, and to see it retiring; but even this
dim connection with human forms gave an animation to the scene that was
strongly in contrast to the absolute solitude that remained. Although
the young man leaned forward to listen, holding his breath and
condensing every faculty in the single sense of hearing, not another
sound reached his ears to denote the vicinity of human beings. It seemed
as if a silence that had never been broken reigned on the spot again;
and, for an instant, even that piercing shriek, which had so lately
broken the stillness of the forest, or the execrations of March, would
have been a relief to the feeling of desertion to which it gave rise.

This paralysis of mind and body, however, could not last long in one
constituted mentally and physically like Deerslayer. Dropping his paddle
into the water, he turned the head of the canoe, and proceeded slowly,
as one walks who thinks intently, towards the centre of the lake. When
he believed himself to have reached a point in a line with that where
he had set the last canoe adrift, he changed his direction northward,
keeping the light air as nearly on his back as possible. After paddling
a quarter of a mile in this direction, a dark object became visible
on the lake, a little to the right; and turning on one side for the
purpose, he had soon secured his lost prize to his own boat. Deerslayer
now examined the heavens, the course of the air, and the position of the
two canoes. Finding nothing in either to induce a change of plan, he lay
down, and prepared to catch a few hours' sleep, that the morrow might
find him equal to its exigencies.

Although the hardy and the tired sleep profoundly, even in scenes of
danger, it was some time before Deerslayer lost his recollection. His
mind dwelt on what had passed, and his half-conscious faculties kept
figuring the events of the night, in a sort of waking dream. Suddenly
he was up and alert, for he fancied he heard the preconcerted signal of
Hurry summoning him to the shore. But all was still as the grave again.
The canoes were slowly drifting northward, the thoughtful stars were
glimmering in their mild glory over his head, and the forest-bound sheet
of water lay embedded between its mountains, as calm and melancholy as
if never troubled by the winds, or brightened by a noonday sun. Once
more the loon raised his tremulous cry, near the foot of the lake, and
the mystery of the alarm was explained. Deerslayer adjusted his ha