hello john. cleared another quarter, i see.
that we did. john. but the horicane is near trapped out.
so what is it, jack? what brings you up here?
folks here goin' to join in that fight?
trap over the fall and winter among the delawares in can-tuck-ee.
your enemy .
i said .  france is your enemy. not ours.
first place, you started it with the french over fur-trapping claims to the head waters of the ohio. now you're sayin' these people have a fight on their hands .
 and while they are cooped up in your fort, what if the french send war parties to raid their homes?
you do what you want with your own scalp. do not be tellin' us what to do with ours.
 no .  do not call myself much of a subject at all.
sees. killdeer's at his shoulder .
shifts. the .65 caliber musket ball rockets past his ear and he's already squeezing killdeer's trigger as .
lowers killdeer, impressed.
 case your aim is any better'n your judgment.
your wounded should try walkin' back to albany. they'll never make a passage north.
 fort william henry.
 take you as far as the fort.
if we are goin' to take you, we need to move. fast .  and the fort is well off our course. so if you all rather wait for the next huron war party to come by, we'll be on our way.
day and a half where did you get .  the guide?
he is huron and nothing else. why would he want to murder the girl?
dark haired .
no blood vengeance? no re-proach or insult?
came across the war party, tracked 'em.
no.
no. headin' west. to can-tuck-ee.
i ain't your "scout". and i am in no damn militia.
england does not protect me and does not war against france on our account. she uses us to war against france on her own account .  of greed for land and furs.
clear it up any?
do not let gratitude get in the way .
bends over a moccasin print that chingachgook's examining. they look at each other grimly. heyward joins them.
ottawa!
movin' fast, not able to carry much .  this was a war party?
let us go, miss.
miss munro. they are not strangers .  and they stay as they lay !
throws heyward a blanket. heyward spreads the blanket below the top of the mound and - maintaining silence - he gestures for cora & alice to rest there.
doesn't react as cora enters. he's scanning the trees; not looking at her. they whisper .
anyone lookin' to pick up our trail, would see it as a sign of our passing .
well that is to be expected. my father .
chingachgook. he warned me about people like you.
yes. he said .  "do not try to make them understand you."
yes. and "do not try to understand them. that is because they are a breed apart and they make no sense "
on his back, his tomahawk within reach on the ground.
waiting for the attack. cora's eyes are anxious, but there's no terror there. nathaniel's impressed with her cool. he hands her a pistol. she takes it. he listens for the soft drop of moccasined feet .
the ottawa are gone.
in your particular case, miss, i would make some allowance .
they buried my ma & pa and my sisters. and chingachgook - who found me with two french trappers - raised me up as his own.
i do not remember them. i was one or two.
my father sent uncas & i to reverend wheelock's school when i was ten. so we would know both worlds .  though we were told only bother learning readin' & arithmetic from yous.
the bible. monarchy. many wrong ideas about the government of men. my father's people already know each man is his own nation. and only he can have dominion over himself. not kings. no man is better than any other man.
'cos frontier land's the only land affordable to poor people. so after seven years indentured service in virginia, they headed out here where they are beholden to none and not livin' by another's leave .  their name was cameron. john & alexandria.
my father's people say .  at the birth of the sun and of his brother, the moon, their mother died .  so the sun gave to the earth her body, from which was to spring all life. and he drew forth from her breast the stars. the stars he threw into the night sky to remind him of her soul. so there is the camerons' monument .  my folks', too, i guess.
sorry to disappoint you .
top of this ridge. fort and lake george are downhill of it.
waves. one wounded man, ian, intercepts uncas.
dropped in to see how you boys is doin'.
help ourselves to a few horns from your powder stores.
a man, here, can make a run straight through to webb.
john cameron's cabin. we come upon it last night. burned out. everyone murdered. and it was ottawa. they're allied to the french.
it was a war party. it means they're on the attack up and down the frontier.
many men here, their homes are in the path.
she know what she's doin'?
she does not shy away from much .
nothin'.
enters. cora's sewing up uncas.
miss. may i?
you 'bout done holdin' hands with miss munro?
why, i am looking at you, miss.
he does not want to hear it. but he is gonna have to.
another forty yards?
looks below to ground level .
reaches out his hand. killdeer with the heavier load is slapped into it. hawkeye aims. looks away a second and comes back to the sight in deep concentration. the world goes silent .
 it was no raidin' party out for pillage. the cabin was attacked by a war party. they are sweeping south down the frontier spreading terror among farms and mohawk villages 'cos all the men are here.
that judgment is not more important than their right under agreement with webb to defend their farms & families .  major heyward was at john cameron's. he saw what it was.
you're a liar!
and the blood is on your hands!
easy for you to suppose. while it is their women and children, not yours, alone in their farms!
and if english law cannot be trusted, maybe these people would do better makin' a peace with the french!
that is the truth!
major! some day i think you and i are gonna have a serious disagreement.
 got no kin in the settlements. if i did, i'd be long gone.
by my light that's how i saw it then and i see it that way now .
out the northern sally-port. strike for the east side of the swamp until you clear the french picket line. head north over the ridge, then come about southeast and fork left in little meadow and you're free of the outpost and skirmishers .
i'll cover them from the top of the casement.
got a reason to stay.
it does and it is a better lookin' reason than you, jack winthrop. push hard, 'cos you got to clear the french outpost by dawn. good luck, jack.
looks at her. she's beautiful in the firelight. cora's eyes find his and she folds into his arms. his lips find hers and tears stream down her face. she's suffused with an elation she can't explain. in the night before doomsday a romance is born in rebellion amid the huddled people in this small stockade ripped from the black earth of the forests of a wild continent.
i helped winthrop and the others leave .  this fight is not yours, father. i love you and my brother. and you should leave this place now and go to can-tuck-ee .
shrugs in answer to chingachgook's question.
sorry .  can't ask you in.
because what i am interested in is right here .
webb's reinforcements will arrive or not. if they do not arrive, the fort will fall. if that happens, stay close to your father. the french will protect the officer class among the english.
do not. promise me.
this part of it sure is .
i don't know. whatever happens you stay with your father. you stay among the officers.
is being unshackled by uncas. the sergeant is rising from the ground where chingachgook knocked him. chingachgook throws hawkeye killdeer and hawkeye shrugs into his pouch and powder horn as he races with uncas for the head of the column .
running through surreal patches, thinks he glimpses cora two hundred yards away.
cora!
locked in combat. he tomahawks one huron's arm with a slashing downstroke and comes right back into the face of the second with his backswing while his right hand fires killdeer at .
free for a moment, spins. he has no idea of direction any more. everything is death in strange tableaux. meanwhile:
shields cora as they back up.
suddenly, the mohawk fighting with them is shot and spins to face hawkeye. his hands rest on hawkeye's shoulders. hawkeye looks into his face. tries to hold him up, tries to rescue him. a frozen moment. hawkeye's staring into his eyes and the man is staring into hawkeye's as the light goes out .  hawkeye lets him slide into the water and float away. he moves cora and alice towards the canoe .
spins.
is non-plussed. he doesn't stop paddling.
you got nothin' better to do today on lake george than shoot me, major, then go ahead .
looks to uncas. they both realize the same thing. hawkeye nods and he, uncas & chingachgook begin to paddle furiously. the others match the doubled pace. they're sprinting ahead but the effort is exhausting.
pull!
only chance we got is .  .  to get more distance on 'em and go to ground!
pull!!
pull !
head for .  for the white water.
here's where it gets tricky .
don't move .
we don't.
this is it, as far as we can go .  if we're lucky, they'll be figurin' we can't have come this way and must've beached our canoes and headed cross land. if we're very lucky, they'll figure we went over the falls.
then we take the south rim down the mountain and it's 12 miles cross country to fort edward.
you will have to forego the pleasure of hangin' me.
maybe .
leads her to a depression, his arm around her shoulders, her face covered and she cries softly into his shoulder.
his countenance gives way momentarily. all his experience seems of no avail. he touches the side of cora's face. grabs killdeer and follows chingachgook.
in this there is a chance. if i live, i can try to free you. if we don't go, there is no powder, there's too many of them. though my heart would keep me here, in that there is no chance. none. i can do nothing. do you understand?
if they don't kill you, they may take you north up into canada. a warrior may take you for a wife.
listen. submit. you hear me? you're strong. you stay alive. i will find you .  no matter how far, how long it takes .
engraves her image in his memory one last time and then sprints across the floor towards the water .
slams the earth with his fists. they didn't intercept them in time. difficult odds just became impossible.
unarmed, walking through the hurons. a young boy rushes at him. hawkeye, at the last possible second, dodges. others catch and restrain the boy. the hurons are astounded a european would simply walk into their camp.
translate for me, major. into french. every word .  as i say it.
i come to you unarmed and in peace to unstop your ears, wise one. because the hurons are mislead by the words of the wolf who's never spoken the truth.
let the children of the dead colonel munro go free and take the fire out of the english anger over the murder of their helpless ones.
wise one, the french fathers made peace and swore to their honor not to break the friendship. magua broke it. it is false that the french would not be friends, still, to the huron.
so the huron are the servants of the french? to do what the french are shamed to do?
magua would use the ways of les francais and the yengeese .
would the huron make his algonquin brothers foolish with brandy and steal his lands to sell them for gold to the white man? would the huron have greed for more land than a man can use? like francais black robes do? would huron kill tribes with disease? would the huron fool seneca into taking all the animals in the forest for beads & brandy? but sell the fur to the white man for gold? .  those are the ways of yengeese and les francais masters. are they the ways of huron men who hunt & work the land? or of dogs? .  magua's heart is twisted. he would make himself into what twisted him. a dog, become master of dogs. but are hurons dogs? .  magua's way is false. it is like the white sickness. magua's way will bring only sadness and shame. is there another way? i don't know. i am nathaniel of the yengeese; hawkeye, adopted son of chingachgook, of the mohican people .  let the children of the dead munro go free .  i speak the truth.
exchanges a desperate look with cora and then senses the sachem is staring at him from the perspective of nearly a century of laws & judgments. then .  to every word.
no! listen. tell him i'll trade him! me for her! tell him!!
i am la longue carabine! my death is a great honor to the huron. take me!
sees this. his eyes go to cora. they've stopped dragging her towards the fire pit. hawkeye steps forward to surrender. cora is thrown at him. cora looks around wildly. instead of taking hawkeye, two warriors grab heyward.
i said to trade me!
and my compliments to you .
tense. they're almost there.
fires past his father's side. the huron's blown off the path. hawkeye races to reload on the run .
watching chingachgook's heaving back. it's over.
will you go back to england?
then will you stay in america?
and will you be my wife?
winter with the delaware, my father's cousins. and in the spring, cross the ohio and look for land to settle with my father in a new place called can-tuck-ee.
that's my father's sadness talking.
what is that?