Adventure Books
24 - The Last Of The Mohicans - James Cooper
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- Duration:
- 34m
- Broadcast on:
- 09 Aug 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
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Lucky Land Slots, asking people what's the weirdest place you've gotten lucky? Lucky? In line with the deli, I guess? Uh-huh, in my dentist's office. More than once, actually. Do I have to say? Yes, you do. In the car before my kids' PTA meeting. Really? Yes. Excuse me, what's the weirdest place you've gotten lucky? I never win and tell. Well, there you have it. You could get lucky anywhere playing at luckylandslots.com. Play for free right now! Are you feeling lucky? No purchase necessary. V.G.W. Group would be rewarded by law. 18+ terms and conditions apply. Chapter 24 "Thus spoke the sage, the kings without delay, dissolve the counsel and their chief obey," unquote, from Pope's Iliad. A single moment served to convince the youth that he was mistaken. A hand was laid with a powerful pressure on his arm, and the low voice of UNKUS muttered in his ear. The heroines are dogs. The sight of a coward's blood can never make a warrior tremble. The greyhead and the sagum are safe, and the rifle of Hawkeye is not asleep. Go! UNKUS and the open hand are now strangers. It is enough. Rayward would gladly have heard more, but a gentle push from his friend urged him toward the door, and admonished him of the danger that might attend the discovery of their intercourse. Slowly and reluctantly, yielding to the necessity, he quitted the place, and mingled with the throng that had hovered nigh. The dying fires in the clearing cast a dim and uncertain light on the dusky figures that were silently stalking to and fro, and occasionally a brighter gleam than common glanced into the lodge, and exhibited the figure of UNKUS, still maintaining his upright attitude, near the dead body of the Huron. A nod of warrior soon entered the place again, and re-issuing, they bore the senseless remains into the adjacent woods. After this termination of the scene, Duncan wandered among the lodges, unquestioned, and unnoticed, endeavoring to find some trace of her in whose behalf he incurred the risk he ran. In the present temper of the tribe, it would have been easy to have fled and rejoined his companions, had such a wish crossed his mind, but in addition to the never-ceasing anxiety on account of Alice, a fresher, though feebler, interest in the fate of UNKUS, assisted to chain him to the spot. He continued, therefore, to stray from hut to hut, looking into each only to encounter additional disappointment, until he had made the entire circuit of the village, abandoning a species of inquiry that proved so fruitless, he retraced his steps to the council lodge, resolved to seek and question David in order to put an end to his doubts. Unreaching the building, which had proved to like the seat of judgment and the place of execution, the young man found that the excitement had already subsided. The warriors had reassembled, and were now calmly smoking, while they conversed gravely on the chief incidents of their recent expedition to the head of the Hurrican, though the return of Duncan was likely to remind them of his character and the suspicious circumstances of his visit. It produced no visible sensation. So far the terrible scene that had just occurred proved favorable to his views, and he required no other prompter than his own feelings, to convince him of the expediency of profiting by so unexpected an advantage. Not seeming to hesitate, he walked into the lodge and took his seat with a gravity that accorded admirably with the deportment of his host. A hasty but searching glance, sufficed to tell him that though Duncan still remained where he had left him, David had not reappeared. No other restraint was imposed on the former than the watchful looks of a young Huron, who had placed himself at hand, though an armed warrior leaned against the post that formed one side of the narrow doorway. In every other respect, the captive seemed at liberty. Still, he was excluded from all participation in the discourse, and possessed much more of the air of some finely molded statue than a man having life and volition. Hayward had too recently witnessed a frightful instance of the prompt punishments of the people in whose hands he had fallen to hazard an exposure by any officious boldness. He would greatly have preferred silence and meditation to speech, when a discovery of his real condition might prove so instantly fatal. Unfortunately for this prudent resolution, his entertainers appeared otherwise disposed. He had not long occupied the seat wisely taken a little in the shade when another of the elder warriors who spoke the French language addressed him. "My Canada father does not forget his children," said the chief. "I thank him. An evil spirit lives in the wife of one of my young men. Can the cunning stranger frighten him away?" Hayward possessed some knowledge of the memory practiced among the Indians in the cases of such supposed visitations. He saw at a glance that the circumstance might possibly be improved to further his own ends. Would, therefore, have been difficult just then to have uttered a proposal that would have given him more satisfaction? Aware of the necessity preserving the dignity of his imaginary character, however, he repressed his feelings and answered with suitable mystery, "Spirit's differ. Some yield to the power of wisdom, while others are too strong." "My brother is a great medicine," said the cunning savage. "He will try?" A gesture of ascent was the answer. The Huron was content with the assurance, and resuming his pipe, he awaited the proper moment to move. The impatient Hayward, inwardly excrecating the cold customs of the savages, which required such sacrifices to appearance, was feigned to assume an error of indifference equal to that maintained by the chief. Who was, in truth, a near-relative of the afflicted woman? The minutes lingered, and the delay seemed an hour to the inventor in empiricism, when the Huron laid aside his pipe and drew his robe across his breast, as if about to lead the way to the lodge of the invalid. Just then, a warrior of powerful frame darkened the door, and stalking silently among the attentive group, he seated himself on one end of the low pile of brush which sustained Duncan. The later cast an impatient look at his neighbor, and felt his flesh creep with uncontrollable horror, when he found himself in actual contact with Magua. The sudden return of this artful and dreaded chief caused a delay in the departure of the Huron. Several pipes that had been extinguished were lighted again, while the newcomer, without speaking a word, drew his tomahawk from his girdle, and filling the bowl on its head began to inhale the vapours of the weed through the hollow handle, with as much indifference as if he had not been absent to weary days on a long and toil some hunt. Ten minutes, which appeared so many ages to Duncan, might have passed in this manner, and the warriors were fairly enveloped in a cloud of white smoke, before any of them spoke. "Welcome," one at length muttered, "has my friend found the moose?" "The young man's stagger under their burdens," returned Magua, "let read that pens go on the hunting-path. He will meet them." A deep and awful silence seceded the utterance of the forbidden name. Each pipe dropped from the lips of its owner, as though all had inhaled an impurity at the same instant. The smoke reed the above their heads in little eddies, and curling in a spiral form it ascended swiftly through the opening in the roof of the lodge, leaving the place beneath clear of its fumes, and each dark visage distinctly visible. The looks of most of the warriors were riveted on the earth, though a few of the younger and less gifted the party suffered their wild and glaring eyeballs to roll in the direction of a white-headed savage, who sat between two of the most venerated chiefs of the tribe. There was nothing in the air or attire of this Indian that would seem to entitle him to such a distinction. The former was rather depressed than remarkable for the bearing of the natives, and the later was such as was commonly worn by the ordinary men of the nation, like most around him for more than a minute. His look, too, was on the ground, but, trusting his eyes at length to steal a glance aside, he perceived that he was becoming an object of general attention. Then he arose, and lifted his voice in the general silence. "It was a lie," he said, "I had no son. He who was called by that name is forgotten. His blood was pale, and it came not from the veins of a Huron. The wicked Chippewa's cheated my squaw. The great spirit has said that the family of Wissentush should end. He is happy, he knows, that the evil of his race dies with himself. I have done." The speaker, who was the father of the recreatent, young Indian, looked round and about him as if seeking commendation of his stoicism in the eyes of the auditors. But the stern customs of his people had made too severe an exaction on the feeble old man. The expression of his eye contradicted his figurative and boastful language, while every muscle in his wrinkled visage was working with anguish. Standing a single minute to enjoy his bitter triumph, he turned away as if sickening at the gaze of men, and, veiling his face in his blanket. He walked from the lodge with the noiseless step of an Indian, seeking in the privacy of his own abode, the sympathy of one like himself, aged, forlorn, and childless. The Indians, who believe in the hereditary transmission of virtues and defects in character, offered him to depart in silence. Then with an elevation of breeding that many in a more cultivated state of society might profitably emulate, one of the chiefs drew the attention of the young man from the weakness they had just witnessed, by saying the cheerful voice, addressing himself in courtesy to Moagwa, as the newest comer, "The Delaware's have been like bears after the honeypots, prowling around my village. But who has ever found a yeron asleep?" The darkness of the impending cloud which precedes a burst of thunder was not blacker than the brow of Moagwa as he exclaimed, "The Delaware's are the lakes! Not so! They who bear the petty quits of squas on their own river. One of them has been passing the tribe. "Did my young men take his scalp?" His legs were good, though his arm is better for the ho than the tomahawk returned the other, pointing to the immovable form of uncles. Instead of manifesting any womanish curiosity to feast his eyes with the sight of a captive from a people he was known to have so much reason to hate, Moagwa continued to smoke with the meditative air that he usually maintained when there was no immediate call on his cunning or his eloquence, although secretly amazed at the facts communicated by the speech of the aged father, he permitted himself to ask no questions, reserving his inquiries for a more suitable moment. It was only after a sufficient interval that he shook the ashes from his pipe, replaced the tomahawk, tightened his girdle, and arose casting for the first time a glance in the direction of the prisoner, who stood a little behind him. The wary, those seemingly abstracted uncles caught a glimpse of the movement, and turning suddenly to the light their looks met. Near a minute these two bold and untamed spirits stood regarding one another, steadily in the eye, neither quelling in the least before the fierce gaze he encountered, the form of uncles dilated, and his nostrils opened like those of a tiger at bay, but so rigid and unyielding was his posture, that he might easily have been converted by the imagination into an exquisite and thoughtless representation of the whirlike deity of his tribe. The liniments and the quivering features of Moagwa proved more ductile. His countenance gradually lost its character of defiance, in an expression of ferocious joy, and heaving a breath from the very bottom of his chest. He pronounced the loud the formidable name of "Lacephazil." Each warrior sprang upon his feet at the utterance of the well-known appellation, and there was a short period during which the stoical constancy of the natives was completely conquered by surprise. The hated and yet respected name was repeated as by one voice, carrying the sound even beyond the limits of the lodge. The women and children who lingered around the entrance took up the words in an echo, which was seceded by another shrill and plaintive howl. The later was not yet ended when the sensation among the men had entirely abated. Each one in presence seated himself as though ashamed of his precipitation. But it was many minutes before the meaning eyes ceased to roll toward their captive. In curious examination of a warrior who had so often proved his prowess at the best and proudest of their nation. Onkus enjoyed his victory, but was content with merely exhibiting his triumph by a quiet smile, an emblem of scorn which belongs to all time and every nation. Akwa caught the expression, and raising his arm he shook it at the captive. The light-silver ornaments attached to his braceless rattling with the trembling agitation of the limb, as in a tone of vengeance he exclaimed in English, "Moe, he can you die!" The healing waters will never bring the dead yerons to life. Returned Ankus in the music of the Delaware's. The tumbling river watches their bones, their men are squaws, their woman owls. Go, caught together the Iran dogs, that they may look upon a warrior. My nostrils are offended. They sent the blood of a coward. The latter illusion struck deep, and the injury wrinkled. Many of the yerons understood the strange tongue in which the cap bespoke, among which number was Makwa. His cunning savage beheld, and instantly profited by his advantage. Dropping the light robe of skin from his shoulder, he stretched forth his arm, and commenced a burst of his dangerous and artful eloquence. However much his influence among his people have been impaired by his occasional and besetting weakness, as well as by his desertion of the tribe. His courage and his fame as an orator were undeniable. He never spoke without auditors, and rarely without making converts to his opinions. On the present occasion, his native powers were stimulated by the thirst of revenge. He again recounted the events of the attack on the island at Glens, the death of his associates, and the escape of their most formidable enemies. Then, he described the nature and position of the mount, whether he had led such captives as had fallen into their hands. Of his own bloody intentions toward the maidens, and of his baffled malice, he made no mention, but passed rapidly on to the surprise of the party by La Long Caribbean, and its fatal termination. Here he paused, and looked about him, in the affected veneration of the departed, but in truth to note the effect of his opening narrative. As usual, every eye was riveted on his face. Each dusky figure seemed a breathing statue, so motionless was the posture, so intense the attention of the individual. Then, Machua dropped his voice, which had hitherto been clear, strong, and elevated, and touched upon the merits of the dead. No quality that was likely to command the sympathy of an Indian escaped his notice. One had never been known to follow the chase in vain. Another had been indefatigable on the trail of their enemies. This was brave, that generous. In short, he so managed his illusions that in a nation which was composed of so few families, he contrived to strike every cord that might find in its turn, some breast in which to vibrate. "Are the bones of my young men?" he concluded, in the burial place of the Herons. "You know that they are not. Their spirits are gone toward the setting sun, and are already crossing the great waters to the happy hunting grounds, but they departed without food, without guns or knives, without moccasins, naked and poor as they were born. Shall this be? Are their souls to enter the land of the just like hungry Iroquois, or unmanly Delaware's, or shall they meet their friends with arms in their hands, and roves on their backs? What will our fathers think the tribes of the Wyandotes have become? They will look on their children with a dark eye and say, 'Go!' a chippewa has come hither with the name of a Heron. 'Brothers, we must not forget the dead. Our Red Skin never ceases to remember. We will load the back of this Mohican until he staggers under our bounty, and dispatch him after my young men. They call to us for aid; though our ears are not open, they say, 'Forget us not!' When they see the spirit of this Mohican toiling after them with his burden, they will know that we are of that mind. Then they will go on happy, and our children will say, 'So did our fathers to their friends. So must we do to them.' 'What is the Yankee?' 'We have slain many, but the earth is still pale; a stain on the name of a Heron can only be hid by blood that comes from the veins of an Indian. Let this Delaware die.' The effect of such a harangue delivered in the nervous language and with the emphatic manner of a Euron orator could scarcely be mistaken. The mauquah had so artfully blended the natural sympathies with the religious superstition of his auditors, that their minds already prepared by custom to sacrifice a victim to the mains of their countrymen, lost every vestige of humanity in a wish for revenge. One warrior in particular, a man of wild and ferocious mean, had been conspicuous for the attention he had given to the words of the speaker. His countenance had changed with each passing emotion, until it settled on a look of deadly malice. As mauguah ended, he arose and uttering the yell of a demon. His polished little axe was seen glancing in the torchlight, as he whirled it above his head. The motion and the cry were too sudden for words to interrupt his bloody intention. It appeared as if a bright gleam shot from his hand, which was crossed at the same moment by a dark and powerful line. The former was the tomahawk in its passage. The later the arm of mauguah darted forward to divert its aim. The quick and ready motion of the chief was not entirely too late. The keen weapon cut the warplume of the scalping tuft of unkis, and passed through the frail wall of the lodge as though it were hurled from some formidable engine. Duncan had seen the threatening action, and sprung upon his feet with a heart which, while it leaped into its throat, swelled with the most generous resolution in behalf of his friend. A glance told him that the blow had failed, and terror changed to admiration. Anka stood still, looking his enemy in the eye with features that seemed superior to emotion. The marble could not be colder, calmer, or steadier than the countenance he put upon the sudden and vindictive attack. Then, as if pitting a want of skill which had proved so fortunate to himself, he smiled, and muttered a few words of contempt in his own tongue. "No!" said mauguah, after satisfying himself with the safety of the captive. "The sun must shine on his shame." "The squaz must see his flesh tremble, where our revenge would be like the play of boys." "Go! Take him where there is silence. Let us see if a Delaware can sleep at night, and in the morning die." The young man whose duty it was to guard the prisoner instantly passed their ligaments of bark across his arms, and led him from the lodge amid a profound and ominous silence. It was only as the figure of Anka stood in the opening of the door that his firm step hesitated. There he turned, and, in the sweeping and hottic lance that he threw around the circle of his enemies, Duncan caught a look, which he was glad to construe into an expression that he was not entirely deserted by hope. Mauguah was content with his success, or too much occupied with his secret purposes to push his inquiries any further. Shaking his mantle and folding it on his bosom, he also quitted the place without pursuing a subject which might have proved so fatal to the individual at his elbow, notwithstanding his rising resentment, his natural firmness, and his anxiety on behalf of Anka's. Hayward felt sensibly relieved by the absence of so dangerous and subtle a foe. The excitement produced by the speech gradually subsided. The warriors resumed their seats, and clouds of smoke once more filled the lodge. For near half an hour, not a syllable was uttered, or scarcely a little cast aside. A grave and meditative silence, being the ordinary succession to every scheme of violence and commotion among these beings, who were alike so impetuous and yet so self-restrained, when the chief who had solicited the aid of Duncan finished his pipe, he made a final and successful movement toward departing. A motion of a finger was the intimation he gave the supposed physician to follow, and, passing through the clouds of smoke, Duncan was glad on more accounts than one to be able at least to breathe the pure air of a cool and refreshing summer evening. Instead of pursuing his way among those lodges where Hayward had already made his unsuccessful search, his companion turned aside and proceeded directly toward the base of an adjacent mountain, which overhung the temporary village. A thicket of brush skirted its foot, and it became necessary to proceed through a crooked and narrow path. The boys had resumed their sports in the clearing, and were enacting the mimic chase to the posts among themselves. In order to render their games as like the reality as possible, one of the boldest of their number had conveyed a few brands into some piles of treetops that had hitherto escaped the burning. The blaze of one of these fires lighted the way of the chief and Duncan, and gave a character of additional wildness to the rude scenery, at a little distance from a bald rock, and directly in its front they entered a grassy opening, which they prepared to cross. Just then fresh fuel was added to the fire, and a powerful light penetrated even to that distant spot. It fell upon the white surface of the mountain, and was reflected downward upon a dark and mysterious-looking being that arose unexpectedly in their path. The Indian paused as if doubtful whether to proceed, and permitted his companion to approach his side. A large black ball, which at first seemed stationary, now began to move in a manner that to the latter was inexplicable. Again the fire brightened, and its glare fell more distinctly on the object. Then even Duncan knew it by its restless and sidling attitudes which kept the upper part of its form in constant motion, while the animal itself appeared seated, to be a bear. Though it growled loudly and fiercely, and there were instances when its glistening eyeballs might be seen it gave no other indications of hostility, the Hiran, at least, seemed assured that the intentions of the singular intrutable were peaceable, for after giving it an attentive examination, he quietly pursued his course. Duncan, who knew that the animal was often domesticated among the Indians, followed the example of his companion, believing that some favorite of the tribe had found its way into the thicket in search of food. They passed it unmolested. Though obliged to come nearly in contact with the monster, the Hiran, who at first so whirly determined the character of this strange visitor, was now content with proceeding without wasting a moment in further examination, but Hayward was unable to prevent his eyes from looking backward, in salutary watchfulness against attacks from the rear. His uneasiness was in no degree diminished when he perceived the beast rolling along their path and following their footsteps. He would have spoken, but the Indian at that moment shoved aside a door of bark and entered a cavern in the bosom of the mountain, profiting by so easy a method of retreat, Duncan stepped after him and was gladly closing the slight cover to the opening when he felt it drawn from his hand by the beast, whose shaggy form immediately darkened the passage. They were now in a straight and long gallery, in a chasm of the rocks, where retreat without encountering the animal was impossible, making the best of the circumstances the young man pressed forward, keeping as close as possible to his conductor. The bear growled, frequently at his heels, and once or twice its enormous paws were laid on his person, as if disposed to prevent his further passage into the den. How long the nerves of Hayward would have sustained him in this extraordinary situation, it might be difficult to decide, for happily he soon found relief. A glimmer of light had constantly been in their front, and they now arrived at the place whence it proceeded. A large cavity in the rock had been rudely fitted to answer the purposes of many apartments. These subdivisions were simple, but ingenious, being composed of stone, sticks, and bark intermingled. Things above admitted the light by day, and at night fires and torches supplied the place of the sun. Hither the heroines had brought most of their valuables, especially those which were more particularly pertained to the nation, and Hither as it now appeared. The sick woman, who was believed to be the victim of supernatural power, had been transported also, under an impression that her tormentor would find more difficulty in making his assaults through the walls of stone, than through the leafy coverings of the lodges. The apartment into which Duncan and his guide first entered had been exclusively devoted to her accommodation. The latter approached her bedside, which was surrounded by females, in the center of whom Hayward was surprised to find his missing friend. David, a single look was sufficient to prize the pretended leach that the invalid was far beyond his powers of healing. We lay in a sort of paralysis, indifferent to the objects which crowded before her sight, and happily unconscious of suffering. Hayward was far from regretting that his mummaries were to be performed on one who was much too ill to take an interest in their failure or success. The slight qualm of conscience, which had been excited by the intended deception, was instantly appeased, and he began to collect his thoughts in order to enact his part with suitable spirit. When he found that he was about to be anticipated in his skill, by an attempt to prove the power of music, Gamoot, who had stood prepared to pour forth his spirit and song when the visitors entered, after delaying a moment, drew a strain from his pipe, and commenced a hymn that might have worked a miracle, had faith in its efficacy, been of much avail. He was allowed to proceed to the close, the Indians respecting his imaginary infirmity, and Duncan, too glad of the delay, to hazard the slightest interruption. As the dying cadence of his strains was falling on the ears of the latter, he started a side adhering them repeated behind him in a voice half-human and half-seppoprol. Looking around he beheld the shaggy monster, seated on end in a shadow of the cavern, where, while his restless body swung in the uneasy manner of the animal, it repeated a sort of low growl sounds, if not words, which bore some slight resemblance to the melody of the singer. The effect of so strange an echo on David may be better imagined than described. His eyes opened as if he doubted their truth, and his voice became instantly mute in excess of wonder; a deep-laid scheme of communicating, some important intelligent to Hayward, was driven from his recollection by an emotion which very nearly resembled fear, but which he was feigned to believe was admiration. Under its influence he exclaimed the loud, "She expects you and is at hand," and precipitantly left the cavern. End of chapter 24. 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