The position of the Indian
camp was so placed that it was quite hidden from the shore, and neither
could Catharine see the mouth of the ravine, nor the steep side of the
mount that her brothers were accustomed to ascend and descend in their
visits to the lake shore, nor had she any means of making a signal to them
even if she had seen them on the beach.
The long, anxious, watchful night passed, and soon after sunrise, while
the morning mists still hung over the lake, the canoes of the Indians
were launched, and long before noon they were in the mouth of the river.
Catharine's heart sunk within her as the fast receding shores of the lake
showed each minute fainter in the distance. At midday they halted at a
fine bend in the river, where a small open place and a creek flowing down
through the woods afforded them cool water; and here they found several
tents put up and a larger party awaiting their return. The river was here
a fine, broad, deep and tranquil stream; trees of many kinds fringed the
edge; beyond was the unbroken forest, whose depths had never been pierced
by the step of man--so thick and luxuriant was the vegetation that even the
Indian could hardly have penetrated through its dark swampy glades: far
as the eye could reach, that impenetrable interminable wall of verdure
stretched away into the far off distance.
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