awkeye regarded the young man a moment in speechless amazement.
But Duncan, who, in deference to the other's skill and services, had
hitherto submitted somewhat implicitly to his dictation, now assumed the
superior, with a manner that was not easily resisted. He waved his hand,
in sign of his dislike to all remonstrance, and then, in more tempered
language, he continued:

"You have the means of disguise; change me; paint me, too, if you will;
in short, alter me to anything--a fool."

"It is not for one like me to say that he who is already formed by so
powerful a hand as Providence, stands in need of a change," muttered the
discontented scout. "When you send your parties abroad in war, you find
it prudent, at least, to arrange the marks and places of encampment, in
order that they who fight on your side may know when and where to expect
a friend."

"Listen," interrupted Duncan; "you have heard from this faithful
follower of the captives, that the Indians are of two tribes, if not
of different nations. With one, whom you think to be a branch of the
Delawares, is she you call the 'dark-hair'; the other, and younger,
of the ladies, is undeniably with our declared enemies, the Hurons. It
becomes my youth and rank to attempt the latter adventure. While you,
therefore, are negotiating with your friends for the release of one of
the sisters, I will effect that of the other, or die."

The awakened spirit of the young soldier gleamed in his eyes, and his
form became imposing under its influence. Hawkeye, though too much
accustomed to Indian artifices not to foresee the danger of the
experiment, knew not well how to combat this sudden resolution.

Perhaps there was something in the proposal that suited his own hardy
nature, and that secret love of desperate adventure, which had increased
with his experience, until hazard and danger had become, in some
measure, necessary to the enjoyment of his existence. Instead of
continuing to oppose the scheme of Duncan, his humor suddenly altered,
and he lent himself to its execution.

"Come," he said, with a good-humored smile; "the buck that will take
to the water must be headed, and not followed. Chingachgook has as many
different paints as the engineer officer's wife, who takes down natur'
on scraps of paper, making the mountains look like cocks of rusty hay,
and placing the blue sky in reach of your hand. The Sagamore can use
them, too. Seat yourself on the log; and my life on it,