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12 - The Last Of The Mohicans - James Cooper · Classic Adventure Books Collection

• Chapter twelve quote Klo, I am gone, sire, and Anon, sire, I'll be with you again unquote from twelfth night. The Hurons stood aghast of this sudden visitation of death on one of their band, But as they regarded the fatal accuracy of an aim which had dared to immolate an enemy at so much hazard to a friend, the name of Le l'ereben burst simultaneously from every lip, and was succeeded by a wild and sort of plaintive howl. The cry was answered by a loud shout from a little thicket where the incautious party had piled their arms, and at the next moment, Hawkeye, too eager to load the rifle he had regained, was seen advancing upon them, brandishing the clubbed weapon and cutting the air with wide and powerful sweeps. Bold and rapid was the progress of the scout, it was exceeded by that of a light and vigorous form, which, bounding past him, leaped with incredible activity and daring into the very center of the Hurons, where it stood, whirling a tomahawk and flourishing a glittering knife with fearful menaces in front of Cora Quicker than the thoughts could follow those unexpected on audacious movements. An image armed in the emblematic panoply of death, glided before their eyes and assumed a threatening attitude. At the other side, the savage tormentors recoiled before these warlike intruders and uttered as they appeared in such quick succession, the often repeated and peculiar exclamations of surprise followed by the well known and dreaded appellations of lay Serfagiu, lay gross serpent. But the wary and vigilant leader of the Hurons was not so easily disconcerted. Casting his keen eyes around the little plane, he comprehended the nature of the assault at a glance, and encouraging his followers by his voice as well as by his example, he unsheathed his long and dangerous knife and rushed with a loud hoop upon the expected chinkotchkook. It was the signal of a general combat. Neither party had firearms, and the contest was to be decided in the deadliest manner, hand to hand, with weapons of offense and none of defense. Uncas answered the hoop and leaping on an enemy with a single well directed blow of his tomahawk cleft him to the brain. Heyward tore the weapon of Makua from the sapling and rushed equally toward the fray. As the combatants were now equal in number, each singled an opponent from the adverse band. The rush and blows passed with the fury of a whirlwind and the swiftness of lightning. Hawkeye soon got another enemy within reach of his arm, and with one sweep of his formidable weapon, he beat down the slight and inartificial defenses of his antagonist, crushing him to earth. With the blow, Heyward ventured to hurl the palmahawk he had seized, too ardent to await the moment of closing, it struck the Indian he had selected on the forehead and checked for an instant his onward rush. Encouraged by this slight advantage, the impetuous young man continued his onset and sprang upon his enemy with naked hands. A single instant was enough to assure him of the rashness of the major, for he immediately found himself fully engaged with all his activity and courage in endeavoring to ward. The desperate thrust made with the knife of the Huron. Unable longer to foil an enemy so alert and vigilant, threw his arms about him and succeeded in pinning the limbs of the other to his side with an iron grasp, but one that was far too exhausting to himself to continue long in this extremity. He heard a voice near him, shouting, extarminate the violets, no quarter to an accursed mingo. At the next moment, the breach of Hawkeye's rifle fell on the naked head of his adversary, whose muscles appeared to wither under the shock as he sank from the arms of Duncan, flexible and motionless. When Uncas had brained his first antagonist, he turned like a hungry lion to seek another. The fifth and only Huron, disengaged at the first onset, had paused a moment, and, then, seeing that all around him were employed in the deadly strife he had sought with hellish vengeance to complete the baffled work of revenge. Raising a shout of triumph, he sprang toward the defenseless Cora, sending his keen axe as the dreadful precursor of his approach, the tomahawk raised her shoulder, and cutting the wives which bound her to the tree, left the maiden at liberty to fly. She eluded the grasp of the savage, and, reckless of her own safety, threw herself on the bosom of Alice, striving with convulsed and ill directed fingers to tear asunder the twigs which confined the person of her sister. Any other than a monster would have relented at such an act of generous devotion to the best and purest affection. But the breast of the yuron was a stranger to sympathy. Seizing Cora by the rich tresses, which fell in confusion about her form, he tore her from her frantic hold and bowed her down with brutal violence to her knees. The savage drew the flowing curls through his hand, and raising them on high with an outstretched arm, he passed the knife around the exquisitely molded head of his victim with a taunting and exulting laugh. But he purchased this moment of fierce gratification with the loss of the fatal opportunity. It was just then the sight caught the eye of Uncas. Bounding from his footsteps, he appeared for an instant, darting through the air and descending in a ball. He fell on the chest of his enemy, driving him many yards from the spot, headlong and prostrate. The violence of the exertion cast the young Mohican at his side. They arose together, fought and bled, each in his turn, but the conflict was soon decided. The tomahawk of Heyward and the rifle of Hawkeye descended on the skull of the Huron at the same moment that the knife of Uncas reached his heart. The battle was now entirely terminated, with the exception of the protracted struggle between le Renod Sebtadu and Ligross Serpent. Well did these barbarous warriors prove that they deserved those significant names which had been bestowed for deeds in former wars. When they engaged, some little time was lost in eluding the quick and vigorous thrust which had been aimed at their lives. Suddenly darting on each other, they closed and came to the earth, twisted together like twining serpents in pliant and subtle folds. At the moment when the victors found themselves unoccupied. The spot where these experienced and desperate combatants lay could only be distinguished by cloud of dust and leaves, which moved from the center of the little plain toward its boundary, as if raised by the passage of a whirlwind. Urged by the different motives of filial, affection, friendship, and gratitude, Heyward and his companions rushed with one accord to the place, encircling the little canopy of dust which hung above the warriors. In vain did Uncas dart around the cloud with a wish to strike his knife into the heart of his father foe. The threatening rifle of Hawkeye was raised and suspended in Vain, while Duncan endeavored to seize the limbs of the Huron with hands that had appeared to have lost their power, Covered as they were with dust and blood, the swift evolutions of the combatants seemed to incorporate their bodies into one. The deathlike looking figure of the Mohican and the dark form of the Huron gleamed before their eyes in such quick and confused succession that the friends of the former knew not where to plant the succoring blow. It is true that there were short and fleeting moments when the fiery eyes of Mawkward were seen glittering like fabled organs of the basilisk through the dusty wreath by which he was enveloped, and he read by those short and deadly glances the fate of the combat. In the presence of his enemies ere However, any hostile hand that could decend on his devoted head, its place was filled by the scowling visage of Chinotschkok. In this manner, the scene of the combat was removed from the center of the little plain to its verge. Though Mohikan now found an opportunity to make a powerful thrust with his knife, Maka suddenly relinquished his grasp and fell backward, without motion and seemingly without life. His adversary leaped on his feet, making the arches of the forest ring with the shouts of triumph. Well done for the Delawares. Victory to the Mohicans, cried Hawkeye, once more, elevating the butt of the long and fatal rifle. A finishing blow from a man without a cross will never tell against his honor, nor rob him of his right to the scalp. But at the very moment when the dangerous weapon was in the act of descending, The subtle rolled swiftly from beneath the danger, over the edge of the precipice, and falling on his feet, was seen leaping with a single bound into the center of a thicket of low bushes that clung along its sides. The delawares, who had believed their enemy dead, uttered their exclamation of surprise, and were following with speed and clamor like hounds in open view of the deer, when a shrill and peculiar cry from the scout instantly changed their purpose and recalled them to the summit of the hill. Twas like himself, cried the inveterate forester, whose prejudice contributed so largely to veil his natural sense of justice in all matters which concerned the mingoes. A lying and deceitful violet, as he is, an honest delaware now being fairly vanquished, would have lain still and been knocked on the head. But these navies Schmock was cling to life like so many cats of the mountain. Let him go, Let him go. 'tis but one man, and he without rifle or bow, many a long mile from his French comrades, and like a rattler that lost his fangs, he can do no further mischief until such time as he and we too may leave the prints of our moccasins over a long reach of sandy plain. See Uncas, he added in Delaware, your father is flaying the scalps already. It may be well to go around and fill the vagabonds that are left, or we may have another of them, loping through the woods and screeching like a jay that has been winged. So saying, the honest but implacable Scalp made the circuit of the dead, into whose senseless bosoms he thrust his long knife with as much coolness as though they had been so many brute carcasses. He had, however, been anticipated by the elder Mohican, who had already torn the emblems of victory from the unresisting heads of the slain. But Uncas, denying his habits, we had almost said, his nature flew with instinctive delicacy, accompanied by Heyward, to the assistance of the females, and quickly releasing Alice, placed her in the arms of Cora. We shall not attempt to describe the gratitude of the almighty disposer of events, which glowed in the bosoms of the sisters, who were thus unexpectedly restored to life and to each other. Their thanksgivings were deep and silent, the offerings of their gentle spirits burning brightest and purest on the secret altars of their hearts, and their renovated and more earthly feelings exhibiting themselves in long and fervent, though speechless caresses. As Alice rose from her knees where she had sunk by the side of Cora, she threw herself on the bosom of the latter and sobbed aloud the name of their aged father, while her soft and dove like eyes sparkled with rays of hope. We are saved, We are saved, she murmured, to return to the arms of our dear, dear father, and his heart will not be broken with grief. And you too, Cora, my sister, my more than sister, my mother, you too are spared. And Duncan, she added, looking around upon the youth with a smile of ineffable innocence. Even our own brave and double Duncan has escaped without a hurt to these ardent and nearly innocent words, Cora made no other answer than by straining the youthful speaker to her heart as she bent over her in melting tenderness. The manhood of Heyward felt no shame in dropping tears over the spectacle of affectionate rapture, and Uncas stood fresh and blood stained from the combat, a calm and apparently an unmoved looker on, it is true, but with eyes that had already lost their fierceness, and which were beaming with a sympathy that elevated him far above the intelligence and advanced him probably centuries before the practices of his nation. During this display of emotions so natural in their situation, Hawkeye, whose vigilant distrust had satisfied itself that the Hurons who disfigured the heavenly scene no longer possessed the power to interrupt its harmony, approached David and liberated him from the bons he had until that moment endured with the most exemplary patience. There, exclaimed the scout, casting the last wive behind him. You are once more mass sure of your own limbs, though you seem not to use them with much greater judgment than that in which they were first fashioned. If advice from one who is not older than yourself, but who having lived most of his time in the wilderness, may be said to have experience beyond his years, will give no offense. You are welcome to my thoughts, and these are to part with the little tooting instrument in your jacket to the first full you meet with, and buy some weapon with the money, if it only be the barrel of a horseman's pistol. By industry and care, you might thus come to some preformant. For by this time, I should think your eyes would plainly tell you that a carrion crow is a better bird than a mocking thresher. The one will at least remove file sights from before the face of man, while the other is only good to brew disturbances in the woods by cheating the ears of all that he them lurmbs and clarion for the battle. But the song of thanksgiving to the victory, answered the deliberated david friend. He added, thrusting forth his lean, delicate hand toward hawkeye in kindness, while his eyes twinkled and grew moist. I thank thee that the hairs of my head still grow were they first rooted by providence? For though those of other men may be more glossy and curling, I have ever found mine own well suited to the brain. They shelter. That I did not join myself in the battle was less owing to disinclination than to the bonds of the heathen. Valiant and skillful, hast thou proved thyself in the conflict. And I hereby thank THEE before proceeding to discharge other and more important duties. Because thou hast proved thyself well worthy of a Christian's praise. The thing is but a trifle, and what you may often see if you tarry long among us, returned the scout, A good deal softened toward the man of song by this unequivocal expression of gratitude, I have got my old companion kill deer, he added, striking his hand on the breach of his rifle, And that in itself is a victory. These Iroquois are cunning, but they outwitted themselves when they placed their firearms out of reach. And had Uncas or his father been gifted with only their common Indian patience, we should have come in upon the knaves with three bullets instead of one, and that would have made a finish of the whole pack Yon Loping Varlet, as well as his comrades. But twas all forewordered, and for the best thou sayest will returned David and has caught the true spirit of Christianity. He that is to be saved will be saved, and he that is predestined to be damned will be damned. This is the doctrine of truth, and most consoling and refreshing it is to the true believer. The scout, who by this time was seated examining into the state of his rifle with a species of parental assiduity, now looked up at the other in a displeasure that he did not effect to conceal, roughly interrupting further speech. Doctrine or no doctrine, said the sturdy woodsman. 'tis the belief of knaves and the curse of an honest man. I can credit that yonder huron was to fall by my hand, for with my own eyes I have seen it. But nothing short of being a witness will cause me to think he has met with any reward or that chinkotchkok there will be condemned at the final day. You have no warranty for such an audacious doctrine, nor any covenant to support it, cried David, who was deeply tinctured with the subtle distinctions which, in his time, and more especially in his province, had been drawn around the beautiful simplicity of revelation, by endeavoring to penetrate the awful mystery of the divine nature, supplying faith by self sufficiency, and by consequence, involving those who reason from such human dogmas in absurdities and doubt. Your temple is reared on the sands, and the first tempest will wash away its foundation. I demand your authorities for such an uncharitable assertion. Like other advocates of a system, David was not always accurate in his use of terms. Verse in which of the Holy books do you find language to support you? Book? Repeated Hawkeye with singular and ill concealed disdain. Do you take me for a whimpering boy at the apron string of one of your old gals, And this good rifle on my knee for the feather of a goose's wing, my ox's horned for a bottle of ink, And my leathern pouch for a crossbarred handkerchief to carry my dinner book. What have such as I, who am a warrior of the wilderness, though a man without a cross to two with books. I never read but in one, And the words that are written there are too simple and too plain to need much schooling. Though I may boast that of forty long and hard working years would call you. The volume, said David, misconceiving the other's me, tis open before your eyes returned the scout, and he who owns it is not a niggard of its use. I have heard it said that there are men who read in books to convince themselves there is a god. I know naught. But man may so deform his works in the settlement as to leave that which is so clear in the wilderness a matter of doubt among traitors and priests, if any such there be. And he will follow me from son to son, through the windings of the forest, he shall see enough to teach him that he is a fool. And the greatest of his follies lies in striving to rise to the level of one he can never equal, be it in goodness or be it in power. The instant, David discovered that he battled with a disputant who imbibed his faith from the lights of nature, eskewing all subtleties of doctrine. He willingly abandoned the controversy, from which he believed neither profit nor credit was to be derived. While the scout was speaking, he had also seated himself, and producing the ready little volume and the iron rimmed spectacles, he prepared to discharge a duty which nothing but the unexpected assault he had received in his orthodoxy could have so long suspended. He was, in truth a minstrel of the Western continent of a much later day, certainly than those gifted barges who formerly sang the profane renown of baron and prince. But after the spirit of his own age and country, he was now prepared to exercise the cunning of his craft in celebration of, or in rather thanksgiving of the recent victory. He waited patiently for hawkeye to cease. Then, lifting his eyes together the other with his voice, he said, aloud, I invite you friends to join in praise for the signal deliverance from the hands of barbarians and infidels through the comfortable and solemn tones of the tune called Northampton. Next, he named the page and verse where the rhymes selected were to be found, and applied the pitch pipe to his lips with the decent gravity that he had been wont to use in the temple. This time he was, however, without any accompaniment, for the sisters were just then pouring out those tender effusions of affections which have already been alluded to. Nothing. Deterred by the smallness of his audience, which in truth consisted only of the discontented scout, he raised his voice, commencing and ending the sacred song without accident or interruption of any kind. Hawkeye listened while he coolly adjusted his flint and reloaded his rifle. But the sounds, wanting the extraneous assistance of scene and sympathy, failed to awaken his slumbering emotions. Never Minstrel, or by whatever more suitable name, David should be known, drew upon his talents in the presence of more insensible auditors. Though considering the singleness and sincerity of his motive, it is probable that no barred of profane song ever uttered notes that ascended so near to that throne where all homage and praise is due. The scout shook his head, and, muttering some unintelligible words, among which throat and Iroquois were alone audible, he walked away to collect and to examine into the state of the captured arsenal of the Hurons. In this office he was now joined by ching Gootchkok, who found his own as well as the rifle of his son among the arms. Even Heyward and David were furnished with weapons, nor was ammunition, wanting to render them all effectual. When the foresters had made their selection and distributed the prizes, the scout announced that the hour had arrived when it was necessary to move. By this time the song of Gamut had ceased, and the sisters had learned to steal the exhibition of their emotions. Aided by Duncan and the younger Mohican, the two latter descended the precipitous sides of that hill which they had so lately ascended under so very different auspices, and whose summit had so nearly proved the scene of their massacre. At the foot, they found the Narragansets browsing the herbage of the bushes and Having mounted, they followed the movements of a guide, who, in the most deadly straits had so often proved himself their friend. The journey was, however, short. Hawkeye, leaving the blind path that the Hurons had followed, turned short to his right, and entering the thicket. He crossed a babbling brook and halted in a narrow dell under the shade of a few water elms. Their distance from the base of the fatal hill was but a few rods, and the steeds had been serviceable only in crossing the shallow stream. The scout and the Indians appeared to be familiar with the sequestered place where they now were for leaning the rifle against the trees, they commenced, throwing aside the dried leaves and opening the blue clay, out of which a clear and sparkling spring of bright, glancing water quickly bubbled. The white men then looked about him, as though seeking for some object which was not to be found as readily as he expected them careless imps. The Mohawks with their Tuscarora and Onondaga brethren have been here slaking their thirst, he muttered, And the vagabonds have thrown away the gourd. This is the way with benefits when they are bestowed on such dismembering hounds. Here has the Lord laid his hand in the midst of the howling wilderness for their good, and raised a fountain of water from the bowels of the earth, that might laugh at the richest shop of apothecaries where in all the colonies, and see the knaves of trodden in the clay, and deformed the cleanliness of the place, as though they were brute beasts instead of human men. Uncas silently extended toward him the desired gourd, which the spleen of Hawkeye had hitherto prevented him from observing, on a branch of unelm. Filling it with water, he retired a short distance to a place where the ground was more firm and dry. Here he coolly seated himself, and after take making a long and apparently a grateful draft, he commenced a very strict examination of the fragments of food left by the hurons, which had hung in a wallet on his arm. Thank you, lad, He continued, returning the empty gourd to Uncas. Now we will see how these rampaging hurons lived when outlying in ambushments. Look at this, The varlets know the better pieces of the deer, and one would think they might carve and roast a saddle equal to the best cook in the land. But everything is raw, for the Iroquois are thorough savages. Uncas, take my steel and kin to a fire. A mouthful of tender boil will give nature a helping hand. After so long a trail, Heyward, perceiving that their guides now set about their repast and sober earnest, assisted the ladies to alight, and placed himself at their side, Not unwilling to enjoy a few moments of grateful rest after the bloody scene he had just gone through. While the culinary process was in hand, curiosity induced him to inquire into this circumstances which had led to their timely and unexpected rescue. How is it that we see you so soon, my generous friend, he asked, and without aid from the garrison of Edward, had we gone to the bend of the river, we might have been in time to rake the leaves over your bodies, but too late to have saved your scalps. Coolly answered the scout, No, No, Instead of throwing away strength and opportunity by crossing to the fort. We lay by under the bank of the Hudson, waiting to watch the movements of the Hurons. You were then witnesses of all that passed, not of all, for Indian sight is too keen to be easily cheated. Kept close a difficult matter. It was too to keep this Mahican boy snug in the ambushment, ah Uncus Uncas, your behavior was more like that of a curious woman than of a warrior. On his scent, Uncas permitted his eyes to turn for an instant on the sturdy countenance of the speaker, but he neither spoke nor gave any indication of repentance. On the contrary, Heyward thought the manner of the young Mohican was disdainful, if not a little fierce, and that he suppressed passion that were ready to explode, as much in compliment to the listeners as from the deference he usually paid to his white associate. You saw our capture, Heyward next demanded, We heard it was the significant answer. An Indian yell is plain language to men who have passed their days in the woods. But when you landed, we were driven to crawl like serpents beneath the leaves, and then we lost sight of you entirely until we placed eyes on you again, trust to the trees, and ready bound for an Indian massacre, our rescue was the deed of providence. It was nearly a miracle that you did not mistake the path, for the Hurons divided, and each band had its horses. I there we were thrown off the scent, and might indeed have lost the trail had it not been for Uncas. We took the path, however, that led into the wilderness, for we judged, and judged rightly, that the savages would hold that course with their prisoners. But when we had followed it for many miles without finding a single twig broken, as I had advised, my mind misgave me, especially as all the footsteps had the prints of moccasins. Our captors had their precaution to see us shod like themselves, said Duncan, raising a foot and exhibiting the buckskin he wore. I twas judgmatical and like themselves. Though we were too expert to be thrown from a trail by so common an invention. To what then are we indebted for our safety to what as a white man who is no taine of Indian blood, I should be ashamed to own to the judgment of the young Mohican in matters which I should know better than he, but which I can now hardly believe to be true, though my own eyes tell me it is so. Tis extraordinary. Will you not name the reason? Uncas was bold enough to say that the beast ridden by the gentle ones continued hawkeye, glancing his eyes not without curious interest, on the fillies of the ladies planted the legs of one side on the ground at the same time, which is contrary to the movements of all trotting four footed animals of my knowledge, except the bear. And yet here are horses that always journey in this manner, as my own eyes have seen, and as their trail has shone for twenty long miles, tis the merit of the animal. They come from the shores of Nardanset Bay in the small province of Providence Plantations, and are celebrated for their hardihood and the ease of this peculiar movement. The other horses are not unfrequently trained to the same. It may be, it may be, said Hawkeye, who had listened with singular attention to this explanation. Though I am a man who has the full blood of the whites, my judgment in deer and beef is greater than in beast of burden. Major Effingham has many noble charges, but I have never seen one travel with such a siding gait. True, for he would value the animals for very different properties. Still, is this a breed highly esteemed, and, as you witness, much honored. With the burdens it is often destined to bear. The Mohicans had suspended their operations about the glimmering fire to listen, and when Duncan had done, they looked at each other significantly, the father uttering the never failing exclamation of surprise. The scout ruminated like a man digesting his newly acquired knowledge, and once more stole a glance at the horses. I dare say there are even stranger sights to be seen in the settlements, he said at length. Nature is sadly abused by man when he once gets the mastery, but go siding, or go straight. Uncass has seen the movement, and their trail led us on to the broken bush. The outer branch knear, the prince of one of the horses was bent upward as a lady breaks a flower from its stem. But all the rest were ragged and broken down, as if the strong hand of a man had been tearing them. So I concluded that the cunning varmints had seen the twig bent and had torn the rest to make us believe a buck had been feeling the bowels with his antlers. I do believe your sagacity did not deceive you, for some such thing occurred that was easy to see, added the scout, in no degree conscious of having exhibited any extraordinary sagacity, and a very different matter, it was from a waddling horse. It then struck me the mingoes would push for this spring, for the knaves well know the virtue of its waters. It is thin, so famous, demanded Heyward, examining with a more curious eye the secluded dell, with its bubbling fountain, surrounded as it was by earth of a deep, dingy brown. Few redskins who travel south and east of the Great Lakes but have heard of its qualities. Will you taste for yourself? Heyward took the gourd, and, after swallowing a little of the water threw it aside with grimaces of discontent. The scout laughed in his silent but heartfelt manner, and shook his head with vast satisfaction. Ah, you want the flavor that one gets by habit. The time was when I liked it as little as yourself. But I have come to my taste, and I now crave it as a deer does the lixe footnote. Many of the animals of the American forest resort to those spots where salt springs are found. These are called licks or salt licks in the language of the country for the circumstances that the quaterped is often obliged to lick the earth in order to obtain the sailing particles. These licks are great places of resort with the hunters who waylay their game near the paths that lead to them. End. Your high spiced wines are not better like than a redskin relish as this water, especially when his nature is ailing. But Uncas has made his fire, and it is time we think of eating, for our journey is long and all before us. Interrupting the dialog. By this abrupt transition, the scout had instant recourse to the fragments of food which had escaped the veracity of the Hurons. A very summary process completed the simple cookery when he and the Mohicans commenced their humble meal with the silence and characteristic diligence of men who ate in order to enable themselves to endure great and unremitting toil. When this necessary and happily grateful duty had been performed, each of the foresters stooped and took a long and parting draft at that solitary and silent spring. Footnote. The scene of the foregoing incidents is on the spot where the village of Boston now stands, one of the two principal watering places of America, and footnote around which and its sister fountains. Within fifty years, the wealth, beauty, and talents of a hemisphere were to assemble in throngs in pursuit of health and pleasure. Then Hawkeye announced his dear determination to proceed. The sisters resumed their saddles, Duncan and David grasped their rifles and followed on footsteps, the Scout leading the advance and the Mohicans bringing up the rear. The whole party moved swiftly through the narrow path toward the north, leaving the healing waters to mingle unheeded with the adjacent brooks, and the bodies of the dead to fester on the neighboring mount without the rights of sepulcher, a fate but too common to the warriors of the woods to excite either commiseration or comment. End of Chapter twelve.