skies, and then rested
long and anxiously on the embodied gloom, which lay like a dreary
void on that side of him where the dead reposed. He soon fancied that
inexplicable sounds arose from the place, though so indistinct and
stolen, as to render not only their nature but even their existence
uncertain. Ashamed of his apprehensions, the young man turned toward the
water, and strove to divert his attention to the mimic stars that dimly
glimmered on its moving surface. Still, his too-conscious ears performed
their ungrateful duty, as if to warn him of some lurking danger. At
length, a swift trampling seemed, quite audibly, to rush athwart the
darkness. Unable any longer to quiet his uneasiness, Duncan spoke in a
low voice to the scout, requesting him to ascend the mound to the place
where he stood. Hawkeye threw his rifle across an arm and complied, but
with an air so unmoved and calm, as to prove how much he counted on the
security of their position.

"Listen!" said Duncan, when the other placed himself deliberately at his
elbow; "there are suppressed noises on the plain which may show Montcalm
has not yet entirely deserted his conquest."

"Then ears are better than eyes," said the undisturbed scout, who,
having just deposited a portion of a bear between his grinders, spoke
thick and slow, like one whose mouth was doubly occupied. "I myself saw
him caged in Ty, with all his host; for your Frenchers, when they
have done a clever thing, like to get back, and have a dance, or a
merry-making, with the women over their success."

"I know not. An Indian seldom sleeps in war, and plunder may keep a
Huron here after his tribe has departed. It would be well to extinguish
the fire, and have a watch--listen! you hear the noise I mean!"

"An Indian more rarely lurks about the graves. Though ready to slay, and
not over regardful of the means, he is commonly content with the scalp,
unless when blood is hot, and temper up; but after spirit is once fairly
gone, he forgets his enmity, and is willing to let the dead find their
natural rest. Speaking of spirits, major, are you of opinion that the
heaven of a red-skin and of us whites will be of one and the same?"

"No doubt--no doubt. I thought I heard it again! or was it the rustling
of the leaves in the top of the beech?"

"For my own part," continued Hawkeye, turning his face for a moment
in the direction indicated by Heyward, but with a vacant and careless
manner, "I believe tha