Tales from the German Volume I Part 32

'Is my uncle absent?' asked Arwed with astonishment. 'I knew nothing of it. When he declined coming to the table, last evening, I supposed it was merely because he wished to be alone.'

'After the private audience which he granted the Laplander last evening,' proceeded the steward, 'he ordered a horse to be given him, and had his favorite brown saddled for himself with great privacy. The Laplander was to go before him and show him the way. He charged me strictly to keep his absence secret from every one. But as the night has pa.s.sed and he is not yet returned, my anxiety got the better of me, and I felt compelled to inform you of the circ.u.mstance, even at the risk of his displeasure. You will know better than I what is necessary to be done in the case.'

'What direction did my uncle take?' eagerly asked Arwed, putting on his hunting coat.

'Along the right bank of the river,' answered the steward, 'upon the road which leads by Umea. Some Laplanders who were fis.h.i.+ng in the river state that they saw both of the riders as they pa.s.sed the ford of the Lais Elf, and then struck off to the right into the pine forest on the borders of our Lappmark.'

'And you really have no conjecture as to the object of this journey?'

Arwed further asked.

'Conjecture, indeed!' answered the steward. 'I suspect that our lord's object was to obtain information of the robber band, who are again spreading confusion and dismay through the border forests. Who knows but he is on the look-out for Black Naddock himself?'

'Impossible!' cried Arwed with alarm. 'That is no business for his years. It is too dangerous.'

'Ah, dear major,' said the steward, sorrowfully, 'since the countess Christine has left us, our poor lord no longer cares any thing about his life, and perhaps a bullet from one of the brigands' rifles would be right welcome to him.'

'May G.o.d and our true service preserve the n.o.ble man from such an end!'

cried Arwed, taking his gun, hunting-knife and shooting-bag. 'I will go and reconnoitre. If it be G.o.d's will, I shall return in the morning with some definite intelligence. Until then, let every one keep perfect silence. If my uncle has fallen into wicked hands, every thing will depend upon taking the villains by surprise. Should I not come back by the time I mentioned, you will then inform the sheriff of what has occurred, that he may save or avenge his worthy chief.'

'G.o.d bless your undertaking, n.o.ble count!' cried the steward, kissing Arwed's hand, as he hastened from the castle.

CHAPTER XLIII.

Arwed had waded through the Lais Elf about a thousand yards from where it falls into the Umea, and turning into the pine forest to the right from the road, he proceeded onward upon a winding path. All was silent and dreary around him, with the exception of the rustling of the cold autumn breeze in the tops of the tall pines, and this dismal stillness added yet more to the feeling of desolation in his soul. 'No trace of animals or men!' said he to himself. 'No sign or token which tells me I am upon the right track! Is this silence of nature an omen that this well intended undertaking, like all its elder brothers, will die in its birth?'

During this soliloquy he had arrived at a larger opening in the midst of the forest, and now the dull tinkling of a small bell and the unharmonious singing of many voices, struck upon his ear. 'That must be a horde of reindeer Laplanders!' he joyfully exclaimed. 'They come opportunely.' The nomades soon broke forth from the thickest part of the wood. More than a hundred tawny-brown reindeer, headed by the leading buck, with his far-sounding bell, discovered themselves. The kind and useful animals followed quietly, with their mane-like beards and strangely formed horns, with outstretched necks, staring out of their honest looking eyes upon their leader; and if a young one occasionally attempted to stray from the line of march, the well taught hounds would immediately overhaul and return him to the ranks. The owner closed the procession, with his wives, his daughters and sons, children-in-law and grand-children, serving men and maidens, all riding upon reindeer, and howling an ill-sounding Laplandish song. The train spread itself out upon the meadow and made a halt, the burthened reindeer were unladen, and some cone-shaped huts, composed of limbs of trees and covered with mats and skins, soon arose over the green earth, which afforded immediate refreshment to the flocks.

The preparation for their meal was immediately begun in these huts, from the tops of which the curling smoke cheerfully floated up into the clear heavens.

Arwed approached the patriarch of this numerous family, who had seated himself upon the gra.s.s near his favorite animal, and had just received from his women a wooden goblet full of reindeer's milk.

'Greetings to you, good Samolazes,' said Arwed in a friendly manner.

'Where from?'

'We have come down from Dofrefield,' answered the Laplander, 'seeking better pasturage for our animals.'

'Has any thing unusual occurred during your journey?' Arwed asked in continuation, by way of approaching the particular object of his inquiries.

The old Laplander tossed his head, examined the youth mistrustfully with his dull red eyes, and coldly and gruffly answered, 'nothing has happened to us.'

'They say the roads are not entirely safe,' continued Arwed; 'that Black Naddock has again suffered himself to be seen in these regions.'

'I know nothing of the man,' anxiously protested the Laplander; 'in my whole life I never before heard of him.'

'That is a lie!' said Arwed angrily. 'How is it possible that you should be so ignorant about the scourge of this whole country? You distrust me very unjustly. I ask with good intentions. It is of the utmost consequence that I should discover the lurking hole in which this band of dangerous villains conceal themselves, that they may be annihilated by one bold stroke. Upon this, perhaps, depends the rescue of a very n.o.ble man from the clutches of the monsters.'

'The arts of men are as multiform as the clouds which ride upon the winds,' answered the Laplander, with a shake of the head. 'It is very possible that you yourself belong to the gang, and only wish to spy out how much I have learned of their proceedings, and how I am disposed towards them. It is not well however to speak of the fiery-eyed wolf.

My herd is dear to me, and therefore I am the most ignorant man on earth of all that upon which you would question me.'

'For shame, Juckas Jervis!' now cried the Laplander's elderly better half, who had hitherto listened in silence, but with evident interest, to the conversation. 'How can you be so suspicious and disingenuous?

This Swede is surely an honest man, who is well disposed towards us all. Only look at his handsome and honest face. What he asks is for our common good, and we should honestly answer him according to our best ability. The tribute we have been compelled to pay the thieves for the safety of our herds, has long troubled me.'

'On your own responsibility!' grumbled the old man, drawing Arwed mysteriously aside. 'You will find the robbers' camp,' he whispered to him, 'by turning to the left and then proceeding straight forward to the foot of the mountains. You will then turn to the right into a ravine, and again to the left, following the banks of a glacier rivulet until you discover what you seek. You will know the place by the swarms of carrion birds who scent their future prey there, and consequently never leave the rocks.'

'Your description may appear very plain to you, friend Jervis,' said Arwed, 'but it is nevertheless hardly intelligible to me. Grant me a guide to the place. I will richly reward him.'

'Jackmock!' cried the Laplander's wife, and a short, thick, nine-pin looking fellow sprang forward, whom Jervis directed to guide the Swedish gentleman to the Ravensten in the mountains.

'Certainly!' answered the fellow. 'If not entirely there, yet so near that he can see it at a distance.' Whereupon he hastened to get his staff and traveling bag, and soon again stood before Arwed, ready for the march.

'I am already under great obligations to you,' said Arwed to the woman.

'Yet--yet one more question I wish to ask in the strictest confidence.

You come from where I wish to go. Perhaps you have accidentally learned something of a fine, tall old gentleman who, since yesterday, may have fallen into wicked hands?'

'You wish to know much, and require us to do dangerous things!'

grumbled the patriarch.

'You have already told me so much,' urged Arwed, 'why not unreservedly tell me all? By my G.o.d, I will not abuse your confidence.'

'Who can deny you any thing?' whispered the woman, laughing. 'According to the information we received yesterday about sunset, you will indeed find him whom you seek upon the Ravensten; but whether living or dead, I cannot undertake to say.'

Arwed turned to go.

'Take care of yourself,' said the good woman in bidding him G.o.d speed.

'Naddock shows no mercy to an enemy. If you fall into his hands as an opponent, you are lost.'

'We are all in the hands of G.o.d,' answered Arwed with confidence; and, shaking hands with Jervis, he followed his guide into the forest.

CHAPTER XLIV.

They had been traveling silently for some hours, when the forest opened, and an arm of the mountain which divides the Umea Lappmark lay before them, in all its awful magnificence. Naked rocks and icebergs stretched up into the clouds, and the pale green vallies interspersed between the ma.s.ses of stone, ice and snow, appeared as if nature was here already preparing for her long winter's repose.

At the moment when the wanderers had arrived at the foot of the first ascent, Arwed's guide, giving a shriek of terror, and pointing with a trembling hand towards a black fir-tree in the road, turned and fled so suddenly into the forest, that Arwed was soon obliged to give up all thoughts of calling him back. Surprised, he now looked toward the fir-tree which had caused the Laplander's panic. The view was sufficiently horrible. The b.l.o.o.d.y head of a Laplander was affixed to one of the under branches of the tree. Near it was suspended a tablet, upon which in large letters was inscribed--'Punishment of treachery to Naddock and his brethren.'

'Shameless insolence!' exclaimed Arwed, with indignation at the impudence of the robber, who, to screen his own crimes, had here executed a lawless penal judgment with Turkish barbarity. Approaching the tree, he long and sorrowfully examined the mute, pale, yellow face.

'Poor victim,' he exclaimed, 'how mournfully thou lookest down upon me, as if thou wouldst warn me from the path which probably led thee to death. It would indeed be hard for me so to end my life. Yet my second father must be saved, and it is unbecoming a man to turn back from an enterprise which he has once commenced. No, fearlessly and cheerfully will I go on, and if my undertaking succeed, thy death also shall find an avenger!'

A clattering, as if from the approach of many people, interrupted the earnest monologue. Arwed slipped among the bushes beside the way, and about ten men, of wild and ferocious aspect, armed with knives, iron-mounted cudgels, and some of them with muskets, came down from the mountain and pa.s.sed directly by him, gabbling among themselves in their unintelligible gibberish, without being aware of his near proximity.

They had no sooner showed him their backs, than he hastily arose and proceeded up the mountain with rapid strides.

With toilsome efforts Arwed succeeded in following the Laplander's directions. At length he found the glacier brook, and at the same time the end of his journey. A huge ma.s.s of bare, dark-gray rocks, surrounded by ice-mountains, towered up into the clouds in terrible majesty. Upon their summit lay the ruins of an ancient castle, of which only a couple of towers with their connecting wall were standing, and above them swarmed innumerable mult.i.tudes of rooks and daws, some of which sat in thick rows upon the battlements, while others fluttered in flocks about them in wild commotion. Their harsh croakings resounded amid the deep stillness of the place, boding misfortune. 'Truly, not alone in the battlefield is the courage of man called into exercise!'