Gaut Gurley; Or, the Trappers of Umbagog: A Tale of Border LifeThompson, Daniel P. (Daniel Pierce)
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Gaut Gurley; Or, the Trappers of Umbagog: A Tale of Border Life
Thompson, Daniel P. (Daniel Pierce)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Fiction; Maine -- Fiction; Trappers -- Fiction
After giving vent to her painfully laboring emotions a while, the maiden
softly arose, and, creeping down under the overhanging boughs to the edge
of the water, sat down on a stone and bathed her throbbing brow, for some
time, in the limpid wave; after which, having in a good measure regained
her usual firmness and tranquillity, she returned to the side of her
wounded friend, whom she found wrapt in the deep slumber generally produced
by exhaustion from loss of blood. After gazing a while on his face, with
the sad and yearning look of a mother on a disease-smitten child, a new
thought seemed suddenly to occur to her, and she noiselessly stole away to
her former lookout, at the south end of the island, where, with a
brightening eye, she caught sight of the loathed and dreaded homicide, just
entering the distant outlet. Waiting no longer than to feel assured that he
had disappeared with the real intention of descending the stream, she
returned to her still sleeping charge, slowly and carefully slid the canoe
down into the water, headed it round with her hands, gained her seat in the
stern, and pushed out into the lake, shaping her course obliquely down it
towards the mouth of a small river entering from the eastern side, at the
lower end of the lake, but still nearly a mile distant from the outlet in
which the murderer had disappeared. Softly and smoothly as a gently-rocking
cradle, the light canoe, under the skillfully plied oar of the careful
maiden, glided through the waveless waters on her destined course, and, for
more than an hour, steadily kept on its noiseless way, without once
appearing to disturb the repose of the slumbering invalid. But, as the
hitherto low-looking forest bordering the eastern shore began to loom up,
and thus apprise the fair rower that she was now nearing the point to which
she had been directing her course, she noticed, with concern, that the lake
was beginning to be agitated, even where she then was, from a gathering
breeze; while a long, light, advancing line, extending across the lake in
the distance behind her, plainly told of the rapid approach of wind, which
must soon greatly increase the disturbance of the waters, and the
consequent rocking of the canoe. Knowing how injuriously such motion of the
boat might affect the invalid, she put forth her utmost strength in
propelling the canoe forward to reach the quiet haven before her, in season
to escape the threatened roughness of the water. But her best exertions
could secure only a partial immunity from the trouble she thus sought to
avoid. The wind struck her long before gaining the place; when, in spite of
all her endeavors to steady it, the canoe began to lurch and toss among the
gathering waves; while the almost immediate awakening of the disturbed
invalid, his twinges of pain and suppressed groans, told her, as they sent
responsive thrills of anguish through her bosom, how much he was suffering
from the motion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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