fully, it being a part of his
standing instructions to approach the station under such circumstances
as would prevent the men from obtaining any very accurate notions of its
position, lest a deserter might betray the little garrison to the enemy.

The _Scud_ was brought to in a small retired bay, where it would have
been difficult to find her by daylight, and where she was perfectly
concealed at night, when all but a solitary sentinel on deck sought
their rest. Cap had been so harassed during the previous eight-and-forty
hours, that his slumbers were long and deep; nor did he awake from
his first nap until the day was just beginning to dawn. His eyes were
scarcely open, however, when his nautical instinct told him that the
cutter was under way. Springing up, he found the _Scud_ threading the
islands again, with no one on deck but Jasper and the pilot, unless the
sentinel be excepted, who had not in the least interfered with movements
that he had every reason to believe were as regular as they were
necessary.

"How's this, Master Western?" demanded Cap, with sufficient fierceness
for the occasion; "are you running us into Frontenac at last, and we all
asleep below, like so many mariners waiting for the 'sentry go'?"

"This is according to orders, Master Cap, Major Duncan having commanded
me never to approach the station unless at a moment when the people were
below; for he does not wish there should be more pilots in those waters
than the king has need of."

"Whe-e-e-w! a pretty job I should have made of running down among these
bushes and rocks with no one on deck! Why, a regular York branch could
make nothing of such a channel."

"I always thought, sir," said Jasper, smiling, "you would have done
better had you left the cutter in my hands until she had safely reached
her place of destination."

"We should have done it, Jasper, we should have done it, had it not
been for a circumstance; these circumstances are serious matters, and no
prudent man will overlook them."

"Well, sir, I hope there is now an end of them. We shall arrive in
less than an hour if the wind holds, and then you'll be safe from any
circumstances that I can contrive."

"Humph!"

Cap was obliged to acquiesce; and, as everything around him had the
appearance of Jasper's being sincere, there was not much difficulty in
making up his mind to submit. It would not have been easy indeed for a
person the most sensitive on the subject of circumstance