aid; she's in
good hands. The Hurons are up yonder in the woods, and keep a good watch
on us both, I'll answer for it, since all the women and children are on
the look-out. Some are burying the body of the poor girl who was shot,
so that the enemy and the wild beasts can't find it. I told 'em that
father and mother lay in the lake, but I wouldn't let them know in what
part of it, for Judith and I don't want any of their heathenish company
in our burying ground."

"Ahs! me; Well, it is an awful despatch to be standing here, alive and
angry, and with the feelin's up and ferocious, one hour, and then to be
carried away at the next, and put out of sight of mankind in a hole in
the 'arth! No one knows what will happen to him on a warpath, that's
sartain."

Here the stirring of leaves and the cracking of dried twigs interrupted
the discourse, and apprised Deerslayer of the approach of his enemies.
The Hurons closed around the spot that had been prepared for the coming
scene, and in the centre of which the intended victim now stood, in a
circle, the armed men being so distributed among the feebler members
of the band, that there was no safe opening through which the prisoner
could break. But the latter no longer contemplated flight, the recent
trial having satisfied him of his inability to escape when pursued so
closely by numbers. On the contrary, all his energies were aroused in
order to meet his expected fate, with a calmness that should do credit
to his colour and his manhood; one equally removed from recreant alarm,
and savage boasting.

When Rivenoak re-appeared in the circle, he occupied his old place at
the head of the area. Several of the elder warriors stood near him,
but, now that the brother of Sumach had fallen, there was no longer
any recognised chief present whose influence and authority offered a
dangerous rivalry to his own. Nevertheless, it is well known that little
which could be called monarchical or despotic entered into the politics
of the North American tribes, although the first colonists, bringing
with them to this hemisphere the notions and opinions of their own
countries, often dignified the chief men of those primitive nations
with the titles of kings and princes. Hereditary influence did certainly
exist, but there is much reason to believe it existed rather as a
consequence of hereditary merit and acquired qualifications, than as a
birthright. Rivenoak, however, had not even this claim, having r