第87章

"Why were the Pathfinder and his friends looking the same way?" asked the Tuscarora calmly."A Tuscarora may look in the same direction as a Yengeese.""Why, to own the truth, Arrowhead, we are out scouting like; that is, sailing -- in other words, we are on the king's business, and we have a right to be here, though we may not have a right to say _why_ we are here.""Arrowhead saw the big canoe, and he loves to look on the face of Eau-douce.He was going towards the sun at evening in order to seek his wigwam; but, finding that the young sailor was going the other way, he turned that he might look in the same direction.Eau-douce and Arrowhead were together on the last trail.""This may all be true, Tuscarora, and you are welcome.

You shall eat of our venison, and then we must separate.

The setting sun is behind us, and both of us move quick:

my brother will get too far from that which he seeks, unless he turns round."Pathfinder now returned to the others, and repeated the result of his examination.He appeared himself to believe that the account of Arrowhead might be true, though he admitted that caution would be prudent with one he disliked; but his auditors, Jasper excepted, seemed less disposed to put faith in the explanations.

"This chap must be ironed at once, brother Dunham,"said Cap, as soon as Pathfinder finished his narration;"he must be turned over to the master-at-arms, if there is any such officer on fresh water, and a court-martial ought to be ordered as soon as we reach port.""I think it wisest to detain the fellow," the Sergeant answered; "but irons are unnecessary so long as he re-mains in the cutter.In the morning the matter shall be inquired into."Arrowhead was now summoned and told the decision.

The Indian listened gravely, and made no objections.On the contrary, he submitted with the calm and reserved dignity with which the American aborigines are known to yield to fate; and he stood apart, an attentive but calm observer of what was passing.Jasper caused the cutter's sails to be filled, and the _Scud_ resumed her course.

It was now getting near the hour to set the watch, and when it was usual to retire for the night.Most of the party went below, leaving no one on deck but Cap, the Sergeant, Jasper, and two of the crew.Arrowhead and his wife also remained, the former standing aloof in proud reserve, and the latter exhibiting, by her attitude and pas-siveness, the meek humility that characterizes an Indian woman.

"You will find a place for your wife below, Arrowhead, where my daughter will attend to her wants," said the Sergeant kindly, who was himself on the point of quitting the deck; "yonder is a sail where you may sleep yourself.""I thank my father.The Tuscaroras are not poor.The woman will look for my blankets in the canoe.""As you wish, my friend.We think it necessary to de-tain you; but not necessary to confine or to maltreat you.

Send your squaw into the canoe for the blankets and you may follow her yourself, and hand us up the paddles.As there may be some sleepy heads in the _Scud_, Eau-douce,"added the Sergeant in a lower tone, "it may be well to secure the paddles."Jasper assented, and Arrowhead and his wife, with whom resistance appeared to be out of the question, silently complied with the directions.A few expressions of sharp rebuke passed from the Indian to his wife, while both were employed in the canoe, which the latter received with submissive quiet, immediately repairing an error she had made by laying aside the blanket she had taken and search-ing for another that was more to her tyrant's mind.

"Come, bear a hand, Arrowhead," said the Sergeant, who stood on the gunwale overlooking the movements of the two, which were proceeding too slowly for the impatience of a drowsy man; "it is getting late; and we soldiers have such a thing as reveille -- early to bed and early to rise.""Arrowhead is coming," was the answer, as the Tusca-rora stepped towards the head of his canoe.

One blow of his keen knife severed the rope which held the boat, and then the cutter glanced ahead, leaving the light bubble of bark, which instantly lost its way, almost stationary.So suddenly and dexterously was this manoeu-vre performed, that the canoe was on the lee quarter of the _Scud_ before the Sergeant was aware of the artifice, and quite in her wake ere he had time to announce it to his companions.

"Hard-a-lee!" shouted Jasper, letting fly the jib-sheet with his own hands, when the cutter came swiftly up to the breeze, with all her canvas flapping, or was running into the wind's eye, as seamen term it, until the light craft was a hundred feet to windward of her former position.

Quick and dexterous as was this movement, and ready as had been the expedient, it was not quicker or more ready than that of the Tuscarora.With an intelligence that denoted some familiarity with vessels, he had seized his paddle and was already skimming the water, aided by the efforts of his wife.The direction he took was south-westerly, or on a line that led him equally towards the wind and the shore, while it also kept him so far aloof from the cutter as to avoid the danger of the latter falling on board of him when she filled on the other tack.Swiftly as the _Scud_ had shot into the wind, and far as she had forced ahead, Jasper knew it was necessary to cast her ere she had lost all her way; and it was not two minutes from the time the helm had been put down before the lively little craft was aback forward, and rapidly falling off, in order to allow her sails to fill on the opposite tack.

"He will escape!" said Jasper the instant he caught a glimpse of the relative bearings of the cutter and the canoe."The cunning knave is paddling dead to wind-ward, and the _Scud_ can never overtake him!""You have a canoe!" exclaimed the Sergeant, mani-festing the eagerness of a boy to join in the pursuit; "let us launch it, and give chase!""It will be useless.If Pathfinder had been on deck, there might have been a chance; but there is none now.