All these tropical splendors are illumined by the rays of the full hunter's moon, which transforms the trailing streamers of dewy Spanish moss into long-drawn chains of sparkling silver. From swamp and foliage the voices of the night fill the balmy air with quavering wailings, punctured by the occasional screams of wild-cats and hootings of the melancholy owls. Here in this forest primeval, mid the murmuring pines and star-eyed magnolias, nature rules supreme, uncontaminated by the trammels of civilization.

But what is that? Surely human forms swinging noiselessly from limb to limb over dark pools where the deadly moccasins and ferocious alligators slumber, over stagnant lagoons beautified by great lilies, and densely populated with rainbow colored fishes, and gaily decorated by water-fowl now all motionless in the embrace of sleep, the brother of death.

The moonbeams reveal a band of broad-shouldered, copper-colored aborigines, who once ruled over the whole of this fair peninsular.

They are returning, with packs of supplies strapped upon their backs, from a trading journey to the city of Kissimmee, where they have exchanged the fruits of their hunting for many-colored calicos, ammunition, and alas for the once-n.o.ble red men! fire-water. They had left their canoes when they could no longer be floated, and are now returning in this, the only possible manner, to their fertile oasis, protected from the white men by many miles of bogs into which all foot travelers would sink to unknown slimy depths and death.

On they come in single file, hand over hand from tree to tree, their long legs dangling in the air, led by Tiger-tail, the chief of the survivors of the most intelligent and powerful of all the Indian tribes. Suddenly the leader stops, gives the low cry of the Ring-dove, which halts his followers, and suspended in air, gazes at the sleeping form of a young white man, reclining, with his rifle beside him, on a hammock which rises dry and gra.s.s-covered above the surrounding mora.s.ses.

Motioning his band to follow, the chief drops noiselessly beside the sleeper, stealthily seizes the gun, revolver, and bowie-knife of the helpless victim, hands them to others, and shouts "Humph, wake up!"

The pale-face reaches for his weapons, and finding them gone, jumps to his feet, gazing without flinching at his stalwart captors.

"Who you be?" grunted the chief. "What for you here?"

"I am Henry Lee of Lawtey," was the calm reply, "and I am hunting."

"Humph, you white man hunt Seminole from earth. You no right here. You my prisoner; follow me, my slave."

As resistance was useless, the youth silently obeys, climbing hour after hour until his arms seemed about to be wrenched from their sockets. At last, just as the rising sun shot his lances of light through the forest's gloom, the chief drops to solid earth, followed by all.

A romantically beautiful scene lies before them. No longer the styx-like waters; the funereal realms of Pluto have vanished, and an elevated plateau appears, partially cleared. Here and there graceful palms, tall, slender cocoanut and orange trees laden with fruit; sparkling springs; abundant harvests of varied crops; picturesque wigwams and huts, fair as the garden of the Lord. A pack of dogs started to yelp, but at once slunk away at a word from the chieftain, who points to a hut, quietly saying: "Go in there till I call you."

Henry obeyed, and exhausted with his journey, sank quickly to sleep upon the straw-covered floor. At length, when the sun was high in the heavens, he was awakened by a black man, who placed before him some venison and corn bread, then silently withdrew. After satisfying his hunger, he went out to explore.

It was an ideal scene of tropical luxuriance; cattle and sheep were feeding upon the abundant gra.s.ses; but they suddenly took to their heels, with uplifted tails and terrified eyes, at the sight of his white face, a spectacle never before seen on this oasis, peopled hitherto exclusively by "Copperheads." Swarms of children were shooting their arrows at deer-skin targets; groups of braves, fantastically attired, lounged under the shade of the wide-spreading umbrella trees, smoking fragrant tobacco in long-stemmed pipes, but they did not deign to give the visitor even an inquiring glance.

Henry interviewed a number of negroes hoeing corn and sweet potatoes, who informed him in broken English that they were the slaves of the Indians; that they had never heard of the civil war, nor of Abraham Lincoln. They claimed to be well treated, and were contented, having plenty to eat and no very severe labor. They cast anxious glances towards the village, and seemed glad when he walked away, saying they had never before seen a white man and thought he must be "big medicine."

The birds were singing gaily, all nature smiled complacently, and he strolled over the flower-bedecked fields into the recesses of the forest, where he seated himself under a blossom-covered magnolia around which twined the fragrant jessamine. He gave himself up to day-dreams. All at once a light, moccasined footfall is heard, and there stepped from the woods an Indian girl, graceful as a fawn, with her head crowned with flowers, and softly singing a strange, sweet song in an unknown tongue. When the stranger was seen she started to flee, but with a smile he beckoned her to stop, which she did, as though hypnotized.

"Oh," she whispered, "you are the pale-face my father has captured; but if Tiger-tail should see me speaking to you, he would kill us both. Such is the law of the Seminoles. No Indian maiden must speak to a white man; but I never saw such as you before."

"But, how happens it," said he, in astonishment, "that you speak my language?"

"My father taught me," was the reply, "he is a scholar; we all speak some American."

"May I know your name?" asked our hero.

"I am Sunbeam, daughter of the Seminole chief."

"And mine is Henry Lee," he replied to her inquiring look. "You are well named," he continued. "I have seen many daughters of the pale-faces; but none so fair and bright as you. Sunbeam, at this my first glance, I love you; can you sometime love me?"

"I do love you now," replied the artless girl; "the Great Spirit tells me to do so; but we must not be seen together; they will kill us, we must part at once."

"Dearest," cried Henry, "when can we meet again?"

"To-morrow at noon," came the impulsive reply. "In my cave there back of that cypress; no one is allowed to enter but me; there I say my prayers, and my father says it is sacred to me alone. Good-bye, Henry," and she sped like a deer into the shades of the forest.

The youth was sincere, for it had flashed upon him like an inspiration when their eyes first met, that she was born for him, and he for her.

They were married in heaven, ages ago. It came like a word from the Infinite to these kindred souls. A sudden rent in the veil of darkness which surrounds us manifests things unseen. Such visions sometimes effect a transformation in those whom they visit, converting a poor camel driver into a Mohammed, a peasant girl tending goats, into a Joan of Arc.

This love-flash from the invisible blent these two hitherto widely separated souls into one, even as the positive electricity leaps through the s.p.a.ces to find the negative, and when met, dissolves the separateness into a harmonious oneness which can never be sundered.

The unsophisticated Indian maiden went her way, thrilling with the thought that her heart is in his bosom, and his in hers, useless one without the other.

The white youth was suddenly changed from an idle, wandering, purposeless dreamer, into a fearless lover, ready to face death itself to secure the object of his worship, and he sauntered back to his hut with no flinching from the many dangers which surrounded him.

There a black slave met him, bearing an abundant feast. "Eat," said the negro, "and then go to the lodge of Tiger-tail, the largest in the village, with the skin of a tiger stretched on the door."

As soon as Henry had a.s.suaged his hunger, he hastened to obey the summons. As before, no human being noticed him, and he walked to the wigwam, knocked on the door-post, and answering the "come" from within, entered. To his astonishment, the giant leader was evidently trying to read a newspaper, but took no notice of his entrance for some minutes, when he suddenly said:

"What is this?" pointing to a line of what Henry saw was the message to Congress of the President of the United States. The chief watched closely as his captive slowly read:

"The Seminole Indians have been driven by our troops to their fastnesses in the swamps of the Everglades, and it is for Congress to decide whether they shall be further punished for their outbreak."

The chief slowly rose to his frill height, and walked in silence for a long time, when he turned to our hero, and fastened upon him his eagle eyes. "Humph," at length he muttered, "the pale-face rob Seminole of everything else, now he follow us here:--no, the great father must know the truth, you teach me to write him, no white man ever come here and go away to tell, you stay here always; you no speak to any one here but me, you set down, teach me."

For a long time Henry labored hard to show this remarkable savage how to read and write. No teacher ever had a more attentive pupil; but it was very difficult for his untutored mind to master these, to him, puzzling hieroglyphics. At length, Tiger-tail arose, and saying in an exasperated tone:

"Humph! d.a.m.n! Me kill something, me mad! You come here every day when I send for you," and seizing his rifle, and pointing the youth to go, he strode savagely away into the woods.

The youth returned to his hut, and wearied with his unusual labors, was soon asleep, dreaming all night of the loved Sunbeam, whom he hoped would soon irradiate the darkness of his life. The hours of the next day dragged away on leaden wings, and the trysting hour drew near; but to his utter disgust, just as he was on the point of going to his beloved, the negro appeared summoning him once more to the chief, and his heart sank with fear that their secret was discovered.

Tiger-tail betrayed no emotion, and for a long time teacher and pupil struggled with their tasks as before, until the Indian, unable to restrain his pent-up restlessness longer, strode away to seek relief in the chase, leaving Henry to wend his way with many watchful glances to the shrine of his worship.

While walking slowly and circuitously to avoid suspicion, and closely scrutinizing the trunks and tops of trees for any spy who might be watching, he noticed a slight movement of the tall gra.s.s around a fallen cypress, and rushing to reconnoitre, a warrior leaped to his feet and dashed into the underbrush. Then the youth realized that suspicious eyes were following him, and that he was risking his life to meet the daughter of the chief.

He dared not enter the mouth of the cave; but walked through the thick bushes above it much depressed in spirit, when suddenly he heard his name softly called, and looking downward, saw an opening into the earth large enough to admit his body. "Drop down this way," was whispered, and after a.s.suring himself that no spy was in sight, he obeyed, falling into the arms of the waiting girl.

"Henry," said she, "I was followed; but no one knows of this entrance but myself; close it with this shrub. We are watched, and must never meet here again."

"But, dearest," sobbed the youth, "life is not worth living without you; we must escape together this very night."

"I will go with you to the ends of the earth," was the reply. "I loved you long before you came here; I have the gift of second sight. Months ago I saw you coming to me. I have explored the way to the great river. At midnight, meet me under the great cypress, throw this perfume to the dogs and they will not bark;" she handed him a small vial. "I must go; you follow when you hear the King-dove coo; go to your hut." She embraced him, and was gone.

Soon, he heard the signal, and he cautiously raised himself to the upper air, returned to his wigwam, and was soon enjoying rapturous dreams with his head resting where he knew the rays of the moon would shine into his face to awaken him at the appointed time for flight.

When he peered anxiously through the entrance of his wigwam at a little before midnight, he was appalled at the sight. A mult.i.tude of dogs surrounded the hut, ready, evidently by their yelpings, to bring down upon him the whole tribe of Indians, should he try to escape.

"Alas," thought he, "there are battles with fate which can never be won," and for a moment he seemed paralyzed at his doom. Then came to mind a recollection of the perfume given him by his thoughtful Sunbeam, and he resolved to do or die.

Noiselessly as a shadow, he stepped out, hoping to escape the attention of his canine guards; but in a moment, every cur was on his feet and were about to make the welkin ring, when he threw at the leader the contents of his vial. Instantly, all fawned at his feet, and he hastened to his rendezvous.

Not a sound was heard save an occasional snore from some sleeper, and soon he found his faithful sweetheart in the shadow of the century-old cypress. She quickly slung his rifle across his back, fastened about him the revolver and bowie-knife, bound over her own shoulder a bag of provisions; "follow me," she whispered, and away they sped into the vast primeval forest.

For hours they hastened in silence, then the maiden halted at the edge of a dark mora.s.s, and whispered: "Here we leave the earth; I know the way," and they launched themselves into the limbs of the trees, clambered hand over hand for a long, long time; when well-nigh exhausted, they dropped down into a little brook, carefully avoiding any contact with the tell-tale earth.

"Quick," said Sunbeam; "we must hasten up this stream which will conceal our footsteps, to the great river, where we can hide and rest in a great hollow tree which I found there," and on they went with their feeble remnant of strength.

At last, just as the rising sun was dispersing the vapors of night, our elopers swung themselves from the brook into the branches of an overarching hollow tree, helped each other to the bottom of this house not made with hands, and soon slept the slumber of utter exhaustion.

It was many hours before tired nature's sweet restorer released these two loving children from its embraces, and then it seemed as if all the fiends from heaven that fell had pealed the banner-cry of h.e.l.l.