about them they
love best. I suppose it's because I'm only half-witted that I don't see
the reason why it should be so different among red people."

"That what Deerslayer call gift. One gift to talk; t'udder gift to hold
tongue. Hold tongue your gift, among Mingos. If Sarpent want to see
Hist, so Hetty want to see Hurry. Good girl never tell secret of
friend."

Hetty understood this appeal, and she promised the Delaware girl not to
make any allusion to the presence of Chingachgook, or to the motive of
his visit to the lake.

"Maybe he get off Hurry and fader, as well as Hist, if let him have his
way," whispered Wah-ta-Wah to her companion, in a confiding flattering
way, just as they got near enough to the encampment to hear the voices
of several of their own sex, who were apparently occupied in the usual
toils of women of their class. "Tink of dat, Hetty, and put two, twenty
finger on mouth. No get friend free without Sarpent do it."

A better expedient could not have been adopted, to secure the silence
and discretion of Hetty, than that which was now presented to her mind.
As the liberation of her father and the young frontier man was the great
object of her adventure, she felt the connection between it and the
services of the Delaware, and with an innocent laugh, she nodded her
head, and in the same suppressed manner, promised a due attention to
the wishes of her friend. Thus assured, Hist tarried no longer, but
immediately and openly led the way into the encampment of her captors.

Chapter XI.

"The great King of Kings
Hath in the table of his law commanded,
That thou shalt do no murder.
Take heed; for he holds vengeance in his hand,
To hurl upon their heads that break his law."

Richard III, I.iv.i95-97 199-200.

That the party to which Hist compulsorily belonged was not one that was
regularly on the war path, was evident by the presence of females. It
was a small fragment of a tribe that had been hunting and fishing
within the English limits, where it was found by the commencement of
hostilities, and, after passing the winter and spring by living on what
was strictly the property of its enemies, it chose to strike a hostile
blow before it finally retired. There was also deep Indian sagacity
in the manoeuvre which had led them so far into the territory of
their foes. When the runner arrived who announced the breaking out of
hostilities between the English and French--a strug