nding what was necessary, and lending their aid in a
sort of mechanical imitation. While these manoeuvres were in the course
of execution, Cap took the Sergeant by a button, and led him towards the
cabin-door, where he was out of ear-shot, and began to unlock his stores
of thought.

"Hark'e, brother Dunham," said he, with an ominous face, "this is a
matter that requires mature thought and much circumspection."

"The life of a soldier, brother Cap, is one of constant thought and
circumspection. On this frontier, were we to overlook either, our scalps
might be taken from our heads in the first nap."

"But I consider this capture of Arrowhead as a circumstance; and I might
add his escape as another. This Jasper Freshwater must look to it."

"They are both circumstances truly, brother; but they tell different
ways. If it is a circumstance against the lad that the Indian has
escaped, it is a circumstance in his favor that he was first taken."

"Ay, ay, but two circumstances do not contradict each other like two
negatives. If you will follow the advice of an old seaman, Sergeant, not
a moment is to be lost in taking the steps necessary for the security of
the vessel and all on board of her. The cutter is now slipping through
the water at the rate of six knots, and as the distances are so short
on this bit of a pond, we may all find ourselves in a French port before
morning, and in a French prison before night."

"This may be true enough. What would you advise me to do, brother?"

"In my opinion you should put this Master Freshwater under arrest on the
spot; send him below under the charge of a sentinel, and transfer the
command of the cutter to me. All this you have power to perform, the
craft belonging to the army, and you being the commanding officer of the
troops present."

Sergeant Dunham deliberated more than an hour on the propriety of this
proposal; for, though sufficiently prompt when his mind was really made
up, he was habitually thoughtful and wary. The habit of superintending
the personal police of the garrison had made him acquainted with
character, and he had long been disposed to think well of Jasper. Still
that subtle poison, suspicion, had entered his soul; and so much were
the artifices and intrigues of the French dreaded, that, especially
warned as he had been by his commander, it is not to be wondered that
the recollection of years of good conduct should vanish under the
influence of a distrust so k