第47章

I thought I would play idler once in my life.""And no one has a better right, if long and faithful service entitles a man to a furlough," returned the Ser-geant kindly."Mabel will think none the worse of you for preferring her company to the trail of the savages;and, I daresay, will be happy to give you a part of her breakfast if you are inclined to eat.You must not think, girl, however, that the Pathfinder is in the habit of letting prowlers around the fort beat a retreat without hearing the crack of his rifle.""If I thought she did, Sergeant, though not much given to showy and parade evolutions, I would shoulder Killdeer and quit the garrison before her pretty eyes had time to frown.No, no; Mabel knows me better, though we are but new acquaintances, for there has been no want of Mingos to enliven the short march we have already made in company.""It would need a great deal of testimony, Pathfinder, to make me think ill of you in any way, and more than all in the way you mention," returned Mabel, coloring with the sincere earnestness with which she endeavored to remove any suspicion to the contrary from his mind."Both father and daughter, I believe, owe you their lives, and believe me, that neither will ever forget it.""Thank you, Mabel, thank you with all my heart.But I will not take advantage of your ignorance neither, girl, and therefore shall say, I do not think the Mingos would have hurt a hair of your head, had they succeeded by their devilries and contrivances in getting you into their hands.

My scalp, and Jasper's, and Master Cap's there, and the Sarpent's too, would sartainly have been smoked; but as for the Sergeant's daughter, I do not think they would have hurt a hair of her head.""And why should I suppose that enemies, known to spare neither women nor children, would have shown more mercy to me than to another? I feel, Pathfinder, that Iowe you my life."

"I say nay, Mabel; they wouldn't have had the heart to hurt you.No, not even a fiery Mingo devil would have had the heart to hurt a hair of your head.Bad as I sus-pect the vampires to be, I do not suspect them of anything so wicked as that.They might have wished you, nay, forced you to become the wife of one of their chiefs, and that would be torment enough to a Christian young woman; but beyond that I do not think even the Mingos themselves would have gone.""Well, then, I shall owe my escape from this great mis-fortue to you," said Mabel, taking his hard hand into her own frankly and cordially, and certainly in a way to de-light the honest guide."To me it would be a lighter evil to be killed than to become the wife of an Indian.""That is her gift, Sergeant," exclaimed Pathfinder, turning to his old comrade with gratification writton on every lineament of his honest countenance, "and it will have its way.I tell the Sarpent that no Christianizing will ever make even a Delaware a white man; nor any whooping and yelling convert a pale-face into a red-skin.

That is the gift of a young woman born of Christian parents, and it ought to be maintained.""You are right, Pathfinder; and so far as Mabel Dun-ham is concerned, it _shall_ be maintained.But it is time to break your fasts; and if you will follow me, brother Cap, I will show you how we poor soldiers live here on a distant frontier."