Page:The last of the Mohicans (1826 Volume 2).djvu/37

 coming down to our aid, and I led them where the enemy were taking their meal, little dreaming that they had not finished the bloody work of the day."

"And you surprised them!"

"If death can be a surprise to men who are thinking only of the cravings of their appetites! we gave them but little breathing time, for they had borne hard upon us in the fight of the morning, and there were few in our party who had not lost friend or relative by their hands. When all was over, the dead, and some say the dying, were cast into that little pond. These eyes have seen its waters coloured with blood, as natural water never yet flowed from the bowels of the 'arth."

"It was a convenient, and, I trust, will prove a peaceful grave to a soldier! You have, then, seen much service on this frontier?"

"I!" said the scout, erecting his tall person with an air of military pride, "there are not many echoes among these hills that haven't rung with the crack of my rifle, nor is there the space of a square mile