 CHAPTER IV. And that timid fawn starts not with fear when I steal to her secret bower, and that young may vile it to me as dear, and I visit the silent stream-lit near to look on the lovely flower. BRYANT. AN INDIAN STORY. II. 11-15. The ark, as the floating habitation of the hutters was generally called, was a very simple contrivance. A large flat or scow composed the buoyant part of the vessel, and in its center occupying the whole of its breadth, and about two-thirds of its length, stood a low fabric resembling the castle in construction, though made of materials so light as barely to be bullet-proof. As the sides of the scow were a little higher than usual, and the interior of the cabin had no more elevation than was necessary for comfort, this unusual addition had neither a very clumsy nor a very obtrusive appearance. It was, in short, little more than a modern canal boat, though more rudely constructed, of greater breadth than common, and bearing about it the signs of the wilderness in its bark-covered posts and roof. The scow, however, had been put together with some skill being comparatively light for its strength, and sufficiently manageable. The cabin was divided into two apartments, one of which served for a parlor and the sleeping-room of the father, and the other was appropriated to the uses of the daughters, a very simple arrangement sufficed for the kitchen which was in one end of the scow and removed from the cabin standing in the open air, the ark being altogether a summer habitation. The and-bush, as hurry in his ignorance of English termed it, is quite as easily explained. In many parts of the lake and river, where the banks were steep and high, the smaller trees and larger bushes, as has already been mentioned, fairly overhung the stream, their branches not unfrequently dipping into the water. In some instances they grew out in nearly horizontal lines, for thirty or forty feet. The water being uniformly deepest near the shores, where the banks were highest and the nearest to a perpendicular, Hutter had found no difficulty in letting the ark drop under one of these covers, where it had been anchored with a view to conceal its position, security requiring some such precautions in his view of the case. Once beneath the trees and bushes, a few stones fastened to the ends of the branches had caused them to bend sufficiently to dip into the river, and a few severed bushes properly disposed did the rest. The reader has seen that this cover was so complete as to deceive two men accustomed to the woods, and who were actually in search of those it concealed, a circumstance that will be easily understood by those who are familiar with the matted and wild luxuriance of a virgin American forest, more especially in a rich soil. The discovery of the ark produced very different effects on our two adventurers. As soon as the canoe could be got round to the proper opening, hurry leaped on board, and in a minute was closely engaged in a gay and sort of recriminating discourse with Judith, apparently forgetful of the existence of all the rest of the world. Not so a deerslayer. He entered the ark with a slow, cautious step, examining every arrangement of the cover with curious and scrutinizing eyes. It is true he cast one admiring glance at Judith which was extorted by her brilliant and singular beauty, but even this could detain him but a single instant from the indulgence of his interest in hudder's contrivances. Step by step did he look into the construction of the singular abode, create its fastenings and strength, ascertain its means of defense, and make every inquiry that would be likely to occur to one whose thoughts dwelt principally on such expedience. Nor was the cover neglected. Of this he examined the whole minutely, his commendation escaping him more than once in audible comments. Frontier usages admitting of this familiarity he passed through the rooms as he had previously done at the castle, and opening a door issued into the end of the scow opposite to that where he had left Hurry and Judith. Here he found the other sister, employed at some coarse needlework, seated beneath the leafy canopy of the cover. As deerslayer's examination was by this time ended, he dropped the butt of his rifle, and leaning on the barrel with both hands he turned towards the girl with an interest the singular beauty of her sister had not awakened. He had gathered from Hurry's remarks that had he was considered to have less intellect than ordinarily falls to the share of human beings. And his education among Indians had taught him to treat those who were thus afflicted by providence with more than common tenderness. Nor was there anything in Hedy Hutter's appearance, as so often happens, to weaken the interest her situation excited. An idiot she could not properly be termed, her mind being just enough and feebled to lose most of those traits that are connected with the most artful qualities, and to retain its ingenuousness and love of truth. It had often been remarked of this girl, by the few who had seen her, and who possessed sufficient knowledge to discriminate, that her perception of the right seemed almost intuitive, while her aversion to the wrong formed so distinctive a feature of her mind as to surround her with an atmosphere of pure morality. Peculiarities that are not infrequent with persons who are termed feeble-minded, as if God had forbidden the evil spirits to invade a precinct so defenseless with the benign purpose of extending a direct protection to those who had been left without the usual aids of humanity. Her person, too, was agreeable, having a strong resemblance to that of her sisters, of which it was a subdued and humble copy. If it had none of the brilliancy of Judith's, the calm, quiet, almost holy expression of her meek countenance seldom failed to win on the observer, and few noted it long that did not begin to feel a deep and lasting interest in the girl. She had no color in common, nor was her simple mind apt to present images that caused her cheek to brighten, though she retained a modesty so innate that it almost raised her to the unsuspecting purity of a being superior to human infirmities. Guileless, innocent, and without distrust, equally by nature and from her mode of life, Providence had, nevertheless shielded her from harm, by a halo of moral light, as it is said to temper the wind to the shorn lamb. You are Hetty Hutter, said dear Slayer, in the way one puts a question unconsciously to himself, assuming a kindness of tone and manner that were singularly adapted to win the confidence of her, he addressed. Hurry, Harry, has told me of you, and I know you must be the child. Yes, I'm Hetty Hutter, returned the girl in a low sweet voice, which nature, aided by some education, had preserved from vulgarity of tone and utterance. I'm Hetty, Judith Hutter's sister, and Thomas Hutter's youngest daughter. I know your history, then, for Hurry, Harry talks considerable, and he is free of speech when he can find other people's concerns to dwell on. You pass most of your life on the lake, Hetty. Certainly. Mother is dead, father is gone a trapping, and Judith and I stay at home. What's your name? That's a question more easily asked than it has answered, young woman, seeing that I am so young, and yet have borne more names than some of the greatest chiefs in all America. But you've got a name, you don't throw away one name before you come honestly by another. I hope not, Gal, I hope not. My names have come naturally, and I suppose the one I bear now will be of no great lasting, since the Delaware seldom settle on a man's real title, until such time as he has an opportunity of showing his true nature in the council or on the war-path, which has never be happened to me. Seeing firstly because I'm not borne a red skin and have no right to sit in their counselings, and am much too humble to be called on for opinions from the great of my own color, and secondly because this is the first war that has befalled in my time, and no enemy has yet enroaded far enough into the colony to be reached by an arm even longer than mine. Tell me your names, added Heddy, looking up at him artlessly, and maybe I'll tell you your character. There is some truth in that, I'll not deny, though it often fails. Men are deceived in other men's characters, and frequently given names they by no means deserve. You can see the truth of this in the mingonames, which in their own tongues signify the same things as the Delaware names. At least so they tell me, for I know little of that tribe unless it be by report, and no one can say they are as honest or as upright a nation. I put no great dependence therefore on names. Tell me all your names, repeated the girl earnestly, for her mind was too simple to separate things from professions, and she did attach importance to a name. I want to know what to think of you. Well, Sarton, I have no objection, and you shall hear them all. In the first place, then, I'm Christian, and white-born like yourself, and my parents had a name that came down from father to son as is part of their gifts. My father was called Bumpo, and I was named after him, of course, the given name being Nathaniel, or Natty, as most people saw fit to tarm it. Yes, yes, Natty. And Heddy interrupted the girl quickly, and looking up from her work again with a smile, you are Natty, and I'm Heddy, though you are Bumpo, and I'm Hutter. Bumpo isn't as pretty as Hutter, is it? Why, that says people fancy, Bumpo has no lofty sound, I admit, and yet men have bumped through the world with it. I did not go by this name, howsoever very long, for the Delaware's soon found out, or thought they found out, that I was not given to lying, and they called me, firstly, straight tongue. That's a good name, interrupted Heddy earnestly, and in a positive manner. Don't tell me there's no virtue in names. I do not say that, for perhaps I desire to be so called, lies being no favorites with me as they are with some. After a while they found out I was quick of foot, and then they called me the pigeon, which, you know, has a swift wing, and flies in a straight line. That was a pretty name, exclaimed Heddy. Pigeons are pretty birds. Most things that God created are pretty in their way, my good gal. Though they get to be deformed by mankind so as to change their natures as well as their appearance. From carrying messages and striking blind trails I got at last to following the hunters, when it was thought I was quicker and sure at finding the game than most lads. And then they called me the lapier, as they said I partook of this sagacity of the hound. That's not so pretty, answered Heddy. I hope you didn't keep that name long. Not after I was rich enough to buy a rifle, returned the other, betraying a little pride through as usual a quiet and subdued manner, then it was seen I could keep a wigwam and venison, and in time I got the name of Dearslayer, which is that I now bear, only as some will think it, who set more value on the scalp of a fellow mortal than on the horns of a buck. Well, Dearslayer, I'm not one of them, answered Heddy, simply. Judith likes soldiers and flurry coats and fine feathers, but they're all not to me. She says the officers are great and gay and of soft speech, but they make me shudder, for their business is to kill their fellow creatures. I like your calling better, and your last name is a very good one, better than Natty Bumple. This is natural, in one of your turn of mind, Heddy, and much as I should have expected. They tell me your sister is handsome, uncommon for a mortal, and beauty is apt to seek admiration. Did you never see Judith demanded the girl with quick earnestness? If you never have, go at once and look at her. Even Harry Harry isn't more pleasant to look at, though she is a woman, and he is a man. Dearslayer regarded the girl for a moment with concern. Her pale face had flushed a little, and her eye usually so mild and serene, brightened as she spoke, in the way to betray the inward impulses. I, hurry Harry, he muttered to himself, as he walked through the cabin towards the other end of the boat. This comes of good looks if a light tongue has had no concern in it. It's easy to see which way that poor creature's feelings are leaning, whatever may be the case with your Jude's. But an interruption was put to the gallantry of hurry. The coquetry of his intros, the thoughts of Dearslayer and the gentle feelings of Hetty, by the sudden appearance of the canoe of the ark's owner, in the narrow opening among the bushes that served as a sort of moat to his position. It would seem that Hutter, or floating Tom as he was familiarly called by all the hunters who knew his habits, recognized the canoe of hurry, for he expressed no surprise at finding him in the scow. On the contrary, his reception was such as to denote not only gratification, but a pleasure mingled with a little disappointment at his not having made his appearance some days sooner. I looked for you last week, he said, in a half-grumbling, half-welcome manner, and was disappointed uncommonly that you didn't arrive. There came a runner-through to warn all the trappers and hunters that the colony and the canadas were again in trouble, and I felt lonesome up in these mountains, with three scalps to see to, and only one pair of hands to protect them. That's reasonable, returned March. And it was feeling like a parent. No doubt if I had two such darters as Judith and Hetty, my experience would tell the same story. Though in general I am just as well satisfied with having the nearest neighbor fifty miles off, as when he is within call. Notwithstanding you didn't choose to come into the wilderness alone, now you knew that the canadas' savages are likely to be stirring, returned Hutter, giving a sort of distrustful and at the same time inquiring glance at Deer Slayer. Why should I? They say a bad companion on a journey helps to shorten the path. And this young man I account to be a reasonably good one. This is Deer Slayer, old Tom, a noted hunter among the Delaware's, and Christian-born, and Christian-educated, too, like you and me. The lad is not perfect, perhaps, but there's worse men in the country that he came from, and it's likely he'll find some that's no better in this part of the world. Should we have occasion to defend our traps and the territory, he'll be useful in feeding us all, for he's a regular dealer in venison. Young man, you are welcome, growled Tom, thrusting a hard bony hand towards the youth, as a pledge of his sincerity. In such times a white face is a friend, and I count on you as a support. Children sometimes make a stout heart feeble, and these two daughters of mine give me more concern than all my traps, and skins, and rights in the country. That's natural, cried hurry. Yes, Deer Slayer, you and I don't know it yet by experience, but on the whole I consider that as natural. If we are darters it's more than probable we should have some such feelings, and I honor the man that owns him. As for Judith, old man, I enlist at once as her soldier, and here is Deer Slayer to help you take care of Heddy. Many thanks to you, Master March, returned the beauty in a full rich voice, and with an accuracy of intonation and utterance that she shared in common with her sister, and which showed that she had been better taught than her father's life and appearance would give reason to expect. Many thanks to you, but Judith Hutter has the spirit and the experience that will make her depend more on herself than on good-looking rovers like you. Should there be need to face the savages, do you land with my father instead of burrowing in the huts under the show of defending us females, and girl, girl, interrupt of the father, quiet that glib tongue of thine, and hear the truth. There are savages on the lake shore already, and no man can say how near to us they may be at this very moment, or when we may hear more from them. If this be true, Master Hutter, said Hury, whose change of countenance denoted how serious he deemed the information, though it did not denote any unmanly alarm. If this be true, your ark is in a most misfortunate position, for, though the cover did deceive dear Slayer and myself, it would hardly be overlooked by a full-blooded engine, who was out seriously in search of scalps. I think as you do, Hury, and wish, with all my heart, we lay anywhere else at this moment than in this narrow, crooked stream, which has many advantages to hide in, but which is almost fatal to them that are discovered. The savages are near us, moreover, and the difficulty is to get out of the river without being shot down like deer standing at a lick. Are you certain, Master Hutter, that the red-skins you dread are real Canada's, asked dear Slayer, in a modest but earnest manner? Have you seen any, and can you describe their paint? I have fallen in with the signs of their being in the neighborhood, but have seen none of them. I was downstream a mile or so looking to my traps when I struck a fresh trail, passing the corner of a swamp and moving northward. The man had not passed an hour, and I noted for an Indian footstep by the size of the foot, and the end-toe, even before I found a worn moccasin which its owner had dropped as useless. For that matter I found the spot where he halted to make a new one, which was only a few yards from the place where he had dropped the old one. That doesn't look much like a red skin on the war-path, returned the other, shaking his head. An experienced warrior, at least, would have burned or buried or sunk in the river such signs of his passage. And your trail is quite likely a peaceable trail, but the moccasin may greatly relieve my mind if you be thought you were bringing it off. I've come here to meet a young chief myself, and his course would be much in the direction you've mentioned. The trail may have been his'n. Hurry, Harry, you're well acquainted with this young man, I hope, who has meetings with savages in a part of the country where he has never been before, demanded hudder, in atone, and in a manner that sufficiently indicated the motive of the question, these rude beings seldom hesitating on the score of delicacy to betray their feelings. Treachery is an Indian virtue, and the whites that live much in their tribes soon catch their ways and practices. True, true is the gospel, old Tom, but not personable to dear slayer, who's a young man of truth, if he has no other recommend. I'll answer for his honesty whatever I may do for his valor in battle. I should like to know his errand in this strange quarter of the country. That is soon told, Master Hutter, said the young man, with the composure of one who kept a clean conscience. I think, moreover, you have a right to ask it. The father of two such darters, who occupies a lake after your fashion, has just the same right to inquire into a stranger's business in his neighborhood, as the colony would have to demand the reason why the Frenchers put more rigidments than common along the lines. No, no, I'll not deny your right to know why a stranger comes into your habitation or country, in times as serious as these. If such is your way of thinking, friend, let me hear your story without more words. It is soon told, as I said before, and shall be honestly told. I'm a young man, and, as yet, have never been on a war-path, but no sooner did the news come among the Delaware's that Wampum and a hatchet were about to be sent in to the tribe, than they wished me to go out among the people of my own color and get the exact state of things for them. This I did, and, after delivering my talk to the chiefs on my return, I met an officer of the Crown on the Skahari who had messages to send to some of the friendly tribes that live farther west. This was thought a good occasion for Chinguch-Gook, a young chief who has never struck a foe, and myself, to go on our first war-path in company. And an appointment was made for us by an old Delaware to meet at the rock near the foot of this lake. I'll not deny that Chinguch-Gook has another object in view, but it has no concern with any here, and is his secret and not mine. Therefore I'll say no more about it. To something about a young woman, interrupted Judith hastily, then laughing at her own impetuosity, and even having the grace to color a little at the manner in which she had betrayed her readiness to impute such a motive. If it is neither war nor a hunt, it must be love. Aye, it comes easy for the young and handsome who hear so much of them feelings, to suppose that they lie at the bottom of most proceedings. But on that head I say nothing. Chinguch-Gook is to meet me at the rock an hour before sunset tomorrow evening, after which we shall go our way together, hosting none but the king's enemies, who are lawfully our own. Knowing hurry of old, who once trapped in our hunting grounds, and falling in with him on the scuhari just as he was on the point of starting for his summer haunts, we agreed to journey in company. Not so much from fear of the mingos, as from good fellowship, and, as he says, to shorten a long road. And you think the trail I saw may have been that of your friend ahead of his time? Said Hutter. That's my idea. Which may be wrong, but which may be right. If I saw the moccasin, house ever, I could tell in a minute whether it is made in the Delaware fashion or not. Here it is, then, said the quick-witted Judith, who had already gone to the canoe in quest of it. Tell us what it says, friend or enemy. You look honest, and I believe all you say, whatever, father may think. That's the way with you, Jude, for ever finding out friends where I distrust foes, grumbled town. But speak out, young man, and tell us what you think of the moccasin. That's not Delaware made, returned dear slayer, examining the warn and rejected covering for the foot with a cautious eye. I'm too young on a warpath to be positive, but I should say that moccasin has a northern look, and comes from beyond the great lakes. If such is the case, we ought not to lie here a minute longer than is necessary, said Hutter, glancing through the leaves of his cover as if he already distrusted the presence of an enemy on the opposite shore of the narrow and sinuous stream. It wants but an hour or so of night, and to move in the dark will be impossible without making a noise that would betray us. Did you hear the echo of a peace in the mountains, half an hour since? Yes, old man, and heard the peace itself, answered hurry, who now felt the indiscretion of which he had been guilty, for the last was fired from my own shoulder. I feared it came from the French Indians, still it may put them on the lookout, and be a means of discovering us. You did wrong to fire in more time, unless there was good occasion. So I begin to think myself, Uncle Tom, and yet if a man can't trust himself to let off his rifle in a wilderness that is a thousand miles square, lest some enemy should hear it, where's the use in carrying one? Hutter now held a long consultation with his two guests, in which the parties came to a true understanding of their situation. He explained the difficulty that would exist in attempting to get the ark out of so swift and narrow a stream, in the dark, without making a noise that could not fail to attract Indian ears. Any strollers in their vicinity would keep near the river or the lake. But the former had swampy shores in many places, and was both so crooked and so fringed with bushes that it was quite possible to move by daylight without incurring much danger of being seen. More was to be apprehended, perhaps, from the ear than from the eye, especially as long as they were in the short, straightened and canopied reaches of the stream. I never dropped down into this cover, which is handy to my traps and safer than the lake from Curious Eyes, without providing the means of getting out again. Continued this singular being. And that is easier done by a pull than a push. My anchor is now lying above the suction, in the open lake. And here is a line, you see, to haul us up to it. Without some such help, a single pair of hands would make heavy work in forcing a scow like this upstream. I have a sort of a crab, too, that lightens the pull on occasion. Jude can use the oar a stern as well as myself, and when we fear no enemy, to get out of the river gives us but little trouble. What should we gain, Master Hutter, by changing the position? Ask, dear Slayer, with a good deal of earnestness. This is a safe cover, and a stout defense might be made from inside of this cabin. I've never fought unless in the way of tradition. But it seems to me we might beat off twenty mingos, with palisades like them for us. Aye, aye, you've never fought except in traditions, that's plain enough, young man. Did you ever see as broad a sheet of water as this above us, before you came in upon it with hurry? I can't say that I ever did, dear Slayer answered, modestly. Youth is the time to learn, and I'm far from wishing to raise my voice in counsel, for it is justified by experience. Well then, I'll teach you the disadvantage of fighting in this position, and the advantage of taking to the open lake. Here you may see the savages will know where to aim every shot, and it would be too much to hope that some would not find their way through the crevices of the logs. Now, on the other hand, we should have nothing but a forest to aim at. Then we are not safe from fire, here, the bark of this roof being little better than so much kindling wood. The castle, too, might be entered and ransacked in my absence, and all my possessions overrun and destroyed. Once in the lake we can be attacked only in boats or on rafts. Shall have a fair chance with the enemy, and can protect the castle with the ark. Do you understand this reasoning, youngster? It sounds well. Yes, it has a rational sound, and I'll not gainsay it. Well, old Tom cried hurry, if we are to move the sooner we make a beginning the sooner we shall know whether we are to have our scalps for night-caps or not. As this proposition was self-evident no one denied its justice. The three men, after a short preliminary explanation, now set about their preparations to move the ark in earnest. The slight fastenings were quickly loosened, and by hauling on the line the heavy craft slowly emerged from the cover. It was no sooner free from the encumbrance of the branches than it swung into the streams shearing quite close to the western shore by the force of the current. Not a soul on board heard the rustling of the branches as the cabin came against the bushes and trees of the western bank without a feeling of uneasiness, for no one knew at what moment or in what place a secret and murderous enemy might unmask itself. Perhaps the gloomy light that still struggled through the impending canopy of leaves or found its way through the narrow ribbon-like opening which seemed to mark in the air above the course of the river that flowed beneath aided in augmenting the appearance of the danger, for it was little more than sufficient to render objects visible without giving up all their outlines at a glance. Although the sun had not absolutely set, it had withdrawn its direct rays from the valley, and the hues of evening were beginning to gather around objects that stood uncovered, rendering those within the shadows of the woods still more somber and gloomy. No interruption followed the movement, however, and as the men continued to haul on the line the arc passed steadily ahead, the great breadth of the scow preventing its sinking into the water, and from offering much resistance to the progress of the swift element beneath its bottom. Hotter, too, had adopted a precaution suggested by experience which might have done credit to a seaman, and which completely prevented any of the annoyances and obstacles which otherwise would have attended the short turns of the river. As the arc descended, heavy stones attached to the line were dropped in the center of the stream forming local anchors, each of which was kept from dragging by the assistance of those above it, until the uppermost of all was reached, which got its backing from the anchor or grapnel that lay well out in the lake. In consequence of this expedient the arc floated clear of the encumbrances of the shore, against which it would otherwise have been unavoidably hauled at every turn, producing embarrassments that hotter, single-handed would have found it very difficult to overcome. Favored by this foresight and stimulated by the apprehension of discovery, Floating Tom and his two athletic companions hauled the arc ahead with quite as much rapidity as comported with the strength of the line. At every turn in the stream a stone was raised from the bottom, and the direction of the scow changed to one that pointed towards the stone that lay above. In this manner, with the channel buoyed out for him, as a sailor might term it, did Hutter move forward, occasionally urging his friends in a low and guarded voice to increase their exertions, and then, as occasions offered, warning them against efforts that might at particular moments endanger all by too much zeal. In spite of their long familiarity with the woods, the gloomy character of the shaded river added to the uneasiness that each felt, and when the arc reached the first bend in the Susquehanna, and the eye caught a glimpse of the broader expanse of the lake, all felt a relief that perhaps none would have been willing to confess. Here the last stone was raised from the bottom, and the line led directly towards the Grapnel, which, as Hutter had explained, was dropped above the suction of the current. Thank God, ejaculated Hury, there is daylight, and we shall soon have a chance of seeing our enemies if we are to feel them. That is more than you or any man can say, growled Hutter. There is no spot so likely to harbor a party as the shore around the outlet, and the moment we clear these trees and get into open water will be the most trying time, since it will leave the enemy a cover, while it puts us out of one. Judith, girl, do you and Hedy leave the oar to take care of itself, and go within the cabin, and be mindful not to show your faces out a window, for they who will look at them won't stop to praise their beauty. And now, Hury, we'll step into this outer room ourselves and haul through the door, where we shall all be safe, from a surprise at least. Friend dear Slayer, as the current is lighter, and the line has all the strain on it that is prudent, do you keep moving from window to window, taking care not to let your head be seen, if you set any value on life? No one knows when or where we shall hear from our neighbors. Dear Slayer complied, with a sensation that had nothing in common with fear, but which had all the interest of a perfectly novel and a most exciting situation. For the first time in his life he was in the vicinity of enemies, or had good reason to think so. And that, too, under all the thrilling circumstances of Indian surprises and Indian artifices. As he took his stand at the window the ark was just passing through the narrowest part of the stream, a point where the water first entered what was properly termed the river, and where the trees fairly interlocked overhead, causing the current to rush into an arch of verger. A feature as appropriate and peculiar to the country, perhaps, as that of Switzerland, where the rivers come rushing literally from chambers of ice. The ark was in the act of passing the last curve of this leafy entrance, as Dear Slayer, having examined all that could be seen of the eastern bank of the river, crossed the room to look from the opposite window at the western. His arrival at this aperture was most opportune, for he had no sooner placed his eye at a crack than a sight met his gaze that might well have alarmed a sentinel so young and inexperienced. A sapling overhung the water, in nearly half a circle, having first grown towards the light, and then been pressed down into this form by the weight of the snows, a circumstance of common occurrence in the American woods. On this no less than six Indians had already appeared, others standing ready to follow them, as they left room. Each evidently bent on running out on the trunk and dropping on the roof of the ark as it passed beneath. This would have been an exploit of no great difficulty, the inclination of the tree admitting of an easy passage, the adjoining branches offering ample support for the hands, and the fall being too trifling to be apprehended. When Dear Slayer first saw this party, it was just unmasking itself by ascending the part of the tree nearest to the earth, or that which was much the most difficult to overcome, and his knowledge of Indian habits told him at once that they were all in their war-paint, and belonged to a hostile tribe. PULL, HURRY! he cried, PULL FOR YOUR LIFE, AND AS YOU LOVED JUDITH HUTTER, PULL MAN, PULL! This call was made to one that the young man knew had the strength of a giant. It was so earnest and solemn that both Hutter and March felt it was not idly given, and they applied all their force to the line simultaneously, and at a most critical moment. The scow redoubled its motion, and seemed to glide from under the tree as if conscious of the danger that was impending overhead. Perceiving that they were discovered the Indians uttered the fearful war-hoop, and running forward on the tree leaped desperately towards their fancied prize. There were six on the tree, and each made the effort, all but their leader fell into the river more or less distant from the ark as they came, sooner or later, to the leaping place. The chief, who had taken the dangerous post in advance, having an earlier opportunity than the others, struck the scow just within the stern. The fall proving so much greater than he had anticipated, he was slightly stunned, and for a moment he remained half bent and unconscious of his situation. At this instant Judith rushed from the cabin, her beauty heightened by the excitement that produced the bold act, which flushed her cheek to crimson, and, throwing all her strength into the effort, she pushed the intruder over the edge of the scow, headlong into the river. This decided feat was no sooner accomplished than the woman resumed her sway. Judith looked over the stern to ascertain what had become of the man, and the expression of her eyes softened to concern, next, her cheek crimsoned between shame and surprise at her own temerity, and then she laughed in her own merry and sweet manner. All this occupied less than a minute, when the arm of dear slayer was thrown around her waist, and she was dragged swiftly within the protection of the cabin. This retreat was not effected too soon. Scarcely were the two in safety. When the forest was filled with yells, and bullets began to patter against the logs. The ark being in swift motion all this while, it was beyond the danger of pursuit by the time these little events had occurred, and the savages as soon as the first burst of their anger had subsided, ceased firing, with the consciousness that they were expending their ammunition in vain. When the scow came up over her grapnel, Hutter tripped the latter in a way not to impede the motion, and being now beyond the influence of the current, the vessel continued to drift ahead, until fairly in the open lake, though still near enough to the land to render exposure to a rifle bullet dangerous. Hutter and March got out two small sweeps, and, covered by the cabin, they soon urged the ark far enough from the shore to leave no inducement to their enemies to make any further attempt to injure them. CHAPTER V. Why let the stricken deer go weep, the heart-ungalled play, for some must watch while some must sleep, thus runs the world away. CHAPTER V. Another consultation took place in the forward part of the scow, at which both Judith and Hetty were present. As no danger could now approach unseen, immediate uneasiness had given place to the concern which attended the conviction that enemies were in considerable force on the shores of the lake, and that they might be sure no practicable means of accomplishing their own destruction would be neglected. As a matter of course, Hutter felt these truths the deepest, his daughters having an habitual reliance on his resources, and knowing too little to appreciate fully all the risks they ran. While his male companions were at liberty to quit him at any moment, they saw fit. His first remark showed that he had an eye to the latter circumstance, and might have betrayed, to a keen observer, the apprehension that was just then uppermost. Give a great advantage over the Iroquois, or the enemy, whoever they are, in being afloat, he said. There's not a canoe on the lake that I don't know where it's hid. And now yours is here. Hurry, there are but three more on the land, and they're so snug and hollow logs that I don't believe the Indians could find them. Let them try ever so long. There's no telling that. No one can say that, put in dear slayer. A hound is not more sartan on the scent than a red skin when he expects to get anything by it. Let this party see scalps of forum, or plunder, or honor according to their ideas of what honor is, and will be a tight log that hides a canoe from their eyes. Your right, dear slayer, cried Harry March. Your downright gospel in this matter, and I reject that my bunch of bark is safe enough here, within reach of my arm. I calculate they'll be at all the rest of the canoes of for tomorrow night, if they are in rail earnest to smoke you out, old Tom, and we may as well overhaul our paddles for a pull. Hutter made no immediate reply. He looked about him in silence for quite a minute, examining the sky, the lake, and the belt of forest which enclosed it, as it might be hermetically, like one consulting their signs. Nor did he find any alarming symptoms. The boundless woods were sleeping in the deep repose of nature, the heavens were placid but still luminous with the light of the retreating sun, while the lake looked more lovely and calm than it had before done that day. It was a scene altogether soothing, and of a character to lull the passions into a species of holy calm. How far this effect was produced, however, on the party in the ark must appear in the progress of our narrative. Judith called out the father when he had taken this close but short survey of the omens. Night is at hand. Find our friend's food. A long march gives a sharp appetite. We're not starving, Master Hutter, March observed, for we filled up just as we reached the lake, and for one I prefer the company of Jude even to her supper. This quiet evening is very agreeable to sit by her side. Nature is nature, objected Hutter, and must be fed. With, see to the meal, and take your sister to help you. I have a little discourse to hold with you, friends, he continued, as soon as his daughters were out of hearing, and wished the girls away. You see my situation, and I should like to hear your opinions concerning what is best to be done. Three times have I been burnt out already, but that was on the shore, and I've considered myself as pretty safe ever since I got the castle built, and the ark afloat. My other accidents, however, happened in peaceable times, being nothing more than such flurries as a man must meet with, in the woods. But this matter looks serious, and your ideas would greatly relieve my mind. It's my notion, old Tom, that you and your huts, and your traps, and your whole possessions, here away, are in desperate jeopardy, returned the matter of fact hurry, who saw no use in concealment. According to my ideas of valley, they are altogether not worth half as much today as they was yesterday, nor would I give more form taken the pay in skins. Then I've children, continued the father making the illusion in a way that it might have puzzled even an indifferent observer to say was intended as a bait, or as an exclamation of paternal concern. Daughters, as you know, hurry, and good girls too, I may say, though I am their father. A man may say anything, Master Hutter, particularly when pressed by time and circumstances. You Daughters, as you say, and one of them hasn't her equal on the frontiers for good looks, whatever she may have for good behavior. As for poor Hetty, she's Hetty Hutter, and that's as much as one can say about the poor thing. Give me Jude, if her conduct was only equal to her looks. I see, Harry March, that I can only count on you as a fair weather friend, and I suppose that your companion will be of the same way of thinking, returned the other, with a slight show of pride, that was not altogether without dignity. Well, I must depend on Providence, which will not turn a deaf ear, perhaps, to a father's prayers. If you've understood Harry here to mean that he intends to desert you, said dear Slayer, with an earnest simplicity that gave double assurance of its truth, I think you do him injustice, as I know you do me, and supposing I would follow him, was he so untrue-hearted as to leave a family of his own color in such a straight as this. I've come on this lake, Master Hutter, to rendezvous a friend, and I only wish he was here himself, as I make no doubt he will be at sunset tomorrow, when you'd have another rifle to aid you. An inexperienced one, I'll allow like my own, but one that has proved true so often again the game, big and little, that I'll answer for its service again mortals. May I depend on you to stand by me and my daughters, then, dear Slayer, demanded the old man, with a father's anxiety in his countenance? That may you, floating Tom, if that's your name, and as a brother would stand by a sister, a husband his wife, or a suitor his sweetheart. In this straight you may count on me, through all adversities, and I think Harry does discredit to his nature and wishes, if you can't count on him. Not he, cried Judith, thrusting her handsome face out of the door. His nature is hurry, as well as his name, and he'll hurry off as soon as he thinks his fine figure in danger. Neither old Tom nor his gals will depend much on Master March, now they know him, but you they will rely on, dear Slayer, for your honest face and honest heart tell us that what you promise you will perform. This was said as much, perhaps, in effected scorn for Harry, as in sincerity. Still, it was not said without feeling. The fine face of Judith sufficiently proved the latter circumstance. And if the conscious March fancied that he had never seen in it a stronger display of contempt, a feeling in which the beauty was apt to indulge, then while she was looking at him it certainly seldom exhibited more of a womanly softness and sensibility than when her speaking blue eyes were turned on his traveling companion. Leave us, Judith, utter ordered sternly, before either of the young men could reply. Leave us, and do not return until you come with the venison and fish. The girl has been spoiled by the flattery of the officers, who sometimes find their way up here, Master March, and you'll not think any harm of her silly words. You never said true or syllable, old Tom, retorted hurry. Who's smarted under Judith's observations? The devil-tongued youngsters of the garrison have proved her undoing. I scarce know Judith any longer, and shall soon take to admiring her sister, who is getting to be much more to my fancy. I'm glad to hear this, Harry, and look upon it as a sign that you're coming to your right senses. Heddy would make a much safer and more rational companion than Judith, and would be much the most likely to listen to your suit, as the officers have, I greatly fear, unsettled her sister's mind. No man needs a safer wife than Heddy, said Harry, laughing, though I'll not answer for her being of the most rational. But no matter. Dear Slayer has not misconceived me when he told you I should be found at my post. I'll not quit you, Uncle Tom, just now, whatever may be my feelings and intentions respecting your eldest daughter. Harry had a respectable reputation for prowess among his associates, and Hutter heard this pledge with a satisfaction that was not concealed. Even the great personal strength of such an aid came of moment in moving the ark, as well as in the species of hand-to-hand conflicts that were not unfrequent in the woods, and no commander who was hard-pressed could feel more joy at hearing of the arrival of reinforcements than the borderer experienced at being told this important auxiliary was not about to quit him. A minute before, Hutter would have been well content to compromise his danger by entering into a compact to act only on the defensive. But no sooner did he feel some security on this point than the restlessness of man induced him to think of the means of carrying the war into the enemy's country. High prices are offered for scalps on both sides, he observed, with a grim smile as if he felt the force of the inducement at the very time he wished to effect a superiority to earning money by means that the ordinary feelings of those who aspire to be civilized men repudiated, even while they were adopted. It isn't right perhaps to take gold for human blood, and yet when mankind is busy in killing one another there can be no great harm in adding a little bit of skin to the plunder. What's your sentiments, Harry, touching these points? That you've made a vast mistake, old man, in calling savage blood human blood at all. I think no more of a red skin scalp than I do of a pair of wolf's ears, and would just as leave finger money for the one as for the other. With white people it is different, for they have a natural aversion to being scalped, whereas your Indian shaves his head in readiness for the knife and leaves a lock of hair by way of braggadocio that one can lay hold of in the bargain. That's manly, however, and I felt from the first that we had only to get you on our side to have your heart in hand, and Tom, losing all his reserve as he gained a renewed confidence in the disposition of his companions. Something more may turn up from this in-road of redskins than they bargained for. Dear Slayer, I conclude you are of Harry's way of thinking, and look upon money earned in this way as being as likely to pass as money earned in trapping or hunting. I've no such feeling, nor any wish to harbor it, not I, return the other. My gifts are not scalper's gifts, but such as belong to my religion and color. I'll stand by, you old man, in the ark or in the castle, the canoe or the woods, but I'll not unhumanize my nature by falling into ways that God intended for another race. If you and Harry have got any thoughts that lean towards the colony's gold, go by yourselves in search of it, and leave the females to my care. Much as I must differ from you both on all gifts that do not properly belong to a white man, we shall agree that it is the duty of the strong to take care of the weak, especially when the last belong to them that nature intended man to protect and console by his gentleness and strength. Hurry, Harry, that is a lesson you might learn and practice on to some advantage, said the sweet but spirited voice of Judith from the cabin, a proof that she had overheard all that had hitherto been said. No more of this, Jude, called out the father angrily, move farther off, we are about to talk of matters unfit for a woman to listen to. Hutter did not take any steps, however, to ascertain whether he was obeyed or not. But dropping his voice a little, he pursued the discourse. The young man is right, hurry, he said, and we can leave the children in his care. Now my idea is just this, and I think you'll agree that it is rational and correct. There's a large party of these savages on shore, and, though I didn't tell it before the girls, for they're womanish and have to be troublesome when anything like real work is to be done, there's women among them. This I know from moccasin prints, and, as likely they are hunters, after all, who have been out so long that they know nothing of the war, or of the bounties. In which case, old Tom, why was their first salute an attempt to cut our throats? We don't know that their design was so bloody. It's natural and easy for an Indian to fall into ambushes and surprises, and no doubt they wish to get on board the ark first and to make their conditions afterwards. That a disappointed savage should fire at us is in rule, and I think nothing of that, besides how often they burned me out and robbed my traps, I, and pulled trigger on me in the most peaceful times. The blackards will do such things, I must allow, and we pay them off pretty much in their own sin. And so far there's reason in your ID. Where would a hunter be in his war paint, returned dear slayer? I saw the mingos, and I know that they are out on the trail of mortal men, and not for beaver or deer. There you have it again, old fellow, said hurry. In the way of an eye now I'd as soon trust this young man as trust the oldest settler in the colony. If he says paint, why paint it was? Then a hunting party and a war party have met, for women must have been with him. It's only a few days since the runner went through with the tidings of the troubles, and it may be that warriors have come out to call in their women and children to get an early blow. That would stand the courts, and is just the truth, cried hurry. You've got it now, old Tom, and I should like to hear what you mean to make out of it. The bounty, returned the other, looking up at his attentive companion in a cool, sullen manner, in which, however, heartless cupidity and indifference to the means were far more conspicuous than any feelings of animosity or revenge. If there's women, there's children. And big and little have scalps. The colony pays for all alike. More shame to it that it should do so, interrupted Dear Slayer. More shame to it that it don't understand its gifts, and pay greater attention to the will of God. Here come to reason, lad, and don't cry out before you understand a case. Return the unmoved hurry. The savages scalp your friends, the Delaware's, or Mohicans, whichever they may be, among the rest. And why shouldn't we scalp? I will own. It would be again right for you and me now to go into the settlements and bring out scalps. But it's a very different matter as concerns Indians. A man shouldn't take scalps if he isn't ready to be scalped himself, on fitting occasions. One good turn deserves another, the world over. That's reason, and I believe it to be good religion. I, Mr. Hurry, again interrupt to the rich voice of Judith. Is it religion to say that one bad turn deserves another? I'll never reason again, you, Judy, for you beat me with beauty, if you can't with sense. Here's the Canada's paying their engines for scalps, and why not we pay our Indians, exclaimed the girl, laughing with a sort of melancholy merriment. Father, Father, think no more of this, and listen to the advice of Dear Slayer, who has a conscience, which is more than I can say or think of Harry March. Water now rose, and entering the cabin he compelled his daughters to go into the adjoining room, when he secured both the doors and returned. Then he and Harry pursued the subject, but as the purport of all that was material in this discourse will appear in the narrative it need not be related here in detail. The reader, however, can have no difficulty in comprehending the morality that presided over their conference. It was in truth that which, in some form or other, rules most of the acts of men, and in which the controlling principle is that one wrong will justify another. Their enemies paid for scalps, and this was sufficient to justify the colony for retaliating. It is true the French used the same argument, a circumstance as Harry took occasion to observe in answer to one of Dear Slayer's objections that proved its truth, as mortal enemies would not be likely to have recourse to the same reason unless it were a good one. But neither hot or nor hurry was a man likely to stick at trifles in matters connected with the right of the aborigines, since it is one of the consequences of aggression that it hardens the conscience as the only means of quieting it. In the most peaceable state of the country a species of warfare was carried on between the Indians, especially those of the Canada's, and men of their caste. And the moment an actual and recognized warfare existed it was regarded as the means of lawfully avenging a thousand wrongs real and imaginary. Then again there was some truth and a good deal of expediency in the principle of retaliation, of which they both availed themselves, in particular, to answer the objections of their juster-minded and more scrupulous companion. You must fight a man with his own weapons, Dear Slayer, cried hurry, in his uncouth dialect, and in his dogmatical manner of disposing of all oral prepositions, if he's fierce you must be fiercer, if he's stout of heart you must be stouter. This is the way to get the better of Christian or savage. By keeping up to this trail you'll get soonest to the end of your journey. That's not Moravian doctrine which teaches that all are to be judged according to their talents or learning. The engine like an engine, and the white man like a white man, some of their teachers say that if you're struck on the cheek it's a duty to turn the other side of the face and take another blow instead of seeking revenge, whereby I understand that's enough shouted hurry, that's all I want to prove a man's doctrine, how long would it take to kick a man through the colony, in at one end and out at the other on that principle. Don't mistake me, March, returned the young hunter with dignity. I don't understand by this any more than that it's best to do this, if possible. Revenge is an engine gift, and forgiveness a white man's. That's all. Overlook all you can is what's meant, and not revenge all you can. As for kicking, master hurry, and dear slayer sun burnt cheek flushed as he continued, into the colony or out of the colony, that's neither here nor there, seeing no one proposes it, and no one would be likely to put up with it. What I wish to say is that a red skin's scalping don't justify a pale face's scalping. Do as you're done by, dear slayer. That's ever the Christian Parsons doctrine. No, hurry, I've asked the Moravians concerning that, and it's altogether different. Do as you would be done by, they tell me, is the true saying, while men practice the faults. They think all the colonies wrong that offer bounties for scalps, and believe no blessing will follow the measures. Above all things, they forbid revenge. That, for your Moravians, cried March, snapping his fingers. They're the next thing to Quakers. But if you'd believe all they tell you, not even a rat would be skinned out of Marcy, who ever heard of Marcy on a muskrat, that his stainful manner of hurry prevented a reply, and he and the old man resumed the discussion of their plans in a more quiet and confidential manner. This confidence lasted until Judith appeared bearing the simple but savoury supper. March observed, with a little surprise, that she placed the choice's bits before dear slayer, and that in the little nameless attentions it was in her power to bestow, she quite obviously manifested a desire to let it be seen that she deemed him the honored guest. Accustomed, however, to the waywardness and coquetry of the beauty, this discovery gave him little concern, and he ate with an appetite that was in no degree disturbed by any moral causes. The easily digested food of the forests offering the fewest possible obstacles to the gratification of this great animal indulgence, dear slayer, notwithstanding the hearty meal both had taken in the woods, was in no manner behind his companion in doing justice to the Vyans. An hour later the scene had greatly changed, the lake was still placid and glassy, but the gloom of the hour had succeeded to the soft twilight of a summer evening, and all within the dark setting of the woods lay in the quiet repose of night. The forests gave up no song, or cry, or even murmur, but looked down from the hills on the lovely basin they encircled in solemn stillness, and the only sound that was audible was the regular dip of the sweeps, at which hurry and, dear slayer, lazily pushed, impelling the ark towards the castle. Hutter had withdrawn to the stern of the scow in order to steer, but finding that the young men kept even strokes and held the desired course by their own skill, he permitted the oar to drag in the water, took a seat on the end of the vessel, and lighted his pipe. He had not been thus placed many minutes. Air Hetty came stealthily out of the cabin or house, as they usually termed that part of the ark, and placed herself at his feet, on a little bench that she brought with her. As this movement was by no means unusual in his feeble-minded child, the old man paid no other attention to it than to lay his hand kindly on her head, in an affectionate and approving manner, an act of grace that the girl received in meek silence. After a pause of several minutes Hetty began to sing. Her voice was low and tremulous, but it was earnest and solemn. The words and the tune were of the simplest form, the first being a hymn that she had been taught by her mother, and the last one of those natural melodies that find favor with all classes, in every age, coming from and being addressed to the feelings. Hutter never listened to this simple strain without finding his heart and manner softened, facts that his daughter well knew, and by which she had often profited, through the sort of holy instinct that enlightens the weak of mind, more especially in their aims toward good. Hetty's low sweet tones had not been raised many moments when the dip of the oars ceased, and the holy strain arose singly on the breathing silence of the wilderness. As if she gathered courage with the theme, her powers appeared to increase as she proceeded. And though nothing vulgar or noisy mingled in her melody, its strength and melancholy tenderness grew on the ear until the air was filled with this simple homage of a soul that seemed almost spotless, that the men forward were not indifferent to this touching interruption was proved by their inaction, nor did their oars again dip until the last of the sweet sounds had actually died among the remarkable shores, which, at that witching hour, would waft even the lowest modulations of the human voice more than a mile. Manor was much affected, for rude as he was by early habits and even ruthless as he had got to be by long exposure to the practices of the wilderness, his nature was of that fearful mixture of good and evil that so generally enters into the moral composition of man. "'You are sad tonight, child,' said the father, whose manner and language usually assumes some of the gentleness and elevation of the civilized life he had led in youth, when he thus communed with this particular child, we have just escaped from enemies and ought rather to rejoice. "'You can never do it, father,' said Heddy, in a low, remonstrating manner, taking his hard, naughty hand into both her own. You have talked long with Harry March, but neither of you have the heart to do it. "'This is going beyond your means, foolish child. You must have been naughty enough to have listened, or you could know nothing of our talk. "'Why should you and hurry kill people, especially women and children? Peace, girl, peace. We are at war, and must do to our enemies as our enemies would do to us. I heard dear Slayer say how it was, you must do to your enemies as you wish your enemies would do to you. No man wishes his enemies to kill him. We kill our enemies in war, girl, lest they should kill us. One side or the other must begin, and them that begin first are most apt to get the victory. You know nothing about these things, poor Heddy, and had best say nothing.' "'Judith says it is wrong, father, and Judith has sense though I have none. Jude understands better than to talk to me of these matters. For she has sense, as you say, and knows I'll not bear it. Which would you prefer, Heddy, to have your own scalp taken and sold to the French, or that we should kill our enemies and keep them from harming us?' "'That's not it, father. Don't kill them, nor let them kill us. Sell your skins and get more if you can, but don't sell human blood.' "'Come, come, child, let us talk of matters you understand. Are you glad to see our old friend March back again? You like Hurry, and must know that one day he may be your brother, if not something nearer.' "'That can't be, father,' returned the girl after a considerable pause. Hurry has had one father and one mother, and people never have two.' "'So much for your weak mind, Heddy. When Jude marries, her husband's father will be her father, and her husband's sister her sister. If she should marry Hurry, then he will be your brother. Jude will never have Hurry,' returned the girl mildly, but positively. Jude don't like Hurry. "'That's more than you can know, Heddy. Harry March is the handsomest and the strongest and the boldest young man that ever visits the lake. And as Jude is the greatest beauty, I don't see why they shouldn't come together. He has as much promised that he will enter into this job with me, on condition that I'll consent.' Heddy began to move her body back and forth, and otherwise to express mental agitation, but she made no answer for more than a minute. Her father, accustomed to her manner, and suspecting no immediate cause of concern, continued to smoke with the apparent flam which would seem to belong to that particular species of enjoyment. "'Hurry is handsome,' father said Heddy, with a simple emphasis, that she might have hesitated about using had her mind been more alive to the inferences of others. "'I told you so, child,' muttered old Hutter, without removing the pipe from between his teeth, "'he's the likeliest youth in these parts, and Jude is the likeliest young woman I've met with since her poor mother was in her best days. Is it wicked to be ugly, father? One might be guilty of worse things, but you're by no means ugly, though not so comely as Jude. Is Judith any happier for being so handsome? She may be, child, and she may not be, but talk of other matters now, for you hardly understand these, poor Heddy. How do you like our new acquaintance, dear Slayer?' "'He isn't handsome, father. Hurry is far handsomer than dear Slayer.' "'That's true. But they say he is a noted hunter. His fame had reached me before I ever saw him. And I did hope he would prove to be as stout a warrior as he is dexterous with the deer. All men are not alike, house-ever, child, and it takes time, as I know by experience, to give a man a true wilderness heart.' "'Have I got a wilderness heart, father? And hurry. Is his heart true wilderness?' "'You sometimes ask queer questions, Heddy. Your heart is good, child, and fitter for the settlements than for the woods, while your reason is fitter for the woods than for the settlements.' "'Why has Judith more reason than I, father?' "'Heaven help thee, child. This is more than I can answer. God gives sense and appearance and all these things. And he grants them as he seeeth fit. Does thou wish for more sense?' "'Not high. The little I have troubles me, for when I think the hardest, then I feel the unhappiest. I don't believe thinking is good for me, though I do wish I was as handsome as Judith. "'Why so, poor child?' "'Thy sister's beauty may cause her trouble as it caused her mother before her. It's no advantage, Heddy, to be so marked for anything as to become an object of envy, or to be sought after more than others. Mother was good, if she was handsome. Returned the girl, the tears starting to her eyes as usually happened when she averted to her deceased parent. Old Hutter, if not equally affected, was moody and silent, with this allusion to his wife. He continued smoking, without appearing disposed to make any answer, until his simple-minded daughter repeated her remark, in a way to show that she felt uneasiness, lest he might be inclined to deny her assertion. Then he knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and, laying his hand in a sort of rough kindness on the girl's head, he made a reply. "'Thy mother was too good for this world,' he said. Though others might not think so. Her good looks did not befriend her. And you have no occasion to mourn that you are not as much like her as your sister. Think less of beauty, child, and more of your duty. And you'll be as happy on this lake as you could be in the king's palace.' "'I know it, father. But hurry,' says Beauty, as everything in a young woman. Hutter made an ejaculation expressive of dissatisfaction and went forward passing through the house in order to do so. Yet his simple betrayal of her weakness in behalf of March gave him uneasiness on a subject concerning which he had never felt before, and he determined to come to an explanation at once with his visitor. For directness of speech and decision and conduct were two of the best qualities of this rude being, in whom the seeds of a better education seemed to be constantly struggling upwards. To be choked by the fruits of a life in which his hard struggles for subsistence and security had steeled his feelings and indurated his nature. When he reached the forward end of the scow, he manifested an intention to relieve Dear Slayer at the oar, directing the latter to take his own place aft. By these changes the old man and hurry were again left alone, while the young hunter was transferred to the other end of the ark. Yet he had disappeared when Dear Slayer reached his new post, and for some little time he directed the course of the slow-moving craft by himself. It was not long, however, before Judith came out of the cabin as if disposed to do the honors of the place to a stranger engaged in the service of her family. The starlight was sufficient to permit objects to be plainly distinguished when near at hand, and the bright eyes of the girl had an expression of kindness in them, when they met those of the youth, that the latter was easily unable to discover. Her rich hair shaded her spirited and yet soft countenance, even at that hour rendering it the more beautiful, as the rose is loveliest when reposing amid the shadows and contrasts of its native foliage. Little ceremony is used in the intercourse of the woods, and Judith had acquired a readiness of address by the admiration that she so generally excited, which, if it did not amount to forwardness, certainly in no degree lent to her charms the aid of that retiring modesty on which poets love to dwell. I thought I should have killed myself with laughing, dear Slayer, the beauty abruptly but coquettishly commenced, when I saw that Indian dive into the river. He was a good-looking savage, too. The girl always dwelt on personal beauty as a sort of merit. And yet one couldn't stop to consider whether his paint would stand water. And I thought they would have killed you with their weapons, Judith, return, dear Slayer. It was an awful risk for a female to run in the face of a dozen mingos. Did that make you come out of the cabin, in spite of the rifles, too, asked the girl, with more real interest than she would have cared to betray, though with an indifference of manner that was the result of a good deal of practice united to native readiness? Men aren't apt to see females in danger and not come to their assistance. Even a mingo knows that. This sentiment was uttered with as much simplicity of manner as of feeling, and Judith rewarded it with a smile so sweet that even dear Slayer, who had imbibed a prejudice against the girl in consequence of hurry's suspicions of her levity, felt its charm, notwithstanding half its winning influence was lost in the feeble light. It at once created a sort of confidence between them, and the discourse was continued on the part of the hunter without the lively consciousness of the character of this coquette of the wilderness with which it had certainly commenced. You are a man of deeds and not of words, I see plainly, dear Slayer, continued the beauty taking her seat near the spot where the other stood, and I foresee we shall be very good friends. Hurry, Harry, has a tongue, and, giant as he is, he talks more than he performs. March is your friend, Judith, and friends should be tender of each other, when apart. We all know what hurry's friendship comes to. Let him have his own way in everything, and he's the best fellow in the colony. But head him off, as you say of the deer, and he is master of everything near him but himself. Hurry is no favorite of mine, dear Slayer, and I dare say if the truth was known, and his conversation about me repeated, it would be found that he thinks no better of me than I own I do of him. The latter part of this speech was not uttered without uneasiness. Had the girl's companion been more sophisticated he might have observed the averted face, the manner in which the pretty little foot was agitated, and other signs that for some unexplained reason the opinions of March were not quite as much a matter of indifference to her as she thought fit to pretend. Whether this was no more than the ordinary working of female vanity feeling keenly even when it affected not to feel at all, or whether it proceeded from that deeply seated consciousness of right and wrong which God himself has implanted in our breasts that we may know good from evil, will be made more apparent to the reader as we proceed in the tale. Dear Slayer felt embarrassed. He well remembered the cruel imputations left by March's distrust, and while he did not wish to injure his associates suit by exciting resentment against him, his tongue was one that literally knew no guile. To answer without saying more or less than he wished was consequently a delicate duty. March has his say of all things in nature, whether of friend or foe. Slowly and cautiously rejoined the hunter. He's one of them that speak as they feel while the tongues are going, and that's sometimes different from what they'd speak if they took time to consider. Give me a Delaware, Judith, for one that reflects and ruminates on his ids. Inmity has made him thoughtful, and a loose tongue is no recommend of their counsel-fires. I dare say March's tongue goes free enough when it gets on the subject of Judith Hutter and her sister, said the girl rousing herself as if in careless disdain. Young women's good names are a pleasant matter of discourse with some that wouldn't dare to be so open-mouthed if there was a brother in the way. Master March may find it pleasant to traduce us, but sooner or later he'll repent. Nay, Judith, this is taking the matter up too much in earnest. Hurry has never whispered a syllable again the good name of Hetty to begin with. I see how it is. I see how it is, impetuously interrupted, Judith. I am the one he sees fit to scorch with his withering tongue. Hetty indeed. Poor Hetty. She continued, her voice sinking into low husky tones that seemed nearly to stifle her in the utterance. She is beyond and above his slanderous malice, poor Hetty. If God has created her feeble-minded, the weakness lies altogether on the side of errors of which she seems to know nothing. The earth never held a purer being than Hetty Hutter, dear Slayer. I can believe it, yes. I can believe that, Judith, and I hope honestly that the same can be said of her handsome sister. There was a soothing sincerity in the voice of dear Slayer, which touched the girl's feelings. Slayer did the allusion to her beauty lessen the effect with one who only knew too well the power of her personal charms. Nevertheless, the still small voice of conscience was not hushed, and it prompted the answer which she made after giving herself time to reflect. I daresay hurry had some of his vile hints about the people of the garrisons, she added. He knows they are gentlemen, and can never forgive any one for being what he feels he can never become himself. Not in the sense of a king's officer, Judith, certainly, for March has no turn that away, but in the sense of reality, why may not a beaver hunter be as respectable as a governor? Since you speak of it yourself, I'll not deny that he did complain of one as humble as you, being so much in the company of scarlet coats and silken sashes. But was jealousy that brought it out of him, and I do think he mourned over his own thoughts as a mother would have mourned over her child. This dearslayer was not aware of the full meaning that his earnest language conveyed. It is certain that he did not see the color that crimsoned the whole of Judith's fine face, nor detect the uncontrollable distress that immediately after changed its hue to deadly paleness. A minute or two elapsed in profound stillness, the splash of the water seeming to occupy all the avenues of sound. And then Judith arose and grasped the hand of the hunter, almost convulsively, with one of her own. "'Dearslayer,' she said hurriedly, "'I'm glad the ice is broken between us. They say that sudden friendships lead to long enmities, but I do not believe it will turn out so with us. I know not how it is. But you are the first man I ever met who did not seem to wish to flatter, to wish my ruin, to be an enemy in disguise. Never mind. Say nothing to hurry, and another time we'll talk together again.' As the girl released her grasp, she vanished in the house, leaving the astonished young man standing at the steering-ore, as motionless as one of the pines on the hills. So abstracted indeed had his thoughts become that he was hailed by hotter to keep the scow's head in the right direction, before he remembered his actual situation. No spake the apostate angel, though in pain, vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair. PARADISE LOST 1. Lines 125 to 126. Shortly after the disappearance of Judith, a light southerly air arose, and Hutter set a large square sail that had once been the flying top sail of an Albany sloop, but which having become thread-bearer in catching the breezes of Tapan, had been condemned and sold. He had a light, tough spar of tamarack that he could raise on occasion, and with a little contrivance his duck was spread to the wind in a sufficiently professional manner. The effect on the ark was such as to supersede the necessity of growing, and in about two hours the castle was seen, in the darkness, rising out of the water, at the distance of a hundred yards. The sail was then lowered, and by slow degrees the scow drifted up to the building, and was secured. No one had visited the house since Hurry and his companion left it. The place was found in the quiet of midnight, a sort of type of the solitude of a wilderness. As an enemy was known to be near, Hutter directed his daughters to abstain from the use of lights, luxuries in which they seldom indulged during the warm months, lest they might prove beacons to direct their foes where they might be found. In open daylight I shouldn't fear a host of savages behind these stout logs, and they without any cover to skulk into, added Hutter, when he had explained to his guests the reasons why he forbade the use of light. For I have three or four trusty weapons always loaded, and kill-dear, in particular, is a piece that never misses. But it's a different thing at night, a canoe might get upon us unseen in the dark, and the savages have so many cunning ways of attacking that I look upon it as bad enough to deal with them under a bright sun. I built this dwelling in order to have him at arm's length in case we should ever get to blows again. Some people think it's too open and exposed, but I'm for anchoring out here, clear of underbrush and thickets, as the surest means of making a safe birth. You was once a sailor, they tell me, old Tom, said Hurry, in his abrupt manner, struck by one or two expressions that the other had just used, and some people believe you could give a strange accounts of enemies and shipwrecks, if you'd a mind to come out with all you know. There are people in this world, Hurry, returned the other, evasively, who live on other man's thoughts, and some such often find their way into the woods. What I've been, or what I've seen in youth, is of less matter now than what the savages are. It's of more account to find out what will happen in the next twenty-four hours than to talk over what happened twenty-four years since. That's judgment, dear Slayer. Yes. That's sound judgment. Here's Judith and Hattie to take care of to say nothing of our own top knots. And for my part I can sleep as well in the dark as I could under a noonday sun. To me it's no great matter whether there is light or not, to see or shut my eyes by. As dear Slayer seldom thought it necessary to answer his companion's particular vein of humor, and Hutter was evidently indisposed to dwell longer on the subject, its discussion ceased with this remark. The latter had something more on his mind, however, than recollections. His daughters had no sooner left them with an expressed intention of going to bed than he invited his two companions to follow him again into the scow. Here the old man opened his project, keeping back the portion that he had reserved for execution by Hury and himself. The great object for people posted like ourselves is to command the water, he commenced. So long as there was no other craft on the lake a bark canoe is as good as a man of war, since the castle will not be easily taken by swimming. Now there are but five canoes remaining in these parts, two of which are mine, and one is Hury's. These three we have with us here, one being fastened in the canoe dock beneath the house, and the other two being alongside the scow. The other canoes are housed on the shore, in hollow logs, and the savages, who are such venomous enemies, will leave no likely place unexamined in the morning if they're serious in sarcha bounties. Now friend Hutter interrupted Hury, the Indian don't live that can find a canoe that is suitably wintered. I've done something at this business before now, and dear Slayer here knows that I am one that can hide a craft in such a way that I can't find it myself. Very true Hury put in the person to whom the appeal had been made, but you overlooked the circumstance that if you couldn't see the trail of the man who did the job, I could. I'm of master Hutter's mind that it's far wiser to mistrust a savages ingenuity than to build any great expectation on his want of eyesight. If these two canoes can be got off to the castle, therefore, the sooner it's done the better. Will you be of the party that's to do it, demanded Hutter, in a way to show that the proposal both surprised and pleased him? Sarton. I'm ready to enlist in any enterprise that's not again a white man's lawful gifts. Nature orders us to defend our lives, and the lives of others, too, when there's occasion and opportunity. I'll follow you, floating Tom, into the mingo camp, on such an errand, and we'll strive to do my duty should we come to blows, though, never having been tried in battle, I don't like to promise more than I may be able to perform. We all know our wishes, but none know their might till put to the proof. That's modest and suitable, lad, exclaimed Hury. You've never yet heard the crack of an angry rifle, and let me tell you, tis as different from the persuasion of one of your venison's speeches, as the laugh of Judith Hutter in her best humor is from the scolding of a Dutch housekeeper on the Mohawk. I don't expect you'll prove much of a warrior, dear Slayer, though you're equal with the bucks and the does, don't exist in all these parts. As for the rail service, however, you'll turn out rather rearward, according to Mike and Sate. We'll see, Hury, we'll see, returned the other meekly. So far as human eye could discover, not at all disturbed by these expressed doubts concerning his conduct on a point in which men are sensitive, precisely in the degree that they feel the consciousness of demerit. Having never been tried, I'll wait to know before I form any opinion of myself, and then there'll be certainty instead of bragging. I've heard of them that was valiant before the fight, who did little in it, and of them that waited to know their own tempers and found that they weren't as bad as some expected when put to the proof. At any rate, we know you can use a paddle, young man, said Hutter. And that's all we shall ask of you tonight. Let us waste no more time, but get into the canoe, and do in place of talking. As Hutter led the way in the execution of his project, the boat was soon ready with Hury and dear Slayer at the paddles. Before the old man embarked himself, however, he held a conference of several minutes with Judith entering the house for that purpose. Then, returning, he took his place in the canoe which left the side of the ark at the next instant. Had there been a temple reared to God in that solitary wilderness, its clock would have told the hour of midnight as the party set forth on their expedition. The darkness had increased, though the night was still clear, and the light of the stars sufficed for all the purposes of the adventurers. Hutter alone knew the places where the canoes were hid, and he directed the course, while his two athletic companions raised and dipped their paddles with proper caution, lest the sound should be carried to the ears of their enemies, across that sheet of placid water, in the stillness of deep night. But the bark was too light to require any extraordinary efforts and skills supplying the place of strength, in about half an hour they were approaching the shore, at a point near a league from the castle. Lay on your paddles, men," said Hutter, in a low voice, and let us look about us for a moment. We must now be all eyes and ears, for these vermin have noses like bloodhounds. The shores of the lake were examined closely in order to discover any glimmering of light that might have been left in a camp, and the men strained their eyes in the obscurity to see if some thread of smoke was not still stealing along the mountainside, as it arose from the dying embers of a fire. Nothing unusual could be traced. And as the position was at some distance from the outlet, or the spot where the savages had been met, it was thought safe to land. The paddles were applied again, and the boughs of the canoe ground upon the gravely beach with a gentle motion, and a sound barely audible. Hutter and hurry immediately landed, the former carrying his own and his friend's rifle, leaving Gearslayer in charge of the canoe. The hollow log lay a little distance up the side of the mountain, and the old man led the way towards it, using so much caution as to stop at every third or fourth step to listen if any tread betrayed the presence of a foe. The same death-like stillness, however, reigned on the midnight scene, and the desired place was reached without an occurrence to induce alarm. This is it! whispered Hutter, laying a foot on the trunk of a fallen linden, hand me the paddles first, and draw the boat out with care, for the wretches may have left it for a bait after all. Keep my rifle handy, but towards me, old fellow! answered March. If they attack me loaded, I shall want to unload the peace-atom at least. And feel of the pan is full. All's right! muttered the other. Move slow when you get your load, and let me lead the way. The canoe was drawn out of the log with the utmost care raised by hurry to his shoulder, and the two began to return to the shore, moving but a step at a time lest they should tumble down the steep declivity. The distance was not great, but the descent was extremely difficult, and, towards the end of their little journey, dear slayer was obliged to land and meet them in order to aid in lifting the canoe through the bushes. With his assistance the task was successfully accomplished, and the light-craft soon floated by the side of the other canoe. This was no sooner done than all three turned anxiously towards the forest and the mountain, expecting an enemy to break out of the one or to come rushing down the other. Still the silence was unbroken, and they all embarked with the caution that had been used in coming ashore. Hotter now steered broad off towards the center of the lake, having got a sufficient distance from the shore he cast his prize loose, knowing that it would drift slowly up the lake before the light southerly air, and intending to find it on his return. Thus relieved of his toe the old man held his way down the lake, steering towards the very point where hurry had made his fruitless attempt on the life of the deer. As the distance from this point to the out-light was less than a mile it was like entering an enemy's country, and redoubled caution became necessary. They reached the extremity of the point, however, and landed in safety on the little gravelly beach already mentioned. Unlike the last place at which they had gone ashore, here was no aclivity to ascend, the mountains looming up in the darkness quite a quarter of a mile farther west, leaving a margin of level ground between them and the strand. The point itself, though long, and covered with tall trees, was nearly flat, and for some distance only a few yards in width. Hutter and hurry landed as before, leaving their companion in charge of the boat. In this instance the dead tree that contained the canoe of which they had come in quest lay about half way between the extremity of the narrow strip of land and the place where it joined the main shore. And knowing that there was water so near him on his left the old man led the way along the eastern side of the belt with some confidence walking boldly, though still with caution. He had landed at the point expressly to get a glimpse into the bay and to make certain that the coast was clear, otherwise he would have come ashore directly abreast of the hollow tree. There was no difficulty in finding the latter, from which the canoe was drawn as before, and instead of carrying it down to the place where deer slayer lay, it was launched at the nearest favorable spot. As soon as it was in the water, hurry entered it, and paddled round to the point where their hudder also proceeded following the beach. As the three men had now in their possession all the boats on the lake, their confidence was greatly increased, and there was no longer the same feverish desire to quit the shore, or the same necessity for extreme caution. Their position on the extremity of the long narrow bit of land added to the feeling of security as it permitted an enemy to approach in only one direction, that in their front, and under circumstances that would render discovery with their habitual vigilance almost certain. The three now landed together, and stood grouped in consultation on the gravelly point. We've fairly treed the scamps, said hurry, chuckling at their success. If they wish to visit the castle, let them wade or swim. Old Tom, that idea of urine, in burrowing out in the lake, was high-proof, and carries a fine bead. There be men who would think the land's safer than the water. But after all reason shows it isn't. The beaver, and rats, and other learned creatures taking to the last when hard-pressed. I call our position now entrenched, and set the Canada's at defiance. Let us paddle along this south shore, said hudder, and see if there's no sign of an encampment. But first let me have a better look into the bay, for no one has been far enough round the inner shore of the point to make suit of that quarter yet. As hudder ceased speaking, all three moved in the direction he had named. Scarce had they fairly opened the bottom of the bay, when a general start proved that their eyes had lighted on a common object at the same instant. It was no more than a dying brand, giving out its flickering and failing light. But at that hour, and in that place, it was at once as conspicuous as a good deed in a naughty world. It was not a shadow of doubt that this fire had been kindled at an encampment of the Indians. The situation, sheltered from observation on all sides but one, and even on that except for a very short distance, proved that more care had been taken to conceal the spot than would be used for ordinary purposes. And hudder, who knew that a spring was near at hand as well as one of the best fishing stations on the lake, immediately inferred that this encampment contained the women and children of the party. That's not a warrior's encampment, he growled to hurry, and there's bounty enough sleeping around that fire to make a heavy division of head-money. Send the lad to the canoes, for they'll come no good of him in such an onset, and let us take the matter in hand at once, like men. There's judgment in your notional, Tom, and I like it to the backbone. Dear Slayer, do you get into the canoe, lad, and paddle off into the lake with the spare one, and set at adrift, as we did with the other, after which you can float along shore, as near as you can get to the head of the bay. Keeping outside the point, house ever, and outside the rushes too. You can hear us when we want you, and if there's any delay I'll call like a loon. Yes, that'll do it. The call of a loon shall be the signal. If you hear rifles, and feel like soldiering, why you may close in, and see if you can make the same hand with the savages that you do with the deer. If my wishes could be followed, this matter would not be undertaken, hurry. Quite true, nobody denies it, boy. But your wishes can't be followed, and that ends the matter. So just canoe yourself off into the middle of the lake, and by the time you get back there'll be movements in that camp. The young man set about complying with great reluctance and a heavy heart. He knew the prejudices of the frontiermen too well, however, to attempt a remonstrance. The latter, indeed, under the circumstances, might prove dangerous, as it would certainly prove useless. He paddled the canoe, therefore silently and with the former caution to a spot near the center of the placid sheet of water, and set the boat just recovered adrift, to float towards the castle before the light southerly air. This expedient had been adopted, in both cases, under the certainty that the drift could not carry the light-barks more than illegal to, before the return of light, when they might easily be overtaken in order to prevent any wandering savage from using them, by swimming off and getting possession. A possible, but scarcely a probable event. All the paddles were retained. No sooner had he set the recovered canoe adrift than Deerslayer turned the bowels of his own towards the point on the shore that had been indicated by hurry. So light was the movement of the little craft, and so steady the sweep of its master's arm, that ten minutes had not elapsed, ere it was again approaching the land, having, in that brief time, passed over fully half a mile of distance. As soon as Deerslayer's eye caught a glimpse of the rushes, of which there were many growing in the water a hundred feet from the shore, he arrested the motion of the canoe, and anchored his boat by holding fast to the delicate but tenacious stem of one of the drooping plants. Here he remained, awaiting, with an intensity of suspense that can be easily imagined, the result of the hazardous enterprise. It would be difficult to convey to the minds of those who have never witnessed it, the sublimity that characterizes the silence of a solitude as deep as that which now reigned over the glimmer glass. In the present instance this sublimity was increased by the gloom of night, which threw its shadowy and fantastic forms around the lake, the forest, and the hills. It is not easy, indeed, to conceive of any place more favorable to heighten these natural impressions, than that, Deerslayer now occupied. The size of the lake brought all within the reach of human senses, while it displayed so much of the imposing scene at a single view, giving up as it might be, at a glance, a sufficiency to produce the deepest impressions. This has been said, this was the first lake Deerslayer had ever seen. Here, the two, his experience had been limited to the courses of rivers and small streams, and never before had he seen so much of that wilderness which he so well loved, spread before his gaze. Accustomed to the forest, however, his mind was capable of portraying all its hidden mysteries, as he looked upon its leafy surface. This was also the first time he had been on a trail where human lives depended on the issue. His ears had often drunk in the traditions of frontier warfare, but he had never yet been confronted with an enemy. The reader will readily understand, therefore, how intense must have been the expectation of the young man, as he sat in his solitary canoe endeavouring to catch the smallest sound that might denote the course of things on shore. His training had been perfect so far as theory could go, and his self-possession, notwithstanding the high excitement that was the fruit of novelty, would have done credit to a veteran. The visible evidences of the existence of the camp or the fire could not be detected from the spot where the canoe lay, and he was compelled to depend on the sense of hearing alone. He did not feel impatient, for the lessons he had heard taught him the virtue of patience, and most of all inculcated the necessity of wariness in conducting any covert assault on the Indians. Once he thought he heard the cracking of a dried twig, but expectation was so intense it might mislead him. In this manner, minute after minute passed until the whole time since he left his companions was extended to quite an hour. Dear Slayer knew not whether to rejoice in or to mourn over this cautious delay, for, if it augured security to his associates, it foretold destruction to the feeble and innocent. It might have been an hour and a half after his companions, and he had parted. When Dear Slayer was aroused by a sound that filled him equally with concern and surprise, the quavering call of a loon arose from the opposite side of the lake evidently at no great distance from its outlet. There was no mistaking the note of this bird, which is so familiar to all who know the sounds of the American lakes. Shrill, tremulous, loud, and sufficiently prolonged. It seems the very cry of warning. It is often raised also at night, an exception to the habits of most of the other feathered inmates of the wilderness. A circumstance which had induced hurry to select it as his own signal. There had been sufficient time, certainly, for the two adventurers to make their way by land, from the point where they had been left, to that once the call had come. But it was not probable that they would adopt such a course. Had the camp been deserted they would have summoned Dear Slayer to the shore, and, did it prove to be peopled, there would be no sufficient motive for circling it, in order to re-embark it so great a distance. Should he obey the signal and be drawn away from the landing, the lives of those who depended on him might be the forfeit. And should he neglect the call, on the supposition that it had been really made, the consequences might be equally disastrous, though from a different cause. In this indecision he waited, trusting that the call, whether feigned or natural, would be speedily renewed. Nor was he mistaken, a very few minutes elapsed before the same shrill warning cry was repeated, and from the same part of the lake. This time, being on the alert, his senses were not deceived, although he had often heard admirable imitations of this bird and was no mean adept himself in raising its notes. He felt satisfied that hurry, to whose efforts in that way he had attended, could never so completely and closely follow nature. He determined, therefore, to disregard that cry, and to wait for one less perfect and nearer at hand. Dear Slayer had hardly come to this determination when the profound stillness of night and solitude was broken by a cry so startling as to drive all recollection of the more melancholy call of the loon from the listener's mind. It was a shriek of agony that came either from one of the female sex or from a boy so young as not yet to have attained a manly voice. This appeal could not be mistaken. That rending terror, if not writhing agony, was in the sounds, and the anguish that had awakened them was as sudden as it was fearful. The young man released his hold of the rush and dashed his paddle into the water. To do he knew not what, to steer he knew not whither. A very few moments, however, removed his indecision. The breaking of branches, the cracking of dried sticks, and the fall of feet were distinctly audible. The sounds appearing to approach the water, though in a direction that led diagonally towards the shore, and a little farther north than the spot that dear Slayer had been ordered to keep near. Following this clue the young man urged the canoe ahead, paying but little attention to the manner in which he might betray its presence. He had reached a part of the shore where its immediate bank was tolerably high and quite steep. Men were evidently threshing through the bushes and trees on the summit of this bank, following the line of the shore as if those who fled sought a favourable place for descending. Just at this instant five or six rifles flashed, and the opposite hills gave back as usual the sharp reports and prolonged rolling echoes. One or two shrieks, like those which escaped the bravest when suddenly overcome by unexpected anguish and alarm, followed. And then the threshing among the bushes was renewed in a way to show that man was grappling with man. Slippery devil! shouted hurry with the fury of disappointment. His skin's greased. I shan't grapple. Take that for your cunning. The words were followed by the fall of some heavy object among the smaller trees that fringed the bank, appearing to dear Slayer as if his gigantic associate had hurled an enemy from him in this unceremonious manner. Again the flight and pursuit were renewed, and then the young man saw a human form break down the hill and rush several yards into the water. At this critical moment the canoe was just near enough to the spot to allow this movement which was accompanied by no little noise to be seen, and feeling that there he must take in his companion, if anywhere, dear Slayer urged the canoe forward to the rescue. His paddle had not been raised twice, when the voice of hurry was heard filling the air with implications, and he rolled on the narrow beach, literally loaded down with enemies. While prostrate and almost smothered with his foes, the athletic frontiermen gave his loom call in a manner that would have excited laughter under circumstances less terrific. The figure in the water seemed suddenly to repent his own flight, and rushed to the shore to aid his companion, but was met and immediately overpowered by half a dozen fresh pursuers, who just then came leaping down the bank. Get up, you painted reptiles, let up! cried hurry. Too hard-pressed to be particular about the terms he used. Isn't it enough that I am wise like a saw-log that you must choke too? This speech satisfied dear Slayer that his friends were prisoners, and that to land would be to share their fate. He was already within a hundred feet of the shore when a few timely strokes of the paddle not only arrested his advance, but forced him off to six or eight times that distance from his enemies. Unfortunately for him all of the Indians had dropped their rifles in the pursuit, or this retreat might not have been affected with impunity, though no one had noted the canoe in the first confusion of the melee. Keep off the land, lad! called out Hutter, the girls depend only on you now. You will want all your caution to escape these savages. Keep off, and God prosper you, as you aid my children. There was little sympathy in general between Hutter and the young man, but the bodily and mental anguish with which this appeal was made served at the moment to conceal from the latter the former's faults. He saw only the father in his sufferings, and resolved at once to give a pledge of fidelity to its interests, and to be faithful to his word. Put your heart at ease, Master Hutter! He called out. The gals should be looked to as well as the castle. The enemy has got the shore, it is no use to deny, but he hasn't got the water. This has the charge of all, and no one can say what will come of it. But if good will can serve you and urn, depend on that much. My experience is small, but my will is good. Aye, aye, dear Slayer! Returned hurry, in this stentorian voice, which was losing some of its heartiness, notwithstanding. Aye, aye, dear Slayer! You mean well enough, but what can you do? You're no great matter in the best of times, and such a person is not likely to turn out a miracle in the worst. If there's one savage on this lake shore, there's forty. And that's an army you aren't the man to overcome. The best way in my judgment will be to make a straight course to the castle, get the gals into the canoe with a few eatables, then strike off for the corner of the lake where we came in, and take the best trail for the Mohawk. These devils won't know where to look for you for some hours, and if they did, and went off hot in the pursuit, they must turn either the foot or the head of the lake to get at you. And if old Tom here wishes to make his last will and testament in a manner favorable to his daughters, he'll say the same. Twill never do, young man, rejoined Hutter. The enemy has scouts out at this moment, looking for canoes, and you'll be seen and taken, trust to the castle, and above all things keep clear of the land, hold out a week, and parties in the garrison will drive the savages off. Don't be four and twenty hours, old fellow, for these foxes will be rafting off to storm your castle. Interrupted hurry, with more of the heat of argument that might be expected from a man who was bound and captive, and about whom nothing could be called free but his opinions and his tongue. Your advice has a stout sound, but it will have a fatal termination. If you or I was in the house we might hold out a few days, but remember that this lad has never seen an enemy for tonight, and is what you yourself called Settlement Conscienced, though for my part I think the Consciences and the Settlements pretty much the same as they are out here in the woods. These savages are making signs, dear Slayer, for me to encourage you to come ashore with the canoe, but that I'll never do as it's again reason and nature. As for old Tom and myself, whether they'll scalp us tonight, keep us for the torture by fire or carriers to Canada is more than anyone knows but the devil that advises them how to act. I've such a big and bushy head that it's quite likely they'll endeavor to get two scalps off it, for the bounty is a tempting thing, or old Tom and I wouldn't be in this scrape. Aye, there they go with their signs again, but if I advise you to land, may they eat me as well as roast me. No, no, dear Slayer, do you keep off where you are, and after daylight, on no account come within two hundred yards. This injunction of hurries was stopped by a hand being rudely slapped against his mouth, the certain sign that someone in the party sufficiently understood English to have at length detected the drift of his discourse. Immediately after the whole group entered the forest, hutter and hurry apparently making no resistance to the movement. Just as the sounds of the cracking bushes were ceasing, however, the voice of the father was again heard. As you're true to my children, God prosper you, young man! were the words that reached dear Slayer's ears, after which he found himself to follow the dictates of his own discretion. Several minutes elapsed, in deathlike stillness, when the party on the shore had disappeared in the woods, owing to the distance rather more than two hundred yards and the obscurity dear Slayer had been able barely to distinguish the group, and to see it retiring. But even this dim connection with human forms gave an animation to the scene that was strongly in contrast to the absolute solitude that remained. Although the young man leaned forward to listen, holding his breath and condensing every faculty in the single sense of hearing, not another sound reached his ears to denote the vicinity of human beings. It seemed as if a silence that had never been broken reigned on the spot again, and for an instant even that piercing shriek which had so lately broken the stillness of the forest, or the execrations of March would have been a relief to the feeling of desertion to which it gave rise. This paralysis of mind and body, however, could not last long in one constituted mentally and physically like dear Slayer. Dropping his paddle into the water, he turned the head of the canoe and proceeded slowly as one walks who thinks intently towards the center of the lake. When he believed himself to have reached a point in a line with that where he had set the last canoe adrift, he changed his direction northward, keeping the light air as nearly on his back as possible. After paddling a quarter of a mile in this direction, a dark object became visible on the lake, a little to the right, and turning on one side for the purpose, he had soon secured his lost prize to his own boat. Dear Slayer now examined the heavens, the course of the air, and the position of the two canoes, finding nothing in either to induce a change of plan. He lay down and prepared to catch a few hours sleep that the moral might find him equal to its exigencies. Although the hardy and the tired sleep profoundly, even in scenes of danger, it was some time before dear Slayer lost his recollection, his mind dwelt on what had passed, and his half- conscious faculties kept figuring the events of the night in a sort of waking dream. Suddenly he was up and alert, for he fancied he heard the pre-concerted signal of hurry summoning him to the shore, but all was still as the grave again. The canoes were slowly drifting northward, the thoughtful stars were glimmering in their mild glory over his head, and the forest-bound sheet of water lay embedded between its mountains, as calm and melancholy as if never troubled by the winds, or brightened by a noonday sun. Once more the loon raised his tremulous cry near the foot of the lake, and the mystery of the alarm was explained. Dear Slayer adjusted his hard pillow, stretched his form in the bottom of the canoe, and slept.