if the
colony can make an onlawful law? Isn't an onlawful law more ag'in natur'
than scalpin' a savage? A law can no more be onlawful, than truth can be
a lie."

"That sounds reasonable; but it has a most onreasonable bearing, Hurry.
Laws don't all come from the same quarter. God has given us his'n, and
some come from the colony, and others come from the King and Parliament.
When the colony's laws, or even the King's laws, run ag'in the laws of
God, they get to be onlawful, and ought not to be obeyed. I hold to
a white man's respecting white laws, so long as they do not cross the
track of a law comin' from a higher authority; and for a red man to obey
his own red-skin usages, under the same privilege. But, 't is useless
talking, as each man will think fir himself, and have his say agreeable
to his thoughts. Let us keep a good lookout for your friend Floating
Tom, lest we pass him, as he lies hidden under this bushy shore."

Deerslayer had not named the borders of the lake amiss. Along their
whole length, the smaller trees overhung the water, with their branches
often dipping in the transparent element The banks were steep, even from
the narrow strand; and, as vegetation invariably struggles towards
the light, the effect was precisely that at which the lover of the
picturesque would have aimed, had the ordering of this glorious setting
of forest been submitted to his control. The points and bays, too, were
sufficiently numerous to render the outline broken and diversified. As
the canoe kept close along the western side of the lake, with a view,
as Hurry had explained to his companion, of reconnoitering for enemies,
before he trusted himself too openly in sight, the expectations of the
two adventurers were kept constantly on the stretch, as neither could
foretell what the next turning of a point might reveal. Their progress
was swift, the gigantic strength of Hurry enabling him to play with the
light bark as if it had been a feather, while the skill of his companion
almost equalized their usefulness, notwithstanding the disparity in
natural means.

Each time the canoe passed a point, Hurry turned a look behind him,
expecting to see the "ark" anchored, or beached in the bay. He was
fated to be disappointed, however; and they had got within a mile of the
southern end of the lake, or a distance of quite two leagues from the
"castle," which was now hidden from view by half a dozen intervening
projections of the land, when