Kitabı oku: «The White Squaw»
Chapter One.
A Deadly Introduction
The last golden gleams of the setting sun sparkled across the translucent waters of Tampa Bay. This fading light fell upon shores fringed with groves of oak and magnolia, whose evergreen leaves became gradually darkened by the purple twilight.
A profound silence, broken by the occasional notes of a tree-frog, or the flapping of the night-hawk’s wings, was but the prelude to that wonderful concert of animated nature heard only in the tropical forest.
A few moments, and the golden lines of trembling light had disappeared, while darkness almost palpable overshadowed the scene.
Then broke forth in full chorus the nocturnal voices of the forest.
The mocking-bird, the whip-poor-will, the bittern, the bell-frog, grasshoppers, wolves, and alligators, all joined in the harmony incident to the hour of night, causing a din startling to the ear of a stranger.
Now and then would occur an interval of silence, which rendered the renewal of the voices all the more observable.
During one of these pauses a cry might have been heard differing from all the other sounds.
It was the voice of a human being, and there was one who heard it.
Making his way through the woods was a young man, dressed in half-hunter costume, and carrying a rifle in his hand. The cry had caused him to stop suddenly in his tracks.
After glancing cautiously around, as if endeavouring to pierce the thick darkness, he again advanced, again came to a stop, and remained listening. Once more came that cry, in which accents of anger were strangely commingled with tones appealing for help.
This time the sound indicated the direction, and the listener’s resolution was at once taken.
Thrusting aside the undergrowth, and trampling under foot the tall grass, he struck into a narrow path running parallel to the shore, and which led in the direction whence the cry appeared to have come.
Though it was now quite dark, he seemed easily to avoid impediments, which even in broad daylight would have been difficult to pass.
The darkness appeared no barrier to his speed, and neither the overhanging branches, nor the wood-bine roots stayed his progress.
About a hundred paces further on, the path widened into a rift that led to an opening, sloping gradually down to the beach.
On reaching its edge, he paused once more to listen for a renewal of the sound.
Nothing save the familiar noises of the night greeted his ear.
After a short pause, he kept on for the water’s edge, with head well forward, and eyes strained to penetrate the gloom.
At that moment the moon shot out from behind a heavy bank of clouds, and, with a brilliant beam, disclosed to his eager gaze a tableau of terrible interest.
Down by the water’s edge lay the body of an Indian youth, motionless, and to all appearance dead; while stooping over it was another youth, also an Indian. He appeared to be examining the body.
For some seconds there was no change in his attitude. Then, all at once he raised himself erect, and with a tomahawk that flashed in the moonlight above his head, appeared in the act of dealing a blow.
The hatchet descended; but not upon the body that lay prostrate.
A sharp report ringing on the air for an instant silenced all other sounds. The would-be assassin sprang up almost simultaneously, and two corpses instead of one lay along the earth.
So thought he who fired the shot, and who was the young man already described. He stayed not to speculate, but rushed forward to the spot where the two Indians lay. He had recognised them both. The one upon the ground was Nelatu, the son of Oluski, a distinguished Seminole chief. The other was Red Wolf, a well-grown youth belonging to the same tribe.
Only glancing at the would-be assassin to see that he was dead, he bent over the body of Nelatu, placed his hand upon the region of his heart, at the same time anxiously scanning his features.
Suddenly he uttered an exclamation of surprise. Beneath his fingers a weak pulsation gave signs of life. Nelatu might yet be saved.
Pulling off his hat, he ran down to the beach, filled it with water, and, returning, sprinkled the forehead of the young Indian.
Then taking a flask containing brandy from his pouch, he poured a portion of its contents down the throat of the unconscious youth.
These kindly offices he repeated several times, and was finally rewarded for his pains. The blood slowly mantled Nelatu’s cheek; a shivering ran through his frame; and with a deep sigh he gazed dreamily upon his preserver, and at the same time faintly murmured “Warren.”
“Yes, Warren! Speak, Nelatu. What is the meaning of this?”
The Indian had only the strength to mutter the words “Red Wolf,” at the same time raising his hand to his side with apparent difficulty.
The gesture made his meaning clear. Warren’s gaze rested upon a deep wound from which the blood was still welling.
By the tremulous movement of his lips, Warren saw that he was endeavouring to speak again. But no sound came from them. His eyes gradually became closed. He had once more fainted.
Warren instantly flung off his coat, tore one of the sleeves from his shirt, and commenced staunching the blood.
After a time it ceased to flow, and then tearing off the second sleeve, with his braces knotted together, he bound up the wound.
The wounded youth slowly recovered consciousness, and, looking gratefully up into his face, pressed the hand of his deliverer.
“Nelatu owes Warren life. He will some day show his gratitude.”
“Don’t think of that now. Tell me what has happened? I heard your cry, and hastened to your assistance.”
“Not Nelatu’s cry,” responded the Indian, with a faint blush of pride suffusing his face. “Nelatu is the son of a chief. He knows how to die without showing himself a woman. It was Red Wolf who cried out.”
“Red Wolf!”
“Yes; Red Wolf is a coward – a squaw; ’twas he who cried out.”
“He will never cry out again. Look there!” said Warren, pointing to the lifeless corpse that lay near.
Nelatu had not yet seen it. Unconscious of what had transpired, he believed that Red Wolf, supposing him dead, had gone away from the spot.
Warren explained.
Still more gratefully did the Indian youth gaze upon the face of his preserver.
“You had an encounter with Red Wolf? I can see that, of course; it was he who gave you this wound?”
“Yes, but I had first defeated him. I had him on the ground in my power. I could have taken his life. It was then that, like a coward, he called for help.”
“And after?”
“I pitied and let him rise. I expected him to leave me, and go back to the village. He feared that I might speak of his defeat to our tribe, and for this he determined that my tongue should be for ever silent. I was not thinking of it when he thrust me from behind. You know the rest.”
“And why the quarrel?”
“He spoke wicked words of my sister, Sansuta.”
“Sansuta!” exclaimed Warren, a strange smile overshadowing his features.
“Yes; and of you.”
“The dog; then he doubly deserved death. And from me!” he added, in a tone not loud enough for Nelatu to hear, “what a lucky chance.”
As he said this he spurned the body with his foot.
Then turning to the Indian, he asked —
“Do you think you could walk a little, Nelatu?”
The brandy had by this time produced an effect. Its potent spirit supplied the loss of blood, and Nelatu felt his strength returning to him.
“I will try,” said the wounded youth. “Nelatu’s hour has not yet come. He must not die till he has paid his debt to Warren.”
“Then lean on me. My canoe is close by. Once in it you can rest at your ease.”
Nelatu nodded consent.
Warren assisted him to rise, and, half carrying, half supporting, conducted him to the canoe.
Carefully helping him aboard, he shoved the craft from the shore, and turned its prow in the direction of the white settlement.
The moon, that had become again obscured, once more burst through the black clouds, lighting up the fronds of the feathery palms that flung their shadows far over the pellucid waves.
The concert of the nocturnal forest, for a time stayed by the report of the rifle, burst out anew as the boat glided silently out of sight.
Chapter Two.
The Settlement
The site of the settlement to which the canoe was being directed merits description.
It was upon the northern shore of Tampa Bay.
The soil that had been cleared was rich in crops of cotton, indigo, sugar, with oranges, and the ordinary staples of food.
Through the cultivated lands, mapped out like a painter’s palette, ran a crystal stream, from which the rice fields were watered by intersecting rivulets, looking like silver threads in a tissue.
Orange groves margined its course, running sinuously through the settlement.
In places it was lost to sight, only to re-appear with some new feature of beauty.
Here and there it exhibited cascades and slight waterfalls that danced in the sunlight, sending up showers of prismatic spray.
There were islets upon which grew reeds, sedges, and canes, surmounted by groups of caricas, and laurel-magnolias, the exogenous trees overtopped by the tall, feathery palm.
In its waters wild fowl disported themselves, scattering showers of luminous spray as they flapped their wings in delight.
Birds of rare plumage darted hither and thither along its banks, enlivening the groves with their jocund notes.
Far beyond, the swamp forest formed a dark, dreary back-ground, which, by contrast, enhanced the cheerfulness of the scene.
Looking seaward, the prospect was no less resplendent of beauty.
The water, dashing and fretting against the rocky quays, glanced back in mist and foam.
Snow-white gulls hurried along the horizon, their wings cutting sharply against an azure sky, while along the silvery beach, tall, blue herons, brown cranes, and scarlet flamingoes, stood in rows, their forms reflected in the pellucid element.
Such were the surroundings of the settlement on Tampa Bay.
The village itself nestled beneath the hills already mentioned, and comprised a church, some half-dozen stores, with a number of substantial dwellings, whilst a rude wharf, and several schooners moored near by, gave tokens of intercourse with other places.
It was a morning in May, in Florida, as elsewhere, the sweetest month in the year.
Borne upon the balmy atmosphere was the hum of bees and the melody of birds, mingled with the voices of young girls and men engaged in the labour of their farms and fields.
The lowing of cattle could be heard in the distant grazing grounds, while the tillers of the soil were seen at work upon their respective plantations.
There was one who looked upon this cheerful scene without seeming to partake of its cheerfulness.
Standing upon the top of the hill was a man of tall, gaunt figure, with a face somewhat austere in its expression.
His strongly lined features, with a firm expression about the mouth, marked him for a man of no common mould.
He appeared to be about sixty.
As his keen grey eyes wandered over the fields below, there was a cold, determined light in them which betrayed no pleasant train of thought.
It spoke of covetous ambition.
Behind him, upon the hill top, of table shape, were poles standing up out of the earth. Around them the sward was trampled, and the scorched grass, worn in many directions into paths, signified that at no distant period the place had been inhabited.
The sign could not be mistaken; it was the site of an Indian encampment.
Elias Rody, as he turned from gazing on the panoramic view beneath, cast a glance of strange significance at these vestiges of the red-man’s habitation.
His features assumed a sharper cast, while a cloud came over his face.
“But for them,” he muttered, “my wishes would be accomplished, my desires fulfilled.”
What were his wishes? What his desires?
Ask the covetous man such a question, and, if he answered truly, his answer would tell a tale of selfish aspirations. He would envy youth its brightness, old age its wisdom, virtue its content, love its joys, ay, even Heaven itself its rewards, and yet, in the narrow bigotry of egotism, think he only claimed his own.
Elias Rody was a covetous man, and such were the thoughts at that moment in his mind.
They were too bitter for silence, and vented themselves in words, which the winds alone listened to.
“Why should these red-skins possess what I so deeply long for; and only for their short temporary enjoyment? I would be fair with them; but they wrap themselves up in their selfish obstinacy, and scorn my offers.”
How selfish others appear to a selfish man!
“Why should they continue to restrain me? If gold is worth anything, surely it should repay them for what can be only a mere fancy. I shall try Oluski once again, and if he refuse – ”
Here the speaker paused.
For some time he stood in contemplation, his eye roving over the distant view.
As it again lighted upon the settlement a smile, not a pleasant one, curled his lip.
“Well, there is time yet,” said he, as if concluding an argument with himself. “I will once more try the golden bribe. I will use caution; but here will I build my house, come what may.”
This natural conclusion, to an egotistic mind, appeared satisfactory.
It seemed to soothe him, for he strode down the hill with a springy, elastic step, more like that of a young man than one over whose head had passed sixty eventful years.
Chapter Three.
Elias Rody
Whilst Elias Rody is pondering upon his scheme, let us tell the reader who he is.
A Georgian, who began life without any fixed idea.
His father, a wealthy merchant of Savannah, had brought him up to do nothing; and, until he had attained man’s estate, he faithfully carried out his father’s teaching.
Like many Southern lads borne to competence, he could not appreciate the dignity of labour, and accordingly loitered through his youthful life, wasting both time and patrimony before discovering that idleness is a curse.
At his father’s death, which happened upon Elias reaching his twentieth year, all the worthy merchant’s property descended to the son, and the idler suddenly found himself the possessor of a large sum of money with a sort of feeling that something was to be done with it.
He accordingly spent it.
Spent it recklessly, freely and rapidly, and then discovered that what he had done was not the thing he should have done.
He then became reformed.
Which meant, that from a liberal, open-handed, careless fellow, he changed to a cynical, cautious man.
With a small remnant of his fortune, and an inheritance from a distant relative, Elias became a man of the world, or rather, a worldly man.
In other words, he began life for a second time, and on an equally wrong basis.
Before his eyes were two classes of his equals. Reckless men with large hearts, and careful men with no hearts at all, for such was the organisation of the society surrounding him.
Of the first class he had full experience; of the second he had none whatever.
To the latter he resolved to attach himself.
It is useless wondering why this should have been. Perhaps he had never been fitted for the community of large-hearted men, and had only mixed with them through novelty, or ignorance of his own station.
Be this as it may, one thing is certain, he became before long a most exemplary member of the society he had selected for imitation. No one drove a closer bargain, saw an advantage (to himself), or could lay surer plans for securing it, than Elias Rody.
He learned, also, to control, and in every way wield influence over those around him. Power became his dream. He was ambitious of governing men.
Strange to say, this feeling was almost fatal to his prospects. We say strange, because ambition generally carves its own road, and moulds its own fortune.
Rody, however, had commenced an active career too late to arrive at much importance in the political world – that grand arena for attaining distinction.
He therefore cast about him for another field of ambitious strife, and speedily found it.
At this time throughout the state of Georgia were many planters, who, without capital to purchase additional property, found themselves daily growing poorer as their land became worn out with exhausting crops.
These men were naturally enough the grumblers and discontented spirits of the community.
Another class were those with little save a restless disposition, ever ready for any venture that may arise.
Rody, shrewd and plausible, saw in these men the very instruments for a purpose he had long thought of, and had well matured.
“If I cannot attain the object of my wishes here,” said he, to himself, “perhaps I may be successful elsewhere, if I can only persuade others to join me. These are men ready to my hand; I will take them with me, they shall be my followers; and whilst contributing their means to my end, they will look upon me as a benefactor.”
Rody, it will be seen, was a thorough egotist.
This idea becoming fixed in his mind, the rest was easy. He spoke to them of their present condition; drew a brilliant picture of what might be achieved in a new land; painted with masterly eloquence the increase of wealth and happiness his plan presented, and finely gathered around him a large number of families, with whom he started from Georgia, and settled in that section of Florida we have described.
The reason for Rody’s selection of this spot was another proof of his profound selfishness.
In his reckless, generous days, he had, on the occasion of a visit to Columbus, been the means of saving from insult and outrage a Seminole chief, who had visited the capital upon some business connected with the State Government.
This act of generosity had been impulsive; but, to the Indian, it assumed the proportion of a life-long debt.
In the fulness of his gratitude, the chief caused papers and titles to be drawn up in Rody’s favour, giving a grant of a portion of his own property lying on the shores of Tampa Bay.
The Indian chief was named Oluski.
The grant of land was the settlement we have spoken of.
Rody, at the time, made light of Oluski’s gratitude, and thrust the title into his desk without bestowing a second thought on the matter.
Now, in his days of worldly wisdom, these papers with the Seminole’s emblematic signature, were brought to light with a very different appreciation.
He saw that they represented value.
Elias Rody accordingly determined to make use of them.
It ended in his carrying a colony southward, and settling upon Tampa Bay.
The scheme originated in selfishness turned out a success.
The lands were valuable, the climate salubrious, and the colony thrived.
A bad man may sometimes do a good thing without intending it.
Rody received even more credit and renown than he had expected; and, being a shrewd man, he achieved a part of his ambition.
He was looked up to as the most important personage in the community.
Although some of the settlers did not approve of all his measures, still, their opposition was rather negative than positive, and had, as yet, found vent only in remonstrances or grumbling.
None had dared to question his prerogative, although he often rode a high horse, and uttered his diction in a tone offensively arrogant.
What more, then, did Elias Rody want?
A covetous man always wants more. Oluski’s gift was a noble one. It covered a large area of fertile land, with water privileges, and a harbour for trade. It was the choicest portion of his possessions. The chief, in bestowing it, gave as a generous man gives to a friend. He gave the best he had.
Unfortunately the best he had did not embrace the hill; and, therefore, Rody was unsatisfied.
More than once during the progress of the settlement, he had cast a wishful eye upon the spot, as the choicest site in the whole district for a dwelling.
As his means expanded so had his tastes, and a grand dwelling became the great desire of his life.
It must, perforce, be built upon the hill.
To every offer made to Oluski for a cession of this spot, the chief had firmly and steadfastly given a refusal. He, too, had his ambition; which, although not so selfish as the white man’s, was not a whit less cherished.
For nine months in the year Oluski and his tribe dwelt in a distant Indian town, and only visited the waters of Tampa Bay for the remaining three, and then only for the purposes of pleasure. The wigwams of himself and people were but temporarily erected upon the hill. For all this they had an attachment for the spot; in short, they loved it.
This was what Elias Rody stigmatised as a mere fancy.
There was another reason held in similar estimation by Elias. In the rear of their annual encampment was an Indian cemetery. The bones of Oluski’s ancestors reposed therein. Was it strange the spot should be dear to him?
So dear was it, in fact, that to every proposal made by Rody for the purchase of the hill, Oluski only shook his head, and answered “No.”
