Page:The last of the Mohicans (1826 Volume 3).djvu/69

 Though why they have given me such a name I never knew, there being as little likeness between the gifts of 'kill deer' and the performance of one of your real Canada carabynes, as there is between the natur of a pipe-stone and a flint!"

"Keep to your tale," said the impatient Heyward; "we know not at what moment the Hurons may return."

"No fear of them. A conjuror must have his time like a straggling priest in the settlements. We are as safe from interruption, as a missionary would be at the beginning of a two hours discourse. Well, Uncas and I fell in with a return party of the varlets; the lad was much too forward for a scout; nay, for that matter, being of hot blood, he was not so much to blame; and after all, one of the Hurons proved a coward, and in fleeing led him into an ambushment!"

"And dearly has he paid for the weakness!" exclaimed Duncan.

The scout significantly passed his hand across his own throat, and nodded, as if he said, "I comprehend your meaning." After