CONCLUSION.
Heart leaps to heart--the sacred flood
That warms us is the same;
That good old man--his honest blood
Alike we frankly claim.--SPRAGUE.
The missionary gazed sadly upon the inanimate form before him. He saw
the playmate of his childhood stricken down in death by his own hand,
which never should have taken human life, and although the act was
justifiable under the circumstances, the good man could but mourn the
painful necessity that occasioned it. The story, although possessing
tragic interest, was a brief one. Brazey Davis, as he had always been
termed, was a few years older than himself, and a native of the same
neighborhood. He was known in childhood as one possessing a vindictive
spirit that could never forgive an injury--as a person who would not
hesitate at any means to obtain revenge. It so happened that he became
desperately enamored of the beautiful Cora Brandon, but becoming
aware, at length, that she was the betrothed of Harvey Braisted, the
young missionary in embryo, the disappointed lover left the country,
and was never heard of by the missionary until he made himself known
in the singular manner that we have related at the opening of our
narrative. He had, in fact, come to be a sort of monomaniac, who
delighted in annoying his former rival, and in haunting his footsteps
as if he were his evil shadow. The abduction of his wife had not been
definitely determined upon until that visit to the cabin, in the garb
and paint of an Indian, when he received the tremendous blow that
almost drove the life from his body. Davis then resolved to take the
revenge which would "cut" the deepest. How well he succeeded, the
reader has learned.
The missionary's child stood pleading for an explanation of the
strange scene before him. Loosening the bell from the grasp of the
dead man, the minister took the little hand, and, with a heart
overflowing with emotion, set out for his cabin. It was his wish to
give the hunter a Christian burial; but, for the present, it was
impossible. These dying words rung in his ears: "The Indians took her
from me, and went up north with her, where she now is, _and safe_!"
Blessed thought! She was then living, and was yet to be restored to
his arms. The shadow of death passed away, and a great light
illuminated his very being. The lost was found!
When the missionary came to be more collected, he concluded that this
must be the tribe of which Teddy had once spoken, but which had been
visited by him without success. The prize was too great to be
intrusted in the hands of another, and Harvey determined to make the
search in person, to settle, if possible, once and forever, the fate
of his beloved wife.
He soon proceeded to the Indian village, where he left his boy and
gave notice that he should not be back for several days. He then
called one of the most trusty and skillful warriors aside, and asked
for his company upon the eventful journey. The savage cheerfully
complied, and the two set out at once. It was a good distance to the
northward, and when night came down upon them, many miles yet remained
to be passed. There was little fear of disturbance from enemies, and
both lay down and slept until daylight, when they were immediately on
their way again.
This journey through the northern wilderness was unvaried by any
event worthy of record, and the details would be uninteresting to the
reader. Suffice it to say that, just as the fourth day was closing in,
they struck a small stream, which pursued a short distance, brought
them directly upon the village for which they had been searching.
The advent of the Indian and missionary among them created
considerable stir, but they were treated with respect and
consideration. Harvey Richter asked immediately for the chief or
leading man, and shortly stood in his presence. He found him a short,
thick-set half-breed, whose age must have been well-nigh three-score
years, and who, to his astonishment, was unable to speak English,
although many of his subjects spoke it quite intelligibly. He
understood Sioux, however, and the missionary's companion acted as
interpreter.
Our friend made a full statement of his wife's abduction, years
before, and of the assertion of the dying man that she had been taken
from him by members of this tribe, who had retained her ever since.
The chief waited sometime before replying; he seemed debating with
himself as to the proper course to pursue. Finally he said he must
consult with one of his warriors, and departed abruptly from the
lodge.
Ten minutes later, while the missionary, with a painfully-throbbing
heart, was gazing around the lodge, with that minute scrutiny of the
most trifling objects peculiar to us at such times, he caught the
sound of returning footsteps, and turned to the lodge door. There
stood the Indian, and, directly beside him, his own lost Cora!
The next day at noon, a camp-fire might have been seen some miles
south of the northern village of which we have made mention. An Indian
was engaged in cooking a piece of meat, while the missionary and his
reclaimed jewel, sitting side by side, her head reclining upon his
shoulder and his hand dallying with her hair, were holding delightful
communion. She looked pale and somewhat emaciated, for these years of
absence had indeed been fraught with suffering; but the old sweet look
had never departed. It was now changed into an expression of perfect
joy.
The wife's great anxiety was to reach home and see the child she had
left an infant, but who was now a frolicksome boy, and she could
hardly consent to pause even when night overtook them, and her
lagging limbs told her husband how exhausted she had become. Cora
never had suspected the identity of the Indian and the hunter, until
on that sad day when he sprung from behind the cabin and hurried her
off into the wood. There was something, however, in his look, when he
first felt the weight of her husband's blow, that never left her
remembrance. While hurrying her swiftly through the wood he said
nothing at all, and at night, while she pretended to sleep, he watched
by the camp-fire. It was the light of this fire which had puzzled
Teddy so much. On the succeeding day the abductor reached the river
and embarked in his canoe. A half-hour later he leaned over the canoe
and washed the paint from his face and made himself known in his true
character, as Brazey Davis, her former lover. He had scarcely done so,
when an Indian canoe rounded a bend in the river, and, despite his
earnest protestations, the savages took the captive from him, and
carried her with them to their village, where she had been ever since.
Retained very closely, as all prisoners among Indians are, she had
heard nothing of Teddy's visit. She was treated with kindness, as the
destined wife of a young chief; but the suit for her consent never
was pressed by the chief, as it is in an Indian's code of honor never
to force a woman to a distasteful marriage. The young brave, with true
Indian pertinacity, could wait his time, confident that his kindness
and her long absence from home would secure her consent to the savage
alliance. She was denied nothing but her liberty, and her prayers to
be returned to her husband and child.
At this point in her narration, an exclamation from the Indian
arrested attention. All listened and heard but a short distance away:
"Begorrah, Teddy, it's yerself that's entitled to a wee bit of rist,
as yees have been on a mighty long tramp, and hasn't diskivered
anything but a country that is big enough to hide the Atlantic ocean
in, wid Ireland on its bosom as a jewel. The chances are small of yees
iver gitting another glimpse of heaven--that is, of Miss Cora's face.
The darlint; if she's gone to heaven, then Teddy McFadden don't care
how soon somebody else wears out his breeches--that is, on the
presumption that St. Peter will say, 'Teddy, me lad, ye can inter an'
make yerself at home, to be sure!'"
The husband and wife glanced at each other significantly as the fellow
rattled on.
"Wait a moment," said Harvey, rising to his feet, and carefully
making his way in the direction of the sound.
It was curious that the Irishman should have paused for his noonday
rest in such close proximity to our friends; but, he had learned from
a trader who had recently visited the Red River country, that there
_was_ a white woman, beyond all question, among the tribe in the
north, and he was on his way to make them a second visit.
The missionary found his servant seated by a tree. Teddy looked up as
he heard a footstep. It seemed as if his eyes would drop from their
sockets. His mouth opened wide, and he seemed, for the moment,
confounded. Then he recovered his presence of mind in a measure, and
proceeded to scratch his head vigorously. That, with him, ever was a
sign of the clearing up of his ideas.
"How do you do, Teddy?" at length the missionary said, after having
enjoyed the poor fellow's confusion.
"Faith, but ye sent the cold shivers over me. _Is_ it yerself, Mister
Harvey, out in these woods, or is it yer ghost on the s'arch for
Misthress Cora? I sometimes thinks me own ghost is out on the s'arch
without me body, an' I shouldn't be surprised to maat it some day.
But I'm mighty glad it's yerself an' not yer ghost, for, to till the
thruth, I don't jist like ghosts--they makes a body feel so quare in
the stomach."
"Come with me; I have an Indian as company, and you may as well join
us."
The Hibernian followed, a few paces behind, continually expressing his
astonishment at seeing his master so far away from home. He did not
look up until they were within a few paces of the camp-fire, when
Richter stepped from before him.
"Save us! save us! but if there isn't the ghowst of Miss Cora come to
haunt me for not finding her afore!" exclaimed Teddy, retreating a
step or two in genuine terror. "Saint Patherick, Saint Pether, Saint
Virgin Mary, protict me! I didn't mane to get dhrunk that day, ye
know, nor to make a frind of--"
"I am no ghost but my own self, Teddy, restored to my husband in
safety. Can you not welcome me?"
"Oorah! Oorah!" and he danced a moment in uncontrollable joy. Then he
exclaimed: "God bliss yer own swate self!" taking her in his brawny
arms. "God bliss you! No ghost, but yer own swate self. Oh, I feel
like a blast of powder ready to go off!" And again he danced a
singular commixture of the jig and cotillion, much to the Indian's
amazement, for he thought him crazy. "I knew that I should look upon
your face again; but, till me where it is yees have come from?" he
finally subsided enough to ask.
Teddy was soon made to understand all that related to the return of
the young wife. When he learned that Mahogany, with whom he had so
often drank and "hobnobbed," was only the hunter disguised, who was
thus plotting his crime, the Irishman's astonishment can hardly be
described. He was irritated, also, at his own stupidity. "That Teddy
McFadden iver should have been so desaved by that rascal of
purgatory!" he exclaimed; but, as the evil man had gone to the great
tribunal above, there was no disposition, even in Teddy's heart, to
heap curses on his memory.
A few days more, and the three whites passed through the Indian
village on their way to the Clearing. The joy of the savages at the
return of their sweet, pale-faced sister was manifested in many ways,
and she once feared they would never allow her to leave them and go
to her own humble home. Finally, however, they reached the Clearing,
and, as they walked side by side across it, opened the door and sat
down within the cabin, and the fond mother took the darling boy in her
lap, the wife and husband looked in each other's faces with streaming
eyes, and murmured "Thank God! thank God!"
THE END.
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