i'm embarrassed to be so indecisive .  after so long apart and after you've traveled so far .
you still have an aversion to the water?
dear duncan, my affection is as towards a closest friend. alice and i depend on you and respect you immensely .  i wish they did, but my feelings don't go beyond that. do you see?
some say that's the way of it.
cousin eugenie, my father, but .
yes. yes, i will.
my god, alice.
alice?
covers alice with her body, holding the reins of their bolting horses.
glances back at hawkeye. she doesn't know why he's looking at her.
no, duncan!
though they are strangers, they are at least entitled to a christian burial!
i will not. i have seen the face of war before, mr. poe, but never war made on women and children. and almost as cruel is your indifference.
realizes hawkeye knew these people and is deeply affected. she also realizes for the first time this is a whole new world with dynamics and complexities, behavior and rhythms she doesn't understand. he turns away from her and walks on. she hesitates a moment.
why didn't you bury those people?
you knew them.
you were acting for our benefit. and i apologize. i misunderstood you.
your "father"?
he did?
what?!
why did they turn back?
turns and makes out stilt platforms of skeletons and torn strips of buckskin silhouetted against the night sky in the distance. they have camped on sanctified ground, a burial place.
"we're a breed apart and we make no sense" ?
thank you so much.
you called chingachgook your "father"? where is your real family?
i'm sorry.
how did you learn english?
and what were the consequentialities of european culture you didn't bother with?
in london those radical ideas could land you in newgate prison. why were those people living in this defenseless place ?
you are right, mr. poe. we do not understand what is happening here. and it is not as i imagined it would be, thinking of it in boston and london .
on the contrary. it is more deeply stirring .  to my blood .  .  than any imagining could possibly have been .
much further?
thunder .  papa will arrange something.
alice!
and you, duncan? what are you looking forward to?
i think it's very important and exciting.
lightning?
when? how?
there was none!
there was no letter.
he delivered no such message.
fine, mr. phelps. have you cat gut and a suturing needle? and we could use some rum, clothes, and a place to wash .
mr poe?
what are you looking at, mr. poe?
alice .
her nerves are shattered. she's trying to be brave.
duncan .  duncan, i promised you an answer. you have complimented me with your persistence and patience .  but the decision i've come to is i'd rather make the gravest of mistakes than surrender my own judgment.
and it's been unfair to you, while i search myself for feelings, which, if they were there and as strong as they ought to be, would've made themselves known long ago .  take my admiration and friendship, duncan. and please take this as my final answer. it must be no.
i am sorry, duncan .
beyond the periphery of men, staring at him.
examines him with a cool, level stare.
to her everything about him seems to be somehow right. she's discovered that the passions and outrage that move him, move her .  and her readiness to give herself to what stirs the deepest resonances of her soul is the same as his.
he saved us! we are alive only because of him .
he knew the consequences. and he stayed. are those the actions of a criminal? .  duncan, do something.
you know he wouldn't send me ! you misrepresented what you saw and caused this. i, too, was at that farm. it was as he said .
they do not live their lives "by your leave." .  they hack it out of the wilderness with their own two hands, burying their dead and their children along the way.
duncan, you are a man with a few admirable qualities. but taken as a whole, i was wrong to have thought so highly of you.
"justice"? if that's "justice" , then the sooner french guns blow the english army out of america, the better it will be for these people.
yes i do! i know exactly what i am saying. and if it is sedition, then i am guilty of sedition, too!
they're going to hang you. why didn't you leave when you had the chance?
what would you have me do?
no. i will find you.
the whole world's on fire, isn't it?
what is it?
straining to see.
horrified, holds alice tighter.
shoots him in the face.
held up by hawkeye, suddenly screams.
no!
stop it!!
is soaked to the bones. hawkeye strips off his buckskin hunting shirt and wrings it out. cora turns her back, strips off her white blouse and puts on the faster-drying chamois.
are we safe?
our father? did you see my father?
tell me!
say nothing to alice !
crosses to the ranger who's semi-conscious, feverish and getting delirious. she can't do a thing except hold his hand and think of her father.
yes. go ahead.
yes. i want you to go.
you try. with all you have. to save yourself. if the worst happens, and only one of us survives, something of the other does, too .
turns aside. hawkeye insists.
 never doubt what you are doing.
sees him enter, doesn't believe he's there.
nathaniel!
looks to alice, then to hawkeye.
what are they doing to duncan? duncan!
alice?
moves towards her sister. but hawkeye holds her tightly as they retreat.
trying to stay with them, scrambles up .
alone, kneeling in the meadow. her eyes downcast .
is standing, her back to us, in front of a rock-covered grave with a wooden cross. next to it is uncas' burial platform. cora silent prayer. then she pauses, crosses herself. her emotions are spent. she moves next to hawkeye. he takes her hand.
i have nothing to go back for.
yes.
where will we go?