too; this you well
know."

"The Yengeese are as plenty as the leaves on the trees! This every Huron
knows, and feels."

"I understand you, chief. Had I brought a party with me, it might
have caused trouble. My young men and your young men would have looked
angrily at each other; especially had my young men seen that pale-face
bound for the torture. He is a great hunter, and is much loved by all
the garrisons, far and near. There would have been blows about him, and
the trail of the Iroquois back to the Canadas would have been marked
with blood."

"There is so much blood on it, now," returned the chief, gloomily, "that
it blinds our eyes. My young men see that it is all Huron."

"No doubt; and more Huron blood would be spilt had I come surrounded
with pale-faces. I have heard of Rivenoak, and have thought it would be
better to send him back in peace to his village, that he might leave his
women and children behind him; if he then wished to come for our scalps,
we would meet him. He loves animals made of ivory, and little rifles.
See; I have brought some with me to show him. I am his friend. When
he has packed up these things among his goods, he will start for his
village, before any of my young men can overtake him, and then he will
show his people in Canada what riches they can come to seek, now that
our great fathers, across the Salt Lake, have sent each other the war
hatchet. I will lead back with me this great hunter, of whom I have need
to keep my house in venison."

Judith, who was sufficiently familiar with Indian phraseology,
endeavored to express her ideas in the sententious manner common to
those people, and she succeeded even beyond her own expectations.
Deerslayer did her full justice in the translation, and this so much
the more readily, since the girl carefully abstained from uttering any
direct untruth; a homage she paid to the young man's known aversion to
falsehood, which he deemed a meanness altogether unworthy of a white
man's gifts. The offering of the two remaining elephants, and of the
pistols already mentioned, one of which was all the worse for the recent
accident, produced a lively sensation among the Hurons, generally,
though Rivenoak received it coldly, notwithstanding the delight with
which he had first discovered the probable existence of a creature with
two tails. In a word, this cool and sagacious savage was not so easily
imposed on as his followers, and with a sentiment of honor that