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By Root 1283 0

bound, Judith, you wouldn’t get the Sarpent, there, to confess there was another in the tribe so much greater than himself, as to become the subject of his idees, and to empl’y his tongue in conversations about his movements, and ways, and food, and all the other little matters that occupy a man when he’s not empl’yed in his greater duties. He who does this is but little better than a blackguard in the grain, and them that encourages him is pretty much of the same kidney, let them wear coats as fine as they may, or of what dye they please.”

“But this is not another man’s wigwam; it belongs to my father; these are his things and they are wanted in his service.”

“That’s true, gal, that’s true; and it carries weight with it. Well, when all is before us, we may, indeed, best judge which to offer for the ransom, and which to withhold.”

Judith was not altogether as disinterested in her feelings as she affected to be. She remembered that the curiosity of Hetty had been indulged, in connection with this chest, while her own had been disregarded ; and she was not sorry to possess an opportunity of being placed on a level with her less gifted sister, in this one particular. It appearing to be admitted all round that the inquiry into the contents of the chest ought to be renewed, Deerslayer proceeded to remove the second covering of canvas.

The articles that lay uppermost, when the curtain was again raised on the secrets of the chest, were a pair of pistols, curiously inlaid with silver. Their value would have been considerable in one of the towns, though as weapons, in the woods, they were a species of arms seldom employed, never indeed, unless it might be by some officer from Europe, who visited the colonies, as many were then wont to do, so much impressed with the superiority of the usages of London, as to fancy they were not to be laid aside on the frontiers of America. What occurred on the discovery of these weapons will appear in the succeeding chapter.

CHAPTER XIII

“An oaken, broken, elbow chair;

A caudle-cup without an ear;

A battered, shattered, ash bedstead;

A box of deal without a lid;

A pair of tongs, but out of joint;

A back-sword poker, without point:

A dish which might good meat afford once;

An Ovid, and an old Concordance.”

Dean Swift’s Inventory

NO SOONER DID DEERSLAYER raise the pistols, than he turned to the Delaware, and held them up for his admiration.

“Child gun,” said the Serpent, smiling, while he handled one of the instruments as if it had been a toy.

“Not it, Sarpent; not it. ’Tis made for a man, and would satisfy a giant if rightly used. But stop; white men are remarkable for their carelessness in putting away firearms in chists and corners. Let me look if care has been given to these.”

As Deerslayer spoke, he took the weapon from the hand of his friend and opened the pan. The last was filled with priming, caked like a bit of cinder, by time, moisture, and compression. An application of the ramrod showed that both the pistols were charged, although Judith could testify that they had probably lain for years in the chest. It is not easy to portray the surprise of the Indian at this discovery, for he was in the practice of renewing his priming daily, and of looking to the contents of his piece at other short intervals.

“This is white neglect,” said Deerslayer, shaking his head, “and scarce a season goes by that some one in the settlements doesn’t suf fer from it. It’s extr‘ornary too, Judith—yes, it’s downright extr’ornary that the owner shall fire his piece at a deer, or some other game, or perhaps at an inimy, and twice out of three times he’ll miss; but let him catch an accident with one of these forgotten charges, and he makes it sartain death to a child, or a brother, or a fr’ind!1 Well, we shall do a good turn to the owner if we fire these pistols for him; and as they’re novelties to you and me, Sarpent, we’ll try our hand at a mark. Freshen that priming, and I’ll do the same with this, and then we’ll see who is the best man with a pistol; as for the rifle, that’s long been