The Prairie (9 page)

Here the Teton paused long and warily to make his observations, before
he ventured further. His position enabled him to bring the whole
encampment, with its tent, wagons, and lodges, into a dark but clearly
marked profile; furnishing a clue by which the practised warrior was led
to a tolerably accurate estimate of the force he was about to encounter.
Still an unnatural silence pervaded the spot, as if men suppressed even
the quiet breathings of sleep, in order to render the appearance of
their confidence more evident. The chief bent his head to the earth, and
listened intently. He was about to raise it again, in disappointment,
when the long drawn and trembling respiration of one who slumbered
imperfectly met his ear. The Indian was too well skilled in all the
means of deception to become himself the victim of any common artifice.
He knew the sound to be natural, by its peculiar quivering, and he
hesitated no longer.

A man of nerves less tried than those of the fierce and conquering
Mahtoree would have been keenly sensible of all the hazard he incurred.
The reputation of those hardy and powerful white adventurers, who so
often penetrated the wilds inhabited by his people, was well known to
him; but while he drew nigher, with the respect and caution that a brave
enemy never fails to inspire, it was with the vindictive animosity of a
red man, jealous and resentful of the inroads of the stranger.

Turning from the line of his former route, the Teton dragged himself
directly towards the margin of the thicket. When this material object
was effected in safety, he arose to his seat, and took a better survey
of his situation. A single moment served to apprise him of the place
where the unsuspecting traveller lay. The reader will readily anticipate
that the savage had succeeded in gaining a dangerous proximity to one
of those slothful sons of Ishmael, who were deputed to watch over the
isolated encampment of the travellers.

When certain that he was undiscovered, the Dahcotah raised his person
again, and bending forward, he moved his dark visage above the face of
the sleeper, in that sort of wanton and subtle manner with which the
reptile is seen to play about its victim before it strikes. Satisfied at
length, not only of the condition but of the character of the stranger,
Mahtoree was in the act of withdrawing his head, when a slight movement
of the sleeper announced the symptoms of reviving consciousness. The
savage seized the knife which hung at his girdle, and in an instant it
was poised above the breast of the young emigrant. Then changing his
purpose, with an action as rapid as his own flashing thoughts, he
sunk back behind the trunk of the fallen tree against which the other
reclined, and lay in its shadow, as dark, as motionless, and apparently
as insensible as the wood itself.

The slothful sentinel opened his heavy eyes, and gazing upward for
a moment at the hazy heavens, he made an extraordinary exertion, and
raised his powerful frame from the support of the log. Then he looked
about him, with an air of something like watchfulness, suffering his
dull glances to run over the misty objects of the encampment until
they finally settled on the distant and dim field of the open prairie.
Meeting with nothing more attractive than the same faint outlines of
swell and interval, which every where rose before his drowsy eyes, he
changed his position so as completely to turn his back on his dangerous
neighbour, and suffered his person to sink sluggishly down into its
former recumbent attitude. A long, and, on the part of the Teton, an
anxious and painful silence succeeded, before the deep breathing of the
traveller again announced that he was indulging in his slumbers. The
savage was, however, far too jealous of a counterfeit to trust to the
first appearance of sleep. But the fatigues of a day of unusual toil lay
too heavy on the sentinel to leave the other long in doubt. Still the
motion with which Mahtoree again raised himself to his knees was
so noiseless and guarded, that even a vigilant observer might have
hesitated to believe he stirred. The change was, however, at length
effected, and the Dahcotah chief then bent again over his enemy, without
having produced a noise louder than that of the cotton-wood leaf which
fluttered at his side in the currents of the passing air.

Mahtoree now felt himself master of the sleeper's fate. At the same time
that he scanned the vast proportions and athletic limbs of the youth, in
that sort of admiration which physical excellence seldom fails to
excite in the breast of a savage, he coolly prepared to extinguish the
principle of vitality which could alone render them formidable. After
making himself sure of the seat of life, by gently removing the folds of
the intervening cloth, he raised his keen weapon, and was about to unite
his strength and skill in the impending blow, when the young man threw
his brawny arm carelessly backward, exhibiting in the action the vast
volume of its muscles.

The sagacious and wary Teton paused. It struck his acute faculties that
sleep was less dangerous to him, at that moment, than even death itself
might prove. The smallest noise, the agony of struggling, with which
such a frame would probably relinquish its hold of life, suggested
themselves to his rapid thoughts, and were all present to his
experienced senses. He looked back into the encampment, turned his head
into the thicket, and glanced his glowing eyes abroad into the wild and
silent prairies. Bending once more over the respited victim, he assured
himself that he was sleeping heavily, and then abandoned his immediate
purpose in obedience alone to the suggestions of a more crafty policy.

The retreat of Mahtoree was as still and guarded as had been his
approach. He now took the direction of the encampment, stealing along
the margin of the brake, as a cover into which he might easily plunge at
the smallest alarm. The drapery of the solitary hut attracted his notice
in passing. After examining the whole of its exterior, and listening
with painful intensity, in order to gather counsel from his ears, the
savage ventured to raise the cloth at the bottom, and to thrust his dark
visage beneath. It might have been a minute before the Teton chief drew
back, and seated himself with the whole of his form without the linen
tenement. Here he sat, seemingly brooding over his discovery, for many
moments, in rigid inaction. Then he resumed his crouching attitude,
and once more projected his visage beyond the covering of the tent. His
second visit to the interior was longer, and, if possible, more ominous
than the first. But it had, like every thing else, its termination,
and the savage again withdrew his glaring eyes from the secrets of the
place.

Mahtoree had drawn his person many yards from the spot, in his slow
progress towards the cluster of objects which pointed out the centre of
the position, before he again stopped. He made another pause, and looked
back at the solitary little dwelling he had left, as if doubtful whether
he should not return. But the chevaux-de-frise of branches now lay
within reach of his arm, and the very appearance of precaution it
presented, as it announced the value of the effects it encircled,
tempted his cupidity, and induced him to proceed.

The passage of the savage, through the tender and brittle limbs of the
cotton-wood, could be likened only to the sinuous and noiseless winding
of the reptiles which he imitated. When he had effected his object,
and had taken an instant to become acquainted with the nature of the
localities within the enclosure, the Teton used the precaution to open a
way through which he might make a swift retreat. Then raising himself
on his feet, he stalked through the encampment, like the master of evil,
seeking whom and what he should first devote to his fell purposes.
He had already ascertained the contents of the lodge in which were
collected the woman and her young children, and had passed several
gigantic frames, stretched on different piles of brush, which happily
for him lay in unconscious helplessness, when he reached the spot
occupied by Ishmael in person. It could not escape the sagacity of one
like Mahtoree, that he had now within his power the principal man among
the travellers. He stood long hovering above the recumbent and Herculean
form of the emigrant, keenly debating in his own mind the chances of his
enterprise, and the most effectual means of reaping its richest harvest.

He sheathed the knife, which, under the hasty and burning impulse of his
thoughts, he had been tempted to draw, and was passing on, when Ishmael
turned in his lair, and demanded roughly who was moving before his
half-opened eyes. Nothing short of the readiness and cunning of a savage
could have evaded the crisis. Imitating the gruff tones and nearly
unintelligible sounds he heard, Mahtoree threw his body heavily on
the earth, and appeared to dispose himself to sleep. Though the whole
movement was seen by Ishmael, in a sort of stupid observation, the
artifice was too bold and too admirably executed to fail. The drowsy
father closed his eyes, and slept heavily, with this treacherous inmate
in the very bosom of his family.

It was necessary for the Teton to maintain the position he had taken,
for many long and weary minutes, in order to make sure that he was no
longer watched. Though his body lay so motionless, his active mind was
not idle. He profited by the delay to mature a plan which he intended
should put the whole encampment, including both its effects and their
proprietors, entirely at his mercy. The instant he could do so with
safety, the indefatigable savage was again in motion. He took his way
towards the slight pen which contained the domestic animals, worming
himself along the ground in his former subtle and guarded manner.

The first animal he encountered among the beasts occasioned a long and
hazardous delay. The weary creature, perhaps conscious, through its
secret instinct, that in the endless wastes of the prairies its surest
protector was to be found in man, was so exceedingly docile as quietly
to submit to the close examination it was doomed to undergo. The hand
of the wandering Teton passed over the downy coat, the meek countenance,
and the slender limbs of the gentle creature, with untiring curiosity;
but he finally abandoned the prize, as useless in his predatory
expeditions, and offering too little temptation to the appetite. As
soon, however, as he found himself among the beasts of burden, his
gratification was extreme, and it was with difficulty that he restrained
the customary ejaculations of pleasure that were more than once on the
point of bursting from his lips. Here he lost sight of the hazards
by which he had gained access to his dangerous position; and the
watchfulness of the wary and long practised warrior was momentarily
forgotten in the exultation of the savage.

Why, worthy father, what have we to lose?
—The law

Protects us not. Then why should we be tender
To let an arrogant piece of flesh threat us!
Play judge and executioner.
—Cymbeline.

While the Teton thus enacted his subtle and characteristic part, not a
sound broke the stillness of the surrounding prairie. The whole band
lay at their several posts, waiting, with the well-known patience of the
natives, for the signal which was to summon them to action. To the eyes
of the anxious spectators who occupied the little eminence, already
described as the position of the captives, the scene presented the
broad, solemn view of a waste, dimly lighted by the glimmering rays of
a clouded moon. The place of the encampment was marked by a gloom deeper
than that which faintly shadowed out the courses of the bottoms, and
here and there a brighter streak tinged the rolling summits of the
ridges. As for the rest, it was the deep, imposing quiet of a desert.

But to those who so well knew how much was brooding beneath this mantle
of stillness and night, it was a scene of high and wild excitement.
Their anxiety gradually increased, as minute after minute passed away,
and not the smallest sound of life arose out of the calm and darkness
which enveloped the brake. The breathing of Paul grew louder and deeper,
and more than once Ellen trembled at she knew not what, as she felt the
quivering of his active frame, while she leaned dependently on his arm
for support.

The shallow honesty, as well as the besetting infirmity of Weucha, have
already been exhibited. The reader, therefore, will not be surprised
to learn that he was the first to forget the regulations he had himself
imposed. It was at the precise moment when we left Mahtoree yielding to
his nearly ungovernable delight, as he surveyed the number and quality
of Ishmael's beasts of burden, that the man he had selected to watch his
captives chose to indulge in the malignant pleasure of tormenting
those it was his duty to protect. Bending his head nigh the ear of the
trapper, the savage rather muttered than whispered—

"If the Tetons lose their great chief by the hands of the
Long-knives
[9]
, old shall die as well as young!"

"Life is the gift of the Wahcondah," was the unmoved reply. "The
burnt-wood warrior must submit to his laws, as well as his other
children. Men only die when he chooses; and no Dahcotah can change the
hour."

"Look!" returned the savage, thrusting the blade of his knife before the
face of his captive. "Weucha is the Wahcondah of a dog."

The old man raised his eyes to the fierce visage of his keeper, and, for
a moment, a gleam of honest and powerful disgust shot from their deep
cells; but it instantly passed away, leaving in its place an expression
of commiseration, if not of sorrow.

"Why should one made in the real image of God suffer his natur' to be
provoked by a mere effigy of reason?" he said in English, and in
tones much louder than those in which Weucha had chosen to pitch the
conversation. The latter profited by the unintentional offence of
his captive, and, seizing him by the thin, grey locks, that fell from
beneath his cap, was on the point of passing the blade of his knife in
malignant triumph around their roots, when a long, shrill yell rent
the air, and was instantly echoed from the surrounding waste, as if a
thousand demons opened their throats in common at the summons. Weucha
relinquished his grasp, and uttered a cry of exultation.