shall then hear the whoop from that quarter; with this wind
one may easily send it a mile. Then, Uncas, do you drive in their front;
when they come within range of our pieces, we will give them a blow
that, I pledge the good name of an old frontiersman, shall make their
line bend like an ashen bow. After which, we will carry their village,
and take the woman from the cave; when the affair may be finished with
the tribe, according to a white man's battle, by a blow and a victory;
or, in the Indian fashion, with dodge and cover. There may be no great
learning, major, in this plan, but with courage and patience it can all
be done."

"I like it much," cried Duncan, who saw the release of Cora was the
primary object in the mind of the scout; "I like it much. Let it be
instantly attempted."

After a short conference, the plan was matured, and rendered more
intelligible to the several parties; the different signals were
appointed, and the chiefs separated, each to his allotted station.

CHAPTER XXXII

"But plagues shall spread, and funeral fires increase,
Till the great king, without a ransom paid,
To her own Chrysa send the black-eyed maid."

POPE.

During the time Uncas was making this disposition of his forces, the
woods were still, and, with the exception of those who had met in
council, apparently as much untenanted, as when they came fresh from the
hands of their Almighty Creator. The eye could range, in every
direction, through the long and shadowed vistas of the trees; but
nowhere was any object to be seen that did not properly belong to the
peaceful and slumbering scenery. Here and there a bird was heard
fluttering among the branches of the beeches, and occasionally a
squirrel dropped a nut, drawing the startled looks of the party, for a
moment, to the place; but the instant the casual interruption ceased,
the passing air was heard murmuring above their heads, along that
verdant and undulating surface of forest, which spread itself unbroken,
unless by stream or lake, over such a vast region of country. Across the
tract of wilderness, which lay between the Delawares and the village of
their enemies, it seemed as if the foot of man had never trodden, so
breathing and deep was the silence in which it lay. But Hawkeye, whose
duty led him foremost in the adventure, knew the character of those with
whom he was about to contend too well to trust the treacherous quiet.

When he saw his little band co