The Prairie (30 page)

In the bustle and confusion that were likely to succeed such a mandate,
there was little opportunity to indulge in complaints or reflections.
As the adventurers had not come unprepared for victory, each individual
employed himself in such offices as were best adapted to his strength
and situation. The trapper had already made himself master of the
patient Asinus, who was quietly feeding at no great distance from the
rock, and he was now busy in fitting his back with the complicated
machinery that Dr. Battius saw fit to term a saddle of his own
invention. The naturalist himself seized upon his portfolios, herbals,
and collection of insects, which he quickly transferred from the
encampment of the squatter, to certain pockets in the aforesaid
ingenious invention, and which the trapper as uniformly cast away the
moment his back was turned. Paul showed his dexterity in removing such
light articles as Inez and Ellen had prepared for their flight to
the foot of the citadel, while Middleton, after mingling threats and
promises, in order to induce the children to remain quietly in their
bondage, assisted the females to descend. As time began to press upon
them, and there was great danger of Ishmael's returning, these several
movements were made with singular industry and despatch.

The trapper bestowed such articles as he conceived were necessary to the
comfort of the weaker and more delicate members of the party, in those
pockets from which he had so unceremoniously expelled the treasures of
the unconscious naturalist, and then gave way for Middleton to place
Inez in one of those seats which he had prepared on the back of the
animal for her and her companion.

"Go, child," the old man said, motioning to Ellen to follow the example
of the lady, and turning his head a little anxiously to examine the
waste behind him. "It cannot be long afore the owner of this place will
be coming to look after his household; and he is not a man to give up
his property, however obtained, without complaint!"

"It is true," cried Middleton; "we have wasted moments that are
precious, and have the utmost need of industry."

"Ay, ay, I thought it; and would have said it, captain; but I remembered
how your grand'ther used to love to look upon the face of her he led
away for a wife, in the days of his youth and his happiness. 'Tis
natur', 'tis natur', and 'tis wiser to give way a little before its
feelings, than to try to stop a current that will have its course."

Ellen advanced to the side of the beast, and seizing Inez by the hand,
she said, with heartfelt warmth, after struggling to suppress an emotion
that nearly choked her—

"God bless you, sweet lady! I hope you will forget and forgive the
wrongs you have received from my uncle—"

The humbled and sorrowful girl could say no more, her voice becoming
entirely inaudible in an ungovernable burst of grief.

"How is this?" cried Middleton; "did you not say, Inez, that this
excellent young woman was to accompany us, and to live with us for the
remainder of her life; or, at least, until she found some more agreeable
residence for herself?"

"I did; and I still hope it. She has always given me reason to believe,
that after having shown so much commiseration and friendship in my
misery, she would not desert me, should happier times return."

"I cannot—I ought not," continued Ellen, getting the better of her
momentary weakness. "It has pleased God to cast my lot among these
people, and I ought not to quit them. It would be adding the appearance
of treachery to what will already seem bad enough, with one of his
opinions. He has been kind to me, an orphan, after his rough customs,
and I cannot steal from him at such a moment."

"She is just as much a relation of skirting Ishmael as I am a bishop!"
said Paul, with a loud hem, as if his throat wanted clearing. "If the
old fellow has done the honest thing by her, in giving her a morsel of
venison now and then, or a spoon around his homminy dish, hasn't she
pay'd him in teaching the young devils to read their Bible, or in
helping old Esther to put her finery in shape and fashion. Tell me that
a drone has a sting, and I'll believe you as easily as I will that this
young woman is a debtor to any of the tribe of Bush!"

"It is but little matter who owes me, or where I am in debt. There are
none to care for a girl who is fatherless and motherless, and whose
nearest kin are the offcasts of all honest people. No, no; go, lady, and
Heaven for ever bless you! I am better here, in this desert, where there
are none to know my shame."

"Now, old trapper," retorted Paul, "this is what I call knowing which
way the wind blows! You ar' a man that has seen life, and you know
something of fashions; I put it to your judgment, plainly, isn't it
in the nature of things for the hive to swarm when the young get their
growth, and if children will quit their parents, ought one who is of no
kith or kin—"

"Hist!" interrupted the man he addressed, "Hector is discontented. Say
it out, plainly, pup; what is it dog—what is it?"

The venerable hound had risen, and was scenting the fresh breeze which
continued to sweep heavily over the prairie. At the words of his master
he growled and contracted the muscles of his lips, as if half disposed
to threaten with the remnants of his teeth. The younger dog, who was
resting after the chase of the morning, also made some signs that
his nose detected a taint in the air, and then the two resumed their
slumbers, as if they had done enough.

The trapper seized the bridle of the ass, and cried, urging the beast
onward—

"There is no time for words. The squatter and his brood are within a
mile or two of this blessed spot!"

Middleton lost all recollection of Ellen, in the danger which now so
eminently beset his recovered bride; nor is it necessary to add,
that Dr. Battius did not wait for a second admonition to commence his
retreat.

Following the route indicated by the old man, they turned the rock in
a body, and pursued their way as fast as possible across the prairie,
under the favour of the cover it afforded.

Paul Hover, however, remained in his tracks, sullenly leaning on his
rifle. Near a minute had elapsed before he was observed by Ellen, who
had buried her face in her hands, to conceal her fancied desolation from
herself.

"Why do you not fly?" the weeping girl exclaimed, the instant she
perceived she was not alone.

"I'm not used to it."

"My uncle will soon be here! you have nothing to hope from his pity."

"Nor from that of his niece, I reckon. Let him come; he can only knock
me on the head!"

"Paul, Paul, if you love me, fly."

"Alone!—if I do, may I be—"

"If you value your life, fly!"

"I value it not, compared to you."

"Paul!"

"Ellen!"

She extended both her hands and burst into another and a still more
violent flood of tears. The bee-hunter put one of his sturdy arms around
her waist, and in another moment he was urging her over the plain, in
rapid pursuit of their flying friends.

Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight
With a new Gorgon—Do not bid me speak;
See, and then speak yourselves.
—Shakespeare.

The little run, which supplied the family of the squatter with water,
and nourished the trees and bushes that grew near the base of the rocky
eminence, took its rise at no great distance from the latter, in a small
thicket of cotton-wood and vines. Hither, then, the trapper directed
the flight, as to the place affording the only available cover in so
pressing an emergency. It will be remembered, that the sagacity of the
old man, which, from long practice in similar scenes, amounted nearly to
an instinct in all cases of sudden danger, had first induced him to
take this course, as it placed the hill between them and the approaching
party. Favoured by this circumstance, he succeeded in reaching the
bushes in sufficient time and Paul Hover had just hurried the breathless
Ellen into the tangled bush, as Ishmael gained the summit of the rock,
in the manner already described, where he stood like a man momentarily
bereft of sense, gazing at the confusion which had been created among
his chattels, or at his gagged and bound children, who had been safely
bestowed, by the forethought of the bee-hunter, under the cover of a
bark roof, in a sort of irregular pile. A long rifle would have thrown
a bullet from the height, on which the squatter now stood, into the
very cover where the fugitives, who had wrought all this mischief, were
clustered.

The trapper was the first to speak, as the man on whose intelligence and
experience they all depended for counsel, after running his eye over the
different individuals who gathered about him, in order to see that none
were missing.

"Ah! natur' is natur', and has done its work!" he said, nodding to the
exulting Paul, with a smile of approbation. "I thought it would be hard
for those, who had so often met in fair and foul, by starlight and under
the clouded moon, to part at last in anger. Now is there little time
to lose in talk, and every thing to gain by industry! It cannot be long
afore some of yonder brood will be nosing along the 'arth for our trail,
and should they find it, as find it they surely will, and should they
push us to a stand on our courage, the dispute must be settled with the
rifle; which may He in heaven forbid! Captain, can you lead us to
the place where any of your warriors lie?—For the stout sons of the
squatter will make a manly brush of it, or I am but little of a judge in
warlike dispositions!"

"The place of rendezvous is many leagues from this, on the banks of La
Platte."

"It is bad—it is bad. If fighting is to be done, it is always wise to
enter on it on equal terms. But what has one so near his time to do with
ill-blood and hot-blood at his heart! Listen to what a grey head and
some experience have to offer, and then if any among you can point out
a wiser fashion for a retreat, we can just follow his design, and forget
that I have spoken. This thicket stretches for near a mile as it may
be slanting from the rock, and leads towards the sunset instead of the
settlements."

"Enough, enough," cried Middleton, too impatient to wait until the
deliberative and perhaps loquacious old man could end his minute
explanation. "Time is too precious for words. Let us fly."

The trapper made a gesture of compliance, and turning in his tracks, he
led Asinus across the trembling earth of the swale, and quickly emerged
on the hard ground, on the side opposite to the encampment of the
squatter.

"If old Ishmael gets a squint at that highway through the brush," cried
Paul, casting, as he left the place, a hasty glance at the broad trail
the party had made through the thicket, "he'll need no finger-board
to tell him which way his road lies. But let him follow! I know the
vagabond would gladly cross his breed with a little honest blood, but if
any son of his ever gets to be the husband of—"

"Hush, Paul, hush," said the terrified young woman, who leaned on his
arm for support; "your voice might be heard."

The bee-hunter was silent, though he did not cease to cast ominous looks
behind him, as they flew along the edge of the run, which sufficiently
betrayed the belligerent condition of his mind. As each one was busy for
himself, but a few minutes elapsed before the party rose a swell of the
prairie, and descending without a moment's delay on the opposite side,
they were at once removed from every danger of being seen by the sons of
Ishmael, unless the pursuers should happen to fall upon their trail.
The old man now profited by the formation of the land to take another
direction, with a view to elude pursuit, as a vessel changes her course
in fogs and darkness, to escape from the vigilance of her enemies.

Two hours, passed in the utmost diligence, enabled them to make a half
circuit around the rock, and to reach a point that was exactly opposite
to the original direction of their flight. To most of the fugitives
their situation was as entirely unknown as is that of a ship in the
middle of the ocean to the uninstructed voyager: but the old man
proceeded at every turn, and through every bottom, with a decision that
inspired his followers with confidence, as it spoke favourably of his
own knowledge of the localities. His hound, stopping now and then to
catch the expression of his eye, had preceded the trapper throughout
the whole distance, with as much certainty as though a previous and
intelligible communion between them had established the route by which
they were to proceed. But, at the expiration of the time just named, the
dog suddenly came to a stand, and then seating himself on the prairie,
he snuffed the air a moment, and began a low and piteous whining.

"Ay—pup—ay. I know the spot—I know the spot, and reason there is to
remember it well!" said the old man, stopping by the side of his uneasy
associate, until those who followed had time to come up. "Now, yonder,
is a thicket before us," he continued, pointing forward, "where we
may lie till tall trees grow on these naked fields, afore any of the
squatter's kin will venture to molest us."

"This is the spot, where the body of the dead man lay!" cried Middleton,
examining the place with an eye that revolted at the recollection.

"The very same. But whether his friends have put him in the bosom of the
ground or not, remains to be seen. The hound knows the scent, but
seems to be a little at a loss, too. It is therefore necessary that you
advance, friend bee-hunter, to examine, while I tarry to keep the dogs
from complaining in too loud a voice."

"I!" exclaimed Paul, thrusting his hand into his shaggy locks, like one
who thought it prudent to hesitate before he undertook so formidable
an adventure; "now, heark'ee, old trapper; I've stood in my thinnest
cottons in the midst of many a swarm that has lost its queen-bee,
without winking, and let me tell you, the man who can do that, is not
likely to fear any living son of skirting Ishmael; but as to meddling
with dead men's bones, why it is neither my calling nor my inclination;
so, after thanking you for the favour of your choice, as they say, when
they make a man a corporal in Kentucky, I decline serving."