The light struck by the negro was soon succeeded by a fire, for which
ample materials lay ready at hand among the ruins; and as it blazed up
from the broken and long deserted hearth, the travellers could better
view the dismal aspect of the cabin. It consisted, as has been mentioned,
of but a single remaining apartment, with walls of logs, from whose
chinks the clay, with which they had been originally plastered, had long
since vanished, with here and there a fragment of a log itself, leaving a
thousand gaps for the admission of wind and rain. The ceiling of poles
(for it had once possessed a kind of garret) had fallen down under the
weight of the rotting roof, of which but a small portion remained, and
that in the craziest condition; and the floor of _puncheons_, or planks
of split logs, was in a state of equal dilapidation, more than half of it
having rotted away, and mingled with the earth on which it reposed. Doors
and windows there were none; but two mouldering gaps in the front and the
rear walls, and another of greater magnitude opening, from the side, into
what had once been the hall or passage (though now a platform heaped with
fragments of charred timber), showed where the narrow entrance and
loop-hole windows had once existed. The former was without leaf or
defence of any kind, unless such might have been found in three or four
logs standing against the wall hard by, whence they could be easily
removed and piled against the opening; for which purpose, Roland did not
doubt they had been used, and by the houseless Nathan himself. But a
better protection was offered by the ruins of the other apartment, which
had fallen down in such a way as almost to block up the door, leaving a
passage in and out, only towards the rear of the building; and, in case
of sudden attack and seizure of this sole entrance, there were several
gaps at the bottom of the wall, through one of which, in particular, it
would be easy enough to effect a retreat. At this place, the floor was
entirely wanting, and the earth below washed into a gully communicating
with the rocky ravine, of which it might be considered the head.
But the looks of the soldier did not dwell long upon the dreary spectacle
of ruin; they were soon cast upon the countenance of Edith, concealed so
long by darkness. It was even wanner and paler than he feared to find it,
and her eye shone with an unnatural lustre, as it met his own. She
extended her hands and placed them in his, gazed upon him piercingly, but
without speaking, or indeed seeming able to utter a single word.
"Be of good heart," he said, replying to the look of inquiry; "we are
unfortunate, Edith, but we are safe."
"Thank Heaven!" she exclaimed, but more wildly than fervently: "I have
been looking every moment to see you shot dead at my feet! Would I had
died, Roland, my brother, before I brought you to this fatal land--But I
distress you! Well, I will not be frightened more. But is not this an
adventure for a woman that never before looked upon a cut finger without
fainting? Truly, Roland,--'truly,' as friend Nathan says,--it is as
ridiculous as frightful: and then this cabin, where they killed so many
poor women and children,--is it not a ridiculous lodging place for Edith
Forrester? a canopy of clouds, a couch of clay, with owls and snakes for
my bed-fellows--truly, truly, truly, it is very ridiculous!"
It seemed, for a moment, as if the maiden's effort to exchange her
melancholy and terror for a more joyous feeling, would have resulted in
producing even greater agitation than before; but the soothing words of
Roland, and the encouraging countenance maintained by Telie Doe, who
seemed little affected by their forlorn situation, gradually tranquilised
her mind, and enabled her the better to preserve the air of levity and
mirthfulness, which she so vainly attempted at first to assume. This
moment of calm Roland took advantage of to apprise her of the necessity
of recruiting her spirits with a few hours' asleep; for which purpose he
began to look about him for some suitable place in which to strew her a
bed of fern and leaves.
"Why, here is one strewn for me already," she cried, with an affected
laugh, pointing to a corner, in which lay a mass of leaves so green and
fresh that they looked as if plucked but a day or two before: "truly,
Nathan has not invited me to his hiding-place to lodge me meanly (Heaven
forgive me for laughing at the poor man; for we owe him our lives!) nay,
nor to send me supperless to bed. See!" she added, pointing to a small
brazen kettle, which her quick eye detected among the leaves, and which
was soon followed by a second that Emperor stirred up from its
concealment, and both of them, as was soon perceived, still retaining the
odour of a recent savoury stew: "Look well, Emperor: where the kitchen
is, the larder cannot be far distant. I warrant we shall find that Nathan
has provided us a good supper."
"Such, perhaps, as a woodman only can eat," said Roland, who, somewhat
surprised at the superfluous number of Nathan's valuables (for to Nathan,
he doubted not, they belonged), had begun stirring the leaves, and
succeeded in raking up with his rifle, which he had not laid aside, a
little earthen pouch, well stored with parched corn. "A strange fellow,
this Nathan," he muttered: "he really spoke as if he had not visited the
ruin for a considerable period; whereas it is evident he must have slept
here last night. But he seems to affect mystery in all that concerns his
own private movements--it is the character of his persuasion."
While Roland, with the females, was thus laying hands, and speculating,
upon the supposed chattels of their conductor, Nathan himself entered the
apartment, betraying some degree of agitation in his countenance; whilst
the faithful Peter, who followed at his side, manifested equal
uneasiness, by snuffing the air, whining, and rubbing himself frequently
against his master's legs.
"Friends," he cried, abruptly, "Peter talks too plainly to be mistaken:
there is mischief nigh at hand, though where, or how it can be, sinner
and weak foolish man that I am, I know not: we must leave warm fires and
soft beds, and take refuge again in the woods."
This unexpected announcement again banished the blood from Edith's
cheeks. She had, on his entrance, caught the pouch of corn from Roland's
hands, intending to present it to the guide, with some such light
expressions as should convince her kinsman of her recovered spirits; but
the visage and words of Nathan struck her dumb, and she stood holding
it in her hand, without speaking a word, until it caught Nathan's eye. He
snatched it from her grasp, surveying it with astonishment and even
alarm, and only ceased to look at it, when little Peter, who had run into
the corner and among the bed of leaves, uttered a whine louder than
before. The pouch dropped from Nathan's hand as his eye fell upon the
shining-kettles, on which he gazed as if petrified.
"What, in Heaven's name, is the matter!" demanded Roland, himself taking
the alarm: "are you frighted at your own kettles?"
"Mine!" cried Nathan, clasping his hands, and looking terror and remorse
together--"If thee will kill me, friend, thee will scarce do amiss; for,
miserable, blind sinner that I am, I have led thee poor luckless women
into the very lion's den! into the hiding-place and head-quarters of the
very cut-throats that is seeking to destroy thee! Up and away--does thee
not hear Peter howling at the door? Hist! Peter, hist!--Truly, this is a
pretty piece of business for thee, Nathan Slaughter!--Does thee not hear
them close at hand?"
"I hear the hooting of an owl and the answer of his fellow," replied
Roland; but his words were cut short by a second howl from Peter, and the
cry of his master, "Up, if thee be not besotted; drag thee women by the
hands and follow me."
With these words, Nathan was leaping towards the door, when a cry from
Roland arrested him. He looked round and perceived Edith had fainted in
the soldier's arms. "I will save the poor thing for thee--help thou the
other," he cried, and snatching her up as if she had been but a feather,
he was again in the act of springing to the door, when brought to a stand
by a far more exciting impediment. A shriek from Telie Doe, uttered in
sudden terror, was echoed by a laugh, strangely wild, harsh, guttural,
and expressive of equal triumph and derision, coming from the door;
looking to which the eyes of Nathan and the soldier fell upon a tall and
naked Indian, shorn and painted, who, rifle in hand, the grim smile yet
writhing on his features, and exclaiming with a mockery of friendly
accost, "_Bo-zhoo_,[8] brudders,--Injun good friend!" was stepping that
moment into the hovel; and as if that spectacle and those sounds were not
enough to chill the heart's blood of the spectators, there were seen over
his shoulders, the gleaming eyes, and heard behind his back, the malign
laughter of three or four equally wild and ferocious companions.
[Footnote 8: _Bo-zhoo_--a corruption of the French _bon jour_, a word of
salutation adopted by Western Indians from the _Voyageurs_ of Canada, and
used by them with great zeal by night as well as by day.]
"To the door, if thee is a man,--rush!" cried Nathan, with a voice
more like the blast of a bugle than the tone of a frighted man of peace;
and casting Edith from his arms, he set the example of attack or
flight--Roland scarcely knew which,--by leaping against the breast of the
daring intruder. Both fell together across the threshold, and Roland
obeying the call with desperate and frantic ardour, stumbled over their
bodies, pitching headlong into the passage, whereby he escaped the
certain death that otherwise awaited him, three several rifle-shots
having been that instant poured upon him from a distance of scarce as
many feet.
"Strike, if thee conscience permits thee!" he heard the voice of
Nathan cry in his ears, and the next moment, a shot from the interior
of the hovel, heralded by a quavering cry from the faithful
Emperor,--"Lorra-gor! nebber harm an Injun in my life!" struck the
hatchet from the shattered hand of a foeman, who had taken advantage of
his downfall to aim a fatal blow at him while rising. A yell of pain came
from the maimed and baffled warrior, who, springing over the blackened
ruins before the door, escaped the stroke of the clubbed rifle which the
soldier aimed at him in return, the piece having been discharged by the
fall. The cry of the flying assailant was echoed by what seemed in
Roland's ears the yells of fifty supporters, two of whom he saw within
six feet of him, brandishing their hatchets, as if in the act of flinging
them at his almost defenceless person. It was at this moment that he
experienced aid from a quarter whence it was almost least expected; a
rifle was discharged from the ravine, and as one of the fierce foes
suddenly dropped, mortally wounded upon the floor, he heard the voice of
Pardon, the Yankee, crying in tones of desperation, "When there is no
dodging 'em, then I'm the man for 'em, or it a'n't no matter!"
"Bravo! bravely done, Emperor and Dodge both!" cried Roland, to whom this
happy and quite unexpected display of courage from his followers, and its
successful results, imparted a degree of assurance and hope not before
felt; for, indeed, up to this moment, his feeling had been the mere
frenzy of despair--"Courage, and rush on!" And with these words, he did
not hesitate to dash against the remaining foe, striking up the uplifted
hatchet with his rifle, and endeavouring with the same effort to dash his
weapon into the warrior's face. But the former part only of the manoeuvre
succeeded; the tomahawk was indeed dashed aside, but the rifle was torn
from his own grasp, and the next moment he was clutched as in the embrace
of a bear, and pressed with suffocating force upon the breast of his
undaunted adversary.
"Brudder!" growled the savage, and the foam flew from his grinning
lips, advanced until they were almost in contact with the soldier's
face--"Brudder!" he cried, as he felt his triumph, and twined his arms
still more tightly around Roland's frame, "Long-knife nothing! hab a
scalp, Shawnee!"
With these words, he sprang from the broken floor of the passage, on
which the encounter began, and dragging the soldier along, made as if he
would have carried him off alive. But although in the grasp of a man of
much superior strength, the resolution and activity of Roland preserved
him from a destiny at once so fearful and ignoble. He exerted the
strength he possessed at the instant when the bulky captor was springing
from the floor to the broken ground beneath, and with such effect, that,
though it did not entirely release him from his grasp, it carried them
headlong to the earth together; whence, after a brief and blind struggle,
both rose together, each clutching at the weapon that promised soonest to
terminate the contest. The pistols of the soldier, which, as well as
Emperor's, the peaceful Nathan had taken the precaution to carry with him
into the ruin, had been forgotten in the suddenness and hurry of the
assault; his rifle had been wrested from his hands, and thrown he knew
not where. The knife, which, like a true adventurer of the forest, he had
buckled in his belt, was ready to be grasped; but the instinct of long
habits carried his hand to the broad-sword, which was yet strapped to his
thigh; and this, as he rose, he attempted to draw, not doubting that a
single blow of the trusty steel would rid him of his brown enemy. But the
Shawnee, as bold, as alert, and far more discreet, better acquainted,
too, with those savage personal rencontres which, make up so large a
portion of Indian warfare, had drawn his knife before he had yet regained
his footing; and before the Virginian's sword was half unsheathed, the
hand that tugged at it was again seized and held as in a vice, while the
warrior, elevating his own free weapon above his head, prepared, with a
laugh and whoop of triumph, to plunge it into the soldier's throat. His
countenance, grim with warpaint, grimmer with ferocious exultation, was
distinctly perceived, the bright blaze of the fire shining through the
gaps of the hovel, so as to illuminate every feature; and Roland, as he
strove in vain to clutch at the uplifted arm so as to avert the
threatened blow, could distinguish every motion of the weapon, and every
change of his foeman's visage. But he did not even then despair, for he
was, in all circumstances affecting only himself, a man of true
intrepidity; and it was only when, on a sudden, the light wholly vanished
from the cabin, as if the brands had been scattered and trodden out, that
he began to anticipate a fatal result from the advantage possessed by his
opponent. But at that very instant, and while, blinded by the sudden
darkness, he was expecting the blow which he no longer knew how to avoid,
the laugh of the warrior, now louder and more exultant than before, was
suddenly changed to a yell of agony. A jet of warm blood, at the same
moment, gushed over Roland's right arm; and the savage, struck by an
unknown hand, or by a random ball, fell a dead man at his feet,
overwhelming the soldier in his fall.
"Up, and do according to thee conscience!" cried Nathan Slaughter; whose
friendly arm, more nervous than that of his late foe, at this conjuncture
jerked Roland from beneath the body: "for, truly, thee fights like unto a
young lion, or an old bear; and, truly, I will not censure thee, if thee
kills a whole dozen of the wicked cut-throats! Here is thee gun and thee
pistols: fire and shout aloud with thee voice; for, of a verity, thee
enemies is confounded by thee resolution: do thee make them believe thee
has been reinforced by numbers."
And with that the peaceful Nathan, uplifting his voice, and springing
among the ruins from log to log, began to utter a series of shouts, all
designed to appear as if coming from different throats, and all
expressing such manly courage and defiance, that even Pardon Dodge, who
yet lay ensconced among the rocks of the ravine, and Emperor, the negro,
who, it seems, had taken post behind the ruins at the door, felt their
spirits wax resolute and valiant, and added their voices to the din, the
one roaring, "Come on, ye 'tarnal critturs, if you _must_ come!" while
the other bellowed, with equal spirit, "Don't care for niggah Injun no
way--will fight and die for massa and missie!"
All these several details, from the moment of the appearance of the
warrior at the door until the loud shouts of the besieged travellers took
the place of the savage whoops previously sounded, passed in fewer
moments than we have taken pages to record them. The rush of Nathan
against the leader, the discomfiture of one, and the death of his two
comrades, were indeed the work of but an instant, as it seemed to Roland;
and he was scarce aware of the assault, before he perceived that it was
over. The successful, and, doubtless, the wholly unexpected resistance of
the little party, resulting in a manner so fatal to the advanced guard of
assailants, had struck terror and confusion into the main body, whose
presence had been only made known by their yells, not a single shot
having yet been fired by them.
It was in this moment of confusion that Nathan sprang to the side of
Roland, who was hastily recharging his piece, and catching him by the
hand, said, with a voice that betrayed the deepest agitation, though his
countenance was veiled in night,--"Friend, I have betrayed thee poor
women into danger, so that the axe and scalping-knife is now near their
innocent poor heads."
"It needs not to speak of it," said Roland; adding hastily. "The
miscreant that entered the cabin--did you kill him?"
"_Kill_, friend! _I_ kill!" echoed Nathan, with accents more disturbed
than ever; "would thee have me a murderer? Truly, I did creep over him,
and leave the cabin."
"And left him in it alive!" cried Roland, who was about to rush into the
hovel, when Nathan detained him, saying, "Don't thee be alarmed, friend.
Truly, thee may think it was ill of me to fall upon him so violently;
but, truly, be must have split his head upon a log, or wounded himself
with a splinter;--or perhaps the coloured person stuck him with a knife;
but, truly, as it happened his blood spouted on my hand, by reason of the
hurt he got; so that I left him clean dead."
"Good!" said Roland; "but, by Heaven, I hoped and believed you had
yourself finished him like a man. But time presses: we must retreat again
to the woods,--they are yet open behind us."
"Thee is mistaken," said Nathan; and, as if to confirm his words, there
arose at that moment a loud whooping, with the crack of a dozen or more
rifles, let fly with impotent rage by the enemy, showing plainly enough
that the ruin was already actually environed.
"The ravine,--the river!" cried Forrester; "we can swim it with the
horses, if it be not fordable."
"It is a torrent that would sweep thee, with thee strongest war-horse, to
perdition," muttered Nathan: "does thee not hear how it roars among the
rocks and cliffs? It is here deep, narrow, and rocky; and, though, in the
season of drought, a child might step across it from rock to rock, it is
a cataract in the time of floods. No, friend; I have brought thee into a
trap whence thee has no escape, unless thee would desert these poor
helpless women."
"Put but them in safety," said Roland, "and care not for the rest.--And
yet I do not despair: we have shown what we can do by resolution: we can
keep the cut-throats at bay till the morning."
"And what will that advantage thee, except to see thee poor females
murdered in the light of the sun, instead of having them killed out of
thee sight in darkness? Truly, the first glimmer of dawn will be the
signal of death to all; for then the Shawnees will find thee weakness, if
indeed they do not find it before."
"Man!" said Roland, "why should you drive me to despair? Give me better
comfort,--give me counsel, or say no more. You have brought us to this
pass: do your best to save us, or our blood be upon your head!"
To these words of unjust reproach, wrung from the young soldier by the
bitterness of his feelings, Nathan at first made no reply. Preserving
silence for awhile, he said, at last:
"Well, friend, I counsel thee to be of good heart, and to do what thee
can, making thee enemies, since thee cannot increase thee friends, as few
in numbers as possible;--to do which, friend," he added, suddenly, "if
thee will shoot that evil creature that lies like a log on the earth,
creeping towards the ruin, I will have no objection!"
With these words, which were uttered in a low voice, Nathan, pulling the
young man behind a screen of fallen timbers near to which they stood,
endeavoured to point him out the enemy whom his eye had that moment
detected crawling towards the hovel, with the subtle motion of a serpent.
But the vision of Roland, not yet accustomed to trace objects in the
darkness of a wood, failed to discover the approaching foe.
"Truly," said Nathan, somewhat impatiently, "if thee will not consider it
as an evil thing of me, and a blood-guiltiness, I will hold thee gun for
thee, and thee shall pull the trigger!" which piece of service the man of
peace, having doubtless satisfied his conscience of its lawfulness, was
actually about to render the soldier, when the good intention was set at
naught by the savage suddenly leaping to his feet, followed by a dozen
others, all springing, as it seemed, out of the earth, and rushing with
wild yells against the ruin. The suddenness and fury of the attack struck
dismay to the bosom of the soldier, who, discharging his rifle, and
snatching up his pistols, already in imagination beheld the bloody
fingers of a barbarian grasped among the bright locks of his Edith; when
Nathan, crying, "Blood upon my hands, but not upon my head!--give it to
them, murdering dogs!" let fly his own piece upon the throng; the effect
of which, together with the discharge of Roland's pistols immediately
after, was such as to stagger the assailants, of whom but a single one
preserved resolution enough to advance upon the defenders, whooping to
his companions in vain to follow. "Thee will remember I fight to save the
lives of thee helpless women!" muttered Nathan, in Roland's ear; and then
as if the first act of warfare had released him for ever from all
peaceful obligations, awakened a courage and appetite for blood superior
even to the soldier's, and, in other words, set him entirely beside
himself, he rushed against the advancing Shawnee, dealing him a blow with
the butt of his heavy stocked rifle that crushed through skull and brain
as through a gourd, killing the man on the spot. Then leaping like a buck
to avoid the shot of the others, he rushed back to the ruin, and grasping
the hand of the admiring soldier, and wringing it with all his might, he
cried, "Thee sees what thee has brought me to! Friend, thee has seen me
shed a man's blood!--But, nevertheless, friend, the villains shall not
kill thee poor women, nor harm a hair of their heads."
The valour of the man of peace was fortunately seconded on this occasion
by Dodge and the negro, the former from his hiding place in the ravine,
the latter from among the ruins; and the enemy, thus seriously warned of
the danger of approaching too nigh a fortress manned by what very
naturally appeared to them eight different persons,--for such, including
the pistols, was the number of fire-arms,--retired precipitately to the
woods, where they expressed their hostility only by occasional whoops,
and now and then by a shot fired impotently against the ruins.
The success of this second defence, the spirited behaviour of Dodge and
Emperor, but more than all the happy change in the principles and
practice of Nathan, who seemed as if about to prove that he could deserve
the nickname of Tiger so long bestowed upon him in derision, greatly
relieved the spirits of the soldier, who was not without hopes of being
able to maintain the contest until the enemy should be discouraged and
driven off, or some providential accident bring him succour. He took
advantage of the cessation of hostilities to creep into the hovel and
whisper words of assurance to his feebler dependents, of whom indeed
Telie Doe now betrayed the greatest distress and agitation, while Edith,
on the contrary, maintained, as he judged--for the fire was extinguished,
and he saw not her countenance--a degree of tranquillity he had not dared
to hope. It was a tranquillity, however, resulting from despair and
stupor,--a lethargy of spirit, resulting from overwrought feelings, in
which she happily remained, more than half unconscious of what was
passing around her.