curvature of the sheet. In that direction, the distance to the
shore, or to the termination of the lake, on the course the two
were now steering, was not quite a mile, and, their progress being
always swift, it was fast lessening under the skilful, but easy
sweeps of the paddles. When about half way across, a slight noise
drew the eyes of the men towards the nearest land, and they saw
that the buck was just emerging from the lake and wading towards
the beach. In a minute, the noble animal shook the water from
his flanks, gazed up ward at the covering of trees, and, bounding
against the bank, plunged into the forest.

"That creatur' goes off with gratitude in his heart," said Deerslayer,
"for natur' tells him he has escaped a great danger. You ought to
have some of the same feelin's, Hurry, to think your eye wasn't
true, or that your hand was onsteady, when no good could come of
a shot that was intended onmeaningly rather than in reason."

"I deny the eye and the hand," cried March with some heat. "You've
got a little character, down among the Delawares, there, for quickness
and sartainty, at a deer, but I should like to see you behind one
of them pines, and a full painted Mingo behind another, each with
a cock'd rifle and a striving for the chance! Them's the situations,
Nathaniel, to try the sight and the hand, for they begin with trying
the narves. I never look upon killing a creatur' as an explite;
but killing a savage is. The time will come to try your hand, now
we've got to blows ag'in, and we shall soon know what a ven'son
reputation can do in the field. I deny that either hand or eye
was onsteady; it was all a miscalculation of the buck, which stood
still when he ought to have kept in motion, and so I shot ahead of
him."