just removed sufficiently from the ends
of the guns to escape the effects of the flash, and his steady eye
was enabled to look directly into their muzzles, as it might be, in
anticipation of the fatal messenger that was to issue from each. The
cunning Hurons well knew this fact, and scarce one levelled his piece
without first causing it to point as near as possible at the forehead
of the prisoner, in the hope that his fortitude would fail him, and that
the band would enjoy the triumph of seeing a victim quail under their
ingenious cruelty. Nevertheless each of the competitors was still
careful not to injure, the disgrace of striking prematurely being second
only to that of failing altogether in attaining the object. Shot
after shot was made; all the bullets coming in close proximity to the
Deerslayer's head, without touching it. Still no one could detect even
the twitching of a muscle on the part of the captive, or the slightest
winking of an eye. This indomitable resolution, which so much exceeded
everything of its kind that any present had before witnessed, might
be referred to three distinct causes. The first was resignation to his
fate, blended with natural steadiness of deportment; for our hero had
calmly made up his mind that he must die, and preferred this mode to any
other; the second was his great familiarity with this particular weapon,
which deprived it of all the terror that is usually connected with the
mere form of the danger; and the third was this familiarity carried out
in practice, to a degree so nice as to enable the intended victim to
tell, within an inch, the precise spot where each bullet must strike,
for he calculated its range by looking in at the bore of the piece. So
exact was Deerslayer's estimation of the line of fire, that his pride of
feeling finally got the better of his resignation, and when five or six
had discharged their bullets into the tree, he could not refrain from
expressing his contempt at their want of hand and eye.

"You may call this shooting, Mingos!" he exclaimed, "but we've squaws
among the Delawares, and I have known Dutch gals on the Mohawk, that
could outdo your greatest indivours. Ondo these arms of mine, put a
rifle into my hands, and I'll pin the thinnest warlock in your party
to any tree you can show me, and this at a hundred yards--ay, or at two
hundred if the objects can be seen, nineteen shots in twenty; or, for
that matter twenty in twenty, if the piece is credita