The Prairie (55 page)

It will readily be seen that the event just related was attended by an
extraordinary sensation among the Siouxes. In leading the hunters of
the band back to the encampment, their chief had neglected none of the
customary precautions of Indian prudence, in order that his trail might
escape the eyes of his enemies. It would seem, however, that the Pawnees
had not only made the dangerous discovery, but had managed with great
art to draw nigh the place, by the only side on which it was thought
unnecessary to guard the approaches with the usual line of sentinels.
The latter, who were scattered along the different little eminences,
which lay in the rear of the lodges, were among the last to be apprized
of the danger.

In such a crisis there was little time for deliberation. It was by
exhibiting the force of his character in scenes of similar difficulty,
that Mahtoree had obtained and strengthened his ascendency among his
people, nor did he seem likely to lose it by the manifestation of any
indecision on the present occasion. In the midst of the screams of the
young, the shrieks of the women, and the wild howlings of the crones,
which were sufficient of themselves to have created a chaos in the
thoughts of one less accustomed to act in emergencies, he promptly
asserted his authority, issuing his orders with the coolness of a
veteran.

While the warriors were arming, the boys were despatched to the bottom
for the horses. The tents were hastily struck by the women, and disposed
of on such of the beasts are were not deemed fit to be trusted in
combat. The infants were cast upon the backs of their mothers, and those
children, who were of a size to march, were driven to the rear, like a
herd of less reasoning animals. Though these several movements were made
amid outcries, and a clamour, that likened the place to another Babel,
they were executed with incredible alacrity and intelligence.

In the mean time, Mahtoree neglected no duty that belonged to his
responsible station. From the elevation, on which he stood, he could
command a perfect view of the force and evolutions of the hostile
party. A grim smile lighted his visage, when he found that, in point
of numbers, his own band was greatly the superior. Notwithstanding this
advantage, however, there were other points of inequality, which would
probably have a tendency to render his success, in the approaching
conflict, exceedingly doubtful. His people were the inhabitants of a
more northern and less hospitable region than their enemies, and were
far from being rich in that species of property, horses and arms, which
constitutes the most highly prized wealth of a western Indian. The band
in view was mounted to a man; and as it had come so far to rescue, or
to revenge, their greatest partisan, he had no reason to doubt its being
composed entirely of braves. On the other hand, many of his followers
were far better in a hunt than in a combat; men who might serve to
divert the attention of his foes, but from whom he could expect little
desperate service. Still, his flashing eye glanced over a body of
warriors on whom he had often relied, and who had never deceived him;
and though, in the precise position in which he found himself, he felt
no disposition to precipitate the conflict, he certainly would have had
no intention to avoid it, had not the presence of his women and children
placed the option altogether in the power of his adversaries.

On the other hand, the Pawnees, so unexpectedly successful in their
first and greatest object, manifested no intention to drive matters to
an issue. The river was a dangerous barrier to pass, in the face of a
determined foe, and it would now have been in perfect accordance with
their cautious policy, to have retired for a season, in order that their
onset might be made in the hours of darkness, and of seeming security.
But there was a spirit in their chief that elevated him, for the moment,
above the ordinary expedients of savage warfare. His bosom burned with
the desire to wipe out that disgrace of which he had been the subject;
and it is possible, that he believed the retiring camp of the Siouxes
contained a prize, that began to have a value in his eyes, far exceeding
any that could be found in fifty Teton scalps. Let that be as it might,
Hard-Heart had no sooner received the brief congratulations of his band,
and communicated to the chiefs such facts as were important to be known,
than he prepared himself to act such a part in the coming conflict,
as would at once maintain his well-earned reputation, and gratify his
secret wishes. A led horse, one that had been long trained in the hunts,
had been brought to receive his master, with but little hope that his
services would ever be needed again in this life. With a delicacy and
consideration, that proved how much the generous qualities of the youth
had touched the feelings of his people, a bow, a lance, and a quiver,
were thrown across the animal, which it had been intended to immolate
on the grave of the young brave; a species of care that would have
superseded the necessity for the pious duty that the trapper had pledged
himself to perform.

Though Hard-Heart was sensible of the kindness of his warriors, and
believed that a chief, furnished with such appointments, might depart
with credit for the distant hunting-grounds of the Master of Life, he
seemed equally disposed to think that they might be rendered quite as
useful, in the actual state of things. His countenance lighted with
stern pleasure, as he tried the elasticity of the bow, and poised the
well-balanced spear. The glance he bestowed on the shield was more
cursory and indifferent; but the exultation with which he threw himself
on the back of his favoured war-horse was so great, as to break through
the forms of Indian reserve. He rode to and fro among his scarcely less
delighted warriors, managing the animal with a grace and address that no
artificial rules can ever supply; at times flourishing his lance, as if
to assure himself of his seat, and at others examining critically into
the condition of the fusee, with which he had also been furnished, with
the fondness of one, who was miraculously restored to the possession of
treasures, that constituted his pride and his happiness.

At this particular moment Mahtoree, having completed the necessary
arrangements, prepared to make a more decisive movement. The Teton had
found no little embarrassment in disposing of his captives. The tents of
the squatter were still in sight, and his wary cunning did not fail to
apprise him, that it was quite as necessary to guard against an attack
from that quarter as to watch the motions of his more open and more
active foes. His first impulse had been to make the tomahawk suffice for
the men, and to trust the females under the same protection as the women
of his band; but the manner, in which many of his braves continued to
regard the imaginary medicine of the Long-knives, forewarned him of the
danger of so hazardous an experiment on the eve of a battle. It might
be deemed the omen of defeat. In this dilemma he motioned to a
superannuated warrior, to whom he had confided the charge of the
non-combatants, and leading him apart, he placed a finger significantly
on his shoulder, as he said, in a tone, in which authority was tempered
by confidence—

"When my young men are striking the Pawnees, give the women knives.
Enough; my father is very old; he does not want to hear wisdom from a
boy."

The grim old savage returned a look of ferocious assent, and then the
mind of the chief appeared to be at rest on this important subject. From
that moment he bestowed all his care on the achievement of his revenge,
and the maintenance of his martial character. Throwing himself on his
horse, he made a sign, with the air of a prince to his followers, to
imitate his example, interrupting, without ceremony, the war songs and
solemn rites by which many among them were stimulating their spirits
to deeds of daring. When all were in order, the whole moved with great
steadiness and silence towards the margin of the river.

The hostile bands were now separated by the water. The width of
the stream was too great to admit of the use of the ordinary Indian
missiles, but a few useless shots were exchanged from the fusees of the
chiefs, more in bravado than with any expectation of doing execution.
As some time was suffered to elapse, in demonstrations and abortive
efforts, we shall leave them, for that period, to return to such of our
characters as remained in the hands of the savages.

We have shed much ink in vain, and wasted quires, that might possibly
have been better employed, if it be necessary now to tell the reader
that few of the foregoing movements escaped the observation of the
experienced trapper. He had been, in common with the rest, astonished
at the sudden act of Hard-Heart; and there was a single moment when a
feeling of regret and mortification got the better of his longings to
save the life of the youth. The simple and well-intentioned old man
would have felt, at witnessing any failure of firmness on the part of a
warrior, who had so strongly excited his sympathies, the same species
of sorrow that a Christian parent would suffer in hanging over the
dying moments of an impious child. But when, instead of an impotent and
unmanly struggle for existence, he found that his friend had forborne,
with the customary and dignified submission of an Indian warrior, until
an opportunity had offered to escape, and that he had then manifested
the spirit and decision of the most gifted brave, his gratification
became nearly too powerful to be concealed. In the midst of the wailing
and commotion, which succeeded the death of Weucha and the escape of
the captive, he placed himself nigh the persons of his white associates,
with a determination of interfering, at every hazard, should the fury
of the savages take that direction. The appearance of the hostile band
spared him, however, so desperate and probably so fruitless an effort,
and left him to pursue his observations, and to mature his plans more at
leisure.

He particularly remarked that, while by far the greater part of the
women, and all the children, together with the effects of the party,
were hurried to the rear, probably with an order to secrete themselves
in some of the adjacent woods, the tent of Mahtoree himself was left
standing, and its contents undisturbed. Two chosen horses, however,
stood near by, held by a couple of youths, who were too young to go
into the conflict, and yet of an age to understand the management of
the beasts. The trapper perceived in this arrangement the reluctance of
Mahtoree to trust his newly-found flowers beyond the reach of his eye;
and, at the same time, his forethought in providing against a reverse of
fortune. Neither had the manner of the Teton, in giving his commission
to the old savage, nor the fierce pleasure with which the latter had
received the bloody charge, escaped his observation. From all these
mysterious movements, the old man was aware that a crisis was at hand,
and he summoned the utmost knowledge he had acquired, in so long a life,
to aid him in the desperate conjuncture. While musing on the means to
be employed, the Doctor again attracted his attention to himself, by a
piteous appeal for assistance.

"Venerable trapper, or, as I may now say, liberator," commenced the
dolorous Obed, "it would seem, that a fitting time has at length arrived
to dissever the unnatural and altogether irregular connection, which
exists between my inferior members and the body of Asinus. Perhaps if
such a portion of my limbs were released as might leave me master of the
remainder, and this favourable opportunity were suitably improved, by
making a forced march towards the settlements, all hopes of preserving
the treasures of knowledge, of which I am the unworthy receptacle, would
not be lost. The importance of the results is surely worth the hazard of
the experiment."

"I know not, I know not," returned the deliberate old man; "the vermin
and reptiles, which you bear about you, were intended by the Lord for
the prairies, and I see no good in sending them into regions that
may not suit their natur's. And, moreover, you may be of great and
particular use as you now sit on the ass, though it creates no wonder in
my mind to perceive that you are ignorant of it, seeing that usefulness
is altogether a new calling to so bookish a man."

"Of what service can I be in this painful thraldom, in which the animal
functions are in a manner suspended, and the spiritual, or intellectual,
blinded by the secret sympathy that unites mind to matter? There is
likely to be blood spilt between yonder adverse hosts of heathens; and,
though but little desiring the office, it would be better that I should
employ myself in surgical experiments, than in thus wasting the precious
moments, mortifying both soul and body."

"It is little that a Red-skin would care to have a physician at his
hurts, while the whoop is ringing in his ears. Patience is a virtue in
an Indian, and can be no shame to a Christian white man. Look at these
hags of squaws, friend Doctor; I have no judgment in savage tempers, if
they are not bloody minded, and ready to work their accursed pleasures
on us all. Now, so long as you keep upon the ass, and maintain the
fierce look which is far from being your natural gift, fear of so great
a medicine may serve to keep down their courage. I am placed here, like
a general at the opening of the battle, and it has become my duty to
make such use of all my force as, in my judgment, each is best fitted to
perform. If I know these niceties, you will be more serviceable for your
countenance just now than in any more stirring exploits."

"Harkee, old trapper," shouted Paul, whose patience could no longer
maintain itself under the calculating and prolix explanations of the
other, "suppose you cut two things I can name, short off. That is to
say, your conversation, which is agreeable enough over a well baked
buffaloe's hump, and these damnable thongs of hide, which, according to
my experience, can be pleasant nowhere. A single stroke of your knife
would be of more service, just now, than the longest speech that was
ever made in a Kentucky court-house."