“Ha! Leatherstocking, I’ve an arrand with you,” cried Kirby; “here’s the good people of the state have been writing you a small letter, and they’ve hired me to ride post.”
“What would you have with me, Billy Kirby?” said Natty, stepping across his threshold, and raising his hand over his eyes to screen them from the rays of the setting sun while he took a survey of his visitor. “I’ve no land to clear; and heaven knows I would set out six trees afore I would cut down one. Down, Hector, I say; into your kennel with ye.”
“Would you, old boy?” roared Billy. “Then so much the better for me. But I must do my arrand. Here’s a letter for you, Leatherstocking. If you can read it, it’s all well, and if you can’t, here’s Squire Doolittle at hand to let you know what it means. It seems you mistook the twentieth of July for the first of August, that’s all.”
By this time Natty had discovered the lank person of Hiram, drawn up under the cover of a high stump; and all that was complacent in his manner instantly gave way to marked distrust and dissatisfaction. He placed his head within the door of his hut and said a few words in an undertone, when he again appeared, and continued:
“I’ve nothing for ye; so away, afore the evil one tempts me to do you harm. I owe you no spite, Billy Kirby, and what for should you trouble an old man, who has done you no harm?”
Kirby advanced through the top of the pine to within a few feet of the hunter, where he seated himself on the end of a log with great composure and began to examine the nose of Hector, with whom he was familiar from their frequently meeting in the woods, where he sometimes fed the dog from his own basket of provisions.
“You’ve outshot me, and I’m not ashamed to say it,” said the wood chopper; “but I don’t owe you a grudge for that, Natty! Though it seems that you’ve shot once too often, for the story goes that you’ve killed a buck.”
“I’ve fired but twice today, and both times at the painters,” returned the Leatherstocking. “See, here are the scalps! I was just going in with them to the Judge’s to ask the bounty.”
While Natty was speaking, he tossed the ears to Kirby, who continued playing with them, with a careless air, holding them to the dogs and laughing at their movements when they scented the unusual game.
But Hiram, emboldened by the advance of the deputed constable, now ventured to approach, also, and took up the discourse with the air of authority that became his commission. His first measure was to read the warrant aloud, taking care to give due emphasis to the most material parts, and concluding with the name of the Judge in very audible and distinct tones.
“Did Marmaduke Temple put his name to that bit of paper?” said Natty, shaking his head. “Well, well, that man loves the new ways, and his betterments, and his lands, afore his own flesh and blood. But I won’t mistrust the gal: she has an eye like a full-grown buck! Poor thing, she didn’t choose her father and can’t help it. I know but little of the law, Mr. Doolittle; what is to be done, now you’ve read your commission?”
“Oh! it’s nothing but form, Natty,” said Hiram, endeavoring to assume a friendly aspect. “Let’s go in, and talk the thing over in reason; I dare to say that the money can be easily found, and I partly conclude, from what passed, that Judge Temple will pay it himself.”
The old hunter had kept a keen eye on the movements of his three visitors from the beginning and had maintained his position, just without the threshold of his cabin, with a determined manner that showed he was not to be easily driven from his post. When Hiram drew nigher, as if expecting his proposition would be accepted, Natty lifted his hand and motioned for him to retreat.
“Haven’t I told you more than once not to tempt me?” he said. “I trouble no man; why can’t the law leave me to myself? Go back—go back, and tell your Judge that he may keep his bounty; but I won’t have his wasty ways brought into my hut.”
This offer, however, instead of appeasing the curiosity of Hiram, seemed to inflame it the more; while Kirby cried:
“Well, that’s fair, Squire; he forgives the county his demand, and the county should forgive him the fine; it’s what I call an even trade and should be concluded on the spot. I like quick dealings, and what’s fair ’twixt man and man.”
“I demand entrance into this house,” said Hiram, summoning all the dignity he could muster to his assistance, “in the name of the people; and by the virtue of this warrant, and of my office, and with this peace officer.”
“Stand back, stand back, Squire, and don’t tempt me,” said the Leatherstocking, motioning for him to retire, with great earnestness.
“Stop us at your peril,” continued Hiram. “Billy! Jotham! Close up—I want testimony.”
Hiram had mistaken the mild but determined air of Natty for submission, and had already put his foot on the threshold to enter when he was seized unexpectedly by his shoulders and hurled over the little bank towards the lake, to the distance of twenty feet. The suddenness of the movement and the unexpected display of strength on the part of Natty created a momentary astonishment in his invaders that silenced all noises; but at the next instant Billy Kirby gave vent to his mirth in peals of laughter that he seemed to heave up from his very soul.
“Well done, old stub!” he shouted. “The Squire know’d you better than I did. Come, come, here’s a green spot; take it out like men, while Jotham and I see fair play.”
“William Kirby, I order you to do your duty,” cried Hiram, from under the bank; “seize that man; I order you to seize him in the name of the people.”
But the Leatherstocking now assumed a more threatening attitude; his rifle was in his hand, and its muzzle was directed towards the wood chopper.
“Stand off, I bid ye,” said Natty; “you know my aim, Billy Kirby; I don’t crave your blood, but mine and yourn both shall turn this green grass red, afore you put foot into the hut.”
While the affair appeared trifling, the wood chopper seemed disposed to take sides with the weaker party; but when the firearms were introduced, his manner very sensibly changed. He raised his large frame from the log, and facing the hunter with an open front, he replied:
“I didn’t come here as your enemy, Leatherstocking; but I don’t value the hollow piece of iron in your hand so much as a broken ax helve; so, Squire, say the word, and keep within the law, and we’ll soon see who’s the best man of the two.”
But no magistrate was to be seen! The instant the rifle was produced Hiram and Jotham vanished; and when the wood chopper bent his eyes about him in surprise at receiving no answer, he discovered their retreating figures moving towards the village at a rate that sufficiently indicated that they had not only calculated the velocity of a rifle bullet, but also its probable range.
“You’ve scared the creaters off,” said Kirby, with great contempt expressed on his broad features; “but you are not going to scare me; so, Mr. Bumppo, down with your gun, or there’ll be trouble ’twixt us.”
Natty dropped his rifle, and replied:
“I wish you no harm, Billy Kirby; but I leave it to your self, whether an old man’s hut is to be run down by such varmint. I won’t deny the buck to you, Billy, and you may take the skin in, if you please, and show it as testimony. The bounty will pay the fine, and that ought to satisfy any man.”
“ ’Twill, old boy, ’twill,” cried Kirby, every shade of displeasure vanishing from his open brow at the peace offering; “throw out the hide, and that shall satisfy the law.”
Natty entered the hut and soon reappeared bringing with him the desired testimonial; and the wood chopper departed, as thoroughly reconciled to the hunter as if nothing had happened. As he paced along the margin of the lake he would burst into frequent fits of laughter while he recollected the somersault of Hiram; and, on the whole, he thought the affair a very capital joke.
Long before Billy reached the village, however, the news of his danger, and of Natty’s disrespect of the law, and of Hiram’s discomfiture were in circulation. A good deal was said about sending f
or the Sheriff; some hints were given about calling out the posse comitatus to avenge the insulted laws; and many of the citizens were collected, deliberating how to proceed. The arrival of Billy with the skin, by removing all grounds for a search, changed the complexion of things materially. Nothing now remained but to collect the fine and assert the dignity of the people; all of which, it was unanimously agreed, could be done as well on the succeeding Monday as on Saturday night—a time kept sacred by a large portion of the settlers. Accordingly, all further proceedings were suspended for six-and-thirty hours.
CHAPTER XXXI
And dar’st thou then
To beard the lion in his den,
The Douglass in his hall?
MARMION
THE commotion was just subsiding, and the inhabitants of the village had begun to disperse from the little groups they had formed, each retiring to his own home and closing his door after him with the grave air of a man who consulted public feeling in his exterior deportment, when Oliver Edwards, on his return from the dwelling of Mr. Grant, encountered the young lawyer, who is known to the reader as Mr. Lippet. There was very little similarity in the manners or opinions of the two; but as they both belonged to the more intelligent class of a very small community, they were, of course, known to each other, and as their meeting was at a point where silence would have been rudeness, the following conversation was the result of their interview:
“A fine evening, Mr. Edwards,” commenced the lawyer, whose disinclination to the dialogue was, to say the least, very doubtful; “we want rain sadly; that’s the worst of this climate of ours, it’s either a drought or a deluge. It’s likely you’ve been used to a more equal temperature?”
“I am a native of this state,” returned Edwards, coldly.
“Well, I’ve often heard that point disputed; but it’s so easy to get a man naturalized that it’s of little consequence where he was born. I wonder what course the Judge means to take in this business of Natty Bumppo!”
“Of Natty Bumppo!” echoed Edwards. “To what do you allude, sir?”
“Haven’t you heard!” exclaimed the other with a look of surprise so naturally assumed as completely to deceive his auditor. “It may turn out an ugly business. It seems that the old man has been out in the hills, and has shot a buck this morning, and that, you know, is a criminal matter in the eyes of Judge Temple.”
“O! he has, has he?” said Edwards, averting his face to conceal the color that collected in his sunburned cheek. “Well, if that be all, he must even pay the fine.”
“It’s five pounds currency,” said the lawyer. “Could Natty muster so much money at once?”
“Could he!” cried the youth. “I am not rich, Mr. Lippet; far from it—I am poor, and I have been hoarding my salary for a purpose that lies near my heart; but before that old man should lie one hour in a jail, I would spend the last cent to prevent it. Besides, he has killed two panthers, and the bounty will discharge the fine many times over.”
“Yes, yes,” said the lawyer, rubbing his hands together, with an expression of pleasure that had no artifice about it; “we shall make it out; I see plainly we shall make it out.”
“Make what out, sir? I must beg an explanation.”
“Why, killing the buck is but a small matter compared to what took place this afternoon,” continued Mr. Lippet, with a confidential and friendly air that insensibly won upon the youth, little as he liked the man. “It seems that a complaint was made of the fact, and a suspicion that there was venison in the hut was sworn to, all which is provided for in the statute, when Judge Temple granted a search warrant——”
“A search warrant!” echoed Edwards, in a voice of horror, and with a face that should have been again averted to conceal its paleness. “And how much did they discover? What did they see?”
“They saw old Bumppo’s rifle; and that is a sight which will quiet most men’s curiosity in the woods.”
“Did they! Did they!” shouted Edwards, bursting into a convulsive laugh. “So the old hero beat them back! He beat them back! Did he?”
The lawyer fastened his eyes in astonishment on the youth, but as his wonder gave way to the thoughts that were commonly uppermost in his mind, he replied:
“It’s no laughing matter, let me tell you, sir; the forty dollars of bounty, and your six months of salary, will be much reduced before you can get the matter fairly settled. Assaulting a magistrate in the execution of his duty and menacing a constable with firearms at the same time is a pretty serious affair, and is punishable with both fine and imprisonment.”
“Imprisonment!” repeated Oliver. “Imprison the Leatherstocking! No, no, sir; it would bring the old man to his grave. They shall never imprison the Leatherstocking.”
“Well, Mr. Edwards,” said Lippet, dropping all reserve from his manner, “you are called a curious man; but if you can tell me how a jury is to be prevented from finding a verdict of guilty, if this case comes fairly before them, and the proof is clear, I shall acknowledge that you know more law than I do, who have had a license in my pocket for three years.”
By this time the reason of Edwards was getting the ascendency of his feelings, and as he began to see the real difficulties of the case, he listened more readily to the conversation of the lawyer. The ungovernable emotion that escaped the youth in the first moments of his surprise entirely passed away; and although it was still evident that he continued to be much agitated by what he had heard, he succeeded in yielding forced attention to the advice which the other uttered.
Notwithstanding the confused state of his mind, Oliver soon discovered that most of the expedients of the lawyer were grounded in cunning and plans that required a time to execute them that neither suited his disposition nor his necessities. After, however, giving Mr. Lippet to understand that he retained him in the event of a trial, an assurance that at once satisfied the lawyer, they parted, one taking his course, with a deliberate tread, in the direction of the little building that had a wooden sign over its door with “Chester Lippet, Attorney at Law,” painted on it; and the other pacing over the ground with enormous strides towards the mansion house. We shall take leave of the attorney for the present, and direct the attention of the reader to his client.
When Edwards entered the hall, whose enormous doors were opened to the passage of the air of a mild evening, he found Benjamin engaged in some of his domestic avocations, and in a hurried voice inquired where Judge Temple was to be found.
“Why, the Judge has stept into his office, with that master carpenter, Mister Doolittle; but Miss Lizzy is in that there parlor. I say, Master Oliver, we’d like to have had a bad job of that panther, or painter’s work—some calls it one, and some calls it t’other—but I know little of the beast, seeing that it is not of British growth. I said as much as that it was in the hills the last winter; for I heard it moaning on the lake shore one evening in the fall, when I was pulling down from the fishing point in the skiff. Had the animal come into open water, where a man could see where and how to work his vessel, I would have engaged the thing myself; but looking aloft among the trees is all the same to me as standing on the deck of one ship and looking at another vessel’s tops. I never can tell one rope from another——”
“Well, well,” interrupted Edwards; “I must see Miss Temple.”
“And you shall see her, sir,” said the steward; “she’s in this here room. Lord, Master Edwards, what a loss she’d have been to the Judge! Dam’me if I know where he would have gotten such another daughter; that is, full grown, d’ye see. I say, sir, this Master Bumppo is a worthy man, and seems to have a handy way with him, with firearms and boat hooks. I’m his friend, Master Oliver, and he and you may both set me down as the same.”
“We may want your friendship, my worthy fellow,” cried Edwards, squeezing his hand convulsively. “We may want your friendship, in which case you shall know it.”
Without waiting to hear the earnest reply that Benjamin meditated, the youth extricated
himself from the vigorous grasp of the steward and entered the parlor.
Elizabeth was alone, and still reclining on the sofa, where we last left her. A hand, which exceeded all that the ingenuity of art could model, in shape and color, veiled her eyes; and the maiden was sitting as if in deep communion with herself. Struck by the attitude and loveliness of the form that met his eye, the young man checked his impatience and approached her with respect and caution.
“Miss Temple—Miss Temple,” he said, “I hope I do not intrude; but I am anxious for an interview, if it be only for a moment.”
Elizabeth raised her face and exhibited her dark eyes swimming in moisture.
“Is it you, Edwards?” she said, with a sweetness in her voice, and a softness in her air, that she often used to her father, but which, from its novelty to himself, thrilled on every nerve of the youth. “How left you our poor Louisa?”
“She is with her father, happy and grateful,” said Oliver. “I never witnessed more feeling than she manifested when I ventured to express my pleasure at her escape. Miss Temple, when I first heard of your horrid situation, my feelings were too powerful for utterance; and I did not properly find my tongue until the walk to Mr. Grant’s had given me time to collect myself. I believe—I do believe, I acquitted myself better there, for Miss Grant even wept at my silly speeches.”
For a moment Elizabeth did not reply, but again veiled her eyes with her hand. The feeling that caused the action, however, soon passed away, and, raising her face again to his gaze, she continued, with a smile:
“Your friend, the Leatherstocking, has now become my friend, Edwards; I have been thinking how I can best serve him; perhaps you, who know his habits and his wants so well, can tell me——”
“I can,” cried the youth, with an impetuosity that startled his companion—“I can, and may Heaven reward you for the wish. Natty has been so imprudent as to forget the law, and has this day killed a deer. Nay, I believe I must share in the crime and the penalty, for I was an accomplice throughout. A complaint has been made to your father, and he has granted a search——”