noon
Mourners we were , indeed , for it was not possible for human hearts to be so obdurate as to feel insensible to the amount of misery that our late companions must have suffered , and to the suddenness of their fates . No one spoke , and Susquesus had never found us so close on his heels as we kept ourselves all that morning . The foot of the file-leader was scarcely out of its place , ere that of his successor covered the same spot ! The trail led us quite close to the hut , which we reached as near as might be to noon . On approaching the cabin , we used the utmost caution lest our enemies might then be in it , in ambush . The trail did not extend quite to the building , however , but diverged in a westerly direction , from a point that may have been a hundred yards distant from our habitation , though in full view of it . Here we found the signs of a gathering of the party into a cluster , and we inferred that a counsel had been held on the subject of once more going to the hut , or of turning aside to pursue some other object .