CHAPTER XXXII.
"Who measured earth, described the starry spheres, And traced the long records of lunar years." --Pope.
Richard did not return from the exercise of his official duties untillate in the evening of the following day. It had been one portion of hisbusiness to superintend the arrest of part of a gang of counterfeiters,that had, even at that early period, buried themselves in the woods, tomanufacture their base coin, which they afterward circulated fromone end of the Union to the other. The expedition had been completelysuccessful, and about midnight the sheriff entered the village, at thehead of a posse of deputies and constables, in the centre of whom rode,pinioned, four of the malefactors. At the gate of the mansion-house theyseparated, Mr. Jones directing his assist ants to proceed with theircharge to the county jail, while he pursued his own way up the gravelwalk, with the kind of self-satisfaction that a man of his organizationwould feel, who had really for once done a very clever thing.
"Holla! Aggy!" shouted the sheriff, when he reached the door; "where areyou, you black dog? will you keep me here in the dark all night? Holla!Aggy! Brave! Brave! hoy, hoy--where have you got to, Brave? Off hiswatch! Everybody is asleep but myself! Poor I must keep my eyes open,that others may sleep in safety. Brave! Brave! Well, I will say this forthe dog, lazy as he's grown, that it is the first time I ever knew himto let any one come to the door after dark, without having a smell toknow whether it was an honest man or not. He could tell by his nose,almost as well as I could myself by looking at them. Holla! youAgamemnon! where are you? Oh! here comes the dog at last."
By this time the sheriff had dismounted, and observed a form, which hesupposed to be that of Brave, slowly creeping out of the kennel; when,to his astonishment, it reared itself on two legs instead of four, andhe was able to distinguish, by the starlight, the curly head and darkvisage of the negro.
"Ha! what the devil are you doing there, you black rascal?" he cried."Is it not hot enough for your Guinea blood in the house this warmnight, but you must drive out the poor dog, and sleep in his straw?"
By this time the boy was quite awake, and, with a blubbering whine, heattempted to reply to his master.
"Oh! masser Richard! masser Richard! such a ting! such a ting! I nebbertink a could 'appen! neber tink he die! Oh, Lor-a-gor! ain't bury--keep'em till masser Richard get back--got a grabe dug--" Here the feelingsof the negro completely got the mastery, and, instead of making anyintelligible explanation of the causes of his grief, he blubbered aloud.
"Eh! what! buried! grave! dead!" exclaimed Richard, with a tremor inhis voice; "nothing serious? Nothing has happened to Benjamin, I hope? Iknow he has been bilious, but I gave him--"
"Oh, worser 'an dat! worser 'an dat!" sobbed the negro. "Oh! de Lor!Miss 'Lizzy an' Miss Grant--walk--mountain--poor Bravy '--kill alady--painter---Oh, Lor, Lor!--Natty Bumppo--tare he troat open--come asee, masser Richard--here he be--here he be."
As all this was perfectly inexplicable to the sheriff, he was very gladto wait patiently until the black brought a lantern from the kitchen,when he followed Aggy to the kennel, where he beheld poor Brave, indeed,lying in his blood, stiff and cold, but decently covered with the greatcoat of the negro. He was on the point of demanding an explanation; butthe grief of the black, who had fallen asleep on his voluntary watch,having burst out afresh on his waking, utterly disqualified the ladfrom giving one. Luckily, at this moment the principal door of thehouse opened, and the coarse features of Benjamin were thrust over thethreshold, with a candle elevated above them, shedding its dim raysaround in such a manner as to exhibit the lights and shadows of hiscountenance. Richard threw his bridle to the black, and, bidding himlook to the horse, he entered the hall. "What is the meaning of the deaddog?" he cried.
"Where is Miss Temple?"
Benjamin made one of his square gestures, with the thumb of his lefthand pointing over his right shoulder, as he answered:
"Turned in."
"Judge Temple--where is he?"
"In his berth."
"But explain; why is Brave dead? and what is the cause of Aggy's grief?"
"Why, it's all down, squire," said Benjamin, pointing to a slate thatlay on the table, by the side of a mug of toddy, a short pipe in whichthe tobacco was yet burning, and a prayer-book.
Among the other pursuits of Richard, he had a passion to keep a registerof all passing events; and his diary, which was written in the mannerof a journal, or log, book, embraced not only such circumstancesas affected himself, but observations on the weather, and all theoccurrences of the family, and frequently of the village. Since hisappointment to the office of sheriff and his consequent absences fromhome, he had employed Benjamin to make memoranda on a slate, of whatevermight be thought worth remembering, which, on his return, were regularlytransferred to the journal with proper notations of the time, manner,and other little particulars. There was, to be sure, one materialobjection to the clerkship of Benjamin, which the ingenuity of noone but Richard could have overcome. The steward read nothing but hisprayer-book, and that only in particular parts, and by the aid of a gooddeal of spelling, and some misnomers; but he could not form asingle letter with a pen. This would have been an insuperable barto journalizing with most men; but Richard invented a kind ofhieroglyphical character, which was intended to note all the ordinaryoccurrences of a day, such as how the wind blew, whether the sun shone,or whether it rained, the hours, etc.; and for the extraordinary, aftergiving certain elementary lectures on the subject, the sheriff wasobliged to trust to the ingenuity of the major-domo. The reader willat once perceive, that it was to this chronicle that Benjamin pointed,instead of directly answering the sheriff's interrogatory.
When Mr. Jones had drunk a glass of toddy, he brought forth from itssecret place his proper journal, and, seating himself by the table, heprepared to transfer the contents of the slate to the paper, at the sametime that he appeased his curiosity. Benjamin laid one hand on the backof the sheriff's chair, in a familiar manner, while he kept the other atliberty to make use of a forefinger, that was bent like some of his owncharacters, as an index to point out his meaning.
The first thing referred to by the sheriff was the diagram of a compass,cut in one corner of the slate for permanent use. The cardinal pointswere plainly marked on it, and all the usual divisions were indicatedin such a manner that no man who had ever steered a ship could mistakethem.
"Oh!" said the sheriff, seating himself down comfort ably in his chair,"you'd the wind southeast, I see, all last night I thought it would haveblown up rain."
"Devil the drop, sir," said Benjamin; "I believe that the scuttle-buttup aloft is emptied, for there hasn't so much water fell in the countryfor the last three weeks as would float Indian John's canoe, and thatdraws just one inch nothing, light."
"Well but didn't the wind change here this morning? there was a changewhere I was."
"To be sure it did, squire; and haven't I logged it as a shift of wind?"
"I don't see where, Benjamin--"
"Don't see!" interrupted the steward, a little crustily; "ain't there amark agin' east-and-by-nothe-half-nothe, with summat like a rising sunat the end of it, to show 'twas in the morning watch?"
"Yes, yes, that is very legible; but where is the change noted?"
"Where! why doesn't it see this here tea-kettle, with a mark runfrom the spout straight, or mayhap a little crooked or so, intowest-and-by-southe-half-southe? now I call this a shift of wind, squire.Well, do you see this here boar's head that you made for me, alongsideof the compass--"
"Ay, ay--Boreas-----I see. Why, you've drawn lines from its mouth,extending from one of your marks to the other."
"It's no fault of mine, Squire Dickens; 'tis your d----d climate. The windhas been at all them there marks this very day, and that's all round thecompass, except a little matter of an Irishman's hurricane at meridium,which you'll find marked right up and down. Now, I've known a sow-westerblow for three weeks, in the channel, with a clean drizzle, in whic
h youmight wash your face and hands without the trouble of hauling in waterfrom alongside."
"Very well, Benjamin," said the sheriff, writing in his journal; "Ibelieve I have caught the idea. Oh! here's a cloud over the risingsun--so you had it hazy in the morning?"
"Ay, ay, sir," said Benjamin.
"Ah it's Sunday, and here are the marks for the length of thesermon--one, two, three, four--what! did Mr. Grant preach fortyminutes?"
"Ay, summat like it; it was a good half-hour by my own glass, and thenthere was the time lost in turning it, and some little allowance forleeway in not being over-smart about it."
"Benjamin, this is as long as a Presbyterian; you never could have beenten minutes in turning the glass!"
"Why, do you see, Squire, the parson was very solemn, and I just closedmy eyes in order to think the better with myself, just the same as you'dput in the dead-lights to make all snug, and when I opened them agin Ifound the congregation were getting under way for home, so I calculatedthe ten minutes would cover the leeway after the glass was out. It wasonly some such matter as a cat's nap."
"Oh, ho! Master Benjamin, you were asleep, were you? but I'll set downno such slander against an orthodox divine." Richard wrote twenty-nineminutes in his journal, and continued: "Why, what's this you've gotopposite ten o'clock A.M.? A full moon! had you a moon visible by day?I have heard of such portents before now, but--eh! what's this alongsideof it? an hour-glass?"
"That!" said Benjamin, looking coolly over the sheriff's shoulder, androlling the tobacco about in his mouth with a jocular air; "why,that's a small matter of my own. It's no moon, squire, but only BettyHollister's face; for, dye see, sir, hearing all the same as if she hadgot up a new cargo of Jamaiky from the river, I called in as I was goingto the church this morning--ten A.M. was it?--just the time--and tried aglass; and so I logged it, to put me in mind of calling to pay her likean honest man."
"That was it, was it?" said the sheriff, with some displeasure at thisinnovation on his memoranda; "and could you not make a better glass thanthis? it looks like a death's-head and an hour-glass."
"Why, as I liked the stuff, squire," returned the steward, "I turned in,homeward bound, and took t'other glass, which I set down at the bottomof the first, and that gives the thing the shape it has. But as I wasthere again to-night, and paid for the three at once, your honor may aswell run the sponge over the whole business."
"I will buy you a slate for your own affairs, Benjamin," said thesheriff; "I don't like to have the journal marked over in this manner."
"You needn't--you needn't, squire; for, seeing that I was likely totrade often with the woman while this barrel lasted. I've opened a fairaccount with Betty, and she keeps her marks on the back of her bar-door,and I keeps the tally on this here bit of a stick." As Benjaminconcluded he produced a piece of wood, on which five very large, honestnotches were apparent. The sheriff cast his eyes on this new ledger fora moment, and continued:
"What have we here! Saturday, two P.M.--Why here's a whole family piece!two wine-glasses upside-down!"
"That's two women; the one this a-way is Miss 'Lizzy, and t'other is theparson's young'un."
"Cousin Bess and Miss Grant!" exclaimed the sheriff, in amazement; "whathave they to do with my journal?"
"They'd enough to do to get out of the jaws of that there painter orpanther," said the immovable steward. "This here thingumy, squire, thatmaybe looks summat like a rat, is the beast, d'ye see; and this heret'other thing, keel uppermost, is poor old Brave, who died nobly, allthe same as an admiral fighting for his king and country; and thatthere--"
"Scarecrow," interrupted Richard.
"Ay, mayhap it do look a little wild or so," continued the steward; "butto my judgment, squire, it's the best image I've made, seeing it's mostlike the man himself; well, that's Natty Bumppo, who shot this herepainter, that killed that there dog, who would have eaten or done worseto them here young ladies."
"And what the devil does all this mean?" cried Richard, impatiently.
"Mean!" echoed Benjamin; "it is as true as the Boadishey's log book--"He was interrupted by the sheriff, who put a few direct questions tohim, that obtained more intelligible answers, by which means he becamepossessed of a tolerably correct idea of the truth, When the wonder,and we must do Richard the justice to say, the feelings also, that werecreated by this narrative, had in some degree subsided, the sheriffturned his eyes again on his journal, where more inexplicablehieroglyphics met his view.
"What have we here?" he cried; "two men boxing! Has there been a breachof the peace? Ah, that's the way, the moment my back is turned--."
"That's the Judge and young Master Edwards," interrupted the steward,very cavalierly.
"How! 'Duke fighting with Oliver! what the devil has got into you all?More things have happened within the last thirty-six hours than inthe preceding six months."
"Yes, it's so indeed, squire," returned the steward, "I've known a smartchase, and a fight at the tail of it, where less has been logged thanI've got on that there slate. Howsomever, they didn't come to facers,only passed a little jaw fore and aft."
"Explain! explain!" cried Richard; "it was about the mines, ha! Ay, ay,I see it, I see it; here is a man with a pick on his shoulder. So youheard it all, Benjamin?"
"Why, yes, it was about their minds, I believe, squire," returned thesteward; "and, by what I can learn, they spoke them pretty plainly toone another. Indeed, I may say that I overheard a small matter of itmyself, seeing that the windows was open, and I hard by. But this hereis no pick, but an anchor on a man's shoulder; and here's the otherfluke down his back, maybe a little too close, which signifies that thelad has got under way and left his moorings."
"Has Edwards left the house?"
"He has."
Richard pursued this advantage; and, after a long and close examination,he succeeded in getting out of Benjamin all that he knew, not onlyconcerning the misunderstanding, but of the attempt to search the hut,and Hiram's discomfiture. The sheriff was no sooner possessed of thesefacts, which Benjamin related with all possible tenderness to theLeather-Stocking, than, snatching up his hat, and bidding the astonishedsteward secure the doors and go to his bed, he left the house.
For at least five minutes, after Richard disappeared, Benjamin stoodwith his arms akimbo, and his eyes fastened on the door; when, havingcollected his astonished faculties, he prepared to execute the orders hehad received.
It has been already said that the "court of common pleas and generalsessions of the peace," or, as it is commonly called, the "countycourt," over which Judge Temple presided, held one of its statedsessions on the following morning. The attendants of Richard wereofficers who had come to the village, as much to discharge their usualduties at this court, as to escort the prisoners and the sheriff knewtheir habits too well, not to feel confident that he should find most,if not all of them, in the public room of the jail, discussing thequalities of the keeper's liquors. Accordingly he held his way throughthe silent streets of the village, directly to the small and insecurebuilding that contained all the unfortunate debt ors and some of thecriminals of the county, and where justice was administered to suchunwary applicants as were so silly as to throw away two dollars in orderto obtain one from their neighbors. The arrival of four malefactors inthe custody of a dozen officers was an event, at that day, in Templeton;and, when the sheriff reached the jail, he found every indication thathis subordinates in tended to make a night of it.
The nod of the sheriff brought two of his deputies to the door, whoin their turn drew off six or seven of the constables. With this forceRichard led the way through the village, toward the bank of the lake,undisturbed by any noise, except the barking of one or two curs, whowere alarmed by the measured tread of the party, and by the low murmursthat ran through their own numbers, as a few cautious questions andanswers were exchanged, relative to the object of their expedition. Whenthey had crossed the little bridge of hewn logs that was thrown over theSusquehanna, they left the highwa
y, and struck into that field which hadbeen the scene of the victory over the pigeons. From this they followedtheir leader into the low bushes of pines and chestnuts which had sprungup along the shores of the lake, where the plough had not succeededthe fall of the trees, and soon entered the forest itself. Here Richardpaused and collected his troop around him.
"I have required your assistance, my friends," he cried, in a lowvoice, "in order to arrest Nathaniel Bumppo, commonly called theLeather-Stocking He has assaulted a magistrate, and resisted theexecution of a search-war rant, by threatening the life of a constablewith his rifle. In short, my friends, he has set an example of rebellionto the laws, and has become a kind of outlaw. He is suspected of othermisdemeanors and offences against private rights; and I have this nighttaken on myself, by the virtue of my office as sheriff, to arrest thesaid Bumppo, and bring him to the county jail, that he may be presentand forthcoming to answer to these heavy charges before the courtto-morrow morning. In executing this duty, friends and fellow-citizens,you are to use courage and discretion; courage, that you may not bedaunted by any lawless attempt that this man may make with his rifleand his dogs to oppose you; and discretion, which here means caution andprudence, that he may not escape from this sudden attack--and for othergood reasons that I need not mention. You will form yourselves in acomplete circle around his hut, and at the word 'advance,' called aloudby me, you will rush forward and, without giving the criminal time fordeliberation, enter his dwelling by force, and make him your prisoner.Spread yourselves for this purpose, while I shall descend to the shorewith a deputy, to take charge of that point; and all communicationsmust be made directly to me, under the bank in front of the hut, where Ishall station myself and remain, in order to receive them."
This speech, which Richard had been studying during his walk, had theeffect that all similar performances produce, of bringing the dangersof the expedition immediately before the eyes of his forces. The mendivided, some plunging deeper into the forest, in order to gain theirstations without giving an alarm, and others Continuing to advance, ata gait that would allow the whole party to go in order; but alldevising the best plan to repulse the attack of a dog, or to escape arifle-bullet. It was a moment of dread expectation and interest.
When the sheriff thought time enough had elapsed for the differentdivisions of his force to arrive at their stations, he raised his voicein the silence of the forest, and shouted the watchword. The soundsplayed among the arched branches of the trees in hollow cadences; butwhen the last sinking tone was lost on the ear, in place of the expectedhowls of the dogs, no other noises were returned but the crackling oftorn branches and dried sticks, as they yielded before the advancingsteps of the officers. Even this soon ceased, as if by a common consent,when the curiosity and impatience of the sheriff getting the completeascendency over discretion, he rushed up the bank, and in a moment stoodon the little piece of cleared ground in front of the spot where Nattyhad so long lived, To his amazement, in place of the hut he saw only itssmouldering ruins.
The party gradually drew together about the heap of ashes and the endsof smoking logs; while a dim flame in the centre of the ruin, whichstill found fuel to feed its lingering life, threw its pale light,flickering with the passing currents of the air, around the circle--nowshowing a face with eyes fixed in astonishment, and then glancing toanother countenance, leaving the former shaded in the obscurity ofnight. Not a voice was raised in inquiry, nor an exclamation made inastonishment. The transition from excitement to disappointment was toopowerful for Speech; and even Richard lost the use of an organ that wasseldom known to fail him.
The whole group were yet in the fullness of their surprise, when a tallform stalked from the gloom into the circle, treading down the hot ashesand dying embers with callous feet; and, standing over the light, liftedhis cap, and exposed the bare head and weather-beaten features ofthe Leather-Stocking. For a moment he gazed at the dusky figures whosurrounded him, more in sorrow than in anger before he spoke.
"What would ye with an old and helpless man?" he said, "You've drivenGod's creatur's from the wilder ness, where His providence had put themfor His own pleasure; and you've brought in the troubles and diviltriesof the law, where no man was ever known to disturb another. You havedriven me, that have lived forty long years of my appointed time in thisvery spot, from my home and the shelter of my head, lest you should putyour wicked feet and wasty ways in my cabin. You've driven me to burnthese logs, under which I've eaten and drunk--the first of Heaven'sgifts, and the other of the pure springs--for the half of a hundredyears; and to mourn the ashes under my feet, as a man would weep andmourn for the children of his body. You've rankled the heart of an oldman, that has never harmed you or your'n, with bitter feelings towardhis kind, at a time when his thoughts should be on a better world; andyou've driven him to wish that the beasts of the forest, who never feaston the blood of their own families, was his kindred and race; and now,when he has come to see the last brand of his hut, before it is incitedinto ashes, you follow him up, at midnight, like hungry hounds on thetrack of a worn-out and dying deer. What more would ye have? for I amhere--one too many. I come to mourn, not to fight; and, if it is God'spleasure, work your will on me."
When the old man ended he stood, with the light glimmering around histhinly covered head, looking earnestly at the group, which recededfrom the pile with an involuntary movement, without the reach of thequivering rays, leaving a free passage for his retreat into the bushes,where pursuit in the dark would have been fruit less. Natty seemed notto regard this advantage, but stood facing each individual in the circlein succession, as if to see who would be the first to arrest him. Aftera pause of a few moments Richard began to rally his confused faculties,and, advancing, apologized for his duty, and made him his prisoner. Theparty flow collected, and, preceded by the sheriff, with Natty in theircentre, they took their way toward the village.
During the walk, divers questions were put to the prisoner concerninghis reasons for burning the hut, and whither Mohegan had retreated;but to all of them he observed a profound silence, until, fatigued withtheir previous duties, and the lateness of the hour, the sheriff and hisfollowers reached the village, and dispersed to their several placesof rest, after turning the key of a jail on the aged and apparentlyfriendless Leather-Stocking.
The Pioneers; Or, The Sources of the Susquehanna Page 33