"I am uninjured, Deerslayer," stammered the girl through her tears. "It's fright - nothing more, I do assure you, and, God be praised! no one, I find, has been harmed by the accident."
"This is extr'ornary!" exclaimed the unsuspecting and simple minded hunter - "I thought, Judith, you'd been above settlement weaknesses, and that you was a gal not to be frightened by the sound of a bursting we'pon - No - I didn't think you so skeary!
Hetty might well have been startled; but you've too much judgment and reason to be frightened when the danger's all over. They're pleasant to the eye, chief, and changeful, but very unsartain in their feelin's!"
Shame kept Judith silent.
There had been no acting in her agitation, but all had fairly proceeded from sudden and uncontrollable alarm - an alarm that she found almost as inexplicable to herself, as it proved to be to her companions.
Wiping away the traces of tears, however, she smiled again, and was soon able to join in the laugh at her own folly.
"And you, Deerslayer," she at length succeeded in saying - "are you, indeed, altogether unhurt?
It seems almost miraculous that a pistol should have burst in your hand, and you escape without the loss of a limb, if not of life!"
"Such wonders ar'n't oncommon, at all, among worn out arms.
The first rifle they gave me play'd the same trick, and yet I liv'd through it, though not as onharmless as I've got out of this affair.
Thomas Hutter is master of one pistol less than he was this morning, but, as it happened in trying to sarve him, there's no ground of complaint. Now, draw near, and let us look farther into the inside of the chist."
Judith, by this time, had so far gotten the better of her agitation as to resume her seat, and the examination went on.
The next article that offered was enveloped in cloth, and on opening it, it proved to be one of the mathematical instruments that were then in use among seamen, possessing the usual ornaments and fastenings in brass.
Deerslayer and Chingachgook expressed their admiration and surprise at the appearance of the unknown instrument, which was bright and glittering, having apparently been well cared for.
"This goes beyond the surveyors, Judith!" Deerslayer exclaimed, after turning the instrument several times in his hands. "I've seen all their tools often, and wicked and heartless enough are they, for they never come into the forest but to lead the way to waste and destruction; but none of them have as designing a look as this!
I fear me, after all, that Thomas Hutter has journeyed into the wilderness with no fair intentions towards its happiness.
Did you ever see any of the cravings of a surveyor about your father, gal?"
"He is no surveyor, Deerslayer, nor does he know the use of that instrument, though he seems to own it.
Do you suppose that Thomas Hutter ever wore that coat?
It is as much too large for him, as this instrument is beyond his learning."
"That's it - that must be it, Sarpent, and the old fellow, by some onknown means, has fallen heir to another man's goods!
They say he has been a mariner, and no doubt this chist, and all it holds - ha! What have we here? -This far out does the brass and black wood of the tool!"
Deerslayer had opened a small bag, from which he was taking, one by one, the pieces of a set of chessmen.
They were of ivory, much larger than common, and exquisitely wrought.
Each piece represented the character or thing after which it is named; the knights being mounted, the castles stood on elephants, and even the pawns possessed the heads and busts of men.
The set was not complete, and a few fractures betrayed bad usage; but all that was left had been carefully put away and preserved.
Even Judith expressed wonder, as these novel objects were placed before her eyes, and Chingachgook fairly forgot his Indian dignity in admiration and delight.
The latter took up each piece, and examined it with never tiring satisfaction, pointing out to the girl the more ingenious and striking portions of the workmanship.
But the elephants gave him the greatest pleasure.
The "Hughs!" that he uttered, as he passed his fingers over their trunks, and ears, and tails, were very distinct, nor did he fail to note the pawns, which were armed as archers.
This exhibition lasted several minutes, during which time Judith and the Indian had all the rapture to themselves.
Deerslayer sat silent, thoughtful, and even gloomy, though his eyes followed each movement of the two principal actors, noting every new peculiarity about the pieces as they were held up to view.
Not an exclamation of pleasure, nor a word of condemnation passed his lips.
At length his companions observed his silence, and then, for the first time since the chessmen had been discovered, did he speak.
"Judith," he asked earnestly, but with a concern that amounted almost to tenderness of manner, "did your parents ever talk to you of religion?"
The girl coloured, and the flashes of crimson that passed over her beautiful countenance were like the wayward tints of a Neapolitan sky in November.
Deerslayer had given her so strong a taste for truth, however, that she did not waver in her answer, replying simply and with sincerity.
"My mother did often," she said, "my father never.
I thought it made my mother sorrowful to speak of our prayers and duties, but my father has never opened his mouth on such matters, before or since her death."
"That I can believe - that I can believe.
He has no God - no such God as it becomes a man of white skin to worship, or even a red-skin.
Them things are idols!"
Judith started, and for a moment she seemed seriously hurt.
Then she reflected, and in the end she laughed.
"And you think, Deerslayer, that these ivory toys are my father's Gods?
I have heard of idols, and know what they are."
"Them are idols!" repeated the other, positively. "Why should your father keep 'em, if he doesn't worship 'em."
"Would he keep his gods in a bag, and locked up in a chest? No, no, Deerslayer; my poor father carries his God with him, wherever he goes, and that is in his own cravings.
These things may really be idols - I think they are myself, from what I have heard and read of idolatry, but they have come from some distant country, and like all the other articles, have fallen into Thomas Hutter's hands when he was a sailor."
"I'm glad of it - I am downright glad to hear it, Judith, for I do not think I could have mustered the resolution to strive to help a white idolater out of his difficulties!