第16章

The Pathfinder continued to laugh; but he arose from his knees, and, searching for a tin pot and a horn spoon, he began deliberately to measure the water that had been taken in the passage.

"Fourteen spoonfuls, Eau-douce; fourteen fairly meas-ured spoonfuls.I have, you must acknowledge, known you to go down with only ten.""Master Cap leaned so hard up stream," returned Jasper seriously, "that I had difficulty in trimming the canoe.""It may be so; no doubt it _was_ so, since you say it; but I have known you go over with only ten."Cap now gave a tremendous hem, felt for his queue as if to ascertain its safety, and then looked back in order to examine the danger he had gone through.His safety is easily explained.Most of the river fell perpendicularly ten or twelve feet; but near its centre the force of the current had so far worn away the rock as to permit the water to shoot through a narrow passage, at an angle of about forty or forty five degrees.Down this ticklish de-scent the canoe had glanced, amid fragments of broken rock, whirlpools, foam, and furious tossings of the ele-ment, which an uninstructed eye would believe menaced inevitable destruction to an object so fragile.But the very lightness of the canoe had favored its descent; for, borne on the crest of the waves, and directed by a steady eye and an arm full of muscle, it had passed like a feather from one pile of foam to another, scarcely permitting its glossy side to be wetted.There were a few rocks to be avoided, the proper direction was to be rigidly observed, and the fierce current did the rest.(1)(1) Lest the reader suppose we are dealing purely in fiction, the writer will add that he has known a long thirty-two pounder car-ried over these same falls in perfect safety.

To say that Cap was astonished would not be expressing half his feelings; he felt awed: for the profound dread of rocks which most seamen entertain came in aid of his ad-miration of the boldness of the exploit.Still he was in-disposed to express all he felt, lest it might be conceding too much in favor of fresh water and inland navigation;and no sooner had he cleared his throat with the afore-said hem, than he loosened his tongue in the usual strain of superiority.

"I do not gainsay your knowledge of the channel, Master Eau-douce, and, after all, to know the channel in such a place is the main point.I have had cockswains with me who could come down that shoot too, if they only knew the channel.""It isn't enough to know the channel," said Pathfinder;"it needs narves and skill to keep the canoe straight, and to keep her clear of the rocks too.There isn't another boatman in all this region that can shoot the Oswego, but Eau-douce there, with any sartainty; though, now and then, one has blundered through.I can't do it myself unless by means of Providence, and it needs Jasper's hand and eye to make sure of a dry passage.Fourteen spoon-fuls, after all, are no great matter, though I wish it had been but ten, seeing that the Sergeant's daughter was a looker-on.""And yet you conned the canoe; you told him how to head and how to sheer.""Human frailty, master mariner; that was a little of white-skin natur'.Now, had the Sarpent, yonder, been in the boat, not a word would he have spoken or thought would he have given to the public.An Indian knows how to hold his tongue; but we white folk fancy we are always wiser than our fellows.I'm curing myself fast of the weakness, but it needs time to root up the tree that has been growing more than thirty years.""I think little of this affair, sir; nothing at all to speak my mind freely.It's a mere wash of spray to shooting London Bridge which is done every day by hundreds of persons, and often by the most delicate ladies in the land.

The king's majesty has shot the bridge in his royal person.""Well, I want no delicate ladies or king's majesties (God bless 'em!) in the canoe, in going over these falls;for a boat's breath, either way, may make a drowning mat-ter of it.Eau-douce, we shall have to carry the Sergeant's brother over Niagara yet, to show him what may be done in a frontier.""The devil! Master Pathfinder, you must be joking now! Surely it is not possible for a bark canoe to go over that mighty cataract?""You never were more mistaken, Master Cap, in your life.Nothing is easier and many is the canoe I have seen go over it with my own eyes; and if we both live I hope to satisfy you that the feat can be done.For my part, Ithink the largest ship that ever sailed on the ocean might be carried over, could she once get into the rapids."Cap did not perceive the wink which Pathfinder ex-changed with Eau-douce, and he remained silent for some time; for, sooth to say, he had never suspected the possi-bility of going down Niagara, feasible as the thing must appear to every one on a second thought, the real diffi-culty existing in going up it.

By this time the party had reached the place where Jasper had left his own canoe, concealed in the bushes, and they all re-embarked; Cap, Jasper, and his niece in one boat and Pathfinder, Arrowhead, and the wife of the latter in the other.The Mohican had already passed down the banks of the river by land, looking cautiously and with the skill of his people for the signs of an enemy.

The cheek of Mabel did not recover all its bloom until the canoe was again in the current, down which it floated swiftly, occasionally impelled by the paddle of Jasper.