CHAPTER XXXIV.
COUSIN BRUIN.
Nathan's flight was discovered by a singular accident. The Comanches areno more accustomed than other Indians to have grand rounds and nightpatrols during the night, which are inventions of civilised nationsquite unknown on the prairie. In all probability, the Indians would nothave perceived their prisoner's disappearance till daybreak.
Nathan fully built on this. He was too well acquainted with Indianhabits not to know what he had to depend on in this respect. But he hadnot taken hatred into calculation, that vigilant sentry which nothingcan send to sleep.
About an hour after Nathan's successful ascent, White Gazelle, arousedby the cold, and more probably by the desire of assuring herself thatthe prisoner could not escape, rose, and crossed the camp alone,striding over the sleeping warriors, and feeling her way as well as shecould in the dark; for most of the fires had gone out, and those whichstill burned spread only an uncertain light. Impelled by that feeling,of hatred which so rarely deceives those who feel its sharpened sting,she at length found her way through this inextricable labyrinth, andreached the tree to which the prisoner had been fastened. The tree wasdeserted. The cords which had bound Nathan lay cut a few paces off,while Gazelle was stupefied for a moment at this sight, which she was sofar from expecting.
"Oh!" she muttered savagely, "it is a family of demons! But how has heescaped? Where can he have fled?"
"Those villains are quietly asleep," she said, seeing the warriorsreposing, "while the man they were ordered to watch is laughing at themfar away."
She spurned them with her foot.
"Accursed dogs!" she yelled, "wake up! The prisoner has escaped!"
The men did not stir.
"Oh, oh!" she said, "What means this?"
She stooped down and carefully examined them: all was revealed to her atonce.
"Dead!" she said; "he has assassinated them. What diabolical power mustthis race of reprobates possess!"
After a moment of terror, she sprang up furiously and rushed through thecamp, shouting in a shrill voice:
"Up, up! Warriors, the prisoner has fled!"
All were on their feet in a moment. Unicorn was one of the first toseize his weapons, and hurried towards her, asking the meaning of thoseunusual sounds. In a few words White Gazelle informed him, and Unicorn,more furious than herself, aroused his warriors, and sent them in alldirections in pursuit of Nathan.
But we know that, temporarily at least, the squatter's son had nothingto fear from this vain search. The miraculous flight of a man from themiddle of a camp of warriors, unperceived by the sentries, had somethingso extraordinary about it, that the Comanches, superstitious as allIndians, were disposed to believe in the intervention of the Genius ofEvil. The whole camp was in confusion: every one ran in a differentdirection, brandishing torches. The circle widened more and more. Thewarriors, carried away by their ardour, left the clearing and entered theforest.
All at once a shrill cry broke through the air, and everybody stopped asif by enchantment.
"Oh," White Gazelle asked, "what is that?"
"Koutonepi, my brother," Unicorn replied briefly, as he repeated thesignal.
"Let us run to meet him," the girl said.
They hurried forward, closely followed by a dozen warriors, and soonstood under the tree where Valentine and his companions were standing.The hunter saw them coming, and hence called to them.
"Where are you?" Unicorn asked.
"Up this larch tree," Valentine shouted; "stop and look."
The Indians looked up.
"Wah!" Unicorn said with astonishment, "What is my brother doing there?"
"I will tell you, but first help me to come down; we are not comfortablysituated for conversing, especially for what I have to tell you, chief."
"Good; I await my brother."
Valentine fastened his lasso to a branch and prepared to slide down, butCurumilla laid a hand on his shoulder.
"What do you want, chief?"
"Is my brother going down?"
"You see," Valentine said, pointing to the lasso.
Curumilla shook his head with an air of dissatisfaction.
"Red Cedar!" he said.
"Ah, _Canarios!_" the hunter exclaimed, as he struck his forehead, "Idid not think about him. Why, I must be going mad. By Jove, chief! Youare a precious man, nothing escapes your notice--wait."
Valentine stooped, and forming his hands into a speaking-trumpet,shouted--
"Chief, come up."
"Good."
The sachem seized the lasso, and by the strength of his wrists raisedhimself to the branch, where Valentine and Curumilla received him.
"Here I am," he said.
"By what chance are you hunting in the forest at this time of night?"the hunter asked him.
Unicorn told him in a few words what had occurred. At this narrationValentine frowned, and in his turn informed the chief of what he haddone.
"It is serious," Unicorn said, with a shake of his head.
"It is," Valentine answered; "it is plain the men we seek are not farfrom here. Perhaps they are listening to us."
"It is possible," Unicorn muttered; "but what is to be done in thedarkness?"
"Good! Let us be as clever as they. How many warriors have you downthere?"
"Ten, I believe."
"Good. Have you among them any in whom you can trust?"
"All," the sachem answered, proudly.
"I do not allude to courage, but to experience."
"Wah! I have Spider."
"That's the man. He will take our place here with his warriors; he willcut off the communication aloft, while my comrades and I follow you. Ishould like to inspect the spot where your prisoner was tied up."
All was arranged as Valentine proposed. Spider established himself onthe trees with his warriors, with orders to keep a good look-out; andValentine, now sure of having raised an impassible barrier before RedCedar, prepared to go to the camp, accompanied by Unicorn. Curumillaagain interposed.
"Why go down?" he said.
Valentine was so well acquainted with his comrade's way of speaking,that he understood him at half a word.
"True," he said to Unicorn; "let us go to the camp, proceeding frombranch to branch. Curumilla is right; in that way, if Red Cedar isconcealed in the neighbourhood, we shall discover him."
The Comanche Sachem nodded his head in assent, and they set out. Theyhad been walking for about half an hour, when Curumilla, who was infront, stopped and uttered a suppressed cry. The hunters raised theirheads, and perceived, a few yards above them, an enormous black mass,carelessly swaying about.
"Well," Valentine said, "what is that?"
"A bear," Curumilla replied.
"Indeed!" said Don Pablo; "it is a splendid black bear."
"Let us give him a bullet," Don Miguel remarked.
"Do not fire, for Heaven's sake!" Don Pablo exclaimed eagerly, "it wouldgive an alarm and warn the fellows we are looking for of the spot wherewe are."
"Still, I should like to collar it," Valentine observed, "were it onlyfor its fur."
"No," Unicorn peremptorily said, who had hitherto been silent, "bearsare the cousins of my family."
"In that case it is different," said the hunter, concealing withdifficulty an ironical smile.
The prairie Indians, as we think we have said before, are excessivelysuperstitious. Among other articles of faith, they believe they springfrom certain animals, which they treat as relatives, and for which theyprofess a profound respect, which does not prevent them, however, fromkilling them occasionally, as, for instance, when they are pressed byhunger, as frequently happens; but we must do the Indians the justice ofsaying, that they never proceed to such extremities with their relativeswithout asking their pardon a thousand times, and first explaining tothem that hunger alone compelled them to have recourse to this extrememeasure to support life.
Unicorn had no need of provisions at this moment, for his cam
p waschoked with them, hence he displayed a praiseworthy politeness andgallantry to his cousin Bruin. He bowed to him, and spoke to him forsome minutes in the most affectionate way, while the bear continued tosway about, apparently not attaching great importance to the chief'sremarks, and rather annoyed than flattered by the compliments his cousinpaid him. The chief, internally piqued by this indifference in such badtaste, gave a parting bow to the bear, and went on. The little partyadvanced for some time in silence.
"I do not care," Valentine suddenly said; "I do not know why, but Ishould have liked to have your cousin's hide, chief."
"Wah!" Unicorn answered, "there are buffaloes in camp."
"I know that very well," Valentine said, "so that is not my reason."
"What is it, then?"
"I don't know, but that bear did not seem to me all right, and had asuspicious look about it."
"My brother is jesting."
"No; on my word, chief, that animal did not seem to me true. For atrifle, I would return and have it out."
"Does my brother think, then, that Unicorn is a child, who cannotrecognise an animal?" the sachem asked, haughtily.
"Heaven forbid my having such a thought, chief; I know you are anexperienced warrior, but the cleverest men may be taken in."
"Oh! Oh! what does my brother suppose, then?"
"Will you have my honest opinion?"
"Yes, my brother will speak; he is a great hunter, his knowledge isimmense."
"No, I am only an ignorant fellow, but I have carefully studied thehabits of wild beasts."
"Well," Don Miguel asked, "your opinion is that the bear--?"
"Is Red Cedar, or one of his sons," Valentine quickly interrupted.
"What makes you think so?"
"Just this: at this hour wild beasts have gone down to drink; but evensupposing that bear had returned already, do you not know that allanimals fly from man? This one, dazzled by the light, startled by thecries it heard in the usually quiet forest, ought to have tried toescape if it obeyed its instincts, which would have been easy to do,instead of impudently dancing before us at a height of one hundred feetfrom the ground; the more so, because the bear is too prudent andselfish an animal to confide its precious carcase so thoughtlessly tosuch slender branches as those on which it was balancing. Hum! The moreI reflect, the more persuaded I am that this animal is a man."
The hunters, and Unicorn himself, who listened with the utmost attentionto Valentine's words, were struck with the truth of his remarks;numerous details which had escaped them now returned to their minds, andcorroborated the Trail-hunter's suspicions.
"It is possible," Don Miguel said, "and for my part I am not indisposedto believe it."
"Good gracious!" Valentine went on, "You can understand that on so darka night as this it was easy for the chief, in spite of all hisexperience, to be deceived--especially at such a distance as we werefrom the animal, which we only glimpsed; still, we committed a gravefault, and I first of all, in not trying to acquire a certainty."
"Ah!" the Indian said, "my brother is right; wisdom resides in him."
"Now it is too late to go back--the fellow will have decamped,"Valentine remarked, thoughtfully; "but," he added a moment after, as helooked round, "where on earth is Curumilla?"
At the same instant a loud noise of breaking branches, followed by asuppressed cry, was heard a little distance off.
"Oh, oh!" Valentine said, "Can the bear be at any tricks?"
The cry of the jay was heard.
"That is Curumilla's signal," said Valentine; "what the deuce can he beup to?"
"Let us go back and see," Don Miguel remarked.
"By Jove! Do you fancy I should desert my old companion so?" Valentineexclaimed, as he replied to his friend by a similar cry to the one hehad given.
The hunters hurried back as quickly as the narrow and dangerous paththey were following allowed. Curumilla, comfortably seated on a branchwhose foliage completely hid him from anyone who might be spyingoverhead, was laughing to himself. It was so extraordinary to see theUlmen laugh, and the hour seemed so unsuited for it, that Valentine wasalarmed, and at the first moment was not far from believing that hisworthy friend had suddenly gone mad.
"Halloh, chief," he said, as he looked round, "tell me why you arelaughing so. Were it only to follow your example, I should be glad toknow the cause of this extreme gaiety."
Curumilla fixed his intelligent eye on him, and replied, with a smilefull of good humour--
"The Ulmen is pleased."
"I can see that," Valentine replied, "but I do not know why, and want todo so."
"Curumilla has killed the bear," the Aucas said, sententiously.
"Nonsense!" Valentine remarked, in surprise.
"My brother can look, there is the chief's cousin."
Unicorn looked savage, but Valentine and his friends peered in thedirection indicated by the Araucano. Curumilla's lasso, securelyfastened to the branch on which the hunters were standing, hungdownwards, with a black and clumsy mass swaying from its extremity. Itwas the bear's carcass.
Curumilla, during the conversation between Unicorn and his relative,carefully watched the animal's movement; like Valentine, its motions didnot seem to him natural enough, and he wished to know the truth.Consequently, he waited the departure of his friends, fastened his lassoto a branch, and while the bear was carelessly descending from itsperch, fancying it had got rid of its visitors, Curumilla lassoed it. Atthis unexpected attack the animal tottered and lost its balance--inshort, it fell, and remaining suspended in the air; thanks to the slipknot, which pressed its throat and saved it from broken bones; as arecompense, however, it was strangled.
The hunters began drawing up the lasso, for all burned to know were theydeceived. After some efforts the animal's corpse was stretched out on abranch. Valentine bent over it, but rose again almost immediately.
"I was sure of it," he said, contemptuously.
He kicked off the head, which fell, displaying in its stead Nathan'sface, whose features were frightfully convulsed.
"Oh!" they exclaimed, "Nathan."
"Yes," Valentine remarked. "Red Cedar's eldest son."
"_One!_" Don Miguel said, in a hollow voice.
Poor Nathan was not lucky in his disguises; in the first he was all butburnt alive, in the second he was hanged.
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