The sun shone out clearly and brilliantly, and the tree-tops, from which
the winds had already shaken the rain, rustled freshly to the more
moderate breezes that had succeeded them; and Roland, animated by the
change, by the brisk pace at which he was riding, and by the hope of soon
overtaking his fellow-exiles, met the joyous look of his kinswoman with a
countenance no longer disturbed by care.
And yet there was a solemnity in the scene around them that might have
called for other and more sombre feelings. The forest into which they had
plunged, was of the grand and gloomy character which the fertility of the
soil and the absence of the axe for a thousand years imprint on the
western woodlands, especially in the vicinity of rivers. Oaks, elms, and
walnuts, tulip-trees and beeches, with other monarchs of the wilderness,
lifted their trunks like so many pillars, green with mosses and ivies,
and swung their majestic arms, tufted with mistletoe, far over head,
supporting a canopy,--a series of domes and arches without end,--that had
for ages overshadowed the soil. Their roots, often concealed by a billowy
undergrowth of shrubs and bushes, oftener by brakes of the gigantic and
evergreen cane, forming fences as singular as they were, for the most
part, impenetrable, were yet at times visible, where open glades
stretched through the woods, broken only by buttressed trunks, and by the
stems of colossal vines, hanging from the boughs like cables, or the arms
of an oriental banyan; while their luxuriant tops rolled in union with
the leafy roofs that supported them. The vague and shadowy prospects
opened by these occasional glades stirred the imagination, and produced a
feeling of solitude in the mind, greater perhaps than would have been
felt had the view been continually bounded by a green wall of canes.
The road, if such it could be called, through this noble forest was, like
that the emigrants had so long pursued through the wilderness, a mere
path, designated, where the wood was open, by blazes, or axe-marks on the
trees; and, where the undergrowth was dense, a narrow track cut through
the canes and shrubs, scarce sufficient in many places to allow the
passage of two horsemen abreast; though when, as was frequently the case,
it followed the ancient routes of the bisons to fords and salt-licks, it
presented, as Bruce had described, a wide and commodious highway,
practicable even to wheeled carriages.
The gait of the little party over this road was at first rapid and cheery
enough; but by and by, having penetrated deeper into the wood, where
breezes and sunbeams were alike unknown, they found their progress
impeded by a thousand pools and sloughs, the consequences of the storm,
that stretched from brake to brake. These interruptions promised to make
the evening journey longer than Roland had anticipated; but he caught, at
intervals, the fresh foot-prints of his comrades in the soil where it was
not exposed to the rains, and reflected with pleasure, that, travelling
even at the slowest pace, he must reach the ford where he expected to
find them encamped, long before dark. He felt, therefore, no uneasiness
at the delay; nor did he think any of those obstacles to rapid progress a
cause for regret that gave him the better opportunity to interchange
ideas with his fair kinswoman.
His only concern arose from the conduct of his guide, a rough,
dark-visaged man, who had betrayed, from the first moment of starting, a
sullen countenance, indicative of his disinclination to the duty assigned
him; which feeling evidently grew stronger the further he advanced,
nowithstanding sundry efforts Forrester made to bring him to a better
humour. He displayed no desire to enter into conversation with the
soldier, replying to such questions as were directed at him with a
brevity little short of rudeness; and his smothered exclamations of
impatience, whenever his delicate followers slackened their pace at a bog
or gully, which he had himself dashed through with a manly contempt of
mud and mire, somewhat stirred the choler of the young captain.
They had, perhaps, followed him a distance of four miles into the forest,
when the occurrence of a wider and deeper pool than ordinary producing a
corresponding delay on the part of Roland, who was somewhat averse to
plunging with Edith up to the saddle-girths in mire, drew from him a very
unmannerly, though not the less hearty execration on the delicacy of
"them thar persons who," as he expressed it, "stumped at a mud-hole as
skearily as if every tadpole in it war a screeching Injun."
Of this explosion of ill-temper Roland took no notice, until he had, with
the assistance of Emperor, the negro, effected a safe passage for Edith
over the puddle; in the course of which he had leisure to observe that
the path now struck into a wide buffalo-street, that swept away through a
wilderness of wood and cane-brake, in nearly a straight line, for a
considerable distance. He observed, also, that the road looked drier and
less broken than usual; his satisfaction at which had the good effect of
materially abating the rage into which he had been thrown by the uncivil
bearing of the guide. Nevertheless, he had no sooner brought his
kinswoman safely to land, than, leaving her in the charge of Emperor, he
galloped up to the side of his conductor, and gave vent to his
indignation in the following pithy query:--
"My friend," said he, "will you have the goodness to inform me whether
you have ever lived in a land where courtesy to strangers and kindness
and respect to women are ranked among the virtues of manhood?"
The man replied only by a fierce and angry stare; and plying the ribs of
his horse with his heels, he dashed onwards. But Roland kept at his side,
not doubting that a little more wholesome reproof would be of profit to
the man, as well as advantageous to his own interests.
"I ask that question," he continued, "because a man from such a land,
seeing strangers, and one of them a female, struggling in a bog, would,
instead of standing upon dry land, making disrespectful remarks, have
done his best to help them through it."
"Strannger," said the man, drawing up his horse, and looking,
notwithstanding his anger, as if he felt the rebuke to be in a measure
just, "I am neither hog nor dog, Injun nor outlandish niggur, but a
man--a man, strannger! outside and inside, in flesh, blood, and spirit,
jest as my Maker made me; though thar may be something of the scale-bark
and parsimmon about me, I'll not deny; for I've heer'd on it before. I
axes the lady's pardon, if I've offended: and thar's the eend on't."
"The end of it," said Forrester, "will be much more satisfactory, if you
give no further occasion for complaint. But now," he continued, Edith
drawing nigh, "let us ride on and as fast as you like; for the road seems
both open and good."
"Strannger," said the guide, without budging an inch, "you have axed me a
question; and, according to the fa'r rule of the woods, it's my right to
ax you another."
"Very well," said Roland, assenting to the justice of the rule; "ask it,
and he brief."
"What you war saying of the road is true; thar it goes, wide, open,
cl'ar, and straight, with as good a fence on both sides of it to keep in
stragglers, as war ever made of ash, oak, or chestnut rails,--though it's
nothing but a natteral bank of cane-brake: and so it runs, jest as cl'ar
and wide, all the way to the river."
"I am glad to hear it," was the soldier's reply; "but now for your
question?"
"Hy'ar it is," said the man, flinging out his hand with angry energy; "I
wants to ax of you, as a sodger, for I've heer'd you're of the reggelar
sarvice, whether it's a wiser and more Christian affa'r, when thar's
Injuns in the land a murdering of your neighbours' wives and children,
and all the settlement's in a screech and a cry, to send an able-bodied
man to fight them; or to tote him off, a day's journey thar and back
ag'in, to track a road that a blind man on a blind horse could travel,
without axing questions of anybody? Thar's my question," he added,
somewhat vehemently; "and now let's have a sodger's answer!"
"My good friend," said Roland, a little offended, and yet more
embarrassed, by the interrogatory, "none can tell better than yourself
how much, or how little occasion I may have for a guide. Your question,
therefore, I leave you to answer yourself. If you think your duty calls
you to abandon a woman in the wild woods to such guidance as one wholly
unacquainted with them can give, you can depart as soon as you think fit;
for I cannot--"
The guide gave him no time to finish the sentence. "You're right,
strannger," he cried; "thar is your road, as plain as the way up a
hickory, b'aring to a camp of old friends and acquaintances,--and hy'ar
is mine, running right slap among fighting Injuns!"
And with that he turned his horse's head, and flourishing his right hand,
armed with the ever constant rifle, above his own, and uttering a whoop
expressive of the wild pleasure he felt at being released from his
ignoble duty, he dashed across the pool, and galloped in a moment out of
sight, leaving Roland and his party confounded at the desertion.
"An outlandish niggur'!" muttered old Emperor, on whom this expression of
the guide had produced no very favourable effect; "guess the gemman white
man is a niggur himself, and a rogue, and a potater, or whatsomever you
call 'em! Leab a lady and a gemman lost in the woods, and neither take
'em on nor take 'em back!--lor-a-massy!"
To this half-soliloquised expression of indignation the soldier felt
inclined to add a few bitter invectives of his own; but Edith treating
the matter lightly, and affecting to be better pleased at the rude man's
absence than she had been with his company, he abated his own wrath, and
acknowledged that the desertion afforded the best proof of the safety of
the road; since he could not believe that the fellow, with all his
roughness and inhumanity, would have been so base as to leave them while
really surrounded by difficulties. He remembered enough of Bruce's
description of the road, which he had taken care should be minute and
exact, to feel persuaded that the principal obstructions were now over,
and that, as the guide had said, there was no possibility of wandering
from the path. They had already travelled nearly half the distance to the
river, and to accomplish the remainder, they had yet four hours of
day-light. He saw no reason why they should not proceed alone, trusting
to their good fate for a fortunate issue to their enterprise. To return
to the fort would be only to separate themselves further from their
friends, without ensuring them a better guide, or, indeed, any guide at
all, since it was highly probable they would find it only occupied by
women and children. In a word, he satisfied himself that nothing remained
for him but to continue his journey, and trust to his own sagacity to end
it to advantage.
He set out accordingly, followed by Edith and Emperor, the latter
bringing up the rear in true military style, and handling his rifle, as
if almost desirous of finding an opportunity to use it in the service of
his young mistress.
In this manner, they travelled onwards with but little interruption for
more than a mile; and Roland was beginning anxiously to look for the path
that led to the Lower Ford, when Emperor galloped to the van and brought
the party to a halt by reporting that he heard the sound of hoofs
following at a distance behind.
"Perhaps,--perhaps," said Edith, while the gleam of her eye, shining with
sudden pleasure, indicated how little real satisfaction she had felt at
the desertion of their conductor,--"perhaps it is the sour fellow, the
guide, coming back, ashamed of his misconduct."
"We will soon see," said Roland, turning his horse to reconnoitre; a
proceeding that was, however, rendered unnecessary by the hurried speed
of the comer, who, dashing suddenly round a bend in the road, disclosed
to his wondering eyes, not the tall frame and sullen aspect of the guide,
but the lighter figure and fairer visage of the girl, Telie Doe. She was
evidently arrayed for travel, having donned her best attire of blue
cloth, with a little cap of the same colour on her head, under which her
countenance, beaming with exercise and anxiety, looked, in both Roland's
and Edith's eyes, extremely pretty; much more so, indeed, than either had
deemed it to be; while, secured behind the cushion or pillion, on which
she rode,--for not a jot of saddle had she,--was a little bundle
containing such worldly comforts as were necessary to one seriously bent
upon a journey. She was mounted upon a sprightly pony, which she managed
with more address and courage than would have been augured from her
former timorous demeanour; and it was plain that she had put him to his
mettle through the woods, with but little regard to the sloughs and
puddles which had so greatly embarrassed the fair Edith. Indeed, it
appeared that the exercise which had infused animation into her
countenance had bestowed a share also on her spirit: for, having checked
her horse an instant, and looked a little abashed at the sudden sight of
the strangers, she recovered herself in a moment, and riding boldly up,
she proceeded, without waiting to be questioned, to explain the cause of
her appearance. She had met the deserter, she said, returning to the
Station, and thinking it was not right the stranger lady should be left
without a guide in the woods, she had ridden after her to offer _her_
services.
"It was at least somewhat surprising," Roland could not avoid saying,
"that the fellow should have found you already equipt in the woods?"
At this innuendo, Telie was somewhat embarrassed, but more so, when,
looking towards Edith, as if to address her reply to her, she caught the
inquiring look of the latter, made still more expressive by the
recollection which Edith retained of the earnest entreaty Telie had made
the preceding night, to be taken into her service.
"I will not tell you a falsehood, ma'am," she said at last, with a firm
voice; "I was not on the road by chance; I came to follow you. I knew the
man you had to guide you was unwilling to go, and I thought he would
leave you, as he has done. And, besides, the road is not so clear as it
seems; it branches off to so many of the salt-licks, and the tracks are
so washed away by the rains, that none but one that knows it can be sure
of keeping it long."
"And how," inquired Edith, very pointedly,--for, in her heart, she
suspected the little damsel was determined to enter her service, whether
she would or not, and had actually run away from her friends for the
purpose,--"how, after you have led us to our party, do you expect to
return again to your friends?"
"If you will let me go with you as far as Jackson's Station" (the
settlement at which it was originally determined the emigrants should
pass the night), said the maiden humbly, "I will find friends there who
will take me home; and perhaps our own people will come for me, for they
are often visiting about among the Stations."
This declaration, made in a tone that convinced Edith the girl had given
over all hopes of being received into her protection, unless she could
remove opposition by the services she might render on the way, pointed
out also an easy mode of getting rid of her when a separation should be
advisable, and thus removed the only objection she felt to accept her
proffered guidance. As for Roland, however, he expressed much natural
reluctance to drag a young and inexperienced female so far from her home,
leaving her afterwards to return as she might. But he perceived that her
presence gave courage to his kinswoman; he felt that her acquaintance
with the path was more to be relied upon than his own sagacity; and he
knew not, if he even rejected her offered services altogether, how he
could with any grace communicate the refusal, and leave her abandoned to
her own discretion in the forest. He felt a little inclined, at first, to
wonder at the interest she seemed to have taken in his cousin's welfare;
but, by and by, he reflected that perhaps, after all, her motive lay in
no better or deeper feeling than a mere girlish desire to make her way
to the neighbouring station (twenty miles make but a neighbourly distance
in the wilderness), to enjoy a frolic among her gadding acquaintance.
This reflection ended the struggle in his mind; and turning to her with a
smiling countenance, he said, "If you are so sure of getting home, my
pretty maid, you may be as certain we will be glad of your company and
guidance. But let us delay no longer."
The girl, starting at these words with alacrity, switched her pony and
darted to the head of the little party, as if addressing herself to her
duty in a business-like way; and there she maintained her position with
great zeal, although Roland and Edith endeavoured, for kindness' sake, to
make her sensible they desired her to ride with them as a companion, and
not at a distance, like a pioneer. The faster they spurred, however, the
more zealously she applied her switch, and her pony being both spirited
and fresh, while their own horses were both not a little the worse for
their long journey, she managed to keep in front, maintaining a gait that
promised in a short time to bring them to the banks of the river.
They had ridden perhaps a mile in this manner, when a sudden opening in
the cane-brake on the right hand, at a place where stood a beech-tree,
riven by a thunderbolt in former years, but still spreading its shattered
ruins in the air, convinced Roland that he had at last reached the road
to the Lower Ford, which Bruce had so strictly cautioned him to avoid.
What, therefore, was his surprise, when Telie, having reached the tree,
turned at once into the by-road, leaving the direct path which they had
so long pursued, and which still swept away before them, as spacious and
uninterrupted, save by occasional pools, as ever.
"You are wrong," he cried, checking his steed.
"This is the road, sir," said the girl, though in some trepidation.
"By no means," said Forrester, "that path leads to the Lower Ford; here
is the shivered beech, which the colonel described to me."
"Yes, sir," said Telie, hurriedly; "it is the mark; they call it the
Crooked Finger-post."
"And a crooked road it is like to lead us, if we follow it," said Roland.
"It leads to the Lower Ford, and is not therefore _our_ road. I remember
the Colonel's direction."
"Yes, sir," said Telie, anxiously,--"to take the beech on the right
shoulder, and then down four miles, to the water."
"Precisely so," said the soldier; "with only this difference (for, go
which way we will, the tree being on the right side of each path, we must
still keep it on the right shoulder), that the road to the Upper Ford,
which I am now travelling, is the one for our purposes. Of this I am
confident."
"And yet, Roland," said Edith, somewhat alarmed at this difference of
opinion, where unanimity was so much more desirable, "the young woman
should know best."
"Yes!" cried Telie, eagerly; "I have lived here almost seven years, and
been across the river more than as many times. This is the shortest and
safest way."
"It may be both the shortest and safest," said Forrester, whose respect
for the girl's knowledge of the woods and ability to guide him through
them, began to be vastly diminished; "but _this_ is the road Mr. Bruce
described. Of this I am positive; and to make the matter still more
certain, if need be, here are horse-tracks, fresh, numerous, scarcely
washed by the rain, and undoubtedly made by our old companions; whereas
_that_ path seems not to have been trodden for a twelve-month."
"I will guide you right," faltered Telie, with anxious voice.
"My good girl," said the soldier, kindly, but positively, "you must allow
me to doubt your ability to do that,--at least, on that path. Here is our
road; and we must follow it."
He resumed it, as he spoke, and Edith, conquered by his arguments, which
seemed decisive, followed him; but looking back, after having proceeded a
few steps, she saw the baffled guide still lingering on the rejected
path, and wringing her hands with grief and disappointment.
"You will not remain behind us?" said Edith, riding back to her: "You
see, my cousin is positive: you must surely be mistaken?"
"I am _not_ mistaken," said the girl, earnestly; "and, oh! he will repent
that ever he took his own way through this forest."
"How can that be? What cause have you to say so?"
"I do not know," murmured the damsel, in woeful perplexity; "but--but,
sometimes, that road is dangerous."
"Sometimes all roads are so," said Edith, her patience failing, when she
found Telie could give no better reason for her opposition. "Let us
continue: my kinsman is waiting us, and we must lose no more time by
delay."
With these words, she again trotted forward, and Telie, after hesitating
a moment, thought fit to follow.
But now the animation that had, a few moments before, beamed forth in
every look and gesture of the maiden, gave place to dejection of spirits,
and even, as Edith thought, to alarm. She seemed as anxious now to linger
in the rear as she had been before to preserve a bold position in front.
Her eyes wandered timorously from brake to tree, as if in fear lest each
should conceal a lurking enemy; and often, as Edith looked back, she was
struck with the singularly mournful and distressed expression of her
countenance.