Dally not with the gods, but get thee gone.
—Shakespeare.
Mahtoree had scarcely given the first intimation of his real design,
before a general discharge from the borderers proved how well they
understood it. The distance, and the rapidity of the flight, however,
rendered the fire harmless. As a proof how little he regarded the
hostility of their party, the Dahcotah chieftain answered the report
with a yell; and, flourishing his carabine above his head, he made a
circuit on the plain, followed by his chosen warriors, in scorn of the
impotent attempt of his enemies. As the main body continued the direct
course, this little band of the _élite_, in returning from its wild
exhibition of savage contempt, took its place in the rear, with a
dexterity and a concert of action that showed the manoeuvre had been
contemplated.
Volley swiftly succeeded volley, until the enraged squatter was
reluctantly compelled to abandon the idea of injuring his enemies by
means so feeble. Relinquishing his fruitless attempt, he commenced a
rapid pursuit, occasionally discharging a rifle in order to give the
alarm to the garrison, which he had prudently left under the command of
the redoubtable Esther herself. In this manner the chase was continued
for many minutes, the horsemen gradually gaining on their pursuers, who
maintained the race, however, with an incredible power of foot.
As the little speck of blue rose against the heavens, like an island
issuing from the deep, the savages occasionally raised a yell of
triumph. But the mists of evening were already gathering along the
whole of the eastern margin of the prairie, and before the band had
made half of the necessary distance, the dim outline of the rock had
melted into the haze of the back ground. Indifferent to this
circumstance, which rather favoured than disconcerted his plans,
Mahtoree, who had again ridden in front, held on his course with the
accuracy of a hound of the truest scent, merely slackening his speed a
little, as the horses of his party were by this time thoroughly blown.
It was at this stage of the enterprise, that the old man rode up to the
side of Middleton, and addressed him as follows in English—
“Here is likely to be a thieving business, and one in which I must say
I have but little wish to be a partner.”
“What would you do? It would be fatal to trust ourselves in the hands
of the miscreants in our rear.”
“Tut, for miscreants, be they red or be they white. Look ahead, lad, as
if ye were talking of our medicines, or perhaps praising the Teton
beasts. For the knaves love to hear their horses commended, the same as
a foolish mother in the settlements is fond of hearing the praises of
her wilful child. So; pat the animal and lay your hand on the gewgaws,
with which the Red-skins have ornamented his mane, giving your eye as
it were to one thing, and your mind to another. Listen; if matters are
managed with judgment, we may leave these Tetons as the night sets in.”
“A blessed thought!” exclaimed Middleton, who retained a painful
remembrance of the look of admiration, with which Mahtoree had
contemplated the loveliness of Inez, as well as of his subsequent
presumption in daring to wish to take the office of her protector on
himself.
“Lord, Lord! what a weak creatur’ is man, when the gifts of natur’ are
smothered in bookish knowledge, and womanly manners! Such another start
would tell these imps at our elbows that we were plotting against them,
just as plainly as if it were whispered in their ears by a Sioux
tongue. Ay, ay, I know the devils; they look as innocent as so many
frisky fawns, but there is not one among them all that has not an eye
on our smallest motions. Therefore, what is to be done is to be done in
wisdom, in order to circumvent their cunning. That is right; pat his
neck and smile, as if you praised the horse, and keep the ear on my
side open to my words. Be careful not to worry your beast, for though
but little skilled in horses, reason teaches that breath is needful in
a hard push, and that a weary leg makes a dull race. Be ready to mind
the signal, when you hear a whine from old Hector. The first will be to
make ready; the second, to edge out of the crowd; and the third, to
go—am I understood?”
“Perfectly, perfectly,” said Middleton, trembling in his excessive
eagerness to put the plan in instant execution, and pressing the little
arm, which encircled his body, to his heart. “Perfectly. Hasten,
hasten.”
“Ay, the beast is no sloth,” continued the trapper in the Teton
language, as if he continued the discourse, edging cautiously through
the dusky throng at the same time, until he found himself riding at the
side of Paul. He communicated his intentions in the same guarded manner
as before. The high-spirited and fearless bee-hunter received the
intelligence with delight, declaring his readiness to engage the whole
of the savage band, should it become necessary to effect their object.
When the old man drew off from the side of this pair also, he cast his
eyes about him to discover the situation occupied by the naturalist.
The Doctor, with infinite labour to himself and Asinus, had maintained
a position in the very centre of the Siouxes, so long as there existed
the smallest reason for believing that any of the missiles of Ishmael
might arrive in contact with his person. After this danger had
diminished, or rather disappeared entirely, his own courage revived,
while that of his steed began to droop. To this mutual but very
material change was owing the fact, that the rider and the ass were now
to be sought among that portion of the band who formed a sort of
rear-guard. Hither, then, the trapper contrived to turn his steed,
without exciting the suspicions of any of his subtle companions.
“Friend,” commenced the old man, when he found himself in a situation
favourable to discourse, “should you like to pass a dozen years among
the savages with a shaved head, and a painted countenance, with,
perhaps, a couple of wives and five or six children of the half breed,
to call you father?”
“Impossible!” exclaimed the startled naturalist. “I am indisposed to
matrimony in general, and more especially to all admixture of the
varieties of species, which only tend to tarnish the beauty and to
interrupt the harmony of nature. Moreover, it is a painful innovation
on the order of all nomenclatures.”
“Ay, ay, you have reason enough for your distaste to such a life; but
should these Siouxes get you fairly into their village, such would be
your luck, as certain as that the sun rises and sets at the pleasure of
the Lord.”
“Marry me to a woman who is not adorned with the comeliness of the
species!” responded the Doctor. “Of what crime have I been guilty, that
so grievous a punishment should await the offence? To marry a man
against the movements of his will, is to do a violence to human
nature!”
“Now, that you speak of natur’, I have hopes that the gift of reason
has not altogether deserted your brain,” returned the old man, with a
covert expression playing about the angles of his deep set eyes, which
betrayed he was not entirely destitute of humour. “Nay, they may
conceive you a remarkable subject for their kindness, and for that
matter marry you to five or six. I have known, in my days, favoured
chiefs who had numberless wives.”
“But why should they meditate this vengeance?” demanded the Doctor,
whose hair began to rise, as if each fibre was possessed of
sensibility; “what evil have I done?”
“It is the fashion of their kindness. When they come to learn that you
are a great medicine, they will adopt you in the tribe, and some mighty
chief will give you his name, and perhaps his daughter, or it may be a
wife or two of his own, who have dwelt long in his lodge, and of whose
value he is a judge by experience.”
“The Governor and Founder of natural harmony protect me!” ejaculated
the Doctor. “I have no affinity to a single consort, much less to
duplicates and triplicates of the class! I shall certainly essay a
flight from their abodes before I mingle in so violent a conjunction.”
“There is reason in your words; but why not attempt the race you speak
of now?”
The naturalist looked fearfully around, as if he had an inclination to
make an instant exhibition of his desperate intention; but the dusky
figures, who were riding on every side of him, seemed suddenly tripled
in number, and the darkness, that was already thickening on the
prairie, appeared in his eyes to possess the glare of high noon.
“It would be premature, and reason forbids it,” he answered. “Leave me,
venerable venator, to the council of my own thoughts, and when my plans
are properly classed, I will advise you of my resolutions.”
“Resolutions!” repeated the old man, shaking his head a little
contemptuously as he gave the rein to his horse, and allowed him to
mingle with the steeds of the savages. “Resolution is a word that is
talked of in the settlements, and felt on the borders. Does my brother
know the beast on which the Pale-face rides?” he continued, addressing
a gloomy looking warrior in his own tongue, and making a motion with
his arm that at the same time directed his attention to the naturalist
and the meek Asinus.
The Teton turned his eyes for a minute on the animal, but disdained to
manifest the smallest portion of that wonder he had felt, in common
with all his companions, on first viewing so rare a quadruped. The
trapper was not ignorant, that while asses and mules were beginning to
be known to those tribes who dwelt nearest the Mexicos, they were not
usually encountered so far north as the waters of La Platte. He
therefore managed to read the mute astonishment, that lay so deeply
concealed in the tawny visage of the savage, and took his measures
accordingly.
“Does my brother think that the rider is a warrior of the Pale-faces?”
he demanded, when he believed that sufficient time had elapsed, for a
full examination of the pacific mien of the naturalist.
The flash of scorn, which shot across the features of the Teton, was
visible, even by the dim light of the stars.
“Is a Dahcotah a fool?” was the answer.
“They are a wise nation, whose eyes are never shut; much do I wonder,
that they have not seen the great medicine of the Big-knives!”
“Wagh!” exclaimed his companion, suffering the whole of his amazement
to burst out of his dark rigid countenance at the surprise, like a
flash of lightning illuminating the gloom of midnight.
“The Dahcotah knows that my tongue is not forked. Let him open his eyes
wider. Does he not see a very great medicine?”
The light was not necessary to recall to the savage each feature in the
really remarkable costume and equipage of Dr. Battius. In common with
the rest of the band, and in conformity with the universal practice of
the Indians, this warrior, while he had suffered no gaze of idle
curiosity to disgrace his manhood, had not permitted a single
distinctive mark, which might characterise any one of the strangers, to
escape his vigilance. He knew the air, the stature, the dress, and the
features, even to the colour of the eyes and of the hair, of every one
of the Big-knives, whom he had thus strangely encountered, and deeply
had he ruminated on the causes, which could have led a party, so
singularly constituted, into the haunts of the rude inhabitants of his
native wastes. He had already considered the several physical powers of
the whole party, and had duly compared their abilities with what he
supposed might have been their intentions. Warriors they were not, for
the Big-knives, like the Siouxes, left their women in their villages
when they went out on the bloody path. The same objections applied to
them as hunters, and even as traders, the two characters under which
the white men commonly appeared in their villages. He had heard of a
great council, at which the Menahashah, or Long-knives, and the
Washsheomantiqua, or Spaniards, had smoked together, when the latter
had sold to the former their incomprehensible rights over those vast
regions, through which his nation had roamed, in freedom, for so many
ages. His simple mind had not been able to embrace the reasons why one
people should thus assume a superiority over the possessions of
another, and it will readily be perceived, that at the hint just
received from the trapper, he was not indisposed to fancy that some of
the hidden subtilty of that magical influence, of which he was so firm
a believer, was about to be practised by the unsuspecting subject of
their conversation, in furtherance of these mysterious claims.
Abandoning, therefore, all the reserve and dignity of his manner, under
the conscious helplessness of ignorance, he turned to the old man, and
stretching forth his arms, as if to denote how much he lay at his
mercy, he said—
“Let my father look at me. I am a wild man of the prairies; my body is
naked; my hands empty; my skin red. I have struck the Pawnees, the
Konzas, the Omahaws, the Osages, and even the Long-knives. I am a man
amid warriors, but a woman among the conjurors. Let my father speak:
the ears of the Teton are open. He listens like a deer to the step of
the cougar.”
“Such are the wise and uns’archable ways of One who alone knows good
from evil!” exclaimed the trapper, in English. “To some He grants
cunning, and on others He bestows the gift of manhood! It is humbling,
and it is afflicting to see so noble a creatur’ as this, who has fou’t
in many a bloody fray, truckling before his superstition like a beggar
asking for the bones you would throw to the dogs. The Lord will forgive
me for playing with the ignorance of the savage, for He knows I do it
in no mockery of his state, or in idle vaunting of my own; but in order
to save mortal life, and to give justice to the wronged, while I defeat
the deviltries of the wicked! Teton,” speaking again in the language of
the listener, “I ask you, is not that a wonderful medicine? If the
Dahcotahs are wise, they will not breathe the air he breathes, nor
touch his robes. They know, that the Wahconshecheh (bad spirit) loves
his own children, and will not turn his back on him that does them
harm.”
The old man delivered this opinion in an ominous and sententious
manner, and then rode apart as if he had said enough. The result
justified his expectations. The warrior, to whom he had addressed
himself, was not slow to communicate his important knowledge to the
rest of the rear-guard, and, in a very few moments, the naturalist was
the object of general observation and reverence. The trapper, who
understood that the natives often worshipped, with a view to
propitiate, the evil spirit, awaited the workings of his artifice, with
the coolness of one who had not the smallest interest in its effects.
It was not long before he saw one dark figure after another, lashing
his horse and galloping ahead into the centre of the band, until Weucha
alone remained nigh the persons of himself and Obed. The very dulness
of this grovelling-minded savage, who continued gazing at the supposed
conjuror with a sort of stupid admiration, opposed now the only
obstacle to the complete success of his artifice.
Thoroughly understanding the character of this Indian, the old man lost
no time in getting rid of him also. Riding to his side he said, in an
affected whisper—
“Has Weucha drunk of the milk of the Big-knives, to-day?”
“Hugh!” exclaimed the savage, every dull thought instantly recalled
from heaven to earth by the question.
“Because the great captain of my people, who rides in front, has a cow
that is never empty. I know it will not be long before he will say, Are
any of my red brethren dry?”
The words were scarcely uttered, before Weucha, in his turn, quickened
the gait of his beast, and was soon blended with the rest of the dark
group, who were riding, at a more moderate pace, a few rods in advance.
The trapper, who knew how fickle and sudden were the changes of a
savage mind, did not lose a moment in profiting by this advantage. He
loosened the reins of his own impatient steed, and in an instant he was
again at the side of Obed.
“Do you see the twinkling star, that is, may be, the length of four
rifles above the prairie; hereaway, to the North I mean?”
“Ay, it is of the constellation—-”
“A tut for your constellations, man; do you see the star I mean? Tell
me, in the English of the land, yes or no.”
“Yes.”
“The moment my back is turned, pull upon the rein of your ass, until
you lose sight of the savages. Then take the Lord for your dependence,
and yonder star for your guide. Turn neither to the right hand, nor to
the left, but make diligent use of your time, for your beast is not
quick of foot, and every inch of prairie you gain, is a day added to
your liberty, or to your life.”
Without waiting to listen to the queries, which the naturalist was
about to put, the old man again loosened the reins of his horse, and
presently he too was blended with the group in front.
Obed was now alone. Asinus willingly obeyed the hint which his master
soon gave, rather in desperation than with any very collected
understanding of the orders he had received, and checked his pace
accordingly. As the Tetons however rode at a hand-gallop, but a moment
of time was necessary, after the ass began to walk, to remove them
effectually from before the vision of his rider. Without plan,
expectation, or hope of any sort, except that of escaping from his
dangerous neighbours, the Doctor first feeling, to assure himself that
the package, which contained the miserable remnants of his specimens
and notes was safe at his crupper, turned the head of the beast in the
required direction, and kicking him with a species of fury, he soon
succeeded in exciting the speed of the patient animal into a smart run.
He had barely time to descend into a hollow and ascend the adjoining
swell of the prairie, before he heard, or fancied he heard, his name
shouted, in good English, from the throats of twenty Tetons. The
delusion gave a new impulse to his ardour; and no professor of the
saltant art ever applied himself with greater industry, than the
naturalist now used his heels on the ribs of Asinus. The conflict
endured for several minutes without interruption, and to all
appearances it might have continued to the present moment, had not the
meek temper of the beast become unduly excited. Borrowing an idea from
the manner in which his master exhibited his agitation, Asinus so far
changed the application of his own heels, as to raise them
simultaneously with a certain indignant flourish into the air, a
measure that instantly decided the controversy in his favour. Obed took
leave of his seat, as of a position no longer tenable, continuing,
however, the direction of his flight, while the ass, like a conqueror,
took possession of the field of battle, beginning to crop the dry
herbage, as the fruits of victory.
When Doctor Battius had recovered his feet, and rallied his faculties,
which were in a good deal of disorder from the hurried manner in which
he had abandoned his former situation, he returned in quest of his
specimens and of his ass. Asinus displayed enough of magnanimity to
render the interview amicable, and thenceforth the naturalist continued
the required route with very commendable industry, but with a much more
tempered discretion.
In the mean time, the old trapper had not lost sight of the important
movements that he had undertaken to control. Obed had not been mistaken
in supposing that he was already missed and sought, though his
imagination had corrupted certain savage cries into the well-known
sounds that composed his own latinized name. The truth was simply this.
The warriors of the rearguard had not failed to apprise those in front
of the mysterious character, with which it had pleased the trapper to
invest the unsuspecting naturalist. The same untutored admiration,
which on the receipt of this intelligence had driven those in the rear
to the front, now drove many of the front to the rear. The Doctor was
of course absent, and the outcry was no more than the wild yells, which
were raised in the first burst of savage disappointment.
But the authority of Mahtoree was prompt to aid the ingenuity of the
trapper, in suppressing these dangerous sounds. When order was
restored, and the former was made acquainted with the reason why his
young men had betrayed so strong a mark of indiscretion, the old man,
who had taken a post at his elbow, saw, with alarm, the gleam of keen
distrust that flashed in his swarthy visage.
“Where is your conjuror?” demanded the chief, turning suddenly to the
trapper, as if he meant to make him responsible for the re-appearance
of Obed.
“Can I tell my brother the number of the stars? The ways of a great
medicine are not like the ways of other men.”
“Listen to me, grey-head, and count my words,” continued the other,
bending on his rude saddle-bow, like some chevalier of a more civilised
race, and speaking in the haughty tones of absolute power; “the
Dahcotahs have not chosen a woman for their chief; when Mahtoree feels
the power of a great medicine, he will tremble; until then he will look
with his own eyes, without borrowing sight from a Pale-face. If your
conjuror is not with his friends in the morning, my young men shall
look for him. Your ears are open. Enough.”
The trapper was not sorry to find that so long a respite was granted.
He had before found reason to believe, that the Teton partisan was one
of those bold spirits, who overstep the limits which use and education
fix to the opinions of man, in every state of society, and he now saw
plainly that he must adopt some artifice to deceive him, different from
that which had succeeded so well with his followers. The sudden
appearance of the rock, however, which hove up, a bleak and ragged
mass, out of the darkness ahead, put an end for the present to the
discourse, Mahtoree giving all his thoughts to the execution of his
designs on the rest of the squatter’s movables. A murmur ran through
the band, as each dark warrior caught a glimpse of the desired haven,
after which the nicest ear might have listened in vain, to catch a
sound louder than the rustling of feet among the tall grass of the
prairie.
But the vigilance of Esther was not easily deceived. She had long
listened anxiously to the suspicious sounds, which approached the rock
across the naked waste, nor had the sudden outcry been unheard by the
unwearied sentinels of the rock. The savages, who had dismounted at
some little distance, had not time to draw around the base of the hill
in their customary silent and insidious manner, before the voice of the
Amazon was raised, demanding—
“Who is beneath? Answer, for your lives! Siouxes or devils, I fear ye
not!”
No answer was given to this challenge, every warrior halting where he
stood, confident that his dusky form was blended with the shadows of
the plain. It was at this moment that the trapper determined to escape.
He had been left with the rest of his friends, under the surveillance
of those who were assigned to the duty of watching the horses, and as
they all continued mounted, the moment appeared favourable to his
project. The attention of the guards was drawn to the rock, and a heavy
cloud driving above them at that instant, obscured even the feeble
light which fell from the stars. Leaning on the neck of his horse, the
old man muttered—
“Where is my pup? Where is it—Hector—where is it, dog?”
The hound caught the well-known sounds, and answered by a whine of
friendship, which threatened to break out into one of his piercing
howls. The trapper was in the act of raising himself from this
successful exploit, when he felt the hand of Weucha grasping his
throat, as if determined to suppress his voice by the very unequivocal
process of strangulation. Profiting by the circumstance, he raised
another low sound, as in the natural effort of breathing, which drew a
second responsive cry from the faithful hound. Weucha instantly
abandoned his hold of the master in order to wreak his vengeance on the
dog. But the voice of Esther was again heard, and every other design
was abandoned in order to listen.
“Ay, whine and deform your throats as you may, ye imps of darkness,”
she said, with a cracked but scornful laugh; “I know ye; tarry, and ye
shall have light for your misdeeds. Put in the coal, Phoebe; put in the
coal; your father and the boys shall see that they are wanted at home,
to welcome their guests.”
As she spoke, a strong light, like that of a brilliant star, was seen
on the very pinnacle of the rock; then followed a forked flame, which
curled for a moment amid the windings of an enormous pile of brush, and
flashing upward in an united sheet, it wavered to and fro, in the
passing air, shedding a bright glare on every object within its
influence. A taunting laugh was heard from the height, in which the
voices of all ages mingled, as though they triumphed at having so
successfully exposed the treacherous intentions of the Tetons.
The trapper looked about him to ascertain in what situations he might
find his friends. True to the signals, Middleton and Paul had drawn a
little apart, and now stood ready, by every appearance, to commence
their flight at the third repetition of the cry. Hector had escaped his
savage pursuer, and was again crouching at the heels of his master’s
horse. But the broad circle of light was gradually increasing in extent
and power, and the old man, whose eye and judgment so rarely failed
him, patiently awaited a more propitious moment for his enterprise.
“Now, Ishmael, my man, if sight and hand ar’ true as ever, now is the
time to work upon these Redskins, who claim to own all your property,
even to wife and children! Now, my good man, prove both breed and
character!”
A distant shout was heard in the direction of the approaching party of
the squatter, assuring the female garrison that succour was not far
distant. Esther answered to the grateful sounds by a cracked cry of her
own, lifting her form, in the first burst of exultation, above the rock
in a manner to be visible to all below. Not content with this dangerous
exposure of her person, she was in the act of tossing her arms in
triumph, when the dark figure of Mahtoree shot into the light and
pinioned them to her side. The forms of three other warriors glided
across the top of the rock, looking like naked demons flitting among
the clouds. The air was filled with the brands of the beacon, and a
heavy darkness succeeded, not unlike that of the appalling instant,
when the last rays of the sun are excluded by the intervening mass of
the moon. A yell of triumph burst from the savages in their turn, and
was rather accompanied than followed by a long, loud whine from Hector.
In an instant the old man was between the horses of Middleton and Paul,
extending a hand to the bridle of each, in order to check the
impatience of their riders.
“Softly, softly,” he whispered, “their eyes are as marvellously shut
for the minute, as if the Lord had stricken them blind; but their ears
are open. Softly, softly; for fifty rods, at least, we must move no
faster than a walk.”
The five minutes of doubt that succeeded appeared like an age to all
but the trapper. As their sight was gradually restored, it seemed to
each that the momentary gloom, which followed the extinction of the
beacon, was to be replaced by as broad a light as that of noon-day.
Gradually the old man, however, suffered the animals to quicken their
steps, until they had gained the centre of one of the prairie bottoms.
Then laughing in his quiet manner he released the reins and said—
“Now, let them give play to their legs; but keep on the old fog to
deaden the sounds.”
It is needless to say how cheerfully he was obeyed. In a few more
minutes they ascended and crossed a swell of the land, after which the
flight was continued at the top of their horses’ speed, keeping the
indicated star in view, as the labouring bark steers for the light
which points the way to a haven and security.