true; but it can never
be the way of a just Indian. You've seen the last of him, for his path
cannot be the path of the just. Reason is ag'in the thought in his case,
as it is also, in my judgment, ag'in it too in the case of Lieutenant
Muir. You have done your duty in life; and when a man does that, he may
start on the longest journey with a light heart and an actyve foot."

"I hope so, my friend: I've tried to do my duty."

"Ay, ay," put in Cap; "intention is half the battle; and though you
would have done better had you hove-to in the offing and sent a craft in
to feel how the land lay, things might have turned out differently: no
one here doubts that you meant all for the best, and no one anywhere
else, I should think, from what I've seen of this world and read of
t'other."

"I did; yes. I meant all for the best."

"Father! Oh, my beloved father!"

"Magnet is taken aback by this blow, Master Pathfinder, and can say or
do but little to carry her father over the shoals; so we must try all
the harder to serve him a friendly turn ourselves."

"Did you speak, Mabel?" Dunham asked, turning his eyes in the direction
of his daughter, for he was already too feeble to turn his body.

"Yes, father; rely on nothing you have done yourself for mercy and
salvation; trust altogether in the blessed mediation of the Son of God!"

"The chaplain has told us something like this, brother. The dear child
may be right."

"Ay, ay, that's doctrine, out of question. He will be our Judge, and
keeps the log-book of our acts, and will foot them all up at the last
day, and then say who has done well and who has done ill. I do believe
Mabel is right; but then you need not be concerned, as no doubt the
account has been fairly kept."

"Uncle!--Dearest father! this is a vain illusion! Oh, place all your
trust in the mediation of our Holy Redeemer! Have you not often felt
your own insufficiency to effect your own wishes in the commonest
things? And how can you imagine yourself, by your own acts, equal to
raise up a frail and sinful nature sufficiently to be received into
the presence of perfect purity? There is no hope for any but in the
mediation of Christ!"

"This is what the Moravians used to tell us," said Pathfinder to Cap in
a low voice; "rely on it, Mabel is right."

"Right enough, friend Pathfinder, in the distances, but wrong in the
course. I'm afraid the child will get the Sergeant adrift, at the very
moment when we had him i