while he passed a hand
toward the bear-skin covering of his holsters.

Every effort to detect the point most regarded by the runner was
completely frustrated by the tremulous glances of his organs, which
seemed not to rest a single instant on any particular object, and which,
at the same time, could be hardly said to move. While he hesitated how
to proceed, Le Subtil cautiously raised himself to his feet, though with
a motion so slow and guarded, that not the slightest noise was produced
by the change. Heyward felt it had now become incumbent on him to act.
Throwing his leg over the saddle, he dismounted, with a determination to
advance and seize his treacherous companion, trusting the result to his
own manhood. In order, however, to prevent unnecessary alarm, he still
preserved an air of calmness and friendship.

"Le Renard Subtil does not eat," he said, using the appellation he had
found most flattering to the vanity of the Indian. "His corn is not
well parched, and it seems dry. Let me examine; perhaps something may be
found among my own provisions that will help his appetite."

Magua held out the wallet to the proffer of the other. He even suffered
their hands to meet, without betraying the least emotion, or varying his
riveted attitude of attention. But when he felt the fingers of Heyward
moving gently along his own naked arm, he struck up the limb of the
young man, and, uttering a piercing cry, he darted beneath it, and
plunged, at a single bound, into the opposite thicket. At the next
instant the form of Chingachgook appeared from the bushes, looking like
a specter in its paint, and glided across the path in swift pursuit.
Next followed the shout of Uncas, when the woods were lighted by a
sudden flash, that was accompanied by the sharp report of the hunter's
rifle.

CHAPTER 5

..."In such a night
Did This be fearfully o'ertrip the dew;
And saw the lion's shadow ere himself."--Merchant of Venice

The suddenness of the flight of his guide, and the wild cries of the
pursuers, caused Heyward to remain fixed, for a few moments, in inactive
surprise. Then recollecting the importance of securing the fugitive, he
dashed aside the surrounding bushes, and pressed eagerly forward to lend
his aid in the chase. Before he had, however, proceeded a hundred yards,
he met the three foresters already returning from their unsuccessful
pursuit.

"Why so soon disheartened!" he exclaimed; "the