CHAPTER XX.
A STRANGE LIFE-HISTORY.--AMONG THE RED INDIANS.
La Salle had been, as we have said, displeased and disgusted, as well aspuzzled, by much which had occurred; but his heart melted when herealized the sorrow and suffering, which, in spite of unusualself-restraint, was thus laid bare before him. He threw one arm aroundthe boy's neck, and gently pressed his hand.
"Forgive me, Regnar, if I have been unkind. I will be your friend if youdesire it. Confide in me, and I will try to assist you, if you need aidor counsel."
"You are kind, very kind, Charley; and perhaps I have been wrong in nottrusting more in you heretofore. There is no time, however, like thepresent, and no more secret and fitting place than this burial-grot ofthe cause of all my sorrow."
REGNAR'S HISTORY.
"My father was a Danish youth of good parentage, whose strange androving predilections sent him early in manhood to an outlying stationin the north of Greenland, where, between his books and the wild life ofthat savage coast, he passed several years, until his unpleasantrelations with the Danish officials made a change desirable, and hesought the Moravian settlements on the Labrador coast.
"He had plenty of money, and soon became well known along the coast,which he searched thoroughly in his trading schooner, doing a briskbusiness in furs, seal-oil, and skins, and at the same time makingfrequent metallurgical discoveries and adventurous exploringexpeditions. It was said that no man on the coast knew so much of thetopography of Labrador, between Hamilton Inlet and the Gulf of St.Lawrence, and a strange adventure opened to him new and startlingexperiences in the northern central portion of Newfoundland, then, asnow, almost a _terra incognita_.
"Twenty years ago he made his last voyage down the coast, attended bythe man who lies yonder, an American, named Perry, a native ofBaltimore, who, it afterwards transpired, fled from that city, havingkilled an opponent in a political quarrel.
"Albert Perry was well educated, bold, and politic, and he formed afriendship with my father which ended only with life, and, as I believe,served him but too faithfully through good and ill, until death brokethe bond between two men who were not fitted to lead the comparativelycalm, eventless life which the laws of society, and the wants of themany prescribe to all; under penalty of social ostracism to the few whoscorn to be fettered by a multitude of social conventionalities.
"With this man as mate, and a crew of four Esquimaux, my father foundhimself, in July, in one of the little harbors, on the Newfoundlandshore, of the Straits of Belle Isle. The night was dark, but calm, andat about ten he retired, to be awakened an hour later by Perry.
"'Come on deck, captain; there's something going on up in the mountainsyonder that I cannot make out.'
"My father, already half dressed, was soon upon deck, and found thewhole crew on the after-deck, gazing eagerly at the hills, which,covered with forest, surrounded the low land at the head of the bay.Near the summit of the highest, a fire of large size had been kindled,and lit up the dark sky above it, and the tops of the surrounding trees,with a deep crimson glow, while from time to time unearthly and savagecries were borne on the night air to the ears of the wondering voyagers.
"'Have you any idea what that means, captain?' asked the American.
"'What do you say, Krasippe?' said my father, addressing ahuge-shouldered Esquimaux, grizzled and scarred, who had followed hisfortunes from Greenland, and knew all the lore of his wanderingbrethren of the Labrador coast.
"'Me tink it red Injin. Have dance; deer now come north. MarcusJungsten, down at Hopedale, tell me he see such ting five year ago.'
"'But the red Indians are all dead, captain,' said Perry, who had spenta year or two on the coast, and heard many stories of the unconquerableferocity and final extinction of that strange race--the aborigines ofNewfoundland.
"'Such, indeed, is _said_ to be the case, but I have met several whohave seen and heard similar things, such as we hear and see to-night,and they refer them to the presence of remnants of that savage andsolitary race. I shall soon know, however. Krasippe, will you get yourrifle, and go with me?
"'I'll go with you, Hubel,' said Perry, eagerly.
"But my father stopped, and said, gravely,--
"'There is too much of danger in this adventure for us both to risk ourlives at once. Krasippe belongs to me. I have saved his life half ascore of times, but I have no claim on you; and, besides, the vesselmust be taken back to Hopedale, and you must stay to do it;' and sosaying, he retired to his cabin.
"When he returned, he carried in his hand a light rifle and a number ofglittering wands, while a row of bright medals shone against the thickpile of a close-fitting robe of black velvet, and upon his head a capof the same material, encircled by a strip of ermine, bore a single redfeather, with an agraffe of diamonds.
"'I have done wonders with this dress, amid the fire-rocks of theNasquapees. Krasippe, old fellow, are you ready?'
"Krasippe, grinning from ear to ear, nodded assent, and launching thecaptain's boat,--a light wherry for two pairs of sculls,--they pushedoff from the vessel's side.
"'Watch that spot,' said Hubel, 'and if you see the stars of this Romancandle, launch your boat, and come to the shore at once. Vasa there,'pointing to a huge Danish hound, 'will find me for you, if need be.'
"An hour or two later, Perry saw the stars of green and crimson shootingthrough the lurid cloud into the midnight sky. A rifle-shot echoedthrough the valley and across the bay, and the fire was instantlyextinguished. Perry, who had prepared everything for such an emergency,pushed off in his boat at once, taking his three men, all well armed,and Vasa, the great hound. Pulling at full speed, they struck in for theshore, and at last found the captain's boat hauled upon the beach.Taking the leash of the hound in his left hand, Perry sprang ashore,ordered his men to secure the boat, and lighting a dark lantern securedto his belt, he gave the word to Vasa, who set off, with an eager whine,at such a pace that it was hard to keep up with him.
"In about half an hour they emerged into a large glade, and the houndstopped with a low howl over a prostrate body. It was that of Krasippe.He was lying on his face, with a deep gash on the shoulder, and a bruiseon the top of the skull, but still breathed, although insensible. Perry,who doubted not that Hubel would be found near the body of his faithfulfollower, let slip the chain from Vasa's collar, and he at once dartedoff into the darkness, while Perry, drawing the slide of his bull's-eye,and pistol in hand, carefully examined the glade.
"He found the remains of a large fire, some ten feet in circumference,still steaming with the water used to quench it, a few fragments ofvenison, as well as a hatchet-head of white quartz, broken from itshelve, not far from where Krasippe had received his wound; but theylooked in vain for their captain.
"Morning had just dawned when Vasa reappeared, and wagging his tail,came up to Perry. Around his neck was looped a piece of birch bark, onopening which Perry found the following note:--
"'AMONG THE INDIANS--MIDNIGHT.
"'I take my pencil to send you what may be my final directions, for as yet I am doubtful as to what may be my fate. Poor Vasa was about to be killed, as they dare keep no dogs; but I take advantage of his old tricks to send him to you. Take the vessel to Hopedale, and use her as if you were managing her for me, and next year at this time await me here. I have such an opportunity as no other man has had to learn the truth about these savages, and I risk my life willingly on the chance.
(Signed) "'PAUL HUBEL.'"
"Perry seized Vasa's collar and knotted the leash, then, turning to hismen, ordered them to take up Krasippe and carry him down to the shore,where, launching the boat, they returned to the vessel. The next daythey made sail, but it was several days before Krasippe recoveredsufficiently to detail his portion of the adventure, which ran somewhatas follows:--
"'Me land with capten. We go up hill trough de hood. We see ten, twelve,Injin almos' naked, eatin', drinkin', dancin', an' yell like debbil.Capten say, "
Stay here, Krasippe; I get hind bush." Capten creep troughbush, light cannle, an' bust out trough circle to middle of fire. I seefifty Injin fright dat way. Dose Injin not frighten much. I see one manjump on capten, trow him down, raise hatchet to kill him. Then one girlcatch at his arm, an' I fire my rifle. Then I see no more until I wakeup.'"
"'Well, Krasippe, the captain is alive, and we are to meet him here in ayear from now. In the mean time we'll try to navigate the Thyri, andmake as much money for the skipper as we can;' and well he kept hisword."
"A year later the Thyri crept again into the rock-bound haven, and for aweek Perry and his crew watched by night and day for his friend. Atlast, one evening they saw a fire on the shore opposite the vessel, androwing ashore, a strange figure rushed to meet Perry, saying, 'I am hereat last.'"
"It was Hubel, but he was clad in tanned deerskins, ornamented with thedyed quills of the porcupine, and his face and naked breast were paintedwith a mixture of deer-suet and ocher, while from his hair, long,unshorn, and gathered into a knot, waved a plume of the war-eagle. Hisstory I give in a few words."
"'I advanced cautiously, intending to surprise and awe the Indians, as Ihave before done with the heathen savages, who still hunt beyond thehead waters of the Mistassini, in the Labrador peninsula. As Krasippetold you, I failed; but the strange garb that I wore, and theinterposition of a woman, saved my life for the time being, and thewonders of my magic wands added to the first impression, and gave me animportance I could have acquired in no other way. The riches and weaponsof the whites have no charms for them, and the memory of their massacredand hunted relatives will never die until the last of the race sleepamid the islands of the great lakes of the interior; but when they sawme shake coals of fire at will from a wand filled with pyrophoric lead,they felt at once that I must be of another race than theirpersecutors.'"
"'So they took me with them to the south, along the trail of themigrating reindeer; they gave me the best of their simple food andraiment, and the girl who saved my life came to my lodge, and served mewith a love that I can never forget. She died in childbirth two monthsago, and when I left the tribe to return to my own people, her fatherwanted to keep the infant, and at last I consented that he should remainwith him a year longer. "Give me a token," said I, "and when, a yearfrom now, you follow the deer northward, seek the bay, and if a vessellies there at anchor, look each day in the glade for the signet of ourbond. When you find it, leave the babe beside it, and I will take himacross the ocean, and teach him to be wise and brave; then he shall comeback to his tribe, and help them to become again a happy and powerfulpeople.'"
"The Thyri went northward, and Hubel was received as one who returnsfrom the dead; but none save his mate knew the whole story of hiswanderings."
"'I have sworn to tell no one,' he said, in reply to all questionings,'and should I break my oath, it would, in all human probability, costthe lives of the few remaining warriors of that unfortunate race. Thepeople of Newfoundland can never blot out the memory of their pastcruelties, and any party who strives to penetrate to their wildernessfastnesses, must either kill or be killed.'"
"Before the next year elapsed, Hubel was summoned back to Denmark,having succeeded to his father's property; but before leaving Hopedale,he had a final interview with his chief officer."
"'I give you, Perry, the Thyri and all her outfit, as well as the goodsI have here, on one condition. You must keep the tryst I cannot keep,and bring the child you know of to the settlement at Hopedale. I havespoken to brother Hans, who will see after him until I send or come forhim.'"
"'I will do your bidding, Paul; but I shall not stay upon this coastafter that job is over. There will be nothing to keep me in thisdesolate land after you leave it;' and tears glistened in the eyes ofthat cool, cynical, worldly-minded adventurer, for he really loved myfather."
"'When your work is done here, Albert, come to me in Denmark. There isenough for us both, and we have been so long together, that we shallnever be happy apart. Will you come?'"
"Perry said nothing, but pressing the hand of his friend with painfulenergy, he rushed up the beach, and seeking the hill behind the littlesettlement, watched the ship as she sailed out of the firth anddisappeared in the gathering twilight. The next summer he sought theappointed spot, and left this talisman tied to the top of a bush, whichstood alone almost in the centre of the glade."
La Salle curiously examined the ring, whose gold circlet of Europeanmanufacture held securely an oval bit of jasper, on whose polishedsurface was cut the rude outline of a beaver wounded with an arrow.
"The next day he went again: the stone had disappeared; but two arrows,headed with flint, lay beside the bush, one pointed to the interior, theother to the shore. 'I suppose that means "I go, I return," said he; andI shall find the child here to-morrow night.'"
"He was right in his conjectures, for on going to the spot the nextnight, he found beneath the bush a little boy clad in a strange_melange_ of Indian finery, and the bizarre attire worn by Paul Hubelwhen he set out on his strange adventure. That child was myself."
La Salle had listened to the strange story with amazement, whichincreased as it progressed.
"You tell me, Regnie, though, only of good deeds and faithful servicesrendered by the dead. You say that he loved your father, and served himfaithfully as long as he lived."
Regnar took up the word in bitter wrath, strangely mingled with regret.
"As long as he _lived_--yes! But listen only until the end, and youshall judge for yourself of my justice to the memory of the dead.
"On the breast of the babe lay the talisman, and a facsimile, piercedand suspended by a cord round the child's neck, lay beneath itsclothing. See, I wear it still, and shall wear it until I meet againwith my mother's people.
"I must hasten to end my story. I was taken to Hopedale, where Iremained ten years, at the end of which time Perry was sent from Europeto take me to my father, who had taken to his home a daughter born of anearlier marriage, whose mother, unable to understand the caprices of myfather, had returned, almost broken-hearted, to her father's house, anddied during his voluntary exile in Greenland.
"I spent four years in Europe, studying most of the time at Bonn; andthen my father sent for me, and I lived another year on his estate,learning all that I could of the various handicrafts and avocations,especially the best modes of agriculture. At the end of the fifth year,he called me into the library, and spoke to me as follows:--
"'You are now sixteen years of age, and you know that I have given youopportunities such as are seldom lavished on young men of your age. Iwould like to keep you with me longer, but I have told you of yourmother, and the sufferings of her people. It is my wish that you shouldvisit them within two years, and I have imparted to you much knowledgeof their mode of life and government. Spend one year at Hopedale, andlearn the lore of the fisherman and the craft of the hunter; and when Ishall send you this ancient weapon, you will find within its hilt allthat I dare not commit to paper, or the lips of my messenger.'
"The week after, I sailed for Hopedale; but before the year of my stayhad elapsed, I learned from a friend's letter of the sudden death of myfather. 'I suppose that your father's friend and your sister have joinedyou in America, and that you will be consoled somewhat for your loss bytheir affection, and your changed fortunes.'
"Thus ran the letter; but it was not until the arrival of the fall shipthat I learned that my father was indeed no longer living, and thatfully six months had elapsed since my sister, accompanied by the man wholies yonder, had set out to join her half brother, whom she had neverseen, and to share with him the personal fortune of their common father;for the hereditary acres could not, by the laws of Denmark, fall to mylot, but went to the next nearest male relative.
"Since that time I have sought everywhere for tidings of my sister'sfate, or news of the whereabouts of that man. I heard of him once as aslaver, and a year ago I learned of his having been seen on this coast.I have but one more explanation to
make, and that is of the strangestatement I made to you, when we stood alone looking across the moonlitwaste of the drifting pack.
"About a month before you hired me at the trading post, I met Krasippe,now a very old man, and claiming some power as a prophet, or 'angekok,'among his people; for, although Christianized, they have not thrown offmany of their old superstitions. He took me in his arms and wept overme, and growled a bitter curse on the treachery of his old associate.Then he appeared lost in deep thought, which seemed to absorb everysense, and his countenance became almost terrible in its fixedexpression. At last, as if by no volition of his own, he uttered, inlow, stern tones, the following rhapsody:--
"'You will meet in the desert of ice the man who will lead you to yourheart's dearest wish. He shall lose, and you will gain.'"
La Salle's face was pale, and his lips firmly set, as he listened to theending of this strange recital; but he took up the broken chain ofevidence, with the firm intention of finding the missing links.
"Did you read my letter because you thought that Miss Randall mightprove to be your sister?"
"Yes, Charley, I did. Her name was Pauline Hubel. She was named afterour father, Paul Hubel. My name is Regnar Orloff Hubel."
"Well, Regnie, all I can tell you now is, that the young lady's Englishis not the best in the world, and that she is an orphan child. Of thewhereabouts of her adopted father she knows nothing, but in a book whichI took up there one day, I found written, 'A. P. Randall;' and Mrs.Randall said--"
"What?" asked Regnar, hoarsely.
"That it belonged to her brother. Now, Regnie," said La Salle, kindly,"you know all that I can tell you. Perhaps you may find in the hilt ofyonder antique weapon the clew to much more. But we have other duties toperform; and first, how shall we seal up this cave so that no one canpossibly suspect our having entered this place. That Peter has the eyesof a lynx, and should he follow us, would not fail to discover all."
"In an hour hence," said Regnar, "no human being can stand where we arenow, and you can walk the stanchest hound over the ledge, without hisdreaming of what lies beneath. Come up to the top of the berg."
Taking their equipments, they left the grotto, and issued through thenarrow entrance. Regnar pointed to a shelving path, like a shallowgroove in the face of the cliff.
"Can we climb there?" said he.
"I should think so," answered La Salle; and taking an axe and the end ofthe rope, he began to ascend the cliff along the shelving pathway. As heascended, he heard behind him the blows of an axe, and, turning, sawRegnar cut a narrow cleft from the entrance of the cove to the level ofthe way to the top of the berg. "Are you mad," asked La Salle, "that youscatter your chips about the berg like that, and into the verypathway?"
Regnar gave a finishing stroke to his work, and came lightly up thepath.
"I shall finish my work above," said he; and in a moment more they stoodupon the summit.
The brink of the pool lay near the edge of the cliff, and withoutstopping to look around him, Regnar commenced cutting a deep, narrowgutter from the pathway to the huge reservoir. As he struck the blowswhich shattered the thin wall of ice between the pool and its newoutlet, the water poured in a stream a foot deep through the littlecanal, and down the slanting ledge into the cavern below.
"I understand it now," said La Salle, "and I now know why you lashed thebody to its support."
"Yes," answered the boy, coolly, "should any try to break into yondertomb to-morrow, they would do so at the risk of their lives; but if wehave a week of frost, the cove will be full to its outlet of solid ice."
"But, Regnar, let us think of something else. Where are the islands wesaw last evening? We ought now to be near the southern shore of thegroup."
"We have been wedged off to sea by stranded ice, I should judge; forthere, about fifteen miles to the northward, lies Amherst Island."