The Deerslayer (Barnes & Noble Classics) - James Fenimore Cooper [94]
“Pull, Deerslayer!” cried Judith, hastily barring the door, in order to prevent an inroad by the passage through which the Delaware had just entered; “pull for life and death—the lake is full of savages wading after us!”
The young men—for Chingachgook immediately came to his friend’s assistance—needed no second bidding; but they applied themselves to their task in a way that showed how urgent they deemed the occasion. The great difficulty was in suddenly overcoming the vis inertiaeg of so large a mass; for once in motion, it was easy to cause the scow to skim the water with all the necessary speed.
“Pull, Deerslayer, for Heaven’s sake!” cried Judith again at the loop. “These wretches rush into the water like hounds following their prey! Ah!—the scow moves! and now the water deepens to the armpits of the foremost; still they rush forward, and will seize the ark! ”
A slight scream, and then a joyous laugh followed from the girl; the first produced by a desperate effort of their pursuers, and the last by its failure; the scow, which had now got fairly in motion, gliding ahead into deep water with a velocity that set the designs of their enemies at naught. As the two men were prevented by the position of the cabin from seeing what passed astern, they were compelled to inquire of the girls into the state of the chase.
“What now, Judith?—what next? Do the Mingos still follow, or are we quit of ’em for the present?” demanded Deerslayer, when he felt the rope yielding, as if the scow was going fast ahead, and heard the scream and the laugh of the girl almost in the same breath.
“They have vanished!—one, the last, is just burying himself in the bushes of the bank—there, he has disappeared in the shadows of the trees! You have got your friend, and we are all safe!”
The two men now made another great effort, pulled the ark up swiftly to the grapnel, tripped it, and when the scow had shot some distance, and lost its way, they let the anchor drop again; then, for the first time since their meeting, they ceased their efforts. As the floating house now lay several hundred feet from the shore, and offered a complete protection against bullets, there was no longer any danger, or any motive for immediate exertion.
The manner in which the two friends now recognized each other was highly characteristic. Chingachgook, a noble, tall, handsome, and athletic young Indian warrior, first examined his rifle with care, opening the pan to make sure the priming was not wet; and assured of this important fact, he next cast furtive but observant glances around him at the strange habitation and at the two girls; still he spoke not, and most of all did he avoid the betrayal of a womanish curiosity by asking questions.
“Judith and Hetty,” said Deerslayer, with an untaught, natural courtesy, “this is the Mohican chief of whom you’ve heard me speak; Chingachgook, as he is called, which signifies the Big Sarpent; so named for his wisdom, and prudence, and cunning; my ‘arliest and latest friend. I know’d it must be he, by the hawk’s feather over the left ear, most other warriors wearing ’em on the war-lock.”
As Deerslayer ceased speaking, he laughed heartily, excited more perhaps by the delight of having got his friend safe at his side, under circumstances so trying, than by any conceit that happened to cross his fancy, and exhibiting this outbreaking of feeling in a manner that was a little remarkable, since his merriment was not accompanied by any noise. Although Chingachgook both understood and spoke English, he was unwilling to communicate his thoughts in it, like most Indians; and when he had met Judith’s cordial shake of the hand, and Hetty’s milder salute, in the courteous manner that became a chief, he turned away, apparently to await the moment when it might suit his friend to enter into an explanation of his future intentions, and to give a narrative