She was perfectly aware of the importance of
keeping the canoes from falling into the hands of the Iroquois, and
long familiarity with the lake had suggested one of the simplest
expedients, by which this great object could be rendered compatible
with her own purpose.
The point in question was the first projection that offered on that
side of the lake, where a canoe, if set adrift with a southerly
air would float clear of the land, and where it would be no great
violation of probabilities to suppose it might even hit the castle;
the latter lying above it, almost in a direct line with the wind.
Such then was Hetty's intention, and she landed on the extremity
of the gravelly point, beneath an overhanging oak, with the express
intention of shoving the canoe off from the shore, in order that
it might drift up towards her father's insulated abode. She knew,
too, from the logs that occasionally floated about the lake, that
did it miss the castle and its appendages the wind would be likely
to change before the canoe could reach the northern extremity of
the lake, and that Deerslayer might have an opportunity of regaining
it in the morning, when no doubt he would be earnestly sweeping
the surface of the water, and the whole of its wooded shores, with
glass.
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