Onelesshabituallyunderself-restraintthanthiswar-
riorwouldprobablyhavenowaimedhismeditatedblow。
butChingachgookknewthereweremoreIroquoisbehindhimontherift，andhewasawarriormuchtootrainedandexperiencedtoriskanythingunnecessarily。Hesuf-
feredtheIndianatthebowofthecanoetopushoffintothedeepwater，andthenallthreewereswimminginthedirectionoftheeasternshore。Instead，however，ofhelp-
ingthecanoeacrosstheswiftcurrent，nosoonerdidtheDelawareandJasperfindthemselveswithintheinfluenceofitsgreatestforcethanbothbegantoswiminawaytochecktheirfartherprogressacrossthestream。Norwasthisdonesuddenly，orintheincautiousmannerinwhichacivilizedmanwouldhavebeenapttoattempttheartifice，butwarily，andsograduallythattheIroquoisatthebowfanciedatfirsthewasmerelystrugglingagainstthestrengthofthecurrent。Ofcourse，whileactedonbytheseopposingefforts，thecanoedrifteddownstream，andinaboutaminuteitwasfloatinginstilldeeperwateratthefootoftherift。Here，however，theIroquoiswasnotslowinfindingthatsomethingunusualretardedtheirad-