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Hist! speak lower; for we know not what ears are open, and the Mingoes are a quick-witted breed. As
for Uncas, he is out on the plain, and the Maquas, if any such are about us, will find their equal
The scout applied his fingers to his mouth, and raised a low hissing sound, that caused Duncan at first to start aside, believing that he heard a serpent. The head of Chingachgook was resting on a hand, as he sat musing by himself but the moment he had heard the warning of the animal whose name he bore, he arose to an upright position, and his dark eyes glanced swiftly and keenly on every side of him. With his sudden and, perhaps, involuntary movement, every appearance of surprise or alarm ended. His rifle lay untouched, and apparently unnoticed, within reach of his hand. The tomahawk that he had loosened in his belt for the sake of ease, was even suffered to fall from its usual situation to the ground, and his form seemed to sink, like that of a man whose nerves and sinews were suffered to relax for the purpose of rest. Cunningly resuming his former position, though with a change of hands, as if the movement had been made merely to relieve the limb, the native awaited the result with a calmness and fortitude that none but an Indian warrior would have known how to exercise. But Heywad saw that while to a less instructed eye the Mohican chief appeared to slumber, his nostrils were expanded, his head was turned a little to one side, as if to assist the organs of hearing, and that his quick and rapid glances ran incessantly over every object within the power of his vision.
He was interrupted by the flash and report of a rifle. The air was filled with sparks of fire, around that
spot where the eyes of Heyward wre still fastened, with admiration and wonder. A second look told him
that Chingachgook had disappeared in the confusion. In the meantime, the scout had thrown forward
his rifle, like one prepared for service, and awaited impatiently the moment when an enemy might rise to
view. But with the solitary and fruitless attempt made on the life of Chingachgook, the attack appeared
to have terminated. Once or twice the listeners thought they could distinguish the distant rustling of
bushes, as bodies of some unknown description rushed through them; nor was it long before Hawkeye
pointed out the
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