pose 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