Has not the lad just saved all our scalps, taken us from defeat, and given us victory? No, no, Lieutenant; if this is the first use that you make of your authority, I, for one, will not respect it.""This savors a little of insubordination," answered Muir;"but we can bear much from Pathfinder.It is true this Jasper has _seemed_ to serve us in this affair, but we ought not to overlook past transactions.Did not Major Duncan himself denounce him to Sergeant Dunham before we left the post? Have we not seen sufficient with our own eyes to make sure of having been betrayed? and is it not natural, and almost necessary, to believe that this young man has been the traitor? Ah, Pathfinder! ye'll no' be making yourself a great statesman or a great captain if you put too much faith in appearances.Lord bless me!
Lord bless me! if I do not believe, could the truth be come at, as you often say yourself, Pathfinder, that hypoc-risy is a more common vice than even envy, and that's the bane of human nature."Captain Sanglier shrugged his shoulders; then he looked earnestly from Jasper towards the Quartermaster, and from the Quartermaster towards Jasper.
"I care not for your envy, or your hypocrisy, or even for your human natur'," returned Pathfinder."Jasper Eau-douce is my friend; Jasper Eau-douce is a brave lad, and an honest lad, and a loyal lad; and no man of the 55th shall lay hands on him, short of Lundie's own orders, while I'm in the way to prevent it.You may have au-thority over your soldiers; but you have none over Jasper and me, Master Muir.""_Bon!_" ejaculated Sanglier, the sound partaking equally of the energies of the throat and of the nose.
"Will ye no' hearken to reason, Pathfinder? Ye'll no'
be forgetting our suspicions and judgments; and here is another circumstance to augment and aggravate them all.
Ye can see this little bit of bunting; well, where should it be found but by Mabel Dunham, on the branch of a tree on this very island, just an hour or so before the attack of the enemy; and if ye'll be at the trouble to look at the fly of the _Scud's_ ensign, ye'll just say that the cloth has been cut from out it.Circumstantial evidence was never stronger.""_Ma foi, c'est un peu fort, ceci,_" growled Sanglier be-tween his teeth.
"Talk to me of no ensigns and signals when I know the heart," continued the Pathfinder."Jasper has the gift of honesty; and it is too rare a gift to be trifled with, like a Mingo's conscience.No, no; off hands, or we shall see which can make the stoutest battle; you and your men of the 55th, or the Sarpent here, and Killdeer, with Jasper and his crew.You overrate your force, Lieutenant Muir, as much as you underrate Eau-douce's truth.""_Tres bon!_"
"Well, if I must speak plainly, Pathfinder, I e'en must.
Captain Sanglier here and Arrowhead, this brave Tusca-rora, have both informed me that this unfortunate boy is the traitor.After such testimony you can no longer op-pose my right to correct him, as well as the necessity of the act.""_Scelerat,_" muttered the Frenchman.
"Captain Sanglier is a brave soldier, and will not gain-say the conduct of an honest sailor," put in Jasper."Is there any traitor here, Captain Flinty-heart?""Ay," added Muir, "let him speak out then, since ye wish it, unhappy youth! that the truth may be known.Ionly hope that ye may escape the last punishment when a court will be sitting on your misdeeds.How is it, Cap-tain; do ye, or do ye not, see a traitor amang us?""_Oui_ -- yes, sair -- _bien sur_."
"Too much lie!" said Arrowhead in a voice of thunder, striking the breast of Muir with the back of his own hand in a sort of ungovernable gesture; "where my warriors?
- where Yengeese scalp? Too much lie!"
Muir wanted not for personal courage, nor for a certain sense of personal honor.The violence which had been in-tended only for a gesture he mistook for a blow; for con-science was suddenly aroused within him, and he stepped back a pace, extending his hand towards a gun.His face was livid with rage, and his countenance expressed the fell intention of his heart.But Arrowhead was too quick for him; with a wild glance of the eye the Tuscarora looked about him; then thrust a hand beneath his own girdle, drew forth a concealed knife, and, in the twinkling of an eye, buried it in the body of the Quartermaster to the handle.As the latter fell at his feet, gazing into his face with the vacant stare of one surprised by death, Sanglier took a pinch of snuff, and said in a calm voice, --"_Voila l'affaire finie; mais,_" shrugging his shoulders, "_ce n'est qu'un scelerat de moins._"The act was too sudden to be prevented; and when Ar-rowhead, uttering a yell, bounded into the bushes, the white men were too confounded to follow.Chingach-gook, however, was more collected; and the bushes had scarcely closed on the passing body of the Tuscarora than they were again opened by that of the Delaware in full pursuit.
Jasper Western spoke French fluently, and the words and manner of Sanglier struck him.
"Speak, Monsieur," said he in English; "_am_ I the traitor?""_Le voila_," answered the cool Frenchman, "dat is our _espion_ -- our _agent_ -- our friend -- _ma foi_ -- _c'etait un grand scelerat_ -- _voici_."While speaking, Sanglier bent over the dead body, and thrust his hand into a pocket of the Quartermaster, out of which he drew a purse.Emptying the contents on the ground, several double-louis rolled towards the soldiers, who were not slow in picking them up.Casting the purse from him in contempt, the soldier of fortune turned towards the soup he had been preparing with so much care, and, finding it to his liking, he began to break his fast with an air of indifference that the most stoical In-dian warrior might have envied.
