If you hear
rifles, and feel like sogering, why, you may close in, and see if
you can make the same hand with the savages that you do with the
deer."
"If my wishes could be followed, this matter would not be undertaken,
Hurry-"
"Quite true-nobody denies it, boy; but your wishes can't be
followed; and that inds the matter. So just canoe yourself off
into the middle of the lake, and by the time you get back there'll
be movements in that camp!"
The young man set about complying with great reluctance and a
heavy heart. He knew the prejudices of the frontiermen too well,
however, to attempt a remonstrance. The latter, indeed, under the
circumstances, might prove dangerous, as it would certainly prove
useless. He paddled the canoe, therefore, silently and with the
former caution, to a spot near the centre of the placid sheet of
water, and set the boat just recovered adrift, to float towards the
castle, before the light southerly air. This expedient had been
adopted, in both cases, under the certainty that the drift could
not carry the light barks more than a league or two, before the
return of light, when they might easily be overtaken in order to
prevent any wandering savage from using them, by swimming off and
getting possession, a possible but scarcely a probable event, all
the paddles were retained.
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