goes off," said Jasper eagerly. "There is
little use in running any risk."

"I love to stand up face to face with my enemies like a man, while
they set me the example," returned the Pathfinder proudly. "I am not a
red-skin born, and it is more a white man's gifts to fight openly than
to lie in ambushment."

"And Mabel?"

"True, boy, true; the Sergeant's daughter must be saved; and, as you
say, foolish risks only become boys. Think you that you can catch the
canoe where you stand?"

"There can be no doubt, if you give a vigorous push."

Pathfinder made the necessary effort; the light bark shot across the
intervening space, and Jasper seized it as it came to land. To secure
the canoe, and to take proper positions in the cover, occupied the
friends but a moment, when they shook hands cordially, like those who
had met after a long separation.

"Now, Jasper, we shall see if a Mingo of them all dares cross the Oswego
in the teeth of Killdeer! You are handier with the oar and the paddle
and the sail than with the rifle, perhaps; but you have a stout heart
and a steady hand, and them are things that count in a fight."

"Mabel will find me between her and her enemies," said Jasper calmly.

"Yes, yes, the Sergeant's daughter must be protected. I like you, boy,
on your own account; but I like you all the better that you think of
one so feeble at a moment when there is need of all your manhood. See,
Jasper! Three of the knaves are actually getting into the canoe! They
must believe we have fled, or they would not surely venture so much,
directly in the very face of Killdeer."

Sure enough the Iroquois did appear bent on venturing across the stream;
for, as the Pathfinder and his friends now kept their persons strictly
concealed, their enemies began to think that the latter had taken to
flight. Such a course was that which most white men would have followed;
but Mabel was under the care of those who were much too well skilled in
forest warfare to neglect to defend the only pass that, in truth, now
offered even a probable chance for protection.

As the Pathfinder had said, three warriors were in the canoe, two
holding their rifles at a poise, as they knelt in readiness to aim the
deadly weapons, and the other standing erect in the stern to wield the
paddle. In this manner they left the shore, having had the precaution
to haul the canoe, previously to entering it, so far up the stream as
to have got into the comparatively