LEATHERSTOCKING TALES – Complete Collection. Джеймс Фенимор Купер

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СКАЧАТЬ practices, knew too well how great was the distance between appearances and reality, to become the dupes of this seeming carelessness. Although both thought incessantly of the means of escape, and this without concert, each was aware of the uselessness of attempting any project of the sort that was not deeply laid, and promptly executed. They had been long enough in the encampment, and were sufficiently observant to have ascertained that Hist, also, was a sort of captive, and, presuming on the circumstance, Hutter spoke in her presence more openly than he might otherwise have thought it prudent to do; inducing Hurry to be equally unguarded by his example.

      “I’ll not blame you, Hetty, for coming on this errand, which was well meant if not very wisely planned,” commenced the father, seating himself by the side of his daughter and taking her hand; a sign of affection that this rude being was accustomed to manifest to this particular child. “But preaching, and the Bible, are not the means to turn an Indian from his ways. Has Deerslayer sent any message; or has he any scheme by which he thinks to get us free?”

      “Ay, that’s the substance of it!” put in Hurry. “If you can help us, gal, to half a mile of freedom, or even a good start of a short quarter, I’ll answer for the rest. Perhaps the old man may want a little more, but for one of my height and years that will meet all objections.”

      Hetty looked distressed, turning her eyes from one to the other, but she had no answer to give to the question of the reckless Hurry.

      “Father,” she said, “neither Deerslayer nor Judith knew of my coming until I had left the Ark. They are afraid the Iroquois will make a raft and try to get off to the hut, and think more of defending that than of coming to aid you.”

      “No — no — no —” said Hist hurriedly, though in a low voice, and with her face bent towards the earth, in order to conceal from those whom she knew to be watching them the fact of her speaking at all. “No — no — no — Deerslayer different man. He no t’ink of defending ‘self, with friend in danger. Help one another, and all get to hut.”

      “This sounds well, old Tom,” said Hurry, winking and laughing, though he too used the precaution to speak low —“Give me a ready witted squaw for a fri’nd, and though I’ll not downright defy an Iroquois, I think I would defy the devil.”

      “No talk loud,” said Hist. “Some Iroquois got Yengeese tongue, and all got Yengeese ear.”

      “Have we a friend in you, young woman?” enquired Hutter with an increasing interest in the conference. “If so, you may calculate on a solid reward, and nothing will be easier than to send you to your own tribe, if we can once fairly get you off with us to the castle. Give us the Ark and the canoes, and we can command the lake, spite of all the savages in the Canadas. Nothing but artillery could drive us out of the castle, if we can get back to it.

      “S’pose ‘ey come ashore to take scalp?” retorted Hist, with cool irony, at which the girl appeared to be more expert than is common for her sex.

      “Ay — ay — that was a mistake; but there is little use in lamentations, and less still, young woman, in flings.”

      “Father,” said Hetty, “Judith thinks of breaking open the big chest, in hopes of finding something in that which may buy your freedom of the savages.”

      A dark look came over Hutter at the announcement of this fact, and he muttered his dissatisfaction in a way to render it intelligible enough.

      “What for no break open chest?” put in Hist. “Life sweeter than old chest — scalp sweeter than old chest. If no tell darter to break him open, Wah-ta-Wah no help him to run away.”

      “Ye know not what ye ask — ye are but silly girls, and the wisest way for ye both is to speak of what ye understand and to speak of nothing else. I little like this cold neglect of the savages, Hurry; it’s a proof that they think of something serious, and if we are to do any thing, we must do it soon. Can we count on this young woman, think you?”

      “Listen —” said Hist quickly, and with an earnestness that proved how much her feelings were concerned —“Wah-ta-Wah no Iroquois — All over Delaware — got Delaware heart — Delaware feeling. She prisoner, too. One prisoner help t’udder prisoner. No good to talk more, now. Darter stay with fader — Wah-ta-Wah come and see friend — all look right — Then tell what he do.”

      This was said in a low voice, but distinctly, and in a manner to make an impression. As soon as it was uttered the girl arose and left the group, walking composedly towards the hut she occupied, as if she had no further interest in what might pass between the pale-faces.

      Chapter XII

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      “She speaks much of her father; says she hears,

       There’s tricks i’ the world; and hems, and beats her breast;

       Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt,

       That carry but half sense; her speech is nothing,

       Yet the unshaped use of it doth move

       The hearers to collection;”

      —Hamlet, IV.v.4–9

      We left the occupants of the castle and the ark, buried in sleep. Once, or twice, in the course of the night, it is true, Deerslayer or the Delaware, arose and looked out upon the tranquil lake; when, finding all safe, each returned to his pallet, and slept like a man who was not easily deprived of his natural rest. At the first signs of the dawn the former arose, however, and made his personal arrangements for the day; though his companion, whose nights had not been tranquil or without disturbances of late, continued on his blanket until the sun had fairly risen; Judith, too, was later than common that morning, for the earlier hours of the night had brought her little of either refreshment or sleep. But ere the sun had shown himself over the eastern hills these too were up and afoot, even the tardy in that region seldom remaining on their pallets after the appearance of the great luminary. Chingachgook was in the act of arranging his forest toilet, when Deerslayer entered the cabin of the Ark and threw him a few coarse but light summer vestments that belonged to Hutter.

      “Judith hath given me them for your use, chief,” said the latter, as he cast the jacket and trousers at the feet of the Indian, “for it’s ag’in all prudence and caution to be seen in your war dress and paint. Wash off all them fiery streaks from your cheeks, put on these garments, and here is a hat, such as it is, that will give you an awful oncivilized sort of civilization, as the missionaries call it. Remember that Hist is at hand, and what we do for the maiden must be done while we are doing for others. I know it’s ag’in your gifts and your natur’ to wear clothes, unless they are cut and carried in a red man’s fashion, but make a vartue of necessity and put these on at once, even if they do rise a little in your throat.”

      Chingachgook, or the Serpent, eyed the vestments with strong disgust; but he saw the usefulness of the disguise, if not its absolute necessity. Should the Iroquois discover a red man, in or about the Castle, it might, indeed, place them more on their guard, and give their suspicions a direction towards their female captive. Any thing was better than a failure, as it regarded his betrothed, and, after turning the different garments round and round, examining them with a species of grave irony, affecting to draw them on in a way that defeated itself, and otherwise manifesting the reluctance of a young savage to confine his limbs in the usual appliances of civilized life, the chief submitted to the directions of his companion, СКАЧАТЬ