nt over the dead body, and thrust his hand
into a pocket of the Quartermaster, out of which he drew a purse.
Emptying the contents on the ground, several double-louis rolled towards
the soldiers, who were not slow in picking them up. Casting the purse
from him in contempt, the soldier of fortune turned towards the soup he
had been preparing with so much care, and, finding it to his liking,
he began to break his fast with an air of indifference that the most
stoical Indian warrior might have envied.

CHAPTER XXVII.

The only amaranthian flower on earth
Is virtue; the only lasting treasure, truth.
COWPER.

The reader must imagine some of the occurrences that followed the sudden
death of Muir. While his body was in the hands of his soldiers, who
laid it decently aside, and covered it with a greatcoat, Chingachgook
silently resumed his place at the fire, and both Sanglier and Pathfinder
remarked that he carried a fresh and bleeding scalp at his girdle. No
one asked any questions; and the former, although perfectly satisfied
that Arrowhead had fallen, manifested neither curiosity nor feeling. He
continued calmly eating his soup, as if the meal had been tranquil as
usual. There was something of pride and of an assumed indifference to
fate, imitated from the Indians, in all this; but there was more that
really resulted from practice, habitual self-command, and constitutional
hardihood. With Pathfinder the case was a little different in
feeling, though much the same in appearance. He disliked Muir, whose
smooth-tongued courtesy was little in accordance with his own frank and
ingenuous nature; but he had been shocked at his unexpected and violent
death, though accustomed to similar scenes, and he had been surprised
at the exposure of his treachery. With a view to ascertain the extent
of the latter, as soon as the body was removed, he began to question
the Captain on the subject. The latter, having no particular motive
for secrecy now that his agent was dead, in the course of the breakfast
revealed the following circumstances, which will serve to clear up some
of the minor incidents of our tale.

Soon after the 55th appeared on the frontiers, Muir had volunteered his
services to the enemy. In making his offers, he boasted of his intimacy
with Lundie, and of the means it afforded of furnishing more accurate
and important information than usual. His terms had been accepted, and
Monsieur Sanglier had severa