Satanstoe; Or, the Littlepage Manuscripts. A Tale of the Colony

by James Fenimore Cooper

“No good—warrior been here; p'rhaps gone, p'rhaps no; soon see. Open eye, and look.”

As a gesture accompanied this speech, we did look again, and this time in the right direction. At the distance of a hundred yards from us was a chestnut, that might be seen from its roots to its branches. On the ground, partly concealed by the tree, and partly exposed, was the leg of a man, placed as the limb would be apt to lie, on the supposition that its owner lay on his back, asleep. It showed a moccasin, and the usual legging of an Indian; but the thigh, and all the rest of the frame, was concealed. The quick eye of the Onondago had caught this small object, even at that distance, comprehended it at a glance, when he instantly sought a cover, as described. Guert and I had some difficulty at first, even after it was pointed out to us, in recognising this object; but it soon became distinct and intelligible.

“Is that a red-skin's leg?” asked Guert, dropping the muzzle of his rifle, as if about to try his skill on it.

“Don't know,” answered the Indian; “got leggin, got moccasin; can't see colour. Look most pale-face; leg big.”

What there was to enable one, at that distance, to distinguish between the leg of a white man and the leg of an Indian, at first greatly exceeded our means of conjecturing; but the Onondago explained it, when asked, in his own usual, sententious manner, by saying:

“Toe turn out—Injin turn in—no like, at all. Pale-face big; Injin no very big.”

The first was true enough in walking, and it did seem probable that the difference might exist in sleep. Guert now declared there was no use in hesitating any longer; if asleep he would approach the chestnut cautiously, and capture the stranger, if an Indian, before he could rise; and if a white man, it must be some one belonging to our own set, who was taking a nap, probably, after a fatiguing march. Susquesus must have satisfied himself, by this time, that there was no immediate danger; for merely saying, “all go together,” he quitted the cover, and led down towards the chestnut with a rapid but noiseless step. As we moved in a body all five of us reached the tree at the same instant, where we found Sam, one of our own hunters, and whom we supposed to be with Mr. Traverse, stretched on his back, dead; with a wound in his breast that had been inflicted by a knife. He, too, had been scalped!

The looks we exchanged, said all that could be said on the subject of the gravity of this new discovery. Susquesus, alone, was undisturbed; I rather think he expected what he found. After examining the body, he seemed satisfied, simply saying, “kill, last night.”

That poor Sam had been dead several hours was pretty certain, and the circumstance removed all apprehension of any immediate danger from his destroyers. The ruthless warriors of the woods seldom remained long near the spot they had desolated, but passed on, like the tornado, or the tempest. Guert, who was ever prompt when anything was to be done, pointed to a natural hollow in the earth; one of those cavities that are so common in the forest, and which are usually attributed to the upturning of trees in remote ages, and suggested that we should use it as a grave. The body was accordingly laid in the hole, and we covered it in the best manner we could; succeeding in placing over it something like a foot deep of light loam, together with several flat stones; rolling logs on all, as we had done at the grave of Pete. By this time Guert's feelings were so thoroughly aroused, that, in addition to the prayer and the creed, which he again repeated, in a very decorous and devout manner, he concluded the whole ceremony by a brief address. Nor was Guert anything but serious in what he did, or said, on either of these solemn occasions; his words, like his acts, being purely the impulses of a simple mind, which possesses longings after devotion and scriptural truths, without knowing exactly how to express them; and this, moreover, in spite of the mere animal propensities, and gay habits of his physical conformation, and constitutional tendencies.

“Deat', my friends,” said Guert, most seriously, becoming Dutch, as usual, as he became interested; “Deat' is a sutten visiter. He comes like a thief in the night, as you must all have often he'rt the Tominie say; and happy is he whose loins are girlet, and whose lamp is trimmed. Such, I trust, is the case with each of you; for, it is not to be concealet, that we are likely to have serious work before us. Here have been Injins, beyont a question; and they are Injins, too, that are out on the war-path, in search of English scalps; or, what is of equal importance to Mr. Follock and myself, Dutch scalps in the pargain; which makes it so much the more necessary for every man to be on his guart, and to stant up to his work, when it may come, as the pull-tog stants up to the ox. Got forpit t'at I should preach revenge over t'e grave of a frient; but the soltier fights none the worse for knowing t'at he has peen injuret in his feelin's, as has certainly peen the case with ourselves. Perhaps I ought to say a wort in behalf of the teat, as this is the last, and only time, that a fellow-creature will ever have occasion to speak of him. Sam was an excellent hunter, as his worst enemy must allow; and now he is gone, few petter remain pehint. He had one weakness, which, stanting over his grave, an honest man ought not to try to conceal; he dit love liquor; put, in this, he was not alone. Nevertheless, he was honest; and his wort might pass where many a man's pont would be wort'less; and I leave him in the merciful hants of his Creator. My frients, I haf but little more to say, and that is this—that life is uncertain, and deat' is sure. Samuel has gone before us, only a little while; and may we all be equally preparet to meet our great account. Amen.”