"They do not sleep.
On yonder cliffs, a grisly band,
I see them sit."
GRAY.
"'Twould be neglecting a warning that is given for our good, to lie hid
any longer," said Hawkeye, "when such sounds are raised in the forest!
The gentle ones may keep close, but the Mohicans and I will watch upon
the rock, where I suppose a major of the 60th would wish to keep us
company."
"Is then our danger so pressing?" asked Cora.
"He who makes strange sounds, and gives them out for man's information,
alone knows our danger. I should think myself wicked, unto rebellion
against his will, was I to burrow with such warnings in the air! Even
the weak soul who passes his days in singing, is stirred by the cry,
and, as he says, is 'ready to go forth to the battle.' If 'twere only a
battle, it would be a thing understood by us all, and easily managed;
but I have heard that when such shrieks are atween heaven and 'arth, it
betokens another sort of warfare!"
"If all our reasons for fear, my friend, are confined to such as proceed
from supernatural causes, we have but little occasion to be alarmed,"
continued the undisturbed Cora; "are you certain that our enemies have
not invented some new and ingenious method to strike us with terror,
that their conquest may become more easy?"
"Lady," returned the scout, solemnly, "I have listened to all the sounds
of the woods for thirty years, as a man will listen, whose life and
death depend on the quickness of his ears. There is no whine of the
panther, no whistle of the catbird, nor any invention of the devilish
Mingos, that can cheat me! I have heard the forest moan like mortal men
in their affliction; often, and again, have I listened to the wind
playing its music in the branches of the girdled trees; and I have heard
the lightning cracking in the air, like the snapping of blazing brush,
as it spitted forth sparks and forked flames; but never have I thought
that I heard more than the pleasure of Him who sported with the things
of his hand. But neither the Mohicans, nor I, who am a white man without
a cross, can explain the cry just heard. We, therefore, believe it a
sign given for our good."
"It is extraordinary!" said Heyward, taking his pistols from the place
where he had laid them on entering; "be it a sign of peace or a signal
of war, it must be looked to. Lead the way, my friend; I follow."
On issuing from their place of confinement, the whole party instantly
experienced a grateful renovation of spirits, by exchanging the pent air
of the hiding-place for the cool and invigorating atmosphere, which
played around the whirlpools and pitches of the cataract. A heavy
evening breeze swept along the surface of the river, and seemed to drive
the roar of the falls into the recesses of their own caverns, whence it
issued heavily and constant, like thunder rumbling beyond the distant
hills. The moon had risen, and its light was already glancing here and
there on the waters above them; but the extremity of the rock where they
stood still lay in shadow. With the exception of the sounds produced by
the rushing waters, and an occasional breathing of the air, as it
murmured past them in fitful currents, the scene was as still as night
and solitude could make it. In vain were the eyes of each individual
bent along the opposite shores, in quest of some signs of life, that
might explain the nature of the interruption they had heard. Their
anxious and eager looks were baffled by the deceptive light, or rested
only on naked rocks, and straight and immovable trees.
"There is nothing to be seen but the gloom and quiet of a lovely
evening," whispered Duncan: "how much should we prize such a scene, and
all this breathing solitude, at any other moment, Cora! Fancy yourselves
in security and what now, perhaps, increases your terror, may be made
conducive to enjoyment--"
"Listen!" interrupted Alice.
The caution was unnecessary. Once more the same sound arose, as if from
the bed of the river, and having broken out of the narrow bounds of the
cliffs, was heard undulating through the forest, in distant and dying
cadences.
"Can any here give a name to such a cry?" demanded Hawkeye, when the
last echo was lost in the woods; "if so, let him speak; for myself, I
judge it not to belong to 'arth!"
"Here, then, is one who can undeceive you," said Duncan; "I know the
sound full well, for often have I heard it on the field of battle, and
in situations which are frequent in a soldier's life. 'Tis the horrid
shriek that a horse will give in his agony; oftener drawn from him in
pain, though sometimes in terror. My charger is either a prey to the
beasts of the forest, or he sees his danger, without the power to avoid
it. The sound might deceive me in the cavern, but in the open air I know
it too well to be wrong."
The scout and his companions listened to this simple explanation with
the interest of men who imbibe new ideas, at the same time that they get
rid of old ones, which had proved disagreeable inmates. The two latter
uttered their usual and expressive exclamation, "Hugh!" as the truth
first glanced upon their minds, while the former, after a short musing
pause, took upon himself to reply.
"I cannot deny your words," he said; "for I am little skilled in horses,
though born where they abound. The wolves must be hovering above their
heads on the bank, and the timorsome creatures are calling on man for
help, in the best manner they are able. Uncas,"--he spoke in
Delaware--"Uncas, drop down in the canoe, and whirl a brand among the
pack; or fear may do what the wolves can't get at to perform, and leave
us without horses in the morning, when we shall have so much need to
journey swiftly!"
The young native had already descended to the water, to comply, when a
long howl was raised on the edge of the river, and was borne swiftly off
into the depths of the forest, as though the beasts, of their own
accord, were abandoning their prey in sudden terror. Uncas, with
instinctive quickness, receded, and the three foresters held another of
their low, earnest conferences.
"We have been like hunters who have lost the points of the heavens, and
from whom the sun has been hid for days," said Hawkeye, turning away
from his companions; "now we begin again to know the signs of our
course, and the paths are cleared from briers! Seat yourselves in the
shade which the moon throws from yonder beech--'tis thicker than that of
the pines--and let us wait for that which the Lord may choose to send
next. Let all your conversation be in whispers; though it would be
better, and perhaps, in the end, wiser, if each one held discourse with
his own thoughts, for a time."
The manner of the scout was seriously impressive, though no longer
distinguished by any signs of unmanly apprehension. It was evident that
his momentary weakness had vanished with the explanation of a mystery
which his own experience had not served to fathom; and though he now
felt all the realities of their actual condition, that he was prepared
to meet them with the energy of his hardy nature. This feeling seemed
also common to the natives, who placed themselves in positions which
commanded a full view of both shores, while their own persons were
effectually concealed from observation. In such circumstances, common
prudence dictated that Heyward and his companions should imitate a
caution that proceeded from so intelligent a source. The young man drew
a pile of the sassafras from the cave, and placing it in the chasm which
separated the two caverns, it was occupied by the sisters, who were thus
protected by the rocks from any missiles, while their anxiety was
relieved by the assurance that no danger could approach without a
warning. Heyward himself was posted at hand, so near that he might
communicate with his companions without raising his voice to a dangerous
elevation, while David, in imitation of the woodsmen, bestowed his
person in such a manner among the fissures of the rocks, that his
ungainly limbs were no longer offensive to the eye.
In this manner, hours passed by without further interruption. The moon
reached the zenith, and shed its mild light perpendicularly on the
lovely sight of the sisters slumbering peacefully in each other's arms.
Duncan cast the wide shawl of Cora before a spectacle he so much loved
to contemplate, and then suffered his own head to seek a pillow on the
rock. David began to utter sounds that would have shocked his delicate
organs in more wakeful moments; in short, all but Hawkeye and the
Mohicans lost every idea of consciousness, in uncontrollable drowsiness.
But the watchfulness of these vigilant protectors neither tired nor
slumbered. Immovable as that rock, of which each appeared to form a
part, they lay, with their eyes roving, without intermission, along the
dark margin of trees that bounded the adjacent shores of the narrow
stream. Not a sound escaped them; the most subtle examination could not
have told they breathed. It was evident that this excess of caution
proceeded from an experience that no subtlety on the part of their
enemies could deceive. It was, however, continued without any apparent
consequences, until the moon had set, and a pale streak above the
tree-tops, at the bend of the river a little below, announced the
approach of day.
Then, for the first time, Hawkeye was seen to stir. He crawled along
the rock, and shook Duncan from his heavy slumbers.
"Now is the time to journey," he whispered; "awake the gentle ones, and
be ready to get into the canoe when I bring it to the landing-place."
"Have you had a quiet night?" said Heyward; "for myself, I believe sleep
has got the better of my vigilance."
"All is yet still as midnight. Be silent, but be quick."
By this time Duncan was thoroughly awake, and he immediately lifted the
shawl from the sleeping females. The motion caused Cora to raise her
hand as if to repulse him, while Alice murmured, in her soft, gentle
voice, "No, no, dear father, we were not deserted; Duncan was with us!"
"Yes, sweet innocence," whispered the youth; "Duncan is here, and while
life continues or danger remains, he will never quit thee. Cora! Alice!
awake! The hour has come to move!"
A loud shriek from the younger of the sisters, and the form of the other
standing upright before him, in bewildered horror, was the unexpected
answer he received. While the words were still on the lips of Heyward,
there had arisen such a tumult of yells and cries as served to drive the
swift currents of his own blood back from its bounding course into the
fountains of his heart. It seemed, for near a minute, as if demons of
hell had possessed themselves of the air about them, and were venting
their savage humors in barbarous sounds. The cries came from no
particular direction, though it was evident they filled the woods, and
as the appalled listeners easily imagined, the caverns of the falls, the
rocks, the bed of the river, and the upper air. David raised his tall
person in the midst of the infernal din, with a hand on either ear,
exclaiming--
"Whence comes this discord! Has hell broke loose, that man should utter
sounds like these!"
The bright flashes and the quick reports of a dozen rifles, from the
opposite banks of the stream, followed this incautious exposure of his
person, and left the unfortunate singing-master senseless on that rock
where he had been so long slumbering. The Mohicans boldly sent back the
intimidating yell of their enemies, who raised a shout of savage triumph
at the fall of Gamut. The flash of rifles was then quick and close
between them, but either party was too well skilled to leave even a limb
exposed to the hostile aim. Duncan listened with intense anxiety for
the strokes of the paddle, believing that flight was now their only
refuge. The river glanced by with its ordinary velocity, but the canoe
was nowhere to be seen on its dark waters. He had just fancied they were
cruelly deserted by the scout, as a stream of flame issued from the rock
beneath him, and a fierce yell, blended with a shriek of agony,
announced that the messenger of death, sent from the fatal weapon of
Hawkeye, had found a victim. At this slight repulse the assailants
instantly withdrew, and gradually the place became as still as before
the sudden tumult.
Duncan seized the favorable moment to spring to the body of Gamut, which
he bore within the shelter of the narrow chasm that protected the
sisters. In another minute the whole party was collected in this spot of
comparative safety.
"The poor fellow has saved his scalp," said Hawkeye, coolly passing his
hand over the head of David; "but he is a proof that a man may be born
with too long a tongue! 'Twas downright madness to show six feet of
flesh and blood, on a naked rock, to the raging savages. I only wonder
he has escaped with life."
"Is he not dead!" demanded Cora, in a voice whose husky tones showed how
powerfully natural horror struggled with her assumed firmness. "Can we
do aught to assist the wretched man?"
"No, no! the life is in his heart yet, and after he has slept awhile he
will come to himself, and be a wiser man for it, till the hour of his
real time shall come," returned Hawkeye, casting another oblique glance
at the insensible body, while he filled his charger with admirable
nicety. "Carry him in, Uncas, and lay him on the sassafras. The longer
his nap lasts the better it will be for him, as I doubt whether he can
find a proper cover for such a shape on these rocks; and singing won't
do any good with the Iroquois."
"You believe, then, the attack will be renewed?" asked Heyward.
"Do I expect a hungry wolf will satisfy his craving with a mouthful!
They have lost a man, and 'tis their fashion, when they meet a loss, and
fail in the surprise, to fall back; but we shall have them on again,
with new expedients to circumvent us, and master our scalps. Our main
hope," he continued, raising his rugged countenance, across which a
shade of anxiety just then passed like a darkening cloud, "will be to
keep the rock until Munro can send a party to our help! God send it may
be soon, and under a leader that knows the Indian customs!"
"You hear our probable fortunes, Cora," said Duncan, "and you know we
have everything to hope from the anxiety and experience of your father.
Come, then, with Alice, into this cavern, where you, at least, will be
safe from the murderous rifles of our enemies and where you may bestow a
care suited to your gentle natures on our unfortunate comrade."
The sisters followed him into the outer cave, where David was beginning,
by his sighs, to give symptoms of returning consciousness; and then
commending the wounded man to their attention, he immediately prepared
to leave them.
"Duncan!" said the tremulous voice of Cora, when he had reached the
mouth of the cavern. He turned, and beheld the speaker, whose color had
changed to a deadly paleness, and whose lip quivered, gazing after him,
with an expression of interest which immediately recalled him to her
side. "Remember, Duncan, how necessary your safety is to our own--how
you bear a father's sacred trust--how much depends on your discretion
and care--in short," she added, while the tell-tale blood stole over her
features, crimsoning her very temples, "how very deservedly dear you are
to all of the name of Munro."
"If anything could add to my own base love of life," said Heyward,
suffering his unconscious eyes to wander to the youthful form of the
silent Alice, "it would be so kind an assurance. As major of the 60th,
our honest host will tell you I must take my share of the fray; but our
task will be easy; it is merely to keep these blood-hounds at bay for a
few hours."
Without waiting for reply, he tore himself from the presence of the
sisters, and joined the scout and his companions, who still lay within
the protection of the little chasm between the two caves.
"I tell you, Uncas," said the former, as Heyward joined them, "you are
wasteful of your powder, and the kick of the rifle disconcerts your aim!
Little powder, light lead, and a long arm, seldom fail of bringing the
death screech from a Mingo! At least, such has been my experience with
the creatur's. Come, friends; let us to our covers, for no man can tell
when or where a Maqua[15] will strike his blow."
The Indians silently repaired to their appointed stations, which were
fissures in the rocks, whence they could command the approaches to the
foot of the falls. In the centre of the little island, a few short and
stunted pines had found root, forming a thicket, into which Hawkeye
darted with the swiftness of a deer, followed by the active Duncan. Here
they secured themselves, as well as circumstances would permit, among
the shrubs and fragments of stone that were scattered about the place.
Above them was a bare, rounded rock, on each side of which the water
played its gambols, and plunged into the abysses beneath, in the manner
already described. As the day had now dawned, the opposite shores no
longer presented a confused outline, but they were able to look into the
woods, and distinguish objects beneath the canopy of gloomy pines.
A long and anxious watch succeeded, but without any further evidences of
a renewed attack; and Duncan began to hope that their fire had proved
more fatal than was supposed, and that their enemies had been
effectually repulsed. When he ventured to utter this impression to his
companion, it was met by Hawkeye with an incredulous shake of the head.
"You know not the nature of a Maqua, if you think he is so easily beaten
back without a scalp!" he answered. "If there was one of the imps
yelling this morning, there were forty! and they know our number and
quality too well to give up the chase so soon. Hist! look into the water
above, just where it breaks over the rocks. I am no mortal, if the risky
devils haven't swam down upon the very pitch, and, as bad luck would
have it, they have hit the head of the island. Hist! man, keep close! or
the hair will be off your crown in the turning of a knife!"
Heyward lifted his head from the cover, and beheld what he justly
considered a prodigy of rashness and skill. The river had worn away the
edge of the soft rock in such a manner, as to render its first pitch
less abrupt and perpendicular than is usual at waterfalls. With no other
guide than the ripple of the stream where it met the head of the island,
a party of their insatiable foes had ventured into the current, and swam
down upon this point, knowing the ready access it would give, if
successful, to their intended victims. As Hawkeye ceased speaking, four
human heads could be seen peering above a few logs of drift-wood that
had lodged on these naked rocks, and which had probably suggested the
idea of the practicability of the hazardous undertaking. At the next
moment, a fifth form was seen floating over the green edge of the fall,
a little from the line of the island. The savage struggled powerfully to
gain the point of safety, and, favored by the glancing water, he was
already stretching forth an arm to meet the grasp of his companions,
when he shot away again with the whirling current, appeared to rise into
the air, with uplifted arms and starting eyeballs, and fell, with a
sullen plunge, into that deep and yawning abyss over which he hovered. A
single, wild, despairing shriek rose from the cavern, and all was hushed
again, as the grave.
The first generous impulse of Duncan was to rush to the rescue of the
hapless wretch; but he felt himself bound to the spot by the iron grasp
of the immovable scout.
"Would ye bring certain death upon us, by telling the Mingos where we
lie?" demanded Hawkeye, sternly; "'tis a charge of powder saved, and
ammunition is as precious now as breath to a worried deer! Freshen the
priming of your pistols--the mist of the falls is apt to dampen the
brimstone--and stand firm for a close struggle, while I fire on their
rush."
He placed his finger in his mouth, and drew a long, shrill whistle,
which was answered from the rocks that were guarded by the Mohicans.
Duncan caught glimpses of heads above the scattered drift-wood, as this
signal rose on the air, but they disappeared again as suddenly as they
had glanced upon his sight. A low, rustling sound next drew his
attention behind him, and turning his head, he beheld Uncas within a few
feet, creeping to his side. Hawkeye spoke to him in Delaware, when the
young chief took his position with singular caution and undisturbed
coolness. To Heyward this was a moment of feverish and impatient
suspense; though the scout saw fit to select it as a fit occasion to
read a lecture to his more youthful associates on the art of using
fire-arms with discretion.
"Of all we'pons," he commenced, "the long-barrelled, true-grooved,
soft-metalled rifle is the most dangerous in skilful hands, though it
wants a strong arm, a quick eye, and great judgment in charging, to put
forth all its beauties. The gunsmiths can have but little insight into
their trade, when they make their fowling-pieces and short horsemen's--"
He was interrupted by the low but expressive "Hugh!" of Uncas.
[Illustration: _Copyright by Charles Scribner's Sons_
THE BATTLE AT GLENS FALLS
_Each of the combatants threw all his energies into that effort, and the
result was, that both tottered on the brink of the precipice_]
"I see them, boy, I see them!" continued Hawkeye; "they are gathering
for the rush, or they would keep their dingy backs below the logs. Well,
let them," he added, examining his flint; "the leading man certainly
comes on to his death, though it should be Montcalm himself!"
At that moment the woods were filled with another burst of cries, and at
the signal four savages sprang from the cover of the drift-wood. Heyward
felt a burning desire to rush forward to meet them, so intense was the
delirious anxiety of the moment; but he was restrained by the deliberate
examples of the scout and Uncas. When their foes who leaped over the
black rock that divided them, with long bounds, uttering the wildest
yells, were within a few rods, the rifle of Hawkeye slowly rose among
the shrubs, and poured out its fatal contents. The foremost Indian
bounded like a stricken deer, and fell headlong among the clefts of the
island.
"Now, Uncas!" cried the scout, drawing his long knife, while his quick
eyes began to flash with ardor, "take the last of the screeching imps;
of the other two we are sartain!"
He was obeyed; and but two enemies remained to be overcome. Heyward had
given one of his pistols to Hawkeye, and together they rushed down a
little declivity towards their foes; they discharged their weapons at
the same instant, and equally without success.
"I know'd it! and I said it!" muttered the scout, whirling the despised
little implement over the falls with bitter disdain. "Come on, ye bloody
minded hell-hounds! ye meet a man without a cross!"
The words were barely uttered, when he encountered a savage of gigantic
stature, and of the fiercest mien. At the same moment, Duncan found
himself engaged with the other, in a similar contest of hand to hand.
With ready skill, Hawkeye and his antagonist each grasped that uplifted
arm of the other which held the dangerous knife. For near a minute they
stood looking one another in the eye, and gradually exerting the power
of their muscles for the mastery. At length, the toughened sinews of the
white man prevailed over the less practised limbs of the native. The arm
of the latter slowly gave way before the increasing force of the scout,
who suddenly wresting his armed hand from the grasp of the foe, drove
the sharp weapon through his naked bosom to the heart. In the meantime
Heyward had been pressed in a more deadly struggle. His slight sword was
snapped in the first encounter. As he was destitute of any other means
of defence, his safety now depended entirely on bodily strength and
resolution. Though deficient in neither of these qualities, he had met
an enemy every way his equal. Happily, he soon succeeded in disarming
his adversary, whose knife fell on the rock at their feet; and from this
moment it became a fierce struggle, who should cast the other over the
dizzy height into a neighboring cavern of the falls. Every successive
struggle brought them nearer to the verge, where Duncan perceived the
final and conquering effort must be made. Each of the combatants threw
all his energies into that effort, and the result was, that both
tottered on the brink of the precipice. Heyward felt the grasp of the
other at his throat, and saw the grim smile the savage gave, under the
revengeful hope that he hurried his enemy to a fate similar to his own,
as he felt his body slowly yielding to a resistless power, and the young
man experienced the passing agony of such a moment in all its horrors.
At that instant of extreme danger, a dark hand and glancing knife
appeared before him; the Indian released his hold, as the blood flowed
freely from around the several tendons of the wrist; and while Duncan
was drawn backward by the saving arm of Uncas, his charmed eyes were
still riveted on the fierce and disappointed countenance of his foe, who
fell sullenly and disappointed down the irrecoverable precipice.
"To cover! to cover!" cried Hawkeye, who just then had despatched the
enemy; "to cover, for your lives! the work is but half ended!"
The young Mohican gave a shout of triumph, and, followed by Duncan, he
glided up the acclivity they had descended to the combat, and sought the
friendly shelter of the rocks and shrubs.