The Last of the Mohicans

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"I practice no such employment."

"You have a pair of legs that might make a long path seem short! you
journey sometimes, I fancy, with tidings for the general."

"Never; I follow no other than my own high vocation, which is
instruction in sacred music!"

"'Tis a strange calling!" muttered Hawkeye, with an inward laugh, "to
go through life, like a catbird, mocking all the ups and downs that may
happen to come out of other men's throats. Well, friend, I suppose it
is your gift, and mustn't be denied any more than if 'twas shooting, or
some other better inclination. Let us hear what you can do in that way;
'twill be a friendly manner of saying good-night, for 'tis time that
these ladies should be getting strength for a hard and a long push, in
the pride of the morning, afore the Maquas are stirring."

"With joyful pleasure do I consent", said David, adjusting his
iron-rimmed spectacles, and producing his beloved little volume,
which he immediately tendered to Alice. "What can be more fitting
and consolatory, than to offer up evening praise, after a day of such
exceeding jeopardy!"

Alice smiled; but, regarding Heyward, she blushed and hesitated.

"Indulge yourself," he whispered; "ought not the suggestion of the
worthy namesake of the Psalmist to have its weight at such a moment?"

Encouraged by his opinion, Alice did what her pious inclinations, and
her keen relish for gentle sounds, had before so strongly urged. The
book was open at a hymn not ill adapted to their situation, and in which
the poet, no longer goaded by his desire to excel the inspired King
of Israel, had discovered some chastened and respectable powers. Cora
betrayed a disposition to support her sister, and the sacred song
proceeded, after the indispensable preliminaries of the pitchpipe, and
the tune had been duly attended to by the methodical David.

The air was solemn and slow. At times it rose to the fullest compass of
the rich voices of the females, who hung over their little book in holy
excitement, and again it sank so low, that the rushing of the waters ran
through their melody, like a hollow accompaniment. The natural taste and
true ear of David governed and modified the sounds to suit the confined
cavern, every crevice and cranny of which was filled with the thrilling
notes of their flexible voices. The Indians riveted their eyes on the
rocks, and listened with an attention that seemed to turn them into
stone. But the scout, who had placed his chin in his hand, with an
expression of cold indifference, gradually suffered his rigid features
to relax, until, as verse succeeded verse, he felt his iron nature
subdued, while his recollection was carried back to boyhood, when his
ears had been accustomed to listen to similar sounds of praise, in the
settlements of the colony. His roving eyes began to moisten, and before
the hymn was ended scalding tears rolled out of fountains that had long
seemed dry, and followed each other down those cheeks, that had oftener
felt the storms of heaven than any testimonials of weakness. The singers
were dwelling on one of those low, dying chords, which the ear devours
with such greedy rapture, as if conscious that it is about to lose them,
when a cry, that seemed neither human nor earthly, rose in the outward
air, penetrating not only the recesses of the cavern, but to the inmost
hearts of all who heard it. It was followed by a stillness apparently
as deep as if the waters had been checked in their furious progress, at
such a horrid and unusual interruption.

"What is it?" murmured Alice, after a few moments of terrible suspense.

"What is it?" repeated Hewyard aloud.

Neither Hawkeye nor the Indians made any reply. They listened, as if
expecting the sound would be repeated, with a manner that expressed
their own astonishment. At length they spoke together, earnestly, in the
Delaware language, when Uncas, passing by the inner and most concealed
aperture, cautiously left the cavern. When he had gone, the scout first
spoke in English.

"What it is, or what it is not, none here can tell, though two of us
have ranged the woods for more than thirty years. I did believe there
was no cry that Indian or beast could make, that my ears had not heard;
but this has proved that I was only a vain and conceited mortal."

"Was it not, then, the shout the warriors make when they wish to
intimidate their enemies?" asked Cora who stood drawing her veil about
her person, with a calmness to which her agitated sister was a stranger.

"No, no; this was bad, and shocking, and had a sort of unhuman sound;
but when you once hear the war-whoop, you will never mistake it for
anything else. Well, Uncas!" speaking in Delaware to the young chief as
he re-entered, "what see you? do our lights shine through the blankets?"

The answer was short, and apparently decided, being given in the same
tongue.

"There is nothing to be seen without," continued Hawkeye, shaking his
head in discontent; "and our hiding-place is still in darkness. Pass
into the other cave, you that need it, and seek for sleep; we must
be afoot long before the sun, and make the most of our time to get to
Edward, while the Mingoes are taking their morning nap."

Cora set the example of compliance, with a steadiness that taught the
more timid Alice the necessity of obedience. Before leaving the place,
however, she whispered a request to Duncan, that he would follow. Uncas
raised the blanket for their passage, and as the sisters turned to thank
him for this act of attention, they saw the scout seated again before
the dying embers, with his face resting on his hands, in a manner which
showed how deeply he brooded on the unaccountable interruption which had
broken up their evening devotions.

Heyward took with him a blazing knot, which threw a dim light through
the narrow vista of their new apartment. Placing it in a favorable
position, he joined the females, who now found themselves alone with
him for the first time since they had left the friendly ramparts of Fort
Edward.

"Leave us not, Duncan," said Alice: "we cannot sleep in such a place as
this, with that horrid cry still ringing in our ears."

"First let us examine into the security of your fortress," he answered,
"and then we will speak of rest."

He approached the further end of the cavern, to an outlet, which, like
the others, was concealed by blankets; and removing the thick screen,
breathed the fresh and reviving air from the cataract. One arm of the
river flowed through a deep, narrow ravine, which its current had
worn in the soft rock, directly beneath his feet, forming an effectual
defense, as he believed, against any danger from that quarter; the
water, a few rods above them, plunging, glancing, and sweeping along in
its most violent and broken manner.

"Nature has made an impenetrable barrier on this side," he continued,
pointing down the perpendicular declivity into the dark current before
he dropped the blanket; "and as you know that good men and true are on
guard in front I see no reason why the advice of our honest host should
be disregarded. I am certain Cora will join me in saying that sleep is
necessary to you both."

"Cora may submit to the justice of your opinion though she cannot put it
in practice," returned the elder sister, who had placed herself by the
side of Alice, on a couch of sassafras; "there would be other causes to
chase away sleep, though we had been spared the shock of this mysterious
noise. Ask yourself, Heyward, can daughters forget the anxiety a father
must endure, whose children lodge he knows not where or how, in such a
wilderness, and in the midst of so many perils?"

"He is a soldier, and knows how to estimate the chances of the woods."

"He is a father, and cannot deny his nature."

"How kind has he ever been to all my follies, how tender and indulgent
to all my wishes!" sobbed Alice. "We have been selfish, sister, in
urging our visit at such hazard."

"I may have been rash in pressing his consent in a moment of much
embarrassment, but I would have proved to him, that however others might
neglect him in his strait his children at least were faithful."

"When he heard of your arrival at Edward," said Heyward, kindly, "there
was a powerful struggle in his bosom between fear and love; though
the latter, heightened, if possible, by so long a separation, quickly
prevailed. 'It is the spirit of my noble-minded Cora that leads them,
Duncan', he said, 'and I will not balk it. Would to God, that he who
holds the honor of our royal master in his guardianship, would show but
half her firmness!'"

"And did he not speak of me, Heyward?" demanded Alice, with jealous
affection; "surely, he forgot not altogether his little Elsie?"

"That were impossible," returned the young man; "he called you by a
thousand endearing epithets, that I may not presume to use, but to the
justice of which, I can warmly testify. Once, indeed, he said--"

Duncan ceased speaking; for while his eyes were riveted on those of
Alice, who had turned toward him with the eagerness of filial affection,
to catch his words, the same strong, horrid cry, as before, filled the
air, and rendered him mute. A long, breathless silence succeeded, during
which each looked at the others in fearful expectation of hearing the
sound repeated. At length, the blanket was slowly raised, and the scout
stood in the aperture with a countenance whose firmness evidently
began to give way before a mystery that seemed to threaten some danger,
against which all his cunning and experience might prove of no avail.




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 to. 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."