Page:The last of the Mohicans (1826 Volume 2).djvu/181

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THE MOHICANS.
175

done a clever thing, like to get back, and have a dance, or a merry making, over their success."

"I know not. An Indian seldom sleeps in war, and plunder may keep a Huron here, after his tribe has departed. It would be well to extinguish the fire, and have a watch—Listen! you hear the noise I mean."

"An Indian more rarely lurks about the graves. Though ready to slay, and not over regardful of the means, he is commonly content with the scalp, unless when blood is hot, and temper up; but after the spirit is once fairly gone, he forgets his enmity, and is willing to let the dead find their natural rest. Speaking of spirits, Major, are you of opinion that the heaven of a red skin, and of us whites, will be one and the same?"

"No doubt—no doubt. I thought I heard it again! or was it the rustling of the leaves in the top of the beech?"

"For my own part," continued Hawk-eye, turning his face for a moment in the direction indicated by Heyward, but with a vacant and careless manner, "I believe