THE SQUATTER'S SHANTY.
Don Pablo had not told his father the facts in all their truth or
detail. He had fallen into a perfect ambuscade. He was suddenly attacked
by the three brothers, who would have mercilessly killed him, resolved
to lay the blame of his death on the wild beasts, had not, at the moment
when one of them lifted his knife on the young man, who was thrown down
and rendered motionless by the others, a providential succour reached him
in the person of a charming maid scarce sixteen years of age.
The courageous girl rushed from a copse with the rapidity of a fawn, and
threw herself resolutely into the midst of the assassins.
"What are you about, brother?" she exclaimed in a melodious voice, whose
harmonious notes echoed amorously in Don Pablo's ears. "Why do you wish
to kill this stranger?"
The three squatters, surprised by this apparition, which they were far
from expecting, fell back a few paces. Don Pablo profited by this truce
to jump up and regain possession of his arms, which had fallen by his
side.
"Was it not enough," the girl continued, "to rob this man, that you must
now try to take his life? Fie, brothers! Do you not know that blood
leaves on the hands of him who spills it stains which nothing can
efface? Let this man retire in peace."
The young men hesitated. Although unconsciously yielding to their
sister's influence, they were ashamed of thus executing her wishes.
Still they did not dare express their thoughts, and merely bent on their
enemy, who awaited them with a firm foot and pistols in hand, glances
laden with hatred and anger.
"Ellen is right," the youngest of her brothers suddenly said. "No, I
will not allow any harm to be done the stranger."
The others looked at him savagely.
"You would defend him, if necessary, I suppose, Shaw?" Nathan said to
him ironically.
"Why should I not, were it required?" the young man said boldly.
"Eh!" Sutter remarked with a grin, "He is thinking of the Wood
Eglantine."
This word had been scarce uttered ere Shaw, with purpled face,
contracted features, and eyes injected with blood, rushed with uplifted
knife on his brother, who awaited him firmly. The girl dashed between
them.
"Peace, peace!" she shrieked in a piercing voice, "Do brothers dare
threaten one another?"
The two young fellows remained motionless, but watching and ready to
strike in a moment. Don Pablo fixed an ardent glance on the girl, who
was really admirable at this moment. With her features animated by
anger, her head erect, and her arms stretched out between the two men,
she bore a startling likeness to those Druidesses who in olden times
summoned the warriors to combat beneath the forests of Germany.
In her whole person she offered the complete type of the gentle Northern
woman. Her hair light and golden like ripe corn; her eyes of extreme
purity, which reflected the azure of the sky; her earnest mouth, with
rosy lips and pearly teeth; her flexible and small waist; the whiteness
of her complexion, whose delicate and transparent skin still bore the
flush of adolescence--all was combined in this charming maiden to render
her the most seductive creature imaginable.
Don Pablo, a stranger to this kind of beauty, felt himself involuntarily
attracted toward the girl, and entirely subjugated by her. Forgetting
the reason that had brought him to this spot, the danger he had
incurred, and that which still menaced him, he was fascinated and
trembling before this delicious apparition, fearing at each instant to
see it vanish like a vision, and not daring to turn his glance from her
while he felt he had no strength left to admire her.
This young creature, so frail and delicate, formed a strange contrast
with the tall statures and marked features of her brothers, whose coarse
and savage manners only served to heighten the elegance and charm
exhaled by her whole person. Still this scene could not be prolonged,
and must be ended at once. The maiden walked toward Don Pablo.
"Sir," she said to him with a soft smile, "You have nothing more to fear
from my brothers; you can mount your horse again, and set out, and no
one will oppose your departure."
The young man understood that he had no pretext to prolong his stay at
this spot; he therefore let his head sink, placed his pistols in his
holsters, leaped on his horse, and set out with regret, and as slowly as
possible.
He had scarce gone a league when he heard the hasty clatter of a horse
behind him. He turned back. The approaching horseman was Shaw, who soon
caught up with Don Pablo. The pair then proceeded some distance side by
side without exchanging a syllable, and both seemed plunged in profound
thought. On reaching the skirt of the forest, Shaw checked his horse,
and softly laid his right hand on the Mexican's bridle. Don Pablo also
stopped on this hint, and waited, while fixing an inquiring glance on
his strange comrade.
"Stranger," the young man said, "my sister sends me. She implores you,
if it be possible, to keep secret what occurred between us today. She
deeply regrets the attack to which you fell a victim, and the wound you
have received; and she will try to persuade Red Cedar, our father, to
retire from your estates."
"Thank your sister for me," Don Pablo answered. "Tell her that her
slightest wish will ever be a command to me, and that I shall be happy
to execute it."
"I will repeat your words to her."
"Thanks. Render me a parting service."
"Speak."
"What is your sister's name?"
"Ellen. She is the guardian angel of our hearth. My name is Shaw."
"I am obliged to you for telling me your name, though I cannot guess the
reason that induces you to do so."
"I will tell you. I love my sister Ellen before all: she urged me to
offer you my friendship. I obey her. Remember, stranger, that Shaw is
yours to the death."
"I shall not forget it, though I hope never to be under the necessity of
reminding you of your words."
"All the worse," the American said, with a shake of his head; "but if at
any time the opportunity offers, I will prove to you that I am a man of
my word, so surely as I am a Kentuckian."
And hurriedly turning his horse's head, the young man rapidly
disappeared in the windings of the forest.
Buffalo Valley, illumined by the parting rays of the setting sun, seemed
a lake of verdure to which the golden mist of night imparted magical
tones. A light breeze rustled through the lofty crests of the cedars,
catalpas, tulip and Peru trees, and agitated the grass on the banks of
the Rio San Pedro. Don Pablo let the reins float idly on his horse's
neck, and advanced dreamily through the forest, where the birds were
leaping from spray to spray, each saluting in its language the arrival
of night.
An hour later, the young man reached the hacienda; but the wound he had
received in his shoulder was more serious than was at first supposed. He
was obliged, to his great regret, to keep his bed, which prevented him
seeking to meet again the maiden whose image was deeply engraved on his
heart.
So soon as the Mexican had gone off, the squatters continued felling
trees and sawing planks, and did not abandon this work till the night
had grown quite black. Ellen had returned to the interior of the jacal,
where she attended to the housekeeping duties with her mother. This
jacal was a wretched hut, hastily made with branches of intertwined
trees, which trembled with every breeze, and let the sun and rain
penetrate to the interior.
This cabin was divided into three compartments: the one to the right
served as the bedroom of the two females, while the men slept in the one
to the left. The central compartment, furnished with worm-eaten benches
and a clumsily-planed table, was at once keeping room and kitchen.
It was late: the squatters, assembled round the fire, over which a huge
pot was boiling, were silently awaiting the return of Red Cedar, who had
been absent since the morning. At length, a horse's hoofs sounded
sharply on the detritus collected for years on the floor of the forest,
the noise grew gradually nearer, the horse stopped in front of the
jacal, and a man made his appearance. It was Red Cedar. The men slowly
turned their heads toward him, but did not otherwise disturb themselves,
or address a syllable to him.
Ellen alone rose and embraced her father affectionately. The giant
seized the girl in his nervous arms, raised her from the ground, and
kissed her several times, saying in his rough voice, which his
tenderness sensibly softened,--
"Good evening, my dear."
Then he put her down on the ground again, and not troubling himself
further about her, fell heavily on a bench near the fire, and thrust his
feet toward the fire.
"Come, wife," he said, after the expiration of a moment, "the supper, in
the fiend's name! I have a coyote's hunger."
The wife did not let this be repeated. A few moments later an immense
dish of _frijoles_, with pimiento, smoked on the table, with large pots
of pulque. The meal was short and silent, the four men eating with
extreme rapacity. So soon as the beans had disappeared Red Cedar and his
sons lit their pipes, and began smoking, while drinking large draughts
of whiskey, though still not speaking. At length Red Cedar took his pipe
from his lips, and hit the table sharply, while saying in a rough
voice,--
"Come, women, decamp! You have nothing more to do here. You are in our
way, so go to the deuce!"
Ellen and her mother immediately went out, and entered their separate
apartment. For a few minutes they could be heard moving about, and then
all became silent again.
Red Cedar made a sign, and Sutter rose and gently put his ear to the
parting board. He listened for a few moments while holding his breath,
and then returned to his seat, saying laconically,--
"They are asleep."
"Quick, my whelps!" the old squatter said in a low voice. "We have not a
minute to lose: the others are expecting us."
A strange scene then occurred in this mean room, which was merely
illumined by the expiring light of the hearth. The four men arose,
opened a large chest, and produced from it various objects of strange
shapes--leggings, mittens, buffalo robes, collars of grizzly bear claws;
in a word, the complete costumes of Apache Indians.
The squatters disguised themselves as redskins; and when they had put on
their garments, which rendered it impossible to recognise them, they
completed the metamorphosis by painting their faces of different colours.
Assuredly the traveller whom accident had brought at this moment to the
jacal would have fancied it inhabited by Apaches or Comanches.
The garments which the squatters had taken off were locked up in the
chest, of which Red Cedar took the key; and the four men, armed with
their American rifles, left the cabin, mounted their horses, which were
awaiting them ready saddled, and started at full gallop through the
winding forest paths.
At the moment they disappeared in the gloom Ellen stood in the doorway
of the cabin, took a despairing glance in the direction where they had
gone, and fell to the ground murmuring sadly,--
"Good Heaven! What diabolical work are they going to perform this
night?"