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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 Scud, 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 her 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 paleface in the employment of Duncan of Lundie. This was intimated, however, rather than said—and when Mabel had time to reflect on her companion's words, and to remember how sententious and brief her periods were, she found room to hope that she 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 to the island to ascertain the precise number, and the occupations of those who had been left on it; though she also betrayed, in her naïve way, that the wish to serve Mabel had induced her principally to consent to come. In consequence 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, with a delicacy that would have done honor to the highest civilization; nor did she once frame any other inquiry, in a way to lead, indirectly, to a betrayal of the much desired information, on that particular point; though, when Mabel, of her own accord, touched on any matter that might, by possibility, throw a light on the subject, she listened with an intentness that almost suspended respiration.

In this manner, the hours passed away unheeded; for both were too much interested to think of rest. Nature asserted her rights, however, towards morning; and Mabel was persuaded to lie down on one of the straw beds provided for the soldiers, where she soon fell into a deep sleep. June lay near her; and 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 was passing around them, by means of the friendly apertures.

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CHAPTER XXIII.

What had the Eternall Maker need of thee,
The world in his continuall course to keepe,
That doest all things deface? ne lettest see
The beautie of his worke? Indeede in sleepe,
The slouthfull body that doth love to steepe
His lustlesse limbs, and drowne his baser mind,
Doth 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.
SPENSER The Faerie Queene.

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THE tranquillity of the previous night was not contradicted by the movements of the day. Although Mabel and June went to every loop-hole, not a sign of the presence of a living being on the island was at first to be seen, themselves 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 attitudes, 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 blockhouse; so near, indeed, as to have been overlooked at the first eager inquiry; and there was a mocking levity in their 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 carefully examining the shores of 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 fish

ing-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 several 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 distort the mouth into a sort of horrible laugh.

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June! June!" she exclaimed, "this exceeds all I have ever heard or imagined as possible, in the treachery and artifices of your people."

"Do

"Tuscarora very cunning," said June, in a way to show that she rather approved of than condemned the uses to which the dead bodies had been applied. 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 was 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 feelings in others that her own 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 them in disgust, though compelled by her apprehensions to return again in a few minutes, called by the rustling of leaves, or the sighing of the wind. It was, indeed, a solemn thing to look

out upon that deserted spot, peopled by the dead in the panoply 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 Frenchman 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 increasing 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 ascertain the state of the weather and the aspect of the skies, as Iwell 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," Mabel 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!

There can be no more."

"Salt-water!" exclaimed June, laughing, as she stood peeping through a loop-hole.

"My dear uncle! Thank God, he then lives. Oh! June June, you will not let them harm him?"

"June poor squaw.

What warrior t'ink of what she

say? Arrowhead bring him here."

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