The Pioneers (62 page)

The youth listened to her touching accents, but moved not. In a moment he found utterance, and replied:

“And is it me that you command to leave you! To leave you on the edge of the grave! Oh! Miss Temple, how little have you known me!” he cried, dropping on his knees at her feet, and gathering her flowing robe in his arms as if to shield her from the flames. “I have been driven to the woods in despair; but your society has tamed the lion within me. If I have wasted my time in degradation, 'twas you that charmed me to it. If I have forgotten my name and family, your form supplied the place of memory. If I have forgotten my wrongs, 'twas you that taught me charity. No—no—dearest Elizabeth, I may die with you, but I can never leave you!”

Elizabeth moved not, nor answered. It was plain that her thoughts had been raised from the earth. The recollection of her father and her regrets at their separation had been mellowed by a holy sentiment that lifted her above the level of earthly things, and she was fast losing the weakness of her sex in the near view of eternity. But as she listened to these words she became once more woman. She struggled against these feelings, and smiled, as she thought she was shaking off the last lingering feeling of nature, when the world, and all its seductions, rushed again to her heart, with the sounds of a human voice, crying in piercing tones:

“Gal! Where be ye, gal! Gladden the heart of an old man, if ye yet belong to 'arth!”

“List!” said Elizabeth, “ 'Tis the Leatherstocking; he seeks me!”

“ 'Tis Natty!” shouted Edwards, “and we may yet be saved!”

A wide and circling flame glared on their eyes for a moment, even above the fire of the woods, and a loud report followed.

“ 'Tis the canister! 'Tis the powder,” cried the same voice, evidently approaching them. “ 'Tis the canister, and the precious child is lost!”

At the next instant Natty rushed through the steams of the spring, and appeared on the terrace, without his deerskin cap, his hair burnt to his head, his shirt, of country check, black and filled with holes, and his red features of a deeper color than ever by the heat he had encountered.

GERTRUDE OF WYOMING

 

FOR an hour after Louisa Grant was left by Miss Temple, in the situation already mentioned, she continued in feverish anxiety, awaiting the return of her friend. But as the time passed by without the reappearance of Elizabeth, the terror of Louisa gradually increased until her alarmed fancy had conjured every species of danger that appertained to the woods, excepting the one that really existed. The heavens had become obscured by degrees, and vast volumes of smoke were pouring over the valley; but the thoughts of Louisa were still recurring to beasts, without dreaming of the real cause for apprehension. She was stationed in the edge of the low pines and chestnuts that succeed the first or large growth of the forest, and directly above the angle where the highway turned from the straight course to the village and ascended the mountain laterally. Consequently, she commanded a view not only of the valley, but of the road beneath her. The few travelers that passed, she observed, were engaged in earnest conversation and frequently raised their eyes to the hill, and at length she saw the people leaving the courthouse, and gazing upwards also. While under the influence of the alarm excited by such unusual movements, reluctant to go, and yet fearful to remain, Louisa was startled by the low, cracking, but cautious treads of someone approaching through the bushes. She was on the eve of flight when Natty emerged from the cover and stood at her side. The old man laughed as he shook her kindly by a hand that was passive with fear.

“I am glad to meet you here, child,” he said; “for the back of the mountain is afire, and it would be dangerous to go up it now, till it has been burnt over once, and the deadwood is gone. There's a foolish man, the comrade of that varmint who has given me all this trouble, digging for ore on the east side. I told him that the kearless fellows, who thought to catch a practys'd hunter in the woods after dark, had thrown the lighted pine knots in the brush, and that 'twould kindle like tow, and warned him to leave the hill. But he was set upon his business, and nothing short of Providence could move him. If he isn't burnt and buried in a grave of his own digging, he's made of salamanders. Why, what ails the child! You look as skeary as if you see'd more painters! I wish there were more to be found; they'd count up faster than the beaver. But where's the good child of a bad father? Did she forget her promise to the old man?”

“The hill! the hill!” shrieked Louisa. “She seeks you on the hill with the powder!”

Natty recoiled several feet at this unexpected intelligence.

“The Lord of Heaven have mercy on her! She's on the Vision, and that's a sheet of fire ag'in this. Child, if ye love the dear one, and hope to find a friend when ye need it most, to the village, and give the alarm. The men are used to fighting fire, and there may be a chance left. Fly! I bid ye fly! Nor stop even for breath.”

The Leatherstocking had no sooner uttered this injunction, than he disappeared in the bushes, and when last seen by Louisa, was rushing up the mountain with a speed that none but those who were accustomed to the toil could attain.

“Have I found ye!” the old man exclaimed, when he burst out of the smoke. “God be praised that I've found ye; but follow—there's no time for talking.”

“My dress!” said Elizabeth. “It would be fatal to trust myself nearer to the flames in it.”

“I bethought me of your flimsy things,” cried Natty, throwing loose the folds of a covering of buckskin that he carried on his arm, and wrapping her form in it, in such a manner as to envelope her whole person; “now follow, for it's a matter of life and death to us all.”

“But John! What will become of John?” cried Edwards. “Can we leave the old warrior here to perish?”

The eyes of Natty followed the direction of Edwards's finger, when he beheld the Indian still seated as before, with the very earth under his feet consuming with fire. Without delay the hunter approached the spot, and spoke in Delaware:

“Up and away, Chingachgook! Will ye stay here to burn, like a Mingo at the stake? The Moravians have teached ye better, I hope; the Lord preserve me if the powder hasn't flashed atween his legs, and the skin of his back is roasting. Will ye come, I say; will ye follow?”

“Why should Mohegan go?” returned the Indian gloomily. “He has seen the days of an eagle, and his eye grows dim. He looks on the valley; he looks on the water; he looks in the hunting grounds—but he sees no Delawares. Everyone has a white skin. My fathers say, from the far-off land, come. My woman, my young warriors, my tribe, say, come. The Great Spirit says, come. Let Mohegan die.”

“But you forget your friend,” cried Edwards.

“ 'Tis useless to talk to an Indian with the death fit on him, lad,” interrupted Natty, who seized the strips of the blanket, and with wonderful dexterity strapped the passive chieftain to his own back; when he turned, and with a strength that seemed to bid defiance not only to his years but to his load, he led the way to the point whence he had issued. As they crossed the little terrace of rock, one of the dead trees that had been tottering for several minutes fell on the spot where they had stood, and filled the air with its cinders.

Such an event quickened the steps of the party, who followed the Leatherstocking with the urgency required by the occasion.

“Tread on the soft ground,” he cried, when they were in a gloom where sight availed them but little, “and keep in the white smoke; keep the skin close on her, lad; she's a precious one, another will be hard to be found.”

Obedient to the hunter's directions, they followed his steps and advice implicitly; and although the narrow passage along the winding of the spring led amid burning logs and falling branches, they happily achieved it in safety. No one but a man long accustomed to the woods could have traced his route through a smoke in which respiration was difficult and sight nearly useless; but the experience of Natty conducted them to an opening through the rocks, where, with a little difficulty, they soon descended to another terrace and emerged at once into a tolerably clear atmosphere.

The feelings of Edwards and Elizabeth at reaching this spot may be imagined, though not easily described. No one seemed to exult more than their guide, who turned, with Mohegan still lashed to his back, and laughing in his own manner, said:

“I know'd 'twas the Frenchman's powder, gal; it went so altogether; your coarse grain will squib for a minute. The Iroquois had none of the best powder when I went ag'in the Canada tribes, under Sir William. Did I ever tell you the story, lad, consarning the scrimmage with——”

“For God's sake, tell me nothing now, Natty, until we are entirely safe. Where shall we go next?”

“Why, on the platform of rock over the cave, to be sure; you will be safe enough there, or we'll go into it, if you be so minded.”

The young man started, and appeared agitated; but looking around him with an anxious eye, said quickly:

“Shall we be safe on the rock? Cannot the fire reach us there, too?”

“Can't the boy see?” said Natty, with the coolness of one accustomed to the kind of danger he had just encountered. “Had ye stayed in the place above ten minutes longer, you would both have been in ashes, but here you may stay forever, and no fire can touch you, until they burn the rocks as well as the woods.”

With this assurance, which was obviously true, they proceeded to the spot, and Natty deposited his load, placing the Indian on the ground with his back against a fragment of the rocks. Elizabeth sank on the ground and buried her face in her hands, while her heart was swelling with a variety of conflicting emotions.

“Let me urge you to take a restorative, Miss Temple,” said Edwards respectfully; “your frame will sink else.”

“Leave me, leave me,” she said, raising her beaming eyes for a moment to his; “I feel too much for words! I am grateful, Oliver, for this miraculous escape; and next to my God to you.”

Edwards withdrew to the edge of the rock, and shouted—“Benjamin! Where are you, Benjamin?”

A hoarse voice replied, as if from the bowels of the earth, “Hereaway, master; stowed in this here bit of a hole, which is all the same as hot as the cook's coppers. I'm tired of my berth, d'ye see, and if so be that Leatherstocking has got much overhauling to do before he sails after them said beaver, I'll go into dock again, and ride out my quarantine till I can get prottick from the law, and so hold on upon the rest of my 'spaniolas.”

“Bring up a glass of water from the spring,” continued Edwards, “and throw a little wine in it; hasten, I entreat you?”

“I knows but little of your small drink, master Oliver,” returned the steward, his voice issuing out of the cave into the open air, “and the Jamaiky held out no longer than to take a parting kiss with Billy Kirby, when he anchored me alongside the highway last night, where you run me down in the chase. But here's sum'mat of a red color that may suit a weak stomach, mayhap. That Master Kirby is no first-rate in a boat; but he'll tack a cart among the stumps, all the same as a Lon'on pilot will back and fill through the colliers in the Pool.”

As the steward ascended while talking, by the time he had ended his speech, he appeared on the rock with the desired restoratives, exhibiting the worn-out and bloated features of a man who had run deep in a debauch, and that lately.

Elizabeth took from the hands of Edwards the liquor which he offered, and then motioned to be left again to herself.

The youth turned at her bidding, and observed Natty kindly assiduous around the person of Mohegan. When their eyes met, the hunter said sorrowfully:

“His time has come, lad; I see it in his eyes. When an Indian fixes his eye, he means to go but to one place; and what the willful creaters put their minds on, they're sure to do.”

A quick tread prevented the reply, and in a few moments, to the amazement of the whole party, Mr. Grant was seen clinging to the side of the mountain and striving to reach the place where they stood. Oliver sprang to his assistance, and by their united efforts the worthy divine was soon placed safely among them.

“How came you added to our number?” cried Edwards. “Is the hill alive with people at a time like this?”

The hasty but pious thanksgivings of the clergyman were soon ejaculated; and when he succeeded in collecting his bewildered senses, he replied:

“I heard that my child was seen coming to the mountain; and when the fire broke over its summit, my uneasiness drew me up the road, where I found Louisa, in terror for Miss Temple. It was to seek her that I came into this dangerous place; and I think, but for God's mercy, through the dogs of Natty, I should have perished in the flames myself.”

“Ay! follow the hounds, and if there's an opening they'll scent it out,” said Natty; “their noses be given them the same as man's reason.”

“I did so, and they led me to this place; but, praise be to God, that I see you all safe and well.”

“No, no,” returned the hunter; “safe we be, but as for well, John can't be called in a good way, unless you'll say that for a man that's taking his last look at 'arth.”

“He speaks the truth!” said the divine, with the holy awe with which he ever approached the dying. “I have been by too many deathbeds not to see that the hand of the tyrant is laid on this old warrior. Oh! how consoling it is to know that he has not rejected the offered mercy in the hour of his strength and of worldly temptations! The offspring of a race of heathens, he has in truth been ‘as a brand plucked from the burning.' ”