“Do your ears tell you that they have traced
our retreat?”
“I should be sorry to think they had, though
this is a spot that stout courage might hold for a
smart scrimmage. I will not deny, however, but
the horses cowered when I passed them, as though they
scented the wolves; and a wolf is a beast that is
apt to hover about an Indian ambushment, craving the
offals of the deer the savages kill.”
“You forget the buck at your feet! or, may we
not owe their visit to the dead colt? Ha! what
noise is that?”
“Poor Miriam!” murmured the stranger;
“thy foal was foreordained to become a prey
to ravenous beasts!” Then, suddenly lifting up
his voice, amid the eternal din of the waters, he
sang aloud: “First born of Egypt, smite
did he, Of mankind, and of beast also: O, Egypt!
wonders sent ’midst thee, On Pharaoh and his
servants too!”
“The death of the colt sits heavy on the heart
of its owner,” said the scout; “but it’s
a good sign to see a man account upon his dumb friends.
He has the religion of the matter, in believing what
is to happen will happen; and with such a consolation,
it won’t be long afore he submits to the rationality
of killing a four-footed beast to save the lives of
human men. It may be as you say,” he continued,
reverting to the purport of Heyward’s last remark;
“and the greater the reason why we should cut
our steaks, and let the carcass drive down the stream,
or we shall have the pack howling along the cliffs,
begrudging every mouthful we swallow. Besides,
though the Delaware tongue is the same as a book to
the Iroquois, the cunning varlets are quick enough
at understanding the reason of a wolf’s howl.”
The scout, while making his remarks, was busied in
collecting certain necessary implements; as he concluded,
he moved silently by the group of travelers, accompanied
by the Mohicans, who seemed to comprehend his intentions
with instinctive readiness, when the whole three disappeared
in succession, seeming to vanish against the dark face
of a perpendicular rock that rose to the height of
a few yards, within as many feet of the water’s
edge.
“Those strains
that once did sweet in Zion glide;
He wales a portion with
judicious care;
And ‘Let us worship
God’, he says, with solemn air.”—Burns
Heyward and his female companions witnessed this mysterious
movement with secret uneasiness; for, though the conduct
of the white man had hitherto been above reproach,
his rude equipments, blunt address, and strong antipathies,
together with the character of his silent associates,
were all causes for exciting distrust in minds that
had been so recently alarmed by Indian treachery.
The stranger alone disregarded the passing incidents.
He seated himself on a projection of the rocks, whence
he gave no other signs of consciousness than by the
struggles of his spirit, as manifested in frequent
and heavy sighs. Smothered voices were next heard,
as though men called to each other in the bowels of
the earth, when a sudden light flashed upon those
without, and laid bare the much-prized secret of the
place.
