The Prairie (45 page)

"Is this river too deep to be forded?" asked Middleton, who, like Paul,
began to consider the impossibility of transporting her, whose safety he
valued more than his own, to the opposite shore.

"When the mountains above feed it with their torrents, it is, as you
see, a swift and powerful stream. Yet have I crossed its sandy bed, in
my time, without wetting a knee. But we have the Sioux horses; I warrant
me, that the kicking imps will swim like so many deer."

"Old trapper," said Paul, thrusting his fingers into his mop of a head,
as was usual with him, when any difficulty confounded his philosophy,
"I have swam like a fish in my day, and I can do it again, when there is
need; nor do I much regard the weather; but I question if you get Nelly
to sit a horse, with this water whirling like a mill-race before her
eyes; besides, it is manifest the thing is not to be done dry shod."

"Ah, the lad is right. We must to our inventions, therefore, or the
river cannot be crossed." Then, cutting the discourse short, he turned
to the Pawnee, and explained to him the difficulty which existed in
relation to the women. The young warrior listened gravely, and throwing
the buffaloe-skin from his shoulder he immediately commenced, assisted
by the occasional aid of the understanding old man, the preparations
necessary to effect this desirable object.

The hide was soon drawn into the shape of an umbrella top, or an
inverted parachute, by thongs of deer-skin, with which both the
labourers were well provided. A few light sticks served to keep the
parts from collapsing, or falling in. When this simple and natural
expedient was arranged, it was placed on the water, the Indian making
a sign that it was ready to receive its freight. Both Inez and Ellen
hesitated to trust themselves in a bark of so frail a construction, nor
would Middleton or Paul consent that they should do so, until each had
assured himself, by actual experiment, that the vessel was capable of
sustaining a load much heavier than it was destined to receive. Then,
indeed, their scruples were reluctantly overcome, and the skin was made
to receive its precious burden.

"Now leave the Pawnee to be the pilot," said the trapper; "my hand is
not so steady as it used to be; but he has limbs like toughened hickory.
Leave all to the wisdom of the Pawnee."

The husband and lover could not well do otherwise, and they were fain
to become deeply interested, it is true, but passive spectators of
this primitive species of ferrying. The Pawnee selected the beast of
Mahtoree, from among the three horses, with a readiness that proved he
was far from being ignorant of the properties of that noble animal, and
throwing himself upon its back, he rode into the margin of the river.
Thrusting an end of his lance into the hide, he bore the light vessel
up against the stream, and giving his steed the rein, they pushed boldly
into the current. Middleton and Paul followed, pressing as nigh the bark
as prudence would at all warrant. In this manner the young warrior bore
his precious cargo to the opposite bank in perfect safety, without the
slightest inconvenience to the passengers, and with a steadiness and
celerity which proved that both horse and rider were not unused to the
operation. When the shore was gained, the young Indian undid his work,
threw the skin over his shoulder, placed the sticks under his arm, and
returned, without speaking, to transfer the remainder of the party, in a
similar manner, to what was very justly considered the safer side of the
river.

"Now, friend Doctor," said the old man, when he saw the Indian plunging
into the river a second time, "do I know there is faith in yonder
Red-skin. He is a good-looking, ay, and an honest-looking youth, but
the winds of Heaven are not more deceitful than these savages, when the
devil has fairly beset them. Had the Pawnee been a Teton, or one of them
heartless Mingoes, that used to be prowling through the woods of York, a
time back, that is, some sixty years agone, we should have seen his back
and not his face turned towards us. My heart had its misgivings when I
saw the lad choose the better horse, for it would be as easy to leave us
with that beast, as it would for a nimble pigeon to part company from a
flock of noisy and heavy winged crows. But you see that truth is in the
boy, and make a Red-skin once your friend, he is yours so long as you
deal honestly by him."

"What may be the distance to the sources of this stream?" demanded
Doctor Battius, whose eyes were rolling over the whirling eddies of the
current, with a very portentous expression of doubt. "At what distance
may its secret springs be found?"

"That may be as the weather proves. I warrant me your legs would be
a-weary before you had followed its bed into the Rocky Mountains; but
then there are seasons when it might be done without wetting a foot."

"And in what particular divisions of the year do these periodical
seasons occur?"

"He that passes this spot a few months from this time, will find that
foaming water-course a desert of drifting sand."

The naturalist pondered deeply. Like most others, who are not endowed
with a superfluity of physical fortitude, the worthy man had found the
danger of passing the river, in so simple a manner, magnifying itself
in his eyes so rapidly, as the moment of adventure approached, that he
actually contemplated the desperate effort of going round the river, in
order to escape the hazard of crossing it. It may not be necessary to
dwell on the incredible ingenuity, with which terror will at any time
prop a tottering argument. The worthy Obed had gone over the whole
subject, with commendable diligence, and had just arrived at the
consoling conclusion, that there was nearly as much glory in discerning
the hidden sources of so considerable a stream, as in adding a plant,
or an insect, to the lists of the learned, when the Pawnee reached the
shore for the second time. The old man took his seat, with the utmost
deliberation, in the vessel of skin (so soon as it had been duly
arranged for his reception), and having carefully disposed of Hector
between his legs, he beckoned to his companion to occupy the third
place.

The naturalist placed a foot in the frail vessel, as an elephant will
try a bridge, or a horse is often seen to make a similar experiment,
before he will trust the whole of his corporeal treasure on the dreaded
flat, and then withdrew, just as the old man believed he was about to
seat himself.

"Venerable venator," he said, mournfully, "this is a most unscientific
bark. There is an inward monitor which bids me distrust its security!"

"Anan?" said the old man, who was pinching the ears of the hound, as a
father would play with the same member in a favourite child.

"I incline not to this irregular mode of experimenting on fluids. The
vessel has neither form, nor proportions."

"It is not as handsomely turned as I have seen a canoe in birchen bark,
but comfort may be taken in a wigwam as well as in a palace."

"It is impossible that any vessel constructed on principles so repugnant
to science can be safe. This tub, venerable hunter, will never reach the
opposite shore in safety."

"You are a witness of what it has done."

"Ay; but it was an anomaly in prosperity. If exceptions were to be taken
as rules, in the government of things, the human race would speedily be
plunged in the abysses of ignorance. Venerable trapper, this expedient,
in which you would repose your safety, is, in the annals of regular
inventions, what a lusus naturae may be termed in the lists of natural
history—a monster!"

How much longer Doctor Battius might have felt disposed to prolong
the discourse, it is difficult to say, for in addition to the powerful
personal considerations, which induced him to procrastinate an
experiment which was certainly not without its dangers, the pride of
reason was beginning to sustain him in the discussion. But, fortunately
for the credit of the old man's forbearance, when the naturalist reached
the word, with which he terminated his last speech, a sound arose in
the air that seemed a sort of supernatural echo to the idea itself. The
young Pawnee, who had awaited the termination of the incomprehensible
discussion, with grave and characteristic patience, raised his head, and
listened to the unknown cry, like a stag, whose mysterious faculties had
detected the footsteps of the distant hounds in the gale. The trapper
and the Doctor were not, however, entirely so uninstructed as to the
nature of the extraordinary sounds. The latter recognised in them the
well-known voice of his own beast, and he was about to rush up the
little bank, which confined the current, with all the longings of strong
affection, when Asinus himself galloped into view, at no great distance,
urged to the unnatural gait by the impatient and brutal Weucha, who
bestrode him.

The eyes of the Teton, and those of the fugitives met. The former raised
a long, loud, and piercing yell, in which the notes of exultation
were fearfully blended with those of warning. The signal served for a
finishing blow to the discussion on the merits of the bark, the Doctor
stepping as promptly to the side of the old man, as if a mental mist had
been miraculously removed from his eyes. In another instant the steed of
the young Pawnee was struggling with the torrent.

The utmost strength of the horse was needed to urge the fugitives,
beyond the flight of arrows that came sailing through the air, at the
next moment. The cry of Weucha had brought fifty of his comrades to
the shore, but fortunately among them all, there was not one of a rank
sufficient to entitle him to the privilege of bearing a fusee. One half
the stream, however, was not passed, before the form of Mahtoree himself
was seen on its bank, and an ineffectual discharge of firearms announced
the rage and disappointment of the chief. More than once the trapper had
raised his rifle, as if about to try its power on his enemies, but he as
often lowered it, without firing. The eyes of the Pawnee warrior glared
like those of the cougar, at the sight of so many of the hostile tribe,
and he answered the impotent effort of their chief, by tossing a hand
into the air in contempt, and raising the war-cry of his nation. The
challenge was too taunting to be endured. The Tetons dashed into the
stream in a body, and the river became dotted with the dark forms of
beasts and riders.

There was now a fearful struggle for the friendly bank. As the Dahcotahs
advanced with beasts, which had not, like that of the Pawnee, expended
their strength in former efforts, and as they moved unincumbered by any
thing but their riders, the speed of the pursuers greatly outstripped
that of the fugitives. The trapper, who clearly comprehended the whole
danger of their situation, calmly turned his eyes from the Tetons to his
young Indian associate, in order to examine whether the resolution of
the latter began to falter, as the former lessened the distance between
them. Instead of betraying fear, however, or any of that concern which
might so readily have been excited by the peculiarity of his risk, the
brow of the young warrior contracted to a look which indicated high and
deadly hostility.

"Do you greatly value life, friend Doctor?" demanded the old man, with a
sort of philosophical calmness, which made the question doubly appalling
to his companion.

"Not for itself," returned the naturalist, sipping some of the water
of the river from the hollow of his hand, in order to clear his husky
throat. "Not for itself, but exceedingly, inasmuch as natural history
has so deep a stake in my existence. Therefore—"

"Ay!" resumed the other, who mused too deeply to dissect the ideas
of the Doctor with his usual sagacity, "'tis in truth the history of
natur', and a base and craven feeling it is! Now is life as precious to
this young Pawnee, as to any governor in the States, and he might save
it, or at least stand some chance of saving it, by letting us go down
the stream; and yet you see he keeps his faith manfully, and like an
Indian warrior. For myself, I am old, and willing to take the fortune
that the Lord may see fit to give, nor do I conceit that you are of much
benefit to mankind; and it is a crying shame, if not a sin, that so fine
a youth as this should lose his scalp for two beings so worthless
as ourselves. I am therefore disposed, provided that it shall prove
agreeable to you, to tell the lad to make the best of his way, and to
leave us to the mercy of the Tetons."

"I repel the proposition, as repugnant to nature, and as treason to
science!" exclaimed the alarmed naturalist. "Our progress is miraculous;
and as this admirable invention moves with so wonderful a facility, a
few more minutes will serve to bring us to land."

The old man regarded him intently for an instant, and shaking his head
he said—

"Lord, what a thing is fear! it transforms the creatur's of the world
and the craft of man, making that which is ugly, seemly in our eyes, and
that which is beautiful, unsightly! Lord, Lord, what a thing is fear!"

A termination was, however, put to the discussion, by the increasing
interest of the chase. The horses of the Dahcotahs had, by this time,
gained the middle of the current, and their riders were already filling
the air with yells of triumph. At this moment Middleton and Paul who had
led the females to a little thicket, appeared again on the margin of the
stream, menacing their enemies with the rifle.

"Mount, mount," shouted the trapper, the instant he beheld them; "mount
and fly, if you value those who lean on you for help. Mount, and leave
us in the hands of the Lord."

"Stoop your head, old trapper," returned the voice of Paul, "down with
ye both into your nest. The Teton devil is in your line; down with your
heads and make way for a Kentucky bullet."

The old man turned his head, and saw that the eager Mahtoree, who
preceded his party some distance, had brought himself nearly in a line
with the bark and the bee-hunter, who stood perfectly ready to execute
his hostile threat. Bending his body low, the rifle was discharged, and
the swift lead whizzed harmlessly past him, on its more distant errand.
But the eye of the Teton chief was not less quick and certain than that
of his enemy. He threw himself from his horse the moment preceding
the report, and sunk into the water. The beast snorted with terror and
anguish, throwing half his form out of the river in a desperate plunge.
Then he was seen drifting away in the torrent, and dyeing the turbid
waters with his blood.