The Mystery of The Woods E-Book

W. H. H. Murray

• Herausgeber: idb
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Seitenzahl: 610

Beschreibung

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 ...

Leseprobe

* An idb eBook *

Title: The Mystery of The Woods

Date of first publication: 1891

Author: W. H. H. Murray

ISBN 9783962245573

The Mystery of the Woods

AND

The Man Who Missed It

BY

W. H. H. MURRAY

AUTHOR OF "DAYLIGHT LAND," "ADVENTURES IN THE WILDERNESS," "HOW JOHN NORTON THE TRAPPER KEPT HIS CHRISTMAS," ETC.

BOSTON:

DeWOLFE & FISKE COMPANY, PUBLISHERS.

Copyright, 1891,

PART I.

THE MYSTERY OF THE WOODS.

THE MYSTERY OF THE WOODS.

PART I.

CHAPTER I.

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."

CHAPTER II.

In the morning the Trapper rose at the usual hour. It was his habit in the summer time to rise with the sun; and his custom each morning after rising, and before he had begun the morning tasks, to go and open the great wide door of his cabin, and, standing on the threshold with uncovered head, look out upon the world as it stood revealed in the dewy light of morning. We cannot say what his thoughts were, but judging by the looks of his face they were such as a man at peace with himself, and at peace with his Maker, when looking at the beautiful works of His hands in their loveliest phase, might have. Indeed, his countenance at such times, in the peaceful gravity and grateful happiness of its expression, was a picture of so fine a sort as to remain for years fresh and unfaded in memory's hall. If the day through the delightful coolness of its air, the cool stretch of water, the distant mountains, and the newly-risen sun, breathed a benediction upon him, in the grateful, reverent, and happy reflection of his heart, he seemed to pronounce a benediction upon the day; for, in the old man was that fine sense of appreciation, that childlike quality of greeting anything beautiful as a surprise, that to his simple mind caused each morning to seem not merely as the beginning of a new day but a new beginning of the world.

This morning, as he stood barefooted and with uncovered head in the doorway that opened toward the east, the beauty of the outward appearance was so extraordinary as to fill his receptive mind with reverent wonder.

"The Lord is sartinly great in his power, and great is he in his wisdom," said the old man talking to himself, as the winds of the morning played on his brow, and the light of the rising sun warmed his features with its glow, "for his devices be many, and the beauty of his doing beyend man's thinkin'. I have lived on the 'arth till my head be whitenin' and studied natur' with an eye marcifully fitted for notin' things, but sartin it is that the 'arth grows han'somer each year, and the mornin's as they foller each other be prittier and prittier. I sartinly hope that the Lord has a nose to smell the sweet things he has made; and that his ear this minute hears that robin as he strains his leetle throat on that maple out there; and he sartinly loses a good deal ef he don't come down off and on and take a look at the woods from the top of Mount Seward there, not to speak of the streams, and the lakes, and the sunrises and sunsets that he might see from that p'int ef he chose the spot for his outlook with jedgment. And there's sartinly some bends in the Racquette that he orter look at more'n once; for Henry says that the Racquette is the han'somest river in the world, and Henry is careful of speech, and his jedgment is good," and here the old man paused a moment, and a yearning look came into his face, and his eyes changed their expression so that, though open, they seemed not to see, at least, see nothing nigh; for to them came a far-away look as if their vision had overleaped the mountain, and was stretched to see the distant and, to him, the unknown world of cities and crowding men beyond their blue rim; and then he said,—

"May the Lord forgive the discontent of my sperit when his marcies be round me thicker than the pine-stems on the ground; but I must own that I feel a leetle lonesome at times, and the sight of the boy's face would be sweeter to me this minit than the sight of the mornin'. It may not be right to have such feelin's, and I trust the Lord will look in marcy on the weakness ef he be displeased at the cravin'. And I have fought agin it,—yis, I have fought agin it, for fear it wasn't right; for it's wrong for mortal man not to be content with enough,—and I sartinly have enough: victals to eat and good strong garments, and a rod that the boy himself gave me, and a weepon that a man can trust his life to; and the pups—yis, the pups be a great comfort,—sartinly, I ought to be content and not wish for anything more,—leastwise, not crave it with yearnin'. And yit, ef I could hear the crack of the boy's piece a mile or two down the river this minit, and know that he was actally comin', I doubt ef the thought of all His goodness—well, well," muttered the old man, as he turned back into the cabin, "sunrise is sunrise, and Henry is Henry, and it's the Lord's own temptin' when he gives to a man of my years two sech boys as he gin me: Henry and the Lad;" and he paused a moment and gazed at the two picture-frames hanging on the wall,—the one filled with the portrait of Henry, the other empty to all eyes but his; but to his eyes the empty frame was filled with a simple, innocent, heroic face that he and Henry had buried under the pine in the grave by the sea.

Half an hour later the old Trapper was seated at his table, enjoying with finest relish a breakfast which, in variety of food, was limited; but in delicacy of quality would have satisfied the cultivated taste of an epicure. The two hounds were sitting on their haunches at the end of the table, looking at the eater with that most wistful and imploring of all looks—the look of a hungry dog.

"I tell ye, pups," said the old man, as he stopped for a moment in his eating—holding between his thumb and forefinger a trout small of size and brown to a turn,—"I tell ye, pups, ye ain't more than half-mannered. Ye act well enough, for ye keep yer places; but yer looks be onusually arnest; and I can't take hold of a morsel without yer looking as ef it belonged to ye, and I was sorter robbin' ye in eatin' it myself. Now, Rover, ye ain't rational. What's the use of givin' ye sech a trout as that? Ef ye swallered it ye wouldn't know where 'twas; and a boatload of sech fish wouldn't fill ye. I heerd Henry say one day that there was a kind of men down in the settlements that would eat an' eat, and the more they'd eat the thinner they'd git. The victals didn't seem to do 'em any good; didn't fill 'em up and thicken 'em out; and a man whose emptiness can't be filled with swallerin' is"—and here the old man paused a moment, evidently at fault for a word. But human nature in the hunter's cabin is very like human nature—well, in a pulpit, say,—and so the old Trapper backed up verbally for a new start, and, with an earnestness and unction entirely uncalled for by the exigency of the case, exclaimed, as he flourished the trout, "A man whose emptiness can't be filled by swallerin' is a miracle! Sartin, sartin!" said the Trapper, as if relieved. "Lord, what things words be! and how they relieve the feelin's when ye drive 'em out with a leetle more'n ord'nary arnestness!"

With such remarks, half serious and half humorous, the old Trapper was accustomed to enliven his repast. The hounds, with the facility of canine intelligence, had become entirely familiar with the programme, and no one could see them and not feel that they had become so wonted to the discourse of the Trapper as to give countenance to his belief, that, beyond what is expected of their species, the dogs understood the drift of his remarks. Indeed, there seemed to be a subtle understanding between the three that inhabited the cabin, for more than one stranger had noted that the hounds shared the mood of their master, and that their companionship rested on the foundation of mutual sympathy. That the Trapper's belief in the capacity of his canine companions to understand was entirely sincere, no one who watched his treatment of them could for a moment doubt.

When the old Trapper had finished his breakfast he moved, as was his custom, his chair back from the table, and, facing round toward the hounds, proceeded to give them their repast. The dogs took their position, one at either knee, and with a decorum which would have done credit to human members of a civilized community, received their allotted portions, eating the morsels, as the old Trapper fed them alternately, in grave but grateful silence.

"Well, well," said the Trapper, while thus deliberately feeding his dogs, "how happy-like it makes a man feel to feed somethin' that's hungry! Now, pups, I don't conceit, knowin' as ye be, that ye know the happiness it gives me to give ye the morsels that ye're swallerin'. I dare say ye feel happy-like yerselves,—yis, I know ye do, for a dog can't lie with his tail, and the way ye be waggin' 'em is sartinly proof that yer sperits be peaceful, and yer eyes shine like the eyes of a leetle redskin when ye give him a trinket. The Maker of the 'arth must sartinly be happy to see the creeturs that he's made at their feedin'. I've often conceited that he kept his eye on things a leetle closer than the missioners preach, and it may be that he gits a good deal of his happiness in makin' the creeturs he has made comfortable, and watchin' them as they go about on their business, each arter his natur'. There, pups, ye've eaten the last morsel, and ye've had a mighty small meal, jedgin' by yer size, for ye're both as ga'nt as ye was when I started; but I've given ye a good meal, and though I know how yer innards are put together, yit I never could understand how one of yer kind, Rover, could eat as much as ye can, and look no bigger arter ye'd eaten than afore ye'd begun. It may be," said the old man calculatingly, "it may be my eyes be a leetle faulty, but I've conceited more'n once, Rover, that the more I fed ye the ga'nter ye got. I can say in sartinty that I never seed ye filled yit, or turn yer muzzle from a morsel that was offered ye."

The old Trapper cleared away the dishes, and, after he had swept the floor and brought a fresh pail of water from the spring, stood for a moment in the centre of the cabin. The look on his face was the look of a man engaged in profoundest thought,—of a man studying a subject that the more he studied the more it puzzled him. In a few moments he took his rifle from the brackets, and going to the doorway, he stepped forth, and, seating himself on a bench, called the dogs to his side, and said,—

"Pups, I be worried in my mind. Yis, I sartinly be worried nigh on to frettin', and a man who worries unto frettin' does a most onrational deed. And ef ye want to know what it's about, pups, I'll tell ye. Rover, do keep yer mouth shet! It worries me to see ye lap yer chops in that way. Why don't ye keep yer manners when ye be in council? It's that camp down there,—that camp on the p'int. I run in on it last night, Rover, and though I used my eyes in a jedicious manner, and seed about all there was to see outside of canvas, yit I am not sure that I seed all; no, I'm not sure I seed all," repeated the old man with emphasis. "There's too much tent on that p'int, pups; there is a good deal too much tent," and here the old man paused, and, taking a piece of buckskin from his pocket, he rubbed the silver plate on the cheek-piece of his rifle, on which his name was graven; and then, resuming, he said,—

"They're a hard set; they're a harder set than I ever seed in the fur country, them chaps be. Now I know a vagabond, whether he be half-breed, white, or redskin,—that is, sech vagabonds as we have in the woods,—but them chaps down there be another sort. I doubt ef one of 'em could tell a buck's track from a doe. They don't look as ef they was raised in the woods. They look a good deal like them sort of chaps Henry told me about. He said there was a kind of vagabonds in the cities that took their schoolin' from the devil at the start, and growed into wickedness as they growed into strength; larnt themselves all evil ways, and didn't fear God nor man," and here the old man paused again, and taking the caps from the hammers, he wiped the tubes with the buckskin rag. "And I sartinly conceit," resumed the old man, as if he had not lost his thread of thought, "that them vagabonds be city vagabonds, and a sassy set they be, too. And the chap that drawed his knife on me drawed it as ef he'd drawed it a good many times, and acted jest as ef he'd used it a good many times. And he had a quick eye, too, and a sort of a rational way with him, for he wasn't long in finding out that I'd covered him when he jumped; and he sartinly stopped at the right p'int, for ef he had taken another jump I'd opened daylight through him. Brave? Yis, he's brave and he's cool, and a man that faces that chap on equal tarms would have to do pritty quick work to save his life, as I jedge.

"How did they git in?" said the Trapper, after a moment's pause; "I see by yer eye, Rover, that ye think some one guided 'em in, and ye're right; and whoever guided them chaps in, knowed enough to wash his trail clean out on the carries, for Wild Bill said that there wasn't a sign of a party in all the north country. And the question comes up, who was cap'en of that gang? for he must be the man that guided 'em in;" and here the old man paused again, and placing a couple of caps on the tubes of his rifle, he raised it to his eye and fired. The smoke cleared in an instant, and the report of the left barrel followed the right.

"I thought it would," said the trapper to himself, "for it's been loaded a week, and the fog was heavy as I come through the Chain of the Lakes. Yis, that left barrel barnt a leetle slow, and the hole is bigger by half the width of the lead than it ought to be. It isn't much; no, it isn't much; the half the width of a bullet at fifty paces, but it's more by half a bullet than it would be ef the powder had been perfectly dry. I won't drive home another bullet till I have taken the breech pins out and made the barrels shine, for there's no tellin' what's ahead; no, pups, there's no tellin' what's ahead; and ef they should git sassy, down there on the p'int, and Henry be late in comin' in, it may be that lead will be flyin' round here afore a week;" and then, as a graver expression came over the old man's face, he said:—

"I hope not; I sartinly hope not; for ef they should try to play any of their pranks on me there'd be close work round the shores of this lake, for they be five to my one; and the leader of the gang wasn't there last night, for sartin."

An hour later, the old Trapper had finished cleaning his rifle, and standing in the spot where we left him soliloquizing he was in the act of loading. Even an ordinary observer would have noticed that he paid more than average attention to the charging; and when the act was accomplished he lifted it to his cheek and ran his eye through the sights. And then dropping the barrel into the hollow of his left arm, he gazed for a moment out upon the lake, and muttered to himself:—

"I'll ambush that camp to-night; there's deviltry somewhere there for sartin. Ef I knew who the leader was, the riddle would be half guessed. And then there's that big tent with no door to it, leastwise none that opens toward the lake, as it oughter ef it be a pleasure tent. And the question arises, what's in that tent? Why be they so skeered that an honest man should come into their camp? Why be they in sech a hurry to git him out? Why do they draw a knife on a man because he axes a question? Lord!" said the old man, "what good things habits be. Now ef I'd left my rifle down in the boat, and that chap had drawed the knife on me, there would have been a scrimmage sure as jedgment; but I lined him as he jumped, and that helped things toward peace. No man's a right to leave his gun in the boat when he goes into a strange camp ef he wants to have a peaceable time.

"Then there was a man in front of that tent; I seed him; and when the talkin' got arnest why didn't he come down and jine in? He acted a good deal as ef he was put there to stay; and a man don't do sentinel duty in front of an empty tent. I tell ye," said the old man, and he brought his fist down into the open palm of his other hand, "I tell ye there's somethin' in that tent, and John Norton will find out what it is, ef the clouds be thick to-night."

The clouds were thick at night, thick as nature could pile above the earth. The darkness was of the kind that could be felt. It was just the night the Trapper would have wished in which to attempt the deed he was about to do. In the bottom of the boat he had spread a blanket. On the blanket he placed his rifle, and by its side an extra paddle. Thus, perfectly prepared for the work he was to do, the old Trapper entered the boat, and shoving off, started up the lake.

In less than an hour's time, he reached the vicinity of the camp. But instead of there being a large, clear flame rising upward, the camp-fire was of very moderate dimensions, scarcely lighting the interior of the shanty, and only bringing dimly into view the three neighboring tents.

"The vagabonds larn a lesson quick," said the Trapper to himself. "A jedicious hint about the big fire, and the way in which it helped a man to draw on 'em, has sartinly larnt them economy techin' the use of wood. But ef a low fire sarves them, it sartinly sarves me; for I can lay myself up within fifty feet of the beach, and onless their eyes be better than I think, they won't know what eyes be on 'em, and what ears be listenin' to 'em. They'll have to talk a good deal lower than they did the other night, ef they don't want to be heared by the man they treated onreasonably the fust time he called on 'em."

Talking thus to himself he moved his boat in toward the beach. He doubled the point that stretched out to the right of the camp, and inspected it as well as he could in the dim light, from the further side.

Little was to be seen beyond what he had already seen. The camp was nearly hidden in the darkness, and only a murmur of voices came to his ears. He moved his boat round to the front again, and laid it up almost against the sands of the beach. Indeed, it was not ten feet from the beach when he brought it to a stand, and sat straining his ears to catch the murmuring conversation; but strive never so hard, he could not make out what they were saying. He heard his own name mentioned twice, and one or two oaths came to him distinctly; but, beyond this, his efforts were unavailing; and had it not been for a sudden and unexpected occurrence, he would have backed his boat from that beach into deeper waters, no wiser as to the character or plans of the party, no wiser as to their leader's name, and no wiser as to the contents of the big tent than when he came. But something did happen,—happen suddenly; happened in a way that would have proved fatal to a man of less experience and fertility of resource than was the Trapper.

The Trapper had left the stern of his boat, and stepping softly along the blanket that lay stretched on the bottom, was now kneeling at the forward end,—kneeling, with his left hand laid on the gunwale and his paddle grasped in his right struck into the sands by which to steady himself as he kneeled, bent forward, in the attitude of listening. As he thus knelt, with his body projecting forward, and all his senses strained to the utmost tension, fastened on the camp and its occupants barely fifty feet in front of him, another boat, moving as noiselessly as had his and more rapidly, from the lake toward the beach, struck his fair in the end, and out of a man's mouth, not twenty feet back of him, tore a frightful oath.

It was well for the Trapper that he was kneeling and well braced when his boat received the shock, or he would have been pitched forward on to the sanded beach. The instant that the oath sounded in the darkness back of him, the camp was in an uproar. The men who had been sitting in the shanty, only partially revealed by the light, poured out and started toward the water's edge.

"What the devil," said the voice back of the Trapper, "do you fellows mean to leave a boat loose for a man to run against in the dark, when he comes into camp?"

"There is no boat there, captain," said one of the men, speaking up sharply. "The canoes are all hauled up on the beach as you left orders."

"What do you mean," exclaimed the man with another dreadful imprecation, "what do you mean to tell any such stuff as that to me? Don't you suppose I know a boat when I've got my hand on it? If you're drunk I'm not. Come here with a li——"

He never finished the word, for the sound he had started to form ended in a gurgle. The Trapper had not been idle. The shock had not dislodged him, and he knew from whence it came and the cause of it. With a quickness and coolness which had made his name famous, the instant the incoming boat struck, he shoved the end of his own, in which he was sitting, around, describing a half circle; shoved it round steadily, firmly, and quickly, until it was lying side by side with the other, and he himself sitting within arm's reach of the new-comer; and as he called for a light, even when the words were on his lips, the Trapper's hand clutched his throat and the strong fingers settled into the flesh of the neck like the clasp of a vise.

CHAPTER III.

For a moment the fingers kept their hold. The man writhed and struck out once or twice wildly with his arms. His paddle, that he had lifted, dropped from his relaxing fingers and fell noisily into the bottom of the boat, and then his body wilted down in a heap; and the Trapper, loosening his grip, pushed the limp form forward that it might not fall into the lake, and then placing the end of his paddle against the body of the man as it lay stretched in the bottom of the boat, he shoved his own out noiselessly into the darkness.

Nor did he act a minute too quick, for the camp-fire kindling suddenly in answer to a piece of pitchy pine that had been flung into it by one of the men, as the captain's call sounded, shot a bright flame suddenly upward, revealing the two boats at the edge of the beach—the one with their captain lying as if dead in the bottom, and the other with the form of the Trapper in the very act of shoving away; and on the instant a rifle ripped its explosion out, and a bullet cut the sleeve of the old Trapper's shirt as his elbows were lifted in the act of pushing off.

"I knowed the vagabond," said the Trapper to himself, as he brought his boat to a stand-still forty rods out in the lake; "yis, I knowed the vagabond the minit I heerd his voice; and I trust the Lord will forgive me that I didn't pinch him a leetle harder. For his doin's be the doin's of Satan, and it's time that his devilments come to an eend. Ye may hoot and ye may yell," he continued, alluding to the uproar in the camp caused by the gang's discovery of their leader stretched limp and lifeless in the bottom of the boat, "but I advise ye to mix a leetle rubbin' with yer hootin', or ye won't bring him to; for memories got into my fingers as they sot on to his neck, and they tightened the grip a good deal beyend playfulness. I guess I'll paddle in and hear what the vagabonds be sayin'; for a man is apt to let out in his wrath what he's hid in his coolness; and it may be that amid their swearin' I'll git some useful knowledge of what they're up to. And ef there's any more boats runnin' agin me ther'll be somethin' more than pinchin' done; for an honest man can't stand everything ef it be peace time."

So saying the old man paddled in, curving to the right that he might bring his boat beyond the range of the firelight into the shadow of a heavy pine that stood a few yards to the left of the flame. It was a dangerous experiment, and to one of less skill and courage, the attempt would have been hazardous in the extreme; but he was at home in the work he was at, and the training of a lifetime passed amid peril fitted him for the endeavor. In less than two minutes his light boat was again within twenty feet of the beach, and with his rifle resting against his knee and both hammers cocked, the old man again sat in the attitude of listening.

The scene around the fire was a most extraordinary one. The captain of the gang lay stretched on the ground, his head lifted in the lap of one of the men, while the others, kneeling around him, were engaged in chafing his limbs and exercising their rude skill in their attempt to restore him to consciousness. In a few moments they succeeded; for the man struggled to his feet, and drawing his knife, while yet too weak to stand steady, glared into one dark visage after another, with a ferocity of expression frightful to behold. His weakness and ungovernable rage for a moment kept him silent, while his eyes seemed searching for a breast into which to drive his knife. At length, as reason gained its control, he drove the blade into the sheath, while with a voice that actually trembled and choked with passion, he exclaimed,—

"Who are you that allow a man to ambush your camp and strangle your leader within fifty feet of your fire? Have you no eyes nor ears, that on such a job as we have on our hands, and left in charge as I left you, you allow an enemy to bring his boat to the very sands of the beach, while you doze in your camp like boys on a pleasure trip?"

"Easy, easy, captain," said the man who had been the spokesman of the party the night before, when the Trapper paid them a visit, "easy, captain, our eyes and ears may not be as good as yours in the woods, but only one man has come into the camp since we struck this point."

"Where is his body?" shouted the leader. "Were not your orders to prevent one coming in; or if one came, to prevent his going out?"

"Your orders were all right, captain; but orders are one thing and carrying them out is another. But the man who came in didn't tell us he was coming, and the first that we knew he was standing by the fire here."

"Why didn't you kill him where he stood?" shouted the leader.