Page:The last of the Mohicans (1826 Volume 3).djvu/9

 lowed up their forms; though, when surprise had permitted Duncan to bend his own wondering looks more curiously about the spot, he found them every where met by dark, quick, and rolling eye-balls.

Gathering no encouragement from this startling presage, of the nature of the scrutiny he was likely to undergo from the more mature judgments of the men, there was an instant when the young soldier would gladly have retreated. It was, how ever, too late to appear even to hesitate. The cry of the children had drawn a dozen warriors to the door of the nearest lodge, where they stood, clustered in a dark and savage groupe [sic], gravely awaiting the nearer approach of those who had thus unexpectedly come among them.

David, in some measure familiarized to the scene, led the way, with a steadiness that no slight obstacle was likely to disconcert, into this very building. It was the principal edifice of the village, though roughly constructed of the bark and branches of trees; being the lodge in which the tribe held its councils and public meetings, during