The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757

by James Fenimore Cooper

  CHAPTER V.

  "In such a night Did Thisbe fearfully o'ertrip the dew; And saw the lion's shadow ere himself."

  _Merchant of Venice._

  The suddenness of the flight of his guide, and the wild cries of thepursuers, caused Heyward to remain fixed, for a few moments, in inactivesurprise. Then recollecting the importance of securing the fugitive, hedashed aside the surrounding bushes, and pressed eagerly forward to lendhis aid in the chase. Before he had, however, proceeded a hundred yards,he met the three foresters already returning from their unsuccessfulpursuit.

  "Why so soon disheartened!" he exclaimed; "the scoundrel must beconcealed behind some of these trees, and may yet be secured. We are notsafe while he goes at large."

  "Would you set a cloud to chase the wind?" returned the disappointedscout; "I heard the imp, brushing over the dry leaves, like a blacksnake, and blinking a glimpse of him, just over ag'in yon big pine, Ipulled as it might be on the scent; but 'twouldn't do! and yet for areasoning aim, if anybody but myself had touched the trigger, I shouldcall it a quick sight; and I may be accounted to have experience inthese matters, and one who ought to know. Look at this sumach; itsleaves are red, though everybody knows the fruit is in the yellowblossom, in the month of July!"

  "'Tis the blood of Le Subtil! he is hurt, and may yet fall!"

  "No, no," returned the scout, in decided disapprobation of this opinion,"I rubbed the bark off a limb, perhaps, but the creature leaped thelonger for it. A rifle-bullet acts on a running animal, when it barkshim, much the same as one of your spurs on a horse; that is, it quickensmotion, and puts life into the flesh, instead of taking it away. Butwhen it cuts the ragged hole, after a bound or two, there is, commonly,a stagnation of further leaping, be it Indian or be it deer!"

  "We are four able bodies, to one wounded man!"

  "Is life grievous to you?" interrupted the scout. "Yonder red devilswould draw you within swing of the tomahawks of his comrades, before youwere heated in the chase. It was an unthoughtful act in a man who has sooften slept with the war-whoop ringing in the air, to let off his piecewithin sound of an ambushment! But then it was a natural temptation!'twas very natural! Come, friends, let us move our station, and in sucha fashion, too, as will throw the cunning of a Mingo on a wrong scent,or our scalps will be drying in the wind in front of Montcalm's marquee,ag'in this hour to-morrow."

  This appalling declaration, which the scout uttered with the coolassurance of a man who fully comprehended, while he did not fear to facethe danger, served to remind Heyward of the importance of the chargewith which he himself had been intrusted. Glancing his eyes around, witha vain effort to pierce the gloom that was thickening beneath the leafyarches of the forest, he felt as if, cut off from human aid, hisunresisting companions would soon lie at the entire mercy of thosebarbarous enemies, who, like beasts of prey, only waited till thegathering darkness might render their blows more fatally certain. Hisawakened imagination, deluded by the deceptive light, converted eachwaving bush, or the fragment of some fallen tree, into human forms, andtwenty times he fancied he could distinguish the horrid visages of hislurking foes, peering from their hiding-places, in never-ceasingwatchfulness of the movements of his party. Looking upward, he foundthat the thin fleecy clouds, which evening had painted on the blue sky,were already losing their faintest tints of rose-color, while theimbedded stream, which glided past the spot where he stood, was to betraced only by the dark boundary of its wooded banks.

  "What is to be done?" he said, feeling the utter helplessness of doubtin such a pressing strait; "desert me not, for God's sake! remain todefend those I escort, and freely name your own reward!"

  His companions, who conversed apart in the language of their tribe,heeded not this sudden and earnest appeal. Though their dialogue wasmaintained in low and cautious sounds, but little above a whisper,Heyward, who now approached, could easily distinguish the earnest tonesof the younger warrior from the more deliberate speeches of his seniors.It was evident that they debated on the propriety of some measure thatnearly concerned the welfare of the travellers. Yielding to hispowerful interest in the subject, and impatient of a delay that seemedfraught with so much additional danger, Heyward drew still nigher to thedusky group, with an intention of making his offers of compensation moredefinite, when the white man, motioning, with his hand, as if heconceded the disputed point, turned away, saying in a sort of soliloquy,and in the English tongue,--

  "Uncas is right! it would not be the act of men to leave such harmlessthings to their fate, even though it breaks up the harboring placeforever. If you would save these tender blossoms from the fangs of theworst of serpents, gentleman, you have neither time to lose norresolution to throw away!"

  "How can such a wish be doubted! have I not already offered--"

  "Offer your prayers to Him who can give us wisdom to circumvent thecunning of the devils who fill these woods," calmly interrupted thescout, "but spare your offers of money, which neither you may live torealize, nor I to profit by. These Mohicans and I will do what man'sthoughts can invent, to keep such flowers, which, though so sweet, werenever made for the wilderness, from harm, and that without hope of anyother recompense but such as God always gives to upright dealings.First, you must promise two things, both in your own name and for yourfriends, or without serving you, we shall only injure ourselves!"

  "Name them."

  "The one is, to be still as these sleeping woods, let what will happen;and the other is, to keep the place where we shall take you, forever asecret from all mortal men."

  "I will do my utmost to see both these conditions fulfilled."

  "Then follow, for we are losing moments that are as precious as theheart's blood to a stricken deer!"

  Heyward could distinguish the impatient gesture of the scout, throughthe increasing shadows of the evening, and he moved in his footsteps,swiftly, towards the place where he had left the remainder of his party.When they rejoined the expecting and anxious females, he brieflyacquainted them with the conditions of their new guide, and with thenecessity that existed for their hushing every apprehension, in instantand serious exertions. Although his alarming communication was notreceived without much secret terror by the listeners, his earnest andimpressive manner, aided perhaps by the nature of the danger, succeededin bracing their nerves to undergo some unlooked-for and unusual trial.Silently, and without a moment's delay, they permitted him to assistthem from their saddles, when they descended quickly to the water'sedge, where the scout had collected the rest of the party, more by theagency of expressive gestures than by any use of words.

  "What to do with these dumb creatures!" muttered the white man, on whomthe sole control of their future movements appeared to devolve; "itwould be time lost to cut their throats, and cast them into the river;and to leave them here, would be to tell the Mingos that they have notfar to seek to find their owners!"

  "Then give them their bridles, and let them range the woods," Heywardventured to suggest.

  "No; it would be better to mislead the imps, and make them believe theymust equal a horse's speed to run down their chase. Ay, ay, that willblind their fire-balls of eyes! Chingach--Hist? what stirs the bush?"

  "The colt."

  "That colt, at least, must die," muttered the scout, grasping the maneof the nimble beast, which easily eluded his hand; "Uncas, your arrows!"

  "Hold!" exclaimed the proprietor of the condemned animal, aloud, withoutregard to the whispering tones used by the others; "spare the foal ofMiriam! it is the comely offspring of a faithful dam, and wouldwillingly injure naught."

  "When men struggle for the single life God has given them," said thescout sternly, "even their own kind seem no more than the beasts of thewood. If you speak again, I shall leave you to the mercy of the Maquas!Draw to your arrow's head, Uncas; we have no time for second blows."

  The low, muttering sounds of his threatening voice were still audible,when the wounded foal, first rearing on its hinder legs, plun
ged forwardto its knees. It was met by Chingachgook, whose knife passed across itsthroat quicker than thought, and then precipitating the motions of thestruggling victim, he dashed it into the river, down whose stream itglided away, gasping audibly for breath with its ebbing life. This deedof apparent cruelty, but of real necessity, fell upon the spirits of thetravellers like a terrific warning of the peril in which they stood,heightened as it was by the calm though steady resolution of the actorsin the scene. The sisters shuddered and clung closer to each other,while Heyward instinctively laid his hand on one of the pistols he hadjust drawn from their holsters, as he placed himself between his chargeand those dense shadows that seemed to draw an impenetrable veil beforethe bosom of the forest.

  The Indians, however, hesitated not a moment, but taking the bridles,they led the frightened and reluctant horses into the bed of the river.

  At a short distance from the shore they turned, and were soon concealedby the projection of the bank, under the brow of which they moved, in adirection opposite to the course of the waters. In the meantime, thescout drew a canoe of bark from its place of concealment beneath somelow bushes, whose branches were waving with the eddies of the current,into which he silently motioned for the females to enter. They compliedwithout hesitation, though many a fearful and anxious glance was thrownbehind them towards the thickening gloom which now lay like a darkbarrier along the margin of the stream.

  So soon as Cora and Alice were seated, the scout, without regarding theelement, directed Heyward to support one side of the frail vessel, andposting himself at the other, they bore it up against the stream,followed by the dejected owner of the dead foal. In this manner theyproceeded, for many rods, in a silence that was only interrupted by therippling of the water, as its eddies played around them, or the low dashmade by their own cautious footsteps. Heyward yielded the guidance ofthe canoe implicitly to the scout, who approached or receded from theshore, to avoid the fragments of rocks, or deeper parts of the river,with a readiness that showed his knowledge of the route they held.Occasionally he would stop; and in the midst of a breathing stillness,that the dull but increasing roar of the waterfall only served to rendermore impressive, he would listen with painful intenseness, to catch anysounds that might arise from the slumbering forest. When assured thatall was still, and unable to detect, even by the aid of his practisedsenses, any sign of his approaching foes, he would deliberately resumehis slow and unguarded progress. At length they reached a point in theriver, where the roving eye of Heyward became riveted on a cluster ofblack objects, collected at a spot where the high bank threw a deepershadow than usual on the dark waters. Hesitating to advance, he pointedout the place to the attention of his companion.

  "Ay," returned the composed scout, "the Indians have hid the beastswith the judgment of natives! Water leaves no trail, and an owl's eyeswould be blinded by the darkness of such a hole."

  The whole party was soon reunited, and another consultation was heldbetween the scout and his new comrades, during which, they whose fatesdepended on the faith and ingenuity of these unknown foresters, had alittle leisure to observe their situation more minutely.

  The river was confined between high and cragged rocks, one of whichimpended above the spot where the canoe rested. As these, again, weresurmounted by tall trees, which appeared to totter on the brows of theprecipice, it gave the stream the appearance of running through a deepand narrow dell. All beneath the fantastic limbs and ragged tree-tops,which were, here and there, dimly painted against the starry zenith, layalike in shadowed obscurity. Behind them, the curvature of the bankssoon bounded the view, by the same dark and wooded outline; but infront, and apparently at no great distance, the water seemed piledagainst the heavens, whence it tumbled into caverns, out of which issuedthose sullen sounds that had loaded the evening atmosphere. It seemed,in truth, to be a spot devoted to seclusion, and the sisters imbibed asoothing impression of security, as they gazed upon its romantic, thoughnot unappalling beauties. A general movement among their conductors,however, soon recalled them from a contemplation of the wild charms thatnight had assisted to lend the place, to a painful sense of their realperil.

  The horses had been secured to some scattered shrubs that grew in thefissures of the rocks, where, standing in the water, they were left topass the night. The scout directed Heyward and his disconsolatefellow-travellers to seat themselves in the forward end of the canoe,and took possession of the other himself, as erect and steady as if hefloated in a vessel of much firmer materials. The Indians warilyretraced their steps towards the place they had left, when the scout,placing his pole against a rock, by a powerful shove, sent his frailbark directly into the centre of the turbulent stream. For many minutesthe struggle between the light bubble in which they floated, and theswift current, was severe and doubtful. Forbidden to stir even a hand,and almost afraid to breathe, lest they should expose the frail fabricto the fury of the stream, the passengers watched the glancing waters infeverish suspense. Twenty times they thought the whirling eddies weresweeping them to destruction, when the master-hand of their pilot wouldbring the bows of the canoe to stem the rapid. A long, a vigorous, and,as it appeared to the females, a desperate effort, closed the struggle.Just as Alice veiled her eyes in horror, under the impression that theywere about to be swept within the vortex at the foot of the cataract,the canoe floated, stationary, at the side of a flat rock, that lay on alevel with the water.

  "Where are we? and what is next to be done?" demanded Heyward,perceiving that the exertions of the scout had ceased.

  "You are at the foot of Glenn's," returned the other, speaking aloud,without fear of consequences, within the roar of the cataract; "and thenext thing is to make a steady landing, lest the canoe upset, and youshould go down again the hard road we have travelled, faster than youcame up; 'tis a hard rift to stem, when the river is a little swelled;and five is an unnatural number to keep dry, in the hurry-skurry, with alittle birchen bark and gum. There, go you all on the rock, and I willbring up the Mohicans with the venison. A man had better sleep withouthis scalp, than famish in the midst of plenty."

  His passengers gladly complied with these directions. As the last foottouched the rock, the canoe whirled from its station, when the tall formof the scout was seen, for an instant, gliding above the waters, beforeit disappeared in the impenetrable darkness that rested on the bed ofthe river. Left by their guide, the travellers remained a few minutes inhelpless ignorance, afraid even to move along the broken rocks, lest afalse step should precipitate them down some one of the many deep androaring caverns, into which the water seemed to tumble, on every side ofthem. Their suspense, however, was soon relieved; for aided by the skillof the natives, the canoe shot back into the eddy, and floated again atthe side of the low rock before they thought the scout had even time torejoin his companions.

  "We are now fortified, garrisoned, and provisioned," cried Heyward,cheerfully, "and may set Montcalm and his allies at defiance. How, now,my vigilant sentinel, can you see anything of those you call theIroquois, on the mainland?"

  "I call them Iroquois, because to me every native, who speaks a foreigntongue, is accounted an enemy, though he may pretend to serve the king!If Webb wants faith and honesty in an Indian, let him bring out thetribes of the Delawares, and send these greedy and lying Mohawks andOneidas, with their six nations of varlets, where in nature they belong,among the French!"

  "We should then exchange a warlike for a useless friend! I have heardthat the Delawares have laid aside the hatchet, and are content to becalled women!"

  "Ay, shame on the Hollanders[10] and Iroquois, who circumvented them bytheir deviltries, into such a treaty! But I have known them for twentyyears, and I call him liar, that says cowardly blood runs in the veinsof a Delaware. You have driven their tribes from the sea-shore, andwould now believe what their enemies say, that you may sleep at nightupon an easy pillow. No, no; to me, every Indian who speaks a foreigntongue is an Iroquois, whether the castle[11] of his tribe be in Canada,or be
in New York."

  Heyward, perceiving that the stubborn adherence of the scout to thecause of his friends the Delawares or Mohicans, for they were branchesof the same numerous people, was likely to prolong a useless discussion,changed the subject.

  "Treaty or no treaty, I know full well, that your two companions arebrave and cautious warriors! have they heard or seen anything of ourenemies?"

  "An Indian is a mortal to be felt afore he is seen," returned the scout,ascending the rock, and throwing the deer carelessly down. "I trust toother signs than such as come in at the eye, when I am outlying on thetrail of the Mingos."

  "Do your ears tell you that they have traced our retreat?"

  "I should be sorry to think they had, though this is a spot that stoutcourage might hold for a smart skrimmage. I will not deny, however, butthe horses cowered when I passed them, as though they scented thewolves; and a wolf is a beast that is apt to hover about an Indianambushment, craving the offals of the deer the savages kill."

  "You forget the buck at your feet! or, may we not owe their visit to thedead colt? Ha! what noise is that?"

  "Poor Miriam!" murmured the stranger; "thy foal was foreordained tobecome a prey to ravenous beasts!" Then, suddenly lifting up his voice,amid the eternal din of the waters, he sang aloud,--

  "First born of Egypt, smite did He, Of mankind, and of beast also; O, Egypt! wonders sent 'midst thee, On Pharaoh and his servants too!"

  "The death of the colt sits heavy on the heart of its owner," said thescout; "but it's a good sign to see a man account upon his dumb friends.He has the religion of the matter, in believing what is to happen willhappen; and with such a consolation, it won't be long afore he submitsto the rationality of killing a four-footed beast, to save the lives ofhuman men. It may be as you say," he continued, reverting to the purportof Heyward's last remark; "and the greater the reason why we should cutour steaks, and let the carcase drive down the stream, or we shall havethe pack howling along the cliffs, begrudging every mouthful we swallow.Besides, though the Delaware tongue is the same as a book to theIroquois, the cunning varlets are quick enough at understanding thereason of a wolf's howl."

  The scout, whilst making his remarks, was busied in collecting certainnecessary implements; as he concluded, he moved silently by the group oftravellers, accompanied by the Mohicans, who seemed to comprehend hisintentions with instinctive readiness, when the whole three disappearedin succession, seeming to vanish against the dark face of aperpendicular rock, that rose to the height of a few yards within asmany feet of the water's edge.