
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 Mons. Sanglier, had
several 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 Quarter Master'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 Serjeant 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 Capt. 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 Quarter Master.
    »Touchez-la« said the cold blooded partisan, holding out his sinewy hand to
Pathfinder, when he ended his explanations - »You be honnête, and dat is
beaucoup. We tak' de spy, as we tak' la
