CHAPTER NINE.
THE FORT, AND AN UNEXPECTED MEETING.
We turn now to a very different scene. It is a small fort ortrading-post on the banks of a stream which flows through the prairie.The fort is very much like the one which has been already described, butsomewhat stronger; and there are four block-houses or bastions, one ateach corner, from which the muzzles of a few heavy guns may be seenprotruding.
The trees and bushes have been cleared away from around this fort, andthe strips of forest-land, which run along both sides of the river, arenot so thickly wooded, as the country through which the reader hashitherto been travelling. In front of the fort rolls the river.Immediately behind it lies the boundless prairie, which extends like asea of grass, with scarcely a tree or bush upon it, as far as the eyecan reach. This is Fort Erie.
You might ride for many days over that prairie without seeing anythingof the forest, except a clump of trees and bushes here and there, andnow and then a little pond. The whole region is extremely beautiful.One that ought to fill the hearts of men with admiration and love of thebountiful God who formed it. But men in those regions, at the time Iwrite of, thought of little beauties of nature, and cared nothing forthe goodness of God. At least this may be truly said of the red-skinnedowners of the soil. It was otherwise with _some_ of the white peoplewho dwelt there.
Three weeks had passed away since the night spent by our friends withthe brigade. It was now a beautiful evening, a little after sunset.The day's work at the fort had been finished, and the men were amusingthemselves by racing their horses, of which fine animals there weregreat numbers at Fort Erie.
Just a little after the sun had gone down, three horsemen appeared onthe distant prairie and came bounding at full gallop towards the fort.They were our friends Jasper, Heywood, and Arrowhead. These adventuroustravellers had reached a fort farther down the river two days before,and, having been supplied with horses, had pushed forward by way of theplains.
On entering the belt of woods close to the fort, the horsemen reined in,and rode among the trees more cautiously.
"Here's the end of our journey at last," cried Jasper, on whose bronzedcountenance there was a deep flush of excitement and a look of anxiety.
Just as he said this, Jasper's heart appeared to leap into his throatand almost choked him. Pulling up suddenly, he swallowed his heart,with some difficulty, and said--
"Hold on, lads. I'll ride round to the fort by way of the river, forreasons of my own. Push on, Heywood, with the Indian, and let MrPemberton know I'm coming. See, I will give you the packet of letterswe were asked to carry from the fort below. Now, make haste."
Heywood, though a little surprised at this speech, and at the manner ofhis friend, took the packet in silence and rode swiftly away, followedby the Indian. When they were gone, Jasper dismounted, tied his horseto a tree, and walked quickly into the woods in another direction.
Now this mysterious proceeding is not difficult to explain. Jasper hadcaught sight of a female figure walking under the trees at aconsiderable distance from the spot where he had pulled up. He knewthat there were none but Indian women at Fort Erie at that time, andthat, therefore, the only respectably dressed female at the place mustneeds be his own Marie Laroche. Overjoyed at the opportunity thusunexpectedly afforded him of meeting her alone, he hastened forward witha beating heart.
Marie was seated on the stump of a fallen tree when the hunter came up.She was a fair, beautiful woman of about five-and-twenty, with an air ofmodesty about her which attracted love, yet repelled familiarity. Manya good-looking and well-doing young fellow had attempted to gain theheart of Marie during the last two years, but without success--for thisgood reason, that her heart had been gained already.
She was somewhat startled when a man appeared thus suddenly before her.Jasper stood in silence for a few moments, with his arms crossed uponhis breast, and gazed earnestly into her face.
As he did not speak, she said--
"You appear to be a stranger here. Have you arrived lately?"
Jasper was for a moment astonished that she did not at once recognisehim, and yet he had no reason to be surprised. Besides the alterationthat two years sometimes makes in a man, Jasper had made a considerablealteration on himself. When Marie last saw him, he had been in thehabit of practising the foolish and unnatural custom of shaving; and hehad carried it to such an extreme that he shaved off everything--whiskers, beard, and moustache. But within a year he had been inducedby a wise friend to change his opinion on this subject. That friend hadsuggested, that as Providence had caused hair to grow on his cheeks,lips, and chin, it was intended to be worn, and that he had no moreright to shave his face than a Chinaman had to shave his head. Jasperhad been so far convinced, that he had suffered his whiskers to grow.These were now large and bushy, and had encroached so much on his chinas to have become almost a beard.
Besides this, not having shaved any part of his face during the lastthree weeks, there was little of it visible except his eyes, forehead,and cheek-bones. All the rest was more or less covered with black hair.
No wonder, then, that Marie, who believed him to be two thousand milesaway at that moment, did not recognise him in the increasing darkness ofevening. The lover at once understood this, and he resolved to play thepart of a stranger. He happened to have the power of changing hisvoice--a power possessed by many people--and, trusting to the increasinggloom to conceal him, and to the fact that he was the last person in theworld whom Marie might expect to see there, he addressed her asfollows:--
"I am indeed a stranger here; at least I have not been at the post for avery long time. I have just reached the end of a long voyage."
"Indeed," said the girl, interested by the stranger's grave manner."May I ask where you have come from?"
"I have come all the way from Canada, young woman, and I count myselflucky in meeting with such a pleasant face at the end of my journey."
"From Canada!" exclaimed Marie, becoming still more interested in thestranger, and blushing deeply as she asked--"You have friends there, nodoubt?"
"Ay, a few," said Jasper.
"And what has brought you such a long way into this wild wilderness?"asked Marie, sighing as she thought of the hundreds of miles that laybetween Fort Erie and Canada.
"I have come here to get me a wife," replied Jasper.
"That is strange," said the girl, smiling, "for there are few but Indianwomen here. A stout hunter like you might find one nearer home, Ishould think."
Here Marie paused, for she felt that on such a subject she ought not toconverse with a stranger. Yet she could not help adding, "But perhaps,as you say, you have been in this part of the world before, you may havesome one in your mind?"
"I am engaged," said Jasper abruptly.
On hearing this Marie felt more at her ease, and, being of a verysympathetic nature, she at once courted the confidence of the stranger.
"May I venture to ask her name?" said Marie, with an arch smile.
"I may not tell," replied Jasper; "I have a comrade who is entitled toknow this secret before any one else. Perhaps you may have heard ofhim, for he was up in these parts two years agone. His name is JasperDerry."
The blood rushed to Marie's temples on hearing the name, and she turnedher face away to conceal her agitation, while, in a low voice, shesaid--
"Is Jasper Derry, then, your intimate friend?"
"That is he--a very intimate friend indeed. But you appear to knowhim."
"Yes, I--I know him--I have seen him. I hope he is well," said Marie;and she listened with a beating heart for the answer, though she stillturned her face away.
"Oh! he's well enough," said Jasper; "sickness don't often trouble_him_. He's going to be married."
Had a bullet struck the girl's heart she could not have turned moredeadly pale than she did on hearing this. She half rose from the treestump, and would have fallen to the ground insensible, had not Jaspercaught her in his arms.
"My own Marie," said he fervently, "forgive me, dearest; forgive myfolly, my wickedness, in deceiving you in this fashion. Oh, what a foolI am!" he added, as the poor girl still hung heavily in hisgrasp--"speak to me Marie, my own darling."
Whether it was the earnestness of his voice, or the kiss which heprinted on her forehead, or the coolness of the evening air, I know not,but certain it is that Marie recovered in the course of a few minutes,and, on being convinced that Jasper really was her old lover, sheresigned herself, wisely, to her fate, and held such an uncommonly longconversation with the bold hunter, that the moon was up and the starswere out before they turned their steps towards the Fort.
"Why, Jasper Derry," cried Mr Pemberton, as the hunter entered the hallof Fort Erie, "where _have_ you been. I've been expecting you everymoment for the last two hours."
"Well, you see, Mr Pemberton, I just went down the river a short bit tosee an old friend and I was kep' longer than I expected," said Jasper,with a cool, grave face, as he grasped and shook the hand which was heldout to him.
"Ah! I see, you hunters are more like brothers than friends. No doubtyou went to smoke a pipe with Hawkeye, or to have a chat with theMuskrat about old times," said the fur-trader, mentioning the names oftwo Indians who were celebrated as being the best hunters in theneighbourhood, and who had been bosom friends of Jasper when he residedthere two years before.
"No, I've not yet smoked a pipe with Hawkeye, neither have I seenMuskrat, but I certainly have had a pretty long chat with one o' my oldfriends," answered Jasper, while a quiet smile played on his face.
"Well, come along and have a pipe and a chat with _me_. I hope youcount me one of your friends too," said Mr Pemberton, conducting Jasperinto an inner room, where he found Heywood and Arrowhead seated at atable, doing justice to a splendid supper of buffalo-tongues,venison-steaks, and marrow-bones.
"Here are your comrades, you see, hard at work. It's lucky you cameto-night, Jasper, for I intend to be off to-morrow morning, by break ofday, on a buffalo-hunt. If you had been a few hours later of arriving,I should have missed you. Come, will you eat or smoke?"
"I'll eat first, if you have no objection," said Jasper, "and smokeafterwards."
"Very good. Sit down, then, and get to work. Meanwhile I'll go andlook after the horses that we intend to take with us to-morrow. Ofcourse you'll accompany us, Jasper?"
"I'll be very glad, and so will Arrowhead, there. There's nothing helikes so much as a chase after a buffalo, unless, it may be, the eatingof him. But as for my friend and comrade Mr Heywood, he must speak forhimself."
"I will be delighted to go," answered the artist, "nothing will give memore pleasure; but I fear my steed is too much exhausted to--"
"Oh! make your mind easy on that score," said the fur-trader,interrupting him. "I have plenty of capital horses, and can mount thewhole of you, so that's settled. And now, friends, do justice to yoursupper, I shall be back before you have done."
So saying, Mr Pemberton left the room, and our three friends, beingunusually hungry, fell vigorously to work on the good cheer of FortErie.
Away in the Wilderness Page 9