Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 2, 2025
This time the scout seized the rifle with avidity; nor had Magua, though he watched the movements of the marksman with jealous eyes, any further cause for apprehension. "Now let it be proved, in the face of this tribe of Delawares, which is the better man," cried the scout, tapping the butt of his piece with that finger which had pulled so many fatal triggers.
But when time was given for reflection, and the warriors remembered that their formidable and daring enemy had even been in the bosom of their encampment, working injury, fearful rage took the place of wonder, and all those fierce passions with which the bosom of Magua had just been struggling were suddenly transferred to his companions.
"Has not Magua kept the sun in his face long enough to escape all danger from the Canadians?" he asked, as though no longer doubtful of the good intelligence established between them; "and will not the chief of William Henry be better pleased to see his daughters before another night may have hardened his heart to their loss, to make him less liberal in his reward?"
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." "And not Alice?" demanded Heyward. "Of her we have not yet seen the signs," returned the scout, looking closely around at the trees, the bushes and the ground. "What have we there?
The eyes of Magua flashed fire; but suddenly recollecting the necessity of maintaining his presence of mind, he turned away in silent disdain, well assured that the sagacity of the Indians would not fail to extract the real merits of the point in controversy.
Some of their old men consulted together in private, and then, as it would seem, they determined to interrogate their visitor on the subject. "My brother has said that a snake crept into my camp," said the chief to Magua; "which is he?" The Huron pointed to the scout.
The chief consulted apart with his companions, and messengers despatched to collect certain others of the most distinguished men of the tribe. As warrior after warrior dropped in, they were each made acquainted, in turn, with the important intelligence that Magua had just communicated. The air of surprise, and the usual low, deep, guttural exclamation, were common to them all.
There he turned, and, in the sweeping and haughty glance that he threw around the circle of his enemies, Duncan caught a look which he was glad to construe into an expression that he was not entirely deserted by hope. Magua was content with his success, or too much occupied with his secret purposes to push his inquiries any further.
Mile after mile was, however, passed through the boundless woods, in this painful manner, without any prospect of a termination to their journey. Heyward watched the sun, as he darted his meridian rays through the branches of the trees, and pined for the moment when the policy of Magua should change their route to one more favorable to his hopes.
"See!" continued Magua, tearing aside the slight calico that very imperfectly concealed his painted breast; "here are scars given by knives and bullets of these a warrior may boast before his nation; but the gray-head has left marks on the back of the Huron chief, that he must hide, like a squaw, under this painted cloth of the whites."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking