John Lothrop Motley - "History of the United Netherlands, 1584"

John Kendrick Bangs - "A Rebellious Heroine"

Louise Muhlbach - "The Empress Josephine"

John Lothrop Motley - "History of the United Netherlands, 1604 05"

New Philadelphia Book Publisher Highlights Local Talent
Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

Looking for Child to be on Cover of a New Book, 'The Model Child'
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

FlatSigned Press Alleges Don Imus Remarks Damage Legacy of President Gerald R. Ford
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Nathan Yungerberg, an accomplished model scout and professional child photographer is launching a nation-wide casting call to find the cover model for his highly anticipated book release, 'The Model Child: A Parents Guide to the Child Modeling Industry' (ISBN: 978-0-9817018-0-6).

Books: The Pathfinder

J >> James Fenimore Cooper >> The Pathfinder




The _Scud's_ kedge was lifted as soon as the boat with the Sergeant,
who was the last person expected, was seen to quit the shore, and
the head of the cutter was cast to the eastward by means of the
sweeps. A few vigorous strokes of the latter, in which the soldiers
aided, now sent the light craft into the line or the current
that flowed from the river, when she was suffered to drift into
the offing again. As yet there was no wind, the light and almost
imperceptible air from the lake, that had existed previously to
the setting of the sun, having entirely failed.

All this time an unusual quiet prevailed in the cutter. It appeared
as if those on board of her felt that they were entering upon an
uncertain enterprise, in the obscurity of night; and that their
duty, the hour, and the manner of their departure lent a solemnity
to their movements. Discipline also came in aid of these feelings.
Most were silent; and those who did speak spoke seldom and in low
voices. In this manner the cutter set slowly out into the lake,
until she had got as far as the river current would carry her,
when she became stationary, waiting for the usual land-breeze. An
interval of half an hour followed, during the whole of which time
the _Scud_ lay as motionless as a log, floating on the water. While
the little changes just mentioned were occurring in the situation
of the vessel, notwithstanding the general quiet that prevailed,
all conversation had not been repressed; for Sergeant Dunham, having
first ascertained that both his daughter and her female companion
were on the quarter-deck, led the Pathfinder to the after-cabin,
where, closing the door with great caution, and otherwise making
certain that he was beyond the reach of eavesdroppers, he commenced
as follows: --

"It is now many years, my friend, since you began to experience
the hardships and dangers of the woods in my company."

"It is, Sergeant; yes it is. I sometimes fear I am too old for
Mabel, who was not born until you and I had fought the Frenchers
as comrades."

"No fear on that account, Pathfinder. I was near your age before
I prevailed on the mind of her mother; and Mabel is a steady,
thoughtful girl, one that will regard character more than anything
else. A lad like Jasper Eau-douce, for instance, will have no
chance with her, though he is both young and comely."

"Does Jasper think of marrying?" inquired the guide, simply but
earnestly.

"I should hope not -- at least, not until he has satisfied every
one of his fitness to possess a wife."

"Jasper is a gallant boy, and one of great gifts in his way; he
may claim a wife as well as another."

"To be frank with you, Pathfinder, I brought you here to talk about
this very youngster. Major Duncan has received some information
which has led him to suspect that Eau-douce is false, and in the
pay of the enemy; I wish to hear your opinion on the subject."

"Anan?"

"I say, the Major suspects Jasper of being a traitor -- a French
spy -- or, what is worse, of being bought to betray us. He has
received a letter to this effect, and has been charging me to keep
an eye on the boy's movements; for he fears we shall meet with
enemies when we least suspect it, and by his means."

"Duncan of Lundie has told you this, Sergeant Dunham?"

"He has indeed, Pathfinder; and, though I have been loath to believe
anything to the injury of Jasper, I have a feeling which tells me I
ought to distrust him. Do you believe in presentiments, my friend?

"In what, Sergeant?"

"Presentiments, -- a sort of secret foreknowledge of events that
are about to happen. The Scotch of our regiment are great sticklers
for such things; and my opinion of Jasper is changing so fast,
that I begin to fear there must be some truth in their doctrines."

"But you've been talking with Duncan of Lundie concerning Jasper,
and his words have raised misgivings."

"Not it, not so in the least; for, while conversing with the Major,
my feelings were altogether the other way; and I endeavored to
convince him all I could that he did the boy injustice. But there
is no use in holding out against a presentiment, I find; and I fear
there is something in the suspicion after all."

"I know nothing of presentiments, Sergeant; but I have known
Jasper Eau-douce since he was a boy, and I have as much faith in
his honesty as I have in my own, or that of the Sarpent himself."

"But the Serpent, Pathfinder, has his tricks and ambushes in war
as well as another."

"Ay, them are his nat'ral gifts, and are such as belong to his people.
Neither red-skin nor pale-face can deny natur'; but Chingachgook
is not a man to feel a presentiment against."

"That I believe; nor should I have thought ill of Jasper this very
morning. It seems to me, Pathfinder, since I've taken up this
presentiment, that the lad does not bustle about his deck naturally,
as he used to do; but that he is silent and moody and thoughtful,
like a man who has a load on his conscience."

"Jasper is never noisy; and he tells me noisy ships are generally
ill-worked ships. Master Cap agrees in this too. No, no; I
will believe naught against Jasper until I see it. Send for your
brother, Sergeant, and let us question him in this matter; for to
sleep with distrust of one's friend in the heart is like sleeping
with lead there. I have no faith in your presentiments."

The Sergeant, although he scarcely knew himself with what object,
complied, and Cap was summoned to join in the consultation. As
Pathfinder was more collected than his companion, and felt so strong
a conviction of the good faith of the party accused, he assumed
the office of spokesman.

"We have asked you to come down, Master Cap," he commenced, "in
order to inquire if you have remarked anything out of the common
way in the movements of Eau-douce this evening."

"His movements are common enough, I daresay, for fresh water,
Master Pathfinder, though we should think most of his proceedings
irregular down on the coast."

"Yes, yes; we know you will never agree with the lad about the
manner the cutter ought to be managed; but it is on another point
we wish your opinion."

The Pathfinder then explained to Cap the nature of the suspicions
which the Sergeant entertained, and the reasons why they had been
excited, so far as the latter had been communicated by Major Duncan.

"The youngster talks French, does he?" said Cap.

"They say he speaks it better than common," returned the Sergeant
gravely. "Pathfinder knows this to be true."

"I'll not gainsay it," answered the guide; "at least, they tell me
such is the fact. But this would prove nothing ag'in a Mississauga,
and, least of all, ag'in one like Jasper. I speak the Mingo dialect
myself, having learnt it while a prisoner among the reptyles; but
who will say I am their friend? Not that I am an enemy, either,
according to Indian notions; though I am their enemy, I will admit,
agreeable to Christianity."

"Ay Pathfinder; but Jasper did not get his French as a prisoner:
he took it in his boyhood, when the mind is easily impressed, and
gets its permanent notions; when nature has a presentiment, as it
were, which way the character is likely to incline."

"A very just remark," added Cap, "for that is the time of life
when we all learn the catechism, and other moral improvements. The
Sergeant's observation shows that he understands human nature, and
I agree with him perfectly; it _is_ a damnable thing for a youngster,
up here, on this bit of fresh water, to talk French. If it were
down on the Atlantic, now, where a seafaring man has occasion
sometimes to converse with a pilot, or a linguister, in that
language, I should not think so much of it, -- though we always
look with suspicion, even there, at a shipmate who knows too much
of the tongue; but up here, on Ontario, I hold it to be a most
suspicious circumstance."

"But Jasper must talk in French to the people on the other shore,"
said Pathfinder, "or hold his tongue, as there are none but French
to speak to."

"You don't mean to tell me, Pathfinder, that France lies hereaway,
on the opposite coast?" cried Cap, jerking a thumb over his shoulder
in the direction of the Canadas; "that one side of this bit of
fresh water is York, and the other France?"

"I mean to tell you this is York, and that is Upper Canada; and that
English and Dutch and Indian are spoken in the first, and French
and Indian in the last. Even the Mingos have got many of the French
words in their dialect, and it is no improvement, neither."

"Very true: and what sort of people are the Mingos, my friend?"
inquired the Sergeant, touching the other on his shoulder, by way
of enforcing a remark, the inherent truth of which sensibly increased
its value in the eyes of the speaker: "no one knows them better
than yourself, and I ask you what sort of a tribe are they?"

"Jasper is no Mingo, Sergeant."

"He speaks French, and he might as well be, in that particular.
Brother Cap, can you recollect no movement of this unfortunate young
man, in the way of his calling, that would seem to denote treachery?"

"Not distinctly, Sergeant, though he has gone to work wrong-end
foremost half his time. It is true that one of his hands coiled a
rope against the sun, and he called it _querling_ a rope, too, when
I asked him what he was about; but I am not certain that anything
was meant by it; though, I daresay, the French coil half their
running rigging the wrong way, and may call it 'querling it down,'
too, for that matter. Then Jasper himself belayed the end of the
jib-halyards to a stretcher in the rigging, instead of bringing it
to the mast, where they belong, at least among British sailors."

"I daresay Jasper may have got some Canada notions about working
his craft, from being so much on the other side," Pathfinder
interposed; "but catching an idee, or a word, isn't treachery and
bad faith. I sometimes get an idee from the Mingos themselves;
but my heart has always been with the Delawares. No, no, Jasper
is true; and the king might trust him with his crown, just as he
would trust his eldest son, who, as he is to wear it one day, ought
to be the last man to wish to steal it."

"Fine talking, fine talking!" said Cap; "all fine talking, Master
Pathfinder, but d----d little logic. In the first place, the king's
majesty cannot lend his crown, it being contrary to the laws of
the realm, which require him to wear it at all times, in order that
his sacred person may be known, just as the silver oar is necessary
to a sheriff's officer afloat. In the next place, it's high treason,
by law, for the eldest son of his majesty ever to covet the crown,
or to have a child, except in lawful wedlock, as either would derange
the succession. Thus you see, friend Pathfinder that in order to
reason truly, one must get under way, as it might be, on the right
tack. Law is reason, and reason is philosophy, and philosophy is
a steady drag; whence it follows that crowns are regulated by law,
reason, and philosophy."

"I know little of all this; Master Cap; but nothing short of seeing
and feeling will make me think Jasper Western a traitor."

"There you are wrong again, Pathfinder; for there is a way of proving
a thing much more conclusively than either seeing or feeling, or
by both together; and that is by a circumstance."

"It may be so in the settlements; but it is not so here on the
lines."

"It is so in nature, which is monarch over all. There was
a circumstance, just after we came on board this evening, that
is extremely suspicious, and which may be set down at once as a
makeweight against this lad. Jasper bent on the king's ensign with
his own hands; and, while he pretended to be looking at Mabel and
the soldier's wife, giving directions about showing them below
here, and a that, he got the flag union down!"

"That might have been accident," returned the Sergeant, "for such
a thing has happened to myself; besides, the halyards lead to a
pulley, and the flag would have come right, or not, according to
the manner in which the lad hoisted it."

"A pulley!" exclaimed Cap, with strong disgust; "I wish,
Sergeant Dunham, I could prevail on you to use proper terms. An
ensign-halyard-block is no more a pulley than your halberd is a
boarding-pike. It is true that by hoisting on one part, another
part would go uppermost; but I look upon that affair of the ensign,
now you have mentioned your suspicions, as a circumstance, and shall
bear it in mind. I trust supper is not to be overlooked, however,
even if we have a hold full of traitors."

"It will be duly attended to, brother Cap; but I shall count on you
for aid in managing the _Scud_, should anything occur to induce me
to arrest Jasper."

"I'll not fail you, Sergeant; and in such an event you'll probably
learn what this cutter can really perform; for, as yet, I fancy it
is pretty much matter of guesswork."

"Well, for my part," said Pathfinder, drawing a heavy sigh, "I
shall cling to the hope of Jasper's innocence, and recommend plain
dealing, by asking the lad himself, without further delay, whether
he is or is not a traitor. I'll put Jasper Western against all
the presentiments and circumstances in the colony."

"That will never do," rejoined the Sergeant. "The responsibility
of this affair rests with me, and I request and enjoin that nothing
be said to any one without my knowledge. We will all keep watchful
eyes about us, and take proper note of circumstances."

"Ay, ay! circumstances are the things after all," returned Cap.
"One circumstance is worth fifty facts. That I know to be the law
of the realm. Many a man has been hanged on circumstances."

The conversation now ceased, and, after a short delay, the whole
party returned to the deck, each individual disposed to view the
conduct of the suspected Jasper in the manner most suited to his
own habits and character.



CHAPTER XIV.

Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless,
So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone,
Drew Priam's Curtain in the dead of night,
And would have told him, half his Troy was burned.
SHAKESPEARE.


All this time matters were elsewhere passing in their usual train.
Jasper, like the weather and his vessel, seemed to be waiting for
the land-breeze; while the soldiers, accustomed to early rising,
had, to a man, sought their pallets in the main hold. None
remained on deck but the people of the cutter, Mr. Muir, and the
two females. The Quartermaster was endeavoring to render himself
agreeable to Mabel, while our heroine herself, little affected by
his assiduities, which she ascribed partly to the habitual gallantry
of a soldier, and partly, perhaps, to her own pretty face, was
enjoying the peculiarities of a scene and situation which, to her,
were full of the charms of novelty.

The sails had been hoisted, but as yet not a breath of air was in
motion; and so still and placid was the lake, that not the smallest
motion was perceptible in the cutter. She had drifted in the
river-current to a distance a little exceeding a quarter of a mile
from the land, and there she lay, beautiful in her symmetry and
form, but like a fixture. Young Jasper was on the quarter-deck,
near enough to hear occasionally the conversation which passed;
but too diffident of his own claim, and too intent on his duties,
to attempt to mingle in it. The fine blue eyes of Mabel followed
his motions in curious expectation, and more than once the
Quartermaster had to repeat his compliments before she heard them,
so intent was she on the little occurrences of the vessel, and, we
might add, so indifferent to the eloquence of her companion. At
length, even Mr. Muir became silent, and there was a deep stillness
on the water. Presently an oar-blade fell in a boat beneath the
fort, and the sound reached the cutter as distinctly as if it had
been produced on her deck. Then came a murmur, like a sigh of the
night, a fluttering of the canvas, the creaking of the boom, and
the flap of the jib. These well-known sounds were followed by a
slight heel in the cutter, and by the bellying of all the sails.

"Here's the wind, Anderson," called out Jasper to the oldest of
his sailors; "take the helm."

This brief order was obeyed; the helm was put up, the cutter's
bows fell off, and in a few minutes the water was heard murmuring
under her head, as the _Scud_ glanced through the lake at the rate
of five miles in the hour. All this passed in profound silence,
when Jasper again gave the order to "ease off the sheets a little
and keep her along the land."

It was at this instant that the party from the after-cabin reappeared
on the quarter-deck.

"You've no inclination, Jasper lad, to trust yourself too near our
neighbours the French," observed Muir, who took that occasion to
recommence the discourse. "Well, well, your prudence will never
be questioned by me, for I like the Canadas as little as you can
possibly like them yourself."

"I hug this shore, Mr. Muir, on account of the wind. The land-breeze
is always freshest close in, provided you are not so near as to
make a lee of the trees. We have Mexico Bay to cross; and that,
on the present course, will give us quite offing enough."

"I'm right glad it's not the Bay of Mexico," put in Cap, "which is
a part of the world I would rather not visit in one of your inland
craft. Does your cutter bear a weather helm, master Eau-douce?"

"She is easy on her rudder, master Cap; but likes looking up at
the breeze as well as another, when in lively motion."

"I suppose you have such things as reefs, though you can hardly
have occasion to use them?"

Mabel's bright eye detected the smile that gleamed for an instant
on Jasper's handsome face; but no one else saw that momentary
exhibition of surprise and contempt.

"We have reefs, and often have occasion to use them," quietly
returned the young man. "Before we get in, Master Cap, an opportunity
may offer to show you the manner in which we do so; for there is
easterly weather brewing, and the wind cannot chop, even on the
ocean itself, more readily than it flies round on Lake Ontario."

"So much for knowing no better! I have seen the wind in the Atlantic
fly round like a coach-wheel, in a way to keep your sails shaking
for an hour, and the ship would become perfectly motionless from
not knowing which way to turn."

"We have no such sudden changes here, certainly," Jasper mildly
answered; "though we think ourselves liable to unexpected shifts
of wind. I hope, however, to carry this land-breeze as far as the
first islands; after which there will be less danger of our being
seen and followed by any of the look-out boats from Frontenac."

"Do you think the French keep spies out on the broad lake, Jasper?"
inquired the Pathfinder.

"We know they do; one was off Oswego during the night of Monday
last. A bark canoe came close in with the eastern point, and landed
an Indian and an officer. Had you been outlying that night, as
usual, we should have secured one, if not both of them."

It was too dark to betray the color that deepened on the weather-burnt
features of the guide; for he felt the consciousness of having
lingered in the fort that night, listening to the sweet tones of
Mabel's voice as she sang ballads to her father, and gazing at the
countenance which, to him, was radiant with charms. Probity in
thought and deed being the distinguishing quality of this extraordinary
man's mind, while he felt that a sort of disgrace ought to attach
to his idleness on the occasion mentioned, the last thought that
could occur would be to attempt to palliate or deny his negligence.

"I confess it, Jasper, I confess it," said he humbly. "Had I been
out that night, -- and I now recollect no sufficient reason why
I was not, -- it might, indeed, have turned out as you say."

"It was the evening you passed with us, Pathfinder," Mabel innocently
remarked; "surely one who lives so much of his time in the forest,
in front of the enemy, may be excused for giving a few hours of
his time to an old friend and his daughter."

"Nay, nay, I've done little else but idle since we reached the
garrison," returned the other, sighing; "and it is well that the
lad should tell me of it: the idler needs a rebuke - yes, he needs
a rebuke."

"Rebuke, Pathfinder! I never dreamt of saying anything disagreeable,
and least of all would I think of rebuking you, because a solitary
spy and an Indian or two have escaped us. Now I know where you
were, I think your absence the most natural thing in the world."

"I think nothing of what you said, Jasper, since it was deserved.
We are all human, and all do wrong."

"This is unkind, Pathfinder."

"Give me your hand, lad, give me your hand. It wasn't you that
gave the lesson; it was conscience."

"Well, well," interrupted Cap; "now this latter matter is settled
to the satisfaction of all parties, perhaps you will tell us how
it happened to be known that there were spies near us so lately.
This looks amazingly like a circumstance."

As the mariner uttered the last sentence, he pressed a foot slily
on that of the Sergeant, and nudged the guide with his elbow,
winking at the same time, though this sign was lost in the obscurity.

"It is known, because their trail was found next day by the Serpent,
and it was that of a military boot and a moccasin. One of our
hunters, moreover, saw the canoe crossing towards Frontenac next
morning."

"Did the trail lead near the garrison, Jasper?" Pathfinder asked
in a manner so meek and subdued that it resembled the tone of a
rebuked schoolboy. "Did the trail lead near the garrison, lad?"

"We thought not; though, of course, it did not cross the river.
It was followed down to the eastern point, at the river's mouth,
where what was doing in port, might be seen; but it did not cross,
as we could discover."

"And why didn't you get under weigh, Master Jasper," Cap demanded,
"and give chase? On Tuesday morning it blew a good breeze; one in
which this cutter might have run nine knots."

"That may do on the ocean, Master Cap," put in Pathfinder, "but
it would not do here. Water leaves no trail, and a Mingo and a
Frenchman are a match for the devil in a pursuit."

"Who wants a trail when the chase can be seen from the deck, as
Jasper here said was the case with this canoe? and it mattered
nothing if there were twenty of your Mingos and Frenchmen, with
a good British-built bottom in their wake. I'll engage, Master
Eau-douce, had you given me a call that said Tuesday morning, that
we should have overhauled the blackguards."

"I daresay, Master Cap, that the advice of as old a seaman as you
might have done no harm to as young a sailor as myself, but it is
a long and a hopeless chase that has a bark canoe in it."

"You would have had only to press it hard, to drive it ashore."

"Ashore, master Cap! You do not understand our lake navigation at
all, if you suppose it an easy matter to force a bark canoe ashore.
As soon as they find themselves pressed, these bubbles paddle right
into the wind's eye, and before you know it, you find yourself a
mile or two dead under their lee."

"You don't wish me to believe, Master Jasper, that any one is so
heedless of drowning as to put off into this lake in one of them
eggshells when there is any wind?"

"I have often crossed Ontario in a bark canoe, even when there
has been a good deal of sea on. Well managed, they are the driest
boats of which we have any knowledge."

Cap now led his brother-in-law and Pathfinder aside, when he
assured him that the admission of Jasper concerning the spies was
"a circumstance," and "a strong circumstance," and as such it
deserved his deliberate investigation; while his account of the
canoes was so improbable as to wear the appearance of brow-beating
the listeners. Jasper spoke confidently of the character of the
two individuals who had landed, and this Cap deemed pretty strong
proof that he knew more about them than was to be gathered from
a mere trail. As for moccasins, he said that they were worn in
that part of the world by white men as well as by Indians; he had
purchased a pair himself; and boots, it was notorious, did not
particularly make a soldier. Although much of this logic was thrown
away on the Sergeant, still it produced some effect. He thought
it a little singular himself, that there should have been spies
detected so near the fort and he know nothing of it; nor did he
believe that this was a branch of knowledge that fell particularly
within the sphere of Jasper. It was true that the _Scud_ had, once
or twice, been sent across the lake to land men of this character,
or to bring them off; but then the part played by Jasper, to his own
certain knowledge, was very secondary, the master of the cutter
remaining as ignorant as any one else of the purport of the visits of
those whom he had carried to and fro; nor did he see why he alone,
of all present, should know anything of the late visit. Pathfinder
viewed the matter differently. With his habitual diffidence, he
reproached himself with a neglect of duty, and that knowledge, of
which the want struck him as a fault in one whose business it was
to possess it, appeared a merit in the young man. He saw nothing
extraordinary in Jasper's knowing the facts he had related; while
he did feel it was unusual, not to say disgraceful, that he himself
now heard of them for the first time.