 27 Thou hast been busy, death, this day, and yet but half thy work is done. The gates of hell are thronged, yet twice ten thousand spirits more, who from their warm and healthful tenements fear no divorce, must ere the sun go down, enter the world of woe. Suvi, Roderick, The Last of the Goths 24. 1-6 One experienced in the signs of the heavens would have seen that the sun wanted but two or three minutes of the zenith when Dearslayer landed on the point, where the Hurons were now encamped, nearly abreast of the castle. This spot was similar to the one already described, with the exception that the surface of the land was less broken, and less crowded with trees. Owing to these two circumstances it was all the better suited to the purpose for which it had been selected, the space beneath the branches bearing some resemblance to a densely wooded lawn. Favored by its position at its spring it had been much resorted to by savages and hunters, and the natural grasses had succeeded their fires, leaving an appearance of sward in places, a very unusual accompaniment of the virgin forest. Nor was the margin of water fringed with bushes, as on so much of its shore, but the eye penetrated the woods immediately on reaching the strand, commanding nearly the whole area of the projection. If it was a point of honour with the Indian warrior to redeem his word when pledged to return and meet his death at a given hour, so it was a point of characteristic pride to show no womanish impatience, but to reappear as nearly as possible at the appointed moment. It was well not to exceed the grace accorded by the generosity of the enemy, but it was better to meet it to a minute. Something of this dramatic effect mingles with most of the graver usages of the American Aborigines, and no doubt, like the prevalence of a similar feeling among people, more sophisticated and refined, may be referred to a principle of nature. We all love the wonderful, and when it comes attended by chivalrous self-devotion and a rigid regard to honour, it presents itself to our admiration in a shape doubly attractive. As respects dear Slayer, though he took a pride in showing his white blood by often deviating from the usages of the red men, he frequently dropped into their customs and oftener into their feelings, unconsciously to himself, in consequence of having no other arbiters to appeal to than their judgements and tastes. On the present occasion he would have abstained from betraying a feverish haste by a too speedy return since it would have contained a tacit admission that the time asked for was more than had been wanted, but on the other hand, had the idea occurred to him, he would have quickened his movements a little in order to avoid the dramatic appearance of returning at the precise instant set at the utmost limit of his absence. Still, accident had interfered to defeat the last intention, for when the young man put his foot on the point and advanced with a steady tread towards the group of chiefs that was seated in grave array on a fallen tree, the oldest of their number cast his eye upward at an opening in the trees and pointed out to his companions the startling fact that the sun was just entering a space that was known to mark the zenith. A common but low exclamation of surprise and admiration escaped every mouth, and the grim warriors looked at each other, some with envy and disappointment, some with astonishment at the precise accuracy of their victim, and others with a more generous and liberal feeling. The American Indian always deemed his moral victories the noblest, prizing the groans and yielding of his victim under torture more than the trophy of his scalp, and the trophy itself more than his life. To slay and not to bring off the proof of victory indeed was scarcely deemed honorable, even these rude and fierce tenants of the forest, like their more nurtured brethren of the court and the camp, having set up for themselves imaginary and arbitrary points of honor to supplant the conclusions of the right and the decisions of reason. The Hurons have been divided in their opinions concerning the probability of their captives' return. Most among them indeed had not expected it possible for a pale face to come back voluntarily and meet the known penalties of an Indian torture, but a few of the seniors expected better things from one who had already shown himself so singularly cool, brave, and upright. The party had come to its decision, however, less in the expectation of finding the pledge redeemed, than in the hope of disgracing the Delaware's by casting into their teeth the delinquency of one bread in their villages. They would have greatly preferred that Chingoch Cook should be their prisoner and prove the traitor, but the pale-faced scion of the hated stock was no bad substitute for their purposes, failing in their designs against the ancient stem. With a view to render their triumph as signal as possible in the event of the hour's passing without the reappearance of the hunter, all the warriors and scouts of the part he had been called in, and the whole band, men, women, and children, was now assembled at this single point, to be a witness of the expected scene. As the castle was in plain view and by no means distant, it was easily watched by daylight, and it being thought that its inmates were now limited to hurry, the Delaware, and the two girls, no apprehensions were felt of their being able to escape unseen. A large raft having abreast work of logs had been prepared, and was in actual readiness to be used against either ark or castle as occasion might require, so soon as the fate of Deerslayer was determined, the seniors of the party having come to the opinion that it was getting to be hazardous to delay their departure for Canada beyond the coming night. In short, the band waited merely to dispose of this single affair, ere it brought matters with those in the castle to a crisis, and prepared to commence its retreat towards the distant waters of Ontario. It was an imposing scene into which Deerslayer now found himself advancing. All the older warriors were seated on the trunk of the fallen tree, waiting his approach with grave decorum. On the right stood the young men, armed, while the left was occupied by the women and children. In the centre was an open space of considerable extent, always canopied by trees, but from which the underbrush, dead wood, and other obstacles had been carefully removed. The more open area had probably been much used by former parties, for this was the place where the appearance of a sword was the most decided. The arches of the woods even at high noon cast their somber shadows on the spot, which the brilliant rays of the sun that struggled through the leaves contributed to mellow. And if such an expression can be used, to illuminate. It was probably from a similar scene that the mind of man first got its idea of the effects of gothic tracery and churchly hues, this temple of nature producing some such effect so far as light and shadow were concerned, as the well-known offspring of human invention. As was not unusual among the tribes and wandering bands of the Aborigines, two chiefs shared, in nearly equal degrees, the principal and primitive authority, that was wielded over these children of the forest. There were several who might claim the distinction of being chief men, but the two in question were so much superior to all the rest in influence that, when they agreed, no one disputed their mandates, and when they were divided, the band hesitated, like men who had lost their governing principle of action. It was also in conformity with practice, perhaps we might add in conformity with nature, that one of the chiefs was indebted to his mind for his influence, whereas the other owed his distinction altogether to qualities that were physical. One was a senior, well known for eloquence in debate, wisdom in counsel, and prudence in measures. While his great competitor, if not his rival, was a brave, distinguished in war, notorious for ferocity and remarkable in the way of intellect, for nothing but the cunning and expedience of the warpath. The first was Rivenoch, who has already been introduced to the reader, while the last was called Le Panterre, in the language of the Canada's, or the Pantherre, to resort to the vernacular of the English colonies. The appellation of the fighting chief was supposed to indicate the qualities of the warrior, agreeably to the practice of the red man's nomenclature, ferocity, cunning, and treachery being perhaps the distinctive features of his character. The title had been received from the French and was prized so much the more from that circumstance, the Indians submitting profoundly to the greater intelligence of his pale-face allies in most things of this nature. How well the sober cave was merited will be seen in the sequel. Rivenoch and the Pantherre sat side by side awaiting the approach of their prisoner, as Dear Slayer put his moccasin foot on the strand, nor did either move or utter a syllable until the young man had advanced into the centre of the area and proclaimed his presence with his voice. This was done firmly, though in the simple manner that marked the character of the individual. Here I am, mingos, he said in the dialect of the Delaware as a language that most present understood. Here I am, and there is the sun. One is not more true to the laws of nature than the other has proved true to his word. I am your prisoner. Do with me what you please. My business with man and earth is settled. Nothing remains now but to meet the white man's god, according to a white man's duties and gifts. A murmur of approbation escaped even the women at this address, and for an instant there was a strong and pretty general desire to adopt into the tribe one who owned so brave a spirit. Still there were dissenters from this wish, among the principal of whom might be classed the Panther, and his sister, Lesumec, so called from the number of her children, who was the widow of Leleux-Servier, now known to have fallen by the hand of the captive. Native ferocity held one in subjection, while the corroding passion of revenge prevented the other from abiding any gentler feeling at the moment. Not so with Rivenoch. This chief arose, stretched his arm before him in a gesture of courtesy, and paid his compliments with an ease and dignity that a prince might have envied. As, in that band, his wisdom and eloquence were confessedly without rivals, he knew that on himself would properly fall the duty of first replying to the speech of the paleface. Paleface, you are honest, said the Huron orator. My people are happy in having captured a man and not a skulking fox. We now know you. We shall treat you like a brave. If you have slain one of our warriors and helped to kill others, you have a life of your own ready to give away in return. Some of my young men thought that the blood of a paleface was too thin, that it would refuse to run under the Huron knife. You will show them it is not so. Your heart is stout as well as your body. It is a pleasure to make such a prisoner. Should my warriors say that the death of Leleux-Servier ought not to be forgotten, and that he cannot travel towards the land of spirits alone, that his enemy must be sent to overtake him, they will remember that he fell by the hand of a brave and send you after him with such signs of our friendship, as shall not make him ashamed to keep your company. I have spoken. You know what I have said. True enough, mingle, all true as the gospel, return the simple-minded hunter. You have spoken. And I do know not only what you have said, but what is still more important what you mean. I dare to say your warrior, the Lynx, was a stout-hearted brave and worthy of your friendship and respect. But I do not feel unworthy to keep his company without any passport from your hands. Nevertheless, here I am, ready to receive your judgment from your counsel, if indeed the matter was not determined among you before I got back. My old men would not sit in counsel over a pale face until they saw him among them, answered Rivenoak, looking around him a little ironically. They said it would be like sitting in counsel over the winds. They go where they will, and come back as they see fit and not otherwise. There was one voice that spoke in your favor, dear Slayer, but it was alone, like the song of the wren whose mate has been struck by the hawk. I thank that voice, whosoever it may have been, mingle, and will say it was as true a voice as the rest were lying voices. A furlough is as binding on a pale face, if he be honest, as it is on a red skin, and was it not so, I would never bring disgrace on the Delaware's, among whom I may be said to have received my education. But words are useless, and lead to bragging feelings. Here I am, act your will on me. Rivenoak made a sign of acquiescence, and then a short conference was privately held among the chiefs. As soon as the latter ended, three or four young men fell back from among the armed group, and disappeared. Then it was signified to the prisoner that he was at liberty to go at large on the point, until a counsel was held concerning his fate. There was more of seeming than of real confidence, however, in this apparent liberality, in as much as the young men mentioned already formed a line of sentinels across the breadth of the point—inland—and escape from any other part was out of the question. Even the canoe was removed beyond this line of sentinels to a spot where it was considered safe from any sudden attempt. These precautions did not proceed from a failure of confidence, but from the circumstance that the prisoner had now complied with all the required conditions of his parole, and it would have been considered a commendable and honorable exploit to escape from his foes. So nice, indeed, were the distinctions drawn by the savages in cases of this nature, that they often gave their victims a chance to evade the torture, deeming it as creditable to the captors to overtake, or to outwit a fugitive, when his exertions were supposed to be quickened by the extreme jeopardy of his situation, as it was for him to get clear from so much extraordinary vigilance. Nor was Dear Slayer unconscious of or forgetful of his rights and of his opportunities. Could he now have seen any probable opening for an escape? The attempt would not have been delayed a minute, but the case seemed desperate. He was aware of the line of sentinels and felt the difficulty of breaking through it unharmed. The lake offered no advantages, as the canoe would have given his foes the greatest facilities for overtaking him. Else would he have found it no difficult task to swim as far as the castle. As he walked about the point, he even examined the spot to ascertain if it offered no place of concealment, but its openness, its size, and the hundred watchful glances that were turned towards him, even while those who made them affected not to see him, prevented any such expedient from succeeding. The dread and disgrace of failure had no influence on Dear Slayer, who deemed it even a point of honor to reason and feel like a white man, rather than as an Indian, and who felt it a sort of duty to do all he could that did not involve a dereliction from principle in order to save his life. Still he hesitated about making the effort, for he also felt that he ought to see the chance of success before he committed himself. In the meantime the business of the camp appeared to proceed in its regular train. The chiefs consulted apart, admitting no one but the sumac to their councils, for she, the widow of the fallen warrior, had an exclusive right to be heard on such an occasion. The young men strolled about in indolent listlessness awaiting the result with Indian patience, while the females prepared the feast that was to celebrate the termination of the affair, whether approved fortunate or otherwise for our hero. No one betrayed feeling, and an indifferent observer beyond the extreme watchfulness of the sentinels would have detected no extraordinary movement or sensation to denote the real state of things. Two or three old women put their heads together, and it appeared unfavorably to the prospects of Deerslayer by their scowling looks and angry gestures. But a group of Indian girls were evidently animated by a different impulse, as was apparent by stolen glances that express pity and regret. In this condition of the camp an hour soon glided away. Suspense is perhaps the feeling of all others that is most difficult to be supported. When Deerslayer landed he fully expected in the course of a few minutes to undergo the tortures of an Indian revenge. And he was prepared to meet his fate manfully. But the delay proved far more trying than the nearer approach of suffering, and the intended victim began seriously to meditate some desperate effort at escape, as it might be from sheer anxiety to terminate the scene when he was suddenly summoned to appear once more in front of his judges, who had already arranged the band in its former order in readiness to receive him. Killer of the Deer commenced Riven Oak as soon as his captive stood before him. My aged men have listened to wise words. They are ready to speak. You are a man whose fathers came from beyond the rising sun. We are children of the setting sun. We turn our faces toward the great sweet lakes when we look towards our villages. It may be a wide country and full of riches towards the morning, but it is very pleasant towards the evening. We love most to look in that direction. When we gaze at the east we feel afraid, canoe after canoe, bringing more and more of your people in the track of the sun, as if their land was so full as to run over. The red men are few already. They have need of help. One of our best lodges has lately been emptied by the death of its master. It will be a long time before his son can grow enough to sit in his place. There is his widow. She will want venison to feed her and her children, for her sons are yet like the young of the robin before they quit the nest. By your hand has this great calamity befallen her. She has two duties, one to le lou sevier and one to his children. Scalp for scalp, life for life, blood for blood, is one law. To feed her young another. We know you killer of the deer. You are honest. When you say a thing, it is so. You have but one tongue, and that is not forked like a snake's. Your head is never hidden in the grass. All can see it. What you say, that will you do. You are just. When you have done wrong, it is your wish to do right again, as soon as you can. Here is the sumac. She is alone in her wigwam with children crying around her for food. Yonder is a rifle. It is loaded and ready to be fired. Take the gun, go forth and shoot a deer. Bring the venison and lay it before the widow of le lou sevier. Feed her children. Call yourself her husband. After which your heart will no longer be Delaware but Huron. Lesumec's ears will not hear the cries of her children. My people will count the proper number of warriors. I feared this Rivenoch, answered dear Slayer, when the other had ceased speaking. Yes, I did dread that it would come to this. However, the truth is soon told. And that will put an end to all expectations on this head. Mingo, I'm white and Christian-born. Could it become me to take a wife under red skin forms from among heathen? That which I wouldn't do in peaceable times and under a bright sun, still lest what I do behind clouds in order to save my life. I may never marry. Most likely Providence in putting me up here in the woods has intended I should live single and without a lodge of my own. But should such a thing come to pass, none but a woman of my own color and gifts shall darken the door of my wigwam. As for feeding the young of your dead warrior, I would do that cheerfully. Could it be done without discredit? But it cannot, seeing that I can never live in a Huron village. Your own young man must find the Sumac in venison. And the next time she marries, let her take a husband whose legs are not long enough to overrun territory that don't belong to him. We fought a fair battle, and he fell. In this there is nothing but what a brave expects, and should be ready to meet. As for getting a mingle heart, as well might you expect to see gray hairs on a boy, or the blackberry growing on the pine. No, no Huron, my gifts are white so far as wives are concerned. It is Delaware in all things touch and engines. These words were scarcely out of the mouth of dear slayer before a common murmur betrayed the dissatisfaction with which they had been heard. The aged women in particular were loud in their expressions of disgust, and the gentle Sumac herself, a woman quite old enough to be our hero's mother, was not the least pacific in her denunciations. But all the other manifestations of disappointment and discontent were thrown into the background by the fierce resentment of the panther. This grim chief had thought it a degradation to permit his sister to become the wife of a pale face of the youngies at all, and had only given a reluctant consent to the arrangement, one by no means unusual among the Indians, however, at the earnest solicitations of the bereaved widow, and it goaded him to the quick to find his condescension slighted, the honor he had with so much regret been persuaded to accord, condemned. The animal from which he got his name does not glare on his intended prey with more frightful ferocity than his eyes gleamed on the captive, nor was his arm backward in seconding the fierce resentment that almost consumed his breast. Dog of the pale faces, he exclaimed in Iroquois, go yell among the curves of your own evil hunting grounds. The denunciation was accompanied by an appropriate action. Even while speaking his arm was lifted, and the tomahawk hurled. Luckily the loud tones of the speaker had drawn the eye of dearslayer towards him. Else would that moment have probably closed his career. So great was the dexterity with which this dangerous weapon was thrown, and so deadly the intent, that it would have riven the skull of the prisoner had he not stretched forth an arm, and caught the handle in one of its turns with a readiness quite as remarkable as the skill with which the missile had been hurled. The projectile force was so great, notwithstanding, that when dearslayer's arm was arrested his hand was raised above and behind his own head, and in the very attitude necessary to return the attack. It is not certain whether the circumstance of finding himself unexpectedly in this menacing posture and armed tempted the young man to retaliate, or whether sudden resentment overcame his forbearance and prudence. His eye kindled, however, and a small red spot appeared on each cheek while he cast all his energy into the effort of his arm, and threw back the weapon at his assailant. The unexpectedness of this blow contributed to its success. The panther neither raising an arm nor bending his head to avoid it. The keen little axe struck the victim in a perpendicular line with the nose, directly between the eyes, literally braining him on the spot. Sallying forward as the serpent darts at its enemy even while receiving its own death wound, this man of powerful frame fell his length into the open area formed by the circle, quivering in death. A common rush to his relief left the captive in a single instant quite without the crowd, and willing to make one desperate effort for life he bounded off with the activity of a deer. There was but a breathless instant when the whole band, old and young, women and children, abandoning the lifeless body of the panther where it lay, raised the yellow alarm and followed in pursuit. Sudden as had been the event which induced Dearslayer to make this desperate trial of speed, his mind was not wholly unprepared for the fearful emergency. In the course of the past hour he had pondered well on the chances of such an experiment, and had shrewdly calculated all the details of success and failure. At the first leap, therefore, his body was completely under the direction of an intelligence that turned all its efforts to the best account, and prevented everything like hesitation or indecision at the important instant of the start. To this alone he was indebted for the first great advantage, that of getting through the line of sentinels unharmed. The manner in which this was done, though sufficiently simple, merits a description. Although the shores of the point were not fringed with bushes as was the case with most of the others on the lake, it was owing altogether to the circumstance that the spot had been so much used by hunters and fishermen. This fringe commenced on what might be termed the mainland, and was as dense as usual extending in long lines both north and south. In the latter direction then Dearslayer held his way, and as the sentinels were a little without the commencement of this thicket, before the alarm was clearly communicated to them the fugitive had gained its cover. To run among the bushes, however, was out of the question, and Dearslayer held his way, for some forty or fifty yards, in the water, which was barely knee deep, offering as great an obstacle to the speed of his pursuers as it did to his own. As soon as a favorable spot presented he darted through the line of bushes and issued into the open woods. Several rifles were discharged at Dearslayer while in the water, and more followed as he came out into the comparative exposure of the clear forest, but the direction of his line of flight which partially crossed that of the fire, the haste with which the weapons had been aimed, and the general confusion that prevailed in the camp prevented any harm from being done. Bullets whistled past him, and many cut twigs from the branches at his side, but not one touched even his dress. The delay caused by these fruitless attempts was of great service to the fugitive, who had gained more than a hundred yards on even the leading men of the Hurons, ere something like concert and order had entered into the chase. To think of following with rifles in hand was out of the question, and after emptying their pieces in vague hopes of wounding their captive, the best runners of the Indians threw them aside, calling out to the women and boys to recover and load them, again, as soon as possible. Dearslayer knew too well the desperate nature of the struggle in which he was engaged to lose one of the precious moments. He also knew that his only hope was to run on a straight line, for as soon as he began to turn or double the greater number of his pursuers would put escape out of the question. He held his way therefore in a diagonal direction up the Eclivity, which was neither very high nor very steep in this part of the mountain, but which was sufficiently toilsome for one contending for life to render it painfully oppressive. There, however, he slackened his speed to recover breath, proceeding even at a quick walk or a slow trot, along the more difficult parts of the way. The Hurons were whooping and leaping behind him, but this he disregarded. Well knowing they must overcome the difficulties he had surmounted ere they could reach the elevation to which he had attained. The summit of the first hill was now quite near him, and he saw by the formation of the land that a deep glen intervened before the base of a second hill could be reached. Walking deliberately to the summit he glanced eagerly about him, in every direction and quest of a cover. None offered in the ground, but a fallen tree lay near him, and desperate circumstances required desperate remedies. This tree lay in a line parallel to the glen, at the brow of the hill. To leap on it, and then to force his person as close as possible under its lower side, took but a moment. Previously to disappearing from his pursuers, however, dear Slayer stood on the height and gave a cry of triumph, as this exulting at the sight of the descent that lay before him. In the next instant he was stretched beneath the tree. No sooner was this expedient adopted than the young man ascertained how desperate had been his own efforts by the violence of the pulsations in his frame. He could hear his heart beat, and his breathing was like the action of a bellows in quick motion. Breath was gained, however, and the heart soon ceased to throb as if about to break through its confinement. The footsteps of those who toiled up the opposite side of the eclivity were now audible, and presently voices and treads announced the arrival of the pursuers. The foremost shouted as they reached the height, then fearful that their enemy would escape under favor of the descent, each leaped upon the fallen tree, and plunged into the ravine, trusting to get a sight of the pursued ere he reached the bottom. In this manner Huron followed Huron until Natty began to hope the whole had passed. Others succeeded, however, until quite fort he had leaped over the tree, and then he counted them as the surest mode of ascertaining how many could be behind. Presently all were in the bottom of the glen, quite a hundred feet below him, and some had even ascended part of the opposite hill, when it became evident an inquiry was making us to the direction he had taken. This was the critical moment, and one of nerves less steady, or of a training that had been neglected, would have seized it to rise and fly, not so with dear slayer. He still lay quiet, watching with jealous vigilance every movement below, and fast regaining his breath. The Hurons now resembled a pack of hounds at fault. Little was said, but each man ran about examining the dead leaves as the hound hunts for the lost scent. The great number of moccasins that had passed made the examination difficult, though the in-toe of an Indian was easily to be distinguished from the freer and wider step of a white man. Believing that no more pursuers remained behind and hoping to steal away unseen, dear slayer suddenly threw himself over the tree and fell on the upper side. This achievement appeared to be affected successfully, and hope beat high in the bosom of the fugitive. Rising to his hands and feet, after a moment lost in listening to the sounds in the glen in order to ascertain if he had been seen, the young man next scrambled to the top of the hill, a distance of only ten yards in the expectation of getting its brow between him and his pursuers, and himself so far under cover. Even this was affected, and he rose to his feet walking swiftly but steadily along the summit in a direction opposite to that in which he had first fled. The nature of the calls in the glen, however, soon made him uneasy, and he sprang upon the summit again in order to reconnoiter. No sooner did he reach the height than he was seen and the chase renewed. As it was better footing on the level ground, dear slayer now avoided the side hill, holding his flight along the ridge, while the Hurons, judging from the general formation of the land, saw that the ridge would soon melt into the hollow and kept to the latter as the easiest mode of heading the fugitive. A few at the same time turned south, with a view to prevent his escaping in that direction, while some crossed his trail towards the water, in order to prevent his retreat by the lake, running southerly. The situation of dear slayer was now more critical than it ever had been. He was virtually surrounded on three sides, having the lake on the fourth, but he had pondered well on all the chances and took his measures with coolness, even while at the top of his speed. As is generally the case with the vigorous bordermen, he could outrun any single Indian among his pursuers, who were principally formidable to him on account of their numbers and the advantages they possessed in position, and he would not have hesitated to break off in a straight line at any spot, could he have got the whole band again fairly behind him? But no such chance did or indeed could now offer, and when he found that he was descending towards the glen by the melting away of the ridge, he turned short at right angles to his previous course and went down the declivity with tremendous velocity, holding his way towards the shore. Some of his pursuers came panting up the hill in direct chase, while most still kept on the ravine, intending to head him at its termination. Dear Slayer had now a different, though a desperate project in view, abandoning all thoughts of escape by the woods, he made the best of his way towards the canoe. He knew where it lay. Could it be reached, he had only to run the gauntlet of a few rifles, and success would be certain. None of the warriors had kept their weapons, which would have retarded their speed, and the risk would come either from the uncertain hands of the women or from those of some well-grown boy, though most of the latter were already out in hot pursuit. Everything seemed propitious to the execution of this plan, and the course being a continued descent, the young man went over the ground at a rate that promised a speedy termination to his toil. As dear Slayer approached to the point, several women and children were passed, but, though the former endeavour to cast dried branches between his legs, the terror inspired by his bold retaliation on the redoubted panther was so great that none dared come near enough seriously to molest him. He went by all triumphantly and reached the fringe of bushes. Plunging through these, our hero found himself once more in the lake, and within fifty feet of the canoe. Here he ceased to run, for he well understood that his breath was now all-important to him. He even stooped, as he advanced, and cooled his parched mouth by scooping water up in his hand to drink. Still the moments pressed, and he soon stood at the side of the canoe. The first glance told him that the paddles had been removed. This was a sore disappointment, after all his efforts, and for a single moment he thought of turning and of facing his foes by walking with dignity into the centre of the camp again. But an infernal yell such as the American savage alone can raise proclaimed the quick approach of the nearest of his pursuers, and the instinct of life triumphed. Preparing himself duly, and giving a right direction to its boughs, he ran off into the water, bearing the canoe before him, threw all his strength and skill into a last effort, and cast himself forward so as to fall into the bottom of the light-craft, without materially impeding its way. Here he remained on his back, both to regain his breath and to cover his person from the deadly rifle. The lightness, which was such an advantage in paddling the canoe, now operated unfavourably. The material was so like a feather that the boat had no momentum, else would the impulse in that smooth and placid sheet have impelled it to a distance from the shore that would have rendered paddling with the hands safe. Could such a point once be reached, dear Slayer thought he might get far enough out to attract the attention of Chingochuk and Judith, who would not fail to come to his relief with other canoes, a circumstance that promised everything. As the young man lay in the bottom of the canoe he watched its movements by studying the tops of the trees in the mountain side, and judged of his distance by the time in the motions. Voices on the shore were now numerous, and he heard something set about manning the raft, which fortunately for the fugitive lay at a considerable distance on the other side of the point. Perhaps the situation of dear Slayer had not been more critical that day than it was at this moment. It certainly had not been one half as tantalizing. He lay perfectly quiet for two or three minutes, trusting to the single sense of hearing, confident that the noise in the lake would reach his ears did any one venture to approach by swimming. Once or twice he fancied that the element was stirred by the cautious movement of an arm, and then he perceived it was the wash of the water on the pebbles of the strand. For in mimicry of the ocean it is seldom that those little lakes are so totally tranquil as not to possess a slight heaving and settling on their shores. Suddenly all the voices ceased, and a deathlike stillness pervaded the spot. A quietness as profound as if all lay in the repose of inanimate life. By this time the canoe had drifted so far as to render nothing visible to dear Slayer. As he lay on his back, except the blue void of space, and a few of those brighter rays that proceed from the effulgence of the sun, marking his proximity, it was not possible to endure this uncertainty long. The young man well knew that the profound stillness foreboded evil, the savages never being so silent as one about to strike a blow. Resembling the stealthy foot of the panther air he takes his leap. He took out a knife and was about to cut a hole through the bark in order to get a view of the shore, when he paused from a dread of being seen in the operation which would direct the enemy where to aim their bullets. At this instant a rifle was fired and the ball pierced both sides of the canoe, within 18 inches of the spot where his head lay. This was close work, but our hero had too lately gone through that which was closer to be appalled. He lay still half a minute longer, and then he saw the summit of an oak coming slowly within his narrow horizon. Well to account for this change, Deer Slayer could restrain his impatience no longer. Hitching his body along with the utmost caution, he got his eye at the bullet hole, and fortunately commanded a very tolerable view of the point. The canoe, by one of those imperceptible impulses that so long desired the fate of men as well as the course of things, had inclined southerly and was slowly drifting down the lake. It was lucky that Deer Slayer had given it a shove sufficiently vigorous to send it past the end of the point. Air it took this inclination, or it must have gone ashore again. As it was, it drifted so near it as to bring the tops of two or three trees within the range of the young man's view, as has been mentioned, and indeed to come in quite as close proximity with the extremity of the point as was at all safe. The distance could not much have exceeded a hundred feet, though fortunately a light current of air from the southwest began to set it slowly offshore. Deer Slayer now felt the urgent necessity of resorting to some expedient to get farther from his foes, and if possible to apprise his friends of his situation. The distance rendered the last difficult, while the proximity to the point rendered the first indispensable. As was usual in such craft, a large round smooth stone was in each end of the canoe, for the double purpose of seats and ballast. One of these was within reach of his feet. This stone he contrived to get so far between his legs as to reach it with his hands, and then he managed to roll it to the side of its fellow, in the bows, where the two served to keep the trim of the light boat, while he worked his own body as far aft as possible. Before quitting the shore, and as soon as he perceived that the paddles were gone, Deer Slayer had thrown a bit of dead branch into the canoe, and this was within reach of his arm. Removing the cap he wore, he put it on the end of this stick, and just let it appear over the edge of the canoe, as far as possible from his own person. This ruse was scarcely adopted before the young man had a proof of how much he had underrated the intelligence of his enemies. In contempt of an artifice so shallow and commonplace, a bullet was fired directly through another part of the canoe, which actually raised his skin. He dropped the cap and instantly raised it immediately over his head, as a safeguard. It would seem that this second artifice was unseen. Or, what was more probable, the Hurons feeling certain of recovering their captive, wished to take him alive. Deer Slayer lay past of a few minutes longer, his eye at the bullet hole, however, and much did he rejoice at seeing that he was drifting gradually farther and farther from the shore. When he looked upward the treetops had disappeared, but he soon found that the canoe was slowly turning, so as to prevent his getting a view of anything at his peephole, but of the two extremities of the lake. He now bethought him of the stick, which was crooked and offered some facilities for rowing without the necessity of rising. The experiment succeeded on trial better even than he had hoped, though his great embarrassment was to keep the canoe straight. That his present maneuver was seen soon became apparent by the climber on the shore, and a bullet entering the stern of the canoe to reverse its length, whistling between the arms of our hero, and passed out at the head. This satisfied the fugitive that he was getting away with tolerable speed, and induced him to increase his efforts. He was making a stronger push than when another messenger from the point broke the stick outboard, and it once deprived him of his oar. As the sound of voices seemed to grow more and more distant, however, Deer Slayer determined to leave all to the drift, until he believed himself beyond the reach of bullets. This was nervous work, but it was the wisest of all the expedience that offered, and the young man was encouraged to persevere in it by the circumstance that he felt his face fanned by the air, a proof that there was a little more wind. CHAPTER XXVIII. Nor widow's tears nor tender orphan's cries can stop the invaders' force, nor swelling seas nor threatening skies prevent the pirate's force. Their lives to selfish ends decreed, through blood and wrap and they proceed. No anxious thoughts of ill repute suspend the impetuous and unjust pursuit. But power and wealth obtained guilty and great. Their fellow creatures fears they raise or urge their hate. CONGREEVE. PENDERIC ODE. II. By this time Deer Slayer had been twenty minutes in the canoe, and he began to grow a little impatient for some signs of relief from his friends. The position of the boat still prevented his seeing in any direction unless it were up or down the lake, and though he knew that his line of sight must pass within a hundred yards of the castle, it in fact passed that distance to the westward of the buildings. The profound stillness troubled him also, for he knew not whether to ascribe it to the increasing space between him and the Indians or to some new artifice. At length wearied with fruitless watchfulness, the young man turned himself on his back, closed his eyes, and awaited the result in determined acquiescence. If the savages could so completely control their thirst for revenge, he was resolved to be as calm as themselves and to trust his fate to the interposition of the currents and air. Some additional ten minutes may have passed in this quiescent manner on both sides when Deer Slayer thought he heard a slight noise like a slow rubbing against the bottom of his canoe. He opened his eyes, of course, in expectation of seeing the face or arm of an Indian rising from the water, and found that a canopy of leaves was impending directly over his head. Starting to his feet, the first object that met his eye was Riven oak, who had so far aided the slow progress of the boat as to draw it onto the point, the grating on the strand being the sound that had first given our hero the alarm. The change in the drift of the canoe had been altogether owing to the baffling nature of the light currents of the air aided by some eddies in the water. Come! said the Huron with a quiet gesture of authority to order his prisoner to land. My young friend has sailed about till he is tired. He will forget how to run again unless he uses his legs. You the best of it, Huron, returned Deer Slayer stepping steadily from the canoe and passively following his leader to the open area of the point. Providence has helped you in an unexpected manner. I am your prisoner again, and I hope you will allow that I am as good at breaking jail as I am at keeping furloughs. My young friend is a moose, exclaimed the Huron. His legs are very long. They have given my young men trouble. But he is not a fish. He cannot find his way in the lake. We did not shoot him. Fish are taken in nets and not killed by bullets. When he turns moose again, he will be treated like a moose. I have your talk, Ribbon Oak. Make the most of your advantage. It is your right, I suppose, and I know it is your gift. On that point there will be no words between us, for all men must and ought to follow their gifts. However, when your women begin to taunt and abuse me as I suppose will soon happen, let them remember that if a pale face struggles for life so long as it is lawful and manful, he knows how to loosen his hold on it decently, and he feels that the time has come. I am your captive. Work your will on me. My brother has had a long run on the hills and a present sale on the water, returned Ribbon Oak more mildly smiling at the same time in the way that his listener knew denoted specific intentions. He has seen the woods. He has seen the water. Which does he like best? Perhaps he has seen enough to change his mind and make him hear reason. Speak out, Huron, something is in your thoughts, and the sooner it is said, the sooner you'll get my answer. That is straight. There is no turning in the talk of my pale face friend, though he is a fox in running. I will speak to him. His ears are now open wider than before, and his eyes are not shut. The sumac is poorer than ever. Once she had a brother and a husband, she had children, too. The time came and the husband started for the happy hunting grounds, without saying farewell. He left her alone with his children. This he could not help, or he would not have done it. The loose-servier was a good husband. It was pleasant to see the venison and wild ducks and geese and bears meet, that hung in his lodge in winter. It is now gone. It will not keep in warm weather. Who shall bring it back again? Some thought the brother would not forget his sister, and that next winter he would see that the lodge should not be empty. We thought this. But the panther yelled and followed the husband on the path of death. They are now trying which shell first reach the happy hunting grounds. Some think the lynx can run faster, and some think the panther can jump the farthest. The sumac thinks both will travel so fast and so far that neither will ever come back. Who shall feed her and her young? The man who told her husband and her brother to quit her lodge, that there might be room for him to come into it. He is a great hunter, and we know that the woman will never want. I, Huron, this is soon settled according to your notions. But it goes sorely again the grain of a white man's feelings. I've heard of men saving their lives this away, and I've known them that would prefer death to such a sort of captivity. For my part I do not seek my end, nor do I seek matrimony. The pale face will think of this, while my people get ready for the council. He will be told what will happen. Let him remember how hard it is to lose a husband and her brother. Go! When we want him, the name of dear Slayer will be called. This conversation had been held with no one near but the speakers. Of all the band that had so lately thronged the place, Rivenoch alone was visible. The rest seemed to have totally abandoned the spot. Even the furniture, clothes, arms, and other property of the camp had entirely disappeared, and the place bore no other proofs of the crowd that had so lately occupied it than the traces of their fires and resting places and the trodden earth that still showed the marks of their feet. So sudden and unexpected a change caused dear Slayer a good deal of surprise and some uneasiness, for he had never known it to occur in the course of his experience among the Delaware's. He suspected, however, and rightly, that a change of encampment was intended, and that the mystery of the movement was resorted to in order to work on his apprehensions. Rivenoch walked up the vista of trees as soon as he ceased speaking, leaving dear Slayer by himself. The chief disappeared behind the covers of the forest, and one unpracticed in such scenes might have believed the prisoner left to the dictates of his own judgment. But the young man, while he felt a little amazement at the dramatic aspect of things, knew his enemies too well to fancy himself at liberty, or a free agent. Still, he was ignorant how far the Hurons meant to carry their artifices, and he determined to bring the question, as soon as practicable, to the proof. Affecting an indifference he was far from feeling, he strolled about the area, gradually getting nearer and nearer to the spot where he had landed. When he suddenly quickened his pace, though carefully avoiding all appearance of flight and pushing aside the bushes, he stepped upon the beach. The canoe was gone, nor could he see any traces of it after walking to the northern and southern verges of the point, and examining the shores in both directions. It was evidently removed beyond his reach and knowledge, and under circumstances to show that such had been the intention of the savages. Dear Slayer now better understood his actual situation. He was a prisoner on the narrow tongue of land vigilantly watched beyond a question, and with no other means of escape than that of swimming. He again thought of this last expedient, but the certainty that the canoe would be sent in chase and the desperate nature of the chances of success deterred him from the undertaking. While on the strand he came to a spot where the bushes had been cut, and thrust into a small pile, removing a few of the upper branches he found beneath them the dead body of the panther. He knew that it was kept until the savages might find a place to entourage it, where it would be beyond the reach of the scalping night. He gazed wistfully towards the castle, but there all seemed to be silent and desolate, and a feeling of loneliness and desertion came over him to increase the gloom of the moment. God's will be done, murmured the young man as he walked sorrowfully away from the beach, entering again beneath the arches of the wood. God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I did hope that my days would not be numbered so soon, but it matters little after all. A few more winters, and a few more summers, and would have been over, according to nature. As me, the young and active seldom think death possible till he grins in their faces and tells them the hour is come. While the soliloquy was being pronounced, the hunter advanced into the area where to his surprise he saw Hetty alone evidently awaiting his return. The girl carried the Bible under her arm, and her face, over which a shadow of gentle melancholy was usually thrown, now seemed sad and downcast, moving nearer, dear Slayer spoke. Poor Hetty, he said, times have been so troublesome of late, that I'd altogether forgotten you. We meet, as it might be, to mourn over what is to happen. I wonder what has become of Chingichuk and Wah. Why did you kill the Huron, dear Slayer? We turned the girl reproachfully. Don't you know your commandments which say, Thou shalt not kill? They tell me you have now slain the woman's husband and brother. It's true, my good Hetty, to his gospel truth, and I'll not deny what has come to pass. But you must remember, gal, that many things are lawful in war which would be unlawful in peace. The husband was shot in open fight, or open so far as I was concerned, while he had a better cover than common, and the brother brought his end on himself by casting his tomahawk at an unarmed prisoner. Did you witness that deed, gal? I saw it, and was sorry it happened, dear Slayer, for I hoped you wouldn't have returned blow for blow, but good for evil. Ah, Hetty, that may do among the missionaries, but would make an uncertain life in the woods. The panther craved my blood, and he was foolish enough to throw arms into my hands at the very moment he was striving after it. It would have been again nature not to raise a hand in such a trial, and it would have done discredit to my training and gifts. No, no, I'm as willing to give every man his own as another, and so I hope you'll testify to them that we'll be likely to question you as to what you've seen this day. Dear Slayer, do you mean to marry Sumac now she has neither husband nor brother to feed her? Are such your ideas of matrimony, Hetty, ought the young to wive with the old, the pale face with the red skin, the Christian with the heathen? It's again reason in nature, and so you'll see, if you think of it a moment. I've always heard mothers say, returned Hetty, averting her face more from a feminine instinct than from any consciousness of wrong, that people should never marry until they loved each other better than brothers and sisters. And I suppose that is what you mean. Sumac is old, and you are young. I, and she's red, and I'm white. Beside, Hetty, suppose you was a wife now, having married some young man of your own years in state, and color, hurry Harry for instance. Dear Slayer selected this example simply from the circumstance that he was the only young man known to both. And that he had fallen on a war-path, would you wish to take to your bosom, for a husband, the man that slew him? Oh, no, no, no, return the girl shuddering. That would be wicked as well as heartless. No Christian girl could, or would do that. I never shall be the wife of hurry, I know. But were he my husband, no man should ever be it, again, after his death. I thought it would get to this, Hetty, when you come to understand circumstances. It is a moral impossibility that I should ever marry Sumac. And though Injun Weddens have no priests and not much religion, a white man who knows his gifts and duties can't profit by that, and so make his escape at the fitting time. I do think death would be more natural like and welcome than wedlock with this woman. Don't say it too loud, interrupted Hetty impatiently. I suppose she will not like to hear it. I'm sure hurry would rather marry even me than suffer torments, though I am feeble-minded, and I am sure it would kill me to think he'd prefer death to being my husband. I, gal, you ain't Sumac but a comely young Christian, with a good heart, pleasant smile, and kind eye. Hurry might be proud to get you and that too, not in misery and sorrow, but in his best and happiest days. However, take my advice, I never talk to hurry about these things, he's only a borderer at the best. I wouldn't tell him for the world, exclaimed the girl looking about her like one affrighted and blushing, she knew not why. Mother always said young women shouldn't be forward, and speak their minds before they're asked. Oh, I never forget what mother told me. Tis a pity hurry is so handsome, dear Slayer. I do think fewer girls would like him then, and he would sooner know his own mind. Poor gal, poor gal, it's plain enough how it is. But the Lord will bear in mind one of your simple heart and kind feelings. We'll talk no more of these things. If you had reason, you'd be soreful at having let others so much into your secret. Tell me, Hetty, what has become of all the Hurons, and why they let you roam about the pint as if you too was a prisoner? I'm no prisoner, dear Slayer, but a free girl. And go when and where I please. Nobody dare hurt me. If they did, God would be angry as I can show them in the Bible. No, no, Hetty Hutter is not afraid. She's in good hands. The Hurons are up yonder in the woods and keep a good watch on us both. I'll answer for it since all the women and children are on the lookout. Some are burying the body of the poor girl who was shot so that the enemy and wild beasts can't find it. I told them that father and mother lay in the lake, but I wouldn't let them know in what part of it, for Judith and I don't want any of their heathenish company in our burying-ground. As-me. Well, it is an awful dispatch to be standing here alive and angry and with the feelings up and ferocious one hour, and then to be carried away at the next and put out of sight of mankind in a hole in the earth. No one knows what will happen to him on a war path. That's certain. Here the stirring of leaves and the cracking of dried twigs interrupted the discourse and apprised dear Slayer of the approach of his enemies. The Hurons closed around the spot that had been prepared for the coming scene, and in the center of which the intended victim now stood, in a circle, the armed men being so distributed among the feebler members of the band that there was no safe opening through which the prisoner could break. But the latter no longer contemplated flight, the recent trial having satisfied him of his inability to escape when pursued so closely by numbers. On the contrary, all his energies were aroused in order to meet his expected fate, with a calmness that should do credit to his color and his manhood, one equally removed from recreational arm and savage boasting. When Rivenoch reappeared in the circle, he occupied his old place at the head of the area. Several of the elder warriors stood near him, but now that the brother of Sumek had fallen there was no longer any recognized chief present whose influence and authority offered a dangerous rivalry to his own. Nevertheless it is well known that little which could be called monarchical or despotic entered into the politics of the North American tribes, although the first colonists, bringing with them to this atmosphere the notions and options of their own countries, often dignified the chief men of those primitive nations with the titles of kings and princes. Hereditary influence did certainly exist, but there was much reason to believe it existed rather as a consequence of hereditary merit and acquired qualifications than as a birthright. Rivenoch, however, had not even this claim, having risen to consideration purely by the force of talents, sagacity, and as Bacon expresses it in relation to all distinguished statesmen, by a union of great and mean qualities, a truth of which the career of the profound Englishman himself furnishes so apt an illustration. Thanks to arms, Alecquence offers the great avenue to popular favor, whether it be in civilized or savage life, and Rivenoch had succeeded, as so many have succeeded before him, quite as much by rendering fallacies acceptable to his listeners as by any profound or learned exposition of truth or the accuracy of his logic. Nevertheless he had influence and was far from being altogether without just claims to its possession. Like most men who reason more than they feel the Huron was not addicted to the indulgence of the more ferocious passions of his people, he had been commonly found on the side of mercy, in all the scenes of vindictive torture and revenge that had occurred in his tribe since his own attainment to power. On the present occasion he was reluctant to proceed to extremities, although the provocation was so great. Still it exceeded his ingenuity to see how that alternative could well be avoided. Sumac resented her rejection more than she did the deaths of her husband and brother, and there was little probability that the woman would pardon a man who had so unequivocally preferred death to her embraces. Without her forgiveness there was scarce a hope that the tribe could be induced to overlook its loss, and even to Rivenoch himself, much as he was disposed to pardon, the fate of our hero now appeared to be almost hopelessly sealed. When the whole band was arrayed around the captive, a grave silence so much the more threatening from its profound quiet pervaded the place. Dear Slayer perceived that the women and boys had been preparing splinters of the fat pine roots, which he well knew were to be stuck into his flesh, and set in flames, while two or three of the young men held the thongs of bark with which he was to be bound. The smoke of a distant fire announced that the burning brands were in preparation, and several of the elder warriors passed their fingers over the edges of their tomahawks, as if to prove their keenness and temper. Even the knives seemed loosened in their sheaths, impatient for the bloody and merciless work to begin. Killer of the Deer, recommends Rivenoch, certainly without any signs of sympathy or pity in his manner, though with calmness and dignity. Killer of the Deer, it is time that my people knew their minds. The sun is no longer over our heads. Tired of waiting on the Hurans he has begun to fall near the pines on this side of the valley. He is traveling fast towards the country of our French fathers. It is to warn his children that their lodges are empty, and that they ought to be at home. The roaming wolf has his den, and he goes to it when he wishes to see his young. The Iroquois are not poorer than the wolves. They have villages and wigwams and fields of corn. The good spirits will be tired of watching them alone. My people must go back and see to their own business. There will be joy in the lodges when they hear our hoop from the forest. It will be a sorrowful hoop. When it is understood, grief will come after it. There will be one scalp hoop, but there will be only one. We have the fur of the muskrat. His body is among the fishes. Dear Slayer must say whether another scalp shall be on our pole. Two lodges are empty. A scalp, living or dead, is wanted at each door. Then take him dead hereon, firmly but altogether without dramatic boasting returned the captive. My hour is come, I do suppose, and what must be must. If you are bent on the torture, I'll do my endeavours to bear up again it, although no man can say how far his nature will stand pain until he's been tried. The pale-faced curb begins to put his tail between his legs, cried a young and garulous savage, who bore the appropriate title of the Corbeau Rouge. A sobriquet he had gained from the French by his facility in making unseasonable noises, and an undue tendency to hear his own voice. He is no warrior. He has killed the Lou Cervier when looking behind him not to see the flash of his own rifle. He grunts like a hog already. When the Huron women begin to torment him, he will cry like the young of the Catamount. He is a Delaware woman, dressed in the skin of a Yengiz. Have your say, young man. Have your say, return, dear Slayer, unmoved. You know no better, and I can overlook it. Talking may aggravate women, but can hardly make knives sharper, fire hotter, or rifles more certain. Rivenoke now interposed, reproving the red crow for his premature interference, and then directing the proper persons to bind the captive. This expedient was adopted not from any apprehensions that he would escape, or from any necessity that was yet apparent of his being unable to endure the torture with his limbs free, but from an ingenious design of making him feel his helplessness, and of gradually sapping his resolution by undermining it, as it might be, little by little. Dear Slayer offered no resistance. He submitted his arms and legs, freely if not cheerfully, to the ligaments of Bark, which were bound around them by order of the Chief, in a way to produce as little pain as possible. These directions were secret and given in the hope that the captive would finally save himself from any serious bodily suffering by consenting to take the sumac for a wife. As soon as the body of Dear Slayer was wiped and barked sufficiently to create a lively sense of helplessness, he was literally carried to a young tree and bound against it in a way that effectually prevented him from moving, as well as from falling. The hands were laid flat against the legs, and thongs were passed over all in a way nearly to incorporate the prisoner with the tree. His cap was then removed, and he was left half standing, half sustained by his bonds, to face the coming scene in the best manner he could. Previously to proceeding to anything like extremities, it was the wish of Rivenoak to put his captive's resolution to the proof by renewing the attempt at a compromise. This could be affected only in one manner, the acquiescence of the sumac being indispensably necessary to a compromise of her right to be revenged. With this view, then, the woman was next desired to advance and to look to her own interests. No agent being considered as efficient as the principal, herself, in this negotiation. The Indian females, when girls are usually mild and submissive, with musical tones, pleasant voices, and merry laughs. But toil and suffering generally deprive them of most of these advantages by the time they have reached an age which the sumac had long before passed. To render their voices harsh, it would seem to require active, malignant passions, though when excited their screams can rise to a sufficiently conspicuous degree of discordancy to assert their claim to possess this distinctive peculiarity of the sex. The sumac was not altogether without feminine attraction, however, and had so recently been deemed handsome in her tribe, as not to have yet learned the full influence that time and exposure produce on man, as well as on woman. By an arrangement of Rivenoaks some of the women around her had been enjoying the time in endeavoring to persuade the bereaved widow that there was still a hope dear slayer might be prevailed on to enter her wigwam, in preference to entering the world of spirits. And this, too, with the success that previous symptoms scarcely justified. All this was the result of a resolution on the part of the chief to leave no proper means unemployed, in order to get transferred to his own nation the greatest hunter that was then thought to exist in all that region, as well as a husband for a woman who he felt would be likely to be troublesome where any of her claims to the attention and care of the tribe overlooked. In conformity with this scheme the sumac had been secretly advised to advance into the circle and to make her appeal to the prisoner's sense of justice before the band had recourse to the last experiment. The woman, nothing loath, consented, for there was some such attraction in becoming the wife of a noted hunter among the females of the tribes, as is experienced by the sex in more refined life when they bestow their hands on the affluent. As the duties of a mother were thought to be paramount to all other considerations the widow felt none of that embarrassment in preferring her claims, to which even a female, fortune-hunter among ourselves might be liable, when she stood forth before the whole party, therefore, the children that she led by the hands fully justified all she did. You see me before you, cruel pale face the woman commenced. Your spirit must tell you, my errand, I have found you. I cannot find Lelouchervie, nor the panther. I have looked for them in the lake, in the woods, in the clouds. I cannot say where they have gone. No man knows, good sumac, no man knows, interposed the captive. When the spirit leaves the body it passes into a world beyond our knowledge, and the wisest way for them that are left behind is to hope for the best. No doubt both your warriors have gone to the happy hunting grounds, and at the proper time you will see them again, in their improved state. The wife and sister of braves must have looked forward to some such termination of their earthly careers. Cool, pale face, what had my warriors done that you should slay them? They were the best hunters, and the boldest young men of their tribe. The great spirit intended that they should live until they withered like the branches of the hemlock, and fell of their own weight. Nay, nay, good sumac, interrupted dear slayer whose love of truth was too indomitable to listen to such hyperbole with patience, even though it came from the torn breast of a widow. Nay, nay, good sumac, this is a little outdoing red-skinned privileges. Young man was neither, any more than you can be called a young woman, and as to the great spirits intending that they should fall otherwise than they did, that's a grievous mistake in as much as what the great spirit intends is certain to come to pass. Then again, it's plain enough neither of your friends did me any harm. I raised my hand again on account of what they were striving to do, rather than what they did. This is natural law, to do lest you should be done by. It is so. Sumac has but one tongue. She can tell but one story. The pale face struck the Hurons lest the Hurons should strike him. The Hurons are a just nation. They will forget it. The chiefs will shut their eyes and pretend not to have seen it. The young men will believe the panther and the lynx have gone too far off hunts, and the sumac will take her children by the hand and go into the lodge of the pale face and say, See, these are your children. They are also mine. Feed us, and we will live with you. The tarms are unadmissible, woman, and though I feel for your losses which must be hard to bear, the tarms cannot be accepted. As to giving you venison, in case we live near enough together, that would be no great exploit. But as for becoming your husband and the father of your children, to be honest with you I feel no calling that away. Look at this boy. Cruel pale face. He has no father to teach him to kill the deer, or to take scalps. See this girl. What young man will come to look for a wife in a lodge that has no head. There are more among my people in the Canada's, and the killer of the deer will find as many mouths to feed as his heart can wish for. I tell you, woman, exclaimed dear Slayer, whose imagination was far from seconding the appeal of the widow, and who began to grow restive under the vivid picture she was drawing. All this is nothing to me. People in Kindred must take care of their own fatherless, leaving them that have no children to their own loneliness. As for me, I have no offspring, and I want no wife. Now go away, sumac. Leave me in the hands of your chiefs. For my color, and gifts, and nature itself cry out again the idea of taking you for a wife. It is necessary to expatiate on the effect of this downright refusal of the woman's proposals. If there was anything like tenderness in her bosom, and no woman was probably ever entirely without that feminine quality, it all disappeared at this plain announcement. Fury, rage, mortified pride, and a volcano of wrath burst out at one explosion, converting her into a sort of maniac, as it might beat the touch of a magician's wand. Without daining a reply in words, she made the arches of the forest ring with screams, and then flew forward at her victim, seizing him by the hair, which she appeared resolute to draw out by the roots. It was some time before her grasp could be loosened. Fortunately for the prisoner her rage was blind, since his total helplessness left him entirely at her mercy, had it been better directed it might have proved fatal before any relief could have been offered. As it was, she did succeed in wrenching out two or three hands full of hair, before the young men could tear her away from her victim. The insult that had been offered to the Sumac was deemed an insult to the whole tribe. Not so much, however, on account of any respect that was felt for the woman, as on account of the honor of the Huron Nation. Sumac herself was generally considered to be as acid as the berry from which she derived her name, and now that her great supporters, her husband and brother, were both gone, few cared about concealing their aversion. Nevertheless, it had become a point of honor to punish the pale face who disdained a Huron woman, and more particularly one who coolly preferred death to relieving the tribe from the support of a widow and her children. The young men showed an impatience to begin to torture that Revan Oak understood, and as his older associates manifested no disposition to permit any longer delay, he was compelled to give the signal for the infernal work to proceed. CHAPTER XXIX of the Deer Slayer This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. THE DEER SLAYER by James Fenimore Cooper CHAPTER XXIX The ugly bear now minded not the stake, nor how the cruel mastiffs do him tear. The stag lay still unroused from the break. The foamy bore feared not the hunter's spear. All thing was still in desert, bush, and briar. Thomas Sackville, the Complaint of Henry Duke of Buckingham CHAPTER XXXI It was one of the common expedience of the savages on such occasions to put the nerves of their victims to the severest proofs. On the other hand it was a matter of Indian pride to betray no yielding to terror or pain, but for the prisoner to provoke his enemies to such acts of violence as would soonest produce death. Many a warrior have been known to bring his own sufferings to a more speedy termination, by taunting reproaches and reviling language, when he found that his physical system was giving way under the agony of sufferings produced by a hellish ingenuity that might well eclipse all that has been said of the infernal devices of religious persecution. This happy expedient of taking refuge from the ferocity of his foes and their passions was denied, Deer Slayer, however, by his peculiar notions of the duty of a white man, and he had stoutly made up his mind to endure everything, in preference to disgracing his color. No sooner did the young men understand that they were at liberty to commence than some of the boldest and most forward among them sprang into the arena, tomahawk in hand. Here they prepared to throw that dangerous weapon, the object being to strike the tree as near as possible to the victim's head, without absolutely hitting him. This was so hazardous an experiment that none but those who were known to be exceedingly expert with the weapon were allowed to enter the lists at all, lest an early death might interfere with the expected entertainment. In the truest hands it was seldom that the captive escaped injury in these trials, and it often happened that death followed, even when the blow was not premeditated. In the particular case of our hero, Riven Oak and the older warriors were apprehensive that the example of the panther's fate might prove emotive with some fiery spirit suddenly to sacrifice his conqueror, when the temptation of effecting it in precisely the same manner, and possibly with the identical weapon with which the warrior had fallen, offered. This circumstance of itself rendered the ordeal of the tomahawk doubly critical for the deerslayer. It would seem, however, that all who now entered what we shall call the lists were more disposed to exhibit their own dexterity than to resent the deaths of their comrades. Each prepared himself for the trial with the feelings of rivalry, rather than with the desire for vengeance, and for the first few minutes the prisoner had little more connection with the result than grew out of the interest that necessarily attached itself to a living target. The young men were eager instead of being fierce, and Riven Oak thought he still saw signs of being able to save the life of the captive when the vanity of the young men had been gratified, always admitting that it was not sacrificed to the delicate experiments that were about to be made. The first youth who presented himself for the trial was called the Raven, having as yet had no opportunity of obtaining a more war-like soberque. He was remarkable for high pretension, rather than for skill or exploits, and those who knew his character thought the captive in imminent danger when he took his stand, and poised the tomahawk. Nevertheless, the young man was good-natured, and no thought was uppermost in his mind other than the desire to make a better cast than any of his fellows. Dear Slayer got an inkling of this warrior's want of reputation by the injunctions that he had received from the seniors who indeed would have objected to his appearing in the arena at all, but for an influence derived from his father, an aged warrior of great merit, who was then in the lodges of the tribe. Well our hero maintained an appearance of self-possession. He had made up his mind that his hour was come, and it would have been a mercy instead of a calamity to fall by the unsteadiness of the first hand that was raised against him. After a suitable number of flourishes and gesticulations that promised much more than he could perform, the Raven let the tomahawk quit his hand. The weapon whirled through the air with the usual evolutions, cut a chip from the sapling to which the prisoner was bound within a few inches of his cheek, and stuck in a large oak that grew several yards behind him. This was decidedly a bad effort, and a common sneer proclaimed as much to the great mortification of the young man. On the other hand, there was a general but suppressed murmur of admiration at the steadiness with which the captive stood the trial. The head was the only part he could move, and this had been purposely left free that the tormentors might have the amusement and the tormented endure the shame of his dodging, and otherwise attempting to avoid the blows. Dear Slayer disappointed these hopes by a command of nerve that rendered his whole body as immovable as the treat to which he was bound, nor did he even adopt the natural and usual expedient of shutting his eyes, the firmest and oldest warrior of the red men never having more disdainfully denied himself this advantage under similar circumstances. The Raven had no sooner made his unsuccessful and purel effort than he was succeeded by Le Demmose, or the Moose, a middle-aged warrior who was particularly skillful in the use of the tomahawk and from whose attempt the spectators confidently looked for gratification. This man had none of the good nature of the Raven, but he would gladly have sacrificed the captive to his hatred of the palefaces generally, were it not for the greater interest he felt in his own success as one particularly skilled in the use of this weapon. He took his stand quietly, but with an air of confidence, poised his little axe but a single instant, advanced afoot with a quick motion and threw. Dear Slayer saw the keen instrument whirling towards him and believed all was over. Still he was not touched. The tomahawk had actually bound the head of the captive to the tree by carrying before it some of his hair, having buried itself deep beneath the soft bark. A general yell expressed the delight of the spectators, and the Moose felt his heart soften a little towards the prisoner, whose steadiness of nerve alone enabled him to give this evidence of his consummate skill. Le Demmose was succeeded by the bounding boy, or Le Garçon, qui bondi, who came leaping into the circle like a hound or a goad at play. This was one of those elastic youths whose muscles seemed always in motion and who either affected or who from habit was actually unable to move in any other manner than by showing the antics just mentioned. Nevertheless he was both brave and skillful, and had gained the respect of his people by deeds in war as well as success in the hunts. A far nobler name would long since have fallen to his share had not a Frenchman of rank inadvertently given him this sobriquet, which he religiously preserved as coming from his great father, who lived beyond the wide Salt Lake. The bounding boy skipped about in front of the captive, menacing him with his tomahawk, now on one side and now on another, and then again in front, in the vain hope of being able to extort some sign of fear by this parade of danger. At length, dear slayers, patience became exhausted by all this mummery, and he spoke for the first time since the trial had actually commenced. Throw away, Huron, he cried, or your tomahawk will forget its ironed. Why do you keep loping about like a fawn that's showing its damn how well it can skip, when you're a warrior grown, yourself, and a warrior grown defies you and all your silly antics? Throw, or the Huron gals will laugh in your face. Although not intended to produce such an effect, the last words aroused the bounding warrior to fury. The same nervous excitability which rendered him so active in his person made it difficult to repress his feelings, and the words were scarcely past the lips of the speaker than the tomahawk left the hand of the Indian, nor was it cast without ill will and a fierce determination to slay. Had the intention been less deadly, the danger might have been greater, the aim was uncertain, and the weapon glanced near the cheek of the captive, slightly cutting the shoulder in its evolutions. This was the first instance in which any other object than that of terrifying the prisoner and of displaying skill had been manifested, and the bounding boy was immediately led from the arena and was warmly rebuked for his intemperate haste, which had come so near defeating all the hopes of the band. To this irritable person succeeded several other young warriors, who not only hurled the tomahawk, but who cast the knife, a far more dangerous experiment, with reckless indifference, yet they always manifested a skill that prevented any injury to the captive. All times dear Slayer was grazed, but in no instance did he receive what might be termed a wound. The unflinching firmness with which he faced his assailants, more especially in the sort of rally with which this trial terminated, excited a profound respect in the spectators. When the chiefs announced that the prisoner had well withstood the trials of the knife and the tomahawk, it was not a single individual in the band who really felt any hostility towards him, with the exception of sumac and the bounding boy. These two discontented spirits got together, it is true, feeding each other's ire, but as yet their malignant feelings were confined very much to themselves, though there existed the danger that the others ere long could not fail to be excited by their own efforts into that demoniical state which usually accompanied all similar scenes among the red men. Rivenoke now told his people that the pale face had proved himself to be a man. He might live with the Delaware's, but he had not been made woman with that tribe. He wished to know whether it was the desire of the Hurons to proceed any further. Even the gentlest of the females, however, had received too much satisfaction in the late trials to forego their expectations of a gratifying exhibition, and there was but one voice in the request to proceed. The politic chief, who had some such desire to receive so celebrated a hunter into his tribe, as a European minister has to devise a new and available means of taxation, sought every plausible means of arresting the trial in season, for he well knew if permitted to go far enough to arouse the more ferocious passions of the tormentors. It would be as easy to dam the waters of the great lakes of his own region as to attempt to arrest them in their bloody career. He therefore called four or five of the best marksmen to him, and bid them put the captive to the proof of the rifle, while at the same time he cautioned them, touching the necessity of their maintaining their own credit, by the closest attention to the manner of exhibiting their skill. When Deerslayer saw the chosen warriors step into the circle, with their arms prepared for service, he felt some such relief as the miserable sufferer who has long endured the agonies of disease feels at the certain approach of death. Any trifling variance in the aim of this formidable weapon would prove fatal, since the head being the target, or rather the point it was desired to graze without injuring, an inch or two of difference in the line of projection must at once determine the question of life or death. In the torture by the rifle there was none of the latitude permitted that appeared in the case of even Gessler's apple, a hare's breath being, in fact, the utmost limits that an expert marksman would allow himself on an occasion like this. Victims were frequently shot through the head by two eager or unskillful hands, and it often occurred that, exasperated by the fortitude and taunts of the prisoner, death was dealt intentionally in a moment of ungovernable irritation. All this Deerslayer well knew, for it was in relating the traditions of such scenes, as well as of the battles and victories of their people, that the old men beguiled the long winter evenings in their cabins. He now fully expected the end of his career, and experienced a sort of melancholy pleasure in the idea that he was to fall by a weapon as much beloved as the rifle. A slight interruption, however, took place before the business was allowed to proceed. Had he huddered, witnessed all that passed, and the scene at first had pressed upon her feeble mind in a way to paralyze it entirely, but by this time she had rallied, and was growing indignant at the unmerited suffering the Indians were inflicting on her friend. Though timid and shy as the young of the deer on so many occasions, this right-feeling girl was always intrepid in the cause of humanity. The lessons of her mother, and the impulses of her own heart, perhaps we might say the promptings of that unseen and pure spirit that seemed ever to watch over and direct her actions, uniting to keep down the apprehensions of woman, and to impel her to be bold and resolute. She now appeared in the circle, gentle, feminine, even bashful in mean, as usual, but earnest in her words and countenance, speaking like one who knew herself to be sustained by the high authority of God. Why do you torment dear slayer, red men, she asked? What has he done that you trifle with his life? Who has given you the right to be his judges? Suppose one of your knives or tomahawks had hit him. What Indian among you all could cure the wound you would make? Besides, in harming dear slayer, you injure your own friend. When father and hurry Harry came after your scalps, he refused to be of the party, and stayed in the canoe by himself. You are tormenting a good friend in tormenting this young man. The Hurans listened with grave attention, and one among them who understood English translated what had been said into their native tongue. As soon as Rivenoch was made acquainted with the purport of her address, he answered it in his own dialect, the interpreter conveying it to the girl in English. My daughter is very welcome to speak, said the stern old orator, using gentle intonations and smiling as kindly as if addressing a child. The Hurans are glad to hear her voice. They listen to what she says. The Great Spirit often speaks to men with such tongues. This time her eyes have not been open wide enough to see all that has happened. Dear slayer did not come for our scalps, that is true. Why did he not come? Here they are on our heads. The warlocks are ready to be taken hold of. A bold enemy ought to stretch out his hand to seize them. The Iroquois are too great a nation to punish men that take scalps. What they do themselves they like to see others do. Let my daughter look around her and count my warriors. Had I as many hands as four warriors, their fingers would be fewer than my people when they came into your hunting grounds. Now, a whole hand is missing. Where are the fingers? Two have been cut off by this pale face. My Hurans wish to see if he did this by means of a stout heart or by treachery. Like a skulking fox or like a leaping panther. You know yourself, Huran, how one of them fell. I saw it, and you all saw it too. It was too bloody to look at. But it was not Dear Slayer's fault. Your warrior sought his life, and he defended himself. I don't know whether this good book says that it was right, but all men will do that. Come, if you want to know which one of you can shoot best, give Dear Slayer a rifle, and then you will find how much more expert he is than any of your warriors. Yes. Then all of them together. Could one have looked upon such a scene with indifference? He would have been amused at the gravity with which the savages listened to the translation of this unusual request. No taunt, no smile mingled with their surprise, for had he had a character and a manor too saintly to subject her infirmity to the mockings of the rude and ferocious. On the contrary, she was answered with respectful attention. My daughter does not always talk like a chief at a council fire, returned Rivenoke, or she would not have said this. Two of my warriors have fallen by the blows of our prisoner. Their grave is too small to hold a third. The Hurans do not like to crowd their dead. If there is another spirit about to set out for the fire-off world, it must not be the spirit of a Huron. It must be the spirit of a Paleface. Go, daughter, and sit by Sumak, who is in grief. Let the Huron warriors show how well they can shoot. Let the Paleface show how little he cares for their bullets. Had he's mind was unequal to a sustained discussion, and accustomed to defer to the directions of her seniors, she did as told, leading herself passively on a log by the side of the Sumak, and averting her face from the painful scene that was occurring within the circle. The warriors, as soon as this interruption had ceased, resumed their places, and again prepared to exhibit their skill, as there was a double object in view, that of putting the constancy of the captive to the proof, and that of showing how steady were the hands of the marksmen under circumstances of excitement, the distance was small, and in one sense safe, but in diminishing the distance taken by the tormentors the trial to the nerves of the captive was essentially increased. The face of Dearslayer indeed was just removed sufficiently from the ends of the guns to escape the effects of the flash, and his steady eye was enabled to look directly into their muzzles, as it might be, in anticipation of the fatal messenger that was to issue from each. The cunning Hurons well knew this fact, and scarce one leveled his peace without first causing it to point as near as possible at the forehead of the prisoner, in the hope that his fortitude would fail him, and that the band would enjoy the triumph of seeing a victim quail under their ingenious cruelty. Nevertheless each of the competitors was still careful not to injure, the disgrace of striking prematurely being second only to that of failing altogether in attaining the object. Shot after shot was made. All the bullets coming in close proximity to the Dearslayer's head, without touching it, still no one could detect even the twitching of a muscle on the part of the captive, or the slightest winking of an eye. This indomitable resolution, which so much exceeded everything of its kind that any present had before witnessed, might be referred to three distinct causes. The first was resignation to his fate, blended with natural steadiness of deportment, for our hero had calmly made up his mind that he must die, and preferred this mode to any other. The second was his great familiarity with this particular weapon, which deprived it of all the terror that is usually connected with the mere form of the danger. And the third was this familiarity carried out in practice, to a degree so nice as to enable the intended victim to tell, within an inch the precise spot where each bullet must strike, for he calculated its range by looking in at the bore of the piece. So exact was Dearslayer's estimation of the line of fire that his pride of feeling finally got the better of his resignation, and when five or six had discharged their bullets into the tree he could not refrain from expressing his contempt at their want of hand and eye. You may call this shooting, Mingoes, he exclaimed, but weave squaws among the Delaware's, and I have known Dutch gals on the Mohawk that could outdo your greatest endeavors. Undo these arms of mine, put a rifle into my hands, and I'll pin the thinnest warlock in your party to any tree you can show me, and this at a hundred yards, I, or at two hundred if the objects can be seen, nineteen shots and twenty, or for that matter twenty and twenty, if the piece is creditable and trusty. A low menacing murmur followed this cool taunt, the ire of the warrior's kindle that listening to such a reproach from one who so far disdained their efforts as to refuse even to wink when a rifle was discharged as near as faces could be done without burning it. Rivenoch perceived that the moment was critical, and still retaining his hope of adopting so noted a hunter into his tribe the politic old chief interposed in time, probably to prevent an immediate resort to that portion of the torture which must necessarily have produced death through extreme bodily suffering, if in no other manner. Moving into the center of the irritated group he addressed them with his usual wily logic and plausible manner at once suppressing the fierce movement that had commenced. I see how it is, he said. We have been like the pale faces when they fasten their doors at night out of fear of the red men. They use so many bars that the fire comes and burns them before they can get out. We have bound the deer slayer too tight, the thongs keep his limbs from shaking and his eyes from shutting. Loosen him. Let us see what his own body is really made of. It is often the case when we are thwarted in a cherished scheme that any expedient, however unlikely to succeed, is gladly resorted to in preference to a total abandonment of the project. So it was with the Hurons. The proposal of the chief found instant favor, and several hands were immediately at work cutting and tearing the ropes of bark from the body of our hero. In half a minute deer slayer stood as free from bonds as when an hour before he had commenced his flight on the side of the mountain. Some little time was necessary that he should recover the use of his limbs, the circulation of the blood having been checked by the tightness of the ligatures. And this was accorded to him by the politic Rivenoch, under the pretense that his body would be more likely to submit to apprehension if its true tone were restored, though really with a view to give time to the fierce passions which had been awakened in the bosoms of his young men to subside. This ruse succeeded, and deer slayer, by rubbing his limbs, stamping his feet, and moving about, soon regained the circulation, recovering all his physical powers as effectually as if nothing had occurred to disturb them. It is seldom men think of death in the pride of their health and strength. So it was with deer slayer, having been helplessly bound, and as he had every reason to suppose so lately on the very verge of the other world, to find himself so unexpectedly liberated in possession of his strength and with a full command of limb, acted on him like a sudden restoration to life, reanimating hopes that he had once absolutely abandoned. From that instant all his plans changed. In this he simply obeyed a law of nature, for while we have wished to represent our hero as being resigned to his fate, it has been far from our intention to represent him as anxious to die. From the instant that his buoyancy of feeling revived, his thoughts were keenly bent on the various projects that presented themselves as modes of evading the designs of his enemies, and he again became the quick-witted, ingenious and determined woodsman, alive to all his own powers and resources. The change was so great that his mind resumed its elasticity, and no longer thinking of submission, it dwelt only on the devices of the sort of warfare in which he was engaged. As soon as Deerslayer was released, the band divided itself in a circle around him in order to hedge him in, and the desire to break down his spirit grew in them precisely as they saw proofs of the difficulty there would be in subduing it. The honor of the band was now involved in the issue, and even the fair sex lost all its sympathy with suffering and the desire to save the reputation of the tribe. The voices of the girls, soft and melodious as nature had made them, were heard mingling with the menesses of the men, and the wrongs of Sumac suddenly assumed the character of injuries inflicted on every Huron female. Yielding to this rising tumult, the men drew back a little, signifying to the females that they left the captive for a time in their hands, it being a common practice on such occasions for the women to endeavor to throw the victim into a rage by their taunts and revilings, and then to turn him suddenly over to the men in a state of mind that was little favorable to resisting the agony of bodily suffering. Nor was this party without the proper instruments for effecting such a purpose. Sumac had a notoriety as a scold, and one or two crones like the she-bear had come out with the party most probably as the conservators of its decency and moral discipline, such things occurring in savage as well as in civilized life. It is unnecessary to repeat all that ferocity and ignorance could invent for such a purpose. The only difference between this outbreaking a feminine anger and a similar scene among ourselves, consisting in the figures of speech and the epithets the Huron women calling their prisoner by the names of the lower and least respected animals that were known to themselves. But dear Slayer's mind was too much occupied to permit him to be disturbed by the abuse of excited hags, and their rage necessarily increasing with his indifference, as his indifference increased with their rage, the furies soon rendered themselves impotent by their own excesses. Perceiving that the attempt was a complete failure, the warriors interfered to put a stop to this scene. And this so much the more because preparations were now seriously making for the commencement of the real tortures, or that which would put the fortitude of the sufferer to the test of severe bodily pain. A sudden and unlooked-for announcement that proceeded from one of the look-outs, a boy ten or twelve years old, however, put a momentary check to the whole proceedings. As this interruption has a close connection with the day-new mount of our story, it shall be given in a separate chapter.