l interviews with him in the vicinity of the
fort at Oswego, and had actually passed one entire night secreted in the
garrison. Arrowhead, however, was the usual channel of communication;
and the anonymous letter to Major Duncan had been originally written by
Muir, transmitted to Frontenac, copied, and sent back by the Tuscarora,
who was returning from that errand when captured by the _Scud_. It is
scarcely necessary to add that Jasper was to be sacrificed in order to
conceal the Quartermaster's treason, and that the position of the
island had been betrayed to the enemy by the latter. An extraordinary
compensation--that which was found in his purse--had induced him to
accompany the party under Sergeant Dunham, in order to give the signals
that were to bring on the attack. The disposition of Muir towards the
sex was a natural weakness, and he would have married Mabel, or any one
else who would accept his hand; but his admiration of her was in a great
degree feigned, in order that he might have an excuse for accompanying
the party without sharing in the responsibility of its defeat, or
incurring the risk of having no other strong and seemingly sufficient
motive. Much of this was known to Captain Sanglier, particularly the
part in connection with Mabel, and he did not fail to let his auditors
into the whole secret, frequently laughing in a sarcastic manner, as he
revealed the different expedients of the luckless Quartermaster.

"_Touchez-la_," said the cold-blooded partisan, holding out his sinewy
hand to Pathfinder, when he ended his explanations; "you be _honnete_,
and dat is _beaucoup_. We tak' de spy as we tak' _la medicine_, for de
good; _mais, je les deteste! Touchez-la._"

"I'll shake your hand, Captain, I will; for you're a lawful and nat'ral
inimy," returned Pathfinder, "and a manful one; but the body of the
Quartermaster shall never disgrace English ground. I did intend to carry
it back to Lundie that he might play his bagpipes over it, but now it
shall lie here on the spot where he acted his villainy, and have his own
treason for a headstone. Captain Flinty-heart, I suppose this consorting
with traitors is a part of a soldier's regular business; but, I tell you
honestly, it is not to my liking, and I'd rather it should be you than
I who had this affair on his conscience. What an awful sinner! To plot,
right and left, ag'in country, friends, and the Lord! Jasper, boy, a
word with you aside, for a single minute."