ught not to overlook past transactions. Did
not Major Duncan himself denounce him to Sergeant Dunham before we left
the post? Have we not seen sufficient with our own eyes to make sure of
having been betrayed? And is it not natural, and almost necessary, to
believe that this young man has been the traitor? Ah, Pathfinder! Ye'll
no' be making yourself a great statesman or a great captain if you put
too much faith in appearances. Lord bless me! Lord bless me! If I do
not believe, could the truth be come at, as you often say yourself,
Pathfinder, that hypocrisy is a more common vice than even envy, and
that's the bane of human nature."

Captain Sanglier shrugged his shoulders; then he looked earnestly from
Jasper towards the Quartermaster, and from the Quartermaster towards
Jasper.

"I care not for your envy, or your hypocrisy, or even for your human
natur'," returned Pathfinder. "Jasper Eau-douce is my friend; Jasper
Eau-douce is a brave lad, and an honest lad, and a loyal lad; and no man
of the 55th shall lay hands on him, short of Lundie's own orders, while
I'm in the way to prevent it. You may have authority over your soldiers;
but you have none over Jasper and me, Master Muir."

"_Bon!_" ejaculated Sanglier, the sound partaking equally of the
energies of the throat and of the nose.

"Will ye no' hearken to reason, Pathfinder? Ye'll no' be forgetting our
suspicions and judgments; and here is another circumstance to augment
and aggravate them all. Ye can see this little bit of bunting; well,
where should it be found but by Mabel Dunham, on the branch of a tree on
this very island, just an hour or so before the attack of the enemy; and
if ye'll be at the trouble to look at the fly of the _Scud's_ ensign,
ye'll just say that the cloth has been cut from out it. Circumstantial
evidence was never stronger."

"_Ma foi, c'est un peu fort, ceci,_" growled Sanglier between his teeth.

"Talk to me of no ensigns and signals when I know the heart," continued
the Pathfinder. "Jasper has the gift of honesty; and it is too rare a
gift to be trifled with, like a Mingo's conscience. No, no; off hands,
or we shall see which can make the stoutest battle; you and your men of
the 55th, or the Sarpent here, and Killdeer, with Jasper and his crew.
You overrate your force, Lieutenant Muir, as much as you underrate
Eau-douce's truth."

"_Tres bon!_"

"Well, if I must speak plainly, Pathfinder, I e'en must. Captain
Sanglier here and Ar