Your ears are open.
Enough.”
The trapper was not sorry to find that so long a respite was granted.
He had before found reason to believe, that the Teton partisan was one of those bold spirits, who overstep the limits which use and education fix to the opinions of man, in every state of society, and he now saw plainly that he must adopt some artifice to deceive him, different from that which had succeeded so well with his followers.
The sudden appearance of the rock, however, which hove up, a bleak and ragged mass, out of the darkness ahead, put an end for the present to the discourse, Mahtoree giving all his thoughts to the execution of his designs on the rest of the squatter’s movables.
A murmur ran through the band, as each dark warrior caught a glimpse of the desired haven, after which the nicest ear might have listened in vain, to catch a sound louder than the rustling of feet among the tall grass of the prairie.
But the vigilance of Esther was not easily deceived.
She had long listened anxiously to the suspicious sounds, which approached the rock across the naked waste, nor had the sudden outcry been unheard by the unwearied sentinels of the rock.
The savages, who had dismounted at some little distance, had not time to draw around the base of the hill in their customary silent and insidious manner, before the voice of the Amazon was raised, demanding—
“Who is beneath?
Answer, for your lives!
Siouxes or devils, I fear ye not!”
No answer was given to this challenge, every warrior halting where he stood, confident that his dusky form was blended with the shadows of the plain.
It was at this moment that the trapper determined to escape.
He had been left with the rest of his friends, under the surveillance of those who were assigned to the duty of watching the horses, and as they all continued mounted, the moment appeared favourable to his project.
The attention of the guards was drawn to the rock, and a heavy cloud driving above them at that instant, obscured even the feeble light which fell from the stars.
Leaning on the neck of his horse, the old man muttered—
“Where is my pup?
Where is it—Hector—where is it, dog?”
The hound caught the well-known sounds, and answered by a whine of friendship, which threatened to break out into one of his piercing howls.
The trapper was in the act of raising himself from this successful exploit, when he felt the hand of Weucha grasping his throat, as if determined to suppress his voice by the very unequivocal process of strangulation.
Profiting by the circumstance, he raised another low sound, as in the natural effort of breathing, which drew a second responsive cry from the faithful hound.
Weucha instantly abandoned his hold of the master in order to wreak his vengeance on the dog.
But the voice of Esther was again heard, and every other design was abandoned in order to listen.
“Ay, whine and deform your throats as you may, ye imps of darkness,” she said, with a cracked but scornful laugh;
“I know ye; tarry, and ye shall have light for your misdeeds.
Put in the coal, Phoebe; put in the coal; your father and the boys shall see that they are wanted at home, to welcome their guests.”
As she spoke, a strong light, like that of a brilliant star, was seen on the very pinnacle of the rock; then followed a forked flame, which curled for a moment amid the windings of an enormous pile of brush, and flashing upward in an united sheet, it wavered to and fro, in the passing air, shedding a bright glare on every object within its influence.
A taunting laugh was heard from the height, in which the voices of all ages mingled, as though they triumphed at having so successfully exposed the treacherous intentions of the Tetons.
The trapper looked about him to ascertain in what situations he might find his friends.
True to the signals, Middleton and Paul had drawn a little apart, and now stood ready, by every appearance, to commence their flight at the third repetition of the cry.
Hector had escaped his savage pursuer, and was again crouching at the heels of his master’s horse.
But the broad circle of light was gradually increasing in extent and power, and the old man, whose eye and judgment so rarely failed him, patiently awaited a more propitious moment for his enterprise.
“Now, Ishmael, my man, if sight and hand ar’ true as ever, now is the time to work upon these Redskins, who claim to own all your property, even to wife and children!
Now, my good man, prove both breed and character!”
A distant shout was heard in the direction of the approaching party of the squatter, assuring the female garrison that succour was not far distant.
Esther answered to the grateful sounds by a cracked cry of her own, lifting her form, in the first burst of exultation, above the rock in a manner to be visible to all below.
Not content with this dangerous exposure of her person, she was in the act of tossing her arms in triumph, when the dark figure of Mahtoree shot into the light and pinioned them to her side.
The forms of three other warriors glided across the top of the rock, looking like naked demons flitting among the clouds.
The air was filled with the brands of the beacon, and a heavy darkness succeeded, not unlike that of the appalling instant, when the last rays of the sun are excluded by the intervening mass of the moon.
A yell of triumph burst from the savages in their turn, and was rather accompanied than followed by a long, loud whine from Hector.
In an instant the old man was between the horses of Middleton and Paul, extending a hand to the bridle of each, in order to check the impatience of their riders.
“Softly, softly,” he whispered, “their eyes are as marvellously shut for the minute, as if the Lord had stricken them blind; but their ears are open.
Softly, softly; for fifty rods, at least, we must move no faster than a walk.”
The five minutes of doubt that succeeded appeared like an age to all but the trapper.
As their sight was gradually restored, it seemed to each that the momentary gloom, which followed the extinction of the beacon, was to be replaced by as broad a light as that of noon-day.
Gradually the old man, however, suffered the animals to quicken their steps, until they had gained the centre of one of the prairie bottoms.
Then laughing in his quiet manner he released the reins and said—
“Now, let them give play to their legs; but keep on the old fog to deaden the sounds.”
It is needless to say how cheerfully he was obeyed.