“If I may be so bold as to put in my oar, your honour,”—­said the veteran boatswain, on whom the command of the schooner had fallen, as he now advanced, rolling his quid in his mouth, and dropping his hat on his shoulder, while the fingers of the hand which clutched it were busily occupied in scratching his bald head,—­“if I may be so bold, there is another chap here as might better sarve your honour’s purpose than that ’ere fat Canadian, who seems to think only of stuffing while his betters are fasting.”

“And who is he, my good Mullins?” asked Captain de Haldimar.

“Why, that ’ere Ingian, your honour, as began the butchery in the fort, yonder, by trying to kill Jack Fuller while he laid asleep this morning, waiting for the captain in the jolly boat.  Jack never seed him coming, until he felt his black hands upon his throat, and then he ups with the tiller at his noddle, and sends him floundering across the boat’s thwarts like a flat-fish.  I thought, your honour, seeing as how I have got the command of the schooner, of tying him up to the mainmast, and giving him two or three round dozen or so, and then sending him to swim among the mascannungy with a twenty-four pound shot in his neckcloth; but, seeing as how your honour is going among them savages agin, I thought as how some good might be done with him, if your honour could contrive to keep him in tow, and close under your lee quarter, to prevent his escape.”

“At all events,” returned the officer, after a pause of some moments, during which he appeared to be deliberating on his course of action, “it may be dangerous to keep him in the vessel; and yet, if we take him ashore, he may be the means of our more immediate destruction; unless, indeed, as you observe, he can be so secured as to prevent the possibility of escape:  but that I very much doubt indeed.  Where is he, Mullins?  I should like to see and question him.”

“He shall be up, your honour, in no time,” replied the sailor, once more resuming his hat, and moving a pace or two forward.  Then addressing two or three men in the starboard gangway in the authoritative tone of command:  —­“Bear a hand there, my men, and cast off the lashings of that black Ingian, and send him aft, here, to the officer.”

The order was speedily executed.  In a few minutes the Indian stood on the quarter-deck, his hands firmly secured behind, and his head sunk upon his chest in sullen despondency.  In the increasing gloom in which objects were now gradually becoming more and more indistinct, it was impossible for Captain de Haldimar to distinguish his features; but there was something in the outline of the Indian’s form that impressed him with the conviction he had seen it before.  Advancing a pace or two forward, he pronounced, in an emphatic and audible whisper, the name of “Oucanasta!”

The Indian gave an involuntary start,—­uttered a deep interjectional “Ugh!”—­and, raising his head from his chest, fixed his eye heavily on the officer.