Art, stryving to compare
With nature, did an arber greene dispred,
Fram'd of wanton yvie flowing fayre,
Through which the fragrant eglantines did spred.
SPENSER.
The Oswego, below the falls, is a more rapid, unequal stream than it
is above them. There are places where the river flows in the quiet
stillness of deep water, but many shoals and rapids occur; and at that
distant day, when everything was in its natural state, some of the
passes were not altogether without hazard. Very little exertion was
required on the part of those who managed the canoes, except in those
places where the swiftness of the current and the presence of the rocks
required care; then, indeed, not only vigilance, but great coolness,
readiness, and strength of arm became necessary, in order to avoid
the dangers. Of all this the Mohican was aware, and he had judiciously
selected a spot where the river flowed tranquilly to intercept the
canoes, in order to make his communication without hazard to those he
wished to speak.
The Pathfinder had no sooner recognized the form of his red friend,
than, with a strong sweep of his paddle, he threw the head of his own
canoe towards the shore, motioning for Jasper to follow. In a minute
both boats were silently drifting down the stream, within reach of the
bushes that overhung the water, all observing a profound silence; some
from alarm, and others from habitual caution. As the travellers drew
nearer the Indian, he made a sign for them to stop; and then he and
Pathfinder had a short but earnest conference.
“The Chief is not apt to see enemies in a dead log,” observed the white
man to his red associate; “why does he tell us to stop?”
“Mingos are in the woods.”
“That we have believed these two days: does the chief know it?”
The Mohican quietly held up the head of a pipe formed of stone.
“It lay on a fresh trail that led towards the garrison,”--for so it
was the usage of that frontier to term a military work, whether it was
occupied or not.
“That may be the bowl of a pipe belonging to a soldier. Many use the
red-skin pipes.”
“See,” said the Big Serpent, again holding the thing he had found up to
the view of his friend.
The bowl of the pipe was of soap-stone, and was carved with great care
and with a very respectable degree of skill; in its centre was a small
Latin cross, made with an accuracy which permitted no doubt of its
meaning.
“That does foretell devilry and wickedness,” said the Pathfinder, who
had all the provincial horror of the holy symbol in question which
then pervaded the country, and which became so incorporated with its
prejudices, by confounding men with things, as to have left its traces
strong enough on the moral feeling of the community to be discovered
even at the present hour; “no Indian who had not been parvarted by the
cunning priests of the Canadas would dream of carving a thing like that
on his pipe. I'll warrant ye, the knave prays to the image every time he
wishes to sarcumvent the innocent, and work his fearful wickedness. It
looks fresh, too, Chingachgook?”
“The tobacco was burning when I found it.”
“That is close work, chief. Where was the trail?”
The Mohican pointed to a spot not a hundred yards from that where they
stood.
The matter now began to look very serious, and the two principal guides
conferred apart for several minutes, when both ascended the bank,
approached the indicated spot, and examined the trail with the utmost
care. After this investigation had lasted a quarter of an hour, the
white man returned alone, his red friend having disappeared in the
forest.
The ordinary expression of the countenance of the Pathfinder was that of
simplicity, integrity, and sincerity, blended in an air of self-reliance
which usually gave great confidence to those who found themselves under
his care; but now a look of concern cast a shade over his honest face,
that struck the whole party.
“What cheer, Master Pathfinder?” demanded Cap, permitting a voice that
was usually deep, loud, and confident to sink into the cautious tones
that better suited the dangers of the wilderness. “Has the enemy got
between us and our port?”
“Anan?”
“Have any of these painted scaramouches anchored off the harbor towards
which we are running, with the hope of cutting us off in entering?”
“It may be all as you say, friend Cap, but I am none the wiser for your
words; and in ticklish times the plainer a man makes his English the
easier he is understood. I know nothing of ports and anchors; but there
is a direful Mingo trail within a hundred yards of this very spot, and
as fresh as venison without salt. If one of the fiery devils has passed,
so have a dozen; and, what is worse, they have gone down towards the
garrison, and not a soul crosses the clearing around it that some
of their piercing eyes will not discover, when sartain bullets will
follow.”
“Cannot this said fort deliver a broadside, and clear everything within
the sweep of its hawse?”
“Nay, the forts this-a-way are not like forts in the settlements, and
two or three light cannon are all they have down at the mouth of the
river; and then, broadsides fired at a dozen outlying Mingoes, lying
behind logs and in a forest, would be powder spent in vain. We have but
one course, and that is a very nice one. We are judgmatically placed
here, both canoes being hid by the high bank and the bushes, from all
eyes, except those of any lurker directly opposite. Here, then, we may
stay without much present fear; but how to get the bloodthirsty devils
up the stream again? Ha! I have it, I have it! if it does no good, it
can do no harm. Do you see the wide-topped chestnut here, Jasper, at the
last turn in the river--on our own side of the stream, I mean?”
“That near the fallen pine?”
“The very same. Take the flint and tinderbox, creep along the bank, and
light a fire at that spot; maybe the smoke will draw them above us. In
the meanwhile, we will drop the canoes carefully down beyond the point
below, and find another shelter. Bushes are plenty, and covers are
easily to be had in this region, as witness the many ambushments.”
“I will do it, Pathfinder,” said Jasper, springing to the shore. “In ten
minutes the fire shall be lighted.”
“And, Eau-douce, use plenty of damp wood this time,” half whispered the
other, laughing heartily, in his own peculiar manner; “when smoke is
wanted, water helps to thicken it.”
The young man was soon off, making his way rapidly towards the desired
point. A slight attempt of Mabel to object to the risk was disregarded,
and the party immediately prepared to change its position, as it could
be seen from the place where Jasper intended to light his fire. The
movement did not require haste, and it was made leisurely and with care.
The canoes were got clear of the bushes, then suffered to drop down with
the stream until they reached the spot where the chestnut, at the foot
of which Jasper was to light the fire, was almost shut out from view,
when they stopped, and every eye was turned in the direction of the
adventurer.
“There goes the smoke!” exclaimed the Pathfinder, as a current of air
whirled a little column of the vapor from the land, allowing it to
rise spirally above the bed of the river. “A good flint, a small bit
of steel, and plenty of dry leaves makes a quick fire. I hope Eau-douce
will have the wit to bethink him of the damp wood now when it may serve
us all a good turn.”
“Too much smoke--too much cunning,” said Arrowhead sententiously.
“That is gospel truth, Tuscarora, if the Mingoes didn't know that they
are near soldiers; but soldiers commonly think more of their dinner at
a halt than of their wisdom and danger. No, no; let the boy pile on his
logs, and smoke them well too; it will all be laid to the stupidity of
some Scotch or Irish blunderer, who is thinking more of his oatmeal or
his potatoes than of Indian sarcumventions or Indian rifles.”
“And yet I should think, from all we have heard in the towns, that the
soldiers on this frontier are used to the artifices of their enemies,”
said Mabel, “and become almost as wily as the red men themselves.”
“Not they. Experience makes them but little wiser; and they wheel, and
platoon, and battalion it about, here in the forest, just as they did
in their parks at home, of which they are all so fond of talking. One
red-skin has more cunning in his natur' than a whole regiment from the
other side of the water; that is, what I call cunning of the woods. But
there is smoke enough, of all conscience, and we had better drop into
another cover. The lad has thrown the river on his fire, and there is
danger that the Mingoes will believe a whole regiment is out.”
While speaking, the Pathfinder permitted his canoe to drift away from
the bush by which it had been retained, and in a couple of minutes the
bend in the river concealed the smoke and the tree. Fortunately a small
indentation in the shore presented itself, within a few yards of the
point they had just passed; and the two canoes glided into it, under the
impulsion of the paddles.
A better spot could not have been found for the purpose. The bushes
were thick, and overhung the water, forming a complete canopy of leaves.
There was a small gravelly strand at the bottom of the little bay, where
most of the party landed to be more at their ease, and the only position
from which they could possibly be seen was a point on the river directly
opposite. There was little danger, however, of discovery from that
quarter, as the thicket there was even denser than common, and the land
beyond it was so wet and marshy as to render it difficult to be trodden.
“This is a safe cover,” said the Pathfinder, after he had taken a
scrutinizing survey of his position; “but it may be necessary to make it
safer. Master Cap, I ask nothing of you but silence, and a quieting of
such gifts as you may have got at sea, while the Tuscarora and I make
provision for the evil hour.”
The guide then went a short distance into the bushes, accompanied by
the Indian, where the two cut off the larger stems of several alders
and other bushes, using the utmost care not to make a noise. The ends of
these little trees were forced into the mud, outside of the canoes, the
depth of the water being very trifling; and in the course of ten minutes
a very effectual screen was interposed between them and the principal
point of danger. Much ingenuity and readiness were manifested in making
this simple arrangement, in which the two workmen were essentially
favored by the natural formation of the bank, the indentation in the
shore, the shallowness of the water, and the manner in which the tangled
bushes dipped into the stream. The Pathfinder had the address to look
for bushes which had curved stems, things easily found in such a place;
and by cutting them some distance beneath the bend, and permitting the
latter to touch the water, the artificial little thicket had not the
appearance of growing in the stream, which might have excited suspicion;
but one passing it would have thought that the bushes shot out
horizontally from the bank before they inclined upwards towards the
light. In short, none but an unusually distrustful eye would have been
turned for an instant towards the spot in quest of a hiding-place.
“This is the best cover I ever yet got into,” said the Pathfinder, with
his quiet laugh, after having been on the outside to reconnoitre; “the
leaves of our new trees fairly touch those of the bushes over our heads.
Hist!--yonder comes Eau-douce, wading, like a sensible boy, as he is, to
leave his trail in the water; and we shall soon see whether our cover is
good for anything or not.”
Jasper had indeed returned from his duty above; and missing the canoes,
he at once inferred that they had dropped round the next bend in the
river, in order to get out of sight of the fire. His habits of caution
immediately suggested the expediency of stepping into the water, in
order that there might exist no visible communication between the marks
left on the shore by the party and the place where he believed them to
have taken refuge below. Should the Canadian Indians return on their own
trail, and discover that made by the Pathfinder and the Serpent in their
ascent from and descent to the river, the clue to their movements would
cease at the shore, water leaving no prints of footsteps. The young man
had therefore waded, knee-deep, as far as the point, and was now seen
making his way slowly down the margin of the stream, searching curiously
for the spot in which the canoes were hid.
It was in the power of those behind the bushes, by placing their eyes
near the leaves, to find many places to look through while one at a
little distance lost this advantage. To those who watched his motions
from behind their cover, and they were all in the canoes, it was evident
that Jasper was totally at a loss to imagine where the Pathfinder had
secreted himself. When fairly round the curvature in the shore, and out
of sight of the fire he had lighted above, the young man stopped and
began examining the bank deliberately and with great care. Occasionally
he advanced eight or ten paces, and then halted again, to renew the
search. The water being much shallower than common, he stepped aside,
in order to walk with greater ease to himself and came so near the
artificial plantation that he might have touched it with his hand. Still
he detected nothing, and was actually passing the spot when Pathfinder
made an opening beneath the branches, and called to him in a low voice
to enter.
“This is pretty well,” said the Pathfinder, laughing; “though pale-face
eyes and red-skin eyes are as different as human spy-glasses. I would
wager, with the Sergeant's daughter here, a horn of powder against a
wampum-belt for her girdle, that her father's rijiment should march by
this embankment of ours and never find out the fraud! But if the Mingoes
actually get down into the bed of the river where Jasper passed, I
should tremble for the plantation. It will do for their eyes, even
across the stream, however, and will not be without its use.”
“Don't you think, Master Pathfinder, that it would be wisest, after
all,” said Cap, “to get under way at once, and carry sail hard down
stream, as soon as we are satisfied that these rascals are fairly astern
of us? We seamen call a stern chase a long chase.”
“I wouldn't move from this spot until we hear from the Sarpent with the
Sergeant's pretty daughter here in our company, for all the powder in
the magazine of the fort below. Sartain captivity or sartain death would
follow. If a tender fa'n, such as the maiden we have in charge, could
thread the forest like old deer, it might, indeed, do to quit the
canoes; for by making a circuit we could reach the garrison before
morning.”
“Then let it be done,” said Mabel, springing to her feet under the
sudden impulse of awakened energy. “I am young, active, used to
exercise, and could easily out-walk my dear uncle. Let no one think me
a hindrance. I cannot bear that all your lives should be exposed on my
account.”
“No, no, pretty one; we think you anything but a hindrance or anything
that is unbecoming, and would willingly run twice this risk to do you
and the honest Sergeant a service. Do I not speak your mind, Eau-douce?”
“To do _her_ a service!” said Jasper with emphasis. “Nothing shall tempt
me to desert Mabel Dunham until she is safe in her father's arms.”
“Well said, lad; bravely and honestly said, too; and I join in it, heart
and hand. No, no! you are not the first of your sex I have led
through the wilderness, and never but once did any harm befall any
of them:--that was a sad day, certainly, but its like may never come
again.”
Mabel looked from one of her protectors to the other, and her fine eyes
swam in tears. Frankly placing a hand in that of each, she answered
them, though at first her voice was choked, “I have no right to expose
you on my account. My dear father will thank you, I thank you, God will
reward you; but let there be no unnecessary risk. I can walk far, and
have often gone miles on some girlish fancy; why not now exert myself
for my life?--nay, for your precious lives?”
“She is a true dove, Jasper” said the Pathfinder, neither relinquishing
the hand he held until the girl herself, in native modesty, saw fit to
withdraw it, “and wonderfully winning! We get to be rough, and sometimes
even hard-hearted, in the woods, Mabel; but the sight of one like you
brings us back again to our young feelings, and does us good for the
remainder of our days. I daresay Jasper here will tell you the same;
for, like me in the forest, the lad sees but few such as yourself on
Ontario, to soften his heart and remind him of love for his kind. Speak
out now, Jasper, and say if it is not so?”
“I question if many like Mabel Dunham are to be found anywhere,”
returned the young man gallantly, an honest sincerity glowing in his
face that spoke more eloquently than his tongue; “you need not mention
the woods and lakes to challenge her equals, but I would go into
settlements and towns.”
“We had better leave the canoes,” Mabel hurriedly rejoined; “for I feel
it is no longer safe to be here.”
“You can never do it; you can never do it. It would be a march of more
than twenty miles, and that, too, of tramping over brush and roots, and
through swamps, in the dark; the trail of such a party would be wide,
and we might have to fight our way into the garrison after all. We will
wait for the Mohican.”
Such appearing to be the decision of him to whom all, in their present
strait, looked up for counsel, no more was said on the subject. The
whole party now broke up into groups: Arrowhead and his wife sitting
apart under the bushes, conversing in a low tone, though the man spoke
sternly, and the woman answered with the subdued mildness that marks the
degraded condition of a savage's wife. Pathfinder and Cap occupied one
canoe, chatting of their different adventures by sea and land; while
Jasper and Mabel sat in the other, making greater progress in intimacy
in a single hour than might have been effected under other circumstances
in a twelvemonth. Notwithstanding their situation as regards the enemy,
the time flew by swiftly, and the young people, in particular, were
astonished when Cap informed them how long they had been thus occupied.
“If one could smoke, Master Pathfinder,” observed the old sailor, “this
berth would be snug enough; for, to give the devil his due, you have got
the canoes handsomely landlocked, and into moorings that would defy a
monsoon. The only hardship is the denial of the pipe.”
“The scent of the tobacco would betray us; and where is the use of
taking all these precautions against the Mingo's eyes, if we are to tell
him where the cover is to be found through the nose? No, no; deny your
appetites; and learn one virtue from a red-skin, who will pass a week
without eating even, to get a single scalp. Did you hear nothing,
Jasper?”
“The Serpent is coming.”
“Then let us see if Mohican eyes are better than them of a lad who
follows the water.”
The Mohican had indeed made his appearance in the same direction as that
by which Jasper had rejoined his friends. Instead of coming directly on,
however, no sooner did he pass the bend, where he was concealed from any
who might be higher up stream, than he moved close under the bank; and,
using the utmost caution, got a position where he could look back, with
his person sufficiently concealed by the bushes to prevent its being
seen by any in that quarter.
“The Sarpent sees the knaves!” whispered Pathfinder. “As I'm a Christian
white man, they have bit at the bait, and have ambushed the smoke!”
Here a hearty but silent laugh interrupted his words, and nudging
Cap with his elbow, they all continued to watch the movements of
Chingachgook in profound stillness. The Mohican remained stationary as
the rock on which he stood full ten minutes; and then it was apparent
that something of interest had occurred within his view, for he drew
back with a hurried manner, looked anxiously and keenly along the margin
of the stream, and moved quickly down it, taking care to lose his trail
in the shallow water. He was evidently in a hurry and concerned, now
looking behind him, and then casting eager glances towards every spot on
the shore where he thought a canoe might be concealed.
“Call him in,” whispered Jasper, scarcely able to restrain his
impatience,--“call him in, or it will be too late! See! he is actually
passing us.”
“Not so, not so, lad; nothing presses, depend on it;” returned his
companion, “or the Sarpent would begin to creep. The Lord help us and
teach us wisdom! I _do_ believe even Chingachgook, whose sight is as
faithful as the hound's scent, overlooks us, and will not find out the
ambushment we have made!”
This exultation was untimely; for the words were no sooner spoken than
the Indian, who had actually got several feet lower down the stream than
the artificial cover, suddenly stopped; fastened a keen-riveted glance
among the transplanted bushes; made a few hasty steps backward; and,
bending his body and carefully separating the branches, he appeared
among them.
“The accursed Mingos!” said Pathfinder, as soon as his friend was near
enough to be addressed with prudence.
“Iroquois,” returned the sententious Indian.
“No matter, no matter; Iroquois, devil, Mingo, Mengwes, or furies--all
are pretty much the same. I call all rascals Mingos. Come hither, chief,
and let us convarse rationally.”
When their private communication was over, Pathfinder rejoined the rest,
and made them acquainted with all he had learned.
The Mohican had followed the trail of their enemies some distance
towards the fort, until the latter caught a sight of the smoke of
Jasper's fire, when they instantly retraced their steps. It now became
necessary for Chingachgook, who ran the greatest risk of detection, to
find a cover where he could secrete himself until the party might pass.
It was perhaps fortunate for him that the savages were so intent on this
recent discovery, that they did not bestow the ordinary attention on the
signs of the forest. At all events, they passed him swiftly, fifteen in
number, treading lightly in each other's footsteps; and he was enabled
again to get into their rear. After proceeding to the place where the
footsteps of Pathfinder and the Mohican had joined the principal trail,
the Iroquois had struck off to the river, which they reached just as
Jasper had disappeared behind the bend below. The smoke being now
in plain view, the savages plunged into the woods and endeavored to
approach the fire unseen. Chingachgook profited by this occasion to
descend to the water, and to gain the bend in the river also, which
he thought had been effected undiscovered. Here he paused, as has been
stated, until he saw his enemies at the fire, where their stay, however,
was very short.
Of the motives of the Iroquois the Mohican could judge only by their
acts. He thought they had detected the artifice of the fire, and were
aware that it had been kindled with a view to mislead them; for, after
a hasty examination of the spot, they had separated, some plunging again
into the woods, while six or eight had followed the footsteps of Jasper
along the shore, and come down the stream towards the place where the
canoes had landed. What course they might take on reaching that spot was
only to be conjectured; for the Serpent had felt the emergency to be
too pressing to delay looking for his friends any longer. From some
indications that were to be gathered from their gestures, however, he
thought it probable that their enemies might follow down in the margin
of the stream, but could not be certain.
As the Pathfinder related these facts to his companions, the
professional feelings of the two other white men came uppermost, and
both naturally reverted to their habits, in quest of the means of
escape.
“Let us run out the canoes at once,” said Jasper eagerly; “the current
is strong, and by using the paddles vigorously we shall soon be beyond
the reach of these scoundrels!”
“And this poor flower, that first blossomed in the clearings--shall it
wither in the forest?” objected his friend, with a poetry which he had
unconsciously imbibed by his long association with the Delawares.
“We must all die first,” answered the youth, a generous color mounting
to his temples; “Mabel and Arrowhead's wife may lie down in the canoes,
while we do our duty, like men, on our feet.”
“Ay, you are active at the paddle and the oar, Eau-douce, I will allow,
but an accursed Mingo is more active at his mischief; the canoes are
swift, but a rifle bullet is swifter.”
“It is the business of men, engaged as we have been by a confiding
father, to run this risk--”
“But it is not their business to overlook prudence.”
“Prudence! a man may carry his prudence so far as to forget his
courage.”
The group was standing on the narrow strand, the Pathfinder leaning on
his rifle, the butt of which rested on the gravelly beach, while both
his hands clasped the barrel at the height of his own shoulders. As
Jasper threw out this severe and unmerited imputation, the deep red of
his comrade's face maintained its hue unchanged, though the young man
perceived that the fingers grasped the iron of the gun with the tenacity
of a vice. Here all betrayal of emotion ceased.
“You are young and hot-headed,” returned Pathfinder, with a dignity that
impressed his listeners with a keen sense of his moral superiority; “but
my life has been passed among dangers of this sort, and my experience
and gifts are not to be mastered by the impatience of a boy. As for
courage, Jasper, I will not send back an angry and unmeaning word to
meet an angry and an unmeaning word; for I know that you are true in
your station and according to your knowledge; but take the advice of one
who faced the Mingos when you were a child, and know that their cunning
is easier sarcumvented by prudence than outwitted by foolishness.”
“I ask your pardon, Pathfinder,” said the repentant Jasper, eagerly
grasping the hand that the other permitted him to seize; “I ask your
pardon, humbly and sincerely. 'Twas a foolish, as well as wicked thing
to hint of a man whose heart, in a good cause, is known to be as firm as
the rocks on the lake shore.”
For the first time the color deepened on the cheek of the Pathfinder,
and the solemn dignity which he had assumed, under a purely natural
impulse, disappeared in the expression of the earnest simplicity
inherent in all his feelings. He met the grasp of his young friend
with a squeeze as cordial as if no chord had jarred between them, and a
slight sternness that had gathered about his eye disappeared in a look
of natural kindness.
“'Tis well, Jasper,” he answered, laughing; “I bear no ill-will, nor
shall any one on my behalf. My natur' is that of a white man, and that
is to bear no malice. It might have been ticklish work to have said half
as much to the Sarpent here, though he is a Delaware, for color will
have its way--”
A touch on his shoulder caused the speaker to cease. Mabel was standing
erect in the canoe, her light, but swelling form bent forward in an
attitude of graceful earnestness, her finger on her lips, her head
averted, her spirited eyes riveted on an opening in the bushes, and
one arm extended with a fishing-rod, the end of which had touched the
Pathfinder. The latter bowed his head to a level with a look-out near
which he had intentionally kept himself and then whispered to Jasper,--
“The accursed Mingos! Stand to your arms, my men, but lay quiet as the
corpses of dead trees!”
Jasper advanced rapidly, but noiselessly, to the canoe, and with a
gentle violence induced Mabel to place herself in such an attitude as
concealed her entire body, though it would have probably exceeded his
means to induce the girl so far to lower her head that she could not
keep her gaze fastened on their enemies. He then took his own post near
her, with his rifle cocked and poised, in readiness to fire. Arrowhead
and Chingachgook crawled to the cover, and lay in wait like snakes, with
their arms prepared for service, while the wife of the former bowed her
head between her knees, covered it with her calico robe, and remained
passive and immovable. Cap loosened both his pistols in their belt, but
seemed quite at a loss what course to pursue. The Pathfinder did not
stir. He had originally got a position where he might aim with deadly
effect through the leaves, and where he could watch the movements of
his enemies; and he was far too steady to be disconcerted at a moment so
critical.
It was truly an alarming instant. Just as Mabel touched the shoulder of
her guide, three of the Iroquois had appeared in the water, at the bend
of the river, within a hundred yards of the cover, and halted to
examine the stream below. They were all naked to the waist, armed for
an expedition against their foes, and in their warpaint. It was apparent
that they were undecided as to the course they ought to pursue in order
to find the fugitives. One pointed down the river, a second up the
stream, and the third towards the opposite bank. They evidently doubted.