Cap, but nothing short of seeing and
feeling will make me think Jasper Western a traitor.«
    »There you are wrong again, Pathfinder, for there is a way of proving a
thing much more conclusively than by either seeing or feeling, or by both
together, and that is by a circumstance.«
    »It may be so, in the settlements, but it is not so, here, on the lines.«
    »It is so in nature, which is monarch over all. Now, according to our
senses, young Eau douce is this moment on deck, and by going up there, either of
us might see and feel him; but, should it afterwards appear that a fact was
communicated to the French at this precise moment, which fact no one but Jasper
could communicate, why we should be bound to believe that the circumstance was
true, and that our eyes and fingers deceived us. Any lawyer will tell you that.«
    »This is hardly right,« said Pathfinder; »nor is it possible, seein' that it
is ag'in fact.«
    »It is much more than possible, my worthy guide, it is law; absolute, King's
law of the realm, and, as such to be respected and obeyed. I'd hang my own
brother on such testimony; no reflections on the family, being meant, serjeant.«
    »God knows how far all this applies to Jasper, though I do believe Mr. Cap
is right, as to the law, Pathfinder, circumstances being much stronger than the
senses, on such occasions. We must all of us be watchful, and nothing suspicious
should be overlooked.«
    »Now I, I recollect me,« continued Cap, again using the window. »There was a
circumstance, just after we came on board this evening, that is extremely
suspicious, and which may be set down at once, as a make-weight against this
lad. Jasper bent on the King's ensign with his own hands, and while he pretended
to be looking at Mabel, and the soldier's wife, giving directions about showing
them below, here, and all that, he got the flag Union down!«
    »That might have been accident,« returned the Serjeant, »for such a thing
has happened to myself; besides the halyards lead to a pulley, and the flag
would have come right, or not, according to the manner in which the lad hoisted
it.«
    »A pulley!« exclaimed Cap, with strong disgust - »I