"If you find a man there, he shall die a flea's death."
_Merry Wives of Windsor._
The party had landed on the border of a region that is, even to this
day, less known to the inhabitants of the States, than the deserts of
Arabia, or the steppes of Tartary. It was the sterile and rugged
district which separates the tributaries of Champlain from those of the
Hudson, the Mohawk, and the St. Lawrence. Since the period of our tale,
the active spirit of the country has surrounded it with a belt of rich
and thriving settlements, though none but the hunter or the savage is
ever known, even now, to penetrate its wild recesses.
As Hawkeye and the Mohicans had, however, often traversed the mountains
and valleys of this vast wilderness, they did not hesitate to plunge
into its depths, with the freedom of men accustomed to its privations
and difficulties. For many hours the travellers toiled on their
laborious way, guided by a star, or following the direction of some
water-course, until the scout called a halt, and holding a short
consultation with the Indians, they lighted their fire, and made the
usual preparations to pass the remainder of the night where they then
were.
Imitating the example, and emulating the confidence, of their more
experienced associates, Munro and Duncan slept without fear, if not
without uneasiness. The dews were suffered to exhale, and the sun
dispersed the mists, and was shedding a strong and clear light in the
forest, when the travellers resumed their journey.
After proceeding a few miles, the progress of Hawkeye, who led the
advance, became more deliberate and watchful. He often stopped to
examine the trees; nor did he cross a rivulet, without attentively
considering the quantity, the velocity, and the color of its waters.
Distrusting his own judgment his appeals to the opinion of Chingachgook
were frequent and earnest. During one of these conferences, Heyward
observed that Uncas stood a patient and silent, though, as he imagined,
an interested listener. He was strongly tempted to address the young
chief, and demand his opinion of their progress; but the calm and
dignified demeanor of the native induced him to believe that, like
himself, the other was wholly dependent on the sagacity and intelligence
of the seniors of the party. At last, the scout spoke in English, and at
once explained the embarrassment of their situation.
"When I found that the home path of the Hurons run north," he said, "it
did not need the judgment of many long years to tell that they would
follow the valleys, and keep atween the waters of the Hudson and the
Horican, until they might strike the springs of the Canada streams,
which would lead them into the heart of the country of the Frenchers.
Yet here are we, within a short range of the Scaroon, and not a sign of
a trail have we crossed! Human natur' is weak, and it is possible we may
not have taken the proper scent."
"Heaven protect us from such an error!" exclaimed Duncan. "Let us
retrace our steps, and examine as we go, with keener eyes. Has Uncas no
counsel to offer in such a strait?"
The young Mohican cast a glance at his father, but maintaining his quiet
and reserved mien, he continued silent. Chingachgook had caught the
look, and motioning with his hand, he bade him speak. The moment this
permission was accorded, the countenance of Uncas changed from its grave
composure to a gleam of intelligence and joy. Bounding forward like a
deer, he sprang up the side of a little acclivity, a few rods in
advance, and stood exultingly over a spot of fresh earth that looked as
though it had been recently upturned by the passage of some heavy
animal. The eyes of the whole party followed the unexpected movement,
and read their success in the air of triumph that the youth assumed.
"'Tis the trail!" exclaimed the scout, advancing to the spot: "the lad
is quick of sight and keen of wit for his years."
"'Tis extraordinary that he should have withheld his knowledge so long,"
muttered Duncan, at his elbow.
"It would have been more wonderful had he spoken without a bidding. No,
no; your young white, who gathers his learning from books and can
measure what he knows by the page, may conceit that his knowledge, like
his legs, outruns that of his father; but where experience is the
master, the scholar is made to know the value of years, and respects
them accordingly."
"See!" said Uncas, pointing north and south, at the evident marks of
the broad trail on either side of him: "the dark-hair has gone towards
the frost."
"Hound never ran on a more beautiful scent," responded the scout,
dashing forward, at once, on the indicated route; "we are favored,
greatly favored, and can follow with high noses. Ay, here are both your
waddling beasts: this Huron travels like a white general. The fellow is
stricken with a judgment, and is mad! Look sharp for wheels, Sagamore,"
he continued, looking back, and laughing in his newly awakened
satisfaction; "we shall soon have the fool journeying in a coach, and
that with three of the best pair of eyes on the borders, in his rear."
The spirits of the scout, and the astonishing success of the chase, in
which a circuitous distance of more than forty miles had been passed,
did not fail to impart a portion of hope to the whole party. Their
advance was rapid; and made with as much confidence as a traveller would
proceed along a wide highway. If a rock, or a rivulet, or a bit of earth
harder than common, severed the links of the clue they followed, the
true eye of the scout recovered them at a distance, and seldom rendered
the delay of a single moment necessary. Their progress was much
facilitated by the certainty that Magua had found it necessary to
journey through the valleys; a circumstance which rendered the general
direction of the route sure. Nor had the Huron entirely neglected the
arts uniformly practised by the natives when retiring in front of any
enemy. False trails, and sudden turnings, were frequent, wherever a
brook, or the formation of the ground, rendered them feasible; but his
pursuers were rarely deceived, and never failed to detect their error,
before they had lost either time or distance on the deceptive track.
By the middle of the afternoon they had passed the Scaroon, and were
following the route of the declining sun. After descending an eminence
to a low bottom, through which a stream glided, they suddenly came to a
place where the party of Le Renard had made a halt. Extinguished brands
were lying around a spring, the offals of a deer were scattered about
the place, and the trees bore evident marks of having been browsed by
the horses. At a little distance, Heyward discovered, and contemplated
with tender emotion, the small bower under which he was fain to believe
that Cora and Alice had reposed. But while the earth was trodden, and
the footsteps of both men and beasts were so plainly visible around the
place, the trail appeared to have suddenly ended.
It was easy to follow the track of the Narragansetts, but they seemed
only to have wandered without guides, or any other object than the
pursuit of food. At length Uncas, who, with his father, had endeavored
to trace the route of the horses, came upon a sign of their presence
that was quite recent. Before following the clue, he communicated his
success to his companions; and while the latter were consulting on the
circumstance, the youth reappeared, leading the two fillies, with their
saddles broken, and the housings soiled, as though they had been
permitted to run at will for several days.
"What should this mean?" said Duncan, turning pale, and glancing his
eyes around him, as if he feared the brush and leaves were about to give
up some horrid secret.
"That our march is come to a quick end, and that we are in an enemy's
country," returned the scout. "Had the knaves been pressed, and the
gentle ones wanted horses to keep up with the party, he might have taken
their scalps; but without an enemy at his heels, and with such rugged
beasts as these, he would not hurt a hair of their heads. I know your
thoughts, and shame be it to our color that you have reason for them;
but he who thinks that even a Mingo would ill-treat a woman, unless it
be to tomahawk her, knows nothing of Indian natur', or the laws of the
woods. No, no; I have heard that the French Indians had come into these
hills, to hunt the moose, and we are getting within scent of their camp.
Why should they not? the morning and evening guns of Ty may be heard any
day among these mountains; for the Frenchers are running a new line
atween the provinces of the king and the Canadas. It is true that the
horses are here, but the Hurons are gone; let us then hunt for the path
by which they departed."
Hawkeye and the Mohicans now applied themselves to their task in good
earnest. A circle of a few hundred feet in circumference was drawn, and
each of the party took a segment for his portion. The examination,
however, resulted in no discovery. The impressions of footsteps were
numerous, but they all appeared like those of men who had wandered about
the spot, without any design to quit it. Again the scout and his
companions made the circuit of the halting-place, each slowly following
the other, until they assembled in the centre once more, no wiser than
when they started.
"Such cunning is not without its deviltry," exclaimed Hawkeye, when he
met the disappointed looks of his assistants.
"We must get down to it, Sagamore, beginning at the spring, and going
over the ground by inches. The Huron shall never brag in his tribe that
he has a foot which leaves no print."
Setting the example himself, the scout engaged in the scrutiny with
renewed zeal. Not a leaf was left unturned. The sticks were removed, and
the stones lifted; for Indian cunning was known frequently to adopt
these objects as covers, laboring with the utmost patience and industry,
to conceal each footstep as they proceeded. Still no discovery was made.
At length Uncas, whose activity had enabled him to achieve his portion
of the task the soonest, raked the earth across the turbid little rill
which ran from the spring, and diverted its course into another channel.
So soon as its narrow bed below the dam was dry, he stooped over it with
keen and curious eyes. A cry of exultation immediately announced the
success of the young warrior. The whole party crowded to the spot where
Uncas pointed out the impression of a moccasin in the moist alluvion.
"The lad will be an honor to his people," said Hawkeye, regarding the
trail with as much admiration as a naturalist would expend on the tusk
of a mammoth or the rib of a mastodon; "ay, and a thorn in the sides of
the Hurons. Yet that is not the footstep of an Indian! the weight is too
much on the heel, and the toes are squared, as though one of the French
dancers had been in, pigeon-winging his tribe! Run back, Uncas, and
bring me the size of the singer's foot. You will find a beautiful print
of it just opposite yon rock, agin the hillside."
While the youth was engaged in this commission, the scout and
Chingachgook were attentively considering the impressions. The
measurements agreed, and the former unhesitatingly pronounced that the
footstep was that of David, who had once more, been made to exchange his
shoes for moccasins.
"I can now read the whole of it, as plainly as if I had seen the arts of
Le Subtil," he added; "the singer, being a man whose gifts lay chiefly
in his throat and feet, was made to go first, and the others have trod
in his steps, imitating their formation."
"But," cried Duncan, "I see no signs of--"
"The gentle ones," interrupted the scout; "the varlet has found a way to
carry them, until he supposed he had thrown any followers off the scent.
My life on it, we see their pretty little feet again, before many rods
go by."
The whole party now proceeded, following the course of the rill, keeping
anxious eyes on the regular impressions. The water soon flowed into its
bed again, but watching the ground on either side, the foresters pursued
their way content with knowing that the trail lay beneath. More than
half a mile was passed, before the rill rippled close around the base of
an extensive and dry rock. Here they paused to make sure that the Hurons
had not quitted the water.
It was fortunate they did so. For the quick and active Uncas soon found
the impression of a foot on a bunch of moss, where it would seem an
Indian had inadvertently trodden. Pursuing the direction given by this
discovery, he entered the neighboring thicket, and struck the trail, as
fresh and obvious as it had been before they reached the spring. Another
shout announced the good fortune of the youth to his companions, and at
once terminated the search.
"Ay, it has been planned with Indian judgment," said the scout, when the
party was assembled around the place; "and would have blinded white
eyes."
"Shall we proceed?" demanded Heyward.
"Softly, softly: we know our path; but it is good to examine the
formation of things. This is my schooling, major; and if one neglects
the book, there is little chance of learning from the open hand of
Providence. All is plain but one thing, which is the manner that the
knave contrived to get the gentle ones along the blind trail. Even a
Huron would be too proud to let their tender feet touch the water."
"Will this assist in explaining the difficulty?" said Heyward, pointing
towards the fragments of a sort of handbarrow, that had been rudely
constructed of boughs, and bound together with withes, and which now
seemed carelessly cast aside as useless.
"'Tis explained!" cried the delighted Hawkeye. "If them varlets have
passed a minute, they have spent hours in striving to fabricate a lying
end to their trail! Well, I've known them to waste a day in the same
manner, to as little purpose. Here we have three pair of moccasins, and
two of little feet. It is amazing that any mortal beings can journey on
limbs so small! Pass me the thong of buckskin, Uncas, and let me take
the length of this foot. By the Lord, it is no longer than a child's and
yet the maidens are tall and comely. That Providence is partial in its
gifts, for its own wise reasons, the best and most contented of us must
allow."
"The tender limbs of my daughters are unequal to these hardships," said
Munro, looking at the light footsteps of his children, with a parent's
love: "we shall find their fainting forms in this desert."
"Of that there is little cause of fear," returned the scout, slowly
shaking his head; "this is a firm and straight, though a light step, and
not over long. See, the heel has hardly touched the ground; and there
the dark-hair has made a little jump, from root to root. No, no; my
knowledge for it, neither of them was nigh fainting, hereaway. Now, the
singer was beginning to be foot-sore and leg-weary as is plain by his
trail. There, you see, he slipped; here he has travelled wide, and
tottered; and there, again, it looks as though he journeyed on
snow-shoes. Ay, ay, a man who uses his throat altogether, can hardly
give his legs a proper training."
From such undeniable testimony did the practised woodsman arrive at the
truth, with nearly as much certainty and precision as if he had been a
witness of all those events which his ingenuity so easily elucidated.
Cheered by these assurances, and satisfied by a reasoning that was so
obvious, while it was so simple, the party resumed its course, after
making a short halt to take a hurried repast.
When the meal was ended, the scout cast a glance upwards at the setting
sun, and pushed forward with a rapidity which compelled Heyward and the
still vigorous Munro to exert all their muscles to equal. Their route
now lay along the bottom which had already been mentioned. As the Hurons
had made no further efforts to conceal their footsteps, the progress of
the pursuers was no longer delayed by uncertainty. Before an hour had
elapsed, however, the speed of Hawkeye sensibly abated, and his head,
instead of maintaining its former direct and forward look, began to turn
suspiciously from side to side, as if he were conscious of approaching
danger. He soon stopped again, and waited for the whole party to come
up.
"I scent the Hurons," he said, speaking to the Mohicans; "yonder is open
sky, through the tree-tops, and we are getting too nigh their
encampment. Sagamore, you will take the hillside, to the right; Uncas
will bend along the brook to the left, while I will try the trail. If
anything should happen, the call will be three croaks of a crow. I saw
one of the birds fanning himself in the air, just beyond the dead
oak--another sign that we are touching an encampment."
The Indians departed their several ways without reply, while Hawkeye
cautiously proceeded with the two gentlemen. Heyward soon pressed to the
side of their guide, eager to catch an early glimpse of those enemies he
had pursued with so much toil and anxiety. His companion told him to
steal to the edge of the wood, which, as usual, was fringed with a
thicket, and wait his coming, for he wished to examine certain
suspicious signs a little on one side. Duncan obeyed, and soon found
himself in a situation to command a view which he found as extraordinary
as it was novel.
The trees of many acres had been felled, and the glow of a mild summer's
evening had fallen on the clearing, in beautiful contrast to the gray
light of the forest. A short distance from the place where Duncan stood,
the stream had seemingly expanded into a little lake, covering most of
the low land, from mountain to mountain. The water fell out of this wide
basin, in a cataract so regular and gentle, that it appeared rather to
be the work of human hands, than fashioned by nature. A hundred earthen
dwellings stood on the margin of the lake, and even in its water, as
though the latter had overflowed its usual banks. Their rounded roofs,
admirably moulded for defence against the weather, denoted more of
industry and foresight than the natives were wont to bestow on their
regular habitations, much less on those they occupied for the temporary
purposes of hunting and war. In short, the whole village or town,
whichever it might be termed, possessed more of method and neatness of
execution, than the white men had been accustomed to believe belonged,
ordinarily, to the Indian habits. It appeared, however, to be deserted.
At least, so thought Duncan for many minutes; but, at length, he fancied
he discovered several human forms advancing towards him on all fours,
and apparently dragging in their train some heavy, and as he was quick
to apprehend, some formidable engine. Just then a few dark looking heads
gleamed out of the dwellings, and the place seemed suddenly alive with
beings, which, however, glided from cover to cover so swiftly, as to
allow no opportunity of examining their humors or pursuits. Alarmed at
these suspicious and inexplicable movements, he was about to attempt the
signal of the crows, when the rustling of leaves at hand drew his eyes
in another direction.
The young man started, and recoiled a few paces instinctively, when he
found himself within a hundred yards of a stranger Indian. Recovering
his recollection on the instant, instead of sounding an alarm, which
might prove fatal to himself, he remained stationary, an attentive
observer of the other's motions.
An instant of calm observation served to assure Duncan that he was
undiscovered. The native, like himself, seemed occupied in considering
the low dwellings of the village, and the stolen movements of its
inhabitants. It was impossible to discover the expression of his
features, through the grotesque mask of paint under which they were
concealed; though Duncan fancied it was rather melancholy than savage.
His head was shaved, as usual, with the exception of the crown, from
whose tuft three or four faded feathers from a hawk's wing were loosely
dangling. A ragged calico mantle half-encircled his body, while his
nether garment was composed of an ordinary shirt, the sleeves of which
were made to perform the office that is usually executed by a much more
commodious arrangement. His legs were bare, and sadly cut and torn by
briers. The feet were, however, covered with a pair of good deer-skin
moccasins. Altogether, the appearance of the individual was forlorn and
miserable.
Duncan was still curiously observing the person of his neighbor, when
the scout stole silently and cautiously to his side.
"You see we have reached their settlement or encampment," whispered the
young man; "and here is one of the savages himself, in a very
embarrassing position for our further movements."
Hawkeye started, and dropped his rifle, directed by the finger of his
companion, the stranger came under his view. Then lowering the dangerous
muzzle, he stretched forward his long neck, as if to assist a scrutiny
that was already intensely keen.
"The imp is not a Huron," he said, "nor of any of the Canada tribes; and
yet you see, by his clothes, the knave has been plundering a white. Ay,
Montcalm has raked the woods for his inroad, and a whooping, murdering
set of varlets has he gathered together. Can you see where he has put
his rifle or his bow?"
"He appears to have no arms; nor does he seem to be viciously inclined.
Unless he communicate the alarm to his fellows, who as you see are
dodging about the water, we have but little to fear from him."
The scout turned to Heyward, and regarded him a moment with unconcealed
amazement. Then opening wide his mouth, he indulged in unrestrained and
heartfelt laughter, though in that silent and peculiar manner which
danger had so long taught him to practise.
Repeating the words, "fellows who are dodging about the water!" he
added, "so much for schooling and passing a boyhood in the settlements!
The knave has long legs, though, and shall not be trusted. Do you keep
him under your rifle while I creep in behind, through the bush, and take
him alive. Fire on no account."
Heyward had already permitted his companion to bury part of his person
in the thicket, when, stretching forth an arm, he arrested him, in order
to ask,--
"If I see you in danger, may I not risk a shot?"
Hawkeye regarded him a moment, like one who knew not how to take the
question; then nodding his head, he answered, still laughing, though
inaudibly,--
"Fire a whole platoon, major."
In the next moment he was concealed by the leaves. Duncan waited several
minutes in feverish impatience, before he caught another glimpse of the
scout. Then he reappeared, creeping along the earth, from which his
dress was hardly distinguishable, directly in the rear of his intended
captive. Having reached within a few yards of the latter, he arose to
his feet, silently and slowly. At that instant, several loud blows were
struck on the water, and Duncan turned his eyes just in time to perceive
that a hundred dark forms were plunging, in a body, into the troubled
little sheet. Grasping his rifle, his looks were again bent on the
Indian near him. Instead of taking the alarm, the unconscious savage
stretched forward his neck, as if he also watched the movements about
the gloomy lake, with a sort of silly curiosity. In the meantime, the
uplifted hand of Hawkeye was above him. But, without any apparent
reason, it was withdrawn, and its owner indulged in another long, though
still silent, fit of merriment. When the peculiar and hearty laughter of
Hawkeye was ended, instead of grasping his victim by the throat, he
tapped him lightly on the shoulder, and exclaimed aloud,--
"How now, friend! have you a mind to teach the beavers to sing?"
"Even so," was the ready answer. "It would seem that the Being that gave
them power to improve his gifts so well, would not deny them voices to
proclaim his praise."