ok, who ran the greatest risk of detection, to
find a cover where he could secrete himself until the party might pass.
It was perhaps fortunate for him that the savages were so intent on this
recent discovery, that they did not bestow the ordinary attention on the
signs of the forest. At all events, they passed him swiftly, fifteen in
number, treading lightly in each other's footsteps; and he was enabled
again to get into their rear. After proceeding to the place where the
footsteps of Pathfinder and the Mohican had joined the principal trail,
the Iroquois had struck off to the river, which they reached just as
Jasper had disappeared behind the bend below. The smoke being now
in plain view, the savages plunged into the woods and endeavored to
approach the fire unseen. Chingachgook profited by this occasion to
descend to the water, and to gain the bend in the river also, which
he thought had been effected undiscovered. Here he paused, as has been
stated, until he saw his enemies at the fire, where their stay, however,
was very short.

Of the motives of the Iroquois the Mohican could judge only by their
acts. He thought they had detected the artifice of the fire, and were
aware that it had been kindled with a view to mislead them; for, after
a hasty examination of the spot, they had separated, some plunging again
into the woods, while six or eight had followed the footsteps of Jasper
along the shore, and come down the stream towards the place where the
canoes had landed. What course they might take on reaching that spot was
only to be conjectured; for the Serpent had felt the emergency to be
too pressing to delay looking for his friends any longer. From some
indications that were to be gathered from their gestures, however, he
thought it probable that their enemies might follow down in the margin
of the stream, but could not be certain.

As the Pathfinder related these facts to his companions, the
professional feelings of the two other white men came uppermost, and
both naturally reverted to their habits, in quest of the means of
escape.

"Let us run out the canoes at once," said Jasper eagerly; "the current
is strong, and by using the paddles vigorously we shall soon be beyond
the reach of these scoundrels!"

"And this poor flower, that first blossomed in the clearings--shall it
wither in the forest?" objected his friend, with a poetry which he had
unconsciously imbibed by his long association with the Delawares.