Adventure Books
07 - The Last Of The Mohicans - James Cooper
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- Duration:
- 31m
- Broadcast on:
- 23 Jul 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
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No ads, no interruptions, just pure, immersive audio content. Don't miss out. Transform your listening experience with Saul Good Media. Visit SaulGoodMedia.com and start your free trial now. We can't wait for you to join our audio community. Happy listening. - Chapter seven, quote, they do not sleep. On yonder cliffs a grizzly band. I see them sit, unquote, gray. It would 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 the 60th 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 were only a battle, it would be a thing understood by us all and easily managed. But I have heard that when such shrieks are a tween heaven and arth, it be tokens, another sort of warfare. "If all our reasons for fear, my friend, were confined to such as perceived 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 wine of the panther, no whistle of the catbird, nor any invention of the devilish mangoes 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 crackling 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 I 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 Hayward, taking his pistols from the place where he had laid them on entering, "be it a sight 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. Once it issued heavily in 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 the 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. Whisper Duncan, how much should we pry 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 be long to earth." "Here then is one who can undecieve you," said Duncan. "I know the soundful well, and have often heard it on the field of battle, and in situations which are frequent in a soldier's life. 'Tis the horde shriek that a horse will give in his agony. Often are drawn from him in pain, though sometimes in terror. My charger is either a prey to the beast 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. 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 were they abound. The wolves must be hovering above their heads on the bank, and the temersome creatures are calling on man for help, in the best manner they are able." "Angus!" he spoke in Delaware. "Angus, drop down to 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 how was raised on the edge of the river and was born swiftly off into the depths of the forest as though the beast of their own accord were abandoning their prey in sudden terror. "Angus, 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 briars. Seek yourselves in the shade which the moon throws from yonder beach, just thicker than that of the pines. And let us wait 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 hearty 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 Hayward and his companions should imitate a caution that proceeded from so intelligent a source. The young man drew a pile of sassy frass 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. Hayward 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 woodsman, bestowed his person in such a manner among the fishers 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 aura 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 apart, 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 gentleman's, and be ready to get into the canoe, when I bring it to the landing-place." "Have you had a quiet night?" said Hayward. "For myself, I believe sleep has gotten the better of my vigilance." "A whole 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, now, 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 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 Hayward, 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 den, with a hand on either ear exclaiming, "Wince comes this discord! Has hell broke loose that man should out or sounds like these?" The bright flashes and the quick reports of a dozen rifles from the opposite banks of the stream followed this and cautious 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 Gamoot. 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 Gamoot, which he bore within the shelter of the narrow chasm that protected the sisters. In another minute, the whole party was collected in the 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 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 is escaped with life. "Is he not dead?" demanded Cora in a voice whose husky tone showed powerfully natural horrors struggled with her assumed firmness. "Can we do ought to assist the wretched man?" "No, no. The life is in his heart yet, and after he has slept a while, 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, Enchus, and lay him on the sassy frass. The longer his nap last, the better it will be for him, as I doubt whether he can find a proper cover for such a shape on these rocks. Hence singing won't do any good with the Iroquois. "You believe, then, that the attack will be renewed?" asked Hayward. "Do I expect a hungry wolf to 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 expedience 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 Monroe can send a party to our help. God sent it maybe 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 be stoic care suited to your general natures on our unfortunate comrade." The sisters followed him into the outer cave, where David was beginning, by his size, to give symptoms of returning consciousness, and then, commanding the wounded man to their attention, he immediately prepared to leave them. "Don't get," said the tremulous voice of Cora when he had reached 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 tell-tale blood stole over her features, crinsoming her very temples, "how very deservedly dear, you are to all of the name and row." "If anything could add to my own base love of life," said Hayward, suffering his unconscious eyes to wonder to the youthful form of the silent Alice. "It would be so kind in insurance." "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 a scout and his companions, who still lay within the protection of the little chasm between the two caves. "I tell you, Angus," said the former as Hayward joined him, "you are wasteful of your powder, and the kick of your rifle disconcerts your aim. Little powder, light lead, and a long arm seldom fail of bringing the death-screech from amingo. At least, such has been my experience with the creatures. Come, friends, let us to our covers, for no man can tell when or where Mokwa will strike his blow. Footnote. Mingo was the Delaware term of the Five Nations. Mokwas was the name given them by the Dutch. The French, from their first intercourse with them, called them Iroquois. End footnote. The Indians silently repaired to their appointed stations, which were fishers 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 hawk I darted with the swiftness of a deer, followed by the act of 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 gambles, and pludged 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 seceded, 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 his impression to his companions, it was meant by hawk-eye, with an incredulous shake of the head. "You know not the nature of amokwa 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 to the very pitch, and as bad luck would have it, they have hit the head of the island. HIST! MAN! Keep close, or your hair will be off your crown in the turning of a storm." Hayward 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 as 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 sees speaking, four human heads could be seen peering above a few logs of driftwood 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 companion. When he shot away again with the swirling 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 discovered. 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 rich, 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 mingles where we lie demanded Hawkeye sternly? 'Tis a charge of powder-saved, and ammunition is as precious now as breath to a weary deer. Fresh in 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 driftwood as the 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 uncles 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 Hayward, 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 weapons 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 fouling pieces and short horseman's. He was interrupted by the low but expressive hum of Ancus. "I see them boy, I see them," continued Hawkeye, "they're gathering for the rush, or they would keep their dingy backs down below the logs." "Well, let them," he added, examining his flint. The leading man certainly comes to his death. Though it should be one calm 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. Hayward felt a burning desire to rush forward to meet them so intense with his delirious anxiety of the moment, but he was restrained by the deliberate examples of the scout and Ancus. 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 burdens. The foremost Indian bounded like a stricken deer, and fell headlong among the clefts of the island. "Now, Ancus!" cried the scout, drawing his long knife, while his quick eyes began to flash with ardour. "Take the last of the screeching imps, of the other two, we are Sartan. He was obeyed, and but two enemies remained to be overcome." Hayward 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 note it, and I said it," muttered the scout, whirling the despised little implement over the falls in bitter disdain. "Come on, ye bloody-minded Hellhounds, ye meet a man without a cross." The words were barely uttered when he encountered a savage of gigantic stature, of the fiercest mean. 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 men prevailed over the less practiced limbs of the native. The arm of the latter slowly gave wave before the increasing force of the scout, who suddenly, wrestling his armed hand from the grasp of the foe, drove the sharp weapon through his naked bosom to the heart. In the meantime Hayward had been pressed in and 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 successful 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. Hayward 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 a 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 Onchus, 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 dispatched 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. End of chapter 7