We have not leisure to record
the opinions of these rude men on a subject so consonant to their
lives and experience; but little is hazarded in saying that they
were quite as plausible, and far more ingenious, than half the
conjectures that precede the demonstrations of science. However
much they may have been at fault as to their conclusions and
inferences, it is certain that they discussed the questions with a
zealous and most undivided attention. For the time being all else
was forgotten, and our adventurers could not have approached at a
more fortunate instant.
The females were collected near each other, much as Deerslayer
had last seen them, nearly in a line between the place where he
now stood and the fire. The distance from the oak against which
the young men leaned and the warriors was about thirty yards; the
women may have been half that number of yards nigher. The latter,
indeed, were so near as to make the utmost circumspection, as to
motion and noise, indispensable. Although they conversed in their
low, soft voices it was possible, in the profound stillness of the
woods, even to catch passages of the discourse; and the light-hearted
laugh that escaped the girls might occasionally have reached the
canoe.
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