This narrow belt of dwarf vegetation passed, one
issued immediately into the high and gloomy vaults of the forest.
The land was tolerably level for a few hundred feet, and then it
rose precipitously in a mountainside. The trees were tall, large,
and so free from underbrush, that they resembled vast columns,
irregularly scattered, upholding a dome of leaves. Although they
stood tolerably close together, for their ages and size, the eye
could penetrate to considerable distances; and bodies of men, even,
might have engaged beneath their cover, with concert and intelligence.
Deerslayer knew that his adversary must be employed in reloading,
unless he had fled. The former proved to be the case, for the young
man had no sooner placed himself behind a tree, than he caught a
glimpse of the arm of the Indian, his body being concealed by an
oak, in the very act of forcing the leathered bullet home. Nothing
would have been easier than to spring forward, and decide the
affair by a close assault on his unprepared foe; but every feeling
of Deerslayer revolted at such a step, although his own life had
just been attempted from a cover. He was yet unpracticed in the
ruthless expedients of savage warfare, of which he knew nothing except
by tradition and theory, and it struck him as unfair advantage to
assail an unarmed foe.
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