ot tarry here a little longer, while you find the rest
you need? Cheerfully, most cheerfully, will Cora and I keep the vigils,
while you, and all these brave men, endeavor to snatch a little sleep!"

"If shame could cure me of my drowsiness, I should never close an eye
again," said the uneasy youth, gazing at the ingenuous countenance of
Alice, where, however, in its sweet solicitude, he read nothing to
confirm his half awakened suspicion. "It is but too true, that after
leading you into danger by my heedlessness, I have not even the merit of
guarding your pillows as should become a soldier."

"No one but Duncan himself should accuse Duncan of such a weakness. Go,
then, and sleep; believe me, neither of us, weak girls as we are, will
betray our watch."

The young man was relieved from the awkwardness of making any further
protestations of his own demerits, by an exclamation from Chingachgook,
and the attitude of riveted attention assumed by his son.

"The Mohicans hear an enemy!" whispered Hawkeye, who, by this time, in
common with the whole party, was awake and stirring. "They scent danger
in the wind!"

"God forbid!" exclaimed Heyward. "Surely we have had enough of
bloodshed!"

While he spoke, however, the young soldier seized his rifle, and
advancing towards the front, prepared to atone for his venial
remissness, by freely exposing his life in defence of those he attended.

"'Tis some creature of the forest prowling around us in quest of food,"
he said, in a whisper, as soon as the low, and apparently distant
sounds, which had startled the Mohicans, reached his own ears.

"Hist!" returned the attentive scout; "'tis man; even I can now tell his
tread, poor as my senses are when compared to an Indian's! That
scampering Huron has fallen in with one of Montcalm's outlying parties,
and they have struck upon our trail. I shouldn't like, myself, to spill
more human blood in this spot," he added, looking around with anxiety in
his features, at the dim objects by which he was surrounded; "but what
must be, must! Lead the horses into the block-house, Uncas; and,
friends, do you follow to the same shelter. Poor and old as it is, it
offers a cover, and has rung with the crack of a rifle afore to-night!"

He was instantly obeyed, the Mohicans leading the Narragansetts within
the ruin, whither the whole party repaired with the most guarded
silence.

The sounds of approaching footsteps were now too distinctly audible to