In other
respects, nothing presented itself to attract attention, or to
awaken alarm. The castle stood on its shoal, nearly abreast of
the canoes, for the drift had amounted to miles in the course of
the night, and the ark lay fastened to its piles, as both had been
left so many hours before.
As a matter of course, Deerslayer's attention was first given to
the canoe ahead. It was already quite near the point, and a very
few strokes of the paddle sufficed to tell him that it must touch
before he could possibly overtake it. Just at this moment, too,
the wind inopportunely freshened, rendering the drift of the light
craft much more rapid than certain. Feeling the impossibility of
preventing a contact with the land, the young man wisely determined
not to heat himself with unnecessary exertions; but first looking
to the priming of his piece, he proceeded slowly and warily towards
the point, taking care to make a little circuit, that he might be
exposed on only one side, as he approached.
The canoe adrift being directed by no such intelligence, pursued
its proper way, and grounded on a small sunken rock, at the distance
of three or four yards from the shore. Just at that moment, Deerslayer
had got abreast of the point, and turned the bows of his own boat
to the land; first casting loose his tow, that his movements might
be unencumbered.
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