e did not see the color that
crimsoned the whole of Judith's fine face, nor detect the uncontrollable
distress that immediately after changed its hue to deadly paleness. A
minute or two elapsed in profound stillness, the splash of the water
seeming to occupy all the avenues of sound; and then Judith arose, and
grasped the hand of the hunter, almost convulsively, with one of her
own.

"Deerslayer," she said, hurriedly, "I'm glad the ice is broke between
us. They say that sudden friendships lead to long enmities, but I do not
believe it will turn out so with us. I know not how it is-but you are
the first man I ever met, who did not seem to wish to flatter--to wish
my ruin--to be an enemy in disguise--never mind; say nothing to Hurry,
and another time we'll talk together again."

As the girl released her grasp, she vanished in the house, leaving the
astonished young man standing at the steering-oar, as motionless as
one of the pines on the hills. So abstracted, indeed, had his thoughts
become, that he was hailed by Hutter to keep the scow's head in the
right direction, before he remembered his actual situation.

Chapter VI.

"So spake the apostate Angel, though in pain,
Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair."

Paradise lost, I. 125-26.

Shortly after the disappearance of Judith, a light southerly air arose,
and Hutter set a large square sail, that had once been the flying
top-sail of an Albany sloop, but which having become threadbare in
catching the breezes of Tappan, had been condemned and sold. He had a
light, tough spar of tamarack that he could raise on occasion, and with
a little contrivance, his duck was spread to the wind in a sufficiently
professional manner. The effect on the ark was such as to supersede the
necessity of rowing; and in about two hours the castle was seen, in the
darkness, rising out of the water, at the distance of a hundred yards.
The sail was then lowered, and by slow degrees the scow drifted up to
the building, and was secured.

No one had visited the house since Hurry and his companion left it. The
place was found in the quiet of midnight, a sort of type of the solitude
of a wilderness. As an enemy was known to be near, Hutter directed his
daughters to abstain from the use of lights, luxuries in which they
seldom indulged during the warm months, lest they might prove beacons to
direct their foes where they might be found.

"In open daylight I shouldn't fear