Deerslayer (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (39 page)

“Where ’tother pale brother?” demanded the boy, looking up, and letting the idea that had been most prominent in his mind, previously to the introduction of the chessmen, escape him involuntarily “He sleeps—or if he isn’t fairly asleep, he is in the room where the men do sleep,” returned Deerslayer. “How did my young friend know there was another?”

“See him from the shore. Iroquois have got long eyes—see beyond the clouds—see the bottom of the great spring!”

“Well, the Iroquois are welcome. Two palefaces are prisoners in the camp of your fathers, boy.”

The lad nodded, treating the circumstance with great apparent indifference; though a moment after he laughed as if exulting in the superior address of his own tribe.

“Can you tell me, boy, what your chiefs intend to do with these captives; or haven’t they yet made up their minds?”

The lad looked a moment at the hunter with a little surprise; then he coolly put the end of his forefinger on his own head, just above the left ear, and passed it around his crown, with an accuracy and readiness that showed how well he had been drilled in the peculiar art of his race.

“When?” demanded Deerslayer, whose gorge rose at this cool demonstration of indifference to human life. “And why not take them to your wigwams?”

“Road too long, and full of palefaces. Wigwam full, and scalps sell high. Small scalp, much gold.”

“Well, that explains it—yes, that does explain it. There’s no need of being any plainer. Now, you know, lad, that the oldest of your prisoners is the father of these two young women, and the other is the suitor of one of them. The gals nat‘rally wish to save the scalps of such fri’nds, and they will give them two ivory creatur’s as ransom; one for each scalp. Go back and tell this to your chiefs, and bring me the answer before the sun sets.”

The boy entered zealously into this project, and with a sincerity that left no doubt of his executing his commission with intelligence and promptitude. For a moment he forgot his love of honor, and all his clannish hostility to the British and their Indians, in his wish to have such a treasure in his tribe, and Deerslayer was satisfied with the impression he had made. It is true, the lad proposed to carry one of the elephants with him, as a specimen of the other, but to this his brother negotiator was too sagacious to consent; well knowing that it might never reach its destination if confided to such hands. This little difficulty was soon arranged, and the boy prepared to depart. As he stood on the platform ready to step aboard of the raft, he hesitated, and turned short with a proposal to borrow a canoe, as the means most likely to shorten the negotiation. Deerslayer quietly refused the request, and, after lingering a little longer, the boy rowed slowly away from the castle, taking the direction of a thicket on the shore, that lay less than half a mile distant.
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Deerslayer seated himself on a stool, and watched the progress of the ambassador; sometimes scanning the whole line of the shore, as far as eye could reach, and then placing an elbow on a knee, he remained a long time with his chin resting on the hand.

During the interview between Deerslayer and the lad, a different scene took place in the adjoining room. Hetty had inquired for the Delaware, and being told why and where he remained concealed, she joined him. The reception which Chingachgook gave his visitor was respectful and gentle. He understood her character; and, no doubt, his disposition to be kind to such a being was increased by the hope of learning some tidings of his betrothed. As soon as the girl entered she took a seat, and invited the Indian to place himself near her; then she continued silent, as if she thought it decorous for him to question her, before she consented to speak on the subject she had on her mind. But, as Chingachgook did not understand this feeling, he remained respectfully attentive to anything she might be pleased to tell him.

“You are Chingachgook—the Great Serpent of the Delawares, aren’t you?” the girl at length commenced, in her own simple way, losing her self-command in the desire to proceed, but anxious first to make sure of the individual.

“Chingachgook,” returned the Delaware, with grave dignity. “They say Great Serpent in Deerslayer tongue.”

“Well, that is my tongue. Deerslayer, and father, and Judith, and I, and poor Hurry Harry—do you know Henry March, Great Serpent? I know you don’t, however, or he would have spoken of you, too.”

“Did any tongue name Chingachgook, Drooping Lily?” for so the chief had named poor Hetty. “Was his name sung by a little bird among the Iroquois?”

Hetty did not answer at first; but with that indescribable feeling that awakens sympathy and intelligence among the youthful and unpracticed of her sex, she hung her head, and the blood suffused her cheek ere she found her tongue. It would have exceeded her stock of intelligence to explain this embarrassment; but though poor Hetty could not reason on every emergency, she could always feel. The color slowly receded from her cheek, and the girl looked up archly at the Indian, smiling with the innocence of a child, mingled with the interest of a woman.

“My sister, the Drooping Lily, hear such bird!” Chingachgook added, and this with a gentleness of tone and manner that would have astonished those who sometimes heard the discordant cries that often came from the same throat; these transitions from the harsh and guttural to the soft and melodious not being infrequent in ordinary Indian dialogues. “My sister’s ears were open—has she lost her tongue?”

“You are Chingachgook—you must be; for there is no other redman here, and she thought Chingachgook would come.”

“Chin-gach-gook,” pronouncing the name slowly, and dwelling on each syllable; “Great Serpent, Yengeese
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tongue.”

“Chin-gach-gook,” repeated Hetty, in the same deliberate manner. “Yes, so Hist called it, and you must be the chief.”

“Wah-ta-Wah,” added the Delaware.

“Wah-ta-Wah, or Hist-oh-Hist. I think Hist prettier than Wah, and so I call her Hist.”

“Wah very sweet in Delaware ears!”

“You make it sound differently from me. But never mind; I did hear the bird you speak of sing, Great Serpent.”

“Will my sister say words of song? What she sing most—how she look—often she laugh?”

“She sang Chin-gach-gook oftener than anything else; and she laughed heartily when I told how the Iroquois waded into the water after us, and couldn’t catch us. I hope these logs haven’t ears, Serpent!”

“No fear logs; fear sister next room. No fear Iroquois; Deerslayer stuff his eyes and ears with strange beast.”

“I understand you, Serpent and I understood Hist. Sometimes I think I’m not half as feebleminded as they say I am. Now, do you look up at the roof, and I’ll tell you all. But you frighten me, you look so eager when I speak of Hist.”

The Indian controlled his looks, and affected to comply with the simple request of the girl.

“Hist told me to say, in a very low voice, that you mustn’t trust the Iroquois in anything. They are more artful than any Indians she knows. Then she says that there is a large bright star that comes over the hill, about an hour after dark“—Hist had pointed out the planet Jupiter, without knowing it—“and just as that star comes in sight, she will be on the point where I landed last night, and that you must come for her, in a canoe.”

“Good! Chingachgook understand well enough now, but he understand better if my sister sing to him ag’in.”

Hetty repeated her words, more fully explaining what star was meant, and mentioning the part of the point where he was to venture ashore. She now proceeded in her own unsophisticated way to relate her intercourse with the Indian maid, and to repeat several of her expressions and opinions that gave great delight to the heart of her betrothed. She particularly renewed her injunctions to be on their guard against treachery; a warning that was scarcely needed, however, as addressed to men as wary as those to whom it was sent. She also explained, with sufficient clearness—for on all such subjects the mind of the girl seldom failed her—the present state of the enemy, and the movements they had made since morning. Hist had been on the raft with her, until it quitted the shore; and was now somewhere in the woods, opposite to the castle, and did not intend to return to the camp until night approached; when she hoped to be able to slip away from her companions, as they followed the shore on their way home, and conceal herself on the point. No one appeared to suspect the presence of Chingachgook, though it was necessarily known that an Indian had entered the ark the previous night, and it was suspected that he had since appeared in and about the castle, in the dress of a paleface. Still, some little doubt existed on the latter point, for as this was the season when white men might be expected to arrive, there was some fear that the garrison of the castle was increasing by these ordinary means. All this had Hist communicated to Hetty while the Indians were dragging them along shore; the distance, which exceeded six miles, affording abundance of time.

“Hist don’t know, herself, whether they suspect her or not, or whether they suspect you, but she hopes neither is the case. And now, Serpent, since I have told you so much from your betrothed,” continued Hetty, unconsciously taking one of the Indian’s hands, and playing with the fingers, as a child is often seen to play with those of a parent, “you must let me tell you something from myself. When you marry Hist, you must be kind to her, and smile on her, as you do now on me; and not look cross, as some of the chiefs do at their squaws. Will you promise this?”

“Always good to Wah!—too tender to twist hard; else she break.”

“Yes, and smile, too; you don’t know how much a girl craves smiles from them she loves. Father scarce smiled on me once, while I was with him—and, Hurry—yes—Hurry talked loud, and laughed; but I don’t think he smiled once either. You know the difference between a smile and a laugh?”

“Laugh, best. Hear Wah laugh, think bird sing!”

“I know that; her laugh is pleasant, but you must smile. And then, Serpent, you mustn’t make her carry burdens and hoe corn, as so many Indians do; but treat her more as the palefaces treat their wives.

“Wah-ta-Wah no paleface—got red skin; red heart, red feelin’s. All red; no paleface. Must carry papoose.”

“Every woman is willing to carry her child,” said Hetty, smiling; “and there is no harm in that. But you must love Hist, and be gentle and good to her; for she is gentle and good herself.”

Chingachgook gravely bowed, and then he seemed to think this part of the subject might be dismissed. Before there was time for Hetty to resume her communications, the voice of Deerslayer was heard calling on his friend, in the outer room. At this summons the Serpent arose to obey, and Hetty joined her sister.

“ ���A stranger animal,’ cries one,
‘Sure never lived beneath the sun;
A lizard’s body, lean and long,
A fish’s head, a serpent’s tongue,
Its foot, with triple claw disjoined;
And what a length of tail behind!’ ”

Merrick

 

THE FIRST ACT OF the Delaware, on rejoining his friend, was to proceed gravely to disencumber himself of his civilized attire, and to stand forth an Indian warrior again. The protest of Deerslayer was met by his communicating the fact that the presence of an Indian in the hut was known to the Iroquois, and that his maintaining the disguise would be more likely to direct suspicions to his real object, than if he came out openly as a member of a hostile tribe. When the latter understood the truth, and was told that he had been deceived in supposing the chief had succeeded in entering the ark undiscovered, he cheerfully consented to the change, since further attempt at concealment was useless. A gentler feeling than the one avowed, however, lay at the bottom of the Indian’s desire to appear as a son of the forest. He had been told that Hist was on the opposite shore; and nature so far triumphed over all distinctions of habit, and tribes, and people, as to reduce this young savage warrior to the level of a feeling which would have been found in the most refined inhabitant of a town, under similar circumstances. There was a mild satisfaction in believing that she he loved could see him; and as he walked out on the platform in his scanty native attire, an Apollo of the wilderness, a hundred of the tender fancies that fleet through lovers’ brains beset his imagination and softened his heart.

All this was lost on Deerslayer, who was no great adept in the mysteries of Cupid, but whose mind was far more occupied with the concerns that forced themselves on his attention, than with any of the truant fancies of love. He soon recalled his companion, therefore, to a sense of their actual condition, by summoning him to a sort of council of war, in which they were to settle their future course. In the dialogue that followed, the parties mutually made each other acquainted with what had passed in their several interviews. Chingachgook was told the history of the treaty about the ransom; and Deerslayer heard the whole of Hetty’s communications. The latter listened with generous interest to his friend’s hopes, and promised cheerfully all the assistance he could lend.

“ ’Tis our main arr’nd, Sarpent, as you know; this battling for the castle and old Hutter’s darters, coming in as a sort of accident. Yes—yes—I’ll be actyve in helping little Hist, who’s not only one of the best and handsomest maidens of the tribe, but the very best and handsomest. I’ve always encouraged you, chief, in that liking; and it’s proper, too, that a great and ancient race like your’n shouldn’t come to an end. If a woman of red skin and red gifts could get to be near enough to me to wish her for a wife, I’d s‘arch for just such another, but that can never be! no, that can never be. I’m glad Hetty has met with Hist, howsever, for though the first is a little short of wit and understanding, the last has enough for both. Yes, Sarpent,” laughing heartily, “put ’em together, and two smarter gals isn’t to be found in all York colony! ”

“I will go to the Iroquois camp,” returned the Delaware, gravely. “No one knows Chingachgook but Wah, and a treaty for lives and scalps should be made by a chief! Give me the strange beasts, and let me take a canoe.”