geant, it is quite out of the question, seeing that he has gone
ahead, and that too with little parting notice to himself, or to any one
else."

"You are not quite so clear as common in your language, Pathfinder. I
know that we ought all to have solemn thoughts on these occasions, but I
see no use in speaking in parables."

"If my words are not plain, the idee is. In short, Master Cap, while
Sergeant Dunham has been preparing himself for a long journey, like a
conscientious and honest man as he is, deliberately, the Quartermaster
has started, in a hurry, before him; and, although it is a matter on
which it does not become me to be very positive, I give it as my opinion
that they travel such different roads that they will never meet."

"Explain yourself, my friend," said the bewildered seaman, looking
around him in search of Muir, whose absence began to excite his
distrust. "I see nothing of the Quartermaster; but I think him too much
of a man to run away, now that the victory is gained. If the fight were
ahead instead of in our wake, the case would be altered."

"There lies all that is left of him, beneath that greatcoat," returned
the guide, who then briefly related the manner of the Lieutenant's
death. "The Tuscarora was as venemous in his blow as a rattler, though
he failed to give the warning," continued Pathfinder. "I've seen many a
desperate fight, and several of these sudden outbreaks of savage temper;
but never before did I see a human soul quit the body more unexpectedly,
or at a worse moment for the hopes of the dying man. His breath was
stopped with the lie on his lips, and the spirit might be said to have
passed away in the very ardor of wickedness."

Cap listened with a gaping mouth; and he gave two or three violent hems,
as the other concluded, like one who distrusted his own respiration.

"This is an uncertain and uncomfortable life of yours, Master
Pathfinder, what between the fresh water and the savages," said he; "and
the sooner I get quit of it, the higher will be my opinion of myself.
Now you mention it, I will say that the man ran for that berth in the
rocks, when the enemy first bore down upon us, with a sort of instinct
that I thought surprising in an officer; but I was in too great a hurry
to follow, to log the whole matter accurately. God bless me! God bless
me!--a traitor, do you say, and ready to sell his country, and to a
rascally Frenchman too?"

"To sell anything; country, soul, body