was created by the representations of
Deerslayer. He had examined the state of things among the Hurons, and felt
satisfied that they meditated no further hostilities during the night, the loss
they had met having indisposed them to further exertions for the moment. Then,
he had a proposition to make; the object of his visit; and, if this were
accepted, the war would at once terminate between the parties; and it was
improbable that the Hurons would anticipate the failure of a project on which
their chiefs had apparently set their hearts, by having recourse to violence
previously to the return of their messenger.
    As soon as the Ark was properly secured, the different members of the party
occupied themselves in their several peculiar manners, haste in council, or in
decision, no more characterizing the proceedings of these border whites, than it
did those of their red neighbors. The women busied themselves in preparations
for the evening meal, sad and silent, but ever attentive to the first wants of
nature. Hurry set about repairing his moccasins, by the light of a blazing knot;
Chingachgook seated himself in gloomy thought, while Deerslayer proceeded, in a
manner equally free from affectation and concern, to examine Killdeer, the rifle
of Hutter that has been already mentioned, and which subsequently became so
celebrated, in the hands of the individual who was now making a survey of its
merits. The piece was a little longer than usual, and had evidently been turned
out from the work shops of some manufacturer of a superior order. It had a few
silver ornaments, though, on the whole, it would have been deemed a plain piece
by most frontier men, its great merit consisting in the accuracy of its bore,
the perfection of the details, and the excellence of the metal. Again and again
did the hunter apply the breech to his shoulder, and glance his eye along the
sights, and as often did he poise his body and raise the weapon slowly, as if
about to catch an aim at a deer, in order to try the weight, and to ascertain
its fitness for quick and accurate firing. All this was done, by the aid of
Hurry's torch, simply, but with an earnestness and abstraction that would have
been found touching by any spectator who happened to know the real situation of
the man.
    »'Tis a glorious we'pon, Hurry!« Deerslayer at length exclaimed, »and it may
be thought a pity that it has fallen into the hands of women. The hunters have
told me of its expl'ites, and by all I have heard,