The Pioneers

Returning from Grant’s house, Oliver runs into Lippet, who explains that Leatherstocking has killed a deer out of season and that Temple has granted a search warrant. A horrified Oliver asks if they discovered anything in the hut, and Lippet further explains that Leatherstocking ran off the search party with his rifle and is now liable to accrue a much larger fine, in addition to imprisonment, for attacking a magistrate and menacing a constable. Oliver assures Lippet that he will hire him in the case of a trial, then rushes to the Mansion House.

Inside, Ben tells Oliver that Temple is currently busy with Hiram, and that Leatherstocking will always be able to count on his friendship for saving his life. Oliver goes to see Elizabeth and frets about the potential imprisonment of Leatherstocking, and she reassures him that Temple would never allow the man who saved his daughter’s life to go to jail. However, Temple enters and tells Elizabeth that because Leatherstocking has escalated the situation, he can no longer intervene to protect him. If he would have submitted to the search and paid the fine, the matter could have been forgotten, but now Temple is compelled to let the law take its course. He argues that society cannot tolerate anyone who would oppose agents of the law with firearms.

Oliver exclaims that Leatherstocking is a good man, and only drove a “prying miscreant” (358) from his home. Oliver becomes more and more agitated and angry with Temple, and eventually accuses him of usurping the rightful claim to the land from him and the Indians. Temple defends his legal claim to the lands and fires Oliver as his secretary. On his way out, Oliver apologizes to Elizabeth for his outburst. She forgives him, saying that her father will forgive him in time as well. Instead of going to Temple’s office to collect his pay, Oliver heads directly to Leatherstocking’s hut.

Richard, who has been out of town to arrest the gang of counterfeiters with a posse, returns to Templeton late in the evening the day after the confrontation at Leatherstocking’s hut. When he returns to the Mansion House, Richard calls out for Brave, but is instead greeted by Aggy who explains that Brave has been killed. Richard, who keeps a detailed journal, is greeted by Ben, whom he has employed to record events while he is out of town. However, because Ben is illiterate, he records his observations in a system of hieroglyphics devised by the two, which is largely designed to describe the weather. Ben recounts to Richard, in extremely convoluted fashion based on his drawings the events that occurred: the mountain lion attack, Brave’s death, rescue by Leatherstocking, the falling-out between Temple and Oliver, and the confrontation at Leatherstocking’s hut.

Richard goes to the jail, where the officers who had assisted him in capturing the counterfeiters are celebrating with liquor. He collects several of his men, who follow him out of town. Richard explains that they are going to arrest Leatherstocking for assaulting a magistrate, resisting a search warrant, and threatening a constable. He warns them that Leatherstocking may resist, and that they are to enter his hut and take him prisoner by force. He then has his men surround the area and wait. However, when Richard calls out, there is no response from the dogs. The men then approach the hut, which Leatherstocking has burned to the ground. He now sits forlornly among the ashes.

Leatherstocking rebukes them for driving the animals from the land, for bringing the unnecessary troubles of the law, and for insisting on entering his hut when he only wanted to be left alone. He says that they forced him to burn the home that he has lived in for 40 years, and that he wishes he was a forest animal “who never feast on the blood of their own families” (371). Leatherstocking tells them he no longer wants to fight with them and gives himself up to do whatever they want with him. The deputies are reluctant to approach Leatherstocking, and so Richard arrests him himself, and Leatherstocking is brought back to Templeton and imprisoned.

The court session has attracted a large number of visitors to Templeton who have come to attend as judges, lawyers, jury members, or observers. As the first bell is rung, Richard leads a procession (including Judge Temple) from The Bold Dragoon to the courtroom, which is located over the jail. After two hours of trying the other prisoners, Leatherstocking is brought before the court by two constables. Van der School serves as the public prosecutor, and Lippet serves as the defense lawyer.

Leatherstocking is first accused of the assault and battery of magistrate Hiram. He pleads “not guilty,” claiming that he did not treat Hiram in an unreasonable manner and asserting that he would die before letting anyone in his hut. Lippet defends Leatherstocking on the grounds that Hiram is only a magistrate and justice of the peace, rather than a constable, and therefore has no legal right to execute a warrant and forcibly enter a home without permission. Temple puts the matter to the jury, reminding them that there is a second, more serious charge also being brought, and the jury quickly delivers a verdict of “not guilty.” Leatherstocking thanks Temple, remarking that “the law has not been so hard on me as I dreaded” (379).

Temple then proceeds to the second charge: that Leatherstocking threatened Billy Kirby, acting as a constable, with a firearm. An irritated Leatherstocking pleads “not guilty,” saying that he would never fire on a defenseless man. Hiram and Riddel both testify to the events, and Lippet’s cross-examination fails to trip them up. Kirby testifies that, though Leatherstocking is extremely skilled with a rifle, he never feared for his life. Kirby says that he bears no hard feelings, and they left the hut as friends with the matter of the deer settled. In his closing arguments, Van der School argues that the facts are not in doubt and that no man can ever be allowed to point a weapon at an officer of the law without facing punishment. Temple argues similarly in his closing remarks to the jury, that it is doubly necessary—living as they do on the frontier—to protect those involved in executing the law.

On the second charge, Leatherstocking is quickly found guilty, and is sentenced by Temple to be placed in the public stocks for an hour, to pay a fine of $100, and to be imprisoned for a month minimum until he can pay his fine. Leatherstocking interrupts, angrily asking how he is to pay the fine if he is locked up in jail. He asks not to be imprisoned, because he can’t stand being shut inside, and volunteers to instead pay his fine by hunting. Leatherstocking reminds the judge of how he saved Elizabeth’s life and how he sheltered him when Temple first came to the area. However, Temple tells Leatherstocking that he cannot allow his personal feelings to intervene in matters of the law.

Ben forces his way through the crowd to the front of the courtroom, and volunteers to pay the fine, which causes a commotion in the courtroom. Temple orders the proceedings ended, and for Leatherstocking to be taken and placed in the stocks.

Leatherstocking is taken by the constables, followed by a large crowd. As he is being placed in the stocks, Ben pushes his way through the crowd to protest the punishment. Leatherstocking sarcastically tells him that there’s no harm in placing an old man, a veteran of several wars, in the stocks to be humiliated and gawked at by the crowd. Ben then insists that he be placed in the stocks alongside Leatherstocking, placing himself inside and refusing to move until they are both locked in. After the crowd starts laughing at him, Ben asks to be removed so that he can fight them, but the constable explains that he can only unlock the stocks once Leatherstocking’s time is up. Ben resigns himself to the punishment and attempts to comfort Leatherstocking by recounting tales from his naval experience. Leatherstocking can barely understand what he says, but appreciates the sentiment.

As the crowd disperses, Hiram and Riddel approach the stocks. Hiram begins gloating over his victory, and Leatherstocking looks away in disgust. As he gloats, Hiram walks too close to the stocks, and Ben grabs onto his legs, pulling him to the ground. Ben calls Hiram a coward and un-Christian, and a frightened Hiram cries out for help. They begin fighting, with Ben punching Hiram in the face several times before Richard is brought out from the jail. Torn between his two favorite assistants, Richard calls out for them to stop, which allows Hiram to escape.

After the hour is up, Richard has both Leatherstocking and Ben placed in jail. In their cell, Ben eagerly strikes up conversations with the other jailed men and begins drinking, while Leatherstocking has a secret conversation with Oliver through the window grate. 

As night falls, Temple, Elizabeth, and Louisa are out for a walk. Temple explains that the sanctity of laws must be respected, but Elizabeth counters that any law that would mete out so severe a punishment to a man like Leatherstocking is not a just law. Temple argues that laws must be impartial, and that he can’t be seen to play favorites. He tells Elizabeth that she is too much led by her heart instead of her head, but gives her $200 to pay Leatherstocking’s fine and ease his conditions in the jail. Temple leaves the girls, who walk silently until they see a man driving a cart of oxen. As the man passes, Elizabeth recognizes the man as Oliver, disguised as a teamster. Elizabeth tells him to wait 10 minutes before he does whatever he is planning, and he asks her not to tell anyone she saw him.

The girls go into the jail and are let into Leatherstocking and Ben’s cell, the latter now being quite drunk. Elizabeth explains that she is here to thank him, but that she wishes he would have simply submitted to the search so that they could have avoided these problems. Leatherstocking angrily replies that he would never let a man such as Hiram into his home, but that they are now welcome to search the ashes. Elizabeth offers to help him rebuild, but he tells her that, as a young person, she does not know what it’s like to have a home of 40 years destroyed. Elizabeth says that she simply wants to see that his days pass in “ease and plenty” (403), but Leatherstocking mocks her, saying that she can’t turn back the time to before the settlers arrived and ruined the wilderness. She offers him money to pay the fine, and asks that he be patient, but Leatherstocking refuses to accept it and admits that he is planning to escape with Oliver’s help, since he refuses to be confined. Leatherstocking asks only that she buy him some good quality gunpowder from Le Quoi and bring it to him tomorrow at noon on the peak of Mount Vision, to which she agrees, but asks him to wait until they have gone before escaping.

As the girls leave the jail, they see Oliver and Leatherstocking attempting to pull a very drunk Ben through a hole sawed in the wall of the jail. The delay causes the jailers to discover the escape attempt, and Oliver says that they need to leave Ben behind, but Leatherstocking refuses. Elizabeth rushes over and helps place Ben into the back of the cart, hiding him under hay. She tells Oliver and Leatherstocking to take one of Temple’s boats and flee to the woods, sending the cart on its way.

Kirby, who owns the cart, is amused to find the drunken Ben inside, and brings him to the clearing that he was set to work in the next day, leaving him overnight.