circumspection consequently became
necessary, and each one was too much engrossed with his own thoughts, to feel a
disposition to utter more than was called for, by the exigencies of the case.
    As the canoes stole silently along, the roar of the rift became audible, and
it required all the fortitude of Cap, to keep his seat, while these boding
sounds were approached, amid a darkness that scarcely permitted a view of the
outlines of the wooded shore, and of the gloomy vault above his head. He
retained a vivid impression of the Falls, and his imagination was not now idle,
in swelling the dangers of the rift to a level with those of the headlong
descent he had that day made, and even to increase them, under the influence of
doubt and uncertainty. In this, however, the old mariner was mistaken, for the
Oswego rift, and the Oswego Falls are very different in their characters and
violence, the former being no more than a rapid, that glances among shallows and
rocks, while the latter really deserved the name it bore, as has been already
shown.
    Mabel certainly felt distrust and apprehension, but her entire situation was
so novel, and her reliance on her guides so great, that she retained a
self-command that might not have existed had she clearer perceptions of the
truth, or been better acquainted with the helplessness of man, when placed in
opposition to the power and majesty of nature.
    »That is the spot you have mentioned?« she said to Jasper, when the roar of
the rift first came fresh and distinct on her ear.
    »It is; and I beg you to have confidence in me. We are not old
acquaintances, Mabel, but we live many days in one, in this wilderness. I think,
already, that I have known you years.«
    »And I do not feel as if you were a stranger to me, Jasper. I have every
reliance on your skill, as well as on your disposition to serve me.«
    »We shall see - we shall see. Pathfinder is striking the rapids too near the
centre of the river. The best of the water is closer to the eastern shore; but I
cannot make him hear me, now. Hold firmly to the canoe, Mabel, and fear
nothing.«
    At the next moment, the swift current sucked them into the rift, and for
three or four minutes, the awe-struck, rather than the alarmed, girl, saw
nothing around her but sheets of glancing foam; heard nothing but the roar of
waters. Twenty times