the moment when she was abreast of the block-house. Cap and Pathfinder leaned forward as the cutter came beneath their eyrie, eager to get a better view of her deck, when, to the delight of both, Jasper Eau-douce sprang upon his feet and gave three hearty cheers. Regardless of all risk, Cap leaped upon the rampart of logs, and returned the greeting, cheer for cheer. Happily, the policy of the enemy saved the latter, for they still lay quiet, net a rifle being discharged. On the other hand, Pathfindei kept in view the useful, utterly disregarding the mere dramatic part of warfare. The moment he beheld his friend -Jasper, he called out to him with stentorian lungs, " Stand by us, lad, and the day s our own ! Give em a grist in yonder bushes, and you ll put em up like par tridges." Part of this reached Jasper s ears, but most was borne off to leeward on the wings of the wind. By the time this was said the Scud had driven past, and in the next moment she was liid from view by the grove in which the block-house was partially concealed. Two anxious minutes succeeded, but at the expiration of that brief space, the sails were again gleaming thror gh the trees, Jasper having wore, jibed, and hauled up under the kee of the island, on the other task. The wind was free enough, as has been already explained, to admit of this manoeuvre ; and the cutter, catching the current under her 88 434 THE PATHFINDER. lee bow, was breasted up to her course in a way thai showed she would come out to windward of the island again, with out any difficulty. This whole evolution was made with the greatest facility, not a sheet being touched, the sails trim ming themselves, the rudder alone controlling the admirable machine. The object appeared to be a reconnoissance. When, however, the Scud had made the circuit of the entire island, and had again got her weatherly position in the channel by which she had first approached, her helm was put down, and she tacked. The noise of the mainsail flapping when it filled, close rerfed as it was, sounded like the report of a gun, and Cap trembled lest the seams should open. " His Majesty gives good canvas, it must be owned," muttered the old seaman ; " and it must be owned, too, that boy handles his boat as if he were thoroughly bred ! D e, Master Pathfinder, if I believe, after all that has been reported in the matter, that this Mister Oh-the-Deuc* 1 got his trade on this bit of fresh water." " He did ; yes, he did. He never saw the ocean, and has come by his calling altogether up here on Ontario. I have often thought he has a nat ral gift, in the way of schooners and sloops, and have respected him accordingly. As for treason, and lying, and black-hearted vices, friend Cap, Jasper Western is as free as the most virtuousest of the Delaware warriors ; and if you crave to see a truly hon est man, you must go among that tribe to discover him." " There he comes round ! " exclaimed the delighted Cap, the Scud at this moment filling on her original tack, " and now we shall see what the boy would be at ; he cannot mean to keep running up and down these passages like a girl footing it through a country dance ! " The Scud now kept so much away that, for a moment, the two observers on the block-house feared Jasper meant to come-to ; and the savages in their lairs gleamed out upon her with the sort of exultation that the crouching tiger may be supposed to feel, as he sees his unconscious victim ap proach his bed. But Jasper had no such intention. Fa miliar with the shore, and acquainted with the depth of water on every part of the island, he well knew that th THK PATHFINDKR. 435 Scud miglit be run against the bank with impunity, and he ventured fearlessly so near that us he passed through the little cove, he swept the two boats of the soldiers from their fastenings, and forced thorn out into the channel, towing them with the cutter. As all the canoes were fastened to the two Dunham boats, by this bold and successful attempt the savages were at once deprived of the means of quitting the island, unless by swimming, and they appeared to be instantly aware of the very important fact. Rising in a body, they filled the air with yells, and poured in a harm less fire. While up in this unguarded manner, two rifles were discharged by their adversaries. One came from the summit of the block, and an Iroquois fell dead in his tracks, shot through the brain. The other came from the Scud. The last was the piece of the Delaware, but, less true than that of his friend, it only maimed an enemy for life. The people of the Scud shouted, and the savages sank again to a man, as if it might be into the earth. " That was the Sarpent s voice," said Pathfinder as soon as the second piece was discharged. " I know the crack of his rifle as well as I do that of Killdeer. Tis a good bar rel, though not sartain death. Well, well, with Chingach- gook and Jasper on the water, and you and I in the block, friend Cap, it will be hard if we don t teach thess Mingo scamps the rationality of a fight ! " All this time the Scud was in motion. As soon as she had reached the end of the island, Jasper sent his prizes adrift ; and they went down before the wind, until they stranded on a point more than a mile to leeward. He then j?ore, and came stemming the current again, through the other passage. Those on the summit of the block could now perceive that something was in agitation on the deck of the Scud; and to their great delight, just as the cutter came abreast of the principal cove, on the spot where most f the enemy lay, the howitzer, which composed her sole ;.rmament, was unmasked, and a shower of case-shot was sent hissing into the bushes. A bevy of quail would not have risen quicker than this unexpected discharge of iron bail put up the Iroquois when a second savage fell by a 436 THE PATHFINDER. messenger sent from Killdeer, and another went limping away, by a visit from the rifle of Chingachgook. New covers were immediately found, however ; and each party seemed to prepare for the renewal of the strife in another form. But the appearance of June, bearing a white flag, and accompanied by the French officer and Muir, stayed the hands of all, and was the forerunner of another par- lej. The negotiation that followed was held beneath the blocK-house ; and so near it as at once to put those who were uncovered completely at the mercy of Pathfinder s un erring aim. Jasper anchored directly abeam ; and the how itzer, too, was kept trained upon the negotiators : so that the besieged and their friends, with the exception of the man who held the match, had no hesitation about exposing their persons. Chingachgook alone lay in ambush ; more, how- over, from habit than distrust. " You ve triumphed, Pathfinder," called out the quarter master, " and Captain Saiiglier has come himself to offer terms. You ll no be denying a brave enemy an honorable retreat, when he has fought ye fairly and done all the credit he could to king and country. Ye are too loyal a subject yourself, to visit loyalty and fidelity with a heavy judg ment. I am authorized to offer on the part of the enemy an evacuation of the island, a mutual exchange of prison ers, and a restoration of scalps. In the absence of baggage and artillery, little more can be done." As the conversation was necessarily carried on in a high key, both on account of the wind, and on account of the distance, all that was said was heard equally by those in the block and those in the cutter. "What do you say to that, Jasper?" called out Path- finder. " You hear the tarms : shall we let the vagabonds go ; or shall we mark them, as they mark their sheep in the settlements, that we may know them again ? " " What has befallen Mabel Dunham ? " demanded the young man, with a frown on his handsome face, that was visible even to those in the block. " If a hair of her head has been touched, it will go hard with the whole Iroquoij tribe ! " THE PATHFINDER. 437 Nay, nay, she is safe below, nursing a dying parent as becomes her sex. We owe no grudge on account of the sergeant s hurt, which comes of lawful warfare ; and as for Mabel" " She is here," exclaimed the girl herself, who had mounted to the roof the moment she found the direction things were taking. " She is here ; and in the name of our holy religion, and of that God whom we profess to worship in common, let there be no more bloodshed! Enough has been spilt already ; and if these men will go away, Pathfinder if they will depart peaceably, Jaspei O ! do not detain one of them. My poor father is ap proaching his end, and it were better that he should draw his last breath in peace with the world. Go, go, French men and Indians ; we are no longer your enemies, and will harm none of you." " Tut, tut, Magnet ! " put in Cap, " this sounds religious, perhaps, or like a book of poetry ; but it does not sound like common sense. The enemy is just ready to strike; Jasper is anchored with his broadside to bear, and no doubt with springs on his cables ; Pathfinder s eye and hand are as true as the needle ; and we shall get prize-money, head- money, and honor in the bargain, if you will not interfere for the next half-hour." " Well," said Pathfinder, " I incline to Mabel s way of thinking. There has been enough blood shed to answer our purpose and to sarve the king ; and as for honor in that meaning, it will do better for young ensigns and recruits, than for cool-headed, obsarvant, Christian men. There is honor in doing what s right, and unhonor in doing what s wrong ; and I think it wrong to take the life even of a Mingo without a useful ind in view, I do ; and right to hear reason at all times So, Lieutenant Muir, let us know what your fronds, the Frenchers and Injins, have to say for them selves." " My friends ! " said Muir, starting. " You ll no be call ing the king s enemies my friends, Pathfinder, because the fortune of war has thiown me into their hands ? Some of ihe greatest warriors, both of ancient and modern times, 438 THE PATHFINDER. have been prisoners of war ; and yon is Master Cap, who can testify whether we did not do all that men could devise to escape the calamity." " Aye, aye," dryly answered Cap, " escape is a proper word. We ran below and hid ourselves, and so discreetly, that we might have remained in the hole to this hour, had it not been for the necessity of re-stowing the bread-lock ers. You burrowed on that occasion, quartermaster, as hand ily as a fox ; and how the d 1 you knew so well where to find the spot is a matter of wonder to me. A regular skulk on board ship does not tail aft more readily when the jib is to be stowed, than you went into that same hole ! " " And did ye no follow ? There are moments in a man a life when reason ascends to instinct " " And men descend into holes," interrupted Cap, laugh ing in his boisterous way, while Pathfinder chimed in in his peculiar manner. Even Jasper, though still filled with con cern for Mabel, was obliged to smile. " They say the d 1 wouldn t make a sailor if he didn t look aloft, and now it seems he ll not make a soldier if he doesn t look below ! " This burst of merriment, though it was anything but agreeable to Muir, contributed largely towards keeping the peace. Cap fancied he had said a tiling much better than common, and that disposed him to yield his own opinion on the main point, so long as he got the good opinion of lus companions on his novel claim to be a wit. After a short liscussion, all the savages on the island were collected in a body, without arms, at the distance of a hundred yards from the block, arid under the gun of the Scud, while Pathfinder descended to the door of the block-house, and settled the terms on which the island was to be finally evacuated by the enemy. Considering all the circumstances, the condi tions were not very discreditable to either party. The In dians wore compelled to give up all their arms, even to their knives and tomahawks, as a measure of precaution, their force being still quadruple that of their foes. The French officer, Monsieur Sanglier, as he was usually styled, and chose to call himself, remonstrated against this act a* TTTE PATHFINDER 439 ne likely to reflect more discredit on his command than any other part of the affair ; but Pathfinder, who had wit nessed one or two Indian massacres, and knew how value less pledges became when put in opposition to interest, where a savage was concerned, was obdurate. The second stipulation was of nearly the same importance. It com pelled Captain Sanglier to give up all his prisoners, who had been kept well guarded, in the very hole or cave in which Cap and Muir had taken refuge. When these men were produced, four of them were found to be .unhurt ; they had fallen merely to save their lives, a common artifice in that species of warfare ; and of the remainder, two were so slightly injured as not to be unfit for service. As they brought their muskets with them, this addition to his force immediately put Pathfinder at his ease, for having collected all the arms of the enemy in the block-house, he directed these men to take possession of the building, stationing a regular sentinel at the door. The remainder of the sol diers were dead, the badly wounded having been instantly despatched, in order to obtain the much-coveted scalps. As soon as Jasper was made acquainted with the terms, and the preliminaries had been so far observed as to render it safe for him to be absent, he got the Scud under way, and running down to the point where the boats had stranded, he took them in tow again, and, making a few stretches, brought them into the leeward passage. Here all the savages instantly embarked, when Jasper took the boats in tow a third time, and running off before the wind, he soon set them adrift, quite a mile to leeward of the island. The Indians were furnished with but a single oar in each boat, to steer with, the young sailor well knowing that, by keeping before the wind, they would land on the shores of Canada in the course of the morning. Captain Sanglier, Arrowhead, and June, alone remained, when this disposition had been made of the rest of the party ; the former having certain papers to draw up and sign with Lieutenant Muir, who, in his eyes, possessed the virtues which are attached to a commission, and the latter preferring, for reasons of his own, not to depart in company 440 THE PATHFINDER. with his late friends, the Iroqnois. Canoes were retained, for the departure of these three, when the proper moment should arrive. In the mean time, or while the Scud was running down with the boats in tow, Pathfinder and Cap, aided by proper assistants, busied themselves with preparing a breakfast ; most of the party not having eaten for four-and-twenty hours. The brief space that passed in this manner, before the Scud came-to again, was little interrupted by discourse, though Pathfinder found leisure to pay a visit to the sergeant, to say a few friendly words to Mabel, and to give such directions as he thought might smooth the passage of the dying man. As for Mabel herself, he insisted on her taking some light refreshment, and there no longer existing any motive for keeping it there, he had the guard removed from the block, in order that the daughter might have no impediment to her attentions to her father. These little arrangements completed, our hero returned to the fire, around which he found all the remainder of the party M- embled, including Jasper. THE PATHFINDER 441 CHAPTER XXVI. You gaw but sorrow in its waning form, A working sea remaining from a storm, Where now the weary waves roll o er the deep, And faintly murmur ere they fall asleep. DKYDKM. MEN accustomed to a warfare like that we have been describing, are not apt to be much under the influence of the tender feelings while still in the field. Notwithstanding their habits, however, more than one heart was with Mabel in the block, while the incidents we are about to relate were in the course of occurrence ; and even the indispensa ble meal was less relished by the hardiest of the soldiers than it might have been had not the sergeant been so near his end. As Pathfinder returned from the block, he was met by Muir, who led him aside in order to hold a private dis course. The manner of the quartermaster had that air of supererogatory courtesy about it which almost invariably denotes artifice; for, while physiognomy and phrenology are but lame sciences at the best, and perhaps lead to as many false as right conclusions, we hold that there is no more infallible evidence of insincerity of purpose, short of overt acts, than a face that smiles when there is no occasion, and the tongue that is out of measure smooth. Muir had much of this manner in common, mingled with an apparent frankness, that his Scottish intonation of voice, Scottish accent, and Scottish modes of expression, were singularly adapted to sustain. He owed his preferment, indeed, to a long-exercised deference to Lundie and his family ; for, while the major himself was much too acute to be the dupe of one so much his inferior in real talents and attain ments, most persons are accustomed to make liberal con- 412 THE PATHFINDER. cessions to the flatterer, even while they distrust bis truth, and are perfectly aware of his motives. On the present occasion, the contest in skill was between two men as com pletely the opposites of each other, in all the leading essentials of character, as very well could be. Pathfinder was as simple as the quartermaster was practiced ; he was as sincere as the other was false, and as direct as the last was tortuous. Both were cool and calculating, and both were brave, though in different modes and degrees ; Muir never exposing his person except for effect, while the guide included fear among the rational passions, or as a sensation to be deferred to only when good might come of it. " My dearest friend," Muir commenced, " for ye ll be dearer to us all, by seventy-and-seven fold, after your late conduct, than ever ye were, ye ve just established yourself, in this late transaction ! It s true that they ll no be making ye a commissioned officer, for that species of prefairment is not much in your line, nor much in your wishes, I m think ing; but as a guide, and a counselor, and a loyal subject, and an expert marksman, yer renown may be said to be full. I doubt if the commander-in-chief will carry away with him from America as much credit as will fall to yer share, and ye ought just to sit down in content, and enjoy yourself for the remainder of yer days. Get married, man, without delay, and look to yer precious happiness, for ye ve no occasion to look any longer to your glory. Take Mabel Dunham, for Heaven s sake, to your bosom, and ye ll have both a bonny bride and a bonny reputation." " Why, quartermaster, this is a new piece of advice to come from your mouth ! They ve told me I had a rival in you ! " " And ye had, man ; and a formidable one, too, I can tell ye ! One that has never yet courted in vain, and yet one that has courted five times. Lundie twits me with four, and I deny the charge ; but he little thinks the truth would outdo even his arithmetic ! Yes, yes ; ye had a rival. Pathfinder, but ye ve one no longer in me. Ye ve my hearty wishes for yer success with Mabel, and were the honest sergeant likely to survive, ye might rely on mj good word with him, too, for a certainty. " THE PATHFINDER. 443 " 1 feel your friendship, quartermaster, I feel your friend ship, though I have no great need of any favor with Sergeant Dunham, who has long been my friend. I believe we may look upon the matter to be as sartain as most things in war time ; for Mabel and her father consenting, the whole 55th couldn t very well put a stop to it. Ah s me ! the poor father will scarcely live to see what his heart has so long been set upon ! " " But he ll have the consolation of knowing it will come to pass, in dying. O ! it s a great relief, Pathfinder, for the parting spirit tt feel certain that the beloved ones left behind will be well provided for, after its departure. All the Mistress Muirs have duly expressed that sentiment, with their dying breaths." " All your wives, quartermaster, have been likely to feel this consolation ! " " Out upon ye, man, I d no thought ye such a wag I Well, well ; pleasant words make no heart-burnings be tween auld fri nds. If I cannot espouse Mabel, ye ll no ob ject to my esteeming her, and speaking well of her, and of yoursal , too, on all suitable occasions, and in all companies. But, Pathfinder, ye ll easily uuderstan that a poor deevil, who loses such a bride, will probably stand in need of some consolation." " Quite likely quite likely, quartermaster," returned the simple-minded guide ; " I know the loss of Mabel would be heavy to be borne by myself. It may bear hard oc your feelings to see us married, but the death of the ser geant will be likely to put it off, and you ll have time to think more manfully of it, you will." " I ll bear up against it yes, I ll bear up against it, though my heart-strings crack ; and ye might help me, man, by giving me something to do. Yell understand that this expedition has been of a very peculiar nature, for here am I, bearing the king s commission, just a volunteer, as ii might be ; while a mere orderly has had the command. I ve submitted for various reasons, though my blood has bailed to be in authority, while ye war battling for the honor of Hie country, and his Majesty s rights" 444 THE PATHFINDER. " Quartermaster," interrupted the guide, " you fell BO early into the enemy s hands, that your conscience ought to be easily satisfied on that score ; so take my advice, and say nothing about it." " That s just my opinion, Pathfinder ; we ll all say noth ing about it. Sergeant Dunham is hors-de-combat " " Anan ! " said the guide. u Why the sergeant can command no longer, and it will hardly do to leave a corporal at the head of a victorious party, like this ; for flowers that will bloom in a garden will d5e or a heath ; and I was just thinking I would claim the authority that belongs to one who holds a lieutenant s com mission. As for the men, they ll no dare to raise any objaction, and as for yoursal , my dear friend, now that ye ve so much honor, and Mabel, and the consciousness of having done yer duty, which is more precious than all, I expect to find an ally rather than one to oppose the plan." " As for commanding the soldiers of the 55th, lieutenant, it is your right, I suppose, and no one here will be likely to gainsay it; though you ve been a prisoner of war, and there are men who might stand out agin giving up their authority to a prisoner released by their own deeds. Still, no one here will be likely to say anything hostile to your wishes." " That s just it, Pathfinder ; and when I come to draw up the report of our success against the boats, and the de fense of the block, together with the general operations, in cluding the capitulation, ye ll no find any omission of your claims and merits." " Tut, for my claims and merits, quartermaster ! Lundie knows what I am in the forest, and what I am in the fort ; and the general knows better than he. No fear of me ; tell your own story, only taking care to do justice by Mabel s father, who, in one sense, is the commanding officer at this reiy moment." Muir expressed his entire satisfaction at this arrangement, as well as his determination to do justice by all, when the two went to the group that was assembled round the fire Here the quartermaster began, for the first time since leav THE PATHFINDER. 445 Ing Oswego, to assume some of the autnoiity that might properly be supposed to belong to his rank. Taking the remaining corporal aside, he distinctly told that functionary that ne must in future be regarded as one holding the king s commission, and directed him to acquaint his subordinates with the new state of things. This change in the dynasty was effected without any of the usual symptoms of a revolu tion ; for as all well understood the lieutenant s legal claima to command, no one felt disposed to dispute his orders. For reasons best known to themselves, Lundie and the quarter master had, originally, made a different disposition, and now, for reasons of his own, the latter had seen fit to change it. This was reasoning enough for soldiers, though the hurt received by Sergeant Dunham would have sufficiently explained the circumstance, had an explanation been re quired. All this time Captain Sanglier was looking after his own breakfast, with the resignation of a philosopher, the coolness of a veteran, the ingenuity and science of a Frenchman, and the voracity of an ostrich. This person had now been in the colony some thirty years, having left France in some such situation in his own army, as Muir filled in the 55th. An iron constitution, perfect obduracy of feeling, a certain address well suited to manage savages, and an indomitable coura ge, had early pointed him out to the commander-in- chief as a suitable agent to be employed in directing the military operations of his Indian allies. In this capacity, then, he had risen to the titular rank of captain ; and with his promotion, had acquired a portion of the habits and opinions of his associates, with a facility and an adaptation of self, that are thought, in this part of the world, to be peculiar to his countrymen. He had often led parties of the Iroquois in their predatory expeditions ; and his con duct on such occasions exhibited the contradictory results of both alleviating the misery produced by this species of warfare, and of augmenting it, by the broader views and greater resources of civilization. In other words, he planned enterprises, that, in their importance and conse quences, jiuch exceeded the usual policy of the Indiana, M6 THE PATHFINDER. and then stepped in to lessen some of the evils of his own creating. In short, he was an adventurer whom circum stances had thrown into a situation where the callous qualities of men of his class might readily show themselves, for good or for evil ; and lie was not of a character to baffle fortune by any ill-timed sqneamishness on the score ol early impressions, or to trifle with her liberality, by un necessarily provoking her frowns through wanton cruelty. Still, as his name was unavoidably connected with many of the excesses committed by his parties, he was generally con sidered, in the American Provinces, a wretch who delighted in bloodshed, and who found his greatest happiness in tor menting the helplebs and the innocent ; and the name of Sanglier, which was a sobriquet of his own adopting, or of Flint Heart, as he was usually termed on the borders, had got to be as terrible to the women and children of that part of the country, as those of Butler and Brandt became at a later day. The meeting between Pathfinder and Sanglier bore some resemblance to that celebrated interview between Welling ton and Blucher, which has been so often and graphically told. It took place at the fire; and the parties stood ear nestly regarding each other for more than a minute without speaking. Each felt that in the other he saw a formidable foe ; and each felt, while he ought to treat the other* with the manly liberality due to a warrior, that there was little in common between them, in the way of character, as well as of interests. One served for money and preferment ; the other, because his life had been cast in the wilderness, and the land of his birth needed his arm and experience. The desire of rising above his present situation never disturbed the tranquillity of Pathfinder ; nor had he ever known ai> ambitious thought, as ambition usually betrays itself, until he became acquainted with Mabel. Since then, indeed, dis trust of himself, reverence for her, and the wish to place her in a situation above that which he then filled, had caused him some uneasy moments, but the directness and simplicity of his character had early afforded the required relief; and he soon came to feel, that the woman who would THE PATHFINDER. 447 not hesitate to accept him for her husband, would not scruple to share his fortunes, however humble. He re spected Sanglier as a brave warrior ; and he had far too much of 4hat liberality which is the result of practical knowl edge, to believe half of what he had heard to his prejudice ; for the most bigoted and illiberal on every subject, are usually those who know nothing about it ; but he could not approve of his selfishness, cold-blooded calculations, and, least of all, of the manner in which he forgot his " white gifts," to adopt those that were purely " red." On the other hand, Pathfinder was a riddle to Captain Sanglier. The latter cou)d not comprehend the other s motives ; he had often heard of his disinterestedness, justice, and truth ; and, in several instances, they had led him into grave errors, on that principle by which a frank and open-mouthed diplomatist is said to keep his secrets better than one that is close-mouthed and wily. After the two heroes had gazed at each other, in the manner mentioned, Monsieur Sanglier touched his cap ; for the rudeness of a border life had not entirely destroyed the courtesy of manner he had acquired in youth, nor extin guished that appearance of bonhomie which seems inbred in a Frenchman. " Monsieur le Pathfindair," he said, with a very decided accent, though with a friendly smile, " un militaire honor le courage et la loyaute. You speak Iroquois ? " " Aye, I understand the language of the riptyles, and can get along with it, if there s occasion," returned the liberal and truth-telling guide ; " but it s neither a tongue nor a tribe to my taste. Wherever you find the Mingo blood, in my opinion, Master Flinty-Heart, you find a knave. Well, Pvt3 seen you often, though it was in battle ; and I must say, it was always in the van. You must know most of our hullets by sight? " " Newair, sair, your own ; une balle from your honorable hand be sairtaine deat . You kill my best warrior on some island." " That may be that may le ; though I dare say, if the truth was known, they would turn out to be great rascals, 448 THE PATHFINDER. No offense to you, Master Flinty-Heart, but you keep det* perate evil company." " Yes, sair," returned the Frenchman, who, bent on say ing that which was courteous himself, and comprehending with difficulty, was disposed to think he received a compli ment, " you too good. But, un brave always comme ca. What that mean ha ! what that jeune homme do ? " The hand and eye of Captain Sanglier directed the look >f Pathfinder to the opposite side of the fire, where Jasper just at that moment, had been rudely seized by two of tho poldiers, who were binding his arms under the direction of Muir. " What does that mean, indeed ? " cried the guide, step ping forward, and shoving the two subordinates away with a power of muscle that would not be denied. " Who has the heart to do this to Jasper Eau-douce ; and who has the boldness to do it before my eyes ? " " It is by my orders, Pathfinder," answered the quarter master ; " and I con maud it on my own responsibility. Ye ll no tak on yourself to dispute the legality of orders given by one who bears the king s commission to the king s soldiers ? " " I d dispute the king s words if they came from the king s own mouth, did they say that Jasper desarves this. Has not the lad just saved all our scalps ? taken us from defeat, and given us victory ? No, no, lieutenant ; if this is the first use that you make of your authority, I for one will not respect it." " This savors a little of insubordination," answered Muir ; * but we can bear much from Pathfinder. It is true this Jasper has seemed to serve us in this affair ; but we ought not to overlook past transactions. Did not Major Duncan himself denounce him to Sergeant Dunham, before we left the post? Have we not seen sufficient with our own eyes to make sure of having been betrayed? And is it not natural, and almost necessary to believe that this young man has been the traitor ? Ah ! Pathfinder, ye ll no be inakiu yourself a great statesman or a great captain, if you put too much faith in appearances. Lord bless me ! Lord THE PATHFINDER. 449 bless me ! if I do not believe, could the truth be come at, as you often say yourself, Pathfinder, that hypocrisy is a more common -vice than even envy ; arid that s the bane o human nature." Captain Sanglier shrugged his shoulders ; theu he looked earnestly from Jasper towards the quartermaster, and from the quartermaster towards Jasper. " I care not for your envy or your hypocrisy, or even for your human natur ," returned Pathfinder. " Jasper Eau- douce is my friend ; Jasper Eau-douce is a brave lad, and an honest lad, and a loyal lad ; and no man of the 55th shall lay hands on him short of Lundie s own orders, while I m in the way to prevent it. You may have authority over your soldiers, but you have none over Jasper or me, Master Muir." " Bon ! " ejaculated Sanglier, the sound partaking equally of the energies of the throat and of the nose. " Will ye no hearken to reason, Pathfinder ? Ye ll no be forgetting our suspicions and judgments ; and here is another circumstance to augment and aggravate them all. Ye can see this little bit of bunting ; well, where should it be found but by Mabel Dunham, on the branch of a tree, on this very island, just an hour or so before the attack of the enemy ; and if ye ll be at the trouble to look at the fly of the Scud s ensign, ye ll just say that the cloth has been cut from out it. Circumstantial evidence was never stronger." " Ma foi, c est un peu fort, ceci," growled Sanglier, be tween his teeth. " Talk to me of no ensigns and signals, when I know the Veart," continued the Pathfinder. " Jasper has the gift of honesty ; and it is too rare a gift to be trifled with like a Miii go s conscience No, no ; off hands, or we shall see which can make the stoutest battle you, and your men of the 55th, or the Sarpent here, and Killdeer, with Jasper and his crew. You overrate your force, Lieutenant Muir us much as you underrate Eau-douce s truth." " Tres bon ! " " Well, if I must speak plainly, Pathfinder, I e en must Captain Sauglier here, and Arrowhead, this brave Tuscarora, 29 50 THE PATHFINDER. nave both infonned me that this unfortunate boy is the traitor. After such testimony you can no longer oppose my right to correct him, as well as the necessity of the act." " Scelerat," muttered the Frenchman. " Captain Sanglier is a brave soldier, and will not gain- Bay the conduct of an honest sailor," put in Jasper. " Is tbeio any traitor here, Captain Flinty-Heart?" " Aye," added Muir, " let him speak out then, since ye wish it, unhappy youth ; that the truth may be known. I only hope that ye may escape the last punishment when a court will be sitting on your misdeeds. How is it, captain, do ye or do ye not see a traitor among us ? " " Oui yes, sair bien sur." " Too much lie ! " said Arrowhead, in a voice of thun der, striking the breast of Muir, with the back of his owi\ hand, in a sort of ungovernable gesture. " Where my war riors ? where Yen geese scalp ? Too much lie ! " Muir wanted not for personal courage, nor for a certain sense of personal honor. The violence which had been intended only for a gesture he mistook for a blow ; for con science was suddenly aroused within him ; and he stepped back a pace, extending a hand towards a gun. His face was livid with rage ; and his countenance expressed the fell intention of his heart. But Arrowhead was too quick for him. With a wild glance of the eye, the Tuscarora looked about him ; then thrusting a hand beneath his own girdle, drew forth a concealed knife, and, in the twinkling of an eye, buried it in the body of the quartermaster to the handle. As the latter fell at his feet, gazing into his face with the vacant stare of one surprised by death, Sanglier took a pinch of snuff, and said, in a calm voice, " Voila 1 aifaire finie ! mais " shrugging his shoulders " ce n est qu un scelerat de moins." The act was too sudden to be prevented, and when Arrowhead, uttering a yell, bounded into the bushes, the rhite men were too confounded to follow. Chingachgook, however, was more collected ; and the bushes had scarcely closed on the passing body of the Tuscarora, than they were again opened by that of the Delaware in full pursuit. THK PATHFINDER. Jasper Western spoke French fluently, and the words and manner of Sanglier struck him. " Speak, Monsieur," he said, in English, " am I the traitor ? " " Le voila ! " answered the cool Frenchman ; " dat is our espion our agent our friend ; ma foi c etait uu grand scelerat voici." While speaking, Sanglier bent over the dead body, and thrust a hand into a pocket of the quartermaster, out of which he drew a purse. Emptying the contents on the ground, several double-Louis rolled towards the soldiers, who were not slow in picking them up. Casting the purse from him, in contempt, the soldier of fortune turned towards the soup he had been preparing with so much care, and finding it to his liking, he began to break his fast, with an air of indifference that the most stoical Indian warrior might have envied 452 THE PATHFINDER CHAPTER XXVII. The only amaranthine flower on earth Is virtue ; th only lasting treasure, truth. COWFKB. THE reader must imagine some of the occurrences thai followed the sudden death of Muir. While his body was in the hands of his soldiers, who laid it decently aside, and covered it with a great-coat, Chingachook silently resumed his place at the fire, and both Sanglier and Pathfinder re marked that lie carried a fresh and bleeding scalp at his girdle. No one asked any questions ; and the former, although perfectly satisfied that Arrowhead had fallen, man ifested neither curiosity nor feeling. He continued calmly eating his soup, as if the meal had been tranquil as usual. There was something of pride, and of an assumed indiffer ence to fate, imitated from the Indians, in all this ; but there was more that really resulted from practice, habitual self- command, and constitutional hard hood. With Pathfinder, the case was a little different in feeling, though much the eame in appes.rj?nce. He disliked Muir, whose smooth tongued courtesy was little in accordance with his own frank and ingenuous nature ; but he had been shocked at his unexpected and violent death, though accustomed to similar scenes, and he had been surprised at the exposure of his treachery. With a view to ascertain the extent of the lat ter, as soon as the body was removed he began to question the captain on the subject. The latter having no particu- ar motive for secrecy, now that his agent was dead, in the course of the breakfast revealed the following circumstances, which will serve to clear up some of the minor incidents of our tale. Soon after the 55th appeared on the frontiers, Muir had THE PATHFINDER. 453 volunteered his services to the enemy. In making his offers he boasted of his intimacy with Lundie, and of the means it afforded of furnishing more accurate and important information than usual. His terms had been accepted, and Monsieur Sanglier had several interviews with him in the vicinity of the fort at Oswego, and had actually passed one mtire night secreted in the garrison. Arrowhead, however, was the usual channel of communication, and the anony mous letter to Major Duncan had been originally written by Muir, transmitted to Froiitenac, copied, and sent back by the Tuscarora, who was returning from that errand when captured by the Scud. It is scarcely necessary to add, that Jasper was to be sacrificed in order to conceal the quarter master s treason, and that the position of the island had been betrayed to the enemy by the latter. An extraordi nary compensation, that which was found in his purse, had induced him to accompany the party under Sergeant Dun ham, in order to give the signals that were to bring on the attack. The disposition of Muir towards the sex was a nat ural weakness, and he would have married Mabel or any one else who would accept his hand ; but his admiration of her was in a great degree feigned, in order that he might have an excuse for accompanying the party, without sharing in the responsibility of its defeat, or incurring the risk of hav ing no other strong and seemingly sufficient motive. Much of this was known to Captain Sanglier, particularly the part in connection with Mabel ; and he did not fail to let his auditors into the whole secret, frequently laughing in a sar castic manner, as he revealed the different expedients of the luckless quartermaster. " Touchez-la," said the cool-blooded partisan, holding out hie sinewy hand to Pathfinder, when he ended his explana tions ; " you be honnete, and dat is beaucoup. We tak de spy, as we tak la medecine, for de good; mais, je les deteste ! Touchez-la." " I ll shake your hand, captain, I will, for you re a lawful *nd nat ral inimy," returned Pathfinder, " and a manful one; but the body of the quartermaster snail never disgrace Eng lish ground. I did intend to :arry it back to Lundie, thai 454 THP; PATHFINDER. he might play his bagpipes over it ; but now it shall he here, on the spot where he acted his villainy, and have his own treason for a head-stone. Captain Flinty-Heart, I suppose this consorting with traitors is a part of a soldier s regular business ; but I tell you honestly, it is not to my liking, and I d rather it should be you than I who had this affair on his conscience. What an awful sinner ! To plot right and left agin country, friends, and the Lord ! Jas per, boy, a word with you aside for a single minute." Pathfinder now led the young man apart, and squeezing his hand, with the tears in his own eyes, he continued, " You know me, Eau-douce, and I know you," he said, u and this news has not changed my opinion of you in any manner. I never believed their tales, though it looked sol emn at one minute, I will own ; yes, it did look solemn ; and it made me feel solemn, too. I never suspected you for a minute, for I know your gifts don t lie that-away ; but I must own I didn t suspect the quartermaster neither." " And he holding his Majesty s commission, Pathfinder ! " " It isn t so much that, Jasper Western ; it isn t so much that. He held a commission from God to act right, and to deal fairly with his fellow-creatur s, and he has failed awfully in his duty ! " " To think of his pretending love for one like Mabel, too, when he felt none ! " " That was bad sartainly ; the fellow must have had Mingo blood in his veins. The man that deals unfairly by a woman can be but a mongrel, lad ; for the Lord has made them helpless on purpose that we may gain their love by kindness and sarvices. Here is the sergeant, poor man, or. his dying bed ; he has given me his daughter for a wife, and Mabel, dear girl, she has consented to it ; and it makes me feel that I have two welfares to look after, two natur s to care for, and two hearts to gladden. Ah s me ! Jasper ; I sometimes feel that I m not good enough for that sweet child ! Eau-douce had nearly gasped for breath when he iirst heard this intelligence ; and, though he succeeded in sup pressing any other outward signs of agitation, his cheek \*aa THE PATHFINDER. 455 Wanchtd nearly to the paleness of death. Still he found meuns to answer, not only with firmness, but with energy. " Say not so, Pathfinder ; you are good enough for a y-een." " Aye, aye, boy, according to your ideas of my goodness ; that is to say I can kill a deer, or even a Mingo at need, with any man on the lines ; or I can follow a forest path with as true an eye, or read the stars, when others do not understand them. No doubt, no doubt, Mabel will hare venison enough, and fish enough, and pigeons enough ; but will she have knowledge enough, and will she have ideas enough, and pleasant conversation enough, when life comes to drag a little, and each of us begins to pass for our true value?" "If you pass for your value, Pathfinder, the greatest lady in the land would be happy with you. On that head, you have no reason to feel afraid." " Now, Jasper, I dare to say you think so nay I know you do ; for it is nat ral and according to friendship, for people to look over favorably at them they love. Yes, yes ; if I had to marry you, boy, I should give myself no consarn about being well looked upon, for you have always shown a disposition to see me and all I do with friendly eyes. But a young gal, after all, must wish to marry a man that is nearer to her own age and fancies, than to have one old enough to be her father, and rude enough to frighten her. I wonder, Jasper, that Mabel never took a fancy to you, now, rather than setting her mind on me ! " " Take a fancy to me, Pathfinder ! " returned the young man, endeavoring to clear his voice without betraying him self, " what is there about me to please such a girl aa Mabel Dunham ? I have all that you find fault with in yourself, with none of that excellence that makes even the generals respect you." * We , well, it s all chance, say what we will about it. Here I have journeyed and guided through the woods, female after female, and consorted with them in the garri sons, and never have I even felt an inclination for any, un til 1 saw Mabel Dunham. It s true the poor sergeant nrot 456 THE PATHFINDER. set me to thinking about his daughter ; but after we got a little acquainted like, I d no need of being spoken to, to think of her night and day. I m tough, Jasper ; yes, I m very tough ; and I m risolute enough, as you all know ; and yet I do think it would quite break me down now, to lose Mabel Dunham ! " " We will talk no more of it, Pathfinder," said Jasper, returning his friend s squeeze of the hand, and moving back towards the fire, though slowly, and in the manner of one who cared little where he went ; " we will talk no more of it. You are worthy of Mabel, and Mabel is worthy of you ; you like Mabel, arid Mabel likes you ; her father has chosen you for her husband, and no one has a right to in terfere. As for the quartermaster, his feigning love for Mabel is worse even than his treason to the king ! " By this time they were so near the fire that it was neces sary to change the conversation. Luckily, at that instant, Cap, who had been in the block in company with his dying brother-in-law, and who knew nothing of what had passed since the capitulation, now appeared, walking with a medi tative and melancholy air towards the group. Much of that hearty dogmatism that imparted even to his ordinary air and demeanor an appearance of something like contempt for all around him, had disappeared, and he seemed thought- fill, if not meek. " This death, gentlemen," he said, when he had got suffi ciently near, " is a melancholy business, make the best of it. Now, here is Sergeant Dunham, a very good soldier, I make no question, about to slip his cable, and yet he holds on to the better-end of it, as if he was determined it should never run out of the hawse-hole ; and all because he loves bis daughter, it seems to me. For my part, when a friend is really under the necessity of making a long jouiney J alvfays wish him well and happily off." " You wouldn t kill the sergeant before his time ? " Pathfinder reproachfully answered. " Life is sweet, even to the aged ; and, for that matter, I ve known some that eeemed to set much store by it, when it got to be of the value." THK PATHFINDER. 457 Nothing had been further from Cap s real thoughts thaa the wish to hasten his brother-in-law s end. He had found himself embarrassed with the duties of smoothing a death bed, and all he had meant was to express a sincere desire that the sergeant were happily rid of doubt and suffering. A little shocked, therefore, at the interpretation that had been put on his words, he rejoined, with some of the asper ity of the man, though rebuked by a consciousness of not having done his own wishes justice, " You are too old and too sensible a person, Pathfinder," he said, " to fetch a man up with a surge, when he is pay ing out his ideas in distress, as it might be. Sergeant Dun ham is both my brother-in-law and my friend, that is to say, as intimate a friend as a soldier well can be with a sea faring man, and I respect and honor him accordingly. I make no doubt, moreover, that he has lived such a life as becomes a man, and there can be no great harm, after all, in wishing any one well berthed in heaven. Well ! we are mortal, the best of us, that you ll not deny ; and it ought to be a lesson not to feel pride in our strength and beauty. Where is the quartermaster, Pathfinder ? It is proper he should come and have a parting word with the poor ser geant, who is only going a little before us." u You have spoken more truth, Master Cap, than you ve been knowing to, all this time ; in which there is no great wonder, howsoever ; mankind as often telling biting truths when they least mean it, as at any other time. You might have gone further, notwithstanding, and said that we are mortal, the worst of us, which is quite as true, and a good deal more wholesome than saying that we are mortal, the best of us. As for the quartermaster s coming to speak a parting word to the sergeant, it is quite out of the question, seeing that he has gone ahead, and that too with little parting notice to himself, or to any one else." u You are not quite as clear as common in your language, Pathfinder. 1 know that we ought all to have soleuiu thoughts on these occasions, but I see no use in speaking iu parables." " If my words are not plain, the idee is. In short, Ma* 468 THE PATHFINDER. ter Cap, while Sergeant Dunham has been preparing him self for a long journey, like a conscientious a,nd honest man as he is, deliberately and slowly, the quartermaster has started, in a hurry, before him ; and, although it is a matter on vrhich it does not become me to be very positive, I give it as my opinion chat they travel such different roads that they will never meet." " Exp] ain yourself, my friend," said the bewildered sea man, looking around him in search of Muir, whose absence began to excite his distrust. " I see nothing of the quar termaster, but I think him too much of a man to run away, now that the victory is gained. If the fight were ahead, instead of in our wake, the case would be altered." " There lies all that is left of him, beneath that great coat," returned the guide, who then briefly related the man ner of the lieutenant s death. " The Tuscarora was as venomous in his blow as a rattler, though he failed to give the warning," continued Pathfinder. I ve seen many a desperate fight, and several of these sudden outbreaks of savage temper ; but never before did I see a human soul quit the body more unexpectedly, or at a worse moment for the hopes of the dying man. His breath was stopped with the lie on his lips, and the spirit might be said to have passed away in the very ardor of wickedness." Cap listened with a gaping mouth, and he gave two or three violent hems, as the other concluded, like one who distrusted his own respiration. " This is an uncertain and uncomfortable life of yours, Muster Pathfinder, what between the fresh water and the savages," he said, "and the sooner I get quit of it, the higher will be my opinion of myself. Now you mention it, I will say that the man ran for that Lcrth in the rocks, when the enemy first bore down upon us, with a sort of in stinct that I thought surprising in an officer ; but I was ic loo great a hurry to follow, to log the whole matter accu rately. God bless me God bless me! a traitor do you ay, and ready to sell his country, and to a bloody French, man, too ? " "To sell anything country, soul, body, Mabel, and al. THE PATHFINDER. 459 our scalps ; and 110 ways particular, I ll engage, as to the purchaser. The countrymen of Captain Flinty-Heart, here, were the paymasters this time." " Just like em ; ever ready to buy when they cau t tbrash, and to run when they can t do neither." Monsieur Sanglier lifted his cap with ironical gravity, and acknowledged the compliment with an expression of polite contempt that was altogether lost on its insensible subject. But Pathfinder had too much native courtesy, and was far too just-minded, to allow the attack to go unnoticed. " Well, well," he interposed, " to my mind there is no great difference atween an Englishman and a Frenchman, a ter all. They talk different tongues, and live under different kings, I will allow ; but both are human, and feel like human beings, when there is occasion for \t. If a Frenchman is sometimes skeary, so is an Englishman; and as for running away, why, a man will now and then do it, as well as a horse, let him come of what people he may." Captain Flinty-Heart, as Pathfinder called him, made another obeisance ; but this time the smile was friendly, and not ironical, for he felt that the intention was good, what ever might have been the mode of expressing it. Too philosophical, however, to heed what a man like Cap might say or think, he finished his breakfast without allowing his attention to be again diverted from that important pursuit. 4 My business here was principally with the quarter master," Cap continued, as soon as he had done regarding the Frenchman s pantomime. " The sergeant must be near his end; and I have thought he might wish to say some thing to his successor in authority, before he finally de parted. It is too late, it would seem ; and, as you say, Pathfinder, the lieutenant has truly gone before." " That he has, though on a different path. As for au- jjiority, I suppose the corporal has now a right to command vhat s left of the 55th, though a small and worried, not to say frightened, party it is. But, if anything needs to be done, the chances are greatly in favo- of my being called on to do it. I suppose, however, we have only to bury our dead and set fire to the block and the huts, for they 460 THE PATHFINDER. stand in the inimy s territory, by position, if not by law and must not be left for their convenience. Our using diem again is out of the question ; for now the Frenchers know where the island is to be found, it would be like thrusting the hand into a wolf-trap, with our eyes wide open. This part of the work, the Sarpent and I will see if ; for we are as practysed in retreats as in advances." " All that is very well, my good friend ; and now for my poor brother-in-law : though he is a soldier we cannot let him slip without a word of consolation, and a leave-taking, in my judgment. This has been an unlucky affair, on every tack ; though I suppose it is what one had a right to expect, considering the state of the times, and the nature of the navigation. We must make the best of it, and try to help the worthy man to unmoor, without straining his messengers. Death is a circumstance, after all, Master Pathfinder, and one of a very general character, too, seeing that we must all submit to it, sooner or later." " You say truth, you say truth ; and for that reason I hold it to be wise to be always ready. I ve often thought, Salt-water, that he is happiest who has the least to leave behind him when the summons comes. Now, here am I, a hunter and a scout, and a guide, although I do not own a foot of land on arth, yet do I enjoy and possess more than the great Albany Patroon. With the heavens over my head to keep me in mind of the last great hunt, and the dried leaves beneath my feet, I tramp over the ground as freely as if I was its lord and owner ; and what more need heart desire ? I do not say that I love nothing that belongs to arth ; for I do, though not much, unless it might be Mabel Dunham, that I can t carry with me. I have some paps at the higher fort, that I valy considerable, though they are too noisy for warfare, and so we are compelled t( live separate for a while ; and then, I think, it would grieve me to part with Killdeer ; but I see no reason why W6 should not be buried in the same grave, for we are, as near as can be, of the same length six feet, to a hair s breadth but, bating these, and a pipe that the Sarpeut gave mo and a few tokens received from travellers, all of which THE PATHFINDER. 461 might be put in a pouch, and laid under my head, when the order comes to march, I shall be ready at a minnte a warning ; and, let me tell you, Master Cap, that s what I call a circumstance, too ! " " Tis just so with me^ answered the sailor, as the two walked towards the block, too much occupied with their respective morality to remember, at the moment, the mel ancholy errand they were on, " that s just my way of c eol ing and reasoning. How often have I felt, when near ship wreck, the relief of not owning the craft ! If she goes/ I have said to myself, * why, my life* goes with her, but not my property, and there s great comfort in that. I ve discovered in the course of boxing about the world, from the Horn to Cape North, not to speak of this run on a bit of fresh water, that if a man has a few dollars, and put* them in a chest under lock and key, he is pretty certain to fasten up his heart in the same till ; and so I carry pretty much all I own in a" belt round ray body, in order, as I say to keep the vitals in the right place. D e, Pathfinder, if I think a man without a heart any better than a fish with a hole in his air-bag." / " I don t know how that may be, Master Cap, but a man without a conscience is but a poor creatur , take my word for it, as any one will discover who has to do with a Mingo. I trouble myself but little with dollars or half-joes, for these are the fuvoryte coin in this part of the world ; but I can easily believe by what I ve seen of mankind, that if a man has a chest filled with either, he may be said to lock up his heart in the same box. I once hunted for two summers during the last peace, and I collected so much peltry that I found my right feelings giving way to a craving after property ; and if I have consarn in marrying Mahcl, it is that I may get to love such things too ^vell, in order to make her comfortable."/ " You re a philosopher, than? clear, Pathfinder ; and 1 don t know but you re a Christian ! " " I should be out of humor with the man that gainsayed the last, Master Cap. I have not been Christianized by the Moravians, like so many of the Delawares, it is true : 462 THE PATHFINDER. but I hold to Christianity and white gifts. With me it w as oiicreditable for a white man not to be a Christian, as it is for a red-skin not to believe in his happy hunting-grounds ; indeed, after allowing for difference in traditions, and some variations about the manner in which the spirit will be occupied after death, I hold that a good Delaware is a good Christian, though he never saw a Moravian ; and a good Christian a good Delaware, so far as natur is conjarned. The Sarpeut and I talk these matters over often, for he has a hankerin after Christianity " " The d 1 he has ! " interrupted Cap. " And *rhat does he intend to do in a church, with all the scalps he takes?" " Don t run away with a false idee, friend Cap ; don t run away with a false idee. These things are only skin- deep, and all depend on edication and nat ral gifts. Look around you at mankind, and tell me why you see a red warrior here, a black one there, and white armies in an other place ? All this, and a great deal more of the same kind that I could point out, has been ordered for some special purpose ; and it is not for us to fly in the face of facts and deny their truth. No, no ; each color has its gifts, and its laws, and its traditions ; and one is not to condemn another because he does not exactly comprehend it." " You must have read a great deal, Pathfinder, to see things as clear as this," returned Cap, who was not a little mystified by his companion s simple creed. " It s all as plain as day to me now, though I must say I never fell in with these opinions before. What denomination do you belong to, my friend ? " Anan ? " " What sect do you hold out for ? What particular church do you fetch up in ? " " Look about you, and judge for yourself. I m in church r.uw ; I eat in church, drink in church, sleep in church, The arth is the temple of the Lord, and I wait on IJim hourly, daily, without ceasing, I humbly hope. No, no ; I ll not deny my blood and color, but am Christian bora iind shall die in the same faith. The Moravians tried ma THE PATHFINDER. 463 hard ; and one of the king s chaplains has had his say, too. though that s a class no ways strenuous on such matters * and a missionary sent from Rome talked much with me as I guided him through the forest during the last peace ; but I ve had one answer for them all ; I m a Christian already, and want to be neither Moravian, nor Churchman, lor Pa plat. No, no ; I ll not deny my birth and blood." " I think a word from you might lighten the sergeant over the shoals cf death, Master Pathfinder. He has no one with him but poor Mabel, and she, you know, besides being his daughter, is but a girl and a child after a I! " " Mabel is feeble in body, friend Cap, but in matters of this iiatur , I doubt if she may not be stronger than most men. But Sergeant Dunham is my friend, and he is your brother-in-law ; so now the press of fighting and maintain ing our rights is over, it is fitting we should both go and witness his departure. I ve stood by many a dying man, Master Cap," continued Pathfinder, who had a besetting pro pensity to enlarge on his experience, stopping and holding his companion by a button ; " I ve stood by many a dying man s side, and seen his last gasp, and heard his last breath ; for when the hurry and tumult of the battle is over, it is good to bethink us of the misfortuuate, and it is remarkable to witness how differently human natur feels at such solemn moments. Some go their way as stupid and ignorant as if God had never given them reason, and an ac countable state ; whilo others quit us rejoicing, like men who leave heavy burdens behind them. I think that the mind sees clearly at such moments, my friend, and that past deeds stand thick before the recollection." " I ll engage they do, Pathfinder. I have witnessed something of this myself, and hope I m the better man for it. I remember once that I thought my own time had come, and the log was overhauled with a diligence I did not think myself capable of until tl at moment. I ve not been a very great shiner, friend Pathfinder ; that is to say, never on a large scale ; though, I dare say, if the truth were spoken, a considerable amount of small matters might be raked up Hgainst me, as well as against another man ; but then IVo 464 THE PATHFINDER. never committed piracy, nor high treason, nor ar&on, no? any of them sort of things. As to smuggling, and the like of that, why I m a seafaring man, and I suppose all callings have their weak spots. I dare say your trade is not alto gether without blemish, honorable and useful as it seems to be?" " Many of the scouts and guides are desperate knaves ; and, like the quartermaster here, some of them take pay of both sides. I hope I m not one of them, though all occupa tions lead to temptations. Thrice have I been sorely tried in my life, and once yielded a little, though I hope it was not in a matter to disturb a man s conscience in his last mo ments. The first time was when I found in the woods a pack of skins that I knowed belonged to a Frencher, who was hunting on our side of the lines, where he had no busi ness to be ; twenty-six as handsome beavers as ever glad dened human eyes ! Well, that was a sore temptation, for I thought the law would have been almost with me, although it was in peace times. But then I remembered that such laws wasn t made for us hunters, and bethought me that the poor man might have built great expectations for the next winter, on the sale of his skins ; and I left them where they lay. Most of our people said I did wrong ; but the manner iu which I slept that night convinced me that I had done right. The next trial was when I found the rifle, that is sartainly the only one in this part of the world that can be calculated on as surely as Killdeer, and knowed that by tak ing it, or even hiding it, I might at once rise to be the first shot in all these parts. I was then young, and by no means aa oxpart as I have since got to be, and youth is ambitious and striving ; but, God be praised ! I mastered that feel ing ; and, friend Cap, what is almost as good, I mastered my rival in as fair a shooting-match as was ever witnessed In a garrison ; he with his piece, and I with Killdeer, and before the general in person, too ! " Here Pathfinder stopped to laugh, his triumph still glittering in his eyes, and glowing on his sunburnt and browned cheek. " Well, the next conflict with the devil was the hardest of them all, Mid that was when I came suddenly upon u camp of sia THE PATHFINDER. 46k Mingos, asleep in the woods, with their guns and horns piled in a way that enabled me to get possession of them without waking a miscreant of them all. What an oppor tunity that would have been for the Sarpent, who would have despatched them, one after another, wiiJi his knife, and had their six scalps at his girdle in about the time it takes me to tell you the story. ! he s a valiant warrior, that Chingachgook, and as honest as he s brave, and as good as he s honest ! " " And what may you have done in this matter, Master Pathfinder ? " demanded Cap, who began to be interested in the result ; " it seems to me you had made either a very lucky or a very unlucky land-fall." " Twas lucky, and twas unlucky, if you can understand that. Twas unlucky, for it proved a desperate trial , and yet twas lucky, all things considered, in the ind. 1 did not touch a hair of their heads, for a white man has no nat ral gifts to take scalps ; nor did I even make sure of one of their rifles. I distrusted myself, knowing that a Mingo is no favorite in my own eyes." " As for the scalps, I think you were right enough, my worthy friend ; but as for the armament and the stores, they would have been Condemned by any prize-court in Christendom ! " " That they would that they would; but then the Min gos would have gone clear, seeing that a white man can no more attack an unarmed, than a sleeping inimy. No, no ; I did myself, and my color, and my religion, too, greater justice. I waited till their nap was over, and they well on their war-path again ; and by ambushing them here, and flanking them there, I peppered the blackguards intrinsic ally, like," Pathfinder occasionally caught a fine word from his associates, and used it a little vaguely, " that only one ever got back to his village ; and he came into his wigwam, limping. Luckily, as it turned out, the great Delaware had only halted to jerk some venison, and was following on my trail ; and when he got up, he had five of the scoundrel s ncalps hanging where they ought to to ; so you see nothing 466 T11E PATHFINDER. was lost by doing right, either in the way of honor or in that of profit." Cap grunted an assent, though the distinction* in his com panion s morality, it must be owned, were not exactly clear to his understanding. The two had occasionally moved towards the block as they conversed, and then stopped again, as some matter of more interest than common brought them to a halt. They were now so near the building, however, that neither thought of pursuing the sub ject any further ; but each prepared himself for the fma! oene with Sergeant Dunham. THE PATHFINDER. 467 CHAPTER XXVIII. Thou barraire ground, whom winter s wrath hath wanted, Art made a mirror to behold my plight: Whil ome thy fresh spring flower d ; and after hasted Thy summer proude, with daffodillies dight; And now is come thy winter s stormy state, Thy mantle mar d wherein thou maskedst late. SHDHMKB. ALTHOUGH the soldier may regard danger, and even death, with indifference, in the tumult of battle, when the passage cf the soul is delayed to moments of tranquillity and reflection, the change commonly brings with it the usual train of solemn reflections ; of regrets for the past ; and of doubts and anticipations for the future. Many a man has died with an heroic expression on his lips, but with heavi ness and distrust at his heart ; for, whatever may be the varieties of our religious creeds let us depend on the mediation of Christ, the dogmas of Mohammed, or the elab orated allegories of the P^ast there is a conviction, com mon to all men, that death is but the stepping-stone between this and a more elevated state of being. Sergeant Dunham was a brave man ; but he was departing for a country in which resolution could avail him nothing : and as he felt himself gradually loosened from the grasp of the woild, his thoughts and feelings took the natural direction ; for, if it be true that death is the great leveler, in nothing is it more trae, than that it reduces all to the same views of the vanity of life. Pathfinder, though a man of quaint and peculiar ha bits and opinions, was always thoughtful, and disposed to vie~tf ths things around him with a shade of philosophy, as well as with seriousness. In him therefore the scene in the block-house awakened no very novel feelings ; but the case WHJS different with Cap. Rude, opinionated, dogmatical, and 408 THE PATHFINDER. boisterous, the old sailor was little accustomed to view even death, with any approach to the gravity that its importance demands ; and, notwithstanding all that had passed, and hia real regard for his brother-in-law, he now entered the room of the dying man, with much of that callous unconcern which was the fruit of long training in a school, that, while it gives so many lessons in the sublimest truths, generally wastes its admonitions on scholars who are little disposed to profit by them. The first proof that Cap gave of his not entering as fully as those around him into the solemnity of the moment, was by commencing a. narration of the events which had just led to the deaths of Muir and Arrowhead. " Both tripped their anchors in a hurry, brother Dunham," he concluded ; "and you have the consolation of knowing that others have gone before you in the great journey, and they, too, men whom you ve no particular reason to love ; which to me, were I placed in your situation, would be a source of very great satisfaction. My mother always said, Master Path finder, that dying people s spirits should not be damped, but that they ought to be encouraged by all proper and prudent means ; and this news will give the poor fellow a great lift if he feels towards them savages any way as I feel myself." June arose at this intelligence, and stole from the block house with a noiseless step. Dunham listened with a vacant stare, for life had already lost so many of its ties that he had really forgotten Arrowhead, and cared nothing for Muir; but he inquired in a feeble voice for Eau-douce. The young man was immediately summoned, and soon made his appearance. The sergeant gazed at him kindly, and the expression of his eyes was that of regret for the injury he had- done him in thought. The party in the block-house now consisted of Pathfinder, Cap, Mabel, Jasper, and the ilying man. With the exception of the daughter, all stood around the sergeant s pallet in attendance on his last mo ments. Mabel kneeled at his side, now pressing a clammy hand to her head, now applying moisture to the parched lips of her father. " Your case will shortly be our u, sergeant," said Path THE PATHFINDER. 469 finder, who could hardly be said to be awe-struck by tho scene, for he had witnessed the approach and victories of death too often for that; but who felt the full difference between his triumphs in the excitement of battle and in the quiet of the domestic circle ; " and I make no ques tion we shall meet ag in hereafter. Arrowhead has gone his way, tis true ; but it can never be the way of a just Indian You ve seen the last of him : for his path cannot be the path of the just. Reason is agin the thought, in his case, as it is also in my judgment agin it, too, in the case of Lieutenant Muir. You have done your duty in life ; and when a man does that, he may start on the longest journey with a light heart and an actyve foot." " I hope so, my friend ; I ve tried to do my duty." "Aye, aye," put in Cap, "intention is half the battle; and though you would have done better had you hove-to in the offing and sent a craft in to feel how the land lay, things might have turned out differently ; no one here doubts that you meant all for the best, and no one any where else I should think, from what I ve seen of this world and read of t other." " I did ; yes, I meant all for the best." " Father ! ! my beloved father ! " " Magnet is taken aback by this blow, Master Pathfinder, and can say or do but little to carry her father over the shoals ; so we must try all the harder to serve him a friendly turn ourselves." " Did you speak, Mabel ? " Dunham asked, turning hia eyes in the direction of his daughter, for he was already too feeble to turn his body. ^/Yes, father ; rely on nothing you have done yourselfj for mercy and salvation ; trust altogether in the blessed mediation of the Son of God !^ "The chaplain has told us something like this, brother | the dear child may be right." H Aye, aye ; that s doctrine out of question. lie will be our Judge, and keeps the log-book of our acts, ind will foot them all up at the last day, and then say who nas dona well and who has done ill. I do believe Mabel is right, but 470 THE PATHFINDER. then you need not be concerned, as no doubt the account has been fairly kept." " Uncle ! dearest father ! This is a vain illusion. O ! place all your trust in the mediation of our holy Redeemer ! Have you not often felt your own insufficiency to effect your own wishes in the commonest things, and how can you imagine yourself, by your own acts, equal to raise up a frail and sinful nature sufficiently to be received into the pres ence of perfect purity ? There is no hope for any, but in the mediation of Christ ! " " This is what the Moravians used to tell us," said Pnth- finder to Cap in a low voice ; " Mabel is right." " Right enough, friend Pathfinder, in the distances, but wrong in the course. I m afraid the child will get the sergeant adrift, at the very moment when we had him in the best of the water, and in the plainest part of the channel." " Leave it to Mabel leave it to Mabel ; she knows better than any of us, and can do no harm." "I have heard this before," Dunham at length replied. " Ah ! Mabel ; it is strange for the parent to lean on the child at a moment like this." " Put your trust in God, father ; lean on his holy and compassionate Son. Pray, dearest, dearest father ; pray for his omnipotent support." "I am not used to prayer; brother Pathfinder Jasper, can you help me to words ? " Cap scarce knew what prayer- meant, and he had no an swer to give. Pathfinder prayed often, daily if not hourly ; but it was mentaliy, in his own simple modes of thinking, and without the aid of words at all. In this strait, there fore, he was as useless as the mariner, and had no rcplj to make. As for Jasper Eau-douce, though he would gladly have endeavored to move a mountain to relieve Mabel, this was asking assistance it exceeded his power to give ; and he shrank back with the shame that is only too apt to over come the young and vigorous, when called on to perform an act that tacitly confesses their real weakness and depend nce on a superior power. THE PATHFINDER. 471 44 Father," said Mabel, wiping her eyes, and endeavor- Mig to compose features that were pallid, and actually quiv ering with emotion, " / will pray with you for you ; for myself, for us all. The petition of the feeblest and hum blest is never unheeded." There was something sublime, as well as much that was supremely touching, in this act of filial piety. The quiet, but earnest manner in which this young creature prepared herself to perform the duty ; the self-abandonment with which she fbrgot her sex s timidity and sex s shame, in order to sustain her parent at that trying moment ; the loftiness of purpose with which she directed all her powers to the immense object before her, with a woman s devotion, and a woman s superiority to trifles, when her affections make the appeal ; and the holy calm into which her grief was compressed, rendered her, for the moment, an object of something very like awe and veneration to her compan ions. Mabel had been religiously and reasonably educated ; equally without exaggeration and without self-sufficiency. Her reliance on God was cheerful and full of hope, while it was of the humblest and most dependent nature. She had been accustomed from childhood to address herself to the Deity, in prayer ; taking example from the divine mandate of Christ himself, who commanded his followers to abstain ^frorn vain repetitions, and who has left behind Him a petition that is unequaled for sublimity and senten- tiousness, as if expressly to rebuke the disposition of man to set up his own loose and random thoughts as the most acceptable sacrifice. The sect in which she had been reared, has furnished to its followers some of the most beautiful compositions of the language, as a suitable vehi cle for its devotion and solicitations. Accustomed to .this Diode of public and even private prayer, the mind of our heroine had naturally fallen into its train of lofty thought ; her taste had become improved by its study, and her lan guage elevated and enriched by its phrases. In short, Mabel, in this respect, was an instance of the influence and familiarity with propriety of thought, fitness of language. 472 THE PATHFINDER. and decorum of manner, on the habits and expressions of even those who might be supposed not to be always so susceptible of receiving high impressions of this nature. When she kneeled at the bedside of her father, the very reverence of her attitude and manner prepared the specta tors for what was to come ; and as her affectionate heart prompted her tongue, and memory came in aid of both, the petition and praises that she offered up were of a character that might have worthily led the spirits of angels. Although the words were not slavishly borrowed, the ex pressions partook of the simple dignity of the liturgy to which she had been accustomed, and were probably as worthy of the being to whom they were addressed as they could well be made by human powers. They produced their full impression on the hearers ; for it is worthy of remark that, notwithstanding the pernicious effects of a false taste when long submitted to, real sublimity and beauty are so closely allied to nature, that they generally find an echo in every heart. But when our heroine came to touch upon the situation of the dying man, she became the most truly persuasive, for then she was the most truly zealous and natural. The beauty of the language was preserved, but it was sustained by the simple power of love ; and her words were warmed by a holy zeal, that approached to the grandeur of true eloquence. We might record some of her expressions, but doubt the propriety of subjecting such sacred themes to a too familiar analysis, and refrain. The effect of this singular but solemn scene was different tin the different individuals present. Dunham himself was soon lost in the subject of the prayer ; and he felt some such relief as one who finds himself staggering on the edge of a precipice under a burden difficult to be borne, might be supposed to experience, when he unexpectedly feels the weight removed, in order to be placed on the shoulders of mother better able to sustain it. Cap was surprised, as well as awed ; though the effects on his mind were not rery deep or very lasting. He wondered a little at hia own sensations, and had his doubts whether they were ai THE PATHFINDER. 478 manly and heroic as they ought to be ; but he was far too sensible of the influence of truth, humility, religious sub mission, and human dependency, to think of interposing with any of his crude objections. Jasper knelt opposite to Mabel, covered his face, and followed her words, with an earnest wish to aid her prayers with his own ; though it may be questioned if his thoughts did not dwell quite as much on the soft, gentle accents of the petitioner, as on the subject of her petition. The effect on Pathfinder was striking and visible ; visi ble, because he stood erect, also opposite to Mabel ; and the workings of his countenance, as usual, betrayed the workings of the spirit within. He leaned on his rifle, and, at moments, the sinewy fingers grasped the barrel with a force that seemed to compress the weapon ; while once or twice, as Mabel s language rose in intimate association with her thoughts, he lifted his eyes to the floor above him, a8 if he expected to find some visible evidence of the presence of the dread Being to whom the words were addressed. Then again his feelings reverted to the fair creature who was thus pouring out her spirit, in fervent, but calm peti tions, in behalf of a dying parent ; for Mabel s cheek was no longer pallid, but was flushed with a holy enthusiasm, while her blue eyes were upturned in the light, in a way to resemble a picture by Guido. At these moments all the honest and manly attachment of Pathfinder glowed in his ingenuous features, and his gaze at our heroine was such as the fondest parent might fasten on the child of his love. Sergeant Dunham laid his hand feebly on the head of Mabel as she ceased praying, and buried her face in his blanket. * Bless you, my beloved child, bless you," he rather fhispered than uttered aloud ; "this is truly consolation ; would that I too could pray ! " " Father, you know the Lord s prayer ; you taught it Ui me yourself, while I was yet an infant." The sergfvaut s face gleamed with a smile ; for he did remember to have discharged that portion, at least, of the 174 THE PATHFINDER. paternal dutj ; and the consciousness of it gave him inoon* ceivable gratification at that solemn moment. He was then silent for several minutes, and all present believed that he was communing with God. " Mabel, my child," he at length uttered, in a voice that aeemed to be reviving, " Mabel, I m quitting you " the spirit, at its great and final passage, appears ever to con sider the body as nothing " I m quitting you, my child , where is your hand ? " " Here, dearest father here are both ; ! take both. " " Pathfinder," added the sergeant, feeling on the oppo site side of the bed, where Jasper still knelt, and getting one of the hands of the young man, by mistake, " take it I leave you as her father as you and she may please bless you bless you both " At that awful instant no one would rudely apprise the sergeant of his mistake ; and he died a minute or two later, holding Jasper s and Mabel s hands covered by both his own. Our heroine was ignorant of the fact, until an exclamation of Cap s announced the death of her father ; when, raising her face, she saw the eyes of Jasper riveted on her own, and felt the warm pressure of his hand. But a single feeling was predominant at that instant ; and Mabel withdrew to weep, scarcely conscious of what had occurred. The Pathfinder took the arm of Eau-douce, and he left the block. The two friends walked in silence past the fire, along the glade, and nearly reached the opposite shore of the .Bland, in profound silence. Here they stopped, and Path finder spoke. " Tis all over, Jasper," he said ; " tis all over. Ah s me ! Poor Sergeant Dunham has finished his inarch, and ihat, too, by the hand of a venomous Mingo. Well, we never know what is to happen, and his luck may be your ii IT mine, to-morrow, or next day ! " " And Mabel ? What is to become of Mabel, Path finder ? " " You heard the sergeant s dying words ; he has left Ilia child in my care, Jasper ; and it is a most solemn trust it is; yes, it is a most solemn trust ! " THE PATHFINDER. 475 " It s a trust, Pathfinder, of which any man would be glad to relieve you," returned the youth, with a bittei mile. " I ve often thought it has fallen into wrong hands. I m not cousaited, Jasper I m not cousaited, I do think I m not; but if Mabel Dunham is willing to overlook all my imperfections and ignorances like, I should be wiong to gainsay it on account of any sartainty I may have myself about ray own want of merit." k No one will blame you, Pathfinder, for marrj ing Mabel Dunham, any more than they will blame you for wearing a precious jewel in your bosom, that a friend had freely given you." " Do you think they ll blame Mabel, lad ? I ve had my misgivings about that too ; for all persons may not be a& disposed to look at me with the same eyes as you and the sergeant s daughter." Jasper Eau-douce started, as a mai? flinches at sudden bodily pain ; but he otherwise maintained his self-command. " And mankind is envious and ill- natured, more particularly in and about the garrisons. 1 sometimes wish, Jasper, that Mabel could have taken a fancy to you, I do ; and that you had taken a fancy to her ; for it often seems to me that one like you, after all, might make her happier than I ever can." " We will not talk about this, Pathfinder," interrupted Jasper, hoarsely and impatiently ; " you will be Mabel s husband, and it is not right to speak of any one else in that character. As for me, I shall take Master Cap s advice, and try and make a man of myself, by seeing what is to bo done on the salt water." " You, Jasper Western ! you quit the lakes, the forests, and the lines ; and this, too, for the towns and wasty ways v>f the settlements, and a little difference in the taste of the water ! Haven t we the salt-licks, if salt is necessary to you ? and oughtn t man to be satisfied with what contents the other creatur s of God? I counted on you, Jasper 1 counted on you, I did and thought, now that Mabel and I intend to dwell in a cabin of our own, that some day you might be tempted to choose a companion too, and come 476 THE PATHFINDER. and settle in our neighborhood. There is a beautifiil spot about fifty miles west of the garrison, that I had chosen in my mind for my own place of abode ; and there is an ex cellent harbor about ten leagues this side of it, where you could run in and out with the cutter, at any leisure minute ; and I d even fancied you and your wife in possession of the one place, and Mabel and I in possession of t other. We should be just a healthy hunt apart ; and if the Lord ever intends any of his creatures to be happy on arth, none coald be happier than we four." " You forget, my friend," answered Jasper, taking the guide s hand and forcing a friendly smile, " that I have no fourth person to love and cherish ; and I much doubt if I ever shall love any other as I love you and Mabel." " Thank ee, boy I thank you with all my heart ; but what you call love for Mabel is only friendship like, and a very different thing from what I feel. Now, instead of sleeping as sound as natur at midnight, as I used to could, I dream nightly of Mabel Dunham. The youig does sport before me ; and when I raise Killdeer in older to take a little venison, the animals look back, and it seems a* if they all had Mabel s sweet countenance, laughing in my face, and looking as if they said, * Shoot me if you dare ! Then I hear her soft voice calling out among the birds as they sing; and no later than the last nap I took, I be thought me in fancy of going over the Niagara, holding Mabel in my arms rather than part from her. The bitter est moments I ve ever known were them in which the devil or some Mingo conjuror, perhaps, has just put into my head to fancy in dreams that Mabel is lost to me by some un- 4ccountable calamity either by changefulness or by vio ence." " O ! Pathfinder, if you think this so bitter in a dream, vhat must it be to one who feels its reality, and knows ii 11 to be true true true ! So true, as to leave no hoj^e ; to leave nothing but despair ! " These words burst from Jasper as a fluid pours from the vessel that has been suddenly broken. They were uttered Involuntarily, almost unconsciously, but with a truth and THE PATHFINDER. 477 feeling that carried with them the instant conviction of their deep sincerity. Pathfinder started, gazed at his friend for quite a minute like one bewildered ; and then it was that in despite of all his simplicity the truth gleamed upon him. All know how corroborating proofs crowd upon the mind aa soon as it catches a direct clue to any hitherto unsus pected fact ; how rapidly the thoughts flow, and premises tend to their just conclusions under such circumstances. Our hero was so confiding by nature, so just, and so much disposed to imagine that all his friends wished him the same happiness as he wished them, that, until this unfortunate moment, a suspicion of Jasper s attachment for Mabel had never been awakened in his bosom. He was, however, now too experienced in the emotions that characterize the pas- fiiori ; and the burst of feeling in his companion was too violent and too natural to leave any further doubt on the subject. The feeling that first followed this change of opinion was one of deep humility and exquisite pain. He bethought him of Jasper s youth, his higher claims to per sonal appearance, and all the general probabilities that such a suitor would be more agreeable to Mabel than he could possibly be himself. Then the noble rectitude of mind for which the man was so distinguished asserted its power ; it was sustained by his rebuked manner of thinking of him self, and all that habitual deference for the rights and feel ings of others, which appeared to be inbred in his very na ture. Taking the arm of Jasper, he led him to a log, where he compelled the young man to seat himself, by a sort of irresistible exercise of his iron muscles, and where he placed himself at his side. The instant his feelings had found vent, Eau-douce was both alarmed at and ashamed of their violence. He would have given all he possessed on earth could the last three minutes be recalled, but he was too frank by disposition, and too much accustomed to deal ingenuously by his friend, to think a moment of attempting further concealment, or of liny evasion of the explanation that he knew was about to be demanded. Even while he trembled in anticipation of what was about to follow, he never contemplated equivoca tion. 478 THE PATHFINDER. " Jasper," Pathfinder commenced, in a tone so solemn a& to thrill on every nerve in his listener s body, " this has sur prised me ! You have kinder feelings towards Mabel than I had thought ; and unless my own mistaken vanity and consait have cruelly deceived me, I pity you, boy, from my soul, I do ! Yes, I think I know how to pity any one -who has set his heart on a creature like Mabel, unless he sees a prospect of her regarding him as he regards her. This matter must be cleared up, Eau-douce, as the Delawares say, until there shall not be a cloud atween UP." "What clearing up can it want, Pathfinder? I love Mabel Dunham, and Mabel Dunham does not love me ; she prefers you for a husband ; and the wisest thing I can do, is to go off At once to the salt water and try to forget you both." "Forget me, Jasper! that would be a punishment I don t desarve. But how do you know that Mabel prefars me ? how do you know it, lad ? to me it seems impossible, like!" "Is she not to marry you, and would Mabel marry a man she does not love ? " " She has been hard urged by the sergeant, she has ; and a dutiful child may have found it difficult to withstand the wishes of a dying parent. Have you ever told Mabel that you prefarred her, Jasper ; that you bore her these feelings?" " Never, Pathfinder ; I would not do you that wrong ! " " I believe you, lad, I do believe you ; and I think you would- now go to the salt water and let the scent die with you. But this must not be. Mabel shall hear all, and she shall have her own way, if my heart breaks in the trial, she shall. No words have ever passed atween yon, then, Jasper ? " u Nothing of account nothing direct. Still, I will own all my foolfslmess, Pathfinder, for I ought to own it to a generous friend like you, and there will be an end of it. You know how young people understand each other, or think they understand each other, without always speaking >ut in plain speech ; and get to know each other s thoughts, THE PATHFINDER. 473 or to think they know them, by means of a hundred little ways ? " "Not I, Jasper, not I," truly answered the guide; for sooth to say, his advances had never been met witli any ol that sweet and precious encouragement that silently mark* the course of sympathy united to passion. " Not I, Jasper ; I know nothing of all this. Mabel has always treated me fairly, and said what she had to say in speech as plain ag tongue could tell it." " You have had the pleasure of hearing her say that she loved you, Pathfinder ? " "Why no, Jasper, not just that, in words. She has told me that w never could never ought to be married ; that $he was not good enough for me ; though she did say that she honored me, and respected me. But then the sergeant said it was always so with the youthful and timid, that her mother did so, and said so, afore her ; and that I ought to be satisfied if she would consent, on any terms, to marry me : and, therefore, I have concluded that all was right, I have." In spite of all his friendship for the successful wooer in spite of all his honest, sincere wishes for his happiness, we should be unfaithful chroniclers, did we not own that Jasper felt his heart bound with an uncontrollable feeling of delight, at this admission. It was not that he saw or felt any hope connected with the circumstance ; but it was grateful to the jealous covetousness of unlimited love, thus to learn that no other ears had heard the sweet confessions that were denied its own. "Tell me more of this manner of talking without the use of the tongue," continued Pathfinder, whose countenance was getting to be grave, and who now questioned his com- parJon, like one that seemed to anticipate evil in the reply. u I can and have conversed with Chingachgook, and with his son Uncas, too, in that mode, afore the latter fell ; but I didn t know that young girls practysed this art ; and, least of all, Mabel Dunham ! " " Tis nothing, Pathfinder. I mean only a look, or a Bmile, or a glance of the eye, or the trembling of an arm, or a hand, when the young woman has had occasion to touch 180 THE PATHFINDER. me ; and because I have been weak enough to tremble even at Mabel s breath, or her brushing me with her clothes, my vain thoughts have misled me. I never spoke plainly to Mabel, myself; and now there is no use for it, since there is clearly no hope." "Jasper," returned Pathfinder, simply, but with a dig.tity that precluded further remarks at the moment, " we will talk of the sergeant s funeral, and of our own departure from this island. After these things are disposed of, it will be time enough to say more of the sergeant s daughter. This matter must be looked into ; for the father left me the care of his child." Jasper was glad enough to change the subject, and the friends separated, each charged with the duty most peculiar to his own station and habits. That afternoon all the dead were interred the grave of Sergeant Dunham being dug in the centre of the glade, beneath the shade of a huge elm. Mabel wept bitterly at the ceremony, and she found relief in thus disburdening her sorrow. The night passed tranquilly, ad did the whole of the following day, Jasper declaring that the gale was too severe to venture on the lake. This circumstance detained Captain Sanglier, also ; who did not quit the island until the morning of the third, day after the death of Dunham, when the weather had moderated, and the wind had become fair. Then, indeed, he departed, after taking leave of the Pathfinder, in the manner of one who believed he was in company of a distinguished character for the last time. The two separated like those who respect one another, while oach felt that the other was an enigma to himself. THE PATHFINDER. 481 CHAPTER XXIX. Playful she turned, that he might see the passing smile her cheek put on; But when she marked how mournfully His eyes met hers, that smile was gone. LALLA RCH.CH. THE occurrences of the last few days had been too excit ing, and had made too many demands on the fortitude of our heroine, to leave her in the helplessness of grief. She mourned for her father, and she occasionally shuddered, as she recalled the sudden death of Jennie, and all the horrible scenes she had witnessed ; but, on the whole, she had aroused herself, and was no longer in the deep depression that usu ally accompanies grief. Perhaps the overwhelming, almost stupefying sorrow that crushed poor June, and left her foi nearly twenty-four hours in a state of stupor, assisted Mabel in conquering her own feelings, for she had felt called on to administer consolation to the young Indian woman. This she had done, in the quiet, soothing, insinuating way, in which her sex usually exerts its influence on such occasions. The morning of the third day was set for that on which the Scud was to sail. Jasper had made all his preparations ; Jie different effects were embarked, arid Mabel had taken leave of June a painful and affectionate parting. In a vord, all was ready, arid every soul had left the island but he Indian woman, Pathfinder, Jasper, and our heroine. The foimer had ^one into a thicket to weep, and the three last were approaching the spot where three canoes lay ; one of which was the property of June, and the other 1 wo were in waiting to carry the others off to the Scud. Pathfinder led the way, but, when he drew near the shore, instead of tak ing the direction to the boats, he mo ioned to his compan ions to follow, and proceeded to a fcdleu tree that lay on the 81 482 THE FATHFINDKE. margin of the glade, ana out ol view of those in the cutter Seating himself on the trunk, he signed to Mabel to take her place on one side of him, and to Jasper to occupy the other. " Sit down here, Mabel ; sit down there, Eau-douce," he commenced, as soon as he had taken his own seat ; " I ve something that lies heavy on my mind, and now is the timo to take it off, if it s ever to be done. Sit down, Mabel, and iet me lighten my heart, if not my conscience, while I ve the strength to do it." The pause that succeeded lasted two or three minutes, and both the young people wondered what was to come next, the idea that Pathfinder could have any weight on his conscience seeming equally improbable to each. " Mabel," our hero at length resumed, " we must talk plainly to each other afore we join your uncle in the cutter, where the Salt-water has slept every night since the last rally ; for he says it s the only place, in which a man can be sure of keeping the hair on his head, he does. Ah s me ! what have I to do with these follies and sayings now ? I try to be pleasant, and to feel light-hearted, but the power of man can t make water run up stream. Mabel, you know that the sergeant, afore he left us, had settled it atween us two, that we were to become man arid wife, and that we were to live together, and to love one another as long as the Lord was pleased to keep us both on arth; yes, and afterwards, too ? " Mabel s cheeks had regained a little of their ancient bloom n the fresh air of the morning ; but at this unlooked-for address they blanched again, nearly to the pallid hue which grief had imprinted there. Still she looked kindly, though Berioasly, at Pathfinder, and even endeavored to force a smile. "Very true, my excellent friend," she answered; "this was my poor father s wish, and I feel certain that a whole life devoted to your welfare and comforts could scarcely re pay you for all you have done for us." " 1 fear me, Mabel, that man and wife needs be bound to gether by a stronger tie than such feelings, I do. You have done nothing for me, or nothing of any account, and yet mj THE PATHFINDER. 483 very heart yearns towards you, it does ; and therefore it Beems likely that those feelings come from something besides saving scalps and guiding through woods." Mabel s cheek had begun to glow again ; and though she struggled hard to smile, her voice trembled a little as she answered. "Had we not better postpone this conversation, Path finder ? " she said ; " we are not alone ; and nothing is so unpleasant to a listener, they say, as family matters in which he feels no interest." " It s because we are not alone, Mabel, or rather because Jasper is with us, that I wish to talk of this matter. The sergeant believed I might make a suitable companion for you ; and, though I had misgivings about it yes, I had many misgivings he finally persuaded me into the idee, and things came round at ween us, as you kuow. But when you promised your father to marry me, Mabel, and gave me your hand so modestly, but so prettily, there was one cir cumstance, as your uncle called it, that you didn t know ; and I ve thought it right to tell you what it is, before mat ters are finally settled. I ve often taken a poor deer for my dinner, whei. good venison was not to be found ; but it s as nat ral not to take up with the worst when the best may be had." " You speak in a way, Pathfinder, that is difficult to be understood. If this conversation is really necessary, I trust A>u will be more plain." " Well, then, Mabel, I ve been thinking it was quite likely, when you gave in to the sergeant s wishes, that you did not know the natur of Jasper Western s feelings towards you ? " " Pathfinder ! " and Mabel s cheek now paled to the livid hue of death; then it flushed to the tint of. crimson; and her whole frame shuddered. Pathfinder, however, was too intent on his own object to notice this agitation ; and Eau- douce had hidden his face in his hands in time to shut out its view. " I ve been talking with the lad ; and, on comparing his ireams with my dreams, his feelings with my feelings, and lis wishes with my wishes, I fear we think too much alike Concerning you. for both of us to be very happy." 484 THE PATHFINDER. "Pathfinder! you forget you should remember that we are betrothed ! " said Mabel hastily, and in a voice so low, that it required acute attention in the listeners - catch the syllables. Indeed, the last word was not quite intelli gible to the guide, and he confessed his ignorance by the usual "Anan?" " You forget that we are to be married ; and such allu sions are improper as well as painful." <: Everything is proper that is right, Mabel ; and every thing is right that leads to justice and fair dealing ; though it & painful enough, as you say as I find on trial, I do. Now, Mabel, had you known that Eau-douce thinks of you in this way, maybe you never would have consented to be married to one as old and as uncomely as I am." "Why this cruel trial, Pathfinder? To what can all this lead ? Jasper Western thinks no such thing : he says nothing he feels nothing." " Mabel ! " burst from out of the young man s lips, in a way to betray the uncontrollable nature of his emotions, though he uttered not another syllable. Mabel buried her face in both her hands ; and the two sat like a pair of guilty beings, suddenly detected in the commission of some crime that involved the happiness of a common patron. At that instant, perhaps, Jasper himself was inclined to deny his passion, through an extreme un willingness to grieve his friend ; while Mabel, on whom this positive announcement of a fact, that she had rather uncon sciously hoped than believed, came so unexpectedly, felt her mind momentarily bewildered ; and she scarce knew whether to weep or to rejoice. Still she was the first to speak; ihice Eau-douce could utter naught that would be disingen uous, or that would pain his friend. ** Pathfinder," she said, " you talk wildly. Why mention fliis at all ? " " Well, Mabel, if I talk wildly, I am half wild you know ; by natur , I fear, as well as by habit." As he said this, he endeavored to laugh in his usual noiseless way, but the effect produced a strange and discordant sound; and it THE PATHFINDER. 485 appeared nearly to choke him. "Yes, I must be wild ; I ll not attempt to deny it." " Dearest Pathfinder ! my best, almost my only friend ! you cannot, do not think I intended to say that ! " interrupted Mabel, almost breathless in her haste to relieve his mortl*i- cation. " If courage, truth, nobleness of soul and conduct, unyielding principles, and a hundred other excellent quali ties can render any man respectable, esteemed, or beloved, your claims are inferior to those of no other human being." " What tender and bewitching voices they have, Jasper ! " resumed the guide, now laughing freely and naturally. "Yes, natur seems to have made them on purpose to sing in our ears when the music of the woods is silent ! But we must come to a right understanding, we must. I ask you again, Mabel, if you had known that Jasper Western loves you as well as I do, or better perhaps though that is scarce possible ; that in his dreair s he sees your face in the water of the lake ; that lie talks to you and of you in his sleep ; fancies all that is beautiful like Mabel Dunham, and all that is good and virtuous ; believes he never knowed happiness until he knowed you ; could kiss the ground on which you have trod, and forgets all the joys of his calling to think of you, and of the delight of gazing at your beauty, and in listening to your voice, would you then have con sented to marry me ?" Mabel could not have answered this question if she would ; but, though her face was buried in her hands, the tint of the rushing blood was visible between the openings, and the suffusion seemed to impart itself to her very fingers. Still nature asserted her power, for there was a single in stant when the astonished, almost terrified girl stole a glance at Jasper, as if distrusting Pathfinder s history of his reel- ngs, read the truth of all lie said in that furtive look, and instantly concealed her face again, as if she would hide it *rom observation forever. "Take time to think, Mabel," the guide continued, "for : t is a solemn thing to accept one man for a husband, while the thoughts and wishes lead to another. Jasper and I have talked this matter o\ 3r, freely and like old friends, and i86 THE PATHFINDER. though I always knowed that we viewed most things pretty much alike, I couldn t have thought that we regarded any particular object with the very same eyes, as it might be, until we opened our minds to each other about you. Now, Jasper owns that the very first time he beheld you, he thought you the sweetest and winriingest creatur he had er^r met ; that your voice sounded like murmuring water in his ears ; that he fancied his sails were your garments, flut tering in the wind ; that your laugh haunted him in his sleep ; and that, ag in and ag in, has he started up affrighted, because he has fancied some one wanted to force you out of the Scud, where he imagined you had taken up your abode. Nay, the lad has even acknowledged that he often weeps at the thought that you are likely to spend your days with another and not with him." " Jasper ! " " It s solemn truth, Mabel, and it s right you should know it. Now stand up, and choose atween us. I do believe Eau-douce loves you as well as I do myself; he has tried to persuade me that he loves you better, but that I will not allow, for I do not think it possible ; but I will own the boy loves you, heart and soul, and he has a good right to be heard. The sergeant left me your protector, and not your tyrant. I told him that I would be a father to you, as well as a husband, and it seems to me no feeling father would deny his child this small privilege. Stand up, Mabel, there fore, and speak your thoughts as freely as if I were the ser- geaa himself, seeking your good, and nothing else." Mabel dropped her hands, arose, and stood face to face with her two suitors, though the flush that was on her cheek was feverish, the evidence of excitement rather than of shame. "What would you have, Pathfinder?" she asked. " Have I not already promised my poor father to do all you desire?" " Then I desire this. Here I stand, a man of the forest, and of little Taming, though I fear with an ambition beyond my desarts, and I ll do my endivors to do justice to both sides. In the first place, it is allowed that so far as feelings THE PATHFINDER. 487 in your behalf are consarned we love you just the same Jasper thinks his feelings must be the strongest, but this I cannot say, in honesty, for it doesn t seem to me that it can be true ; else I would frankly and freely confess it, I would. So in this particular, Mabel, we are here before you on equal tarms. As for myself, being the oldest, I ll first say what little can be produced in my favor, as well as agin it. As a hunter, I do think there is no man near the lines that can outdo me. If venison or bear s meat, or even birds arid fish, should ever be scarce in our cabin, it would be more likely to be owing to natur and Providence, than to any fault of mine. In short, it does seem to me that the woman who depended on me. would never be likely to want for food. But I m fearful ignorant ! It s true, I speak several tongues, such as they be, while I m very far from being expart at my own. Then, my years are greater than your own, Mabel ; and the circumstance that I was so long the ser geant s comrade can be no great merit in your eyes. I wish, too, I was more comely, I do ; but we are all as natur made us, and the last thing that a man ought to lament, ex cept on very special occasions, is his looks. When all is remembered, age, looks, Taming, and habits, Mabel, con science tells me I ought to confess that I m altogether unfit for you, if not downright unworthy ; and I would give up the hope, this minute, I would, if I didn t feel something pulling at my heart-strings which seems hard to undo." " Pathfinder ! noble, generous Pathfinder ! " cried our ieroine, seizing his hand, and kissing it with a species of holy reverence, " you do yourself injustice ; you forget my poor father and yeur promise ; you do not know me!" " Now, here s Jasper," continued the guide, without allow- jtng the girl s caresses to win him from his purpose ; " with him, the case is different. In the way of providing, as in that of loving, there s not much to choose atween us, for the lad is frugal, industrious, and careful. Then he is quite a scholar knows the tongue of the Frenchers reads many books, and some, I know, that you like to read yourself can understand you at all times, which, perhaps, is more than I can say for myself/ 483 THE PATHFINDER. " What of aL this ? " interrupted Mabel, impatiently " why speak of it now why speak of it at all ? " " Then the lad has a manner of letting his thoughts be known, that I fear I can never equal. If there s anything on arth that would make my tongue bold and persuading, Mabel, I do think it s yourself ; and yet in our late conver sations Jasper has outdone me, even on this point, in a way to make me ashamed of myself. He has told me how sim ple you were, and how true-hearted, and kind-hearted ; and how you looked down upon vanities, for though you might be the wife of more than one officer, as he thinks, that you cling to feeling, and would rather be true to yourself, and natur than a colonel s lady. He fairly made my blood warm, he did, when he spoke of your having beauty without seeming ever to have looked upon it, and the manner in which you moved about like a young fa an, so nat ral and graceful like, without knowing it ; and the truth and justice of your idees, and the warmth and generosity of your heart" " Jasper ! " interrupted Mabel, giving way to feelings that had gathered an ungovernable force by being so long pent, and falling into the young man s willing arms, weep ing like a child, and almost as helpless. " Jasper ! Jas per ! why have you kept this from me 5 " The answer of Eau-douce was not very intelligible, nor was the murmured dialogue that followed, remarkable for coherency. But the language of affection is easily under stood. The hour that succeeded passed like a very few minutes of ordinary life, so far as a computation of time waa concerned ; and when Mabel recollected herself, and be thought her of the existence of others, her uncle was pacing the cutter s deck in great impatience, and wondering why Jasper should be losing so much of a favorable wind. Her first thought was of him who was so likely to feel the recent betrayal of her real emotions. " O ! Jasper ! " she exclaimed, like one suddenly self convicted, " the Pathfinder ! " Eau-douce fairly trembled, not with unmanly apprehen sion, but with the painful conviction of the pang lie had THK PATHFINDER. 489 ghen his friend ; and he looked in all directions in the ex pectation of seeing his person. But Pathfinder had with drawn, with a tact and a delicacy that might have done credit to the sensibility and breeding of a courtier. For several minutes the two lovers sat silently waiting his return, un certain what properly required of them, under circumstancea BO marked and so peculiar. At length they beheld theii friend advancing slowly towards them, with a thoughtful and even a pensive air. " I now understand what you meant, Jasper, by speaking without a tongue, and hearing without an ear," he said, when close enough to the tree to be heard. " Yes, I un derstand it now, I do, and a very pleasant sort of discourse it is, when one can hold it with Mabel Dunham. Ah s me ! I told the sergeant I wasn t fit for her ; that I was too old. too ignorant, and too wild, like but he would have it otherwise." Mabel sat, resembling Milton s picture of our when theconscioujsness of sin first laid-its ^ leadenweijiht on their souls. Neither spoke, neither even moved ; though both at that moment fancied they could part with their new-found happiness, in order to restore their friend to his peace of mind. Jasper was pale as death ; but, in Mabel, maiden modesty had caused the blood to mantle on her cheeks, until their bloom was heightened to a rich ness that was scarce equaled in her hours of light-hearted buoyancy and joy. As the feeling, which, in her sex always accompanies the security of love returned, threw its softness and tenderness over her countenance, she was sin gularly beautiful. Pathfinder gazed at her with an intent- ness he did not endeavor to conceal, and then b.e fairly laughed in his own way, and with a sort of #ild exultation. as men that are untutored are wont to express their delight. This momentary indulgence, however, was expiated by the pang that followed the sudden consciousness that this glo rious young creature was lost to him forever. It required a full minute for this simple-minded being to recorer from the shock of this conviction ; and then he recovered his dignity of manner, speaking with gravity almost with solemnity. 490 THE TATHFINDKR, " I have always known, Mabel Dunham, that men have their gifts," he said ; "/but I d forgotten that it did not be long to mine, to please the young, and beautiful, and 1 arned/ I hope the mistake has been no very heavy sin ; and if it was, I ve been heavily punished for it, I have. Nay, Mabel, I know what you d say, but it s unnecessary ; I feel it all, and that is as good as if I heard it all. I ve had a bittei hour, Mabel I ve had \ very bitter hour, lad " " Hour ! " echoed Mabel, as the other first used the word, the tell-tale blood which had begun to ebb towards her heart rushing again tumultuously to her very temples. * Surely not an hour, Pathfinder ? " " Hour ! " exclaimed Jasper at the same instant, " no, no, my worthy friend, it is not ten minutes since you left us!" " Well, it may be so ; though to me it has seemed to be a day. I begin to think, however, that the happy count time by minutes, and the miserable count it by mouths. But we will talk no more of this ; it is all over now, and many words about it will make you no happier, while they will only tell me what I ve lost ; and quite likely how much I desarved to lose her. No, no, Mabel, tis useless to inter- rupt me ; I admit it all, and your gainsaying it, though it be so well meant, cannot change my mind. Well, Jasper, she is yours ; and though it s hard to think it, I do believe you ll make her happier than I could, for your gifts are bet ter suited to do so, though I would have strived hard to do as much, if I knew myself, I would. I ought to have known better than to believe the sergeant ; and I ought to have put faith in what Mabel told me at the head of the lake, for reason and judgment might have shown me its truth; but it is so pleasant to think what we wish, and mankind so easily over-persuade us when we over-persuade ourselves. But what s the use in talking of it, as I said afore ? It s true, Mabel seemed to be consenting, though it all came from * wish to please her father, and from being skcary about tbe savages " u Pathfinder ! " u I understand you, Mabel, and have no hard feelmgs, I THE PATHFINDER. 491 haven t. I sometimes think I should like to live in your neighborhood that I might look at your happiness ; but on the whole it is better I should quit the 55th altogether, and go back to the 60th, which is my natyve rigiment, as it might be. It would have been better, perhaps, had I never left it, though my sarvices were much wanted in this quarter, and I d been with some of the 55th years agone Sergeant Dunham, for instance, when he was in another corps. Still, Jasper, I do not regret that I ve known you " " And me, Pathfinder ! " impetuously interrupted Mabel, "do you regret having known me ? could I think so, I should never be at peace with myself ! " " You, Mabel ! " returned the guide, taking the hand of our heroine, and looking up into her countenance with guileless simplicity but earnest affection " how could I be sorry that a ray of the sun came across the gloom of a cheerless day? that light has broken in upon darkness, though it remained so short a time ! I do not flatter my self with being able to march quite as light-hearted as I once used to could, or to sleep as sound for some time to come ; but I shall always remember how near I was to being undesarvedly happy, I shall. So far from blaming you, Mabel, I only blame myself for being so vain as to think it possible I could please such a creatur ; for, sartainly you told me how it was when we talked it over on the mountain, and I ought to have believed you then ; for I do suppose it s nat ral that young women should know their own minds better than their fathers. All s me ! It s settled now, and nothing remains but for me to take leave of you that you may depart; I feel that Muster Cap must be Impatient, and there is danger of his coming on shore to look for us all." " To take leave ! " exclaimed Mabel. 44 Leave ! " echoed Jasper ; " you do not mean to quit us, Oiy friend ? " Tis best, Mabel tis altogether best, Eau-douce ; aud it s wisest. 1 could live and die in your company if I only followed feeling ; but if I follow reason, I shall quit you here. You will go back to Oswego, and become man and 492 THE PATHFINDER. wife as soon as you arrive ; for all that is determined with Master Cap, who hankers after the sea again, and who knows what is to happen ; while I shall return to the wilderness and mv Maker. Come, Mabel," continued Path finder, rising and drawing nearer to our heroine with grave decorum, " kiss me. Jasper will not grudge me one kiss then we ll part." " O ! Pathfinder," exclaimed Mabel, falling into the arms of the guide, and kissing his cheeks again and again, with a freedom and warmth she had been far from manifesting while held to the bosom of Jasper, " God bless you, dear est Pathfinder ! You will come to us hereafter. We shall see you again. When old, you will come to our dwelling and let me be a daughter to you ? " "Yes that s it," returned the guide, almost gasping for breath ; " I ll try to think of it in that way. You re more befitting to be my daughter than to be my wife, you are. Farewell, Jasper. Now we ll go to the canoe ; it s time you were on board." The manner in which Pathfinder led the way to the shore was solemn and calm. As soon as he reached the canoe, he again took Mabel by the hands, held her at the length of his own arms, and gazed wistfully into her face, until the unbidden tears rolled out of the fountains of feeling, and trickled down his rugged cheeks in streams. " Bless me, Pathfinder," said Mabel, kneeling reverently at his feet. " O ! at least bless me before we part." That untutored, but noble-minded being, did as she desired ; and, aiding her to enter the canoe, seemed to tear himself away as one snaps a strong and obstinate cord. Before he retired, however, he took Jasper by the arm, and led him a little aside, when he spoke as follows : " You re kind of heart, and gentle by natur , Jasper ; but we are both rough and wild, in comparison with that dear creatur . Be careful of her, and never show the roughness of man s natur to her soft disposition. You ll get to under stand her in time ; and the Lord, who governs the lake and the forest alike who looks upon virtue with a smile, and apon vice with a frown keep you happy, and worthy to betol" THE PATHFINDER. 493 Pathfinder made a sign for his friend to depart ; and he stood leaning on his rifle until the canoe had reached the side of the Scud. Mabel wept as if her heart would break ; nor did her eyes once turn from the open spot in the glade, where the form of the Pathfinder was to be seen, until the cutter had passed a point that completely shut out the island. When last in view, the sinewy frame of this extraordinary man was as motionless as if it were a statue 8et no in that solitary place, to commemorate the scenes of v^ieh H had to Utelj been the witness. 494 THE PATHFINDER CHAPTP:R xxx. C I let n:e only breathe the air, The blessed air that s breathed by thee; And whether on its wings it bear Healing or death, tis sweet to me! MOOBB. PATHFINDER was accustomed to solitude ; but, when the Scud had actually disappeared, he was almost overcome with a sense of his loneliness. Never before had he been conscious of his isolated condition in the world; for his feelings had gradually been accustoming themselves to the blandishments and wants of social life ; particularly as the last were connected with the domestic affections. Now, all had vanished, as it might be, in one moment ; and he was left equally without companions, and without hope. Even Chingachgook had left him, though it was but temporarily ; still his presence was missed at the precise instant which might be termed the most critical in our hero s life. Pathfinder stood leaning on his rifle, in the attitude described in the last chapter, a long time after the Scud had disappeared. The rigidity of his limbs seemed permanent ; and none but a man accustomed to put his muscles to the severest proof, could have maintained that posture, with its marble-liKt, inflexibility, for so great a length of time. At length he moved away from the spot ; the motion of the body being preceded by a sigh that seemed to heave up from the very depths of his bosom. It was a peculiarity of this extraordinary being, that his senses and his limbs, for all practical purposes, were never at fault, let the mind be preoccupied with other interests as much as it might. On the present occasion neither of these great auxiliaries failed him ; but, though his thoughts were exclusively occupied with Mabel, her beauty, her preference THE PATHFINDER. 495 of Jasper, her tears, and her departure, he moved in a direct line to the spot where June still remained, which was the grave of her husband. The conversation that followed passed in the language of the Tuscaroras, which Pathfinder spoke fluently ; but, as that tongue is understood only by the extremely learned, we shall translate it freely into the English ; preserving^ as far as possible, the tone of thought of each interlocutor, as well as the peculiarities of manner. June had suffered her hair to fall about her face, had taken a seat on a stone that had been dug from the excava tion made by the grave, and was hanging over the spot that contained the body of Arrowhead, unconscious of the pres ence of any other. She believed, indeed, that all had left the island but herself, and the tread of the guide s mocca- siiied foot was too noiseless, rudely to undeceive her. Pathfinder stood gazing at the woman for several minutes in mute attention. The contemplation of her grief, the recollection of her irreparable loss, and the view of her des olation, produced a healthful influence on his own feelings ; his reason telling him how much deeper lay the sources of grief in a young wife, who was suddenly and violently de prived of her husband, than in himself. " Dew-of-June," he said, solemnly, but with an earnest ness that denoted the strength of his sympathy, "you are not alone in your sorrow. Turn, and let your eyes look upon a friend." " June has no longer any friend ! " the woman answered; "Arrowhead has gone to the happy hunting-grounds, and there is no one left to care for June. The Tuscaroras would chase her from their wigwams ; the Iroquois are hateful in her eyes, and she could not look at them. No ! leave June to starve over the grave of her husband." " This will never do this will never do. Tis agin rea son anc right. You believe in the Manitou, June ? " <k He has hid his face from June, because he is angry. He has left her alone to die." " Listen to one who has had a long acquaintance with red natur , though he has a white birth and white gifts. When the Manitou of a pale-face wishes to produce good in a pale- 496 THE PATHFINDER. face heart, He strikes it with grief, for it is in oui sorrows, June, that we look with the tr.iest eyes into ourselves, and with the furthest sighted eyes too, as respects right. The Great Spirit wishes you well, and He has taken away the chief, lest you should be led astray by his wily tongue, and get to be a Mingo in your disposition, as you were already in your company." " Arrowhead was a great chief!" returned the woman, Broadly. " He had his merits, he had ; and he had his demerits, too. But, June, you re not desarted, nor will you be soon, Let your grief out let it out, according to natur , and when the proper time comes, I shall have more to say to you." Pathfinder now went to his own canoe, and he left the island. In the course of the day, June heard the crack of his rifle once or twice ; and as the sun was setting, he reap peared, bringing her birds ready cooked, and of a delicacy and flavor that might have tempted the appetite of an epi cure. This species of intercourse lasted a month, June ob stinately refusing to abandon the grave of her husband all that time, though she still accepted the friendly offerings of her protector. Occasionally they met and conversed, Path finder sounding the state of *he woman s feelings ; but the interviews were short and far from frequent. June slept in one of the huts, and she laid down her head in security, for she was conscious of the protection of a friend, though Pathfinder invariably retired at night to an adjacent island, where he had built himself a hut. At the end of the month, however, the season was getting to be too far advanced to render her situation pleasant to June. The trees had lost their leaves, and the nights were becoming cold and wintry. It was time to depart. At this moment, Chingachgook reappeared. He had a long and confidential interview on the island with his friend. June witnessed their movements, and she saw that her guardian was distressed. Stealing to his side, she endeav ored to soothe his sorrow with a woman s gentleness and with a woman s instinct. THE PATHFINDER. 497 " Thank you, June thank you," he said, " tis well meant, though it s useless. But it is time to quit this place. To-morrow we shall depart. You will go with us, for now you ve got to feel reason." June assented in the meek manner of an Indian woman, and she withdrew to pass the remainder of her time near the grave of Arrowhead. 1 Regardless of the hour and the season, the young widow did not pillow her head during tha whole of that autumnal night. She sat near the spot that held the remains of her husband, and prayed in the manner of her people, for his success on the endless path on which he had so lately gone, and for their reunion in the land of the just. Humble and degraded as she would have seemed in the eyes of the sophisticated and unreflecting, the image of God was on her soul, and it vindicated its divine origin by aspirations and feelings that would have surprised those who, feigning more, feel less. In the morning the three departed ; Pathfinder earnest and intelligent in all he did, the Great Serpent silent and imitative, and June meek, resigned, but sorrowful. They went in two canoes, that of the woman being abandoned. Ohingachgook led the way, and Path tinder followed, the course being up stream. Two days they paddled westward, and as many nights they encamped on islands. Fortunately the weather became mild, and when they reached the lake it was found smooth and glassy as a pond. It was the In dian summer, and the calm and almost the blandness of June slept in the hazy atmosphere. On the morning of the third day they passed the mouth if the Oswego, where the fort and the sleeping ensign invited l hem in vain to enter. Without casting a look aside, Chin- gachgook paddled past the dark waters of the river, and Pathfinder still followed in silent industry. The ramparts were crowded with spectators ; but Lundie, who knew the persons of his old friends, refused to allow them to be even hailed. It was noon when Chingachgook entered a little bay where the Scud lay at anchor in a sort of roadstead. A imall ancient clearing was on the shore, and near the margin i See Appendix, Note K. 498 THE PATHFINDER. of the lake was a log dwelling, recently and completely, though rudely litted up. There was an air of frontier comfort and of frontier abundance around the place, though it was nec essarily wild and solitary. Jasper stood on the shore ; and when Pathfinder landed, he was the first to take him by the hand. The meeting was simple, but very cordial. No questions were asked, it being apparent that Chingachgook had made the necessary explanations. Pathfinder never squeezed his friend s hand more cordially than in this inter* view ; and he even laughed cordially in his face as he told him how happy and well he appeared. " Where is she, Jasper where is she ? " the guide at length whispered ; for at first he had seemed to be afraid to trust himself with the question. " She is waiting for us i;i the house, my dear friend, where you see that June has already hastened before us." " June may use a lighter step to meet Mabel, but she can not carry a lighter heart. And so, lad, you found the chap lain at the garrison, and all was soon settled ? " " We were married withiii a week after we left you, and Master Cap departed next day you have forgotten to in quire about your friend, Salt-water" " Not I not I. The Sarpent has told me all that ; and then I love to hear so much of Mabel and her happiness, I do. Did the child smile, or did she weep when the cere mony was over?" " She did both, my friend ; but " " Yes, that s their natur ; tearful and cheerful. Ah s me ! they are very pleasant to us of the woods ; and I do believe I should think all right, whatever Mabel might do. And do you think, Jasper, that she thought of me at all, on that joyful occasion ? " " I know she did, Pathfinder ; and she thinks of you and talks of you daily almost hourly. None love you us we do ! " " I know few love me better than yourself, Jasper. Chingachgook is, perhaps, now the only creatur of whom I 2ar? say that. Well, there s no use in putting it off any longer ; it must be done, and may as well be done at once THE PATHFINDER. 499 0, Jasper, lead the way, and I ll endivor to look upon her sweet countenance once more." Jasper did lead the way, and they were soon in the pres ence of Mabel. The latter met her late suitor with a bright blush, and her limbs trembled so, she could hardly etand. Still, her manner was affectionate and frank. Dur ing the hour of Pathfinder s visit, for it lasted no louger, though he ate in the dwelling of his friends, one who was expert in tracing the workings of the human mind might have seen a faithful index to the feelings of Mabel, in her manner to Pathfinder and her husband. With the latter she still had a little of the reserve that usually accompanies young wedlock ; but the tones of her voice were kinder even than common ; the glance of her eye was tender, and she seldom looked at him without the glow that tinged hei cheeks betraying the existence of feelings that habit and time had not yet soothed into absolute tranquillity. With Pathfinder, all was earnest, sincere even anxious ; but the tones never trembled, the eye never fell, and if the cheek flushed, it was with the emotions that are connected with concern. At length the moment came when Pathfinder must gc his way. Chingachgook had already abandoned the canoes, and was posted on the margin of the woods, where a path led into the forest. Here he calmly waited to be joined by his friend. As soon as the latter was aware of this fact, he rose in a solemn manner, and took his leave. " I ve sometimes thought that my own fate has been a little hard," he said ; " but that of this woman, Mabel, has shamed me into reason " " June remains, and lives with me," eagerly interrupted vmr heroine. " So I comprehend it. If anybody can bring her back from her grief, and make her wish to live, you can do it, Mabel, though I ve misgivings about even your success. The poor creatur is without -a tribe as well as without^ a husband, and it s not easy to reconcile the feelings to both losses. All s me ! what have I to do with other people * niseries and marriages, as if I hadn t affliction enough of 500 THE PATHFINDER. my own ? Don t speak to me, Mabel don t speak to me, Jasper let me go my way in peace, and like a man. I ve Been your happiness, and that is a great deal, and I shall be able to bear my own sorrow all the better for it. No I ll never kiss you ag in, Mabel, I ll never kiss you ag in. Here s my hand, Jasper squeeze it, boy, squeeze it ; no fear of its giving w ty, for it s the hand of a man ; and now, Mabel, do you take it, nay, you must not do this preventing Mabel from kissing it, and bathing it with her tears " you must not do this." " Pathfinder," asked Mabel, " when shall we see you again ? " " I ve thought of that, too ; yes, I ve thought of that, I have. If the time should ever come when I can look upon you altogether as a sister, Mabel, or a child it might be better to say a child, since you re young enough to be my daughter depend on it, I ll come back ; for it would lighten my very heart to witness your gladness. But if I cannot farewell farewell the sergeant was wrong yes, the sergeant was wrong ! " This was the last the Pathfinder ever uttered to the ears of Jasper Western and Mabel Dunham. He turned away, us if the words choked him ; and was quickly at the side of his friend. As soon as the latter saw him approach, he shouldered his own burden, and glided in among the trees without waiting to be spoken to. Mabel, her husband, and June, all watched the form of the Pathfinder, in the hope of receiving a parting gesture, or a stolen glance of the eye ; but he did not look back. Once or twice they thought they saw his head shake, as one trembles in bitter ness of spirit ; and a toss of the hand was given, as if he kne^ that he was watched ; but a tread whose vigor no sorrow could enfeeble, soon bore him out of view, and he vas lost in the depths of the forest. Neither Jasper nor his wife ever beheld the Pathfinde* again. They remained for another year on the banks of Ontario ; and then the pressing solicitations of Cap induced them to join him in New York, where Jasper eventually became a successful and respected merchant. Thrice Ma THE PATHFINDER. 501 bel received valuable presents of furs, at intervals of years ; and her feelings ^ told her whence they came, though no name accompanied the gift. Later in life still, when the mother of several youths, she had occasion to visit the in terior, and foiwid herself on the banks of the Mohawk, ac companied by her sons, the eldest of whom was capable of being her protector. On that occasion she observed a man in a singular guise, watching her in the distance, with an in- teutness that induced her to inquire into his pursuits and character. She was told he was the most renowned hunter of that portion of the State it was after the Revolution a being of great purity of character, and of as marked peculiarities ; and that he was known in that region of country by the name of the Leather-Stocking. Further than this Mrs. Western could not ascertain ; though the distant glimpse and singular deportment of this unknown hunter gave her a sleepless night, and cast a shade of mel ancholy over her still lovely face, that lasted many a day. As for June, the double loss of husband and tribe pro duced the eiFect that Pathfinder had foreseen. She died in the cottage of Mabel, on the shores of the lake ; and Jas per conveyed her body to the island, where he interred it by the side of that of Arrowhead. Lundie lived to marry his ancient love, and retired, a war-worn and battered veteran : but his name has been rendered illustrious in our own time, by the deeds of a younger brother, who succeeded to his territorial title, which, however, was shortly after merged in one eanMxl bj his valor on the ocean. APPENDIX. NOTB A, CHAPTER L " Indiani of tht well-known tribe of the Tuscaroras." Pag . Cnsick, the Tuscarora, gives the following account of his tribe . - " According to our traditions of many centuries, the red me were led by a certain man who stood highest in dignity to the Su preme Being, the Holder of Heaven, called Tharonyawagon. He divided the rivers and country among them, and instructed them in modes of living and customs, and ceremonies. The Tuscaroras were descended from the Iroquois. They wandered southward to what is now North Carolina. They kept up their alliance with the Five Nations. In 1712 the Tuscaroras attacked the whites on the Roanoke, and killed many. Captain Barmvell then defeated them, and soon after they removed northward, and joined their kindred the Five Nations. The Oneidas gave them lands in their own territory." In 1708 the Tuscaroras held the country between the Neuse and Taw Kivers, and were supposed to number twelve hundred warriors, in fifteen towns. In 1711 they murdered Lawson, the surveyor, whose purposes they considered inimical to their rights as owners of the soil, and in one day, September, 1 7 1 1 , they murdered one hundred and thirty whites. They were attacked and defeated by Captain Barn- well, of South Carolina, at the head of six hundred militia, and six hundred friendly Indians. Six hundred Tuscaroras were made pris oners. Peace followed, but was soon broken. In 1712, Colonel Moore was sent against them with a force chiefly composed of southern In dians. In March, 1712, he took their principal fort of Naharuke, and two thirds of their warriors were made prisoners ; six hundred were given as slaves to the South Carolina Indians. Peace followed, and Ihe remaining third of the tribe fled to the northward, in 1 714-1 7 1 5 Mid were received as a sixth nation by the Iroquois Confederacy. NOTB B, CHAPTER L " Ontario ! repeated the Arrow-head with emphasis." Page . The French called Ontario " The Lake of the Iroqnoia/ and at a later day " Lake Frontenac," from the fort near the outlet. With th Indiana it bore different names, in their different diaiecte " Cadarao fni " was a name it bore among the red men for several 504 APPENDIX. after the English took possession of New York. The ^ignificatiou of Ontario is said to be the beautiful lake. The original word is re ported to have been Skanandario, in the Mohawk dialect, and Ontario to be a derivative from this. NOTB C, CHAPTEB I. "Pathfinder." Page 13. The name given to Natty, in this romance, was entirely an invention of the author. But, by a singular coincidence, a title somewhat sim ilar was actually borne by an Indian warrior in 1746. During that year Governor Clinton invited the Five Nations to a council at Albany ; only three warriors appeared ; one of these, an Oneida brave, made a formal speech to the governor, and presented him with two Frenf-h scalps, taken at noonday, at the gates of Crown Point. This hero received in reward for his prowess, a laced hat, a laced coat, and a silver gorget. The warrior then requested an additional recompense. He begged that as a title of honor and as an especial reward for his having been the first in this campaign to strike a blow against the enemy, he might hereafter be known as the " Opener of the Path." This brave, the path-opener, continued a faithful ally of the English throughout the war. NOTE D, CHAPTER HI. * Fort Stanwix, the last military station on the Mohawk/ Page SO. It was proposed to build a fort at the carrying place between the Mohawk and Wood Creek, quite early in the last century. In 1737 the step was considered anew, but it was not until after Oswego had been taken by the French that the colonial government actually built a fort on this ground. The task was intrusted to Brigadier- general Stanwix, and the work received his name. It dates from the oeriod of the rebuilding of Fort Oswego, by the English, hi 1758. A city has now arisen on the same ground, to which the name of Rome has been most absurdly misapplied. Stanwix would have been a true and just name. There is a sort of treachery in this misappli cation of grand and ancient historical names to small and new Amer ican villages ; a treachery which is punished by the air of ridicule thrown over every American map by this means. There is something akin to historical forgery in such a course. NOTE E, CHAPTER HI. " One of the canoea of bark which the Indians are in the habit of Xwwtructing." Page 31 . Eren as late as 1 808, when Lieutenant Wolsey and hfi party wert APPENDIX. 505 at Oswego, Indian canoes were frequently seen on the rivers and lakes. During the Wai f 1812 they were used in Canada by the officers and soldiers of the British army. General Brock, on hearing of the declaration of war, set out in a birch canoe for Lower Canada. And many years later they were used by the Northwest Company for the fur trade, as the boats best adapted to the waters of a fcrost region. These trading-canoes were thirty feet long, and six feet wido. The head and stern were pointed. The frame was made of smal pieces of very light wood; the bark exterior was cut into slips scarcely more than an eighth of an inch in thickness, and sewed together with threads of twisted fibres from the root of the black spruce. For greater strength narrow strips of bark were also added inside when needed. The joints were made water-tight by vegetable gum, which became very hard. Not one nail was used. Each of these trading-canoes, still occasionally used, it is said, weighs about five hundred pounds. The lading is made into packages, amounting to about five tons burden. Each has a crew of eight or ten men Until quite lately some fifty of these canoes would set out from the St. Lawrence, move up the Ottawa to the Southwest Branch, thence through Lake Nipissing, to French River, and into Lake Huron; along the north shore of the Narrows of St. Mary s, into Lake Superior, along its northern coast to Grand Portage a distance of eleven hun dred miles in these frail Indian skiffs ! NOTE F, CHAPTER IV. " The bowl of the pipe was of soapstone." Page 45. The oldest pipes among the Iroquois tribes were of pottery ; the oetter sort were of a black pottery of so fine a polish as to look like atone. Some of the bowls of these black pipes were fronted with a human face, or with a wolfs or dog s head, very well shaped. At a later day they cut their pipe bowls out of soapstone, carving them very neatly. Reeds were generally used for stem-pieces, to which the bowls were attached by strings. They called their pipes " Ah-so-qua-ta. " NOTE G, CHAPTER VII. " The howl of a distant wolf." Page 100. Wolves were abundant in the forests of New York until the close of ill 8 last century. There appear to be few left in the State to-day and these are confined entirely to the wildest mountain tracts. It is remarkable how very rapidly the wild animals have disap peared in this country. In Europe, even in tracts of country which have been civilized and well peopled for nearly two thousand year*, th wolves are still troublesome In France wolves and bears an4 506 APPENDIX. wild boars are by no means rare in the mountainous regions. Fifty years of civilization seem sufficient for the entire destruction of the bear and wolf in this part of the world. Can it be possible that tha numbers of these creatures were originally much less in North Amer ica than in Europe ? The American wolf is rather larger than that of Europe NOTE H, CHAPTER IX. " I never yet could see any beauty in a clouded barrel." " Lord Howe thought otherwise, sergeant ; and he was accounted a good soldier/ Page 133. " When Lord Howe was preparing his regiment for the attack on Ticonderoga he issued some stern regulations. He forbade all dis plays of gold and scarlet in the rugged march they were about to undertake, and set the example by wearing himself an ammunition coat; that is to say, one of the surplus soldiers coats cut short. This was a necessary precaution, because in the woods the hostile Indians, who started from behind the trees, usually caught at the long and heavy skirts then worn by the soldiers ; and for the same reason he ordered the muskets to be shortened, that they might not, as on former occasions, be snatched from behind by these agile foes. To prevent the march of his regiment from being descried at a distance, by the glittering of their arms, the barrels of the guns were al] blackened ; and to save them from the tearing of bushes, the stings of insects, etc., he set them the example of wearing leggings, a kind of buskin made of strong woolen cloth, a part of the Indian dress. Hair well dressed, and in great quantity, was then considered as the greatest possible ornament, which those who had it took the utmost care to display to advantage, and to wear in a bag, or a cue. Lord Howe s was fine, and very abundant ; he, however, cropped it, and ordered every one else to do the same Another point whic*i this Lycurgus of the camp wished to establish was, that of not car rying anything that was not absolutely necessary. He invited hw officers to dine in his tent. They were surprised to see no chairs 01 lables; there were, however, bear-skins spread like a carpet. His lordship welcomed them, and sat down on a small log of wood ; they followed his example ; and presently the servants set down a largo dish of pork and peas. His lordship taking a sheath from his pocket, out of which he produced a knife and fork, began to cut and divide the meat. They sat in a kind of awkward suspense, and he finally relieved them of their embarrassment by distributing to each a case like his own, which he had provided for the purpose. These austere regulations were patiently borne, because he was not only gentle in manners, but generous and humane in a very high degree, and r APPENDIX. 607 ceedingly attentive to the health and real neceaiitiei of the soldiery. Afr$. Grant of Laggan. NOTB I, CHAFTBB X. "Duncan of Lundie, sent for Sergeant Dunham." Page 142. " Major Duncan was the elder brother of Lord Duncan of Camper down. He was an experienced officer, possessed of considerable mil itary science, learned, humane, and judicious, yet obstinate, and some what of a humorist withal. Wherever he went a respectable library went with him. Though not old he was gouty and war-worn. The fort was a large place built entirely of earth and great logs, I mean the walls and ramparts, for the barracks were of wood, cold and comfortless. His house was a very singular building, divided into two apartments ; one of which was a bedroom, the other a breakfast ing parlor and library. There were globes, quadrants, mathematical instruments, flutes, dumb-bells, and chess-boards ; here, in short, was a magazine of instruction and amusement for the colonels pupils, that is, for all the garrison. This Scythian dwelling was made en tirely of wood, and fixed upon wheels of the same material, so that it could be removed from one part of the parade to the other, as it frequently was. So slight a tenement when the winters were in tensely cold, was ill calculated for a gouty patient ; for this, however, he found a remedy. The boards which formed the walls of his apart ment being covered with deer-skins, and a most ample bear-skin spread on the floor by way of carpet." Mrs, Grant of Laggan. In winter Colonel Lundie set the young officers to read, and in summer he turned them into gardeners. They became skillful hunts men too. There was not a sheep or a cow within forty miles of the fort. The size of the cabbages, cucumbers, and melons, produced in this military garden, at Oswego, was something incredible the usual result of a new soil probably. They were sent to Albany as vegetable curiosities. NOTB J, CHAPTER XII. " Among them there Thousand Islands." Page 183. These rocky Islands, lying, as we all know, near the outlet of Lake Ontario, are generally low, and partially wooded, and vary in extent from a mere isolated rock crowned with a bush or two, to others of twenty or thirty acres. The channels winding among them form * perfect labyrinth. It has been supposed that the number of these islands had been overstated, but, in truth, they amount to more than sixteen hundred. The commissioners employed in settling the bound ary line between Canada and the United States counted them care fully, and report them at sixteen hundred and twenty-three. Not $08 APPENDIX. infrequently a fdw trees will be found growing on an islet whicn appears nothing but rock, with no soil apparently in which the birch M evergreen can possibly root itself. But there are cracks and crev ices into which the roots penetrate to some depth, and the tree finds sufficient nourishment in these rocky veins of soil to enable it to grow and thrive for years, standing as it were on a naked rock, overlooking the water. NOTE K, CHAPTER XXX. " Near the grave of Arrow-head." Page 497. Those who believe the Indians devoid of all natural feeling, have probably thought the passage in the last chapter of the " Pathfinder," in which the widowed June is represented as lingering for several weeks on the desolate island, beside her husband s grave, a mere ex aggeration of romance. But an instance very similar, and in some respects still more touch ing and marked in character, is related by Bishop Whipple, of Min nesota, as having come within his own personal knowledge. Wo luote his account of the incident : " In company with the Rev. Dr. Washburn, Rev. W. Kincherbacher, S. II. Mackay, Enmegahbowh and four Indian voyageurs, we passed White Oak Point. We saw an old man sitting on the bank of the river. He was clad in an old blanket and ragged leggings, and his gray hairs and pinched face excited our pity. We urged him to go with us, offering him food and clothing. lie accepted our offer and followed us to the camp. The next day I said to him, You had better go with us. We have plenty of provisions, and when we leave you at Crow Wing you shall have a share of our stores. He replied, My father, your heart is always kind to the red man, and I thank you. I cannot go. My wife is buried at White Oak Point. We had lived together a great many years, and now she is dead. In a little while I shall go to her, and until the Great Spirit calls me I do not like to go far from her grave, for she would be lonely without me. I must go back to sit by the spot where she lies. It will not be long before I shall follow on the same trail to the Spirit Land. " NOTB L. An old ballad, relating to the siege of Oswego, may arnue* the reader interested in American history. "CHCUEGUEN. I. " Cele brons tous du Grand Vaudronil La sagesse et la gloire, Toute TAngleterre est en cieuil An bruit de sa victoir*. APPENDIX. 609 Choulgnen n eat plus noa oldota L ont force a se rendre, Et MS mars ne sent plus qa an tag De pouaaiere et de cendre. n. En vain London de sea guerrien II rassemble 1 elite, Montcalm, avide de laurien N y vole que plus vite Bellone lui prete son char Et sur de la fortune Dea trois chosea que fit Caesar l H n en omet aucune. in. De*ja je voia de nos h^ros Une troupe intre pide, S avancer an travers dea flota D un pcrilleux rapide. Plein d ardeur, le fer a la main, Rigaud marche & leur tete L ennemi tremble et Choue guon Devient notre conquete. 1 Enfin lea voilk dans nos fere Cea hommes redoubtablea, Cea braves qui domptent lea mere, Sur terre aont traitablea. Leur bravoure iinb(5cile S acharne et vient dans noa priaoao Demander au asile Des le premier conp de cannon. A. Carillon a Ton dit pourt&nt Qu ila aurout leur revanche, Autant en emporte le vent, II aouffle dans la matiche. Le Canadiens leur font peur, Et Loudon est trop sage Pour oscr centre leur valenr, Meaurer son courage ! " vidi, viol * Tioondwroc* ; - 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. RENEWALS ONLY TEL. NO. 642-3405 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. J ect to immediate recall. REC D LD UG 2 1 69 -11 AM IHL C1R. APR 2 3 1981 AUTO. DISC . g LD 21A-40m-2, 69 (J6057slO)476 A-32 U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY