room, when he secured both the doors and returned. Then he
and Hurry pursued the subject, but, as the purport of all that was material in
this discourse will appear in the narrative, it need not be related here, in
detail. The reader, however, can have no difficulty in comprehending the
morality that presided over their conference. It was in truth that, which, in
some form or other, rules most of the acts of men, and in which the controlling
principle is that one wrong will justify another. Their enemies paid for scalps,
and this was sufficient to justify the colony for retaliating. It is true, the
French used the same argument, a circumstance, as Hurry took occasion to observe
in answer to one of Deerslayer's objections, that proved its truth, as mortal
enemies would not be likely to have recourse to the same reason, unless it were
a good one. But, neither Hutter, nor Hurry was a man likely to stick at trifles,
in matters connected with the rights of the aborigines, since it is one of the
consequences of aggression that it hardens the conscience, as the only means of
quieting it. In the most peaceable state of the country, a species of warfare
was carried on between the Indians, especially those of the Canadas, and men of
their caste, and the moment an actual and recognised warfare existed, it was
regarded as the means of lawfully revenging a thousand wrongs, real and
imaginary. Then, again, there was some truth, and a good deal of expediency in
the principle of retaliation, of which they both availed themselves, in
particular to answer the objections of their juster minded and more scrupulous
companion.
    »You must fight a man with his own we'pons, Deerslayer,« cried Hurry, in his
uncouth dialect, and in his dogmatical manner of disposing of all moral
propositions - »If he's f'erce, you must be f'ercer; if he's stout of heart, you
must be stouter. This is the way to get the better of christian, or savage; by
keepin' up to this trail, you'll get soonest to the ind of your journey.«
    »That's not Moravian doctrine, which teaches that all are to be judged
according to their talents, or l'arning; the Injin like an Injin, and the
white-man like a white-man. Some of their teachers say that if you're struck on
the cheek, it's a duty to turn the other side of the face,