The amazement of Stackpole at finding to whom he owed his deliverance,
was not less than that of the travellers; but it was mingled, in his
case, with feelings of the most unbounded and clamorous delight. Nathan
he grasped by the hands, being the first upon whom he set his eyes; but
no sooner had they wandered to the soldier, than throwing his arms around
him, he gave him a hug, neither tender nor respectful, but indicative of
the intensest affection and rapture.
"You cut the rope, stranger, and you cut the tug," he cried, "on madam's
beseeching! but h'yar's the time you holped me out of a fix without
axing! Now, strannger, I ar'n't your dog, 'cause how, I'm anngelliferous
madam's: but if I ar'n't your dog, I'm your man, Ralph Stackpole, to be
your true-blue through time and etarnity, any way you'll ax me; and if
you wants a sodger, I'll 'list with you, I will, 'tarnal death to me!"
"But how, in heaven's name, came you here a prisoner? I saw you escape
with my own eyes," said Roland, better pleased, perhaps, at the accession
of such a stout auxiliary than with his mode of professing love and
devotion.
"Strannger," said Ralph, "if you war to ax me from now till doomsday
about the why and the wharfo' I couldn't make you more nor one answer: I
come to holp anngelliferous madam out of the hands of the abbregynes,
according to my sworn duty as her natteral-born slave and redemptioner! I
war hard on the track, when the villians here caught me."
"What!" cried Roland, his heart for the first time warming towards the
despised horse-thief, while even Nathan surveyed him with something like
complacency, "you are following my poor cousin then? You were not brought
here a prisoner?"
"If I war, I wish I may be shot," said Ralph: "it warn't a mile back on
the ridge, whar the Injuns snapped me; 'causa how, I jist bang'd away at
a deer, and jist then up jumps the rascals on me, afo' I had loaded old
speechifier; and so they nabb'd me! And so, sodger, h'yar's the way of it
all: You see, d'you see, as soon as Tom Bruce comes to, so as to
be able to hold the hoss himself--"
"What," said Roland, "was he not mortally wounded?"
"He ar'n't much hurt to speak on, for all of his looking so much like
coffin-meat at the first jump: it war a kind of narvousness come over him
that men feels when they gets the thwack of a bullet among the narves.
And so, you see, d'you see, says I, 'Tom Bruce, do you stick to the
critter, and he'll holp you out of the skrimmage;' and, says I, 'I'll
take the back-track, and foller atter madam.' And, says he, says he--But,
'tarnal death to me, let's scalp these h'yar dead villians, and do the
talking atter! Did you see the licking I gin this here feller? It war a
reggular fair knock-down-and-drag-out, and I licked him! Thar's all sorts
of ways of killing Injuns; but, I reckon, I'm the only gentleman in all
Kentuck as ever took a scalp in the way of natur'! Hurrah for Kentuck!
and hurrah for Ralph Stackpole, for he ar' a screamer!"
The violation of the dead bodies was a mode of crowning their victory
which Roland would have gladly dispensed with; but such forbearance,
opposed to all border ideas of manly spirit and propriety, found no
advocate in the captain of horse-thieves, and none, we are sorry to say,
even in the conscientious Nathan; who, having bathed his peaceful sword
too deep in blood to boggle longer at trifles, seemed mightily inclined
to try his own hand at the exercise. But this addition to the catalogue
of his backslidings was spared him, Roaring Ralph falling to work with an
energy of spirit and rapidity of execution, which showed he needed no
assistance, and left no room for competition.--Such is the practice of
the border, and such it has been ever since the mortal feud, never
destined to be really ended but with the annihilation, or civilisation,
of the American race, first began between the savage and the white
intruder. It was, and is, essentially a measure of retaliation,
compelled, if not justified, by the ferocious example of the red man.
Brutality ever begets brutality; and magnanimity of arms can be only
exercised in the case of a magnanimous foe. With such, the wildest and
fiercest rover of the frontier becomes a generous and even humane enemy.
The Virginian was yet young in the war of the wilderness: and turning in
disgust from a scene he could not prevent, he made his way to the fire,
where the haunch of venison, sending forth a savoury steam through the
whole valley, was yet roasting on the rude Indian spit,--a spectacle
which (we record it with shame) quite banished from his mind not only all
thoughts of Ralph's barbarism, but even the sublime military ardour
awakened by the din and perils of the late conflict. Nor were its effects
less potential upon Nathan and Ralph, who, having first washed from their
hands and faces the stains of battle, now drew nigh, snuffing the perfume
of a dinner with as much ardour as they could have bestowed on the scent
of battle. The haunch, cooked to their hands, was straightway removed to
a convenient place, where all, drawing their knives, fell foul with an
energy of appetite and satisfaction that left them oblivious of most
sublunary affairs. The soldier forgot his sorrows, and Nathan forgot
little Peter,--though little Peter, by suddenly creeping out of the
bushes on the hill, and crawling humbly to the table, and his master's
side, made it apparent he had not forgot himself. As for the captain of
horse-thieves, he forgot everything save the dinner itself, which he
attacked with an appetite well nigh ravenous, having, as he swore, by way
of grace over the first mouthful, eaten nothing save roots and leaves for
more than three days. It was only when, by despatching at least twice his
share of the joint, he began to feel, as he said, "summat like a hoss
and a gentleman," that the others succeeded in drawing from him a full
account of the circumstances which had attended his solitary inroad into
the Indian country and his fall into the clutches of the Shawnee party.
But little had the faithful fellow to impart, beyond what he had already
told. Galloping from the fatal hill, the scene of defeat to the young
Kentuckians, he sustained Tom Bruce in his arms, until the latter,
reviving, had recovered strength enough to provide for his own safety;
upon which Ralph, with a degree of Quixotism, that formed a part of his
character, and which was, in this instance, strengthened by his grateful
devotion to Edith, the saver of his life, declared he would pursue the
trail of her captors, even if it led him to their village, nor cease his
efforts until he had rescued her out of their hands, or laid down his
life in her service. In this resolution he was encouraged by Bruce, who
swore on his part, that he would instantly follow with his father, and
all the men he could raise, recover the prisoners, and burn the towns of
the whole Shawnee nation about their ears; a determination he was perhaps
the more readily driven to by the reflection that the unlucky captives
were his father's individual guests, and had been snatched away while
still, in a manner, under, or relying on, his father's protection. So
much he promised, and so much there was no doubt he would, if able,
perform; nevertheless, he exhorted Ralph to do his best, in the
meanwhile, to help the strangers, vowing, if he succeeded in rendering
them any assistance, or in taking a single scalp of the villains that had
borne them off, he would not only never Lynch him, himself, but would not
even allow others to do it, though he were to steal all the horses in
Kentucky, his father's best bay mare included.
Thus encouraged, the valiant horse-thief, bidding farewell to Tom Bruce
and Brown Briareus together, commenced making good his words by creeping
back to the battle-field; when, arriving before Nathan, he struck the
trail of the main party, and immediately pursued it with zeal and
courage, but still with the necessary caution and circumspection; his
hopes of being able to do something to the advantage of his benefactress,
resting principally on his knowledge of several of the outer Indian
towns, in every one of which, he boasted, he had stolen horses. Being but
poorly provided with food, and afraid to hunt while following so closely
on the heels of the marauders, he was soon reduced to want and suffering,
which he bore for three days with heroic fortitude; until at last, on
the morning of the present day, being in a state of utter starvation, and
a buck springing up in his path, he could resist the temptation no
longer, and so fired upon it. The animal being wounded, and apparently
severely, he set off in pursuit, too eager to lose time by recharging his
piece; and it was while he was in that defenceless condition that the
five Indians, a detachment and rear-guard, as it proved, of the very
party he was dogging, attracted by the sound of his gun, stole upon him
unawares and made him a prisoner. This, it seems, had happened but a
short distance behind; and there was every reason to suppose that the
buck, from whose loins the travellers had filched the haunch that destiny
had superseded by a better, was the identical animal whose seducing
appearance had brought Stackpole into captivity. He was immediately
recognised by his captors, whose exultation was boundless, as indeed was
their cruelty; and he could only account for their halting with him in
that retired hollow, instead of pushing on to display their prize to the
main body, by supposing they could not resist their desire to enjoy a
snug little foretaste of the joys of torturing him at the stake, all by
themselves,--a right they had earned by their good fortune in taking him.
In the valley, then, they had paused, and tying him up, proceeded
straightway to flog him to their hearts' content; and they had just
resolved to intermit the amusement awhile, in favour of their dinner,
when the appearance of his bold deliverers rushing into their camp,
converted the scene of brutal merriment into one of retributive vengeance
and blood.
The discovery that the five human beings he had contributed so much to
destroy, were part and parcel of the very band, the authors of all his
sufferings, the captors of his kinswoman, abated some little feelings of
compunction with which Roland had begun occasionally to look upon the
gory corses around him.
The main body of marauders, with their prisoner, there seemed good reason
to suppose, were yet upon their march to the village, though too far
advanced to leave any hope of overtaking them, were that even desirable.
It is true, that Roland, fired by the thought of being so near his
kinswoman, and having before his eyes a proof of what might be done by
craft and courage, even against overwhelming numbers, urged Nathan
immediately to re-commence the pursuit; the Indians would doubtless halt
to rest and refresh, as the luckless five had done, and might be
approached and destroyed, now that they themselves had increased their
forces by the rescue of Ralph, in the same way: "we can carry, with us,"
he said, "these Indians' guns, with which we shall be more than a match
for the villains;" and he added other arguments, such, however, as
appeared much more weighty to himself than to honest Nathan. That the
main party should have halted, as he supposed, did not appear at all
probable to Nathan: they had no cause to arrest them in their journey,
and they were but a few miles removed from the village, whither they
would doubtless proceed without delay, to enjoy the rewards of their
villany, and end the day in revel and debauch. "And truly, friend," he
added, "it will be better for thee, and me, and the maid, Edith, that we
steal her by night from out of a village defended only by drowsy squaws
and drunken warriors, than if we were to aim at taking her out of the
camp of a war-party. Do thee keep thee patience; and, truly, there is no
telling what good may come of it." In short, Nathan had here, as in
previous instances, made up his mind to conduct affairs his own way; and
Roland, though torn by impatience, could do nothing better than submit.
And now, the dinner being at last despatched, Nathan directed that the
bodies of the slain Indians should be tumbled into a gully, and hidden
from sight; a measure of such evident precaution as to need no
explanation. This was immediately done; but not before Ralph and the man
of peace had well rummaged the pouches of the dead, helping themselves
to such valuables and stores of provender and ammunition as they could
lay hands on; in addition to which, Nathan stripped from one a light
Indian hunting-shirt, from another a blanket, a woman's shawl, and a
medicine bag, from a third divers jingling bundles of brooches and
hawk-bells, together with a pouch containing vermilion and other paints,
the principal articles of savage toilet; which he made up into a bundle,
to be used for a purpose he did not conceal from his comrades. He then
seized upon the rifles of the dead (from among which Stackpole had
already singled out his own), and removing the locks, hid them away in
crannies of the cliffs, concealing the locks in other places;--a
disposition which he also made of the knives and tomahawks; remarking,
with great justice, that "if honest Christian men were to have no good of
the weapons, it was just as well murdering Injuns should be no better
off."
These things concluded, the dead covered over with boughs and brambles,
and nothing left in the vale to attract a passing and unobservant eye, he
gave the signal to resume the march, and with Roland and Captain Ralph,
stole from the field of battle.