Lo! dusky masses steal in dubious sight,
Along the leaguer'd wall, and bristling bank,
Of the arm'd river; while with straggling light,
The stars peep through the vapor, dim and dank.
BYRON.
A few hours later Mabel Dunham was on the bastion that overlooked
the river and the lake, seemingly in deep thought. The evening
was calm and soft, and the question had arisen whether the party
for the Thousand Islands would be able to get out that night or
not, on account of the total absence of wind. The stores, arms,
and ammunition were already shipped, and even Mabel's effects
were on board; but the small draft of men that was to go was still
ashore, there being no apparent prospect of the cutter's getting
under way. Jasper had warped the _Scud_ out of the cove, and so
far up the stream as to enable him to pass through the outlet of the
river whenever he chose; but there he still lay, riding at single
anchor. The drafted men were lounging about the shore of the cove,
undecided whether or not to pull off.
The sports of the morning had left a quiet in the garrison which
was in harmony with the whole of the beautiful scene, and Mabel
felt its influence on her feelings, though probably too little
accustomed to speculate on such sensations to be aware of the
cause. Everything near appeared lovely and soothing, while the
solemn grandeur of the silent forest and placid expanse of the
lake lent a sublimity that other scenes might have wanted. For the
first time, Mabel felt the hold that the towns and civilization
had gained on her habits sensibly weakened; and the warm-hearted
girl began to think that a life passed amid objects such as those
around her might be happy. How far the experience of the last days
came in aid of the calm and holy eventide, and contributed towards
producing that young conviction, may be suspected, rather than
affirmed, in this early portion of our legend.
"A charming sunset, Mabel!" said the hearty voice of her uncle,
so close to the ear of our heroine as to cause her to start, -- "a
charming sunset, girl, for a fresh-water concern, though we should
think but little of it at sea."
"And is not nature the same on shore or at sea -- on a lake like
this or on the ocean? Does not the sun shine on all alike, dear
uncle; and can we not feel gratitude for the blessings of Providence
as strongly on this remote frontier as in our own Manhattan?"
"The girl has fallen in with some of her mother's books. Is
not nature the same, indeed! Now, Mabel, do you imagine that the
nature of a soldier is the same as that of a seafaring man? You've
relations in both callings, and ought to be able to answer."
"But uncle, I mean human nature."
"So do I, girl; the human nature of a seaman, and the human nature
of one of these fellows of the 55th, not even excepting your
own father. Here have they had a shooting-match -- target-firing
I should call it -- this day, and what a different thing has it
been from a target-firing afloat! There we should have sprung our
broadside, sported with round shot, at an object half a mile off,
at the very nearest; and the potatoes, if there happened to be any
on board, as very likely would not have been the case, would have
been left in the cook's coppers. It may be an honorable calling,
that of a soldier, Mabel; but an experienced hand sees many follies
and weaknesses in one of these forts. As for that bit of a lake,
you know my opinion of it already, and I wish to disparage nothing.
No real seafarer disparages anything; but, d--- me, if I regard
this here Ontario, as they call it, as more than so much water in
a ship's scuttle-butt. Now, look you here, Mabel, if you wish to
understand the difference between the ocean and a lake, I can make
you comprehend it with a single look: this is what one may call
a calm, seeing that there is no wind; though, to own the truth,
I do not think the calms are as calm as them we get outside -- "
"Uncle, there is not a breath of air. I do not think it possible
for the leaves to be more immovably still than those of the entire
forest are at this very moment."
"Leaves! what are leaves, child? there are no leaves at sea. If
you wish to know whether it is a dead calm or not, try a mould
candle, -- your dips flaring too much, --and then you may be certain
whether there is or is not any wind. If you were in a latitude
where the air was so still that you found a difficulty in stirring
it to draw it in in breathing, you might fancy it a calm. People
are often on a short allowance of air in the calm latitudes. Here,
again, look at that water! It is like milk in a pan, with no more
motion now than there is in a full hogshead before the bung is
started. On the ocean the water is never still, let the air be as
quiet as it may."
"The water of the ocean never still, Uncle Cap? not even in a calm?"
"Bless your heart, no, child! The ocean breathes like a living
being, and its bosom is always heaving, as the poetizers call it,
though there be no more air than is to be found in a siphon. No
man ever saw the ocean still like this lake; but it heaves and sets
as if it had lungs."
"And this lake is not absolutely still, for you perceive there is
a little ripple on the shore, and you may even hear the surf plunging
at moments against the rocks."
"All d----d poetry! Lake Ontario is no more the Atlantic than a
Powles Hook periagila is a first-rate. That Jasper, notwithstanding,
is a fine lad, and wants instruction only to make a man of him."
"Do you think him ignorant, uncle?" answered Mabel, prettily adjusting
her hair, in order to do which she was obliged, or fancied she was
obliged, to turn away her face. "To me Jasper Eau-douce appears
to know more than most of the young men of his class. He has read
but little, for books are not plenty in this part of the world; but
he has thought much, as least so it seems to me, for one so young."
"He is ignorant, as all must be who navigate an inland water like
this. No, no, Mabel; we both owe something to Jasper and the
Pathfinder, and I have been thinking how I can best serve them, for
I hold ingratitude to be the vice of a hog; for treat the animal
to your own dinner, and he would eat you for the dessert."
"Very true, dear uncle; we ought indeed to do all we can to express
our proper sense of the services of both these brave men."
"Spoken like your mother's daughter, girl, and in a way to do credit
to the Cap family. Now, I've hit upon a traverse that will just
suit all parties; and, as soon as we get back from this little
expedition down the lake among them there Thousand Islands, and I
am ready to return, it is my intention to propose it."
"Dearest uncle! this is so considerate in you, and will be so just!
May I ask what your intentions are?"
"I see no reason for keeping them a secret from you, Mabel, though
nothing need be said to your father about them; for the Sergeant has
his prejudices, and might throw difficulties in the way. Neither
Jasper nor his friend Pathfinder can ever make anything hereabouts,
and I propose to take both with me down to the coast, and get them
fairly afloat. Jasper would find his sea-legs in a fortnight, and
a twelvemonth's v'y'ge would make him a man. Although Pathfinder
might take more time, or never get to be rated able, yet one could
make something of him too, particularly as a look-out, for he has
unusually good eyes."
"Uncle, do you think either would consent to this?" said Mabel
smiling.
"Do I suppose them simpletons? What rational being would neglect
his own advancement? Let Jasper alone to push his way, and the
lad may yet die the master of some square-rigged craft."
"And would he be any the happier for it, dear uncle? How much
better is it to be the master of a square-rigged craft than to be
master of a round-rigged craft?"
"Pooh, pooh, Magnet! You are just fit to read lectures about
ships before some hysterical society; you don't know what you are
talking about; leave these things to me, and they'll be properly
managed. Ah! Here is the Pathfinder himself, and I may just as
well drop him a hint of my benevolent intentions as regards himself.
Hope is a great encourager of our exertions."
Cap nodded his head, and then ceased to speak, while the hunter
approached, not with his usual frank and easy manner, but in a way
to show that he was slightly embarrassed, if not distrustful of
his reception.
"Uncle and niece make a family party," said Pathfinder, when near
the two, "and a stranger may not prove a welcome companion?"
"You are no stranger, Master Pathfinder," returned Cap, "and no one
can be more welcome than yourself. We were talking of you but a
moment ago, and when friends speak of an absent man, he can guess
what they have said."
"I ask no secrets. Every man has his enemies, and I have mine,
though I count neither you, Master Cap, nor pretty Mabel here among
the number. As for the Mingos, I will say nothing, though they
have no just cause to hate me."
"That I'll answer for, Pathfinder! for you strike my fancy as being
well-disposed and upright. There is a method, however, of getting
away from the enmity of even these Mingos; and if you choose to take
it, no one will more willingly point it out than myself, without
a charge for my advice either."
"I wish no enemies, Saltwater," for so the Pathfinder had begun
to call Cap, having, insensibly to himself, adopted the term,
by translating the name given him by the Indians in and about the
fort, -- "I wish no enemies. I'm as ready to bury the hatchet with
the Mingos as with the French, though you know that it depends on
One greater than either of us so to turn the heart as to leave a
man without enemies."
"By lifting your anchor, and accompanying me down to the coast,
friend Pathfinder, when we get back from this short cruise on
which we are bound, you will find yourself beyond the sound of the
war-whoop, and safe enough from any Indian bullet."
"And what should I do on the salt water? Hunt in your towns? Follow
the trails of people going and coming from market, and ambush dogs
and poultry? You are no friend to my happiness, Master Cap, if
you would lead me out of the shades of the woods to put me in the
sun of the clearings."
"I did not propose to leave you in the settlements, Pathfinder, but
to carry you out to sea, where a man can only be said to breathe
freely. Mabel will tell you that such was my intention, before a
word was said on the subject."
"And what does Mabel think would come of such a change? She knows
that a man has his gifts, and that it is as useless to pretend
to others as to withstand them that come from Providence. I am
a hunter, and a scout, or a guide, Saltwater, and it is not in me
to fly so much in the face of Heaven as to try to become anything
else. Am I right, Mabel, or are you so much a woman as to wish to
see a natur' altered?"
"I would wish to see no change in you, Pathfinder," Mabel answered,
with a cordial sincerity and frankness that went directly to the
hunter's heart; "and much as my uncle admires the sea, and great
as is all the good that he thinks may come of it, I could not wish
to see the best and noblest hunter of the woods transformed into
an admiral. Remain what you are, my brave friend, and you need
fear nothing short of the anger of God."
"Do you hear this, Saltwater? do you hear what the Sergeant's
daughter is saying, and she is much too upright, and fair-minded,
and pretty, not to think what she says. So long as she is satisfied
with me as I am, I shall not fly in the face of the gifts of
Providence, by striving to become anything else. I may seem useless
here in a garrison; but when we get down among the Thousand Islands,
there may be an opportunity to prove that a sure rifle is sometimes
a Godsend."
"You are then to be of our party?" said Mabel, smiling so frankly
and so sweetly on the guide that he would have followed her to the
end of the earth. "I shall be the only female, with the exception
of one soldier's wife, and shall feel none the less secure,
Pathfinder, because you will be among our protectors."
"The Sergeant would do that, Mabel, though you were not of his kin.
No one will overlook you. I should think your uncle here would
like an expedition of this sort, where we shall go with sails, and
have a look at an inland sea?"
"Your inland sea is no great matter, Master Pathfinder, and I
expect nothing from it. I confess, however, I should like to know
the object of the cruise; for one does not wish to be idle, and my
brother-in-law, the Sergeant, is as close-mouthed as a freemason.
Do you know, Mabel, what all this means?"
"Not in the least, uncle. I dare not ask my father any questions
about his duty, for he thinks it is not a woman's business; and all
I can say is, that we are to sail as soon as the wind will permit,
and that we are to be absent a month."
"Perhaps Master Pathfinder can give me a useful hint; for a v'y'ge
without an object is never pleasant to an old sailor."
"There is no great secret, Saltwater, concerning our port and object,
though it is forbidden to talk much about either in the garrison.
I am no soldier, however, and can use my tongue as I please, though
as little given as another to idle conversation, I hope; still, as
we sail so soon, and you are both to be of the party, you may as
well be told where you are to be carried. You know that there are
such things as the Thousand Islands, I suppose, Master Cap?"
"Ay, what are so called hereaway, though I take it for granted that
they are not real islands, such as we fall in with on the ocean;
and that the thousand means some such matter as two or three."
"My eyes are good, and yet have I often been foiled in trying to
count them very islands."
"Ay, ay, I've known people who couldn't count beyond a certain
number. Your real land-birds never know their own roosts, even
in a landfall at sea. How many times have I seen the beach, and
houses, and churches, when the passengers have not been able to
see anything but water! I have no idea that a man can get fairly
out of sight of land on fresh water. The thing appears to me to
be irrational and impossible."
"You don't know the lakes, Master Cap, or you would not say that.
Before we get to the Thousand Islands, you will have other notions
of what natur' has done in this wilderness."
"I have my doubts whether you have such a thing as a real island
in all this region."
"We'll show you hundreds of them; not exactly a thousand, perhaps,
but so many that eye cannot see them all, nor tongue count them."
"I'll engage, when the truth comes to be known, they'll turn out to
be nothing but peninsulas, or promontories; or continents; though
these are matters, I daresay, of which you know little or nothing.
But, islands or no islands, what is the object of the cruise, Master
Pathfinder?"
"There can be no harm in giving you some idea of what we are going
to do. Being so old a sailor, Master Cap, you've heard, no doubt,
of such a port as Frontenac?"
"Who hasn't? I will not say I've ever been inside the harbor, but
I've frequently been off the place."
"Then you are about to go upon ground with which you are acquainted.
These great lakes, you must know, make a chain, the water passing
out of one into the other, until it reaches Erie, which is a sheet
off here to the westward, as large as Ontario itself. Well, out of
Erie the water comes, until it reaches a low mountain like, over
the edge of which it passes."
"I should like to know how the devil it can do that?"
"Why, easy enough, Master Cap," returned Pathfinder, laughing,
"seeing that it has only to fall down hill. Had I said the water
went _up_ the mountain, there would have been natur' ag'in it; but
we hold it no great matter for water to run down hill -- that is,
_fresh_ water."
"Ay, ay, but you speak of the water of a lake's coming down the
side of a mountain; it's in the teeth of reason, if reason has any
teeth."
"Well, well, we will not dispute the point; but what I've seen
I've seen. After getting into Ontario, all the water of _all_ the
lakes passes down into the sea by a river; and in the narrow part
of the sheet, where it is neither river nor lake, lie the islands
spoken of. Now Frontenac is a post of the Frenchers above these
same islands; and, as they hold the garrison below, their stores
and ammunition are sent up the river to Frontenac, to be forwarded
along the shores of this and the other lakes, in order to enable
the enemy to play his devilries among the savages, and to take
Christian scalps."
"And will our presence prevent these horrible acts?" demanded Mabel,
with interest.
"It may or it may not, as Providence wills. Lundie, as they call
him, he who commands this garrison, sent a party down to take
a station among the islands, to cut off some of the French boats;
and this expedition of ours will be the second relief. As yet
they've not done much, though two bateaux loaded with Indian goods
have been taken; but a runner came in last week, and brought such
tidings that the Major is about to make a last effort to circumvent
the knaves. Jasper knows the way, and we shall be in good hands,
for the Sergeant is prudent, and of the first quality at an
ambushment; yes, he is both prudent and alert."
"Is this all?" said Cap contemptuously; "by the preparations and
equipments, I had thought there was a forced trade in the wind,
and that an honest penny might be turned by taking an adventure.
I suppose there are no shares in your fresh-water prize-money?"
"Anan?"
"I take it for granted the king gets all in these soldiering parties,
and ambushments, as you call them."
"I know nothing about that, Master Cap. I take my share of the
lead and powder if any falls into our hands, and say nothing to the
king about it. If any one fares better, it is not I; though it is
time I did begin to think of a house and furniture and a home."
Although the Pathfinder did not dare to look at Mabel while he made
this direct allusion to his change of life, he would have given the
world to know whether she was listening, and what was the expression
of her countenance. Mabel little suspected the nature of the
allusion, however; and her countenance was perfectly unembarrassed
as she turned her eyes towards the river, where the appearance of
some movement on board the _Scud_ began to be visible.
"Jasper is bringing the cutter out," observed the guide, whose look
was drawn in the same direction by the fall of some heavy article
on the deck. "The lad sees the signs of wind, no doubt, and wishes
to be ready for it."
"Ay, now we shall have an opportunity of learning seamanship,"
returned Cap, with a sneer. "There is a nicety in getting a craft
under her canvas that shows the thoroughbred mariner as much as
anything else. It's like a soldier buttoning his coat, and one
can see whether he begins at the top or the bottom."
"I will not say that Jasper is equal to your seafarers below,"
observed Pathfinder, across whose upright mind an unworthy feeling
of envy or of jealousy never passed; "but he is a bold boy, and
manages his cutter as skillfully as any man can desire, on this
lake at least. You didn't find him backwards at the Oswego Falls,
Master Cap, where fresh water contrives to tumble down hill with
little difficulty."
Cap made no other answer than a dissatisfied ejaculation, and
then a general silence followed, all on the bastion studying the
movements of the cutter with the interest that was natural to their
own future connection with the vessel. It was still a dead calm,
the surface of the lake literally glittering with the last rays
of the sun. The _Scud_ had been warped up to a kedge that lay a
hundred yards above the points of the outlet, where she had room
to manoeuvre in the river which then formed the harbor of Oswego.
But the total want of air prevented any such attempt, and it was
soon evident that the light vessel was to be taken through the
passage under her sweeps. Not a sail was loosened; but as soon
as the kedge was tripped, the heavy fall of the sweeps was heard,
when the cutter, with her head up stream, began to sheer towards
the centre of the current; on reaching which, the efforts of the
men ceased, and she drifted towards the outlet. In the narrow
pass itself her movement was rapid, and in less than five minutes
the _Scud_ was floating outside of the two low gravelly points which
intercepted the waves of the lake. No anchor was let go, but the
vessel continued to set off from the land, until her dark hull
was seen resting on the glossy surface of the lake, full a quarter
of a mile beyond the low bluff which formed the eastern extremity
of what might be called the outer harbor or roadstead. Here the
influence of the river current ceased, and she became, virtually,
stationary.
"She seems very beautiful to me, uncle," said Mabel, whose gaze had
not been averted from the cutter for a single moment while it had
thus been changing its position; "I daresay you can find faults in
her appearance, and in the way she is managed; but to my ignorance
both are perfect."
"Ay, ay; she drops down with a current well enough, girl, and
so would a chip. But when you come to niceties, all old tar like
myself has no need of spectacles to find fault."
"Well, Master Cap," put in the guide, who seldom heard anything to
Jasper's prejudice without manifesting a disposition to interfere,
"I've heard old and experienced saltwater mariners confess that
the _Scud_ is as pretty a craft as floats. I know nothing of such
matters myself; but one may have his own notions about a ship,
even though they be wrong notions; and it would take more than one
witness to persuade me Jasper does not keep his boat in good order."
"I do not say that the cutter is downright lubberly, Master
Pathfinder; but she has faults, and great faults."
"And what are they, uncle? If he knew them, Jasper would be glad
to mend them."
"What are they? Why, fifty; ay, for that matter a hundred. Very
material and manifest faults."
"Do name them, sir, and Pathfinder will mention them to his friend."
"Name them! it is no easy matter to call off the stars, for the
simple reason that they are so numerous. Name them, indeed! Why,
my pretty niece, Miss Magnet, what do you think of that main-boom
now? To my ignorant eyes, it is topped at least a foot too high;
and then the pennant is foul; and -- and -- ay, d--- me, if there
isn't a topsail gasket adrift; and it wouldn't surprise me at all
if there should be a round turn in that hawser, if the kedge were
to be let go this instant. Faults indeed! No seaman could look
at her a moment without seeing that she is as full of faults as a
servant who has asked for his discharge."
"This may be very true, uncle, though I much question if Jasper knows
of them. I do not think he would suffer these things, Pathfinder,
if they were once pointed out to him."
"Let Jasper manage his own cutter, Mabel. His gift lies that-a-way,
and I'll answer for it, no one can teach him how to keep the _Scud_
out of the hands of the Frontenackers or their devilish Mingo
friends. Who cares for round turns in kedges, and for hawsers
that are topped too high, Master Cap, so long as the craft sails
well, and keeps clear of the Frenchers? I will trust Jasper
against all the seafarers of the coast, up here on the lakes; but
I do not say he has any gift for the ocean, for there he has never
been tried."
Cap smiled condescendingly, but he did not think it necessary to
push his criticisms any further just as that moment. By this time
the cutter had begun to drift at the mercy of the currents of the
lake, her head turning in all directions, though slowly, and not
in a way to attract particular attention. Just at this moment
the jib was loosened and hoisted, and presently the canvas swelled
towards the land, though no evidences of air were yet to be seen on
the surface of the water. Slight, however, as was the impulsion,
the light hull yielded; and in another minute the _Scud_ was seen
standing across the current of the river with a movement so easy
and moderate as to be scarcely perceptible. When out of the stream,
she struck an eddy and shot up towards the land, under the eminence
where the fort stood, when Jasper dropped his kedge.
"Not lubberly done," muttered Cap in a sort of soliloquy, -- "not
over lubberly, though he should have put his helm a-starboard
instead of a-port; for a vessel ought always to come-to with her
head off shore, whether she is a league from the land or only a
cable's length, since it has a careful look, and looks are something
in this world."
"Jasper is a handy lad," suddenly observed Sergeant Dunham at his
brother-in-law's elbow; "and we place great reliance on his skill
in our expeditions. But come, one and all, we have but half an hour
more of daylight to embark in, and the boats will be ready for us
by the time we are ready for them."
On this intimation the whole party separated, each to find those
trifles which had not been shipped already. A few taps of the drum
gave the necessary signal to the soldiers, and in a minute all were
in motion.