Any
strollers in their vicinity would keep near the river or the lake;
but the former had swampy shores in many places, and was both so
crooked and so fringed with bushes, that it was quite possible to
move by daylight without incurring much danger of being seen. More
was to be apprehended, perhaps, from the ear than from the eye,
especially as long as they were in the short, straitened, and
canopied reaches of the stream.
"I never drop down into this cover, which is handy to my traps,
and safer than the lake from curious eyes, without providing the
means of getting out ag'in," continued this singular being; "and
that is easier done by a pull than a push. My anchor is now lying
above the suction, in the open lake; and here is a line, you see,
to haul us up to it. Without some such help, a single pair of
bands would make heavy work in forcing a scow like this up stream.
I have a sort of a crab, too, that lightens the pull, on occasion.
Jude can use the oar astern as well as myself; and when we fear no
enemy, to get out of the river gives us but little trouble."
"What should we gain, Master Hutter, by changing the position?"
asked Deerslayer, with a good deal of earnestness; "this is a safe
cover, and a stout defence might be made from the inside of this
cabin.
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