Part I

THE DECEIT

What happened next Cora did not see. But when she looked again, she saw Duncan grappling on the ground a few yards away with one of the Indians. Just as it seemed that he would be overwhelmed and killed, she heard the short explosion of a musket and Duncan's adversary slumped over dead, his face made unrecognisable by the shot.

A cacophony of shocked yells broke from the throats of the remaining six men who had been rushing to help their friend. Alice was screaming. The Indians scattered to find the source of the shot. There were several cries of "La Longue Carabine" and "Leatherstocking."

Turning her head, Cora could only just make out two figures cresting the hill. She presumed they were Uncas and, perhaps, Nathaniel.

Duncan sprang up from the ground, taking the tomahawk from his dead foe's hand and running after them. Uncas, for it had indeed been Uncas that she had seen, swept up the hill into her field of vision, dodging the blows of the men that were following him and inflicting a single great gash upon the tallest of their captors, who was unlucky enough to come closest to him. Finally he stood before Cora and Alice and remained there breathing hard, menacing anyone who came near.

Cora was about to say something to him when the man Uncas had wounded ran at them. Nathaniel, who had retrieved his weapon from the place where it had been carelessly dropped, and trotted on, swinging as a club at anyone that happened to step into his path, appeared on the crest of the hill. Uncas had his man by the wrists and was engaged in kicking his legs and avoiding his blows. Nathaniel struck the man on the temple and the man sank down, only a foot from Cora.

Uncas let him drop and suddenly sprang away to engage one who was creeping up behind Nathaniel who also turned. They were alone.

Until this point Cora had not attempted to break her bindings, but when the man had fallen he had placed in her reach Duncan's heavy pistol. Now she struggled. Twisting and stretching, she managed to release her right wrist and to hook her foot around the dead man's arm. She tugged him closer.

Cora strained with all her might to bend her bonds and reach the hand gun but she could not touch it.

"Are your hat pins sharp enough to cut through?" Alice suggested. "I'd try myself but I lost mine."

"Alice, you are a genius!" Cora cried. She slid one of the sharp pins out of her left sleeve and rubbed its point against the leather that bound her. The old throngs quickly tore, and free, she bent down and took up the empty pistol. Cora inspected the pistol carefully, but finding it in good condition, she loaded it from her small stores of powder and shot.

She had just replaced the small horn and pouch when Mr. Gamut's guard sprang upon her. He grasped her shoulders and threw her to the ground. Alice screamed loud and long.

Cora rolled across the grass, raised her arm, and shot point blank into his chest. He yelled and then toppled over upon her. His blood seeped onto her. She yelled in shock and disgust as she pushed him off.

The cries had drawn the attention of every man in the clearing. Magua made a mad dash towards them, but Uncas intercepted him. They rolled a good way from the force of their collision and immediately began grappling. Cora stood where she was, transfixed as she watched the two men. The pistol hung forgotten in her hand.

It was only Alice's voice that pulled her from the dreadful and hypnotising scene. She quickly cut her younger sister free and Mr. Gamut as well. They stood, then, together, undecided whether to stay or try to flee on horseback. The two combatants still fought; they were now upon their feet. Magua was holding something which the light glanced off of. A knife perhaps. Nathaniel and Duncan circled them, waiting for a chance to safely cast a blow upon Magua.

At last Magua fell back and lay in a heap. Uncas rose. His face was bruised, his fingers bloody, he stood hunched over. Nathaniel raised his musket as though to finish the traitor off with a well placed shot; but before he could bring it down Magua turned, stumbled to his feet, and sprinted down the hill and into the woods.

Uncas wavered and then sat down in the grass. The other two men followed his example of ignoring the fleeing man. Hayward approached the women and cast himself at Alice's feet with a long groan. She sank down with him. Both were weeping, Alice clung to him and he held her gently.

Cora stood above them looking up at the bright blue sky.

Mr. Gamut spoke suddenly, "The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

Alice raised her face to her sister and continued David's song of praise,

"I call upon the Lord, who is worthy"—Uncas joined her—" to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies."

"Amen," Mr. Gamut said. Then he added, "I invite you, friends, to join in praise for this"—he continued, and began to sing even, but Cora paid him little mind. Her full attention was on her sister and Duncan.

When she had composed herself enough to glance around she catalogued all that had been done and what still was needed. She noted the bodies of only four of their former captors lying on the grassy hill. The horses were standing together at the far edge of the hill, obviously uncomfortable but unwilling to venture off alone. Nathaniel had sorted through the pile of weapons and armed himself, Duncan, and even Mr. Gamut.

Turning fully around she saw that Uncas stood only a few feet away from her. He looked worse than she had thought before. He had removed his shirt and she saw that his face and left side were nearly so purple they could have passed for black. His right forearm bore a long, straight slice. It bled sluggishly.

When she met his gaze he smiled at her.

Cora found herself speaking to him. "Where is the man with the scars down his face?" she asked. "I do not see him among the dead."

Uncas continued wiping the blood from his arm, but he answered, "Hmm? He fled when the battle first began. Why?"

She shrugged, "I did not see him…and he was not as cruel. He did not join his companions in their bloodlust."

Uncas threaded a needle and raised it to his arm with his nondominant hand. "Then I will not grudge him his life." He pierced his skin.

For a moment she watched him while he struggled. Then she said, "Let me; I know something about sewing small wounds shut."

He offered her the needle and she stepped closer until she was almost touching him. She held his arm in one hand and with the other sewed the eight-inch cut closed. He did not move while she worked, though his skin sometimes twitched.

"Are you hurt?" he asked.

"No, the blood is not mine."

"I meant from your fall…. I believe these are yours." He held up her gloves. They were the worse for their introduction to the river, dirt, and bloody battle.

"Thank you for returning them," she licked her lips. "I am unhurt, though I would not be surprised if by nightfall I was sore." She tied off her last stitch. "A blade," she requested.

He pulled his from his belt and wiped the remaining gore off it onto his leg. He handed it to her. With a quick movement she cut off the loose ends of thread. "There," she declared looking up into his face, "keep it clean." She took the gloves from him and turned back to her sister.

Nathaniel approached and informed Duncan, who was still holding Alice, that it was time to depart. They all rose and after they had called the two horses, they began the long journey north and west.

At last, around seven in the evening, Nathaniel called a halt. The sun hadn't quite set yet though the trees' shadows were long and dark. The place where they were was sheltered by several pine trees whose trunks ran with clear sap in the heat. A little further on a dilapidated log cabin sat lonesomely amidst the foliage. Cora had seen many such cabins in the months she had been in the Province, enough to know that no woman had ever lived in it before. The cabin was roughly hewn and not at all square. If it had ever had a roof it had collapsed long ago. Ferns grew from its sides and several vines of pinkish-orange cone-like wildflowers climbed up the walls. Purple violets covered the ground all about it. It was picturesque in the way only nature could design. Purple and yellow aster grew in a thick clump, choking out most of the violets and wild roses around a bubbling spring.

As Nathaniel cleared the spring and described the history of the place and Uncas raised a temporary roof over part of the old cabin, Cora picketed the horses. Alice picked wild roses and, in a rare show of her childhood fancies, wove a garland of them to adorn her hair. Duncan assisted Uncas, and Mr. Gamut laid out their small supper spread.

The heat of the day left suddenly only a little while after the light and it took little encouragement from the men for the two women to retire in the cabin away from the mosquitoes that were beginning to bite. Duncan's warning to not talk too long was not ignored, though Cora took the time to carefully clean and reload her pistol as well as Duncan's, and after their nightly prayer was said and their tight bodices loosened somewhat, though they did not take off their outer wear, they lay back on the bed that had been made for them and slept.