fighting fire, and there may be a chance left. Fly! I bid ye fly! nor stop even for breath."
The Leather-stocking had no sooner uttered this injunction, than he disappeared in the bushes, and when last seen by Louisa, was rushing up the mountain with the activity of youth, and with a speed that none but those who were accustomed to the toil could attain.
"Have I found ye!" the old man exclaimed, when he burst out of the smoke; "God be praised, that I've found ye; but follow, there is no time left for talking."
"My dress!" said Elizabeth; "it would be fatal to trust myself nearer to the flames in it."
"I bethought me of your flimsy things," cried Natty, throwing loose the folds of a covering of buckskin that he carried on his arm, and wrapping her form in it, in such a manner as to envelope her whole person; "now follow, for it's a matter of life and death to us all."
"But John! what will become of John," cried Edwards; "can we leave the old warrior here to perish?"
The eyes of Natty followed the direction of Edwards' finger, when he beheld the Indian, still seated as before, with the very earth under his feet consuming with fire. Without delay, the hunter approached the spot, and cried in Delaware—
"Up and away, Chingachgook! will ye stay here to burn, like a tortured Mingo, at the stake! The Moravians have teached ye better, I hope. The Lord preserve me if the powder hasn't flashed a-tween his legs, and the skin of his back is roasting. Will ye come, I say? will ye follow?"
"Why should Mohegan go?" returned the Indian, gloomily. "He has seen the days of an eagle, and his eye grows dim. He looks on the valley; he looks on the water; he looks in the
