the rifle that ye use so well, and off into the
woods with ye, for there's not the female breathing that is worth a heavy heart
for a minute, as I know from experience. Tak' the word of one who knows the sax,
and has had two wives, that women, after all, are very much the sort of
creatures we do not imagine them to be. Now, if you would really mortify Mabel,
here is as glorious an occasion, as any rejected lover could desire.«
    »The last wish I have, Lieutenant, would be to mortify Mabel.«
    »Well, ye'll come to that in the end, notwithstanding; for it's human nature
to desire to give unpleasant feelings to them, that give unpleasant feelings to
us. But a better occasion never offered to make your friends love you, than is
to be had at this very moment, and that is the certain means of causing one's
enemies to envy us.«
    »Quarter Master, Mabel is not my inimy; and if she was, the last thing I
could desire, would be to give her an uneasy moment.«
    »Ye say so, Pathfinder - ye say so, and I dare say, ye think so; but reason
and nature are both against you, as ye'll find in the end. Ye've heard the
saying of love me, love my dog: well, now, that means, read backwards, do'n't
love me, do'n't love my dog. Now, listen to what is in your power to do. You
know we occupy an exceedingly precarious and uncertain position, here, almost in
the jaws of the lion, as it were?«
    »Do you mean the Frenchers, by the lion, and this island as his jaws,
lieutenant?«
    »Metaphorically only, my friend, for the French are no lions, and this
island is not a jaw - unless, indeed, it may prove to be, what I greatly fear
may come true, the jaw-bone of an ass!«
    Here the Quarter Master indulged in a sneering laugh, that proclaimed any
thing but respect and admiration for his friend Lundie's sagacity in selecting
that particular spot for his operations.
    »The post is as well chosen, as any I ever put foot in,« said Pathfinder,
looking around him, as one surveys a position.
    »I'll no deny it - I'll no deny it. Lundie is a great soldier, in