“I knew it —­ I could have sworn it!” returned the girl warmly.  “And yet my father means well; —­ but do not let this matter disturb you, Jasper.”

“There is so much more to apprehend from another quarter just now, that I scarcely think of it.”

“Jasper!”

“I do not wish to alarm you, Mabel; but if your uncle could be persuaded to change his notions about handling the Scud:  and yet he is so much more experienced than I am, that he ought, perhaps, to place more reliance on his own judgment than on mine.”

“Do you think the cutter in any danger?” demanded Mabel, quick as thought.

“I fear so; at least she would have been thought in great danger by us of the lake; perhaps an old seaman of the ocean may have means of his own to take care of her.”

“Jasper, all agree in giving you credit for skill in managing the Scud.  You know the lake, you know the cutter; you must be the best judge of our real situation.”

“My concern for you, Mabel, may make me more cowardly than common; but, to be frank, I see but one method of keeping the cutter from being wrecked in the course of the next two or three hours, and that your uncle refuses to take.  After all, this may be my ignorance; for, as he says, Ontario is merely fresh water.”

“You cannot believe this will make any difference.  Think of my dear father, Jasper!  Think of yourself; of all the lives that depend on a timely word from you to save them.”

“I think of you, Mabel, and that is more, much more, than all the rest put together!” returned the young man, with a strength of expression and an earnestness of look that uttered infinitely more than the words themselves.

Mabel’s heart beat quickly, and a gleam of grateful satisfaction shot across her blushing features; but the alarm was too vivid and too serious to admit of much relief from happier thoughts.  She did not attempt to repress a look of gratitude, and then she returned to the feeling which was naturally uppermost.

“My uncle’s obstinacy must not be permitted to occasion this disaster.  Go once more on deck, Jasper; and ask my father to come into the cabin.”

While the young man was complying with this request, Mabel sat listening to the howling of the storm and the dashing of the water against the cutter, in a dread to which she had hitherto been a stranger.  Constitutionally an excellent sailor, as the term is used among passengers, she had not hitherto bethought her of any danger, and had passed her time since the commencement of the gale in such womanly employments as her situation allowed; but now that alarm was seriously awakened, she did not fail to perceive that never before had she been on the water in such a tempest.  The minute or two which elapsed before the Sergeant came appeared an hour, and she scarcely breathed when she saw him and Jasper descending the ladder in company.  Quick as language could express her meaning, she acquainted her father with Jasper’s opinion of their situation; and entreated him, if he loved her, or had any regard for his own life, or for those of his men, to interfere with her uncle, and to induce him to yield the control of the cutter again to its proper commander.