Free The Prairie by James Fenimore Cooper Page B

their way through
the matted grass, like so many treacherous serpents stealing on their
prey, until the point was gained, where an extraordinary caution became
necessary to their further advance. Mahtoree, alone, had occasionally
elevated his dark, grim countenance above the herbage, straining his
eye-balls to penetrate the gloom which skirted the border of the brake.
In these momentary glances he gained sufficient knowledge, added to that
he had obtained in his former search, to be the perfect master of
the position of his intended victims, though he was still profoundly
ignorant of their numbers, and of their means of defence.
    His efforts to possess himself of the requisite knowledge concerning
these two latter and essential points were, however, completely baffled
by the stillness of the camp, which lay in a quiet as deep as if it
were literally a place of the dead. Too wary and distrustful to rely, in
circumstances of so much doubt, on the discretion of any less firm and
crafty than himself, the Dahcotah bade his companions remain where they
lay, and pursued the adventure alone.
    The progress of Mahtoree was now slow, and to one less accustomed to
such a species of exercise, it would have proved painfully laborious.
But the advance of the wily snake itself is not more certain or
noiseless than was his approach. He drew his form, foot by foot, through
the bending grass, pausing at each movement to catch the smallest sound
that might betray any knowledge, on the part of the travellers, of
his proximity. He succeeded, at length, in dragging himself out of the
sickly light of the moon, into the shadows of the brake, where not
only his own dark person was much less liable to be seen, but where
the surrounding objects became more distinctly visible to his keen and
active glances.
    Here the Teton paused long and warily to make his observations, before
he ventured further. His position enabled him to bring the whole
encampment, with its tent, wagons, and lodges, into a dark but clearly
marked profile; furnishing a clue by which the practised warrior was led
to a tolerably accurate estimate of the force he was about to encounter.
Still an unnatural silence pervaded the spot, as if men suppressed even
the quiet breathings of sleep, in order to render the appearance of
their confidence more evident. The chief bent his head to the earth, and
listened intently. He was about to raise it again, in disappointment,
when the long drawn and trembling respiration of one who slumbered
imperfectly met his ear. The Indian was too well skilled in all the
means of deception to become himself the victim of any common artifice.
He knew the sound to be natural, by its peculiar quivering, and he
hesitated no longer.
    A man of nerves less tried than those of the fierce and conquering
Mahtoree would have been keenly sensible of all the hazard he incurred.
The reputation of those hardy and powerful white adventurers, who so
often penetrated the wilds inhabited by his people, was well known to
him; but while he drew nigher, with the respect and caution that a brave
enemy never fails to inspire, it was with the vindictive animosity of a
red man, jealous and resentful of the inroads of the stranger.
    Turning from the line of his former route, the Teton dragged himself
directly towards the margin of the thicket. When this material object
was effected in safety, he arose to his seat, and took a better survey
of his situation. A single moment served to apprise him of the place
where the unsuspecting traveller lay. The reader will readily anticipate
that the savage had succeeded in gaining a dangerous proximity to one
of those slothful sons of Ishmael, who were deputed to watch over the
isolated encampment of the travellers.
    When certain that he was undiscovered, the Dahcotah raised his person
again, and bending forward, he moved his dark visage above the face of
the sleeper, in that sort of wanton and subtle manner with which the
reptile is seen to play