Such an event quickened the steps of the party, who followed the Leather-Stocking with the urgency required by the occasion.
"Tread on the soft ground," he cried, when they were in a gloom where sight availed them but little, "and keep in the white smoke; keep the skin close on her, lad; she"s a precious one--another will be hard to be found."
Obedient to the hunter"s directions, they followed his steps and advice implicitly; and, although the narrow pas sage along the winding of the spring led amid burning logs and falling branches, they happily achieved it in safety. No one but a man long accustomed to the woods could have traced his route through the smoke, in which respiration was difficult, and sight nearly useless; but the experience of Natty conducted them to an opening through the rocks, where, with a little difficulty, they soon descended to another terrace, and emerged at once into a tolerably clear atmosphere.
The feelings of Edwards and Elizabeth at reaching this spot may be imagined, though not easily described. No one seemed to exult more than their guide, who turned, with Mohegan still lashed to his back, and, laughing in his own manner, said:
"I knowed "twa the Frenchman"s powder, gal; it went so all together; your coa.r.s.e grain will squib for a minute. The Iroquois had none of the best powder when I went agin" the Canada tribes, under Sir William. Did I ever tell you the story, lad, consarning the scrimmage with--"
"For G.o.d"s sake, tell me nothing now, Natty, until we are entirely safe.
Where shall we go next?"
"Why, on the platform of rock over the cave, to be sure; you will be safe enough there, or we"ll go Into It, if you be so minded." The young man started, and appeared agitated; but, Looking around him with an anxious eye, said quickly:
"Shalt we be safe on the rock? cannot the fire reach us there, too?"
"Can"t the boy see?" said Natty, with the coolness of one accustomed to the kind of danger he had just encountered. "Had ye stayed in the place above ten minutes longer, you would both have been in ashes, but here you may stay forever, and no fire can touch you, until they burn the rocks as well as the woods."
With this a.s.surance, which was obviously true, they proceeded to the spot, and Natty deposited his load, placing the Indian on the ground with his back against a fragment of the rocks. Elizabeth sank on the ground, and buried her face in her hands, while her heart was swelling with a variety of conflicting emotions.
"Let me urge you to take a restorative, Miss Temple," said Edwards respectfully; "your frame will sink else."
"Leave me, leave me," she said, raising her beaming eyes for a moment to his; "I feel too much for words! I am grateful, Oliver, for this miraculous escape; and next to my G.o.d to you."
Edwards withdrew to the edge of the rock, and shouted:
"Benjamin! where are you, Benjamin?"
A hoa.r.s.e voice replied, as if from the bowels of the earth:
"Hereaway, master; stowed in this here bit of a hole, which is all the time as hot as the cook"s coppers. I"m tired of my berth, d"ye see, and if-so-be that Leather Stocking has got much overhauling to do before he sails after them said beaver I"ll go into dock again, and ride out my quarantine, till I can get prottick from the law, and so hold on upon the rest of my "spaniolas."
"Bring up a gla.s.s of water from the spring," continued Edwards, "and throw a little wine in it; hasten, I entreat you!"
"I knows but little of your small drink, Master Oliver," returned the steward, his voice issuing out of the cave into the open air, "and the Jamaikey held out no longer than to take a parting kiss with Billy Kirby, when he anch.o.r.ed me alongside the highway last night, where you run me down in the chase. But here"s summat of a red color that may suit a weak stomach, mayhap. That Master Kirby is no first-rate in a boat; but he"ll tack a cart among the stumps, all the same as a Lon"on pilot will back and fill, through the colliers in the Pool."
As the steward ascended while talking, by the time he had ended his speech he appeared on the rock with the desired restoratives, exhibiting the worn-out and bloated features of a man who had run deep in a debauch, and that lately.
Elizabeth took from the hands of Edwards the liquor which he offered and then motioned to be left again to herself.
The youth turned at her bidding, and observed Natty kindly a.s.siduous around the person of Mohegan. When their eyes met, the hunter said sorrowfully:
"His time has come, lad; see it in his eyes--when an Indian fixes his eye, he means to go but to one place; and what the wilful creatures put their minds on, they"re sure to do."
A quick tread prevented the reply, and in a few moments, to the amazement of the whole party, Mr. Grant was seen clinging to the side of the mountain, and striving to reach the place where they stood. Oliver sprang to his a.s.sistance, and by their united efforts the worthy divine was soon placed safely among them.
"How came you added to our number?" cried Edwards. "Is the hill alive with people at a time like this?"
The hasty but pious thanksgivings of the clergyman were soon e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, and, when he succeeded in collecting his bewildered senses, he replied:
"I heard that my child was seen coming to the mountain; and, when the fire broke over its summit, my uneasiness drew me up the road, where I found Louisa, in terror for Miss Temple. It was to seek her that I came into this dangerous place; and I think, but for G.o.d"s mercy, through the dogs of Natty, I should have perished in the flames myself."
"Ay! follow the hounds, and if there"s an opening they"ll scent it out,"
said Natty; "their noses be given them the same as man"s reason."
"I did so, and they led me to this place; but, praise be to G.o.d that I see you all safe and well."
"No, no," returned the hunter; "safe we be, but as for well, John can"t be called in a good way, unless you"ll say that for a man that"s taking his last look at "arth."
"He speaks the truth!" said the divine, with the holy awe with which he ever approached the dying; "I have been by too many death-beds, not to see that the hand of the tyrant is laid on this old warrior. Oh! how consoling it is to know that he has not rejected the offered mercy in the hour of his strength and of worldly temptations! The offspring of a race of heathens, he has in truth been "as a brand plucked from the burning.""
"No, no," returned Natty, who alone stood with him by the side of the dying warrior; "it is no burning that ails him, though his Indian feelings made him scorn to move, unless it be the burning of man"s wicked thoughts for near fourscore years; but it"s natur" giving out in a chasm that"s run too long.--Down with ye, Hector! down, I say! Flesh Isn"t iron, that a man can live forever, and see his kith and kin driven to a far country, and he left to mourn, with none to keep him company."
"John," said the divine, tenderly, "do you hear me? do you wish the prayers appointed by the church, at this trying moment?"
The Indian turned his ghastly face toward the speaker, and fastened his dark eyes on him, steadily, but vacantly.
No sign of recognition was made: and in a moment he moved his head again slowly toward the vale, and began to sing, using his own language, in those low, guttural tones, that have been so often mentioned, his notes rising with his theme, till they swelled so loud as to be distinct.
"I will come! I will come! to the land of the just I will come! The Maquas I have slain! I have slain the Maquas! and the Great Spirit calls to his son. I will come! I will come to the land of the just! I will come!"
"What says he, Leather-Stocking?" Inquired the priest, with tender interest; "sings he the Redeemer"s praise?"
"No, no--"tis his own praise that he speaks now," said Natty, turning in a melancholy manner from the sight of his dying friend; "and a good right he has to say it all, for I know every word to be true."
"May heaven avert such self-righteousness from his heart! Humility and penitence are the seals of Christianity; and, without feeling them deeply seated in the soul, all hope is delusive, and leads to vain expectations. Praise himself when his whole soul and body should unite to praise his Maker! John! you have enjoyed the blessings of a gospel ministry, and have been called from out a mult.i.tude of sinners and pagans, and, I trust, for a wise and gracious purpose. Do you now feel what it is to be justified by our Saviour"s death, and reject all weak and idle dependence on good works, that spring from man"s pride and vainglory?"
The Indian did not regard his interrogator, but he raised his head again, and said in a low, distinct voice:
"Who can say that the Maqous know the back of the Mohegan? What enemy that trusted in him did not see the morning? What Mingo that he chased ever sang the song of triumph? Did Mohegan ever he? No; the truth lived in him, and none else could come out of him. In his youth he was a warrior, and his moccasins left the stain of blood. In his age he was wise; his words at the council fire did not blow away with the winds."
"Ah! he has abandoned that vain relic of paganism, his songs," cried the divine; "what says he now? is he sensible of his lost state?"
"Lord!! man," said Natty, "he knows his end is at hand as well as you or I; but, so far from thinking it a loss, he believes it to be a great gain. He is old and stiff, and you have made the game so scarce and shy, that better shots than him find it hard to get a livelihood. Now he thinks he shall travel where it will always be good hunting; Where no wicked or unjust Indians can go; and where he shall meet all his tribe together agin. There"s not much loss in that, to a man whose hands are hardly fit for basket-making Loss! if there be any loss, "twill be to me. I"m sure after he"s gone, there will be but little left for me but to follow."
"His example and end, which, I humbly trust, shall yet be made glorious," returned Mr. Grant, "should lead your mind to dwell on the things of another life. But I feel it to be my duty to smooth the way for the parting spirit. This is the moment, John, when the reflection that you did not reject the mediation of the Redeemer, will bring balm to your soul. Trust not to any act of former days, but lay the burden of your sins at his feet, and you have his own blessed a.s.surance that he will not desert you."
"Though all you say be true, and you have scriptur" gospels for it, too," said Natty, "you will make nothing of the Indian. He hasn"t seen a Moravian p sin" the war; and it"s hard to keep them from going hack to their native ways. I should think "twould be as well to let the old man pa.s.s in peace. He"s happy now; I know it by his eye; and that"s more than I would say for the chief, sin" the time the Delawares broke up from the head waters of their river and went west. Ah"s me! "tis a grevious long time that, and many dark days have we seen together sin"
it."
"Hawk-eye!" said Mohegan, rousing with the last glimmering of life.
"Hawk-eye! listen to the words of your brother."
"Yes, John," said the hunter, in English, strongly affected by the appeal, and drawing to his side, "we have been brothers; and more so than it means in the Indian tongue. What would ye have with me, Chingachgook?"
"Hawk-eye! my fathers call me to the happy hunting grounds. The path is clear, and the eyes of Mohegan grow young. I look--but I see no white-skins; there are none to be seen but just and brave Indians.
Farewell, Hawk-eye--you shall go with the Fire-eater and the Young Eagle to the white man"s heaven; but I go after my fathers. Let the bow, and tomahawk, and pipe, and the wampum of Mohegan he laid in his grave; for when he starts "twil be in the night, like a warrior on a war-party, and he can not stop to seek them."