Page:The last of the Mohicans (1826 Volume 1).djvu/140

 At length, they spoke together, earnestly, in the Delaware language, when Uncas, passing by the inner and most concealed aperture, cautiously left the cavern. When he had gone, the scout first spoke in English.

"What it is, or what it is not, none here can tell; though two of us have ranged the woods for more than thirty years! I did believe there was no cry that Indian or beast could make, that my ears had not heard; but this has proved that I was only a vain and conceited mortal."

"Was it not, then, the shout the warriors make when they wish to intimidate their enemies?" asked Cora, who stood drawing her veil about her person, with a calmness to which her agitated sister was a stranger.

"No, no; this was bad, and shocking! and had a sort of unhuman sound; but when you once hear the war-whoop, you will never mistake it for any thing else. Well, Uncas!" speaking in the Delaware to the young chief as he re-entered, "what see you? do our lights shine through the blankets?"