nket about his shoulders, and
assuming the gait of a savage, he stalked boldly forwards; jingling under
his mantle the bundle of hawk's-bells which he carried in his hand, as if
actually to invite the observation of such barbarians as were yet moving
through the village.

But this stretch of audacity, as the listening horse-thief was at first
inclined to esteem it, was soon seen to have been adopted with a wise
foreknowledge of its effects in removing one of the first and greatest
difficulties in the wanderer's way. At the first cabin was a troop of
yelling curs, that seemed somewhat disturbed by the stranger's approach,
and disposed to contest his right of passing scot-free; but a jerk of the
bells settled the difficulty in a moment; and the animals, mute and
crest-fallen, slunk nastily away, as if expecting the crash of a tomahawk
about their ears, in the usual summary Indian way, to punish their
presumption in baying a warrior.

"A right-down natteral, fine conceit!" muttered Captain Ralph,
approvingly: "the next time I come a-grabbin' hosses, if I don't fetch a
bushel of the jinglers, I wish I may be kicked! Them thar Injun dogs is
always the devil."

In the meanwhile, Nathan, though proceeding with such apparent boldness,
and relying upon his disguise as all-sufficient to avert suspicion, was
by no means inclined to court any such dangers as could be really
avoided. If the light of a fire still burning in a wigwam, and watched by
wakeful habitants, shone too brightly from its door, he crept by with the
greatest circumspection; and he gave as wide a berth as possible to every
noisy straggler who yet roamed through the village.

There was indeed necessity for every precaution. It was evident, that the
village was by no means so destitute of defence as he had imagined,--that
the warriors of Wenonga had not generally obeyed the call that carried
the army of the tribes to Kentucky, but had remained in inglorious ease
and sloth in their own cabins. There was no other way, at least, of
accounting for the dozen or more male vagabonds, whom he found at
intervals stretched here before a fire, where they had been carousing in
the open air, and there lying asleep across the path, just where the
demon of good cheer had dropped them. Making his own inferences from
their appearance, and passing them with care, sometimes even, where their
slumbers seemed unsound, crawling by on his face, he succeeded at last in
reaching the ce