The Oswego, below the falls, is a more rapid, unequal
stream, than it is above them. There are places where the
river flows in the quiet stillness of deep water, but many
shoals and rapids occur; and, at that distant day, when every
thing was in its natural state, some of the passes were not
altogether without hazard. Very little exertion was required
on the part of those who managed the canoes, except in
those places where the swiftness of the current, and the presence
of the rocks required care; when, indeed, not only
vigilance, but great coolness, readiness and strength of arm
became necessary, in order to avoid the dangers. Of all
this the Mohican was aware, and he had judiciously selected
a spot, where the river flowed tranquilly, to intercept the
canoes, in order to make his communication without hazard
to those he wished to speak.

The Pathfinder had no sooner recognised the form of his

[figure description] Page 053.[end figure description]

red friend, than, with a strong sweep of his paddle, he threw
the head of his own canoe towards the shore, motioning for
Jasper to follow. In a minute both boats were silently drifting
down the stream, within reach of the bushes that overhung
the water, all observing a profound silence; some from
alarm, and others from habitual caution. As the travellers
drew nearer the Indian, he made a sign for them to stop;
and then he and Pathfinder had a short but earnest conference,
in the language of the Delawares.

“The chief is not apt to see enemies in a dead log,” observed
the white man, to his red associate; “why does he
tell us to stop?”

“Mingos are in the woods.”

“That, we have believed these two days: does the chief
know it?”

The Mohican quietly held up the head of a pipe, formed
of stone.

“It lay on a fresh trail that led towards the garrison”—
for so it was the usage of that frontier to term a military
work, whether it was occupied or not.

“That may be the bowl of a pipe belonging to a soldier.
Many use the red-skin pipes.”

“See,” said the Big Serpent, again holding the thing he
had found up to the view of his friend.

The bowl of the pipe was of soap-stone, and it had been
carved with great care, and with a very respectable degree
of skill. In its centre was a small Latin cross, made with
an accuracy that permitted no doubt of its meaning.

“That does foretell deviltry and wickedness,” said the
Pathfinder, who had all the provincial horror of the holy
symbol in question, that then pervaded the country, and
which became so incorporated with its prejudices, by confounding
men with things, as to have left its traces strong
enough on the moral feeling of the community, to be
discovered even at the present hour; “no Indian who had
not been parvarted by the cunning priests of the Canadas
would dream of carving a thing like that on his pipe! I 'll
warrant ye, the knave prays to the image every time he
wishes to sarcumvent the innocent, and work his fearful
wickedness. It looks fresh, too, Chingachgook?”

“The tobacco was burning when I found it.”

[figure description] Page 054.[end figure description]

“That is close work, chief — where was the trail?”

The Mohican pointed to a spot not a hundred yards distant
from that where they stood.

The matter now began to look very serious, and the two
principal guides conferred apart for several minutes, when
both ascended the bank, approached the indicated spot, and
examined the trail with the utmost care. After this investigation
had lasted a quarter of an hour, the white man returned
alone, his red friend having disappeared in the forest.

The ordinary expression of the countenance of the Pathfinder,
was that of simplicity, integrity, and sincerity, blended
in an air of self-reliance, that usually gave great confidence
to those who found themselves under his care; but now a
look of concern cast a shade over his honest face, that struck
the whole party.

“What cheer, Master Pathfinder?” demanded Cap, permitting
a voice that was usually deep, loud and confident,
to sink into the cautious tones that better suited the dangers
of the wilderness; “has the enemy got between us and our
port?”

“Anan?”

“Have any of these painted scaramouches anchored off
the harbour towards which we are running, with the hope of
cutting us off in entering?”

“It may be all as you say, friend Cap, but I am none the
wiser for your words; and, in ticklish times, the plainer a
man makes his English, the easier he is understood. I
know nothing of ports and anchors, but there is a direful
Mingo trail within a hundred yards of this very spot, and as
fresh as venison without salt. If one of the fiery devils has
passed, so have a dozen; and, what is worse, they have
gone down towards the garrison, and not a soul crosses the
clearing around it, that some of their piercing eyes will not
discover, when sartain bullets will follow.”

“Cannot this said fort deliver a broadside, and clear every
thing within the sweep of its hawse?”

“Nay, the forts this-a-way are not like forts in the settlements,
and two or three light cannon are all they have a
at the mouth of the river; and then, broadsides fired at a
dozen out-lying Mingos, lying behind logs, and in a forest
would be powder spent in vain. We have but one course,

[figure description] Page 055.[end figure description]

and that is a very nice one. We are judgematically placed
here, both canoes being hid by the high bank and the bushes,
from all eyes, except those of any lurker directly opposite.
Here, then, we may stay, without much present fear; but
how to get the blood-thirsty devils up the stream again?—
Ha—I have it—I have it—If it does no good, it can do no
harm. Do you see the wide-top chesnut, here, Jasper, at the
last turn in the river? On our own side of the stream, I
mean?”

“That near the fallen pine?”

“The very same. Take the flint and tinder-box, creep
along the bank, and light a fire at that spot: maybe the
smoke will draw them above us. In the meanwhile, we will
drop the canoes carefully down beyond the point below,
and find another shelter. Bushes are plenty, and covers are
easily 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.”

The young man, who too well understood his duty to delay
unnecessarily, was soon off, making his way rapidly
towards the desired point. A slight attempt of Mabel to object
to the risk was disregarded, and the party immediately
prepared to change its position, as it could be seen from the
place where Jasper intended to light his fire. The movement
did not require haste, and it was made leisurely, and
with care. The canoes were got clear of the bushes, then
suffered to drop down with the stream, until they reached the
spot where the chesnut, at the foot of which Jasper was to
light the fire, was almost shut out from view, when they
stopped, and every eye was turned in the direction of the
adventurers.

“There goes the smoke!” exclaimed the Pathfinder, as a
current of ar whirled a little column of the vapour 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

[figure description] Page 056.[end figure description]

bethink him of the damp wood, now, when it may serve us
all a good turn.”

“Too much smoke—too much cunning,” said Arrowhead,
sententiously.

“That is gospel truth, Tuscarora, if the Mingos 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 oat-meal,
or his potatoes, than of Indian sarcumventions, or Indian
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. Experience 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 regiment from the
other side of the water—that is, what I 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 Mingos will
believe a whole regiment is out.”

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 tree. Fortunately a small indentation in the
shore presented itself, within a few yards of the point they
had just passed; and the two canoes glided into it, under the
impulsion of the paddles.

A better spot could not have been found for the purpose
of the travellers, than the one they now occupied. The
bushes were thick, and overhung the water, forming a
complete canopy of leaves. There was a small gravelly
strand at the bottom of the little bay, where most of the party
landed to be more at their ease, and the only position from
which they could possibly be seen, was a point on the river
directly opposite. There was little danger, however, of

[figure description] Page 057.[end figure description]

discovery from that quarter, as the thicket there was even
denser than common, and the land beyond it was so wet and
marshy, as to render it difficult to be trodden.

“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
favoured by the natural formation of the bank, the indentation
in 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 have
thought that the bushes shot out horizontally from the bank
before they inclined upwards towards 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 towards 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
those of 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 ours. Hist!—yonder comes
Eau-douce, wading, like a sensible boy, as he is, to leave his

[figure description] Page 058.[end figure description]

trail, in the water; and we shall soon see whether our cover
is good for any thing or not.”

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 suggested 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 clue 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 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 serjeant's daughter,

[figure description] Page 059.[end figure description]

here, a horn of powder against a wampum-belt for her girdle,
that her father's rijiment should march by this embankment
of ours, and never find out the fraud! But, if the
Mingos actually 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, however, 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 way at once, and
carry sail hard down stream, as soon as we are satisfied
these rascals are fairly astern of us? We seamen call a
stern chase a long chase.”

“I wouldn't move from this spot, until we hear from the
Sarpent, with the serjeant'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.”

“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 out-walk
my dear uncle. Let no one think me a hindrance. I cannot
bear that all your lives should be exposed on my account.”

“No, no, pretty one; we think you anything but a hindrance,
or anything that is unbecoming, and would willingly
run twice this risk to do you and the honest serjeant 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 befal any of them,—that was a sad day,
certainly; but its like may never come again!”

Mabel looked from one of her protectors to the other, and
her fine eyes swam in tears. Frankly placing a hand in
that of each, she answered them, though at first her voice
was choked,—

[figure description] Page 060.[end figure description]

“I have no right to expose you on my account. My dear
father will thank you—I thank you—God will reward you—
but let there be no unnecessary risk. I can walk far, and
have often gone miles, on some girlish fancy; why not now
exert myself for my life—nay, for your precious lives?”

“She is a true dove, Jasper,” said the Pathfinder, neither
relinquishing the hand he held until the girl herself, in native
modesty, saw fit to withdraw it, “and wonderfully winning!
We get to be rough, and sometimes even hard-hearted, in the
woods, Mabel; but the sight of one like you brings us back
again to our young feelings, and does us good for the remainder
of our days. I dare say Jasper, here, will tell you the
same; for, like me in the forest, the lad sees but few such as
yourself, on Ontario, to soften his heart, and remind him of
love for his kind. Speak out, now, Jasper, and say if it is
not so.”

“I question if many like Mabel Dunham are to be found
anywhere,” returned the young man gallantly, an honest
sincerity glowing in his face, that spoke more eloquently than
his tongue; “you need not mention woods and lakes to
challenge her equals, but I would go into the settlements and
towns.”

“We had better leave the canoes,” Mabel hurriedly rejoined;
“for I feel it is no longer safe to be here.”

“You can never do it—you can never do it. It would be
a march of more than twenty miles, and that too of tramping
over brush and roots, and through swamps, in the dark; the
trail of such a party would be wide, and we might have to
fight our way into the garrison, after all. We will wait for
the Mohican.”

Such appearing to be the decision of him to whom all,
in their present strait, looked up for counsel, no more was
said on the subject. The whole party now broke up into
groups; Arrowhead and his wife sitting apart under the
bushes, conversing in a low tone, though the man spoke
sternly, and the woman answered with the subdued mildness
that marks the degraded condition of a savage's wife. Pathfinder
and Cap occupied one canoe, chatting of their different
adventures by sea and land, while Jasper and Mabel sat in
the other, making greater progress in intimacy in a single
hour, than might have been effected under other circumstances

[figure description] Page 061.[end figure description]

in a twelvemonth. Notwithstanding their situation as regards
the enemy, the time flew by swiftly, and the young people,
in particular, were astonished when Cap informed them how
long they had been thus occupied.

“If one could smoke, Master Pathfinder,” observed the
old sailor, “this berth would be snug enough; for, to give
the devil his due, you have got the canoes handsomely land-locked,
and into moorings that would defy a monsoon. The
only hardship is the denial of the pipe.”

“The scent of the tobacco would betray us, and where is
the use of taking all these precautions against the Mingos'
eyes, if we are to tell him where the cover is to be found
through the nose? No—no—deny your appetites; deny
your appetites, and learn one virtue from a red-skin, who
will pass a week without eating even, to get a single scalp.—
Did you hear nothing, Jasper?”

“The Serpent is coming.”

“Then let us see if Mohican eyes are better than them of
a lad who follows the water.”

The Mohican had indeed made his appearance in the same
direction as that by which Jasper had rejoined his friends.
Instead of coming directly on, however, no sooner did he
pass the bend, where he was concealed from any who might
be higher up stream, than he moved close under the bank, and,
using the utmost caution, got a position where he could look
back, with his person sufficiently concealed by the bushes to
prevent its being seen by any in that quarter.

“The Sarpent sees the knaves!” whispered Pathfinder—
“as I 'm a Christian white man they have bit at the bait, and
have ambushed the smoke!”

Here a hearty, but silent, laugh, interrupted his words, and
nudging Cap with his elbow, they all continued to watch the
movements of Chingachgook, in profound stillness. The
Mohican remained stationary as the rock on which he stood,
fully ten minutes; and then it was apparent that something
of interest had occurred within his view, for he drew back
with a hurried manner, looked anxiously and keenly along
the margin of the stream, and moved quickly down it, taking
care to lose his trail in the shallow water. He was evidently
in a hurry and concerned, now looking behind him, and then

[figure description] Page 062.[end figure description]

casting eager glances towards every spot on the shore, where
he thought a canoe might be concealed.

“Call him in,” whispered Jasper, scarce able to restrain
his impatience—“call him in, or it will be too late. See, he
is actually passing us.”

“Not so—not so, lad; nothing presses, depend on it,” returned
his companion, “or the Sarpent would begin to creep.
The Lord help us, and teach us wisdom! I do believe even
Chingachgook, whose sight is as faithful as the hound's
scent, overlooks us, and will not find out the ambushment
we have made!”

This exultation was untimely, for the words were no sooner
spoken, than the Indian, who had actually got several feet
lower down the stream than the artificial cover, suddenly
stopped, fastened a keen riveted glance among the transplanted
bushes, made a few hasty steps backward, and, bending
his body and carefully separating the branches, he appeared
among them.

“The accursed Mingos!” said Pathfinder, as soon as his
friend was near enough to be addressed with prudence.

“Iroquois;” returned the sententious Indian.

“No matter—no matter—Iroquois—devil—Mingo—Mengwes,
or furies—all are pretty much the same. I call all
rascals, Mingos. Come hither, chief, and let us convarse
rationally.”

The two then stepped aside, and conversed earnestly in
the dialect of the Delawares. When their private communication
was over, Pathfinder rejoined the rest, and made
them acquainted with all he had learned.

The Mohican had followed the trail of their enemies, some
distance towards the fort, until the latter caught a sight of
the smoke of Jasper's fire, when they instantly retraced their
steps. It now became necessary for Chingachgook, who
ran the greatest risk of detection, to find a cover where he
could secrete himself, until the party might pass. It was,
perhaps, fortunate for him, that the savages were so intent on
this recent discovery, that they did not bestow the ordinary
attention on the signs of the forest. At all events, they
passed him swiftly, fifteen in number, treading lightly in
each other's footsteps; and he was enabled again to get into
their rear. After proceeding to the place where the

[figure description] Page 063.[end figure description]

footsteps of Pathfinder and the Mohican had joined the principal
trail, the Iroquois had struck off to the river, which they
reached just as Jasper had disappeared behind the bend below.
The smoke being now in plain view, the savages plunged into
the woods, and endeavoured to approach the fire unseen.
Chingachgook profited by this occasion to descend to the
water, and to gain the bend in the river also, which he
thought had been effected undiscovered. Here he paused,
as has been stated, until he saw his enemies at the fire,
where their stay, however, was very short.

Of the motives of the Iroquois, the Mohican could judge
only by their acts. He thought they had detected the artifice
of the fire, and were aware that it had been kindled with
a view to mislead them; for, after a hasty examination of
the spot, they had separated, some plunging again into the
woods, while six or eight had followed the footsteps of Jasper
along the shore, and came down the stream towards the
place where the canoes had landed. What course they
might take on reaching that spot, was only to be conjectured,
for the Serpent had felt the emergency to be too pressing to
delay looking for his friends any longer. From some indications
that were to be gathered from their gestures, however,
he thought it probable that their enemies might follow
down in the margin of the stream, but could not be certain.

As the Pathfinder related these facts to his companions,
the professional feelings of the two other white men came
uppermost, and both naturally reverted to their habits, in
quest of the means of escape.

“Let us run out the canoes, at once,” said Jasper, eagerly;
“the current is strong, and by using the paddles vigorously
we shall soon be beyond the reach of these scoundrels!”

“And this poor flower, that first blossomed in the clearings—
shall it wither in the forest?” objected his friend, with
a poetry that he had unconsciously imbibed by his long association
with the Delawares.

“We must all die first,” answered the youth, a generous
colour mounting to his temples; “Mabel and Arrowhead's
wife may lie down in the canoes, while we do our duty, like
men, on our feet.”

“Ay, you are active at the paddle and the oar, Eau-douce,

[figure description] Page 064.[end figure description]

I will allow, but an accursed Mingo is more active, at his
mischief; the canoes are swift, but a rifle-bullet is swifter.'

“It is the business of men, engaged as we have been, by
a confiding father, to run this risk—”

“But it is not their business to overlook prudence.”

“Prudence! a man may carry his prudence so far as to
forget his courage.”

The group was standing on the narrow strand, the Pathfinder
leaning on his rifle, the butt of which rested on the
gravelly beach, while both his hands clasped the barrel, at
the height of his own shoulders. As Jasper threw out this
severe and unmerited imputation, the deep red of his comrade's
face maintained its hue unchanged, though the young
man perceived that the fingers grasped the iron of the gun
with the tenacity of a vice. Here all betrayal of emotion
ceased.

“You are young, and hot-headed,” returned Pathfinder,
with a dignity that impressed his listener with a keen sense
of his moral superiority; “but my life has been passed among
dangers of this sort, and my experience and gifts are not to
be mastered by the impatience of a boy. As for courage,
Jasper, I will not send back an angry and unmeaning word,
to meet an angry and an unmeaning word, for I know that
you are true, in your station and according to your knowledge;
but take the advice of one who faced the Mingos when
you were a child, and know that their cunning is easier sarcumvented
by prudence, than outwitted by foolishness.”

“I ask your pardon, Pathfinder,” said the repentant Jasper,
eagerly grasping the hand that the other permitted him to
seize; “I ask your pardon, humbly and sincerely. 'T was a
foolish, as well as wicked thing to hint of a man whose heart,
in a good cause, is known to be as firm as the rocks on the
lake shore.”

For the first time the colour deepened on the cheek of the
Pathfinder, and the solemn dignity that he had assumed,
under a purely natural impulse, disappeared in the expression
of the earnest simplicity, that was inherent in all his feelings.
He met the grasp of his young friend, with a squeeze as cordial
as if no chord had jarred between them, and a slight
sternness that had gathered about his eye disappeared in a
look of natural kindness.

[figure description] Page 065.[end figure description]