Deerslayer (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

by James Fenimore Cooper

  Deerslayer released the arms of his friends, as each landed, and the two were now stamping and limping about on the platform, growling, and uttering denunciations, as they endeavored to help the returning circulation. They had been tethered too long, however, to regain the use of their limbs in a moment; and the Indians being quite as diligent on their return as on their advance, the raft was fully a hundred yards from the castle when Hurry, turning accidentally in that direction, discovered how fast it was getting beyond the reach of his vengeance. By this time he could move with tolerable facility, though still numb and awkward. Without considering his own situation, however, he seized the rifle that leaned against the shoulder of Deerslayer, and attempted to cock and present it. The young hunter was too quick for him. Seizing the piece he wrenched it from the hands of the giant; not, however, until it had gone off in the struggle, when pointed directly upwards. It is probable that Deerslayer could have prevailed in such a contest, on account of the condition of Hurry’s limbs; but the instant the gun went off the latter yielded, and stumped towards the house, raising his legs at each step quite a foot from the ground, from an uncertainty of the actual position of his feet. But he had been anticipated by Judith. The whole stock of Hutter’s arms, which had been left in the building as a resource in the event of a sudden outbreaking of hostilities, had been removed, and were already secreted, agreeably to Deerslayer’s directions. In consequence of this precaution, no means offered by which March could put his designs in execution.

  Disappointed in his vengeance, Hurry seated himself, and like Hutter, for half an hour, he was too much occupied in endeavoring to restore the circulation, and in regaining the use of his limbs, to indulge in any other reflections. By the end of this time the raft had disappeared, and night was beginning to throw her shadows once more over the whole sylvan scene. Before darkness had completely set in, and while the girls were preparing the evening meal, Deerslayer related to Hutter an outline of the events that had taken place, and gave him a history of the means he had adopted for the security of his children and property.

  CHAPTER XV

  “As long as Edwarde rules thys lande,

  Ne quiet you wylle know;

  Your sonnes and husbandes shall be slayne

  And brookes with bloode shall flowe.”

  “You leave youre goode and lawfulle kynge,

  Whenne ynne adversitye;

  Like me, untoe the true cause stycke,

  And for the true cause dye.”

  Chatterton

  THE CALM OF THE evening was again in singular contrast, while its gathering gloom was in as singular unison with the passions of men. The sun was set, and the rays of the retiring luminary ceased to gild the edges of the few clouds that had sufficient openings to admit the passage of its fading light. The canopy overhead was heavy and dense, promising another night of darkness, but the surface of the lake was scarcely disturbed by a ripple. There was a little air, though it scarce deserved to be termed wind. Still, being damp and heavy, it had a certain force. The party in the castle were as gloomy and silent as the scene. The two ransomed prisoners felt humbled and dishonored, but their humility partook of the rancor of revenge. They were far more disposed to remember the indignity with which they had been treated during the last few hours of their captivity, than to feel grateful for the previous indulgence. Then that keen-sighted monitor, conscience, by reminding them of the retributive justice of all they had endured, goaded them rather to turn the tables on their enemies than to accuse themselves. As for the others they were thoughtful equally from regret and joy. Deerslayer and Judith felt most of the former sensation, though from very different causes, while Hetty for the moment was perfectly happy The Delaware had also lively pictures of felicity in the prospect of so soon regaining his betrothed. Under such circumstances and in this mood, all were taking the evening meal.

  “Old Tom!” cried Hurry, bursting into a fit of boisterous laughter, “you looked amazin’ly like a tethered bear, as you was stretched on them hemlock boughs, and I only wonder you didn’t growl more. Well, it’s over, and syth’s and lamentations won’t mend the matter! There’s the blackguard Rivenoak, he that brought us off, has an oncommon scalp, and I’d give as much for it myself as the colony. Yes, I feel as rich as the governor, in these matters now, and will lay down with them doubloon for doubloon. Judith, darling, did you mourn for me much, when I was in the hands of the Philipsteins?”

  The last were a family of German descent on the Mohawk, to whom Hurry had a great antipathy, and whom he had confounded with the enemies of Judea.

  “Our tears have raised the lake, Harry March, as you might have seen by the shore!” returned Judith, with a feigned levity that she was far from feeling. “That Hetty and I should have grieved for father, was to be expected; but we fairly rained tears for you.”

  “We were sorry for poor Hurry, as well as for father, Judith! put in her innocent and unconscious sister.

  “True, girl, true; but we feel sorrow for everybody that’s in trouble, you know,” returned the other, in a quick, admonitory manner, and a low tone. “Nevertheless, we are glad to see you, Master March, and out of the hands of the Philipsteins, too.”

  “Yes, they’re a bad set, and so is the other brood of ’em, down on the river. It’s a wonderment to me how you got us off, Deerslayer; and I forgive you the interference that prevented my doin’ justice on that vagabond, for this small sarvice. Let us into the secret, that we may do you the same good turn, at need. Was it by lying, or by coaxing?”

  “By neither, Hurry, but by buying. We paid a ransom for you both, and that, too, at a price so high, you had well be on your guard ag’in another captyvement, lest our stock of goods shouldn’t hold out.”

  “A ransom! Old Tom has paid the fiddler, then, for nothing of mine would have bought off the hair, much less the skin. I didn’t think men as keen set as them vagabonds would let a fellow up so easy, when they had him fairly at a close hug, and floored. But money is money, and somehow it’s unnat‘ral hard to withstand. Injin, or white man, ’tis pretty much the same. It must be owned, Judith, there’s a considerable of human natur’ in mankind ginirally, arter all! ”

  Hutter now rose, and signing to Deerslayer, he led him to an inner room, where, in answer to his questions, he first learned the price that had been paid for his release. The old man expressed neither resentment nor surprise at the inroad that had been made on his chest, though he did manifest some curiosity to know how far the investigation of its contents had been carried. He also inquired where the key had been found. The habitual frankness of Deerslayer prevented any prevarication, and the conference soon terminated by the return of the two to the outer room, or that which served for the double purpose of parlor and kitchen.

  “I wonder if it’s peace or war between us and the savages!” exclaimed Hurry, just as Deerslayer, who had paused for a single instant, listened attentively, and was passing through the outer door without stopping. “This givin’ up captives has a friendly look, and when men have traded together, on a fair and honorable footing, they ought to part fri’nds, for that occasion, at least. Come back, Deerslayer, and let us have your judgment, for I’m beginning to think more of you, since your late behavior, than I used to do.”

  “There’s an answer to your question, Hurry, since you’re in such haste to come ag’in to blows.”

  As Deerslayer spoke, he threw on the table, on which the other was reclining with one elbow, a sort of miniature fagot, composed of a dozen sticks bound tightly together with a deer-skin thong. March seized it eagerly, and holding it close to a blazing knot of pine that lay on the hearth, and which gave out all the light there was in the room, ascertained that the ends of the several sticks had been dipped in blood.

  “If this isn’t plain English,” said the reckless frontierman, “it’s plain Injin! Here’s what they call a dicliration of war, down at York, Judith. How did you come by this defiance, Deerslayer?”

  “Fairly
enough. It lay, not a minut’ since, in what you call Floatin’ Tom’s door-yard.”

  “How came it there? It never fell from the clouds, Judith, as little toads sometimes do, and then it don’t rain. You must prove where it come from, Deerslayer, or we shall suspect some design to skear them that would have lost their wits long ago, if fear could drive ’em away.

  Deerslayer had approached a window, and cast a glance out of it on the dark aspect of the lake. As if satisfied with what he beheld, he drew near Hurry and took the bundle of sticks into his own hand, examining it attentively.

  “Yes, this is an Indian declaration of war, sure enough,” he said, “and it’s a proof how little you’re suited to be on the path it has traveled, Harry March, that it has got here, and you never the wiser as to the means. The savages may have left the scalp on your head, but they must have taken off the ears; else you’d have heard the stirring of the water made by the lad as he come off ag’in, on his two logs. His arr’ nd was to throw these sticks at our door, as much as to say, we’ve struck the war-post since the trade, and the next thing will be to strike you.”

  “The prowling wolves! But hand me that rifle, Judith, and I’ll send an answer back to the vagabonds through their messenger.”

  “Not while I stand by, Master March,” coolly put in Deerslayer, motioning for the other to forbear. “Faith is faith, whether given to a redskin or to a Christian. The lad lighted a knot, and came off fairly, under its blaze, to give us this warning; and no man here should harm him while empl‘yed on such an arr’nd. There’s no use in words, for the boy is too cunning to leave the knot burning, now his business is done, and the night is already too dark for a rifle to have any sartainty.”

  “That may be true enough, as to a gun, but there’s virtue still in a canoe,” answered Hurry, passing towards the door with enormous strides, carrying a rifle in his hands. “The being doesn’t live that shall stop me from following, and bringing back that riptyle’s scalp. The more on ’em that you crush in the egg, the fewer there’ll be to dart at you in the woods!”

  Judith trembled like the aspen, she scarce knew why herself, though there was the prospect of a scene of violence; for, if Hurry was fierce and overbearing in the consciousness of his vast strength, Deerslayer had about him the calm determination that promises greater perseverance, and a resolution more likely to effect its object. It was the stern, resolute eye of the latter, rather than the noisy vehemence of the first, that excited her apprehensions. Hurry soon reached the spot where the canoe was fastened, but not before Deerslayer had spoken in a quick, earnest voice to the Serpent, in Delaware. The latter had been the first, in truth, to hear the sounds of the oars, and he had gone upon the platform in jealous watchfulness. The light satisfied him that a message was coming, and when the boy cast his bundle of sticks at his feet, it neither moved his anger nor induced surprise. He merely stood at watch, rifle in hand, to make certain that no treachery lay behind the defiance. As Deerslayer now called to him, he stepped into the canoe, and quick as thought removed the paddles. Hurry was furious when he found that he was deprived of the means of proceeding. He first approached the Indian with loud menaces, and even Deerslayer stood aghast at the probable consequences. March shook his sledgehammer fists and flourished his arms, as he drew near the Indian, and all expected he would attempt to fell the Delaware to the earth; one of them, at least, was well aware that such an experiment would be followed by immediate bloodshed. But even Hurry was awed by the stern composure of the chief, and he, too, knew that such a man was not to be outraged with impunity; he therefore turned to vent his rage on Deerslayer, where he foresaw no consequences so terrible. What might have been the result of this second demonstration, if completed, is unknown, since it was never made.

  “Hurry,” said a gentle, soothing voice at his elbow, “it’s wicked to be so angry, and God will not overlook it. The Iroquois treated you well, and they didn’t take your scalp, though you and father wanted to take theirs.”

  The influence of mildness on passion is well known. Hetty, too, had earned a sort of consideration, that had never before been enjoyed by her, through the self-devotion and decision of her recent conduct. Perhaps her established mental imbecility, by removing all distrust of a wish to control, aided her influence. Let the cause be as questionable as it might, the effect was sufficiently certain. Instead of throttling his old fellow traveler, Hurry turned to the girl, and poured out a portion of his discontent, if none of his anger, in her attentive ears.

  “ ’Tis too bad, Hetty!” he exclaimed; “as bad as a county jail, or a lack of beaver, to get a creatur’ into your very trap, and then to see it get off. As much as six first quality skins, in valie, has paddled off on them clumsy logs, when twenty strokes of a well-turned paddle would overtake ’em. I say in valie, for as to the boy in the way of natur‘, he is only a boy, and is worth neither more nor less than one. Deerslayer, you’ve been ontrue to your fri’nds in letting such a chance slip through my fingers as well as your own.”

  The answer was given quietly, but with a voice as steady as a fearless nature and the consciousness of rectitude could make it. “I should have been ontrue to the right, had I done otherwise,” returned the Deerslayer, steadily; “and neither you nor any other man has authority to demand that much of me. The lad came on a lawful business, and the meanest redskin that roams the woods would be ashamed of not respecting his arr’nd. But he’s now far beyond your reach, Master March, and there’s little use in talking, like a couple of women, of what can no longer be helped.”

  So saying, Deerslayer turned away, like one resolved to waste no more words on the subject, while Hutter pulled Harry by the sleeve, and led him into the ark. There they sat long in private conference. In the meantime, the Indian and his friend had their secret consultation ; for, though it wanted some three or four hours to the rising of the star, the former could not abstain from canvassing his scheme, and from opening his heart to the other. Judith, too, yielded to her softer feelings, and listened to the whole of Hetty’s artless narrative of what occurred after she had landed. The woods had few terrors for either of these girls, educated as they had been, and accustomed as they were to look out daily at their rich expanse, or to wander beneath their dark shades; but the elder sister felt that she would have hesitated about thus venturing alone into an Iroquois camp. Concerning Hist, Hetty was not very communicative. She spoke of her kindness and gentleness, and of the meeting in the forest; but the secret of Chingachgook was guarded with a shrewdness and fidelity that many a sharper-witted girl might have failed to display.

  At length the several conferences were broken up by the reappearance of Hutter on the platform. Here he assembled the whole party, and communicated as much of his intentions as he deemed expedient. Of the arrangement made by Deerslayer, to abandon the castle during the night, and to take refuge in the ark, he entirely approved. It struck him as it had the others, as the only effectual means of escaping destruction. Now that the savages had turned their attention to the construction of rafts, no doubt could exist of their at least making an attempt to carry the building, and the message of the bloody sticks sufficiently showed their confidence in their own success. In short the old man viewed the night as critical, and he called on all to get ready as soon as possible, in order to abandon the dwelling, temporarily at least, if not forever.

  These communications made, everything proceeded promptly, and with intelligence; the castle was secured in the manner already described, the canoes were withdrawn from the dock and fastened to the ark by the side of the other; the few necessaries that had been left in the house were transferred to the cabin, the fire was extinguished, and all embarked.

  The vicinity of the hills, with their drapery of pines, had the ef fect to render nights that were obscure darker than common on the lake. As usual, however, a belt of comparative light was stretched through the center of the sheet, while it was within the shadows of the mountains that the gloom rested most heavily
on the water. The island or castle stood in this belt of comparative light, but still the night was so dark as to cover the departure of the ark. At the distance of an observer on the shore, her movements could not be seen at all, more particularly as a background of dark hillside filled up the perspective of every view that was taken diagonally or directly across the water. The prevalent wind on the lakes of that region is west, but owing to the avenues formed by the mountains, it is frequently impossible to tell the true direction of the currents, as they often vary within short distances, and brief differences of time. This is truer in light fluctuating puffs of air than in steady breezes; though the squalls of even the latter are familiarly known to be uncertain and baffling in all mountainous regions and narrow waters. On the present occasion, Hutter himself (as he shoved the ark from her berth at the side of the platform) was at a loss to pronounce which way the wind blew. In common, this difficulty was solved by the clouds, which, floating high above the hilltops, as a matter of course obeyed the currents; but now the whole vault of heaven seemed a mass of gloomy wall. Not an opening of any sort was visible, and Chingachgook was already trembling lest the nonappearance of the star might prevent his betrothed from being punctual to her appointment. Under these circumstances, Hutter hoisted his sail, seemingly with the sole intention of getting away from the castle, as it might be dangerous to remain much longer in its vicinity. The air soon filled the cloth, and when the scow was got under command, and the sail was properly trimmed, it was found that the direction was southerly, inclined towards the eastern shore. No better course offering for the purposes of the party, the singular craft was suffered to skim the surface of the water in this direction for more than an hour, when a change in the currents of the air drove them over towards the camp.