waist, and she was dragged swiftly within the protection of the cabin. This
retreat was not effected too soon. Scarcely were the two in safety, when the
forest was filled with yells, and bullets began to patter against the logs.
    The Ark being in swift motion, all this while, it was beyond the danger of
pursuit by the time these little events had occurred, and the savages, as soon
as the first burst of their anger had subsided, ceased firing, with the
consciousness that they were expending their ammunition in vain. When the scow
came up over her grapnel, Hutter tripped the latter in a way not to impede the
motion, and being now beyond the influence of the current, the vessel continued
to drift ahead, until fairly in the open lake, though still near enough to the
land to render exposure to a rifle-bullet dangerous. Hutter and March got out
two small sweeps, and covered by the cabin, they soon urged the Ark far enough
from the shore, to leave no inducement to their enemies to make any further
attempt to injure them.
 

                                   Chapter V

 »Why, let the strucken deer go weep,
 The hart ungalled play:
 For some must watch, while some must sleep;
 Thus runs the world away.«
                                                          Hamlet, III.ii.271-74.
 
Another consultation took place, in the forward part of the scow, at which both
Judith and Hetty were present. As no danger could now approach unseen, immediate
uneasiness had given place to the concern which attended the conviction that
enemies were, in considerable force, on the shores of the lake, and that they
might be sure no practicable means of accomplishing their own destruction would
be neglected. As a matter of course, Hutter felt these truths the deepest, his
daughters having an habitual reliance on his resources, and knowing too little
to appreciate fully all the risks they ran, while his male companions were at
liberty to quit him at any moment they saw fit. His first remark showed that he
had an eye to the latter circumstance, and might have betrayed to a keen
observer, the apprehension that was, just then, uppermost.
    »We've a great advantage over the Iroquois, or the enemy, whoever they are,
in being afloat,« he said. »There's not a canoe on the lake, that I do'n't know
where it's hid, and now yours is here, Hurry, there are but three more on the
land, and they're so snug in hollow logs, that I do'n't