ke one who mused; "horse, I am
ashamed to say, must, sooner or later, decide these scrimmages. The
brutes are better than men, and to horse must we come at last. Put a
shodden hoof on the moccasin of a redskin; and if his rifle be once
emptied, he will never stop to load it again."

"This is a subject that might better be discussed at another time,"
returned Heyward; "shall we charge?"

"I see no contradiction to the gifts of any man, in passing his
breathing spells in useful reflections," the scout replied. "As to a
rush, I little relish such a measure; for a scalp or two must be thrown
away in the attempt. And yet," he added, bending his head aside, to
catch the sounds of the distant combat, "if we are to be of use to
Uncas, these knaves in our front must be got rid of!"

Then turning, with a prompt and decided air, he called aloud to his
Indians, in their own language. His words were answered by a shout; and,
at a given signal, each warrior made a swift movement around his
particular tree. The sight of so many dark bodies, glancing before their
eyes at the same instant, drew a hasty, and consequently an ineffectual
fire from the Hurons. Without stopping to breathe, the Delawares leaped,
in long bounds, towards the wood, like so many panthers springing upon
their prey. Hawkeye was in front, brandishing his terrible rifle, and
animating his followers by his example. A few of the older and more
cunning Hurons, who had not been deceived by the artifice which had been
practised to draw their fire, now made a close and deadly discharge of
their pieces, and justified the apprehensions of the scout, by felling
three of his foremost warriors. But the shock was insufficient to repel
the impetus of the charge. The Delawares broke into the cover with the
ferocity of their natures, and swept away every trace of resistance by
the fury of the onset.

The combat endured only for an instant, hand to hand, and then the
assailed yielded ground rapidly, until they reached the opposite margin
of the thicket, where they clung to the cover, with the sort of
obstinacy that is so often witnessed in hunted brutes. At this critical
moment, when the success of the struggle was again becoming doubtful,
the crack of the rifle was heard behind the Hurons, and a bullet came
whizzing from among some beaver lodges, which were situated in the
clearing, in their rear, and was followed by the fierce and appalling
yell of the war-whoop.

"There spe