10

'What are you at, there, Master Coffin?' cried Barnstable; are you tongue- 15

tied?"

Here's one of the boys skylarking with my harpoon in the lee-scuppers, and by-and-by, when I shall want it most, there'll be a no-man's-land to hunt for 20 it in.'

Never mind the boy, Tom; send him ait here to me and I'll polish his behavior; give the Englishman some more iron.'

'I want the little villain to pass up my cartridges,' returned the angry old seaman; but if you'll be so good, sir, as to hit him a crack or two, now and then, as he goes by you to the magazine, the 30 monkey will learn his manners and the schooner's work will be all the better done for it. A young herring-faced monkey! to meddle with a tool ye don't know the use of. If your parents had 35 spent more of their money on your edication, and less on your outfit, you'd ha' been a gentleman to what ye are now.'

two were heard to strike against the bends of the schooner, and fall back, innocuously, into the water, the cockswain, whose good-humor became gradually re5 stored as the combat thickened, remarked with his customary apathy:

'Them count for no more than lovetaps does the Englishman think that we are firing salutes!'

Stir him up, Tom! every blow you give him will help to open his eyes,' cried Barnstable, rubbing his hands with glee, as he witnessed the success of his efforts to close.

Thus far the cockswain and his crew had the fight, on the part of the Ariel, altogether to themselves, the men who were stationed at the smaller and shorter guns standing in perfect idleness by their sides; but in ten or fifteen minutes the commander of the Alacrity, who had been staggered by the weight of the shot that had struck him, found that it was no longer in his power to retreat, if he wished 25 it; when he decided on the only course that was left for a brave man to pursue, and steered boldly in such a direction as would soonest bring him in contact with his enemy, without exposing his vessel to be raked by his fire. Barnstable watched each movement of his foe with eagle eyes, and when the vessel had got within a lessened distance, he gave the order for a general fire to be opened. The action now grew warm and spirited on both sides. The power of the wind was counteracted by the constant explosion of the cannon; and, instead of driving rapidly to leeward, a white canopy of curling smoke hung above the Ariel, or rested on the water, lingering in her wake, so as to mark the path by which she was approaching to a closer and still deadlier struggle. The shouts of the young sailors, as they handled their instruments of death, became more animated and fierce, while the cockswain pursued his occupation with the silence and skill of one who labored in a regular vocation. Barnstable was unusually composed and quiet, maintaining the grave deportment of a commander on whom rested the fortunes of the contest, at the same time that his dark eyes were dancing with the fire of suppressed animation.

'Hurrah! Tom. hurrah!' cried Barnstable, a little impatiently; 'is your name- 40 sake never to open his throat again!'

so; a

Aye, aye, sir; all ready,' grumbled the cockswain; depress a little; sodamned young baboon-behaved curmudgeon: overhaul that forward fall more; 45 stand by with your match-but I'll pay him!-fire!' This was the actual commencement of the fight; for as the shot of Tom Coffin traveled, as he had intimated, very much in the same direction. their 50 enemy found the sport becoming too hot to be endured in silence, and the report of he second gun from the Ariel was instantly followed by that of the whole roadside of the Alacrity. The shot of 55 the cutter flew in a very good direction, but her guns were too light to give them efficiency at that distance; and as one or

'Give it them!' he occasionally cried, in a voice that might be heard amid the bellowing of the cannon: never mind

and tauntings of the combatants, now succeeded to the roar of the cannon, which could be used no longer with effect, though the fight was still maintained with spirited 5 discharges of the small-arms.

'Revenge long Tom! board her! long Tom or death!

They threw themselves forward in ir resistible numbers, and forced a passage, with much bloodshed, to the forecastle of the Alacrity. The Englishman was overpowered, but still remained undaunted he rallied his crew, and bore up most gallantly to the fray. Thrusts of pikes and blows of sabers were becoming close and deadly, while muskets and pistols were constantly discharged by those who

were kept at a distance by the pressure of the throng of closer combatants.

5

Barnstable led his men in advance, and became a mark of peculiar vengeance to his enemies, as they slowly yielded before his vigorous assaults. Chance had placed the two commanders on opposite sides of the cutter's deck, and the victory seemed to incline toward either party, wherever these daring officers directed the struggle to in person. But the Englishman, perceiving that the ground he maintained in person was lost elsewhere, made an effort to restore the battle, by changing his position, followed by one or two of his best 15 men. A marine, who preceded him, leveled his musket within a few feet of the head of the American commander, and was about to fire, when Merry glided among the combatants, and passed his 20 dirk into the body of the man, who fell at the blow; shaking his piece, with horrid imprecations, the wounded soldier prepared to deal his vengeance on his youthful assailant, when the fearless boy leaped 25 within its muzzle, and buried his own keen weapon in his heart.

'Hurrah!' shouted the unconscious Barnstable, from the edge of the quarterdeck, where, attended by a few men, he 30 driving all before him. 'Revenge! -long Tom and victory!'

was

'We have them!' exclaimed the Englishman; handle your pikes! we have

them between two fires.'

his sword with frantic gestures, while his eyes rolled in horrid wildness, when he writhed for an instant in his passing agonies, and then, as his head dropped lifeless upon his gored breast, he hung against the spar, a spectacle of dismay to his crew. A few of the Englishmen stood chained to the spot in silent horror at the sight, but most of them fled to their lower deck, or hastened to conceal themselves in the secret parts of the vessel, leaving to the Americans the undisputed possession of the Alacrity.

It was now the duty of the Judge to deliver his charge. It consisted of a short, comprehensive summary of the testimony, laying bare the artifice of the prisoner's counsel, and placing the facts in so obvious a light, that they could not well be misunderstood. Living as we do, gentlemen,' he concluded, on the skirts of society, it becomes doubly necessary to protect the ministers of the law. If you believe the witnesses, in their construction of the acts of the prisoner, 35 it is your duty to convict him; but if you believe that the old man, who this day appears before you, meant not to harm the constable, but was acting more under the influence of habit than by instigations of malice, it will be your duty to judge him, but to do it with lenity.'

The battle would probably have terminated very differently from what previous circumstances had indicated, had not a wild-looking figure appeared in the cutter's channels at that moment, issuing 40 from the sea, and gaining the deck at the same instant. It was long Tom, with his iron visage rendered fierce by his previous discomfiture, and his grizzled locks drenched with the briny element 45 from which he had risen, looking like Neptune with his trident. Without speaking, he poised his harpoon, and, with a powerful effort, pinned the unfortunate Englishman to the mast of his own vessel. 50

'Starn all!' cried Tom by a sort of instinct, when the blow was struck; and catching up the musket of the fallen marine, he dealt out terrible and fatal blows with its butt on all who approached 55 him, utterly disregarding the use of the bayonet on its muzzle. The unfortunate commander of the Alacrity brandished

The old hunter, who had been musing again, with his head on the bar, raised himself, and cried, with a prompt, military

tone

-

Here.'

The Judge waved his hand for silence and proceeded

'In forming their sentence, the court have been governed as much by the consideration of your ignorance of the laws, 10 as by a strict sense of the importance of punishing such outrages as that of which you have been found guilty. They have therefore passed over the obvious punishment of whipping on the bare back, 15 in mercy to your years; but as the dignity of the law requires an open exhibition of the consequences of your crime, it is ordered, that you be conveyed from this room to the public stocks, where you are 20 to be confined for one hour: that you pay a fine to the state of one hundred dollars; and that you be imprisoned in the jail of this county for one calendar month, and furthermore, that your imprisonment 25 do not cease until the said fine shall be paid. I feel it my duty, Nathaniel Bumppo

And where should I get the money?' interrupted the Leather-stocking, eagerly; 30 'where should I get the money? You'll take away the bounty on the painters, because I cut the throat of a deer; and how is an old man to find so much gold or silver in the woods? No, no, Judge: 35 think better of it, and don't talk of shutting me up in a jail for the little time I have to stay.'

'If you have anything to urge against the passing of the sentence, the court will yet hear you,' said the Judge, mildly.

'I have enough to say ag'in it,' cried Natty, grasping the bar on which his fingers were working with a convulsed motion. Where am I to get the money? 45 Let me out into the woods and hills, where I've been used to breathe the clear air, and though I'm three-score and ten, if you've left game enough in the country, I'll travel night and day but I'll make you 50 up the sum afore the season is over. Yes, yes you see the reason of the thing, and the wickedness of shutting up an old man, that has spent his days, as one may say, where he could always look into the win- 55 dows of heaven.'

'I must be governed by the law—'
'Talk not to me of law. Marmaduke

Temple,' interrupted the hunter. 'Did the beast of the forest mind your laws, when it was thirsty and hungering for the blood of your own child! She was kneeling to 5 her God for a greater favor than I ask, and he heard her; and if you now say no to my prayers, do you think he will be deaf?'

into
My private feelings must not enter

'Hear me, Marmaduke Temple,' inter-
rupted the old man, with melancholy
earnestness, ' and hear reason. I've
no judge, but an infant in your mother's
traveled these mountains when you was
arms; and I feel as if I had a right and
a privilege to travel them ag'in afore I
die. Have you forgot the time that you
was n't even a jail to lodge in; and didn't
come on to the lake-shore, when there
I give you my own bearskin to sleep on,
and the fat of a noble buck to satisfy
the cravings of your hun ger? Yes, yes
deer! And this I did, though I had no
-you thought it no sin then to kill a
reason to love you, for you had never
done anything but harm to them that
loved and sheltered me. And now, will
me for my kindness? A hundred dollars!
you shut me up in your dungeons to pay
where should I get the money? No, no
there's them that says hard things of
you, Marmaduke Temple, But you an't

man die in

so bad as to wish to see an o up

for the

left

'sell

a prison, because he stood right. Come, friend, let me pass; it's long sin' I've been used to such crowds, and I crave to be in the woods ag'in. fear me; for if there's beaver enough, Don't fear me, Judge- I bid you not to on the streams, or the buckskins will for a shilling a-piece, you shall have last penny of the fine. Where are ye have a grievous toil to do for our yea! pups! come away, dogs! come away! but it shall be done TS, - yes, yes, I've pro ised it, and it shall be done!'

CHAPTER XLI

the

we

a

little spot of level ground, where the cabin The place at which they arrived was the of Leather-stocking had so long stood. Elizabeth found it entirely cleared of rubbish, and beautifully laid down in turf, by

the

bin

Dod.

ub

by

sur- 5

rounded by a circle of mason-work, and bthey entered by a small gate, near which to the surprise of both, the rifle of Natty was leaning against the wall. Hector and the slut reposed on the grass by its side, to tas if conscious that, however altered, they were iying on the ground, and were surrounded by objects, with which they were familiar. The hunter himself was stretched on the earth, before a head- 15 stone of white marble, pushing aside with his fingers the long grass that had already sprung up from the luxuriant soil around its base, apparently to lay bare the inscription. By the side of this stone, 20 which was a simple slab at the head of a grave, stood a rich monument, decorated with an urn, and ornamented with a chisel.

Oliver and Elizabeth approached the graves with a light tread, unheard by the 25 old hunter, whose sun-burnt face was working, and whose eyes twinkled as if something impeded their vision. After some little time, Natty raised himself slowly from the ground, and said aloud

it is but

Ye laid

graves,' returned the old man,
little matter consarning my taste.
the Major's head to the west, and Mo-
hegan's to the east, did ye, lad?'

At your request it was done.' 'It's so best,' said the hunter; they thought they had to journey different ways, children; though there is One greater than all, who 'll bring the just together, at his own time, and who'll whiten the skin of a blackmoor, and place him on a footing with princes.'

'There is but little reason to doubt that,' said Elizabeth, whose decided tones were changed to a soft, melancholy voice; 'I trust we shall all meet again, and be happy together.'

Shall we, child, shall we?' exclaimed the hunter, with unusual fervor; 'there's comfort in that thought too. But before I go I should like to know what 'tis you tell these people that be flocking into the country like pigeons in the spring, of the old Delaware, and of the bravest white man that ever trod the hills.'

Effingham and Elizabeth were surprised at the manner of the Leather-stocking, which was unusually impressive and solemn; but, attributing it to the scene 30 the young man turned to the monument. and read aloud

'Well, well I'm bold to say it's all right! There's something that I suppose is reading; but I can't make anything of it; though the pipe and the tomahawk, and the moccasins, be pretty well-pretty 35 well, for a man that, I dares to say, never seed 'ither of the things. Ah's me! there they lie, side by side, happy enough! Who will be there to put me in the 'arth when my time comes?'

Sacred to the memory of Oliver Effingham, Esquire, formerly a Major in his B. Majesty's 60th Foot; a soldier of tried valor; a subject of chivalrous loyalty; and a man of honesty. To these virtues he added the graces of a Christian. The morning of his life was spent in honor, wealth and power; but its evening was 40 obscured by poverty, neglect and disease, which were alleviated only by the tender care of his old, faithful, and upright friend and attendant, Nathaniel Bumppo. His descendants rear this stone to the virtues of the master, and to the enduring gratitude of the servant.'

'When that unfortunate hour arrives, Natty, friends shall not be wanting to perform the last offices for you,' said Oliver, a little touched at the hunter's soliloquy. The old man turned, without manifest- 45 ing surprise, for he had got the Indian habits in this particular, and running his hand under the bottom of his nose, seemed to wipe away his sorrow with the action. 'You've come out to see the graves, 50 children, have ye?' he said, 'well, well, they 're wholesome sights to young as well as old.'

I hope they are fitted to your liking,' aid Effingham; ' no one has a better right 55 han yourself to be consulted in the matter.'

'Why, seeing that I an't used to fine

The Leather-stocking stared at the sound of his own name and a smile of joy illumined his wrinkled features, as he said

And did ye say it, lad? have you then got the old man's name cut in the stone, by the side of his master's? God bless ye children! 'twas a kind thought, and kindness goes to the heart as life shortens.'

Elizabeth turned her back to the speakers. Effingham made a fruitless effort before he succeeded in saying —