l diffidence, he reproached himself with a neglect of duty, and
that knowledge, of which the want struck him as a fault in one whose
business it was to possess it, appeared a merit in the young man. He
saw nothing extraordinary in Jasper's knowing the facts he had related;
while he did feel it was unusual, not to say disgraceful, that he
himself now heard of them for the first time.

"As for moccasins, Master Cap," said he, when a short pause invited him
to speak, "they may be worn by pale-faces as well as by red-skins, it
is true, though they never leave the same trail on the foot of one as
on the foot of the other. Any one who is used to the woods can tell the
footstep of an Indian from the footstep of a white man, whether it be
made by a boot or a moccasin. It will need better evidence than this to
persuade me into the belief that Jasper is false."

"You will allow, Pathfinder, that there are such things in the world as
traitors?" put in Cap logically.

"I never knew an honest-minded Mingo,--one that you could put faith in,
if he had a temptation to deceive you. Cheating seems to be their
gift, and I sometimes think they ought to be pitied for it, rather than
persecuted."

"Then why not believe that this Jasper may have the same weakness? A man
is a man, and human nature is sometimes but a poor concern, as I know by
experience."

This was the opening of another long and desultory conversation, in
which the probability of Jasper's guilt or innocence was argued _pro_
and _con_, until both the Sergeant and his brother-in-law had nearly
reasoned themselves into settled convictions in favor of the first,
while their companion grew sturdier and sturdier in his defence of
the accused, and still more fixed in his opinion of his being unjustly
charged with treachery. In this there was nothing out of the common
course of things; for there is no more certain way of arriving at any
particular notion, than by undertaking to defend it; and among the most
obstinate of our opinions may be classed those which are derived from
discussions in which we affect to search for truth, while in reality we
are only fortifying prejudice.

By this time the Sergeant had reached a state of mind that disposed him
to view every act of the young sailor with distrust, and he soon got to
coincide with his relative in deeming the peculiar knowledge of Jasper,
in reference to the spies, a branch of information that certainly did
not come within th