Vengeful feelin's are uppermost in the hearts of the
Mingos, and any little disapp'intment about the plunder, or the
prisoners, or Hist, may make the torments sartain. The Lord, in
his wisdom, can only detarmine my fate, or your'n!"
"This is a black business, and ought to be put a stop to in some way
or other -" answered Hurry, confounding the distinctions between
right and wrong, as is usual with selfish and vulgar men. "I
heartily wish old Hutter and I had scalped every creatur' in their
camp, the night we first landed with that capital object! Had you
not held back, Deerslayer, it might have been done, and then you
wouldn't have found yourself, at the last moment, in the desperate
condition you mention."
"'Twould have been better had you said you wished you had never
attempted to do what it little becomes any white man's gifts to
undertake; in which case, not only might we have kept from coming
to blows, but Thomas Hutter would now have been living, and the
hearts of the savages would be less given to vengeance. The death
of that young woman, too, was on-called for, Henry March, and leaves
a heavy load on our names if not on our consciences!"
This was so apparent, and it seemed so obvious to Hurry himself,
at the moment, that he dashed his paddle into the water, and began
to urge the canoe towards the shore, as if bent only on running away
from his own lively remorse.
Pages:
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693