an, who was now stubbornly bent on
maintaining his identity at every hazard, and on whom the secret hints
of Heyward to acquiesce in the deception were entirely lost. "Does
yonder lying Huron, too, think it chance? Give him another gun, and
place us face to face, without cover or dodge, and let Providence, and
our own eyes, decide the matter atween us! I do not make the offer, to
you, major; for our blood is of a color, and we serve the same master."

"That the Huron is a liar, is very evident," returned Heyward, coolly;
"you have yourself heard him assert you to be La Longue Carabine."

It were impossible to say what violent assertion the stubborn Hawkeye
would have next made, in his headlong wish to vindicate his identity,
had not the aged Delaware once more interposed.

"The hawk which comes from the clouds can return when he will," he said;
"give them the guns."

This time the scout seized the rifle with avidity; nor had Magua, though
he watched the movements of the marksman with jealous eyes, any further
cause for apprehension.

"Now let it be proved, in the face of this tribe of Delawares, which
is the better man," cried the scout, tapping the butt of his piece with
that finger which had pulled so many fatal triggers.

"You see that gourd hanging against yonder tree, major; if you are a
marksman fit for the borders, let me see you break its shell!"

Duncan noted the object, and prepared himself to renew the trial. The
gourd was one of the usual little vessels used by the Indians, and
it was suspended from a dead branch of a small pine, by a thong
of deerskin, at the full distance of a hundred yards. So strangely
compounded is the feeling of self-love, that the young soldier, while
he knew the utter worthlessness of the suffrages of his savage umpires,
forgot the sudden motives of the contest in a wish to excel. It had been
seen, already, that his skill was far from being contemptible, and he
now resolved to put forth its nicest qualities. Had his life depended
on the issue, the aim of Duncan could not have been more deliberate or
guarded. He fired; and three or four young Indians, who sprang forward
at the report, announced with a shout, that the ball was in the tree,
a very little on one side of the proper object. The warriors uttered a
common ejaculation of pleasure, and then turned their eyes, inquiringly,
on the movements of his rival.

"It may do for the Royal Americans!" said Hawkeye, laughing once m