ieving that the Sergeant's daughter will be safer in your
canoe than in this; and though I would gladly keep her near myself, I
have her welfare too much at heart not to give her honest advice. Bring
your canoe close alongside, Jasper, and I will give you what you must
consider as a precious treasure."

"I do so consider it," returned the youth, not losing a moment in
complying with the request; when Mabel passed from one canoe to the
other taking her seat on the effects which had hitherto composed its
sole cargo.

As soon as this arrangement was made, the canoes separated a short
distance, and the paddles were used, though with great care to avoid
making any noise. The conversation gradually ceased; and as the dreaded
rift was approached, all became impressed with the gravity of the
moment. That their enemies would endeavor to reach this point before
them was almost certain; and it seemed so little probable any one
should attempt to pass it, in the profound obscurity which reigned, that
Pathfinder was confident parties were on both sides of the river, in the
hope of intercepting them when they might land. He would not have made
the proposal he did had he not felt sure of his own ability to convert
this very anticipation of success into a means of defeating the plans of
the Iroquois. As the arrangement now stood, however, everything depended
on the skill of those who guided the canoes; for should either hit a
rock, if not split asunder, it would almost certainly be upset, and then
would come not only all the hazards of the river itself, but, for Mabel,
the certainty of falling into the hands of her pursuers. The utmost
circumspection consequently became necessary, and each one was too much
engrossed with his own thoughts to feel a disposition to utter more than
was called for by the exigencies of the case.

At the canoes stole silently along, the roar of the rift became audible,
and it required all the fortitude of Cap to keep his seat, while these
boding sounds were approached, amid a darkness which scarcely permitted
a view of the outlines of the wooded shore and of the gloomy vault
above his head. He retained a vivid impression of the falls, and his
imagination was not now idle in swelling the dangers of the rift to a
level with those of the headlong descent he had that day made, and even
to increase them, under the influence of doubt and uncertainty. In
this, however, the old mariner was mistaken, for the Oswego R