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 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. 'T is a good barrel, though not sartain death. Well, well, with Chingachgook and Jasper on the water, and you and I in the block, friend Cap, it will be hard if we don't teach these Mingo scamps the rationality of a fight!"

As soon as

All this time the Scud was in motion. 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 wore, 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 of the enemy lay, the howitzer, which composed her sole armament, 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 hail put up the Iroquois, when a second savage fell by a 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 parley.

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

unerring aim. Jasper anchored directly abeam; and the howitzer, 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, however, from habit than distrust.

Ye are

"You've triumphed, Pathfinder," called out the quartermaster, “and Captain Sanglier 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. too loyal a subject yourself to visit loyalty and fidelity with a heavy judgment. I am authorized to offer on the part of the enemy an evacuation of the island, a mutual exchange of prisoners, 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 Pathfinder. "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 Iroquois tribe!"

"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, Jasper-oh, do not detain one of them. My poor father is approaching his end, and it were better that he should draw his last breath in peace with the world. Go, go, Frenchmen 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 friends, the Frenchers and Injins, have to say for themselves."

"My friends!" said Muir, starting. "You'll no be calling the king's enemies my friends, Pathfinder, because the fortune of war has thrown me into their hands? Some of the greatest warriors, both of ancient and modern times, 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."

66

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-lockers. You burrowed on that occasion, quartermaster, as handily as a fox; and how the devil 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's life when reason ascends to instinct "

"And men descend into holes," interrupted Cap, laughing in his boisterous way, while Pathfinder chimed in in his peculiar manner. Even Jasper, though still filled with concern for Mabel, was obliged to smile. "They say the devil would n't make a sailor if he didn't look aloft, and now it seems he 'll not make a soldier if he does n'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 thing 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 his companions on his novel claim to be a wit. After a short discussion, all the savages on the island were collected in a body, without arms, at the distance of a hundred yards from the block, and 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 conditions were not very discreditable to either party. The Indians were 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 as one likely to reflect more discredit on his command than any other part of the affair; but Pathfinder, who had witnessed one or two Indian massacres, and knew how valueless 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 compelled Captain Sanglier to give up all his prison

ers, 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 soldiers were dead, the badly wounded having been instantly dispatched, 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 with his late friends, the Iroquois. Canoes were retained, for the departure of these three, when the proper moment should arrive.

In the meantime, or while the Scud was running down with the boats in tow, Pathfinder and Cap, aided by