from its grave
composure to a gleam of intelligence and joy. Bounding forward like a
deer, he sprang up the side of a little acclivity, a few rods in
advance, and stood exultingly over a spot of fresh earth that looked as
though it had been recently upturned by the passage of some heavy
animal. The eyes of the whole party followed the unexpected movement,
and read their success in the air of triumph that the youth assumed.

"'Tis the trail!" exclaimed the scout, advancing to the spot: "the lad
is quick of sight and keen of wit for his years."

"'Tis extraordinary that he should have withheld his knowledge so long,"
muttered Duncan, at his elbow.

"It would have been more wonderful had he spoken without a bidding. No,
no; your young white, who gathers his learning from books and can
measure what he knows by the page, may conceit that his knowledge, like
his legs, outruns that of his father; but where experience is the
master, the scholar is made to know the value of years, and respects
them accordingly."

"See!" said Uncas, pointing north and south, at the evident marks of
the broad trail on either side of him: "the dark-hair has gone towards
the frost."

"Hound never ran on a more beautiful scent," responded the scout,
dashing forward, at once, on the indicated route; "we are favored,
greatly favored, and can follow with high noses. Ay, here are both your
waddling beasts: this Huron travels like a white general. The fellow is
stricken with a judgment, and is mad! Look sharp for wheels, Sagamore,"
he continued, looking back, and laughing in his newly awakened
satisfaction; "we shall soon have the fool journeying in a coach, and
that with three of the best pair of eyes on the borders, in his rear."

The spirits of the scout, and the astonishing success of the chase, in
which a circuitous distance of more than forty miles had been passed,
did not fail to impart a portion of hope to the whole party. Their
advance was rapid; and made with as much confidence as a traveller would
proceed along a wide highway. If a rock, or a rivulet, or a bit of earth
harder than common, severed the links of the clue they followed, the
true eye of the scout recovered them at a distance, and seldom rendered
the delay of a single moment necessary. Their progress was much
facilitated by the certainty that Magua had found it necessary to
journey through the valleys; a circumstance which rendered the general
direction of the route sure. Nor