The Prairie

by James Fenimore Cooper

  CHAPTER XII

  Pray God the Duke of York excuse himself! --King Henry VI.

  The mustering of the borderers on the following morning was silent,sullen, and gloomy. The repast of that hour was wanting in theinharmonious accompaniment with which Esther ordinarily enlivenedtheir meals; for the effects of the powerful opiate the Doctor hadadministered still muddled her intellects. The young men brooded overthe absence of their elder brother, and the brows of Ishmael himselfwere knit, as he cast his scowling eyes from one to the other, like aman preparing to meet and to repel an expected assault on hisauthority. In the midst of this family distrust, Ellen and her midnightconfederate, the naturalist, took their usual places among the children,without awakening suspicion or exciting comment. The only apparentfruits of the adventure in which they had been engaged, were occasionalupliftings of the eyes, on the part of the Doctor, which were mistakenby the observers for some of his scientific contemplations of theheavens, but which, in reality, were no other than furtive glances atthe fluttering walls of the proscribed tent.

  At length the squatter, who had waited in vain for some more decidedmanifestation of the expected rising among his sons, resolved to make ademonstration of his own intentions.

  "Asa shall account to me for this undutiful conduct!" he observed. "Herehas the livelong night gone by, and he out-lying on the prairie, whenhis hand and his rifle might both have been wanted in a brush with theSiouxes, for any right he had to know the contrary."

  "Spare your breath, good man," retorted his wife; "be saving of yourbreath; for you may have to call long enough for the boy before he willanswer!"

  "It ar' a fact, that some men be so womanish, as to let the young masterthe old! But, you, old Esther, should know better than to think suchwill ever be the nature of things in the family of Ishmael Bush."

  "Ah! you are a hectorer with the boys, when need calls! I know it well,Ishmael; and one of your sons have you driven from you, by your temper;and that, too, at a time when he is most wanted."

  "Father," said Abner, whose sluggish nature had gradually beenstimulating itself to the exertion of taking so bold a stand, "the boysand I have pretty generally concluded to go out on the search of Asa. Weare disagreeable about his camping on the prairie, instead of coming into his own bed, as we all know he would like to do."

  "Pshaw!" muttered Abiram; "the boy has killed a buck; or perhaps abuffaloe; and he is sleeping by the carcass to keep off the wolves, tillday; we shall soon see him, or hear him bawling for help to bring in hisload."

  "'Tis little help that a son of mine will call for, to shoulder a buckor to quarter your wild-beef," returned the mother. "And you, Abiram, tosay so uncertain a thing! you, who said yourself that the red-skins hadbeen prowling around this place, no later than the yesterday--"

  "I!" exclaimed her brother, hastily, as if anxious to retract an error;"I said it then, and I say it now and so you will find it to be. TheTetons are in our neighbourhood, and happy will it prove for the boy ifhe is well shut of them."

  "It seems to me," said Dr. Battius, speaking with the sort ofdeliberation and dignity one is apt to use after having thoroughlyripened his opinions by sufficient reflection,--"it seems to me, a manbut little skilled in the signs and tokens of Indian warfare, especiallyas practised in these remote plains, but one, who I may say withoutvanity has some insight into the mysteries of nature,--it seems, then,to me, thus humbly qualified, that when doubts exist in a matter ofmoment, it would always be the wisest course to appease them."

  "No more of your doctoring for me!" cried the grum Esther; "no more ofyour quiddities in a healthy family, say I! Here was I doing well, onlya little out of sorts with over instructing the young, and you dos'dme with a drug that hangs about my tongue, like a pound weight on ahumming-bird's wing!"

  "Is the medicine out?" drily demanded Ishmael: "it must be a rare dosethat gives a heavy feel to the tongue of old Eester!"

  "Friend," continued the Doctor, waving his hand for the angry wife tomaintain the peace, "that it cannot perform all that is said of it, thevery charge of good Mrs. Bush is a sufficient proof. But to speak of theabsent Asa. There is doubt as to his fate, and there is a propositionto solve it. Now, in the natural sciences truth is always a desideratum;and I confess it would seem to be equally so in the present case ofdomestic uncertainty, which may be called a vacuum where according tothe laws of physic, there should exist some pretty palpable proofs ofmateriality."

  "Don't mind him, don't mind him," cried Esther, observing that the restof his auditors listened with an attention which might proceed, equally,from acquiescence in his proposal or ignorance of its meaning. "There isa drug in every word he utters."

  "Dr. Battius wishes to say," Ellen modestly interposed, "that as someof us think Asa is in danger, and some think otherwise, the whole familymight pass an hour or two in looking for him."

  "Does he?" interrupted the woman; "then Dr. Battius has more sense inhim than I believed! She is right, Ishmael; and what she says, shall bedone. I will shoulder a rifle myself; and woe betide the red-skin thatcrosses my path! I have pulled a trigger before to-day; ay, and heard anIndian yell, too, to my sorrow."

  The spirit of Esther diffused itself, like the stimulus which attendsa war-cry, among her sons. They arose in a body, and declared theirdetermination to second so bold a resolution. Ishmael prudently yieldedto an impulse he could not resist, and in a few minutes the womanappeared, shouldering her arms, prepared to lead forth, in person, suchof her descendants as chose to follow.

  "Let them stay with the children that please," she said, "and themfollow me, who ar' not chicken-hearted!"

  "Abiram, it will not do to leave the huts without some guard," Ishmaelwhispered, glancing his eye upward.

  The man whom he addressed started, and betrayed extraordinary eagernessin his reply.

  "I will tarry and watch the camp."

  A dozen voices were instantly raised in objections to this proposal.He was wanted to point out the places where the hostile tracks had beenseen, and his termagant sister openly scouted at the idea, as unworthyof his manhood. The reluctant Abiram was compelled to yield, and Ishmaelmade a new disposition for the defence of the place; which was admitted,by every one, to be all-important to their security and comfort.

  He offered the post of commandant to Dr. Battius, who, however,peremptorily and somewhat haughtily declined the doubtful honour;exchanging looks of intelligence with Ellen, as he did so. In thisdilemma the squatter was obliged to constitute the girl herselfcastellan; taking care, however, in deputing this important trust, toomit no words of caution and instruction. When this preliminary pointwas settled, the young men proceeded to arrange certain means ofdefence, and signals of alarm, that were adapted to the weakness andcharacter of the garrison. Several masses of rock were drawn to the edgeof the upper level, and so placed as to leave it at the discretion ofthe feeble Ellen and her associates, to cast them or not, as theymight choose, on the heads of any invaders, who would, of necessity,be obliged to mount the eminence by the difficult and narrow passagealready so often mentioned. In addition to this formidable obstruction,the barriers were strengthened and rendered nearly impassable. Smallermissiles, that might be hurled even by the hands of the youngerchildren, but which would prove, from the elevation of the place,exceedingly dangerous, were provided in profusion. A pile of driedleaves and splinters were placed, as a beacon, on the upper rock, andthen, even in the jealous judgment of the squatter, the post was deemedcompetent to maintain a creditable siege.

  The moment the rock was thought to be in a state of sufficient security,the party who composed what might be called the sortie, sallied forth ontheir anxious expedition. The advance was led by Esther in person, who,attired in a dress half masculine, and bearing a weapon like the rest,seemed no unfit leader for the group of wildly clad frontiermen, thatfollowed in her rear.

  "Now, Abiram;" cried the Amazon, in a voice that was crack
ed andharsh, for the simple reason of being used too often on a strained andunnatural key, "now, Abiram, run with your nose low; show yourself ahound of the true breed, and do some credit to your training. You it wasthat saw the prints of the Indian moccasin, and it behoves you, to letothers be as wise as yourself. Come; come to the front, man; and give usa bold lead."

  The brother, who appeared at all times to stand in awe of his sister'sauthority, complied; though it was with a reluctance so evident, asto excite sneers, even among the unobservant and indolent sons of thesquatter. Ishmael, himself, moved among his tall children, like one whoexpected nothing from the search, and who was indifferent alike toits success or failure. In this manner the party proceeded until theirdistant fortress had sunk so low, as to present an object no larger normore distinct than a hazy point, on the margin of the prairie. Hithertotheir progress had been silent and somewhat rapid, for as swell afterswell was mounted and passed, without varying, or discovering a livingobject to enliven the monotony of the view, even the tongue of Estherwas hushed in increasing anxiety. Here, however, Ishmael chose to pause,and casting the butt of his rifle from his shoulder to the ground, heobserved--

  "This is enough. Buffaloe signs, and deer signs, ar' plenty; but wherear' thy Indian footsteps, Abiram?"

  "Still farther west," returned the other, pointing in the direction henamed. "This was the spot where I struck the tracks of the buck; it wasafter I took the deer, that I fell upon the Teton trail."

  "And a bloody piece of work you made of it, man," cried the squatter,pointing tauntily to the soiled garments of his kinsman, and thendirecting the attention of the spectators to his own, by the way of atriumphant contrast. "Here have I cut the throats of two lively does,and a scampering fawn, without spot or stain; while you, blundering dogas you ar', have made as much work for Eester and her girls, as thoughbutchering was your regular calling. Come, boys; it is enough. I amtoo old not to know the signs of the frontiers; no Indian has been heresince the last fall of water. Follow me; and I will make a turn thatshall give us at least the beef of a fallow cow for our trouble."

  "Follow me!" echoed Esther, stepping undauntedly forward. "I am leaderto-day, and I will be followed. Who so proper, let me know, as a mother,to head a search for her own lost child?"

  Ishmael regarded his intractable mate with a smile of indulgent pity.Observing that she had already struck out a path for herself, differentboth from that of Abiram and the one he had seen fit to choose, andbeing unwilling to draw the cord of authority too tight, just at thatmoment, he submitted to her will. But Dr. Battius, who had hitherto beena silent and thoughtful attendant on the woman, now saw fit to raise hisfeeble voice in the way of remonstrance.

  "I agree with thy partner in life, worthy and gentle Mrs. Bush," hesaid, "in believing that some ignis fatuus of the imagination hasdeceived Abiram, in the signs or symptoms of which he has spoken."

  "Symptoms, yourself!" interrupted the termagant. "This is no time forbookish words, nor is this a place to stop and swallow medicines. Ifyou are a-leg-weary, say so, as a plain-speaking man should; then seatyourself on the prairie, like a hound that is foot-sore, and take yournatural rest."

  "I accord in the opinion," the naturalist calmly replied, complyingliterally with the opinion of the deriding Esther, by taking his seat,very coolly, by the side of an indigenous shrub; the examination ofwhich he commenced, on the instant, in order that science might notloose any of its just and important dues. "I honour your excellentadvice, Mistress Esther, as you may perceive. Go thou in quest of thyoffspring; while I tarry here, in pursuit of that which is better; viz.an insight into the arcana of Nature's volume."

  The woman answered with a hollow, unnatural, and scornful laugh, andeven her heavy sons, as they slowly passed the seat of the alreadyabstracted naturalist, did not disdain to manifest their contempt insmiles. In a few minutes the train mounted the nearest eminence, and,as it turned the rounded acclivity, the Doctor was left to pursue hisprofitable investigations in entire solitude.

  Another half-hour passed, during which Esther continued to advance,on her seemingly fruitless search. Her pauses, however, were becomingfrequent, and her looks wandering and uncertain, when footsteps wereheard clattering through the bottom, and at the next instant a buck wasseen to bound up the ascent, and to dart from before their eyes, in thedirection of the naturalist. So sudden and unlooked for had been thepassage of the animal, and so much had he been favoured by the shape ofthe ground, that before any one of the foresters had time to bring hisrifle to his shoulder, it was already beyond the range of a bullet.

  "Look out for the wolf!" shouted Abner, shaking his head in vexation, atbeing a single moment too late. "A wolf's skin will be no bad gift in awinter's night; ay, yonder the hungry devil comes!"

  "Hold!" cried Ishmael, knocking up the levelled weapon of his too eagerson. "'Tis not a wolf; but a hound of thorough blood and bottom. Ha! wehave hunters nigh: there ar' two of them!"

  He was still speaking, when the animals in question came leaping on thetrack of the deer, striving with noble ardour to outdo each other.One was an aged dog, whose strength seemed to be sustained purely bygenerous emulation, and the other a pup, that gambolled even while hepressed most warmly on the chase. They both ran, however, with clean andpowerful leaps, carrying their noses high, like animals of the most keenand subtle scent. They had passed; and in another minute they would havebeen running open-mouthed with the deer in view, had not the youngerdog suddenly bounded from the course, and uttered a cry of surprise. Hisaged companion stopped also, and returned panting and exhausted to theplace, where the other was whirling around in swift, and apparently inmad evolutions, circling the spot in his own footsteps, and continuinghis outcry, in a short, snappish barking. But, when the elder hound hadreached the spot, he seated himself, and lifting his nose high into theair, he raised a long, loud, and wailing howl.

  "It must be a strong scent," said Abner, who had been, with the rest ofthe family, an admiring observer of the movements of the dogs, "that canbreak off two such creatur's so suddenly from their trail."

  "Murder them!" cried Abiram; "I'll swear to the old hound; 'tis the dogof the trapper, whom we now know to be our mortal enemy."

  Though the brother of Esther gave so hostile advice, he appeared in noway ready to put it in execution himself. The surprise, which hadtaken possession of the whole party, exhibited itself in his own vacantwondering stare, as strongly as in any of the admiring visages by whomhe was surrounded. His denunciation, therefore, notwithstanding its direimport, was disregarded; and the dogs were left to obey the impulses oftheir mysterious instinct, without let or hinderance.

  It was long before any of the spectators broke the silence; but thesquatter, at length, so far recollected his authority, as to take onhimself the right to control the movements of his children.

  "Come away, boys; come away, and leave the hounds to sing their tunesfor their own amusement," Ishmael said, in his coldest manner. "I scornto take the life of a beast, because its master has pitched himself toonigh my clearing; come away, boys, come away; we have enough of ourown work before us, without turning aside to do that of the wholeneighbourhood."

  "Come not away!" cried Esther, in tones that sounded like theadmonitions of some sibyl. "I say, come not away, my children. There isa meaning and a warning in this; and as I am a woman and a mother, willI know the truth of it all!"

  So saying, the awakened wife brandished her weapon, with an air that wasnot without its wild and secret influence, and led the way towardsthe spot where the dogs still remained, filling the air with theirlong-drawn and piteous complaints. The whole party followed in hersteps, some too indolent to oppose, others obedient to her will, and allmore or less excited by the uncommon character of the scene.

  "Tell me, you Abner--Abiram--Ishmael!" the woman cried, standing over aspot where the earth was trampled and beaten, and plainly sprinkled withblood; "tell me, you who ar' hunters! what sort of animal has here methis death?--Speak!--
Ye ar' men, and used to the signs of the plains; isit the blood of wolf or panther?"

  "A buffaloe--and a noble and powerful creatur' has it been!" returnedthe squatter, who looked down calmly on the fatal signs which sostrangely affected his wife. "Here are the marks of the spot where hehas struck his hoofs into the earth, in the death-struggle; and yonderhe has plunged and torn the ground with his horns. Ay, a buffaloe bullof wonderful strength and courage has he been!"

  "And who has slain him?" continued Esther; "man where are theoffals?--Wolves!--They devour not the hide! Tell me, ye men and hunters,is this the blood of a beast?"

  "The creatur' has plunged over the hillock," said Abner, who hadproceeded a short distance beyond the rest of the party. "Ah! there youwill find it, in yon swale of alders. Look! a thousand carrion birds,ar' hovering above the carcass."

  "The animal has still life in him," returned the squatter, "or thebuzzards would settle upon their prey! By the action of the dogs itmust be something ravenous; I reckon it is the white bear from the upperfalls. They are said to cling desperately to life!"

  "Let us go back," said Abiram; "there may be danger, and there can be nogood in attacking a ravenous beast. Remember, Ishmael, 'twill be a riskyjob, and one of small profit!"

  The young men smiled at this new proof of the well known pusillanimityof their uncle. The oldest even proceeded so far as to express hiscontempt, by bluntly saying--

  "It will do to cage with the other animal we carry; then we may go backdouble-handed into the settlements, and set up for showmen, around thecourt-houses and gaols of Kentucky."

  The threatening frown, which gathered on the brow of his father,admonished the young man to forbear. Exchanging looks that were halfrebellious with his brethren, he saw fit to be silent. But instead ofobserving the caution recommended by Abiram, they proceeded in a body,until they again came to a halt within a few yards of the matted coverof the thicket.

  The scene had now, indeed, become wild and striking enough to haveproduced a powerful effect on minds better prepared, than those ofthe unnurtured family of the squatter, to resist the impressions of soexciting a spectacle. The heavens were, as usual at the season, coveredwith dark, driving clouds, beneath which interminable flocks of aquaticbirds were again on the wing, holding their toilsome and heavy waytowards the distant waters of the south. The wind had risen, and wasonce more sweeping over the prairie in gusts, which it was often vainto oppose; and then again the blasts would seem to mount into the upperair, as if to sport with the drifting vapour, whirling and rolling vastmasses of the dusky and ragged volumes over each other, in a terrificand yet grand disorder. Above the little brake, the flocks of birdsstill held their flight, circling with heavy wings about the spot,struggling at times against the torrent of wind, and then favoured bytheir position and height, making bold swoops upon the thicket, awayfrom which, however, they never failed to sail, screaming in terror,as if apprised, either by sight or instinct, that the hour of theirvoracious dominion had not yet fully arrived.

  Ishmael stood for many minutes, with his wife and children clusteredtogether, in an amazement, with which awe was singularly mingled, gazingin death-like stillness on the sight. The voice of Esther at lengthbroke the charm, and reminded the spectators of the necessity ofresolving their doubts in some manner more worthy of their manhood, thanby dull and inactive observation.

  "Call in the dogs!" she said; "call in the hounds, and put them into thethicket; there ar' men enough of ye, if ye have not lost the spirit withwhich I know ye were born, to tame the tempers of all the bears west ofthe big river. Call in the dogs, I say, you Enoch! Abner! Gabriel! haswonder made ye deaf?"

  One of the young men complied; and having succeeded in detaching thehounds from the place, around which, until then, they had not ceased tohover, he led them down to the margin of the thicket.

  "Put them in, boy; put them in," continued the woman; "and you, Ishmaeland Abiram, if any thing wicked or hurtful comes forth, show them theuse of your rifles, like frontier-men. If ye ar' wanting in spirit,before the eyes of my children will I put ye both to shame!"

  The youths who, until now, had detained the hounds, let slip the thongsof skin, by which they had been held, and urged them to the attack bytheir voices. But, it would seem, that the elder dog was restrained bysome extraordinary sensation, or that he was much too experienced toattempt the rash adventure. After proceeding a few yards to the veryverge of the brake, he made a sudden pause, and stood trembling inall his aged limbs, apparently as unable to recede as to advance. Theencouraging calls of the young men were disregarded, or only answeredby a low and plaintive whining. For a minute the pup also was similarlyaffected; but less sage, or more easily excited, he was induced atlength to leap forward, and finally to dash into the cover. An alarmedand startling howl was heard, and, at the next minute, he broke outof the thicket, and commenced circling the spot, in the same wild andunsteady manner as before.

  "Have I a man among my children?" demanded Esther. "Give me a truerpiece than a childish shotgun, and I will show ye what the courage of afrontier-woman can do!"

  "Stay, mother," exclaimed Abner and Enoch; "if you will see thecreatur', let us drive it into view."

  This was quite as much as the youths were accustomed to utter, even onmore important occasions, but having given a pledge of their intentions,they were far from being backward in redeeming it. Preparing their armswith the utmost care, they advanced with steadiness to the brake. Nervesless often tried than those of the young borderers might have shrunkbefore the dangers of so uncertain an undertaking. As they proceeded,the howls of the dogs became more shrill and plaintive. The vultures andbuzzards settled so low as to flap the bushes with their heavy wings,and the wind came hoarsely sweeping along the naked prairie, as ifthe spirits of the air had also descended to witness the approachingdevelopment.

  There was a breathless moment, when the blood of the undaunted Estherflowed backward to her heart, as she saw her sons push aside the mattedbranches of the thicket and bury themselves in its labyrinth. A deep andsolemn pause succeeded. Then arose two loud and piercing cries, inquick succession, which were followed by a quiet, still more awful andappalling.

  "Come back, come back, my children!" cried the woman, the feelings of amother getting the ascendency.

  But her voice was hushed, and every faculty seemed frozen with horror,as at that instant the bushes once more parted, and the two adventurersre-appeared, pale, and nearly insensible themselves, and laid at herfeet the stiff and motionless body of the lost Asa, with the marks of aviolent death but too plainly stamped on every pallid lineament.

  The dogs uttered a long and closing howl, and then breaking offtogether, they disappeared on the forsaken trail of the deer. The flightof birds wheeled upward into the heavens, filling the air with theircomplaints at having been robbed of a victim which, frightful anddisgusting as it was, still bore too much of the impression of humanityto become the prey of their obscene appetites.