s are when compared to an Indian's! That
Scampering Huron has fallen in with one of Montcalm's outlying parties,
and they have struck upon our trail. I shouldn't like, myself, to spill
more human blood in this spot," he added, looking around with anxiety in
his features, at the dim objects by which he was surrounded; "but what
must be, must! Lead the horses into the blockhouse, Uncas; and, friends,
do you follow to the same shelter. Poor and old as it is, it offers a
cover, and has rung with the crack of a rifle afore to-night!"

He was instantly obeyed, the Mohicans leading the Narrangansetts
within the ruin, whither the whole party repaired with the most guarded
silence.

The sound of approaching footsteps were now too distinctly audible to
leave any doubts as to the nature of the interruption. They were soon
mingled with voices calling to each other in an Indian dialect, which
the hunter, in a whisper, affirmed to Heyward was the language of the
Hurons. When the party reached the point where the horses had entered
the thicket which surrounded the blockhouse, they were evidently at
fault, having lost those marks which, until that moment, had directed
their pursuit.

It would seem by the voices that twenty men were soon collected at that
one spot, mingling their different opinions and advice in noisy clamor.

"The knaves know our weakness," whispered Hawkeye, who stood by the side
of Heyward, in deep shade, looking through an opening in the logs, "or
they wouldn't indulge their idleness in such a squaw's march. Listen to
the reptiles! each man among them seems to have two tongues, and but a
single leg."

Duncan, brave as he was in the combat, could not, in such a moment of
painful suspense, make any reply to the cool and characteristic remark
of the scout. He only grasped his rifle more firmly, and fastened his
eyes upon the narrow opening, through which he gazed upon the moonlight
view with increasing anxiety. The deeper tones of one who spoke as
having authority were next heard, amid a silence that denoted the
respect with which his orders, or rather advice, was received. After
which, by the rustling of leaves, and crackling of dried twigs, it
was apparent the savages were separating in pursuit of the lost trail.
Fortunately for the pursued, the light of the moon, while it shed a
flood of mild luster upon the little area around the ruin, was not
sufficiently strong to penetrate the deep arches of the forest, whe