Chapter 19

Thus was this place
A happy rural seat of various view.
MILTON.

Mabel was in waiting on the beach, and the canoe was soon launched.
Pathfinder carried the party out through the surf in the same
skillful manner that he had brought it in; and though Mabel's color
heightened with excitement, and her heart seemed often ready to
leap out of her mouth again, they reached the side of the _Scud_
without having received even a drop of spray.

Ontario is like a quick-tempered man, sudden to be angered, and as
soon appeased. The sea had already fallen; and though the breakers
bounded the shore, far as the eye could reach, it was merely in
lines of brightness, that appeared and vanished like the returning
waves produced by a stone which had been dropped into a pool. The
cable of the _Scud_ was scarcely seen above the water, and Jasper
had already hoisted his sails, in readiness to depart as soon as
the expected breeze from the shore should fill the canvas.

It was just sunset as the cutter's mainsail flapped and its stem
began to sever the water. The air was light and southerly, and
the head of the vessel was kept looking up along the south shore,
it being the intention to get to the eastward again as fast
as possible. The night that succeeded was quiet; and the rest of
those who slept deep and tranquil.

Some difficulty occurred concerning the command of the vessel, but
the matter had been finally settled by an amicable compromise. As
the distrust of Jasper was far from being appeased, Cap retained
a supervisory power, while the young man was allowed to work the
craft, subject, at all times, to the control and interference of
the old seaman. To this Jasper consented, in preference to exposing
Mabel any longer to the dangers of their present situation; for,
now that the violence of the elements had ceased, he well knew that
the _Montcalm_ would be in search of them. He had the discretion,
however, not to reveal his apprehensions on this head; for it
happened that the very means he deemed the best to escape the enemy
were those which would be most likely to awaken new suspicions of
his honesty in the minds of those who held the power to defeat
his intentions. In other words, Jasper believed that the gallant
young Frenchman, who commanded the ship of the enemy, would quit
his anchorage under the fort at Niagara, and stand up the lake,
as soon as the wind abated, in order to ascertain the fate of the
_Scud_, keeping midway between the two shores as the best means
of commanding a broad view; and that, on his part, it would be
expedient to hug one coast or the other, not only to avoid a meeting,
but as affording a chance of passing without detection by blending
his sails and spars with