James Fenimore Cooper's Frontier: The Pioneers as History

Chapter 29:

 [Suspicious Behavior] Meanwhile, Richard Jones and Judge Temple have ridden 

forth to see Richard's discovery, made, he says, by Hiram Doolittle and Jotham Riddel. It is, he 

asserts, a silver mine. As evidence, they have seen Natty Bumppo and John Mohegan going up 

the mountain with picks and shovels, and then carrying things mysteriously to their cabin. On 

one occasion, Natty went away and returned dragging a sledge with a large burden covered with 

bear-skins, and since then has let no one enter his cabin. Now Oliver Edwards spends his time 

digging mysteriously. Jones and Temple arrive at their destination, where Jones shows the Judge 

a natural cave on the hillside, the interior of which has been recently excavated and enlarged; this 

evidence makes the Judge suspicious. They return to the village, where they find Elizabeth and 

Louisa returning from their encounter with the panther, and the Judge for the time forgets his 

suspicions of Natty in his gratitude for the saving of his daughter.