Nevertheless, the young man
was good natured, and no thought was uppermost in his mind other
than the desire to make a better cast than any of his fellows.
Deerslayer got an inkling of this warrior's want of reputation by
the injunctions that he had received from the seniors, who, indeed,
would have objected to his appearing in the arena, at all, but
for an influence derived from his father; an aged warrior of great
merit, who was then in the lodges of the tribe. Still, our hero
maintained an appearance of self-possession. He had made up his
mind that his hour was come, and it would have been a mercy, instead
of a calamity, to fall by the unsteadiness of the first hand that
was raised against him. After a suitable number of flourishes and
gesticulations that promised much more than he could perform, the
Raven let the tomahawk quit his hand. The weapon whirled through
the air with the usual evolutions, cut a chip from the sapling to
which the prisoner was bound within a few inches of his cheek, and
stuck in a large oak that grew several yards behind him. This was
decidedly a bad effort, and a common sneer proclaimed as much, to
the great mortification of the young man.
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