Deerslayer (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (34 page)

As soon as the chiefs had received the answers to their questions, they walked away in silence, like men who deemed the matter disposed of, all Hetty’s dogmas being thrown away on beings trained in violence from infancy to manhood. Hetty and Hist were now left alone with Hutter and Hurry, no visible restraint being placed on the movements of either; though all four, in fact, were vigilantly and unceasingly watched. As respects the men, care was had to prevent them from getting possession of any of the rifles that lay scattered about, their own included; and there all open manifestations of watchfulness ceased. But they, who were so experienced in Indian practices, knew too well how great was the distance between appearances and reality, to become the dupes of this seeming carelessness. Although both thought incessantly on the means of escape, and this without concert, each was aware of the uselessness of attempting any project of the sort that was not deeply laid and promptly executed. They had been long enough in the encampment, and were sufficiently observant to have ascertained that Hist, also, was a sort of captive; and, presuming on the circumstance, Hutter spoke in her presence more openly than he might otherwise have thought it prudent to do, inducing Hurry to be equally unguarded by his example.

“I’ll not blame, you, Hetty, for coming on this errand, which was well meant, if not very wisely planned,” commenced the father, seating himself by the side of his daughter, and taking her hand, a sign of affection that this rude being was accustomed to manifest to this particular child; “but preaching and the Bible are not the means to turn an Indian from his ways. Has Deerslayer sent any message; or has he any scheme by which he thinks to get us free?”

“Ay, that’s the substance of it!” put in Hurry; “if you can help us, gal, to half a mile of freedom, or even a good start of a short quarter, I’ll answer for the rest. Perhaps the old man may want a little more, but for one of my height and years that will meet all objections.”

Hetty looked distressed, turning her eyes from one to the other; but she had no answer to give to the question of the reckless Hurry “Father,” she said, “neither Deerslayer nor Judith knew of my coming, until I had left the ark. They are afraid the Iroquois will make a raft, and try to get off to the hut, and think more of defending that, than of coming to aid you.”

“No—no—no,” said Hist, hurriedly, though in a low voice, and with her face bent towards the earth, in order to conceal from those whom she knew to be watching them the fact of her speaking at all. “No, no, no, Deerslayer different man. He no t‘ink of defending ’self, with friend in danger. Help one another, and all get to hut.”

“This sounds well, old Tom,” said Hurry, winking and laughing, though he too used the precaution to speak low. “Give me a ready-witted squaw for a fri’nd, and though I’ll not downright defy an Iroquois, I think I would defy the devil.”

“No talk loud,” said Hist; “some Iroquois got Yengeese tongue, and all got Yengeese ear.”

“Have we a friend in you, young woman?” inquired Hutter, with an increasing interest in the conference. “If so, you may calculate on a solid reward; and nothing will be easier than to send you to your own tribe, if we can once fairly get you off with us to the castle. Give us the ark and the canoes, and we can command the lake, spite of all the savages in the Canadas. Nothing but artillery could drive us out of the castle, if we can get back to it.”

“S‘pose ’ey come ashore to take scalp?” retorted Hist, with cool irony, at which the girl appeared to be more expert than is common for her sex.

“Ay, ay—that was a mistake; but there is little use in lamentations, and less still, young woman, in flings.”

“Father,” said Hetty, “Judith thinks of breaking open the big chest, in hopes of finding something in that which may buy your freedom of the savages.”

A dark look came over Hutter, at the announcement of this fact, and he muttered his dissatisfaction in a way to render it intelligible enough.

“What for no break open chest?” put in Hist. “Life sweeter than old chest—scalp sweeter than old chest. If no tell darter to break him open, Wah-ta-Wah no help him to run away.”

“Ye know not what ye ask—ye are but silly girls, and the wisest way for ye both is to speak of what ye understand, and to speak of nothing else. I little like this cold neglect of the savages, Hurry; it’s a proof that they think of something serious, and if we are to do anything we must do it soon. Can we count on this young woman, think you?”

“Listen,” said Hist, quickly, and with an earnestness that proved how much her feelings were concerned; “Wah-ta-Wah no Iroquois—all over Delaware—got Delaware heart—Delaware feeling. She prisoner, too. One prisoner help t’udder prisoner. No good to talk more now. Darter stay with fader—Wah-ta-Wah come and see friend—all look right—then tell what he do.”

This was said in a low voice, but distinctly, and in a manner to make an impression. As soon as it was uttered, the girl arose and left the group, walking composedly towards the hut she occupied, as if she had no further interest in what might pass between the palefaces.

“She speaks much of her father; says she hears
There’s tricks i’ the world; and hems, and beats her heart;
Spurns enviously at straws: speaks things in doubt,
That carry but half sense: her speech is nothing,
Yet the unsuspected use of it doth move
The hearers to collection.”

Shakespeare

 

WE LEFT THE OCCUPANTS of the castle and the ark buried in sleep. Once or twice, in the course of the night, it is true, Deerslayer or the Delaware arose and looked out upon the tranquil lake, when, finding all safe, each returned to his pallet, and slept like a man who was not easily deprived of his natural rest. At the first signs of the dawn, the former arose, however, and made his personal arrangements for the day; though his companion, whose nights had not been tranquil or without disturbance of late, continued on his blanket until the sun had fairly risen. Judith, too, was later than common that morning, for the earlier hours of the night had brought her little of either refreshment or sleep. But ere the sun had shown himself over the eastern hills, these too were up and afoot; even the tardy, in that region, seldom remaining on their pallets after the appearance of the great luminary

Chingachgook was in the act of arranging his forest toilet, when Deerslayer entered the cabin of the ark, and threw him a few coarse, but light summer vestments, that belonged to Hutter.

“Judith hath given me them for your use, chief,” said the latter, as he cast the jacket and trowsers at the feet of the Indian; “for it’s ag‘in all prudence and caution to be seen in your war dress and paint. Wash off all them fiery streaks from your cheeks, put on these garments, and here is a hat, such as it is, that will give you an awful oncivilized sort of civilization, as the missionaries call it. Remember that Hist is at hand, and what we do for the maiden must be done while we are doing for others. I know it’s ag’in your gifts and your natur’ to wear clothes, unless they are cut and carried in a redman’s fashion, but make a vartue of necessity, and put these on at once, even if they do rise a little in your throat.”

Chingachgook, or the Serpent, eyed the vestments with strong disgust; but he saw the usefulness of the disguise, if not its absolute necessity. Should the Iroquois discover a redman in or about the castle, it might, indeed, place them more on their guard, and give their suspicions a direction towards their female captive. Anything was better than a failure, as it regarded his betrothed, and, after turning the different garments round and round, examining them with a species of grave irony, affecting to draw them on in a way that defeated itself, and otherwise manifesting the reluctance of a young savage to confine his limbs in the usual appliances of civilized life, the chief submitted to the directions of his companion, and finally stood forth, so far as the eye could detect, a redman in color alone. Little was to be apprehended from this last peculiarity, however, the distance from the shore, and the want of glasses, preventing any very close scrutiny, and Deerslayer himself, though of a brighter and fresher tint, had a countenance that was burned by the sun to a hue scarcely less red than that of his Mohican companion.
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The awkwardness of the Delaware, in his new attire, caused his friend to smile more than once that day, but he carefully abstained from the use of any of those jokes which would have been bandied among white men on such an occasion; the habits of a chief, the dignity of a warrior on his first path, and the gravity of the circumstances in which they were placed, uniting to render so much levity out of season.

The meeting at the morning meal of the three islanders, if we may use the term, was silent, grave, and thoughtful. Judith showed by her looks that she had passed an unquiet night, while the two men had the future before them, with its unseen and unknown events. A few words of courtesy passed between Deerslayer and the girl in the course of the breakfast, but no allusion was made to their situation. At length, Judith, whose heart was full, and whose novel feelings disposed her to entertain sentiments more gentle and tender than common, introduced the subject, and this in a way to show how much of her thoughts it had occupied in the course of the last sleepless night.

“It would be dreadful, Deerslayer,” the girl abruptly exclaimed, “should anything serious befall my father and Hetty! We cannot remain quietly here and leave them in the hands of the Iroquois, without bethinking us of some means of serving them.”

“I’m ready, Judith, to sarve them, and all others who are in trouble, could the way to do it be pointed out. It’s no trifling matter to fall into redskin hands, when men set out on an arr’nd like that which took Hutter and Hurry ashore; that I know as well as another; and I wouldn’t wish my worst inimy in such a strait, much less them with whom I’ve journeyed, and eat, and slept. Have you any scheme that you would like to have the Sarpent and me indivor to carry out?”

“I know of no other means to release the prisoners, than by bribing the Iroquois. They are not proof against presents; and we might offer enough, perhaps, to make them think it better to carry away what to them will be rich gifts than to carry away poor prisoners; if, indeed, they should carry them away at all!”

“This is well enough, Judith; yes, it’s well enough, if the inimy is to be bought, and we can find articles to make the purchase with. Your father has a convenient lodge, and it is most cunningly placed; though it doesn’t seem overstocked with riches that will be likely to buy his ransom. There’s the piece he calls Killdeer might count for something, and I understand there’s a keg of powder about, which might be a makeweight, sartain; and yet two able-bodied men are not to be bought off for a trine—besides—”

“Besides what?” demanded Judith, impatiently, observing that the other hesitated to proceed, probably from a reluctance to distress her.

“Why, Judith, the Frenchers offer bounties as well as our own side; and the price of two scalps would purchase a keg of powder and a rifle; though I’ll not say one of the latter altogether as good as Killdeer there, which your father va‘nts as uncommon, and onequaled, like. But fair powder, and a pretty sartain rifle; then the redmen are not the expartest in firearms, and don’t always know the difference atwixt that which is ra’al and that which is seeming.”
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“This is horrible!” muttered the girl, struck by the homely manner in which her companion was accustomed to state his facts. “But you overlook my own clothes, Deerslayer; and they, I think, might go far with the women of the Iroquois.”

“No doubt they would; no doubt they would, Judith,” returned the other, looking at her keenly, as if he would ascertain whether she were really capable of making such a sacrifice. “But are you sartain, gal, you could find it in your heart to part with your own finery for such a purpose? Many is the man who has thought he was valiant till danger stared him in the face; I’ve known them too that consaited they were kind and ready to give away all they had to the poor, when they’ve been listening to other people’s hardheartedness, but whose fists have clenched as tight as the riven hickory, when it came to downright offerings of their own. Besides, Judith, you’re handsome—oncommon in that way, one might obsarve, and do no harm to the truth; and they that have beauty like to have that which will adorn it. Are you sartain you could find it in your heart to part with your own finery?”

The soothing allusion to the personal charms of the girl was well-timed, to counteract the effect produced by the distrust that the young man expressed of Judith’s devotion to her filial duties. Had another said as much as Deerslayer, the compliment would most probably have been overlooked, in the indignation awakened by the doubts; but even the unpolished sincerity, that so often made this simpleminded hunter bare his thoughts, had a charm for the girl; and, while she colored, and for an instant her eyes flashed fire, she could not find it in her heart to be really angry with one whose very soul seemed truth and manly kindness. Look her reproaches she did; but conquering the desire to retort, she succeeded in answering in a mild and friendly manner.

“You must keep all your favorable opinions for the Delaware girls, Deerslayer, if you seriously think thus of those of your own color,” she said, affecting to laugh. “But try me; if you find that I regret either ribbon or feather, silk or muslin, then you may think what you please of my heart, and say what you think.”

“That’s justice! The rarest thing to find on ‘arth is a truly just man. So says Tamenund, the wisest prophet of the Delawares; and so all must think that have occasion to see, and talk, and act among mankind. I love a just man—Sarpent; his eyes are never covered with darkness towards his inimies, while they are all sunshine and brightness towards his fri’nds. He uses the reason that God has given him, and he uses it with a feelin’ of his being ordered to look at, and to consider things as they are, and not as he wants them to be. It’s easy enough to find them who call themselves just; but it’s wonderfully oncommon to find them that are the very thing, in fact. How often have I seen Indians, gal, who believed they were lookin’ into a matter agreeable to the will of the Great Spirit, when, in truth, they were only striving to act up to their own will and pleasure, and this, half of the time, with a temptation to go wrong, that could no more be seen by themselves, than the stream that runs in the next valley can be seen by us through yonder mountain; though any looker-on might have discovered it as plainly as we can discover the parch that are swimming around this hut.”