t then his
truth--his truth--makes a fearful difference between us! Well, I will
talk no more of this; and we will bethink us of the means of getting
him out of the hands of the Hurons. We have father's chest in the ark,
Hetty, and might try the temptation of more elephants; though I fear
such baubles will not buy the liberty of a man like Deerslayer. I am
afraid father and Hurry will not be as willing to ransom Deerslayer, as
Deerslayer was to ransom them!"

"Why not, Judith? Hurry and Deerslayer are friends, and friends should
always help one another."

"Alas! poor Hetty, you little know mankind! Seeming friends are often
more to be dreaded than open enemies; particularly by females. But
you'll have to land in the morning, and try again what can be done for
Deerslayer. Tortured he shall not be, while Judith Hutter lives, and can
find means to prevent it."

The conversation now grew desultory, and was drawn out, until the
elder sister had extracted from the younger every fact that the feeble
faculties of the latter permitted her to retain, and to communicate.
When Judith was satisfied--though she could never be said to be
satisfied, whose feelings seemed to be so interwoven with all that
related to the subject, as to have excited a nearly inappeasable
curiosity--but, when Judith could think of no more questions to ask,
without resorting to repetition, the canoe was paddled towards the scow.
The intense darkness of the night, and the deep shadows which the
hills and forest cast upon the water, rendered it difficult to find the
vessel, anchored, as it had been, as close to the shore as a regard to
safety rendered prudent. Judith was expert in the management of a bark
canoe, the lightness of which demanded skill rather than strength; and
she forced her own little vessel swiftly over the water, the moment she
had ended her conference with Hetty, and had come to the determination
to return. Still no ark was seen. Several times the sisters fancied they
saw it, looming up in the obscurity, like a low black rock; but on each
occasion it was found to be either an optical illusion, or some swell of
the foliage on the shore. After a search that lasted half an hour, the
girls were forced to the unwelcome conviction that the ark had departed.
Most young women would have felt the awkwardness of their situation,
in a physical sense, under the circumstances in which the sisters were
left, more than any apprehensions of a different