Pierre looked all around to find the best place for refuge.
On his right there projected a wooded cliff, its sides rising
precipitously for fifty or sixty feet, and its summit covered with fir
trees. This was the nearest land. If they ran towards this they might
get out of sight of their pursuers in a few minutes, and plunge into
the woods at a place where the cliff ended and the land sloped gradually
down. To this place he directed Paul’s attention; and then calling upon
him to follow, he leaped from the boat. Paul followed. The two brothers
ran with their utmost speed over the treacherous mud flats towards the
shore behind the point.
Up the channel, over the same treacherous mud flats, came their
pursuers, who, at this unexpected sight of their prey, seemed to be
filled with fresh fury. Seeing that prey about to escape, they fired
after them. Report after report sounded through the air and echoed along
the shore.
Six shots were thus fired, and then, as the last echo died out, there
arose another sound. It was that low, droning sound which had come to
Pierre’s ears before he left the boat but the sound was louder, and
deeper, and nearer, and more dreadful. It was a sound of wrath. It was
the voice of many waters! It was the sound of a pursuer more terrible
than man--the sound of the pitiless march of innumerable waves.
The cliff rose overhead. They had reached it; but before they passed
behind it they turned one glance at their pursuers. In that one glance a
sight revealed itself which was never forgotten.
Far down arose a wall of white foam, formed by the advancing tidal wave
of the Bay of Fundy--a dread mass of surging billows, rolling up the
channel, extending all the way across. At the moment when they looked
it had caught the boat and overwhelmed it, and then, in hungry fury,
advanced towards the soldiers.
They had heard it! They had seen it--that terrible pursuer, the
tremendous, the inevitable! They stood still in horror. Escape was
impossible. On came the wave. Even the fugitives stood for a moment
overwhelmed with the horror of that spectacle.
On came the wave!
The wall of white foam rose high. It rushed onward. It reared its
curling crest. It fell in thunderous fury upon the wretched victims of
its wrath. One wild, despairing yell burst forth, and then all sounds
were drowned in the roar of the rolling waves.
The brothers fled. They reached the sloping bank, and clambered to a
place of safety, from which they looked with pallid faces upon those
waters, which, like the waves of the Red Sea, had saved the fugitives by
overwhelming the pursuers.
After this they wandered through the woods for some days, and finally
met with friendly Indians, with whom they went to the Miramichi.
Such is the substance of M. Grousset’s narrative.
XXIV.
_The American Indian in a new Light.--The false Guide.--Solomon prepares
for Vengeance.--The Indian Chief.--Full Explanations._