The Prairie
Page 15
CHAPTER XIII
A pickaxe, and a spade, a spade, For,--and a shrouding sheet: O, a pit of clay for to be made For such a guest is meet. --Song in Hamlet.
"Stand back! stand off, the whole of ye!" said Esther hoarsely to thecrowd, which pressed too closely on the corpse; "I am his mother, andmy right is better than that of ye all! Who has done this? Tell me,Ishmael, Abiram, Abner! open your mouths and your hearts, and let God'struth and no other issue from them. Who has done this bloody deed?"
Her husband made no reply, but stood, leaning on his rifle, lookingsadly, but with an unaltered eye, at the mangled remains of his son. Notso the mother, she threw herself on the earth, and receiving the coldand ghastly head into her lap, she sat contemplating those muscularfeatures, on which the death-agony was still horridly impressed, in asilence far more expressive than any language of lamentation could haveproved.
The voice of the woman was frozen in grief. In vain Ishmael attempteda few words of rude consolation; she neither listened nor answered. Hersons gathered about her in a circle, and expressed, after their uncouthmanner, their sympathy in her sorrow, as well as their sense of theirown loss, but she motioned them away, impatiently with her hand. Attimes her fingers played in the matted hair of the dead, and at othersthey lightly attempted to smooth the painfully expressive muscles of itsghastly visage, as the hand of the mother is seen lingering fondly aboutthe features of her sleeping child. Then starting from their revoltingoffice, her hands would flutter around her, and seem to seek somefruitless remedy against the violent blow, which had thus suddenlydestroyed the child in whom she had not only placed her greatesthopes, but so much of her maternal pride. While engaged in thelatter incomprehensible manner, the lethargic Abner turned aside, andswallowing the unwonted emotions which were rising in his own throat, heobserved--
"Mother means that we should look for the signs, that we may know inwhat manner Asa has come by his end."
"We owe it to the accursed Siouxes!" answered Ishmael: "twice havethey put me deeply in their debt! The third time, the score shall becleared!"
But, not content with this plausible explanation, and, perhaps,secretly glad to avert their eyes from a spectacle which awakened soextraordinary and unusual sensations in their sluggish bosoms, the sonsof the squatter turned away in a body from their mother and the corpse,and proceeded to make the enquiries which they fancied the former hadso repeatedly demanded. Ishmael made no objections; but, though heaccompanied his children while they proceeded in the investigation, itwas more with the appearance of complying with their wishes, at a timewhen resistance might not be seemly, than with any visible interest inthe result. As the borderers, notwithstanding their usual dulness, werewell instructed in most things connected with their habits of life, anenquiry, the success of which depended so much on signs and evidencesthat bore so strong a resemblance to a forest trail, was likely to beconducted with skill and acuteness. Accordingly, they proceeded to themelancholy task with great readiness and intelligence.
Abner and Enoch agreed in their accounts as to the position in whichthey had found the body. It was seated nearly upright, the backsupported by a mass of matted brush, and one hand still grasping abroken twig of the alders. It was most probably owing to the formercircumstance that the body had escaped the rapacity of the carrionbirds, which had been seen hovering above the thicket, and the latterproved that life had not yet entirely abandoned the hapless victim whenhe entered the brake. The opinion now became general, that the youthhad received his death-wound in the open prairie, and had draggedhis enfeebled form into the cover of the thicket for the purpose ofconcealment. A trail through the bushes confirmed this opinion. It alsoappeared, on examination, that a desperate struggle had taken place onthe very margin of the thicket. This was sufficiently apparent by thetrodden branches, the deep impressions on the moist ground, and thelavish flow of blood.
"He has been shot in the open ground and come here for a cover," saidAbiram; "these marks would clearly prove it. The boy has been set uponby the savages in a body, and has fou't like a hero as he was, untilthey have mastered his strength, and then drawn him to the bushes."
To this probable opinion there was now but one dissenting voice, that ofthe slow-minded Ishmael, who demanded that the corpse itself should beexamined in order to obtain a more accurate knowledge of its injuries.On examination, it appeared that a rifle bullet had passed directlythrough the body of the deceased, entering beneath one of his brawnyshoulders, and making its exit by the breast. It required some knowledgein gun-shot wounds to decide this delicate point, but the experience ofthe borderers was quite equal to the scrutiny; and a smile of wild, andcertainly of singular satisfaction, passed among the sons of Ishmael,when Abner confidently announced that the enemies of Asa had assailedhim in the rear.
"It must be so," said the gloomy but attentive squatter. "He was of toogood a stock and too well trained, knowingly to turn the weak side toman or beast! Remember, boys, that while the front of manhood is toyour enemy, let him be who or what he may, you ar' safe from cowardlysurprise. Why, Eester, woman! you ar' getting beside yourself; withpicking at the hair and the garments of the child! Little good can youdo him now, old girl."
"See!" interrupted Enoch, extricating from the fragments of cloth themorsel of lead which had prostrated the strength of one so powerful;"here is the very bullet!"
Ishmael took it in his hand and eyed it long and closely.
"There's no mistake," at length he muttered through his compressedteeth. "It is from the pouch of that accursed trapper. Like many of thehunters he has a mark in his mould, in order to know the work hisrifle performs; and here you see it plainly--six little holes, laidcrossways."
"I'll swear to it!" cried Abiram, triumphantly. "He show'd me hisprivate mark, himself, and boasted of the number of deer he had laidupon the prairies with these very bullets! Now, Ishmael, will youbelieve me when I tell you the old knave is a spy of the red-skins?"
The lead passed from the hand of one to that of another, andunfortunately for the reputation of the old man, several among themremembered also to have seen the aforesaid private bullet-marks, duringthe curious examination which all had made of his accoutrements. Inaddition to this wound, however, were many others of a less dangerousnature, all of which were supposed to confirm the supposed guilt of thetrapper.
The traces of many different struggles were to be seen, between thespot where the first blood was spilt and the thicket to which it was nowgenerally believed Asa had retreated, as a place of refuge. These wereinterpreted into so many proofs of the weakness of the murderer, whowould have sooner despatched his victim, had not even the dying strengthof the youth rendered him formidable to the infirmities of one soold. The danger of drawing some others of the hunters to the spot, byrepeated firing, was deemed a sufficient reason for not again resortingto the rifle, after it had performed the important duty of disablingthe victim. The weapon of the dead man was not to be found, and haddoubtless, together with many other less valuable and lighter articles,that he was accustomed to carry about his person, become a prize to hisdestroyer.
But what, in addition to the tell-tale bullet, appeared to fixthe ruthless deed with peculiar certainty on the trapper, wasthe accumulated evidence furnished by the trail; which proved,notwithstanding his deadly hurt, that the wounded man had still beenable to make a long and desperate resistance to the subsequent effortsof his murderer. Ishmael seemed to press this proof with a singularmixture of sorrow and pride: sorrow, at the loss of a son, whom in theirmoments of amity he highly valued; and pride, at the courage and powerhe had manifested to his last and weakest breath.
"He died as a son of mine should die," said the squatter, gleaning ahollow consolation from so unnatural an exultation: "a dread to hisenemy to the last, and without help from the law! Come, children; wehave the grave to make, and then to hunt his murderer."
Ishmael stood, with folded arms, steadily watching the manner in whichthis necessary duty was performed, and when the whole was completed,he lifted his cap to his sons, to thank them for their services, with adignity that would have become one much better nurtured. Throughout thewhole of a ceremony, which is ever solemn and admonitory, the squatterhad maintained a grave and serious deportment. His vast features werevisibly stamped with an expression of deep concern; but at no time didthey falter, until he turned his back, as he believed for ever, on thegrave of his first-born. Nature was then stirring powerfully withinhim, and the muscles of his stern visage began to work perceptibly. Hischildren fastened their eyes on his, as if to seek a direction to thestrange emotions which were moving their own heavy natures, when thestruggle in the bosom of the squatter suddenly ceased, and, taking hiswife by the arm, he raised her to her feet as if she had been an infant,saying, in a voice that was perfectly steady, though a nice observerwould have discovered that it was kinder than usual--
"Eester, we have now done all that man and woman can do. We raised theboy, and made him such as few others were like, on the frontiers ofAmerica; and we have given him a grave. Let us go our way."
The woman turned her eyes slowly from the fresh earth, and laying herhands on the shoulders of her husband, stood, looking him anxiously inthe eyes.
"Ishmael! Ishmael!" she said, "you parted from the boy in your wrath!"
"May the Lord pardon his sins freely as I have forgiven his worstmisdeeds!" calmly returned the squatter: "woman, go you back to the rockand read your Bible; a chapter in that book always does you good. Youcan read, Eester; which is a privilege I never did enjoy."
"Yes, yes," muttered the woman, yielding to his strength, and sufferingherself to be led, though with strong reluctance from the spot. "I canread; and how have I used the knowledge! But he, Ishmael, he has not thesin of wasted l'arning to answer for. We have spared him that, at least!whether it be in mercy, or in cruelty, I know not."
Her husband made no reply, but continued steadily to lead her in thedirection of their temporary abode. When they reached the summit ofthe swell of land, which they knew was the last spot from which thesituation of the grave of Asa could be seen, they all turned, as bycommon concurrence, to take a farewell view of the place. The littlemound itself was not visible; but it was frightfully indicated by theflock of screaming birds which hovered above. In the opposite directiona low, blue hillock, in the skirts of the horizon, pointed out the placewhere Esther had left the rest of her young, and served as an attractionto draw her reluctant steps from the last abode of her eldest born.Nature quickened in the bosom of the mother at the sight; and shefinally yielded the rights of the dead, to the more urgent claims of theliving.
The foregoing occurrences had struck a spark from the stern tempers of aset of beings so singularly moulded in the habits of their uncultivatedlives, which served to keep alive among them the dying embers of familyaffection. United to their parents by ties no stronger than those whichuse had created, there had been great danger, as Ishmael had foreseen,that the overloaded hive would swarm, and leave him saddled with thedifficulties of a young and helpless brood, unsupported by the exertionsof those, whom he had already brought to a state of maturity. The spiritof insubordination, which emanated from the unfortunate Asa, had spreadamong his juniors; and the squatter had been made painfully to rememberthe time when, in the wantonness of his youth and vigour, he had,reversing the order of the brutes, cast off his own aged and failingparents, to enter into the world unshackled and free. But the danger hadnow abated, for a time at least; and if his authority was not restoredwith all its former influence, it was admitted to exist, and to maintainits ascendency a little longer.
It is true that his slow-minded sons, even while they submitted to theimpressions of the recent event, had glimmerings of terrible distrusts,as to the manner in which their elder brother had met with his death.There were faint and indistinct images in the minds of two or three ofthe oldest, which portrayed the father himself, as ready to imitate theexample of Abraham, without the justification of the sacred authoritywhich commanded the holy man to attempt the revolting office. But then,these images were so transient, and so much obscured in intellectualmists, as to leave no very strong impressions, and the tendency of thewhole transaction, as we have already said, was rather to strengthenthan to weaken the authority of Ishmael.
In this disposition of mind, the party continued their route towardsthe place whence they had that morning issued on a search which had beencrowned with so melancholy a success. The long and fruitless march whichthey had made under the direction of Abiram, the discovery of the body,and its subsequent interment, had so far consumed the day, that by thetime their steps were retraced across the broad track of waste which laybetween the grave of Asa and the rock, the sun had fallen far below hismeridian altitude. The hill had gradually risen as they approached, likesome tower emerging from the bosom of the sea, and when within a mile,the minuter objects that crowned its height came dimly into view.
"It will be a sad meeting for the girls!" said Ishmael, who, from timeto time, did not cease to utter something which he intended should beconsolatory to the bruised spirit of his partner. "Asa was much regardedby all the young; and seldom failed to bring in from his hunts somethingthat they loved."
"He did, he did," murmured Esther; "the boy was the pride of the family.My other children are as nothing to him!"
"Say not so, good woman," returned the father, glancing his eye a littleproudly at the athletic train which followed, at no great distance,in the rear". Say not so, old Eester, for few fathers and mothers havegreater reason to be boastful than ourselves."
"Thankful, thankful," muttered the humbled woman; "ye mean thankful,Ishmael!"
"Then thankful let it be, if you like the word better, my goodgirl,--but what has become of Nelly and the young? The child hasforgotten the charge I gave her, and has not only suffered the childrento sleep, but, I warrant you, is dreaming of the fields of Tennesseeat this very moment. The mind of your niece is mainly fixed on thesettlements, I reckon."
"Ay, she is not for us; I said it, and thought it, when I took her,because death had stripped her of all other friends. Death is a sadworker in the bosom of families, Ishmael! Asa had a kind feeling to thechild, and they might have come one day into our places, had things beenso ordered."
"Nay, she is not gifted for a frontier wife, if this is the manner sheis to keep house while the husband is on the hunt. Abner, let off yourrifle, that they may know we ar' coming. I fear Nelly and the young ar'asleep." The young man complied with an alacrity that manifested howgladly he would see the rounded, active figure of Ellen, enliveningthe ragged summit of the
rock. But the report was succeeded by neithersignal nor answer of any sort. For a moment, the whole party stood insuspense, awaiting the result, and then a simultaneous impulse causedthe whole to let off their pieces at the same instant, producing anoise which might not fail to reach the ears of all within so short adistance.
"Ah! there they come at last!" cried Abiram, who was usually amongthe first to seize on any circumstance which promised relief fromdisagreeable apprehensions.
"It is a petticoat fluttering on the line," said Esther; "I put it theremyself."
"You ar' right; but now she comes; the jade has been taking her comfortin the tent!"
"It is not so," said Ishmael, whose usually inflexible features werebeginning to manifest the uneasiness he felt. "It is the tent itselfblowing about loosely in the wind. They have loosened the bottom, likesilly children as they ar', and unless care is had, the whole will comedown!"
The words were scarcely uttered before a rushing blast of wind sweptby the spot where they stood, raising the dust in little eddies, in itsprogress; and then, as if guided by a master hand, it quitted theearth, and mounted to the precise spot on which all eyes were justthen riveted. The loosened linen felt its influence and tottered; butregained its poise, and, for a moment, it became tranquil. The cloud ofleaves next played in circling revolutions around the place, and thendescended with the velocity of a swooping hawk, and sailed away intothe prairie in long straight lines, like a flight of swallows restingon their expanded wings. They were followed for some distance by thesnow-white tent, which, however, soon fell behind the rock, leavingits highest peak as naked as when it lay in the entire solitude of thedesert.
"The murderers have been here!" moaned Esther. "My babes! my babes!"
For a moment even Ishmael faltered before the weight of so unexpected ablow. But shaking himself, like an awakened lion, he sprang forward,and pushing aside the impediments of the barrier, as if they had beenfeathers, he rushed up the ascent with an impetuosity which proved howformidable a sluggish nature may become, when thoroughly aroused.