The only amaranthian flower on earth Is virtue; the only lasting treasure, truth.
COWPER.
The reader must imagine some of the occurrences that followed the sudden death of Muir.While his body was in the hands of his soldiers, who laid it decently aside, and covered it with a greatcoat, Chingachgook silently resumed his place at the fire, and both Sanglier and Pathfinder re-marked that he carried a fresh and bleeding scalp at his girdle.No one asked any questions; and the former, although perfectly satisfied that Arrowhead had fallen, manifested neither curiosity nor feeling.He continued calmly eating his soup, as if the meal had been tranquil as usual.There was something of pride and of an assumed indifference to fate, imitated from the indians, in all this;but there was more that really resulted from practice, habi-tual self-command, and constitutional hardihood.With Pathfinder the case was a little different in feeling, though much the same in appearance.He disliked Muir, whose smooth-tongued courtesy was little in accordance with his own frank and ingenuous nature; but he had been shocked at his unexpected and violent death, though accustomed to similar scenes, and he had been surprised at the expos-ure of his treachery.With a view to ascertain the extent of the latter, as soon as the body was removed, he began to question the Captain on the subject.The latter, hav-ing no particular motive for secrecy now that his agent was dead, in the course of the breakfast revealed the fol-lowing circumstances, which will serve to clear up some of the minor incidents of our tale.
Soon after the 55th appeared on the frontiers, Muir had volunteered his services to the enemy.In making his offers, he boasted of his intimacy with Lundie, and of the means it afforded of furnishing more accurate and impor-tant information than usual.His terms had been ac-cepted, and Monsieur Sanglier had several interviews with him in the vicinity of the fort at Oswego, and had actu-ally passed one entire night secreted in the garrison.Ar-rowhead, however, was the usual channel of communica-tion; and the anonymous letter to Major Duncan had been originally written by Muir, transmitted to Frontenac, copied, and sent back by the Tuscarora, who was return-ing from that errand when captured by the _Scud_.It is scarcely necessary to add that Jasper was to be sacrificed in order to conceal the Quartermaster's treason, and that the position of the island had been betrayed to the enemy by the latter.An extraordinary compensation -- that which was found in his purse -- had induced him to accompany the party under Sergeant Dunham, in order to give the signals that were to bring on the attack.The disposition of Muir towards the sex was a natural weakness, and he would have married Mabel, or any one else who would ac-cept his hand; but his admiration of her was in a great degree feigned, in order that he might have an excuse for accompanying the party without sharing in the responsi-bility of its defeat, or incurring the risk of having no other strong and seemingly sufficient motive.Much of this was known to Captain Sanglier, particularly the part in connection with Mabel, and he did not fail to let his auditors into the whole secret, frequently laughing in a sarcastic manner, as he revealed the different expedients of the luckless Quartermaster.
"_Touchez-la_," said the cold-blooded partisan, holding out his sinewy hand to Pathfinder, when he ended his ex-planations; "you be _honnete_, and dat is _beaucoup_.We tak' de spy as we tak' _la medicine_, for de good; _mais, je les deteste! Touchez-la._""I'll shake your hand, Captain, I will; for you're a law-ful and nat'ral inimy," returned Pathfinder, "and a man-ful one; but the body of the Quartermaster shall never disgrace English ground.I did intend to carry it back to Lundie that he might play his bagpipes over it, but now it shall lie here on the spot where he acted his villainy, and have his own treason for a headstone.Captain Flintyheart, I suppose this consorting with traitors is a part of a sol-dier's regular business; but, I tell you honestly, it is not to my liking, and I'd rather it should be you than I who had this affair on his conscience.What an awful sinner!
To plot, right and left, ag'in country, friends, and the Lord! Jasper, boy, a word with you aside, for a single minute."Pathfinder now led the young man apart; and, squeez-ing his hand, with the tears in his own eyes, he continued:
