bent over the track, and removing the scattered leaves
from around the place, he examined it with much of that sort of scrutiny
that a money dealer, in these days of pecuniary doubts, would bestow on
a suspected due-bill. At length he arose from his knees, satisfied with
the result of the examination.

"Well, boy," demanded the attentive scout; "what does it say? Can you
make anything of the tell-tale?"

"Le Renard Subtil!"

"Ha! that rampaging devil again! there will never be an end of his
loping till 'killdeer' has said a friendly word to him."

Heyward reluctantly admitted the truth of this intelligence, and now
expressed rather his hopes than his doubts by saying:

"One moccasin is so much like another, it is probable there is some
mistake."

"One moccasin like another! you may as well say that one foot is like
another; though we all know that some are long, and others short; some
broad and others narrow; some with high, and some with low insteps; some
intoed, and some out. One moccasin is no more like another than one book
is like another: though they who can read in one are seldom able to tell
the marks of the other. Which is all ordered for the best, giving to
every man his natural advantages. Let me get down to it, Uncas; neither
book nor moccasin is the worse for having two opinions, instead of one."
The scout stooped to the task, and instantly added:

"You are right, boy; here is the patch we saw so often in the other
chase. And the fellow will drink when he can get an opportunity; your
drinking Indian always learns to walk with a wider toe than the natural
savage, it being the gift of a drunkard to straddle, whether of white or
red skin. 'Tis just the length and breadth, too! look at it, Sagamore;
you measured the prints more than once, when we hunted the varmints from
Glenn's to the health springs."

Chingachgook complied; and after finishing his short examination, he
arose, and with a quiet demeanor, he merely pronounced the word:

"Magua!"

"Ay, 'tis a settled thing; here, then, have passed the dark-hair and
Magua."

"And not Alice?" demanded Heyward.

"Of her we have not yet seen the signs," returned the scout, looking
closely around at the trees, the bushes and the ground. "What have
we there? Uncas, bring hither the thing you see dangling from yonder
thorn-bush."

When the Indian had complied, the scout received the prize, and holding
it on high, he laughed in his silent but heartfelt m