The Prairie (39 page)

"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.

The clouds and sunbeams o'er his eye,
That once their shades and glories threw,
Have left, in yonder silent sky,
No vestige where they flew.
—Montgomery.

A stillness, as deep as that which marked the gloomy wastes in their
front, was observed by the fugitives to distinguish the spot they had
just abandoned. Even the trapper lent his practised faculties, in
vain, to detect any of the well-known signs, which might establish
the important fact that hostilities had actually commenced between the
parties of Mahtoree and Ishmael; but their horses carried them out of
the reach of sounds, without the occurrence of the smallest evidence of
the sort. The old man, from time to time, muttered his discontent, but
manifested the uneasiness he actually entertained in no other manner,
unless it might be in exhibiting a growing anxiety to urge the animals
to increase their speed. He pointed out in passing, the deserted swale,
where the family of the squatter had encamped, the night they were
introduced to the reader, and afterwards he maintained an ominous
silence; ominous, because his companions had already seen enough of
his character, to be convinced that the circumstances must be critical
indeed, which possessed the power to disturb the well regulated
tranquillity of the old man's mind.