“And Colonel Washington, your honor?”

“Well! —­ and Colonel Washington may be a useful subject too.  He is the American prodigy; and I suppose I may as well give him all the credit you ask.  You have no doubt of the skill of this Jasper Eau-douce?”

“The boy has been tried, sir, and found equal to all that can be required of him.”

“He has a French name, and has passed much of his boyhood in the French colonies; has he French blood in his veins, Sergeant?”

“Not a drop, your honor.  Jasper’s father was an old comrade of my own, and his mother came of an honest and loyal family in this very province.”

“How came he then so much among the French, and whence his name?  He speaks the language of the Canadas, too, I find.”

“That is easily explained, Major Duncan.  The boy was left under the care of one of our mariners in the old war, and he took to the water like a duck.  Your honor knows that we have no ports on Ontario that can be named as such, and he naturally passed most of his time on the other side of the lake, where the French have had a few vessels these fifty years.  He learned to speak their language, as a matter of course, and got his name from the Indians and Canadians, who are fond of calling men by their qualities, as it might be.”

“A French master is but a poor instructor for a British sailor, notwithstanding.”

“I beg your pardon, sir:  Jasper Eau-douce was brought up under a real English seaman, one that had sailed under the king’s pennant, and may be called a thorough-bred; that is to say, a subject born in the colonies, but none the worse at his trade, I hope, Major Duncan, for that.”

“Perhaps not, Sergeant, perhaps not; nor any better.  This Jasper behaved well, too, when I gave him the command of the Scud; no lad could have conducted himself more loyally or better.”

“Or more bravely, Major Duncan.  I am sorry to see, sir, that you have doubts as to the fidelity of Jasper.”

“It is the duty of the soldier who is entrusted with the care of a distant and important post like this, Dunham, never to relax in his vigilance.  We have two of the most artful enemies that the world has ever produced, in their several ways, to contend with, —­ the Indians and the French, —­ and nothing should be overlooked that can lead to injury.”

“I hope your honor considers me fit to be entrusted with any particular reason that may exist for doubting Jasper, since you have seen fit to entrust me with this command.”

“It is not that I doubt you, Dunham, that I hesitate to reveal all I may happen to know; but from a strong reluctance to circulate an evil report concerning one of whom I have hitherto thought well.  You must think well of the Pathfinder, or you would not wish to give him your daughter?”

“For the Pathfinder’s honesty I will answer with my life, sir,” returned the Sergeant firmly, and not without a dignity of manner that struck his superior.  “Such a man doesn’t know how to be false.”