on the two remaining adventurers. In less time
than has been necessary to record these occurrences, the canoe was whirling and
tossing in the rift, while both the savages had stretched themselves in its
bottom, as the only means of preserving the equilibrium. This natural expedient
soon failed them, for striking a rock the light craft rolled over, and the two
warriors were thrown into the river. The water is seldom deep on a rift, except
in particular places where it may have worn channels, and there was little to be
apprehended from drowning, though their arms were lost, and the two savages were
fain to make the best of their way to the friendly shore, swimming and wading as
circumstances required. The canoe itself lodged on a rock, in the centre of the
stream, where, for the moment, it became useless to both parties.
    »Now is our time, Pathfinder,« cried Jasper, as the two Iroquois exposed
most of their persons, while wading in the shallowest part of the rapids - »The
fellow up stream is mine, and you can take the lower.«
    So excited had the young man become, by all the incidents of the stirring
scene, that the bullet sped from his rifle as he spoke, but uselessly as it
would seem, for both the fugitives tossed their arms in disdain. The Pathfinder
did not fire.
    »No - no - Eau douce,« he answered - »I do not seek blood without a cause,
and my bullet is well leathered and carefully driven down, for the time of need.
I love no Mingo, as is just, seeing how much I have consorted with the
Delawares, who are their mortal and nat'ral inimies, but I pull no trigger on
one of the miscreants, unless it be plain that his death will lead to some good
ind. The deer never leaped, that fell by my hand wantonly. By living much alone
with God in the wilderness, a man gets to feel the justice of such opinions. One
life is sufficient for our present wants, and there may yet be occasion to use
Killdeer in behalf of the Sarpent, who has done an untimorsome thing to let them
rampant devils so plainly know that he is in their neighborhood. As I'm a wicked
sinner, there is one of them prowling along the bank, this very moment, like one
of the boys of the garrison skulking behind a fallen tree to get a shot at a
squirrel!«
    As the Pathfinder pointed with his finger, while speaking, the quick eye of
Jasper soon caught the object towards which