Chapter 5

"Why, let the strucken deer go weep,
The hart ungalled play,
For some must watch, while some must sleep,
Thus runs the world away."

Hamlet, III.ii.271-74

Another consultation took place in the forward part of the scow, at
which both Judith and Hetty were present. As no danger could now
approach unseen, immediate uneasiness had given place to the concern
which attended the conviction that enemies were in considerable
force on the shores of the lake, and that they might be sure
no practicable means of accomplishing their own destruction would
be neglected. As a matter of course Hutter felt these truths the
deepest, his daughters having an habitual reliance on his resources,
and knowing too little to appreciate fully all the risks they ran;
while his male companions were at liberty to quit him at any moment
they saw fit. His first remark showed that he had an eye to the
latter circumstance, and might have betrayed, to a keen observer,
the apprehension that was just then uppermost.

"We've a great advantage over the Iroquois, or the enemy, whoever
they are, in being afloat," he said.

"There's not a canoe on the lake that I don't know where it's
hid; and now yours is here. Hurry, there are but three more on
the land, and they're so snug in hollow logs that I don't believe
the Indians could find them, let them try ever so long."

"There's no telling that- no one can say that," put in Deerslayer;
"a hound is not more sartain on the scent than a red-skin, when
he expects to get anything by it. Let this party see scalps afore
'em, or plunder, or honor accordin' to their idees of what honor
is, and 't will be a tight log that hides a canoe from their eyes."

"You're right, Deerslayer," cried Harry March; "you're downright
Gospel in this matter, and I rej'ice that my bunch of bark is safe
enough here, within reach of my arm. I calcilate they'll be at
all the rest of the canoes afore to-morrow night, if they are in
ra'al 'arnest to smoke you out, old Tom, and we may as well overhaul
our paddles for a pull."

Hutter made no immediate reply. He looked about him in silence
for quite a minute, examining the sky, the lake, and the belt of
forest which inclosed it, as it might be hermetically, like one
consulting their signs. Nor did he find any alarming symptoms.
The boundless woods were sleeping in the deep repose of nature,
the heavens were placid, but still luminous with the light of the
retreating sun, while the lake looked more lovely and calm than
it had before done that day. It was a scene altogether soothing,
and of a character to lull the passions into a species of holy
calm. How far this effect