MABEL'S ADMIRATION OF EAU-DOUCE.

21

man in all this region that can shoot the Oswego, | Arrowhead, and the wife of the latter, in the but Eau-douce, there, with any sartainty; though, other. The Mohican had already passed down now and then, one has blundered through. I the banks of the river by land, looking cautiously, can't do it myself, unless by means of providence, and with the skill of his people, for the signs of and it needs Jasper's hand and Jasper's eye to an enemy. 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 the descent of the falls with a degree of terror 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 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 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, now. Surely it is not possible for a bark canoe to go over that mighty cataract!"

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

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 travelled. 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

"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 Path-been present to note what was passing. finder 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, feasible as the thing must 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 reëmbarked; Cap, Jasper, and his niece, in one boat, and Pathfinder,

"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 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, carry the canoe across the portage, time would 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!"

A MINGO TRAIL.

“That we have believed these two days: does derness; "has the enemy got between us and the chief know it?"

other shelter. Bushes are plenty, and covers are easy to be had in this region, as witness the many ambushments."

"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."

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 Mingoes will believe a whole rijiment is out."

tree.

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 Fortunately a small indentation in the The young man, who too well understood his shore presented itself within a few yards of the duty to delay unnecessarily, was soon off, making point they had just passed; and the two canoes his way rapidly toward the desired point. A glided into it, under the impulsion of the paddles. slight attempt of Mabel to object to the risk was A better spot could not have been found for disregarded, and the party immediately prepared the purpose of the travellers, than the one they to change its position, as it could be seen from now occupied. The bushes were thick, and overthe place where Jasper intended to light his fire. hung the water, forming a complete canopy of The movement did not require haste, and it was leaves. There was a small gravelly strand at the made leisurely, and with care. The canoes were bottom of the little bay, where most of the party got clear of the bushes, then suffered to drop landed to be more at their ease, and the only podown with the stream, until they reached the sition from which they could possibly be seen spot where the chestnut, at the foot of which Jas- was a point on the river directly opposite. There per was to light the fire, was almost shut out was little danger, however, of discovery from that from view, when they stopped, and every eye was quarter, as the thicket there was even denser than turned in the direction of the adventurer. common, and the land beyond it was so wet and marshy as to render it difficult to be trodden.

"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 all a good turn."

"Too much smoke-too much cunning," said Arrowhead, sententiously.

"That is gospel truth, Tuscarora, if the Mingoes 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

"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, accompanied by the Indian, where the two cut off the larger stems of several alders and other bushes, using the utmost care not to make a noise. The ends of these little trees, for such in fact they were, were forced into the mud, outside of the canoes, the depth of the water being very trifling; and in the course of ten minutes a very effectual screen was interposed 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 of 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 stream, which might have excited suspicion; but one passing it would

UNDER COVER.

have thought that the bushes shot out horizontally from the bank before they inclined upward toward the light. In short, the shelter was so cunningly devised, and so artfully prepared, that none but an unusually distrustful eye would have been turned for an instant toward 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 to Providence and which are ourn.-Hist! -yonder comes Eau-douce, wading, like a sensible boy as he is, to leave his trail in the water; and we shall soon see whether our cover is good for any thing or not."

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much shoaler than common, he stepped aside, in order to walk with greater ease to himself, and came so near the artificial plantation, that he might have touched it with his hand. Still he detected nothing, and was actually passing the spot, when Pathfinder made an opening beneath the branches, and called to him, in a low voice, to enter.

"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 rijiment should march by this ambushment of ourn, and never find out the fraud! But, if the Mingoes 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

soon as we are satisfied these rascals are fairly astern of us? We seamen call a stern chase a long chase."

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 suggest-way at once, and carry sail hard down-stream, as ed the expediency of stepping into the water, in order that there might exist no visible communication between the marks left on the shore, by the party, and the place where 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 clew to their movements would cease at the shore, water leaving no prints of footsteps. The young man had therefore waded, knee-deep, as far 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 placing 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 Pathfinder had secreted himself. When fairly round the curvature 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 advanced eight or ten paces, and then halted again, to renew the search. The water being

"I 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, could 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."

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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 hinderance. I cannot bear that all your lives should be exposed on my account."

“No, no, pretty one; we think you any thing but a hinderance, or any thing 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?"

"To do her a service!" said Jasper, with emphasis. "Nothing shall tempt me to desert Mabel Dunham, until she is safe in her father's arms.”

“Well said, lad; bravely and honestly said, too; and I join in it, heart and hand.-No, no; you are not the first of your sex I have led through the wilderness, and never but once did any harm befall any of them—that was a sad day, sartainly; but its like may never come again!"

Mabel looked from one of her protectors to