No sooner had he set the recovered canoe adrift, than Deerslayer
turned the bows of his own towards the point on the shore that had
been indicated by Hurry. So light was the movement of the little
craft, and so steady the sweep of its master's arm, that ten minutes
had not elapsed ere it was again approaching the land, having, in
that brief time, passed over fully half a mile of distance. As
soon as Deerslayer's eye caught a glimpse of the rushes, of which
there were many growing in the water a hundred feet from the
shore, he arrested the motion of the canoe, and anchored his boat
by holding fast to the delicate but tenacious stem of one of the
drooping plants. Here he remained, awaiting, with an intensity of
suspense that can be easily imagined, the result of the hazardous
enterprise.
It would be difficult to convey to the minds of those who have
never witnessed it, the sublimity that characterizes the silence of
a solitude as deep as that which now reigned over the Glimmerglass.
In the present instance, this sublimity was increased by the gloom
of night, which threw its shadowy and fantastic forms around the
lake, the forest, and the hills. It is not easy, indeed, to conceive
of any place more favorable to heighten these natural impressions,
than that Deerslayer now occupied.
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