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'Tis just the length and breadth too! look at it, Sagamore: you measured the prints more than once, when we hunted the varmints from Glenn's to the health-springs." Chingachgook complied; and after finishing his short examination, he arose, and with a quiet demeanor, he merely pronounced the word "Magua!" "Ay, 'tis a settled thing; here then have passed the dark-hair and Magua."
Three days after the surrender of the fort, Hawk-eye and his two Mohican companions, accompanied by Munroe and Duncan, stood upon the fatal plain. Everywhere they had searched for the bodies of the two girls, and nowhere could they be found. It was clear to Hawk-eye that they still lived, and had been carried off by Magua. With untiring energy he at once set off to try and discover the trail.
It appeared as if a bright gleam shot from his hand, which was crossed at the same moment by a dark and powerful line. The former was the tomahawk in its passage; the latter the arm that Magua darted forward to divert its aim. The quick and ready motion of the chief was not entirely too late.
During all these movements, and in the midst of the general commotion, Magua had not only maintained his seat, but the very attitude he had originally taken, against the side of the lodge, where he continued as immovable, and, apparently, as unconcerned, as if he had no interest in the result. Not a single indication of the future intentions of his hosts, however, escaped his vigilant eyes.
Making a desperate leap, and falling short of his mark, Magua saved himself by grasping some shrub on the verge of the height. With an effort he pulled himself up. Hawk-eye, whose rifle shook with suppressed excitement, watched him closely. As his body was thus collected together, he drew the weapon to his shoulder and fired.
Whirling the bloody knife up at the imploring youth, the victorious Magua uttered a cry so fierce, so wild, and yet so joyous, that it conveyed the sounds of savage triumph to the ears of those who fought in the valley, a thousand feet below.
Then, as if pitying a want of skill which had proved so fortunate to himself, he smiled, and muttered a few words of contempt in his own tongue. "No!" said Magua, after satisfying himself of the safety of the captive; "the sun must shine on his shame; the squaws must see his flesh tremble, or our revenge will be like the play of boys.
Renard smiled with cold contempt, as he answered: "When the white man dies, he thinks he is at peace; but the red men know how to torture even the ghosts of their enemies. Where is his body? Let the Hurons see his scalp." "He is not dead, but escaped." Magua shook his head incredulously. "Is he a bird, to spread his wings; or is he a fish, to swim without air!
They will make him petticoats, and bid him stay in the wigwam with the women, for he is no longer to be trusted with the business of a man." "Le Subtil knows the path to the great lakes, and he can find the bones of his fathers," was the answer of the unmoved runner. "Enough, Magua," said Heyward; "are we not friends? Why should there be bitter words between us?
"The Mohican is swift of foot, and leaps far," he said; "but my young men are on his trail." "Is he gone?" demanded Magua, in tones so deep and guttural, that they seemed to proceed from his inmost chest. "An evil spirit has been among us, and the Delaware has blinded our eyes."
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