This was the first instance in which any other object than that of
terrifying the prisoner, and of displaying skill had been manifested,
and the Bounding Boy was immediately led from the arena, and
was warmly rebuked for his intemperate haste, which had come so
near defeating all the hopes of the band. To this irritable person
succeeded several other young warriors, who not only hurled the
tomahawk, but who cast the knife, a far more dangerous experiment,
with reckless indifference; yet they always manifested a skill that
prevented any injury to the captive. Several times Deerslayer was
grazed, but in no instance did he receive what might be termed a
wound. The unflinching firmness with which he faced his assailants,
more especially in the sort of rally with which this trial terminated,
excited a profound respect in the spectators, and when the chiefs
announced that the prisoner had well withstood the trials of the
knife and the tomahawk, there was not a single individual in the
band who really felt any hostility towards him, with the exception
of Sumach and the Bounding Boy. These two discontented spirits got
together, it is true, feeding each other's ire, but as yet their
malignant feelings were confined very much to themselves, though
there existed the danger that the others, ere long, could not fail
to be excited by their own efforts into that demoniacal state which
usually accompanied all similar scenes among the red men.
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