Читать книгу The Mystery of The Woods - W. H. H. Murray - Страница 7

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It was evening. The last suggestion of daylight had faded out in the atmosphere, and the densest gloom enveloped the mountain-sides, and lay as with a pressure on the lake. The darkness was not such as clouds make; it was not the darkness of a veiled sky, of an obscured firmament, but of air possessed through and through, and thick with blackness. A hot night it was, and utterly calm. Not a movement in the air; not a movement on the water; not a sound stirred an aërial wave overhead. Even the loons floated through the gloom without a cry; and the birds of night, perched among the pines, sent forth neither challenge nor call.

Amid the gloom a boat was moving,—moving leisurely on as if he who guided its motion, either by reason of weariness or indolence of mood, was pleased with easy progress. It was so dark that the old Trapper,—for it was he who sat in the stern of the boat, plying with easy stroke his favorite paddle,—could not by any effort of sight catch even the outline of the shores or discern the edges of the islands past which he steered. It was from instinct rather than vision that the old man threaded his way around the points that projected into the lake, and the angles of the islands that lay athwart his course. He was on his return from a trip of several days' duration, which he had made to the south, and being within a few miles of his cabin felt no impulse to hasten. Indeed, the very warmth of the night, the intense darkness, and the perfectly level condition of the water, made the leisurely movement more enjoyable. The still air was full of odors which the balsams and cedars along the lake shore yielded forth, and the warm atmosphere most agreeable to the senses. He had reached the southern extremity of the last island which lay athwart his course, and was within a few miles of the bay at the head of which his cabin stood. Directing the movement of his boat a little farther out into the lake, he passed along within a few rods of the silent shore. Thus moving easily forward, he came to the northern point of the island, and as he passed around the extreme projection, he suddenly reversed his paddle and brought his boat to a stop.

The reason of this action was evident. On the main shore, within a short half mile of where he sat, a camp-fire was burning, the bright flame of which lighted the dark branches of the pines above it, the bright stretch of beach in front, and sent its lanes of light sharply out into the gloom that hung above the motionless surface of the lake.

For a moment the old Trapper sat in his boat looking at the fire and the objects grouped around it; evidently men, although at the distance he could not make out clearly their personal appearance. He had only left the lake himself two days before, and when he left it there was no sign of any such party's arrival; no forerunner, as is often the case when a large party make preparation for encampment.

"It sartinly is a leetle queer that so big a party should have come in without any notice of their comin'," muttered the old Trapper to himself; "yis, it's sartinly a leetle queer, for I axed Wild Bill himself,—and he had jest come through the Regis waters,—ef there was anybody comin' in, and he said—and I don't see why the man, ef he be a half vagabond, should lie in sech a matter—he said there wasn't a sign of a party's comin' in from the Canada line to the Racquette. No, I don't believe that Bill would lie without a motive, for that's agin natur', as I conceit; and sartin it is that his eye is quicker on a trail than a good many that don't love the bottle as much as Bill does. And yit, day afore yisterday, Bill told me that there wasn't a sign of a party atween the Canada line and the Racquette, where the crick without a stone enters it. And still there be a fire and there be men round it, half a dozen, more or less, and the big shanty is full of stuff; and there be two small tents, and there be a big un atween the other tents and the shanty. Lord! I sartinly hope that they have brought in a jestice of the peace with 'em and a Moravian missioner, so that they can start their settlement in regular city fashion.

"I sartinly never expected to see a dozen men campin' on one p'int in a lake where the pups and me have lived half as many years and never seed their numbers doubled. I guess I'll paddle in and say a cheerful word to 'em, and let 'em know they are sorter welcome; leastwise as much as they can reasonably expect to be by a man who loves the silence of the woods, and wishes they wa'n't within fifty mile of him. Yis, yis," said the old man to himself, as he paddled on, "I conceit jest how their axes will sound to-morrer mornin', for the city folks use their axes without any jedgment. No, the pups and me won't have much peace for sartin'; for atween their axes and their pieces they'll distarb the peace of natur', and make this lake more like a Dutch settlement than a pleasant spot for a man of my years and gifts to live in. Lord-a-massy! jest see that chap throw on the wood, as ef it didn't take the Lord a hundred year to grow them sticks. And here the air is hot enough to smother ye. And I've sartinly heerd the mutter of thunder west of the mountain twice already sence I turned the island's p'int. And ef the Lord don't talk to 'em afore mornin' in a way that will make 'em shake, it'll be because he's got careless himself techin' the wasteful ways of them that he permits to use the things he has growed."

As the Trapper had said, one of the six men that sat round the fire had risen, and after throwing on several armfuls of pine logs—quarterings from a huge trunk that lay stretched within twenty feet of the blaze—had rejoined the group, which, on rising, he had left. The old Trapper, in the mean time, was paddling, with rather rapid motion, in: and by the time that the flames had reached that degree of brightness to reveal minutely the surroundings, the earnestness of his stroke had brought him within twenty rods of the beach. It was not in accordance with the habits of the man to run a boat in carelessly upon a party unknown to him; and while for the last twenty rods of his progress he had continued to ply his paddle with regulated motions, his eyes had been scanning with intent earnestness every object in and about the camp that he was so rapidly nearing. Nor had his mind been less active than his eye. By the time that he had reached the distance we have mentioned, enough of the camp and its occupants had come within his observation to reveal to him the fact that it was no ordinary party of sportsmen or pleasure seekers that composed it: and with this conclusion the old Trapper had again brought his boat to a stop, and with the trained sight of an experienced scout, sharpened, to say the least, by intent curiosity, he was studying its every detail. And this is what the old Trapper saw:

A level stretch of water edging itself against the bright beach, whose soft yellow sands swept their easy ascent up some forty feet, till they came to the roots of the great pines that grew upon the mossy border of the upland. Amid the pines a cleared opening, a dozen rods, perhaps, in diameter. On the beach were boats; above, a camp-fire of generous size, as we have described; on the water-side two men were sitting on a log with their backs to the lake; beyond the fire a shanty made of bark, with twenty feet front; in the shanty three men were playing cards—playing as men play when under great excitement, perhaps the excitement of liquor; for they were noisy, and oaths were not infrequent. Back, and a little to the right of the shanty, was a large tent whose canvas door—if door it had—was closely tied. The flame of the fire brought it into bright relief. In the rear of the tent were two smaller tents; one pitched a little to the right, the other a little to the left of it. In front of the large tent, half-hidden in shadow, the old Trapper's quick eye detected the form of a man reclining—perhaps asleep. A little to the left of the camp-fire, resting on logs, with one end against the roots of a tree, was a small barrel, and on it a tin cup. While the old Trapper was noting the scene in front of him, one of the players left the game, and going to the cask filled the tin cup from its contents and drank it, then returned and with a dreadful oath reseated himself at the game.

The men were all heavily bearded and as heavily armed; for in the belt of each was a knife; and suspended from the roof of the shanty, the old Trapper's eye caught the dull gleam of rifle barrels and burnished pistol stocks.

For ten full minutes, perhaps, the old Trapper sat studying the scene in front of him; and it must be confessed that the more he noted the party the more was he surprised at their appearance. He even moved his boat to different points that he might the more perfectly study the encampment from different angles of vision.

"I've seed a good many queer camps," said the old man to himself, "yis, I've seed a good many queer camps; for I have seed them who call themselves sportsmen come in from the settlements to the woods to riot, and to shame the beasts with their drinkin'; and that barrel there sartinly p'ints in that direction. I run acrost a camp of gamblers once, on the Grass River, and they sartinly was as nigh the devil's own children as the Lord can permit on the arth if he takes any notice of right and wrong, and what is decent and sober-like. Up in the fur country I've seed the off-scourin' of the arth, and I sartinly did my part to help the Lord out in his managin' of the scamps. But here be a party that I can't understand—no, the signs isn't plain about that camp yender. It may be that they are only city chaps that have come into the woods to carouse, and their knives and their pistols be only for show, and their keerd playin' only in sport; although by the way they're talkin' I should sartinly jedge they was gittin' considerably in arnest. But"—and the old man started his boat straight toward the beach—"I'll go in and speak 'em fair, whoever they may be, and give 'em a kind of cheerful welcome. Yis, I'll act as man should act toward his fellow-bein's in the woods, and perhaps they'll take a little jedicious advice from a man who has lived twice their number of years, and has arnt the right to give counsel to them that be younger. Yis, I'll go in and see who they be anyway."

So saying, the old Trapper started for the beach.

It may have been merely the result of long habit; it may have been the result of intention born from the feeling of uncertainty touching the character of the camp into which he was going; but from whatever cause the result may have proceeded, he could not have ambushed a camp of enemies with greater skill or laid his light boat up more noiselessly against the soft sands of the beach. Indeed, he did not allow it to touch the sands at all; but before the water shallowed to that extent which forbade progress, he lifted himself from his seat with the steady poise and balance of a perfect boatman, and with his rifle in his left hand, and with the finger of his right resting upon the rim of his boat, he stepped noiselessly into the water; and with the easiest of motion lifted the bow of the boat gently up and laid it noiselessly upon the soft beach. Standing within fifty feet of the fire he paused a moment and steadily looked the camp over.

Had it not been for the position of those that occupied it, he could not have been unobserved; for the fire brought his stalwart form into full view. But those who were within the shanty were too much interested in their exciting game to notice any one beyond their circle; the two men sitting by the fire were so seated that their backs were directly toward the Trapper; while the huge form that lay stretched in front of the large white tent suggested that it belonged to one who was fast asleep.

For a moment the Trapper thus stood; and then his moccasined feet began to move slowly and noiselessly up the sand. Perhaps it was only habit quickened by the memory of some more perilous venture in the years past; perhaps it was the suggestion of some lurking humor that made him move as carefully upon the men as if they were his foes, and his own safety lay in getting them within easy sweep of his rifle stock. No matter from what cause, his approach was so noiseless that far more trained ears than those in that camp would have been unable to catch the light step as it moved up the yielding sand and trod softly forward over the pine-tasselled ground. He approached within a yard of the two men sitting with their backs toward him on the log, when again he paused, and, standing as erect as a statue and as motionless, scanned the unusual scene. His countenance showed that he was not entirely satisfied with the character of the company into whose midst he had stolen; for in the expression of his face a look of amusement was blended with intense curiosity, while the least shade of suspicion looked out of his eyes and played like a variable shadow over his features.

It was while he was thus standing in full light of the rising flame, and within an arm's length of the two men sitting on the log unconscious of his presence, that the eyes of one of the three men who were gambling in the shanty, while he was in the very act of lifting, with a flourish, his last card into the air to play it, chanced, as he raised his head, to fall directly upon him.

The shock of the surprise was so tremendous that, for a moment, animation seemed suspended; for his arm remained lifted in the air at that point he had raised it; his mouth fairly opened and his eyes stood fixed in astonishment, while the oath he was uttering remained half unspoken. His excitement with electric swiftness communicated itself to his two companions. They wrenched themselves round on their stools and, with the look of terror on their swarthy faces, stared as fixedly as had their companion at the figure before them.

It was at this moment, and utterly unconscious of his companions' excitement and of the presence of the man who stood within arm's reach of him, that one of the men on the log rose to his feet and turned abruptly round, yawning, as he turned, toward the lake. Few men could have borne the shock in silence, at least his nerves were unable to bear up against the surprise; for as his eyes met the eyes of the Trapper, out of his mouth came a yell such as only can be given in extreme terror; while in his effort to jump aside he actually tumbled over his companion and both rolled upon the ground.

But certainly there was nothing at which to be frightened in the look of the Trapper's face; for, instead of being the countenance of one bent on deadly work, it was the countenance of one lightened with humor even unto laughter.

"I ax yer pardin," said the Trapper, speaking to the two men who had been sitting on the log, and who were picking themselves up from the earth; "I ax yer pardin fur comin' on ye so sudden like, but"—

"What right had you," exclaimed the man who had tumbled over his companion, "what right had you—damn you!—to come stealing up like a sneak on a man sitting by his own fire in that way?"

"Lord-a-massy, friend, ye needn't be so arnest about the matter. There's no great damage done, anyway, as I can see. Ye sartinly did make a pretty lively jump, but ye be young yit, and a jump more or less don't hurt a man, as I conceit. And as for stealin' up on ye, I did ambush ye a leetle, that's a fact; but it's only because it sorter comes nateral to one whose moccasins larnt the ways of a trail in the old wars to step sorter easy like, but it may be I should have hailed ye and come in more noisy; an' ef my comin' has distarbed ye any, I'm sorry for it, and ax yer pardin, although I meant no evil. No, I sartinly meant no evil."

By this time the three men who had been gambling in the shanty had joined the two by the fire, and they were now standing in a group fronting him, staring with lowering faces at the intruder.

"What right have you to come into this camp, anyway, without an invitation?" said one of the men, determinedly.

"Right to come into a camp!" rejoined the Trapper. "Who hasn't the right to come into a camp in peace time? and this is sartinly in peace time. And as for an invitation, as ye call it, ye must be a stranger to the woods not to know that a camp-fire itself is an invite for any man that passes to come in and warm himself ef he be cold, or cook his venison ef he be hungry, and have a cheerful word with them that built it."

"How do you know that you were wanted here?" retorted the one who had constituted himself the spokesman of the party.

"I don't understand ye," said the Trapper.

"I asked you a plain question," said the man, and his tones came out clean-cut as a knife. "I asked you a plain question, and if you can't understand it perhaps we'll find a way to increase your wits," and he tapped the handle of his knife with his finger significantly, while the others laughed insultingly.

"Yis, yis, I understand ye now," said the Trapper, and his eyes darkened their shade by a trifle. "I understand ye now, young man, but ye needn't be so sassy about it. I played the leetle game ye hinted at afore ye was born, and ye needn't tap the handle of yer knife there as ef ye was talkin' to a lad from the settlements, or a redskin afore his face has knowed the color of the paint. But I suppose that motion of yer finger was only a leetle bit of pleasantry on yer part, young man."

"Look here," retorted the other, "we ain't boys who make up this crowd. There's no one here that hasn't handled the knife, and handled it when it was red, blade and handle both. And now, as I can see you are a man accustomed to plain talk, I might as well say to you that we are here on our own business, and this is our camp, and you are not wanted here, and the sooner you clear out the better it'll be for you. Do you understand that?"

"Sartin, sartin," answered the Trapper. "You've got a chipper tongue atween yer teeth, young man, and ye rather love to move it, as I conceit. Yis, this is yer camp, as ye say, and a little onsartin kind of a camp it is, too; for, atween yer canoes, that I see was made in the fur country, and yer gamblin', and yer drinkin', and yer sassy tongue, and that big tent there, that's big enough for a gineral, and hasn't any door onless it opens on the back side—which isn't jest the way that folks who come up here for sight-seein' pitch their tents—and sartin other signs I noted as I stood lookin' at ye afore ye seed me, yer camp is the most onsartin one I ever seed; and ef it ain't agin yer wishes, I would like to ax what sort of a camp ye've got here, and what game do ye mean to strike?"

"You'll get none of your questions answered by me," replied the man, "and the sooner the talking is ended the better. I've told you that this was our camp, and that you are not wanted in it; and now, let me ask, do you propose to leave it?"

"Sartin," said the Trapper. "Ef ye'd been civil in yer speech and friendly in yer acts I might have br'iled a strip of venison here by yer fire, and, for that matter, slept with ye till mornin' jest to show my good feelin' towards ye; for my cabin is only a few mile away, and I can easily paddle down. But as ye seem to be out of sorts, and not over given to friendliness, and a leetle onsartin in yer morals, as I conceit, I'm parfectly ready to go; but not in any hurry, young man; no, not in any hurry. Ye needn't look so sassy like out of yer eyes, for I've taken the measure of ye, and, though ye be five to me one, yit I don't propose to go in any hurry. And as ye have axed me a question, I'd like to ax it back to ye ag'in. And the question I'd like to ax is, that when I say I don't intend to be in any hurry, ef ye five chaps understand me?" and the lines of the old man's face tightened a trifle, and the slightest of tremors ran through his tone.

The answer that the man gave was what one would expect only from the most desperate of characters. The guns of the party were in the shanty, as were their pistols also. The only weapon about their persons was the large knife each carried. As the Trapper closed his interrogation, the man to whom he especially addressed it dashed the knife that he had already drawn upon the ground, and gave a spring toward the shanty. He gave one jump and stopped, for his quick eye told him that the muzzles of the Trapper's rifle exactly covered his body, and that another jump would doubtless cost him his life.

"Yer actions are not without reason," said the Trapper coolly, "and ye acted with jedgment when ye stopped where ye was, for I saw shootin' in yer eye, and when it comes to shootin', the quickest trigger gits the fust shot. No, no, don't ye move a step toward that shanty, but come back to the spot where ye started, and let me ax ye a question. And don't ye try any of yer tricks on an old man whose temper ye've jest a leetle riled, for my finger is inside the guard and the lock works quick; so come back and stand there where ye was, and let me ax ye a question."

The man did as he was commanded. Indeed there was nothing else for him to do; for his life lay at the mercy of the man, who, without moving his rifle from the hollow of his arm, had nevertheless centred his body with the muzzle.

The man returned to his place in the group by the fire. He was brave, that was beyond question, and his self-possession was perfect. For he picked the knife from the sod where he had cast it, and as he returned it to its sheath, he looked straight into the old man's eyes, and said in the coolest and calmest of tones,—

"Take the pile, old man, you hold the two bowers." And the laugh that he laughed showed his white teeth as he nodded at the muzzles of the double rifle.

"Ye have axed me to leave yer camp," said the old man, after a moment's pause—during which he had looked the five men over from head to foot—"ye have axed me to leave yer camp, and it's only reasonable that I should do as ye want me to do. Ye have said some things to me that ye oughtn't to have said, and ye've been sorter loose and careless in yer speech; but I sartinly won't hold it agin ye ef nothin' furder happens, for I wish to live in peace with ye ef it be possible, for I've seed enough of war; and a white head loves a peaceful pillow. Yis, I come in peace, and as there has been a leetle playfulness atween us here, I would like to ax ye ef I shall go in peace?"

For a moment the five men looked at each other, and at length the man whose body the muzzle of the Trapper's rifle still covered, and who had been the spokesman of the party thus far, said,—

"Look here, old man, we are here for a purpose, and we are here under orders. What our purpose is, is none of your business, and our orders are not to let a man come into this camp, and if a man gets in, not to let him go out alive; but you hold the bowers, and I, for one, surrender the pile. You go in peace because we can't stop you, that's all there is about it. You come once and you go once; but if you're wise you won't try it again."

"Hoot!" said the Trapper, "I've lived in these woods eighty year, off and on, and there never was a camp of white or redskin I didn't dare enter. And leetle there be in this camp that my eyes won't see afore a week passes, and few be the sounds that ye make that my ears won't hear. And ef ye've got any secret that ye don't want an honest man to know, and ef ye've come in on any devilment, ye look to yerselves, for John Norton will find out yer secret, and fetch ye up in yer devilment."

At the mention of the old man's name the five started, and they whispered rapidly to each other; and it was evident that from whatever section of the world they had come, there the name that the old man spoke and the fame of it had penetrated.

"Are you John Norton the scout?" asked the man who had done the talking for the group.

"Yis, I be John Norton," answered the old man, "and I've did a good deal of scoutin' off and on in my life, but now that times be peaceful, as they should be, I be nothin' better then a trapper. And now," continued the old man, "as it's gittin' a leetle late, and ye say that my room is better than my company, I'm goin' to my boat. Ye don't look to me," said the old man significantly, as he ran his eye over the group, "ye don't look to me as ef ye had lived accordin' to the Lord's app'intment, and I conceit that a leetle more life and a good deal more righteousness wouldn't hurt yer chances at the jedgment. And ef ye don't happen to be in a hurry about leavin' the arth, I'd advise ye to stand jest where ye be while I'm gittin' off from yer camp; for the light ye stand in is a strong un and the sights would show fine; and the two of ye that move first from the tracks where ye stand till ye hear the call of a loon from the lake, will go to the Jedgment with a hole through yer bodies that the Lord will know at a glance; for a good many vagabonds, as I jedge ye to be, have carried the size of my bullets into etarnity afore now. So ye jest stand where ye be till ye hear the cry of a loon, onless ye be in a hurry to die."

So saying, the old man, with his head turned over the left shoulder, the barrel of his rifle resting in the hollow of his left arm, with both hammers cocked and his finger within the guard, strode down to his boat, entered it, and backed it out into the lake. The five men stood in their tracks; suddenly they started, for out of the darkness came the call of a loon, strong and clear, so that the echoes, far up the mountain, answered back the prolonged note through the gloom.

"Cleaned out!" said the spokesman of the party, as he turned toward the shanty. "I wonder what the captain will say when he comes."