She was smiling as if her dreams were pleasant, and her face
wore such a look of peace, that I turned to the east, ready to begin
the day, and to thank God that I had not done everything entirely
wrong. I took the lighter of the canoes, carried it to the water, and
dipping a cautious paddle, crept off along the shore.
If I wake in the woods every dawn for a year, I can never grow stale to
the miracle of it. I was on no pleasant errand, yet I could not help
tingling at the cleanness of the air and at the smell of the mint that
our canoes had crushed. I hugged the shore like a shadow, and rounded
a little bend. It was as I had thought. We had landed on the western
side of a small island, and before me, not a quarter hour's paddling
away, stretched the shore line of the peninsula.
Here was my risk. I paddled softly across the open stretch, but that
availed me little, for I was an unprotected target. I slanted my
course northward, and strained my gaze along the shore. Yet I hardly
expected to find anything. It came like a surprise when I saw in
advance of me a light canoe drawn up on the sand.
I landed, drew my own canoe to shelter, and reconnoitred. I had both
knife and musket ready, and I pulled myself over logs as silent as a
snake.
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