Page:The last of the Mohicans (1826 Volume 2).djvu/242

 Hawk-eye and the Mohicans now applied. themselves to their task in good earnest. A circle of a few hundred feet in circumference was drawn, and each of the party took a segment for his portion. The examination, however, resulted in no discovery. The impressions of footsteps were numerous, but they all appeared like those of men who had wandered about the spot without any design to quit it. Again the scout and his companions made the circuit of the halting-place, each slowly following the other, until they assembled in the centre once more, no wiser than they started.

“Such cunning is not without its deviltry!” exclaimed Hawk-eye, when he met the disappointed, looks of his assistants. “We must get down to it, Sagamore, beginning at the spring and going over the ground by inches. The Huron shall never brag in his tribe that. he has a foot which leaves no print!”

Setting the example himself, the scout engaged in the scrutiny with renewed zeal. Not a leaf was left unturned. The sticks