CHAPTER IV.
THE DOCTOR.
Whilst these terrible events were being accomplished, the doctor wasquietly herbalizing. The worthy _savant_, enraptured by the rich _flora_he had beneath his eyes, had forgotten everything but the thoughts ofthe ample harvest he could make. He proceeded with his body bent towardsthe ground, stopping for a long time before every plant he admired, erehe resolved to pull it up.
When he had loaded himself with an infinite number of plants and herbsexceedingly valuable to him, he resolved at length to seat himselfquietly at the foot of a tree, and classify them at his ease, with allthe care that celebrated professors are accustomed to bring to thisdelicate operation, mumbling in the meantime, some morsels of biscuitwhich he drew from his bag.
He remained a long time absorbed in this occupation, which procuredhim one of those extreme delights which the learned alone can enjoy,and which are unknown to the vulgar. He would probably have forgottenhimself in this labour until night had surprised him, and forced him toseek shelter, had not a dark shadow come between him and the sun, andprojected its reflection upon the plants he had classified with so muchcare.
He mechanically raised his head.
A man, leaning on a long rifle, had stopped before him, and wascontemplating him with a kind of laughing attention. This man was BlackElk.
"He! he!" he said to the doctor, "what are you doing there, my goodsir? Seeing the grass moved about so, I thought there was a doe in thethicket, and, devil take me! if I was not on the point of sending abullet at you."
"The deuce!" the doctor cried, eyeing him with an expression of terror,"you should be careful; do you know you might have killed me?"
"Well, I might," the trapper replied, laughing; "but don't be afraid! Iperceived my error in time."
"God be praised!"
And the doctor, who had just perceived a rare plant stooped eagerly toseize it.
"Then you won't tell me what you are doing?" the hunter continued.
"Why, can't you see, my friend?"
"Who, I? Yes; I see you are amusing yourself with pulling up the weedsof the prairie, that is all; and I should like to know what for?"
"Oh! ignorance!" the savant murmured, and then added aloud withthat tone of doctorial condescension peculiar to the disciples ofAEsculapius: "my friend, I am gathering simples, which I collect, inorder to classify them in my herbal; the _flora_ of these prairies ismagnificent; I am convinced that I have discovered at least three newspecies of the _Chirostemon pentadactylon,_ of which the genus belongsto the _Flora Mexicana_."
"Ah!" said the hunter, staring with all his eyes, and making strongefforts to refrain from laughing in the doctor's face. "You think youhave really found three new species of--"
"Chirostemon pentadactylon, my friend," said the doctor, patronizingly.
"Ah! bah!"
"At least; perhaps there may be a fourth!"
"Oh! oh! there is some use in it, then?"
"Some use in it, indeed!" the doctor cried, much scandalized.
"Well, don't be angry, I know nothing about it."
"That is true!" said the savant, softened by the tone of Black Elk;"You cannot comprehend the importance of these labours, which advancescience at an immense speed."
"Well, only to think! And it was only for the purpose of pulling upherbs in this manner that you came into the prairie?"
"For nothing else."
Black Elk looked at him with the admiration created by the sight of aninexplicable phenomenon; the hunter could not succeed in comprehendinghow a sensible man should resolve willingly to endure a life ofprivation and perils for the, to him, unintelligible object of pullingup useless plants; therefore he soon came to a conviction that he mustbe mad. He cast upon him a look of commiseration; shaking his head, andshouldering his rifle, he prepared to go on his way.
"Well! well!" he said, in the tone usually employed towards children,and idiots; "you are right, my good sir; pull away! pull away! you donobody any harm, and there will always be plenty left. I wish you goodsport; such as it is. I shall see you again."
And, whistling his dogs, he proceeded a few steps, but almostimmediately returned.
"One word more," he said, addressing the doctor, who had alreadyforgotten him, and was again busied in the employment which the arrivalof the hunter had forced him to interrupt.
"Speak!" he replied, raising his head.
"I hope that the young lady who came to visit my hatto yesterday, incompany with her uncle, is well? Poor dear child, you cannot imagine howmuch I am interested in her, my good sir!"
The doctor rose up suddenly, striking his forehead.
"Fool that I am!" he cried, "I had completely forgotten it."
"Forgotten what?" the astonished hunter asked.
"This is always my way!" the savant muttered; "fortunately the mischiefis not great; as you are here, it can easily be repaired."
"What mischief are you talking about?" said the trapper, beginning tofeel uneasy.
"You may imagine," the doctor continued, quietly, "that if scienceabsorbs me so completely as to make me often forget to eat and drink, Iam likely sometimes not to remember the commissions I am charged with."
"To the point! to the point!" said the hunter impatiently.
"Oh! good Lord, it's very simple. I left the camp at daybreak to cometo your hatto; but when I arrived here, I was so charmed with theinnumerable rare plants that my horse trod under foot, that withoutthinking of pursuing my route, I stopped at first to pull up one plant,then I perceived another that was not in my herbal, and another afterthat, and so on.--In short, I thought no more of coming to you, andwas, indeed, so absorbed by my researches, that even your unexpectedpresence, just now, did not recall to my mind the commission I had toyou."
"And did you leave the camp at daybreak?"
"Good Heavens, yes!"
"And do you know what o'clock it is now?"
The savant looked at the sun.
"Almost three!" he said, "but I repeat that it is of little consequence.You being here, I can report to you what Dona Luz charged me to tellyou, and all will be right, no doubt."
"God grant that your negligence may not prove the cause of a greatmisfortune," said the hunter, with a sigh.
"What do you mean by that?"
"You will soon know. I hope I may be deceived. Speak, I am listening toyou."
"This is what Dona Luz begged me to repeat to you----"
"Was it Dona Luz that sent you to me?"
"Herself!"
"Has anything serious taken place at the camp, then?"
"Ah! why, yes; and that, perhaps, may make it more important than Iat first imagined. This is what has happened: Last night one of ourguides----"
"The Babbler?"
"The same. Do you know him?"
"Yes. Go on."
"Well! It appears that the man was plotting with another bandit of hisown sort, to deliver up the camp to the Indians. Dona Luz, most probablyby chance, overheard the conversation of these fellows, and, at themoment they were passing her, she fired two pistols at them, quiteclose."
"Did she kill them?"
"Unfortunately, no. One of them, although no doubt grievously wounded,was able to escape."
"Which of them?"
"The Babbler."
"Well, and then?"
"Why, then Dona Luz made me swear to come to you, and say stop a bit,"said the savant, trying to recollect the words.
"Black Elk, the hour is come!" the hunter, impetuously interrupted.
"That's it! that's it!" said the savant, rubbing his hands for joy,"I had it at the tip of my tongue. I must confess it appeared ratherobscure to me, I could not fancy what it meant; but you will explain it,will you not?"
The hunter seized him vigorously by the arm, and drawing his face closeto his own, he said, with an inflamed look and features contracted byanger,--
"Wretched madman! why do you not come to me as quickly as possible,instead of wasting your
time like an idiot? Your delay will, perhaps,cause the death of all your friends!"
"Is it possible!" cried the chapfallen doctor, without noticing thesomewhat rough manner in which the hunter shook him.
"You were charged with a message of life and death, fool that you are!Now, what is to be done? Perhaps it is too late!"
"Oh! do not say so," said the savant, in great agitation, "I should diewith despair if it were so."
The poor man burst into tears, and gave unequivocal proofs of thegreatest grief.
Black Elk was obliged to console him.
"Come, come, courage, my good sir!" he said, softening a little. "Whatthe devil, perhaps all is not lost?"
"Oh! if I were the cause of such a misfortune, I should never surviveit!"
"Well, what is done, is done; we must act accordingly," said the trapperphilosophically. "I will think how they are to be assisted. Thanks beto God, I am not so much alone as might be supposed--I hope within twohours to have got together thirty of the best rifles in the prairies."
"You will save them, will you not?"
"At least, I will do all that can be done, and, if it please God, Ishall succeed."
"May Heaven hear you!"
"Amen!" said the hunter, crossing himself devoutly. "Now, listen to me;you must return to the camp."
"Immediately!"
"But no more gathering of flowers, or pulling up of grass, if youplease."
"Oh, I swear I will not. Cursed be the hour in which I set myself toherbalize!" said the doctor, with comic despair.
"Very well, that's agreed. You must comfort the young lady as well asher uncle; you must recommend them to keep good guard, and, in case ofan attack, to make a vigorous resistance; and tell them they shall soonsee friends come to their assistance."
"I will tell them all that."
"To horse, then, and gallop all the way to the camp."
"Be satisfied, I will; but you, what are you going to do?"
"Oh! don't trouble yourself about me. I shall not be idle; all you haveto do is to rejoin your friends as soon as possible."
"Within an hour I shall be with them."
"Courage and good luck, then! Above all, don't despair."
Black Elk let go the bridle which he had seized, and the doctor set offat a gallop, a pace to which the good man was so little accustomed, thathe had great trouble to preserve his equilibrium.
The trapper watched his departure for an instant, then, turning round,he strode with hasty steps into the forest.
He had scarcely walked ten minutes when he met No Eusebio, who wasconveying the mother of Loyal Heart across his saddle, in a faintingstate.
This meeting was for the trapper a piece of good fortune, of which hetook advantage to obtain from the old Spaniard some positive informationabout the hunter--information which Eusebio hastened to give him.
The two men then repaired to the hatto of the trapper, from which theywere but a short distance, and in which they wished to place the motherof their friend for the present.