t that
keeps in the water; he is afraid to stand on the hard earth, like a
brave Indian!"

"Well, well, Huron, that's pretty impudent, considering it's not an hour
since the Sarpent stood within a hundred feet of you, and would have
tried the toughness of your skin with a rifle bullet, when I pointed you
out to him, hadn't I laid the weight of a little judgment on his hand.
You may take in timorsome gals in the settlements, with your catamount
whine, but the ears of a man can tell truth from ontruth."

"Hist laughs at him! She sees he is lame, and a poor hunter, and he has
never been on a war path. She will take a man for a husband, and not a
fish."

"How do you know that, Catamount? how do you know that?" returned
Deerslayer laughing. "She has gone into the lake, you see, and maybe she
prefars a trout to a mongrel cat. As for war paths, neither the Sarpent
nor I have much exper'ence, we are ready to own, but if you don't call
this one, you must tarm it, what the gals in the settlements tarm it,
the high road to matrimony. Take my advice, Catamount, and s'arch for
a wife among the Huron women; you'll never get one with a willing mind
from among the Delawares."

Catamount's hand felt for his tomahawk, and when the fingers reached
the handle they worked convulsively, as if their owner hesitated between
policy and resentment. At this critical moment Rivenoak approached, and
by a gesture of authority, induced the young man to retire, assuming his
former position, himself, on the log at the side of Deerslayer. Here he
continued silent for a little time, maintaining the grave reserve of an
Indian chief.

"Hawkeye is right," the Iroquois at length began; "his sight is so
strong that he can see truth in a dark night, and our eyes have been
blinded. He is an owl, darkness hiding nothing from him. He ought not to
strike his friends. He is right."

"I'm glad you think so, Mingo," returned the other, "for a traitor, in
my judgment, is worse than a coward. I care as little for the Muskrat,
as one pale-face ought to care for another, but I care too much for him
to ambush him in the way you wished. In short, according to my idees,
any sarcumventions, except open-war sarcumventions, are ag'in both law,
and what we whites call 'gospel', too."

"My pale-face brother is right; he is no Indian, to forget his Manitou
and his colour. The Hurons know that they have a great warrior for their
prisoner, and they will treat him as one. I