第69章

So long as she is satisfied with me as I am, I shall not fly in the face of the gifts of Provideuce, 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 islauds, 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 land-fall 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 irra-tional 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 thou-sand, 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 west-ward, 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 ammuni-tion 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 prep-arations 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?"