“Come, shall we go and kill us venison?
And yet it irks me, the poor dappled foals,--
Being native burghers of this desert city,--
Should, in their own confines, with forked heads
Have their round haunches gored.”
As You Like It, II.i.21-25
Hurry Harry thought more of the beauties of Judith Hutter than of those
of the Glimmerglass and its accompanying scenery. As soon as he had
taken a sufficiently intimate survey of floating Tom's implements,
therefore, he summoned his companion to the canoe, that they might go
down the lake in quest of the family. Previously to embarking, however,
Hurry carefully examined the whole of the northern end of the water with
an indifferent ship's glass, that formed a part of Hutter's effects. In
this scrutiny, no part of the shore was overlooked; the bays and points
in particular being subjected to a closer inquiry than the rest of the
wooded boundary.
“'Tis as I thought,” said Hurry, laying aside the glass, “the old fellow
is drifting about the south end this fine weather, and has left the
castle to defend itself. Well, now we know that he is not up this-a-way,
'twill be but a small matter to paddle down and hunt him up in his
hiding-place.”
“Does Master Hutter think it necessary to burrow on this lake?” inquired
Deerslayer, as he followed his companion into the canoe; “to my eye it
is such a solitude as one might open his whole soul in, and fear no one
to disarrange his thoughts or his worship.”
“You forget your friends the Mingos, and all the French savages. Is
there a spot on 'arth, Deerslayer, to which them disquiet rogues don't
go? Where is the lake, or even the deer lick, that the blackguards don't
find out, and having found out, don't, sooner or later, discolour its
water with blood.”
“I hear no good character of 'em, sartainly, friend Hurry, though I've
never been called on, yet, to meet them, or any other mortal, on the
warpath. I dare to say that such a lovely spot as this, would not be
likely to be overlooked by such plunderers, for, though I've not been
in the way of quarreling with them tribes myself, the Delawares give
me such an account of 'em that I've pretty much set 'em down in my own
mind, as thorough miscreants.”
“You may do that with a safe conscience, or for that matter, any other
savage you may happen to meet.”
Here Deerslayer protested, and as they went paddling down the lake, a
hot discussion was maintained concerning the respective merits of
the pale-faces and the red-skins. Hurry had all the prejudices and
antipathies of a white hunter, who generally regards the Indian as a
sort of natural competitor, and not unfrequently as a natural enemy.
As a matter of course, he was loud, clamorous, dogmatical and not
very argumentative. Deerslayer, on the other hand, manifested a very
different temper, proving by the moderation of his language, the
fairness of his views, and the simplicity of his distinctions, that he
possessed every disposition to hear reason, a strong, innate desire to
do justice, and an ingenuousness that was singularly indisposed to have
recourse to sophism to maintain an argument; or to defend a prejudice.
Still he was not altogether free from the influence of the latter
feeling. This tyrant of the human mind, which ruses on it prey through
a thousand avenues, almost as soon as men begin to think and feel, and
which seldom relinquishes its iron sway until they cease to do
either, had made some impression on even the just propensities of this
individual, who probably offered in these particulars, a fair specimen
of what absence from bad example, the want of temptation to go wrong,
and native good feeling can render youth.
“You will allow, Deerslayer, that a Mingo is more than half devil,”
cried Hurry, following up the discussion with an animation that touched
closely on ferocity, “though you want to over-persuade me that the
Delaware tribe is pretty much made up of angels. Now, I gainsay that
proposal, consarning white men, even. All white men are not faultless,
and therefore all Indians can't be faultless. And so your argument is
out at the elbow in the start. But this is what I call reason. Here's
three colors on 'arth: white, black, and red. White is the highest
color, and therefore the best man; black comes next, and is put to live
in the neighborhood of the white man, as tolerable, and fit to be made
use of; and red comes last, which shows that those that made 'em never
expected an Indian to be accounted as more than half human.”
“God made all three alike, Hurry.”
“Alike! Do you call a nigger like a white man, or me like an Indian?”
“You go off at half-cock, and don't hear me out. God made us all, white,
black, and red; and, no doubt, had his own wise intentions in coloring
us differently. Still, he made us, in the main, much the same in
feelin's; though I'll not deny that he gave each race its gifts. A
white man's gifts are Christianized, while a red-skin's are more for the
wilderness. Thus, it would be a great offence for a white man to scalp
the dead; whereas it's a signal vartue in an Indian. Then ag'in, a white
man cannot amboosh women and children in war, while a red-skin may. 'Tis
cruel work, I'll allow; but for them it's lawful work; while for us, it
would be grievous work.”
“That depends on your inimy. As for scalping, or even skinning a savage,
I look upon them pretty much the same as cutting off the ears of wolves
for the bounty, or stripping a bear of its hide. And then you're out
significantly, as to taking the poll of a red-skin in hand, seeing that
the very colony has offered a bounty for the job; all the same as it
pays for wolves' ears and crows' heads.”
“Ay, and a bad business it is, Hurry. Even the Indians themselves cry
shame on it, seeing it's ag'in a white man's gifts. I do not pretend
that all that white men do, is properly Christianized, and according
to the lights given them, for then they would be what they ought to be;
which we know they are not; but I will maintain that tradition, and use,
and color, and laws, make such a difference in races as to amount to
gifts. I do not deny that there are tribes among the Indians that are
nat'rally pervarse and wicked, as there are nations among the whites.
Now, I account the Mingos as belonging to the first, and the Frenchers,
in the Canadas, to the last. In a state of lawful warfare, such as
we have lately got into, it is a duty to keep down all compassionate
feelin's, so far as life goes, ag'in either; but when it comes to
scalps, it's a very different matter.”
“Just hearken to reason, if you please, Deerslayer, and tell me if the
colony can make an onlawful law? Isn't an onlawful law more ag'in natur'
than scalpin' a savage? A law can no more be onlawful, than truth can be
a lie.”
“That sounds reasonable; but it has a most onreasonable bearing, Hurry.
Laws don't all come from the same quarter. God has given us his'n, and
some come from the colony, and others come from the King and Parliament.
When the colony's laws, or even the King's laws, run ag'in the laws of
God, they get to be onlawful, and ought not to be obeyed. I hold to
a white man's respecting white laws, so long as they do not cross the
track of a law comin' from a higher authority; and for a red man to obey
his own red-skin usages, under the same privilege. But, 't is useless
talking, as each man will think fir himself, and have his say agreeable
to his thoughts. Let us keep a good lookout for your friend Floating
Tom, lest we pass him, as he lies hidden under this bushy shore.”
Deerslayer had not named the borders of the lake amiss. Along their
whole length, the smaller trees overhung the water, with their branches
often dipping in the transparent element. The banks were steep, even from
the narrow strand; and, as vegetation invariably struggles towards
the light, the effect was precisely that at which the lover of the
picturesque would have aimed, had the ordering of this glorious setting
of forest been submitted to his control. The points and bays, too, were
sufficiently numerous to render the outline broken and diversified. As
the canoe kept close along the western side of the lake, with a view,
as Hurry had explained to his companion, of reconnoitering for enemies,
before he trusted himself too openly in sight, the expectations of the
two adventurers were kept constantly on the stretch, as neither could
foretell what the next turning of a point might reveal. Their progress
was swift, the gigantic strength of Hurry enabling him to play with the
light bark as if it had been a feather, while the skill of his companion
almost equalized their usefulness, notwithstanding the disparity in
natural means.
Each time the canoe passed a point, Hurry turned a look behind him,
expecting to see the “ark” anchored, or beached in the bay. He was
fated to be disappointed, however; and they had got within a mile of the
southern end of the lake, or a distance of quite two leagues from the
“castle,” which was now hidden from view by half a dozen intervening
projections of the land, when he suddenly ceased paddling, as if
uncertain in what direction next to steer.
“It is possible that the old chap has dropped into the river,” said
Hurry, after looking carefully along the whole of the eastern shore,
which was about a mile distant, and open to his scrutiny for more than
half its length; “for he has taken to trapping considerable, of late,
and, barring flood-wood, he might drop down it a mile or so; though he
would have a most scratching time in getting back again!”
“Where is this outlet?” asked Deerslayer; “I see no opening in the
banks or the trees, that looks as if it would let a river like the
Susquehannah run through it.”
“Ay, Deerslayer, rivers are like human mortals; having small beginnings,
and ending with broad shoulders and wide mouths. You don't see the
outlet, because it passes atween high, steep banks; and the pines, and
hemlocks and bass-woods hang over it, as a roof hangs over a house. If
old Tom is not in the 'Rat's Cove,' he must have burrowed in the river;
we'll look for him first in the cove, and then we'll cross to the
outlet.”
As they proceeded, Hurry explained that there was a shallow bay, formed
by a long, low point, that had got the name of the “Rat's Cove,” from
the circumstance of its being a favorite haunt of the muskrat; and which
offered so complete a cover for the “ark,” that its owner was fond of
lying in it, whenever he found it convenient.
“As a man never knows who may be his visitors, in this part of the
country,” continued Hurry, “it's a great advantage to get a good look
at 'em afore they come too near. Now it's war, such caution is more than
commonly useful, since a Canada man or a Mingo might get into his hut
afore he invited 'em. But Hutter is a first-rate look-outer, and can
pretty much scent danger, as a hound scents the deer.”
“I should think the castle so open, that it would be sartain to draw
inimies, if any happened to find the lake; a thing onlikely enough, I
will allow, as it's off the trail of the forts and settlements.”
“Why, Deerslayer, I've got to believe that a man meets with inimies
easier than he meets with fri'nds. It's skearful to think for how many
causes one gets to be your inimy, and for how few your fri'nd. Some take
up the hatchet because you don't think just as they think; other some
because you run ahead of 'em in the same idees; and I once know'd a
vagabond that quarrelled with a fri'nd because he didn't think him
handsome. Now, you're no monument in the way of beauty, yourself,
Deerslayer, and yet you wouldn't be so onreasonable as to become my
inimy for just saying so.”
“I'm as the Lord made me; and I wish to be accounted no better, nor any
worse. Good looks I may not have; that is to say, to a degree that the
light-minded and vain crave; but I hope I'm not altogether without some
ricommend in the way of good conduct. There's few nobler looking men to
be seen than yourself, Hurry; and I know that I am not to expect any to
turn their eyes on me, when such a one as you can be gazed on; but I
do not know that a hunter is less expart with the rifle, or less to be
relied on for food, because he doesn't wish to stop at every shining
spring he may meet, to study his own countenance in the water.”
Here Hurry burst into a fit of loud laughter; for while he was too
reckless to care much about his own manifest physical superiority, he
was well aware of it, and, like most men who derive an advantage from
the accidents of birth or nature, he was apt to think complacently on
the subject, whenever it happened to cross his mind.
“No, no, Deerslayer, you're no beauty, as you will own yourself, if
you'll look over the side of the canoe,” he cried; “Jude will say that
to your face, if you start her, for a tarter tongue isn't to be found in
any gal's head, in or out of the settlements, if you provoke her to use
it. My advice to you is, never to aggravate Judith; though you may tell
anything to Hetty, and she'll take it as meek as a lamb. No, Jude will
be just as like as not to tell you her opinion consarning your looks.”
“And if she does, Hurry, she will tell me no more than you have said
already.”
“You're not thick'ning up about a small remark, I hope, Deerslayer,
when no harm is meant. You are not a beauty, as you must know, and
why shouldn't fri'nds tell each other these little trifles? If you was
handsome, or ever like to be, I'd be one of the first to tell you of it;
and that ought to content you. Now, if Jude was to tell me that I'm as
ugly as a sinner, I'd take it as a sort of obligation, and try not to
believe her.”
“It's easy for them that natur' has favored, to jest about such matters,
Hurry, though it is sometimes hard for others. I'll not deny but I've
had my cravings towards good looks; yes, I have; but then I've always
been able to get them down by considering how many I've known with fair
outsides, who have had nothing to boast of inwardly. I'll not deny,
Hurry, that I often wish I'd been created more comely to the eye, and
more like such a one as yourself in them particulars; but then I get the
feelin' under by remembering how much better off I am, in a great many
respects, than some fellow-mortals. I might have been born lame, and
onfit even for a squirrel-hunt, or blind, which would have made me a
burden on myself as well as on my fri'nds; or without hearing, which
would have totally onqualified me for ever campaigning or scouting;
which I look forward to as part of a man's duty in troublesome times.
Yes, yes; it's not pleasant, I will allow, to see them that's more
comely, and more sought a'ter, and honored than yourself; but it may
all be borne, if a man looks the evil in the face, and don't mistake his
gifts and his obligations.”
Hurry, in the main, was a good-hearted as well as good-natured fellow;
and the self-abasement of his companion completely got the better of
the passing feeling of personal vanity. He regretted the allusion he
had made to the other's appearance, and endeavored to express as much,
though it was done in the uncouth manner that belonged to the habits and
opinions of the frontier.
“I meant no harm, Deerslayer,” he answered, in a deprecating manner,
“and hope you'll forget what I've said. If you're not downright
handsome, you've a sartain look that says, plainer than any words, that
all's right within. Then you set no value by looks, and will the sooner
forgive any little slight to your appearance. I will not say that Jude
will greatly admire you, for that might raise hopes that would only
breed disapp'intment; but there's Hetty, now, would be just as likely
to find satisfaction in looking at you, as in looking at any other man.
Then you're altogether too grave and considerate-like, to care much
about Judith; for, though the gal is oncommon, she is so general in her
admiration, that a man need not be exalted because she happens to smile.
I sometimes think the hussy loves herself better than she does anything
else breathin'.”
“If she did, Hurry, she'd do no more, I'm afeard, than most queens on
their thrones, and ladies in the towns,” answered Deerslayer, smiling,
and turning back towards his companion with every trace of feeling
banished from his honest-looking and frank countenance. “I never yet
know'd even a Delaware of whom you might not say that much. But here is
the end of the long p'int you mentioned, and the 'Rat's Cove' can't be
far off.”
This point, instead of thrusting itself forward, like all the others,
ran in a line with the main shore of the lake, which here swept within
it, in a deep and retired bay, circling round south again, at the
distance of a quarter of a mile, and crossed the valley, forming the
southern termination of the water. In this bay Hurry felt almost certain
of finding the ark, since, anchored behind the trees that covered the
narrow strip of the point, it might have lain concealed from prying eyes
an entire summer. So complete, indeed, was the cover, in this spot, that
a boat hauled close to the beach, within the point, and near the bottom
of the bay, could by any possibility be seen from only one direction;
and that was from a densely wooded shore within the sweep of the water,
where strangers would be little apt to go.
“We shall soon see the ark,” said Hurry, as the canoe glided round
the extremity of the point, where the water was so deep as actually to
appear black; “he loves to burrow up among the rushes, and we shall be
in his nest in five minutes, although the old fellow may be off among
the traps himself.”
March proved a false prophet. The canoe completely doubled the point, so
as to enable the two travellers to command a view of the whole cove or
bay, for it was more properly the last, and no object, but those that
nature had placed there, became visible. The placid water swept round
in a graceful curve, the rushes bent gently towards its surface, and
the trees overhung it as usual; but all lay in the soothing and sublime
solitude of a wilderness. The scene was such as a poet or an artist
would have delighted in, but it had no charm for Hurry Harry, who was
burning with impatience to get a sight of his light-minded beauty.
The motion of the canoe had been attended with little or no noise, the
frontiermen habitually getting accustomed to caution in most of their
movements, and it now lay on the glassy water appearing to float in air,
partaking of the breathing stillness that seemed to pervade the entire
scene. At this instant a dry stick was heard cracking on the narrow
strip of land that concealed the bay from the open lake. Both the
adventurers started, and each extended a hand towards his rifle, the
weapon never being out of reach of the arm.
“'Twas too heavy for any light creatur',” whispered Hurry, “and it
sounded like the tread of a man!”
“Not so--not so,” returned Deerslayer; “'t was, as you say, too heavy
for one, but it was too light for the other. Put your paddle in the
water, and send the canoe in, to that log; I'll land and cut off the
creatur's retreat up the p'int, be it a Mingo, or be it a muskrat.”
As Hurry complied, Deerslayer was soon on the shore, advancing into the
thicket with a moccasined foot, and a caution that prevented the least
noise. In a minute he was in the centre of the narrow strip of land,
and moving slowly down towards its end, the bushes rendering extreme
watchfulness necessary. Just as he reached the centre of the thicket
the dried twigs cracked again, and the noise was repeated at short
intervals, as if some creature having life walked slowly towards the
point. Hurry heard these sounds also, and pushing the canoe off into
the bay, he seized his rifle to watch the result. A breathless minute
succeeded, after which a noble buck walked out of the thicket, proceeded
with a stately step to the sandy extremity of the point, and began to
slake his thirst from the water of the lake. Hurry hesitated an instant;
then raising his rifle hastily to his shoulder, he took sight and fired.
The effect of this sudden interruption of the solemn stillness of such
a scene was not its least striking peculiarity. The report of the weapon
had the usual sharp, short sound of the rifle: but when a few moments
of silence had succeeded the sudden crack, during which the noise was
floating in air across the water, it reached the rocks of the opposite
mountain, where the vibrations accumulated, and were rolled from cavity
to cavity for miles along the hills, seeming to awaken the sleeping
thunders of the woods. The buck merely shook his head at the report of
the rifle and the whistling of the bullet, for never before had he come
in contact with man; but the echoes of the hills awakened his distrust,
and leaping forward, with his four legs drawn under his body, he fell
at once into deep water, and began to swim towards the foot of the lake.
Hurry shouted and dashed forward in chase, and for one or two minutes
the water foamed around the pursuer and the pursued. The former was
dashing past the point, when Deerslayer appeared on the sand and signed
to him to return.
“'Twas inconsiderate to pull a trigger, afore we had reconn'itred the
shore, and made sartain that no inimies harbored near it,” said the
latter, as his companion slowly and reluctantly complied. “This much I
have l'arned from the Delawares, in the way of schooling and traditions,
even though I've never yet been on a war-path. And, moreover, venison
can hardly be called in season now, and we do not want for food. They
call me Deerslayer, I'll own, and perhaps I desarve the name, in the way
of understanding the creatur's habits, as well as for some sartainty in
the aim, but they can't accuse me of killing an animal when there is no
occasion for the meat, or the skin. I may be a slayer, it's true, but
I'm no slaughterer.”
“'Twas an awful mistake to miss that buck!” exclaimed Hurry, doffing his
cap and running his fingers through his handsome but matted curls, as
if he would loosen his tangled ideas by the process. “I've not done so
onhandy a thing since I was fifteen.”
“Never lament it, as the creatur's death could have done neither of us
any good, and might have done us harm. Them echoes are more awful in my
ears, than your mistake, Hurry, for they sound like the voice of natur'
calling out ag'in a wasteful and onthinking action.”
“You'll hear plenty of such calls, if you tarry long in this quarter of
the world, lad,” returned the other laughing. “The echoes repeat pretty
much all that is said or done on the Glimmerglass, in this calm summer
weather. If a paddle falls you hear of it sometimes, ag'in and ag'in,
as if the hills were mocking your clumsiness, and a laugh, or a whistle,
comes out of them pines, when they're in the humour to speak, in a way
to make you believe they can r'ally convarse.”
“So much the more reason for being prudent and silent. I do not think
the inimy can have found their way into these hills yet, for I don't
know what they are to gain by it, but all the Delawares tell me that, as
courage is a warrior's first vartue, so is prudence his second. One such
call from the mountains, is enough to let a whole tribe into the secret
of our arrival.”
“If it does no other good, it will warn old Tom to put the pot over, and
let him know visiters are at hand. Come, lad; get into the canoe, and we
will hunt the ark up, while there is yet day.”
Deerslayer complied, and the canoe left the spot. Its head was turned
diagonally across the lake, pointing towards the south-eastern curvature
of the sheet. In that direction, the distance to the shore, or to the
termination of the lake, on the course the two were now steering, was
not quite a mile, and, their progress being always swift, it was fast
lessening under the skilful, but easy sweeps of the paddles. When about
half way across, a slight noise drew the eyes of the men towards the
nearest land, and they saw that the buck was just emerging from the lake
and wading towards the beach. In a minute, the noble animal shook the
water from his flanks, gazed up ward at the covering of trees, and,
bounding against the bank, plunged into the forest.
“That creatur' goes off with gratitude in his heart,” said Deerslayer,
“for natur' tells him he has escaped a great danger. You ought to have
some of the same feelin's, Hurry, to think your eye wasn't true, or
that your hand was onsteady, when no good could come of a shot that was
intended onmeaningly rather than in reason.”
“I deny the eye and the hand,” cried March with some heat. “You've got
a little character, down among the Delawares, there, for quickness and
sartainty, at a deer, but I should like to see you behind one of them
pines, and a full painted Mingo behind another, each with a cock'd rifle
and a striving for the chance! Them's the situations, Nathaniel, to try
the sight and the hand, for they begin with trying the narves. I never
look upon killing a creatur' as an explite; but killing a savage is. The
time will come to try your hand, now we've got to blows ag'in, and we
shall soon know what a ven'son reputation can do in the field. I deny
that either hand or eye was onsteady; it was all a miscalculation of the
buck, which stood still when he ought to have kept in motion, and so I
shot ahead of him.”
“Have it your own way, Hurry; all I contend for is, that it's lucky.
I dare say I shall not pull upon a human mortal as steadily or with as
light a heart, as I pull upon a deer.”
“Who's talking of mortals, or of human beings at all, Deerslayer? I put
the matter to you on the supposition of an Injin. I dare say any man
would have his feelin's when it got to be life or death, ag'in another
human mortal; but there would be no such scruples in regard to an Injin;
nothing but the chance of his hitting you, or the chance of your hitting
him.”
“I look upon the redmen to be quite as human as we are ourselves, Hurry.
They have their gifts, and their religion, it's true; but that makes no
difference in the end, when each will be judged according to his deeds,
and not according to his skin.”
“That's downright missionary, and will find little favor up in this part
of the country, where the Moravians don't congregate. Now, skin makes
the man. This is reason; else how are people to judge of each other.
The skin is put on, over all, in order when a creatur', or a mortal, is
fairly seen, you may know at once what to make of him. You know a bear
from a hog, by his skin, and a gray squirrel from a black.”
“True, Hurry,” said the other looking back and smiling, “nevertheless,
they are both squirrels.”
“Who denies it? But you'll not say that a red man and a white man are
both Injins?”
“But I do say they are both men. Men of different races and colors, and
having different gifts and traditions, but, in the main, with the same
natur'. Both have souls; and both will be held accountable for their
deeds in this life.”
Hurry was one of those theorists who believed in the inferiority of all
the human race who were not white. His notions on the subject were
not very clear, nor were his definitions at all well settled; but his
opinions were none the less dogmatical or fierce. His conscience accused
him of sundry lawless acts against the Indians, and he had found it an
exceedingly easy mode of quieting it, by putting the whole family of
redmen, incontinently, without the category of human rights. Nothing
angered him sooner than to deny his proposition, more especially if the
denial were accompanied by a show of plausible argument; and he did not
listen to his companion's remarks with much composure of either manner
or feeling.
“You're a boy, Deerslayer, misled and misconsaited by Delaware arts, and
missionary ignorance,” he exclaimed, with his usual indifference to the
forms of speech, when excited. “You may account yourself as a red-skin's
brother, but I hold'em all to be animals; with nothing human about 'em
but cunning. That they have, I'll allow; but so has a fox, or even a
bear. I'm older than you, and have lived longer in the woods--or, for
that matter, have lived always there, and am not to be told what an
Injin is or what he is not. If you wish to be considered a savage,
you've only to say so, and I'll name you as such to Judith and the old
man, and then we'll see how you'll like your welcome.”
Here Hurry's imagination did his temper some service, since, by
conjuring up the reception his semi-aquatic acquaintance would be
likely to bestow on one thus introduced, he burst into a hearty fit
of laughter. Deerslayer too well knew the uselessness of attempting
to convince such a being of anything against his prejudices, to feel a
desire to undertake the task; and he was not sorry that the approach of
the canoe to the southeastern curve of the lake gave a new direction to
his ideas. They were now, indeed, quite near the place that March had
pointed out for the position of the outlet, and both began to look for
it with a curiosity that was increased by the expectation of the ark.
It may strike the reader as a little singular, that the place where a
stream of any size passed through banks that had an elevation of some
twenty feet, should be a matter of doubt with men who could not now have
been more than two hundred yards distant from the precise spot. It will
be recollected, however, that the trees and bushes here, as elsewhere,
fairly overhung the water, making such a fringe to the lake, as to
conceal any little variations from its general outline.
“I've not been down at this end of the lake these two summers,” said
Hurry, standing up in the canoe, the better to look about him. “Ay,
there's the rock, showing its chin above the water, and I know that the
river begins in its neighborhood.”
The men now plied the paddles again, and they were presently within a
few yards of the rock, floating towards it, though their efforts were
suspended. This rock was not large, being merely some five or six feet
high, only half of which elevation rose above the lake. The incessant
washing of the water for centuries had so rounded its summit, that it
resembled a large beehive in shape, its form being more than usually
regular and even. Hurry remarked, as they floated slowly past, that this
rock was well known to all the Indians in that part of the country, and
that they were in the practice of using it as a mark to designate the
place of meeting, when separated by their hunts and marches.
“And here is the river, Deerslayer,” he continued, “though so shut in
by trees and bushes as to look more like an and-bush, than the outlet of
such a sheet as the Glimmerglass.”
Hurry had not badly described the place, which did truly seem to be a
stream lying in ambush. The high banks might have been a hundred feet
asunder; but, on the western side, a small bit of low land extended so
far forward as to diminish the breadth of the stream to half that width.
As the bushes hung in the water beneath, and pines that had the stature
of church-steeples rose in tall columns above, all inclining towards the
light, until their branches intermingled, the eye, at a little distance,
could not easily detect any opening in the shore, to mark the egress of
the water. In the forest above, no traces of this outlet were to be seen
from the lake, the whole presenting the same connected and seemingly
interminable carpet of leaves. As the canoe slowly advanced, sucked in
by the current, it entered beneath an arch of trees, through which the
light from the heavens struggled by casual openings, faintly relieving
the gloom beneath.
“This is a nat'ral and-bush,” half whispered Hurry, as if he felt that
the place was devoted to secrecy and watchfulness; “depend on it, old
Tom has burrowed with the ark somewhere in this quarter. We will drop
down with the current a short distance, and ferret him out.”
“This seems no place for a vessel of any size,” returned the other; “it
appears to me that we shall have hardly room enough for the canoe.”
Hurry laughed at the suggestion, and, as it soon appeared, with reason;
for the fringe of bushes immediately on the shore of the lake was no
sooner passed, than the adventurers found themselves in a narrow stream,
of a sufficient depth of limpid water, with a strong current, and a
canopy of leaves upheld by arches composed of the limbs of hoary trees.
Bushes lined the shores, as usual, but they left sufficient space
between them to admit the passage of anything that did not exceed twenty
feet in width, and to allow of a perspective ahead of eight or ten times
that distance.
Neither of our two adventurers used his paddle, except to keep the light
bark in the centre of the current, but both watched each turning of the
stream, of which there were two or three within the first hundred yards,
with jealous vigilance. Turn after turn, however, was passed, and the
canoe had dropped down with the current some little distance, when Hurry
caught a bush, and arrested its movement so suddenly and silently as to
denote some unusual motive for the act. Deerslayer laid his hand on the
stock of his rifle as soon as he noted this proceeding, but it was quite
as much with a hunter's habit as from any feeling of alarm.
“There the old fellow is!” whispered Hurry, pointing with a finger, and
laughing heartily, though he carefully avoided making a noise, “ratting
it away, just as I supposed; up to his knees in the mud and water,
looking to the traps and the bait. But for the life of me I can see
nothing of the ark; though I'll bet every skin I take this season, Jude
isn't trusting her pretty little feet in the neighborhood of that black
mud. The gal's more likely to be braiding her hair by the side of some
spring, where she can see her own good looks, and collect scornful
feelings ag'in us men.”
“You over-judge young women--yes, you do, Hurry--who as often bethink
them of their failings as they do of their perfections. I dare to say
this Judith, now, is no such admirer of herself, and no such scorner
of our sex as you seem to think; and that she is quite as likely to be
sarving her father in the house, wherever that may be, as he is to be
sarving her among the traps.”
“It's a pleasure to hear truth from a man's tongue, if it be only once
in a girl's life,” cried a pleasant, rich, and yet soft female voice, so
near the canoe as to make both the listeners start. “As for you, Master
Hurry, fair words are so apt to choke you, that I no longer expect to
hear them from your mouth; the last you uttered sticking in your throat,
and coming near to death. But I'm glad to see you keep better society
than formerly, and that they who know how to esteem and treat women are
not ashamed to journey in your company.”
As this was said, a singularly handsome and youthful female face was
thrust through an opening in the leaves, within reach of Deerslayer's
paddle. Its owner smiled graciously on the young man; and the frown
that she cast on Hurry, though simulated and pettish, had the effect to
render her beauty more striking, by exhibiting the play of an expressive
but capricious countenance; one that seemed to change from the soft
to the severe, the mirthful to the reproving, with facility and
indifference.
A second look explained the nature of the surprise. Unwittingly, the men
had dropped alongside of the ark, which had been purposely concealed in
bushes cut and arranged for the purpose; and Judith Hutter had merely
pushed aside the leaves that lay before a window, in order to show her
face, and speak to them.