eadlong into the water, in their haste.

"Pull, Deerslayer," cried Judith, hastily barring the door, in order
to prevent an inroad by the passage through which the Delaware had just
entered; "pull, for life and death--the lake is full of savages, wading
after us!"

The young men--for Chingachgook immediately came to his friend's
Assistance--needed no second bidding, but they applied themselves to
their task in a way that showed how urgent they deemed the occasion. The
great difficulty was in suddenly overcoming the inertia of so large
a mass, for once in motion, it was easy to cause the scow to skim the
water with all the necessary speed.

"Pull, Deerslayer, for Heaven's sake!" cried Judith, again at the loop.
"These wretches rush into the water like hounds following their prey!
Ah--the scow moves! and now, the water deepens, to the arm-pits of the
foremost, but they reach forward, and will seize the Ark!"

A slight scream, and then a joyous laugh followed from the girl; the
first produced by a desperate effort of their pursuers, and the last by
its failure; the scow, which had now got fairly in motion gliding ahead
into deep water, with a velocity that set the designs of their enemies
at nought. As the two men were prevented by the position of the cabin
from seeing what passed astern, they were compelled to inquire of the
girls into the state of the chase.

"What now, Judith?--What next?--Do the Mingos still follow, or are we
quit of 'em, for the present," demanded Deerslayer, when he felt the
rope yielding as if the scow was going fast ahead, and heard the scream
and the laugh of the girl, almost in the same breath.

"They have vanished!--One--the last--is just burying himself in the
bushes of the bank--There, he has disappeared in the shadows of the
trees! You have got your friend, and we are all safe!"

The two men now made another great effort, pulled the Ark up swiftly to
the grapnel, tripped it, and when the scow had shot some distance and
lost its way, they let the anchor drop again. Then, for the first time
since their meeting, they ceased their efforts. As the floating house
now lay several hundred feet from the shore, and offered a complete
protection against bullets, there was no longer any danger or any motive
for immediate exertion.

The manner in which the two friends now recognized each other, was
highly characteristic. Chingachgook, a noble, tall, handsome and
athletic young Indian warrior, fir