Even the children would not be excluded; but boys,
little able to wield the instruments, tore the tomahawks from the
belts of their fathers, and stole into the ranks, apt imitators of
the savage traits exhibited by their parents.
little able to wield the instruments, tore the tomahawks from the
belts of their fathers, and stole into the ranks, apt imitators of
the savage traits exhibited by their parents.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v07 - Cic to Cuv
Ishmael bade his sons seek
their rest, announcing his intention to look to the safety of the
camp in person. When all was still, he walked out upon the
prairie with a sort of sensation that he found his breathing
among the tents too straitened. The night was well adapted to
heighten the feelings which had been created by the events of
the day.
The wind had risen with the moon, and it was occasionally
sweeping over the plain in a manner that made it not difficult
for the sentinel to imagine strange and unearthly sounds were
mingling in the blasts. Yielding to the extraordinary impulses
of which he was the subject, he cast a glance around to see that
## p. 4016 (#386) ###########################################
4016
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
all were slumbering in security, and then he strayed towards the
swell of land already mentioned. Here the squatter found him-
self at a point that commanded a view to the east and to the
west. Light fleecy clouds were driving before the moon, which
was cold and watery, though there were moments when its
placid rays were shed from clear blue fields, seeming to soften
objects to its own mild loveliness.
For the first time, in a life of so much wild adventure, Ish-
mael felt a keen sense of solitude. The naked prairies began to
assume the forms of illimitable and dreary wastes, and the rush-
ing of the wind sounded like the whisperings of the dead. It
was not long before he thought a shriek was borne past him on
a blast.
It did not sound like a call from earth, but it swept
frightfully through the upper air, mingled with the hoarse accom-
paniment of the wind. The teeth of the squatter were com-
pressed and his huge hand grasped the rifle, as if it would crush
the metal. Then came a lull, a fresher blast, and a cry of hor-
ror that seemed to have been uttered at the very portals of his
ears. A sort of echo burst involuntarily from his own lips, as
men shout under unnatural excitement, and throwing his rifle
across his shoulder, he proceeded towards the rock with the
strides. of a giant.
It was not often that the blood of Ishmael moved at the rate
with which the fluid circulates in the veins of ordinary men; but
now he felt it ready to gush from every pore in his body. The
animal was aroused, in his most latent energies. Ever as he
advanced he heard those shrieks, which sometimes seemed
ringing among the clouds, and sometimes passed so nigh as to
appear to brush the earth. At length there came a cry in
which there could be no delusion, or to which the imagination
could lend no horror. It appeared to fill each cranny of the
air, as the visible horizon is often charged to fullness by one
dazzling flash of the electric fluid. The name of God was dis-
tinctly audible, but it was awfully and blasphemously blended
with sounds that may not be repeated. The squatter stopped,
and for a moment he covered his ears with his hands. When he
withdrew the latter, a low and husky voice at his elbow asked in
smothered tones:
-
"Ishmael, my man, heard ye nothing? "
"Hist! " returned the husband, laying a powerful arm on
Esther, without manifesting the smallest surprise at the unlooked
## p. 4017 (#387) ###########################################
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
4017
for presence of his wife. "Hist, woman! if you have the fear
of Heaven, be still! "
A profound silence succeeded. Though the wind rose and
fell as before, its rushing was no longer mingled with those
fearful cries. The sounds were imposing and solemn, but it was
the solemnity and majesty of nature.
"Let us go on," said Esther; "all is hushed. "
"Woman, what has brought you here? " demanded her hus-
band, whose blood had returned into its former channels, and
whose thoughts had already lost a portion of their excitement.
"Ishmael, he murdered our first-born: but it is not meet
that the son of my mother should lie upon the ground like the
carrion of a dog. "
"Follow! " returned the squatter, again grasping his rifle and
striding towards the rock. The distance was still considerable;
and their approach, as they drew nigh the place of execution,
was moderated by awe. Many minutes had passed before they
reached a spot where they might distinguish the outlines of the
dusky objects.
"Where have you put the body? " whispered Esther. "See,
here are pick and spade, that a brother of mine may sleep in
the bosom of the earth! "
The moon broke from behind a mass of clouds, and the eye
of the woman was enabled to follow the finger of Ishmael. It
pointed to a human form swinging in the wind, beneath the
ragged and shining arm of the willow. Esther bent her head
and veiled her eyes from the sight. But Ishmael drew nigher,
and long contemplated his work in awe, though not in compunc-
tion. The leaves of the sacred book were scattered on the
ground, and even a fragment of the shelf had been displaced by
the kidnapper in his agony. But all was now in the stillness of
death. The grim and convulsed countenance of the victim was
at times brought full into the light of the moon, and again, as
the wind lulled, the fatal rope drew a dark line across its bright
disk. The squatter raised his rifle with extreme care, and fired.
The cord was cut, and the body came lumbering to the earth, a
heavy and insensible mass.
Until now Esther had not moved nor spoken. But her hand
was not slow to assist in the labor of the hour. The grave was
soon dug. It was instantly made to receive its miserable tenant.
As the lifeless form descended, Esther, who sustained the head,
VII-252
## p. 4018 (#388) ###########################################
4018
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
looked up into the face of her husband with an expression of
anguish, and said:-
"Ishmael, my man, it is very terrible! I cannot kiss the
corpse of my father's child! »
The squatter laid his broad hand on the bosom of the dead,
and said:
"Abiram White, we all have need of mercy; from my soul
do I forgive you! May God in heaven have pity on your sins! »
The woman bowed her face, and imprinted her lips long and
fervently on the pallid forehead of her brother. After this came
the falling clods and all the solemn sounds of filling a grave.
Esther lingered on her knees, and Ishmael stood uncovered while
the woman muttered a prayer. All was then finished.
On the following morning the teams and herds of the squat-
ter were seen pursuing their course towards the settlements. As
they approached the confines of society the train was blended
among a thousand others. Though some of the numerous
descendants of this peculiar pair were reclaimed from their law-
less and semi-barbarous lives, the principals of the family them-
selves were never heard of more.
THE BISON STAMPEDE
From The Prairie
T
HE warrior suddenly paused and bent his face aside, like one
who listened with all his faculties absorbed in the act.
Then turning the head of his horse, he rode to the nearest
angle of the thicket, and looked intently across the bleak prairie
in a direction opposite to the side on which the party stood.
Returning slowly from this unaccountable, and, to his observers,
startling procedure, he riveted his eyes on Inez, and paced back
and forth several times with the air of one who maintained a
warm struggle on some difficult point in the recesses of his own
thoughts. He had drawn the reins of his impatient steed, and
was seemingly about to speak when his head again sank on his
chest, and he resumed his former attitude of attention. Gallop-
ing like a deer to the place of his former observations, he rode
for a moment swiftly in short and rapid circles as if still uncer-
tain of his course, and then darted away like a bird that had
## p. 4019 (#389) ###########################################
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
4019
been fluttering around its nest before it takes a distant flight.
After scouring the plain for a minute he was lost to the eye
behind a swell of the land.
The hounds, who had also manifested great uneasiness for
some time, followed him for a little distance, and then terminated
their chase by seating themselves on the ground and raising
their usual low, whining, and warning howls.
These movements had passed in so short a space of time
that the old man, while he neglected not to note the smallest
incident, had no opportunity of expressing his opinion concerning
the stranger's motives. After the Pawnee had disappeared, how-
ever, he shook his head and muttered, while he walked slowly
to the angle of the thicket that the Indian had just quitted:-
"There are both scents and sounds in the air, though my
miserable senses are not good enough to hear the one or to
catch the taint of the other. "
"There is nothing to be seen," cried Middleton, who kept
close at his side. "My ears and my eyes are good, and yet
I can assure you that I neither hear nor see anything. "
"Your eyes are good! and you are not deaf! " returned the
other, with a slight air of contempt; "no, lad, no; they may be
good to see across a church, or to hear a town bell, but afore
you had passed a year in these prairies you would find yourself
taking a turkey for a buffalo, or conceiting fifty times that the
roar of a buffalo bull was the thunder of the Lord! There is a
deception of natur' in these naked plains in which the air throws
up the images like water, and then it is hard to tell the prairies.
from a sea.
But yonder is a sign that a hunter never fails to
know. "
The trapper pointed to a flight of vultures that were sailing
over the plain at no great distance, and apparently in the direc-
tion in which the Pawnee had riveted his eyes. At first Middle-
ton could not distinguish the small dark objects that were
dotting the dusky clouds; but as they came swiftly onward,
first their forms and then their heavy waving wings became.
distinctly visible.
"Listen! " said the trapper, when he had succeeded in making
Middleton see the moving column of birds. "Now you hear the
buffaloes, or bisons, as your knowing Doctor sees fit to call
them; though buffaloes is their name among all the hunters of
these regions. And I conclude that a hunter is a better judge
## p. 4020 (#390) ###########################################
4020
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
of a beast and of its name," he added, winking at the young
soldier, "tha: any man who has turned over the leaves of a
book instead of traveling over the face of the 'arth, in order to
find out the natur's of its inhabitants. "
"Of their habits, I will grant you," cried the naturalist, who
rarely missed an opportunity to agitate any disputed point in his
favorite studies. "That is, provided always deference is had to
the proper use of definitions, and that they are contemplated
with scientific eyes. "
"Eyes of a nole! as if any man's eyes were not as good for
names as the eyes of any other creatur'! Who named the works
of His hand? can you tell me that, with your book and college
wisdom? Was it not the first man in the Garden, and is it not
a plain consequence that his children inherit his gifts? "
"That is certainly the Mosaic account of the event," said the
Doctor; "though your reading is by far too literal! "
"My reading! nay, if you suppose that I have wasted my
time in schools, you do such a wrong to my knowledge as one
mortal should never lay to the door of another without sufficient
reason. If I have ever craved the art of reading, it has been
that I might better know the sayings of the book you name, for
it is a book which speaks in every line according to human
feelings, and therein according to reason. ”
"And do you then believe," said the Doctor, a little provoked
by the dogmatism of his stubborn adversary, and perhaps secretly
too confident in his own more liberal, though scarcely as profita-
ble attainments, "do you then believe that all these beasts were
literally collected in a garden to be enrolled in the nomenclature
of the first man? "
«< Why not? I understand your meaning; for it is not needful
to live in towns to hear all the devilish devices that the conceit
of man
can invent to upset his own happiness. What does it
prove, except indeed it may be said to prove that the garden He
made was not after the miserable fashions of our times, thereby
directly giving the lie to what the world calls its civilizing?
No, no, the garden of the Lord was the forest then, and is the
forest now, where the fruits do grow and the birds do sing,
according to his own wise ordering. Now, lady, you may see
the mystery of the vultures! There come the buffaloes them-
selves, and a noble herd it is! I warrant me that Pawnee has
a troop of his people in some of the hollows nigh by; and as he
## p. 4021 (#391) ###########################################
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
4021
has gone scampering after them, you are about to see a glorious
chase. It will serve to keep the squatter and his brood under
cover, and for ourselves there is little reason to fear. A Pawnee
is not apt to be a malicious savage. "
Every eye was now drawn to the striking spectacle that suc-
ceeded. Even the timid Inez hastened to the side of Middleton
to gaze at the sight, and Paul summoned Ellen from her culi-
nary labors to become a witness of the lively scene.
Throughout the whole of those moving events which it has
been our duty to record, the prairies had lain in the majesty of
perfect solitude. The heavens had been blackened with the pas-
sage of the migratory birds, it is true; but the dogs of the
party and the ass of the Doctor were the only quadrupeds that
had enlivened the broad surface of the waste beneath. There
was now a sudden exhibition of animal life which changed the
scene, as it were by magic, to the very opposite extreme.
A few enormous bison bulls were first observed scouring
along the most distant roll of the prairie, and then succeeded
long files of single beasts, which in their turns were followed
by a dark mass of bodies, until the dun-colored herbage of the
plain was entirely lost in the deeper hue of their shaggy coats.
The herd, as the column spread and thickened, was like the
endless flocks of the smaller birds whose extended flanks are so
often seen to heave up out of the abyss of the heavens, until
they appear as countless as the leaves in those forests over
which they wing their endless flight. Clouds of dust shot up
in little columns from the centre of the mass, as some animal,
more furious than the rest, plowed the plain with his horns;
and from time to time a deep hollow bellowing was borne
along on the wind, as if a thousand throats vented their plaints
in a discordant murmuring.
A long and musing silence reigned in the party as they
gazed on this spectacle of wild and peculiar grandeur.
It was
at length broken by the trapper, who, having been long accus-
tomed to similar sights, felt less of its influence, or rather felt
it in a less thrilling and absorbing manner, than those to whom
the scene was more novel.
"There go ten thousand oxen in one drove, without keeper or
master, except Him who made them and gave them these open
plains for their pasture! Ay, it is here that man may see the
proofs of his wantonness and folly! Can the proudest governor
## p. 4022 (#392) ###########################################
4022
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
in all the States go into his fields and slaughter a nobler bullock
than is here offered to the meanest hand; and when he has got-
ten his sirloin or his steak, can he eat it with as good a relish
as he who has sweetened his food with wholesome toil, and
earned it according to the law of natur', by honestly mastering
that which the Lord hath put before him? "
"If the prairie platter is smoking with a buffalo's hump, I
answer no," interrupted the luxurious bee-hunter.
“Ay, boy, you have tasted, and you feel the genuine reason-
ing of the thing! But the herd is heading a little this-away,
and it behooves us to make ready for their visit. If we hide
ourselves altogether, the horned brutes will break through the
place and trample us beneath their feet like so many creeping
worms; so we will just put the weak ones apart, and take post,
as becomes men and hunters, in the van. "
As there was but little time to make the necessary arrange-
ments, the whole party set about them in good earnest. Inez
and Ellen were placed in the edge of the thicket on the side
furthest from the approaching herd. Asinus was posted in the
centre, in consideration of his nerves; and then the old man
with his three male companions divided themselves in such a
manner as they thought would enable them to turn the head of
the rushing column, should it chance to approach too nigh their
position. By the vacillating movements of some fifty or a hun-
dred bulls that led the advance, it remained questionable for
many moments what course they intended to pursue.
But a
tremendous and painful roar which came from behind the cloud
of dust that rose in the centre of the herd, and which was hor-
ridly answered by the screams of the carrion-birds that were
greedily sailing directly above the flying drove, appeared to give
a new impulse to their flight and at once to remove every symp-
tom of indecision. As if glad to seek the smallest signs of the
forest, the whole of the affrighted herd became steady in its
direction, rushing in a straight line toward the little cover of
bushes which has already been so often named.
The appearance of danger was now in reality of a character
to try the stoutest nerves. The flanks of the dark moving mass
were advanced in such a manner as to make a concave line of
the front; and every fierce eye that was glaring from the shaggy
wilderness of hair in which the entire heads of the males were
enveloped, was riveted with mad anxiety on the thicket. It
## p. 4023 (#393) ###########################################
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
4023
seemed as if each beast strove to outstrip his neighbor in gain-
ing this desired cover; and as thousands in the rear pressed
blindly on those in front, there was the appearance of an immi-
leaders of the herd would be precipitated on
in which case the destruction of every one of
Each of our adventurers felt the danger of
manner peculiar to his individual character
nent risk that the
the concealed party,
them was certain.
his situation in a
and circumstances.
Middleton wavered. At times he felt inclined to rush through
the bushes, and seizing Inez, attempt to fly. Then recollect-
ing impossibility of outstripping the furious speed of an
alarmed bison, he felt for his arms, determined to make head
against the countless drove. The faculties of Dr. Battius were
quickly wrought up to the very summit of mental delusion. The
dark forms of the herd lost their distinctness, and then the nat-
uralist began to fancy he beheld a wild collection of all the
creatures of the world rushing upon him in a body, as if to
revenge the various injuries which, in the course of a life of
indefatigable labor in behalf of the natural sciences, he had
inflicted on their several genera. The paralysis it occasioned in
his system was like the effect of the incubus. Equally unable to
fly or to advance, he stood riveted to the spot, until the infatu-
ation became so complete that the worthy naturalist was begin-
ning, by a desperate effort of scientific resolution, even to class
the different specimens. On the other hand, Paul shouted, and
called on Ellen to come and assist him in shouting, but his voice
was lost in the bellowings and trampling of the herd. Furious,
and yet strangely excited by the obstinacy of the brutes and the
wildness of the sight, and nearly maddened by sympathy and a
species of unconscious apprehension in which the claims of nature
were singularly mingled with concern for his mistress, he nearly
split his throat in exhorting his aged friend to interfere.
"Come forth, old trapper," he shouted, "with your prairie
inventions! or we shall be all smothered under a mountain of
buffalo humps! "
The old man, who had stood all this while leaning on his
rifle and regarding the movements of the herd with a steady
eye, now deemed it time to strike his blow. Leveling his piece
at the foremost bull, with an agility that would have done credit
to his youth, he fired. The animal received the bullet on the
matted hair between his horns, and fell to his knees; but shaking
## p. 4024 (#394) ###########################################
4024
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
his head he instantly arose, the very shock seeming to increase
his exertions. There was now no longer time to hesitate.
Throwing down his rifle, the trapper stretched forth his arms,
and advanced from the cover with naked hands directly towards
the rushing column of the beasts.
The figure of a man, when sustained by the firmness and
steadiness that intellect can only impart, rarely fails of com-
manding respect from all the inferior animals of the creation.
The leading bulls recoiled, and for a single instant there was a
sudden stop to their speed, a dense mass of bodies rolling up in
front until hundreds were seen floundering and tumbling on the
plain. Then came another of those hollow bellowings from the
rear, and set the herd again in motion. The head of the col-
umn, however, divided, the immovable form of the trapper
cutting it as it were into two gliding streams of life. Middle-
ton and Paul instantly profited by his example, and extended the
feeble barrier by a similar exhibition of their own persons.
For a few moments the new impulse given to the animals in
front served to protect the thicket. But as the body of the
herd pressed more and more upon the open line of its defenders,
and the dust thickened so as to obscure their persons, there
was at each instant a renewed danger of the beasts breaking
through. It became necessary for the trapper and his compan-
ions to become still more and more alert; and they were grad-
ually yielding before the headlong multitude, when a furious bull
darted by Middleton so near as to brush his person, and at the
next instant swept through the thicket with the velocity of the
wind.
"Close, and die for the ground," shouted the old man, “or a
thousand of the devils will be at his heels! "
All their efforts would have proved fruitless however against
the living torrent, had not Asinus, whose domains had just been
so rudely entered, lifted his voice in the midst of the uproar.
The most sturdy and furious of the bulls trembled at the alarm-
ing and unknown cry, and then each individual brute was seen
madly pressing from that very thicket which the moment before
he had endeavored to reach, with the eagerness with which the
murderer seeks the sanctuary.
As the stream divided the place became clear; the two dark
columns moving obliquely from the copse, to unite again at the
distance of a mile, on its opposite side. The instant the old
## p. 4025 (#395) ###########################################
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
4025
man saw the sudden effect which the voice of Asinus had pro-
duced, he coolly commenced reloading his rifle, indulging at
the same time in a heartfelt fit of his silent and peculiar merri-
ment.
"There they go, like dogs with so many half-filled shot-
pouches dangling at their tails, and no fear of their breaking
their order; for what the brutes in the rear didn't hear with
their own ears, they'll conceit they did: besides, if they change
their minds, it may be no hard matter to get the jack to sing
the rest of his tune! "
"The ass has spoken, but Balaam is silent! " cried the bee-
hunter, catching his breath after a repeated burst of noisy mirth,
that might possibly have added to the panic of the buffaloes by
its vociferation. "The man is as completely dumfounded as if
a swarm of young bees had settled on the end of his tongue,
and he not willing to speak for fear of their answer. "
"How now, friend," continued the trapper, addressing the
still motionless and entranced naturalist; "how now, friend; are
you, who make your livelihood by booking the names and natur's
of the beasts of the fields and the fowls of the air, frightened at
a herd of scampering buffaloes? Though perhaps you are ready
to dispute my right to call them by a word that is in the mouth.
of every hunter and trader on the frontier! "
The old man was however mistaken in supposing he could
excite the benumbed faculties of the Doctor by provoking a dis-
cussion. From that time henceforth he was never known,
except on one occasion, to utter a word that indicated either the
species or the genus of the animal. He obstinately refused the
nutritious food of the whole ox family; and even to the present
hour, now that he is established in all the scientific dignity and
security of a savant in one of the maritime towns, he turns his
back with a shudder on those delicious and unrivaled viands that
are so often seen at the suppers of the craft, and which are
unequaled by anything that is served under the same name at
the boasted chop-houses of London or at the most renowned of
the Parisian restaurants.
## p. 4026 (#396) ###########################################
4026
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
RUNNING THE GAUNTLET
From The Last of the Mohicans'
TH
HERE yet lingered sufficient light in the heavens to exhibit
those bright openings among the tree-tops where different
paths left the clearing to enter the depths of the wilder-
ness. Beneath one of them, a line of warriors issued from the
woods and advanced slowly toward the dwellings. One in front
bore a short pole, on which, as it afterward appeared, were sus-
pended several human scalps. The startling sounds that Duncan
had heard were what the whites have not inappropriately called
the "death-hallo"; and each repetition of the cry was intended to
announce to the tribe the fate of an enemy. Thus far the knowl-
edge of Heyward assisted him in the explanation; and as he
knew that the interruption was caused by the unlooked-for return
of a successful war-party, every disagreeable sensation was quieted
in inward congratulations for the opportune relief and insignifi-
cance it conferred on himself.
When at the distance of a few hundred feet from the lodges,
the newly arrived warriors halted. The plaintive and terrific cry
which was intended to represent equally the wailings of the dead
and the triumph of the victors, had entirely ceased. One of their
number now called aloud, in words that were far from appalling,
though not more intelligible to those for whose ears they were
intended than their expressive yells. It would be difficult to
convey a suitable idea of the savage ecstasy with which the news
thus imparted was received. The whole encampment in a
moment became a scene of the most violent bustle and commo-
tion. The warriors drew their knives, and flourishing them, they
arranged themselves in two lines, forming a lane that extended
from the war-party to the lodges. The squaws seized clubs, axes,
or whatever weapon of offense first offered itself to their hands,
and rushed eagerly to act their part in the cruel game that was
at hand.
Even the children would not be excluded; but boys,
little able to wield the instruments, tore the tomahawks from the
belts of their fathers, and stole into the ranks, apt imitators of
the savage traits exhibited by their parents.
Large piles of brush lay scattered about the clearing, and
a wary and aged squaw was occupied firing as many as might
## p. 4027 (#397) ###########################################
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
4027
serve to light the coming exhibition. As the flame arose, its
power exceeded that of the parting day, and assisted to render
objects at the same time more distinct and more hideous. The
whole scene formed a striking picture, whose frame was com-
posed of the dark and tall border of pines. The warriors just
arrived were the most distant figures. A little in advance stood
two men, who were apparently selected from the rest as the
principal actors in what was to follow. The light was not strong
enough to render their features distinct, though it was quite evi-
dent that they were governed by very different emotions. While
one stood erect and firm, prepared to meet his fate like a hero,
the other bowed his head, as if palsied by terror or stricken
with shame. The high-spirited Duncan felt a powerful impulse
of admiration and pity toward the former, though no opportunity
could offer to exhibit his generous emotions. He watched his
slightest movement, however, with eager eyes; and as he traced
the fine outline of his admirably proportioned and active frame,
he endeavored to persuade himself that if the powers of man,
seconded by such noble resolution, could bear one harmless.
through so severe a trial, the youthful captive before him might
hope for success in the hazardous race he was about to run.
Insensibly the young man drew nigher to the swarthy lines of
the Hurons, and scarcely breathed, so intense became his inter-
est in the spectacle. Just then the signal yell was given, and
the momentary quiet which had preceded it was broken by a
burst of cries that far exceeded any before heard. The most
abject of the two victims continued motionless; but the other
bounded from the place at the cry, with the activity and swift-
ness of a deer. Instead of rushing through the hostile lines as
had been expected, he just entered the dangerous defile, and
before time was given for a single blow, turned short, and leap-
ing the heads of a row of children, he gained at once the
exterior and safer side of the formidable array. The artifice
was answered by a hundred voices raised in imprecations, and
the whole of the excited multitude broke from their order and
spread themselves about the place in wild confusion.
A dozen blazing piles now shed their lurid brightness on the
place, which resembled some unhallowed and supernatural arena
in which malicious demons had assembled to act their bloody
and lawless rites. The forms in the background looked like un-
earthly beings gliding before the eye and cleaving the air with
## p. 4028 (#398) ###########################################
4028
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
frantic and unmeaning gestures; while the savage passions of
such as passed the flames were rendered fearfully distinct by the
gleams that shot athwart their inflamed visages.
It will easily be understood that amid such a concourse of
vindictive enemies, no breathing-time was allowed the fugitive.
There was a single moment when it seemed as if he would have
reached the forest; but the whole body of his captors threw
themselves before him, and drove him back into the centre of
his relentless persecutors. Turning like a headed deer, he shot
with the swiftness of an arrow through a pillar of forked flame,
and passing the whole multitude harmless he appeared on the
opposite side of the clearing. Here too he was met and turned
by a few of the older and more subtle of the Hurons. Once
more he tried the throng, as if seeking safety in its blindness;
and then several moments succeeded, during which Duncan
believed the active and courageous young stranger was lost.
Nothing could be distinguished but a dark mass of human
forms tossed and involved in inexplicable confusion. Arms,
gleaming knives, and formidable clubs appeared above them,
but the blows were evidently given at random. The awful effect
was heightened by the piercing shrieks of the women and the
fierce yells of the warriors. Now and then Duncan caught a
glimpse of a light form cleaving the air in some desperate
bound, and he rather hoped than believed that the captive yet
retained the command of his astonishing powers of activity.
Suddenly the multitude rolled backward, and approached the
spot where he himself stood. The heavy body in the rear
pressed upon the women and children in front, and bore them
to the earth. The stranger reappeared in the confusion. Human
power could not, however, much longer endure so severe a trial.
Of this the captive seemed conscious. Profiting by the moment-
ary opening, he darted from among the warriors, and made a
desperate, and what seemed to Duncan a final, effort to gain
the wood. As if aware that no danger was to be apprehended
from the young soldier, the fugitive nearly brushed his person
in his flight. A tall and powerful Huron, who had husbanded
his forces, pressed close upon his heels, and with an uplifted
arm menaced a fatal blow. Duncan thrust forth a foot, and the
shock precipitated the eager savage headlong, many feet in ad-
vance of his intended victim. Thought itself is not quicker than
was the motion with which the latter profited by the advantage;
## p. 4029 (#399) ###########################################
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
4029
he turned, gleamed like a meteor again before the eyes of Dun-
can, and at the next moment, when the latter recovered his
recollection and gazed around in quest of the captive, he saw
him quietly leaning against a small painted post which stood
before the door of the principal lodge.
Apprehensive that the part he had taken in the escape might
prove fatal to himself, Duncan left the place without delay. He
followed the crowd which drew nigh the lodges, gloomy and sul-
len, like any other multitude that had been disappointed in an
execution. Curiosity, or perhaps a better feeling, induced him to
approach the stranger. He found him standing with one arm
cast about the protecting post, and breathing thick and hard
after his exertions, but disdaining to permit a single sign of
suffering to escape. His person was now protected by imme-
morial and sacred usage, until the tribe in council had deliberated
and determined on his fate. It was not difficult, however, to
foretell the result, if any presage could be drawn from the feel-
ings of those who crowded the place.
There was no term of abuse known to the Huron vocabulary
that the disappointed women did not lavishly expend on the suc-
cessful stranger. They flouted at his efforts, and told him with.
bitter scoffs that his feet were better than his hands, and that
he merited wings, while he knew not the use of an arrow or a
knife. To all this the captive made no reply, but was content to
preserve an attitude in which dignity was singularly blended with
disdain. Exasperated as much by his composure as by his good
fortune, their words became unintelligible, and were succeeded
by shrill piercing yells. Just then the crafty squaw who had
taken the necessary precautions to fire the piles made her way
through the throng, and cleared a place for herself in front of
the captive. The squalid and withered person of this hag might
well have obtained for her the character of possessing more than
human cunning. Throwing back her light vestment, she stretched
forth her long skinny arm in derision, and using the language
of the Lenape, as more intelligible to the subject of her gibes,
she commenced aloud:-
"Look you, Delaware," she said, snapping her fingers in his
face, "your nation is a race of women, and the hoe is better fitted
to your hands than the gun. Your squaws are the mothers of
deer; but if a bear or a wild cat or a serpent were born among
you, ye would flee. The Huron girls shall make you petticoats,
and we will find you a husband. "
## p. 4030 (#400) ###########################################
4030
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
A burst of savage laughter succeeded this attack, during
which the soft and musical merriment of the younger females
strangely chimed with the cracked voice of their older and more
malignant companion. But the stranger was superior to all their
efforts. His head was immovable, nor did he betray the slight-
est consciousness that any were present, except when his haughty
eye rolled toward the dusky forms of the warriors who stalked
in the background, silent and sullen observers of the scene.
Infuriated at the self-command of the captive, the woman
placed her arms akimbo, and throwing herself into a posture of
defiance she broke out anew, in a torrent of words that no art
of ours could commit successfully to paper. Her breath was
however expended in vain; for although distinguished in her
nation as a proficient in the art of abuse, she was permitted to
work herself into such a fury as actually to foam at the mouth,
without causing a muscle to vibrate in the motionless figure of
the stranger.
The effect of his indifference began to extend
itself to the other spectators, and a youngster who was just
quitting the condition of a boy to enter the state of manhood,
attempted to assist the termagant by flourishing his tomahawk
before their victim and adding his empty boasts to the taunts of
the woman. Then indeed the captive turned his face toward
the light, and looked down on the stripling with an expression
that was superior to contempt. At the next moment he resumed
his quiet and reclining attitude against the post. But the change
of posture had permitted Duncan to exchange glances with the
firm and piercing eyes of Uncas.
Breathless with amazement, and heavily oppressed with the
critical situation of his friend, Heyward recoiled before the look,
trembling lest its meaning might in some unknown manner
hasten the prisoner's fate. There was not, however, any instant
cause for such an apprehension. Just then a warrior forced his
way into the exasperated crowd. Motioning the women and
children aside with a stern gesture, he took Uncas by the arm
and led him toward the door of the council lodge. Thither
all the chiefs and most of the distinguished warriors followed,
among whom the anxious Heyward found means to enter with-
out attracting any dangerous attention to himself.
A few minutes were consumed in disposing of those present
in a manner suitable to their rank and influence in the tribe.
An order very similar to that adopted in the preceding interview
was observed, the aged and superior chiefs occupying the area
## p. 4031 (#401) ###########################################
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
4031
of the spacious apartment, within the powerful light of a glaring
torch, while their juniors and inferiors were arranged in the
background, presenting a dark outline of swarthy and marked
visages. In the very centre of the lodge, immediately under an
opening that admitted the twinkling light of one or two stars,
stood Uncas, calm, elevated, and collected. His high and haughty
carriage was not lost on his captors, who often bent their looks
on his person with eyes which, while they lost none of their
inflexibility of purpose, plainly betrayed their admiration of the
stranger's daring.
The case was different with the individual whom Duncan had
observed to stand forth with his friend previously to the des-
perate trial of speed; and who, instead of joining in the chase,
had remained throughout its turbulent uproar like a cringing
statue, expressive of shame and disgrace. Though not a hand
had been extended to greet him nor yet an eye had condescended
to watch his movements, he had also entered the lodge, as
though impelled by a fate to whose decrees he submitted, seem-
ingly, without a struggle. Heyward profited by the first oppor-
tunity to gaze in his face, secretly apprehensive he might find
the features of another acquaintance; but they proved to be those
of a stranger, and what was still more inexplicable, of one who
bore all the distinctive marks of a Huron warrior. Instead of
mingling with his tribe, however, he sat apart, a solitary being
in a multitude, his form shrinking into a crouching and abject
attitude, as if anxious to fill as little space as possible. When
each individual had taken his proper station, and silence reigned
in the place, the gray-haired chief already introduced to the
reader spoke aloud, in the language of the Lenni Lenape.
"Delaware," he said, "though one of a nation of women, you
have proved yourself a man. I would give you food; but he
who eats with a Huron should become his friend. Rest in peace
till the morning sun, when our last words shall be spoken. ”
"Seven nights and as many summer days have I fasted on
the trail of the Hurons," Uncas coldly replied; "the children of
the Lenape know how to travel the path of the just without
lingering to eat. "
"Two of my young men are in pursuit of your companion,"
resumed the other, without appearing to regard the boast of his
captive; "when they get back, then will our wise men say to
you, 'Live or die. '»
## p. 4032 (#402) ###########################################
4032
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
«Has a Huron no ears? " scornfully exclaimed Uncas:
"twice since he has been your prisoner has the Delaware heard
a gun that he knows. Your young men will never come back. "
A short and sullen pause succeeded this bold assertion.
Duncan, who understood the Mohican to allude to the fatal rifle
of the scout, bent forward in earnest observation of the effect it
might produce on the conquerors; but the chief was content with
simply retorting: -
"If the Lenape are so skillful, why is one of their bravest
warriors here ? »
"He followed in the steps of a flying coward, and fell into a
The cunning beaver may be caught. "
snare.
As Uncas thus replied, he pointed with his finger toward the
solitary Huron, but without deigning to bestow any other notice
on so unworthy an object. The words of the answer and the air
of the speaker produced a strong sensation among his auditors.
Every eye rolled sullenly toward the individual indicated by the
simple gesture, and a low threatening murmur passed through
the crowd. The ominous sounds reached the outer door, and the
women and children pressing into the throng, no gap had been
left between shoulder and shoulder that was not now filled with
the dark lineaments of some eager and curious human counte-
nance.
In the mean time the more aged chiefs in the centre com-
muned with each other in short and broken sentences. Not
a word was uttered that did not convey the meaning of the
speaker, in the simplest and most energetic form. Again a
long and deeply solemn pause took place. It was known by all
present to be the grave precursor of a weighty and important
judgment. They who composed the outer circle of faces were
on tiptoe to gaze; and even the culprit for an instant forgot
his shame in a deeper emotion, and exposed his abject features
in order to cast an anxious and troubled glance at the dark
assemblage of chiefs. The silence was finally broken by the aged
warrior so often named. He arose from the earth, and moving
past the immovable form of Uncas, placed himself in a digni-
fied attitude before the offender. At that moment the withered
squaw already mentioned moved into the circle in a slow sidling
sort of a dance, holding the torch, and muttering the indistinct
words of what might have been a species of incantation. Though
her presence was altogether an intrusion, it was unheeded
#
## p. 4033 (#403) ###########################################
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
4033
Approaching Uncas, she held the blazing brand in such a
manner as to cast its red glare on his person and to expose the
slightest emotion of his countenance. The Mohican maintained
his firm and haughty attitude; and his eye, so far from deigning
to meet her inquisitive look, dwelt steadily on the distance as
though it penetrated the obstacles which impeded the view, and
looked into futurity. Satisfied with her examination, she left him,
with a slight expression of pleasure, and proceeded to practice
the same trying experiment on her delinquent countryman.
The young Huron was in his war-paint, and very little of
a finely molded form was concealed by his attire.
The light
rendered every limb and joint discernible, and Duncan turned
away in horror when he saw they were writhing in inexpressible
agony. The woman was commencing a low and plaintive howl
at the sad and shameful spectacle, when the chief put forth his
hand and gently pushed her aside.
"Reed-that-bends," he said, addressing the young culprit by
name, and in his proper language, "though the Great Spirit has
made you pleasant to the eyes, it would have been better that
you had not been born. Your tongue is loud in the village, but
in battle it is still. None of my young men strike the tomahawk
deeper into the war-post-none of them so lightly on the Yen-
geese. The enemy know the shape of your back, but they have
never seen the color of your eyes. Three times have they called
on you to come, and as often did you forget to answer. Your
name will never be mentioned again in your tribe- it is already
forgotten. "
As the chief slowly uttered these words, pausing impressively
between each sentence, the culprit raised his face, in deference
to the other's rank and years. Shame, horror, and pride struggled
in its lineaments. His eye, which was contracted with inward
anguish, gleamed on the persons of those whose breath was his
fame; and the latter emotion for an instant predominated. He
arose to his feet, and baring his bosom, looked steadily on the
keen glittering knife that was already upheld by his inexorable
judge. As the weapon passed slowly into his heart he even
smiled, as if in joy at having found death less dreadful than he
anticipated, and fell heavily on his face at the feet of the rigid
and unyielding form of Uncas.
The squaw gave a loud and plaintive yell, dashed the torch
to the earth, and buried everything in darkness. The whole
VII-253
## p. 4034 (#404) ###########################################
4034
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
shuddering group of spectators glided from the lodge like
troubled spirits; and Duncan thought that he and the yet throb-
bing body of the victim of an Indian judgment had now become
its only tenants.
THE PRAIRIE FIRE
From The Prairie
"SEE
EE, Middleton," exclaimed Inez in a sudden burst of youth-
ful pleasure, that caused her for a moment to forget her
situation, "how lovely is that sky; surely it contains a
promise of happier times! "
"It is glorious! " returned her husband. "Glorious and heav-
enly is that streak of vivid red, and here is a still brighter
crimson; rarely have I seen a richer rising of the sun. "
"Rising of the sun! " slowly repeated the old man, lifting
his tall person from its seat with a deliberate and abstracted air,
while he kept his eye riveted on the changing and certainly
beautiful tints that were garnishing the vault of heaven. "Ris-
ing of the sun! I like not such risings of the sun. Ah's me!
the imps have circumvented us with a vengeance.
The prairie
is on fire! "
"God in heaven protect us! " cried Middleton, catching Inez
to his bosom, under the instant impression of the imminence of
their danger. "There is no time to lose, old man; each instant
is a day; let us fly! "
"Whither? " demanded the trapper, motioning him, with
calmness and dignity, to arrest his steps. "In this wilderness of
grass and reeds you are like a vessel in the broad lakes without
a compass. A single step on the wrong course might prove the
destruction of us all. It is seldom danger is so pressing that
there is not time enough for reason to do its work, young
officer; therefore let us await its biddings. "
"For my own part," said Paul Hover, looking about him
with no equivocal expression of concern, "I acknowledge that
should this dry bed of weeds get fairly in a flame, a bee would
have to make a flight higher than common to prevent his wings
from scorching. Therefore, old trapper, I agree with the cap-
tain, and say, mount and run. ”
## p. 4035 (#405) ###########################################
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
4035
"Ye are wrong-ye are wrong; man is not a beast to follow
the gift of instinct, and to snuff up his knowledge by a taint
in the air or a rumbling in the sound; but he must see and
reason, and then conclude. So follow me a little to the left,
where there is a rise in the ground, whence we may make our
reconnoitrings. "
The old man waved his hand with authority, and led the way
without further parlance to the spot he had indicated, followed
by the whole of his alarmed companions. An eye less practiced
than that of the trapper might have failed in discovering the
gentle elevation to which he alluded, and which looked on the
surface of the meadow like a growth a little taller than common.
When they reached the place, however, the stunted grass itself
announced the absence of that moisture which had fed the rank
weeds of most of the plain, and furnished a clue to the evidence
by which he had judged of the formation of the ground hidden.
beneath. Here a few minutes were lost in breaking down the
tops of the surrounding herbage, which, notwithstanding the ad-
vantage of their position, rose even above the heads of Mid-
dleton and Paul, and in obtaining a lookout that might command
a view of the surrounding sea of fire.
The frightful prospect added nothing to the hopes of those
who had so fearful a stake in the result. Although the day
was beginning to dawn, the vivid colors of the sky contin-
ued to deepen, as if the fierce element were bent on an impious
rivalry of the light of the sun. Bright flashes of flame shot up
here and there along the margin of the waste, like the nimble.
coruscations of the North, but far more angry and threatening
in their color and changes. The anxiety on the rigid features
of the trapper sensibly deepened, as he leisurely traced these
evidences of a conflagration, which spread in a
in a broad belt
about their place of refuge, until he had encircled the whole
horizon.
Shaking his head, as he again turned his face to the point
where the danger seemed nighest and most rapidly approaching,
the old man said:
"Now have we been cheating ourselves with the belief that
we had thrown these Tetons from our trail, while here is proof
enough that they not only know where we lie, but that they
intend to smoke us out, like so many skulking beasts of prey.
See: they have lighted the fire around the whole bottom at the
## p. 4036 (#406) ###########################################
4036
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
same moment, and we are as completely hemmed in by the
devils as an island by its waters. "
"Let us mount and ride! " cried Middleton; "is life not worth
a struggle? "
"Whither would ye go? Is a Teton horse a salamander that
can walk amid fiery flames unhurt, or do you think the Lord
will show his might in your behalf, as in the days of old, and
carry you harmless through such a furnace as you may see
glowing beneath yonder red sky? There are Sioux too hem.
ming the fire with their arrows and knives on every side of us,
or I am no judge of their murderous deviltries. "
"We will ride into the centre of the whole tribe," returned
the youth fiercely, "and put their manhood to the test. "
"Ay, it's well in words, but what would it prove in deeds?
Here is a dealer in bees, who can teach you wisdom in a matter
like this. "
"Now for that matter, old trapper," said Paul, stretching his
athletic form like a mastiff conscious of his strength, "I am on
the side of the captain, and am clearly for a race against the
fire, though it line me into a Teton wigwam. Here is Ellen,
who will »
"Of what use, of what use are your stout hearts, when the
element of the Lord is to be conquered as well as human men?
Look about you, friends; the wreath of smoke that is rising
from the bottoms plainly says that there is no outlet from the
spot, without crossing a belt of fire. Look for yourselves, my
men; look for yourselves: if you can find a single opening, I
will engage to follow. "
The examination which his companions so instantly and so
intently made, rather served to assure them of their desperate
situation than to appease their fears. Huge columns of smoke
were rolling up from the plain and thickening in gloomy masses
around the horizon; the red glow which gleamed upon their
enormous folds, now lighting their volumes with the glare of the
conflagration and now flashing to another point as the flame
beneath glided ahead, leaving all behind enveloped in awful
darkness, and proclaiming louder than words the character of the
imminent and approaching danger.
"This is terrible! " exclaimed Middleton, folding the trembling
Inez to his heart. "At such a time as this, and in such a
manner!
>>>
## p. 4037 (#407) ###########################################
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
4037
"The gates of heaven are open to all who truly believe,"
murmured the pious devotee in his bosom.
"This resignation is maddening! But we are men, and will
make a struggle for our lives! How now, my brave and spirited
friend, shall we yet mount and push across the flames, or shall
we stand here, and see those we most love perish in this fright-
ful manner, without an effort? »
"I am for a swarming time and a flight before the hive is
too hot to hold us," said the bee-hunter, to whom it will be at
once seen that Middleton addressed himself. "Come, old trap-
per, you must acknowledge this is but a slow way of getting
out of danger. If we tarry here much longer, it will be in the
fashion that the bees lie around the straw after the hive has
been smoked for its honey. You may hear the fire begin
to roar already, and I know by experience that when the flames
once get fairly into the prairie grass, it is no sloth that can
outrun it. "
"Think you,” returned the old man, pointing scornfully at
the mazes of the dry and matted grass which environed them,
"that mortal feet can outstrip the speed of fire on such a path?
If I only knew now on which side these miscreants lay! "
"What say you, friend Doctor," cried the bewildered Paul,
turning to the naturalist with that sort of helplessness with
which the strong are often apt to seek aid of the weak, when
human power is baffled by the hand of a mightier Being; "what
say you have you no advice to give away in a case of life and
death? "
The naturalist stood, tablets in hand, looking at the awful
spectacle with as much composure as if the conflagration had
been lighted in order to solve the difficulties of some scientific
problem. Aroused by the question of his companion, he turned
to his equally calm though differently occupied associate, the
trapper, demanding with the most provoking insensibility to the
urgent nature of their situation:
"Venerable hunter, you have often witnessed similar pris-
matic experiments—"
He was rudely interrupted by Paul, who struck the tablets
from his hands with a violence that betrayed the utter intellect-
ual confusion which had overset the equanimity of his mind.
Before time was allowed for remonstrance, the old man, who had
continued during the whole scene like one much at loss how to
## p. 4038 (#408) ###########################################
4038
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
proceed, though also like one who was rather perplexed than
alarmed, suddenly assumed a decided air, as if he no longer
doubted on the course it was most advisable to pursue.
"It is time to be doing," he said, interrupting the controversy
that was about to ensue between the naturalist and the bee-
hunter; "it is time to leave off books and moanings, and to be
doing.
>>
«<
"You have come to your recollections too late, miserable old
man," cried Middleton; the flames are within a quarter of a
mile of us, and the wind is bringing them down in this quarter
with dreadful rapidity. "
"Anan!
their rest, announcing his intention to look to the safety of the
camp in person. When all was still, he walked out upon the
prairie with a sort of sensation that he found his breathing
among the tents too straitened. The night was well adapted to
heighten the feelings which had been created by the events of
the day.
The wind had risen with the moon, and it was occasionally
sweeping over the plain in a manner that made it not difficult
for the sentinel to imagine strange and unearthly sounds were
mingling in the blasts. Yielding to the extraordinary impulses
of which he was the subject, he cast a glance around to see that
## p. 4016 (#386) ###########################################
4016
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
all were slumbering in security, and then he strayed towards the
swell of land already mentioned. Here the squatter found him-
self at a point that commanded a view to the east and to the
west. Light fleecy clouds were driving before the moon, which
was cold and watery, though there were moments when its
placid rays were shed from clear blue fields, seeming to soften
objects to its own mild loveliness.
For the first time, in a life of so much wild adventure, Ish-
mael felt a keen sense of solitude. The naked prairies began to
assume the forms of illimitable and dreary wastes, and the rush-
ing of the wind sounded like the whisperings of the dead. It
was not long before he thought a shriek was borne past him on
a blast.
It did not sound like a call from earth, but it swept
frightfully through the upper air, mingled with the hoarse accom-
paniment of the wind. The teeth of the squatter were com-
pressed and his huge hand grasped the rifle, as if it would crush
the metal. Then came a lull, a fresher blast, and a cry of hor-
ror that seemed to have been uttered at the very portals of his
ears. A sort of echo burst involuntarily from his own lips, as
men shout under unnatural excitement, and throwing his rifle
across his shoulder, he proceeded towards the rock with the
strides. of a giant.
It was not often that the blood of Ishmael moved at the rate
with which the fluid circulates in the veins of ordinary men; but
now he felt it ready to gush from every pore in his body. The
animal was aroused, in his most latent energies. Ever as he
advanced he heard those shrieks, which sometimes seemed
ringing among the clouds, and sometimes passed so nigh as to
appear to brush the earth. At length there came a cry in
which there could be no delusion, or to which the imagination
could lend no horror. It appeared to fill each cranny of the
air, as the visible horizon is often charged to fullness by one
dazzling flash of the electric fluid. The name of God was dis-
tinctly audible, but it was awfully and blasphemously blended
with sounds that may not be repeated. The squatter stopped,
and for a moment he covered his ears with his hands. When he
withdrew the latter, a low and husky voice at his elbow asked in
smothered tones:
-
"Ishmael, my man, heard ye nothing? "
"Hist! " returned the husband, laying a powerful arm on
Esther, without manifesting the smallest surprise at the unlooked
## p. 4017 (#387) ###########################################
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
4017
for presence of his wife. "Hist, woman! if you have the fear
of Heaven, be still! "
A profound silence succeeded. Though the wind rose and
fell as before, its rushing was no longer mingled with those
fearful cries. The sounds were imposing and solemn, but it was
the solemnity and majesty of nature.
"Let us go on," said Esther; "all is hushed. "
"Woman, what has brought you here? " demanded her hus-
band, whose blood had returned into its former channels, and
whose thoughts had already lost a portion of their excitement.
"Ishmael, he murdered our first-born: but it is not meet
that the son of my mother should lie upon the ground like the
carrion of a dog. "
"Follow! " returned the squatter, again grasping his rifle and
striding towards the rock. The distance was still considerable;
and their approach, as they drew nigh the place of execution,
was moderated by awe. Many minutes had passed before they
reached a spot where they might distinguish the outlines of the
dusky objects.
"Where have you put the body? " whispered Esther. "See,
here are pick and spade, that a brother of mine may sleep in
the bosom of the earth! "
The moon broke from behind a mass of clouds, and the eye
of the woman was enabled to follow the finger of Ishmael. It
pointed to a human form swinging in the wind, beneath the
ragged and shining arm of the willow. Esther bent her head
and veiled her eyes from the sight. But Ishmael drew nigher,
and long contemplated his work in awe, though not in compunc-
tion. The leaves of the sacred book were scattered on the
ground, and even a fragment of the shelf had been displaced by
the kidnapper in his agony. But all was now in the stillness of
death. The grim and convulsed countenance of the victim was
at times brought full into the light of the moon, and again, as
the wind lulled, the fatal rope drew a dark line across its bright
disk. The squatter raised his rifle with extreme care, and fired.
The cord was cut, and the body came lumbering to the earth, a
heavy and insensible mass.
Until now Esther had not moved nor spoken. But her hand
was not slow to assist in the labor of the hour. The grave was
soon dug. It was instantly made to receive its miserable tenant.
As the lifeless form descended, Esther, who sustained the head,
VII-252
## p. 4018 (#388) ###########################################
4018
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
looked up into the face of her husband with an expression of
anguish, and said:-
"Ishmael, my man, it is very terrible! I cannot kiss the
corpse of my father's child! »
The squatter laid his broad hand on the bosom of the dead,
and said:
"Abiram White, we all have need of mercy; from my soul
do I forgive you! May God in heaven have pity on your sins! »
The woman bowed her face, and imprinted her lips long and
fervently on the pallid forehead of her brother. After this came
the falling clods and all the solemn sounds of filling a grave.
Esther lingered on her knees, and Ishmael stood uncovered while
the woman muttered a prayer. All was then finished.
On the following morning the teams and herds of the squat-
ter were seen pursuing their course towards the settlements. As
they approached the confines of society the train was blended
among a thousand others. Though some of the numerous
descendants of this peculiar pair were reclaimed from their law-
less and semi-barbarous lives, the principals of the family them-
selves were never heard of more.
THE BISON STAMPEDE
From The Prairie
T
HE warrior suddenly paused and bent his face aside, like one
who listened with all his faculties absorbed in the act.
Then turning the head of his horse, he rode to the nearest
angle of the thicket, and looked intently across the bleak prairie
in a direction opposite to the side on which the party stood.
Returning slowly from this unaccountable, and, to his observers,
startling procedure, he riveted his eyes on Inez, and paced back
and forth several times with the air of one who maintained a
warm struggle on some difficult point in the recesses of his own
thoughts. He had drawn the reins of his impatient steed, and
was seemingly about to speak when his head again sank on his
chest, and he resumed his former attitude of attention. Gallop-
ing like a deer to the place of his former observations, he rode
for a moment swiftly in short and rapid circles as if still uncer-
tain of his course, and then darted away like a bird that had
## p. 4019 (#389) ###########################################
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
4019
been fluttering around its nest before it takes a distant flight.
After scouring the plain for a minute he was lost to the eye
behind a swell of the land.
The hounds, who had also manifested great uneasiness for
some time, followed him for a little distance, and then terminated
their chase by seating themselves on the ground and raising
their usual low, whining, and warning howls.
These movements had passed in so short a space of time
that the old man, while he neglected not to note the smallest
incident, had no opportunity of expressing his opinion concerning
the stranger's motives. After the Pawnee had disappeared, how-
ever, he shook his head and muttered, while he walked slowly
to the angle of the thicket that the Indian had just quitted:-
"There are both scents and sounds in the air, though my
miserable senses are not good enough to hear the one or to
catch the taint of the other. "
"There is nothing to be seen," cried Middleton, who kept
close at his side. "My ears and my eyes are good, and yet
I can assure you that I neither hear nor see anything. "
"Your eyes are good! and you are not deaf! " returned the
other, with a slight air of contempt; "no, lad, no; they may be
good to see across a church, or to hear a town bell, but afore
you had passed a year in these prairies you would find yourself
taking a turkey for a buffalo, or conceiting fifty times that the
roar of a buffalo bull was the thunder of the Lord! There is a
deception of natur' in these naked plains in which the air throws
up the images like water, and then it is hard to tell the prairies.
from a sea.
But yonder is a sign that a hunter never fails to
know. "
The trapper pointed to a flight of vultures that were sailing
over the plain at no great distance, and apparently in the direc-
tion in which the Pawnee had riveted his eyes. At first Middle-
ton could not distinguish the small dark objects that were
dotting the dusky clouds; but as they came swiftly onward,
first their forms and then their heavy waving wings became.
distinctly visible.
"Listen! " said the trapper, when he had succeeded in making
Middleton see the moving column of birds. "Now you hear the
buffaloes, or bisons, as your knowing Doctor sees fit to call
them; though buffaloes is their name among all the hunters of
these regions. And I conclude that a hunter is a better judge
## p. 4020 (#390) ###########################################
4020
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
of a beast and of its name," he added, winking at the young
soldier, "tha: any man who has turned over the leaves of a
book instead of traveling over the face of the 'arth, in order to
find out the natur's of its inhabitants. "
"Of their habits, I will grant you," cried the naturalist, who
rarely missed an opportunity to agitate any disputed point in his
favorite studies. "That is, provided always deference is had to
the proper use of definitions, and that they are contemplated
with scientific eyes. "
"Eyes of a nole! as if any man's eyes were not as good for
names as the eyes of any other creatur'! Who named the works
of His hand? can you tell me that, with your book and college
wisdom? Was it not the first man in the Garden, and is it not
a plain consequence that his children inherit his gifts? "
"That is certainly the Mosaic account of the event," said the
Doctor; "though your reading is by far too literal! "
"My reading! nay, if you suppose that I have wasted my
time in schools, you do such a wrong to my knowledge as one
mortal should never lay to the door of another without sufficient
reason. If I have ever craved the art of reading, it has been
that I might better know the sayings of the book you name, for
it is a book which speaks in every line according to human
feelings, and therein according to reason. ”
"And do you then believe," said the Doctor, a little provoked
by the dogmatism of his stubborn adversary, and perhaps secretly
too confident in his own more liberal, though scarcely as profita-
ble attainments, "do you then believe that all these beasts were
literally collected in a garden to be enrolled in the nomenclature
of the first man? "
«< Why not? I understand your meaning; for it is not needful
to live in towns to hear all the devilish devices that the conceit
of man
can invent to upset his own happiness. What does it
prove, except indeed it may be said to prove that the garden He
made was not after the miserable fashions of our times, thereby
directly giving the lie to what the world calls its civilizing?
No, no, the garden of the Lord was the forest then, and is the
forest now, where the fruits do grow and the birds do sing,
according to his own wise ordering. Now, lady, you may see
the mystery of the vultures! There come the buffaloes them-
selves, and a noble herd it is! I warrant me that Pawnee has
a troop of his people in some of the hollows nigh by; and as he
## p. 4021 (#391) ###########################################
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
4021
has gone scampering after them, you are about to see a glorious
chase. It will serve to keep the squatter and his brood under
cover, and for ourselves there is little reason to fear. A Pawnee
is not apt to be a malicious savage. "
Every eye was now drawn to the striking spectacle that suc-
ceeded. Even the timid Inez hastened to the side of Middleton
to gaze at the sight, and Paul summoned Ellen from her culi-
nary labors to become a witness of the lively scene.
Throughout the whole of those moving events which it has
been our duty to record, the prairies had lain in the majesty of
perfect solitude. The heavens had been blackened with the pas-
sage of the migratory birds, it is true; but the dogs of the
party and the ass of the Doctor were the only quadrupeds that
had enlivened the broad surface of the waste beneath. There
was now a sudden exhibition of animal life which changed the
scene, as it were by magic, to the very opposite extreme.
A few enormous bison bulls were first observed scouring
along the most distant roll of the prairie, and then succeeded
long files of single beasts, which in their turns were followed
by a dark mass of bodies, until the dun-colored herbage of the
plain was entirely lost in the deeper hue of their shaggy coats.
The herd, as the column spread and thickened, was like the
endless flocks of the smaller birds whose extended flanks are so
often seen to heave up out of the abyss of the heavens, until
they appear as countless as the leaves in those forests over
which they wing their endless flight. Clouds of dust shot up
in little columns from the centre of the mass, as some animal,
more furious than the rest, plowed the plain with his horns;
and from time to time a deep hollow bellowing was borne
along on the wind, as if a thousand throats vented their plaints
in a discordant murmuring.
A long and musing silence reigned in the party as they
gazed on this spectacle of wild and peculiar grandeur.
It was
at length broken by the trapper, who, having been long accus-
tomed to similar sights, felt less of its influence, or rather felt
it in a less thrilling and absorbing manner, than those to whom
the scene was more novel.
"There go ten thousand oxen in one drove, without keeper or
master, except Him who made them and gave them these open
plains for their pasture! Ay, it is here that man may see the
proofs of his wantonness and folly! Can the proudest governor
## p. 4022 (#392) ###########################################
4022
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
in all the States go into his fields and slaughter a nobler bullock
than is here offered to the meanest hand; and when he has got-
ten his sirloin or his steak, can he eat it with as good a relish
as he who has sweetened his food with wholesome toil, and
earned it according to the law of natur', by honestly mastering
that which the Lord hath put before him? "
"If the prairie platter is smoking with a buffalo's hump, I
answer no," interrupted the luxurious bee-hunter.
“Ay, boy, you have tasted, and you feel the genuine reason-
ing of the thing! But the herd is heading a little this-away,
and it behooves us to make ready for their visit. If we hide
ourselves altogether, the horned brutes will break through the
place and trample us beneath their feet like so many creeping
worms; so we will just put the weak ones apart, and take post,
as becomes men and hunters, in the van. "
As there was but little time to make the necessary arrange-
ments, the whole party set about them in good earnest. Inez
and Ellen were placed in the edge of the thicket on the side
furthest from the approaching herd. Asinus was posted in the
centre, in consideration of his nerves; and then the old man
with his three male companions divided themselves in such a
manner as they thought would enable them to turn the head of
the rushing column, should it chance to approach too nigh their
position. By the vacillating movements of some fifty or a hun-
dred bulls that led the advance, it remained questionable for
many moments what course they intended to pursue.
But a
tremendous and painful roar which came from behind the cloud
of dust that rose in the centre of the herd, and which was hor-
ridly answered by the screams of the carrion-birds that were
greedily sailing directly above the flying drove, appeared to give
a new impulse to their flight and at once to remove every symp-
tom of indecision. As if glad to seek the smallest signs of the
forest, the whole of the affrighted herd became steady in its
direction, rushing in a straight line toward the little cover of
bushes which has already been so often named.
The appearance of danger was now in reality of a character
to try the stoutest nerves. The flanks of the dark moving mass
were advanced in such a manner as to make a concave line of
the front; and every fierce eye that was glaring from the shaggy
wilderness of hair in which the entire heads of the males were
enveloped, was riveted with mad anxiety on the thicket. It
## p. 4023 (#393) ###########################################
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
4023
seemed as if each beast strove to outstrip his neighbor in gain-
ing this desired cover; and as thousands in the rear pressed
blindly on those in front, there was the appearance of an immi-
leaders of the herd would be precipitated on
in which case the destruction of every one of
Each of our adventurers felt the danger of
manner peculiar to his individual character
nent risk that the
the concealed party,
them was certain.
his situation in a
and circumstances.
Middleton wavered. At times he felt inclined to rush through
the bushes, and seizing Inez, attempt to fly. Then recollect-
ing impossibility of outstripping the furious speed of an
alarmed bison, he felt for his arms, determined to make head
against the countless drove. The faculties of Dr. Battius were
quickly wrought up to the very summit of mental delusion. The
dark forms of the herd lost their distinctness, and then the nat-
uralist began to fancy he beheld a wild collection of all the
creatures of the world rushing upon him in a body, as if to
revenge the various injuries which, in the course of a life of
indefatigable labor in behalf of the natural sciences, he had
inflicted on their several genera. The paralysis it occasioned in
his system was like the effect of the incubus. Equally unable to
fly or to advance, he stood riveted to the spot, until the infatu-
ation became so complete that the worthy naturalist was begin-
ning, by a desperate effort of scientific resolution, even to class
the different specimens. On the other hand, Paul shouted, and
called on Ellen to come and assist him in shouting, but his voice
was lost in the bellowings and trampling of the herd. Furious,
and yet strangely excited by the obstinacy of the brutes and the
wildness of the sight, and nearly maddened by sympathy and a
species of unconscious apprehension in which the claims of nature
were singularly mingled with concern for his mistress, he nearly
split his throat in exhorting his aged friend to interfere.
"Come forth, old trapper," he shouted, "with your prairie
inventions! or we shall be all smothered under a mountain of
buffalo humps! "
The old man, who had stood all this while leaning on his
rifle and regarding the movements of the herd with a steady
eye, now deemed it time to strike his blow. Leveling his piece
at the foremost bull, with an agility that would have done credit
to his youth, he fired. The animal received the bullet on the
matted hair between his horns, and fell to his knees; but shaking
## p. 4024 (#394) ###########################################
4024
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
his head he instantly arose, the very shock seeming to increase
his exertions. There was now no longer time to hesitate.
Throwing down his rifle, the trapper stretched forth his arms,
and advanced from the cover with naked hands directly towards
the rushing column of the beasts.
The figure of a man, when sustained by the firmness and
steadiness that intellect can only impart, rarely fails of com-
manding respect from all the inferior animals of the creation.
The leading bulls recoiled, and for a single instant there was a
sudden stop to their speed, a dense mass of bodies rolling up in
front until hundreds were seen floundering and tumbling on the
plain. Then came another of those hollow bellowings from the
rear, and set the herd again in motion. The head of the col-
umn, however, divided, the immovable form of the trapper
cutting it as it were into two gliding streams of life. Middle-
ton and Paul instantly profited by his example, and extended the
feeble barrier by a similar exhibition of their own persons.
For a few moments the new impulse given to the animals in
front served to protect the thicket. But as the body of the
herd pressed more and more upon the open line of its defenders,
and the dust thickened so as to obscure their persons, there
was at each instant a renewed danger of the beasts breaking
through. It became necessary for the trapper and his compan-
ions to become still more and more alert; and they were grad-
ually yielding before the headlong multitude, when a furious bull
darted by Middleton so near as to brush his person, and at the
next instant swept through the thicket with the velocity of the
wind.
"Close, and die for the ground," shouted the old man, “or a
thousand of the devils will be at his heels! "
All their efforts would have proved fruitless however against
the living torrent, had not Asinus, whose domains had just been
so rudely entered, lifted his voice in the midst of the uproar.
The most sturdy and furious of the bulls trembled at the alarm-
ing and unknown cry, and then each individual brute was seen
madly pressing from that very thicket which the moment before
he had endeavored to reach, with the eagerness with which the
murderer seeks the sanctuary.
As the stream divided the place became clear; the two dark
columns moving obliquely from the copse, to unite again at the
distance of a mile, on its opposite side. The instant the old
## p. 4025 (#395) ###########################################
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
4025
man saw the sudden effect which the voice of Asinus had pro-
duced, he coolly commenced reloading his rifle, indulging at
the same time in a heartfelt fit of his silent and peculiar merri-
ment.
"There they go, like dogs with so many half-filled shot-
pouches dangling at their tails, and no fear of their breaking
their order; for what the brutes in the rear didn't hear with
their own ears, they'll conceit they did: besides, if they change
their minds, it may be no hard matter to get the jack to sing
the rest of his tune! "
"The ass has spoken, but Balaam is silent! " cried the bee-
hunter, catching his breath after a repeated burst of noisy mirth,
that might possibly have added to the panic of the buffaloes by
its vociferation. "The man is as completely dumfounded as if
a swarm of young bees had settled on the end of his tongue,
and he not willing to speak for fear of their answer. "
"How now, friend," continued the trapper, addressing the
still motionless and entranced naturalist; "how now, friend; are
you, who make your livelihood by booking the names and natur's
of the beasts of the fields and the fowls of the air, frightened at
a herd of scampering buffaloes? Though perhaps you are ready
to dispute my right to call them by a word that is in the mouth.
of every hunter and trader on the frontier! "
The old man was however mistaken in supposing he could
excite the benumbed faculties of the Doctor by provoking a dis-
cussion. From that time henceforth he was never known,
except on one occasion, to utter a word that indicated either the
species or the genus of the animal. He obstinately refused the
nutritious food of the whole ox family; and even to the present
hour, now that he is established in all the scientific dignity and
security of a savant in one of the maritime towns, he turns his
back with a shudder on those delicious and unrivaled viands that
are so often seen at the suppers of the craft, and which are
unequaled by anything that is served under the same name at
the boasted chop-houses of London or at the most renowned of
the Parisian restaurants.
## p. 4026 (#396) ###########################################
4026
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
RUNNING THE GAUNTLET
From The Last of the Mohicans'
TH
HERE yet lingered sufficient light in the heavens to exhibit
those bright openings among the tree-tops where different
paths left the clearing to enter the depths of the wilder-
ness. Beneath one of them, a line of warriors issued from the
woods and advanced slowly toward the dwellings. One in front
bore a short pole, on which, as it afterward appeared, were sus-
pended several human scalps. The startling sounds that Duncan
had heard were what the whites have not inappropriately called
the "death-hallo"; and each repetition of the cry was intended to
announce to the tribe the fate of an enemy. Thus far the knowl-
edge of Heyward assisted him in the explanation; and as he
knew that the interruption was caused by the unlooked-for return
of a successful war-party, every disagreeable sensation was quieted
in inward congratulations for the opportune relief and insignifi-
cance it conferred on himself.
When at the distance of a few hundred feet from the lodges,
the newly arrived warriors halted. The plaintive and terrific cry
which was intended to represent equally the wailings of the dead
and the triumph of the victors, had entirely ceased. One of their
number now called aloud, in words that were far from appalling,
though not more intelligible to those for whose ears they were
intended than their expressive yells. It would be difficult to
convey a suitable idea of the savage ecstasy with which the news
thus imparted was received. The whole encampment in a
moment became a scene of the most violent bustle and commo-
tion. The warriors drew their knives, and flourishing them, they
arranged themselves in two lines, forming a lane that extended
from the war-party to the lodges. The squaws seized clubs, axes,
or whatever weapon of offense first offered itself to their hands,
and rushed eagerly to act their part in the cruel game that was
at hand.
Even the children would not be excluded; but boys,
little able to wield the instruments, tore the tomahawks from the
belts of their fathers, and stole into the ranks, apt imitators of
the savage traits exhibited by their parents.
Large piles of brush lay scattered about the clearing, and
a wary and aged squaw was occupied firing as many as might
## p. 4027 (#397) ###########################################
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
4027
serve to light the coming exhibition. As the flame arose, its
power exceeded that of the parting day, and assisted to render
objects at the same time more distinct and more hideous. The
whole scene formed a striking picture, whose frame was com-
posed of the dark and tall border of pines. The warriors just
arrived were the most distant figures. A little in advance stood
two men, who were apparently selected from the rest as the
principal actors in what was to follow. The light was not strong
enough to render their features distinct, though it was quite evi-
dent that they were governed by very different emotions. While
one stood erect and firm, prepared to meet his fate like a hero,
the other bowed his head, as if palsied by terror or stricken
with shame. The high-spirited Duncan felt a powerful impulse
of admiration and pity toward the former, though no opportunity
could offer to exhibit his generous emotions. He watched his
slightest movement, however, with eager eyes; and as he traced
the fine outline of his admirably proportioned and active frame,
he endeavored to persuade himself that if the powers of man,
seconded by such noble resolution, could bear one harmless.
through so severe a trial, the youthful captive before him might
hope for success in the hazardous race he was about to run.
Insensibly the young man drew nigher to the swarthy lines of
the Hurons, and scarcely breathed, so intense became his inter-
est in the spectacle. Just then the signal yell was given, and
the momentary quiet which had preceded it was broken by a
burst of cries that far exceeded any before heard. The most
abject of the two victims continued motionless; but the other
bounded from the place at the cry, with the activity and swift-
ness of a deer. Instead of rushing through the hostile lines as
had been expected, he just entered the dangerous defile, and
before time was given for a single blow, turned short, and leap-
ing the heads of a row of children, he gained at once the
exterior and safer side of the formidable array. The artifice
was answered by a hundred voices raised in imprecations, and
the whole of the excited multitude broke from their order and
spread themselves about the place in wild confusion.
A dozen blazing piles now shed their lurid brightness on the
place, which resembled some unhallowed and supernatural arena
in which malicious demons had assembled to act their bloody
and lawless rites. The forms in the background looked like un-
earthly beings gliding before the eye and cleaving the air with
## p. 4028 (#398) ###########################################
4028
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
frantic and unmeaning gestures; while the savage passions of
such as passed the flames were rendered fearfully distinct by the
gleams that shot athwart their inflamed visages.
It will easily be understood that amid such a concourse of
vindictive enemies, no breathing-time was allowed the fugitive.
There was a single moment when it seemed as if he would have
reached the forest; but the whole body of his captors threw
themselves before him, and drove him back into the centre of
his relentless persecutors. Turning like a headed deer, he shot
with the swiftness of an arrow through a pillar of forked flame,
and passing the whole multitude harmless he appeared on the
opposite side of the clearing. Here too he was met and turned
by a few of the older and more subtle of the Hurons. Once
more he tried the throng, as if seeking safety in its blindness;
and then several moments succeeded, during which Duncan
believed the active and courageous young stranger was lost.
Nothing could be distinguished but a dark mass of human
forms tossed and involved in inexplicable confusion. Arms,
gleaming knives, and formidable clubs appeared above them,
but the blows were evidently given at random. The awful effect
was heightened by the piercing shrieks of the women and the
fierce yells of the warriors. Now and then Duncan caught a
glimpse of a light form cleaving the air in some desperate
bound, and he rather hoped than believed that the captive yet
retained the command of his astonishing powers of activity.
Suddenly the multitude rolled backward, and approached the
spot where he himself stood. The heavy body in the rear
pressed upon the women and children in front, and bore them
to the earth. The stranger reappeared in the confusion. Human
power could not, however, much longer endure so severe a trial.
Of this the captive seemed conscious. Profiting by the moment-
ary opening, he darted from among the warriors, and made a
desperate, and what seemed to Duncan a final, effort to gain
the wood. As if aware that no danger was to be apprehended
from the young soldier, the fugitive nearly brushed his person
in his flight. A tall and powerful Huron, who had husbanded
his forces, pressed close upon his heels, and with an uplifted
arm menaced a fatal blow. Duncan thrust forth a foot, and the
shock precipitated the eager savage headlong, many feet in ad-
vance of his intended victim. Thought itself is not quicker than
was the motion with which the latter profited by the advantage;
## p. 4029 (#399) ###########################################
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
4029
he turned, gleamed like a meteor again before the eyes of Dun-
can, and at the next moment, when the latter recovered his
recollection and gazed around in quest of the captive, he saw
him quietly leaning against a small painted post which stood
before the door of the principal lodge.
Apprehensive that the part he had taken in the escape might
prove fatal to himself, Duncan left the place without delay. He
followed the crowd which drew nigh the lodges, gloomy and sul-
len, like any other multitude that had been disappointed in an
execution. Curiosity, or perhaps a better feeling, induced him to
approach the stranger. He found him standing with one arm
cast about the protecting post, and breathing thick and hard
after his exertions, but disdaining to permit a single sign of
suffering to escape. His person was now protected by imme-
morial and sacred usage, until the tribe in council had deliberated
and determined on his fate. It was not difficult, however, to
foretell the result, if any presage could be drawn from the feel-
ings of those who crowded the place.
There was no term of abuse known to the Huron vocabulary
that the disappointed women did not lavishly expend on the suc-
cessful stranger. They flouted at his efforts, and told him with.
bitter scoffs that his feet were better than his hands, and that
he merited wings, while he knew not the use of an arrow or a
knife. To all this the captive made no reply, but was content to
preserve an attitude in which dignity was singularly blended with
disdain. Exasperated as much by his composure as by his good
fortune, their words became unintelligible, and were succeeded
by shrill piercing yells. Just then the crafty squaw who had
taken the necessary precautions to fire the piles made her way
through the throng, and cleared a place for herself in front of
the captive. The squalid and withered person of this hag might
well have obtained for her the character of possessing more than
human cunning. Throwing back her light vestment, she stretched
forth her long skinny arm in derision, and using the language
of the Lenape, as more intelligible to the subject of her gibes,
she commenced aloud:-
"Look you, Delaware," she said, snapping her fingers in his
face, "your nation is a race of women, and the hoe is better fitted
to your hands than the gun. Your squaws are the mothers of
deer; but if a bear or a wild cat or a serpent were born among
you, ye would flee. The Huron girls shall make you petticoats,
and we will find you a husband. "
## p. 4030 (#400) ###########################################
4030
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
A burst of savage laughter succeeded this attack, during
which the soft and musical merriment of the younger females
strangely chimed with the cracked voice of their older and more
malignant companion. But the stranger was superior to all their
efforts. His head was immovable, nor did he betray the slight-
est consciousness that any were present, except when his haughty
eye rolled toward the dusky forms of the warriors who stalked
in the background, silent and sullen observers of the scene.
Infuriated at the self-command of the captive, the woman
placed her arms akimbo, and throwing herself into a posture of
defiance she broke out anew, in a torrent of words that no art
of ours could commit successfully to paper. Her breath was
however expended in vain; for although distinguished in her
nation as a proficient in the art of abuse, she was permitted to
work herself into such a fury as actually to foam at the mouth,
without causing a muscle to vibrate in the motionless figure of
the stranger.
The effect of his indifference began to extend
itself to the other spectators, and a youngster who was just
quitting the condition of a boy to enter the state of manhood,
attempted to assist the termagant by flourishing his tomahawk
before their victim and adding his empty boasts to the taunts of
the woman. Then indeed the captive turned his face toward
the light, and looked down on the stripling with an expression
that was superior to contempt. At the next moment he resumed
his quiet and reclining attitude against the post. But the change
of posture had permitted Duncan to exchange glances with the
firm and piercing eyes of Uncas.
Breathless with amazement, and heavily oppressed with the
critical situation of his friend, Heyward recoiled before the look,
trembling lest its meaning might in some unknown manner
hasten the prisoner's fate. There was not, however, any instant
cause for such an apprehension. Just then a warrior forced his
way into the exasperated crowd. Motioning the women and
children aside with a stern gesture, he took Uncas by the arm
and led him toward the door of the council lodge. Thither
all the chiefs and most of the distinguished warriors followed,
among whom the anxious Heyward found means to enter with-
out attracting any dangerous attention to himself.
A few minutes were consumed in disposing of those present
in a manner suitable to their rank and influence in the tribe.
An order very similar to that adopted in the preceding interview
was observed, the aged and superior chiefs occupying the area
## p. 4031 (#401) ###########################################
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
4031
of the spacious apartment, within the powerful light of a glaring
torch, while their juniors and inferiors were arranged in the
background, presenting a dark outline of swarthy and marked
visages. In the very centre of the lodge, immediately under an
opening that admitted the twinkling light of one or two stars,
stood Uncas, calm, elevated, and collected. His high and haughty
carriage was not lost on his captors, who often bent their looks
on his person with eyes which, while they lost none of their
inflexibility of purpose, plainly betrayed their admiration of the
stranger's daring.
The case was different with the individual whom Duncan had
observed to stand forth with his friend previously to the des-
perate trial of speed; and who, instead of joining in the chase,
had remained throughout its turbulent uproar like a cringing
statue, expressive of shame and disgrace. Though not a hand
had been extended to greet him nor yet an eye had condescended
to watch his movements, he had also entered the lodge, as
though impelled by a fate to whose decrees he submitted, seem-
ingly, without a struggle. Heyward profited by the first oppor-
tunity to gaze in his face, secretly apprehensive he might find
the features of another acquaintance; but they proved to be those
of a stranger, and what was still more inexplicable, of one who
bore all the distinctive marks of a Huron warrior. Instead of
mingling with his tribe, however, he sat apart, a solitary being
in a multitude, his form shrinking into a crouching and abject
attitude, as if anxious to fill as little space as possible. When
each individual had taken his proper station, and silence reigned
in the place, the gray-haired chief already introduced to the
reader spoke aloud, in the language of the Lenni Lenape.
"Delaware," he said, "though one of a nation of women, you
have proved yourself a man. I would give you food; but he
who eats with a Huron should become his friend. Rest in peace
till the morning sun, when our last words shall be spoken. ”
"Seven nights and as many summer days have I fasted on
the trail of the Hurons," Uncas coldly replied; "the children of
the Lenape know how to travel the path of the just without
lingering to eat. "
"Two of my young men are in pursuit of your companion,"
resumed the other, without appearing to regard the boast of his
captive; "when they get back, then will our wise men say to
you, 'Live or die. '»
## p. 4032 (#402) ###########################################
4032
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
«Has a Huron no ears? " scornfully exclaimed Uncas:
"twice since he has been your prisoner has the Delaware heard
a gun that he knows. Your young men will never come back. "
A short and sullen pause succeeded this bold assertion.
Duncan, who understood the Mohican to allude to the fatal rifle
of the scout, bent forward in earnest observation of the effect it
might produce on the conquerors; but the chief was content with
simply retorting: -
"If the Lenape are so skillful, why is one of their bravest
warriors here ? »
"He followed in the steps of a flying coward, and fell into a
The cunning beaver may be caught. "
snare.
As Uncas thus replied, he pointed with his finger toward the
solitary Huron, but without deigning to bestow any other notice
on so unworthy an object. The words of the answer and the air
of the speaker produced a strong sensation among his auditors.
Every eye rolled sullenly toward the individual indicated by the
simple gesture, and a low threatening murmur passed through
the crowd. The ominous sounds reached the outer door, and the
women and children pressing into the throng, no gap had been
left between shoulder and shoulder that was not now filled with
the dark lineaments of some eager and curious human counte-
nance.
In the mean time the more aged chiefs in the centre com-
muned with each other in short and broken sentences. Not
a word was uttered that did not convey the meaning of the
speaker, in the simplest and most energetic form. Again a
long and deeply solemn pause took place. It was known by all
present to be the grave precursor of a weighty and important
judgment. They who composed the outer circle of faces were
on tiptoe to gaze; and even the culprit for an instant forgot
his shame in a deeper emotion, and exposed his abject features
in order to cast an anxious and troubled glance at the dark
assemblage of chiefs. The silence was finally broken by the aged
warrior so often named. He arose from the earth, and moving
past the immovable form of Uncas, placed himself in a digni-
fied attitude before the offender. At that moment the withered
squaw already mentioned moved into the circle in a slow sidling
sort of a dance, holding the torch, and muttering the indistinct
words of what might have been a species of incantation. Though
her presence was altogether an intrusion, it was unheeded
#
## p. 4033 (#403) ###########################################
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
4033
Approaching Uncas, she held the blazing brand in such a
manner as to cast its red glare on his person and to expose the
slightest emotion of his countenance. The Mohican maintained
his firm and haughty attitude; and his eye, so far from deigning
to meet her inquisitive look, dwelt steadily on the distance as
though it penetrated the obstacles which impeded the view, and
looked into futurity. Satisfied with her examination, she left him,
with a slight expression of pleasure, and proceeded to practice
the same trying experiment on her delinquent countryman.
The young Huron was in his war-paint, and very little of
a finely molded form was concealed by his attire.
The light
rendered every limb and joint discernible, and Duncan turned
away in horror when he saw they were writhing in inexpressible
agony. The woman was commencing a low and plaintive howl
at the sad and shameful spectacle, when the chief put forth his
hand and gently pushed her aside.
"Reed-that-bends," he said, addressing the young culprit by
name, and in his proper language, "though the Great Spirit has
made you pleasant to the eyes, it would have been better that
you had not been born. Your tongue is loud in the village, but
in battle it is still. None of my young men strike the tomahawk
deeper into the war-post-none of them so lightly on the Yen-
geese. The enemy know the shape of your back, but they have
never seen the color of your eyes. Three times have they called
on you to come, and as often did you forget to answer. Your
name will never be mentioned again in your tribe- it is already
forgotten. "
As the chief slowly uttered these words, pausing impressively
between each sentence, the culprit raised his face, in deference
to the other's rank and years. Shame, horror, and pride struggled
in its lineaments. His eye, which was contracted with inward
anguish, gleamed on the persons of those whose breath was his
fame; and the latter emotion for an instant predominated. He
arose to his feet, and baring his bosom, looked steadily on the
keen glittering knife that was already upheld by his inexorable
judge. As the weapon passed slowly into his heart he even
smiled, as if in joy at having found death less dreadful than he
anticipated, and fell heavily on his face at the feet of the rigid
and unyielding form of Uncas.
The squaw gave a loud and plaintive yell, dashed the torch
to the earth, and buried everything in darkness. The whole
VII-253
## p. 4034 (#404) ###########################################
4034
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
shuddering group of spectators glided from the lodge like
troubled spirits; and Duncan thought that he and the yet throb-
bing body of the victim of an Indian judgment had now become
its only tenants.
THE PRAIRIE FIRE
From The Prairie
"SEE
EE, Middleton," exclaimed Inez in a sudden burst of youth-
ful pleasure, that caused her for a moment to forget her
situation, "how lovely is that sky; surely it contains a
promise of happier times! "
"It is glorious! " returned her husband. "Glorious and heav-
enly is that streak of vivid red, and here is a still brighter
crimson; rarely have I seen a richer rising of the sun. "
"Rising of the sun! " slowly repeated the old man, lifting
his tall person from its seat with a deliberate and abstracted air,
while he kept his eye riveted on the changing and certainly
beautiful tints that were garnishing the vault of heaven. "Ris-
ing of the sun! I like not such risings of the sun. Ah's me!
the imps have circumvented us with a vengeance.
The prairie
is on fire! "
"God in heaven protect us! " cried Middleton, catching Inez
to his bosom, under the instant impression of the imminence of
their danger. "There is no time to lose, old man; each instant
is a day; let us fly! "
"Whither? " demanded the trapper, motioning him, with
calmness and dignity, to arrest his steps. "In this wilderness of
grass and reeds you are like a vessel in the broad lakes without
a compass. A single step on the wrong course might prove the
destruction of us all. It is seldom danger is so pressing that
there is not time enough for reason to do its work, young
officer; therefore let us await its biddings. "
"For my own part," said Paul Hover, looking about him
with no equivocal expression of concern, "I acknowledge that
should this dry bed of weeds get fairly in a flame, a bee would
have to make a flight higher than common to prevent his wings
from scorching. Therefore, old trapper, I agree with the cap-
tain, and say, mount and run. ”
## p. 4035 (#405) ###########################################
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
4035
"Ye are wrong-ye are wrong; man is not a beast to follow
the gift of instinct, and to snuff up his knowledge by a taint
in the air or a rumbling in the sound; but he must see and
reason, and then conclude. So follow me a little to the left,
where there is a rise in the ground, whence we may make our
reconnoitrings. "
The old man waved his hand with authority, and led the way
without further parlance to the spot he had indicated, followed
by the whole of his alarmed companions. An eye less practiced
than that of the trapper might have failed in discovering the
gentle elevation to which he alluded, and which looked on the
surface of the meadow like a growth a little taller than common.
When they reached the place, however, the stunted grass itself
announced the absence of that moisture which had fed the rank
weeds of most of the plain, and furnished a clue to the evidence
by which he had judged of the formation of the ground hidden.
beneath. Here a few minutes were lost in breaking down the
tops of the surrounding herbage, which, notwithstanding the ad-
vantage of their position, rose even above the heads of Mid-
dleton and Paul, and in obtaining a lookout that might command
a view of the surrounding sea of fire.
The frightful prospect added nothing to the hopes of those
who had so fearful a stake in the result. Although the day
was beginning to dawn, the vivid colors of the sky contin-
ued to deepen, as if the fierce element were bent on an impious
rivalry of the light of the sun. Bright flashes of flame shot up
here and there along the margin of the waste, like the nimble.
coruscations of the North, but far more angry and threatening
in their color and changes. The anxiety on the rigid features
of the trapper sensibly deepened, as he leisurely traced these
evidences of a conflagration, which spread in a
in a broad belt
about their place of refuge, until he had encircled the whole
horizon.
Shaking his head, as he again turned his face to the point
where the danger seemed nighest and most rapidly approaching,
the old man said:
"Now have we been cheating ourselves with the belief that
we had thrown these Tetons from our trail, while here is proof
enough that they not only know where we lie, but that they
intend to smoke us out, like so many skulking beasts of prey.
See: they have lighted the fire around the whole bottom at the
## p. 4036 (#406) ###########################################
4036
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
same moment, and we are as completely hemmed in by the
devils as an island by its waters. "
"Let us mount and ride! " cried Middleton; "is life not worth
a struggle? "
"Whither would ye go? Is a Teton horse a salamander that
can walk amid fiery flames unhurt, or do you think the Lord
will show his might in your behalf, as in the days of old, and
carry you harmless through such a furnace as you may see
glowing beneath yonder red sky? There are Sioux too hem.
ming the fire with their arrows and knives on every side of us,
or I am no judge of their murderous deviltries. "
"We will ride into the centre of the whole tribe," returned
the youth fiercely, "and put their manhood to the test. "
"Ay, it's well in words, but what would it prove in deeds?
Here is a dealer in bees, who can teach you wisdom in a matter
like this. "
"Now for that matter, old trapper," said Paul, stretching his
athletic form like a mastiff conscious of his strength, "I am on
the side of the captain, and am clearly for a race against the
fire, though it line me into a Teton wigwam. Here is Ellen,
who will »
"Of what use, of what use are your stout hearts, when the
element of the Lord is to be conquered as well as human men?
Look about you, friends; the wreath of smoke that is rising
from the bottoms plainly says that there is no outlet from the
spot, without crossing a belt of fire. Look for yourselves, my
men; look for yourselves: if you can find a single opening, I
will engage to follow. "
The examination which his companions so instantly and so
intently made, rather served to assure them of their desperate
situation than to appease their fears. Huge columns of smoke
were rolling up from the plain and thickening in gloomy masses
around the horizon; the red glow which gleamed upon their
enormous folds, now lighting their volumes with the glare of the
conflagration and now flashing to another point as the flame
beneath glided ahead, leaving all behind enveloped in awful
darkness, and proclaiming louder than words the character of the
imminent and approaching danger.
"This is terrible! " exclaimed Middleton, folding the trembling
Inez to his heart. "At such a time as this, and in such a
manner!
>>>
## p. 4037 (#407) ###########################################
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
4037
"The gates of heaven are open to all who truly believe,"
murmured the pious devotee in his bosom.
"This resignation is maddening! But we are men, and will
make a struggle for our lives! How now, my brave and spirited
friend, shall we yet mount and push across the flames, or shall
we stand here, and see those we most love perish in this fright-
ful manner, without an effort? »
"I am for a swarming time and a flight before the hive is
too hot to hold us," said the bee-hunter, to whom it will be at
once seen that Middleton addressed himself. "Come, old trap-
per, you must acknowledge this is but a slow way of getting
out of danger. If we tarry here much longer, it will be in the
fashion that the bees lie around the straw after the hive has
been smoked for its honey. You may hear the fire begin
to roar already, and I know by experience that when the flames
once get fairly into the prairie grass, it is no sloth that can
outrun it. "
"Think you,” returned the old man, pointing scornfully at
the mazes of the dry and matted grass which environed them,
"that mortal feet can outstrip the speed of fire on such a path?
If I only knew now on which side these miscreants lay! "
"What say you, friend Doctor," cried the bewildered Paul,
turning to the naturalist with that sort of helplessness with
which the strong are often apt to seek aid of the weak, when
human power is baffled by the hand of a mightier Being; "what
say you have you no advice to give away in a case of life and
death? "
The naturalist stood, tablets in hand, looking at the awful
spectacle with as much composure as if the conflagration had
been lighted in order to solve the difficulties of some scientific
problem. Aroused by the question of his companion, he turned
to his equally calm though differently occupied associate, the
trapper, demanding with the most provoking insensibility to the
urgent nature of their situation:
"Venerable hunter, you have often witnessed similar pris-
matic experiments—"
He was rudely interrupted by Paul, who struck the tablets
from his hands with a violence that betrayed the utter intellect-
ual confusion which had overset the equanimity of his mind.
Before time was allowed for remonstrance, the old man, who had
continued during the whole scene like one much at loss how to
## p. 4038 (#408) ###########################################
4038
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
proceed, though also like one who was rather perplexed than
alarmed, suddenly assumed a decided air, as if he no longer
doubted on the course it was most advisable to pursue.
"It is time to be doing," he said, interrupting the controversy
that was about to ensue between the naturalist and the bee-
hunter; "it is time to leave off books and moanings, and to be
doing.
>>
«<
"You have come to your recollections too late, miserable old
man," cried Middleton; the flames are within a quarter of a
mile of us, and the wind is bringing them down in this quarter
with dreadful rapidity. "
"Anan!
