CHAPTER X.
For a few minutes, the three living men stood silent in the presenceof the dead; and, then Walter exclaimed, in a tone of deep grief,"Alas, Woodchuck! what have you done?"
"Saved my scalp," answered Brooks, sternly, and fell into silenceagain.
There was another long pause; at last, Lord H----, mistaking in somedegree the causes of the man's strong emotion, laid his hand upon thehunter's arm, saying, "Come away, my friend! Why should you lingerhere?"
"It's no use," answered Woodchuck, gloomily; "he had a woman with him,and it will soon be known all through the tribe."
"But for your own safety," said Walter, "you had better fly. It isvery sad, indeed. What could make him attack you?"
"An old grudge, Master Walter," answered Brooks, seating himselfdeliberately on the ground, and laying his rifle across his knee. "Iknew the crittur well--the Striped Snake they called him, and a snakehe was. He tried to cheat and rob me, and I made it plain to the wholetribe. Some laughed and thought it fair; but old Black Eagle scornedand rebuked him, and he has hated me ever since. He has been longwatching for this, and now he has got it."
"Well, well," returned Walter, "what's done cannot be undone. You hadbetter get away as fast as you can; for Black Eagle told me he hadleft three scouts behind, to bring us tidings in case of danger, andwe cannot tell how near the others may be."
"This was one of them," answered Brooks, still keeping his seat, andgazing at the Indian; "but what is safety to me, Walter? I can no moreroam the forests, I can no more pursue my way of life; I must go intodull and smoky cities, and plod amongst thieving, cheating crowds ofwhite men. The rifle and the hatchet must be laid aside for ever; theforest grass must know my foot no more. Flowers and green leaves, andrushing streams, and the broad lake, and the mountain top, are lostand gone--the watch under the deep boughs, and by the silent water.Close pressed amidst the toiling herd, I shall become sordid, and low,and filthy, as they are; my free nature lost, and gyves upon myspirit. All life's blessings are gone from me; why should I care forlife?"
There was something unusually plaintive, mournful, and earnest in histones, and Lord H---- could not help feeling for him, although he didnot comprehend fully the occasion of his grief.
"But, my good friend," he said, "I cannot perceive how your havingslain this Indian in your own defence can bring such a train ofmiseries upon you. You would not have killed him, if he had notattacked you."
"Alas for me! alas for me!" was all the answer that the poor man made.
"You do not know their habits, sir," said Walter, in a low voice;"they must always have blood for blood. If he stays here, if he everreturns, go where he will in the Indian territory, they will trackhim, they will follow him day and night. He will be amongst them likeone of the wild beasts whom we so eagerly pursue from place to place,with the hatchet always hanging over his head. There is no safety forhim, except far away in the provinces beyond those towns that Indiansever visit. Do persuade him to come away and leave the body. He can godown with me to Albany, and thence make his way to New York orPhiladelphia."
For some minutes Brooks remained deaf to all arguments; his wholethoughts seemed occupied with the terrible conviction that the wildscenes and free life which he enjoyed so intensely were, with him, atan end for ever.
Suddenly, however, when Lord H---- was just about to abandon, indespair, the task of persuading him, he started up as if some newthought struck him; and, gazing first at Walter and then at the youngofficer, he exclaimed,--
"But I am keeping you here, and you too may be murdered. Thedeath-spot is upon me, and it will spread to all around. I am ready togo. I will bear my fate as I can, but it is very, very hard. Come, letus be gone quick. Stay, I will charge my rifle first. Who knows howsoon we may need it for more such bloody work?"
All his energy seemed to have returned in a moment, and it desertedhim not again. He charged his rifle with wonderful rapidity, tossed itunder his arm, and took a step as if to go. Then for a moment hepaused, and, advancing close to the dead Indian, gazed at him sternly.
"Oh, my enemy!" he cried, "thou saidst thou wouldst have revenge, andthou hast had it, far more bitter than if thy hatchet had entered intomy skull, and I were lying there in thy place."
Turning round as soon as he had spoken, he led the way back along thetrail, murmuring, rather to himself than to his companions,--
"The instinct of self-preservation is very strong. But better for mehad I let him slay me. I know not how I was fool enough to fire. Come,Walter, we must get round the falls, where we shall find some bateauxthat will carry us down."
He walked along for about five minutes in silence; and then suddenlylooked around to Lord H----, exclaiming,--
"But what's to become of him? How is he to find his way back again?Come, I will go back with him; it matters not if they do catch me andscalp me. I do not like to be dogged, and tracked, and followed, andtaken unawares. But I can only die at last. I will go back with him assoon as you are in the boat, Walter."
"No, no, Woodchuck, that will not do," returned the lad; "you forgetthat if they found you with him, they would kill him too. I will tellyou how we will manage it. Let him come down with us to the point;then there is a straight road up to the house, and we can get one ofthe bateaux-men to go with him and show him the way, unless he likesto go on with me to Albany."
"I cannot do that," replied Lord H----, "for I promised to be back atyour father's house by to-morrow night, and matters of much importancemay have to be decided. But I can easily land at the point, as yousay--whatever point you may mean--and find my way back. As for myself,I have no fears. There seem to be but a few scattered parties ofIndians of different tribes roaming about, and I trust that anythinglike general hostility is at an end for this year at least."
"In Indian warfare, the danger is the greatest, I have heard, when itseems the least," observed Walter Prevost; "but from the point to thehouse, some fourteen or sixteen miles, the road is generally safe, forit is the only one on which large numbers of persons are passing toand from Albany."
"It will be safe enough," said Woodchuck; "that way is always quiet,and, besides, a wise man and a peaceful one could travel at any timefrom one end of the Long House to the other without risk--unless therewere special cause. It is bad shooting we have had to-day, Walter; butstill I should have liked to have the skin of that painter; he seemedto me an unextinguishable fine crittur."
"He was a fine creature, and that I know, for I shot him, Woodchuck,"said Walter Prevost, with some pride in the achievement. "I wanted tosend the skin to Otaitsa; but it cannot be helped."
"Let us go and get it now," cried Woodchuck, with the ruling passionstrong in death; "'tis but a step back. Darn those Ingians! Why shouldwe care?"
But both his companions urged him forward; and they continued theirway through the woods skirting the river for somewhat more than twomiles, first rising gently to a spot where the roar of the waters washeard distinctly, and then descending to a rocky point, midway betweenthe highest ground and the water level, where a small congregation ofhuts had been gathered together, principally inhabited by boatmen, andsurrounded by a stout palisade. One of the most necessary parts ofprudence in any body of settlers, was to choose such a site for theirdwelling-place as would command a clear view of an approachingstranger, whether well or ill disposed; and the ground round thislittle hamlet had been cleared on all sides of every tree and shrubthat could conceal a rabbit. Thus situated on the top of the eminencenearest to the water, it possessed an almost panoramic view, hardly tobe surpassed in the world.
That view, however, had one principal object. On the left, at aboutfour hundred yards' distance, the river of which I have spoken camethundering over a precipice of about three hundred feet in height.Whether worn by the constant action of the waters, or cast into thatshape by some strange geological phenomenon, the rock over which thetorrent poured had assumed the form of a great amphitheatre, scoopedout, as it were, in the ve
ry bed of the river, which, flowing on in amighty stream, fell over the edge at various points; sometimes in animmense green mass, sometimes in a broad and silvery sheet, sometimesin a dazzling line of sparkling foam; all the streams meeting abouthalf-way down, and thundering and boiling in a dark abyss, which theeye from above could hardly fathom. Jutting masses of gray rockprotruded themselves in strange fantastic shape about, around, andbelow, the chasm; and upon these, wherever a root could cling, or aparticle of vegetable earth could rest, a tree, a shrub, or a flowerhad perched itself. The green boughs waved amidst the spray; the darkhemlock contrasted itself, in its stern grandeur, with the white,agitated waters; and the birch and the ash, with their wavingbranches, seemed to sport with the eddies as they leaped along.
At the foot of the precipice was a deep, whirling pool, unseen,however, from the spot where the travellers stood; and from thisissued, first narrow and confined, but then spreading out gradually,between the decreasing banks, a wide and beautiful river, which, bythe time it circled the point in front of the travellers, had becomeas calm and glossy as a looking-glass, reflecting for their eyes theblue sky and the majestic clouds which were now moving slowly over it.
The bend taken by the river shaped the hilly point of ground on whichthe travellers stood into a small peninsula, about the middle of theneck of which was the boatman's little hamlet which I have mentioned;and nearly at the same distance as the falls from the huts, thoughmore than a mile and a half by the course of the stream, was a pieceof broad, sandy shore, on which the woodman had drawn up ten or twelveboats, used sometimes for the purposes of fishing, sometimes for thecarriage of peltries to the towns lower down; and goods and passengersreturning.
Thence onward, the course of the river could be traced for eight orten miles, flowing through a gently undulating country, denselycovered with forest, while to the east and north rose up some fineblue mountains, at the distance, probably, of thirty miles.
The scene at the hamlet itself had nothing very remarkable in it.There were women sitting at the door, knitting and sewing; menlounging about, or mending nets, or making lines; children playing inthe dirt, as usual, both inside and outside the palisade. The tracesof more than one nation could be discovered in the features, as wellas on the tongues, of the inhabitants; and it was not difficult toperceive, that here had been congregated, by the force ofcircumstances, into which it is not necessary to inquire, sundryfragments of Dutch, English, Indian, and even French, races, all boundtogether by a community of object and pursuit.
The approach of the three strangers did not in any degree startle thegood people from their idleness or their occupations. The carryingtrade was then a very good one, especially in remote places wheretravelling was difficult; and these people could always make atolerable livelihood, without any very great or continuous exertion.The result of such a state of things is always very detrimental toactivity of mind or body; and the boatmen, though they sauntered roundLord H---- and his companions, divining that some profitable piece ofwork was before them, showed amazing indifference as to whether theywould undertake it or not.
But that which astonished Lord H---- the most, was to see thedeliberate coolness with which Woodchuck set about making his bargainfor the conveyance of himself and Walter to Albany. He sat down upon alarge stone within the enclosure, took a knife from his pocket, apiece of wood from the ground, and began cutting the latter into smallsplinters, with as tranquil and careless an air as if there were noheavy thought upon his mind, no dark memory behind him, no terriblefate dogging him at the heels.
But Woodchuck and Walter were both well known to the boatmen; andthough they might probably have attempted to impose upon theinexperience of the lad, they knew they had met their match in theshrewdness of his companion, and were not aware that any circumstancerendered speed more valuable to him than money.
The bargain, then, was soon concluded; but Captain Brooks was notcontented till he had stipulated also for the services of two men inguiding Lord H---- back to the house of Mr. Prevost. This wasundertaken for a dollar atpiece; and then the whole party proceeded tothe bank of the river, where a boat was soon unmoored, and Walter andhis companion set forth upon their journey; not, however, until LordH---- had shaken the former warmly by the hand, and said a few wordsin the ear of Captain Brooks, adding:--
"Walter will tell you more, and how to communicate with me."
"Thank you, thank you," replied the hunter, wringing his hand hard. "Afriend in need is a friend indeed; I do not want it, but I thank youas much as if I did. But you shall hear if I do; for somehow I guessyou are not the man to say what you don't mean."
After seeing his two companions row down the stream for a few yards,the nobleman turned to the boatmen who accompanied him, saying--
"Now, my lads, I want to make a change of our arrangements, and to goback the short way by which we came. I did not interrupt our goodfriend Woodchuck, because he was anxious about my safety. There aresome Indians in the forest, and he feared I might get scalped.However, we shot a panther there, which we couldn't stay to skin, astheir business in Albany was pressing. Now, I want the skin, and amnot afraid of the Indians--are you?"
The men laughed, and replied in the negative, saying that there werenone of the red men there, except four or five Oneidas, and someMohawks; but they added that the way, though shorter, was much moredifficult and bushy, and, therefore, they must have more pay. LordH---- was less difficult to deal with than Captain Brooks, and thebargain was soon struck.
Each of the men then armed himself with a rifle, and took a bag ofparched corn with him, and the three set out. Lord H---- undertook toguide them to the spot where the panther lay; and not a little didthey marvel at the accuracy and precision with which his militaryhabits of observation enabled him to direct them step by step. He tookgreat care not to let them approach the spot where the Indian had beenslain, but, stopping about a quarter of a mile to the south, led themacross the thicket to within a very few yards of the object he was insearch of. It was soon found when they came near the place, and abouthalf an hour was employed in taking off the skin and packing it up forcarriage.
"Now," said Lord H----, "will you two undertake to have this skinproperly cured, and dispatched by the first trader going west to theOneida village?"
The men readily agreed to do so, if well paid for it, but of courserequired further directions, saying there were a dozen or more Oneidavillages.
"It will be sure to reach its destination," said Lord H----, "if youtell the bearer to deliver it to Otaitsa, which I believe means theBlossom, the daughter of Black Eagle, the Sachem. Say that it comesfrom Walter Prevost."
"Oh ay," answered the boatmen, "it shall be done; but we shall have topay the man who carries it."
The arrangement in regard to payment was soon made, though it wassomewhat exorbitant; but to insure that the commission was faithfullyexecuted, Lord H---- reserved a portion of the money, to be given whenhe heard that the skin had been delivered. He little knew theconsequences which were to flow from the little act of kindness he wasperforming.
The rest of the journey passed without interruption or difficulty, andat an early hour of the evening the young nobleman stood once more atthe door of his countryman's house.