Ontario has two ends, and the enemy that is afraid to cross it will be sartain to come around it.”

“Ah, that comes of your d——d fresh-water ponds!” growled Cap, hemming so loudly as to cause him instantly to repent the indiscretion. “No man, now, ever heard of a pirate’s or a ship’s getting around one end of the Atlantic!”

“Mayhap the ocean has no ends?”

“That it hasn’t; nor sides, nor bottom. The nation that is snugly moored on one of its coasts need fear nothing from the one anchored abeam, let it be ever so savage, unless it possesses the art of shipbuilding. No—no—the people who live on the shores of the Atlantic need fear but little for their skins or their scalps. A man may lie down at night, in those regions, in the hope of finding the hair on his head in the morning, unless he wears a wig.”

“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 ground 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 has engaged us to come out and show you the path.”

“What! Do the knaves dare to cruise so near the guns of one of His Majesty’s works?”

“Do not the ravens resort near the carcass of the deer, though the fowler is at hand? They come thisaway, 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 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, singlehanded, rather than not acome.”

“We thank him—and shall think the better 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 he 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 river is the most risky, in my judgment, and that risk has Jasper run.”

“And why the devil has the sergeant sent for me to travel a hundred and fifty miles in this outlandish manner! Give me an offing, and the enemy in sight, and I’ll play with him in his own fashion, as long as he pleases, long bowls or close quarters; but to be shot like a turtle asleep is not to my humor. If it were not for little Magnet there, I would tack ship this instant, make the best of my way back to York, and let Ontario take care of itself, salt water or fresh water.”

“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 eelskin, while the top of his head was nearly bald; and he mechanically 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?”

“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 downstream, and that, too, with a swift current.”

“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 in greater difficulties. Many and many is the time that my head would have been stripped of hair, skin and all, hadn’t the Lord fi’t of my side. I never go into a skrimmage, friend mariner, without thinking of this great ally, who can do more in battle than all the battalions of the 60th, were they brought into a single line.”

“Aye—aye—this may do well enough for a scouter; but we seamen like our offing, and to go into action with nothing in our minds but the business before us—plain broadside and broadside work, and no trees or rocks to thicken the water.”

“And no Lord, too, I dare to say, if the truth was known! Take my word for it, Master Cap, that no battle is the worse fou’t for having the Lord on your side. Look at the 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 befriended 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 Sarpent’s spirit would be hunting in the happy land of his people at this very moment.”

“Come, come, Pathfinder, this palaver is worse than being 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 ready to get under way?”

Magnet started, blushed brightly, and made her preparations for an immediate departure. Not a syllable of the discourse just related had she heard, for Eau-douce, as young Jasper was oftener called than anything else, had been filling her ears with a description of the yet distant port toward which she was journeying, with accounts of her father, whom she had not seen since a child, and with the manner of life of those who lived in the frontier garrisons. 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 subjects 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, taking care even to see that some of the wood was damp, in order to raise as dark and dense a smoke as possible.

“When you can hide your trail, Jasper,” he said, “a smoke at leaving an encampment may do good, instead of harm. If there are a dozen Mingos within ten miles of us, some of ’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 situation had much increased since the meeting with Magnet.