rgeant 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 windward, and the _Scud_ can never overtake him!"

"You have a canoe!" exclaimed the Sergeant, manifesting 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. To launch the canoe would have
taken three or four minutes, and the time lost would be sufficient for
the purposes of Arrowhead."

Both Cap and the Sergeant saw the truth of this, which would have been
nearly self-evident even to one unaccustomed to vessels. The shore was
distant less than half a mile, and the canoe was already glancing into
its shadows, at a rate to show that it would reach the land before its
pursuers could probably get half the distance. The helm of the _Scud_
was reluctantly put up again, and the cutter wore short round on her
heel, coming up to her course on the other tack, as if acting on
an instinct. All this was done by Jasper in profound silence, his
assistants understa