by cutting them some distance beneath the bend, and permitting the
latter to touch the water, the artificial little thicket had not
the appearance of growing in the stream, which might have excited
suspicion; but one passing it would have thought that the bushes
shot out horizontally from the bank before they inclined upwards
towards the light. In short, none but an unusually distrustful
eye would have been turned for an instant towards the spot in quest
of a hiding-place.

"This is the best cover I ever yet got into," said the Pathfinder,
with his quiet laugh, after having been on the outside to reconnoitre;
"the leaves of our new trees fairly touch those of the bushes over
our heads. Hist! -- yonder comes Eau-douce, wading, like a sensible
boy, as he is, to leave his trail in the water; and we shall soon
see whether our cover is good for anything or not."

Jasper had indeed returned from his duty above; and missing the
canoes, he at once inferred that they had dropped round the next
bend in the river, in order to get out of sight of the fire. His
habits of caution immediately suggested the expediency of stepping
into the water, in order that there might exist no visible
communication between the marks left on the shore by the party
and the place where he believed them to have taken refuge below.
Should the Canadian Indians return on their own trail, and discover
that made by the Pathfinder and the Serpent in their ascent from
and descent to the river, the clue to their movements would cease
at the shore, water leaving no prints of footsteps. The young man
had therefore waded, knee-deep, as far as the point, and was now
seen making his way slowly down the margin of the stream, searching
curiously for the spot in which the canoes were hid.