"'Has it been lately used, Sambo--can you tell?"

"'I soon find out, Massa Geral.'

"His device was the most simple and natural in the world,
and yet I confess it was one which I never should have
dreamt of. Stooping on the sands, he passed his hand
under the bottom of the canoe, and then whispered.

"'Him not touch a water to-night Massa Geral--him dry as
a chip.'

"Here I was at fault. I began to apprehend that I had
been baffled in my pursuit, and deceived in my supposition.
I knew that Desborough had had for years, one large canoe
only in his possession, and it was evident that this had
not been used during the night. I was about to order
Sambo to shove off again, when it suddenly occurred to
me that, instead of returning from a visit, the suspected
settler might have received a visiter, and I accordingly
desired my fides achates to submit the remainder of the
canoes to the same inspection.

"After having passed his hand ineffectually over several,
he at length announced, as he stooped over one which I
recognized, from a peculiar elevation of the bow and
stern, to be the same we had passed.

"'Dis a one all drippin' wet, Massa Geral. May I nebber
see a Hebben ib he not a same we follow.'