Down this ticklish descent the canoe had glanced, amid fragments of broken rock, whirlpools, foam, and furious tossings of the element, which an uninstructed eye would believe menaced inevitable destruction of 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; and no 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 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 the channel.”

“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 who 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 passage. 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 steer.”

“Human frailty, master mariner; that was a little of whiteskin 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 weakness, 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.”

“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 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, now: Surely it is not possible for a bark canoe to go over 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 exchanged with Eau-douce, and he remained silent for some time; for, sooth to say, he had never suspected the possibility of going down Niagara Falls, feasible as the thing must appear to everyone, 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 re-embarked—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 d’eau—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 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 steersman. 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 traveled. As the other canoe kept quite near her own, however, and the Pathfinder by floating at her side was most in view, the conversation was principally maintained with that person, Jasper seldom speaking unless addressed and constantly exhibiting a wariness 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, looking 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 fainthearted, 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—anyone 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 old sailor might well have suspected its sincerity. “One who has passed the place knows how to feel for him.”

“He was a poor fellow, as you say; and a poor frontier man, too, though he came out to show his skill among us ignoranters. What became of him?—Why, he went down the falls topsy-turvy like, as would have happened to a courthouse or a fort.”

“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 ourselves 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 Sarpent 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 on duty.