CHAPTER X.
The three that remained at the cottage retired to rest. As the blaze of the fire in front of the cottage died away, young Mayall discovered that the Indian chief became restless and uneasy, and would suddenly awake from sleep and grasp his rifle and then peer out into the dark surrounding forest, as if some monster of the wood was about to make a deadly leap towards him. After straining his eyes for naught he would again resume his rustic bed.
As soon as sleep began to steal over his troubled brain he would spring from his bed and grasp his weapons of war. The night gradually wore away, and the great luminary of the world began to light up the East. Esock Mayall and the Indian chief rose from their restless beds and finished dressing their bears, and got the wagon and goods, with his father, mother and the three children that wore on the opposite side of the creek, over to the cottage, whilst the young bride was preparing their breakfast.
Breakfast being over, the Indian chief said he must be up and away before the sun licked up the morning dew. He had lodged in that cottage the first and last night; that thrice in his sleep he had dreamed of death and a dishonored tomb, when no phantom of the night was near, not even the sound of waters or the whisper of the breeze was heard among the lonely trees; and yet the dream was thrice repeated. Esock Mayall told him he must wait a short time, and his wife would prepare him some provisions, and he would let him have a horse to ride as far as the Mohawk River, and that would carry him beyond danger. The chief consented to wait a short time for the horse and provisions, but said there was danger in delay.
Whilst the young bride was preparing her father's provision, Wolf-hunter cast his keen eye up the creek in the direction of the bear fight, and saw three strange Indian hunters approaching with their silver-mounted rifles, armed with tomahawks and hunting-knives. They came rapidly forward until they reached the place where they killed the mammoth bear, then halted, viewed the meat that hung on the branches of some trees, and then came directly towards the cottage. The Indian chief began to retreat, when Wolf-hunter cried out:
"No danger. Face the music."
This Esock Mayall understood to mean, "Never fear, but be ready," and sat his gun down by his side, and Wolf-hunter did the same. The three Indians came near the fire, when Wolf-hunter addressed them in the Oneida tongue:
"Good-morning, brothers."
They replied: "Good-morning, brother. We have followed the trail of three bears, and we find you have killed them, and we want some of the meat."