Read Ebook: The Pagan's Progress by Morris Gouverneur Rae John Illustrator

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Ebook has 179 lines and 7474 words, and 4 pages

One day Sunrise killed a bear and he hastened to She Wolf and Dawn, taking the four feet with him. Usually he did not return from the hunting till dark, but on this occasion he had killed early and was back by noon.

Squatting in the snow in front of the cave, he saw two young bachelors with bright feathers stuck in their hair. They were waiting for Dawn to come out. Sunrise strode up to them in a fury.

"Be off!" he cried, "I will have none of this. Let me catch you making eyes at Dawn and I will strike to kill. Let this be clearly understood."

They saw the fury in his eye and scuttled off.

"Do not come within shouting distance of this cave," he shouted after them, "for the sound or sight of you is not to be borne."

She Wolf, sitting in the mouth of the cave, chuckled and grinned.

"They are always here," she said.

Sunrise turned on her fiercely.

"Are you, too, against me?" he cried. "Faugh--you have a bow and arrows. Use them."

"The next time they come," said his mother in a conciliating voice, "I will use the bow and the arrows."

But she did not. Nor the next time--nor the next time--nor the next.

But Sunrise went away appeased.

And when the frost went out of the ground he selected the side of a hill where the sun smote from early morning till late afternoon and fell to burrowing and digging a splendid cave, which was to be the very largest and most splendid cave of which there was any record up to that time.

But the work progressed slowly, for he was obliged to hunt betimes, and the cave was to be of splendid proportions. It was not finished until the spring was well advanced.

Tall violets stood by the brooks, flowers crowded between stones, and grew over the open places, trees, bushes, hills, valleys and forests were misty with new green.

Sunrise arose in the sparkling dawn and took up his bow and his arrows. Birds were trilling in the forest.

"To-day," he said, "I will hunt, and to-night--to-night--."

Then he ran into the forest laughing and singing.

The sun was going down when Sunrise presented himself joyously before the cave where She Wolf and Dawn lived. But when he called to them, they did not answer, and when he went into the cave, he found that She Wolf had been shot unto death, and that Dawn had vanished away.

Sunrise knelt by his mother and called her by name and felt of her. And presently by the coldness of her body he knew she had been dead a long time.

He went out of the cave and ran in a great circle. After a little he came upon the trail of Dawn and a man, and it pointed away from the caves of the tribe and was straight, like the flight of an arrow.

But Sunrise flung himself along the trail, and all night he ran like a wolf.

"They will not dare stop," he said, "and it may be that I shall not be too late."

With the first light he came to a flowery, grassy glade in the forest. But the grass was greatly trampled and many of the flowers were broken, for there had been a terrible struggle in that place. And Sunrise read the signs of it as we read printed words in a book.

"She fought against him," he cried, "she fought against him!"

He smiled a little then and looked upward, but after that in his life he was to smile but once more.

He lay face downward, digging and tearing at the ground until the nails of his fingers were broken and bloody.

Birds sang and the sun rose.

THE TRAIL OF TWO

Sunrise ran in a great circle and found where the trail of Dawn and the man left the grassy glade, and bending to the right, wound along among the foothills of the mountains.

"One runs faster than two," said Sunrise, "and there is now no need of hurry."

And he thought of what he would do when he caught up with them.

He was now in the complete possession of his abilities, calm deliberate and constructive.

"It is little better than a walk," he said, "and if I run slowly, I shall gain fast."

Running, therefore, slowly, he suddenly stopped all a-quiver, for he smelt blood. There was a little splash of it on the leaves of a young moose-wood. Sunrise considered the blood to mean this:

"Dawn," he said, "does not go willingly, the man is forcing her to run ahead of him, and here he found it necessary to prick her with his spear. She is still fighting against him," he said, and that surmise shot a pitiful little spasm of joy into his sick heart. He ran on.

"After a time," he reflected, "the man will be obliged to hunt. It may be that I shall find Dawn bound to a tree waiting for his return. In that case I, too, will wait for his return. But lest he smell me out I will take up the next fresh moose dung that I find and smear myself with it."

In the cool bottom of a valley Sunrise found a confusion of tracks. Two sets led from the valley and one set led in the reverse direction, that is, back to it.

"They passed this place and went on," said Sunrise. "Then they came back, then they turned and went on again."

He thought hard and when he had puzzled it out he laughed a short, harsh laugh.

"The man," he said, "made up his mind to hunt, but, being a fool, he either did not tie Dawn to a tree or he tied her like a fool and she broke loose. As soon as he had gone, she followed the trail backward, running as hard as she could, for see these return tracks are far apart. The man, coming back from the hunt, found that she had gone, and followed. Here he caught up with her and made her turn again. But he had to prick her with his spear to make her go--see, here is more blood. I am not far behind."

The solution proved correct, and Sunrise even found the thongs with which Dawn had been insecurely bound, and the tree which the man had selected to bind her to; the bark here and there was stained darkly.

After this he increased his pace.

"Dawn," he said presently, "is growing weak for she no longer steps out steadily. It is probable that she will die of her wounds and of her weariness, and it is better so. But I would like to speak with her before she dies, for she is little more than a child."

Sunrise was very hungry, and being now sure of his quarry, he stopped to hunt, and when he had killed, he ate, but sparingly, drank deep, and slept for a few hours. He rose greatly refreshed, and taking a lump of meat with him, ran swiftly on into the night.

Toward morning he was aware that Dawn and the man were increasing their pace. But Dawn had begun to run very unsteadily, and in two places the trail showed where she had tripped and fallen.

"He knows that I am on his trail," said Sunrise, "and his belly is cold with fear. Soon he will leave the woman and go on alone, but he will not get away. And it were better for him that he had not been born. I am minded to do things with him that have never been done to any man before."

But it was not until noon that he came upon Dawn in the place where the man had deserted her. She called to him before he saw her, tho' he already knew that she was near. And what she called to him was this:

"I fought against him, Sunrise--I fought against him."

He knelt by her, his eyes swimming with tears and pity, and fondled her and comforted her.

"Here is meat," he said, "only live till I return from this hunt, and I will look after you."

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