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Page 22
Collins threw his musket to the trail, and advanced
cautiously, though fearlessly, along the scarcely
perceptible pathway--interrupted, at every third or fourth
step by creeping vines that protruded from the earth,
and rendered it necessary, in order to prevent his
tripping, that he should raise his feet somewhat in the
manner of a horse with the string-halt.
He had not proceeded half a mile, when, at an angle of
the ill-defined path, formed by a point where the river
was the narrowest, he was started at the sight of a human
body lying across his course, evidently on its face,
though the head was concealed from view by the trunk of
a large tree that bordered upon the road. His first
impulse was to turn back and acquaint the corporal with
what he had discovered; but a few minutes of reflection
satisfying him of the ridicule he should incur in reporting,
without being able to state with accuracy on WHAT, he
boldly advanced. On approaching it, he found that the
body was lifeless, while from the red and scalpless head,
previously hidden from his view, were exuding gouts of
thick blood that trickled slowly over the pale features
of a youth of tender age, the expression of which had
been worked up into an intensity of terror, and there
remained. At a few paces from the head, and close upon
the edge of the bank, lay a dressed bear skin which had
evidently been saturated with water, but was now fast
drying in the air and what little sunlight was occasionally
thrown upon it, through the dense branches of the forest.
There are situations in which the mind is moved to do
that from which in cooler moments it would shrink with
disgust. It chanced that Collins had retained the scalp
so singularly found at the bottom of the river, by Corporal
Nixon, and this circumstance at once determined him.
Instead of hastening by an object so appalling, Collins
rested his musket against a tree, and taking the scalp
from between the ramrod and the stock, where he had
introduced it, knelt by the body, and spreading out the
humid skin to its fullest extent, applied it to the
bleeding excavation. As he had suspected, they corresponded
exactly, making all due allowance for the time they had
been separated, and he had no longer a doubt that the
mutilated boy was Mr. Heywood's help, Wilton. A much more
important discovery than this, however, resulted from
his vain endeavor to recognise the boy from his features,
they were so contracted by terror, as has already been
said, and so covered with blood as to be indistinguishable.
But on turning him upon his back, and passing his hands
over his face, Collins was surprised to find that there
was not that icy chill which he had expected, but on the
contrary the faint warmth that indicates suspended,
animation; and deeper yet was the gratification of the
rude soldier, when, on opening the shirt and placing his
hand on the heart of the boy, he felt an occasional
spasmodic pulsation, denoting that life was not utterly
extinct.
With an eagerness to preserve life, strongly in contrast
with his recent exultation in destroying it, his anxiety
for the recovery of the boy was almost paternal. Fortunately
the latter part of the day had been free from the chilliness
of the morning, so that, although the naked skull must
have been some hours exposed, the comparatively bland
state of the atmosphere gave fair earnest that the brain
itself, even if affected, had not sustained a mortal
injury. Spreading wide the scalp in his open palm, Collins
now breathed heavily upon it, until it attained what he
conceived to be the necessary warmth, when gently applying
it to the denuded crown, to which be fitted it as well
as he could, he passed his handkerchief, which he had
removed from his throat, over it, and under the chin of
the boy in such a manner as to prevent the chill of the
approaching night from affecting the injured part. This
done, he poured through his closed lips a few drops of
whisky from the canteen, and then raising him gently on
his left shoulder, he rose from his stooping posture,
and seizing in his right hand his musket, which he
continued at the trail, pursued his route to the haystacks
as directed.
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