Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
CHAPTER 7
"They do not sleep, On yonder cliffs, a grizzly band, I see them sit."--Gray
"'Twould be neglecting a warning that is given for our good to lie hid any longer,"
said Hawkeye "when such sounds are raised in the forest.
These gentle ones may keep close, but the Mohicans and I will watch upon the rock,
where I suppose a major of the Sixtieth would wish to keep us company."
"Is, then, our danger so pressing?" asked Cora.
"He who makes strange sounds, and gives them out for man's information, alone knows
our danger.
I should think myself wicked, unto rebellion against His will, was I to burrow
with such warnings in the air!
Even the weak soul who passes his days in singing is stirred by the cry, and, as he
says, is 'ready to go forth to the battle' If 'twere only a battle, it would be a
thing understood by us all, and easily
managed; but I have heard that when such shrieks are atween heaven and 'arth, it
betokens another sort of warfare!"
"If all our reasons for fear, my friend, are confined to such as proceed from
supernatural causes, we have but little occasion to be alarmed," continued the
undisturbed Cora, "are you certain that our
enemies have not invented some new and ingenious method to strike us with terror,
that their conquest may become more easy?"
"Lady," returned the scout, solemnly, "I have listened to all the sounds of the
woods for thirty years, as a man will listen whose life and death depend on the
quickness of his ears.
There is no whine of the panther, no whistle of the catbird, nor any invention
of the devilish Mingoes, that can cheat me!
I have heard the forest moan like mortal men in their affliction; often, and again,
have I listened to the wind playing its music in the branches of the girdled trees;
and I have heard the lightning cracking in
the air like the snapping of blazing brush as it spitted forth sparks and forked
flames; but never have I thought that I heard more than the pleasure of him who
sported with the things of his hand.
But neither the Mohicans, nor I, who am a white man without a cross, can explain the
cry just heard. We, therefore, believe it a sign given for
our good."
"It is extraordinary!" said Heyward, taking his pistols from the place where he had
laid them on entering; "be it a sign of peace or a signal of war, it must be looked
Lead the way, my friend; I follow."
On issuing from their place of confinement, the whole party instantly experienced a
grateful renovation of spirits, by exchanging the pent air of the hiding-place
for the cool and invigorating atmosphere
which played around the whirlpools and pitches of the cataract.
A heavy evening breeze swept along the surface of the river, and seemed to drive
the roar of the falls into the recesses of their own cavern, whence it issued heavily
and constant, like thunder rumbling beyond the distant hills.
The moon had risen, and its light was already glancing here and there on the
waters above them; but the extremity of the rock where they stood still lay in shadow.
With the exception of the sounds produced by the rushing waters, and an occasional
breathing of the air, as it murmured past them in fitful currents, the scene was as
still as night and solitude could make it.
In vain were the eyes of each individual bent along the opposite shores, in quest of
some signs of life, that might explain the nature of the interruption they had heard.
Their anxious and eager looks were baffled by the deceptive light, or rested only on
naked rocks, and straight and immovable trees.
"Here is nothing to be seen but the gloom and quiet of a lovely evening," whispered
Duncan; "how much should we prize such a scene, and all this breathing solitude, at
any other moment, Cora!
Fancy yourselves in security, and what now, perhaps, increases your terror, may be made
conducive to enjoyment--" "Listen!" interrupted Alice.
The caution was unnecessary.
Once more the same sound arose, as if from the bed of the river, and having broken out
of the narrow bounds of the cliffs, was heard undulating through the forest, in
distant and dying cadences.
"Can any here give a name to such a cry?" demanded Hawkeye, when the last echo was
lost in the woods; "if so, let him speak; for myself, I judge it not to belong to
'arth!"
"Here, then, is one who can undeceive you," said Duncan; "I know the sound full well,
for often have I heard it on the field of battle, and in situations which are
frequent in a soldier's life.
'Tis the horrid shriek that a horse will give in his agony; oftener drawn from him
in pain, though sometimes in terror.
My charger is either a prey to the beasts of the forest, or he sees his danger,
without the power to avoid it.
The sound might deceive me in the cavern, but in the open air I know it too well to
be wrong."
The scout and his companions listened to this simple explanation with the interest
of men who imbibe new ideas, at the same time that they get rid of old ones, which
had proved disagreeable inmates.
The two latter uttered their usual expressive exclamation, "hugh!" as the
truth first glanced upon their minds, while the former, after a short, musing pause,
took upon himself to reply.
"I cannot deny your words," he said, "for I am little skilled in horses, though born
where they abound.
The wolves must be hovering above their heads on the bank, and the timorsome
creatures are calling on man for help, in the best manner they are able.
Uncas"--he spoke in Delaware--"Uncas, drop down in the canoe, and whirl a brand among
the pack; or fear may do what the wolves can't get at to perform, and leave us
without horses in the morning, when we
shall have so much need to journey swiftly!"
The young native had already descended to the water to comply, when a long howl was
raised on the edge of the river, and was borne swiftly off into the depths of the
forest, as though the beasts, of their own
accord, were abandoning their prey in sudden terror.
Uncas, with instinctive quickness, receded, and the three foresters held another of
their low, earnest conferences.
"We have been like hunters who have lost the points of the heavens, and from whom
the sun has been hid for days," said Hawkeye, turning away from his companions;
"now we begin again to know the signs of
our course, and the paths are cleared from briers!
Seat yourselves in the shade which the moon throws from yonder beech--'tis thicker than
that of the pines--and let us wait for that which the Lord may choose to send next.
Let all your conversation be in whispers; though it would be better, and, perhaps, in
the end, wiser, if each one held discourse with his own thoughts, for a time."
The manner of the scout was seriously impressive, though no longer distinguished
by any signs of unmanly apprehension.
It was evident that his momentary weakness had vanished with the explanation of a
mystery which his own experience had not served to fathom; and though he now felt
all the realities of their actual
condition, that he was prepared to meet them with the energy of his hardy nature.
This feeling seemed also common to the natives, who placed themselves in positions
which commanded a full view of both shores, while their own persons were effectually
concealed from observation.
In such circumstances, common prudence dictated that Heyward and his companions
should imitate a caution that proceeded from so intelligent a source.
The young man drew a pile of the sassafras from the cave, and placing it in the chasm
which separated the two caverns, it was occupied by the sisters, who were thus
protected by the rocks from any missiles,
while their anxiety was relieved by the assurance that no danger could approach
without a warning.
Heyward himself was posted at hand, so near that he might communicate with his
companions without raising his voice to a dangerous elevation; while David, in
imitation of the woodsmen, bestowed his
person in such a manner among the fissures of the rocks, that his ungainly limbs were
no longer offensive to the eye. In this manner hours passed without further
interruption.
The moon reached the zenith, and shed its mild light perpendicularly on the lovely
sight of the sisters slumbering peacefully in each other's arms.
Duncan cast the wide shawl of Cora before a spectacle he so much loved to contemplate,
and then suffered his own head to seek a pillow on the rock.
David began to utter sounds that would have shocked his delicate organs in more wakeful
moments; in short, all but Hawkeye and the Mohicans lost every idea of consciousness,
in uncontrollable drowsiness.
But the watchfulness of these vigilant protectors neither tired nor slumbered.
Immovable as that rock, of which each appeared to form a part, they lay, with
their eyes roving, without intermission, along the dark margin of trees, that
bounded the adjacent shores of the narrow stream.
Not a sound escaped them; the most subtle examination could not have told they
breathed.
It was evident that this excess of caution proceeded from an experience that no
subtlety on the part of their enemies could deceive.
It was, however, continued without any apparent consequences, until the moon had
set, and a pale streak above the treetops, at the bend of the river a little below,
announced the approach of day.
Then, for the first time, Hawkeye was seen to stir.
He crawled along the rock and shook Duncan from his heavy slumbers.
"Now is the time to journey," he whispered; "awake the gentle ones, and be ready to get
into the canoe when I bring it to the landing-place."
"Have you had a quiet night?" said Heyward; "for myself, I believe sleep has got the
better of my vigilance." "All is yet still as midnight.
Be silent, but be quick."
By this time Duncan was thoroughly awake, and he immediately lifted the shawl from
the sleeping females.
The motion caused Cora to raise her hand as if to repulse him, while Alice murmured, in
her soft, gentle voice, "No, no, dear father, we were not deserted; Duncan was
with us!"
"Yes, sweet innocence," whispered the youth; "Duncan is here, and while life
continues or danger remains, he will never quit thee.
Cora!
Alice! awake! The hour has come to move!"
A loud shriek from the younger of the sisters, and the form of the other standing
upright before him, in bewildered horror, was the unexpected answer he received.
While the words were still on the lips of Heyward, there had arisen such a tumult of
yells and cries as served to drive the swift currents of his own blood back from
its bounding course into the fountains of his heart.
It seemed, for near a minute, as if the demons of hell had possessed themselves of
the air about them, and were venting their savage humors in barbarous sounds.
The cries came from no particular direction, though it was evident they
filled the woods, and, as the appalled listeners easily imagined, the caverns of
the falls, the rocks, the bed of the river, and the upper air.
David raised his tall person in the midst of the infernal din, with a hand on either
ear, exclaiming:
"Whence comes this discord! Has hell broke loose, that man should utter
sounds like these!"
The bright flashes and the quick reports of a dozen rifles, from the opposite banks of
the stream, followed this incautious exposure of his person, and left the
unfortunate singing master senseless on
that rock where he had been so long slumbering.
The Mohicans boldly sent back the intimidating yell of their enemies, who
raised a shout of savage triumph at the fall of Gamut.
The flash of rifles was then quick and close between them, but either party was
too well skilled to leave even a limb exposed to the hostile aim.
Duncan listened with intense anxiety for the strokes of the paddle, believing that
flight was now their only refuge.
The river glanced by with its ordinary velocity, but the canoe was nowhere to be
seen on its dark waters.
He had just fancied they were cruelly deserted by their scout, as a stream of
flame issued from the rock beneath them, and a fierce yell, blended with a shriek of
agony, announced that the messenger of
death sent from the fatal weapon of Hawkeye, had found a victim.
At this slight repulse the assailants instantly withdrew, and gradually the place
became as still as before the sudden tumult.
Duncan seized the favorable moment to spring to the body of Gamut, which he bore
within the shelter of the narrow chasm that protected the sisters.
In another minute the whole party was collected in this spot of comparative
safety.
"The poor fellow has saved his scalp," said Hawkeye, coolly passing his hand over the
head of David; "but he is a proof that a man may be born with too long a tongue!
'Twas downright madness to show six feet of flesh and blood, on a naked rock, to the
raging savages. I only wonder he has escaped with life."
"Is he not dead?" demanded Cora, in a voice whose husky tones showed how powerfully
natural horror struggled with her assumed firmness.
"Can we do aught to assist the wretched man?"
"No, no! the life is in his heart yet, and after he has slept awhile he will come to
himself, and be a wiser man for it, till the hour of his real time shall come,"
returned Hawkeye, casting another oblique
glance at the insensible body, while he filled his charger with admirable nicety.
"Carry him in, Uncas, and lay him on the sassafras.
The longer his nap lasts the better it will be for him, as I doubt whether he can find
a proper cover for such a shape on these rocks; and singing won't do any good with
the Iroquois."
"You believe, then, the attack will be renewed?" asked Heyward.
"Do I expect a hungry wolf will satisfy his craving with a mouthful!
They have lost a man, and 'tis their fashion, when they meet a loss, and fail in
the surprise, to fall back; but we shall have them on again, with new expedients to
circumvent us, and master our scalps.
Our main hope," he continued, raising his rugged countenance, across which a shade of
anxiety just then passed like a darkening cloud, "will be to keep the rock until
Munro can send a party to our help!
God send it may be soon and under a leader that knows the Indian customs!"
"You hear our probable fortunes, Cora," said Duncan, "and you know we have
everything to hope from the anxiety and experience of your father.
Come, then, with Alice, into this cavern, where you, at least, will be safe from the
murderous rifles of our enemies, and where you may bestow a care suited to your gentle
natures on our unfortunate comrade."
The sisters followed him into the outer cave, where David was beginning, by his
sighs, to give symptoms of returning consciousness, and then commending the
wounded man to their attention, he immediately prepared to leave them.
"Duncan!" said the tremulous voice of Cora, when he had reached the mouth of the
cavern.
He turned and beheld the speaker, whose color had changed to a deadly paleness, and
whose lips quivered, gazing after him, with an expression of interest which immediately
recalled him to her side.
"Remember, Duncan, how necessary your safety is to our own--how you bear a
father's sacred trust--how much depends on your discretion and care--in short," she
added, while the telltale blood stole over
her features, crimsoning her very temples, "how very deservedly dear you are to all of
the name of Munro."
"If anything could add to my own base love of life," said Heyward, suffering his
unconscious eyes to wander to the youthful form of the silent Alice, "it would be so
kind an assurance.
As major of the Sixtieth, our honest host will tell you I must take my share of the
fray; but our task will be easy; it is merely to keep these blood-hounds at bay
for a few hours."
Without waiting for a reply, he tore himself from the presence of the sisters,
and joined the scout and his companions, who still lay within the protection of the
little chasm between the two caves.
"I tell you, Uncas," said the former, as Heyward joined them, "you are wasteful of
your powder, and the kick of the rifle disconcerts your aim!
Little powder, light lead, and a long arm, seldom fail of bringing the death screech
from a Mingo! At least, such has been my experience with
the creatur's.
Come, friends: let us to our covers, for no man can tell when or where a Maqua
(FOOTNOTE: Mingo was the Delaware term of the Five Nations.
Maquas was the name given them by the Dutch.
The French, from their first intercourse with them, called them Iroquois.)
-will strike his blow."
The Indians silently repaired to their appointed stations, which were fissures in
the rocks, whence they could command the approaches to the foot of the falls.
In the center of the little island, a few short and stunted pines had found root,
forming a thicket, into which Hawkeye darted with the swiftness of a deer,
followed by the active Duncan.
Here they secured themselves, as well as circumstances would permit, among the
shrubs and fragments of stone that were scattered about the place.
Above them was a bare, rounded rock, on each side of which the water played its
gambols, and plunged into the abysses beneath, in the manner already described.
As the day had now dawned, the opposite shores no longer presented a confused
outline, but they were able to look into the woods, and distinguish objects beneath
a canopy of gloomy pines.
A long and anxious watch succeeded, but without any further evidences of a renewed
attack; and Duncan began to hope that their fire had proved more fatal than was
supposed, and that their enemies had been effectually repulsed.
When he ventured to utter this impression to his companions, it was met by Hawkeye
with an incredulous shake of the head.
"You know not the nature of a Maqua, if you think he is so easily beaten back without a
scalp!" he answered.
"If there was one of the imps yelling this morning, there were forty! and they know
our number and quality too well to give up the chase so soon.
Hist! look into the water above, just where it breaks over the rocks.
I am no mortal, if the risky devils haven't swam down upon the very pitch, and, as bad
luck would have it, they have hit the head of the island.
Hist! man, keep close! or the hair will be off your crown in the turning of a knife!"
Heyward lifted his head from the cover, and beheld what he justly considered a prodigy
of rashness and skill.
The river had worn away the edge of the soft rock in such a manner as to render its
first pitch less abrupt and perpendicular than is usual at waterfalls.
With no other guide than the ripple of the stream where it met the head of the island,
a party of their insatiable foes had ventured into the current, and swam down
upon this point, knowing the ready access
it would give, if successful, to their intended victims.
As Hawkeye ceased speaking, four human heads could be seen peering above a few
logs of drift-wood that had lodged on these naked rocks, and which had probably
suggested the idea of the practicability of the hazardous undertaking.
At the next moment, a fifth form was seen floating over the green edge of the fall,
a little from the line of the island.
The savage struggled powerfully to gain the point of safety, and, favored by the
glancing water, he was already stretching forth an arm to meet the grasp of his
companions, when he shot away again with
the shirling current, appeared to rise into the air, with uplifted arms and starting
eyeballs, and fell, with a sudden plunge, into that deep and yawning abyss over which
he hovered.
A single, wild, despairing shriek rose from the cavern, and all was hushed again as the
grave.
The first generous impulse of Duncan was to rush to the rescue of the hapless wretch;
but he felt himself bound to the spot by the iron grasp of the immovable scout.
"Would ye bring certain death upon us, by telling the Mingoes where we lie?" demanded
Hawkeye, sternly; "'Tis a charge of powder saved, and ammunition is as precious now as
breath to a worried deer!
Freshen the priming of your pistols--the midst of the falls is apt to dampen the
brimstone--and stand firm for a close struggle, while I fire on their rush."
He placed a finger in his mouth, and drew a long, shrill whistle, which was answered
from the rocks that were guarded by the Mohicans.
Duncan caught glimpses of heads above the scattered drift-wood, as this signal rose
on the air, but they disappeared again as suddenly as they had glanced upon his
sight.
A low, rustling sound next drew his attention behind him, and turning his head,
he beheld Uncas within a few feet, creeping to his side.
Hawkeye spoke to him in Delaware, when the young chief took his position with singular
caution and undisturbed coolness.
To Heyward this was a moment of feverish and impatient suspense; though the scout
saw fit to select it as a fit occasion to read a lecture to his more youthful
associates on the art of using firearms with discretion.
"Of all we'pons," he commenced, "the long barreled, true-grooved, soft-metaled rifle
is the most dangerous in skillful hands, though it wants a strong arm, a quick eye,
and great judgment in charging, to put forth all its beauties.
The gunsmiths can have but little insight into their trade when they make their
fowling-pieces and short horsemen's--"
He was interrupted by the low but expressive "hugh" of Uncas.
"I see them, boy, I see them!" continued Hawkeye; "they are gathering for the rush,
or they would keep their dingy backs below the logs.
Well, let them," he added, examining his flint; "the leading man certainly comes on
to his death, though it should be Montcalm himself!"
At that moment the woods were filled with another burst of cries, and at the signal
four savages sprang from the cover of the driftwood.
Heyward felt a burning desire to rush forward to meet them, so intense was the
delirious anxiety of the moment; but he was restrained by the deliberate examples of
the scout and Uncas.
When their foes, who had leaped over the black rocks that divided them, with long
bounds, uttering the wildest yells, were within a few rods, the rifle of Hawkeye
slowly rose among the shrubs, and poured out its fatal contents.
The foremost Indian bounded like a stricken deer, and fell headlong among the clefts of
the island.
"Now, Uncas!" cried the scout, drawing his long knife, while his quick eyes began to
flash with ardor, "take the last of the screeching imps; of the other two we are
sartain!"
He was obeyed; and but two enemies remained to be overcome.
Heyward had given one of his pistols to Hawkeye, and together they rushed down a
little declivity toward their foes; they discharged their weapons at the same
instant, and equally without success.
"I know'd it! and I said it!" muttered the scout, whirling the despised little
implement over the falls with bitter disdain.
"Come on, ye bloody minded hell-hounds! ye meet a man without a cross!"
The words were barely uttered, when he encountered a savage of gigantic stature,
of the fiercest mien.
At the same moment, Duncan found himself engaged with the other, in a similar
contest of hand to hand.
With ready skill, Hawkeye and his antagonist each grasped that uplifted arm
of the other which held the dangerous knife.
For near a minute they stood looking one another in the eye, and gradually exerting
the power of their muscles for the mastery.
At length, the toughened sinews of the white man prevailed over the less practiced
limbs of the native.
The arm of the latter slowly gave way before the increasing force of the scout,
who, suddenly wresting his armed hand from the grasp of the foe, drove the sharp
weapon through his naked *** to the heart.
In the meantime, Heyward had been pressed in a more deadly struggle.
His slight sword was snapped in the first encounter.
As he was destitute of any other means of defense, his safety now depended entirely
on bodily strength and resolution.
Though deficient in neither of these qualities, he had met an enemy every way
his equal.
Happily, he soon succeeded in disarming his adversary, whose knife fell on the rock at
their feet; and from this moment it became a fierce struggle who should cast the other
over the dizzy height into a neighboring cavern of the falls.
Every successive struggle brought them nearer to the verge, where Duncan perceived
the final and conquering effort must be made.
Each of the combatants threw all his energies into that effort, and the result
was, that both tottered on the brink of the precipice.
Heyward felt the grasp of the other at his throat, and saw the grim smile the savage
gave, under the revengeful hope that he hurried his enemy to a fate similar to his
own, as he felt his body slowly yielding to
a resistless power, and the young man experienced the passing agony of such a
moment in all its horrors.
At that instant of extreme danger, a dark hand and glancing knife appeared before
him; the Indian released his hold, as the blood flowed freely from around the severed
tendons of the wrist; and while Duncan was
drawn backward by the saving hand of Uncas, his charmed eyes still were riveted on the
fierce and disappointed countenance of his foe, who fell sullenly and disappointed
down the irrecoverable precipice.
"To cover! to cover!" cried Hawkeye, who just then had despatched the enemy; "to
cover, for your lives! the work is but half ended!"
The young Mohican gave a shout of triumph, and followed by Duncan, he glided up the
acclivity they had descended to the combat, and sought the friendly shelter of the
rocks and shrubs.