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“That’s the way with you, Jude; forever finding out friends, where I distrust foes,” grumbled Tom; “but, speak out, young man, and tell us what you think of the moccasin.”

“That’s not Delaware-made,” returned Deerslayer, examining the worn and rejected covering for the foot with a cautious eye; “I’m too young on a warpath to be positive, but I should say that moccasin has a northern look, and comes from beyond the great lakes.”

“If such is the case, we ought not to lie here a minute longer than is necessary,” said Hutter, glancing through the leaves of his cover, as if he already distrusted the presence of an enemy on the opposite shore of the narrow and sinuous stream. “It wants but an hour or so of night, and to move in the dark will be impossible, without making a noise that would betray us. Did you hear the echo of a piece in the mountains, half an hour since?”

“Yes, old man, and heard the piece itself,” answered Hurry, who now felt the indiscretion of which he had been guilty, “for the last was fired from my own shoulder.”

“I feared it came from the French Indians; still it may put them on the lookout, and be a means of discovering us. You did wrong to fire in wartime, unless there was good occasion.”

“So I begin to think myself, Uncle Tom; and yet, if a man can’t trust himself to let off his rifle in a wilderness that is a thousand miles square, lest some inimy should hear it, where’s the use in carrying one?”

Hutter now held a long consultation with his two guests, in which the parties came to a true understanding of their situation. He explained the difficulty that would exist in attempting to get the ark out of so swift and narrow a stream, in the dark, without making a noise that could not fail to attract Indian ears. Any strollers in their vicinity would keep near the river or the lake; but the former had swampy shores in many places, and was both so crooked and so fringed with bushes, that it was quite possible to move by daylight without incurring much danger of being seen. More was to be apprehended, perhaps, from the ear than from the eye, especially as long as they were in the short, straitened, and canopied reaches of the stream.

“I never drop down into this cover, which is handy to my traps, and safer than the lake, from curious eyes, without providing the means of getting out ag’in,” continued this singular being, “and that is easier done by a pull than a push. My anchor is now lying above the suction, in the open lake; and here is a line, you see, to haul us up to it. Without some such help, a single pair of hands would make heavy work in forcing a scow like this up stream. I have a sort of a crab, too, that lightens the pull, on occasion. Jude can use the oar as-tarn as well as myself; and when we fear no enemy, to get out of the river gives us but little trouble.”

“What should we gain, Master Hutter, by changing the position?” asked Deerslayer, with a good deal of earnestness; “this is a safe cover, and a stout defense might be made from the inside of this cabin. I’ve never fou’t unless in the way of tradition; but it seems to me we might beat off twenty Mingos, with palisades like them afore us.”

“Ay, ay; you’ve never fought except in traditions, that’s plain enough, young man! Did you ever see as broad a sheet of water as this above us, before you came in upon it with Hurry?”

“I can’t say that I ever did,” Deerslayer answered, modestly. “Youth is the time to l‘arn; and I’m far from wishing to raise my voice in counsel, afore it is justified by exper’ence.”

“Well, then, I’ll teach you the disadvantage of fighting in this position, and the advantage of taking to the open lake. Here, you may see, the savages will know where to aim every shot; and it would be too much to hope that some would not find their way through the crevices of the logs. Now, on the other hand, we should have nothing but a forest to aim at. Then we are not safe from fire, here, the bark of this roof being little better than so much kindling wood. The castle, too,