James Fenimore Cooper

The Last of the Mohicans James Fenimore Cooper

While one of the lovely beings we have so cursorily presented to the reader was thus lost inthought, the other quickly recovered from the alarm which induced the exclamation, and, laughing ather own weakness, she inquired of the youth who rode by her side: "Are such specters frequent in the woods, Heyward, or is this sight an especial entertainmentordered on our behalf? If the latter, gratitude must close our mouths; but if the former, both Coraand I shall have need to draw largely on that stock of hereditary courage which we boast, evenbefore we are made to encounter the redoubtable Montcalm.""Yon Indian is a 'runner' of the army; and, after the fashion of his people, he may be accounted ahero," returned the officer. "He has volunteered to guide us to the lake, by a path but little known, sooner than if we followed the tardy movements of the column; and, by consequence, moreagreeably.""I like him not," said the lady, shuddering, partly in assumed, yet more in real terror. "You knowhim, Duncan, or you would not trust yourself so freely to his keeping?""Say, rather, Alice, that I would not trust you. I do know him, or he would not have myconfidence, and least of all at this moment. He is said to be a Canadian too; and yet he served withour friends the Mohawks, who, as you know, are one of the six allied nations. He was broughtamong us, as I have heard, by some strange accident in which your father was interested, and inwhich the savage was rigidly dealt by; but I forget the idle tale, it is enough, that he is now ourfriend.""If he has been my father's enemy, I like him still less!" exclaimed the now really anxious girl."Will you not speak to him, Major Heyward, that I may hear his tones? Foolish though it may be, you have often heard me avow my faith in the tones of the human voice!""It would be in vain; and answered, most probably, by an ejaculation. Though he may understandit, he affects, like most of his people, to be ignorant of the English; and least of all will hecondescend to speak it, now that the war demands the utmost exercise of his dignity. But he stops;the private path by which we are to journey is, doubtless, at hand."The conjecture of Major Heyward was true. When they reached the spot where the Indian stood, pointing into the thicket that fringed the military road; a narrow and blind path, which might, withsome little inconvenience, receive one person at a time, became visi