ly to the
introduction of the chess men, escape him involuntarily.

"He sleeps, or if he isn't fairly asleep, he is in the room where the
men do sleep," returned Deerslayer. "How did my young friend know there
was another?"

"See him from the shore. Iroquois have got long eyes--see beyond the
clouds--see the bottom of the Great Spring!"

"Well, the Iroquois are welcome. Two pale-faces are prisoners in the
camp of your fathers, boy."

The lad nodded, treating the circumstance with great apparent
indifference; though a moment after he laughed as if exulting in the
superior address of his own tribe.

"Can you tell me, boy, what your chiefs intend to do with these
captyves, or haven't they yet made up their minds?"

The lad looked a moment at the hunter with a little surprise. Then he
coolly put the end of his fore finger on his own head, just above the
left ear, and passed it round his crown with an accuracy and readiness
that showed how well he had been drilled in the peculiar art of his
race.

"When?" demanded Deerslayer, whose gorge rose at this cool demonstration
of indifference to human life. "And why not take them to your wigwams?"

"Road too long, and full of pale-faces. Wigwam full, and scalps sell
high. Small scalp, much gold."

"Well that explains it--yes, that does explain it. There's no need of
being any plainer. Now you know, lad, that the oldest of your prisoners
is the father of these two young women, and the other is the suitor of
one of them. The gals nat'rally wish to save the scalps of such fri'nds,
and they will give them two ivory creaturs, as ransom. One for each
scalp. Go back and tell this to your chiefs, and bring me the answer
before the sun sets."

The boy entered zealously into this project, and with a sincerity that
left no doubt of his executing his commission with intelligence and
promptitude. For a moment he forgot his love of honor, and all his
clannish hostility to the British and their Indians, in his wish to
have such a treasure in his tribe, and Deerslayer was satisfied with the
impression he had made. It is true the lad proposed to carry one of the
elephants with him, as a specimen of the other, but to this his brother
negotiator was too sagacious to consent; well knowing that it might
never reach its destination if confided to such hands. This little
difficulty was soon arranged, and the boy prepared to depart. As he
stood on the platform, ready to step aboard of the raft