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| [CHAPTER I.] | |
| Town and Country contrasted, in relation to Vice and Crime.—A Display Party to avoid Bankruptcy.—Gaut Gurley, and other leading Characters, introduced as Actors in this scene of City Life | [1] |
| [CHAPTER II.] | |
| Retrospect of the life of the Country Merchant, in making Money,to become a “Solid Man of Boston.”—Humble Beginnings.—Temptedinto Smuggling from Canada in Embargo times, andmakes a Fortune, by the aid of the desperate and daring Servicesof Gaut Gurley.—A Sketch of the Wild Scenes of Smugglingover the British line into Vermont and New Hampshire.—Removalto the City | [15] |
| [CHAPTER III.] | |
| Gambling (an allegory) invented by the Fiends, and is proclaimedthe Premium Vice by Lucifer.—A Gambling Scene between GautGurley and the merchant, Mark Elwood.—The Failure of thelatter.—The Refusal of his brother, Arthur Elwood, to help him.—TheSurprise and Distress of his Family | [27] |
| [CHAPTER IV.] | |
| The Downward Path of the Habitual Gambler.—His Family sharingin the Degradation, and becoming the suffering Victims of hisVices.—The Sudden Resolve to be a Man again, and remove to anunsettled Country, to begin Life anew in the Woods | [38] |
| [CHAPTER V.] | |
| The moral and intellectual Influences of Forest Life.—Scenery ofUmbagog.—Description of Elwood’s new Home in the Woods.—TheBurning of his first Slash.—His House catches Fire, and heand his Wife engage in extinguishing it, praying for the return oftheir Son, Claud Elwood, to help them in their terrible strait | [51] |
| [CHAPTER VI.] | |
| Claud Elwood and his Forest Musings.—Dangerous Assault, andslaying of a Moose.—Rescue of Gaut’s Daughter from the enragedanimal.—Strange Developments.—Incipient Love Scene.—Trout-catching.—Returnof Claud and Phillips (the Old Hunterhere first introduced), to aid in saving the Elwood Cottage fromthe fire.—The Thunder-shower comes to complete the conquest ofthe fire.—The destruction of the King Pine by a Thunderbolt | [60] |
| [CHAPTER VII.] | |
| Journey up the Magalloway, to bring home the slaughtered Moose.—Loveand its entanglements; its Sunshine now, its Storms in thedistance | [76] |
| [CHAPTER VIII.] | |
| Jaunt of Claud and Phillips over the Rapids to the next Great Lake,for Deer-hunting and Trout-catching.—Rescue of Fluella, the IndianChief’s Daughter, from Drowning in the Rapids.—Herremarkable Character for Intellect and Beauty | [87] |
| [CHAPTER IX.] | |
| The Logging Bee.—The introduction of a New Character in ComicalCodman, the Trapper.—The Woodmen’s Banquet.—Theforming of the Trapping and Hunting Company, to start on anExpedition to the Upper Lakes | [108] |
| [CHAPTER X.] | |
| Developments of the dark and designing character of Gaut Gurley.—Tomah,the college-learned Indian | [124] |
| [CHAPTER XI.] | |
| Mrs. Elwood’s Bodings, on account of the connection of her Husbandand Son with Gaut and his Daughter.—Her Interview withFluella.—Claud’s Interview with Fluella and her Father, theChief.—The Chief’s History of his Tribe | [137] |
| [CHAPTER XII.] | |
| Adventures of the Trappers the first day of their Expedition up theLakes.—Bear-hunt, Trout-catching, etc.—Introduction of Carvil,an amateur Hunter from the Green Mountains | [154] |
| [CHAPTER XIII.] | |
| The Trappers’ Central Camp on the Maguntic Lake.—ThreeStories of most remarkable Adventures in the Woods, told at theCamp-fire by three Hunters and Trappers | [175] |
| [CHAPTER XIV.] | |
| The Voyage to Oquossak, the farthest large Lake.—The stationingof the Trappers at different points on the Lake.—The appointmentof Gaut as Keeper of the Central Camp, on the Lake below.—TheResults of their Fall’s Operations, and Preparations to returnHome | [200] |
| [CHAPTER XV.] | |
| The Trappers overtaken by a terrible Snow-storm.—Their Sufferingbefore reaching Central Camp.—The discovery that this Camphad been Burnt, and Robbed of their whole Stock of Furs.—TheirProvidential Escape from Death | [211] |
| [CHAPTER XVI.] | |
| The Legal Prosecution to Recover their Furs, or punish Gaut, thesupposed Criminal.—The unsatisfactory Result, and Gaut’s darkmenaces of Revenge | [235] |
| [CHAPTER XVII.] | |
| Gaut’s Efforts to get the old Company off into the Forest, on aSpring Expedition.—All refuse but Elwood and Son, who concludeto go.—Love Entanglements, and the boding Fears ofMrs. Elwood | [246] |
| [CHAPTER XVIII.] | |
| Opening of Spring in the Settlement.—The Trappers fail to Return.—Gautcomes without them.—The Alarm and Suspicionsof the Settlers that he has Murdered the Elwoods.—The CircumstantialEvidence | [260] |
| [CHAPTER XIX.] | |
| The attempt to Arrest Gaut.—His retreat to a Cave in the Mountain.—Hisfinal Dislodgement and Capture, for Trial and Examination | [275] |
| [CHAPTER XX.] | |
| Retrospect of the Adventures of Gaut and the Elwoods.—TheMurder of Mark Elwood, and the Wounding of Claud, by Gaut.—Claud’slife saved by Fluella | [299] |
| [CHAPTER XXI.] | |
| Gaut’s Trial, Sentence, and Imprisonment.—General Denouementof the Story.—Gaut breaks Jail, escapes, and becomes a desperatePirate-leader | [324] |
| [SEQUEL.] | |
| Awful Fate of a Pirate Ship.—Gaut’s Death | [350] |
THE DEMON TRAPPER OF UMBAGOG.
CHAPTER I.
“God made the country and man made the town.”
So wrote the charming Cowper, giving us to understand, by the drift of the context, that he intended the remark as having a moral as well as a physical application; since, as he there intimates, in “gain-devoted cities,” whither naturally flow “the dregs and feculence of every land,” and where “foul example in most minds begets its likeness,” the vices will ever find their favorite haunts; while the virtues, on the contrary, will always most abound in the country. So far as regards the virtues, if we are to take them untested, this is doubtless true. And so far, also, as regards the mere vices, or actual transgressions of morality, we need, perhaps, to have no hesitation in yielding our assent to the position of the poet. But, if he intends to include in the category those flagrant crimes which stand first in the gradation of human offences, we must be permitted to dissent from that part of the view; and not only dissent, but claim that truth will generally require the very reversal of the picture, for of such crimes we believe it will be found, on examination, that the country ever furnishes the greatest proportion. In cities, the frequent intercourse of men with their fellow-men, the constant interchange of the ordinary civilities of life, and the thousand amusements and calls on their attention that are daily occurring, have almost necessarily a tendency to soften or turn away the edge of malice and hatred, to divert the mind from the dark workings of revenge, and prevent it from settling into any of those fatal purposes which result in the wilful destruction of life, or some other gross outrage on humanity. But in the country, where, it will be remembered, the first blood ever spilled by the hand of a murderer cried up to Heaven from the ground, and where the meliorating circumstances we have named as incident to congregated life are almost wholly wanting, man is left to brood in solitude over his real or fancied wrongs, till all the fierce and stormy passions of his nature become aroused, and hurry him unchecked along to the fatal outbreak. In the city, the strong and bad passions of hate, envy, jealousy, and revenge, softened in action, as we have said, on finding a readier vent in some of the conditions of urban society, generally prove comparatively harmless. In the country, finding no such softening influences, and no such vent, and left to their own workings, they often become dangerously concentrated, and, growing more and more intensified as their self-fed fires are permitted to burn on, at length burst through every barrier of restraint, and set all law and reason alike at defiance.
And if this view, as we believe, is correct in regard to the operation of this class of passions, why not in regard to the operation of those of an opposite character? Why should not the same principle apply to the operation of love as well as hate? It should, and does, though not in an equal degree, perhaps, apply to them both. It has been shown to be so in the experience of the past. It is illustrated in many a sad drama of real life, but never more strikingly than in the true and darkly romantic incidents which form the groundwork of the tale upon which we are about to enter.
It was on a raw and gusty evening in the month of November, a few years subsequent to our last war with Great Britain, and the cold and vapor-laden winds, which form such a drawback to the coast-clime of New England, were fitfully wailing over the drear and frost-blackened landscape, and the wayfarers, as if keenly alive to the discomforts of all without, were seen everywhere hurrying forward to reach those comforts within which were heralded in the cheerful gleams that shot from many a window, when a showy and conspicuous mansion, in the environs of Boston, was observed to be lighted up to an extent, and with a brilliancy, that betokened the advent of some ambitious display on the part of the bustling inmates. Carriages from different parts of the city were successively arriving, discharging their loads of gaily-dressed ladies and gentlemen at the door, and rattling off again at the crack of the whips of the pert and jauntily equipped drivers. Others on foot, and from the more immediate neighborhood, were, in couples and singly, for some time constantly dropping in to swell the crowd, witness, and perhaps add to, the attractions of the occasion, which was obviously one of those social gatherings that have been sometimes, in conventional phrase, not inaptly denominated a jam; where people go to be in the fashion, to see, be seen, and try as hard as they can to be happy; but where the aggregate of happiness enjoyed is probably far less, as a general rule, than would be enjoyed by the same company at home in the pursuit of their ordinary avocations.
Meanwhile, as the guests were assembling and being conducted to the withdrawing rooms, through the cash-bought and obsequious politeness of some of the troop of waiters hired for the occasion, the master of the mansion had taken his station in the nook of a window commanding the common entrance, and was there stealthily noting, as the company, severally or one group after another, mounted the doorsteps, who had honored his cards of invitation whom he wished to see there, and who had come whom he wished to have stayed away. He was a well-favored man, somewhat past the middle age of life, with regular features, and a good general appearance, but with one of those unsettled, fluctuating countenances which are usually found in men who, while affecting, perhaps, a show of independence, lack self-reliance, fixed principles, or some other of the essential elements of character. And such indeed was Mark Elwood, the reputedly wealthy merchant whom we have thus introduced as one of the leading personages of our story. Though often moved with kind and generous impulses, he yet was governed by no settled principles of benevolence; though often shrewd and sagacious, he yet possessed no true wisdom; and, though often bold and resolute in action, he yet lacked the faith and firmness of true courage. In short, he might be regarded as a fair representative of the numerous class we are daily meeting with in life,—men who do many good things, but more questionable ones; who undertake much, accomplish little; bustle, agitate, and thus contrive to occupy the largest space in public attention; but who, when sifted, are found, as Pope maliciously says of women, to
“have no character at all.”
After pursuing his observations a while, with an air of disappointment or indifference, Elwood was about to turn away, when his eye caught a glimpse of an approaching group of guests, whose appearance at once lighted up his countenance with a smile of satisfaction, and he half-ejaculated: “There they come!—the solid men of Boston. The presence of these, with the others who will all serve as trumpeters of the affair, will quell every suspicion of my credit till some new strike shall place me beyond danger. Yes, just as I calculated, the money spent will be the cunningest investment I have made these six months. But who is that tagging along alone after the rest?” he added, his countenance suddenly changing to a troubled look, and slowly, and with a strange emphasis, pronouncing the name, “Gaut Gurley!” he hurried away from his post of observation.