The Prairie (23 page)

"Follow me!" echoed Esther, stepping undauntedly forward. "I am leader
to-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, different
both from that of Abiram and the one he had seen fit to choose, and
being unwilling to draw the cord of authority too tight, just at that
moment, he submitted to her will. But Dr. Battius, who had hitherto been
a silent and thoughtful attendant on the woman, now saw fit to raise his
feeble voice in the way of remonstrance.

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

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

"I accord in the opinion," the naturalist calmly replied, complying
literally with the opinion of the deriding Esther, by taking his seat,
very coolly, by the side of an indigenous shrub; the examination of
which he commenced, on the instant, in order that science might not
loose any of its just and important dues. "I honour your excellent
advice, Mistress Esther, as you may perceive. Go thou in quest of thy
offspring; 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, and
even her heavy sons, as they slowly passed the seat of the already
abstracted naturalist, did not disdain to manifest their contempt in
smiles. In a few minutes the train mounted the nearest eminence, and,
as it turned the rounded acclivity, the Doctor was left to pursue his
profitable investigations in entire solitude.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Though the brother of Esther gave so hostile advice, he appeared in no
way ready to put it in execution himself. The surprise, which had
taken possession of the whole party, exhibited itself in his own vacant
wondering stare, as strongly as in any of the admiring visages by whom
he was surrounded. His denunciation, therefore, notwithstanding its dire
import, was disregarded; and the dogs were left to obey the impulses of
their mysterious instinct, without let or hinderance.

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

"Come away, boys; come away, and leave the hounds to sing their tunes
for their own amusement," Ishmael said, in his coldest manner. "I scorn
to take the life of a beast, because its master has pitched himself too
nigh my clearing; come away, boys, come away; we have enough of our
own work before us, without turning aside to do that of the whole
neighbourhood."

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

So saying, the awakened wife brandished her weapon, with an air that was
not without its wild and secret influence, and led the way towards
the spot where the dogs still remained, filling the air with their
long-drawn and piteous complaints. The whole party followed in her
steps, some too indolent to oppose, others obedient to her will, and all
more or less excited by the uncommon character of the scene.

"Tell me, you Abner—Abiram—Ishmael!" the woman cried, standing over a
spot where the earth was trampled and beaten, and plainly sprinkled with
blood; "tell me, you who ar' hunters! what sort of animal has here met
his death?—Speak!—Ye ar' men, and used to the signs of the plains; is
it the blood of wolf or panther?"

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

"And who has slain him?" continued Esther; "man where are the
offals?—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 had
proceeded a short distance beyond the rest of the party. "Ah! there you
will 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 the
buzzards would settle upon their prey! By the action of the dogs it
must be something ravenous; I reckon it is the white bear from the upper
falls. They are said to cling desperately to life!"

"Let us go back," said Abiram; "there may be danger, and there can be no
good in attacking a ravenous beast. Remember, Ishmael, 'twill be a risky
job, and one of small profit!"

The young men smiled at this new proof of the well known pusillanimity
of their uncle. The oldest even proceeded so far as to express his
contempt, by bluntly saying—

"It will do to cage with the other animal we carry; then we may go back
double-handed into the settlements, and set up for showmen, around the
court-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 half
rebellious with his brethren, he saw fit to be silent. But instead of
observing the caution recommended by Abiram, they proceeded in a body,
until they again came to a halt within a few yards of the matted cover
of the thicket.

The scene had now, indeed, become wild and striking enough to have
produced a powerful effect on minds better prepared, than those of
the unnurtured family of the squatter, to resist the impressions of so
exciting a spectacle. The heavens were, as usual at the season, covered
with dark, driving clouds, beneath which interminable flocks of aquatic
birds were again on the wing, holding their toilsome and heavy way
towards the distant waters of the south. The wind had risen, and was
once more sweeping over the prairie in gusts, which it was often vain
to oppose; and then again the blasts would seem to mount into the upper
air, as if to sport with the drifting vapour, whirling and rolling vast
masses of the dusky and ragged volumes over each other, in a terrific
and yet grand disorder. Above the little brake, the flocks of birds
still held their flight, circling with heavy wings about the spot,
struggling at times against the torrent of wind, and then favoured by
their position and height, making bold swoops upon the thicket, away
from which, however, they never failed to sail, screaming in terror,
as if apprised, either by sight or instinct, that the hour of their
voracious dominion had not yet fully arrived.

Ishmael stood for many minutes, with his wife and children clustered
together, in an amazement, with which awe was singularly mingled, gazing
in death-like stillness on the sight. The voice of Esther at length
broke the charm, and reminded the spectators of the necessity of
resolving their doubts in some manner more worthy of their manhood, than
by dull and inactive observation.

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

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

"Put them in, boy; put them in," continued the woman; "and you, Ishmael
and Abiram, if any thing wicked or hurtful comes forth, show them the
use 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 thongs
of skin, by which they had been held, and urged them to the attack by
their voices. But, it would seem, that the elder dog was restrained by
some extraordinary sensation, or that he was much too experienced to
attempt the rash adventure. After proceeding a few yards to the very
verge of the brake, he made a sudden pause, and stood trembling in
all his aged limbs, apparently as unable to recede as to advance. The
encouraging calls of the young men were disregarded, or only answered
by a low and plaintive whining. For a minute the pup also was similarly
affected; but less sage, or more easily excited, he was induced at
length to leap forward, and finally to dash into the cover. An alarmed
and startling howl was heard, and, at the next minute, he broke out
of the thicket, and commenced circling the spot, in the same wild and
unsteady manner as before.

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

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

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

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

"Come back, come back, my children!" cried the woman, the feelings of a
mother 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 adventurers
re-appeared, pale, and nearly insensible themselves, and laid at her
feet the stiff and motionless body of the lost Asa, with the marks of a
violent death but too plainly stamped on every pallid lineament.

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