The Lost Trail
by
Edward S. Ellis
Part 3 out of 3
shoulder and his hand dallying with her hair, were holding delightful
communion. She looked pale and somewhat emaciated, for these years of
absence had indeed been fraught with suffering; but the old sweet look
had never departed. It was now changed into an expression of perfect
joy.
The wife's great anxiety was to reach home and see the child she had
left an infant, but who was now a frolicksome boy, and she could
hardly consent to pause even when night overtook them, and her
lagging limbs told her husband how exhausted she had become. Cora
never had suspected the identity of the Indian and the hunter, until
on that sad day when he sprung from behind the cabin and hurried her
off into the wood. There was something, however, in his look, when he
first felt the weight of her husband's blow, that never left her
remembrance. While hurrying her swiftly through the wood he said
nothing at all, and at night, while she pretended to sleep, he watched
by the camp-fire. It was the light of this fire which had puzzled
Teddy so much. On the succeeding day the abductor reached the river
and embarked in his canoe. A half-hour later he leaned over the canoe
and washed the paint from his face and made himself known in his true
character, as Brazey Davis, her former lover. He had scarcely done so,
when an Indian canoe rounded a bend in the river, and, despite his
earnest protestations, the savages took the captive from him, and
carried her with them to their village, where she had been ever since.
Retained very closely, as all prisoners among Indians are, she had
heard nothing of Teddy's visit. She was treated with kindness, as the
destined wife of a young chief; but the suit for her consent never
was pressed by the chief, as it is in an Indian's code of honor never
to force a woman to a distasteful marriage. The young brave, with true
Indian pertinacity, could wait his time, confident that his kindness
and her long absence from home would secure her consent to the savage
alliance. She was denied nothing but her liberty, and her prayers to
be returned to her husband and child.
At this point in her narration, an exclamation from the Indian
arrested attention. All listened and heard but a short distance away:
"Begorrah, Teddy, it's yerself that's entitled to a wee bit of rist,
as yees have been on a mighty long tramp, and hasn't diskivered
anything but a country that is big enough to hide the Atlantic ocean
in, wid Ireland on its bosom as a jewel. The chances are small of yees
iver gitting another glimpse of heaven--that is, of Miss Cora's face.
The darlint; if she's gone to heaven, then Teddy McFadden don't care
how soon somebody else wears out his breeches--that is, on the
presumption that St. Peter will say, 'Teddy, me lad, ye can inter an'
make yerself at home, to be sure!'"
The husband and wife glanced at each other significantly as the fellow
rattled on.
"Wait a moment," said Harvey, rising to his feet, and carefully
making his way in the direction of the sound.
It was curious that the Irishman should have paused for his noonday
rest in such close proximity to our friends; but, he had learned from
a trader who had recently visited the Red River country, that there
_was_ a white woman, beyond all question, among the tribe in the
north, and he was on his way to make them a second visit.
The missionary found his servant seated by a tree. Teddy looked up as
he heard a footstep. It seemed as if his eyes would drop from their
sockets. His mouth opened wide, and he seemed, for the moment,
confounded. Then he recovered his presence of mind in a measure, and
proceeded to scratch his head vigorously. That, with him, ever was a
sign of the clearing up of his ideas.
"How do you do, Teddy?" at length the missionary said, after having
enjoyed the poor fellow's confusion.
"Faith, but ye sent the cold shivers over me. _Is_ it yerself, Mister
Harvey, out in these woods, or is it yer ghost on the s'arch for
Misthress Cora? I sometimes thinks me own ghost is out on the s'arch
without me body, an' I shouldn't be surprised to maat it some day.
But I'm mighty glad it's yerself an' not yer ghost, for, to till the
thruth, I don't jist like ghosts--they makes a body feel so quare in
the stomach."
"Come with me; I have an Indian as company, and you may as well join
us."
The Hibernian followed, a few paces behind, continually expressing his
astonishment at seeing his master so far away from home. He did not
look up until they were within a few paces of the camp-fire, when
Richter stepped from before him.
"Save us! save us! but if there isn't the ghowst of Miss Cora come to
haunt me for not finding her afore!" exclaimed Teddy, retreating a
step or two in genuine terror. "Saint Patherick, Saint Pether, Saint
Virgin Mary, protict me! I didn't mane to get dhrunk that day, ye
know, nor to make a frind of--"
"I am no ghost but my own self, Teddy, restored to my husband in
safety. Can you not welcome me?"
"Oorah! Oorah!" and he danced a moment in uncontrollable joy. Then he
exclaimed: "God bliss yer own swate self!" taking her in his brawny
arms. "God bliss you! No ghost, but yer own swate self. Oh, I feel
like a blast of powder ready to go off!" And again he danced a
singular commixture of the jig and cotillion, much to the Indian's
amazement, for he thought him crazy. "I knew that I should look upon
your face again; but, till me where it is yees have come from?" he
finally subsided enough to ask.
Teddy was soon made to understand all that related to the return of
the young wife. When he learned that Mahogany, with whom he had so
often drank and "hobnobbed," was only the hunter disguised, who was
thus plotting his crime, the Irishman's astonishment can hardly be
described. He was irritated, also, at his own stupidity. "That Teddy
McFadden iver should have been so desaved by that rascal of
purgatory!" he exclaimed; but, as the evil man had gone to the great
tribunal above, there was no disposition, even in Teddy's heart, to
heap curses on his memory.
A few days more, and the three whites passed through the Indian
village on their way to the Clearing. The joy of the savages at the
return of their sweet, pale-faced sister was manifested in many ways,
and she once feared they would never allow her to leave them and go
to her own humble home. Finally, however, they reached the Clearing,
and, as they walked side by side across it, opened the door and sat
down within the cabin, and the fond mother took the darling boy in her
lap, the wife and husband looked in each other's faces with streaming
eyes, and murmured "Thank God! thank God!"
THE END.
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