Affecting an
indifference he was far from feeling, he strolled about the area,
gradually getting nearer and nearer to the spot where he had landed,
when he suddenly quickened his pace, though carefully avoiding all
appearance of flight, and pushing aside the bushes, he stepped upon
the beach. The canoe was gone, nor could he see any traces of it,
after walking to the northern and southern verges of the point, and
examining the shores in both directions. It was evidently removed
beyond his reach and knowledge, and under circumstances to show
that such had been the intention of the savages.
Deerslayer now better understood his actual situation. He was a
prisoner on the narrow tongue of land, vigilantly watched beyond a
question, and with no other means of escape than that of swimming.
He, again, thought of this last expedient, but the certainty that
the canoe would be sent in chase, and the desperate nature of the
chances of success deterred him from the undertaking. While on
the strand, he came to a spot where the bushes had been cut, and
thrust into a small pile. Removing a few of the upper branches,
he found beneath them the dead body of the Panther. He knew that
it was kept until the savages might find a place to inter it,
where it would be beyond the reach of the scalping knife.
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