Matilda Montgomerie Or The Prophecy Fulfilled Part 26

"More's the pity," replied Jackson, with infinite drollery; "but though you may not like it yourself, your friends may."

"I _have_ no friends--I _wish_ to have no friends!" was the sullen reply.

"More's the pity still," pursued the Aide-de-camp. "But what do you live on, then, old c.o.c.k, if you don't eat bread?"

"Human flesh. Take that as a relish to your hung beef."

Scarcely had the strange expression escaped the settler's lips, when Jackson, active as a deer, was at the farther end of the hut, one hand holding the heavy chair as a s.h.i.+eld before him, the other placed upon the b.u.t.t of one of his pistols. The former at the same moment quitted his seat, and stretching his tall and muscular form to its utmost height, burst into a laugh that sounded more like that of some wild beast than a human being. The involuntary terror produced in his guest was evidently a source of exultation to him, and he seemed gratified to think he had at length discovered the means of making himself looked upon with something like fear.

On entering the hut, Gerald had taken his seat at the opposite corner of the fire, yet in such a manner as to admit of his features being shaded by the projection of the chimney. The customs of the wilderness, moreover, rendering it neither offensive, nor even worthy of remark, that he should retain his hat, he had, as in the first instance, drawn it as much over his eyes as he conceived suited to his purpose of concealment, without exciting a suspicion of his design; and, as the alteration in his dress was calculated to deceive into a belief of his being an American, he had been enabled to observe the settler without much fear of recognition in return. A great change had taken place in the manner of Desborough. Ferocious he still was, but it was a ferocity wholly unmixed with the cunning of his former years, that he now exhibited. He had evidently suffered much, and there was a stamp of thought on the heavy countenance that Gerald had never remarked there before. There was also this anomaly in the man--that while ten years appeared to have been added to his age, his strength was increased in the same proportion--a change that made itself evident by the att.i.tude in which he stood.

"Why now I take it you must be jesting," at length exclaimed the Aid-de-camp, doubtingly, dropping at the same time the chair upon the floor, yet keeping it before him as though not quite safe in the presence of this self-confessed anthropophagos; "you surely don't mean to say you kill and pickle every unfortunate traveller that comes by here. If so, I must apprehend you in the name of the United States Government."

"I rather calculate not, Mister," sneered the settler. "Besides, I don't eat the United States subjects; consequently they've no claim to interfere."

"Who the devil do you eat, then?" asked Jackson, gathering courage with his curiosity, and advancing a pace or two nearer the fire, "or is it all a hum?"

The settler approached the fire, stooped a little, and applying his shoulder to the top of the opening, thrust his right hand and arm up the chimney.

"I reckon that's no hum," he said, producing and throwing upon the table a piece of dark, dry flesh, that resembled in appearance the upper part of a human arm. "If you're fond of a relisn," he pursued, with a fierce laugh, "you'll find that mighty well suited to the palate--quite as sweet as a bit of smok'd venison."

"Why, you don't really mean to say that's part of a man?" demanded Jackson, advancing cautiously to the table, and turning over the shrivelled ma.s.s with the point of his dagger. "Why, I declare, its just the color of my dried beef."

"But I do though--and what's more, of my own killin' and dryin'. Purty naturist you must be, not to see that's off an Ingin's arm!"

"Oh, an Ingin's only, is it?" returned the Aid-de-camp, whose apprehension began rapidly to subside, now that he had obtained the conviction that it was not the flesh of a white man. "Well, I'm sure!

who'd have thought it? I take it, old c.o.c.k, you've been in the wars as well as myself."

"A little or so, I reckon, and I expect to be in them agin shortly--as soon as my stock of food's out. I've only a thigh bone to pick after this, and then I'm off. But why don't you take your seat at the fire.

There's nothin' so out of the way in the sight of a naked arm, is there?

I reckon, if you're a soger, you must have seen many a one lopped off in the wars."

"Yes, friend," said Jackson, altering the position of the table and placing it between the settler and himself; "a good many lopped off, as you say, and in a devil of a stew, but not exactly eaten. However, be so good as to return this to the chimney, and when I've eaten something from my bag, I'll listen to what you have to say about it."

"Jist so, and go without my own supper, I suppose, to please you. But tarnation, while you're eatin' a bit of your hung beef, I'll try a snack of mine."

So saying, he deliberately took from the table the dried arm he had previously flung there, and, removing a large clasp knife from a pocket beneath his coa.r.s.e hunting frock, proceeded to help himself to several thin slices, corresponding precisely in appearance with those which the Aid-de-camp divided in the same manner.

Jackson had managed to swallow three or four pieces of his favorite hung beef with all the avidity of an appet.i.te rendered keen by the absence of every other stimulant than hunger; but no sooner did he perceive his host fastening with a degree of fury on his unnatural food, than, sick and full of loathing, his stomach rejected further aliment, and he was compelled to desist. During all this time, Grantham, who, although he had a.s.sumed the manner and att.i.tude of a sleeping man, was a watchful observer of all that pa.s.sed, neither moved nor uttered a syllable, except on one occasion to put away from him the food Jackson had offered.

"Sorry to see your ride has given you so poor an appet.i.te," said the settler, with a look expressive of the savage delight he felt in annoying his visitor, "I reckon that's rather unsavory stuff you've got there, that you can't eat it without bread. I say, young man,"

addressing Grantham, "can't you find no appet.i.te neither, that you sit there snorin', as if you never meant to wake agin."

Gerald's head sunk lower on his chest, and his affectation of slumber became more profound.

"Try a drop of this," said Jackson, offering his canteen, after having drank himself, and with a view to distract attention from his companion.

"You seem to have no liquor in the house, and I take it you require something hot as h--ll, and strong as d--n----n, after that ogre-like repast of yours."

The settler seized the can, and raised it to his lips. It contained some of the fiery whiskey we have already described as the common beverage in most parts of America. This, all powerful as it was, he drained off as though it had been water, and with the greedy avidity of one who finds himself suddenly restored to the possession of a favorite and long absent drink.

"Hollo, my friend!" exclaimed the angry Aid-de-camp, who had watched the rapid disappearance of his "traveller's best companion," as he quaintly enough termed it, down the capacious gullet of the woodman--and s.n.a.t.c.hing at the same moment the nearly emptied canteen from his hands.

"I take it, that's not handsome. As I'm a true Tennessee man, bred and born, it aint at all hospitable to empty off a pint of raw liquor at a spell, and have not so much as a gla.s.s of metheglin to offer in return.

What the h--ll do you suppose we're to do to-morrow for drink, during a curst long ride through the wood, and not a house of call till nightfall along the road?"

The ruffian drew a breath long and heavy in proportion to the draught he had swallowed, and when his lungs had again recovered their play, answered, bl.u.s.teringly, in a voice that betokened incipient intoxication:

"Roar me up a saplin', Mister, but you're mighty stingy of the Wabash. I reckon as how I made you a free offer of my food, and it warn't no fault of mine if you didn't choose to take it. It would only have been relish for relish, after all--and that's what I call fair swap."

"Well, no matter," said Jackson, soothingly; "what's done can't be undone, therefore I take it its no use argufying--however, my old c.o.c.k, when next you get the neck of a canteen of mine 'twixt your lips, I hope it may do the c.o.c.kles of your heart good; that's all. But let's hear how you came by them pieces of n.i.g.g.e.r's flesh, and how it is you've taken it into your head to turn squatter here. You seem," glancing around, "to have no sleeping room to spare, and one may as well sit up and chat, as have one's bones bruised to squash on the hard boards."

"It's a sad tale," said the settler gruffly and with a darkening brow, "and brings bitter thoughts with it; but as the liquor has cheered me up a bit, I don't much mind if I do tell you how I skivered the varmint.

Indeed," he pursued savagely, "that always gives me a pleasure to think of, for I owed them a desperate grudge--the b.l.o.o.d.y red skins and imps of h.e.l.l. I was on my way to Detroit, to see the spot once more where my poor boy Phil lay rootin', and one dark night (for I only ventured to move at night), I came slick upon two Ingins as was lying fast asleep before their fire in a deep ravine. The one nearest to me had his face unkivered, and I knew the varmint for the tall dark Delaweer chief as made one of the party after poor Phil and me, a sight that made me thirst for the blood of the heathens as a child for mother's milk.

Well, how do you think I managed them. I calculate you'd never guess.

Why, I stole, as quiet as a fox until I got jist atween them, and then holdin' a c.o.c.ked pistol to each breast, I called out in a thunderin'

voice that made the woods ring agin, Kit-chimocomon, which you know, as you've been in the wars, signifies long knife or Yankee. You'd a laugh'd fit to split your sides I guess, to see the stupid stare of the devils, as startin' out of their sleep, they saw a pistol within three inches of each of 'em. 'Ugh,' says they, as if they did'nt know well whether to take it as a joke or not. 'Yes, 'ugh' and be d.a.m.n'd to you,' say's I: you may go and 'ugh' in h.e.l.l next--and with that snap went the triggers, and into their curst carca.s.ses went the b.a.l.l.s. The one I killed outright but t'other, the Delaweer chief, was by a sudden s.h.i.+ft only slightly wounded, and he sprung on his feet and out with his knife. But I had a knife too, and all a disappointed father's rage to boot, so at it we went closin' and strikin' with our knives like two fierce fiends of the forest. It was n.o.ble sport sure_ly_. At last the Delaweer fell over the bleedin' body of his warrior and I top of him. As he fell the knife dropped from his hand and he could'nt reach it no how, while I still gripped mine fast. 'Ugh,' he muttered again, as if askin' to know what I meant to do next. 'Ugh,' and be d.a.m.ned to you once more, say's I--and the pint of my long knife was soon buried in his black heart. Then, when I see them both dead I eat my own meal at their fire, for I was tarnation hungry, and while I was eatin' a thought came across me that it would be good fun to make smoked meat of the varmint, so when I tucked it in purty considerably, what with hominy and dried bear's meat, moistened with a little Wabash I found in the Delaweer chief's canteen, I set to and regularly quartered them. The trunks I left behind, but the limbs I packed up in the blankets that had been used to kiver them, I reckon; and with them slung across my shoulders, like a saddle bag across a horse, I made tracks through the swamps and the prairies for this here hut, which I know'd no livin' soul had been nigh for many a long year. And now," he concluded with a low drunken laugh, "you've the history of the dried meat. There isn't much left but when all is gone I'm off to the wars, for I can't find no peace I reckon without my poor boy Phil." He paused a moment, and then as if suddenly influenced by some painful recollection, he struck his hand with startling violence upon the table, and, while every feature of his iron countenance seemed worked up to a pitch of intensity, added with fearful calmness, "May G.o.d's curse light upon me if I don't have my revenge of them Granthams yet:--yes," he continued with increased excitement of voice and manner, while he kicked one of the blazing hickory logs in the chimney with all the savageness of drunken rage, causing a mult.i.tude of sparks to spit forth as from the anvil of a smith.--"jist so would I kick them both to h.e.l.l for having murdered my poor boy."

"Why, surely, Liftenant Grantham, he can't meant you?" abruptly questioned the Aid-de-camp, drawing back his chair and resting the palms of his hands upon his knees, while he fixed his eye keenly and inquiringly upon Gerald.

But Gerald had no time to answer him--Scarcely had the name escaped the lips of the incautious Jackson, when a yell of exultation from the woodman drew him quickly to his feet, and in the next moment he felt one hand of his enemy grappling at his throat, while the fingers of the other were rapidly insinuating themselves into the hair that shadowed one of his temples, with the evident intention to "gouge" him. Weak and emaciated as he was, Gerald was soon made sensible of the disproportion of physical strength thus suddenly brought into the struggle, and as the savage laugh of the man, as his fingers wound themselves closer and closer within the cl.u.s.tering hair, proclaimed his advantage, he felt that his only chance of saving the threatened eye was by having recourse to some sudden and desperate attempt to free himself from the gripe of his opponent. Summoning all his strength into one vigorous effort, he rushed forward upon his enemy with such force, raising himself at the same time in a manner to throw the whole weight of his person upon him, that the latter reeled backwards several paces without the power of resistance, and falling over the table towards which he had been intentionally propelled, sank with a heavy crash to the floor, still however retaining his firm hold of his enemy, and dragging him after him.

Half throttled, maddened with pain, and even more bitterly stung by a sense of the humiliating position in which he found himself, the feelings of Gerald became uncontrollable, until his anxiety to inflict a mortal injury upon his enemy became in the end as intense as that of the settler. In their fall the table had been overturned, and with it the knife which Desborough had used with his horrid repast. As the light from the blazing fire fell upon the blade, it had once caught the una.s.sailed eye of the officer, and was the next moment clutched in his grasp. He raised it with a determination, inspired by the agony he endured, at once to liberate himself and to avenge his father's murder, but the idea that there was something a.s.sa.s.sin-like in the act as suddenly arrested him, and ere he had time to obey a fresh impulse of his agony, the knife was forcibly stricken from his hand. A laugh of triumph burst from the lips of the half intoxicated Desborough, but it was scarcely uttered before it was succeeded by a yell of pain, and the hand that had contrived to entwine itself, with resistless force and terrible intent, in the waving hair of the youth, fell suddenly from its grasp, enabling its victim at length to free himself altogether and start once more to his feet.

Little more than a minute had been pa.s.sed in the enactment of this strange scene. The collision, the overthrow, the upraising of the knife had followed each other in such rapid succession that, until the last desperate intention of Gerald was formed, the Aid-de-camp had not had time to interpose himself in any way between the enraged combatants. His first action had been to strike away the murderous knife with the heavy b.u.t.t of one of his pistols, the other to plant such a blow upon the "gouging" hand of the settler from the same b.u.t.t, as effectually to compel him to relinquish his ferocious clutch. In both objects, as we have seen, he fully succeeded.

But although his right hand had been utterly disabled by the blow from Jackson's pistol, the fury of Desborough, fed as it was by the fumes of the liquor he had swallowed, was too great to render him heedful of aught but the gratification of his vengeance. Rolling rapidly over to the point where the knife had fallen he secured it in his left hand, and then, leaping nimbly to his feet, gathered himself into a spring upon his unarmed but watchful enemy. But before the bound could be taken, the active Aid-de-camp, covering Gerald with his body and presenting a c.o.c.ked pistol, had again thwarted him in his intention.

"I say now, old c.o.c.k, you'd much better be quiet I guess, for them sort of tantrums won't suit me. If this here Liftenant killed your son why he'll answer for it later, but I can't let you murder my prisoner in that flumgustious manner. I'm responsible for him to the United States Government, therefore just drop that knife clean and slick upon the floor, and let's have no more of this nonsense for the night."

But even the c.o.c.ked pistol had not power to restrain the fierce--almost brutal--rage of the woodman, whose growing intoxication added fuel to the fire which the presence of his enemy had kindled in his heart.

Heedless of the determined air and threatening posture of the Aid-de-camp, he made a bound forward, uttering a sound that resembled the roar of a wild beast rather than the cry of a human being, and struck over Jackson's shoulder at the chest of the officer. Gerald, whose watchful eye marked the danger, had however time to step back and avoid the blow. In the next moment the Aid-de-camp, overborne by the violence of the collision, fell heavily backwards upon the rude floor, and in the fall the pistol went off lodging the ball in the sinewy calf of Desborough's leg. Stung with acute animal pain, the whole rage of the latter was now diverted from Gerald to the aid-de-camp, on whom, a.s.suming the wound to have been intentional, he threw himself with the fury of a tiger, grappling as he closed with him at his throat. But the sailor, in his turn, now came to the rescue of his companion, and the scene for some time, as the whole party struggled together upon the floor in the broad, red glare of the wood fire, was one of fearful and desperate character. At length, after an immense effort, and amid the most horrid imprecations of vengeance upon them, the officers succeeded in disarming and tying the hands of the settler behind his back, after which, dragging him to a distant corner of the hut, they secured him firmly to one of the open and mis-shapen logs which composed its frame.

This done, Jackson divided the little that had been left of his "Wabash"

with his charge, and then stretching himself at his length, with his feet to the fire and his saddle for a pillow, soon fell profoundly asleep.

Too much agitated by the scene which had just pa.s.sed, Gerald, although following the example of his companion in stretching himself before the cheerful fire, was in no condition to enjoy repose. Indeed, whatever his inclination, the attempt would have been vain, for so dreadful were the denunciations of Desborough throughout the night, that sleep had no room to enter even into his thoughts. Deep and appalling were the curses and threats of vengeance which the enraged settler uttered upon all who bore the name of Grantham; and with these were mingled lamentations for his son, scarcely less revolting in their import than the curses themselves.

Nor was the turbulence of the enraged man confined to mere excitement of language. His large and muscular form struggled in every direction to free himself from the cords that secured him to the logs, and finding these too firmly bound to admit of the accomplishment of his end, he kicked his brawny feet against the floor with all the fury and impatience of a spirit, quickened into a livelier sense of restraint by the stimulus of intoxication. At length, exhausted by the efforts he had made, his struggles and his imprecations became gradually less frequent and less vigorous, until finally towards dawn they ceased altogether, and his deep and heavy breathing announced that he slept.

Accustomed to rise with the dawn, the Aide-de-camp was not long after its appearance in shaking off the slumber in which he had so profoundly indulged. The first object that met his eye as he raised himself up in a sitting posture from his rude bed, was Gerald stooping over the sleeping Desborough, one hand resting upon his chest, the other holding the knife already alluded to, while every feature of his face was kindled into loathing and abhorrence of his prostrate and sleeping enemy.

Startled by the expression he read there, and with the occurrences of the last night rus.h.i.+ng forcibly upon his memory, the Aide-de-camp called quickly out:

"Hold, Liftenant Grantham. Well, as I'm a true Tennessee man, bred and born, may I be most especially d----d, if I'd a thought you'd do so foul a deed. What! a.s.sa.s.sinate a sleeping drunken man?"

"a.s.sa.s.sinate, Captain Jackson?" repeated Gerald, raising himself to his full height, while a crimson flush of indignation succeeded to the deadly paleness which had overspread his cheek.

"Yes--a.s.sa.s.sinate!" returned the Aide-de-camp, fixing his eye upon that of his prisoner, yet without perceiving that it quailed under his penetrating glance; "It's an ugly word, I reckon, for you to hear, as it is for me to speak, but your quarrel last night--your fix just now--that knife--Liftenant Grantham," and he pointed to the blade which still remained in the hands of the accused--"surely these things speak for themselves; and though the fellow has swallowed off all my Wabash, and be d----d to him, still I shouldn't like to see him murdered in that sort of way."

"I cannot blame you, Captain Jackson," said Gerald calmly, his features resuming their pallid hue. "These appearances, I grant, might justify the suspicion, horrible as it is, in one who had known more of me than yourself but was a.s.sa.s.sination even a virtue, worlds would not tempt me to a.s.sa.s.sinate that man--wretch though he be--or even to slay him in fair and open combat."

"Then I calculate one night has made a pretty considerable change in your feelings, Liftenant," retorted the Aide-de-camp. "You were both ready enough to go at it last night, when I knocked the knife out of your fist, and broke the knuckles of his gouging hand."