s breast.

"Dog of the pale-faces!" he exclaimed in Iroquois, "go yell among the
curs of your own evil hunting grounds!"

The denunciation was accompanied by an appropriate action. Even while
speaking his arm was lifted, and the tomahawk hurled. Luckily the loud
tones of the speaker had drawn the eye of Deerslayer towards him, else
would that moment have probably closed his career. So great was the
dexterity with which this dangerous weapon was thrown, and so deadly the
intent, that it would have riven the scull of the prisoner, had he not
stretched forth an arm, and caught the handle in one of its turns, with
a readiness quite as remarkable as the skill with which the missile had
been hurled. The projectile force was so great, notwithstanding, that
when Deerslayer's arm was arrested, his hand was raised above and behind
his own head, and in the very attitude necessary to return the
attack. It is not certain whether the circumstance of finding himself
unexpectedly in this menacing posture and armed tempted the young man
to retaliate, or whether sudden resentment overcame his forbearance and
prudence. His eye kindled, however, and a small red spot appeared on
each cheek, while he cast all his energy into the effort of his arm, and
threw back the weapon at his assailant. The unexpectedness of this blow
contributed to its success, the Panther neither raising an arm, nor
bending his head to avoid it. The keen little axe struck the victim in
a perpendicular line with the nose, directly between the eyes, literally
braining him on the spot. Sallying forward, as the serpent darts at its
enemy even while receiving its own death wound, this man of powerful
frame fell his length into the open area formed by the circle, quivering
in death. A common rush to his relief left the captive, in a single
instant, quite without the crowd, and, willing to make one desperate
effort for life, he bounded off with the activity of a deer. There was
but a breathless instant, when the whole band, old and young, women
and children, abandoning the lifeless body of the Panther where it lay,
raised the yell of alarm and followed in pursuit.

Sudden as had been the event which induced Deerslayer to make this
desperate trial of speed, his mind was not wholly unprepared for the
fearful emergency. In the course of the past hour, he had pondered well
on the chances of such an experiment, and had shrewdly calculated all
the details of success and failure.