"Your after doubt was but natural," replied the sailor, "although I confess I could not help wincing under the thought of its being entertained. I knew that, on my return, I should be enabled to explain everything, but yet felt nettled that even my short absence should, as I knew it must, give rise to any strictures on my conduct. It was that soreness of feeling which induced my impatient allusion to the subject, even after my good fortune of yesterday, for I at once detected that the slanderous paper had been received and commented on; and from the peculiar glance, I saw Henry direct to you, I was at no loss to discover into whose hands it had fallen. But to resume. "Their plan of action being finally settled, the traitors began to give indication of separating--the one to hasten and announce to the American boat the removal of all impediment to her passage upwards--the other to my gun-boat, in order to play off the falsehood devised for the success of their stratagem. "'Here's damnation to the curst race of Granthams,' said the son, as raising his tall and lanky body, he lifted the rude goblet to his lips. "'Amen,' responded the father, rising also and drinking to the pledge 'and, what's more, here's to the goold eagles that'll repay us for our job. And now Phil, let's be movin'.' "The heavy tread of their feet within the hut as they moved to and fro, to collect the several articles belonging to the equipment of Desborough's canoe, promising fair to cover the sound of our footsteps, I now whispered to Sambo, and we hastily made good our retreat to the point where we left our skiff. In a few minutes, we were again on the lake, paddling swiftly but cautiously towards my gun-boat. I had instructed the sentinels not to hail me on my return, therefore when I gained the deck, it was without challenge or observation of any kind, which could denote to those from whom I had so recently parted, that any one had been absent. "Again I had thrown myself upon the deck, and was ruminating on the singular events of the evening, associating the rich prize, which I now already looked upon as my own, with the rascality of those who, imagining me to be their dupe, were so soon to become mine; and moreover meditating such measures as I fancied most likely to secure a result so opposite to that which they anticipated, when the loud quick sharp hail of the sentinels announced that a craft of some kind was approaching. "'Want to see the officer,' shouted a voice which I knew to be Desborough's. 'Somethin' very partick'lar to tell him, I guess.' "Permission having been granted, the canoe came rapidly up to the side, and in the next minute, the tall heavy form of the settler stood distinctly defined against the lake, as he stepped on the gun-wale of the boat. "It must be needless here to repeat the information of which he was the bearer," pursued Grantham. "Its purport was, in every sense, what I had so recently overheard in the hut.