for your words; and in ticklish times the plainer a man makes his
English the easier he is understood. I know nothing of ports and
anchors; but there is a direful Mingo trail within a hundred yards
of this very spot, and as fresh as venison without salt. If one of
the fiery devils has passed, so have a dozen; and, what is worse,
they have gone down towards the garrison, and not a soul crosses
the clearing around it that some of their piercing eyes will not
discover, when sartain bullets will follow."

"Cannot this said fort deliver a broadside, and clear everything
within the sweep of its hawse?"

"Nay, the forts this-a-way are not like forts in the settlements,
and two or three light cannon are all they have down at the mouth
of the river; and then, broadsides fired at a dozen outlying Mingoes,
lying behind logs and in a forest, would be powder spent in vain.
We have but one course, and that is a very nice one. We are
judgmatically placed here, both canoes being hid by the high bank
and the bushes, from all eyes, except those of any lurker directly
opposite. Here, then, we may stay without much present fear; but
how to get the bloodthirsty devils up the stream again? Ha! I
have it, I have it! if it does no good, it can do no harm. Do you
see the wide-topped chestnut here, Jasper, at the last turn in the
river -- on our own side of the stream, I mean?"

"That near the fallen pine?"

"The very same. Take the flint and tinderbox, creep along the bank,
and light a fire at that spot; maybe the smoke will draw them above
us. In the meanwhile, we will drop the canoes carefully down beyond