eed not mention
the woods and lakes to challenge her equals, but I would go into
settlements and towns."

"We had better leave the canoes," Mabel hurriedly rejoined; "for I feel
it is no longer safe to be here."

"You can never do it; you can never do it. It would be a march of more
than twenty miles, and that, too, of tramping over brush and roots, and
through swamps, in the dark; the trail of such a party would be wide,
and we might have to fight our way into the garrison after all. We will
wait for the Mohican."

Such appearing to be the decision of him to whom all, in their present
strait, looked up for counsel, no more was said on the subject. The
whole party now broke up into groups: Arrowhead and his wife sitting
apart under the bushes, conversing in a low tone, though the man spoke
sternly, and the woman answered with the subdued mildness that marks the
degraded condition of a savage's wife. Pathfinder and Cap occupied one
canoe, chatting of their different adventures by sea and land; while
Jasper and Mabel sat in the other, making greater progress in intimacy
in a single hour than might have been effected under other circumstances
in a twelvemonth. Notwithstanding their situation as regards the enemy,
the time flew by swiftly, and the young people, in particular, were
astonished when Cap informed them how long they had been thus occupied.

"If one could smoke, Master Pathfinder," observed the old sailor, "this
berth would be snug enough; for, to give the devil his due, you have got
the canoes handsomely landlocked, and into moorings that would defy a
monsoon. The only hardship is the denial of the pipe."

"The scent of the tobacco would betray us; and where is the use of
taking all these precautions against the Mingo's eyes, if we are to tell
him where the cover is to be found through the nose? No, no; deny your
appetites; and learn one virtue from a red-skin, who will pass a week
without eating even, to get a single scalp. Did you hear nothing,
Jasper?"

"The Serpent is coming."

"Then let us see if Mohican eyes are better than them of a lad who
follows the water."

The Mohican had indeed made his appearance in the same direction as that
by which Jasper had rejoined his friends. Instead of coming directly on,
however, no sooner did he pass the bend, where he was concealed from any
who might be higher up stream, than he moved close under the bank; and,
using the utmost caution, got a position where he