“And a bloody piece of work you made of it, man,” cried the squatter, pointing tauntily to the soiled garments of his kinsman, and then directing the attention of the spectators to his own, by the way of a triumphant contrast. “Here have I cut the throats of two lively does, and a scampering fawn, without spot or stain; while you, blundering dog as you ar’, have made as much work for Eester and her girls, as though butchering was your regular calling. Come, boys; it is enough. I am too old not to know the signs of the frontiers; no Indian has been here since the last fall of water. Follow me; and I will make a turn that shall give us at least the beef of a fallow cow for our trouble.”
“Follow me!” echoed Esther, stepping undauntedly forward. “I am leader to-day, and I will be followed. Who so proper, let me know, as a mother, to head a search for her own lost child?”
Ishmael regarded his intractable mate with a smile of indulgent pity. Observing that she had already struck out a path for herself, different both from that of Abiram and the one he had seen fit to choose, and being unwilling to draw the cord of authority too tight, just at that moment, he submitted to her will. But Dr. Battius, who had hitherto been a silent and thoughtful attendant on the woman, now saw fit to raise his feeble voice in the way of remonstrance.
“I agree with thy partner in life, worthy and gentle Mrs. Bush,” he said, “in believing that some ignis fatuus of the imagination has deceived Abiram, in the signs or symptoms of which he has spoken.”
“Symptoms, yourself!” interrupted the termagant. “This is no time for bookish words, nor is this a place to stop and swallow medicines. If you are a-leg-weary, say so, as a plain-speaking man should; then seat yourself on the prairie, like a hound that is foot-sore, and take your natural rest.”
“I accord in the opinion,” the naturalist calmly replied, complying literally with the opinion of the deriding Esther, by taking his seat, very coolly, by the side of an indigenous shrub; the examination of which he commenced, on the instant, in order that science might not loose any of its just and important dues. “I honour your excellent advice, Mistress Esther, as you may perceive. Go thou in quest of thy offspring; while I tarry here, in pursuit of that which is better; viz. an insight into the arcana of Nature’s volume.”
The woman answered with a hollow, unnatural, and scornful laugh, and even her heavy sons, as they slowly passed the seat of the already abstracted naturalist, did not disdain to manifest their contempt in smiles. In a few minutes the train mounted the nearest eminence, and, as it turned the rounded acclivity, the Doctor was left to pursue his profitable investigations in entire solitude.
Another half-hour passed, during which Esther continued to advance, on her seemingly fruitless search. Her pauses, however, were becoming frequent, and her looks wandering and uncertain, when footsteps were heard clattering through the bottom, and at the next instant a buck was seen to bound up the ascent, and to dart from before their eyes, in the direction of the naturalist. So sudden and unlooked for had been the passage of the animal, and so much had he been favoured by the shape of the ground, that before any one of the foresters had time to bring his rifle to his shoulder, it was already beyond the range of a bullet.
“Look out for the wolf!” shouted Abner, shaking his head in vexation, at being a single moment too late. “A wolf’s skin will be no bad gift in a winter’s night; ay, yonder the hungry devil comes!”
“Hold!” cried Ishmael, knocking up the levelled weapon of his too eager son. “’Tis not a wolf; but a hound of thorough blood and bottom. Ha! we have hunters nigh: there ar’ two of them!”