“The accursed Mingos!  Stand to your arms, my men, but lay quiet as the corpses of dead trees!”

Jasper advanced rapidly, but noiselessly, to the canoe, and with a gentle violence induced Mabel to place herself in such an attitude as concealed her entire body, though it would have probably exceeded his means to induce the girl so far to lower her head that she could not keep her gaze fastened on their enemies.  He then took his own post near her, with his rifle cocked and poised, in readiness to fire.  Arrowhead and Chingachgook crawled to the cover, and lay in wait like snakes, with their arms prepared for service, while the wife of the former bowed her head between her knees, covered it with her calico robe, and remained passive and immovable.  Cap loosened both his pistols in their belt, but seemed quite at a loss what course to pursue.  The Pathfinder did not stir.  He had originally got a position where he might aim with deadly effect through the leaves, and where he could watch the movements of his enemies; and he was far too steady to be disconcerted at a moment so critical.

It was truly an alarming instant.  Just as Mabel touched the shoulder of her guide, three of the Iroquois had appeared in the water, at the bend of the river, within a hundred yards of the cover, and halted to examine the stream below.  They were all naked to the waist, armed for an expedition against their foes, and in their warpaint.  It was apparent that they were undecided as to the course they ought to pursue in order to find the fugitives.  One pointed down the river, a second up the stream, and the third towards the opposite bank.  They evidently doubted.

CHAPTER V

Death is here and death is there,
Death is busy everywhere. 
Shelley

It was a breathless moment.  The only clue the fugitives possessed to the intentions of their pursuers was in their gestures and the indications which escaped them in the fury of disappointment.  That a party had returned already, on their own footsteps, by land, was pretty certain; and all the benefit expected from the artifice of the fire was necessarily lost.  But that consideration became of little moment just then; for the party was menaced with an immediate discovery by those who had kept on a level with the river.  All the facts presented themselves clearly, and as it might be by intuition, to the mind of Pathfinder, who perceived the necessity of immediate decision and of being in readiness to act in concert.  Without making any noise, therefore, he managed to get the two Indians and Jasper near him, when he opened his communications in a whisper.