Chapter III.
"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 thoseof the Glimmerglass and its accompanying scenery. As soon as he hadtaken a sufficiently intimate survey of floating Tom's implements,therefore, he summoned his companion to the canoe, that they might godown the lake in quest of the family. Previously to embarking, however,Hurry carefully examined the whole of the northern end of the water withan indifferent ship's glass, that formed a part of Hutter's effects. Inthis scrutiny, no part of the shore was overlooked; the bays and pointsin particular being subjected to a closer inquiry than the rest of thewooded boundary.
"'Tis as I thought," said Hurry, laying aside the glass, "the old fellowis drifting about the south end this fine weather, and has left thecastle 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 hishiding-place."
"Does Master Hutter think it necessary to burrow on this lake?" inquiredDeerslayer, as he followed his companion into the canoe; "to my eye itis such a solitude as one might open his whole soul in, and fear no oneto disarrange his thoughts or his worship."
"You forget your friends the Mingos, and all the French savages. Isthere a spot on 'arth, Deerslayer, to which them disquiet rogues don'tgo? Where is the lake, or even the deer lick, that the blackguards don'tfind out, and having found out, don't, sooner or later, discolour itswater with blood."
"I hear no good character of 'em, sartainly, friend Hurry, though I'venever been called on, yet, to meet them, or any other mortal, on thewarpath. I dare to say that such a lovely spot as this, would not belikely to be overlooked by such plunderers, for, though I've not beenin the way of quarreling with them tribes myself, the Delawares giveme such an account of 'em that I've pretty much set 'em down in my ownmind, as thorough miscreants."
"You may do that with a safe conscience, or for that matter, any othersavage you may happen to meet."
Here Deerslayer protested, and as they went paddling down the lake, ahot discussion was maintained concerning the respective merits ofthe pale-faces and the red-skins. Hurry had all the prejudices andantipathies of a white hunter, who generally regards the Indian as asort of natural competitor, and not unfrequently as a natural enemy.As a matter of course, he was loud, clamorous, dogmatical and notvery argumentative. Deerslayer, on the other hand, manifested a verydifferent temper, proving by the moderation of his language, thefairness of his views, and the simplicity of his distinctions, that hepossessed every disposition to hear reason, a strong, innate desire todo justice, and an ingenuousness that was singularly indisposed to haverecourse to sophism to maintain an argument; or to defend a prejudice.Still he was not altogether free from the influence of the latterfeeling. This tyrant of the human mind, which ruses on it prey througha thousand avenues, almost as soon as men begin to think and feel, andwhich seldom relinquishes its iron sway until they cease to doeither, had made some impression on even the just propensities of thisindividual, who probably offered in these particulars, a fair specimenof 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 touchedclosely on ferocity, "though you want to over-persuade me that theDelaware tribe is pretty much made up of angels. Now, I gainsay thatproposal, consarning white men, even. All white men are not faultless,and therefore all Indians can't be faultless. And so your argument isout at the elbow in the start. But this is what I call reason. Here'sthree colors on 'arth: white, black, and red. White is the highestcolor, and therefore the best man; black comes next, and is put to livein the neighborhood of the white man, as tolerable, and fit to be madeuse of; and red comes last, which shows that those that made 'em neverexpected 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 coloringus differently. Still, he made us, in the main, much the same infeelin's; though I'll not deny that he gave each race its gifts. Awhite man's gifts are Christianized, while a red-skin's are more for thewilderness. Thus, it would be a great offence for a white man to scalpthe dead; whereas it's a signal vartue in an Indian. Then ag'in, a whiteman cannot amboosh women and children in war, while a red-skin may. 'Tiscruel work, I'll allow; but for them it's lawful work; while for us, itwould 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 wolvesfor the bounty, or stripping a bear of its hide. And then you're outsignificantly, as to taking the poll of a red-skin in hand, seeing thatthe very colony has offered a bounty for the job; all the same as itpays for wolves' ears and crows' heads."
"Ay, and a bad business it is, Hurry. Even the Indians themselves cryshame on it, seeing it's ag'in a white man's gifts. I do not pretendthat all that white men do, is properly Christianized, and accordingto 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 togifts. I do not deny that there are tribes among the Indians that arenat'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 aswe have lately got into, it is a duty to keep down all compassionatefeelin's, so far as life goes, ag'in either; but when it comes toscalps, it's a very different matter."
"Just hearken to reason, if you please, Deerslayer, and tell me if thecolony 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 bea 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, andsome 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 ofGod, they get to be onlawful, and ought not to be obeyed. I hold toa white man's respecting white laws, so long as they do not cross thetrack of a law comin' from a higher authority; and for a red man to obeyhis own red-skin usages, under the same privilege. But, 't is uselesstalking, as each man will think fir himself, and have his say agreeableto his thoughts. Let us keep a good lookout for your friend FloatingTom, lest we pass him, as he lies hidden under this bushy shore."
Deerslayer had not named the borders of the lake amiss. Along theirwhole length, the smaller trees overhung the water, with their branchesoften dipping in the transparent element. The banks were steep, even fromthe narrow strand; and, as vegetation invariably struggles towardsthe light, the effect was precisely that at which the lover of thepicturesque would have aimed, had the ordering of this glorious settingof forest been submitted to his control. The points and bays, too, weresufficiently numerous to render the outline broken and diversified. Asthe 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 thetwo adventurers were kept constantly on the stretch, as neither couldforetell what the next turning of a point might reveal. Their progresswas swift, the gigantic strength of Hurry enabling him to play with thelight bark as if it had been a feather, while the skill of his companionalmost equalized their usefulness, notwithstanding the disparity innatural 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 wasfated to be disappointed, however; and they had got within a mile of thesouthern end of the lake, or a distance of quite two leagues from the"castle," which was now hidden from view by half a dozen interveningprojections of the land, when he suddenly ceased paddling, as ifuncertain in what direction next to steer.
"It is possible that the old chap has dropped into the river," saidHurry, after looking carefully along the whole of the eastern shore,which was about a mile distant, and open to his scrutiny for more thanhalf 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 hewould have a most scratching time in getting back again!"
"Where is this outlet?" asked Deerslayer; "I see no opening in thebanks or the trees, that looks as if it would let a river like theSusquehannah 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 theoutlet, because it passes atween high, steep banks; and the pines, andhemlocks and bass-woods hang over it, as a roof hangs over a house. Ifold 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 theoutlet."
As they proceeded, Hurry explained that there was a shallow bay, formedby a long, low point, that had got the name of the "Rat's Cove," fromthe circumstance of its being a favorite haunt of the muskrat; and whichoffered so complete a cover for the "ark," that its owner was fond oflying in it, whenever he found it convenient.
"As a man never knows who may be his visitors, in this part of thecountry," continued Hurry, "it's a great advantage to get a good lookat 'em afore they come too near. Now it's war, such caution is more thancommonly useful, since a Canada man or a Mingo might get into his hutafore he invited 'em. But Hutter is a first-rate look-outer, and canpretty much scent danger, as a hound scents the deer."
"I should think the castle so open, that it would be sartain to drawinimies, if any happened to find the lake; a thing onlikely enough, Iwill allow, as it's off the trail of the forts and settlements."
"Why, Deerslayer, I've got to believe that a man meets with inimieseasier than he meets with fri'nds. It's skearful to think for how manycauses one gets to be your inimy, and for how few your fri'nd. Some takeup the hatchet because you don't think just as they think; other somebecause you run ahead of 'em in the same idees; and I once know'd avagabond that quarrelled with a fri'nd because he didn't think himhandsome. Now, you're no monument in the way of beauty, yourself,Deerslayer, and yet you wouldn't be so onreasonable as to become myinimy for just saying so."
"I'm as the Lord made me; and I wish to be accounted no better, nor anyworse. Good looks I may not have; that is to say, to a degree that thelight-minded and vain crave; but I hope I'm not altogether without somericommend in the way of good conduct. There's few nobler looking men tobe seen than yourself, Hurry; and I know that I am not to expect any toturn their eyes on me, when such a one as you can be gazed on; but Ido not know that a hunter is less expart with the rifle, or less to berelied on for food, because he doesn't wish to stop at every shiningspring he may meet, to study his own countenance in the water."
Here Hurry burst into a fit of loud laughter; for while he was tooreckless to care much about his own manifest physical superiority, hewas well aware of it, and, like most men who derive an advantage fromthe accidents of birth or nature, he was apt to think complacently onthe subject, whenever it happened to cross his mind.
"No, no, Deerslayer, you're no beauty, as you will own yourself, ifyou'll look over the side of the canoe," he cried; "Jude will say thatto your face, if you start her, for a tarter tongue isn't to be found inany gal's head, in or out of the settlements, if you provoke her to useit. My advice to you is, never to aggravate Judith; though you may tellanything to Hetty, and she'll take it as meek as a lamb. No, Jude willbe 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 saidalready."
"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, andwhy shouldn't fri'nds tell each other these little trifles? If you washandsome, 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 asugly as a sinner, I'd take it as a sort of obligation, and try not tobelieve 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'vehad my cravings towards good looks; yes, I have; but then I've alwaysbeen able to get them down by considering how many I've known with fairoutsides, 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, andmore like such a one as yourself in them particulars; but then I get thefeelin' under by remembering how much better off I am, in a great manyrespects, than some fellow-mortals. I might have been born lame, andonfit even for a squirrel-hunt, or blind, which would have made me aburden on myself as well as on my fri'nds; or without hearing, whichwould 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 morecomely, and more sought a'ter, and honored than yourself; but it mayall be borne, if a man looks the evil in the face, and don't mistake hisgifts 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 ofthe passing feeling of personal vanity. He regretted the allusion hehad 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 andopinions 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 downrighthandsome, you've a sartain look that says, plainer than any words, thatall's right within. Then you set no value by looks, and will the soonerforgive any little slight to your appearance. I will not say that Judewill greatly admire you, for that might raise hopes that would onlybreed disapp'intment; but there's Hetty, now, would be just as likelyto find satisfaction in looking at you, as in looking at any other man.Then you're altogether too grave and considerate-like, to care muchabout Judith; for, though the gal is oncommon, she is so general in heradmiration, that a man need not be exalted because she happens to smile.I sometimes think the hussy loves herself better than she does anythingelse breathin'."
"If she did, Hurry, she'd do no more, I'm afeard, than most queens ontheir thrones, and ladies in the towns," answered Deerslayer, smiling,and turning back towards his companion with every trace of feelingbanished from his honest-looking and frank countenance. "I never yetknow'd even a Delaware of whom you might not say that much. But here isthe end of the long p'int you mentioned, and the 'Rat's Cove' can't befar 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 withinit, in a deep and retired bay, circling round south again, at thedistance of a quarter of a mile, and crossed the valley, forming thesouthern termination of the water. In this bay Hurry felt almost certainof finding the ark, since, anchored behind the trees that covered thenarrow strip of the point, it might have lain concealed from prying eyesan entire summer. So complete, indeed, was the cover, in this spot, thata boat hauled close to the beach, within the point, and near the bottomof 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 roundthe extremity of the point, where the water was so deep as actually toappear black; "he loves to burrow up among the rushes, and we shall bein his ne
st in five minutes, although the old fellow may be off amongthe traps himself."
March proved a false prophet. The canoe completely doubled the point, soas to enable the two travellers to command a view of the whole cove orbay, for it was more properly the last, and no object, but those thatnature had placed there, became visible. The placid water swept roundin a graceful curve, the rushes bent gently towards its surface, andthe trees overhung it as usual; but all lay in the soothing and sublimesolitude of a wilderness. The scene was such as a poet or an artistwould have delighted in, but it had no charm for Hurry Harry, who wasburning with impatience to get a sight of his light-minded beauty.
The motion of the canoe had been attended with little or no noise, thefrontiermen habitually getting accustomed to caution in most of theirmovements, and it now lay on the glassy water appearing to float in air,partaking of the breathing stillness that seemed to pervade the entirescene. At this instant a dry stick was heard cracking on the narrowstrip of land that concealed the bay from the open lake. Both theadventurers started, and each extended a hand towards his rifle, theweapon never being out of reach of the arm.
"'Twas too heavy for any light creatur'," whispered Hurry, "and itsounded like the tread of a man!"
"Not so--not so," returned Deerslayer; "'t was, as you say, too heavyfor one, but it was too light for the other. Put your paddle in thewater, and send the canoe in, to that log; I'll land and cut off thecreatur'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 thethicket with a moccasined foot, and a caution that prevented the leastnoise. In a minute he was in the centre of the narrow strip of land,and moving slowly down towards its end, the bushes rendering extremewatchfulness necessary. Just as he reached the centre of the thicketthe dried twigs cracked again, and the noise was repeated at shortintervals, as if some creature having life walked slowly towards thepoint. Hurry heard these sounds also, and pushing the canoe off intothe bay, he seized his rifle to watch the result. A breathless minutesucceeded, after which a noble buck walked out of the thicket, proceededwith a stately step to the sandy extremity of the point, and began toslake 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 sucha scene was not its least striking peculiarity. The report of the weaponhad the usual sharp, short sound of the rifle: but when a few momentsof silence had succeeded the sudden crack, during which the noise wasfloating in air across the water, it reached the rocks of the oppositemountain, where the vibrations accumulated, and were rolled from cavityto cavity for miles along the hills, seeming to awaken the sleepingthunders of the woods. The buck merely shook his head at the report ofthe rifle and the whistling of the bullet, for never before had he comein contact with man; but the echoes of the hills awakened his distrust,and leaping forward, with his four legs drawn under his body, he fellat 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 minutesthe water foamed around the pursuer and the pursued. The former wasdashing past the point, when Deerslayer appeared on the sand and signedto him to return.
"'Twas inconsiderate to pull a trigger, afore we had reconn'itred theshore, and made sartain that no inimies harbored near it," said thelatter, as his companion slowly and reluctantly complied. "This much Ihave 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, venisoncan hardly be called in season now, and we do not want for food. Theycall me Deerslayer, I'll own, and perhaps I desarve the name, in the wayof understanding the creatur's habits, as well as for some sartainty inthe aim, but they can't accuse me of killing an animal when there is nooccasion for the meat, or the skin. I may be a slayer, it's true, butI'm no slaughterer."
"'Twas an awful mistake to miss that buck!" exclaimed Hurry, doffing hiscap and running his fingers through his handsome but matted curls, asif he would loosen his tangled ideas by the process. "I've not done soonhandy a thing since I was fifteen."
"Never lament it, as the creatur's death could have done neither of usany good, and might have done us harm. Them echoes are more awful in myears, 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 ofthe world, lad," returned the other laughing. "The echoes repeat prettymuch all that is said or done on the Glimmerglass, in this calm summerweather. 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 wayto make you believe they can r'ally convarse."
"So much the more reason for being prudent and silent. I do not thinkthe inimy can have found their way into these hills yet, for I don'tknow what they are to gain by it, but all the Delawares tell me that, ascourage is a warrior's first vartue, so is prudence his second. One suchcall from the mountains, is enough to let a whole tribe into the secretof our arrival."
"If it does no other good, it will warn old Tom to put the pot over, andlet him know visiters are at hand. Come, lad; get into the canoe, and wewill hunt the ark up, while there is yet day."
Deerslayer complied, and the canoe left the spot. Its head was turneddiagonally across the lake, pointing towards the south-eastern curvatureof the sheet. In that direction, the distance to the shore, or to thetermination of the lake, on the course the two were now steering, wasnot quite a mile, and, their progress being always swift, it was fastlessening under the skilful, but easy sweeps of the paddles. When abouthalf way across, a slight noise drew the eyes of the men towards thenearest land, and they saw that the buck was just emerging from the lakeand wading towards the beach. In a minute, the noble animal shook thewater 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 havesome of the same feelin's, Hurry, to think your eye wasn't true, orthat your hand was onsteady, when no good could come of a shot that wasintended onmeaningly rather than in reason."
"I deny the eye and the hand," cried March with some heat. "You've gota little character, down among the Delawares, there, for quickness andsartainty, at a deer, but I should like to see you behind one of thempines, and a full painted Mingo behind another, each with a cock'd rifleand a striving for the chance! Them's the situations, Nathaniel, to trythe sight and the hand, for they begin with trying the narves. I neverlook upon killing a creatur' as an explite; but killing a savage is. Thetime will come to try your hand, now we've got to blows ag'in, and weshall soon know what a ven'son reputation can do in the field. I denythat either hand or eye was onsteady; it was all a miscalculation of thebuck, which stood still when he ought to have kept in motion, and so Ishot 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 aslight a heart, as I pull upon a deer."
"Who's talking of mortals, or of human beings at all, Deerslayer? I putthe matter to you on the supposition of an Injin. I dare say any manwould have his feelin's when it got to be life or death, ag'in anotherhuman 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 hittinghim."
"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 nodifference 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 partof the country, where the Moravians don't congregate. Now, skin makesthe man. This is reason; else how are peo
ple to judge of each other.The skin is put on, over all, in order when a creatur', or a mortal, isfairly seen, you may know at once what to make of him. You know a bearfrom 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 areboth Injins?"
"But I do say they are both men. Men of different races and colors, andhaving different gifts and traditions, but, in the main, with the samenatur'. Both have souls; and both will be held accountable for theirdeeds in this life."
Hurry was one of those theorists who believed in the inferiority of allthe human race who were not white. His notions on the subject werenot very clear, nor were his definitions at all well settled; but hisopinions were none the less dogmatical or fierce. His conscience accusedhim of sundry lawless acts against the Indians, and he had found it anexceedingly easy mode of quieting it, by putting the whole family ofredmen, incontinently, without the category of human rights. Nothingangered him sooner than to deny his proposition, more especially if thedenial were accompanied by a show of plausible argument; and he did notlisten to his companion's remarks with much composure of either manneror feeling.
"You're a boy, Deerslayer, misled and misconsaited by Delaware arts, andmissionary ignorance," he exclaimed, with his usual indifference to theforms of speech, when excited. "You may account yourself as a red-skin'sbrother, but I hold'em all to be animals; with nothing human about 'embut cunning. That they have, I'll allow; but so has a fox, or even abear. I'm older than you, and have lived longer in the woods--or, forthat matter, have lived always there, and am not to be told what anInjin 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 oldman, and then we'll see how you'll like your welcome."
Here Hurry's imagination did his temper some service, since, byconjuring up the reception his semi-aquatic acquaintance would belikely to bestow on one thus introduced, he burst into a hearty fitof laughter. Deerslayer too well knew the uselessness of attemptingto convince such a being of anything against his prejudices, to feel adesire to undertake the task; and he was not sorry that the approach ofthe canoe to the southeastern curve of the lake gave a new direction tohis ideas. They were now, indeed, quite near the place that March hadpointed out for the position of the outlet, and both began to look forit 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 astream of any size passed through banks that had an elevation of sometwenty feet, should be a matter of doubt with men who could not now havebeen more than two hundred yards distant from the precise spot. It willbe recollected, however, that the trees and bushes here, as elsewhere,fairly overhung the water, making such a fringe to the lake, as toconceal any little variations from its general outline.
"I've not been down at this end of the lake these two summers," saidHurry, 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 theriver begins in its neighborhood."
The men now plied the paddles again, and they were presently within afew yards of the rock, floating towards it, though their efforts weresuspended. This rock was not large, being merely some five or six feethigh, only half of which elevation rose above the lake. The incessantwashing of the water for centuries had so rounded its summit, that itresembled a large beehive in shape, its form being more than usuallyregular and even. Hurry remarked, as they floated slowly past, that thisrock was well known to all the Indians in that part of the country, andthat they were in the practice of using it as a mark to designate theplace of meeting, when separated by their hunts and marches.
"And here is the river, Deerslayer," he continued, "though so shut inby trees and bushes as to look more like an and-bush, than the outlet ofsuch a sheet as the Glimmerglass."
Hurry had not badly described the place, which did truly seem to be astream lying in ambush. The high banks might have been a hundred feetasunder; but, on the western side, a small bit of low land extended sofar 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 statureof church-steeples rose in tall columns above, all inclining towards thelight, until their branches intermingled, the eye, at a little distance,could not easily detect any opening in the shore, to mark the egress ofthe water. In the forest above, no traces of this outlet were to be seenfrom the lake, the whole presenting the same connected and seeminglyinterminable carpet of leaves. As the canoe slowly advanced, sucked inby the current, it entered beneath an arch of trees, through which thelight from the heavens struggled by casual openings, faintly relievingthe gloom beneath.
"This is a nat'ral and-bush," half whispered Hurry, as if he felt thatthe place was devoted to secrecy and watchfulness; "depend on it, oldTom has burrowed with the ark somewhere in this quarter. We will dropdown with the current a short distance, and ferret him out."
"This seems no place for a vessel of any size," returned the other; "itappears 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 nosooner passed, than the adventurers found themselves in a narrow stream,of a sufficient depth of limpid water, with a strong current, and acanopy of leaves upheld by arches composed of the limbs of hoary trees.Bushes lined the shores, as usual, but they left sufficient spacebetween them to admit the passage of anything that did not exceed twentyfeet in width, and to allow of a perspective ahead of eight or ten timesthat distance.
Neither of our two adventurers used his paddle, except to keep the lightbark in the centre of the current, but both watched each turning of thestream, of which there were two or three within the first hundred yards,with jealous vigilance. Turn after turn, however, was passed, and thecanoe had dropped down with the current some little distance, when Hurrycaught a bush, and arrested its movement so suddenly and silently as todenote some unusual motive for the act. Deerslayer laid his hand on thestock of his rifle as soon as he noted this proceeding, but it was quiteas much with a hunter's habit as from any feeling of alarm.
"There the old fellow is!" whispered Hurry, pointing with a finger, andlaughing heartily, though he carefully avoided making a noise, "rattingit 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 seenothing of the ark; though I'll bet every skin I take this season, Judeisn't trusting her pretty little feet in the neighborhood of that blackmud. The gal's more likely to be braiding her hair by the side of somespring, where she can see her own good looks, and collect scornfulfeelings ag'in us men."
"You over-judge young women--yes, you do, Hurry--who as often bethinkthem of their failings as they do of their perfections. I dare to saythis Judith, now, is no such admirer of herself, and no such scornerof our sex as you seem to think; and that she is quite as likely to besarving her father in the house, wherever that may be, as he is to besarving her among the traps."
"It's a pleasure to hear truth from a man's tongue, if it be only oncein a girl's life," cried a pleasant, rich, and yet soft female voice, sonear the canoe as to make both the listeners start. "As for you, MasterHurry, fair words are so apt to choke you, that I no longer expect tohear 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 societythan formerly, and that they who know how to esteem and treat women arenot ashamed to journey in your company."
As this was said, a singularly handsome and youthful female face wasthrust through an opening in the leaves, within reach of Deerslayer'spaddle. Its owner smiled graciously on the young man; and the frownthat she cast on Hurry, though simulated and pettish, had the effect torender her beauty more str
iking, by exhibiting the play of an expressivebut capricious countenance; one that seemed to change from the softto the severe, the mirthful to the reproving, with facility andindifference.
A second look explained the nature of the surprise. Unwittingly, the menhad dropped alongside of the ark, which had been purposely concealed inbushes cut and arranged for the purpose; and Judith Hutter had merelypushed aside the leaves that lay before a window, in order to show herface, and speak to them.
The Deerslayer Page 3
