Silver Lake
Page 2
CHAPTER TWO.
THE STARVED INDIAN.
In the depths of the same forest, and not far from the locality to whichwe have introduced our reader, a Red Indian was dragging his limbswearily along over the untrodden snow.
The attenuated frame of this son of the soil, his hollow cheeks andglaring eye-balls, his belt drawn with extreme tightness round hiswaist, to repress the gnawings of hunger, as well as his enfeebled gait,proved that he was approaching the last stage of starvation.
For many weeks Wapaw had been travelling in the woods, guided on his wayby the stars, and by those slight and delicate signs of the wilderness--such as the difference of thickness in the bark on the north, from thaton the south side of a tree--which are perceptible only to the keen eyeof an Indian, or a white man whose life has been spent in thewilderness.
But Wapaw was a very different man, when he quitted his tribe, from whathe was at the time we introduce him to our reader. Strong, wiry,upright, and lithe as a panther, he left his wigwam and his wife, andturned his face towards the rising sun; but the season was a severe one,and game was scarce; from the very beginning of his journey he had foundit difficult to supply himself with a sufficiency of food. Towards themiddle of it he was on short allowance, and much reduced in strength;and now near its termination, he was, as we have said, almost in thelast stage of starvation.
Fort Enterprise was Wapaw's goal. He had never been there before, butfrom the description of the place and its locality, given by those ofhis kindred who had visited Robin Gore, he was able to direct his marchwith unerring certainty towards it. Of course, as he drew near to it hecould not ascertain his exact distance--whether he was a day or severaldays' journey off--but from the tracks of Robin's snow-shoes, which hecrossed more than once, he guessed that he was nearing the Fort, andpushed on with renewed hope and energy.
Robin, however, was an active hunter. He often made long and rapidmarches from his lonely dwelling--sometimes staying away a week or twoat a time even in winter; so that Wapaw thought himself nearer FortEnterprise than he really was, when he first discovered the boldhunter's tracks. When, at length, he did arrive at less than a day'sjourney from the Fort, he was not aware of its close proximity, and,having tasted nothing whatever for two days, he felt the approach ofthat terrible state of exhaustion which precedes death.
It was a somewhat stormy day when the poor Indian's strength finallybroke down. Hitherto he had pushed forward with some degree of hope,but on the morning of this day a broken branch caught his snow-shoe andtripped him. At any other time the fall would have been a trifle, butin his weak condition it acted like the last straw which breaks thecamel's back. Wapaw rose with difficulty, and brushing the snow fromhis eyes, looked earnestly at his snow-shoes, well knowing that if theyhad been broken in the fall his power of advancing would have been takenaway and his fate sealed, for he had neither strength nor energy left torepair them. They were uninjured, however; so he once more attempted tostagger on.
A slight rising ground lay before him. To ascend this was a labour sogreat that he almost sank in the midst of it. He reached the top,however, and gazed eagerly before him. He had gazed thus at the top ofevery rising ground that he had reached during the last two days, in thehope of seeing some sign of the Fort.
A deep sigh escaped him as he rested his hands on the muzzle of his gun,and his grave countenance was overspread with a look of profoundmelancholy. For the first time in his life, the once stout and activeWapaw had reached the point of giving way to despair. A wide open plainstretched out before him. The cold wind was howling wildly across it,driving the keen snow-drift before it in whirling clouds. Even a strongman might have shrunk from exposing himself on such a plain and to sucha blast on that bitter arctic day. Wapaw felt that, in his case, tocross it would be certain death; so, with the calm philosophy of a RedIndian, he made up his mind to lay him down and die!
His manner of preparing for his end was somewhat singular. Turningaside into the woods, he set about making an encampment with as muchvigour as he could summon up. Clearing away the snow from the roots ofa large spreading pine-tree, he strewed branches on the ground, and thusmade a rude couch. On this he spread his blanket. Then he cut somefirewood with the axe that hung at his side, and soon kindled, by meansof flint, steel, and tinder, a good fire. Seating himself before thewarm blaze, the exhausted man rested awhile, with his legs drawntogether and his head resting on his knees.
He sat so long thus that he nearly fell asleep. Presently he rousedhimself, and proceeded to make a close examination of his wallet andfirebag--the latter being a beautifully ornamented pouch, which Indiansand fur-traders wear at their belts, for the purpose of containing thematerials for producing fire, besides pipes and tobacco.
Poor Wapaw had already searched his wallet and firebag twice, withoutfinding a crumb of food or a morsel of tobacco. He knew well that theywere empty, yet he turned them inside out, and examined the seams andcorners with as much earnestness as if he really expected to find relieffrom his sufferings there.
There was no expression of pain on the red man's face--only a look ofprofound melancholy.
He laid aside the firebag after a little while, and then quietly drewhis knife, and cut a piece of leather from the skirt of his huntingcoat.
The leather had been dried and smoked, and contained no substancewhatever that could sustain life. Wapaw was aware of this--neverthelesshe singed a portion of it until it was reduced almost to ashes, andmingling a little snow with this, ate it greedily.
Then, raising his eyes to the sky with a long earnest gaze, he satimmovable, until the sinking fire and the increasing cold recalled hiswandering faculties.
There was a wild, glassy look about the Indian's eyes now, whichprobably resulted from exhaustion. He seemed to struggle several timesto rouse himself before he succeeded; shuddering with intense cold, hecrept to the little pile of firewood, and placed several billets on thefire, which speedily blazed up again, and the dying man cowered over it,regardless of the smoke which ever and anon wreathed round his droopinghead.
In a few minutes Wapaw started up as if new energy had been infused intohim. He placed his gun, axe, firebag, and powder-horn by themselves onthe ground; then he wrapped himself in his blanket and lay slowly downbeside them with his feet towards the fire. For a few minutes he lay onhis back, gazing earnestly upwards, while his lips moved slowly, but nosound issued from them. Then he turned wearily on his side, and,covering his head with the blanket and turning his face towards theground, he resigned himself to death.
But God had ordained that, at that time, the red man should not die.
About the time when he lay down, our hunters emerged upon the plainwhich had caused the Indian to despair.
"It's of no use goin' farther," observed Robin, as he and his companionsstood at the edge of the forest and looked across the plain; "the windblows too hard, and the drift is keen; besides there ain't much to begot hereaway, even in seasons of plenty."
"Father! is that smoke risin' over the bluff yonder?" asked Roy,pointing with his finger as he spoke.
"No doubt of it, lad."
"Indians, may be," said Walter.
Robin shook his head. "Don't think so," said he, "for the redskinsdon't often come to see me at this time o' the year. But we'll go see;an' look to your primin', lads--if it's a war-party we'll ha' to fight,mayhap, if we don't run."
The three hunters crossed the plain in the teeth of the howling drift,and cautiously approached the bluff referred to by Roy, and from behindwhich the smoke ascended.
"It's a camp fire," whispered Robin, as he glanced back at hiscompanions, "but I see no one there. They must have just left theplace."
There was a shade of anxiety in the hunter's voice as he spoke, for hethought of Fort Enterprise, its defenceless condition, and thepossibility of the Indians having gone thither.
"They can't have gone to the Fort," said Walter, "else we should haveseen their trac
ks on the way hither."
"Come," said Robin, stepping forward quickly, "we can see their tracksnow, anyhow, and follow them up, and if they lead to the Fort."
The hunter did not finish his sentence, for at that moment he caughtsight of the recumbent form of Wapaw in the camp.
"Hist! A redskin alone, and asleep! Well, I never did 'xpect to seethat."
"Mayhap, he's a decoy-duck," suggested Walter. "Better look sharp out."
Robin and Roy heeded not the caution. They at once went forward, andthe father lifted the blanket from the Indian's head.
"Dead!" exclaimed Roy, in a solemn tone.
"Not yet, lad! but I do b'lieve the poor critter's a'most gone wi'starvation. Come, bestir you, boys--rouse up the fire, and boil thekettle."
Walter and Roy did not require a second bidding. The kettle was erelong singing on a blazing fire. The Indian's limbs were chafed andwarmed; a can of hot tea was administered, and Wapaw soon revivedsufficiently to look up and thank his deliverers.
"Now, as good luck has it, I chanced to leave my hand-sled at the Wolf'sGlen. Go, fetch it, Roy," said Robin.
The lad set off at once, and, as the glen was not far distant, soonreturned with a flat wooden sledge, six feet long by eighteen inchesbroad, on which trappers are wont to pack their game in winter. On thissledge Wapaw was firmly tied, and dragged by the hunters to FortEnterprise.
"Hast got a deer, father?" cried little Nelly, as she bounded in advanceof her mother to meet the returning party.
"No, Nelly--'tis dearer game than that."
"What? a redskin!" exclaimed Dame Gore in surprise; "is he dead?"
"No, nor likely to die," said Robin, "he's in a starvin' state though,an'll be none the worse of a bit of our New Year's dinner. Here is gameenough for one meal an' more; come, lass, get it ready as fast as maybe."
So saying the bold hunter passed through the Fort gate, dragging the redman behind him.