say,
Jasper, here, will tell you the same; for, like me in the forest, the lad sees
but few such as yourself, on Ontario, to soften his heart, and remind him of
love for his kind. Speak out, now, Jasper, and say if it is not so.«
    »I question if many like Mabel Dunham are to be found anywhere,« returned
the young man gallantly, an honest sincerity glowing in his face, that spoke
more eloquently than his tongue; »you need not mention woods and lakes, to
challenge her equals, but I would go into the settlements and towns.«
    »We had better leave the canoes,« Mabel hurriedly rejoined, »for I feel it
is no longer safe to be here.«
    »You can never do it; you can never do it. It would be a march of more than
twenty miles, and that, too, of tramping over brush and roots, and through
swamps, in the dark; the trail of such a party would be wide, and we might have
to fight our way into the garrison, a'ter all. We will wait for the Mohican.«
    Such appearing to be the decision of him to whom all, in their present
strait, looked up for counsel, no more was said on the subject. The whole party
now broke up into groups, Arrowhead and his wife, sitting apart under the
bushes, conversing in a low tone, though the man spoke sternly and the woman
answered with the subdued mildness that marks the degraded condition of a
savage's wife. Pathfinder and Cap occupied one canoe, chatting of their
different adventures, by sea and land, while Jasper and Mabel sat in the other,
making greater progress in intimacy in a single hour than might have been
effected under other circumstances, in a twelvemonth. Notwithstanding their
situation, as regards the enemy, the time flew by swiftly, and the young people,
in particular, were astonished when Cap informed them how long they had been
thus occupied.
    »If one could smoke, Master Pathfinder,« observed the old sailor, »this
berth would be snug enough, for, to give the devil his due, you have got the
canoes handsomely landlocked, and into moorings that would defy a monsoon. The
only hardship is the denial of the pipe.«
    »The scent of the tobacco would betray us, and where is the use of taking
all these precautions against the Mingos' eyes, if we are to tell them where the
cover is to be found through the nose.