Mabel would have given the world to know what lay behind the teeming word at which Jasper hesitated; but the indefinable and controlliug sense of womanly diffidence made her suppress her curiosity.
She waited in silence for him to explain his own meaning.
"I wish to say, Mabel," the young man continued, after a pause which he found sufficiently embarrassing, "that I am unused to the ways and opinions of one like you, and that you must imagine all I would add."
Mabel had imagination enough to fancy anything, but there are ideas and feelings that her sex prefer to have expressed before they yield them all their own sympathies, and she had a vague consciousness that these of Jasper might properly be enumerated in the class.
With a readiness that belonged to her sex, therefore, she preferred changing the discourse to permitting it to proceed any further in a manner so awkward and so unsatisfactory.
"Tell me one thing, Jasper, and I shall be content," said she, speaking now with a firmness which denoted confidence, not only in herself, but in her companion: "you do not deserve this cruel suspicion which rests upon you?"
"I do not, Mabel!" answered Jasper, looking into her full blue eyes with an openness and simplicity that might have shaken stronger distrust.
"As I hope for mercy hereafter, I do not!"
"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 commencemeut 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.
"Jasper is true, father," added she earnestly; "and if false, he could have no motive in wrecking us in this distant part of the lake at the risk of all our lives, his own included.
I will pledge my own life for his truth."
"Ay, this is well enough for a young woman who is frightened," answered the more phlegmatic parent; "but it might not be so excusable in one in command of an expedition.
Jasper may think the chance of drowning in getting ashore fully repaid by the chance of escaping as soon as he reaches the land."
"Sergeant Dunham!"
"Father!"
These exclamations were made simultaneously, but they were uttered in tones expressive of different feelings. In Jasper, surprise was the emotion uppermost; in Mabel reproach.
The old soldier, however, was too much accustomed to deal frankly with subordinates to heed either; and after a moment's thought, he continued as if neither had spoken.
"Nor is brother Cap a man likely to submit to be taught his duty on board a vessel."
"But, father, when all our lives are in the utmost jeopardy!"
"So much the worse.
The fair-weather commander is no great matter; it is when things go wrong that the best officer shows himself in his true colors.
Charles Cap will not be likely to quit the helm because the ship is in danger.
Besides, Jasper Eau-douce, he says your proposal in itself has a suspicious air about it, and sounds more like treachery than reason."
"He may think so; but let him send for the pilot and hear his opinion.
It is well known that I have not seen the man since yesterday evening."
"This does sound reasonably, and the experiment shall be tried.
Follow me on deck then, that all may be honest and above-board."
Jasper obeyed, and so keen was the interest of Mabel, that she too ventured as far as the companion-way, where her garments were sufficiently protected against the violence of the wind and her person from the spray.
Here maiden modesty induced her to remain, though an absorbed witness of what was passing.