Open that window, Floating Tom, and I'll blunder through and do
the same job to the front door."
A moment of silence succeeded, and a noise like that produced by
the fall of a heavy body followed. A deep execration from Hurry
succeeded, and then the whole interior of the building seemed alive.
The noises that now so suddenly, and we may add so unexpectedly
even to the Delaware, broke the stillness within, could not be
mistaken. They resembled those that would be produced by a struggle
between tigers in a cage. Once or twice the Indian yell was given,
but it seemed smothered, and as if it proceeded from exhausted or
compressed throats, and, in a single instance, a deep and another
shockingly revolting execration came from the throat of Hurry. It
appeared as if bodies were constantly thrown upon the floor with
violence, as often rising to renew the struggle. Chingachgook
felt greatly at a loss what to do. He had all the arms in the Ark,
Hutter and Hurry having proceeded without their rifles, but there
was no means of using them, or of passing them to the hands of their
owners. The combatants were literally caged, rendering it almost
as impossible under the circumstances to get out, as to get into
the building.
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