Without an instant of hesitation, she turned the bar, and Cap entered.He had barely passed the opening, when Mabel closed the door again, and secured it as before, for practice had rendered her expert in this portion of her duties.
The sturdy seaman, when he had made sure of the state of his brother-in-law, and that Mabel, as well as himself, was safe, was softened nearly to tears.His own appear-ance he explained by saying that he had been carelessly guarded, under the impression that he and the Quarter-master were sleeping under the fumes of liquor with which they had been plied with a view to keep them quiet in the expected engagement.Muir had been left asleep, or seem-ing to sleep; but Cap had run into the bushes on the alarm of the attack, and having found Pathfinder's canoe, had only succeeded, at that moment, in getting to the blockhouse, whither he had come with the kind intent of escaping with his niece by water.It is scarcely necessary to say that he changed his plan when he ascertained the state of the Sergeant, and the apparent security of his present quarters.
"If the worst comes to the worst, Master Pathfinder,"said he, "we must strike, and that will entitle us to re-ceive quarter.We owe it to our manhood to hold out a reasonable time, and to ourselves to haul down the ensign in season to make saving conditions.I wished Master Muir to do the same thing when we were captured by these chaps you call vagabonds -- and rightly are they named, for viler vagabonds do not walk the earth -- ""You've found out their characters?" interrupted Pathfinder, who was always as ready to chime in with abuse of the Mingos as with the praises of his friends.
"Now, had you fallen into the hands of the Delawares, you would have learned the difference.""Well, to me they seem much of a muchness; black-guards fore and aft, always excepting our friend the Ser-pent, who is a gentleman for an Indian.But, when these savages made the assault on us, killing Corporal M'Nab and his men as if they had been so many rabbits, Lieuten-ant Muir and myself took refuge in one of the holes of this here island, of which there are so many among the rocks, and there we remained stowed away like two leaguers in a ship's hold, until we gave out for want of grub.Aman may say that grub is the foundation of human nature.
I desired the Quartermaster to make terms, for we could have defended ourselves for an hour or two in the place, bad as it was; but he declined, on the ground that the knaves wouldn't keep faith if any of them were hurt, and so there was no use in asking them to.I consented to strike, on two principles; one, that we might be said to have struck already, for running below is generally thought to be giving up the ship; and the other, that we had an enemy in our stomachs that was more formidable in his attacks than the enemy on deck.Hunger is a d----ble circumstance, as any man who has lived on it eight-and-forty hours will acknowledge."
"Uncle," said Mabel in a mournful voice and with an expostulatory manner, "my poor father is sadly, sadly hurt!""True, Magnet, true; I will sit by him, and do my best at consolation.Are the bars well fastened, girl? for on such an occasion the mind should be tranquil and undis-turbed."
"We are safe, I believe, from all but this heavy blow of Providence.""Well, then, Magnet, do you go up to the floor above and try to compose yourself, while Pathfinder runs aloft and takes a look-out from the cross-trees.Your father may wish to say something to me in private, and it may be well to leave us alone.These are solemn scenes, and in-experienced people, like myself, do not always wish what they say to be overheard."Although the idea of her uncle's affording religious con-solation by the side of a death-bed certainly never ob-truded itself on the imagination of Mabel, she thought there might be a propriety in the request with which she was unacquainted, and she complied accordingly.Path-finder had already ascended to the roof to make his sur-vey, and the brothers-in-law were left alone.Cap took a seat by the side of the Sergeant, and bethought him seri-ously of the grave duty he had before him.A silence of several minutes succeeded, during which brief space the mariner was digesting the substance of his intended dis-course.
"I must say, Sergeant Dunham," Cap at length com-menced in his peculiar manner, "that there has been mis-management somewhere in this unhappy expedition; and, the present being an occasion when truth ought to be spoken, and nothing but the truth, I feel it my duty to be say as much in plain language.In short, Sergeant, on this point there cannot well be two opinions; for, seaman as I am, and no soldier, I can see several errors myself, that it needs no great education to detect.""What would you have, brother Cap?" returned the other in a feeble voice; "what is done is done; and it is now too late to remedy it.""Very true, brother Dunham, but not to repent of it;the Good Book tells us it is never too late to repent; and I've, always neard that this is the precious moment.If you've anything on your mind, Sergeant, hoist it out freely;for, you know, you trust it to a friend.You were my own sister's husband, and poor little Magnet is my own sister's daughter; and, living or dead, I shall always look upon you as a brother.It's a thousand pities that you didn't lie off and on with the boats, and send a canoe ahead to reconnoitre; in which case your command would have been saved, and this disaster would not have befallen us all.Well, Sergeant, we are _all_ mortal; that is some con-solation, I make no doubt; and if you go before a little, why, we must follow.Yes, that _must_ give you consola-tion."
"I know all this, brother Cap; and hope I'm prepared to meet a soldier's fate -- there is poor Mabel -- ""Ay, ay, that's a heavy drag, I know; but you wouldn't take her with you if you could, Sergeant; and so the better way is to make as light of the separation as you can.
