'em!) in the canoe, in going over these falls; for a boat's breadth,
either way, may make a drowning matter 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, I think 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 exchanged with
Eau-douce, and he remained silent for some time; for, sooth to
say, he had never suspected the possibility of going down Niagara,
feasible as the thing must appear to every one on a second thought,
the real difficulty 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. She witnessed the descent of