Captain Pamphile by Alexandre Dumas (Illustrated) by Alexandre Dumas

Author:Alexandre Dumas [DUMAS, ALEXANDRE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Parts Edition 3 of 43 by Delphi Classics
Publisher: Delphi Classics (Parts Edition)
Published: 2017-06-17T00:00:00+00:00

Captain Pamphile found a small pathway which seemed to lead from the forest to the hut. He followed it, although it was not without a certain amount of fear lest he should encounter an adder or a rattlesnake, common reptiles in these parts, that he walked between the high and tufted grasses.

As he drew near the smoke which guided him, he got a view of the hut situated at the junction of the plain and forest. Night overtook him before he reached it, but his path was the more easy to find and keep.

The door was open towards the traveller, and opposite the door inside the hut burned a fire which seemed kindled as a beacon on purpose to guide his solitary steps. From time to time a form passed and repassed before the flame, showing black against the hearth.

When somewhat nearer, he saw that it was the figure of a woman, and advanced with fresh confidence; at last he stepped on to the threshold and asked whether there was room for him by the fire which he had seen from so far and had wished for so long.

A species of grunt, which the Captain interpreted as a sign of assent, answered his question. Accordingly, he entered without further hesitation, and sat down on an old stool which seemed to be awaiting his coming at a convenient distance from the fire.

On the other side of the hearth, his elbows on his knees, and his head in his hands, motionless, and still as a statue crouched a young Red Indian of the Sioux tribe; his long maple-wood bow lay near, and at his feet were several pigeons and small quadrupeds which had been killed by his arrows. Neither the arrival nor the actions of Pamphile seemed to rouse him from the appearance of apathy which the savage employs to conceal his perpetual distrust of civilized man; for the young Sioux had recognized the traveller to be a European by the mere sound of his footfall. Captain Pamphile, for his part, watched him with the careful manner which a man adopts when he knows that for one chance of meeting a friend there are ten of coming across an enemy. Then, as his scrutiny showed him nothing but what he saw at first, and as that left him in uncertainty, he decided to begin a conversation with him.

“Is my brother asleep,” he asked, “that he does not even raise his head at the entry of a friend?”

The Indian shuddered, and without answering except in dumb show, he raised his face and pointed with his finger to one of his eyes, hanging by a sinew to its socket, and from the hole left by it a stream of blood falling down over his chest. Then, without a single word or a single groan, he let his head fall back into his hands once more.

An arrow had just broken as he was bending his bow, and one of the splinters of the shaft had flown back into the young Indian’s eye.

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