“I have it!  I have it!” exclaimed Pathfinder, with exultation.  “There lies the canoe of the Sarpent on the cutter’s deck; and the chief has got on board, and no doubt has given a true account of our condition; for, unlike a Mingo, a Delaware is sartain to get a story right, or to hold his tongue.”

“That canoe may not belong to the cutter,” said the captious seaman.  “Oh-deuce had one on board when he sailed.”

“Very true, friend Cap; but if you know your sails and masts by your gores and fishes, I know my canoes and my paths by frontier knowledge.  If you can see new cloth in a sail, I can see new bark in a canoe.  That is the boat of the Sarpent, and the noble fellow has struck off for the garrison as soon as he found the block besieged, has fallen in with the Scud, and, after telling his story, has brought the cutter down here to see what can be done.  The Lord grant that Jasper Western be still on board her!”

“Yes, yes; it might not be amiss; for, traitor or loyal, the lad has a handy way with him in a gale, it must be owned.”

“And in coming over waterfalls!” said Pathfinder, nudging the ribs of his companion with an elbow, and laughing in his silent but hearty manner.  “We will give the boy his due, though he scalps us all with his own hand.”

The Scud was now so near, that Cap made no reply.  The scene, just at that instant, was so peculiar, that it merits a particular description, which may also aid the reader in forming a more accurate nature of the picture we wish to draw.

The gale was still blowing violently.  Many of the smaller trees bowed their tops, as if ready to descend to the earth, while the rushing of the wind through the branches of the groves resembled the roar of distant chariots.

The air was filled with leaves, which, at that late season, were readily driven from their stems, and flew from island to island like flights of birds.  With this exception, the spot seemed silent as the grave.  That the savages still remained, was to be inferred from the fact that their canoes, together with the boats of the 55th, lay in a group in the little cove that had been selected as a harbor.  Otherwise, not a sign of their presence was to be detected.  Though taken entirely by surprise by the cutter, the sudden return of which was altogether unlooked-for, so uniform and inbred were their habits of caution while on the war-path, that the instant an alarm was given every man had taken to his cover with the instinct and cunning of a fox seeking his hole.  The same stillness reigned in the blockhouse; for though Pathfinder and Cap could command a view of the channel, they took the precaution necessary to lie concealed.  The unusual absence of anything like animal life on board the Scud, too, was still more remarkable.  As the Indians witnessed her apparently undirected movements, a feeling of awe gained a footing among them, and some of the boldest of their party began to distrust the issue of an expedition that had commenced so prosperously.  Even Arrowhead, accustomed as he was to intercourse with the whites on both sides of the lakes, fancied there was something ominous in the appearance of this unmanned vessel, and he would gladly at that moment have been landed again on the main.