CHAPTER XXI.


"If you find a man there, he shall die a flea's death."
Merry Wives of Windsor.


The party had landed on the border of a region that is, even to this day, less
known to the inhabitants of the States than the deserts of Arabia, or the
steppes of Tartary. It was the sterile and rugged district which separates the
tributaries of Champlain from those of the Hudson, the Mohawk, and the St.
Lawrence. Since the period of our tale the active spirit of the country has
surrounded it with a belt of rich and thriving settlements, though none but the
hunter or the savage is ever known even now to penetrate its wild recesses.

As Hawkeye and the Mohicans had, however, often traversed the mountains and
valleys of this vast wilderness, they did not hesitate to plunge into its
depth, with the freedom of men accustomed to its privations and difficulties.
For many hours the travelers toiled on their laborious way, guided by a star,
or following the direction of some water-course, until the scout called a halt,
and holding a short consultation with the Indians, they lighted their fire, and
made the usual preparations to pass the remainder of the night where they then
were.

Imitating the example, and emulating the confidence of their more experienced
associates, Munro and Duncan slept without fear, if not without uneasiness. The
dews were suffered to exhale, and the sun had dispersed the mists, and was
shedding a strong and clear light in the forest, when the travelers resumed
their journey.

After proceeding a few miles, the progress of Hawkeye, who led the advance,
became more deliberate and watchful. He often stopped to examine the trees; nor
did he cross a rivulet without attentively considering the quantity, the
velocity, and the color of its waters. Distrusting his own judgment, his
appeals to the opinion of Chingachgook were frequent and earnest. During one of
these conferences Heyward observed that Uncas stood a patient and silent,
though, as he imagined, an interested listener. He was strongly tempted to
address the young chief, and demand his opinion of their progress; but the calm
and dignified demeanor of the native induced him to believe, that, like
himself, the other was wholly dependent on the sagacity and intelligence of the
seniors of the party. At last the scout spoke in English, and at once explained
the embarrassment of their situation.

"When I found that the home path of the Hurons run north," he said,
"it did not need the judgment of many long years to tell that they would
follow the valleys, and keep atween the waters of the Hudson and the Horican,
until they might strike the springs of the Canada streams, which would lead
them into the heart of the country of the Frenchers. Yet here are we, within a
short range of the Scaroons, and not a sign of a trail have we crossed! Human
natur' is weak, and it is possible we may not have taken the proper
scent."

"Heaven protect us from such an error!" exclaimed Duncan.
"Let us retrace our steps, and examine as we go, with keener eyes. Has
Uncas no counsel to offer in such a strait?"

The young Mohican cast a glance at his father, but, maintaining his quiet and
reserved mien, he continued silent. Chingachgook had caught the look, and
motioning with his hand, he bade him speak. The moment this permission was
accorded, the countenance of Uncas changed from its grave composure to a gleam
of intelligence and joy. Bounding forward like a deer, he sprang up the side of
a little acclivity, a few rods in advance, and stood, exultingly, over a spot
of fresh earth, that looked as though it had been recently upturned by the
passage of some heavy animal. The eyes of the whole party followed the
unexpected movement, and read their success in the air of triumph that the
youth assumed.

"'Tis the trail!" exclaimed the scout, advancing to the spot;
"the lad is quick of sight and keen of wit for his years."

"'Tis extraordinary that he should have withheld his knowledge so
long," muttered Duncan, at his elbow.

"It would have been more wonderful had he spoken without a bidding. No,
no; your young white, who gathers his learning from books and can measure what
he knows by the page, may conceit that his knowledge, like his legs, outruns
that of his fathers', but, where experience is the master, the scholar is
made to know the value of years, and respects them accordingly."

"See!" said Uncas, pointing north and south, at the evident marks
of the broad trail on either side of him, "the dark-hair has gone toward
the forest."

"Hound never ran on a more beautiful scent," responded the scout,
dashing forward, at once, on the indicated route; "we are favored,
greatly favored, and can follow with high noses. Ay, here are both your
waddling beasts: this Huron travels like a white general. The fellow is
stricken with a judgment, and is mad! Look sharp for wheels, Sagamore,"
he continued, looking back, and laughing in his newly awakened satisfaction;
"we shall soon have the fool journeying in a coach, and that with three
of the best pair of eyes on the borders in his rear."

The spirits of the scout, and the astonishing success of the chase, in which a
circuitous distance of more than forty miles had been passed, did not fail to
impart a portion of hope to the whole party. Their advance was rapid; and made
with as much confidence as a traveler would proceed along a wide highway. If a
rock, or a rivulet, or a bit of earth harder than common, severed the links of
the clew they followed, the true eye of the scout recovered them at a distance,
and seldom rendered the delay of a single moment necessary. Their progress was
much facilitated by the certainty that Magua had found it necessary to journey
through the valleys; a circumstance which rendered the general direction of the
route sure. Nor had the Huron entirely neglected the arts uniformly practised
by the natives when retiring in front of an enemy. False trails and sudden
turnings were frequent, wherever a brook or the formation of the ground
rendered them feasible; but his pursuers were rarely deceived, and never failed
to detect their error, before they had lost either time or distance on the
deceptive track.

By the middle of the afternoon they had passed the Scaroons, and were following
the route of the declining sun. After descending an eminence to a low bottom,
through which a swift stream glided, they suddenly came to a place where the
party of Le Renard had made a halt. Extinguished brands were lying around a
spring, the offals of a deer were scattered about the place, and the trees bore
evident marks of having been browsed by the horses. At a little distance,
Heyward discovered, and contemplated with tender emotion, the small bower under
which he was fain to believe that Cora and Alice had reposed. But while the
earth was trodden, and the footsteps of both men and beasts were so plainly
visible around the place, the trail appeared to have suddenly ended.

It was easy to follow the tracks of the Narragansetts, but they seemed only to
have wandered without guides, or any other object than the pursuit of food. At
length Uncas, who, with his father, had endeavored to trace the route of the
horses, came upon a sign of their presence that was quite recent. Before
following the clew, he communicated his success to his companions; and while
the latter were consulting on the circumstance, the youth reappeared, leading
the two fillies, with their saddles broken, and the housings soiled, as though
they had been permitted to run at will for several days.

"What should this prove?" said Duncan, turning pale, and glancing
his eyes around him, as if he feared the brush and leaves were about to give up
some horrid secret.

"That our march is come to a quick end, and that we are in an
enemy's country," returned the scout. "Had the knave been
pressed, and the gentle ones wanted horses to keep up with the party, he might
have taken their scalps; but without an enemy at his heels, and with such
rugged beasts as these, he would not hurt a hair of their heads. I know your
thoughts, and shame be it to our color that you have reason for them; but he
who thinks that even a Mingo would ill-treat a woman, unless it be to tomahawk
her, knows nothing of Indian natur', or the laws of the woods. No, no; I
have heard that the French Indians had come into these hills to hunt the moose,
and we are getting within scent of their camp. Why should they not? The morning
and evening guns of Ty may be heard any day among these mountains; for the
Frenchers are running a new line atween the provinces of the king and the
Canadas. It is true that the horses are here, but the Hurons are gone; let us,
then, hunt for the path by which they parted."

Hawkeye and the Mohicans now applied themselves to their task in good earnest.
A circle of a few hundred feet in circumference was drawn, and each of the
party took a segment for his portion. The examination, however, resulted in no
discovery. The impressions of footsteps were numerous, but they all appeared
like those of men who had wandered about the spot, without any design to quit
it. Again the scout and his companions made the circuit of the halting place,
each slowly following the other, until they assembled in the center once more,
no wiser than when they started.

"Such cunning is not without its deviltry," exclaimed Hawkeye, when
he met the disappointed looks of his assistants.

"We must get down to it, Sagamore, beginning at the spring, and going
over the ground by inches. The Huron shall never brag in his tribe that he has
a foot which leaves no print."

Setting the example himself, the scout engaged in the scrutiny with renewed
zeal. Not a leaf was left unturned. The sticks were removed, and the stones
lifted; for Indian cunning was known frequently to adopt these objects as
covers, laboring with the utmost patience and industry, to conceal each
footstep as they proceeded. Still no discovery was made. At length Uncas, whose
activity had enabled him to achieve his portion of the task the soonest, raked
the earth across the turbid little rill which ran from the spring, and diverted
its course into another channel. So soon as its narrow bed below the dam was
dry, he stooped over it with keen and curious eyes. A cry of exultation
immediately announced the success of the young warrior. The whole party crowded
to the spot where Uncas pointed out the impression of a moccasin in the moist
alluvion.

"This lad will be an honor to his people," said Hawkeye, regarding
the trail with as much admiration as a naturalist would expend on the tusk of a
mammoth or the rib of a mastodon; "ay, and a thorn in the sides of the
Hurons. Yet that is not the footstep of an Indian! the weight is too much on
the heel, and the toes are squared, as though one of the French dancers had
been in, pigeon-winging his tribe! Run back, Uncas, and bring me the size of
the singer's foot. You will find a beautiful print of it just opposite
yon rock, agin the hillside."

While the youth was engaged in this commission, the scout and Chingachgook were
attentively considering the impressions. The measurements agreed, and the
former unhesitatingly pronounced that the footstep was that of David, who had
once more been made to exchange his shoes for moccasins.

"I can now read the whole of it, as plainly as if I had seen the arts of
Le Subtil," he added; "the singer being a man whose gifts lay
chiefly in his throat and feet, was made to go first, and the others have trod
in his steps, imitating their formation."

"But," cried Duncan, "I see no signs of"

"The gentle ones," interrupted the scout; "the varlet has
found a way to carry them, until he supposed he had thrown any followers off
the scent. My life on it, we see their pretty little feet again, before many
rods go by."

The whole party now proceeded, following the course of the rill, keeping
anxious eyes on the regular impressions. The water soon flowed into its bed
again, but watching the ground on either side, the foresters pursued their way
content with knowing that the trail lay beneath. More than half a mile was
passed, before the rill rippled close around the base of an extensive and dry
rock. Here they paused to make sure that the Hurons had not quitted the water.

It was fortunate they did so. For the quick and active Uncas soon found the
impression of a foot on a bunch of moss, where it would seem an Indian had
inadvertently trodden. Pursuing the direction given by this discovery, he
entered the neighboring thicket, and struck the trail, as fresh and obvious as
it had been before they reached the spring. Another shout announced the good
fortune of the youth to his companions, and at once terminated the search.

"Ay, it has been planned with Indian judgment," said the scout,
when the party was assembled around the place, "and would have blinded
white eyes."

"Shall we proceed?" demanded Heyward.

"Softly, softly, we know our path; but it is good to examine the
formation of things. This is my schooling, major; and if one neglects the book,
there is little chance of learning from the open land of Providence. All is
plain but one thing, which is the manner that the knave contrived to get the
gentle ones along the blind trail. Even a Huron would be too proud to let their
tender feet touch the water."

"Will this assist in explaining the difficulty?" said Heyward,
pointing toward the fragments of a sort of handbarrow, that had been rudely
constructed of boughs, and bound together with withes, and which now seemed
carelessly cast aside as useless.

"'Tis explained!" cried the delighted Hawkeye. "If them
varlets have passed a minute, they have spent hours in striving to fabricate a
lying end to their trail! Well, I've known them to waste a day in the
same manner to as little purpose. Here we have three pair of moccasins, and two
of little feet. It is amazing that any mortal beings can journey on limbs so
small! Pass me the thong of buckskin, Uncas, and let me take the length of this
foot. By the Lord, it is no longer than a child's and yet the maidens are
tall and comely. That Providence is partial in its gifts, for its own wise
reasons, the best and most contented of us must allow."

"The tender limbs of my daughters are unequal to these hardships,"
said Munro, looking at the light footsteps of his children, with a
parent's love; "we shall find their fainting forms in this
desert."

"Of that there is little cause of fear," returned the scout, slowly
shaking his head; "this is a firm and straight, though a light step, and
not over long. See, the heel has hardly touched the ground; and there the
dark-hair has made a little jump, from root to root. No, no; my knowledge for
it, neither of them was nigh fainting, hereaway. Now, the singer was beginning
to be footsore and leg-weary, as is plain by his trail. There, you see, he
slipped; here he has traveled wide and tottered; and there again it looks as
though he journeyed on snowshoes. Ay, ay, a man who uses his throat altogether,
can hardly give his legs a proper training."

From such undeniable testimony did the practised woodsman arrive at the truth,
with nearly as much certainty and precision as if he had been a witness of all
those events which his ingenuity so easily elucidated. Cheered by these
assurances, and satisfied by a reasoning that was so obvious, while it was so
simple, the party resumed its course, after making a short halt, to take a
hurried repast.

When the meal was ended, the scout cast a glance upward at the setting sun, and
pushed forward with a rapidity which compelled Heyward and the still vigorous
Munro to exert all their muscles to equal. Their route now lay along the bottom
which has already been mentioned. As the Hurons had made no further efforts to
conceal their footsteps, the progress of the pursuers was no longer delayed by
uncertainty. Before an hour had elapsed, however, the speed of Hawkeye sensibly
abated, and his head, instead of maintaining its former direct and forward
look, began to turn suspiciously from side to side, as if he were conscious of
approaching danger. He soon stopped again, and waited for the whole party to
come up.

"I scent the Hurons," he said, speaking to the Mohicans;
"yonder is open sky, through the treetops, and we are getting too nigh
their encampment. Sagamore, you will take the hillside, to the right; Uncas
will bend along the brook to the left, while I will try the trail. If anything
should happen, the call will be three croaks of a crow. I saw one of the birds
fanning himself in the air, just beyond the dead oakanother sign that we
are approaching an encampment."

The Indians departed their several ways without reply, while Hawkeye cautiously
proceeded with the two gentlemen. Heyward soon pressed to the side of their
guide, eager to catch an early glimpse of those enemies he had pursued with so
much toil and anxiety. His companion told him to steal to the edge of the wood,
which, as usual, was fringed with a thicket, and wait his coming, for he wished
to examine certain suspicious signs a little on one side. Duncan obeyed, and
soon found himself in a situation to command a view which he found as
extraordinary as it was novel.

The trees of many acres had been felled, and the glow of a mild summer's
evening had fallen on the clearing, in beautiful contrast to the gray light of
the forest. A short distance from the place where Duncan stood, the stream had
seemingly expanded into a little lake, covering most of the low land, from
mountain to mountain. The water fell out of this wide basin, in a cataract so
regular and gentle, that it appeared rather to be the work of human hands than
fashioned by nature. A hundred earthen dwellings stood on the margin of the
lake, and even in its waters, as though the latter had overflowed its usual
banks. Their rounded roofs, admirably molded for defense against the weather,
denoted more of industry and foresight than the natives were wont to bestow on
their regular habitations, much less on those they occupied for the temporary
purposes of hunting and war. In short, the whole village or town, whichever it
might be termed, possessed more of method and neatness of execution, than the
white men had been accustomed to believe belonged, ordinarily, to the Indian
habits. It appeared, however, to be deserted. At least, so thought Duncan for
many minutes; but, at length, he fancied he discovered several human forms
advancing toward him on all fours, and apparently dragging in the train some
heavy, and as he was quick to apprehend, some formidable engine. Just then a
few dark-looking heads gleamed out of the dwellings, and the place seemed
suddenly alive with beings, which, however, glided from cover to cover so
swiftly, as to allow no opportunity of examining their humors or pursuits.
Alarmed at these suspicious and inexplicable movements, he was about to attempt
the signal of the crows, when the rustling of leaves at hand drew his eyes in
another direction.

The young man started, and recoiled a few paces instinctively, when he found
himself within a hundred yards of a stranger Indian. Recovering his
recollection on the instant, instead of sounding an alarm, which might prove
fatal to himself, he remained stationary, an attentive observer of the
other's motions.

An instant of calm observation served to assure Duncan that he was
undiscovered. The native, like himself, seemed occupied in considering the low
dwellings of the village, and the stolen movements of its inhabitants. It was
impossible to discover the expression of his features through the grotesque
mask of paint under which they were concealed, though Duncan fancied it was
rather melancholy than savage. His head was shaved, as usual, with the
exception of the crown, from whose tuft three or four faded feathers from a
hawk's wing were loosely dangling. A ragged calico mantle half encircled
his body, while his nether garment was composed of an ordinary shirt, the
sleeves of which were made to perform the office that is usually executed by a
much more commodious arrangement. His legs were, however, covered with a pair
of good deer-skin moccasins. Altogether, the appearance of the individual was
forlorn and miserable.

Duncan was still curiously observing the person of his neighbor when the scout
stole silently and cautiously to his side.

"You see we have reached their settlement or encampment," whispered
the young man; "and here is one of the savages himself, in a very
embarrassing position for our further movements."

Hawkeye started, and dropped his rifle, when, directed by the finger of his
companion, the stranger came under his view. Then lowering the dangerous muzzle
he stretched forward his long neck, as if to assist a scrutiny that was already
intensely keen.

"The imp is not a Huron," he said, "nor of any of the Canada
tribes; and yet you see, by his clothes, the knave has been plundering a white.
Ay, Montcalm has raked the woods for his inroad, and a whooping, murdering set
of varlets has he gathered together. Can you see where he has put his rifle or
his bow?"

"He appears to have no arms; nor does he seem to be viciously inclined.
Unless he communicate the alarm to his fellows, who, as you see, are dodging
about the water, we have but little to fear from him."

The scout turned to Heyward, and regarded him a moment with unconcealed
amazement. Then opening wide his mouth, he indulged in unrestrained and
heartfelt laughter, though in that silent and peculiar manner which danger had
so long taught him to practise.

Repeating the words, "Fellows who are dodging about the water!" he
added, "so much for schooling and passing a boyhood in the settlements!
The knave has long legs, though, and shall not be trusted. Do you keep him
under your rifle while I creep in behind, through the bush, and take him alive.
Fire on no account."

Heyward had already permitted his companion to bury part of his person in the
thicket, when, stretching forth his arm, he arrested him, in order to ask:

"If I see you in danger, may I not risk a shot?"

Hawkeye regarded him a moment, like one who knew not how to take the question;
then, nodding his head, he answered, still laughing, though inaudibly:

"Fire a whole platoon, major."

In the next moment he was concealed by the leaves. Duncan waited several
minutes in feverish impatience, before he caught another glimpse of the scout.
Then he reappeared, creeping along the earth, from which his dress was hardly
distinguishable, directly in the rear of his intended captive. Having reached
within a few yards of the latter, he arose to his feet, silently and slowly. At
that instant, several loud blows were struck on the water, and Duncan turned
his eyes just in time to perceive that a hundred dark forms were plunging, in a
body, into the troubled little sheet. Grasping his rifle his looks were again
bent on the Indian near him. Instead of taking the alarm, the unconscious
savage stretched forward his neck, as if he also watched the movements about
the gloomy lake, with a sort of silly curiosity. In the meantime, the uplifted
hand of Hawkeye was above him. But, without any apparent reason, it was
withdrawn, and its owner indulged in another long, though still silent, fit of
merriment. When the peculiar and hearty laughter of Hawkeye was ended, instead
of grasping his victim by the throat, he tapped him lightly on the shoulder,
and exclaimed aloud:

"How now, friend! have you a mind to teach the beavers to sing?"

"Even so," was the ready answer. "It would seem that the
Being that gave them power to improve His gifts so well, would not deny them
voices to proclaim His praise."