Page:The last of the Mohicans (1826 Volume 3).djvu/175

 motion was steady, uniform, and in one direction. When on a perfect level, it remained for a single moment with out tremor or variation, as though both man and rifle were carved in stone. During that stationary instant, it poured forth its contents, in a bright, glancing, sheet of flame. Again the young Indians bounded forward, but their hurried search and disappointed looks announced, that no traces of the bullet were to be seen.

"Go," said the old chief to the scout, in a tone of strong disgust; "thou art a wolf in the skin of a dog. I will talk to the 'long rifle' of the Yengeese."

"Ah! had I that piece which furnished the name you use, I would obligate myself to cut the thong, and drop the gourd, instead of breaking it!" returned Hawk-eye perfectly undisturbed by the other's manner. "Fools, if you would find the bullet of a sharp-shooter of these woods, you must look in the object, and not around it?"

The Indian youths instantly comprehended his meaning—for this time he spoke