the meeting!"

"At a small round rock, near the foot of the lake, where they tell
me, the tribes are given to resorting to make their treaties, and
to bury their hatchets. This rock have I often heard the Delawares
mention, though lake and rock are equally strangers to me. The
country is claimed by both Mingos and Mohicans, and is a sort
of common territory to fish and hunt through, in time of peace,
though what it may become in war-time, the Lord only knows!"

"Common territory" exclaimed Hurry, laughing aloud. "I should like
to know what Floating Tom Hutter would say to that! He claims the
lake as his own property, in vartue of fifteen years' possession,
and will not be likely to give it up to either Mingo or Delaware
without a battle for it!"

"And what will the colony say to such a quarrel! All this country
must have some owner, the gentry pushing their cravings into the
wilderness, even where they never dare to ventur', in their own
persons, to look at the land they own."

"That may do in other quarters of the colony, Deerslayer, but
it will not do here. Not a human being, the Lord excepted, owns
a foot of sile in this part of the country. Pen was never put to
paper consarning either hill or valley hereaway, as I've heard
old Tom say time and ag'in, and so he claims the best right to it
of any man breathing; and what Tom claims, he'll be very likely to
maintain."

"By what I've heard you say, Hurry, this Floating Tom must be