This paralysis of mind and body, however, could not last long in
one constituted mentally and physically like Deerslayer. Dropping
his paddle into the water, he turned the head of the canoe, and
proceeded slowly, as one walks who thinks intently, towards the
centre of the lake. When he believed himself to have reached a
point in a line with that where he had set the last canoe adrift,
he changed his direction northward, keeping the light air as nearly
on his back as possible. After paddling a quarter of a mile in
this direction, a dark object became visible on the lake, a little
to the right; and turning on one side for the purpose, he had soon
secured his lost prize to his own boat. Deerslayer now examined
the heavens, the course of the air, and the position of the two
canoes. Finding nothing in either to induce a change of plan, he
lay down, and prepared to catch a few hours' sleep, that the morrow
might find him equal to its exigencies.
Although the hardy and the tired sleep profoundly, even in scenes
of danger, it was some time before Deerslayer lost his recollection.
His mind dwelt on what had passed, and his half-conscious faculties
kept figuring the events of the night, in a sort of waking
dream.
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