roat" and "Iroquois"
were alone audible, he walked away, to collect and to examine into the
state of the captured arsenal of the Hurons. In this office he was now
joined by Chingachgook, who found his own, as well as the rifle of his
son, among the arms. Even Heyward and David were furnished with weapons;
nor was ammunition wanting to render them all effectual.

When the foresters had made their selection, and distributed their
prizes, the scout announced that the hour had arrived when it was
necessary to move. By this time the song of Gamut had ceased, and the
sisters had learned to still the exhibition of their emotions. Aided by
Duncan and the younger Mohican, the two latter descended the precipitous
sides of that hill which they had so lately ascended under so very
different auspices, and whose summit had so nearly proved the scene of
their massacre. At the foot they found the Narragansetts browsing the
herbage of the bushes, and having mounted, they followed the movements
of a guide, who, in the most deadly straits, had so often proved himself
their friend. The journey was, however, short. Hawkeye, leaving the
blind path that the Hurons had followed, turned short to his right,
and entering the thicket, he crossed a babbling brook, and halted in a
narrow dell, under the shade of a few water elms. Their distance from
the base of the fatal hill was but a few rods, and the steeds had been
serviceable only in crossing the shallow stream.

The scout and the Indians appeared to be familiar with the sequestered
place where they now were; for, leaning their rifle against the trees,
they commenced throwing aside the dried leaves, and opening the blue
clay, out of which a clear and sparkling spring of bright, glancing
water, quickly bubbled. The white man then looked about him, as though
seeking for some object, which was not to be found as readily as he
expected.

"Them careless imps, the Mohawks, with their Tuscarora and Onondaga
brethren, have been here slaking their thirst," he muttered, "and the
vagabonds have thrown away the gourd! This is the way with benefits,
when they are bestowed on such disremembering hounds! Here has the Lord
laid his hand, in the midst of the howling wilderness, for their good,
and raised a fountain of water from the bowels of the 'arth, that might
laugh at the richest shop of apothecary's ware in all the colonies; and
see! the knaves have trodden in the clay, and deformed the cleanliness
of