The Prairie

by James Fenimore Cooper

  CHAPTER III

  Come, come, thou art as hot a Jack in thy mood, as any in Italy; and as soon mov'd to be moody, and as soon moody to be moved. --Romeo and Juliet.

  Though the trapper manifested some surprise when he perceived thatanother human figure was approaching him, and that, too, from adirection opposite to the place where the emigrant had made hisencampment, it was with the steadiness of one long accustomed to scenesof danger.

  "This is a man," he said; "and one who has white blood in his veins, orhis step would be lighter. It will be well to be ready for the worst, asthe half-and-halfs,[*] that one meets, in these distant districts, arealtogether more barbarous than the real savage."

  [*] Half-breeds; men born of Indian women by white fathers. This race has much of the depravity of civilisation without the virtues of the savage.

  He raised his rifle while he spoke, and assured himself of the state ofits flint, as well as of the priming by manual examination. But his armwas arrested, while in the act of throwing forward the muzzle of thepiece, by the eager and trembling hands of his companion.

  "For God's sake, be not too hasty," she said; "it may be a friend--anacquaintance--a neighbour!"

  "A friend!" the old man repeated, deliberately releasing himself, at thesame time, from her grasp. "Friends are rare in any land, and less inthis, perhaps, than in another; and the neighbourhood is too thinlysettled to make it likely that he who comes towards us is even anacquaintance."

  "But though a stranger, you would not seek his blood!"

  The trapper earnestly regarded her anxious and frightened features,and then he dropped the butt of his rifle on the ground, like one whosepurpose had undergone a sudden change.

  "No," he said, speaking rather to himself, than to his companion, "sheis right; blood is not to be spilt, to save the life of one so useless,and so near his time. Let him come on; my skins, my traps, and even myrifle shall be his, if he sees fit to demand them."

  "He will ask for neither:--he wants neither," returned the girl; "if hebe an honest man, he will surely be content with his own, and ask fornothing that is the property of another."

  The trapper had not time to express the surprise he felt at thisincoherent and contradictory language, for the man who was advancing,was, already, within fifty feet of the place where they stood.--Inthe mean time, Hector had not been an indifferent witness of what waspassing. At the sound of the distant footsteps, he had arisen, from hiswarm bed at the feet of his master; and now, as the stranger appeared inopen view, he stalked slowly towards him, crouching to the earth like apanther about to take his leap.

  "Call in your dog," said a firm, deep, manly voice, in tones offriendship, rather than of menace; "I love a hound, and should be sorryto do an injury to the animal."

  "You hear what is said about you, pup?" the trapper answered; "comehither, fool. His growl and his bark are all that is left him now; youmay come on, friend; the hound is toothless."

  The stranger profited by the intelligence. He sprang eagerly forward,and at the next instant stood at the side of Ellen Wade. After assuringhimself of the identity of the latter, by a hasty but keen glance, heturned his attention, with a quickness and impatience, that provedthe interest he took in the result, to a similar examination of hercompanion.

  "From what cloud have you fallen, my good old man?" he said in acareless, off-hand, heedless manner that seemed too natural to beassumed: "or do you actually live, hereaway, in the prairies?"

  "I have been long on earth, and never I hope nigher to heaven, than I amat this moment," returned the trapper; "my dwelling, if dwelling I maybe said to have, is not far distant. Now may I take the liberty withyou, that you are so willing to take with others? Whence do you come,and where is your home?"

  "Softly, softly; when I have done with my catechism, it will be time tobegin with yours. What sport is this, you follow by moonlight? You arenot dodging the buffaloes at such an hour!"

  "I am, as you see, going from an encampment of travellers, which liesover yonder swell in the land, to my own wigwam; in doing so, I wrong noman."

  "All fair and true. And you got this young woman to show you the way,because she knows it so well and you know so little about it yourself!"

  "I met her, as I have met you, by accident. For ten tiresome years haveI dwelt on these open fields, and never, before to-night, have I foundhuman beings with white skins on them, at this hour. If my presence heregives offence, I am sorry; and will go my way. It is more than likelythat when your young friend has told her story, you will be better givento believe mine.

  "Friend!" said the youth, lifting a cap of skins from his head, andrunning his fingers leisurely through a dense mass of black and shaggylocks, "if I have ever laid eyes on the girl before to-night, may I--"

  "You've said enough, Paul," interrupted the female, laying her handon his mouth, with a familiarity that gave something very like the liedirect, to his intended asseveration. "Our secret will be safe, withthis honest old man. I know it by his looks, and kind words."

  "Our secret! Ellen, have you forgot--"

  "Nothing. I have not forgotten any thing I should remember. But still Isay we are safe with this honest trapper."

  "Trapper! is he then a trapper? Give me your hand, father; our tradesshould bring us acquainted."

  "There is little call for handicrafts in this region," returned theother, examining the athletic and active form of the youth, as he leanedcarelessly and not ungracefully, on his rifle; "the art of taking thecreatur's of God, in traps and nets, is one that needs more cunning thanmanhood; and yet am I brought to practise it, in my age! But it wouldbe quite as seemly, in one like you, to follow a pursuit better becomingyour years and courage."

  "I! I never took even a slinking mink or a paddling musk-rat in a cage;though I admit having peppered a few of the dark-skin'd devils, whenI had much better have kept my powder in the horn and the lead in itspouch. Not I, old man; nothing that crawls the earth is for my sport."

  "What then may you do for a living, friend? for little profit is to bemade in these districts, if a man denies himself his lawful right in thebeasts of the fields."

  "I deny myself nothing. If a bear crosses my path, he is soon the mereghost of Bruin. The deer begin to nose me; and as for the buffaloe, Ihave kill'd more beef, old stranger, than the largest butcher in allKentuck."

  "You can shoot, then!" demanded the trapper, with a glow of latent fire,glimmering about his eyes; "is your hand true, and your look quick?"

  "The first is like a steel trap, and the last nimbler than a buck-shot.I wish it was hot noon, now, grand'ther; and that there was an acre ortwo of your white swans or of black feathered ducks going south, overour heads; you or Ellen, here, might set your heart on the finest in theflock, and my character against a horn of powder, that the bird wouldbe hanging head downwards, in five minutes, and that too, with a singleball. I scorn a shot-gun! No man can say, he ever knew me carry one, arod."

  "The lad has good in him! I see it plainly by his manner;" said thetrapper, turning to Ellen with an encouraging air; "I will take it onmyself to say, that you are not unwise in meeting him, as you do. Tellme, lad; did you ever strike a leaping buck atwixt the antlers? Hector;quiet, pup; quiet. The very name of venison quickens the blood of thecur;--did you ever take an animal in that fashion, on the long leap?"

  "You might just as well ask me, did you ever eat? There is no fashion,old stranger, that a deer has not been touched by my hand, unless it waswhen asleep."

  "Ay, ay; you have a long and a happy-ay, and an honest life afore you! Iam old, and I suppose I might also say, worn out and useless; but, ifit was given me to choose my time, and place, again,--as such things arenot and ought not ever to be given to the will of man--though if sucha gift was to be given me, I would say, twenty and the wilderness! But,tell me; how do you part with the peltry?"

  "With my pelts! I never took a skin from a buck, nor a quill from ago
ose, in my life! I knock them over, now and then, for a meal, andsometimes to keep my finger true to the touch; but when hunger issatisfied, the prairie wolves get the remainder. No--no--I keep to mycalling; which pays me better, than all the fur I could sell on theother side of the big river."

  The old man appeared to ponder a little; but shaking his head he sooncontinued--

  "I know of but one business that can be followed here with profit--"

  He was interrupted by the youth, who raised a small cup of tin, whichdangled at his neck before the other's eyes, and springing its lid, thedelicious odour of the finest flavoured honey, diffused itself over theorgans of the trapper.

  "A bee hunter!" observed the latter, with a readiness that proved heunderstood the nature of the occupation, though not without some littlesurprise at discovering one of the other's spirited mien engaged in sohumble a pursuit. "It pays well in the skirts of the settlements, but Ishould call it a doubtful trade, in the more open districts."

  "You think a tree is wanting for a swarm to settle in! But I knowdifferently; and so I have stretched out a few hundred miles fartherwest than common, to taste your honey. And, now, I have bated yourcuriosity, stranger, you will just move aside, while I tell theremainder of my story to this young woman."

  "It is not necessary, I'm sure it is not necessary, that he should leaveus," said Ellen, with a haste that implied some little consciousness ofthe singularity if not of the impropriety of the request. "You can havenothing to say that the whole world might not hear."

  "No! well, may I be stung to death by drones, if I understand thebuzzings of a woman's mind! For my part, Ellen, I care for nothing norany body; and am just as ready to go down to the place where your uncle,if uncle you can call one, who I'll swear is no relation, has hoppledhis teams, and tell the old man my mind now, as I shall be a year hence.You have only to say a single word, and the thing is done; let him likeit or not."

  "You are ever so hasty and so rash, Paul Hover, that I seldom know whenI am safe with you. How can you, who know the danger of our being seentogether, speak of going before my uncle and his sons?"

  "Has he done that of which he has reason to be ashamed?" demanded thetrapper, who had not moved an inch from the place he first occupied.

  "Heaven forbid! But there are reasons, why he should not be seen, justnow, that could do him no harm if known; but which may not yet be told.And, so, if you will wait, father, near yonder willow bush, until I haveheard what Paul can possibly have to say, I shall be sure to come andwish you a good night, before I return to the camp."

  The trapper drew slowly aside, as if satisfied with the somewhatincoherent reason Ellen had given why he should retire. When completelyout of ear shot of the earnest and hurried dialogue, that instantlycommenced between the two he had left, the old man again paused, andpatiently awaited the moment when he might renew his conversation withbeings in whom he felt a growing interest, no less from the mysteriouscharacter of their intercourse, than from a natural sympathy in thewelfare of a pair so young, and who, as in the simplicity of his hearthe was also fain to believe, were also so deserving. He was accompaniedby his indolent, but attached dog, who once more made his bed at thefeet of his master, and soon lay slumbering as usual, with his headnearly buried in the dense fog of the prairie grass.

  It was a spectacle so unusual to see the human form amid the solitude inwhich he dwelt, that the trapper bent his eyes on the dim figures of hisnew acquaintances, with sensations to which he had long been a stranger.Their presence awakened recollections and emotions, to which his sturdybut honest nature had latterly paid but little homage, and his thoughtsbegan to wander over the varied scenes of a life of hardships, that hadbeen strangely blended with scenes of wild and peculiar enjoyment. Thetrain taken by his thoughts had, already, conducted him, in imagination,far into an ideal world, when he was, once more suddenly, recalled tothe reality of his situation, by the movements of the faithful hound.

  The dog, who, in submission to his years and infirmities, had manifestedsuch a decided propensity to sleep, now arose, and stalked from out theshadow cast by the tall person of his master, and looked abroad intothe prairie, as if his instinct apprised him of the presence of stillanother visitor. Then, seemingly content with his examination, hereturned to his comfortable post and disposed of his weary limbs,with the deliberation and care of one who was no novice in the art ofself-preservation.

  "What; again, Hector!" said the trapper in a soothing voice, which hehad the caution, however, to utter in an under tone; "what is it, dog?tell it all to his master, pup; what is it?"

  Hector answered with another growl, but was content to continue in hislair. These were evidences of intelligence and distrust, to which oneas practised as the trapper could not turn an inattentive ear. He againspoke to the dog, encouraging him to watchfulness, by a low guardedwhistle. The animal however, as if conscious of having, already,discharged his duty, obstinately refused to raise his head from thegrass.

  "A hint from such a friend is far better than man's advice!" mutteredthe trapper, as he slowly moved towards the couple who were yet, tooearnestly and abstractedly, engaged in their own discourse, to noticehis approach; "and none but a conceited settler would hear it andnot respect it, as he ought. Children," he added, when nigh enough toaddress his companions, "we are not alone in these dreary fields; thereare others stirring, and, therefore, to the shame of our kind, be itsaid, danger is nigh."

  "If one of the lazy sons of Skirting Ishmael is prowling out of his campto-night," said the young bee-hunter, with great vivacity, and in tonesthat might easily have been excited to a menace, "he may have an end putto his journey sooner than either he or his father is dreaming!"

  "My life on it, they are all with the teams," hurriedly answered thegirl. "I saw the whole of them asleep, myself, except the two on watch;and their natures have greatly changed, if they, too, are not bothdreaming of a turkey hunt, or a court-house fight, at this very moment."

  "Some beast, with a strong scent, has passed between the wind and thehound, father, and it makes him uneasy; or, perhaps, he too is dreaming.I had a pup of my own, in Kentuck, that would start upon a long chasefrom a deep sleep; and all upon the fancy of some dream. Go to him, andpinch his ear, that the beast may feel the life within him."

  "Not so--not so," returned the trapper, shaking his head as one whobetter understood the qualities of his dog.--"Youth sleeps, ay, anddreams too; but age is awake and watchful. The pup is never false withhis nose, and long experience tells me to heed his warnings."

  "Did you ever run him upon the trail of carrion?"

  "Why, I must say, that the ravenous beasts have sometimes tempted me tolet him loose, for they are as greedy as men, after the venison, inits season; but then I knew the reason of the dog, would tell him theobject!--No--no, Hector is an animal known in the ways of man, and willnever strike a false trail when a true one is to be followed!"

  "Ay, ay, the secret is out! you have run the hound on the track ofa wolf, and his nose has a better memory than his master!" said thebee-hunter, laughing.

  "I have seen the creatur' sleep for hours, with pack after pack, in openview. A wolf might eat out of his tray without a snarl, unless there wasa scarcity; then, indeed, Hector would be apt to claim his own."

  "There are panthers down from the mountains; I saw one make a leap at asick deer, as the sun was setting. Go; go you back to the dog, and tellhim the truth, father; in a minute, I--"

  He was interrupted by a long, loud, and piteous howl from the hound,which rose on the air of the evening, like the wailing of some spiritof the place, and passed off into the prairie, in cadences that roseand fell, like its own undulating surface. The trapper was impressivelysilent, listening intently. Even the reckless bee-hunter, was struckwith the wailing wildness of the sounds. After a short pause the formerwhistled the dog to his side, and turning to his companions he said withthe seriousness, which, in his opinion, the occasion demanded--

  "They who think man e
njoys all the knowledge of the creatur's of God,will live to be disappointed, if they reach, as I have done, the ageof fourscore years. I will not take upon myself to say what mischief isbrewing, nor will I vouch that, even, the hound himself knows so much;but that evil is nigh, and that wisdom invites us to avoid it, I haveheard from the mouth of one who never lies. I did think, the pup hadbecome unused to the footsteps of man, and that your presence made himuneasy; but his nose has been on a long scent the whole evening,and what I mistook as a notice of your coming, has been intended forsomething more serious. If the advice of an old man is, then, worthhearkening to, children, you will quickly go different ways to yourplaces of shelter and safety."

  "If I quit Ellen, at such a moment," exclaimed the youth, "may I--"

  "You've said enough!" the girl interrupted, by again interposing a bandthat might, both by its delicacy and colour, have graced a far moreelevated station in life; "my time is out; and we must part, at allevents--so good night, Paul--father--good night."

  "Hist!" said the youth, seizing her arm, as she was in the very act oftripping from his side--"Hist! do you hear nothing? There are buffaloesplaying their pranks, at no great distance--That sound beats the earthlike a herd of the mad scampering devils!"

  His two companions listened, as people in their situation would be aptto lend their faculties to discover the meaning of any doubtful noises,especially, when heard after so many and such startling warnings. Theunusual sounds were unequivocally though still faintly audible. Theyouth and his female companion had made several hurried, and vacillatingconjectures concerning their nature, when a current of the night airbrought the rush of trampling footsteps, too sensibly, to their ears, torender mistake any longer possible.

  "I am right!" said the bee-hunter; "a panther is driving a herd beforehim; or may be, there is a battle among the beasts."

  "Your ears are cheats," returned the old man, who, from the momenthis own organs had been able to catch the distant sounds, stood like astatue made to represent deep attention:--"the leaps are too long forthe buffaloe, and too regular for terror. Hist! now they are in a bottomwhere the grass is high, and the sound is deadened! Ay, there they go onthe hard earth! And now they come up the swell, dead upon us; they willbe here afore you can find a cover!"

  "Come, Ellen," cried the youth, seizing his companion by the hand, "letus make a trial for the encampment."

  "Too late! too late!" exclaimed the trapper, "for the creatur's arein open view; and a bloody band of accursed Siouxes they are, by theirthieving look, and the random fashion in which they ride!"

  "Siouxes or devils, they shall find us men!" said the bee-hunter, witha mien as fierce as if he led a party of superior strength, and of acourage equal to his own.--"You have a piece, old man, and will pull atrigger in behalf of a helpless, Christian girl!"

  "Down, down into the grass--down with ye both," whispered the trapper,intimating to them to turn aside to the tall weeds, which grew, in adenser body than common, near the place where they stood. "You've notthe time to fly, nor the numbers to fight, foolish boy. Down into thegrass, if you prize the young woman, or value the gift of life!"

  His remonstrance, seconded, as it was, by a prompt and energetic action,did not fail to produce the submission to his order, which the occasionseemed, indeed, imperiously to require. The moon had fallen behind asheet of thin, fleecy, clouds, which skirted the horizon, leaving justenough of its faint and fluctuating light, to render objects visible,dimly revealing their forms and proportions. The trapper, by exercisingthat species of influence, over his companions, which experienceand decision usually assert, in cases of emergency, had effectuallysucceeded in concealing them in the grass, and by the aid of the feeblerays of the luminary, he was enabled to scan the disorderly party whichwas riding, like so many madmen, directly upon them.

  A band of beings, who resembled demons rather than men, sporting intheir nightly revels across the bleak plain, was in truth approaching,at a fearful rate, and in a direction to leave little hope that some oneamong them, at least, would not pass over the spot where the trapperand his companions lay. At intervals, the clattering of hoofs was bornealong by the night wind, quite audibly in their front, and then, again,their progress through the fog of the autumnal grass, was swift andsilent; adding to the unearthly appearance of the spectacle. Thetrapper, who had called in his hound, and bidden him crouch at his side,now kneeled in the cover also, and kept a keen and watchful eye on theroute of the band, soothing the fears of the girl, and restraining theimpatience of the youth, in the same breath.

  "If there's one, there's thirty of the miscreants!" he said, in a sortof episode to his whispered comments. "Ay, ay; they are edging towardsthe river--Peace, pup--peace--no, here they come this way again--thethieves don't seem to know their own errand! If there were just six ofus, lad, what a beautiful ambushment we might make upon them, from thisvery spot--it won't do, it won't do, boy; keep yourself closer, or yourhead will be seen--besides, I'm not altogether strong in the opinion itwould be lawful, as they have done us no harm.--There they bend again tothe river--no; here they come up the swell--now is the moment to be asstill, as if the breath had done its duty and departed the body."

  The old man sunk into the grass while he was speaking, as if the finalseparation to which he alluded, had, in his own case, actually occurred,and, at the next instant, a band of wild horsemen whirled by them, withthe noiseless rapidity in which it might be imagined a troop of spectreswould pass. The dark and fleeting forms were already vanished, when thetrapper ventured again to raise his head to a level with the tops ofthe bending herbage, motioning at the same time, to his companions tomaintain their positions and their silence.

  "They are going down the swell, towards the encampment," he continued,in his former guarded tones; "no, they halt in the bottom, and areclustering together like deer, in council. By the Lord, they are turningagain, and we are not yet done with the reptiles!"

  Once more he sought his friendly cover, and at the next instant the darktroop were to be seen riding, in a disorderly manner, on the very summitof the little elevation on which the trapper and his companions lay. Itwas now soon apparent that they had returned to avail themselves of theheight of the ground, in order to examine the dim horizon.

  Some dismounted, while others rode to and fro, like men engaged in alocal enquiry of much interest. Happily, for the hidden party, the grassin which they were concealed, not only served to skreen them from theeyes of the savages, but opposed an obstacle to prevent their horses,which were no less rude and untrained than their riders, from tramplingon them, in their irregular and wild paces.

  At length an athletic and dark looking Indian, who, by his air ofauthority, would seem to be the leader, summoned his chiefs about him,to a consultation, which was held mounted. This body was collected onthe very margin of that mass of herbage in which the trapper and hiscompanions were hid. As the young man looked up and saw the fierceaspect of the group, which was increasing at each instant by theaccession of some countenance and figure, apparently more forbiddingthan any which had preceded it, he drew his rifle, by a very naturalimpulse, from beneath him, and commenced putting it in a state forservice. The female, at his side, buried her face in the grass, by afeeling that was, possibly, quite as natural to her sex and habits,leaving him to follow the impulses of his hot blood; but his aged andmore prudent adviser, whispered, sternly, in his ear--

  "The tick of the lock is as well known to the knaves, as the blast of atrumpet to a soldier! lay down the piece--lay down the piece--should themoon touch the barrel, it could not fail to be seen by the devils, whoseeyes are keener than the blackest snake's! The smallest motion, now,would be sure to bring an arrow among us."

  The bee-hunter so far obeyed as to continue immovable and silent. Butthere was still sufficient light to convince his companion, by thecontracted brow and threatening eye of the young man, that a discoverywould not bestow a bloodless victory on the savages. Finding his advicedisregarded, the trapp
er took his measures accordingly, and awaited theresult with a resignation and calmness that were characteristic of theindividual.

  In the mean time, the Siouxes (for the sagacity of the old man was notdeceived in the character of his dangerous neighbours) had terminatedtheir council, and were again dispersed along the ridge of land as ifthey sought some hidden object.

  "The imps have heard the hound!" whispered the trapper, "and their earsare too true to be cheated in the distance. Keep close, lad, keep close;down with your head to the very earth, like a dog that sleeps."

  "Let us rather take to our feet, and trust to manhood," returned hisimpatient companion.

  He would have proceeded; but feeling a hand laid rudely on his shoulder,he turned his eyes upward, and beheld the dark and savage countenance ofan Indian gleaming full upon him. Notwithstanding the surprise and thedisadvantage of his attitude, the youth was not disposed to become acaptive so easily. Quicker than the flash of his own gun he sprang uponhis feet, and was throttling his opponent with a power that would soonhave terminated the contest, when he felt the arms of the trapperthrown round his body, confining his exertions by a strength very littleinferior to his own. Before he had time to reproach his comrade forthis apparent treachery, a dozen Siouxes were around them, and the wholeparty were compelled to yield themselves as prisoners.