the centre, the object was only a hundred yards from the rifles that
were constantly discharged at it; or, at the usual target distance
for that weapon.

In this extremity the steadiness and skill of the Pathfinder did
him good service. He knew that his safety depended altogether
on keeping in motion; for a stationary object at that distance,
would have been hit nearly every shot. Nor was motion of itself
sufficient; for, accustomed to kill the bounding deer, his enemies
probably knew how to vary the line of aim so as to strike him, should
he continue to move in any one direction. He was consequently
compelled to change the course of the canoe, -- at one moment
shooting down with the current, with the swiftness of an arrow;
and at the next checking its progress in that direction, to glance
athwart the stream. Luckily the Iroquois could not reload their
pieces in the water, and the bushes that everywhere fringed the
shore rendered it difficult to keep the fugitive in view when on
the land. Aided by these circumstances, and having received the
fire of all his foes, the Pathfinder was gaining fast in distance,
both downwards and across the current, when a new danger suddenly,
if not unexpectedly, presented itself, by the appearance of the
party that had been left in ambush below with a view to watch the
river.

These were the savages alluded to in the short dialogue already
related. They were no less than ten in number; and, understanding
all the advantages of their bloody occupation, they had posted
themselves at a spot where the water dashed among rocks and over
shallows, in a way to form a rapid which, in the language of the
country, is called a rift. The Pathfinder saw that, if he entered