It was
not long, however, before he was joined by Judith, who sought every
occasion to be near him, managing her attack on his affections
with the address that was suggested by native coquetry, aided by
no little practice, but which received much of its most dangerous
power from the touch of feeling that threw around her manner, voice,
accents, thoughts, and acts, the indescribable witchery of natural
tenderness. Leaving the young hunter exposed to these dangerous
assailants, it has become our more immediate business to follow
the party in the canoe to the shore.
The controlling influence that led Hutter and Hurry to repeat their
experiment against the camp was precisely that which had induced
the first attempt, a little heightened, perhaps, by the desire
of revenge. But neither of these two rude beings, so ruthless in
all things that touched the rights and interests of the red man,
thought possessing veins of human feeling on other matters, was much
actuated by any other desire than a heartless longing for profit.
Hurry had felt angered at his sufferings, when first liberated, it
is true, but that emotion soon disappeared in the habitual love
of gold, which he sought with the reckless avidity of a needy
spendthrift, rather than with the ceaseless longings of a miser.
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