foe. While thus occupied, the
two Indians he had hurled into the water mounted to the heads of the
piles, along which they passed, and joined their companion on the
platform. The latter had so far rallied his faculties as to have gotten
the ropes, which were in readiness for use as the others appeared, and
they were applied in the manner related, as Hurry lay pressing his
enemy down with his whole weight, intent only on the horrible office of
strangling him. Thus were the tables turned, in a single moment; he who
had been so near achieving a victory that would have been renowned
for ages, by means of traditions, throughout all that region, lying
helpless, bound and a captive. So fearful had been the efforts of the
pale-face, and so prodigious the strength he exhibited, that even as he
lay tethered like a sheep before them, they regarded him with respect,
and not without dread. The helpless body of their stoutest warrior was
still stretched on the platform, and, as they cast their eyes towards
the lake, in quest of the comrade that had been hurled into it so
unceremoniously, and of whom they had lost sight in the confusion of
the fray, they perceived his lifeless form clinging to the grass on the
bottom, as already described. These several circumstances contributed to
render the victory of the Hurons almost as astounding to themselves as a
defeat.

Chingachgook and his betrothed witnessed the whole of this struggle from
the Ark. When the three Hurons were about to pass the cords around the
arms of the prostrate Hurry the Delaware sought his rifle, but, before
he could use it the white man was bound and the mischief was done. He
might still bring down an enemy, but to obtain the scalp was impossible,
and the young chief, who would so freely risk his own life to obtain
such a trophy, hesitated about taking that of a foe without such an
object in view. A glance at Hist, and the recollection of what might
follow, checked any transient wish for revenge. The reader has been told
that Chingachgook could scarcely be said to know how to manage the oars
of the Ark at all, however expert he might be in the use of the paddle.
Perhaps there is no manual labor at which men are so bungling and
awkward, as in their first attempts to pull oar, even the experienced
mariner, or boat man, breaking down in his efforts to figure with the
celebrated rullock of the gondolier. In short it is, temporarily, an
impracticable thing for a new beginn