Hope Leslie. Catharine Maria Sedgwick

He rose slowly and cautiously to his feet. All was yet profoundly still. He glanced his eye on Faith Leslie, whom he would gladly have rescued; but Magawisca shook her head, and he felt that to attempt it, would be to ensure his own failure.

      The moon shone through the branches of the trees, and shed a faint and quivering light on the wild groupe. Everell looked cautiously about him, to see where he should plant his first footstep. ‘If I should tread on those skins,’ he thought, ‘that are about them; or on those dead rustling leaves, it were a gone case with me.’ During this instant of deliberation, one of the Indians murmured something of his dreaming thoughts, turned himself over, and grasped Everell’s ankle. The boy bit his quivering lip, and suppressed an instinctive cry, for he perceived it was but the movement of sleep, and he felt the hold gradually relaxing. He exchanged a glance of joy with Magawisca, when a new source of alarm startled them – they heard the dashing of oars. Breathless – immoveable – they listened. The strokes were quickly repeated, and the sound rapidly approached, and a voice spoke – “not there boys – not there, a little higher up.”

      Joy and hope shot through Everell’s heart as he sprang, like a startled deer, but the Mohawk, awakened too by the noise, grasped his leg with one hand, and with the other drawing his knife from his girdle, he pointed it at Everell’s heart, in the act to strike if he should make the least movement, or sound.

      Caution is the instinct of the weaker animals; the Indian cannot be surprised out of his wariness. Mononotto and his companions, thus suddenly awakened, remained as fixed and silent as the trees about them.

      The men in the canoes suspended their oars for a moment, and seemed at a loss how to proceed, or whether to proceed at all. “It is a risky business, I can tell you, Digby,” said one of them, “to plunge into those woods – ‘it is ill fighting with wild beasts in their own den’ – they may start out upon us from their holes when we are least looking for them.”

      “And if they should,” replied Digby, in the voice of one who would fain enforce reason with persuasion, “if they should, Lawrence, are we not six stout Christian men, with bold hearts, and the Lord on our side, to boot?”

      “I grant ye, that’s fighting at odds; but I mistrust we have no command from the Lord to come out on this wild goose chase.”

      “I take a known duty,” replied Digby, “always to be a command from the Lord, and you, Lawrence, I am sure, will be as ready as another man to serve under such an order.”

      Lawrence was silenced for a moment, and another voice spoke – “Yes, so should we all, Master Digby, if you could make out the order; but I can’t see the sense of risking all our lives, and getting but a ‘thank ye for nothing’ when we get back, if, indeed, we ever get out of the bowels of the forest again, into a clearing. To be sure, we’ve tracked them thus far, but now, on the river, we lose scent. You know they thread the forest as handily as my good woman threads her needle; and for us to pursue them, is as vain a thing as for my old chimney corner cat to chase a catamount through the woods. Come, come – let’s head about, and give it up for a bad job.”

      “Stop, stop, my friends,” cried Digby, as they were about to put the boat around; “ye surely have not all faint hearts. Feare-naught, you will not so belie your Christian name, as to turn your back on danger. And you, John Wilkin, who cut down the Pequods, as you were wont to mow the swarth in Suffolk, will you have it thrown up to you, that you wanted courage to pursue the caitiffs? Go home, Lawrence, and take your curly-pated boy on your knee, and thank God with what heart you may, for his spared life; and all, all of you go to that childless man, at Bethel, and say, ‘we could not brave the terrors of the forest to save your child, for we have pleasant homes and wives and children.’ For myself, the Lord helping, while I’ve life, I’ll not turn back without the boy; and if there’s one among you, that hopes for God’s pity, let him go with me.”

      “Why, I’m sure it was not I that proposed going back,” said Lawrence.

      “And I’m sure,” said the second speaker, “that I’m willing, if the rest are, to try our luck further.”

      “Now, God above reward ye, my good fellows,” cried Digby, with renewed life; “I knew it was but trying your metal, to find it true. It is not reasonable that you should feel as I do, who have seen my master’s home looking like a slaughterhouse. My mistress – the gentlest and the best! – Oh! it’s too much to think of. And then that boy, that’s worth a legion of such men as we are – of such as I, I mean. But come, let’s pull away; a little further up the stream – there’s no landing here, where the bank is so steep.”

      “Stay – row a little closer,” cried one of the men; “I see something like a track on the very edge of the bank; its being seemingly impossible, is the very reason why the savages would have chosen it.”

      They now approached so near the shore that Everell knew they might hear a whisper, and yet to move his lips was certain death. Those who have experienced the agony of a nightmare, when life seemed to depend on a single word, and that word could not be pronounced, may conceive his emotions at this trying moment. Friends and rescue so near, and so unavailing!

      “Ye are mistaken,” said another of the pursuing party, after a moment’s investigation, “it’s but a heron’s track,” which it truly was; for the savages had been careful not to leave the slightest trace of their footsteps where they landed. “There’s a cove a little higher up,” continued the speaker; “we’ll put in there, and then if we dont get on their trail, Master Digby must tell us what to do.”

      “It’s plain what we must do then,” said Digby, “go strait on westerly. I have a compass, you know; there is not, as the hunters tell us, a single smoke between this and the valleys of the Housatonick. There the tribes are friendly, and if we reach them without falling in with our enemy, we will not pursue them further.”

      “Agreed, agreed,” cried all the men, and they again dashed in their oars and made for the cove. Everell’s heart sunk within him as the sounds receded; but hope once admitted, will not be again excluded, and with the sanguine temperament of youth, he was already mentally calculating the chances of escape. Not so Magawisca; she knew the dangers that beset him; she was aware of her father’s determined purpose. Her heart had again been rent by a divided duty; one word from her would have rescued Everell, but that word would have condemned her father; and when the boat retired, she sunk to the ground, quite spent with the conflict of her feelings.

      It may seem strange that the Indians did not avail themselves of the advantage of their ambush to attack their pursuers; but it will be remembered, the latter were double their number, and besides, Mononotto’s object now was, to make good his retreat with his children; and to effect this, it was essential he should avoid any encounter with his pursuers. After a short consultation with his associates, they determined to remain in their present position till the morning. They were confident they should be able to detect and avoid the track of the enemy, and soon to get in advance of them.