fort below. Sartain captivity or sartain death would
follow. If a tender fa'n, such as the maiden we have in charge, could
thread the forest like old deer, it might, indeed, do to quit the
canoes; for by making a circuit we could reach the garrison before
morning."

"Then let it be done," said Mabel, springing to her feet under the
sudden impulse of awakened energy. "I am young, active, used to
exercise, and could easily out-walk my dear uncle. Let no one think me
a hindrance. I cannot bear that all your lives should be exposed on my
account."

"No, no, pretty one; we think you anything but a hindrance or anything
that is unbecoming, and would willingly run twice this risk to do you
and the honest Sergeant a service. Do I not speak your mind, Eau-douce?"

"To do _her_ a service!" said Jasper with emphasis. "Nothing shall tempt
me to desert Mabel Dunham until she is safe in her father's arms."

"Well said, lad; bravely and honestly said, too; and I join in it, heart
and hand. No, no! you are not the first of your sex I have led
through the wilderness, and never but once did any harm befall any
of them:--that was a sad day, certainly, but its like may never come
again."

Mabel looked from one of her protectors to the other, and her fine eyes
swam in tears. Frankly placing a hand in that of each, she answered
them, though at first her voice was choked, "I have no right to expose
you on my account. My dear father will thank you, I thank you, God will
reward you; but let there be no unnecessary risk. I can walk far, and
have often gone miles on some girlish fancy; why not now exert myself
for my life?--nay, for your precious lives?"

"She is a true dove, Jasper" said the Pathfinder, neither relinquishing
the hand he held until the girl herself, in native modesty, saw fit to
withdraw it, "and wonderfully winning! We get to be rough, and sometimes
even hard-hearted, in the woods, Mabel; but the sight of one like you
brings us back again to our young feelings, and does us good for the
remainder of our days. I daresay Jasper here will tell you the same;
for, like me in the forest, the lad sees but few such as yourself on
Ontario, to soften his heart and remind him of love for his kind. Speak
out now, Jasper, and say if it is not so?"

"I question if many like Mabel Dunham are to be found anywhere,"
returned the young man gallantly, an honest sincerity glowing in his
face that spoke more eloquently than his tongue; "you n