and she watched the movements of Hurry as the cat watches the mouse. The
moment he was in motion she foresaw the consequences, and this the more
readily, as the scow was now beginning to move with some steadiness, and
she bethought her of the means of saving him. With a sort of instinctive
readiness, she opened the door at the very moment the rifles were
ringing in her ears, and protected by the intervening cabin, she stepped
into the stem of the scow in time to witness the fall of Hurry into the
lake. Her foot was unconsciously placed on the end of one of the sheets
of the sail, which was fastened aft, and catching up all the spare rope
with the awkwardness, but also with the generous resolution of a woman,
she threw it in the direction of the helpless Hurry. The line fell
on the head and body of the sinking man and he not only succeeded in
grasping separate parts of it with his hands, but he actually got
a portion of it between his teeth. Hurry was an expert swimmer, and
tethered as he was he resorted to the very expedient that philosophy and
reflection would have suggested. He had fallen on his back, and instead
of floundering and drowning himself by desperate efforts to walk on the
water, he permitted his body to sink as low as possible, and was already
submerged, with the exception of his face, when the line reached him.
In this situation he might possibly have remained until rescued by the
Hurons, using his hands as fishes use their fins, had he received no
other succour, but the movement of the Ark soon tightened the rope, and
of course he was dragged gently ahead holding even pace with the scow.
The motion aided in keeping his face above the surface of the water, and
it would have been possible for one accustomed to endurance to have been
towed a mile in this singular but simple manner.

It has been said that the Hurons did not observe the sudden
disappearance of Hurry. In his present situation he was not only hid
from view by the platform, but, as the Ark drew slowly ahead, impelled
by a sail that was now filled, he received the same friendly service
from the piles. The Hurons, indeed, were too intent on endeavoring to
slay their Delaware foe, by sending a bullet through some one of the
loops or crevices of the cabin, to bethink them at all of one whom they
fancied so thoroughly tied. Their great concern was the manner in which
the Ark rubbed past the piles, although its motion was lessened at least
one half by