When the latter understood the truth, and was told that he had been
deceived in supposing the chief had succeeded in entering the Ark
undiscovered, he cheerfully consented to the change, since further
attempt at concealment was useless. A gentler feeling than the
one avowed, however, lay at the bottom of the Indian's desire to
appear as a son of the forest. He had been told that Hist was on
the opposite shore, and nature so far triumphed over all distinctions
of habit, and tribes and people, as to reduce this young savage
warrior to the level of a feeling which would have been found in
the most refined inhabitant of a town, under similar circumstances.
There was a mild satisfaction in believing that she he loved could
see him, and as he walked out on the platform in his scanty, native
attire, an Apollo of the wilderness, a hundred of the tender fancies
that fleet through lovers' brains beset his imagination and softened
his heart. All this was lost on Deerslayer, who was no great adept
in the mysteries of Cupid, but whose mind was far more occupied
with the concerns that forced themselves on his attention, than with
any of the truant fancies of love. He soon recalled his companion,
therefore, to a sense of their actual condition, by summoning him
to a sort of council of war, in which they were to settle their
future course.
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