The Prairie (43 page)

The spectators regarded the simple expedient of the trapper with that
species of wonder, with which the courtiers of Ferdinand are said to
have viewed the manner in which Columbus made his egg stand on its end,
though with feelings that were filled with gratitude instead of envy.

"Most wonderful!" said Middleton, when he saw the complete success
of the means by which they had been rescued from a danger that he had
conceived to be unavoidable. "The thought was a gift from Heaven, and
the hand that executed it should be immortal!"

"Old trapper," cried Paul, thrusting his fingers through his shaggy
locks, "I have lined many a loaded bee into his hole, and know something
of the nature of the woods, but this is robbing a hornet of his sting
without touching the insect!"

"It will do—it will do," returned the old man, who after the first
moment of his success seemed to think no more of the exploit; "now get
the horses in readiness. Let the flames do their work for a short half
hour, and then we will mount. That time is needed to cool the meadow,
for these unshod Teton beasts are as tender on the hoof as a barefooted
girl."

Middleton and Paul, who considered this unlooked-for escape as a species
of resurrection, patiently awaited the time the trapper mentioned with
renewed confidence in the infallibility of his judgment. The Doctor
regained his tablets, a little the worse from having fallen among
the grass which had been subject to the action of the flames, and
was consoling himself for this slight misfortune by recording
uninterruptedly such different vacillations in light and shadow as he
chose to consider phenomena.

In the mean time the veteran, on whose experience they all so implicitly
relied for protection, employed himself in reconnoitring objects in the
distance, through the openings which the air occasionally made in the
immense bodies of smoke, that by this time lay in enormous piles on
every part of the plain.

"Look you here, lads," the trapper said, after a long and anxious
examination, "your eyes are young and may prove better than my worthless
sight—though the time has been, when a wise and brave people saw reason
to think me quick on a look-out; but those times are gone, and many a
true and tried friend has passed away with them. Ah's me! if I could
choose a change in the orderings of Providence—which I cannot, and
which it would be blasphemy to attempt, seeing that all things are
governed by a wiser mind than belongs to mortal weakness—but if I were
to choose a change, it would be to say, that such as they who have lived
long together in friendship and kindness, and who have proved their
fitness to go in company, by many acts of suffering and daring in each
other's behalf, should be permitted to give up life at such times, as
when the death of one leaves the other but little reason to wish to
live."

"Is it an Indian, that you see?" demanded the impatient Middleton.

"Red-skin or White-skin it is much the same. Friendship and use can tie
men as strongly together in the woods as in the towns—ay, and for that
matter, stronger. Here are the young warriors of the prairies.—Often
do they sort themselves in pairs, and set apart their lives for deeds
of friendship; and well and truly do they act up to their promises.
The death-blow to one is commonly mortal to the other! I have been a
solitary man much of my time, if he can be called solitary, who has
lived for seventy years in the very bosom of natur', and where he could
at any instant open his heart to God, without having to strip it of the
cares and wickednesses of the settlements—but making that allowance,
have I been a solitary man; and yet have I always found that intercourse
with my kind was pleasant, and painful to break off, provided that the
companion was brave and honest. Brave, because a skeary comrade in the
woods," suffering his eyes inadvertently to rest a moment on the person
of the abstracted naturalist, "is apt to make a short path long; and
honest, inasmuch as craftiness is rather an instinct of the brutes, than
a gift becoming the reason of a human man."

"But the object, that you saw—was it a Sioux?"

"What the world of America is coming to, and where the machinations and
inventions of its people are to have an end, the Lord, he only knows. I
have seen, in my day, the chief who, in his time, had beheld the first
Christian that placed his wicked foot in the regions of York! How much
has the beauty of the wilderness been deformed in two short lives! My
own eyes were first opened on the shores of the Eastern sea, and well
do I remember, that I tried the virtues of the first rifle I ever bore,
after such a march, from the door of my father to the forest, as a
stripling could make between sun and sun; and that without offence to
the rights, or prejudices, of any man who set himself up to be the owner
of the beasts of the fields. Natur' then lay in its glory along the
whole coast, giving a narrow stripe, between the woods and the ocean, to
the greediness of the settlers. And where am I now? Had I the wings
of an eagle, they would tire before a tenth of the distance, which
separates me from that sea, could be passed; and towns, and villages,
farms, and highways, churches, and schools, in short, all the inventions
and deviltries of man, are spread across the region. I have known the
time when a few Red-skins, shouting along the borders, could set the
provinces in a fever; and men were to be armed; and troops were to be
called to aid from a distant land; and prayers were said, and the women
frighted, and few slept in quiet, because the Iroquois were on the
war-path, or the accursed Mingo had the tomahawk in hand. How is it now?
The country sends out her ships to foreign lands, to wage their battles;
cannon are plentier than the rifle used to be, and trained soldiers are
never wanting, in tens of thousands, when need calls for their services.
Such is the difference atween a province and a state, my men; and I,
miserable and worn out as I seem, have lived to see it all!"

"That you must have seen many a chopper skimming the cream from the face
of the earth, and many a settler getting the very honey of nature, old
trapper," said Paul, "no reasonable man can, or, for that matter, shall
doubt. But here is Ellen getting uneasy about the Siouxes, and now you
have opened your mind, so freely, concerning these matters, if you
will just put us on the line of our flight, the swarm will make another
move."

"Anan!"

"I say that Ellen is getting uneasy, and as the smoke is lifting from
the plain, it may be prudent to take another flight."

"The boy is reasonable. I had forgotten we were in the midst of a raging
fire, and that Siouxes were round about us, like hungry wolves watching
a drove of buffaloes. But when memory is at work in my old brain, on
times long past, it is apt to overlook the matters of the day. You say
right, my children; it is time to be moving, and now comes the real
nicety of our case. It is easy to outwit a furnace, for it is nothing
but a raging element; and it is not always difficult to throw a grizzly
bear from his scent, for the creatur' is both enlightened and blinded
by his instinct; but to shut the eyes of a waking Teton is a matter of
greater judgment, inasmuch as his deviltry is backed by reason."

Notwithstanding the old man appeared so conscious of the difficulty of
the undertaking, he set about its achievement with great steadiness and
alacrity. After completing the examination, which had been interrupted
by the melancholy wanderings of his mind, he gave the signal to his
companions to mount. The horses, which had continued passive and
trembling amid the raging of the fire, received their burdens with a
satisfaction so very evident, as to furnish a favourable augury of their
future industry. The trapper invited the Doctor to take his own steed,
declaring his intention to proceed on foot.

"I am but little used to journeying with the feet of others," he added,
as a reason for the measure, "and my legs are a weary of doing nothing.
Besides, should we light suddenly on an ambushment, which is a thing far
from impossible, the horse will be in a better condition for a hard
run with one man on his back than with two. As for me, what matters it
whether my time is to be a day shorter or a day longer! Let the Tetons
take my scalp, if it be God's pleasure: they will find it covered
with grey hairs; and it is beyond the craft of man to cheat me of the
knowledge and experience by which they have been whitened."

As no one among the impatient listeners seemed disposed to dispute
the arrangement, it was acceded to in silence. The Doctor, though he
muttered a few mourning exclamations on behalf of the lost Asinus,
was by far too well pleased in finding that his speed was likely to be
sustained by four legs instead of two, to be long in complying: and,
consequently, in a very few moments the bee-hunter, who was never last
to speak on such occasions, vociferously announced that they were ready
to proceed.

"Now look off yonder to the East," said the old man, as he began to lead
the way across the murky and still smoking plain; "little fear of cold
feet in journeying such a path as this: but look you off to the East,
and if you see a sheet of shining white, glistening like a plate of
beaten silver through the openings of the smoke, why that is water. A
noble stream is running thereaway, and I thought I got a glimpse of it
a while since; but other thoughts came, and I lost it. It is a broad
and swift river, such as the Lord has made many of its fellows in this
desert. For here may natur' be seen in all its richness, trees alone
excepted. Trees, which are to the 'arth, as fruits are to a garden;
without them nothing can be pleasant, or thoroughly useful. Now watch
all of you, with open eyes, for that stripe of glittering water: we
shall not be safe until it is flowing between our trail and these sharp
sighted Tetons."

The latter declaration was enough to ensure a vigilant look out for the
desired stream, on the part of all the trapper's followers. With this
object in view, the party proceeded in profound silence, the old man
having admonished them of the necessity of caution, as they entered the
clouds of smoke, which were rolling like masses of fog along the plain,
more particularly over those spots where the fire had encountered
occasional pools of stagnant water.

They travelled near a league in this manner, without obtaining the
desired glimpse of the river. The fire was still raging in the distance,
and as the air swept away the first vapour of the conflagration, fresh
volumes rolled along the place, limiting the view. At length the old
man, who had begun to betray some little uneasiness, which caused his
followers to apprehend that even his acute faculties were beginning
to be confused, in the mazes of the smoke, made a sudden pause, and
dropping his rifle to the ground, he stood, apparently musing over some
object at his feet. Middleton and the rest rode up to his side, and
demanded the reason of the halt.

"Look ye, here," returned the trapper, pointing to the mutilated carcass
of a horse, that lay more than half consumed in a little hollow of the
ground; "here may you see the power of a prairie conflagration. The
'arth is moist, hereaway, and the grass has been taller than usual.
This miserable beast has been caught in his bed. You see the bones; the
crackling and scorched hide, and the grinning teeth. A thousand winters
could not wither an animal so thoroughly, as the element has done it in
a minute."

"And this might have been our fate," said Middleton, "had the flames
come upon us, in our sleep!"

"Nay, I do not say that, I do not say that. Not but that man will burn
as well as tinder; but, that being more reasoning than a horse, he would
better know how to avoid the danger."

"Perhaps this then has been but the carcass of an animal, or he too
would have fled?"

"See you these marks in the damp soil? Here have been his hoofs,—and
there is a moccasin print, as I'm a sinner! The owner of the beast has
tried hard to move him from the place, but it is in the instinct of the
creatur' to be faint-hearted and obstinate in a fire."

"It is a well-known fact. But if the animal has had a rider, where is
he?"

"Ay, therein lies the mystery," returned the trapper, stooping to
examine the signs in the ground with a closer eye. "Yes, yes, it is
plain there has been a long struggle atween the two. The master has
tried hard to save his beast, and the flames must have been very greedy,
or he would have had better success."

"Harkee, old trapper," interrupted Paul, pointing to a little distance,
where the ground was drier, and the herbage had, in consequence, been
less luxuriant; "just call them two horses. Yonder lies another."

"The boy is right! can it be, that the Tetons have been caught in
their own snares? Such things do happen; and here is an example to all
evil-doers. Ay, look you here, this is iron; there have been some white
inventions about the trappings of the beast—it must be so—it must
be so—a party of the knaves have been skirting in the grass after
us, while their friends have fired the prairie, and look you at the
consequences; they have lost their beasts, and happy have they been if
their own souls are not now skirting along the path, which leads to the
Indian heaven."

"They had the same expedient at command as yourself," rejoined
Middleton, as the party slowly proceeded, approaching the other carcass,
which lay directly on their route.

"I know not that. It is not every savage that carries his steel and
flint, or as good a rifle-pan as this old friend of mine. It is slow
making a fire with two sticks, and little time was given to consider, or
invent, just at this spot, as you may see by yon streak of flame, which
is flashing along afore the wind, as if it were on a trail of powder. It
is not many minutes since the fire has passed here away, and it may
be well to look at our primings, not that I would willingly combat the
Tetons, God forbid! but if a fight needs be, it is always wise to get
the first shot."