The Deerslayer (Barnes & Noble Classics) - James Fenimore Cooper [125]
“Stop, Deerslayer,” exclaimed the girl, as he was about to withdraw ; “not a single thing will I touch—I will not even raise the lid—unless you are present. Father and Hetty have seen fit to keep the inside of this chest a secret from me, and I am much too proud to pry into their hidden treasures, unless it were for their own good. But on no account will I open the chest alone. Stay with me, then; I want witnesses of what I do.”
“I rather think, Sarpent, that the gal is right! Confidence and reliance beget security, but suspicion is like to make us all wary Judith has a right to ask us to be present; and should the chist hold any of Master Hutter’s secrets, they will fall into the keeping of two as closemouthed young men as are to be found. We will stay with you, Judith—but first let us take a look at the lake and the shore, for this chist will not be emptied in a minute.”
The two men now went out on the platform, and Deerslayer swept the shore with the glass, while the Indian gravely turned his eye on the water and the woods in quest of any sign that might betray the machinations of their enemies. Nothing was visible, and assured of their temporary security, the three collected around the chest again, with the avowed object of opening it.
Judith had held this chest, and its unknown contents, in a species of reverence as long as she could remember. Neither her father nor her mother ever mentioned it in her presence, and there appeared to be a silent convention, that in naming the different objects that occasionally stood near it, or even lay on its lid, care should be had to avoid any allusion to the chest itself. Habit rendered this so easy, and so much a matter of course, that it was only quite recently the girl had begun even to muse on the singularity of the circumstance. But there had never been sufficient intimacy between Hutter and his eldest daughter to invite confidence. At times he was kind, but in general, with her more especially, he was stern and morose. Least of all had his authority been exercised in a way to embolden his child to venture on the liberty she was about to take, without many misgivings of the consequences, although the liberty proceeded from a desire to serve himself. Then Judith was not altogether free from a little superstition on the subject of this chest, which had stood a sort of tabooed relic before her eyes from childhood to the present hour. Nevertheless, the time had come when it would seem that this mystery was to be explained, and that under circumstances, too, which left her very little choice in the matter.
Finding that both her companions were watching her movements in grave silence, Judith placed a hand on the lid, and endeavored to raise it. Her strength, however, was insufficient, and it appeared to the girl, who was fully aware that all the fastenings were removed, that she was resisted in an unhallowed attempt by some supernatural power.
“I cannot raise the lid, Deerslayer,” she said; “had we not better give up the attempt, and find some other means of releasing the prisoners?”
“Not so, Judith; not so, gal. No means are as sartain and easy as a good bribe,” answered the other. “As for the lid, ’tis held by nothing but its own weight, which is prodigious for so small a piece of wood, loaded with iron as it is.”
As Deerslayer spoke, he applied his own strength to the effort, and succeeded in raising the lid against the timbers of the house, where he took care to secure it by a sufficient prop. Judith fairly trembled, as she cast her first glance at the interior; and she felt a temporary relief in discovering that a piece of canvas that was carefully tucked in around the edges effectually concealed all beneath it. The chest was apparently well stored, however, the canvas lying within an inch of the lid.
“Here’s a full cargo,” said Deerslayer, eyeing the arrangement; “and we had needs go to work leisurely,