to fate, imitated from the Indians, in all this; but there was more that really resulted from practice, habitual self-command, and constitutional hardihood.  With Pathfinder the case was a little different in feeling, though much the same in appearance.  He disliked Muir, whose smooth-tongued courtesy was little in accordance with his own frank and ingenuous nature; but he had been shocked at his unexpected and violent death, though accustomed to similar scenes, and he had been surprised at the exposure of his treachery.  With a view to ascertain the extent of the latter, as soon as the body was removed, he began to question the Captain on the subject.  The latter, having no particular motive for secrecy now that his agent was dead, in the course of the breakfast revealed the following circumstances, which will serve to clear up some of the minor incidents of our tale.

Soon after the 55th appeared on the frontiers, Muir had volunteered his services to the enemy.  In making his offers, he boasted of his intimacy with Lundie, and of the means it afforded of furnishing more accurate and important information than usual.  His terms had been accepted, and Monsieur Sanglier had several interviews with him in the vicinity of the fort at Oswego, and had actually passed one entire night secreted in the garrison.  Arrowhead, however, was the usual channel of communication; and the anonymous letter to Major Duncan had been originally written by Muir, transmitted to Frontenac, copied, and sent back by the Tuscarora, who was returning from that errand when captured by the Scud.  It is scarcely necessary to add that Jasper was to be sacrificed in order to conceal the Quartermaster’s treason, and that the position of the island had been betrayed to the enemy by the latter.  An extraordinary compensation —­ that which was found in his purse —­ had induced him to accompany the party under Sergeant Dunham, in order to give the signals that were to bring on the attack.  The disposition of Muir towards the sex was a natural weakness, and he would have married Mabel, or any one else who would accept his hand; but his admiration of her was in a great degree feigned, in order that he might have an excuse for accompanying the party without sharing in the responsibility of its defeat, or incurring the risk of having no other strong and seemingly sufficient motive.  Much of this was known to Captain Sanglier, particularly the part in connection with Mabel, and he did not fail to let his auditors into the whole secret, frequently laughing in a sarcastic manner, as he revealed the different expedients of the luckless Quartermaster.

“Touchez-la,” said the cold-blooded partisan, holding out his sinewy hand to Pathfinder, when he ended his explanations; “you be honnete, and dat is beaucoup.  We tak’ de spy as we tak’ la medicine, for de good; mais, je les deteste!  Touchez-la.”