On returning, however, from the shore, Mabel was struck with a little circumstance, that, in an ordinary situation, would have attracted no attention, but which, now that her suspicions had been aroused, did not pass before her uneasy eye unnoticed.  A small piece of red bunting, such as is used in the ensigns of ships, was fluttering at the lower branch of a small tree, fastened in a way to permit it to blow out, or to droop like a vessel’s pennant.

Now that Mabel’s fears were awakened, June herself could not have manifested greater quickness in analyzing facts that she believed might affect the safety of the party.  She saw at a glance that this bit of cloth could be observed from an adjacent island; that it lay so near the line between her own hut and the canoe as to leave no doubt that June had passed near it, if not directly under it; and that it might be a signal to communicate some important fact connected with the mode of attack to those who were probably lying in ambush near them.  Tearing the little strip of bunting from the tree, Mabel hastened on, scarcely knowing what her duty next required of her.  June might be false to her, but her manner, her looks, her affection, and her disposition as Mabel had known it in the journey, forbade the idea.  Then came the allusion to Arrowhead’s admiration of the pale-face beauties, some dim recollections of the looks of the Tuscarora, and a painful consciousness that few wives could view with kindness one who had estranged a husband’s affections.  None of these images were distinct and clear, but they rather gleamed over the mind of our heroine than rested in it, and they quickened her pulses, as they did her step, without bringing with them the prompt and clear decisions that usually followed her reflections.  She had hurried onwards towards the hut occupied by the soldier’s wife, intending to remove at once to the blockhouse with the woman, though she could persuade no other to follow, when her impatient walk was interrupted by the voice of Muir.

“Whither so fast, pretty Mabel?” he cried; “and why so given to solitude?  The worthy Sergeant will deride my breeding, if he hear that his daughter passes the mornings alone and unattended to, though he well knows it is my ardent wish to be her slave and companion from the beginning of the year to its end.”

“Surely, Mr. Muir, you must have some authority here?” Mabel suddenly arrested her steps to say.  “One of your rank would be listened to, at least, by a corporal?”

“I don’t know that, I don’t know that,” interrupted Muir, with an impatience and appearance of alarm that might have excited Mabel’s attention at another moment.  “Command is command; discipline, discipline; and authority, authority.  Your good father would be sore grieved did he find me interfering to sully or carry off the laurels he is about to win; and I cannot command the Corporal without equally commanding the Sergeant.  The wisest way will be for me to remain in the obscurity of a private individual in this enterprise; and it is so that all parties, from Lundie down, understand the transaction.”