The Border Rifles: A Tale of the Texan War Read online

  CHAPTER II.

  QUONIAM.

  The Canadian did not lose one of his adversaries' movements while he wasspeaking with them; hence, when the shots ordered by John Davis werefired, they proved ineffectual; he had rapidly hidden himself behind atree, and the bullets whistled harmlessly past his ears.

  The slave-dealer was furious at being thus foiled by the hunter; he gavehim the most fearful threats, blasphemed, and stamped his foot in rage.

  But threats and imprecations availed but little; unless they swam theriver, which was impracticable, in the face of a man so resolute as thehunter seemed to be, there were no means of taking any vengeance onhim, or recapturing the slave he had so deliberately taken under hisprotection.

  While the American racked his brains in vain to find an expedient thatwould enable him to gain the advantage, a bullet dashed the rifle heheld in his hand to pieces.

  "Accursed dog!" he yelled in his fury, "do you wish to assassinate me?"

  "I should have a right to do so," the Canadian replied, "for I am onlydefending myself fairly, after your attempt to kill me; but I preferdealing amicably with you, although I feel convinced I should be doing agreat service to humanity by lodging a couple of slugs in your brain."

  And a second bullet at this moment smashed the rifle one of the servantswas reloading.

  "Come, enough of this," the American shouted, greatly exasperated; "whatdo you want?"

  "I told you--treat amicably with you."

  "But on what conditions? Tell me them at least."

  "In a moment."

  The rifle of the second servant was broken like that of the first: ofthe five men, three were now disarmed.

  "Curses," the slave-dealer howled; "have you resolved to make a targetof us in turn?"

  "No, I only wish to equalise chances."

  "But--"

  "It is done now."

  The fourth rifle was broken.

  "And now," the Canadian said, as he showed himself "suppose we have atalk."

  And, leaving his shelter, he walked to the river bank.

  "Yes, talk, demon," the American shouted.

  With a movement swift as thought, he seized the last rifle, andshouldered it; but, ere he could pull the trigger, he rolled on theplatform, uttering a cry of pain.

  The hunter's bullet had broken his arm.

  "Wait for me, I am coming," the Canadian continued with perfectcalmness.

  He reloaded his rifle, leaped into the canoe, and with a few strokes ofhis paddle, found himself on the other side of the river.

  "There," he said as he landed and walked up to the American, who waswrithing like a serpent on the platform, howling and blaspheming; "Iwarned you: I only wished to equalise the chances, and you have no rightto complain of what has happened to you, my dear sir: the fault restsentirely with yourself."

  "Seize him! kill him!" the wretch shouted, a prey to indescribable fury.

  "Come, come, calm yourself. Good gracious, you have only a broken arm,after all; remember, I could have easily killed you, had I pleased. Hangit, you are not reasonable."

  "Oh! I will kill him," he yelled, as he gnashed his teeth.

  "I hardly think so, at least not for the present; I will say nothingabout by and by. But let that be: I will examine your wound, and dressit while we talk."

  "Do not touch me! Do not come near me, or I know not to what extremitiesI may proceed."

  The Canadian shrugged his shoulders.

  "You must be mad," he said.

  Incapable of enduring longer the state of exasperation in which he was,the dealer, who was also weakened by the loss of blood, made a vaineffort to rise and rush on his foe; bat he fell back and fainted whilemuttering a final curse.

  The servants stood startled, as much by the unparalleled skill of thisstrange man, as by the boldness with which, after disarming them all inturn, he had crossed the river, in order, as it were, to deliver himselfinto their hands; for, if they had no longer their rifles, their knivesand pistols were left them.

  "Come, gentlemen," the Canadian said with a frown, "have the goodness toshake out the priming of your pistols, or, by Heaven! We shall have arow."

  The servants did not at all desire to begin a fight with him; moreover,the sympathy they felt for their master was not great, while, on theother hand, the Canadian, owing to the expeditious way in which he hadacted, inspired them with a superstitious fear: hence they obeyed hisorders with a species of eagerness, and even wished to hand him theirknives.

  "It is not necessary," he said; "now, let us see about dressing thisworthy gentleman's wound: it would be a pity to deprive society of soestimable a person, who is one of its brightest ornaments."

  He set to work at once, aided by the servants, who executed his orderswith extraordinary rapidity and zeal, for they felt so thoroughlymastered by him.

  Compelled by the mode of life they pass to do without any strangeassistance, the wood-rangers all possess, to a certain extent,elementary notions of medicine, and especially of surgery, and can, incase of need, treat a fracture or wound of any nature as well as aprofessional man; and that, too, by simple means usually employed withthe greatest success by the Indians.

  The hunter proved by the skill and dexterity which he dressed theslave-dealer's wound, that, if he knew how to inflict wounds, he wasequally clever in curing them.

  The servants regarded with heightening admiration this extraordinaryman, who seemed suddenly metamorphosed, and proceeded with a certaintyof glance and lightness of hand which many a surgeon might have enviedhim. During the bandaging, the wounded man returned to consciousness,and opened his eyes, but remained silent; his fury had been calmed, andhis brutal nature subdued by the energetic resistance the Canadianopposed to him. The first and piercing pain of the wound had beensucceeded, as always happens when the bandaging is properly done, by anextraordinary feeling of relief: hence, recognising, in spite ofhimself, the comfort he had experienced, he had felt his hatred meltingaway in a feeling for which he could not yet account, but which now madehim regard his enemy almost with a friendly air.

  To render John Davis the justice due to him, we will say that he wasneither better nor worse than any of his fellows who trafficked in humanflesh. Accustomed to the sufferings of slaves, who to him were nothingbut beings deprived of reason, or merchandize in a word, his heart hadgradually grown callous to softer emotions: he only saw in a Negro themoney he had expended, and what he expected to gain by him, and like atrue tradesman, he was very fond of money: a runaway Negro seemed to hima wretched thing, against whom any means were permissible in order toprevent a loss.

  Still, this man was not insensible to every good feeling; apart from histrade, he even enjoyed a certain reputation for kindness, and passed fora gentleman.

  "There, that is all right," the Canadian said, as he gave a satisfiedglance at the bandages; "in three weeks there will be nothing to beseen, if you take care of yourself; for, through a remarkable piece ofgood luck, the bone has not been touched, and the ball has only passedthrough the fleshy part of the arm. Now, my good friend, if you like totalk, I am ready."

  "I have nothing to say, except to ask you to return the scoundrel who isthe cause of the whole mishap."

  "Hum! If we go on in that way, I am afraid we shall not come to anunderstanding. You know perfectly that the whole quarrel arose about thesurrender of the scoundrel, as you term him."

  "Still, I cannot lose my money."

  "What money do you mean?"

  "Well, my slave, if you prefer it; he represents a sum I do not at allcare to lose; the less so, because things have been going very queerlywith me lately, and I have suffered some heavy losses."

  "That is annoying, and I pity you sincerely; still, I should like tosettle the affair amicably as I began," the Canadian continued.

  The American made a grimace.

  "It is a deuced amicable way you have of settling matters," he said.

  "It is your fault, my friend; if we did not come
to an immediatearrangement, it was because you were a little too quick, as you willallow."

  "Well, we will not say any more about that, for what's done cannot beundone."

  "You are right, so let us return to business. Unluckily, I am poor; werenot so, I would give you a few hundred dollars, and all would besettled."

  The dealer scratched his head.

  "Listen," he said. "I do not know why, but, in spite of all that haspassed between us, perhaps in consequence of it, I should not like forus to separate on bad terms; the more so, because, to tell you thetruth, I care very little for Quoniam."

  "Who's Quoniam?"

  "The nigger."

  "Oh, very good, that's a funny name you have given him; however, nomatter, you say you care very little for him?"

  "Indeed I do."

  "Then why did you begin the obstinate hunt with dogs and guns?"

  "Through pride."

  "Oh!" the Canadian said, with a start of dissatisfaction.

  "Listen to me, I am a slave dealer."

  "A very ugly trade, by the way," the hunter observed.

  "Perhaps so, but I shall not discuss that point.

  "About a month ago, a large sale was announced at Baton Rouge, of slavesof both sexes, belonging to a rich gentleman who had died suddenly, andI proceeded there. Among the slaves exposed for sale was Quoniam. Therascal is young, active, and vigorous; he has a bold and intelligentlook; so he naturally pleased me at the first glance, and I feltdesirous to buy him. I went up and questioned him; and the scampanswered me word for word as follows, which put me out of countenancefor a moment, I confess.

  "'Master, I do not advise you to buy me, for I have sworn to be free ordie; whatever you may do to prevent me, I warn you that I shall escape.Now you can do as you please.'

  "This clear and peremptory declaration piqued me, 'We shall see,' I saidto him, and then went to find the auctioneer. The latter, who was afriend of mine, dissuaded me from buying Quoniam, giving me reasons,each better than the other, against doing so. But my mind was made up,and I stuck to it. Quoniam was knocked down to me for ninety dollars, anabsurd price for a Negro of his age, and built as he is; but no onewould have him at any price. I put irons on him, and took him away, notto my house, but to the prison, so that I might feel sure he would notescape. The next day, when I returned to the prison, Quoniam was gone;he had kept his word.

  "At the end of two days he was caught again; the same evening he was offonce more, and it was impossible for me to discover how he had foiledthe plans I had formed to restrain him. This has been going on for amonth; a week ago he escaped again, and since then I have been in searchof him; despairing of being able to keep him, I got into a passion, andstarted after him, this time with my blood-hounds, resolved to finish,once for all, with this accursed Negro, who constantly slips through myfingers like a lizard."

  "That is to say," the Canadian remarked, who had listened with interestto the dealer's story, "you would not have hesitated to kill him."

  "That I should, for the confounded scamp is so crafty; he has soconstantly taken me in, that I have grown to hate him."

  "Listen in your turn, Mr. John Davis; I am not rich, but a long way fromit. What do I need gold or silver, as a man of the desert to whomHeaven supplies daily food so liberally? This Quoniam, who is so eagerfor liberty and the open air, inspires me with a lively interest, and Iwish to try and give him that freedom to which he so persistentlyaspires. This is what I propose; I have in my canoe three jaguar skinsand twelve beaver skins, which, if sold at any town of the Union, willbe worth from one hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars; take them,and let all be finished."

  The dealer looked at him with a surprise mingled with a certain degreeof kindliness.

  "You are wrong," he said, presently; "the bargain you offer is tooadvantageous for me, and too little so for you. That is not the way todo business."

  "How does that concern you? I have got it in my head that this man shallbe free."

  "You do not know the ungrateful nature of niggers," the other persisted;"this one will be in no way grateful to you for what you do for him; onthe contrary, on the first opportunity he will probably give you causeto repent your good action."

  "That is possible, but it is his business, for I do not ask gratitude ofhim; if he shows it, all the better for him; if not, the Lord's will bedone! I act in accordance with my heart, and my reward is in myconscience."

  "By the Lord, you are a fine fellow, I tell you," the dealer exclaimed,incapable of restraining himself longer. "It would be all the better ifa fellow could meet with more of your sort. Well, I intend to prove toyou that I am not so bad as you have a right to suppose, after what haspassed between us. I will sign the assignment of Quoniam to you, and Iwill only accept in return one tiger skin in remembrance of ourmeeting, although," he added, with a grimace, as he pointed to his arm,"you have already given me another."

  "Done," the Canadian exclaimed, eagerly; "but you must take two skinsinstead of one, as I intend to ask of you a rifle, an axe, and a knife,so that the poor devil we now set at liberty (for you are now halves inmy good deed) may provide for his support."

  "Be it so," the dealer said, good humouredly; "as the scoundrel insistson being at liberty, let him be, and he can go to the deuce."

  At a sign from his master, one of the servants produced from his gamebag ink, pens, and paper, and drew up on the spot, not a deed of sale,but a regular ticket of freedom, to which the dealer put his signature,and which the servants afterwards witnessed.

  "On my word," John Davis exclaimed, "it is possible that from a businesspoint of view I have done a foolish thing, but, you may believe me ornot, as you like, I never yet felt so satisfied with myself."

  "That is," the Canadian answered, seriously, "because you have to-dayfollowed the impulses of your heart."

  The Canadian then quitted the platform to go and fetch the skins. Amoment after, he returned with two magnificent jaguar hides, perfectlyintact, which he handed to the dealer. The latter, as was arranged, thendelivered the weapons to him; but a scruple suddenly assailed thehunter.

  "One moment," he said; "if you give me these weapons, how will youmanage to return to town?"

  "That need not trouble you," John Davis replied; "I left my horse andpeople scarce three leagues from here. Besides, we have our pistols,which we could use if necessary."

  "That is true," the Canadian remarked, "you have therefore nothing tofear; still, as your wound will not allow you to go so far a-foot, Iwill help your servants to prepare you a litter."

  And with that skill, of which he had already supplied so many proofs,the Canadian manufactured, with branches of trees he cut down with hishatchet, a litter, on which the two tiger skins were laid.

  "And now," he said, "good bye; perhaps we shall never meet again. Wepart, I trust, on better terms than we came together: remember, there isno trade, however shameful, which an honest man cannot carry onhonourably; when your heart inspires you to do a good action, do not bedeaf to it, but do it without regret, for God will have spoken to you."

  "Thanks," the dealer said, with considerable emotion, "but grant me oneword before we part."

  "Say on."

  "Tell me your name, so that if any day accident brought us togetheragain, I might appeal to your recollections, as you could to mine."

  "That is true, my name is Tranquil; the wood-rangers, my companions,have surnamed me the Panther killer."

  And, ere the slave dealer had recovered from the astonishment caused bythis sudden revelation of the name of a man whose renown was universalon the border, the hunter, after giving him a parting wave of the hand,bounded from the platform, unfastened his canoe, and paddled vigorouslyto the other bank.

  "Tranquil, the Panther-killer," John Davis muttered when he was alone;"it was truly my good genius which inspired me to make a friend of thatman."

  He lay down on the litter which two of his men raised, and after givinga parting glance at the Canadian, who at t
his moment was landing on theopposite bank, he said:--

  "Forward!"

  The platform was soon deserted again, the dealer and his men haddisappeared under the covert, and nothing was audible but the graduallydeparting growls of the bloodhounds, as they ran on ahead of the littleparty.