The sun had gone down, as he had risen, in all the gloriousness of his
autumnal splendour, and twilight was now fast descending on the waters
of the Huron. A slight breeze was just beginning to make itself felt
from the land, the gradual rising of which was hailed by many an
anxious heart, as the schooner, which had been making vain attempts to
quit her anchorage during the day, now urged her light bows through the
slightly curling element. A death-like silence, interrupted only by the
low gruff voice of a veteran seaman, as he issued, in technical
language, the necessary orders for the management of the vessel,
prevailed every where along her decks. The dress and general appearance
of this individual announced him for a petty officer of the royal
service; and it was evident, from the tone of authority with which he
spoke, he was now in the enjoyment of a temporary command. The crew,
consisting of about thirty souls, and chiefly veterans of the same
class, were assembled along the gangways, each man wearing a brace of
pistols in the belt, which, moreover, secured a naked cutlass around
his loins; and these now lingered near the several guns that were
thrown out from their gloomy looking ports, as if ready for some active
service. But, although the arming of these men indicated hostile
preparation, there was none of that buoyancy of movement and animation
of feature to be observed, which so usually characterise the
indomitable daring of the British sailor. Some stood leaning their
heads pensively on their hands against the rigging and hammocks that
were stowed away along the bulwarks, after the fashion of war ships in
boarding; others, with arms tightly folded across their chests, spirted
the tobacco juice thoughtfully from their closed teeth into the
receding waters; while not a few gazed earnestly and despondingly on
the burning fort in the distance, amid the rolling volumes of smoke and
flame from which, ever and anon, arose the fiendish yell of those who,
having already sacked, were now reducing it to ashes. Nor was this the
only object of their attention. On the sand bank alluded to in our last
chapter were to be dimly seen through the growing dusk, the dark
outlines of many of the savages, who, frantic with rage at their
inability to devote them to the same doom, were still unwilling to quit
a spot which approached them nearest to the last surviving objects of
their enmity. Around this point, were collected numerous canoes, filled
also with warriors; and, at the moment when the vessel, obeying the
impulse given by her flowing sails, glided from her anchorage, these
followed, scudding in her wake, and made a show of attacking her in the
stern. The sudden yawing of the schooner, however, in bringing her tier
of bristling ports into view, had checked the ardour of the pursuing
fleet; and the discharge of a single gun, destroying in its course
three of their canoes, and carrying death among those who directed
them, had driven them back, in the greatest hurry and confusion, to
their yelling and disappointed comrades.
The after-deck of the schooner presented a different, though not less
sombre and discouraging, scene. On a pile of mattresses lay the light
and almost inanimate form of Clara de Haldimar; her fair and redundant
hair overshadowing her pallid brow and cheek, and the dress she had
worn at the moment of her escape from the fort still spotted with the
blood of her generous but unfortunate preserver. Close at her side,
with her hands clasped in his, while he watched the expression of deep
suffering reflected from each set feature, and yet with the air of one
pre-occupied with some other subject of painful interest, sat, on an
empty shot-box, the young man in sailor's attire, whose cutlass had
performed the double service of destroying his own immediate opponent,
and avenging the death of the devoted Baynton. At the head of the rude
couch, and leaning against a portion of the schooner's stern-work,
stood his companion, who from delicacy appeared to have turned away his
eyes from the group below, merely to cast them vacantly on the dark
waters through which the vessel was now beginning to urge her course.
Such was the immediate position of this little party, when the gun
fired at the Indians was heard booming heavily along the lake. The loud
report, in exciting new sources of alarm, seemed to have dissipated the
spell that had hitherto chained the energies and perception of the
still weak, but now highly excited girl.
"Oh, Captain Baynton, where are we?" she exclaimed, starting up
suddenly in terror, and throwing her arms around him, who sat at her
side, as if she would have clung to him for protection. "Is the horrid
massacre not finished yet? Where is Madeline? where is my cousin? Oh, I
cannot leave the fort without her."
"Ha! where indeed is she?" exclaimed the youth, as he clasped his
trembling and scarcely conscious burden to his chest, "Almighty God,
where is she?" Then, after a short pause, and in a voice of tender but
exquisite anguish, "Clara, my beloved sister, do you not know me? It is
not Baynton but your brother, who now clasps you to his breaking heart."
A deluge of tears was the only answer of the wretched girl. They were
the first she had shed,--the first marks of consciousness she had
exhibited. Hitherto her heart had been oppressed; every fibre of her
brain racked almost to bursting, and filled only with ghastly flitting
visions of the dreadful horrors she had seen perpetrated, she had
continued, since the moment of her fainting in the block-house, as one
bereft of all memory of the past, or apprehension of the present. But
now, the full outpouring of her grief relieved her overcharged brain
and heart, even while the confused images floating before her
recollection acquired a more tangible and painful character. She raised
herself a moment from the chest on which her burning head reposed,
looked steadfastly in the face that hung anxiously over her own, and
saw indeed that it was her brother. She tried to speak, but she could
not utter a word, for the memory of all that had occurred that fatal
morning rushed with mountain weight upon her fainting spirit, and again
she wept, and more bitterly than before.
The young man pressed her in silence to his chest; nor was it until she
had given full vent to her grief, that he ventured to address her on
the subject of his own immediate sorrows. At length, when she appeared
somewhat more calm, he observed, in a voice broken by emotion,--
"Clara, dearest, what account have you to give me of Madeline? Has she
shared the fate of all? or have you reason to suppose her life has been
spared?"
Another burst of tears succeeded to these questions, for coupled with
the name of her cousin arose all the horrid associations connected with
her loss. As soon, however, as she could compose herself, she briefly
stated all she had witnessed of the affair, from the moment when the
boat of the schooner was seen to meet the strange looking object on the
water, to that when she had beheld her ill-fated cousin borne away
apparently lifeless in the arms of the tall Indian by whom she had been
captured.
During this recital, the heart of Captain de Haldimar,--for it was
he,--beat audibly against the cheek that still reposed on his breast;
but when his sister had, in a faint voice, closed her melancholy
narrative with the manner of her cousin's disappearance, he gave a
sudden start, uttering at the same time an exclamation of joy.
"Thank God, she still lives!" he cried, pressing his sister once more
in fondness to his heart; then turning to his companion, who, although
seemingly abstracted, had been a silent and attentive witness of the
scene,--"By Heaven! Valletort, there is yet a hope. She it was indeed
whom we saw borne out of the fort, and subsequently made to walk by the
cruel Indian who had charge of her."
"Valletort, Valletort," murmured Clara unconsciously, her sick heart
throbbing with she knew not what. "How is this, Frederick?--Where,
then, is Captain Baynton? and how came you here?"
"Alas! Clara, poor Baynton is no more. Even at the moment when he
confided the unconscious burden, preserved at the peril of his own
life, to the arms of Sir Everard here, he fell beneath the tomahawk of
a pursuing savage. Poor, noble, generous Baynton," he continued,
mournfully; "to him, indeed, Clara, are you indebted for your life; yet
was it purchased at the price of his own."
Again the pained and affectionate girl wept bitterly, and her brother
proceeded:--
"The strange object you saw on the lake, my love, was nothing more than
a canoe disguised with leafy boughs, in which Sir Everard Valletort and
myself, under the guidance of old Francois of the Fleur de lis, whom
you must recollect, have made the dangerous passage of the Sinclair in
the garb of duck hunters,--which latter we had only discarded on
reaching the schooner, in order to assume another we conceived better
suited to our purpose. Alas!" and he struck his hand violently against
his brow, "had we made directly for the shore without touching the
vessel at all, there might have been time to save those we came to
apprise of their danger. Do you not think there was, Valletort?"
"Most assuredly not," returned his companion, anxious to remove the
impression of self-blame that existed in the mind of Captain de
Haldimar. "From the moment of our reaching the schooner, which lay
immediately in our route, to that when the shout was raised by the
savages as they rushed into the fort, there was scarcely an interval of
three minutes; and it would have required a longer period to have
enabled us even to gain the shore."
"Thank, thank you for that!" exclaimed the officer, drawing himself up
with the air of one who breathes more freely. "I would not, for the
wealth and honours of the united world, that such a cause for
self-reproach should linger on my mind. By Heaven! it would break my
heart to think we had been in time to save them, and yet had lost the
opportunity through even one moment of neglect." Then turning once more
to his sister,--"Now, Clara, that I see you in safety, I have another
sacred duty to perform. I must leave you, but not alone."
"What mean you, Frederick?" exclaimed his agitated sister, clinging
more closely to his embrace. "Scarce have we met, and you talk of
leaving me. Oh, whither would you go?"
"Surely, my love," and he spoke half reproachfully, although with
tenderness of accent, "my meaning must be obvious. But what do I say?
You know it not. Madeline still lives. We saw her, as we pulled towards
the shore, led across the clearing in the direction of Chabouiga. Hear
me, then: the canoe in which we came is still towing from the vessel's
stern, and in this do I mean to embark, without further loss of time,
in search of her who is dearer to me than existence. I know," he
pursued with emotion, "I have but little hope of rescuing, even if I do
succeed in finding her; but at least I shall not have to suffer under
the self-reproach of having neglected the only chance that now lies
within my reach. If she be doomed to die, I shall then have nothing
left to live for--except you, Clara," he concluded, after a pause,
pressing the weeping girl to his heart, as he remarked how much she
seemed pained by the declaration.
Having placed his sister once more on the couch, and covered her with a
cloak that had been brought from the cabin of the unfortunate
commander, Captain de Haldimar now rose from his humble seat, and
grasping the hand of his friend,--
"Valletort," he said, "I commit this dear girl to your keeping.
Hitherto we have been equal sharers in an enterprise having for its
object the preservation of our mutual companions and friends. At
present, interests of a more personal nature occupy my attention; and
to these must I devote myself alone. I trust you will reach Detroit in
safety; and when you have delivered my unfortunate sister into the arms
of her father, you will say to him from me, I could not survive the
loss of that being to whom I had sworn eternal fidelity and affection.
Francois must be my only companion on this occasion. Nay," he
continued, pointing to his sister, in answer to the rising remonstrance
of the baronet, "will you desert the precious charge I have confided to
your keeping? Recollect, Valletort," in a more subdued tone, "that
besides yourself, there will be none near her but rude and uneducated
sailors;--honest men enough in their way, it is true; but not the sort
of people to whom I should like to confide my poor sister."
The warm and silent pressure by Sir Everard of his hand announced his
participation in the sentiment; and Captain de Haldimar now hastened
forward to apprise the Canadian of his purpose. He found mine host of
the Fleur de lis seated in the forecastle of the schooner; and with an
air of the most perfect unconcern discussing a substantial meal,
consisting of dried uncooked venison, raw onions, and Indian corn
bread, the contents of a large bag or wallet that lay at his feet. No
sooner, however, had the impatient officer communicated his design,
asking at the same time if he might expect his assistance in the
enterprise, than the unfinished meal of the Canadian was discontinued,
the wallet refilled, and the large greasy clasp-knife with which the
portions had been separated, closed and thrust into a pocket of his
blanket coat.
"I shall go to de devils for you, capitaine, if we must," he said, as
he raised his portly form, not without effort, from the deck, slapping
the shoulder of the officer at the same time somewhat rudely with his
hand. There was nothing, however, offensively familiar in this action.
It expressed merely the devotedness of heart with which the man lent
himself to the service to which he had pledged himself, and was rather
complimentary than otherwise to him to whom it was directed. Captain de
Haldimar took it in the light in which we have just shown it, and he
grasped and shook the rough hand of the Canadian with an earnestness
highly gratifying to the latter.
Every thing was now in readiness for their departure. The canoe, still
covered with its streaming boughs, was drawn close up to the gangway,
and a few hasty necessaries thrown in. While this was passing, the
officer had again assumed his disguise of a duck-hunter; and he now
appeared in the blanket costume in which we introduced Sir Everard and
himself at the opening of this volume.
"If I may be so bold as to put in my oar, your honour,"--said the
veteran boatswain, on whom the command of the schooner had fallen, as
he now advanced, rolling his quid in his mouth, and dropping his hat on
his shoulder, while the fingers of the hand which clutched it were
busily occupied in scratching his bald head,--"if I may be so bold,
there is another chap here as might better sarve your honour's purpose
than that 'ere fat Canadian, who seems to think only of stuffing while
his betters are fasting."
"And who is he, my good Mullins?" asked Captain de Haldimar.
"Why, that 'ere Ingian, your honour, as began the butchery in the fort,
yonder, by trying to kill Jack Fuller while he laid asleep this
morning, waiting for the captain in the jolly boat. Jack never seed him
coming, until he felt his black hands upon his throat, and then he ups
with the tiller at his noddle, and sends him floundering across the
boat's thwarts like a flat-fish. I thought, your honour, seeing as how
I have got the command of the schooner, of tying him up to the
mainmast, and giving him two or three round dozen or so, and then
sending him to swim among the mascannungy with a twenty-four pound shot
in his neckcloth; but, seeing as how your honour is going among them
savages agin, I thought as how some good might be done with him, if
your honour could contrive to keep him in tow, and close under your lee
quarter, to prevent his escape."
"At all events," returned the officer, after a pause of some moments,
during which he appeared to be deliberating on his course of action,
"it may be dangerous to keep him in the vessel; and yet, if we take him
ashore, he may be the means of our more immediate destruction; unless,
indeed, as you observe, he can be so secured as to prevent the
possibility of escape: but that I very much doubt indeed. Where is he,
Mullins? I should like to see and question him."
"He shall be up, your honour, in no time," replied the sailor, once
more resuming his hat, and moving a pace or two forward. Then
addressing two or three men in the starboard gangway in the
authoritative tone of command:--"Bear a hand there, my men, and cast
off the lashings of that black Ingian, and send him aft, here, to the
officer."
The order was speedily executed. In a few minutes the Indian stood on
the quarter-deck, his hands firmly secured behind, and his head sunk
upon his chest in sullen despondency. In the increasing gloom in which
objects were now gradually becoming more and more indistinct, it was
impossible for Captain de Haldimar to distinguish his features; but
there was something in the outline of the Indian's form that impressed
him with the conviction he had seen it before. Advancing a pace or two
forward, he pronounced, in an emphatic and audible whisper, the name of
"Oucanasta!"
The Indian gave an involuntary start,--uttered a deep interjectional
"Ugh!"--and, raising his head from his chest, fixed his eye heavily on
the officer.
"Hookynaster!--Hookynaster!" growled Jack Fuller, who had followed to
hear the examination of his immediate captive: "why, your honour, that
jaw-breaking name reminds me as how the chap had a bit of a paper when
I chucked him into the jolly boat, stuck in his girdle. It was covered
over with pencil-marks, as writing like; but all was rubbed out agin,
except some such sort of a name as that."
"Where is it?--what have you done with it?" hastily asked Captain de
Haldimar.
"Here, in my backy-box, your honour. I kept it safe, thinking as how it
might sarve to let us know all about it afterwards."
The sailor now drew from the receptacle just named a dirty piece of
folded paper, deeply impregnated with the perfume of stale and oft
rechewed quids of coarse tobacco; and then, with the air of one
conscious of having "rendered the state some service," hitched up his
trowsers with one hand, while with the other he extended the important
document.
To glance his eye hurriedly over the paper by the light of a dark
lanthorn that had meanwhile been brought upon deck, unclasp his
hunting-knife, and divide the ligatures of the captive, and then warmly
press his liberated hands within his own, were, with Captain de
Haldimar, but the work of a minute.
"Hilloa! which the devil way does the wind blow now?" muttered Fuller,
the leer of self-satisfaction that had hitherto played in his eye
rapidly giving place to an air of seriousness and surprise; an
expression that was not at all diminished by an observation from his
new commander.
"I tell you what it is, Jack," said the latter, impressively; "I don't
pretend to have more gumption (qu. discernment?) than my messmates; but
I can see through a millstone as clear as any man as ever heaved a lead
in these here lakes; and may I never pipe boatswain's whistle again, if
you 'ar'n't, some how or other, in the wrong box. That 'ere Ingian's
one of us!"
The feelings of Captain de Haldimar may easily be comprehended by our
readers, when, on glancing at the paper, he found himself confirmed in
the impression previously made on him by the outline of the captive's
form. The writing, nearly obliterated by damp, had been rudely traced
by his own pencil on a leaf torn from his pocket-book. In the night of
his visit to the Indian encampment, and at the moment when, seated on
the fatal log, Oucanasta had generously promised her assistance in at
least rescuing his betrothed bride. They were addressed to Major de
Haldimar, and briefly stated that a treacherous plan was in
contemplation by the enemy to surprise the fort, which the bearer,
Oucanasta (the latter word strongly marked), would fully explain, if
she could possibly obtain access within. From the narrative entered
into by Clara, who had particularly dwelt on the emotions of fear that
had sprung up in her own and cousin's heart by the sudden
transformation of a supposed harmless beaver into a fierce and
threatening savage, he had no difficulty in solving the enigma.
The Indian, in whom he had recognised the young chief who had saved him
from the fury of Wacousta, had evidently been won upon by his sister to
perform a service which offered so much less difficulty to a warrior
than to a woman; and it was clear, that, finding all other means of
communication with the fort, undiscovered by his own people,
impracticable, he had availed himself of the opportunity, when he saw
the boat waiting on the strand, to assume a disguise so well adapted to
insure success. It was no remarkable thing in these countries, to see
both the beaver and the otter moving on the calm surface of the waters
in the vicinity of the forts, even at mid-day; and occupied as the
Indians were, to a man, at that moment with their cruel projects, it
was by no means likely that their attention should have been called off
from these to so apparently unimportant a circumstance. The act that
had principally alarmed the cousins, and terminated, as we have seen,
in the sudden attack of the sailor, had evidently been misconceived.
The hand supposed to be feeling for the heart of the sluggard, had, in
all probability, been placed on his chest with a view to arouse him
from his slumber; while that which was believed to have been dropped to
the handle of his knife, was, in reality, merely seeking the paper that
contained the announcement, which, if then delivered, might have saved
the garrison.
Such was the tram of conjecture that now passed through the mind of the
officer; but, although he thus placed the conduct of the Indian in the
most favourable light, his impression received no confirmation from the
lips of the latter. Sullen and doggedly, notwithstanding the release
from his bonds, the Ottawa hung his head upon his chest, with his eyes
riveted on the deck, and obstinately refused to answer every question
put to him by his deliverer. This, however, did not the less tend to
confirm Captain de Haldimar in his belief. He knew enough of the Indian
character, to understand the indignant and even revengeful spirit
likely to be aroused by the treatment the savage had met with in return
for his intended services. He was aware that, without pausing to
reflect on the fact, that the sailor, ignorant of his actual purpose,
could merely have seen in him an enemy in the act of attempting his
life, the chief would only consider and inflame himself over the
recollection of the blow inflicted; and that, with the true obstinacy
of his race, he would rather suffer captivity or death itself, than
humble the haughty pride of his nature, by condescending to an
explanation with those by whom he felt himself so deeply injured.
Still, even amid all his own personal griefs,--griefs that rendered the
boon in some degree at present valueless,--Captain de Haldimar could
not forget that the youth, no matter by what motive induced, had
rescued him from a dreadful death on a previous occasion. With the
generous warmth, therefore, of a grateful mind, he now sought to
impress on the Indian the deep sense of obligation under which he
laboured; explaining at the same time the very natural error into which
the sailor had fallen, and concluding with a declaration that he was
free to quit the vessel in the canoe in which he himself was about to
take his departure for the shore, in search of her whom his sister had
pledged herself, at all hazards, to save.
The address of the officer, touching and impressive as language ever is
that comes from the heart, was not altogether without effect on the
Indian. Several times he interrupted him with a short, quick, approving
"Ugh!" and when he at length received the assurance that he was no
longer a prisoner, he raised his eyes rapidly, although without moving
his head, to the countenance of his deliverer. Already were his lips
opening to speak for the first time, when the attention of the group
around him was arrested by his giving a sudden start of surprise. At
the same moment he raised his head, stretched his neck, threw forward
his right ear, and, uttering a loud and emphatic "Waugh!" pointed with
his finger over the bows of the vessel.
All listened for upwards of a minute in mute suspense; and then a faint
and scarcely distinguishable sound was heard in the direction in which
he pointed. Scarcely had it floated on the air, when a shrill, loud,
and prolonged cry, of peculiar tendency, burst hurriedly and eagerly
from the lips of the captive; and, spreading over the broad expanse of
water, seemed to be re-echoed back from every point of the surrounding
shore.
Great was the confusion that followed this startling yell on the decks
of the schooner. "Cut the hell-fiend down!"--"Chuck him
overboard!"--"We are betrayed!"--"Every man to his gun!"--"Put the
craft about!" were among the numerous exclamations that now rose
simultaneously from at least twenty lips, and almost drowned the loud
shriek that burst again from the wretched Clara de Haldimar.
"Stop, Mullins!--Stop, men!" shouted Captain de Haldimar, firmly, as
the excited boatswain, with two or three of his companions,--now
advanced with the intention of laying violent hands on the Indian. "I
will answer for his fidelity with my life. If he be false, it will be
time enough to punish him afterwards; but let us calmly await the issue
like men. Hear me," he proceeded, as he remarked their incredulous,
uncertain, and still threatening air;--"this Indian saved me from the
tomahawks of his tribe not a week ago; and, even now, he has become our
captive in the act of taking a note from me to the garrison, to warn
them of their danger. But for that slumbering fool," he added,
bitterly, pointing to Fuller, who slept when he should have watched,
"your fort would not now have been what it is,--a mass of smoking
ruins. He has an ocean of blood upon his soul, that all the waters of
the Huron can never wash out!"
Struck by the vehement manner of the officer, and the disclosure he had
just made, the sailors sunk once more into inaction and silence. The
boatswain alone spoke.
"I thought, your honour, as how Jack Fuller, who sartainly is a better
hand at a snooze than a watch, had got into a bit of a mess; but,
shiver my topsails, if I think it's quite fair to blame him, neither,
for clapping a stopper on the Indian's cable, seeing as how he was
expecting a shot between wind and water. Still, as the chap turns out
to be an honest chap, and has saved your honour's life above all, I
don't much care if I give him a grip. Here, old fellow, tip us your
fist!"
Without seeming to understand that his cry had been productive of
general and intense alarm throughout the vessel, the Indian had viewed
the sudden rushing of the crew towards him as an act of gratuitous
hostility; and, without shrinking from the attack, had once more
resumed his original air of dogged sullenness. It was evident to him,
from the discussion going on, that some violence, about to be offered
to his person, had only been prevented by the interference of the
officer. With the natural haughtiness of his savage nature, he
therefore rejected the overtures of the sailor, whose hand he had
observed among the first that were raised against him.
While the angry boatswain was yet rolling his quid within his capacious
jaws, racking his brain for the strongest language wherein to give vent
to his indignation, his ears were suddenly saluted by a low but clear
"Hilloa!" from the bows of the schooner.
"Ay, ay!" was the brief response.
"There's something approaching us ahead, on the weather fore quarter,"
continued the same voice, which was that of the man on the look-out.
The most profound silence now pervaded the deck. Every individual,
including Captain de Haldimar and the boatswain, had flown to the
gangway of the quarter indicated, which was on the side occupied by the
couch of the unfortunate Clara. Presently a noise like that produced by
a single paddle rapidly dividing the water, was heard by every anxious
ear. Night had long since thrown her mantle over the surrounding waste;
and all that was to be seen reflected from the bosom of the gradually
darkening river, scarcely ruffled by the yet incipient breeze, were a
few straggling stars, that here and there appeared in the overcast
heavens. Hitherto no object could be discovered by those who strained
their eyes eagerly and painfully through the gloom, although the sounds
became at each moment more distinct. It was evident the party, guided
by the noise of the rippling waves that fell from the bows of the
schooner, was enabled to follow up a course, the direct clue to which
had been indicated by the cry of the captive. Every man stood near his
gun on the starboard battery, and the burning matches hanging over
their respective buckets ready to be seized at a moment's notice.
Still, but little room for apprehension existed; for the practised ear
of the mariners could easily tell that a solitary bark alone
approached; and of one, or even ten, they entertained no fear.
Suddenly, as the course of the vessel was now changed a point to
windward,--a movement that brought her bows more off the adjacent
shore,--the sound, in which all were more or less interested, was heard
not more than twenty yards off, and in a line with the gangway at which
the principal of the crew were assembled. In the next minute the low
hull of a canoe came in sight, and then a tall and solitary human
figure was seen in the stern, bending alternately to the right and to
the left, as the paddle was rapidly and successively changed from side
to side.
Another deep and exulting "Ugh!" was now heaved from the chest of the
Indian, who stood calmly on the spot on which he had first rested,
while Fuller prepared a coil of rope to throw to the active steersman.
"Avast there, Jack!" growled the boatswain, addressing the sailor; "how
can the stranger keep the bow of his craft on, and grapple at the same
time? Just pass one end of the coil round your waist, and swing
yourself gently into her."
The head of the canoe was now near enough for the purpose. The sailor
did as he was desired, having previously divested himself of his shoes,
and leaping forward, alighted on what appeared to be a bundle of
blankets stowed away in her bows. No sooner, however, had he secured
his footing, when with another desperate leap, and greatly to the
astonishment of all around, he bounded once more to the deck of the
schooner, his countenance exhibiting every mark of superstitious alarm.
In the act of quitting the canoe he had spurned her violently several
feet from the vessel, which the silent steersman was again making every
effort to reach.
"Why what the devil's the matter with you now?" exclaimed the rough
boatswain, who, as well as Captain de Haldimar and the rest of the
crew, had quitted the gangway to learn the cause of this extraordinary
conduct. "Damn my eyes, if you ar'n't worse scared than when the Ingian
stood over you in the jolly boat."
"Scared, ay, to be sure I am; and so would you be scared too, if you'd
a see'd what I did. May I never touch the point at Portsmouth, if I
a'n't seen her ghost."
"Where?--whose ghost?--what ghost?--what do you mean, Jack?" exclaimed
several of the startled men in the same breath, while the superstitious
dread so common to mariners drew them still closer in the group that
encircled their companion.
"Well, then, as I am a miserable sinner," returned the man,
impressively, and in a low tone, "I see'd in the bows of the
canoe,--and the hand that steered it was not made of flesh and blood
like ours,--what do you think?--the ghost of--"
Captain de Haldimar heard no more. At a single bound he had gained the
ship's side. He strained his eyes anxiously over the gangway in search
of the canoe, but it was gone. A death-like silence throughout the deck
followed the communication of the sailor, and in that pause the sound
of the receding boat could be heard, not urged, as it had approached,
by one paddle, but by two. The heart of the officer throbbed almost to
suffocation; and his firmness, hitherto supported by the manly energies
of his nature, now failed him quite. Heedless of appearances,
regardless of being overlooked, he tottered like a drunken man for
support against the mainmast. For a moment or two he leant his head
upon his hand, with the air of one immersed in the most profound
abstraction; while the crew, at once alarmed and touched by the deep
distress into which this mysterious circumstance had plunged him, stood
silently and respectfully watching his emotion. Suddenly he started
from his attitude of painful repose, like one awaking from a dream, and
demanded what had become of the Indian.
Every one looked around, but the captive was nowhere to be seen. Search
was made below, both in the cabin and in the fore decks, and men were
sent up aloft to see if he had secreted himself in the rigging; but all
returned, stating he was nowhere to be found. He had disappeared from
the vessel altogether, yet no one knew how; for he had not been
observed to stir from the spot on which he had first planted himself.
It was plain, however, he had joined the mysterious party in the canoe,
from the fact of the second paddle having been detected; and all
attempts at pursuit, without endangering the vessel on the shallows,
whither the course of the fugitives was now directed, was declared by
the boatswain utterly impracticable.
The announcement of the Indian's disappearance seemed to put the climax
to the despair of the unfortunate officer.--"Then is our every hope
lost!" he groaned aloud, as, quitting the centre of the vessel, he
slowly traversed the deck, and once more stood at the side of his no
less unhappy and excited sister. For a moment or two he remained with
his arms folded across his chest, gazing on the dark outline of her
form; and then, in a wild paroxysm of silent tearless grief, threw
himself suddenly on the edge of the couch, and clasping her in a long
close embrace to his audibly beating heart, lay like one bereft of all
sense and consciousness of surrounding objects.
END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.