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.