"
"Good; Hawkeye has not a forked tongue, and he likes to say what he
thinks. He is an acquaintance of the Muskrat," this was the name
by which all the Indians designated Hutter - "and has lived in
his wigwam. But he is not a friend. He wants no scalps, like a
miserable Indian, but fights like a stout-hearted pale-face. The
Muskrat is neither white, nor red. Neither a beast nor a fish.
He is a water snake; sometimes in the spring and sometimes on the
land. He looks for scalps, like an outcast. Hawkeye can go back
and tell him how he has outwitted the Hurons, how he has escaped,
and when his eyes are in a fog, when he can't see as far as from
his cabin to the shore, then Hawkeye can open the door for the
Hurons. And how will the plunder be divided? Why, Hawkeye, will
carry away the most, and the Hurons will take what he may choose
to leave behind him. The scalps can go to Canada, for a pale-face
has no satisfaction in them."
"Well, well, Rivenoak - for so I hear 'em tarm you - This is plain
English, enough, though spoken in Iroquois. I understand all you
mean, now, and must say it out-devils even Mingo deviltry! No
doubt, 'twould be easy enough to go back and tell the Muskrat that
I had got away from you, and gain some credit, too, by the expl'ite.
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