Away in the Wilderness Part 10

For one moment Jasper looked up with a bewildered glance in the faces of the men, then, uttering a wild cry of mingled rage and agony, he sprang up, dashed them aside, and catching up his gun and snow-shoes rushed out of the house.

He soon found a fresh track in the snow, and the length of the stride, coupled with the manner in which the snow was cast aside, and the smaller bushes were broken and trodden down, told him that the fugitive had made it. In a moment, he was following the track, with the utmost speed, of which he was capable. He never once halted, or faltered, or turned aside, all that day. His iron frame seemed to be incapable of fatigue. He went with his body bent forward, his brows lowering, and his lips firmly compressed; but he was not successful. The murderer had got a sufficiently long start of him to render what sailors call a stern chase a long one. Still Jasper never thought of giving up the pursuit, until he came suddenly on an open s.p.a.ce, where the snow had been recently trodden down by a herd of buffaloes, and by a band of Indians who were in chase of them.

Here he lost the track, and although he searched long and carefully he could not find it. Late that night the baffled hunter returned to the fort.

"You have failed--I see by your look," said Mr Pemberton, as Jasper entered.

"Ay, I have failed," returned the other gloomily. "He must have gone with the band of Indians among whose tracks I lost his footsteps."

"Have you any idea who can have done this horrible deed?" said Pemberton.

"It was Darkeye," said Jasper in a stern voice.

Some of the Indians who chanced to be in the hall were startled, and rose on hearing this.

"Be not alarmed, friends," said the fur-trader. "You are the guests of Christian men. We will not punish you for the deeds of another man of your tribe."

"How does the white man know that this was done by Darkeye?" asked a chief haughtily.

"I _know_ _it_," said Jasper angrily; "I feel sure of it; but I cannot prove it--of course. Does Arrowhead agree with me?"

"He does!" replied the Indian, "and there may be proof. Does Jasper remember the trading store and the _bitten_ _bullet_?"

A gleam of intelligence shot across the countenance of the white hunter as his comrade said this. "True, Arrowhead, true."

He turned, as he spoke, to the body of his late father-in-law, and examined the wound. The ball, after pa.s.sing through the heart, had lodged in the back, just under the skin.

"See," said he to the Indians, "I will cut out this ball, but before doing so I will tell how I think it is marked."

He then related the incident in the trading store, with which the reader is already acquainted, and afterwards extracted the ball, which, although much flattened and knocked out of shape, showed clearly the deep marks made by the Indian's teeth. Thus, the act which had been done slyly but boastfully before the eyes of a comrade, probably as wicked as himself, became the means whereby Darkeye's guilt was clearly proved.

At once a party of his own tribe were directed by their chief to go out in pursuit of the murderer.

It were vain for me to endeavour to describe the anguish of poor Marie on being deprived of a kind and loving father in so awful and sudden a manner. I will drop a veil over her grief, which was too deep and sacred to be intermeddled with.

On the day following the murder, a band of Indians arrived at Fort Erie with buffalo skins for sale. To the amazement of every one Darkeye himself was among them. The wily savage--knowing that his attempting to quit that part of the country as a fugitive would be certain to fix suspicion on him as the murderer--resolved to face the fur-traders as if he were ignorant of the deed which had been done. By the very boldness of this step he hoped to disarm suspicion; but he forgot the _bitten_ _ball_.

It was therefore a look of genuine surprise that rose to Darkeye's visage, when, the moment he entered the fort, Mr Pemberton seized him by the right arm, and led him into the hall.

At first he attempted to seize the handle of his knife, but a glance at the numbers of the white men, and the indifference of his own friends, showed him that his best chance lay in cunning.

The Indians who had arrived with him were soon informed by the others of the cause of this, and all of them crowded into the hall to watch the proceedings. The body of poor Laroche was laid on a table, and Darkeye was led up to it. The cunning Indian put on a pretended look of surprise on beholding it, and then the usual expression of stolid gravity settled on his face as he turned to Mr Pemberton for information.

"_Your_ hand did this," said the fur-trader.

"Is Darkeye a dog that he should slay an old man?" said the savage.

"No, you're not a dog," cried Jasper fiercely; "you are worse--a cowardly murderer?"

"Stand back, Jasper," said Mr Pemberton, laying his hand on the shoulder of the excited hunter, and thrusting him firmly away. "This is a serious charge. The Indian shall not be hastily condemned. He shall have fair play, and _justice_."

"Good!" cried several of the Indians on hearing this. Meanwhile the princ.i.p.al chief of the tribe took up his stand close beside the prisoner.

"Darkeye," said Mr Pemberton, while he looked steadfastly into the eyes of the Indian, who returned the look as steadily--"Darkeye, do you remember a conversation you had many weeks ago in the trading store at Jasper's House?"

The countenance of the Indian was instantly troubled, and he said with some hesitation, "Darkeye has had many conversations in that store; is he a medicine-man [a conjurer] that he should know what you mean?"

"I will only put one other question," said the fur-trader. "Do you know this bullet _with_ _the_ _marks_ _of_ _teeth_ in it?"

Darkeye's visage fell at once. He became deadly pale, and his limbs trembled. He was about to speak when the chief, who had hitherto stood in silence at his side, suddenly whirled his tomahawk in the air, and, bringing it down on the murderer's skull, cleft him to the chin!

A fierce yell followed this act, and several scalping knives reached the dead man's heart before his body fell to the ground. The scene that followed was terrible. The savages were roused to a state of frenzy, and for a moment the white men feared an attack, but the anger of the Indians was altogether directed against their dead comrade, who had been disliked by his people, while his poor victim Laroche had been a universal favourite. Seizing the body of Darkeye, they carried it down to the banks of the river, hooting and yelling as they went; hacked and cut it nearly to pieces, and then, kindling a large fire, they threw the mangled corpse into it, and burned it to ashes.

It was long before the shadow of this dark cloud pa.s.sed away from Fort Erie; and it was longer still before poor Marie recovered her wonted cheerfulness. But the presence of Mr Wilson did much to comfort her.

Gradually time softened the pang and healed the wound.

And now, little remains to be told. Winter pa.s.sed away and spring came, and when the rivers and lakes were sufficiently free from ice, the brigade of boats left Fort Erie, laden with furs, for the sea-coast.

On arriving at Lake Winnipeg, Jasper obtained a small canoe, and, placing his wife and Heywood in the middle of it, he and Arrowhead took the paddles, seated themselves in the bow and stern, and guided their frail bark through many hundreds of miles of wilderness--over many a rough portage, across many a beautiful lake, and up many a roaring torrent, until, finally, they arrived in Canada.

Here Jasper settled. His farm prospered--his family increased. St.u.r.dy boys, in course of time, ploughed the land and blooming daughters tended the dairy. Yet Jasper Derry did not cease to toil. He was one of those men who _feel_ that they were made to work, and that much happiness flows from working. He often used to say that if it was G.o.d's will, he would "like to die in harness."

Jasper's only weakness was the pipe. It stuck to him and he stuck to it to the last. Marie, in course of time, came to tolerate it, and regularly filled it for him every night.

Evening was the time when the inmates of Erie Cottage (as their residence was named) enjoyed themselves most; for it was then that the stalwart sons and the blooming daughters circled round the great fire of wood that roared, on winter nights, up the chimney; and it was then that Jasper received his pipe from his still good-looking, though rather stout, Marie, and began to spin yarns about his young days. At this time, too, it was, that the door would frequently open, and a rugged old Indian would stalk in like a mahogany ghost, and squat down in front of the fire. He was often followed by a tall thin old gentleman, who was extremely excitable, but good-humoured. Jasper greeted these two remarkable looking men by the names of Arrowhead and Heywood.

And glad were the young people when they saw their wrinkled faces, for then, they knew from experience, their old father would become more lively than usual, and would go on for hours talking of all the wonders and dangers that he had seen and encountered long, long ago, when he and his two friends were away in the wilderness.

THE END.