that the place was devoted to secrecy and watchfulness; "depend on
it, old Tom has burrowed with the ark somewhere in this quarter.
We will drop down with the current a short distance, and ferret
him out."

"This seems no place for a vessel of any size," returned the other;
"it appears to me that we shall have hardly room enough for the
canoe."

Hurry laughed at the suggestion, and, as it soon appeared, with
reason; for the fringe of bushes immediately on the shore of the
lake was no sooner passed, than the adventurers found themselves
in a narrow stream, of a sufficient depth of limpid water, with a
strong current, and a canopy of leaves upheld by arches composed
of the limbs of hoary trees. Bushes lined the shores, as usual,
but they left sufficient space between them to admit the passage
of anything that did not exceed twenty feet in width, and to allow
of a perspective ahead of eight or ten times that distance.

Neither of our two adventurers used his paddle, except to keep
the light bark in the centre of the current, but both watched each
turning of the stream, of which there were two or three within
the first hundred yards, with jealous vigilance. Turn after turn,
however, was passed, and the canoe had dropped down with the current
some little distance, when Hurry caught a bush, and arrested its
movement so suddenly and silently as to denote some unusual motive
for the act. Deerslayer laid his hand on the stock of his rifle
as soon as he noted this proceeding, but it was quite as much with
a hunter's habit as from any feeling of alarm.