Adventure Books
32 - The Last Of The Mohicans - James Cooper
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- Duration:
- 40m
- Broadcast on:
- 17 Aug 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
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On quote from Pope during the time on us was making his disposition of his forces the woods were still and with the exception of those who had met in council apparently as much untenanted as when they came fresh from the hands of their almighty creator. The eye could range in every direction through the long and shadowed vistas of the trees but nowhere was any object to be seen that did not properly belong to the peaceful and slumbering scenery. Here and there a bird was heard fluttering among the branches of the beaches and occasionally a squirrel dropped the nut drawing the startled looks of the party for a moment to the place but the instant the casual interruption ceased the passing air was heard murmuring above their heads along the verdant and undulating surface of the forest which spread itself unbroken unless by stream or lake over such a vast region of country. Across the tract of wilderness which lay between the Delaware's and the village of their enemies it seemed as if the foot of man had never trodden so breathing and deep was the silence in which it lay. But Hawkeye whose duty led him foremost in the adventure knew the character of those with whom he was about to contend too well to trust the treacherous quiet. When he saw his little band collected the scout through kill deer into the hollow of his arm and making a silent signal that he would be followed he led them many rods toward the rear into the bed of a little brook which they had crossed in advancing. Here he hauled it and after waiting for the whole of his grave and attentive warriors to close about him he spoke in Delaware demanding. Do any of my young men know whether this run will lead us? A Delaware stretched forth a hand with the two fingers separated and indicating the manner in which they were joined at the root he answered before the sun could go its own length the little water will be in the big. Then he added pointing in the direction of the place he mentioned the two make enough for the beavers. "I thought as much," returned the scout, glancing his eye upward at the opening of the treetops, "from the corset takes and the bearings of the mountains. Men, we will keep within the cover of its banks till we sent the heurons." His companions gave the usual brief exclamation of ascent but perceiving that their leader was about to lead the way in person, one or two made signs that all was not as it should be. Hawkeye, who comprehended their meaning glances, turned and perceived that his party had been followed thus far by the singing master. "Do you know, friend?" asked the scout gravely, and perhaps with a little of the pride of conscious deserving in his manner, that this is a band of rangers chosen for the most desperate service and put under the command of one who, though another, might say it with a better face, will not be apt to leave them idle. It may not be five; it cannot be thirty minutes before we tread on the body of a heuron, living or dead. "Though not admonished of your intentions and words," returned David, whose face was a little flush, and whose ordinary quiet and unmeaning eyes glimmered with an expression of unusual fire. "Your men have reminded me of the children of Jacob going out to battle against the Sacomites, for wickedly aspiring to wedlock with a woman of a race that was favored of the Lord. "Now, I have journeyed far, and sojourned much in good and evil with the maiden ye seek; and, though not a man of war, with my loins girded and my sword sharpened, yet would I gladly strike a blow in her behalf." The scout hesitated, as if weighing the chances of such a strange enlistment in his mind before he answered. "You know not the use of any weapon; you carry no rifle, and believe me what the Mingos take they will freely give again." "Though not of vaunting and bloodily disposed, Goliath," returned David, drawing a sling from beneath his party-colored and uncouth attire, "I have not forgotten the example of the Jewish boy. "With this ancient instrument of war have I practiced much in my youth, and per adventure the skill has not entirely departed from me." "I," said Hawkeye, "considering the dear skinthong and apron with a cold and discouraging eye. "The thing might do its work among arrows or even knives, but these Mengue have been furnished by the Frenchers with a good groove barrel a man. "However, it seems to be your gift to go unharmed amid fire. And, as you have hitherto been favored, major, you have left your rifle at a cock, "a single shot before the time would be just twenty scalps lost to no purpose. Singer, you can follow. We may find use for you in the shoutings." "I thank you, friend," returned David, supplying himself like his royal namesake, from among the pebbles of the brook. "Though not given to the desire to kill, had you sent me away, my spirit would have been troubled." "Remember," added the scout, tapping his own head significantly on that spot where Gamut was yet sore. "We come to fight and not to music-ate." "Until the general hoop is given, nothing speaks but the rifle." David nodded, as much to signify his acquiescence with the terms, and then Hawkeye, casting another observant glance over his followers, made the signal to proceed. "The route lay for the distance of a mile along the bed of the water-course. Though protected from any great danger of observation by the precipitous banks and the thick shrubbery which scurted the stream, no precaution known to an Indian attack was neglected." "A warrior rather crawled than walked on each flank so as to catch occasional glimpses into the forest. And every few minutes the band came to a halt and listened for hostile sounds, with an acuteness of organs that would be scarcely conceivable to a man in a less natural state." "Their march was, however, unmolested, and they reached the point where the lesser stream was lost in the greater, without the smallest evidence that their progress had been noted. Here the scout again halted to consult the signs of the forest." "We are likely to have a good day for a fight," he said in English, addressing Hayward, and glancing his eyes upward at the clouds, which began to move in broad sheets across the firmament. "A bright sun and a glittering barrel are no friends to true sight. Everything is favorable. They have the wind, which will bring down their noises and their smoke, too. Though little matter in itself, whereas with us it will be first a shot and then a clear view." "But here is an end to our cover. The beavers have had the range of this stream for hundreds of years, and what, between their food and their dams, there is, as you see, many a girdle stub, but few living trees." "Hawk I had, in truth, in these few words, given no bad description of the prospect that now lay in their front." "The brook was irregular in its width, sometimes shooting through narrow fissures in the rocks, and others spreading over acres of bottom land, forming little areas that might be turned pawns. Everywhere along its bands were the moldering relics of dead trees, in all the stages of decay. From those that groaned on their tottering trunks, to such as had recently been robbed of those rugged coats that so mysteriously contained their principle of life. A few long, low, and moss-covered piles were scattered among them, like the memorials of a former and long departed generation. All these minute particulars were noted by the scout, with a gravity and interest that they probably had never before attracted. He knew that the Huron encampment lay a short half-mile up the brook, and, with the characteristic anxiety of one who dreaded a hidden danger, he was greatly troubled at not finding the smallest trace of the presence of his enemy. Once or twice he felt induced to give the order for a rush, and to attempt the village by surprise, but his experience quickly admonished him of the danger of so useless an experiment. Then he listened intently, and with painful uncertainty, for the sounds of hostility in the quarter where uncles was left. But nothing was audible except the sighing of the wind, which began to sweep over the bosom of the forest in gust which threatened the tempest. At length, yielding rather to his unusual impatience than taking counsel from his knowledge, he determined to bring matters to an issue by unmasking his force and proceeding cautiously but steadily up the stream. The scout had stood while making his observations, sheltered by a break, and his companions still lay in the bed of the ravine through which the smaller stream debouched. But on hearing his low, though intelligible signal, the whole party stole up the bank, like so many dark specters, and silently arranged themselves around him. Pointing in the direction he wished to proceed, Hawkeye advanced, the band breaking off in single files, and following so accurately in his footsteps as to leave it, if we accept Hayward and David, the trail of but a single man. The party was, however, scarcely uncovered before a volley from a dozen rifles was heard in their rear, and a Delaware leaping high into the air like a wounded deer fell at his whole length, dead. "Ah, I feared some devil tree like this," exclaimed the scout in English, adding with the quickness of thought in his adopted tongue, "to cover men and charge." The band dispersed at the word, and before Hayward had well recovered from his surprise, he found himself standing alone with David. Luckily, the heroines had already fallen back, and he was safe from their fire. But this state of things was evidently to be of short continuance, for the scout set the example of pressing on their retreat by discharging his rifle and darting from tree to tree as his enemy slowly yielded ground. It would seem that the assault had been made by a very small party of the heurons, which, however, continued to increase in numbers as retired on its friends until the return fire was very nearly if not quite equal to that maintained by the advancing Delawareers. Hayward threw himself among the combatants, and imitating the necessary caution of his companions, he made quick discharges with his own rifle. The contrasts now grew warm and stationary. Few were injured, as both parties kept their bodies as much protected as possible by the trees, never indeed exposing any part of their persons, except in the act of taking aim. But the chances were gradually growing unfavorable to Hawkeye and his band. The quick-sided scout perceived his danger without knowing how to remedy it. He saw it was more dangerous to retreat than to maintain his ground, while he found his enemy throwing out men on his flank, which rendered the task of keeping themselves covered so very difficult to the Delawareers as to nearly silence their fire. At this embarrassing moment, when they began to think the whole of the hostile tribe was gradually encircling them, they heard the yell of combatants and the rattling of arms echoing under the arches of the wood. At the place where Uncus was posted, a bottom which, in a manner, lay beneath the ground in which Hawkeye and his party were contending. The effects of this attack were instantaneous, and to the scout and his friends greatly relieving. It would seem that while his own surprise had been anticipated, and had consequently failed, the enemy in their turn, having been deceived in its object and in his numbers, had left too small a force to resist the impetuous onset of the young Mohican. This fact was doubly apparent by the rapid manner in which the battle in the forest rolled upward toward the village, and by an instant falling off in the number of their assailants, who rushed to assist in maintaining the front, and, as it now proved to be, the principal point of defense. Animating his followers by his voice and his own example, Hawkeye then gave the word to bear down upon their foes. The charge in that rude species of warfare consisted merely of pushing from cover to cover, nier to the enemy, and in this maneuver he was instantly and successfully obeyed. The heurons were compelled to withdraw, and the scene of the contest rapidly changed from the more open ground on which it had commenced, to a spot where the assailed found a thicket to rest upon. Here the struggle was protracted, arduous, and seemingly of doubtful issue. The Delaware's, though none of them fell, beginning to bleed freely, in consequence of the disadvantage at which they were held. In this crisis, Hawkeye found means to get behind the same tree as that would serve for a cover to Hayward. Most of his own combatants, being within call, a little on his right, where they maintained rapid though fruitless discharges on their sheltered enemies. "You are a young man-major," said the scout, dropping the butt of Kildur to the earth and leaning on the barrel, a little fatigued with his previous industry. And it may be your gift to lead armies. At some future day, again these imps, the Mingos. You may here see the philosophy of an Indian fight. It consists mainly in redi-hand, a quick eye, and a good cover. Now if you had a company of the royal Americans here, in what manner would you set them to work in this business? The bayonet would make a road. I, there is white reason in what you say, but a man must ask himself in this wilderness. How many lives can he spare? No horse!" continued the scout, shaking his head, like one who mused. Footnote, the American forest admits of the passage of horses, there being little underbrush, and few tangled breaks. The plan of Hawkeye is the one which has always proved the most successful in the battles between the whites and the Indians. Wayne, in his celebrated campaign on the Miami, received the fire of his enemies in line, and then, causing his dragoons to will round his flanks, the Indians were driven from their covers before they had time to load. One of the most conspicuous of the chiefs who fought in the battle of Miami assured the writer that the red men could not fight the warriors with long knives and leather stockings, meaning the dragoons with their sabers and boots. And footnote, horse, I am ashamed to say, must sooner or later decide these scrimmages. The brutes are better than men, and to horse must we come at last. Put a shodden hoof on the moccasin of a red skin, and, if his rifle be once emptied, he will never stop to load it again. "This is a subject that might better be discussed at another time," returned Hayward. "Shall we charge?" "I see no contradiction to the gifts of any man in passing his breathing spells in useful reflections," the scout replied. "As to rush, I little relish such a measure, for a scalp or two must be thrown away in the attempt." "And yet," he added, bending his head aside to catch the sounds of the distant combat, "if we are to be of use to onkis, the naves in our front must be got rid of." Then, turning with a prompt and decided air, he culled aloud to his Indians in their own language. His word were answered by a shelt, and, at a given signal, each warrior made a swift movement around his particular tree. The sight of so many dark bodies, glancing before their eyes at the same instant, drew a hasty and consequently an ineffectual fire from the Huron's. Without stopping to breathe, the Delaware's leaped in long bounds toward the wood, like so many panthers springing upon their prey. Hawkeye was in front brandishing his terrible rifle and animating his followers by his example. A few of the older and more cunning Huron's, who had not been deceived by the Artifice, which had been practiced to draw their fire, now made a close and deadly discharge of their pieces, and justified the apprehensions of the scout by falling three of his foremost warriors. But the shock was insufficient to repel the impetus of the charge. The Delaware's broke into the cover with the ferocity of their natures and swept away every trace of resistance by the fury of the onset. The combat endured only for an instant, hand to hand, and then the assailed yielded ground rapidly until they reached the opposite margin of the thicket, where they clung to the cover with the sort of obstinency that is so often witnessed in hunted brutes. At this critical moment, when the success of the struggle was again becoming doubtful, the crack of a rifle was heard behind the Huron's, and a bullet came whizzing from among some beaver lodges, which were situated in the clearing in the rear, and was followed by the fierce appalling yell of the war hoop. "There speaks the Sagamor!" shouted Hawkeye, answering the cry with his own stentorian voice. "We have them now in face and back!" The effect on the Huron's was instantaneous, discouraged by an assault from a quarter that left them no opportunity for cover. The warrior's out of a common yell of disappointment, and breaking off in a body, they spread themselves across the opening, heedless of every consideration but flight. Many fell in making the experiment, under the bullets and the blows of the pursuing Delaware's. "We shall not pause to detail the meeting between the scout and Chinggachkok, or the more touching interview that Duncan held with Monroe. A few brief and hurried words serve to explain the state of things to both parties, and then Hawkeye, pointing out the Sagamor to his band, resigned the chief authority into the hands of the Mohican chief. Chinggachkok, assumed the station to which his birth and experience, gave him so distinguished acclaim, with the grave dignity that always gives force to the mandates of a native warrior. Following the footsteps of the scout, he led the party back through the thicket, his men scalping the fallen Hurons and secreting the bodies of their own dead as they proceeded, until they gained a point where the former was content to make a halt. The warriors who had breathed themselves freely in the preceding struggle were now posted on a bit of level ground, sprinkled with trees in sufficient numbers to conceal them. The land fell away rather precipitantly, in front, and beneath their eyes stretched for several miles, a narrow, dark, and wooded veil. It was through this dense and dark forest, that UNKAS was still contending with the main body of the Hurons. The Mohican and his friends advanced to the brow of the hill, and listened with practice ears to the sounds of the combat. A few birds hovered over the leafy bosom of the valley, frightened from their secluded nest. And here and there a light-vapory cloud, which seemed already blending with the atmosphere, arose above the trees, and indicated some spot where the struggle had been fierce and stationary. "The fight is coming up the ascent," said Duncan, pointing in the direction of a new explosion of firearms. "We are too much in the center of their line to be effective." "They will incline into the hollow where the cover is thicker," said the scout, "and that will leave us well on their flank. "Go, Sagumore, you will hardly be in time to give the hoop and lead on the young men. "I will fight this scrimmage with warriors of my own color. "You know me, Mohican. "Not a Huron of them shall cross the swell into your rear without the notice of Kildir." The Indian paused another moment to consider the signs of the contest, which was now rolling rapidly up the ascent. A certain evidence that the Delaware's triumph. Nor did he actually quit the place until admonished by the proximity of his friends, as well as enemies, by the bullets of the former, which began to patter among the dried leaves on the ground, like the bits of falling hail which precede the bursting of the tempest. Hawkeye and his three companions withdrew a few paces to a shelter and awaited the issue with calmness that nothing but great practice could impart in such a scene. "It was not long before the reports of the rifles began to lose the echoes of the woods and to sound like weapons discharged in the open air. "Then a warrior appeared here and there, driven to the skirts of the forest, and rallying as he entered the clearing, as at the place where the final stand was to be made. "These were soon joined by others until a long line of swarthy figures was to be seen clinging to the cover with the obstinency of desperation. "Haver began to grow impatient and turned his eyes anxiously in the direction of Chinschkaachkok. "The chief was seated on a rock with nothing visible but his calm visage, considering the spectacle with an eye as deliberate as if he were posted to merely view the struggle. "The tide has come for the Delaware to strike," said Duncan. "Not so, not so," returned the scout. "When he sense his friend, he will let them know that he is here. "See, see, the naves are getting in that clump of pines, like bees settling after their flight. "By the Lord, a squaw might put a bullet in the center of such a knot of dark skins. "At that instant the hoop was given, and a dozen heroines fell by discharge from Chinschkaachkok and his band. "The shout that followed was answered by a single war cry from the forest, and a yell passed through the air that sounded as if a thousand throats were united in a common effort. "The heroines staggered, deserting the center of their line, and UNKUS issued from the forest through the opening they left, at the head of a hundred warriors. "Waving his hands left and right, the young chief pointed out the enemy to his followers, who separated in pursuit. "The war now divided, both wings of the broken heroines seeking protection in the woods again, hotly pressed by the victorious warriors of the Lenape. "A minute might have passed, but the sounds were already receding in different directions, and gradually losing their distinctness beneath the echoing arches of the woods. "One little knot of urons, however, had this dain to seek a cover, and were retiring like lions at bay, slowly and sullenly, up the acclivity which Chinschkaachk and his band had just deserted to mingle more closely in the fray. "Makwa was conspicuous in this party, both by his fearsome savage mean, and by the air of haughty authority he yet maintained. "In his eagerness to expedite the pursuit, UNKUS had left himself nearly alone. "But the moment his eye caught the figure of Lace of Teal, every other consideration was forgotten. "Raising his cry of battle, which recalled some six or seven warriors, and reckless of the disparity of their numbers, he rushed upon his enemy. "Le Renard, who watched the movement, paused to receive him with secret joy. "But at the moment when he thought the rashness of his impestuous young assailant had left him at his mercy, another shop was given, and La Long Caribbean was seen rushing to the rescue, attended by all his white associates. "The Huron instantly turned, and commenced a rapid retreat, up the ascent. "There was no time for greetings or congratulations. "For UNKUS, the unconscious of the presence of his friends, continued the pursuit within velocity of the wind. "In vain Hawkeye called to him to respect the covers. "The young Mohican braved the dangerous fire of his enemies and soon compelled them to a flight as swift as his own had long speed. "It was fortunate that the race was of short continuance, and that the white men were so much favored by their position. "Or the Delaware would soon have outstripped all his companions and fallen a victim to his own temerity. "But, air such a calamity could happen. "The pursuers and pursued entered the Wyandotte village within striking distance of each other. "Excited by the presence of their dwellings and tired of the chase, the Huron's now made a stand and fought around their council lounge with the fury of despair. "The onset and the issue were like the passage and destruction of a whirlwind. "The Tomahawk of UNKUS, the blows of Hawkeye, and even the still nervous arm of Monroe were all busy for that passing moment, "and the ground was quickly strewed with their enemies. Still, Mokwa, though daring and much exposed, escaped from every effort against his life. "With that sort of fabled protection that was made to overlook the fortunes of favored heroes in the legends of ancient poetry, "raising a yell that spoke volumes of anger and disappointment, the subtle chief when he saw his comrades fallen, "darted away from the place, attended by his two only surviving friends, "leaving the Delaware's engaged in stripping the dead of the bloody trophies of their victory. "But UNKUS, who had vainly sought him in the melee, bounded forward in pursuit, Hawkeye, Hayward, and David still pressing on his footsteps. "The utmost that the scout could effect was to keep the muzzle of his rifle, a little in advance of his friend, "to whom, however, it answered every purpose of a charmed shield. "Once Mokwa appeared disposed to make another and final effort to revenge his losses, "but abandoning his intention as soon as demonstrated, he leaped into a thicket of bushes, through which he was followed by his enemies, "and suddenly entered the mouth of the cave, already known to the reader. "Hawkeye, who had only foreborn to fire in tenderness to UNKUS, "raised a shot of success and proclaimed aloud that now they were certain of their game. "The pursuers dashed into the long and narrow entrance in time to catch a glimpse of the retreating forms of the heroines. "Their passage through the natural galleries and subterranean apartments of the cavern "was preceded by the shrieks and cries of hundreds of women and children. "The place seen by its dim and uncertain light appeared like the shades of the infernal regions, "across which unhappy ghosts and savage demons were flitting in multitudes. "Still UNKUS kept his eye on Mokwa, as if life to him possessed but a single object. "Heyward in the scout, still pressed on his rear, actuated, though possibly in a less degree, by a common feeling. "But their way was becoming intricate in those dark and gloomy passages, "and the glimpses of the retiring warriors less distinct and frequent. "And for a moment the trace was believed to be lost, "when a white robe was seen fluttering in the further extremity of a passage that seemed to lead up the mountain. "Tis Kora!" exclaimed Hayward, in a voice in which horror and delight were wildly mingled. "Kora! Kora!" echoed UNKUS, bounding forward like a deer. "Tis the maiden!" shouted the scout. "Courage, lady! We come! We come!" The chase was renewed, with a diligence rendered tenfold encouraging by this glimpse of the captive. But the way was rugged, broken, and in spots, nearly impassable. UNKUS abandoned his rifle and leaped forward with headlong precipitation. Hayward rashly imitated his example, though both were, a moment afterward, admonished of this madness by hearing the bellowing of a piece that the Hurons found time to discharge down the passage in the rocks, the bullet from which gave the young mehican a slight wound. "We must close!" said the scout, passing his friends by desperate leave. "The naves will pick us all off at this distance, and see they hold the maiden so as to shield themselves." Though his words were unheeded, or rather unheard, his example was followed by his companions, who, by incredible exertions, got near enough to the fugitives to perceive that Kora was born along between the two warriors, while Mokwa prescribed the direction and manner of their flight. At this moment, the forms of all four were strongly drawn against an opening in the sky, and they disappeared. Nearly frantic with disappointment, UNKUS and Hayward increased efforts that already seemed superhuman, and they issued from the cavern on the side of the mountain in time to note the rout of the pursued. The Kora's lay up the ascent, and still continued, hazardous, and laborious. Enumbered by his rifle, and, perhaps, not sustained by so deep an interest in the captive and his companions, the scout suffered the latter to precede him a little. UNKUS, in his turn, taking the lead of Hayward. In this manner, rocks, precipices, and difficulties were surmounted in an incredibly short space that, at another time, and under other circumstances, would have been deemed almost insuperable. But the impetuous young men were rewarded by finding that encumbered with Kora, the Hirons were losing ground in the race. "Stay, dog of the Wyandots!" exclaimed UNKUS, shaking his bright tomahawk at Mokwa. "I tell a weird girl, call stay!" "I will go, no further!" cried Kora, stopping unexpectedly on a ledge of rock that overhung a deep precipice, at no great distance from the summit of the mountain. "Kill me, thou wilt, detestable Huron! I will go, no further!" The supporters of the maiden raised their ready tomahawks with the impious joy that fiends are thought to take in mischief. But Mokwa stayed the uplifted arms. The Hirons chief, after casting the weapons he had wrestled from his companions over the rock, drew his knife, and turned to his captive, with a look in which conflicting passions fiercely contended. "Boomin!" he said, "Choose the wigwam, or the knife of lay, septile!" Kora regarded him not. But dropping on her knees, she raised her eyes and stretched her arms toward heaven. Saying in a meek and yet confiding voice, "I am fine, do with me, as thou seized best!" "Woman!" repeated Mokwa hoarsely, and endeavoring in vain to catch a glance from her serene and beaming eye. "Choose!" But Kora neither heard nor heeded his demand. The form of the Hirons trembled in every fiber, and he raised his arm on high. But dropped it again with a bewildered air, like one who doubted. Once more he struggled with himself, and lifted the keen weapon again. But just then, a piercing cry was heard above them, and Unca disappeared, leaping frantically from a fearful height upon the ledge. Mokwa recoiled a step, and one of his assistants, profiting by the chance, sheathed his own knife in the bosom of Kora. The Hirons sprang like a tiger on his offending and already retreating countrymen. But the falling form of Unca separated the unnatural combatants, diverted from his subject by this interruption, and maddened by the murder he had just witnessed. Mokwa buried his weapon in the back of the prostrate Delaware, uttering an unearthly shout as he committed the dastardly deed. But Unca rose from the blow, as the wounded panther turns upon his foe, and struck the murder of Kora to his feet, by an effort in which the last of his failing strength was expended. Then, with a stern and steady look, he turned to lace until, and indicated by the expression of his eye, all that he would do had not the power deserted him. The latter seized the nervous arms of the un-resisting Delaware, and passed his knife into his bosom three several times. Before his victim, still keeping his gaze riveted on his enemy, with a look of inextinguishable scorn, fell dead at his feet. "Mercy, mercy wrong!" cried Hayward from above, in tones nearly choked by horror. "Give mercy, and thou shall receive from it!" Whirling the bloody knife up at the imploring youth, the victorious Mokwa uttered a cry so fierce, so wild, and so joyous that it conveyed the sounds of savage triumph to the ears of those who fought in the valley a thousand feet below. He was answered by a burst from the lips of the scout, whose tall person was just then seen moving swiftly toward him, along those dangerous crags with steps as bold and reckless, as if he possessed the power to move in air. But when the hunter reached the scene of the ruthless massacre, the ledge was tenanted, only by the dead. His keen eye took a single look at the victims, and then shot its glances over the difficulties of the ascent in his front. A form stood at the brow of the mountain on the very edge of the giddy height, with uplifted arms, in an awful attitude of menace. Without stopping to consider his person, the rifle of Hawkeye was raised, but a rock which fell on the head of one of the fugitives below exposed the indignant and glowing countenance of the honest gamut. Then Mokwa issued from a crevice, and stepping with calm indifference over the body of the last of his associates. He leaped a wide fissure, and ascended the rocks at a point where the arm of David could not reach him. A single bound would carry him to the brow of the precipice, and assure his safety. Before taking the leap, however, the urine paused, and shaking his hand at the scout he shouted. The pale faces are dogs that Delaware's women, Mokwa leaves them on their rocks for the crows. Laughing hoarsely, he made a desperate leap, and fell short of his mark, though his hands grasped a shrub on the verge of a height. The form of Hawkeye had crouched like a beast, about to make it spring, and his frame trembled so violently with eagerness that the muzzle of the half-raised rifle played like a leaf fluttering in the wind. Without exhausting himself with fruitless efforts, the cunning Mokwa suffered his body to drop to the length of his arms, and found a fragment for his feet to rest on. Then, summoning all his powers, he renewed the attempt, and so far succeeded, as to draw his knees on the edge of the mountain. It was now, when the body of his enemy was most collected together, that the agitated weapon of the scout was drawn to his shoulder. The surrounding rocks themselves were not steadier than the piece became for the single instant that it poured out its contents. The arms of the Huron relaxed, and his body fell back a little, while his knees still kept their position. 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