onnected with the mode of
attack to those who were probably lying in ambush near them. Tearing
the little strip of bunting from the tree, Mabel hastened on, scarcely
knowing what her duty next required of her. June might be false to her,
but her manner, her looks, her affection, and her disposition as Mabel
had known it in the journey, forbade the idea. Then came the allusion to
Arrowhead's admiration of the pale-face beauties, some dim recollections
of the looks of the Tuscarora, and a painful consciousness that few
wives could view with kindness one who had estranged a husband's
affections. None of these images were distinct and clear, but they
rather gleamed over the mind of our heroine than rested in it, and they
quickened her pulses, as they did her step, without bringing with them
the prompt and clear decisions that usually followed her reflections.
She had hurried onwards towards the hut occupied by the soldier's wife,
intending to remove at once to the blockhouse with the woman, though
she could persuade no other to follow, when her impatient walk was
interrupted by the voice of Muir.

"Whither so fast, pretty Mabel?" he cried; "and why so given to
solitude? The worthy Sergeant will deride my breeding, if he hear that
his daughter passes the mornings alone and unattended to, though he
well knows it is my ardent wish to be her slave and companion from the
beginning of the year to its end."

"Surely, Mr. Muir, you must have some authority here?" Mabel suddenly
arrested her steps to say. "One of your rank would be listened to, at
least, by a corporal?"

"I don't know that, I don't know that," interrupted Muir, with an
impatience and appearance of alarm that might have excited Mabel's
attention at another moment. "Command is command; discipline,
discipline; and authority, authority. Your good father would be sore
grieved did he find me interfering to sully or carry off the laurels
he is about to win; and I cannot command the Corporal without equally
commanding the Sergeant. The wisest way will be for me to remain in the
obscurity of a private individual in this enterprise; and it is so that
all parties, from Lundie down, understand the transaction."

"This I know, and it may be well, nor would I give my dear father any
cause of complaint; but you may influence the Corporal to his own good."

"I'll no' say that," returned Muir in his sly Scotch way; "it would be
far safer to promise to influence him to his injur