CHAPTER II.
THE HUNTERS.
A few words now about the personages we have just brought upon thescene, and who are destined to play an important part in this history.
Loyal Heart--this name was the only one by which the hunter was knownthroughout the prairies of the West--enjoyed an immense reputation forskill, loyalty, and courage among the Indian tribes, with whom thechances of his adventurous existence had brought him in relation. Allrespected him. The white hunters and trappers, whether Spaniards, NorthAmericans, or half-breeds, had a high opinion of his experience of thewoods, and often had recourse to his counsels.
The pirates of the prairies themselves, thorough food for the gallows,the refuse of civilization, who only lived by rapine and exactions,did not dare to attack him, and avoided as much as possible throwingthemselves in his way.
Thus this man had succeeded by the sheer force of his intelligence andhis will, in creating for himself, and almost unknown to himself, apower accepted and recognized by the ferocious inhabitants of these vastdeserts,--a power which he only employed in the common interest, and tofacilitate for all the means of following in safety the occupations theyhad adopted.
No one knew who Loyal Heart was, or whence he came; the greatest mysterycovered his early years.
One day, about twenty years before, when he was very young, some huntershad fallen in with him on the banks of the Arkansas in the act ofsetting traps for beavers. The few questions put to him concerning hispreceding life remained unanswered; and the hunters, people not verytalkative by nature, fancying they perceived, from the embarrassment andreticence of the young man, that he had a secret which he desired tokeep, made a scruple about pressing him further--and nothing more wassaid on the subject.
At the same time, contrary to other hunters, or trappers of theprairies, who have all one or two companions with whom they associate,and whom they never leave, Loyal Heart lived alone, having no fixedhabitation; he traversed the desert in all directions without pitchinghis tent anywhere.
Always reserved and melancholy, he avoided the society of his equals,although always ready, when occasion offered, to render them services,or even to expose his life for them. Then, when they attempted toexpress their gratitude, he would clap spurs to his horse, and go andset his traps at a distance, to give time to those he had obliged toforget the service he had rendered.
Every year, at the same period, that is to say, about the month ofOctober, Loyal Heart disappeared for several entire weeks, withoutanyone being able to suspect whither he was gone; and when he returnedit was observed that for several days his countenance was more dark andsad than ever.
One day he came back from one of these mysterious expeditions,accompanied by two magnificent young bloodhounds, which had from thattime remained with him, and of which he seemed very fond.
Five years before the period at which we resume our narrative, whenreturning one evening from laying his traps for the night, he suddenlyperceived the fire of an Indian camp through the trees.
A white youth, scarcely seventeen years of age, was fastened to a stake,and served as mark for the knives of the redskins, who amused themselveswith torturing him before they sacrificed him to their sanguinary rage.
Loyal Heart, listening to nothing but the pity which the victiminspired, and without reflecting on the terrible danger to which heexposed himself, rushed in among the Indians, and placed himself infront of the prisoner, for whom he made a rampart of his body.
These Indians were Comanches. Astonished by this sudden irruption, whichthey were far from expecting, they remained a few instants motionless,confounded by so much audacity.
Without losing a moment, Loyal Heart cut the bonds of the prisoner,and giving him a knife, which the other received with joy, they bothprepared to sell their lives dearly.
White men inspire Indians with an instinctive, an invincible terror; theComanches, however, on recovering from their surprise, showed signs ofrushing forward to attack the two men who seemed to defy them.
But the light of the fire, which fell full upon the face of the hunter,had permitted some of them to recognize him. The redskins drew back withrespect, murmuring among themselves,--
"Loyal Heart! the great paleface hunter!"
Eagle Head, for so was the chief of these Indians named, did not knowthe hunter; it was the first time he had descended into the plainsof the Arkansas, and he could not comprehend the exclamation of hiswarriors; besides, he cordially detested the palefaces, against whomhe had sworn to carry on a war of extermination. Enraged at what heconsidered cowardice on the part of those he commanded, he advancedalone against Loyal Heart, but then an extraordinary occurrence tookplace.
The Comanches threw themselves upon their chief, and notwithstanding therespect in which they held him, they disarmed him to prevent his makingany attack upon the hunter.
Loyal Heart, after thanking them, himself restored his arms to thechief; who received them coldly, casting a sinister glance at hisgenerous adversary.
The hunter, perceiving this feeling, shrugged his shouldersdisdainfully, and departed with the prisoner.
Loyal Heart had, in less than ten minutes, made for himself animplacable enemy and a devoted friend.
The history of the prisoner was simple.
Having left Canada with his father, for the purpose of hunting in theprairies, they had fallen into the hands of the Comanches; after adesperate resistance, his father had fallen covered with wounds. TheIndians, irritated at this death, which robbed them of a victim, hadbestowed the greatest care upon the young man, in order that he mighthonourably figure at the stake of punishment, and this would inevitablyhave happened had it not been for the providential intervention of LoyalHeart.
After having obtained these particulars, the hunter asked the youngman what his intentions were, and whether the rough apprenticeship hehad gone through as a wood ranger had not disgusted him with a life ofadventures.
"By my faith, no!" the other replied; "on the contrary, I feel moredetermined than ever to follow this career; and, besides," he added, "Iwish to avenge my father."
"That is just," the hunter observed.
The conversation broke off at this point.
Loyal Heart, having conducted the young man to one of his _caches_ (asort of magazines dug in the earth in which trappers collect theirwealth), produced the complete equipment of a trapper,--gun, knife,pistols, game bags, and traps,--and then, after placing these thingsbefore his _protege_, he said simply,--
"Go! and God speed you!"
The other looked at him without replying; he evidently did notunderstand him.
Loyal Heart smiled.
"You are free," he resumed; "here are all the objects necessary for yournew trade,--I give them to you, the desert is before you; I wish yougood luck!"
The young man shook his head.
"No," he said, "I will not leave you unless you drive me from you; I amalone, without family or friends; you have saved my life, and I belongto you."
"It is not my custom to receive payment for the services I render," saidthe hunter.
"You require to be paid for them too dearly," the other answered warmly,"since you refuse to accept gratitude. Take back your gifts, they are ofno use to me; I am not a mendicant to whom alms can be thrown; I prefergoing back and delivering myself up again to the Comanches--adieu!"
And the Canadian resolutely walked away in the direction of the Indiancamp.
Loyal Heart was affected. This young man had so frank, so honest andspirited an air, that he felt something in his breast speak strongly inhis favour.
"Stop!" he said.
And the other stopped.
"I live alone," the hunter continued; "the existence which you will passwith me will be a sad one: a great grief consumes me; why should youattach yourself to me, who are unhappy?"
"To share your grief, if you think me worthy, and to console you, ifthat be possible; when man is left alone, he runs the risk of fallingint
o despair; God has ordained that he should seek companions."
"That is true," the still undecided hunter murmured.
"Why do you pause?" the young man asked anxiously.
Loyal Heart gazed at him for a moment attentively; his eagle eyeseemed to seek to penetrate his most secret thoughts; then, doubtless,satisfied with his examination, he asked,
"What is your name?"
"Belhumeur," the other replied; "or, if you prefer it, George Talbot; butI am generally known by the first name."
The hunter smiled.
"That is a promising name," he said, holding out his hand. "Belhumeur,"he added, "from this time you are my brother; henceforth there is afriendship for life and death between us."
He kissed him above the eyes, as is the custom in the prairies insimilar circumstances.
"For life and death," the Canadian replied, with a burst of enthusiasm,warmly pressing the hand which was held out to him, and kissing, in histurn, his new brother under the eyes.
And this was the way in which Loyal Heart and Belhumeur had becomeknown to each other. During five years, not the least cloud, not theshadow of a cloud, had darkened the friendship which these two superiornatures had sworn to each other in the desert, in the face of God. Onthe contrary, every day seemed to increase it; they had but one heartbetween them. Completely relying on each other, divining each other'smost secret thoughts, these two men had seen their strength augmenttenfold, and such was their reciprocal confidence, that they doubtednothing, and undertook and carried out the most daring expeditions, inface of which ten resolute men would have paused.
But everything succeeded with them, nothing appeared to be impossible tothem; it might be said that a charm protected them, and rendered theminvulnerable and invincible.
Their reputation was thus spread far and near, and those whom their namedid not strike with admiration repeated it with terror.
After a few months passed by Loyal Heart in studying his companion,drawn away by that natural want which man feels of confiding histroubles to a faithful friend, the hunter no longer had any secrets fromBelhumeur. This confidence, which the young man expected impatiently,but which he had done nothing to bring about, had bound still closer, ifpossible, the ties which united the two men, by furnishing the Canadianwith the means of giving his friend the consolations which his bruisedspirit required, and of avoiding irritating wounds that were everbleeding.
On the day we met them in the prairie, they had just been the victims ofan audacious robbery, committed by their ancient enemy, Eagle Head, theComanche chief, whose hatred and rancour, instead of being weakened bytime, had, on the contrary, only increased.
The Indian, with the characteristic deceit of his race, had dissembled,and devoured in silence the affront he had undergone from his people,and of which the two palefaced hunters were the direct cause, andawaited patiently the hour of vengeance. He had quietly dug a pit underthe feet of his enemies, by prejudicing the redskins by degrees againstthem, and adroitly spreading calumnies about them. Thanks to thissystem, he had at length succeeded, or, at least, he thought he had, inmaking all the individuals dispersed over the prairies, even the whiteand half-breed hunters, consider these two men as their enemies.
As soon as this result had been obtained, Eagle Head placed himselfat the head of thirty devoted warriors; and, anxious to bring about aquarrel that might ruin the men whose death he had sworn to accomplish,he had in one single night stolen all their traps, certain that theywould not leave such an insult unpunished, but would try to avenge it.
The chief was not deceived in his calculations; all had fallen out justas he had foreseen it would.
In this position he awaited his enemies.
Thinking that they would find no assistance among the Indians orhunters, he flattered himself that with the thirty men he commanded hecould easily seize the two hunters, whom he proposed to put to deathwith atrocious tortures.
But he had committed the fault of concealing the number of his warriors,in order to inspire more confidence in the hunters.
The latter had only partially been the dupes of this stratagem.Considering themselves sufficiently strong to contend even with twentyIndians, they had claimed the assistance of no one to avenge themselvesupon enemies they despised, and had, as we have seen, set out resolutelyin pursuit of the Comanches.
Closing here this parenthesis, a rather long one, it is true, butindispensable to understand of what is to follow, we will take up ournarrative at the point we broke off at, on terminating the precedingchapter.