initial commit of ebook 37333HEADmain

11 files changed, 54031 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/37333-8.txt b/37333-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..088702a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/37333-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,17911 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Little Red Foot, by Robert W. Chambers
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Little Red Foot
+
+Author: Robert W. Chambers
+
+Release Date: September 7, 2011 [EBook #37333]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE RED FOOT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                        THE LITTLE RED FOOT
+
+                       BY ROBERT W. CHAMBERS
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE SLAYER OF SOULS," "THE COMMON LAW," "IN SECRET,"
+"LORRAINE," ETC.
+
+
+    NEW YORK
+    GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
+
+    COPYRIGHT, 1921,
+    BY ROBERT W. CHAMBERS
+
+    COPYRIGHT, 1920, 1921. BY THE INTERNATIONAL
+    MAGAZINE COMPANY
+
+    PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
+
+
+            TO
+          MY SON
+    ROBERT H. CHAMBERS
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+        I SIR WILLIAM PASSES           11
+
+       II TWO PEERS SANS PEERAGE       13
+
+      III THE POT BOILS                23
+
+       IV TWO COUNTRY MICE             32
+
+        V A SUPPER                     40
+
+       VI RUSTIC GALLANTRY             51
+
+      VII BEFORE THE STORM             60
+
+     VIII SHEEP AND GOATS              68
+
+       IX STOLE AWAY                   81
+
+        X A NIGHT MARCH                86
+
+       XI SUMMER HOUSE POINT           94
+
+      XII THE SHAPE IN WHITE          102
+
+     XIII THE DROWNED LANDS           113
+
+      XIV THE LITTLE RED FOOT         124
+
+       XV WEST RIVER                  132
+
+      XVI A TROUBLED MIND             141
+
+     XVII DEEPER TROUBLE              151
+
+    XVIII FIRELIGHT                   169
+
+      XIX OUT OF THE NORTH            177
+
+       XX IN SHADOW-LAND              189
+
+      XXI THE DEMON                   197
+
+     XXII HAG-RIDDEN                  207
+
+     XXIII WINTER AND SPRING          220
+
+      XXIV GREEN-COATS                235
+
+       XXV BURKE'S TAVERN             253
+
+      XXVI ORDERS                     267
+
+     XXVII FIRE-FLIES                 283
+
+    XXVIII OYANEH!                    292
+
+      XXIX THE WOOD OF BRAKABEEN      309
+
+       XXX A LONG GOOD-BYE            322
+
+      XXXI "IN THE VALLEY"            333
+
+           AFTERMATH                  350
+
+
+
+
+THE LITTLE RED FOOT
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+SIR WILLIAM PASSES
+
+
+The day Sir William died there died the greatest American of his day.
+Because, on that mid-summer evening, His Excellency was still only a
+Virginia gentleman not yet famous, and best known because of courage and
+sagacity displayed in that bloody business of Braddock.
+
+Indeed, all Americans then living, and who since have become famous,
+were little celebrated, excepting locally, on the day Sir William
+Johnson died. Few were known outside a single province; scarcely one
+among them had been heard of abroad. But Sir William was a world figure;
+a great constructive genius; the greatest land-owner in North America; a
+wise magistrate, a victorious soldier, a builder of cities amid a
+wilderness; a redeemer of men.
+
+He was a Baronet of the British Realm; His Majesty's Superintendent of
+Indian Affairs for all North America. He was the only living white man
+implicitly trusted by the savages of this continent, because he never
+broke his word to them. He was, perhaps, the only representative of
+royal authority in the Western Hemisphere utterly believed in by the
+dishonest, tyrannical, and stupid pack of Royal Governors, Magistrates
+and lesser vermin that afflicted the colonies with the British plague.
+
+He was kind and great. All loved him. All mourned him. For he was a very
+perfect gentleman who practiced truth and honour and mercy; an
+unassuming and respectable man who loved laughter and gaiety and plain
+people.
+
+He saw the conflict coming which must drench the land in blood and dry
+with fire the blackened cinders.
+
+Torn betwixt loyalty to his King whom he had so tirelessly served, and
+loyalty to his country which he so passionately loved, it has been said
+that, rather than choose between King and Colony, he died by his own
+hand.
+
+But those who knew him best know otherwise. Sir William died of a broken
+heart, in his great Hall at Johnstown, all alone.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+His son, Sir John, killed a fine horse riding from Fort Johnson to the
+Hall. And arrived too late and all of a lather in the starlight.
+
+And I have never ceased marvelling how such a man could have been the
+son of the great Sir William.
+
+At the Hall the numerous household was all in a turmoil; and, besides
+Sir William's immediate family, there were a thousand guests--a thousand
+Iroquois Indians encamped around the Hall, with whom Sir William had
+been holding fire-council.
+
+For he had determined to restrain his Mohawks, and to maintain
+tranquillity among all the fierce warriors of the Six Nations, and so
+pledge the entire Iroquois Confederacy to an absolute neutrality in the
+imminence of this war betwixt King and Colony, which now seemed to be
+coming so rapidly upon us that already its furnace breath was heating
+restless savages to a fever.
+
+All that hot June day, though physically ill and mentally unhappy,--and
+under a vertical sun and with head uncovered,--Sir William had spoken to
+the Iroquois with belts.
+
+The day's labour of that accursed council-fire ended at sunset; sachem
+and chief departed--tall spectres in the flaming west; there was a clash
+of steel at the guard-house as the guard presented arms; Mr. Duncan
+saluted the Confederacy with lifted claymore.
+
+Then an old man, bareheaded, alone, turned away from the covered
+council-fire; and an officer, seeing how feebly he moved, flung an arm
+about his shoulders.
+
+So Sir William came slowly to his great Hall, and slowly entered. And
+laid him down in his library on a sofa.
+
+And slowly died there while the sun was going down.
+
+Then the first star came out where, in the ashes of the June sunset, a
+pale rose tint still lingered.
+
+But Sir William lay dead in his great Hall, all alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+TWO PEERS SANS PEERAGE
+
+
+Sir John had arrived and I caught sight of his heavy, expressionless
+face, which seemed more colourless than ever in the candle light.
+
+Consternation reigned in the Hall,--a vast tumult of whispering and
+guarded gabble among servants, checked by sobs,--and I saw officers come
+and go, and the tall forms of Mohawks still as pines on a summer night.
+
+The entire household was there--all excepting only Michael Cardigan and
+Felicity Warren.
+
+The two score farm slaves were there huddled along the wall in dusky
+clusters, and their great, dark eyes wet with tears.
+
+I saw Sir William's lawyer, Lafferty, come in with Flood, the Baronet's
+Bouw-Meester.[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: Farm overseer.]
+
+His blacksmith, his tailor, and his armourer were there; also his
+gardener; the German, Frank, his butler; Pontioch, his personal waiter;
+and those two uncanny and stunted servants, the Bartholomews, with their
+dead white faces and dwarfish dignity.
+
+Also I saw poor Billy, Sir William's fiddler, gulping down the blubbers;
+and there was his personal physician, Doctor Daly, very grave; and the
+servile Wall, schoolmaster to Lady Molly's brood; and I saw Nicholas,
+his valet, and black Flora, his cook, both sobbing into the same
+bandanna.
+
+The dark Lady Johnson was there, very quiet in her grief, slow-moving,
+still beautiful, having by the hands the two youngest girls and boy,
+while near her clustered the older children, fat Peter and Betsy and
+pretty Lana.
+
+A great multitude of candles burned throughout the hall; Sir William's
+silver and mahogany sparkled everywhere; and so did the naked claymores
+of the Highlanders on guard where the dead man lay in his own chamber,
+done, at last, with all perplexity and grief.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the morning came the quality in scores--all the landed gentry of
+Tryon County, Tory and Whig alike, to show their reverence:--old Colonel
+John Butler from his seat at Butlersbury near Caughnawaga, and his dark,
+graceful son Walter,--he of the melancholy golden eyes--an attorney then
+and sick of a wound which, some said, had been taken in a duel with
+Michael Cardigan near Fort Pitt.
+
+Colonel Claus was there, too, son-in-law to Sir William, and battered
+much by frontier battles: and Guy Johnson, a cousin, and a son-in-law,
+too, had come from his fine seat at Guy Park to look upon a face as
+tranquil in death as a sleeping child's.
+
+The McDonald, of damned memory, was there in his tartan and kilts and
+bonnet; and the Albany Patroon, very modest; and God knows how many
+others from far and near, all arrived to honour a man who had died very
+tired in the service of our Lord, who knows and pardons all.
+
+The pretty lady of Sir John, who was Polly Watts of New York, came to me
+where I stood in the noon breeze near the lilacs; and I kissed her hand,
+and, straightening myself, retained it, looking into her woeful face of
+a child, all marred with tears.
+
+"I had not thought to be mistress of the Hall for many years," said she,
+her lips a-tremble. "But yesterday, at this hour, he was living: and,
+today, in this hour, the heavy importunities of strange new duties are
+already crushing me.... I count on you, Jack."
+
+I made no answer.
+
+"May we not count on you?" she said. "Sir John and I expect it."
+
+As I stood silent there in the breezy sunshine by the porch, there came
+across the grass Billy Alexander, who is Lord Stirling, a man much older
+than I, but who seemed young enough; and made his reverence to Lady
+Johnson, kissing the hand which I very gently released.
+
+"Oh, Billy," says she, the tears starting again, "why should death take
+him at such a time, when God's wrath darkens all the world?"
+
+"God's convenience is not always ours," he replied, looking at me
+sideways, with a certain curiosity which I understood if Lady Johnson
+did not.
+
+She turned and gazed out across the sunny grass where, beyond the hedge
+fence, the primeval forest loomed like a dark cloud along the sky, far
+as the eye could see.
+
+"Well," says she, half to herself, "the storm is bound to break, now.
+And we women of County Tryon may need your swords, gentlemen, before
+snow flies."
+
+Lord Stirling stole another look at me. He knew as well as I how loosely
+in their scabbards lay our two swords. He knew, also, as well as I, in
+which cause would flash the swords of the landed gentry of County Tryon.
+And he knew, too, that his blade as well as mine must, one day, be
+unsheathed against them and against the stupid King they served.
+
+Something of this Lady Johnson had long since suspected, I think; but
+Billy Alexander, for all his years, was a childhood friend; and I, too,
+a friend, although more recent.
+
+She looked at my Lord Stirling with that troubled sweetness I have seen
+so often in her face, alas! and she said in a low voice:
+
+"It would be unthinkable that Lord Stirling's sword could lay a-rusting
+when the Boston rabble break clear out o' bounds."
+
+She turned to me, touched my arm confidingly, child that she seemed and
+was, God help her.
+
+"A Stormont," she said, "should never entertain any doubts. And so I
+count on you, Lord Stormont, as I count upon my Lord Stirling----"
+
+"I am not Lord Stormont," said I, striving to force a smile at the old
+and tiresome contention. "Lord Stormont is the King's Ambassador in
+Paris--if it please you to recollect----"
+
+"You are as surely Viscount Stormont as is Billy Alexander, here, Lord
+Stirling--and as I am Lady Johnson," she said earnestly. "What do you
+care if your titles be disputed by a doddering committee on privileges
+in the House of Lords? What difference does it make if usurpers wear
+your honours as long as you know these same stolen titles are your own?"
+
+"A pair o' peers _sans_ peerage," quoth Billy Alexander, with that
+boyish grin I loved to see.
+
+"I care nothing," said I, still smiling, "but Billy Alexander
+does--pardon!--my Lord Stirling, I should say."
+
+Said he: "Sure I am Lord Stirling and no one else; and shall wear my
+title however they dispute it who deny me my proper seat in their rotten
+House of Lords!"
+
+"I think you are very surely the true Lord Stirling," said I, "but I, on
+the other hand, most certainly am not a Stormont Murray. My name is John
+Drogue; and if I be truly also Viscount Stormont, it troubles me not at
+all, for my ambition is to be only American and to let the Stormonts
+glitter as they please and where."
+
+Lady Johnson came close to me and laid both hands upon my shoulders.
+
+"Jack," she pleaded, "be true to us. Be true to your gentle blood. Be
+true to your proper caste. God knows the King will have a very instant
+need of his gentlemen in America before we three see another summer here
+in County Tryon."
+
+I made no reply. What could I say to her? And, indeed, the matter of the
+Stormont Viscounty was distasteful, stale, and wearisome to me, and I
+cared absolutely nothing about it, though the landed gentry of Tryon
+were ever at pains to place me where I belonged,--if some were
+right,--and where I did not belong if others were righter still.
+
+For Lady Johnson, like many of her caste, believed that the second
+Viscount Stormont died without issue,--which was true,--and that the
+third Viscount had a son,--which is debatable.
+
+At any rate, David Murray became the fourth Viscount, and the claims of
+my remote ancestor went a-glimmering for so many years that, in 1705, we
+resumed our family name of the Northesks, which is Drogue; and in this
+natural manner it became my proper name. God knows I found it good
+enough to eat and sleep with, so that my Lord Stormont's capers in Paris
+never disturbed my dreams. Thank Heaven for that, too; and it was a sad
+day for my Lord Stormont when he tried to bully Benjamin Franklin; for
+the whole world is not yet done a-laughing at him.
+
+No, I have no desire to claim a Viscounty which our witty Franklin has
+made ridiculous with a single shaft of satire from his bristling
+repertoire.
+
+Thinking now of this, and reddening a little at the thought,--for no
+Stormont even of remotest kinship to the family can truly relish Mr.
+Franklin's sauce, though it dressed an undoubted goose,--I become far
+more than reconciled to the decision rendered in the House of Lords.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Two people who had come from the house, and who were advancing slowly
+toward us across the clipped grass, now engaged our full attention.
+
+The one we perceived to be Sir John Johnson himself; the other his
+lady's school friend and intimate companion, Claudia Swift, the toast of
+the British Army and of all respectable young Tories; and the
+"Sacharissa" of those verses made by the new and lively Adjutant
+General, Major André, who was then a captain.
+
+For, though very young, our lovely Sacharissa had murdered many a
+gallant's peace of mind, leaving a trail of hearts bled white from New
+York to Boston, and from that afflicted city to Albany; where, it was
+whispered, her bright and merciless eyes had made the sad young Patroon
+much sadder, and his offered manor a more melancholy abode than usual.
+
+She gave us, now, her dimpled hand to kiss. And, to Lady Johnson: "My
+dear," she said very tenderly, "how pale you seem! God sends us
+affliction as a precious gift and we must accept it with meekness,"
+letting her eyes rest absently the while on Lord Stirling, and then on
+me.
+
+Our Sacharissa might babble of meekness if she chose, but that virtue
+was not lodged within her, God knows,--nor many other virtues either.
+
+Billy Alexander, old enough to be her parent, nevertheless had been her
+victim; and I also. It was our opinion that we had recovered. But, to be
+honest with myself, I could not avoid admitting that I had been very
+desperate sick o' love, and that even yet, at times----But no matter:
+others, stricken as deep as I, know well that Claudia Swift was not a
+maid that any man might easily forget, or, indeed, dismiss at will from
+his mind as long as she remained in his vicinity.
+
+"Are you well, Billy, since we last met?" she asked Lord Stirling in
+that sweet, hesitating way of hers. And to me: "You have grown thin,
+Jack. Have you been in health?"
+
+I said that I had been monstrous busy with my new glebe in the Sacandaga
+patent, and had swung an axe there with the best o' them until an
+express from Sir William summoned me to return to aid him with the
+Iroquois at the council-fire. At which explaining of my silence the jade
+smiled.
+
+When I mentioned the Sacandaga patent and the glebe I had had of Sir
+William on too generous terms--he making all arrangements with Major
+Jelles Fonda through Mr. Lafferty--Sir John, who had been standing
+silent beside us, looked up at me in that cold and stealthy way of his.
+
+"Do you mean your parcel at Fonda's Bush?" he inquired.
+
+"Yes; I am clearing it."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"So that my land shall grow Indian corn, pardie!"
+
+"Why clear it _now_?" he persisted in his deadened voice.
+
+I could have answered very naturally that the land was of no value to
+anybody unless cleared of forest. But of course he knew this, too; so I
+did not evade the slyer intent of his question.
+
+"I am clearing my land at Fonda's Bush," said I, "because, God willing,
+I mean to occupy it in proper person."
+
+"And when, sir, is it your design to do this thing?"
+
+"Do what, sir? Clear my glebe?"
+
+"Remove thither--in _proper person_, Mr. Drogue?"
+
+"As soon as may be, Sir John."
+
+At that Lady Johnson gave me a quick look and Claudia said: "What! Would
+you bury yourself alive in that wilderness, Jack Drogue?"
+
+I smiled. "But I must hew out for myself a career in the world some day,
+Sacharissa. So why not begin now?"
+
+"Then in Heaven's name," she exclaimed impatiently, "go somewhere among
+men and not among the wild beasts of the forest! Why, a young man is
+like to perish of loneliness in such a spot; is he not, Sir John?"
+
+Sir John's inscrutable gaze remained fixed on me.
+
+"In such times as these," said he, "it is better that men like ourselves
+continue to live together.... To await events.... And master them....
+And afterward, each to his vocation and his own tastes.... It is my
+desire that you remain at the Hall," he added, looking steadily at me.
+
+"I must decline, Sir John."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I have already told you why."
+
+"If your present position is irksome to you," he said, "you have merely
+to name a deputy and feel entirely at liberty to pursue your pleasure.
+Or--you are at least the Laird of Northesk if you are nothing greater.
+There is a commission in my Highlanders--if you desire it.... And your
+salary, of course, continues also."
+
+He looked hard at me: "Augmented by--half," he added in his slow, cold
+voice. "And this, with your income, should properly maintain a young man
+of your age and quality."
+
+I had been Brent-Meester to Sir William, for lack of other employment;
+and had been glad to take the important office, loving as I do the open
+air. Also the addition of a salary to my slender means had been
+acceptable. But it was one matter to serve Sir William as Brent-Meester,
+and another to serve Sir John in any capacity whatsoever. And as for the
+remainder of the family,--Guy Johnson and Colonel Claus--and their
+intimates the Butlers, I had now had more than enough of them, having
+endured these uncongenial people only because I had loved Sir William.
+Yet, for his father's sake, I now spoke to Sir John politely, using him
+most kindly because I both liked and pitied his lady, too.
+
+Said I: "My desire is to become a Tryon County farmer, Sir John; and to
+that end I happily became possessed of the parcel at Fonda's Bush. For
+that reason I am clearing it. And so I must beg of you to accept my
+resignation as Brent-Meester at the Hall, for I mean to start as soon as
+convenient to occupy my glebe."
+
+There was a silence; Sacharissa gazed at me in pity, astonishment, and
+unfeigned horror; Lady Johnson gave me an odd, unhappy look; and Billy
+Alexander a meaning one, half grin.
+
+Then Sir John's slow and heavy voice invaded the momentary silence: "As
+my father's Brent-Meester, only an Indian or a Forest Runner knows the
+wilderness as do you. And we shall have great need of such forest
+knowledge as you possess, Mr. Drogue."
+
+I think we all understood the Baronet's meaning.
+
+I considered a moment, then replied very quietly that in time of stress
+no just cause would find me skulking to avoid duty.
+
+I think my manner and tone, as well as what I said, combined to stop Sir
+John's mouth. For nobody could question such respectable sentiments
+unless, indeed, a quarrel was meant.
+
+But Sir John Johnson, in his way, was as slow to mortal quarrel as was I
+in mine. And whatever suspicion of me he might nurse in his secret mind
+he now made no outward sign of it.
+
+Also, other people were coming across the grass to join us; and
+presently grave greetings were exchanged in sober voices suitable to the
+occasion when a considerable company of ladies and gentlemen are
+gathered at a house of mourning.
+
+Turning away, I noticed Mr. Duncan and the Highland officers at the
+magazine, all wearing their black badges of respect and a knot of crape
+on the basket-hilts of their claymores; and young Walter Butler, still
+stiff in his bandages, gazing up at the June sky out of melancholy eyes,
+like a damned man striving to see God.
+
+Sir John had now given his arm to his lady. His left hand rested on his
+sword-hilt--the same left hand he had offered to poor Claire Putnam--and
+to which the child still clung, they said.
+
+Claudia turned from Billy Alexander and came toward me. Her face was
+serious, but I saw the devil looking out of her blue eyes.
+
+Nature had given this maid most lovely proportions--that charming
+slenderness which is plumply moulded--and she stood straight, and
+tall enough, too, to meet on a level the love-sick gaze of any
+stout young man she had bedevilled; and she wore a most bewitching
+countenance--short-nosed, red-lipped, a skin as white as a water-lily,
+and thick soft hair as black as night, which she wore unpowdered--the
+dangerous jade!
+
+"Jack," says she in honeyed tones, "are you truly designing to become a
+hermit?"
+
+"Oh, no," said I, smilingly, "only a farmer, Claudia."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because I am a poor man and must feed and clothe myself."
+
+"There is a commission from Sir John in the Scotch regiment----"
+
+"I'm Scotch enough without that," said I.
+
+"Jack?"
+
+"Yes, Madam?"
+
+"Are you a little angry with me?"
+
+"No," said I, feeling uncomfortable and concluding to beware of her, for
+she stood now close to me, and the scent of her warm breath troubled me.
+
+"Why are you angry with me, Jack?" she asked sorrowfully. And took one
+step nearer.
+
+"I am not," said I.
+
+"Am--am I driving you into the wilderness?" she inquired.
+
+"That, also, is absurd," I replied impatiently. "No woman could ever
+boast of driving me, though some may once have led me."
+
+"Oh, I feared that I had sapped, perhaps, your faith in women, John."
+
+I forced a laugh: "Why, Claudia? Because I lately--and vainly--was
+enamoured of you?"
+
+"_Lately?_"
+
+"Yes. I did love you, once."
+
+"_Did_ love?" she breathed. "Do you not love me any more, Jack?"
+
+"I think not," said I, very cheerfully.
+
+"And why? Sure I used you kindly, Jack. Did I not so?"
+
+"You conducted as is the privilege of maid with man, Sacharissa," said I
+uneasily. "And that is all I have to say."
+
+"How so did I conduct, Jack?"
+
+"Sweetly--to my undoing."
+
+"Try me again," she said, looking up at me, and the devil in her eyes.
+
+But already I was becoming sensible of the ever-living enchantment of
+this young thing, so wise in stratagems and spoils of Love, and I chose
+to leave my scalp hang drying at her lodge door beside the scanter pol
+of Billy Alexander.
+
+For God knows this vixen-virgin spared neither young nor old, but shot
+them through and through at sight with those heavenly darts from her
+twin eyes.
+
+And no man, so far, could boast of obtaining from Mistress Swift the
+least token or any serious guerdon that his quest might lead him by a
+single step toward Hymen's altar, but only to that cruel arena where all
+her victims agonized under the mocking sweetness of her smile, and her
+pretty, down-turned and merciless thumbs--the little Vestal villain!
+
+"No, Claudia," quoth I, "you have taken my bow and spear, and shorn me
+of my thatch like any Mohawk. No; I go to Fonda's Bush----" I smiled,
+"--to heal, perhaps, my heart, as you say; but, anyhow, to consult my
+soul, and armour it in a wilderness."
+
+"A hermit!" she exclaimed scornfully, "--and afeard of a maid armed only
+with two matched eyes, a nose, a mouth and thirty teeth!"
+
+"Afeard of a monster more frightful than that," said I, laughing.
+
+"Of what monster, John Drogue?"
+
+"Of that red monster that is surely, surely creeping northward to
+surprise and rend us all," said I in a low voice. "And so I shall retire
+to question my secret soul, and arm it cap-ŕ-pie as God directs."
+
+She was looking at me intently. After a silence she said:
+
+"I do love you; and Billy Alexander; and all gay and brave young men
+whose unstained swords hedge the women of County Tryon from this same
+red monster that you mention." And watched me to see how I swallowed
+this.
+
+I said warily: "Surely, Claudia, all women command our swords ... no
+matter _which cause we espouse_."
+
+"Jack!"
+
+"I hear you, Claudia."
+
+But, "Oh, my God!" she breathed; and put her hands to her face. A moment
+she stood so, then, eyes still covered by one hand, extended the other
+to me. I kissed it lightly; then kissed it again.
+
+"Do you leave us, Jack?"
+
+I understood.
+
+"It is you who leave me, Claudia."
+
+She, too, understood. It was my first confession that all was not right
+betwixt my conscience and my King. For that was the only thing I was
+certain about concerning her: she never betrayed a confidence, whatever
+else she did. And so I made plain to her where my heart and honour
+lay--not with the King's men in this coming struggle--but with my own
+people.
+
+I think she knew, too, that I had never before confessed as much to any
+living soul, for she took her other hand from her eyes and looked at me
+as though something had happened in which she took a sorrowful pride.
+
+Then I kissed her hand for the third time, and let it free. And, going:
+
+"God be with you," she said with a slight smile; "you are my dear
+friend, John Drogue."
+
+At the Hall porch she turned, the mischief glimmering in her eyes:
+"--And so is Billy Alexander," quoth she.
+
+So she went into the darkened Hall.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was many months before I saw our Sacharissa again--not until Major
+André had made many another verse for many another inamorata, and his
+soldier-actors had played more than one of his farces in besieged Boston
+to the loud orchestra of His Excellency's rebel cannon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE POT BOILS
+
+
+Sir William died on the 24th of June in the year 1774; which was the
+twentieth year of my life.
+
+On the day after he was buried in Saint John's Church in Johnstown,
+which he had built, I left the Hall for Fonda's Bush, which was a
+wilderness and which lay some nine miles distant in the Mohawk country,
+along the little river called Kennyetto.
+
+I speak of Fonda's Bush as a wilderness; but it was not entirely so,
+because already old Henry Stoner, the trapper who wore two gold rings in
+his ears, had built him a house near the Kennyetto and had taken up his
+abode there with his stalwart and handsome sons, Nicholas and John, and
+a little daughter, Barbara.
+
+Besides this family, who were the pioneers in that vast forest where the
+three patents[2] met, others now began settling upon the pretty little
+river in the wilderness, which made a thousand and most amazing windings
+through the Bush of Major Fonda.
+
+[Footnote 2: The Three Patents were Sacandaga, Kayaderosseras, and
+Stones.]
+
+There came, now, to the Kennyetto, the family of one De Silver; also the
+numerous families of John Homan, and Elias Cady; then the Salisburys,
+Putnams, Bowmans, and Helmers arrived. And Benjamin De Luysnes followed
+with Joseph Scott where the Frenchman, De Golyer, had built a house and
+a mill on the trout brook north of us. There was also a dour Scotchman
+come thither--a grim and decent man with long, thin shanks under his
+kilts, who roved the Bush like a weird and presently went away again.
+
+But before he took himself elsewhere he marked some gigantic trees with
+his axe and tied a rag of tartan to a branch.
+
+And, "Fonda's Bush is no name," quoth he. "Where a McIntyre sets his
+mark he returns to set his foot. And where he sets foot shall be called
+Broadalbin, or I am a great liar!"
+
+And he went away, God knows where. But what he said has become true; for
+when again he set his foot among the dead ashes of Fonda's Bush, it
+became Broadalbin. And the clans came with him, too; and they peppered
+the wilderness with their Scottish names,--Perth, Galway, Scotch Bush,
+Scotch Church, Broadalbin,--but my memory runs too fast, like a young
+hound giving tongue where the scent grows hotter!--for the quarry is not
+yet in sight, nor like to be for many a bloody day, alas!----
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There was a forest road to the Bush, passable for waggons, and used
+sometimes by Sir William when he went a-fishing in the Kennyetto.
+
+It was by this road I travelled thither, well-horsed, and had borrowed
+the farm oxen to carry all my worldly goods.
+
+I had clothing, a clock, some books, bedding of my own, and sufficient
+pewter.
+
+I had my own rifle, a fowling piece, two pistols, and sufficient
+ammunition.
+
+And with these, and, as I say, well horsed, I rode out of Johnstown on a
+June morning, all alone, my heart still heavy with grief for Sir
+William, and deeply troubled for my country.
+
+For the provinces, now, were slowly kindling, warmed with those pure
+flames that purge the human soul; and already the fire had caught and
+was burning fiercely in Massachusetts Bay, where John Hancock fed the
+flames, daintily, cleverly, with all the circumstance, impudence, and
+grace of your veritable macaroni who will not let an inferior outdo him
+in a bow, but who is sometimes insolent to kings.
+
+Well, I was for the forest, now, to wrest from a sunless land a mouthful
+o' corn to stop the stomach's mutiny.
+
+And if the Northland caught fire some day--well, I was as inflammable as
+the next man, who will not suffer violation of house or land or honour.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As Brent-Meester to Sir William, my duties took me everywhere. I knew
+old man Stoner, and Nick had become already my warm friend, though I was
+now a grown man of more than twenty and he still of boy's age. Yet, in
+many ways, he seemed more mature than I.
+
+I think Nick Stoner was the most mischievous lad I ever knew--and
+admired. He sometimes said the same of me, though I was not, I think, by
+nature, designed for a scapegrace. However, two years in the wilderness
+will undermine the grace of saint or sinner in some degree. And if, when
+during those two hard years I went to Johnstown for a breath of
+civilization--or to Schenectady, or, rarely, to Albany--I frequented a
+few good taverns, there was little harm done, and nothing malicious.
+
+True, disputes with Tories sometimes led to blows, and mayhap some
+Albany watchman's Dutch noddle needed vinegar to soothe the flamms
+drummed upon it by a stout stick or ramrod resembling mine.
+
+True, the humming ale at the Admiral Warren Tavern may sometimes have
+made my own young noddle hum, and Nick Stoner's, too; but there came no
+harm of it, unless there be harm in bussing a fresh and rosy wench or
+two; or singing loudly in the tap-room and timing each catch to the
+hammering of our empty leather jacks on long hickory tables wet with
+malt.
+
+But why so sad, brother Broadbrim? Youth is not to be denied. No! And
+youth that sets its sinews against an iron wilderness to conquer
+it,--youth that wields its puny axe against giant trees,--youth that
+pulls with the oxen to uproot enormous stumps so that when the sun is
+let in there will be a soil to grow corn enough to defy
+starvation,--youth that toils from sun-up to dark, hewing, burning,
+sawing, delving, plowing, harrowing day after day, month after month,
+pausing only to kill the wild meat craved or snatch a fish from some
+forest fount,--such youth cannot be decently denied, brother Broadbrim!
+
+But if Nick and I were truly as graceless as some stiff-necked folk
+pretended, always there was laughter in our scrapes, even when hot blood
+boiled at the Admiral Warren, and Tory and Rebel drummed one another's
+hides to the outrage of law and order and the mortification of His
+Majesty's magistrates in County Tryon.
+
+Even in Fonda's Bush the universal fire had begun to smoulder; the names
+Rebel and Tory were whispered; the families of Philip Helmer and Elias
+Cady talked very loudly of the King and of Sir John, and how a hempen
+rope was the fittest cravat for such Boston men as bragged too freely.
+
+But what most of all was in my thoughts, as I swung my axe there in the
+immemorial twilight of the woods, concerned the Indians of the great
+Iroquois Confederacy.
+
+What would these savages do when the storm broke? What would happen to
+this frontier? What would happen to the solitary settlers, to such
+hamlets as Fonda's Bush, to Johnstown, to Schenectady--nay, to Albany
+itself?
+
+Sir William was no more. Guy Johnson had become his Majesty's
+Superintendent for Indian affairs. He was most violently a King's man--a
+member of the most important family in all the Northland, and master of
+six separate nations of savages, which formed the Iroquois Confederacy.
+
+What would Guy Johnson do with the warriors of these six nations that
+bordered our New York frontier?
+
+Always these questions were seething in my mind as I swung my axe or
+plowed or harrowed. I thought about them as I sat at eventide by the
+door of my new log house. I considered them as I lay abed, watching the
+moonlight crawl across the puncheon floor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As Brent-Meester to Sir William, I knew Indians, and how to conduct when
+I encountered them in the forest, in their own castles, or when they
+visited the Hall.
+
+I had no love for them and no dislike, but treated them always with the
+consideration due from one white man to another.
+
+I was not conscious of making any friends among them, nor of making any
+enemies either. To me they were a natural part of the wilderness, like
+the trees, rivers, hills, and wild game, belonging there and not
+wantonly to be molested.
+
+Others thought differently; trappers, forest runners, coureurs-du-bois
+often hated them, and lost no opportunity to display their animosity or
+to do them a harm.
+
+But it was not in me to feel that way toward any living creature whom
+God had fashioned in His own image if not in His own colour. And who is
+so sure, even concerning the complexion of the Most High?
+
+Also, Sir William's kindly example affected my sentiments toward these
+red men of the forest. I learned enough of their language to suit my
+requirements; I was courteous to their men, young and old; and
+considerate toward their women. Otherwise, I remained indifferent.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now, during these first two years of my life in Fonda's Bush, events in
+the outer world were piling higher than those black thunder-clouds that
+roll up behind the Mayfield hills and climb toward mid-heaven. Already
+the dull glare of lightning lit them redly, though the thunder was, as
+yet, inaudible.
+
+In April of my first year in Fonda's Bush a runner came to the Kennyetto
+with the news of Lexington, and carried it up and down the wilderness
+from the great Vlaie and Maxon Ridge to Frenchman's Creek and Fonda's
+Bush.
+
+This news came to us just as we learned that our Continental Congress
+was about to reassemble; and it left our settlement very still and
+sober, and a loaded rifle within reach of every man who went grimly
+about his spring plowing.
+
+But the news of open rebellion in Massachusetts Bay madded our Tory
+gentry of County Tryon; and they became further so enraged when the
+Continental Congress met that they contrived a counter demonstration,
+and, indeed, seized upon a pretty opportunity to carry it with a high
+hand.
+
+For there was a Court holden in Johnstown, and a great concourse of
+Tryon loyalists; and our Tory hatch-mischiefs did by arts and guile and
+persuasions obtain signatures from the majority of the Grand Jurors and
+the County Magistracy.
+
+Which, when known and flaunted in the faces of the plainer folk of Tryon
+County, presently produced in all that slow, deep anger with which it is
+not well to trifle--neither safe for kings nor lesser fry.
+
+In the five districts, committees were appointed to discuss what was to
+be the attitude of our own people and to erect a liberty pole in every
+hamlet.
+
+The Mohawk district began this business, which, I think, was truly the
+beginning of the Revolution in the great Province of New York. The
+Canajoharie district, the Palatine, the Flatts, the Kingsland followed.
+
+And, at the Mohawk district meeting, who should arrive but Sir John,
+unannounced, uninvited; and with him the entire company of Tory
+big-wigs--Colonels Claus, Guy Johnson, and John Butler, and a heavily
+armed escort from the Hall.
+
+Then Guy Johnson climbed up onto a high stoop and began to harangue our
+unarmed people, warning them of offending Majesty, abusing them for
+dolts and knaves and traitors to their King, until Jacob Sammons, unable
+to stomach such abuse, shook his fist at the Intendant. And, said he:
+"Guy Johnson, you are a liar and a villain! You may go to hell, sir, and
+take your Indians, too!"
+
+But Guy Johnson took him by the throat and called him a damned villain
+in return. Then the armed guard came at Sammons and knocked him down
+with their pistol-butts, and a servant of Sir John sat astride his body
+and beat him.
+
+There was a vast uproar then; but our people were unarmed, and presently
+took Sammons and went off.
+
+But, as they left the street, many of them called out to Sir John that
+it were best for him to fortify his Baronial Hall, because the day drew
+near when he would be more in need of swivel guns than of
+congratulations from his Royal Master.
+
+Sure, now, the fire blazing so prettily in Boston was already running
+north along the Hudson; and Tryon had begun to smoke.
+
+Now there was, in County Tryon, a number of militia regiments of which,
+when brigaded, Sir William had been our General.
+
+Guy Johnson, also, was Colonel of the Mohawk regiment. But the Mohawk
+regiment had naturally split in two.
+
+Nevertheless he paraded the Tory remainder of it, doubtless with the
+intention of awing the entire county.
+
+It did awe us who were unorganized, had no powder, and whose messengers
+to Albany in quest of ammunition were now stopped and searched by Sir
+John's men.
+
+For the Baronet, also, seemed alarmed; and, with his battalion of
+Highlanders, his Tory militia, his swivels, and his armed retainers,
+could muster five hundred men and no mean artillery to hold the Hall if
+threatened.
+
+But this is not what really troubled the plain people of Tryon. Guy
+Johnson controlled thousands of savage Iroquois. Their war chief was Sir
+William's brother-in-law, brother to the dark Lady Johnson, Joseph
+Brant, called Thayendanegea,--the greatest Mohawk who ever
+lived,--perhaps the greatest of all Iroquois. And I think that Hiawatha
+alone was greater in North America.
+
+Brave, witty, intelligent, intellectual, having a very genius for war
+and stratagems, educated like any gentleman of the day and having served
+Sir William as secretary, Brant, in the conventional garments of
+civilization, presented a charming and perfectly agreeable appearance.
+
+Accustomed to the society of Sir William's drawing room, this Canienga
+Chief was utterly conversant with polite usage, and entirely qualified
+to maintain any conversation addressed to him. Always he had been made
+much of by ladies--always, when it did not too greatly weary him, was he
+the centre of batteries of bright eyes and the object of gayest
+solicitation amid those respectable gatherings for which, in Sir
+William's day, the Hall was so justly celebrated.
+
+That was the modest and civil student and gentleman, Joseph Brant.
+
+But in the forest he was a painted spectre; in battle a flame! He was a
+war chief: he never became Royaneh;[3] but he possessed the wisdom of
+Hendrik, the eloquence of Red Jacket, the terrific energy of Hiakatoo.
+
+[Footnote 3: Sachem: the Canienga term.]
+
+We, of Tryon, were aware of all these things. Our ears were listening
+for the dread wolf cry of the Iroquois in their paint; our eyes were
+turned in dumb expectation toward our Provincial Congress of New York;
+toward our dear General Schuyler in Albany; toward the Continental
+Congress now in solemn session; toward our new and distant hope shining
+clearer, brighter as each day ended--His Excellency the Virginian.
+
+How long were Sir John and his people to be left here in County Tryon to
+terrorize all friends to liberty,--to fortify Johnstown, to stop us
+about our business on the King's highway, to intrigue with the Mohawks,
+the Oneidas, the Cayugas, the Onondagas, the Senecas, the Tuscaroras?
+
+Guy Johnson tampered with the River Indians at Poughkeepsie, and we knew
+it. He sent belts to the Shawanese, to the Wyandottes, to the Mohicans.
+We knew it. He met the Delaware Sachems at a mongrel fire--God knows
+where and by what authority, for the Federal Council never gave it!--and
+we stopped one of his runners in the Bush with his pouch full o' belts
+and strings; and we took every inch of wampum without leave of Sir John,
+and bade the runner tell him what we did.
+
+We wrote to Albany; Albany made representations to Sir John, and the
+Baronet replied that his show of armed force at the Hall was solely for
+the reason that he had been warned that the Boston people were laying
+plans to invade Tryon and make of him a prisoner.
+
+I think this silly lie was too much for Schuyler, for all now knew that
+war must come. Twelve Colonies, in Congress assembled, had announced
+that they had rather die as free people than continue to live as slaves.
+Very fine indeed! But what was of more interest to us at Fonda's Bush,
+this Congress commissioned George Washington as Commander in Chief of a
+Colonial Army of 20,000 men, and prepared to raise three millions on
+bills of credit _for the prosecution of the war_!
+
+Now, at last, the cleavage had come. Now, at last, Sir John was forced
+into the open.
+
+He swore by Almighty God that he had had no hand in intriguing against
+the plain people of Tryon: and while he was making this oath, Guy
+Johnson was raising the Iroquois against us at Oswego; he was plotting
+with Carleton and Haldimand at Montreal; he had arranged for the
+departure of Brant with the great bulk of the Mohawk nation, and, with
+them, the fighting men of the Iroquois Confederacy. Only the Western
+Gate Keepers remained,--the fierce Senecas.
+
+And so, except for a few Tuscaroras, a few lukewarm Onondagas, a few of
+the Lenape, and perhaps half--possibly two-thirds of the Oneida nation,
+Guy Johnson already had swung the terrible Iroquois to the King.
+
+And now, secretly, the rats began to leave for the North, where, behind
+the Canada border, savage hordes were gathering by clans, red and white
+alike.
+
+Guy Johnson went on pretense of Indian business; and none dare stop the
+Superintendent for Indian affairs on a mission requiring, as he stated,
+his personal appearance at Oswego.
+
+But once there he slipped quietly over into Canada; and Brant joined
+him.
+
+Colonel Claus sneaked North; old John Butler went in the night with a
+horde of Johnstown and Caughnawaga Tories. McDonald followed,
+accompanied by some scores of bare-shinned Tory Mc's. Walter Butler
+disappeared like a phantom.
+
+But Sir John remained behind his stockade and swivels at the Hall,
+vowing and declaring that he meditated no mischief--no, none at all.
+
+Then, in a fracas in Johnstown, that villain sheriff, Alexander White,
+fired upon Sammons, and the friends to liberty went to take the
+murderous Tory at the jail.
+
+Frey was made sheriff, which infuriated Sir John; but Governor Tryon
+deposed him and reappointed White, so the plain people went again to do
+him a harm; and he fled the district to the mortification of the
+Baronet.
+
+But Sir John's course was nearly at an end: and events in the outer
+world set the sands in his cloudy glass running very swiftly. Schuyler
+and Montgomery were directing a force of troops against Montreal and
+Quebec, and Sir Guy Carleton, Governor General of Canada, was shrieking
+for help.
+
+St. John's surrendered, and _the Mohawk Indians began fighting_!
+
+Here was a pretty pickle for Sir John to explain.
+
+Suddenly we had news of the burning of Falmouth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On a bitter day in early winter, an Express passed through Fonda's Bush
+on snow-shoes, calling out a squad of the Mohawk Regiment of District
+Militia.
+
+Nick Stoner, Andrew Bowman, Joe Scott, and I answered the summons.
+
+Snow-shoeing was good--a light fall on the crust--and we pulled foot for
+the Kingsborough trail, where we met up with a squad from the Palatine
+Regiment and another from the Flatts.
+
+But scarce were we in sight of Johnstown steeples when the drums of an
+Albany battalion were heard; and we saw, across the snow, their long
+brown muskets slanting, and heard their bugle-horn on the Johnstown
+road.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I saw nothing of the affair at the Hall, being on guard at St. John's
+Church, lower down in the town. But I saw our General Schuyler ride up
+the street with his officers; and so knew that all would go well.
+
+All went well enough, they say. For when again the General rode past the
+church, I saw waggons under our escort piled with the muskets of the
+Highland Battalion, and others heaped high with broad-swords, pistols,
+swivels, and pikes. And on Saturday, the twentieth of January, when our
+tour of duty ended, and our squads were dismissed, each to its proper
+district, all people knew that Sir John Johnson had given his parole of
+honor not to take up arms against America; not to communicate with the
+Royalists in Canada; not to oppose the friends of liberty at home; nor
+to stir from his Baronial Hall to go to Canada or to the sea, but with
+liberty to transact such business as might be necessary in other parts
+of this colony.
+
+And I, for one, never doubted that a son of the great Sir William would
+keep his word and sacred parole of honour.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+TWO COUNTRY MICE
+
+
+It was late in April, and I had boiled my sap and had done with my sugar
+bush for another year. The snow was gone; the Kennyetto roared amber
+brilliant through banks of melting ice, and a sweet odour of arbutus
+filled all the woods.
+
+Spring was in the land and in my heart, too, and when Nick Stoner
+galloped to my door in his new forest dress, very fine, I, nothing
+loath, did hasten to dress me in my new doe-skins, not less fine than
+Nick's and lately made for me by a tailor-woman in Kingsborough who was
+part Oneida and part Dutch.
+
+That day I wore a light, round cap of silver mole fur with my unshorn
+hair, all innocent of queue or powder, curling crisp like a woman's. Of
+which I was ashamed and eager to visit Toby Tice, our Johnstown barber,
+and be trimmed.
+
+My new forest dress, as I say, was of doe-skin--a laced shirt belted in,
+shoulder-caped, cut round the neck to leave my throat free, and with
+long thrums on sleeve and skirt against need.
+
+Trews shaped to fit my legs close; and thigh moccasins, very deep with
+undyed fringe, but ornamented by an infinite pattern of little green
+vines, made me brave in my small mirror. And my ankle moccasins were gay
+with Oneida devices wrought out of porcupine quills and beads, scarlet,
+green, purple, and orange, and laid open at the instep by two beaded
+flaps.
+
+I saddled my mare, Kaya, in her stall, which was a log wing to my house,
+and presently mounted and rode around to where Nick sat his saddle
+a-playing on his fife, which he carried everywhere with him, he loving
+music but obliged to make his own.
+
+"Lord Harry!" cried he on seeing me so fine. "If you are not truly a
+Viscount then you look one!"
+
+"I would not change my name and health and content," said I, "for a
+king's gold crown today." And I clinked the silver coins in my pouch and
+laughed. And so we rode away along the Johnstown road.
+
+He also, I think, was dying for a frolic. Young minds in trouble as well
+as hard-worked bodies need a holiday now and then. He winked at me and
+chinked the shillings in his bullet-pouch.
+
+"We shall see all the sights," quoth he, "and the Kennyetto could not
+quench my thirst today, nor our two horses eat as much, nor since time
+began could all the lovers in history love as much as could I this April
+day.... Were there some pretty wench of my own mind to use me kindly....
+Like that one who smiled at us--do you remember?"
+
+"At Christmas?"
+
+"That's the one!" he exclaimed. "Lord! but she was handsome in her
+sledge!--and her sister, too, Jack."
+
+"I forget their names," said I.
+
+"Browse," he said, "--Jessica and Betsy. And they live at Pigeon-Wood
+near Mayfield."
+
+"Oho!" said I, "you have made their acquaintance!"
+
+He laughed and we galloped on.
+
+Nick sang in his saddle, beating time upon his thigh with his fife:
+
+    "Flammadiddle!
+    Paddadiddle!
+    Flammadiddle dandy!
+    My Love's kisses
+    Are sweet as sugar-candy!
+    Flammadiddle!
+    Paddadiddle!
+    Flammadiddle dandy!
+    She makes fun o' me
+    Because my legs are bandy----"
+
+He checked his gay refrain:
+
+"Speaking of flamms," said he, "my brother John desires to be a drummer
+in the Continental Line."
+
+"He is only fourteen," said I, laughing.
+
+"I know. But he is a tall lad and stout enough. What will be your
+regiment, Jack?"
+
+"I like Colonel Livingston's," said I, "but nobody yet knows what is to
+be the fate of the district militia and whether the Mohawk regiment, the
+Palatine, and the other three are to be recruited to replace the Tory
+deserters, or what is to be done."
+
+Nick flourished his flute: "All I know," he said, "is that my father and
+brother and I mean to march."
+
+"I also," said I.
+
+"Then it's in God's hands," he remarked cheerfully, "and I mean to use
+my ears and eyes in Johnstown today."
+
+We put our horses to a gallop.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We rode into Johnstown and through the village, very pleased to be in
+civilization again, and saluting many wayfarers whom we recognized, Tory
+and Whig alike. Some gave us but a cold good-day and looked sideways at
+our forest dress; others were marked in cordiality,--men like our new
+Sheriff, Frey, and the two Sammonses and Jacob Shew.
+
+We met none of the Hall people except the Bouw-Meester, riding beside
+five yoke of beautiful oxen, who drew bridle to exchange a mouthful of
+farm gossip with me while the grinning slaves waited on the footway,
+goads in hand.
+
+Also, I saw out o' the tail of my eye the two Bartholomews passing,
+white and stunted and uncanny as ever, but pretended not to notice them,
+for I had always felt a shiver when they squeaked good-day at me, and
+when they doffed hats the tops of their heads had blue marbling on the
+scalp under their scant dry hair. Which did not please me.
+
+Whilst I chattered with the Bouw-Meester of seeds and plowing, Nick, who
+had no love for husbandry, practiced upon his fife so windily and with
+such enthusiasm that we three horsemen were soon ringed round by urchins
+of the town on their reluctant way to school.
+
+"How's old Wall?" cried Nick, resting his puckered lips and wiping his
+fife. "There's a schoolmaster for pickled rods, I warrant. Eh, boys? Am
+I right?"
+
+Lads and lassies giggled, some sucked thumbs and others hung their
+heads.
+
+"Come, then," cried Nick, "he's a good fellow, after all! And so am
+I--when I'm asleep!"
+
+Whereat all the children giggled again and Nick fished a great cake of
+maple sugar from his Indian pouch, drew his war-hatchet, broke the lump,
+and passed around the fragments. And many a childish face, which had
+been bright and clean with scrubbing, continued schoolward as sticky as
+a bear cub in a bee-tree.
+
+And now the Bouw-Meester and his oxen and the grinning slaves had gone
+their way; so Nick and I went ours.
+
+There were taverns enough in the town. We stopped at one or two for a
+long pull and a dish of meat.
+
+Out of the window I could see something of the town and it seemed
+changed; the Court House deserted; the jail walled in by a new
+palisade; fewer people on the street, and little traffic. Nor did I
+perceive any red-coats ruffling it as of old; the Highlanders who passed
+wore no side-arms,--excepting the officers. And I thought every Scot
+looked glum as a stray dog in a new village, where every tyke moves
+stiffly as he passes and follows his course with evil eyes.
+
+We had silver in our bullet pouches. We visited every shop, but
+purchased nothing useful; for Nick bought sweets and a mouse-trap and
+some alley-taws for his brother John--who wished to go to war! Oh,
+Lord!--and for his mother he found skeins of brightly-coloured wool; and
+for his father a Barlow jack-knife.
+
+I bought some suekets and fish-hooks and a fiddle,--God knows why, for I
+can not play on it, nor desire to!--and I further purchased two books,
+"Lives of Great Philosophers," by Rudd, and a witty poem by Peter
+Pindar, called "The Lousiad"--a bold and mirthful lampoon on the British
+King.
+
+These packets we stowed in our saddle-bags, and after that we knew not
+what to do save to seek another tavern.
+
+But Nick was no toss-pot, nor was I. And having no malt-thirst, we
+remained standing in the street beside our horses, debating whether to
+go home or no.
+
+"Shall you pay respects at the Hall?" he asked seriously.
+
+But I saw no reason to go, owing no duty; and the visit certain to prove
+awkward, if, indeed, it aroused in Sir John no more violent emotion than
+pain at sight of me.
+
+With our bridles over our arms, still debating, we walked along the
+street until we came to the Johnson Arms Tavern,--a Tory rendezvous not
+now frequented by friends of liberty.
+
+It was so dull in Johnstown that we tied our horses and went into the
+Johnson Arms, hoping, I fear, to stir up a mischief inside.
+
+Their brew was poor; and the spirits of the dozen odd Tories who sat
+over chess or draughts, or whispered behind soiled gazettes, was poorer
+still.
+
+All looked up indifferently as we entered and saluted them.
+
+"Ah, gentlemen," says Nick, "this is a glorious April day, is it not?"
+
+"It's well enough," said a surly man in horn spectacles, "but I should
+be vastly obliged, sir, if you would shut the door, which you have left
+swinging in the wind."
+
+"Sir," says Nick, "I fear you are no friend to God's free winds. Free
+winds, free sunshine, free speech, these suit my fancy. Freedom, sir, in
+her every phase--and Liberty--the glorious jade! Ah, gentlemen, there's
+a sweetheart you can never tire of. Take my advice and woo her, and
+you'll never again complain of a breeze on your shins!"
+
+"If you are so ardent, sir," retorted another man in a sneering voice,
+"why do you not go courting your jade in Massachusetts Bay?"
+
+"Because, sir," said I, "our sweetheart, Mistress Liberty, is already on
+her joyous way to Johnstown. It is a rendezvous, gentlemen. Will it
+please you to join us in receiving her?"
+
+One man got up, overturning the draught board, paid his reckoning, and
+went out muttering and gesticulating.
+
+"A married man," quoth Nick, "and wedded to that old hag, Tyranny. It
+irks him to hear of fresh young jades, knowing only too well what old
+sour-face awaits him at home with the bald end of a broom."
+
+The dark looks cast at us signalled storms; but none came, so poor the
+spirit of the company.
+
+"Gentlemen, you seem melancholy and distrait," said I. "Are you so
+pensive because my Lord Dunmore has burned our pleasant city of Norfolk?
+Is it that which weighs upon your minds? Or is the sad plight of Tommy
+Gage distressing you? Or the several pickles in which Sir Guy Carleton,
+General Burgoyne, and General Howe find themselves?"
+
+"Possibly," quoth Nick, "a short poem on these three British warriors
+may enliven you:
+
+    "_Carleton, Burgoyne, Howe,_
+    "_Bow-wow-wow_!"
+
+But there was nothing to be hoped of these sullen Tories, for they took
+our laughter scowling, but budged not an inch. A pity, for it was come
+to a pretty pass in Johnstown when two honest farmers must go home for
+lack of a rogue or two of sufficient spirit to liven a dull day withal.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We stopped at the White Doe Tavern, and Nick gave the company another
+poem, which he said was writ by my Lord North:
+
+    "O Boston wives and maids draw near and see
+    Our delicate Souchong and Hyson tea;
+    Buy it, my charming girls, fair, black, or brown;
+    If not, we'll cut your throats and burn your town!"
+
+Whereat all the company laughed and applauded; and there was no hope of
+any sport to be had there, either.
+
+"Well," said Nick, sighing, "the war seems to be done ere it begun.
+What's in those whelps at the Johnson Arms, that they stomach such jests
+as we cook for them? Time was when I knew where I could depend upon a
+broken head in Johnstown--mine own or another's."
+
+We had it in mind to dine at the Doe, planning, as we sat on the stoop,
+bridles in hand, to ride back to the Bush by new moonlight.
+
+"If a pretty wench were as rare as a broken head in Johnstown," he
+muttered, "I'd be undone, indeed. Come, Jack; shall we ride that way
+homeward?"
+
+"Which way?"
+
+"By Pigeon-Wood."
+
+"By Mayfield?"
+
+"Aye."
+
+"You have a sweetheart there, you say?"
+
+"And so, perhaps, might you, for the pain of passing by."
+
+"No," said I, "I want no sweetheart. To clip a lip en passant, if the
+lip be warm and willing,--that is one thing. A blush and a laugh and
+'tis over. But to journey in quest of gallantries with malice
+aforethought--no."
+
+"I saw her in a sledge," sighed Nick, sucking his empty pipe. "And
+followed. Lord, but she is handsome,--Betsy Browse!--and looked at me
+kindly, I thought.... We had a fight."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Her father and I. For an hour the old man nigh twisted his head off
+turning around to see what sledge was following his. Then he shouts,
+'Whoa!' and out he bounces into the snow; and I out o' my sledge to see
+what it was he wanted.
+
+"He wanted my scalp, I think, for when I named myself and said I lived
+at Fonda's Bush, he fetched me a knock with his frozen mittens,--Lord,
+Jack, I saw a star or two, I warrant you; and a gay stream squirted from
+my nose upon the snow and presently the whole wintry world looked red to
+me, so I let fly a fist or two at the old man, and he let fly a few more
+at me.
+
+"'Dammy!' says he, 'I'll learn ye to foller my darters, you poor dum
+Boston critter! I'll drum your hide from Fundy's Bush to Canady!'
+
+"But after I had rolled him in the snow till his scratch-wig fell off,
+he became more civil--quite polite for a Tory with his mouth full o'
+snow.
+
+"So I went with him to his sledge and made a polite bow to the
+ladies--who looked excited but seemed inclined to smile when I promised
+to pass by Pigeon-Wood some day."
+
+"A rough wooing," said I, laughing.
+
+"Rough on old man Browse. But he's gone with Guy Johnson."
+
+"What! To Canada? The beast!"
+
+"Aye. So I thought to stop some day at Pigeon-Wood to see if the cote
+were entirely empty or no. Lord, what a fight we had, old Browse and I,
+there in the snow of the Mayfield road! And he burly as an October
+bear--a man all knotted over with muscles, and two fists that slapped
+you like the front kick of a moose! Oh, Lordy! Lordy! What a battle was
+there.... What bright eyes hath that little jade Betsy, of Pigeon-Wood!"
+
+Now, as he spoke, I had a mind to see this same Tory girl of
+Pigeon-Wood; and presently admitted to him my curiosity.
+
+And then, just as we had mounted and were gathering bridles and
+searching for our stirrups with moccasined toes, comes a galloper in
+scarlet jacket and breeks, with a sealed letter waved high to halt me.
+
+Sitting my horse in the street, I broke the seal and read what was
+written to me.
+
+The declining sun sent its rosy shafts through the still village now,
+painting every house and setting glazed windows a-glitter.
+
+I looked around me, soberly, at the old and familiar town; I glanced at
+Nick; I gazed coldly upon the galloper,--a cornet of Border Horse, and
+as solemn as he was young.
+
+"Sir," said I, "pray present to Lady Johnson my duties and my
+compliments, and say that I am honoured by her ladyship's commands, and
+shall be--happy--to present myself at Johnson Hall within the hour."
+
+Young galloper salutes; I outdo him in exact and scrupulous courtesy,
+mole-skin cap in hand; and 'round he wheels and away he tears like the
+celebrated Tory in the song, Jock Gallopaway.
+
+"Here's a kettle o' fish," remarked Nick in disgust.
+
+"Were it not Lady Johnson," muttered I, but checked myself. After all,
+it seemed ungenerous that I should decline to see even Sir John, who now
+was virtually a prisoner of my own party, penned here within that
+magnificent domain of which his great father had been creator and
+absolute lord.
+
+"I must go, Nick," I said in a low voice.
+
+He said with a slight sneer, "Noblesse oblige----" and then, sorry, laid
+a quick hand on my arm.
+
+"Forgive me, Jack. My father wears two gold rings in his ears. Your
+father wore them on his fingers. I know I am a boor until your kindness
+makes me forget it."
+
+I said quietly: "We are two comrades and friends to liberty. It is not
+what we are born to but what we are that matters a copper penny in the
+world."
+
+"It is easy for you to say so."
+
+"It is important for you to believe so. As I do."
+
+"Do you really so?" he asked with that winning upward glance that
+revealed his boyish faith in me.
+
+"I really do, Nick; else, perhaps, I had been with Guy Johnson in Canada
+long ago."
+
+"Then I shall try to believe it, too," he murmured, "--whether ears or
+fingers or toes wear the rings."
+
+We laughed.
+
+"How long?" he inquired bluntly.
+
+"To sup, I think. I must remain if Lady Johnson requests it of me."
+
+"And afterward. Will you ride home by way of Pigeon-Wood?"
+
+"Will you still be lingering there?" I asked with a smile.
+
+"Whether the pigeon-cote be empty or full, I shall await you there."
+
+I nodded. We smiled at each other and wheeled our horses in opposite
+directions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A SUPPER
+
+
+Now, what seemed strange to me at the Hall was the cheerfulness of all
+under circumstances which must have mortified any Royalist, and, in
+particular, the principal family in North America of that political
+complexion.
+
+Even Sir John, habitually cold and reserved, appeared to be in most
+excellent spirits for such a man, and his wintry smile shed its faint
+pale gleam more than once upon the company assembled at supper.
+
+On my arrival there seemed to be nobody there except the groom, who took
+my mare, Kaya, and Frank, Sir William's butler, who ushered me and
+seemed friendly.
+
+Into the drawing room came black Flora, all smiles, to say that the
+gentlemen were dressing but that Lady Johnson would receive me.
+
+She was seated before her glass in her chamber, and the red-cheeked
+Irish maid she had brought from New York was exceedingly busy curling
+her hair.
+
+"Oh, Jack!" said Lady Johnson softly, and holding out to me one hand to
+be saluted, "they told me you were in the village. Has it become
+necessary that I must send for an old friend who should have come of his
+own free will?"
+
+"I thought perhaps you and Sir John might not take pleasure in a visit
+from me," I replied, honestly enough.
+
+"Why? Because last winter you answered the district summons and were on
+guard at the church with the Rebel Mohawk company?"
+
+So she knew that, too. But I had scarcely expected otherwise. And it
+came into my thought that the dwarfish Bartholomews had given her news
+of my doings and my whereabouts.
+
+"Come," said she in her lively manner, "a good soldier obeys his
+colonel, whoever that officer may chance to be--_for the moment_. And,
+were you even otherwise inclined, Jack, of what use would it have been
+to disobey after Philip Schuyler disarmed our poor Scots?"
+
+"If Sir John feels as you do, it makes my visit easier for all," said I.
+
+"Sir John," she replied, "is not a whit concerned. We here at the Hall
+have laid down our arms; we are peaceably disposed; farm duties begin; a
+multitude of affairs preoccupy us; so let who will fight out this
+quarrel in Massachusetts Bay, so only that we have tranquillity and
+peace in County Tryon."
+
+I listened, amazed, to this school-girl chatter, marvelling that she
+herself believed such pitiable nonsense.
+
+Yet, that she did believe it I was assured, because in my Lady Johnson
+there was nothing false, no treachery or lies or cunning.
+
+Somebody sure had filled her immature mind with this jargon, which now
+she repeated to me. And in it I vaguely perceived the duplicity and
+ingenious manoeuvring of wills and minds more experienced than her
+own.
+
+But I said only that I hoped this county might escape the conflagration
+now roaring through all New England and burning very fiercely in
+Virginia and the Carolinas. Then, smiling, I made her a compliment on
+her hair, which her Irish maid was dressing very prettily, and laughed
+at her man's banyan which she so saucily wore in place of a levete. Only
+a young and pretty woman could presume to wear a flowered silk banyan at
+her toilet; but it mightily became Polly Johnson.
+
+"Claudia is here," she remarked with a kindly malice perfectly
+transparent.
+
+I took the news in excellent part, and played the hopeless swain for a
+while, to amuse her, and so cunningly, too, that presently the charming
+child felt bound to comfort me.
+
+"Claudia is a witch," says she, "and does vast damage to no purpose but
+that it feeds her vanity. And this I have said frequently to her very
+face, and shall continue until she chooses to refrain from such harmful
+coquetry, and seems inclined to a more serious consideration of life and
+duty."
+
+"Claudia serious!" I exclaimed. "When Claudia becomes pensive, beware of
+her!"
+
+"Claudia should marry early--as I did," said she. But her features grew
+graver as she said it, and I saw not in them that inner light which
+makes delicately radiant the face of happy wifehood.
+
+I thought, "God pity her," but I said gaily enough that retribution must
+one day seize Claudia's dimpled hand and place it in the grasp of some
+gentleman fitly fashioned to school her.
+
+We both laughed; then she being ready for her stays and gown, I retired
+to the library below, where, to my chagrin, who should be lounging but
+Hiakatoo, war chief of the Senecas, in all his ceremonial finery.
+Despite what dear Mary Jamison has written of him, nor doubting that
+pure soul's testimony, I knew Hiakatoo to be a savage beast and a very
+devil, the more to be suspected because of his terrible intelligence.
+
+With him was a Mr. Hare, sometime Lieutenant in the Mohawk Regiment,
+with whom I had a slight acquaintance. I knew him to be Tory to the
+bone, a deputy of Guy Johnson for Indian affairs, and a very shifty
+character though an able officer of county militia and a scout of no
+mean ability.
+
+Hare gave me good evening with much courtesy and self-possession.
+Hiakatoo, also, extended a muscular hand, which I was obliged to take or
+be outdone in civilized usage by a savage.
+
+"Well, sir," says Hare in his frank, misleading manner, "the last o' the
+sugar is a-boiling, I hear, and spring plowing should begin this week."
+
+Neither he nor Hiakatoo had as much interest in husbandry as two
+hoot-owls, nor had they any knowledge of it, either; but I replied
+politely, and, at their request, gave an account of my glebe at Fonda's
+Bush.
+
+"There is game in that country," remarked Hiakatoo in the Seneca
+dialect.
+
+Instantly it entered my head that his remark had two interpretations,
+and one very sinister; but his painted features remained calmly
+inscrutable and perhaps I had merely imagined the dull, hot gleam that I
+thought had animated his sombre eyes.
+
+"There is game in the Bush," said I, pleasantly,--"deer, _bear_,
+turkeys, and partridges a-drumming _the long roll_ all day long. And I
+have seen a moose near Lake Desolation."
+
+Now I had replied to the Seneca in the Canienga dialect; and he might
+interpret in two ways my reference to _bears_, and also what I said
+concerning the _drumming_ of the partridges.
+
+But his countenance did not change a muscle, nor did his eyes. And as
+for Hare, he might not have understood my play upon words, for he seemed
+interested merely in a literal interpretation, and appeared eager to
+hear about the moose I had seen near Lake Desolation.
+
+So I told him I had watched two bulls fighting in the swamp until the
+older beast had been driven off.
+
+"Civilization, too, will soon drive away the last of the moose from
+Tryon," quoth Hare.
+
+"How many families at Fonda's Bush?" asked Hiakatoo abruptly.
+
+I was about to reply, telling him the truth, and checked myself with
+lips already parted to speak.
+
+There ensued a polite silence, but in that brief moment I was convinced
+that they realized I suddenly suspected them.
+
+What I might have answered the Seneca I do not exactly know, for the
+next instant Sir John entered the room with Ensign Moucher, of the old
+Mohawk Regiment, and young Captain Watts from New York, brother to
+Polly, Lady Johnson, a handsome, dissipated, careless lad, inclined to
+peevishness when thwarted, and marred, perhaps, by too much adulation.
+
+Scarce had compliments been exchanged with snuff when Lady Johnson
+entered the room with Claudia Swift, and I thought I had seldom beheld
+two lovelier ladies in their silks and powder, who curtsied low on the
+threshold to our profound bows.
+
+As I saluted Lady Johnson's hand again, she said: "This is most kind of
+you, Jack, because I know that all farmers now have little time to
+waste."
+
+"Like Cincinnatus," said I, smilingly, "I leave my plow in the furrow at
+the call of danger, and hasten to brave the deadly battery of your
+bright eyes."
+
+Whereupon she laughed that sad little laugh which I knew so well, and
+which seemed her manner of forcing mirth when Sir John was present.
+
+I took her out at her request. Sir John led Claudia; the others paired
+gravely, Hare walking with the Seneca and whispering in his ear.
+
+Candles seemed fewer than usual in the dining hall, but were sufficient
+to display the late Sir William's plate and glass.
+
+The scented wind from Claudia's fan stirred my hair, and I remembered it
+was still the hair of a forest runner, neither short nor sufficiently
+long for the queue, and powdered not a trace.
+
+I looked around at Claudia's bright face, more brilliant for the saucy
+patches and newly powdered hair.
+
+"La," said she, "you vie with Hiakatoo yonder in Mohawk finery,
+Jack,--all beads and thrums and wampum. And yet you have a pretty leg
+for a silken stocking, too."
+
+"In the Bush," said I, "the backwoods aristocracy make little of your
+silk hosen, Claudia. Our stockings are leather and our powder black, and
+our patches are of buckskin and are sewed on elbow and knee with
+pack-thread or sinew. Or we use them, too, for wadding."
+
+"It is a fashion like another," she remarked with a shrug, but watching
+me intently over her fan's painted edge.
+
+"The mode is a tyrant," said I, "and knows neither pity nor good taste."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Why, Hiakatoo also wears paint, Claudia."
+
+"Meaning that I wear lip-rouge and lily-balm? Well, I do, my impertinent
+friend."
+
+"Who could suspect it?" I protested, mockingly.
+
+"You might have suspected it long since had you been sufficiently
+adventurous."
+
+"How so?" I inquired in my turn.
+
+"By kissing me, pardieu! But you always were a timid youth, Jack Drogue,
+and a woman's 'No,' with the proper stare of indignation, always was
+sufficient to route you utterly."
+
+In spite of myself I reddened under the smiling torment.
+
+"And if any man has had that much of you," said I, "then I for one will
+believe it only when I see your lip-rouge on his lips!"
+
+"Court me again and then look into your mirror," she retorted calmly.
+
+"What in the world are you saying to each other?" exclaimed Lady
+Johnson, tapping me with her fan. "Why, you are red as a squaw-berry,
+Jack, and your wine scarce tasted."
+
+Claudia said: "I but ask him to try his fortune, and he blushes like a
+silly."
+
+"Shame," returned Lady Johnson, laughing; "and you have Mr. Hare's scalp
+fresh at your belt!"
+
+Hare heard it, and laughed in his frank way, which instantly disarmed
+most people who had not too often heard it.
+
+"I admit," said he, "that I shall presently perish unless this cruel
+lady proves kinder, or restores to me my hair."
+
+"It were more merciful," quoth Ensign Moucher, "to slay outright with a
+single glance. I myself am long since doubly dead," he added with his
+mealy-mouthed laugh, and his mean reddish eyes a-flickering at Lady
+Johnson.
+
+Sir John, who was carving a roast of butcher's meat, carved on, though
+his young wife ventured a glance at him--a sad, timid look as though
+hopeful that her husband might betray some interest when other men said
+gallant things to her.
+
+I asked Sir John's permission to offer a toast, and he gave it with cold
+politeness.
+
+"To the two cruellest and loveliest creatures alive in a love-stricken
+world," said I. "Gentlemen, I offer you our charming tyrants. And may
+our heads remain ever in the dust and their silken shoon upon our
+necks!"
+
+All drank standing. The Seneca gulped his Madeira like a slobbering dog,
+noticing nobody, and then fell fiercely to cutting up his meat, until,
+his knife being in the way, he took the flesh in his two fists and
+gnawed it.
+
+But nobody appeared to notice the Seneca's beastly manners; and such
+general complaisance preoccupied me, because Hiakatoo knew better, and
+it seemed as though he considered himself in a position where he might
+disdain to conduct suitably amid a company which, possibly, stood in
+need of his good will.
+
+Nobody spoke of politics, nor did I care to introduce such a subject.
+Conversation was general; matters concerning the town, the Hall, were
+mentioned, together with such topics as are usually discussed among land
+owners in time of peace.
+
+And it seemed to me that Sir John, who had, as usual, remained coldly
+reticent among his guests, became of a sudden conversational with a sort
+of forced animation, like a man who recollects that he has a part to
+play and who unwillingly attempts it.
+
+He spoke of the Hall farm, and of how he meant to do this with this part
+and that with that part; and how the herd bulls were now become useless
+and he must send to the Patroon for new blood,--all a mere toneless and
+mechanical babble, it seemed to me, and without interest or sincerity.
+
+Once, sipping my claret, I thought I heard a faint clash of arms outside
+and in the direction of the guard-house.
+
+And another time it seemed to me that many horses were stirring
+somewhere outside in the darkness.
+
+I could not conceive of anything being afoot, because of Sir John's
+parole, and so presently dismissed the incidents from my mind.
+
+The wine had somewhat heated the men; laughter was louder, speech less
+guarded. Young Watts spoke boldly of Haldimand and Guy Carleton, naming
+them as the two most efficient servants that his Majesty had in Canada.
+
+Nobody, however, had the effrontery to mention Guy Johnson in my
+presence, but Ensign Moucher pretended to discuss a probable return of
+old John Butler and of his son Walter to our neighborhood,--to hoodwink
+me, I think,--but his mealy manner and the false face he pulled made me
+the more wary.
+
+The wine burned in Hiakatoo, but he never looked toward me nor directly
+at anybody out of his blank red eyes of a panther.
+
+Sir John had become a little drunk and slopped his wine-glass, but the
+wintry smile glimmered on his thin lips as though some secret thought
+contented him, and he was ever whispering with Captain Watts.
+
+But he spoke always of the coming summer and of his cattle and fields
+and the pursuits of peace, saying that he had no interest in Haldimand
+nor in any kinsmen who had fled Tryon; and that all he desired was to be
+let alone at the Hall, and not bothered by Phil Schuyler.
+
+"For," says he, emptying his glass with unsteady hand, "I've enough to
+do to feed my family and my servants and collect my rents; and I'm
+damned if I can do it unless those excitable gentlemen in Albany mind
+their own business as diligently as I wish to mind mine."
+
+"Surely, Sir John," said I, "nobody wishes to annoy you, because it is
+the universal desire that you remain. And, as you have pledged your
+honour to do so, only a fool would attempt to make more difficult your
+position among us."
+
+"Oh, there are fools, too," said he in his slow voice. "There were fools
+who supposed that the Six Nations would not resent ill treatment meted
+out to Guy Johnson." His cold gaze rested for a second upon Hiakatoo,
+then swept elsewhere.
+
+Preoccupied, I heard Claudia's voice in my ear:
+
+"Do you take no pleasure any longer in looking at me, Jack! You have
+paid me very scant notice tonight."
+
+I turned, smilingly made her a compliment, and she was now gazing into
+the little looking-glass set in the handle of her French fan, and her
+dimpled hand busy with her hair.
+
+"Polly's Irish maid dressed my hair," she remarked. "I would to God I
+had as clever a wench. Could you discover one to wait on me?"
+
+Hare, who had no warrant for familiarity, as far as I was concerned,
+nevertheless called out with a laugh that I knew every wench in the
+countryside and should find a pretty one very easily to serve Claudia.
+
+Which pleasantry did not please me; but Ensign Moucher and young Watts
+bore him out, and they all fell a-laughing, discussing with little
+decency such wenches as the two Wormwood girls near Fish House, and
+Betsy and Jessica Browse--maids who were pretty and full of gaiety at
+dance or frolic, and perhaps a trifle free in manners, but of whom I
+knew no evil and believed none whatever the malicious gossip concerning
+them.
+
+The gallantries of such men as Sir John and Walter Butler were known to
+everybody in the country; and so were the carryings on of all the
+younger gentry and the officers from Johnstown to Albany. Young girls'
+names--the daughters of tenants, settlers, farmers, were bandied about
+carelessly enough; and the names of those famed for beauty, or a lively
+disposition, had become more or less familiar to me.
+
+Yet, for myself, my escapades had been harmless enough--a pretty maid
+kissed at a quilting, perhaps; another courted lightly at a barn-romp; a
+laughing tavern wench caressed en passant, but no evil thought of it and
+nothing to regret--no need to remember aught that could start a tear in
+any woman's eyes.
+
+Watts said to Claudia: "There is a maid at Caughnawaga who serves old
+Douw Fonda--a Scotch girl, who might serve you as well as Flora cares
+for my sister."
+
+"Penelope Grant!" exclaims Hare with an oath. Whereat these three young
+men fell a-laughing, and even Sir John leered.
+
+I had heard her name and that the careless young gallants of the country
+were all after this young Scotch girl, servant to Douw Fonda--but I had
+never seen her.
+
+"She lives with the old gentleman, does she not?" inquired Claudia with
+a shrug.
+
+"She cares for him, dresses him, cooks for him, reads to him, sews,
+mends, lights him to bed and tucks him in," said Hare. "My God, what a
+wife she'd make for a farmer! Or a mistress for a gentleman."
+
+"A wench I would employ very gladly," quoth Claudia, frowning. "Could
+you get her ear, Jack, and fetch her?"
+
+"Take her from Douw Fonda?" I exclaimed in surprise.
+
+"The old man is like to die any moment," remarked Watts.
+
+"Besides," said Moucher, "he has scores of kinsmen and their women to
+take him in charge."
+
+"She's a pretty bit o' baggage," said Sir John drunkenly. "If you but
+kiss the little slut she looks at you like a silly kitten, and, I think,
+with no more sense or comprehension."
+
+Captain Watts darted an angry look at his brother-in-law but said
+nothing.
+
+Lady Johnson's features were burning and her lip quivered, but she
+forced a laugh, saying that her husband could have judged only by
+hearsay, and that the Scotch girl's reputation was still very good in
+the country.
+
+"Somebody'll get her," retorted Sir John, thickly, "for they're all
+a-pestering--Walter Butler, too, when he was here,--and your brother,
+and Hare and Moucher yonder. The little slut has yellow hair, but she's
+too damned thin!----" he hiccoughed and upset his wine; and a servant
+wiped his neck-cloth and his silk and silver waistcoat while he, with
+wagging and unsteady head, gazed gravely down at the damage done.
+
+Claudia set her lips to my ear: "The beast!--to affront his wife!" she
+whispered. "Tell me, do you, also, go about your rustic gallantries in
+the shameful manner of these educated and Christian gentlemen?"
+
+"I seek no woman's destruction," said I drily.
+
+"Not even mine?" She laughed as I reddened, and tapped me with her fan.
+
+"If our young men do not turn this Scotch girl's head with their
+philandering, send her to me and I will use her kindly."
+
+"You would not seduce her from an old and almost helpless man who needs
+her?" I demanded.
+
+"I find my servants where I can in such days as these," said she coolly.
+"And there are plenty to care for old Douw Fonda in Caughnawaga, but
+only an accomplished wench like Penelope Grant would I trust to do my
+hair and lace me. Will you send this girl to me?"
+
+"No, I won't," said I bluntly. "I shall not charge myself with such an
+errand, even for you. It is not a decent thing you ask of me or of the
+wench, either."
+
+"It is decent," retorted Claudia pettishly. "If she's as pretty a
+baggage as is reported, some of our young fools will never let her alone
+until one among them turns her silly head. Whereas the girl would be
+safe with me."
+
+"That is not my affair," I remarked.
+
+"Do you wish her harm?"
+
+"I tell you she is no concern of mine. And if she's not a hopeless fool
+she'll know how to trust the gentry of County Tryon."
+
+"You are of them, too, Jack," she said maliciously.
+
+"I am a plain farmer and I trouble no woman."
+
+"You trouble me," she insisted sweetly.
+
+I laughed, not agreeably.
+
+"You do so," she repeated. "I would you had courage to court me again."
+
+"Do you mean courage or inclination, Claudia?"
+
+She gave me a melting look, very sweet, and a trifle sad.
+
+"With patience," she murmured, "you might awaken both our hearts."
+
+"I know well what I'd awaken in you," said I; "I'd awaken the devil. No;
+I've had my chance."
+
+She sighed, still looking at me, and I awaited her further assault,
+grimly armed with memories.
+
+But ere she could speak, Hiakatoo lurched to his feet and stood towering
+there unsteadily, his burning gaze fixed on space.
+
+Whereat Sir John, now very tight and very drowsy, opened owlish eyes;
+and Hare took the Seneca by the arm.
+
+"If you desire to go," said he, "here are three of us ready to ride
+beside you."
+
+Moucher, too, stood up, and so did Captain Watts; but they were not in
+their cups. Watts took Hiakatoo's blanket from a servant and cast it
+over the tall warrior's shoulders.
+
+"The Western Gate of the Confederacy lies unguarded," explained Hare to
+us all, in his frank, amiable manner. "The great Gate Keeper, Hiakatoo,
+bids you all farewell. Duty calls him toward the setting sun."
+
+All had now risen from the table. Hiakatoo lurched past us and out into
+the hallway; Hare and Moucher and Watts took smiling leave of Sir John;
+the ladies gave them all a courteous farewell. Hare, passing, said to
+me:
+
+"To any who enquire you can answer pat enough to make an end to foolish
+rumours concerning any meditated flight of this family."
+
+"My answer," said I quietly, "is always the same: Sir William's son has
+given his parole."
+
+They went out after their Indian, which disturbed me greatly, as I could
+not account for Hiakatoo's presence at Johnstown, and I was ill at ease
+seeing him so apparently in charge of three known Tories, and one of
+them a deputy of Guy Johnson.
+
+However, I took my leave of Sir John, who gave me a wavering hand and
+stared at me blankly. Then I kissed the ladies' hands and went out to
+the porch where Billy waited with my mare, Kaya.
+
+Lady Johnson came to the door as I mounted.
+
+"Don't forget us when again you are in Johnstown," she said.
+
+Claudia, too, appeared and stepped daintily out on the dewy grass,
+lifting her petticoat.
+
+"What a witching night," she exclaimed mischievously, "--what a night
+for love! Do you mark the young moon, Jack, and how all the dark is
+saturated with a sweet smell of new buds?"
+
+"I mark it all," said I, laughing, "and, as for love, why, I love it
+all, Claudia,--moon, darkness, scent of young leaves, the far forest
+still as death, and the noise of the brook yonder."
+
+"I meant a sweeter love," quoth she, coming to my stirrup and laying
+both hands upon my saddle.
+
+"There is no sweeter love," said I, still laughing, "--none happier than
+the love of this silvery world of night which God made to heal us of the
+blows of day."
+
+"Whither do you ride, Jack?"
+
+"Homeward."
+
+"To Fonda's Bush?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Directly home?"
+
+"I have a comrade----" said I. "He awaits me on the Mayfield Road."
+
+"Why do you ride by Mayfield?"
+
+"Because he waits for me there."
+
+"Why, Jack?"
+
+"He has friends to visit----"
+
+"At Mayfield?"
+
+"At Pigeon-Wood," I muttered.
+
+"More gallantry!" she said, tossing her head. "But young men must have
+their fling, and I am not jealous of Betsy Browse or of her pretty
+sister, so that you ride not toward Caughnawaga----"
+
+"What?"
+
+"To see this rustic beauty, Penelope Grant----"
+
+"Have I not refused to seek her for you?" I demanded.
+
+"Yes, but not for yourself, Jack! Curiosity killed a cat and started a
+young man on his travels!"
+
+Exasperated by her malice I struck my mare's flanks with moccasined
+heels; and as I rode out into the darkness Claudia's gaily mocking laugh
+floated after me on the still, sweet air.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+RUSTIC GALLANTRY
+
+
+There were few lanterns and fewer candle lights in Johnstown; sober folk
+seemed to be already abed; only a constable, Hugh McMonts, stood in the
+main street, leaning upon his pike as I followed the new moon out of
+town and down into a dark and lovely land where all was still and
+fragrant and dim as the dreams of those who lie down contented with the
+world.
+
+Now, as I jogged along on my mare, Kaya, over a well-levelled road, my
+mind was very full of what I had seen and heard at Johnson Hall.
+
+One thing seemed clear to me; there could be no foundation for any
+untoward rumours regarding Sir John,--no fear that he meant to shame his
+honoured name and flee to Canada to join Guy Johnson and his Indians and
+the Tryon County Tories who already had fled.
+
+No; Sir John was quietly planning his summer farming. All seemed
+tranquil at the Hall. And I could not find it in my nature to doubt his
+pledged word, nor believe that he was plotting mischief.
+
+Still, it had staggered me somewhat to see Hiakatoo there in his
+ceremonial paint, as though the fire were still burning at Onondaga. But
+I concluded that the Seneca War Chief had come on some private affair
+and not for his nation, because a chief does not travel alone upon a
+ceremonial mission. No; this Indian had arrived to talk privately with
+Hare, who, no doubt, now represented Guy Johnson's late authority among
+the Johnstown Tories.
+
+Thinking over these matters, I jogged into the Mayfield road; and as I
+passed in between the tall wayside bushes, without any warning at all
+two shadowy horsemen rode out in front of me and threw their horses
+across my path, blocking it.
+
+Instantly my hand flew to my hatchet, but at that same moment one of the
+tall riders laughed, and I let go my war-axe, ashamed.
+
+"It's John Drogue!" said a voice I recognized, as I pushed my mare
+close to them and peered into their faces; and I discovered that these
+riders were two neighbors of mine, Godfrey Shew of Fish House, and Joe
+de Golyer of Varick's.
+
+"What frolic is this?" I demanded, annoyed to see their big pistols
+resting on their thighs and their belted hatchets loosened from the
+fringed sheaths.
+
+"No frolic," answered Shew soberly, "though Joe may find it a matter for
+his French mirth."
+
+"Why do you stop folk at night on the King's highway?" I inquired
+curiously of de Golyer.
+
+"Voyons, l'ami Jean," he replied gaily, "Sir Johnson and his Scottish
+bare-shanks, they have long time stop us on their sacré King's highway.
+Now, in our turn, we stop them, by gar! Oui, nom de dieu! And we shall
+see what we shall see, and we shall catch in our little trap what shall
+step into it, pardieu!"
+
+Shew said in his heavy voice: "Our authorities in Albany have concluded
+to watch, for smuggled arms, the roads leading to Johnstown, Mr.
+Drogue."
+
+"Do they fear treachery at the Hall?"
+
+"They do not know what is going on at the Hall. But there are rumours
+abroad concerning the running in of arms for the Highlanders, and the
+constant passing of messengers between Canada and Johnstown."
+
+"I have but left the Hall," said I. "I saw nothing to warrant
+suspicion." And I told them who were there and how they conducted at
+supper.
+
+Shew said with an oath that Lieutenant Hare was a dangerous man, and
+that he hoped a warrant for him would be issued.
+
+"As for the Indian, Hiakatoo," he went on, "he's a surly and cunning
+animal, and a fierce one as are all Senecas. I do not know what has
+brought him to Johnstown, nor why Moucher was there, nor Steve Watts."
+
+"Young Watts, no doubt, came to visit his sister," said I. "That is
+natural, Mr. Shew."
+
+"Oh, no doubt, no doubt," grumbled Shew. "You, Mr. Drogue, are one of
+those gentlemen who seem trustful of the honour of all gentlemen. And
+for every gentleman who _is_ one, the next is a blackguard. I do not
+contradict you. No, sir. But we plain folk of Tryon think it wisdom to
+watch gentlemen like Sir John Johnson."
+
+"I am as plain a man as you are," said I, "but I am not able to doubt
+the word of honour given by the son of Sir William Johnson."
+
+De Golyer laughed and asked me which way I rode, and I told him.
+
+"Nick Stoner also went Mayfield way," said Shew with a shrug. "I think
+he unsaddled at Pigeon-Wood."
+
+They wheeled their horses into the bushes with gestures of adieu; I
+shook my bridle, and my mare galloped out into the sandy road again.
+
+The sky was very bright with that sweet springtime lustre which comes
+not alone from the moon but also from a million million unseen stars,
+all a-shining behind the purple veil of night.
+
+Presently I heard the Mayfield creek babbling like a dozen laughing
+lasses, and rode along the bushy banks looking up at the mountains to
+the north.
+
+They are friendly little mountains which we call the Mayfield Hills, all
+rising into purple points against the sky, like the waves on Lake
+Ontario, and so tumbling northward into the grim jaws of the
+Adirondacks, which are different--not sinister, perhaps, but grim and
+stolid peaks, ever on guard along the Northern wilderness.
+
+Long, still reaches of the creek stretched away, unstarred by rising
+trout because of the lateness of the night. Only a heron's croak sounded
+in the darkness; there were no lights where I knew the Mayfield
+settlement to be.
+
+Already I saw the grist mill, with its dusky wheel motionless; and, to
+the left, a frame house or two and several log-houses set in cleared
+meadows, where the vast ramparts of the forest had been cut away.
+
+Now, there was a mile to gallop eastward along a wet path toward Summer
+House Point; and in a little while I saw the long, low house called
+Pigeon-Wood, which sat astride o' the old Iroquois war trail to the
+Sacandaga and the Canadas.
+
+It was a heavy house of hewn timber and smoothed with our blue clay,
+which cuts the sandy loam of Tryon in great streaks.
+
+There was no light in the windows, but the milky lustre of the heavens
+flooded all, and there, upon the rail fence, I did see Nick Stoner
+a-kissing of Betsy Browse.
+
+They heard my horse and fluttered down from the fence like two robins,
+as I pulled up and dismounted.
+
+"Hush!" said the girl, who was bare of feet and her gingham scarce
+pinned decently; and laid her finger on her lips as she glanced toward
+the house.
+
+"The old man is back," quoth Nick, sliding a graceless arm around her.
+"But he sleeps like an ox." And, to Betsy, "Whistle thy little sister
+from her nest, sweetheart. For there are no gallants in Tryon to match
+with my comrade, John Drogue!"
+
+Which did not please me to hear, for I had small mind for rustic
+gallantry; but Martha pursed her lips and whistled thrice; and presently
+the house door opened without any noise.
+
+She was a healthy, glowing wench, half confident, half coquette, like a
+playful forest thing in springtime, when all things mate.
+
+And her sister, Jessica, was like her, only slimmer, who came across the
+starlit grass rubbing both eyes with her little fists, like a child
+roused from sleep,--a shy, smiling, red-lipped thing, who gave me her
+hand and yawned.
+
+And presently went to where my mare stood to pet her and pull the new,
+wet grass and feed her tid-bits.
+
+I did not feel awkward, yet knew not how to conduct or what might be
+expected of me at this star-dim rendezvous with a sleepy, woodland
+beauty.
+
+But she seemed in nowise disconcerted after a word or two; drew my arm
+about her; put up her red mouth to be kissed, and then begged to be
+lifted to my saddle.
+
+Here she sat astride and laughed down at me through her tangled hair.
+And:
+
+"I have a mind to gallop to Fish House," said she, "only that it might
+prove a lonely jaunt."
+
+"Shall I come, Jessica?"
+
+"Will you do so?"
+
+I waited till the blood cooled in my veins; and by that time she had
+forgotten what she had been about--like any other forest bird.
+
+"You have a fine mare, Mr. Drogue," said she, gently caressing Kaya with
+her naked heels. "No rider better mounted passes Pigeon-Wood."
+
+"Do many riders pass, Jessica?"
+
+"Sir John's company between Fish House and the Hall."
+
+"Any others lately?"
+
+"Yes, there are horsemen who ride swiftly at night. We hear them."
+
+"Who may they be?"
+
+"I do not know, sir."
+
+"Sir John's people?"
+
+"Very like."
+
+"Coming from the North?"
+
+"Yes, from the North."
+
+"Have they waggons to escort?"
+
+"I have heard waggons, too."
+
+"Lately?"
+
+"Yes." She leaned down from the saddle and rested both hands on my
+shoulders:
+
+"Have you no better way to please than in catechizing me, John Drogue?"
+she laughed. "Do you know what lips were fashioned for except words?"
+
+I kissed her, and, still resting her hands on my shoulders, she looked
+down into my eyes.
+
+"Are you of Sir John's people?" she asked.
+
+"Of them, perhaps, but not now with them, Jessica."
+
+"Oh. The other party?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You! A Boston man?"
+
+"Nick and I, both."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because we design to live as free as God made us, and not as
+king-fashioned slaves."
+
+"Oh, la!" quoth she, opening her eyes wide, "you use very mighty words
+to me, Mr. Drogue. There are young men in red coats and gilt lace on
+their hats who would call you rebel."
+
+"I am."
+
+"No," she whispered, putting both arms around my neck. "You are a pretty
+boy and no Yankee! I do not wish you to be a Boston rebel."
+
+"Are all your lovers King's men?"
+
+"My lovers?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Are you one?"
+
+At which I laughed and lifted the saucy wench from my saddle, and stood
+so in the starlight, her arms still around my neck.
+
+"No," said I, "I never had a sweetheart, and, indeed, would not know how
+to conduct----"
+
+"We could learn."
+
+But I only laughed, disengaging her arms, and passing my own around her
+supple waist.
+
+"Listen," said I, "Nick and I mean no harm in a starlit frolic, where we
+tarry for a kiss from a pretty maid."
+
+"No harm?"
+
+"Neither that nor better, Jessica. Nor do you; and I know that very
+well. With me it's a laugh and a kiss and a laugh; and into my stirrups
+and off.... And you are young and soft and sweet as new maple-sap in
+the snow. But if you dream like other little birds, of nesting----"
+
+"May a lass not dream in springtime?"
+
+"Surely. But let it end so, too."
+
+"In dreams."
+
+"It is wiser."
+
+"There is no wisdom in me, pretty boy in buckskin. And I love thrums
+better than red-coats and lace."
+
+"Love spinning better than either!"
+
+"Oh, la! He preaches of wheels and spindles when my mouth aches for a
+kiss!"
+
+"And mine," said I, "--but my legs ache more for my saddle; and I must
+go."
+
+At that moment when I said adieu with my lips, and she did not mean to
+unlink her arms, came Nick on noiseless tread to twitch my arm. And,
+"Look," said he, pointing toward the long, low rampart of Maxon Ridge.
+
+I turned, my hand still retaining Jessica's: and saw the Iroquois
+signal-flame mount thin and high, tremble, burn red against the stars,
+then die there in the darkness.
+
+Northward another flame reddened on the hills, then another, fire
+answering fire.
+
+"What the devil is this?" growled Nick. "These are no times for Indians
+to talk to one another with fire."
+
+"Get into your saddle," said I, "and we shall ride by Varick's, for I've
+a mind to see what will-o'-the-wisps may be a-dancing over the great
+Vlaie!"
+
+So the tall lad took his leave of his little pigeon of Pigeon-Wood, who
+seemed far from willing to let him loose; and I made my adieux to
+Jessica, who stood a-pouting; and we mounted and set off at a gallop for
+Varick's, by way of Summer House Point.
+
+I could not be certain, but it seemed to me that there was a light at
+the Point, which came through the crescents from behind closed shutters;
+but that was within reason, Sir John being at liberty to keep open the
+hunting lodge if he chose.
+
+As for the Drowned Lands, as far as we could see through the night there
+was not a spark over that desolate wilderness.
+
+The Mohawk fires on the hills, too, had died out. Fish House, if still
+burning candles, was too far away to see; we galloped through Varick's,
+past the mill where, from its rocky walls, Frenchman's Creek roared
+under the stars; then turned west along the Brent-Meester's trail toward
+Fonda's Bush and home.
+
+"Those Iroquois fires trouble me mightily," quoth Nick, pushing his lank
+horse forward beside my mare.
+
+"And me," said I.
+
+"Why should they talk with fire on the night Hiakatoo comes to the
+Hall?"
+
+"I do not know," said I. "But when I am home I shall write it in a
+letter to Albany that this night the Mohawks have talked among
+themselves with fire, and that a Seneca was present."
+
+"And that mealy-mouthed Ensign, Moucher; and Hare and Steve Watts!"
+
+"I shall so write it," said I, very seriously.
+
+"Good!" cried he with a jolly slap on his horse's neck. "But the sweeter
+part of this night's frolic you and I shall carry locked in our breasts.
+Eh, John? By heaven, is she not fresh and pink as a dewy strawberry in
+June--my pretty little wench? Is she not apt as a school-learned lass
+with any new lesson a man chooses to teach?"
+
+"Yes, too apt, perhaps," said I, shaking my head but laughing. "But I
+think they have had already a lesson or two in such frolics, less
+innocent, perhaps, than the lesson we gave."
+
+"I'll break the back of any red-coat who stops at Pigeon-Wood!" cried
+Nick Stoner with an oath. "Yes, red-coat or any other colour, either!"
+
+"You would not take our frolic seriously, would you, Nick?"
+
+"I take all frolics seriously," said he with a gay laugh, smiting both
+thighs, and his bridle loose. "Where I place my mark with my proper
+lips, let roving gallants read and all roysterers beware!--even though I
+so mark a dozen pretty does!"
+
+"A very Turk," said I.
+
+"An antlered stag in the blue-coat that brooks no other near his herd!"
+cried he with a burst of laughter. And fell to smiting his thighs and
+tossing up both arms, riding like a very centaur there, with his hair
+flowing and his thrums streaming in the starlight.
+
+And, "Lord God of Battles!" he cried out to the stars, stretching up his
+powerful young arms. "Thou knowest how I could love tonight; but dost
+Thou know, also, how I could fight if I had only a foe to destroy with
+these two empty hands!"
+
+"Thou murderous Turk!" I cried in his ear. "Pray, rather, that there
+shall be no war, and no foe more deadly than the pretty wench of
+Pigeon-Wood!"
+
+"Love or war, I care not!" he shouted in his spring-tide frenzy,
+galloping there unbridled, his lean young face in the wind. "But God
+send the one or the other to me very quickly--or love or war--for I need
+more than a plow or axe to content my soul afire!"
+
+"Idiot!" said I, "have done a-yelling! You wake every owl in the bush!"
+
+And above his youth-maddened laughter I heard the weird yelping of the
+forest owls as though the Six Nations already were in their paint, and
+blood fouled every trail.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So we galloped into Fonda's Bush, pulling up before my door; but Nick
+would not stay the night and must needs gallop on to his own log house,
+where he could blanket and stall his tired and sweating horse--I owning
+only the one warm stall.
+
+"Well," says he, still slapping his thighs where he sat his saddle as I
+dismounted, and his young face still aglow in the dim, silvery light,
+"--well, John, I shall ride again, one day, to Pigeon-Wood. Will you
+ride with me?"
+
+"I think not."
+
+"And why?"
+
+But, standing by my door, bridle in hand, I slowly shook my head.
+
+"There is no prettier bit o' baggage in County Tryon than Jessica
+Browse," he insisted--"unless, perhaps, it be that Scotch girl at
+Caughnawaga, whom all the red-coats buzz about like sap flies around a
+pan."
+
+"And who may this Scotch lassie be?" I asked with a smile, and busy,
+now, unsaddling.
+
+"I mean the new servant to old Douw Fonda."
+
+"I have not noticed her."
+
+"You have not seen the Caughnawaga girl?"
+
+"No. I remain incurious concerning servants," said I, drily.
+
+"Is it so!" he laughed. "Well, then,--for all that they have a right to
+gold binding on their hats,--the gay youth of Johnstown, yes, and of
+Schenectady, too, have not remained indifferent to the Scotch girl of
+Douw Fonda, Penelope Grant!"
+
+I shrugged and lifted my saddle.
+
+"Every man to his taste," said I. "Some eat woodchucks, some porcupines,
+and others the tail of a beaver. Venison smacks sweeter to me."
+
+Nick laughed again. "When she reads the old man to sleep and takes her
+knitting to the porch, you should see the ring of gallants every
+afternoon a-courting her!--and their horses tied to every tree around
+the house as at a quilting!
+
+"But there's no quilting frolic; no supper; no dance;--nothing more
+than a yellow-haired slip of a wench busy knitting there in the sun, and
+looking at none o' them but intent on her needles and with that faint
+smile she wears----"
+
+"Go court her," said I, laughing; and led my mare into her warm stall.
+
+"You'll court her yourself, one day!" he shouted after me, as he
+gathered bridle. "And if you do, God help you, John Drogue, for they say
+she's a born disturber of quiet men's minds, and mistress of a very
+mischievous and deadly art!"
+
+"What art?" I laughed.
+
+"The art o' love!" he bawled as he rode off, slapping his thighs and
+setting the moonlit woods all a-ringing with his laughter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+BEFORE THE STORM
+
+
+Johnny Silver had ridden my mare to Varick's to be shod, the evening
+previous, and was to remain the night and return by noon to Fonda's
+Bush.
+
+It was the first sunny May day of the year, murmurous with bees, and a
+sweet, warm smell from woods and cleared lands.
+
+Already bluebirds were drifting from stump to stump, and robins, which
+had arrived in April before the snow melted, chirped in the furrows of
+last autumn's plowing.
+
+Also were flying those frail little grass-green moths, earliest
+harbingers of vernal weather, so that observing folk, versed in the
+pretty signals which nature displays to acquaint us of her designs,
+might safely prophesy soft skies.
+
+I was standing in my glebe just after sunrise, gazing across my great
+cleared field--I had but one then, all else being woods--and I was
+thinking about my crops, how that here should be sown buckwheat to break
+and mellow last year's sod; and here I should plant corn and Indian
+squashes, and yonder, God willing, potatoes and beans.
+
+And I remember, now, that I presently fell to whistling the air of "The
+Little Red Foot," while I considered my future harvest; and was even
+planning to hire of Andrew Bowman his fine span of white oxen for my
+spring plowing; when, of a sudden, through the May woods there grew upon
+the air a trembling sound, distant and sad. Now it sounded louder as the
+breeze stirred; now fainter when it shifted, so that a mournful echo
+only throbbed in my ears.
+
+It was the sound of the iron bell ringing on the new Block House at
+Mayfield.
+
+The carelessly whistled tune died upon my lips; my heart almost ceased
+for a moment, then violently beat the alarm.
+
+I ran to a hemlock stump in the field, where my loaded rifle rested, and
+took it up and looked at the priming powder, finding it dry and bright.
+
+A strange stillness had fallen upon the forest; there was no sound save
+that creeping and melancholy quaver of the bell. The birds had become
+quiet; the breeze, too, died away; and it was as though each huge tree
+stood listening, and that no leaf dared stir.
+
+As a dark cloud gliding between earth and sun quenches the sky's calm
+brightness, so the bell's tolling seemed to transform the scene about me
+to a sunless waste, through which the dread sound surged in waves, like
+the complaint of trees before a storm.
+
+Standing where my potatoes had been hoed the year before, I listened a
+moment longer to the dreary mourning of the bell, my eyes roving along
+the edges of the forest which, like a high, green rampart, enclosed my
+cleared land on every side.
+
+Then I turned and went swiftly to my house, snatched blanket from bed,
+spread it on the puncheon floor, laid upon it a sack of new bullets, a
+new canister of powder, a heap of buckskin scraps for wadding, a bag of
+salt, another of parched corn, a dozen strips of smoked venison.
+
+Separately on the blanket beside these I placed two pair of woollen
+hose, two pair of new ankle moccasins, an extra pair of deer-skin
+leggins, two cotton shirts, a hunting shirt of doe-skin, and a fishing
+line and hooks. These things I rolled within my blanket, making of
+everything a strapped pack.
+
+Then I pulled on my District Militia regimentals, which same was a
+hunting shirt of tow-cloth, spatter-dashes of the same, and a felt hat,
+cocked.
+
+Across the breast of my tow-cloth hunting-shirt I slung a bullet-pouch,
+a powder-horn and a leather haversack; seized my light hatchet and hung
+it to my belt, hoisted the blanket pack to my shoulders and strapped it
+there; and, picking up rifle and hunting knife, I passed swiftly out of
+the house, fastening the heavy oaken door behind me and wondering
+whether I should ever return to open it again.
+
+The trodden forest trail, wide enough for a team to pass, lay straight
+before me due west, through heavy woods, to Andrew Bowman's farm.
+
+When I came into the cleared land, I perceived Mrs. Bowman washing
+clothing in a spring near the door of her log house, and the wash
+a-bleaching in the early sun. When she saw me she called to me across
+the clearing:
+
+"Have you news for me, John Drogue?"
+
+"None," said I. "Where is your man, Martha?"
+
+"Gone away to Stoner's with pack and rifle. He is but just departed. Is
+it only a drill call, or are the Indians out at the Lower Castle?"
+
+"I know nothing," said I. "Are you alone in the house?"
+
+"A young kinswoman, Penelope Grant, servant to old Douw Fonda, arrived
+late last night with my man from Caughnawaga, and is still asleep in the
+loft."
+
+As she spoke a girl, clothed only in her shift, came to the open door of
+the log house. Her naked feet were snow-white; her hair, yellow as
+October-corn, seemed very thick and tangled.
+
+She stood blinking as though dazzled, the glory of the rising sun in her
+face; then the tolling of the tocsin swam to her sleepy ears, and she
+started like a wild thing when a shot is fired very far away.
+
+And, "What is that sound?" she exclaimed, staring about her; and I had
+never seen a woman's eyes so brown under such yellow hair.
+
+She stepped out into the fresh grass and stood in the dew listening, now
+gazing at the woods, now at Martha Bowman, and now upon me.
+
+Speech came to me with an odd sort of anger. I said to Mrs. Bowman, who
+stood gaping in the sunshine:
+
+"Where are your wits? Take that child into the house and bar your
+shutters and draw water for your tubs. And keep your door bolted until
+some of the militia can return from Stoner's."
+
+"Oh, my God," said she, and fell to snatching her wash from the bushes
+and grass.
+
+At that, the girl Penelope turned and looked at me. And I thought she
+was badly frightened until she spoke.
+
+"Young soldier," said she, "do you know if Sir John has fled?"
+
+"I know nothing," said I, "and am like to learn less if you women do not
+instantly go in and bar your house."
+
+"Are the Mohawks out?" she asked.
+
+"Have I not said I do not know?"
+
+"Yes, sir.... But I should have escort by the shortest route to
+Cayadutta----"
+
+"You talk like a child," said I, sharply. "And you seem scarcely more,"
+I added, turning away. But I lingered still to see them safely bolted in
+before I departed.
+
+"Soldier," she began timidly; but I interrupted:
+
+"Go fill your tubs against fire-arrows," said I. "Why do you loiter?"
+
+"Because I have great need to return to Caughnawaga. Will you guide me
+the shortest way by the woods?"
+
+"Do you not hear that bell?" I demanded angrily.
+
+"Yes, sir, I hear it. But I should go to Cayadutta----"
+
+"And I should answer that militia call," said I impatiently. "Go in and
+lock the house, I tell you!"
+
+Mrs. Bowman, her arms full of wet linen, ran into the house. The girl,
+Penelope, gazed at the woods.
+
+"I am servant to a very old man," she said, twisting her linked fingers.
+"I can not abandon him! I can not let him remain all alone at Cayadutta
+Lodge. Will you take me to him?"
+
+"And if I were free of duty," said I, "I would not take you or any other
+woman into those accursed woods!"
+
+"Why not, sir?"
+
+"Because I do not yet comprehend what that bell is telling me. And if it
+means that there is a painted war-party out between the Sacandaga and
+the Mohawk, I shall not take you to Caughnawaga when I return from
+Stoner's, and that's flat!"
+
+"I am not afraid to go," said she. But I think I saw her shudder; and
+her face seemed very still and white. Then Mrs. Bowman ran out of the
+house and caught the girl by her homespun shift.
+
+"Come indoors!" she cried shrilly, "or will you have us all pulling war
+arrows out of our bodies while you stand blinking at the woods and
+gossiping with Jack Drogue?"
+
+The girl shook herself free, and asked me again to take her to Cayadutta
+Lodge.
+
+But I had no more time to argue, and I flung my rifle to my shoulder and
+started out across the cleared land.
+
+Once I looked back. And I saw her still standing there, the rising sun
+bright on her tangled hair, and her naked feet shining like silver in
+the dew-wet grass.
+
+By a spring path I hastened to the house of John Putman, and found him
+already gone and his family drawing water and fastening shutters.
+
+His wife, Deborah, called to me saying that the Salisburys should be
+warned, and I told her that I had already spoken to the Bowmans.
+
+"Your labour for your pains, John Drogue!" cried she. "The Bowmans are
+King's people and need fear neither Tory nor Indian!"
+
+"It is unjust to say so, Deborah," I retorted warmly. "Dries Bowman is
+already on his way to answer the militia call!"
+
+"Watch him!" she said, slamming the shutters; and fell to scolding her
+children, who, poor things, were striving at the well with dripping
+bucket too heavy for their strength.
+
+So I drew the water they might need if, indeed, it should prove true
+that Little Abe's Mohawks at the Lower Castle had painted themselves and
+were broken loose; and then I ran back along the spring path to the
+Salisbury's, and found them already well bolted in, and their man gone
+to Stoner's with rifle and pack.
+
+And now comes Johnny Silver, who had ridden my mare from Varick's, but
+had no news, all being tranquil along Frenchman's Creek, and nobody able
+to say what the Block House bell was telling us.
+
+"Did you stable Kaya?" I asked.
+
+"Oui, mon garce! I have bolt her in tight!"
+
+"Good heavens," said I, "she can not remain bolted in to starve if I am
+sent on to Canada! Get you forward to Stoner's house and say that I
+delay only to fetch my horse!"
+
+The stout little French trapper flung his piece to his shoulder and
+broke into a dog-trot toward the west.
+
+"Follow quickly, Sieur Jean!" he called gaily. "By gar, I have smell
+Iroquois war paint since ver' long time already, and now I smell him
+strong as old dog fox!"
+
+I turned and started back through the woods as swiftly as I could
+stride.
+
+As I came in sight of my log house, I was astounded to see my mare out
+and saddled, and a woman setting foot to stirrup. As I sprang out of the
+edge of the woods and ran toward her, she wheeled Kaya, and I saw that
+it was the Caughnawaga wench in _my_ saddle and upon _my_ horse--her
+yellow hair twisted up and shining like a Turk's gold turban above her
+bloodless face.
+
+"What do you mean!" I cried in a fury. "Dismount instantly from that
+mare! Do you hear me?"
+
+"I must ride to Caughnawaga!" she called out, and struck my mare with
+both heels so that the horse bounded away beyond my reach.
+
+Exasperated, I knew not what to do, for I could not hope to overtake the
+mad wench afoot; and so could only shout after her.
+
+However, she drew bridle and looked back; but I dared not advance from
+where I stood, lest she gallop out of hearing at the first step.
+
+"This is madness!" I called to her across the field. "You do not know
+why that bell is ringing at Mayfield. A week since the Mohawks were
+talking to one another with fires on all these hills! There may be a
+war party in yonder woods! There may be more than one betwixt here and
+Caughnawaga!"
+
+"I cannot desert Mr. Fonda at such a time," said she with that same pale
+and frightened obstinacy I had encountered at Bowman's.
+
+"Do you wish to steal my horse!" I demanded.
+
+"No, sir.... It is not meant so. If some one would guide me afoot I
+would be glad to return to you your horse."
+
+"Oh. And if not, then you mean to ride there in spite o' the devil. Is
+that the situation?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+Had it been any man I would have put a bullet in him; and could have
+easily marked him where I pleased. Never had I been in colder rage;
+never had I felt so helpless. And every moment I was afeard the crazy
+girl would ride on.
+
+"Will you parley?" I shouted.
+
+"Parley?" she repeated. "How so, young soldier?"
+
+"In this manner, then: I engage my honour not to seize your bridle or
+touch you or my horse if you will sit still till I come up with you."
+
+She sat looking at me across the fallow field in silence.
+
+"I shall not use violence," said I. "I shall try only to find some way
+to serve you, and yet to do my own duty, too."
+
+"Soldier," she replied in a troubled voice, "is this the very truth you
+speak?"
+
+"Have I not engaged my honour?" I retorted sharply.
+
+She made no reply, but she did not stir as I advanced, though her brown
+eyes watched my every step.
+
+When I stood at her stirrup she looked down at me intently, and I saw
+she was younger even than I had thought, and was made more like a
+smooth, slim boy than a woman.
+
+"You are Penelope Grant, of Caughnawaga," I said.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Do you know who I am?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+I named myself, saying with a smile that none of my name had ever broken
+faith in word or deed.
+
+"Now," I continued, "that bell calls me to duty as surely as drum or
+trumpet ever summoned soldier since there were wars on earth. I must go
+to Stoner's; I can not guide you to Caughnawaga through the woods or
+take you thither by road or trail. And yet, if I do not, you mean to
+take my horse."
+
+"I must."
+
+"And risk a Mohawk war party on the way?"
+
+"I--must."
+
+"That is very brave," said I, curbing my impatience, "but not wise.
+There are others of his kin to care for old Douw Fonda if war has truly
+come upon us here in Tryon County."
+
+"Soldier," said she in her still voice, which I once thought had been
+made strange by fear, but now knew otherwise--"my honour, too, is
+engaged. Mr. Fonda, whom I serve, has made of me more than a servant. He
+uses me as a daughter; offers to adopt me; trusts his age and feebleness
+to me; looks to me for every need, every ministration....
+
+"Soldier, I came to Dries Bowman's last night with his consent, and gave
+him my word to return within a week. I came to Fonda's Bush because Mr.
+Fonda desired me to visit the only family in America with whom I have
+the slightest tie of kinship--the Bowmans.
+
+"But if war has come to us here in County Tryon, then instantly my duty
+is to this brave old gentleman who lives all alone in his house at
+Caughnawaga, and nobody except servants and black slaves to protect him
+if danger comes to the door."
+
+What the girl said touched me; nor could I discern in her anything of
+the coquetry which Nick Stoner's story of her knitting and her ring of
+gallants had pictured for me.
+
+Surely here was no rustic coquette to be flattered and courted and
+bedeviled by her betters--no country suck-thumb to sit a-giggling at her
+knitting, surfeited with honeyed words that meant destruction;--no wench
+to hang her head and twiddle apron while some pup of quality whispered
+in her ear temptations.
+
+I said: "This is the better way. Listen. Ride my mare to Mayfield by the
+highway. If you learn there that the Lower Castle Indians have painted
+for war, there is no hope of winning through to Cayadutta Lodge. And of
+what use to Mr. Fonda would be a dead girl?"
+
+"That is true," she whispered.
+
+"Very well. And if the Mohawks are loose along the river, then you shall
+remain at the Block House until it becomes possible to go on. There is
+no other way. Do you understand?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Do you engage to do this thing? And to place my horse in safety at the
+Mayfield fort?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Then," said I, "in my turn I promise to send aid to you at Mayfield, or
+come myself and take you to Cayadutta Lodge as soon as that proves
+possible. And I promise more; I shall endeavour to get word through to
+Mr. Fonda concerning your situation."
+
+She thanked me in that odd, still voice of hers. Her eyes had the starry
+look of a child's--or of unshed tears.
+
+"My mare will carry two," said I cheerfully. "Let me mount behind you
+and set you on the Mayfield road."
+
+She made no reply. I mounted behind her, took the bridle from her
+chilled fingers, and spoke to Kaya very gaily. And so we rode across my
+sunlit glebe and across the sugar-bush, where the moist trail, full of
+ferns, stretched away toward Mayfield as straight as the bee flies.
+
+I do not know whether it was because the wench was now fulfilling her
+duty, as she deemed it, and therefore had become contented in a measure,
+but when I dismounted she took the bridle with a glance that seemed near
+to a faint smile. But maybe it was her mouth that I thought fashioned in
+pleasant lines.
+
+"Will you remember, soldier?" she asked, looking down at me from the
+saddle. "I shall wait some news of you at the Mayfield fort."
+
+"I shall not let you remain there long abandoned," said I cheerily. "Be
+kind to Kaya. She has a tender mouth and an ear more sensitive still to
+a harsh word."
+
+The girl laid a hand flat on my mare's neck and looked at me, the shy
+caress in her gesture and in her eyes.
+
+Both were meant for my horse; and a quick kindness for this Scotch girl
+came into my heart.
+
+"Take shelter at the Mayfield fort," said I, "and be very certain I
+shall not forget you. You may gallop all the way on this soft wood-road.
+Will you care for Kaya at the fort when she is unsaddled?"
+
+A smile suddenly curved her lips.
+
+"Yes, John Drogue," she answered, looking me in the eyes. And the next
+moment she was off at a gallop, her yellow hair loosened with the first
+bound of the horse, and flying all about her face and shoulders now,
+like sunshine flashing across windblown golden-rod.
+
+Then, in her saddle, the girl turned and looked back at me, and sat so,
+still galloping, until she was out of sight.
+
+And, as I stood there alone in the woodland road, I began to understand
+what Nick Stoner meant when he called this Scotch girl a disturber of
+men's minds and a mistress--all unconscious, perhaps--of a very deadly
+art.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+SHEEP AND GOATS
+
+
+Now, as I came again to the forest's edge and hastened along the wide
+logging road, to make up for moments wasted, I caught sight of two
+neighbors, John Putman and Herman Salisbury, walking ahead of me.
+
+They wore the regimentals of our Mohawk Regiment of district militia,
+carried rifles and packs; and I smelled the tobacco from their pipes,
+which seemed pleasant though I had never learned to smoke.
+
+I called to them; they heard me and waited.
+
+"Well, John," says Putman, as I came up with them, "this is like to be a
+sorry business for farmers, what with plowing scarce begun and not a
+seed yet planted in all the Northland, barring winter wheat."
+
+"You think we are to take the field in earnest this time?" I asked
+anxiously.
+
+"It looks that way to me, Mr. Drogue. It's a long, long road to liberty,
+lad; and I'm thinking we're off at last."
+
+"He believes," explained Salisbury, "that Little Abraham's Mohawks are
+leaving the Lower Castle--which God prevent!--but I think this business
+is liker to be some new deviltry of Sir John's."
+
+"Sir John gave his parole to General Schuyler," said I, turning very
+red; for I was mortified that the honour of my caste should be so
+carelessly questioned.
+
+"It is not unthinkable that Sir John might lie," retorted Salisbury
+bluntly. "I knew his father. Well and good. I know the son, also.... But
+I suppose that gentlemen like yourself, Mr. Drogue, are ashamed to
+suspect the honour of any of their own class,--even an enemy."
+
+But Putman was plainer spoken, saying that in his opinion any Tory was
+likely to attempt any business, however dirty, and rub up his tarnished
+honour afterward.
+
+I made him no answer; and we marched swiftly forward, each engaged with
+a multitude of serious and sombre thoughts.
+
+A few moments later, chancing to glance behind me, stirred by what
+instinct I know not, I espied two neighbors, young John, son of Philip
+Helmer, and Charles Cady, of Fonda's Bush, following us so stealthily
+and so closely that they might decently have hailed us had they been so
+minded.
+
+Now, when they perceived that I had noticed them, they dodged into the
+bush, as though moved by some common impulse. Then they reappeared in
+the road. And, said I in a low voice to John Putman:
+
+"Yonder comes slinking a proper pair o' tree-cats to sniff us to our
+destination. If these two be truly of the other party, then they have no
+business at John Stoner's."
+
+Putman and Salisbury both looked back. Said the one, grimly:
+
+"They are not coming to answer the militia call; they have rifles but
+neither regimentals nor packs."
+
+Said the other: "I wish we were clean split at Fonda's Bush, so that an
+honest man might know when 'neighbor' spells 'traitor' in low Dutch."
+
+"Some riddles are best solved by bullets," muttered the other. "Who
+argues with wolves or plays cat's-cradle with catamounts!"
+
+Glancing again over my shoulder, I saw that the two behind us were
+mending their pace and must soon come up with us. And so they did,
+Putman giving them a civil good-day.
+
+"Have you any news, John Drogue?" inquired young Helmer.
+
+I replied that I had none to share with him, meaning only that I had no
+news at all. But Cady took it otherwise and his flat-featured face
+reddened violently, as though the pox were coming out on him.
+
+And, "What the devil," says he, "does this young, forest-running
+cockerel mean? And why should he not share his news with John Helmer
+here,--yes, or with me, too, by God, or yet with any true man in County
+Tryon?"
+
+I said that I had not intended any such meaning; that he mistook me; and
+that I had aimed at no discourtesy to anybody.
+
+"And safer for you, too!" retorted Cady in a loud and threatening tone.
+"A boy's wisdom lies in his silence."
+
+"Johnny Helmer asked a question of me," said I quietly. "I replied as
+best I knew how."
+
+"Yes, and I'll ask a dozen questions if I like!" shouted Cady. "Don't
+think to bully me or cast aspersions on my political complexion!"
+
+"If," said I, "your political complexion be no clearer than your
+natural one, God only can tell what ferments under your skin."
+
+At which he seemed so taken aback that he answered nothing; but Helmer
+urgently demanded to know what political views I pretended to carry.
+
+"I wear mine on my back," said I pleasantly, glancing around at both
+Helmer and Cady, who bore no packs on their backs in earnest of their
+readiness for service.
+
+"You are a damned impudent boy!" retorted Cady, "whatever may be your
+politics or your complexion."
+
+Salisbury and Putman looked around at him in troubled silence, and he
+said no more for the moment. But Helmer's handsome features darkened
+again: and, "I'll not be put upon," said he, "whatever Charlie Cady
+stomachs! Who is Jack Drogue to flaunt his pack and his politics under
+my nose!
+
+"And," he added, looking angrily at me, "by every natural right a
+gentleman should be a King's man. So if your politics stink somewhat of
+Boston, you are doubly suspect as an ingrate to the one side and a
+favour-currying servant to the other!"
+
+I said: "Had Sir William lived to see this day in Tryon, I think he,
+also, would be wearing his regimentals as I do, and to the same
+purpose."
+
+Cady burst into a jeering laugh: "Say as much to Sir John! Go to the
+Hall and say to Sir John that his father, had he lived, would this day
+be sending out a district militia call! Tell him that, young cockerel,
+if you desire a flogging at the guard-house."
+
+"You know more of floggings than do I," said I quietly. Which stopt his
+mouth. For, despite my scarcity of years, I had given him a sound
+beating the year before, being so harassed and pestered by him because I
+had answered the militia-call on the day that General Schuyler marched
+up and disarmed Sir John's Highlanders at the Hall.
+
+Putman, beside whom I was marching, turned to me and said, loud enough
+for all to hear: "You are only a lad, John Drogue, but I bear witness
+that you display the patience and good temper of a grown man. For if
+Charlie Cady, here, had picked on me as he has on you, he sure had
+tasted my rifle-butt before now!"
+
+"Neighbors must bear with one another in such times," said I, "and help
+each other stamp down the earth where the war-axe lies buried."
+
+And, "Damn you!" shouts Cady at a halt, "I shall not stir a step more to
+be insulted. I shall not budge one inch, bell or no bell, call or no
+call!----"
+
+But Helmer dropped to the rear and got him by the elbow and pulled him
+forward; and I heard them whispering together behind us as we hastened
+on.
+
+Herman Salisbury said: "A pair of real tree-cats, old Tom and little
+Kit! I'm in half a mind to turn them back!" And he swung his brown rifle
+from the shoulder and let it drop to the hollow of his left arm--an
+insult and a menace to any man.
+
+"They but answer their nature, which is to nose about and smell out
+what's a-frying," growled Putman. "Shall we turn them back and be done
+with them? It will mean civil war in Fonda's Bush."
+
+"Watched hens never lay," said I. "Let them come with us. While they
+remain under our eyes the stale old plan they brood will addle like a
+cluck-egg."
+
+Salisbury nodded meaningly:
+
+"So that I can see my enemy," growled he, "I have no care concerning
+him. But let him out o' sight and I fret like a chained beagle."
+
+As he finished speaking we came into Stoner's clearing, which was but a
+thicket of dead weed-stalks in a fallow field fenced by split rails.
+Fallow, indeed, lay all the Stoner clearing, save for a patch o'
+hen-scratched garden at the log-cabin's dooryard; for old Henry Stoner
+and his forest-running sons were none too fond of dallying with plow and
+hoe while rifle and fish-pole rested across the stag-horn's crotch above
+the chimney-piece.
+
+And if ever they fed upon anything other than fish and flesh, I do not
+know; for I never saw aught growing in their garden, save a dozen
+potato-vines and a stray corn-stalk full o' worms.
+
+Around the log house in the clearing already were gathered a dozen or
+sixteen men, the greater number wearing the tow-cloth rifle-frock of the
+district militia.
+
+Other men began to arrive as we came up. Everywhere great, sinewy hands
+were extended to greet us; old Henry Stoner, sprawling under an apple
+tree, saluted us with a harsh pleasantry; and I saw the gold rings
+shining in his ears.
+
+Nick came over to where I stood, full of that devil's humour which so
+often urged him into--and led him safely out of--endless scrapes betwixt
+sun-up and moon-set every day in the year.
+
+"It's Sir John we're to take, I hear," he said to me with a grin. "They
+say the lying louse of a Baronet has been secretly plotting with Guy
+Johnson and the Butlers in Canada. What wonder, then, that our
+Provincial Congress has its belly full of these same Johnstown Tories
+and must presently spew them up. And they say we are to march on the
+Hall at noon and hustle our merry Baronet into Johnstown jail."
+
+I felt myself turning red.
+
+"Is it not decent to give Sir John the benefit of doubt until we learn
+why that bell is ringing?" said I.
+
+"There we go!" cried Nick Stoner. "Just because your father loved Sir
+William and you may wear gold lace on your hat, you feel an attachment
+to all quality. Hearken to me, John Drogue: Sir William is dead and the
+others are as honourable as a pack of Canada wolves." He climbed to the
+top of the rickety rail fence and squatted there. "The landed gentry of
+Tryon County are a pack of bloody wolves," said he, lighting his cob
+pipe;--"Guy Johnson, Colonel Claus, Walter Butler, every one of
+them--every one!--only excepting you, John Drogue! Look, now, where
+they're gathering in the Canadas--Johnsons, Butlers, McDonalds,--the
+whole Tory pack--with Brant and his Mohawks stole away, and Little
+Abraham like to follow with every warrior from the Lower Castle!
+
+"And do you suppose that Sir John has no interest in all this Tory
+treachery? Do you suppose that this poisonous Baronet is not in constant
+and secret communication with Canada?"
+
+I looked elsewhere sullenly. Nick took me by the arm and drew me up to a
+seat beside him on the rail fence.
+
+"Let's view it soberly and fairly, Jack," says he, tapping his palm with
+the stem of his pipe, through which smoke oozed. "Let's view it from the
+start. Begin from the Boston business. Now, then! George the Virginian
+got the Red-coats cooped up in Boston. That's the Yankee answer to too
+much British tyranny.
+
+"We, in the Northland, looked to our landed gentry to stand by us, lead
+us, and face the British King who aims to turn us into slaves.
+
+"We called on our own governing class to protect us in our ancient
+liberties,--to arm us, lead us in our own defense! We begged Guy Johnson
+to hold back his savages so that the Iroquois Confederacy should remain
+passive and take neither the one side nor t'other.
+
+"I grant you that Sir William in his day did loyally his uttermost to
+quiet the Iroquois and hold his own Mohawks tranquil when Cresap was
+betrayed by Dunmore, and the first breeze from this storm which is now
+upon us was already stirring the Six Nations into restlessness."
+
+"Sir William," said I, "was the greatest and the best of all Americans."
+
+He said gravely: "Sir William is dead. May God rest his soul. But this
+is the situation that confronts us here this day on the frontier: We
+appealed to the landed gentry of Tryon. They sneered at us, and spoke of
+us as rebels, and have used us very scornfully--all excepting yourself,
+John!
+
+"They forced Alec White on us as Sheriff, and he broke up our meetings.
+They strove by colour of law and by illegal force to stamp out in Tryon
+County the last spark of liberty, of manhood among us. God knows what we
+have endured these last few years from the landed gentry of Tryon!--what
+we have put up with and stomached since the first shot was fired at
+Lexington!
+
+"And what has become of our natural protectors and leaders! Where is the
+landed gentry of County Tryon at this very hour? Except you, John
+Drogue, where are our gentlemen of the Northland?"
+
+"Gone," said I soberly.
+
+"Gone to Canada with the murderous Indians they were supposed to hold
+neutral! Guy Park stands empty and locked. It is an accursed place! Guy
+Johnson is fled with every Tory desperado and every Indian he could
+muster! May God damn him!
+
+"Old John Butler followed; and is brigading malcontents in Canada.
+Butlersbury stands deserted. May every devil in hell haunt that house!
+Young Walter Butler is gone with many of our old neighbors of Tryon; and
+at Niagara he is forming a merciless legion to return and cut our
+throats.
+
+"And Colonel Claus is gone, and McDonald, the bloody thief!--with his
+kilted lunatics and all his Scotch banditti----"
+
+"But Sir John remains," said I quietly.
+
+"Jack! Are you truly so blinded by your caste! Did not you yourself
+answer the militia call last winter and march with our good General to
+disarm Sir John's popish Highlanders! And even then they lied--and Sir
+John lied--for they hid their broad-swords and pikes! and delivered them
+not when they paraded to ground their muskets!"
+
+"Sir John has given his parole," I repeated stubbornly.
+
+"Sir John breaks it every hour of the day!" cried Nick. "And he will
+break it again when we march to take him. Do you think he won't learn of
+our coming? Do you suppose he will stay at the Hall, which he has
+pledged his honour to do?"
+
+"His lady is still there."
+
+"With his lady I have no quarrel," rejoined Nick. "I know her to be a
+very young, very wilful, very bitter, and very unhappy Tory; and she
+treats us plain folk like dirt under her satin shoon. But for that I
+care nothing. I pity her because she is the wife of that cold, sleek
+beast, Sir John. I pity her because she is gently bred and frail and
+lonely and stuffed with childish pride o' race. I pity her lot there in
+the great Hall, with her girl companions and her servants and her
+slaves. And I pity her because everybody in County Tryon, excepting only
+herself, knows that Sir John cares nothing for her, and that Claire
+Putnam of Tribes Hill is Sir John's doxy!--and be damned to him! And you
+think such a man will not break his word?
+
+"He broke his vows to wife and mistress alike. Why should he keep his
+vows to men?" He slid to the ground as he spoke, and I followed, for our
+three drummers had formed rank and were drawing their sticks from their
+cross-belts. Our fifers, also, lined up behind them; and Nick and his
+young brother, John, took places with them.
+
+"Fall in! Fall in!" cried Joe Scott, our captain; and everybody ran with
+their packs and rifles to form in double ranks of sixteen files front
+while the drums rolled like spring thunder, filling the woods with their
+hollow sound, and the fifes shrilled like the swish of rain through
+trees.
+
+Standing at ease between Dries Bowman and Baltus Weed, I answered to the
+roll call. Some among us lighted pipes and leaned on our long rifles,
+chatting with neighbors; others tightened belts and straps, buttoned
+spatter-dashes, or placed a sprig of hemlock above the black and white
+cockades on their felt hats.
+
+Balty Weed, who lived east of me, a thin fellow with red rims to his
+eyes and dry, sparse hair tied in a queue with a knot of buckskin, asked
+me in his stealthy way what I thought about our present business, and if
+our Provincial Congress had not, perhaps, unjustly misjudged Sir John.
+
+I replied cautiously. I had never trusted Balty because he frequented
+taverns where few friends to liberty cared to assemble; and he was far
+too thick with Philip and John Helmer and with Charlie Cady to suit my
+taste.
+
+We, in the little hamlet of Fonda's Bush, were scarce thirty families,
+all counted; and yet, even here in this trackless wilderness, out of
+which each man had hewed for himself a patch of garden and a stump
+pasture along the little river Kennyetto, the bitter quarrel had long
+smouldered betwixt Tory and Patriot--King's man and so-called Rebel.
+
+And this was the Mohawk country. And the Mohawks stood for the King of
+England.
+
+The road, I say, ended here; but there was a Mohawk path through twenty
+odd miles of untouched forest to those healing springs called Saratoga.
+
+Except for this path and a deep worn war-trail north to the Sacandaga,
+which was the Iroquois road to Canada, and except for the wood road to
+Sir William's Mayfield and Fish House settlements, we of Fonda's Bush
+were utterly cut off. Also, save for the new Block House at Mayfield, we
+were unprotected in a vast wilderness which embodied the very centre of
+the Mohawk country.
+
+True, north of us stood that little pleasure house built for his hour of
+leisure by Sir William, and called "The Summer House."
+
+Painted white and green, it stood on a hard ridge jutting out into those
+dismal, drowned lands which we call the Great Vlaie. But it was not
+fortified.
+
+Also, to the north, lay the Fish House, a hunting lodge of Sir William.
+But these places were no protection for us. On the other hand, they
+seemed a menace; for Tories, it had been rumoured, were ever skulking
+along the Vlaie and the Sacandaga; and for aught we knew, these
+buildings were already designed to be made into block-houses and to be
+garrisoned by our enemies as soon as the first rifle-shot cracked out in
+the cause of liberty.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Our company of the Mohawk Regiment numbered thirty-six rifles--all that
+now remained of the old company, three-fourths of which had already
+deserted to the Canadas with Butler. All our officers had fled; Joe
+Scott of Maxon, formerly a sergeant, now commanded us; Benjamin de
+Luysnes was our lieutenant; Dries Bowman and Phil Helmer our
+sergeants--both already suspected.
+
+Well, we got away from Stoner's, marching in double file, and only the
+little creatures of the forest to hear our drums and fifes.
+
+But the old discipline which had obtained in all our Tryon regiments
+when Sir William was our Major General and the landed gentry our
+officers seemed gone; a dull sense of bewilderment reigned, confusing
+many among us, as when leaderless men begin to realize how they had
+depended upon a sturdy staff now broken forever.
+
+We marched with neither advanced guard nor flankers for the first half
+mile; then Joe Scott halted us and made Nick Stoner put away his beloved
+fife and sent him out on our right flank where the forest was heavy.
+
+Me he selected to scout forward on the left--a dirty job where alders
+and willows grew thick above the bogs.
+
+But why in God's name our music played to advertise our coming I can not
+guess, for our men needed no heartening, having courage and resolution,
+only the lack of officers causing them any anxiety at all.
+
+On the left flank of the little column I kept very easily in touch
+because of this same silly drumming and fifing. And I was glad when we
+came to high ground and breasted the hills which lead to that higher
+plateau, over which runs the road to Johnstown.
+
+Plodding along in the bush, keeping a keen watch for any enemy who might
+come in paint or in scarlet coat, and the far rhythm of our drums
+thumping dully in my ears, I wondered whether other companies of my
+regiment were marching on Johnstown, and if other Tryon regiments--or
+what was left of them--were also afoot that day.
+
+Was this, then, the beginning of the war in the Northland? And, when we
+made a prisoner of Sir John, would all the dusky forests glow with
+scarlet war-paint and scarlet coats?
+
+Today birds sang. Tomorrow the terrific panther-slogan of the Iroquois
+might break out into hell's own uproar among these purple hills.
+
+Was this truly the beginning? Would these still, leafy trails where the
+crested partridge strutted witness bloody combats between old
+neighbors--all the horrors of a fratricidal war?
+
+Would the painted men of the woods hold their hands while Tory and
+patriot fought it out? Or was this utter and supreme horror to be added
+to this unnatural conflict?
+
+Reflecting very seriously upon these matters, I trotted forward, rifle
+a-trail, and saw nothing living in the woods save a big hare or two in
+the alders, and the wild brown poultry of the woods, that ran to cover
+or rose into thunderous flight among the thickets.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+About four o'clock came to me Godfrey Shew, of Fish House, a private
+soldier like myself, with news of a halt on the Johnstown road, and
+orders that I eat a snack and rest in my tracks.
+
+He told me that a company of horse from Albany was out scouting along
+the Mohawk, and that a column of three thousand men under Colonel
+Dayton were marching on Johnstown and had passed Schenectady about noon.
+
+Other news he had none, excepting that our company was to remain where
+we had halted, in order to stop the road to Fonda's Bush and Saratoga,
+in case Sir John should attempt to retire this way.
+
+"Well, Godfrey," said I, "if Sir John truly turns out to be without
+shame and honour, and if he marches this way, there is like to be a
+lively time for us of the Bush, because Sir John has three hundred
+Highlanders to thirty odd of ourselves, and enough Borderers and Tory
+militia to double the count."
+
+"We all know that," said Shew calmly, "and are not afraid."
+
+"Do you think our people mean to stand?"
+
+"Yes," said he simply.
+
+A hot thrill of pride tingled my every vein. Suddenly I completely
+comprehended that these plain folk of Fonda's Bush were my own people;
+that I was one of them; that, as they meant to stand for the ancient
+liberties of all Englishmen, now wickedly denied them, so I also meant
+to stand to the end.
+
+And now, at last, I comprehended that I was in actual revolt against
+that King and against that nobility and gentry who were deserting us
+when we had so desperate need of them in this coming battle for human
+freedom in a slave-cursed world.
+
+The cleavage had come at last; the Northland was clean split; the red
+livery of the King's men had suddenly become a target for every honest
+rifle in Tryon.
+
+"Godfrey," I said, "the last chance for truce is passing as you and I
+stand here,--the last chance for any reconciliation and brotherly
+understanding between us and our Tory neighbors."
+
+"It is better that way," he said, giving me a sombre look.
+
+I nodded, but all the horror of civil war lay heavy in my heart and I
+thought of my many friends in Tryon who would wear the scarlet coat
+tomorrow, and whom I now must try to murder with my proper hands, lest
+they do the like for me.
+
+Around us, where we were standing, a golden dusk reigned in the forest,
+into which, through the roof of green above, fell a long sunbeam,
+lighting the wooded aisle as a single candle on the altar gleams athwart
+the gloom of some still cathedral.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At five o'clock Godfrey and I had not moved from that silent place where
+we stood on watch, leaning upon our rifles.
+
+Twice soldiers came to bid us keep close guard in these open woods
+which, being primeval, were clear of underbrush and deep with the brown
+carpet of dead leaves.
+
+At last, toward six o'clock, we heard our drums rolling in the
+distance--signal to scout forward. I ran out among the great trees and
+started on toward Johnstown, keeping Godfrey in view on my left hand.
+
+Very soon I came out of the forest on the edge of cleared land. Against
+the evening sky I saw the spires of Johnstown, stained crimson in the
+westering sun which was going down red as a cherry.
+
+But what held me in spell was the sight that met my eyes across the open
+meadows, where moving ranks of musket-barrels glanced redly in the last
+gleam of sunset and the naked swords and gorgets of mounted officers
+glittered.
+
+Godfrey Shew emerged from the edge of the forest on my left and stood
+knee deep in last year's wild grass, one hand shading his eyes.
+
+"What troops are those?" I shouted to him. "They look like the
+Continental Line!"
+
+"It's a reg'lar rig'ment," he bawled, "but whose I know not!"
+
+The clanking of their armament came clearly to my ears; the timing tap
+of their drum sounded nearer still.
+
+"There can be no mistake," I called out to Godfrey; "yonder marches a
+regiment of the New York line! We're at war!"
+
+We moved out across the pasture. I examined my flint and priming, and,
+finding all tight and bright, waded forward waist high, through last
+year's ghostly golden-rod, ready for a quick shot if necessary.
+
+The sun had gone down; a lilac-tinted dusk veiled the fields, through
+which the gay evening chirruping of the robins rang incessantly.
+
+"There go our people!" shouted Godfrey.
+
+I had already caught sight of the Fonda's Bush Company filing between
+some cattle-bars to the left of us; and knew they must be making
+straight for Johnson Hall.
+
+We shouldered our pieces and ran through the dead weeds to intercept
+them; but there was no need for haste, because they halted presently in
+some disorder; and I saw Joe Scott walking to and fro along the files,
+gesticulating.
+
+And then, as Godfrey and I came up with them, we witnessed the first
+shameful exhibition of disorder that for so many months disgraced the
+militia of New York--a stupidity partly cowardly, partly treacherous,
+which at one time so incensed His Excellency the Virginian that he said
+they were, as a body, more detrimental than helpful to the cause, and
+proposed to disband them.
+
+In the light of later events, I now realize that their apparent
+poltroonery arose not from individual cowardice. But these levies had no
+faith in their companies because every battalion was still full of
+Tories, nor had any regiment yet been purged.
+
+Also, they had no confidence in their officers, who, for the greater
+part, were as inexperienced as they themselves. And I think it was
+because of these things that the New York militia behaved so
+contemptibly after the battle of Long Island, and in Tryon County, until
+the terrific trial by fire at Oriskany had burnt the dross out of us and
+left only the nobler metal.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Our Fonda's Bush Company presented a most mortifying spectacle as
+Godfrey and I came up. Joe Scott stood facing the slovenly single rank
+which he had contrived to parade in the gathering dusk; and he was
+arguing with the men while they talked back loudly.
+
+There was a hubbub of voices, angry arguments, some laughter which
+sounded more sinister to me than the cursing.
+
+Then Charlie Cady and John Howell of Sacandaga left the ranks, refusing
+to listen to Scott, and withdrew a little distance, where they stood
+sullenly in their defiance.
+
+Elias Cady called out that he would not march to the Hall to take Sir
+John, and he, also, left the ranks.
+
+Then, and despite Joe Scott's pleading, Phil Helmer and his sullen son,
+John, walked away and joined the Cadys, and called on Andrew Bowman to
+do the like.
+
+Dries wavered; but Baltus Weed and Eugene Grinnis left the company.
+
+Which so enraged me that I, also, forgot all discipline and duty, and
+shook my rifles at the mutineers.
+
+"You Tory dogs!" I said, "we're well purged of you, and I for one thank
+God that we now know you for what you are!"
+
+Godfrey, a stark, fierce figure in his blackened buckskins, went out in
+front of our single rank and called to the malcontents:
+
+"Pull foot, you swine, or I'll mark you!"
+
+And, "Pull foot!" shouted Nick Stoner, "and be damned to you! Why do you
+loiter! Do you wait for a volley in your guts!"
+
+At that, Balty Weed turned and ran toward the woods; but the others
+moved more slowly and sullenly, not exactly menacing us with their
+rifles, but carrying them conveniently across the hollow of their left
+arms.
+
+In the increasing darkness I heard somebody sob, and saw Joe Scott
+standing with one hand across his eyes, as though to close from his
+sight such a scene of deep disgrace.
+
+Then I went to him. I was trembling and could scarce command my voice,
+but gave him a salute and stood at attention until he finally noticed
+me.
+
+"Well, John," said he, "this is like to be the death of me."
+
+"Sir; will you order the drums to beat a march?"
+
+"Do you think the men will march?"
+
+"Yes, sir--what remains of them."
+
+He came slowly back, motioning what was left of the company to close up.
+I could not hear what he said, but the men began to count off, and their
+voices were resolute enough to hearten all.
+
+So presently Nick Stoner, who acted as fife-major, blew lustily into his
+fife, playing the marching tune, which is called "The Little Red Foot";
+and the drums beat it; and we marched in column of fours to take Sir
+John at his ancestral Hall, if it chanced to be God's will.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+STOLE AWAY
+
+
+Johnson Hall was a blaze of light with candles in every window, and
+great lanterns flaring from both stone forts which flanked the Hall, and
+along the new palisades which Sir John had built recently for his
+defense.
+
+All gates and doors stood wide open, and officers in Continental uniform
+and in the uniform of the Palatine Regiment, were passing in and out
+with a great clanking of swords and spurs.
+
+Everywhere companies of regular infantry from Colonel Dayton's regiment
+of the New York Line were making camp, and I saw their baggage waggons
+drive up from the town below and go into park to the east of the Hall,
+where cattle were lying in the new grass.
+
+An officer of the Palatine Regiment carrying a torch came up to Joe
+Scott, where our little company stood at ease along the hedge fence.
+
+"What troops are these, sir?" he inquired, indicating us with a nervous
+gesture.
+
+And when he was informed:
+
+"Oho!" said he, "there should be material for rangers among your
+farmer-militia. Pick me two men for Colonel Dayton who live by rifle and
+trap and who know the wilderness from Albany to the Lakes."
+
+So our captain told off Nick Stoner and me, and we stepped out of the
+ranks into the red torch-glow.
+
+"Thank you, sir," said the Palatine officer to our Captain. And to us:
+"Follow me, lads."
+
+He was a brisk, handsome and smartly uniformed officer of militia; and
+his cheerful demeanor heartened me who had lately witnessed such
+humiliations and disgrace.
+
+We followed him through the stockade gate and into the great house, so
+perfectly familiar to me in happier days.
+
+Excepting for the noise and confusion of officers coming and going,
+there was no disorder within; the beautiful furniture stood ranged in
+stately symmetry; the pictures hung on the walls; but I saw no silver
+anywhere, and all the candlesticks were pewter.
+
+As we came to the library, an officer in the uniform of a colonel of the
+Continental Line turned from a group of men crowded around the centre
+table, on which lay a map. Nick Stoner and I saluted his epaulettes.
+
+He came close to us and searched our faces coolly enough, as a farmer
+inspects an offered horse.
+
+"This is young Nick Stoner, of Fonda's Bush, sir," said the Palatine
+officer.
+
+"Oh," said the Colonel drily, "I have heard of the Stoner boys. And what
+may be your name?" he inquired, fastening his piercing eyes on mine.
+
+"John Drogue, sir."
+
+"I have heard of you, also," he remarked, more drily still.
+
+For a full minute, it seemed to me, he scrutinized me from head to foot
+with a sort of curiosity almost brutal. Then, on his features a fine
+smile softened what had seemed insolence. With a glance he dismissed the
+Palatine, motioned us to follow him, and we three entered the
+drawing-room across the hall, which was lighted but empty.
+
+"Mr. Drogue," said he, "I am Colonel Dayton; and I have in my personal
+baggage a lieutenant's commission for you from our good Governor,
+procured, I believe, through the solicitation of our mutual and most
+excellent friend, Lord Stirling."
+
+I stood astonished to learn of my preferment, never dreaming nor even
+wishing for military rank, but perfectly content to carry the sack of a
+private soldier in this most just of all wars. And as for Billy
+Alexander remembering to so serve me, I was still more amazed. For Lord
+Stirling was already a general officer in His Excellency's new army, and
+I never expected him to remember me amid the desperate anxieties of his
+new position.
+
+"Mr. Drogue," said Dayton, "you, I believe, are the only example among
+the gentry of Tryon County who has openly embraced the cause of our
+thirteen colonies. I do not include the Albany Patroon; I speak only of
+the nobility and gentry of this county.... And it took courage to turn
+your back upon your own caste."
+
+"It would have taken more to turn against my own countrymen, sir."
+
+He smiled. "Come, sir, were you not sometime Brent-Meester to Sir
+William?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Then you should know the forest, Mr. Drogue."
+
+"I do know it."
+
+"So General Schuyler has informed me."
+
+He clasped his gloved hands behind his back and began to pace to and
+fro, his absent glances on the window candles. Presently he halted:
+
+"Sir John is fled. Did you know it?" he said abruptly.
+
+I felt the hot shame burn my face to the roots of my hair.
+
+"Broke his parole of honour and gone off," added Dayton. "Where do you
+suppose he is making for with his Tories and Highlanders?"
+
+I could scarcely speak, so mortified was I that a gentleman of my own
+class could have so foully conducted. But I made out to say that Sir
+John, no doubt, was traveling toward Canada. "Certainly," said the
+Colonel; "but which route?"
+
+"God knows, sir. By the Sacandaga and the Lakes, no doubt."
+
+"Could he go by Saratoga and the top o' the Hudson?"
+
+"It is a pathless wilderness."
+
+"Yes. And still I think the rogue went that way. I have rangers out
+looking for signs of him beyond Ballston. Also, I sent half a battalion
+toward the Sacandaga. Of course Albany Royalists warned him of my
+coming; I couldn't prevent that, nor could Schuyler, no, nor the very
+devil himself!
+
+"And here am I at the Hall, and the fox stole away to the Canadas. And
+what now to do I know not.... Do _you_?"
+
+He shot the question in my face point blank; and I stood dumb for a
+minute, striving to collect and marshall any ideas that might bear upon
+so urgent a matter.
+
+"Colonel," said I, "unless the British hold Champlain, Sir John would
+scarcely risk a flight in that direction. No. He would prefer to plunge
+into the wilderness and travel by Oswegatchi."
+
+"Do you so believe, Mr. Drogue?"
+
+I considered a moment more; then:
+
+"Yet, if Guy Johnson's Indians have come down toward the Sacandaga to
+protect him--knowing that he had meant to flee----"
+
+I looked at Dayton, then turned to Nick.
+
+"What think you, Nick?" I demanded.
+
+"By God," he blurted out, "I am of that mind too! Only a madman would
+attempt the wilderness by Oswegatchi; and I wager that Sir John is
+already beyond the Sacandaga and making for the Canadas on the old
+Mohawk war-trail!"
+
+Colonel Dayton laid one hand on my shoulder:
+
+"Mr. Drogue," said he, "we have militia and partizans more than
+sufficient in Tryon. What we need are more regulars, too; but most of
+all, and in this crisis, we need rangers. God alone knows what is coming
+upon Tryon County from the North,--what evil is breeding there,--what
+sinister forces are gathering to overwhelm these defenceless
+settlements.
+
+"We have scarcely a fort on this frontier, scarcely a block house. Every
+town and village and hamlet north of Albany is unprotected; every lonely
+settler is now at the mercy of this unknown and monstrous menace which
+is gathering like a thundercloud in the North.
+
+"Regular regiments require time to muster; the militia have yet to prove
+their worth; partizans, minute men, alarm companies--the value of all
+these remains a question still. Damn it, I want rangers! I want them
+_now_!"
+
+He began to stride about the room again in his perplexity, but presently
+came back to where we stood.
+
+"How many rifles in your company from Fonda's Bush?" he demanded.
+
+I blushed to tell him, and further confessed what had occurred that very
+evening in the open fields before Johnstown.
+
+"Well," said he coolly, "it is well to be rid of vermin. Now you should
+pick your men in safety, Mr. Drogue. And if none will volunteer--such as
+have families or are not fit material for rangers--you are authorized to
+go out into the wilderness and recruit any forest-running fellow you can
+persuade."
+
+He drove one gloved hand into the palm of the other to emphasize what he
+said:
+
+"I want real rangers, not militia! I want young men who laugh at any
+face old Death can pull at them! I want strong men, keen men, tough men,
+rough men.
+
+"I want men who fear God, if that may be, or who fear the devil, if that
+may be; but who fear nothing else on earth!"
+
+He shot a look at Nick, "--like that boy there!" he exclaimed--"or I am
+no judge of men! And like yourself, Mr. Drogue, when once they blood
+you! Come, sir; can you find a few such men for me, and take full
+charge?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"A pledge!" he exclaimed, beating his gloved palms. "And when you can
+collect a dozen--the first full dozen--I want you to stop the Iroquois
+trail at the Sacandaga. That's where you shall chiefly operate--along
+the Sacandaga and the mountains northward! That's where I expect
+trouble. There lies this accursed war-trail; and along it there is like
+to be a very bloody business!"
+
+He turned aside and stood smiting his hands softly together, his
+preoccupied eyes regarding the candles.
+
+"A very bloody business," he repeated absently to himself. "Only rangers
+can aid us now.... Help us a little in this dreadful crisis.... Until we
+can recruit--build forts----"
+
+An officer appeared at the open door and saluted.
+
+"Well, sir," inquired Dayton sharply.
+
+"Lady Johnson is not to be discovered in the town, sir."
+
+"What? Has Lady Johnson run away also? Does the poor, deluded woman
+imagine that any man in my command would offer insult to her?"
+
+"It is reported, sir, that Lady Johnson said some very bitter things
+concerning us. It is further reported that Lady Johnson is gone in a
+great rage to the hunting lodge of the late Sir William, as there were
+already family servants there at last accounts."
+
+"Where's this place?" demanded Dayton, turning to me.
+
+"The summer house on the Vlaie, sir."
+
+"Very well. Take what men you can collect and go there instantly, Mr.
+Drogue, and place that foolish woman under arrest!"
+
+A most painful colour burnt my face, but I saluted in silence.
+
+"The little fool," muttered Dayton, "to think we meant to insult her!"
+And to me: "Let her remain there, Mr. Drogue, if she so desires. Only
+guard well the house. I shall march a battalion of my regiment thither
+in the morning, and later I shall order a company of Colonel
+Livingston's regiment to Fish House. And then we shall see what we shall
+see," he added grimly to the officer in the doorway, who smiled in
+return.
+
+There ensued a silence through which, very far away, we heard the music
+of another regiment marching into the town, which lay below us under the
+calm, high stars.
+
+"That's Livingston, now!" said Colonel Dayton, briskly; and went out in
+a hurry, his sword and spurs ringing loudly in the hall. And a moment
+later we heard him ride away at a gallop, and the loud clatter of
+horsemen at his heels.
+
+I pulled a bit of jerked venison from my sack and bit into it. Nick
+Stoner filled his mouth with cold johnnycake.
+
+And so, munching our supper, we left the Hall, headed for the Drowned
+Lands to make prisoner an unhappy girl who had gone off in a rage to
+Summer House Point.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A NIGHT MARCH
+
+
+The village of Johnstown was more brightly lighted than I had ever
+before seen it. Indeed, as we came out of the Hall the glow of it showed
+rosy in the sky and the distant bustle in the streets came quite plainly
+to our ears.
+
+Near the hedge fence outside the Hall we came upon remnants of our
+militia company, which had just been dismissed from further duty, and
+the men permitted to go home.
+
+Some already were walking away across the fields toward the Fonda's Bush
+road, and these all were farmers; but I saw De Luysnes and Johnny
+Silver, the French trappers, talking to old man Stoner and his younger
+boy; and Nick and I went over to where they were gathered near a
+splinter torch, which burned with a clear, straight flame like a candle.
+
+Joe Scott, too, was there, and I told him about my commission, whereupon
+he gave me the officer's salute and we shook hands very gravely.
+
+"There is scarce a handful remaining of our company," said he, "and you
+had best choose from us such as may qualify for rangers, and who are
+willing to go with you. As for me, I can not go, John, because I have
+here a letter but just delivered from Honikol Herkimer, calling me to
+the Canajoharie Regiment."
+
+It appeared, also, that old man Stoner had already enlisted with Colonel
+Livingston's regiment, and his thirteen-year-old boy, also, had been
+taken into the same command as a drummer.
+
+Dries Bowman shook his head when I appealed to him, saying he had a wife
+and children to look after, and would not leave them alone in the Bush.
+
+None could find fault with such an answer, though his surly tone
+troubled me a little.
+
+However, the two French trappers offered to enlist in my company of
+Rangers, and they instantly began to strap up their packs like men
+prepared to start on any journey at a moment's notice.
+
+Then Godfrey Shew, of Fish House, said to me very simply that his
+conscience and his country weighed more together than did his cabin; and
+that he was quite ready to go with me at once.
+
+At that, Joe de Golyer, of Varick's, fetched a laugh and came up in the
+torch-light and stood there towering six foot eight in his greasy
+buckskins, and showing every hound's tooth in his boyish head.
+
+"Give me my shilling, John," quoth he, "for I, also, am going with you.
+I've a grist-mill and a cabin and a glebe fair cleared at Varick's. But
+my father was all French; I have seen red for many a day; and if the
+King of England wants my mill I shall take my pay for it where I find
+it!"
+
+Silver began to grin and strut and comb out his scarlet thrums with
+dirty fingers.
+
+"Enfin," said he, with both thumbs in his arm-pits, "we shall be ver'
+happee familee in our pretee Bush. No more Toree, no more Iroquois!
+Tryon Bush all belong to us."
+
+"All that belongs to us today," remarked Godfrey grimly, "is what we
+hold over our proper rifles, Johnny Silver!"
+
+Old man Stoner nodded: "What you look at over your rifle sight is all
+that'll ever feed and clothe you now, Silver."
+
+"Oh, sure, by gar!" cried Silver with his lively grin. "Deer in blue
+coat, man in red coat, męme chose, savvy? All good game to Johnee
+Silver. Ver' fine chasse! Ah, sacré garce!" And he strutted about like a
+cock-partridge, slapping his hips.
+
+Nick Stoner burst into a loud laugh.
+
+"Ours is like to be a rough companionship, John!" he said. "For the
+first shot fired will hum in our ears like new ale; and the first
+screech from the Iroquois will turn us into devils!"
+
+"Come," said I with a shiver I could not control.
+
+I shook hands with Joe Scott; Nick took leave of his big, gaunt father.
+We both looked at Dries Bowman, but he had turned away in pretense of
+firing the torch.
+
+"Good-bye, Brent-Meester!" cried little Johnny Stoner in his childish
+treble, as we started down the stony way toward the town below.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Johnstown streets were full of people and every dwelling, shop, and
+tavern lighted brightly as we came into the village.
+
+Mounted troopers of the Albany Horse guarded every street or clattered
+to and fro in search, they told us, of hidden arms and supplies.
+Soldiers of the regiments of Colonels Dayton and Livingston, too, were
+to be seen everywhere, some guarding the jail, some encamped before the
+Court House, others occupying suspected dwellings and taverns notorious
+as Tory nests.
+
+Such inhabitants as were known friends to liberty roamed about the
+streets or stood in knots under the trees, whispering together and
+watching the soldiers. But Tories and their families remained indoors,
+peering sullenly from their windows and sometimes scowling upon these
+soldiers of a new nation, within the confines of which they already were
+discovering that no place remained for any friend to England or her
+King.
+
+As my little file of riflemen passed on moccasined feet through the
+swarming streets of Johnstown, soldiers and townspeople gazed curiously
+after us, surmising immediately what might be our errand. And many
+greeted us or called out pleasantries after us, such as, "Hearkaway! The
+red fox will fool you yet!" And, "Dig him out, you wolf-hounds! He's
+gone to earth at Sacandaga!"
+
+Many soldiers cheered us, swinging their cocked hats; and Nick Stoner
+and Johnny Silver swung their coon-tailed caps in return, shouting the
+wolf-cry of the Coureur-du-Bois--"Yik-yik-hoo-hoolo--o!"
+
+And now we passed the slow-moving baggage waggons of Colonel
+Livingston's regiment, toiling up from Caughnawaga, the sleepy teamsters
+nodding, and armed soldiers drowsing behind, who scarce opened one eye
+as we trotted by them and out into the darkness of the Mayfield road.
+
+Now, in this dim and starlit land, we moved more slowly, for the road
+lay often through woods where all was dark; and among us none had
+fetched any lantern.
+
+It was close to midnight, I think, when we were challenged; and I knew
+we were near the new Block House, because I heard the creek, very noisy
+in the dark, and smelled English grass.
+
+The sentinel held us very firmly and bawled to his fellow, who arrived
+presently with a lantern; and we saw the grist-mill close to us, with
+its dripping wheel and the high flume belching water.
+
+When they were satisfied, I asked for news and they told us they had
+seen none of Sir John's people, but that a carriage carrying two ladies
+had nigh driven over them, refusing to halt, and that they had been
+ashamed to fire on women.
+
+He informed us, further, that a sergeant and five men of Colonel
+Dayton's regiment had arrived at the Block House and would remain the
+night.
+
+"Also," said one of the men, "we caught a girl riding a fine horse this
+morning, who gave an account that she came from Fonda's Bush and was
+servant to Douw Fonda at Caughnawaga."
+
+"Where is the horse?" I asked.
+
+"Safe stabled in the new fort."
+
+"Where is the girl?"
+
+"Well," said he, "she sits yonder eating soupaan in the fort, and all
+the Continentals making moon-eyes at her."
+
+"That's my horse," said I shortly. "Take your lantern and show her to
+me."
+
+One of the militia men picked up the lantern, which had been burning on
+the grass between us, and I followed along the bank of the creek.
+
+Presently I saw the Block House against the stars, but all loops were
+shuttered and no light came from them.
+
+There was a ditch, a bridge of three logs, a stockade not finished; and
+we passed in between the palings where a gateway was to be made, and
+where another militia-man sat guard on a chopping block, cradling his
+fire-lock between his knees, fast asleep.
+
+The stable was but a shed. Kaya turned her head as I went to her and
+made a soft little noise of welcome, and fell a-lipping me and rubbing
+her velvet nose against me.
+
+"The Scotch girl cared for your mare and fed her, paying four pence,"
+said the militia-man. "But we were ashamed to take pay."
+
+I examined Kaya. She had been well cared for. Then I lifted her harness
+from the wooden peg where it hung and saddled her by the lantern light.
+
+And when all was snug I passed the bridle over my arm and led her to the
+door of the Block House.
+
+Before I entered, I could hear from within the strains of a fiddle; and
+then opened the door and went in.
+
+The girl, Penelope, sat on a block of wood eating soupaan with a pewter
+spoon out of a glazed bowl upon her knees.
+
+Ten soldiers stood in a ring around her, every man jack o' them
+a-courting as hard as he could court and ogle--which all was as plain to
+me as the nose on your face!--and seemed to me a most silly sight.
+
+For the sergeant, a dapper man smelling rank of pomatum and his queue
+smartly floured, was a-wooing her with his fiddle and rolling big eyes
+at her to kill at twenty paces; and a tall, thin corporal was tying a
+nosegay made of swamp marigolds for her, which, now and again, he
+pretended to match against her yellow hair and smirked when she lifted
+her eyes to see what he was about.
+
+Every man jack o' them was up to something, one with a jug o' milk to
+douse her soupaan withal, another busy with his Barlow carving a basket
+out of a walnut to please her;--this fellow making pictures on
+birch-bark; that one scraping her name on his powder-horn and pricking a
+heart about it.
+
+As for the girl, Penelope, she sat upon her chopping block with downcast
+eyes and very leisurely eating of her porridge; but I saw her lips
+traced with that faint smile which I remembered.
+
+What with the noise of the fiddle and the chatter all about her, neither
+she nor the soldiers heard the door open, nor, indeed, noticed us at all
+until my militia-men sings out: "Lieutenant Drogue, boys, on duty from
+Johnstown!"
+
+At that the Continentals jumped up very lively, I warrant you, being
+troops of some little discipline already; and I spoke civilly to their
+sergeant and went over to the girl, Penelope, who had risen, bowl in one
+hand, spoon in t'other, and looking upon me very hard out of her brown
+eyes.
+
+"Come," said I pleasantly, "you have kept your word to me and I mean to
+keep mine to you. My mare is saddled for you."
+
+"You take me to Caughnawaga, sir!" she exclaimed, setting bowl and spoon
+aside.
+
+"Tomorrow. Tonight you shall ride with us to the Summer House, where I
+promise you a bed."
+
+I held out my hand. She placed hers within it, looked shyly at the
+Continentals where they stood, dropped a curtsey to all, and went out
+beside me.
+
+"Is there news?" she asked as I lifted her to the saddle.
+
+"Sir John is gone."
+
+"I meant news from Caughnawaga."
+
+"Why, yes. All is safe there. A regiment of Continentals passed through
+Caughnawaga today with their waggons. So, for the time at least, all is
+quite secure along the Mohawk."
+
+"Thank you," she said in a low voice.
+
+I led the horse back to the road, where my little squad of men was
+waiting me, and who fell in behind me, astonished, I think, as I started
+east by north once more along the Mayfield road.
+
+Presently Nick stole to my side through the darkness, not a whit
+embarrassed by my new military rank.
+
+"Why, John," says he in a guarded voice, "is this not the Scotch girl of
+Caughnawaga who rides your mare, Kaya?"
+
+I told him how she had come to the Bowmans the night before, and how,
+having stolen my mare, I bargained with her and must send her or guide
+her myself on the morrow to Cayadutta.
+
+I was conscious of his stifled mirth but paid no heed, for we were
+entering the pineries now, where all was inky dark, and the trail to be
+followed only by touch of foot.
+
+"Drop your bridle; Kaya will follow me," I called back softly to the
+girl, Penelope. "Hold to the saddle and be not afraid."
+
+"I am not afraid," said she.
+
+We were now moving directly toward Fonda's Bush, and not three miles
+from my own house, but presently we crossed the brook, ascended a hill,
+and so came out of the pinery and took a wide and starlit waggon-path
+which bore to the left, running between fields where great stumps stood.
+
+This was Sir William's carriage road to the Point; and twice we crossed
+the Kennyetto by shallow fords.
+
+Close beside this carriage path on the north, and following all the way,
+ran the Iroquois war trail, hard and clean as a sheep walk, worn more
+than a foot deep by the innumerable moccasined feet that had trodden it
+through the ages.
+
+Very soon we passed Nine-Mile Tree, a landmark of Sir William's, which
+was a giant pine left by the road to tower in melancholy majesty all
+alone.
+
+When I rode the hills as Brent-Meester, this pine was like a guide post
+to me, visible for miles.
+
+Now, as I passed, I looked at it in the silvery dusk of the stars and
+saw some strange object shining on the bark.
+
+"What is that shining on Nine-Mile Tree?" said I to Nick. He ran across
+the road; we marched on, I leading, then the Scotch girl on my mare,
+then my handful of men trudging doggedly with pieces a-trail.
+
+A moment later Nick same swiftly to my side and nudged me; and looking
+around I saw an Indian hatchet in his hand, the blade freshly
+brightened.
+
+"It was sticking in the tree," he breathed. "My God, John, the Iroquois
+are out!"
+
+Chill after chill crawled up my back as I began to understand the
+significance of that freshly polished little war-axe with its limber
+helve of hickory worn slippery by long usage, and its loop of braided
+deer-hide blackened by age.
+
+"Was there aught else?" I whispered.
+
+"Nothing except this Mohawk hatchet struck deep into the bark of
+Nine-Mile Tree, and sticking there."
+
+"Do you know what it means, Nick?"
+
+"Aye. Also, it is an _old_ war-axe _newly_ polished. And struck deep
+into the tallest pine in Tryon. Any fool must know what all this means.
+Shall you speak of this to the others, John?"
+
+"Yes," said I, "they must know at once."
+
+I waited for Kaya to come up, laid my hand on the bridle and called back
+in a low voice to my men: "Boys, an Indian war-axe was left sticking in
+Nine-Mile Tree. Nick drew it out. The hatchet is an old one, but _it is
+newly polished_!"
+
+"Sacré garce!" whispered Silver fiercely. "Now, grâce ŕ dieu, shall I
+reckon with those dirtee trap-robbers who take my pelts like the
+carcajou! Ha! So is it war? A la bonheur! Let them come for my hair
+then! And if they get Johnny Silver's hair they may paint the Little Red
+Foot on the hoop, nom de dieu!"
+
+"Get along forward, boys," said I. "Some of you keep an eye on the
+mountains lest they begin calling to Sir John with fire----"
+
+"A flame on Maxon!" whispered Nick at my elbow.
+
+I jerked my head around as though I had been shot. There it rose, a thin
+red streak above the blunt headland that towered over the Drowned Lands.
+Steadily as a candle's flame in a still room, it burned for a few
+moments, then was shattered into crimson jets.
+
+Far to the North, on some invisible mountain, a faint crimson flare
+replied.
+
+Nobody spoke, but I knew that every eye was fixed on those Indian
+signal-fires as we moved rapidly forward into the swale country where
+swampy willows spread away on either hand and little pools of water
+caught the starlight.
+
+The road, too, had become wet, and water stood in the ruts; and every
+few minutes we crossed corduroy.
+
+"Yonder stands the Summer House," whispered Nick.
+
+A ridge of hard land ran out into the reed-set water. A hinged gate
+barred the neck. Nick swung it wide; I led my mare and her rider through
+it; posted Godfrey and Silver there; posted Luysnes and De Golyer a
+hundred paces inland near the apple trees; left Nick by the well, and,
+walking beside my mare, continued on to the little green and white
+hunting lodge where, through the crescents of closed shutters, rays of
+light streamed out into the night.
+
+Here I lifted the Scotch girl from her saddle, walked with her to the
+kitchen porch, and knocked softly on the kitchen door.
+
+After a while I could hear a stirring within, voices, steps.
+
+"Nicholas! Pontioch! Flora!" I called in guarded tones.
+
+Presently I heard Flora's voice inquiring timidly who I might be.
+
+"Mr. Drogue is arrived to await her ladyship's commands," said I.
+
+At that the bolts slid and the door creaked open. Black Flora stood
+there in her yellow night shift, rolling enormous eyes at me, and behind
+her I saw Colas with a lighted dip, gaping to see me enter with a
+strange woman.
+
+"Is your mistress here?" I demanded.
+
+"Yassuh," answered Flora, "mah lady done gone to baid, suh."
+
+"Who else is here? Mistress Swift?"
+
+"Yassuh."
+
+"Is there a spare bed?"
+
+Flora rolled suspicious eyes at the Scotch girl, but thought there was a
+bed in Sir William's old gun room.
+
+I waited until the black wench had made sure, then bade Colas look to my
+mare, said a curt good-night to Penelope Grant, and went out to unroll
+my blanket on the front porch.
+
+When I whistled softly Nick came across the garden from the well.
+
+"Lady Johnson is here," said I. "Yonder lies my blanket. I stand first
+watch. Go you and sleep now while you can----"
+
+"Sleep first, John. I am not weary----"
+
+"Remember I am your officer, Nick!"
+
+"Oh, hell!" quoth he. "That does not awe me, John. What awes me in you
+is your kindness--and to remember that your ancestors wore their gold
+rings upon their fingers."
+
+I passed my arm about his shoulders, then released him and went slowly
+over to the well. And here I primed my rifle with bright, dry powder,
+shouldered it, and began to walk my post at a brisk pace to cheat the
+sleep which meddled with my heavy eyes and set me yawning till my young
+jaws crackled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+SUMMER HOUSE POINT
+
+
+The sun in my eyes and the noise of drums awoke me, where, relieved on
+post by Nick, I had been sleeping on the veranda.
+
+Beyond the orchard on the Johnstown road, mounted officers in blue and
+buff were riding amid undulating ranks of moving muskets; and I knew
+that the Continental Line had arrived at Summer House Point, and was
+glad of it.
+
+As I shook loose my blanket and stood up, black Flora and Colas came up
+from their kitchen below ground, and seemed astonished to see me still
+there.
+
+"Is your mistress awake?" I demanded. But they did not know; so I bade
+Flora go inside and awaken Lady Johnson. Then I went down to the well in
+the orchard, where Nick stood sentry, looking through the blossoming
+boughs at what was passing on the mainland road beyond the Point.
+
+It was a soft, sunny morning, and a pleasant scent from the apple bloom,
+which I remember was full o' bees.
+
+Through the orchard, on the small peninsula, now came striding toward us
+a dozen or more officers of the regiments of Colonels Dayton and
+Livingston, all laughing together and seeming very merry; and some, as
+they passed under the flowering branches, plucked twigs of white and
+pink flowers and made themselves nosegays.
+
+Their major, who seemed to know me as an officer, though I did not know
+him, called out in high good humour:
+
+"Well, my lord Northesk, did you and your rangers arrive in time to
+close the cage on our pretty bird?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said I, reddening, and not pleased.
+
+"Lady Johnson is here then?"
+
+"Yes, Major."
+
+At that instant the front door opened and Lady Johnson came out quickly
+and stood on the veranda, the sun striking across her pallid face, which
+paleness was more due to her condition than to any fear of our soldiery.
+
+She was but partly robed, and that hastily; her hair all unpowdered and
+undressed, and only a levete of China silk flung about her girlish
+figure, and making still more evident her delicate physical condition.
+
+But in her eyes I saw storms a-brewing, and her lips and features went
+white as she stood there, clenching and unclenching one hand, and still
+a little blinded by the sun in her face.
+
+We all had uncovered before her, bowing very low; and, if she noticed me
+at first, I am not certain, but she gave our Major such a deadly stare
+that it checked his speech and put him clean out o' countenance, leaving
+him a-twiddling his sword-knot and dumb as a fish.
+
+"What does this mean?" said she, her lip trembling with increasing
+passion. "Have you come here to arrest me?"
+
+And, as nobody replied, she stamped her bare foot in its silken
+chamber-shoe, like any angry child in petty fury when disobliged.
+
+"Is it not enough," she continued, "that you drive my unhappy husband
+out of his own house, but you must presently follow me here to mock and
+insult me? What has our family done to merit this outrage?"
+
+Our Major, astonished and out o' countenance, attempted a civil word to
+calm her, but she swept us all with scornful eyes and stamped her foot
+again in such anger that her shoe fell off and landed on the grass.
+
+"Our only crime is loyalty to a merciful and Christian King!" she cried,
+paying no heed to the shoe. "Our punishment is that we are like to be
+hunted as they hunt wild beasts! By a pack of rebels, too! Shame,
+gentlemen! Is this worthy even of embattled shop-keepers?"
+
+"Madame, I beg you----"
+
+But she had no patience to listen.
+
+"You have forced me out of my home in Johnstown," she said bitterly,
+"and I thought to find refuge under this poor roof. But now you come
+hunting me here! Very well, gentlemen, I leave you in possession and go
+to Fish House. And if you hunt me out o' Fish House, I shall go on, God
+knows where!--for I do not choose to endure the insult with which your
+mere presence here affronts me!"
+
+I had picked up her silk shoe and now went to her with it, where she
+stood on the veranda, biting at her lip, and her eyes all a-glitter with
+angry tears.
+
+"For God's sake, madam," said I, "do not use us so harshly. We mean no
+insult and no harm----"
+
+"John Drogue," she said with a great sob, "I have loved you as a
+brother, but I had rather see you dead there on this violated threshold
+than know that the Laird of Northesk is become a rebel to his King!"
+
+I knelt down and drew the shoe over her bare foot. Then I stood up and
+took her hand, laying it very gently upon my arm. She suffered me to
+lead her into the house--to the door of her bedroom, where Claudia,
+already dressed, took her from me.
+
+"Oh, John, John," she sobbed, "what is this pack o' riff-raff doing here
+with their cobbler majors and carpenter colonels--all these petty
+shop-keepers in uniform who come from filthy Boston to ride over us?"
+
+Claudia's eyes were very bright, but without any trace of fear or anger.
+
+"What troops are these, Jack?" she inquired coolly. "And do they really
+come here to make prisoners of two poor women?"
+
+I told her that these soldiers formed a mixed battalion from the
+commands of Colonels Dayton and Livingston, and that they would encamp
+for the present within sight of the Summer House.
+
+"Do you mean that Polly and I are prisoners?" she repeated
+incredulously.
+
+"I'm afraid I do mean that, Claudia," said I.
+
+At the word "prisoner" Lady Johnson flamed:
+
+"Are you not ashamed, Jack Drogue, to tell me to my face such barbarous
+news!" she cried. "You, a gentleman, to consort with vulgar bandits who
+make prisoners of women! What do you think of your Boston friends now?
+What do you think of your blacksmith generals and 'pothecary
+colonels----"
+
+"Polly! Be silent!" entreated Claudia, shaking her arm. "Is this a
+decent manner to conduct when the fortune of war fails to suit your
+tastes?"
+
+And to me: "No one is like to harm us, I take it. We are not in personal
+danger, are we?"
+
+"Good Lord!" said I, mortified that she should even ask me.
+
+"Well, then!" she said in a lively voice to Lady Johnson, who had turned
+her back on me in sullen rage, "it will be but a few days at worst,
+Polly. These rebel officers are not ogres. No! So in Heaven's name let
+us make the best of this business--until Mr. Washington graciously
+permits us to go on to Albany or to New York."
+
+"I shall not go thither!" stormed Lady Johnson, pacing her chamber like
+a very child in the tantrums; "I shall not deign to inhabit any city
+which is held by dirty rebels----"
+
+"But we shall drive them out first!" insisted Claudia, with an impudent
+look at me. "Surely, dear, Albany will soon be a proper city to reside
+in; General Howe has said it;--and so we had best address a polite
+letter to Mr. Washington, requesting a safe conduct thither and a
+flag----"
+
+"I shall not write a syllable to the arch-rebel Washington!" stormed
+Lady Johnson. "And I tell you plainly, Jack, I expect to have my throat
+cut before this shameful business is ended!"
+
+"You had best conduct sensibly, both of you," said I bluntly; "for I'm
+tired of your airs and vapours; and Colonel Dayton will stand no
+nonsense from either of you!"
+
+"John!" faltered Lady Johnson, "do--do you, too, mean to use us
+brutally?"
+
+"I merely beg you to consider what you say before you say it, Polly
+Johnson! You speak to a rebel of 'dirty' rebels and 'arch' rebels; you
+conduct as though we, who hold another opinion than that entertained by
+you, were the scum and offscouring of the earth."
+
+"I meant it not as far as it concerns you, John Drogue," she said with
+another sob.
+
+"Then be pleased to trim your speech to my brother officers," said I,
+still hotly vexed by her silly behaviour. "We went to Johnstown to take
+your husband because we believe he has communicated with Canada. And it
+was proper of us to do so.
+
+"We came here to detain you until some decent arrangement can be made
+whereby you shall have every conceivable comfort and every reasonable
+liberty, save only to do us a harm by communicating with your friends
+who are our enemies.
+
+"Therefore, it would be wise for you to treat us politely and not rail
+at us like a spoiled child. Our duty here is not of our own choosing,
+nor is it to our taste. No man desires to play jailer to any woman. But
+for the present it must be so. Therefore, as I say, it might prove more
+agreeable for all if you and Claudia observe toward us the ordinary
+decencies of polite usage!"
+
+There was a silence. Lady Johnson's back remained turned toward me; she
+was weeping.
+
+Claudia took her hand and turned and looked at me with all the lively
+mischief, all the adorable impudence I knew so well:
+
+"La, Mr. Drogue," says she mockingly, "some gentlemen are born so and
+others are made when made officers in armies. And captivity is irksome.
+So, if your friends desire to pay their respects to us poor captives, I
+for one shall not be too greatly displeased----"
+
+"Claudia!" cried Lady Johnson, "do you desire a dish of tea with tinkers
+and tin-peddlars?"
+
+"I hear you, Polly," said she, "but prefer to hear you further after
+breakfast--which, thank God! I can now smell a-cooking." And, to me:
+"Jack, will you breakfast with us----"
+
+She stopped abruptly: the door of Sir William's gun room opened, and the
+Scottish girl, Penelope Grant, walked out.
+
+"Lord!" said Claudia, looking at her in astonishment. "And who may you
+be, and how have you come here?"
+
+"I am Penelope Grant," she answered, "servant to Douw Fonda of
+Caughnawaga; and I came last night with Mr. Drogue."
+
+The perfect candour of her words should have clothed them with
+innocence. And, I think, did so. Yet, Claudia shot a wicked look at me,
+which did not please me.
+
+But I ignored her and explained the situation briefly to Lady Johnson,
+who had turned to stare at Penelope, who stood there quite
+self-possessed in her shabby dress of gingham.
+
+There was a silence; then Claudia asked the girl if she would take
+service with her; and Penelope shook her head.
+
+"I pay handsomely, and I need a clever wench to care for me," insisted
+Claudia; "and by your fine, white hands I see you are well accustomed to
+ladies' needs. Are you not, Penelope?"
+
+"I am servant to Douw Fonda," repeated the girl. "It would not be kind
+in me to leave him who offers to adopt me. Nor is it decent to abandon
+him in times like these."
+
+Lady Johnson came forward slowly, her tear-marred eyes clearing.
+
+"My brother, Stephen, has spoken of you. I understood him to say that
+you are the daughter of a Scottish minister. Is this true?"
+
+"Yes, my lady."
+
+"Then you are no servant wench."
+
+"I serve."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"My parents are dead. I must earn my bread."
+
+"Oh. You have no means to maintain you?"
+
+"None, madam."
+
+"How long have you been left an orphan?"
+
+"These three years, my lady."
+
+"You came from Scotland?"
+
+"From France, my lady."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"My father preached to the exiled Scots who live in Paris. When he was
+dying, I promised to take ship and come to America, because, he said,
+only in America is a young girl safe from men."
+
+"Safe?" quoth Claudia, smiling.
+
+"Yes, madam."
+
+"Safe from what, child?"
+
+"From the unlawful machinations of designing men, madam. My father told
+me that men hunt women as a sport."
+
+"Oh, la!" cried Claudia, laughing; "you have it hind end foremost! Man
+is the hunted one! Man is the victim! Is it not so, Jack?"--looking so
+impudently at me that I was too vexed to smile in return, but got very
+red and gazed elsewhere.
+
+"And what did you then, Penelope Grant?" inquired Lady Johnson, with a
+soft sort of interest which was natural and unfeigned, she having a
+gentle heart and tender under all her pride and childishness.
+
+"I took ship, my lady, and came to New York."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"I went to Parson Gano in his church,--who was a friend to my father,
+though a Baptist. I was but a child, and he cared for me for three
+years. But I could not always live on others' bounty; so he yielded to
+my desires and placed me as servant to Douw Fonda, who was at that time
+visiting New York. And so, when Mr. Fonda was ready to go home to
+Caughnawaga, I accompanied him."
+
+"And are his aid and crutch in his old age," said Lady Johnson, gently.
+"What wonder, then, he wishes to adopt you, Penelope Grant."
+
+"If you will be my companion," cried Claudia, "I shall dare adopt you,
+pretty as you are--and risk losing every lover I possess!"
+
+The Scottish girl's brown eyes widened at that; but even Lady Johnson
+laughed, and I saw the loveliest smile begin to glimmer on Penelope's
+soft lips.
+
+"Thank heaven for a better humour in the house," thought I, and was
+pleased that Claudia had made a gayety of the affair.
+
+I went to the window and looked out. Smoke from the camp fires of the
+Continentals made a haze all along the reedy waterfront. I saw their
+sentries walking their posts; heard the noise of their axes in the bush;
+caught a glimpse of my own men lying in the orchard on the new grass,
+and Nick cooking jerked meat at a little fire of coals, which gleamed in
+the grass like a heap of dusty jewels.
+
+And, as I stood a-watching, I felt a touch at my elbow, and turned to
+face the girl, Penelope.
+
+"Your promise, sir," she said. "You have not forgotten?"
+
+"No," I replied, flushing again under Claudia's mocking gaze. "But you
+should first eat something."
+
+"And you, also," said Lady Johnson, coming to me and laying both hands
+upon my shoulders.
+
+She looked into my eyes very earnestly, very sadly.
+
+"Forgive me, Jack," she said.
+
+I kissed her hands, saying that it was I who needed forgiveness, to so
+speak to her in her deep anxiety and unhappiness; but she shook her head
+and bade me remain and eat breakfast; and went away to her chamber to
+dress, carrying Claudia to aid her, and leaving me alone there with the
+girl Penelope.
+
+"So," said I civilly, though still annoyed by memory of my horse and how
+this girl had carried everything with so high a hand, "so you have lived
+in France?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Hum! Well, did you find the people agreeable?"
+
+"Yes, sir--the children. I was but fifteen when I left France."
+
+"Then you now own to eighteen years."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"A venerable age."
+
+At that she lifted her brown eyes. I smiled; and that enchanting,
+glimmering smile touched her lips again. And I thought of what I had
+heard concerning her in Caughnawaga, and how, when the old gentleman was
+enjoying his afternoon nap, she was accustomed to take her knitting to
+the porch.
+
+And I remembered, too, what Nick and others said concerning all the
+gallants of the countryside, how they swarmed about that porch like
+flies around a sap-pan.
+
+"I have been told," said I, "that all young men in Tryon sit ringed
+around you when you take your knitting to the porch at Cayadutta Lodge.
+Nor can I blame them, now that I have seen you smile."
+
+At that she blushed so brightly that I was embarrassed and somewhat
+astonished to see how small a progress this girl had really made in
+coquetry. I was to learn that she blushed easily; I did not know it
+then; but it presently amused me to find her, after all, so unschooled.
+
+"Why," said I, "should you show your colours to a passing craft that
+fires no shot nor even thinks to board you? I am no pirate, Penelope;
+like those Johnstown gallants who gather like flies, they say----"
+
+But I checked my words, not daring to plague her further, for the colour
+was surging in her cheeks and she seemed unaccustomed to such harmless
+bantering as mine.
+
+"Lord!" thought I, "here is a very lie that this maid is any such siren
+as Nick thinks her, for her pretty thumb is still wet with sucking."
+
+Yet I myself had become sensible that there really was about her a
+_something_--exactly what I knew not--but some seductive quality, some
+vague enchantment about her, something unusual which compelled men's
+notice. It was not, I thought, entirely the agreeable contrast of yellow
+hair and dark eyes; nor a smooth skin like new snow touched to a rosy
+hue by the afterglow.
+
+She sat near the window, where I stood gazing out across the water,
+toward the mountains beyond. Her hands, joined, rested flat between her
+knees; her hair, in the sun, was like maple gold reflected in a ripple.
+
+"Lord!" thought I, "small wonder that the gay blades of Tryon should
+come a-meddling to undo so pretty a thing."
+
+But the thought did not please me, yet it was no concern o' mine. But I
+now comprehended how this girl might attract men, and, strangely enough,
+was sorry for it.
+
+For it seemed plain that here was no coquette by intention or by any
+knowledge of the art of pleasing men; but she was one, nevertheless, so
+sweetly her dark eyes regarded you when you spoke; so lovely the glimmer
+of her smile.
+
+And it was, no doubt, something of these that men noticed--and her youth
+and inexperience, which is tender tinder to hardened flint that is ever
+eager to strike fire and start soft stuff blazing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE SHAPE IN WHITE
+
+
+We breakfasted on soupaan, new milk, johnnycake, and troutlings caught
+by Colas, who had gone by canoe to the outlet of Hans' Creek by
+daylight, after I had awakened him. Which showed me how easily one could
+escape from the Summer House, in spite of guards patrolling the neck and
+mainland road.
+
+We were four at table; Lady Johnson, Claudia, Penelope, and I; and all
+seemed to be in better humour, for Claudia's bright eyes were ever
+roaming toward the Continental camp, where smart officers passed and
+repassed in the bright sunlight; and Lady Johnson did not conceal her
+increasing conviction that Sir John had got clean away; which,
+naturally, pleased the poor child mightily;--and Penelope, who had
+offered very simply to serve us at table, sat silent and contented by
+the civil usage she received from Polly Johnson, who told her very
+sweetly that her place was in a chair and not behind it.
+
+"For," said my lady, "a parson's daughter may serve where her heart
+directs, but is nowise or otherwise to be unclassed."
+
+"Were I obliged by circumstances to labour for my bread," said Claudia,
+"would you still entertain honourable though ardent sentiments toward
+me, Jack?"
+
+Which saucy question I smiled aside, though it irritated me, and oddly,
+too, because Penelope Grant had heard--though why I should care a
+farthing for that I myself could not understand.
+
+Lady Johnson laid a hand on Penelope's, who looked up at her with that
+shy, engaging smile I had already noticed. And,
+
+"Penelope," said she, "if rumour does not lie, and if all our young
+gallants do truly gather 'round when you take your knitting to the porch
+of Cayadutta Lodge, then you should make it very plain to all that you
+are a parson's daughter as well as servant to Douw Fonda."
+
+"How should I conduct, my lady?"
+
+"Firmly, child. And send any light o' love a-packing at the first
+apropos!"
+
+"Oh, lud!" says Claudia, "would you make a nun of her, Polly? Sure the
+child must learn----"
+
+"Learn to take care of herself," quoth Polly Johnson tartly. "You have
+been schooled from childhood, Claudia, and heaven knows you have had
+opportunities enough to study that beast called man!"
+
+"I love him, too," said Claudia. "Do you, Penelope?"
+
+"Men please me," said the Scotch girl shyly. "I do not think them
+beasts."
+
+"They bite," snapped Lady Johnson.
+
+"Slap them," said Claudia,--"and that is all there is to it."
+
+"You think any man ever has been tamed and the beast cast out of him,
+even after marriage?" demanded Lady Johnson. She smiled, but I caught
+the undertone of bitterness in her gaiety, poor girl!
+
+"Before marriage," said Claudia coolly, "man is exactly as treacherous
+as he is afterward;--no more so, no less. What about it? You take the
+creature as he is fashioned by his Maker, or you drive him away and live
+life like a cloistered nun. What is your choice, Penelope?"
+
+"I have no passion for a cloister," replied the girl, so candidly that
+all laughed, and she blushed prettily.
+
+"That is best," nodded Claudia; "accept the creature as he is. We're
+fools if we're bitten before we're married, and fortunate if we're not
+nipped afterward. Anyway, I love men, and so God bless them, for they
+can't help being what they are and it's our own fault if they play too
+roughly and hurt us."
+
+Lady Johnson laughed and laid her hand lightly on my shoulder.
+
+"Dear Jack," said she, "we do not mean you, of course."
+
+"Oho!" cried Claudia, "it's in 'em all and crops out one day. Jack
+Drogue is no tamer than the next man. Nay, I know the sort--meek as a
+mouse among petticoats----"
+
+"Claudia!" protested Lady Johnson.
+
+"I hear you, Polly. But when I solemnly swear to you that I have been
+afraid of this young man----"
+
+"Afraid of what?" said I, smiling at her audacity, but vexed, too.
+
+"Afraid you might undo me, Jack----"
+
+"What!"
+
+"--And then refuse me an honest name----"
+
+"What mad nonsense do you chatter!" exclaimed Lady Johnson, out of
+countenance, yet laughing at Claudia's effrontery. And Penelope,
+abashed, laughed a little, too. But Claudia's nonsense madded me, though
+her speech had been no broader than was fashionable among a gentry so
+closely in touch with London, where speech, and manners, too, were
+broader still.
+
+Vexed to be made her silly butt, I sat gazing out of the window, over
+the great Vlaie, where, in the reeds, tall herons stood as stiff as
+driven stakes, and the painted wood-ducks, gorgeous as tropic birds,
+breasted Mayfield Creek, or whirred along the waterways to and fro
+between the Stacking Ridge and the western bogs, where they nested among
+trees that sloped low over the water.
+
+Beyond, painted blue mountains ringed the vast wilderness of bog and
+woods and water; and presently I was interested to see, on the blunt
+nose of Maxon, a stain of smoke.
+
+I watched it furtively, paying only a civil heed to the women's chatter
+around me--watched it with sideway glance as I dipped my spoon into the
+smoking soupaan and crumbled my johnnycake.
+
+At first, on Maxon's nose there was only a slight blue tint of vapour,
+like a spot of bloom on a blue plum. But now, above the mountain, a thin
+streak of smoke mounted straight up; and presently I saw that it became
+jetted, rising in rings for a few moments.
+
+Suddenly it vanished.
+
+Claudia was saying that one must assume all officers of either party to
+be gentlemen; but Lady Johnson entertained the proposition coldly, and
+seemed unwilling to invite Continental officers to a dish of tea.
+
+"Not because they are my captors and have driven my husband out of his
+own home," she said haughtily; "I could overlook that, because it is the
+fortune of war. But it is said that the Continental officers are a
+parcel of Yankee shop-keepers, and I have no desire to receive such
+people on equal footing."
+
+"But," said Claudia, "Jack is a rebel officer, and so is Billy
+Alexander."
+
+"I think Lord Stirling must be crazy," retorted Lady Johnson. Then she
+looked at me, bit her lip and laughed, adding:
+
+"You, too, Jack--and every gentleman among you must be mad to flout our
+King!"
+
+"Mad, indeed--and therefore to be pitied, not punished," says Claudia.
+"Therefore, let us drink tea with our rebel officers, Polly--out of
+sheer compassion for their common infirmity."
+
+"We rebels don't drink tea, you know," said I, smiling.
+
+"Oh, la! Wait till we invite your Continentals yonder. For, if Polly and
+I are to be imprisoned here, I vow I mean to amuse myself with the
+likeliest of these young men in blue and buff, whom I can see yonder,
+stalking to and fro along the Johnstown Road. May I not send them a
+civil invitation, Polly?"
+
+"If you insist. I, however, decline to meet them," pouted Lady Johnson.
+
+"I shall write a little letter to their commanding officer," quoth
+Claudia. "Do as you like, Polly, but, as for me, I do not desire to
+perish of dullness with only women to talk to, and only a swamp to gaze
+upon!"
+
+She sprang to her feet; Lady Johnson and Penelope also rose, as did I.
+
+"Is it true, Jack, that you are under promise to take this young girl to
+Douw Fonda's house in Caughnawaga?" asked Lady Johnson.
+
+"Yes, madam."
+
+She turned to Penelope: "When do you desire to set out?"
+
+"As soon as may be, my lady."
+
+"I like you. I wish you would remain and share my loneliness."
+
+"I would, my lady, only I feel in honour bound to go to Mr. Fonda."
+
+Claudia passed her arm around the Scottish girl's slim waist.
+
+"Come," she coaxed, "be my companion! Be more friend than servant, more
+sister than friend. For I, also, begin to love you, with your dark eyes
+and yellow hair, and your fine hands and sweet, fresh skin, like a child
+from a bath."
+
+They both laughed, looking at each other with a gaze shy but friendly,
+like two who seem to think they are, perhaps, destined to love each
+other.
+
+"I wish I might remain," said the Scottish girl, reluctantly turning
+toward me.
+
+"Are you for Caughnawaga?" I asked bluntly.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Very well," said I. "Polly Johnson, may I take your carriage?"
+
+"It is always at your command, Jack. But I am sorry that our little
+Scottish lass must go."
+
+However, she gave the order to black Colas, who must drive us, also,
+because, excepting for Colas and poor Flora, and one slave left in
+Johnstown, all servants, slaves, tenants, and officers of Sir John's
+household had fled with the treacherous Baronet and were now God knows
+where in the terrific wilderness and making, without doubt, for the
+Canadas.
+
+For personal reasons I was glad that the dishonoured man was gone. I
+should have been ashamed to take him prisoner. But I was deeply troubled
+on other accounts; for this man had gone northward with hundreds of my
+old neighbors, for the purpose of forming an army of white men and
+Indians, with which he promised to return and cut our throats and lay
+our beautiful countryside in ashes.
+
+We had scarce any force to oppose Sir John; no good forts except Stanwix
+and a few block-houses; our newly-organized civil government was
+chaotic; our militia untried, unreliable, poorly armed, and still rotten
+with toryism.
+
+To defend all this immense Tryon County frontier, including the river as
+far as Albany, only one regular regiment had been sent to help us; for
+what remained of the State Line was needed below, where His Excellency
+was busy massing an army to face the impending thunder-clap from
+England.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As I stood by the window, looking out across the Vlaie at Maxon Ridge,
+where I felt very sure that hostile eyes were watching the Sacandaga and
+this very house, a hand touched my arm, and, turning, I saw Penelope
+Grant beside me.
+
+"May I have a word alone with you, Mr. Drogue?" she asked in her serious
+and graver way--a way as winning as her lighter mood, I thought.
+
+So we went out to the veranda and walked a little way among the apple
+trees, slowly, I waiting to hear what she had for my ear alone.
+
+Beyond, by the well, I saw my Rangers squatting cross-legged on the
+grass in a little circle, playing at stick-knife. Beyond them a
+Continental soldier paced his beat in front of the gate which closed the
+mainland road.
+
+Birds sang, sunshine glimmered on the water, the sky was softly blue.
+
+The girl had paused under a fruit tree. Now, she pulled down an apple
+branch and set her nose to the blossoms, breathing their fresh scent.
+
+"Well," said I, quietly.
+
+Her level eyes met mine across the flowering branch.
+
+"I am sorry to disturb you," said she.
+
+"How disturb me?"
+
+"By obliging you to take me to Caughnawaga. It inconveniences you."
+
+"I promised to see you safely there, and that is all about it," said I
+drily.
+
+"Yes, sir. But I ask your pardon for exacting your promise.... And--I
+ask pardon for--for stealing your horse."
+
+There seemed to ensue a longer silence than I intended, and I realized
+that I had been looking at her without other thought than of her dark,
+young eyes under her yellow hair.
+
+"What did you say?" I asked absently.
+
+She hesitated, then: "You do not like me, Mr. Drogue."
+
+"Did I say so?" said I, startled.
+
+"No.... I feel that you do not like me. Is it because I used you without
+decency when I stole your horse?"
+
+"Perhaps some trifling chagrin remains. But it is now over--because you
+say you are sorry."
+
+"I am so."
+
+"Then--I am friendly--if you so desire, Penelope Grant."
+
+"Yes, sir, I do desire your countenance."
+
+I smiled at her gravity, and saw, dawning in return, that lovely,
+child's smile I already knew and waited for.
+
+"I wish to whisper to you," said she, bending the flowering bough lower.
+
+So I inclined my ear across it, and felt her delicate breath against my
+cheek.
+
+"I wish to make known to you that I am of your party, Mr. Drogue," she
+whispered.
+
+I nodded approval.
+
+"I wished you to know that I am a friend to liberty," she continued. "My
+sentiment is very ardent, Mr. Drogue: I burn with desire to serve this
+land, to which my father's wish has committed me. I am young, strong,
+not afraid. I can load and shoot a pistol----"
+
+"Good Lord!" I exclaimed, laughing, "do you wish to enlist and go for a
+soldier?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+I drew back in amazement and looked at her, and she blushed but made me
+a firm countenance. And so sweetly solemn a face did this maid pull at
+me that I could not forbear to laugh again.
+
+"But how about Mr. Fonda?" I demanded, "if you don jack-boots and hanger
+and go for a dragoon?"
+
+"I shall ask his permission to serve my country."
+
+"A-horse, Penelope? Or do you march with fire-lock and knapsack and a
+well-floured queue?" I had meant to turn it lightly but not to ridicule;
+but her lip quivered, though she still found courage to sustain my
+laughing gaze.
+
+"Come," said I, "we Tryon County men have as yet no need to call upon
+our loyal women to shoulder rifle and fill out our ranks."
+
+"No need of me, sir?"
+
+"Surely, surely, but not yet to such a pass that we strap a bayonet on
+your thigh. Sew for us. Knit for us----"
+
+"Sir, for three years I have done so, foreseeing this hour. I have
+knitted many, many score o' stockings; sewed many a shirt against this
+day that is now arrived. I have them in Mr. Fonda's house, against my
+country's needs. All, or a part, are at your requisition, Mr. Drogue."
+
+But I remained mute, astonished that this girl had seen so clearly what
+so few saw at all--that war must one day come between us and our King.
+This foreseeing of hers amazed me even more than her practical provision
+for the day of wrath--now breaking red on our horizon--that she had seen
+so clearly what must happen--a poor refugee--a child.
+
+"Sir," says she, "have you any use for the stockings and shirts among
+your men?"
+
+She stood resting both arms on the bent bough, her face among the
+flowers. And I don't know how I thought of it, or remembered that in
+Scotland there are some who have the gift of clear vision and who see
+events before they arrive--nay, even foretell and forewarn.
+
+And, looking at her, I asked her if that were true of her. And saw the
+tint of pink apple bloom stain her face; and her dark eyes grow shy and
+troubled.
+
+"Is it that way with you?" I repeated. "Do you see more clearly than
+ordinary folk?"
+
+"Yes, sir--sometimes."
+
+"Not always?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"But if you desire to penetrate the future and strive to do so----"
+
+"No, sir, I can not if I try. Visions come unsought--even undesired."
+
+"Is effort useless?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Then this strange knowledge of the future comes of itself unbidden?"
+
+"Unbidden--when it comes at all. It is like a flash--then darkness. But
+the glimpse has convinced me, and I am forewarned."
+
+I pondered this for a space, then:
+
+"Could you tell me anything concerning how this war is to end?"
+
+"I do not know, Mr. Drogue."
+
+I considered. Then, again: "Have you any knowledge of what Fate intends
+concerning yourself?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Nothing regarding your own future? That is strange."
+
+She shook her head, watching me. And then I laughed lightly:
+
+"Nothing, by any chance, concerning me, Penelope?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+I was so startled that I found no word to question her.
+
+"There is to be a battle," she said in a low voice. "Men will fight in
+the North. I do not know when. But there will be strange uniforms in the
+woods--not British red-coats.... And I know you, also, are to be there."
+Her voice sank to a whisper.... "And there," she breathed, "you shall
+meet Death ... or Love."
+
+When presently my composure returned to me, and I saw her still
+regarding me across the apple-bough, I felt inclined to laugh.
+
+"When did this strange knowledge come to you?" I asked, smiling my
+unbelief.
+
+"The day I first heard your voice at my cousin Bowman's--waking me in my
+bed--and I came out and saw you in the eye of the rising sun. _And you
+were not alone._ And instantly I saw a strange battle that is not yet
+fought--and I saw you--the way you stood--there--dark and straight in a
+blinding sheet of yellow light made by cannon!... The world was aflame,
+and I saw you, tall and dark, shadowed against the blaze--but you did
+not fall.
+
+"Then I came to my senses, and heard the bell ringing, and asked you
+what it meant. Do you remember?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+She released the apple-bough and came under it toward me, through a snow
+of falling blossoms.
+
+"It will surely happen--this battle," she said. "I knew it when I saw
+you, and that other figure near you, where I sat your stolen horse and
+heard you shout at me in anger, and turned to look at you--then, also, I
+caught a glimpse of that _other_ figure near you."
+
+"What other figure?"
+
+"The one which was wrapped in white--like a winding sheet--and
+veiled.... Like Death.... Or a bride, perhaps."
+
+A slight chill went over me, even in the warmth of the sun. But I
+laughed and said I knew not which would be the less welcome, having no
+stomach for Master Death, and even less, perhaps, for Mistress Bride.
+
+"Doubtless," said I, "you saw some ghost of the morning mist afloat from
+the wet earth where I stood."
+
+She made no answer.
+
+Now, as the carriage still tarried, though I had seen Colas taking out
+the horses, I asked her indulgence for a few moments, and walked over to
+the well, where my men still sat at stick-knife. And here I called Nick
+aside and laid one hand on his shoulder:
+
+"There was Indian smoke on Maxon an hour ago," said I. "Take Johnny
+Silver and travel the war trail north, but do not cross the creek to the
+east. I go as armed escort for a traveller to Caughnawaga, and shall
+return as soon as may be. Learn what you can and meet me here by sunrise
+tomorrow."
+
+Nick grinned and cast a sidelong glance at Penelope Grant, where she
+stood in the orchard, watching us.
+
+"Scotched by the Scotch," said he. "Adam fell; and so I knew you'd fall
+one day, John--in an apple orchard! Lord Harry! but she's a pretty
+baggage, too! Only take care, John! for she's soft and young and likes
+to be courted, and there's plenty to oblige her when you're away!"
+
+"Let them oblige her then," said I, vexed, though I knew not why. "She
+stole my horse and would not surrender him until I pledged my word to
+give her escort back to Caughnawaga. And that is all my story--if it
+interests you."
+
+"It does so," said he, his tongue in his cheek. At which I turned away
+in a temper, and encountered an officer, in militia regimentals of the
+Caughnawaga Regiment, coming through the orchard toward me.
+
+"Hallo, Jack!" he called out to me, and I saw he was a friend of mine,
+Major Jelles Fonda, and hastened to offer him his officer's salute.
+
+When he had rendered it, he gave me his honest hand, and we linked arms
+and walked together toward the house, exchanging gossip concerning how
+it went with our cause in Johnstown and Caughnawaga. For the Fonda clan
+was respectable and strong among the landed gentry of Tryon, and it
+meant much to the cause of liberty that all the Fondas, I think without
+exception, had stood sturdily for their own people at a time when the
+vast majority of the influential and well-to-do had stood for their
+King.
+
+When we drew near the house, Major Fonda perceived Penelope and went at
+once to her.
+
+She dropped him a curtsey, but he took her hands and kissed her on both
+cheeks.
+
+"I heard you were here," said he. "We sent old Douw Fonda to Albany for
+safety, not knowing what is like to come upon us out o' that damned
+Canada. And, knowing you had gone to your cousin Bowman's, I rode over
+to my Bush, got news of you through a Mayfield militia man, and trailed
+you here. And now, my girl, you may take your choice; go to Albany and
+sit snug with the Patroon until this tempest breaks and blows over, or
+go to Johnstown Fort with me."
+
+"Does not Douw Fonda need me?" she asked.
+
+"Only your pretty face and sweet presence to amuse him. But, until we
+are certain that Sir John and Guy Johnson do not mean to return and
+murder us in our beds, Douw Fonda will not live in Caughnawaga, and so
+needs no housekeeper."
+
+"Why not remain here with Lady Johnson and Mistress Swift," said I,
+"until we learn what to expect from Sir John and his friends in Canada?
+These ladies are alone and in great anxiety and sorrow. And you could be
+of aid and service and comfort."
+
+What made me say this I do not know. But, somehow, I did not seem to
+wish this girl to go to Albany, where there were many gay young men and
+much profligacy.
+
+To sit on Douw Fonda's porch with her knitting was one thing, and the
+sap-pan gallants had little opportunity to turn the head of this
+inexperienced girl; but Albany was a very different matter; and this
+maid, who said that she liked men, alone there with only an aged man to
+stand between her and idle, fashionable youth, might very easily be led
+into indiscretions. The mere thought of which caused me so lively a
+vexation that I was surprised at myself.
+
+And now I perceived the carriage, with horses harnessed, and Colas in a
+red waistcoat and a red and green cockade on his beaver.
+
+We walked together to the Summer House. Lady Johnson came out on the
+veranda, and Claudia followed her.
+
+When they saw Major Fonda, they bowed to him very coolly, and he made
+them both a stately salute, shrugged his epaulettes, and took snuff.
+
+Lady Johnson said to Penelope: "Are you decided on abandoning two lonely
+women to their own devices, Penelope?"
+
+"Do you really mean to leave me, who could love you very dearly?"
+demanded Claudia, coming down and taking the girl by both hands.
+
+"If you wish it, I am now at liberty to remain with you till Mr. Fonda
+sends for me," replied Penelope. "But I have no clothes."
+
+Claudia embraced her with rapture. "Come to my room, darling!" she
+cried, "and you shall divide with me every stitch I own! And then we
+shall dress each other's hair! Shall we not? And we shall be very fine
+to drink a dish of tea with our friends, the enemy, yonder!"
+
+She flung her arm around Penelope. Going, the girl looked around at me.
+"Thank you for great kindness, my lord," she called back softly.
+
+Lady Johnson said in a cold voice to Major Fonda: "If our misfortunes
+have not made us contemptible to you, sir, we are at home to receive any
+enemy officer who, like yourself, Major, chances to be also a
+gentleman."
+
+"Damnation, Polly!" says he with a short laugh, "don't treat an old beau
+to such stiff-neck language! You know cursed well I'd go down on both
+knees and kiss your shoes, though I'd kick the King's shins if I met
+him!"
+
+He passed his arm through mine; we both bowed very low, then went away
+together, arm in arm, the Major fuming under his breath.
+
+"Silly baggage," he muttered, "to treat an old friend so high and
+mighty. Dash it, what's come over these Johnstown gentlemen and ladies.
+Can't we fight one another politely but they must affect to treat us as
+dirt beneath their feet, who once were welcome at their tables?"
+
+At the well I called to my men, who got up from the grass and greeted
+Major Fonda with unmilitary familiarity.
+
+"Major," said I, "we're off to scout the Sacandaga trail and learn what
+we can. It's cold sniffing, now, on Sir John's heels, but there was
+Iroquois smoke on old Maxon this morning, and I should like at least to
+poke the dead ashes of that same fire before moonrise."
+
+"Certainly," said the Major, gravely; and we shook hands.
+
+"Now, Nick," said I briskly.
+
+"Ready," said he; and "Ready!" repeated every man.
+
+So, rifle a-trail, I led the way out into the Fish House road.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE DROWNED LANDS
+
+
+For two weeks my small patrol of six remained in the vicinity of the
+Sacandaga, scouting even as far as Stony Creek, Silver Lake, and West
+River, covering Maxon, too, and the Drowned Lands, but ever hovering
+about the Sacandaga, where the great Iroquois War Trail runs through the
+dusk of primeval woods.
+
+But never a glimpse of Sir John did we obtain. Which was scarcely
+strange, inasmuch as the scent was already stone cold when we first
+struck it. And though we could trace the Baronet's headlong flight for
+three days' journey, by his dead fires and stinking camp débris, and,
+plainer still, by the trampled path made by his men and horses and by
+the wheel-marks of at least one cannon, our orders, which were to stop
+the War Trail from Northern enemies, permitted no further pursuit.
+
+Yet, given permission, I think I could have come up with him and his
+motley forces, though what my six scouts could have accomplished against
+nearly two hundred people is but idle surmise. And whether, indeed, we
+could have contrived to surprise and capture Sir John, and bring him
+back to justice, is a matter now fit only for idlest speculation.
+
+At the end of the first week I sent Joe de Golyer and Godfrey Shew into
+Johnstown to acquaint Colonel Dayton of what we had seen and what we
+guessed concerning Sir John's probable route. De Luysnes and Johnny
+Silver I stationed on Maxon's honest nose, where the valley of the
+Sacandaga and the Drowned Lands lay like a vast map at their feet, while
+Nick Stoner and I prowled the silent Iroquois trail or slid like a pair
+of otters through the immense desolation of the Drowned Lands, from the
+jungle-like recesses of which we could see the distant glitter of
+muskets where our garrison was drilling at Fish House, and a white speck
+to the southward, which marked the little white and green lodge at
+Summer House Point.
+
+We had found a damaged birch canoe near the Stacking Ridge, and I think
+it was the property of John Howell, who lived on the opposite side of
+the creek a mile above. But his log house stood bolted and empty; and,
+as he was a very rabid Tory, we helped ourselves to his old canoe, and
+Nick patched it with gum and made two paddles.
+
+In this leaky craft we threaded the spectral Drowned Lands, penetrating
+every hidden water-lead, every concealed creek, every lost pond which
+glimmered unseen amid cranberry bogs, vast wastes of stunted willow,
+pinxter shrubs in bloom, and the endless wilderness of reeds. Nesting
+black-ducks rose on clattering wings in scores and scores at our
+stealthy invasion; herons and bitterns flapped heavily skyward; great
+chain-pike, as long as a young boy, slid like shadows under our dipping
+paddles. But we saw no Indians.
+
+Nor was there a sign of any canoe amid the Drowned Lands; not a moccasin
+print in swamp-moss or mud; no trace of Iroquois on the Stacking Ridge,
+where already wild pigeons were flying among the beech and oak trees,
+busy with courtship and nesting.
+
+It was now near the middle of June, but Nick thought that Sir John had
+not yet reached Canada, nor was like to accomplish that terrible journey
+through a pathless wilderness under a full month.
+
+We know now that he did accomplish it in nineteen days, and arrived with
+his starving people in a terrible plight.[4] But nobody then supposed it
+possible that he could travel so quickly. Even his own Mohawks never
+dreamed he was already so far advanced on his flight; and this was their
+vital mistake; for there had been sent from Canada a war party to meet
+and aid Sir John; and, by hazard, I was to learn of this alarming
+business in a manner I had neither expected nor desired.
+
+[Footnote 4: One of his abandoned brass cannon is--or recently
+was--lying embedded in a swamp in the North Woods.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I was sitting on a great, smooth bowlder, where the little trout stream,
+which tumbles down Maxon from the east, falls into Hans Creek. It was a
+still afternoon and very warm in the sun, but pleasant there, where the
+confluence of the waters made a cool and silvery clashing-noise among
+the trees in full new leaf.
+
+Nick had cooked dinner--parched corn and trout, which we caught in the
+brook with one of my fish hooks and a red wampum bead from my moccasins
+tied above the barb.
+
+And now, dinner ended, Nick lay asleep with a mat of moss over his face
+to keep off black flies, and I mounted guard, not because I apprehended
+danger, but desired not to break a military rule which had become
+already a habit among my handful of men.
+
+I was seated, as I say, on a bowlder, with my legs hanging over the
+swirling water and my rifle across both knees. And I was thinking those
+vague and dreamy thoughts which float ghost-like through young men's
+minds when skies are blue in early summer and life seems but an endless
+vista through unnumbered ćons to come.
+
+Through a pleasant and reflective haze which possessed my mind moved
+figures of those I knew or had known--my honoured father, grave,
+dark-eyed, deliberate in all things, living for intellectual pleasure
+alone;--my dear mother, ardent yet timid, thrilled ever by what was most
+beautiful and best in the world, and loving all things made by God.
+
+I thought, too, of my silly kinsman in Paris, Lord Stormont, and how I
+had declined his pompous patronage, to carve for myself a career, aided
+by the slender means afforded me; and how Billy Alexander did use me
+very kindly--a raw youth in a New York school, left suddenly orphaned
+and alone.
+
+I thought of Stevie Watts, of Polly, of the DeLancys, Crugers, and other
+King's people who had made me welcome, doubtless for the sake of my Lord
+Stormont. And how I finally came to know Sir William Johnson, and his
+great kindness to me.
+
+All these things I thought of in the golden afternoon, seated by Hans
+Creek, my eyes on duty, my thoughts a-gypsying far afield, where I saw,
+in my mind's eye, my log house in Fonda's Bush, my new-cleared land, my
+neighbors' houses, the dark walls of the forest.
+
+Yet, drifting between each separate memory, glided ever a slender shape
+with yellow hair, and young, unfathomed eyes as dark as the velvet on
+the wings of that earliest of all our butterflies, which we call the
+Beauty of Camberwell.
+
+Think of whom I might, or of what scenes, always this slim phantom
+drifted in between the sequences of thought, and vaguely I seemed to see
+her yellow hair, and that glimmer which sometimes came into her eyes,
+and which was the lovely dawning of her smile.
+
+War seemed very far away, death but a fireside story half forgotten. For
+my thoughts were growing faintly fragrant with the scent of apple
+blossoms--white and pink bloom--sweet as her breath when she had
+whispered to me.
+
+A strange young thing to haunt me with her fragrance--this girl
+Penelope--her smooth hands and snowy skin--and her little naked feet,
+like whitest silver there in the dew at Bowman's----
+
+Suddenly, thought froze; from the foliage across the creek, scarce
+twenty feet from where I sat, and without the slightest sound, stepped
+an Indian in his paint.
+
+Like a shot squirrel I dropped behind my bowlder and lay flat among the
+shore ferns, my heart so wild that my levelled rifle shook with the
+shock of palsy.
+
+The roar of the waters was loud in my ears, but his calm voice came
+through it distinctly:
+
+"Peace, brother!" he said in the soft, Oneida dialect, and lifted his
+right hand high in the sunshine, the open palm turned toward me.
+
+"Don't move!" I called across the stream. "Lay your blanket on the
+ground and place your gun across it!"
+
+Calmly he obeyed, then straightened up and stood there empty handed,
+naked in his paint, except for the beaded breadth of deer-skin that fell
+from belt to knee.
+
+"Nick!" I called cautiously.
+
+"I am awake and I have laid him over my rifle-sight," came Nick's voice
+from the woods behind me. "Look sharp, John, that there be not others
+ambuscaded along the bank."
+
+"He could have killed me," said I, "without showing himself. By his
+paint I take him for an Oneida."
+
+"That's Oneida paint," replied Nick, cautiously, "but it's war paint,
+all the same. Shall I let him have it?"
+
+"Not yet. The Oneidas, so far, have been friendly. For God's sake, be
+careful what you do."
+
+"Best parley quick then," returned Nick, "for I trust no Iroquois. You
+know his lingo. Speak to him."
+
+I called across the stream to the Indian: "Who are you, brother? What is
+your nation and what is your clan, and what are you doing on the
+Sacandaga, with your face painted in black and yellow bars, and fresh
+oil on your limbs and lock?"
+
+He said, in his quiet but distinct voice: "My nation is Oneida; my clan
+is the Tortoise; I am Tahioni. I am a young and inexperienced warrior.
+No scalp yet hangs from my girdle. I come as a friend. I come as my
+brother's ally. This is the reason that I seek my brother on the
+Sacandaga. Hiero! Tahioni has spoken."
+
+And he quietly folded his arms.
+
+He was a magnificent youth, quite perfect in limb and body, and as light
+of skin as the Mohawks, who are often nearly white, even when pure
+breed.
+
+He stood unarmed, except for the knife and war-axe swinging from
+crimson-beaded sheaths at his cincture. Still, I did not rise or show
+myself, and my rifle lay level with his belly.
+
+I said, in as good Oneida as I could muster:
+
+"Young Oneida warrior, I have listened to what you have had to say. I
+have heard you patiently, oh Tahioni, my brother of the great Oneida
+nation who wears an _Onondaga name_!" For Tahioni means _The Wolf_ in
+Onondaga dialect.
+
+There was a silence, broken by Nick's low voice from somewhere behind
+me: "Shall I shoot the Onondaga dog?"
+
+"Will you mind your business?" I retorted sharply.
+
+The Oneida had smiled slightly at my sarcasm concerning his name; his
+eyes rested on the rock behind which I lay snug, stock against cheek.
+
+"I am Tahioni," he repeated simply. "My mother's clan is the Onondaga
+Tortoise."
+
+Which explained his clan and name, of course, if his father was Oneida.
+
+"I continue to listen," said I warily.
+
+"Tahioni has spoken," he said; and calmly seated himself.
+
+For a moment I remained silent, yet still dared not show myself.
+
+"Is my brother alone?" I asked at last.
+
+"Two Oneida youths and my adopted sister are with me, brother."
+
+"Where are they?"
+
+"They are here."
+
+"Let them show themselves," said I, instantly bitten by suspicion.
+
+Two young men and a girl came calmly from the thicket and stood on the
+bank. All carried blanket and rifle. At a sign from Tahioni, all three
+laid their blankets at their feet and placed their rifles across them.
+
+One, a stocky, powerful youth, spoke first:
+
+"I am Kwiyeh.[5] My clan is the Oneida Tortoise."
+
+The other young fellow said: "Brother, I am Hanatoh,[6] of the Oneida
+Tortoise."
+
+[Footnote 5: The Screech-Owl.]
+
+[Footnote 6: The Water-Snake.]
+
+Then they calmly seated themselves.
+
+I rose from my cover, my rifle in the hollow of my left arm. Nick came
+from his bed of juniper and stood looking very hard at the Oneidas
+across the stream.
+
+Save for the girl, all were naked except for breech-clout, sporran, and
+ankle moccasins; all were oiled and in their paint, and their heads
+shaven, leaving only the lock. There could be no doubt that this was a
+war party. No doubt, also, that they could have slain me very easily
+where I sat, had they wished to do so.
+
+There was, just below us, a string of rocks crossing the stream. I
+sprang from one to another and came out on their bank of the creek; and
+Nick followed, leaping the boulders like a lithe tree-cat.
+
+The Oneidas, who had been seated, rose as I came up to them. I gave my
+hand to each of them in turn, until I faced the girl. And then I
+hesitated.
+
+For never anywhere, among any nation of the Iroquois Confederacy, had I
+seen any woman so costumed, painted, and accoutred.
+
+For this girl looked more like a warrior than a woman; and, save for her
+slim and hard young body's shape, and her full hair, must have passed
+for an adolescent wearing his first hatchet and his first touch of war
+paint.
+
+She, also, was naked to the waist, her breasts scarce formed. Two braids
+of hair lay on her shoulders, and her skin was palely bronzed and smooth
+in its oil, as amber without a flaw.
+
+But she wore leggins of doe-skin, deeply fringed with pale green and
+cinctured in at her waist, where war-axe and knife hung on her left
+thigh, and powder horn and bullet pouch on her right. And over these she
+wore knee moccasins of green snake-skin, the feet of which were
+deer-hide sewn thick with scarlet, purple, and greenish wampum, which
+glistened like a humming-bird's throat.
+
+I said, wondering: "Who is this girl in a young warrior's dress, who
+wears a disk of blue war-paint on her forehead?"
+
+But Nick pulled my arm and said in my ear:
+
+"Have you heard of the little maid of Askalege? Yonder she stands, thank
+God! For the Oneida follow their prophetess; and the Oneida are with us
+in this war if she becomes our friend!"
+
+I had heard of the little Athabasca girl, found in the forest by
+Skenandoa and Spencer, and how she grew up like a boy at Askalege, with
+the brave half-breed interpreter, Thomas Spencer; and how it was her
+delight to roam the forests and talk--they said--to trees and beasts by
+moonlight; how she knew the language of all things living, and could
+hear the tiny voices of the growing grass! Legends and fairy tales, but
+by many believed.
+
+Yet, Sir William had seen the child at Askalege dancing in the stream of
+sparks that poured from Spencer's smithy when the Oneida blacksmith
+pumped his home-made bellows or struck fire-flakes from the cherry-red
+iron.
+
+I said: "Are you sure, Nick? For never have I seen an Indian maid play
+boy in earnest."
+
+"She is the little witch-maid of Askalege--their prophetess," he
+repeated. "I saw her once at Oneida Lake, dancing on the shore amid a
+whirl of yellow butterflies at their strawberry feast. God send she
+favours our party, for the Oneidas will follow her."
+
+I turned to the girl, who was standing quietly beside a young silver
+birch-tree.
+
+"Who are you, my sister, who wear a little blue moon on your brow, and
+the dress and weapons of an adolescent?"
+
+"Brother," she said in her soft Oneida tongue, "I am an Athabascan of
+the Heron Clan, adopted into the Oneida nation. My name is Thiohero,[7]
+and my privilege is Oyaneh.[8] Brother, I come as a friend to liberty,
+and to help you fight your great war against your King.
+
+[Footnote 7: The River-reed.]
+
+[Footnote 8: The noble or honourable one. The feminine of Royaneh, or
+Sachem, in the Algonquin.]
+
+"Brother, I have spoken," she concluded, with lowered eyes.
+
+Surprised and charmed by this young girl's modesty and quiet speech, but
+not knowing how to act, I thanked her as I had the young men, and
+offered her my hand.
+
+She took it, lifted her deep, wide eyes unabashed, looked me calmly and
+intelligently in the face, and said in English:
+
+"My adopted father is Thomas Spencer, the friend to liberty, and Oneida
+interpreter to your General Schuyler. My adopted uncle is the great
+war-chief Skenandoa, also your ally. The Oneida are my people. And are
+now become your brothers in this new war."
+
+"Your words make our hearts light, my sister."
+
+"Your words brighten our sky, my elder brother."
+
+Our clasped hands fell apart. I turned to Tahioni:
+
+"Brother, why are you in battle-paint?" I demanded.
+
+At that the eyes of the Oneida youths began to sparkle and burn; and
+Tahioni straightened up and struck the knife-hilt at his belt with a
+quick, fierce gesture.
+
+"Give me a name that I may know my brother," he said bluntly. "Even a
+tree has a name." And I flushed at this merited rebuke.
+
+"My name is John Drogue, and I am lieutenant of our new State Rangers,"
+said I. "And this is my comrade, Nicholas Stoner, of Fonda's Bush, and
+first sergeant in my little company."
+
+"Brother John," said he, "then listen to this news we Oneidas bring from
+the North: a Canada war-party is now on the Iroquois trail, looking for
+Sir John to guide them to the Canadas!"
+
+Taken aback, I stared at the young warrior for a moment, then,
+recovering composure, I translated for Nick what he had just told me.
+
+Then I turned again to Tahioni, the Wolf:
+
+"Where is this same war-party?" I demanded, still scarce convinced.
+
+"At West River, near the Big Eddy," said he. "_They have taken scalps._"
+
+"Why--why, then, it _is_ war!" I exclaimed excitedly. "And what people
+are these who have taken scalps in the North? Are they Caniengas?"
+
+"Mohawks!" He fairly spat out the insulting term, which no friendly
+Iroquois would dream of using to a Canienga; and the contemptuous word
+seemed to inflame the other Oneidas, for they all picked up their rifles
+and crowded around me, watching my face with gleaming eyes.
+
+"How many?" I asked, still a little stunned by this reality, though I
+had long foreseen the probability.
+
+"Thirty," said the girl Thiohero, turning from Nick, to whom she had
+been translating what was being said in the Oneida tongue.
+
+Now, in a twinkling, I found myself faced with an instant crisis, and
+must act as instantly.
+
+I had two good men on Maxon, the French trapper, Johnny Silver and
+Benjamin De Luysnes; Nick and I counted two more. With four Oneida, and
+perhaps Joe de Golyer and Godfrey Shew--if we could pick them up on the
+Vlaie--we would be ten stout men to stop this Mohawk war-party until the
+garrisons at Summer House Point and Fish House could drive the impudent
+marauders North again.
+
+Turning to Thiohero, I said as much in English. She nodded and spoke to
+the others in Oneida; and I saw their eager and brilliant eyes begin to
+glitter.
+
+Now, I carried always with me in the bosom of my buckskin shirt a
+_carnet_, or tablet of good paper, and a pencil given me years ago by
+Sir William.
+
+And now I seated myself on a rock and took my instruments and wrote:
+
+     "Hans Creek, near
+     Maxon Brook,
+     June 13th, 1776.
+
+     "To the Officer comm{d'ng} ye
+     Garrison at ye Summer House
+     on Vlaie,
+
+     "Sir:
+
+     "I am to acquaint you that this day, about two o'clock, afternoon,
+     arrived in my camp four Oneidas who give an account that a Mohawk
+     War Party is now at ye Big Eddy on West River, headed south.
+
+     "By the same intelligence I am to understand that this War Party
+     _has taken scalps_.
+
+     "Sir, anybody familiar with the laws and customs of the Iroquois
+     Confederacy understands what this means.
+
+     "Murder, or mere slaying, when not accompanied by such mutilation,
+     need not constitute an act of war involving nation and Confederacy
+     in formal declaration.
+
+     "But the taking of a single scalp means only one thing: that the
+     nation whose warrior scalps an enemy approves the trophy and
+     declares itself at war with the nation of the victim.
+
+     "I am aware, sir, that General Schuyler and Mr. Kirkland and others
+     are striving mightily in Albany to placate the Iroquois, and that
+     they still entertain such hope, although the upper Mohawks are gone
+     off with Brant, and Guy Johnson holds in his grasp the fighting men
+     of the Confederacy, save only the Oneida, and also in spite of
+     news, known to be certain, that Mohawk Indians were in battle-paint
+     at St. John's.
+
+     "Now, therefore, conscious of my responsibility, and asking God's
+     guidance in this supreme moment, lest I commit error or permit hot
+     blood to confuse my clearer mind, I propose to travel instantly to
+     the West River with my scout of four Rangers, and four Oneidas, and
+     ask of this Mohawk War Party an explanation in the name of the
+     Continental Congress and His Excellency, our Com{'nder} in Chief.
+
+     "Sir, I doubt not that you will order your two garrisons to prepare
+     for immediate defense, and also to support my scout on the
+     Sacandaga; and to send an express to Johnstown as soon as may be,
+     to acquaint Colonel Dayton of what measures I propose to take to
+     carry out my orders which are _to stop the Sacandaga trail_.
+
+     "This, sir, it is my present endeavour to do.
+
+     "I am, sir, with all respect,
+
+     "Yr most obedient
+
+     "John Drogue, L{ieut} Rangers."
+
+When I finished, I discovered that Nick and the Oneidas had fastened on
+their blanket-packs and were gathered a little distance away in animated
+conversation, the little maid of Askalege translating.
+
+Nick had fetched my pack; I strapped it, picked up my rifle, and walked
+swiftly into the woods; and without any word from me they fell into file
+at my heels, headed west for Fish House and the fateful river.
+
+My scout of six moved very swiftly and without noise; and it was not an
+hour before I caught sight of a Continental soldier on bullock guard,
+and saw cattle among low willows.
+
+The soldier was scared and bawled lustily for his mates; but among them
+was one of the Sammons, who knew me; and they let us through with little
+delay.
+
+Fish House was full o' soldiers a-sunning in every window, and under
+them, on the grass; and here headquarters guards stopped us until the
+captain in command could be found, whilst the gaping Continentals
+crowded around us for news, and stared at our Oneidas, whose quiet
+dignity and war paint astonished our men, I think. To the west and
+south, and along the river, I saw many soldiers in their shirts,
+a-digging to make an earthwork; and presently from this redoubt came a
+Continental Captain, out o' breath, who listened anxiously to what news
+I had gathered, and who took my letter and promised to send it by an
+express to Summer House Point.
+
+A quartermaster's sergeant asked very civilly if I desired to draw
+rations for my scout; and I drew parched corn, salt, dried fish, jerked
+venison, and pork from the brine, for ten men; and Nick and I and my
+Oneidas did divide between us the burthen.
+
+"The dogs!" he kept repeating in a confused way--"the dirty dogs, to
+take our scalps! And I pray God your painted Oneidas yonder may do the
+like for them!"
+
+I saw a horse saddled and a soldier mount and gallop off with my letter.
+That was sufficient for me; I gave the Continental Captain the officers'
+salute, and looked around at my men, who had made a green fire for me on
+the grass in front of the house.
+
+It was smoking thickly, now, so I took a soldier's watch-coat by the
+skirts, glanced up at Maxon Ridge, then, flinging wide the garment above
+the fire, kept it a-flutter there and moved it up and down till the
+jetted smoke mounted upward in great clots, three together, then one,
+then three, then one.
+
+Presently, high on Maxon, I saw smoke, and knew that Johnny Silver
+understood. So I flung the watch-coat to the soldier, turned, and walked
+swiftly along the river bank, where sheep grazed, then entered the
+forest with Nick at my heels and the four Oneidas a-padding in his
+tracks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE LITTLE RED FOOT
+
+
+By dusk we were ten rifles; for an hour after we left Fish House Johnny
+Silver and Luysnes joined us on the Sacandaga trail; and, just as the
+sun set behind the Mayfield mountains, comes rushing down stream a canoe
+with Godfrey Shew's bow-paddle flashing red in the last rays and Joe de
+Golyer steering amid the rattling rapids, nigh buried in a mountain of
+silvery spray.
+
+And here, by the river, we ate, but lighted no fire, though it seemed
+safe to do so.
+
+I sent Godfrey Shew and the Water-snake far up the Iroquois trail to
+watch it. The others gathered in a friendly circle to munch their corn
+and jerked meat, and the Frenchmen were merry, laughing and jesting and
+casting sly, amorous eyes toward Thiohero, who laughed, too, in friendly
+fashion and was at her ease and plainly not displeased with gallantry.
+
+It had proved a swift comradery between us and our young Oneidas, and I
+marvelled at the rapid accomplishment of such friendly accord in so
+brief a time, yet understood it came through the perfect faith of these
+Oneidas in their young Athabasca witch; and that what their prophetess
+found good they did not even think of questioning.
+
+Her voice was soft, her smile bewitching; she ate with the healthy
+appetite of an animal, yet was polite to those who offered meat. And her
+sweet "neah-wennah"[9] never failed any courtesy offered by these rough
+Forest Runners, who now, for the first time in their reckless lives, I
+think, were afforded a glimpse of the forest Indian as he really is when
+at his ease and among friends.
+
+[Footnote 9: Thank you.]
+
+For it is not true that the Iroquois live perpetually in their paint;
+that they are cruel by nature, brutal, stern, and masters of silence; or
+that they stalk gloomily through life with hatchet ever loosened and no
+pursuit except war in their ferocious minds.
+
+White men who have mistreated them see them so; but the real Iroquois,
+except the Senecas, who are different, are naturally a kindly, merry,
+and trustful people among themselves, not quarrelsome, not fierce, but
+like children, loving laughter and all things gay and bright and
+mischievous.
+
+Their women, though sometimes broad in speech and jests, are more truly
+chaste in conduct than the women of any nation I ever heard of, except
+the Irish.
+
+They have their fixed and honourable places in clan, nation, and Federal
+affairs.
+
+Rank follows the female line; the son of a chief does not succeed to the
+antlers, but any of his mother's relatives may. And in the Great Rite of
+the Iroquois, which is as sacred to them as is our religion to us, and
+couched in poetry as beautiful as ever Homer sang, the most moving part
+of the ceremony concerns the Iroquois women,--the women of the Six
+Nations of the Long House, respected, honoured, and beloved.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We ate leisurely, feeling perfectly secure there in the starlight of the
+soft June night.
+
+The Iroquois war-trail ran at our elbows, trodden a foot deep, hard as a
+sheep path, and from eighteen inches to two feet in width--a clean,
+firm, unbroken trail through a primeval wilderness, running mile after
+mile, mile after mile, over mountains, through valleys, by lonely lakes,
+along lost rivers, to the distant Canadas in the North.
+
+On this trail, above us, two of my men lay watching, as I have said,
+which was merely a customary precaution, for we were far out of earshot
+of the Big Eddy, and even of our own sentries.
+
+We were like one family eating together, and Silver and Luysnes jested
+and played pranks on each other, and de Golyer and Nick entered into
+gayest conversation with the Oneidas through their interpreter, the
+River-reed.
+
+As for Nick, I saw him making calf's eyes at the lithe young sorceress,
+which I perceived displeased her not at all; yet she gaily divided
+herself between translating for the others and keeping up a lively
+repartee with Nick.
+
+The Oneidas, now, had begun to shine up their war-hatchets, sitting
+cross-legged and contentedly rubbing up knife, axe, and rifle; and I was
+glad to see them so at home and so confident of our friendship.
+
+Older men might not have been so easily won, but these untried young
+warriors seemed very children, and possessing the lovable qualities of
+children, being alternately grave and gay, serious and laughing, frank
+and impatient, yet caressing in speech and gesture.
+
+From Kwiyeh, the Screech-owl, I had an account of how, burning for
+glory, these four youngsters had stolen away from Oneida Lake, and,
+painting themselves, had gone North of their own accord, to win fame for
+the Oneida nation, which for the greater part had espoused our cause.
+
+He told me that they had seen Sir John pass, floundering madly northward
+and dragging three brass cannon; but explained naďvely that four Oneidas
+considered it unsafe to give battle to two hundred white men.
+
+For a week, however, it appeared, they had hung on Sir John's flanks,
+skulking for a stray scalp; but it was evident that the Baronet's people
+were thoroughly frightened, and the heavy flank guards and the triple
+line of sentries by night made any hope of a stray scalp futile.
+
+Then, it appeared, these four Oneidas gave up the quest and struck out
+for the Iroquois trail. And suddenly came upon nearly two score Mohawks,
+silently passing southward, painted for war, oiled, shaved, and
+stripped, and evidently searching for Sir John, to aid and guide him in
+his flight to Canada.
+
+Which proved to me the Baronet's baseness, because his flight was
+plainly a premeditated one, and the Mohawks could not have known of it
+unless Sir John had been in constant communication with Canada--a thing
+he had pledged his honour not to do.
+
+Others around me, now, were listening to the burly young Oneida's
+account of their first war-path; and presently their young sorceress
+took up the tale in English and in Oneida, explaining with lively
+gestures to both red men and white.
+
+"Not one of the Mohawks saw us," she said scornfully, "and when they
+made a camp and had sent their hunters out to kill game, we came so near
+that we could see their warriors curing and hooping the scalps they had
+taken and painting on every scalp the Little Red Foot[10]--even on the
+scalps of two little boys."
+
+[Footnote 10: To show that the late owner of the scalp had died fighting
+bravely.]
+
+Nick turned pale, but said nothing. A sickness came to my stomach and I
+spoke with difficulty.
+
+"What were these scalps, little sister, which you saw the Mohawks
+curing?"
+
+"White people's. Three were of men,--one very thin and gray; two were
+the glossy hair of women; and two the scalps of children----"
+
+She flung back her blanket with a peculiarly graceful gesture:
+
+"Be honoured, O white brothers, that these Mohawk dogs were forced to
+paint upon every scalp the Little Red Foot!"
+
+After a silence: "Some poor settler's family," muttered Nick; and fell
+a-fiddling with his hatchet.
+
+"All died fighting," I added in a dull voice.
+
+Thiohero snapped her fingers and her dark eyes flamed.
+
+"What are the Mohawks, after all!" she said in a tense voice. "Who are
+they, to paint for war without fire-right given them at Onondaga? What
+do they amount to, these Keepers of the Eastern Gate, since Sir William
+died?
+
+"They have become outlaws and there is no honour among them!
+
+"Their clan-right is destroyed and neither Wolf, Bear, nor Tortoise know
+them any longer. Nor does any ensign of my own clan of the Heron know
+these mad yellow wolves that howl and tear the Long House with their
+teeth to destroy it! Like carcajoux, they defile the Iroquois League and
+smother its fire in their filth! Dig up the ashes of Onondaga for any
+living ember, O you Oneidas! You shall find not one live spark! And this
+is what the Canienga have done to the Great Confederacy!"
+
+Tahioni said, looking straight ahead of him: "The Great League of the
+Iroquois is broken. Skenandoa has said it, and he has painted his face
+scarlet! The Long House crumbles slowly to its fall.
+
+"Those who should have guarded the Eastern Gate have broken it down.
+Death to the Canienga!"
+
+Kwiyeh lifted his right hand high in the starlight:
+
+"Death to the Canienga! They have defiled Thendara. Spencer has said it.
+They have spat upon the Fire at the Wood's Edge. They have hewn down the
+Great Tree. They have uncovered the war-axe which lay deep buried under
+the roots.
+
+"Death to the Canienga!"
+
+I turned to Thiohero: "O River-reed, my little sister! Oyaneh! Is it
+true that your great chief, Skenandoa, has put on red paint?"
+
+She said calmly: "It is true, my brother. Skenandoa has painted himself
+in red. And when your General Herkimer rides into battle, on his right
+hand rides Skenandoa; and on his left hand rides Thomas Spencer, the
+Oneida interpreter!"[11]
+
+[Footnote 11: This was a true prophecy for it happened later at
+Oriskany.]
+
+Tahioni said solemnly: "And before them rides the Holder of Heaven. We
+Oneidas can not doubt it. Is it true, my sister?"
+
+The girl answered: "The Holder of Heaven has flung a red wampum belt
+between Oneida and Canienga! Five more red belts remain in his hand.
+They are so brightly red that even the Senecas can see the colour of
+these belts from the Western Gate of the Long House."
+
+There was a silence; then I chose De Luysnes and Kwiyeh to relieve our
+sentinels, and went north with them along the starlit trail.
+
+When I returned with Hanoteh and Godfrey Shew, the Oneidas were still
+sitting up in their blankets, and the Frenchmen lay on theirs, listening
+to Nick, who had pulled his fife from his hunting shirt and was trilling
+the air of the Little Red Foot while Joe de Golyer sang the words of the
+endless and dreary ballad--old-time verses, concerning bloody deeds of
+the Shawanese, Western Lenape, and French in '56, when blood ran from
+every creek and man, woman and child went down to death fighting.
+
+I hated the words, but the song had ever haunted me with its quaint and
+sad refrain:
+
+      "Lord Loudon he weareth a fine red coat,
+    And red is his ladye's foot-mantelle;
+      Red flyeth ye flagge from his pleasure-boat,
+    And red is the wine he loves so well:
+      But, oh! for the dead at Minden Town,--
+    Naked and bloody and black with soot,
+      Where the Lenni-Lenape and the French came down
+    To paint them all with the Little Red Foot!"
+
+"For God's sake, quit thy piping, Nick," said I, "and let us sleep while
+we may, for we move again at dawn."
+
+At which Nick obediently tucked away his fife, and de Golyer, who had a
+thin voice like a tree-cat, held his songful tongue; and presently we
+all lay flat and rolled us in our blankets.
+
+The night was still, save for a love-sick panther somewhere on the
+mountain, a-caterwauling under the June stars. But the distant and
+melancholy love-song and the golden melody of the stream pouring through
+its bowlders blended not unpleasantly in my ears, and presently
+conspired to lull me into slumber.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The mountain peaks were red when I awoke and spoke aloud to rouse my
+people. One by one they sat up, owlish with sleep, yet soon clearing
+their eyes and minds with remembering the business that lay before us.
+
+I sent Joe de Golyer and Tahioni to relieve our sentinels, Luysnes and
+the Screech-owl.
+
+When these came in with report that all was still as death on the
+Iroquois trail, we ate breakfast and drank at the river, where some
+among us also washed our bodies,--among others the River-reed, who
+stripped unabashed, innocent of any shame, and cleansed herself
+knee-deep in a crystal green pool under the Indian willows.
+
+When she came back, the disk of blue paint was gone from her brow, and I
+saw her a-fishing in her beaded wallet and presently bring forth blue
+and red paint and a trader's mirror about two inches in diameter.
+
+Then the little maid of Askalege sat down cross-legged and began to
+paint herself for battle.
+
+At the root of her hair, where it made a point above her forehead, she
+painted a little crescent moon in blue. And touched no more her face;
+but on her belly she made a blue picture of a heron--her clan being the
+Heron, which is an ensign unknown among Iroquois.
+
+Now she took red paint, and upon her chest she made a tiny human foot.
+
+I was surprised, for neither for war nor for any ceremony I ever heard
+of had I seen that dread symbol on any Indian.
+
+The Oneidas, also, were looking at her in curiosity and astonishment,
+pausing in their own painting to discover what she was about.
+
+Then, as it struck me, so, apparently, it came to them at the same
+instant what their sorceress meant,--what pledge to friend and foe alike
+this tiny red foot embodied, shining above her breast. And the two young
+warriors who had painted the tortoise in blue upon their bellies, now
+made each a little red foot upon their chests.
+
+"By gar!" exclaimed Silver, "ees it onlee ze gens-du-bois who shall made
+a boast to die fighting? Nom de dieu, non!" And he unrolled his blanket
+and pulled out a packet of red cloth and thread and needle--which is
+like a Frenchman, who lacks for nothing, even in the wilderness.
+
+He made a pattern very deftly out of his cloth, using the keen point of
+his hunting knife; and, as we all, now, wished to sew a little red foot
+upon the breasts of our buckskin shirts, and as he had cloth enough for
+all, and for Joe de Golyer, too, when we should come up with him, I and
+my men were presently marked with the dread device, which was our
+pledge and our defiance.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The sun had painted scarlet the lower Adirondack peaks when we started
+north on the Sacandaga trail.
+
+When we came up with our sentinels, I gave Joe time to sew on his
+symbol, and the Oneida time to paint it upon his person. Then we
+examined flint and priming, tightened girth and cincture, tested knife,
+hatchet, and the stoppers of our powder horns; and I went from one to
+another to inspect all, and to make my dispositions for the march to the
+Big Eddy on West River.
+
+We marched in the following fashion: Tahioni and Nick as left flankers,
+two hundred yards in advance of us, and in sight of the trail. On the
+right flank, the Water-snake and Johnny Silver at the same intervals.
+
+Then, on the trail itself, I leading, Luysnes next, then the River-reed.
+Then a hundred yards interval, and Joe de Golyer on the left rear,
+Kwiyeh on the right rear, and Godfrey on the trail.
+
+"And," I said, "if you catch a roving Tree-eater, slay him not, but
+bring him to me, for if there be any of these wild rovers, the
+Montagnais, in our vicinity, they should know something of what is now
+happening in the Canadas, and they shall tell us what they know, or I'm
+a Tory! Forward! Our alarm signal is the long call-note of the Canada
+sparrow!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+WEST RIVER
+
+
+The Water-snake caught an Adirondack just before ten o'clock, and was
+holding him on the trail as I came up, followed by Luysnes and Thiohero.
+
+The Indian was a poor, starved-looking creature in ragged buckskins and
+long hair, from which a few wild-turkey quills fell to his scrawny neck.
+
+He wore no paint, had been armed with a trade-rifle, the hammer of which
+was badly loosened and mended with copper wire, and otherwise he carried
+arrows in a quiver and a greasy bow.
+
+Like a fierce, lean forest thing, made abject by fear, the Adirondack's
+sloe-black eyes now flickered at me, now avoided my gaze. I looked down
+at the rags which served him for a blanket, and on which lay his
+wretched arms, including knife and hatchet.
+
+"Let him loose," said I to the Water-snake; "here is no Mengwe but a
+poor brother, who sees us armed and in our paint and is afraid."
+
+And I went to the man and offered my hand. Which he touched as though I
+were a rattlesnake.
+
+"Brother," said I, "we white men and Oneidas have no quarrel with any
+Saguenay that I know about. Our quarrel is with the Canienga, and that
+is the reason we wear paint on this trail. And we have stopped our
+Saguenay brother in the forest on his lawful journey, to say to him, and
+to all Saguenays, that we mean them no harm."
+
+There was an absolute silence; Luysnes and Thiohero drew closer around
+the Tree-eater; the Water-snake gazed at his captive in slight disgust,
+yet, I noticed, held his rifle in a position for instant use.
+
+The Saguenay's slitted eyes travelled from one to another, then he
+looked at me.
+
+"Brother," I said, "how many Maquas are there camped near the Big
+Eddy?"
+
+His low, thick voice answered in a dialect or language I did not
+comprehend.
+
+"Can you speak Iroquois?" I demanded.
+
+He muttered something in his jargon. Thiohero touched my arm:
+
+"The Saguenay says he understands the Iroquois tongue, but can speak it
+only with difficulty. He says that he is a hunter and not a warrior."
+
+"Ask him to answer me concerning the Maqua."
+
+A burst of volubility spurted from the prisoner.
+
+Again the girl translated the guttural reply:
+
+"He says he saw painted Mohawks fishing in the Big Eddy, and others
+watching the trail. He does not know how many, because he can not count
+above five numbers. He says the Mohawks stoned him and mocked him,
+calling him Tree-eater and Woodpecker; and they drove him away from the
+Big Eddy, saying that no Saguenay was at liberty to fish in Canienga
+territory until permitted by the Canienga; and that unless he started
+back to Canada, where he belonged, the Iroquois women would catch him
+and beat him with nettles."
+
+As Thiohero uttered the dread name, Canienga, I could see our captive
+shrink with the deep fear that the name inspired. And I think any
+Iroquois terrified him, for it seemed as though he dared not sustain the
+half-contemptuous, half-indifferent glances of my Oneidas, but his eyes
+shifted to mine in dumb appeal for refuge.
+
+"What is my brother's name?" I asked.
+
+"Yellow Leaf," translated the girl.
+
+"His clan?"
+
+"The Hawk," she said, shrugging her shoulders.
+
+"Nevertheless," said I, very quietly, "my Saguenay brother is a man, and
+not an animal to be mocked by the Maqua!"
+
+And I stooped and picked up his blanket and weapons, and gave them to
+him.
+
+"The Saguenays are free people," said I. "The Yellow Leaf is free as is
+his clan ensign, the Hawk. Brother, go in peace!"
+
+And I motioned my people forward.
+
+Our flankers, who, keeping stations, had waited, now started on again,
+the Water-snake running swiftly to his post on the extreme right flank.
+
+After ten minutes' silent and swift advance, Thiohero came lightly to my
+side on the trail.
+
+"Brother," she whispered, "was it well considered to let loose that
+Tree-eating rover in our rear?"
+
+"Would the Oneida take such a wretched trophy as that poor hunter's
+tangled scalp?"
+
+"_Neah._ Yet, I ask again, was it wisdom to let him loose, who, for a
+mouthful of parched corn, might betray us to the Mengwe?"
+
+"Poor devil, he means no harm to anybody."
+
+"_Then why does he skulk after us?_"
+
+Startled, I turned and caught a glimpse of something slinking on the
+ridge between our flankers; but was instantly reassured because no
+living thing could dog us without discovery from the rear. And presently
+I did see the Screech-owl run forward and hurl a clod of moss into the
+thicket; and the Saguenay broke cover like a scared dog, running perdue
+so that he came close to Hanatoh, who flung a stick at him.
+
+That was too much for me; and, as the Tree-eater bolted past me, I
+seized him.
+
+"Come," said I, dragging him along, "what the devil do you want of us?
+Did I not bid you go in peace?"
+
+Thiohero caught him by the other arm, and he panted some jargon at her.
+
+"Koué!" she exclaimed, and her long, sweet whistle of the Canada sparrow
+instantly halted us in our tracks, flankers, rearguard, and all.
+
+Thiohero, still holding the Saguenay by his lean, muscular arm, spoke
+sharply to him in his jargon; then, at his reply, looked up at me with
+the flaming eyes of a lynx.
+
+"Brother," said she, "this Montagnais hunter has given an account that
+the Maquas have prepared an ambuscade, knowing we are on the Great
+Trail."
+
+I said, coolly: "What reason does the Saguenay give for returning to us
+with such a tale?"
+
+"He says," she replied, "that we only, of all Iroquois or white men he
+has ever encountered, have treated him like a man and not as an unclean
+beast.
+
+"He says that my white brother has told him he is a man, and that if
+this is true he will act as real men act.
+
+"He says he desires to be painted upon the breast with a little red
+foot, and wishes to go into battle with us. And," she added naďvely, "to
+an Oneida this seems very strange that a Saguenay can be a real man!"
+
+"Paint him," said I, smiling at the Saguenay.
+
+But no Oneida would touch him. So, while he stripped to the clout and
+began to oil himself from the flask of gun-oil I offered, I got from
+him, through Thiohero, all he had noticed of the ambuscade prepared for
+us, and into which he himself had run headlong in his flight from the
+stones and insults of the Mohawks at the Big Eddy.
+
+While he was thus oiling himself, Luysnes shaved his head with his
+hunting blade, leaving a lock to be braided. Then, very quickly, I took
+blue paint from Thiohero and made on the fellow's chest a hawk. And,
+with red paint, under this I made a little red foot, then painted his
+fierce, thin features as the girl directed, moving a dainty finger
+hither and thither but never touching the Saguenay.
+
+To me she said disdainfully, in English: "My brother John, this is a
+wild wolf you take hunting with you, and not a hound. The Saguenays are
+real wolves and not to be tamed by white men or Iroquois. And like a
+lone wolf he will run away in battle. You shall see, brother John."
+
+"I hope not, little sister."
+
+"You shall see," she repeated, her pretty lip curling as Luysnes began
+to braid the man's scalp-lock. "You think him a warrior, now, because he
+is oiled and wears war paint and lock. But I tell you he is only a wild
+Montagnais hunter. Warriors are not made with a word."
+
+"Sometimes men are," said I pleasantly.
+
+The girl came closer to me, looked up into my face with unfeigned
+curiosity.
+
+"What manner of white man are you, John?" she asked. "For you speak like
+a preacher, yet you wear no skirt and cross, as do the priests of the
+Praying Indians."
+
+"Little sister," said I, taking both her hands, "I am only a young man
+going into battle for the first time; and I have yet to fire my first
+shot in anger. If my white and red brothers--and if you, little
+sister--do full duty this day, then we shall be happy, living or dead.
+For only those who do their best can look the Holder of Heaven in the
+face."
+
+She gave me a strange glance; our hands parted. I gave the
+Canada-sparrow call in the minor key--as often the bird whistles--and,
+at the signal, all my scouts came creeping in.
+
+"We cross West River here," said I, "and go by the left bank in the same
+order of march, crossing the shoulder of the mountain by the Big Eddy,
+then fording the river once more, so as to take their ambuscade from the
+north and in the rear."
+
+They seemed to understand. The Montagnais, in his new paint, came around
+behind me like some savage dog that trusts only his owner. And I saw my
+Oneidas eyeing him as though of two minds whether to ignore him or sink
+a hatchet into his narrow skull.
+
+"Who first sights a Mohawk," said I, "shall not fire or try to take a
+scalp to satisfy his own vanity and his desire for glory. No. He shall
+return to me and report what he sees. For it is my business to order the
+conduct of this battle.... March!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We had forded West River, crept over the mountain's shoulder, recrossed
+the river roaring between its rounded and giant bowlders, and now were
+creeping southward toward the Big Eddy.
+
+Already I saw ahead of me the brook that dashes into that great
+crystal-green pool, where, in happier days, I have angled for those huge
+trout that always lurk there.
+
+And now I caught a glimpse of the pool itself, spreading out between
+forested shores. But the place was still as death; not a living thing
+nor any sign of one was to be seen there--not a trace of a fire, nor of
+any camp filth, nor a canoe, nor even a broken fern.
+
+Moment after moment, I studied the place, shore and slope and hollow.
+
+Tahioni, flat on his belly in the Great Trail, lay listening and looking
+up the slope, where our Saguenay had warned us Death lay waiting.
+
+The Water-snake slowly shook his head and cast a glance of fierce
+suspicion at the Montagnais, who lay beside me, grasping his sorry
+trade-rifle, his slitted gaze of a snake fixed on the forest depths
+ahead.
+
+Suddenly, Nick caught my arm in a nervous grasp, and "My God!" says he,
+"what is that in the tree--in the great hemlock yonder?"
+
+And now we began to see their sharpshooters as we crawled forward,
+standing upright on limbs amid the foliage of great evergreens, to scan
+the trail ahead and the forest aisles below--these Mohawk panthers that
+would slay from above.
+
+Under them, hidden close to the ground, lay their comrades on either
+side of the little ravine, through which the trail ran. We could not see
+them, but we never doubted they were there.
+
+Four of their tree-cat scouts were visible: I made the sign; our rifles
+crashed out. And, thump! slap! thud! crash! down came their dead
+a-sprawling and bouncing on the dead leaves. And up rose their astounded
+comrades from every hollow, bush and windfall, only to drop flat at our
+rifles' crack, and no knowing if we had hit any among them.
+
+A veil of smoke lay low among the ferns in front of us. There was a
+terrible silence in the forest, then screech on screech rent the air, as
+the panther slogan rang out from our unseen foes; and, like a dreadful
+echo, my Oneidas hurled their war cry back at them; and we all sprang to
+our feet and moved swiftly forward, crouching low in our own rifle
+smoke.
+
+There came a shot, and a cloud spread among the boughs of a tall
+hemlock; but the fellow left his tree and slid down on t'other side,
+like a squirrel, and my wild Saguenay was after him in a flash.
+
+I saw the Oneidas looking on as though stupefied; saw the Saguenay,
+shoulder deep in witch-hopple, seize something, heard the mad struggle,
+and ran forward with Tahioni, only to hear the yelping scalp-cry of the
+Montagnais, and see him in the tangle of witch-hopple, both knees on his
+victim's shoulders, ripping off the scalp, his arms and body spattered
+with blood.
+
+The stupefaction of the Oneidas lasted but a second, then their battle
+yell burst out in jealous fury indescribable.
+
+I saw Tahioni chasing a strange Indian through a little hollow full of
+ferns; saw Godfrey Shew raise his rifle and kill the fugitive as coolly
+as though he were a running buck.
+
+Nick, his shoulder against a beech tree, stood firing with great
+deliberation at something I could not see.
+
+The three Frenchmen, de Golyer, Luysnes, and Johnny, had gone around, as
+though deer driving, and were converging upon a little wooded knoll,
+from which a hard-wood hogback ran east.
+
+Over this distant ridge, like shadows, I could see somebody's light feet
+running, checkered against the sunshine beyond, and I fired, judging a
+man's height, if stooping. And saw something dark fall and roll down
+into a gully full o' last year's damp and rotting leaves.
+
+Re-charging my rifle, I strove to realize that I had slain, but could
+not, so fierce the flame in me was burning at the thought of the
+children's scalps these Iroquois had taken.
+
+"Is he down, Johnny Silver?" I bawled.
+
+"Fairly paunched!" shouted Luysnes. "Tell your Oneidas they can take his
+hair, for I shan't touch it."
+
+But Johnny Silver, in no wise averse, did that office very cheerfully.
+
+"Nom de Dieu!" he panted, tugging at the oiled lock and wrenching free
+the scalp; "I have one veree fine jou-jou, sacré garce! I take two; mek
+for me one fine wallet!"
+
+Down by the river the rifles were cracking fast and a smoke mist filled
+the woods. Ranging widely eastward we had turned their left flank--now
+their right--and were forcing them to a choice between the Sacandaga
+trail southward or the bee-line back to Canada by the left bank of West
+River.
+
+How many there were of them I never have truly learned; but that
+scarcely matters to the bravest Indian, when ambuscaded and taken so
+completely by surprise from the rear.
+
+No Indians can stand that, and but few white men are able to rally under
+such circumstances.
+
+The Screech-owl, locked in a death struggle with a young Mohawk, broke
+his arm, stabbed him, and took his scalp before I could run to his aid.
+
+And there on the ground lay four other scalps, two of white children,
+with the Little Red Foot painted on all.
+
+I looked down at the dead murderer. He was a handsome boy, not twenty,
+and wore a white mask of war paint and two bars of scarlet on his chin,
+I thought--then realized that they were two thick streaks of running
+blood.
+
+"May his clan bewail him!" shouted the burly Screech-owl. "Let the
+Mohawk women mourn their dead who died this day at West River! The
+Oneida mock them! Koué!" And his terrific scalp-yell pierced the racket
+of the rifles.
+
+I heard a gruffling sound and thick breathing from behind a pine, where
+the Water-snake was scalping one of the tree-cat scouts--grunting and
+panting as he tugged at the tough and shaven skin, which he had grasped
+in his teeth, plying his knife at the same time because the circular
+incision had not been continuous.
+
+Suddenly I felt sick, and leaned against a tree, fighting nausea and a
+great dizziness. And was aware of an arm around my shoulder.
+
+Whereupon I straightened up and saw the little maid of Askalege beside
+me, looking at me very strangely.
+
+At the same instant I heard a great roaring and cursing and a crash
+among the river-side willows, and was horrified to see Nick down on his
+back a-clawing and tearing and cuffing a Mohawk warrior, who was
+clinging to him and striving to use his hatchet.
+
+We made but a dozen leaps of it, Thiohero and I, and were in a wasp-nest
+of Mohawks ere we knew it.
+
+I heard Nick roar again with pain and fury, but had my hands too full to
+succor him, for a wild beast painted yellow was choking me and wrestling
+me off my feet, and little Thiohero was fighting like a demon with her
+knife, on the water's edge.
+
+The naked warrior I clutched was so vilely oiled that my fingers slipped
+over him as though it were an eel I plucked at, and his foul and
+stinking breath in my face was like a full fed bear's.
+
+Then, as he strangled me, out of darkening eyes I saw his arm
+lifted--glimpsed the hatchet's sparkle--saw an arm seize his, saw a
+broad knife pass into his belly as though it had been butter--pass
+thrice, slowly, ripping upward so that he stood there, already
+gralloched, yet still breathing horribly and no bowels in him.... His
+falling hatchet clinked among the stones. Then he sank like a stricken
+bull, bellowed, and died.
+
+And, as he fell, I heard my Saguenay gabbling, "Brother! brother!" in my
+ears, and felt his hand timidly seeking mine.
+
+Breath came back, and eyesight, too, in time to see Nick and his Mohawk
+enemy on their feet again, and the Indian strike my comrade with clubbed
+rifle, turn, and dart into the willows.
+
+My God, what a crack! And down went Nick, like a felled pine in the
+thicket.
+
+But now in my ears rang a distressful crying, like a gentle wild thing
+wounded to the death; and I saw two Mohawks had got the little maid of
+Askalege between them, and were drowning her in the Big Eddy.
+
+I ran out into the water, but Tahioni, her brother, came in a flying
+leap from the bank above me, and all four went down under water as I
+reached them.
+
+They came up blinded, staggering, one by one, and I got Thiohero by the
+hair, where she lay in shallow water, and dragged her ashore behind me.
+
+Then I saw her brother clear his eyes of water and swing his hatchet
+like swift lightning, and heard the smashing skull stroke.
+
+The other Mohawk dived like an otter between us, and I strove to spear
+him with my knife, but only slashed him and saw the long, thin string of
+blood follow where he swam under water.
+
+My powder-pan was wet and flashed when I tried to shoot him, where I
+stood shoulder deep in the Big Eddy.
+
+Then came a thrashing, splashing roar like a deer herd crossing a marshy
+creek, and, below us, I saw a dozen Mohawks leap into the water and
+thrash their way over. And not a rifle among us that was dry enough to
+take a toll of our enemies crossing the West River plain in sight!
+
+Lord, what a day! And not fought as I had pictured battles. No! For it
+was blind combat, and neither managed as planned nor in any kind of
+order or discipline. Nor did we ever, as I have said, discover how many
+enemies were opposed to us. And I am certain they believed that a full
+regiment had struck their rear; otherwise, I think it had proven a very
+bloody business for me and my people. Because the Mohawks are brave
+warriors, and only the volley at their backs and the stupefying
+down-crash of their tree-scouts demoralized them and left them capable
+only of fighting like cornered wild things in a maddened effort to get
+away.
+
+Lord, Lord! What a battle! For all were filthy with blood, and there
+were brains and hair and guts sticking to knives and hatchets, and
+bodies and limbs all smeared. Good God! Was this war? And the green
+flies already whirling around us in the sunshine, and settling on the
+faces of the dead!--
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The little maid of Askalege, leaning on her brother's shoulder, was
+coughing up water she had swallowed.
+
+Nick, with a bloody sconce, but no worse damage, sat upon a rock and
+washed out his clotted hair.
+
+"Hell!" quoth he, when he beheld me. "Here be I with a broken poll, and
+yonder goes the Indian who gave it me."
+
+"Sit still, idiot!" said I, and set the ranger's whistle to my lips.
+
+White and red, my men came running from their ferocious hunting. Not a
+man was missing, which was another lesson in war to me, for I thought
+always that death dealt hard with both sides, and I could not understand
+how so many guns could be fired with no corpse to mourn among us.
+
+We had taken ten scalps; and, as only Johnny Silver among my white
+people fancied such trophies, my Oneidas skinned the noddles of our
+quarry, and, like all Indians, counted any scalp a glory, no matter
+whose knife or bullet dropped the game.
+
+We all bore scratches, and some among us were stiff, so that the scratch
+might, perhaps, be called a wound. A bullet had barked de Golyer,
+another had burned Tahioni; Silver proudly wore a knife wound; the
+Screech-owl had been beaten and somewhat badly bitten. As for Nick, his
+head was cracked, and the little maid of Askalege still spewed water.
+
+As for me, my throat was so swollen and bruised I could scarce speak or
+swallow.
+
+However, there was work still to be done, so I took Godfrey and Luysnes,
+the Screech-owl, and the Water-snake; motioned Yellow Leaf, the
+Montagnais to follow, and set off across West River, determined to drive
+our enemies so deep into the wilderness that they would never forget the
+Big Eddy as long as they survived on earth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A TROUBLED MIND
+
+
+That was a wild brant chase indeed! And although there were good
+trackers among us, the fleeing Canienga took to the mountain streams and
+travelled so, wading northward mile after mile, which very perfectly
+covered their tracks, and finally left us travelling in circles near
+Silver Lake.
+
+I now think St. Sacrament must have mirrored their canoes--God and they
+alone know the truth!--for I never heard of any other Mohawks, or any
+Englishmen at all, or Frenchmen for that matter, who ever have heard of
+this Mohawk war party coming south to meet and rescue Sir John.[12] Nor
+do our own records, except generally, mention our measures taken to stop
+the Sacandaga trail, or speak of the fight at the Big Eddy as a separate
+and distinct combat.
+
+[Footnote 12: Years later, Thayendanegea made a reference to this
+attempt, but the inference was that he himself led the war party, which
+is not true, because Brant was then in England.]
+
+It may be that this fight at the Big Eddy remained unnoticed because we
+sustained no losses. Also, we were losing our people all along the
+wilderness, from the ashes of Falmouth to the Ohio. I do not know. But
+my chiefest concern, then and later, was that the survivors among these
+Caniengas got clean away, which misfortune troubled my mind, although my
+Oneidas had a Dutch dozen of their scalps, all hooped and curing, when
+we limped into the Drowned Lands from our wild brant chase above.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now, my orders being to stop the Sacandaga Trail, there seemed no better
+way than to cut this same trail with a ditch and plant in it a
+chevaux-de-frise; and then so dispose my men that even a scout might
+remain in touch by signal and be prepared to fall back behind this
+barrier if Sir John crept upon our settlements by stealth.
+
+Fish House could provision us, or the Point, if necessary; and any scout
+of ours in the Drowned Lands ought to see smoke by day or fire by night
+from Maxon's nose to Mayfield.
+
+My scout of four and I passed in wearily between the rough, low redoubts
+at Fish House, after sunset, and gave an account to Peter Wayland, the
+captain commanding the post, that the northward war-trail was now clean
+as far as Silver Lake, and that I proposed to block it and watch it
+above and below.
+
+Twilight was deepening when we came to John Howell's deserted log-house
+on the Vlaie, and heard the owls very mournful in the tamarack forests
+eastward.
+
+A few rods farther on the hard ridge and one of my men challenged
+smartly. In thick darkness he led us over hard ground along the vast
+wastes of bushes and reeds, to where a new ditch had been dug down to
+the Vlaie Water.
+
+Thence he guided us through our chevaux-de-frise; and I saw my own
+people lying in the shadowy gleam of a watch-fire; and an Oneida slowly
+moving around the smouldering coals, chanting the refrain of his first
+scalp-dance:
+
+             SCALP SONG
+
+    "Chiefs in your white plumes!
+    When your Tall Cloud glooms,
+    And we Oneidas wonder
+    To hear your thunder--
+    And the moon pales,
+    And the Seven Dancers wear veils,
+    Is it your rain that wails?
+    Is it the noise of hail?
+    Is it the rush of frightened deer
+    That we Oneidas hear?"
+
+And the others chanted in sombre answer:
+
+    "It is the weeping of the Mohawk Nation,
+    Mourning amid their desolation,
+    For the scalpless head
+    Of each young warrior dead.
+
+    _A Voice from the Dark_
+
+    "It is the cry of their women, who bewail
+    Their warriors dead,
+    Not the east wind we hear!
+    It is the noise of their women, who rail
+    At those who fled,
+    Not whistling hail we hear!
+    It is the rush of feet that are afraid,
+    Not the swift flight of deer!"
+
+    _Another Voice_
+
+    "Let them flee,--the East Gate Keepers--
+    Whose dead lie still as sleepers!
+    Let the Canienga fly before our wrath,
+    Scatter like chaff,
+    When we Oneidas laugh!
+                         Koué!"
+
+
+    _Tahioni_
+
+    "Holder of Heaven,
+    And every Chief named in the Great Rite!
+    Dancers Seven!
+    And the Eight Thunders plumed in white!
+    At dawn I was a young man,
+    Who had seen no enemy die.
+    But my foe was a deer who ran,
+    And I struck; and let him lie."
+
+
+    _The Screech-owl Dances_
+
+    "The Mohawk Nation has fled,
+    But my war-axe sticks in its head!
+                            Koué!"
+
+
+    _The Water-snake Dances_
+
+    "Let the Wild Goose keep to the skies!
+    Where the Brant alights, he dies!
+                              Koué!"
+
+
+    _Thiohero, their Prophetess_
+
+    "The Lodge poles crack in the East!
+    The Long House falls.
+    Who calls the Condolence Feast?
+    Who calls?"
+
+
+    _She Dances Very Slowly_
+
+    "Who calls the Roll of the Dead?
+    Who opens the door?
+    The Fire in the West burns red,
+    But our fire-place burns no more!
+    Thendara--Thendara no more!"
+
+It was plain to me that my Indians meant to make a night of it--even
+those who, dog weary, had but now returned with me from the futile brant
+chase and sat eating their samp.
+
+The French trappers squatted in a row, smoking their pipes and looking
+on with that odd sympathy for any savage rite, which, I think, partly
+explains French success among all Indians.
+
+Firelight glimmered red on their weather-ravaged faces, on their gaudy
+fringes and moccasins.
+
+Near them, lolling in the warm young grass, sprawled Nick and Godfrey. I
+sat down by them, my back against a log. My Saguenay crept to my side. I
+gave him to eat, and, for my own supper, ate slowly a handful of parched
+corn, watching my young Oneidas around the fire, where they moved in
+their slow dance, singing and boasting of their first scalps taken.
+
+The little maid of Askalege came and seated herself close to me on my
+right.
+
+"I am weary," she murmured, letting her head fall back against the log.
+
+"Tell me," said I in English, "is there any reason why this Saguenay,
+who has proved himself a real man and no wolf, should not sing his own
+scalp-song among our Oneidas?"
+
+"None," she repeated. "The Yellow Leaf is a real man."
+
+"Tell him so."
+
+The girl turned her head and spoke to the Saguenay in his own gutturals.
+I also watched to see what effect such praise might have.
+
+For a few minutes he sat motionless and without any expression upon his
+narrow visage, yet I knew he must be bursting with pride.
+
+"Tahioni!" I called out. "Here, also, is a real man who has taken scalps
+in battle. Shall not our _brother_, Yellow Leaf, of the Montagnais, sing
+his first scalp-song at an Oneida fire?"
+
+There was a pause, then every Oneida hatchet flashed high in the
+firelight.
+
+"Koué!" they shouted. "We give fire right to our brother of the
+Montagnais, who is a real man and no wolf!"
+
+At that the Saguenay hunter, who, in a single day, had became a warrior,
+leaped lightly to his feet, and began to trot like a timber wolf around
+the fire, running hither and thither as an eager, wild thing runs when
+searching.
+
+Then he shouted something I did not understand; but Thiohero
+interpreted, watching him: "He looks in vain for the tracks of a poor
+Saguenay hunter, which once he was, but he can find only the footprints
+of a proud Saguenay warrior, which now he has become!"
+
+Now, in dumb show, this fierce and homeless rover enacted all that had
+passed,--how he had encountered the Canienga, how they had mocked and
+stoned him, how we had captured him, proved kind to him, released him;
+how he had returned to warn us of ambuscade.
+
+He drew his war-axe and shouted his snarling battle-cry; and all the
+Oneidas became excited and answered like panthers on a dark mountain.
+
+Then Yellow Leaf began to dance an erratic, weird dance--and, somehow, I
+thought of dead leaves eddying in a raw wind as he whirled around the
+fire, singing his first scalp-song:
+
+    "Who are the Yanyengi,[13] that a
+    Saguenay should fear them?
+    They are but Mowaks,[14] and
+    Real men jeer them!
+    I am a warrior; I wear the lock!
+    I am brother to the People of the Rock![15]
+    Red is my hatchet; my knife is red;
+    Woe to the Mengwe, who wail their dead!
+    I wear the Little Red Foot and the Hawk;
+    Death to the Maquas who stone and mock!
+                        Koué! Haď!"
+
+
+    _An Oneida_
+
+    "Hah!
+    Hawasahsai!
+    Hah!"
+
+
+    _The Saguenay_
+
+    "Who are the Yanyengi, that
+    Real men should obey them?
+    We People of the Dawn were
+    Born to slay them!
+    I eat twigs in winter when there is no game;
+    What does he eat, the Maqua? What means his name?
+    To each of us a Little Red Foot! To each his clan!
+    Let the Mengwe flee when they scent a Man!
+                        Koué! Haď!"
+
+[Footnote 13: The Huron for Canienga.]
+
+[Footnote 14: A Mohican term of insult, but generally used to express
+contempt for the Canienga.]
+
+[Footnote 15: Oneida.]
+
+And
+
+    "Hah! Hawasahsai!"
+
+chanted the Oneidas, trotting to and fro in the uncertain red light,
+while we white men sat, chin on fist, a-watching them; and the little
+sorceress of Askalege beat her palms softly together, timing the rhythm
+for lack of a drum.
+
+An hour passed: my Indians still danced and sang and bragged of deeds
+done and deeds to be accomplished; my young sorceress sat asleep, her
+head fallen back against me, her lips just parted. At her feet a toad,
+attracted by the insects which came into the fire-ring, jumped heavily
+from time to time and snapped them up.
+
+An intense silence brooded over that vast wilderness called the Drowned
+Lands; not a bittern croaked, not a wild duck stirred among the reeds.
+
+Very far away in the mist of the tamaracks I heard owls faintly
+halooing, and it is a melancholy sound which ever renders me uneasy.
+
+I was weary to the bones, yet did not desire sleep. A vague
+presentiment, like a mist on some young peak, seemed to possess my
+senses, making me feel as lonely as a mountain after the sun has set.
+
+I had never before suffered from solitude, unless missing the beloved
+dead means that.
+
+I missed them now,--parents who seemed ages long absent,--or was it I,
+their only son, who tarried here below too long, and beyond a reasonable
+time?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I was lonely. I looked at the scalps, all curing on their hoops, hanging
+in a row near the fire. I glanced at Nick. He lay on his blanket,
+sleeping.... The head of the little Athabasca Sorceress lay heavy on my
+shoulder; she made no sound of breathing in her quiet sleep. Both her
+hands were doubled into childish fists, thumbs inside.
+
+Johnny Silver smoked and smoked, his keen, tireless eyes on the Scalp
+Dancers; Luysnes, also, blinked at them in the ruddy glare, his powerful
+hands clasping his knees; de Golyer was on guard.
+
+I caught Godfrey's eye, motioned him to relieve Joe, then dropped my
+head once more in sombre meditation, lonely, restless, weary, and
+unsatisfied....
+
+And now, again,--as it had been for perhaps a longer period of time than
+I entirely comprehended,--I seemed to see darkly, and mirrored against
+darkness, the face of the Scottish girl.... And her yellow hair and dark
+eyes; ... and that little warning glimmer from which dawned that faint
+smile of hers....
+
+That I was lonely for lack of her I never dreamed then. I was content to
+see her face grow vaguely; sweetly take shape from the darkness under my
+absent gaze;--content to evoke the silent phantom out of the stuff that
+ghosts are made of--those frail phantoms which haunt the secret recesses
+of men's minds.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I was asleep when Nick touched me. Thiohero still slept against my
+shoulder; the Yellow Leaf and the Oneidas still danced and vaunted their
+prowess, and they had set a post in the soft earth near the shore, and
+had painted it red; and now all their hatchets were sticking in it,
+while they trotted tirelessly in their scalping dance, and carved the
+flame-shot darkness with naked knives.
+
+Wearily I rose, took my rifle, re-primed it, and stumbled away to take
+my turn on guard, relieving Nick, who, in turn, had replaced Godfrey,
+whom I had sent after Joe de Golyer.
+
+They had dug our ditch so well that the Vlaie water filled it, making,
+with the pointed staves, an excellent abattis against any who came by
+stealth along the Sacandaga trail.
+
+Behind this I walked my post, watching the eastern stars, which seemed
+paler, yet still remained clearly twinkling. And no birds had yet
+awakened, though the owls had become quiet in the tamaracks, and neither
+insect nor frog now chanted their endless runes of night.
+
+Shouldering my rifle, I walked to and fro, listening, scanning the
+darkness ahead.... And, presently, not lonely; for a slim phantom kept
+silent pace with me as I walked my post--so near, at times, that my
+nostrils seemed sweet with the scent of apple bloom.... And I felt her
+breath against my cheek and heard her low whisper.
+
+Which presently became louder among the reeds--a little breeze which
+stirs before dawn and makes a thin ripple around each slender stem.
+
+Tahioni came to relieve me, grave, not seeming fatigued, and, in his
+eyes, the shining fire of triumph still unquenched.
+
+I went back to the fire and lay down on my blanket, where now all were
+asleep save my Saguenay.
+
+When he saw me he came and squatted at my feet.
+
+"Sleep you, also, brother," said I. "Day dawns and the sunset is far
+away."
+
+But the last time I looked before I slept I saw him still squatting at
+my feet like a fierce, lean dog, and staring straight before him.
+
+And I remember that the fresh, joyous chorus of waking birds was like
+the loud singing of spirit-children. And to the sweet sound of that
+blessed choir I surrendered mind and body, and so was borne on wings of
+song into the halls of slumber-land.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The sun was high when our sentinel hailed a detail from Fish House,
+bringing us a sheep, three sacks of corn, and a keg of fresh milk.
+
+I had bathed me in the Vlaie Water, had eaten soupaan, turned over my
+command to Nick, and now was ready to report in person to the Commandant
+at Summer House Point.
+
+My Saguenay had slain a gorgeous wood-duck with his arrows; and now,
+brave in fresh paint and brilliant plumage, he sat awaiting me in the
+patched canoe which had belonged, no doubt, to John Howell.
+
+I went down among the pinxter bushes and tall reeds to the shore; and so
+we paddled away on the calm, deep current which makes a hundred
+snake-like curls and bends to every mile, so that the mile itself
+becomes doubled,--nay, tripled!--ere one attains his destination.
+
+It was strange how I was not yet rid of that vague sense of impending
+trouble, nor could account for the foreboding in any manner, being full
+of health and now rested.
+
+My mind, occupied by my report, which I was now reading where I had
+written it in my _carnet_, nevertheless seemed crowded with other
+thoughts,--how we would seem each to the other when we met
+again,--Penelope Grant and I. And if she would seem to take a pleasure
+in my return ... perhaps say as much ... smile, perhaps.... And we might
+walk a little on the new grass under the apple bloom....
+
+A troubled mind! And knew not the why and wherefore of its own
+restlessness and apprehension. For the sky was softly blue, and the
+water, too; and a gentle wind aided our paddles, which pierced the
+stream so silently that scarce a diamond-drop fell from the sunlit
+blades.
+
+I could see the Summer House, and a striped jack flying in the sun. The
+green and white lodge seemed very near across the marshes, yet it was
+some little time before I first smelled the smoke of camp fires, and
+then saw it rising above the bushes.
+
+Presently a Continental on guard hailed our canoe. We landed. A corporal
+came, then a sergeant,--one Caspar Quant, whom I knew,--and so we were
+passed on, my Indian and I, until the gate-guard at the Point halted us
+and an officer came from the roadside,--one Captain Van Pelt, whom I
+knew in Albany.
+
+Saluted, and the officer's salute rendered, he became curious to see the
+fresh scalps flapping at my Saguenay's girdle, and the new war-paint and
+the oil smelling rank in the sweet air.
+
+But I told him nothing, asking only for the Commandant, who, he gave
+account, was a certain Major Westfall, lodging at the Summer House, and
+lately transferred from the Massachusetts Line, along with other Yankee
+officers--why?--God and Massachusetts knew, perhaps.
+
+So I passed the gate and walked toward the lodge. Sir John's blooded
+cattle were grazing ahead, and I saw Flora at the well, and Colas busy
+among beds of garden flowers, spading and weeding under the south porch.
+
+And I saw something else that halted me. For, seated upon a low limb of
+an apple tree, her two little feet hanging down, and garbed in
+pink-flowered chintz and snowy fichu, I beheld Penelope Grant,
+a-knitting.
+
+And by all the pagan gods!--there in a ring around her strolled and
+lolled a dozen Continental officers in buff and blue and gold!
+
+There was no reason why, but the scene chilled me.
+
+One o' these dandies had her ball of wool, and was a-winding of it as he
+sat cross-legged on the turf, a silly, happy look on his beardless face.
+
+Another was busy writing on a large sheet of paper,--verses, no
+doubt!--for he seemed vastly pleased with his progress, and I saw her
+look at him shyly under her dark lashes, and could have slain him for
+the smirk he rendered. Also, it did not please me that her petticoat was
+short and revealed her ankles and slim feet in silver-buckled shoon.
+
+I was near; I could hear their voices, their light laughter; and,
+rarely, her voice in reply to some pointed gallantry or jest.
+
+None had perceived me advancing among the trees, nor now noticed me
+where I was halted there in the checkered sunshine.
+
+But, as I stirred and moved forward, the girl turned her head, caught a
+glimpse of me and my painted Indian, stared in silence, then slid from
+her perch and stood up on the grass, her needles motionless.
+
+All the young popinjays got to their feet, and all stared as I offered
+them the salute of rank; but all rendered it politely.
+
+"Lieutenant of Rangers Drogue to report to Major Westfall," said I
+bluntly, in reply to a Continental Captain's inquiry.
+
+"Yonder, sir, on the porch with Lady Johnson," said he.
+
+I bared my head, then, and walked to Penelope. She curtsied: I bent to
+her hand.
+
+"Are you well, my lord?" she asked in a colourless voice, which chilled
+me again for its seeming lack of warmth.
+
+"And you, Penelope?"
+
+"I am well, I thank you."
+
+"I am happy to learn so."
+
+That was all. I bowed again. She curtsied. I replaced my mole-skin cap,
+saluted the popinjays, and marched forward. My Indian stalked at my
+heels.
+
+God knew why, but mine had become a troubled mind that sunny morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+DEEPER TROUBLE
+
+
+I had been welcomed like a brother by Polly Johnson. Claudia, too, made
+a little fęte of my return, unscathed from my first war-trail. And after
+I had completed my report to the Continental Major, who proved
+complacent to the verge of flattery, I was free to spend the day at the
+Summer House--or, rather, I was at liberty to remain as long a time as
+it took a well-mounted express to ride to Johnstown with my report and
+return with further orders from Colonel Dayton for me and my small
+command.
+
+A Continental battalion still garrisoned the Point; their officers as I
+had been forced to notice in the orchard, were received decently by Lady
+Johnson.
+
+And, at that crisis in her career, I think I admired Polly Johnson as
+entirely as I ever had admired any woman I ever knew.
+
+For she was still only a child, and had been petted and spoiled always
+by flattery and attentions: and she was not very well--her delicate
+condition having now become touchingly apparent. She was all
+alone,--save for Claudia,--among the soldiery of a new and hostile
+nation; she was a fugitive from her own manor; and she must have been
+constantly a prey to the most poignant anxieties concerning her husband,
+whom she loved,--whatever were his fishy sentiments regarding her!--and
+who, she knew, was now somewhere in the Northern and trackless
+wilderness and fighting nature herself for his very life.
+
+Her handsome and beloved brother, also, was roaming the woods,
+somewhere, with Walter Butler and McDonald and a bloody horde of
+Iroquois in their paint,--and, worse still, a horde of painted white
+men, brutes in man's guise and Mohawk war-paint and feathers, who
+already were known by the terrifying name of Blue-eyed Indians.
+
+Yet this young girl, having resolved to face conditions with courage and
+composure, after her first bitter and natural outburst, never whimpered,
+never faltered.
+
+Enemy officers, if gentlemen, she received with quiet, dignified
+civility, and no mention of politics or war was suffered to embarrass
+anybody at her table.
+
+All, I noticed, paid her a deference both protective and tender, which,
+in gentlemen, is instinctive when a woman is in so delicate a condition
+and in straits so melancholy.
+
+Claudia, however, I soon perceived, had been nothing tamed, and even
+less daunted by the errant arrows of adversity; for her bright eyes were
+ever on duty, and had plainly made a havoc of the Continental Major's
+heart, to judge by his sheep's eyes and clumsy assiduities.
+
+For when he left the veranda and went away noisily in his big spurs, she
+whispered me that he had already offered himself thrice, and that she
+meant to make it a round half-dozen ere he received his final quietus.
+
+"A widower," quoth she, "and bald; and with seven hungry children in
+Boston! Oh, Lord. Am I come to that? Only that it passes time to play
+with men, I'd not trouble to glance askance at your Yankee gentlemen,
+Jack Drogue."
+
+"Some among them have not yet glanced askance at you," remarked Lady
+Johnson, placid above her sewing.
+
+"Do you mean those suckling babes in the orchard yonder? Oh, la! When
+the Major leaves, I shall choose the likeliest among 'em to amuse me.
+Not that I would cross Penelope," she added gaily, "or flout her. No.
+But these boys perplex her. They are too ardent, and she too kind."
+
+"What!" I exclaimed, feeling my face turn hot.
+
+"Why, it is true enough," remarked Lady Johnson. "Yonder child has no
+experience, and is too tender at heart to resent a gallantry over-bold.
+Which is why I keep my eye upon these youngsters that they make not a
+fool of a girl who is easily confused by flattery, and who remains
+silent when dusk and the fleeting moment offer opportunities to impudent
+young men, which they seldom fail to embrace."
+
+"And seldom fail to embrace the lady, also," added Claudia, laughing.
+"_You_ were different, Jack."
+
+"I saw that ensign, Dudley, kiss her behind the lilacs," added Lady
+Johnson, "and the girl seemed dumb, and never even upbraided the little
+beast. Had she complained to me I should have made him certain
+observations, but could not while she herself remained mute. Because I
+do not choose to have anybody think I go about eavesdropping."
+
+"Penelope Grant appears to find their company agreeable," said I, in a
+voice not like my own, but a dry and sullen voice such as I never before
+heard issue out o' my own mouth.
+
+"Penelope likes men," observed Lady Johnson, sewing steadily upon her
+baby's garments of fine linen.
+
+"Penelope is not too averse to a stolen kiss, I fear," said Claudia,
+smiling. "Lord! Nor is any pretty woman, if only she admit the truth!
+No! However, there is a certain shock in a kiss which silences maiden
+inexperience and sadly confuses the unaccustomed. Wait till the girl
+gains confidence to box some impertinent's ear!"
+
+I knew not why, yet never, I think, had any news sounded in my ears so
+distastefully as the news I now had of this girl, I remembered Nick's
+comment,--"Like flies around a sap-pan." And it added nothing to my
+pleasure or content of mind to turn and gaze upon that disquieting scene
+in the orchard yonder.
+
+For here, it seemed, was another Claudia in the making,--still unlearned
+in woman's wiles; not yet equipped for those subtle coquetries and
+polished cruelties which destroy, yet naturally and innocently an
+enchantress of men. And some day to be conscious of her power, and
+certain to employ it!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Flora came, wearing a blue and orange bandanna, and the great gold hoops
+in her ears glittering in the sun.
+
+Each day, now, it appeared, Lady Johnson retired for an hour's repose
+whilst Claudia read to her; and that hour had arrived.
+
+"You dine with us, of course," said Lady Johnson, going, and looking at
+me earnestly. Then there was a sudden flash of tears; but none fell.
+
+"My dear, dear Jack," she murmured, as I laid my lips against both her
+hands.... And so she went into the house, Claudia lingering, having
+shamelessly pressed my hand, and a devil laughing at me out of her two
+eyes.
+
+"Is there news of Sir John to comfort us?" she whispered, making a
+caress of her voice as she knew so well how to do.
+
+"And if I have any, I may not tell you, Claudia," said I.
+
+"Oh, la! Aid and comfort to the enemy? Is it that, Jack? And if you but
+wink me news that Sir John is safe?"
+
+"I may not even wink," said I, smiling forlornly.
+
+"Aye? So! That's it, is it! A wink from you at me, and pouf!--a
+courtmartial! Bang! A squad of execution! Is that it, Jack?"
+
+"I should deserve it."
+
+"Lord! If men really got their deserts, procreation would cease, and the
+world, depopulated, revert to the forest beasts. Well, then--so Sir John
+is got away?"
+
+"I did not say so."
+
+"You wear upon your honest countenance all the news you contain, dear
+Jack," said she gaily. "It was always so; any woman may read you like a
+printed page--if she trouble to do it.... And so! Sir John is safe at
+last! Well, thank God for that.... You may kiss my cheek if you ask me."
+
+She drew too near me, but I had no mind for more trouble than now
+possessed me, so let her pretty hand lie lightly on my arm, and endured
+the melting danger of her gaze.
+
+She said, while the smile died on her lips, "I jest with you, Jack. But
+you _are_ dear to me."
+
+"Dear as any trophy," said I. "No woman ever willingly lets any victim
+entirely escape."
+
+"You do not guess what you could do with me--if you would," she said.
+
+"No. But I guess what you could do to me, again, if you had an
+opportunity."
+
+"Jack!" she sighed, looking up at me.
+
+But the gentle protest alarmed me. And she was too near me; and the
+fresh scent of her hair and skin were troubling me.
+
+And, more than that, there persisted a dull soreness in my
+breast,--something that had hurt me unperceived--an unease which was not
+pain, yet, at times, seemed to start a faint, sick throbbing like a
+wound.
+
+Perhaps I assumed that it came from some old memory of her unkindness; I
+do not remember now, only that I seemed to have no mind to stir up dying
+embers. And so, looked at her without any belief in my gaze.
+
+There was a silence, then a bright flush stained her face, and she
+laughed, but as though unnerved, and drew her hand from my arm.
+
+"If you think all the peril between us twain is yours alone, Jack
+Drogue," she said, "you are a very dolt. And I think you _are_ one!"
+
+And turned her back and walked swiftly into the house.
+
+I took my rifle from where it stood against a veranda post, settled my
+war-belt, with its sheathed knife and hatchet, readjusted powder-horn
+and bullet pouch, and, picking up my cap of silver mole-skin, went out
+into the orchard.
+
+Behind me padded my Saguenay in his new paint, his hooped scalps
+swinging from his cincture, and the old trade-rifle covered carefully by
+his blanket, except the battered muzzle which stuck out.
+
+I walked leisurely; my heart was unsteady, my mind confused, my
+features, unless perhaps expressionless, were very likely grim.
+
+I went straight to the group around the twisted apple-tree, where
+Penelope sat knitting, and politely made myself a part of that same
+group, giving courteous notice by my attitude and presence, that I,
+also, had a right to be there as well as they.
+
+All were monstrous civil; some offered snuff; some a pipe and pouch; and
+a friendly captain man engaged me in conversation--gossip of Johnstown
+and the Valley--so that, without any awkwardness, the gay and general
+chatter around the girl suffered but a moment's pause.
+
+The young officer who had writ verses, now read them aloud amid lively
+approbation and some sly jesting:
+
+
+        IN PRAISE
+
+    "Flavilla's hair,
+    Beyond compare,
+    Like sunshine brightens all the earth!
+    Old Sol, beware!
+    She cheats you, there,
+    And robs your rays of all their worth!
+
+    "Impotent blaze!
+    I shall not praise
+    Your brazen ways,
+    Nor dare compare
+    Your flaming gaze
+    To those sweet rays
+    Which play around Flavilla's hair.
+
+    "For lo, behold!
+    No sunshine bold
+    Can hope to gild or make more fair
+    The living gold,
+    Where, fold on fold,
+    In glory shines Flavilla's hair!"
+
+
+There was a merry tumult of praise for the poet, and some rallied him,
+but he seemed complacent enough, and Penelope looked shyly at him over
+lagging needles,--a smile her acknowledgment and thanks.
+
+"Sir," says a cornet of horse, in helmet and jack-boots--though I
+perceived none of his company about, and wondered where he came
+from,--"will you consent to entertain our merry Council with some
+account of the scout which, from your appearance, sir, I guess you have
+but recently accomplished."
+
+To this stilted and somewhat pompous speech I inclined my head with
+civility, but replied that I did not yet feel at liberty to discuss any
+journey I may have accomplished until my commanding officer gave me
+permission. Which mild rebuke turned young Jack-boots red, and raised a
+titter.
+
+An officer said: "The dry blood on your hunting shirt, sir, and the
+somewhat amazing appearance of your tame Indian, who squats yonder,
+devouring the back of your head with his eyes, must plead excuse for our
+natural curiosity. Also, we have not yet smelled powder, and it is plain
+that you have had your nostrils full."
+
+I laughed, feeling no mirth, however, but sensible of my dull pain and
+my restlessness.
+
+"Sir," said I, "if I have smelled gun-powder, I shall know that same
+perfume again; and if I have not yet sniffed it, nevertheless I shall
+know it when I come to scent it. So, gentlemen, I can not see that you
+are any worse off in experience than I."
+
+A subaltern, smiling, ventured to ask me what kind of Indian was that
+who enquired me.
+
+"Of Algonquin stock," said I, "but speaks an odd lingo, partly
+Huron-Iroquois, partly the Loup tongue, I think. He is a Saguenay."
+
+"One of those fierce wanderers of the mountains," nodded an older
+officer. "I thought they were not to be tamed."
+
+"I owned a tame tree-cat once," remarked another officer.
+
+My friend, Jack-boots, now pulls out a bull's-eye watch with two fobs,
+and tells the time with a sort of sulky satisfaction. For many of the
+company arose, and made their several and gallant adieus to Penelope,
+who suffered their salute on one little hand, while she held yarn and
+needles in t'other.
+
+But when half the plague of suitors and gallants had taken themselves
+off to their several duties, there remained still too many to suit young
+Jack-boots. Too many to suit me, either; and scarce knowing what I did
+or why, I moved forward to the tree where she was seated on a low
+swinging limb.
+
+"Penelope," said I, "it is long since I have seen you. And if these
+gentlemen will understand and pardon the desire of an old friend to
+speak privately with you, and if you, also, are so inclined, give me a
+little time with you alone before I leave."
+
+"Yes," she said, "I am so inclined--if it seem agreeable to all."
+
+I am sure it was not, but they conducted civilly enough, save young
+Jack-boots, who got redder than ever and spoke not a word with his bow,
+but clanked away pouting.
+
+And there were also two militia officers, wrapped in great watch cloaks
+over their Canajoharie regimentals, and who took their leave in silence.
+One wore boots, the other black spatter-dashes that came above the knee
+in French fashion, and were fastened under it, too, with leather straps.
+
+Their faces were averted when they passed me, yet something about them
+both seemed vaguely familiar to me. No wonder, either, for I should
+know, by sight at least, many officers in our Tryon militia.
+
+Whether they were careless, or unmannerly by reason of taking offense at
+what I had done, I could not guess.
+
+I looked after them, puzzled, almost sure I had seen them both before;
+but where I could not recollect, nor what their names might be.
+
+"Shall we stroll, Penelope?" I said.
+
+"If it please you, sir."
+
+Sir William had cut the alders all around the point, and a pretty lawn
+of English grass spread down to the water north and west, and pleasant
+shade trees grew there.
+
+While she rolled her knitting and placed it in her silken reticule, I,
+glancing around, noticed that all the apple bloom had fallen, and the
+tiny green fruit-buds dotted every twig.
+
+Then, as she was ready, and stood prettily awaiting me in her pink
+chintz gown, and her kerchief and buckled shoon, I gave her my hand and
+we walked slowly across the grass and down to the water.
+
+Here was a great silvery iron-wood tree a-growing and spreading pleasant
+shade; and here we sat us down.
+
+But now that I had got this maid Penelope away from the pest of suitors,
+it came suddenly to me that my pretenses were false, and I really had
+nothing to say to her which might not be discussed in company with
+others.
+
+This knowledge presently embarrassed me to the point of feeling my face
+grow hot. But when I ventured to glance at her she smiled.
+
+"Have you been in battle?" she asked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+After a silence: "I am most happy that you returned in safety."
+
+"Did you ever--ever think of me?" I asked.
+
+"Why, yes," she replied in surprise.
+
+"I thought," said I, "that being occupied--and so greatly sought after
+by so many gallants--that you might easily have forgotten me."
+
+She laughed and plucked a grass-blade.
+
+"I did not forget you," she said.
+
+"That is amazing," said I, "--a maid so run after and so courted."
+
+She plucked another blade of grass, and so sat, pulling at the tender
+verdure, her head bent so that I could not see what her eyes were
+thinking, but her lips seemed graver.
+
+"Well," said I, "is there news of Mr. Fonda?"
+
+"None, sir."
+
+"Tell me," said I, smiling, "why, when I speak, do you answer ever with
+a 'sir'?"
+
+At that she looked up: "Are you not Lord Stormont, Mr. Drogue?" she
+asked innocently.
+
+"Why, no! That is, nobody believes it any more than did the Lords in
+their House so many years ago. Is that why you sometimes say 'my lord,'
+and sometimes call me 'sir'?"
+
+"But you still are the Laird of Northesk."
+
+"Lord!" said I, laughing. "Is it that Scottish title bothers you? Pay it
+no attention and call me John Drogue--or John.... Or Jack, if you
+will.... Will you do so?"
+
+"If it--pleases you."
+
+She was still busy with the grass, and I watched her, waiting to see her
+dark eyes lift again--and see that little tremor of her lips which
+presaged the dawning smile.
+
+It dawned, presently; and all the unrest left my breast--all that heavy
+dullness which seemed like the flitting shadow of a pain.
+
+"Tell me," said I, "are you happy?"
+
+"I am contented. I love my Mistress Swift. I love and pity Lady
+Johnson.... Yes, I am happy."
+
+"I know they both love you," said I. "So you should be happy here....
+And admired as you are by all men...."
+
+Again she laughed in her enchanting little way, and bent her bright
+head. And, presently:
+
+"John Drogue?"
+
+"I hear you, Penelope."
+
+"Do you wish warm woolen stockings for your men?"
+
+"Why--yes."
+
+"I sent to Caydutta Lodge for the garments. They are in the house. You
+shall choose for yourself and your men before the Continentals take
+their share."
+
+I was touched, and thanked her. And now, it being near the noon hour, we
+walked together to the house.
+
+The partition which Sir John had made for a gun-room, and which now
+served to enclose Penelope's chamber, was all hung with stout woolen
+stockings of her own knitting; and others lay on her trundle-bed. So I
+admired and handled and praised these sober fruits of her diligence and
+foresight, and we corded up some dozen pair for my white people; and I
+stuffed them into my soldier's leather sack.
+
+Then I took her hands and said my thanks; and she looked at me and
+answered, "You are welcome, John Drogue."
+
+I do not know what possessed me to put my arm around her. She flushed
+deeply. I kissed her; and it went to my head.
+
+The girl was dumb and scarlet, not resisting, nor defending her lips;
+but there came a clatter of china dishes, and I released her as Flora
+and Colas appeared from below, with dinner smoking, and clattering
+platters.
+
+And presently Lady Johnson's door opened, and she stepped out in her
+silk levete, followed by Claudia.
+
+"I invited no one else," said Lady Johnson, "--if that suits you, Jack."
+
+I protested that it suited me, and that I desired to spend my few hours
+from duty with them alone.
+
+As we were seated, I ventured a side glance at Penelope and perceived
+that she seemed nothing ruffled, though her colour was still high. For
+she gave me that faint, enchanting smile that now began to send a thrill
+through me, and she answered without confusion any remarks addressed to
+her.
+
+Remembering my Indian outside, I told Flora, and Colas took food to him
+on the veranda.
+
+And so we spent a very happy hour there--three old friends together once
+more, and a young girl stranger whom we loved already. And I did not
+know in what degree I loved her, but that I did love her now seemed
+somewhat clear to my confused senses and excited mind,--though to love,
+I knew, was one thing, and to be _in_ love was still another. Or so it
+seemed to me.
+
+My animation was presently noticed by Claudia; and she rested her eyes
+on me. For I talked much and laughed more, and challenged her gay
+conceits with a wit which seemed to me not wholly contemptible.
+
+"One might think you had been drinking of good news," quoth she; "so
+pray you share the draught, Jack, for we have none of our own to quench
+our thirst."
+
+"Unless none be good news, as they say," said Lady Johnson, wistfully.
+
+"News!" said I. "Nenni! But the sun shines, Claudia, and life is young,
+and 'tis a pretty world we live in after all."
+
+"If you admire a marsh," says she, "there's a world o' mud and rushes to
+admire out yonder."
+
+"Or if you admire a cabinful o' lonely ladies," added Lady Johnson, "you
+may gaze your fill upon us."
+
+"I should never be done or have my fill of beauty if I sat here a
+thousand years, Polly," said I.
+
+"A thousand years and a dead fish outshines our beauty," smiled Lady
+Johnson. "If you truly admire our beauty, Jack, best prove it now."
+
+"To which of us the Golden Apple?" inquired Claudia, offering one of the
+winter russets which had been picked at the Point.
+
+"Ho!" said I, "you think to perplex and frighten me? _Non, pas!_ Polly
+Johnson shall not have it, because, if she ever makes me wise, wisdom is
+its own reward and needs no other. And you shall not have it, Claudia!"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Mere beauty cannot claim it."
+
+"Why not? Venus received the apple cast by Eris."
+
+"But only because Venus promised Love! Do you promise me the reward of
+the shepherd?"
+
+"Myself?" she asked impudently.
+
+"Venus," said Lady Johnson, "made that personal exception, and so must
+you, Claudia. The goddess promised beauty; but not herself."
+
+"Then," said I, "Claudia has nothing to offer me. And so I give the
+apple to Penelope!"
+
+She refused it, shyly.
+
+"Industry is the winner," said I. "Thrift triumphs. I already have her
+gift. I have a dozen pair of woolen stockings for my men, knitted by
+this fair Penelope of today. And, as she awaits no wandering lord,
+though many suitors press her, then she should have at least this golden
+apple of Eris to reward her. And so she shall."
+
+And I offered it again.
+
+"Take it, my dear," said Claudia, laughing, "for this young man has
+given you a reason. Pallas offered military glory; you offer military
+stockings! What chance have Hera and poor Aphrodite in such a contest?"
+
+We all were laughing while the cloth was cleared, and Flora brought us a
+great dish of wild strawberries.
+
+These we sopped in our wine and tasted at our ease, there by the open
+windows, where a soft wind blew the curtains and the far-spreading azure
+waters sparkled in the sun.
+
+How far away seemed death!
+
+I looked out upon the mountains, now a pale cobalt tint, and their peaks
+all denting the sky like blue waves on Lake Erie against the horizon.
+
+Low over the Vlaie Water flapped a giant heron, which alighted not far
+away and stood like a sentry, motionless at his post.
+
+A fresh, wild breath of blossoms grew upon the breeze--the enchanting
+scent of pinxters. From the mainland, high on a sugar-maple's spire,
+came the sweet calling of a meadow-lark.
+
+Truly, war seemed far away; and death farther still in this dear
+Northland of ours. And I fell a-thinking there that if kings could only
+see this land on such a day, and smell the pinxters, and hear the
+sweetened whistle of our lark, there would be no war here, no slavery,
+no strife where liberty and freedom were the very essence of the land
+and sky.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+My Lady Johnson wished to rest; and there was a romance out of France
+awaiting her in gilt binding in her chamber.
+
+She went, when the board was cleared, linking her arm in Claudia's.
+
+Penelope took up her knitting with a faint smile at me.
+
+"Will you tell me a story to amuse me, sir?" she said in her shy way.
+
+"You shall tell me one," said I.
+
+"I? What story?"
+
+"Some story you have lived."
+
+"I told you all."
+
+"No," said I, "not any story concerning this very pest of suitors which
+plague you--or, if not you, then me!--as the suitors of the first
+Penelope plagued Telemachus."
+
+Now she was laughing, and, at one moment, hid her face in her yarn,
+still laughing.
+
+"Does this plague you, John Drogue?" she asked, still all rosy in her
+mirth.
+
+"Well," said I, "they all seem popinjays to me in their blue and gold
+and buff. But it was once red-coats, too, at Caughnawaga, or so I hear."
+
+"Oh. Did you hear that?"
+
+"I did. They sat like flies around a sap-pan."
+
+"Deary me!" she exclaimed, all dimples, "who hath gossiped of me at
+Cayadutta Lodge?"
+
+"Penelope?"
+
+"I am attentive, sir."
+
+"I suppose all maids enjoy admiration."
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"Hum! And do you?"
+
+"La, sir! I am a maid, also."
+
+"And enjoy it?"
+
+"Yes, sir.... Do not you?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Do not you enjoy admiration? Is admiration displeasing to young men?"
+
+"Well--no," I admitted. "Only it is well to be armed with
+experience--hum-hum!--and discretion when one encounters the flattery of
+admiration."
+
+"Yes, sir.... Are you so armed, Mr. Drogue?"
+
+At a loss to answer, her question being unexpected--as were many of her
+questions--and answers also--I finally admitted that flattery was a
+subtle foe and that perhaps experience had not wholly armed me against
+that persuasive enemy.
+
+"Nor me," said she, with serene candour. "And I fear that I lack as much
+in knowledge and experience as I do in years, Mr. Drogue. For I think no
+evil, nor perhaps even recognize it when I meet it, deeming the world
+kind, and all folk unwilling to do me a wrong."
+
+"I--kissed you."
+
+"Was that a wrong you did me?"
+
+"Have not others kissed you?" said I, turning red and feeling mean.
+
+But she laughed outright, telling me that it concerned herself and not
+me what she chose to let her lips endure. And I saw she was a very
+child, all unaccustomed, yet shyly charmed by flatteries, and already
+vaguely aware that men found her attractive, and that she also was not
+disinclined toward men, nor averse to their admiration.
+
+"How many write you verses?" I asked uneasily.
+
+"Gentlemen are prone to verses. Is it unbecoming of me to encourage them
+to verse?"
+
+"Why, no...."
+
+"Did you think the verses fine you heard in the orchard?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said I, carelessly, "but smacking strong of Major André's
+verses to his several Sacharissas."
+
+"Oh. I thought them fine."
+
+"And all men think you fine, I fear--from that soldier who pricked your
+name on his powder-horn at Mayfield fort to Bully Jock Gallopaway of the
+Border Horse at Caughnawaga, and our own little Jack-boots in the
+orchard yonder."
+
+"Only Jack Drogue dissents," she murmured, bending over her knitting.
+
+At that I caught her white hand and kissed it; and she blushed and sat
+smiling in absent fashion at the water, while I retained it.
+
+"You use me sans façon," she murmured at last. "Do you use other women
+so?"
+
+Now, I had used some few maids as wilfully, but none worse, yet had no
+mind to admit it, nor yet to lie.
+
+"You ask me questions," said I, "but answer none o' mine."
+
+At that her gay smile broke again. "What a very boy," quoth she, "to be
+Laird o' Northesk! For it is cat's-cradle talk between us two, and give
+and take to no advancement. Will you tell me, my lord, if it gives you
+pleasure to touch my lips?"
+
+"Yes," said I. "Does it please you, too?"
+
+"I wonder," says she, and was laughing again out of half-shy eyes at me.
+
+But, ere I could speak again, comes an express a-galloping; and we saw
+him dismount at the mainland gate and come swiftly across the orchard.
+
+"My orders," said I, and went to the edge of the veranda.
+
+The letter he handed me was from Colonel Dayton. It commended me,
+enjoined secrecy, approved my Oneidas and my Saguenay, but warned me to
+remain discreetly silent concerning these red auxiliaries, because
+General Schuyler did not approve our employing savages.
+
+Further, he explained, several full companies of Rangers had now been
+raised and were properly officered and distributed for employment.
+Therefore, though I was to retain my commission, he preferred that I
+command my present force as a scout, and not attempt to recruit a Ranger
+company.
+
+"For," said he, "we have great need of such a scout under an officer
+who, like yourself, has been Brent-Meester in these forests."
+
+However, the letter went on to say, I was ordered to remain on the
+Sacandaga trail with my scout of ten until relieved, and in the
+meanwhile a waggon with pay, provisions, and suitable clothing for my
+men, and additional presents for my Indians, was already on its way.
+
+I read the letter very carefully, then took my tinder-box and struck
+fire with flint and steel, blowing the moss to a glow. To this I touched
+the edge of my letter, and breathed on the coal till the paper flamed,
+crinkled, fell in black flakes, and was destroyed.
+
+For a few moments I stood there, considering, then dismissed the
+express; but still stood a-thinking.
+
+And it seemed to me that there was indecision in my commander's letter,
+where positive and virile authority should have breathed action from
+every line.
+
+I know, now, that Colonel Dayton proved to be a most excellent officer
+of Engineers, later in our great war for liberty. But I think now, and
+thought then, that he lacked that energy and genius which meets with
+vigour such a situation as was ours in Tryon County.... God knows to
+what sublime heights Willett soared in the instant agony of black days
+to come!... And comparisons are odious, they say.... So Colonel Dayton
+occupied Johnstown, garrisoned Summer House Point and Fish House, and
+was greatly embarrassed what to do with his prisoner, Lady Johnson.... A
+fine, brave, loyal officer--who made us very good forts.
+
+But, oh, for the dead of Tryon!--and the Valley in ashes from end to
+end; and the whole sky afire!--Lord! Lord!--what sights I have lived to
+see, and seeing, lived to tell!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+My memories outstrip my quill.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So, when I came out of my revery, I turned and walked back slowly to
+Penelope, who lifted her eyes in silence, clasping her fair hands over
+idle needles.
+
+"I go back tonight," said I.
+
+"To the forest?"
+
+"To the trail by the Drowned Lands."
+
+"Will you come soon again?"
+
+"Do you wish it?"
+
+"Why, yes, John Drogue," she said; and I saw the smile glimmer ere it
+dawned.
+
+And now comes my Lady Johnson and her Abagail for a dish of tea on the
+veranda, where a rustic table was soon spread by Colas, very fine in his
+scarlet waistcoat and a new scratch-wig.
+
+Now, to tea, comes sauntering our precious plague of suitors, one by
+one, and two by two, from the camp on the mainland. And all around they
+sit them down--with ceremony, it's true, but their manners found no
+favour with me either. And I thought of Ulysses, and of the bow that
+none save he could bend.
+
+Well, there was ceremony, as I say, and some subdued gaiety, not too
+marked, in deference to Lady Johnson's political condition.
+
+There was tea, which our officers and I forbore to taste, making a civil
+jest of refusal. But there was an eggnog for us, and a cooled punch, and
+a syllabub and cakes.
+
+Toward sundown a young officer brought his fiddle from camp and played
+prettily enough.
+
+Others sang in acceptable harmony a catch or two, and a romantic piece
+for concerted voices, which I secretly thought silly, yet it pleased
+Lady Johnson.
+
+Then, at Claudia's request, Penelope sang a French song made in olden
+days. And I thought it a little sad, but very sweet to hear there in the
+gathering dusk.
+
+Other officers came up in the growing darkness, paid their respects,
+tasted the punch. Candles glimmered in the Summer House. Shadowy forms
+arrived and departed or wandered over the grassy slope along the water.
+
+I missed Claudia. Later, I saw Penelope rise and give her hand to a man
+who came stalking up in a watch cloak; and presently they strolled away
+over the lawn, with her arm resting on his.
+
+Major Westfall and Lady Johnson were conversing gravely on the north
+porch. Others, dimly visible, chatted around me or moved with sudden
+clank of scabbard and spur.
+
+Penelope did not come back. At first I waited calmly enough, then with
+increasing impatience.
+
+Where the devil had she gone with her Captain Spatter-dash? Claudia I
+presently discovered with men a-plenty around her; but Penelope was not
+visible. This troubled me.
+
+So I went down to the orchard, carelessly sauntering, and not as though
+in search of anybody. And so encountered Penelope.
+
+She and her young man in the watch-cloak passed me, moving slowly under
+the trees. He wore black spatter-dashes. And, as we saluted, it came to
+me that this was one of the officers from the Canajoharie Regiment; but
+in the starlight I knew him no better than I had by day.
+
+"Strange," thought I, "that young Spatter-dashes seems so familiar to my
+eyes, yet I can not think who he may be."
+
+Then, looking after him, I saw his comrade walking toward me from the
+well, and with him was Colas, with a lantern, which shined dimly on both
+their faces.
+
+And, suddenly: "Why, sir!" I blurted out in astonishment, "are you not
+Captain Hare?"
+
+"No, sir," said he, "my name is Sims, and I am captain in the
+Canajoharie militia." And he bowed civilly and walked on, Colas
+following with the lantern, leaving me there perplexed and still
+standing with lifted cap in hand.
+
+I put it on, pondered for a space, striving to rack my memory, for that
+man's features monstrously resembled Lieutenant Hare's, as I saw him at
+supper that last night at Johnson Hall, when he came there with Hiokatoo
+and Stevie Watts, and that Captain Moucher, whom I knew a little and
+trusted less, for all his mealy flatteries.
+
+Well, then, I had been mistaken. It was merely a slight resemblance, if
+it were even that. I had not thought of Hare since that evening, and
+when I saw this man by lantern light, as I had seen him by candles, why,
+I thought he seemed like Hare.... That was all.... That certainly was
+all there could be to it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Near to the lilacs, where candle light fell from the south window of the
+little lodge, I stumbled once again upon Penelope. And she was in
+Spatter-dash's arms!
+
+For a moment I stood frozen. Then a cold rage possessed me, and God
+knows what a fool I had played, but suddenly a far whistle sounded from
+the orchard; and young Spatter-dash kisses her and starts a-running
+through the trees.
+
+He had not noticed me, nor discovered my presence at all; but Penelope,
+in his arms, had espied me over his shoulder; and I thought she seemed
+not only flushed but frightened, whether by the fellow's rough ardour or
+my sudden apparition I could not guess.
+
+Still cold with a rage for which there was no sensible warrant, I walked
+slowly to where she was standing and fumbling with her lace apron, which
+the callow fool had torn.
+
+"I came to say good-bye," said I in even tones.
+
+She extended her hand; I laid grim and icy lips to it; released it.
+
+There was a silence. Then: "I did not wish him to kiss me," said she in
+an odd voice, yet steady enough.
+
+"Your lips are your own."
+
+"Yes.... They were yours, too, for an instant, Mr. Drogue."
+
+"And they were Spatter-dash's, too," said I, almost stifled by my
+jealous rage. "Whose else they may have been I know not, and do not ask
+you. Good night."
+
+She said nothing, and presently picked at her torn apron.
+
+"Good night," I repeated.
+
+"Good night, sir."
+
+And so I left her, choked by I knew not what new and fierce
+emotions--for I desired to seek out Spatter-dash, Jack-boots, and the
+whole cursed crew of suitors, and presently break their assorted necks.
+For now I was aware that I hated these popinjays who came philandering
+here, as deeply as I hated to hear of the red-coat gallants at
+Caughnawaga.
+
+Still a-quiver with passion, I managed, nevertheless, to make my
+compliments and adieux to Lady Johnson and to Claudia--felt their warm
+and generous clasp, answered gaily I know not what, saluted all, took a
+lantern that Flora fetched, and went away across the grass.
+
+A shadow detached itself from darkness, and now my Saguenay was padding
+at my heels once more.
+
+As we two came to the mainland, young Spatter-dash suddenly crossed the
+road in front of my lantern. Good God! Was I in my right mind! Was it
+Stephen Watts on whose white, boyish face my lantern glimmered for an
+instant? How could it be, when it meant death to catch him here?...
+Besides, he was in Canada with Walter Butler. What possessed me, that in
+young Spatter-dash I saw resemblance to Stevie Watts, and in another
+respectable militia officer a countenance resembling Lieutenant Hare's?
+
+Sure my mind was obsessed tonight by faces seen that last unhappy
+evening at the Hall; and so I seemed to see a likeness to those men in
+every face I met.... Something had sure upset me.... Something, too, had
+suddenly awakened in me new and deep emotions, unsuspected, unfamiliar,
+and unwelcome.
+
+And for the first time in my life I knew that I hated men because a
+woman favoured them.
+
+We had passed through the Continental camp, my Indian and I, and were
+now going down among the bushes to the Vlaie Water, where lay our canoe,
+when, of a sudden, a man leaped from the reeds and started to run.
+
+Instantly my Indian was on his shoulders like a tree-cat, and down went
+both on the soft mud, my Saguenay atop.
+
+I cocked my rifle and poked the muzzle into the prostrate stranger's
+ribs, resting it so with one hand while I shined my lantern on his
+upturned face.
+
+He wore a captain's uniform in the Canajoharie Regiment; and, as he
+stared up at me, his throat still clutched by the Saguenay, I found I
+was gazing upon the blotched features of Captain Moucher!
+
+"Take your hands from his neck-cloth, cut your thrums, and make a cord
+to tie him," said I, in the Oneida dialect. "He will not move," I added.
+
+It took the Indian a little while to accomplish this. I held my rifle
+muzzle to Moucher's ribs. Until his arms were tied fast behind him, he
+had not spoken to me nor I to him; but now, as he rose to his knees from
+the mud and then staggered upright, I said to him:
+
+"This is like to be a tragic business for you, Captain Moucher."
+
+He winced but made no reply.
+
+"I am sorry to see you here," I added.
+
+"Do you mean to murder me?" he asked hoarsely.
+
+"I mean to question you," said I. "Be good enough to step into that
+canoe."
+
+The Indian and I held the frail craft. Moucher stepped into it,
+stumbling in the darkness and trembling all over.
+
+"Sit down on the bottom, midway between bow and stern!"
+
+He took the place as I directed.
+
+"Take the bow paddle," said I to Yellow Leaf. "Also loosen your knife."
+
+And when he was ready, I shoved off, straddled the stern, and, kneeling,
+took the broad paddle.
+
+"Captain Moucher," said I, "if you think to overturn the canoe, in hope
+of escape, my Indian will kill you in the water."
+
+The canoe slid out into darkness under the high stars.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+FIRELIGHT
+
+
+Now, no sooner did I reach my camp with my prisoner than my people came
+crowding around us from their watch-fire, which burned dull because they
+had made a smudge of it, black flies being lively after dark.
+
+I drew Nick aside and told him all.
+
+"You shall take Johnny Silver," said I, "and set off instantly for
+Summer House and the Continental camp. You shall deliver a letter to
+Major Westfall, and then you shall search with your lanterns every face
+you encounter; for I am beginning to believe that I truly saw Stephen
+Watts and Lieutenant Hare in the orchard at Summer House Point this
+night. And if I did, then they are a pair o' damned spies, and should be
+taken; and suffer as such!"
+
+"My God," says he, "Lady Johnson's brother!"
+
+"And my one-time friend. Is it not horrible, Nick? But any hesitation
+makes me a traitor to my own people."
+
+I sat down in the dull firelight, a block of wood for a seat, fished out
+my carnet, wrote a line to Major Westfall, and handed it to Nick.
+
+Silver came with a lantern and both rifles.
+
+"Use the canoe," said I, "and have a care that you reply clearly and
+promptly when challenged, for yonder Continentals are prone to shoot."
+
+They went off with their rifles and the lantern, and I waited until I
+heard the dip of paddles in the dark.
+
+"Throw a dry log on the fire, Godfrey," said I. And to Joe de Golyer:
+"Bring that prisoner here."
+
+Joe fetched him, and he stood before me, arms trussed up and head
+hanging. Tahioni approached.
+
+"Untie him," said I.
+
+Whilst they were fumbling with the knotted rope of thrums, I said to
+Tahioni:
+
+"Luysnes is on guard, I take it?"
+
+"My French brother watches."
+
+"That is well. Now, tell my Oneida brothers that here we have taken a
+very dangerous man; and that if he makes any move to escape from where
+he stands beside that fire, they shall not attempt to take him _alive_!"
+
+The young warrior turned calmly and translated. I saw my Oneidas loosen
+their knives and hatchets. The Saguenay quietly strung his short, heavy
+bow, and, laying an arrow across the string, notched it.
+
+"Thiohero!" I called.
+
+"I listen, my elder brother," said the little maid of Askalege.
+
+"You shall take a trade-rifle, move out one hundred paces to the west,
+and halt all who come. And fire on any who refuse to halt."
+
+"I listen," she said coolly.
+
+"You shall call to us if you need us."
+
+"I continue to listen."
+
+"And if there comes a wagon, then you shall take the horses by the head
+and lead them this way until the fire shines on their heads. Go, little
+sister."
+
+She took a trade-rifle from the stack, primed it freshly, and crossed
+the circle on light, swift feet.
+
+When she had gone into the darkness, I bade de Golyer kick the fire. He
+did so and it blazed ruddy, painting in sanguine colour the sombre,
+unhealthy visage of my prisoner.
+
+"Search him," said I briefly.
+
+Joe and my Oneida rummaged him to the buff. It was in his boots they
+discovered, at last, a sheaf of papers.
+
+I could not read what was writ, for the writing was in strange signs and
+figures; so presently I gave over trying and looked up at my prisoner,
+who now had dressed again.
+
+"You are Captain Moucher?"
+
+He denied it hoarsely; but I, having now no vestige of doubt concerning
+this miserable man's identity, ignored his answer.
+
+"What is this paper which was taken from your boot?"
+
+He seemed to find no word of explanation, but breathed harder and
+watched my eyes.
+
+"Is it writ in a military cipher?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"How came these papers in your boot?"
+
+He stammered out that somebody who had cleansed his boots must have
+dropped them in, and that, in pulling on his boots that morning, he had
+neither seen nor felt the papers.
+
+"Where did you dress this morning?"
+
+"At the Johnson Arms in Johnstown."
+
+"You wear the uniform of an officer in the Canajoharie Regiment. Are you
+attached to that regiment?"
+
+He said he was; then contradicted himself, saying he had been obliged to
+borrow the clothing from an officer because, while bathing in the Mohawk
+at Caughnawaga, his own clothing had been swept into the water and
+engulfed.
+
+Over this lie he was slow in speech, and stammered much, licking his dry
+lips, and his reddish, furtive eyes travelling about him as though his
+stealthy mind were elsewhere.
+
+"Do you recollect that we supped in company at Johnson Hall--you and
+I--and not so long ago?" I demanded.
+
+He had no remembrance.
+
+"And Lieutenant Hare and Captain Watts were of the company?"
+
+He denied acquaintance with these gentlemen.
+
+"Or Hiakatoo?"
+
+Had never heard of him.
+
+I bade Joe lay more dry wood on the fire and kick it well, for the
+sphagnum moss still dulled it. And, when it flared redly, I rose and
+walked close to the prisoner.
+
+"What are you doing here?"
+
+He had merely come out of curiosity to see the camp at Summer House.
+
+"In disguise?"
+
+He had no other clothing, and meant no harm. If we would let him go he
+would engage to return to Albany and never again to wear any clothing to
+which he was not entitled.
+
+"Oh. Who was your mate there in the orchard, who also wore the
+Canajoharie regimentals?" I demanded.
+
+An acquaintance made en passant, nothing more. He did not even know his
+name.
+
+"I'll tell you his name," said I. "That man was Lieutenant Hare. And you
+are Captain Moucher. You are spies in our camp. We've taken you; we
+ought to take him before midnight.
+
+"The paper I have of you is writ in British military cipher.
+
+"Now, before I send you to Colonel Dayton, with my report of this
+examination, what have you to confess that I might add to my report, in
+extenuation?"
+
+He made no answer. Presently a fit of ague seized him, so that he could
+scarce stand. Then he reeled sideways and, by accident, set foot in the
+live coals. And instantly went clean crazed with fright.
+
+As the Oneida caught him by the shoulder, to steady him, he shrieked and
+cowered, grasping Joe's arm in his terror.
+
+"They mean to murder me!" he yelled. "Keep your savages away, I tell
+you!"--struggling between Tahioni and Joe--"I'll say what you wish, if
+they won't burn me!----"
+
+"Be silent," I said. "We mean no bodily harm to you. Compose yourself,
+Captain Moucher. Do you take me for a monster to threaten you with
+torture?"
+
+But the awful fear of fire was in this whimpering wretch, and I was
+ashamed to have my Oneidas see a white man so stricken with cowardly
+terrors.
+
+His honour--what there was of it--he sold in stammering phrases to buy
+mercy of us; and I listened in disgust and astonishment to his
+confession, which came in a pell-mell of tumbling words, so that I was
+put to it to write down what he babbled.
+
+He had gone on his knees, held back from my feet by the Oneida; and his
+poltroonery so sickened me that I could scarce see what I wrote down in
+my _carnet_.
+
+Every word was a betrayal of comrades; every whine a plea for his own
+blotched skin.
+
+To save his neck--if treachery might save it--he sold his King, his
+cause, his comrades, and his own manhood.
+
+And so I learned of him that Stevie Watts, disguised, had been that
+night at Summer House with Lieutenant Hare; that they had brought news
+to Lady Johnson of Sir John's safe arrival in Canada; that they had met
+and talked to Claudia Swift; had counted our men and made a very
+accurate report, which was writ in the military cipher which we
+discovered, and a copy of which Captain Watts also carried upon his
+proper person.
+
+I learned that Walter Butler, now a captain of Royalist Rangers, also
+had come into the Valley in disguise, for the purpose of spying and of
+raising the Tory settlers against us.
+
+I learned that Brant and Guy Johnson had been in England, but were on
+their way hither.
+
+I learned that our army in Canada, decimated by battle, by smallpox, by
+fever, was giving ground and slowly retreating on Crown Point; and that
+Arnold now commanded them.
+
+I learned that we were to be invaded from the west, the north, and the
+south by three armies, and thousands of savages; that Albany must burn,
+and Tryon flame from Schenectady to Saint Sacrement.... And I wrote all
+down.
+
+"Is there more?" I asked, looking at him with utter loathing.
+
+"Howell's house," he muttered, "the log house of John
+Howell--tonight----"
+
+"The cabin on the hard ridge yonder?"
+
+"Yes.... A plot to massacre this post.... They meet there."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"King's people.... John Howell, Dries Bowman, the Cadys, the Helmers,
+Girty, Dawling, Gene Grinnis, Balty Weed----"
+
+"_Tonight!_"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Where are they now?"
+
+"Hid in the tamaracks--in the bush--God knows where!----"
+
+"When do they rendezvous?"
+
+"Toward midnight."
+
+"At John Howell's cabin?"
+
+He nodded, muttering.
+
+I got up, took him by the arm and jerked him to his feet.
+
+"Read this!" I said, and thrust the paper of cipher writing under his
+nose.
+
+But he could not, saying that Steve Watts had writ it, and that he was
+to carry it express to Oswego.
+
+Now, whilst I stood there, striving to think out what was best to do and
+how most prudently to conduct in the instant necessity confronting me,
+there came Thiohero's sweet, clear whistle of a Canada sparrow, warning
+us to look sharp.
+
+Then I heard the snort of a horse and the rattle and bump of a wagon.
+
+"Tie the prisoner," said I to Godfrey; and turned to see the little maid
+of Askalege, her rifle shouldered, leading in two horses, behind which
+rumbled the wagon carrying our pay, food, arms, and clothing sent from
+Johnstown.
+
+Two armed Continental soldiers sat atop; one, a corporal, driving,
+t'other on guard.
+
+I spoke to them; called my Indians to unload the wagon, and bade
+Thiohero sling our kettle and make soupaan for us all.
+
+The Continentals were nothing loth to eat with us. Tahioni had killed
+some wood-duck and three partridges; and these, with some dozen wild
+pigeons from the Stacking Ridge, furnished our meat.
+
+I heaped a wooden platter and Godfrey squatted by Captain Moucher to
+feed him; but the prisoner refused food and sat with head hanging and
+the shivers shaking him with coward's ague.
+
+When the meal was ended, I took the Continentals aside, gave the
+Corporal my report to Colonel Dayton, and charged them to deliver my
+prisoner at Johnstown jail. This they promised to do; and, as all was
+ready, horses fed, and a long, slow jog to Johnstown, the Corporal
+climbed to his seat and took the reins, and the other soldier aided my
+prisoner to mount.
+
+"Will you speak for me at the court martial?" pleaded Moucher, in hoarse
+and dreadful tones. "Remember, sir, as God sees me, my confession was
+voluntary, and I swear by my mother's memory that I now see the error
+and the wickedness of my ways! Say that I said this--in Christ's
+name----"
+
+The Corporal touched his cocked hat, swung his powerful horses. I am
+sure they were of Sir William's stock and came from the Hall.
+
+"Mr. Drogue!" wailed the doomed wretch, "let God curse me if I meant any
+harm----"
+
+I think the soldier beside him must have placed his hand over the poor
+wretch's mouth, for I heard nothing more except the rattle of wheels and
+the corporal-driver a-whistling "The Little Red Foot."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In my absence that day my men had erected an open-face hut for our
+stores.
+
+Here we set lanterns, and here divided the clothing, including the
+stockings given me by Penelope--which I distributed with a heavy heart.
+
+There was laid aside new buckskin clothing and fresh underwear for
+Luysnes, for Nick, and for Johnny Silver.
+
+Then I paid the men, and gave a cash bonus to every Indian, and also a
+new rifle each,--not the trade-gun, but good weapons carrying an ounce
+ball.
+
+To each, also, a new hatchet, new knife, blanket, leggins, tobacco,
+paints, razor, mirror, ammunition, and a flask of sweet-smelling oil.
+
+I think I never have seen any Iroquois so overjoyed as were mine. And as
+for my Saguenay, he instantly squatted by the fire, fixed his mirror on
+a crotched stick, and fell to adorning himself by the red glow of the
+coals.
+
+But I had scant leisure for watching them, where they moved about
+laughing and gossiping excitedly, comparing rifles, trying locks and
+pans, sorting out finery, or smearing themselves with gaudy symbols.
+
+For, not a hundred rods east of us, across the ridge, stood that log hut
+of Howell's; and the owl-haunted tamaracks stretched away behind it in
+a misty wilderness. And in that swampy forest, at this very moment, were
+hidden desperate men who designed our deaths--men I knew--neighbors at
+Fonda's Bush, like the Cadys, Helmers, and Dries Bowman!--men who lately
+served in my militia company, like Balty Weed and Gene Grinnis.
+
+Now, as I paced the fire circle, listening and waiting for Nick and
+Johnny Silver, I could scarce credit what the wretch, Moucher, had told
+me, so horrid bloody did their enterprise appear to me.
+
+That they should strive to kill us when facing us in proper battle, that
+I could comprehend. But to plan in the darkness!--to come by stealth in
+their farmer's clothes to surprise us in our sleep!--faugh!
+
+"My God," says I to Godfrey, who paced beside me, "why have they not at
+least embodied to do us such a filthy business? And if they were only a
+company with some officer to make them respectable--militia, minute men,
+rangers, anything!"
+
+"They be bloody-minded folk," said he grimly. "No coureur-du-bois is
+harder, craftier, or more heartless than John Howell; no forest runner
+more merciless than Charlie Cady. These be rough and bloody men, John.
+And I think we are like to have a rude fight of it before sun-up."
+
+I thought so too, but did not admit as much. I had ten men. They
+mustered ten--if Moucher's accounts were true. And I did not doubt it,
+under the circumstances of his pusillanimous confession.
+
+The River Reed came to me to show me her necklace of coloured glass. And
+I drew her aside, told her as much as I cared to, and bade her prepare
+her Oneidas for a midnight battle.
+
+At that moment I heard the Canada sparrow. Thiohero answered, sweet and
+clear. A few seconds later Nick and Silver came in, carrying the canoe
+paddles.
+
+"They've gone," said Nick, with an oath. "Two mounted men and a led
+horse rode toward Johnstown two hours since. They wore Canajoharie
+regimentals. Major Westfall sent a dozen riders after 'em; but men who
+came so boldly to spy us out are like to get away as boldly, too."
+
+He plucked my arm and I stepped apart with him.
+
+"Westfall's in his dotage; Dayton is too slow. Why don't they send up
+Willett or Herkimer?"
+
+"I don't know," said I, troubled.
+
+"Well," says Nick, "it's clear that Stevie Watts was there and has
+spoken with Lady Johnson. But what more is to be done? She's our
+prisoner. I wish to God they'd sent her to Albany or New York, where she
+could contrive no mischief. And that other lady, too. Lord! but Major
+Westfall is in a pother! And I wager Colonel Dayton will be in another,
+and at his wit's ends."
+
+The business distressed me beyond measure, and I remained silent.
+
+"By the way," he added, "your yellow-haired inamorata sends you a
+billet-doux. Here it is."
+
+I took the bit of folded paper, stepped aside and read it by the
+firelight:
+
+     "Sir:
+
+     "I venture to entertain a hope that some day it may please you to
+     converse again with one whose offense--if any--remains a mystery to
+     her still.
+
+     "P. G."
+
+I read it again, then crumpled it and dropped it on the coals. I had
+seen Steve Watts kiss her. That was enough.
+
+"There's a devil's nest of Tories gathering in Howell's house tonight to
+cut our throats," said I coldly. "Should we take them with ten men, or
+call in the Continentals?"
+
+"Who be they?" asked Nick, astounded.
+
+"The old pack--Cadys, Helmers, Bowman, Weed, Grinnis. They are ten
+rifles."
+
+He got very red.
+
+"This is a domestic business," said I. "Shall we wash our bloody linen
+for the world to see what filth chokes Fonda's Bush?"
+
+"No," said he, slowly, with that faint flare in his eyes I had seen at
+times, "let us clean our own house o' vermin, and make no brag of what
+is only our proper shame."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+OUT OF THE NORTH
+
+
+It lacked still an hour to midnight, which time I had set for our
+advance upon John Howell's house, and my Oneidas had not yet done
+painting, when Johnny Silver, who was on guard, whistled from his post,
+and I ran thither with Nick.
+
+A man in leather was coming in through the _chevaux-de-frise_, and
+Johnny dropped a tamarack log across the ditch for him, over which he
+ran like a tree-martin, and so climbed up into the flare of Nick's
+lantern.
+
+The man in forest runner's dress was Dave Ellerson, known to us all as a
+good neighbor and a staunch Whig; but we scarce recognized him in his
+stringy buckskins and coon-skin cap, with the ringed tail a-bobbing.
+
+On his hunting shirt there was a singular device of letters sewed there
+in white cloth, which composed the stirring phrase, "Liberty or Death."
+And we knew immediately that he had become a soldier in the 11th
+Virginia Regiment, which is called Morgan's Rifles.
+
+He seemed to have travelled far, though light, for he carried only rifle
+and knife, ammunition, and a small sack which flapped flat and empty;
+but his manner was lively and his merry gaze clear and untroubled as we
+grasped his powerful hands.
+
+"Why, Dave!" said I, "how come you here, out o' the North?"
+
+"I travel express from Arnold to Schuyler," said he. "Have you a gill of
+rum, John?"
+
+Johnny Silver had not drunk his gill, and poured it into Dave's
+pannikin.
+
+Down it went, and he smacked his lips. Then we took him back to the
+fire, where the Oneidas were still a-painting, and made him eat and
+drink and dry him by the flames.
+
+"Is there a horse to be had at Summer House?" he demanded, his mouth
+full of parched corn.
+
+"Surely," said I. And asked him news of the North, if he were at liberty
+to give us any account.
+
+"The news I can not give you is what I shall not," said he, laughing.
+"But there's plenty besides, and damned bad."
+
+"Bad?"
+
+"Monstrous bad, John. For on my forest-running south from Chambly, I saw
+Sir John and his crew as they gained the Canadas! They seemed near dead,
+too, but they were full three hundred, and I but one, so I did not tarry
+to mark 'em with a stealthy bullet, but pulled foot for Saint
+Sacrement."
+
+He grinned, bit a morsel from a cold pigeon, and sat chewing it
+reflectively and watching the Indians at their painting.
+
+"You know what is passing in Canada?" he demanded abruptly.
+
+"Nothing definite," said I.
+
+"Listen, then. We had taken Chambly, Montreal, and St. John's. Arnold
+lay before Quebec. Sullivan commanded us. Six weeks ago he sent Hazen's
+regiment to Arnold. Then the Canadians and Indians struck us at the
+Cedars, and we lost five hundred men before we were out of it."
+
+"What was the reason for such disaster?" I demanded, turning hot with
+wrath.
+
+"Cowardice and smallpox," said he carelessly. "They were new troops sent
+up to reinforce us, and their general, Thomas, died o' the pox.
+
+"And atop of that comes news of British transports in the St. Lawrence,
+and of British regulars and Hessians.
+
+"So Sullivan sends the Pennsylvania Line to strike 'em. St. Clair
+marches, Wayne marches, Irving follows with his regiment. Lord, how they
+were peppered, the Pennsylvania Line! And Thompson was taken, and
+Colonel Irving, and they wounded Anthony Wayne; and the Line ran!"
+
+"Ran!"
+
+"By God, yes. And our poor little Northern Army is on the run today,
+with thirteen thousand British on their heels.
+
+"They drove us out o' Chambly. They took the Cedars. Montreal fell. St.
+John's followed. Quebec is freed. We're clean kicked out o' Canada, and
+marching up Lake Champlain, our rear in touch with the red-coats.
+
+"If we stand and face about at Crown Point, we shall do more than I hope
+for.
+
+"Thomas is dead, Thompson and Irving taken, Arnold and Wayne wounded,
+the army a skeleton, what with losses by death, wounds, disease, and in
+prisoners.
+
+"Had not Arnold broke into the Montreal shops and taken food and woolen
+clothing, I think we had been naked now."
+
+"Good heavens!" said I, burning with mortification, "I had not heard of
+such a rout!"
+
+"Oh, it was no rout, John," said he carelessly. "Sullivan marched us out
+of that hell-hole in good order--whatever John Adams chooses to say
+about our army."
+
+"What does John Adams say?"
+
+"Why, he says we are disgraced, defeated, dispirited, discontented,
+undisciplined, diseased, eaten up with vermin."
+
+"My God!" exclaimed Nick.
+
+"It's true enough," said Dave, coolly. "And when John Adams also adds
+that we have no clothing, no beds, no blankets, no medicines, and only
+salt pork and flour to eat and little o' these, why, he's right, too.
+Why not admit truth? Does it help to conceal it? Nenni, lads! It is best
+always to face it and endeavour to turn into a falsehood tomorrow what
+is disgracefully true today.
+
+"So when I tell you that in three months our Northern Army has lost five
+thousand men by smallpox, camp fever, bullets, and privation--that out
+of five thousand who remain, two thousand are sick, why, it's the plain
+and damnable truth.
+
+"But any soldier who loses sleep or appetite over such cursed news
+should be run through with a bayonet, for he's a rabbit and no man!"
+
+After a silence: "Who commands them now?" I asked.
+
+"Gates is to take them over at Crown Point, I hear."
+
+This news chilled me, for Schuyler should have commanded. But the damned
+Yankees, plotting their petty New England plots to discredit our dear
+General, had plainly hoodwinked Congress; and now our generous and noble
+Schuyler had again fallen a victim to nutmeg jealousy and cunning.
+
+"Well," said I, "God help us all in Tryon, now; for a vain ass is in the
+saddle, and the counsel of the brave and wise remains unheeded. Will Guy
+Carleton drive us south of Crown Point?"
+
+"I think so," said Ellerson, carelessly.
+
+"Then the war will come among us here in Tryon!"
+
+"Straight as a storm from the North, John."
+
+"When?"
+
+"Oh, that? God knows. We shall hold the lakes as long as we can. But
+unless we are reinforced by Continentals--unless every Colony sends us a
+regiment of their Lines--we can not hope to hold Crown Point, and that's
+sure as shooting and plain as preaching."
+
+"Very well," said I between clenched teeth, "then we here in Tryon had
+best go about the purging of that same county, and physic this district
+against a dose o' red-coats."
+
+Ellerson laughed and rose with the lithe ease of a panther.
+
+"I should be on my way to Albany," says he. "You tell me there are
+horses at the Summer House, John?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+We shook hands.
+
+"You find Morgan's agreeable?" inquired Nick.
+
+"A grand corps, lad! Tim Murphy is my mate. And I think there's not a
+rifleman among us who can not shoot the whiskers off a porcupine at a
+hundred yards." And to me, with a nod toward my Oneidas: "They are
+painting. Do you march tonight, John?"
+
+"A matter of cleaning out a Tory nest yonder," said I.
+
+"A filthy business and not war," quoth he. "Well, God be with all
+friends to liberty, for all hell is rising up against us. A thousand
+Indians are stripped for battle on this frontier--and the tall ships
+never cease arriving crammed with red-coats and Germans.
+
+"So we should all do our duty now, whether that same duty lie in
+emptying barrack slops, or in cleaning out a Tory nest, or in marching
+to drum and fife, or guarding the still places of the wilderness--it's
+all one business, John."
+
+Again we shook hands all around, then, waving aside Joe de Golyer and
+his proffered lantern, the celebrated rifleman passed lightly into the
+shadows.
+
+"Yonder goes the best shot in the North," said Nick.
+
+"Saving only yourself and Jack Mount and Tim Murphy," remarked Godfrey
+Shew.
+
+"As for the whiskers of a porcupine," quoth Nick, with the wild flare
+a-glimmering in his eyes, "why, I have never tried such a target. But I
+should pick any button on a red coat at a hundred yards--that is, if I
+cast and pare my own bullet, and load in my own fashion."
+
+Silver swore that any rifle among us white men should shave an otter of
+his whiskers, as a barber trims a Hessian.
+
+"Sacré garce!" cried he, "why should we miss--we coureurs-du-bois, who
+have learn to shoot by ze hardes' of all drill-masters--a empty belly!"
+
+"We must not miss at Howell's house," said I, counting my people at a
+glance.
+
+The Saguenay, ghastly in scarlet and white, came and placed himself
+behind me.
+
+All the Oneidas were naked, painted from lock to ankle in terrific
+symbols.
+
+Thiohero was still oiling her supple, boyish body when I started a brief
+description of the part each one of us was to act, speaking in the
+Oneida dialect and in English.
+
+"Take these bloody men alive," I added, "if it can be done. But if it
+can not, then slay them. For every one of these that escapes tonight
+shall return one day with a swarm of hornets to sting us all to death in
+County Tryon!... Are you ready for the command?"
+
+"Ready, John," says Nick.
+
+"March!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At midnight we had surrounded Howell's house, save only the east
+approach, which we still left open for tardy skulkers.
+
+A shadowy form or two slinking out from the tamaracks, their guns
+trailing, passed along the hard ridge, bent nearly double to avoid
+observation.
+
+We could not recognize them, for they were very shadows, vague as
+frost-driven woodcock speeding at dusk to a sheltered swamp.
+
+But, as they arrived, singly and in little groups, such a silent rage
+possessed me that I could scarce control my rifle, which quivered to
+take toll of these old neighbors who were returning by stealth at night
+to murder us in our beds.
+
+The Saguenay lay in the wild grasses on my left; the little maid of
+Askalege, in her naked paint, lay on my right hand. Her forefinger
+caressed the trigger of her new rifle; the stock lay close to her cheek.
+And I could hear her singing her _Karenna_ in a mouse's whisper to
+herself:
+
+    "Listen, John Drogue,[16]
+    Though we all die,
+    You shall survive!
+    Listen, John Drogue,
+    This will happen,
+    And it is well,
+    Because I love you.
+
+    "Why do I love you?
+    Because you are a boy-chief,
+    And we are both young,
+    Thou and I.
+    Why do I love you?
+    Because you are my elder brother,
+    And you speak to the Oneidas
+    Very gently.
+
+    "I am a prophetess;
+    I see events beforehand;
+    This is my Karenna:
+    Though we all die tonight,
+    You shall survive in Scarlet:
+    And this is well,
+    Because I love you."
+
+[Footnote 16:
+
+_The Karenna of Thiohero_
+
+Yi-ya-thon-dek, _John Drogue_,
+Da-ed-e-wenh-he-i,
+Engh-si-tsko-dak-i!
+Yi-ya-thon-dek, _John Drogue_,
+Nenne-a-wenni
+Yo-ya-neri
+Kenonwes!]
+
+So, crooning her prophecy, she lay flat in the wild grasses, cuddling
+the rifle-stock close to her shoulder; and her song's low cadence was
+like the burden of some cricket amid the herbage.
+
+"Tharon alone knows all," I breathed in her ear.
+
+"Neah!" she murmured; and touched her cheek against mine.
+
+"Only God knows who shall survive tonight," I insisted.
+
+"Onhteh. Ra-ko-wan-enh,"[17] she murmured. "But I have seen you,
+_niare_,[18] through a mist, coming from this place,
+O-ne-kwen-da-ri-en.[19] And dead bodies lay about. Do you believe me?"
+
+[Footnote 17: Perhaps! He is Chief.]
+
+[Footnote 18: Beforehand.]
+
+[Footnote 19: Literally, in scarlet blood.]
+
+I made no reply but lay motionless, watching the tamaracks, ghostly in
+their cerements of silver fog. And I heard, through the low rhythm of
+her song, owls howling far away amid those spectral wastes, and saw the
+Oneida Dancers,[20] very small and pale above the void.
+
+[Footnote 20: The Pleiades.]
+
+I stared with fierce satisfaction at Howell's house. There was no gleam
+of light visible behind the closed shutters; but I already had counted
+nine men who came creeping to that silent rendezvous. And now there
+arrived the tenth man, running and stooping low; and went in by the east
+side of the house.
+
+I waited a full minute longer, then whistled the whitethroat's call.
+
+"Now!" said I to Thiohero; and we rose and walked forward through the
+light mist which lay knee-deep over the ground.
+
+We had not advanced ten paces when three men, whom I had not perceived,
+rose up on the ridge to our right.
+
+One of these shouted and fired a gun, and all three dropped flat again
+before we could realize what they had been about.
+
+But already, out of that shadowy house, armed men swarmed like black
+hornets from their nest, and we ran to cut them from the tamaracks, but
+could not mark their flight in the so great darkness.
+
+Then Nick Stoner struck flint, and dropped his tinder upon the remnants
+of a hay-stack, where wisps of last year's marsh grass still littered
+the rick.
+
+In the smoky glow which grew I saw that great villain, Simon Girty, fire
+his gun at us, then turn and run toward the water; and Dries Bowman took
+after him, shouting in his fear.
+
+Very carefully I fired at Girty, but he was not scotched, and was lost
+in the dark with Dries.
+
+Then, in the increasing glow of the marsh-hay afire, I saw and
+recognized Elias Cady, and his venomous son, Charlie; and called loudly
+upon them to halt.
+
+But they plunged into the shore reeds; and John and Phil Helmer at their
+heels; and we fired our guns into the dark, but could not stop them or
+again even hope to glimpse them in their flight.
+
+But the Oneidas had now arrived between the tamaracks and the log house,
+and my Rangers were swiftly closing in on the west and south, when
+suddenly a couple of loud musket shots came from the crescents in the
+bolted shutters, hiding the west window in a double cloud of smoke.
+
+I called out, "Halt!" to my people, for it was death to cross that
+circle of light ahead while the marsh-hay burned.
+
+There were at least five men now barricaded in Howell's house. I called
+to Tahioni, the Wolf, and he came crouching and all trembling with
+excitement and impatience, like a fierce hound restrained.
+
+"Take your people," said I, "and follow those dirty cowards who are
+fleeing toward the tamaracks."
+
+Instantly his terrific panther-cry shattered the silence, and the
+Oneidas' wild answer to his slogan hung quavering over the Drowned Lands
+like the melancholy pulsations of a bell.
+
+The hay-rick burned less brightly now. I crept out to the dark edge of
+the wavering glare and called across to those in the log-house:
+
+"If you will surrender I promise to send you to Johnstown and let a
+court judge you! If you refuse, we shall take you by storm, try you on
+the spot, and execute sentence upon you in that house! I allow you five
+minutes!"
+
+At that, two of them fired in the direction from whence came my voice;
+and I heard their bullets passing, aimed too high.
+
+Then John Howell's voice bawls out, "I know you, Drogue; and so help me
+God, I shall cut your throat before this business ends!--you dirty
+renegade and traitor to your King!"
+
+Such a rage possessed me that I scarce knew what I was about, and I ran
+across the grass to the bolted door of the house, and fell to slashing
+at it with my hatchet like a madman.
+
+They were firing now so rapidly that the smoke of their guns made a
+choking fog about the house; but the log cabin had no overhang, not
+being built for defense, and so they over-shot me whilst my hatchet
+battered splinters from the door and shook it almost from its hinges.
+
+Some one was coughing in the thick, rifle-fog near me, and presently I
+heard Nick swearing and hammering at the door with his gun butt.
+
+The French trappers, not so rash as we, lay close in the darkness,
+shooting steadily into the shutters at short range.
+
+Shutters and door, though splintering, held; the defenders fired at my
+men's rifle-flashes, or strove to shoot at Nick and me, where we
+crouched low in the sheltered doorway; but they could not sufficiently
+depress the muzzles of their guns to hit us.
+
+Suddenly, from out of the night, came a fire-arrow, whistling, with dry
+moss all aflame, and lodged on the roof of Howell's house.
+
+Quoth Nick: "Your Tree-eater is in action, John. God send that the fire
+catch!"
+
+From the darkness, Silver called out to me that the marsh-hay had nearly
+burned out, and what were he and Joe to do? Then came a-whizzing another
+fire-arrow, and another, but whether the dew was too heavy on the roof
+or the moss too damp, I do not know; only that when at length the roof
+caught fire, it was but a tiny blaze and flickered feebly, eating a slow
+way along the edges of the eaves.
+
+Nick, who had been wrenching at the imbedded door stone, finally freed
+and lifted it, and hurled it at the bolted shutters. In they crashed.
+Then the door, too, burst open, and Tom Dawling rushed upon me with his
+rifle clubbed high above me.
+
+"You damned Whig!" he shouted, "I'll knock your brains all over the
+grass!"
+
+My hatchet in a measure fended the blow and eased its murderous force,
+but I stumbled to my knees under it; and Baltus Weed came to the window
+and shot me through the body.
+
+At that, Gene Grinnis ran out o' the house to cut my throat, where like
+a crippled wild beast I floundered, a-kicking and striving to find my
+feet; and I saw Nick draw up and shoot Gene through the face, with a
+load of buck, so that where were his features suddenly became but a vast
+and raw hole.
+
+Down he sprawled across my hurt legs; down tumbled John Howell, too, and
+Silver, a-clinging to him tooth and nail, their broad knives flashing
+and ripping and whipping into flesh.
+
+Striving desperately to free me of Grinnis, and get up, I saw Tom
+Dawling throw his axe at Godfrey; and saw Luysnes shoot him, then seize
+him and cut his throat, even as he was falling.
+
+Johnny Silver began bawling lustily for help, with John Howell atop of
+him, cursing him for a rebel and striving to disembowel him. De Golyer
+caught Howell by the throat, and Silver scrambled to his feet, his
+clothing in bloody ribbons. Then Joe's hatchet flashed level with
+terrific swiftness, crashing to its mark; and Howell pitched backward
+with his head clean split from one eye to the other, making of the top
+of his skull a lid which hung hinged only by the hairy skin.
+
+Luysnes and the Saguenay were now somewhere inside the house a-chasing
+of Balty Weed; and I could hear Balty screaming, and the thud and
+clatter of loose logs as they dragged him down from the loft overhead.
+
+Nick came panting to me where I sat on the bloody grass, feeling sick o'
+my wound and now vomiting.
+
+"Are you bad?" he asked breathlessly.
+
+"Balty shot me.... I don't know----"
+
+Somebody knelt down behind me, and I laid back my head, feeling very
+sick and faint, but entirely conscious.
+
+The awful screaming in the house had never ceased; Nick sat down on the
+grass and fumbled at my shirt with trembling fingers.
+
+Presently the screaming ceased. Luysnes came out o' the house with a
+lighted lantern, followed by the Saguenay; and in the wavering radiance
+I saw behind them the feet of a man twitching above the floor.
+
+"We hung the louse to the rafters," said Luysnes, "and your Indian asks
+your leave to scalp him as soon as he's done a-kicking."
+
+"Let him have the scalp," said de Golyer, grimly. "He shot John Drogue
+through the body. Shine your lantern on him, Ben."
+
+They crowded around me. Nick opened my shirt and drew off my leggins. I
+saw Johnny Silver, in tatters and all drenched with blood, come into the
+lantern's rays.
+
+"Are you bad hurt, John?" I gasped.
+
+"Bah! Non, alors. Onlee has Howell slash my shirt into leetle rags and I
+am scratch all raw. Zat ees nozzing, mon capitaine--a leetle cut like
+wiz a Barlow--like zat! Pouf! Bah! I laugh. I make mock!"
+
+"Your ribs are broken, John," says Nick, still squatting beside me. "I
+think your bones turned the bullet, and it's not lodged in your belly at
+all, but in your right thigh.... Fetch a sop o' wet moss, Joe!"
+
+De Luysnes also got up and went away to chop some stout alders for a
+litter. De Golyer was back in a moment, both hands full of dripping
+sphagnum; and Nick washed away the mess of blood.
+
+After that I was sick at my stomach again; and not clear in my mind what
+they were about.
+
+I gazed around out of fevered eyes, and saw dead men lying near me.
+Suddenly the full horror of this civil war seemed to seize my
+senses;--all the shame of such a conflict, a black disgrace upon us here
+in County Tryon.
+
+"Nick!" I cried, "in God's name give those men burial."
+
+"Let them lie, damn them!" said Godfrey, sullenly.
+
+"But they were our neighbors! I--I can't endure such a business.... And
+there are wolves in the tamaracks."
+
+"Let wolf eat wolf," muttered Luysnes. But he drew his knife and went
+into the house. And I heard Balty's body drop when he cut it down.
+
+Nick came over to me, where I lay on a frame of alders, over which a
+blanket had been thrown, and he promised that a burial party should come
+out here as soon as they got me into camp.
+
+So two of my men lifted the litter, and, feeling sick and drowsy, I
+closed my eyes and felt the slow waves of pain sweep me with every step
+the litter-bearers took.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I had been lying in a kind of stupor upon my blanket, aware of dark
+figures passing to and fro before the lurid radiance of our watch fire,
+yet not heeding what they said and did, save only when I saw Nick and
+Luysnes go away carrying two ditch-spades. And was vaguely contented to
+have the dead put safe from wolves.
+
+Later, when I opened my burning eyes and asked for water, I saw Tahioni
+in the flushed light of dawn, and knew that my Indians had returned.
+
+Nick filled my pannikin. When I had drunk, I felt very ill and could
+scarcely find voice to ask him how my Oneidas had made out in the
+tamaracks.
+
+He admitted that they had not come up with the fugitives; and added that
+I was badly hurt and should be quiet and trouble my mind about nothing
+for the present.
+
+One by one my Indians came gravely to gaze upon me, and I tried to smile
+and to speak to each, but my mind seemed confused, what with the burning
+of my body and my great weariness.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When again I unclosed my eyes and asked for water, I was lying under the
+open-faced shed, and it was brilliant sunshine outside.
+
+Somebody had stripped me and had heated water in the kettle, and was
+bathing my body.
+
+Then I saw it was the little maid of Askalege.
+
+"Thiohero,--little sister?"
+
+At the sound of my voice, she came and bent over me. La one hand she
+held a great sponge of steaming sphagnum.
+
+Then came Nick, who leaned closer above me.
+
+"Their young sorceress," said he, "has washed your body with bitter-bark
+and sumach, and has cleansed the wounds and stopped them with dry moss
+and balsam, so that they have ceased bleeding."
+
+I turned my heavy eyes on the Oneida girl.
+
+"Truly," said I, "I have come back through the mist, returning in
+scarlet.... My little sister is very wise."
+
+She said nothing, but lifted a pannikin of cold water to my lips. It had
+bitter herbs in it, and, I think, a little gin. I satisfied my thirst.
+
+"Little sister," I gasped, "is the hole that Balty made in my body so
+great that my soul shall presently escape?"
+
+She answered calmly: "I have looked through the wound into your body;
+and I saw your soul there, watching me. Then I conjured your soul, which
+is very white, to remain within your body. And your soul, seeing that it
+was not the Eye of Tharon looking in to discover it, went quietly to
+sleep. And will abide within you."
+
+She spoke in the Oneida dialect, and Nick listened impatiently, not
+understanding.
+
+"What does the little Oneida witch say?" he demanded.
+
+Her brother, Tahioni, the Wolf, answered calmly: "The River-reed is a
+witch and is as wise as the Woman of the Sounding Skies. The River-reed
+sees events beforehand."
+
+"She says John Drogue will live?" demanded Nick.
+
+"He shall surely live," said Thiohero, drawing the blanket over me.
+
+"Well, then," said Nick, "in God's name let us get him to the Summer
+House, where the surgeon of the Continentals can treat him properly, and
+the ladies there nurse him----"
+
+That roused me, and I strove to sit up, but could not.
+
+"I shall not go to Summer House!" I cried. "If I am in need of a
+surgeon, bring him here; but I want no women near me!--I do not desire
+any woman at Summer House to nurse me or aid or touch me----"
+
+In my angry excitement at the very remembrance of Lady Johnson and
+Claudia, and of Penelope, whom I had beheld in Steve Watts' arms--and of
+that man himself, who had come spying,--I forced my body upright,
+furious at the mere thought and swore I had rather die here in camp than
+be taken thither.
+
+Then, suddenly my elbow crumpled under me, and I fell back in an agony
+of pain so great that presently the world grew swiftly black and I knew
+no more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+IN SHADOW-LAND
+
+
+When I became conscious, I was lying under blankets upon a trundle-bed,
+within the four walls of a very small room.
+
+I wore a night-shift which was not mine, being finer and oddly ruffled;
+and under it my naked body was as stiff as a pike pole, and bound up
+like a mummy. My right thigh, too, was stiffly swathed and trussed, and
+I thought I should stifle from the heat of the blankets.
+
+My mind was clear; I was aware of no sharp pain, no fever; but felt very
+weak, and could have slept again, only that perspiration drenched me and
+made me restless even as I dozed.
+
+Sometime afterward--the same day, I think--I awoke in some pain, and
+realized that I was lying on my right side and that the wound in my
+thigh was being dressed.
+
+The place smelled rank, like a pharmacy, and slightly sickened me.
+
+There were several people in the little room. I saw Nick kneeling beside
+the bed, holding a pewter basin full of steaming water, and a
+Continental officer with his wrist-bands tucked up, choosing forceps
+from a battered leather case.
+
+I could not move my body; my head seemed too heavy to lift; but I was
+aware of a woman standing close to where my head rested. I could see her
+two feet in their buckled shoes, and her petticoat of cotton stuff
+printed in flowers.
+
+When the surgeon had done a-packing my wound with lint, pain had left me
+weak and indifferent, and I lay heavily, with lids closed.
+
+Also, I had seen and heard enough to satisfy what languid curiosity I
+might have possessed. For I was in the gun-room at Summer House,
+whither, it appeared, they had taken me, despite my command to the
+contrary.
+
+But now I was too weary to resent it; too listless to worry; too
+incurious to wonder who it might be that was at any pains to care for my
+broken body at Summer House Point.
+
+Nick came, later, and I opened my eyes, but made no effort to speak. He
+seemed pleased, however, and gave me a filthy and bitter draught, which
+I swallowed, but which so madded me that I swore at him.
+
+Whereupon he smiled and wiped my lips and tucked in the accursed
+blankets that had been stifling me and which now scraped my unshaven
+chin.
+
+"Damnation!" I whispered, "you smother me, drown me in sweat, and feed
+me gall and wormwood!"
+
+And I closed my eyes to sleep; but found my mind not so inclined, and
+lay half dozing, conscious of the sunlight on the floor.
+
+So I was awake when he arrived again with a pot o' broth.
+
+"Can you not leave me in peace!" said I, so savagely that he laughed
+outright and bent over, stirring the broth and grinning down at me.
+
+Spoonful by spoonful I swallowed the broth. There was wine in it. This
+made me drowsy.
+
+To keep account of time, whether it were still this day or the next, or
+how the hours were passing, had been a matter of indifference to me. Or
+how the world wagged outside the golden dusk of this small room had
+interested me not at all.
+
+My Continental surgeon, whom they called Dr. Thatcher, came twice a day
+and went smartly about his business.
+
+Nick dosed me and fed me. I had asked no questions; but my mind had
+become sullen and busy; and now I was groping backward and searching
+memory to find the time and place when I had lost touch with the world
+and with the business which had brought me into these parts.
+
+All was clearly linked up to the time that Balty shot me. Afterward,
+only fragments of the chain of events remained in my memory. I heard
+again the thud of Balty's body on the puncheon floor, when Luysnes cut
+him down from the rafters of Howell's house. I remember that I saw men
+take ditch-spades to bury the dead. I remember that my body seemed all
+afire and that I became enraged and forbade them to take me to Summer
+House.
+
+Further--and of the blank spaces between--I had no recollection save
+that the whole world seemed burning up in darkness and that my body was
+being consumed like a fagot in some hellish conflagration, where the
+flames were black and gave no light.
+
+This day Dr. Thatcher and Nick washed me and closed my wounds.
+
+There had been, it appeared, some drains left in them. The stiff harness
+on my ribs they left untouched. I breathed, now, without any pain, but
+itched most damnably.
+
+My closed wounds itched. I desired broth no longer and demanded meat.
+But got none and swore at Nick.
+
+A barber from the Continental camp arrived to trim me. He took a beard
+from me that amazed me, and enough hair to awake the envy of a
+school-girl--for I refused to wear a queue, and bade him trim my pol ŕ
+la Coureur-du-Bois.
+
+Now this barber, who was a private soldier, seemed willing to gossip;
+and of him I asked my first questions concerning the outside world and
+train of events.
+
+But I soon perceived that all he knew was the veriest camp gossip, and
+that his budget of rumours and reports was of no value whatever. For he
+said that our armies were everywhere victorious; that the British armies
+were on the run; and that the war would be over in another month.
+Everybody, quoth he, would become rich and happy, with General
+Washington for our King, and every general a duke or marquis, and every
+soldier a landed proprietor, with nothing to do save sit on his porch,
+smoke his pipe, and watch his slaves plow his broad acres.
+
+When this sorry ass took his leave, I had long since ceased to listen to
+him.
+
+I felt very well, except for the accursed itching where my flesh was
+mending, and rib-bones knitting.
+
+Dr. Thatcher came in. He was booted, spurred, wore pistols and sword,
+and a military foot-mantle.
+
+When he caught my eyes he smiled slightly and asked me how I did. And I
+expressed my gratitude as suitably as I knew how, saying that I was well
+and desired to rise and be about my business.
+
+"In two weeks," he said, which took me aback.
+
+"Do you know how long you have been here?" he asked, amused.
+
+"Some three or four days, I suppose.
+
+"A month today, Mr. Drogue."
+
+This stunned me. He seated himself on the camp-stool beside my
+trundle-bed.
+
+"What preys upon your mind, Mr. Drogue?" he asked pleasantly.
+
+"Sir?"
+
+"I ask you what it is that troubles you."
+
+I felt a slow heat in my cheeks:
+
+"I have nothing on my mind, sir, save desire to return to duty."
+
+He said in his kindly way: "You would mend more quickly, sir, if your
+mind were tranquil."
+
+I felt my face flush to my hair:
+
+"Why do you suppose that my mind is uneasy, Doctor?"
+
+"You have asked no questions. A sick man, when recovering, asks many.
+You seem to remain incurious, indifferent. Yet, you are in the house of
+old friends."
+
+He looked at me out of his kind, grave eyes: "Also," he said, "you had
+many days of fever."
+
+My face burned: I feared to guess what he meant, but now I must ask.
+
+"Did I babble?"
+
+"A feverish patient often becomes loquacious."
+
+"Of--of whom did I--rave?" I could scarce force myself to the question.
+Then, as he also seemed embarrassed, I added: "You need not name her,
+Doctor. But I beg you to tell me who besides yourself overheard me."
+
+"Only your soldier, Nicholas Stoner, and a Saguenay Indian, who squats
+outside your door day and night."
+
+"Nobody else?"
+
+"I think not."
+
+"Has Lady Johnson heard me? Or Mistress Swift? Or--Mistress Grant?" I
+stammered.
+
+"Why, no," said he. "These ladies were most tender and attentive when
+your soldiers brought you hither; but two days afterward, while you
+still lay unconscious,--and your right lung filling solid,--there came a
+flag from General Schuyler, and an escort of Albany Horse for the
+ladies. And they departed as prisoners the following morning, with their
+flag, to be delivered and set at liberty inside the British lines."
+
+"They are gone?"
+
+"Yes, sir. Lady Johnson, while happy in her prospective freedom, and
+hopeful of meeting her husband in New York City, seemed very greatly
+distressed to leave you here in such a plight. And Mistress Swift
+offered to remain and care for you, but our military authorities would
+not allow it."
+
+I said nothing.
+
+He added, with a faint smile: "Our authorities, I take it, were
+impatient to be rid of responsibility for these fair prisoners, Mr.
+Drogue. I know that Schuyler is vastly relieved."
+
+"Has Stephen Watts been taken?" I asked abruptly. "Or Hare, or Butler?"
+
+"Not that I have heard of."
+
+So they had got clean away, that spying crew!--Watts and Hare and Walter
+Butler! Well, that was better. God knows I had a million times rather
+meet Steve Watts in battle than take him skulking here inside our lines
+a-spying on our camp, exchanging information with his unhappy sister
+and with Claudia, or slinking about the shrubbery by night to press his
+sweetheart's waist and lips----
+
+I turned my hot face on the pillow and lay a-thinking. The doctor laid
+back my blanket, looked at my hurts, then covered me.
+
+"You do well," he said. "In two weeks you shall be out o' bed. Bones
+must knit and wounds scar before you carry pack again. And before your
+lung is strong you shall need six months rest ere you take the field."
+
+Aghast at such news, I asked him the true nature of my hurts, and
+learned that Balty's bullet had broken three ribs into my right lung,
+then, glancing, had made a hole clean through my thigh, but not
+splintering the bone.
+
+"That Oneida girl of Thomas Spencer's saved you," said he, "for she
+picked out the burnt wadding and bits of cloth, cleaned and checked the
+hemorrhage, and purged you. And there was no gangrene.
+
+"She did all that anybody could have done; but the cold had already
+seized your lung before she arrived, and it was that which involved you
+so desperately."
+
+After a silence: "Good God, doctor! _Six months_!"
+
+"Six months before you take the field, sir."
+
+"A half year of idleness? Why, that can not be, sir----"
+
+"It is better than eternity in a coffin, sir," said he quietly.
+
+Then he came and took my hand, saying that orders had come directing him
+to join our Northern Army at Crown Point, and that he was to set off
+within the hour.
+
+"A little nursing and continued rest are all you now require," said he;
+"and so I leave you without anxiety, Mr. Drogue."
+
+I strove to express my deep gratitude for his service to me; he pressed
+my hand, smilingly:
+
+"If you would hasten convalescence," said he, "seek to recover that
+serenity of mind which is a surer medicine than any in my phials."
+
+At the door he turned and looked back to me:
+
+"I think," said he in an embarrassed voice, "that you have really no
+true reason for unhappiness, Mr. Drogue. If you have, then my experience
+of men and women has taught me nothing."
+
+With that he went; and I heard his sword and spurs through the hallway,
+and the outer door close.
+
+What had he meant?
+
+For a long while I pondered this. Then into my mind came another and
+inevitable question: _What_ had I said in my delirium?
+
+I was hungry when Nick came.
+
+"Well," says he, grinning at me, "our Continental saw-bones permits this
+fat wild pigeon. And now I hope I shall have no more cursing to endure."
+
+Tears came into my eyes and I held out my hand. It was blanched white,
+and bony, and lay oddly in his great, brown paw.
+
+"Lord," says he, "what a fright you have given us, John, what with
+coughing all day and night like a sick bullock----"
+
+"I am mending, Nick."
+
+"So says Major Squills. Here, lad, eat thy pigeon. Does it smack? And
+here is a little Spanish wine in this glass to nourish you. I had three
+bottles of the Continentals ere they marched----"
+
+"Marched! Have they departed?" I demanded in astonishment.
+
+"Horse, foot, and baggage," said he cheerily. "When I say 'horse,' I
+mean young Jack-boots, for he departed first with the flag that took my
+Lady Johnson to New York."
+
+"So everybody has gone," said I, blankly.
+
+"Why, yes, John. The flag came from Schuyler and off went the ladies,
+bag, baggage, and servants.
+
+"Then come Colonels Van Schaick and Dayton from Johnstown to inspect our
+works at this place and at Fish House. And two days later orders come to
+abandon Fish House and Summer House Point.... You do not remember
+hearing their drums?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You were very bad that day," he said soberly. "But when their music
+played you opened your eyes and nothing would do but you must rise and
+dress. Lord, how wild you talked, and I was heartily glad when their
+drumming died away on the Johnstown road."
+
+"You mean to tell me that there is no longer any garrison on the
+Sacandaga?" I asked, amazed.
+
+"None. And but a meagre one at Johnstown. It seems we need troops
+everywhere and have none to send anywhere. They've even taken your scout
+and your Oneidas."
+
+"What!" I exclaimed.
+
+"They left a week ago, John, to work on the new fort which is being
+fashioned out of old Fort Stanwix. So Dayton sends your scout thither to
+play with pick and mattock, and your Oneidas to prowl along Wood Creek
+and guard the batteaux."
+
+"You tell me that the Sacandaga is left destitute of garrison or
+scouts!" I asked angrily. "And Tryon crawling alive with Tories!--and
+the Cadys and Helmers and Bowmans and Reeds and Butlers and Hares and
+Stephen Watts stirring the disloyal to violence in every settlement
+betwixt Schenectady and Ballston!"
+
+"I tell you we are too few for all our need, John,--too few to watch all
+places threatened. Schuyler has but one regiment of Continentals now.
+Gates commands at Crown Point and draws to him all available men. His
+Excellency is pressed for men in the South, too. Albany is almost
+defenceless, Schenectady practically unguarded, and only a handful of
+our people guard Johnstown."
+
+"Where are the militia?" I demanded.
+
+"Farming--save when the district call sends a regiment on guard or to
+work on the forts. But Herkimer has them in hand against a crisis, and I
+have no doubt that those Palatines will turn out to a man if Sir John
+comes hither with his murderous hordes."
+
+I sat in silence, picking the bones of my pigeon. Nick said:
+
+"Colonel Dayton came in here and looked at you. And when he left he said
+to me that you had proven a valuable scout; and that, if you survived,
+he desired you to remain here at the Summer House with me and with your
+Saguenay."
+
+"For what purpose?" I demanded, sullenly.
+
+"On observation."
+
+"A scout of three! To cover the Sacandaga! Do they think we have wings?
+Or are a company of tree-cats with nine lives apiece?"
+
+"Well," said Nick, scratching his ear in perplexity, "I know not what
+our colonels and our generals are thinking; but the soldiers are gone,
+and our doctor has now departed, so if Dayton leaves us four people
+alone here in the Summer House it must be because there is nothing for
+the present to apprehend, either from Sir John or from any Indian or
+Tory marauders."
+
+"_Four_ people?" I repeated. "I thought you said we were but three
+here."
+
+"Why," said he, "I mean that we are three men--three rifles!"
+
+"Is there a servant woman, also?"
+
+He looked at me oddly.
+
+"The Caughnawaga girl came back."
+
+"What!"
+
+"The Scottish girl, Penelope."
+
+"Came back! When?"
+
+"Oh, that was long ago--after the flag left.... It seems she had meant
+to travel only to Mayfield with them.... She had not said so to anybody.
+But in the dark o' dawn she rides in on your mare, Kaya, having
+travelled all night long."
+
+"'Why,' says I, 'what do you here on John Drogue's horse in the dark o'
+dawn?'
+
+"'If there's danger,' says she calmly, 'this sick man should have a
+horse to carry him to Mayfield fort.'
+
+"Which was true enough; and I said so, and stabled your mare where Lady
+Johnson's horses had left a warm and empty manger."
+
+"Well," said I harshly, as he remained silent.
+
+"Lord, Jack, that is all I know. She has cooked for you since, and has
+kept this house in order, washed dishes, fed the chickens and ducks and
+pig, groomed your horse, hoed the garden, sewed bandages, picked lint,
+knitted stockings and soldiers' vests----"
+
+"_Why?_" I demanded.
+
+"I asked her that, John. And she answered that there was nobody here to
+care for a sick man's comfort, and that Dr. Thatcher had told her you
+would die if they moved you to Johnstown hospital.
+
+"I thought she'd become frightened and leave when the Continentals
+marched out; they all came--the officers--where she sat a-knitting by
+the apple-tree; but she only laughed at their importunities, made light
+of any dangers to be apprehended, and refused a seat on their camp
+wagon. And it pleased me, John, to see how doleful and crestfallen were
+some among those same young blue-and-buffs when they were obliged to
+ride away that morning and leave here there a-sewing up your shirt where
+Balty's bullet had rent it."
+
+A slight thrill shot me through. But it died cold. And I thought of
+Steve Watts, and of her in his embrace under the lilacs.
+
+If she now remained here it was for no reason concerning me. It was
+because she thought her lover might return some night and take her in
+his arms again. That was the reason.
+
+And with this miserable conclusion, a more dreadful doubt seized me.
+What of the loyalty of a girl whose lover is a King's man?
+
+I remembered how, in the blossoming orchard, she had whispered to me
+that she was a friend to liberty.
+
+Was that to be believed of a maid whose lover came into our camp a spy?
+
+I lay back on my pillow and closed my eyes. What was this girl to me
+that I should care one way or the other?
+
+Nick took my platter and went away, leaving me to sleep as I seemed to
+desire it.
+
+But I had no desire to sleep. And as I lay there, I became sensible that
+my entire and battered body was almost imperceptibly a-tremble.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE DEMON
+
+
+I think that summer was the strangest ever I have lived,--the most
+unreal days of life,--so still, so golden, so strangely calm the
+solitude that ringed me where I was slowly healing of my hurt.
+
+Each dawn was heralded by gold fire, each evening by a rosy
+conflagration in the west. It rained only at night; and all that crystal
+clear mid-summer scarcely a shred of fleece dappled the empyrean.
+
+Those winds which blow so frequently in our Northland seemed to have
+become zephyrs, too; and there was but a reedy breeze along the Vlaie
+Water, and scarce a ripple to rock the lily pads in shallow reach and
+cove.
+
+It was strange. And, only for the loveliness of night and day, there
+might have seemed in this hushed tranquillity around me a sort of hidden
+menace.
+
+For all around about was war, where Tryon County lay so peacefully in
+the sunshine, ringed within the outer tumult, and walled on all sides by
+battle smoke.
+
+Above us our fever-stricken Northern army, driven from Crown Point, now
+lay and sickened at Ticonderoga, where General Gates did now command our
+people, while poor Arnold, turned ship's carpenter, laboured to match
+Guy Carleton's flotilla which the British were dragging piecemeal over
+Chambly Rapids to blow us out o' the lake.
+
+From south of us came news of the Long Island disaster where His
+Excellency, driven from Brooklyn and New York, now lay along the Harlem
+Heights.
+
+And it was a sorry business; for Billy Alexander, who is Lord Stirling,
+was taken a prisoner; and Sullivan also was taken; and their two
+brigades were practically destroyed.
+
+But worse happened at New York City, where the New York militia ran and
+two New England brigades, seized with panic, fled in a shameful manner.
+And so out o' town our people pulled foot, riotous and disorderly in
+retreat, and losing all our heavy guns, nearly all our stores, and more
+than three hundred prisoners.
+
+This was the news I had of the Long Island battle, where I lay in
+convalescence at Summer House that strange, still summer in the North.
+
+And I thought very bitterly of what advantage was it that we had but
+just rung bells and fired off our cannon to salute our new Declaration
+of Independence, and had upset the prancing leaden King from his
+pedestal on the Bowling Green, if our militia ran like rabbits at sight
+of the red-coats, and general officers like Lord Stirling were
+mouse-trapped in their first battle.
+
+Alas for poor New York, where fire and explosion had laid a third of the
+city in ruins; where the drums of the red-coats now rolled brazenly
+along the Broadway; where Delancy's horsemen scoured the island for
+friends to liberty; where that great wretch, Loring, lorded it like an
+unclean devil of the pit.
+
+God! to think on it when all had gone so well; and Boston clean o'
+red-coats, and Canada all but in our grasp; and old Charleston shaking
+with her dauntless cannonade, and our people's volleys pouring into
+Dunmore's hirelings through the levelled cinders of Norfolk town!
+
+What was the matter with us that these Southern gentlemen stood the
+British fire while, if we faced it, we crumpled and gave ground; or, if
+we shunned it, we ran disgracefully? Save only at Boston had we driven
+the red-coats on land. The British flame had scorched us on Long Island,
+singed us in New York, blasted us at Falmouth and Quebec, and left our
+armies writhing in the ashes from Montreal to Norfolk.
+
+And yet how tranquil, how fair, how ominously calm lay our Valley Land
+in the sunshine, ringed here by our blue mountains where no slightest
+cloud brooded in an unstained sky!
+
+And more still, more strange even than the untroubled calm of Tryon, lay
+the Summer House in its sunlit, soundless, and green desolation.
+
+Where, through the long days, nothing moved on the waste of waters save
+where a sun-burnished reed twinkled. Where, under star-powdered skies,
+no wind stirred; and only the vague far cry of some wandering wild thing
+ever disturbed that vast and velvet silence.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Long before she came near me to speak to me, and even before she had
+glanced at me from the west porch, whither she took her knitting in the
+afternoons, I had seen Penelope.
+
+From where I lay on my trundle in Sir William's old gun-room I could
+see out across the hallway and through the door, where the west veranda
+ran.
+
+In the mornings either my Indian, Yellow-Leaf, or Nick Stoner mounted
+guard there, watching the green and watery wastes to the northward,
+while his comrade freshened my sheets and pillows and cleansed my room.
+
+In the afternoons one o' them went a-fishing or prowling after meat for
+our larder, or, sometimes, Nick went a-horse to Mayfield on observation,
+or to Johnstown for news or a bag of flour. And t'other watched from the
+veranda roof, which was railed, and ran all around the house, so that a
+man might walk post there and face all points of the compass.
+
+As for Penelope, I soon learned her routine; for in the morning she was
+in the kitchen and about the house--save only she came not to my
+room--but swept and dusted the rest, and cooked in the cellar-kitchen.
+
+Sometimes I could see her in apron and pink print, drawing water from
+the orchard well, and her skirt tucked up against the dew.
+
+Sometimes I saw her early in the garden, where greens grew and beans and
+peas; or sometimes she hoed weeds where potatoes and early corn stood in
+rows along a small strip planted between orchard and posy-bed.
+
+And sometimes I could see her a-milking our three Jersey cows, or, with
+a sickle, cutting green fodder for my mare, Kaya, whose dainty hoofs I
+often heard stamping the barn floor.
+
+But after the dinner hour, and when the long, still afternoons lay
+listlessly betwixt mid-summer sun and the pale, cool dusk, she came from
+her chamber all freshened like a faint, sweet breeze in her rustling
+petticoat of sheer, sprigged stuff, to seat herself on the west veranda
+with her knitting.
+
+Day after day I lay on my trundle where I could see her. She never
+noticed me, though by turning her head she could have seen me where I
+lay.
+
+I do not now remember clearly what was my state of mind except that a
+dull bitterness reigned there.
+
+Which was, of course, against all common sense and decent reason.
+
+I had no claim upon this girl. I had kissed her--through no fault of
+hers, and by no warrant and no encouragement from her to so conduct in
+her regard.
+
+I had kissed her once. But other men had done that perhaps with no more
+warrant. And I, though convinced that the girl knew not how to parry
+such surprises, brooded sullenly upon mine own indiscretion with her;
+and pondered upon the possible behaviour of other men with her. And I
+silently damned their impudence, and her own imprudence which seemed to
+have taught her little in regard to men.
+
+But in my mind the chiefest and most sullen trouble lay in what I had
+seen under the lilacs that night in June.
+
+And when I closed my eyes I seemed to see her in Steve Watts' arms, and
+the lad's ardent embrace of her throat and hair, and the flushed passion
+marring his youthful face----
+
+I often lay there, my eyes on her where I could see her through the
+door, knitting, and strove to remember how I had first heard her name
+spoken, and how at that last supper at the Hall her name was spoken and
+her beauty praised by such dissolute young gallants as Steve Watts and
+Lieutenant Hare; and how even Sir John had blurted out, in his cups,
+enough to betray an idle dalliance with this yellow-haired girl, and
+sufficient to affront his wife and his brother-in-law, and to disgust
+me.
+
+And Nick had said that men swarmed about her like forest-flies around a
+pan o' syrup!
+
+And all this, too, before ever I had laid eyes upon this slim and silent
+girl who now sat out yonder within my sullen vision, knitting or winding
+her wool in silence.
+
+What, then, could be the sentiments of any honest man concerning her?
+What, when I considered these things, were my own sentiments in her
+regard?
+
+And though report seemed clear, and what I had witnessed plainer still,
+I seemed to be unable to come to any conclusion as to my true sentiments
+in this business, or why, indeed, it was any business of mine, and why I
+concerned myself at all.
+
+Men found her young and soft and inexperienced; and so stole from her
+the kiss that heaven sent them.
+
+And Steve Watts, at least, was more wildly enamoured.... And, no doubt,
+that reckless flame had not left her entirely cold.... Else how could
+she have strolled away to meet him that same night when her lips must
+still have felt the touch of mine?... And how endured his passion there
+in the starlight?... And if she truly were a loyal friend to liberty,
+how in God's name give secret tryst and countenance to a spy?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One morning, when Nick had bathed me, I made him dress me in forest
+leather. Lord, but I was weak o' the feet, and light in head as a blown
+egg-shell!
+
+Thus, dressed, I lay all morning on my trundle, and there, seated on the
+edge, was given my noon dinner.
+
+But I had no mind, now, to undress and rest. I desired to go to the
+veranda, and did fume and curse and bully poor Nick until he picked me
+up and carried me thither and did seat me within a large and cushioned
+Windsor chair.
+
+Then, madded, he went away to fish for a silver pike in our canoe,
+saying with much viciousness that I might shout my throat raw and perish
+there ere he would stir a foot to put me to bed again.
+
+So I watched him go down to the shore where the canoe lay, lift in rod
+and line and paddle, and take water in high dudgeon.
+
+"Even an ass knows when he's sick!" he called out to me. But I laughed
+at him and saw his broad paddle stab the water, and the birchen craft
+shoot out among the reeds.
+
+Now it was in my thoughts to see how Mistress Penelope would choose to
+conduct, who had so long and so tranquilly ignored me.
+
+For here was I established upon the spot where she had been accustomed
+to sit through the long afternoons ... and think on Steve Watts, no
+doubt!...
+
+Comes Mistress Penelope in sprigged gown of lavender, and smelling fresh
+of the herb itself or of some faint freshness.
+
+I rested both hands upon the arms of my Windsor chair and so managed to
+stand erect.
+
+She turned rosy to her ear-tips at the sudden encounter, but her voice
+was self-possessed and in nowise altered when she greeted me.
+
+I offered my hand; she extended hers and I saluted it.
+
+Then she seated herself at leisure in her Windsor reading-chair, laid
+her basket of wool-skeins upon the polished book-rest, and calmly fell
+to knitting.
+
+"So, you are mending fast, sir," says she; and her smooth little fingers
+travelling steadily with her shining needles, and her dark eyes intent
+on both.
+
+"Oh, for that," said I, "I am well enough, and shall soon be strong to
+strap war-belt and sling pack and sack.... Are you in health, Mistress
+Pen?"
+
+She expressed thanks for the civil inquiry. And knitted on and on. And
+silence fell between us.
+
+If it was then that I first began to fear I was in love with her, I do
+not surely remember now. For if such a doubt assailed me, then instantly
+my mind resented so unwelcome a notion. And not only was there no
+pleasure in the thought, but it stirred in me a kind of breathless
+anger which seemed to have long slumbered in its own ashes within me and
+now gave out a dull heat.
+
+"Have you news of Lady Johnson and of Mistress Swift?" I asked at last.
+
+She lifted her eyes in surprise.
+
+"No, sir. How should news come to us here?"
+
+"I thought there might be channels of communication."
+
+"I know of none, sir. York is far, and the Canadas are farther still. No
+runners have come to Summer House."
+
+"Still," said I, "communication was possible when I got my hurt last
+June."
+
+"Sir?"
+
+"Is that not true?"
+
+She looked at me in troubled silence.
+
+"Did not Lady Johnson's brother come here in secret to give her news,
+and take as much away?"
+
+She did not answer.
+
+"Once," said I, "although I had not asked, you told me that you were a
+friend to liberty."
+
+"And am so," said she.
+
+"And have a Tory lover."
+
+At that her face flamed and her wool dropped into her lap. She did not
+look at me but sat with gaze ahead of her as though considering.
+
+At last: "Do you mean Captain Watts?" she asked.
+
+"Yes, I mean him."
+
+"He is not my lover."
+
+"I ask your pardon. The inference was as natural as my error."
+
+"Sir?"
+
+"Appearances," said I, "are proverbially deceitful. Instead of saying
+'your lover,' I should, perhaps, have said '_one_ of your lovers.' And
+so again ask pardon."
+
+"Are you my lover, sir?"
+
+"I?" said I, taken aback at the direct shot so unexpected.
+
+"Yes, you, my lord. Are you one of my lovers?"
+
+"I think not. Why do you ask me that which never could be a question
+that yes or no need answer?"
+
+"I thought perhaps you might deem yourself my lover."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because you kissed me once,--as did Captain Watts.... And two other
+gentlemen."
+
+"Two other gentlemen?"
+
+"Yes, sir. A cornet of horse,--his name escapes me--and Sir John."
+
+"Who!" I blurted angrily.
+
+"Sir John Johnson."
+
+"The dissolute beast!" said I. "Had I known it that night at Johnson
+Hall----" But here I checked my speech and waited till the hot blood in
+my face was done burning.
+
+And when again I was cool: "I am sorry for my heat," said I. "Your
+conduct is your own affair."
+
+"You once made it yours, sir,--for a moment."
+
+Again I went hot and red; and how I had conducted with this maid plagued
+me so that I found no word to answer.
+
+She knitted for a little while. Then, lifting her dark young eyes:
+
+"You have as secure a title to be my lover as has any man, Mr. Drogue.
+Which is no title at all."
+
+"Steve Watts took you in his arms near the lilacs."
+
+"What was that to you, Mr. Drogue?"
+
+"He was a spy in our uniform and in our camp!"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And you gave him your lips."
+
+"He took what he took. I gave only what was in my heart to give to any
+friend in peril."
+
+"What was that?"
+
+"Solicitude."
+
+"Oh. You warned him to leave? And he an enemy and a spy?"
+
+"I begged him to go, Mr. Drogue."
+
+"Do you still call yourself a friend to liberty?" I asked angrily.
+
+"Yes, sir. But I was his friend too. I did not know he had come here.
+And when by accident I recognized him I was frightened, because I
+thought he had come to carry news to Lady Johnson."
+
+"And so he did! Did he not?"
+
+"He said he came for me."
+
+"To visit you?"
+
+"Yes, sir. And I think that was true. For when he made himself known to
+his sister, she came near to fainting; and so he spoke no more to her at
+all but begged me for a tryst before he left."
+
+"Oh. And you granted it?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I was in great fright, fearing he might be taken.... Also I pitied
+him."
+
+"Why so?" I sneered.
+
+"Because he had courted me at Caughnawaga.... And at first I think he
+made a sport of his courting,--like other young men of Tryon gentry who
+hunt and court to a like purpose.... And so, one day at Caughnawaga, I
+told him I was honest.... I thought he ought to know, lest folly assail
+us in unfamiliar guise and do us a harm."
+
+"Did you so speak to this young man?"
+
+"Yes, sir. I told him that I am a maiden. I thought it best that he
+should know as much.... And so he courted me no more. But every day he
+came and glowered at other men.... I laughed secretly, so fiercely he
+watched all who came to Cayadutta Lodge.... And then Sir John fled. And
+war came.... Well, sir, there is no more to tell, save that Captain
+Watts dared come hither."
+
+"To take you in his arms?"
+
+"He did so,--yes, sir,--for the first time ever."
+
+"Then he is honestly in love with you?"
+
+"But you, also, did the like to me. Is it a consequence of honest love,
+Mr. Drogue, when a young man embraces a maiden's lips?"
+
+Her questions had so disconcerted me that I found now no answer to this
+one.
+
+"I know nothing about love," said I, looking out at the sunlit waters.
+
+"Nor I," said she.
+
+"You seem willing to be schooled," I retorted.
+
+"Not willing, not unwilling. I do not understand men, but am not averse
+to learning something of their ways. No two seem similar, Mr. Drogue,
+save in the one matter."
+
+"Which?" I asked bluntly.
+
+"The matter of paying court. All seem to do it naturally, though some
+take fire quicker, and some seem to burn more ardently than others."
+
+"It pleasures you to be courted? Gallantries suit you? And the flowery
+phrases suitors use?"
+
+"They pleasurably perplex me. Time passes more agreeably when one is
+knitting. To be courted is not an unwelcome diversion to any woman, I
+think. And flowery phrases are pleasant to notice,--like music suitably
+played, and of which one is conscious though occupied with other
+matters."
+
+"If this be not coquetry," I thought, "then it is most perilously akin
+to it."
+
+Obscurely yet deeply disturbed by the blind stirring of emotions I could
+not clearly analyze, I sat brooding there. Now I watched her fingers
+playing with the steels, and her young face lowered; now I gazed afar
+across the blue Vlaie Water to the bluer mountains beyond, which dented
+the horizon as the great blue waves of Lake Ontario make molten
+mountains against an azure sky.
+
+So still was the world that the distant leap and splash of a great
+silver pike sounded like a gun-shot in that breathless, sun-drenched
+solitude.
+
+Yet I found no solace now in all this golden peace; for, of the silence
+between this maid and me, had been born a vague and malicious thing; and
+like a subtle demon it had come, now, into my body to turn me sullen and
+restless with the scarce-formed, scarce-comprehended thoughts it hatched
+within me. And one of these had to do with Stevie Watts, and how he had
+come here for the sake of this girl.... And had taken her into his arms
+under the stars, near the lilacs.... And my lips still warm from
+hers.... Yet she had gone to him in the dusk.... Was afeard for him....
+Pitied him.... And doubtless loved him, whatever she might choose to say
+to me.... Under any circumstances a coquette; and, innocent or wise, to
+the manner born at any rate.... And some Tryon County gallant likely to
+take her measure some day ere she awake from her soft bewilderment at
+the ways and conducting of mankind.
+
+Nick came at eventide, carrying a pike by the gills, and showed us his
+fingers bleeding of the watery conflict.
+
+"Is all calm on the Sacandaga?" I enquired.
+
+"Calm as a roadside puddle, Jack. And every day I ask myself if there be
+truly any war in North America or no, so placid shines God's sun on
+Tryon.... You mend apace, old friend. Do you suffer fatigue?"
+
+"None, Nick. I shall sit at table tonight with Mistress Grant and
+you----"
+
+My voice ceased, and, without warning, the demon that had entered into
+me began a-whispering. Then the first ignoble and senseless pang of
+jealousy assailed me to remember that this girl and my comrade had been
+alone for weeks together--supped all alone at table--companioned each
+the other while I lay ill!----
+
+Senseless, miserable clod that I was to listen to that demon's
+whispering till my very belly seemed sick-sore with the pain of it and
+my heart hurt me under the ribs.
+
+Now she rose and looked at Nick and laughed; and they said a word or two
+I could not quite hear, but she laughed again as though with some
+familiar understanding, and went lightly away to her evening milking.
+
+"We shall be content indeed," said Nick, "that you sit at supper with
+us, old friend."
+
+But I had changed my mind, and said so.
+
+"You will not sit with us tonight?" he asked, concerned.
+
+I looked at him coldly:
+
+"I shall go to bed," said I, "and desire no supper.... Nor any aid
+whatever.... I am tired. The world wearies me.... And so do my own
+kind."
+
+And I got up and all alone walked to my little chamber.
+
+So great an ass was I.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+HAG-RIDDEN
+
+
+So passed that unreal summer of '76; and so came autumn upon us with its
+crimsons, purples, and russet-gold; its cherry-red suns a-swimming in
+the flat marsh fogs; its spectral mists veiling Vlaie Water and
+curtaining the Sacandaga from shore to shore.
+
+Rumours of wars came to us, but no war; gossip of armies and of battles,
+but no battles.
+
+Armies of wild-fowl, however, came to us on the great Vlaie; duck and
+geese and companies of snowy swans; and at night I could hear their
+fairy trumpets in the sky heralding the white onset from the North.
+
+And pigeons came to the beech-woods, millions and millions, so that
+their flight was a windy roaring in the sky and darkened the sun.
+
+Birches and elms and chestnuts and soft maples turned yellow; and so
+turned the ghostly tamaracks ere their needles fell. Hard maples and
+oaks grew crimson and scarlet and the blueberry bushes and sumachs
+glowed like piles of fire.
+
+But the world of pines darkened to a deeper emerald; spruce and hemlock
+took on a more sober hue; and the flowing splendour of the evergreens
+now robed plain and mountain in sombre magnificence, dully brocaded here
+and there by an embroidery of silver balsam.
+
+When I was strong enough to trail a rifle and walk my post on the
+veranda roof, my Saguenay Indian took to the Drowned Lands, scouting the
+meshed water-leads like a crested diving-duck; and his canoe nosed into
+every creek from Mayfield to Fish House.
+
+Nick foraged, netting pigeons on the Stacking Ridge, shooting partridge,
+turkey, and squirrel as our need prompted, or dropping a fat doe at
+evening on the clearing's edge beyond Howell's house.
+
+Of fish we had our fill,--chain-pike and silver-pike from Vlaie Water;
+trout out of Hans Creek and Frenchman's Creek.
+
+Corn, milled grain, and pork we drew a-horse from Johnstown or Mayfield;
+we had milk and butter of our own cows, and roasting ears and potatoes,
+squash, beets, and beans, and a good pumpkin for our pies, all from
+Summer House garden. And a great store of apples--for it was a year for
+that fruit--and we had so many that Nick pitted scores of bushels; and
+we used them to eat, also, and to cook.
+
+Now, against first frost, Penelope had sewed for us sacks out o' tow
+cloth; and when frost came to moss the world with spongy silver, we went
+after nuts, Nick and I,--chestnuts from the Stacking Ridge, and gathered
+beechnuts there, also. Butternuts we found, sticky and a-plenty, along
+the Sacandaga; and hickory nuts on every ridge, and hazel filberts
+bordering clearing and windfall in low, moist woods.
+
+Sure we were well garnered if not well garrisoned at Summer House when
+the first snow flakes came a-drifting like errant feathers floating from
+a wild-fowl shot in mid-air.
+
+The painted leaves dropped in November, settling earthward through still
+sunshine in gold and crimson clouds.
+
+"Mother Earth hath put on war-paint," quoth Penelope, knitting. She
+spoke to Nick, turning her head slightly. She spoke chiefly to him in
+these days, I having become, as I have said, a silent ass; and so
+strange and of so infrequent speech that they did not even venture to
+remark to me my reticence; and I think they thought my hurt had changed
+me in my mind and nature. Yet I was but a simple ass, differing only
+from other asses in that they brayed more frequently than I.
+
+In silence I nursed a challenging in my breast, where love should have
+lain secure and warm; and I wrapped the feverish, mewling thing in envy,
+jealousy, and sullen pride,--fit rags to swaddle such a waif.
+
+For once, coming upon Penelope unawares, I did see her gazing upon a
+miniature picture of Steve Watts, done bravely in his red regimentals.
+
+Which, perceiving me, she hid in her bosom and took her milk-pails to
+the orchard without a word spoken, though the colour in her face was
+eloquent enough.
+
+And very soon, too, I had learned for sure what I already believed of
+her, that she was a very jade; for it was plain that she had now
+ensnared Nick, and that they were thick as a pair o' pup hounds, and had
+confidences between them in low voices and with smiles. Which my coming
+checked only so far. For it was mostly to him she spoke openly at table,
+when, the smoking dishes set, she took her seat between us, out o'
+breath and sweet as a sun-hot rose.
+
+God knows they were not to blame; for in one hour I might prove glum
+and silent as a stone; and in another I practiced carelessness and
+indifference in my speech; and in another, still, I was like to be
+garrulous and feverish, insisting upon any point raised; laughing
+without decent provocation; moody and dull, loquacious and quarrelsome
+by turns,--unstable, unhinged, out o' balance and incapable of any
+decent equilibrium. Oh, the sorry spectacle a young man makes when that
+sly snake, jealousy, hath fanged him!
+
+And my disorder was such that I knew I was sick o' jealousy and sore
+hurt of it to the bones, yet conducted like a mindless creature that,
+trapped, falls to mutilating itself.
+
+And so I was ever brooding how I might convince her of my indifference;
+how I might pain her by coldness; how I might subtly acquaint her of my
+own desirability and then punish her by a display of contempt and a
+mortifying revelation of the unattainable. Which was to be my proper
+self.
+
+Jealousy is sure a strange malady and breaketh out in divers disorders
+in different young men, according to their age and kind.
+
+I was jealous because she had been courted by others; was jealous
+because she had been caressed by other men; I was wildly jealous because
+of Steve Watts, their tryst by the lilacs; his picture which I
+discovered she wore in her bosom; I was madly jealous of her fellowship
+with my old comrade, Nick, and because, chilled by my uncivil conduct
+and by my silences, she conversed with him when she spoke at all.
+
+And for all this silly grievance I had no warrant nor any atom of lucid
+reason. For until I had seen her no woman had ever disturbed me. Until
+that spring day in the flowering orchard I had never desired love; and
+if I even desired it now I knew not. I had certainly no desire for
+marriage or a wife, because I had no thought in my callow head of
+either.
+
+Only jealousy of others and a desire to be first in her mind possessed
+me,--a fierce wish to clear out this rabble of suitors which seemed to
+gather in a very swarm wherever she passed,--so that she should turn to
+me alone, lean upon me, trust only me in the world to lend her
+countenance, shelter her, and defend her. And, though God knows I meant
+her no wrong, nor had passion, so far, played any rôle in this my
+ridiculous behaviour, I had not so far any clear intention in her
+regard. A fierce and selfish longing obsessed me to drive others off and
+keep her for my own where in some calm security we could learn to know
+each other.
+
+And this--though I did not understand it--was merely the romantic
+desire of a very young man to study, unhurried and untroubled, the first
+female who ever had disturbed his peace of mind.
+
+But all was vain and troubled and misty in my mind, and love--or its
+fretful changeling--weighed on my heart heavily. But I carried double
+weight: jealousy is a heavy hag, and I was hag-ridden morn and eve and
+all the livelong day to boot.
+
+All asses are made to be ridden.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The first snow came, as I have said, like shot-scattered down from a
+wild-duck's breast. Then days of golden stillness, with mornings growing
+ever colder and the frost whitening shady spots long after sun-up.
+
+I remember a bear swam Vlaie Water, but galloped so swiftly into the
+bush that no rifle was ready to stop him.
+
+We mangered our cattle o' nights; and, as frosty grazing checks milk
+flow, Nick and I brought in hay from the stacks which the Continental
+soldiers had cut against a long occupation of Summer House Point.
+
+Nights had become very cold and we burned logs all day long in the
+chimney place. My Indian was snug enough in the kitchen by the oven,
+where he ate and slept when not on post; and we, above, did very well by
+the blaze where we roasted nuts and apples and drank new cider from
+Johnstown and had a cask of ale from the Johnson Arms by waggon.
+
+Also, in the cellar, was some store of Sir William's--dusty bottles of
+French and Spanish wines; but of these I took no toll, because they
+belonged not to me.
+
+But a strange circumstance presently placed these wines in my
+possession; for, upon a day before the first deep snow fell, comes
+galloping from Johnstown a man in caped riding coat, one Jerry Van
+Rensselaer, to nail a printed placard upon our Summer House--notice of
+sale by the Committee for Sequestration.
+
+But who was to read this notice and attend the vendue save only the
+birds and beasts of the wilderness I do not know; for on the day of the
+sale, which was conducted by Commissioner Harry Outthout, only some half
+dozen farmer folk rode hither from Johnstown, and only one man among 'em
+bid in money--a sullen fellow named Jim Huetson, who had Tory friends, I
+knew, if he himself were not of that complexion.
+
+His bid was Ł5; which was but a beggarly offer, and angered me to see
+Sir William's beloved Lodge come to so mean an end. So, having some
+little money, I showed the Schoharie fellow a stern countenance, doubled
+his bid, and took snuff which I do not love.
+
+And Lord! Ere I realized it, Summer House Point, Lodge and contents, and
+riparian rights as far as Howell's house were mine; and a clear deed
+promised.
+
+Bewildered, I signed and paid the Sequestration Commissioner out o' my
+buckskin pouch in hard coin.
+
+"You should buy the cattle, too," whispered Nick. "There be folk in
+Johnstown would pay well for such a breed o' cow. And there's the pig,
+Jack, and the sheep and the hens, and all that grain and hay so snug in
+the barn."
+
+So I asked very fiercely if any man desired to bid against me; and
+neither Huetson nor his sulky comrade, Davis, having any such stomach, I
+fetched ale and apples and nuts and made them eat and drink, and so drew
+aside the Commissioner and bargained with him like a Jew or a shoe-peg
+Yankee; and in the end bought all.[21]
+
+[Footnote 21: The Commissioners for selling real estate in Tryon County
+sold the personal property of Sir John Johnson some time before the Hall
+and acreage were sold. The Commissioners appointed for selling
+confiscated personal property in Tryon County were appointed later,
+March 6, 1777.]
+
+"Shall you move hither from Fonda's Bush and sell your house?" asked
+Nick, who now was going out on watch.
+
+But I made him no answer, for I had been bitten by an idea, the mere
+thought of which fevered me with excitement. Oh, I was mad as a March
+fox running his first vixen, in that first tide of romantic love,--clean
+daft and lacking reason.
+
+So when Commissioner Outthout and those who had come for the vendue had
+drank as much of my new ale as they cared to carry home a-horse, and
+were gone a-bumping down the Johnstown road like a flock of Gilpins all,
+I took my parchment and went into my bed chamber; and there I sat upon
+my trundle bed and read what was writ upon my deed, making me the owner
+of Summer House and of all that appertained to the little hunting lodge.
+
+But I had not purchased it selfishly; and the whole business began with
+an impulse born of love for Sir William, who had loved this place so
+well. But even as that impulse came, another notion took shape in my
+love-addled sconce.
+
+I sat on my trundle bed a-thinking and--God forgive me--admiring my own
+lofty and romantic purpose.
+
+The house was still, but on the veranda roof overhead I could hear the
+moccasined tread of Nick pacing his post; and from below in the kitchen
+came the distant thump and splash of Penelope's churn, where she was
+making new butter for to salt it against our needs.
+
+Now, as I rose my breath came quicker, but admiration for my resolve
+abated nothing--no!--rather increased as I tasted the sad pleasures of
+martyrdom and of noble renunciation. For I now meant to figure in this
+girl's eyes in a manner which she never could forget and which, I
+trusted, might sadden her with a wistful melancholy after I was gone and
+she had awakened to the irreparable loss.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When I came down into the kitchen where, bare of arms and throat, she
+stood a-churning, she looked at me out of partly-lowered eyes, as though
+doubting my mood--poor child. And I saw the sweat on her flushed cheeks,
+and her yellow hair, in disorder from the labour, all curled into damp
+little ringlets. But when I smiled I saw that lovely glimmer dawning,
+and she asked me shyly what I did there--for never before had I come
+into her kitchen.
+
+So, still smiling, I gave an account of how I had bought Summer House;
+and she listened, wide-eyed, wondering.
+
+"But," continued I, "I have already my own glebe at Fonda's Bush, and a
+house; but there be many with whom fortune has not been so complacent,
+and who possess neither glebe nor roof, yet deserve both."
+
+"Yes, sir," she said, smiling, "there be many such folk and always will
+be in the world. Of such company am I, also, but it saddens me not at
+all."
+
+I went to her and showed her my deed, and she looked down on it, her
+hands clasped on the churn handle.
+
+"So that," said she, "is a lawful deed! I have never before been shown
+such an instrument."
+
+"You shall have leisure enough to study this one," said I, "for I convey
+it to you."
+
+"Sir?"
+
+"I give Summer House to you," said I. "Here is the deed. When I go to
+Johnstown again I will execute it so that this place shall be yours."
+
+She gazed at me in dumb astonishment.
+
+"Meanwhile," said I, "you shall keep the deed.... And now you are, in
+fact, if not yet in title, mistress of Summer House. And I think, this
+night, we should break a bottle of Sir William's Madeira to drink health
+to our new châtelaine."
+
+She came from her churn and caught my arm, where I had turned to ascend
+the steps.
+
+"You are jesting, are you not, my lord?"
+
+"No! And do not use that term, 'lord,' to me."
+
+"You--you offer to give me--me--this estate!"
+
+"Yes. I do give it you."
+
+There was a tense silence.
+
+"Why do you offer this?" she burst out breathlessly.
+
+"Why should I have two estates and you have none, Penelope?"
+
+"But that is no reason!" she retorted, almost violently. "For what
+reason, then, do you give me Summer House? It--it must be you are
+jesting, my lord!----"
+
+At that, displeasure made me redden, and I damned the title under my
+breath.
+
+"If you please," said I, "you will have done with all these 'sirs' and
+'my lords,' for I am a plain yoeman of County Tryon and wear a buckskin
+shirt. Not that I would criticise Lord Stirling or any such who still
+care to wear by courtesy what I have long ago worn out," I added, "but
+the gentry and nobility of Tryon travel one way and I the other; and my
+friends should remember it when naming me."
+
+She stood looking at me out of her brown eyes, and slowly their troubled
+wonder changed to dumb perplexity. And, looking, took up her apron's
+edge and stood twisting it between both hands.
+
+"I give you Summer House," said I, "because you are orphaned and live
+alone and have nothing. I give it because a maid ought to possess a
+portion; and, thirdly, I give it because I have enough of my own, and
+never desired more of anything than I need. So take the Summer House,
+Penelope, with the cattle and fowl and land; for it gives you a station
+and a security among men and women of this odd world of ours, and lends
+to yourself a confidence and dignity which only sheerest folly can
+overthrow."
+
+She came, after a silence, slowly, and took me by the hand.
+
+"John Drogue," says she in a voice not clear, "I can not take of you
+this estate."
+
+"You shall take it! And when again, where you sit a-knitting, the young
+men gather round you like flies around a sap-pan--then, by God, you
+shall know what countenance to give them, and they shall know what
+colour to give their courting!--suitors, gallants, Whig or Tory--the
+whole damned rabble----"
+
+"Oh," she cried softly, "John Drogue!" And fell a-laughing--or was it a
+quick sob that checked her throat?
+
+But I heeded it not, having caught fire; and presently blazed noisily.
+
+"Because you are servant to Douw Fonda!" I cried, "and because you are
+alone, and because you are young and soft with a child's eyes and yellow
+hair, they make nothing of schooling you to their pot-house
+gallantries, and every damned man jack among them comes a-galloping to
+the chase. Yes, even that pallid beast, Sir John!--and the tears of
+Claire Putnam to haunt him if he were a man and not the dirty libertine
+he is!"
+
+I looked upon her whitened face in ever-rising passion:
+
+"I tell you," said I, "that the backwoods aristocracy is the better and
+safer caste, for the other is rotten under red coat or blue; and a
+ring-tailed cap doffed by a gnarled hand is worth all your laced cocked
+hats bound around with gold and trailed in the dust with fine, smooth
+fingers!"
+
+Sure I was in a proper phrensy now, nor dreamed myself a target for the
+high gods' laughter, where I vapoured and strode and shouted aloud my
+moral jeremiad.
+
+"So," said I, "you shall have Summer House; and shall, as you sit
+a-knitting, make your choice of honest suitors at your ease and not be
+waylaid and hunted and used without ceremony by the first young hot-head
+who entraps you in the starlight! No! Nor be the quarry of older
+villains and subtler with persuasion. No!
+
+"For today Penelope Grant, spinster, is a burgesse of Johnstown, and is
+a person both respectable and taxed. And any man who would court her
+must conduct suitably and in a customary manner, nor, like a wild
+falcon, circle over head awaiting the opportunity to strike.
+
+"No! All that sport--all that gay laxity and folly is at an end. And
+here's the damned deed that ends it!" I added, thrusting the parchment
+into her hands.
+
+She seemed white and frightened. And, "Oh, Lord!" she breathed, "have I,
+then, conducted so shamelessly? And did I so wholly lose your favour
+when you kissed me?"
+
+I had not meant that, and I winced and grew hot in the cheeks.
+
+"I am not a loose woman," she said in her soft, bewildered way. "Unless
+it be a fault that I find men somewhat to my liking, and their gay
+manners pleasure me and divert me."
+
+I said: "You have a way with men. None is insensible to your youth and
+beauty."
+
+"Is it so?" she asked innocently.
+
+"Are you not aware of it?"
+
+"I had thought that I pleased."
+
+"You do so. Best tread discreetly. Best consider carefully now. Then
+choose one and dismiss the rest."
+
+"Choose?"
+
+"Aye."
+
+"Whom should I choose, John Drogue?"
+
+"Why," said I, losing countenance, "there is the same ardent rabble like
+that plague of suitors which importuned the Greek Penelope. There are
+the sap-pan flies all buzzing."
+
+"Oh. Should I make a choice if entreated?"
+
+"A burgesse is free to choose."
+
+"Oh. And to which suitor should I give my smile?"
+
+"Well," said I, sullenly, "there is Nick. There also is your Cornet of
+Horse--young Jack-boots. And there is the young gentleman whose picture
+you wear in your bosom."
+
+"Captain Watts?" she asked, so naďvely that jealousy stabbed me
+instantly, so that my smile became a grimace.
+
+"Sure," said I, "you think tenderly on Stephen Watts."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"In fact," I almost groaned, "you entertain for him those virtuous
+sentiments not unbecoming to the maiden of his choice.... Do you not,
+Penelope?"
+
+"He has courted me a year. I find him agreeable. Also, I pity
+him--although his impatience causes me concern and his ardour
+inconveniences me.... The sentiments I entertain for him are virtuous,
+as you say, sir. And so are my sentiments for any man."
+
+"But is not your heart engaged in this affair?"
+
+"With Captain Watts?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Oh, I thought you meant with you, sir."
+
+I affected to smile, but my heart thumped my ribs.
+
+"I have not pretended to your heart, Penelope."
+
+"No, sir. Nor I to yours. And, for the matter, know nothing concerning
+hearts and the deeper pretensions to secret passions of which one hears
+so much in gossip and romance. No, sir; I am ignorant. Yet, I have
+thought that kindness might please a woman more easily than sighs and
+vapours.... Or so it seems to me.... And that impatient ardour only
+perplexes.... And passion often chills the natural pity that a woman
+entertains for any man who vows he is unhappy and must presently perish
+of her indifference....
+
+"Yet I am not indifferent to men.... And have used men gently.... And
+forgiven them.... Being not hard but pitiful by disposition."
+
+She made a movement of unconscious grace and drew from her bosom the
+little picture of Steve Watts.
+
+"You see," said she, "I guard it tenderly. But he went off in a passion
+and rebuked me bitterly for my coquetry and because I refused to flee
+with him to Canada.... He, being an enemy to liberty, I would not
+consent.... I love my country.... And better than I love any man."
+
+"He begged an elopement that night?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"With marriage promised, doubtless."
+
+"Lord," says she, "I had not thought so far."
+
+"Did he not promise it?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"What? Nor mention it?"
+
+"I did not hear him."
+
+"But in his courtship of a year surely he conducted honestly!" I
+insisted angrily.
+
+"Should a man ask marriage when he asks love, Mr. Drogue?"
+
+"If he means honestly he must speak of it."
+
+"Oh.... I did not understand.... I thought that love, offered, meant
+marriage also.... I thought they all meant that--save only Sir John."
+
+We both fell silent. After a little while: "I shall some day ask Captain
+Watts what he means," said she, thoughtfully. "Surely he must know I am
+a maiden."
+
+"Do you suppose such young men care!" I said sullenly.
+
+But she seemed so white and distressed at the thought that the sneer
+died on my lips and I made a great effort to do generously by my old
+school-mate, Stevie Watts.
+
+"Surely," said I, "he meant no disrespect and no harm. Stephen Watts is
+not of the corrupt breed of Walter Butler nor debauched like Sir
+John.... However, if he is to be your lover--perhaps it were convenient
+to ask him something concerning his respectful designs upon you."
+
+"Yes, sir, I shall do so--if he comes hither again."
+
+So hope, which had fallen a-flickering, expired like a tiny flame. She
+loved Steve Watts!
+
+I turned and limped up the stairway.
+
+And, at the stair-head, met Nick.
+
+"Well," said I savagely, "you may not have her. For she loves Steve
+Watts and dotes on his picture in her bosom. And as for you, you may go
+to the devil!"
+
+"Why, you sorry ass," says he, "have you thought I desired her?"
+
+"Do you not?"
+
+"Good God!" cried he, "because this poor and moon-smitten gentleman hath
+rolled sheep's eyes upon a yellow-haired maid, then, in his mind, all
+the world's aflame to woo her too and take her from his honest arms!
+What the plague do I want of your sweetheart, Jack Drogue, when I've one
+at Pigeon Wood and my eye on another, too!"
+
+Then he fell a-laughing and smote his thighs with a loud slapping.
+
+"Aha!" he cried, "did I not warn you? Did I not foresee, foretell, and
+prophesy that you would one day sicken of a passion for this
+yellow-haired girl from Caughnawaga!"
+
+"Idiot," said I in a rage, "I do not love her!"
+
+"Then you bear all the earmarks!" said he, and went off stamping his
+moccasins and roaring with laughter.
+
+And I went on watch to walk my post all a-tremble with fury, and fair
+sick of jealousy and my first boyish passion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now, it is a strange thing how love undid me; but it is still stranger
+how, of a sudden, my malady passed. And it came about in this way, that
+toward sunset one day, when I came from walking my post on the veranda
+roof to find why Nick had not relieved me, I descended the stairs and
+looked into the kitchen, where was a pleasant smell of cinnamon crullers
+fresh made and of johnnycake and of meat a-stewing.
+
+And there I did see Nick push Penelope into a corner to kiss her, and
+saw her fetch him a clout with her open hand.
+
+Then again, and broad on his surprised and silly face, fell her little
+hand like the clear crack of a drover's whip.
+
+And, "There!" she falters, out o' breath, "there's for you, friend
+Nicholas!"
+
+"My God!" says he, in foolish amaze, "why do you that, Penelope!"
+
+"I kiss whom I please and none other!" says she, fast breathing, and her
+dark eyes wide and bright.
+
+"Whom you please," quoth Nick, abashed but putting a bold face on
+it--"well then, you please me, and therefore ought to kiss me----"
+
+"No, I will not! John Drogue hath shown me what is my privilege in this
+idle game of bussing which men seem so ready to play with me, whether I
+will or no!... Have I hurt you, Nick?"
+
+She came up to him, still flushed and her childish bosom still rising
+and falling fast.
+
+"You love Jack Drogue," said he, sulkily, "and therefore belabour me who
+dote on you."
+
+"I love you both," said she, "but I am enamoured of neither. Also, I
+desire no kisses of you or of Mr. Drogue, but only kindness and good
+will."
+
+"You entertain a passion for Steve Watts!" he muttered sullenly, "and
+there's the riddle read for you!"
+
+But she laughed in his face and took up her pan of crullers and set them
+on the shelf.
+
+"I am châtelaine of Summer House," said she, "and need render no account
+of my inclinations to you or to any man. Who would learn for himself
+what is in my mind must court me civilly and in good order.... Do you
+desire leave to court me, Nick?"
+
+"Not I!--to be beaten by a besom and flouted and mocked to boot! Nenni,
+my pretty lass! I have had my mouthful of blows."
+
+"Oh. And your comrade? Is he, do you think, inclined to court me?"
+
+"Jack Drogue?"
+
+"The same."
+
+"You have bedeviled him," said Nick sulkily, "as you have witched all
+men who encounter you. He hath a fever and is sick of it."
+
+She was slicing hot johnnycake with a knife in the pan; and now looked
+up at him with eyes full of curiosity.
+
+"Bewitched him? I?"
+
+"Surely. Who else, then?"
+
+"You are jesting, Nick."
+
+"No. Like others he has taken the Caughnawaga fever. The very air you
+breathe is full of it. But, with a man like my comrade, it is no more
+than a fever. And it passes, pretty maid!--it passes."
+
+"Does it so?"
+
+"It does. It burns out folly and leaves him the healthier."
+
+"Oh, then--with a gentleman like your comrade, Mr. Drogue--l'amour n'est
+qu'une maladie légčre qui se guérira sans médecin, n'est-ce pas?"
+
+"Say that in Canada and doubtless the very dicky-birds will answer
+wee-wee-wee!" he retorted. "But if you mean, does John Drogue mate below
+his proper caste, then there's no wee-wee-wee about it; for that the
+Laird of Northesk will never do!"
+
+"I know that," said she coolly. And opened the pot to fork the steaming
+stew, then set on the cover and passed her hand over her brow where a
+slight dew glistened and where her hair curled paler gold and tighter,
+like a child's.
+
+"Friend Nick?"
+
+"I hear thee, breeder of heart-troubles."
+
+"Listen, then. No thought of me should trouble any man as yet. My heart
+is not awake--not troublesome,--not engaged,--no, not even to poor
+Stephen Watts. For the sentiment I entertain for him is only pity for a
+boy, Nick, who is impetuous and rash and has been too much flattered by
+the world.... Poor lad--in his play-hour regimentals!--and no beard on
+his smooth cheek.... Just a fretful, idle, and self-indulgent boy!...
+Who protests that he loves me.... Oh, no, Nick! Men sometimes bewilder
+me; but I think it is our own passion that destroys us women--not
+theirs.... And there is none in me,--only pity, and a great friendliness
+to men.... And these only have ever moved me."
+
+He was sitting on a pine table and munching of a cruller. "Penelope,"
+says he, "your honesty and wholesome spirit should physic men of their
+meaner passions. If you are servant to Douw Fonda, nevertheless you
+think like a great lady. And I for one," he added, munching away, "shall
+quarrel with any man who makes little of the mistress of Summer House
+Point!"
+
+And then--oh, Lord!--she turns from her oven, takes his silly head
+between both hands, and gives him a smack on the lips!
+
+"There," says she, "you have had of your sister what you never should
+have had of the Scottish lass of Caughnawaga!"
+
+He got off the table at that, looking mighty pleased but sheepish, and
+muttered something concerning relieving me on post.
+
+And so, lest I should be disgraced by my eavesdropping, and feeling mean
+and degraded, yet oddly contented that Penelope loved no man with secret
+passion, I slunk away, my moccasins making no sound.
+
+So when Nick came to relieve me he discovered me still on post; and said
+he pettishly: "Penelope Grant hath clouted me, mind and body; and I am
+the better man by it, though somewhat sore; and I shall knock the head
+of any popinjay who fails in the respect all owe this girl. And I wish
+to God I had a hickory stick here, and Sir John Johnson across my knee!"
+
+I went into my chamber and laid me down on my trundle bed.
+
+I was contented. I no longer seemed to burn for the girl. Also, I knew
+she burned for no man. A vast sense of relief spread over me like a soft
+garment, warming and soothing me.
+
+And so, pleasantly passed my sick passion for the Scottish girl; and
+pleasantly I fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+WINTER AND SPRING
+
+
+Snow came as it comes to us in the Northland--a blinding fall, heavy and
+monotonous--and in forty-eight hours the Johnstown Road was blocked.
+
+Followed a day of dazzling sunshine and intense cold, which set our
+timbers cracking; and the snow, like finest flour, creaked under our
+snow-shoes.
+
+All the universe had turned to blue and silver; and the Vlaie Water ran
+fathomless purple between its unstained snows. But that night the clouds
+returned and winds grew warmer, and soon the skies opened with feathery
+white volleys, and the big, thick flakes stormed down again,
+obliterating alike the work of nature and of man.
+
+Summer House was covered to the veranda eaves. We made shovels and
+cleared the roofs and broke paths to stable and well.
+
+Here, between dazzling ramparts, we lived and moved and had our being,
+week after week; and every new snow-storm piled higher our palisades and
+buried the whole land under one vast white pall.
+
+Vlaie Water froze three feet solid; fierce winds piled the ice with
+gigantic drifts so that no man could mark the course of the creeks any
+more; and a vast white desolation stretched away to the mountains,
+broken only by naked hard-wood forests or by the interminable ocean of
+the pines weighted deep with snow.
+
+Only when a crust came were we at any pains to set a watch against a war
+party from the Canadas. But none arrived; no signal smoke stained the
+peaks; nothing living stirred on that dead white waste save those little
+grey and whining birds which creep all day up and down tree-trunks, or a
+sudden gusty flight of snow-birds, which suddenly arrive from nowhere
+and are gone as suddenly.
+
+Once a white owl with yellow eyes sat upon the ridge-pole of our barn;
+but our pullets were safe within, and Penelope drove him away with
+snowballs.
+
+The deer yarded on Maxon; lynx-tracks circled our house and barn, and
+we sometimes heard old tassel-ears a-miauling on the Stacking Ridge.
+
+And, toward the end of February, there were two panthers that left huge
+cat-prints across the drifts on the Johnstown Road; but they took no
+toll of our sheep, which were safe in a stone fold, though the oaken
+door to it bore marks of teeth and claws, where the pumas had striven
+hard to break in and do murder.
+
+Save when a crust formed and we took our turns on guard, my Indian
+rolled himself in bear-furs by the kitchen oven, and like a bear he
+slept there until hunger awoke him long enough to gorge for another
+stretch of sleep.
+
+Nick and I took axes to the woods and drew logs on a sledge to split for
+fire use. Our tasks, too, kept us busy feeding our live creatures,
+fetching water, keeping paths open, and fishing through the ice.
+
+In idler intervals we carved devices upon our powder-horns, cured
+deer-skins in the Oneida fashion, boiled pitch and mended our canoe,
+fashioned paddles, poles, and shafts for fish-spears, strung snow-shoes,
+built a fine sledge out of ash and hickory, and made Kaya draw us on the
+crust.
+
+So, all day, each was busy with tasks and duties, and had little leisure
+left for that dull restlessness which, in idle people, is the root of
+all the mischief they devise to do.
+
+Penelope mended our clothing and knitted mittens and jerkins. All
+house-work and cooking she accomplished, and milked and churned and
+cared for the pullets. Also, she dipped candles and moulded bullets from
+the lead bars I found in the gun-room. And when our deer-skins were
+cured and softened, she made for us soft wallets, sacks, and pouches,
+and sewed upon them bright beads in the Oneida fashion, from the pack of
+trade beads in Sir William's gun-room. She sewed upon every accoutrement
+a design done in scarlet beads, showing a picture of a little red foot.
+
+Lord, but we meant to emerge from our snows in brave fashion, come
+spring-tide; for now our deer-skin garments were splendid with beads,
+and our fringes were green and purple. Also, Nick had trapped it some
+when opportunity offered, setting his line from Summer House along Vlaie
+Water to Howell's house, thence across the frozen Drowned Lands to the
+Stacking Ridge, and from there back over the Spring Pool, and thence
+down-creek to the Sacandaga, where Fish House stood with its glazed
+windows empty as a blind man's eyes.
+
+He had, by March, a fine pack of peltry; and of these we cured and used
+sufficient muskrat to sew us blankets, and made a mantle of otter for
+Penelope and a hood and muff to match.
+
+For ourselves we made us caps out of black mink, and sewed all together
+by our dip-lights in the red firelight, where apples slowly sizzled with
+the rich, sweet perfume I love to smell.
+
+Sometimes Nick played upon his fife; and sometimes we all told stories
+and roasted chestnuts. Nick had more stories and more imagination than
+had I, and a livelier wit in the telling of tales. But chiefly I was
+willing to hear Penelope when she told us of her childhood in France,
+and how folk lived in that warm and sweet country, and what were their
+daily customs.
+
+Also, she sang sometimes children's songs of France, and other pretty
+ballads, mostly concerning love. For the French occupy themselves
+chiefly with love and cooking and the fine arts, I judge, and know how
+to make an art of eating, also. For there in France every meal is a
+ceremony; but in this land we eat not for the pleasurable taste which,
+in savory food, delights and tempts, but we eat swiftly and carelessly
+and chiefly to stay our hunger.
+
+Yet, at times, food smacks smartly to my tongue; as when at Christmas
+tide I shot a great wild turkey on the Stacking Ridge; and when Penelope
+basted it in the kitchen my mouth watered as I sniffed the door-crack.
+
+And again, gone stale with soupaan and jerked meat and fish soused or
+dried with salt, Nick shot a yearling buck near our barn at daylight;
+and the savour of his cooking filled all with pleasure.
+
+Upon the New Year we made a feast and had a bottle of Sir William's
+port, another of Madeira, a punch of spirits, and three pewters of
+buttery ale.
+
+Lord! there was a New Year. And first, not daring to give drink to my
+Saguenay, we fed him till he was gorged, and so rolled him in a pile of
+furs till he slept by the oven below. Then we set twenty dips afire by
+the chimney, and filled it up with dry logs.... I am sorry we had so
+little sense; for I was something fuddled, and sang ballads--which I can
+not--and Nick would dance, which he did by himself; and his hornpipes
+and pigeon-wings and shuffles and war-dances made my head spin and my
+heavy eyes desire to cross.
+
+Penelope's cheeks burned, and she fanned and fanned her with a turkey
+wing and laughed to see Nick caper and to hear the piteous squalling
+which was my way of singing.
+
+But she complained that the dip-lights danced and that the floor behaved
+in strange fashion, running like ripples on Vlaie Water in a west wind.
+
+She had sipped but one glass of Sir William's port, but I think it was a
+glass too much; for the wine made her so hot, so she vowed, that her
+body was all one ardent coal, and so presently she pulled the hair-pegs
+from her hair and let it down and shook it out in the firelight till it
+flashed like a golden scarf flung about her.
+
+Her pannier basque of rose silk--gift of Claudia and made in France--she
+presently slipped out of, leaving her in her petticoat and folded like a
+Quakeress in her crossed foulard, and her white arms as bare as her
+neck.
+
+Which innocently concerned her not a whit, nor had she any more thought
+of her throat's loveliness than she had of herself in her shift that
+morning at Bowman's.
+
+She sat cooling her face with the turkey-wing fan and watching Nick's
+contre-dancing--his own candle-cast shadow on the wall dancing
+vis-ŕ-vis--and she laughed and laughed, a-fanning there, like a child
+delighted by the antics of two older brothers, while Nick whirled on
+moccasined feet in his mad career, and I fifed windily to time his
+gambolading.
+
+Then we played country games, but she would not kiss us as forfeit,
+defending her lips and vowing that no man should ever again take that
+toll of her.
+
+Which contented me, though I remonstrated; and I was glad that Nick
+should not cheapen her lips though it cost me the same privilege. For we
+played "Swallow! Swallow!" and I guessed correctly how many apple pips
+she held in her hand when she sang:
+
+    "Who can count the swallow's eggs?
+    Try it, Master Nimble-legs!
+    Climb and find a swallow's nest,
+    Count the eggs beneath her breast,
+    Take an egg and leave the rest
+    And kiss the maid you love the best!"
+
+But it was her hand only we might kiss, and but one finger at that--the
+smallest--for, says she, "John Drogue hath said it, and I am mistress of
+Summer House! What I choose to give--or forgive--is of my proper
+choice.... And I do not choose to be kissed by any man whether he wears
+silk puce or deer-skin shirt!"
+
+But the devil prompted me to remember Steve Watts, and my countenance
+changed.
+
+"Do you bar regimentals?" I asked, forcing a wry smile.
+
+She knew what was in my mind, for jealousy grinned at her out of my
+every feature; and she came toward me and laid her light hand upon my
+arm.
+
+"Or red coat or blue, my lord," she said, her smile fading to a glimmer,
+"men have had of me my last complaisance. Are you not content? You
+taught me, sir."
+
+"If he taught you that a kiss is folly, he taught you more folly than is
+in a thousand kisses!" cries Nick. "Why," said he, turning on me, "you
+pitiful, sober-faced, broad-brimmed spoil-sport!" says he, "what are
+lips made for, you meddlesome ass, and be damned to you!"
+
+Instantly we were in clinch like two bears; and we wrestled and strained
+and swayed there, panting and nigh stifled with our laughter, till we
+fell with a crash that shook the house and set the bottles clinking; and
+there thrashed like a pair o' pups till I got his shoulders flat.
+
+But it was nothing--he being the younger--and he leaped up and fell to
+treading an Oneida battle-dance, while Penelope and I did beat upon the
+table, singing:
+
+    "Ha-wa-sa-say!
+    Hah!
+    Ha-wa-sa-say--"
+
+till the door opened and there stands my Saguenay, bleary-eyed,
+sleep-muddled, but his benumbed brain responsive to the thumping cadence
+of the old scalp-song.
+
+But I pushed him down stairs ere he had sniffed a lung-full of our
+punch, having no mind to face a drink-mad Indian that night or any
+other.
+
+So I went below and piled the furs upon him and waited till he snored
+before I left him to his hibernation.
+
+Such childishness! Who would believe it of us that were no longer
+children! And all alone there in a little house amid a vast and wintry
+wilderness, where no living thing stirred abroad save the white hare's
+ghost in the starlight, and the shadow of the lean, weird beast that
+tracked her.
+
+Well, if we conducted like children we were as light-minded and as
+innocent. There was in our behaviour no lesser levity; in our mirth no
+grossness; in our jests and stories no license of the times nor any
+country coarseness in our speech.
+
+Nor, in me, now remained aught of that sick-heart jealousy nor
+sentimental disorder which lately had seized me and upset my sense and
+reason.
+
+My sentiments concerning Penelope seemed very clear to me now;--a warm
+liking; a chivalrous desire for her well-being and happiness; a pride
+that I had been, in some measure, the instrument which had awakened her
+to her own prerogatives in a world whose laws are made by men.
+
+And if, on such an occasion as this, she gave us her countenance and
+even frolicked with us, there was a new and clearer note in her
+laughter, a swifter confidence in her smile, and, in voice and look and
+movement, a subtle and shy authority which had not been there in the
+inexperienced and candid child whose heart seemed bewildered when
+assaulted, and whose lips, undefended, rendered them to the first
+marauder.
+
+I said as much, one day, to Nick.
+
+"You've turned the child's head," said he, "with your kingly
+benefactions. You have but to woo her if you want her to wife."
+
+"Wife!" said I, scared o' the very word. "What the devil shall I do with
+a wife, who am contented as I am? Also, it is not in her mind, nor in
+mine, who now are pleasant friends and comrades.... Also," I added,
+"love is a disorder and begets a brood of jealousies to plague a man to
+death! I am calm and contented. I am enamoured of no woman, and do not
+desire to be so.... Although, when I pass thirty, and possess estates,
+doubtless I shall desire an heir."
+
+"And go a-hunting a mother for this same heir among the gilt-hats of New
+York," said Nick. "Which is your destiny, John Drogue, for like seeks
+like, and a yeoman is born, not made;--and wears his rings in his
+ears----"
+
+"Have done!" said I impatiently. "I _am_ of the soil! I love it! I love
+plowed land and corn and the smell of stables! I love my log house and
+my glebe and the smell of English grass!"
+
+"But a servant is a servant, John Drogue, and the mistress of your roof
+shall have walked in silk before she ever puts on homespun and pattens
+for love of you! Lord, man! I am I, and you are you! And we mate not
+with the same breed o' birds. No! For mine shall be a ground-chick of
+sober hue and feather; and your sweetheart shall have bright wings and
+own the air for a home.
+
+"That is already written: 'each after its kind.' So God send you your
+rainbow lady from the clouds, and give you a pretty heir in due event;
+and as for me, if I guess right, my mate to be hath never fluttered
+higher than her garret nor worn a shred of silk till she sews her
+wedding dress!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the last day of March maple sap ran.
+
+Nick and I set out that day to seek a sugar-bush for the new mistress of
+Summer House.
+
+Snow was soft and our snow-shoes scarce bore us, but we floundered along
+the hard woods, and presently discovered a grove of stately maples.
+
+All that day we were busy in the barn making buckets out o' staves
+stored there; and on the first day of April we waded the softening snow
+to the new sugar-bush, tapped the trees, set our spouts and buckets, and
+also drew thither a kettle and dry wood against future need.
+
+I remember that the day was clear and warm, where, in the sun, the barn
+doors stood open and the chickens ventured out to scratch about, where
+the sun had melted the snow.
+
+All day long our cock was a-crowing and a-courting; the south wind came
+warm with spring and fluttered the wash which Penelope was hanging out
+to dry and whiten under soft, blue skies.
+
+In pattens she tripped about the slushy yard, her thick, bright hair
+pegged loosely, and her child's bosom and arms as white as the snow she
+stepped on.
+
+Save only for my Saguenay, who stood on the veranda roof, resting upon
+his rifle, the scene was sweet and peaceful. Sheep bleated in yard and
+fold; cattle lowed in their manger; our cock's full-throated challenge
+rang out under sunny skies; and everywhere the blue air was murmurous
+with the voice of rills running from the melting snows like mountain
+brooks.
+
+On Vlaie Water the ice rotted awash; and already black crows were
+walking there, and I could see them busily searching the dead and yellow
+sedge, from where I sat hooping my sap-buckets and softly whistling to
+myself.
+
+Nick made a snowball and flung it at me, but I dodged it. Then Penelope
+made another and aimed it at me so truly that the soft lump covered my
+cap and shoulders with snow.
+
+But her quick peal of laughter was checked when I sprang up to chasten
+her, and she fled on her pattens, but I caught her around the corner of
+the house under the lilacs.
+
+"You should be trussed up and trounced like any child," said I, holding
+her with one hand whilst I scraped out snow from my neck with t'other.
+
+At that she bent and flung a handful of snow over me; and I seized her,
+bent her back, and scrubbed her face till it was pink.
+
+Choked with snow and laughter, we swayed together, breathless, she still
+defiant and snatching up snow to fling over me.
+
+"_You_ truss _me_ up!" she panted. "Do you think you are more than a boy
+to use me as a father or a husband only has the right?"
+
+"You little minx!" said I, when I had spat out a mouthful of snow, "is
+not anyone free to trounce a child!----"
+
+At that I slipped, or she tripped me; into a drift I went, and she
+pounced on me and sat astride with a cry of triumph.
+
+"Now," says she, "I shall take your scalp, my fine friend"; and twisted
+one hand in my hair.
+
+"Hiu-u! Kou-ee!" she cried, "a scalp taken means war to the end! Do you
+cry me mercy, John Drogue?"
+
+I struggled, but the snow was soft and I sank the deeper, and could not
+unseat her.
+
+"I drown in snow," said I. "Get up, you jade!"
+
+"Jade!" cries she, and stopped my mouth with snow.
+
+I struggled in vain; under her clinging weight the soft snow engulfed
+and held me like a very quicksand. I looked up at her and she laughed
+down at me.
+
+"Do you yield you, John Drogue?"
+
+"It seems I must. But wait!----"
+
+"You threaten!"
+
+"No! Do you mean to drown me, you vixen!"
+
+"You engage not to seek revenge?"
+
+"I do so."
+
+"Why? Because you love me tenderly?"
+
+"Yes," said I, half choked. "Let me up, you plague of Egypt!"
+
+"That is not a loving speech, John Drogue. Do you love me or no?"
+
+"Yes, I do,--you little,----"
+
+"Little what?"
+
+"Object of my heart's desire!" I fairly yelled. "I am like to smother
+here!----"
+
+"This is All Fools' Day," says she, sick with laughter to see me mad and
+at her mercy. "Therefore, you must tell me lies, not truths. Tell me a
+pretty lie,--quickly!--else I scrub your features!"
+
+After a helpless heave or two I lay still.
+
+"You say you love me tenderly. That is a lie, John Drogue--it being All
+Fools' Day. So you shall vow, instead, that you hate me. Come, then!"
+
+"I hate you!" said I, licking the snow from my lips.
+
+"Passionately?"
+
+I looked up at her where deep in the snow, under the lilacs, I lay, my
+arms spread and her two hands pinning my wrists. She was flushed with
+laughter and I saw the devils o' mischief watching me deep in her dark
+eyes.
+
+"It was under these lilacs," said I, "that I had my first hurt of you.
+You should heal that hurt now."
+
+That confused her, and she blushed and swore to punish me for that
+fling; but I grinned at her.
+
+"Come," said I, "heal me of my ancient wound as you dealt it me--with
+your lips!"
+
+"I did not kiss Steve Watts!"
+
+"But he kissed you. So do the like by me and I forgive you all."
+
+"All?"
+
+"Everything."
+
+"Even what I have now done?"
+
+"Even that."
+
+"And you will not truss me up to chasten me when you go free? For it
+would shame me and I could not endure it."
+
+"I promise."
+
+She looked down at me, smiling, uncertain.
+
+"What will you do to me if I do not?" she asked.
+
+"Drown you in snow three times every day."
+
+"And I needs must kiss you to buy my safety?"
+
+"Yes, and with hearty good will, too."
+
+She glanced hastily around, perhaps to seek an avenue for escape,
+perhaps to see who might spy us.
+
+Then, looking down at me, a-blush now, yet laughing, she bent her head
+slowly, very slowly to mine, and rested her lips on mine.
+
+Then she was up and off like a young tree-lynx, fleeing, stumbling on
+her pattens; but, like a white hare, I lay very still in my form,
+unstirring, gazing up into the bluest, softest sky that my dazzled eyes
+ever had unclosed upon.
+
+There was a faint fragrance in the air. It may have been arbutus--or the
+trace of her lips on mine.
+
+In my ears trilled the pretty melody of a million little snow rills
+running in the sunshine. I heard the gay cock-crow from the yard, the
+restless lowing of cattle, the distant caw of a crow flying high over
+the Drowned Lands.
+
+When at last I got to my feet a strange, new soberness had come over me,
+stilling exhilaration, quieting the rough and boyish spirits which had
+possessed me.
+
+Penelope, hanging out linen to sweeten, looked at me over her shoulder,
+plainly uncertain concerning me. But I kept my word and did not offer to
+molest her, and so went about my cooper's work again, where Nick also
+squatted, matching bucket staves, whilst I fell to shaping sap-pans.
+
+It was very still there in the sunshine. And, as I sat there, it seemed
+to me that I was putting more behind me than the icy and unsullied
+months of winter,--and that I should never be a boy any more, with a
+boy's passionless and untroubled soul.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And so came spring upon us in the Northland that fateful year of '77,
+with blue skies and melting snow and the cock's clarion sounding clear.
+
+But it was mid-April before the first Forest Runner, with pelts, passed
+through the Sacandaga, twelve days out from Ty, and the woods nigh
+impassable, he gave account, what with soft drifts choking the hills and
+all streams over their banks.
+
+And then, for the first, we learned something concerning the great war
+that was waging everywhere around our outer borders,--how His Excellency
+had surprised the Hessians at Trenton, and had tricked Cornwallis and
+beat up the enemy at Princeton. It was amazing to realize that His
+Excellency, with only the frozen fragments of a meagre and defeated
+army, had recovered all the Jerseys. But this was so, thank God; and we
+wondered to hear of it.
+
+All this the Forest Runner told us as he ate and drank in the
+kitchen,--and how Lord Stirling had been made a major-general, and that
+we had now enlisted four fine regiments of horse to curb DeLancy's bold
+riders; and how that great Tory, John Penn, who was lately Governor of
+Pennsylvania, Thomas Wharton, and Benjamin Chew, had been packed off
+with other villains as prisoners into Virginia. Which pleased me,
+because of all that Quaker treachery in the proprietary; and I deemed
+them mean and selfish and self-righteous dogs who whined all day of
+peace and brotherhood and non-resistance, and did conduct most cruelly
+by night for greed and sordid gain.
+
+Not that I liked the New Englanders the better; but, of the two,
+preferred them and had rather they settled the Pennsylvania wilds than
+that the sly, smug proprietaries multiplied there and nursed treason at
+the breast.
+
+Well, our Coureur-du-Bois, in his greasy leather, quills, and scarlet
+braid, had other news for us less palatable.
+
+For it seemed that we had lost two thousand men and all their artillery
+when Fort Washington fell; that we had lost a hundred more men and
+eleven vessels to Sir Guy Carleton on Lake Champlain; that the garrison
+at Ty was a slim one and sick for the most, and the relief regiments
+were so slow in filling that three New England states were drafting
+their soldiery by force.
+
+There were rumours rife concerning the summer campaign, and how the
+British had a plan to behead our new United States by lopping off all
+New England.
+
+It was to be done in this manner: Guy Carleton's army was to come down
+from the North through the lakes, driving Gates, descend the Hudson to
+Albany and there join Clinton and his British, who were to force the
+Highlands, march up the river, and so hold all the Hudson, which would
+cut the head--New England--from the body of the new nation.
+
+And to make this more certain, there was now gathering in the West an
+army under Butler and Brant, to strike the Mohawk Valley, sweep through
+it to Schenectady, and there come in touch with Burgoyne.
+
+To oppose this terrible invasion from three directions we had forts on
+the Hudson and a few troops; but His Excellency was engaged south of
+these points and must remain there.
+
+We had, at Ty, a skeleton army, and Gates to lead it, with which to face
+Burgoyne. We had, in the Mohawk Valley, to block the west and show a
+bold front to Brant and Butler, only fragments of Van Schaick's and
+Livingston's Continental line, now digging breastworks at Stanwix, a
+company at Johnstown, and at a crisis, our Tryon County militia, now
+drilling under Herkimer.
+
+And, save for a handful of Rangers and Oneidas, these were all we had in
+Tryon to resist the hordes that were gathering to march on us from
+north, west and south,--British regulars with horse, foot, and
+magnificent artillery; partizans and loyalists numbering 1200; a
+thousand savages in their paint; Highlanders, Canadians, Hessians; Sir
+John Johnson's regiment of Royal Greens; Colonel John Butler's regiment
+of Rangers; McDonald's renegades and painted Tories--God! what a
+murderous horde; and all to make their common tryst here in County
+Tryon!
+
+Our grim, lank Forest Runner sprawled on the settle by the kitchen
+table, smoking his bitter Indian tobacco and drinking rum and water,
+well sugared; and Penelope and Nick and I sat around him to listen, and
+look gravely at one another as we learned more and more of what it
+seemed that Fate had in storage for us.
+
+The hot spiced rum loosened the Runner's tongue. His name was Dick
+Jessup; and he was a hard, grim man whose business, from youth--which
+was peltry--had led him through perilous ways.
+
+He told us of wild and horrid doings, where solitary settlers and lone
+trappers had been murdered by Guy Carleton's outlying Iroquois, from
+Quebec to Crown Point.
+
+Scores and scores of scalps had been taken; wretched prisoners had
+suffered at the Iroquois stake under tortures indescribable--the mere
+mention of which made Penelope turn sickly white and set Nick gnawing
+his knuckles.
+
+But what most infuriated me was the thought that in the regiments of old
+John Butler and Sir John Johnson were scores of my old neighbors who now
+boasted that they were coming back to cut our throats on our own
+thresholds,--coming back with a thousand savages to murder women and
+children and ravage all with fire so that only a blackened desert should
+remain of the valleys and the humble homes we had made and loved.
+
+Jessup said, puffing the acrid willow smoke from his clay: "Where I lay
+hidden near Oneida Lake, I saw a Seneca war party pass on the crust; and
+they had fresh scalps which dripped on the snow.
+
+"And, near Niagara, I saw Butler's Rangers manoeuvring on snow-shoes,
+with drums and curly bugle-horns."
+
+"Did you know any among them?" I asked sombrely.
+
+"Why, yes. There was Michael Reed, kin to Henry Stoner."
+
+"My cousin, damn him!" quoth Nick, calmly.
+
+"He was a drummer in the Rangers of John Butler," nodded Jessup. "And I
+saw Philip Helmer there in a green uniform, and Charles Cady, too, of
+Fonda's Bush."
+
+"All I ask," says Nick, "is to get these two hands on them. I demand no
+weapons; I want only to feel my fingers closing on them." He sat staring
+into space with the blank glare of a panther. Then, "Were they painted?"
+he demanded.
+
+"No," said Jessup, "but Simon Girty was and Newberry, too. There were a
+dozen painted Tories or blue-eyed Indians,--whatever you call 'em,--and
+they sat at a Seneca fire where the red post stood, and all eating
+half-raw venison, guts and all----"
+
+Penelope averted her pallid face and leaned her head on her hand.
+
+Jessup took no notice: "They burned a prisoner that day. I was sick,
+where I lay hidden, to hear his shrieks. And the British in their
+cantonments could hear as plainly as I, yet nobody interfered."
+
+"There could have been no British officer there," said Penelope, in the
+ghost of a voice.
+
+"Well, there were, then," said Jessup bluntly. Turning to me he added:
+"There's a gin'rall there at Niagara, called St. Leger, and he's a
+drunken son of a slut! We should not be afeard of that puffed up
+bladder, and I hope he comes against us. But Butler has some smart
+officers, like his son Walter, and Lieutenant Hare, and young Stephen
+Watts----"
+
+"You saw _him_ there!" exclaimed Penelope.
+
+"Yes, I saw him in a green uniform; and, with him also, a-horse, rode
+Sir John Johnson, all in red, and Walter Butler in black and green, and
+his long cloak a-trail to his spurs. By God, there is a motley crew for
+you--what with Brant in the saddle, in paint and buckskins and fur robe,
+and shaved like any dirty Mohawk; and Hiakatoo, like a blackened devil
+out o' hell, all barred with scarlet and wearing the head of a great
+wolf for a cap, as well as the pelt to cover his war-paint!--and
+McDonald, with his kilt and dirk, and the damned black eyes of him and
+the two buck-teeth shining on his lips!--God!" he breathed; and took a
+long pull at his pannikin of spiced rum.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That evening Jessup left for Johnstown on his way to Albany with his
+peltry; and took with him a letter which I wrote to the Commandant at
+Johnstown fort.
+
+But it was past the first of May before I had any notice taken of my
+letter; and on a Sunday came an Oneida runner, bearing two letters for
+me; one from the Commandant, acquainting me that it was not his
+intention to garrison Fish House or Summer House, that Nick and I were
+sufficient to stand watch on the Mohawk Trail and Drowned Lands and
+report any movement threatening the Valley from the North, and that what
+few men he had must go to Stanwix, where the fort had not yet been
+completed.
+
+The other letter was writ me from Fonda's Bush by honest John Putman:
+
+     "Friend Jack" (says he), "this Bush is a desert indeed and all run
+     off,--the Tories to Canady,--such as the Helmers, Cadys, Bowmans,
+     Reeds, and the likes,--save Adam Helmer, who is of our
+     complexion,--and our own people who are friends to liberty have
+     fled to Johnstown excepting me,--all the women and children,--Jean
+     De Silver's family, De Luysnes' people, the Salisburys, Scotts,
+     Barbara Stoner, who married Conrad Reed and has gone to New York
+     now; and all the Putmans save myself, who shall go presently in
+     fear of the savages and Sir John.
+
+     "Sir, it is sad to see our housen empty and our fields fallow, and
+     weeds growing in plowed land. There remain no longer any cattle or
+     fowls or any beasts at all, only the wild poultry of the woods come
+     to the deserted doorsteps, and the red fox runs along the fence.
+
+     "Your house stands empty as it was when you marched away. Only
+     squirrels inhabit it now, and porcupines gnaw the corn-crib.
+
+     "Well, friend Jack, this is all I have to say. I shall drive my
+     oxen to Johnstown Fort tomorrow, and give this letter to the first
+     runner or express.
+
+     "I learn that you have bought the Summer House of the Commission. I
+     wish you joy of it, but it seems a perilous purchase, and I fear
+     that you shall soon be obliged to leave it.
+
+     "So, wishing you health, and beholden to you for many
+     kindnesses--as are we all who come from Fonda's Bush--I close, sir,
+     with respect and my obedience and duty to my brave young friend who
+     serves liberty that we old folk and our women and children shall
+     not perish or survive as British slaves.
+
+     "Sir, awaiting the dread onset of Sir John with that firmness which
+     becomes a good American, I am,
+
+     "Your obliged and humble servant,
+
+     "JOHN PUTMAN.
+
+The Oneida left in an hour for Ty.
+
+And it was, I think, an hour later when Nick comes a-running to find me.
+
+"A fire at Fish House," he cries, "and a dense smoke mounting to the
+sky!"
+
+I flung aside my letter, ran to the kitchen, and called Penelope.
+
+"Pack up and be ready to leave!" said I. And, to Nick: "Saddle Kaya and
+be ready to take Penelope a-horse to Mayfield block-house. Call my
+Indian!"
+
+As I belted my shirt and stood ready, my Saguenay came swiftly, trailing
+his rifle.
+
+"Come," said I, "we must learn why that smoke towers yonder to the
+sky."
+
+Penelope took me by the sleeve:
+
+"Do nothing rash, John Drogue," she said in a breathless way.
+
+"Get you ready for flight," said I, fixing a fresh flint. "Nick shall
+run at your stirrup if it comes to that pinch----"
+
+"But _you_!"
+
+"Why, I am well enough; and if the Iroquois are at Fish House then I
+retreat through Varick's, and so by Fonda's Bush to Mayfield Fort."
+
+She clasped her hands.
+
+"I do not wish to leave Summer House," she said pitifully. "What is to
+happen to our sheep and cattle--and to our fowls and all our stores--and
+to Summer House itself?"
+
+"God knows," said I impatiently. "Why do you stand there idle when you
+must make ready for flight!"
+
+"I--I can not bear to have you go to Fish House--all alone----"
+
+"I have the Yellow Leaf, and can keep clear o' trouble. Come,
+Penelope!----"
+
+"When you move toward trouble I do not desire to flee the other way,
+toward safety!----"
+
+"Pack up, Penelope!" shouted Nick, leading Kaya into the orchard, all
+saddled; and fell to making up his pack on the grass.
+
+"At Mayfield Fort!" I called across to Nick. "And if I be not there by
+night, then take Penelope to Johnstown, for it means that the Iroquois
+are on the Sacandaga!"
+
+"I mark you, Jack!" he replied. I turned to the girl:
+
+"Farewell, Penelope," I said. "You shall be safe with Nick."
+
+"But you, John Drogue?"
+
+"Safe in the forest, always, and the devil himself could not catch me,"
+said I cheerily.
+
+She stretched out her hand. I took it, looked at her, then kissed her
+fingers. And so went away swiftly, to where our canoe lay, troubled
+because of this young girl whom I had no desire to fall truly in love
+with, and yet knew I had been near to it many times that spring.
+
+I got into the canoe and took the stern paddle; my Saguenay kneeled down
+in the bow; and we shot out across the Vlaie Water.
+
+Once I turned and looked back over my shoulder; and I saw Penelope
+standing there on the grass, and Nick awaiting her with Kaya.
+
+But I did not wish to feel as I felt at that moment. I did not desire to
+fall in love. No!
+
+"Au large!" I said to my Indian, and swept the birchen craft out into
+the deep and steady current.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+GREEN-COATS
+
+
+Nothing stirred on the Drowned Lands as we drove our canoe at top speed
+between tall bronzed stalks of rushes and dead water-weeds. Vlaie Water
+was intensely blue and patched with golden débris of floating
+stuff--shreds of cranberry vine, rotting lily pads, and the like--and in
+twenty minutes we floated silently into the Spring Pool, opposite the
+Stacking Ridge, where hard earth bordered both shores and where maples
+and willows were now in lusty bud.
+
+Two miles away, against Maxon's sturdy bastion, a vast quantity of smoke
+was writhing upward in dark and cloudy convolutions. I could not see
+Fish House--that oblong, unpainted building a story and a half in
+height, with its chimneys of stone and the painted fish weather vane
+swimming in the sky. But I was convinced that it was afire.
+
+We beached our canoe and drew it under the shore-reeds, and so passed
+rapidly down the right bank of the stream along the quick water, holding
+our guns cocked and primed, like hunters ready for a hazard shot at
+sight.
+
+There was no snow left; all frost was out of the ground along the
+Drowned Lands; and the earth was sopping wet. Everywhere frail green
+spears of new grass pricked the dead and matted herbage; and in
+sheltered places tiny green leaves embroidered stems and twigs; and I
+saw wind-flowers, and violets both yellow and blue, and the amber shoots
+of skunk cabbage growing thickly in wet places. The shadbush, too, was
+in exquisite white bloom along the stream, and I remember that I saw one
+tree in full flower, and a dozen bluejays sitting amid the snowy
+blossoms like so many lumps of sapphire.
+
+Now, on the mainland, a clearing showed in the sunshine; and beyond it I
+saw a rail fence bounding a field still black and wet from last autumn's
+plowing.
+
+We took to the brush and bore to the right, where on firm ground a grove
+of ash and butternut forested the ridge, and a sandy path ran through.
+
+I knew this path. Sir William often used it when hunting, and his cows,
+kept at Fish House when his two daughters lived there, travelled this
+way to and from pasture.
+
+Between us and the Sacandaga lay one of those grassy gulleys where, in
+time of flood, back-water from the Sacandaga spread deep.
+
+My Indian and I now lay down and drew our bodies very stealthily toward
+the woods' edge, where the setback from the river divided us from Fish
+House.
+
+Ahead of us, through the trees, dense volumes of smoke crowded upward
+and unfolded into strange, cloudy shapes, and we could hear a loud and
+steady crackling noise made by feeding flames.
+
+Presently, through the trees, I saw Fish House all afire, and now only a
+glowing skeleton in the sunshine. But the dense smoke came not now from
+Fish House, but from three barracks of marsh-hay burning, which vomited
+thick smoke into the sky. Near the house some tall piles of hewn logs
+were blazing, also a corn-crib, a small barn, and a log farmhouse, where
+I think that damned rascal, Wormwood, once lived. And it had been bought
+by a tenant of Sir William,--one of the patriot Shews or Helmers, if I
+mistake not, who was given favourable advantages to undertake such a
+settlement, but now had fled to Johnstown.
+
+Godfrey Shew's own house, just over the knoll to the eastward, was also
+on fire: I could see the flames from it and a thin brownish smoke which
+belched out black cinders and shreds of charred bark.
+
+I did not see a living creature near these fires, but farther toward the
+east clearing I heard voices and the sound of picks and axes; and my
+Saguenay and I crept thither along the bank of the flooded hollow.
+
+Very soon I perceived the new earthwork and log-stockade made the
+previous summer by our Continentals; and there, to my astonishment, I
+saw a motley company of white men and Indians, who were chopping down
+the timbers of the palisades, levelling the earthwork with pick and
+shovel.
+
+So near were they across the flooded hollow that I recognized Elias
+Beacraft, brother to Benjy, who had gone off with McDonald. Also, I saw
+and knew Captain James Hare, brother to Lieutenant Henry Hare, of
+Butler's regiment; and Henry, also, was there; and Captain Nellis, of
+the forester service. Both the Hares and Nellis were dressed in green
+uniforms, and there were two other green-coats whom I knew not, but all
+busy with their work of destruction, and their axes flashing in the
+sunshine.
+
+The others I had, of course, taken for very savages, for they were
+feathered and painted and wore Indian dress; but when one of these came
+down to the flooded hollow to fill his tin cup and drink, to my horror I
+saw that the eyes in that hideously-painted face were a _light blue_!
+
+"Nai! Yengese!" whispered the Yellow Leaf.
+
+The painted Tory was not ten yards from where we lay, and, as I gazed
+intently at those hideously daubed features, all at once I knew the man.
+
+For this horrid and grotesque figure, all besmeared with ochre and
+indigo, and wearing Indian dress, was none other than an old neighbour
+of mine in Tryon County, one George Cuck, who lived near Jan Zuyler and
+his two buxom daughters, and who had gone off with Sir John last May.
+
+As I stared at him in ever-rising astonishment and rage, comes another
+_blue-eyed Indian_--Barney Cane,--wearing Iroquois paint and feathers,
+and all gaudy in his beaded war-dress. And, at his belt, I saw a fresh
+scalp hanging by its hair,--_the light brown hair of a white man_!
+
+I could hear Cane speaking with Cuck in English. Beacraft came down to
+the water; and Billy Newberry[22] and Hare[22] also came down, both
+wearing the uniform of the forester service. And I was astounded to see
+Henry Hare back again after his narrow escape at Summer House last
+autumn, the night I got my hurt.
+
+[Footnote 22: This same man, William Newberry, a sergeant in Butler's
+regiment; and Henry Hare, lieutenant in the same regiment, were caught
+inside the American lines, court-martialed, convicted of unspeakable
+cruelties, and Were hung as spies by order of General Clinton, July 6th,
+1779.]
+
+But he wore no Valley militia disguise now; all these men were in
+green-coats, openly flaunting the enemy uniform in County Tryon,--save
+only those painted beasts Cuck and Cane.
+
+It was a war party, and it had accomplished a clean job at Fish House;
+and now they all were coming down to the flooded hollow and looking
+across it where lay the short route west to Summer House.
+
+Presently I heard a great splashing to our left, and saw a skiff and two
+green-coats and two Mohawk Indians in it pulling across the back-water.
+
+And these latter were real Mohawks, stripped, oiled, their heads shaved,
+and in their battle-paint, who squatted there in the skiff, scanning
+with glowing eyes the bank where my Saguenay and I lay concealed.
+
+It was perfectly plain, now, what they meant to do. Beacraft, Cane, and
+Cuck went back to the ruined redoubt, and presently returned loaded with
+packs. Baggage and rifles were laid in the skiff.
+
+I touched Yellow Leaf on the arm, and we wriggled backward out of sight.
+Then, rising, we turned and pulled foot for our canoe.
+
+Now my chiefest anxiety was whether Penelope and Nick had got clean away
+and were already well on the road to the Mayfield Block House.
+
+We found our canoe where we had hid it, and we made the still water boil
+with our two paddles, so that, although it seemed an age to me, we came
+very swiftly to our landing at Summer House Point.
+
+Here we sprang out, seized the canoe, ran with it up the grassy slope,
+then continued over the uncut lawn and down the western slope, where
+again we launched it and let it swing on the water, held anchored by its
+nose on shore.
+
+House, barn, orchard, all were deathly still there in the brilliant
+sunshine; I ran to the manger and found it empty of cattle. There were
+no fowls to be seen or heard, either. Then I hastened to the sheep-fold.
+That, also, was empty.
+
+Perplexed, I ran down to the gates, found them open, and, in the mud of
+the Johnstown Road, discovered sheep and cattle tracks, the imprint of
+Kaya's sharp-shod hoofs, a waggon mark, and the plain imprint of Nick's
+moccasins.
+
+So it was clear enough what he and Penelope had done. A terrible anxiety
+seized me, and I wondered how far they had got on the way to Mayfield,
+with cattle and sheep to drive ahead of a loaded waggon and one horse.
+
+And now, more than ever, it was certain that my Indian and I must make a
+desperate stand here to hold back these marauders until our people were
+safe in Mayfield without a shadow of doubt.
+
+The Saguenay had gone to the veranda roof with his rifle, where he could
+see any movement by land or water.
+
+I called up to him that the destructives might come by both routes; then
+I went to my room, gathered all the lead bars and bags of bullets,
+seized our powder keg, and dragged all down to the water, where I stored
+everything in the canoe.
+
+That was all I could take, save a sack of ground corn mixed with maple
+sugar, a flask of rum, and a bag of dry meat.
+
+These articles, with our fur robes and blankets, a fish-spear, and a
+spontoon which I discovered, were all I dared attempt to save.
+
+I stood in the pretty house, gazing desperately about me, sad to leave
+this place to flames, furious to realize that this little lodge must
+perish, which once was endeared to me because Sir William loved it, and
+now had become doubly dear because I had given it to a young girl whom I
+loved--and tenderly--yet desired not to become enamoured with.
+
+Sunshine fell through the glazed windows, where chintz curtains stirred
+in the wind.
+
+I looked around at the Windsor chairs, the table where we had supped
+together so often. I went into Penelope's room and looked at her maple
+bed, so white and fresh.
+
+There was a skein of wool yarn on the table. I took it; gazed at it with
+new and strange emotions a-fiddling at my throat and twitching eyes and
+lips; and placed it in the breast of my hunting shirt.
+
+Then I listened; but my Indian overhead remained silent. So I went on
+through the house, and then down to the kitchen, where I saw all sweetly
+in order, and pan and china bright; and soupaan still simmering where
+Penelope had left it.
+
+There was a bowl of milk there, and the cream thick on it. And she had
+set a dozen red apples handy, with flour and spices and a crock of lard
+for to fashion a pie, I think.
+
+Slowly I went up stairs and then out the kitchen door, across the grass.
+The Saguenay saw me from above and made a sign that all was still quiet
+on the Drowned Lands.
+
+So I went to the manger again, and thence to the barn and around the
+house.
+
+The lilacs had bursted their buds, and I could see tiny bunches pushing
+out on every naked stem where the fragrant, grape-like bunches of bloom
+should hang in May.
+
+Then I looked down, and remembered where I had lain in the snow under
+these same lilacs, and how there Penelope had bullied me and then
+consented to kiss me on the mouth.... And, as I was thinking sadly of
+these things,--bang! went my Indian's rifle from the veranda roof.
+
+I sprang out upon the west lawn and saw the powder cloud drifting over
+the house, and my Indian, sheltered by the roof, reloading his piece on
+one knee.
+
+"By water!" he called out softly, when he saw me.
+
+At that I ran into the house by the front door, which faced south;
+closed and bolted the four heavy green shutters in the two rooms on the
+ground floor, barred the south door and the west, or kitchen door below;
+and sprang up the ladder to the low loft chamber, from whence, stooping,
+I crept out of the south-gable window upon the veranda.
+
+This piazza promenade was nearly as high as the eaves. The gable ends of
+the roof, in which were windows, faced north and south, but the
+promenade ran all around the east end and sides, which, supported by
+columns, afforded a fine rifle-platform for defense against a water
+attack, and gave us a wide view out over the mysterious Drowned Lands.
+
+It was a vast panorama that lay around us--a great misty amphitheatre
+more than a hundred miles in circumference. At our feet lay that immense
+marsh of fifteen thousand acres, called the Great Vlaie; mountains
+walled the Drowned Lands north, east, west; and to the south stretched a
+wilderness of pine and spectral tamaracks.
+
+Lying flat on the roof, and peering cautiously between the spindles of
+the railing, I saw, below on the Vlaie Water, the same skiff I had seen
+at Fish House.
+
+In the heavy skiff, the gunwales of which were barricaded with their
+military packs, lay six green-coats,--Captains Hare and Nellis, Sergeant
+Newberry, Beacraft, and two strangers in private's uniform.
+
+They had a white flag set in the prow.
+
+But the two blue-eyed Indians, Barney Cane and George Cuck, were not
+with them, nor were the two Mohawks. And in a whisper I bade my Saguenay
+go around to the south gable and keep his eye on the gate and the
+Johnstown Road on the mainland.
+
+Hare took the white flag from the prow and waved it, the two rowers
+continuing up creek and heading toward our landing.
+
+Then I called out to them to halt and back water; and, as they paid no
+heed, I fired at their white flag, and knocked the staff and rag out of
+Hare's hand without wounding him.
+
+At that two or three cried out angrily, but their rowers ceased and
+began to back water hastily; and I, reloading, kept an eye on them.
+
+Then Hare stood up in the skiff and bawled through his hollowed hand:
+
+"Will you parley? Or do you wish to violate a flag?"
+
+"Keep your interval, Henry Hare!" I retorted. "If you have anything to
+say, say it from where you are or I'll drill you clean!"
+
+"Is that John Drogue, the Brent-Meester?" he shouted.
+
+"None other," said I. "What brings you to Summer House in such fair
+weather, Harry Hare?"
+
+"I wish to land and parley," he replied. "You may blindfold me if you
+like."
+
+"When I put out your lights," said I, "it will be a quicker job than
+that. What do you wish to do--count our garrison?"
+
+Captain Nellis got up from his seat and replied that he knew how many
+people occupied Summer House, and that, desiring to prevent the useless
+effusion of blood, he demanded our surrender under promise of kind
+treatment.
+
+I laughed at him. "No," said I, "my hair suits my head and I like it
+there rather than swinging all red and wet at the girdle of your
+blue-eyed Indians."
+
+As I spoke I saw Newberry and Beacraft bring the butts of their rifles
+to their shoulders, and I shrank aside as their pieces cracked out
+sharply across the water.
+
+Splinters flew from the painted column on the corner of the house; the
+green-coats all fell flat in their skiff and lay snug there, hidden by
+their packs.
+
+Presently, as I watched, I saw an oar poked out.
+
+Very cautiously somebody was sculling the skiff down stream and across
+in the direction of the reeds.
+
+As the craft turned to enter the marsh, I had a fleeting view of the
+sculler--only his head and arm--and saw it was Eli Beacraft.
+
+I was perfectly cool when I fired on him. He let go his oar and fell
+flat on the bottom of the boat. The echo of my shot died away in
+wavering cadences among the shoreward woods; an intense stillness
+possessed the place.
+
+Then, of a sudden, Beacraft fell to kicking his legs and screeching, and
+so flopped about in the bottom of the boat, like a stranded fish all
+over blood.
+
+The boat nosed in between the marsh-grasses and tall sedge, and I could
+not see it clearly any more.
+
+But the green-coats in it were no sooner hid than they began firing at
+Summer House, and the storm of lead ripped and splintered the gallery
+and eaves, tore off shingles, shattered chimney bricks, and rang out
+loud on the iron hinges of door and shutter.
+
+I fired a few shots into their rifle-smoke, then lay watching and
+waiting, and listening ever for the loud explosion of my Indian's piece,
+which would mean that the painted Tories and the Mohawks were stealing
+upon us from the mainland.
+
+Every twenty minutes or so the men in the batteau-skiff let off a rifle
+shot at Summer House, and the powder-cloud rising among the dead weeds,
+pinxters, and button-ball bushes, discovered the location of their
+craft.
+
+Sometimes, as I say, I took a shot at the smoke; but time was the
+essence of my contract, and God knows it contented me to stand siege
+whilst Penelope and Nick, with waggon and cattle, were plodding westward
+toward Mayfield.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+About four o'clock in the afternoon I was hungry and went to get me a
+piece in the pantry.
+
+Then I took Yellow Leaf's place whilst he descended to appease his
+hunger.
+
+We ate our bread and meat together on the roof, our rifles lying cocked
+across our knees.
+
+"Brother," said I, munching away, "if, indeed, you be, as they say, a
+tree-eater, and live on bark and buds when there is no game to kill,
+then I think your stomach suffers nothing by such diet, for I want no
+better comrade in a pinch, and shall always be ready to bear witness to
+your bravery and fidelity."
+
+He continued to eat in silence, scraping away at his hot soupaan with a
+pewter spoon. After he had licked both spoon and pannikin as clean as a
+cat licks a saucer, he pulled a piece of jerked deer meat in two and
+gravely chewed the morsel, his small, brilliant eyes ever roving from
+the water to the mainland.
+
+Presently, without looking at me, he said quietly:
+
+"When I was only a poor hunter of the Montagnais, I said to myself, 'I
+am a man, yet hardly one.'[23] I learned that a Saguenay was a real man
+when my brother told me.
+
+[Footnote 23: Kon-kwe-ha. Literally, "I am a little of a real man."]
+
+"My brother cleared my eyes and wiped away the ancient mist of tears. I
+looked; and lo! I found that I was a real man. I was made like other men
+and not like a beast to be kicked at and stoned and driven with sticks
+flung at me in the forest."
+
+"The Yellow Leaf is a warrior," I said. "The Oneida Anowara[24] bear
+witness to scalps taken in battle by the Yellow Leaf. Tahioni, the Wolf,
+took no more."
+
+[Footnote 24: "Tortoise," or Noble Clan.]
+
+"Ni-ha-ron-ta-kowa,"[25] said the Saguenay proudly, "onkwe honwe![26]
+Yet it was my _white_ brother who cleared my eyes of mist. Therefore,
+let him give me a new name--a warrior's name--meaning that my vision is
+now clear."
+
+[Footnote 25: He is an Oneida.]
+
+[Footnote 26: "A real man," in Canienga dialect. The Saguenay's Iroquois
+is mixed and imperfect.]
+
+"Very well," said I, "your war name shall be Sak-yen-haton!"[27]--which
+was as good Iroquois as I could pronounce, and good enough for the
+Montagnais to comprehend, it seemed, for a gleam shot from his eyes, and
+I heard him say to himself in a low voice: "Haiah-ya! I am a real
+warrior now!... Onenh! at last!"
+
+[Footnote 27: "Disappearing Mist"--Sakayen-gwaration.]
+
+A shot came from the water; he looked around contemptuously and smiled.
+
+"My elder brother," said he, "shall we two strip and set our knives
+between our teeth, and swim out to scalp those muskrats yonder?"
+
+"And if they fire at us in the water?" said I, amused at his mad
+courage, who had once been "hardly a man."
+
+"Then we dive like Tchurako, the mink, and swim beneath the water, as
+swims old 'long face' the great wolf-pike![28] Shall we rush upon them
+thus, O my elder brother?"
+
+[Footnote 28: Che-go-sis--pickerel. In the Oneida dialect, Ska-ka-lux or
+_Bad-eye_.]
+
+Absurd as it was, the wild idea began to inflame me, and I was seriously
+considering our chances at twilight to accomplish such a business, when,
+of a sudden, I saw on the mainland an officer of the Indian Department,
+who bore a white rag on the point of his hanger and waved it toward the
+house.
+
+He came across the Johnstown Road to our gate, but made no motion to
+open it, and stood there slowly waving his white flag and waiting to be
+noticed and hailed.
+
+"Keep your rifle on that man," I whispered to my Indian, "for I shall go
+down to the orchard and learn what are the true intentions of these
+green-coats and blue-eyed Indians. Find a rest for your piece, hold
+steadily, and kill that flag if I am fired on."
+
+I saw him stretch out flat on his belly and rest his rifle on the
+veranda rail. Then I crawled into the garret, descended through the
+darkened house, and, unbolting the door, went out and down across the
+grass to the orchard.
+
+"What is your errand?" I called out, "you flag there outside our gate?"
+
+"Is that you, John Drogue?" came a familiar voice.
+
+I took a long look at him from behind my apple tree, and saw it was Jock
+Campbell, one of Sir John's Highland brood and late a subaltern in the
+Royal Provincials.
+
+And that he should come here in a green coat with these murderous
+vagabonds incensed me.
+
+"What do you want, Jock Campbell!" I demanded, controlling my temper.
+
+"I want a word with you under a flag!"
+
+"Say what you have to say, but keep outside that gate!" I retorted.
+
+"John Drogue," says he, "we came here to burn Summer House, and mean to
+do it. We know how many you have to defend the place----"
+
+"Oh, do you know that? Then tell me, Jock, if you truly possess the
+information."
+
+"Very well," said he calmly. "You are two white men, a Montagnais dog,
+and a girl. And pray tell me, sir, how long do you think you can hold us
+off?"
+
+"Well," said I, "if you are as thrifty with your skins as you have been
+all day, then we should keep this place a week or two against you."
+
+"What folly!" he exclaimed hotly. "Do you think to prevail against us?"
+
+"Why, I don't know, Jock. Ask Beacraft yonder, who hath a bullet in his
+belly. He's wiser than he was and should offer you good counsel."
+
+"I offer you safe conduct if you march out at once!" he shouted.
+
+"I offer you one of Beacraft's pills if you do not instantly about face
+and march into the bush yonder!" I replied.
+
+At that he dashed the flag upon the road and shook his naked sword at
+me.
+
+"Your blood be on your heads!" he bawled. "I can not hold my Indians if
+you defy them longer!"
+
+"Well, then, Jock," said I, "I'll hold 'em for you, never fear!"
+
+He strode to the fence and grasped it.
+
+"Will you march out? Shame on you, Stormont, who are seduced by this
+Yankee rabble o' rebels when your place is with Sir John and with the
+loyal gentlemen of Tryon!
+
+"For the last time, then, will you parley and march out? Or shall I give
+you and your Caughnawaga wench to my Indians?"
+
+I walked out from behind my tree and drew near the fence, where he was
+standing, his sword hanging from one wrist by the leather knot.
+
+"Jock Campbell," said I, "you are a great villain. Do you lay aside your
+hanger and your pistols, and I will set my rifle here, and we shall soon
+see what your bragging words are worth."
+
+At that he drove his sword into the earth, but, as I set my rifle
+against a tree, he lifted his pistol and fired at me, and I felt the
+wind of the bullet on my right cheek.
+
+Then he snatched his sword and was already vaulting the gate, when my
+Saguenay's bullet caught him in mid-air, and he fell across the top rail
+and slid down on the muddy road outside.
+
+Then, for the first time, I saw the two real Mohawks where they lay in
+ambush in the bush. One of them had risen to a kneeling position, and I
+saw the red flash of his piece and saw the smoke blot out the
+tree-trunk.
+
+For a second I held my fire; then saw them both on the ground under the
+alders across the road, and fired very carefully at the nearest one.
+
+He dropped his gun and let out a startling screech, tried to get up off
+the ground, screeching all the while; then lay scrabbling on the dead
+leaves.
+
+I stepped behind an apple tree, primed and reloaded in desperate haste,
+and presently drew the fire of the other Indian with my cap on my
+ramrod.
+
+Then, as I ran to the gate, my Saguenay rushed by me, leaping the fence
+at a great bound, and I saw his up-flung hatchet sparkle, and heard it
+crash through bone.
+
+I shouted for him to come back, but when he obeyed he had two Mohawk
+scalps,[29] and came reluctantly, glancing down at Campbell where he lay
+still breathing on the muddy road, and darting an uncertain glance at
+me.
+
+[Footnote 29: In October, 1919, the author talked to a farmer and his
+son, who, a few days previously, while digging sand to mend the
+Johnstown road at this point, had disinterred two skeletons which had
+been buried there. From the shape of the skulls, it is presumed that the
+remains were Indian.]
+
+But I told him with an oath that it would be an insult to me if he
+touched a white man's hair in my presence; and he opened the gate and
+came inside like a great, sullen dog from whom I had snatched a bone of
+his own digging.
+
+Very cautiously we retreated through the orchard to the house, entered,
+and climbed again to the roof.
+
+And from there we saw that, in our absence, the boat had been rowed to
+our landing, and that its occupants were now somewhere on the mainland,
+doubtless preparing to assault the place as soon as dusk offered them
+sufficient cover.
+
+Well, the game was nearly up now. Our people should have arrived by this
+time at Mayfield with sheep, cattle, and waggon. We had remained here to
+the limit of safety, and there was no hope of aid in time to save our
+skins or this house from destruction.
+
+The sun was low over the forest when, at length, we crept out of the
+house and stole down to our canoe.
+
+We made no sound when we embarked, and our craft glided away under the
+rushes, driven by cautiously-dipped paddles which left only silent
+little swirls on the dark and glassy stream.
+
+Up Mayfield Creek we turned, which, above, is not fair canoe-water save
+at flood; but now the spring melting filled it brimfull, and a heavy
+current set into Vlaie Water so that there was labour ahead for us; and
+we bent to it as dusk fell over the Drowned Lands.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was not yet full dark when, over my shoulder, I saw a faint rose
+light in the north. And I knew that Summer House was on fire.
+
+Then, swiftly the rosy light grew to a red glow, and, as we watched, a
+great conflagration flared in the darkness, mounting higher, burning
+redder, fiercer, till, around us, vague smouldering shadows moved, and
+the water was touched with ashy glimmerings.
+
+Summer House was all afire, and the infernal light touched us even here,
+painting our features and the paddle-blades, and staining the dark water
+with a prophecy of blood.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was a long and irksome paddle, what with floating trees we
+encountered and the stream over its banks and washing us into sedge and
+brush and rafts of weed in the darkness. Again and again, checked by
+some high dam of drifted windfall, we were forced to make a swampy
+carry, waist high through bog and water.
+
+Often, so, we were forced to rest; and we sat silent, panting,
+skin-soaked in the chilly night air, gazing at the distant fire, which,
+though now miles away, seemed so near. And I could even see trees black
+against the blaze, and smoke rolling turbulently, and a great whirl of
+sparks mounting skyward.
+
+It was long past midnight when I hailed the picket at the grist-mill and
+drove our canoe shoreward into the light of a lifted lantern.
+
+"Is Nick Stoner in?" I called out.
+
+"All safe!" replied somebody on shore.
+
+A dark figure came down to the water and took hold of our bow to steady
+us.
+
+"Summer House and Fish House are burned," said I, climbing out stiffly.
+
+"Aye," said the soldier, "and what of Fonda's Bush, Mr. Drogue?"
+
+"What!" I exclaimed, startled.
+
+"Look yonder," said he.
+
+I scarce know how I managed to stumble up the bushy bank. And then, when
+I came out on level land near the block house, I saw fire to the
+southeast, and the sky crimson above the forest.
+
+"My God!" I stammered, "Fonda's Bush is all afire!"
+
+There was a red light toward Frenchman's Creek, too, but where Fonda's
+Bush should lie a vast sea of fire rose and ebbed and waxed and faded
+above the forest.
+
+"Were any people left there?" I asked.
+
+"None, sir."
+
+"Thank God," I said. But my heart was desolate, for now my house of logs
+that I had builded and loved was gone; my glebe destroyed; all my toil
+come to naught in the distant mockery of those shaking flames. All I had
+in the world was gone save for my slender funds in Albany.
+
+"Where are my friends?" said I to a soldier.
+
+"At the Block House, sir, and very anxious concerning you. They have not
+long been in, but Nick Stoner is all for going back to Summer House to
+discover your whereabouts, and has been beating up recruits for a flying
+scout."
+
+Even as he spoke, I saw Nick come up the road with a torch, and called
+out to him.
+
+"Where have you been, John Drogue?" said he, coming to me and laying a
+hand on my shoulder.
+
+"Is Penelope safe?" I asked.
+
+"She is as safe as are any here in Mayfield. Is it Summer House that
+burns in the north, or only the marsh hay?"
+
+"The whole place is afire," said I. "A dozen green-coats, blue-eyed
+Indians, and two real ones, burnt Fish House and attacked us at Summer
+House. I saw and knew Jock Campbell, Henry Hare, Billy Newberry, Barney
+Cane, Eli Beacraft, and George Cuck. My Saguenay mortally wounded Jock.
+He's lying on the road. He tomahawked a Canienga, too, and took his
+scalp and another's."
+
+"Did _you_ mark any of the dirty crew?" demanded Nick.
+
+"I shot Beacraft and one Mohawk. How many are we at the Block House?"
+
+"A full company to hold it safe," said he, gloomily. "Do you know that
+Fonda's Bush is burning?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+After a silence I said: "Who commands here? I think we ought to move
+toward Johnstown this night. I don't know how many green-coats have come
+to the Sacandaga, but it must have been another detachment that is
+burning Fonda's Bush."
+
+As I spoke a Continental Captain followed by a Lieutenant came up in the
+torch-light; and I gave him his salute and rendered an account of what
+had happened on the Drowned Lands.
+
+He seemed deeply disturbed but told me he had orders to defend the
+Mayfield Fort. He added, however, that if I must report at Johnstown he
+would give me a squad of musket-men as escort thither.
+
+"Yes, sir," said I, "my report should not be delayed. But I have Nick
+Stoner and an Indian, and apprehend no danger. So if I may beg a dish of
+porridge for my little company, and dry my clothing by your block-house
+fire-place, I shall set out within the hour."
+
+He was very civil,--a tall, haggard, careworn man, whose wife and
+children lived at Torloch, and their undefended situation caused him
+deep anxiety.
+
+So I walked to the Fort, Nick and my Indian following; and presently saw
+Penelope on the rifle-platform of the stockade, among the soldiers.
+
+She was gazing at the fiery sky in the north when I caught sight of her
+and called her name.
+
+For a moment she bent swiftly down over the pickets as though to pierce
+the dark where my voice came from; then she turned, and was descending
+the ladder when I entered by the postern.
+
+As I came up she took my shoulders between both hands, but said nothing,
+and I saw she had trouble to speak.
+
+"Yes," said I, "there is bad news for you. Your pretty Summer House is
+no more, Penelope."
+
+"Oh," she stammered, "did you--did you suppose it was the loss of a
+house that has driven me out o' my five senses?"
+
+"Are your sheep and cattle safe?" I asked in sudden alarm.
+
+"My God," she breathed, and stood with her face in both hands, there at
+the foot of the ladder under the April stars.
+
+"What is it frightens you?" I asked.
+
+Her hands fell to her side and she looked at me: "Nothing, sir....
+Unless it be myself," she said calmly. "Your clothing is wet and you are
+shivering. Will you come into the fort?"
+
+We went in. I remembered how I had seen her there that night, nearly a
+year ago, and all the soldiers gathered around to entertain her, whilst
+she supped on porridge and smiled upon them over her yellow bowl's edge,
+like a very child.
+
+The few soldiers inside rose respectfully. A sergeant drew a settle to
+the blazing fire; a soldier brought us soupaan and a gill of rum. Nick
+came in with the Saguenay, and they both squatted down in their blankets
+before the fire, grave as a pair o' cats; and there they ate their fill
+of porridge at our feet, and blinked at the blaze and smoked their clays
+in silence.
+
+I told Penelope that we must travel this night to Johnstown, it being my
+duty to give an account of what had happened, without delay.
+
+"There can be no danger to us on the road," said I, "but the thought of
+leaving you here in this fort disturbs me."
+
+"What would I do here alone?" she asked.
+
+"What will you do alone in Johnstown?" I inquired in turn.
+
+At the same time I realized that we both were utterly homeless; and that
+in Johnstown our shelter must be a tavern, or, if danger threatened, the
+fortified jail called Johnstown Fort.
+
+"You will not abandon me, will you, sir?" she asked, touching my sleeve
+with the pretty confidence of a child.
+
+"Why, no," said I. "We can lodge at Jimmy Burke's Tavern. And there is
+Nick to give us countenance--and a most respectable Indian."
+
+"Is it scandalous for me to go thither in your company?"
+
+"What else is there for us to do?"
+
+"I should go to Albany," said she, "as soon as may be. And I am resolved
+to do so and to seek out Mr. Fonda and disembarrass you of any further
+care for me."
+
+"It is no burden," said I; "but I do not know where I shall be sent, now
+that the war is come to Tryon County. And--I can not bear to think of
+you alone and unprotected, living the miserable life of a refugee in the
+women's quarters at Johnstown Fort."
+
+"Does solicitude for my welfare truly occupy your thoughts, sir?"
+
+"Why, yes, and naturally. Are we not close friends and comrades in
+misfortune, Penelope?"
+
+"I counted it no misfortune to live at Summer House."
+
+"No, nor I.... I was very happy there.... Alas for your pretty
+cottage!--poor little châtelaine of Summer House!"
+
+"John Drogue?"
+
+"I hear you."
+
+"Did you suppose I ever meant to take that gift of you?"
+
+"Why--why, yes! I gave it! Even now I have the deed to the land and
+shall convey it to you. And one day, God willing, a new cottage shall be
+built----"
+
+"Then you must build it, John Drogue, for the land is yours and I never
+meant to take it of you, and never shall.... And I thank you,--and am
+deeply beholden--and touched in my heart's deep depths--that you have
+offered this to me.... Because you desired me to be respectable, and
+well considered by men.... And you wished me to possess substance which
+I lacked--so that none could dare use me lightly and without
+consideration.... And I promise you that I have learned my lesson. You
+have schooled me well, Mr. Drogue.... And if for no other reason save
+respect for you, and gratitude, I promise you I shall so conduct
+hereafter that you shall have no reason to think contemptuously of me."
+
+"I never held you in contempt."
+
+"Yes; when I stole your horse; and when you deemed me easy--and proved
+me so----"
+
+"I meant it not that way!" said I, reddening.
+
+"Yet it was so, John Drogue. I was not difficult. I meant no harm, but
+had not sense enough to know harm when it approached me!... And so I
+thank you for schooling me. But I never could have taken any gift from
+you."
+
+After a silence I rose and went into the officer's quarters.
+
+The Continental Captain was lying on his trundle-bed, but got up and
+sent two men to harness Kaya to our waggon.
+
+I told him I should leave all stores and provisions with him, and asked
+if he would look after our sheep and cattle and fowls until they could
+be fetched to Johnstown and cared for there.
+
+He was a most kindly man, and promised to care for our creatures, saying
+that the eggs and milk would be welcome to his garrison, and that if he
+took a lamb or two he would pay for it on demand.
+
+So when our waggon drove up in the darkness outside, he came and took
+leave of us all very kindly, saying he hoped that Penelope would be safe
+in Johnstown, and that the raiders would soon be driven out of the
+Sacandaga.
+
+I gave him our canoe, for which he seemed grateful.
+
+Then I helped Penelope into the waggon, got in myself and took the
+reins. Nick and the Saguenay vaulted into the box and lay down on our
+pile of furs and blankets.
+
+And so we drove out of the stockade and onto the Johnstown Road,
+Penelope in a wolf-robe beside me, and both her hands clasped around my
+left arm.
+
+"Are you a-chill?" I asked.
+
+"I do not know what ails me," she murmured, "but--the world is so vast
+and dark.... and God is so far--so far----"
+
+"You are unhappy."
+
+"No."
+
+"You grieve for somebody?"
+
+"No, I do not grieve."
+
+"Are you lonesome?"
+
+"I do not know if I am.... I do not know why I tremble so.... The world
+is so dark and vast.... I am so small a thing to be alone in it.... It
+is the war, perhaps, that awes me. It seems so near now. Alas for the
+battles to be fought!--the battles in the North.... Where you shall be,
+John Drogue."
+
+"You said that once before."
+
+"Yes. I saw you there against a cannon's rising cloud.... And a white
+shape near you."
+
+"You said it was Death," I reminded her.
+
+"Death or a bride.... I did not wish to see that vision. I never desire
+to see such things."
+
+"Pooh! Do you really believe in dreams, Penelope?"
+
+"There were strange uniforms there," she murmured, "--not red-coats."
+
+"Oh; green-coats!"
+
+"No. I never saw the like. I never saw such soldiery in England or in
+France or in America."
+
+"They were only dream soldiers," said I gaily. "So now you must laugh a
+little, and take heart, Penelope, because if we two have been made
+homeless this night by fire, still we are young, and in health, and have
+all life before us. Come, then! Shall we be melancholy? And if there are
+to be battles in the North, why, there will be battles, and some must
+die and some survive.
+
+"So, in the meanwhile, shall we be merry?"
+
+"If you wish, sir."
+
+"Excellent! Sing me a pretty French song--low voiced--in my ear,
+Penelope, whilst I guide my horse."
+
+"What song, sir?"
+
+"What you will."
+
+So, holding my arm with both her hands, she leaned close to me on the
+jolting seat and placed her lips at my ear; and sang "Malbrook," as we
+drove toward Johnstown through the dark forest under the April stars.
+
+Something hot touched my cheek.
+
+"Why, Penelope!" said I, "are you weeping?"
+
+She shook her head, rested her forehead a moment against my shoulder,
+and, sitting so, strove to continue--
+
+    "Il ne--ne reviendra--"
+
+Her voice sank to a tremulous whisper and she bowed her face in her two
+hands and rested so in silence, her slender form swaying with the
+swaying waggon.
+
+It was plain to me that the child was afeard. The shock of flight, the
+lurid tokens of catastrophe in the heavens, the alarming rumours in
+those darkening hours, anxiety, suspense, all had contributed to shake a
+heart both gentle and courageous.
+
+For in the thickening gloom around us a very murk of murder seemed to
+brood over this dark and threatened land, seeming to grow more sinister
+and more imminent as the fading crimson in the northern heavens paled to
+a sickly hue in the first faint pallor of the coming dawn.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+BURKE'S TAVERN
+
+
+Now, whether it was the wetting I got on Mayfield Creek and the chill I
+took on the long night's journey to Johnstown, or if my thigh-wound
+became inflamed from that day's exertion at Fish House, Summer House,
+and Mayfield, I do not know for certain.
+
+But when at sunrise we drove up to Jimmy Burke's Tavern in Johnstown, I
+discovered that I could not move my right leg; and, to my mortification,
+Nick and my Indian were forced to make a swinging chair of their linked
+hands, and carry me into the tavern, Penelope following forlornly, her
+arms full of furs and blankets.
+
+Here was a pretty dish! But try as I might I could not set my foot to
+the ground; so they laid me upon a bed and stripped me, and my Saguenay
+wrapped my leg in hot blankets and laid furs over me, till I was wet
+with sweat to the hair.
+
+Presently comes Jimmy Burke himself--that lively, lovable scamp, to whom
+all were friendly; for he was both kind and gay, though a great
+braggart, and few believed that he had any stomach for the deeds he said
+he meant to do in battle.
+
+"Faith," says he, "it's Misther Drogue, God bless him, an' in a sad
+plight along o' the bloody Sacandaga Tories! Wisha then, sorr, had I
+been there it's me would ha' trimmed the hair o' them!"
+
+"Are you well, Jimmy?" I inquired, smiling, spite my pain.
+
+"Am I well? I am that! I was never fitter f'r to fight thim dirty green
+coats of Sir John's. Och--the poor lad! Lave me fetch a hot brick----"
+
+"I'm lame as a one-legged duck, Jimmy," said I. "Send word to the Fort
+that I've an account to render, and beg the Commandant to overlook my
+tardiness until I can be carried thither on a litter."
+
+"And th' yoong leddy, sorr? Will she bait here?"
+
+"Yes; where is she?"
+
+"She lies on a wolf-skin on the bed in the next chamber, foreninst the
+wall, sorr. There's tears on her purty face, but I think she sleeps, f'r
+all that. Is she hurted, too, Misther Drogue?"
+
+"Oh, no. When she wakes send a maid-servant to care for her. Find a
+loft-bed for my Indian and give him no rum--mind that, James Burke!--or
+we quarrel."
+
+"Th' red divil gets no sup in my shabeen!" said he. "Do I lave him gorge
+or no?"
+
+"Certainly. Let him stuff himself. And let no man use him with contempt.
+He is faithful and brave. He is my _friend._ Do you mark me, Jimmy?"
+
+"I do, sorr. And Nick Stoner--that long-legged limb of Satan!--av he
+plays anny thricks on Jimmy Burke may God help him--the poor little
+scut!----"
+
+I had some faint recollection of pranks played upon Burke by Nick in
+this same tavern; but what he had done to Jimmy I did not remember, save
+that it had set Sir William and the town all a-laughing.
+
+"Nick is a good lad and my friend," said I. "Use him kindly. Your wit is
+a match for his, anyway, and so are your fists."
+
+"Is it so!" muttered Burke, casting a smouldering side-look at me. "D'ye
+mind what he done three year come Shrove Tuesday? The day I gave out I
+was a better man than Sir William's new blacksmith? Well, then--av ye
+disremember--that scut of a Nick shtole me breeches, an' he put them on
+a billy-goat, an' tuk him to the tap-room where was company. An',
+'Here,' says he, 'is a better Irishman than you, Jimmy Burke!--an' a
+better fighter, too.' An' wid that the damned goat rares up an' butts me
+over; an' up I gets an' he butts me over, an' up an' down I go, an' the
+five wits clean knocked out o' me, an' the company an' Sir William all
+yelling like loons an' laying odds on the goat----"
+
+I lay there convulsed with laughter, remembering now this prank of the
+most mischievous boy I ever knew.
+
+Burke licked his lips grimly at the memory of that ancient wrong.
+
+"Sure, he's th' bould wan f'r to come into me house wid the score
+unreckoned an' all that balance agin' him."
+
+"Touch pewter with him and forgive the lad," said I. "These are sterner
+days, Jimmy, and we should cherish no private malice here where we may
+be put to it to stand siege."
+
+"Is it thrue, sor, that the destructives are on the Sacandaga?"
+
+"Yes, it is true. Fish House, Summer House, and Fonda's Bush are in
+ashes, Jimmy, and your late friend, Sir John, is at Buck Island with a
+thousand Indians, regulars, and Tories, and like to pay us a call before
+planting time."
+
+"Oh, my God," says Burke, "the divil take Sir John an' the black heart
+of him av he comes back here to murther his old neighbors! Sorra the day
+we let him scape!--him an' Alex White, an' Toby Tice an' moody Wally
+Butler,--an' ould John, an' Indian Claus, an' Black Guy!--may the divil
+take the whole Tory ruck o' them!----"
+
+He checked himself; behind him, through the door, entered a Continental
+Captain; and I sat up in bed to do him courtesy.
+
+As I suspected, here proved to be our Commandant come to learn of me my
+news; and it presently appeared that Nick had run to the jail with an
+account of how I lay here crippled.
+
+Well, the Commandant was a simple, kindly man, whose present anxiety
+made little of military custom. And so he had come instantly to learn my
+news of me; and we talked there alone for an hour.
+
+At his summons a servant fetched paper, ink, pen and sand; and, whilst
+he looked on, I wrote out my report to him.
+
+Also, I made for him a drawing of the Drowned Lands from Fish House to
+Mayfield, marking all roads and paths and trails, and all canoe water,
+carries, and cleared land. For, as Brent-Meester, no man had more
+accurate knowledge of Tryon than had I; and it was all clearly in my
+mind, so that to make a map of it proved no task at all.
+
+I asked him if I was to remain detached and with authority to raise a
+company of rangers--as had once been given me--or whether, perhaps, the
+Line lacked commissioned officers, saying that it was all one to me and
+that I wished only to serve where most needed.
+
+He replied that, unless I went to Morgan's corps of Virginia Riflemen,
+concerning which detail he had heard some talk, my full value lay in my
+woodcraft and in my wide, personal knowledge of the wilderness.
+
+"Who better than you, Mr. Drogue, could take a scout to this same Buck
+Island, where Sir John's hordes are gathering? Who better than yourself
+could undertake a swift and secret mission to any point within the
+confines of this vast desolation of mountain, lake, and forest, which
+promises soon to be the theatre of a most bloody struggle?
+
+"Champlain already spews red-coats upon us in the North. Sir John
+threatens in the West. A great army menaces the Highland Forts and
+Albany from the South. And only such officers as you, sir, are
+competent to discover and dog the march of enemy marauders, come to
+touch with their scouts, follow and ambush them, and lead others to
+vital points across an uncharted world of woods when there are raiders
+to check or communications to threaten and cut."
+
+He rose, hooked up his sword, and shook hands with me.
+
+"I have asked Colonel Willett," said he, "to use your talents in this
+manner, and he has very kindly consented. Johnstown will remain your
+base, therefore, and your employment is certain as soon as you are able
+to walk."
+
+I thanked him and said very confidently that I should be rid of all
+lameness and pain within a day or so.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That night I had a fever; and for pearly four weeks my leg remained
+swollen and red, and the pain was such that I could not bear the weight
+of a linen sheet, and Nick made a frame for my bed-covers, like a tent,
+so that they should not touch me.
+
+Dr. Younglove came from the Flatts,--who was surgeon in General
+Herkimer's brigade of militia--and he said it was a pernicious
+rheumatism consequent upon the cold wetting I got upon a wound still
+green.
+
+Further, he concluded, there was naught to do save that I must lie on my
+back until my trouble departed of its own accord; but he could not say
+how soon that might me--whether within a day or two or as many months,
+or more.
+
+He recommended hot blankets and some draughts which they sent me from
+the pharmacy at the Fort, but I think they did me neither good nor evil,
+but were pleasant and spicy and cooled my throat.
+
+So that was now the dog's life I led during the early summer in
+Johnstown,--a most vexatious and inglorious career, laid by the heels at
+a time when, from three points o' the compass, three separate storms
+were brewing and darkening the heavens, and a tempest more frightful
+than man could conceive was threatening to shatter Tryon, sweep the
+whole Mohawk Valley, and leave Johnstown but a whirl of whitened ashes
+in the evening winds.
+
+We were comfortably established at Burke's Inn, and, as always, baited
+well where food and bed were ever clean and good.
+
+Penelope had the chamber next to mine; Nick slept in the little bedroom
+on my left; and the Saguenay haunted the kitchen, with a perpetual
+appetite never damaged by gorging.
+
+All the news of town and country was fetched me by word o' mouth, by
+penny broadsides, by journals, so that I never wanted for gossip to
+entertain or alarm me.
+
+Town tattle, rumours from West and North, camp news conveyed by
+Coureurs-du-Bois, by runners, by expresses, all this came to my chamber
+where I lay impatient, brought sometimes by Burke, often by Nick, more
+often by Penelope.
+
+She was very kind and patient with me. In the first feverish and
+agonizing days of my illness I had sent for her, and begged her to take
+the first convenient waggon and escort into Albany, where surely Douw
+Fonda would now care for her and the Patroon's household would welcome
+and shelter her until the oncoming storm had passed and her aged charge
+should again return to Caughnawaga.
+
+She would not go, but gave no reason. And, my sickness making me
+peevish, I was often fretful and short with her; and so badgered and
+bullied her that one night, in desperation, she wrote a letter to Douw
+Fonda at my request, offering to go to Albany and care for him if he
+desired it.
+
+But presently there came a polite letter in reply, writ kindly to her by
+the young Patroon himself, who very delicately revealed how it was with
+Mr. Fonda. And it appeared that he had become childish from great age,
+and seemed now to retain no memory of her, and desired not to be cared
+for by anybody--as he said--who was a stranger to him.
+
+Which was sad to know concerning so good and wise and gallant an old
+gentleman as had been Mr. Douw Fonda,--a fine, honourable, educated and
+cultivated man, whose chiefest pleasure was in his books and garden, and
+who never in all his life had uttered an unkind word.
+
+This news, too, was disturbing in another manner; for Mr. Fonda had
+wished, as all knew, to adopt Penelope and make provision for her. And
+now, if his mind had begun to cloud and his memory betray him, no
+provision was likely to be made to support this young girl who was
+utterly alone in the world, and entirely without fortune.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On an afternoon late in May I was feeling less pain, and could permit
+the covers to rest on me, and was impatient for a dish o' porridge.
+About five o'clock Penelope brought me a bowl of chocolate. When she had
+seated herself near me, she took her sewing from her apron pocket, and
+stitched away busily whilst I drank my sweet, hot brew, and watched her
+over the blue bowl's edge.
+
+"Are you better this afternoon, sir?" she inquired presently, not
+lifting her eyes.
+
+I told her, fretfully, that I was but a lame dog and fit only to be
+knocked on the head by some obliging Tory. "I'm sick o' life," said I,
+"where no one heeds me, and I am left alone all day without food or
+companionship, to play at twiddle-thumb."
+
+At that she looked at me in sweet concern, but, seeing me wear a wry
+grin, smiled too.
+
+"Poor lad," said she, "it is nearly a month you lie there so patiently."
+
+"Not patiently; no! And if I knew more oaths than I think up all day
+long it might ease me to endure more meekly this accursed sickness....
+What is it you sew?"
+
+"Wrist-bands."
+
+"Whose?"
+
+As she offered no reply I supposed that she was making a pair o' bands
+for Nick.
+
+"Do you hear further from Albany?" I inquired.
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Then it is sure that Mr. Fonda has become childish and his memory is
+gone," said I, "because if he comprehended your present situation and
+your necessity he would surely have sent for you long since."
+
+"He always was kind," she said simply.
+
+I lay on my pillows, sipping chocolate and watching her fingers so deft
+with thread and needle. After a long silence I asked her rather bluntly
+why she had not long ago consented to the necessary legal steps offered
+her by Mr. Fonda, which would have secured her always against want.
+
+As she made me no answer, I looked hard at her over my bowl, and saw her
+eyes very faintly glimmering with tears.
+
+"The news of Mr. Fonda's condition has greatly saddened you," said I.
+
+"Yes. He was kind to me."
+
+"Why, then, did you evade his expressed wishes?" I repeated. "He must
+surely have loved you like a father to offer you adoption."
+
+"I could not accept," she said in a low voice, sewing rapidly the while.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"I scarcely know. It was because of pride, perhaps.... I was his
+servant. He paid me well. I could not permit him to overpay my poor
+services.... And he has other children, and grandchildren, with whose
+proper claims I would not permit myself--or him--to interfere. No, it
+was unthinkable--however kindly meant----"
+
+"That," said I impatiently, "smacks of a too Scotch and stubborn
+conscience, does it not, Penelope?"
+
+"Stubborn Scotch pride, I fear. For it is not in my Scottish nature to
+accept benefits for which I never can hope to render service in return."
+
+"Imaginary obligation!" said I scornfully, yet admiring the independence
+which, naked and defenceless, prefers to spin its own raiment rather
+than accept the divided cloak of charity.
+
+And it was plain to me that this girl was no beggar, no passive accepter
+of bounties unearned from anybody. And now I was secretly chagrined and
+ashamed that I had so postured before her as My Lord Bountiful, and had
+offered her the Summer House who had refused a modest fortune from a
+good old man who loved her and who had some excuse and reason to so deal
+by one to whom his bodily comfort had long been beholden.
+
+"Few," said I, "would have put aside so agreeable an opportunity for
+ease and comfort in life. I fear you were foolish, Penelope."
+
+She smiled at me: "There is a family saying, 'A Grant grants but never
+accepts'.... I have youth, health, two arms, two legs, and a pair of
+steady eyes. If these can not keep me alive through the world's journey,
+then I ought to perish and make room for another."
+
+"What do you meditate to keep you?" I asked uneasily.
+
+"For the present," said she, still smiling, "what I am doing is well
+enough to keep me in food and clothes and lodging."
+
+At first I did not understand her, then an odd suspicion seized me; for
+I remembered during the last two weeks, when I lay sick, hearing strange
+voices in her ante-chamber, and strange people coming and going in the
+passageway.
+
+Seeing me perplexed and frowning, she laughed and took the empty bowl
+from my hands, and set it aside. Then she smoothed my pillow.
+
+"I am employed by the garrison," said she, "to work for them with needle
+and shears. I do their mending; I darn, stitch, sew, and alter. I patch
+shirts and under-garments; I also make shirts, and devise officers'
+neck-cloths, stocks, and wrist-bands at request.
+
+"Also, I now employ a half-breed Oneida woman as tailoress; and she
+first measures and then I cut out patterns of coats, breeches,
+rifle-frocks, and watch-coats, which she then takes home and sews, then
+tries on her customers, and finally finishes,--I sewing on all galons,
+laces, and braids.... And so you see I pay my way, Mr. Drogue, and am in
+no stress for the present at any rate."
+
+"Good heavens!" said I amazed, "I never dreamed that you were so
+employed!"
+
+"But I am obliged to eat, John Drogue!"
+
+"I have sufficient for both," I muttered. "I thought it was
+understood----"
+
+"That I should live on your bounty, my lord?"
+
+"Will you ever have done with lording me?" I said angrily. "I think you
+do it to plague me."
+
+"I ask forgiveness," she murmured, still smiling. "Also, I crave pardon
+for refusing to live on your kind bounty."
+
+"I do not mean it that way!" said I sharply. "Besides, you kept Summer
+House for us, and did all things indoors and most things outdoor; and
+had no pay for the labour----"
+
+"I had food and a bed. And your protection.... And most excellent
+company," she added, smiling saucily upon me. "You owe me nothing, John
+Drogue. Nor do I mean to owe you,--or any man,--more than that proper
+debt of kindness which kindness to me begets."
+
+I lay back on my pillows, not knowing whether to laugh or scowl. That
+Penelope had become a tailoress and sempstress to the garrison did not
+pleasure me at all; and it was as though I had lost some advantage or
+influence over this girl, whose present situation and whose future did
+now considerably begin to concern me.
+
+Yet, what was I to say against this business, or what offer make her
+that her modesty and pride could consider?
+
+It was perfectly clear to me that she never had intended to be obliged
+to me for anything, and never would be. And now her saucy smile and
+gentle mockery confirmed this conclusion and put me out of countenance.
+
+I cast a troubled glance at her from my pillow, where she sat by my bed
+sewing on a pair of wrist-bands for some popinjay of the garrison--God
+knew who he might be!--and, as I regarded her, further and further she
+seemed to be slipping out of my influence and out of the care which,
+mentally at least, I had felt it my duty to give to her.
+
+She troubled me. She troubled me deeply. Her independence, her
+sufficiency, her beauty, her sly and pretty mockery of me, all conspired
+to give me a new concern for her, and I had not experienced the like
+since Steve Watts kissed her by the lilacs.
+
+I had seen her in many phases, but never before in this phase, and I
+knew not what face to put on such a disturbing situation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For a while I lay there frowning and sulky, and spoke not. She
+tranquilly finished her wrist-bands, went to her chamber, returned with
+a dozen stocks, all cut out and basted, and picked up one to fit a plain
+military frill to it.
+
+From my window, near where my head rested, I saw a gold sunset between
+the maple trees and the roofs across the street. Birds sang their
+evening carols,--robins on every fence post, orioles in the elms, and
+far away a wood-thrush filled the quiet with his liquid ecstasies.
+
+And suddenly it seemed to me horrible and monstrous that this heavenly
+tranquillity should be shattered by the red blast of war!--that men
+could actually be planning to devastate this quiet land where already
+the new harvest promised, tender and green; where cattle grazed in
+blossoming meadows; where swallows twittered and fowls clucked; where
+smoke drifted from chimneys and the homely sights and sounds of a
+peaceful town sweetened the evening silence.
+
+Then the thought of my own helplessness went through me like a spear,
+and I groaned,--not meaning to,--and turned over on my pillow.... And
+presently felt her hand lightly on my shoulder.
+
+"Is it pain?" she asked softly.
+
+"No, only the weariness of life," I muttered.
+
+She was silent, but presently her hand smoothed back my hair, and passed
+in a sort of gentle rhythm across my forehead and my hair.
+
+"If I lie here long enough," said I bitterly, "I may have to beg a crust
+of you. So get you to your sewing and see that you earn enough against a
+beggared cripple's need."
+
+"You mock me," she said in a low voice.
+
+"Why, no," said I. "If I am to remain crippled my funds will dwindle and
+go, and one day I shall sit in the sun like any poor old soldier, with
+palm lifted for alms----"
+
+"I beg--I beg you----" she stammered; and her hand closed on my lips as
+though to stifle the perverse humour.
+
+"Would you offer me charity if I remain crippled?" I managed to say.
+
+"Hush. You sadden me."
+
+"Would you aid me?" I insisted.
+
+She drew a long, deep breath but made no answer.
+
+"Tell me," I repeated, taking her by the hand, "would you aid me,
+Penelope Grant?"
+
+"Why do you ask?" she protested. "You know I would."
+
+"And yet," said I, "although I am in funds, you refuse aid and choose
+rather to play the tailoress! Is that fair?"
+
+"But--I am nothing to you----"
+
+"Are you not? And am I then more to you than are you to me, that you
+would aid me in necessity?"
+
+She drew her hand from mine and went back to her chair.
+
+"That is my fate," said she, smiling at me. "I was born to give, not to
+receive. I can not take; I can not refuse to give."
+
+"Yes," said I, "you even gave me your lips once."
+
+She blushed vividly, her eyes hard on her sewing.
+
+"I shall not do the like again," said she, all rosy to the roots of her
+gold hair.
+
+"And why, pray?"
+
+"Because I know better now."
+
+After a silence I turned me on my pillow and sighed heavily.
+
+"John?" she inquired in gentle anxiety, "are you in great pain?"
+
+I groaned.
+
+She came to me again and laid her cool, soft hand on my head; and I
+caught it in both of mine and drew her down to me.
+
+"I am a cripple and a beggar for your kindness, Penelope," I said. "I
+ask alms of you. Will you kiss me?"
+
+"Oh," she exclaimed, "you have deceived me! Let me go! Loose me
+instantly!"
+
+"Will you kiss me out of that charity which you say you practice?"
+
+"That is not charity!----"
+
+"What is begged for is charity. And you say you are made to give."
+
+"But you taught me otherwise! And now you undo your own schooling!----"
+
+"But I owe it you--this kiss!"
+
+"How do you owe it me?"
+
+"You kissed me in the snow, and left me in your debt."
+
+"Oh, goodness! That frolic! Have you not long ago forgotten our winter
+madness----"
+
+"Like you," said I, "I must pay my just debts and owe nobody." And I
+drew her nearer, all flushed with protest, firm to escape, yet gentle in
+her supple, pretty way lest she hurt me.
+
+I laughed, and saw my gaiety reflected in her eyes an instant.
+
+Then, of a sudden, she put one arm around my neck and rested her lips on
+mine. And so I kissed her, and she suffered it, resting so against me
+with lowered eyes.
+
+The flower-sweetness of her mouth bewildered me, and I was confused by
+it and by the stifled tumult of my heart, so that I scarce had sense
+enough to detain her when she drew away.
+
+She sat at my side, the faint smile still stamped on her lips, but her
+brown eyes seemed a little frightened, and her breast rose and fell like
+a scared bird's under the snowy kerchief.
+
+"Well--and well," says she in her pretty, breathless way--"I am
+overpaid, I think, and you are now acquitted of your debt. And so--and
+so our folly ends ... and now is finally ended."
+
+She took her sewing. A golden light was in the room; and she seemed to
+me the loveliest thing I had ever looked upon. I realized it. I knew she
+was loveliest of all. And the swift knowledge seemed to choke me.
+
+After a little while she stole a look at me, met my eyes, laughed
+guiltily.
+
+"You!" said she, "a schoolmaster! You teach me one thing and would have
+me practice another. What confidence can I entertain for such wisdom as
+is yours, John Drogue?"
+
+"Rules," said I, "are made to be proven by their more interesting
+exceptions. However, in future you are to endure no kiss and no
+caress--unless from me."
+
+"Oh. Is that the new lesson I am to learn and understand?"
+
+"That is the lesson. Will you remember it when I am gone?"
+
+"Gone?"
+
+"Yes. When I am gone away on duty. Will you remember, Penelope?"
+
+"I am like to," she said under her breath, and sewing rapidly.
+
+She stitched on in silence for a while; but now the light was dimming
+and she moved nearer the window, which was close by my bed head.
+
+After a while her hands dropped in her lap; she looked out into the
+twilight. I took her tired little hand in mine, but she did not turn her
+head.
+
+"I have," said I, "two thousand pounds sterling at my solicitor's in
+Albany. I wish you to have it if any accident happens to me.... And my
+glebe in Fonda's Bush.... I shall so write it in my will."
+
+She shook her head slightly, still gazing from the window.
+
+"Will you accept?" I asked.
+
+"What good would it do me? If I accept it I should only divide it among
+the needy--in memory of--of my dear boy friend--Jack Drogue----"
+
+She rose hastily and walked to the door, then very slowly retraced her
+steps to my bedside.
+
+"You are so kind to me," she murmured, touching my forehead.
+
+"You are so different to other men,--so truly gallant in your boy's
+soul. There is no evil in you,--no ruthlessness. Oh, I know--I
+know--more than I seem to know--of men.... And their importunities....
+And of their wilful selfishness."
+
+I sat up straight. "Has any man made you unhappy?" I demanded in angry
+surprise.
+
+She seated herself and looked at me gravely.
+
+"Do you know," she said, "men have courted me always--even when I was
+scarce more than a child? And mine is a friendly heart, Mr. Drogue. I
+have a half shy desire to please. I am loath to inflict pain. But always
+my kindness seems like to cost me more than I choose to pay."
+
+"Pay to whom?"
+
+"To any man.... For example, I would not elope with Stephen Watts when
+he begged me at Caughnawaga. And Walter Butler addressed me also--in
+secret--being a friend of the Fondas and so free of the house.... And
+was ever stealthily importuning me to a stolen rendezvous which I had
+sense enough to refuse, knowing him to be both married and a rake, and
+cruel to women.
+
+"Oh, I tell you that they all courted me,--not kindly,--for ever there
+seemed to me in their ardent gaze and discreet whisperings something
+vaguely sinister. Not that it frightened me, nor did I take alarm, being
+too ignorant----"
+
+She folded her hands and looked down at them.
+
+"I like men.... I cared most for Stephen Watts.... Then one day I had a
+great fright.... Shall I tell it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, then, Sir John's gallantries neither pleased nor flattered me
+from the first. But he was very cautious what he said and did in Douw
+Fonda's house, and never spoke to me save coldly when others were
+present, or when he was alone with us and Mr. Fonda was awake and not
+dozing in his great chair.... Well, there came a day when Mr. Fonda went
+to the house of Captain Fonda, and I was alone in the house....
+
+"And Sir John came.... Shall I tell it?"
+
+"Tell it, Penelope."
+
+"I've had it long in my mind. I wished to ask you if it lessened me in
+your esteem.... For Sir John was drunk, and, finding me alone, he
+conducted roughly--and followed me and locked us in my chamber.... I was
+horribly afraid.... I had never struck any living being before. But I
+beat his red face with my hands until he became confused and stupid--and
+there was blood on him and on me.... And my kerchief was torn off and my
+hair all tangled.... I beat him till he dropped my door key, and so
+unlocked my door and returned again to him, silent and flaming, and
+drove him with blows out o' my chamber and out of the house--all over
+blood as he was, and stupid and drunk.... His negro man got him on his
+horse and rode off, holding him on.
+
+"And none knew--none know, save Sir John and you and I."
+
+After a silence I said in a controlled voice: "If Sir John comes this
+way I shall hope not to miss him.... I shall pray God not to miss
+this--gentleman."
+
+"Do you think meanly of me that he used me so?"
+
+I did not answer.
+
+"I have told you all," she said timidly. "I am still honest. If I were
+not I would not have let you touch my lips."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"For both our sakes.... I would not do you any evil."
+
+I said impatiently: "No need to tell me you never had a lover. I never
+believed it of you from the day I saw you first. And, God willing, I
+mean to stop a mouth or two in Tryon, war or no war----"
+
+"John Drogue!" she exclaimed in consternation--"you shall seek no
+quarrel on my account! Swear to me!"
+
+But I made no reply. Whatever the quarrel, I knew now it was to be on my
+own account; for whether or no I was falling in love with this girl,
+Penelope Grant, I realized at all events that I would suffer no other
+man to interfere, however he conducted, and should hold any man to stern
+account who would make of this girl a toy and plaything.
+
+And so, all hotly resolved on that point; sore, also, at the knowledge
+of Sir John's baseness which seemed to touch my proper honour; and
+swifter, too, with tenderness in my heart to reassure her, I did exactly
+that for which I was now prepared to cut the throats of various other
+gentlemen--I drew her into my arms and held her close, body and lips
+imprisoned.
+
+She sought her chair and sat there silent and subdued until a
+maid-servant brought lights and my supper.
+
+In the candle light she ventured to look at me and laugh.
+
+"Such schooling" says she. "I never knew before that there was such a
+personage as a sweetheart pro tem! But you seem to know the rôle by
+heart, Mr. Drogue. And so, no doubt, feel warranted to instruct others.
+But this is the end of it, my friend. For one day you shall have to
+confess you to your wife! And I think my future Lady Northesk is like to
+have a pretty temper and will give you a mauvais quart d'heur when she
+hears of this May day's folly in a Johnstown public house!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+ORDERS
+
+
+In June I was out o' bed and managed to set foot on ground for the first
+time since early spring. By the end of the month I had my strength in a
+measure and was able to hobble about town. Pernicious rheumatism is no
+light matter, for with the agony,--and weakness afterward,--a dull
+despair settles upon the victim; and it was mind, not body, that caused
+me the deeper distress, I think.
+
+Life seemed useless; effort hopeless. Dark apprehensions obsessed me; I
+despaired of my country, of my people, of myself. And this all was part
+of my malady, but I did not know it.
+
+All through June and July an oppressive summer heat brooded over Tryon.
+Save for thunder storms of unusual violence, the heat remained unbroken
+day and night. In the hot and blinding blue of heaven, a fierce sun
+blazed; at night the very moon looked sickly with the heat.
+
+Never had I heard so many various voices of the night, nor so noisy a
+tumult after dark, where the hylas trilled an almost deafening chorus
+and the big frogs' stringy croaking never ceased, and a myriad confusion
+of insects chirred and creaked and hummed in the suffocating dark.
+
+At dawn the birds' outburst was like the loud outrush of a torrent
+filling the waking world; at twilight scores of unseen whippoorwills put
+on their shoes[30] and shouted in whistling whisper voices to one
+another across the wastes of night like the False Faces [31] gathering
+at a secret tryst.
+
+[Footnote 30: Indian lore. The yellow moccasin flower is the
+whippoorwill's shoe.]
+
+[Footnote 31: A secret society common to all nations of the Iroquois
+Confederacy.]
+
+If the whole Northland languished, drooping and drowsy in the heat, the
+very air, too, seemed heavy with the foreboding gloom of dreadful
+rumours.
+
+Every day came ominous tidings from North, from West, from South of
+great forces uniting to march hither and crush us. And the terrible
+imminence of catastrophe, far from arousing and nerving us for the
+desperate event, seemed rather to confuse and daze our people, and
+finally to stupefy all, as though the horror of the immense and hellish
+menace were beyond human comprehension.
+
+Men laboured on the meagre defences of the county as though weighted by
+a nightmare--as though drowsing awake and not believing in their ghostly
+dream.
+
+And all preparation went slow--fearfully slow--and it was like dragging
+a mass of chained men, whose minds had been drugged, to drive the
+militia to the drill ground or force the labourers to the unfinished
+parapets of our few and scattered forts.
+
+Men still talked of the Sacandaga Block House as though there were such
+a refuge; but there was none unless they meant the ruins at Fish House
+or the unburned sheep-fold at Summer House Point, or the Mayfield
+defenses.
+
+There remained only one fort of consequence south of the Lakes--Fort
+Stanwix, now called Schuyler, and that was far from finished, far from
+properly armed, garrisoned, and provisioned.
+
+Whatever else of defense Tryon County possessed were merest
+makeshifts--stone farmhouses fortified by ditch, stockade, and bastions;
+block-houses of wood; nothing more.
+
+Fragments of our two regular regiments were ever shifting garrison--a
+company here, a battalion there. A few rangers kept the field; a
+regiment of Herkimer's militia, from time to time, took its turn at
+duty; a scout or two of irregulars and Oneida Indians haunted the trail
+toward Buck Island--which some call Deer Island, and others speak of as
+Carleton Island, and others still name it Ile-aux-Chevreuil, which is a
+mistake.
+
+But any name for the damned spot was good enough for me, who had been
+there in years past, and knew how strong it could be made to defy us and
+to send out armed hordes to harass us on the Mohawk.
+
+And at that instant, under Colonel Barry St. Leger, the Western flying
+force of the enemy was being marshalled at Buck Island.
+
+Our scouts brought an account of the forces already there--detachments
+of the 8th British regulars, the 34th regulars, the regiment of Sir
+John, called the Royal New Yorkers by some, by others the
+Greens--(though our scouts told us that their new uniforms were to be
+scarlet)--the Corps of Chasseurs, a regiment of green-coats known as
+Butler's Rangers, a detachment of Royal Artillery, another of
+Highlanders, and, most sinister of all, Brant's Iroquois under
+Thayendanegea himself and a number of young officers of the Indian
+Department, with Colonel Claus to advise them.
+
+This was the flying force that threatened us from the West, directed by
+Burgoyne.
+
+From the South we were menaced by the splendid and powerful British army
+which held New York City, Long Island, and the lower Hudson, and stood
+ready and equipped to march on a straight road right into Albany,
+cleaning up the Hudson, shore and stream, on their way hither.
+
+But our most terrible danger threatened us from the North, where General
+Burgoyne, with a superb army and a half thousand Iroquois savages, had
+been smashing his way toward us through the forests, seizing the lakes
+and the vessels and forts defending them, outmanoeuvring our General
+St. Clair; driving him from our fortress of Ticonderoga with loss of all
+stores and baggage; driving Francis out of Skenesborough and Fort Anne,
+and destroying both posts; chasing St. Clair out of Castleton and
+Hubbardton, destroying two-thirds of Warner's army; driving Schuyler's
+undisciplined militia from Fort Edward, toward Saratoga.
+
+Every day brought rumours or positive news of disasters in our immediate
+neighbourhood. We knew that St. Leger, Sir John, Walter Butler, and
+Brant had left Buck Island and that Burgoyne was directing the campaign
+planned for the most hated army that ever invaded the Northland. And we
+learned the horrid details of these movements from Thomas Spencer, the
+Oneida who had just come in from that region, and whose certain account
+of how matters were swiftly coming to a crisis at last seemed to
+galvanize our people into action.
+
+I was now, in August, well enough to take the field with a scout, and I
+applied for active duty and was promised it; but no orders came, and I
+haunted the Johnstown Fort impatiently, certain that every man who rode
+express and who went galloping through the town must bring my marching
+orders.
+
+Precious days succeeded one another; I fretted, fumed, sickened with
+anxiety, deemed myself forgotten or perhaps disdained.
+
+Then I had a shock when General Herkimer, ignoring me, sent for my
+Saguenay, but for what purpose I knew not, only that old Block's
+loud-voiced son-in-law, Colonel Cox, desired a Montagnais tracker.
+
+The Yellow Leaf came to me with the courier, one Barent Westerfelt, who
+had brought presents from Colonel Cox; and I had no discretion in the
+matter, nor would have exercised any if I had.
+
+"Brother," said I, taking him by both hands, "go freely with this
+messenger from General Herkimer; because if you were not sorely needed
+our brother Corlear had not ordered an express to find and fetch you."
+
+He replied that he made nothing of the presents sent him, but desired to
+remain with me. I patiently pointed out to him that I was merely a
+subaltern in the State Rangers and unattached, and that I must await my
+turn of duty like a good soldier, nor feel aggrieved if fortune called
+others first.
+
+Still he seemed reluctant, and would not go, and scowled at the express
+rider and his sack of gew-gaws.
+
+"Brother," said I, "would you shame me who, as you say, found you a wild
+beast and have taught you that you are a real man?"
+
+"I am a man and a warrior," he said quickly.
+
+"Real men and warriors are known by their actions, my younger brother.
+When there is war they shine their hatchets. When the call comes, they
+bound into the war-trail. Brother, the call has come! Hiero!"
+
+The Montagnais straightened his body and threw back his narrow,
+dangerous head.
+
+"Haih!" he said. "I hear my brother's voice coming to me through the
+forests! Very far away beyond the mountains I hear the panther-cry of
+the Mengwe! My axe is bright! I am in my paint. Koué! I go!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He left within the hour; and I had become attached to the wild rover of
+the Saguenay, and missed him the more, perhaps, because of my own sore
+heart which beat so impotently within my idle body.
+
+That Herkimer had taken him disconcerted and discouraged me; but there
+was a more bitter blow in store for a young soldier of no experience in
+discipline or in the slow habit of military procedure; for, judge of my
+wrath when one rainy day in August comes Nick Stoner to me in a new
+uniform of the line, saying that Colonel Livingston's regiment lacked
+musicians, and he had thought it best to transfer and to 'list and not
+let opportunity go a-glimmering.
+
+"My God, Jack," says he, "you can not blame me very well, for my father
+is drafted to the same regiment, and my brother John is a drummer in it.
+It is a marching regiment and certain to fight, for there be three
+Livingstons commanding of it, and who knows what old Herkimer can do
+with his militia, or what the militia themselves can do?"
+
+"You are perfectly right, Nick," said I in a mortified voice. "I am not
+envious; no! only it wounds me to feel I am so utterly forgotten, and my
+application for transfer unnoticed."
+
+Nick took leave of us that night, sobered not at all by the imminence of
+battle, for he danced around my chamber in Burke's Inn, a-playing upon
+his fife and capering so that Penelope was like to suffocate with
+laughter, though inclined to seriousness.
+
+We supped all together in my chamber as we had so often gathered at
+Summer House, but if I were inclined to gloomy brooding, and if Penelope
+seemed concerned at parting with a comrade, Nick permitted no sad
+reflexions to disturb us whom he was leaving behind.
+
+He made us drink a very devilish flip-cup, which he had devised in the
+tap-room below with Jimmy Burke's aid, and which filled our young
+noddles with a gaiety not natural.
+
+He sang and offered toasts, and played on his fife and capered until we
+were breathless with mirth.
+
+Also, he took from his new knapsack a penny broadside,--witty, but like
+most broadsides of the kind, somewhat broad,--which he had for
+thrippence of a pedlar, the same being a parody on the Danbury
+Broadside; and this he read aloud to us, bursting with laughter, while
+standing upon his chair at table to recite it:
+
+
+THE EXPEDITION TO JOHNSTOWN[32]
+
+(In search of provisions)
+
+Scene--New York City
+
+(_Enter_ General Sir Wm. Howe and Mrs. ----, preceded by
+Fame in cap and bells, flourishing a bladder.)
+
+_Fame_ (speaks)
+
+    "Without wit, without wisdom, half stupid, half drunk,
+    And rolling along arm-in-arm with his Punk,
+    Comes gallant Sir William, the warrior (by proxy)
+    To harangue his soldiers (held up by his Doxy)!"
+
+_Sir Wm._ (speaks)
+
+    "My boys, I'm a-going to send you to Tryon,
+    To Johnstown, where _you'll_ get as groggy as I am!
+    By a Tory from there I have just been informed
+    That there's nobody there, so the town shall be stormed!
+    For if nobody's there and nobody near it,
+    My army shall conquer that town, never fear it!"
+
+(_Enter_ Joe Gallopaway, a refugee Tory)
+
+_Joe_
+
+    "Brave soldiers, go fight that we all may get rich!"
+
+_Regular Soldiers_
+
+    "We'll fetch you a halter, you * * * * !
+    Get out! And go live in the woods upon nuts,
+    Or we'll give you our bayonets plump in your guts!
+    Do you think we are fighting to feed such a crew
+    As Butler, Sir John, Mr. Singler and you?"
+
+(_Enter_ Sir John Johnson)
+
+_Sir John_
+
+    "Come on, my brave boys! Now! as bold as a lion!
+    And march at my heels to the County called Tryon;
+    My lads, there's no danger, for this you should know,
+    That I'd let it alone if I thought it was so!
+    So point all your noses towards the Dominion
+    And we'll all live like lords is my honest opinion!"
+
+Scene--Buck Island Trail
+
+(_Enter_ Fame, Sir John, and his Royal Greens)
+
+_Fame_
+
+    "In cunning and canting, deceit and disguise,
+    In breaking parole by inventing cheap lies,
+    Sir John is a match for the worst of his species,
+    But in this undertaking he'll soon go to pieces.
+    He'll fall to the rear, for he'd rather go last,
+    Crying, 'Forward, my boys! Let me see you all past!
+    For his Majesty's service (so reads my commission)
+    Requires I push forward the whole expedition!"
+
+_Sir John_
+
+    "I care not a louse for the United States,--
+    For General Schuyler or General Gates!
+    March forward, my lads, and account for each sinner,
+    While Butler, St. Leger, and I go to dinner.
+    For plenty's in Tryon of eating and drinking,
+    Who'd stay in New York to be starving and stinking."
+    March over the Mohawk! March over, march over,
+    You'll live like a parcel of hogs in sweet clover!"
+
+Scene--Outside Fort Stanwix
+
+(A council of war. At a distance the new American flag flying above the
+bastions)
+
+_Sir John_
+
+    "I'm sorry I'm here, for I'm horribly scared,
+    But how did I know that they'd all be prepared?
+    The fate of our forray looks darker and darker,
+    The state of our larder grows starker and starker,
+    I fear that a round-shot or one of their carkers[33]
+    May breech my new breeches like poor Peter Parker's![34]
+    Oh, say, if my rear is uncovered, what then!--"
+
+(_Enter_ Walter Butler in a panic)
+
+_Butler_
+
+    "Held! Schuyler is coming with ten thousand men!"
+
+(A canon shot from the Fort)
+
+_Sir John_ (falls flat)
+
+    "I'm done! A cannon ball of thirty pound
+    Has hit me where Sir Peter got his wound.
+    I'm done! I'm all undone! So don't unbutt'n'm;
+    But say adieu for me to Clairette Putnam!"[35]
+
+(_Enter_ a swarm of surgeons)
+
+_Surgeons_
+
+    "Compose yourself, good sir--forget your fright;
+    We promise you you are not slain outright.
+    The wound you got is not so mortal deep
+    But bleeding, cupping, patience, rest, and sleep,
+    With blisters, clysters, physic, air and diet
+    Will set you up again if you'll be quiet!"
+
+_Sir John_
+
+    "So thick, so fast the balls and bullets flew,
+    Some hit me here, some there, some thro' and thro',
+    Beneath my legs a score of hosses fell,
+    Shot under me by twice as many shell;
+    And though my soldiers falter and beseech,
+    Forward I strode, defiant to the breech,
+    And there, as History my valour teaches,
+    I fell as Cćsar fell, and lost--my breeches!
+    His face lay in his toga, in defeat,
+    So let me hide my face within my seat,
+    My requiem the rebel cannons roar,
+    My duty done, my bottom very sore.
+    Tell Willett he may keep his flour and pork,
+    For I am going back to dear New York."
+
+    (Exit on a litter to the Rogue's March)
+
+[Footnote 32: 32 parallel to _The Expedition to Danbury_, printed in a
+Pennsylvania newspaper, May 14th, 1777.]
+
+[Footnote 33: Carkers--carcass--a shell fired from a small piece of
+artillery.]
+
+[Footnote 34: Sir Peter Parker's breeches were carried away by a round
+shot at Fort Moultrie.]
+
+[Footnote 35: His charming but abandoned mistress.]
+
+"If we fight at Stanwix," says Penelope, "God send the business end as
+gaily as your broadside, Nick!"
+
+And so, amid laughter, our last evening together came to an end, and it
+was time to part.
+
+Nick gave Penelope a hearty smack, grinned broadly at me, seized my
+hands and whispered: "What did I tell you of the Scotch girl of
+Caughnawaga, who hath a way with her which is the undoing of all
+innocent young men?"
+
+"Idiot!" said I fiercely, "I am not undone in such a manner!" Like two
+bear-cubs we clutched and wrestled; then he hugged me, laughed, and
+broke away.
+
+"Farewell, comrades," he cried, snatching sack and musket from the
+corner. "If I can not fife the red-coats into hell to the Rogue's March,
+or my brother John drum them there to the Devil's tattoo, then my daddy
+shall persuade 'em thither with musket-music! Three stout Stoners and
+three lanky Livingstons, and all in the same regiment! Hurrah!"
+
+And off and down the tavern stairs he ran, clattering and clanking, and
+shouting out a fond good-bye to Burke, who had forgiven him the goat.
+
+Standing in the candle-light by the window, where a million rainwashed
+stars twinkled in the depthless ocean of the night, I rested my brow
+against the cool, glazed pane, lost in most bitter reflexion.
+
+Penelope had gone to her chamber; behind me the dishevelled table stood,
+bearing the candles and the débris of our last supper; a nosegay of
+bright flowers--Nick's parting token--lay on the floor, where they had
+fallen from Penelope's bosom.
+
+After a while I left the window and sat down, taking my head between my
+hands; and I had been sitting so for some time in ugly, sullen mood,
+when a noise caused me to look up.
+
+Penelope stood by the door, her yellow hair about her face and
+shoulders, and still combing of it while her brown eyes regarded me with
+an odd intentness.
+
+"Your light still blazed from your window," she said. "I had some
+misgiving that you sat here brooding all alone."
+
+I felt my face flush, for it had deeply humiliated me that she should
+know how I was offered no employment while others had been called or
+permitted to seek relief from inglorious idleness.
+
+She flung the bright banner of her hair over her right shoulder,
+caressed the thick and shining tresses, and so continued combing, still
+watching me, her head a little on one side.
+
+"All know you to be faithful, diligent and brave," said she. "You should
+not let it chafe your pride because others are called to duty before you
+are summoned. Often it chances that Merit paces the ante-chamber while
+Mediocrity is granted audience. But Opportunity redresses such
+accidents."
+
+"Opportunity," I repeated sneeringly, "--where is she?--for I have not
+seen or heard of that soft-footed jade who, they say, comes a-knocking
+once in a life-time; and thereafter knocks at our door no more."
+
+"Oh, John Drogue--John Drogue," said she in her strange and wistful way,
+"you shall hear the clear summons on your door very soon--all too soon
+for one of us,--for one of us, John Drogue."
+
+Her brown eyes were on me, unabashed; by touch she was dividing the
+yellow masses of her hair into two equal parts. And now she slowly
+braided each to peg them for the night beneath her ruffled cap.
+
+When she had braided and pegged her hair, she took the night-cap from
+her apron pocket and drew it over her golden head, tying the tabs under
+her chin.
+
+"It is strange," she said with her wistful smile, "that, though the
+world is ending, we needs must waste in sleep a portion of what time
+remains to us.... And so I am for bed, John Drogue.... Lest that same
+tapping-jade come to your door tonight and waken me, also, with her loud
+knocking."
+
+"Why do you say so? Have you news?"
+
+"Did I not once foresee a battle in the North? And men in strange
+uniforms?"
+
+"Yes," said I, smiling away the disappointment of a vague and momentary
+hope.
+
+"I think that battle will happen very soon," she said gravely.
+
+"You said that I should be there,--with that pale shadow in its shroud.
+Very well; only that I be given employment and live to see at least one
+battle, I care not whether I meet my weird in its winding-sheet. Because
+any man of spirit, and not a mouse, had rather meet his end that way
+than sink into dissolution in aged and toothless idleness."
+
+"If you were not a very young and untried soldier," said she, "you would
+not permit impatience to ravage you and sour you as it does. And for me,
+too, it saddens and spoils our last few days together."
+
+"Our last few days? You speak with a certainty--an authority----"
+
+"I know the summons is coming very soon."
+
+"If I could but believe in your Scottish second-sight----"
+
+"Would you be happy?"
+
+"Happy! I should deem myself the most fortunate man on earth!--if I
+could believe your Scottish prophecy!"
+
+She came nearer, and her eyes seemed depthless dusky in her pale face.
+
+"If that is all you require for happiness, John Drogue," said she in her
+low, still voice, "then you may take your pleasure of it. I tell you I
+_know_! And we have but few hours left together, you and I."
+
+Spite of common sense and disbelief in superstitions I could not remain
+entirely unconcerned before such perfect sincerity, though that she
+believed in her own strange gift could scarcely convince me.
+
+"Come," said I smilingly, "it may be so. At all events, you cheer me,
+Penelope, and your kindness heartens me.... Forgive my sullen
+temper;--it is hard for a man to think himself ignored and perhaps
+despised. And my ears ache with listening for that same gentle tapping
+upon my door."
+
+"I hear it now," she said under her breath.
+
+"I hear nothing."
+
+"Alas, no! Yet, that soft-footed maid is knocking on your door.... If
+only you had heart to hear."
+
+"One does not hear with one's heart," said I, smiling, and stirred to
+plague her for her mixed metaphor.
+
+"I do," said she, faintly.
+
+After a little silence she turned to go; and I followed, scarce knowing
+why; and took her hand in the doorway.
+
+"Little prophetess," said I, "who promises me what my heart desires,
+will you touch your lips to mine as a pledge that your prophecy shall
+come true?"
+
+She looked back over her shoulder, and remained so, her cheek on her
+right shoulder.
+
+"Your heart desires a battle, John Drogue; your idle vanity my lips....
+But you may possess them if you will."
+
+"I do love you dearly, Penelope Grant."
+
+She said with a breathless little smile:
+
+"Would you love me better if my prophecy came true this very night?"
+
+But I was troubled at that, and had no mind to sound those unventured
+deeps which, at such moments, I could feel vaguely astir within me. Nor
+yet did I seriously consider what I truly desired of this slender maid
+within the circle of my arms, nor what was to come of such sudden
+encounters with their swift smile and oddly halting breath and the
+heart, surprised, rhyming rapidly and unevenly in a reckless measure
+which pleasured less than it embarrassed.
+
+She loosed her hands and drew away from me, and leaned against the wall,
+not looking toward me.
+
+"I think," she said in a stifled voice, "you are to have your wish this
+night.... Do you hear anything?"
+
+In the intense stillness, straining my ears, I fancied presently that I
+heard a distant sound in the night. But if it had been so it died out,
+and the beat of my heart was louder. Then, of a sudden, I seemed to hear
+it again, and thought it was my pulses startled by sudden hope.
+
+"What is that sound?" I whispered. "Do you hear it?"
+
+"Aye."
+
+"I hear it also.... Is it imagination? Is there a horse on the highway?
+Why, I tell you there is!... There _is_! Do you think he rides express?"
+
+"Out o' the North, my lord," she whispered. And suddenly she turned,
+gave me a blind look, stretched out one hand.
+
+"_Why_ do you think that horseman comes for me!" I said. My imagination
+caught fire, flamed, and I stood shivering and crushing her fingers in
+my grasp. "Why--why--do you think so?" I stammered. "He's turned into
+William Street! He gallops this way! Damnation! He heads toward the
+Hall!--No! _No!_ By God, he is in our street, galloping--galloping----"
+
+Like a pistol shot came a far cry in the darkness: "Express-ho! I pass!
+I pass!" The racket of iron-shod hoofs echoed in the street; doors and
+windows flew open; a confusion of voices filled my ears; the rattling
+roar of the hoofs came to a clashing halt.
+
+"Jimmy Burke's Tavern!" shouted a hoarse voice.
+
+"Ye're there, me gay galloper!" came Burke's bantering voice. "An'
+phwat's afther ye that ye ride the night like a banshee? Is it Sir John
+that's chasin' ye crazy, Jock Gallopaway?"
+
+"Ah-h," retorted the express, "fetch a drink for me and tell me is there
+a Mr. Drogue lodging here? Hey? Upstairs? Well, wait a minute----"
+
+I still had Penelope's hand in mine as in the grip of a vise, so excited
+was I, when the express came stamping up the stairs in his jack-boots
+and pistols--a light-horseman of the Albany troop, who seemed smart
+enough in his mud-splashed helmet and uniform.
+
+"You are Mr. Drogue, sir?"
+
+"I am."
+
+He promptly saluted, fished out a letter from his sack and offered it.
+
+In my joy I gave him five shillings in hard money, and then, dragging
+Penelope by the hand, hastened to break the numerous and heavy seals and
+open my letter and read it by the candle's yellow flare.
+
+     "Headquarters Northern Dist:
+     Dept: of Tryon County.
+     Albany, N. Y.
+     August 1st, 1777.
+
+     _Confidential_
+     "To John Drogue, Esqr,
+     Lieut: Rangers.
+
+     Sir,
+
+     "An Oneida runner arrived today, who gives an account that Genl
+     St. Leger, with the corps of Sir John Johnson and Colonel John
+     Butler, including a thousand savages under Joseph Brant, has been
+     detached from the army of Genl Burgoyne, and is marching on Fort
+     Schuyler.
+
+     "You are directed to take the field instantly with a scout of
+     Oneida Indians, who await you at a rendezvous marked upon the
+     secret map which I enclose herewith.
+
+     "You will cross the Buck Island trail somewhere between Rocky River
+     and the Mohawk, and observe St. Leger's line of communications,
+     cutting off such small posts as prove not too strong, taking
+     prisoners if possible, and ascertaining St. Leger's ultimate
+     objective, which may be Johnstown or even Schenectady.
+
+     "Having satisfied yourself concerning these matters, you will send
+     your despatch by a runner to Albany, and instantly move your
+     detachment toward Saratoga, where you should come into touch with
+     our Northern forces under General Gates, and there render a verbal
+     report to General Gates in person.
+
+     "You are strictly cautioned to destroy this letter after reading,
+     and to maintain absolute secrecy concerning its contents. The map
+     you may retain, but if you are taken you should endeavour to
+     destroy it.
+
+     "Sir, I have the honour to be, etc., etc.,
+
+     "Ph. Schuyler,
+     "Maj: Gen'l."
+
+Twice I read the letter before I twisted it to a torch and burned it in
+the candle flame.
+
+Then I called out to the express: "Say to the personage who sent you
+hither that his letter is destroyed, and his orders shall be instantly
+obeyed. Burke has fresh horses for those who ride express."
+
+Off downstairs he went in his jack-boots, equipments jingling and
+clanking, and I unfolded my map but scarce could hold it steady in my
+excitement.
+
+Immediately I perceived that I did not need the map to find the
+rendezvous, for, as Brent-Meester, I had known that wilderness as
+perfectly as I knew the streets in Johnstown.
+
+So I made another torch of the map, laughing under my breath to think
+that Sir William's late forest warden should require such an article.
+
+All this time, too, I had forgotten Penelope; and turned, now, and saw
+her watching me, slim and motionless and white as snow.
+
+When her eyes met mine she strove to smile, asking me whether indeed she
+had not proven a true prophetess.
+
+As she spoke, suddenly a great fear possessed me concerning her; and I
+stood staring at her in a terrible perplexity.
+
+For now there seemed to be nothing for it but to leave her here, the
+Schenectady road already being unsafe, or so considered by Schuyler
+until more certain information could be obtained.
+
+"Do you leave tonight?" she asked calmly.
+
+"Yes, immediately."
+
+She cast a glance at my rifle standing in the corner, and at my pack,
+which I had always ready in the event of such sudden summons.
+
+Now I went over to the corner where my baggage lay, lifted the pack and
+strapped it; put on powder horn, bullet pouch, and sack, slung my knife
+and my light war-hatchet, and took my cap and rifle.
+
+The moment of parting was here. It scared and confused me, so swiftly
+had it come upon us.
+
+As I went toward her she turned and walked to the door, and leaned
+against the frame awaiting me.
+
+"If trouble comes," I muttered, "the fort is strong.... But I wish to
+God you were in Albany."
+
+"I shall do well enough here.... Will you come again to Johnstown?"
+
+"Yes. Good-bye."
+
+"Good-bye, John Drogue."
+
+"Will you care for Kaya?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And if I do not return you are to have all with which I die possessed.
+I have written it."
+
+"In that event I keep only my memory of you. The rest I offer to the
+needy--in your name."
+
+Her voice was steady, and her hand, too, where it lay passive in mine.
+But it crisped and caught my fingers convulsively when I kissed her; and
+crept up along my fringed sleeve to my shoulder-cape, and grasped the
+green thrums.
+
+And now her arm lay tightly around my neck, and I looked down into the
+whitest face I ever had gazed upon.
+
+"I love you dearly," I said, "and am deep in love.... I want you,
+Penelope Grant."
+
+"I want you," she said.
+
+My heart was suffocating me:
+
+"Shall we exchange vows?" I managed to say.
+
+"What vows, sir?"
+
+"Such as engage our honour. I want you to wife, Penelope Grant."
+
+"Dear lad! What are you saying? You should travel widely and at leisure
+before you commit your honour to an unconsidered vow. I desire that you
+first see great cities, other countries, other women--of your own
+caste.... And then ... if you return ... and are still of the same
+mind ... concerning me...."
+
+"But _you_? There are other men in the world. And I must have your vows
+before I go!"
+
+"Oh, if it be only mine you desire, then I promise you, John Drogue, to
+look at no man with kindness in your absence, think of no man excepting
+you, pray for none save only His Excellency and General Schuyler, dream
+of none, God willing, but you. And to remain in deed and thought and
+word and conduct constant and faithful to you alone."
+
+"Then," said I, trembling, "I also promise----"
+
+"No!"
+
+"But I----"
+
+"Wait! For God's sake mind what you say; for I will not have it that
+your honour should ever summon you hither and not your heart! No! Let be
+as it is."
+
+Her sudden warmth and the quick flush of determination on her face
+checked and silenced me.
+
+She said very coolly: "Any person of sense must know that a marriage is
+unsuitable between a servant to Douw Fonda and John Murray Drogue
+_Forbes_, Laird of Northesk, and a Stormont to boot!"
+
+"Where got you that _Forbes_?" I demanded, astonished and angry.
+
+She laughed. "Because I know the clan, _my lord_!"
+
+"How do you know?" I repeated, astounded.
+
+"Because it is my own clan and name. Drogue-Forbes, Grant-Forbes!--a
+claymore or a pair of scissors can snip the link when some Glencoe or
+Culloden of adversity scatters families to the four winds and seven
+seas.... Well, sir, as the saying is in Northesk, 'a Drogue stops at
+nothing but a Forbes. And a Grant is as stubborn.' Did you ever hear
+that?"
+
+"Yes.... And _you_ are a Forbes of Northesk?"
+
+"Like yourself, sir, we _stop before a liaison_."
+
+Her rapier wit confused and amazed me; her sudden revelation of our
+kinship confounded me.
+
+"Good God," said I, "why have you never told me this, Penelope?"
+
+She shook her yellow head defiantly: "A would na," quoth she, her chin
+hanging down, but the brown eyes of her watching me. "And it was a
+servant-maid you asked to wife you, and none other either.... D'ye ken
+that, you Stormont lad? It was me--me!--who may wear the _Beadlaidh_,
+too!--me who can cry '_Lonach! Lonach! Creag Ealachaidh!_' with as stout
+a heart and clean a pride as you, Ian Drogue, Laird o' Northesk!--laird
+o' my soul and heart--my lord--my dear, dear lord----"
+
+She flung her arms across her face and burst into a fit of weeping; and
+as I caught her in my arms she leaned so on my breast, sobbing out her
+happiness and fears and pride and love, and her gratitude to God that I
+should have loved her for herself in the body of a maid-servant, and
+that I had bespoken her fairly where in all the land no man had offered
+more than that which she might take from him out of his left hand.
+
+So, for a long while, we stood there together, clasped breast to breast,
+dumb with tenderness and mazed in the spell of first young love.
+
+I stammered my vows, and she now opposed me nothing, only clinging to me
+the closer, confident, submissive, acquiescent in all I wished and asked
+and said.
+
+There were ink, paper, a quill, and sand in her chamber. We went
+thither, and I wrote out drafts upon Schenectady, and composed letters
+of assurance and recognition, which would be useful to her in case of
+necessity.
+
+I got Jimmy Burke out o' bed and shewed him all I had writ, and made him
+witness our signatures and engaged him to appear if necessary.
+
+These papers and money drafts, together with Penelope's papers and
+letters she had of Douw Fonda and of the Patroon, were sufficient to
+establish her with the new will I made and had witnessed at the fort a
+week before.
+
+And so, at midnight, in her little chamber at Burke's Inn, I parted from
+Penelope Grant,--dropped to my knee and kissed her feet, who had been
+servant to the county gentry and courted by the county quality, but had
+been mistress of none in all the world excepting only of herself.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When I was ready she handed me my rifle, buckled up my shoulder sack,
+smoothed my fringed cape with steady hands, walked with me to her
+chamber door.
+
+Her face rested an instant against mine, but there were no tears, no
+trembling, only the swift passion of her lips; and then--"God be with
+you, John Drogue!" And so, with gay courage, closed her chamber door.
+
+I turned and stumbled out along the corridor, carrying my rifle and
+feeling my way to the hand-rail, down the creaking stairway, and out
+into the starry night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+FIRE-FLIES
+
+
+That night I lay on my blanket in the forest, but slept only three
+hours, and was awake in the gates of morning before the sun rose, ready
+to move on to the Wood of Brakabeen, our rendezvous in Schoharie.
+
+Never shall I forget that August day so crowded with events.
+
+And first in the yellow flare of sun-up, on the edge of a pasture where
+acres of dew sparkled, I saw a young girl milking; and went to her to
+beg a cup of new milk.
+
+But she was very offish until she learned to what party I belonged, and
+then gave me a dipper full of sweet milk.
+
+When I had satisfied my thirst, she took me by the hand and drew me into
+a grove of pines where none could observe us. And here she told me her
+name, which was Angelica Vrooman, and warned me not to travel through
+Schoharie by any highway.
+
+For, said she, the district was all smouldering with disloyalty, and the
+Tories growing more defiant day by day with news of Sir John's advance
+and McDonald also on the way from the southward to burn the place and
+murder all.
+
+"My God, sir," says she, in a very passion of horror and resentment, "I
+know not how we, in Schoharie, shall contrive, for Herkimer has called
+out our regiment and they march this morning to their rendezvous with
+the Palatine Regiment.
+
+"What are we to do, sir? The Middle Fort alone is defensible; the Upper
+and Lower Forts are still a-building, and sodders still at labour, and
+neither ditch nor palisade begun."
+
+"You have your exempts," said I, troubled, "and your rangers."
+
+"Our exempts work on the forts; our rangers are few and scattered, and
+Colonel Harper knows not where to turn for a runner or a rifleman!
+
+"General Schuyler has writ to my father and says how he desires General
+Ten Broeck to order out the whole of the militia, only that he fears
+that they will behave like the Schenectady and Schoharie militia have
+done and that very few will march unless provision is made for their
+families' security.
+
+"A man rides express today to the garrison in the Highlands to pray for
+two hundred Continentals. Which is only just, as we are exposed to
+McDonald and Sir John, and have already sent most of our men to the
+Continental Line, and have left only our regiment, which marches today,
+and the remainder all disaffected and plotting treason."
+
+"Plotting treason? What do you mean, child?" I demanded anxiously.
+
+"Why, sir, Captain Mann and his company refuse to march. He declares
+himself a friend to King George, has barricaded Brick House,[36] is
+collecting Indians and Tories, and swears he will join McDonald's
+outlaws and destroy us unless we lay down our arms and accept royal
+protection."
+
+[Footnote 36: The house stood in the forks of the Albany and Schenectady
+road.]
+
+"Why--why the filthy dog!" I stammered, "I have never heard the like of
+such treason!"
+
+"Can you help us, sir?" she asked earnestly.
+
+"I shall endeavour to do so," said I, red with wrath.
+
+"Our people have planned to seize and barricade Stone House," said she.
+"My father rides express to Albany. Why, sir, so put to it are we that
+Henry Hager, an aged exempt of over seventy years, is scouting for our
+party. Is our situation not pitiful?"
+
+"Have all the young men gone? Have you no brothers to defend this
+house?"
+
+"No, sir.... I have a lover.... He is Lieutenant Wirt, of the Albany
+Light Horse. But he has writ to my father that he can not leave his
+cavalry to help us."
+
+It was sad enough; and I promised the girl I would do what I could; and
+so left her, continuing on along the fences in the shadow of the woods.
+
+It was not long afterward when I heard military music in the distance.
+And now, from a hill, I saw long files of muskets shining in the early
+sun.
+
+It was the Canajoharie Regiment marching with fife, drum, and bugle-horn
+to join Herkimer; and so near they passed at the foot of the low hill
+where I stood that I could see and recognize their mounted officers; and
+saw, riding with them, Spencer, the Oneida interpreter, splendidly
+horsed; and Colonel Cox, old George Klock's smart son-in-law, who, when
+Brant asked him if he were not related to that thieving villain of the
+Moonlight Survey, replied: "Yes, I am, but what is that to you, you
+s--- of an Indian!"
+
+I saw and recognized Colonels Vrooman and Zielie, Majors Becker and
+Eckerson, and Larry Schoolcraft, the regimental adjutant; and, sitting
+upon their transport waggon, Dirck Larraway, Storm Becker, Jost Bouck of
+Clavarack, and Barent Bergen of Kinderhook.
+
+So, in the morning sunshine, marched the 15th N. Y. Militia, carrying in
+its ranks the flower of the district's manhood and the principal
+defenders of the Schoharie Valley.
+
+Very soberly I turned away into the woods.
+
+For it was a strange and moving and dreadful sight I had beheld, knowing
+personally almost every man who was marching there toward the British
+fire, and aware that practically every soldier in those sturdy ranks had
+a brother, or father, or son, or relative of some description in the
+ranks of the opposing party.
+
+Here, indeed, were the seeds of horror that civil war sprouts! For I
+think that only the Hager family, and perhaps the Beckers, were all
+mustered in our own service. But there were Tory Vroomans, Swarts, Van
+Dycks, Eckersons, Van Slycks--aye, even Tory Herkimer, too, which most
+furiously saddened our brave old General Honikol.
+
+Well, I took to the forest as I say, but it was so thick and the
+travelling so wearisome, that I bore again to the left, and presently
+came out along the clearings and pasture fences.
+
+Venturing now to travel the highway for a little way, and being stopped
+by nobody, I became more confident; and when I saw a woman washing
+clothes by the Schoharie Creek, I did not trouble to avoid her, but
+strode on.
+
+She heard me coming, and looked up over her shoulder; and I saw she was
+a notorious slattern of the Valley, whose name, I think, was Staats, but
+who was commonly known as Rya's Pup.
+
+"Aha!" says she, clearing the unkempt hair from her ratty face. "What is
+Forbes o' Culloden doing in Schoharie? Sure," says she, "there must be
+blood to sniff in the wind when a Northesk bloodhound comes here
+a-nosing northward!"
+
+"Well, Madame Staats," said I calmly, "you appear to know more about
+Culloden than do I myself. Did that great loon, McDonald, tell you all
+these old-wives' tales?"
+
+"Ho-ho!" says she, her two hands on her hips, a-kneeling there by the
+water's edge, "the McDonalds should know blood, too, when they smell
+it."
+
+"You seem to be friends with that outlaw. And do you know where he now
+is?" I asked carelessly.
+
+"If I do," says the slut, with an oath, "it is my own affair and none
+of the Forbes or Drogues or such kittle-cattle either;--mark that, my
+young cockerel, and journey about your business!"
+
+"You are not very civil, Madame Staats."
+
+"Why, you damned rebel," says she, "would you teach me manners?"
+
+"God forbid, madam," said I, smiling. "I'd wear gray hairs ere you
+learned your a-b-c."
+
+"You'll wear no hair at all when McDonald is done with you," she cries,
+and bursts into laughter so shocking that I go on, shivering and sad to
+see in any woman such unkindness.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+About noon I saw Lawyer's Tavern; and from the fences north of the house
+I secretly observed it for a long while before venturing thither.
+
+John Lawyer, whatever his political complexion, welcomed me kindly and
+gave me dinner.
+
+I asked news, and he gave an account that Brick House was now but a
+barracks full of Tories and Schoharie Indians, led by Sethen and Little
+David or Ogeyonda, a runner, who now took British money and wore scarlet
+paint.
+
+"We in this valley know not what to do," said he, "nor dare, indeed, do
+aught save take protection from the stronger party, as it chances to be
+at the moment, and thank God we still wear our proper hair."
+
+And, try as I might, I could not determine to which party he truly
+belonged, so wary was mine host and so fearful of committing himself.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The sun hung low when I came to the Wood of Brakabeen; and saw the tall
+forest oaks, their tops all rosy in the sunset, and the great green
+pines wearing their gilded spires against the evening sky.
+
+Dusk fell as I traversed the wood, where, deep within, a cool and ferny
+glade runs east and west, and a small and icy stream flows through the
+nodding grasses of the swale, setting the wet green things and
+spray-drenched blossoms quivering along its banks.
+
+And here, suddenly, in the purple dusk, three Indians rose up and barred
+my way. And I saw, with joy, my three Oneidas, Tahioni the Wolf, Kwiyeh
+the Screech-owl, Hanatoh the Water-snake, all shaven, oiled, and in
+their paint; and all wearing the Tortoise and The Little Red Foot.
+
+So deeply the encounter affected me that I could scarce speak as I
+pressed their extended hands, one after another, and felt their eager,
+caressing touch on my arms and shoulders.
+
+"Brother," they said, "we are happy to be chosen for the scout under
+your command. We are contented to have you with us again.
+
+"We were told by the Saguenay, who passed here on his way to the Little
+Falls, that you had recovered of your hurts, but we are glad to see for
+ourselves that this is so, and that our elder brother is strong and well
+and fit once more for the battle-trail!"
+
+I told them I was indeed recovered, and never felt better than at that
+moment. I inquired warmly concerning each, and how fortune had treated
+them. I listened to their accounts of stealthy scouting, of ambushes in
+silent places, of death-duels amid the eternal dusk of shaggy forests,
+where sunlight never penetrated the matted roof of boughs.
+
+They shewed me their scalps, their scars, their equipment, accoutrement,
+finery. They related what news was to be had of the enemy, saying that
+Stanwix was already invested by small advance parties of Mohawks under
+forester officers; that trees had been felled across Wood Creek; that
+the commands of Gansevoort and Willett occupied the fort on which
+soldiers still worked to sod the parapets.
+
+Of McDonald, however, they knew nothing, and nothing concerning
+Burgoyne, but they had brazenly attended the Iroquois Federal Council,
+when their nation was summoned there, and saw their great men, Spencer
+and Skenandoa treated with cold indifference when the attitude of the
+Oneida nation was made clear to the Indian Department and the Six
+Nations.
+
+"Then, brother," said Tahioni sadly, "our sachems covered themselves in
+their blankets, and Skenandoa led them from the last Onondaga fire that
+ever shall burn in North America."
+
+"And we young warriors followed," added Kwiyeh, "and we walked in
+silence, our hands resting on our hatchets."
+
+"The Long House is breaking in two," said the Water-snake. "In the
+middle it is sinking down. It sags already over Oneida Lake. The serpent
+that lives there shall see it settling down through the deep water to
+lie in ruins upon the magic sands forever."
+
+After a decent silence Tahioni patted the Little Red Foot sewed on the
+breast of my hunting shirt.
+
+"If we all are to perish," he said proudly, "they shall respect our
+scalps and our memory. Haih! Oneida! We young men salute our dying
+nation."
+
+I lifted my hatchet in silence, then slowly sheathed it.
+
+"Is our Little Maid of Askalege well?" I asked.
+
+"Thiohero is well. The River-reed makes magic yonder in the swale," said
+Tahioni seriously.
+
+"Is Thiohero here?" I exclaimed.
+
+Her brother smiled: "She is a girl-warrior as well as our Oneida
+prophetess. Skenandoa respects and consults her. Spencer, who worships
+your white God and is still humble before Tharon, has said that my
+sister is quite a witch. All Oneidas know her to be a sorceress. She can
+make a pair of old moccasins jump about when she drums."
+
+"Where is she now?"
+
+"Yonder in the glade dancing with the fire-flies."
+
+I walked forward in the luminous dusk, surrounded by my Oneidas. And, of
+a sudden, in the swale ahead I saw sparks whirling up in clouds, but
+perceived no fire.
+
+"Fire-flies," whispered Tahioni.
+
+And now, in the centre of the turbulent whirl of living sparks, I saw a
+slim and supple shape, like a boy warrior stripped for war, and dancing
+there all alone amid the gold and myriad greenish dots of light eddying
+above the swale grass.
+
+Swaying, twisting, graceful as a thread of smoke, the little sorceress
+danced in a perfect whirlwind of fire-flies, which made an incandescent
+cloud enveloping her.
+
+And I heard her singing in a low, clear voice the song that timed the
+rhythm of her naked limbs and her painted body, from which the cinctured
+wampum-broidered sporran flew like a shower of jewels:
+
+    "Wood o' Brakabeen,
+    Hiahya!
+    Leaves, flowers, grasses green,
+    Dancing where you lean
+    Above the stream unseen,
+    Hiahya!
+    Dance, little fireflies,
+    Like shooting stars in winter skies;
+    Dance, little fireflies,
+    As the Oneida Dancers whirl,
+    Where silver clouds unfurl,
+    Revealing a dark Heaven
+    And Sisters Seven.
+    Hiahya! Wood o' Brakabeen!
+    Hiahya! Grasses green!
+    You shall tell me what they mean
+    Who ride hither,
+    Who 'bide thither,
+    Who creep unseen
+    In red coats and in green;
+    Who come this way,
+    Who come to slay!
+    Hiahya! my fireflies!
+    Tell me all you know
+    About the foe!
+    Where hath he hidden?
+    Whither hath he ridden?
+    Where are the Maquas in their paint,
+    Who have forgotten their Girl-Sainte?[37]
+    Hiahya!
+    I am The River-Reed!
+    Hiahya!
+    All things take heed!
+    Naked, without drum or mask
+    I do my magic task.
+    Fireflies, tell me what I ask!..."
+
+[Footnote 37: Catherine. Her shrine is at Auriesville--the Lourdes of
+America--where many miraculous cures are effected.]
+
+"He-he!" chuckled The Water-snake, "Thiohero is quite a witch!"
+
+We seated ourselves. If the Little Maid of Askalege, whirling in her
+dance, perceived us through her veil of living phosphorescence, she made
+no sign.
+
+And it was a long time before she stood still, swayed outward, reeled
+across the grass, and fell face down among the ferns.
+
+As I sprang to my feet Tahioni caught my arm.
+
+"Remain very silent and still, my elder brother," he said gravely.
+
+For a full hour, I think, the girl lay motionless among the ferns. The
+cloud of fire-flies had vanished. Rarely one sparkled distantly now, far
+away in the glade.
+
+The delay, in the darkness, seemed interminable before the girl stirred,
+raised her head, slowly sat upright.
+
+Then she lifted one slim arm and called softly to me:
+
+"Nai, my Captain!"
+
+"Nai, Thiohero!" I answered.
+
+She came creeping through the herbage and gathered herself cross-legged
+beside me. I took her hands warmly, and released them; and she caressed
+my arms and face with velvet touch.
+
+"It is happiness to see you, my Captain," she said softly.
+
+"Nai! Was I not right when I foretold your hurt at the fight near the
+Drowned Lands?"
+
+"Truly," said I, "you are a sorceress; and I am deeply grateful to you
+for your care of me when I lay wounded by Howell's house."
+
+"I hear you. I listen attentively. I am glad," she said. "And I continue
+to listen for your voice, my Captain."
+
+"Then--have you talked secretly with the fire-flies?" I asked gravely.
+
+"I have talked with them."
+
+"And have they told you anything, little sister?"
+
+"The fire-flies say that many green-coats and Maquas have gone to
+Stanwix," she replied seriously, "and that other green-coats,--who now
+wear _red_ coats,--are following from Oswego."
+
+I nodded: "Sir John's Yorkers," I said to Tahioni.
+
+"Also," she said, "there are with them men in _strange uniforms_, which
+are not American, not British."
+
+"What!" I exclaimed, startled in spite of myself.
+
+"Strange men in strange dress," she murmured, "who speak neither English
+nor French nor Iroquois nor Algonquin."
+
+Then, all in an instant, it came to me what she meant--what Penelope had
+meant.
+
+"You mean the Chasseurs from Buck Island," said I, "the Hessians!"
+
+But she did not know, only that they wore gray and green clothing and
+were tall, ruddy men--taller for the odd caps they wore, and their long
+legs buttoned in black to the hips.
+
+"Hessians," I repeated. "Hainault riflemen hired out to the King of
+England by their greedy and contemptible German master and by that great
+ass, George Third, shipped hither to stir in us Americans a hatred for
+himself that never shall be extinguished!"
+
+"Are their scalps well haired?" inquired Tahioni anxiously.
+
+It seemed a ludicrous thing to say, and I was put to it to stifle my
+sudden mirth.
+
+"They wear pig-tails in eel-skins, and stiffened with pomade that stinks
+from New York to Albany," said I.
+
+Then my mood sobered again; and I thought of Penelope's vision and
+wondered whether I was truly fated to meet my end in combat with these
+dogs of Germans.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Screech-owl had made a fire. Also, before my arrival he had killed
+an August doe, and a haunch was now a-roasting and filling my nostrils
+with a pleasant odour.
+
+We spread our blankets and ate our parched corn, watching our meat
+cooking.
+
+"And McDonald?" I inquired of Thiohero, who sat close to me and rested
+her head on my shoulder while eating her parched com.
+
+"My fire-flies tell me," said she gravely, "that the outlaws travel this
+way, and shall hang on the Schoharie in ambush."
+
+"When?"
+
+"When there is a battle near Stanwix."
+
+"Oh. Shall McDonald come to Brakabeen?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+I gazed absently at the fire, slowly chewing my parched corn.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+OYANEH!
+
+
+The problem which I must now solve staggered me. How was it possible,
+with my little scout of five, to discover McDonald's approach and also
+find Sir John's line of communication and penetrate his purpose?
+
+On a leaf of my _carnet_ I made a map which was shaped like an immense
+right-angle triangle, its apex Fort Stanwix in the west; its base
+Schoharie Creek; the Mohawk River its perpendicular; its hypothenuse my
+bee's-flight to Oneida.
+
+The only certain information I possessed was that Sir John and St. Leger
+had sailed from Buck Island to Oswego, and from there were marching
+somewhere. I guessed, of course, that they were approaching the Mohawk
+by way of Oneida Lake; yet, even so, they might have detached McDonald's
+outlaws and sent them to Otsego; or they might be coming upon us in full
+force from that same direction, with flanking war parties flung out
+toward Stanwix to aid their strategy.
+
+One thing, however, seemed almost certain, and that was the direction
+their waggons must take from Oneida Lake; for I did not think Sir John
+would attempt Otsego in any force after his tragic dose of a pathless
+wilderness the year before.
+
+I saw very plainly, however, that I must now give up any attempt to
+scout for McDonald's painted demons on the Schoharie until I had
+discovered Sir John's objective and traced his line of communications.
+And I realized that I must now move quickly.
+
+There were only two logical methods left open to me to accomplish this
+hazardous business with my handful of scouts. The easier way was
+instantly to face about, secure two good canoes at Schoharie, make
+directly for the Mohawk River, and follow it westward by water day and
+night.
+
+But the surer way to run across Sir John's trail--and perhaps
+McDonald's--was to take to the western forests, follow the hypothenuse
+of the great triangle, and, travelling lightly and swiftly northwest,
+headed straight for Oneida Lake.
+
+This was what, finally, I decided to attempt as I lay on my blanket
+that night; and I was loath to leave the Schoharie and ashamed to turn
+tail to McDonald's ragamuffins, when the entire district was in so great
+distress, and Brakabeen farms a rat's nest of disloyal families.
+
+But there seemed to be no other way to conduct if I obeyed my orders,
+too;--no better method of discovering McDonald and of devising
+punishment for him, even though in the meanwhile he should carry fire
+and sword through Schoharie,--perhaps menace Schenectady,--perhaps
+Albany itself.
+
+No, there was no other choice; and finally I realized this, after a
+night passed in agonized indecision, and asking God's guidance to aid my
+inexperience in this so terrible a crisis.
+
+At dawn my Indians began to paint.
+
+After we had eaten a bowl of samp I called them around me, shewed them
+the map I had made in my _carnet_, told them what I had decided, and
+invited opinions from everybody. I added that there now was no time for
+any customary formalities of deliberation so dear to all Indians: I told
+them that Tharon and God were one; and that our ancestors understood and
+approved what we were about to do.
+
+Then I laid a handful of dry sticks upon the ground, pretended that this
+was a fire; warmed my hands at it; lighted an imaginary pipe; puffed it
+and passed it around in pantomime.
+
+Still employing symbols to reassure these young Oneida warriors
+concerning time-honoured formalities which they dared not disregard, I
+drew a circle in the air with my finger, cut it twice with an imaginary
+horizontal line to indicate a sunrise and a sunset, then turned to
+Tahioni and bade him answer my speech of _yesterday_ after a _night's
+deliberation_.
+
+The young warrior replied gravely that he and his comrades had
+consulted, and were of one mind with me. He said that it was with sorrow
+that they turned their backs on McDonald, who was a great villain and
+who surely would now be coming to Schoharie to murder and destroy; but
+that _it did no good to sever the tail of a snake_. He said that the
+fanged head of the Tory Serpent was somewhere east of Oneida Lake; that
+if we scouted swiftly and thoroughly in that direction we could very
+soon surmise where the poisonous head was about to strike, by
+discovering and then observing the direction in which the body of the
+serpent was travelling.
+
+One by one I asked my young men for an opinion: the youthful warriors
+were unanimous.
+
+Then I turned and gazed fearfully at Thiohero, knowing well enough that
+these other adolescents would obey her blindly, and in dread lest her
+own dreams should sway her judgment and counsel her to advise us to some
+folly. She was their prophetess; there was nothing to do without her
+sanction. I could not order these Oneidas; I could only attempt to use
+them through their own instincts and personal loyalty to myself.
+
+The early sun gilded the painted body of their sorceress, making of her
+clan ensign and the Little Red Foot two brilliant and jewelled symbols.
+
+She stood lithely upright, one smooth knee nestling to the other, her
+feet in their ankle moccasins planted parallel and close together, and
+her body all glistening like a gold dragon-fly.
+
+From her painted cincture hung her war-sporran,--a narrow cascade of
+pale blue wampum barred with scarlet and lined with winter weasel.
+Hatchet and knife swung from either hip; powder-horn and bullet-wallet
+dangled beneath her arm-pits. A war bow and a quiver full of scarlet
+arrows hung at her back. Her hair, shoulder-short and glossy-thick, was
+bound above the brows by a tight scarlet circlet. From this, across her
+left ear, sagged a heron's feather.
+
+Never had I beheld such wild and supple grace in any living thing save
+only in a young panther clothed in the soft, dun-gold of her wedding
+fur.
+
+"Thiohero," I said, "little sister to whom has been given an instinct
+more delicate than ours, and senses more subtle, and a wisdom both human
+and superhuman,--you who listen when the forest trees talk one to
+another under the full moon's lustre,--you who understand the speech of
+our lesser comrades that fly through the air paths on bright wings, or
+run through the dusky woodlands on four furry feet--you who speak
+secretly with the mighty dead; who whisper and laugh with fairies and
+little people and stone-throwers; who with your magic drum can make
+worn-out and cast-off moccasins dance; whose ancestress ate live coals
+to frighten away the Flying Heads; whose forefathers destroyed the
+Stonish Giants; _we Oneidas of the clan of the Little Red Foot_ are now
+of one mind concerning the war-trail we ought to take and follow to the
+end!
+
+"_Little sister_; we desire to know your opinion. _Hiero!_"
+
+Then the Little Maid of Askalege folded her arms, looking me intently in
+the eyes.
+
+"_Brother_, and my Captain," she said very quietly, "a year ago I told
+you that you should come from Howell's house _in scarlet_. And it was
+so.
+
+"And while you lay at Summer House a Caughnawaga woman, with yellow
+hair, washed the scarlet from your body.
+
+"And there came a day when, we met under apple-trees in green
+fruit--this Yellow Haired woman and I. And, stopping, we confronted each
+the other; and looked deeply into one another's minds.
+
+"_Brother_: when I discovered that Yellow Hair was in love with you I
+became angry. But when I discovered that this young woman also _was a
+sorceress_, then I became afraid.
+
+"_Brother_: there was a vision in her mind, and I also beheld the scene
+she gazed at.
+
+"_Brother_: we saw a battle in the North, and men in strange uniforms,
+and cannon smoke. And we _both_ were looking upon _you_; and upon a
+shape near you, which stood wrapped to the head in white garments.
+
+"_Brother_: I do not know what that shape may have been which stood
+robed in white like a Chief of the Eight Plumed Ones.
+
+"But at that moment we both understood--the Yellow Haired one and
+I--that you must surely travel to this place we gazed at.
+
+"So it makes no difference where you decide to go; all trails lead to
+that appointed place; and you shall surely come there at the hour
+appointed, though you travel the world over and across before you shall
+at last arrive.
+
+"_Brother_: we Oneida, of the Allied Clan of the Little Red Foot, are
+now of one mind with our elder brother. He is our chief and Captain. He
+has spoken as an Oneida to Oneidas. We understand. We thank him for his
+love offered. We thank him for his kinship offered. We accept; and, in
+our turn, we offer to our elder brother and Captain our love and our
+kinship. We take him among us as an Oneida.
+
+"At this our fire--for alas! no fire shall burn again at Onondaga, nor
+at Oneida Lake, nor at The Wood's Edge, nor at Thendara--I, Thiohero,
+Sorceress of Askalege, and _Oyaneh_, salute an Oneida chief and Sachem.
+Hail Royaneh!"
+
+"Hai! Royaneh!" shouted the young warriors in rising excitement.
+
+The girl come to me slowly, stooped and tore from the ground a strand of
+club-moss. Then, straightening up, she lifted her arms and held the
+chaplet of moss over my head,--symbol of the chief's antlers.
+
+"O nen ti eh o ya nen ton tah ya qua wen ne ken...."
+
+Her young voice faltered, broke:
+
+"Tah o nen sah gon yan nen tah ah tah o nen ti ton tah ken yahtas!" she
+added in a strangled voice: "Now I have finished. Now show me the
+_man_!"
+
+"He is here!" cried the excited Oneidas. "He wears the antlers!"
+
+Tahioni stretched out his hand; it was trembling when he touched the red
+foot sewed on my hunting shirt.
+
+"What is his name, O Thiohero, whom you have raised up among the Oneida?
+Who mourn a great man dead?"
+
+A deep silence fell among them; for what their prophetess had done meant
+that she must have knowledge that a great man and chief among the Oneida
+lay dead somewhere at that very moment.
+
+Slowly the girl turned her head from one to another; a veiled look
+drowned her gaze; the young men were quivering in the imminence of a
+revelation based upon knowledge which could be explained only by
+sorcery.
+
+Then the Little Maid of Askalege took a dry stick from the pretended
+fire, crumbled it, touched her lips with the powder in sign of personal
+and intimate mourning.
+
+"Spencer, Interpreter and Oneida Chief, shall die this week in battle,"
+she said in a dull voice.
+
+A murmur of horror and rage, instantly checked and suppressed, left the
+Oneidas staring at their prophetess.
+
+"Therefore," she whispered, "I acquaint you that we have chosen this
+young man to take his place; we lift the antlers; we give him the same
+name,--Hahyion!"[38]
+
+[Footnote 38: Haghriron, of the Great Rite, in the Canienga dialect.]
+
+"Haih! Hahyion!" shouted the Oneidas with up-flung hands.
+
+I was dumb. I could not speak. I dared not ask this girl why and by what
+knowledge she presumed to predict the death of Spencer, and to raise me
+up in his place and give me the same name.
+
+In spite of me her magic made me shudder.
+
+But now that I was truly an Oneida, and in absolute authority, I must
+act quickly.
+
+"Come, then," said I in a shaky voice, "we People of the Rock must march
+on the Gates of Sunset. If my fate lies there, why then I am due to die
+in that place!... Make ready, Oneidas!"
+
+The Screech-owl found a hollow under a windfall; and here we hurriedly
+hid our heavier baggage.
+
+Then, when all had completed painting the Little Red Foot on their
+bellies, I stepped swiftly ahead of them and turned northwest.
+
+"March," I said in a low voice.
+
+We travelled as the honey-bee flies, and as rapidly while the going was
+good en route; but to cover this great triangle of forests we were
+obliged to use the tactics of hunting wolves and, from some given point,
+circle the surrounding country, in hopes of cutting the hidden British
+trail we sought.
+
+This delayed us; but it was the only way. And, like trained hunting
+dogs, we even quartered and cut up the wilderness, halting and
+encircling Cherry Valley on the second day out, because I knew how
+familiar was Walter Butler with that region and with the people who
+inhabited it, and suspected that he might be likely to lead his first
+attack over ground he knew so well.
+
+Ah, God!--had I known then what all the world knows now! And I erred
+only in guessing at the time of Cherry Valley's martyrdom, not in
+estimating the ferocious purpose of young Walter Butler.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the afternoon of our second day out from Schoharie, while we were
+still beating up the bush of the Cherry Valley district, I left my
+Indians and went alone down into the pretty settlement in quest of
+information and also to renew our scanty stock of provisions. I found
+the lovely place almost deserted, save for a few old men of the exempts
+working on a sort of fort around Colonel Clyde's house, and a few women
+and children who had not yet gone off to Schenectady or Albany.
+
+I stopped at the house of the Wells family. John Wells, the father of my
+friend Bob, had been one of the Judges of the Tryon County courts,
+sitting on the bench with old John Butler, who now was invading us, with
+Sir John, in arms.
+
+Bob was away on military duty, but there were in the house his mother,
+his wife, his four little children, his brother Jack, and Janet, his
+engaging sister whom I had admired so often at the Hall, and who was
+beloved like a daughter by Sir William.
+
+I shall never forget the amazement of these delightful and kindly people
+when I appeared at their door in Cherry Valley, nor their affectionate
+hospitality when they learned my purpose and my errand.
+
+A sack of provisions was immediately provided me; their kindness and
+courtesy seemed inexhaustible, although even now the shadow of terror
+lay over Cherry Valley. Their young men under Colonels Clyde and
+Campbell had gone to join Herkimer; they were utterly destitute of
+defense against McDonald or Sir John if Schoharie were invaded, or if
+Stanwix fell, or if Herkimer gave way before St. Leger.
+
+They asked news of me very calmly, and I told them all I had learned and
+something of the sinister rumours which now were current in the Mohawk
+and Schoharie Valleys.
+
+They, in their turn, knew nothing positive of Sir John, but had heard
+that he was marching on Stanwix with St. Leger and Brant, and that a
+thousand savages were with them.
+
+My sojourn at the Wells house was brief; the family was evidently very
+anxious but not gloomy; even the children smiled courageously when I
+made my adieux; and my dear little friend, Janet, led me by the hand to
+the edge of the brush-field, through which I must travel to regain the
+forest, and kissed me at our parting.
+
+On the wood's edge, I paused and looked back at the place called Cherry
+Valley, lying so peacefully in the sunshine, where in the fields grain
+already was turning golden green; and fat cattle grazed their pastures;
+and wisps of smoke drifted from every chimney.
+
+That is my memory of Cherry Valley in the sunny tranquillity of late
+afternoon, where tasseled corn like ranks of plumed Indians, covered
+vale and hillock; and clover and English grass grew green again after
+the first haying; and on some orchard trees the summer apples glimmered
+rosy ripe or lush gold among the leaves;--ah, God!--if I could have
+known what another year was to bring to Cherry Valley!
+
+There was no sound in the still settlement except a dull and distant
+stirring made by the workmen sodding parapets on the new and unfinished
+fort.
+
+From where I stood I could see the Wells house, and the little children
+at play in the dooryard; and Peter Smith, a servant, drawing water, who
+one day was to see his master's family in their blood.
+
+I could make out Colonel Campbell's house, too, and the chimney of
+Colonel Clyde's house; and had a far glimpse of the residence of the
+Reverend Mr. Dunlop, the aged minister of Cherry Valley.
+
+From a gilded weather-cock I was able to guess about where Captain
+M'Kean should reside; and Mr. Mitchell's barn I discovered, also. But
+M'Kean and his rangers must now be marching with Herkimer's five
+regiments to meet the hordes of St. Leger.
+
+The sun sank blood-red behind the unbroken forests, and the sky over
+Cherry Valley seemed to be all afire as I turned away and entered the
+twilight of the woods, lugging my sack of provisions on my back.
+
+That night my Indians and I lay within rifle-shot of the Mohawk River;
+and at dawn we made a crow-flight of it toward Oneida Lake; and found
+not a trace of Sir John or of anybody in that trackless wilderness; and
+so camped at last, exhausted and discouraged.
+
+On the fourth day, toward sunset, the Screech-owl, roaming far out on
+our western flank, returned with news of a dead and stinking fire in the
+woods, and fish heads rotting in it; and he thought the last ember burnt
+out some four days since.
+
+He took us to it in the dark, and his was a better woodcraft than I
+could boast, who had been Brent-Meester, too. At dawn we examined the
+ashes, but discovered nothing; and we were eating our parched corn and
+discussing the matter of the fire when, very far away in the west, a
+shot sounded; and in that same second we were on our feet and listening
+like damned men for the last trumpet.
+
+My heart made a deadened rataplan like a muffled drum, and seemed to
+deafen me, so terribly intent was I.
+
+Tahioni stretched out like a panther sunning on a log; and laid his ear
+flat against the earth. Seconds grew to minutes; nobody stirred; no
+other sound came from the westward.
+
+Presently I turned and signalled in silence; my Indians crawled
+noiselessly to their allotted intervals, extending our line north and
+south; then, trailing my rifle, I stole forward through an open forest,
+beneath the ancient and enormous trees of which no underbrush grew in
+the eternal twilight.
+
+Nothing stirred. There were no animals here, no birds, no living
+creature that I could hear or see,--not even an insect.
+
+Under our tread the mat of moist dead leaves gave back no sound; the
+silence in this dim place was absolute.
+
+We had been creeping forward for more than an hour, I think, before I
+discovered the first sign of man in that spectral region.
+
+I was breasting a small hillock set with tall walnut trees, in hopes of
+obtaining a better view ahead, and had just reached the crest, and,
+lying flat, was lifting my head for a cautious survey, when my eye
+caught a long, wide streak of sunlight ahead.
+
+My Indians, too, had seen this tell-tale evidence which indicated either
+a stream or a road. But we all knew it was a road. We could see the
+sunshine dappling it; and we crawled toward it, belly dragging, like
+tree-cats stalking a dappled fawn.
+
+Scarce had we come near enough to observe this road plainly, and the
+crushed ferns and swale grasses in the new waggon ruts, when we heard
+horses coming at a great distance.
+
+Down we drop, each to a tree, and lie with levelled pieces, while slop!
+thud! clink! come the horses, nearer, nearer; and, to my astonishment
+and perplexity, from the _east_, and travelling the wrong way.
+
+I cautioned my Oneidas fiercely against firing unless I so signalled
+them; we lay waiting in an excitement well nigh unendurable, while
+nearer and nearer came the leisurely sound of the advancing horses.
+
+And now we saw them!--three red-coat dragoons riding very carelessly
+westward on this wide, well-trodden road which now I knew must lead to
+Oneida Lake.
+
+I could see the British horsemen plainly. The day was hot; the sun beat
+down on their red jackets and helmets; they sat their saddles wearily;
+their faces were wet with perspiration, and they had loosened jacket and
+neck-cloth, and their pistols were in holster, and their guns slung upon
+their backs.
+
+It was plain that these troopers had no thought of precaution nor
+entertained any apprehension of danger on this road, which must lie in
+the rear of their army, and must also be their route of communication
+between the Lake and the Mohawk.
+
+Slap, slop, clink! they trampled past us where my Oneidas lay a-tremble
+like crouched cats to see the rats escaping on their runway.
+
+But my ears had caught another sound,--the distant noise of wheels; and
+I guessed that this was a waggon which the three horsemen should have
+escorted, but, feeling entirely secure, had let their horses take their
+own gait, and so had straggled on far ahead of the convoy with which
+they should have kept in touch.
+
+The waggon was far away. It approached slowly. Already the horsemen had
+ridden clear out o' sight; and we crept to the edge of the road and lay
+flat in the weeds, waiting, listening.
+
+Twice the approaching vehicle halted as though to rest the horses; the
+dragoons must have been a long way ahead by this time, for it was some
+minutes since the sound of their horses' hoofs had died away in the
+woods.
+
+And now, near and ever nearer, creeps the waggon; and now it seems close
+at hand; and now we see it far away down the road, slowly moving toward
+us.
+
+But it is no baggage-wain,--no transport cart that approaches us. The
+two horses are caparisoned in bright harness; the driver wears a red
+waistcoat and is a negro, and powdered. The vehicle is a private coach
+which lurches, though driven cautiously.
+
+"Good God!" said I, "that is Sir John's family coach! Tahioni, hold
+your Oneidas! For I mean to find out who rides so carelessly to Oneida
+Lake, confiding too much in the army which has passed this way!"
+
+Slowly, slowly the coach drew near our ambush. I recognized Colas as the
+coachman _pro tem_; I knew the horses and the family coach; saw the
+Johnson arms emblazoned on the panels as I rose from the roadside weeds.
+
+"Colas!" I said quietly.
+
+The negro pulled in his horses and sat staring at me, astounded.
+
+I walked leisurely past the horses to the window of the coach. And
+there, seated, I saw Polly Johnson and Claudia Swift.
+
+There ensued a terrible silence and they gazed upon me as though they
+were looking upon a dead man.
+
+"Jack Drogue!" whispered Claudia, "how--how come you here?"
+
+I bowed, my cap in my hand, but could not utter a word.
+
+"Jack! Jack, are--are you alone?" faltered Lady Johnson. "Good heavens,
+what does this mean, I beg of you?----"
+
+"Where are your people, Polly?" I asked in a dead voice.
+
+"My--my people? Do you mean my husband?"
+
+"I mean him.... And his troops. Where are they at this moment?"
+
+"Do you not know that the army is before Stanwix?"
+
+"I know it now," said I gravely.
+
+"Mercy on us, Jack!" cried Claudia, finding her voice shrilly; "will you
+not tell us how it is that we meet you here on the Oneida road and close
+to our own army?"
+
+I shook my head: "No, Claudia, I shall not tell you. But I must ask you
+how you came here and whither you now are bound. And you must answer."
+
+They gazed at my sombre face with an intentness and anxiety that made me
+sadder than ever I was in all my life.
+
+Then, without a word, Lady Johnson laid aside the silken flap of her red
+foot-mantle. And there my shocked eyes beheld a new born baby nursing at
+her breast.
+
+"We accompanied my husband from Buck Island to Oswego," she said
+tremulously. "And, as the way was deemed so utterly secure, we took boat
+at Oneida Lake and brought our horses.... And now are returning--never
+dreaming of danger from--from your people--Jack."
+
+I stared at the child; I stared at her.
+
+"In God's name," I said, "get forward then, and hail your horsemen
+escort. Say to them that the road is dangerous! Take to your batteau
+and get you to Oswego as soon as may be. And I strictly enjoin you, come
+not this way again, for there is now no safety in Tryon for man or woman
+or child, nor like to be while red-coat or green remains within this
+new-born nation!
+
+"And you, Claudia, say to Sir Frederick Haldimand that he has lighted in
+Tryon a flame that shall utterly consume him though he hide behind the
+ramparts of Quebec itself! Say that to him!"
+
+Then I stepped back and bade Colas drive on as fast as he dare. And when
+he cracked his long whip, I stood uncovered and looked upon the woman I
+once had loved, and upon the other woman who had been my childhood
+playmate; and saw her child at her breast, and her pale face bowed above
+it.
+
+And so out of my life passed these two women forever, without any word
+or sign save for the white faces of them and the deadly fear in their
+eyes.
+
+I stood there in the Oneida Road, watching their coach rolling and
+swaying until it was out of view, and even the noise of it had utterly
+died away.
+
+Then I walked slowly back to the wood's edge; in silence my Oneidas rose
+from the weeds and stood around me where I halted, the sleeve of my
+buckskin shirt across my eyes.
+
+Then, when I was ready, I turned and went forward, swiftly, in a
+southeasterly direction; and heard their padded footsteps falling
+lightly at my heels as I Hastened toward the Mohawk, a miserable, sad,
+yet angry man.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+All that long, hot day we travelled; and in the afternoon black clouds
+hid the sun, and presently a most furious thunder storm burst on us in
+the woods, so that we were obliged to shelter us under the hemlocks and
+lie there while rain roared and lightning blinded, and deafening thunder
+shook the ground we lay on.
+
+It was over in an hour. The forest dripped and steamed as we unwrapped
+our rifles and started on.
+
+Twice, it seemed to me, far to the east I heard a duller, vaguer noise
+of thunder; and my Indians also noticed it.
+
+Later, with the sky all blue above, it came again--dull, distant shocks
+with no rolling echo trailing after.
+
+Tahioni came to me, and I saw in his uneasy eyes what I also now
+divined. For to the bravest Indian the sound of cannon is a terror and
+an abomination. And I now had become very sure that it was cannon we
+heard; for Stanwix lay far across the wilderness in that direction, and
+the heavy, lifeless, and superheated air might carry the solemn sound
+from a great distance.
+
+But I said nothing, not choosing to share my conclusions with these
+young warriors who, though they had taken scalps at Big Eddy, were yet
+scarcely tried in war.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That night we lay near an old trail which I knew ran to Otsego and
+passed by Colonel Croghan's new house.
+
+And on this trail, early the following morning, we encountered two men
+whom my Indians, instead of taking as they should have done, instantly
+shot down. Which betrayed their inexperience in war; and I rated them
+roundly.
+
+The two dead men were _blue-eyed_ Indians in all the horror of their
+shameful paint and forest dress.
+
+I knew one of them, for when Tahioni washed their lifeless visages and
+laid them on their backs, there, to my hot indignation, I beheld young
+Thomas Hare, brother to Lieutenant Henry Hare and to Captain James Hare,
+of the Indian Service.
+
+Horror-stricken, bitterly mortified, I gazed down at the dead features
+of these two renegades who had betrayed their own race and colour; and
+my Indians, watching me, understood when I turned and spat upon the
+ground; and so they scalped both--which otherwise they had not dared in
+my presence.
+
+We found on them every evidence that they were serving as a scout for
+McDonald. Probably when we encountered them they had been on their way
+to Sir John at Stanwix with verbal intelligence. But now it was idle to
+surmise what they might have been able to tell us.
+
+We found upon their bodies no papers to shew where McDonald might be
+lurking; and so, as I would not trouble to bury the carrion, my Oneidas
+despoiled them, hid their weapons, pouched their money and ammunition,
+and left them lying on the trail for their more respectable relatives,
+the wolves, to devour.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now, on the Otsego trail, which was but a vile one and nigh impassable
+with undergrowth, we beat toward the Mohawk like circling hounds cast
+out and at fault to find a scent.
+
+And at evening of that day, the seventh of August, I saw a man in the
+woods, and, watching, ordered my Indians to surround him and bring him
+in alive.
+
+Judge, then, of my chagrin when presently comes walking up, and arm in
+arm with my Oneidas, one Daniel Wemple in his militia regimentals, a
+Torloch farmer whom I knew.
+
+"Great God, John!" says he, "what are you doing here with your tame
+panthers and a pair o' raw scalps that smell white in my nostrils?"
+
+I told him, and asked in turn for news.
+
+"You know nothing?" he demanded.
+
+"Nothing, Dan, only that we heard cannon to the eastward yesterday."
+
+"Well," says he, "there has been a bloody fight at Oriska, John; and
+Tryon must mourn her sons.
+
+"For our fine regiments marched into an ambuscade on our way to drive
+Sir John from Stanwix, which he had invested. Colonel Cox is dead, and
+Majors Eisinlord and Klepsattle and Van Slyck. Colonel Paris is taken,
+and our brigade surgeon, Younglove, and Captain Martin of the batteaux
+service. John Frey, Major of brigade, is missing, and so is Colonel
+Bellinger. Scarce an inferior officer but is slain or taken; our dead
+soldiers are carted off by waggon-loads; our wounded lie in their
+alder-litters. And among them our general,--old Honikol Herkimer!--and I
+myself saw that brave Oneida die--our interpreter, Spencer----"
+
+A cry escaped me, instantly checked as I looked at Thiohero. The girl
+came and rested her arm on my left shoulder and gazed steadily at the
+militia man.
+
+He passed his hand wearily through his hair: "Only one regiment ran," he
+said dully. "I shall not name it to you because it was not entirely
+their fault; and afterward they lost heavily and fought bravely. But
+this is a dreadful blow to Tryon, John Drogue."
+
+"We were routed, then?"
+
+"No. We drove them from the field pell mell! We cut Brant's savages to
+pieces. We went at Sir John's Greens with our bayonets and tore the guts
+out of them! We put the fear o' God into Butler's green-coats, too, and
+there'll be caterwauling in Canada when the news is carried, for I saw
+young Stephen Watts[39] dead in his blood, and Hare running off with a
+broken arm a-flapping and he a-screaming like a singed wildcat----"
+
+[Footnote 39: Captain Watts was left for dead but ultimately recovered.]
+
+"Steve Watts! Dead!"
+
+"I saw him. I saw one of our soldiers take his watch from his body. God!
+What a shambles was there at Oriska!"
+
+But I was thinking of young Stevie Watts, Polly Johnson's brother, and
+my one-time friend, lying dead in his blood. And I thought of his
+boyish passion for Penelope. And her kindness for him. And remembered
+how last I had seen him.... And now he lay dead; and I had seen his
+sister but a few hours ago--seen her for the last time I should ever
+behold her.
+
+I drew a breath like a deep and painful sigh.
+
+"And the Fort?" I asked in a low voice.
+
+"Stanwix holds fast, John Drogue. Willett is there, and Gansevoort with
+the 3rd New York of the Line."
+
+"Have you news of McDonald, Dan?"
+
+"None."
+
+"Whither do you travel express?"
+
+"To Johnstown with the news if I can get there."
+
+I warned him concerning conditions in Schoharie. We shook hands, and I
+watched the brave militia man stride away through the forest all alone.
+
+When we camped that night, Thiohero touched her brow and breasts with
+ashes from our fire. That was her formal symbol of mourning for Spencer.
+Later we all should mourn him in due ceremony.
+
+Then she came and lay down close against me and rested her child's face
+on my hollow'd arm. And so slept all night long, trembling in her
+dreams.
+
+I know not how it chanced that I erred in my scouting and lost
+direction, but on the tenth day of August my Indians and I came out into
+a grassy place where trees grew thinly.
+
+The first thing I saw was an Indian, hanging by the heels from a tree,
+and lashed there with the traces from a harness.
+
+At the same time one of my Oneidas discovered a white man lying with his
+feet in a pool of water. But when Tahioni drew the cocked hat from his
+head to see his countenance, hair and skin stuck to it, and a most
+horrid smell filled the woods.
+
+And now, everywhere, we beheld evidences of the Oriska combat, for here
+lay a soldier's empty knapsack, and yonder a ragged shirt, and there a
+rusting tin cup, and here a boot all bloody and slit to the toe.
+
+And now, looking about me, I suddenly comprehended that we were nearer
+to Stanwix Fort than to Oriska; and had no business any nearer to either
+place.
+
+We now were in a most perilous region and must proceed with every
+caution, for in this forest Brant's Iroquois must be roaming everywhere
+in the rear of the troops which had invested Stanwix.
+
+My Oneidas understood this without explanation from me; and they and I
+also became further alarmed when, to our astonishment, we came upon a
+broad road running through a forest where I swear no road had existed a
+twelve-month past.
+
+Where this road led, and from whence, neither my Oneidas nor I knew. It
+was a raw and new road, yet it had been heavily travelled both ways by
+horse, foot, and waggons. It seemed to have as many windings as the
+Kennyetto at Fonda's Bush; and I saw it had been builded to run clear of
+hills and swampy land, as though made for a traffic heavier than a log
+road might easily sustain.
+
+We left the road but scouted eastward along its edge, I desiring to
+learn more of it; for it seemed to bear toward Wood Creek; and if there
+were enemy batteaux to be seen I wished to count them.
+
+Suddenly Thiohero touched my arm,--caught my sleeve convulsively.
+
+"Hahyion--Royaneh--my elder brother--O my white Captain!" she stammered,
+clinging to me in her excitement, "here is the _place_! Here is the
+place I saw in my vision! Here I saw strange uniforms and cannon
+smoke--and a strange white shape--and you--O Hahyion--my Captain!----"
+
+I looked around me, suddenly chilled and shivering in spite of the heat
+of a summer afternoon. But I perceived nobody except my Oneidas. We were
+on a long, sparsely-wooded hillock where juniper spread waist high.
+Below I could see the new road curving sharply to the eastward. But
+nobody moved down there; there was not a sound to be heard, not a
+movement in the forest. All around us was still as death.
+
+Something about the abrupt bend in the empty road below me attracted my
+attention. I examined it intently for a while, then, cautioning my
+Indians, I ventured to move forward and around the south slope of the
+hillock, wading waist-deep in juniper, in order to get a look at what
+might lie behind the bend in this road of mystery.
+
+The road appeared to end abruptly just around the curve, as though it
+had been opened only so far and then abandoned. This first amazed me and
+then alarmed me, because I knew it could not be so as I had seen on the
+roadbed evidences of recent and heavy travel.
+
+I stood peering down at it where it seemed to stop short against the
+green and tangled barrier of the woods which blocked it like a living
+abattis----
+
+God! It _was_ an abattis!--a mask!
+
+As I realized this I saw a man in a strange, outlandish uniform run out
+from the green and living barrier, look up at me where I stood in the
+juniper, shout out something _in German_, and stand pointing up at me
+while a score of soldiers, all in this same outlandish uniform, swarmed
+out upon the road and started running toward where I stood.
+
+Then I came to my senses, clapped my rifle to my cheek and fired,
+stopping one of these strange soldiers and curing him of his running
+habits forever.
+
+To me arrived swiftly my Oneidas, and dropped in the juniper, kneeling
+and firing upon the soldiers below. Two among them fell down flat on the
+road, and then the others turned and fled straight into their green
+barrier of branches. From there they fired at us wildly, keeping up a
+strange, hoarse shouting.
+
+"Hessian chasseurs!" I exclaimed. "These troops can be no other than the
+filthy Germans hired by King George to come here and cut our throats!"
+
+"_Those men wear the uniform I saw in my vision of this place!_"
+whispered Thiohero, quietly reloading her rifle. "I think that this is
+truly your battle, my Captain."
+
+Then, as her prophecy of cannon came into my mind, there was a blinding
+flash from that green barrier below; a vast cloud blotted it from view;
+the pine beside which I stood shivered as though thunder-smitten; and
+the entire top of it crashed down upon us, burying us all in lashing,
+writhing branches.
+
+So stunned and stupefied was I that I lay for an instant without motion,
+my ears still deafened by that clap of thunder.
+
+But now I floundered to my feet amid the pine-top's débris; around me
+rose my terrified Oneidas, nearly paralyzed with fright.
+
+"Come," said I, "we should pull foot ere they blow us into pieces with
+their damned artillery. Thiohero, where are you?"
+
+"I come, Royaneh!"
+
+"Tahioni! Kwiyeh! Hanatoh!" I called anxiously.
+
+Then I saw them all creeping like weasels from under the green débris.
+
+"Hasten," I muttered, "for we shall have all the Iroquois in North
+America on our backs in another moment."
+
+As we started to retreat, the Germans emptied their muskets after us;
+but I did not think anybody had been hit.
+
+We now were running in single file, our rifles a-trail, Tahioni leading,
+and I some distance in the rear, turning my head over my shoulder from
+moment to moment to see if we were followed.
+
+And now, as I ran on, I understood that this accursed road had been made
+expressly to transport their siege artillery; that their guns were still
+in transit; that they had masked a cannon and manned it with Hessian
+chasseurs to keep their gun-road safe against surprise from any party
+scouting out of Oriska.
+
+Lord, what an ambuscade! And what an escape for us!
+
+As I jogged on at the heels of my Indians, still dazed and shaken by the
+deadly surprise of it all, I saw Thiohero, who was some little distance
+in front of me, reel sideways as though out o' breath, and stand still
+near a beech tree, holding her scarlet blanket against her body.
+
+When I came up to her she was leaning against the tree, clutching her
+blanket to her face and breast with both hands. But she heard me and
+lifted her head from the gaily coloured folds.
+
+"Hahyion--Royaneh!" she panted, "_this_ was your battle.... And now--it
+is over ... and you shall live!..."
+
+My Oneidas had halted and were looking back at us. And now they returned
+rapidly and clustered around us.
+
+"Are you exhausted, little sister?" I demanded, drawing nearer. "Are you
+hurt----"
+
+"Listen--my brother and--my Captain!" she burst out breathlessly.
+"_This_ was the battle of my vision!--the strange uniforms--the
+cannon-cloud--the white shape!... I saw it near you where--where you
+stood in the cannon smoke!--a shape like mist at sunrise.... Haihee! It
+was the face and shape of the Caughnawaga girl!... It was Yellow Hair
+who floated there beside you in the cannon smoke!--covered to her eyes
+in white and flowers----"
+
+The Little Maid of Askalege clutched her gay blanket closer to her
+breast and began to sway gently on her feet as though the thumping of a
+distant partridge were a witch-drum.
+
+"Haihya Hahyion!" she whispered--"Thiohero Oyaneh salutes--her
+Captain.... I speak--as one dying.... Haiee! Haie--e! Yellow Hair is--is
+quite--a witch!----"
+
+Her voice failed; down on her knees she sank. And, as I snatched her
+from the ground and lifted her, she looked up into my face and smiled.
+Then, in a long-drawn sigh, her soul escaped between my arms that could
+not stay its flight to Tharon.
+
+Her face became as wax; her head fell forward on my breast; her eyes
+rolled upward. And, as I pressed her in my arms, all my body grew warm
+and wet with bright blood pouring from her softly parted lips.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+THE WOOD OF BRAKABEEN
+
+
+It was the 12th day of August when we came again to the Wood of
+Brakabeen,--we four young warriors of the clan of the Little Red Foot.
+
+We were ragged and bruised and weary, and starving; but the fierce rage
+burning in our breasts gave to each a strength and purpose that nerved
+our briar-torn and battered bodies to effort inexhaustible.
+
+Under scattered and furtive shots from German muskets we had retreated
+through the forest with our dead prophetess, until night ended pursuit
+by the chasseurs, and we ourselves had lost our direction.
+
+All the next day we travelled southwest with our dead. On the tenth day
+we came out on Otsego Lake, near to Croghan's new house.
+
+Where he had cleared the bush and where Indian grass was growing as tall
+as a man's head, we made a deep grave. And here we four clansmen buried
+the Little Maid of Askalege; and sodded the mound with wild grasses
+where strawberries grew, and blue asters and plumes of golden-rod.
+
+A Canada whitethroat called sweetly, sadly, from the forest in the
+sunset glow. We made for the grave a white cross of silver birch. We
+placed parched corn and a cup of water at the foot of the cross; and her
+bow and scarlet arrows against her needs where deer, God willing, should
+be plenty. And near these we set her little moccasins lest in that
+unknown land her tender feet should suffer on the trail.
+
+In the morning we made a fire of ozier, sweet-birch, cherry wood, and
+samphire.
+
+When the aromatic smoke blew over us I rose and spoke. After I had
+finished, the others in turn rose and spoke their mind, saying very
+simply what was in their hearts concerning their little prophetess, who
+had died wearing a little red foot painted on her body.
+
+So we left her at rest under the wild flowers and Indian grass, near to
+Croghan's empty house, with a vast wilderness around to guard the
+sanctuary, and the sad whitethroats to mourn her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now, fierce and starved and ragged, we came once more to the Wood of
+Brakabeen. And heard McDonald's guns in the valley and his pibroch on
+the hills.
+
+The afternoon was still and hot, the deep blue sky cloudless. Over
+Vrooman's Land a brown smoke hung; more smoke was rising above Clyberg;
+more rolled up beyond the swampy ground near the Flockey.
+
+From the edge of Brakabeen Wood, looking out over the valley, we could
+hear firing in the direction of Stone House, more musketry toward Fox
+Creek.
+
+"McDonald is in Schoharie," I said to Tahioni. "There will be many dead
+here, women and children and the grey-haired. Are my brothers of the
+Little Red Foot too weary to strike?"
+
+The young Oneida warrior laughed. I looked at my ragged comrades where
+they crouched in their frightful paint, listening excitedly to the
+distant firing, and I saw their lean cheeks twitching and their nostrils
+a-flare as they scented the distant fighting.
+
+The wild screaming of the pibroch, too, seemed to madden them; and it
+enraged me, also, because I saw that Sir John's Highlanders were here
+with McDonald's fantastic crew and had come to slaughter us all with
+their dirks and broad-swords as they had threatened before Sir John fled
+North.
+
+We turned to the left and I led my Oneidas in a file through the ferny
+glades of Brakabeen Wood, and amid still places where clear streams ran
+deep in greenest moss; where tall lilies nodded their yellow Chinese
+caps in the flowery swale; where, in the demi-light of forest aisles,
+nothing grew save the great trees bedded there since the dawn of time,
+which sprung their vast arches high above us to support their glowing
+tapestry of leaves.
+
+It was mid-afternoon when, smelling hot smoke, we came near the woods by
+the river; and saw, close to us, a barn afire, and three men carrying
+guns, running hither and thither in a hay field and setting every stack
+aflame with their torches.
+
+One o' the fellows was a drummer in the green uniform of Butler's
+Rangers, and his drum was slung on his back. And I knew him. He was
+Michael Reed of Fonda's Bush, and cousin to Nick Stoner.
+
+And then, to my astonishment and rage, I saw Dries Bowman in his
+farmer's clothes; and the other man was a huge German--one of their
+chasseurs, who wore a stiff pig-tail that was greased, and a black
+mustache, and waist-high spatter-dashes--a very barbarian in red and
+blue and green; and grunting and puffing as he ran about in the hot
+sunshine to set the hay-cocks afire with his torch.
+
+I remember giving no command; we sprang out of the woods, trailing our
+rifles in our left hands; and Bowman fired at me and, missing, started
+to run; but I got him by his collar and knocked him over with my
+gun-butt.
+
+The Hessian chasseur instantly drew up and fired in our direction; and
+Tahioni shot him dead in his tracks, where he fell heavily on his back
+and lay in the grass with limbs outspread.
+
+"You may take his scalp! I care not!" shouted I, watching my Oneidas,
+who had got at Micky Reed and were striving to take him alive as I had
+ordered.
+
+But Reed had a big dragoon's pistol in his belt and would have used it
+had not Kwiyeh killed him swiftly with his hatchet.
+
+But I would not permit them to take Reed's scalp, and bade them despoil
+the body quickly and bring the leather cross-belts and girdle to me.
+
+Hanatoh ran up and caught Dries Bowman by the collar; and we jerked him
+to his feet and dragged and hustled him into the woods. And here
+despoiled him, pulling from his pockets a Royal Protection and a bundle
+of papers, which revealed him as a spy sent down to preach treason in
+Schoharie and carry what men he might corrupt as recruits to McDonald
+and Sir John.
+
+"That's enough to hang him!" I said sharply to Tahioni. "Link me up
+those drummer's cross-belts!"
+
+"What--what do you mean, John Drogue!" stammered the wretch. "Would you
+murder an old neighbour?"
+
+"That same old neighbour would have murdered me at Howell's house. And
+now is come disguised in civilian clothing to Schoharie with a spy's
+commission, to raise the district in arms against us."
+
+"My God!" he shrieked, as Tahioni flung the leather halter about his
+neck, "is it a crime if honest men stand by their King?"
+
+"Not when they stand out in plain day and wear a red coat or a green,"
+said I, flinging the leather halter over the oak tree's limb.
+
+Hanatoh swiftly pinioned his arms and tied his wrists; I tossed the
+halter's end to Kwiyeh. Tahioni also took hold of it.
+
+"Hoist that spy!" I said coldly. And in a second more his feet were
+kicking some half dozen inches above the ground.
+
+My Oneidas fastened the halter to a stout bush; I was shaking all over
+and felt sick and dizzy to hear him raling and choking in the leather
+noose which was too stiff for the ghastly business.
+
+But at that instant Tahioni shouted a shrill warning; I looked over my
+shoulder and saw a great number of soldiers wearing red patches on their
+hats, running across the burning hayfield to surround us.
+
+Yet it needed better men than McDonald's to take me and my Oneidas in
+Brakabeen Wood. We turned and plunged into the bush, leaving the
+wretched spy[40] hanging to the oak, his convulsed body now spinning
+dizzily round and round above the ground.
+
+[Footnote 40: The historian, J. R. Simms, says that Benjamin De Luysnes
+and his party strung up Dries Bowman, and then cut him down and let him
+go with a warning. Simms also gives a different date to this affair. At
+all events, it seems that Bowman was cut down in time to save his life.
+Simms, by the way, spells De Luysnes' name De Line. Campbell mentions
+Captain Stephen Watts as Major Stephen Watson. We all commit error.]
+
+Looking back as I ran, I soon saw that the men who were chasing us had
+little stomach for a pursuit which must presently lead to bush-fighting.
+They shouted and halooed, but lagged as they arrived at the denser
+woods; and they seemed to have no officers to encourage them, or if they
+indeed possessed any I saw none.
+
+Tahioni came fiercely to me, where I had halted, to watch the red-patch
+soldiers, saying that we had now been out thirteen days and had taken
+but three scalps. He said that to hang a man was not a proper vengeance
+to atone the death of Thiohero; and wanted to know why my prisoners
+should not be delivered to him and his Oneida comrades, who knew how to
+punish their enemies.
+
+Which speech so angered me that I had a mind to take him by the throat.
+Only the sudden memory of our Red Foot clan-ship, and of Thiohero,
+deterred me. Also, that was no way to treat any Indian; and to lose my
+self-control was to lose the Oneidas' respect and my authority over
+them.
+
+"My brother, Tahioni," said I coldly, "should not forget that he is my
+_younger_ brother.
+
+"If Tahioni were older, and possessed of more wisdom and experience, he
+would know that unless a chief asks opinions none should be offered."
+
+The youth's eyes flashed at me and he stiffened under a rebuke that is
+hard for any Iroquois to swallow.
+
+"My younger brother," said I, "ought to know that I am not like an
+officer of Guy Johnson's Indian Department, who delivers prisoners to
+the Mohawks. I deliver no prisoner to any Indian. I obey my orders, and
+expect my Indians to obey mine. They are free always to take Indian
+scalps. The scalps of white men they take only if permitted by me."
+
+Tahioni hung his head, the Screech-owl and the Water-snake nodded
+emphatic assent.
+
+"Yonder," said I, "are the red-patch soldiers. They are Tory marauders
+and outlaws. If you can ambush and cut off any of them, do so. And I
+care not if you scalp them, either. But if any are taken I shall not
+deliver them to any Oneida fire. No prisoner of this flying scout shall
+burn."
+
+The Water-snake twitched my sleeve timidly.
+
+"Hahyion," he said, "we obey. But an Iroquois prefers the fire and
+torment to the noose. Because he can sing his death songs and laugh at
+his enemies through the flames. But what man can sing or boast when a
+rope chokes his speech in his throat?"
+
+I scarcely heeded him, for I was watching the red-patch soldiers, who
+now were leaving the woods and crossing the hayfield, which still was
+smoking where the fire made velvet-black patches in the dry grass.
+
+The barn had fallen in and was only a great heap of glowing coals, over
+which a pale flame played in the late afternoon sunshine.
+
+Listening and looking after the red-patches, I heard very distinctly the
+sound of guns in the direction of Stone House.
+
+Now, while it was none of my business to hang on McDonald's flanks for
+prisoners and scalps, it _was_ my business to observe him and what he
+might be about in Schoharie; and to carry this news to Saratoga by way
+of Johnstown, along with my budget concerning Stanwix and St. Leger.
+
+Besides, Stone House lay on my way. So I signalled my Indians and
+started west. And it was not very long before we came upon two Schoharie
+militia-men whom I knew, Jacob Enders and George Warner, who took to a
+tree when they discovered my Oneidas in their paint, but came out when I
+called them by name, and gave an account that they were hunting a
+notorious Tory,--a renegade and late officer in the Schoharie
+Regiment,--a certain George Mann, a captain, who would have carried his
+entire company to McDonald, but was surprised in his villainy and had
+fled to the woods near Fox Creek.
+
+I told them that we had not seen this fellow, and asked for news; and
+Warner showed me a scalp which he said he took an hour ago from
+Ogeyonda, after shooting that treacherous savage at the Flockey.
+
+He gave it to Tahioni, which pleased the Oneida mightily and contented
+me; for I hate to see any white man take a scalp, though Tim Murphy and
+Dave Elerson took them as coolly as they took any other peltry.
+
+Warner said that McDonald was up the valley, murdering and burning his
+way westward; that cavalry from Albany had just arrived, had raided
+Brick House and taken prisoner a lot of red-patch militia, forced them
+to tear up their Royal Protections, tied up the most obnoxious, and
+kicked out the remainder with a warning.
+
+He said, further, that Adam Crysler and Joseph Brown, of Clyberg, were
+great villains and had joined McDonald with Billy Zimmer and others; and
+that McDonald had a motley army, full of kilted Highlanders, chasseurs,
+red-patches, Indians, and painted Tories; and that the cavalry from
+Albany were marching to meet them, reinforced by Schoharie
+mounted-militia under Colonel Harper.
+
+And now, even as Warner was still speaking, we heard the trumpet of the
+cavalry on the river road below; and, running out to the forest's edge,
+we saw the Albany Riders marching up the river,--two hundred horsemen in
+bright new helmets and uniforms, finely horsed, their naked sabers all
+glittering in the sun, and their trumpeter trotting ahead on a handsome
+white charger.
+
+The horses, four abreast, were at a fast walk; flankers galloped ahead
+on either wing. And, as we hurried down to the road, an officer I knew,
+Lieutenant Wirt, came spurring forward to meet and question us, followed
+by two troopers,--one named Rose and the other was Jake Van Dyck, whom I
+also recognized.
+
+"Jack Drogue, by all the gods of war!" cried the handsome lieutenant, as
+I saluted and spoke to him by name.
+
+"Dave Wirt!" I exclaimed, offering my hand, which he grasped, leaning
+wide from his saddle.
+
+He turned his mount toward the road again, and I and my Oneidas walked
+along beside him.
+
+"Are those your tame panthers?" he demanded, pointing toward my Oneidas
+with his sword. "If they are, then we should have agreeable work for
+them and for you, Jack Drogue. For Vrooman and his men are in Stone
+House and the red-patches fire on them whenever they show a head; and
+our cavalry are like to strike McDonald at any moment now. We caught two
+of his damned spies----"
+
+At that instant, far down the road I saw a woman; and even at that
+distance I recognized her.
+
+"Yonder walks a bad citizen," said I sharply. "That is Madame Staats!"
+
+We had now arrived beside the moving column of riders; and, as I spoke,
+a dozen cavalrymen shouted: "Here comes Rya's Pup!"
+
+A captain of cavalry who spoke English with a French accent shouted to
+the Pup and beckoned her; but she turned and ran the other way.
+
+Immediately two troopers spurred after her and caught her as she was
+fording the river; and each seized her by a hand, turned their horses,
+and trotted back to us with their prisoner, amid shouts of laughter.
+
+Rya's Pup, breathless from her enforced run, fairly spat at us in her
+fury, cursing and threatening and holding her panting flanks in turn.
+
+"You dirty rebel dogs!" she screamed, "wait till McDonald catches you!
+Ah--there'll be blood enow for you all to wade in as I waded in the
+river yonder, when your filthy cavalry headed me!"
+
+Wirt tried to question her, but she mocked us all, boasted that McDonald
+had a huge army at the Flockey, and that he was now on his way to Stone
+House to destroy us all.
+
+"Turn that slut loose!" said the Captain sharply.
+
+So we let go the Pup, and she turned and legged it, yelling her scorn
+and fury as she ran; and we saw her go floundering and splashing across
+the river, doubtless to carry news of us to McDonald.
+
+And it contented us that she so do, because now we came upon Stone
+House, where the small garrison under a Lieutenant Wallace had ventured
+out and were a-digging of a ditch and piling fence rails across the road
+to stop McDonald's riders in a charge.
+
+Here, also, were Harper's mounted militia, sitting their saddles, poorly
+armed with militia fire-locks.
+
+But we had a respectable force and were ashamed to await the outlaws
+behind ditch and rail; so we marched on through the gathering dusk to a
+house about two miles further, where a dozen strangely painted horsemen
+galloped away as we approached.
+
+A yell of rage at sight of those blue-eyed Indians arose from our
+riders. Our trumpet sounded; the cavalry broke into a gallop.
+
+It was now twilight.
+
+I begged some mounted militia-men to take me and my Oneidas up behind
+them; and they were obliging enough to do so; and we jogged away into
+the rosy dusk of an August evening.
+
+Almost immediately I saw the Flockey ahead, and Adam Crysler's house on
+the bank; and on the lawn in front of it I saw McDonald's grotesque
+legion drawn up in line of battle.
+
+As I came up our cavalry was forming to charge; Lieutenant Wirt had just
+turned in his saddle to speak to me, when one of the outlaws ran out to
+the edge of the lawn and called across the road to Wirt that he should
+never live to marry Angelica Vrooman,[41] but would die a dog's death as
+he deserved.
+
+[Footnote 41: Angelica Vrooman sewed the winding sheet for Lieutenant
+Wirt's body.]
+
+As the cavalry charged, Wirt rode directly at this man, who coolly shot
+him out of his saddle.
+
+I saw and recognized the outlaw, who was a Tory named Shafer.
+
+As Wirt fell to the grass, stone dead, his horse knocked down Shafer.
+The Tory got up, streaming with blood but not badly hurt, and, clubbing
+his piece, attempted to dash out Wirt's dead brains; but Trooper Rose
+swung his horse violently against Shafer, sabred him, and, in turn, fell
+from his own saddle, fatally wounded.
+
+Another trooper dismounted to pick up poor Rose, who was in a bad way,
+but one of McDonald's painted Tories fired on them and both fell.
+
+I fired at this man and wounded him, and Tahioni chased him, caught him,
+and slew him by the fence.
+
+Then, above the turmoil of horses and gun-shots, the Oneida's terrific
+scalp-yell rang out in the deepening dusk; and at that dread panther-cry
+a panic seemed to seize McDonald's men, for their grotesque riders
+suddenly whirled their horses and stampeded ventre-ŕ-terre, riding
+westward like damned men; and I saw their Highlanders and Chasseurs and
+renegade Greens break and scatter into the forest on every side, melting
+away into the night before our eyes.
+
+Into the brush leaped my Oneidas; their war-yells awoke the shuddering
+echoes of Brakabeen Wood. I saw a chasseur leap a rail fence, stumble,
+and fall with the Screech-owl on top of him. Again the awful Oneida
+scalp-yelp rang out under the first dim stars.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The cavalry returned and camped at Stone House that night. They brought
+in their dead by torch-light; and I saw Wirt's body borne on a
+stretcher, and the corpse of Trooper Rose, and others.
+
+One by one my Oneidas returned like blood-slaked and weary hounds. All
+had taken scalps, and sat late at our fire to hoop and stretch them, and
+neatly plait the miserable dead hair that hung all draggled from the
+pitiful shreds of skin.
+
+At a cavalry watch-fire near to ours were also some people I
+knew--Mayfield men of a scout of six, just come in; and I went over to
+their fire and greeted them and questioned them concerning news from
+home.
+
+Truman Christie was their lieutenant; Sol and Seely Woodworth, the two
+Reynolds, and Billy Dunham composed the scout; and all were in
+rifle-dress and keen to try their rifles on McDonald, but were arrived
+too late, and feared now that the outlaws were on their way to Canada.
+
+Christie told me that the alarm in Johnstown and at Mayfield was great;
+that hostile Indians had been seen near Tribes Hill, and had killed a
+farmer there; that some people were leaving Caughnawaga and moving their
+household goods down the river to Schenectady.
+
+"By God," says he, "and I don't blame 'em, John Drogue! No! For a Mohawk
+war party is like to strike Caughnawaga at any hour; and why foolish
+folk, like old Douw Fonda, remain there is beyond my comprehension."
+
+"Douw Fonda!" said I, astonished. "Why, he is gone to Albany."
+
+"He came back a week ago," says Christie. "They tell me that the young
+Patroon tried to dissuade the old gentleman from going, but could do
+nothing with him--Mr. Fonda being childish and obstinate--and so he had
+his way and summoned his coach and his three niggers and drove in state
+up the river to Caughnawaga. We passed that way on scout, and I saw the
+old gentleman two days ago sitting on his porch with his gold-headed
+walking stick and his book, and dozing there in the sun; and the
+yellow-haired girl knitting at his feet----"
+
+"What!"
+
+He looked at me, startled by my vehemence.
+
+"Sir," said he, "did I say aught to offend you?"
+
+"Good God, no. You say that the--the yellow-haired girl, Penelope Grant,
+is at Caughnawaga with Douw Fonda!"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Did you see her?"
+
+"I did; and spoke with her."
+
+"What did she say?" I asked unsteadily.
+
+"She said that Mr. Fonda had sent a negro servant to Johnstown to fetch
+her, because, having returned to Caughnawaga, he needed her."
+
+"I think Mr. Fonda's three sons and their families must all be mad to
+permit the old gentleman to come to Caughnawaga in such perilous times
+as these!" I said sharply.
+
+"And so do I think likewise," rejoined Christie. "Let them think and say
+what they like, but, Mr. Drogue, I am an old Indian fighter and have
+served under Colonel Claus and Sir William Johnson. I know the Iroquois;
+I know their ways and wiles and craft and subtle designs; and I know how
+they think, and what they are most likely to do.
+
+"And I say to you very solemnly, Mr. Drogue, that were I Joseph Brant I
+would strike Caughnawaga before snow flies. And, sir, under God, it is
+my honest belief that he will do exactly that very thing. And it will be
+a sorry business for the Valley when he does so!"
+
+It was a dreadful thing for me to hear this veteran affirm what I myself
+already feared.
+
+But I had never dreamed that the aged Douw Fonda would return to
+Caughnawaga, or that his sons would permit the obstinate, helpless, and
+childish old gentleman to so have his say and way in times like these.
+
+Nor did I dream that Penelope would go to him again. I knew, of course,
+that she would surely go if he asked for her; but thought he had too
+completely forgotten her--as the Patroon wrote--and that his
+childishness and feeble memory no longer retained any remembrance of the
+young girl he had loved and had offered to adopt and to make his
+legatee.
+
+The news that Captain Christie brought was truly dismal news for me and
+most alarming.
+
+What on earth I could do about it I had no idea. Penelope, the soul of
+loyalty, believed that her duty lay with Mr. Fonda, and that, if he
+asked for her, she must go and care for him, who had been to her a
+father when she was poor, shelterless, and alone.
+
+I realized that no argument, no plea of mine could move her to abandon
+him now. And what logic could I employ to arouse this childish and
+obstinate old gentleman to any apprehension of his own peril or hers?
+
+To think of it madded me, because Mr. Fonda had three wealthy sons
+living near him, who could care for him properly with their ample means
+and all their servants and slaves. And why in God's name Captain John
+Fonda, Major Jelles Fonda, or Major Adam Fonda did not take some means
+of moving themselves and their families into the Queens Fort, or, better
+still, into Albany, I can not comprehend.
+
+But it was a fact, as Christie related to me, that scarce a soul had
+fled from Caughnawaga. All the landed gentry remained; all people of
+high or low degree were still there--folk like the Veeders, Sammons,
+Romeyns, Hansens, Yates, Putmans, Stevens, Fishers, Gaults.
+
+That night my dreams were horrible: I seemed to see Dries Bowman's body
+spinning in the sunshine, whilst he darted his swollen tongue at me like
+a snake. And always I seemed all wet with blood and could not dry myself
+or escape the convulsed embrace of the Little Maid of Askalege.
+
+Moaning, waking with a cry on my lips to gaze on the red embers of our
+fire and see my Indians stir under their blankets and open slitted eyes
+at me--or to lie exhausted in body and all trembling in my thoughts,
+while the slow, dark hours dragged to the dead march beating in my
+heart--thus passed the night at Stone House, full of visions of the
+dead.
+
+Long ere the cavalry trumpet pealed and the tired troopers awakened
+after near fifty miles of riding the day before, I had dragged my weary
+Indians from their sleep; and almost immediately we were on our way,
+eating a pinch of salted corn from the palms of our hands as we moved
+forward. For, after a brief ceremony in the Wood of Brakabeen, I meant
+to make Johnstown without a halt. My mind was full of anxiety for
+Caughnawaga, and for her who had promised herself to me when again I
+should come to seek her.
+
+But first we must halt in the Wood of Brakabeen to fulfill in ceremony
+that office due to the memory of a brave and faithful Oneida
+warrior--our little Maid of Askalege.
+
+It was not yet dawn, and the glades of Brakabeen Wood were dark and
+still; and on the ferns and grasses rested myriads of fire-flies, all
+pulsating with faint phosphorescence.
+
+I thought of Thiohero as I had beheld her in this glade, swaying on her
+slender feet amid a dizzy whirl of fire-flies.
+
+Tahioni had gathered a dry faggot; Kwiyeh carried a bundle of
+cherry-birch, samphire, and witch-hopple. The Water-snake laid the fire.
+
+All seated themselves; I struck flint, blew the tinder to a coal, and
+lighted a silver birch-shred.
+
+The scented smoke mounted straight up through the trees; I rose in
+silence; and when the first burning stick fell into soft white ashes, I
+took a few flakes in my palm and rubbed them across my forehead. Then I
+spoke, facing the locked gates of morning in the dark:
+
+"Now--now I hear your voice coming to us through the forest in the
+night.
+
+"Now our hearts are heavy, little sister. The gates of morning are still
+locked; the forest is still; everywhere there is thick darkness.
+
+"_Thiohero, listen!_
+
+"Now we Oneidas are depressed in our minds. You were a prophetess. You
+foretold events. You were a warrior. We were your clansmen of the Little
+Red Foot. You were a sorceress. Empty moccasins danced when you touched
+the witch-drum. Now, in white plumes, you have mounted to the stars like
+morning mist.
+
+"_Oyaneh! Continue to listen._
+
+"Our lodge is empty without you. Our fire is lonely without you. Our
+hearts are desolate, O Thiohero Oyaneh!
+
+"_Little Sister, continue to listen!_
+
+"We have heard your voice at this hour coming to us through the Wood of
+Brakabeen. It comes in darkness like light when the gates of morning
+open.
+
+"Thiohero Oyaneh, virgin warrior of the People of the Rock, we are come
+to the Wood of Brakabeen to greet and thank you.
+
+"We give you gratitude and love. You were a warrior and wore the Little
+Red Foot. You struck your enemies where you found them. They are dead
+and without scalps, your enemies. The Canienga howl. Your war-axe sticks
+in their heads. The Hessians are swine. Your scarlet arrows turn them
+into porcupines. The green-coats flee and your bullets burn their
+bowels.
+
+"_O my little sister, listen now!_
+
+"Our trail is very lonely without you. We are dejected. We move like
+old men and sick. We need your wisdom. We are less wise than those
+littlest ones still strapped to the cradle board.
+
+"_Thiohero!_
+
+"We have placed food and a cup of water for you lest you hunger and
+thirst.
+
+"We have laid a bow and scarlet arrows near you so that you shall hunt
+when you wish.
+
+"We have given you moccasins so that the strange, bright trail shall not
+hurt your feet.
+
+"We have placed paint for you so that Tharon shall know you by your
+clan. And we have made for your grave a cross of silver-birch, so that
+our white Lord Christ shall meet you and take you by the hand in a land
+so new and strange.
+
+"_Oyaneh!_
+
+"We have said what is in our hearts and minds. We think that is all we
+have to say. We turn our eyes to the morning. When the gates open we
+shall depart."
+
+As I ended, the three Oneidas rose and faced the east in silence. All
+the sky had become golden. Minute after minute passed. Suddenly a
+blinding lance of light pierced the Wood of Brakabeen.
+
+"Haih!" they exclaimed softly. "Nai Thiohero Oyaneh!"
+
+Tahioni covered the fire. The Screech-owl marked us all with a coal
+still warm.
+
+Then, in silence, I led my people from the misty Wood of Brakabeen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+A LONG GOOD-BYE
+
+
+On the evening of the 15th of August, the Commandant of Johnstown Fort
+stood aghast to see a forest-running ragamuffin and three scare-crow
+Indians stagger into headquarters at the jail.
+
+"Gad a-mercy!" says he as I offered the salute, "is it _you_, Mr.
+Drogue!"
+
+I was past all speech; for we had wolf-jogged all the way up from the
+river, but from my rags I fished out my filthy papers and thrust them at
+him. He was kind enough to ask me to sit; I nodded a like permission to
+my Oneidas and dropped onto a settle; a sergeant fetched new-baked
+bread, meat, buttermilk, and pipes for my Indians; and for me a draught
+of summer cider, which presently I swallowed to the dregs when I found
+strength to do it.
+
+This refreshed me. I asked permission to lodge my Oneidas in some
+convenient barn and to draw for them food, pay, tobacco, and clothing;
+and very soon a corporal of Continentals arrived with a lantern and led
+the Oneidas out into the night.
+
+Then, at the Commandant's request, I gave a verbal account of my scout,
+and reminded him of my instructions, which were to report at Saratoga.
+
+But he merely shuffled my papers together and smiled, saying that he
+would attend to that matter, and that there were new orders lately
+arrived for me, and a sheaf of letters, among which two had been sent in
+with a flag, and seals broken.
+
+"Sir," he said, still smiling in kindly fashion, "I have every reason to
+believe that patriotic service faithfully performed is not to remain too
+long unrecognized at Albany. And this business of yours amounts to that,
+Mr. Drogue."
+
+He laughed and rubbed his powerful hands together, peering
+good-humouredly at me out of a pair of small and piercing eyes.
+
+"However," he added, "all this is for you to learn from others in higher
+places than I occupy. Here are your letters, Mr. Drogue."
+
+He laid his hand on a sheaf which lay near his elbow on the table and
+handed them to me. They were tied together with tape which had been
+sealed.
+
+"Sir," said he, "you are in a woeful plight for lack of sleep; and I
+should not detain you. You lodge, I think, at Burke's Tavern. Pray, sir,
+retire to your quarters at your convenience, and dispose of well-earned
+leisure as best suits you."
+
+He rose, and I got stiffly to my feet.
+
+"Your Indians shall have every consideration," said he. "And I dare
+guess, sir, that you are destined to discover at the Tavern news that
+should pleasure you."
+
+We saluted; I thanked him for his kind usage, and took my leave, so
+weary that I scarce knew what I was about.
+
+How I arrived at the Tavern without falling asleep on my two legs as I
+walked, I do not know. Jimmy Burke, who had come out with a light to
+greet me, lifted his hands to heaven at sight of me.
+
+"John Drogue! Is it yourself, avic? Ochone, the poor lad! Wirra the
+day!" says he,--"and luk at him in his rags and thin as a clapperrail!"
+And, "Magda! Betty!" he shouts, "f'r the sake o' the saints, run fetch a
+wash-tub above, an' b'ilin' wather in a can, and soft-soap, too, an'
+a-bite-an'-a-sup, or himself will die on me two hands----"
+
+I heard maids running as I climbed the stairway, gripping at the rail to
+steady me. I was asleep in my chair when some one shook me.
+
+Blindly I pulled the dirty rags from my body and let them fall anywhere;
+and I near died o' drowning in the great steaming tub, for twice I fell
+asleep in the bath. I know not who pulled me out. I do not remember
+eating. They say I did eat. Nor can I recollect how, at last, I got me
+into bed.
+
+I was still deeply asleep when Burke awoke me. He had a great bowl of
+smoking soupaan and a pitcher of sweet milk; and I ate and drank, still
+half asleep. But now the breeze from the open window and the sunshine in
+my room slowly cleared my battered senses. I began to remember where I
+was, and to look about the room.
+
+Mine was the only bed; and there was nobody lying in it save only
+myself, yet it was evident that another gentleman shared this room with
+me; for yonder, on a ladder-back chair, lay somebody's clothing neatly
+folded,--a Continental officer's uniform, on which I perceived the
+insignia of a staff-captain.
+
+Spurred boots also stood there, and a smartly cocked hat.
+
+And now, on a peg in the wall, I discovered this unknown officer's
+watch-coat, and his sword dangling by it, and a brace o' pistols.
+
+But where the devil the owner of these implements might be I could not
+guess.
+
+And now my eyes fell upon the sheaf of letters lying on the table beside
+me. I broke the sealed tape that bound them; they fell upon the bed
+clothes; and I picked up the first at hazard, which was a packet, and
+broke the seal of it. And sat there in my night shift, utterly astounded
+at what I beheld.
+
+For within the packet were two papers. One was a captain's commission in
+the Continental Line; and my own name was writ upon it.
+
+And the other paper was a letter, sent express from the Forest of Dean,
+five days since, and it was from Major General Lord Stirling to me,
+acquainting me that he had taken the liberty to request a captain's
+commission in the Line for me; that His Excellency had concurred in the
+request; that a commission had been duly granted and issued; and
+that--His Excellency still graciously concurring and General Schuyler
+endorsing the request--I had been transferred from the State Rangers to
+the Line, and from the Line to the military family of General Lord
+Stirling. And should report to him at the Forest of Dean.
+
+To this elegant and formal and amazing letter, writ by a secretary and
+signed by my Lord Stirling, was appended in his own familiar hand this
+postscript:
+
+"Jack Drogue will not refuse his old friend, Billy Alexander. So for
+God's sake leave your rifle-shirt and moccasins in Johnstown and put on
+the clothing which I have bespoken of the same Johnstown tailoress who
+made your forest dress and mine when in happier days we hunted and
+fished with Sir William in the pleasant forests of Fonda's Bush."
+
+I sat there quite overcome, gazing now upon my commission, now upon my
+friend's kind letter, now at my beautiful new uniform which his
+consideration had procured for me while I was wandering leagues away in
+the Northern bush, never dreaming that a celebrated Major General had
+time to waste on any thought concerning me.
+
+There was a bell-rope near my bed, and now I pulled it, and said to the
+buxom wench who came that I desired a barber to trim me instantly, and
+that the pot-boy should run and fetch him and bid him bring his irons
+and powder and an assortment of queue ribbons for a club.
+
+The barber arrived as I, having bathed me, was dressing in fresh
+underwear which I found rolled snug in the pack I had left here when I
+went away.
+
+Lord, but my beard and hair were like Orson's; and I gave myself to the
+razor with great content; and later to the shears, bidding young Master
+Snips shape my pol for a club and powder in the most fashionable and
+military mode then acceptable to the service.
+
+Which he swore he knew how to accomplish; so I took my letters from the
+bed and disposed myself in a chair to peruse them while Snips should
+remain busy with his shears.
+
+The first letter I unsealed was from Nick Stoner, and written from
+Saratoga:
+
+     "FRIEND JACK,
+
+     "I take quill and ink to acquaint you how it goes with us here in
+     the regiment.
+
+     "I am fifer, and when in action am stationed near to the colours
+     for duty. Damn them, they should give me a gun, also, as I can
+     shoot better than any of 'em, as you know.
+
+     "My brother John is a drummer in our regiment, and has learned all
+     his flamms and how to beat all things lively save the devil.
+
+     "My father is a private in our regiment, which is pleasant for all,
+     and he is a dead shot and afeard of nothing save hell.
+
+     "I have got into mischief and been punished on several occasions. I
+     like not being triced up between two halbards.
+
+     "I long to see Betsy Browse. She hath a pretty way of kissing. And
+     sometimes I long to see Anne Mason, who has her own way, too. You
+     are not acquainted with that saucy baggage, I think. But she lives
+     only two miles from where my Betsy abides. And I warrant you I was
+     put to it, sparking both, lest they discover I drove double
+     harness. And there was Zuyler's pretty daughter, too--but enough of
+     tender memories!
+
+     "Anna has raven hair and jet black eyes and is snowy otherwise. I
+     don't mean cold. Angelica Zuyler is fair of hair but brown for the
+     rest----
+
+     "Well, Jack, I think on you every day and hope you do well with
+     your Oneidas, who, we hear, are out with you on the Schoharie.
+
+     "Our headquarters runner is your old Saguenay, and he is much
+     trusted by our General, they say. Sometimes the fierce fellow comes
+     to visit me, but asks only for news of you, and when I say I have
+     none he sits in silence. And always, when he leaves, he says very
+     solemnly: 'Tell my Captain that I am a real man. But did not know
+     it until my Captain told me so.'
+
+     "Now the news is that Burgoyne finds himself in a pickle since the
+     bloody battle at Oriskany. I think he flounders like a big
+     chain-pike stranded belly-deep in a shallow pool which is slowly
+     drying up around him.
+
+     "We are no longer afeard of his Germans, his General Baum-Boom, his
+     famous artillery, or his Indians.
+
+     "What the Tryon County lads did to St. Leger we shall surely do to
+     that big braggart, John Burgoyne. And mean to do it presently.
+
+     "I send this letter to you by Adam Helmer, who goes this day to
+     Schenectady, riding express.
+
+     "I give you my hand and heart. I hope Penelope is well.
+
+     "And beg permission to remain, sir, your most humble and obliged
+     and obedient servant,
+
+     "NICHOLAS STONER."
+
+I laid aside Nick's letter, half smiling, half sad, at the thoughts it
+evoked within me.
+
+Young Master Snips was now a-drying of my hair. I opened another letter,
+which bore the inscription, 'By flag.' It had been unsealed, which, of
+course, was the rule, and so approved and delivered to me:
+
+     "DEAR JACK,
+
+     "I am fearfully unhappy. This day news is brought of the action at
+     Oriska, and that my dear brother is dead.
+
+     "I pray you, if it be within your power, to give my poor Stephen
+     decent burial. He was your boyhood friend. Ah, God, what an
+     unnatural strife is this that sets friend against friend, brother
+     against brother, father against son!
+
+     "Can you not picture my wretchedness and distress to know that my
+     darling brother is slain, that my husband is at this moment facing
+     the terrible rifle-fire of your infuriated soldiery, that many of
+     my intimate friends are dead or wounded at this terrible Oriskany
+     where they say your maddened soldiers flung aside their muskets and
+     leaped upon our Greens and Rangers with knife and hatchet, and tore
+     their very souls out with naked hands.
+
+     "I pray that you were not involved in that horrible affair. I pray
+     that you may live through these fearful times to the end, whatever
+     that end shall be. God alone knows.
+
+     "I thank you for your generous forbearance and chivalry to us on
+     the Oneida Road. I saw your painted Oneida Indians crouching in
+     the roadside weeds, although I did not tell you that I had
+     discovered them. But I was terrified for my baby. You have heard
+     how Iroquois Indians sometimes conduct.
+
+     "Dear Jack, I can not find in my heart any unkind thought of you. I
+     trust you think of me as kindly.
+
+     "And so I ask you, if it be within your power, to give my poor
+     brother decent burial. And mark the grave so that one day, please
+     God, we may remove his mangled remains to a friendlier place than
+     Tryon has proven for me and mine.
+
+     "I am, dear Jack, with unalterable affection,
+
+     "Your unhappy,
+
+     "POLLY."
+
+My eyes were misty as I laid the letter aside, resolving to do all I
+could to carry out Lady Johnson's desires. For not until long afterward
+did I hear that Steve Watts had survived his terrible wounds and was
+finally safe from the vengeance of outraged Tryon.
+
+Another letter, also with broken seal, I laid open and read while Snips
+heated his irons and gazed out of the breezy window, where, with fife
+and drum, I could hear the garrison marching out for exercise and
+practice.
+
+And to the lively marching music of _The Huron_, I read my letter from
+Claudia Swift:
+
+     "Oneida; Aug: 7th, 1777.
+
+     "MY DEAREST JACK,
+
+     "I am informed that I may venture to send this epistle under a flag
+     that goes out today. No doubt but some Yankee Paul Pry in
+     blue-and-buff will crack the seal and read it before you receive
+     it.
+
+     "But I snap my fingers at him. I care not. I am bold to say that I
+     do love you. And dearly! So much for Master Pry!
+
+     "But, alas, my friend, now indeed I am put to it; for I must
+     confess to you a sadder and deeper anxiety. For if I love you, sir,
+     I am otherwise in love. And with another! I shall not dare to
+     confess his name. But _you saw and recognized him_ at Summer House
+     when Steve was there a year ago last spring.
+
+     "Now you know. Yes, I am madly in love, Jack. And am racked with
+     terrors and nigh out o' my wits with this awful news of the Oriska
+     battle.
+
+     "We hear that Captain Walter Butler is taken out o' uniform within
+     your lines; and so, lacking the protection of his regimentals, he
+     is like to suffer as a spy. My God! Was he _alone_ when
+     apprehended by Arnold's troops? And will General Arnold hang him?
+
+     "This is the urgent news I ask of you. I am horribly afraid. In
+     mercy send me some account; for there are terrible rumours afloat
+     in this fortress--rumours of other spies taken by your soldiery,
+     and of brutal executions--I can not bring myself to write of what I
+     fear. Pity me, Jack, and write me what you hear.
+
+     "Could you not beg this one mercy of Billy Alexander, that he send
+     a flag or contrive to have one sent from your Northern Department,
+     explaining to us poor women what truly has been,--and is like to
+     be--the fate of such unfortunate prisoners in your hands?
+
+     "And remember who it is appeals to you, dear Jack; for even if I
+     have not merited your consideration,--if I, perhaps, have even
+     forfeited the regard of Billy Alexander,--I pray you both to
+     remember that you once were a little in love with me.
+
+     "And so, deal with me gently, Jack. For I am frightened and sick at
+     heart; and know very little about love, which, for the first time
+     ever in my life, has now undone me.
+
+     "Will you not aid and forgive your unhappy,
+
+     "CLAUDIA."
+
+Good Lord! Claudia enamoured! And enamoured of that great villain, Henry
+Hare! Why, damn him, he hath a wife and children, too, or I am most
+grossly in error.
+
+I had not heard that Walter Butler was taken. I knew not whether
+Lieutenant Hare had been caught in Butler's evil company or if, indeed,
+he had fought at all with old John Butler at Oriska.
+
+Frowning, disgusted, yet sad also to learn that Claudia could so rashly
+and so ignobly lavish her affections, nevertheless I resolved to ask
+Lord Stirling if a flag could not be sent with news to Claudia and such
+other anxious ladies as might be eating their hearts out at Oneida, or
+Oswego, or Buck Island.
+
+And so I laid aside her painful letter, and unfolded the last missive.
+And discovered it was writ me by Penelope:
+
+     "You should not think harshly of me, Jack Drogue, if you return and
+     discover that I am gone away from Johnstown.
+
+     "Douw Fonda is returned to Cayadutta Lodge. He has now sent a
+     carriage for to fetch me. It is waiting while I write. I can not
+     refuse him.
+
+     "If, when we meet again, you desire to know my mind concerning
+     you, then, if you choose to look into it, you shall discover that
+     my mind contains only a single thought. And the thought is for you.
+
+     "But if you desire no longer to know my mind when again--if
+     ever--we two meet together, then you shall not feel it your duty to
+     concern yourself about my mind, or what thought may be within it.
+
+     "I would not write coldly to you, John Drogue. Nor would I
+     importune with passion.
+
+     "I have no claim upon your further kindness. You have every claim
+     upon my life-long gratitude.
+
+     "But I offer more than gratitude if you should still desire it; and
+     I would offer less--if it should better please you.
+
+     "Feel not offended; feel free. Come to me if it pleaseth you; and,
+     if you come not, there is in me that which shall pardon all you do,
+     or leave undone, as long as ever I shall live on earth.
+
+     "PENELOPE GRANT."
+
+When Snips had powdered me and had tied my club with a queue-ribbon of
+his proper selection, he patched my cheek-bone where a thorn had torn
+me, and stood a-twirling his iron as though lost in admiration of his
+handiwork.
+
+When I paid him I bade him tell Burke to bring around my horse and fetch
+my saddle bags; and then I dressed me in my regimentals.
+
+When Burke came with the saddle-bags, we packed them together. He
+promised to care for my rifle and pack, took my new light blanket over
+his arm, and led the way down stairs, where I presently perceived Kaya
+saddled, and pricking ears to hear my voice.
+
+Whilst I caressed her and whispered in her pretty ear the idle
+tenderness that a man confides to a beloved horse, Burke placed my
+pistols, strapped saddle-bags and blanket, and held my stirrup as I
+gathered bridle and set my spurred boot firmly on the steel.
+
+And so swung to my saddle, and sat there, dividing bridles, deep fixed
+in troubled thought and anxiously concerned for the safety of the
+unselfish but very stubborn girl I loved.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I had said my adieux to Jimmy Burke; I had taken leave of the Commandant
+at the palisades jail. I now galloped Kaya through the town, riding by
+way of Butlersbury;[42] and saw the steep roof of the Butler house
+through the grove, and shuddered as I thought of the unhappy young man
+who had lived there and who, at that very moment, might be hanging by
+his neck while the drums rolled from the hollow square.
+
+[Footnote 42: A letter written by Colonel Butler so designates the place
+where the ancient Butler house is still standing. The letter mentioned
+is in the possession of the author.]
+
+Down the steep hill I rode, careful of loose stone, and so came to the
+river and to Caughnawaga.[43]
+
+[Footnote 43: Now the town of Fonda.]
+
+All was peaceful and still in the noonday sunshine; the river wore a
+glassy surface; farm waggons creaked slowly through golden dust along
+the Fort Johnson highway; fat cattle lay in the shade; and from the
+brick chimneys of Caughnawaga blue smoke drifted where, in her cellar
+kitchen, the good wife was a-cooking of the noontide dinner.
+
+When presently I espied Douw Fonda's great mansion of stone, I saw
+nobody on the porch, and no smoke rising from the chimneys, yet the
+front door stood open.
+
+But when I rode up to the porch, a black wench came from the house, who
+said that Mr. Fonda dined at his son's that day, and would remain until
+evening.
+
+However, when I made inquiry for Penelope, I found that she was
+within,--had already been served with dinner,--and was now gone to the
+library to read and knit as usual when alone.
+
+The black wench took my mare and whistled shrilly for a slave to come
+and hold the horse.
+
+But I had already mounted the stoop and entered the silent house; and
+now I perceived Penelope, who had risen from a chair and was laying
+aside her book and knitting.
+
+She seemed very white when I went to her and drew her into my embrace;
+and she rested her cheek against my shoulder and took close hold of my
+two arms, but uttered not a word.
+
+Under her lace cap her hair glimmered like sun-warmed gold; and her
+hands, which had become very fine and white again, began to move upward
+to my shoulders, till they encircled my neck and rested there, tight
+linked.
+
+For a space she wept, but presently staunched her tears with her laced
+apron's edge, like a child at school. And when I made her look upon me
+she smiled though she still breathed sobbingly, and her lips still
+quivered as I kissed her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We sat close together there in the golden gloom of the curtained room,
+where only a bar of dusty sunlight fell across a row of gilded books.
+
+I had told her everything--had given an account of all that had
+befallen my little scout, and how I had returned to Johnstown, and how
+so suddenly my fortunes had been completely changed.
+
+I told her of what I knew of the battle at Oriskany, of the present
+situation at Stanwix and at Saratoga, and of what I saw of the fight at
+the Flockey, where McDonald ran.
+
+I begged her to persuade Mr. Fonda to go to Albany, and she promised to
+do so. And when I pointed out in detail how perilous was his situation
+here, and how desperate her own, she said she knew it, and had been
+horribly afraid, but that Caughnawaga folk seemed strangely indifferent
+to the danger,--could not bring themselves to believe in it,
+perhaps,--and were loath to leave their homes unprotected and their
+fields untilled.
+
+But when I touched on her leaving these foolish people and, as my wife,
+travelling southward with me to the great fortress on the Hudson, she
+only wept, saying, in tears, that she was needed by an old and feeble
+man who had protected her when she was poor and friendless, and that,
+though she loved me, her duty still lay first at Douw Fonda's side.
+
+Quit him she utterly refused to do; and it was in vain I pointed out his
+three stalwart sons and their numerous families, retainers, tenants,
+servants, and slaves, who ought to care for the obstinate old gentleman
+and provide a security for him whether he would or no.
+
+But argument was useless; I knew it. And all I obtained of her was that,
+whether matters north of us mended or grew worse, she would persuade Mr.
+Fonda to return to Albany until such time as Tryon County became once
+more safe to live in.
+
+This she promised, and even assured me that she had already spoken of
+the matter to Mr. Fonda, and that the old gentleman appeared to be quite
+willing to return to Albany as soon as his grain could be reaped and
+threshed.
+
+So with this I had to content my heavy heart. And now, by the tall
+clock, I perceived that my time was up; for Schenectady lay far away,
+and Albany father still; and it was like to be a long and dreary journey
+to West Point, if, indeed, I should find Lord Stirling still there.
+
+For at Johnstown fort that morning I was warned that my General Lord
+Stirling had already rejoined his division in the Jerseys; and that the
+news was brought by riflemen of Morgan's corps, which was now swiftly
+marching to join our Northern forces near Saratoga.
+
+Well, God's will must obtain on earth; none can thwart it; none
+foretell----
+
+At the thought I looked down at Penelope, where I held her clasped; and
+I told her of the vision of Thiohero.
+
+She remained very still when she learned what the Little Maid of
+Askalege had seen there beside me in the cannon-cloud, where the German
+foresters of Hainau, in their outlandish dress, were shouting and
+shooting.
+
+For Penelope had seen the same white shape; and had been, she said,
+afeard that it was my own weird she saw,--so white it seemed to her, she
+said,--so still and shrouded in its misty veil.
+
+"Was it I?" she whispered in an awed voice. "Was it truly I that the
+Oneida virgin saw? And did she know my features in the shroud?"
+
+"She saw you all in white and flowers, floating there near me like mist
+at sunrise."
+
+"She told you it was I?"
+
+"Dying, she so told me. And, 'Yellow Hair,' she gasped, 'is quite a
+witch!' And then she died between my arms."
+
+"I am no witch," she whispered.
+
+"Nor was the Little Maid of Askalege. Both of you, I think, saw at times
+things that we others can not perceive until they happen;--the shadow of
+events to come."
+
+"Yes."
+
+After a silence: "Have you, perhaps, discovered other shadows since we
+last met, Penelope?"
+
+"Yes; shadows."
+
+"What coming event cast them?"
+
+After a long pause: "Will it make his mind more tranquil if I tell him?"
+she murmured to herself; and I saw her dark eyes fixed absently on the
+dusty ray of sunlight slanting athwart the room.
+
+Then she looked up at me; blushed to her hair: "I saw children--with
+_yellow_ hair--and _your_ eyes----"
+
+"With _your_ hair!"
+
+"And _your_ eyes--John Drogue--John Drogue----"
+
+The stillness of Paradise grew all around us, filling my soul with a
+great and heavenly silence.
+
+We could not die--we two who stood here so closely clasped--until this
+vision had been fulfilled.
+
+And so, presently, her hands fell into mine, and our lips joined slowly,
+and rested.
+
+We said no word. I left her standing there in the golden twilight of the
+curtains, and got to my saddle,--God knows how,--and rode away beside
+the quiet river to the certain destiny that no man ever can hope to
+hinder or escape.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+"IN THE VALLEY"
+
+
+On the 24th of June, 1777, Major General Lord Stirling had disobeyed the
+orders of His Excellency; and, in consequence, his flank was turned, he
+lost two guns and 150 men.[44]
+
+[Footnote 44: The British account makes it three guns and 200 men.]
+
+It is the only military mistake that my Lord Stirling ever made; the
+only lesson he ever had to learn in military judgment and obedience.
+
+I was of his family for three years,--serving as one of his secretaries
+and aids-de-camp.
+
+I was present at the battle of Brandywine; I served under him at
+Germantown in the fog, and at Monmouth; and never doubted that my Lord
+Stirling was a fine and capable and knightly soldier, if not possibly a
+great one.
+
+Yet, perhaps, there was only one great soldier in that long and bloody
+war of the American Revolution. I need not name His Excellency.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For nearly three years, as I say, I served as a member of Lord
+Stirling's military family. The lights and shadows of those days of fire
+and ice, of plenty and starvation, of joy and despair, of monstrous and
+incredible effort, and of paralyzing inaction, are known now to all.
+
+And the end is not yet--nor, I fear, very near to a finish. But we all
+await our nation's destiny with confidence, I think;--and our own fate
+with composure.
+
+No man can pass through such years and remain what he was born. No man
+can regret them; none can dare wish to live through such days again;
+none would shun them. And how many months, or years, maybe, of fighting
+still remain before us, no man can foretell. But the grim men in their
+scare-crow regimentals who today, in the present year of 1780, are
+closing ranks to prepare for future battles, even in the bitter
+aftermath of defeat, seem to know, somehow, that this nation is
+destined to survive.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+From the month of August in 1777 to May, 1780, I had not seen Penelope;
+I had asked for no leave to travel, knowing, by reason of my
+confidential office and better than many others, how desperate was our
+army's plight and how utterly every able-bodied man was needed.
+
+In consequence, I had not seen my own Northland in all those months; I
+had not seen Penelope. Letters I wrote and sent to her when opportunity
+offered; letters came from her, and always written from Caughnawaga.
+
+For it appeared that Douw Fonda had never consented to return to Albany;
+but, by some miracle of God, the Valley so far had suffered no serious
+harm. Yet, the terrible business at Wyoming renewed my every crudest
+fear for the safety of Caughnawaga; and when, in the same year, a
+Continental regiment of the Pennsylvania Line marched out from Schoharie
+to destroy Unadilla, I, who knew the Iroquois, knew that their revenge
+was certain to follow.
+
+It followed in that very year; and Cherry Valley became a bloodsoaked
+heap of cinders; and there, under Iroquois knife and hatchet, and under
+the merciless clubbed muskets of the _blue-eyed_ Indians, many of my old
+friends died--all of the Wells family save only one--old and young and
+babies. What a crime was done by young Walter Butler on that fearful
+day! And I sometimes wonder, now, what our generous but sentimental
+young Marquis thinks of his deed of mercy when he saw and pitied Walter
+Butler in an Albany prison, sick and under sentence of death, and
+procured medical treatment for him and more comfortable quarters in a
+private residence.
+
+And Butler drugged his sentry and slipped our fingers like a rat and was
+off in a trice and gone to his bloody destiny in the West!
+Lord--Lord!--the things men do to men!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Brant burned Minnisink I trembled anew for Caughnawaga; and
+breathed freely only when our General Sullivan marched on Tioga with six
+thousand men.
+
+Yet, though he cleaned out the foul and hidden nests of the Iroquois
+Confederacy, I, knowing these same Iroquois, knew in my dreading heart
+that Iroquois vengeance would surely strike again, and this time at the
+Valley.
+
+Because, out of the Mohawk Valley, came all their chiefest woes;
+Oriskany, which set the whole Six Nations howling their dead;
+Stillwater; Unadilla; Tioga; The Chemung--these battles tore the
+Iroquois to fragments.
+
+The Long House, in ruins, rang with the frantic wailing of four fierce
+nations. The Senecas screamed in their pain from the Western Gate; the
+Cayugas and Onondagas were singing the death song of their nations; the
+proud Keepers of the Eastern Gate, driven headlong into exile, gathered
+like bleeding panthers on the frontier, their glowing gaze intent and
+patient, watching the usurpers and marking them for vengeance and
+destruction.
+
+To me, personally, the conflict in my Northland had become unutterably
+horrible.
+
+Our battles in the Jerseys, in Pennsylvania, in Delaware, and farther
+south, held for me no such horror and repugnance; for if the panoply of
+war be dreadful, its pomp and circumstance make it endurable and to be
+understood by human beings.
+
+But to me there was something terrifying in secret ambush and ghastly
+massacre amid the eternal twilight of the Northern wilderness, where
+painted men stole through still places, intent on murder; where death
+was swift and silent, where all must watch and none dared rest; where
+children wept in their sleep, and mothers lay listening all night long,
+and hollow-eyed men cut their corn with sickle in one hand and rifle in
+the other.
+
+We, in the Jerseys, watching red-coat and Hessian, heard of scalps taken
+in the North from babies lying in their cradles--aye, the very watch-dog
+at the gate was scalped; and painted Tories threw their victims over
+rail fences to hang there, disembowelled, like dead game.
+
+We heard terrible and inhuman tales of Simon Girty, of Benjy Beacraft,
+of Billy Newbury--all old neighbours of mine, and now turned
+child-killers and murderers of helpless women--all painted men, now,
+ferocious and without mercy.
+
+But these men had never been more than ignorant peasants and dull
+tillers of the soil for thriftier masters. Yet they were no crueller
+than others of birth and education. And what was I to think of Walter
+Butler and other gentlemen of like condition,--officers who had
+delivered Tom Boyd of Derry to the Senecas,--Colonel Paris to the
+Mohawks!
+
+The day we heard that Sergeant Newbury and Henry Hare were taken, I
+thanked God on my knees. And when our General Clinton hung them both for
+human monsters as well as spies, then I thanked God again.... And wrote
+tenderly to Claudia, poor misguided girl!--condoling with her--not for
+her grief and the death of Henry Hare[45]--but that the black disgrace
+of it should so nearly touch and soil her.
+
+[Footnote 45: In the writer's possession is a letter written by the
+widow of Lieutenant Hare, retailing the circumstances of his execution
+and praying for financial relief from extreme poverty. General Sir
+Frederick Haldimand indorses the application in his own handwriting and
+recommends a pension. The widow mentions her six little children.]
+
+I have received, so far, no letter from Claudia in reply. But Lord
+Stirling tells me that she reigns a belle in New York; and that she hath
+wrought havoc among the Queen's Rangers, and particularly in De Lancy's
+Horse and the gay cavalry of Colonel Tarleton.
+
+I pray her pretty, restless wings may not be singed or broken, or
+flutter, dying, in the web of Fate.
+
+Nick Stoner's father, Henry, that grim old giant with his two earhoops
+in his leathery ears, and with all his brawn, and mighty strength, and
+the lurking scowl deep bitten betwixt his tiger eyes,--old Henry Stoner
+is dead and scalped.
+
+Nick, who is now fife-major, has writ me this in a letter full of oaths
+and curses for the Iroquois who have done this shame to him and his.
+
+For every hair on old Henry's mangled head, said he, an Iroquois should
+spit out his death-yell. He tells me that he means to quit the army and
+enter the business of tanning Iroquois hides to make boots and
+moccasins; and says that Tim Murphy has knee moccasins as fine as ever
+he saw, and made out o' leather skinned off an Indian's legs!
+
+Faugh! Grief and shame have made Nick blood-mad.... Yet, I know not what
+I should do, or how conduct, if she who is nearest to my heart should
+ever suffer from an Indian.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+This sweet April day, taking the air near Lord Stirling's marquee, I see
+the first white butterflies a-fluttering like windblown bits o' paper
+across the new grass.... In the North the woodlands should be soft with
+snow; and, in warm places, perhaps the butterfly we call the beauty of
+Camberwell may sit sipping the first drops o' maple sap.... And there
+should be a scent of pink arbutus in the breeze, if winds be soft....
+Lord--Lord--I am become sick for home.... And would see my glebe again
+in Fonda's Bush; and hear the spring roaring of the Kennyetto between
+melting banks.... And listen to the fairy thunder of the cock partridge
+drumming on his log.
+
+My neighbours are all dead or gone away, they say. My house is a heap of
+wind-stirred ashes,--as are all houses in Fonda's Bush save only
+Stoner's. My cleared land sprouts young forests; my fences are gone;
+wolves travel my paths; deer pasture my hill; and my new orchard stands
+dead and girdled by wood-mouse and rabbit.... And still I be sick for a
+sight of it that was once my home,--and ever shall be while I possess a
+handful of mother earth to call mine own.
+
+It is near the end of April and I seem sick, but would not have Billy
+Alexander think I mope.
+
+I have a letter from Penelope. She lately saw a small scout on the
+Mohawk, it being a part of M'Kean's corps; and she recognized and
+conversed with several men who once composed my first war party--Jean de
+Silver, Benjamin De Luysnes, Joe de Golyer of Frenchman's Creek, and
+Godfrey Shew of Fish House.
+
+They were on their way to Canada by way of Sacandaga, to learn what Sir
+John might be about.... God knows I also desire very earnestly to know
+what the sinister Baronet may be planning.
+
+Penelope writes me that Tahioni the Wolf is dead in his glory; and that
+Hiakatoo took his scalp and heart.... I suppose that is glory enough for
+any dead young warrior, but the intelligence fills me with foreboding.
+And Kwiyeh the Screech-owl is dead at Lake Desolation, and so is Hanatoh
+the Water-snake, where some Praying Indians caught them in a canoe and
+made a dreadful example of my two young comrades.... But at least they
+were permitted to sing their death-songs, and so died happy--if that
+indeed be happiness....
+
+The Cadys, who were gone off to Canada, and John and Phil Helmer, have
+been seen in green uniforms and red; and Adam Helmer has sworn an oath
+to seek them, follow them, and slay them for the bloody turncoat dogs
+they are. Lord, Lord, how hast Thou changed Thy children into creatures
+of the wild to prey one upon another till all the Northland becomes once
+more a desert and empty of human life!
+
+It is May. I sicken for Penelope and for my home.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I am given a furlough! I asked it not. Lord Stirling dismisses me--with
+a grin. Pretense of inspection covering the Johnstown district, and to
+count the batteaux between Schenectady and the Creek of Askalege! Which
+is but sheer nonsense; and I had as well spend the time a-telling of my
+thumbs--which Lord Stirling knows as well as I is the pastime of an
+idiot.... God bless him!
+
+I am given a month, to arrange my personal affairs. I have asked for
+nothing; and am given a month!... And stand here at the tent door all
+a-tremble while my mare is saddled, not trusting my voice lest it break
+and shame me before all....
+
+I close my _carnet_ and strap it with a buckle.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I am on my way! Shad-bushes drop a million snowy petals in the soft May
+breeze; dogwood is in bloom; orchards are become great nosegays of pink
+and silver. Everywhere birds are singing.
+
+And through this sweet Paradise I ride in my dingy regimentals; but my
+pistols are clean and my leathers; and my sword and spurs are bright,
+and chime gaily as I ride beside the great gray river northward, ever
+northward to my sweetheart and my home.
+
+I baited at Tarrytown. The next night I was at Poughkeepsie, where the
+landlord was a low-Dutchman and a skinflint too.
+
+I passed opposite to where Kingston lay in ashes, burned wantonly by a
+brute. And after that I advanced but slowly, for roads were bad and folk
+dour and suspicious--which state of mind I also shared and had no
+traffic with those I encountered, and chose to camp in the woods, too,
+rather than risk a night under the dubious roofs I saw, even though
+invited.
+
+Only near the military posts in the Highlands did I feel truly secure
+until, one day at sunrise, I beheld the shining spires of Albany, and
+hundreds of gilded weather-cocks all shining me a welcome.
+
+But in Albany streets I encountered silent people who looked upon me
+with no welcome in their haunted gaze; and everywhere I saw the same
+strange look,--pinched faces, brooding visages, a strained, intent gaze,
+yet vacant too, as though their eyes, which looked at me, saw nothing
+save some hidden vision within their secret minds.
+
+I baited at the Half-Moon; and now I learned for the first what
+anxieties harassed these good burghers of the old Dutch city. For rumour
+had come the night before on the heels of a galloping light-horseman,
+that Sir John was expected to enter the Valley by the Sacandaga route;
+and that already strange Indians had been seen near Askalege.
+
+How these same rumours originated nobody seemed to know. The light
+horseman had them from batteaux-men at Schenectady. But who carried such
+alarming news to the Queen's Fort nobody seemed to know, only that the
+garrison had become feverishly active, and three small scouts were
+preparing to start for Schoharie and Caughnawaga.
+
+All this from the landlord, a gross, fat, speckled man who trembled like
+a dish of jelly as he told it.
+
+But as I went out to climb into my saddle, leaving my samp and morning
+draught untasted, comes a-riding a gay company of light horse, careless
+and debonaire. Their officer saluted my uniform and, as I spurred up
+beside him and questioned him, he smilingly assured me that the rumours
+had no foundation; that if Sir John came at all he would surely arrive
+by the Susquehanna; and that our scouts would give warning to the Valley
+in ample time.
+
+God knows that what he said comforted me somewhat, yet I did not choose
+to lose any time at breakfast, either; so bought me a loaf at a
+bake-shop, and ate as I rode forward.
+
+At noon I rode into the Queen's Fort and there fed Kaya. I saw no
+unusual activity there; none in the town, none on the river.
+
+Officers of whom I made inquiry had heard nothing concerning Sir John;
+did not expect a raid from him before autumn anyway, and vowed that
+General Sullivan had scotched the Iroquois snake in its den and driven
+the fear o' God into Sir John and the two Butlers with the cannon at
+Chemung.
+
+As I rode westward again, I saw all around me men at work in the fields,
+plowing here, seeding there, clearing brush-fields yonder. There seemed
+to be no dread among these people; all was calm as the fat Dutch cattle
+that stood belly deep in meadows, watching me out o' gentle, stupid eyes
+as I rode on toward Caughnawaga.
+
+A woman whom I encountered, and who was driving geese, stopped to answer
+my inquiries. From her I learned that Colonel Fisher, at Caughnawaga,
+had received a letter from Colonel Jacob Klock six days ago, which
+stated that Sir John Johnson was marching on the Valley. But she assured
+me that this news was now entirely discredited by everybody, because on
+Sunday a week ago Captain Walter Vrooman, of Guilderland, had marched
+his company to Caughnawaga, but on arriving was told he was not needed,
+and so continued on to Johnstown.
+
+I do not know why all these assurances from the honest people of the
+Valley did not ease my mind.
+
+Around me as I rode all was sunny, still, and peaceful, yet deep in my
+heart always I seemed to feel the faint pulse of fear as I looked
+around me upon a smiling region once familiar and upon which I had not
+laid eyes for nearly three whole years.
+
+And my nearness to Penelope, too, so filled me with happy impatience
+that the last mile seemed a hundred leagues on the dusty Schenectady
+road.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I had just come into view of the first chimneys of Caughnawaga, and was
+riding by an empty waggon driven by an old man, when, very far away, I
+heard a gun-shot.
+
+I drew bridle sharply and asked the man in the waggon if he also had
+heard it; but his waggon rattled and he had not. However, he also pulled
+up; and we stood still, listening.
+
+Then, again, and softened by distance, came another gun-shot.
+
+The old man thought it might be some farmer emptying his piece to clean
+it.
+
+As he spoke, still far away along the river we heard several shots fired
+in rapid succession.
+
+With that, the old man fetched a yell: "Durn-ding it!" he screeched, "if
+Sir John's in the Valley it ain't no place for my old woman and me!" And
+he lashed his horses with the reins, and drove at a crazy gallop toward
+the distant firing.
+
+At the same moment I spurred Kaya, who bounded forward over the rise of
+land; and instantly I saw smoke in the sky beyond the Johnstown Road,
+and caught a glimpse of other fires in another direction, very near to
+where should stand the dwellings of Jim Davis and Sampson Sammons.
+
+And now, seated by the roadside just ahead, I saw a young man whom I
+knew by sight, named Abe Veeder; and I pulled in my horse and called to
+him.
+
+He would not move or notice me, and seemed distracted; so I spurred up
+to him and caught him by the shirt collar. At that he jumps up in a
+fright, and:
+
+"Oh, Jesus!" he bawls, "Sir John's red devils are murdering everybody
+from Johnstown to the River!"
+
+"Where are they?" I cried. "Answer me and compose yourself!"
+
+"Where are they?" he shrieked. "Why, they're everywhere! Lodowick
+Putman's house is afire and they've murdered him and Aaron. Amasa
+Stevens' house is burning, and he hangs naked and scalped on his garden
+fence!
+
+"They killed Billy Gault and that other man from the old country, and
+they murdered Captain Hansen in his bed, and his house is all afire!
+Everything in the Valley is afire!" he screamed, wringing his scorched
+hands, "Tribes Hill is burning, Fisher's is on fire, and the Colonel and
+John and Harmon all murdered--all scalped and lying dead in the
+barn!----"
+
+"Listen to me!" I cried, shaking the wretched fellow, "when did this
+happen? Are Sir John's people still here? Where are they?"
+
+"It happened last night and lasted after sunrise this morning," he
+blubbered. "Everything is burning from Schoharie to the Nose, and
+they'll come back and kill the rest of us----"
+
+I flung him aside, struck spurs, and galloped for Cayadutta Lodge.
+
+Everywhere I looked I saw smoke; barns were but heaps of live coals,
+houses marked only by charred cellars out of which flames leaped.
+
+Yet, I saw the church still standing, and Dr. Romeyn's parsonage still
+intact, though all doors and windows stood wide open and bedding and
+broken furniture lay scattered over the grass.
+
+But Adam Fonda's house was burning and the dwelling of Major Jelles was
+on fire; and now I caught sight of Douw Fonda's great stone house, with
+its two wings and tall chimneys of hewn stone.
+
+It was not burning, but shutters hung from their hinges, window glass
+was shattered, doors smashed in, and all over the trampled garden and
+lawn lay a débris of broken furniture, tattered books, bedding,
+fragments of fine china and torn garments.
+
+And there, face downward on the bloody grass, lay old Douw Fonda, his
+aged skull split to the backbone, his scalp gone.
+
+Such a sick horror seized me that I reeled in my saddle and the world
+grew dark before my eyes for a moment.
+
+But my mind cleared again and my eyes, also; and I sat my horse, pistol
+in hand, searching the desolation about me for a sign of aught that
+remained alive in this awful spot.
+
+I heard no more gun-shots up the river. The silence was terrible.
+
+At length, ill with fear, I got out of my saddle and led Kaya to the
+shattered gate and there tied her.
+
+Then I entered that ruined mansion to search it for what I feared most
+horribly to discover,--searched every room, every closet, every corner
+from attic to cellar. And then came out and took my horse by the bridle.
+
+For there was nobody within the house, living or dead--no sign of death
+anywhere save there on the grass, where that poor corpse lay, a
+grotesque thing sprawling indecently in its blood.
+
+Then, as I stood there, a man appeared, slinking up the road. He was in
+his shirt sleeves, wore no hat, and his face and hair were streaked red
+from a wet wound over his left ear. He carried a fire-lock; and when he
+discovered me in my Continental uniform he swerved and shuffled toward
+me, making a hopeless gesture as he came on.
+
+"They've all gone off," he called out to me, "green-coats, red-coats and
+savages. I saw them an hour since crossing the river some three miles
+above. God! What a harm have they done us here on this accursed day!"
+
+He crept nearer and stood close beside me and looked down at the body of
+Douw Fonda. But in my overwhelming grief I no longer noticed him.
+
+"Why, sir," says he, "a devil out o' hell would have spared yonder good
+old man. But Sir John's people slew him. I saw him die. I saw the murder
+done with my own eyes."
+
+Startled from my agonized reflections, I turned and gazed at him, still
+stunned by the calamity which had crushed me.
+
+"I say I saw that old man die!" he repeated shrilly. "I saw them scalp
+him, too!"
+
+I summoned all my courage: "Did--did you know Penelope Grant?"
+
+"Aye."
+
+"Is--is she dead?" I whispered.
+
+"I think she is, sir. Listen, sir: I am Jan Myndert, Bouw-Meester to
+Douw Fonda. I saw Mistress Grant this morning. It was after sunrise and
+our servants and black slaves had been long a-stirring, and soupaan
+a-cooking, and none dreamed of any trouble. No, sir! Why--God help us
+all!--the black wenches were at their Monday washing, and the farm bell
+was ringing, and I was at the new barrack a-sorting out seed.
+
+"And the old gentleman, _he_ was up and dressed and supped his porridge
+along with me, sir; for he rose always with the sun, sir, feeble though
+he seemed.
+
+"I----" he passed a cinder-blackened hand across his hair; drew it away
+red and sticky; stood gazing at the stain with a stupid air until I
+could not endure his silence; and burst out:
+
+"Where did you last see Mistress Grant?"
+
+But my violence confused him, and it seemed difficult for him to speak
+when finally he found voice at all:
+
+"Sir--as I have told you, I had been sorting seeds for early planting,
+in the barracks," he said tremulously, "and I was walking, as I
+remember, toward the house, when, of a sudden, I heard musket-firing
+toward Johnstown, and not very far distant.
+
+"With that comes a sound of galloping and rattle o' wheels, and I see
+Barent Wemple standing up in his red-painted farm waggon, and whipping
+his fine colts, and a keg o' rum bouncing behind him in the
+waggon-box,--which rolled off as the horses reached the river--and
+galloped into it--them two colts, sir,--breast deep in the river!
+
+"Then I shouts down to him: 'Barent! Barent! Is it them red devils of
+Sir John? Or why be you in such a God-a'mighty hurry?'
+
+"But Barent he is too busy cutting his traces to notice me; and up onto
+one o' the colts he jumps and seizes t'other by the head, and away
+across the shoals, leaving his new red waggon there in the water,
+hub-deep.
+
+"Then I run to the house and I fall to shouting: 'Look out! Look out!
+Sir John is in the Valley!' And then I run to the house, where my gun
+stands, and where the black boys and wenches are all a-screeching and
+a-praying.
+
+"Somebody calls out that Captain Fisher's house is on fire; and then, of
+a sudden, I see a flock o' naked, whooping devils come leaping down the
+road.
+
+"Then, sir, I saw Mistress Grant in her shift come out in the dew and
+stand yonder in her bare feet, a-looking across at them red devils,
+bounding and leaping about the Fisher place.
+
+"Then, out o' the house toddles Douw Fonda with his gold headed cane and
+his favorite book. Sir, though the poor old gentleman was childish, he
+still knew an Indian when he saw one. 'Fetch me a gun!' he cries. 'I
+take command here!' And then he sees Mistress Grant, and he pipes out in
+his cracked voice: 'Stand your ground, Penelope! Have no fear, my child.
+I command this post! I will protect you!'
+
+"The green-coats and savages were now swarming around the house of Major
+Jelles, whooping and yelling and capering and firing off their guns.
+Bang-bang-bang! Jesus! the noise of their musketry stopped your ears.
+
+"Then Mistress Grant she took the old gentleman by the arm and was
+begging him to go with her through the orchard, where we now could see
+Mrs. Romeyn running up the hill and carrying her two little children in
+her arms.
+
+"I also went to Mr. Fonda and took him by the other arm, but he walked
+with us only to the porch and there seized my gun that I had left
+there.
+
+"'Stand fast, Penelope!' he pipes up, 'I will defend your life and
+honour!' And further he would not budge, but turns mulish, yet too
+feeble to lift the gun he clung to with a grip I could not loosen lest I
+break his bones.
+
+"We got him, with his gun a-dragging, into the house, but could force
+him no farther, for he resisted and reproached me, demanding that I
+stand and face the enemy.
+
+"At that, through the window of the library wing I see a body of
+green-coats,--some three hundred or better,--marching down the
+Schenectady road. And some score of these, and as many Indians, were
+leaving the Major's house, which they had fired; and now all began to
+run toward us, firing off their muskets at our house as they came on.
+
+"I was grazed, as you see, sir, and the blow dashed out my senses for a
+moment. But when I came alive I found I had fallen beside the wainscot
+of the east wall, where is a secret spring panel made for Mr. Fonda's
+best books. My fall jarred it open; and into this closet I crawled; and
+the next moment the library was filled with the trample of yelling men.
+
+"I heard Mistress Grant give a kind of choking cry, and, through the
+crack of the wainscot door, I saw a green-coat put one hand over her
+mouth and hold her, cursing her for a rebel slut and telling her to hush
+her damned head or he'd do the proper business for her.
+
+"An Indian I knew, called Quider, and having only one arm, took hold of
+Mr. Fonda and led him from the library and out to the lawn, where I
+could see them both through the west window. The Indian acted kind to
+the old gentleman, gave him his hat and his book and cane, and conducted
+him south across the lawn. I could see it all plainly through the
+wainscot crack.
+
+"Then, of a sudden, the one-armed Indian swung his hatchet and clove
+that helpless and bewildered old man clean down to his neck cloth. And
+there, before all assembled, he took the old man's few white hairs for a
+scalp!
+
+"Then a green-coat called out to ask why he had slain such an old and
+feeble man, who had often befriended him; and the one-armed Indian,
+Quider, replied that if he hadn't killed Douw Fonda somebody else might
+have done so, and so he, Quider, thought he'd do it and get the
+scalp-bounty for himself.
+
+"And all this time the Indians and green-coats were running like wild
+wolves all over the house, stealing, destroying, yelling, flinging out
+books from the library shelves, ripping off curtains and bed-covers,
+flinging linen from chests, throwing crockery about, and keeping up a
+continual screeching.
+
+"Sir, I do not know why they did not set fire to the house. I do not
+know how my hiding place remained unnoticed.
+
+"From where I kneeled on the closet floor, and my face all over blood, I
+could see Mistress Grant across the room, sitting on a sofa, whither the
+cursing green-coat had flung her. She was deathly white but calm, and
+did not seem afraid; and she answered the filthy beasts coolly enough
+when they addressed her.
+
+"Then a big chair, which they had ripped up to look for money, was
+pushed against my closet, and the back of it closed the wainscot crack,
+so that I could no longer see Mistress Grant.
+
+"And that is all I know, sir. For the firing began again outside; they
+all ran out, and when I dared creep forth Mistress Grant was gone....
+And I lay still for a time, and then found a jug o' rum. When I could
+stand up I followed the destructives at a distance. And, an hour since,
+I saw the last stragglers crossing the river rifts some three miles
+above us.... And that is all, I think, sir."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And that was all.... The end of all things.... Or so it seemed to me.
+
+For now I cared no longer for life. The world had become horrible; the
+bright sunshine seemed a monstrous sacrilege where it blazed down,
+unveiling every detail of this ghastly Golgotha--this valley in ashes
+now made sacred by my dear love's martyrdom. Slowly I looked around me,
+still stupefied, helpless, not knowing where to seek my dead, which way
+to turn.
+
+And now my dulled gaze became fixed upon the glittering river, where
+something was moving.... And presently I realize it was a batteau, poled
+slowly shoreward by two tall riflemen in their fringes.
+
+"Holloa! you captain-mon out yonder!" bawled one o' them, his great
+voice coming to me through his hollowed hand.
+
+Leading my horse I walked toward them as in a fiery nightmare, and the
+sun but a vast and dancing blaze in my burning eyes. One of the riflemen
+leaped ashore:
+
+"Is anny wan alive in this place?" he began loudly; then: "Jasus! It's
+Captain Drogue. F'r the love o' God, asthore! Are they all dead entirely
+in Caughnawaga, savin' yourself, sorr, an' the Dominie's wife an'
+childer, an' the yellow-haired lass o' Douw Fonda----"
+
+I caught him by the rifle-cape. My clutch shook him; and I was shaking,
+too, so I could not pronounce clearly:
+
+"Where is Penelope Grant?" I stammered. "Where did you see her, Tim
+Murphy?"
+
+"Who's that?" he demanded, striving to loosen my grip. "Ah, the poor
+lad, he's crazy! Lave me loose, avie! Is it the yellow-haired lass ye
+ask for?"
+
+"Yes--where is she?"
+
+"God be good to you, Jack Drogue, she's on the hill yonder with Mrs.
+Romeyn an' the two childer!----" He took my arm, turned me partly
+around, and pointed:
+
+"D'ye mind the pine? The big wan, I mean, betchune the two ellums? 'Twas
+an hour since that we seen her foreninst the pine-tree yonder, an' the
+Romeyn childer hidin' their faces in her skirt----"
+
+I swung my horse and flung myself across the saddle.
+
+"She's safe, I warrant," cried Murphy, as I rode off; "Sir John's divils
+was gone off two hours whin we seen her safe and sound on the long
+hill!"
+
+I galloped over the shattered fence which was still afire where the
+charred rails lay in the grass.
+
+As I spurred up the bank opposite, I caught sight of a mounted officer
+on the stony Johnstown road, advancing at a trot, and behind him a mass
+of sweating militia jogging doggedly down hill in a rattle of pebbles
+and dust.
+
+When the mounted officer saw me he shouted through the dust-cloud that
+Sir John had been at the Hall, seized his plate and papers, and a lot of
+prisoners, and had murdered innocent people in Johnstown streets.
+
+Tim Murphy and his comrade, Elerson, also came up, calling out to the
+Johnstown men that they had come from Schoharie, and that both militia
+and Continentals were marching to the Valley.
+
+There was some cheering. I pushed my horse impatiently through the crowd
+and up the hill. But a little way farther on the road was choked with
+troops arriving on a run; and they had brought cohorns and their
+ammunition waggon, and God knows what!--alas! too late to oppose or
+punish the blood-drenched demons who had turned the Caughnawaga Valley
+to a smoking hell.
+
+Now, my horse was involved with all these excited people, and I,
+exasperated, thought I never should get clear of the soldiery and
+cohorns, but at length pushed a way through to the woods on my right,
+and spurred my mare into them and among the larger elms and pines where
+sheep had pastured, and there was less brush.
+
+I could not see the great pine now, but thought I had marked it down;
+and so bore again to the right, where through the woods I could see a
+glimmer of sun along cleared land.
+
+It was rocky; my horse slipped and I was obliged to walk him upward
+among stony places, where moss grew green and deep.
+
+And now, through a fringe of saplings, I caught a glimpse of the two
+elms and the tall pine between.
+
+"Penelope!" I cried. Then I saw her.
+
+She was standing as once she stood the first time ever I laid eyes on
+her. The sun shone in her face and made of her yellow hair a glory. And
+I saw her naked feet shining snow white, ankle deep in the wet grass.
+
+As though sun-dazzled she drew one hand swiftly across her eyes when I
+rode up, leaned over, and swung her up into my arms. And earth and sky
+and air became one vast and thrilling void through which no sound
+stirred save the wild beating of her heart and mine.
+
+Then, as from an infinite distance, came a thin cry, piercing our still
+paradise.
+
+Her arms loosened on my neck; we looked down as in a dream; and there
+were the little Romeyn children in the grass, naked in their shifts, and
+holding tightly to my stirrup.
+
+And now we saw light horsemen leading their mounts this way, and the
+poor Dominie's lady carried on a trooper's saddle, her bare foot
+clinging to the shortened stirrup.
+
+Other troopers lifted the children to their saddles; a great hubbub
+began below us along the Schenectady highway, where I now heard drums
+and the shrill marching music of an arriving regiment.
+
+I reached behind me, unstrapped my military mantle, clasped it around
+Penelope, swathed her body warmly, and linked up the chain. Then I
+touched Kaya with my left knee--she guiding left at such slight
+pressure--and we rode slowly over the sheep pasture and then along the
+sheep-walk, westward until we arrived at the bars. The bars were down
+and lay scattered over the grass. And thus we came quietly out into the
+Johnstown road.
+
+So still lay Penelope in my arms that I thought, at times, she was
+asleep; but ever, as I bent over her, her dark eyes unclosed, gazing up
+at me in tragic silence.
+
+Cautiously we advanced along the Johnstown road, Kaya cantering where
+the way was easy.
+
+We passed ruined houses, still smoking, but Penelope did not see them.
+And once I saw a dead man lying near a blackened cellar; and a dead
+hound near him.
+
+Long before we came in sight of Johnstown I could hear the distant
+quaver of the tocsin, where, on the fort, the iron bell rang ceaselessly
+its melancholy warning.
+
+And after a while I saw a spire above distant woods, and the setting sun
+brilliant on gilt weather-vanes.
+
+I bent over Penelope: "We arrive," I whispered.
+
+One little hand stole out and drew aside the collar of the cloak; and
+she turned her head and saw the roofs and chimneys shining red in the
+westering sun.
+
+"Jack," she said faintly.
+
+"I listen, beloved."
+
+"Douw Fonda is dead."
+
+"Hush! I know it, love."
+
+"Douw Fonda is with God since sunrise," she whispered.
+
+"Yes, I know.... And many others, too, Penelope."
+
+She shook her head vaguely, looking up at me all the while.
+
+"It came so swiftly.... I was still abed.... The guns awoke me.... And
+the blacks screaming. I ran to the window of my chamber.
+
+"A Continental soldier was driving an army cart toward the Johnstown
+road. And I saw him jump out of his cart,[46] cut his traces, mount,
+turn his horse, and gallop down the valley.... That was the first real
+fear that assailed me, when I saw that soldier flee.... I went below
+immediately; and saw Indians near the Fisher place.... But I could not
+persuade Mr. Fonda to escape with me through the orchard.... He would
+not go, Jack--he would not listen to me or to the Bouw-Meester, who also
+had hold of him.
+
+[Footnote 46: The gossipy, industrious, and diverting historian, Simms,
+whose account of this incident would seem to imply that Penelope Grant
+herself related it to him, gives a different version of her testimony.
+The statement he offers is signed: "_Mrs. Penelope Fortes. Her maiden
+name was Grant._" So Simms may have had it first hand.]
+
+"And when we went into the library somebody fired through the window and
+hit the Bouw-Meester.... I don't know what happened to him or where he
+fell.... For the next moment the house was full of green-coats and
+savages.... They led Mr. Fonda out of the house.... An Indian killed him
+with a hatchet.... A green-coat took hold of me and said he meant to
+cut my throat for a damned rebel slut! But an Indian pushed him away....
+They disputed. An officer of the Indian Department came into the library
+and told me to go out to the orchard and escape if I was able.
+
+"Then a Tory neighbour of ours, Joseph Clement, came in and shouted out
+in low Dutch: Laat de vervlukten rabble starven!'[47] ... A green-coat
+clubbed his musket to slay me, but the Indian officer caught the gun and
+called out to me: 'Run! Run, you yellow-haired slut!'
+
+[Footnote 47: In Valley Dutch: "Let the accursed rebel die!"]
+
+"But I dared not stir to pass by where Clement stood with his gun. I
+caught up a heavy silver candle-stick, broke the window with two blows,
+and leaped out into the orchard.... Clement ran around the house and I
+saw him enter the orchard, carrying a gun and looking for me; but I lay
+very still under the lilac hedge; and he must have thought I had run
+down to the river, for he went off that way.
+
+"Then I got to my feet and crept up the hill.... And presently saw Mrs.
+Romeyn and the children toiling up the hill; and helped her carry
+them.... All the morning we hid there and looked down at the burning
+houses.... And after a long while the firing grew more distant.
+
+"And then--and then--_you_ came! My dear lord!--my lover.... My own
+lover who has come to me at last!"
+
+
+
+
+AFTERMATH
+
+
+I know not how it shall be with me and mine! In this year of our Lord,
+1782, in which I write, here in the casemates at West Point, the war
+rages throughout the land, and there seems no end to it, nor none likely
+that I can see.
+
+That horrid treason which, through God's mercy, did not utterly confound
+us and deliver this fortress to our enemy, still seems to brood over
+this calm river and the frowning hills that buttress it, like a low,
+dark cloud.
+
+But I believe, under God, that our cause is now clean purged of all
+villainy, and all that is sordid, base, and contemptible.
+
+I believe, under God, that we shall accomplish our freedom and recover
+our ancient and English liberties in the end.
+
+That dull and German King, who sits yonder across the water, can never
+again stir in any American the faintest echo of that allegiance which
+once all offered simply and without question.
+
+Nor can his fat jester, my Lord North, contrive any new pleasantry to
+seduce us, or any new and bloody deviltry to make us fear the wrath of
+God's anointed or the monkey chatter of his clown.
+
+For us, the last king has sat upon a throne; the last privilege has been
+accorded to the last and noble drone; the last slave's tax has long been
+paid.
+
+Yet--and it sounds strange--_England_ still seems _home_ to us.... We
+think of it as home.... It is in our blood; and I am not ashamed to say
+it. And I think a hundred years may pass, and, in our hearts, shall
+still remain deep, deep, a tenderness for that far, ocean-severed home
+our grandsires knew as England.
+
+I say it spite o' the German King, spite of his mad ministers, spite o'
+British wrath and scorn and jibes and cruelty. For, by God! I believe
+that we ourselves who stand in battle here are the true mind and heart
+and loins of England, fighting to slay her baser self!
+
+Well, we are here in the Highlands, my sweetheart-wife and I.... I who
+now wear the regimentals of a Continental Colonel, and have a regiment
+as pretty as ever I see--though it be not over-strong in numbers. But,
+oh, the powder toughened line o' them in their patched blue-and-buff!
+And their bright bayonets! Sir, I would not boast; and ask I pardon if
+it seems so....
+
+Below us His Excellency, calm, imperturbable, holds in his hand our
+destinies, juggling now with Sir Henry Clinton, now with my Lord
+Cornwallis, as suits his temper and his purpose.
+
+The traitor, Arnold, ravages where he may; the traitor, Lee, sulks in
+retreat; and Conway has confessed his shame; and the unhappy braggart,
+Gates, now mourns his laurels, wears his willows, and sits alone, a
+broken and preposterous man.
+
+I think no day passes but I thank God for my Lord Stirling, for our wise
+Generals Greene and Knox and Wayne, for the gallant young Marquis, so
+loved and trusted by His Excellency.
+
+But war is long--oh, long and wearying!--and a dismal and vexing
+business for the most.
+
+I, being in garrison at this fortress, which is the keystone of our very
+liberties, find that, in barracks as in the field, every hour brings its
+anxieties and its harassing duties.
+
+Yet, thank God, I have some hours of leisure.... And we have leased a
+pretty cottage within our works--and our two children seem wondrous
+healthy and content.... Both have yellow hair. I wish they had their
+mother's lovely eyes!... But, for the rest, they have her beauty and her
+health.
+
+And shall, no doubt, inherit all the beauty of her mind and heart.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Comes a soldier servant where I sit writing:
+
+"Sir: Colonel Forbes' lady; her compliments to Colonel Forbes, and
+desires to be informed how soon my Colonel will be free to drink a dish
+of tea with my lady?"
+
+"Pray offer my compliments and profound respect to my lady, Billy, and
+say that I shall have the honour of drinking a dish of tea with my lady
+within no more than five amazing minutes!"
+
+And so he salutes and off he goes; and I gather up the sheaf of memoirs
+I have writ and lock them in my desk against another day.
+
+And so take leave of you, with every kindness, because Penelope should
+not sit waiting.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Little Red Foot, by Robert W. Chambers
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE RED FOOT ***
+
+***** This file should be named 37333-8.txt or 37333-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/3/3/37333/
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/37333-8.zip b/37333-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6a59355
--- /dev/null
+++ b/37333-8.zip
diff --git a/37333-h.zip b/37333-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..31bf051
--- /dev/null
+++ b/37333-h.zip
diff --git a/37333-h/37333-h.htm b/37333-h/37333-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ee46d4e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/37333-h/37333-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,18193 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ -->
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Little Red Foot, by Robert W. Chambers.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+
+body {
+    margin-left: 10%;
+    margin-right: 10%;
+}
+
+    h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {
+    text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+    clear: both;
+}
+
+p {
+    margin-top: .75em;
+    text-align: justify;
+    margin-bottom: .75em;
+}
+
+hr {
+    width: 33%;
+    margin-top: 2em;
+    margin-bottom: 2em;
+    margin-left: auto;
+    margin-right: auto;
+    clear: both;
+}
+
+table {
+    margin-left: auto;
+    margin-right: auto;
+}
+
+.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
+    /*  visibility: hidden;  */
+    position: absolute;
+    left: 92%;
+    font-size: smaller;
+    text-align: right;
+} /* page numbers */
+
+.linenum {
+    position: absolute;
+    top: auto;
+    left: 4%;
+} /* poetry number */
+
+.blockquot {
+    margin-left: 5%;
+    margin-right: 10%;
+}
+
+.sidenote {
+    width: 20%;
+    padding-bottom: .5em;
+    padding-top: .5em;
+    padding-left: .5em;
+    padding-right: .5em;
+    margin-left: 1em;
+    float: right;
+    clear: right;
+    margin-top: 1em;
+    font-size: smaller;
+    color: black;
+    background: #eeeeee;
+    border: dashed 1px;
+}
+
+.bb       {border-bottom: solid 2px;}
+
+.bl       {border-left: solid 2px;}
+
+.bt       {border-top: solid 2px;}
+
+.br       {border-right: solid 2px;}
+
+.bbox     {border: solid 2px;}
+
+.right   {text-align: right;}
+
+.center   {text-align: center;}
+
+.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
+
+.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
+
+.caption  {font-weight: bold;}
+
+/* Images */
+.figcenter   {
+    margin: auto;
+    text-align: center;
+}
+
+.figleft {
+    float: left;
+    clear: left;
+    margin-left: 0;
+    margin-bottom: 1em;
+    margin-top: 1em;
+    margin-right: 1em;
+    padding: 0;
+    text-align: center;
+}
+
+.figright {
+    float: right;
+    clear: right;
+    margin-left: 1em;
+    margin-bottom:
+    1em;
+    margin-top: 1em;
+    margin-right: 0;
+    padding: 0;
+    text-align: center;
+}
+
+/* Footnotes */
+.footnotes        {border: dashed 1px;}
+
+.footnote         {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;}
+
+.footnote .label  {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;}
+
+.fnanchor {
+    vertical-align: super;
+    font-size: .8em;
+    text-decoration:
+    none;
+}
+
+/* Poetry */
+.poem {
+    margin-left:10%;
+    margin-right:10%;
+    text-align: left;
+}
+
+.poem br {display: none;}
+
+.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;}
+
+.poem span.i0 {
+    display: block;
+    margin-left: 0em;
+    padding-left: 3em;
+    text-indent: -3em;
+}
+
+.poem span.i2 {
+    display: block;
+    margin-left: 2em;
+    padding-left: 3em;
+    text-indent: -3em;
+}
+
+.poem span.i4 {
+    display: block;
+    margin-left: 4em;
+    padding-left: 3em;
+    text-indent: -3em;
+}
+    .poem span.i1     {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i20     {display: block; margin-left: 20em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i21     {display: block; margin-left: 21em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i24     {display: block; margin-left: 24em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i26     {display: block; margin-left: 26em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i6     {display: block; margin-left: 6em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i8     {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i3     {display: block; margin-left: 3em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i7     {display: block; margin-left: 7em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+
+    </style>
+  </head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Little Red Foot, by Robert W. Chambers
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Little Red Foot
+
+Author: Robert W. Chambers
+
+Release Date: September 7, 2011 [EBook #37333]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE RED FOOT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+<div class="figleft">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright">
+<img src="images/tp.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<h1>THE LITTLE RED FOOT</h1>
+
+<h2>BY ROBERT W. CHAMBERS</h2>
+
+<h3>AUTHOR OF "THE SLAYER OF SOULS," "THE COMMON LAW,"<br /> "IN SECRET,"
+"LORRAINE," ETC.</h3>
+
+<p class="center">
+NEW YORK<br />
+GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY</p>
+
+<p class="center">COPYRIGHT, 1921,<br />
+BY ROBERT W. CHAMBERS</p>
+
+<p class="center">COPYRIGHT, 1920, 1921. BY THE INTERNATIONAL<br />
+MAGAZINE COMPANY</p>
+
+<p class="center">PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="center">TO<br />
+MY SON<br />
+ROBERT H. CHAMBERS</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<table width="50%">
+<tr><td align="right">I. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_I">SIR WILLIAM PASSES</a></td><td align="right">11</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">II. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_II">TWO PEERS SANS PEERAGE</a></td><td align="right">13</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">III. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_III">THE POT BOILS</a></td><td align="right">23</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">IV. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">TWO COUNTRY MICE</a></td><td align="right">32</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">V. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_V">A SUPPER</a></td><td align="right">40</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">VI. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">RUSTIC GALLANTRY</a></td><td align="right">51</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">VII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">BEFORE THE STORM</a></td><td align="right">60</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">VIII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">SHEEP AND GOATS</a></td><td align="right">68</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">IX. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">STOLE AWAY</a></td><td align="right">81</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">X. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_X">A NIGHT MARCH</a></td><td align="right">86</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XI. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">SUMMER HOUSE POINT</a></td><td align="right">94</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">THE SHAPE IN WHITE</a></td><td align="right">102</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XIII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">THE DROWNED LANDS</a></td><td align="right">113</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XIV. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">THE LITTLE RED FOOT</a></td><td align="right">124</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XV. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">WEST RIVER</a></td><td align="right">132</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XVI. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">A TROUBLED MIND</a></td><td align="right">141</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XVII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">DEEPER TROUBLE</a></td><td align="right">151</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XVIII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">FIRELIGHT</a></td><td align="right">169</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XIX. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">OUT OF THE NORTH</a></td><td align="right">177</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XX. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">IN SHADOW-LAND</a></td><td align="right">189</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XXI. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">THE DEMON</a></td><td align="right">197</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XXII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">HAG-RIDDEN</a></td><td align="right">207</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XXIII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">WINTER AND SPRING</a></td><td align="right">220</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XXIV. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">GREEN-COATS</a></td><td align="right">235</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XXV. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">BURKE'S TAVERN</a></td><td align="right">253</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XXVI. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">ORDERS</a></td><td align="right">267</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XXVII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">FIRE-FLIES</a></td><td align="right">283</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XXVIII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">OYANEH!</a></td><td align="right">292</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XXIX. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">THE WOOD OF BRAKABEEN</a></td><td align="right">309</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XXX. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">A LONG GOOD-BYE</a></td><td align="right">322</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XXXI. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">"IN THE VALLEY"</a></td><td align="right">333</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td><a href="#AFTERMATH">AFTERMATH</a></td><td align="right">350</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE LITTLE RED FOOT</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>SIR WILLIAM PASSES</h3>
+
+
+<p>The day Sir William died there died the greatest American of his day.
+Because, on that mid-summer evening, His Excellency was still only a
+Virginia gentleman not yet famous, and best known because of courage and
+sagacity displayed in that bloody business of Braddock.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, all Americans then living, and who since have become famous,
+were little celebrated, excepting locally, on the day Sir William
+Johnson died. Few were known outside a single province; scarcely one
+among them had been heard of abroad. But Sir William was a world figure;
+a great constructive genius; the greatest land-owner in North America; a
+wise magistrate, a victorious soldier, a builder of cities amid a
+wilderness; a redeemer of men.</p>
+
+<p>He was a Baronet of the British Realm; His Majesty's Superintendent of
+Indian Affairs for all North America. He was the only living white man
+implicitly trusted by the savages of this continent, because he never
+broke his word to them. He was, perhaps, the only representative of
+royal authority in the Western Hemisphere utterly believed in by the
+dishonest, tyrannical, and stupid pack of Royal Governors, Magistrates
+and lesser vermin that afflicted the colonies with the British plague.</p>
+
+<p>He was kind and great. All loved him. All mourned him. For he was a very
+perfect gentleman who practiced truth and honour and mercy; an
+unassuming and respectable man who loved laughter and gaiety and plain
+people.</p>
+
+<p>He saw the conflict coming which must drench the land in blood and dry
+with fire the blackened cinders.</p>
+
+<p>Torn betwixt loyalty to his King whom he had so tirelessly served, and
+loyalty to his country which he so passionately loved, it has been said
+that, rather than choose between King and Colony, he died by his own
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>But those who knew him best know otherwise. Sir William died of a broken
+heart, in his great Hall at Johnstown, all alone.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>His son, Sir John, killed a fine horse riding from Fort Johnson to the
+Hall. And arrived too late and all of a lather in the starlight.</p>
+
+<p>And I have never ceased marvelling how such a man could have been the
+son of the great Sir William.</p>
+
+<p>At the Hall the numerous household was all in a turmoil; and, besides
+Sir William's immediate family, there were a thousand guests&mdash;a thousand
+Iroquois Indians encamped around the Hall, with whom Sir William had
+been holding fire-council.</p>
+
+<p>For he had determined to restrain his Mohawks, and to maintain
+tranquillity among all the fierce warriors of the Six Nations, and so
+pledge the entire Iroquois Confederacy to an absolute neutrality in the
+imminence of this war betwixt King and Colony, which now seemed to be
+coming so rapidly upon us that already its furnace breath was heating
+restless savages to a fever.</p>
+
+<p>All that hot June day, though physically ill and mentally unhappy,&mdash;and
+under a vertical sun and with head uncovered,&mdash;Sir William had spoken to
+the Iroquois with belts.</p>
+
+<p>The day's labour of that accursed council-fire ended at sunset; sachem
+and chief departed&mdash;tall spectres in the flaming west; there was a clash
+of steel at the guard-house as the guard presented arms; Mr. Duncan
+saluted the Confederacy with lifted claymore.</p>
+
+<p>Then an old man, bareheaded, alone, turned away from the covered
+council-fire; and an officer, seeing how feebly he moved, flung an arm
+about his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>So Sir William came slowly to his great Hall, and slowly entered. And
+laid him down in his library on a sofa.</p>
+
+<p>And slowly died there while the sun was going down.</p>
+
+<p>Then the first star came out where, in the ashes of the June sunset, a
+pale rose tint still lingered.</p>
+
+<p>But Sir William lay dead in his great Hall, all alone.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>TWO PEERS SANS PEERAGE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Sir John had arrived and I caught sight of his heavy, expressionless
+face, which seemed more colourless than ever in the candle light.</p>
+
+<p>Consternation reigned in the Hall,&mdash;a vast tumult of whispering and
+guarded gabble among servants, checked by sobs,&mdash;and I saw officers come
+and go, and the tall forms of Mohawks still as pines on a summer night.</p>
+
+<p>The entire household was there&mdash;all excepting only Michael Cardigan and
+Felicity Warren.</p>
+
+<p>The two score farm slaves were there huddled along the wall in dusky
+clusters, and their great, dark eyes wet with tears.</p>
+
+<p>I saw Sir William's lawyer, Lafferty, come in with Flood, the Baronet's
+Bouw-Meester.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>His blacksmith, his tailor, and his armourer were there; also his
+gardener; the German, Frank, his butler; Pontioch, his personal waiter;
+and those two uncanny and stunted servants, the Bartholomews, with their
+dead white faces and dwarfish dignity.</p>
+
+<p>Also I saw poor Billy, Sir William's fiddler, gulping down the blubbers;
+and there was his personal physician, Doctor Daly, very grave; and the
+servile Wall, schoolmaster to Lady Molly's brood; and I saw Nicholas,
+his valet, and black Flora, his cook, both sobbing into the same
+bandanna.</p>
+
+<p>The dark Lady Johnson was there, very quiet in her grief, slow-moving,
+still beautiful, having by the hands the two youngest girls and boy,
+while near her clustered the older children, fat Peter and Betsy and
+pretty Lana.</p>
+
+<p>A great multitude of candles burned throughout the hall; Sir William's
+silver and mahogany sparkled everywhere; and so did the naked claymores
+of the Highlanders on guard where the dead man lay in his own chamber,
+done, at last, with all perplexity and grief.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>In the morning came the quality in scores&mdash;all the landed gentry of
+Tryon County, Tory and Whig alike, to show their reverence:&mdash;old Colonel
+John Butler from his seat at Butlersbury near Caughnawaga, and his dark,
+graceful son Walter,&mdash;he of the melancholy golden eyes&mdash;an attorney then
+and sick of a wound which, some said, had been taken in a duel with
+Michael Cardigan near Fort Pitt.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Claus was there, too, son-in-law to Sir William, and battered
+much by frontier battles: and Guy Johnson, a cousin, and a son-in-law,
+too, had come from his fine seat at Guy Park to look upon a face as
+tranquil in death as a sleeping child's.</p>
+
+<p>The McDonald, of damned memory, was there in his tartan and kilts and
+bonnet; and the Albany Patroon, very modest; and God knows how many
+others from far and near, all arrived to honour a man who had died very
+tired in the service of our Lord, who knows and pardons all.</p>
+
+<p>The pretty lady of Sir John, who was Polly Watts of New York, came to me
+where I stood in the noon breeze near the lilacs; and I kissed her hand,
+and, straightening myself, retained it, looking into her woeful face of
+a child, all marred with tears.</p>
+
+<p>"I had not thought to be mistress of the Hall for many years," said she,
+her lips a-tremble. "But yesterday, at this hour, he was living: and,
+today, in this hour, the heavy importunities of strange new duties are
+already crushing me.... I count on you, Jack."</p>
+
+<p>I made no answer.</p>
+
+<p>"May we not count on you?" she said. "Sir John and I expect it."</p>
+
+<p>As I stood silent there in the breezy sunshine by the porch, there came
+across the grass Billy Alexander, who is Lord Stirling, a man much older
+than I, but who seemed young enough; and made his reverence to Lady
+Johnson, kissing the hand which I very gently released.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Billy," says she, the tears starting again, "why should death take
+him at such a time, when God's wrath darkens all the world?"</p>
+
+<p>"God's convenience is not always ours," he replied, looking at me
+sideways, with a certain curiosity which I understood if Lady Johnson
+did not.</p>
+
+<p>She turned and gazed out across the sunny grass where, beyond the hedge
+fence, the primeval forest loomed like a dark cloud along the sky, far
+as the eye could see.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," says she, half to herself, "the storm is bound to break, now.
+And we women of County Tryon may need your swords, gentlemen, before
+snow flies."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Stirling stole another look at me. He knew as well as I how loosely
+in their scabbards lay our two swords. He knew, also, as well as I, in
+which cause would flash the swords of the landed gentry of County Tryon.
+And he knew, too, that his blade as well as mine must, one day, be
+unsheathed against them and against the stupid King they served.</p>
+
+<p>Something of this Lady Johnson had long since suspected, I think; but
+Billy Alexander, for all his years, was a childhood friend; and I, too,
+a friend, although more recent.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at my Lord Stirling with that troubled sweetness I have seen
+so often in her face, alas! and she said in a low voice:</p>
+
+<p>"It would be unthinkable that Lord Stirling's sword could lay a-rusting
+when the Boston rabble break clear out o' bounds."</p>
+
+<p>She turned to me, touched my arm confidingly, child that she seemed and
+was, God help her.</p>
+
+<p>"A Stormont," she said, "should never entertain any doubts. And so I
+count on you, Lord Stormont, as I count upon my Lord Stirling&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not Lord Stormont," said I, striving to force a smile at the old
+and tiresome contention. "Lord Stormont is the King's Ambassador in
+Paris&mdash;if it please you to recollect&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You are as surely Viscount Stormont as is Billy Alexander, here, Lord
+Stirling&mdash;and as I am Lady Johnson," she said earnestly. "What do you
+care if your titles be disputed by a doddering committee on privileges
+in the House of Lords? What difference does it make if usurpers wear
+your honours as long as you know these same stolen titles are your own?"</p>
+
+<p>"A pair o' peers <i>sans</i> peerage," quoth Billy Alexander, with that
+boyish grin I loved to see.</p>
+
+<p>"I care nothing," said I, still smiling, "but Billy Alexander
+does&mdash;pardon!&mdash;my Lord Stirling, I should say."</p>
+
+<p>Said he: "Sure I am Lord Stirling and no one else; and shall wear my
+title however they dispute it who deny me my proper seat in their rotten
+House of Lords!"</p>
+
+<p>"I think you are very surely the true Lord Stirling," said I, "but I, on
+the other hand, most certainly am not a Stormont Murray. My name is John
+Drogue; and if I be truly also Viscount Stormont, it troubles me not at
+all, for my ambition is to be only American and to let the Stormonts
+glitter as they please and where."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Johnson came close to me and laid both hands upon my shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack," she pleaded, "be true to us. Be true to your gentle blood. Be
+true to your proper caste. God knows the King will have a very instant
+need of his gentlemen in America before we three see another summer here
+in County Tryon."</p>
+
+<p>I made no reply. What could I say to her? And, indeed, the matter of the
+Stormont Viscounty was distasteful, stale, and wearisome to me, and I
+cared absolutely nothing about it, though the landed gentry of Tryon
+were ever at pains to place me where I belonged,&mdash;if some were
+right,&mdash;and where I did not belong if others were righter still.</p>
+
+<p>For Lady Johnson, like many of her caste, believed that the second
+Viscount Stormont died without issue,&mdash;which was true,&mdash;and that the
+third Viscount had a son,&mdash;which is debatable.</p>
+
+<p>At any rate, David Murray became the fourth Viscount, and the claims of
+my remote ancestor went a-glimmering for so many years that, in 1705, we
+resumed our family name of the Northesks, which is Drogue; and in this
+natural manner it became my proper name. God knows I found it good
+enough to eat and sleep with, so that my Lord Stormont's capers in Paris
+never disturbed my dreams. Thank Heaven for that, too; and it was a sad
+day for my Lord Stormont when he tried to bully Benjamin Franklin; for
+the whole world is not yet done a-laughing at him.</p>
+
+<p>No, I have no desire to claim a Viscounty which our witty Franklin has
+made ridiculous with a single shaft of satire from his bristling
+repertoire.</p>
+
+<p>Thinking now of this, and reddening a little at the thought,&mdash;for no
+Stormont even of remotest kinship to the family can truly relish Mr.
+Franklin's sauce, though it dressed an undoubted goose,&mdash;I become far
+more than reconciled to the decision rendered in the House of Lords.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Two people who had come from the house, and who were advancing slowly
+toward us across the clipped grass, now engaged our full attention.</p>
+
+<p>The one we perceived to be Sir John Johnson himself; the other his
+lady's school friend and intimate companion, Claudia Swift, the toast of
+the British Army and of all respectable young Tories; and the
+"Sacharissa" of those verses made by the new and lively Adjutant
+General, Major André, who was then a captain.</p>
+
+<p>For, though very young, our lovely Sacharissa had murdered many a
+gallant's peace of mind, leaving a trail of hearts bled white from New
+York to Boston, and from that afflicted city to Albany; where, it was
+whispered, her bright and merciless eyes had made the sad young Patroon
+much sadder, and his offered manor a more melancholy abode than usual.</p>
+
+<p>She gave us, now, her dimpled hand to kiss. And, to Lady Johnson: "My
+dear," she said very tenderly, "how pale you seem! God sends us
+affliction as a precious gift and we must accept it with meekness,"
+letting her eyes rest absently the while on Lord Stirling, and then on
+me.</p>
+
+<p>Our Sacharissa might babble of meekness if she chose, but that virtue
+was not lodged within her, God knows,&mdash;nor many other virtues either.</p>
+
+<p>Billy Alexander, old enough to be her parent, nevertheless had been her
+victim; and I also. It was our opinion that we had recovered. But, to be
+honest with myself, I could not avoid admitting that I had been very
+desperate sick o' love, and that even yet, at times&mdash;&mdash;But no matter:
+others, stricken as deep as I, know well that Claudia Swift was not a
+maid that any man might easily forget, or, indeed, dismiss at will from
+his mind as long as she remained in his vicinity.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you well, Billy, since we last met?" she asked Lord Stirling in
+that sweet, hesitating way of hers. And to me: "You have grown thin,
+Jack. Have you been in health?"</p>
+
+<p>I said that I had been monstrous busy with my new glebe in the Sacandaga
+patent, and had swung an axe there with the best o' them until an
+express from Sir William summoned me to return to aid him with the
+Iroquois at the council-fire. At which explaining of my silence the jade
+smiled.</p>
+
+<p>When I mentioned the Sacandaga patent and the glebe I had had of Sir
+William on too generous terms&mdash;he making all arrangements with Major
+Jelles Fonda through Mr. Lafferty&mdash;Sir John, who had been standing
+silent beside us, looked up at me in that cold and stealthy way of his.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean your parcel at Fonda's Bush?" he inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I am clearing it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"So that my land shall grow Indian corn, pardie!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why clear it <i>now</i>?" he persisted in his deadened voice.</p>
+
+<p>I could have answered very naturally that the land was of no value to
+anybody unless cleared of forest. But of course he knew this, too; so I
+did not evade the slyer intent of his question.</p>
+
+<p>"I am clearing my land at Fonda's Bush," said I, "because, God willing,
+I mean to occupy it in proper person."</p>
+
+<p>"And when, sir, is it your design to do this thing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do what, sir? Clear my glebe?"</p>
+
+<p>"Remove thither&mdash;in <i>proper person</i>, Mr. Drogue?"</p>
+
+<p>"As soon as may be, Sir John."</p>
+
+<p>At that Lady Johnson gave me a quick look and Claudia said: "What! Would
+you bury yourself alive in that wilderness, Jack Drogue?"</p>
+
+<p>I smiled. "But I must hew out for myself a career in the world some day,
+Sacharissa. So why not begin now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then in Heaven's name," she exclaimed impatiently, "go somewhere among
+men and not among the wild beasts of the forest! Why, a young man is
+like to perish of loneliness in such a spot; is he not, Sir John?"</p>
+
+<p>Sir John's inscrutable gaze remained fixed on me.</p>
+
+<p>"In such times as these," said he, "it is better that men like ourselves
+continue to live together.... To await events.... And master them....
+And afterward, each to his vocation and his own tastes.... It is my
+desire that you remain at the Hall," he added, looking steadily at me.</p>
+
+<p>"I must decline, Sir John."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have already told you why."</p>
+
+<p>"If your present position is irksome to you," he said, "you have merely
+to name a deputy and feel entirely at liberty to pursue your pleasure.
+Or&mdash;you are at least the Laird of Northesk if you are nothing greater.
+There is a commission in my Highlanders&mdash;if you desire it.... And your
+salary, of course, continues also."</p>
+
+<p>He looked hard at me: "Augmented by&mdash;half," he added in his slow, cold
+voice. "And this, with your income, should properly maintain a young man
+of your age and quality."</p>
+
+<p>I had been Brent-Meester to Sir William, for lack of other employment;
+and had been glad to take the important office, loving as I do the open
+air. Also the addition of a salary to my slender means had been
+acceptable. But it was one matter to serve Sir William as Brent-Meester,
+and another to serve Sir John in any capacity whatsoever. And as for the
+remainder of the family,&mdash;Guy Johnson and Colonel Claus&mdash;and their
+intimates the Butlers, I had now had more than enough of them, having
+endured these uncongenial people only because I had loved Sir William.
+Yet, for his father's sake, I now spoke to Sir John politely, using him
+most kindly because I both liked and pitied his lady, too.</p>
+
+<p>Said I: "My desire is to become a Tryon County farmer, Sir John; and to
+that end I happily became possessed of the parcel at Fonda's Bush. For
+that reason I am clearing it. And so I must beg of you to accept my
+resignation as Brent-Meester at the Hall, for I mean to start as soon as
+convenient to occupy my glebe."</p>
+
+<p>There was a silence; Sacharissa gazed at me in pity, astonishment, and
+unfeigned horror; Lady Johnson gave me an odd, unhappy look; and Billy
+Alexander a meaning one, half grin.</p>
+
+<p>Then Sir John's slow and heavy voice invaded the momentary silence: "As
+my father's Brent-Meester, only an Indian or a Forest Runner knows the
+wilderness as do you. And we shall have great need of such forest
+knowledge as you possess, Mr. Drogue."</p>
+
+<p>I think we all understood the Baronet's meaning.</p>
+
+<p>I considered a moment, then replied very quietly that in time of stress
+no just cause would find me skulking to avoid duty.</p>
+
+<p>I think my manner and tone, as well as what I said, combined to stop Sir
+John's mouth. For nobody could question such respectable sentiments
+unless, indeed, a quarrel was meant.</p>
+
+<p>But Sir John Johnson, in his way, was as slow to mortal quarrel as was I
+in mine. And whatever suspicion of me he might nurse in his secret mind
+he now made no outward sign of it.</p>
+
+<p>Also, other people were coming across the grass to join us; and
+presently grave greetings were exchanged in sober voices suitable to the
+occasion when a considerable company of ladies and gentlemen are
+gathered at a house of mourning.</p>
+
+<p>Turning away, I noticed Mr. Duncan and the Highland officers at the
+magazine, all wearing their black badges of respect and a knot of crape
+on the basket-hilts of their claymores; and young Walter Butler, still
+stiff in his bandages, gazing up at the June sky out of melancholy eyes,
+like a damned man striving to see God.</p>
+
+<p>Sir John had now given his arm to his lady. His left hand rested on his
+sword-hilt&mdash;the same left hand he had offered to poor Claire Putnam&mdash;and
+to which the child still clung, they said.</p>
+
+<p>Claudia turned from Billy Alexander and came toward me. Her face was
+serious, but I saw the devil looking out of her blue eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Nature had given this maid most lovely proportions&mdash;that charming
+slenderness which is plumply moulded&mdash;and she stood straight, and
+tall enough, too, to meet on a level the love-sick gaze of any
+stout young man she had bedevilled; and she wore a most bewitching
+countenance&mdash;short-nosed, red-lipped, a skin as white as a water-lily,
+and thick soft hair as black as night, which she wore unpowdered&mdash;the
+dangerous jade!</p>
+
+<p>"Jack," says she in honeyed tones, "are you truly designing to become a
+hermit?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," said I, smilingly, "only a farmer, Claudia."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I am a poor man and must feed and clothe myself."</p>
+
+<p>"There is a commission from Sir John in the Scotch regiment&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm Scotch enough without that," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Madam?"</p>
+
+<p>"Are you a little angry with me?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said I, feeling uncomfortable and concluding to beware of her, for
+she stood now close to me, and the scent of her warm breath troubled me.</p>
+
+<p>"Why are you angry with me, Jack?" she asked sorrowfully. And took one
+step nearer.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Am&mdash;am I driving you into the wilderness?" she inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"That, also, is absurd," I replied impatiently. "No woman could ever
+boast of driving me, though some may once have led me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I feared that I had sapped, perhaps, your faith in women, John."</p>
+
+<p>I forced a laugh: "Why, Claudia? Because I lately&mdash;and vainly&mdash;was
+enamoured of you?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Lately?</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I did love you, once."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Did</i> love?" she breathed. "Do you not love me any more, Jack?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think not," said I, very cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>"And why? Sure I used you kindly, Jack. Did I not so?"</p>
+
+<p>"You conducted as is the privilege of maid with man, Sacharissa," said I
+uneasily. "And that is all I have to say."</p>
+
+<p>"How so did I conduct, Jack?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sweetly&mdash;to my undoing."</p>
+
+<p>"Try me again," she said, looking up at me, and the devil in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>But already I was becoming sensible of the ever-living enchantment of
+this young thing, so wise in stratagems and spoils of Love, and I chose
+to leave my scalp hang drying at her lodge door beside the scanter pol
+of Billy Alexander.</p>
+
+<p>For God knows this vixen-virgin spared neither young nor old, but shot
+them through and through at sight with those heavenly darts from her
+twin eyes.</p>
+
+<p>And no man, so far, could boast of obtaining from Mistress Swift the
+least token or any serious guerdon that his quest might lead him by a
+single step toward Hymen's altar, but only to that cruel arena where all
+her victims agonized under the mocking sweetness of her smile, and her
+pretty, down-turned and merciless thumbs&mdash;the little Vestal villain!</p>
+
+<p>"No, Claudia," quoth I, "you have taken my bow and spear, and shorn me
+of my thatch like any Mohawk. No; I go to Fonda's Bush&mdash;&mdash;" I smiled,
+"&mdash;to heal, perhaps, my heart, as you say; but, anyhow, to consult my
+soul, and armour it in a wilderness."</p>
+
+<p>"A hermit!" she exclaimed scornfully, "&mdash;and afeard of a maid armed only
+with two matched eyes, a nose, a mouth and thirty teeth!"</p>
+
+<p>"Afeard of a monster more frightful than that," said I, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Of what monster, John Drogue?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of that red monster that is surely, surely creeping northward to
+surprise and rend us all," said I in a low voice. "And so I shall retire
+to question my secret soul, and arm it cap-ŕ-pie as God directs."</p>
+
+<p>She was looking at me intently. After a silence she said:</p>
+
+<p>"I do love you; and Billy Alexander; and all gay and brave young men
+whose unstained swords hedge the women of County Tryon from this same
+red monster that you mention." And watched me to see how I swallowed
+this.</p>
+
+<p>I said warily: "Surely, Claudia, all women command our swords ... no
+matter <i>which cause we espouse</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Jack!"</p>
+
+<p>"I hear you, Claudia."</p>
+
+<p>But, "Oh, my God!" she breathed; and put her hands to her face. A moment
+she stood so, then, eyes still covered by one hand, extended the other
+to me. I kissed it lightly; then kissed it again.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you leave us, Jack?"</p>
+
+<p>I understood.</p>
+
+<p>"It is you who leave me, Claudia."</p>
+
+<p>She, too, understood. It was my first confession that all was not right
+betwixt my conscience and my King. For that was the only thing I was
+certain about concerning her: she never betrayed a confidence, whatever
+else she did. And so I made plain to her where my heart and honour
+lay&mdash;not with the King's men in this coming struggle&mdash;but with my own
+people.</p>
+
+<p>I think she knew, too, that I had never before confessed as much to any
+living soul, for she took her other hand from her eyes and looked at me
+as though something had happened in which she took a sorrowful pride.</p>
+
+<p>Then I kissed her hand for the third time, and let it free. And, going:</p>
+
+<p>"God be with you," she said with a slight smile; "you are my dear
+friend, John Drogue."</p>
+
+<p>At the Hall porch she turned, the mischief glimmering in her eyes:
+"&mdash;And so is Billy Alexander," quoth she.</p>
+
+<p>So she went into the darkened Hall.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>It was many months before I saw our Sacharissa again&mdash;not until Major
+André had made many another verse for many another inamorata, and his
+soldier-actors had played more than one of his farces in besieged Boston
+to the loud orchestra of His Excellency's rebel cannon.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>THE POT BOILS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Sir William died on the 24th of June in the year 1774; which was the
+twentieth year of my life.</p>
+
+<p>On the day after he was buried in Saint John's Church in Johnstown,
+which he had built, I left the Hall for Fonda's Bush, which was a
+wilderness and which lay some nine miles distant in the Mohawk country,
+along the little river called Kennyetto.</p>
+
+<p>I speak of Fonda's Bush as a wilderness; but it was not entirely so,
+because already old Henry Stoner, the trapper who wore two gold rings in
+his ears, had built him a house near the Kennyetto and had taken up his
+abode there with his stalwart and handsome sons, Nicholas and John, and
+a little daughter, Barbara.</p>
+
+<p>Besides this family, who were the pioneers in that vast forest where the
+three patents<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> met, others now began settling upon the pretty little
+river in the wilderness, which made a thousand and most amazing windings
+through the Bush of Major Fonda.</p>
+
+<p>There came, now, to the Kennyetto, the family of one De Silver; also the
+numerous families of John Homan, and Elias Cady; then the Salisburys,
+Putnams, Bowmans, and Helmers arrived. And Benjamin De Luysnes followed
+with Joseph Scott where the Frenchman, De Golyer, had built a house and
+a mill on the trout brook north of us. There was also a dour Scotchman
+come thither&mdash;a grim and decent man with long, thin shanks under his
+kilts, who roved the Bush like a weird and presently went away again.</p>
+
+<p>But before he took himself elsewhere he marked some gigantic trees with
+his axe and tied a rag of tartan to a branch.</p>
+
+<p>And, "Fonda's Bush is no name," quoth he. "Where a McIntyre sets his
+mark he returns to set his foot. And where he sets foot shall be called
+Broadalbin, or I am a great liar!"</p>
+
+<p>And he went away, God knows where. But what he said has become true; for
+when again he set his foot among the dead ashes of Fonda's Bush, it
+became Broadalbin. And the clans came with him, too; and they peppered
+the wilderness with their Scottish names,&mdash;Perth, Galway, Scotch Bush,
+Scotch Church, Broadalbin,&mdash;but my memory runs too fast, like a young
+hound giving tongue where the scent grows hotter!&mdash;for the quarry is not
+yet in sight, nor like to be for many a bloody day, alas!&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>There was a forest road to the Bush, passable for waggons, and used
+sometimes by Sir William when he went a-fishing in the Kennyetto.</p>
+
+<p>It was by this road I travelled thither, well-horsed, and had borrowed
+the farm oxen to carry all my worldly goods.</p>
+
+<p>I had clothing, a clock, some books, bedding of my own, and sufficient
+pewter.</p>
+
+<p>I had my own rifle, a fowling piece, two pistols, and sufficient
+ammunition.</p>
+
+<p>And with these, and, as I say, well horsed, I rode out of Johnstown on a
+June morning, all alone, my heart still heavy with grief for Sir
+William, and deeply troubled for my country.</p>
+
+<p>For the provinces, now, were slowly kindling, warmed with those pure
+flames that purge the human soul; and already the fire had caught and
+was burning fiercely in Massachusetts Bay, where John Hancock fed the
+flames, daintily, cleverly, with all the circumstance, impudence, and
+grace of your veritable macaroni who will not let an inferior outdo him
+in a bow, but who is sometimes insolent to kings.</p>
+
+<p>Well, I was for the forest, now, to wrest from a sunless land a mouthful
+o' corn to stop the stomach's mutiny.</p>
+
+<p>And if the Northland caught fire some day&mdash;well, I was as inflammable as
+the next man, who will not suffer violation of house or land or honour.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>As Brent-Meester to Sir William, my duties took me everywhere. I knew
+old man Stoner, and Nick had become already my warm friend, though I was
+now a grown man of more than twenty and he still of boy's age. Yet, in
+many ways, he seemed more mature than I.</p>
+
+<p>I think Nick Stoner was the most mischievous lad I ever knew&mdash;and
+admired. He sometimes said the same of me, though I was not, I think, by
+nature, designed for a scapegrace. However, two years in the wilderness
+will undermine the grace of saint or sinner in some degree. And if, when
+during those two hard years I went to Johnstown for a breath of
+civilization&mdash;or to Schenectady, or, rarely, to Albany&mdash;I frequented a
+few good taverns, there was little harm done, and nothing malicious.</p>
+
+<p>True, disputes with Tories sometimes led to blows, and mayhap some
+Albany watchman's Dutch noddle needed vinegar to soothe the flamms
+drummed upon it by a stout stick or ramrod resembling mine.</p>
+
+<p>True, the humming ale at the Admiral Warren Tavern may sometimes have
+made my own young noddle hum, and Nick Stoner's, too; but there came no
+harm of it, unless there be harm in bussing a fresh and rosy wench or
+two; or singing loudly in the tap-room and timing each catch to the
+hammering of our empty leather jacks on long hickory tables wet with
+malt.</p>
+
+<p>But why so sad, brother Broadbrim? Youth is not to be denied. No! And
+youth that sets its sinews against an iron wilderness to conquer
+it,&mdash;youth that wields its puny axe against giant trees,&mdash;youth that
+pulls with the oxen to uproot enormous stumps so that when the sun is
+let in there will be a soil to grow corn enough to defy
+starvation,&mdash;youth that toils from sun-up to dark, hewing, burning,
+sawing, delving, plowing, harrowing day after day, month after month,
+pausing only to kill the wild meat craved or snatch a fish from some
+forest fount,&mdash;such youth cannot be decently denied, brother Broadbrim!</p>
+
+<p>But if Nick and I were truly as graceless as some stiff-necked folk
+pretended, always there was laughter in our scrapes, even when hot blood
+boiled at the Admiral Warren, and Tory and Rebel drummed one another's
+hides to the outrage of law and order and the mortification of His
+Majesty's magistrates in County Tryon.</p>
+
+<p>Even in Fonda's Bush the universal fire had begun to smoulder; the names
+Rebel and Tory were whispered; the families of Philip Helmer and Elias
+Cady talked very loudly of the King and of Sir John, and how a hempen
+rope was the fittest cravat for such Boston men as bragged too freely.</p>
+
+<p>But what most of all was in my thoughts, as I swung my axe there in the
+immemorial twilight of the woods, concerned the Indians of the great
+Iroquois Confederacy.</p>
+
+<p>What would these savages do when the storm broke? What would happen to
+this frontier? What would happen to the solitary settlers, to such
+hamlets as Fonda's Bush, to Johnstown, to Schenectady&mdash;nay, to Albany
+itself?</p>
+
+<p>Sir William was no more. Guy Johnson had become his Majesty's
+Superintendent for Indian affairs. He was most violently a King's man&mdash;a
+member of the most important family in all the Northland, and master of
+six separate nations of savages, which formed the Iroquois Confederacy.</p>
+
+<p>What would Guy Johnson do with the warriors of these six nations that
+bordered our New York frontier?</p>
+
+<p>Always these questions were seething in my mind as I swung my axe or
+plowed or harrowed. I thought about them as I sat at eventide by the
+door of my new log house. I considered them as I lay abed, watching the
+moonlight crawl across the puncheon floor.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>As Brent-Meester to Sir William, I knew Indians, and how to conduct when
+I encountered them in the forest, in their own castles, or when they
+visited the Hall.</p>
+
+<p>I had no love for them and no dislike, but treated them always with the
+consideration due from one white man to another.</p>
+
+<p>I was not conscious of making any friends among them, nor of making any
+enemies either. To me they were a natural part of the wilderness, like
+the trees, rivers, hills, and wild game, belonging there and not
+wantonly to be molested.</p>
+
+<p>Others thought differently; trappers, forest runners, coureurs-du-bois
+often hated them, and lost no opportunity to display their animosity or
+to do them a harm.</p>
+
+<p>But it was not in me to feel that way toward any living creature whom
+God had fashioned in His own image if not in His own colour. And who is
+so sure, even concerning the complexion of the Most High?</p>
+
+<p>Also, Sir William's kindly example affected my sentiments toward these
+red men of the forest. I learned enough of their language to suit my
+requirements; I was courteous to their men, young and old; and
+considerate toward their women. Otherwise, I remained indifferent.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Now, during these first two years of my life in Fonda's Bush, events in
+the outer world were piling higher than those black thunder-clouds that
+roll up behind the Mayfield hills and climb toward mid-heaven. Already
+the dull glare of lightning lit them redly, though the thunder was, as
+yet, inaudible.</p>
+
+<p>In April of my first year in Fonda's Bush a runner came to the Kennyetto
+with the news of Lexington, and carried it up and down the wilderness
+from the great Vlaie and Maxon Ridge to Frenchman's Creek and Fonda's
+Bush.</p>
+
+<p>This news came to us just as we learned that our Continental Congress
+was about to reassemble; and it left our settlement very still and
+sober, and a loaded rifle within reach of every man who went grimly
+about his spring plowing.</p>
+
+<p>But the news of open rebellion in Massachusetts Bay madded our Tory
+gentry of County Tryon; and they became further so enraged when the
+Continental Congress met that they contrived a counter demonstration,
+and, indeed, seized upon a pretty opportunity to carry it with a high
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>For there was a Court holden in Johnstown, and a great concourse of
+Tryon loyalists; and our Tory hatch-mischiefs did by arts and guile and
+persuasions obtain signatures from the majority of the Grand Jurors and
+the County Magistracy.</p>
+
+<p>Which, when known and flaunted in the faces of the plainer folk of Tryon
+County, presently produced in all that slow, deep anger with which it is
+not well to trifle&mdash;neither safe for kings nor lesser fry.</p>
+
+<p>In the five districts, committees were appointed to discuss what was to
+be the attitude of our own people and to erect a liberty pole in every
+hamlet.</p>
+
+<p>The Mohawk district began this business, which, I think, was truly the
+beginning of the Revolution in the great Province of New York. The
+Canajoharie district, the Palatine, the Flatts, the Kingsland followed.</p>
+
+<p>And, at the Mohawk district meeting, who should arrive but Sir John,
+unannounced, uninvited; and with him the entire company of Tory
+big-wigs&mdash;Colonels Claus, Guy Johnson, and John Butler, and a heavily
+armed escort from the Hall.</p>
+
+<p>Then Guy Johnson climbed up onto a high stoop and began to harangue our
+unarmed people, warning them of offending Majesty, abusing them for
+dolts and knaves and traitors to their King, until Jacob Sammons, unable
+to stomach such abuse, shook his fist at the Intendant. And, said he:
+"Guy Johnson, you are a liar and a villain! You may go to hell, sir, and
+take your Indians, too!"</p>
+
+<p>But Guy Johnson took him by the throat and called him a damned villain
+in return. Then the armed guard came at Sammons and knocked him down
+with their pistol-butts, and a servant of Sir John sat astride his body
+and beat him.</p>
+
+<p>There was a vast uproar then; but our people were unarmed, and presently
+took Sammons and went off.</p>
+
+<p>But, as they left the street, many of them called out to Sir John that
+it were best for him to fortify his Baronial Hall, because the day drew
+near when he would be more in need of swivel guns than of
+congratulations from his Royal Master.</p>
+
+<p>Sure, now, the fire blazing so prettily in Boston was already running
+north along the Hudson; and Tryon had begun to smoke.</p>
+
+<p>Now there was, in County Tryon, a number of militia regiments of which,
+when brigaded, Sir William had been our General.</p>
+
+<p>Guy Johnson, also, was Colonel of the Mohawk regiment. But the Mohawk
+regiment had naturally split in two.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless he paraded the Tory remainder of it, doubtless with the
+intention of awing the entire county.</p>
+
+<p>It did awe us who were unorganized, had no powder, and whose messengers
+to Albany in quest of ammunition were now stopped and searched by Sir
+John's men.</p>
+
+<p>For the Baronet, also, seemed alarmed; and, with his battalion of
+Highlanders, his Tory militia, his swivels, and his armed retainers,
+could muster five hundred men and no mean artillery to hold the Hall if
+threatened.</p>
+
+<p>But this is not what really troubled the plain people of Tryon. Guy
+Johnson controlled thousands of savage Iroquois. Their war chief was Sir
+William's brother-in-law, brother to the dark Lady Johnson, Joseph
+Brant, called Thayendanegea,&mdash;the greatest Mohawk who ever
+lived,&mdash;perhaps the greatest of all Iroquois. And I think that Hiawatha
+alone was greater in North America.</p>
+
+<p>Brave, witty, intelligent, intellectual, having a very genius for war
+and stratagems, educated like any gentleman of the day and having served
+Sir William as secretary, Brant, in the conventional garments of
+civilization, presented a charming and perfectly agreeable appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Accustomed to the society of Sir William's drawing room, this Canienga
+Chief was utterly conversant with polite usage, and entirely qualified
+to maintain any conversation addressed to him. Always he had been made
+much of by ladies&mdash;always, when it did not too greatly weary him, was he
+the centre of batteries of bright eyes and the object of gayest
+solicitation amid those respectable gatherings for which, in Sir
+William's day, the Hall was so justly celebrated.</p>
+
+<p>That was the modest and civil student and gentleman, Joseph Brant.</p>
+
+<p>But in the forest he was a painted spectre; in battle a flame! He was a
+war chief: he never became Royaneh;<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> but he possessed the wisdom of
+Hendrik, the eloquence of Red Jacket, the terrific energy of Hiakatoo.</p>
+
+<p>We, of Tryon, were aware of all these things. Our ears were listening
+for the dread wolf cry of the Iroquois in their paint; our eyes were
+turned in dumb expectation toward our Provincial Congress of New York;
+toward our dear General Schuyler in Albany; toward the Continental
+Congress now in solemn session; toward our new and distant hope shining
+clearer, brighter as each day ended&mdash;His Excellency the Virginian.</p>
+
+<p>How long were Sir John and his people to be left here in County Tryon to
+terrorize all friends to liberty,&mdash;to fortify Johnstown, to stop us
+about our business on the King's highway, to intrigue with the Mohawks,
+the Oneidas, the Cayugas, the Onondagas, the Senecas, the Tuscaroras?</p>
+
+<p>Guy Johnson tampered with the River Indians at Poughkeepsie, and we knew
+it. He sent belts to the Shawanese, to the Wyandottes, to the Mohicans.
+We knew it. He met the Delaware Sachems at a mongrel fire&mdash;God knows
+where and by what authority, for the Federal Council never gave it!&mdash;and
+we stopped one of his runners in the Bush with his pouch full o' belts
+and strings; and we took every inch of wampum without leave of Sir John,
+and bade the runner tell him what we did.</p>
+
+<p>We wrote to Albany; Albany made representations to Sir John, and the
+Baronet replied that his show of armed force at the Hall was solely for
+the reason that he had been warned that the Boston people were laying
+plans to invade Tryon and make of him a prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>I think this silly lie was too much for Schuyler, for all now knew that
+war must come. Twelve Colonies, in Congress assembled, had announced
+that they had rather die as free people than continue to live as slaves.
+Very fine indeed! But what was of more interest to us at Fonda's Bush,
+this Congress commissioned George Washington as Commander in Chief of a
+Colonial Army of 20,000 men, and prepared to raise three millions on
+bills of credit <i>for the prosecution of the war</i>!</p>
+
+<p>Now, at last, the cleavage had come. Now, at last, Sir John was forced
+into the open.</p>
+
+<p>He swore by Almighty God that he had had no hand in intriguing against
+the plain people of Tryon: and while he was making this oath, Guy
+Johnson was raising the Iroquois against us at Oswego; he was plotting
+with Carleton and Haldimand at Montreal; he had arranged for the
+departure of Brant with the great bulk of the Mohawk nation, and, with
+them, the fighting men of the Iroquois Confederacy. Only the Western
+Gate Keepers remained,&mdash;the fierce Senecas.</p>
+
+<p>And so, except for a few Tuscaroras, a few lukewarm Onondagas, a few of
+the Lenape, and perhaps half&mdash;possibly two-thirds of the Oneida nation,
+Guy Johnson already had swung the terrible Iroquois to the King.</p>
+
+<p>And now, secretly, the rats began to leave for the North, where, behind
+the Canada border, savage hordes were gathering by clans, red and white
+alike.</p>
+
+<p>Guy Johnson went on pretense of Indian business; and none dare stop the
+Superintendent for Indian affairs on a mission requiring, as he stated,
+his personal appearance at Oswego.</p>
+
+<p>But once there he slipped quietly over into Canada; and Brant joined
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Claus sneaked North; old John Butler went in the night with a
+horde of Johnstown and Caughnawaga Tories. McDonald followed,
+accompanied by some scores of bare-shinned Tory Mc's. Walter Butler
+disappeared like a phantom.</p>
+
+<p>But Sir John remained behind his stockade and swivels at the Hall,
+vowing and declaring that he meditated no mischief&mdash;no, none at all.</p>
+
+<p>Then, in a fracas in Johnstown, that villain sheriff, Alexander White,
+fired upon Sammons, and the friends to liberty went to take the
+murderous Tory at the jail.</p>
+
+<p>Frey was made sheriff, which infuriated Sir John; but Governor Tryon
+deposed him and reappointed White, so the plain people went again to do
+him a harm; and he fled the district to the mortification of the
+Baronet.</p>
+
+<p>But Sir John's course was nearly at an end: and events in the outer
+world set the sands in his cloudy glass running very swiftly. Schuyler
+and Montgomery were directing a force of troops against Montreal and
+Quebec, and Sir Guy Carleton, Governor General of Canada, was shrieking
+for help.</p>
+
+<p>St. John's surrendered, and <i>the Mohawk Indians began fighting</i>!</p>
+
+<p>Here was a pretty pickle for Sir John to explain.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly we had news of the burning of Falmouth.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>On a bitter day in early winter, an Express passed through Fonda's Bush
+on snow-shoes, calling out a squad of the Mohawk Regiment of District
+Militia.</p>
+
+<p>Nick Stoner, Andrew Bowman, Joe Scott, and I answered the summons.</p>
+
+<p>Snow-shoeing was good&mdash;a light fall on the crust&mdash;and we pulled foot for
+the Kingsborough trail, where we met up with a squad from the Palatine
+Regiment and another from the Flatts.</p>
+
+<p>But scarce were we in sight of Johnstown steeples when the drums of an
+Albany battalion were heard; and we saw, across the snow, their long
+brown muskets slanting, and heard their bugle-horn on the Johnstown
+road.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>I saw nothing of the affair at the Hall, being on guard at St. John's
+Church, lower down in the town. But I saw our General Schuyler ride up
+the street with his officers; and so knew that all would go well.</p>
+
+<p>All went well enough, they say. For when again the General rode past the
+church, I saw waggons under our escort piled with the muskets of the
+Highland Battalion, and others heaped high with broad-swords, pistols,
+swivels, and pikes. And on Saturday, the twentieth of January, when our
+tour of duty ended, and our squads were dismissed, each to its proper
+district, all people knew that Sir John Johnson had given his parole of
+honor not to take up arms against America; not to communicate with the
+Royalists in Canada; not to oppose the friends of liberty at home; nor
+to stir from his Baronial Hall to go to Canada or to the sea, but with
+liberty to transact such business as might be necessary in other parts
+of this colony.</p>
+
+<p>And I, for one, never doubted that a son of the great Sir William would
+keep his word and sacred parole of honour.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>TWO COUNTRY MICE</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was late in April, and I had boiled my sap and had done with my sugar
+bush for another year. The snow was gone; the Kennyetto roared amber
+brilliant through banks of melting ice, and a sweet odour of arbutus
+filled all the woods.</p>
+
+<p>Spring was in the land and in my heart, too, and when Nick Stoner
+galloped to my door in his new forest dress, very fine, I, nothing
+loath, did hasten to dress me in my new doe-skins, not less fine than
+Nick's and lately made for me by a tailor-woman in Kingsborough who was
+part Oneida and part Dutch.</p>
+
+<p>That day I wore a light, round cap of silver mole fur with my unshorn
+hair, all innocent of queue or powder, curling crisp like a woman's. Of
+which I was ashamed and eager to visit Toby Tice, our Johnstown barber,
+and be trimmed.</p>
+
+<p>My new forest dress, as I say, was of doe-skin&mdash;a laced shirt belted in,
+shoulder-caped, cut round the neck to leave my throat free, and with
+long thrums on sleeve and skirt against need.</p>
+
+<p>Trews shaped to fit my legs close; and thigh moccasins, very deep with
+undyed fringe, but ornamented by an infinite pattern of little green
+vines, made me brave in my small mirror. And my ankle moccasins were gay
+with Oneida devices wrought out of porcupine quills and beads, scarlet,
+green, purple, and orange, and laid open at the instep by two beaded
+flaps.</p>
+
+<p>I saddled my mare, Kaya, in her stall, which was a log wing to my house,
+and presently mounted and rode around to where Nick sat his saddle
+a-playing on his fife, which he carried everywhere with him, he loving
+music but obliged to make his own.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Harry!" cried he on seeing me so fine. "If you are not truly a
+Viscount then you look one!"</p>
+
+<p>"I would not change my name and health and content," said I, "for a
+king's gold crown today." And I clinked the silver coins in my pouch and
+laughed. And so we rode away along the Johnstown road.</p>
+
+<p>He also, I think, was dying for a frolic. Young minds in trouble as well
+as hard-worked bodies need a holiday now and then. He winked at me and
+chinked the shillings in his bullet-pouch.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall see all the sights," quoth he, "and the Kennyetto could not
+quench my thirst today, nor our two horses eat as much, nor since time
+began could all the lovers in history love as much as could I this April
+day.... Were there some pretty wench of my own mind to use me kindly....
+Like that one who smiled at us&mdash;do you remember?"</p>
+
+<p>"At Christmas?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's the one!" he exclaimed. "Lord! but she was handsome in her
+sledge!&mdash;and her sister, too, Jack."</p>
+
+<p>"I forget their names," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Browse," he said, "&mdash;Jessica and Betsy. And they live at Pigeon-Wood
+near Mayfield."</p>
+
+<p>"Oho!" said I, "you have made their acquaintance!"</p>
+
+<p>He laughed and we galloped on.</p>
+
+<p>Nick sang in his saddle, beating time upon his thigh with his fife:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Flammadiddle!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Paddadiddle!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Flammadiddle dandy!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My Love's kisses<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Are sweet as sugar-candy!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Flammadiddle!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Paddadiddle!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Flammadiddle dandy!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She makes fun o' me<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Because my legs are bandy&mdash;&mdash;"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>He checked his gay refrain:</p>
+
+<p>"Speaking of flamms," said he, "my brother John desires to be a drummer
+in the Continental Line."</p>
+
+<p>"He is only fourteen," said I, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"I know. But he is a tall lad and stout enough. What will be your
+regiment, Jack?"</p>
+
+<p>"I like Colonel Livingston's," said I, "but nobody yet knows what is to
+be the fate of the district militia and whether the Mohawk regiment, the
+Palatine, and the other three are to be recruited to replace the Tory
+deserters, or what is to be done."</p>
+
+<p>Nick flourished his flute: "All I know," he said, "is that my father and
+brother and I mean to march."</p>
+
+<p>"I also," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Then it's in God's hands," he remarked cheerfully, "and I mean to use
+my ears and eyes in Johnstown today."</p>
+
+<p>We put our horses to a gallop.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>We rode into Johnstown and through the village, very pleased to be in
+civilization again, and saluting many wayfarers whom we recognized, Tory
+and Whig alike. Some gave us but a cold good-day and looked sideways at
+our forest dress; others were marked in cordiality,&mdash;men like our new
+Sheriff, Frey, and the two Sammonses and Jacob Shew.</p>
+
+<p>We met none of the Hall people except the Bouw-Meester, riding beside
+five yoke of beautiful oxen, who drew bridle to exchange a mouthful of
+farm gossip with me while the grinning slaves waited on the footway,
+goads in hand.</p>
+
+<p>Also, I saw out o' the tail of my eye the two Bartholomews passing,
+white and stunted and uncanny as ever, but pretended not to notice them,
+for I had always felt a shiver when they squeaked good-day at me, and
+when they doffed hats the tops of their heads had blue marbling on the
+scalp under their scant dry hair. Which did not please me.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst I chattered with the Bouw-Meester of seeds and plowing, Nick, who
+had no love for husbandry, practiced upon his fife so windily and with
+such enthusiasm that we three horsemen were soon ringed round by urchins
+of the town on their reluctant way to school.</p>
+
+<p>"How's old Wall?" cried Nick, resting his puckered lips and wiping his
+fife. "There's a schoolmaster for pickled rods, I warrant. Eh, boys? Am
+I right?"</p>
+
+<p>Lads and lassies giggled, some sucked thumbs and others hung their
+heads.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, then," cried Nick, "he's a good fellow, after all! And so am
+I&mdash;when I'm asleep!"</p>
+
+<p>Whereat all the children giggled again and Nick fished a great cake of
+maple sugar from his Indian pouch, drew his war-hatchet, broke the lump,
+and passed around the fragments. And many a childish face, which had
+been bright and clean with scrubbing, continued schoolward as sticky as
+a bear cub in a bee-tree.</p>
+
+<p>And now the Bouw-Meester and his oxen and the grinning slaves had gone
+their way; so Nick and I went ours.</p>
+
+<p>There were taverns enough in the town. We stopped at one or two for a
+long pull and a dish of meat.</p>
+
+<p>Out of the window I could see something of the town and it seemed
+changed; the Court House deserted; the jail walled in by a new
+palisade; fewer people on the street, and little traffic. Nor did I
+perceive any red-coats ruffling it as of old; the Highlanders who passed
+wore no side-arms,&mdash;excepting the officers. And I thought every Scot
+looked glum as a stray dog in a new village, where every tyke moves
+stiffly as he passes and follows his course with evil eyes.</p>
+
+<p>We had silver in our bullet pouches. We visited every shop, but
+purchased nothing useful; for Nick bought sweets and a mouse-trap and
+some alley-taws for his brother John&mdash;who wished to go to war! Oh,
+Lord!&mdash;and for his mother he found skeins of brightly-coloured wool; and
+for his father a Barlow jack-knife.</p>
+
+<p>I bought some suekets and fish-hooks and a fiddle,&mdash;God knows why, for I
+can not play on it, nor desire to!&mdash;and I further purchased two books,
+"Lives of Great Philosophers," by Rudd, and a witty poem by Peter
+Pindar, called "The Lousiad"&mdash;a bold and mirthful lampoon on the British
+King.</p>
+
+<p>These packets we stowed in our saddle-bags, and after that we knew not
+what to do save to seek another tavern.</p>
+
+<p>But Nick was no toss-pot, nor was I. And having no malt-thirst, we
+remained standing in the street beside our horses, debating whether to
+go home or no.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall you pay respects at the Hall?" he asked seriously.</p>
+
+<p>But I saw no reason to go, owing no duty; and the visit certain to prove
+awkward, if, indeed, it aroused in Sir John no more violent emotion than
+pain at sight of me.</p>
+
+<p>With our bridles over our arms, still debating, we walked along the
+street until we came to the Johnson Arms Tavern,&mdash;a Tory rendezvous not
+now frequented by friends of liberty.</p>
+
+<p>It was so dull in Johnstown that we tied our horses and went into the
+Johnson Arms, hoping, I fear, to stir up a mischief inside.</p>
+
+<p>Their brew was poor; and the spirits of the dozen odd Tories who sat
+over chess or draughts, or whispered behind soiled gazettes, was poorer
+still.</p>
+
+<p>All looked up indifferently as we entered and saluted them.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, gentlemen," says Nick, "this is a glorious April day, is it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's well enough," said a surly man in horn spectacles, "but I should
+be vastly obliged, sir, if you would shut the door, which you have left
+swinging in the wind."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," says Nick, "I fear you are no friend to God's free winds. Free
+winds, free sunshine, free speech, these suit my fancy. Freedom, sir, in
+her every phase&mdash;and Liberty&mdash;the glorious jade! Ah, gentlemen, there's
+a sweetheart you can never tire of. Take my advice and woo her, and
+you'll never again complain of a breeze on your shins!"</p>
+
+<p>"If you are so ardent, sir," retorted another man in a sneering voice,
+"why do you not go courting your jade in Massachusetts Bay?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because, sir," said I, "our sweetheart, Mistress Liberty, is already on
+her joyous way to Johnstown. It is a rendezvous, gentlemen. Will it
+please you to join us in receiving her?"</p>
+
+<p>One man got up, overturning the draught board, paid his reckoning, and
+went out muttering and gesticulating.</p>
+
+<p>"A married man," quoth Nick, "and wedded to that old hag, Tyranny. It
+irks him to hear of fresh young jades, knowing only too well what old
+sour-face awaits him at home with the bald end of a broom."</p>
+
+<p>The dark looks cast at us signalled storms; but none came, so poor the
+spirit of the company.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen, you seem melancholy and distrait," said I. "Are you so
+pensive because my Lord Dunmore has burned our pleasant city of Norfolk?
+Is it that which weighs upon your minds? Or is the sad plight of Tommy
+Gage distressing you? Or the several pickles in which Sir Guy Carleton,
+General Burgoyne, and General Howe find themselves?"</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly," quoth Nick, "a short poem on these three British warriors
+may enliven you:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"<i>Carleton, Burgoyne, Howe,</i><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"<i>Bow-wow-wow</i>!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>But there was nothing to be hoped of these sullen Tories, for they took
+our laughter scowling, but budged not an inch. A pity, for it was come
+to a pretty pass in Johnstown when two honest farmers must go home for
+lack of a rogue or two of sufficient spirit to liven a dull day withal.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>We stopped at the White Doe Tavern, and Nick gave the company another
+poem, which he said was writ by my Lord North:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"O Boston wives and maids draw near and see<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Our delicate Souchong and Hyson tea;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Buy it, my charming girls, fair, black, or brown;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">If not, we'll cut your throats and burn your town!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Whereat all the company laughed and applauded; and there was no hope of
+any sport to be had there, either.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Nick, sighing, "the war seems to be done ere it begun.
+What's in those whelps at the Johnson Arms, that they stomach such jests
+as we cook for them? Time was when I knew where I could depend upon a
+broken head in Johnstown&mdash;mine own or another's."</p>
+
+<p>We had it in mind to dine at the Doe, planning, as we sat on the stoop,
+bridles in hand, to ride back to the Bush by new moonlight.</p>
+
+<p>"If a pretty wench were as rare as a broken head in Johnstown," he
+muttered, "I'd be undone, indeed. Come, Jack; shall we ride that way
+homeward?"</p>
+
+<p>"Which way?"</p>
+
+<p>"By Pigeon-Wood."</p>
+
+<p>"By Mayfield?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aye."</p>
+
+<p>"You have a sweetheart there, you say?"</p>
+
+<p>"And so, perhaps, might you, for the pain of passing by."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said I, "I want no sweetheart. To clip a lip en passant, if the
+lip be warm and willing,&mdash;that is one thing. A blush and a laugh and
+'tis over. But to journey in quest of gallantries with malice
+aforethought&mdash;no."</p>
+
+<p>"I saw her in a sledge," sighed Nick, sucking his empty pipe. "And
+followed. Lord, but she is handsome,&mdash;Betsy Browse!&mdash;and looked at me
+kindly, I thought.... We had a fight."</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"Her father and I. For an hour the old man nigh twisted his head off
+turning around to see what sledge was following his. Then he shouts,
+'Whoa!' and out he bounces into the snow; and I out o' my sledge to see
+what it was he wanted.</p>
+
+<p>"He wanted my scalp, I think, for when I named myself and said I lived
+at Fonda's Bush, he fetched me a knock with his frozen mittens,&mdash;Lord,
+Jack, I saw a star or two, I warrant you; and a gay stream squirted from
+my nose upon the snow and presently the whole wintry world looked red to
+me, so I let fly a fist or two at the old man, and he let fly a few more
+at me.</p>
+
+<p>"'Dammy!' says he, 'I'll learn ye to foller my darters, you poor dum
+Boston critter! I'll drum your hide from Fundy's Bush to Canady!'</p>
+
+<p>"But after I had rolled him in the snow till his scratch-wig fell off,
+he became more civil&mdash;quite polite for a Tory with his mouth full o'
+snow.</p>
+
+<p>"So I went with him to his sledge and made a polite bow to the
+ladies&mdash;who looked excited but seemed inclined to smile when I promised
+to pass by Pigeon-Wood some day."</p>
+
+<p>"A rough wooing," said I, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Rough on old man Browse. But he's gone with Guy Johnson."</p>
+
+<p>"What! To Canada? The beast!"</p>
+
+<p>"Aye. So I thought to stop some day at Pigeon-Wood to see if the cote
+were entirely empty or no. Lord, what a fight we had, old Browse and I,
+there in the snow of the Mayfield road! And he burly as an October
+bear&mdash;a man all knotted over with muscles, and two fists that slapped
+you like the front kick of a moose! Oh, Lordy! Lordy! What a battle was
+there.... What bright eyes hath that little jade Betsy, of Pigeon-Wood!"</p>
+
+<p>Now, as he spoke, I had a mind to see this same Tory girl of
+Pigeon-Wood; and presently admitted to him my curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>And then, just as we had mounted and were gathering bridles and
+searching for our stirrups with moccasined toes, comes a galloper in
+scarlet jacket and breeks, with a sealed letter waved high to halt me.</p>
+
+<p>Sitting my horse in the street, I broke the seal and read what was
+written to me.</p>
+
+<p>The declining sun sent its rosy shafts through the still village now,
+painting every house and setting glazed windows a-glitter.</p>
+
+<p>I looked around me, soberly, at the old and familiar town; I glanced at
+Nick; I gazed coldly upon the galloper,&mdash;a cornet of Border Horse, and
+as solemn as he was young.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said I, "pray present to Lady Johnson my duties and my
+compliments, and say that I am honoured by her ladyship's commands, and
+shall be&mdash;happy&mdash;to present myself at Johnson Hall within the hour."</p>
+
+<p>Young galloper salutes; I outdo him in exact and scrupulous courtesy,
+mole-skin cap in hand; and 'round he wheels and away he tears like the
+celebrated Tory in the song, Jock Gallopaway.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's a kettle o' fish," remarked Nick in disgust.</p>
+
+<p>"Were it not Lady Johnson," muttered I, but checked myself. After all,
+it seemed ungenerous that I should decline to see even Sir John, who now
+was virtually a prisoner of my own party, penned here within that
+magnificent domain of which his great father had been creator and
+absolute lord.</p>
+
+<p>"I must go, Nick," I said in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>He said with a slight sneer, "Noblesse oblige&mdash;&mdash;" and then, sorry, laid
+a quick hand on my arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me, Jack. My father wears two gold rings in his ears. Your
+father wore them on his fingers. I know I am a boor until your kindness
+makes me forget it."</p>
+
+<p>I said quietly: "We are two comrades and friends to liberty. It is not
+what we are born to but what we are that matters a copper penny in the
+world."</p>
+
+<p>"It is easy for you to say so."</p>
+
+<p>"It is important for you to believe so. As I do."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you really so?" he asked with that winning upward glance that
+revealed his boyish faith in me.</p>
+
+<p>"I really do, Nick; else, perhaps, I had been with Guy Johnson in Canada
+long ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I shall try to believe it, too," he murmured, "&mdash;whether ears or
+fingers or toes wear the rings."</p>
+
+<p>We laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"How long?" he inquired bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>"To sup, I think. I must remain if Lady Johnson requests it of me."</p>
+
+<p>"And afterward. Will you ride home by way of Pigeon-Wood?"</p>
+
+<p>"Will you still be lingering there?" I asked with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Whether the pigeon-cote be empty or full, I shall await you there."</p>
+
+<p>I nodded. We smiled at each other and wheeled our horses in opposite
+directions.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>A SUPPER</h3>
+
+
+<p>Now, what seemed strange to me at the Hall was the cheerfulness of all
+under circumstances which must have mortified any Royalist, and, in
+particular, the principal family in North America of that political
+complexion.</p>
+
+<p>Even Sir John, habitually cold and reserved, appeared to be in most
+excellent spirits for such a man, and his wintry smile shed its faint
+pale gleam more than once upon the company assembled at supper.</p>
+
+<p>On my arrival there seemed to be nobody there except the groom, who took
+my mare, Kaya, and Frank, Sir William's butler, who ushered me and
+seemed friendly.</p>
+
+<p>Into the drawing room came black Flora, all smiles, to say that the
+gentlemen were dressing but that Lady Johnson would receive me.</p>
+
+<p>She was seated before her glass in her chamber, and the red-cheeked
+Irish maid she had brought from New York was exceedingly busy curling
+her hair.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Jack!" said Lady Johnson softly, and holding out to me one hand to
+be saluted, "they told me you were in the village. Has it become
+necessary that I must send for an old friend who should have come of his
+own free will?"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought perhaps you and Sir John might not take pleasure in a visit
+from me," I replied, honestly enough.</p>
+
+<p>"Why? Because last winter you answered the district summons and were on
+guard at the church with the Rebel Mohawk company?"</p>
+
+<p>So she knew that, too. But I had scarcely expected otherwise. And it
+came into my thought that the dwarfish Bartholomews had given her news
+of my doings and my whereabouts.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," said she in her lively manner, "a good soldier obeys his
+colonel, whoever that officer may chance to be&mdash;<i>for the moment</i>. And,
+were you even otherwise inclined, Jack, of what use would it have been
+to disobey after Philip Schuyler disarmed our poor Scots?"</p>
+
+<p>"If Sir John feels as you do, it makes my visit easier for all," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir John," she replied, "is not a whit concerned. We here at the Hall
+have laid down our arms; we are peaceably disposed; farm duties begin; a
+multitude of affairs preoccupy us; so let who will fight out this
+quarrel in Massachusetts Bay, so only that we have tranquillity and
+peace in County Tryon."</p>
+
+<p>I listened, amazed, to this school-girl chatter, marvelling that she
+herself believed such pitiable nonsense.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, that she did believe it I was assured, because in my Lady Johnson
+there was nothing false, no treachery or lies or cunning.</p>
+
+<p>Somebody sure had filled her immature mind with this jargon, which now
+she repeated to me. And in it I vaguely perceived the duplicity and
+ingenious man&oelig;uvring of wills and minds more experienced than her
+own.</p>
+
+<p>But I said only that I hoped this county might escape the conflagration
+now roaring through all New England and burning very fiercely in
+Virginia and the Carolinas. Then, smiling, I made her a compliment on
+her hair, which her Irish maid was dressing very prettily, and laughed
+at her man's banyan which she so saucily wore in place of a levete. Only
+a young and pretty woman could presume to wear a flowered silk banyan at
+her toilet; but it mightily became Polly Johnson.</p>
+
+<p>"Claudia is here," she remarked with a kindly malice perfectly
+transparent.</p>
+
+<p>I took the news in excellent part, and played the hopeless swain for a
+while, to amuse her, and so cunningly, too, that presently the charming
+child felt bound to comfort me.</p>
+
+<p>"Claudia is a witch," says she, "and does vast damage to no purpose but
+that it feeds her vanity. And this I have said frequently to her very
+face, and shall continue until she chooses to refrain from such harmful
+coquetry, and seems inclined to a more serious consideration of life and
+duty."</p>
+
+<p>"Claudia serious!" I exclaimed. "When Claudia becomes pensive, beware of
+her!"</p>
+
+<p>"Claudia should marry early&mdash;as I did," said she. But her features grew
+graver as she said it, and I saw not in them that inner light which
+makes delicately radiant the face of happy wifehood.</p>
+
+<p>I thought, "God pity her," but I said gaily enough that retribution must
+one day seize Claudia's dimpled hand and place it in the grasp of some
+gentleman fitly fashioned to school her.</p>
+
+<p>We both laughed; then she being ready for her stays and gown, I retired
+to the library below, where, to my chagrin, who should be lounging but
+Hiakatoo, war chief of the Senecas, in all his ceremonial finery.
+Despite what dear Mary Jamison has written of him, nor doubting that
+pure soul's testimony, I knew Hiakatoo to be a savage beast and a very
+devil, the more to be suspected because of his terrible intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>With him was a Mr. Hare, sometime Lieutenant in the Mohawk Regiment,
+with whom I had a slight acquaintance. I knew him to be Tory to the
+bone, a deputy of Guy Johnson for Indian affairs, and a very shifty
+character though an able officer of county militia and a scout of no
+mean ability.</p>
+
+<p>Hare gave me good evening with much courtesy and self-possession.
+Hiakatoo, also, extended a muscular hand, which I was obliged to take or
+be outdone in civilized usage by a savage.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir," says Hare in his frank, misleading manner, "the last o' the
+sugar is a-boiling, I hear, and spring plowing should begin this week."</p>
+
+<p>Neither he nor Hiakatoo had as much interest in husbandry as two
+hoot-owls, nor had they any knowledge of it, either; but I replied
+politely, and, at their request, gave an account of my glebe at Fonda's
+Bush.</p>
+
+<p>"There is game in that country," remarked Hiakatoo in the Seneca
+dialect.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly it entered my head that his remark had two interpretations,
+and one very sinister; but his painted features remained calmly
+inscrutable and perhaps I had merely imagined the dull, hot gleam that I
+thought had animated his sombre eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"There is game in the Bush," said I, pleasantly,&mdash;"deer, <i>bear</i>,
+turkeys, and partridges a-drumming <i>the long roll</i> all day long. And I
+have seen a moose near Lake Desolation."</p>
+
+<p>Now I had replied to the Seneca in the Canienga dialect; and he might
+interpret in two ways my reference to <i>bears</i>, and also what I said
+concerning the <i>drumming</i> of the partridges.</p>
+
+<p>But his countenance did not change a muscle, nor did his eyes. And as
+for Hare, he might not have understood my play upon words, for he seemed
+interested merely in a literal interpretation, and appeared eager to
+hear about the moose I had seen near Lake Desolation.</p>
+
+<p>So I told him I had watched two bulls fighting in the swamp until the
+older beast had been driven off.</p>
+
+<p>"Civilization, too, will soon drive away the last of the moose from
+Tryon," quoth Hare.</p>
+
+<p>"How many families at Fonda's Bush?" asked Hiakatoo abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>I was about to reply, telling him the truth, and checked myself with
+lips already parted to speak.</p>
+
+<p>There ensued a polite silence, but in that brief moment I was convinced
+that they realized I suddenly suspected them.</p>
+
+<p>What I might have answered the Seneca I do not exactly know, for the
+next instant Sir John entered the room with Ensign Moucher, of the old
+Mohawk Regiment, and young Captain Watts from New York, brother to
+Polly, Lady Johnson, a handsome, dissipated, careless lad, inclined to
+peevishness when thwarted, and marred, perhaps, by too much adulation.</p>
+
+<p>Scarce had compliments been exchanged with snuff when Lady Johnson
+entered the room with Claudia Swift, and I thought I had seldom beheld
+two lovelier ladies in their silks and powder, who curtsied low on the
+threshold to our profound bows.</p>
+
+<p>As I saluted Lady Johnson's hand again, she said: "This is most kind of
+you, Jack, because I know that all farmers now have little time to
+waste."</p>
+
+<p>"Like Cincinnatus," said I, smilingly, "I leave my plow in the furrow at
+the call of danger, and hasten to brave the deadly battery of your
+bright eyes."</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon she laughed that sad little laugh which I knew so well, and
+which seemed her manner of forcing mirth when Sir John was present.</p>
+
+<p>I took her out at her request. Sir John led Claudia; the others paired
+gravely, Hare walking with the Seneca and whispering in his ear.</p>
+
+<p>Candles seemed fewer than usual in the dining hall, but were sufficient
+to display the late Sir William's plate and glass.</p>
+
+<p>The scented wind from Claudia's fan stirred my hair, and I remembered it
+was still the hair of a forest runner, neither short nor sufficiently
+long for the queue, and powdered not a trace.</p>
+
+<p>I looked around at Claudia's bright face, more brilliant for the saucy
+patches and newly powdered hair.</p>
+
+<p>"La," said she, "you vie with Hiakatoo yonder in Mohawk finery,
+Jack,&mdash;all beads and thrums and wampum. And yet you have a pretty leg
+for a silken stocking, too."</p>
+
+<p>"In the Bush," said I, "the backwoods aristocracy make little of your
+silk hosen, Claudia. Our stockings are leather and our powder black, and
+our patches are of buckskin and are sewed on elbow and knee with
+pack-thread or sinew. Or we use them, too, for wadding."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a fashion like another," she remarked with a shrug, but watching
+me intently over her fan's painted edge.</p>
+
+<p>"The mode is a tyrant," said I, "and knows neither pity nor good taste."</p>
+
+<p>"How so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Hiakatoo also wears paint, Claudia."</p>
+
+<p>"Meaning that I wear lip-rouge and lily-balm? Well, I do, my impertinent
+friend."</p>
+
+<p>"Who could suspect it?" I protested, mockingly.</p>
+
+<p>"You might have suspected it long since had you been sufficiently
+adventurous."</p>
+
+<p>"How so?" I inquired in my turn.</p>
+
+<p>"By kissing me, pardieu! But you always were a timid youth, Jack Drogue,
+and a woman's 'No,' with the proper stare of indignation, always was
+sufficient to route you utterly."</p>
+
+<p>In spite of myself I reddened under the smiling torment.</p>
+
+<p>"And if any man has had that much of you," said I, "then I for one will
+believe it only when I see your lip-rouge on his lips!"</p>
+
+<p>"Court me again and then look into your mirror," she retorted calmly.</p>
+
+<p>"What in the world are you saying to each other?" exclaimed Lady
+Johnson, tapping me with her fan. "Why, you are red as a squaw-berry,
+Jack, and your wine scarce tasted."</p>
+
+<p>Claudia said: "I but ask him to try his fortune, and he blushes like a
+silly."</p>
+
+<p>"Shame," returned Lady Johnson, laughing; "and you have Mr. Hare's scalp
+fresh at your belt!"</p>
+
+<p>Hare heard it, and laughed in his frank way, which instantly disarmed
+most people who had not too often heard it.</p>
+
+<p>"I admit," said he, "that I shall presently perish unless this cruel
+lady proves kinder, or restores to me my hair."</p>
+
+<p>"It were more merciful," quoth Ensign Moucher, "to slay outright with a
+single glance. I myself am long since doubly dead," he added with his
+mealy-mouthed laugh, and his mean reddish eyes a-flickering at Lady
+Johnson.</p>
+
+<p>Sir John, who was carving a roast of butcher's meat, carved on, though
+his young wife ventured a glance at him&mdash;a sad, timid look as though
+hopeful that her husband might betray some interest when other men said
+gallant things to her.</p>
+
+<p>I asked Sir John's permission to offer a toast, and he gave it with cold
+politeness.</p>
+
+<p>"To the two cruellest and loveliest creatures alive in a love-stricken
+world," said I. "Gentlemen, I offer you our charming tyrants. And may
+our heads remain ever in the dust and their silken shoon upon our
+necks!"</p>
+
+<p>All drank standing. The Seneca gulped his Madeira like a slobbering dog,
+noticing nobody, and then fell fiercely to cutting up his meat, until,
+his knife being in the way, he took the flesh in his two fists and
+gnawed it.</p>
+
+<p>But nobody appeared to notice the Seneca's beastly manners; and such
+general complaisance preoccupied me, because Hiakatoo knew better, and
+it seemed as though he considered himself in a position where he might
+disdain to conduct suitably amid a company which, possibly, stood in
+need of his good will.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody spoke of politics, nor did I care to introduce such a subject.
+Conversation was general; matters concerning the town, the Hall, were
+mentioned, together with such topics as are usually discussed among land
+owners in time of peace.</p>
+
+<p>And it seemed to me that Sir John, who had, as usual, remained coldly
+reticent among his guests, became of a sudden conversational with a sort
+of forced animation, like a man who recollects that he has a part to
+play and who unwillingly attempts it.</p>
+
+<p>He spoke of the Hall farm, and of how he meant to do this with this part
+and that with that part; and how the herd bulls were now become useless
+and he must send to the Patroon for new blood,&mdash;all a mere toneless and
+mechanical babble, it seemed to me, and without interest or sincerity.</p>
+
+<p>Once, sipping my claret, I thought I heard a faint clash of arms outside
+and in the direction of the guard-house.</p>
+
+<p>And another time it seemed to me that many horses were stirring
+somewhere outside in the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>I could not conceive of anything being afoot, because of Sir John's
+parole, and so presently dismissed the incidents from my mind.</p>
+
+<p>The wine had somewhat heated the men; laughter was louder, speech less
+guarded. Young Watts spoke boldly of Haldimand and Guy Carleton, naming
+them as the two most efficient servants that his Majesty had in Canada.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody, however, had the effrontery to mention Guy Johnson in my
+presence, but Ensign Moucher pretended to discuss a probable return of
+old John Butler and of his son Walter to our neighborhood,&mdash;to hoodwink
+me, I think,&mdash;but his mealy manner and the false face he pulled made me
+the more wary.</p>
+
+<p>The wine burned in Hiakatoo, but he never looked toward me nor directly
+at anybody out of his blank red eyes of a panther.</p>
+
+<p>Sir John had become a little drunk and slopped his wine-glass, but the
+wintry smile glimmered on his thin lips as though some secret thought
+contented him, and he was ever whispering with Captain Watts.</p>
+
+<p>But he spoke always of the coming summer and of his cattle and fields
+and the pursuits of peace, saying that he had no interest in Haldimand
+nor in any kinsmen who had fled Tryon; and that all he desired was to be
+let alone at the Hall, and not bothered by Phil Schuyler.</p>
+
+<p>"For," says he, emptying his glass with unsteady hand, "I've enough to
+do to feed my family and my servants and collect my rents; and I'm
+damned if I can do it unless those excitable gentlemen in Albany mind
+their own business as diligently as I wish to mind mine."</p>
+
+<p>"Surely, Sir John," said I, "nobody wishes to annoy you, because it is
+the universal desire that you remain. And, as you have pledged your
+honour to do so, only a fool would attempt to make more difficult your
+position among us."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there are fools, too," said he in his slow voice. "There were fools
+who supposed that the Six Nations would not resent ill treatment meted
+out to Guy Johnson." His cold gaze rested for a second upon Hiakatoo,
+then swept elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>Preoccupied, I heard Claudia's voice in my ear:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you take no pleasure any longer in looking at me, Jack! You have
+paid me very scant notice tonight."</p>
+
+<p>I turned, smilingly made her a compliment, and she was now gazing into
+the little looking-glass set in the handle of her French fan, and her
+dimpled hand busy with her hair.</p>
+
+<p>"Polly's Irish maid dressed my hair," she remarked. "I would to God I
+had as clever a wench. Could you discover one to wait on me?"</p>
+
+<p>Hare, who had no warrant for familiarity, as far as I was concerned,
+nevertheless called out with a laugh that I knew every wench in the
+countryside and should find a pretty one very easily to serve Claudia.</p>
+
+<p>Which pleasantry did not please me; but Ensign Moucher and young Watts
+bore him out, and they all fell a-laughing, discussing with little
+decency such wenches as the two Wormwood girls near Fish House, and
+Betsy and Jessica Browse&mdash;maids who were pretty and full of gaiety at
+dance or frolic, and perhaps a trifle free in manners, but of whom I
+knew no evil and believed none whatever the malicious gossip concerning
+them.</p>
+
+<p>The gallantries of such men as Sir John and Walter Butler were known to
+everybody in the country; and so were the carryings on of all the
+younger gentry and the officers from Johnstown to Albany. Young girls'
+names&mdash;the daughters of tenants, settlers, farmers, were bandied about
+carelessly enough; and the names of those famed for beauty, or a lively
+disposition, had become more or less familiar to me.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, for myself, my escapades had been harmless enough&mdash;a pretty maid
+kissed at a quilting, perhaps; another courted lightly at a barn-romp; a
+laughing tavern wench caressed en passant, but no evil thought of it and
+nothing to regret&mdash;no need to remember aught that could start a tear in
+any woman's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Watts said to Claudia: "There is a maid at Caughnawaga who serves old
+Douw Fonda&mdash;a Scotch girl, who might serve you as well as Flora cares
+for my sister."</p>
+
+<p>"Penelope Grant!" exclaims Hare with an oath. Whereat these three young
+men fell a-laughing, and even Sir John leered.</p>
+
+<p>I had heard her name and that the careless young gallants of the country
+were all after this young Scotch girl, servant to Douw Fonda&mdash;but I had
+never seen her.</p>
+
+<p>"She lives with the old gentleman, does she not?" inquired Claudia with
+a shrug.</p>
+
+<p>"She cares for him, dresses him, cooks for him, reads to him, sews,
+mends, lights him to bed and tucks him in," said Hare. "My God, what a
+wife she'd make for a farmer! Or a mistress for a gentleman."</p>
+
+<p>"A wench I would employ very gladly," quoth Claudia, frowning. "Could
+you get her ear, Jack, and fetch her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Take her from Douw Fonda?" I exclaimed in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"The old man is like to die any moment," remarked Watts.</p>
+
+<p>"Besides," said Moucher, "he has scores of kinsmen and their women to
+take him in charge."</p>
+
+<p>"She's a pretty bit o' baggage," said Sir John drunkenly. "If you but
+kiss the little slut she looks at you like a silly kitten, and, I think,
+with no more sense or comprehension."</p>
+
+<p>Captain Watts darted an angry look at his brother-in-law but said
+nothing.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Johnson's features were burning and her lip quivered, but she
+forced a laugh, saying that her husband could have judged only by
+hearsay, and that the Scotch girl's reputation was still very good in
+the country.</p>
+
+<p>"Somebody'll get her," retorted Sir John, thickly, "for they're all
+a-pestering&mdash;Walter Butler, too, when he was here,&mdash;and your brother,
+and Hare and Moucher yonder. The little slut has yellow hair, but she's
+too damned thin!&mdash;--" he hiccoughed and upset his wine; and a servant
+wiped his neck-cloth and his silk and silver waistcoat while he, with
+wagging and unsteady head, gazed gravely down at the damage done.</p>
+
+<p>Claudia set her lips to my ear: "The beast!&mdash;to affront his wife!" she
+whispered. "Tell me, do you, also, go about your rustic gallantries in
+the shameful manner of these educated and Christian gentlemen?"</p>
+
+<p>"I seek no woman's destruction," said I drily.</p>
+
+<p>"Not even mine?" She laughed as I reddened, and tapped me with her fan.</p>
+
+<p>"If our young men do not turn this Scotch girl's head with their
+philandering, send her to me and I will use her kindly."</p>
+
+<p>"You would not seduce her from an old and almost helpless man who needs
+her?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"I find my servants where I can in such days as these," said she coolly.
+"And there are plenty to care for old Douw Fonda in Caughnawaga, but
+only an accomplished wench like Penelope Grant would I trust to do my
+hair and lace me. Will you send this girl to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I won't," said I bluntly. "I shall not charge myself with such an
+errand, even for you. It is not a decent thing you ask of me or of the
+wench, either."</p>
+
+<p>"It is decent," retorted Claudia pettishly. "If she's as pretty a
+baggage as is reported, some of our young fools will never let her alone
+until one among them turns her silly head. Whereas the girl would be
+safe with me."</p>
+
+<p>"That is not my affair," I remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you wish her harm?"</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you she is no concern of mine. And if she's not a hopeless fool
+she'll know how to trust the gentry of County Tryon."</p>
+
+<p>"You are of them, too, Jack," she said maliciously.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a plain farmer and I trouble no woman."</p>
+
+<p>"You trouble me," she insisted sweetly.</p>
+
+<p>I laughed, not agreeably.</p>
+
+<p>"You do so," she repeated. "I would you had courage to court me again."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean courage or inclination, Claudia?"</p>
+
+<p>She gave me a melting look, very sweet, and a trifle sad.</p>
+
+<p>"With patience," she murmured, "you might awaken both our hearts."</p>
+
+<p>"I know well what I'd awaken in you," said I; "I'd awaken the devil. No;
+I've had my chance."</p>
+
+<p>She sighed, still looking at me, and I awaited her further assault,
+grimly armed with memories.</p>
+
+<p>But ere she could speak, Hiakatoo lurched to his feet and stood towering
+there unsteadily, his burning gaze fixed on space.</p>
+
+<p>Whereat Sir John, now very tight and very drowsy, opened owlish eyes;
+and Hare took the Seneca by the arm.</p>
+
+<p>"If you desire to go," said he, "here are three of us ready to ride
+beside you."</p>
+
+<p>Moucher, too, stood up, and so did Captain Watts; but they were not in
+their cups. Watts took Hiakatoo's blanket from a servant and cast it
+over the tall warrior's shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"The Western Gate of the Confederacy lies unguarded," explained Hare to
+us all, in his frank, amiable manner. "The great Gate Keeper, Hiakatoo,
+bids you all farewell. Duty calls him toward the setting sun."</p>
+
+<p>All had now risen from the table. Hiakatoo lurched past us and out into
+the hallway; Hare and Moucher and Watts took smiling leave of Sir John;
+the ladies gave them all a courteous farewell. Hare, passing, said to
+me:</p>
+
+<p>"To any who enquire you can answer pat enough to make an end to foolish
+rumours concerning any meditated flight of this family."</p>
+
+<p>"My answer," said I quietly, "is always the same: Sir William's son has
+given his parole."</p>
+
+<p>They went out after their Indian, which disturbed me greatly, as I could
+not account for Hiakatoo's presence at Johnstown, and I was ill at ease
+seeing him so apparently in charge of three known Tories, and one of
+them a deputy of Guy Johnson.</p>
+
+<p>However, I took my leave of Sir John, who gave me a wavering hand and
+stared at me blankly. Then I kissed the ladies' hands and went out to
+the porch where Billy waited with my mare, Kaya.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Johnson came to the door as I mounted.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't forget us when again you are in Johnstown," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Claudia, too, appeared and stepped daintily out on the dewy grass,
+lifting her petticoat.</p>
+
+<p>"What a witching night," she exclaimed mischievously, "&mdash;what a night
+for love! Do you mark the young moon, Jack, and how all the dark is
+saturated with a sweet smell of new buds?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mark it all," said I, laughing, "and, as for love, why, I love it
+all, Claudia,&mdash;moon, darkness, scent of young leaves, the far forest
+still as death, and the noise of the brook yonder."</p>
+
+<p>"I meant a sweeter love," quoth she, coming to my stirrup and laying
+both hands upon my saddle.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no sweeter love," said I, still laughing, "&mdash;none happier than
+the love of this silvery world of night which God made to heal us of the
+blows of day."</p>
+
+<p>"Whither do you ride, Jack?"</p>
+
+<p>"Homeward."</p>
+
+<p>"To Fonda's Bush?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Directly home?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have a comrade&mdash;&mdash;" said I. "He awaits me on the Mayfield Road."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you ride by Mayfield?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because he waits for me there."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Jack?"</p>
+
+<p>"He has friends to visit&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"At Mayfield?"</p>
+
+<p>"At Pigeon-Wood," I muttered.</p>
+
+<p>"More gallantry!" she said, tossing her head. "But young men must have
+their fling, and I am not jealous of Betsy Browse or of her pretty
+sister, so that you ride not toward Caughnawaga&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"To see this rustic beauty, Penelope Grant&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Have I not refused to seek her for you?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but not for yourself, Jack! Curiosity killed a cat and started a
+young man on his travels!"</p>
+
+<p>Exasperated by her malice I struck my mare's flanks with moccasined
+heels; and as I rode out into the darkness Claudia's gaily mocking laugh
+floated after me on the still, sweet air.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>RUSTIC GALLANTRY</h3>
+
+
+<p>There were few lanterns and fewer candle lights in Johnstown; sober folk
+seemed to be already abed; only a constable, Hugh McMonts, stood in the
+main street, leaning upon his pike as I followed the new moon out of
+town and down into a dark and lovely land where all was still and
+fragrant and dim as the dreams of those who lie down contented with the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>Now, as I jogged along on my mare, Kaya, over a well-levelled road, my
+mind was very full of what I had seen and heard at Johnson Hall.</p>
+
+<p>One thing seemed clear to me; there could be no foundation for any
+untoward rumours regarding Sir John,&mdash;no fear that he meant to shame his
+honoured name and flee to Canada to join Guy Johnson and his Indians and
+the Tryon County Tories who already had fled.</p>
+
+<p>No; Sir John was quietly planning his summer farming. All seemed
+tranquil at the Hall. And I could not find it in my nature to doubt his
+pledged word, nor believe that he was plotting mischief.</p>
+
+<p>Still, it had staggered me somewhat to see Hiakatoo there in his
+ceremonial paint, as though the fire were still burning at Onondaga. But
+I concluded that the Seneca War Chief had come on some private affair
+and not for his nation, because a chief does not travel alone upon a
+ceremonial mission. No; this Indian had arrived to talk privately with
+Hare, who, no doubt, now represented Guy Johnson's late authority among
+the Johnstown Tories.</p>
+
+<p>Thinking over these matters, I jogged into the Mayfield road; and as I
+passed in between the tall wayside bushes, without any warning at all
+two shadowy horsemen rode out in front of me and threw their horses
+across my path, blocking it.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly my hand flew to my hatchet, but at that same moment one of the
+tall riders laughed, and I let go my war-axe, ashamed.</p>
+
+<p>"It's John Drogue!" said a voice I recognized, as I pushed my mare
+close to them and peered into their faces; and I discovered that these
+riders were two neighbors of mine, Godfrey Shew of Fish House, and Joe
+de Golyer of Varick's.</p>
+
+<p>"What frolic is this?" I demanded, annoyed to see their big pistols
+resting on their thighs and their belted hatchets loosened from the
+fringed sheaths.</p>
+
+<p>"No frolic," answered Shew soberly, "though Joe may find it a matter for
+his French mirth."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you stop folk at night on the King's highway?" I inquired
+curiously of de Golyer.</p>
+
+<p>"Voyons, l'ami Jean," he replied gaily, "Sir Johnson and his Scottish
+bare-shanks, they have long time stop us on their sacré King's highway.
+Now, in our turn, we stop them, by gar! Oui, nom de dieu! And we shall
+see what we shall see, and we shall catch in our little trap what shall
+step into it, pardieu!"</p>
+
+<p>Shew said in his heavy voice: "Our authorities in Albany have concluded
+to watch, for smuggled arms, the roads leading to Johnstown, Mr.
+Drogue."</p>
+
+<p>"Do they fear treachery at the Hall?"</p>
+
+<p>"They do not know what is going on at the Hall. But there are rumours
+abroad concerning the running in of arms for the Highlanders, and the
+constant passing of messengers between Canada and Johnstown."</p>
+
+<p>"I have but left the Hall," said I. "I saw nothing to warrant
+suspicion." And I told them who were there and how they conducted at
+supper.</p>
+
+<p>Shew said with an oath that Lieutenant Hare was a dangerous man, and
+that he hoped a warrant for him would be issued.</p>
+
+<p>"As for the Indian, Hiakatoo," he went on, "he's a surly and cunning
+animal, and a fierce one as are all Senecas. I do not know what has
+brought him to Johnstown, nor why Moucher was there, nor Steve Watts."</p>
+
+<p>"Young Watts, no doubt, came to visit his sister," said I. "That is
+natural, Mr. Shew."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no doubt, no doubt," grumbled Shew. "You, Mr. Drogue, are one of
+those gentlemen who seem trustful of the honour of all gentlemen. And
+for every gentleman who <i>is</i> one, the next is a blackguard. I do not
+contradict you. No, sir. But we plain folk of Tryon think it wisdom to
+watch gentlemen like Sir John Johnson."</p>
+
+<p>"I am as plain a man as you are," said I, "but I am not able to doubt
+the word of honour given by the son of Sir William Johnson."</p>
+
+<p>De Golyer laughed and asked me which way I rode, and I told him.</p>
+
+<p>"Nick Stoner also went Mayfield way," said Shew with a shrug. "I think
+he unsaddled at Pigeon-Wood."</p>
+
+<p>They wheeled their horses into the bushes with gestures of adieu; I
+shook my bridle, and my mare galloped out into the sandy road again.</p>
+
+<p>The sky was very bright with that sweet springtime lustre which comes
+not alone from the moon but also from a million million unseen stars,
+all a-shining behind the purple veil of night.</p>
+
+<p>Presently I heard the Mayfield creek babbling like a dozen laughing
+lasses, and rode along the bushy banks looking up at the mountains to
+the north.</p>
+
+<p>They are friendly little mountains which we call the Mayfield Hills, all
+rising into purple points against the sky, like the waves on Lake
+Ontario, and so tumbling northward into the grim jaws of the
+Adirondacks, which are different&mdash;not sinister, perhaps, but grim and
+stolid peaks, ever on guard along the Northern wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>Long, still reaches of the creek stretched away, unstarred by rising
+trout because of the lateness of the night. Only a heron's croak sounded
+in the darkness; there were no lights where I knew the Mayfield
+settlement to be.</p>
+
+<p>Already I saw the grist mill, with its dusky wheel motionless; and, to
+the left, a frame house or two and several log-houses set in cleared
+meadows, where the vast ramparts of the forest had been cut away.</p>
+
+<p>Now, there was a mile to gallop eastward along a wet path toward Summer
+House Point; and in a little while I saw the long, low house called
+Pigeon-Wood, which sat astride o' the old Iroquois war trail to the
+Sacandaga and the Canadas.</p>
+
+<p>It was a heavy house of hewn timber and smoothed with our blue clay,
+which cuts the sandy loam of Tryon in great streaks.</p>
+
+<p>There was no light in the windows, but the milky lustre of the heavens
+flooded all, and there, upon the rail fence, I did see Nick Stoner
+a-kissing of Betsy Browse.</p>
+
+<p>They heard my horse and fluttered down from the fence like two robins,
+as I pulled up and dismounted.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" said the girl, who was bare of feet and her gingham scarce
+pinned decently; and laid her finger on her lips as she glanced toward
+the house.</p>
+
+<p>"The old man is back," quoth Nick, sliding a graceless arm around her.
+"But he sleeps like an ox." And, to Betsy, "Whistle thy little sister
+from her nest, sweetheart. For there are no gallants in Tryon to match
+with my comrade, John Drogue!"</p>
+
+<p>Which did not please me to hear, for I had small mind for rustic
+gallantry; but Martha pursed her lips and whistled thrice; and presently
+the house door opened without any noise.</p>
+
+<p>She was a healthy, glowing wench, half confident, half coquette, like a
+playful forest thing in springtime, when all things mate.</p>
+
+<p>And her sister, Jessica, was like her, only slimmer, who came across the
+starlit grass rubbing both eyes with her little fists, like a child
+roused from sleep,&mdash;a shy, smiling, red-lipped thing, who gave me her
+hand and yawned.</p>
+
+<p>And presently went to where my mare stood to pet her and pull the new,
+wet grass and feed her tid-bits.</p>
+
+<p>I did not feel awkward, yet knew not how to conduct or what might be
+expected of me at this star-dim rendezvous with a sleepy, woodland
+beauty.</p>
+
+<p>But she seemed in nowise disconcerted after a word or two; drew my arm
+about her; put up her red mouth to be kissed, and then begged to be
+lifted to my saddle.</p>
+
+<p>Here she sat astride and laughed down at me through her tangled hair.
+And:</p>
+
+<p>"I have a mind to gallop to Fish House," said she, "only that it might
+prove a lonely jaunt."</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I come, Jessica?"</p>
+
+<p>"Will you do so?"</p>
+
+<p>I waited till the blood cooled in my veins; and by that time she had
+forgotten what she had been about&mdash;like any other forest bird.</p>
+
+<p>"You have a fine mare, Mr. Drogue," said she, gently caressing Kaya with
+her naked heels. "No rider better mounted passes Pigeon-Wood."</p>
+
+<p>"Do many riders pass, Jessica?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sir John's company between Fish House and the Hall."</p>
+
+<p>"Any others lately?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, there are horsemen who ride swiftly at night. We hear them."</p>
+
+<p>"Who may they be?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir John's people?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very like."</p>
+
+<p>"Coming from the North?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, from the North."</p>
+
+<p>"Have they waggons to escort?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard waggons, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Lately?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." She leaned down from the saddle and rested both hands on my
+shoulders:</p>
+
+<p>"Have you no better way to please than in catechizing me, John Drogue?"
+she laughed. "Do you know what lips were fashioned for except words?"</p>
+
+<p>I kissed her, and, still resting her hands on my shoulders, she looked
+down into my eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you of Sir John's people?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Of them, perhaps, but not now with them, Jessica."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh. The other party?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"You! A Boston man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nick and I, both."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because we design to live as free as God made us, and not as
+king-fashioned slaves."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, la!" quoth she, opening her eyes wide, "you use very mighty words
+to me, Mr. Drogue. There are young men in red coats and gilt lace on
+their hats who would call you rebel."</p>
+
+<p>"I am."</p>
+
+<p>"No," she whispered, putting both arms around my neck. "You are a pretty
+boy and no Yankee! I do not wish you to be a Boston rebel."</p>
+
+<p>"Are all your lovers King's men?"</p>
+
+<p>"My lovers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you one?"</p>
+
+<p>At which I laughed and lifted the saucy wench from my saddle, and stood
+so in the starlight, her arms still around my neck.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said I, "I never had a sweetheart, and, indeed, would not know how
+to conduct&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"We could learn."</p>
+
+<p>But I only laughed, disengaging her arms, and passing my own around her
+supple waist.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen," said I, "Nick and I mean no harm in a starlit frolic, where we
+tarry for a kiss from a pretty maid."</p>
+
+<p>"No harm?"</p>
+
+<p>"Neither that nor better, Jessica. Nor do you; and I know that very
+well. With me it's a laugh and a kiss and a laugh; and into my stirrups
+and off.... And you are young and soft and sweet as new maple-sap in
+the snow. But if you dream like other little birds, of nesting&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"May a lass not dream in springtime?"</p>
+
+<p>"Surely. But let it end so, too."</p>
+
+<p>"In dreams."</p>
+
+<p>"It is wiser."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no wisdom in me, pretty boy in buckskin. And I love thrums
+better than red-coats and lace."</p>
+
+<p>"Love spinning better than either!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, la! He preaches of wheels and spindles when my mouth aches for a
+kiss!"</p>
+
+<p>"And mine," said I, "&mdash;but my legs ache more for my saddle; and I must
+go."</p>
+
+<p>At that moment when I said adieu with my lips, and she did not mean to
+unlink her arms, came Nick on noiseless tread to twitch my arm. And,
+"Look," said he, pointing toward the long, low rampart of Maxon Ridge.</p>
+
+<p>I turned, my hand still retaining Jessica's: and saw the Iroquois
+signal-flame mount thin and high, tremble, burn red against the stars,
+then die there in the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>Northward another flame reddened on the hills, then another, fire
+answering fire.</p>
+
+<p>"What the devil is this?" growled Nick. "These are no times for Indians
+to talk to one another with fire."</p>
+
+<p>"Get into your saddle," said I, "and we shall ride by Varick's, for I've
+a mind to see what will-o'-the-wisps may be a-dancing over the great
+Vlaie!"</p>
+
+<p>So the tall lad took his leave of his little pigeon of Pigeon-Wood, who
+seemed far from willing to let him loose; and I made my adieux to
+Jessica, who stood a-pouting; and we mounted and set off at a gallop for
+Varick's, by way of Summer House Point.</p>
+
+<p>I could not be certain, but it seemed to me that there was a light at
+the Point, which came through the crescents from behind closed shutters;
+but that was within reason, Sir John being at liberty to keep open the
+hunting lodge if he chose.</p>
+
+<p>As for the Drowned Lands, as far as we could see through the night there
+was not a spark over that desolate wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>The Mohawk fires on the hills, too, had died out. Fish House, if still
+burning candles, was too far away to see; we galloped through Varick's,
+past the mill where, from its rocky walls, Frenchman's Creek roared
+under the stars; then turned west along the Brent-Meester's trail toward
+Fonda's Bush and home.</p>
+
+<p>"Those Iroquois fires trouble me mightily," quoth Nick, pushing his lank
+horse forward beside my mare.</p>
+
+<p>"And me," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Why should they talk with fire on the night Hiakatoo comes to the
+Hall?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know," said I. "But when I am home I shall write it in a
+letter to Albany that this night the Mohawks have talked among
+themselves with fire, and that a Seneca was present."</p>
+
+<p>"And that mealy-mouthed Ensign, Moucher; and Hare and Steve Watts!"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall so write it," said I, very seriously.</p>
+
+<p>"Good!" cried he with a jolly slap on his horse's neck. "But the sweeter
+part of this night's frolic you and I shall carry locked in our breasts.
+Eh, John? By heaven, is she not fresh and pink as a dewy strawberry in
+June&mdash;my pretty little wench? Is she not apt as a school-learned lass
+with any new lesson a man chooses to teach?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, too apt, perhaps," said I, shaking my head but laughing. "But I
+think they have had already a lesson or two in such frolics, less
+innocent, perhaps, than the lesson we gave."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll break the back of any red-coat who stops at Pigeon-Wood!" cried
+Nick Stoner with an oath. "Yes, red-coat or any other colour, either!"</p>
+
+<p>"You would not take our frolic seriously, would you, Nick?"</p>
+
+<p>"I take all frolics seriously," said he with a gay laugh, smiting both
+thighs, and his bridle loose. "Where I place my mark with my proper
+lips, let roving gallants read and all roysterers beware!&mdash;even though I
+so mark a dozen pretty does!"</p>
+
+<p>"A very Turk," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"An antlered stag in the blue-coat that brooks no other near his herd!"
+cried he with a burst of laughter. And fell to smiting his thighs and
+tossing up both arms, riding like a very centaur there, with his hair
+flowing and his thrums streaming in the starlight.</p>
+
+<p>And, "Lord God of Battles!" he cried out to the stars, stretching up his
+powerful young arms. "Thou knowest how I could love tonight; but dost
+Thou know, also, how I could fight if I had only a foe to destroy with
+these two empty hands!"</p>
+
+<p>"Thou murderous Turk!" I cried in his ear. "Pray, rather, that there
+shall be no war, and no foe more deadly than the pretty wench of
+Pigeon-Wood!"</p>
+
+<p>"Love or war, I care not!" he shouted in his spring-tide frenzy,
+galloping there unbridled, his lean young face in the wind. "But God
+send the one or the other to me very quickly&mdash;or love or war&mdash;for I need
+more than a plow or axe to content my soul afire!"</p>
+
+<p>"Idiot!" said I, "have done a-yelling! You wake every owl in the bush!"</p>
+
+<p>And above his youth-maddened laughter I heard the weird yelping of the
+forest owls as though the Six Nations already were in their paint, and
+blood fouled every trail.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>So we galloped into Fonda's Bush, pulling up before my door; but Nick
+would not stay the night and must needs gallop on to his own log house,
+where he could blanket and stall his tired and sweating horse&mdash;I owning
+only the one warm stall.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," says he, still slapping his thighs where he sat his saddle as I
+dismounted, and his young face still aglow in the dim, silvery light,
+"&mdash;well, John, I shall ride again, one day, to Pigeon-Wood. Will you
+ride with me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think not."</p>
+
+<p>"And why?"</p>
+
+<p>But, standing by my door, bridle in hand, I slowly shook my head.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no prettier bit o' baggage in County Tryon than Jessica
+Browse," he insisted&mdash;"unless, perhaps, it be that Scotch girl at
+Caughnawaga, whom all the red-coats buzz about like sap flies around a
+pan."</p>
+
+<p>"And who may this Scotch lassie be?" I asked with a smile, and busy,
+now, unsaddling.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean the new servant to old Douw Fonda."</p>
+
+<p>"I have not noticed her."</p>
+
+<p>"You have not seen the Caughnawaga girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. I remain incurious concerning servants," said I, drily.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it so!" he laughed. "Well, then,&mdash;for all that they have a right to
+gold binding on their hats,&mdash;the gay youth of Johnstown, yes, and of
+Schenectady, too, have not remained indifferent to the Scotch girl of
+Douw Fonda, Penelope Grant!"</p>
+
+<p>I shrugged and lifted my saddle.</p>
+
+<p>"Every man to his taste," said I. "Some eat woodchucks, some porcupines,
+and others the tail of a beaver. Venison smacks sweeter to me."</p>
+
+<p>Nick laughed again. "When she reads the old man to sleep and takes her
+knitting to the porch, you should see the ring of gallants every
+afternoon a-courting her!&mdash;and their horses tied to every tree around
+the house as at a quilting!</p>
+
+<p>"But there's no quilting frolic; no supper; no dance;&mdash;nothing more
+than a yellow-haired slip of a wench busy knitting there in the sun, and
+looking at none o' them but intent on her needles and with that faint
+smile she wears&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Go court her," said I, laughing; and led my mare into her warm stall.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll court her yourself, one day!" he shouted after me, as he
+gathered bridle. "And if you do, God help you, John Drogue, for they say
+she's a born disturber of quiet men's minds, and mistress of a very
+mischievous and deadly art!"</p>
+
+<p>"What art?" I laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"The art o' love!" he bawled as he rode off, slapping his thighs and
+setting the moonlit woods all a-ringing with his laughter.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>BEFORE THE STORM</h3>
+
+
+<p>Johnny Silver had ridden my mare to Varick's to be shod, the evening
+previous, and was to remain the night and return by noon to Fonda's
+Bush.</p>
+
+<p>It was the first sunny May day of the year, murmurous with bees, and a
+sweet, warm smell from woods and cleared lands.</p>
+
+<p>Already bluebirds were drifting from stump to stump, and robins, which
+had arrived in April before the snow melted, chirped in the furrows of
+last autumn's plowing.</p>
+
+<p>Also were flying those frail little grass-green moths, earliest
+harbingers of vernal weather, so that observing folk, versed in the
+pretty signals which nature displays to acquaint us of her designs,
+might safely prophesy soft skies.</p>
+
+<p>I was standing in my glebe just after sunrise, gazing across my great
+cleared field&mdash;I had but one then, all else being woods&mdash;and I was
+thinking about my crops, how that here should be sown buckwheat to break
+and mellow last year's sod; and here I should plant corn and Indian
+squashes, and yonder, God willing, potatoes and beans.</p>
+
+<p>And I remember, now, that I presently fell to whistling the air of "The
+Little Red Foot," while I considered my future harvest; and was even
+planning to hire of Andrew Bowman his fine span of white oxen for my
+spring plowing; when, of a sudden, through the May woods there grew upon
+the air a trembling sound, distant and sad. Now it sounded louder as the
+breeze stirred; now fainter when it shifted, so that a mournful echo
+only throbbed in my ears.</p>
+
+<p>It was the sound of the iron bell ringing on the new Block House at
+Mayfield.</p>
+
+<p>The carelessly whistled tune died upon my lips; my heart almost ceased
+for a moment, then violently beat the alarm.</p>
+
+<p>I ran to a hemlock stump in the field, where my loaded rifle rested, and
+took it up and looked at the priming powder, finding it dry and bright.</p>
+
+<p>A strange stillness had fallen upon the forest; there was no sound save
+that creeping and melancholy quaver of the bell. The birds had become
+quiet; the breeze, too, died away; and it was as though each huge tree
+stood listening, and that no leaf dared stir.</p>
+
+<p>As a dark cloud gliding between earth and sun quenches the sky's calm
+brightness, so the bell's tolling seemed to transform the scene about me
+to a sunless waste, through which the dread sound surged in waves, like
+the complaint of trees before a storm.</p>
+
+<p>Standing where my potatoes had been hoed the year before, I listened a
+moment longer to the dreary mourning of the bell, my eyes roving along
+the edges of the forest which, like a high, green rampart, enclosed my
+cleared land on every side.</p>
+
+<p>Then I turned and went swiftly to my house, snatched blanket from bed,
+spread it on the puncheon floor, laid upon it a sack of new bullets, a
+new canister of powder, a heap of buckskin scraps for wadding, a bag of
+salt, another of parched corn, a dozen strips of smoked venison.</p>
+
+<p>Separately on the blanket beside these I placed two pair of woollen
+hose, two pair of new ankle moccasins, an extra pair of deer-skin
+leggins, two cotton shirts, a hunting shirt of doe-skin, and a fishing
+line and hooks. These things I rolled within my blanket, making of
+everything a strapped pack.</p>
+
+<p>Then I pulled on my District Militia regimentals, which same was a
+hunting shirt of tow-cloth, spatter-dashes of the same, and a felt hat,
+cocked.</p>
+
+<p>Across the breast of my tow-cloth hunting-shirt I slung a bullet-pouch,
+a powder-horn and a leather haversack; seized my light hatchet and hung
+it to my belt, hoisted the blanket pack to my shoulders and strapped it
+there; and, picking up rifle and hunting knife, I passed swiftly out of
+the house, fastening the heavy oaken door behind me and wondering
+whether I should ever return to open it again.</p>
+
+<p>The trodden forest trail, wide enough for a team to pass, lay straight
+before me due west, through heavy woods, to Andrew Bowman's farm.</p>
+
+<p>When I came into the cleared land, I perceived Mrs. Bowman washing
+clothing in a spring near the door of her log house, and the wash
+a-bleaching in the early sun. When she saw me she called to me across
+the clearing:</p>
+
+<p>"Have you news for me, John Drogue?"</p>
+
+<p>"None," said I. "Where is your man, Martha?"</p>
+
+<p>"Gone away to Stoner's with pack and rifle. He is but just departed. Is
+it only a drill call, or are the Indians out at the Lower Castle?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know nothing," said I. "Are you alone in the house?"</p>
+
+<p>"A young kinswoman, Penelope Grant, servant to old Douw Fonda, arrived
+late last night with my man from Caughnawaga, and is still asleep in the
+loft."</p>
+
+<p>As she spoke a girl, clothed only in her shift, came to the open door of
+the log house. Her naked feet were snow-white; her hair, yellow as
+October-corn, seemed very thick and tangled.</p>
+
+<p>She stood blinking as though dazzled, the glory of the rising sun in her
+face; then the tolling of the tocsin swam to her sleepy ears, and she
+started like a wild thing when a shot is fired very far away.</p>
+
+<p>And, "What is that sound?" she exclaimed, staring about her; and I had
+never seen a woman's eyes so brown under such yellow hair.</p>
+
+<p>She stepped out into the fresh grass and stood in the dew listening, now
+gazing at the woods, now at Martha Bowman, and now upon me.</p>
+
+<p>Speech came to me with an odd sort of anger. I said to Mrs. Bowman, who
+stood gaping in the sunshine:</p>
+
+<p>"Where are your wits? Take that child into the house and bar your
+shutters and draw water for your tubs. And keep your door bolted until
+some of the militia can return from Stoner's."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my God," said she, and fell to snatching her wash from the bushes
+and grass.</p>
+
+<p>At that, the girl Penelope turned and looked at me. And I thought she
+was badly frightened until she spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Young soldier," said she, "do you know if Sir John has fled?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know nothing," said I, "and am like to learn less if you women do not
+instantly go in and bar your house."</p>
+
+<p>"Are the Mohawks out?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Have I not said I do not know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir.... But I should have escort by the shortest route to
+Cayadutta&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You talk like a child," said I, sharply. "And you seem scarcely more,"
+I added, turning away. But I lingered still to see them safely bolted in
+before I departed.</p>
+
+<p>"Soldier," she began timidly; but I interrupted:</p>
+
+<p>"Go fill your tubs against fire-arrows," said I. "Why do you loiter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I have great need to return to Caughnawaga. Will you guide me
+the shortest way by the woods?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you not hear that bell?" I demanded angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, I hear it. But I should go to Cayadutta&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And I should answer that militia call," said I impatiently. "Go in and
+lock the house, I tell you!"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bowman, her arms full of wet linen, ran into the house. The girl,
+Penelope, gazed at the woods.</p>
+
+<p>"I am servant to a very old man," she said, twisting her linked fingers.
+"I can not abandon him! I can not let him remain all alone at Cayadutta
+Lodge. Will you take me to him?"</p>
+
+<p>"And if I were free of duty," said I, "I would not take you or any other
+woman into those accursed woods!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I do not yet comprehend what that bell is telling me. And if it
+means that there is a painted war-party out between the Sacandaga and
+the Mohawk, I shall not take you to Caughnawaga when I return from
+Stoner's, and that's flat!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not afraid to go," said she. But I think I saw her shudder; and
+her face seemed very still and white. Then Mrs. Bowman ran out of the
+house and caught the girl by her homespun shift.</p>
+
+<p>"Come indoors!" she cried shrilly, "or will you have us all pulling war
+arrows out of our bodies while you stand blinking at the woods and
+gossiping with Jack Drogue?"</p>
+
+<p>The girl shook herself free, and asked me again to take her to Cayadutta
+Lodge.</p>
+
+<p>But I had no more time to argue, and I flung my rifle to my shoulder and
+started out across the cleared land.</p>
+
+<p>Once I looked back. And I saw her still standing there, the rising sun
+bright on her tangled hair, and her naked feet shining like silver in
+the dew-wet grass.</p>
+
+<p>By a spring path I hastened to the house of John Putman, and found him
+already gone and his family drawing water and fastening shutters.</p>
+
+<p>His wife, Deborah, called to me saying that the Salisburys should be
+warned, and I told her that I had already spoken to the Bowmans.</p>
+
+<p>"Your labour for your pains, John Drogue!" cried she. "The Bowmans are
+King's people and need fear neither Tory nor Indian!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is unjust to say so, Deborah," I retorted warmly. "Dries Bowman is
+already on his way to answer the militia call!"</p>
+
+<p>"Watch him!" she said, slamming the shutters; and fell to scolding her
+children, who, poor things, were striving at the well with dripping
+bucket too heavy for their strength.</p>
+
+<p>So I drew the water they might need if, indeed, it should prove true
+that Little Abe's Mohawks at the Lower Castle had painted themselves and
+were broken loose; and then I ran back along the spring path to the
+Salisbury's, and found them already well bolted in, and their man gone
+to Stoner's with rifle and pack.</p>
+
+<p>And now comes Johnny Silver, who had ridden my mare from Varick's, but
+had no news, all being tranquil along Frenchman's Creek, and nobody able
+to say what the Block House bell was telling us.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you stable Kaya?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oui, mon garce! I have bolt her in tight!"</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens," said I, "she can not remain bolted in to starve if I am
+sent on to Canada! Get you forward to Stoner's house and say that I
+delay only to fetch my horse!"</p>
+
+<p>The stout little French trapper flung his piece to his shoulder and
+broke into a dog-trot toward the west.</p>
+
+<p>"Follow quickly, Sieur Jean!" he called gaily. "By gar, I have smell
+Iroquois war paint since ver' long time already, and now I smell him
+strong as old dog fox!"</p>
+
+<p>I turned and started back through the woods as swiftly as I could
+stride.</p>
+
+<p>As I came in sight of my log house, I was astounded to see my mare out
+and saddled, and a woman setting foot to stirrup. As I sprang out of the
+edge of the woods and ran toward her, she wheeled Kaya, and I saw that
+it was the Caughnawaga wench in <i>my</i> saddle and upon <i>my</i> horse&mdash;her
+yellow hair twisted up and shining like a Turk's gold turban above her
+bloodless face.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean!" I cried in a fury. "Dismount instantly from that
+mare! Do you hear me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must ride to Caughnawaga!" she called out, and struck my mare with
+both heels so that the horse bounded away beyond my reach.</p>
+
+<p>Exasperated, I knew not what to do, for I could not hope to overtake the
+mad wench afoot; and so could only shout after her.</p>
+
+<p>However, she drew bridle and looked back; but I dared not advance from
+where I stood, lest she gallop out of hearing at the first step.</p>
+
+<p>"This is madness!" I called to her across the field. "You do not know
+why that bell is ringing at Mayfield. A week since the Mohawks were
+talking to one another with fires on all these hills! There may be a
+war party in yonder woods! There may be more than one betwixt here and
+Caughnawaga!"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot desert Mr. Fonda at such a time," said she with that same pale
+and frightened obstinacy I had encountered at Bowman's.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you wish to steal my horse!" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir.... It is not meant so. If some one would guide me afoot I
+would be glad to return to you your horse."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh. And if not, then you mean to ride there in spite o' the devil. Is
+that the situation?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Had it been any man I would have put a bullet in him; and could have
+easily marked him where I pleased. Never had I been in colder rage;
+never had I felt so helpless. And every moment I was afeard the crazy
+girl would ride on.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you parley?" I shouted.</p>
+
+<p>"Parley?" she repeated. "How so, young soldier?"</p>
+
+<p>"In this manner, then: I engage my honour not to seize your bridle or
+touch you or my horse if you will sit still till I come up with you."</p>
+
+<p>She sat looking at me across the fallow field in silence.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not use violence," said I. "I shall try only to find some way
+to serve you, and yet to do my own duty, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Soldier," she replied in a troubled voice, "is this the very truth you
+speak?"</p>
+
+<p>"Have I not engaged my honour?" I retorted sharply.</p>
+
+<p>She made no reply, but she did not stir as I advanced, though her brown
+eyes watched my every step.</p>
+
+<p>When I stood at her stirrup she looked down at me intently, and I saw
+she was younger even than I had thought, and was made more like a
+smooth, slim boy than a woman.</p>
+
+<p>"You are Penelope Grant, of Caughnawaga," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know who I am?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>I named myself, saying with a smile that none of my name had ever broken
+faith in word or deed.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," I continued, "that bell calls me to duty as surely as drum or
+trumpet ever summoned soldier since there were wars on earth. I must go
+to Stoner's; I can not guide you to Caughnawaga through the woods or
+take you thither by road or trail. And yet, if I do not, you mean to
+take my horse."</p>
+
+<p>"I must."</p>
+
+<p>"And risk a Mohawk war party on the way?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;must."</p>
+
+<p>"That is very brave," said I, curbing my impatience, "but not wise.
+There are others of his kin to care for old Douw Fonda if war has truly
+come upon us here in Tryon County."</p>
+
+<p>"Soldier," said she in her still voice, which I once thought had been
+made strange by fear, but now knew otherwise&mdash;"my honour, too, is
+engaged. Mr. Fonda, whom I serve, has made of me more than a servant. He
+uses me as a daughter; offers to adopt me; trusts his age and feebleness
+to me; looks to me for every need, every ministration....</p>
+
+<p>"Soldier, I came to Dries Bowman's last night with his consent, and gave
+him my word to return within a week. I came to Fonda's Bush because Mr.
+Fonda desired me to visit the only family in America with whom I have
+the slightest tie of kinship&mdash;the Bowmans.</p>
+
+<p>"But if war has come to us here in County Tryon, then instantly my duty
+is to this brave old gentleman who lives all alone in his house at
+Caughnawaga, and nobody except servants and black slaves to protect him
+if danger comes to the door."</p>
+
+<p>What the girl said touched me; nor could I discern in her anything of
+the coquetry which Nick Stoner's story of her knitting and her ring of
+gallants had pictured for me.</p>
+
+<p>Surely here was no rustic coquette to be flattered and courted and
+bedeviled by her betters&mdash;no country suck-thumb to sit a-giggling at her
+knitting, surfeited with honeyed words that meant destruction;&mdash;no wench
+to hang her head and twiddle apron while some pup of quality whispered
+in her ear temptations.</p>
+
+<p>I said: "This is the better way. Listen. Ride my mare to Mayfield by the
+highway. If you learn there that the Lower Castle Indians have painted
+for war, there is no hope of winning through to Cayadutta Lodge. And of
+what use to Mr. Fonda would be a dead girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is true," she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. And if the Mohawks are loose along the river, then you shall
+remain at the Block House until it becomes possible to go on. There is
+no other way. Do you understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you engage to do this thing? And to place my horse in safety at the
+Mayfield fort?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said I, "in my turn I promise to send aid to you at Mayfield, or
+come myself and take you to Cayadutta Lodge as soon as that proves
+possible. And I promise more; I shall endeavour to get word through to
+Mr. Fonda concerning your situation."</p>
+
+<p>She thanked me in that odd, still voice of hers. Her eyes had the starry
+look of a child's&mdash;or of unshed tears.</p>
+
+<p>"My mare will carry two," said I cheerfully. "Let me mount behind you
+and set you on the Mayfield road."</p>
+
+<p>She made no reply. I mounted behind her, took the bridle from her
+chilled fingers, and spoke to Kaya very gaily. And so we rode across my
+sunlit glebe and across the sugar-bush, where the moist trail, full of
+ferns, stretched away toward Mayfield as straight as the bee flies.</p>
+
+<p>I do not know whether it was because the wench was now fulfilling her
+duty, as she deemed it, and therefore had become contented in a measure,
+but when I dismounted she took the bridle with a glance that seemed near
+to a faint smile. But maybe it was her mouth that I thought fashioned in
+pleasant lines.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you remember, soldier?" she asked, looking down at me from the
+saddle. "I shall wait some news of you at the Mayfield fort."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not let you remain there long abandoned," said I cheerily. "Be
+kind to Kaya. She has a tender mouth and an ear more sensitive still to
+a harsh word."</p>
+
+<p>The girl laid a hand flat on my mare's neck and looked at me, the shy
+caress in her gesture and in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Both were meant for my horse; and a quick kindness for this Scotch girl
+came into my heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Take shelter at the Mayfield fort," said I, "and be very certain I
+shall not forget you. You may gallop all the way on this soft wood-road.
+Will you care for Kaya at the fort when she is unsaddled?"</p>
+
+<p>A smile suddenly curved her lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, John Drogue," she answered, looking me in the eyes. And the next
+moment she was off at a gallop, her yellow hair loosened with the first
+bound of the horse, and flying all about her face and shoulders now,
+like sunshine flashing across windblown golden-rod.</p>
+
+<p>Then, in her saddle, the girl turned and looked back at me, and sat so,
+still galloping, until she was out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>And, as I stood there alone in the woodland road, I began to understand
+what Nick Stoner meant when he called this Scotch girl a disturber of
+men's minds and a mistress&mdash;all unconscious, perhaps&mdash;of a very deadly
+art.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>SHEEP AND GOATS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Now, as I came again to the forest's edge and hastened along the wide
+logging road, to make up for moments wasted, I caught sight of two
+neighbors, John Putman and Herman Salisbury, walking ahead of me.</p>
+
+<p>They wore the regimentals of our Mohawk Regiment of district militia,
+carried rifles and packs; and I smelled the tobacco from their pipes,
+which seemed pleasant though I had never learned to smoke.</p>
+
+<p>I called to them; they heard me and waited.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, John," says Putman, as I came up with them, "this is like to be a
+sorry business for farmers, what with plowing scarce begun and not a
+seed yet planted in all the Northland, barring winter wheat."</p>
+
+<p>"You think we are to take the field in earnest this time?" I asked
+anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"It looks that way to me, Mr. Drogue. It's a long, long road to liberty,
+lad; and I'm thinking we're off at last."</p>
+
+<p>"He believes," explained Salisbury, "that Little Abraham's Mohawks are
+leaving the Lower Castle&mdash;which God prevent!&mdash;but I think this business
+is liker to be some new deviltry of Sir John's."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir John gave his parole to General Schuyler," said I, turning very
+red; for I was mortified that the honour of my caste should be so
+carelessly questioned.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not unthinkable that Sir John might lie," retorted Salisbury
+bluntly. "I knew his father. Well and good. I know the son, also.... But
+I suppose that gentlemen like yourself, Mr. Drogue, are ashamed to
+suspect the honour of any of their own class,&mdash;even an enemy."</p>
+
+<p>But Putman was plainer spoken, saying that in his opinion any Tory was
+likely to attempt any business, however dirty, and rub up his tarnished
+honour afterward.</p>
+
+<p>I made him no answer; and we marched swiftly forward, each engaged with
+a multitude of serious and sombre thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>A few moments later, chancing to glance behind me, stirred by what
+instinct I know not, I espied two neighbors, young John, son of Philip
+Helmer, and Charles Cady, of Fonda's Bush, following us so stealthily
+and so closely that they might decently have hailed us had they been so
+minded.</p>
+
+<p>Now, when they perceived that I had noticed them, they dodged into the
+bush, as though moved by some common impulse. Then they reappeared in
+the road. And, said I in a low voice to John Putman:</p>
+
+<p>"Yonder comes slinking a proper pair o' tree-cats to sniff us to our
+destination. If these two be truly of the other party, then they have no
+business at John Stoner's."</p>
+
+<p>Putman and Salisbury both looked back. Said the one, grimly:</p>
+
+<p>"They are not coming to answer the militia call; they have rifles but
+neither regimentals nor packs."</p>
+
+<p>Said the other: "I wish we were clean split at Fonda's Bush, so that an
+honest man might know when 'neighbor' spells 'traitor' in low Dutch."</p>
+
+<p>"Some riddles are best solved by bullets," muttered the other. "Who
+argues with wolves or plays cat's-cradle with catamounts!"</p>
+
+<p>Glancing again over my shoulder, I saw that the two behind us were
+mending their pace and must soon come up with us. And so they did,
+Putman giving them a civil good-day.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any news, John Drogue?" inquired young Helmer.</p>
+
+<p>I replied that I had none to share with him, meaning only that I had no
+news at all. But Cady took it otherwise and his flat-featured face
+reddened violently, as though the pox were coming out on him.</p>
+
+<p>And, "What the devil," says he, "does this young, forest-running
+cockerel mean? And why should he not share his news with John Helmer
+here,&mdash;yes, or with me, too, by God, or yet with any true man in County
+Tryon?"</p>
+
+<p>I said that I had not intended any such meaning; that he mistook me; and
+that I had aimed at no discourtesy to anybody.</p>
+
+<p>"And safer for you, too!" retorted Cady in a loud and threatening tone.
+"A boy's wisdom lies in his silence."</p>
+
+<p>"Johnny Helmer asked a question of me," said I quietly. "I replied as
+best I knew how."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and I'll ask a dozen questions if I like!" shouted Cady. "Don't
+think to bully me or cast aspersions on my political complexion!"</p>
+
+<p>"If," said I, "your political complexion be no clearer than your
+natural one, God only can tell what ferments under your skin."</p>
+
+<p>At which he seemed so taken aback that he answered nothing; but Helmer
+urgently demanded to know what political views I pretended to carry.</p>
+
+<p>"I wear mine on my back," said I pleasantly, glancing around at both
+Helmer and Cady, who bore no packs on their backs in earnest of their
+readiness for service.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a damned impudent boy!" retorted Cady, "whatever may be your
+politics or your complexion."</p>
+
+<p>Salisbury and Putman looked around at him in troubled silence, and he
+said no more for the moment. But Helmer's handsome features darkened
+again: and, "I'll not be put upon," said he, "whatever Charlie Cady
+stomachs! Who is Jack Drogue to flaunt his pack and his politics under
+my nose!</p>
+
+<p>"And," he added, looking angrily at me, "by every natural right a
+gentleman should be a King's man. So if your politics stink somewhat of
+Boston, you are doubly suspect as an ingrate to the one side and a
+favour-currying servant to the other!"</p>
+
+<p>I said: "Had Sir William lived to see this day in Tryon, I think he,
+also, would be wearing his regimentals as I do, and to the same
+purpose."</p>
+
+<p>Cady burst into a jeering laugh: "Say as much to Sir John! Go to the
+Hall and say to Sir John that his father, had he lived, would this day
+be sending out a district militia call! Tell him that, young cockerel,
+if you desire a flogging at the guard-house."</p>
+
+<p>"You know more of floggings than do I," said I quietly. Which stopt his
+mouth. For, despite my scarcity of years, I had given him a sound
+beating the year before, being so harassed and pestered by him because I
+had answered the militia-call on the day that General Schuyler marched
+up and disarmed Sir John's Highlanders at the Hall.</p>
+
+<p>Putman, beside whom I was marching, turned to me and said, loud enough
+for all to hear: "You are only a lad, John Drogue, but I bear witness
+that you display the patience and good temper of a grown man. For if
+Charlie Cady, here, had picked on me as he has on you, he sure had
+tasted my rifle-butt before now!"</p>
+
+<p>"Neighbors must bear with one another in such times," said I, "and help
+each other stamp down the earth where the war-axe lies buried."</p>
+
+<p>And, "Damn you!" shouts Cady at a halt, "I shall not stir a step more to
+be insulted. I shall not budge one inch, bell or no bell, call or no
+call!&mdash;--"</p>
+
+<p>But Helmer dropped to the rear and got him by the elbow and pulled him
+forward; and I heard them whispering together behind us as we hastened
+on.</p>
+
+<p>Herman Salisbury said: "A pair of real tree-cats, old Tom and little
+Kit! I'm in half a mind to turn them back!" And he swung his brown rifle
+from the shoulder and let it drop to the hollow of his left arm&mdash;an
+insult and a menace to any man.</p>
+
+<p>"They but answer their nature, which is to nose about and smell out
+what's a-frying," growled Putman. "Shall we turn them back and be done
+with them? It will mean civil war in Fonda's Bush."</p>
+
+<p>"Watched hens never lay," said I. "Let them come with us. While they
+remain under our eyes the stale old plan they brood will addle like a
+cluck-egg."</p>
+
+<p>Salisbury nodded meaningly:</p>
+
+<p>"So that I can see my enemy," growled he, "I have no care concerning
+him. But let him out o' sight and I fret like a chained beagle."</p>
+
+<p>As he finished speaking we came into Stoner's clearing, which was but a
+thicket of dead weed-stalks in a fallow field fenced by split rails.
+Fallow, indeed, lay all the Stoner clearing, save for a patch o'
+hen-scratched garden at the log-cabin's dooryard; for old Henry Stoner
+and his forest-running sons were none too fond of dallying with plow and
+hoe while rifle and fish-pole rested across the stag-horn's crotch above
+the chimney-piece.</p>
+
+<p>And if ever they fed upon anything other than fish and flesh, I do not
+know; for I never saw aught growing in their garden, save a dozen
+potato-vines and a stray corn-stalk full o' worms.</p>
+
+<p>Around the log house in the clearing already were gathered a dozen or
+sixteen men, the greater number wearing the tow-cloth rifle-frock of the
+district militia.</p>
+
+<p>Other men began to arrive as we came up. Everywhere great, sinewy hands
+were extended to greet us; old Henry Stoner, sprawling under an apple
+tree, saluted us with a harsh pleasantry; and I saw the gold rings
+shining in his ears.</p>
+
+<p>Nick came over to where I stood, full of that devil's humour which so
+often urged him into&mdash;and led him safely out of&mdash;endless scrapes betwixt
+sun-up and moon-set every day in the year.</p>
+
+<p>"It's Sir John we're to take, I hear," he said to me with a grin. "They
+say the lying louse of a Baronet has been secretly plotting with Guy
+Johnson and the Butlers in Canada. What wonder, then, that our
+Provincial Congress has its belly full of these same Johnstown Tories
+and must presently spew them up. And they say we are to march on the
+Hall at noon and hustle our merry Baronet into Johnstown jail."</p>
+
+<p>I felt myself turning red.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it not decent to give Sir John the benefit of doubt until we learn
+why that bell is ringing?" said I.</p>
+
+<p>"There we go!" cried Nick Stoner. "Just because your father loved Sir
+William and you may wear gold lace on your hat, you feel an attachment
+to all quality. Hearken to me, John Drogue: Sir William is dead and the
+others are as honourable as a pack of Canada wolves." He climbed to the
+top of the rickety rail fence and squatted there. "The landed gentry of
+Tryon County are a pack of bloody wolves," said he, lighting his cob
+pipe;&mdash;"Guy Johnson, Colonel Claus, Walter Butler, every one of
+them&mdash;every one!&mdash;only excepting you, John Drogue! Look, now, where
+they're gathering in the Canadas&mdash;Johnsons, Butlers, McDonalds,&mdash;the
+whole Tory pack&mdash;with Brant and his Mohawks stole away, and Little
+Abraham like to follow with every warrior from the Lower Castle!</p>
+
+<p>"And do you suppose that Sir John has no interest in all this Tory
+treachery? Do you suppose that this poisonous Baronet is not in constant
+and secret communication with Canada?"</p>
+
+<p>I looked elsewhere sullenly. Nick took me by the arm and drew me up to a
+seat beside him on the rail fence.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's view it soberly and fairly, Jack," says he, tapping his palm with
+the stem of his pipe, through which smoke oozed. "Let's view it from the
+start. Begin from the Boston business. Now, then! George the Virginian
+got the Red-coats cooped up in Boston. That's the Yankee answer to too
+much British tyranny.</p>
+
+<p>"We, in the Northland, looked to our landed gentry to stand by us, lead
+us, and face the British King who aims to turn us into slaves.</p>
+
+<p>"We called on our own governing class to protect us in our ancient
+liberties,&mdash;to arm us, lead us in our own defense! We begged Guy Johnson
+to hold back his savages so that the Iroquois Confederacy should remain
+passive and take neither the one side nor t'other.</p>
+
+<p>"I grant you that Sir William in his day did loyally his uttermost to
+quiet the Iroquois and hold his own Mohawks tranquil when Cresap was
+betrayed by Dunmore, and the first breeze from this storm which is now
+upon us was already stirring the Six Nations into restlessness."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir William," said I, "was the greatest and the best of all Americans."</p>
+
+<p>He said gravely: "Sir William is dead. May God rest his soul. But this
+is the situation that confronts us here this day on the frontier: We
+appealed to the landed gentry of Tryon. They sneered at us, and spoke of
+us as rebels, and have used us very scornfully&mdash;all excepting yourself,
+John!</p>
+
+<p>"They forced Alec White on us as Sheriff, and he broke up our meetings.
+They strove by colour of law and by illegal force to stamp out in Tryon
+County the last spark of liberty, of manhood among us. God knows what we
+have endured these last few years from the landed gentry of Tryon!&mdash;what
+we have put up with and stomached since the first shot was fired at
+Lexington!</p>
+
+<p>"And what has become of our natural protectors and leaders! Where is the
+landed gentry of County Tryon at this very hour? Except you, John
+Drogue, where are our gentlemen of the Northland?"</p>
+
+<p>"Gone," said I soberly.</p>
+
+<p>"Gone to Canada with the murderous Indians they were supposed to hold
+neutral! Guy Park stands empty and locked. It is an accursed place! Guy
+Johnson is fled with every Tory desperado and every Indian he could
+muster! May God damn him!</p>
+
+<p>"Old John Butler followed; and is brigading malcontents in Canada.
+Butlersbury stands deserted. May every devil in hell haunt that house!
+Young Walter Butler is gone with many of our old neighbors of Tryon; and
+at Niagara he is forming a merciless legion to return and cut our
+throats.</p>
+
+<p>"And Colonel Claus is gone, and McDonald, the bloody thief!&mdash;with his
+kilted lunatics and all his Scotch banditti&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But Sir John remains," said I quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack! Are you truly so blinded by your caste! Did not you yourself
+answer the militia call last winter and march with our good General to
+disarm Sir John's popish Highlanders! And even then they lied&mdash;and Sir
+John lied&mdash;for they hid their broad-swords and pikes! and delivered them
+not when they paraded to ground their muskets!"</p>
+
+<p>"Sir John has given his parole," I repeated stubbornly.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir John breaks it every hour of the day!" cried Nick. "And he will
+break it again when we march to take him. Do you think he won't learn of
+our coming? Do you suppose he will stay at the Hall, which he has
+pledged his honour to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"His lady is still there."</p>
+
+<p>"With his lady I have no quarrel," rejoined Nick. "I know her to be a
+very young, very wilful, very bitter, and very unhappy Tory; and she
+treats us plain folk like dirt under her satin shoon. But for that I
+care nothing. I pity her because she is the wife of that cold, sleek
+beast, Sir John. I pity her because she is gently bred and frail and
+lonely and stuffed with childish pride o' race. I pity her lot there in
+the great Hall, with her girl companions and her servants and her
+slaves. And I pity her because everybody in County Tryon, excepting only
+herself, knows that Sir John cares nothing for her, and that Claire
+Putnam of Tribes Hill is Sir John's doxy!&mdash;and be damned to him! And you
+think such a man will not break his word?</p>
+
+<p>"He broke his vows to wife and mistress alike. Why should he keep his
+vows to men?" He slid to the ground as he spoke, and I followed, for our
+three drummers had formed rank and were drawing their sticks from their
+cross-belts. Our fifers, also, lined up behind them; and Nick and his
+young brother, John, took places with them.</p>
+
+<p>"Fall in! Fall in!" cried Joe Scott, our captain; and everybody ran with
+their packs and rifles to form in double ranks of sixteen files front
+while the drums rolled like spring thunder, filling the woods with their
+hollow sound, and the fifes shrilled like the swish of rain through
+trees.</p>
+
+<p>Standing at ease between Dries Bowman and Baltus Weed, I answered to the
+roll call. Some among us lighted pipes and leaned on our long rifles,
+chatting with neighbors; others tightened belts and straps, buttoned
+spatter-dashes, or placed a sprig of hemlock above the black and white
+cockades on their felt hats.</p>
+
+<p>Balty Weed, who lived east of me, a thin fellow with red rims to his
+eyes and dry, sparse hair tied in a queue with a knot of buckskin, asked
+me in his stealthy way what I thought about our present business, and if
+our Provincial Congress had not, perhaps, unjustly misjudged Sir John.</p>
+
+<p>I replied cautiously. I had never trusted Balty because he frequented
+taverns where few friends to liberty cared to assemble; and he was far
+too thick with Philip and John Helmer and with Charlie Cady to suit my
+taste.</p>
+
+<p>We, in the little hamlet of Fonda's Bush, were scarce thirty families,
+all counted; and yet, even here in this trackless wilderness, out of
+which each man had hewed for himself a patch of garden and a stump
+pasture along the little river Kennyetto, the bitter quarrel had long
+smouldered betwixt Tory and Patriot&mdash;King's man and so-called Rebel.</p>
+
+<p>And this was the Mohawk country. And the Mohawks stood for the King of
+England.</p>
+
+<p>The road, I say, ended here; but there was a Mohawk path through twenty
+odd miles of untouched forest to those healing springs called Saratoga.</p>
+
+<p>Except for this path and a deep worn war-trail north to the Sacandaga,
+which was the Iroquois road to Canada, and except for the wood road to
+Sir William's Mayfield and Fish House settlements, we of Fonda's Bush
+were utterly cut off. Also, save for the new Block House at Mayfield, we
+were unprotected in a vast wilderness which embodied the very centre of
+the Mohawk country.</p>
+
+<p>True, north of us stood that little pleasure house built for his hour of
+leisure by Sir William, and called "The Summer House."</p>
+
+<p>Painted white and green, it stood on a hard ridge jutting out into those
+dismal, drowned lands which we call the Great Vlaie. But it was not
+fortified.</p>
+
+<p>Also, to the north, lay the Fish House, a hunting lodge of Sir William.
+But these places were no protection for us. On the other hand, they
+seemed a menace; for Tories, it had been rumoured, were ever skulking
+along the Vlaie and the Sacandaga; and for aught we knew, these
+buildings were already designed to be made into block-houses and to be
+garrisoned by our enemies as soon as the first rifle-shot cracked out in
+the cause of liberty.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Our company of the Mohawk Regiment numbered thirty-six rifles&mdash;all that
+now remained of the old company, three-fourths of which had already
+deserted to the Canadas with Butler. All our officers had fled; Joe
+Scott of Maxon, formerly a sergeant, now commanded us; Benjamin de
+Luysnes was our lieutenant; Dries Bowman and Phil Helmer our
+sergeants&mdash;both already suspected.</p>
+
+<p>Well, we got away from Stoner's, marching in double file, and only the
+little creatures of the forest to hear our drums and fifes.</p>
+
+<p>But the old discipline which had obtained in all our Tryon regiments
+when Sir William was our Major General and the landed gentry our
+officers seemed gone; a dull sense of bewilderment reigned, confusing
+many among us, as when leaderless men begin to realize how they had
+depended upon a sturdy staff now broken forever.</p>
+
+<p>We marched with neither advanced guard nor flankers for the first half
+mile; then Joe Scott halted us and made Nick Stoner put away his beloved
+fife and sent him out on our right flank where the forest was heavy.</p>
+
+<p>Me he selected to scout forward on the left&mdash;a dirty job where alders
+and willows grew thick above the bogs.</p>
+
+<p>But why in God's name our music played to advertise our coming I can not
+guess, for our men needed no heartening, having courage and resolution,
+only the lack of officers causing them any anxiety at all.</p>
+
+<p>On the left flank of the little column I kept very easily in touch
+because of this same silly drumming and fifing. And I was glad when we
+came to high ground and breasted the hills which lead to that higher
+plateau, over which runs the road to Johnstown.</p>
+
+<p>Plodding along in the bush, keeping a keen watch for any enemy who might
+come in paint or in scarlet coat, and the far rhythm of our drums
+thumping dully in my ears, I wondered whether other companies of my
+regiment were marching on Johnstown, and if other Tryon regiments&mdash;or
+what was left of them&mdash;were also afoot that day.</p>
+
+<p>Was this, then, the beginning of the war in the Northland? And, when we
+made a prisoner of Sir John, would all the dusky forests glow with
+scarlet war-paint and scarlet coats?</p>
+
+<p>Today birds sang. Tomorrow the terrific panther-slogan of the Iroquois
+might break out into hell's own uproar among these purple hills.</p>
+
+<p>Was this truly the beginning? Would these still, leafy trails where the
+crested partridge strutted witness bloody combats between old
+neighbors&mdash;all the horrors of a fratricidal war?</p>
+
+<p>Would the painted men of the woods hold their hands while Tory and
+patriot fought it out? Or was this utter and supreme horror to be added
+to this unnatural conflict?</p>
+
+<p>Reflecting very seriously upon these matters, I trotted forward, rifle
+a-trail, and saw nothing living in the woods save a big hare or two in
+the alders, and the wild brown poultry of the woods, that ran to cover
+or rose into thunderous flight among the thickets.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>About four o'clock came to me Godfrey Shew, of Fish House, a private
+soldier like myself, with news of a halt on the Johnstown road, and
+orders that I eat a snack and rest in my tracks.</p>
+
+<p>He told me that a company of horse from Albany was out scouting along
+the Mohawk, and that a column of three thousand men under Colonel
+Dayton were marching on Johnstown and had passed Schenectady about noon.</p>
+
+<p>Other news he had none, excepting that our company was to remain where
+we had halted, in order to stop the road to Fonda's Bush and Saratoga,
+in case Sir John should attempt to retire this way.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Godfrey," said I, "if Sir John truly turns out to be without
+shame and honour, and if he marches this way, there is like to be a
+lively time for us of the Bush, because Sir John has three hundred
+Highlanders to thirty odd of ourselves, and enough Borderers and Tory
+militia to double the count."</p>
+
+<p>"We all know that," said Shew calmly, "and are not afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think our people mean to stand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said he simply.</p>
+
+<p>A hot thrill of pride tingled my every vein. Suddenly I completely
+comprehended that these plain folk of Fonda's Bush were my own people;
+that I was one of them; that, as they meant to stand for the ancient
+liberties of all Englishmen, now wickedly denied them, so I also meant
+to stand to the end.</p>
+
+<p>And now, at last, I comprehended that I was in actual revolt against
+that King and against that nobility and gentry who were deserting us
+when we had so desperate need of them in this coming battle for human
+freedom in a slave-cursed world.</p>
+
+<p>The cleavage had come at last; the Northland was clean split; the red
+livery of the King's men had suddenly become a target for every honest
+rifle in Tryon.</p>
+
+<p>"Godfrey," I said, "the last chance for truce is passing as you and I
+stand here,&mdash;the last chance for any reconciliation and brotherly
+understanding between us and our Tory neighbors."</p>
+
+<p>"It is better that way," he said, giving me a sombre look.</p>
+
+<p>I nodded, but all the horror of civil war lay heavy in my heart and I
+thought of my many friends in Tryon who would wear the scarlet coat
+tomorrow, and whom I now must try to murder with my proper hands, lest
+they do the like for me.</p>
+
+<p>Around us, where we were standing, a golden dusk reigned in the forest,
+into which, through the roof of green above, fell a long sunbeam,
+lighting the wooded aisle as a single candle on the altar gleams athwart
+the gloom of some still cathedral.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>At five o'clock Godfrey and I had not moved from that silent place where
+we stood on watch, leaning upon our rifles.</p>
+
+<p>Twice soldiers came to bid us keep close guard in these open woods
+which, being primeval, were clear of underbrush and deep with the brown
+carpet of dead leaves.</p>
+
+<p>At last, toward six o'clock, we heard our drums rolling in the
+distance&mdash;signal to scout forward. I ran out among the great trees and
+started on toward Johnstown, keeping Godfrey in view on my left hand.</p>
+
+<p>Very soon I came out of the forest on the edge of cleared land. Against
+the evening sky I saw the spires of Johnstown, stained crimson in the
+westering sun which was going down red as a cherry.</p>
+
+<p>But what held me in spell was the sight that met my eyes across the open
+meadows, where moving ranks of musket-barrels glanced redly in the last
+gleam of sunset and the naked swords and gorgets of mounted officers
+glittered.</p>
+
+<p>Godfrey Shew emerged from the edge of the forest on my left and stood
+knee deep in last year's wild grass, one hand shading his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"What troops are those?" I shouted to him. "They look like the
+Continental Line!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's a reg'lar rig'ment," he bawled, "but whose I know not!"</p>
+
+<p>The clanking of their armament came clearly to my ears; the timing tap
+of their drum sounded nearer still.</p>
+
+<p>"There can be no mistake," I called out to Godfrey; "yonder marches a
+regiment of the New York line! We're at war!"</p>
+
+<p>We moved out across the pasture. I examined my flint and priming, and,
+finding all tight and bright, waded forward waist high, through last
+year's ghostly golden-rod, ready for a quick shot if necessary.</p>
+
+<p>The sun had gone down; a lilac-tinted dusk veiled the fields, through
+which the gay evening chirruping of the robins rang incessantly.</p>
+
+<p>"There go our people!" shouted Godfrey.</p>
+
+<p>I had already caught sight of the Fonda's Bush Company filing between
+some cattle-bars to the left of us; and knew they must be making
+straight for Johnson Hall.</p>
+
+<p>We shouldered our pieces and ran through the dead weeds to intercept
+them; but there was no need for haste, because they halted presently in
+some disorder; and I saw Joe Scott walking to and fro along the files,
+gesticulating.</p>
+
+<p>And then, as Godfrey and I came up with them, we witnessed the first
+shameful exhibition of disorder that for so many months disgraced the
+militia of New York&mdash;a stupidity partly cowardly, partly treacherous,
+which at one time so incensed His Excellency the Virginian that he said
+they were, as a body, more detrimental than helpful to the cause, and
+proposed to disband them.</p>
+
+<p>In the light of later events, I now realize that their apparent
+poltroonery arose not from individual cowardice. But these levies had no
+faith in their companies because every battalion was still full of
+Tories, nor had any regiment yet been purged.</p>
+
+<p>Also, they had no confidence in their officers, who, for the greater
+part, were as inexperienced as they themselves. And I think it was
+because of these things that the New York militia behaved so
+contemptibly after the battle of Long Island, and in Tryon County, until
+the terrific trial by fire at Oriskany had burnt the dross out of us and
+left only the nobler metal.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Our Fonda's Bush Company presented a most mortifying spectacle as
+Godfrey and I came up. Joe Scott stood facing the slovenly single rank
+which he had contrived to parade in the gathering dusk; and he was
+arguing with the men while they talked back loudly.</p>
+
+<p>There was a hubbub of voices, angry arguments, some laughter which
+sounded more sinister to me than the cursing.</p>
+
+<p>Then Charlie Cady and John Howell of Sacandaga left the ranks, refusing
+to listen to Scott, and withdrew a little distance, where they stood
+sullenly in their defiance.</p>
+
+<p>Elias Cady called out that he would not march to the Hall to take Sir
+John, and he, also, left the ranks.</p>
+
+<p>Then, and despite Joe Scott's pleading, Phil Helmer and his sullen son,
+John, walked away and joined the Cadys, and called on Andrew Bowman to
+do the like.</p>
+
+<p>Dries wavered; but Baltus Weed and Eugene Grinnis left the company.</p>
+
+<p>Which so enraged me that I, also, forgot all discipline and duty, and
+shook my rifles at the mutineers.</p>
+
+<p>"You Tory dogs!" I said, "we're well purged of you, and I for one thank
+God that we now know you for what you are!"</p>
+
+<p>Godfrey, a stark, fierce figure in his blackened buckskins, went out in
+front of our single rank and called to the malcontents:</p>
+
+<p>"Pull foot, you swine, or I'll mark you!"</p>
+
+<p>And, "Pull foot!" shouted Nick Stoner, "and be damned to you! Why do you
+loiter! Do you wait for a volley in your guts!"</p>
+
+<p>At that, Balty Weed turned and ran toward the woods; but the others
+moved more slowly and sullenly, not exactly menacing us with their
+rifles, but carrying them conveniently across the hollow of their left
+arms.</p>
+
+<p>In the increasing darkness I heard somebody sob, and saw Joe Scott
+standing with one hand across his eyes, as though to close from his
+sight such a scene of deep disgrace.</p>
+
+<p>Then I went to him. I was trembling and could scarce command my voice,
+but gave him a salute and stood at attention until he finally noticed
+me.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, John," said he, "this is like to be the death of me."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir; will you order the drums to beat a march?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think the men will march?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir&mdash;what remains of them."</p>
+
+<p>He came slowly back, motioning what was left of the company to close up.
+I could not hear what he said, but the men began to count off, and their
+voices were resolute enough to hearten all.</p>
+
+<p>So presently Nick Stoner, who acted as fife-major, blew lustily into his
+fife, playing the marching tune, which is called "The Little Red Foot";
+and the drums beat it; and we marched in column of fours to take Sir
+John at his ancestral Hall, if it chanced to be God's will.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>STOLE AWAY</h3>
+
+
+<p>Johnson Hall was a blaze of light with candles in every window, and
+great lanterns flaring from both stone forts which flanked the Hall, and
+along the new palisades which Sir John had built recently for his
+defense.</p>
+
+<p>All gates and doors stood wide open, and officers in Continental uniform
+and in the uniform of the Palatine Regiment, were passing in and out
+with a great clanking of swords and spurs.</p>
+
+<p>Everywhere companies of regular infantry from Colonel Dayton's regiment
+of the New York Line were making camp, and I saw their baggage waggons
+drive up from the town below and go into park to the east of the Hall,
+where cattle were lying in the new grass.</p>
+
+<p>An officer of the Palatine Regiment carrying a torch came up to Joe
+Scott, where our little company stood at ease along the hedge fence.</p>
+
+<p>"What troops are these, sir?" he inquired, indicating us with a nervous
+gesture.</p>
+
+<p>And when he was informed:</p>
+
+<p>"Oho!" said he, "there should be material for rangers among your
+farmer-militia. Pick me two men for Colonel Dayton who live by rifle and
+trap and who know the wilderness from Albany to the Lakes."</p>
+
+<p>So our captain told off Nick Stoner and me, and we stepped out of the
+ranks into the red torch-glow.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, sir," said the Palatine officer to our Captain. And to us:
+"Follow me, lads."</p>
+
+<p>He was a brisk, handsome and smartly uniformed officer of militia; and
+his cheerful demeanor heartened me who had lately witnessed such
+humiliations and disgrace.</p>
+
+<p>We followed him through the stockade gate and into the great house, so
+perfectly familiar to me in happier days.</p>
+
+<p>Excepting for the noise and confusion of officers coming and going,
+there was no disorder within; the beautiful furniture stood ranged in
+stately symmetry; the pictures hung on the walls; but I saw no silver
+anywhere, and all the candlesticks were pewter.</p>
+
+<p>As we came to the library, an officer in the uniform of a colonel of the
+Continental Line turned from a group of men crowded around the centre
+table, on which lay a map. Nick Stoner and I saluted his epaulettes.</p>
+
+<p>He came close to us and searched our faces coolly enough, as a farmer
+inspects an offered horse.</p>
+
+<p>"This is young Nick Stoner, of Fonda's Bush, sir," said the Palatine
+officer.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said the Colonel drily, "I have heard of the Stoner boys. And what
+may be your name?" he inquired, fastening his piercing eyes on mine.</p>
+
+<p>"John Drogue, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard of you, also," he remarked, more drily still.</p>
+
+<p>For a full minute, it seemed to me, he scrutinized me from head to foot
+with a sort of curiosity almost brutal. Then, on his features a fine
+smile softened what had seemed insolence. With a glance he dismissed the
+Palatine, motioned us to follow him, and we three entered the
+drawing-room across the hall, which was lighted but empty.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Drogue," said he, "I am Colonel Dayton; and I have in my personal
+baggage a lieutenant's commission for you from our good Governor,
+procured, I believe, through the solicitation of our mutual and most
+excellent friend, Lord Stirling."</p>
+
+<p>I stood astonished to learn of my preferment, never dreaming nor even
+wishing for military rank, but perfectly content to carry the sack of a
+private soldier in this most just of all wars. And as for Billy
+Alexander remembering to so serve me, I was still more amazed. For Lord
+Stirling was already a general officer in His Excellency's new army, and
+I never expected him to remember me amid the desperate anxieties of his
+new position.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Drogue," said Dayton, "you, I believe, are the only example among
+the gentry of Tryon County who has openly embraced the cause of our
+thirteen colonies. I do not include the Albany Patroon; I speak only of
+the nobility and gentry of this county.... And it took courage to turn
+your back upon your own caste."</p>
+
+<p>"It would have taken more to turn against my own countrymen, sir."</p>
+
+<p>He smiled. "Come, sir, were you not sometime Brent-Meester to Sir
+William?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you should know the forest, Mr. Drogue."</p>
+
+<p>"I do know it."</p>
+
+<p>"So General Schuyler has informed me."</p>
+
+<p>He clasped his gloved hands behind his back and began to pace to and
+fro, his absent glances on the window candles. Presently he halted:</p>
+
+<p>"Sir John is fled. Did you know it?" he said abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>I felt the hot shame burn my face to the roots of my hair.</p>
+
+<p>"Broke his parole of honour and gone off," added Dayton. "Where do you
+suppose he is making for with his Tories and Highlanders?"</p>
+
+<p>I could scarcely speak, so mortified was I that a gentleman of my own
+class could have so foully conducted. But I made out to say that Sir
+John, no doubt, was traveling toward Canada. "Certainly," said the
+Colonel; "but which route?"</p>
+
+<p>"God knows, sir. By the Sacandaga and the Lakes, no doubt."</p>
+
+<p>"Could he go by Saratoga and the top o' the Hudson?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is a pathless wilderness."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. And still I think the rogue went that way. I have rangers out
+looking for signs of him beyond Ballston. Also, I sent half a battalion
+toward the Sacandaga. Of course Albany Royalists warned him of my
+coming; I couldn't prevent that, nor could Schuyler, no, nor the very
+devil himself!</p>
+
+<p>"And here am I at the Hall, and the fox stole away to the Canadas. And
+what now to do I know not.... Do <i>you</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>He shot the question in my face point blank; and I stood dumb for a
+minute, striving to collect and marshall any ideas that might bear upon
+so urgent a matter.</p>
+
+<p>"Colonel," said I, "unless the British hold Champlain, Sir John would
+scarcely risk a flight in that direction. No. He would prefer to plunge
+into the wilderness and travel by Oswegatchi."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you so believe, Mr. Drogue?"</p>
+
+<p>I considered a moment more; then:</p>
+
+<p>"Yet, if Guy Johnson's Indians have come down toward the Sacandaga to
+protect him&mdash;knowing that he had meant to flee&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>I looked at Dayton, then turned to Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"What think you, Nick?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"By God," he blurted out, "I am of that mind too! Only a madman would
+attempt the wilderness by Oswegatchi; and I wager that Sir John is
+already beyond the Sacandaga and making for the Canadas on the old
+Mohawk war-trail!"</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Dayton laid one hand on my shoulder:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Drogue," said he, "we have militia and partizans more than
+sufficient in Tryon. What we need are more regulars, too; but most of
+all, and in this crisis, we need rangers. God alone knows what is coming
+upon Tryon County from the North,&mdash;what evil is breeding there,&mdash;what
+sinister forces are gathering to overwhelm these defenceless
+settlements.</p>
+
+<p>"We have scarcely a fort on this frontier, scarcely a block house. Every
+town and village and hamlet north of Albany is unprotected; every lonely
+settler is now at the mercy of this unknown and monstrous menace which
+is gathering like a thundercloud in the North.</p>
+
+<p>"Regular regiments require time to muster; the militia have yet to prove
+their worth; partizans, minute men, alarm companies&mdash;the value of all
+these remains a question still. Damn it, I want rangers! I want them
+<i>now</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>He began to stride about the room again in his perplexity, but presently
+came back to where we stood.</p>
+
+<p>"How many rifles in your company from Fonda's Bush?" he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>I blushed to tell him, and further confessed what had occurred that very
+evening in the open fields before Johnstown.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said he coolly, "it is well to be rid of vermin. Now you should
+pick your men in safety, Mr. Drogue. And if none will volunteer&mdash;such as
+have families or are not fit material for rangers&mdash;you are authorized to
+go out into the wilderness and recruit any forest-running fellow you can
+persuade."</p>
+
+<p>He drove one gloved hand into the palm of the other to emphasize what he
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"I want real rangers, not militia! I want young men who laugh at any
+face old Death can pull at them! I want strong men, keen men, tough men,
+rough men.</p>
+
+<p>"I want men who fear God, if that may be, or who fear the devil, if that
+may be; but who fear nothing else on earth!"</p>
+
+<p>He shot a look at Nick, "&mdash;like that boy there!" he exclaimed&mdash;"or I am
+no judge of men! And like yourself, Mr. Drogue, when once they blood
+you! Come, sir; can you find a few such men for me, and take full
+charge?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"A pledge!" he exclaimed, beating his gloved palms. "And when you can
+collect a dozen&mdash;the first full dozen&mdash;I want you to stop the Iroquois
+trail at the Sacandaga. That's where you shall chiefly operate&mdash;along
+the Sacandaga and the mountains northward! That's where I expect
+trouble. There lies this accursed war-trail; and along it there is like
+to be a very bloody business!"</p>
+
+<p>He turned aside and stood smiting his hands softly together, his
+preoccupied eyes regarding the candles.</p>
+
+<p>"A very bloody business," he repeated absently to himself. "Only rangers
+can aid us now.... Help us a little in this dreadful crisis.... Until we
+can recruit&mdash;build forts&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>An officer appeared at the open door and saluted.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir," inquired Dayton sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Johnson is not to be discovered in the town, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"What? Has Lady Johnson run away also? Does the poor, deluded woman
+imagine that any man in my command would offer insult to her?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is reported, sir, that Lady Johnson said some very bitter things
+concerning us. It is further reported that Lady Johnson is gone in a
+great rage to the hunting lodge of the late Sir William, as there were
+already family servants there at last accounts."</p>
+
+<p>"Where's this place?" demanded Dayton, turning to me.</p>
+
+<p>"The summer house on the Vlaie, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. Take what men you can collect and go there instantly, Mr.
+Drogue, and place that foolish woman under arrest!"</p>
+
+<p>A most painful colour burnt my face, but I saluted in silence.</p>
+
+<p>"The little fool," muttered Dayton, "to think we meant to insult her!"
+And to me: "Let her remain there, Mr. Drogue, if she so desires. Only
+guard well the house. I shall march a battalion of my regiment thither
+in the morning, and later I shall order a company of Colonel
+Livingston's regiment to Fish House. And then we shall see what we shall
+see," he added grimly to the officer in the doorway, who smiled in
+return.</p>
+
+<p>There ensued a silence through which, very far away, we heard the music
+of another regiment marching into the town, which lay below us under the
+calm, high stars.</p>
+
+<p>"That's Livingston, now!" said Colonel Dayton, briskly; and went out in
+a hurry, his sword and spurs ringing loudly in the hall. And a moment
+later we heard him ride away at a gallop, and the loud clatter of
+horsemen at his heels.</p>
+
+<p>I pulled a bit of jerked venison from my sack and bit into it. Nick
+Stoner filled his mouth with cold johnnycake.</p>
+
+<p>And so, munching our supper, we left the Hall, headed for the Drowned
+Lands to make prisoner an unhappy girl who had gone off in a rage to
+Summer House Point.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>A NIGHT MARCH</h3>
+
+
+<p>The village of Johnstown was more brightly lighted than I had ever
+before seen it. Indeed, as we came out of the Hall the glow of it showed
+rosy in the sky and the distant bustle in the streets came quite plainly
+to our ears.</p>
+
+<p>Near the hedge fence outside the Hall we came upon remnants of our
+militia company, which had just been dismissed from further duty, and
+the men permitted to go home.</p>
+
+<p>Some already were walking away across the fields toward the Fonda's Bush
+road, and these all were farmers; but I saw De Luysnes and Johnny
+Silver, the French trappers, talking to old man Stoner and his younger
+boy; and Nick and I went over to where they were gathered near a
+splinter torch, which burned with a clear, straight flame like a candle.</p>
+
+<p>Joe Scott, too, was there, and I told him about my commission, whereupon
+he gave me the officer's salute and we shook hands very gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"There is scarce a handful remaining of our company," said he, "and you
+had best choose from us such as may qualify for rangers, and who are
+willing to go with you. As for me, I can not go, John, because I have
+here a letter but just delivered from Honikol Herkimer, calling me to
+the Canajoharie Regiment."</p>
+
+<p>It appeared, also, that old man Stoner had already enlisted with Colonel
+Livingston's regiment, and his thirteen-year-old boy, also, had been
+taken into the same command as a drummer.</p>
+
+<p>Dries Bowman shook his head when I appealed to him, saying he had a wife
+and children to look after, and would not leave them alone in the Bush.</p>
+
+<p>None could find fault with such an answer, though his surly tone
+troubled me a little.</p>
+
+<p>However, the two French trappers offered to enlist in my company of
+Rangers, and they instantly began to strap up their packs like men
+prepared to start on any journey at a moment's notice.</p>
+
+<p>Then Godfrey Shew, of Fish House, said to me very simply that his
+conscience and his country weighed more together than did his cabin; and
+that he was quite ready to go with me at once.</p>
+
+<p>At that, Joe de Golyer, of Varick's, fetched a laugh and came up in the
+torch-light and stood there towering six foot eight in his greasy
+buckskins, and showing every hound's tooth in his boyish head.</p>
+
+<p>"Give me my shilling, John," quoth he, "for I, also, am going with you.
+I've a grist-mill and a cabin and a glebe fair cleared at Varick's. But
+my father was all French; I have seen red for many a day; and if the
+King of England wants my mill I shall take my pay for it where I find
+it!"</p>
+
+<p>Silver began to grin and strut and comb out his scarlet thrums with
+dirty fingers.</p>
+
+<p>"Enfin," said he, with both thumbs in his arm-pits, "we shall be ver'
+happee familee in our pretee Bush. No more Toree, no more Iroquois!
+Tryon Bush all belong to us."</p>
+
+<p>"All that belongs to us today," remarked Godfrey grimly, "is what we
+hold over our proper rifles, Johnny Silver!"</p>
+
+<p>Old man Stoner nodded: "What you look at over your rifle sight is all
+that'll ever feed and clothe you now, Silver."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sure, by gar!" cried Silver with his lively grin. "Deer in blue
+coat, man in red coat, męme chose, savvy? All good game to Johnee
+Silver. Ver' fine chasse! Ah, sacré garce!" And he strutted about like a
+cock-partridge, slapping his hips.</p>
+
+<p>Nick Stoner burst into a loud laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Ours is like to be a rough companionship, John!" he said. "For the
+first shot fired will hum in our ears like new ale; and the first
+screech from the Iroquois will turn us into devils!"</p>
+
+<p>"Come," said I with a shiver I could not control.</p>
+
+<p>I shook hands with Joe Scott; Nick took leave of his big, gaunt father.
+We both looked at Dries Bowman, but he had turned away in pretense of
+firing the torch.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye, Brent-Meester!" cried little Johnny Stoner in his childish
+treble, as we started down the stony way toward the town below.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Johnstown streets were full of people and every dwelling, shop, and
+tavern lighted brightly as we came into the village.</p>
+
+<p>Mounted troopers of the Albany Horse guarded every street or clattered
+to and fro in search, they told us, of hidden arms and supplies.
+Soldiers of the regiments of Colonels Dayton and Livingston, too, were
+to be seen everywhere, some guarding the jail, some encamped before the
+Court House, others occupying suspected dwellings and taverns notorious
+as Tory nests.</p>
+
+<p>Such inhabitants as were known friends to liberty roamed about the
+streets or stood in knots under the trees, whispering together and
+watching the soldiers. But Tories and their families remained indoors,
+peering sullenly from their windows and sometimes scowling upon these
+soldiers of a new nation, within the confines of which they already were
+discovering that no place remained for any friend to England or her
+King.</p>
+
+<p>As my little file of riflemen passed on moccasined feet through the
+swarming streets of Johnstown, soldiers and townspeople gazed curiously
+after us, surmising immediately what might be our errand. And many
+greeted us or called out pleasantries after us, such as, "Hearkaway! The
+red fox will fool you yet!" And, "Dig him out, you wolf-hounds! He's
+gone to earth at Sacandaga!"</p>
+
+<p>Many soldiers cheered us, swinging their cocked hats; and Nick Stoner
+and Johnny Silver swung their coon-tailed caps in return, shouting the
+wolf-cry of the Coureur-du-Bois&mdash;"Yik-yik-hoo-hoolo&mdash;o!"</p>
+
+<p>And now we passed the slow-moving baggage waggons of Colonel
+Livingston's regiment, toiling up from Caughnawaga, the sleepy teamsters
+nodding, and armed soldiers drowsing behind, who scarce opened one eye
+as we trotted by them and out into the darkness of the Mayfield road.</p>
+
+<p>Now, in this dim and starlit land, we moved more slowly, for the road
+lay often through woods where all was dark; and among us none had
+fetched any lantern.</p>
+
+<p>It was close to midnight, I think, when we were challenged; and I knew
+we were near the new Block House, because I heard the creek, very noisy
+in the dark, and smelled English grass.</p>
+
+<p>The sentinel held us very firmly and bawled to his fellow, who arrived
+presently with a lantern; and we saw the grist-mill close to us, with
+its dripping wheel and the high flume belching water.</p>
+
+<p>When they were satisfied, I asked for news and they told us they had
+seen none of Sir John's people, but that a carriage carrying two ladies
+had nigh driven over them, refusing to halt, and that they had been
+ashamed to fire on women.</p>
+
+<p>He informed us, further, that a sergeant and five men of Colonel
+Dayton's regiment had arrived at the Block House and would remain the
+night.</p>
+
+<p>"Also," said one of the men, "we caught a girl riding a fine horse this
+morning, who gave an account that she came from Fonda's Bush and was
+servant to Douw Fonda at Caughnawaga."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the horse?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Safe stabled in the new fort."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said he, "she sits yonder eating soupaan in the fort, and all
+the Continentals making moon-eyes at her."</p>
+
+<p>"That's my horse," said I shortly. "Take your lantern and show her to
+me."</p>
+
+<p>One of the militia men picked up the lantern, which had been burning on
+the grass between us, and I followed along the bank of the creek.</p>
+
+<p>Presently I saw the Block House against the stars, but all loops were
+shuttered and no light came from them.</p>
+
+<p>There was a ditch, a bridge of three logs, a stockade not finished; and
+we passed in between the palings where a gateway was to be made, and
+where another militia-man sat guard on a chopping block, cradling his
+fire-lock between his knees, fast asleep.</p>
+
+<p>The stable was but a shed. Kaya turned her head as I went to her and
+made a soft little noise of welcome, and fell a-lipping me and rubbing
+her velvet nose against me.</p>
+
+<p>"The Scotch girl cared for your mare and fed her, paying four pence,"
+said the militia-man. "But we were ashamed to take pay."</p>
+
+<p>I examined Kaya. She had been well cared for. Then I lifted her harness
+from the wooden peg where it hung and saddled her by the lantern light.</p>
+
+<p>And when all was snug I passed the bridle over my arm and led her to the
+door of the Block House.</p>
+
+<p>Before I entered, I could hear from within the strains of a fiddle; and
+then opened the door and went in.</p>
+
+<p>The girl, Penelope, sat on a block of wood eating soupaan with a pewter
+spoon out of a glazed bowl upon her knees.</p>
+
+<p>Ten soldiers stood in a ring around her, every man jack o' them
+a-courting as hard as he could court and ogle&mdash;which all was as plain to
+me as the nose on your face!&mdash;and seemed to me a most silly sight.</p>
+
+<p>For the sergeant, a dapper man smelling rank of pomatum and his queue
+smartly floured, was a-wooing her with his fiddle and rolling big eyes
+at her to kill at twenty paces; and a tall, thin corporal was tying a
+nosegay made of swamp marigolds for her, which, now and again, he
+pretended to match against her yellow hair and smirked when she lifted
+her eyes to see what he was about.</p>
+
+<p>Every man jack o' them was up to something, one with a jug o' milk to
+douse her soupaan withal, another busy with his Barlow carving a basket
+out of a walnut to please her;&mdash;this fellow making pictures on
+birch-bark; that one scraping her name on his powder-horn and pricking a
+heart about it.</p>
+
+<p>As for the girl, Penelope, she sat upon her chopping block with downcast
+eyes and very leisurely eating of her porridge; but I saw her lips
+traced with that faint smile which I remembered.</p>
+
+<p>What with the noise of the fiddle and the chatter all about her, neither
+she nor the soldiers heard the door open, nor, indeed, noticed us at all
+until my militia-men sings out: "Lieutenant Drogue, boys, on duty from
+Johnstown!"</p>
+
+<p>At that the Continentals jumped up very lively, I warrant you, being
+troops of some little discipline already; and I spoke civilly to their
+sergeant and went over to the girl, Penelope, who had risen, bowl in one
+hand, spoon in t'other, and looking upon me very hard out of her brown
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," said I pleasantly, "you have kept your word to me and I mean to
+keep mine to you. My mare is saddled for you."</p>
+
+<p>"You take me to Caughnawaga, sir!" she exclaimed, setting bowl and spoon
+aside.</p>
+
+<p>"Tomorrow. Tonight you shall ride with us to the Summer House, where I
+promise you a bed."</p>
+
+<p>I held out my hand. She placed hers within it, looked shyly at the
+Continentals where they stood, dropped a curtsey to all, and went out
+beside me.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there news?" she asked as I lifted her to the saddle.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir John is gone."</p>
+
+<p>"I meant news from Caughnawaga."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes. All is safe there. A regiment of Continentals passed through
+Caughnawaga today with their waggons. So, for the time at least, all is
+quite secure along the Mohawk."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," she said in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>I led the horse back to the road, where my little squad of men was
+waiting me, and who fell in behind me, astonished, I think, as I started
+east by north once more along the Mayfield road.</p>
+
+<p>Presently Nick stole to my side through the darkness, not a whit
+embarrassed by my new military rank.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, John," says he in a guarded voice, "is this not the Scotch girl of
+Caughnawaga who rides your mare, Kaya?"</p>
+
+<p>I told him how she had come to the Bowmans the night before, and how,
+having stolen my mare, I bargained with her and must send her or guide
+her myself on the morrow to Cayadutta.</p>
+
+<p>I was conscious of his stifled mirth but paid no heed, for we were
+entering the pineries now, where all was inky dark, and the trail to be
+followed only by touch of foot.</p>
+
+<p>"Drop your bridle; Kaya will follow me," I called back softly to the
+girl, Penelope. "Hold to the saddle and be not afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not afraid," said she.</p>
+
+<p>We were now moving directly toward Fonda's Bush, and not three miles
+from my own house, but presently we crossed the brook, ascended a hill,
+and so came out of the pinery and took a wide and starlit waggon-path
+which bore to the left, running between fields where great stumps stood.</p>
+
+<p>This was Sir William's carriage road to the Point; and twice we crossed
+the Kennyetto by shallow fords.</p>
+
+<p>Close beside this carriage path on the north, and following all the way,
+ran the Iroquois war trail, hard and clean as a sheep walk, worn more
+than a foot deep by the innumerable moccasined feet that had trodden it
+through the ages.</p>
+
+<p>Very soon we passed Nine-Mile Tree, a landmark of Sir William's, which
+was a giant pine left by the road to tower in melancholy majesty all
+alone.</p>
+
+<p>When I rode the hills as Brent-Meester, this pine was like a guide post
+to me, visible for miles.</p>
+
+<p>Now, as I passed, I looked at it in the silvery dusk of the stars and
+saw some strange object shining on the bark.</p>
+
+<p>"What is that shining on Nine-Mile Tree?" said I to Nick. He ran across
+the road; we marched on, I leading, then the Scotch girl on my mare,
+then my handful of men trudging doggedly with pieces a-trail.</p>
+
+<p>A moment later Nick same swiftly to my side and nudged me; and looking
+around I saw an Indian hatchet in his hand, the blade freshly
+brightened.</p>
+
+<p>"It was sticking in the tree," he breathed. "My God, John, the Iroquois
+are out!"</p>
+
+<p>Chill after chill crawled up my back as I began to understand the
+significance of that freshly polished little war-axe with its limber
+helve of hickory worn slippery by long usage, and its loop of braided
+deer-hide blackened by age.</p>
+
+<p>"Was there aught else?" I whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing except this Mohawk hatchet struck deep into the bark of
+Nine-Mile Tree, and sticking there."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know what it means, Nick?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aye. Also, it is an <i>old</i> war-axe <i>newly</i> polished. And struck deep
+into the tallest pine in Tryon. Any fool must know what all this means.
+Shall you speak of this to the others, John?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said I, "they must know at once."</p>
+
+<p>I waited for Kaya to come up, laid my hand on the bridle and called back
+in a low voice to my men: "Boys, an Indian war-axe was left sticking in
+Nine-Mile Tree. Nick drew it out. The hatchet is an old one, but <i>it is
+newly polished</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"Sacré garce!" whispered Silver fiercely. "Now, grâce ŕ dieu, shall I
+reckon with those dirtee trap-robbers who take my pelts like the
+carcajou! Ha! So is it war? A la bonheur! Let them come for my hair
+then! And if they get Johnny Silver's hair they may paint the Little Red
+Foot on the hoop, nom de dieu!"</p>
+
+<p>"Get along forward, boys," said I. "Some of you keep an eye on the
+mountains lest they begin calling to Sir John with fire&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"A flame on Maxon!" whispered Nick at my elbow.</p>
+
+<p>I jerked my head around as though I had been shot. There it rose, a thin
+red streak above the blunt headland that towered over the Drowned Lands.
+Steadily as a candle's flame in a still room, it burned for a few
+moments, then was shattered into crimson jets.</p>
+
+<p>Far to the North, on some invisible mountain, a faint crimson flare
+replied.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody spoke, but I knew that every eye was fixed on those Indian
+signal-fires as we moved rapidly forward into the swale country where
+swampy willows spread away on either hand and little pools of water
+caught the starlight.</p>
+
+<p>The road, too, had become wet, and water stood in the ruts; and every
+few minutes we crossed corduroy.</p>
+
+<p>"Yonder stands the Summer House," whispered Nick.</p>
+
+<p>A ridge of hard land ran out into the reed-set water. A hinged gate
+barred the neck. Nick swung it wide; I led my mare and her rider through
+it; posted Godfrey and Silver there; posted Luysnes and De Golyer a
+hundred paces inland near the apple trees; left Nick by the well, and,
+walking beside my mare, continued on to the little green and white
+hunting lodge where, through the crescents of closed shutters, rays of
+light streamed out into the night.</p>
+
+<p>Here I lifted the Scotch girl from her saddle, walked with her to the
+kitchen porch, and knocked softly on the kitchen door.</p>
+
+<p>After a while I could hear a stirring within, voices, steps.</p>
+
+<p>"Nicholas! Pontioch! Flora!" I called in guarded tones.</p>
+
+<p>Presently I heard Flora's voice inquiring timidly who I might be.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Drogue is arrived to await her ladyship's commands," said I.</p>
+
+<p>At that the bolts slid and the door creaked open. Black Flora stood
+there in her yellow night shift, rolling enormous eyes at me, and behind
+her I saw Colas with a lighted dip, gaping to see me enter with a
+strange woman.</p>
+
+<p>"Is your mistress here?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yassuh," answered Flora, "mah lady done gone to baid, suh."</p>
+
+<p>"Who else is here? Mistress Swift?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yassuh."</p>
+
+<p>"Is there a spare bed?"</p>
+
+<p>Flora rolled suspicious eyes at the Scotch girl, but thought there was a
+bed in Sir William's old gun room.</p>
+
+<p>I waited until the black wench had made sure, then bade Colas look to my
+mare, said a curt good-night to Penelope Grant, and went out to unroll
+my blanket on the front porch.</p>
+
+<p>When I whistled softly Nick came across the garden from the well.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Johnson is here," said I. "Yonder lies my blanket. I stand first
+watch. Go you and sleep now while you can&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Sleep first, John. I am not weary&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Remember I am your officer, Nick!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, hell!" quoth he. "That does not awe me, John. What awes me in you
+is your kindness&mdash;and to remember that your ancestors wore their gold
+rings upon their fingers."</p>
+
+<p>I passed my arm about his shoulders, then released him and went slowly
+over to the well. And here I primed my rifle with bright, dry powder,
+shouldered it, and began to walk my post at a brisk pace to cheat the
+sleep which meddled with my heavy eyes and set me yawning till my young
+jaws crackled.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>SUMMER HOUSE POINT</h3>
+
+
+<p>The sun in my eyes and the noise of drums awoke me, where, relieved on
+post by Nick, I had been sleeping on the veranda.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the orchard on the Johnstown road, mounted officers in blue and
+buff were riding amid undulating ranks of moving muskets; and I knew
+that the Continental Line had arrived at Summer House Point, and was
+glad of it.</p>
+
+<p>As I shook loose my blanket and stood up, black Flora and Colas came up
+from their kitchen below ground, and seemed astonished to see me still
+there.</p>
+
+<p>"Is your mistress awake?" I demanded. But they did not know; so I bade
+Flora go inside and awaken Lady Johnson. Then I went down to the well in
+the orchard, where Nick stood sentry, looking through the blossoming
+boughs at what was passing on the mainland road beyond the Point.</p>
+
+<p>It was a soft, sunny morning, and a pleasant scent from the apple bloom,
+which I remember was full o' bees.</p>
+
+<p>Through the orchard, on the small peninsula, now came striding toward us
+a dozen or more officers of the regiments of Colonels Dayton and
+Livingston, all laughing together and seeming very merry; and some, as
+they passed under the flowering branches, plucked twigs of white and
+pink flowers and made themselves nosegays.</p>
+
+<p>Their major, who seemed to know me as an officer, though I did not know
+him, called out in high good humour:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my lord Northesk, did you and your rangers arrive in time to
+close the cage on our pretty bird?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," said I, reddening, and not pleased.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Johnson is here then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Major."</p>
+
+<p>At that instant the front door opened and Lady Johnson came out quickly
+and stood on the veranda, the sun striking across her pallid face, which
+paleness was more due to her condition than to any fear of our soldiery.</p>
+
+<p>She was but partly robed, and that hastily; her hair all unpowdered and
+undressed, and only a levete of China silk flung about her girlish
+figure, and making still more evident her delicate physical condition.</p>
+
+<p>But in her eyes I saw storms a-brewing, and her lips and features went
+white as she stood there, clenching and unclenching one hand, and still
+a little blinded by the sun in her face.</p>
+
+<p>We all had uncovered before her, bowing very low; and, if she noticed me
+at first, I am not certain, but she gave our Major such a deadly stare
+that it checked his speech and put him clean out o' countenance, leaving
+him a-twiddling his sword-knot and dumb as a fish.</p>
+
+<p>"What does this mean?" said she, her lip trembling with increasing
+passion. "Have you come here to arrest me?"</p>
+
+<p>And, as nobody replied, she stamped her bare foot in its silken
+chamber-shoe, like any angry child in petty fury when disobliged.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it not enough," she continued, "that you drive my unhappy husband
+out of his own house, but you must presently follow me here to mock and
+insult me? What has our family done to merit this outrage?"</p>
+
+<p>Our Major, astonished and out o' countenance, attempted a civil word to
+calm her, but she swept us all with scornful eyes and stamped her foot
+again in such anger that her shoe fell off and landed on the grass.</p>
+
+<p>"Our only crime is loyalty to a merciful and Christian King!" she cried,
+paying no heed to the shoe. "Our punishment is that we are like to be
+hunted as they hunt wild beasts! By a pack of rebels, too! Shame,
+gentlemen! Is this worthy even of embattled shop-keepers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Madame, I beg you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But she had no patience to listen.</p>
+
+<p>"You have forced me out of my home in Johnstown," she said bitterly,
+"and I thought to find refuge under this poor roof. But now you come
+hunting me here! Very well, gentlemen, I leave you in possession and go
+to Fish House. And if you hunt me out o' Fish House, I shall go on, God
+knows where!&mdash;for I do not choose to endure the insult with which your
+mere presence here affronts me!"</p>
+
+<p>I had picked up her silk shoe and now went to her with it, where she
+stood on the veranda, biting at her lip, and her eyes all a-glitter with
+angry tears.</p>
+
+<p>"For God's sake, madam," said I, "do not use us so harshly. We mean no
+insult and no harm&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"John Drogue," she said with a great sob, "I have loved you as a
+brother, but I had rather see you dead there on this violated threshold
+than know that the Laird of Northesk is become a rebel to his King!"</p>
+
+<p>I knelt down and drew the shoe over her bare foot. Then I stood up and
+took her hand, laying it very gently upon my arm. She suffered me to
+lead her into the house&mdash;to the door of her bedroom, where Claudia,
+already dressed, took her from me.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, John, John," she sobbed, "what is this pack o' riff-raff doing here
+with their cobbler majors and carpenter colonels&mdash;all these petty
+shop-keepers in uniform who come from filthy Boston to ride over us?"</p>
+
+<p>Claudia's eyes were very bright, but without any trace of fear or anger.</p>
+
+<p>"What troops are these, Jack?" she inquired coolly. "And do they really
+come here to make prisoners of two poor women?"</p>
+
+<p>I told her that these soldiers formed a mixed battalion from the
+commands of Colonels Dayton and Livingston, and that they would encamp
+for the present within sight of the Summer House.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean that Polly and I are prisoners?" she repeated
+incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I do mean that, Claudia," said I.</p>
+
+<p>At the word "prisoner" Lady Johnson flamed:</p>
+
+<p>"Are you not ashamed, Jack Drogue, to tell me to my face such barbarous
+news!" she cried. "You, a gentleman, to consort with vulgar bandits who
+make prisoners of women! What do you think of your Boston friends now?
+What do you think of your blacksmith generals and 'pothecary
+colonels&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Polly! Be silent!" entreated Claudia, shaking her arm. "Is this a
+decent manner to conduct when the fortune of war fails to suit your
+tastes?"</p>
+
+<p>And to me: "No one is like to harm us, I take it. We are not in personal
+danger, are we?"</p>
+
+<p>"Good Lord!" said I, mortified that she should even ask me.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then!" she said in a lively voice to Lady Johnson, who had turned
+her back on me in sullen rage, "it will be but a few days at worst,
+Polly. These rebel officers are not ogres. No! So in Heaven's name let
+us make the best of this business&mdash;until Mr. Washington graciously
+permits us to go on to Albany or to New York."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not go thither!" stormed Lady Johnson, pacing her chamber like
+a very child in the tantrums; "I shall not deign to inhabit any city
+which is held by dirty rebels&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But we shall drive them out first!" insisted Claudia, with an impudent
+look at me. "Surely, dear, Albany will soon be a proper city to reside
+in; General Howe has said it;&mdash;and so we had best address a polite
+letter to Mr. Washington, requesting a safe conduct thither and a
+flag&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not write a syllable to the arch-rebel Washington!" stormed
+Lady Johnson. "And I tell you plainly, Jack, I expect to have my throat
+cut before this shameful business is ended!"</p>
+
+<p>"You had best conduct sensibly, both of you," said I bluntly; "for I'm
+tired of your airs and vapours; and Colonel Dayton will stand no
+nonsense from either of you!"</p>
+
+<p>"John!" faltered Lady Johnson, "do&mdash;do you, too, mean to use us
+brutally?"</p>
+
+<p>"I merely beg you to consider what you say before you say it, Polly
+Johnson! You speak to a rebel of 'dirty' rebels and 'arch' rebels; you
+conduct as though we, who hold another opinion than that entertained by
+you, were the scum and offscouring of the earth."</p>
+
+<p>"I meant it not as far as it concerns you, John Drogue," she said with
+another sob.</p>
+
+<p>"Then be pleased to trim your speech to my brother officers," said I,
+still hotly vexed by her silly behaviour. "We went to Johnstown to take
+your husband because we believe he has communicated with Canada. And it
+was proper of us to do so.</p>
+
+<p>"We came here to detain you until some decent arrangement can be made
+whereby you shall have every conceivable comfort and every reasonable
+liberty, save only to do us a harm by communicating with your friends
+who are our enemies.</p>
+
+<p>"Therefore, it would be wise for you to treat us politely and not rail
+at us like a spoiled child. Our duty here is not of our own choosing,
+nor is it to our taste. No man desires to play jailer to any woman. But
+for the present it must be so. Therefore, as I say, it might prove more
+agreeable for all if you and Claudia observe toward us the ordinary
+decencies of polite usage!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a silence. Lady Johnson's back remained turned toward me; she
+was weeping.</p>
+
+<p>Claudia took her hand and turned and looked at me with all the lively
+mischief, all the adorable impudence I knew so well:</p>
+
+<p>"La, Mr. Drogue," says she mockingly, "some gentlemen are born so and
+others are made when made officers in armies. And captivity is irksome.
+So, if your friends desire to pay their respects to us poor captives, I
+for one shall not be too greatly displeased&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Claudia!" cried Lady Johnson, "do you desire a dish of tea with tinkers
+and tin-peddlars?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hear you, Polly," said she, "but prefer to hear you further after
+breakfast&mdash;which, thank God! I can now smell a-cooking." And, to me:
+"Jack, will you breakfast with us&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She stopped abruptly: the door of Sir William's gun room opened, and the
+Scottish girl, Penelope Grant, walked out.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord!" said Claudia, looking at her in astonishment. "And who may you
+be, and how have you come here?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am Penelope Grant," she answered, "servant to Douw Fonda of
+Caughnawaga; and I came last night with Mr. Drogue."</p>
+
+<p>The perfect candour of her words should have clothed them with
+innocence. And, I think, did so. Yet, Claudia shot a wicked look at me,
+which did not please me.</p>
+
+<p>But I ignored her and explained the situation briefly to Lady Johnson,
+who had turned to stare at Penelope, who stood there quite
+self-possessed in her shabby dress of gingham.</p>
+
+<p>There was a silence; then Claudia asked the girl if she would take
+service with her; and Penelope shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"I pay handsomely, and I need a clever wench to care for me," insisted
+Claudia; "and by your fine, white hands I see you are well accustomed to
+ladies' needs. Are you not, Penelope?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am servant to Douw Fonda," repeated the girl. "It would not be kind
+in me to leave him who offers to adopt me. Nor is it decent to abandon
+him in times like these."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Johnson came forward slowly, her tear-marred eyes clearing.</p>
+
+<p>"My brother, Stephen, has spoken of you. I understood him to say that
+you are the daughter of a Scottish minister. Is this true?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my lady."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you are no servant wench."</p>
+
+<p>"I serve."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"My parents are dead. I must earn my bread."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh. You have no means to maintain you?"</p>
+
+<p>"None, madam."</p>
+
+<p>"How long have you been left an orphan?"</p>
+
+<p>"These three years, my lady."</p>
+
+<p>"You came from Scotland?"</p>
+
+<p>"From France, my lady."</p>
+
+<p>"How so?"</p>
+
+<p>"My father preached to the exiled Scots who live in Paris. When he was
+dying, I promised to take ship and come to America, because, he said,
+only in America is a young girl safe from men."</p>
+
+<p>"Safe?" quoth Claudia, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, madam."</p>
+
+<p>"Safe from what, child?"</p>
+
+<p>"From the unlawful machinations of designing men, madam. My father told
+me that men hunt women as a sport."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, la!" cried Claudia, laughing; "you have it hind end foremost! Man
+is the hunted one! Man is the victim! Is it not so, Jack?"&mdash;looking so
+impudently at me that I was too vexed to smile in return, but got very
+red and gazed elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>"And what did you then, Penelope Grant?" inquired Lady Johnson, with a
+soft sort of interest which was natural and unfeigned, she having a
+gentle heart and tender under all her pride and childishness.</p>
+
+<p>"I took ship, my lady, and came to New York."</p>
+
+<p>"And then?"</p>
+
+<p>"I went to Parson Gano in his church,&mdash;who was a friend to my father,
+though a Baptist. I was but a child, and he cared for me for three
+years. But I could not always live on others' bounty; so he yielded to
+my desires and placed me as servant to Douw Fonda, who was at that time
+visiting New York. And so, when Mr. Fonda was ready to go home to
+Caughnawaga, I accompanied him."</p>
+
+<p>"And are his aid and crutch in his old age," said Lady Johnson, gently.
+"What wonder, then, he wishes to adopt you, Penelope Grant."</p>
+
+<p>"If you will be my companion," cried Claudia, "I shall dare adopt you,
+pretty as you are&mdash;and risk losing every lover I possess!"</p>
+
+<p>The Scottish girl's brown eyes widened at that; but even Lady Johnson
+laughed, and I saw the loveliest smile begin to glimmer on Penelope's
+soft lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank heaven for a better humour in the house," thought I, and was
+pleased that Claudia had made a gayety of the affair.</p>
+
+<p>I went to the window and looked out. Smoke from the camp fires of the
+Continentals made a haze all along the reedy waterfront. I saw their
+sentries walking their posts; heard the noise of their axes in the bush;
+caught a glimpse of my own men lying in the orchard on the new grass,
+and Nick cooking jerked meat at a little fire of coals, which gleamed in
+the grass like a heap of dusty jewels.</p>
+
+<p>And, as I stood a-watching, I felt a touch at my elbow, and turned to
+face the girl, Penelope.</p>
+
+<p>"Your promise, sir," she said. "You have not forgotten?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," I replied, flushing again under Claudia's mocking gaze. "But you
+should first eat something."</p>
+
+<p>"And you, also," said Lady Johnson, coming to me and laying both hands
+upon my shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>She looked into my eyes very earnestly, very sadly.</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me, Jack," she said.</p>
+
+<p>I kissed her hands, saying that it was I who needed forgiveness, to so
+speak to her in her deep anxiety and unhappiness; but she shook her head
+and bade me remain and eat breakfast; and went away to her chamber to
+dress, carrying Claudia to aid her, and leaving me alone there with the
+girl Penelope.</p>
+
+<p>"So," said I civilly, though still annoyed by memory of my horse and how
+this girl had carried everything with so high a hand, "so you have lived
+in France?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Hum! Well, did you find the people agreeable?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir&mdash;the children. I was but fifteen when I left France."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you now own to eighteen years."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"A venerable age."</p>
+
+<p>At that she lifted her brown eyes. I smiled; and that enchanting,
+glimmering smile touched her lips again. And I thought of what I had
+heard concerning her in Caughnawaga, and how, when the old gentleman was
+enjoying his afternoon nap, she was accustomed to take her knitting to
+the porch.</p>
+
+<p>And I remembered, too, what Nick and others said concerning all the
+gallants of the countryside, how they swarmed about that porch like
+flies around a sap-pan.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been told," said I, "that all young men in Tryon sit ringed
+around you when you take your knitting to the porch at Cayadutta Lodge.
+Nor can I blame them, now that I have seen you smile."</p>
+
+<p>At that she blushed so brightly that I was embarrassed and somewhat
+astonished to see how small a progress this girl had really made in
+coquetry. I was to learn that she blushed easily; I did not know it
+then; but it presently amused me to find her, after all, so unschooled.</p>
+
+<p>"Why," said I, "should you show your colours to a passing craft that
+fires no shot nor even thinks to board you? I am no pirate, Penelope;
+like those Johnstown gallants who gather like flies, they say&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But I checked my words, not daring to plague her further, for the colour
+was surging in her cheeks and she seemed unaccustomed to such harmless
+bantering as mine.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord!" thought I, "here is a very lie that this maid is any such siren
+as Nick thinks her, for her pretty thumb is still wet with sucking."</p>
+
+<p>Yet I myself had become sensible that there really was about her a
+<i>something</i>&mdash;exactly what I knew not&mdash;but some seductive quality, some
+vague enchantment about her, something unusual which compelled men's
+notice. It was not, I thought, entirely the agreeable contrast of yellow
+hair and dark eyes; nor a smooth skin like new snow touched to a rosy
+hue by the afterglow.</p>
+
+<p>She sat near the window, where I stood gazing out across the water,
+toward the mountains beyond. Her hands, joined, rested flat between her
+knees; her hair, in the sun, was like maple gold reflected in a ripple.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord!" thought I, "small wonder that the gay blades of Tryon should
+come a-meddling to undo so pretty a thing."</p>
+
+<p>But the thought did not please me, yet it was no concern o' mine. But I
+now comprehended how this girl might attract men, and, strangely enough,
+was sorry for it.</p>
+
+<p>For it seemed plain that here was no coquette by intention or by any
+knowledge of the art of pleasing men; but she was one, nevertheless, so
+sweetly her dark eyes regarded you when you spoke; so lovely the glimmer
+of her smile.</p>
+
+<p>And it was, no doubt, something of these that men noticed&mdash;and her youth
+and inexperience, which is tender tinder to hardened flint that is ever
+eager to strike fire and start soft stuff blazing.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SHAPE IN WHITE</h3>
+
+
+<p>We breakfasted on soupaan, new milk, johnnycake, and troutlings caught
+by Colas, who had gone by canoe to the outlet of Hans' Creek by
+daylight, after I had awakened him. Which showed me how easily one could
+escape from the Summer House, in spite of guards patrolling the neck and
+mainland road.</p>
+
+<p>We were four at table; Lady Johnson, Claudia, Penelope, and I; and all
+seemed to be in better humour, for Claudia's bright eyes were ever
+roaming toward the Continental camp, where smart officers passed and
+repassed in the bright sunlight; and Lady Johnson did not conceal her
+increasing conviction that Sir John had got clean away; which,
+naturally, pleased the poor child mightily;&mdash;and Penelope, who had
+offered very simply to serve us at table, sat silent and contented by
+the civil usage she received from Polly Johnson, who told her very
+sweetly that her place was in a chair and not behind it.</p>
+
+<p>"For," said my lady, "a parson's daughter may serve where her heart
+directs, but is nowise or otherwise to be unclassed."</p>
+
+<p>"Were I obliged by circumstances to labour for my bread," said Claudia,
+"would you still entertain honourable though ardent sentiments toward
+me, Jack?"</p>
+
+<p>Which saucy question I smiled aside, though it irritated me, and oddly,
+too, because Penelope Grant had heard&mdash;though why I should care a
+farthing for that I myself could not understand.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Johnson laid a hand on Penelope's, who looked up at her with that
+shy, engaging smile I had already noticed. And,</p>
+
+<p>"Penelope," said she, "if rumour does not lie, and if all our young
+gallants do truly gather 'round when you take your knitting to the porch
+of Cayadutta Lodge, then you should make it very plain to all that you
+are a parson's daughter as well as servant to Douw Fonda."</p>
+
+<p>"How should I conduct, my lady?"</p>
+
+<p>"Firmly, child. And send any light o' love a-packing at the first
+apropos!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, lud!" says Claudia, "would you make a nun of her, Polly? Sure the
+child must learn&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Learn to take care of herself," quoth Polly Johnson tartly. "You have
+been schooled from childhood, Claudia, and heaven knows you have had
+opportunities enough to study that beast called man!"</p>
+
+<p>"I love him, too," said Claudia. "Do you, Penelope?"</p>
+
+<p>"Men please me," said the Scotch girl shyly. "I do not think them
+beasts."</p>
+
+<p>"They bite," snapped Lady Johnson.</p>
+
+<p>"Slap them," said Claudia,&mdash;"and that is all there is to it."</p>
+
+<p>"You think any man ever has been tamed and the beast cast out of him,
+even after marriage?" demanded Lady Johnson. She smiled, but I caught
+the undertone of bitterness in her gaiety, poor girl!</p>
+
+<p>"Before marriage," said Claudia coolly, "man is exactly as treacherous
+as he is afterward;&mdash;no more so, no less. What about it? You take the
+creature as he is fashioned by his Maker, or you drive him away and live
+life like a cloistered nun. What is your choice, Penelope?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have no passion for a cloister," replied the girl, so candidly that
+all laughed, and she blushed prettily.</p>
+
+<p>"That is best," nodded Claudia; "accept the creature as he is. We're
+fools if we're bitten before we're married, and fortunate if we're not
+nipped afterward. Anyway, I love men, and so God bless them, for they
+can't help being what they are and it's our own fault if they play too
+roughly and hurt us."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Johnson laughed and laid her hand lightly on my shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Jack," said she, "we do not mean you, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Oho!" cried Claudia, "it's in 'em all and crops out one day. Jack
+Drogue is no tamer than the next man. Nay, I know the sort&mdash;meek as a
+mouse among petticoats&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Claudia!" protested Lady Johnson.</p>
+
+<p>"I hear you, Polly. But when I solemnly swear to you that I have been
+afraid of this young man&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Afraid of what?" said I, smiling at her audacity, but vexed, too.</p>
+
+<p>"Afraid you might undo me, Jack&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What!"</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;And then refuse me an honest name&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What mad nonsense do you chatter!" exclaimed Lady Johnson, out of
+countenance, yet laughing at Claudia's effrontery. And Penelope,
+abashed, laughed a little, too. But Claudia's nonsense madded me, though
+her speech had been no broader than was fashionable among a gentry so
+closely in touch with London, where speech, and manners, too, were
+broader still.</p>
+
+<p>Vexed to be made her silly butt, I sat gazing out of the window, over
+the great Vlaie, where, in the reeds, tall herons stood as stiff as
+driven stakes, and the painted wood-ducks, gorgeous as tropic birds,
+breasted Mayfield Creek, or whirred along the waterways to and fro
+between the Stacking Ridge and the western bogs, where they nested among
+trees that sloped low over the water.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond, painted blue mountains ringed the vast wilderness of bog and
+woods and water; and presently I was interested to see, on the blunt
+nose of Maxon, a stain of smoke.</p>
+
+<p>I watched it furtively, paying only a civil heed to the women's chatter
+around me&mdash;watched it with sideway glance as I dipped my spoon into the
+smoking soupaan and crumbled my johnnycake.</p>
+
+<p>At first, on Maxon's nose there was only a slight blue tint of vapour,
+like a spot of bloom on a blue plum. But now, above the mountain, a thin
+streak of smoke mounted straight up; and presently I saw that it became
+jetted, rising in rings for a few moments.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly it vanished.</p>
+
+<p>Claudia was saying that one must assume all officers of either party to
+be gentlemen; but Lady Johnson entertained the proposition coldly, and
+seemed unwilling to invite Continental officers to a dish of tea.</p>
+
+<p>"Not because they are my captors and have driven my husband out of his
+own home," she said haughtily; "I could overlook that, because it is the
+fortune of war. But it is said that the Continental officers are a
+parcel of Yankee shop-keepers, and I have no desire to receive such
+people on equal footing."</p>
+
+<p>"But," said Claudia, "Jack is a rebel officer, and so is Billy
+Alexander."</p>
+
+<p>"I think Lord Stirling must be crazy," retorted Lady Johnson. Then she
+looked at me, bit her lip and laughed, adding:</p>
+
+<p>"You, too, Jack&mdash;and every gentleman among you must be mad to flout our
+King!"</p>
+
+<p>"Mad, indeed&mdash;and therefore to be pitied, not punished," says Claudia.
+"Therefore, let us drink tea with our rebel officers, Polly&mdash;out of
+sheer compassion for their common infirmity."</p>
+
+<p>"We rebels don't drink tea, you know," said I, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, la! Wait till we invite your Continentals yonder. For, if Polly and
+I are to be imprisoned here, I vow I mean to amuse myself with the
+likeliest of these young men in blue and buff, whom I can see yonder,
+stalking to and fro along the Johnstown Road. May I not send them a
+civil invitation, Polly?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you insist. I, however, decline to meet them," pouted Lady Johnson.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall write a little letter to their commanding officer," quoth
+Claudia. "Do as you like, Polly, but, as for me, I do not desire to
+perish of dullness with only women to talk to, and only a swamp to gaze
+upon!"</p>
+
+<p>She sprang to her feet; Lady Johnson and Penelope also rose, as did I.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it true, Jack, that you are under promise to take this young girl to
+Douw Fonda's house in Caughnawaga?" asked Lady Johnson.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, madam."</p>
+
+<p>She turned to Penelope: "When do you desire to set out?"</p>
+
+<p>"As soon as may be, my lady."</p>
+
+<p>"I like you. I wish you would remain and share my loneliness."</p>
+
+<p>"I would, my lady, only I feel in honour bound to go to Mr. Fonda."</p>
+
+<p>Claudia passed her arm around the Scottish girl's slim waist.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," she coaxed, "be my companion! Be more friend than servant, more
+sister than friend. For I, also, begin to love you, with your dark eyes
+and yellow hair, and your fine hands and sweet, fresh skin, like a child
+from a bath."</p>
+
+<p>They both laughed, looking at each other with a gaze shy but friendly,
+like two who seem to think they are, perhaps, destined to love each
+other.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I might remain," said the Scottish girl, reluctantly turning
+toward me.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you for Caughnawaga?" I asked bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said I. "Polly Johnson, may I take your carriage?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is always at your command, Jack. But I am sorry that our little
+Scottish lass must go."</p>
+
+<p>However, she gave the order to black Colas, who must drive us, also,
+because, excepting for Colas and poor Flora, and one slave left in
+Johnstown, all servants, slaves, tenants, and officers of Sir John's
+household had fled with the treacherous Baronet and were now God knows
+where in the terrific wilderness and making, without doubt, for the
+Canadas.</p>
+
+<p>For personal reasons I was glad that the dishonoured man was gone. I
+should have been ashamed to take him prisoner. But I was deeply troubled
+on other accounts; for this man had gone northward with hundreds of my
+old neighbors, for the purpose of forming an army of white men and
+Indians, with which he promised to return and cut our throats and lay
+our beautiful countryside in ashes.</p>
+
+<p>We had scarce any force to oppose Sir John; no good forts except Stanwix
+and a few block-houses; our newly-organized civil government was
+chaotic; our militia untried, unreliable, poorly armed, and still rotten
+with toryism.</p>
+
+<p>To defend all this immense Tryon County frontier, including the river as
+far as Albany, only one regular regiment had been sent to help us; for
+what remained of the State Line was needed below, where His Excellency
+was busy massing an army to face the impending thunder-clap from
+England.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>As I stood by the window, looking out across the Vlaie at Maxon Ridge,
+where I felt very sure that hostile eyes were watching the Sacandaga and
+this very house, a hand touched my arm, and, turning, I saw Penelope
+Grant beside me.</p>
+
+<p>"May I have a word alone with you, Mr. Drogue?" she asked in her serious
+and graver way&mdash;a way as winning as her lighter mood, I thought.</p>
+
+<p>So we went out to the veranda and walked a little way among the apple
+trees, slowly, I waiting to hear what she had for my ear alone.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond, by the well, I saw my Rangers squatting cross-legged on the
+grass in a little circle, playing at stick-knife. Beyond them a
+Continental soldier paced his beat in front of the gate which closed the
+mainland road.</p>
+
+<p>Birds sang, sunshine glimmered on the water, the sky was softly blue.</p>
+
+<p>The girl had paused under a fruit tree. Now, she pulled down an apple
+branch and set her nose to the blossoms, breathing their fresh scent.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said I, quietly.</p>
+
+<p>Her level eyes met mine across the flowering branch.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry to disturb you," said she.</p>
+
+<p>"How disturb me?"</p>
+
+<p>"By obliging you to take me to Caughnawaga. It inconveniences you."</p>
+
+<p>"I promised to see you safely there, and that is all about it," said I
+drily.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. But I ask your pardon for exacting your promise.... And&mdash;I
+ask pardon for&mdash;for stealing your horse."</p>
+
+<p>There seemed to ensue a longer silence than I intended, and I realized
+that I had been looking at her without other thought than of her dark,
+young eyes under her yellow hair.</p>
+
+<p>"What did you say?" I asked absently.</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated, then: "You do not like me, Mr. Drogue."</p>
+
+<p>"Did I say so?" said I, startled.</p>
+
+<p>"No.... I feel that you do not like me. Is it because I used you without
+decency when I stole your horse?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps some trifling chagrin remains. But it is now over&mdash;because you
+say you are sorry."</p>
+
+<p>"I am so."</p>
+
+<p>"Then&mdash;I am friendly&mdash;if you so desire, Penelope Grant."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, I do desire your countenance."</p>
+
+<p>I smiled at her gravity, and saw, dawning in return, that lovely,
+child's smile I already knew and waited for.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to whisper to you," said she, bending the flowering bough lower.</p>
+
+<p>So I inclined my ear across it, and felt her delicate breath against my
+cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to make known to you that I am of your party, Mr. Drogue," she
+whispered.</p>
+
+<p>I nodded approval.</p>
+
+<p>"I wished you to know that I am a friend to liberty," she continued. "My
+sentiment is very ardent, Mr. Drogue: I burn with desire to serve this
+land, to which my father's wish has committed me. I am young, strong,
+not afraid. I can load and shoot a pistol&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Good Lord!" I exclaimed, laughing, "do you wish to enlist and go for a
+soldier?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>I drew back in amazement and looked at her, and she blushed but made me
+a firm countenance. And so sweetly solemn a face did this maid pull at
+me that I could not forbear to laugh again.</p>
+
+<p>"But how about Mr. Fonda?" I demanded, "if you don jack-boots and hanger
+and go for a dragoon?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall ask his permission to serve my country."</p>
+
+<p>"A-horse, Penelope? Or do you march with fire-lock and knapsack and a
+well-floured queue?" I had meant to turn it lightly but not to ridicule;
+but her lip quivered, though she still found courage to sustain my
+laughing gaze.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," said I, "we Tryon County men have as yet no need to call upon
+our loyal women to shoulder rifle and fill out our ranks."</p>
+
+<p>"No need of me, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Surely, surely, but not yet to such a pass that we strap a bayonet on
+your thigh. Sew for us. Knit for us&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, for three years I have done so, foreseeing this hour. I have
+knitted many, many score o' stockings; sewed many a shirt against this
+day that is now arrived. I have them in Mr. Fonda's house, against my
+country's needs. All, or a part, are at your requisition, Mr. Drogue."</p>
+
+<p>But I remained mute, astonished that this girl had seen so clearly what
+so few saw at all&mdash;that war must one day come between us and our King.
+This foreseeing of hers amazed me even more than her practical provision
+for the day of wrath&mdash;now breaking red on our horizon&mdash;that she had seen
+so clearly what must happen&mdash;a poor refugee&mdash;a child.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," says she, "have you any use for the stockings and shirts among
+your men?"</p>
+
+<p>She stood resting both arms on the bent bough, her face among the
+flowers. And I don't know how I thought of it, or remembered that in
+Scotland there are some who have the gift of clear vision and who see
+events before they arrive&mdash;nay, even foretell and forewarn.</p>
+
+<p>And, looking at her, I asked her if that were true of her. And saw the
+tint of pink apple bloom stain her face; and her dark eyes grow shy and
+troubled.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it that way with you?" I repeated. "Do you see more clearly than
+ordinary folk?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir&mdash;sometimes."</p>
+
+<p>"Not always?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"But if you desire to penetrate the future and strive to do so&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir, I can not if I try. Visions come unsought&mdash;even undesired."</p>
+
+<p>"Is effort useless?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Then this strange knowledge of the future comes of itself unbidden?"</p>
+
+<p>"Unbidden&mdash;when it comes at all. It is like a flash&mdash;then darkness. But
+the glimpse has convinced me, and I am forewarned."</p>
+
+<p>I pondered this for a space, then:</p>
+
+<p>"Could you tell me anything concerning how this war is to end?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know, Mr. Drogue."</p>
+
+<p>I considered. Then, again: "Have you any knowledge of what Fate intends
+concerning yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing regarding your own future? That is strange."</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head, watching me. And then I laughed lightly:</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, by any chance, concerning me, Penelope?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>I was so startled that I found no word to question her.</p>
+
+<p>"There is to be a battle," she said in a low voice. "Men will fight in
+the North. I do not know when. But there will be strange uniforms in the
+woods&mdash;not British red-coats.... And I know you, also, are to be there."
+Her voice sank to a whisper.... "And there," she breathed, "you shall
+meet Death ... or Love."</p>
+
+<p>When presently my composure returned to me, and I saw her still
+regarding me across the apple-bough, I felt inclined to laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"When did this strange knowledge come to you?" I asked, smiling my
+unbelief.</p>
+
+<p>"The day I first heard your voice at my cousin Bowman's&mdash;waking me in my
+bed&mdash;and I came out and saw you in the eye of the rising sun. <i>And you
+were not alone.</i> And instantly I saw a strange battle that is not yet
+fought&mdash;and I saw you&mdash;the way you stood&mdash;there&mdash;dark and straight in a
+blinding sheet of yellow light made by cannon!... The world was aflame,
+and I saw you, tall and dark, shadowed against the blaze&mdash;but you did
+not fall.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I came to my senses, and heard the bell ringing, and asked you
+what it meant. Do you remember?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>She released the apple-bough and came under it toward me, through a snow
+of falling blossoms.</p>
+
+<p>"It will surely happen&mdash;this battle," she said. "I knew it when I saw
+you, and that other figure near you, where I sat your stolen horse and
+heard you shout at me in anger, and turned to look at you&mdash;then, also, I
+caught a glimpse of that <i>other</i> figure near you."</p>
+
+<p>"What other figure?"</p>
+
+<p>"The one which was wrapped in white&mdash;like a winding sheet&mdash;and
+veiled.... Like Death.... Or a bride, perhaps."</p>
+
+<p>A slight chill went over me, even in the warmth of the sun. But I
+laughed and said I knew not which would be the less welcome, having no
+stomach for Master Death, and even less, perhaps, for Mistress Bride.</p>
+
+<p>"Doubtless," said I, "you saw some ghost of the morning mist afloat from
+the wet earth where I stood."</p>
+
+<p>She made no answer.</p>
+
+<p>Now, as the carriage still tarried, though I had seen Colas taking out
+the horses, I asked her indulgence for a few moments, and walked over to
+the well, where my men still sat at stick-knife. And here I called Nick
+aside and laid one hand on his shoulder:</p>
+
+<p>"There was Indian smoke on Maxon an hour ago," said I. "Take Johnny
+Silver and travel the war trail north, but do not cross the creek to the
+east. I go as armed escort for a traveller to Caughnawaga, and shall
+return as soon as may be. Learn what you can and meet me here by sunrise
+tomorrow."</p>
+
+<p>Nick grinned and cast a sidelong glance at Penelope Grant, where she
+stood in the orchard, watching us.</p>
+
+<p>"Scotched by the Scotch," said he. "Adam fell; and so I knew you'd fall
+one day, John&mdash;in an apple orchard! Lord Harry! but she's a pretty
+baggage, too! Only take care, John! for she's soft and young and likes
+to be courted, and there's plenty to oblige her when you're away!"</p>
+
+<p>"Let them oblige her then," said I, vexed, though I knew not why. "She
+stole my horse and would not surrender him until I pledged my word to
+give her escort back to Caughnawaga. And that is all my story&mdash;if it
+interests you."</p>
+
+<p>"It does so," said he, his tongue in his cheek. At which I turned away
+in a temper, and encountered an officer, in militia regimentals of the
+Caughnawaga Regiment, coming through the orchard toward me.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo, Jack!" he called out to me, and I saw he was a friend of mine,
+Major Jelles Fonda, and hastened to offer him his officer's salute.</p>
+
+<p>When he had rendered it, he gave me his honest hand, and we linked arms
+and walked together toward the house, exchanging gossip concerning how
+it went with our cause in Johnstown and Caughnawaga. For the Fonda clan
+was respectable and strong among the landed gentry of Tryon, and it
+meant much to the cause of liberty that all the Fondas, I think without
+exception, had stood sturdily for their own people at a time when the
+vast majority of the influential and well-to-do had stood for their
+King.</p>
+
+<p>When we drew near the house, Major Fonda perceived Penelope and went at
+once to her.</p>
+
+<p>She dropped him a curtsey, but he took her hands and kissed her on both
+cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard you were here," said he. "We sent old Douw Fonda to Albany for
+safety, not knowing what is like to come upon us out o' that damned
+Canada. And, knowing you had gone to your cousin Bowman's, I rode over
+to my Bush, got news of you through a Mayfield militia man, and trailed
+you here. And now, my girl, you may take your choice; go to Albany and
+sit snug with the Patroon until this tempest breaks and blows over, or
+go to Johnstown Fort with me."</p>
+
+<p>"Does not Douw Fonda need me?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Only your pretty face and sweet presence to amuse him. But, until we
+are certain that Sir John and Guy Johnson do not mean to return and
+murder us in our beds, Douw Fonda will not live in Caughnawaga, and so
+needs no housekeeper."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not remain here with Lady Johnson and Mistress Swift," said I,
+"until we learn what to expect from Sir John and his friends in Canada?
+These ladies are alone and in great anxiety and sorrow. And you could be
+of aid and service and comfort."</p>
+
+<p>What made me say this I do not know. But, somehow, I did not seem to
+wish this girl to go to Albany, where there were many gay young men and
+much profligacy.</p>
+
+<p>To sit on Douw Fonda's porch with her knitting was one thing, and the
+sap-pan gallants had little opportunity to turn the head of this
+inexperienced girl; but Albany was a very different matter; and this
+maid, who said that she liked men, alone there with only an aged man to
+stand between her and idle, fashionable youth, might very easily be led
+into indiscretions. The mere thought of which caused me so lively a
+vexation that I was surprised at myself.</p>
+
+<p>And now I perceived the carriage, with horses harnessed, and Colas in a
+red waistcoat and a red and green cockade on his beaver.</p>
+
+<p>We walked together to the Summer House. Lady Johnson came out on the
+veranda, and Claudia followed her.</p>
+
+<p>When they saw Major Fonda, they bowed to him very coolly, and he made
+them both a stately salute, shrugged his epaulettes, and took snuff.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Johnson said to Penelope: "Are you decided on abandoning two lonely
+women to their own devices, Penelope?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you really mean to leave me, who could love you very dearly?"
+demanded Claudia, coming down and taking the girl by both hands.</p>
+
+<p>"If you wish it, I am now at liberty to remain with you till Mr. Fonda
+sends for me," replied Penelope. "But I have no clothes."</p>
+
+<p>Claudia embraced her with rapture. "Come to my room, darling!" she
+cried, "and you shall divide with me every stitch I own! And then we
+shall dress each other's hair! Shall we not? And we shall be very fine
+to drink a dish of tea with our friends, the enemy, yonder!"</p>
+
+<p>She flung her arm around Penelope. Going, the girl looked around at me.
+"Thank you for great kindness, my lord," she called back softly.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Johnson said in a cold voice to Major Fonda: "If our misfortunes
+have not made us contemptible to you, sir, we are at home to receive any
+enemy officer who, like yourself, Major, chances to be also a
+gentleman."</p>
+
+<p>"Damnation, Polly!" says he with a short laugh, "don't treat an old beau
+to such stiff-neck language! You know cursed well I'd go down on both
+knees and kiss your shoes, though I'd kick the King's shins if I met
+him!"</p>
+
+<p>He passed his arm through mine; we both bowed very low, then went away
+together, arm in arm, the Major fuming under his breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Silly baggage," he muttered, "to treat an old friend so high and
+mighty. Dash it, what's come over these Johnstown gentlemen and ladies.
+Can't we fight one another politely but they must affect to treat us as
+dirt beneath their feet, who once were welcome at their tables?"</p>
+
+<p>At the well I called to my men, who got up from the grass and greeted
+Major Fonda with unmilitary familiarity.</p>
+
+<p>"Major," said I, "we're off to scout the Sacandaga trail and learn what
+we can. It's cold sniffing, now, on Sir John's heels, but there was
+Iroquois smoke on old Maxon this morning, and I should like at least to
+poke the dead ashes of that same fire before moonrise."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," said the Major, gravely; and we shook hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Nick," said I briskly.</p>
+
+<p>"Ready," said he; and "Ready!" repeated every man.</p>
+
+<p>So, rifle a-trail, I led the way out into the Fish House road.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE DROWNED LANDS</h3>
+
+
+<p>For two weeks my small patrol of six remained in the vicinity of the
+Sacandaga, scouting even as far as Stony Creek, Silver Lake, and West
+River, covering Maxon, too, and the Drowned Lands, but ever hovering
+about the Sacandaga, where the great Iroquois War Trail runs through the
+dusk of primeval woods.</p>
+
+<p>But never a glimpse of Sir John did we obtain. Which was scarcely
+strange, inasmuch as the scent was already stone cold when we first
+struck it. And though we could trace the Baronet's headlong flight for
+three days' journey, by his dead fires and stinking camp débris, and,
+plainer still, by the trampled path made by his men and horses and by
+the wheel-marks of at least one cannon, our orders, which were to stop
+the War Trail from Northern enemies, permitted no further pursuit.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, given permission, I think I could have come up with him and his
+motley forces, though what my six scouts could have accomplished against
+nearly two hundred people is but idle surmise. And whether, indeed, we
+could have contrived to surprise and capture Sir John, and bring him
+back to justice, is a matter now fit only for idlest speculation.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the first week I sent Joe de Golyer and Godfrey Shew into
+Johnstown to acquaint Colonel Dayton of what we had seen and what we
+guessed concerning Sir John's probable route. De Luysnes and Johnny
+Silver I stationed on Maxon's honest nose, where the valley of the
+Sacandaga and the Drowned Lands lay like a vast map at their feet, while
+Nick Stoner and I prowled the silent Iroquois trail or slid like a pair
+of otters through the immense desolation of the Drowned Lands, from the
+jungle-like recesses of which we could see the distant glitter of
+muskets where our garrison was drilling at Fish House, and a white speck
+to the southward, which marked the little white and green lodge at
+Summer House Point.</p>
+
+<p>We had found a damaged birch canoe near the Stacking Ridge, and I think
+it was the property of John Howell, who lived on the opposite side of
+the creek a mile above. But his log house stood bolted and empty; and,
+as he was a very rabid Tory, we helped ourselves to his old canoe, and
+Nick patched it with gum and made two paddles.</p>
+
+<p>In this leaky craft we threaded the spectral Drowned Lands, penetrating
+every hidden water-lead, every concealed creek, every lost pond which
+glimmered unseen amid cranberry bogs, vast wastes of stunted willow,
+pinxter shrubs in bloom, and the endless wilderness of reeds. Nesting
+black-ducks rose on clattering wings in scores and scores at our
+stealthy invasion; herons and bitterns flapped heavily skyward; great
+chain-pike, as long as a young boy, slid like shadows under our dipping
+paddles. But we saw no Indians.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was there a sign of any canoe amid the Drowned Lands; not a moccasin
+print in swamp-moss or mud; no trace of Iroquois on the Stacking Ridge,
+where already wild pigeons were flying among the beech and oak trees,
+busy with courtship and nesting.</p>
+
+<p>It was now near the middle of June, but Nick thought that Sir John had
+not yet reached Canada, nor was like to accomplish that terrible journey
+through a pathless wilderness under a full month.</p>
+
+<p>We know now that he did accomplish it in nineteen days, and arrived with
+his starving people in a terrible plight.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> But nobody then supposed it
+possible that he could travel so quickly. Even his own Mohawks never
+dreamed he was already so far advanced on his flight; and this was their
+vital mistake; for there had been sent from Canada a war party to meet
+and aid Sir John; and, by hazard, I was to learn of this alarming
+business in a manner I had neither expected nor desired.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>I was sitting on a great, smooth bowlder, where the little trout stream,
+which tumbles down Maxon from the east, falls into Hans Creek. It was a
+still afternoon and very warm in the sun, but pleasant there, where the
+confluence of the waters made a cool and silvery clashing-noise among
+the trees in full new leaf.</p>
+
+<p>Nick had cooked dinner&mdash;parched corn and trout, which we caught in the
+brook with one of my fish hooks and a red wampum bead from my moccasins
+tied above the barb.</p>
+
+<p>And now, dinner ended, Nick lay asleep with a mat of moss over his face
+to keep off black flies, and I mounted guard, not because I apprehended
+danger, but desired not to break a military rule which had become
+already a habit among my handful of men.</p>
+
+<p>I was seated, as I say, on a bowlder, with my legs hanging over the
+swirling water and my rifle across both knees. And I was thinking those
+vague and dreamy thoughts which float ghost-like through young men's
+minds when skies are blue in early summer and life seems but an endless
+vista through unnumbered ćons to come.</p>
+
+<p>Through a pleasant and reflective haze which possessed my mind moved
+figures of those I knew or had known&mdash;my honoured father, grave,
+dark-eyed, deliberate in all things, living for intellectual pleasure
+alone;&mdash;my dear mother, ardent yet timid, thrilled ever by what was most
+beautiful and best in the world, and loving all things made by God.</p>
+
+<p>I thought, too, of my silly kinsman in Paris, Lord Stormont, and how I
+had declined his pompous patronage, to carve for myself a career, aided
+by the slender means afforded me; and how Billy Alexander did use me
+very kindly&mdash;a raw youth in a New York school, left suddenly orphaned
+and alone.</p>
+
+<p>I thought of Stevie Watts, of Polly, of the DeLancys, Crugers, and other
+King's people who had made me welcome, doubtless for the sake of my Lord
+Stormont. And how I finally came to know Sir William Johnson, and his
+great kindness to me.</p>
+
+<p>All these things I thought of in the golden afternoon, seated by Hans
+Creek, my eyes on duty, my thoughts a-gypsying far afield, where I saw,
+in my mind's eye, my log house in Fonda's Bush, my new-cleared land, my
+neighbors' houses, the dark walls of the forest.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, drifting between each separate memory, glided ever a slender shape
+with yellow hair, and young, unfathomed eyes as dark as the velvet on
+the wings of that earliest of all our butterflies, which we call the
+Beauty of Camberwell.</p>
+
+<p>Think of whom I might, or of what scenes, always this slim phantom
+drifted in between the sequences of thought, and vaguely I seemed to see
+her yellow hair, and that glimmer which sometimes came into her eyes,
+and which was the lovely dawning of her smile.</p>
+
+<p>War seemed very far away, death but a fireside story half forgotten. For
+my thoughts were growing faintly fragrant with the scent of apple
+blossoms&mdash;white and pink bloom&mdash;sweet as her breath when she had
+whispered to me.</p>
+
+<p>A strange young thing to haunt me with her fragrance&mdash;this girl
+Penelope&mdash;her smooth hands and snowy skin&mdash;and her little naked feet,
+like whitest silver there in the dew at Bowman's&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, thought froze; from the foliage across the creek, scarce
+twenty feet from where I sat, and without the slightest sound, stepped
+an Indian in his paint.</p>
+
+<p>Like a shot squirrel I dropped behind my bowlder and lay flat among the
+shore ferns, my heart so wild that my levelled rifle shook with the
+shock of palsy.</p>
+
+<p>The roar of the waters was loud in my ears, but his calm voice came
+through it distinctly:</p>
+
+<p>"Peace, brother!" he said in the soft, Oneida dialect, and lifted his
+right hand high in the sunshine, the open palm turned toward me.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't move!" I called across the stream. "Lay your blanket on the
+ground and place your gun across it!"</p>
+
+<p>Calmly he obeyed, then straightened up and stood there empty handed,
+naked in his paint, except for the beaded breadth of deer-skin that fell
+from belt to knee.</p>
+
+<p>"Nick!" I called cautiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I am awake and I have laid him over my rifle-sight," came Nick's voice
+from the woods behind me. "Look sharp, John, that there be not others
+ambuscaded along the bank."</p>
+
+<p>"He could have killed me," said I, "without showing himself. By his
+paint I take him for an Oneida."</p>
+
+<p>"That's Oneida paint," replied Nick, cautiously, "but it's war paint,
+all the same. Shall I let him have it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet. The Oneidas, so far, have been friendly. For God's sake, be
+careful what you do."</p>
+
+<p>"Best parley quick then," returned Nick, "for I trust no Iroquois. You
+know his lingo. Speak to him."</p>
+
+<p>I called across the stream to the Indian: "Who are you, brother? What is
+your nation and what is your clan, and what are you doing on the
+Sacandaga, with your face painted in black and yellow bars, and fresh
+oil on your limbs and lock?"</p>
+
+<p>He said, in his quiet but distinct voice: "My nation is Oneida; my clan
+is the Tortoise; I am Tahioni. I am a young and inexperienced warrior.
+No scalp yet hangs from my girdle. I come as a friend. I come as my
+brother's ally. This is the reason that I seek my brother on the
+Sacandaga. Hiero! Tahioni has spoken."</p>
+
+<p>And he quietly folded his arms.</p>
+
+<p>He was a magnificent youth, quite perfect in limb and body, and as light
+of skin as the Mohawks, who are often nearly white, even when pure
+breed.</p>
+
+<p>He stood unarmed, except for the knife and war-axe swinging from
+crimson-beaded sheaths at his cincture. Still, I did not rise or show
+myself, and my rifle lay level with his belly.</p>
+
+<p>I said, in as good Oneida as I could muster:</p>
+
+<p>"Young Oneida warrior, I have listened to what you have had to say. I
+have heard you patiently, oh Tahioni, my brother of the great Oneida
+nation who wears an <i>Onondaga name</i>!" For Tahioni means <i>The Wolf</i> in
+Onondaga dialect.</p>
+
+<p>There was a silence, broken by Nick's low voice from somewhere behind
+me: "Shall I shoot the Onondaga dog?"</p>
+
+<p>"Will you mind your business?" I retorted sharply.</p>
+
+<p>The Oneida had smiled slightly at my sarcasm concerning his name; his
+eyes rested on the rock behind which I lay snug, stock against cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"I am Tahioni," he repeated simply. "My mother's clan is the Onondaga
+Tortoise."</p>
+
+<p>Which explained his clan and name, of course, if his father was Oneida.</p>
+
+<p>"I continue to listen," said I warily.</p>
+
+<p>"Tahioni has spoken," he said; and calmly seated himself.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment I remained silent, yet still dared not show myself.</p>
+
+<p>"Is my brother alone?" I asked at last.</p>
+
+<p>"Two Oneida youths and my adopted sister are with me, brother."</p>
+
+<p>"Where are they?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are here."</p>
+
+<p>"Let them show themselves," said I, instantly bitten by suspicion.</p>
+
+<p>Two young men and a girl came calmly from the thicket and stood on the
+bank. All carried blanket and rifle. At a sign from Tahioni, all three
+laid their blankets at their feet and placed their rifles across them.</p>
+
+<p>One, a stocky, powerful youth, spoke first:</p>
+
+<p>"I am Kwiyeh.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> My clan is the Oneida Tortoise."</p>
+
+<p>The other young fellow said: "Brother, I am Hanatoh,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> of the Oneida
+Tortoise."</p>
+
+<p>Then they calmly seated themselves.</p>
+
+<p>I rose from my cover, my rifle in the hollow of my left arm. Nick came
+from his bed of juniper and stood looking very hard at the Oneidas
+across the stream.</p>
+
+<p>Save for the girl, all were naked except for breech-clout, sporran, and
+ankle moccasins; all were oiled and in their paint, and their heads
+shaven, leaving only the lock. There could be no doubt that this was a
+war party. No doubt, also, that they could have slain me very easily
+where I sat, had they wished to do so.</p>
+
+<p>There was, just below us, a string of rocks crossing the stream. I
+sprang from one to another and came out on their bank of the creek; and
+Nick followed, leaping the boulders like a lithe tree-cat.</p>
+
+<p>The Oneidas, who had been seated, rose as I came up to them. I gave my
+hand to each of them in turn, until I faced the girl. And then I
+hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>For never anywhere, among any nation of the Iroquois Confederacy, had I
+seen any woman so costumed, painted, and accoutred.</p>
+
+<p>For this girl looked more like a warrior than a woman; and, save for her
+slim and hard young body's shape, and her full hair, must have passed
+for an adolescent wearing his first hatchet and his first touch of war
+paint.</p>
+
+<p>She, also, was naked to the waist, her breasts scarce formed. Two braids
+of hair lay on her shoulders, and her skin was palely bronzed and smooth
+in its oil, as amber without a flaw.</p>
+
+<p>But she wore leggins of doe-skin, deeply fringed with pale green and
+cinctured in at her waist, where war-axe and knife hung on her left
+thigh, and powder horn and bullet pouch on her right. And over these she
+wore knee moccasins of green snake-skin, the feet of which were
+deer-hide sewn thick with scarlet, purple, and greenish wampum, which
+glistened like a humming-bird's throat.</p>
+
+<p>I said, wondering: "Who is this girl in a young warrior's dress, who
+wears a disk of blue war-paint on her forehead?"</p>
+
+<p>But Nick pulled my arm and said in my ear:</p>
+
+<p>"Have you heard of the little maid of Askalege? Yonder she stands, thank
+God! For the Oneida follow their prophetess; and the Oneida are with us
+in this war if she becomes our friend!"</p>
+
+<p>I had heard of the little Athabasca girl, found in the forest by
+Skenandoa and Spencer, and how she grew up like a boy at Askalege, with
+the brave half-breed interpreter, Thomas Spencer; and how it was her
+delight to roam the forests and talk&mdash;they said&mdash;to trees and beasts by
+moonlight; how she knew the language of all things living, and could
+hear the tiny voices of the growing grass! Legends and fairy tales, but
+by many believed.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, Sir William had seen the child at Askalege dancing in the stream of
+sparks that poured from Spencer's smithy when the Oneida blacksmith
+pumped his home-made bellows or struck fire-flakes from the cherry-red
+iron.</p>
+
+<p>I said: "Are you sure, Nick? For never have I seen an Indian maid play
+boy in earnest."</p>
+
+<p>"She is the little witch-maid of Askalege&mdash;their prophetess," he
+repeated. "I saw her once at Oneida Lake, dancing on the shore amid a
+whirl of yellow butterflies at their strawberry feast. God send she
+favours our party, for the Oneidas will follow her."</p>
+
+<p>I turned to the girl, who was standing quietly beside a young silver
+birch-tree.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you, my sister, who wear a little blue moon on your brow, and
+the dress and weapons of an adolescent?"</p>
+
+<p>"Brother," she said in her soft Oneida tongue, "I am an Athabascan of
+the Heron Clan, adopted into the Oneida nation. My name is Thiohero,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a>
+and my privilege is Oyaneh.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> Brother, I come as a friend to liberty,
+and to help you fight your great war against your King.</p>
+
+<p>"Brother, I have spoken," she concluded, with lowered eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Surprised and charmed by this young girl's modesty and quiet speech, but
+not knowing how to act, I thanked her as I had the young men, and
+offered her my hand.</p>
+
+<p>She took it, lifted her deep, wide eyes unabashed, looked me calmly and
+intelligently in the face, and said in English:</p>
+
+<p>"My adopted father is Thomas Spencer, the friend to liberty, and Oneida
+interpreter to your General Schuyler. My adopted uncle is the great
+war-chief Skenandoa, also your ally. The Oneida are my people. And are
+now become your brothers in this new war."</p>
+
+<p>"Your words make our hearts light, my sister."</p>
+
+<p>"Your words brighten our sky, my elder brother."</p>
+
+<p>Our clasped hands fell apart. I turned to Tahioni:</p>
+
+<p>"Brother, why are you in battle-paint?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>At that the eyes of the Oneida youths began to sparkle and burn; and
+Tahioni straightened up and struck the knife-hilt at his belt with a
+quick, fierce gesture.</p>
+
+<p>"Give me a name that I may know my brother," he said bluntly. "Even a
+tree has a name." And I flushed at this merited rebuke.</p>
+
+<p>"My name is John Drogue, and I am lieutenant of our new State Rangers,"
+said I. "And this is my comrade, Nicholas Stoner, of Fonda's Bush, and
+first sergeant in my little company."</p>
+
+<p>"Brother John," said he, "then listen to this news we Oneidas bring from
+the North: a Canada war-party is now on the Iroquois trail, looking for
+Sir John to guide them to the Canadas!"</p>
+
+<p>Taken aback, I stared at the young warrior for a moment, then,
+recovering composure, I translated for Nick what he had just told me.</p>
+
+<p>Then I turned again to Tahioni, the Wolf:</p>
+
+<p>"Where is this same war-party?" I demanded, still scarce convinced.</p>
+
+<p>"At West River, near the Big Eddy," said he. "<i>They have taken scalps.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;why, then, it <i>is</i> war!" I exclaimed excitedly. "And what people
+are these who have taken scalps in the North? Are they Caniengas?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mohawks!" He fairly spat out the insulting term, which no friendly
+Iroquois would dream of using to a Canienga; and the contemptuous word
+seemed to inflame the other Oneidas, for they all picked up their rifles
+and crowded around me, watching my face with gleaming eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"How many?" I asked, still a little stunned by this reality, though I
+had long foreseen the probability.</p>
+
+<p>"Thirty," said the girl Thiohero, turning from Nick, to whom she had
+been translating what was being said in the Oneida tongue.</p>
+
+<p>Now, in a twinkling, I found myself faced with an instant crisis, and
+must act as instantly.</p>
+
+<p>I had two good men on Maxon, the French trapper, Johnny Silver and
+Benjamin De Luysnes; Nick and I counted two more. With four Oneida, and
+perhaps Joe de Golyer and Godfrey Shew&mdash;if we could pick them up on the
+Vlaie&mdash;we would be ten stout men to stop this Mohawk war-party until the
+garrisons at Summer House Point and Fish House could drive the impudent
+marauders North again.</p>
+
+<p>Turning to Thiohero, I said as much in English. She nodded and spoke to
+the others in Oneida; and I saw their eager and brilliant eyes begin to
+glitter.</p>
+
+<p>Now, I carried always with me in the bosom of my buckskin shirt a
+<i>carnet</i>, or tablet of good paper, and a pencil given me years ago by
+Sir William.</p>
+
+<p>And now I seated myself on a rock and took my instruments and wrote:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="right">
+"Hans Creek, near<br />
+Maxon Brook,<br />
+June 13th, 1776.</p>
+
+<p>"To the Officer comm<sup>d'ng</sup> y<sup>e</sup><br />
+Garrison at y<sup>e</sup> Summer House<br />
+on Vlaie,</p>
+
+<p>"Sir:</p>
+
+
+<p>"I am to acquaint you that this day, about two o'clock, afternoon,
+arrived in my camp four Oneidas who give an account that a Mohawk
+War Party is now at y<sup>e</sup> Big Eddy on West River, headed south.</p>
+
+<p>"By the same intelligence I am to understand that this War Party
+<i>has taken scalps</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, anybody familiar with the laws and customs of the Iroquois
+Confederacy understands what this means.</p>
+
+<p>"Murder, or mere slaying, when not accompanied by such mutilation,
+need not constitute an act of war involving nation and Confederacy
+in formal declaration.</p>
+
+<p>"But the taking of a single scalp means only one thing: that the
+nation whose warrior scalps an enemy approves the trophy and
+declares itself at war with the nation of the victim.</p>
+
+<p>"I am aware, sir, that General Schuyler and Mr. Kirkland and others
+are striving mightily in Albany to placate the Iroquois, and that
+they still entertain such hope, although the upper Mohawks are gone
+off with Brant, and Guy Johnson holds in his grasp the fighting men
+of the Confederacy, save only the Oneida, and also in spite of
+news, known to be certain, that Mohawk Indians were in battle-paint
+at St. John's.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, therefore, conscious of my responsibility, and asking God's
+guidance in this supreme moment, lest I commit error or permit hot
+blood to confuse my clearer mind, I propose to travel instantly to
+the West River with my scout of four Rangers, and four Oneidas, and
+ask of this Mohawk War Party an explanation in the name of the
+Continental Congress and His Excellency, our Com<sup>'nder</sup> in Chief.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, I doubt not that you will order your two garrisons to prepare
+for immediate defense, and also to support my scout on the
+Sacandaga; and to send an express to Johnstown as soon as may be,
+to acquaint Colonel Dayton of what measures I propose to take to
+carry out my orders which are <i>to stop the Sacandaga trail</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"This, sir, it is my present endeavour to do.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">"I am, sir, with all respect,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">"Y<sup>r</sup> most obedient<br /></span>
+<span class="i6">"John Drogue, L<sup>ieut</sup> Rangers."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>When I finished, I discovered that Nick and the Oneidas had fastened on
+their blanket-packs and were gathered a little distance away in animated
+conversation, the little maid of Askalege translating.</p>
+
+<p>Nick had fetched my pack; I strapped it, picked up my rifle, and walked
+swiftly into the woods; and without any word from me they fell into file
+at my heels, headed west for Fish House and the fateful river.</p>
+
+<p>My scout of six moved very swiftly and without noise; and it was not an
+hour before I caught sight of a Continental soldier on bullock guard,
+and saw cattle among low willows.</p>
+
+<p>The soldier was scared and bawled lustily for his mates; but among them
+was one of the Sammons, who knew me; and they let us through with little
+delay.</p>
+
+<p>Fish House was full o' soldiers a-sunning in every window, and under
+them, on the grass; and here headquarters guards stopped us until the
+captain in command could be found, whilst the gaping Continentals
+crowded around us for news, and stared at our Oneidas, whose quiet
+dignity and war paint astonished our men, I think. To the west and
+south, and along the river, I saw many soldiers in their shirts,
+a-digging to make an earthwork; and presently from this redoubt came a
+Continental Captain, out o' breath, who listened anxiously to what news
+I had gathered, and who took my letter and promised to send it by an
+express to Summer House Point.</p>
+
+<p>A quartermaster's sergeant asked very civilly if I desired to draw
+rations for my scout; and I drew parched corn, salt, dried fish, jerked
+venison, and pork from the brine, for ten men; and Nick and I and my
+Oneidas did divide between us the burthen.</p>
+
+<p>"The dogs!" he kept repeating in a confused way&mdash;"the dirty dogs, to
+take our scalps! And I pray God your painted Oneidas yonder may do the
+like for them!"</p>
+
+<p>I saw a horse saddled and a soldier mount and gallop off with my letter.
+That was sufficient for me; I gave the Continental Captain the officers'
+salute, and looked around at my men, who had made a green fire for me on
+the grass in front of the house.</p>
+
+<p>It was smoking thickly, now, so I took a soldier's watch-coat by the
+skirts, glanced up at Maxon Ridge, then, flinging wide the garment above
+the fire, kept it a-flutter there and moved it up and down till the
+jetted smoke mounted upward in great clots, three together, then one,
+then three, then one.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, high on Maxon, I saw smoke, and knew that Johnny Silver
+understood. So I flung the watch-coat to the soldier, turned, and walked
+swiftly along the river bank, where sheep grazed, then entered the
+forest with Nick at my heels and the four Oneidas a-padding in his
+tracks.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE LITTLE RED FOOT</h3>
+
+
+<p>By dusk we were ten rifles; for an hour after we left Fish House Johnny
+Silver and Luysnes joined us on the Sacandaga trail; and, just as the
+sun set behind the Mayfield mountains, comes rushing down stream a canoe
+with Godfrey Shew's bow-paddle flashing red in the last rays and Joe de
+Golyer steering amid the rattling rapids, nigh buried in a mountain of
+silvery spray.</p>
+
+<p>And here, by the river, we ate, but lighted no fire, though it seemed
+safe to do so.</p>
+
+<p>I sent Godfrey Shew and the Water-snake far up the Iroquois trail to
+watch it. The others gathered in a friendly circle to munch their corn
+and jerked meat, and the Frenchmen were merry, laughing and jesting and
+casting sly, amorous eyes toward Thiohero, who laughed, too, in friendly
+fashion and was at her ease and plainly not displeased with gallantry.</p>
+
+<p>It had proved a swift comradery between us and our young Oneidas, and I
+marvelled at the rapid accomplishment of such friendly accord in so
+brief a time, yet understood it came through the perfect faith of these
+Oneidas in their young Athabasca witch; and that what their prophetess
+found good they did not even think of questioning.</p>
+
+<p>Her voice was soft, her smile bewitching; she ate with the healthy
+appetite of an animal, yet was polite to those who offered meat. And her
+sweet "neah-wennah"<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> never failed any courtesy offered by these rough
+Forest Runners, who now, for the first time in their reckless lives, I
+think, were afforded a glimpse of the forest Indian as he really is when
+at his ease and among friends.</p>
+
+<p>For it is not true that the Iroquois live perpetually in their paint;
+that they are cruel by nature, brutal, stern, and masters of silence; or
+that they stalk gloomily through life with hatchet ever loosened and no
+pursuit except war in their ferocious minds.</p>
+
+<p>White men who have mistreated them see them so; but the real Iroquois,
+except the Senecas, who are different, are naturally a kindly, merry,
+and trustful people among themselves, not quarrelsome, not fierce, but
+like children, loving laughter and all things gay and bright and
+mischievous.</p>
+
+<p>Their women, though sometimes broad in speech and jests, are more truly
+chaste in conduct than the women of any nation I ever heard of, except
+the Irish.</p>
+
+<p>They have their fixed and honourable places in clan, nation, and Federal
+affairs.</p>
+
+<p>Rank follows the female line; the son of a chief does not succeed to the
+antlers, but any of his mother's relatives may. And in the Great Rite of
+the Iroquois, which is as sacred to them as is our religion to us, and
+couched in poetry as beautiful as ever Homer sang, the most moving part
+of the ceremony concerns the Iroquois women,&mdash;the women of the Six
+Nations of the Long House, respected, honoured, and beloved.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>We ate leisurely, feeling perfectly secure there in the starlight of the
+soft June night.</p>
+
+<p>The Iroquois war-trail ran at our elbows, trodden a foot deep, hard as a
+sheep path, and from eighteen inches to two feet in width&mdash;a clean,
+firm, unbroken trail through a primeval wilderness, running mile after
+mile, mile after mile, over mountains, through valleys, by lonely lakes,
+along lost rivers, to the distant Canadas in the North.</p>
+
+<p>On this trail, above us, two of my men lay watching, as I have said,
+which was merely a customary precaution, for we were far out of earshot
+of the Big Eddy, and even of our own sentries.</p>
+
+<p>We were like one family eating together, and Silver and Luysnes jested
+and played pranks on each other, and de Golyer and Nick entered into
+gayest conversation with the Oneidas through their interpreter, the
+River-reed.</p>
+
+<p>As for Nick, I saw him making calf's eyes at the lithe young sorceress,
+which I perceived displeased her not at all; yet she gaily divided
+herself between translating for the others and keeping up a lively
+repartee with Nick.</p>
+
+<p>The Oneidas, now, had begun to shine up their war-hatchets, sitting
+cross-legged and contentedly rubbing up knife, axe, and rifle; and I was
+glad to see them so at home and so confident of our friendship.</p>
+
+<p>Older men might not have been so easily won, but these untried young
+warriors seemed very children, and possessing the lovable qualities of
+children, being alternately grave and gay, serious and laughing, frank
+and impatient, yet caressing in speech and gesture.</p>
+
+<p>From Kwiyeh, the Screech-owl, I had an account of how, burning for
+glory, these four youngsters had stolen away from Oneida Lake, and,
+painting themselves, had gone North of their own accord, to win fame for
+the Oneida nation, which for the greater part had espoused our cause.</p>
+
+<p>He told me that they had seen Sir John pass, floundering madly northward
+and dragging three brass cannon; but explained naďvely that four Oneidas
+considered it unsafe to give battle to two hundred white men.</p>
+
+<p>For a week, however, it appeared, they had hung on Sir John's flanks,
+skulking for a stray scalp; but it was evident that the Baronet's people
+were thoroughly frightened, and the heavy flank guards and the triple
+line of sentries by night made any hope of a stray scalp futile.</p>
+
+<p>Then, it appeared, these four Oneidas gave up the quest and struck out
+for the Iroquois trail. And suddenly came upon nearly two score Mohawks,
+silently passing southward, painted for war, oiled, shaved, and
+stripped, and evidently searching for Sir John, to aid and guide him in
+his flight to Canada.</p>
+
+<p>Which proved to me the Baronet's baseness, because his flight was
+plainly a premeditated one, and the Mohawks could not have known of it
+unless Sir John had been in constant communication with Canada&mdash;a thing
+he had pledged his honour not to do.</p>
+
+<p>Others around me, now, were listening to the burly young Oneida's
+account of their first war-path; and presently their young sorceress
+took up the tale in English and in Oneida, explaining with lively
+gestures to both red men and white.</p>
+
+<p>"Not one of the Mohawks saw us," she said scornfully, "and when they
+made a camp and had sent their hunters out to kill game, we came so near
+that we could see their warriors curing and hooping the scalps they had
+taken and painting on every scalp the Little Red Foot<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a>&mdash;even on the
+scalps of two little boys."</p>
+
+<p>Nick turned pale, but said nothing. A sickness came to my stomach and I
+spoke with difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>"What were these scalps, little sister, which you saw the Mohawks
+curing?"</p>
+
+<p>"White people's. Three were of men,&mdash;one very thin and gray; two were
+the glossy hair of women; and two the scalps of children&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She flung back her blanket with a peculiarly graceful gesture:</p>
+
+<p>"Be honoured, O white brothers, that these Mohawk dogs were forced to
+paint upon every scalp the Little Red Foot!"</p>
+
+<p>After a silence: "Some poor settler's family," muttered Nick; and fell
+a-fiddling with his hatchet.</p>
+
+<p>"All died fighting," I added in a dull voice.</p>
+
+<p>Thiohero snapped her fingers and her dark eyes flamed.</p>
+
+<p>"What are the Mohawks, after all!" she said in a tense voice. "Who are
+they, to paint for war without fire-right given them at Onondaga? What
+do they amount to, these Keepers of the Eastern Gate, since Sir William
+died?</p>
+
+<p>"They have become outlaws and there is no honour among them!</p>
+
+<p>"Their clan-right is destroyed and neither Wolf, Bear, nor Tortoise know
+them any longer. Nor does any ensign of my own clan of the Heron know
+these mad yellow wolves that howl and tear the Long House with their
+teeth to destroy it! Like carcajoux, they defile the Iroquois League and
+smother its fire in their filth! Dig up the ashes of Onondaga for any
+living ember, O you Oneidas! You shall find not one live spark! And this
+is what the Canienga have done to the Great Confederacy!"</p>
+
+<p>Tahioni said, looking straight ahead of him: "The Great League of the
+Iroquois is broken. Skenandoa has said it, and he has painted his face
+scarlet! The Long House crumbles slowly to its fall.</p>
+
+<p>"Those who should have guarded the Eastern Gate have broken it down.
+Death to the Canienga!"</p>
+
+<p>Kwiyeh lifted his right hand high in the starlight:</p>
+
+<p>"Death to the Canienga! They have defiled Thendara. Spencer has said it.
+They have spat upon the Fire at the Wood's Edge. They have hewn down the
+Great Tree. They have uncovered the war-axe which lay deep buried under
+the roots.</p>
+
+<p>"Death to the Canienga!"</p>
+
+<p>I turned to Thiohero: "O River-reed, my little sister! Oyaneh! Is it
+true that your great chief, Skenandoa, has put on red paint?"</p>
+
+<p>She said calmly: "It is true, my brother. Skenandoa has painted himself
+in red. And when your General Herkimer rides into battle, on his right
+hand rides Skenandoa; and on his left hand rides Thomas Spencer, the
+Oneida interpreter!"<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p>
+
+<p>Tahioni said solemnly: "And before them rides the Holder of Heaven. We
+Oneidas can not doubt it. Is it true, my sister?"</p>
+
+<p>The girl answered: "The Holder of Heaven has flung a red wampum belt
+between Oneida and Canienga! Five more red belts remain in his hand.
+They are so brightly red that even the Senecas can see the colour of
+these belts from the Western Gate of the Long House."</p>
+
+<p>There was a silence; then I chose De Luysnes and Kwiyeh to relieve our
+sentinels, and went north with them along the starlit trail.</p>
+
+<p>When I returned with Hanoteh and Godfrey Shew, the Oneidas were still
+sitting up in their blankets, and the Frenchmen lay on theirs, listening
+to Nick, who had pulled his fife from his hunting shirt and was trilling
+the air of the Little Red Foot while Joe de Golyer sang the words of the
+endless and dreary ballad&mdash;old-time verses, concerning bloody deeds of
+the Shawanese, Western Lenape, and French in '56, when blood ran from
+every creek and man, woman and child went down to death fighting.</p>
+
+<p>I hated the words, but the song had ever haunted me with its quaint and
+sad refrain:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">"Lord Loudon he weareth a fine red coat,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And red is his ladye's foot-mantelle;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Red flyeth ye flagge from his pleasure-boat,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And red is the wine he loves so well:<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">But, oh! for the dead at Minden Town,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Naked and bloody and black with soot,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Where the Lenni-Lenape and the French came down<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To paint them all with the Little Red Foot!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"For God's sake, quit thy piping, Nick," said I, "and let us sleep while
+we may, for we move again at dawn."</p>
+
+<p>At which Nick obediently tucked away his fife, and de Golyer, who had a
+thin voice like a tree-cat, held his songful tongue; and presently we
+all lay flat and rolled us in our blankets.</p>
+
+<p>The night was still, save for a love-sick panther somewhere on the
+mountain, a-caterwauling under the June stars. But the distant and
+melancholy love-song and the golden melody of the stream pouring through
+its bowlders blended not unpleasantly in my ears, and presently
+conspired to lull me into slumber.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The mountain peaks were red when I awoke and spoke aloud to rouse my
+people. One by one they sat up, owlish with sleep, yet soon clearing
+their eyes and minds with remembering the business that lay before us.</p>
+
+<p>I sent Joe de Golyer and Tahioni to relieve our sentinels, Luysnes and
+the Screech-owl.</p>
+
+<p>When these came in with report that all was still as death on the
+Iroquois trail, we ate breakfast and drank at the river, where some
+among us also washed our bodies,&mdash;among others the River-reed, who
+stripped unabashed, innocent of any shame, and cleansed herself
+knee-deep in a crystal green pool under the Indian willows.</p>
+
+<p>When she came back, the disk of blue paint was gone from her brow, and I
+saw her a-fishing in her beaded wallet and presently bring forth blue
+and red paint and a trader's mirror about two inches in diameter.</p>
+
+<p>Then the little maid of Askalege sat down cross-legged and began to
+paint herself for battle.</p>
+
+<p>At the root of her hair, where it made a point above her forehead, she
+painted a little crescent moon in blue. And touched no more her face;
+but on her belly she made a blue picture of a heron&mdash;her clan being the
+Heron, which is an ensign unknown among Iroquois.</p>
+
+<p>Now she took red paint, and upon her chest she made a tiny human foot.</p>
+
+<p>I was surprised, for neither for war nor for any ceremony I ever heard
+of had I seen that dread symbol on any Indian.</p>
+
+<p>The Oneidas, also, were looking at her in curiosity and astonishment,
+pausing in their own painting to discover what she was about.</p>
+
+<p>Then, as it struck me, so, apparently, it came to them at the same
+instant what their sorceress meant,&mdash;what pledge to friend and foe alike
+this tiny red foot embodied, shining above her breast. And the two young
+warriors who had painted the tortoise in blue upon their bellies, now
+made each a little red foot upon their chests.</p>
+
+<p>"By gar!" exclaimed Silver, "ees it onlee ze gens-du-bois who shall made
+a boast to die fighting? Nom de dieu, non!" And he unrolled his blanket
+and pulled out a packet of red cloth and thread and needle&mdash;which is
+like a Frenchman, who lacks for nothing, even in the wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>He made a pattern very deftly out of his cloth, using the keen point of
+his hunting knife; and, as we all, now, wished to sew a little red foot
+upon the breasts of our buckskin shirts, and as he had cloth enough for
+all, and for Joe de Golyer, too, when we should come up with him, I and
+my men were presently marked with the dread device, which was our
+pledge and our defiance.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The sun had painted scarlet the lower Adirondack peaks when we started
+north on the Sacandaga trail.</p>
+
+<p>When we came up with our sentinels, I gave Joe time to sew on his
+symbol, and the Oneida time to paint it upon his person. Then we
+examined flint and priming, tightened girth and cincture, tested knife,
+hatchet, and the stoppers of our powder horns; and I went from one to
+another to inspect all, and to make my dispositions for the march to the
+Big Eddy on West River.</p>
+
+<p>We marched in the following fashion: Tahioni and Nick as left flankers,
+two hundred yards in advance of us, and in sight of the trail. On the
+right flank, the Water-snake and Johnny Silver at the same intervals.</p>
+
+<p>Then, on the trail itself, I leading, Luysnes next, then the River-reed.
+Then a hundred yards interval, and Joe de Golyer on the left rear,
+Kwiyeh on the right rear, and Godfrey on the trail.</p>
+
+<p>"And," I said, "if you catch a roving Tree-eater, slay him not, but
+bring him to me, for if there be any of these wild rovers, the
+Montagnais, in our vicinity, they should know something of what is now
+happening in the Canadas, and they shall tell us what they know, or I'm
+a Tory! Forward! Our alarm signal is the long call-note of the Canada
+sparrow!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3>WEST RIVER</h3>
+
+
+<p>The Water-snake caught an Adirondack just before ten o'clock, and was
+holding him on the trail as I came up, followed by Luysnes and Thiohero.</p>
+
+<p>The Indian was a poor, starved-looking creature in ragged buckskins and
+long hair, from which a few wild-turkey quills fell to his scrawny neck.</p>
+
+<p>He wore no paint, had been armed with a trade-rifle, the hammer of which
+was badly loosened and mended with copper wire, and otherwise he carried
+arrows in a quiver and a greasy bow.</p>
+
+<p>Like a fierce, lean forest thing, made abject by fear, the Adirondack's
+sloe-black eyes now flickered at me, now avoided my gaze. I looked down
+at the rags which served him for a blanket, and on which lay his
+wretched arms, including knife and hatchet.</p>
+
+<p>"Let him loose," said I to the Water-snake; "here is no Mengwe but a
+poor brother, who sees us armed and in our paint and is afraid."</p>
+
+<p>And I went to the man and offered my hand. Which he touched as though I
+were a rattlesnake.</p>
+
+<p>"Brother," said I, "we white men and Oneidas have no quarrel with any
+Saguenay that I know about. Our quarrel is with the Canienga, and that
+is the reason we wear paint on this trail. And we have stopped our
+Saguenay brother in the forest on his lawful journey, to say to him, and
+to all Saguenays, that we mean them no harm."</p>
+
+<p>There was an absolute silence; Luysnes and Thiohero drew closer around
+the Tree-eater; the Water-snake gazed at his captive in slight disgust,
+yet, I noticed, held his rifle in a position for instant use.</p>
+
+<p>The Saguenay's slitted eyes travelled from one to another, then he
+looked at me.</p>
+
+<p>"Brother," I said, "how many Maquas are there camped near the Big
+Eddy?"</p>
+
+<p>His low, thick voice answered in a dialect or language I did not
+comprehend.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you speak Iroquois?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>He muttered something in his jargon. Thiohero touched my arm:</p>
+
+<p>"The Saguenay says he understands the Iroquois tongue, but can speak it
+only with difficulty. He says that he is a hunter and not a warrior."</p>
+
+<p>"Ask him to answer me concerning the Maqua."</p>
+
+<p>A burst of volubility spurted from the prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>Again the girl translated the guttural reply:</p>
+
+<p>"He says he saw painted Mohawks fishing in the Big Eddy, and others
+watching the trail. He does not know how many, because he can not count
+above five numbers. He says the Mohawks stoned him and mocked him,
+calling him Tree-eater and Woodpecker; and they drove him away from the
+Big Eddy, saying that no Saguenay was at liberty to fish in Canienga
+territory until permitted by the Canienga; and that unless he started
+back to Canada, where he belonged, the Iroquois women would catch him
+and beat him with nettles."</p>
+
+<p>As Thiohero uttered the dread name, Canienga, I could see our captive
+shrink with the deep fear that the name inspired. And I think any
+Iroquois terrified him, for it seemed as though he dared not sustain the
+half-contemptuous, half-indifferent glances of my Oneidas, but his eyes
+shifted to mine in dumb appeal for refuge.</p>
+
+<p>"What is my brother's name?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yellow Leaf," translated the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"His clan?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Hawk," she said, shrugging her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless," said I, very quietly, "my Saguenay brother is a man, and
+not an animal to be mocked by the Maqua!"</p>
+
+<p>And I stooped and picked up his blanket and weapons, and gave them to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"The Saguenays are free people," said I. "The Yellow Leaf is free as is
+his clan ensign, the Hawk. Brother, go in peace!"</p>
+
+<p>And I motioned my people forward.</p>
+
+<p>Our flankers, who, keeping stations, had waited, now started on again,
+the Water-snake running swiftly to his post on the extreme right flank.</p>
+
+<p>After ten minutes' silent and swift advance, Thiohero came lightly to my
+side on the trail.</p>
+
+<p>"Brother," she whispered, "was it well considered to let loose that
+Tree-eating rover in our rear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Would the Oneida take such a wretched trophy as that poor hunter's
+tangled scalp?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Neah.</i> Yet, I ask again, was it wisdom to let him loose, who, for a
+mouthful of parched corn, might betray us to the Mengwe?"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor devil, he means no harm to anybody."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Then why does he skulk after us?</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Startled, I turned and caught a glimpse of something slinking on the
+ridge between our flankers; but was instantly reassured because no
+living thing could dog us without discovery from the rear. And presently
+I did see the Screech-owl run forward and hurl a clod of moss into the
+thicket; and the Saguenay broke cover like a scared dog, running perdue
+so that he came close to Hanatoh, who flung a stick at him.</p>
+
+<p>That was too much for me; and, as the Tree-eater bolted past me, I
+seized him.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," said I, dragging him along, "what the devil do you want of us?
+Did I not bid you go in peace?"</p>
+
+<p>Thiohero caught him by the other arm, and he panted some jargon at her.</p>
+
+<p>"Koué!" she exclaimed, and her long, sweet whistle of the Canada sparrow
+instantly halted us in our tracks, flankers, rearguard, and all.</p>
+
+<p>Thiohero, still holding the Saguenay by his lean, muscular arm, spoke
+sharply to him in his jargon; then, at his reply, looked up at me with
+the flaming eyes of a lynx.</p>
+
+<p>"Brother," said she, "this Montagnais hunter has given an account that
+the Maquas have prepared an ambuscade, knowing we are on the Great
+Trail."</p>
+
+<p>I said, coolly: "What reason does the Saguenay give for returning to us
+with such a tale?"</p>
+
+<p>"He says," she replied, "that we only, of all Iroquois or white men he
+has ever encountered, have treated him like a man and not as an unclean
+beast.</p>
+
+<p>"He says that my white brother has told him he is a man, and that if
+this is true he will act as real men act.</p>
+
+<p>"He says he desires to be painted upon the breast with a little red
+foot, and wishes to go into battle with us. And," she added naďvely, "to
+an Oneida this seems very strange that a Saguenay can be a real man!"</p>
+
+<p>"Paint him," said I, smiling at the Saguenay.</p>
+
+<p>But no Oneida would touch him. So, while he stripped to the clout and
+began to oil himself from the flask of gun-oil I offered, I got from
+him, through Thiohero, all he had noticed of the ambuscade prepared for
+us, and into which he himself had run headlong in his flight from the
+stones and insults of the Mohawks at the Big Eddy.</p>
+
+<p>While he was thus oiling himself, Luysnes shaved his head with his
+hunting blade, leaving a lock to be braided. Then, very quickly, I took
+blue paint from Thiohero and made on the fellow's chest a hawk. And,
+with red paint, under this I made a little red foot, then painted his
+fierce, thin features as the girl directed, moving a dainty finger
+hither and thither but never touching the Saguenay.</p>
+
+<p>To me she said disdainfully, in English: "My brother John, this is a
+wild wolf you take hunting with you, and not a hound. The Saguenays are
+real wolves and not to be tamed by white men or Iroquois. And like a
+lone wolf he will run away in battle. You shall see, brother John."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope not, little sister."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall see," she repeated, her pretty lip curling as Luysnes began
+to braid the man's scalp-lock. "You think him a warrior, now, because he
+is oiled and wears war paint and lock. But I tell you he is only a wild
+Montagnais hunter. Warriors are not made with a word."</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes men are," said I pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>The girl came closer to me, looked up into my face with unfeigned
+curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"What manner of white man are you, John?" she asked. "For you speak like
+a preacher, yet you wear no skirt and cross, as do the priests of the
+Praying Indians."</p>
+
+<p>"Little sister," said I, taking both her hands, "I am only a young man
+going into battle for the first time; and I have yet to fire my first
+shot in anger. If my white and red brothers&mdash;and if you, little
+sister&mdash;do full duty this day, then we shall be happy, living or dead.
+For only those who do their best can look the Holder of Heaven in the
+face."</p>
+
+<p>She gave me a strange glance; our hands parted. I gave the
+Canada-sparrow call in the minor key&mdash;as often the bird whistles&mdash;and,
+at the signal, all my scouts came creeping in.</p>
+
+<p>"We cross West River here," said I, "and go by the left bank in the same
+order of march, crossing the shoulder of the mountain by the Big Eddy,
+then fording the river once more, so as to take their ambuscade from the
+north and in the rear."</p>
+
+<p>They seemed to understand. The Montagnais, in his new paint, came around
+behind me like some savage dog that trusts only his owner. And I saw my
+Oneidas eyeing him as though of two minds whether to ignore him or sink
+a hatchet into his narrow skull.</p>
+
+<p>"Who first sights a Mohawk," said I, "shall not fire or try to take a
+scalp to satisfy his own vanity and his desire for glory. No. He shall
+return to me and report what he sees. For it is my business to order the
+conduct of this battle.... March!"</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>We had forded West River, crept over the mountain's shoulder, recrossed
+the river roaring between its rounded and giant bowlders, and now were
+creeping southward toward the Big Eddy.</p>
+
+<p>Already I saw ahead of me the brook that dashes into that great
+crystal-green pool, where, in happier days, I have angled for those huge
+trout that always lurk there.</p>
+
+<p>And now I caught a glimpse of the pool itself, spreading out between
+forested shores. But the place was still as death; not a living thing
+nor any sign of one was to be seen there&mdash;not a trace of a fire, nor of
+any camp filth, nor a canoe, nor even a broken fern.</p>
+
+<p>Moment after moment, I studied the place, shore and slope and hollow.</p>
+
+<p>Tahioni, flat on his belly in the Great Trail, lay listening and looking
+up the slope, where our Saguenay had warned us Death lay waiting.</p>
+
+<p>The Water-snake slowly shook his head and cast a glance of fierce
+suspicion at the Montagnais, who lay beside me, grasping his sorry
+trade-rifle, his slitted gaze of a snake fixed on the forest depths
+ahead.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, Nick caught my arm in a nervous grasp, and "My God!" says he,
+"what is that in the tree&mdash;in the great hemlock yonder?"</p>
+
+<p>And now we began to see their sharpshooters as we crawled forward,
+standing upright on limbs amid the foliage of great evergreens, to scan
+the trail ahead and the forest aisles below&mdash;these Mohawk panthers that
+would slay from above.</p>
+
+<p>Under them, hidden close to the ground, lay their comrades on either
+side of the little ravine, through which the trail ran. We could not see
+them, but we never doubted they were there.</p>
+
+<p>Four of their tree-cat scouts were visible: I made the sign; our rifles
+crashed out. And, thump! slap! thud! crash! down came their dead
+a-sprawling and bouncing on the dead leaves. And up rose their astounded
+comrades from every hollow, bush and windfall, only to drop flat at our
+rifles' crack, and no knowing if we had hit any among them.</p>
+
+<p>A veil of smoke lay low among the ferns in front of us. There was a
+terrible silence in the forest, then screech on screech rent the air, as
+the panther slogan rang out from our unseen foes; and, like a dreadful
+echo, my Oneidas hurled their war cry back at them; and we all sprang to
+our feet and moved swiftly forward, crouching low in our own rifle
+smoke.</p>
+
+<p>There came a shot, and a cloud spread among the boughs of a tall
+hemlock; but the fellow left his tree and slid down on t'other side,
+like a squirrel, and my wild Saguenay was after him in a flash.</p>
+
+<p>I saw the Oneidas looking on as though stupefied; saw the Saguenay,
+shoulder deep in witch-hopple, seize something, heard the mad struggle,
+and ran forward with Tahioni, only to hear the yelping scalp-cry of the
+Montagnais, and see him in the tangle of witch-hopple, both knees on his
+victim's shoulders, ripping off the scalp, his arms and body spattered
+with blood.</p>
+
+<p>The stupefaction of the Oneidas lasted but a second, then their battle
+yell burst out in jealous fury indescribable.</p>
+
+<p>I saw Tahioni chasing a strange Indian through a little hollow full of
+ferns; saw Godfrey Shew raise his rifle and kill the fugitive as coolly
+as though he were a running buck.</p>
+
+<p>Nick, his shoulder against a beech tree, stood firing with great
+deliberation at something I could not see.</p>
+
+<p>The three Frenchmen, de Golyer, Luysnes, and Johnny, had gone around, as
+though deer driving, and were converging upon a little wooded knoll,
+from which a hard-wood hogback ran east.</p>
+
+<p>Over this distant ridge, like shadows, I could see somebody's light feet
+running, checkered against the sunshine beyond, and I fired, judging a
+man's height, if stooping. And saw something dark fall and roll down
+into a gully full o' last year's damp and rotting leaves.</p>
+
+<p>Re-charging my rifle, I strove to realize that I had slain, but could
+not, so fierce the flame in me was burning at the thought of the
+children's scalps these Iroquois had taken.</p>
+
+<p>"Is he down, Johnny Silver?" I bawled.</p>
+
+<p>"Fairly paunched!" shouted Luysnes. "Tell your Oneidas they can take his
+hair, for I shan't touch it."</p>
+
+<p>But Johnny Silver, in no wise averse, did that office very cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Nom de Dieu!" he panted, tugging at the oiled lock and wrenching free
+the scalp; "I have one veree fine jou-jou, sacré garce! I take two; mek
+for me one fine wallet!"</p>
+
+<p>Down by the river the rifles were cracking fast and a smoke mist filled
+the woods. Ranging widely eastward we had turned their left flank&mdash;now
+their right&mdash;and were forcing them to a choice between the Sacandaga
+trail southward or the bee-line back to Canada by the left bank of West
+River.</p>
+
+<p>How many there were of them I never have truly learned; but that
+scarcely matters to the bravest Indian, when ambuscaded and taken so
+completely by surprise from the rear.</p>
+
+<p>No Indians can stand that, and but few white men are able to rally under
+such circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>The Screech-owl, locked in a death struggle with a young Mohawk, broke
+his arm, stabbed him, and took his scalp before I could run to his aid.</p>
+
+<p>And there on the ground lay four other scalps, two of white children,
+with the Little Red Foot painted on all.</p>
+
+<p>I looked down at the dead murderer. He was a handsome boy, not twenty,
+and wore a white mask of war paint and two bars of scarlet on his chin,
+I thought&mdash;then realized that they were two thick streaks of running
+blood.</p>
+
+<p>"May his clan bewail him!" shouted the burly Screech-owl. "Let the
+Mohawk women mourn their dead who died this day at West River! The
+Oneida mock them! Koué!" And his terrific scalp-yell pierced the racket
+of the rifles.</p>
+
+<p>I heard a gruffling sound and thick breathing from behind a pine, where
+the Water-snake was scalping one of the tree-cat scouts&mdash;grunting and
+panting as he tugged at the tough and shaven skin, which he had grasped
+in his teeth, plying his knife at the same time because the circular
+incision had not been continuous.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly I felt sick, and leaned against a tree, fighting nausea and a
+great dizziness. And was aware of an arm around my shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon I straightened up and saw the little maid of Askalege beside
+me, looking at me very strangely.</p>
+
+<p>At the same instant I heard a great roaring and cursing and a crash
+among the river-side willows, and was horrified to see Nick down on his
+back a-clawing and tearing and cuffing a Mohawk warrior, who was
+clinging to him and striving to use his hatchet.</p>
+
+<p>We made but a dozen leaps of it, Thiohero and I, and were in a wasp-nest
+of Mohawks ere we knew it.</p>
+
+<p>I heard Nick roar again with pain and fury, but had my hands too full to
+succor him, for a wild beast painted yellow was choking me and wrestling
+me off my feet, and little Thiohero was fighting like a demon with her
+knife, on the water's edge.</p>
+
+<p>The naked warrior I clutched was so vilely oiled that my fingers slipped
+over him as though it were an eel I plucked at, and his foul and
+stinking breath in my face was like a full fed bear's.</p>
+
+<p>Then, as he strangled me, out of darkening eyes I saw his arm
+lifted&mdash;glimpsed the hatchet's sparkle&mdash;saw an arm seize his, saw a
+broad knife pass into his belly as though it had been butter&mdash;pass
+thrice, slowly, ripping upward so that he stood there, already
+gralloched, yet still breathing horribly and no bowels in him.... His
+falling hatchet clinked among the stones. Then he sank like a stricken
+bull, bellowed, and died.</p>
+
+<p>And, as he fell, I heard my Saguenay gabbling, "Brother! brother!" in my
+ears, and felt his hand timidly seeking mine.</p>
+
+<p>Breath came back, and eyesight, too, in time to see Nick and his Mohawk
+enemy on their feet again, and the Indian strike my comrade with clubbed
+rifle, turn, and dart into the willows.</p>
+
+<p>My God, what a crack! And down went Nick, like a felled pine in the
+thicket.</p>
+
+<p>But now in my ears rang a distressful crying, like a gentle wild thing
+wounded to the death; and I saw two Mohawks had got the little maid of
+Askalege between them, and were drowning her in the Big Eddy.</p>
+
+<p>I ran out into the water, but Tahioni, her brother, came in a flying
+leap from the bank above me, and all four went down under water as I
+reached them.</p>
+
+<p>They came up blinded, staggering, one by one, and I got Thiohero by the
+hair, where she lay in shallow water, and dragged her ashore behind me.</p>
+
+<p>Then I saw her brother clear his eyes of water and swing his hatchet
+like swift lightning, and heard the smashing skull stroke.</p>
+
+<p>The other Mohawk dived like an otter between us, and I strove to spear
+him with my knife, but only slashed him and saw the long, thin string of
+blood follow where he swam under water.</p>
+
+<p>My powder-pan was wet and flashed when I tried to shoot him, where I
+stood shoulder deep in the Big Eddy.</p>
+
+<p>Then came a thrashing, splashing roar like a deer herd crossing a marshy
+creek, and, below us, I saw a dozen Mohawks leap into the water and
+thrash their way over. And not a rifle among us that was dry enough to
+take a toll of our enemies crossing the West River plain in sight!</p>
+
+<p>Lord, what a day! And not fought as I had pictured battles. No! For it
+was blind combat, and neither managed as planned nor in any kind of
+order or discipline. Nor did we ever, as I have said, discover how many
+enemies were opposed to us. And I am certain they believed that a full
+regiment had struck their rear; otherwise, I think it had proven a very
+bloody business for me and my people. Because the Mohawks are brave
+warriors, and only the volley at their backs and the stupefying
+down-crash of their tree-scouts demoralized them and left them capable
+only of fighting like cornered wild things in a maddened effort to get
+away.</p>
+
+<p>Lord, Lord! What a battle! For all were filthy with blood, and there
+were brains and hair and guts sticking to knives and hatchets, and
+bodies and limbs all smeared. Good God! Was this war? And the green
+flies already whirling around us in the sunshine, and settling on the
+faces of the dead!&mdash;</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The little maid of Askalege, leaning on her brother's shoulder, was
+coughing up water she had swallowed.</p>
+
+<p>Nick, with a bloody sconce, but no worse damage, sat upon a rock and
+washed out his clotted hair.</p>
+
+<p>"Hell!" quoth he, when he beheld me. "Here be I with a broken poll, and
+yonder goes the Indian who gave it me."</p>
+
+<p>"Sit still, idiot!" said I, and set the ranger's whistle to my lips.</p>
+
+<p>White and red, my men came running from their ferocious hunting. Not a
+man was missing, which was another lesson in war to me, for I thought
+always that death dealt hard with both sides, and I could not understand
+how so many guns could be fired with no corpse to mourn among us.</p>
+
+<p>We had taken ten scalps; and, as only Johnny Silver among my white
+people fancied such trophies, my Oneidas skinned the noddles of our
+quarry, and, like all Indians, counted any scalp a glory, no matter
+whose knife or bullet dropped the game.</p>
+
+<p>We all bore scratches, and some among us were stiff, so that the scratch
+might, perhaps, be called a wound. A bullet had barked de Golyer,
+another had burned Tahioni; Silver proudly wore a knife wound; the
+Screech-owl had been beaten and somewhat badly bitten. As for Nick, his
+head was cracked, and the little maid of Askalege still spewed water.</p>
+
+<p>As for me, my throat was so swollen and bruised I could scarce speak or
+swallow.</p>
+
+<p>However, there was work still to be done, so I took Godfrey and Luysnes,
+the Screech-owl, and the Water-snake; motioned Yellow Leaf, the
+Montagnais to follow, and set off across West River, determined to drive
+our enemies so deep into the wilderness that they would never forget the
+Big Eddy as long as they survived on earth.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3>A TROUBLED MIND</h3>
+
+
+<p>That was a wild brant chase indeed! And although there were good
+trackers among us, the fleeing Canienga took to the mountain streams and
+travelled so, wading northward mile after mile, which very perfectly
+covered their tracks, and finally left us travelling in circles near
+Silver Lake.</p>
+
+<p>I now think St. Sacrament must have mirrored their canoes&mdash;God and they
+alone know the truth!&mdash;for I never heard of any other Mohawks, or any
+Englishmen at all, or Frenchmen for that matter, who ever have heard of
+this Mohawk war party coming south to meet and rescue Sir John.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> Nor
+do our own records, except generally, mention our measures taken to stop
+the Sacandaga trail, or speak of the fight at the Big Eddy as a separate
+and distinct combat.</p>
+
+<p>It may be that this fight at the Big Eddy remained unnoticed because we
+sustained no losses. Also, we were losing our people all along the
+wilderness, from the ashes of Falmouth to the Ohio. I do not know. But
+my chiefest concern, then and later, was that the survivors among these
+Caniengas got clean away, which misfortune troubled my mind, although my
+Oneidas had a Dutch dozen of their scalps, all hooped and curing, when
+we limped into the Drowned Lands from our wild brant chase above.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Now, my orders being to stop the Sacandaga Trail, there seemed no better
+way than to cut this same trail with a ditch and plant in it a
+chevaux-de-frise; and then so dispose my men that even a scout might
+remain in touch by signal and be prepared to fall back behind this
+barrier if Sir John crept upon our settlements by stealth.</p>
+
+<p>Fish House could provision us, or the Point, if necessary; and any scout
+of ours in the Drowned Lands ought to see smoke by day or fire by night
+from Maxon's nose to Mayfield.</p>
+
+<p>My scout of four and I passed in wearily between the rough, low redoubts
+at Fish House, after sunset, and gave an account to Peter Wayland, the
+captain commanding the post, that the northward war-trail was now clean
+as far as Silver Lake, and that I proposed to block it and watch it
+above and below.</p>
+
+<p>Twilight was deepening when we came to John Howell's deserted log-house
+on the Vlaie, and heard the owls very mournful in the tamarack forests
+eastward.</p>
+
+<p>A few rods farther on the hard ridge and one of my men challenged
+smartly. In thick darkness he led us over hard ground along the vast
+wastes of bushes and reeds, to where a new ditch had been dug down to
+the Vlaie Water.</p>
+
+<p>Thence he guided us through our chevaux-de-frise; and I saw my own
+people lying in the shadowy gleam of a watch-fire; and an Oneida slowly
+moving around the smouldering coals, chanting the refrain of his first
+scalp-dance:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">SCALP SONG<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Chiefs in your white plumes!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When your Tall Cloud glooms,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And we Oneidas wonder<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To hear your thunder&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the moon pales,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the Seven Dancers wear veils,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Is it your rain that wails?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Is it the noise of hail?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Is it the rush of frightened deer<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That we Oneidas hear?"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And the others chanted in sombre answer:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"It is the weeping of the Mohawk Nation,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mourning amid their desolation,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For the scalpless head<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of each young warrior dead.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2"><i>A Voice from the Dark</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"It is the cry of their women, who bewail<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their warriors dead,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Not the east wind we hear!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It is the noise of their women, who rail<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">At those who fled,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Not whistling hail we hear!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It is the rush of feet that are afraid,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Not the swift flight of deer!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4"><i>Another Voice</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Let them flee,&mdash;the East Gate Keepers&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whose dead lie still as sleepers!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Let the Canienga fly before our wrath,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Scatter like chaff,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When we Oneidas laugh!<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Koué!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4"><i>Tahioni</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Holder of Heaven,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And every Chief named in the Great Rite!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dancers Seven!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the Eight Thunders plumed in white!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">At dawn I was a young man,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who had seen no enemy die.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But my foe was a deer who ran,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And I struck; and let him lie."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>The Screech-owl Dances</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The Mohawk Nation has fled,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But my war-axe sticks in its head!<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Koué!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>The Water-snake Dances</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Let the Wild Goose keep to the skies!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where the Brant alights, he dies!<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Koué!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i1"><i>Thiohero, their Prophetess</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The Lodge poles crack in the East!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Long House falls.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who calls the Condolence Feast?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who calls?"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2"><i>She Dances Very Slowly</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Who calls the Roll of the Dead?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who opens the door?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Fire in the West burns red,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But our fire-place burns no more!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thendara&mdash;Thendara no more!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It was plain to me that my Indians meant to make a night of it&mdash;even
+those who, dog weary, had but now returned with me from the futile brant
+chase and sat eating their samp.</p>
+
+<p>The French trappers squatted in a row, smoking their pipes and looking
+on with that odd sympathy for any savage rite, which, I think, partly
+explains French success among all Indians.</p>
+
+<p>Firelight glimmered red on their weather-ravaged faces, on their gaudy
+fringes and moccasins.</p>
+
+<p>Near them, lolling in the warm young grass, sprawled Nick and Godfrey. I
+sat down by them, my back against a log. My Saguenay crept to my side. I
+gave him to eat, and, for my own supper, ate slowly a handful of parched
+corn, watching my young Oneidas around the fire, where they moved in
+their slow dance, singing and boasting of their first scalps taken.</p>
+
+<p>The little maid of Askalege came and seated herself close to me on my
+right.</p>
+
+<p>"I am weary," she murmured, letting her head fall back against the log.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me," said I in English, "is there any reason why this Saguenay,
+who has proved himself a real man and no wolf, should not sing his own
+scalp-song among our Oneidas?"</p>
+
+<p>"None," she repeated. "The Yellow Leaf is a real man."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell him so."</p>
+
+<p>The girl turned her head and spoke to the Saguenay in his own gutturals.
+I also watched to see what effect such praise might have.</p>
+
+<p>For a few minutes he sat motionless and without any expression upon his
+narrow visage, yet I knew he must be bursting with pride.</p>
+
+<p>"Tahioni!" I called out. "Here, also, is a real man who has taken scalps
+in battle. Shall not our <i>brother</i>, Yellow Leaf, of the Montagnais, sing
+his first scalp-song at an Oneida fire?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause, then every Oneida hatchet flashed high in the
+firelight.</p>
+
+<p>"Koué!" they shouted. "We give fire right to our brother of the
+Montagnais, who is a real man and no wolf!"</p>
+
+<p>At that the Saguenay hunter, who, in a single day, had became a warrior,
+leaped lightly to his feet, and began to trot like a timber wolf around
+the fire, running hither and thither as an eager, wild thing runs when
+searching.</p>
+
+<p>Then he shouted something I did not understand; but Thiohero
+interpreted, watching him: "He looks in vain for the tracks of a poor
+Saguenay hunter, which once he was, but he can find only the footprints
+of a proud Saguenay warrior, which now he has become!"</p>
+
+<p>Now, in dumb show, this fierce and homeless rover enacted all that had
+passed,&mdash;how he had encountered the Canienga, how they had mocked and
+stoned him, how we had captured him, proved kind to him, released him;
+how he had returned to warn us of ambuscade.</p>
+
+<p>He drew his war-axe and shouted his snarling battle-cry; and all the
+Oneidas became excited and answered like panthers on a dark mountain.</p>
+
+<p>Then Yellow Leaf began to dance an erratic, weird dance&mdash;and, somehow, I
+thought of dead leaves eddying in a raw wind as he whirled around the
+fire, singing his first scalp-song:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Who are the Yanyengi,<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> that a<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Saguenay should fear them?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">They are but Mowaks,<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> and<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Real men jeer them!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I am a warrior; I wear the lock!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I am brother to the People of the Rock!<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Red is my hatchet; my knife is red;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Woe to the Mengwe, who wail their dead!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I wear the Little Red Foot and the Hawk;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Death to the Maquas who stone and mock!<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Koué! Haď!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2"><i>An Oneida</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Hah!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hawasahsai!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hah!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2"><i>The Saguenay</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Who are the Yanyengi, that<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Real men should obey them?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We People of the Dawn were<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Born to slay them!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I eat twigs in winter when there is no game;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What does he eat, the Maqua? What means his name?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To each of us a Little Red Foot! To each his clan!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Let the Mengwe flee when they scent a Man!<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Koué! Haď!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Hah! Hawasahsai!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>chanted the Oneidas, trotting to and fro in the uncertain red light,
+while we white men sat, chin on fist, a-watching them; and the little
+sorceress of Askalege beat her palms softly together, timing the rhythm
+for lack of a drum.</p>
+
+<p>An hour passed: my Indians still danced and sang and bragged of deeds
+done and deeds to be accomplished; my young sorceress sat asleep, her
+head fallen back against me, her lips just parted. At her feet a toad,
+attracted by the insects which came into the fire-ring, jumped heavily
+from time to time and snapped them up.</p>
+
+<p>An intense silence brooded over that vast wilderness called the Drowned
+Lands; not a bittern croaked, not a wild duck stirred among the reeds.</p>
+
+<p>Very far away in the mist of the tamaracks I heard owls faintly
+halooing, and it is a melancholy sound which ever renders me uneasy.</p>
+
+<p>I was weary to the bones, yet did not desire sleep. A vague
+presentiment, like a mist on some young peak, seemed to possess my
+senses, making me feel as lonely as a mountain after the sun has set.</p>
+
+<p>I had never before suffered from solitude, unless missing the beloved
+dead means that.</p>
+
+<p>I missed them now,&mdash;parents who seemed ages long absent,&mdash;or was it I,
+their only son, who tarried here below too long, and beyond a reasonable
+time?</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>I was lonely. I looked at the scalps, all curing on their hoops, hanging
+in a row near the fire. I glanced at Nick. He lay on his blanket,
+sleeping.... The head of the little Athabasca Sorceress lay heavy on my
+shoulder; she made no sound of breathing in her quiet sleep. Both her
+hands were doubled into childish fists, thumbs inside.</p>
+
+<p>Johnny Silver smoked and smoked, his keen, tireless eyes on the Scalp
+Dancers; Luysnes, also, blinked at them in the ruddy glare, his powerful
+hands clasping his knees; de Golyer was on guard.</p>
+
+<p>I caught Godfrey's eye, motioned him to relieve Joe, then dropped my
+head once more in sombre meditation, lonely, restless, weary, and
+unsatisfied....</p>
+
+<p>And now, again,&mdash;as it had been for perhaps a longer period of time than
+I entirely comprehended,&mdash;I seemed to see darkly, and mirrored against
+darkness, the face of the Scottish girl.... And her yellow hair and dark
+eyes; ... and that little warning glimmer from which dawned that faint
+smile of hers....</p>
+
+<p>That I was lonely for lack of her I never dreamed then. I was content to
+see her face grow vaguely; sweetly take shape from the darkness under my
+absent gaze;&mdash;content to evoke the silent phantom out of the stuff that
+ghosts are made of&mdash;those frail phantoms which haunt the secret recesses
+of men's minds.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>I was asleep when Nick touched me. Thiohero still slept against my
+shoulder; the Yellow Leaf and the Oneidas still danced and vaunted their
+prowess, and they had set a post in the soft earth near the shore, and
+had painted it red; and now all their hatchets were sticking in it,
+while they trotted tirelessly in their scalping dance, and carved the
+flame-shot darkness with naked knives.</p>
+
+<p>Wearily I rose, took my rifle, re-primed it, and stumbled away to take
+my turn on guard, relieving Nick, who, in turn, had replaced Godfrey,
+whom I had sent after Joe de Golyer.</p>
+
+<p>They had dug our ditch so well that the Vlaie water filled it, making,
+with the pointed staves, an excellent abattis against any who came by
+stealth along the Sacandaga trail.</p>
+
+<p>Behind this I walked my post, watching the eastern stars, which seemed
+paler, yet still remained clearly twinkling. And no birds had yet
+awakened, though the owls had become quiet in the tamaracks, and neither
+insect nor frog now chanted their endless runes of night.</p>
+
+<p>Shouldering my rifle, I walked to and fro, listening, scanning the
+darkness ahead.... And, presently, not lonely; for a slim phantom kept
+silent pace with me as I walked my post&mdash;so near, at times, that my
+nostrils seemed sweet with the scent of apple bloom.... And I felt her
+breath against my cheek and heard her low whisper.</p>
+
+<p>Which presently became louder among the reeds&mdash;a little breeze which
+stirs before dawn and makes a thin ripple around each slender stem.</p>
+
+<p>Tahioni came to relieve me, grave, not seeming fatigued, and, in his
+eyes, the shining fire of triumph still unquenched.</p>
+
+<p>I went back to the fire and lay down on my blanket, where now all were
+asleep save my Saguenay.</p>
+
+<p>When he saw me he came and squatted at my feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Sleep you, also, brother," said I. "Day dawns and the sunset is far
+away."</p>
+
+<p>But the last time I looked before I slept I saw him still squatting at
+my feet like a fierce, lean dog, and staring straight before him.</p>
+
+<p>And I remember that the fresh, joyous chorus of waking birds was like
+the loud singing of spirit-children. And to the sweet sound of that
+blessed choir I surrendered mind and body, and so was borne on wings of
+song into the halls of slumber-land.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The sun was high when our sentinel hailed a detail from Fish House,
+bringing us a sheep, three sacks of corn, and a keg of fresh milk.</p>
+
+<p>I had bathed me in the Vlaie Water, had eaten soupaan, turned over my
+command to Nick, and now was ready to report in person to the Commandant
+at Summer House Point.</p>
+
+<p>My Saguenay had slain a gorgeous wood-duck with his arrows; and now,
+brave in fresh paint and brilliant plumage, he sat awaiting me in the
+patched canoe which had belonged, no doubt, to John Howell.</p>
+
+<p>I went down among the pinxter bushes and tall reeds to the shore; and so
+we paddled away on the calm, deep current which makes a hundred
+snake-like curls and bends to every mile, so that the mile itself
+becomes doubled,&mdash;nay, tripled!&mdash;ere one attains his destination.</p>
+
+<p>It was strange how I was not yet rid of that vague sense of impending
+trouble, nor could account for the foreboding in any manner, being full
+of health and now rested.</p>
+
+<p>My mind, occupied by my report, which I was now reading where I had
+written it in my <i>carnet</i>, nevertheless seemed crowded with other
+thoughts,&mdash;how we would seem each to the other when we met
+again,&mdash;Penelope Grant and I. And if she would seem to take a pleasure
+in my return ... perhaps say as much ... smile, perhaps.... And we might
+walk a little on the new grass under the apple bloom....</p>
+
+<p>A troubled mind! And knew not the why and wherefore of its own
+restlessness and apprehension. For the sky was softly blue, and the
+water, too; and a gentle wind aided our paddles, which pierced the
+stream so silently that scarce a diamond-drop fell from the sunlit
+blades.</p>
+
+<p>I could see the Summer House, and a striped jack flying in the sun. The
+green and white lodge seemed very near across the marshes, yet it was
+some little time before I first smelled the smoke of camp fires, and
+then saw it rising above the bushes.</p>
+
+<p>Presently a Continental on guard hailed our canoe. We landed. A corporal
+came, then a sergeant,&mdash;one Caspar Quant, whom I knew,&mdash;and so we were
+passed on, my Indian and I, until the gate-guard at the Point halted us
+and an officer came from the roadside,&mdash;one Captain Van Pelt, whom I
+knew in Albany.</p>
+
+<p>Saluted, and the officer's salute rendered, he became curious to see the
+fresh scalps flapping at my Saguenay's girdle, and the new war-paint and
+the oil smelling rank in the sweet air.</p>
+
+<p>But I told him nothing, asking only for the Commandant, who, he gave
+account, was a certain Major Westfall, lodging at the Summer House, and
+lately transferred from the Massachusetts Line, along with other Yankee
+officers&mdash;why?&mdash;God and Massachusetts knew, perhaps.</p>
+
+<p>So I passed the gate and walked toward the lodge. Sir John's blooded
+cattle were grazing ahead, and I saw Flora at the well, and Colas busy
+among beds of garden flowers, spading and weeding under the south porch.</p>
+
+<p>And I saw something else that halted me. For, seated upon a low limb of
+an apple tree, her two little feet hanging down, and garbed in
+pink-flowered chintz and snowy fichu, I beheld Penelope Grant,
+a-knitting.</p>
+
+<p>And by all the pagan gods!&mdash;there in a ring around her strolled and
+lolled a dozen Continental officers in buff and blue and gold!</p>
+
+<p>There was no reason why, but the scene chilled me.</p>
+
+<p>One o' these dandies had her ball of wool, and was a-winding of it as he
+sat cross-legged on the turf, a silly, happy look on his beardless face.</p>
+
+<p>Another was busy writing on a large sheet of paper,&mdash;verses, no
+doubt!&mdash;for he seemed vastly pleased with his progress, and I saw her
+look at him shyly under her dark lashes, and could have slain him for
+the smirk he rendered. Also, it did not please me that her petticoat was
+short and revealed her ankles and slim feet in silver-buckled shoon.</p>
+
+<p>I was near; I could hear their voices, their light laughter; and,
+rarely, her voice in reply to some pointed gallantry or jest.</p>
+
+<p>None had perceived me advancing among the trees, nor now noticed me
+where I was halted there in the checkered sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>But, as I stirred and moved forward, the girl turned her head, caught a
+glimpse of me and my painted Indian, stared in silence, then slid from
+her perch and stood up on the grass, her needles motionless.</p>
+
+<p>All the young popinjays got to their feet, and all stared as I offered
+them the salute of rank; but all rendered it politely.</p>
+
+<p>"Lieutenant of Rangers Drogue to report to Major Westfall," said I
+bluntly, in reply to a Continental Captain's inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>"Yonder, sir, on the porch with Lady Johnson," said he.</p>
+
+<p>I bared my head, then, and walked to Penelope. She curtsied: I bent to
+her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you well, my lord?" she asked in a colourless voice, which chilled
+me again for its seeming lack of warmth.</p>
+
+<p>"And you, Penelope?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am well, I thank you."</p>
+
+<p>"I am happy to learn so."</p>
+
+<p>That was all. I bowed again. She curtsied. I replaced my mole-skin cap,
+saluted the popinjays, and marched forward. My Indian stalked at my
+heels.</p>
+
+<p>God knew why, but mine had become a troubled mind that sunny morning.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3>DEEPER TROUBLE</h3>
+
+
+<p>I had been welcomed like a brother by Polly Johnson. Claudia, too, made
+a little fęte of my return, unscathed from my first war-trail. And after
+I had completed my report to the Continental Major, who proved
+complacent to the verge of flattery, I was free to spend the day at the
+Summer House&mdash;or, rather, I was at liberty to remain as long a time as
+it took a well-mounted express to ride to Johnstown with my report and
+return with further orders from Colonel Dayton for me and my small
+command.</p>
+
+<p>A Continental battalion still garrisoned the Point; their officers as I
+had been forced to notice in the orchard, were received decently by Lady
+Johnson.</p>
+
+<p>And, at that crisis in her career, I think I admired Polly Johnson as
+entirely as I ever had admired any woman I ever knew.</p>
+
+<p>For she was still only a child, and had been petted and spoiled always
+by flattery and attentions: and she was not very well&mdash;her delicate
+condition having now become touchingly apparent. She was all
+alone,&mdash;save for Claudia,&mdash;among the soldiery of a new and hostile
+nation; she was a fugitive from her own manor; and she must have been
+constantly a prey to the most poignant anxieties concerning her husband,
+whom she loved,&mdash;whatever were his fishy sentiments regarding her!&mdash;and
+who, she knew, was now somewhere in the Northern and trackless
+wilderness and fighting nature herself for his very life.</p>
+
+<p>Her handsome and beloved brother, also, was roaming the woods,
+somewhere, with Walter Butler and McDonald and a bloody horde of
+Iroquois in their paint,&mdash;and, worse still, a horde of painted white
+men, brutes in man's guise and Mohawk war-paint and feathers, who
+already were known by the terrifying name of Blue-eyed Indians.</p>
+
+<p>Yet this young girl, having resolved to face conditions with courage and
+composure, after her first bitter and natural outburst, never whimpered,
+never faltered.</p>
+
+<p>Enemy officers, if gentlemen, she received with quiet, dignified
+civility, and no mention of politics or war was suffered to embarrass
+anybody at her table.</p>
+
+<p>All, I noticed, paid her a deference both protective and tender, which,
+in gentlemen, is instinctive when a woman is in so delicate a condition
+and in straits so melancholy.</p>
+
+<p>Claudia, however, I soon perceived, had been nothing tamed, and even
+less daunted by the errant arrows of adversity; for her bright eyes were
+ever on duty, and had plainly made a havoc of the Continental Major's
+heart, to judge by his sheep's eyes and clumsy assiduities.</p>
+
+<p>For when he left the veranda and went away noisily in his big spurs, she
+whispered me that he had already offered himself thrice, and that she
+meant to make it a round half-dozen ere he received his final quietus.</p>
+
+<p>"A widower," quoth she, "and bald; and with seven hungry children in
+Boston! Oh, Lord. Am I come to that? Only that it passes time to play
+with men, I'd not trouble to glance askance at your Yankee gentlemen,
+Jack Drogue."</p>
+
+<p>"Some among them have not yet glanced askance at you," remarked Lady
+Johnson, placid above her sewing.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean those suckling babes in the orchard yonder? Oh, la! When
+the Major leaves, I shall choose the likeliest among 'em to amuse me.
+Not that I would cross Penelope," she added gaily, "or flout her. No.
+But these boys perplex her. They are too ardent, and she too kind."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" I exclaimed, feeling my face turn hot.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it is true enough," remarked Lady Johnson. "Yonder child has no
+experience, and is too tender at heart to resent a gallantry over-bold.
+Which is why I keep my eye upon these youngsters that they make not a
+fool of a girl who is easily confused by flattery, and who remains
+silent when dusk and the fleeting moment offer opportunities to impudent
+young men, which they seldom fail to embrace."</p>
+
+<p>"And seldom fail to embrace the lady, also," added Claudia, laughing.
+"<i>You</i> were different, Jack."</p>
+
+<p>"I saw that ensign, Dudley, kiss her behind the lilacs," added Lady
+Johnson, "and the girl seemed dumb, and never even upbraided the little
+beast. Had she complained to me I should have made him certain
+observations, but could not while she herself remained mute. Because I
+do not choose to have anybody think I go about eavesdropping."</p>
+
+<p>"Penelope Grant appears to find their company agreeable," said I, in a
+voice not like my own, but a dry and sullen voice such as I never before
+heard issue out o' my own mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"Penelope likes men," observed Lady Johnson, sewing steadily upon her
+baby's garments of fine linen.</p>
+
+<p>"Penelope is not too averse to a stolen kiss, I fear," said Claudia,
+smiling. "Lord! Nor is any pretty woman, if only she admit the truth!
+No! However, there is a certain shock in a kiss which silences maiden
+inexperience and sadly confuses the unaccustomed. Wait till the girl
+gains confidence to box some impertinent's ear!"</p>
+
+<p>I knew not why, yet never, I think, had any news sounded in my ears so
+distastefully as the news I now had of this girl, I remembered Nick's
+comment,&mdash;"Like flies around a sap-pan." And it added nothing to my
+pleasure or content of mind to turn and gaze upon that disquieting scene
+in the orchard yonder.</p>
+
+<p>For here, it seemed, was another Claudia in the making,&mdash;still unlearned
+in woman's wiles; not yet equipped for those subtle coquetries and
+polished cruelties which destroy, yet naturally and innocently an
+enchantress of men. And some day to be conscious of her power, and
+certain to employ it!</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Flora came, wearing a blue and orange bandanna, and the great gold hoops
+in her ears glittering in the sun.</p>
+
+<p>Each day, now, it appeared, Lady Johnson retired for an hour's repose
+whilst Claudia read to her; and that hour had arrived.</p>
+
+<p>"You dine with us, of course," said Lady Johnson, going, and looking at
+me earnestly. Then there was a sudden flash of tears; but none fell.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, dear Jack," she murmured, as I laid my lips against both her
+hands.... And so she went into the house, Claudia lingering, having
+shamelessly pressed my hand, and a devil laughing at me out of her two
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there news of Sir John to comfort us?" she whispered, making a
+caress of her voice as she knew so well how to do.</p>
+
+<p>"And if I have any, I may not tell you, Claudia," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, la! Aid and comfort to the enemy? Is it that, Jack? And if you but
+wink me news that Sir John is safe?"</p>
+
+<p>"I may not even wink," said I, smiling forlornly.</p>
+
+<p>"Aye? So! That's it, is it! A wink from you at me, and pouf!&mdash;a
+courtmartial! Bang! A squad of execution! Is that it, Jack?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should deserve it."</p>
+
+<p>"Lord! If men really got their deserts, procreation would cease, and the
+world, depopulated, revert to the forest beasts. Well, then&mdash;so Sir John
+is got away?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not say so."</p>
+
+<p>"You wear upon your honest countenance all the news you contain, dear
+Jack," said she gaily. "It was always so; any woman may read you like a
+printed page&mdash;if she trouble to do it.... And so! Sir John is safe at
+last! Well, thank God for that.... You may kiss my cheek if you ask me."</p>
+
+<p>She drew too near me, but I had no mind for more trouble than now
+possessed me, so let her pretty hand lie lightly on my arm, and endured
+the melting danger of her gaze.</p>
+
+<p>She said, while the smile died on her lips, "I jest with you, Jack. But
+you <i>are</i> dear to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear as any trophy," said I. "No woman ever willingly lets any victim
+entirely escape."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not guess what you could do with me&mdash;if you would," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"No. But I guess what you could do to me, again, if you had an
+opportunity."</p>
+
+<p>"Jack!" she sighed, looking up at me.</p>
+
+<p>But the gentle protest alarmed me. And she was too near me; and the
+fresh scent of her hair and skin were troubling me.</p>
+
+<p>And, more than that, there persisted a dull soreness in my
+breast,&mdash;something that had hurt me unperceived&mdash;an unease which was not
+pain, yet, at times, seemed to start a faint, sick throbbing like a
+wound.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps I assumed that it came from some old memory of her unkindness; I
+do not remember now, only that I seemed to have no mind to stir up dying
+embers. And so, looked at her without any belief in my gaze.</p>
+
+<p>There was a silence, then a bright flush stained her face, and she
+laughed, but as though unnerved, and drew her hand from my arm.</p>
+
+<p>"If you think all the peril between us twain is yours alone, Jack
+Drogue," she said, "you are a very dolt. And I think you <i>are</i> one!"</p>
+
+<p>And turned her back and walked swiftly into the house.</p>
+
+<p>I took my rifle from where it stood against a veranda post, settled my
+war-belt, with its sheathed knife and hatchet, readjusted powder-horn
+and bullet pouch, and, picking up my cap of silver mole-skin, went out
+into the orchard.</p>
+
+<p>Behind me padded my Saguenay in his new paint, his hooped scalps
+swinging from his cincture, and the old trade-rifle covered carefully by
+his blanket, except the battered muzzle which stuck out.</p>
+
+<p>I walked leisurely; my heart was unsteady, my mind confused, my
+features, unless perhaps expressionless, were very likely grim.</p>
+
+<p>I went straight to the group around the twisted apple-tree, where
+Penelope sat knitting, and politely made myself a part of that same
+group, giving courteous notice by my attitude and presence, that I,
+also, had a right to be there as well as they.</p>
+
+<p>All were monstrous civil; some offered snuff; some a pipe and pouch; and
+a friendly captain man engaged me in conversation&mdash;gossip of Johnstown
+and the Valley&mdash;so that, without any awkwardness, the gay and general
+chatter around the girl suffered but a moment's pause.</p>
+
+<p>The young officer who had writ verses, now read them aloud amid lively
+approbation and some sly jesting:</p>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">IN PRAISE<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Flavilla's hair,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Beyond compare,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like sunshine brightens all the earth!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Old Sol, beware!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She cheats you, there,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And robs your rays of all their worth!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Impotent blaze!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I shall not praise<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Your brazen ways,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor dare compare<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Your flaming gaze<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To those sweet rays<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which play around Flavilla's hair.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"For lo, behold!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No sunshine bold<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Can hope to gild or make more fair<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The living gold,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where, fold on fold,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In glory shines Flavilla's hair!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>There was a merry tumult of praise for the poet, and some rallied him,
+but he seemed complacent enough, and Penelope looked shyly at him over
+lagging needles,&mdash;a smile her acknowledgment and thanks.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," says a cornet of horse, in helmet and jack-boots&mdash;though I
+perceived none of his company about, and wondered where he came
+from,&mdash;"will you consent to entertain our merry Council with some
+account of the scout which, from your appearance, sir, I guess you have
+but recently accomplished."</p>
+
+<p>To this stilted and somewhat pompous speech I inclined my head with
+civility, but replied that I did not yet feel at liberty to discuss any
+journey I may have accomplished until my commanding officer gave me
+permission. Which mild rebuke turned young Jack-boots red, and raised a
+titter.</p>
+
+<p>An officer said: "The dry blood on your hunting shirt, sir, and the
+somewhat amazing appearance of your tame Indian, who squats yonder,
+devouring the back of your head with his eyes, must plead excuse for our
+natural curiosity. Also, we have not yet smelled powder, and it is plain
+that you have had your nostrils full."</p>
+
+<p>I laughed, feeling no mirth, however, but sensible of my dull pain and
+my restlessness.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said I, "if I have smelled gun-powder, I shall know that same
+perfume again; and if I have not yet sniffed it, nevertheless I shall
+know it when I come to scent it. So, gentlemen, I can not see that you
+are any worse off in experience than I."</p>
+
+<p>A subaltern, smiling, ventured to ask me what kind of Indian was that
+who enquired me.</p>
+
+<p>"Of Algonquin stock," said I, "but speaks an odd lingo, partly
+Huron-Iroquois, partly the Loup tongue, I think. He is a Saguenay."</p>
+
+<p>"One of those fierce wanderers of the mountains," nodded an older
+officer. "I thought they were not to be tamed."</p>
+
+<p>"I owned a tame tree-cat once," remarked another officer.</p>
+
+<p>My friend, Jack-boots, now pulls out a bull's-eye watch with two fobs,
+and tells the time with a sort of sulky satisfaction. For many of the
+company arose, and made their several and gallant adieus to Penelope,
+who suffered their salute on one little hand, while she held yarn and
+needles in t'other.</p>
+
+<p>But when half the plague of suitors and gallants had taken themselves
+off to their several duties, there remained still too many to suit young
+Jack-boots. Too many to suit me, either; and scarce knowing what I did
+or why, I moved forward to the tree where she was seated on a low
+swinging limb.</p>
+
+<p>"Penelope," said I, "it is long since I have seen you. And if these
+gentlemen will understand and pardon the desire of an old friend to
+speak privately with you, and if you, also, are so inclined, give me a
+little time with you alone before I leave."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said, "I am so inclined&mdash;if it seem agreeable to all."</p>
+
+<p>I am sure it was not, but they conducted civilly enough, save young
+Jack-boots, who got redder than ever and spoke not a word with his bow,
+but clanked away pouting.</p>
+
+<p>And there were also two militia officers, wrapped in great watch cloaks
+over their Canajoharie regimentals, and who took their leave in silence.
+One wore boots, the other black spatter-dashes that came above the knee
+in French fashion, and were fastened under it, too, with leather straps.</p>
+
+<p>Their faces were averted when they passed me, yet something about them
+both seemed vaguely familiar to me. No wonder, either, for I should
+know, by sight at least, many officers in our Tryon militia.</p>
+
+<p>Whether they were careless, or unmannerly by reason of taking offense at
+what I had done, I could not guess.</p>
+
+<p>I looked after them, puzzled, almost sure I had seen them both before;
+but where I could not recollect, nor what their names might be.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we stroll, Penelope?" I said.</p>
+
+<p>"If it please you, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Sir William had cut the alders all around the point, and a pretty lawn
+of English grass spread down to the water north and west, and pleasant
+shade trees grew there.</p>
+
+<p>While she rolled her knitting and placed it in her silken reticule, I,
+glancing around, noticed that all the apple bloom had fallen, and the
+tiny green fruit-buds dotted every twig.</p>
+
+<p>Then, as she was ready, and stood prettily awaiting me in her pink
+chintz gown, and her kerchief and buckled shoon, I gave her my hand and
+we walked slowly across the grass and down to the water.</p>
+
+<p>Here was a great silvery iron-wood tree a-growing and spreading pleasant
+shade; and here we sat us down.</p>
+
+<p>But now that I had got this maid Penelope away from the pest of suitors,
+it came suddenly to me that my pretenses were false, and I really had
+nothing to say to her which might not be discussed in company with
+others.</p>
+
+<p>This knowledge presently embarrassed me to the point of feeling my face
+grow hot. But when I ventured to glance at her she smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you been in battle?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>After a silence: "I am most happy that you returned in safety."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you ever&mdash;ever think of me?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes," she replied in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought," said I, "that being occupied&mdash;and so greatly sought after
+by so many gallants&mdash;that you might easily have forgotten me."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed and plucked a grass-blade.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not forget you," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"That is amazing," said I, "&mdash;a maid so run after and so courted."</p>
+
+<p>She plucked another blade of grass, and so sat, pulling at the tender
+verdure, her head bent so that I could not see what her eyes were
+thinking, but her lips seemed graver.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said I, "is there news of Mr. Fonda?"</p>
+
+<p>"None, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me," said I, smiling, "why, when I speak, do you answer ever with
+a 'sir'?"</p>
+
+<p>At that she looked up: "Are you not Lord Stormont, Mr. Drogue?" she
+asked innocently.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, no! That is, nobody believes it any more than did the Lords in
+their House so many years ago. Is that why you sometimes say 'my lord,'
+and sometimes call me 'sir'?"</p>
+
+<p>"But you still are the Laird of Northesk."</p>
+
+<p>"Lord!" said I, laughing. "Is it that Scottish title bothers you? Pay it
+no attention and call me John Drogue&mdash;or John.... Or Jack, if you
+will.... Will you do so?"</p>
+
+<p>"If it&mdash;pleases you."</p>
+
+<p>She was still busy with the grass, and I watched her, waiting to see her
+dark eyes lift again&mdash;and see that little tremor of her lips which
+presaged the dawning smile.</p>
+
+<p>It dawned, presently; and all the unrest left my breast&mdash;all that heavy
+dullness which seemed like the flitting shadow of a pain.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me," said I, "are you happy?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am contented. I love my Mistress Swift. I love and pity Lady
+Johnson.... Yes, I am happy."</p>
+
+<p>"I know they both love you," said I. "So you should be happy here....
+And admired as you are by all men...."</p>
+
+<p>Again she laughed in her enchanting little way, and bent her bright
+head. And, presently:</p>
+
+<p>"John Drogue?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hear you, Penelope."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you wish warm woolen stockings for your men?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I sent to Caydutta Lodge for the garments. They are in the house. You
+shall choose for yourself and your men before the Continentals take
+their share."</p>
+
+<p>I was touched, and thanked her. And now, it being near the noon hour, we
+walked together to the house.</p>
+
+<p>The partition which Sir John had made for a gun-room, and which now
+served to enclose Penelope's chamber, was all hung with stout woolen
+stockings of her own knitting; and others lay on her trundle-bed. So I
+admired and handled and praised these sober fruits of her diligence and
+foresight, and we corded up some dozen pair for my white people; and I
+stuffed them into my soldier's leather sack.</p>
+
+<p>Then I took her hands and said my thanks; and she looked at me and
+answered, "You are welcome, John Drogue."</p>
+
+<p>I do not know what possessed me to put my arm around her. She flushed
+deeply. I kissed her; and it went to my head.</p>
+
+<p>The girl was dumb and scarlet, not resisting, nor defending her lips;
+but there came a clatter of china dishes, and I released her as Flora
+and Colas appeared from below, with dinner smoking, and clattering
+platters.</p>
+
+<p>And presently Lady Johnson's door opened, and she stepped out in her
+silk levete, followed by Claudia.</p>
+
+<p>"I invited no one else," said Lady Johnson, "&mdash;if that suits you, Jack."</p>
+
+<p>I protested that it suited me, and that I desired to spend my few hours
+from duty with them alone.</p>
+
+<p>As we were seated, I ventured a side glance at Penelope and perceived
+that she seemed nothing ruffled, though her colour was still high. For
+she gave me that faint, enchanting smile that now began to send a thrill
+through me, and she answered without confusion any remarks addressed to
+her.</p>
+
+<p>Remembering my Indian outside, I told Flora, and Colas took food to him
+on the veranda.</p>
+
+<p>And so we spent a very happy hour there&mdash;three old friends together once
+more, and a young girl stranger whom we loved already. And I did not
+know in what degree I loved her, but that I did love her now seemed
+somewhat clear to my confused senses and excited mind,&mdash;though to love,
+I knew, was one thing, and to be <i>in</i> love was still another. Or so it
+seemed to me.</p>
+
+<p>My animation was presently noticed by Claudia; and she rested her eyes
+on me. For I talked much and laughed more, and challenged her gay
+conceits with a wit which seemed to me not wholly contemptible.</p>
+
+<p>"One might think you had been drinking of good news," quoth she; "so
+pray you share the draught, Jack, for we have none of our own to quench
+our thirst."</p>
+
+<p>"Unless none be good news, as they say," said Lady Johnson, wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>"News!" said I. "Nenni! But the sun shines, Claudia, and life is young,
+and 'tis a pretty world we live in after all."</p>
+
+<p>"If you admire a marsh," says she, "there's a world o' mud and rushes to
+admire out yonder."</p>
+
+<p>"Or if you admire a cabinful o' lonely ladies," added Lady Johnson, "you
+may gaze your fill upon us."</p>
+
+<p>"I should never be done or have my fill of beauty if I sat here a
+thousand years, Polly," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"A thousand years and a dead fish outshines our beauty," smiled Lady
+Johnson. "If you truly admire our beauty, Jack, best prove it now."</p>
+
+<p>"To which of us the Golden Apple?" inquired Claudia, offering one of the
+winter russets which had been picked at the Point.</p>
+
+<p>"Ho!" said I, "you think to perplex and frighten me? <i>Non, pas!</i> Polly
+Johnson shall not have it, because, if she ever makes me wise, wisdom is
+its own reward and needs no other. And you shall not have it, Claudia!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mere beauty cannot claim it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? Venus received the apple cast by Eris."</p>
+
+<p>"But only because Venus promised Love! Do you promise me the reward of
+the shepherd?"</p>
+
+<p>"Myself?" she asked impudently.</p>
+
+<p>"Venus," said Lady Johnson, "made that personal exception, and so must
+you, Claudia. The goddess promised beauty; but not herself."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said I, "Claudia has nothing to offer me. And so I give the
+apple to Penelope!"</p>
+
+<p>She refused it, shyly.</p>
+
+<p>"Industry is the winner," said I. "Thrift triumphs. I already have her
+gift. I have a dozen pair of woolen stockings for my men, knitted by
+this fair Penelope of today. And, as she awaits no wandering lord,
+though many suitors press her, then she should have at least this golden
+apple of Eris to reward her. And so she shall."</p>
+
+<p>And I offered it again.</p>
+
+<p>"Take it, my dear," said Claudia, laughing, "for this young man has
+given you a reason. Pallas offered military glory; you offer military
+stockings! What chance have Hera and poor Aphrodite in such a contest?"</p>
+
+<p>We all were laughing while the cloth was cleared, and Flora brought us a
+great dish of wild strawberries.</p>
+
+<p>These we sopped in our wine and tasted at our ease, there by the open
+windows, where a soft wind blew the curtains and the far-spreading azure
+waters sparkled in the sun.</p>
+
+<p>How far away seemed death!</p>
+
+<p>I looked out upon the mountains, now a pale cobalt tint, and their peaks
+all denting the sky like blue waves on Lake Erie against the horizon.</p>
+
+<p>Low over the Vlaie Water flapped a giant heron, which alighted not far
+away and stood like a sentry, motionless at his post.</p>
+
+<p>A fresh, wild breath of blossoms grew upon the breeze&mdash;the enchanting
+scent of pinxters. From the mainland, high on a sugar-maple's spire,
+came the sweet calling of a meadow-lark.</p>
+
+<p>Truly, war seemed far away; and death farther still in this dear
+Northland of ours. And I fell a-thinking there that if kings could only
+see this land on such a day, and smell the pinxters, and hear the
+sweetened whistle of our lark, there would be no war here, no slavery,
+no strife where liberty and freedom were the very essence of the land
+and sky.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>My Lady Johnson wished to rest; and there was a romance out of France
+awaiting her in gilt binding in her chamber.</p>
+
+<p>She went, when the board was cleared, linking her arm in Claudia's.</p>
+
+<p>Penelope took up her knitting with a faint smile at me.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you tell me a story to amuse me, sir?" she said in her shy way.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall tell me one," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"I? What story?"</p>
+
+<p>"Some story you have lived."</p>
+
+<p>"I told you all."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said I, "not any story concerning this very pest of suitors which
+plague you&mdash;or, if not you, then me!&mdash;as the suitors of the first
+Penelope plagued Telemachus."</p>
+
+<p>Now she was laughing, and, at one moment, hid her face in her yarn,
+still laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Does this plague you, John Drogue?" she asked, still all rosy in her
+mirth.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said I, "they all seem popinjays to me in their blue and gold
+and buff. But it was once red-coats, too, at Caughnawaga, or so I hear."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh. Did you hear that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did. They sat like flies around a sap-pan."</p>
+
+<p>"Deary me!" she exclaimed, all dimples, "who hath gossiped of me at
+Cayadutta Lodge?"</p>
+
+<p>"Penelope?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am attentive, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose all maids enjoy admiration."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose so."</p>
+
+<p>"Hum! And do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"La, sir! I am a maid, also."</p>
+
+<p>"And enjoy it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir.... Do not you?"</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do not you enjoy admiration? Is admiration displeasing to young men?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;no," I admitted. "Only it is well to be armed with
+experience&mdash;hum-hum!&mdash;and discretion when one encounters the flattery of
+admiration."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir.... Are you so armed, Mr. Drogue?"</p>
+
+<p>At a loss to answer, her question being unexpected&mdash;as were many of her
+questions&mdash;and answers also&mdash;I finally admitted that flattery was a
+subtle foe and that perhaps experience had not wholly armed me against
+that persuasive enemy.</p>
+
+<p>"Nor me," said she, with serene candour. "And I fear that I lack as much
+in knowledge and experience as I do in years, Mr. Drogue. For I think no
+evil, nor perhaps even recognize it when I meet it, deeming the world
+kind, and all folk unwilling to do me a wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;kissed you."</p>
+
+<p>"Was that a wrong you did me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Have not others kissed you?" said I, turning red and feeling mean.</p>
+
+<p>But she laughed outright, telling me that it concerned herself and not
+me what she chose to let her lips endure. And I saw she was a very
+child, all unaccustomed, yet shyly charmed by flatteries, and already
+vaguely aware that men found her attractive, and that she also was not
+disinclined toward men, nor averse to their admiration.</p>
+
+<p>"How many write you verses?" I asked uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen are prone to verses. Is it unbecoming of me to encourage them
+to verse?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, no...."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you think the verses fine you heard in the orchard?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," said I, carelessly, "but smacking strong of Major André's
+verses to his several Sacharissas."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh. I thought them fine."</p>
+
+<p>"And all men think you fine, I fear&mdash;from that soldier who pricked your
+name on his powder-horn at Mayfield fort to Bully Jock Gallopaway of the
+Border Horse at Caughnawaga, and our own little Jack-boots in the
+orchard yonder."</p>
+
+<p>"Only Jack Drogue dissents," she murmured, bending over her knitting.</p>
+
+<p>At that I caught her white hand and kissed it; and she blushed and sat
+smiling in absent fashion at the water, while I retained it.</p>
+
+<p>"You use me sans façon," she murmured at last. "Do you use other women
+so?"</p>
+
+<p>Now, I had used some few maids as wilfully, but none worse, yet had no
+mind to admit it, nor yet to lie.</p>
+
+<p>"You ask me questions," said I, "but answer none o' mine."</p>
+
+<p>At that her gay smile broke again. "What a very boy," quoth she, "to be
+Laird o' Northesk! For it is cat's-cradle talk between us two, and give
+and take to no advancement. Will you tell me, my lord, if it gives you
+pleasure to touch my lips?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said I. "Does it please you, too?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder," says she, and was laughing again out of half-shy eyes at me.</p>
+
+<p>But, ere I could speak again, comes an express a-galloping; and we saw
+him dismount at the mainland gate and come swiftly across the orchard.</p>
+
+<p>"My orders," said I, and went to the edge of the veranda.</p>
+
+<p>The letter he handed me was from Colonel Dayton. It commended me,
+enjoined secrecy, approved my Oneidas and my Saguenay, but warned me to
+remain discreetly silent concerning these red auxiliaries, because
+General Schuyler did not approve our employing savages.</p>
+
+<p>Further, he explained, several full companies of Rangers had now been
+raised and were properly officered and distributed for employment.
+Therefore, though I was to retain my commission, he preferred that I
+command my present force as a scout, and not attempt to recruit a Ranger
+company.</p>
+
+<p>"For," said he, "we have great need of such a scout under an officer
+who, like yourself, has been Brent-Meester in these forests."</p>
+
+<p>However, the letter went on to say, I was ordered to remain on the
+Sacandaga trail with my scout of ten until relieved, and in the
+meanwhile a waggon with pay, provisions, and suitable clothing for my
+men, and additional presents for my Indians, was already on its way.</p>
+
+<p>I read the letter very carefully, then took my tinder-box and struck
+fire with flint and steel, blowing the moss to a glow. To this I touched
+the edge of my letter, and breathed on the coal till the paper flamed,
+crinkled, fell in black flakes, and was destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>For a few moments I stood there, considering, then dismissed the
+express; but still stood a-thinking.</p>
+
+<p>And it seemed to me that there was indecision in my commander's letter,
+where positive and virile authority should have breathed action from
+every line.</p>
+
+<p>I know, now, that Colonel Dayton proved to be a most excellent officer
+of Engineers, later in our great war for liberty. But I think now, and
+thought then, that he lacked that energy and genius which meets with
+vigour such a situation as was ours in Tryon County.... God knows to
+what sublime heights Willett soared in the instant agony of black days
+to come!... And comparisons are odious, they say.... So Colonel Dayton
+occupied Johnstown, garrisoned Summer House Point and Fish House, and
+was greatly embarrassed what to do with his prisoner, Lady Johnson.... A
+fine, brave, loyal officer&mdash;who made us very good forts.</p>
+
+<p>But, oh, for the dead of Tryon!&mdash;and the Valley in ashes from end to
+end; and the whole sky afire!&mdash;Lord! Lord!&mdash;what sights I have lived to
+see, and seeing, lived to tell!</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>My memories outstrip my quill.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>So, when I came out of my revery, I turned and walked back slowly to
+Penelope, who lifted her eyes in silence, clasping her fair hands over
+idle needles.</p>
+
+<p>"I go back tonight," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"To the forest?"</p>
+
+<p>"To the trail by the Drowned Lands."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you come soon again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you wish it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes, John Drogue," she said; and I saw the smile glimmer ere it
+dawned.</p>
+
+<p>And now comes my Lady Johnson and her Abagail for a dish of tea on the
+veranda, where a rustic table was soon spread by Colas, very fine in his
+scarlet waistcoat and a new scratch-wig.</p>
+
+<p>Now, to tea, comes sauntering our precious plague of suitors, one by
+one, and two by two, from the camp on the mainland. And all around they
+sit them down&mdash;with ceremony, it's true, but their manners found no
+favour with me either. And I thought of Ulysses, and of the bow that
+none save he could bend.</p>
+
+<p>Well, there was ceremony, as I say, and some subdued gaiety, not too
+marked, in deference to Lady Johnson's political condition.</p>
+
+<p>There was tea, which our officers and I forbore to taste, making a civil
+jest of refusal. But there was an eggnog for us, and a cooled punch, and
+a syllabub and cakes.</p>
+
+<p>Toward sundown a young officer brought his fiddle from camp and played
+prettily enough.</p>
+
+<p>Others sang in acceptable harmony a catch or two, and a romantic piece
+for concerted voices, which I secretly thought silly, yet it pleased
+Lady Johnson.</p>
+
+<p>Then, at Claudia's request, Penelope sang a French song made in olden
+days. And I thought it a little sad, but very sweet to hear there in the
+gathering dusk.</p>
+
+<p>Other officers came up in the growing darkness, paid their respects,
+tasted the punch. Candles glimmered in the Summer House. Shadowy forms
+arrived and departed or wandered over the grassy slope along the water.</p>
+
+<p>I missed Claudia. Later, I saw Penelope rise and give her hand to a man
+who came stalking up in a watch cloak; and presently they strolled away
+over the lawn, with her arm resting on his.</p>
+
+<p>Major Westfall and Lady Johnson were conversing gravely on the north
+porch. Others, dimly visible, chatted around me or moved with sudden
+clank of scabbard and spur.</p>
+
+<p>Penelope did not come back. At first I waited calmly enough, then with
+increasing impatience.</p>
+
+<p>Where the devil had she gone with her Captain Spatter-dash? Claudia I
+presently discovered with men a-plenty around her; but Penelope was not
+visible. This troubled me.</p>
+
+<p>So I went down to the orchard, carelessly sauntering, and not as though
+in search of anybody. And so encountered Penelope.</p>
+
+<p>She and her young man in the watch-cloak passed me, moving slowly under
+the trees. He wore black spatter-dashes. And, as we saluted, it came to
+me that this was one of the officers from the Canajoharie Regiment; but
+in the starlight I knew him no better than I had by day.</p>
+
+<p>"Strange," thought I, "that young Spatter-dashes seems so familiar to my
+eyes, yet I can not think who he may be."</p>
+
+<p>Then, looking after him, I saw his comrade walking toward me from the
+well, and with him was Colas, with a lantern, which shined dimly on both
+their faces.</p>
+
+<p>And, suddenly: "Why, sir!" I blurted out in astonishment, "are you not
+Captain Hare?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," said he, "my name is Sims, and I am captain in the
+Canajoharie militia." And he bowed civilly and walked on, Colas
+following with the lantern, leaving me there perplexed and still
+standing with lifted cap in hand.</p>
+
+<p>I put it on, pondered for a space, striving to rack my memory, for that
+man's features monstrously resembled Lieutenant Hare's, as I saw him at
+supper that last night at Johnson Hall, when he came there with Hiokatoo
+and Stevie Watts, and that Captain Moucher, whom I knew a little and
+trusted less, for all his mealy flatteries.</p>
+
+<p>Well, then, I had been mistaken. It was merely a slight resemblance, if
+it were even that. I had not thought of Hare since that evening, and
+when I saw this man by lantern light, as I had seen him by candles, why,
+I thought he seemed like Hare.... That was all.... That certainly was
+all there could be to it.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Near to the lilacs, where candle light fell from the south window of the
+little lodge, I stumbled once again upon Penelope. And she was in
+Spatter-dash's arms!</p>
+
+<p>For a moment I stood frozen. Then a cold rage possessed me, and God
+knows what a fool I had played, but suddenly a far whistle sounded from
+the orchard; and young Spatter-dash kisses her and starts a-running
+through the trees.</p>
+
+<p>He had not noticed me, nor discovered my presence at all; but Penelope,
+in his arms, had espied me over his shoulder; and I thought she seemed
+not only flushed but frightened, whether by the fellow's rough ardour or
+my sudden apparition I could not guess.</p>
+
+<p>Still cold with a rage for which there was no sensible warrant, I walked
+slowly to where she was standing and fumbling with her lace apron, which
+the callow fool had torn.</p>
+
+<p>"I came to say good-bye," said I in even tones.</p>
+
+<p>She extended her hand; I laid grim and icy lips to it; released it.</p>
+
+<p>There was a silence. Then: "I did not wish him to kiss me," said she in
+an odd voice, yet steady enough.</p>
+
+<p>"Your lips are your own."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes.... They were yours, too, for an instant, Mr. Drogue."</p>
+
+<p>"And they were Spatter-dash's, too," said I, almost stifled by my
+jealous rage. "Whose else they may have been I know not, and do not ask
+you. Good night."</p>
+
+<p>She said nothing, and presently picked at her torn apron.</p>
+
+<p>"Good night," I repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"Good night, sir."</p>
+
+<p>And so I left her, choked by I knew not what new and fierce
+emotions&mdash;for I desired to seek out Spatter-dash, Jack-boots, and the
+whole cursed crew of suitors, and presently break their assorted necks.
+For now I was aware that I hated these popinjays who came philandering
+here, as deeply as I hated to hear of the red-coat gallants at
+Caughnawaga.</p>
+
+<p>Still a-quiver with passion, I managed, nevertheless, to make my
+compliments and adieux to Lady Johnson and to Claudia&mdash;felt their warm
+and generous clasp, answered gaily I know not what, saluted all, took a
+lantern that Flora fetched, and went away across the grass.</p>
+
+<p>A shadow detached itself from darkness, and now my Saguenay was padding
+at my heels once more.</p>
+
+<p>As we two came to the mainland, young Spatter-dash suddenly crossed the
+road in front of my lantern. Good God! Was I in my right mind! Was it
+Stephen Watts on whose white, boyish face my lantern glimmered for an
+instant? How could it be, when it meant death to catch him here?...
+Besides, he was in Canada with Walter Butler. What possessed me, that in
+young Spatter-dash I saw resemblance to Stevie Watts, and in another
+respectable militia officer a countenance resembling Lieutenant Hare's?</p>
+
+<p>Sure my mind was obsessed tonight by faces seen that last unhappy
+evening at the Hall; and so I seemed to see a likeness to those men in
+every face I met.... Something had sure upset me.... Something, too, had
+suddenly awakened in me new and deep emotions, unsuspected, unfamiliar,
+and unwelcome.</p>
+
+<p>And for the first time in my life I knew that I hated men because a
+woman favoured them.</p>
+
+<p>We had passed through the Continental camp, my Indian and I, and were
+now going down among the bushes to the Vlaie Water, where lay our canoe,
+when, of a sudden, a man leaped from the reeds and started to run.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly my Indian was on his shoulders like a tree-cat, and down went
+both on the soft mud, my Saguenay atop.</p>
+
+<p>I cocked my rifle and poked the muzzle into the prostrate stranger's
+ribs, resting it so with one hand while I shined my lantern on his
+upturned face.</p>
+
+<p>He wore a captain's uniform in the Canajoharie Regiment; and, as he
+stared up at me, his throat still clutched by the Saguenay, I found I
+was gazing upon the blotched features of Captain Moucher!</p>
+
+<p>"Take your hands from his neck-cloth, cut your thrums, and make a cord
+to tie him," said I, in the Oneida dialect. "He will not move," I added.</p>
+
+<p>It took the Indian a little while to accomplish this. I held my rifle
+muzzle to Moucher's ribs. Until his arms were tied fast behind him, he
+had not spoken to me nor I to him; but now, as he rose to his knees from
+the mud and then staggered upright, I said to him:</p>
+
+<p>"This is like to be a tragic business for you, Captain Moucher."</p>
+
+<p>He winced but made no reply.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry to see you here," I added.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to murder me?" he asked hoarsely.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean to question you," said I. "Be good enough to step into that
+canoe."</p>
+
+<p>The Indian and I held the frail craft. Moucher stepped into it,
+stumbling in the darkness and trembling all over.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down on the bottom, midway between bow and stern!"</p>
+
+<p>He took the place as I directed.</p>
+
+<p>"Take the bow paddle," said I to Yellow Leaf. "Also loosen your knife."</p>
+
+<p>And when he was ready, I shoved off, straddled the stern, and, kneeling,
+took the broad paddle.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Moucher," said I, "if you think to overturn the canoe, in hope
+of escape, my Indian will kill you in the water."</p>
+
+<p>The canoe slid out into darkness under the high stars.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>FIRELIGHT</h3>
+
+
+<p>Now, no sooner did I reach my camp with my prisoner than my people came
+crowding around us from their watch-fire, which burned dull because they
+had made a smudge of it, black flies being lively after dark.</p>
+
+<p>I drew Nick aside and told him all.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall take Johnny Silver," said I, "and set off instantly for
+Summer House and the Continental camp. You shall deliver a letter to
+Major Westfall, and then you shall search with your lanterns every face
+you encounter; for I am beginning to believe that I truly saw Stephen
+Watts and Lieutenant Hare in the orchard at Summer House Point this
+night. And if I did, then they are a pair o' damned spies, and should be
+taken; and suffer as such!"</p>
+
+<p>"My God," says he, "Lady Johnson's brother!"</p>
+
+<p>"And my one-time friend. Is it not horrible, Nick? But any hesitation
+makes me a traitor to my own people."</p>
+
+<p>I sat down in the dull firelight, a block of wood for a seat, fished out
+my carnet, wrote a line to Major Westfall, and handed it to Nick.</p>
+
+<p>Silver came with a lantern and both rifles.</p>
+
+<p>"Use the canoe," said I, "and have a care that you reply clearly and
+promptly when challenged, for yonder Continentals are prone to shoot."</p>
+
+<p>They went off with their rifles and the lantern, and I waited until I
+heard the dip of paddles in the dark.</p>
+
+<p>"Throw a dry log on the fire, Godfrey," said I. And to Joe de Golyer:
+"Bring that prisoner here."</p>
+
+<p>Joe fetched him, and he stood before me, arms trussed up and head
+hanging. Tahioni approached.</p>
+
+<p>"Untie him," said I.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst they were fumbling with the knotted rope of thrums, I said to
+Tahioni:</p>
+
+<p>"Luysnes is on guard, I take it?"</p>
+
+<p>"My French brother watches."</p>
+
+<p>"That is well. Now, tell my Oneida brothers that here we have taken a
+very dangerous man; and that if he makes any move to escape from where
+he stands beside that fire, they shall not attempt to take him <i>alive</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>The young warrior turned calmly and translated. I saw my Oneidas loosen
+their knives and hatchets. The Saguenay quietly strung his short, heavy
+bow, and, laying an arrow across the string, notched it.</p>
+
+<p>"Thiohero!" I called.</p>
+
+<p>"I listen, my elder brother," said the little maid of Askalege.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall take a trade-rifle, move out one hundred paces to the west,
+and halt all who come. And fire on any who refuse to halt."</p>
+
+<p>"I listen," she said coolly.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall call to us if you need us."</p>
+
+<p>"I continue to listen."</p>
+
+<p>"And if there comes a wagon, then you shall take the horses by the head
+and lead them this way until the fire shines on their heads. Go, little
+sister."</p>
+
+<p>She took a trade-rifle from the stack, primed it freshly, and crossed
+the circle on light, swift feet.</p>
+
+<p>When she had gone into the darkness, I bade de Golyer kick the fire. He
+did so and it blazed ruddy, painting in sanguine colour the sombre,
+unhealthy visage of my prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>"Search him," said I briefly.</p>
+
+<p>Joe and my Oneida rummaged him to the buff. It was in his boots they
+discovered, at last, a sheaf of papers.</p>
+
+<p>I could not read what was writ, for the writing was in strange signs and
+figures; so presently I gave over trying and looked up at my prisoner,
+who now had dressed again.</p>
+
+<p>"You are Captain Moucher?"</p>
+
+<p>He denied it hoarsely; but I, having now no vestige of doubt concerning
+this miserable man's identity, ignored his answer.</p>
+
+<p>"What is this paper which was taken from your boot?"</p>
+
+<p>He seemed to find no word of explanation, but breathed harder and
+watched my eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it writ in a military cipher?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know."</p>
+
+<p>"How came these papers in your boot?"</p>
+
+<p>He stammered out that somebody who had cleansed his boots must have
+dropped them in, and that, in pulling on his boots that morning, he had
+neither seen nor felt the papers.</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you dress this morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"At the Johnson Arms in Johnstown."</p>
+
+<p>"You wear the uniform of an officer in the Canajoharie Regiment. Are you
+attached to that regiment?"</p>
+
+<p>He said he was; then contradicted himself, saying he had been obliged to
+borrow the clothing from an officer because, while bathing in the Mohawk
+at Caughnawaga, his own clothing had been swept into the water and
+engulfed.</p>
+
+<p>Over this lie he was slow in speech, and stammered much, licking his dry
+lips, and his reddish, furtive eyes travelling about him as though his
+stealthy mind were elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you recollect that we supped in company at Johnson Hall&mdash;you and
+I&mdash;and not so long ago?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>He had no remembrance.</p>
+
+<p>"And Lieutenant Hare and Captain Watts were of the company?"</p>
+
+<p>He denied acquaintance with these gentlemen.</p>
+
+<p>"Or Hiakatoo?"</p>
+
+<p>Had never heard of him.</p>
+
+<p>I bade Joe lay more dry wood on the fire and kick it well, for the
+sphagnum moss still dulled it. And, when it flared redly, I rose and
+walked close to the prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you doing here?"</p>
+
+<p>He had merely come out of curiosity to see the camp at Summer House.</p>
+
+<p>"In disguise?"</p>
+
+<p>He had no other clothing, and meant no harm. If we would let him go he
+would engage to return to Albany and never again to wear any clothing to
+which he was not entitled.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh. Who was your mate there in the orchard, who also wore the
+Canajoharie regimentals?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>An acquaintance made en passant, nothing more. He did not even know his
+name.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you his name," said I. "That man was Lieutenant Hare. And you
+are Captain Moucher. You are spies in our camp. We've taken you; we
+ought to take him before midnight.</p>
+
+<p>"The paper I have of you is writ in British military cipher.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, before I send you to Colonel Dayton, with my report of this
+examination, what have you to confess that I might add to my report, in
+extenuation?"</p>
+
+<p>He made no answer. Presently a fit of ague seized him, so that he could
+scarce stand. Then he reeled sideways and, by accident, set foot in the
+live coals. And instantly went clean crazed with fright.</p>
+
+<p>As the Oneida caught him by the shoulder, to steady him, he shrieked and
+cowered, grasping Joe's arm in his terror.</p>
+
+<p>"They mean to murder me!" he yelled. "Keep your savages away, I tell
+you!"&mdash;struggling between Tahioni and Joe&mdash;"I'll say what you wish, if
+they won't burn me!&mdash;--"</p>
+
+<p>"Be silent," I said. "We mean no bodily harm to you. Compose yourself,
+Captain Moucher. Do you take me for a monster to threaten you with
+torture?"</p>
+
+<p>But the awful fear of fire was in this whimpering wretch, and I was
+ashamed to have my Oneidas see a white man so stricken with cowardly
+terrors.</p>
+
+<p>His honour&mdash;what there was of it&mdash;he sold in stammering phrases to buy
+mercy of us; and I listened in disgust and astonishment to his
+confession, which came in a pell-mell of tumbling words, so that I was
+put to it to write down what he babbled.</p>
+
+<p>He had gone on his knees, held back from my feet by the Oneida; and his
+poltroonery so sickened me that I could scarce see what I wrote down in
+my <i>carnet</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Every word was a betrayal of comrades; every whine a plea for his own
+blotched skin.</p>
+
+<p>To save his neck&mdash;if treachery might save it&mdash;he sold his King, his
+cause, his comrades, and his own manhood.</p>
+
+<p>And so I learned of him that Stevie Watts, disguised, had been that
+night at Summer House with Lieutenant Hare; that they had brought news
+to Lady Johnson of Sir John's safe arrival in Canada; that they had met
+and talked to Claudia Swift; had counted our men and made a very
+accurate report, which was writ in the military cipher which we
+discovered, and a copy of which Captain Watts also carried upon his
+proper person.</p>
+
+<p>I learned that Walter Butler, now a captain of Royalist Rangers, also
+had come into the Valley in disguise, for the purpose of spying and of
+raising the Tory settlers against us.</p>
+
+<p>I learned that Brant and Guy Johnson had been in England, but were on
+their way hither.</p>
+
+<p>I learned that our army in Canada, decimated by battle, by smallpox, by
+fever, was giving ground and slowly retreating on Crown Point; and that
+Arnold now commanded them.</p>
+
+<p>I learned that we were to be invaded from the west, the north, and the
+south by three armies, and thousands of savages; that Albany must burn,
+and Tryon flame from Schenectady to Saint Sacrement.... And I wrote all
+down.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there more?" I asked, looking at him with utter loathing.</p>
+
+<p>"Howell's house," he muttered, "the log house of John
+Howell&mdash;tonight&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"The cabin on the hard ridge yonder?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes.... A plot to massacre this post.... They meet there."</p>
+
+<p>"Who?"</p>
+
+<p>"King's people.... John Howell, Dries Bowman, the Cadys, the Helmers,
+Girty, Dawling, Gene Grinnis, Balty Weed&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Tonight!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Where are they now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hid in the tamaracks&mdash;in the bush&mdash;God knows where!&mdash;--"</p>
+
+<p>"When do they rendezvous?"</p>
+
+<p>"Toward midnight."</p>
+
+<p>"At John Howell's cabin?"</p>
+
+<p>He nodded, muttering.</p>
+
+<p>I got up, took him by the arm and jerked him to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Read this!" I said, and thrust the paper of cipher writing under his
+nose.</p>
+
+<p>But he could not, saying that Steve Watts had writ it, and that he was
+to carry it express to Oswego.</p>
+
+<p>Now, whilst I stood there, striving to think out what was best to do and
+how most prudently to conduct in the instant necessity confronting me,
+there came Thiohero's sweet, clear whistle of a Canada sparrow, warning
+us to look sharp.</p>
+
+<p>Then I heard the snort of a horse and the rattle and bump of a wagon.</p>
+
+<p>"Tie the prisoner," said I to Godfrey; and turned to see the little maid
+of Askalege, her rifle shouldered, leading in two horses, behind which
+rumbled the wagon carrying our pay, food, arms, and clothing sent from
+Johnstown.</p>
+
+<p>Two armed Continental soldiers sat atop; one, a corporal, driving,
+t'other on guard.</p>
+
+<p>I spoke to them; called my Indians to unload the wagon, and bade
+Thiohero sling our kettle and make soupaan for us all.</p>
+
+<p>The Continentals were nothing loth to eat with us. Tahioni had killed
+some wood-duck and three partridges; and these, with some dozen wild
+pigeons from the Stacking Ridge, furnished our meat.</p>
+
+<p>I heaped a wooden platter and Godfrey squatted by Captain Moucher to
+feed him; but the prisoner refused food and sat with head hanging and
+the shivers shaking him with coward's ague.</p>
+
+<p>When the meal was ended, I took the Continentals aside, gave the
+Corporal my report to Colonel Dayton, and charged them to deliver my
+prisoner at Johnstown jail. This they promised to do; and, as all was
+ready, horses fed, and a long, slow jog to Johnstown, the Corporal
+climbed to his seat and took the reins, and the other soldier aided my
+prisoner to mount.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you speak for me at the court martial?" pleaded Moucher, in hoarse
+and dreadful tones. "Remember, sir, as God sees me, my confession was
+voluntary, and I swear by my mother's memory that I now see the error
+and the wickedness of my ways! Say that I said this&mdash;in Christ's
+name&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The Corporal touched his cocked hat, swung his powerful horses. I am
+sure they were of Sir William's stock and came from the Hall.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Drogue!" wailed the doomed wretch, "let God curse me if I meant any
+harm&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>I think the soldier beside him must have placed his hand over the poor
+wretch's mouth, for I heard nothing more except the rattle of wheels and
+the corporal-driver a-whistling "The Little Red Foot."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>In my absence that day my men had erected an open-face hut for our
+stores.</p>
+
+<p>Here we set lanterns, and here divided the clothing, including the
+stockings given me by Penelope&mdash;which I distributed with a heavy heart.</p>
+
+<p>There was laid aside new buckskin clothing and fresh underwear for
+Luysnes, for Nick, and for Johnny Silver.</p>
+
+<p>Then I paid the men, and gave a cash bonus to every Indian, and also a
+new rifle each,&mdash;not the trade-gun, but good weapons carrying an ounce
+ball.</p>
+
+<p>To each, also, a new hatchet, new knife, blanket, leggins, tobacco,
+paints, razor, mirror, ammunition, and a flask of sweet-smelling oil.</p>
+
+<p>I think I never have seen any Iroquois so overjoyed as were mine. And as
+for my Saguenay, he instantly squatted by the fire, fixed his mirror on
+a crotched stick, and fell to adorning himself by the red glow of the
+coals.</p>
+
+<p>But I had scant leisure for watching them, where they moved about
+laughing and gossiping excitedly, comparing rifles, trying locks and
+pans, sorting out finery, or smearing themselves with gaudy symbols.</p>
+
+<p>For, not a hundred rods east of us, across the ridge, stood that log hut
+of Howell's; and the owl-haunted tamaracks stretched away behind it in
+a misty wilderness. And in that swampy forest, at this very moment, were
+hidden desperate men who designed our deaths&mdash;men I knew&mdash;neighbors at
+Fonda's Bush, like the Cadys, Helmers, and Dries Bowman!&mdash;men who lately
+served in my militia company, like Balty Weed and Gene Grinnis.</p>
+
+<p>Now, as I paced the fire circle, listening and waiting for Nick and
+Johnny Silver, I could scarce credit what the wretch, Moucher, had told
+me, so horrid bloody did their enterprise appear to me.</p>
+
+<p>That they should strive to kill us when facing us in proper battle, that
+I could comprehend. But to plan in the darkness!&mdash;to come by stealth in
+their farmer's clothes to surprise us in our sleep!&mdash;faugh!</p>
+
+<p>"My God," says I to Godfrey, who paced beside me, "why have they not at
+least embodied to do us such a filthy business? And if they were only a
+company with some officer to make them respectable&mdash;militia, minute men,
+rangers, anything!"</p>
+
+<p>"They be bloody-minded folk," said he grimly. "No coureur-du-bois is
+harder, craftier, or more heartless than John Howell; no forest runner
+more merciless than Charlie Cady. These be rough and bloody men, John.
+And I think we are like to have a rude fight of it before sun-up."</p>
+
+<p>I thought so too, but did not admit as much. I had ten men. They
+mustered ten&mdash;if Moucher's accounts were true. And I did not doubt it,
+under the circumstances of his pusillanimous confession.</p>
+
+<p>The River Reed came to me to show me her necklace of coloured glass. And
+I drew her aside, told her as much as I cared to, and bade her prepare
+her Oneidas for a midnight battle.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment I heard the Canada sparrow. Thiohero answered, sweet and
+clear. A few seconds later Nick and Silver came in, carrying the canoe
+paddles.</p>
+
+<p>"They've gone," said Nick, with an oath. "Two mounted men and a led
+horse rode toward Johnstown two hours since. They wore Canajoharie
+regimentals. Major Westfall sent a dozen riders after 'em; but men who
+came so boldly to spy us out are like to get away as boldly, too."</p>
+
+<p>He plucked my arm and I stepped apart with him.</p>
+
+<p>"Westfall's in his dotage; Dayton is too slow. Why don't they send up
+Willett or Herkimer?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," said I, troubled.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," says Nick, "it's clear that Stevie Watts was there and has
+spoken with Lady Johnson. But what more is to be done? She's our
+prisoner. I wish to God they'd sent her to Albany or New York, where she
+could contrive no mischief. And that other lady, too. Lord! but Major
+Westfall is in a pother! And I wager Colonel Dayton will be in another,
+and at his wit's ends."</p>
+
+<p>The business distressed me beyond measure, and I remained silent.</p>
+
+<p>"By the way," he added, "your yellow-haired inamorata sends you a
+billet-doux. Here it is."</p>
+
+<p>I took the bit of folded paper, stepped aside and read it by the
+firelight:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Sir:</p>
+
+<p>"I venture to entertain a hope that some day it may please you to
+converse again with one whose offense&mdash;if any&mdash;remains a mystery to
+her still.</p>
+
+<p class="right">"P. G."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>I read it again, then crumpled it and dropped it on the coals. I had
+seen Steve Watts kiss her. That was enough.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a devil's nest of Tories gathering in Howell's house tonight to
+cut our throats," said I coldly. "Should we take them with ten men, or
+call in the Continentals?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who be they?" asked Nick, astounded.</p>
+
+<p>"The old pack&mdash;Cadys, Helmers, Bowman, Weed, Grinnis. They are ten
+rifles."</p>
+
+<p>He got very red.</p>
+
+<p>"This is a domestic business," said I. "Shall we wash our bloody linen
+for the world to see what filth chokes Fonda's Bush?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said he, slowly, with that faint flare in his eyes I had seen at
+times, "let us clean our own house o' vermin, and make no brag of what
+is only our proper shame."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<h3>OUT OF THE NORTH</h3>
+
+
+<p>It lacked still an hour to midnight, which time I had set for our
+advance upon John Howell's house, and my Oneidas had not yet done
+painting, when Johnny Silver, who was on guard, whistled from his post,
+and I ran thither with Nick.</p>
+
+<p>A man in leather was coming in through the <i>chevaux-de-frise</i>, and
+Johnny dropped a tamarack log across the ditch for him, over which he
+ran like a tree-martin, and so climbed up into the flare of Nick's
+lantern.</p>
+
+<p>The man in forest runner's dress was Dave Ellerson, known to us all as a
+good neighbor and a staunch Whig; but we scarce recognized him in his
+stringy buckskins and coon-skin cap, with the ringed tail a-bobbing.</p>
+
+<p>On his hunting shirt there was a singular device of letters sewed there
+in white cloth, which composed the stirring phrase, "Liberty or Death."
+And we knew immediately that he had become a soldier in the 11th
+Virginia Regiment, which is called Morgan's Rifles.</p>
+
+<p>He seemed to have travelled far, though light, for he carried only rifle
+and knife, ammunition, and a small sack which flapped flat and empty;
+but his manner was lively and his merry gaze clear and untroubled as we
+grasped his powerful hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Dave!" said I, "how come you here, out o' the North?"</p>
+
+<p>"I travel express from Arnold to Schuyler," said he. "Have you a gill of
+rum, John?"</p>
+
+<p>Johnny Silver had not drunk his gill, and poured it into Dave's
+pannikin.</p>
+
+<p>Down it went, and he smacked his lips. Then we took him back to the
+fire, where the Oneidas were still a-painting, and made him eat and
+drink and dry him by the flames.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there a horse to be had at Summer House?" he demanded, his mouth
+full of parched corn.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely," said I. And asked him news of the North, if he were at liberty
+to give us any account.</p>
+
+<p>"The news I can not give you is what I shall not," said he, laughing.
+"But there's plenty besides, and damned bad."</p>
+
+<p>"Bad?"</p>
+
+<p>"Monstrous bad, John. For on my forest-running south from Chambly, I saw
+Sir John and his crew as they gained the Canadas! They seemed near dead,
+too, but they were full three hundred, and I but one, so I did not tarry
+to mark 'em with a stealthy bullet, but pulled foot for Saint
+Sacrement."</p>
+
+<p>He grinned, bit a morsel from a cold pigeon, and sat chewing it
+reflectively and watching the Indians at their painting.</p>
+
+<p>"You know what is passing in Canada?" he demanded abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing definite," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen, then. We had taken Chambly, Montreal, and St. John's. Arnold
+lay before Quebec. Sullivan commanded us. Six weeks ago he sent Hazen's
+regiment to Arnold. Then the Canadians and Indians struck us at the
+Cedars, and we lost five hundred men before we were out of it."</p>
+
+<p>"What was the reason for such disaster?" I demanded, turning hot with
+wrath.</p>
+
+<p>"Cowardice and smallpox," said he carelessly. "They were new troops sent
+up to reinforce us, and their general, Thomas, died o' the pox.</p>
+
+<p>"And atop of that comes news of British transports in the St. Lawrence,
+and of British regulars and Hessians.</p>
+
+<p>"So Sullivan sends the Pennsylvania Line to strike 'em. St. Clair
+marches, Wayne marches, Irving follows with his regiment. Lord, how they
+were peppered, the Pennsylvania Line! And Thompson was taken, and
+Colonel Irving, and they wounded Anthony Wayne; and the Line ran!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ran!"</p>
+
+<p>"By God, yes. And our poor little Northern Army is on the run today,
+with thirteen thousand British on their heels.</p>
+
+<p>"They drove us out o' Chambly. They took the Cedars. Montreal fell. St.
+John's followed. Quebec is freed. We're clean kicked out o' Canada, and
+marching up Lake Champlain, our rear in touch with the red-coats.</p>
+
+<p>"If we stand and face about at Crown Point, we shall do more than I hope
+for.</p>
+
+<p>"Thomas is dead, Thompson and Irving taken, Arnold and Wayne wounded,
+the army a skeleton, what with losses by death, wounds, disease, and in
+prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>"Had not Arnold broke into the Montreal shops and taken food and woolen
+clothing, I think we had been naked now."</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens!" said I, burning with mortification, "I had not heard of
+such a rout!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it was no rout, John," said he carelessly. "Sullivan marched us out
+of that hell-hole in good order&mdash;whatever John Adams chooses to say
+about our army."</p>
+
+<p>"What does John Adams say?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, he says we are disgraced, defeated, dispirited, discontented,
+undisciplined, diseased, eaten up with vermin."</p>
+
+<p>"My God!" exclaimed Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"It's true enough," said Dave, coolly. "And when John Adams also adds
+that we have no clothing, no beds, no blankets, no medicines, and only
+salt pork and flour to eat and little o' these, why, he's right, too.
+Why not admit truth? Does it help to conceal it? Nenni, lads! It is best
+always to face it and endeavour to turn into a falsehood tomorrow what
+is disgracefully true today.</p>
+
+<p>"So when I tell you that in three months our Northern Army has lost five
+thousand men by smallpox, camp fever, bullets, and privation&mdash;that out
+of five thousand who remain, two thousand are sick, why, it's the plain
+and damnable truth.</p>
+
+<p>"But any soldier who loses sleep or appetite over such cursed news
+should be run through with a bayonet, for he's a rabbit and no man!"</p>
+
+<p>After a silence: "Who commands them now?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Gates is to take them over at Crown Point, I hear."</p>
+
+<p>This news chilled me, for Schuyler should have commanded. But the damned
+Yankees, plotting their petty New England plots to discredit our dear
+General, had plainly hoodwinked Congress; and now our generous and noble
+Schuyler had again fallen a victim to nutmeg jealousy and cunning.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said I, "God help us all in Tryon, now; for a vain ass is in the
+saddle, and the counsel of the brave and wise remains unheeded. Will Guy
+Carleton drive us south of Crown Point?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think so," said Ellerson, carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Then the war will come among us here in Tryon!"</p>
+
+<p>"Straight as a storm from the North, John."</p>
+
+<p>"When?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that? God knows. We shall hold the lakes as long as we can. But
+unless we are reinforced by Continentals&mdash;unless every Colony sends us a
+regiment of their Lines&mdash;we can not hope to hold Crown Point, and that's
+sure as shooting and plain as preaching."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said I between clenched teeth, "then we here in Tryon had
+best go about the purging of that same county, and physic this district
+against a dose o' red-coats."</p>
+
+<p>Ellerson laughed and rose with the lithe ease of a panther.</p>
+
+<p>"I should be on my way to Albany," says he. "You tell me there are
+horses at the Summer House, John?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly."</p>
+
+<p>We shook hands.</p>
+
+<p>"You find Morgan's agreeable?" inquired Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"A grand corps, lad! Tim Murphy is my mate. And I think there's not a
+rifleman among us who can not shoot the whiskers off a porcupine at a
+hundred yards." And to me, with a nod toward my Oneidas: "They are
+painting. Do you march tonight, John?"</p>
+
+<p>"A matter of cleaning out a Tory nest yonder," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"A filthy business and not war," quoth he. "Well, God be with all
+friends to liberty, for all hell is rising up against us. A thousand
+Indians are stripped for battle on this frontier&mdash;and the tall ships
+never cease arriving crammed with red-coats and Germans.</p>
+
+<p>"So we should all do our duty now, whether that same duty lie in
+emptying barrack slops, or in cleaning out a Tory nest, or in marching
+to drum and fife, or guarding the still places of the wilderness&mdash;it's
+all one business, John."</p>
+
+<p>Again we shook hands all around, then, waving aside Joe de Golyer and
+his proffered lantern, the celebrated rifleman passed lightly into the
+shadows.</p>
+
+<p>"Yonder goes the best shot in the North," said Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"Saving only yourself and Jack Mount and Tim Murphy," remarked Godfrey
+Shew.</p>
+
+<p>"As for the whiskers of a porcupine," quoth Nick, with the wild flare
+a-glimmering in his eyes, "why, I have never tried such a target. But I
+should pick any button on a red coat at a hundred yards&mdash;that is, if I
+cast and pare my own bullet, and load in my own fashion."</p>
+
+<p>Silver swore that any rifle among us white men should shave an otter of
+his whiskers, as a barber trims a Hessian.</p>
+
+<p>"Sacré garce!" cried he, "why should we miss&mdash;we coureurs-du-bois, who
+have learn to shoot by ze hardes' of all drill-masters&mdash;a empty belly!"</p>
+
+<p>"We must not miss at Howell's house," said I, counting my people at a
+glance.</p>
+
+<p>The Saguenay, ghastly in scarlet and white, came and placed himself
+behind me.</p>
+
+<p>All the Oneidas were naked, painted from lock to ankle in terrific
+symbols.</p>
+
+<p>Thiohero was still oiling her supple, boyish body when I started a brief
+description of the part each one of us was to act, speaking in the
+Oneida dialect and in English.</p>
+
+<p>"Take these bloody men alive," I added, "if it can be done. But if it
+can not, then slay them. For every one of these that escapes tonight
+shall return one day with a swarm of hornets to sting us all to death in
+County Tryon!... Are you ready for the command?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ready, John," says Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"March!"</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>At midnight we had surrounded Howell's house, save only the east
+approach, which we still left open for tardy skulkers.</p>
+
+<p>A shadowy form or two slinking out from the tamaracks, their guns
+trailing, passed along the hard ridge, bent nearly double to avoid
+observation.</p>
+
+<p>We could not recognize them, for they were very shadows, vague as
+frost-driven woodcock speeding at dusk to a sheltered swamp.</p>
+
+<p>But, as they arrived, singly and in little groups, such a silent rage
+possessed me that I could scarce control my rifle, which quivered to
+take toll of these old neighbors who were returning by stealth at night
+to murder us in our beds.</p>
+
+<p>The Saguenay lay in the wild grasses on my left; the little maid of
+Askalege, in her naked paint, lay on my right hand. Her forefinger
+caressed the trigger of her new rifle; the stock lay close to her cheek.
+And I could hear her singing her <i>Karenna</i> in a mouse's whisper to
+herself:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Listen, John Drogue,<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Though we all die,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">You shall survive!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Listen, John Drogue,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This will happen,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And it is well,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Because I love you.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Why do I love you?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Because you are a boy-chief,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And we are both young,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thou and I.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Why do I love you?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Because you are my elder brother,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And you speak to the Oneidas<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Very gently.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"I am a prophetess;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I see events beforehand;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This is my Karenna:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Though we all die tonight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">You shall survive in Scarlet:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And this is well,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Because I love you."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>So, crooning her prophecy, she lay flat in the wild grasses, cuddling
+the rifle-stock close to her shoulder; and her song's low cadence was
+like the burden of some cricket amid the herbage.</p>
+
+<p>"Tharon alone knows all," I breathed in her ear.</p>
+
+<p>"Neah!" she murmured; and touched her cheek against mine.</p>
+
+<p>"Only God knows who shall survive tonight," I insisted.</p>
+
+<p>"Onhteh. Ra-ko-wan-enh,"<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> she murmured. "But I have seen you,
+<i>niare</i>,<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> through a mist, coming from this place,
+O-ne-kwen-da-ri-en.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> And dead bodies lay about. Do you believe me?"</p>
+
+<p>I made no reply but lay motionless, watching the tamaracks, ghostly in
+their cerements of silver fog. And I heard, through the low rhythm of
+her song, owls howling far away amid those spectral wastes, and saw the
+Oneida Dancers,<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> very small and pale above the void.</p>
+
+<p>I stared with fierce satisfaction at Howell's house. There was no gleam
+of light visible behind the closed shutters; but I already had counted
+nine men who came creeping to that silent rendezvous. And now there
+arrived the tenth man, running and stooping low; and went in by the east
+side of the house.</p>
+
+<p>I waited a full minute longer, then whistled the whitethroat's call.</p>
+
+<p>"Now!" said I to Thiohero; and we rose and walked forward through the
+light mist which lay knee-deep over the ground.</p>
+
+<p>We had not advanced ten paces when three men, whom I had not perceived,
+rose up on the ridge to our right.</p>
+
+<p>One of these shouted and fired a gun, and all three dropped flat again
+before we could realize what they had been about.</p>
+
+<p>But already, out of that shadowy house, armed men swarmed like black
+hornets from their nest, and we ran to cut them from the tamaracks, but
+could not mark their flight in the so great darkness.</p>
+
+<p>Then Nick Stoner struck flint, and dropped his tinder upon the remnants
+of a hay-stack, where wisps of last year's marsh grass still littered
+the rick.</p>
+
+<p>In the smoky glow which grew I saw that great villain, Simon Girty, fire
+his gun at us, then turn and run toward the water; and Dries Bowman took
+after him, shouting in his fear.</p>
+
+<p>Very carefully I fired at Girty, but he was not scotched, and was lost
+in the dark with Dries.</p>
+
+<p>Then, in the increasing glow of the marsh-hay afire, I saw and
+recognized Elias Cady, and his venomous son, Charlie; and called loudly
+upon them to halt.</p>
+
+<p>But they plunged into the shore reeds; and John and Phil Helmer at their
+heels; and we fired our guns into the dark, but could not stop them or
+again even hope to glimpse them in their flight.</p>
+
+<p>But the Oneidas had now arrived between the tamaracks and the log house,
+and my Rangers were swiftly closing in on the west and south, when
+suddenly a couple of loud musket shots came from the crescents in the
+bolted shutters, hiding the west window in a double cloud of smoke.</p>
+
+<p>I called out, "Halt!" to my people, for it was death to cross that
+circle of light ahead while the marsh-hay burned.</p>
+
+<p>There were at least five men now barricaded in Howell's house. I called
+to Tahioni, the Wolf, and he came crouching and all trembling with
+excitement and impatience, like a fierce hound restrained.</p>
+
+<p>"Take your people," said I, "and follow those dirty cowards who are
+fleeing toward the tamaracks."</p>
+
+<p>Instantly his terrific panther-cry shattered the silence, and the
+Oneidas' wild answer to his slogan hung quavering over the Drowned Lands
+like the melancholy pulsations of a bell.</p>
+
+<p>The hay-rick burned less brightly now. I crept out to the dark edge of
+the wavering glare and called across to those in the log-house:</p>
+
+<p>"If you will surrender I promise to send you to Johnstown and let a
+court judge you! If you refuse, we shall take you by storm, try you on
+the spot, and execute sentence upon you in that house! I allow you five
+minutes!"</p>
+
+<p>At that, two of them fired in the direction from whence came my voice;
+and I heard their bullets passing, aimed too high.</p>
+
+<p>Then John Howell's voice bawls out, "I know you, Drogue; and so help me
+God, I shall cut your throat before this business ends!&mdash;you dirty
+renegade and traitor to your King!"</p>
+
+<p>Such a rage possessed me that I scarce knew what I was about, and I ran
+across the grass to the bolted door of the house, and fell to slashing
+at it with my hatchet like a madman.</p>
+
+<p>They were firing now so rapidly that the smoke of their guns made a
+choking fog about the house; but the log cabin had no overhang, not
+being built for defense, and so they over-shot me whilst my hatchet
+battered splinters from the door and shook it almost from its hinges.</p>
+
+<p>Some one was coughing in the thick, rifle-fog near me, and presently I
+heard Nick swearing and hammering at the door with his gun butt.</p>
+
+<p>The French trappers, not so rash as we, lay close in the darkness,
+shooting steadily into the shutters at short range.</p>
+
+<p>Shutters and door, though splintering, held; the defenders fired at my
+men's rifle-flashes, or strove to shoot at Nick and me, where we
+crouched low in the sheltered doorway; but they could not sufficiently
+depress the muzzles of their guns to hit us.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, from out of the night, came a fire-arrow, whistling, with dry
+moss all aflame, and lodged on the roof of Howell's house.</p>
+
+<p>Quoth Nick: "Your Tree-eater is in action, John. God send that the fire
+catch!"</p>
+
+<p>From the darkness, Silver called out to me that the marsh-hay had nearly
+burned out, and what were he and Joe to do? Then came a-whizzing another
+fire-arrow, and another, but whether the dew was too heavy on the roof
+or the moss too damp, I do not know; only that when at length the roof
+caught fire, it was but a tiny blaze and flickered feebly, eating a slow
+way along the edges of the eaves.</p>
+
+<p>Nick, who had been wrenching at the imbedded door stone, finally freed
+and lifted it, and hurled it at the bolted shutters. In they crashed.
+Then the door, too, burst open, and Tom Dawling rushed upon me with his
+rifle clubbed high above me.</p>
+
+<p>"You damned Whig!" he shouted, "I'll knock your brains all over the
+grass!"</p>
+
+<p>My hatchet in a measure fended the blow and eased its murderous force,
+but I stumbled to my knees under it; and Baltus Weed came to the window
+and shot me through the body.</p>
+
+<p>At that, Gene Grinnis ran out o' the house to cut my throat, where like
+a crippled wild beast I floundered, a-kicking and striving to find my
+feet; and I saw Nick draw up and shoot Gene through the face, with a
+load of buck, so that where were his features suddenly became but a vast
+and raw hole.</p>
+
+<p>Down he sprawled across my hurt legs; down tumbled John Howell, too, and
+Silver, a-clinging to him tooth and nail, their broad knives flashing
+and ripping and whipping into flesh.</p>
+
+<p>Striving desperately to free me of Grinnis, and get up, I saw Tom
+Dawling throw his axe at Godfrey; and saw Luysnes shoot him, then seize
+him and cut his throat, even as he was falling.</p>
+
+<p>Johnny Silver began bawling lustily for help, with John Howell atop of
+him, cursing him for a rebel and striving to disembowel him. De Golyer
+caught Howell by the throat, and Silver scrambled to his feet, his
+clothing in bloody ribbons. Then Joe's hatchet flashed level with
+terrific swiftness, crashing to its mark; and Howell pitched backward
+with his head clean split from one eye to the other, making of the top
+of his skull a lid which hung hinged only by the hairy skin.</p>
+
+<p>Luysnes and the Saguenay were now somewhere inside the house a-chasing
+of Balty Weed; and I could hear Balty screaming, and the thud and
+clatter of loose logs as they dragged him down from the loft overhead.</p>
+
+<p>Nick came panting to me where I sat on the bloody grass, feeling sick o'
+my wound and now vomiting.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you bad?" he asked breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Balty shot me.... I don't know&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Somebody knelt down behind me, and I laid back my head, feeling very
+sick and faint, but entirely conscious.</p>
+
+<p>The awful screaming in the house had never ceased; Nick sat down on the
+grass and fumbled at my shirt with trembling fingers.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the screaming ceased. Luysnes came out o' the house with a
+lighted lantern, followed by the Saguenay; and in the wavering radiance
+I saw behind them the feet of a man twitching above the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"We hung the louse to the rafters," said Luysnes, "and your Indian asks
+your leave to scalp him as soon as he's done a-kicking."</p>
+
+<p>"Let him have the scalp," said de Golyer, grimly. "He shot John Drogue
+through the body. Shine your lantern on him, Ben."</p>
+
+<p>They crowded around me. Nick opened my shirt and drew off my leggins. I
+saw Johnny Silver, in tatters and all drenched with blood, come into the
+lantern's rays.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you bad hurt, John?" I gasped.</p>
+
+<p>"Bah! Non, alors. Onlee has Howell slash my shirt into leetle rags and I
+am scratch all raw. Zat ees nozzing, mon capitaine&mdash;a leetle cut like
+wiz a Barlow&mdash;like zat! Pouf! Bah! I laugh. I make mock!"</p>
+
+<p>"Your ribs are broken, John," says Nick, still squatting beside me. "I
+think your bones turned the bullet, and it's not lodged in your belly at
+all, but in your right thigh.... Fetch a sop o' wet moss, Joe!"</p>
+
+<p>De Luysnes also got up and went away to chop some stout alders for a
+litter. De Golyer was back in a moment, both hands full of dripping
+sphagnum; and Nick washed away the mess of blood.</p>
+
+<p>After that I was sick at my stomach again; and not clear in my mind what
+they were about.</p>
+
+<p>I gazed around out of fevered eyes, and saw dead men lying near me.
+Suddenly the full horror of this civil war seemed to seize my
+senses;&mdash;all the shame of such a conflict, a black disgrace upon us here
+in County Tryon.</p>
+
+<p>"Nick!" I cried, "in God's name give those men burial."</p>
+
+<p>"Let them lie, damn them!" said Godfrey, sullenly.</p>
+
+<p>"But they were our neighbors! I&mdash;I can't endure such a business.... And
+there are wolves in the tamaracks."</p>
+
+<p>"Let wolf eat wolf," muttered Luysnes. But he drew his knife and went
+into the house. And I heard Balty's body drop when he cut it down.</p>
+
+<p>Nick came over to me, where I lay on a frame of alders, over which a
+blanket had been thrown, and he promised that a burial party should come
+out here as soon as they got me into camp.</p>
+
+<p>So two of my men lifted the litter, and, feeling sick and drowsy, I
+closed my eyes and felt the slow waves of pain sweep me with every step
+the litter-bearers took.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>I had been lying in a kind of stupor upon my blanket, aware of dark
+figures passing to and fro before the lurid radiance of our watch fire,
+yet not heeding what they said and did, save only when I saw Nick and
+Luysnes go away carrying two ditch-spades. And was vaguely contented to
+have the dead put safe from wolves.</p>
+
+<p>Later, when I opened my burning eyes and asked for water, I saw Tahioni
+in the flushed light of dawn, and knew that my Indians had returned.</p>
+
+<p>Nick filled my pannikin. When I had drunk, I felt very ill and could
+scarcely find voice to ask him how my Oneidas had made out in the
+tamaracks.</p>
+
+<p>He admitted that they had not come up with the fugitives; and added that
+I was badly hurt and should be quiet and trouble my mind about nothing
+for the present.</p>
+
+<p>One by one my Indians came gravely to gaze upon me, and I tried to smile
+and to speak to each, but my mind seemed confused, what with the burning
+of my body and my great weariness.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>When again I unclosed my eyes and asked for water, I was lying under the
+open-faced shed, and it was brilliant sunshine outside.</p>
+
+<p>Somebody had stripped me and had heated water in the kettle, and was
+bathing my body.</p>
+
+<p>Then I saw it was the little maid of Askalege.</p>
+
+<p>"Thiohero,&mdash;little sister?"</p>
+
+<p>At the sound of my voice, she came and bent over me. La one hand she
+held a great sponge of steaming sphagnum.</p>
+
+<p>Then came Nick, who leaned closer above me.</p>
+
+<p>"Their young sorceress," said he, "has washed your body with bitter-bark
+and sumach, and has cleansed the wounds and stopped them with dry moss
+and balsam, so that they have ceased bleeding."</p>
+
+<p>I turned my heavy eyes on the Oneida girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Truly," said I, "I have come back through the mist, returning in
+scarlet.... My little sister is very wise."</p>
+
+<p>She said nothing, but lifted a pannikin of cold water to my lips. It had
+bitter herbs in it, and, I think, a little gin. I satisfied my thirst.</p>
+
+<p>"Little sister," I gasped, "is the hole that Balty made in my body so
+great that my soul shall presently escape?"</p>
+
+<p>She answered calmly: "I have looked through the wound into your body;
+and I saw your soul there, watching me. Then I conjured your soul, which
+is very white, to remain within your body. And your soul, seeing that it
+was not the Eye of Tharon looking in to discover it, went quietly to
+sleep. And will abide within you."</p>
+
+<p>She spoke in the Oneida dialect, and Nick listened impatiently, not
+understanding.</p>
+
+<p>"What does the little Oneida witch say?" he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>Her brother, Tahioni, the Wolf, answered calmly: "The River-reed is a
+witch and is as wise as the Woman of the Sounding Skies. The River-reed
+sees events beforehand."</p>
+
+<p>"She says John Drogue will live?" demanded Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"He shall surely live," said Thiohero, drawing the blanket over me.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then," said Nick, "in God's name let us get him to the Summer
+House, where the surgeon of the Continentals can treat him properly, and
+the ladies there nurse him&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>That roused me, and I strove to sit up, but could not.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not go to Summer House!" I cried. "If I am in need of a
+surgeon, bring him here; but I want no women near me!&mdash;I do not desire
+any woman at Summer House to nurse me or aid or touch me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>In my angry excitement at the very remembrance of Lady Johnson and
+Claudia, and of Penelope, whom I had beheld in Steve Watts' arms&mdash;and of
+that man himself, who had come spying,&mdash;I forced my body upright,
+furious at the mere thought and swore I had rather die here in camp than
+be taken thither.</p>
+
+<p>Then, suddenly my elbow crumpled under me, and I fell back in an agony
+of pain so great that presently the world grew swiftly black and I knew
+no more.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<h3>IN SHADOW-LAND</h3>
+
+
+<p>When I became conscious, I was lying under blankets upon a trundle-bed,
+within the four walls of a very small room.</p>
+
+<p>I wore a night-shift which was not mine, being finer and oddly ruffled;
+and under it my naked body was as stiff as a pike pole, and bound up
+like a mummy. My right thigh, too, was stiffly swathed and trussed, and
+I thought I should stifle from the heat of the blankets.</p>
+
+<p>My mind was clear; I was aware of no sharp pain, no fever; but felt very
+weak, and could have slept again, only that perspiration drenched me and
+made me restless even as I dozed.</p>
+
+<p>Sometime afterward&mdash;the same day, I think&mdash;I awoke in some pain, and
+realized that I was lying on my right side and that the wound in my
+thigh was being dressed.</p>
+
+<p>The place smelled rank, like a pharmacy, and slightly sickened me.</p>
+
+<p>There were several people in the little room. I saw Nick kneeling beside
+the bed, holding a pewter basin full of steaming water, and a
+Continental officer with his wrist-bands tucked up, choosing forceps
+from a battered leather case.</p>
+
+<p>I could not move my body; my head seemed too heavy to lift; but I was
+aware of a woman standing close to where my head rested. I could see her
+two feet in their buckled shoes, and her petticoat of cotton stuff
+printed in flowers.</p>
+
+<p>When the surgeon had done a-packing my wound with lint, pain had left me
+weak and indifferent, and I lay heavily, with lids closed.</p>
+
+<p>Also, I had seen and heard enough to satisfy what languid curiosity I
+might have possessed. For I was in the gun-room at Summer House,
+whither, it appeared, they had taken me, despite my command to the
+contrary.</p>
+
+<p>But now I was too weary to resent it; too listless to worry; too
+incurious to wonder who it might be that was at any pains to care for my
+broken body at Summer House Point.</p>
+
+<p>Nick came, later, and I opened my eyes, but made no effort to speak. He
+seemed pleased, however, and gave me a filthy and bitter draught, which
+I swallowed, but which so madded me that I swore at him.</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon he smiled and wiped my lips and tucked in the accursed
+blankets that had been stifling me and which now scraped my unshaven
+chin.</p>
+
+<p>"Damnation!" I whispered, "you smother me, drown me in sweat, and feed
+me gall and wormwood!"</p>
+
+<p>And I closed my eyes to sleep; but found my mind not so inclined, and
+lay half dozing, conscious of the sunlight on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>So I was awake when he arrived again with a pot o' broth.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you not leave me in peace!" said I, so savagely that he laughed
+outright and bent over, stirring the broth and grinning down at me.</p>
+
+<p>Spoonful by spoonful I swallowed the broth. There was wine in it. This
+made me drowsy.</p>
+
+<p>To keep account of time, whether it were still this day or the next, or
+how the hours were passing, had been a matter of indifference to me. Or
+how the world wagged outside the golden dusk of this small room had
+interested me not at all.</p>
+
+<p>My Continental surgeon, whom they called Dr. Thatcher, came twice a day
+and went smartly about his business.</p>
+
+<p>Nick dosed me and fed me. I had asked no questions; but my mind had
+become sullen and busy; and now I was groping backward and searching
+memory to find the time and place when I had lost touch with the world
+and with the business which had brought me into these parts.</p>
+
+<p>All was clearly linked up to the time that Balty shot me. Afterward,
+only fragments of the chain of events remained in my memory. I heard
+again the thud of Balty's body on the puncheon floor, when Luysnes cut
+him down from the rafters of Howell's house. I remember that I saw men
+take ditch-spades to bury the dead. I remember that my body seemed all
+afire and that I became enraged and forbade them to take me to Summer
+House.</p>
+
+<p>Further&mdash;and of the blank spaces between&mdash;I had no recollection save
+that the whole world seemed burning up in darkness and that my body was
+being consumed like a fagot in some hellish conflagration, where the
+flames were black and gave no light.</p>
+
+<p>This day Dr. Thatcher and Nick washed me and closed my wounds.</p>
+
+<p>There had been, it appeared, some drains left in them. The stiff harness
+on my ribs they left untouched. I breathed, now, without any pain, but
+itched most damnably.</p>
+
+<p>My closed wounds itched. I desired broth no longer and demanded meat.
+But got none and swore at Nick.</p>
+
+<p>A barber from the Continental camp arrived to trim me. He took a beard
+from me that amazed me, and enough hair to awake the envy of a
+school-girl&mdash;for I refused to wear a queue, and bade him trim my pol ŕ
+la Coureur-du-Bois.</p>
+
+<p>Now this barber, who was a private soldier, seemed willing to gossip;
+and of him I asked my first questions concerning the outside world and
+train of events.</p>
+
+<p>But I soon perceived that all he knew was the veriest camp gossip, and
+that his budget of rumours and reports was of no value whatever. For he
+said that our armies were everywhere victorious; that the British armies
+were on the run; and that the war would be over in another month.
+Everybody, quoth he, would become rich and happy, with General
+Washington for our King, and every general a duke or marquis, and every
+soldier a landed proprietor, with nothing to do save sit on his porch,
+smoke his pipe, and watch his slaves plow his broad acres.</p>
+
+<p>When this sorry ass took his leave, I had long since ceased to listen to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>I felt very well, except for the accursed itching where my flesh was
+mending, and rib-bones knitting.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Thatcher came in. He was booted, spurred, wore pistols and sword,
+and a military foot-mantle.</p>
+
+<p>When he caught my eyes he smiled slightly and asked me how I did. And I
+expressed my gratitude as suitably as I knew how, saying that I was well
+and desired to rise and be about my business.</p>
+
+<p>"In two weeks," he said, which took me aback.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know how long you have been here?" he asked, amused.</p>
+
+<p>"Some three or four days, I suppose.</p>
+
+<p>"A month today, Mr. Drogue."</p>
+
+<p>This stunned me. He seated himself on the camp-stool beside my
+trundle-bed.</p>
+
+<p>"What preys upon your mind, Mr. Drogue?" he asked pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"I ask you what it is that troubles you."</p>
+
+<p>I felt a slow heat in my cheeks:</p>
+
+<p>"I have nothing on my mind, sir, save desire to return to duty."</p>
+
+<p>He said in his kindly way: "You would mend more quickly, sir, if your
+mind were tranquil."</p>
+
+<p>I felt my face flush to my hair:</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you suppose that my mind is uneasy, Doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have asked no questions. A sick man, when recovering, asks many.
+You seem to remain incurious, indifferent. Yet, you are in the house of
+old friends."</p>
+
+<p>He looked at me out of his kind, grave eyes: "Also," he said, "you had
+many days of fever."</p>
+
+<p>My face burned: I feared to guess what he meant, but now I must ask.</p>
+
+<p>"Did I babble?"</p>
+
+<p>"A feverish patient often becomes loquacious."</p>
+
+<p>"Of&mdash;of whom did I&mdash;rave?" I could scarce force myself to the question.
+Then, as he also seemed embarrassed, I added: "You need not name her,
+Doctor. But I beg you to tell me who besides yourself overheard me."</p>
+
+<p>"Only your soldier, Nicholas Stoner, and a Saguenay Indian, who squats
+outside your door day and night."</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody else?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think not."</p>
+
+<p>"Has Lady Johnson heard me? Or Mistress Swift? Or&mdash;Mistress Grant?" I
+stammered.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, no," said he. "These ladies were most tender and attentive when
+your soldiers brought you hither; but two days afterward, while you
+still lay unconscious,&mdash;and your right lung filling solid,&mdash;there came a
+flag from General Schuyler, and an escort of Albany Horse for the
+ladies. And they departed as prisoners the following morning, with their
+flag, to be delivered and set at liberty inside the British lines."</p>
+
+<p>"They are gone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. Lady Johnson, while happy in her prospective freedom, and
+hopeful of meeting her husband in New York City, seemed very greatly
+distressed to leave you here in such a plight. And Mistress Swift
+offered to remain and care for you, but our military authorities would
+not allow it."</p>
+
+<p>I said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>He added, with a faint smile: "Our authorities, I take it, were
+impatient to be rid of responsibility for these fair prisoners, Mr.
+Drogue. I know that Schuyler is vastly relieved."</p>
+
+<p>"Has Stephen Watts been taken?" I asked abruptly. "Or Hare, or Butler?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not that I have heard of."</p>
+
+<p>So they had got clean away, that spying crew!&mdash;Watts and Hare and Walter
+Butler! Well, that was better. God knows I had a million times rather
+meet Steve Watts in battle than take him skulking here inside our lines
+a-spying on our camp, exchanging information with his unhappy sister
+and with Claudia, or slinking about the shrubbery by night to press his
+sweetheart's waist and lips&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>I turned my hot face on the pillow and lay a-thinking. The doctor laid
+back my blanket, looked at my hurts, then covered me.</p>
+
+<p>"You do well," he said. "In two weeks you shall be out o' bed. Bones
+must knit and wounds scar before you carry pack again. And before your
+lung is strong you shall need six months rest ere you take the field."</p>
+
+<p>Aghast at such news, I asked him the true nature of my hurts, and
+learned that Balty's bullet had broken three ribs into my right lung,
+then, glancing, had made a hole clean through my thigh, but not
+splintering the bone.</p>
+
+<p>"That Oneida girl of Thomas Spencer's saved you," said he, "for she
+picked out the burnt wadding and bits of cloth, cleaned and checked the
+hemorrhage, and purged you. And there was no gangrene.</p>
+
+<p>"She did all that anybody could have done; but the cold had already
+seized your lung before she arrived, and it was that which involved you
+so desperately."</p>
+
+<p>After a silence: "Good God, doctor! <i>Six months</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"Six months before you take the field, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"A half year of idleness? Why, that can not be, sir&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It is better than eternity in a coffin, sir," said he quietly.</p>
+
+<p>Then he came and took my hand, saying that orders had come directing him
+to join our Northern Army at Crown Point, and that he was to set off
+within the hour.</p>
+
+<p>"A little nursing and continued rest are all you now require," said he;
+"and so I leave you without anxiety, Mr. Drogue."</p>
+
+<p>I strove to express my deep gratitude for his service to me; he pressed
+my hand, smilingly:</p>
+
+<p>"If you would hasten convalescence," said he, "seek to recover that
+serenity of mind which is a surer medicine than any in my phials."</p>
+
+<p>At the door he turned and looked back to me:</p>
+
+<p>"I think," said he in an embarrassed voice, "that you have really no
+true reason for unhappiness, Mr. Drogue. If you have, then my experience
+of men and women has taught me nothing."</p>
+
+<p>With that he went; and I heard his sword and spurs through the hallway,
+and the outer door close.</p>
+
+<p>What had he meant?</p>
+
+<p>For a long while I pondered this. Then into my mind came another and
+inevitable question: <i>What</i> had I said in my delirium?</p>
+
+<p>I was hungry when Nick came.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," says he, grinning at me, "our Continental saw-bones permits this
+fat wild pigeon. And now I hope I shall have no more cursing to endure."</p>
+
+<p>Tears came into my eyes and I held out my hand. It was blanched white,
+and bony, and lay oddly in his great, brown paw.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord," says he, "what a fright you have given us, John, what with
+coughing all day and night like a sick bullock&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I am mending, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"So says Major Squills. Here, lad, eat thy pigeon. Does it smack? And
+here is a little Spanish wine in this glass to nourish you. I had three
+bottles of the Continentals ere they marched&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Marched! Have they departed?" I demanded in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Horse, foot, and baggage," said he cheerily. "When I say 'horse,' I
+mean young Jack-boots, for he departed first with the flag that took my
+Lady Johnson to New York."</p>
+
+<p>"So everybody has gone," said I, blankly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes, John. The flag came from Schuyler and off went the ladies,
+bag, baggage, and servants.</p>
+
+<p>"Then come Colonels Van Schaick and Dayton from Johnstown to inspect our
+works at this place and at Fish House. And two days later orders come to
+abandon Fish House and Summer House Point.... You do not remember
+hearing their drums?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"You were very bad that day," he said soberly. "But when their music
+played you opened your eyes and nothing would do but you must rise and
+dress. Lord, how wild you talked, and I was heartily glad when their
+drumming died away on the Johnstown road."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean to tell me that there is no longer any garrison on the
+Sacandaga?" I asked, amazed.</p>
+
+<p>"None. And but a meagre one at Johnstown. It seems we need troops
+everywhere and have none to send anywhere. They've even taken your scout
+and your Oneidas."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" I exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"They left a week ago, John, to work on the new fort which is being
+fashioned out of old Fort Stanwix. So Dayton sends your scout thither to
+play with pick and mattock, and your Oneidas to prowl along Wood Creek
+and guard the batteaux."</p>
+
+<p>"You tell me that the Sacandaga is left destitute of garrison or
+scouts!" I asked angrily. "And Tryon crawling alive with Tories!&mdash;and
+the Cadys and Helmers and Bowmans and Reeds and Butlers and Hares and
+Stephen Watts stirring the disloyal to violence in every settlement
+betwixt Schenectady and Ballston!"</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you we are too few for all our need, John,&mdash;too few to watch all
+places threatened. Schuyler has but one regiment of Continentals now.
+Gates commands at Crown Point and draws to him all available men. His
+Excellency is pressed for men in the South, too. Albany is almost
+defenceless, Schenectady practically unguarded, and only a handful of
+our people guard Johnstown."</p>
+
+<p>"Where are the militia?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Farming&mdash;save when the district call sends a regiment on guard or to
+work on the forts. But Herkimer has them in hand against a crisis, and I
+have no doubt that those Palatines will turn out to a man if Sir John
+comes hither with his murderous hordes."</p>
+
+<p>I sat in silence, picking the bones of my pigeon. Nick said:</p>
+
+<p>"Colonel Dayton came in here and looked at you. And when he left he said
+to me that you had proven a valuable scout; and that, if you survived,
+he desired you to remain here at the Summer House with me and with your
+Saguenay."</p>
+
+<p>"For what purpose?" I demanded, sullenly.</p>
+
+<p>"On observation."</p>
+
+<p>"A scout of three! To cover the Sacandaga! Do they think we have wings?
+Or are a company of tree-cats with nine lives apiece?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Nick, scratching his ear in perplexity, "I know not what
+our colonels and our generals are thinking; but the soldiers are gone,
+and our doctor has now departed, so if Dayton leaves us four people
+alone here in the Summer House it must be because there is nothing for
+the present to apprehend, either from Sir John or from any Indian or
+Tory marauders."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Four</i> people?" I repeated. "I thought you said we were but three
+here."</p>
+
+<p>"Why," said he, "I mean that we are three men&mdash;three rifles!"</p>
+
+<p>"Is there a servant woman, also?"</p>
+
+<p>He looked at me oddly.</p>
+
+<p>"The Caughnawaga girl came back."</p>
+
+<p>"What!"</p>
+
+<p>"The Scottish girl, Penelope."</p>
+
+<p>"Came back! When?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that was long ago&mdash;after the flag left.... It seems she had meant
+to travel only to Mayfield with them.... She had not said so to anybody.
+But in the dark o' dawn she rides in on your mare, Kaya, having
+travelled all night long."</p>
+
+<p>"'Why,' says I, 'what do you here on John Drogue's horse in the dark o'
+dawn?'</p>
+
+<p>"'If there's danger,' says she calmly, 'this sick man should have a
+horse to carry him to Mayfield fort.'</p>
+
+<p>"Which was true enough; and I said so, and stabled your mare where Lady
+Johnson's horses had left a warm and empty manger."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said I harshly, as he remained silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord, Jack, that is all I know. She has cooked for you since, and has
+kept this house in order, washed dishes, fed the chickens and ducks and
+pig, groomed your horse, hoed the garden, sewed bandages, picked lint,
+knitted stockings and soldiers' vests&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Why?</i>" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"I asked her that, John. And she answered that there was nobody here to
+care for a sick man's comfort, and that Dr. Thatcher had told her you
+would die if they moved you to Johnstown hospital.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought she'd become frightened and leave when the Continentals
+marched out; they all came&mdash;the officers&mdash;where she sat a-knitting by
+the apple-tree; but she only laughed at their importunities, made light
+of any dangers to be apprehended, and refused a seat on their camp
+wagon. And it pleased me, John, to see how doleful and crestfallen were
+some among those same young blue-and-buffs when they were obliged to
+ride away that morning and leave here there a-sewing up your shirt where
+Balty's bullet had rent it."</p>
+
+<p>A slight thrill shot me through. But it died cold. And I thought of
+Steve Watts, and of her in his embrace under the lilacs.</p>
+
+<p>If she now remained here it was for no reason concerning me. It was
+because she thought her lover might return some night and take her in
+his arms again. That was the reason.</p>
+
+<p>And with this miserable conclusion, a more dreadful doubt seized me.
+What of the loyalty of a girl whose lover is a King's man?</p>
+
+<p>I remembered how, in the blossoming orchard, she had whispered to me
+that she was a friend to liberty.</p>
+
+<p>Was that to be believed of a maid whose lover came into our camp a spy?</p>
+
+<p>I lay back on my pillow and closed my eyes. What was this girl to me
+that I should care one way or the other?</p>
+
+<p>Nick took my platter and went away, leaving me to sleep as I seemed to
+desire it.</p>
+
+<p>But I had no desire to sleep. And as I lay there, I became sensible that
+my entire and battered body was almost imperceptibly a-tremble.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE DEMON</h3>
+
+
+<p>I think that summer was the strangest ever I have lived,&mdash;the most
+unreal days of life,&mdash;so still, so golden, so strangely calm the
+solitude that ringed me where I was slowly healing of my hurt.</p>
+
+<p>Each dawn was heralded by gold fire, each evening by a rosy
+conflagration in the west. It rained only at night; and all that crystal
+clear mid-summer scarcely a shred of fleece dappled the empyrean.</p>
+
+<p>Those winds which blow so frequently in our Northland seemed to have
+become zephyrs, too; and there was but a reedy breeze along the Vlaie
+Water, and scarce a ripple to rock the lily pads in shallow reach and
+cove.</p>
+
+<p>It was strange. And, only for the loveliness of night and day, there
+might have seemed in this hushed tranquillity around me a sort of hidden
+menace.</p>
+
+<p>For all around about was war, where Tryon County lay so peacefully in
+the sunshine, ringed within the outer tumult, and walled on all sides by
+battle smoke.</p>
+
+<p>Above us our fever-stricken Northern army, driven from Crown Point, now
+lay and sickened at Ticonderoga, where General Gates did now command our
+people, while poor Arnold, turned ship's carpenter, laboured to match
+Guy Carleton's flotilla which the British were dragging piecemeal over
+Chambly Rapids to blow us out o' the lake.</p>
+
+<p>From south of us came news of the Long Island disaster where His
+Excellency, driven from Brooklyn and New York, now lay along the Harlem
+Heights.</p>
+
+<p>And it was a sorry business; for Billy Alexander, who is Lord Stirling,
+was taken a prisoner; and Sullivan also was taken; and their two
+brigades were practically destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>But worse happened at New York City, where the New York militia ran and
+two New England brigades, seized with panic, fled in a shameful manner.
+And so out o' town our people pulled foot, riotous and disorderly in
+retreat, and losing all our heavy guns, nearly all our stores, and more
+than three hundred prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>This was the news I had of the Long Island battle, where I lay in
+convalescence at Summer House that strange, still summer in the North.</p>
+
+<p>And I thought very bitterly of what advantage was it that we had but
+just rung bells and fired off our cannon to salute our new Declaration
+of Independence, and had upset the prancing leaden King from his
+pedestal on the Bowling Green, if our militia ran like rabbits at sight
+of the red-coats, and general officers like Lord Stirling were
+mouse-trapped in their first battle.</p>
+
+<p>Alas for poor New York, where fire and explosion had laid a third of the
+city in ruins; where the drums of the red-coats now rolled brazenly
+along the Broadway; where Delancy's horsemen scoured the island for
+friends to liberty; where that great wretch, Loring, lorded it like an
+unclean devil of the pit.</p>
+
+<p>God! to think on it when all had gone so well; and Boston clean o'
+red-coats, and Canada all but in our grasp; and old Charleston shaking
+with her dauntless cannonade, and our people's volleys pouring into
+Dunmore's hirelings through the levelled cinders of Norfolk town!</p>
+
+<p>What was the matter with us that these Southern gentlemen stood the
+British fire while, if we faced it, we crumpled and gave ground; or, if
+we shunned it, we ran disgracefully? Save only at Boston had we driven
+the red-coats on land. The British flame had scorched us on Long Island,
+singed us in New York, blasted us at Falmouth and Quebec, and left our
+armies writhing in the ashes from Montreal to Norfolk.</p>
+
+<p>And yet how tranquil, how fair, how ominously calm lay our Valley Land
+in the sunshine, ringed here by our blue mountains where no slightest
+cloud brooded in an unstained sky!</p>
+
+<p>And more still, more strange even than the untroubled calm of Tryon, lay
+the Summer House in its sunlit, soundless, and green desolation.</p>
+
+<p>Where, through the long days, nothing moved on the waste of waters save
+where a sun-burnished reed twinkled. Where, under star-powdered skies,
+no wind stirred; and only the vague far cry of some wandering wild thing
+ever disturbed that vast and velvet silence.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Long before she came near me to speak to me, and even before she had
+glanced at me from the west porch, whither she took her knitting in the
+afternoons, I had seen Penelope.</p>
+
+<p>From where I lay on my trundle in Sir William's old gun-room I could
+see out across the hallway and through the door, where the west veranda
+ran.</p>
+
+<p>In the mornings either my Indian, Yellow-Leaf, or Nick Stoner mounted
+guard there, watching the green and watery wastes to the northward,
+while his comrade freshened my sheets and pillows and cleansed my room.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoons one o' them went a-fishing or prowling after meat for
+our larder, or, sometimes, Nick went a-horse to Mayfield on observation,
+or to Johnstown for news or a bag of flour. And t'other watched from the
+veranda roof, which was railed, and ran all around the house, so that a
+man might walk post there and face all points of the compass.</p>
+
+<p>As for Penelope, I soon learned her routine; for in the morning she was
+in the kitchen and about the house&mdash;save only she came not to my
+room&mdash;but swept and dusted the rest, and cooked in the cellar-kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes I could see her in apron and pink print, drawing water from
+the orchard well, and her skirt tucked up against the dew.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes I saw her early in the garden, where greens grew and beans and
+peas; or sometimes she hoed weeds where potatoes and early corn stood in
+rows along a small strip planted between orchard and posy-bed.</p>
+
+<p>And sometimes I could see her a-milking our three Jersey cows, or, with
+a sickle, cutting green fodder for my mare, Kaya, whose dainty hoofs I
+often heard stamping the barn floor.</p>
+
+<p>But after the dinner hour, and when the long, still afternoons lay
+listlessly betwixt mid-summer sun and the pale, cool dusk, she came from
+her chamber all freshened like a faint, sweet breeze in her rustling
+petticoat of sheer, sprigged stuff, to seat herself on the west veranda
+with her knitting.</p>
+
+<p>Day after day I lay on my trundle where I could see her. She never
+noticed me, though by turning her head she could have seen me where I
+lay.</p>
+
+<p>I do not now remember clearly what was my state of mind except that a
+dull bitterness reigned there.</p>
+
+<p>Which was, of course, against all common sense and decent reason.</p>
+
+<p>I had no claim upon this girl. I had kissed her&mdash;through no fault of
+hers, and by no warrant and no encouragement from her to so conduct in
+her regard.</p>
+
+<p>I had kissed her once. But other men had done that perhaps with no more
+warrant. And I, though convinced that the girl knew not how to parry
+such surprises, brooded sullenly upon mine own indiscretion with her;
+and pondered upon the possible behaviour of other men with her. And I
+silently damned their impudence, and her own imprudence which seemed to
+have taught her little in regard to men.</p>
+
+<p>But in my mind the chiefest and most sullen trouble lay in what I had
+seen under the lilacs that night in June.</p>
+
+<p>And when I closed my eyes I seemed to see her in Steve Watts' arms, and
+the lad's ardent embrace of her throat and hair, and the flushed passion
+marring his youthful face&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>I often lay there, my eyes on her where I could see her through the
+door, knitting, and strove to remember how I had first heard her name
+spoken, and how at that last supper at the Hall her name was spoken and
+her beauty praised by such dissolute young gallants as Steve Watts and
+Lieutenant Hare; and how even Sir John had blurted out, in his cups,
+enough to betray an idle dalliance with this yellow-haired girl, and
+sufficient to affront his wife and his brother-in-law, and to disgust
+me.</p>
+
+<p>And Nick had said that men swarmed about her like forest-flies around a
+pan o' syrup!</p>
+
+<p>And all this, too, before ever I had laid eyes upon this slim and silent
+girl who now sat out yonder within my sullen vision, knitting or winding
+her wool in silence.</p>
+
+<p>What, then, could be the sentiments of any honest man concerning her?
+What, when I considered these things, were my own sentiments in her
+regard?</p>
+
+<p>And though report seemed clear, and what I had witnessed plainer still,
+I seemed to be unable to come to any conclusion as to my true sentiments
+in this business, or why, indeed, it was any business of mine, and why I
+concerned myself at all.</p>
+
+<p>Men found her young and soft and inexperienced; and so stole from her
+the kiss that heaven sent them.</p>
+
+<p>And Steve Watts, at least, was more wildly enamoured.... And, no doubt,
+that reckless flame had not left her entirely cold.... Else how could
+she have strolled away to meet him that same night when her lips must
+still have felt the touch of mine?... And how endured his passion there
+in the starlight?... And if she truly were a loyal friend to liberty,
+how in God's name give secret tryst and countenance to a spy?</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>One morning, when Nick had bathed me, I made him dress me in forest
+leather. Lord, but I was weak o' the feet, and light in head as a blown
+egg-shell!</p>
+
+<p>Thus, dressed, I lay all morning on my trundle, and there, seated on the
+edge, was given my noon dinner.</p>
+
+<p>But I had no mind, now, to undress and rest. I desired to go to the
+veranda, and did fume and curse and bully poor Nick until he picked me
+up and carried me thither and did seat me within a large and cushioned
+Windsor chair.</p>
+
+<p>Then, madded, he went away to fish for a silver pike in our canoe,
+saying with much viciousness that I might shout my throat raw and perish
+there ere he would stir a foot to put me to bed again.</p>
+
+<p>So I watched him go down to the shore where the canoe lay, lift in rod
+and line and paddle, and take water in high dudgeon.</p>
+
+<p>"Even an ass knows when he's sick!" he called out to me. But I laughed
+at him and saw his broad paddle stab the water, and the birchen craft
+shoot out among the reeds.</p>
+
+<p>Now it was in my thoughts to see how Mistress Penelope would choose to
+conduct, who had so long and so tranquilly ignored me.</p>
+
+<p>For here was I established upon the spot where she had been accustomed
+to sit through the long afternoons ... and think on Steve Watts, no
+doubt!...</p>
+
+<p>Comes Mistress Penelope in sprigged gown of lavender, and smelling fresh
+of the herb itself or of some faint freshness.</p>
+
+<p>I rested both hands upon the arms of my Windsor chair and so managed to
+stand erect.</p>
+
+<p>She turned rosy to her ear-tips at the sudden encounter, but her voice
+was self-possessed and in nowise altered when she greeted me.</p>
+
+<p>I offered my hand; she extended hers and I saluted it.</p>
+
+<p>Then she seated herself at leisure in her Windsor reading-chair, laid
+her basket of wool-skeins upon the polished book-rest, and calmly fell
+to knitting.</p>
+
+<p>"So, you are mending fast, sir," says she; and her smooth little fingers
+travelling steadily with her shining needles, and her dark eyes intent
+on both.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, for that," said I, "I am well enough, and shall soon be strong to
+strap war-belt and sling pack and sack.... Are you in health, Mistress
+Pen?"</p>
+
+<p>She expressed thanks for the civil inquiry. And knitted on and on. And
+silence fell between us.</p>
+
+<p>If it was then that I first began to fear I was in love with her, I do
+not surely remember now. For if such a doubt assailed me, then instantly
+my mind resented so unwelcome a notion. And not only was there no
+pleasure in the thought, but it stirred in me a kind of breathless
+anger which seemed to have long slumbered in its own ashes within me and
+now gave out a dull heat.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you news of Lady Johnson and of Mistress Swift?" I asked at last.</p>
+
+<p>She lifted her eyes in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. How should news come to us here?"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought there might be channels of communication."</p>
+
+<p>"I know of none, sir. York is far, and the Canadas are farther still. No
+runners have come to Summer House."</p>
+
+<p>"Still," said I, "communication was possible when I got my hurt last
+June."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is that not true?"</p>
+
+<p>She looked at me in troubled silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Did not Lady Johnson's brother come here in secret to give her news,
+and take as much away?"</p>
+
+<p>She did not answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Once," said I, "although I had not asked, you told me that you were a
+friend to liberty."</p>
+
+<p>"And am so," said she.</p>
+
+<p>"And have a Tory lover."</p>
+
+<p>At that her face flamed and her wool dropped into her lap. She did not
+look at me but sat with gaze ahead of her as though considering.</p>
+
+<p>At last: "Do you mean Captain Watts?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I mean him."</p>
+
+<p>"He is not my lover."</p>
+
+<p>"I ask your pardon. The inference was as natural as my error."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Appearances," said I, "are proverbially deceitful. Instead of saying
+'your lover,' I should, perhaps, have said '<i>one</i> of your lovers.' And
+so again ask pardon."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you my lover, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"I?" said I, taken aback at the direct shot so unexpected.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you, my lord. Are you one of my lovers?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think not. Why do you ask me that which never could be a question
+that yes or no need answer?"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought perhaps you might deem yourself my lover."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because you kissed me once,&mdash;as did Captain Watts.... And two other
+gentlemen."</p>
+
+<p>"Two other gentlemen?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. A cornet of horse,&mdash;his name escapes me&mdash;and Sir John."</p>
+
+<p>"Who!" I blurted angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir John Johnson."</p>
+
+<p>"The dissolute beast!" said I. "Had I known it that night at Johnson
+Hall&mdash;&mdash;" But here I checked my speech and waited till the hot blood in
+my face was done burning.</p>
+
+<p>And when again I was cool: "I am sorry for my heat," said I. "Your
+conduct is your own affair."</p>
+
+<p>"You once made it yours, sir,&mdash;for a moment."</p>
+
+<p>Again I went hot and red; and how I had conducted with this maid plagued
+me so that I found no word to answer.</p>
+
+<p>She knitted for a little while. Then, lifting her dark young eyes:</p>
+
+<p>"You have as secure a title to be my lover as has any man, Mr. Drogue.
+Which is no title at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Steve Watts took you in his arms near the lilacs."</p>
+
+<p>"What was that to you, Mr. Drogue?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was a spy in our uniform and in our camp!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"And you gave him your lips."</p>
+
+<p>"He took what he took. I gave only what was in my heart to give to any
+friend in peril."</p>
+
+<p>"What was that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Solicitude."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh. You warned him to leave? And he an enemy and a spy?"</p>
+
+<p>"I begged him to go, Mr. Drogue."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you still call yourself a friend to liberty?" I asked angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. But I was his friend too. I did not know he had come here.
+And when by accident I recognized him I was frightened, because I
+thought he had come to carry news to Lady Johnson."</p>
+
+<p>"And so he did! Did he not?"</p>
+
+<p>"He said he came for me."</p>
+
+<p>"To visit you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. And I think that was true. For when he made himself known to
+his sister, she came near to fainting; and so he spoke no more to her at
+all but begged me for a tryst before he left."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh. And you granted it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was in great fright, fearing he might be taken.... Also I pitied
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"Why so?" I sneered.</p>
+
+<p>"Because he had courted me at Caughnawaga.... And at first I think he
+made a sport of his courting,&mdash;like other young men of Tryon gentry who
+hunt and court to a like purpose.... And so, one day at Caughnawaga, I
+told him I was honest.... I thought he ought to know, lest folly assail
+us in unfamiliar guise and do us a harm."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you so speak to this young man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. I told him that I am a maiden. I thought it best that he
+should know as much.... And so he courted me no more. But every day he
+came and glowered at other men.... I laughed secretly, so fiercely he
+watched all who came to Cayadutta Lodge.... And then Sir John fled. And
+war came.... Well, sir, there is no more to tell, save that Captain
+Watts dared come hither."</p>
+
+<p>"To take you in his arms?"</p>
+
+<p>"He did so,&mdash;yes, sir,&mdash;for the first time ever."</p>
+
+<p>"Then he is honestly in love with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"But you, also, did the like to me. Is it a consequence of honest love,
+Mr. Drogue, when a young man embraces a maiden's lips?"</p>
+
+<p>Her questions had so disconcerted me that I found now no answer to this
+one.</p>
+
+<p>"I know nothing about love," said I, looking out at the sunlit waters.</p>
+
+<p>"Nor I," said she.</p>
+
+<p>"You seem willing to be schooled," I retorted.</p>
+
+<p>"Not willing, not unwilling. I do not understand men, but am not averse
+to learning something of their ways. No two seem similar, Mr. Drogue,
+save in the one matter."</p>
+
+<p>"Which?" I asked bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>"The matter of paying court. All seem to do it naturally, though some
+take fire quicker, and some seem to burn more ardently than others."</p>
+
+<p>"It pleasures you to be courted? Gallantries suit you? And the flowery
+phrases suitors use?"</p>
+
+<p>"They pleasurably perplex me. Time passes more agreeably when one is
+knitting. To be courted is not an unwelcome diversion to any woman, I
+think. And flowery phrases are pleasant to notice,&mdash;like music suitably
+played, and of which one is conscious though occupied with other
+matters."</p>
+
+<p>"If this be not coquetry," I thought, "then it is most perilously akin
+to it."</p>
+
+<p>Obscurely yet deeply disturbed by the blind stirring of emotions I could
+not clearly analyze, I sat brooding there. Now I watched her fingers
+playing with the steels, and her young face lowered; now I gazed afar
+across the blue Vlaie Water to the bluer mountains beyond, which dented
+the horizon as the great blue waves of Lake Ontario make molten
+mountains against an azure sky.</p>
+
+<p>So still was the world that the distant leap and splash of a great
+silver pike sounded like a gun-shot in that breathless, sun-drenched
+solitude.</p>
+
+<p>Yet I found no solace now in all this golden peace; for, of the silence
+between this maid and me, had been born a vague and malicious thing; and
+like a subtle demon it had come, now, into my body to turn me sullen and
+restless with the scarce-formed, scarce-comprehended thoughts it hatched
+within me. And one of these had to do with Stevie Watts, and how he had
+come here for the sake of this girl.... And had taken her into his arms
+under the stars, near the lilacs.... And my lips still warm from
+hers.... Yet she had gone to him in the dusk.... Was afeard for him....
+Pitied him.... And doubtless loved him, whatever she might choose to say
+to me.... Under any circumstances a coquette; and, innocent or wise, to
+the manner born at any rate.... And some Tryon County gallant likely to
+take her measure some day ere she awake from her soft bewilderment at
+the ways and conducting of mankind.</p>
+
+<p>Nick came at eventide, carrying a pike by the gills, and showed us his
+fingers bleeding of the watery conflict.</p>
+
+<p>"Is all calm on the Sacandaga?" I enquired.</p>
+
+<p>"Calm as a roadside puddle, Jack. And every day I ask myself if there be
+truly any war in North America or no, so placid shines God's sun on
+Tryon.... You mend apace, old friend. Do you suffer fatigue?"</p>
+
+<p>"None, Nick. I shall sit at table tonight with Mistress Grant and
+you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>My voice ceased, and, without warning, the demon that had entered into
+me began a-whispering. Then the first ignoble and senseless pang of
+jealousy assailed me to remember that this girl and my comrade had been
+alone for weeks together&mdash;supped all alone at table&mdash;companioned each
+the other while I lay ill!&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Senseless, miserable clod that I was to listen to that demon's
+whispering till my very belly seemed sick-sore with the pain of it and
+my heart hurt me under the ribs.</p>
+
+<p>Now she rose and looked at Nick and laughed; and they said a word or two
+I could not quite hear, but she laughed again as though with some
+familiar understanding, and went lightly away to her evening milking.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall be content indeed," said Nick, "that you sit at supper with
+us, old friend."</p>
+
+<p>But I had changed my mind, and said so.</p>
+
+<p>"You will not sit with us tonight?" he asked, concerned.</p>
+
+<p>I looked at him coldly:</p>
+
+<p>"I shall go to bed," said I, "and desire no supper.... Nor any aid
+whatever.... I am tired. The world wearies me.... And so do my own
+kind."</p>
+
+<p>And I got up and all alone walked to my little chamber.</p>
+
+<p>So great an ass was I.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<h3>HAG-RIDDEN</h3>
+
+
+<p>So passed that unreal summer of '76; and so came autumn upon us with its
+crimsons, purples, and russet-gold; its cherry-red suns a-swimming in
+the flat marsh fogs; its spectral mists veiling Vlaie Water and
+curtaining the Sacandaga from shore to shore.</p>
+
+<p>Rumours of wars came to us, but no war; gossip of armies and of battles,
+but no battles.</p>
+
+<p>Armies of wild-fowl, however, came to us on the great Vlaie; duck and
+geese and companies of snowy swans; and at night I could hear their
+fairy trumpets in the sky heralding the white onset from the North.</p>
+
+<p>And pigeons came to the beech-woods, millions and millions, so that
+their flight was a windy roaring in the sky and darkened the sun.</p>
+
+<p>Birches and elms and chestnuts and soft maples turned yellow; and so
+turned the ghostly tamaracks ere their needles fell. Hard maples and
+oaks grew crimson and scarlet and the blueberry bushes and sumachs
+glowed like piles of fire.</p>
+
+<p>But the world of pines darkened to a deeper emerald; spruce and hemlock
+took on a more sober hue; and the flowing splendour of the evergreens
+now robed plain and mountain in sombre magnificence, dully brocaded here
+and there by an embroidery of silver balsam.</p>
+
+<p>When I was strong enough to trail a rifle and walk my post on the
+veranda roof, my Saguenay Indian took to the Drowned Lands, scouting the
+meshed water-leads like a crested diving-duck; and his canoe nosed into
+every creek from Mayfield to Fish House.</p>
+
+<p>Nick foraged, netting pigeons on the Stacking Ridge, shooting partridge,
+turkey, and squirrel as our need prompted, or dropping a fat doe at
+evening on the clearing's edge beyond Howell's house.</p>
+
+<p>Of fish we had our fill,&mdash;chain-pike and silver-pike from Vlaie Water;
+trout out of Hans Creek and Frenchman's Creek.</p>
+
+<p>Corn, milled grain, and pork we drew a-horse from Johnstown or Mayfield;
+we had milk and butter of our own cows, and roasting ears and potatoes,
+squash, beets, and beans, and a good pumpkin for our pies, all from
+Summer House garden. And a great store of apples&mdash;for it was a year for
+that fruit&mdash;and we had so many that Nick pitted scores of bushels; and
+we used them to eat, also, and to cook.</p>
+
+<p>Now, against first frost, Penelope had sewed for us sacks out o' tow
+cloth; and when frost came to moss the world with spongy silver, we went
+after nuts, Nick and I,&mdash;chestnuts from the Stacking Ridge, and gathered
+beechnuts there, also. Butternuts we found, sticky and a-plenty, along
+the Sacandaga; and hickory nuts on every ridge, and hazel filberts
+bordering clearing and windfall in low, moist woods.</p>
+
+<p>Sure we were well garnered if not well garrisoned at Summer House when
+the first snow flakes came a-drifting like errant feathers floating from
+a wild-fowl shot in mid-air.</p>
+
+<p>The painted leaves dropped in November, settling earthward through still
+sunshine in gold and crimson clouds.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother Earth hath put on war-paint," quoth Penelope, knitting. She
+spoke to Nick, turning her head slightly. She spoke chiefly to him in
+these days, I having become, as I have said, a silent ass; and so
+strange and of so infrequent speech that they did not even venture to
+remark to me my reticence; and I think they thought my hurt had changed
+me in my mind and nature. Yet I was but a simple ass, differing only
+from other asses in that they brayed more frequently than I.</p>
+
+<p>In silence I nursed a challenging in my breast, where love should have
+lain secure and warm; and I wrapped the feverish, mewling thing in envy,
+jealousy, and sullen pride,&mdash;fit rags to swaddle such a waif.</p>
+
+<p>For once, coming upon Penelope unawares, I did see her gazing upon a
+miniature picture of Steve Watts, done bravely in his red regimentals.</p>
+
+<p>Which, perceiving me, she hid in her bosom and took her milk-pails to
+the orchard without a word spoken, though the colour in her face was
+eloquent enough.</p>
+
+<p>And very soon, too, I had learned for sure what I already believed of
+her, that she was a very jade; for it was plain that she had now
+ensnared Nick, and that they were thick as a pair o' pup hounds, and had
+confidences between them in low voices and with smiles. Which my coming
+checked only so far. For it was mostly to him she spoke openly at table,
+when, the smoking dishes set, she took her seat between us, out o'
+breath and sweet as a sun-hot rose.</p>
+
+<p>God knows they were not to blame; for in one hour I might prove glum
+and silent as a stone; and in another I practiced carelessness and
+indifference in my speech; and in another, still, I was like to be
+garrulous and feverish, insisting upon any point raised; laughing
+without decent provocation; moody and dull, loquacious and quarrelsome
+by turns,&mdash;unstable, unhinged, out o' balance and incapable of any
+decent equilibrium. Oh, the sorry spectacle a young man makes when that
+sly snake, jealousy, hath fanged him!</p>
+
+<p>And my disorder was such that I knew I was sick o' jealousy and sore
+hurt of it to the bones, yet conducted like a mindless creature that,
+trapped, falls to mutilating itself.</p>
+
+<p>And so I was ever brooding how I might convince her of my indifference;
+how I might pain her by coldness; how I might subtly acquaint her of my
+own desirability and then punish her by a display of contempt and a
+mortifying revelation of the unattainable. Which was to be my proper
+self.</p>
+
+<p>Jealousy is sure a strange malady and breaketh out in divers disorders
+in different young men, according to their age and kind.</p>
+
+<p>I was jealous because she had been courted by others; was jealous
+because she had been caressed by other men; I was wildly jealous because
+of Steve Watts, their tryst by the lilacs; his picture which I
+discovered she wore in her bosom; I was madly jealous of her fellowship
+with my old comrade, Nick, and because, chilled by my uncivil conduct
+and by my silences, she conversed with him when she spoke at all.</p>
+
+<p>And for all this silly grievance I had no warrant nor any atom of lucid
+reason. For until I had seen her no woman had ever disturbed me. Until
+that spring day in the flowering orchard I had never desired love; and
+if I even desired it now I knew not. I had certainly no desire for
+marriage or a wife, because I had no thought in my callow head of
+either.</p>
+
+<p>Only jealousy of others and a desire to be first in her mind possessed
+me,&mdash;a fierce wish to clear out this rabble of suitors which seemed to
+gather in a very swarm wherever she passed,&mdash;so that she should turn to
+me alone, lean upon me, trust only me in the world to lend her
+countenance, shelter her, and defend her. And, though God knows I meant
+her no wrong, nor had passion, so far, played any rôle in this my
+ridiculous behaviour, I had not so far any clear intention in her
+regard. A fierce and selfish longing obsessed me to drive others off and
+keep her for my own where in some calm security we could learn to know
+each other.</p>
+
+<p>And this&mdash;though I did not understand it&mdash;was merely the romantic
+desire of a very young man to study, unhurried and untroubled, the first
+female who ever had disturbed his peace of mind.</p>
+
+<p>But all was vain and troubled and misty in my mind, and love&mdash;or its
+fretful changeling&mdash;weighed on my heart heavily. But I carried double
+weight: jealousy is a heavy hag, and I was hag-ridden morn and eve and
+all the livelong day to boot.</p>
+
+<p>All asses are made to be ridden.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The first snow came, as I have said, like shot-scattered down from a
+wild-duck's breast. Then days of golden stillness, with mornings growing
+ever colder and the frost whitening shady spots long after sun-up.</p>
+
+<p>I remember a bear swam Vlaie Water, but galloped so swiftly into the
+bush that no rifle was ready to stop him.</p>
+
+<p>We mangered our cattle o' nights; and, as frosty grazing checks milk
+flow, Nick and I brought in hay from the stacks which the Continental
+soldiers had cut against a long occupation of Summer House Point.</p>
+
+<p>Nights had become very cold and we burned logs all day long in the
+chimney place. My Indian was snug enough in the kitchen by the oven,
+where he ate and slept when not on post; and we, above, did very well by
+the blaze where we roasted nuts and apples and drank new cider from
+Johnstown and had a cask of ale from the Johnson Arms by waggon.</p>
+
+<p>Also, in the cellar, was some store of Sir William's&mdash;dusty bottles of
+French and Spanish wines; but of these I took no toll, because they
+belonged not to me.</p>
+
+<p>But a strange circumstance presently placed these wines in my
+possession; for, upon a day before the first deep snow fell, comes
+galloping from Johnstown a man in caped riding coat, one Jerry Van
+Rensselaer, to nail a printed placard upon our Summer House&mdash;notice of
+sale by the Committee for Sequestration.</p>
+
+<p>But who was to read this notice and attend the vendue save only the
+birds and beasts of the wilderness I do not know; for on the day of the
+sale, which was conducted by Commissioner Harry Outthout, only some half
+dozen farmer folk rode hither from Johnstown, and only one man among 'em
+bid in money&mdash;a sullen fellow named Jim Huetson, who had Tory friends, I
+knew, if he himself were not of that complexion.</p>
+
+<p>His bid was Ł5; which was but a beggarly offer, and angered me to see
+Sir William's beloved Lodge come to so mean an end. So, having some
+little money, I showed the Schoharie fellow a stern countenance, doubled
+his bid, and took snuff which I do not love.</p>
+
+<p>And Lord! Ere I realized it, Summer House Point, Lodge and contents, and
+riparian rights as far as Howell's house were mine; and a clear deed
+promised.</p>
+
+<p>Bewildered, I signed and paid the Sequestration Commissioner out o' my
+buckskin pouch in hard coin.</p>
+
+<p>"You should buy the cattle, too," whispered Nick. "There be folk in
+Johnstown would pay well for such a breed o' cow. And there's the pig,
+Jack, and the sheep and the hens, and all that grain and hay so snug in
+the barn."</p>
+
+<p>So I asked very fiercely if any man desired to bid against me; and
+neither Huetson nor his sulky comrade, Davis, having any such stomach, I
+fetched ale and apples and nuts and made them eat and drink, and so drew
+aside the Commissioner and bargained with him like a Jew or a shoe-peg
+Yankee; and in the end bought all.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p>
+
+<p>"Shall you move hither from Fonda's Bush and sell your house?" asked
+Nick, who now was going out on watch.</p>
+
+<p>But I made him no answer, for I had been bitten by an idea, the mere
+thought of which fevered me with excitement. Oh, I was mad as a March
+fox running his first vixen, in that first tide of romantic love,&mdash;clean
+daft and lacking reason.</p>
+
+<p>So when Commissioner Outthout and those who had come for the vendue had
+drank as much of my new ale as they cared to carry home a-horse, and
+were gone a-bumping down the Johnstown road like a flock of Gilpins all,
+I took my parchment and went into my bed chamber; and there I sat upon
+my trundle bed and read what was writ upon my deed, making me the owner
+of Summer House and of all that appertained to the little hunting lodge.</p>
+
+<p>But I had not purchased it selfishly; and the whole business began with
+an impulse born of love for Sir William, who had loved this place so
+well. But even as that impulse came, another notion took shape in my
+love-addled sconce.</p>
+
+<p>I sat on my trundle bed a-thinking and&mdash;God forgive me&mdash;admiring my own
+lofty and romantic purpose.</p>
+
+<p>The house was still, but on the veranda roof overhead I could hear the
+moccasined tread of Nick pacing his post; and from below in the kitchen
+came the distant thump and splash of Penelope's churn, where she was
+making new butter for to salt it against our needs.</p>
+
+<p>Now, as I rose my breath came quicker, but admiration for my resolve
+abated nothing&mdash;no!&mdash;rather increased as I tasted the sad pleasures of
+martyrdom and of noble renunciation. For I now meant to figure in this
+girl's eyes in a manner which she never could forget and which, I
+trusted, might sadden her with a wistful melancholy after I was gone and
+she had awakened to the irreparable loss.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>When I came down into the kitchen where, bare of arms and throat, she
+stood a-churning, she looked at me out of partly-lowered eyes, as though
+doubting my mood&mdash;poor child. And I saw the sweat on her flushed cheeks,
+and her yellow hair, in disorder from the labour, all curled into damp
+little ringlets. But when I smiled I saw that lovely glimmer dawning,
+and she asked me shyly what I did there&mdash;for never before had I come
+into her kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>So, still smiling, I gave an account of how I had bought Summer House;
+and she listened, wide-eyed, wondering.</p>
+
+<p>"But," continued I, "I have already my own glebe at Fonda's Bush, and a
+house; but there be many with whom fortune has not been so complacent,
+and who possess neither glebe nor roof, yet deserve both."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," she said, smiling, "there be many such folk and always will
+be in the world. Of such company am I, also, but it saddens me not at
+all."</p>
+
+<p>I went to her and showed her my deed, and she looked down on it, her
+hands clasped on the churn handle.</p>
+
+<p>"So that," said she, "is a lawful deed! I have never before been shown
+such an instrument."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall have leisure enough to study this one," said I, "for I convey
+it to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"I give Summer House to you," said I. "Here is the deed. When I go to
+Johnstown again I will execute it so that this place shall be yours."</p>
+
+<p>She gazed at me in dumb astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Meanwhile," said I, "you shall keep the deed.... And now you are, in
+fact, if not yet in title, mistress of Summer House. And I think, this
+night, we should break a bottle of Sir William's Madeira to drink health
+to our new châtelaine."</p>
+
+<p>She came from her churn and caught my arm, where I had turned to ascend
+the steps.</p>
+
+<p>"You are jesting, are you not, my lord?"</p>
+
+<p>"No! And do not use that term, 'lord,' to me."</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;you offer to give me&mdash;me&mdash;this estate!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I do give it you."</p>
+
+<p>There was a tense silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you offer this?" she burst out breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why should I have two estates and you have none, Penelope?"</p>
+
+<p>"But that is no reason!" she retorted, almost violently. "For what
+reason, then, do you give me Summer House? It&mdash;it must be you are
+jesting, my lord!&mdash;--"</p>
+
+<p>At that, displeasure made me redden, and I damned the title under my
+breath.</p>
+
+<p>"If you please," said I, "you will have done with all these 'sirs' and
+'my lords,' for I am a plain yoeman of County Tryon and wear a buckskin
+shirt. Not that I would criticise Lord Stirling or any such who still
+care to wear by courtesy what I have long ago worn out," I added, "but
+the gentry and nobility of Tryon travel one way and I the other; and my
+friends should remember it when naming me."</p>
+
+<p>She stood looking at me out of her brown eyes, and slowly their troubled
+wonder changed to dumb perplexity. And, looking, took up her apron's
+edge and stood twisting it between both hands.</p>
+
+<p>"I give you Summer House," said I, "because you are orphaned and live
+alone and have nothing. I give it because a maid ought to possess a
+portion; and, thirdly, I give it because I have enough of my own, and
+never desired more of anything than I need. So take the Summer House,
+Penelope, with the cattle and fowl and land; for it gives you a station
+and a security among men and women of this odd world of ours, and lends
+to yourself a confidence and dignity which only sheerest folly can
+overthrow."</p>
+
+<p>She came, after a silence, slowly, and took me by the hand.</p>
+
+<p>"John Drogue," says she in a voice not clear, "I can not take of you
+this estate."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall take it! And when again, where you sit a-knitting, the young
+men gather round you like flies around a sap-pan&mdash;then, by God, you
+shall know what countenance to give them, and they shall know what
+colour to give their courting!&mdash;suitors, gallants, Whig or Tory&mdash;the
+whole damned rabble&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," she cried softly, "John Drogue!" And fell a-laughing&mdash;or was it a
+quick sob that checked her throat?</p>
+
+<p>But I heeded it not, having caught fire; and presently blazed noisily.</p>
+
+<p>"Because you are servant to Douw Fonda!" I cried, "and because you are
+alone, and because you are young and soft with a child's eyes and yellow
+hair, they make nothing of schooling you to their pot-house
+gallantries, and every damned man jack among them comes a-galloping to
+the chase. Yes, even that pallid beast, Sir John!&mdash;and the tears of
+Claire Putnam to haunt him if he were a man and not the dirty libertine
+he is!"</p>
+
+<p>I looked upon her whitened face in ever-rising passion:</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you," said I, "that the backwoods aristocracy is the better and
+safer caste, for the other is rotten under red coat or blue; and a
+ring-tailed cap doffed by a gnarled hand is worth all your laced cocked
+hats bound around with gold and trailed in the dust with fine, smooth
+fingers!"</p>
+
+<p>Sure I was in a proper phrensy now, nor dreamed myself a target for the
+high gods' laughter, where I vapoured and strode and shouted aloud my
+moral jeremiad.</p>
+
+<p>"So," said I, "you shall have Summer House; and shall, as you sit
+a-knitting, make your choice of honest suitors at your ease and not be
+waylaid and hunted and used without ceremony by the first young hot-head
+who entraps you in the starlight! No! Nor be the quarry of older
+villains and subtler with persuasion. No!</p>
+
+<p>"For today Penelope Grant, spinster, is a burgesse of Johnstown, and is
+a person both respectable and taxed. And any man who would court her
+must conduct suitably and in a customary manner, nor, like a wild
+falcon, circle over head awaiting the opportunity to strike.</p>
+
+<p>"No! All that sport&mdash;all that gay laxity and folly is at an end. And
+here's the damned deed that ends it!" I added, thrusting the parchment
+into her hands.</p>
+
+<p>She seemed white and frightened. And, "Oh, Lord!" she breathed, "have I,
+then, conducted so shamelessly? And did I so wholly lose your favour
+when you kissed me?"</p>
+
+<p>I had not meant that, and I winced and grew hot in the cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not a loose woman," she said in her soft, bewildered way. "Unless
+it be a fault that I find men somewhat to my liking, and their gay
+manners pleasure me and divert me."</p>
+
+<p>I said: "You have a way with men. None is insensible to your youth and
+beauty."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it so?" she asked innocently.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you not aware of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I had thought that I pleased."</p>
+
+<p>"You do so. Best tread discreetly. Best consider carefully now. Then
+choose one and dismiss the rest."</p>
+
+<p>"Choose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aye."</p>
+
+<p>"Whom should I choose, John Drogue?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why," said I, losing countenance, "there is the same ardent rabble like
+that plague of suitors which importuned the Greek Penelope. There are
+the sap-pan flies all buzzing."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh. Should I make a choice if entreated?"</p>
+
+<p>"A burgesse is free to choose."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh. And to which suitor should I give my smile?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said I, sullenly, "there is Nick. There also is your Cornet of
+Horse&mdash;young Jack-boots. And there is the young gentleman whose picture
+you wear in your bosom."</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Watts?" she asked, so naďvely that jealousy stabbed me
+instantly, so that my smile became a grimace.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure," said I, "you think tenderly on Stephen Watts."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"In fact," I almost groaned, "you entertain for him those virtuous
+sentiments not unbecoming to the maiden of his choice.... Do you not,
+Penelope?"</p>
+
+<p>"He has courted me a year. I find him agreeable. Also, I pity
+him&mdash;although his impatience causes me concern and his ardour
+inconveniences me.... The sentiments I entertain for him are virtuous,
+as you say, sir. And so are my sentiments for any man."</p>
+
+<p>"But is not your heart engaged in this affair?"</p>
+
+<p>"With Captain Watts?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I thought you meant with you, sir."</p>
+
+<p>I affected to smile, but my heart thumped my ribs.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not pretended to your heart, Penelope."</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. Nor I to yours. And, for the matter, know nothing concerning
+hearts and the deeper pretensions to secret passions of which one hears
+so much in gossip and romance. No, sir; I am ignorant. Yet, I have
+thought that kindness might please a woman more easily than sighs and
+vapours.... Or so it seems to me.... And that impatient ardour only
+perplexes.... And passion often chills the natural pity that a woman
+entertains for any man who vows he is unhappy and must presently perish
+of her indifference....</p>
+
+<p>"Yet I am not indifferent to men.... And have used men gently.... And
+forgiven them.... Being not hard but pitiful by disposition."</p>
+
+<p>She made a movement of unconscious grace and drew from her bosom the
+little picture of Steve Watts.</p>
+
+<p>"You see," said she, "I guard it tenderly. But he went off in a passion
+and rebuked me bitterly for my coquetry and because I refused to flee
+with him to Canada.... He, being an enemy to liberty, I would not
+consent.... I love my country.... And better than I love any man."</p>
+
+<p>"He begged an elopement that night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"With marriage promised, doubtless."</p>
+
+<p>"Lord," says she, "I had not thought so far."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he not promise it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"What? Nor mention it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not hear him."</p>
+
+<p>"But in his courtship of a year surely he conducted honestly!" I
+insisted angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"Should a man ask marriage when he asks love, Mr. Drogue?"</p>
+
+<p>"If he means honestly he must speak of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh.... I did not understand.... I thought that love, offered, meant
+marriage also.... I thought they all meant that&mdash;save only Sir John."</p>
+
+<p>We both fell silent. After a little while: "I shall some day ask Captain
+Watts what he means," said she, thoughtfully. "Surely he must know I am
+a maiden."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you suppose such young men care!" I said sullenly.</p>
+
+<p>But she seemed so white and distressed at the thought that the sneer
+died on my lips and I made a great effort to do generously by my old
+school-mate, Stevie Watts.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely," said I, "he meant no disrespect and no harm. Stephen Watts is
+not of the corrupt breed of Walter Butler nor debauched like Sir
+John.... However, if he is to be your lover&mdash;perhaps it were convenient
+to ask him something concerning his respectful designs upon you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, I shall do so&mdash;if he comes hither again."</p>
+
+<p>So hope, which had fallen a-flickering, expired like a tiny flame. She
+loved Steve Watts!</p>
+
+<p>I turned and limped up the stairway.</p>
+
+<p>And, at the stair-head, met Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said I savagely, "you may not have her. For she loves Steve
+Watts and dotes on his picture in her bosom. And as for you, you may go
+to the devil!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you sorry ass," says he, "have you thought I desired her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Good God!" cried he, "because this poor and moon-smitten gentleman hath
+rolled sheep's eyes upon a yellow-haired maid, then, in his mind, all
+the world's aflame to woo her too and take her from his honest arms!
+What the plague do I want of your sweetheart, Jack Drogue, when I've one
+at Pigeon Wood and my eye on another, too!"</p>
+
+<p>Then he fell a-laughing and smote his thighs with a loud slapping.</p>
+
+<p>"Aha!" he cried, "did I not warn you? Did I not foresee, foretell, and
+prophesy that you would one day sicken of a passion for this
+yellow-haired girl from Caughnawaga!"</p>
+
+<p>"Idiot," said I in a rage, "I do not love her!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you bear all the earmarks!" said he, and went off stamping his
+moccasins and roaring with laughter.</p>
+
+<p>And I went on watch to walk my post all a-tremble with fury, and fair
+sick of jealousy and my first boyish passion.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Now, it is a strange thing how love undid me; but it is still stranger
+how, of a sudden, my malady passed. And it came about in this way, that
+toward sunset one day, when I came from walking my post on the veranda
+roof to find why Nick had not relieved me, I descended the stairs and
+looked into the kitchen, where was a pleasant smell of cinnamon crullers
+fresh made and of johnnycake and of meat a-stewing.</p>
+
+<p>And there I did see Nick push Penelope into a corner to kiss her, and
+saw her fetch him a clout with her open hand.</p>
+
+<p>Then again, and broad on his surprised and silly face, fell her little
+hand like the clear crack of a drover's whip.</p>
+
+<p>And, "There!" she falters, out o' breath, "there's for you, friend
+Nicholas!"</p>
+
+<p>"My God!" says he, in foolish amaze, "why do you that, Penelope!"</p>
+
+<p>"I kiss whom I please and none other!" says she, fast breathing, and her
+dark eyes wide and bright.</p>
+
+<p>"Whom you please," quoth Nick, abashed but putting a bold face on
+it&mdash;"well then, you please me, and therefore ought to kiss me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I will not! John Drogue hath shown me what is my privilege in this
+idle game of bussing which men seem so ready to play with me, whether I
+will or no!... Have I hurt you, Nick?"</p>
+
+<p>She came up to him, still flushed and her childish bosom still rising
+and falling fast.</p>
+
+<p>"You love Jack Drogue," said he, sulkily, "and therefore belabour me who
+dote on you."</p>
+
+<p>"I love you both," said she, "but I am enamoured of neither. Also, I
+desire no kisses of you or of Mr. Drogue, but only kindness and good
+will."</p>
+
+<p>"You entertain a passion for Steve Watts!" he muttered sullenly, "and
+there's the riddle read for you!"</p>
+
+<p>But she laughed in his face and took up her pan of crullers and set them
+on the shelf.</p>
+
+<p>"I am châtelaine of Summer House," said she, "and need render no account
+of my inclinations to you or to any man. Who would learn for himself
+what is in my mind must court me civilly and in good order.... Do you
+desire leave to court me, Nick?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not I!&mdash;to be beaten by a besom and flouted and mocked to boot! Nenni,
+my pretty lass! I have had my mouthful of blows."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh. And your comrade? Is he, do you think, inclined to court me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Jack Drogue?"</p>
+
+<p>"The same."</p>
+
+<p>"You have bedeviled him," said Nick sulkily, "as you have witched all
+men who encounter you. He hath a fever and is sick of it."</p>
+
+<p>She was slicing hot johnnycake with a knife in the pan; and now looked
+up at him with eyes full of curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"Bewitched him? I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Surely. Who else, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are jesting, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"No. Like others he has taken the Caughnawaga fever. The very air you
+breathe is full of it. But, with a man like my comrade, it is no more
+than a fever. And it passes, pretty maid!&mdash;it passes."</p>
+
+<p>"Does it so?"</p>
+
+<p>"It does. It burns out folly and leaves him the healthier."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, then&mdash;with a gentleman like your comrade, Mr. Drogue&mdash;l'amour n'est
+qu'une maladie légčre qui se guérira sans médecin, n'est-ce pas?"</p>
+
+<p>"Say that in Canada and doubtless the very dicky-birds will answer
+wee-wee-wee!" he retorted. "But if you mean, does John Drogue mate below
+his proper caste, then there's no wee-wee-wee about it; for that the
+Laird of Northesk will never do!"</p>
+
+<p>"I know that," said she coolly. And opened the pot to fork the steaming
+stew, then set on the cover and passed her hand over her brow where a
+slight dew glistened and where her hair curled paler gold and tighter,
+like a child's.</p>
+
+<p>"Friend Nick?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hear thee, breeder of heart-troubles."</p>
+
+<p>"Listen, then. No thought of me should trouble any man as yet. My heart
+is not awake&mdash;not troublesome,&mdash;not engaged,&mdash;no, not even to poor
+Stephen Watts. For the sentiment I entertain for him is only pity for a
+boy, Nick, who is impetuous and rash and has been too much flattered by
+the world.... Poor lad&mdash;in his play-hour regimentals!&mdash;and no beard on
+his smooth cheek.... Just a fretful, idle, and self-indulgent boy!...
+Who protests that he loves me.... Oh, no, Nick! Men sometimes bewilder
+me; but I think it is our own passion that destroys us women&mdash;not
+theirs.... And there is none in me,&mdash;only pity, and a great friendliness
+to men.... And these only have ever moved me."</p>
+
+<p>He was sitting on a pine table and munching of a cruller. "Penelope,"
+says he, "your honesty and wholesome spirit should physic men of their
+meaner passions. If you are servant to Douw Fonda, nevertheless you
+think like a great lady. And I for one," he added, munching away, "shall
+quarrel with any man who makes little of the mistress of Summer House
+Point!"</p>
+
+<p>And then&mdash;oh, Lord!&mdash;she turns from her oven, takes his silly head
+between both hands, and gives him a smack on the lips!</p>
+
+<p>"There," says she, "you have had of your sister what you never should
+have had of the Scottish lass of Caughnawaga!"</p>
+
+<p>He got off the table at that, looking mighty pleased but sheepish, and
+muttered something concerning relieving me on post.</p>
+
+<p>And so, lest I should be disgraced by my eavesdropping, and feeling mean
+and degraded, yet oddly contented that Penelope loved no man with secret
+passion, I slunk away, my moccasins making no sound.</p>
+
+<p>So when Nick came to relieve me he discovered me still on post; and said
+he pettishly: "Penelope Grant hath clouted me, mind and body; and I am
+the better man by it, though somewhat sore; and I shall knock the head
+of any popinjay who fails in the respect all owe this girl. And I wish
+to God I had a hickory stick here, and Sir John Johnson across my knee!"</p>
+
+<p>I went into my chamber and laid me down on my trundle bed.</p>
+
+<p>I was contented. I no longer seemed to burn for the girl. Also, I knew
+she burned for no man. A vast sense of relief spread over me like a soft
+garment, warming and soothing me.</p>
+
+<p>And so, pleasantly passed my sick passion for the Scottish girl; and
+pleasantly I fell asleep.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>WINTER AND SPRING</h3>
+
+
+<p>Snow came as it comes to us in the Northland&mdash;a blinding fall, heavy and
+monotonous&mdash;and in forty-eight hours the Johnstown Road was blocked.</p>
+
+<p>Followed a day of dazzling sunshine and intense cold, which set our
+timbers cracking; and the snow, like finest flour, creaked under our
+snow-shoes.</p>
+
+<p>All the universe had turned to blue and silver; and the Vlaie Water ran
+fathomless purple between its unstained snows. But that night the clouds
+returned and winds grew warmer, and soon the skies opened with feathery
+white volleys, and the big, thick flakes stormed down again,
+obliterating alike the work of nature and of man.</p>
+
+<p>Summer House was covered to the veranda eaves. We made shovels and
+cleared the roofs and broke paths to stable and well.</p>
+
+<p>Here, between dazzling ramparts, we lived and moved and had our being,
+week after week; and every new snow-storm piled higher our palisades and
+buried the whole land under one vast white pall.</p>
+
+<p>Vlaie Water froze three feet solid; fierce winds piled the ice with
+gigantic drifts so that no man could mark the course of the creeks any
+more; and a vast white desolation stretched away to the mountains,
+broken only by naked hard-wood forests or by the interminable ocean of
+the pines weighted deep with snow.</p>
+
+<p>Only when a crust came were we at any pains to set a watch against a war
+party from the Canadas. But none arrived; no signal smoke stained the
+peaks; nothing living stirred on that dead white waste save those little
+grey and whining birds which creep all day up and down tree-trunks, or a
+sudden gusty flight of snow-birds, which suddenly arrive from nowhere
+and are gone as suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>Once a white owl with yellow eyes sat upon the ridge-pole of our barn;
+but our pullets were safe within, and Penelope drove him away with
+snowballs.</p>
+
+<p>The deer yarded on Maxon; lynx-tracks circled our house and barn, and
+we sometimes heard old tassel-ears a-miauling on the Stacking Ridge.</p>
+
+<p>And, toward the end of February, there were two panthers that left huge
+cat-prints across the drifts on the Johnstown Road; but they took no
+toll of our sheep, which were safe in a stone fold, though the oaken
+door to it bore marks of teeth and claws, where the pumas had striven
+hard to break in and do murder.</p>
+
+<p>Save when a crust formed and we took our turns on guard, my Indian
+rolled himself in bear-furs by the kitchen oven, and like a bear he
+slept there until hunger awoke him long enough to gorge for another
+stretch of sleep.</p>
+
+<p>Nick and I took axes to the woods and drew logs on a sledge to split for
+fire use. Our tasks, too, kept us busy feeding our live creatures,
+fetching water, keeping paths open, and fishing through the ice.</p>
+
+<p>In idler intervals we carved devices upon our powder-horns, cured
+deer-skins in the Oneida fashion, boiled pitch and mended our canoe,
+fashioned paddles, poles, and shafts for fish-spears, strung snow-shoes,
+built a fine sledge out of ash and hickory, and made Kaya draw us on the
+crust.</p>
+
+<p>So, all day, each was busy with tasks and duties, and had little leisure
+left for that dull restlessness which, in idle people, is the root of
+all the mischief they devise to do.</p>
+
+<p>Penelope mended our clothing and knitted mittens and jerkins. All
+house-work and cooking she accomplished, and milked and churned and
+cared for the pullets. Also, she dipped candles and moulded bullets from
+the lead bars I found in the gun-room. And when our deer-skins were
+cured and softened, she made for us soft wallets, sacks, and pouches,
+and sewed upon them bright beads in the Oneida fashion, from the pack of
+trade beads in Sir William's gun-room. She sewed upon every accoutrement
+a design done in scarlet beads, showing a picture of a little red foot.</p>
+
+<p>Lord, but we meant to emerge from our snows in brave fashion, come
+spring-tide; for now our deer-skin garments were splendid with beads,
+and our fringes were green and purple. Also, Nick had trapped it some
+when opportunity offered, setting his line from Summer House along Vlaie
+Water to Howell's house, thence across the frozen Drowned Lands to the
+Stacking Ridge, and from there back over the Spring Pool, and thence
+down-creek to the Sacandaga, where Fish House stood with its glazed
+windows empty as a blind man's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>He had, by March, a fine pack of peltry; and of these we cured and used
+sufficient muskrat to sew us blankets, and made a mantle of otter for
+Penelope and a hood and muff to match.</p>
+
+<p>For ourselves we made us caps out of black mink, and sewed all together
+by our dip-lights in the red firelight, where apples slowly sizzled with
+the rich, sweet perfume I love to smell.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes Nick played upon his fife; and sometimes we all told stories
+and roasted chestnuts. Nick had more stories and more imagination than
+had I, and a livelier wit in the telling of tales. But chiefly I was
+willing to hear Penelope when she told us of her childhood in France,
+and how folk lived in that warm and sweet country, and what were their
+daily customs.</p>
+
+<p>Also, she sang sometimes children's songs of France, and other pretty
+ballads, mostly concerning love. For the French occupy themselves
+chiefly with love and cooking and the fine arts, I judge, and know how
+to make an art of eating, also. For there in France every meal is a
+ceremony; but in this land we eat not for the pleasurable taste which,
+in savory food, delights and tempts, but we eat swiftly and carelessly
+and chiefly to stay our hunger.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, at times, food smacks smartly to my tongue; as when at Christmas
+tide I shot a great wild turkey on the Stacking Ridge; and when Penelope
+basted it in the kitchen my mouth watered as I sniffed the door-crack.</p>
+
+<p>And again, gone stale with soupaan and jerked meat and fish soused or
+dried with salt, Nick shot a yearling buck near our barn at daylight;
+and the savour of his cooking filled all with pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the New Year we made a feast and had a bottle of Sir William's
+port, another of Madeira, a punch of spirits, and three pewters of
+buttery ale.</p>
+
+<p>Lord! there was a New Year. And first, not daring to give drink to my
+Saguenay, we fed him till he was gorged, and so rolled him in a pile of
+furs till he slept by the oven below. Then we set twenty dips afire by
+the chimney, and filled it up with dry logs.... I am sorry we had so
+little sense; for I was something fuddled, and sang ballads&mdash;which I can
+not&mdash;and Nick would dance, which he did by himself; and his hornpipes
+and pigeon-wings and shuffles and war-dances made my head spin and my
+heavy eyes desire to cross.</p>
+
+<p>Penelope's cheeks burned, and she fanned and fanned her with a turkey
+wing and laughed to see Nick caper and to hear the piteous squalling
+which was my way of singing.</p>
+
+<p>But she complained that the dip-lights danced and that the floor behaved
+in strange fashion, running like ripples on Vlaie Water in a west wind.</p>
+
+<p>She had sipped but one glass of Sir William's port, but I think it was a
+glass too much; for the wine made her so hot, so she vowed, that her
+body was all one ardent coal, and so presently she pulled the hair-pegs
+from her hair and let it down and shook it out in the firelight till it
+flashed like a golden scarf flung about her.</p>
+
+<p>Her pannier basque of rose silk&mdash;gift of Claudia and made in France&mdash;she
+presently slipped out of, leaving her in her petticoat and folded like a
+Quakeress in her crossed foulard, and her white arms as bare as her
+neck.</p>
+
+<p>Which innocently concerned her not a whit, nor had she any more thought
+of her throat's loveliness than she had of herself in her shift that
+morning at Bowman's.</p>
+
+<p>She sat cooling her face with the turkey-wing fan and watching Nick's
+contre-dancing&mdash;his own candle-cast shadow on the wall dancing
+vis-ŕ-vis&mdash;and she laughed and laughed, a-fanning there, like a child
+delighted by the antics of two older brothers, while Nick whirled on
+moccasined feet in his mad career, and I fifed windily to time his
+gambolading.</p>
+
+<p>Then we played country games, but she would not kiss us as forfeit,
+defending her lips and vowing that no man should ever again take that
+toll of her.</p>
+
+<p>Which contented me, though I remonstrated; and I was glad that Nick
+should not cheapen her lips though it cost me the same privilege. For we
+played "Swallow! Swallow!" and I guessed correctly how many apple pips
+she held in her hand when she sang:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Who can count the swallow's eggs?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Try it, Master Nimble-legs!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Climb and find a swallow's nest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Count the eggs beneath her breast,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Take an egg and leave the rest<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And kiss the maid you love the best!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>But it was her hand only we might kiss, and but one finger at that&mdash;the
+smallest&mdash;for, says she, "John Drogue hath said it, and I am mistress of
+Summer House! What I choose to give&mdash;or forgive&mdash;is of my proper
+choice.... And I do not choose to be kissed by any man whether he wears
+silk puce or deer-skin shirt!"</p>
+
+<p>But the devil prompted me to remember Steve Watts, and my countenance
+changed.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you bar regimentals?" I asked, forcing a wry smile.</p>
+
+<p>She knew what was in my mind, for jealousy grinned at her out of my
+every feature; and she came toward me and laid her light hand upon my
+arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Or red coat or blue, my lord," she said, her smile fading to a glimmer,
+"men have had of me my last complaisance. Are you not content? You
+taught me, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"If he taught you that a kiss is folly, he taught you more folly than is
+in a thousand kisses!" cries Nick. "Why," said he, turning on me, "you
+pitiful, sober-faced, broad-brimmed spoil-sport!" says he, "what are
+lips made for, you meddlesome ass, and be damned to you!"</p>
+
+<p>Instantly we were in clinch like two bears; and we wrestled and strained
+and swayed there, panting and nigh stifled with our laughter, till we
+fell with a crash that shook the house and set the bottles clinking; and
+there thrashed like a pair o' pups till I got his shoulders flat.</p>
+
+<p>But it was nothing&mdash;he being the younger&mdash;and he leaped up and fell to
+treading an Oneida battle-dance, while Penelope and I did beat upon the
+table, singing:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Ha-wa-sa-say!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hah!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ha-wa-sa-say&mdash;"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>till the door opened and there stands my Saguenay, bleary-eyed,
+sleep-muddled, but his benumbed brain responsive to the thumping cadence
+of the old scalp-song.</p>
+
+<p>But I pushed him down stairs ere he had sniffed a lung-full of our
+punch, having no mind to face a drink-mad Indian that night or any
+other.</p>
+
+<p>So I went below and piled the furs upon him and waited till he snored
+before I left him to his hibernation.</p>
+
+<p>Such childishness! Who would believe it of us that were no longer
+children! And all alone there in a little house amid a vast and wintry
+wilderness, where no living thing stirred abroad save the white hare's
+ghost in the starlight, and the shadow of the lean, weird beast that
+tracked her.</p>
+
+<p>Well, if we conducted like children we were as light-minded and as
+innocent. There was in our behaviour no lesser levity; in our mirth no
+grossness; in our jests and stories no license of the times nor any
+country coarseness in our speech.</p>
+
+<p>Nor, in me, now remained aught of that sick-heart jealousy nor
+sentimental disorder which lately had seized me and upset my sense and
+reason.</p>
+
+<p>My sentiments concerning Penelope seemed very clear to me now;&mdash;a warm
+liking; a chivalrous desire for her well-being and happiness; a pride
+that I had been, in some measure, the instrument which had awakened her
+to her own prerogatives in a world whose laws are made by men.</p>
+
+<p>And if, on such an occasion as this, she gave us her countenance and
+even frolicked with us, there was a new and clearer note in her
+laughter, a swifter confidence in her smile, and, in voice and look and
+movement, a subtle and shy authority which had not been there in the
+inexperienced and candid child whose heart seemed bewildered when
+assaulted, and whose lips, undefended, rendered them to the first
+marauder.</p>
+
+<p>I said as much, one day, to Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"You've turned the child's head," said he, "with your kingly
+benefactions. You have but to woo her if you want her to wife."</p>
+
+<p>"Wife!" said I, scared o' the very word. "What the devil shall I do with
+a wife, who am contented as I am? Also, it is not in her mind, nor in
+mine, who now are pleasant friends and comrades.... Also," I added,
+"love is a disorder and begets a brood of jealousies to plague a man to
+death! I am calm and contented. I am enamoured of no woman, and do not
+desire to be so.... Although, when I pass thirty, and possess estates,
+doubtless I shall desire an heir."</p>
+
+<p>"And go a-hunting a mother for this same heir among the gilt-hats of New
+York," said Nick. "Which is your destiny, John Drogue, for like seeks
+like, and a yeoman is born, not made;&mdash;and wears his rings in his
+ears&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Have done!" said I impatiently. "I <i>am</i> of the soil! I love it! I love
+plowed land and corn and the smell of stables! I love my log house and
+my glebe and the smell of English grass!"</p>
+
+<p>"But a servant is a servant, John Drogue, and the mistress of your roof
+shall have walked in silk before she ever puts on homespun and pattens
+for love of you! Lord, man! I am I, and you are you! And we mate not
+with the same breed o' birds. No! For mine shall be a ground-chick of
+sober hue and feather; and your sweetheart shall have bright wings and
+own the air for a home.</p>
+
+<p>"That is already written: 'each after its kind.' So God send you your
+rainbow lady from the clouds, and give you a pretty heir in due event;
+and as for me, if I guess right, my mate to be hath never fluttered
+higher than her garret nor worn a shred of silk till she sews her
+wedding dress!"</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>On the last day of March maple sap ran.</p>
+
+<p>Nick and I set out that day to seek a sugar-bush for the new mistress of
+Summer House.</p>
+
+<p>Snow was soft and our snow-shoes scarce bore us, but we floundered along
+the hard woods, and presently discovered a grove of stately maples.</p>
+
+<p>All that day we were busy in the barn making buckets out o' staves
+stored there; and on the first day of April we waded the softening snow
+to the new sugar-bush, tapped the trees, set our spouts and buckets, and
+also drew thither a kettle and dry wood against future need.</p>
+
+<p>I remember that the day was clear and warm, where, in the sun, the barn
+doors stood open and the chickens ventured out to scratch about, where
+the sun had melted the snow.</p>
+
+<p>All day long our cock was a-crowing and a-courting; the south wind came
+warm with spring and fluttered the wash which Penelope was hanging out
+to dry and whiten under soft, blue skies.</p>
+
+<p>In pattens she tripped about the slushy yard, her thick, bright hair
+pegged loosely, and her child's bosom and arms as white as the snow she
+stepped on.</p>
+
+<p>Save only for my Saguenay, who stood on the veranda roof, resting upon
+his rifle, the scene was sweet and peaceful. Sheep bleated in yard and
+fold; cattle lowed in their manger; our cock's full-throated challenge
+rang out under sunny skies; and everywhere the blue air was murmurous
+with the voice of rills running from the melting snows like mountain
+brooks.</p>
+
+<p>On Vlaie Water the ice rotted awash; and already black crows were
+walking there, and I could see them busily searching the dead and yellow
+sedge, from where I sat hooping my sap-buckets and softly whistling to
+myself.</p>
+
+<p>Nick made a snowball and flung it at me, but I dodged it. Then Penelope
+made another and aimed it at me so truly that the soft lump covered my
+cap and shoulders with snow.</p>
+
+<p>But her quick peal of laughter was checked when I sprang up to chasten
+her, and she fled on her pattens, but I caught her around the corner of
+the house under the lilacs.</p>
+
+<p>"You should be trussed up and trounced like any child," said I, holding
+her with one hand whilst I scraped out snow from my neck with t'other.</p>
+
+<p>At that she bent and flung a handful of snow over me; and I seized her,
+bent her back, and scrubbed her face till it was pink.</p>
+
+<p>Choked with snow and laughter, we swayed together, breathless, she still
+defiant and snatching up snow to fling over me.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>You</i> truss <i>me</i> up!" she panted. "Do you think you are more than a boy
+to use me as a father or a husband only has the right?"</p>
+
+<p>"You little minx!" said I, when I had spat out a mouthful of snow, "is
+not anyone free to trounce a child!&mdash;--"</p>
+
+<p>At that I slipped, or she tripped me; into a drift I went, and she
+pounced on me and sat astride with a cry of triumph.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," says she, "I shall take your scalp, my fine friend"; and twisted
+one hand in my hair.</p>
+
+<p>"Hiu-u! Kou-ee!" she cried, "a scalp taken means war to the end! Do you
+cry me mercy, John Drogue?"</p>
+
+<p>I struggled, but the snow was soft and I sank the deeper, and could not
+unseat her.</p>
+
+<p>"I drown in snow," said I. "Get up, you jade!"</p>
+
+<p>"Jade!" cries she, and stopped my mouth with snow.</p>
+
+<p>I struggled in vain; under her clinging weight the soft snow engulfed
+and held me like a very quicksand. I looked up at her and she laughed
+down at me.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you yield you, John Drogue?"</p>
+
+<p>"It seems I must. But wait!&mdash;--"</p>
+
+<p>"You threaten!"</p>
+
+<p>"No! Do you mean to drown me, you vixen!"</p>
+
+<p>"You engage not to seek revenge?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do so."</p>
+
+<p>"Why? Because you love me tenderly?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said I, half choked. "Let me up, you plague of Egypt!"</p>
+
+<p>"That is not a loving speech, John Drogue. Do you love me or no?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I do,&mdash;you little,&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Little what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Object of my heart's desire!" I fairly yelled. "I am like to smother
+here!&mdash;--"</p>
+
+<p>"This is All Fools' Day," says she, sick with laughter to see me mad and
+at her mercy. "Therefore, you must tell me lies, not truths. Tell me a
+pretty lie,&mdash;quickly!&mdash;else I scrub your features!"</p>
+
+<p>After a helpless heave or two I lay still.</p>
+
+<p>"You say you love me tenderly. That is a lie, John Drogue&mdash;it being All
+Fools' Day. So you shall vow, instead, that you hate me. Come, then!"</p>
+
+<p>"I hate you!" said I, licking the snow from my lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Passionately?"</p>
+
+<p>I looked up at her where deep in the snow, under the lilacs, I lay, my
+arms spread and her two hands pinning my wrists. She was flushed with
+laughter and I saw the devils o' mischief watching me deep in her dark
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"It was under these lilacs," said I, "that I had my first hurt of you.
+You should heal that hurt now."</p>
+
+<p>That confused her, and she blushed and swore to punish me for that
+fling; but I grinned at her.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," said I, "heal me of my ancient wound as you dealt it me&mdash;with
+your lips!"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not kiss Steve Watts!"</p>
+
+<p>"But he kissed you. So do the like by me and I forgive you all."</p>
+
+<p>"All?"</p>
+
+<p>"Everything."</p>
+
+<p>"Even what I have now done?"</p>
+
+<p>"Even that."</p>
+
+<p>"And you will not truss me up to chasten me when you go free? For it
+would shame me and I could not endure it."</p>
+
+<p>"I promise."</p>
+
+<p>She looked down at me, smiling, uncertain.</p>
+
+<p>"What will you do to me if I do not?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Drown you in snow three times every day."</p>
+
+<p>"And I needs must kiss you to buy my safety?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and with hearty good will, too."</p>
+
+<p>She glanced hastily around, perhaps to seek an avenue for escape,
+perhaps to see who might spy us.</p>
+
+<p>Then, looking down at me, a-blush now, yet laughing, she bent her head
+slowly, very slowly to mine, and rested her lips on mine.</p>
+
+<p>Then she was up and off like a young tree-lynx, fleeing, stumbling on
+her pattens; but, like a white hare, I lay very still in my form,
+unstirring, gazing up into the bluest, softest sky that my dazzled eyes
+ever had unclosed upon.</p>
+
+<p>There was a faint fragrance in the air. It may have been arbutus&mdash;or the
+trace of her lips on mine.</p>
+
+<p>In my ears trilled the pretty melody of a million little snow rills
+running in the sunshine. I heard the gay cock-crow from the yard, the
+restless lowing of cattle, the distant caw of a crow flying high over
+the Drowned Lands.</p>
+
+<p>When at last I got to my feet a strange, new soberness had come over me,
+stilling exhilaration, quieting the rough and boyish spirits which had
+possessed me.</p>
+
+<p>Penelope, hanging out linen to sweeten, looked at me over her shoulder,
+plainly uncertain concerning me. But I kept my word and did not offer to
+molest her, and so went about my cooper's work again, where Nick also
+squatted, matching bucket staves, whilst I fell to shaping sap-pans.</p>
+
+<p>It was very still there in the sunshine. And, as I sat there, it seemed
+to me that I was putting more behind me than the icy and unsullied
+months of winter,&mdash;and that I should never be a boy any more, with a
+boy's passionless and untroubled soul.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>And so came spring upon us in the Northland that fateful year of '77,
+with blue skies and melting snow and the cock's clarion sounding clear.</p>
+
+<p>But it was mid-April before the first Forest Runner, with pelts, passed
+through the Sacandaga, twelve days out from Ty, and the woods nigh
+impassable, he gave account, what with soft drifts choking the hills and
+all streams over their banks.</p>
+
+<p>And then, for the first, we learned something concerning the great war
+that was waging everywhere around our outer borders,&mdash;how His Excellency
+had surprised the Hessians at Trenton, and had tricked Cornwallis and
+beat up the enemy at Princeton. It was amazing to realize that His
+Excellency, with only the frozen fragments of a meagre and defeated
+army, had recovered all the Jerseys. But this was so, thank God; and we
+wondered to hear of it.</p>
+
+<p>All this the Forest Runner told us as he ate and drank in the
+kitchen,&mdash;and how Lord Stirling had been made a major-general, and that
+we had now enlisted four fine regiments of horse to curb DeLancy's bold
+riders; and how that great Tory, John Penn, who was lately Governor of
+Pennsylvania, Thomas Wharton, and Benjamin Chew, had been packed off
+with other villains as prisoners into Virginia. Which pleased me,
+because of all that Quaker treachery in the proprietary; and I deemed
+them mean and selfish and self-righteous dogs who whined all day of
+peace and brotherhood and non-resistance, and did conduct most cruelly
+by night for greed and sordid gain.</p>
+
+<p>Not that I liked the New Englanders the better; but, of the two,
+preferred them and had rather they settled the Pennsylvania wilds than
+that the sly, smug proprietaries multiplied there and nursed treason at
+the breast.</p>
+
+<p>Well, our Coureur-du-Bois, in his greasy leather, quills, and scarlet
+braid, had other news for us less palatable.</p>
+
+<p>For it seemed that we had lost two thousand men and all their artillery
+when Fort Washington fell; that we had lost a hundred more men and
+eleven vessels to Sir Guy Carleton on Lake Champlain; that the garrison
+at Ty was a slim one and sick for the most, and the relief regiments
+were so slow in filling that three New England states were drafting
+their soldiery by force.</p>
+
+<p>There were rumours rife concerning the summer campaign, and how the
+British had a plan to behead our new United States by lopping off all
+New England.</p>
+
+<p>It was to be done in this manner: Guy Carleton's army was to come down
+from the North through the lakes, driving Gates, descend the Hudson to
+Albany and there join Clinton and his British, who were to force the
+Highlands, march up the river, and so hold all the Hudson, which would
+cut the head&mdash;New England&mdash;from the body of the new nation.</p>
+
+<p>And to make this more certain, there was now gathering in the West an
+army under Butler and Brant, to strike the Mohawk Valley, sweep through
+it to Schenectady, and there come in touch with Burgoyne.</p>
+
+<p>To oppose this terrible invasion from three directions we had forts on
+the Hudson and a few troops; but His Excellency was engaged south of
+these points and must remain there.</p>
+
+<p>We had, at Ty, a skeleton army, and Gates to lead it, with which to face
+Burgoyne. We had, in the Mohawk Valley, to block the west and show a
+bold front to Brant and Butler, only fragments of Van Schaick's and
+Livingston's Continental line, now digging breastworks at Stanwix, a
+company at Johnstown, and at a crisis, our Tryon County militia, now
+drilling under Herkimer.</p>
+
+<p>And, save for a handful of Rangers and Oneidas, these were all we had in
+Tryon to resist the hordes that were gathering to march on us from
+north, west and south,&mdash;British regulars with horse, foot, and
+magnificent artillery; partizans and loyalists numbering 1200; a
+thousand savages in their paint; Highlanders, Canadians, Hessians; Sir
+John Johnson's regiment of Royal Greens; Colonel John Butler's regiment
+of Rangers; McDonald's renegades and painted Tories&mdash;God! what a
+murderous horde; and all to make their common tryst here in County
+Tryon!</p>
+
+<p>Our grim, lank Forest Runner sprawled on the settle by the kitchen
+table, smoking his bitter Indian tobacco and drinking rum and water,
+well sugared; and Penelope and Nick and I sat around him to listen, and
+look gravely at one another as we learned more and more of what it
+seemed that Fate had in storage for us.</p>
+
+<p>The hot spiced rum loosened the Runner's tongue. His name was Dick
+Jessup; and he was a hard, grim man whose business, from youth&mdash;which
+was peltry&mdash;had led him through perilous ways.</p>
+
+<p>He told us of wild and horrid doings, where solitary settlers and lone
+trappers had been murdered by Guy Carleton's outlying Iroquois, from
+Quebec to Crown Point.</p>
+
+<p>Scores and scores of scalps had been taken; wretched prisoners had
+suffered at the Iroquois stake under tortures indescribable&mdash;the mere
+mention of which made Penelope turn sickly white and set Nick gnawing
+his knuckles.</p>
+
+<p>But what most infuriated me was the thought that in the regiments of old
+John Butler and Sir John Johnson were scores of my old neighbors who now
+boasted that they were coming back to cut our throats on our own
+thresholds,&mdash;coming back with a thousand savages to murder women and
+children and ravage all with fire so that only a blackened desert should
+remain of the valleys and the humble homes we had made and loved.</p>
+
+<p>Jessup said, puffing the acrid willow smoke from his clay: "Where I lay
+hidden near Oneida Lake, I saw a Seneca war party pass on the crust; and
+they had fresh scalps which dripped on the snow.</p>
+
+<p>"And, near Niagara, I saw Butler's Rangers man&oelig;uvring on snow-shoes,
+with drums and curly bugle-horns."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you know any among them?" I asked sombrely.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes. There was Michael Reed, kin to Henry Stoner."</p>
+
+<p>"My cousin, damn him!" quoth Nick, calmly.</p>
+
+<p>"He was a drummer in the Rangers of John Butler," nodded Jessup. "And I
+saw Philip Helmer there in a green uniform, and Charles Cady, too, of
+Fonda's Bush."</p>
+
+<p>"All I ask," says Nick, "is to get these two hands on them. I demand no
+weapons; I want only to feel my fingers closing on them." He sat staring
+into space with the blank glare of a panther. Then, "Were they painted?"
+he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Jessup, "but Simon Girty was and Newberry, too. There were a
+dozen painted Tories or blue-eyed Indians,&mdash;whatever you call 'em,&mdash;and
+they sat at a Seneca fire where the red post stood, and all eating
+half-raw venison, guts and all&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Penelope averted her pallid face and leaned her head on her hand.</p>
+
+<p>Jessup took no notice: "They burned a prisoner that day. I was sick,
+where I lay hidden, to hear his shrieks. And the British in their
+cantonments could hear as plainly as I, yet nobody interfered."</p>
+
+<p>"There could have been no British officer there," said Penelope, in the
+ghost of a voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there were, then," said Jessup bluntly. Turning to me he added:
+"There's a gin'rall there at Niagara, called St. Leger, and he's a
+drunken son of a slut! We should not be afeard of that puffed up
+bladder, and I hope he comes against us. But Butler has some smart
+officers, like his son Walter, and Lieutenant Hare, and young Stephen
+Watts&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You saw <i>him</i> there!" exclaimed Penelope.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I saw him in a green uniform; and, with him also, a-horse, rode
+Sir John Johnson, all in red, and Walter Butler in black and green, and
+his long cloak a-trail to his spurs. By God, there is a motley crew for
+you&mdash;what with Brant in the saddle, in paint and buckskins and fur robe,
+and shaved like any dirty Mohawk; and Hiakatoo, like a blackened devil
+out o' hell, all barred with scarlet and wearing the head of a great
+wolf for a cap, as well as the pelt to cover his war-paint!&mdash;and
+McDonald, with his kilt and dirk, and the damned black eyes of him and
+the two buck-teeth shining on his lips!&mdash;God!" he breathed; and took a
+long pull at his pannikin of spiced rum.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>That evening Jessup left for Johnstown on his way to Albany with his
+peltry; and took with him a letter which I wrote to the Commandant at
+Johnstown fort.</p>
+
+<p>But it was past the first of May before I had any notice taken of my
+letter; and on a Sunday came an Oneida runner, bearing two letters for
+me; one from the Commandant, acquainting me that it was not his
+intention to garrison Fish House or Summer House, that Nick and I were
+sufficient to stand watch on the Mohawk Trail and Drowned Lands and
+report any movement threatening the Valley from the North, and that what
+few men he had must go to Stanwix, where the fort had not yet been
+completed.</p>
+
+<p>The other letter was writ me from Fonda's Bush by honest John Putman:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Friend Jack" (says he), "this Bush is a desert indeed and all run
+off,&mdash;the Tories to Canady,&mdash;such as the Helmers, Cadys, Bowmans,
+Reeds, and the likes,&mdash;save Adam Helmer, who is of our
+complexion,&mdash;and our own people who are friends to liberty have
+fled to Johnstown excepting me,&mdash;all the women and children,&mdash;Jean
+De Silver's family, De Luysnes' people, the Salisburys, Scotts,
+Barbara Stoner, who married Conrad Reed and has gone to New York
+now; and all the Putmans save myself, who shall go presently in
+fear of the savages and Sir John.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, it is sad to see our housen empty and our fields fallow, and
+weeds growing in plowed land. There remain no longer any cattle or
+fowls or any beasts at all, only the wild poultry of the woods come
+to the deserted doorsteps, and the red fox runs along the fence.</p>
+
+<p>"Your house stands empty as it was when you marched away. Only
+squirrels inhabit it now, and porcupines gnaw the corn-crib.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, friend Jack, this is all I have to say. I shall drive my
+oxen to Johnstown Fort tomorrow, and give this letter to the first
+runner or express.</p>
+
+<p>"I learn that you have bought the Summer House of the Commission. I
+wish you joy of it, but it seems a perilous purchase, and I fear
+that you shall soon be obliged to leave it.</p>
+
+<p>"So, wishing you health, and beholden to you for many
+kindnesses&mdash;as are we all who come from Fonda's Bush&mdash;I close, sir,
+with respect and my obedience and duty to my brave young friend who
+serves liberty that we old folk and our women and children shall
+not perish or survive as British slaves.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, awaiting the dread onset of Sir John with that firmness which
+becomes a good American, I am,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">"Your obliged and humble servant,<br /></span>
+<span class="i6">"<span class="smcap">John Putman.</span><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The Oneida left in an hour for Ty.</p>
+
+<p>And it was, I think, an hour later when Nick comes a-running to find me.</p>
+
+<p>"A fire at Fish House," he cries, "and a dense smoke mounting to the
+sky!"</p>
+
+<p>I flung aside my letter, ran to the kitchen, and called Penelope.</p>
+
+<p>"Pack up and be ready to leave!" said I. And, to Nick: "Saddle Kaya and
+be ready to take Penelope a-horse to Mayfield block-house. Call my
+Indian!"</p>
+
+<p>As I belted my shirt and stood ready, my Saguenay came swiftly, trailing
+his rifle.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," said I, "we must learn why that smoke towers yonder to the
+sky."</p>
+
+<p>Penelope took me by the sleeve:</p>
+
+<p>"Do nothing rash, John Drogue," she said in a breathless way.</p>
+
+<p>"Get you ready for flight," said I, fixing a fresh flint. "Nick shall
+run at your stirrup if it comes to that pinch&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But <i>you</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I am well enough; and if the Iroquois are at Fish House then I
+retreat through Varick's, and so by Fonda's Bush to Mayfield Fort."</p>
+
+<p>She clasped her hands.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not wish to leave Summer House," she said pitifully. "What is to
+happen to our sheep and cattle&mdash;and to our fowls and all our stores&mdash;and
+to Summer House itself?"</p>
+
+<p>"God knows," said I impatiently. "Why do you stand there idle when you
+must make ready for flight!"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I can not bear to have you go to Fish House&mdash;all alone&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I have the Yellow Leaf, and can keep clear o' trouble. Come,
+Penelope!&mdash;--"</p>
+
+<p>"When you move toward trouble I do not desire to flee the other way,
+toward safety!&mdash;--"</p>
+
+<p>"Pack up, Penelope!" shouted Nick, leading Kaya into the orchard, all
+saddled; and fell to making up his pack on the grass.</p>
+
+<p>"At Mayfield Fort!" I called across to Nick. "And if I be not there by
+night, then take Penelope to Johnstown, for it means that the Iroquois
+are on the Sacandaga!"</p>
+
+<p>"I mark you, Jack!" he replied. I turned to the girl:</p>
+
+<p>"Farewell, Penelope," I said. "You shall be safe with Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"But you, John Drogue?"</p>
+
+<p>"Safe in the forest, always, and the devil himself could not catch me,"
+said I cheerily.</p>
+
+<p>She stretched out her hand. I took it, looked at her, then kissed her
+fingers. And so went away swiftly, to where our canoe lay, troubled
+because of this young girl whom I had no desire to fall truly in love
+with, and yet knew I had been near to it many times that spring.</p>
+
+<p>I got into the canoe and took the stern paddle; my Saguenay kneeled down
+in the bow; and we shot out across the Vlaie Water.</p>
+
+<p>Once I turned and looked back over my shoulder; and I saw Penelope
+standing there on the grass, and Nick awaiting her with Kaya.</p>
+
+<p>But I did not wish to feel as I felt at that moment. I did not desire to
+fall in love. No!</p>
+
+<p>"Au large!" I said to my Indian, and swept the birchen craft out into
+the deep and steady current.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>GREEN-COATS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Nothing stirred on the Drowned Lands as we drove our canoe at top speed
+between tall bronzed stalks of rushes and dead water-weeds. Vlaie Water
+was intensely blue and patched with golden débris of floating
+stuff&mdash;shreds of cranberry vine, rotting lily pads, and the like&mdash;and in
+twenty minutes we floated silently into the Spring Pool, opposite the
+Stacking Ridge, where hard earth bordered both shores and where maples
+and willows were now in lusty bud.</p>
+
+<p>Two miles away, against Maxon's sturdy bastion, a vast quantity of smoke
+was writhing upward in dark and cloudy convolutions. I could not see
+Fish House&mdash;that oblong, unpainted building a story and a half in
+height, with its chimneys of stone and the painted fish weather vane
+swimming in the sky. But I was convinced that it was afire.</p>
+
+<p>We beached our canoe and drew it under the shore-reeds, and so passed
+rapidly down the right bank of the stream along the quick water, holding
+our guns cocked and primed, like hunters ready for a hazard shot at
+sight.</p>
+
+<p>There was no snow left; all frost was out of the ground along the
+Drowned Lands; and the earth was sopping wet. Everywhere frail green
+spears of new grass pricked the dead and matted herbage; and in
+sheltered places tiny green leaves embroidered stems and twigs; and I
+saw wind-flowers, and violets both yellow and blue, and the amber shoots
+of skunk cabbage growing thickly in wet places. The shadbush, too, was
+in exquisite white bloom along the stream, and I remember that I saw one
+tree in full flower, and a dozen bluejays sitting amid the snowy
+blossoms like so many lumps of sapphire.</p>
+
+<p>Now, on the mainland, a clearing showed in the sunshine; and beyond it I
+saw a rail fence bounding a field still black and wet from last autumn's
+plowing.</p>
+
+<p>We took to the brush and bore to the right, where on firm ground a grove
+of ash and butternut forested the ridge, and a sandy path ran through.</p>
+
+<p>I knew this path. Sir William often used it when hunting, and his cows,
+kept at Fish House when his two daughters lived there, travelled this
+way to and from pasture.</p>
+
+<p>Between us and the Sacandaga lay one of those grassy gulleys where, in
+time of flood, back-water from the Sacandaga spread deep.</p>
+
+<p>My Indian and I now lay down and drew our bodies very stealthily toward
+the woods' edge, where the setback from the river divided us from Fish
+House.</p>
+
+<p>Ahead of us, through the trees, dense volumes of smoke crowded upward
+and unfolded into strange, cloudy shapes, and we could hear a loud and
+steady crackling noise made by feeding flames.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, through the trees, I saw Fish House all afire, and now only a
+glowing skeleton in the sunshine. But the dense smoke came not now from
+Fish House, but from three barracks of marsh-hay burning, which vomited
+thick smoke into the sky. Near the house some tall piles of hewn logs
+were blazing, also a corn-crib, a small barn, and a log farmhouse, where
+I think that damned rascal, Wormwood, once lived. And it had been bought
+by a tenant of Sir William,&mdash;one of the patriot Shews or Helmers, if I
+mistake not, who was given favourable advantages to undertake such a
+settlement, but now had fled to Johnstown.</p>
+
+<p>Godfrey Shew's own house, just over the knoll to the eastward, was also
+on fire: I could see the flames from it and a thin brownish smoke which
+belched out black cinders and shreds of charred bark.</p>
+
+<p>I did not see a living creature near these fires, but farther toward the
+east clearing I heard voices and the sound of picks and axes; and my
+Saguenay and I crept thither along the bank of the flooded hollow.</p>
+
+<p>Very soon I perceived the new earthwork and log-stockade made the
+previous summer by our Continentals; and there, to my astonishment, I
+saw a motley company of white men and Indians, who were chopping down
+the timbers of the palisades, levelling the earthwork with pick and
+shovel.</p>
+
+<p>So near were they across the flooded hollow that I recognized Elias
+Beacraft, brother to Benjy, who had gone off with McDonald. Also, I saw
+and knew Captain James Hare, brother to Lieutenant Henry Hare, of
+Butler's regiment; and Henry, also, was there; and Captain Nellis, of
+the forester service. Both the Hares and Nellis were dressed in green
+uniforms, and there were two other green-coats whom I knew not, but all
+busy with their work of destruction, and their axes flashing in the
+sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>The others I had, of course, taken for very savages, for they were
+feathered and painted and wore Indian dress; but when one of these came
+down to the flooded hollow to fill his tin cup and drink, to my horror I
+saw that the eyes in that hideously-painted face were a <i>light blue</i>!</p>
+
+<p>"Nai! Yengese!" whispered the Yellow Leaf.</p>
+
+<p>The painted Tory was not ten yards from where we lay, and, as I gazed
+intently at those hideously daubed features, all at once I knew the man.</p>
+
+<p>For this horrid and grotesque figure, all besmeared with ochre and
+indigo, and wearing Indian dress, was none other than an old neighbour
+of mine in Tryon County, one George Cuck, who lived near Jan Zuyler and
+his two buxom daughters, and who had gone off with Sir John last May.</p>
+
+<p>As I stared at him in ever-rising astonishment and rage, comes another
+<i>blue-eyed Indian</i>&mdash;Barney Cane,&mdash;wearing Iroquois paint and feathers,
+and all gaudy in his beaded war-dress. And, at his belt, I saw a fresh
+scalp hanging by its hair,&mdash;<i>the light brown hair of a white man</i>!</p>
+
+<p>I could hear Cane speaking with Cuck in English. Beacraft came down to
+the water; and Billy Newberry[22] and Hare<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> also came down, both
+wearing the uniform of the forester service. And I was astounded to see
+Henry Hare back again after his narrow escape at Summer House last
+autumn, the night I got my hurt.</p>
+
+<p>But he wore no Valley militia disguise now; all these men were in
+green-coats, openly flaunting the enemy uniform in County Tryon,&mdash;save
+only those painted beasts Cuck and Cane.</p>
+
+<p>It was a war party, and it had accomplished a clean job at Fish House;
+and now they all were coming down to the flooded hollow and looking
+across it where lay the short route west to Summer House.</p>
+
+<p>Presently I heard a great splashing to our left, and saw a skiff and two
+green-coats and two Mohawk Indians in it pulling across the back-water.</p>
+
+<p>And these latter were real Mohawks, stripped, oiled, their heads shaved,
+and in their battle-paint, who squatted there in the skiff, scanning
+with glowing eyes the bank where my Saguenay and I lay concealed.</p>
+
+<p>It was perfectly plain, now, what they meant to do. Beacraft, Cane, and
+Cuck went back to the ruined redoubt, and presently returned loaded with
+packs. Baggage and rifles were laid in the skiff.</p>
+
+<p>I touched Yellow Leaf on the arm, and we wriggled backward out of sight.
+Then, rising, we turned and pulled foot for our canoe.</p>
+
+<p>Now my chiefest anxiety was whether Penelope and Nick had got clean away
+and were already well on the road to the Mayfield Block House.</p>
+
+<p>We found our canoe where we had hid it, and we made the still water boil
+with our two paddles, so that, although it seemed an age to me, we came
+very swiftly to our landing at Summer House Point.</p>
+
+<p>Here we sprang out, seized the canoe, ran with it up the grassy slope,
+then continued over the uncut lawn and down the western slope, where
+again we launched it and let it swing on the water, held anchored by its
+nose on shore.</p>
+
+<p>House, barn, orchard, all were deathly still there in the brilliant
+sunshine; I ran to the manger and found it empty of cattle. There were
+no fowls to be seen or heard, either. Then I hastened to the sheep-fold.
+That, also, was empty.</p>
+
+<p>Perplexed, I ran down to the gates, found them open, and, in the mud of
+the Johnstown Road, discovered sheep and cattle tracks, the imprint of
+Kaya's sharp-shod hoofs, a waggon mark, and the plain imprint of Nick's
+moccasins.</p>
+
+<p>So it was clear enough what he and Penelope had done. A terrible anxiety
+seized me, and I wondered how far they had got on the way to Mayfield,
+with cattle and sheep to drive ahead of a loaded waggon and one horse.</p>
+
+<p>And now, more than ever, it was certain that my Indian and I must make a
+desperate stand here to hold back these marauders until our people were
+safe in Mayfield without a shadow of doubt.</p>
+
+<p>The Saguenay had gone to the veranda roof with his rifle, where he could
+see any movement by land or water.</p>
+
+<p>I called up to him that the destructives might come by both routes; then
+I went to my room, gathered all the lead bars and bags of bullets,
+seized our powder keg, and dragged all down to the water, where I stored
+everything in the canoe.</p>
+
+<p>That was all I could take, save a sack of ground corn mixed with maple
+sugar, a flask of rum, and a bag of dry meat.</p>
+
+<p>These articles, with our fur robes and blankets, a fish-spear, and a
+spontoon which I discovered, were all I dared attempt to save.</p>
+
+<p>I stood in the pretty house, gazing desperately about me, sad to leave
+this place to flames, furious to realize that this little lodge must
+perish, which once was endeared to me because Sir William loved it, and
+now had become doubly dear because I had given it to a young girl whom I
+loved&mdash;and tenderly&mdash;yet desired not to become enamoured with.</p>
+
+<p>Sunshine fell through the glazed windows, where chintz curtains stirred
+in the wind.</p>
+
+<p>I looked around at the Windsor chairs, the table where we had supped
+together so often. I went into Penelope's room and looked at her maple
+bed, so white and fresh.</p>
+
+<p>There was a skein of wool yarn on the table. I took it; gazed at it with
+new and strange emotions a-fiddling at my throat and twitching eyes and
+lips; and placed it in the breast of my hunting shirt.</p>
+
+<p>Then I listened; but my Indian overhead remained silent. So I went on
+through the house, and then down to the kitchen, where I saw all sweetly
+in order, and pan and china bright; and soupaan still simmering where
+Penelope had left it.</p>
+
+<p>There was a bowl of milk there, and the cream thick on it. And she had
+set a dozen red apples handy, with flour and spices and a crock of lard
+for to fashion a pie, I think.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly I went up stairs and then out the kitchen door, across the grass.
+The Saguenay saw me from above and made a sign that all was still quiet
+on the Drowned Lands.</p>
+
+<p>So I went to the manger again, and thence to the barn and around the
+house.</p>
+
+<p>The lilacs had bursted their buds, and I could see tiny bunches pushing
+out on every naked stem where the fragrant, grape-like bunches of bloom
+should hang in May.</p>
+
+<p>Then I looked down, and remembered where I had lain in the snow under
+these same lilacs, and how there Penelope had bullied me and then
+consented to kiss me on the mouth.... And, as I was thinking sadly of
+these things,&mdash;bang! went my Indian's rifle from the veranda roof.</p>
+
+<p>I sprang out upon the west lawn and saw the powder cloud drifting over
+the house, and my Indian, sheltered by the roof, reloading his piece on
+one knee.</p>
+
+<p>"By water!" he called out softly, when he saw me.</p>
+
+<p>At that I ran into the house by the front door, which faced south;
+closed and bolted the four heavy green shutters in the two rooms on the
+ground floor, barred the south door and the west, or kitchen door below;
+and sprang up the ladder to the low loft chamber, from whence, stooping,
+I crept out of the south-gable window upon the veranda.</p>
+
+<p>This piazza promenade was nearly as high as the eaves. The gable ends of
+the roof, in which were windows, faced north and south, but the
+promenade ran all around the east end and sides, which, supported by
+columns, afforded a fine rifle-platform for defense against a water
+attack, and gave us a wide view out over the mysterious Drowned Lands.</p>
+
+<p>It was a vast panorama that lay around us&mdash;a great misty amphitheatre
+more than a hundred miles in circumference. At our feet lay that immense
+marsh of fifteen thousand acres, called the Great Vlaie; mountains
+walled the Drowned Lands north, east, west; and to the south stretched a
+wilderness of pine and spectral tamaracks.</p>
+
+<p>Lying flat on the roof, and peering cautiously between the spindles of
+the railing, I saw, below on the Vlaie Water, the same skiff I had seen
+at Fish House.</p>
+
+<p>In the heavy skiff, the gunwales of which were barricaded with their
+military packs, lay six green-coats,&mdash;Captains Hare and Nellis, Sergeant
+Newberry, Beacraft, and two strangers in private's uniform.</p>
+
+<p>They had a white flag set in the prow.</p>
+
+<p>But the two blue-eyed Indians, Barney Cane and George Cuck, were not
+with them, nor were the two Mohawks. And in a whisper I bade my Saguenay
+go around to the south gable and keep his eye on the gate and the
+Johnstown Road on the mainland.</p>
+
+<p>Hare took the white flag from the prow and waved it, the two rowers
+continuing up creek and heading toward our landing.</p>
+
+<p>Then I called out to them to halt and back water; and, as they paid no
+heed, I fired at their white flag, and knocked the staff and rag out of
+Hare's hand without wounding him.</p>
+
+<p>At that two or three cried out angrily, but their rowers ceased and
+began to back water hastily; and I, reloading, kept an eye on them.</p>
+
+<p>Then Hare stood up in the skiff and bawled through his hollowed hand:</p>
+
+<p>"Will you parley? Or do you wish to violate a flag?"</p>
+
+<p>"Keep your interval, Henry Hare!" I retorted. "If you have anything to
+say, say it from where you are or I'll drill you clean!"</p>
+
+<p>"Is that John Drogue, the Brent-Meester?" he shouted.</p>
+
+<p>"None other," said I. "What brings you to Summer House in such fair
+weather, Harry Hare?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to land and parley," he replied. "You may blindfold me if you
+like."</p>
+
+<p>"When I put out your lights," said I, "it will be a quicker job than
+that. What do you wish to do&mdash;count our garrison?"</p>
+
+<p>Captain Nellis got up from his seat and replied that he knew how many
+people occupied Summer House, and that, desiring to prevent the useless
+effusion of blood, he demanded our surrender under promise of kind
+treatment.</p>
+
+<p>I laughed at him. "No," said I, "my hair suits my head and I like it
+there rather than swinging all red and wet at the girdle of your
+blue-eyed Indians."</p>
+
+<p>As I spoke I saw Newberry and Beacraft bring the butts of their rifles
+to their shoulders, and I shrank aside as their pieces cracked out
+sharply across the water.</p>
+
+<p>Splinters flew from the painted column on the corner of the house; the
+green-coats all fell flat in their skiff and lay snug there, hidden by
+their packs.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, as I watched, I saw an oar poked out.</p>
+
+<p>Very cautiously somebody was sculling the skiff down stream and across
+in the direction of the reeds.</p>
+
+<p>As the craft turned to enter the marsh, I had a fleeting view of the
+sculler&mdash;only his head and arm&mdash;and saw it was Eli Beacraft.</p>
+
+<p>I was perfectly cool when I fired on him. He let go his oar and fell
+flat on the bottom of the boat. The echo of my shot died away in
+wavering cadences among the shoreward woods; an intense stillness
+possessed the place.</p>
+
+<p>Then, of a sudden, Beacraft fell to kicking his legs and screeching, and
+so flopped about in the bottom of the boat, like a stranded fish all
+over blood.</p>
+
+<p>The boat nosed in between the marsh-grasses and tall sedge, and I could
+not see it clearly any more.</p>
+
+<p>But the green-coats in it were no sooner hid than they began firing at
+Summer House, and the storm of lead ripped and splintered the gallery
+and eaves, tore off shingles, shattered chimney bricks, and rang out
+loud on the iron hinges of door and shutter.</p>
+
+<p>I fired a few shots into their rifle-smoke, then lay watching and
+waiting, and listening ever for the loud explosion of my Indian's piece,
+which would mean that the painted Tories and the Mohawks were stealing
+upon us from the mainland.</p>
+
+<p>Every twenty minutes or so the men in the batteau-skiff let off a rifle
+shot at Summer House, and the powder-cloud rising among the dead weeds,
+pinxters, and button-ball bushes, discovered the location of their
+craft.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes, as I say, I took a shot at the smoke; but time was the
+essence of my contract, and God knows it contented me to stand siege
+whilst Penelope and Nick, with waggon and cattle, were plodding westward
+toward Mayfield.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>About four o'clock in the afternoon I was hungry and went to get me a
+piece in the pantry.</p>
+
+<p>Then I took Yellow Leaf's place whilst he descended to appease his
+hunger.</p>
+
+<p>We ate our bread and meat together on the roof, our rifles lying cocked
+across our knees.</p>
+
+<p>"Brother," said I, munching away, "if, indeed, you be, as they say, a
+tree-eater, and live on bark and buds when there is no game to kill,
+then I think your stomach suffers nothing by such diet, for I want no
+better comrade in a pinch, and shall always be ready to bear witness to
+your bravery and fidelity."</p>
+
+<p>He continued to eat in silence, scraping away at his hot soupaan with a
+pewter spoon. After he had licked both spoon and pannikin as clean as a
+cat licks a saucer, he pulled a piece of jerked deer meat in two and
+gravely chewed the morsel, his small, brilliant eyes ever roving from
+the water to the mainland.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, without looking at me, he said quietly:</p>
+
+<p>"When I was only a poor hunter of the Montagnais, I said to myself, 'I
+am a man, yet hardly one.'<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> I learned that a Saguenay was a real man
+when my brother told me.</p>
+
+<p>"My brother cleared my eyes and wiped away the ancient mist of tears. I
+looked; and lo! I found that I was a real man. I was made like other men
+and not like a beast to be kicked at and stoned and driven with sticks
+flung at me in the forest."</p>
+
+<p>"The Yellow Leaf is a warrior," I said. "The Oneida Anowara<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> bear
+witness to scalps taken in battle by the Yellow Leaf. Tahioni, the Wolf,
+took no more."</p>
+
+<p>"Ni-ha-ron-ta-kowa,"<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> said the Saguenay proudly, "onkwe honwe!<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a>
+Yet it was my <i>white</i> brother who cleared my eyes of mist. Therefore,
+let him give me a new name&mdash;a warrior's name&mdash;meaning that my vision is
+now clear."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said I, "your war name shall be Sak-yen-haton!"<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a>&mdash;which
+was as good Iroquois as I could pronounce, and good enough for the
+Montagnais to comprehend, it seemed, for a gleam shot from his eyes, and
+I heard him say to himself in a low voice: "Haiah-ya! I am a real
+warrior now!... Onenh! at last!"</p>
+
+<p>A shot came from the water; he looked around contemptuously and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"My elder brother," said he, "shall we two strip and set our knives
+between our teeth, and swim out to scalp those muskrats yonder?"</p>
+
+<p>"And if they fire at us in the water?" said I, amused at his mad
+courage, who had once been "hardly a man."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we dive like Tchurako, the mink, and swim beneath the water, as
+swims old 'long face' the great wolf-pike!<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> Shall we rush upon them
+thus, O my elder brother?"</p>
+
+<p>Absurd as it was, the wild idea began to inflame me, and I was seriously
+considering our chances at twilight to accomplish such a business, when,
+of a sudden, I saw on the mainland an officer of the Indian Department,
+who bore a white rag on the point of his hanger and waved it toward the
+house.</p>
+
+<p>He came across the Johnstown Road to our gate, but made no motion to
+open it, and stood there slowly waving his white flag and waiting to be
+noticed and hailed.</p>
+
+<p>"Keep your rifle on that man," I whispered to my Indian, "for I shall go
+down to the orchard and learn what are the true intentions of these
+green-coats and blue-eyed Indians. Find a rest for your piece, hold
+steadily, and kill that flag if I am fired on."</p>
+
+<p>I saw him stretch out flat on his belly and rest his rifle on the
+veranda rail. Then I crawled into the garret, descended through the
+darkened house, and, unbolting the door, went out and down across the
+grass to the orchard.</p>
+
+<p>"What is your errand?" I called out, "you flag there outside our gate?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is that you, John Drogue?" came a familiar voice.</p>
+
+<p>I took a long look at him from behind my apple tree, and saw it was Jock
+Campbell, one of Sir John's Highland brood and late a subaltern in the
+Royal Provincials.</p>
+
+<p>And that he should come here in a green coat with these murderous
+vagabonds incensed me.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want, Jock Campbell!" I demanded, controlling my temper.</p>
+
+<p>"I want a word with you under a flag!"</p>
+
+<p>"Say what you have to say, but keep outside that gate!" I retorted.</p>
+
+<p>"John Drogue," says he, "we came here to burn Summer House, and mean to
+do it. We know how many you have to defend the place&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do you know that? Then tell me, Jock, if you truly possess the
+information."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said he calmly. "You are two white men, a Montagnais dog,
+and a girl. And pray tell me, sir, how long do you think you can hold us
+off?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said I, "if you are as thrifty with your skins as you have been
+all day, then we should keep this place a week or two against you."</p>
+
+<p>"What folly!" he exclaimed hotly. "Do you think to prevail against us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I don't know, Jock. Ask Beacraft yonder, who hath a bullet in his
+belly. He's wiser than he was and should offer you good counsel."</p>
+
+<p>"I offer you safe conduct if you march out at once!" he shouted.</p>
+
+<p>"I offer you one of Beacraft's pills if you do not instantly about face
+and march into the bush yonder!" I replied.</p>
+
+<p>At that he dashed the flag upon the road and shook his naked sword at
+me.</p>
+
+<p>"Your blood be on your heads!" he bawled. "I can not hold my Indians if
+you defy them longer!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, Jock," said I, "I'll hold 'em for you, never fear!"</p>
+
+<p>He strode to the fence and grasped it.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you march out? Shame on you, Stormont, who are seduced by this
+Yankee rabble o' rebels when your place is with Sir John and with the
+loyal gentlemen of Tryon!</p>
+
+<p>"For the last time, then, will you parley and march out? Or shall I give
+you and your Caughnawaga wench to my Indians?"</p>
+
+<p>I walked out from behind my tree and drew near the fence, where he was
+standing, his sword hanging from one wrist by the leather knot.</p>
+
+<p>"Jock Campbell," said I, "you are a great villain. Do you lay aside your
+hanger and your pistols, and I will set my rifle here, and we shall soon
+see what your bragging words are worth."</p>
+
+<p>At that he drove his sword into the earth, but, as I set my rifle
+against a tree, he lifted his pistol and fired at me, and I felt the
+wind of the bullet on my right cheek.</p>
+
+<p>Then he snatched his sword and was already vaulting the gate, when my
+Saguenay's bullet caught him in mid-air, and he fell across the top rail
+and slid down on the muddy road outside.</p>
+
+<p>Then, for the first time, I saw the two real Mohawks where they lay in
+ambush in the bush. One of them had risen to a kneeling position, and I
+saw the red flash of his piece and saw the smoke blot out the
+tree-trunk.</p>
+
+<p>For a second I held my fire; then saw them both on the ground under the
+alders across the road, and fired very carefully at the nearest one.</p>
+
+<p>He dropped his gun and let out a startling screech, tried to get up off
+the ground, screeching all the while; then lay scrabbling on the dead
+leaves.</p>
+
+<p>I stepped behind an apple tree, primed and reloaded in desperate haste,
+and presently drew the fire of the other Indian with my cap on my
+ramrod.</p>
+
+<p>Then, as I ran to the gate, my Saguenay rushed by me, leaping the fence
+at a great bound, and I saw his up-flung hatchet sparkle, and heard it
+crash through bone.</p>
+
+<p>I shouted for him to come back, but when he obeyed he had two Mohawk
+scalps,<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> and came reluctantly, glancing down at Campbell where he lay
+still breathing on the muddy road, and darting an uncertain glance at
+me.</p>
+
+<p>But I told him with an oath that it would be an insult to me if he
+touched a white man's hair in my presence; and he opened the gate and
+came inside like a great, sullen dog from whom I had snatched a bone of
+his own digging.</p>
+
+<p>Very cautiously we retreated through the orchard to the house, entered,
+and climbed again to the roof.</p>
+
+<p>And from there we saw that, in our absence, the boat had been rowed to
+our landing, and that its occupants were now somewhere on the mainland,
+doubtless preparing to assault the place as soon as dusk offered them
+sufficient cover.</p>
+
+<p>Well, the game was nearly up now. Our people should have arrived by this
+time at Mayfield with sheep, cattle, and waggon. We had remained here to
+the limit of safety, and there was no hope of aid in time to save our
+skins or this house from destruction.</p>
+
+<p>The sun was low over the forest when, at length, we crept out of the
+house and stole down to our canoe.</p>
+
+<p>We made no sound when we embarked, and our craft glided away under the
+rushes, driven by cautiously-dipped paddles which left only silent
+little swirls on the dark and glassy stream.</p>
+
+<p>Up Mayfield Creek we turned, which, above, is not fair canoe-water save
+at flood; but now the spring melting filled it brimfull, and a heavy
+current set into Vlaie Water so that there was labour ahead for us; and
+we bent to it as dusk fell over the Drowned Lands.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>It was not yet full dark when, over my shoulder, I saw a faint rose
+light in the north. And I knew that Summer House was on fire.</p>
+
+<p>Then, swiftly the rosy light grew to a red glow, and, as we watched, a
+great conflagration flared in the darkness, mounting higher, burning
+redder, fiercer, till, around us, vague smouldering shadows moved, and
+the water was touched with ashy glimmerings.</p>
+
+<p>Summer House was all afire, and the infernal light touched us even here,
+painting our features and the paddle-blades, and staining the dark water
+with a prophecy of blood.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>It was a long and irksome paddle, what with floating trees we
+encountered and the stream over its banks and washing us into sedge and
+brush and rafts of weed in the darkness. Again and again, checked by
+some high dam of drifted windfall, we were forced to make a swampy
+carry, waist high through bog and water.</p>
+
+<p>Often, so, we were forced to rest; and we sat silent, panting,
+skin-soaked in the chilly night air, gazing at the distant fire, which,
+though now miles away, seemed so near. And I could even see trees black
+against the blaze, and smoke rolling turbulently, and a great whirl of
+sparks mounting skyward.</p>
+
+<p>It was long past midnight when I hailed the picket at the grist-mill and
+drove our canoe shoreward into the light of a lifted lantern.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Nick Stoner in?" I called out.</p>
+
+<p>"All safe!" replied somebody on shore.</p>
+
+<p>A dark figure came down to the water and took hold of our bow to steady
+us.</p>
+
+<p>"Summer House and Fish House are burned," said I, climbing out stiffly.</p>
+
+<p>"Aye," said the soldier, "and what of Fonda's Bush, Mr. Drogue?"</p>
+
+<p>"What!" I exclaimed, startled.</p>
+
+<p>"Look yonder," said he.</p>
+
+<p>I scarce know how I managed to stumble up the bushy bank. And then, when
+I came out on level land near the block house, I saw fire to the
+southeast, and the sky crimson above the forest.</p>
+
+<p>"My God!" I stammered, "Fonda's Bush is all afire!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a red light toward Frenchman's Creek, too, but where Fonda's
+Bush should lie a vast sea of fire rose and ebbed and waxed and faded
+above the forest.</p>
+
+<p>"Were any people left there?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"None, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God," I said. But my heart was desolate, for now my house of logs
+that I had builded and loved was gone; my glebe destroyed; all my toil
+come to naught in the distant mockery of those shaking flames. All I had
+in the world was gone save for my slender funds in Albany.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are my friends?" said I to a soldier.</p>
+
+<p>"At the Block House, sir, and very anxious concerning you. They have not
+long been in, but Nick Stoner is all for going back to Summer House to
+discover your whereabouts, and has been beating up recruits for a flying
+scout."</p>
+
+<p>Even as he spoke, I saw Nick come up the road with a torch, and called
+out to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Where have you been, John Drogue?" said he, coming to me and laying a
+hand on my shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Penelope safe?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"She is as safe as are any here in Mayfield. Is it Summer House that
+burns in the north, or only the marsh hay?"</p>
+
+<p>"The whole place is afire," said I. "A dozen green-coats, blue-eyed
+Indians, and two real ones, burnt Fish House and attacked us at Summer
+House. I saw and knew Jock Campbell, Henry Hare, Billy Newberry, Barney
+Cane, Eli Beacraft, and George Cuck. My Saguenay mortally wounded Jock.
+He's lying on the road. He tomahawked a Canienga, too, and took his
+scalp and another's."</p>
+
+<p>"Did <i>you</i> mark any of the dirty crew?" demanded Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"I shot Beacraft and one Mohawk. How many are we at the Block House?"</p>
+
+<p>"A full company to hold it safe," said he, gloomily. "Do you know that
+Fonda's Bush is burning?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>After a silence I said: "Who commands here? I think we ought to move
+toward Johnstown this night. I don't know how many green-coats have come
+to the Sacandaga, but it must have been another detachment that is
+burning Fonda's Bush."</p>
+
+<p>As I spoke a Continental Captain followed by a Lieutenant came up in the
+torch-light; and I gave him his salute and rendered an account of what
+had happened on the Drowned Lands.</p>
+
+<p>He seemed deeply disturbed but told me he had orders to defend the
+Mayfield Fort. He added, however, that if I must report at Johnstown he
+would give me a squad of musket-men as escort thither.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," said I, "my report should not be delayed. But I have Nick
+Stoner and an Indian, and apprehend no danger. So if I may beg a dish of
+porridge for my little company, and dry my clothing by your block-house
+fire-place, I shall set out within the hour."</p>
+
+<p>He was very civil,&mdash;a tall, haggard, careworn man, whose wife and
+children lived at Torloch, and their undefended situation caused him
+deep anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>So I walked to the Fort, Nick and my Indian following; and presently saw
+Penelope on the rifle-platform of the stockade, among the soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>She was gazing at the fiery sky in the north when I caught sight of her
+and called her name.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment she bent swiftly down over the pickets as though to pierce
+the dark where my voice came from; then she turned, and was descending
+the ladder when I entered by the postern.</p>
+
+<p>As I came up she took my shoulders between both hands, but said nothing,
+and I saw she had trouble to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said I, "there is bad news for you. Your pretty Summer House is
+no more, Penelope."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," she stammered, "did you&mdash;did you suppose it was the loss of a
+house that has driven me out o' my five senses?"</p>
+
+<p>"Are your sheep and cattle safe?" I asked in sudden alarm.</p>
+
+<p>"My God," she breathed, and stood with her face in both hands, there at
+the foot of the ladder under the April stars.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it frightens you?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>Her hands fell to her side and she looked at me: "Nothing, sir....
+Unless it be myself," she said calmly. "Your clothing is wet and you are
+shivering. Will you come into the fort?"</p>
+
+<p>We went in. I remembered how I had seen her there that night, nearly a
+year ago, and all the soldiers gathered around to entertain her, whilst
+she supped on porridge and smiled upon them over her yellow bowl's edge,
+like a very child.</p>
+
+<p>The few soldiers inside rose respectfully. A sergeant drew a settle to
+the blazing fire; a soldier brought us soupaan and a gill of rum. Nick
+came in with the Saguenay, and they both squatted down in their blankets
+before the fire, grave as a pair o' cats; and there they ate their fill
+of porridge at our feet, and blinked at the blaze and smoked their clays
+in silence.</p>
+
+<p>I told Penelope that we must travel this night to Johnstown, it being my
+duty to give an account of what had happened, without delay.</p>
+
+<p>"There can be no danger to us on the road," said I, "but the thought of
+leaving you here in this fort disturbs me."</p>
+
+<p>"What would I do here alone?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"What will you do alone in Johnstown?" I inquired in turn.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time I realized that we both were utterly homeless; and that
+in Johnstown our shelter must be a tavern, or, if danger threatened, the
+fortified jail called Johnstown Fort.</p>
+
+<p>"You will not abandon me, will you, sir?" she asked, touching my sleeve
+with the pretty confidence of a child.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, no," said I. "We can lodge at Jimmy Burke's Tavern. And there is
+Nick to give us countenance&mdash;and a most respectable Indian."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it scandalous for me to go thither in your company?"</p>
+
+<p>"What else is there for us to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should go to Albany," said she, "as soon as may be. And I am resolved
+to do so and to seek out Mr. Fonda and disembarrass you of any further
+care for me."</p>
+
+<p>"It is no burden," said I; "but I do not know where I shall be sent, now
+that the war is come to Tryon County. And&mdash;I can not bear to think of
+you alone and unprotected, living the miserable life of a refugee in the
+women's quarters at Johnstown Fort."</p>
+
+<p>"Does solicitude for my welfare truly occupy your thoughts, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes, and naturally. Are we not close friends and comrades in
+misfortune, Penelope?"</p>
+
+<p>"I counted it no misfortune to live at Summer House."</p>
+
+<p>"No, nor I.... I was very happy there.... Alas for your pretty
+cottage!&mdash;poor little châtelaine of Summer House!"</p>
+
+<p>"John Drogue?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hear you."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you suppose I ever meant to take that gift of you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;why, yes! I gave it! Even now I have the deed to the land and
+shall convey it to you. And one day, God willing, a new cottage shall be
+built&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you must build it, John Drogue, for the land is yours and I never
+meant to take it of you, and never shall.... And I thank you,&mdash;and am
+deeply beholden&mdash;and touched in my heart's deep depths&mdash;that you have
+offered this to me.... Because you desired me to be respectable, and
+well considered by men.... And you wished me to possess substance which
+I lacked&mdash;so that none could dare use me lightly and without
+consideration.... And I promise you that I have learned my lesson. You
+have schooled me well, Mr. Drogue.... And if for no other reason save
+respect for you, and gratitude, I promise you I shall so conduct
+hereafter that you shall have no reason to think contemptuously of me."</p>
+
+<p>"I never held you in contempt."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; when I stole your horse; and when you deemed me easy&mdash;and proved
+me so&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I meant it not that way!" said I, reddening.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet it was so, John Drogue. I was not difficult. I meant no harm, but
+had not sense enough to know harm when it approached me!... And so I
+thank you for schooling me. But I never could have taken any gift from
+you."</p>
+
+<p>After a silence I rose and went into the officer's quarters.</p>
+
+<p>The Continental Captain was lying on his trundle-bed, but got up and
+sent two men to harness Kaya to our waggon.</p>
+
+<p>I told him I should leave all stores and provisions with him, and asked
+if he would look after our sheep and cattle and fowls until they could
+be fetched to Johnstown and cared for there.</p>
+
+<p>He was a most kindly man, and promised to care for our creatures, saying
+that the eggs and milk would be welcome to his garrison, and that if he
+took a lamb or two he would pay for it on demand.</p>
+
+<p>So when our waggon drove up in the darkness outside, he came and took
+leave of us all very kindly, saying he hoped that Penelope would be safe
+in Johnstown, and that the raiders would soon be driven out of the
+Sacandaga.</p>
+
+<p>I gave him our canoe, for which he seemed grateful.</p>
+
+<p>Then I helped Penelope into the waggon, got in myself and took the
+reins. Nick and the Saguenay vaulted into the box and lay down on our
+pile of furs and blankets.</p>
+
+<p>And so we drove out of the stockade and onto the Johnstown Road,
+Penelope in a wolf-robe beside me, and both her hands clasped around my
+left arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you a-chill?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know what ails me," she murmured, "but&mdash;the world is so vast
+and dark.... and God is so far&mdash;so far&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You are unhappy."</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"You grieve for somebody?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I do not grieve."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you lonesome?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know if I am.... I do not know why I tremble so.... The world
+is so dark and vast.... I am so small a thing to be alone in it.... It
+is the war, perhaps, that awes me. It seems so near now. Alas for the
+battles to be fought!&mdash;the battles in the North.... Where you shall be,
+John Drogue."</p>
+
+<p>"You said that once before."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I saw you there against a cannon's rising cloud.... And a white
+shape near you."</p>
+
+<p>"You said it was Death," I reminded her.</p>
+
+<p>"Death or a bride.... I did not wish to see that vision. I never desire
+to see such things."</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh! Do you really believe in dreams, Penelope?"</p>
+
+<p>"There were strange uniforms there," she murmured, "&mdash;not red-coats."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh; green-coats!"</p>
+
+<p>"No. I never saw the like. I never saw such soldiery in England or in
+France or in America."</p>
+
+<p>"They were only dream soldiers," said I gaily. "So now you must laugh a
+little, and take heart, Penelope, because if we two have been made
+homeless this night by fire, still we are young, and in health, and have
+all life before us. Come, then! Shall we be melancholy? And if there are
+to be battles in the North, why, there will be battles, and some must
+die and some survive.</p>
+
+<p>"So, in the meanwhile, shall we be merry?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you wish, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Excellent! Sing me a pretty French song&mdash;low voiced&mdash;in my ear,
+Penelope, whilst I guide my horse."</p>
+
+<p>"What song, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"What you will."</p>
+
+<p>So, holding my arm with both her hands, she leaned close to me on the
+jolting seat and placed her lips at my ear; and sang "Malbrook," as we
+drove toward Johnstown through the dark forest under the April stars.</p>
+
+<p>Something hot touched my cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Penelope!" said I, "are you weeping?"</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head, rested her forehead a moment against my shoulder,
+and, sitting so, strove to continue&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Il ne&mdash;ne reviendra&mdash;"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Her voice sank to a tremulous whisper and she bowed her face in her two
+hands and rested so in silence, her slender form swaying with the
+swaying waggon.</p>
+
+<p>It was plain to me that the child was afeard. The shock of flight, the
+lurid tokens of catastrophe in the heavens, the alarming rumours in
+those darkening hours, anxiety, suspense, all had contributed to shake a
+heart both gentle and courageous.</p>
+
+<p>For in the thickening gloom around us a very murk of murder seemed to
+brood over this dark and threatened land, seeming to grow more sinister
+and more imminent as the fading crimson in the northern heavens paled to
+a sickly hue in the first faint pallor of the coming dawn.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+
+<h3>BURKE'S TAVERN</h3>
+
+
+<p>Now, whether it was the wetting I got on Mayfield Creek and the chill I
+took on the long night's journey to Johnstown, or if my thigh-wound
+became inflamed from that day's exertion at Fish House, Summer House,
+and Mayfield, I do not know for certain.</p>
+
+<p>But when at sunrise we drove up to Jimmy Burke's Tavern in Johnstown, I
+discovered that I could not move my right leg; and, to my mortification,
+Nick and my Indian were forced to make a swinging chair of their linked
+hands, and carry me into the tavern, Penelope following forlornly, her
+arms full of furs and blankets.</p>
+
+<p>Here was a pretty dish! But try as I might I could not set my foot to
+the ground; so they laid me upon a bed and stripped me, and my Saguenay
+wrapped my leg in hot blankets and laid furs over me, till I was wet
+with sweat to the hair.</p>
+
+<p>Presently comes Jimmy Burke himself&mdash;that lively, lovable scamp, to whom
+all were friendly; for he was both kind and gay, though a great
+braggart, and few believed that he had any stomach for the deeds he said
+he meant to do in battle.</p>
+
+<p>"Faith," says he, "it's Misther Drogue, God bless him, an' in a sad
+plight along o' the bloody Sacandaga Tories! Wisha then, sorr, had I
+been there it's me would ha' trimmed the hair o' them!"</p>
+
+<p>"Are you well, Jimmy?" I inquired, smiling, spite my pain.</p>
+
+<p>"Am I well? I am that! I was never fitter f'r to fight thim dirty green
+coats of Sir John's. Och&mdash;the poor lad! Lave me fetch a hot brick&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm lame as a one-legged duck, Jimmy," said I. "Send word to the Fort
+that I've an account to render, and beg the Commandant to overlook my
+tardiness until I can be carried thither on a litter."</p>
+
+<p>"And th' yoong leddy, sorr? Will she bait here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; where is she?"</p>
+
+<p>"She lies on a wolf-skin on the bed in the next chamber, foreninst the
+wall, sorr. There's tears on her purty face, but I think she sleeps, f'r
+all that. Is she hurted, too, Misther Drogue?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no. When she wakes send a maid-servant to care for her. Find a
+loft-bed for my Indian and give him no rum&mdash;mind that, James Burke!&mdash;or
+we quarrel."</p>
+
+<p>"Th' red divil gets no sup in my shabeen!" said he. "Do I lave him gorge
+or no?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. Let him stuff himself. And let no man use him with contempt.
+He is faithful and brave. He is my <i>friend.</i> Do you mark me, Jimmy?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do, sorr. And Nick Stoner&mdash;that long-legged limb of Satan!&mdash;av he
+plays anny thricks on Jimmy Burke may God help him&mdash;the poor little
+scut!&mdash;--"</p>
+
+<p>I had some faint recollection of pranks played upon Burke by Nick in
+this same tavern; but what he had done to Jimmy I did not remember, save
+that it had set Sir William and the town all a-laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Nick is a good lad and my friend," said I. "Use him kindly. Your wit is
+a match for his, anyway, and so are your fists."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it so!" muttered Burke, casting a smouldering side-look at me. "D'ye
+mind what he done three year come Shrove Tuesday? The day I gave out I
+was a better man than Sir William's new blacksmith? Well, then&mdash;av ye
+disremember&mdash;that scut of a Nick shtole me breeches, an' he put them on
+a billy-goat, an' tuk him to the tap-room where was company. An',
+'Here,' says he, 'is a better Irishman than you, Jimmy Burke!&mdash;an' a
+better fighter, too.' An' wid that the damned goat rares up an' butts me
+over; an' up I gets an' he butts me over, an' up an' down I go, an' the
+five wits clean knocked out o' me, an' the company an' Sir William all
+yelling like loons an' laying odds on the goat&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>I lay there convulsed with laughter, remembering now this prank of the
+most mischievous boy I ever knew.</p>
+
+<p>Burke licked his lips grimly at the memory of that ancient wrong.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, he's th' bould wan f'r to come into me house wid the score
+unreckoned an' all that balance agin' him."</p>
+
+<p>"Touch pewter with him and forgive the lad," said I. "These are sterner
+days, Jimmy, and we should cherish no private malice here where we may
+be put to it to stand siege."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it thrue, sor, that the destructives are on the Sacandaga?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is true. Fish House, Summer House, and Fonda's Bush are in
+ashes, Jimmy, and your late friend, Sir John, is at Buck Island with a
+thousand Indians, regulars, and Tories, and like to pay us a call before
+planting time."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my God," says Burke, "the divil take Sir John an' the black heart
+of him av he comes back here to murther his old neighbors! Sorra the day
+we let him scape!&mdash;him an' Alex White, an' Toby Tice an' moody Wally
+Butler,&mdash;an' ould John, an' Indian Claus, an' Black Guy!&mdash;may the divil
+take the whole Tory ruck o' them!&mdash;--"</p>
+
+<p>He checked himself; behind him, through the door, entered a Continental
+Captain; and I sat up in bed to do him courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>As I suspected, here proved to be our Commandant come to learn of me my
+news; and it presently appeared that Nick had run to the jail with an
+account of how I lay here crippled.</p>
+
+<p>Well, the Commandant was a simple, kindly man, whose present anxiety
+made little of military custom. And so he had come instantly to learn my
+news of me; and we talked there alone for an hour.</p>
+
+<p>At his summons a servant fetched paper, ink, pen and sand; and, whilst
+he looked on, I wrote out my report to him.</p>
+
+<p>Also, I made for him a drawing of the Drowned Lands from Fish House to
+Mayfield, marking all roads and paths and trails, and all canoe water,
+carries, and cleared land. For, as Brent-Meester, no man had more
+accurate knowledge of Tryon than had I; and it was all clearly in my
+mind, so that to make a map of it proved no task at all.</p>
+
+<p>I asked him if I was to remain detached and with authority to raise a
+company of rangers&mdash;as had once been given me&mdash;or whether, perhaps, the
+Line lacked commissioned officers, saying that it was all one to me and
+that I wished only to serve where most needed.</p>
+
+<p>He replied that, unless I went to Morgan's corps of Virginia Riflemen,
+concerning which detail he had heard some talk, my full value lay in my
+woodcraft and in my wide, personal knowledge of the wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>"Who better than you, Mr. Drogue, could take a scout to this same Buck
+Island, where Sir John's hordes are gathering? Who better than yourself
+could undertake a swift and secret mission to any point within the
+confines of this vast desolation of mountain, lake, and forest, which
+promises soon to be the theatre of a most bloody struggle?</p>
+
+<p>"Champlain already spews red-coats upon us in the North. Sir John
+threatens in the West. A great army menaces the Highland Forts and
+Albany from the South. And only such officers as you, sir, are
+competent to discover and dog the march of enemy marauders, come to
+touch with their scouts, follow and ambush them, and lead others to
+vital points across an uncharted world of woods when there are raiders
+to check or communications to threaten and cut."</p>
+
+<p>He rose, hooked up his sword, and shook hands with me.</p>
+
+<p>"I have asked Colonel Willett," said he, "to use your talents in this
+manner, and he has very kindly consented. Johnstown will remain your
+base, therefore, and your employment is certain as soon as you are able
+to walk."</p>
+
+<p>I thanked him and said very confidently that I should be rid of all
+lameness and pain within a day or so.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>That night I had a fever; and for pearly four weeks my leg remained
+swollen and red, and the pain was such that I could not bear the weight
+of a linen sheet, and Nick made a frame for my bed-covers, like a tent,
+so that they should not touch me.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Younglove came from the Flatts,&mdash;who was surgeon in General
+Herkimer's brigade of militia&mdash;and he said it was a pernicious
+rheumatism consequent upon the cold wetting I got upon a wound still
+green.</p>
+
+<p>Further, he concluded, there was naught to do save that I must lie on my
+back until my trouble departed of its own accord; but he could not say
+how soon that might me&mdash;whether within a day or two or as many months,
+or more.</p>
+
+<p>He recommended hot blankets and some draughts which they sent me from
+the pharmacy at the Fort, but I think they did me neither good nor evil,
+but were pleasant and spicy and cooled my throat.</p>
+
+<p>So that was now the dog's life I led during the early summer in
+Johnstown,&mdash;a most vexatious and inglorious career, laid by the heels at
+a time when, from three points o' the compass, three separate storms
+were brewing and darkening the heavens, and a tempest more frightful
+than man could conceive was threatening to shatter Tryon, sweep the
+whole Mohawk Valley, and leave Johnstown but a whirl of whitened ashes
+in the evening winds.</p>
+
+<p>We were comfortably established at Burke's Inn, and, as always, baited
+well where food and bed were ever clean and good.</p>
+
+<p>Penelope had the chamber next to mine; Nick slept in the little bedroom
+on my left; and the Saguenay haunted the kitchen, with a perpetual
+appetite never damaged by gorging.</p>
+
+<p>All the news of town and country was fetched me by word o' mouth, by
+penny broadsides, by journals, so that I never wanted for gossip to
+entertain or alarm me.</p>
+
+<p>Town tattle, rumours from West and North, camp news conveyed by
+Coureurs-du-Bois, by runners, by expresses, all this came to my chamber
+where I lay impatient, brought sometimes by Burke, often by Nick, more
+often by Penelope.</p>
+
+<p>She was very kind and patient with me. In the first feverish and
+agonizing days of my illness I had sent for her, and begged her to take
+the first convenient waggon and escort into Albany, where surely Douw
+Fonda would now care for her and the Patroon's household would welcome
+and shelter her until the oncoming storm had passed and her aged charge
+should again return to Caughnawaga.</p>
+
+<p>She would not go, but gave no reason. And, my sickness making me
+peevish, I was often fretful and short with her; and so badgered and
+bullied her that one night, in desperation, she wrote a letter to Douw
+Fonda at my request, offering to go to Albany and care for him if he
+desired it.</p>
+
+<p>But presently there came a polite letter in reply, writ kindly to her by
+the young Patroon himself, who very delicately revealed how it was with
+Mr. Fonda. And it appeared that he had become childish from great age,
+and seemed now to retain no memory of her, and desired not to be cared
+for by anybody&mdash;as he said&mdash;who was a stranger to him.</p>
+
+<p>Which was sad to know concerning so good and wise and gallant an old
+gentleman as had been Mr. Douw Fonda,&mdash;a fine, honourable, educated and
+cultivated man, whose chiefest pleasure was in his books and garden, and
+who never in all his life had uttered an unkind word.</p>
+
+<p>This news, too, was disturbing in another manner; for Mr. Fonda had
+wished, as all knew, to adopt Penelope and make provision for her. And
+now, if his mind had begun to cloud and his memory betray him, no
+provision was likely to be made to support this young girl who was
+utterly alone in the world, and entirely without fortune.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>On an afternoon late in May I was feeling less pain, and could permit
+the covers to rest on me, and was impatient for a dish o' porridge.
+About five o'clock Penelope brought me a bowl of chocolate. When she had
+seated herself near me, she took her sewing from her apron pocket, and
+stitched away busily whilst I drank my sweet, hot brew, and watched her
+over the blue bowl's edge.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you better this afternoon, sir?" she inquired presently, not
+lifting her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>I told her, fretfully, that I was but a lame dog and fit only to be
+knocked on the head by some obliging Tory. "I'm sick o' life," said I,
+"where no one heeds me, and I am left alone all day without food or
+companionship, to play at twiddle-thumb."</p>
+
+<p>At that she looked at me in sweet concern, but, seeing me wear a wry
+grin, smiled too.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor lad," said she, "it is nearly a month you lie there so patiently."</p>
+
+<p>"Not patiently; no! And if I knew more oaths than I think up all day
+long it might ease me to endure more meekly this accursed sickness....
+What is it you sew?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wrist-bands."</p>
+
+<p>"Whose?"</p>
+
+<p>As she offered no reply I supposed that she was making a pair o' bands
+for Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you hear further from Albany?" I inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it is sure that Mr. Fonda has become childish and his memory is
+gone," said I, "because if he comprehended your present situation and
+your necessity he would surely have sent for you long since."</p>
+
+<p>"He always was kind," she said simply.</p>
+
+<p>I lay on my pillows, sipping chocolate and watching her fingers so deft
+with thread and needle. After a long silence I asked her rather bluntly
+why she had not long ago consented to the necessary legal steps offered
+her by Mr. Fonda, which would have secured her always against want.</p>
+
+<p>As she made me no answer, I looked hard at her over my bowl, and saw her
+eyes very faintly glimmering with tears.</p>
+
+<p>"The news of Mr. Fonda's condition has greatly saddened you," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. He was kind to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, then, did you evade his expressed wishes?" I repeated. "He must
+surely have loved you like a father to offer you adoption."</p>
+
+<p>"I could not accept," she said in a low voice, sewing rapidly the while.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I scarcely know. It was because of pride, perhaps.... I was his
+servant. He paid me well. I could not permit him to overpay my poor
+services.... And he has other children, and grandchildren, with whose
+proper claims I would not permit myself&mdash;or him&mdash;to interfere. No, it
+was unthinkable&mdash;however kindly meant&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That," said I impatiently, "smacks of a too Scotch and stubborn
+conscience, does it not, Penelope?"</p>
+
+<p>"Stubborn Scotch pride, I fear. For it is not in my Scottish nature to
+accept benefits for which I never can hope to render service in return."</p>
+
+<p>"Imaginary obligation!" said I scornfully, yet admiring the independence
+which, naked and defenceless, prefers to spin its own raiment rather
+than accept the divided cloak of charity.</p>
+
+<p>And it was plain to me that this girl was no beggar, no passive accepter
+of bounties unearned from anybody. And now I was secretly chagrined and
+ashamed that I had so postured before her as My Lord Bountiful, and had
+offered her the Summer House who had refused a modest fortune from a
+good old man who loved her and who had some excuse and reason to so deal
+by one to whom his bodily comfort had long been beholden.</p>
+
+<p>"Few," said I, "would have put aside so agreeable an opportunity for
+ease and comfort in life. I fear you were foolish, Penelope."</p>
+
+<p>She smiled at me: "There is a family saying, 'A Grant grants but never
+accepts'.... I have youth, health, two arms, two legs, and a pair of
+steady eyes. If these can not keep me alive through the world's journey,
+then I ought to perish and make room for another."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you meditate to keep you?" I asked uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>"For the present," said she, still smiling, "what I am doing is well
+enough to keep me in food and clothes and lodging."</p>
+
+<p>At first I did not understand her, then an odd suspicion seized me; for
+I remembered during the last two weeks, when I lay sick, hearing strange
+voices in her ante-chamber, and strange people coming and going in the
+passageway.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing me perplexed and frowning, she laughed and took the empty bowl
+from my hands, and set it aside. Then she smoothed my pillow.</p>
+
+<p>"I am employed by the garrison," said she, "to work for them with needle
+and shears. I do their mending; I darn, stitch, sew, and alter. I patch
+shirts and under-garments; I also make shirts, and devise officers'
+neck-cloths, stocks, and wrist-bands at request.</p>
+
+<p>"Also, I now employ a half-breed Oneida woman as tailoress; and she
+first measures and then I cut out patterns of coats, breeches,
+rifle-frocks, and watch-coats, which she then takes home and sews, then
+tries on her customers, and finally finishes,&mdash;I sewing on all galons,
+laces, and braids.... And so you see I pay my way, Mr. Drogue, and am in
+no stress for the present at any rate."</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens!" said I amazed, "I never dreamed that you were so
+employed!"</p>
+
+<p>"But I am obliged to eat, John Drogue!"</p>
+
+<p>"I have sufficient for both," I muttered. "I thought it was
+understood&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That I should live on your bounty, my lord?"</p>
+
+<p>"Will you ever have done with lording me?" I said angrily. "I think you
+do it to plague me."</p>
+
+<p>"I ask forgiveness," she murmured, still smiling. "Also, I crave pardon
+for refusing to live on your kind bounty."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not mean it that way!" said I sharply. "Besides, you kept Summer
+House for us, and did all things indoors and most things outdoor; and
+had no pay for the labour&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I had food and a bed. And your protection.... And most excellent
+company," she added, smiling saucily upon me. "You owe me nothing, John
+Drogue. Nor do I mean to owe you,&mdash;or any man,&mdash;more than that proper
+debt of kindness which kindness to me begets."</p>
+
+<p>I lay back on my pillows, not knowing whether to laugh or scowl. That
+Penelope had become a tailoress and sempstress to the garrison did not
+pleasure me at all; and it was as though I had lost some advantage or
+influence over this girl, whose present situation and whose future did
+now considerably begin to concern me.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, what was I to say against this business, or what offer make her
+that her modesty and pride could consider?</p>
+
+<p>It was perfectly clear to me that she never had intended to be obliged
+to me for anything, and never would be. And now her saucy smile and
+gentle mockery confirmed this conclusion and put me out of countenance.</p>
+
+<p>I cast a troubled glance at her from my pillow, where she sat by my bed
+sewing on a pair of wrist-bands for some popinjay of the garrison&mdash;God
+knew who he might be!&mdash;and, as I regarded her, further and further she
+seemed to be slipping out of my influence and out of the care which,
+mentally at least, I had felt it my duty to give to her.</p>
+
+<p>She troubled me. She troubled me deeply. Her independence, her
+sufficiency, her beauty, her sly and pretty mockery of me, all conspired
+to give me a new concern for her, and I had not experienced the like
+since Steve Watts kissed her by the lilacs.</p>
+
+<p>I had seen her in many phases, but never before in this phase, and I
+knew not what face to put on such a disturbing situation.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>For a while I lay there frowning and sulky, and spoke not. She
+tranquilly finished her wrist-bands, went to her chamber, returned with
+a dozen stocks, all cut out and basted, and picked up one to fit a plain
+military frill to it.</p>
+
+<p>From my window, near where my head rested, I saw a gold sunset between
+the maple trees and the roofs across the street. Birds sang their
+evening carols,&mdash;robins on every fence post, orioles in the elms, and
+far away a wood-thrush filled the quiet with his liquid ecstasies.</p>
+
+<p>And suddenly it seemed to me horrible and monstrous that this heavenly
+tranquillity should be shattered by the red blast of war!&mdash;that men
+could actually be planning to devastate this quiet land where already
+the new harvest promised, tender and green; where cattle grazed in
+blossoming meadows; where swallows twittered and fowls clucked; where
+smoke drifted from chimneys and the homely sights and sounds of a
+peaceful town sweetened the evening silence.</p>
+
+<p>Then the thought of my own helplessness went through me like a spear,
+and I groaned,&mdash;not meaning to,&mdash;and turned over on my pillow.... And
+presently felt her hand lightly on my shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it pain?" she asked softly.</p>
+
+<p>"No, only the weariness of life," I muttered.</p>
+
+<p>She was silent, but presently her hand smoothed back my hair, and passed
+in a sort of gentle rhythm across my forehead and my hair.</p>
+
+<p>"If I lie here long enough," said I bitterly, "I may have to beg a crust
+of you. So get you to your sewing and see that you earn enough against a
+beggared cripple's need."</p>
+
+<p>"You mock me," she said in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, no," said I. "If I am to remain crippled my funds will dwindle and
+go, and one day I shall sit in the sun like any poor old soldier, with
+palm lifted for alms&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I beg&mdash;I beg you&mdash;&mdash;" she stammered; and her hand closed on my lips as
+though to stifle the perverse humour.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you offer me charity if I remain crippled?" I managed to say.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush. You sadden me."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you aid me?" I insisted.</p>
+
+<p>She drew a long, deep breath but made no answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me," I repeated, taking her by the hand, "would you aid me,
+Penelope Grant?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you ask?" she protested. "You know I would."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet," said I, "although I am in funds, you refuse aid and choose
+rather to play the tailoress! Is that fair?"</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;I am nothing to you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Are you not? And am I then more to you than are you to me, that you
+would aid me in necessity?"</p>
+
+<p>She drew her hand from mine and went back to her chair.</p>
+
+<p>"That is my fate," said she, smiling at me. "I was born to give, not to
+receive. I can not take; I can not refuse to give."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said I, "you even gave me your lips once."</p>
+
+<p>She blushed vividly, her eyes hard on her sewing.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not do the like again," said she, all rosy to the roots of her
+gold hair.</p>
+
+<p>"And why, pray?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I know better now."</p>
+
+<p>After a silence I turned me on my pillow and sighed heavily.</p>
+
+<p>"John?" she inquired in gentle anxiety, "are you in great pain?"</p>
+
+<p>I groaned.</p>
+
+<p>She came to me again and laid her cool, soft hand on my head; and I
+caught it in both of mine and drew her down to me.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a cripple and a beggar for your kindness, Penelope," I said. "I
+ask alms of you. Will you kiss me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," she exclaimed, "you have deceived me! Let me go! Loose me
+instantly!"</p>
+
+<p>"Will you kiss me out of that charity which you say you practice?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is not charity!&mdash;--"</p>
+
+<p>"What is begged for is charity. And you say you are made to give."</p>
+
+<p>"But you taught me otherwise! And now you undo your own schooling!&mdash;--"</p>
+
+<p>"But I owe it you&mdash;this kiss!"</p>
+
+<p>"How do you owe it me?"</p>
+
+<p>"You kissed me in the snow, and left me in your debt."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, goodness! That frolic! Have you not long ago forgotten our winter
+madness&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Like you," said I, "I must pay my just debts and owe nobody." And I
+drew her nearer, all flushed with protest, firm to escape, yet gentle in
+her supple, pretty way lest she hurt me.</p>
+
+<p>I laughed, and saw my gaiety reflected in her eyes an instant.</p>
+
+<p>Then, of a sudden, she put one arm around my neck and rested her lips on
+mine. And so I kissed her, and she suffered it, resting so against me
+with lowered eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The flower-sweetness of her mouth bewildered me, and I was confused by
+it and by the stifled tumult of my heart, so that I scarce had sense
+enough to detain her when she drew away.</p>
+
+<p>She sat at my side, the faint smile still stamped on her lips, but her
+brown eyes seemed a little frightened, and her breast rose and fell like
+a scared bird's under the snowy kerchief.</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;and well," says she in her pretty, breathless way&mdash;"I am
+overpaid, I think, and you are now acquitted of your debt. And so&mdash;and
+so our folly ends ... and now is finally ended."</p>
+
+<p>She took her sewing. A golden light was in the room; and she seemed to
+me the loveliest thing I had ever looked upon. I realized it. I knew she
+was loveliest of all. And the swift knowledge seemed to choke me.</p>
+
+<p>After a little while she stole a look at me, met my eyes, laughed
+guiltily.</p>
+
+<p>"You!" said she, "a schoolmaster! You teach me one thing and would have
+me practice another. What confidence can I entertain for such wisdom as
+is yours, John Drogue?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rules," said I, "are made to be proven by their more interesting
+exceptions. However, in future you are to endure no kiss and no
+caress&mdash;unless from me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh. Is that the new lesson I am to learn and understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is the lesson. Will you remember it when I am gone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Gone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. When I am gone away on duty. Will you remember, Penelope?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am like to," she said under her breath, and sewing rapidly.</p>
+
+<p>She stitched on in silence for a while; but now the light was dimming
+and she moved nearer the window, which was close by my bed head.</p>
+
+<p>After a while her hands dropped in her lap; she looked out into the
+twilight. I took her tired little hand in mine, but she did not turn her
+head.</p>
+
+<p>"I have," said I, "two thousand pounds sterling at my solicitor's in
+Albany. I wish you to have it if any accident happens to me.... And my
+glebe in Fonda's Bush.... I shall so write it in my will."</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head slightly, still gazing from the window.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you accept?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"What good would it do me? If I accept it I should only divide it among
+the needy&mdash;in memory of&mdash;of my dear boy friend&mdash;Jack Drogue&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She rose hastily and walked to the door, then very slowly retraced her
+steps to my bedside.</p>
+
+<p>"You are so kind to me," she murmured, touching my forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"You are so different to other men,&mdash;so truly gallant in your boy's
+soul. There is no evil in you,&mdash;no ruthlessness. Oh, I know&mdash;I
+know&mdash;more than I seem to know&mdash;of men.... And their importunities....
+And of their wilful selfishness."</p>
+
+<p>I sat up straight. "Has any man made you unhappy?" I demanded in angry
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p>She seated herself and looked at me gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know," she said, "men have courted me always&mdash;even when I was
+scarce more than a child? And mine is a friendly heart, Mr. Drogue. I
+have a half shy desire to please. I am loath to inflict pain. But always
+my kindness seems like to cost me more than I choose to pay."</p>
+
+<p>"Pay to whom?"</p>
+
+<p>"To any man.... For example, I would not elope with Stephen Watts when
+he begged me at Caughnawaga. And Walter Butler addressed me also&mdash;in
+secret&mdash;being a friend of the Fondas and so free of the house.... And
+was ever stealthily importuning me to a stolen rendezvous which I had
+sense enough to refuse, knowing him to be both married and a rake, and
+cruel to women.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I tell you that they all courted me,&mdash;not kindly,&mdash;for ever there
+seemed to me in their ardent gaze and discreet whisperings something
+vaguely sinister. Not that it frightened me, nor did I take alarm, being
+too ignorant&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She folded her hands and looked down at them.</p>
+
+<p>"I like men.... I cared most for Stephen Watts.... Then one day I had a
+great fright.... Shall I tell it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, Sir John's gallantries neither pleased nor flattered me
+from the first. But he was very cautious what he said and did in Douw
+Fonda's house, and never spoke to me save coldly when others were
+present, or when he was alone with us and Mr. Fonda was awake and not
+dozing in his great chair.... Well, there came a day when Mr. Fonda went
+to the house of Captain Fonda, and I was alone in the house....</p>
+
+<p>"And Sir John came.... Shall I tell it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Tell it, Penelope."</p>
+
+<p>"I've had it long in my mind. I wished to ask you if it lessened me in
+your esteem.... For Sir John was drunk, and, finding me alone, he
+conducted roughly&mdash;and followed me and locked us in my chamber.... I was
+horribly afraid.... I had never struck any living being before. But I
+beat his red face with my hands until he became confused and stupid&mdash;and
+there was blood on him and on me.... And my kerchief was torn off and my
+hair all tangled.... I beat him till he dropped my door key, and so
+unlocked my door and returned again to him, silent and flaming, and
+drove him with blows out o' my chamber and out of the house&mdash;all over
+blood as he was, and stupid and drunk.... His negro man got him on his
+horse and rode off, holding him on.</p>
+
+<p>"And none knew&mdash;none know, save Sir John and you and I."</p>
+
+<p>After a silence I said in a controlled voice: "If Sir John comes this
+way I shall hope not to miss him.... I shall pray God not to miss
+this&mdash;gentleman."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think meanly of me that he used me so?"</p>
+
+<p>I did not answer.</p>
+
+<p>"I have told you all," she said timidly. "I am still honest. If I were
+not I would not have let you touch my lips."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"For both our sakes.... I would not do you any evil."</p>
+
+<p>I said impatiently: "No need to tell me you never had a lover. I never
+believed it of you from the day I saw you first. And, God willing, I
+mean to stop a mouth or two in Tryon, war or no war&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"John Drogue!" she exclaimed in consternation&mdash;"you shall seek no
+quarrel on my account! Swear to me!"</p>
+
+<p>But I made no reply. Whatever the quarrel, I knew now it was to be on my
+own account; for whether or no I was falling in love with this girl,
+Penelope Grant, I realized at all events that I would suffer no other
+man to interfere, however he conducted, and should hold any man to stern
+account who would make of this girl a toy and plaything.</p>
+
+<p>And so, all hotly resolved on that point; sore, also, at the knowledge
+of Sir John's baseness which seemed to touch my proper honour; and
+swifter, too, with tenderness in my heart to reassure her, I did exactly
+that for which I was now prepared to cut the throats of various other
+gentlemen&mdash;I drew her into my arms and held her close, body and lips
+imprisoned.</p>
+
+<p>She sought her chair and sat there silent and subdued until a
+maid-servant brought lights and my supper.</p>
+
+<p>In the candle light she ventured to look at me and laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Such schooling" says she. "I never knew before that there was such a
+personage as a sweetheart pro tem! But you seem to know the rôle by
+heart, Mr. Drogue. And so, no doubt, feel warranted to instruct others.
+But this is the end of it, my friend. For one day you shall have to
+confess you to your wife! And I think my future Lady Northesk is like to
+have a pretty temper and will give you a mauvais quart d'heur when she
+hears of this May day's folly in a Johnstown public house!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+
+<h3>ORDERS</h3>
+
+
+<p>In June I was out o' bed and managed to set foot on ground for the first
+time since early spring. By the end of the month I had my strength in a
+measure and was able to hobble about town. Pernicious rheumatism is no
+light matter, for with the agony,&mdash;and weakness afterward,&mdash;a dull
+despair settles upon the victim; and it was mind, not body, that caused
+me the deeper distress, I think.</p>
+
+<p>Life seemed useless; effort hopeless. Dark apprehensions obsessed me; I
+despaired of my country, of my people, of myself. And this all was part
+of my malady, but I did not know it.</p>
+
+<p>All through June and July an oppressive summer heat brooded over Tryon.
+Save for thunder storms of unusual violence, the heat remained unbroken
+day and night. In the hot and blinding blue of heaven, a fierce sun
+blazed; at night the very moon looked sickly with the heat.</p>
+
+<p>Never had I heard so many various voices of the night, nor so noisy a
+tumult after dark, where the hylas trilled an almost deafening chorus
+and the big frogs' stringy croaking never ceased, and a myriad confusion
+of insects chirred and creaked and hummed in the suffocating dark.</p>
+
+<p>At dawn the birds' outburst was like the loud outrush of a torrent
+filling the waking world; at twilight scores of unseen whippoorwills put
+on their shoes<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> and shouted in whistling whisper voices to one
+another across the wastes of night like the False Faces <a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> gathering
+at a secret tryst.</p>
+
+<p>If the whole Northland languished, drooping and drowsy in the heat, the
+very air, too, seemed heavy with the foreboding gloom of dreadful
+rumours.</p>
+
+<p>Every day came ominous tidings from North, from West, from South of
+great forces uniting to march hither and crush us. And the terrible
+imminence of catastrophe, far from arousing and nerving us for the
+desperate event, seemed rather to confuse and daze our people, and
+finally to stupefy all, as though the horror of the immense and hellish
+menace were beyond human comprehension.</p>
+
+<p>Men laboured on the meagre defences of the county as though weighted by
+a nightmare&mdash;as though drowsing awake and not believing in their ghostly
+dream.</p>
+
+<p>And all preparation went slow&mdash;fearfully slow&mdash;and it was like dragging
+a mass of chained men, whose minds had been drugged, to drive the
+militia to the drill ground or force the labourers to the unfinished
+parapets of our few and scattered forts.</p>
+
+<p>Men still talked of the Sacandaga Block House as though there were such
+a refuge; but there was none unless they meant the ruins at Fish House
+or the unburned sheep-fold at Summer House Point, or the Mayfield
+defenses.</p>
+
+<p>There remained only one fort of consequence south of the Lakes&mdash;Fort
+Stanwix, now called Schuyler, and that was far from finished, far from
+properly armed, garrisoned, and provisioned.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever else of defense Tryon County possessed were merest
+makeshifts&mdash;stone farmhouses fortified by ditch, stockade, and bastions;
+block-houses of wood; nothing more.</p>
+
+<p>Fragments of our two regular regiments were ever shifting garrison&mdash;a
+company here, a battalion there. A few rangers kept the field; a
+regiment of Herkimer's militia, from time to time, took its turn at
+duty; a scout or two of irregulars and Oneida Indians haunted the trail
+toward Buck Island&mdash;which some call Deer Island, and others speak of as
+Carleton Island, and others still name it Ile-aux-Chevreuil, which is a
+mistake.</p>
+
+<p>But any name for the damned spot was good enough for me, who had been
+there in years past, and knew how strong it could be made to defy us and
+to send out armed hordes to harass us on the Mohawk.</p>
+
+<p>And at that instant, under Colonel Barry St. Leger, the Western flying
+force of the enemy was being marshalled at Buck Island.</p>
+
+<p>Our scouts brought an account of the forces already there&mdash;detachments
+of the 8th British regulars, the 34th regulars, the regiment of Sir
+John, called the Royal New Yorkers by some, by others the
+Greens&mdash;(though our scouts told us that their new uniforms were to be
+scarlet)&mdash;the Corps of Chasseurs, a regiment of green-coats known as
+Butler's Rangers, a detachment of Royal Artillery, another of
+Highlanders, and, most sinister of all, Brant's Iroquois under
+Thayendanegea himself and a number of young officers of the Indian
+Department, with Colonel Claus to advise them.</p>
+
+<p>This was the flying force that threatened us from the West, directed by
+Burgoyne.</p>
+
+<p>From the South we were menaced by the splendid and powerful British army
+which held New York City, Long Island, and the lower Hudson, and stood
+ready and equipped to march on a straight road right into Albany,
+cleaning up the Hudson, shore and stream, on their way hither.</p>
+
+<p>But our most terrible danger threatened us from the North, where General
+Burgoyne, with a superb army and a half thousand Iroquois savages, had
+been smashing his way toward us through the forests, seizing the lakes
+and the vessels and forts defending them, outman&oelig;uvring our General
+St. Clair; driving him from our fortress of Ticonderoga with loss of all
+stores and baggage; driving Francis out of Skenesborough and Fort Anne,
+and destroying both posts; chasing St. Clair out of Castleton and
+Hubbardton, destroying two-thirds of Warner's army; driving Schuyler's
+undisciplined militia from Fort Edward, toward Saratoga.</p>
+
+<p>Every day brought rumours or positive news of disasters in our immediate
+neighbourhood. We knew that St. Leger, Sir John, Walter Butler, and
+Brant had left Buck Island and that Burgoyne was directing the campaign
+planned for the most hated army that ever invaded the Northland. And we
+learned the horrid details of these movements from Thomas Spencer, the
+Oneida who had just come in from that region, and whose certain account
+of how matters were swiftly coming to a crisis at last seemed to
+galvanize our people into action.</p>
+
+<p>I was now, in August, well enough to take the field with a scout, and I
+applied for active duty and was promised it; but no orders came, and I
+haunted the Johnstown Fort impatiently, certain that every man who rode
+express and who went galloping through the town must bring my marching
+orders.</p>
+
+<p>Precious days succeeded one another; I fretted, fumed, sickened with
+anxiety, deemed myself forgotten or perhaps disdained.</p>
+
+<p>Then I had a shock when General Herkimer, ignoring me, sent for my
+Saguenay, but for what purpose I knew not, only that old Block's
+loud-voiced son-in-law, Colonel Cox, desired a Montagnais tracker.</p>
+
+<p>The Yellow Leaf came to me with the courier, one Barent Westerfelt, who
+had brought presents from Colonel Cox; and I had no discretion in the
+matter, nor would have exercised any if I had.</p>
+
+<p>"Brother," said I, taking him by both hands, "go freely with this
+messenger from General Herkimer; because if you were not sorely needed
+our brother Corlear had not ordered an express to find and fetch you."</p>
+
+<p>He replied that he made nothing of the presents sent him, but desired to
+remain with me. I patiently pointed out to him that I was merely a
+subaltern in the State Rangers and unattached, and that I must await my
+turn of duty like a good soldier, nor feel aggrieved if fortune called
+others first.</p>
+
+<p>Still he seemed reluctant, and would not go, and scowled at the express
+rider and his sack of gew-gaws.</p>
+
+<p>"Brother," said I, "would you shame me who, as you say, found you a wild
+beast and have taught you that you are a real man?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am a man and a warrior," he said quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"Real men and warriors are known by their actions, my younger brother.
+When there is war they shine their hatchets. When the call comes, they
+bound into the war-trail. Brother, the call has come! Hiero!"</p>
+
+<p>The Montagnais straightened his body and threw back his narrow,
+dangerous head.</p>
+
+<p>"Haih!" he said. "I hear my brother's voice coming to me through the
+forests! Very far away beyond the mountains I hear the panther-cry of
+the Mengwe! My axe is bright! I am in my paint. Koué! I go!"</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>He left within the hour; and I had become attached to the wild rover of
+the Saguenay, and missed him the more, perhaps, because of my own sore
+heart which beat so impotently within my idle body.</p>
+
+<p>That Herkimer had taken him disconcerted and discouraged me; but there
+was a more bitter blow in store for a young soldier of no experience in
+discipline or in the slow habit of military procedure; for, judge of my
+wrath when one rainy day in August comes Nick Stoner to me in a new
+uniform of the line, saying that Colonel Livingston's regiment lacked
+musicians, and he had thought it best to transfer and to 'list and not
+let opportunity go a-glimmering.</p>
+
+<p>"My God, Jack," says he, "you can not blame me very well, for my father
+is drafted to the same regiment, and my brother John is a drummer in it.
+It is a marching regiment and certain to fight, for there be three
+Livingstons commanding of it, and who knows what old Herkimer can do
+with his militia, or what the militia themselves can do?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are perfectly right, Nick," said I in a mortified voice. "I am not
+envious; no! only it wounds me to feel I am so utterly forgotten, and my
+application for transfer unnoticed."</p>
+
+<p>Nick took leave of us that night, sobered not at all by the imminence of
+battle, for he danced around my chamber in Burke's Inn, a-playing upon
+his fife and capering so that Penelope was like to suffocate with
+laughter, though inclined to seriousness.</p>
+
+<p>We supped all together in my chamber as we had so often gathered at
+Summer House, but if I were inclined to gloomy brooding, and if Penelope
+seemed concerned at parting with a comrade, Nick permitted no sad
+reflexions to disturb us whom he was leaving behind.</p>
+
+<p>He made us drink a very devilish flip-cup, which he had devised in the
+tap-room below with Jimmy Burke's aid, and which filled our young
+noddles with a gaiety not natural.</p>
+
+<p>He sang and offered toasts, and played on his fife and capered until we
+were breathless with mirth.</p>
+
+<p>Also, he took from his new knapsack a penny broadside,&mdash;witty, but like
+most broadsides of the kind, somewhat broad,&mdash;which he had for
+thrippence of a pedlar, the same being a parody on the Danbury
+Broadside; and this he read aloud to us, bursting with laughter, while
+standing upon his chair at table to recite it:</p>
+
+<p class="center">THE EXPEDITION TO JOHNSTOWN<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p>
+
+<p class="center">(In search of provisions)</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Scene&mdash;New York City<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">(<i>Enter</i> General Sir Wm. Howe and Mrs. &mdash;&mdash;, preceded by
+Fame in cap and bells, flourishing a bladder.)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6"><i>Fame</i> (speaks)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Without wit, without wisdom, half stupid, half drunk,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And rolling along arm-in-arm with his Punk,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Comes gallant Sir William, the warrior (by proxy)<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To harangue his soldiers (held up by his Doxy)!"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6"><i>Sir Wm.</i> (speaks)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"My boys, I'm a-going to send you to Tryon,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To Johnstown, where <i>you'll</i> get as groggy as I am!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">By a Tory from there I have just been informed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That there's nobody there, so the town shall be stormed!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For if nobody's there and nobody near it,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My army shall conquer that town, never fear it!"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">(<i>Enter</i> Joe Gallopaway, a refugee Tory)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6"><i>Joe</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Brave soldiers, go fight that we all may get rich!"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6"><i>Regular Soldiers</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"We'll fetch you a halter, you * * * * !<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Get out! And go live in the woods upon nuts,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or we'll give you our bayonets plump in your guts!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Do you think we are fighting to feed such a crew<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As Butler, Sir John, Mr. Singler and you?"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">(<i>Enter</i> Sir John Johnson)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6"><i>Sir John</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Come on, my brave boys! Now! as bold as a lion!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And march at my heels to the County called Tryon;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My lads, there's no danger, for this you should know,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That I'd let it alone if I thought it was so!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So point all your noses towards the Dominion<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And we'll all live like lords is my honest opinion!"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Scene&mdash;Buck Island Trail<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">(<i>Enter</i> Fame, Sir John, and his Royal Greens)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6"><i>Fame</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"In cunning and canting, deceit and disguise,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In breaking parole by inventing cheap lies,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sir John is a match for the worst of his species,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But in this undertaking he'll soon go to pieces.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He'll fall to the rear, for he'd rather go last,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Crying, 'Forward, my boys! Let me see you all past!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For his Majesty's service (so reads my commission)<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Requires I push forward the whole expedition!"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6"><i>Sir John</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"I care not a louse for the United States,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For General Schuyler or General Gates!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">March forward, my lads, and account for each sinner,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While Butler, St. Leger, and I go to dinner.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For plenty's in Tryon of eating and drinking,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who'd stay in New York to be starving and stinking."<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">March over the Mohawk! March over, march over,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">You'll live like a parcel of hogs in sweet clover!"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Scene&mdash;Outside Fort Stanwix<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">(A council of war. At a distance the new American flag flying above the
+bastions)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6"><i>Sir John</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"I'm sorry I'm here, for I'm horribly scared,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But how did I know that they'd all be prepared?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The fate of our forray looks darker and darker,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The state of our larder grows starker and starker,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I fear that a round-shot or one of their carkers<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">May breech my new breeches like poor Peter Parker's!<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh, say, if my rear is uncovered, what then!&mdash;"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">(<i>Enter</i> Walter Butler in a panic)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6"><i>Butler</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Held! Schuyler is coming with ten thousand men!"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">(A canon shot from the Fort)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4"><i>Sir John</i> (falls flat)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"I'm done! A cannon ball of thirty pound<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Has hit me where Sir Peter got his wound.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I'm done! I'm all undone! So don't unbutt'n'm;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But say adieu for me to Clairette Putnam!"<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">(<i>Enter</i> a swarm of surgeons)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6"><i>Surgeons</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Compose yourself, good sir&mdash;forget your fright;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We promise you you are not slain outright.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The wound you got is not so mortal deep<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But bleeding, cupping, patience, rest, and sleep,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With blisters, clysters, physic, air and diet<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Will set you up again if you'll be quiet!"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6"><i>Sir John</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"So thick, so fast the balls and bullets flew,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Some hit me here, some there, some thro' and thro',<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Beneath my legs a score of hosses fell,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shot under me by twice as many shell;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And though my soldiers falter and beseech,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Forward I strode, defiant to the breech,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And there, as History my valour teaches,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I fell as Cćsar fell, and lost&mdash;my breeches!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His face lay in his toga, in defeat,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So let me hide my face within my seat,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My requiem the rebel cannons roar,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My duty done, my bottom very sore.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tell Willett he may keep his flour and pork,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For I am going back to dear New York."<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">(Exit on a litter to the Rogue's March)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>"If we fight at Stanwix," says Penelope, "God send the business end as
+gaily as your broadside, Nick!"</p>
+
+<p>And so, amid laughter, our last evening together came to an end, and it
+was time to part.</p>
+
+<p>Nick gave Penelope a hearty smack, grinned broadly at me, seized my
+hands and whispered: "What did I tell you of the Scotch girl of
+Caughnawaga, who hath a way with her which is the undoing of all
+innocent young men?"</p>
+
+<p>"Idiot!" said I fiercely, "I am not undone in such a manner!" Like two
+bear-cubs we clutched and wrestled; then he hugged me, laughed, and
+broke away.</p>
+
+<p>"Farewell, comrades," he cried, snatching sack and musket from the
+corner. "If I can not fife the red-coats into hell to the Rogue's March,
+or my brother John drum them there to the Devil's tattoo, then my daddy
+shall persuade 'em thither with musket-music! Three stout Stoners and
+three lanky Livingstons, and all in the same regiment! Hurrah!"</p>
+
+<p>And off and down the tavern stairs he ran, clattering and clanking, and
+shouting out a fond good-bye to Burke, who had forgiven him the goat.</p>
+
+<p>Standing in the candle-light by the window, where a million rainwashed
+stars twinkled in the depthless ocean of the night, I rested my brow
+against the cool, glazed pane, lost in most bitter reflexion.</p>
+
+<p>Penelope had gone to her chamber; behind me the dishevelled table stood,
+bearing the candles and the débris of our last supper; a nosegay of
+bright flowers&mdash;Nick's parting token&mdash;lay on the floor, where they had
+fallen from Penelope's bosom.</p>
+
+<p>After a while I left the window and sat down, taking my head between my
+hands; and I had been sitting so for some time in ugly, sullen mood,
+when a noise caused me to look up.</p>
+
+<p>Penelope stood by the door, her yellow hair about her face and
+shoulders, and still combing of it while her brown eyes regarded me with
+an odd intentness.</p>
+
+<p>"Your light still blazed from your window," she said. "I had some
+misgiving that you sat here brooding all alone."</p>
+
+<p>I felt my face flush, for it had deeply humiliated me that she should
+know how I was offered no employment while others had been called or
+permitted to seek relief from inglorious idleness.</p>
+
+<p>She flung the bright banner of her hair over her right shoulder,
+caressed the thick and shining tresses, and so continued combing, still
+watching me, her head a little on one side.</p>
+
+<p>"All know you to be faithful, diligent and brave," said she. "You should
+not let it chafe your pride because others are called to duty before you
+are summoned. Often it chances that Merit paces the ante-chamber while
+Mediocrity is granted audience. But Opportunity redresses such
+accidents."</p>
+
+<p>"Opportunity," I repeated sneeringly, "&mdash;where is she?&mdash;for I have not
+seen or heard of that soft-footed jade who, they say, comes a-knocking
+once in a life-time; and thereafter knocks at our door no more."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, John Drogue&mdash;John Drogue," said she in her strange and wistful way,
+"you shall hear the clear summons on your door very soon&mdash;all too soon
+for one of us,&mdash;for one of us, John Drogue."</p>
+
+<p>Her brown eyes were on me, unabashed; by touch she was dividing the
+yellow masses of her hair into two equal parts. And now she slowly
+braided each to peg them for the night beneath her ruffled cap.</p>
+
+<p>When she had braided and pegged her hair, she took the night-cap from
+her apron pocket and drew it over her golden head, tying the tabs under
+her chin.</p>
+
+<p>"It is strange," she said with her wistful smile, "that, though the
+world is ending, we needs must waste in sleep a portion of what time
+remains to us.... And so I am for bed, John Drogue.... Lest that same
+tapping-jade come to your door tonight and waken me, also, with her loud
+knocking."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you say so? Have you news?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did I not once foresee a battle in the North? And men in strange
+uniforms?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said I, smiling away the disappointment of a vague and momentary
+hope.</p>
+
+<p>"I think that battle will happen very soon," she said gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"You said that I should be there,&mdash;with that pale shadow in its shroud.
+Very well; only that I be given employment and live to see at least one
+battle, I care not whether I meet my weird in its winding-sheet. Because
+any man of spirit, and not a mouse, had rather meet his end that way
+than sink into dissolution in aged and toothless idleness."</p>
+
+<p>"If you were not a very young and untried soldier," said she, "you would
+not permit impatience to ravage you and sour you as it does. And for me,
+too, it saddens and spoils our last few days together."</p>
+
+<p>"Our last few days? You speak with a certainty&mdash;an authority&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I know the summons is coming very soon."</p>
+
+<p>"If I could but believe in your Scottish second-sight&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Would you be happy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Happy! I should deem myself the most fortunate man on earth!&mdash;if I
+could believe your Scottish prophecy!"</p>
+
+<p>She came nearer, and her eyes seemed depthless dusky in her pale face.</p>
+
+<p>"If that is all you require for happiness, John Drogue," said she in her
+low, still voice, "then you may take your pleasure of it. I tell you I
+<i>know</i>! And we have but few hours left together, you and I."</p>
+
+<p>Spite of common sense and disbelief in superstitions I could not remain
+entirely unconcerned before such perfect sincerity, though that she
+believed in her own strange gift could scarcely convince me.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," said I smilingly, "it may be so. At all events, you cheer me,
+Penelope, and your kindness heartens me.... Forgive my sullen
+temper;&mdash;it is hard for a man to think himself ignored and perhaps
+despised. And my ears ache with listening for that same gentle tapping
+upon my door."</p>
+
+<p>"I hear it now," she said under her breath.</p>
+
+<p>"I hear nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, no! Yet, that soft-footed maid is knocking on your door.... If
+only you had heart to hear."</p>
+
+<p>"One does not hear with one's heart," said I, smiling, and stirred to
+plague her for her mixed metaphor.</p>
+
+<p>"I do," said she, faintly.</p>
+
+<p>After a little silence she turned to go; and I followed, scarce knowing
+why; and took her hand in the doorway.</p>
+
+<p>"Little prophetess," said I, "who promises me what my heart desires,
+will you touch your lips to mine as a pledge that your prophecy shall
+come true?"</p>
+
+<p>She looked back over her shoulder, and remained so, her cheek on her
+right shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Your heart desires a battle, John Drogue; your idle vanity my lips....
+But you may possess them if you will."</p>
+
+<p>"I do love you dearly, Penelope Grant."</p>
+
+<p>She said with a breathless little smile:</p>
+
+<p>"Would you love me better if my prophecy came true this very night?"</p>
+
+<p>But I was troubled at that, and had no mind to sound those unventured
+deeps which, at such moments, I could feel vaguely astir within me. Nor
+yet did I seriously consider what I truly desired of this slender maid
+within the circle of my arms, nor what was to come of such sudden
+encounters with their swift smile and oddly halting breath and the
+heart, surprised, rhyming rapidly and unevenly in a reckless measure
+which pleasured less than it embarrassed.</p>
+
+<p>She loosed her hands and drew away from me, and leaned against the wall,
+not looking toward me.</p>
+
+<p>"I think," she said in a stifled voice, "you are to have your wish this
+night.... Do you hear anything?"</p>
+
+<p>In the intense stillness, straining my ears, I fancied presently that I
+heard a distant sound in the night. But if it had been so it died out,
+and the beat of my heart was louder. Then, of a sudden, I seemed to hear
+it again, and thought it was my pulses startled by sudden hope.</p>
+
+<p>"What is that sound?" I whispered. "Do you hear it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aye."</p>
+
+<p>"I hear it also.... Is it imagination? Is there a horse on the highway?
+Why, I tell you there is!... There <i>is</i>! Do you think he rides express?"</p>
+
+<p>"Out o' the North, my lord," she whispered. And suddenly she turned,
+gave me a blind look, stretched out one hand.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Why</i> do you think that horseman comes for me!" I said. My imagination
+caught fire, flamed, and I stood shivering and crushing her fingers in
+my grasp. "Why&mdash;why&mdash;do you think so?" I stammered. "He's turned into
+William Street! He gallops this way! Damnation! He heads toward the
+Hall!&mdash;No! <i>No!</i> By God, he is in our street, galloping&mdash;galloping&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Like a pistol shot came a far cry in the darkness: "Express-ho! I pass!
+I pass!" The racket of iron-shod hoofs echoed in the street; doors and
+windows flew open; a confusion of voices filled my ears; the rattling
+roar of the hoofs came to a clashing halt.</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy Burke's Tavern!" shouted a hoarse voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye're there, me gay galloper!" came Burke's bantering voice. "An'
+phwat's afther ye that ye ride the night like a banshee? Is it Sir John
+that's chasin' ye crazy, Jock Gallopaway?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah-h," retorted the express, "fetch a drink for me and tell me is there
+a Mr. Drogue lodging here? Hey? Upstairs? Well, wait a minute&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>I still had Penelope's hand in mine as in the grip of a vise, so excited
+was I, when the express came stamping up the stairs in his jack-boots
+and pistols&mdash;a light-horseman of the Albany troop, who seemed smart
+enough in his mud-splashed helmet and uniform.</p>
+
+<p>"You are Mr. Drogue, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am."</p>
+
+<p>He promptly saluted, fished out a letter from his sack and offered it.</p>
+
+<p>In my joy I gave him five shillings in hard money, and then, dragging
+Penelope by the hand, hastened to break the numerous and heavy seals and
+open my letter and read it by the candle's yellow flare.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="right">"Headquarters Northern Dist:<br />
+Dept: of Tryon County.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
+Albany, N. Y.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
+August 1st, 1777.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Confidential</i></p>
+
+<p>"To John Drogue, Esq<sup>r</sup>,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Lieut: Rangers.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;Sir,</p>
+
+
+<p>"An Oneida runner arrived today, who gives an account that Gen<sup>l</sup>
+St. Leger, with the corps of Sir John Johnson and Colonel John
+Butler, including a thousand savages under Joseph Brant, has been
+detached from the army of Gen<sup>l</sup> Burgoyne, and is marching on Fort
+Schuyler.</p>
+
+<p>"You are directed to take the field instantly with a scout of
+Oneida Indians, who await you at a rendezvous marked upon the
+secret map which I enclose herewith.</p>
+
+<p>"You will cross the Buck Island trail somewhere between Rocky River
+and the Mohawk, and observe St. Leger's line of communications,
+cutting off such small posts as prove not too strong, taking
+prisoners if possible, and ascertaining St. Leger's ultimate
+objective, which may be Johnstown or even Schenectady.</p>
+
+<p>"Having satisfied yourself concerning these matters, you will send
+your despatch by a runner to Albany, and instantly move your
+detachment toward Saratoga, where you should come into touch with
+our Northern forces under General Gates, and there render a verbal
+report to General Gates in person.</p>
+
+<p>"You are strictly cautioned to destroy this letter after reading,
+and to maintain absolute secrecy concerning its contents. The map
+you may retain, but if you are taken you should endeavour to
+destroy it.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, I have the honour to be, etc., etc.,</p>
+
+<p class="right">"Ph. Schuyler,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
+"Maj: Gen'l."
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Twice I read the letter before I twisted it to a torch and burned it in
+the candle flame.</p>
+
+<p>Then I called out to the express: "Say to the personage who sent you
+hither that his letter is destroyed, and his orders shall be instantly
+obeyed. Burke has fresh horses for those who ride express."</p>
+
+<p>Off downstairs he went in his jack-boots, equipments jingling and
+clanking, and I unfolded my map but scarce could hold it steady in my
+excitement.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately I perceived that I did not need the map to find the
+rendezvous, for, as Brent-Meester, I had known that wilderness as
+perfectly as I knew the streets in Johnstown.</p>
+
+<p>So I made another torch of the map, laughing under my breath to think
+that Sir William's late forest warden should require such an article.</p>
+
+<p>All this time, too, I had forgotten Penelope; and turned, now, and saw
+her watching me, slim and motionless and white as snow.</p>
+
+<p>When her eyes met mine she strove to smile, asking me whether indeed she
+had not proven a true prophetess.</p>
+
+<p>As she spoke, suddenly a great fear possessed me concerning her; and I
+stood staring at her in a terrible perplexity.</p>
+
+<p>For now there seemed to be nothing for it but to leave her here, the
+Schenectady road already being unsafe, or so considered by Schuyler
+until more certain information could be obtained.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you leave tonight?" she asked calmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, immediately."</p>
+
+<p>She cast a glance at my rifle standing in the corner, and at my pack,
+which I had always ready in the event of such sudden summons.</p>
+
+<p>Now I went over to the corner where my baggage lay, lifted the pack and
+strapped it; put on powder horn, bullet pouch, and sack, slung my knife
+and my light war-hatchet, and took my cap and rifle.</p>
+
+<p>The moment of parting was here. It scared and confused me, so swiftly
+had it come upon us.</p>
+
+<p>As I went toward her she turned and walked to the door, and leaned
+against the frame awaiting me.</p>
+
+<p>"If trouble comes," I muttered, "the fort is strong.... But I wish to
+God you were in Albany."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall do well enough here.... Will you come again to Johnstown?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye, John Drogue."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you care for Kaya?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And if I do not return you are to have all with which I die possessed.
+I have written it."</p>
+
+<p>"In that event I keep only my memory of you. The rest I offer to the
+needy&mdash;in your name."</p>
+
+<p>Her voice was steady, and her hand, too, where it lay passive in mine.
+But it crisped and caught my fingers convulsively when I kissed her; and
+crept up along my fringed sleeve to my shoulder-cape, and grasped the
+green thrums.</p>
+
+<p>And now her arm lay tightly around my neck, and I looked down into the
+whitest face I ever had gazed upon.</p>
+
+<p>"I love you dearly," I said, "and am deep in love.... I want you,
+Penelope Grant."</p>
+
+<p>"I want you," she said.</p>
+
+<p>My heart was suffocating me:</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we exchange vows?" I managed to say.</p>
+
+<p>"What vows, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Such as engage our honour. I want you to wife, Penelope Grant."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear lad! What are you saying? You should travel widely and at leisure
+before you commit your honour to an unconsidered vow. I desire that you
+first see great cities, other countries, other women&mdash;of your own
+caste.... And then ... if you return ... and are still of the same
+mind ... concerning me...."</p>
+
+<p>"But <i>you</i>? There are other men in the world. And I must have your vows
+before I go!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if it be only mine you desire, then I promise you, John Drogue, to
+look at no man with kindness in your absence, think of no man excepting
+you, pray for none save only His Excellency and General Schuyler, dream
+of none, God willing, but you. And to remain in deed and thought and
+word and conduct constant and faithful to you alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said I, trembling, "I also promise&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No!"</p>
+
+<p>"But I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait! For God's sake mind what you say; for I will not have it that
+your honour should ever summon you hither and not your heart! No! Let be
+as it is."</p>
+
+<p>Her sudden warmth and the quick flush of determination on her face
+checked and silenced me.</p>
+
+<p>She said very coolly: "Any person of sense must know that a marriage is
+unsuitable between a servant to Douw Fonda and John Murray Drogue
+<i>Forbes</i>, Laird of Northesk, and a Stormont to boot!"</p>
+
+<p>"Where got you that <i>Forbes</i>?" I demanded, astonished and angry.</p>
+
+<p>She laughed. "Because I know the clan, <i>my lord</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know?" I repeated, astounded.</p>
+
+<p>"Because it is my own clan and name. Drogue-Forbes, Grant-Forbes!&mdash;a
+claymore or a pair of scissors can snip the link when some Glencoe or
+Culloden of adversity scatters families to the four winds and seven
+seas.... Well, sir, as the saying is in Northesk, 'a Drogue stops at
+nothing but a Forbes. And a Grant is as stubborn.' Did you ever hear
+that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes.... And <i>you</i> are a Forbes of Northesk?"</p>
+
+<p>"Like yourself, sir, we <i>stop before a liaison</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Her rapier wit confused and amazed me; her sudden revelation of our
+kinship confounded me.</p>
+
+<p>"Good God," said I, "why have you never told me this, Penelope?"</p>
+
+<p>She shook her yellow head defiantly: "A would na," quoth she, her chin
+hanging down, but the brown eyes of her watching me. "And it was a
+servant-maid you asked to wife you, and none other either.... D'ye ken
+that, you Stormont lad? It was me&mdash;me!&mdash;who may wear the <i>Beadlaidh</i>,
+too!&mdash;me who can cry '<i>Lonach! Lonach! Creag Ealachaidh!</i>' with as stout
+a heart and clean a pride as you, Ian Drogue, Laird o' Northesk!&mdash;laird
+o' my soul and heart&mdash;my lord&mdash;my dear, dear lord&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She flung her arms across her face and burst into a fit of weeping; and
+as I caught her in my arms she leaned so on my breast, sobbing out her
+happiness and fears and pride and love, and her gratitude to God that I
+should have loved her for herself in the body of a maid-servant, and
+that I had bespoken her fairly where in all the land no man had offered
+more than that which she might take from him out of his left hand.</p>
+
+<p>So, for a long while, we stood there together, clasped breast to breast,
+dumb with tenderness and mazed in the spell of first young love.</p>
+
+<p>I stammered my vows, and she now opposed me nothing, only clinging to me
+the closer, confident, submissive, acquiescent in all I wished and asked
+and said.</p>
+
+<p>There were ink, paper, a quill, and sand in her chamber. We went
+thither, and I wrote out drafts upon Schenectady, and composed letters
+of assurance and recognition, which would be useful to her in case of
+necessity.</p>
+
+<p>I got Jimmy Burke out o' bed and shewed him all I had writ, and made him
+witness our signatures and engaged him to appear if necessary.</p>
+
+<p>These papers and money drafts, together with Penelope's papers and
+letters she had of Douw Fonda and of the Patroon, were sufficient to
+establish her with the new will I made and had witnessed at the fort a
+week before.</p>
+
+<p>And so, at midnight, in her little chamber at Burke's Inn, I parted from
+Penelope Grant,&mdash;dropped to my knee and kissed her feet, who had been
+servant to the county gentry and courted by the county quality, but had
+been mistress of none in all the world excepting only of herself.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>When I was ready she handed me my rifle, buckled up my shoulder sack,
+smoothed my fringed cape with steady hands, walked with me to her
+chamber door.</p>
+
+<p>Her face rested an instant against mine, but there were no tears, no
+trembling, only the swift passion of her lips; and then&mdash;"God be with
+you, John Drogue!" And so, with gay courage, closed her chamber door.</p>
+
+<p>I turned and stumbled out along the corridor, carrying my rifle and
+feeling my way to the hand-rail, down the creaking stairway, and out
+into the starry night.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2>
+
+<h3>FIRE-FLIES</h3>
+
+
+<p>That night I lay on my blanket in the forest, but slept only three
+hours, and was awake in the gates of morning before the sun rose, ready
+to move on to the Wood of Brakabeen, our rendezvous in Schoharie.</p>
+
+<p>Never shall I forget that August day so crowded with events.</p>
+
+<p>And first in the yellow flare of sun-up, on the edge of a pasture where
+acres of dew sparkled, I saw a young girl milking; and went to her to
+beg a cup of new milk.</p>
+
+<p>But she was very offish until she learned to what party I belonged, and
+then gave me a dipper full of sweet milk.</p>
+
+<p>When I had satisfied my thirst, she took me by the hand and drew me into
+a grove of pines where none could observe us. And here she told me her
+name, which was Angelica Vrooman, and warned me not to travel through
+Schoharie by any highway.</p>
+
+<p>For, said she, the district was all smouldering with disloyalty, and the
+Tories growing more defiant day by day with news of Sir John's advance
+and McDonald also on the way from the southward to burn the place and
+murder all.</p>
+
+<p>"My God, sir," says she, in a very passion of horror and resentment, "I
+know not how we, in Schoharie, shall contrive, for Herkimer has called
+out our regiment and they march this morning to their rendezvous with
+the Palatine Regiment.</p>
+
+<p>"What are we to do, sir? The Middle Fort alone is defensible; the Upper
+and Lower Forts are still a-building, and sodders still at labour, and
+neither ditch nor palisade begun."</p>
+
+<p>"You have your exempts," said I, troubled, "and your rangers."</p>
+
+<p>"Our exempts work on the forts; our rangers are few and scattered, and
+Colonel Harper knows not where to turn for a runner or a rifleman!</p>
+
+<p>"General Schuyler has writ to my father and says how he desires General
+Ten Broeck to order out the whole of the militia, only that he fears
+that they will behave like the Schenectady and Schoharie militia have
+done and that very few will march unless provision is made for their
+families' security.</p>
+
+<p>"A man rides express today to the garrison in the Highlands to pray for
+two hundred Continentals. Which is only just, as we are exposed to
+McDonald and Sir John, and have already sent most of our men to the
+Continental Line, and have left only our regiment, which marches today,
+and the remainder all disaffected and plotting treason."</p>
+
+<p>"Plotting treason? What do you mean, child?" I demanded anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, sir, Captain Mann and his company refuse to march. He declares
+himself a friend to King George, has barricaded Brick House,<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> is
+collecting Indians and Tories, and swears he will join McDonald's
+outlaws and destroy us unless we lay down our arms and accept royal
+protection."</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;why the filthy dog!" I stammered, "I have never heard the like of
+such treason!"</p>
+
+<p>"Can you help us, sir?" she asked earnestly.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall endeavour to do so," said I, red with wrath.</p>
+
+<p>"Our people have planned to seize and barricade Stone House," said she.
+"My father rides express to Albany. Why, sir, so put to it are we that
+Henry Hager, an aged exempt of over seventy years, is scouting for our
+party. Is our situation not pitiful?"</p>
+
+<p>"Have all the young men gone? Have you no brothers to defend this
+house?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir.... I have a lover.... He is Lieutenant Wirt, of the Albany
+Light Horse. But he has writ to my father that he can not leave his
+cavalry to help us."</p>
+
+<p>It was sad enough; and I promised the girl I would do what I could; and
+so left her, continuing on along the fences in the shadow of the woods.</p>
+
+<p>It was not long afterward when I heard military music in the distance.
+And now, from a hill, I saw long files of muskets shining in the early
+sun.</p>
+
+<p>It was the Canajoharie Regiment marching with fife, drum, and bugle-horn
+to join Herkimer; and so near they passed at the foot of the low hill
+where I stood that I could see and recognize their mounted officers; and
+saw, riding with them, Spencer, the Oneida interpreter, splendidly
+horsed; and Colonel Cox, old George Klock's smart son-in-law, who, when
+Brant asked him if he were not related to that thieving villain of the
+Moonlight Survey, replied: "Yes, I am, but what is that to you, you
+s&mdash;- of an Indian!"</p>
+
+<p>I saw and recognized Colonels Vrooman and Zielie, Majors Becker and
+Eckerson, and Larry Schoolcraft, the regimental adjutant; and, sitting
+upon their transport waggon, Dirck Larraway, Storm Becker, Jost Bouck of
+Clavarack, and Barent Bergen of Kinderhook.</p>
+
+<p>So, in the morning sunshine, marched the 15th N. Y. Militia, carrying in
+its ranks the flower of the district's manhood and the principal
+defenders of the Schoharie Valley.</p>
+
+<p>Very soberly I turned away into the woods.</p>
+
+<p>For it was a strange and moving and dreadful sight I had beheld, knowing
+personally almost every man who was marching there toward the British
+fire, and aware that practically every soldier in those sturdy ranks had
+a brother, or father, or son, or relative of some description in the
+ranks of the opposing party.</p>
+
+<p>Here, indeed, were the seeds of horror that civil war sprouts! For I
+think that only the Hager family, and perhaps the Beckers, were all
+mustered in our own service. But there were Tory Vroomans, Swarts, Van
+Dycks, Eckersons, Van Slycks&mdash;aye, even Tory Herkimer, too, which most
+furiously saddened our brave old General Honikol.</p>
+
+<p>Well, I took to the forest as I say, but it was so thick and the
+travelling so wearisome, that I bore again to the left, and presently
+came out along the clearings and pasture fences.</p>
+
+<p>Venturing now to travel the highway for a little way, and being stopped
+by nobody, I became more confident; and when I saw a woman washing
+clothes by the Schoharie Creek, I did not trouble to avoid her, but
+strode on.</p>
+
+<p>She heard me coming, and looked up over her shoulder; and I saw she was
+a notorious slattern of the Valley, whose name, I think, was Staats, but
+who was commonly known as Rya's Pup.</p>
+
+<p>"Aha!" says she, clearing the unkempt hair from her ratty face. "What is
+Forbes o' Culloden doing in Schoharie? Sure," says she, "there must be
+blood to sniff in the wind when a Northesk bloodhound comes here
+a-nosing northward!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Madame Staats," said I calmly, "you appear to know more about
+Culloden than do I myself. Did that great loon, McDonald, tell you all
+these old-wives' tales?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ho-ho!" says she, her two hands on her hips, a-kneeling there by the
+water's edge, "the McDonalds should know blood, too, when they smell
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"You seem to be friends with that outlaw. And do you know where he now
+is?" I asked carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>"If I do," says the slut, with an oath, "it is my own affair and none
+of the Forbes or Drogues or such kittle-cattle either;&mdash;mark that, my
+young cockerel, and journey about your business!"</p>
+
+<p>"You are not very civil, Madame Staats."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you damned rebel," says she, "would you teach me manners?"</p>
+
+<p>"God forbid, madam," said I, smiling. "I'd wear gray hairs ere you
+learned your a-b-c."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll wear no hair at all when McDonald is done with you," she cries,
+and bursts into laughter so shocking that I go on, shivering and sad to
+see in any woman such unkindness.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>About noon I saw Lawyer's Tavern; and from the fences north of the house
+I secretly observed it for a long while before venturing thither.</p>
+
+<p>John Lawyer, whatever his political complexion, welcomed me kindly and
+gave me dinner.</p>
+
+<p>I asked news, and he gave an account that Brick House was now but a
+barracks full of Tories and Schoharie Indians, led by Sethen and Little
+David or Ogeyonda, a runner, who now took British money and wore scarlet
+paint.</p>
+
+<p>"We in this valley know not what to do," said he, "nor dare, indeed, do
+aught save take protection from the stronger party, as it chances to be
+at the moment, and thank God we still wear our proper hair."</p>
+
+<p>And, try as I might, I could not determine to which party he truly
+belonged, so wary was mine host and so fearful of committing himself.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The sun hung low when I came to the Wood of Brakabeen; and saw the tall
+forest oaks, their tops all rosy in the sunset, and the great green
+pines wearing their gilded spires against the evening sky.</p>
+
+<p>Dusk fell as I traversed the wood, where, deep within, a cool and ferny
+glade runs east and west, and a small and icy stream flows through the
+nodding grasses of the swale, setting the wet green things and
+spray-drenched blossoms quivering along its banks.</p>
+
+<p>And here, suddenly, in the purple dusk, three Indians rose up and barred
+my way. And I saw, with joy, my three Oneidas, Tahioni the Wolf, Kwiyeh
+the Screech-owl, Hanatoh the Water-snake, all shaven, oiled, and in
+their paint; and all wearing the Tortoise and The Little Red Foot.</p>
+
+<p>So deeply the encounter affected me that I could scarce speak as I
+pressed their extended hands, one after another, and felt their eager,
+caressing touch on my arms and shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Brother," they said, "we are happy to be chosen for the scout under
+your command. We are contented to have you with us again.</p>
+
+<p>"We were told by the Saguenay, who passed here on his way to the Little
+Falls, that you had recovered of your hurts, but we are glad to see for
+ourselves that this is so, and that our elder brother is strong and well
+and fit once more for the battle-trail!"</p>
+
+<p>I told them I was indeed recovered, and never felt better than at that
+moment. I inquired warmly concerning each, and how fortune had treated
+them. I listened to their accounts of stealthy scouting, of ambushes in
+silent places, of death-duels amid the eternal dusk of shaggy forests,
+where sunlight never penetrated the matted roof of boughs.</p>
+
+<p>They shewed me their scalps, their scars, their equipment, accoutrement,
+finery. They related what news was to be had of the enemy, saying that
+Stanwix was already invested by small advance parties of Mohawks under
+forester officers; that trees had been felled across Wood Creek; that
+the commands of Gansevoort and Willett occupied the fort on which
+soldiers still worked to sod the parapets.</p>
+
+<p>Of McDonald, however, they knew nothing, and nothing concerning
+Burgoyne, but they had brazenly attended the Iroquois Federal Council,
+when their nation was summoned there, and saw their great men, Spencer
+and Skenandoa treated with cold indifference when the attitude of the
+Oneida nation was made clear to the Indian Department and the Six
+Nations.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, brother," said Tahioni sadly, "our sachems covered themselves in
+their blankets, and Skenandoa led them from the last Onondaga fire that
+ever shall burn in North America."</p>
+
+<p>"And we young warriors followed," added Kwiyeh, "and we walked in
+silence, our hands resting on our hatchets."</p>
+
+<p>"The Long House is breaking in two," said the Water-snake. "In the
+middle it is sinking down. It sags already over Oneida Lake. The serpent
+that lives there shall see it settling down through the deep water to
+lie in ruins upon the magic sands forever."</p>
+
+<p>After a decent silence Tahioni patted the Little Red Foot sewed on the
+breast of my hunting shirt.</p>
+
+<p>"If we all are to perish," he said proudly, "they shall respect our
+scalps and our memory. Haih! Oneida! We young men salute our dying
+nation."</p>
+
+<p>I lifted my hatchet in silence, then slowly sheathed it.</p>
+
+<p>"Is our Little Maid of Askalege well?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Thiohero is well. The River-reed makes magic yonder in the swale," said
+Tahioni seriously.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Thiohero here?" I exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>Her brother smiled: "She is a girl-warrior as well as our Oneida
+prophetess. Skenandoa respects and consults her. Spencer, who worships
+your white God and is still humble before Tharon, has said that my
+sister is quite a witch. All Oneidas know her to be a sorceress. She can
+make a pair of old moccasins jump about when she drums."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is she now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yonder in the glade dancing with the fire-flies."</p>
+
+<p>I walked forward in the luminous dusk, surrounded by my Oneidas. And, of
+a sudden, in the swale ahead I saw sparks whirling up in clouds, but
+perceived no fire.</p>
+
+<p>"Fire-flies," whispered Tahioni.</p>
+
+<p>And now, in the centre of the turbulent whirl of living sparks, I saw a
+slim and supple shape, like a boy warrior stripped for war, and dancing
+there all alone amid the gold and myriad greenish dots of light eddying
+above the swale grass.</p>
+
+<p>Swaying, twisting, graceful as a thread of smoke, the little sorceress
+danced in a perfect whirlwind of fire-flies, which made an incandescent
+cloud enveloping her.</p>
+
+<p>And I heard her singing in a low, clear voice the song that timed the
+rhythm of her naked limbs and her painted body, from which the cinctured
+wampum-broidered sporran flew like a shower of jewels:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Wood o' Brakabeen,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hiahya!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Leaves, flowers, grasses green,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dancing where you lean<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Above the stream unseen,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hiahya!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dance, little fireflies,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like shooting stars in winter skies;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dance, little fireflies,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As the Oneida Dancers whirl,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where silver clouds unfurl,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Revealing a dark Heaven<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And Sisters Seven.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hiahya! Wood o' Brakabeen!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hiahya! Grasses green!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">You shall tell me what they mean<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who ride hither,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who 'bide thither,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who creep unseen<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In red coats and in green;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who come this way,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who come to slay!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hiahya! my fireflies!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tell me all you know<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">About the foe!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where hath he hidden?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whither hath he ridden?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where are the Maquas in their paint,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who have forgotten their Girl-Sainte?<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hiahya!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I am The River-Reed!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hiahya!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All things take heed!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Naked, without drum or mask<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I do my magic task.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Fireflies, tell me what I ask!..."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"He-he!" chuckled The Water-snake, "Thiohero is quite a witch!"</p>
+
+<p>We seated ourselves. If the Little Maid of Askalege, whirling in her
+dance, perceived us through her veil of living phosphorescence, she made
+no sign.</p>
+
+<p>And it was a long time before she stood still, swayed outward, reeled
+across the grass, and fell face down among the ferns.</p>
+
+<p>As I sprang to my feet Tahioni caught my arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Remain very silent and still, my elder brother," he said gravely.</p>
+
+<p>For a full hour, I think, the girl lay motionless among the ferns. The
+cloud of fire-flies had vanished. Rarely one sparkled distantly now, far
+away in the glade.</p>
+
+<p>The delay, in the darkness, seemed interminable before the girl stirred,
+raised her head, slowly sat upright.</p>
+
+<p>Then she lifted one slim arm and called softly to me:</p>
+
+<p>"Nai, my Captain!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nai, Thiohero!" I answered.</p>
+
+<p>She came creeping through the herbage and gathered herself cross-legged
+beside me. I took her hands warmly, and released them; and she caressed
+my arms and face with velvet touch.</p>
+
+<p>"It is happiness to see you, my Captain," she said softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Nai! Was I not right when I foretold your hurt at the fight near the
+Drowned Lands?"</p>
+
+<p>"Truly," said I, "you are a sorceress; and I am deeply grateful to you
+for your care of me when I lay wounded by Howell's house."</p>
+
+<p>"I hear you. I listen attentively. I am glad," she said. "And I continue
+to listen for your voice, my Captain."</p>
+
+<p>"Then&mdash;have you talked secretly with the fire-flies?" I asked gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"I have talked with them."</p>
+
+<p>"And have they told you anything, little sister?"</p>
+
+<p>"The fire-flies say that many green-coats and Maquas have gone to
+Stanwix," she replied seriously, "and that other green-coats,&mdash;who now
+wear <i>red</i> coats,&mdash;are following from Oswego."</p>
+
+<p>I nodded: "Sir John's Yorkers," I said to Tahioni.</p>
+
+<p>"Also," she said, "there are with them men in <i>strange uniforms</i>, which
+are not American, not British."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" I exclaimed, startled in spite of myself.</p>
+
+<p>"Strange men in strange dress," she murmured, "who speak neither English
+nor French nor Iroquois nor Algonquin."</p>
+
+<p>Then, all in an instant, it came to me what she meant&mdash;what Penelope had
+meant.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean the Chasseurs from Buck Island," said I, "the Hessians!"</p>
+
+<p>But she did not know, only that they wore gray and green clothing and
+were tall, ruddy men&mdash;taller for the odd caps they wore, and their long
+legs buttoned in black to the hips.</p>
+
+<p>"Hessians," I repeated. "Hainault riflemen hired out to the King of
+England by their greedy and contemptible German master and by that great
+ass, George Third, shipped hither to stir in us Americans a hatred for
+himself that never shall be extinguished!"</p>
+
+<p>"Are their scalps well haired?" inquired Tahioni anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed a ludicrous thing to say, and I was put to it to stifle my
+sudden mirth.</p>
+
+<p>"They wear pig-tails in eel-skins, and stiffened with pomade that stinks
+from New York to Albany," said I.</p>
+
+<p>Then my mood sobered again; and I thought of Penelope's vision and
+wondered whether I was truly fated to meet my end in combat with these
+dogs of Germans.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The Screech-owl had made a fire. Also, before my arrival he had killed
+an August doe, and a haunch was now a-roasting and filling my nostrils
+with a pleasant odour.</p>
+
+<p>We spread our blankets and ate our parched corn, watching our meat
+cooking.</p>
+
+<p>"And McDonald?" I inquired of Thiohero, who sat close to me and rested
+her head on my shoulder while eating her parched com.</p>
+
+<p>"My fire-flies tell me," said she gravely, "that the outlaws travel this
+way, and shall hang on the Schoharie in ambush."</p>
+
+<p>"When?"</p>
+
+<p>"When there is a battle near Stanwix."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh. Shall McDonald come to Brakabeen?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>I gazed absently at the fire, slowly chewing my parched corn.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>OYANEH!</h3>
+
+
+<p>The problem which I must now solve staggered me. How was it possible,
+with my little scout of five, to discover McDonald's approach and also
+find Sir John's line of communication and penetrate his purpose?</p>
+
+<p>On a leaf of my <i>carnet</i> I made a map which was shaped like an immense
+right-angle triangle, its apex Fort Stanwix in the west; its base
+Schoharie Creek; the Mohawk River its perpendicular; its hypothenuse my
+bee's-flight to Oneida.</p>
+
+<p>The only certain information I possessed was that Sir John and St. Leger
+had sailed from Buck Island to Oswego, and from there were marching
+somewhere. I guessed, of course, that they were approaching the Mohawk
+by way of Oneida Lake; yet, even so, they might have detached McDonald's
+outlaws and sent them to Otsego; or they might be coming upon us in full
+force from that same direction, with flanking war parties flung out
+toward Stanwix to aid their strategy.</p>
+
+<p>One thing, however, seemed almost certain, and that was the direction
+their waggons must take from Oneida Lake; for I did not think Sir John
+would attempt Otsego in any force after his tragic dose of a pathless
+wilderness the year before.</p>
+
+<p>I saw very plainly, however, that I must now give up any attempt to
+scout for McDonald's painted demons on the Schoharie until I had
+discovered Sir John's objective and traced his line of communications.
+And I realized that I must now move quickly.</p>
+
+<p>There were only two logical methods left open to me to accomplish this
+hazardous business with my handful of scouts. The easier way was
+instantly to face about, secure two good canoes at Schoharie, make
+directly for the Mohawk River, and follow it westward by water day and
+night.</p>
+
+<p>But the surer way to run across Sir John's trail&mdash;and perhaps
+McDonald's&mdash;was to take to the western forests, follow the hypothenuse
+of the great triangle, and, travelling lightly and swiftly northwest,
+headed straight for Oneida Lake.</p>
+
+<p>This was what, finally, I decided to attempt as I lay on my blanket
+that night; and I was loath to leave the Schoharie and ashamed to turn
+tail to McDonald's ragamuffins, when the entire district was in so great
+distress, and Brakabeen farms a rat's nest of disloyal families.</p>
+
+<p>But there seemed to be no other way to conduct if I obeyed my orders,
+too;&mdash;no better method of discovering McDonald and of devising
+punishment for him, even though in the meanwhile he should carry fire
+and sword through Schoharie,&mdash;perhaps menace Schenectady,&mdash;perhaps
+Albany itself.</p>
+
+<p>No, there was no other choice; and finally I realized this, after a
+night passed in agonized indecision, and asking God's guidance to aid my
+inexperience in this so terrible a crisis.</p>
+
+<p>At dawn my Indians began to paint.</p>
+
+<p>After we had eaten a bowl of samp I called them around me, shewed them
+the map I had made in my <i>carnet</i>, told them what I had decided, and
+invited opinions from everybody. I added that there now was no time for
+any customary formalities of deliberation so dear to all Indians: I told
+them that Tharon and God were one; and that our ancestors understood and
+approved what we were about to do.</p>
+
+<p>Then I laid a handful of dry sticks upon the ground, pretended that this
+was a fire; warmed my hands at it; lighted an imaginary pipe; puffed it
+and passed it around in pantomime.</p>
+
+<p>Still employing symbols to reassure these young Oneida warriors
+concerning time-honoured formalities which they dared not disregard, I
+drew a circle in the air with my finger, cut it twice with an imaginary
+horizontal line to indicate a sunrise and a sunset, then turned to
+Tahioni and bade him answer my speech of <i>yesterday</i> after a <i>night's
+deliberation</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The young warrior replied gravely that he and his comrades had
+consulted, and were of one mind with me. He said that it was with sorrow
+that they turned their backs on McDonald, who was a great villain and
+who surely would now be coming to Schoharie to murder and destroy; but
+that <i>it did no good to sever the tail of a snake</i>. He said that the
+fanged head of the Tory Serpent was somewhere east of Oneida Lake; that
+if we scouted swiftly and thoroughly in that direction we could very
+soon surmise where the poisonous head was about to strike, by
+discovering and then observing the direction in which the body of the
+serpent was travelling.</p>
+
+<p>One by one I asked my young men for an opinion: the youthful warriors
+were unanimous.</p>
+
+<p>Then I turned and gazed fearfully at Thiohero, knowing well enough that
+these other adolescents would obey her blindly, and in dread lest her
+own dreams should sway her judgment and counsel her to advise us to some
+folly. She was their prophetess; there was nothing to do without her
+sanction. I could not order these Oneidas; I could only attempt to use
+them through their own instincts and personal loyalty to myself.</p>
+
+<p>The early sun gilded the painted body of their sorceress, making of her
+clan ensign and the Little Red Foot two brilliant and jewelled symbols.</p>
+
+<p>She stood lithely upright, one smooth knee nestling to the other, her
+feet in their ankle moccasins planted parallel and close together, and
+her body all glistening like a gold dragon-fly.</p>
+
+<p>From her painted cincture hung her war-sporran,&mdash;a narrow cascade of
+pale blue wampum barred with scarlet and lined with winter weasel.
+Hatchet and knife swung from either hip; powder-horn and bullet-wallet
+dangled beneath her arm-pits. A war bow and a quiver full of scarlet
+arrows hung at her back. Her hair, shoulder-short and glossy-thick, was
+bound above the brows by a tight scarlet circlet. From this, across her
+left ear, sagged a heron's feather.</p>
+
+<p>Never had I beheld such wild and supple grace in any living thing save
+only in a young panther clothed in the soft, dun-gold of her wedding
+fur.</p>
+
+<p>"Thiohero," I said, "little sister to whom has been given an instinct
+more delicate than ours, and senses more subtle, and a wisdom both human
+and superhuman,&mdash;you who listen when the forest trees talk one to
+another under the full moon's lustre,&mdash;you who understand the speech of
+our lesser comrades that fly through the air paths on bright wings, or
+run through the dusky woodlands on four furry feet&mdash;you who speak
+secretly with the mighty dead; who whisper and laugh with fairies and
+little people and stone-throwers; who with your magic drum can make
+worn-out and cast-off moccasins dance; whose ancestress ate live coals
+to frighten away the Flying Heads; whose forefathers destroyed the
+Stonish Giants; <i>we Oneidas of the clan of the Little Red Foot</i> are now
+of one mind concerning the war-trail we ought to take and follow to the
+end!</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Little sister</i>; we desire to know your opinion. <i>Hiero!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Then the Little Maid of Askalege folded her arms, looking me intently in
+the eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Brother</i>, and my Captain," she said very quietly, "a year ago I told
+you that you should come from Howell's house <i>in scarlet</i>. And it was
+so.</p>
+
+<p>"And while you lay at Summer House a Caughnawaga woman, with yellow
+hair, washed the scarlet from your body.</p>
+
+<p>"And there came a day when, we met under apple-trees in green
+fruit&mdash;this Yellow Haired woman and I. And, stopping, we confronted each
+the other; and looked deeply into one another's minds.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Brother</i>: when I discovered that Yellow Hair was in love with you I
+became angry. But when I discovered that this young woman also <i>was a
+sorceress</i>, then I became afraid.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Brother</i>: there was a vision in her mind, and I also beheld the scene
+she gazed at.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Brother</i>: we saw a battle in the North, and men in strange uniforms,
+and cannon smoke. And we <i>both</i> were looking upon <i>you</i>; and upon a
+shape near you, which stood wrapped to the head in white garments.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Brother</i>: I do not know what that shape may have been which stood
+robed in white like a Chief of the Eight Plumed Ones.</p>
+
+<p>"But at that moment we both understood&mdash;the Yellow Haired one and
+I&mdash;that you must surely travel to this place we gazed at.</p>
+
+<p>"So it makes no difference where you decide to go; all trails lead to
+that appointed place; and you shall surely come there at the hour
+appointed, though you travel the world over and across before you shall
+at last arrive.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Brother</i>: we Oneida, of the Allied Clan of the Little Red Foot, are
+now of one mind with our elder brother. He is our chief and Captain. He
+has spoken as an Oneida to Oneidas. We understand. We thank him for his
+love offered. We thank him for his kinship offered. We accept; and, in
+our turn, we offer to our elder brother and Captain our love and our
+kinship. We take him among us as an Oneida.</p>
+
+<p>"At this our fire&mdash;for alas! no fire shall burn again at Onondaga, nor
+at Oneida Lake, nor at The Wood's Edge, nor at Thendara&mdash;I, Thiohero,
+Sorceress of Askalege, and <i>Oyaneh</i>, salute an Oneida chief and Sachem.
+Hail Royaneh!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hai! Royaneh!" shouted the young warriors in rising excitement.</p>
+
+<p>The girl come to me slowly, stooped and tore from the ground a strand of
+club-moss. Then, straightening up, she lifted her arms and held the
+chaplet of moss over my head,&mdash;symbol of the chief's antlers.</p>
+
+<p>"O nen ti eh o ya nen ton tah ya qua wen ne ken...."</p>
+
+<p>Her young voice faltered, broke:</p>
+
+<p>"Tah o nen sah gon yan nen tah ah tah o nen ti ton tah ken yahtas!" she
+added in a strangled voice: "Now I have finished. Now show me the
+<i>man</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"He is here!" cried the excited Oneidas. "He wears the antlers!"</p>
+
+<p>Tahioni stretched out his hand; it was trembling when he touched the red
+foot sewed on my hunting shirt.</p>
+
+<p>"What is his name, O Thiohero, whom you have raised up among the Oneida?
+Who mourn a great man dead?"</p>
+
+<p>A deep silence fell among them; for what their prophetess had done meant
+that she must have knowledge that a great man and chief among the Oneida
+lay dead somewhere at that very moment.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly the girl turned her head from one to another; a veiled look
+drowned her gaze; the young men were quivering in the imminence of a
+revelation based upon knowledge which could be explained only by
+sorcery.</p>
+
+<p>Then the Little Maid of Askalege took a dry stick from the pretended
+fire, crumbled it, touched her lips with the powder in sign of personal
+and intimate mourning.</p>
+
+<p>"Spencer, Interpreter and Oneida Chief, shall die this week in battle,"
+she said in a dull voice.</p>
+
+<p>A murmur of horror and rage, instantly checked and suppressed, left the
+Oneidas staring at their prophetess.</p>
+
+<p>"Therefore," she whispered, "I acquaint you that we have chosen this
+young man to take his place; we lift the antlers; we give him the same
+name,&mdash;Hahyion!"<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p>
+
+<p>"Haih! Hahyion!" shouted the Oneidas with up-flung hands.</p>
+
+<p>I was dumb. I could not speak. I dared not ask this girl why and by what
+knowledge she presumed to predict the death of Spencer, and to raise me
+up in his place and give me the same name.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of me her magic made me shudder.</p>
+
+<p>But now that I was truly an Oneida, and in absolute authority, I must
+act quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, then," said I in a shaky voice, "we People of the Rock must march
+on the Gates of Sunset. If my fate lies there, why then I am due to die
+in that place!... Make ready, Oneidas!"</p>
+
+<p>The Screech-owl found a hollow under a windfall; and here we hurriedly
+hid our heavier baggage.</p>
+
+<p>Then, when all had completed painting the Little Red Foot on their
+bellies, I stepped swiftly ahead of them and turned northwest.</p>
+
+<p>"March," I said in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>We travelled as the honey-bee flies, and as rapidly while the going was
+good en route; but to cover this great triangle of forests we were
+obliged to use the tactics of hunting wolves and, from some given point,
+circle the surrounding country, in hopes of cutting the hidden British
+trail we sought.</p>
+
+<p>This delayed us; but it was the only way. And, like trained hunting
+dogs, we even quartered and cut up the wilderness, halting and
+encircling Cherry Valley on the second day out, because I knew how
+familiar was Walter Butler with that region and with the people who
+inhabited it, and suspected that he might be likely to lead his first
+attack over ground he knew so well.</p>
+
+<p>Ah, God!&mdash;had I known then what all the world knows now! And I erred
+only in guessing at the time of Cherry Valley's martyrdom, not in
+estimating the ferocious purpose of young Walter Butler.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>On the afternoon of our second day out from Schoharie, while we were
+still beating up the bush of the Cherry Valley district, I left my
+Indians and went alone down into the pretty settlement in quest of
+information and also to renew our scanty stock of provisions. I found
+the lovely place almost deserted, save for a few old men of the exempts
+working on a sort of fort around Colonel Clyde's house, and a few women
+and children who had not yet gone off to Schenectady or Albany.</p>
+
+<p>I stopped at the house of the Wells family. John Wells, the father of my
+friend Bob, had been one of the Judges of the Tryon County courts,
+sitting on the bench with old John Butler, who now was invading us, with
+Sir John, in arms.</p>
+
+<p>Bob was away on military duty, but there were in the house his mother,
+his wife, his four little children, his brother Jack, and Janet, his
+engaging sister whom I had admired so often at the Hall, and who was
+beloved like a daughter by Sir William.</p>
+
+<p>I shall never forget the amazement of these delightful and kindly people
+when I appeared at their door in Cherry Valley, nor their affectionate
+hospitality when they learned my purpose and my errand.</p>
+
+<p>A sack of provisions was immediately provided me; their kindness and
+courtesy seemed inexhaustible, although even now the shadow of terror
+lay over Cherry Valley. Their young men under Colonels Clyde and
+Campbell had gone to join Herkimer; they were utterly destitute of
+defense against McDonald or Sir John if Schoharie were invaded, or if
+Stanwix fell, or if Herkimer gave way before St. Leger.</p>
+
+<p>They asked news of me very calmly, and I told them all I had learned and
+something of the sinister rumours which now were current in the Mohawk
+and Schoharie Valleys.</p>
+
+<p>They, in their turn, knew nothing positive of Sir John, but had heard
+that he was marching on Stanwix with St. Leger and Brant, and that a
+thousand savages were with them.</p>
+
+<p>My sojourn at the Wells house was brief; the family was evidently very
+anxious but not gloomy; even the children smiled courageously when I
+made my adieux; and my dear little friend, Janet, led me by the hand to
+the edge of the brush-field, through which I must travel to regain the
+forest, and kissed me at our parting.</p>
+
+<p>On the wood's edge, I paused and looked back at the place called Cherry
+Valley, lying so peacefully in the sunshine, where in the fields grain
+already was turning golden green; and fat cattle grazed their pastures;
+and wisps of smoke drifted from every chimney.</p>
+
+<p>That is my memory of Cherry Valley in the sunny tranquillity of late
+afternoon, where tasseled corn like ranks of plumed Indians, covered
+vale and hillock; and clover and English grass grew green again after
+the first haying; and on some orchard trees the summer apples glimmered
+rosy ripe or lush gold among the leaves;&mdash;ah, God!&mdash;if I could have
+known what another year was to bring to Cherry Valley!</p>
+
+<p>There was no sound in the still settlement except a dull and distant
+stirring made by the workmen sodding parapets on the new and unfinished
+fort.</p>
+
+<p>From where I stood I could see the Wells house, and the little children
+at play in the dooryard; and Peter Smith, a servant, drawing water, who
+one day was to see his master's family in their blood.</p>
+
+<p>I could make out Colonel Campbell's house, too, and the chimney of
+Colonel Clyde's house; and had a far glimpse of the residence of the
+Reverend Mr. Dunlop, the aged minister of Cherry Valley.</p>
+
+<p>From a gilded weather-cock I was able to guess about where Captain
+M'Kean should reside; and Mr. Mitchell's barn I discovered, also. But
+M'Kean and his rangers must now be marching with Herkimer's five
+regiments to meet the hordes of St. Leger.</p>
+
+<p>The sun sank blood-red behind the unbroken forests, and the sky over
+Cherry Valley seemed to be all afire as I turned away and entered the
+twilight of the woods, lugging my sack of provisions on my back.</p>
+
+<p>That night my Indians and I lay within rifle-shot of the Mohawk River;
+and at dawn we made a crow-flight of it toward Oneida Lake; and found
+not a trace of Sir John or of anybody in that trackless wilderness; and
+so camped at last, exhausted and discouraged.</p>
+
+<p>On the fourth day, toward sunset, the Screech-owl, roaming far out on
+our western flank, returned with news of a dead and stinking fire in the
+woods, and fish heads rotting in it; and he thought the last ember burnt
+out some four days since.</p>
+
+<p>He took us to it in the dark, and his was a better woodcraft than I
+could boast, who had been Brent-Meester, too. At dawn we examined the
+ashes, but discovered nothing; and we were eating our parched corn and
+discussing the matter of the fire when, very far away in the west, a
+shot sounded; and in that same second we were on our feet and listening
+like damned men for the last trumpet.</p>
+
+<p>My heart made a deadened rataplan like a muffled drum, and seemed to
+deafen me, so terribly intent was I.</p>
+
+<p>Tahioni stretched out like a panther sunning on a log; and laid his ear
+flat against the earth. Seconds grew to minutes; nobody stirred; no
+other sound came from the westward.</p>
+
+<p>Presently I turned and signalled in silence; my Indians crawled
+noiselessly to their allotted intervals, extending our line north and
+south; then, trailing my rifle, I stole forward through an open forest,
+beneath the ancient and enormous trees of which no underbrush grew in
+the eternal twilight.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing stirred. There were no animals here, no birds, no living
+creature that I could hear or see,&mdash;not even an insect.</p>
+
+<p>Under our tread the mat of moist dead leaves gave back no sound; the
+silence in this dim place was absolute.</p>
+
+<p>We had been creeping forward for more than an hour, I think, before I
+discovered the first sign of man in that spectral region.</p>
+
+<p>I was breasting a small hillock set with tall walnut trees, in hopes of
+obtaining a better view ahead, and had just reached the crest, and,
+lying flat, was lifting my head for a cautious survey, when my eye
+caught a long, wide streak of sunlight ahead.</p>
+
+<p>My Indians, too, had seen this tell-tale evidence which indicated either
+a stream or a road. But we all knew it was a road. We could see the
+sunshine dappling it; and we crawled toward it, belly dragging, like
+tree-cats stalking a dappled fawn.</p>
+
+<p>Scarce had we come near enough to observe this road plainly, and the
+crushed ferns and swale grasses in the new waggon ruts, when we heard
+horses coming at a great distance.</p>
+
+<p>Down we drop, each to a tree, and lie with levelled pieces, while slop!
+thud! clink! come the horses, nearer, nearer; and, to my astonishment
+and perplexity, from the <i>east</i>, and travelling the wrong way.</p>
+
+<p>I cautioned my Oneidas fiercely against firing unless I so signalled
+them; we lay waiting in an excitement well nigh unendurable, while
+nearer and nearer came the leisurely sound of the advancing horses.</p>
+
+<p>And now we saw them!&mdash;three red-coat dragoons riding very carelessly
+westward on this wide, well-trodden road which now I knew must lead to
+Oneida Lake.</p>
+
+<p>I could see the British horsemen plainly. The day was hot; the sun beat
+down on their red jackets and helmets; they sat their saddles wearily;
+their faces were wet with perspiration, and they had loosened jacket and
+neck-cloth, and their pistols were in holster, and their guns slung upon
+their backs.</p>
+
+<p>It was plain that these troopers had no thought of precaution nor
+entertained any apprehension of danger on this road, which must lie in
+the rear of their army, and must also be their route of communication
+between the Lake and the Mohawk.</p>
+
+<p>Slap, slop, clink! they trampled past us where my Oneidas lay a-tremble
+like crouched cats to see the rats escaping on their runway.</p>
+
+<p>But my ears had caught another sound,&mdash;the distant noise of wheels; and
+I guessed that this was a waggon which the three horsemen should have
+escorted, but, feeling entirely secure, had let their horses take their
+own gait, and so had straggled on far ahead of the convoy with which
+they should have kept in touch.</p>
+
+<p>The waggon was far away. It approached slowly. Already the horsemen had
+ridden clear out o' sight; and we crept to the edge of the road and lay
+flat in the weeds, waiting, listening.</p>
+
+<p>Twice the approaching vehicle halted as though to rest the horses; the
+dragoons must have been a long way ahead by this time, for it was some
+minutes since the sound of their horses' hoofs had died away in the
+woods.</p>
+
+<p>And now, near and ever nearer, creeps the waggon; and now it seems close
+at hand; and now we see it far away down the road, slowly moving toward
+us.</p>
+
+<p>But it is no baggage-wain,&mdash;no transport cart that approaches us. The
+two horses are caparisoned in bright harness; the driver wears a red
+waistcoat and is a negro, and powdered. The vehicle is a private coach
+which lurches, though driven cautiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Good God!" said I, "that is Sir John's family coach! Tahioni, hold
+your Oneidas! For I mean to find out who rides so carelessly to Oneida
+Lake, confiding too much in the army which has passed this way!"</p>
+
+<p>Slowly, slowly the coach drew near our ambush. I recognized Colas as the
+coachman <i>pro tem</i>; I knew the horses and the family coach; saw the
+Johnson arms emblazoned on the panels as I rose from the roadside weeds.</p>
+
+<p>"Colas!" I said quietly.</p>
+
+<p>The negro pulled in his horses and sat staring at me, astounded.</p>
+
+<p>I walked leisurely past the horses to the window of the coach. And
+there, seated, I saw Polly Johnson and Claudia Swift.</p>
+
+<p>There ensued a terrible silence and they gazed upon me as though they
+were looking upon a dead man.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack Drogue!" whispered Claudia, "how&mdash;how come you here?"</p>
+
+<p>I bowed, my cap in my hand, but could not utter a word.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack! Jack, are&mdash;are you alone?" faltered Lady Johnson. "Good heavens,
+what does this mean, I beg of you?&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Where are your people, Polly?" I asked in a dead voice.</p>
+
+<p>"My&mdash;my people? Do you mean my husband?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean him.... And his troops. Where are they at this moment?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you not know that the army is before Stanwix?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know it now," said I gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Mercy on us, Jack!" cried Claudia, finding her voice shrilly; "will you
+not tell us how it is that we meet you here on the Oneida road and close
+to our own army?"</p>
+
+<p>I shook my head: "No, Claudia, I shall not tell you. But I must ask you
+how you came here and whither you now are bound. And you must answer."</p>
+
+<p>They gazed at my sombre face with an intentness and anxiety that made me
+sadder than ever I was in all my life.</p>
+
+<p>Then, without a word, Lady Johnson laid aside the silken flap of her red
+foot-mantle. And there my shocked eyes beheld a new born baby nursing at
+her breast.</p>
+
+<p>"We accompanied my husband from Buck Island to Oswego," she said
+tremulously. "And, as the way was deemed so utterly secure, we took boat
+at Oneida Lake and brought our horses.... And now are returning&mdash;never
+dreaming of danger from&mdash;from your people&mdash;Jack."</p>
+
+<p>I stared at the child; I stared at her.</p>
+
+<p>"In God's name," I said, "get forward then, and hail your horsemen
+escort. Say to them that the road is dangerous! Take to your batteau
+and get you to Oswego as soon as may be. And I strictly enjoin you, come
+not this way again, for there is now no safety in Tryon for man or woman
+or child, nor like to be while red-coat or green remains within this
+new-born nation!</p>
+
+<p>"And you, Claudia, say to Sir Frederick Haldimand that he has lighted in
+Tryon a flame that shall utterly consume him though he hide behind the
+ramparts of Quebec itself! Say that to him!"</p>
+
+<p>Then I stepped back and bade Colas drive on as fast as he dare. And when
+he cracked his long whip, I stood uncovered and looked upon the woman I
+once had loved, and upon the other woman who had been my childhood
+playmate; and saw her child at her breast, and her pale face bowed above
+it.</p>
+
+<p>And so out of my life passed these two women forever, without any word
+or sign save for the white faces of them and the deadly fear in their
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>I stood there in the Oneida Road, watching their coach rolling and
+swaying until it was out of view, and even the noise of it had utterly
+died away.</p>
+
+<p>Then I walked slowly back to the wood's edge; in silence my Oneidas rose
+from the weeds and stood around me where I halted, the sleeve of my
+buckskin shirt across my eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Then, when I was ready, I turned and went forward, swiftly, in a
+southeasterly direction; and heard their padded footsteps falling
+lightly at my heels as I Hastened toward the Mohawk, a miserable, sad,
+yet angry man.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>All that long, hot day we travelled; and in the afternoon black clouds
+hid the sun, and presently a most furious thunder storm burst on us in
+the woods, so that we were obliged to shelter us under the hemlocks and
+lie there while rain roared and lightning blinded, and deafening thunder
+shook the ground we lay on.</p>
+
+<p>It was over in an hour. The forest dripped and steamed as we unwrapped
+our rifles and started on.</p>
+
+<p>Twice, it seemed to me, far to the east I heard a duller, vaguer noise
+of thunder; and my Indians also noticed it.</p>
+
+<p>Later, with the sky all blue above, it came again&mdash;dull, distant shocks
+with no rolling echo trailing after.</p>
+
+<p>Tahioni came to me, and I saw in his uneasy eyes what I also now
+divined. For to the bravest Indian the sound of cannon is a terror and
+an abomination. And I now had become very sure that it was cannon we
+heard; for Stanwix lay far across the wilderness in that direction, and
+the heavy, lifeless, and superheated air might carry the solemn sound
+from a great distance.</p>
+
+<p>But I said nothing, not choosing to share my conclusions with these
+young warriors who, though they had taken scalps at Big Eddy, were yet
+scarcely tried in war.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>That night we lay near an old trail which I knew ran to Otsego and
+passed by Colonel Croghan's new house.</p>
+
+<p>And on this trail, early the following morning, we encountered two men
+whom my Indians, instead of taking as they should have done, instantly
+shot down. Which betrayed their inexperience in war; and I rated them
+roundly.</p>
+
+<p>The two dead men were <i>blue-eyed</i> Indians in all the horror of their
+shameful paint and forest dress.</p>
+
+<p>I knew one of them, for when Tahioni washed their lifeless visages and
+laid them on their backs, there, to my hot indignation, I beheld young
+Thomas Hare, brother to Lieutenant Henry Hare and to Captain James Hare,
+of the Indian Service.</p>
+
+<p>Horror-stricken, bitterly mortified, I gazed down at the dead features
+of these two renegades who had betrayed their own race and colour; and
+my Indians, watching me, understood when I turned and spat upon the
+ground; and so they scalped both&mdash;which otherwise they had not dared in
+my presence.</p>
+
+<p>We found on them every evidence that they were serving as a scout for
+McDonald. Probably when we encountered them they had been on their way
+to Sir John at Stanwix with verbal intelligence. But now it was idle to
+surmise what they might have been able to tell us.</p>
+
+<p>We found upon their bodies no papers to shew where McDonald might be
+lurking; and so, as I would not trouble to bury the carrion, my Oneidas
+despoiled them, hid their weapons, pouched their money and ammunition,
+and left them lying on the trail for their more respectable relatives,
+the wolves, to devour.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Now, on the Otsego trail, which was but a vile one and nigh impassable
+with undergrowth, we beat toward the Mohawk like circling hounds cast
+out and at fault to find a scent.</p>
+
+<p>And at evening of that day, the seventh of August, I saw a man in the
+woods, and, watching, ordered my Indians to surround him and bring him
+in alive.</p>
+
+<p>Judge, then, of my chagrin when presently comes walking up, and arm in
+arm with my Oneidas, one Daniel Wemple in his militia regimentals, a
+Torloch farmer whom I knew.</p>
+
+<p>"Great God, John!" says he, "what are you doing here with your tame
+panthers and a pair o' raw scalps that smell white in my nostrils?"</p>
+
+<p>I told him, and asked in turn for news.</p>
+
+<p>"You know nothing?" he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, Dan, only that we heard cannon to the eastward yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," says he, "there has been a bloody fight at Oriska, John; and
+Tryon must mourn her sons.</p>
+
+<p>"For our fine regiments marched into an ambuscade on our way to drive
+Sir John from Stanwix, which he had invested. Colonel Cox is dead, and
+Majors Eisinlord and Klepsattle and Van Slyck. Colonel Paris is taken,
+and our brigade surgeon, Younglove, and Captain Martin of the batteaux
+service. John Frey, Major of brigade, is missing, and so is Colonel
+Bellinger. Scarce an inferior officer but is slain or taken; our dead
+soldiers are carted off by waggon-loads; our wounded lie in their
+alder-litters. And among them our general,&mdash;old Honikol Herkimer!&mdash;and I
+myself saw that brave Oneida die&mdash;our interpreter, Spencer&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>A cry escaped me, instantly checked as I looked at Thiohero. The girl
+came and rested her arm on my left shoulder and gazed steadily at the
+militia man.</p>
+
+<p>He passed his hand wearily through his hair: "Only one regiment ran," he
+said dully. "I shall not name it to you because it was not entirely
+their fault; and afterward they lost heavily and fought bravely. But
+this is a dreadful blow to Tryon, John Drogue."</p>
+
+<p>"We were routed, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. We drove them from the field pell mell! We cut Brant's savages to
+pieces. We went at Sir John's Greens with our bayonets and tore the guts
+out of them! We put the fear o' God into Butler's green-coats, too, and
+there'll be caterwauling in Canada when the news is carried, for I saw
+young Stephen Watts<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> dead in his blood, and Hare running off with a
+broken arm a-flapping and he a-screaming like a singed wildcat&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Steve Watts! Dead!"</p>
+
+<p>"I saw him. I saw one of our soldiers take his watch from his body. God!
+What a shambles was there at Oriska!"</p>
+
+<p>But I was thinking of young Stevie Watts, Polly Johnson's brother, and
+my one-time friend, lying dead in his blood. And I thought of his
+boyish passion for Penelope. And her kindness for him. And remembered
+how last I had seen him.... And now he lay dead; and I had seen his
+sister but a few hours ago&mdash;seen her for the last time I should ever
+behold her.</p>
+
+<p>I drew a breath like a deep and painful sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"And the Fort?" I asked in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Stanwix holds fast, John Drogue. Willett is there, and Gansevoort with
+the 3rd New York of the Line."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you news of McDonald, Dan?"</p>
+
+<p>"None."</p>
+
+<p>"Whither do you travel express?"</p>
+
+<p>"To Johnstown with the news if I can get there."</p>
+
+<p>I warned him concerning conditions in Schoharie. We shook hands, and I
+watched the brave militia man stride away through the forest all alone.</p>
+
+<p>When we camped that night, Thiohero touched her brow and breasts with
+ashes from our fire. That was her formal symbol of mourning for Spencer.
+Later we all should mourn him in due ceremony.</p>
+
+<p>Then she came and lay down close against me and rested her child's face
+on my hollow'd arm. And so slept all night long, trembling in her
+dreams.</p>
+
+<p>I know not how it chanced that I erred in my scouting and lost
+direction, but on the tenth day of August my Indians and I came out into
+a grassy place where trees grew thinly.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing I saw was an Indian, hanging by the heels from a tree,
+and lashed there with the traces from a harness.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time one of my Oneidas discovered a white man lying with his
+feet in a pool of water. But when Tahioni drew the cocked hat from his
+head to see his countenance, hair and skin stuck to it, and a most
+horrid smell filled the woods.</p>
+
+<p>And now, everywhere, we beheld evidences of the Oriska combat, for here
+lay a soldier's empty knapsack, and yonder a ragged shirt, and there a
+rusting tin cup, and here a boot all bloody and slit to the toe.</p>
+
+<p>And now, looking about me, I suddenly comprehended that we were nearer
+to Stanwix Fort than to Oriska; and had no business any nearer to either
+place.</p>
+
+<p>We now were in a most perilous region and must proceed with every
+caution, for in this forest Brant's Iroquois must be roaming everywhere
+in the rear of the troops which had invested Stanwix.</p>
+
+<p>My Oneidas understood this without explanation from me; and they and I
+also became further alarmed when, to our astonishment, we came upon a
+broad road running through a forest where I swear no road had existed a
+twelve-month past.</p>
+
+<p>Where this road led, and from whence, neither my Oneidas nor I knew. It
+was a raw and new road, yet it had been heavily travelled both ways by
+horse, foot, and waggons. It seemed to have as many windings as the
+Kennyetto at Fonda's Bush; and I saw it had been builded to run clear of
+hills and swampy land, as though made for a traffic heavier than a log
+road might easily sustain.</p>
+
+<p>We left the road but scouted eastward along its edge, I desiring to
+learn more of it; for it seemed to bear toward Wood Creek; and if there
+were enemy batteaux to be seen I wished to count them.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Thiohero touched my arm,&mdash;caught my sleeve convulsively.</p>
+
+<p>"Hahyion&mdash;Royaneh&mdash;my elder brother&mdash;O my white Captain!" she stammered,
+clinging to me in her excitement, "here is the <i>place</i>! Here is the
+place I saw in my vision! Here I saw strange uniforms and cannon
+smoke&mdash;and a strange white shape&mdash;and you&mdash;O Hahyion&mdash;my Captain!&mdash;--"</p>
+
+<p>I looked around me, suddenly chilled and shivering in spite of the heat
+of a summer afternoon. But I perceived nobody except my Oneidas. We were
+on a long, sparsely-wooded hillock where juniper spread waist high.
+Below I could see the new road curving sharply to the eastward. But
+nobody moved down there; there was not a sound to be heard, not a
+movement in the forest. All around us was still as death.</p>
+
+<p>Something about the abrupt bend in the empty road below me attracted my
+attention. I examined it intently for a while, then, cautioning my
+Indians, I ventured to move forward and around the south slope of the
+hillock, wading waist-deep in juniper, in order to get a look at what
+might lie behind the bend in this road of mystery.</p>
+
+<p>The road appeared to end abruptly just around the curve, as though it
+had been opened only so far and then abandoned. This first amazed me and
+then alarmed me, because I knew it could not be so as I had seen on the
+roadbed evidences of recent and heavy travel.</p>
+
+<p>I stood peering down at it where it seemed to stop short against the
+green and tangled barrier of the woods which blocked it like a living
+abattis&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>God! It <i>was</i> an abattis!&mdash;a mask!</p>
+
+<p>As I realized this I saw a man in a strange, outlandish uniform run out
+from the green and living barrier, look up at me where I stood in the
+juniper, shout out something <i>in German</i>, and stand pointing up at me
+while a score of soldiers, all in this same outlandish uniform, swarmed
+out upon the road and started running toward where I stood.</p>
+
+<p>Then I came to my senses, clapped my rifle to my cheek and fired,
+stopping one of these strange soldiers and curing him of his running
+habits forever.</p>
+
+<p>To me arrived swiftly my Oneidas, and dropped in the juniper, kneeling
+and firing upon the soldiers below. Two among them fell down flat on the
+road, and then the others turned and fled straight into their green
+barrier of branches. From there they fired at us wildly, keeping up a
+strange, hoarse shouting.</p>
+
+<p>"Hessian chasseurs!" I exclaimed. "These troops can be no other than the
+filthy Germans hired by King George to come here and cut our throats!"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Those men wear the uniform I saw in my vision of this place!</i>"
+whispered Thiohero, quietly reloading her rifle. "I think that this is
+truly your battle, my Captain."</p>
+
+<p>Then, as her prophecy of cannon came into my mind, there was a blinding
+flash from that green barrier below; a vast cloud blotted it from view;
+the pine beside which I stood shivered as though thunder-smitten; and
+the entire top of it crashed down upon us, burying us all in lashing,
+writhing branches.</p>
+
+<p>So stunned and stupefied was I that I lay for an instant without motion,
+my ears still deafened by that clap of thunder.</p>
+
+<p>But now I floundered to my feet amid the pine-top's débris; around me
+rose my terrified Oneidas, nearly paralyzed with fright.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," said I, "we should pull foot ere they blow us into pieces with
+their damned artillery. Thiohero, where are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I come, Royaneh!"</p>
+
+<p>"Tahioni! Kwiyeh! Hanatoh!" I called anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>Then I saw them all creeping like weasels from under the green débris.</p>
+
+<p>"Hasten," I muttered, "for we shall have all the Iroquois in North
+America on our backs in another moment."</p>
+
+<p>As we started to retreat, the Germans emptied their muskets after us;
+but I did not think anybody had been hit.</p>
+
+<p>We now were running in single file, our rifles a-trail, Tahioni leading,
+and I some distance in the rear, turning my head over my shoulder from
+moment to moment to see if we were followed.</p>
+
+<p>And now, as I ran on, I understood that this accursed road had been made
+expressly to transport their siege artillery; that their guns were still
+in transit; that they had masked a cannon and manned it with Hessian
+chasseurs to keep their gun-road safe against surprise from any party
+scouting out of Oriska.</p>
+
+<p>Lord, what an ambuscade! And what an escape for us!</p>
+
+<p>As I jogged on at the heels of my Indians, still dazed and shaken by the
+deadly surprise of it all, I saw Thiohero, who was some little distance
+in front of me, reel sideways as though out o' breath, and stand still
+near a beech tree, holding her scarlet blanket against her body.</p>
+
+<p>When I came up to her she was leaning against the tree, clutching her
+blanket to her face and breast with both hands. But she heard me and
+lifted her head from the gaily coloured folds.</p>
+
+<p>"Hahyion&mdash;Royaneh!" she panted, "<i>this</i> was your battle.... And now&mdash;it
+is over ... and you shall live!..."</p>
+
+<p>My Oneidas had halted and were looking back at us. And now they returned
+rapidly and clustered around us.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you exhausted, little sister?" I demanded, drawing nearer. "Are you
+hurt&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Listen&mdash;my brother and&mdash;my Captain!" she burst out breathlessly.
+"<i>This</i> was the battle of my vision!&mdash;the strange uniforms&mdash;the
+cannon-cloud&mdash;the white shape!... I saw it near you where&mdash;where you
+stood in the cannon smoke!&mdash;a shape like mist at sunrise.... Haihee! It
+was the face and shape of the Caughnawaga girl!... It was Yellow Hair
+who floated there beside you in the cannon smoke!&mdash;covered to her eyes
+in white and flowers&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The Little Maid of Askalege clutched her gay blanket closer to her
+breast and began to sway gently on her feet as though the thumping of a
+distant partridge were a witch-drum.</p>
+
+<p>"Haihya Hahyion!" she whispered&mdash;"Thiohero Oyaneh salutes&mdash;her
+Captain.... I speak&mdash;as one dying.... Haiee! Haie&mdash;e! Yellow Hair is&mdash;is
+quite&mdash;a witch!&mdash;--"</p>
+
+<p>Her voice failed; down on her knees she sank. And, as I snatched her
+from the ground and lifted her, she looked up into my face and smiled.
+Then, in a long-drawn sigh, her soul escaped between my arms that could
+not stay its flight to Tharon.</p>
+
+<p>Her face became as wax; her head fell forward on my breast; her eyes
+rolled upward. And, as I pressed her in my arms, all my body grew warm
+and wet with bright blood pouring from her softly parted lips.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE WOOD OF BRAKABEEN</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was the 12th day of August when we came again to the Wood of
+Brakabeen,&mdash;we four young warriors of the clan of the Little Red Foot.</p>
+
+<p>We were ragged and bruised and weary, and starving; but the fierce rage
+burning in our breasts gave to each a strength and purpose that nerved
+our briar-torn and battered bodies to effort inexhaustible.</p>
+
+<p>Under scattered and furtive shots from German muskets we had retreated
+through the forest with our dead prophetess, until night ended pursuit
+by the chasseurs, and we ourselves had lost our direction.</p>
+
+<p>All the next day we travelled southwest with our dead. On the tenth day
+we came out on Otsego Lake, near to Croghan's new house.</p>
+
+<p>Where he had cleared the bush and where Indian grass was growing as tall
+as a man's head, we made a deep grave. And here we four clansmen buried
+the Little Maid of Askalege; and sodded the mound with wild grasses
+where strawberries grew, and blue asters and plumes of golden-rod.</p>
+
+<p>A Canada whitethroat called sweetly, sadly, from the forest in the
+sunset glow. We made for the grave a white cross of silver birch. We
+placed parched corn and a cup of water at the foot of the cross; and her
+bow and scarlet arrows against her needs where deer, God willing, should
+be plenty. And near these we set her little moccasins lest in that
+unknown land her tender feet should suffer on the trail.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning we made a fire of ozier, sweet-birch, cherry wood, and
+samphire.</p>
+
+<p>When the aromatic smoke blew over us I rose and spoke. After I had
+finished, the others in turn rose and spoke their mind, saying very
+simply what was in their hearts concerning their little prophetess, who
+had died wearing a little red foot painted on her body.</p>
+
+<p>So we left her at rest under the wild flowers and Indian grass, near to
+Croghan's empty house, with a vast wilderness around to guard the
+sanctuary, and the sad whitethroats to mourn her.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>And now, fierce and starved and ragged, we came once more to the Wood of
+Brakabeen. And heard McDonald's guns in the valley and his pibroch on
+the hills.</p>
+
+<p>The afternoon was still and hot, the deep blue sky cloudless. Over
+Vrooman's Land a brown smoke hung; more smoke was rising above Clyberg;
+more rolled up beyond the swampy ground near the Flockey.</p>
+
+<p>From the edge of Brakabeen Wood, looking out over the valley, we could
+hear firing in the direction of Stone House, more musketry toward Fox
+Creek.</p>
+
+<p>"McDonald is in Schoharie," I said to Tahioni. "There will be many dead
+here, women and children and the grey-haired. Are my brothers of the
+Little Red Foot too weary to strike?"</p>
+
+<p>The young Oneida warrior laughed. I looked at my ragged comrades where
+they crouched in their frightful paint, listening excitedly to the
+distant firing, and I saw their lean cheeks twitching and their nostrils
+a-flare as they scented the distant fighting.</p>
+
+<p>The wild screaming of the pibroch, too, seemed to madden them; and it
+enraged me, also, because I saw that Sir John's Highlanders were here
+with McDonald's fantastic crew and had come to slaughter us all with
+their dirks and broad-swords as they had threatened before Sir John fled
+North.</p>
+
+<p>We turned to the left and I led my Oneidas in a file through the ferny
+glades of Brakabeen Wood, and amid still places where clear streams ran
+deep in greenest moss; where tall lilies nodded their yellow Chinese
+caps in the flowery swale; where, in the demi-light of forest aisles,
+nothing grew save the great trees bedded there since the dawn of time,
+which sprung their vast arches high above us to support their glowing
+tapestry of leaves.</p>
+
+<p>It was mid-afternoon when, smelling hot smoke, we came near the woods by
+the river; and saw, close to us, a barn afire, and three men carrying
+guns, running hither and thither in a hay field and setting every stack
+aflame with their torches.</p>
+
+<p>One o' the fellows was a drummer in the green uniform of Butler's
+Rangers, and his drum was slung on his back. And I knew him. He was
+Michael Reed of Fonda's Bush, and cousin to Nick Stoner.</p>
+
+<p>And then, to my astonishment and rage, I saw Dries Bowman in his
+farmer's clothes; and the other man was a huge German&mdash;one of their
+chasseurs, who wore a stiff pig-tail that was greased, and a black
+mustache, and waist-high spatter-dashes&mdash;a very barbarian in red and
+blue and green; and grunting and puffing as he ran about in the hot
+sunshine to set the hay-cocks afire with his torch.</p>
+
+<p>I remember giving no command; we sprang out of the woods, trailing our
+rifles in our left hands; and Bowman fired at me and, missing, started
+to run; but I got him by his collar and knocked him over with my
+gun-butt.</p>
+
+<p>The Hessian chasseur instantly drew up and fired in our direction; and
+Tahioni shot him dead in his tracks, where he fell heavily on his back
+and lay in the grass with limbs outspread.</p>
+
+<p>"You may take his scalp! I care not!" shouted I, watching my Oneidas,
+who had got at Micky Reed and were striving to take him alive as I had
+ordered.</p>
+
+<p>But Reed had a big dragoon's pistol in his belt and would have used it
+had not Kwiyeh killed him swiftly with his hatchet.</p>
+
+<p>But I would not permit them to take Reed's scalp, and bade them despoil
+the body quickly and bring the leather cross-belts and girdle to me.</p>
+
+<p>Hanatoh ran up and caught Dries Bowman by the collar; and we jerked him
+to his feet and dragged and hustled him into the woods. And here
+despoiled him, pulling from his pockets a Royal Protection and a bundle
+of papers, which revealed him as a spy sent down to preach treason in
+Schoharie and carry what men he might corrupt as recruits to McDonald
+and Sir John.</p>
+
+<p>"That's enough to hang him!" I said sharply to Tahioni. "Link me up
+those drummer's cross-belts!"</p>
+
+<p>"What&mdash;what do you mean, John Drogue!" stammered the wretch. "Would you
+murder an old neighbour?"</p>
+
+<p>"That same old neighbour would have murdered me at Howell's house. And
+now is come disguised in civilian clothing to Schoharie with a spy's
+commission, to raise the district in arms against us."</p>
+
+<p>"My God!" he shrieked, as Tahioni flung the leather halter about his
+neck, "is it a crime if honest men stand by their King?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not when they stand out in plain day and wear a red coat or a green,"
+said I, flinging the leather halter over the oak tree's limb.</p>
+
+<p>Hanatoh swiftly pinioned his arms and tied his wrists; I tossed the
+halter's end to Kwiyeh. Tahioni also took hold of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Hoist that spy!" I said coldly. And in a second more his feet were
+kicking some half dozen inches above the ground.</p>
+
+<p>My Oneidas fastened the halter to a stout bush; I was shaking all over
+and felt sick and dizzy to hear him raling and choking in the leather
+noose which was too stiff for the ghastly business.</p>
+
+<p>But at that instant Tahioni shouted a shrill warning; I looked over my
+shoulder and saw a great number of soldiers wearing red patches on their
+hats, running across the burning hayfield to surround us.</p>
+
+<p>Yet it needed better men than McDonald's to take me and my Oneidas in
+Brakabeen Wood. We turned and plunged into the bush, leaving the
+wretched spy<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> hanging to the oak, his convulsed body now spinning
+dizzily round and round above the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Looking back as I ran, I soon saw that the men who were chasing us had
+little stomach for a pursuit which must presently lead to bush-fighting.
+They shouted and halooed, but lagged as they arrived at the denser
+woods; and they seemed to have no officers to encourage them, or if they
+indeed possessed any I saw none.</p>
+
+<p>Tahioni came fiercely to me, where I had halted, to watch the red-patch
+soldiers, saying that we had now been out thirteen days and had taken
+but three scalps. He said that to hang a man was not a proper vengeance
+to atone the death of Thiohero; and wanted to know why my prisoners
+should not be delivered to him and his Oneida comrades, who knew how to
+punish their enemies.</p>
+
+<p>Which speech so angered me that I had a mind to take him by the throat.
+Only the sudden memory of our Red Foot clan-ship, and of Thiohero,
+deterred me. Also, that was no way to treat any Indian; and to lose my
+self-control was to lose the Oneidas' respect and my authority over
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"My brother, Tahioni," said I coldly, "should not forget that he is my
+<i>younger</i> brother.</p>
+
+<p>"If Tahioni were older, and possessed of more wisdom and experience, he
+would know that unless a chief asks opinions none should be offered."</p>
+
+<p>The youth's eyes flashed at me and he stiffened under a rebuke that is
+hard for any Iroquois to swallow.</p>
+
+<p>"My younger brother," said I, "ought to know that I am not like an
+officer of Guy Johnson's Indian Department, who delivers prisoners to
+the Mohawks. I deliver no prisoner to any Indian. I obey my orders, and
+expect my Indians to obey mine. They are free always to take Indian
+scalps. The scalps of white men they take only if permitted by me."</p>
+
+<p>Tahioni hung his head, the Screech-owl and the Water-snake nodded
+emphatic assent.</p>
+
+<p>"Yonder," said I, "are the red-patch soldiers. They are Tory marauders
+and outlaws. If you can ambush and cut off any of them, do so. And I
+care not if you scalp them, either. But if any are taken I shall not
+deliver them to any Oneida fire. No prisoner of this flying scout shall
+burn."</p>
+
+<p>The Water-snake twitched my sleeve timidly.</p>
+
+<p>"Hahyion," he said, "we obey. But an Iroquois prefers the fire and
+torment to the noose. Because he can sing his death songs and laugh at
+his enemies through the flames. But what man can sing or boast when a
+rope chokes his speech in his throat?"</p>
+
+<p>I scarcely heeded him, for I was watching the red-patch soldiers, who
+now were leaving the woods and crossing the hayfield, which still was
+smoking where the fire made velvet-black patches in the dry grass.</p>
+
+<p>The barn had fallen in and was only a great heap of glowing coals, over
+which a pale flame played in the late afternoon sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>Listening and looking after the red-patches, I heard very distinctly the
+sound of guns in the direction of Stone House.</p>
+
+<p>Now, while it was none of my business to hang on McDonald's flanks for
+prisoners and scalps, it <i>was</i> my business to observe him and what he
+might be about in Schoharie; and to carry this news to Saratoga by way
+of Johnstown, along with my budget concerning Stanwix and St. Leger.</p>
+
+<p>Besides, Stone House lay on my way. So I signalled my Indians and
+started west. And it was not very long before we came upon two Schoharie
+militia-men whom I knew, Jacob Enders and George Warner, who took to a
+tree when they discovered my Oneidas in their paint, but came out when I
+called them by name, and gave an account that they were hunting a
+notorious Tory,&mdash;a renegade and late officer in the Schoharie
+Regiment,&mdash;a certain George Mann, a captain, who would have carried his
+entire company to McDonald, but was surprised in his villainy and had
+fled to the woods near Fox Creek.</p>
+
+<p>I told them that we had not seen this fellow, and asked for news; and
+Warner showed me a scalp which he said he took an hour ago from
+Ogeyonda, after shooting that treacherous savage at the Flockey.</p>
+
+<p>He gave it to Tahioni, which pleased the Oneida mightily and contented
+me; for I hate to see any white man take a scalp, though Tim Murphy and
+Dave Elerson took them as coolly as they took any other peltry.</p>
+
+<p>Warner said that McDonald was up the valley, murdering and burning his
+way westward; that cavalry from Albany had just arrived, had raided
+Brick House and taken prisoner a lot of red-patch militia, forced them
+to tear up their Royal Protections, tied up the most obnoxious, and
+kicked out the remainder with a warning.</p>
+
+<p>He said, further, that Adam Crysler and Joseph Brown, of Clyberg, were
+great villains and had joined McDonald with Billy Zimmer and others; and
+that McDonald had a motley army, full of kilted Highlanders, chasseurs,
+red-patches, Indians, and painted Tories; and that the cavalry from
+Albany were marching to meet them, reinforced by Schoharie
+mounted-militia under Colonel Harper.</p>
+
+<p>And now, even as Warner was still speaking, we heard the trumpet of the
+cavalry on the river road below; and, running out to the forest's edge,
+we saw the Albany Riders marching up the river,&mdash;two hundred horsemen in
+bright new helmets and uniforms, finely horsed, their naked sabers all
+glittering in the sun, and their trumpeter trotting ahead on a handsome
+white charger.</p>
+
+<p>The horses, four abreast, were at a fast walk; flankers galloped ahead
+on either wing. And, as we hurried down to the road, an officer I knew,
+Lieutenant Wirt, came spurring forward to meet and question us, followed
+by two troopers,&mdash;one named Rose and the other was Jake Van Dyck, whom I
+also recognized.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack Drogue, by all the gods of war!" cried the handsome lieutenant, as
+I saluted and spoke to him by name.</p>
+
+<p>"Dave Wirt!" I exclaimed, offering my hand, which he grasped, leaning
+wide from his saddle.</p>
+
+<p>He turned his mount toward the road again, and I and my Oneidas walked
+along beside him.</p>
+
+<p>"Are those your tame panthers?" he demanded, pointing toward my Oneidas
+with his sword. "If they are, then we should have agreeable work for
+them and for you, Jack Drogue. For Vrooman and his men are in Stone
+House and the red-patches fire on them whenever they show a head; and
+our cavalry are like to strike McDonald at any moment now. We caught two
+of his damned spies&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>At that instant, far down the road I saw a woman; and even at that
+distance I recognized her.</p>
+
+<p>"Yonder walks a bad citizen," said I sharply. "That is Madame Staats!"</p>
+
+<p>We had now arrived beside the moving column of riders; and, as I spoke,
+a dozen cavalrymen shouted: "Here comes Rya's Pup!"</p>
+
+<p>A captain of cavalry who spoke English with a French accent shouted to
+the Pup and beckoned her; but she turned and ran the other way.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately two troopers spurred after her and caught her as she was
+fording the river; and each seized her by a hand, turned their horses,
+and trotted back to us with their prisoner, amid shouts of laughter.</p>
+
+<p>Rya's Pup, breathless from her enforced run, fairly spat at us in her
+fury, cursing and threatening and holding her panting flanks in turn.</p>
+
+<p>"You dirty rebel dogs!" she screamed, "wait till McDonald catches you!
+Ah&mdash;there'll be blood enow for you all to wade in as I waded in the
+river yonder, when your filthy cavalry headed me!"</p>
+
+<p>Wirt tried to question her, but she mocked us all, boasted that McDonald
+had a huge army at the Flockey, and that he was now on his way to Stone
+House to destroy us all.</p>
+
+<p>"Turn that slut loose!" said the Captain sharply.</p>
+
+<p>So we let go the Pup, and she turned and legged it, yelling her scorn
+and fury as she ran; and we saw her go floundering and splashing across
+the river, doubtless to carry news of us to McDonald.</p>
+
+<p>And it contented us that she so do, because now we came upon Stone
+House, where the small garrison under a Lieutenant Wallace had ventured
+out and were a-digging of a ditch and piling fence rails across the road
+to stop McDonald's riders in a charge.</p>
+
+<p>Here, also, were Harper's mounted militia, sitting their saddles, poorly
+armed with militia fire-locks.</p>
+
+<p>But we had a respectable force and were ashamed to await the outlaws
+behind ditch and rail; so we marched on through the gathering dusk to a
+house about two miles further, where a dozen strangely painted horsemen
+galloped away as we approached.</p>
+
+<p>A yell of rage at sight of those blue-eyed Indians arose from our
+riders. Our trumpet sounded; the cavalry broke into a gallop.</p>
+
+<p>It was now twilight.</p>
+
+<p>I begged some mounted militia-men to take me and my Oneidas up behind
+them; and they were obliging enough to do so; and we jogged away into
+the rosy dusk of an August evening.</p>
+
+<p>Almost immediately I saw the Flockey ahead, and Adam Crysler's house on
+the bank; and on the lawn in front of it I saw McDonald's grotesque
+legion drawn up in line of battle.</p>
+
+<p>As I came up our cavalry was forming to charge; Lieutenant Wirt had just
+turned in his saddle to speak to me, when one of the outlaws ran out to
+the edge of the lawn and called across the road to Wirt that he should
+never live to marry Angelica Vrooman,<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> but would die a dog's death as
+he deserved.</p>
+
+<p>As the cavalry charged, Wirt rode directly at this man, who coolly shot
+him out of his saddle.</p>
+
+<p>I saw and recognized the outlaw, who was a Tory named Shafer.</p>
+
+<p>As Wirt fell to the grass, stone dead, his horse knocked down Shafer.
+The Tory got up, streaming with blood but not badly hurt, and, clubbing
+his piece, attempted to dash out Wirt's dead brains; but Trooper Rose
+swung his horse violently against Shafer, sabred him, and, in turn, fell
+from his own saddle, fatally wounded.</p>
+
+<p>Another trooper dismounted to pick up poor Rose, who was in a bad way,
+but one of McDonald's painted Tories fired on them and both fell.</p>
+
+<p>I fired at this man and wounded him, and Tahioni chased him, caught him,
+and slew him by the fence.</p>
+
+<p>Then, above the turmoil of horses and gun-shots, the Oneida's terrific
+scalp-yell rang out in the deepening dusk; and at that dread panther-cry
+a panic seemed to seize McDonald's men, for their grotesque riders
+suddenly whirled their horses and stampeded ventre-ŕ-terre, riding
+westward like damned men; and I saw their Highlanders and Chasseurs and
+renegade Greens break and scatter into the forest on every side, melting
+away into the night before our eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Into the brush leaped my Oneidas; their war-yells awoke the shuddering
+echoes of Brakabeen Wood. I saw a chasseur leap a rail fence, stumble,
+and fall with the Screech-owl on top of him. Again the awful Oneida
+scalp-yelp rang out under the first dim stars.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The cavalry returned and camped at Stone House that night. They brought
+in their dead by torch-light; and I saw Wirt's body borne on a
+stretcher, and the corpse of Trooper Rose, and others.</p>
+
+<p>One by one my Oneidas returned like blood-slaked and weary hounds. All
+had taken scalps, and sat late at our fire to hoop and stretch them, and
+neatly plait the miserable dead hair that hung all draggled from the
+pitiful shreds of skin.</p>
+
+<p>At a cavalry watch-fire near to ours were also some people I
+knew&mdash;Mayfield men of a scout of six, just come in; and I went over to
+their fire and greeted them and questioned them concerning news from
+home.</p>
+
+<p>Truman Christie was their lieutenant; Sol and Seely Woodworth, the two
+Reynolds, and Billy Dunham composed the scout; and all were in
+rifle-dress and keen to try their rifles on McDonald, but were arrived
+too late, and feared now that the outlaws were on their way to Canada.</p>
+
+<p>Christie told me that the alarm in Johnstown and at Mayfield was great;
+that hostile Indians had been seen near Tribes Hill, and had killed a
+farmer there; that some people were leaving Caughnawaga and moving their
+household goods down the river to Schenectady.</p>
+
+<p>"By God," says he, "and I don't blame 'em, John Drogue! No! For a Mohawk
+war party is like to strike Caughnawaga at any hour; and why foolish
+folk, like old Douw Fonda, remain there is beyond my comprehension."</p>
+
+<p>"Douw Fonda!" said I, astonished. "Why, he is gone to Albany."</p>
+
+<p>"He came back a week ago," says Christie. "They tell me that the young
+Patroon tried to dissuade the old gentleman from going, but could do
+nothing with him&mdash;Mr. Fonda being childish and obstinate&mdash;and so he had
+his way and summoned his coach and his three niggers and drove in state
+up the river to Caughnawaga. We passed that way on scout, and I saw the
+old gentleman two days ago sitting on his porch with his gold-headed
+walking stick and his book, and dozing there in the sun; and the
+yellow-haired girl knitting at his feet&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What!"</p>
+
+<p>He looked at me, startled by my vehemence.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said he, "did I say aught to offend you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Good God, no. You say that the&mdash;the yellow-haired girl, Penelope Grant,
+is at Caughnawaga with Douw Fonda!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you see her?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did; and spoke with her."</p>
+
+<p>"What did she say?" I asked unsteadily.</p>
+
+<p>"She said that Mr. Fonda had sent a negro servant to Johnstown to fetch
+her, because, having returned to Caughnawaga, he needed her."</p>
+
+<p>"I think Mr. Fonda's three sons and their families must all be mad to
+permit the old gentleman to come to Caughnawaga in such perilous times
+as these!" I said sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"And so do I think likewise," rejoined Christie. "Let them think and say
+what they like, but, Mr. Drogue, I am an old Indian fighter and have
+served under Colonel Claus and Sir William Johnson. I know the Iroquois;
+I know their ways and wiles and craft and subtle designs; and I know how
+they think, and what they are most likely to do.</p>
+
+<p>"And I say to you very solemnly, Mr. Drogue, that were I Joseph Brant I
+would strike Caughnawaga before snow flies. And, sir, under God, it is
+my honest belief that he will do exactly that very thing. And it will be
+a sorry business for the Valley when he does so!"</p>
+
+<p>It was a dreadful thing for me to hear this veteran affirm what I myself
+already feared.</p>
+
+<p>But I had never dreamed that the aged Douw Fonda would return to
+Caughnawaga, or that his sons would permit the obstinate, helpless, and
+childish old gentleman to so have his say and way in times like these.</p>
+
+<p>Nor did I dream that Penelope would go to him again. I knew, of course,
+that she would surely go if he asked for her; but thought he had too
+completely forgotten her&mdash;as the Patroon wrote&mdash;and that his
+childishness and feeble memory no longer retained any remembrance of the
+young girl he had loved and had offered to adopt and to make his
+legatee.</p>
+
+<p>The news that Captain Christie brought was truly dismal news for me and
+most alarming.</p>
+
+<p>What on earth I could do about it I had no idea. Penelope, the soul of
+loyalty, believed that her duty lay with Mr. Fonda, and that, if he
+asked for her, she must go and care for him, who had been to her a
+father when she was poor, shelterless, and alone.</p>
+
+<p>I realized that no argument, no plea of mine could move her to abandon
+him now. And what logic could I employ to arouse this childish and
+obstinate old gentleman to any apprehension of his own peril or hers?</p>
+
+<p>To think of it madded me, because Mr. Fonda had three wealthy sons
+living near him, who could care for him properly with their ample means
+and all their servants and slaves. And why in God's name Captain John
+Fonda, Major Jelles Fonda, or Major Adam Fonda did not take some means
+of moving themselves and their families into the Queens Fort, or, better
+still, into Albany, I can not comprehend.</p>
+
+<p>But it was a fact, as Christie related to me, that scarce a soul had
+fled from Caughnawaga. All the landed gentry remained; all people of
+high or low degree were still there&mdash;folk like the Veeders, Sammons,
+Romeyns, Hansens, Yates, Putmans, Stevens, Fishers, Gaults.</p>
+
+<p>That night my dreams were horrible: I seemed to see Dries Bowman's body
+spinning in the sunshine, whilst he darted his swollen tongue at me like
+a snake. And always I seemed all wet with blood and could not dry myself
+or escape the convulsed embrace of the Little Maid of Askalege.</p>
+
+<p>Moaning, waking with a cry on my lips to gaze on the red embers of our
+fire and see my Indians stir under their blankets and open slitted eyes
+at me&mdash;or to lie exhausted in body and all trembling in my thoughts,
+while the slow, dark hours dragged to the dead march beating in my
+heart&mdash;thus passed the night at Stone House, full of visions of the
+dead.</p>
+
+<p>Long ere the cavalry trumpet pealed and the tired troopers awakened
+after near fifty miles of riding the day before, I had dragged my weary
+Indians from their sleep; and almost immediately we were on our way,
+eating a pinch of salted corn from the palms of our hands as we moved
+forward. For, after a brief ceremony in the Wood of Brakabeen, I meant
+to make Johnstown without a halt. My mind was full of anxiety for
+Caughnawaga, and for her who had promised herself to me when again I
+should come to seek her.</p>
+
+<p>But first we must halt in the Wood of Brakabeen to fulfill in ceremony
+that office due to the memory of a brave and faithful Oneida
+warrior&mdash;our little Maid of Askalege.</p>
+
+<p>It was not yet dawn, and the glades of Brakabeen Wood were dark and
+still; and on the ferns and grasses rested myriads of fire-flies, all
+pulsating with faint phosphorescence.</p>
+
+<p>I thought of Thiohero as I had beheld her in this glade, swaying on her
+slender feet amid a dizzy whirl of fire-flies.</p>
+
+<p>Tahioni had gathered a dry faggot; Kwiyeh carried a bundle of
+cherry-birch, samphire, and witch-hopple. The Water-snake laid the fire.</p>
+
+<p>All seated themselves; I struck flint, blew the tinder to a coal, and
+lighted a silver birch-shred.</p>
+
+<p>The scented smoke mounted straight up through the trees; I rose in
+silence; and when the first burning stick fell into soft white ashes, I
+took a few flakes in my palm and rubbed them across my forehead. Then I
+spoke, facing the locked gates of morning in the dark:</p>
+
+<p>"Now&mdash;now I hear your voice coming to us through the forest in the
+night.</p>
+
+<p>"Now our hearts are heavy, little sister. The gates of morning are still
+locked; the forest is still; everywhere there is thick darkness.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Thiohero, listen!</i></p>
+
+<p>"Now we Oneidas are depressed in our minds. You were a prophetess. You
+foretold events. You were a warrior. We were your clansmen of the Little
+Red Foot. You were a sorceress. Empty moccasins danced when you touched
+the witch-drum. Now, in white plumes, you have mounted to the stars like
+morning mist.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Oyaneh! Continue to listen.</i></p>
+
+<p>"Our lodge is empty without you. Our fire is lonely without you. Our
+hearts are desolate, O Thiohero Oyaneh!</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Little Sister, continue to listen!</i></p>
+
+<p>"We have heard your voice at this hour coming to us through the Wood of
+Brakabeen. It comes in darkness like light when the gates of morning
+open.</p>
+
+<p>"Thiohero Oyaneh, virgin warrior of the People of the Rock, we are come
+to the Wood of Brakabeen to greet and thank you.</p>
+
+<p>"We give you gratitude and love. You were a warrior and wore the Little
+Red Foot. You struck your enemies where you found them. They are dead
+and without scalps, your enemies. The Canienga howl. Your war-axe sticks
+in their heads. The Hessians are swine. Your scarlet arrows turn them
+into porcupines. The green-coats flee and your bullets burn their
+bowels.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>O my little sister, listen now!</i></p>
+
+<p>"Our trail is very lonely without you. We are dejected. We move like
+old men and sick. We need your wisdom. We are less wise than those
+littlest ones still strapped to the cradle board.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Thiohero!</i></p>
+
+<p>"We have placed food and a cup of water for you lest you hunger and
+thirst.</p>
+
+<p>"We have laid a bow and scarlet arrows near you so that you shall hunt
+when you wish.</p>
+
+<p>"We have given you moccasins so that the strange, bright trail shall not
+hurt your feet.</p>
+
+<p>"We have placed paint for you so that Tharon shall know you by your
+clan. And we have made for your grave a cross of silver-birch, so that
+our white Lord Christ shall meet you and take you by the hand in a land
+so new and strange.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Oyaneh!</i></p>
+
+<p>"We have said what is in our hearts and minds. We think that is all we
+have to say. We turn our eyes to the morning. When the gates open we
+shall depart."</p>
+
+<p>As I ended, the three Oneidas rose and faced the east in silence. All
+the sky had become golden. Minute after minute passed. Suddenly a
+blinding lance of light pierced the Wood of Brakabeen.</p>
+
+<p>"Haih!" they exclaimed softly. "Nai Thiohero Oyaneh!"</p>
+
+<p>Tahioni covered the fire. The Screech-owl marked us all with a coal
+still warm.</p>
+
+<p>Then, in silence, I led my people from the misty Wood of Brakabeen.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX</h2>
+
+<h3>A LONG GOOD-BYE</h3>
+
+
+<p>On the evening of the 15th of August, the Commandant of Johnstown Fort
+stood aghast to see a forest-running ragamuffin and three scare-crow
+Indians stagger into headquarters at the jail.</p>
+
+<p>"Gad a-mercy!" says he as I offered the salute, "is it <i>you</i>, Mr.
+Drogue!"</p>
+
+<p>I was past all speech; for we had wolf-jogged all the way up from the
+river, but from my rags I fished out my filthy papers and thrust them at
+him. He was kind enough to ask me to sit; I nodded a like permission to
+my Oneidas and dropped onto a settle; a sergeant fetched new-baked
+bread, meat, buttermilk, and pipes for my Indians; and for me a draught
+of summer cider, which presently I swallowed to the dregs when I found
+strength to do it.</p>
+
+<p>This refreshed me. I asked permission to lodge my Oneidas in some
+convenient barn and to draw for them food, pay, tobacco, and clothing;
+and very soon a corporal of Continentals arrived with a lantern and led
+the Oneidas out into the night.</p>
+
+<p>Then, at the Commandant's request, I gave a verbal account of my scout,
+and reminded him of my instructions, which were to report at Saratoga.</p>
+
+<p>But he merely shuffled my papers together and smiled, saying that he
+would attend to that matter, and that there were new orders lately
+arrived for me, and a sheaf of letters, among which two had been sent in
+with a flag, and seals broken.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," he said, still smiling in kindly fashion, "I have every reason to
+believe that patriotic service faithfully performed is not to remain too
+long unrecognized at Albany. And this business of yours amounts to that,
+Mr. Drogue."</p>
+
+<p>He laughed and rubbed his powerful hands together, peering
+good-humouredly at me out of a pair of small and piercing eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"However," he added, "all this is for you to learn from others in higher
+places than I occupy. Here are your letters, Mr. Drogue."</p>
+
+<p>He laid his hand on a sheaf which lay near his elbow on the table and
+handed them to me. They were tied together with tape which had been
+sealed.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said he, "you are in a woeful plight for lack of sleep; and I
+should not detain you. You lodge, I think, at Burke's Tavern. Pray, sir,
+retire to your quarters at your convenience, and dispose of well-earned
+leisure as best suits you."</p>
+
+<p>He rose, and I got stiffly to my feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Your Indians shall have every consideration," said he. "And I dare
+guess, sir, that you are destined to discover at the Tavern news that
+should pleasure you."</p>
+
+<p>We saluted; I thanked him for his kind usage, and took my leave, so
+weary that I scarce knew what I was about.</p>
+
+<p>How I arrived at the Tavern without falling asleep on my two legs as I
+walked, I do not know. Jimmy Burke, who had come out with a light to
+greet me, lifted his hands to heaven at sight of me.</p>
+
+<p>"John Drogue! Is it yourself, avic? Ochone, the poor lad! Wirra the
+day!" says he,&mdash;"and luk at him in his rags and thin as a clapperrail!"
+And, "Magda! Betty!" he shouts, "f'r the sake o' the saints, run fetch a
+wash-tub above, an' b'ilin' wather in a can, and soft-soap, too, an'
+a-bite-an'-a-sup, or himself will die on me two hands&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>I heard maids running as I climbed the stairway, gripping at the rail to
+steady me. I was asleep in my chair when some one shook me.</p>
+
+<p>Blindly I pulled the dirty rags from my body and let them fall anywhere;
+and I near died o' drowning in the great steaming tub, for twice I fell
+asleep in the bath. I know not who pulled me out. I do not remember
+eating. They say I did eat. Nor can I recollect how, at last, I got me
+into bed.</p>
+
+<p>I was still deeply asleep when Burke awoke me. He had a great bowl of
+smoking soupaan and a pitcher of sweet milk; and I ate and drank, still
+half asleep. But now the breeze from the open window and the sunshine in
+my room slowly cleared my battered senses. I began to remember where I
+was, and to look about the room.</p>
+
+<p>Mine was the only bed; and there was nobody lying in it save only
+myself, yet it was evident that another gentleman shared this room with
+me; for yonder, on a ladder-back chair, lay somebody's clothing neatly
+folded,&mdash;a Continental officer's uniform, on which I perceived the
+insignia of a staff-captain.</p>
+
+<p>Spurred boots also stood there, and a smartly cocked hat.</p>
+
+<p>And now, on a peg in the wall, I discovered this unknown officer's
+watch-coat, and his sword dangling by it, and a brace o' pistols.</p>
+
+<p>But where the devil the owner of these implements might be I could not
+guess.</p>
+
+<p>And now my eyes fell upon the sheaf of letters lying on the table beside
+me. I broke the sealed tape that bound them; they fell upon the bed
+clothes; and I picked up the first at hazard, which was a packet, and
+broke the seal of it. And sat there in my night shift, utterly astounded
+at what I beheld.</p>
+
+<p>For within the packet were two papers. One was a captain's commission in
+the Continental Line; and my own name was writ upon it.</p>
+
+<p>And the other paper was a letter, sent express from the Forest of Dean,
+five days since, and it was from Major General Lord Stirling to me,
+acquainting me that he had taken the liberty to request a captain's
+commission in the Line for me; that His Excellency had concurred in the
+request; that a commission had been duly granted and issued; and
+that&mdash;His Excellency still graciously concurring and General Schuyler
+endorsing the request&mdash;I had been transferred from the State Rangers to
+the Line, and from the Line to the military family of General Lord
+Stirling. And should report to him at the Forest of Dean.</p>
+
+<p>To this elegant and formal and amazing letter, writ by a secretary and
+signed by my Lord Stirling, was appended in his own familiar hand this
+postscript:</p>
+
+<p>"Jack Drogue will not refuse his old friend, Billy Alexander. So for
+God's sake leave your rifle-shirt and moccasins in Johnstown and put on
+the clothing which I have bespoken of the same Johnstown tailoress who
+made your forest dress and mine when in happier days we hunted and
+fished with Sir William in the pleasant forests of Fonda's Bush."</p>
+
+<p>I sat there quite overcome, gazing now upon my commission, now upon my
+friend's kind letter, now at my beautiful new uniform which his
+consideration had procured for me while I was wandering leagues away in
+the Northern bush, never dreaming that a celebrated Major General had
+time to waste on any thought concerning me.</p>
+
+<p>There was a bell-rope near my bed, and now I pulled it, and said to the
+buxom wench who came that I desired a barber to trim me instantly, and
+that the pot-boy should run and fetch him and bid him bring his irons
+and powder and an assortment of queue ribbons for a club.</p>
+
+<p>The barber arrived as I, having bathed me, was dressing in fresh
+underwear which I found rolled snug in the pack I had left here when I
+went away.</p>
+
+<p>Lord, but my beard and hair were like Orson's; and I gave myself to the
+razor with great content; and later to the shears, bidding young Master
+Snips shape my pol for a club and powder in the most fashionable and
+military mode then acceptable to the service.</p>
+
+<p>Which he swore he knew how to accomplish; so I took my letters from the
+bed and disposed myself in a chair to peruse them while Snips should
+remain busy with his shears.</p>
+
+<p>The first letter I unsealed was from Nick Stoner, and written from
+Saratoga:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Friend Jack</span>,</p>
+
+<p>"I take quill and ink to acquaint you how it goes with us here in
+the regiment.</p>
+
+<p>"I am fifer, and when in action am stationed near to the colours
+for duty. Damn them, they should give me a gun, also, as I can
+shoot better than any of 'em, as you know.</p>
+
+<p>"My brother John is a drummer in our regiment, and has learned all
+his flamms and how to beat all things lively save the devil.</p>
+
+<p>"My father is a private in our regiment, which is pleasant for all,
+and he is a dead shot and afeard of nothing save hell.</p>
+
+<p>"I have got into mischief and been punished on several occasions. I
+like not being triced up between two halbards.</p>
+
+<p>"I long to see Betsy Browse. She hath a pretty way of kissing. And
+sometimes I long to see Anne Mason, who has her own way, too. You
+are not acquainted with that saucy baggage, I think. But she lives
+only two miles from where my Betsy abides. And I warrant you I was
+put to it, sparking both, lest they discover I drove double
+harness. And there was Zuyler's pretty daughter, too&mdash;but enough of
+tender memories!</p>
+
+<p>"Anna has raven hair and jet black eyes and is snowy otherwise. I
+don't mean cold. Angelica Zuyler is fair of hair but brown for the
+rest&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Jack, I think on you every day and hope you do well with
+your Oneidas, who, we hear, are out with you on the Schoharie.</p>
+
+<p>"Our headquarters runner is your old Saguenay, and he is much
+trusted by our General, they say. Sometimes the fierce fellow comes
+to visit me, but asks only for news of you, and when I say I have
+none he sits in silence. And always, when he leaves, he says very
+solemnly: 'Tell my Captain that I am a real man. But did not know
+it until my Captain told me so.'</p>
+
+<p>"Now the news is that Burgoyne finds himself in a pickle since the
+bloody battle at Oriskany. I think he flounders like a big
+chain-pike stranded belly-deep in a shallow pool which is slowly
+drying up around him.</p>
+
+<p>"We are no longer afeard of his Germans, his General Baum-Boom, his
+famous artillery, or his Indians.</p>
+
+<p>"What the Tryon County lads did to St. Leger we shall surely do to
+that big braggart, John Burgoyne. And mean to do it presently.</p>
+
+<p>"I send this letter to you by Adam Helmer, who goes this day to
+Schenectady, riding express.</p>
+
+<p>"I give you my hand and heart. I hope Penelope is well.</p>
+
+<p>"And beg permission to remain, sir, your most humble and obliged
+and obedient servant,</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Nicholas Stoner</span>."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>I laid aside Nick's letter, half smiling, half sad, at the thoughts it
+evoked within me.</p>
+
+<p>Young Master Snips was now a-drying of my hair. I opened another letter,
+which bore the inscription, 'By flag.' It had been unsealed, which, of
+course, was the rule, and so approved and delivered to me:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Jack</span>,</p>
+
+<p>"I am fearfully unhappy. This day news is brought of the action at
+Oriska, and that my dear brother is dead.</p>
+
+<p>"I pray you, if it be within your power, to give my poor Stephen
+decent burial. He was your boyhood friend. Ah, God, what an
+unnatural strife is this that sets friend against friend, brother
+against brother, father against son!</p>
+
+<p>"Can you not picture my wretchedness and distress to know that my
+darling brother is slain, that my husband is at this moment facing
+the terrible rifle-fire of your infuriated soldiery, that many of
+my intimate friends are dead or wounded at this terrible Oriskany
+where they say your maddened soldiers flung aside their muskets and
+leaped upon our Greens and Rangers with knife and hatchet, and tore
+their very souls out with naked hands.</p>
+
+<p>"I pray that you were not involved in that horrible affair. I pray
+that you may live through these fearful times to the end, whatever
+that end shall be. God alone knows.</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you for your generous forbearance and chivalry to us on
+the Oneida Road. I saw your painted Oneida Indians crouching in
+the roadside weeds, although I did not tell you that I had
+discovered them. But I was terrified for my baby. You have heard
+how Iroquois Indians sometimes conduct.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Jack, I can not find in my heart any unkind thought of you. I
+trust you think of me as kindly.</p>
+
+<p>"And so I ask you, if it be within your power, to give my poor
+brother decent burial. And mark the grave so that one day, please
+God, we may remove his mangled remains to a friendlier place than
+Tryon has proven for me and mine.</p>
+
+<p>"I am, dear Jack, with unalterable affection,</p>
+
+<p class="right">"Your unhappy,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
+"<span class="smcap">Polly</span>."
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>My eyes were misty as I laid the letter aside, resolving to do all I
+could to carry out Lady Johnson's desires. For not until long afterward
+did I hear that Steve Watts had survived his terrible wounds and was
+finally safe from the vengeance of outraged Tryon.</p>
+
+<p>Another letter, also with broken seal, I laid open and read while Snips
+heated his irons and gazed out of the breezy window, where, with fife
+and drum, I could hear the garrison marching out for exercise and
+practice.</p>
+
+<p>And to the lively marching music of <i>The Huron</i>, I read my letter from
+Claudia Swift:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p class="right">"Oneida; Aug: 7th, 1777.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">My dearest Jack</span>,</p>
+
+<p>"I am informed that I may venture to send this epistle under a flag
+that goes out today. No doubt but some Yankee Paul Pry in
+blue-and-buff will crack the seal and read it before you receive
+it.</p>
+
+<p>"But I snap my fingers at him. I care not. I am bold to say that I
+do love you. And dearly! So much for Master Pry!</p>
+
+<p>"But, alas, my friend, now indeed I am put to it; for I must
+confess to you a sadder and deeper anxiety. For if I love you, sir,
+I am otherwise in love. And with another! I shall not dare to
+confess his name. But <i>you saw and recognized him</i> at Summer House
+when Steve was there a year ago last spring.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you know. Yes, I am madly in love, Jack. And am racked with
+terrors and nigh out o' my wits with this awful news of the Oriska
+battle.</p>
+
+<p>"We hear that Captain Walter Butler is taken out o' uniform within
+your lines; and so, lacking the protection of his regimentals, he
+is like to suffer as a spy. My God! Was he <i>alone</i> when
+apprehended by Arnold's troops? And will General Arnold hang him?</p>
+
+<p>"This is the urgent news I ask of you. I am horribly afraid. In
+mercy send me some account; for there are terrible rumours afloat
+in this fortress&mdash;rumours of other spies taken by your soldiery,
+and of brutal executions&mdash;I can not bring myself to write of what I
+fear. Pity me, Jack, and write me what you hear.</p>
+
+<p>"Could you not beg this one mercy of Billy Alexander, that he send
+a flag or contrive to have one sent from your Northern Department,
+explaining to us poor women what truly has been,&mdash;and is like to
+be&mdash;the fate of such unfortunate prisoners in your hands?</p>
+
+<p>"And remember who it is appeals to you, dear Jack; for even if I
+have not merited your consideration,&mdash;if I, perhaps, have even
+forfeited the regard of Billy Alexander,&mdash;I pray you both to
+remember that you once were a little in love with me.</p>
+
+<p>"And so, deal with me gently, Jack. For I am frightened and sick at
+heart; and know very little about love, which, for the first time
+ever in my life, has now undone me.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you not aid and forgive your unhappy,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"<span class="smcap">Claudia</span>."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Good Lord! Claudia enamoured! And enamoured of that great villain, Henry
+Hare! Why, damn him, he hath a wife and children, too, or I am most
+grossly in error.</p>
+
+<p>I had not heard that Walter Butler was taken. I knew not whether
+Lieutenant Hare had been caught in Butler's evil company or if, indeed,
+he had fought at all with old John Butler at Oriska.</p>
+
+<p>Frowning, disgusted, yet sad also to learn that Claudia could so rashly
+and so ignobly lavish her affections, nevertheless I resolved to ask
+Lord Stirling if a flag could not be sent with news to Claudia and such
+other anxious ladies as might be eating their hearts out at Oneida, or
+Oswego, or Buck Island.</p>
+
+<p>And so I laid aside her painful letter, and unfolded the last missive.
+And discovered it was writ me by Penelope:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"You should not think harshly of me, Jack Drogue, if you return and
+discover that I am gone away from Johnstown.</p>
+
+<p>"Douw Fonda is returned to Cayadutta Lodge. He has now sent a
+carriage for to fetch me. It is waiting while I write. I can not
+refuse him.</p>
+
+<p>"If, when we meet again, you desire to know my mind concerning
+you, then, if you choose to look into it, you shall discover that
+my mind contains only a single thought. And the thought is for you.</p>
+
+<p>"But if you desire no longer to know my mind when again&mdash;if
+ever&mdash;we two meet together, then you shall not feel it your duty to
+concern yourself about my mind, or what thought may be within it.</p>
+
+<p>"I would not write coldly to you, John Drogue. Nor would I
+importune with passion.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no claim upon your further kindness. You have every claim
+upon my life-long gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>"But I offer more than gratitude if you should still desire it; and
+I would offer less&mdash;if it should better please you.</p>
+
+<p>"Feel not offended; feel free. Come to me if it pleaseth you; and,
+if you come not, there is in me that which shall pardon all you do,
+or leave undone, as long as ever I shall live on earth.</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Penelope Grant.</span>"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>When Snips had powdered me and had tied my club with a queue-ribbon of
+his proper selection, he patched my cheek-bone where a thorn had torn
+me, and stood a-twirling his iron as though lost in admiration of his
+handiwork.</p>
+
+<p>When I paid him I bade him tell Burke to bring around my horse and fetch
+my saddle bags; and then I dressed me in my regimentals.</p>
+
+<p>When Burke came with the saddle-bags, we packed them together. He
+promised to care for my rifle and pack, took my new light blanket over
+his arm, and led the way down stairs, where I presently perceived Kaya
+saddled, and pricking ears to hear my voice.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst I caressed her and whispered in her pretty ear the idle
+tenderness that a man confides to a beloved horse, Burke placed my
+pistols, strapped saddle-bags and blanket, and held my stirrup as I
+gathered bridle and set my spurred boot firmly on the steel.</p>
+
+<p>And so swung to my saddle, and sat there, dividing bridles, deep fixed
+in troubled thought and anxiously concerned for the safety of the
+unselfish but very stubborn girl I loved.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>I had said my adieux to Jimmy Burke; I had taken leave of the Commandant
+at the palisades jail. I now galloped Kaya through the town, riding by
+way of Butlersbury;<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> and saw the steep roof of the Butler house
+through the grove, and shuddered as I thought of the unhappy young man
+who had lived there and who, at that very moment, might be hanging by
+his neck while the drums rolled from the hollow square.</p>
+
+<p>Down the steep hill I rode, careful of loose stone, and so came to the
+river and to Caughnawaga.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p>
+
+<p>All was peaceful and still in the noonday sunshine; the river wore a
+glassy surface; farm waggons creaked slowly through golden dust along
+the Fort Johnson highway; fat cattle lay in the shade; and from the
+brick chimneys of Caughnawaga blue smoke drifted where, in her cellar
+kitchen, the good wife was a-cooking of the noontide dinner.</p>
+
+<p>When presently I espied Douw Fonda's great mansion of stone, I saw
+nobody on the porch, and no smoke rising from the chimneys, yet the
+front door stood open.</p>
+
+<p>But when I rode up to the porch, a black wench came from the house, who
+said that Mr. Fonda dined at his son's that day, and would remain until
+evening.</p>
+
+<p>However, when I made inquiry for Penelope, I found that she was
+within,&mdash;had already been served with dinner,&mdash;and was now gone to the
+library to read and knit as usual when alone.</p>
+
+<p>The black wench took my mare and whistled shrilly for a slave to come
+and hold the horse.</p>
+
+<p>But I had already mounted the stoop and entered the silent house; and
+now I perceived Penelope, who had risen from a chair and was laying
+aside her book and knitting.</p>
+
+<p>She seemed very white when I went to her and drew her into my embrace;
+and she rested her cheek against my shoulder and took close hold of my
+two arms, but uttered not a word.</p>
+
+<p>Under her lace cap her hair glimmered like sun-warmed gold; and her
+hands, which had become very fine and white again, began to move upward
+to my shoulders, till they encircled my neck and rested there, tight
+linked.</p>
+
+<p>For a space she wept, but presently staunched her tears with her laced
+apron's edge, like a child at school. And when I made her look upon me
+she smiled though she still breathed sobbingly, and her lips still
+quivered as I kissed her.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>We sat close together there in the golden gloom of the curtained room,
+where only a bar of dusty sunlight fell across a row of gilded books.</p>
+
+<p>I had told her everything&mdash;had given an account of all that had
+befallen my little scout, and how I had returned to Johnstown, and how
+so suddenly my fortunes had been completely changed.</p>
+
+<p>I told her of what I knew of the battle at Oriskany, of the present
+situation at Stanwix and at Saratoga, and of what I saw of the fight at
+the Flockey, where McDonald ran.</p>
+
+<p>I begged her to persuade Mr. Fonda to go to Albany, and she promised to
+do so. And when I pointed out in detail how perilous was his situation
+here, and how desperate her own, she said she knew it, and had been
+horribly afraid, but that Caughnawaga folk seemed strangely indifferent
+to the danger,&mdash;could not bring themselves to believe in it,
+perhaps,&mdash;and were loath to leave their homes unprotected and their
+fields untilled.</p>
+
+<p>But when I touched on her leaving these foolish people and, as my wife,
+travelling southward with me to the great fortress on the Hudson, she
+only wept, saying, in tears, that she was needed by an old and feeble
+man who had protected her when she was poor and friendless, and that,
+though she loved me, her duty still lay first at Douw Fonda's side.</p>
+
+<p>Quit him she utterly refused to do; and it was in vain I pointed out his
+three stalwart sons and their numerous families, retainers, tenants,
+servants, and slaves, who ought to care for the obstinate old gentleman
+and provide a security for him whether he would or no.</p>
+
+<p>But argument was useless; I knew it. And all I obtained of her was that,
+whether matters north of us mended or grew worse, she would persuade Mr.
+Fonda to return to Albany until such time as Tryon County became once
+more safe to live in.</p>
+
+<p>This she promised, and even assured me that she had already spoken of
+the matter to Mr. Fonda, and that the old gentleman appeared to be quite
+willing to return to Albany as soon as his grain could be reaped and
+threshed.</p>
+
+<p>So with this I had to content my heavy heart. And now, by the tall
+clock, I perceived that my time was up; for Schenectady lay far away,
+and Albany father still; and it was like to be a long and dreary journey
+to West Point, if, indeed, I should find Lord Stirling still there.</p>
+
+<p>For at Johnstown fort that morning I was warned that my General Lord
+Stirling had already rejoined his division in the Jerseys; and that the
+news was brought by riflemen of Morgan's corps, which was now swiftly
+marching to join our Northern forces near Saratoga.</p>
+
+<p>Well, God's will must obtain on earth; none can thwart it; none
+foretell&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>At the thought I looked down at Penelope, where I held her clasped; and
+I told her of the vision of Thiohero.</p>
+
+<p>She remained very still when she learned what the Little Maid of
+Askalege had seen there beside me in the cannon-cloud, where the German
+foresters of Hainau, in their outlandish dress, were shouting and
+shooting.</p>
+
+<p>For Penelope had seen the same white shape; and had been, she said,
+afeard that it was my own weird she saw,&mdash;so white it seemed to her, she
+said,&mdash;so still and shrouded in its misty veil.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it I?" she whispered in an awed voice. "Was it truly I that the
+Oneida virgin saw? And did she know my features in the shroud?"</p>
+
+<p>"She saw you all in white and flowers, floating there near me like mist
+at sunrise."</p>
+
+<p>"She told you it was I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dying, she so told me. And, 'Yellow Hair,' she gasped, 'is quite a
+witch!' And then she died between my arms."</p>
+
+<p>"I am no witch," she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"Nor was the Little Maid of Askalege. Both of you, I think, saw at times
+things that we others can not perceive until they happen;&mdash;the shadow of
+events to come."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>After a silence: "Have you, perhaps, discovered other shadows since we
+last met, Penelope?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; shadows."</p>
+
+<p>"What coming event cast them?"</p>
+
+<p>After a long pause: "Will it make his mind more tranquil if I tell him?"
+she murmured to herself; and I saw her dark eyes fixed absently on the
+dusty ray of sunlight slanting athwart the room.</p>
+
+<p>Then she looked up at me; blushed to her hair: "I saw children&mdash;with
+<i>yellow</i> hair&mdash;and <i>your</i> eyes&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"With <i>your</i> hair!"</p>
+
+<p>"And <i>your</i> eyes&mdash;John Drogue&mdash;John Drogue&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The stillness of Paradise grew all around us, filling my soul with a
+great and heavenly silence.</p>
+
+<p>We could not die&mdash;we two who stood here so closely clasped&mdash;until this
+vision had been fulfilled.</p>
+
+<p>And so, presently, her hands fell into mine, and our lips joined slowly,
+and rested.</p>
+
+<p>We said no word. I left her standing there in the golden twilight of the
+curtains, and got to my saddle,&mdash;God knows how,&mdash;and rode away beside
+the quiet river to the certain destiny that no man ever can hope to
+hinder or escape.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI</h2>
+
+<h3>"IN THE VALLEY"</h3>
+
+
+<p>On the 24th of June, 1777, Major General Lord Stirling had disobeyed the
+orders of His Excellency; and, in consequence, his flank was turned, he
+lost two guns and 150 men.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></p>
+
+<p>It is the only military mistake that my Lord Stirling ever made; the
+only lesson he ever had to learn in military judgment and obedience.</p>
+
+<p>I was of his family for three years,&mdash;serving as one of his secretaries
+and aids-de-camp.</p>
+
+<p>I was present at the battle of Brandywine; I served under him at
+Germantown in the fog, and at Monmouth; and never doubted that my Lord
+Stirling was a fine and capable and knightly soldier, if not possibly a
+great one.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, perhaps, there was only one great soldier in that long and bloody
+war of the American Revolution. I need not name His Excellency.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>For nearly three years, as I say, I served as a member of Lord
+Stirling's military family. The lights and shadows of those days of fire
+and ice, of plenty and starvation, of joy and despair, of monstrous and
+incredible effort, and of paralyzing inaction, are known now to all.</p>
+
+<p>And the end is not yet&mdash;nor, I fear, very near to a finish. But we all
+await our nation's destiny with confidence, I think;&mdash;and our own fate
+with composure.</p>
+
+<p>No man can pass through such years and remain what he was born. No man
+can regret them; none can dare wish to live through such days again;
+none would shun them. And how many months, or years, maybe, of fighting
+still remain before us, no man can foretell. But the grim men in their
+scare-crow regimentals who today, in the present year of 1780, are
+closing ranks to prepare for future battles, even in the bitter
+aftermath of defeat, seem to know, somehow, that this nation is
+destined to survive.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>From the month of August in 1777 to May, 1780, I had not seen Penelope;
+I had asked for no leave to travel, knowing, by reason of my
+confidential office and better than many others, how desperate was our
+army's plight and how utterly every able-bodied man was needed.</p>
+
+<p>In consequence, I had not seen my own Northland in all those months; I
+had not seen Penelope. Letters I wrote and sent to her when opportunity
+offered; letters came from her, and always written from Caughnawaga.</p>
+
+<p>For it appeared that Douw Fonda had never consented to return to Albany;
+but, by some miracle of God, the Valley so far had suffered no serious
+harm. Yet, the terrible business at Wyoming renewed my every crudest
+fear for the safety of Caughnawaga; and when, in the same year, a
+Continental regiment of the Pennsylvania Line marched out from Schoharie
+to destroy Unadilla, I, who knew the Iroquois, knew that their revenge
+was certain to follow.</p>
+
+<p>It followed in that very year; and Cherry Valley became a bloodsoaked
+heap of cinders; and there, under Iroquois knife and hatchet, and under
+the merciless clubbed muskets of the <i>blue-eyed</i> Indians, many of my old
+friends died&mdash;all of the Wells family save only one&mdash;old and young and
+babies. What a crime was done by young Walter Butler on that fearful
+day! And I sometimes wonder, now, what our generous but sentimental
+young Marquis thinks of his deed of mercy when he saw and pitied Walter
+Butler in an Albany prison, sick and under sentence of death, and
+procured medical treatment for him and more comfortable quarters in a
+private residence.</p>
+
+<p>And Butler drugged his sentry and slipped our fingers like a rat and was
+off in a trice and gone to his bloody destiny in the West!
+Lord&mdash;Lord!&mdash;the things men do to men!</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>When Brant burned Minnisink I trembled anew for Caughnawaga; and
+breathed freely only when our General Sullivan marched on Tioga with six
+thousand men.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, though he cleaned out the foul and hidden nests of the Iroquois
+Confederacy, I, knowing these same Iroquois, knew in my dreading heart
+that Iroquois vengeance would surely strike again, and this time at the
+Valley.</p>
+
+<p>Because, out of the Mohawk Valley, came all their chiefest woes;
+Oriskany, which set the whole Six Nations howling their dead;
+Stillwater; Unadilla; Tioga; The Chemung&mdash;these battles tore the
+Iroquois to fragments.</p>
+
+<p>The Long House, in ruins, rang with the frantic wailing of four fierce
+nations. The Senecas screamed in their pain from the Western Gate; the
+Cayugas and Onondagas were singing the death song of their nations; the
+proud Keepers of the Eastern Gate, driven headlong into exile, gathered
+like bleeding panthers on the frontier, their glowing gaze intent and
+patient, watching the usurpers and marking them for vengeance and
+destruction.</p>
+
+<p>To me, personally, the conflict in my Northland had become unutterably
+horrible.</p>
+
+<p>Our battles in the Jerseys, in Pennsylvania, in Delaware, and farther
+south, held for me no such horror and repugnance; for if the panoply of
+war be dreadful, its pomp and circumstance make it endurable and to be
+understood by human beings.</p>
+
+<p>But to me there was something terrifying in secret ambush and ghastly
+massacre amid the eternal twilight of the Northern wilderness, where
+painted men stole through still places, intent on murder; where death
+was swift and silent, where all must watch and none dared rest; where
+children wept in their sleep, and mothers lay listening all night long,
+and hollow-eyed men cut their corn with sickle in one hand and rifle in
+the other.</p>
+
+<p>We, in the Jerseys, watching red-coat and Hessian, heard of scalps taken
+in the North from babies lying in their cradles&mdash;aye, the very watch-dog
+at the gate was scalped; and painted Tories threw their victims over
+rail fences to hang there, disembowelled, like dead game.</p>
+
+<p>We heard terrible and inhuman tales of Simon Girty, of Benjy Beacraft,
+of Billy Newbury&mdash;all old neighbours of mine, and now turned
+child-killers and murderers of helpless women&mdash;all painted men, now,
+ferocious and without mercy.</p>
+
+<p>But these men had never been more than ignorant peasants and dull
+tillers of the soil for thriftier masters. Yet they were no crueller
+than others of birth and education. And what was I to think of Walter
+Butler and other gentlemen of like condition,&mdash;officers who had
+delivered Tom Boyd of Derry to the Senecas,&mdash;Colonel Paris to the
+Mohawks!</p>
+
+<p>The day we heard that Sergeant Newbury and Henry Hare were taken, I
+thanked God on my knees. And when our General Clinton hung them both for
+human monsters as well as spies, then I thanked God again.... And wrote
+tenderly to Claudia, poor misguided girl!&mdash;condoling with her&mdash;not for
+her grief and the death of Henry Hare<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a>&mdash;but that the black disgrace
+of it should so nearly touch and soil her.</p>
+
+<p>I have received, so far, no letter from Claudia in reply. But Lord
+Stirling tells me that she reigns a belle in New York; and that she hath
+wrought havoc among the Queen's Rangers, and particularly in De Lancy's
+Horse and the gay cavalry of Colonel Tarleton.</p>
+
+<p>I pray her pretty, restless wings may not be singed or broken, or
+flutter, dying, in the web of Fate.</p>
+
+<p>Nick Stoner's father, Henry, that grim old giant with his two earhoops
+in his leathery ears, and with all his brawn, and mighty strength, and
+the lurking scowl deep bitten betwixt his tiger eyes,&mdash;old Henry Stoner
+is dead and scalped.</p>
+
+<p>Nick, who is now fife-major, has writ me this in a letter full of oaths
+and curses for the Iroquois who have done this shame to him and his.</p>
+
+<p>For every hair on old Henry's mangled head, said he, an Iroquois should
+spit out his death-yell. He tells me that he means to quit the army and
+enter the business of tanning Iroquois hides to make boots and
+moccasins; and says that Tim Murphy has knee moccasins as fine as ever
+he saw, and made out o' leather skinned off an Indian's legs!</p>
+
+<p>Faugh! Grief and shame have made Nick blood-mad.... Yet, I know not what
+I should do, or how conduct, if she who is nearest to my heart should
+ever suffer from an Indian.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>This sweet April day, taking the air near Lord Stirling's marquee, I see
+the first white butterflies a-fluttering like windblown bits o' paper
+across the new grass.... In the North the woodlands should be soft with
+snow; and, in warm places, perhaps the butterfly we call the beauty of
+Camberwell may sit sipping the first drops o' maple sap.... And there
+should be a scent of pink arbutus in the breeze, if winds be soft....
+Lord&mdash;Lord&mdash;I am become sick for home.... And would see my glebe again
+in Fonda's Bush; and hear the spring roaring of the Kennyetto between
+melting banks.... And listen to the fairy thunder of the cock partridge
+drumming on his log.</p>
+
+<p>My neighbours are all dead or gone away, they say. My house is a heap of
+wind-stirred ashes,&mdash;as are all houses in Fonda's Bush save only
+Stoner's. My cleared land sprouts young forests; my fences are gone;
+wolves travel my paths; deer pasture my hill; and my new orchard stands
+dead and girdled by wood-mouse and rabbit.... And still I be sick for a
+sight of it that was once my home,&mdash;and ever shall be while I possess a
+handful of mother earth to call mine own.</p>
+
+<p>It is near the end of April and I seem sick, but would not have Billy
+Alexander think I mope.</p>
+
+<p>I have a letter from Penelope. She lately saw a small scout on the
+Mohawk, it being a part of M'Kean's corps; and she recognized and
+conversed with several men who once composed my first war party&mdash;Jean de
+Silver, Benjamin De Luysnes, Joe de Golyer of Frenchman's Creek, and
+Godfrey Shew of Fish House.</p>
+
+<p>They were on their way to Canada by way of Sacandaga, to learn what Sir
+John might be about.... God knows I also desire very earnestly to know
+what the sinister Baronet may be planning.</p>
+
+<p>Penelope writes me that Tahioni the Wolf is dead in his glory; and that
+Hiakatoo took his scalp and heart.... I suppose that is glory enough for
+any dead young warrior, but the intelligence fills me with foreboding.
+And Kwiyeh the Screech-owl is dead at Lake Desolation, and so is Hanatoh
+the Water-snake, where some Praying Indians caught them in a canoe and
+made a dreadful example of my two young comrades.... But at least they
+were permitted to sing their death-songs, and so died happy&mdash;if that
+indeed be happiness....</p>
+
+<p>The Cadys, who were gone off to Canada, and John and Phil Helmer, have
+been seen in green uniforms and red; and Adam Helmer has sworn an oath
+to seek them, follow them, and slay them for the bloody turncoat dogs
+they are. Lord, Lord, how hast Thou changed Thy children into creatures
+of the wild to prey one upon another till all the Northland becomes once
+more a desert and empty of human life!</p>
+
+<p>It is May. I sicken for Penelope and for my home.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>I am given a furlough! I asked it not. Lord Stirling dismisses me&mdash;with
+a grin. Pretense of inspection covering the Johnstown district, and to
+count the batteaux between Schenectady and the Creek of Askalege! Which
+is but sheer nonsense; and I had as well spend the time a-telling of my
+thumbs&mdash;which Lord Stirling knows as well as I is the pastime of an
+idiot.... God bless him!</p>
+
+<p>I am given a month, to arrange my personal affairs. I have asked for
+nothing; and am given a month!... And stand here at the tent door all
+a-tremble while my mare is saddled, not trusting my voice lest it break
+and shame me before all....</p>
+
+<p>I close my <i>carnet</i> and strap it with a buckle.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>I am on my way! Shad-bushes drop a million snowy petals in the soft May
+breeze; dogwood is in bloom; orchards are become great nosegays of pink
+and silver. Everywhere birds are singing.</p>
+
+<p>And through this sweet Paradise I ride in my dingy regimentals; but my
+pistols are clean and my leathers; and my sword and spurs are bright,
+and chime gaily as I ride beside the great gray river northward, ever
+northward to my sweetheart and my home.</p>
+
+<p>I baited at Tarrytown. The next night I was at Poughkeepsie, where the
+landlord was a low-Dutchman and a skinflint too.</p>
+
+<p>I passed opposite to where Kingston lay in ashes, burned wantonly by a
+brute. And after that I advanced but slowly, for roads were bad and folk
+dour and suspicious&mdash;which state of mind I also shared and had no
+traffic with those I encountered, and chose to camp in the woods, too,
+rather than risk a night under the dubious roofs I saw, even though
+invited.</p>
+
+<p>Only near the military posts in the Highlands did I feel truly secure
+until, one day at sunrise, I beheld the shining spires of Albany, and
+hundreds of gilded weather-cocks all shining me a welcome.</p>
+
+<p>But in Albany streets I encountered silent people who looked upon me
+with no welcome in their haunted gaze; and everywhere I saw the same
+strange look,&mdash;pinched faces, brooding visages, a strained, intent gaze,
+yet vacant too, as though their eyes, which looked at me, saw nothing
+save some hidden vision within their secret minds.</p>
+
+<p>I baited at the Half-Moon; and now I learned for the first what
+anxieties harassed these good burghers of the old Dutch city. For rumour
+had come the night before on the heels of a galloping light-horseman,
+that Sir John was expected to enter the Valley by the Sacandaga route;
+and that already strange Indians had been seen near Askalege.</p>
+
+<p>How these same rumours originated nobody seemed to know. The light
+horseman had them from batteaux-men at Schenectady. But who carried such
+alarming news to the Queen's Fort nobody seemed to know, only that the
+garrison had become feverishly active, and three small scouts were
+preparing to start for Schoharie and Caughnawaga.</p>
+
+<p>All this from the landlord, a gross, fat, speckled man who trembled like
+a dish of jelly as he told it.</p>
+
+<p>But as I went out to climb into my saddle, leaving my samp and morning
+draught untasted, comes a-riding a gay company of light horse, careless
+and debonaire. Their officer saluted my uniform and, as I spurred up
+beside him and questioned him, he smilingly assured me that the rumours
+had no foundation; that if Sir John came at all he would surely arrive
+by the Susquehanna; and that our scouts would give warning to the Valley
+in ample time.</p>
+
+<p>God knows that what he said comforted me somewhat, yet I did not choose
+to lose any time at breakfast, either; so bought me a loaf at a
+bake-shop, and ate as I rode forward.</p>
+
+<p>At noon I rode into the Queen's Fort and there fed Kaya. I saw no
+unusual activity there; none in the town, none on the river.</p>
+
+<p>Officers of whom I made inquiry had heard nothing concerning Sir John;
+did not expect a raid from him before autumn anyway, and vowed that
+General Sullivan had scotched the Iroquois snake in its den and driven
+the fear o' God into Sir John and the two Butlers with the cannon at
+Chemung.</p>
+
+<p>As I rode westward again, I saw all around me men at work in the fields,
+plowing here, seeding there, clearing brush-fields yonder. There seemed
+to be no dread among these people; all was calm as the fat Dutch cattle
+that stood belly deep in meadows, watching me out o' gentle, stupid eyes
+as I rode on toward Caughnawaga.</p>
+
+<p>A woman whom I encountered, and who was driving geese, stopped to answer
+my inquiries. From her I learned that Colonel Fisher, at Caughnawaga,
+had received a letter from Colonel Jacob Klock six days ago, which
+stated that Sir John Johnson was marching on the Valley. But she assured
+me that this news was now entirely discredited by everybody, because on
+Sunday a week ago Captain Walter Vrooman, of Guilderland, had marched
+his company to Caughnawaga, but on arriving was told he was not needed,
+and so continued on to Johnstown.</p>
+
+<p>I do not know why all these assurances from the honest people of the
+Valley did not ease my mind.</p>
+
+<p>Around me as I rode all was sunny, still, and peaceful, yet deep in my
+heart always I seemed to feel the faint pulse of fear as I looked
+around me upon a smiling region once familiar and upon which I had not
+laid eyes for nearly three whole years.</p>
+
+<p>And my nearness to Penelope, too, so filled me with happy impatience
+that the last mile seemed a hundred leagues on the dusty Schenectady
+road.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>I had just come into view of the first chimneys of Caughnawaga, and was
+riding by an empty waggon driven by an old man, when, very far away, I
+heard a gun-shot.</p>
+
+<p>I drew bridle sharply and asked the man in the waggon if he also had
+heard it; but his waggon rattled and he had not. However, he also pulled
+up; and we stood still, listening.</p>
+
+<p>Then, again, and softened by distance, came another gun-shot.</p>
+
+<p>The old man thought it might be some farmer emptying his piece to clean
+it.</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, still far away along the river we heard several shots fired
+in rapid succession.</p>
+
+<p>With that, the old man fetched a yell: "Durn-ding it!" he screeched, "if
+Sir John's in the Valley it ain't no place for my old woman and me!" And
+he lashed his horses with the reins, and drove at a crazy gallop toward
+the distant firing.</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment I spurred Kaya, who bounded forward over the rise of
+land; and instantly I saw smoke in the sky beyond the Johnstown Road,
+and caught a glimpse of other fires in another direction, very near to
+where should stand the dwellings of Jim Davis and Sampson Sammons.</p>
+
+<p>And now, seated by the roadside just ahead, I saw a young man whom I
+knew by sight, named Abe Veeder; and I pulled in my horse and called to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>He would not move or notice me, and seemed distracted; so I spurred up
+to him and caught him by the shirt collar. At that he jumps up in a
+fright, and:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Jesus!" he bawls, "Sir John's red devils are murdering everybody
+from Johnstown to the River!"</p>
+
+<p>"Where are they?" I cried. "Answer me and compose yourself!"</p>
+
+<p>"Where are they?" he shrieked. "Why, they're everywhere! Lodowick
+Putman's house is afire and they've murdered him and Aaron. Amasa
+Stevens' house is burning, and he hangs naked and scalped on his garden
+fence!</p>
+
+<p>"They killed Billy Gault and that other man from the old country, and
+they murdered Captain Hansen in his bed, and his house is all afire!
+Everything in the Valley is afire!" he screamed, wringing his scorched
+hands, "Tribes Hill is burning, Fisher's is on fire, and the Colonel and
+John and Harmon all murdered&mdash;all scalped and lying dead in the
+barn!&mdash;--"</p>
+
+<p>"Listen to me!" I cried, shaking the wretched fellow, "when did this
+happen? Are Sir John's people still here? Where are they?"</p>
+
+<p>"It happened last night and lasted after sunrise this morning," he
+blubbered. "Everything is burning from Schoharie to the Nose, and
+they'll come back and kill the rest of us&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>I flung him aside, struck spurs, and galloped for Cayadutta Lodge.</p>
+
+<p>Everywhere I looked I saw smoke; barns were but heaps of live coals,
+houses marked only by charred cellars out of which flames leaped.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, I saw the church still standing, and Dr. Romeyn's parsonage still
+intact, though all doors and windows stood wide open and bedding and
+broken furniture lay scattered over the grass.</p>
+
+<p>But Adam Fonda's house was burning and the dwelling of Major Jelles was
+on fire; and now I caught sight of Douw Fonda's great stone house, with
+its two wings and tall chimneys of hewn stone.</p>
+
+<p>It was not burning, but shutters hung from their hinges, window glass
+was shattered, doors smashed in, and all over the trampled garden and
+lawn lay a débris of broken furniture, tattered books, bedding,
+fragments of fine china and torn garments.</p>
+
+<p>And there, face downward on the bloody grass, lay old Douw Fonda, his
+aged skull split to the backbone, his scalp gone.</p>
+
+<p>Such a sick horror seized me that I reeled in my saddle and the world
+grew dark before my eyes for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>But my mind cleared again and my eyes, also; and I sat my horse, pistol
+in hand, searching the desolation about me for a sign of aught that
+remained alive in this awful spot.</p>
+
+<p>I heard no more gun-shots up the river. The silence was terrible.</p>
+
+<p>At length, ill with fear, I got out of my saddle and led Kaya to the
+shattered gate and there tied her.</p>
+
+<p>Then I entered that ruined mansion to search it for what I feared most
+horribly to discover,&mdash;searched every room, every closet, every corner
+from attic to cellar. And then came out and took my horse by the bridle.</p>
+
+<p>For there was nobody within the house, living or dead&mdash;no sign of death
+anywhere save there on the grass, where that poor corpse lay, a
+grotesque thing sprawling indecently in its blood.</p>
+
+<p>Then, as I stood there, a man appeared, slinking up the road. He was in
+his shirt sleeves, wore no hat, and his face and hair were streaked red
+from a wet wound over his left ear. He carried a fire-lock; and when he
+discovered me in my Continental uniform he swerved and shuffled toward
+me, making a hopeless gesture as he came on.</p>
+
+<p>"They've all gone off," he called out to me, "green-coats, red-coats and
+savages. I saw them an hour since crossing the river some three miles
+above. God! What a harm have they done us here on this accursed day!"</p>
+
+<p>He crept nearer and stood close beside me and looked down at the body of
+Douw Fonda. But in my overwhelming grief I no longer noticed him.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, sir," says he, "a devil out o' hell would have spared yonder good
+old man. But Sir John's people slew him. I saw him die. I saw the murder
+done with my own eyes."</p>
+
+<p>Startled from my agonized reflections, I turned and gazed at him, still
+stunned by the calamity which had crushed me.</p>
+
+<p>"I say I saw that old man die!" he repeated shrilly. "I saw them scalp
+him, too!"</p>
+
+<p>I summoned all my courage: "Did&mdash;did you know Penelope Grant?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aye."</p>
+
+<p>"Is&mdash;is she dead?" I whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"I think she is, sir. Listen, sir: I am Jan Myndert, Bouw-Meester to
+Douw Fonda. I saw Mistress Grant this morning. It was after sunrise and
+our servants and black slaves had been long a-stirring, and soupaan
+a-cooking, and none dreamed of any trouble. No, sir! Why&mdash;God help us
+all!&mdash;the black wenches were at their Monday washing, and the farm bell
+was ringing, and I was at the new barrack a-sorting out seed.</p>
+
+<p>"And the old gentleman, <i>he</i> was up and dressed and supped his porridge
+along with me, sir; for he rose always with the sun, sir, feeble though
+he seemed.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;&mdash;" he passed a cinder-blackened hand across his hair; drew it away
+red and sticky; stood gazing at the stain with a stupid air until I
+could not endure his silence; and burst out:</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you last see Mistress Grant?"</p>
+
+<p>But my violence confused him, and it seemed difficult for him to speak
+when finally he found voice at all:</p>
+
+<p>"Sir&mdash;as I have told you, I had been sorting seeds for early planting,
+in the barracks," he said tremulously, "and I was walking, as I
+remember, toward the house, when, of a sudden, I heard musket-firing
+toward Johnstown, and not very far distant.</p>
+
+<p>"With that comes a sound of galloping and rattle o' wheels, and I see
+Barent Wemple standing up in his red-painted farm waggon, and whipping
+his fine colts, and a keg o' rum bouncing behind him in the
+waggon-box,&mdash;which rolled off as the horses reached the river&mdash;and
+galloped into it&mdash;them two colts, sir,&mdash;breast deep in the river!</p>
+
+<p>"Then I shouts down to him: 'Barent! Barent! Is it them red devils of
+Sir John? Or why be you in such a God-a'mighty hurry?'</p>
+
+<p>"But Barent he is too busy cutting his traces to notice me; and up onto
+one o' the colts he jumps and seizes t'other by the head, and away
+across the shoals, leaving his new red waggon there in the water,
+hub-deep.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I run to the house and I fall to shouting: 'Look out! Look out!
+Sir John is in the Valley!' And then I run to the house, where my gun
+stands, and where the black boys and wenches are all a-screeching and
+a-praying.</p>
+
+<p>"Somebody calls out that Captain Fisher's house is on fire; and then, of
+a sudden, I see a flock o' naked, whooping devils come leaping down the
+road.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, sir, I saw Mistress Grant in her shift come out in the dew and
+stand yonder in her bare feet, a-looking across at them red devils,
+bounding and leaping about the Fisher place.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, out o' the house toddles Douw Fonda with his gold headed cane and
+his favorite book. Sir, though the poor old gentleman was childish, he
+still knew an Indian when he saw one. 'Fetch me a gun!' he cries. 'I
+take command here!' And then he sees Mistress Grant, and he pipes out in
+his cracked voice: 'Stand your ground, Penelope! Have no fear, my child.
+I command this post! I will protect you!'</p>
+
+<p>"The green-coats and savages were now swarming around the house of Major
+Jelles, whooping and yelling and capering and firing off their guns.
+Bang-bang-bang! Jesus! the noise of their musketry stopped your ears.</p>
+
+<p>"Then Mistress Grant she took the old gentleman by the arm and was
+begging him to go with her through the orchard, where we now could see
+Mrs. Romeyn running up the hill and carrying her two little children in
+her arms.</p>
+
+<p>"I also went to Mr. Fonda and took him by the other arm, but he walked
+with us only to the porch and there seized my gun that I had left
+there.</p>
+
+<p>"'Stand fast, Penelope!' he pipes up, 'I will defend your life and
+honour!' And further he would not budge, but turns mulish, yet too
+feeble to lift the gun he clung to with a grip I could not loosen lest I
+break his bones.</p>
+
+<p>"We got him, with his gun a-dragging, into the house, but could force
+him no farther, for he resisted and reproached me, demanding that I
+stand and face the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>"At that, through the window of the library wing I see a body of
+green-coats,&mdash;some three hundred or better,&mdash;marching down the
+Schenectady road. And some score of these, and as many Indians, were
+leaving the Major's house, which they had fired; and now all began to
+run toward us, firing off their muskets at our house as they came on.</p>
+
+<p>"I was grazed, as you see, sir, and the blow dashed out my senses for a
+moment. But when I came alive I found I had fallen beside the wainscot
+of the east wall, where is a secret spring panel made for Mr. Fonda's
+best books. My fall jarred it open; and into this closet I crawled; and
+the next moment the library was filled with the trample of yelling men.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard Mistress Grant give a kind of choking cry, and, through the
+crack of the wainscot door, I saw a green-coat put one hand over her
+mouth and hold her, cursing her for a rebel slut and telling her to hush
+her damned head or he'd do the proper business for her.</p>
+
+<p>"An Indian I knew, called Quider, and having only one arm, took hold of
+Mr. Fonda and led him from the library and out to the lawn, where I
+could see them both through the west window. The Indian acted kind to
+the old gentleman, gave him his hat and his book and cane, and conducted
+him south across the lawn. I could see it all plainly through the
+wainscot crack.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, of a sudden, the one-armed Indian swung his hatchet and clove
+that helpless and bewildered old man clean down to his neck cloth. And
+there, before all assembled, he took the old man's few white hairs for a
+scalp!</p>
+
+<p>"Then a green-coat called out to ask why he had slain such an old and
+feeble man, who had often befriended him; and the one-armed Indian,
+Quider, replied that if he hadn't killed Douw Fonda somebody else might
+have done so, and so he, Quider, thought he'd do it and get the
+scalp-bounty for himself.</p>
+
+<p>"And all this time the Indians and green-coats were running like wild
+wolves all over the house, stealing, destroying, yelling, flinging out
+books from the library shelves, ripping off curtains and bed-covers,
+flinging linen from chests, throwing crockery about, and keeping up a
+continual screeching.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, I do not know why they did not set fire to the house. I do not
+know how my hiding place remained unnoticed.</p>
+
+<p>"From where I kneeled on the closet floor, and my face all over blood, I
+could see Mistress Grant across the room, sitting on a sofa, whither the
+cursing green-coat had flung her. She was deathly white but calm, and
+did not seem afraid; and she answered the filthy beasts coolly enough
+when they addressed her.</p>
+
+<p>"Then a big chair, which they had ripped up to look for money, was
+pushed against my closet, and the back of it closed the wainscot crack,
+so that I could no longer see Mistress Grant.</p>
+
+<p>"And that is all I know, sir. For the firing began again outside; they
+all ran out, and when I dared creep forth Mistress Grant was gone....
+And I lay still for a time, and then found a jug o' rum. When I could
+stand up I followed the destructives at a distance. And, an hour since,
+I saw the last stragglers crossing the river rifts some three miles
+above us.... And that is all, I think, sir."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>And that was all.... The end of all things.... Or so it seemed to me.</p>
+
+<p>For now I cared no longer for life. The world had become horrible; the
+bright sunshine seemed a monstrous sacrilege where it blazed down,
+unveiling every detail of this ghastly Golgotha&mdash;this valley in ashes
+now made sacred by my dear love's martyrdom. Slowly I looked around me,
+still stupefied, helpless, not knowing where to seek my dead, which way
+to turn.</p>
+
+<p>And now my dulled gaze became fixed upon the glittering river, where
+something was moving.... And presently I realize it was a batteau, poled
+slowly shoreward by two tall riflemen in their fringes.</p>
+
+<p>"Holloa! you captain-mon out yonder!" bawled one o' them, his great
+voice coming to me through his hollowed hand.</p>
+
+<p>Leading my horse I walked toward them as in a fiery nightmare, and the
+sun but a vast and dancing blaze in my burning eyes. One of the riflemen
+leaped ashore:</p>
+
+<p>"Is anny wan alive in this place?" he began loudly; then: "Jasus! It's
+Captain Drogue. F'r the love o' God, asthore! Are they all dead entirely
+in Caughnawaga, savin' yourself, sorr, an' the Dominie's wife an'
+childer, an' the yellow-haired lass o' Douw Fonda&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>I caught him by the rifle-cape. My clutch shook him; and I was shaking,
+too, so I could not pronounce clearly:</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Penelope Grant?" I stammered. "Where did you see her, Tim
+Murphy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who's that?" he demanded, striving to loosen my grip. "Ah, the poor
+lad, he's crazy! Lave me loose, avie! Is it the yellow-haired lass ye
+ask for?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;where is she?"</p>
+
+<p>"God be good to you, Jack Drogue, she's on the hill yonder with Mrs.
+Romeyn an' the two childer!&mdash;--" He took my arm, turned me partly
+around, and pointed:</p>
+
+<p>"D'ye mind the pine? The big wan, I mean, betchune the two ellums? 'Twas
+an hour since that we seen her foreninst the pine-tree yonder, an' the
+Romeyn childer hidin' their faces in her skirt&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>I swung my horse and flung myself across the saddle.</p>
+
+<p>"She's safe, I warrant," cried Murphy, as I rode off; "Sir John's divils
+was gone off two hours whin we seen her safe and sound on the long
+hill!"</p>
+
+<p>I galloped over the shattered fence which was still afire where the
+charred rails lay in the grass.</p>
+
+<p>As I spurred up the bank opposite, I caught sight of a mounted officer
+on the stony Johnstown road, advancing at a trot, and behind him a mass
+of sweating militia jogging doggedly down hill in a rattle of pebbles
+and dust.</p>
+
+<p>When the mounted officer saw me he shouted through the dust-cloud that
+Sir John had been at the Hall, seized his plate and papers, and a lot of
+prisoners, and had murdered innocent people in Johnstown streets.</p>
+
+<p>Tim Murphy and his comrade, Elerson, also came up, calling out to the
+Johnstown men that they had come from Schoharie, and that both militia
+and Continentals were marching to the Valley.</p>
+
+<p>There was some cheering. I pushed my horse impatiently through the crowd
+and up the hill. But a little way farther on the road was choked with
+troops arriving on a run; and they had brought cohorns and their
+ammunition waggon, and God knows what!&mdash;alas! too late to oppose or
+punish the blood-drenched demons who had turned the Caughnawaga Valley
+to a smoking hell.</p>
+
+<p>Now, my horse was involved with all these excited people, and I,
+exasperated, thought I never should get clear of the soldiery and
+cohorns, but at length pushed a way through to the woods on my right,
+and spurred my mare into them and among the larger elms and pines where
+sheep had pastured, and there was less brush.</p>
+
+<p>I could not see the great pine now, but thought I had marked it down;
+and so bore again to the right, where through the woods I could see a
+glimmer of sun along cleared land.</p>
+
+<p>It was rocky; my horse slipped and I was obliged to walk him upward
+among stony places, where moss grew green and deep.</p>
+
+<p>And now, through a fringe of saplings, I caught a glimpse of the two
+elms and the tall pine between.</p>
+
+<p>"Penelope!" I cried. Then I saw her.</p>
+
+<p>She was standing as once she stood the first time ever I laid eyes on
+her. The sun shone in her face and made of her yellow hair a glory. And
+I saw her naked feet shining snow white, ankle deep in the wet grass.</p>
+
+<p>As though sun-dazzled she drew one hand swiftly across her eyes when I
+rode up, leaned over, and swung her up into my arms. And earth and sky
+and air became one vast and thrilling void through which no sound
+stirred save the wild beating of her heart and mine.</p>
+
+<p>Then, as from an infinite distance, came a thin cry, piercing our still
+paradise.</p>
+
+<p>Her arms loosened on my neck; we looked down as in a dream; and there
+were the little Romeyn children in the grass, naked in their shifts, and
+holding tightly to my stirrup.</p>
+
+<p>And now we saw light horsemen leading their mounts this way, and the
+poor Dominie's lady carried on a trooper's saddle, her bare foot
+clinging to the shortened stirrup.</p>
+
+<p>Other troopers lifted the children to their saddles; a great hubbub
+began below us along the Schenectady highway, where I now heard drums
+and the shrill marching music of an arriving regiment.</p>
+
+<p>I reached behind me, unstrapped my military mantle, clasped it around
+Penelope, swathed her body warmly, and linked up the chain. Then I
+touched Kaya with my left knee&mdash;she guiding left at such slight
+pressure&mdash;and we rode slowly over the sheep pasture and then along the
+sheep-walk, westward until we arrived at the bars. The bars were down
+and lay scattered over the grass. And thus we came quietly out into the
+Johnstown road.</p>
+
+<p>So still lay Penelope in my arms that I thought, at times, she was
+asleep; but ever, as I bent over her, her dark eyes unclosed, gazing up
+at me in tragic silence.</p>
+
+<p>Cautiously we advanced along the Johnstown road, Kaya cantering where
+the way was easy.</p>
+
+<p>We passed ruined houses, still smoking, but Penelope did not see them.
+And once I saw a dead man lying near a blackened cellar; and a dead
+hound near him.</p>
+
+<p>Long before we came in sight of Johnstown I could hear the distant
+quaver of the tocsin, where, on the fort, the iron bell rang ceaselessly
+its melancholy warning.</p>
+
+<p>And after a while I saw a spire above distant woods, and the setting sun
+brilliant on gilt weather-vanes.</p>
+
+<p>I bent over Penelope: "We arrive," I whispered.</p>
+
+<p>One little hand stole out and drew aside the collar of the cloak; and
+she turned her head and saw the roofs and chimneys shining red in the
+westering sun.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack," she said faintly.</p>
+
+<p>"I listen, beloved."</p>
+
+<p>"Douw Fonda is dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Hush! I know it, love."</p>
+
+<p>"Douw Fonda is with God since sunrise," she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know.... And many others, too, Penelope."</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head vaguely, looking up at me all the while.</p>
+
+<p>"It came so swiftly.... I was still abed.... The guns awoke me.... And
+the blacks screaming. I ran to the window of my chamber.</p>
+
+<p>"A Continental soldier was driving an army cart toward the Johnstown
+road. And I saw him jump out of his cart,<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> cut his traces, mount,
+turn his horse, and gallop down the valley.... That was the first real
+fear that assailed me, when I saw that soldier flee.... I went below
+immediately; and saw Indians near the Fisher place.... But I could not
+persuade Mr. Fonda to escape with me through the orchard.... He would
+not go, Jack&mdash;he would not listen to me or to the Bouw-Meester, who also
+had hold of him.</p>
+
+<p>"And when we went into the library somebody fired through the window and
+hit the Bouw-Meester.... I don't know what happened to him or where he
+fell.... For the next moment the house was full of green-coats and
+savages.... They led Mr. Fonda out of the house.... An Indian killed him
+with a hatchet.... A green-coat took hold of me and said he meant to
+cut my throat for a damned rebel slut! But an Indian pushed him away....
+They disputed. An officer of the Indian Department came into the library
+and told me to go out to the orchard and escape if I was able.</p>
+
+<p>"Then a Tory neighbour of ours, Joseph Clement, came in and shouted out
+in low Dutch: Laat de vervlukten rabble starven!'<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> ... A green-coat
+clubbed his musket to slay me, but the Indian officer caught the gun and
+called out to me: 'Run! Run, you yellow-haired slut!'</p>
+
+<p>"But I dared not stir to pass by where Clement stood with his gun. I
+caught up a heavy silver candle-stick, broke the window with two blows,
+and leaped out into the orchard.... Clement ran around the house and I
+saw him enter the orchard, carrying a gun and looking for me; but I lay
+very still under the lilac hedge; and he must have thought I had run
+down to the river, for he went off that way.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I got to my feet and crept up the hill.... And presently saw Mrs.
+Romeyn and the children toiling up the hill; and helped her carry
+them.... All the morning we hid there and looked down at the burning
+houses.... And after a long while the firing grew more distant.</p>
+
+<p>"And then&mdash;and then&mdash;<i>you</i> came! My dear lord!&mdash;my lover.... My own
+lover who has come to me at last!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="AFTERMATH" id="AFTERMATH"></a>AFTERMATH</h2>
+
+
+<p>I know not how it shall be with me and mine! In this year of our Lord,
+1782, in which I write, here in the casemates at West Point, the war
+rages throughout the land, and there seems no end to it, nor none likely
+that I can see.</p>
+
+<p>That horrid treason which, through God's mercy, did not utterly confound
+us and deliver this fortress to our enemy, still seems to brood over
+this calm river and the frowning hills that buttress it, like a low,
+dark cloud.</p>
+
+<p>But I believe, under God, that our cause is now clean purged of all
+villainy, and all that is sordid, base, and contemptible.</p>
+
+<p>I believe, under God, that we shall accomplish our freedom and recover
+our ancient and English liberties in the end.</p>
+
+<p>That dull and German King, who sits yonder across the water, can never
+again stir in any American the faintest echo of that allegiance which
+once all offered simply and without question.</p>
+
+<p>Nor can his fat jester, my Lord North, contrive any new pleasantry to
+seduce us, or any new and bloody deviltry to make us fear the wrath of
+God's anointed or the monkey chatter of his clown.</p>
+
+<p>For us, the last king has sat upon a throne; the last privilege has been
+accorded to the last and noble drone; the last slave's tax has long been
+paid.</p>
+
+<p>Yet&mdash;and it sounds strange&mdash;<i>England</i> still seems <i>home</i> to us.... We
+think of it as home.... It is in our blood; and I am not ashamed to say
+it. And I think a hundred years may pass, and, in our hearts, shall
+still remain deep, deep, a tenderness for that far, ocean-severed home
+our grandsires knew as England.</p>
+
+<p>I say it spite o' the German King, spite of his mad ministers, spite o'
+British wrath and scorn and jibes and cruelty. For, by God! I believe
+that we ourselves who stand in battle here are the true mind and heart
+and loins of England, fighting to slay her baser self!</p>
+
+<p>Well, we are here in the Highlands, my sweetheart-wife and I.... I who
+now wear the regimentals of a Continental Colonel, and have a regiment
+as pretty as ever I see&mdash;though it be not over-strong in numbers. But,
+oh, the powder toughened line o' them in their patched blue-and-buff!
+And their bright bayonets! Sir, I would not boast; and ask I pardon if
+it seems so....</p>
+
+<p>Below us His Excellency, calm, imperturbable, holds in his hand our
+destinies, juggling now with Sir Henry Clinton, now with my Lord
+Cornwallis, as suits his temper and his purpose.</p>
+
+<p>The traitor, Arnold, ravages where he may; the traitor, Lee, sulks in
+retreat; and Conway has confessed his shame; and the unhappy braggart,
+Gates, now mourns his laurels, wears his willows, and sits alone, a
+broken and preposterous man.</p>
+
+<p>I think no day passes but I thank God for my Lord Stirling, for our wise
+Generals Greene and Knox and Wayne, for the gallant young Marquis, so
+loved and trusted by His Excellency.</p>
+
+<p>But war is long&mdash;oh, long and wearying!&mdash;and a dismal and vexing
+business for the most.</p>
+
+<p>I, being in garrison at this fortress, which is the keystone of our very
+liberties, find that, in barracks as in the field, every hour brings its
+anxieties and its harassing duties.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, thank God, I have some hours of leisure.... And we have leased a
+pretty cottage within our works&mdash;and our two children seem wondrous
+healthy and content.... Both have yellow hair. I wish they had their
+mother's lovely eyes!... But, for the rest, they have her beauty and her
+health.</p>
+
+<p>And shall, no doubt, inherit all the beauty of her mind and heart.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Comes a soldier servant where I sit writing:</p>
+
+<p>"Sir: Colonel Forbes' lady; her compliments to Colonel Forbes, and
+desires to be informed how soon my Colonel will be free to drink a dish
+of tea with my lady?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pray offer my compliments and profound respect to my lady, Billy, and
+say that I shall have the honour of drinking a dish of tea with my lady
+within no more than five amazing minutes!"</p>
+
+<p>And so he salutes and off he goes; and I gather up the sheaf of memoirs
+I have writ and lock them in my desk against another day.</p>
+
+<p>And so take leave of you, with every kindness, because Penelope should
+not sit waiting.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Farm overseer.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The Three Patents were Sacandaga, Kayaderosseras, and
+Stones.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Sachem: the Canienga term.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> One of his abandoned brass cannon is&mdash;or recently
+was&mdash;lying embedded in a swamp in the North Woods.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> The Screech-Owl.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> The Water-Snake.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> The River-reed.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> The noble or honourable one. The feminine of Royaneh, or
+Sachem, in the Algonquin.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Thank you.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> To show that the late owner of the scalp had died fighting
+bravely.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> This was a true prophecy for it happened later at
+Oriskany.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Years later, Thayendanegea made a reference to this
+attempt, but the inference was that he himself led the war party, which
+is not true, because Brant was then in England.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> The Huron for Canienga.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> A Mohican term of insult, but generally used to express
+contempt for the Canienga.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Oneida.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a>
+</p><p>
+_The Karenna of Thiohero_
+</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Yi-ya-thon-dek, _John Drogue_,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Da-ed-e-wenh-he-i,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Engh-si-tsko-dak-i!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yi-ya-thon-dek, _John Drogue_,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nenne-a-wenni<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yo-ya-neri<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Kenonwes!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Perhaps! He is Chief.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Beforehand.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Literally, in scarlet blood.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> The Pleiades.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> The Commissioners for selling real estate in Tryon County
+sold the personal property of Sir John Johnson some time before the Hall
+and acreage were sold. The Commissioners appointed for selling
+confiscated personal property in Tryon County were appointed later,
+March 6, 1777.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> This same man, William Newberry, a sergeant in Butler's
+regiment; and Henry Hare, lieutenant in the same regiment, were caught
+inside the American lines, court-martialed, convicted of unspeakable
+cruelties, and Were hung as spies by order of General Clinton, July 6th,
+1779.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Kon-kwe-ha. Literally, "I am a little of a real man."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> "Tortoise," or Noble Clan.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> He is an Oneida.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> "A real man," in Canienga dialect. The Saguenay's Iroquois
+is mixed and imperfect.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> "Disappearing Mist"&mdash;Sakayen-gwaration.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Che-go-sis&mdash;pickerel. In the Oneida dialect, Ska-ka-lux or
+<i>Bad-eye</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> In October, 1919, the author talked to a farmer and his
+son, who, a few days previously, while digging sand to mend the
+Johnstown road at this point, had disinterred two skeletons which had
+been buried there. From the shape of the skulls, it is presumed that the
+remains were Indian.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Indian lore. The yellow moccasin flower is the
+whippoorwill's shoe.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> A secret society common to all nations of the Iroquois
+Confederacy.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> 32 parallel to <i>The Expedition to Danbury</i>, printed in a
+Pennsylvania newspaper, May 14th, 1777.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Carkers&mdash;carcass&mdash;a shell fired from a small piece of
+artillery.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Sir Peter Parker's breeches were carried away by a round
+shot at Fort Moultrie.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> His charming but abandoned mistress.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> The house stood in the forks of the Albany and Schenectady
+road.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Catherine. Her shrine is at Auriesville&mdash;the Lourdes of
+America&mdash;where many miraculous cures are effected.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Haghriron, of the Great Rite, in the Canienga dialect.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Captain Watts was left for dead but ultimately recovered.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> The historian, J. R. Simms, says that Benjamin De Luysnes
+and his party strung up Dries Bowman, and then cut him down and let him
+go with a warning. Simms also gives a different date to this affair. At
+all events, it seems that Bowman was cut down in time to save his life.
+Simms, by the way, spells De Luysnes' name De Line. Campbell mentions
+Captain Stephen Watts as Major Stephen Watson. We all commit error.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Angelica Vrooman sewed the winding sheet for Lieutenant
+Wirt's body.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> A letter written by Colonel Butler so designates the place
+where the ancient Butler house is still standing. The letter mentioned
+is in the possession of the author.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Now the town of Fonda.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> The British account makes it three guns and 200 men.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> In the writer's possession is a letter written by the
+widow of Lieutenant Hare, retailing the circumstances of his execution
+and praying for financial relief from extreme poverty. General Sir
+Frederick Haldimand indorses the application in his own handwriting and
+recommends a pension. The widow mentions her six little children.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> The gossipy, industrious, and diverting historian, Simms,
+whose account of this incident would seem to imply that Penelope Grant
+herself related it to him, gives a different version of her testimony.
+The statement he offers is signed: "<i>Mrs. Penelope Fortes. Her maiden
+name was Grant.</i>" So Simms may have had it first hand.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> In Valley Dutch: "Let the accursed rebel die!"</p></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Little Red Foot, by Robert W. Chambers
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE RED FOOT ***
+
+***** This file should be named 37333-h.htm or 37333-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/3/3/37333/
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/37333-h/images/cover.jpg b/37333-h/images/cover.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0f5f800
--- /dev/null
+++ b/37333-h/images/cover.jpg
diff --git a/37333-h/images/tp.jpg b/37333-h/images/tp.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..83ee3c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/37333-h/images/tp.jpg
diff --git a/37333.txt b/37333.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1aed1d2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/37333.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,17911 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Little Red Foot, by Robert W. Chambers
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Little Red Foot
+
+Author: Robert W. Chambers
+
+Release Date: September 7, 2011 [EBook #37333]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE RED FOOT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                        THE LITTLE RED FOOT
+
+                       BY ROBERT W. CHAMBERS
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE SLAYER OF SOULS," "THE COMMON LAW," "IN SECRET,"
+"LORRAINE," ETC.
+
+
+    NEW YORK
+    GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
+
+    COPYRIGHT, 1921,
+    BY ROBERT W. CHAMBERS
+
+    COPYRIGHT, 1920, 1921. BY THE INTERNATIONAL
+    MAGAZINE COMPANY
+
+    PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
+
+
+            TO
+          MY SON
+    ROBERT H. CHAMBERS
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+        I SIR WILLIAM PASSES           11
+
+       II TWO PEERS SANS PEERAGE       13
+
+      III THE POT BOILS                23
+
+       IV TWO COUNTRY MICE             32
+
+        V A SUPPER                     40
+
+       VI RUSTIC GALLANTRY             51
+
+      VII BEFORE THE STORM             60
+
+     VIII SHEEP AND GOATS              68
+
+       IX STOLE AWAY                   81
+
+        X A NIGHT MARCH                86
+
+       XI SUMMER HOUSE POINT           94
+
+      XII THE SHAPE IN WHITE          102
+
+     XIII THE DROWNED LANDS           113
+
+      XIV THE LITTLE RED FOOT         124
+
+       XV WEST RIVER                  132
+
+      XVI A TROUBLED MIND             141
+
+     XVII DEEPER TROUBLE              151
+
+    XVIII FIRELIGHT                   169
+
+      XIX OUT OF THE NORTH            177
+
+       XX IN SHADOW-LAND              189
+
+      XXI THE DEMON                   197
+
+     XXII HAG-RIDDEN                  207
+
+     XXIII WINTER AND SPRING          220
+
+      XXIV GREEN-COATS                235
+
+       XXV BURKE'S TAVERN             253
+
+      XXVI ORDERS                     267
+
+     XXVII FIRE-FLIES                 283
+
+    XXVIII OYANEH!                    292
+
+      XXIX THE WOOD OF BRAKABEEN      309
+
+       XXX A LONG GOOD-BYE            322
+
+      XXXI "IN THE VALLEY"            333
+
+           AFTERMATH                  350
+
+
+
+
+THE LITTLE RED FOOT
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+SIR WILLIAM PASSES
+
+
+The day Sir William died there died the greatest American of his day.
+Because, on that mid-summer evening, His Excellency was still only a
+Virginia gentleman not yet famous, and best known because of courage and
+sagacity displayed in that bloody business of Braddock.
+
+Indeed, all Americans then living, and who since have become famous,
+were little celebrated, excepting locally, on the day Sir William
+Johnson died. Few were known outside a single province; scarcely one
+among them had been heard of abroad. But Sir William was a world figure;
+a great constructive genius; the greatest land-owner in North America; a
+wise magistrate, a victorious soldier, a builder of cities amid a
+wilderness; a redeemer of men.
+
+He was a Baronet of the British Realm; His Majesty's Superintendent of
+Indian Affairs for all North America. He was the only living white man
+implicitly trusted by the savages of this continent, because he never
+broke his word to them. He was, perhaps, the only representative of
+royal authority in the Western Hemisphere utterly believed in by the
+dishonest, tyrannical, and stupid pack of Royal Governors, Magistrates
+and lesser vermin that afflicted the colonies with the British plague.
+
+He was kind and great. All loved him. All mourned him. For he was a very
+perfect gentleman who practiced truth and honour and mercy; an
+unassuming and respectable man who loved laughter and gaiety and plain
+people.
+
+He saw the conflict coming which must drench the land in blood and dry
+with fire the blackened cinders.
+
+Torn betwixt loyalty to his King whom he had so tirelessly served, and
+loyalty to his country which he so passionately loved, it has been said
+that, rather than choose between King and Colony, he died by his own
+hand.
+
+But those who knew him best know otherwise. Sir William died of a broken
+heart, in his great Hall at Johnstown, all alone.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+His son, Sir John, killed a fine horse riding from Fort Johnson to the
+Hall. And arrived too late and all of a lather in the starlight.
+
+And I have never ceased marvelling how such a man could have been the
+son of the great Sir William.
+
+At the Hall the numerous household was all in a turmoil; and, besides
+Sir William's immediate family, there were a thousand guests--a thousand
+Iroquois Indians encamped around the Hall, with whom Sir William had
+been holding fire-council.
+
+For he had determined to restrain his Mohawks, and to maintain
+tranquillity among all the fierce warriors of the Six Nations, and so
+pledge the entire Iroquois Confederacy to an absolute neutrality in the
+imminence of this war betwixt King and Colony, which now seemed to be
+coming so rapidly upon us that already its furnace breath was heating
+restless savages to a fever.
+
+All that hot June day, though physically ill and mentally unhappy,--and
+under a vertical sun and with head uncovered,--Sir William had spoken to
+the Iroquois with belts.
+
+The day's labour of that accursed council-fire ended at sunset; sachem
+and chief departed--tall spectres in the flaming west; there was a clash
+of steel at the guard-house as the guard presented arms; Mr. Duncan
+saluted the Confederacy with lifted claymore.
+
+Then an old man, bareheaded, alone, turned away from the covered
+council-fire; and an officer, seeing how feebly he moved, flung an arm
+about his shoulders.
+
+So Sir William came slowly to his great Hall, and slowly entered. And
+laid him down in his library on a sofa.
+
+And slowly died there while the sun was going down.
+
+Then the first star came out where, in the ashes of the June sunset, a
+pale rose tint still lingered.
+
+But Sir William lay dead in his great Hall, all alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+TWO PEERS SANS PEERAGE
+
+
+Sir John had arrived and I caught sight of his heavy, expressionless
+face, which seemed more colourless than ever in the candle light.
+
+Consternation reigned in the Hall,--a vast tumult of whispering and
+guarded gabble among servants, checked by sobs,--and I saw officers come
+and go, and the tall forms of Mohawks still as pines on a summer night.
+
+The entire household was there--all excepting only Michael Cardigan and
+Felicity Warren.
+
+The two score farm slaves were there huddled along the wall in dusky
+clusters, and their great, dark eyes wet with tears.
+
+I saw Sir William's lawyer, Lafferty, come in with Flood, the Baronet's
+Bouw-Meester.[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: Farm overseer.]
+
+His blacksmith, his tailor, and his armourer were there; also his
+gardener; the German, Frank, his butler; Pontioch, his personal waiter;
+and those two uncanny and stunted servants, the Bartholomews, with their
+dead white faces and dwarfish dignity.
+
+Also I saw poor Billy, Sir William's fiddler, gulping down the blubbers;
+and there was his personal physician, Doctor Daly, very grave; and the
+servile Wall, schoolmaster to Lady Molly's brood; and I saw Nicholas,
+his valet, and black Flora, his cook, both sobbing into the same
+bandanna.
+
+The dark Lady Johnson was there, very quiet in her grief, slow-moving,
+still beautiful, having by the hands the two youngest girls and boy,
+while near her clustered the older children, fat Peter and Betsy and
+pretty Lana.
+
+A great multitude of candles burned throughout the hall; Sir William's
+silver and mahogany sparkled everywhere; and so did the naked claymores
+of the Highlanders on guard where the dead man lay in his own chamber,
+done, at last, with all perplexity and grief.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the morning came the quality in scores--all the landed gentry of
+Tryon County, Tory and Whig alike, to show their reverence:--old Colonel
+John Butler from his seat at Butlersbury near Caughnawaga, and his dark,
+graceful son Walter,--he of the melancholy golden eyes--an attorney then
+and sick of a wound which, some said, had been taken in a duel with
+Michael Cardigan near Fort Pitt.
+
+Colonel Claus was there, too, son-in-law to Sir William, and battered
+much by frontier battles: and Guy Johnson, a cousin, and a son-in-law,
+too, had come from his fine seat at Guy Park to look upon a face as
+tranquil in death as a sleeping child's.
+
+The McDonald, of damned memory, was there in his tartan and kilts and
+bonnet; and the Albany Patroon, very modest; and God knows how many
+others from far and near, all arrived to honour a man who had died very
+tired in the service of our Lord, who knows and pardons all.
+
+The pretty lady of Sir John, who was Polly Watts of New York, came to me
+where I stood in the noon breeze near the lilacs; and I kissed her hand,
+and, straightening myself, retained it, looking into her woeful face of
+a child, all marred with tears.
+
+"I had not thought to be mistress of the Hall for many years," said she,
+her lips a-tremble. "But yesterday, at this hour, he was living: and,
+today, in this hour, the heavy importunities of strange new duties are
+already crushing me.... I count on you, Jack."
+
+I made no answer.
+
+"May we not count on you?" she said. "Sir John and I expect it."
+
+As I stood silent there in the breezy sunshine by the porch, there came
+across the grass Billy Alexander, who is Lord Stirling, a man much older
+than I, but who seemed young enough; and made his reverence to Lady
+Johnson, kissing the hand which I very gently released.
+
+"Oh, Billy," says she, the tears starting again, "why should death take
+him at such a time, when God's wrath darkens all the world?"
+
+"God's convenience is not always ours," he replied, looking at me
+sideways, with a certain curiosity which I understood if Lady Johnson
+did not.
+
+She turned and gazed out across the sunny grass where, beyond the hedge
+fence, the primeval forest loomed like a dark cloud along the sky, far
+as the eye could see.
+
+"Well," says she, half to herself, "the storm is bound to break, now.
+And we women of County Tryon may need your swords, gentlemen, before
+snow flies."
+
+Lord Stirling stole another look at me. He knew as well as I how loosely
+in their scabbards lay our two swords. He knew, also, as well as I, in
+which cause would flash the swords of the landed gentry of County Tryon.
+And he knew, too, that his blade as well as mine must, one day, be
+unsheathed against them and against the stupid King they served.
+
+Something of this Lady Johnson had long since suspected, I think; but
+Billy Alexander, for all his years, was a childhood friend; and I, too,
+a friend, although more recent.
+
+She looked at my Lord Stirling with that troubled sweetness I have seen
+so often in her face, alas! and she said in a low voice:
+
+"It would be unthinkable that Lord Stirling's sword could lay a-rusting
+when the Boston rabble break clear out o' bounds."
+
+She turned to me, touched my arm confidingly, child that she seemed and
+was, God help her.
+
+"A Stormont," she said, "should never entertain any doubts. And so I
+count on you, Lord Stormont, as I count upon my Lord Stirling----"
+
+"I am not Lord Stormont," said I, striving to force a smile at the old
+and tiresome contention. "Lord Stormont is the King's Ambassador in
+Paris--if it please you to recollect----"
+
+"You are as surely Viscount Stormont as is Billy Alexander, here, Lord
+Stirling--and as I am Lady Johnson," she said earnestly. "What do you
+care if your titles be disputed by a doddering committee on privileges
+in the House of Lords? What difference does it make if usurpers wear
+your honours as long as you know these same stolen titles are your own?"
+
+"A pair o' peers _sans_ peerage," quoth Billy Alexander, with that
+boyish grin I loved to see.
+
+"I care nothing," said I, still smiling, "but Billy Alexander
+does--pardon!--my Lord Stirling, I should say."
+
+Said he: "Sure I am Lord Stirling and no one else; and shall wear my
+title however they dispute it who deny me my proper seat in their rotten
+House of Lords!"
+
+"I think you are very surely the true Lord Stirling," said I, "but I, on
+the other hand, most certainly am not a Stormont Murray. My name is John
+Drogue; and if I be truly also Viscount Stormont, it troubles me not at
+all, for my ambition is to be only American and to let the Stormonts
+glitter as they please and where."
+
+Lady Johnson came close to me and laid both hands upon my shoulders.
+
+"Jack," she pleaded, "be true to us. Be true to your gentle blood. Be
+true to your proper caste. God knows the King will have a very instant
+need of his gentlemen in America before we three see another summer here
+in County Tryon."
+
+I made no reply. What could I say to her? And, indeed, the matter of the
+Stormont Viscounty was distasteful, stale, and wearisome to me, and I
+cared absolutely nothing about it, though the landed gentry of Tryon
+were ever at pains to place me where I belonged,--if some were
+right,--and where I did not belong if others were righter still.
+
+For Lady Johnson, like many of her caste, believed that the second
+Viscount Stormont died without issue,--which was true,--and that the
+third Viscount had a son,--which is debatable.
+
+At any rate, David Murray became the fourth Viscount, and the claims of
+my remote ancestor went a-glimmering for so many years that, in 1705, we
+resumed our family name of the Northesks, which is Drogue; and in this
+natural manner it became my proper name. God knows I found it good
+enough to eat and sleep with, so that my Lord Stormont's capers in Paris
+never disturbed my dreams. Thank Heaven for that, too; and it was a sad
+day for my Lord Stormont when he tried to bully Benjamin Franklin; for
+the whole world is not yet done a-laughing at him.
+
+No, I have no desire to claim a Viscounty which our witty Franklin has
+made ridiculous with a single shaft of satire from his bristling
+repertoire.
+
+Thinking now of this, and reddening a little at the thought,--for no
+Stormont even of remotest kinship to the family can truly relish Mr.
+Franklin's sauce, though it dressed an undoubted goose,--I become far
+more than reconciled to the decision rendered in the House of Lords.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Two people who had come from the house, and who were advancing slowly
+toward us across the clipped grass, now engaged our full attention.
+
+The one we perceived to be Sir John Johnson himself; the other his
+lady's school friend and intimate companion, Claudia Swift, the toast of
+the British Army and of all respectable young Tories; and the
+"Sacharissa" of those verses made by the new and lively Adjutant
+General, Major Andre, who was then a captain.
+
+For, though very young, our lovely Sacharissa had murdered many a
+gallant's peace of mind, leaving a trail of hearts bled white from New
+York to Boston, and from that afflicted city to Albany; where, it was
+whispered, her bright and merciless eyes had made the sad young Patroon
+much sadder, and his offered manor a more melancholy abode than usual.
+
+She gave us, now, her dimpled hand to kiss. And, to Lady Johnson: "My
+dear," she said very tenderly, "how pale you seem! God sends us
+affliction as a precious gift and we must accept it with meekness,"
+letting her eyes rest absently the while on Lord Stirling, and then on
+me.
+
+Our Sacharissa might babble of meekness if she chose, but that virtue
+was not lodged within her, God knows,--nor many other virtues either.
+
+Billy Alexander, old enough to be her parent, nevertheless had been her
+victim; and I also. It was our opinion that we had recovered. But, to be
+honest with myself, I could not avoid admitting that I had been very
+desperate sick o' love, and that even yet, at times----But no matter:
+others, stricken as deep as I, know well that Claudia Swift was not a
+maid that any man might easily forget, or, indeed, dismiss at will from
+his mind as long as she remained in his vicinity.
+
+"Are you well, Billy, since we last met?" she asked Lord Stirling in
+that sweet, hesitating way of hers. And to me: "You have grown thin,
+Jack. Have you been in health?"
+
+I said that I had been monstrous busy with my new glebe in the Sacandaga
+patent, and had swung an axe there with the best o' them until an
+express from Sir William summoned me to return to aid him with the
+Iroquois at the council-fire. At which explaining of my silence the jade
+smiled.
+
+When I mentioned the Sacandaga patent and the glebe I had had of Sir
+William on too generous terms--he making all arrangements with Major
+Jelles Fonda through Mr. Lafferty--Sir John, who had been standing
+silent beside us, looked up at me in that cold and stealthy way of his.
+
+"Do you mean your parcel at Fonda's Bush?" he inquired.
+
+"Yes; I am clearing it."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"So that my land shall grow Indian corn, pardie!"
+
+"Why clear it _now_?" he persisted in his deadened voice.
+
+I could have answered very naturally that the land was of no value to
+anybody unless cleared of forest. But of course he knew this, too; so I
+did not evade the slyer intent of his question.
+
+"I am clearing my land at Fonda's Bush," said I, "because, God willing,
+I mean to occupy it in proper person."
+
+"And when, sir, is it your design to do this thing?"
+
+"Do what, sir? Clear my glebe?"
+
+"Remove thither--in _proper person_, Mr. Drogue?"
+
+"As soon as may be, Sir John."
+
+At that Lady Johnson gave me a quick look and Claudia said: "What! Would
+you bury yourself alive in that wilderness, Jack Drogue?"
+
+I smiled. "But I must hew out for myself a career in the world some day,
+Sacharissa. So why not begin now?"
+
+"Then in Heaven's name," she exclaimed impatiently, "go somewhere among
+men and not among the wild beasts of the forest! Why, a young man is
+like to perish of loneliness in such a spot; is he not, Sir John?"
+
+Sir John's inscrutable gaze remained fixed on me.
+
+"In such times as these," said he, "it is better that men like ourselves
+continue to live together.... To await events.... And master them....
+And afterward, each to his vocation and his own tastes.... It is my
+desire that you remain at the Hall," he added, looking steadily at me.
+
+"I must decline, Sir John."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I have already told you why."
+
+"If your present position is irksome to you," he said, "you have merely
+to name a deputy and feel entirely at liberty to pursue your pleasure.
+Or--you are at least the Laird of Northesk if you are nothing greater.
+There is a commission in my Highlanders--if you desire it.... And your
+salary, of course, continues also."
+
+He looked hard at me: "Augmented by--half," he added in his slow, cold
+voice. "And this, with your income, should properly maintain a young man
+of your age and quality."
+
+I had been Brent-Meester to Sir William, for lack of other employment;
+and had been glad to take the important office, loving as I do the open
+air. Also the addition of a salary to my slender means had been
+acceptable. But it was one matter to serve Sir William as Brent-Meester,
+and another to serve Sir John in any capacity whatsoever. And as for the
+remainder of the family,--Guy Johnson and Colonel Claus--and their
+intimates the Butlers, I had now had more than enough of them, having
+endured these uncongenial people only because I had loved Sir William.
+Yet, for his father's sake, I now spoke to Sir John politely, using him
+most kindly because I both liked and pitied his lady, too.
+
+Said I: "My desire is to become a Tryon County farmer, Sir John; and to
+that end I happily became possessed of the parcel at Fonda's Bush. For
+that reason I am clearing it. And so I must beg of you to accept my
+resignation as Brent-Meester at the Hall, for I mean to start as soon as
+convenient to occupy my glebe."
+
+There was a silence; Sacharissa gazed at me in pity, astonishment, and
+unfeigned horror; Lady Johnson gave me an odd, unhappy look; and Billy
+Alexander a meaning one, half grin.
+
+Then Sir John's slow and heavy voice invaded the momentary silence: "As
+my father's Brent-Meester, only an Indian or a Forest Runner knows the
+wilderness as do you. And we shall have great need of such forest
+knowledge as you possess, Mr. Drogue."
+
+I think we all understood the Baronet's meaning.
+
+I considered a moment, then replied very quietly that in time of stress
+no just cause would find me skulking to avoid duty.
+
+I think my manner and tone, as well as what I said, combined to stop Sir
+John's mouth. For nobody could question such respectable sentiments
+unless, indeed, a quarrel was meant.
+
+But Sir John Johnson, in his way, was as slow to mortal quarrel as was I
+in mine. And whatever suspicion of me he might nurse in his secret mind
+he now made no outward sign of it.
+
+Also, other people were coming across the grass to join us; and
+presently grave greetings were exchanged in sober voices suitable to the
+occasion when a considerable company of ladies and gentlemen are
+gathered at a house of mourning.
+
+Turning away, I noticed Mr. Duncan and the Highland officers at the
+magazine, all wearing their black badges of respect and a knot of crape
+on the basket-hilts of their claymores; and young Walter Butler, still
+stiff in his bandages, gazing up at the June sky out of melancholy eyes,
+like a damned man striving to see God.
+
+Sir John had now given his arm to his lady. His left hand rested on his
+sword-hilt--the same left hand he had offered to poor Claire Putnam--and
+to which the child still clung, they said.
+
+Claudia turned from Billy Alexander and came toward me. Her face was
+serious, but I saw the devil looking out of her blue eyes.
+
+Nature had given this maid most lovely proportions--that charming
+slenderness which is plumply moulded--and she stood straight, and
+tall enough, too, to meet on a level the love-sick gaze of any
+stout young man she had bedevilled; and she wore a most bewitching
+countenance--short-nosed, red-lipped, a skin as white as a water-lily,
+and thick soft hair as black as night, which she wore unpowdered--the
+dangerous jade!
+
+"Jack," says she in honeyed tones, "are you truly designing to become a
+hermit?"
+
+"Oh, no," said I, smilingly, "only a farmer, Claudia."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because I am a poor man and must feed and clothe myself."
+
+"There is a commission from Sir John in the Scotch regiment----"
+
+"I'm Scotch enough without that," said I.
+
+"Jack?"
+
+"Yes, Madam?"
+
+"Are you a little angry with me?"
+
+"No," said I, feeling uncomfortable and concluding to beware of her, for
+she stood now close to me, and the scent of her warm breath troubled me.
+
+"Why are you angry with me, Jack?" she asked sorrowfully. And took one
+step nearer.
+
+"I am not," said I.
+
+"Am--am I driving you into the wilderness?" she inquired.
+
+"That, also, is absurd," I replied impatiently. "No woman could ever
+boast of driving me, though some may once have led me."
+
+"Oh, I feared that I had sapped, perhaps, your faith in women, John."
+
+I forced a laugh: "Why, Claudia? Because I lately--and vainly--was
+enamoured of you?"
+
+"_Lately?_"
+
+"Yes. I did love you, once."
+
+"_Did_ love?" she breathed. "Do you not love me any more, Jack?"
+
+"I think not," said I, very cheerfully.
+
+"And why? Sure I used you kindly, Jack. Did I not so?"
+
+"You conducted as is the privilege of maid with man, Sacharissa," said I
+uneasily. "And that is all I have to say."
+
+"How so did I conduct, Jack?"
+
+"Sweetly--to my undoing."
+
+"Try me again," she said, looking up at me, and the devil in her eyes.
+
+But already I was becoming sensible of the ever-living enchantment of
+this young thing, so wise in stratagems and spoils of Love, and I chose
+to leave my scalp hang drying at her lodge door beside the scanter pol
+of Billy Alexander.
+
+For God knows this vixen-virgin spared neither young nor old, but shot
+them through and through at sight with those heavenly darts from her
+twin eyes.
+
+And no man, so far, could boast of obtaining from Mistress Swift the
+least token or any serious guerdon that his quest might lead him by a
+single step toward Hymen's altar, but only to that cruel arena where all
+her victims agonized under the mocking sweetness of her smile, and her
+pretty, down-turned and merciless thumbs--the little Vestal villain!
+
+"No, Claudia," quoth I, "you have taken my bow and spear, and shorn me
+of my thatch like any Mohawk. No; I go to Fonda's Bush----" I smiled,
+"--to heal, perhaps, my heart, as you say; but, anyhow, to consult my
+soul, and armour it in a wilderness."
+
+"A hermit!" she exclaimed scornfully, "--and afeard of a maid armed only
+with two matched eyes, a nose, a mouth and thirty teeth!"
+
+"Afeard of a monster more frightful than that," said I, laughing.
+
+"Of what monster, John Drogue?"
+
+"Of that red monster that is surely, surely creeping northward to
+surprise and rend us all," said I in a low voice. "And so I shall retire
+to question my secret soul, and arm it cap-a-pie as God directs."
+
+She was looking at me intently. After a silence she said:
+
+"I do love you; and Billy Alexander; and all gay and brave young men
+whose unstained swords hedge the women of County Tryon from this same
+red monster that you mention." And watched me to see how I swallowed
+this.
+
+I said warily: "Surely, Claudia, all women command our swords ... no
+matter _which cause we espouse_."
+
+"Jack!"
+
+"I hear you, Claudia."
+
+But, "Oh, my God!" she breathed; and put her hands to her face. A moment
+she stood so, then, eyes still covered by one hand, extended the other
+to me. I kissed it lightly; then kissed it again.
+
+"Do you leave us, Jack?"
+
+I understood.
+
+"It is you who leave me, Claudia."
+
+She, too, understood. It was my first confession that all was not right
+betwixt my conscience and my King. For that was the only thing I was
+certain about concerning her: she never betrayed a confidence, whatever
+else she did. And so I made plain to her where my heart and honour
+lay--not with the King's men in this coming struggle--but with my own
+people.
+
+I think she knew, too, that I had never before confessed as much to any
+living soul, for she took her other hand from her eyes and looked at me
+as though something had happened in which she took a sorrowful pride.
+
+Then I kissed her hand for the third time, and let it free. And, going:
+
+"God be with you," she said with a slight smile; "you are my dear
+friend, John Drogue."
+
+At the Hall porch she turned, the mischief glimmering in her eyes:
+"--And so is Billy Alexander," quoth she.
+
+So she went into the darkened Hall.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was many months before I saw our Sacharissa again--not until Major
+Andre had made many another verse for many another inamorata, and his
+soldier-actors had played more than one of his farces in besieged Boston
+to the loud orchestra of His Excellency's rebel cannon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE POT BOILS
+
+
+Sir William died on the 24th of June in the year 1774; which was the
+twentieth year of my life.
+
+On the day after he was buried in Saint John's Church in Johnstown,
+which he had built, I left the Hall for Fonda's Bush, which was a
+wilderness and which lay some nine miles distant in the Mohawk country,
+along the little river called Kennyetto.
+
+I speak of Fonda's Bush as a wilderness; but it was not entirely so,
+because already old Henry Stoner, the trapper who wore two gold rings in
+his ears, had built him a house near the Kennyetto and had taken up his
+abode there with his stalwart and handsome sons, Nicholas and John, and
+a little daughter, Barbara.
+
+Besides this family, who were the pioneers in that vast forest where the
+three patents[2] met, others now began settling upon the pretty little
+river in the wilderness, which made a thousand and most amazing windings
+through the Bush of Major Fonda.
+
+[Footnote 2: The Three Patents were Sacandaga, Kayaderosseras, and
+Stones.]
+
+There came, now, to the Kennyetto, the family of one De Silver; also the
+numerous families of John Homan, and Elias Cady; then the Salisburys,
+Putnams, Bowmans, and Helmers arrived. And Benjamin De Luysnes followed
+with Joseph Scott where the Frenchman, De Golyer, had built a house and
+a mill on the trout brook north of us. There was also a dour Scotchman
+come thither--a grim and decent man with long, thin shanks under his
+kilts, who roved the Bush like a weird and presently went away again.
+
+But before he took himself elsewhere he marked some gigantic trees with
+his axe and tied a rag of tartan to a branch.
+
+And, "Fonda's Bush is no name," quoth he. "Where a McIntyre sets his
+mark he returns to set his foot. And where he sets foot shall be called
+Broadalbin, or I am a great liar!"
+
+And he went away, God knows where. But what he said has become true; for
+when again he set his foot among the dead ashes of Fonda's Bush, it
+became Broadalbin. And the clans came with him, too; and they peppered
+the wilderness with their Scottish names,--Perth, Galway, Scotch Bush,
+Scotch Church, Broadalbin,--but my memory runs too fast, like a young
+hound giving tongue where the scent grows hotter!--for the quarry is not
+yet in sight, nor like to be for many a bloody day, alas!----
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There was a forest road to the Bush, passable for waggons, and used
+sometimes by Sir William when he went a-fishing in the Kennyetto.
+
+It was by this road I travelled thither, well-horsed, and had borrowed
+the farm oxen to carry all my worldly goods.
+
+I had clothing, a clock, some books, bedding of my own, and sufficient
+pewter.
+
+I had my own rifle, a fowling piece, two pistols, and sufficient
+ammunition.
+
+And with these, and, as I say, well horsed, I rode out of Johnstown on a
+June morning, all alone, my heart still heavy with grief for Sir
+William, and deeply troubled for my country.
+
+For the provinces, now, were slowly kindling, warmed with those pure
+flames that purge the human soul; and already the fire had caught and
+was burning fiercely in Massachusetts Bay, where John Hancock fed the
+flames, daintily, cleverly, with all the circumstance, impudence, and
+grace of your veritable macaroni who will not let an inferior outdo him
+in a bow, but who is sometimes insolent to kings.
+
+Well, I was for the forest, now, to wrest from a sunless land a mouthful
+o' corn to stop the stomach's mutiny.
+
+And if the Northland caught fire some day--well, I was as inflammable as
+the next man, who will not suffer violation of house or land or honour.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As Brent-Meester to Sir William, my duties took me everywhere. I knew
+old man Stoner, and Nick had become already my warm friend, though I was
+now a grown man of more than twenty and he still of boy's age. Yet, in
+many ways, he seemed more mature than I.
+
+I think Nick Stoner was the most mischievous lad I ever knew--and
+admired. He sometimes said the same of me, though I was not, I think, by
+nature, designed for a scapegrace. However, two years in the wilderness
+will undermine the grace of saint or sinner in some degree. And if, when
+during those two hard years I went to Johnstown for a breath of
+civilization--or to Schenectady, or, rarely, to Albany--I frequented a
+few good taverns, there was little harm done, and nothing malicious.
+
+True, disputes with Tories sometimes led to blows, and mayhap some
+Albany watchman's Dutch noddle needed vinegar to soothe the flamms
+drummed upon it by a stout stick or ramrod resembling mine.
+
+True, the humming ale at the Admiral Warren Tavern may sometimes have
+made my own young noddle hum, and Nick Stoner's, too; but there came no
+harm of it, unless there be harm in bussing a fresh and rosy wench or
+two; or singing loudly in the tap-room and timing each catch to the
+hammering of our empty leather jacks on long hickory tables wet with
+malt.
+
+But why so sad, brother Broadbrim? Youth is not to be denied. No! And
+youth that sets its sinews against an iron wilderness to conquer
+it,--youth that wields its puny axe against giant trees,--youth that
+pulls with the oxen to uproot enormous stumps so that when the sun is
+let in there will be a soil to grow corn enough to defy
+starvation,--youth that toils from sun-up to dark, hewing, burning,
+sawing, delving, plowing, harrowing day after day, month after month,
+pausing only to kill the wild meat craved or snatch a fish from some
+forest fount,--such youth cannot be decently denied, brother Broadbrim!
+
+But if Nick and I were truly as graceless as some stiff-necked folk
+pretended, always there was laughter in our scrapes, even when hot blood
+boiled at the Admiral Warren, and Tory and Rebel drummed one another's
+hides to the outrage of law and order and the mortification of His
+Majesty's magistrates in County Tryon.
+
+Even in Fonda's Bush the universal fire had begun to smoulder; the names
+Rebel and Tory were whispered; the families of Philip Helmer and Elias
+Cady talked very loudly of the King and of Sir John, and how a hempen
+rope was the fittest cravat for such Boston men as bragged too freely.
+
+But what most of all was in my thoughts, as I swung my axe there in the
+immemorial twilight of the woods, concerned the Indians of the great
+Iroquois Confederacy.
+
+What would these savages do when the storm broke? What would happen to
+this frontier? What would happen to the solitary settlers, to such
+hamlets as Fonda's Bush, to Johnstown, to Schenectady--nay, to Albany
+itself?
+
+Sir William was no more. Guy Johnson had become his Majesty's
+Superintendent for Indian affairs. He was most violently a King's man--a
+member of the most important family in all the Northland, and master of
+six separate nations of savages, which formed the Iroquois Confederacy.
+
+What would Guy Johnson do with the warriors of these six nations that
+bordered our New York frontier?
+
+Always these questions were seething in my mind as I swung my axe or
+plowed or harrowed. I thought about them as I sat at eventide by the
+door of my new log house. I considered them as I lay abed, watching the
+moonlight crawl across the puncheon floor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As Brent-Meester to Sir William, I knew Indians, and how to conduct when
+I encountered them in the forest, in their own castles, or when they
+visited the Hall.
+
+I had no love for them and no dislike, but treated them always with the
+consideration due from one white man to another.
+
+I was not conscious of making any friends among them, nor of making any
+enemies either. To me they were a natural part of the wilderness, like
+the trees, rivers, hills, and wild game, belonging there and not
+wantonly to be molested.
+
+Others thought differently; trappers, forest runners, coureurs-du-bois
+often hated them, and lost no opportunity to display their animosity or
+to do them a harm.
+
+But it was not in me to feel that way toward any living creature whom
+God had fashioned in His own image if not in His own colour. And who is
+so sure, even concerning the complexion of the Most High?
+
+Also, Sir William's kindly example affected my sentiments toward these
+red men of the forest. I learned enough of their language to suit my
+requirements; I was courteous to their men, young and old; and
+considerate toward their women. Otherwise, I remained indifferent.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now, during these first two years of my life in Fonda's Bush, events in
+the outer world were piling higher than those black thunder-clouds that
+roll up behind the Mayfield hills and climb toward mid-heaven. Already
+the dull glare of lightning lit them redly, though the thunder was, as
+yet, inaudible.
+
+In April of my first year in Fonda's Bush a runner came to the Kennyetto
+with the news of Lexington, and carried it up and down the wilderness
+from the great Vlaie and Maxon Ridge to Frenchman's Creek and Fonda's
+Bush.
+
+This news came to us just as we learned that our Continental Congress
+was about to reassemble; and it left our settlement very still and
+sober, and a loaded rifle within reach of every man who went grimly
+about his spring plowing.
+
+But the news of open rebellion in Massachusetts Bay madded our Tory
+gentry of County Tryon; and they became further so enraged when the
+Continental Congress met that they contrived a counter demonstration,
+and, indeed, seized upon a pretty opportunity to carry it with a high
+hand.
+
+For there was a Court holden in Johnstown, and a great concourse of
+Tryon loyalists; and our Tory hatch-mischiefs did by arts and guile and
+persuasions obtain signatures from the majority of the Grand Jurors and
+the County Magistracy.
+
+Which, when known and flaunted in the faces of the plainer folk of Tryon
+County, presently produced in all that slow, deep anger with which it is
+not well to trifle--neither safe for kings nor lesser fry.
+
+In the five districts, committees were appointed to discuss what was to
+be the attitude of our own people and to erect a liberty pole in every
+hamlet.
+
+The Mohawk district began this business, which, I think, was truly the
+beginning of the Revolution in the great Province of New York. The
+Canajoharie district, the Palatine, the Flatts, the Kingsland followed.
+
+And, at the Mohawk district meeting, who should arrive but Sir John,
+unannounced, uninvited; and with him the entire company of Tory
+big-wigs--Colonels Claus, Guy Johnson, and John Butler, and a heavily
+armed escort from the Hall.
+
+Then Guy Johnson climbed up onto a high stoop and began to harangue our
+unarmed people, warning them of offending Majesty, abusing them for
+dolts and knaves and traitors to their King, until Jacob Sammons, unable
+to stomach such abuse, shook his fist at the Intendant. And, said he:
+"Guy Johnson, you are a liar and a villain! You may go to hell, sir, and
+take your Indians, too!"
+
+But Guy Johnson took him by the throat and called him a damned villain
+in return. Then the armed guard came at Sammons and knocked him down
+with their pistol-butts, and a servant of Sir John sat astride his body
+and beat him.
+
+There was a vast uproar then; but our people were unarmed, and presently
+took Sammons and went off.
+
+But, as they left the street, many of them called out to Sir John that
+it were best for him to fortify his Baronial Hall, because the day drew
+near when he would be more in need of swivel guns than of
+congratulations from his Royal Master.
+
+Sure, now, the fire blazing so prettily in Boston was already running
+north along the Hudson; and Tryon had begun to smoke.
+
+Now there was, in County Tryon, a number of militia regiments of which,
+when brigaded, Sir William had been our General.
+
+Guy Johnson, also, was Colonel of the Mohawk regiment. But the Mohawk
+regiment had naturally split in two.
+
+Nevertheless he paraded the Tory remainder of it, doubtless with the
+intention of awing the entire county.
+
+It did awe us who were unorganized, had no powder, and whose messengers
+to Albany in quest of ammunition were now stopped and searched by Sir
+John's men.
+
+For the Baronet, also, seemed alarmed; and, with his battalion of
+Highlanders, his Tory militia, his swivels, and his armed retainers,
+could muster five hundred men and no mean artillery to hold the Hall if
+threatened.
+
+But this is not what really troubled the plain people of Tryon. Guy
+Johnson controlled thousands of savage Iroquois. Their war chief was Sir
+William's brother-in-law, brother to the dark Lady Johnson, Joseph
+Brant, called Thayendanegea,--the greatest Mohawk who ever
+lived,--perhaps the greatest of all Iroquois. And I think that Hiawatha
+alone was greater in North America.
+
+Brave, witty, intelligent, intellectual, having a very genius for war
+and stratagems, educated like any gentleman of the day and having served
+Sir William as secretary, Brant, in the conventional garments of
+civilization, presented a charming and perfectly agreeable appearance.
+
+Accustomed to the society of Sir William's drawing room, this Canienga
+Chief was utterly conversant with polite usage, and entirely qualified
+to maintain any conversation addressed to him. Always he had been made
+much of by ladies--always, when it did not too greatly weary him, was he
+the centre of batteries of bright eyes and the object of gayest
+solicitation amid those respectable gatherings for which, in Sir
+William's day, the Hall was so justly celebrated.
+
+That was the modest and civil student and gentleman, Joseph Brant.
+
+But in the forest he was a painted spectre; in battle a flame! He was a
+war chief: he never became Royaneh;[3] but he possessed the wisdom of
+Hendrik, the eloquence of Red Jacket, the terrific energy of Hiakatoo.
+
+[Footnote 3: Sachem: the Canienga term.]
+
+We, of Tryon, were aware of all these things. Our ears were listening
+for the dread wolf cry of the Iroquois in their paint; our eyes were
+turned in dumb expectation toward our Provincial Congress of New York;
+toward our dear General Schuyler in Albany; toward the Continental
+Congress now in solemn session; toward our new and distant hope shining
+clearer, brighter as each day ended--His Excellency the Virginian.
+
+How long were Sir John and his people to be left here in County Tryon to
+terrorize all friends to liberty,--to fortify Johnstown, to stop us
+about our business on the King's highway, to intrigue with the Mohawks,
+the Oneidas, the Cayugas, the Onondagas, the Senecas, the Tuscaroras?
+
+Guy Johnson tampered with the River Indians at Poughkeepsie, and we knew
+it. He sent belts to the Shawanese, to the Wyandottes, to the Mohicans.
+We knew it. He met the Delaware Sachems at a mongrel fire--God knows
+where and by what authority, for the Federal Council never gave it!--and
+we stopped one of his runners in the Bush with his pouch full o' belts
+and strings; and we took every inch of wampum without leave of Sir John,
+and bade the runner tell him what we did.
+
+We wrote to Albany; Albany made representations to Sir John, and the
+Baronet replied that his show of armed force at the Hall was solely for
+the reason that he had been warned that the Boston people were laying
+plans to invade Tryon and make of him a prisoner.
+
+I think this silly lie was too much for Schuyler, for all now knew that
+war must come. Twelve Colonies, in Congress assembled, had announced
+that they had rather die as free people than continue to live as slaves.
+Very fine indeed! But what was of more interest to us at Fonda's Bush,
+this Congress commissioned George Washington as Commander in Chief of a
+Colonial Army of 20,000 men, and prepared to raise three millions on
+bills of credit _for the prosecution of the war_!
+
+Now, at last, the cleavage had come. Now, at last, Sir John was forced
+into the open.
+
+He swore by Almighty God that he had had no hand in intriguing against
+the plain people of Tryon: and while he was making this oath, Guy
+Johnson was raising the Iroquois against us at Oswego; he was plotting
+with Carleton and Haldimand at Montreal; he had arranged for the
+departure of Brant with the great bulk of the Mohawk nation, and, with
+them, the fighting men of the Iroquois Confederacy. Only the Western
+Gate Keepers remained,--the fierce Senecas.
+
+And so, except for a few Tuscaroras, a few lukewarm Onondagas, a few of
+the Lenape, and perhaps half--possibly two-thirds of the Oneida nation,
+Guy Johnson already had swung the terrible Iroquois to the King.
+
+And now, secretly, the rats began to leave for the North, where, behind
+the Canada border, savage hordes were gathering by clans, red and white
+alike.
+
+Guy Johnson went on pretense of Indian business; and none dare stop the
+Superintendent for Indian affairs on a mission requiring, as he stated,
+his personal appearance at Oswego.
+
+But once there he slipped quietly over into Canada; and Brant joined
+him.
+
+Colonel Claus sneaked North; old John Butler went in the night with a
+horde of Johnstown and Caughnawaga Tories. McDonald followed,
+accompanied by some scores of bare-shinned Tory Mc's. Walter Butler
+disappeared like a phantom.
+
+But Sir John remained behind his stockade and swivels at the Hall,
+vowing and declaring that he meditated no mischief--no, none at all.
+
+Then, in a fracas in Johnstown, that villain sheriff, Alexander White,
+fired upon Sammons, and the friends to liberty went to take the
+murderous Tory at the jail.
+
+Frey was made sheriff, which infuriated Sir John; but Governor Tryon
+deposed him and reappointed White, so the plain people went again to do
+him a harm; and he fled the district to the mortification of the
+Baronet.
+
+But Sir John's course was nearly at an end: and events in the outer
+world set the sands in his cloudy glass running very swiftly. Schuyler
+and Montgomery were directing a force of troops against Montreal and
+Quebec, and Sir Guy Carleton, Governor General of Canada, was shrieking
+for help.
+
+St. John's surrendered, and _the Mohawk Indians began fighting_!
+
+Here was a pretty pickle for Sir John to explain.
+
+Suddenly we had news of the burning of Falmouth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On a bitter day in early winter, an Express passed through Fonda's Bush
+on snow-shoes, calling out a squad of the Mohawk Regiment of District
+Militia.
+
+Nick Stoner, Andrew Bowman, Joe Scott, and I answered the summons.
+
+Snow-shoeing was good--a light fall on the crust--and we pulled foot for
+the Kingsborough trail, where we met up with a squad from the Palatine
+Regiment and another from the Flatts.
+
+But scarce were we in sight of Johnstown steeples when the drums of an
+Albany battalion were heard; and we saw, across the snow, their long
+brown muskets slanting, and heard their bugle-horn on the Johnstown
+road.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I saw nothing of the affair at the Hall, being on guard at St. John's
+Church, lower down in the town. But I saw our General Schuyler ride up
+the street with his officers; and so knew that all would go well.
+
+All went well enough, they say. For when again the General rode past the
+church, I saw waggons under our escort piled with the muskets of the
+Highland Battalion, and others heaped high with broad-swords, pistols,
+swivels, and pikes. And on Saturday, the twentieth of January, when our
+tour of duty ended, and our squads were dismissed, each to its proper
+district, all people knew that Sir John Johnson had given his parole of
+honor not to take up arms against America; not to communicate with the
+Royalists in Canada; not to oppose the friends of liberty at home; nor
+to stir from his Baronial Hall to go to Canada or to the sea, but with
+liberty to transact such business as might be necessary in other parts
+of this colony.
+
+And I, for one, never doubted that a son of the great Sir William would
+keep his word and sacred parole of honour.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+TWO COUNTRY MICE
+
+
+It was late in April, and I had boiled my sap and had done with my sugar
+bush for another year. The snow was gone; the Kennyetto roared amber
+brilliant through banks of melting ice, and a sweet odour of arbutus
+filled all the woods.
+
+Spring was in the land and in my heart, too, and when Nick Stoner
+galloped to my door in his new forest dress, very fine, I, nothing
+loath, did hasten to dress me in my new doe-skins, not less fine than
+Nick's and lately made for me by a tailor-woman in Kingsborough who was
+part Oneida and part Dutch.
+
+That day I wore a light, round cap of silver mole fur with my unshorn
+hair, all innocent of queue or powder, curling crisp like a woman's. Of
+which I was ashamed and eager to visit Toby Tice, our Johnstown barber,
+and be trimmed.
+
+My new forest dress, as I say, was of doe-skin--a laced shirt belted in,
+shoulder-caped, cut round the neck to leave my throat free, and with
+long thrums on sleeve and skirt against need.
+
+Trews shaped to fit my legs close; and thigh moccasins, very deep with
+undyed fringe, but ornamented by an infinite pattern of little green
+vines, made me brave in my small mirror. And my ankle moccasins were gay
+with Oneida devices wrought out of porcupine quills and beads, scarlet,
+green, purple, and orange, and laid open at the instep by two beaded
+flaps.
+
+I saddled my mare, Kaya, in her stall, which was a log wing to my house,
+and presently mounted and rode around to where Nick sat his saddle
+a-playing on his fife, which he carried everywhere with him, he loving
+music but obliged to make his own.
+
+"Lord Harry!" cried he on seeing me so fine. "If you are not truly a
+Viscount then you look one!"
+
+"I would not change my name and health and content," said I, "for a
+king's gold crown today." And I clinked the silver coins in my pouch and
+laughed. And so we rode away along the Johnstown road.
+
+He also, I think, was dying for a frolic. Young minds in trouble as well
+as hard-worked bodies need a holiday now and then. He winked at me and
+chinked the shillings in his bullet-pouch.
+
+"We shall see all the sights," quoth he, "and the Kennyetto could not
+quench my thirst today, nor our two horses eat as much, nor since time
+began could all the lovers in history love as much as could I this April
+day.... Were there some pretty wench of my own mind to use me kindly....
+Like that one who smiled at us--do you remember?"
+
+"At Christmas?"
+
+"That's the one!" he exclaimed. "Lord! but she was handsome in her
+sledge!--and her sister, too, Jack."
+
+"I forget their names," said I.
+
+"Browse," he said, "--Jessica and Betsy. And they live at Pigeon-Wood
+near Mayfield."
+
+"Oho!" said I, "you have made their acquaintance!"
+
+He laughed and we galloped on.
+
+Nick sang in his saddle, beating time upon his thigh with his fife:
+
+    "Flammadiddle!
+    Paddadiddle!
+    Flammadiddle dandy!
+    My Love's kisses
+    Are sweet as sugar-candy!
+    Flammadiddle!
+    Paddadiddle!
+    Flammadiddle dandy!
+    She makes fun o' me
+    Because my legs are bandy----"
+
+He checked his gay refrain:
+
+"Speaking of flamms," said he, "my brother John desires to be a drummer
+in the Continental Line."
+
+"He is only fourteen," said I, laughing.
+
+"I know. But he is a tall lad and stout enough. What will be your
+regiment, Jack?"
+
+"I like Colonel Livingston's," said I, "but nobody yet knows what is to
+be the fate of the district militia and whether the Mohawk regiment, the
+Palatine, and the other three are to be recruited to replace the Tory
+deserters, or what is to be done."
+
+Nick flourished his flute: "All I know," he said, "is that my father and
+brother and I mean to march."
+
+"I also," said I.
+
+"Then it's in God's hands," he remarked cheerfully, "and I mean to use
+my ears and eyes in Johnstown today."
+
+We put our horses to a gallop.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We rode into Johnstown and through the village, very pleased to be in
+civilization again, and saluting many wayfarers whom we recognized, Tory
+and Whig alike. Some gave us but a cold good-day and looked sideways at
+our forest dress; others were marked in cordiality,--men like our new
+Sheriff, Frey, and the two Sammonses and Jacob Shew.
+
+We met none of the Hall people except the Bouw-Meester, riding beside
+five yoke of beautiful oxen, who drew bridle to exchange a mouthful of
+farm gossip with me while the grinning slaves waited on the footway,
+goads in hand.
+
+Also, I saw out o' the tail of my eye the two Bartholomews passing,
+white and stunted and uncanny as ever, but pretended not to notice them,
+for I had always felt a shiver when they squeaked good-day at me, and
+when they doffed hats the tops of their heads had blue marbling on the
+scalp under their scant dry hair. Which did not please me.
+
+Whilst I chattered with the Bouw-Meester of seeds and plowing, Nick, who
+had no love for husbandry, practiced upon his fife so windily and with
+such enthusiasm that we three horsemen were soon ringed round by urchins
+of the town on their reluctant way to school.
+
+"How's old Wall?" cried Nick, resting his puckered lips and wiping his
+fife. "There's a schoolmaster for pickled rods, I warrant. Eh, boys? Am
+I right?"
+
+Lads and lassies giggled, some sucked thumbs and others hung their
+heads.
+
+"Come, then," cried Nick, "he's a good fellow, after all! And so am
+I--when I'm asleep!"
+
+Whereat all the children giggled again and Nick fished a great cake of
+maple sugar from his Indian pouch, drew his war-hatchet, broke the lump,
+and passed around the fragments. And many a childish face, which had
+been bright and clean with scrubbing, continued schoolward as sticky as
+a bear cub in a bee-tree.
+
+And now the Bouw-Meester and his oxen and the grinning slaves had gone
+their way; so Nick and I went ours.
+
+There were taverns enough in the town. We stopped at one or two for a
+long pull and a dish of meat.
+
+Out of the window I could see something of the town and it seemed
+changed; the Court House deserted; the jail walled in by a new
+palisade; fewer people on the street, and little traffic. Nor did I
+perceive any red-coats ruffling it as of old; the Highlanders who passed
+wore no side-arms,--excepting the officers. And I thought every Scot
+looked glum as a stray dog in a new village, where every tyke moves
+stiffly as he passes and follows his course with evil eyes.
+
+We had silver in our bullet pouches. We visited every shop, but
+purchased nothing useful; for Nick bought sweets and a mouse-trap and
+some alley-taws for his brother John--who wished to go to war! Oh,
+Lord!--and for his mother he found skeins of brightly-coloured wool; and
+for his father a Barlow jack-knife.
+
+I bought some suekets and fish-hooks and a fiddle,--God knows why, for I
+can not play on it, nor desire to!--and I further purchased two books,
+"Lives of Great Philosophers," by Rudd, and a witty poem by Peter
+Pindar, called "The Lousiad"--a bold and mirthful lampoon on the British
+King.
+
+These packets we stowed in our saddle-bags, and after that we knew not
+what to do save to seek another tavern.
+
+But Nick was no toss-pot, nor was I. And having no malt-thirst, we
+remained standing in the street beside our horses, debating whether to
+go home or no.
+
+"Shall you pay respects at the Hall?" he asked seriously.
+
+But I saw no reason to go, owing no duty; and the visit certain to prove
+awkward, if, indeed, it aroused in Sir John no more violent emotion than
+pain at sight of me.
+
+With our bridles over our arms, still debating, we walked along the
+street until we came to the Johnson Arms Tavern,--a Tory rendezvous not
+now frequented by friends of liberty.
+
+It was so dull in Johnstown that we tied our horses and went into the
+Johnson Arms, hoping, I fear, to stir up a mischief inside.
+
+Their brew was poor; and the spirits of the dozen odd Tories who sat
+over chess or draughts, or whispered behind soiled gazettes, was poorer
+still.
+
+All looked up indifferently as we entered and saluted them.
+
+"Ah, gentlemen," says Nick, "this is a glorious April day, is it not?"
+
+"It's well enough," said a surly man in horn spectacles, "but I should
+be vastly obliged, sir, if you would shut the door, which you have left
+swinging in the wind."
+
+"Sir," says Nick, "I fear you are no friend to God's free winds. Free
+winds, free sunshine, free speech, these suit my fancy. Freedom, sir, in
+her every phase--and Liberty--the glorious jade! Ah, gentlemen, there's
+a sweetheart you can never tire of. Take my advice and woo her, and
+you'll never again complain of a breeze on your shins!"
+
+"If you are so ardent, sir," retorted another man in a sneering voice,
+"why do you not go courting your jade in Massachusetts Bay?"
+
+"Because, sir," said I, "our sweetheart, Mistress Liberty, is already on
+her joyous way to Johnstown. It is a rendezvous, gentlemen. Will it
+please you to join us in receiving her?"
+
+One man got up, overturning the draught board, paid his reckoning, and
+went out muttering and gesticulating.
+
+"A married man," quoth Nick, "and wedded to that old hag, Tyranny. It
+irks him to hear of fresh young jades, knowing only too well what old
+sour-face awaits him at home with the bald end of a broom."
+
+The dark looks cast at us signalled storms; but none came, so poor the
+spirit of the company.
+
+"Gentlemen, you seem melancholy and distrait," said I. "Are you so
+pensive because my Lord Dunmore has burned our pleasant city of Norfolk?
+Is it that which weighs upon your minds? Or is the sad plight of Tommy
+Gage distressing you? Or the several pickles in which Sir Guy Carleton,
+General Burgoyne, and General Howe find themselves?"
+
+"Possibly," quoth Nick, "a short poem on these three British warriors
+may enliven you:
+
+    "_Carleton, Burgoyne, Howe,_
+    "_Bow-wow-wow_!"
+
+But there was nothing to be hoped of these sullen Tories, for they took
+our laughter scowling, but budged not an inch. A pity, for it was come
+to a pretty pass in Johnstown when two honest farmers must go home for
+lack of a rogue or two of sufficient spirit to liven a dull day withal.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We stopped at the White Doe Tavern, and Nick gave the company another
+poem, which he said was writ by my Lord North:
+
+    "O Boston wives and maids draw near and see
+    Our delicate Souchong and Hyson tea;
+    Buy it, my charming girls, fair, black, or brown;
+    If not, we'll cut your throats and burn your town!"
+
+Whereat all the company laughed and applauded; and there was no hope of
+any sport to be had there, either.
+
+"Well," said Nick, sighing, "the war seems to be done ere it begun.
+What's in those whelps at the Johnson Arms, that they stomach such jests
+as we cook for them? Time was when I knew where I could depend upon a
+broken head in Johnstown--mine own or another's."
+
+We had it in mind to dine at the Doe, planning, as we sat on the stoop,
+bridles in hand, to ride back to the Bush by new moonlight.
+
+"If a pretty wench were as rare as a broken head in Johnstown," he
+muttered, "I'd be undone, indeed. Come, Jack; shall we ride that way
+homeward?"
+
+"Which way?"
+
+"By Pigeon-Wood."
+
+"By Mayfield?"
+
+"Aye."
+
+"You have a sweetheart there, you say?"
+
+"And so, perhaps, might you, for the pain of passing by."
+
+"No," said I, "I want no sweetheart. To clip a lip en passant, if the
+lip be warm and willing,--that is one thing. A blush and a laugh and
+'tis over. But to journey in quest of gallantries with malice
+aforethought--no."
+
+"I saw her in a sledge," sighed Nick, sucking his empty pipe. "And
+followed. Lord, but she is handsome,--Betsy Browse!--and looked at me
+kindly, I thought.... We had a fight."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Her father and I. For an hour the old man nigh twisted his head off
+turning around to see what sledge was following his. Then he shouts,
+'Whoa!' and out he bounces into the snow; and I out o' my sledge to see
+what it was he wanted.
+
+"He wanted my scalp, I think, for when I named myself and said I lived
+at Fonda's Bush, he fetched me a knock with his frozen mittens,--Lord,
+Jack, I saw a star or two, I warrant you; and a gay stream squirted from
+my nose upon the snow and presently the whole wintry world looked red to
+me, so I let fly a fist or two at the old man, and he let fly a few more
+at me.
+
+"'Dammy!' says he, 'I'll learn ye to foller my darters, you poor dum
+Boston critter! I'll drum your hide from Fundy's Bush to Canady!'
+
+"But after I had rolled him in the snow till his scratch-wig fell off,
+he became more civil--quite polite for a Tory with his mouth full o'
+snow.
+
+"So I went with him to his sledge and made a polite bow to the
+ladies--who looked excited but seemed inclined to smile when I promised
+to pass by Pigeon-Wood some day."
+
+"A rough wooing," said I, laughing.
+
+"Rough on old man Browse. But he's gone with Guy Johnson."
+
+"What! To Canada? The beast!"
+
+"Aye. So I thought to stop some day at Pigeon-Wood to see if the cote
+were entirely empty or no. Lord, what a fight we had, old Browse and I,
+there in the snow of the Mayfield road! And he burly as an October
+bear--a man all knotted over with muscles, and two fists that slapped
+you like the front kick of a moose! Oh, Lordy! Lordy! What a battle was
+there.... What bright eyes hath that little jade Betsy, of Pigeon-Wood!"
+
+Now, as he spoke, I had a mind to see this same Tory girl of
+Pigeon-Wood; and presently admitted to him my curiosity.
+
+And then, just as we had mounted and were gathering bridles and
+searching for our stirrups with moccasined toes, comes a galloper in
+scarlet jacket and breeks, with a sealed letter waved high to halt me.
+
+Sitting my horse in the street, I broke the seal and read what was
+written to me.
+
+The declining sun sent its rosy shafts through the still village now,
+painting every house and setting glazed windows a-glitter.
+
+I looked around me, soberly, at the old and familiar town; I glanced at
+Nick; I gazed coldly upon the galloper,--a cornet of Border Horse, and
+as solemn as he was young.
+
+"Sir," said I, "pray present to Lady Johnson my duties and my
+compliments, and say that I am honoured by her ladyship's commands, and
+shall be--happy--to present myself at Johnson Hall within the hour."
+
+Young galloper salutes; I outdo him in exact and scrupulous courtesy,
+mole-skin cap in hand; and 'round he wheels and away he tears like the
+celebrated Tory in the song, Jock Gallopaway.
+
+"Here's a kettle o' fish," remarked Nick in disgust.
+
+"Were it not Lady Johnson," muttered I, but checked myself. After all,
+it seemed ungenerous that I should decline to see even Sir John, who now
+was virtually a prisoner of my own party, penned here within that
+magnificent domain of which his great father had been creator and
+absolute lord.
+
+"I must go, Nick," I said in a low voice.
+
+He said with a slight sneer, "Noblesse oblige----" and then, sorry, laid
+a quick hand on my arm.
+
+"Forgive me, Jack. My father wears two gold rings in his ears. Your
+father wore them on his fingers. I know I am a boor until your kindness
+makes me forget it."
+
+I said quietly: "We are two comrades and friends to liberty. It is not
+what we are born to but what we are that matters a copper penny in the
+world."
+
+"It is easy for you to say so."
+
+"It is important for you to believe so. As I do."
+
+"Do you really so?" he asked with that winning upward glance that
+revealed his boyish faith in me.
+
+"I really do, Nick; else, perhaps, I had been with Guy Johnson in Canada
+long ago."
+
+"Then I shall try to believe it, too," he murmured, "--whether ears or
+fingers or toes wear the rings."
+
+We laughed.
+
+"How long?" he inquired bluntly.
+
+"To sup, I think. I must remain if Lady Johnson requests it of me."
+
+"And afterward. Will you ride home by way of Pigeon-Wood?"
+
+"Will you still be lingering there?" I asked with a smile.
+
+"Whether the pigeon-cote be empty or full, I shall await you there."
+
+I nodded. We smiled at each other and wheeled our horses in opposite
+directions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A SUPPER
+
+
+Now, what seemed strange to me at the Hall was the cheerfulness of all
+under circumstances which must have mortified any Royalist, and, in
+particular, the principal family in North America of that political
+complexion.
+
+Even Sir John, habitually cold and reserved, appeared to be in most
+excellent spirits for such a man, and his wintry smile shed its faint
+pale gleam more than once upon the company assembled at supper.
+
+On my arrival there seemed to be nobody there except the groom, who took
+my mare, Kaya, and Frank, Sir William's butler, who ushered me and
+seemed friendly.
+
+Into the drawing room came black Flora, all smiles, to say that the
+gentlemen were dressing but that Lady Johnson would receive me.
+
+She was seated before her glass in her chamber, and the red-cheeked
+Irish maid she had brought from New York was exceedingly busy curling
+her hair.
+
+"Oh, Jack!" said Lady Johnson softly, and holding out to me one hand to
+be saluted, "they told me you were in the village. Has it become
+necessary that I must send for an old friend who should have come of his
+own free will?"
+
+"I thought perhaps you and Sir John might not take pleasure in a visit
+from me," I replied, honestly enough.
+
+"Why? Because last winter you answered the district summons and were on
+guard at the church with the Rebel Mohawk company?"
+
+So she knew that, too. But I had scarcely expected otherwise. And it
+came into my thought that the dwarfish Bartholomews had given her news
+of my doings and my whereabouts.
+
+"Come," said she in her lively manner, "a good soldier obeys his
+colonel, whoever that officer may chance to be--_for the moment_. And,
+were you even otherwise inclined, Jack, of what use would it have been
+to disobey after Philip Schuyler disarmed our poor Scots?"
+
+"If Sir John feels as you do, it makes my visit easier for all," said I.
+
+"Sir John," she replied, "is not a whit concerned. We here at the Hall
+have laid down our arms; we are peaceably disposed; farm duties begin; a
+multitude of affairs preoccupy us; so let who will fight out this
+quarrel in Massachusetts Bay, so only that we have tranquillity and
+peace in County Tryon."
+
+I listened, amazed, to this school-girl chatter, marvelling that she
+herself believed such pitiable nonsense.
+
+Yet, that she did believe it I was assured, because in my Lady Johnson
+there was nothing false, no treachery or lies or cunning.
+
+Somebody sure had filled her immature mind with this jargon, which now
+she repeated to me. And in it I vaguely perceived the duplicity and
+ingenious manoeuvring of wills and minds more experienced than her
+own.
+
+But I said only that I hoped this county might escape the conflagration
+now roaring through all New England and burning very fiercely in
+Virginia and the Carolinas. Then, smiling, I made her a compliment on
+her hair, which her Irish maid was dressing very prettily, and laughed
+at her man's banyan which she so saucily wore in place of a levete. Only
+a young and pretty woman could presume to wear a flowered silk banyan at
+her toilet; but it mightily became Polly Johnson.
+
+"Claudia is here," she remarked with a kindly malice perfectly
+transparent.
+
+I took the news in excellent part, and played the hopeless swain for a
+while, to amuse her, and so cunningly, too, that presently the charming
+child felt bound to comfort me.
+
+"Claudia is a witch," says she, "and does vast damage to no purpose but
+that it feeds her vanity. And this I have said frequently to her very
+face, and shall continue until she chooses to refrain from such harmful
+coquetry, and seems inclined to a more serious consideration of life and
+duty."
+
+"Claudia serious!" I exclaimed. "When Claudia becomes pensive, beware of
+her!"
+
+"Claudia should marry early--as I did," said she. But her features grew
+graver as she said it, and I saw not in them that inner light which
+makes delicately radiant the face of happy wifehood.
+
+I thought, "God pity her," but I said gaily enough that retribution must
+one day seize Claudia's dimpled hand and place it in the grasp of some
+gentleman fitly fashioned to school her.
+
+We both laughed; then she being ready for her stays and gown, I retired
+to the library below, where, to my chagrin, who should be lounging but
+Hiakatoo, war chief of the Senecas, in all his ceremonial finery.
+Despite what dear Mary Jamison has written of him, nor doubting that
+pure soul's testimony, I knew Hiakatoo to be a savage beast and a very
+devil, the more to be suspected because of his terrible intelligence.
+
+With him was a Mr. Hare, sometime Lieutenant in the Mohawk Regiment,
+with whom I had a slight acquaintance. I knew him to be Tory to the
+bone, a deputy of Guy Johnson for Indian affairs, and a very shifty
+character though an able officer of county militia and a scout of no
+mean ability.
+
+Hare gave me good evening with much courtesy and self-possession.
+Hiakatoo, also, extended a muscular hand, which I was obliged to take or
+be outdone in civilized usage by a savage.
+
+"Well, sir," says Hare in his frank, misleading manner, "the last o' the
+sugar is a-boiling, I hear, and spring plowing should begin this week."
+
+Neither he nor Hiakatoo had as much interest in husbandry as two
+hoot-owls, nor had they any knowledge of it, either; but I replied
+politely, and, at their request, gave an account of my glebe at Fonda's
+Bush.
+
+"There is game in that country," remarked Hiakatoo in the Seneca
+dialect.
+
+Instantly it entered my head that his remark had two interpretations,
+and one very sinister; but his painted features remained calmly
+inscrutable and perhaps I had merely imagined the dull, hot gleam that I
+thought had animated his sombre eyes.
+
+"There is game in the Bush," said I, pleasantly,--"deer, _bear_,
+turkeys, and partridges a-drumming _the long roll_ all day long. And I
+have seen a moose near Lake Desolation."
+
+Now I had replied to the Seneca in the Canienga dialect; and he might
+interpret in two ways my reference to _bears_, and also what I said
+concerning the _drumming_ of the partridges.
+
+But his countenance did not change a muscle, nor did his eyes. And as
+for Hare, he might not have understood my play upon words, for he seemed
+interested merely in a literal interpretation, and appeared eager to
+hear about the moose I had seen near Lake Desolation.
+
+So I told him I had watched two bulls fighting in the swamp until the
+older beast had been driven off.
+
+"Civilization, too, will soon drive away the last of the moose from
+Tryon," quoth Hare.
+
+"How many families at Fonda's Bush?" asked Hiakatoo abruptly.
+
+I was about to reply, telling him the truth, and checked myself with
+lips already parted to speak.
+
+There ensued a polite silence, but in that brief moment I was convinced
+that they realized I suddenly suspected them.
+
+What I might have answered the Seneca I do not exactly know, for the
+next instant Sir John entered the room with Ensign Moucher, of the old
+Mohawk Regiment, and young Captain Watts from New York, brother to
+Polly, Lady Johnson, a handsome, dissipated, careless lad, inclined to
+peevishness when thwarted, and marred, perhaps, by too much adulation.
+
+Scarce had compliments been exchanged with snuff when Lady Johnson
+entered the room with Claudia Swift, and I thought I had seldom beheld
+two lovelier ladies in their silks and powder, who curtsied low on the
+threshold to our profound bows.
+
+As I saluted Lady Johnson's hand again, she said: "This is most kind of
+you, Jack, because I know that all farmers now have little time to
+waste."
+
+"Like Cincinnatus," said I, smilingly, "I leave my plow in the furrow at
+the call of danger, and hasten to brave the deadly battery of your
+bright eyes."
+
+Whereupon she laughed that sad little laugh which I knew so well, and
+which seemed her manner of forcing mirth when Sir John was present.
+
+I took her out at her request. Sir John led Claudia; the others paired
+gravely, Hare walking with the Seneca and whispering in his ear.
+
+Candles seemed fewer than usual in the dining hall, but were sufficient
+to display the late Sir William's plate and glass.
+
+The scented wind from Claudia's fan stirred my hair, and I remembered it
+was still the hair of a forest runner, neither short nor sufficiently
+long for the queue, and powdered not a trace.
+
+I looked around at Claudia's bright face, more brilliant for the saucy
+patches and newly powdered hair.
+
+"La," said she, "you vie with Hiakatoo yonder in Mohawk finery,
+Jack,--all beads and thrums and wampum. And yet you have a pretty leg
+for a silken stocking, too."
+
+"In the Bush," said I, "the backwoods aristocracy make little of your
+silk hosen, Claudia. Our stockings are leather and our powder black, and
+our patches are of buckskin and are sewed on elbow and knee with
+pack-thread or sinew. Or we use them, too, for wadding."
+
+"It is a fashion like another," she remarked with a shrug, but watching
+me intently over her fan's painted edge.
+
+"The mode is a tyrant," said I, "and knows neither pity nor good taste."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Why, Hiakatoo also wears paint, Claudia."
+
+"Meaning that I wear lip-rouge and lily-balm? Well, I do, my impertinent
+friend."
+
+"Who could suspect it?" I protested, mockingly.
+
+"You might have suspected it long since had you been sufficiently
+adventurous."
+
+"How so?" I inquired in my turn.
+
+"By kissing me, pardieu! But you always were a timid youth, Jack Drogue,
+and a woman's 'No,' with the proper stare of indignation, always was
+sufficient to route you utterly."
+
+In spite of myself I reddened under the smiling torment.
+
+"And if any man has had that much of you," said I, "then I for one will
+believe it only when I see your lip-rouge on his lips!"
+
+"Court me again and then look into your mirror," she retorted calmly.
+
+"What in the world are you saying to each other?" exclaimed Lady
+Johnson, tapping me with her fan. "Why, you are red as a squaw-berry,
+Jack, and your wine scarce tasted."
+
+Claudia said: "I but ask him to try his fortune, and he blushes like a
+silly."
+
+"Shame," returned Lady Johnson, laughing; "and you have Mr. Hare's scalp
+fresh at your belt!"
+
+Hare heard it, and laughed in his frank way, which instantly disarmed
+most people who had not too often heard it.
+
+"I admit," said he, "that I shall presently perish unless this cruel
+lady proves kinder, or restores to me my hair."
+
+"It were more merciful," quoth Ensign Moucher, "to slay outright with a
+single glance. I myself am long since doubly dead," he added with his
+mealy-mouthed laugh, and his mean reddish eyes a-flickering at Lady
+Johnson.
+
+Sir John, who was carving a roast of butcher's meat, carved on, though
+his young wife ventured a glance at him--a sad, timid look as though
+hopeful that her husband might betray some interest when other men said
+gallant things to her.
+
+I asked Sir John's permission to offer a toast, and he gave it with cold
+politeness.
+
+"To the two cruellest and loveliest creatures alive in a love-stricken
+world," said I. "Gentlemen, I offer you our charming tyrants. And may
+our heads remain ever in the dust and their silken shoon upon our
+necks!"
+
+All drank standing. The Seneca gulped his Madeira like a slobbering dog,
+noticing nobody, and then fell fiercely to cutting up his meat, until,
+his knife being in the way, he took the flesh in his two fists and
+gnawed it.
+
+But nobody appeared to notice the Seneca's beastly manners; and such
+general complaisance preoccupied me, because Hiakatoo knew better, and
+it seemed as though he considered himself in a position where he might
+disdain to conduct suitably amid a company which, possibly, stood in
+need of his good will.
+
+Nobody spoke of politics, nor did I care to introduce such a subject.
+Conversation was general; matters concerning the town, the Hall, were
+mentioned, together with such topics as are usually discussed among land
+owners in time of peace.
+
+And it seemed to me that Sir John, who had, as usual, remained coldly
+reticent among his guests, became of a sudden conversational with a sort
+of forced animation, like a man who recollects that he has a part to
+play and who unwillingly attempts it.
+
+He spoke of the Hall farm, and of how he meant to do this with this part
+and that with that part; and how the herd bulls were now become useless
+and he must send to the Patroon for new blood,--all a mere toneless and
+mechanical babble, it seemed to me, and without interest or sincerity.
+
+Once, sipping my claret, I thought I heard a faint clash of arms outside
+and in the direction of the guard-house.
+
+And another time it seemed to me that many horses were stirring
+somewhere outside in the darkness.
+
+I could not conceive of anything being afoot, because of Sir John's
+parole, and so presently dismissed the incidents from my mind.
+
+The wine had somewhat heated the men; laughter was louder, speech less
+guarded. Young Watts spoke boldly of Haldimand and Guy Carleton, naming
+them as the two most efficient servants that his Majesty had in Canada.
+
+Nobody, however, had the effrontery to mention Guy Johnson in my
+presence, but Ensign Moucher pretended to discuss a probable return of
+old John Butler and of his son Walter to our neighborhood,--to hoodwink
+me, I think,--but his mealy manner and the false face he pulled made me
+the more wary.
+
+The wine burned in Hiakatoo, but he never looked toward me nor directly
+at anybody out of his blank red eyes of a panther.
+
+Sir John had become a little drunk and slopped his wine-glass, but the
+wintry smile glimmered on his thin lips as though some secret thought
+contented him, and he was ever whispering with Captain Watts.
+
+But he spoke always of the coming summer and of his cattle and fields
+and the pursuits of peace, saying that he had no interest in Haldimand
+nor in any kinsmen who had fled Tryon; and that all he desired was to be
+let alone at the Hall, and not bothered by Phil Schuyler.
+
+"For," says he, emptying his glass with unsteady hand, "I've enough to
+do to feed my family and my servants and collect my rents; and I'm
+damned if I can do it unless those excitable gentlemen in Albany mind
+their own business as diligently as I wish to mind mine."
+
+"Surely, Sir John," said I, "nobody wishes to annoy you, because it is
+the universal desire that you remain. And, as you have pledged your
+honour to do so, only a fool would attempt to make more difficult your
+position among us."
+
+"Oh, there are fools, too," said he in his slow voice. "There were fools
+who supposed that the Six Nations would not resent ill treatment meted
+out to Guy Johnson." His cold gaze rested for a second upon Hiakatoo,
+then swept elsewhere.
+
+Preoccupied, I heard Claudia's voice in my ear:
+
+"Do you take no pleasure any longer in looking at me, Jack! You have
+paid me very scant notice tonight."
+
+I turned, smilingly made her a compliment, and she was now gazing into
+the little looking-glass set in the handle of her French fan, and her
+dimpled hand busy with her hair.
+
+"Polly's Irish maid dressed my hair," she remarked. "I would to God I
+had as clever a wench. Could you discover one to wait on me?"
+
+Hare, who had no warrant for familiarity, as far as I was concerned,
+nevertheless called out with a laugh that I knew every wench in the
+countryside and should find a pretty one very easily to serve Claudia.
+
+Which pleasantry did not please me; but Ensign Moucher and young Watts
+bore him out, and they all fell a-laughing, discussing with little
+decency such wenches as the two Wormwood girls near Fish House, and
+Betsy and Jessica Browse--maids who were pretty and full of gaiety at
+dance or frolic, and perhaps a trifle free in manners, but of whom I
+knew no evil and believed none whatever the malicious gossip concerning
+them.
+
+The gallantries of such men as Sir John and Walter Butler were known to
+everybody in the country; and so were the carryings on of all the
+younger gentry and the officers from Johnstown to Albany. Young girls'
+names--the daughters of tenants, settlers, farmers, were bandied about
+carelessly enough; and the names of those famed for beauty, or a lively
+disposition, had become more or less familiar to me.
+
+Yet, for myself, my escapades had been harmless enough--a pretty maid
+kissed at a quilting, perhaps; another courted lightly at a barn-romp; a
+laughing tavern wench caressed en passant, but no evil thought of it and
+nothing to regret--no need to remember aught that could start a tear in
+any woman's eyes.
+
+Watts said to Claudia: "There is a maid at Caughnawaga who serves old
+Douw Fonda--a Scotch girl, who might serve you as well as Flora cares
+for my sister."
+
+"Penelope Grant!" exclaims Hare with an oath. Whereat these three young
+men fell a-laughing, and even Sir John leered.
+
+I had heard her name and that the careless young gallants of the country
+were all after this young Scotch girl, servant to Douw Fonda--but I had
+never seen her.
+
+"She lives with the old gentleman, does she not?" inquired Claudia with
+a shrug.
+
+"She cares for him, dresses him, cooks for him, reads to him, sews,
+mends, lights him to bed and tucks him in," said Hare. "My God, what a
+wife she'd make for a farmer! Or a mistress for a gentleman."
+
+"A wench I would employ very gladly," quoth Claudia, frowning. "Could
+you get her ear, Jack, and fetch her?"
+
+"Take her from Douw Fonda?" I exclaimed in surprise.
+
+"The old man is like to die any moment," remarked Watts.
+
+"Besides," said Moucher, "he has scores of kinsmen and their women to
+take him in charge."
+
+"She's a pretty bit o' baggage," said Sir John drunkenly. "If you but
+kiss the little slut she looks at you like a silly kitten, and, I think,
+with no more sense or comprehension."
+
+Captain Watts darted an angry look at his brother-in-law but said
+nothing.
+
+Lady Johnson's features were burning and her lip quivered, but she
+forced a laugh, saying that her husband could have judged only by
+hearsay, and that the Scotch girl's reputation was still very good in
+the country.
+
+"Somebody'll get her," retorted Sir John, thickly, "for they're all
+a-pestering--Walter Butler, too, when he was here,--and your brother,
+and Hare and Moucher yonder. The little slut has yellow hair, but she's
+too damned thin!----" he hiccoughed and upset his wine; and a servant
+wiped his neck-cloth and his silk and silver waistcoat while he, with
+wagging and unsteady head, gazed gravely down at the damage done.
+
+Claudia set her lips to my ear: "The beast!--to affront his wife!" she
+whispered. "Tell me, do you, also, go about your rustic gallantries in
+the shameful manner of these educated and Christian gentlemen?"
+
+"I seek no woman's destruction," said I drily.
+
+"Not even mine?" She laughed as I reddened, and tapped me with her fan.
+
+"If our young men do not turn this Scotch girl's head with their
+philandering, send her to me and I will use her kindly."
+
+"You would not seduce her from an old and almost helpless man who needs
+her?" I demanded.
+
+"I find my servants where I can in such days as these," said she coolly.
+"And there are plenty to care for old Douw Fonda in Caughnawaga, but
+only an accomplished wench like Penelope Grant would I trust to do my
+hair and lace me. Will you send this girl to me?"
+
+"No, I won't," said I bluntly. "I shall not charge myself with such an
+errand, even for you. It is not a decent thing you ask of me or of the
+wench, either."
+
+"It is decent," retorted Claudia pettishly. "If she's as pretty a
+baggage as is reported, some of our young fools will never let her alone
+until one among them turns her silly head. Whereas the girl would be
+safe with me."
+
+"That is not my affair," I remarked.
+
+"Do you wish her harm?"
+
+"I tell you she is no concern of mine. And if she's not a hopeless fool
+she'll know how to trust the gentry of County Tryon."
+
+"You are of them, too, Jack," she said maliciously.
+
+"I am a plain farmer and I trouble no woman."
+
+"You trouble me," she insisted sweetly.
+
+I laughed, not agreeably.
+
+"You do so," she repeated. "I would you had courage to court me again."
+
+"Do you mean courage or inclination, Claudia?"
+
+She gave me a melting look, very sweet, and a trifle sad.
+
+"With patience," she murmured, "you might awaken both our hearts."
+
+"I know well what I'd awaken in you," said I; "I'd awaken the devil. No;
+I've had my chance."
+
+She sighed, still looking at me, and I awaited her further assault,
+grimly armed with memories.
+
+But ere she could speak, Hiakatoo lurched to his feet and stood towering
+there unsteadily, his burning gaze fixed on space.
+
+Whereat Sir John, now very tight and very drowsy, opened owlish eyes;
+and Hare took the Seneca by the arm.
+
+"If you desire to go," said he, "here are three of us ready to ride
+beside you."
+
+Moucher, too, stood up, and so did Captain Watts; but they were not in
+their cups. Watts took Hiakatoo's blanket from a servant and cast it
+over the tall warrior's shoulders.
+
+"The Western Gate of the Confederacy lies unguarded," explained Hare to
+us all, in his frank, amiable manner. "The great Gate Keeper, Hiakatoo,
+bids you all farewell. Duty calls him toward the setting sun."
+
+All had now risen from the table. Hiakatoo lurched past us and out into
+the hallway; Hare and Moucher and Watts took smiling leave of Sir John;
+the ladies gave them all a courteous farewell. Hare, passing, said to
+me:
+
+"To any who enquire you can answer pat enough to make an end to foolish
+rumours concerning any meditated flight of this family."
+
+"My answer," said I quietly, "is always the same: Sir William's son has
+given his parole."
+
+They went out after their Indian, which disturbed me greatly, as I could
+not account for Hiakatoo's presence at Johnstown, and I was ill at ease
+seeing him so apparently in charge of three known Tories, and one of
+them a deputy of Guy Johnson.
+
+However, I took my leave of Sir John, who gave me a wavering hand and
+stared at me blankly. Then I kissed the ladies' hands and went out to
+the porch where Billy waited with my mare, Kaya.
+
+Lady Johnson came to the door as I mounted.
+
+"Don't forget us when again you are in Johnstown," she said.
+
+Claudia, too, appeared and stepped daintily out on the dewy grass,
+lifting her petticoat.
+
+"What a witching night," she exclaimed mischievously, "--what a night
+for love! Do you mark the young moon, Jack, and how all the dark is
+saturated with a sweet smell of new buds?"
+
+"I mark it all," said I, laughing, "and, as for love, why, I love it
+all, Claudia,--moon, darkness, scent of young leaves, the far forest
+still as death, and the noise of the brook yonder."
+
+"I meant a sweeter love," quoth she, coming to my stirrup and laying
+both hands upon my saddle.
+
+"There is no sweeter love," said I, still laughing, "--none happier than
+the love of this silvery world of night which God made to heal us of the
+blows of day."
+
+"Whither do you ride, Jack?"
+
+"Homeward."
+
+"To Fonda's Bush?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Directly home?"
+
+"I have a comrade----" said I. "He awaits me on the Mayfield Road."
+
+"Why do you ride by Mayfield?"
+
+"Because he waits for me there."
+
+"Why, Jack?"
+
+"He has friends to visit----"
+
+"At Mayfield?"
+
+"At Pigeon-Wood," I muttered.
+
+"More gallantry!" she said, tossing her head. "But young men must have
+their fling, and I am not jealous of Betsy Browse or of her pretty
+sister, so that you ride not toward Caughnawaga----"
+
+"What?"
+
+"To see this rustic beauty, Penelope Grant----"
+
+"Have I not refused to seek her for you?" I demanded.
+
+"Yes, but not for yourself, Jack! Curiosity killed a cat and started a
+young man on his travels!"
+
+Exasperated by her malice I struck my mare's flanks with moccasined
+heels; and as I rode out into the darkness Claudia's gaily mocking laugh
+floated after me on the still, sweet air.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+RUSTIC GALLANTRY
+
+
+There were few lanterns and fewer candle lights in Johnstown; sober folk
+seemed to be already abed; only a constable, Hugh McMonts, stood in the
+main street, leaning upon his pike as I followed the new moon out of
+town and down into a dark and lovely land where all was still and
+fragrant and dim as the dreams of those who lie down contented with the
+world.
+
+Now, as I jogged along on my mare, Kaya, over a well-levelled road, my
+mind was very full of what I had seen and heard at Johnson Hall.
+
+One thing seemed clear to me; there could be no foundation for any
+untoward rumours regarding Sir John,--no fear that he meant to shame his
+honoured name and flee to Canada to join Guy Johnson and his Indians and
+the Tryon County Tories who already had fled.
+
+No; Sir John was quietly planning his summer farming. All seemed
+tranquil at the Hall. And I could not find it in my nature to doubt his
+pledged word, nor believe that he was plotting mischief.
+
+Still, it had staggered me somewhat to see Hiakatoo there in his
+ceremonial paint, as though the fire were still burning at Onondaga. But
+I concluded that the Seneca War Chief had come on some private affair
+and not for his nation, because a chief does not travel alone upon a
+ceremonial mission. No; this Indian had arrived to talk privately with
+Hare, who, no doubt, now represented Guy Johnson's late authority among
+the Johnstown Tories.
+
+Thinking over these matters, I jogged into the Mayfield road; and as I
+passed in between the tall wayside bushes, without any warning at all
+two shadowy horsemen rode out in front of me and threw their horses
+across my path, blocking it.
+
+Instantly my hand flew to my hatchet, but at that same moment one of the
+tall riders laughed, and I let go my war-axe, ashamed.
+
+"It's John Drogue!" said a voice I recognized, as I pushed my mare
+close to them and peered into their faces; and I discovered that these
+riders were two neighbors of mine, Godfrey Shew of Fish House, and Joe
+de Golyer of Varick's.
+
+"What frolic is this?" I demanded, annoyed to see their big pistols
+resting on their thighs and their belted hatchets loosened from the
+fringed sheaths.
+
+"No frolic," answered Shew soberly, "though Joe may find it a matter for
+his French mirth."
+
+"Why do you stop folk at night on the King's highway?" I inquired
+curiously of de Golyer.
+
+"Voyons, l'ami Jean," he replied gaily, "Sir Johnson and his Scottish
+bare-shanks, they have long time stop us on their sacre King's highway.
+Now, in our turn, we stop them, by gar! Oui, nom de dieu! And we shall
+see what we shall see, and we shall catch in our little trap what shall
+step into it, pardieu!"
+
+Shew said in his heavy voice: "Our authorities in Albany have concluded
+to watch, for smuggled arms, the roads leading to Johnstown, Mr.
+Drogue."
+
+"Do they fear treachery at the Hall?"
+
+"They do not know what is going on at the Hall. But there are rumours
+abroad concerning the running in of arms for the Highlanders, and the
+constant passing of messengers between Canada and Johnstown."
+
+"I have but left the Hall," said I. "I saw nothing to warrant
+suspicion." And I told them who were there and how they conducted at
+supper.
+
+Shew said with an oath that Lieutenant Hare was a dangerous man, and
+that he hoped a warrant for him would be issued.
+
+"As for the Indian, Hiakatoo," he went on, "he's a surly and cunning
+animal, and a fierce one as are all Senecas. I do not know what has
+brought him to Johnstown, nor why Moucher was there, nor Steve Watts."
+
+"Young Watts, no doubt, came to visit his sister," said I. "That is
+natural, Mr. Shew."
+
+"Oh, no doubt, no doubt," grumbled Shew. "You, Mr. Drogue, are one of
+those gentlemen who seem trustful of the honour of all gentlemen. And
+for every gentleman who _is_ one, the next is a blackguard. I do not
+contradict you. No, sir. But we plain folk of Tryon think it wisdom to
+watch gentlemen like Sir John Johnson."
+
+"I am as plain a man as you are," said I, "but I am not able to doubt
+the word of honour given by the son of Sir William Johnson."
+
+De Golyer laughed and asked me which way I rode, and I told him.
+
+"Nick Stoner also went Mayfield way," said Shew with a shrug. "I think
+he unsaddled at Pigeon-Wood."
+
+They wheeled their horses into the bushes with gestures of adieu; I
+shook my bridle, and my mare galloped out into the sandy road again.
+
+The sky was very bright with that sweet springtime lustre which comes
+not alone from the moon but also from a million million unseen stars,
+all a-shining behind the purple veil of night.
+
+Presently I heard the Mayfield creek babbling like a dozen laughing
+lasses, and rode along the bushy banks looking up at the mountains to
+the north.
+
+They are friendly little mountains which we call the Mayfield Hills, all
+rising into purple points against the sky, like the waves on Lake
+Ontario, and so tumbling northward into the grim jaws of the
+Adirondacks, which are different--not sinister, perhaps, but grim and
+stolid peaks, ever on guard along the Northern wilderness.
+
+Long, still reaches of the creek stretched away, unstarred by rising
+trout because of the lateness of the night. Only a heron's croak sounded
+in the darkness; there were no lights where I knew the Mayfield
+settlement to be.
+
+Already I saw the grist mill, with its dusky wheel motionless; and, to
+the left, a frame house or two and several log-houses set in cleared
+meadows, where the vast ramparts of the forest had been cut away.
+
+Now, there was a mile to gallop eastward along a wet path toward Summer
+House Point; and in a little while I saw the long, low house called
+Pigeon-Wood, which sat astride o' the old Iroquois war trail to the
+Sacandaga and the Canadas.
+
+It was a heavy house of hewn timber and smoothed with our blue clay,
+which cuts the sandy loam of Tryon in great streaks.
+
+There was no light in the windows, but the milky lustre of the heavens
+flooded all, and there, upon the rail fence, I did see Nick Stoner
+a-kissing of Betsy Browse.
+
+They heard my horse and fluttered down from the fence like two robins,
+as I pulled up and dismounted.
+
+"Hush!" said the girl, who was bare of feet and her gingham scarce
+pinned decently; and laid her finger on her lips as she glanced toward
+the house.
+
+"The old man is back," quoth Nick, sliding a graceless arm around her.
+"But he sleeps like an ox." And, to Betsy, "Whistle thy little sister
+from her nest, sweetheart. For there are no gallants in Tryon to match
+with my comrade, John Drogue!"
+
+Which did not please me to hear, for I had small mind for rustic
+gallantry; but Martha pursed her lips and whistled thrice; and presently
+the house door opened without any noise.
+
+She was a healthy, glowing wench, half confident, half coquette, like a
+playful forest thing in springtime, when all things mate.
+
+And her sister, Jessica, was like her, only slimmer, who came across the
+starlit grass rubbing both eyes with her little fists, like a child
+roused from sleep,--a shy, smiling, red-lipped thing, who gave me her
+hand and yawned.
+
+And presently went to where my mare stood to pet her and pull the new,
+wet grass and feed her tid-bits.
+
+I did not feel awkward, yet knew not how to conduct or what might be
+expected of me at this star-dim rendezvous with a sleepy, woodland
+beauty.
+
+But she seemed in nowise disconcerted after a word or two; drew my arm
+about her; put up her red mouth to be kissed, and then begged to be
+lifted to my saddle.
+
+Here she sat astride and laughed down at me through her tangled hair.
+And:
+
+"I have a mind to gallop to Fish House," said she, "only that it might
+prove a lonely jaunt."
+
+"Shall I come, Jessica?"
+
+"Will you do so?"
+
+I waited till the blood cooled in my veins; and by that time she had
+forgotten what she had been about--like any other forest bird.
+
+"You have a fine mare, Mr. Drogue," said she, gently caressing Kaya with
+her naked heels. "No rider better mounted passes Pigeon-Wood."
+
+"Do many riders pass, Jessica?"
+
+"Sir John's company between Fish House and the Hall."
+
+"Any others lately?"
+
+"Yes, there are horsemen who ride swiftly at night. We hear them."
+
+"Who may they be?"
+
+"I do not know, sir."
+
+"Sir John's people?"
+
+"Very like."
+
+"Coming from the North?"
+
+"Yes, from the North."
+
+"Have they waggons to escort?"
+
+"I have heard waggons, too."
+
+"Lately?"
+
+"Yes." She leaned down from the saddle and rested both hands on my
+shoulders:
+
+"Have you no better way to please than in catechizing me, John Drogue?"
+she laughed. "Do you know what lips were fashioned for except words?"
+
+I kissed her, and, still resting her hands on my shoulders, she looked
+down into my eyes.
+
+"Are you of Sir John's people?" she asked.
+
+"Of them, perhaps, but not now with them, Jessica."
+
+"Oh. The other party?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You! A Boston man?"
+
+"Nick and I, both."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because we design to live as free as God made us, and not as
+king-fashioned slaves."
+
+"Oh, la!" quoth she, opening her eyes wide, "you use very mighty words
+to me, Mr. Drogue. There are young men in red coats and gilt lace on
+their hats who would call you rebel."
+
+"I am."
+
+"No," she whispered, putting both arms around my neck. "You are a pretty
+boy and no Yankee! I do not wish you to be a Boston rebel."
+
+"Are all your lovers King's men?"
+
+"My lovers?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Are you one?"
+
+At which I laughed and lifted the saucy wench from my saddle, and stood
+so in the starlight, her arms still around my neck.
+
+"No," said I, "I never had a sweetheart, and, indeed, would not know how
+to conduct----"
+
+"We could learn."
+
+But I only laughed, disengaging her arms, and passing my own around her
+supple waist.
+
+"Listen," said I, "Nick and I mean no harm in a starlit frolic, where we
+tarry for a kiss from a pretty maid."
+
+"No harm?"
+
+"Neither that nor better, Jessica. Nor do you; and I know that very
+well. With me it's a laugh and a kiss and a laugh; and into my stirrups
+and off.... And you are young and soft and sweet as new maple-sap in
+the snow. But if you dream like other little birds, of nesting----"
+
+"May a lass not dream in springtime?"
+
+"Surely. But let it end so, too."
+
+"In dreams."
+
+"It is wiser."
+
+"There is no wisdom in me, pretty boy in buckskin. And I love thrums
+better than red-coats and lace."
+
+"Love spinning better than either!"
+
+"Oh, la! He preaches of wheels and spindles when my mouth aches for a
+kiss!"
+
+"And mine," said I, "--but my legs ache more for my saddle; and I must
+go."
+
+At that moment when I said adieu with my lips, and she did not mean to
+unlink her arms, came Nick on noiseless tread to twitch my arm. And,
+"Look," said he, pointing toward the long, low rampart of Maxon Ridge.
+
+I turned, my hand still retaining Jessica's: and saw the Iroquois
+signal-flame mount thin and high, tremble, burn red against the stars,
+then die there in the darkness.
+
+Northward another flame reddened on the hills, then another, fire
+answering fire.
+
+"What the devil is this?" growled Nick. "These are no times for Indians
+to talk to one another with fire."
+
+"Get into your saddle," said I, "and we shall ride by Varick's, for I've
+a mind to see what will-o'-the-wisps may be a-dancing over the great
+Vlaie!"
+
+So the tall lad took his leave of his little pigeon of Pigeon-Wood, who
+seemed far from willing to let him loose; and I made my adieux to
+Jessica, who stood a-pouting; and we mounted and set off at a gallop for
+Varick's, by way of Summer House Point.
+
+I could not be certain, but it seemed to me that there was a light at
+the Point, which came through the crescents from behind closed shutters;
+but that was within reason, Sir John being at liberty to keep open the
+hunting lodge if he chose.
+
+As for the Drowned Lands, as far as we could see through the night there
+was not a spark over that desolate wilderness.
+
+The Mohawk fires on the hills, too, had died out. Fish House, if still
+burning candles, was too far away to see; we galloped through Varick's,
+past the mill where, from its rocky walls, Frenchman's Creek roared
+under the stars; then turned west along the Brent-Meester's trail toward
+Fonda's Bush and home.
+
+"Those Iroquois fires trouble me mightily," quoth Nick, pushing his lank
+horse forward beside my mare.
+
+"And me," said I.
+
+"Why should they talk with fire on the night Hiakatoo comes to the
+Hall?"
+
+"I do not know," said I. "But when I am home I shall write it in a
+letter to Albany that this night the Mohawks have talked among
+themselves with fire, and that a Seneca was present."
+
+"And that mealy-mouthed Ensign, Moucher; and Hare and Steve Watts!"
+
+"I shall so write it," said I, very seriously.
+
+"Good!" cried he with a jolly slap on his horse's neck. "But the sweeter
+part of this night's frolic you and I shall carry locked in our breasts.
+Eh, John? By heaven, is she not fresh and pink as a dewy strawberry in
+June--my pretty little wench? Is she not apt as a school-learned lass
+with any new lesson a man chooses to teach?"
+
+"Yes, too apt, perhaps," said I, shaking my head but laughing. "But I
+think they have had already a lesson or two in such frolics, less
+innocent, perhaps, than the lesson we gave."
+
+"I'll break the back of any red-coat who stops at Pigeon-Wood!" cried
+Nick Stoner with an oath. "Yes, red-coat or any other colour, either!"
+
+"You would not take our frolic seriously, would you, Nick?"
+
+"I take all frolics seriously," said he with a gay laugh, smiting both
+thighs, and his bridle loose. "Where I place my mark with my proper
+lips, let roving gallants read and all roysterers beware!--even though I
+so mark a dozen pretty does!"
+
+"A very Turk," said I.
+
+"An antlered stag in the blue-coat that brooks no other near his herd!"
+cried he with a burst of laughter. And fell to smiting his thighs and
+tossing up both arms, riding like a very centaur there, with his hair
+flowing and his thrums streaming in the starlight.
+
+And, "Lord God of Battles!" he cried out to the stars, stretching up his
+powerful young arms. "Thou knowest how I could love tonight; but dost
+Thou know, also, how I could fight if I had only a foe to destroy with
+these two empty hands!"
+
+"Thou murderous Turk!" I cried in his ear. "Pray, rather, that there
+shall be no war, and no foe more deadly than the pretty wench of
+Pigeon-Wood!"
+
+"Love or war, I care not!" he shouted in his spring-tide frenzy,
+galloping there unbridled, his lean young face in the wind. "But God
+send the one or the other to me very quickly--or love or war--for I need
+more than a plow or axe to content my soul afire!"
+
+"Idiot!" said I, "have done a-yelling! You wake every owl in the bush!"
+
+And above his youth-maddened laughter I heard the weird yelping of the
+forest owls as though the Six Nations already were in their paint, and
+blood fouled every trail.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So we galloped into Fonda's Bush, pulling up before my door; but Nick
+would not stay the night and must needs gallop on to his own log house,
+where he could blanket and stall his tired and sweating horse--I owning
+only the one warm stall.
+
+"Well," says he, still slapping his thighs where he sat his saddle as I
+dismounted, and his young face still aglow in the dim, silvery light,
+"--well, John, I shall ride again, one day, to Pigeon-Wood. Will you
+ride with me?"
+
+"I think not."
+
+"And why?"
+
+But, standing by my door, bridle in hand, I slowly shook my head.
+
+"There is no prettier bit o' baggage in County Tryon than Jessica
+Browse," he insisted--"unless, perhaps, it be that Scotch girl at
+Caughnawaga, whom all the red-coats buzz about like sap flies around a
+pan."
+
+"And who may this Scotch lassie be?" I asked with a smile, and busy,
+now, unsaddling.
+
+"I mean the new servant to old Douw Fonda."
+
+"I have not noticed her."
+
+"You have not seen the Caughnawaga girl?"
+
+"No. I remain incurious concerning servants," said I, drily.
+
+"Is it so!" he laughed. "Well, then,--for all that they have a right to
+gold binding on their hats,--the gay youth of Johnstown, yes, and of
+Schenectady, too, have not remained indifferent to the Scotch girl of
+Douw Fonda, Penelope Grant!"
+
+I shrugged and lifted my saddle.
+
+"Every man to his taste," said I. "Some eat woodchucks, some porcupines,
+and others the tail of a beaver. Venison smacks sweeter to me."
+
+Nick laughed again. "When she reads the old man to sleep and takes her
+knitting to the porch, you should see the ring of gallants every
+afternoon a-courting her!--and their horses tied to every tree around
+the house as at a quilting!
+
+"But there's no quilting frolic; no supper; no dance;--nothing more
+than a yellow-haired slip of a wench busy knitting there in the sun, and
+looking at none o' them but intent on her needles and with that faint
+smile she wears----"
+
+"Go court her," said I, laughing; and led my mare into her warm stall.
+
+"You'll court her yourself, one day!" he shouted after me, as he
+gathered bridle. "And if you do, God help you, John Drogue, for they say
+she's a born disturber of quiet men's minds, and mistress of a very
+mischievous and deadly art!"
+
+"What art?" I laughed.
+
+"The art o' love!" he bawled as he rode off, slapping his thighs and
+setting the moonlit woods all a-ringing with his laughter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+BEFORE THE STORM
+
+
+Johnny Silver had ridden my mare to Varick's to be shod, the evening
+previous, and was to remain the night and return by noon to Fonda's
+Bush.
+
+It was the first sunny May day of the year, murmurous with bees, and a
+sweet, warm smell from woods and cleared lands.
+
+Already bluebirds were drifting from stump to stump, and robins, which
+had arrived in April before the snow melted, chirped in the furrows of
+last autumn's plowing.
+
+Also were flying those frail little grass-green moths, earliest
+harbingers of vernal weather, so that observing folk, versed in the
+pretty signals which nature displays to acquaint us of her designs,
+might safely prophesy soft skies.
+
+I was standing in my glebe just after sunrise, gazing across my great
+cleared field--I had but one then, all else being woods--and I was
+thinking about my crops, how that here should be sown buckwheat to break
+and mellow last year's sod; and here I should plant corn and Indian
+squashes, and yonder, God willing, potatoes and beans.
+
+And I remember, now, that I presently fell to whistling the air of "The
+Little Red Foot," while I considered my future harvest; and was even
+planning to hire of Andrew Bowman his fine span of white oxen for my
+spring plowing; when, of a sudden, through the May woods there grew upon
+the air a trembling sound, distant and sad. Now it sounded louder as the
+breeze stirred; now fainter when it shifted, so that a mournful echo
+only throbbed in my ears.
+
+It was the sound of the iron bell ringing on the new Block House at
+Mayfield.
+
+The carelessly whistled tune died upon my lips; my heart almost ceased
+for a moment, then violently beat the alarm.
+
+I ran to a hemlock stump in the field, where my loaded rifle rested, and
+took it up and looked at the priming powder, finding it dry and bright.
+
+A strange stillness had fallen upon the forest; there was no sound save
+that creeping and melancholy quaver of the bell. The birds had become
+quiet; the breeze, too, died away; and it was as though each huge tree
+stood listening, and that no leaf dared stir.
+
+As a dark cloud gliding between earth and sun quenches the sky's calm
+brightness, so the bell's tolling seemed to transform the scene about me
+to a sunless waste, through which the dread sound surged in waves, like
+the complaint of trees before a storm.
+
+Standing where my potatoes had been hoed the year before, I listened a
+moment longer to the dreary mourning of the bell, my eyes roving along
+the edges of the forest which, like a high, green rampart, enclosed my
+cleared land on every side.
+
+Then I turned and went swiftly to my house, snatched blanket from bed,
+spread it on the puncheon floor, laid upon it a sack of new bullets, a
+new canister of powder, a heap of buckskin scraps for wadding, a bag of
+salt, another of parched corn, a dozen strips of smoked venison.
+
+Separately on the blanket beside these I placed two pair of woollen
+hose, two pair of new ankle moccasins, an extra pair of deer-skin
+leggins, two cotton shirts, a hunting shirt of doe-skin, and a fishing
+line and hooks. These things I rolled within my blanket, making of
+everything a strapped pack.
+
+Then I pulled on my District Militia regimentals, which same was a
+hunting shirt of tow-cloth, spatter-dashes of the same, and a felt hat,
+cocked.
+
+Across the breast of my tow-cloth hunting-shirt I slung a bullet-pouch,
+a powder-horn and a leather haversack; seized my light hatchet and hung
+it to my belt, hoisted the blanket pack to my shoulders and strapped it
+there; and, picking up rifle and hunting knife, I passed swiftly out of
+the house, fastening the heavy oaken door behind me and wondering
+whether I should ever return to open it again.
+
+The trodden forest trail, wide enough for a team to pass, lay straight
+before me due west, through heavy woods, to Andrew Bowman's farm.
+
+When I came into the cleared land, I perceived Mrs. Bowman washing
+clothing in a spring near the door of her log house, and the wash
+a-bleaching in the early sun. When she saw me she called to me across
+the clearing:
+
+"Have you news for me, John Drogue?"
+
+"None," said I. "Where is your man, Martha?"
+
+"Gone away to Stoner's with pack and rifle. He is but just departed. Is
+it only a drill call, or are the Indians out at the Lower Castle?"
+
+"I know nothing," said I. "Are you alone in the house?"
+
+"A young kinswoman, Penelope Grant, servant to old Douw Fonda, arrived
+late last night with my man from Caughnawaga, and is still asleep in the
+loft."
+
+As she spoke a girl, clothed only in her shift, came to the open door of
+the log house. Her naked feet were snow-white; her hair, yellow as
+October-corn, seemed very thick and tangled.
+
+She stood blinking as though dazzled, the glory of the rising sun in her
+face; then the tolling of the tocsin swam to her sleepy ears, and she
+started like a wild thing when a shot is fired very far away.
+
+And, "What is that sound?" she exclaimed, staring about her; and I had
+never seen a woman's eyes so brown under such yellow hair.
+
+She stepped out into the fresh grass and stood in the dew listening, now
+gazing at the woods, now at Martha Bowman, and now upon me.
+
+Speech came to me with an odd sort of anger. I said to Mrs. Bowman, who
+stood gaping in the sunshine:
+
+"Where are your wits? Take that child into the house and bar your
+shutters and draw water for your tubs. And keep your door bolted until
+some of the militia can return from Stoner's."
+
+"Oh, my God," said she, and fell to snatching her wash from the bushes
+and grass.
+
+At that, the girl Penelope turned and looked at me. And I thought she
+was badly frightened until she spoke.
+
+"Young soldier," said she, "do you know if Sir John has fled?"
+
+"I know nothing," said I, "and am like to learn less if you women do not
+instantly go in and bar your house."
+
+"Are the Mohawks out?" she asked.
+
+"Have I not said I do not know?"
+
+"Yes, sir.... But I should have escort by the shortest route to
+Cayadutta----"
+
+"You talk like a child," said I, sharply. "And you seem scarcely more,"
+I added, turning away. But I lingered still to see them safely bolted in
+before I departed.
+
+"Soldier," she began timidly; but I interrupted:
+
+"Go fill your tubs against fire-arrows," said I. "Why do you loiter?"
+
+"Because I have great need to return to Caughnawaga. Will you guide me
+the shortest way by the woods?"
+
+"Do you not hear that bell?" I demanded angrily.
+
+"Yes, sir, I hear it. But I should go to Cayadutta----"
+
+"And I should answer that militia call," said I impatiently. "Go in and
+lock the house, I tell you!"
+
+Mrs. Bowman, her arms full of wet linen, ran into the house. The girl,
+Penelope, gazed at the woods.
+
+"I am servant to a very old man," she said, twisting her linked fingers.
+"I can not abandon him! I can not let him remain all alone at Cayadutta
+Lodge. Will you take me to him?"
+
+"And if I were free of duty," said I, "I would not take you or any other
+woman into those accursed woods!"
+
+"Why not, sir?"
+
+"Because I do not yet comprehend what that bell is telling me. And if it
+means that there is a painted war-party out between the Sacandaga and
+the Mohawk, I shall not take you to Caughnawaga when I return from
+Stoner's, and that's flat!"
+
+"I am not afraid to go," said she. But I think I saw her shudder; and
+her face seemed very still and white. Then Mrs. Bowman ran out of the
+house and caught the girl by her homespun shift.
+
+"Come indoors!" she cried shrilly, "or will you have us all pulling war
+arrows out of our bodies while you stand blinking at the woods and
+gossiping with Jack Drogue?"
+
+The girl shook herself free, and asked me again to take her to Cayadutta
+Lodge.
+
+But I had no more time to argue, and I flung my rifle to my shoulder and
+started out across the cleared land.
+
+Once I looked back. And I saw her still standing there, the rising sun
+bright on her tangled hair, and her naked feet shining like silver in
+the dew-wet grass.
+
+By a spring path I hastened to the house of John Putman, and found him
+already gone and his family drawing water and fastening shutters.
+
+His wife, Deborah, called to me saying that the Salisburys should be
+warned, and I told her that I had already spoken to the Bowmans.
+
+"Your labour for your pains, John Drogue!" cried she. "The Bowmans are
+King's people and need fear neither Tory nor Indian!"
+
+"It is unjust to say so, Deborah," I retorted warmly. "Dries Bowman is
+already on his way to answer the militia call!"
+
+"Watch him!" she said, slamming the shutters; and fell to scolding her
+children, who, poor things, were striving at the well with dripping
+bucket too heavy for their strength.
+
+So I drew the water they might need if, indeed, it should prove true
+that Little Abe's Mohawks at the Lower Castle had painted themselves and
+were broken loose; and then I ran back along the spring path to the
+Salisbury's, and found them already well bolted in, and their man gone
+to Stoner's with rifle and pack.
+
+And now comes Johnny Silver, who had ridden my mare from Varick's, but
+had no news, all being tranquil along Frenchman's Creek, and nobody able
+to say what the Block House bell was telling us.
+
+"Did you stable Kaya?" I asked.
+
+"Oui, mon garce! I have bolt her in tight!"
+
+"Good heavens," said I, "she can not remain bolted in to starve if I am
+sent on to Canada! Get you forward to Stoner's house and say that I
+delay only to fetch my horse!"
+
+The stout little French trapper flung his piece to his shoulder and
+broke into a dog-trot toward the west.
+
+"Follow quickly, Sieur Jean!" he called gaily. "By gar, I have smell
+Iroquois war paint since ver' long time already, and now I smell him
+strong as old dog fox!"
+
+I turned and started back through the woods as swiftly as I could
+stride.
+
+As I came in sight of my log house, I was astounded to see my mare out
+and saddled, and a woman setting foot to stirrup. As I sprang out of the
+edge of the woods and ran toward her, she wheeled Kaya, and I saw that
+it was the Caughnawaga wench in _my_ saddle and upon _my_ horse--her
+yellow hair twisted up and shining like a Turk's gold turban above her
+bloodless face.
+
+"What do you mean!" I cried in a fury. "Dismount instantly from that
+mare! Do you hear me?"
+
+"I must ride to Caughnawaga!" she called out, and struck my mare with
+both heels so that the horse bounded away beyond my reach.
+
+Exasperated, I knew not what to do, for I could not hope to overtake the
+mad wench afoot; and so could only shout after her.
+
+However, she drew bridle and looked back; but I dared not advance from
+where I stood, lest she gallop out of hearing at the first step.
+
+"This is madness!" I called to her across the field. "You do not know
+why that bell is ringing at Mayfield. A week since the Mohawks were
+talking to one another with fires on all these hills! There may be a
+war party in yonder woods! There may be more than one betwixt here and
+Caughnawaga!"
+
+"I cannot desert Mr. Fonda at such a time," said she with that same pale
+and frightened obstinacy I had encountered at Bowman's.
+
+"Do you wish to steal my horse!" I demanded.
+
+"No, sir.... It is not meant so. If some one would guide me afoot I
+would be glad to return to you your horse."
+
+"Oh. And if not, then you mean to ride there in spite o' the devil. Is
+that the situation?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+Had it been any man I would have put a bullet in him; and could have
+easily marked him where I pleased. Never had I been in colder rage;
+never had I felt so helpless. And every moment I was afeard the crazy
+girl would ride on.
+
+"Will you parley?" I shouted.
+
+"Parley?" she repeated. "How so, young soldier?"
+
+"In this manner, then: I engage my honour not to seize your bridle or
+touch you or my horse if you will sit still till I come up with you."
+
+She sat looking at me across the fallow field in silence.
+
+"I shall not use violence," said I. "I shall try only to find some way
+to serve you, and yet to do my own duty, too."
+
+"Soldier," she replied in a troubled voice, "is this the very truth you
+speak?"
+
+"Have I not engaged my honour?" I retorted sharply.
+
+She made no reply, but she did not stir as I advanced, though her brown
+eyes watched my every step.
+
+When I stood at her stirrup she looked down at me intently, and I saw
+she was younger even than I had thought, and was made more like a
+smooth, slim boy than a woman.
+
+"You are Penelope Grant, of Caughnawaga," I said.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Do you know who I am?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+I named myself, saying with a smile that none of my name had ever broken
+faith in word or deed.
+
+"Now," I continued, "that bell calls me to duty as surely as drum or
+trumpet ever summoned soldier since there were wars on earth. I must go
+to Stoner's; I can not guide you to Caughnawaga through the woods or
+take you thither by road or trail. And yet, if I do not, you mean to
+take my horse."
+
+"I must."
+
+"And risk a Mohawk war party on the way?"
+
+"I--must."
+
+"That is very brave," said I, curbing my impatience, "but not wise.
+There are others of his kin to care for old Douw Fonda if war has truly
+come upon us here in Tryon County."
+
+"Soldier," said she in her still voice, which I once thought had been
+made strange by fear, but now knew otherwise--"my honour, too, is
+engaged. Mr. Fonda, whom I serve, has made of me more than a servant. He
+uses me as a daughter; offers to adopt me; trusts his age and feebleness
+to me; looks to me for every need, every ministration....
+
+"Soldier, I came to Dries Bowman's last night with his consent, and gave
+him my word to return within a week. I came to Fonda's Bush because Mr.
+Fonda desired me to visit the only family in America with whom I have
+the slightest tie of kinship--the Bowmans.
+
+"But if war has come to us here in County Tryon, then instantly my duty
+is to this brave old gentleman who lives all alone in his house at
+Caughnawaga, and nobody except servants and black slaves to protect him
+if danger comes to the door."
+
+What the girl said touched me; nor could I discern in her anything of
+the coquetry which Nick Stoner's story of her knitting and her ring of
+gallants had pictured for me.
+
+Surely here was no rustic coquette to be flattered and courted and
+bedeviled by her betters--no country suck-thumb to sit a-giggling at her
+knitting, surfeited with honeyed words that meant destruction;--no wench
+to hang her head and twiddle apron while some pup of quality whispered
+in her ear temptations.
+
+I said: "This is the better way. Listen. Ride my mare to Mayfield by the
+highway. If you learn there that the Lower Castle Indians have painted
+for war, there is no hope of winning through to Cayadutta Lodge. And of
+what use to Mr. Fonda would be a dead girl?"
+
+"That is true," she whispered.
+
+"Very well. And if the Mohawks are loose along the river, then you shall
+remain at the Block House until it becomes possible to go on. There is
+no other way. Do you understand?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Do you engage to do this thing? And to place my horse in safety at the
+Mayfield fort?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Then," said I, "in my turn I promise to send aid to you at Mayfield, or
+come myself and take you to Cayadutta Lodge as soon as that proves
+possible. And I promise more; I shall endeavour to get word through to
+Mr. Fonda concerning your situation."
+
+She thanked me in that odd, still voice of hers. Her eyes had the starry
+look of a child's--or of unshed tears.
+
+"My mare will carry two," said I cheerfully. "Let me mount behind you
+and set you on the Mayfield road."
+
+She made no reply. I mounted behind her, took the bridle from her
+chilled fingers, and spoke to Kaya very gaily. And so we rode across my
+sunlit glebe and across the sugar-bush, where the moist trail, full of
+ferns, stretched away toward Mayfield as straight as the bee flies.
+
+I do not know whether it was because the wench was now fulfilling her
+duty, as she deemed it, and therefore had become contented in a measure,
+but when I dismounted she took the bridle with a glance that seemed near
+to a faint smile. But maybe it was her mouth that I thought fashioned in
+pleasant lines.
+
+"Will you remember, soldier?" she asked, looking down at me from the
+saddle. "I shall wait some news of you at the Mayfield fort."
+
+"I shall not let you remain there long abandoned," said I cheerily. "Be
+kind to Kaya. She has a tender mouth and an ear more sensitive still to
+a harsh word."
+
+The girl laid a hand flat on my mare's neck and looked at me, the shy
+caress in her gesture and in her eyes.
+
+Both were meant for my horse; and a quick kindness for this Scotch girl
+came into my heart.
+
+"Take shelter at the Mayfield fort," said I, "and be very certain I
+shall not forget you. You may gallop all the way on this soft wood-road.
+Will you care for Kaya at the fort when she is unsaddled?"
+
+A smile suddenly curved her lips.
+
+"Yes, John Drogue," she answered, looking me in the eyes. And the next
+moment she was off at a gallop, her yellow hair loosened with the first
+bound of the horse, and flying all about her face and shoulders now,
+like sunshine flashing across windblown golden-rod.
+
+Then, in her saddle, the girl turned and looked back at me, and sat so,
+still galloping, until she was out of sight.
+
+And, as I stood there alone in the woodland road, I began to understand
+what Nick Stoner meant when he called this Scotch girl a disturber of
+men's minds and a mistress--all unconscious, perhaps--of a very deadly
+art.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+SHEEP AND GOATS
+
+
+Now, as I came again to the forest's edge and hastened along the wide
+logging road, to make up for moments wasted, I caught sight of two
+neighbors, John Putman and Herman Salisbury, walking ahead of me.
+
+They wore the regimentals of our Mohawk Regiment of district militia,
+carried rifles and packs; and I smelled the tobacco from their pipes,
+which seemed pleasant though I had never learned to smoke.
+
+I called to them; they heard me and waited.
+
+"Well, John," says Putman, as I came up with them, "this is like to be a
+sorry business for farmers, what with plowing scarce begun and not a
+seed yet planted in all the Northland, barring winter wheat."
+
+"You think we are to take the field in earnest this time?" I asked
+anxiously.
+
+"It looks that way to me, Mr. Drogue. It's a long, long road to liberty,
+lad; and I'm thinking we're off at last."
+
+"He believes," explained Salisbury, "that Little Abraham's Mohawks are
+leaving the Lower Castle--which God prevent!--but I think this business
+is liker to be some new deviltry of Sir John's."
+
+"Sir John gave his parole to General Schuyler," said I, turning very
+red; for I was mortified that the honour of my caste should be so
+carelessly questioned.
+
+"It is not unthinkable that Sir John might lie," retorted Salisbury
+bluntly. "I knew his father. Well and good. I know the son, also.... But
+I suppose that gentlemen like yourself, Mr. Drogue, are ashamed to
+suspect the honour of any of their own class,--even an enemy."
+
+But Putman was plainer spoken, saying that in his opinion any Tory was
+likely to attempt any business, however dirty, and rub up his tarnished
+honour afterward.
+
+I made him no answer; and we marched swiftly forward, each engaged with
+a multitude of serious and sombre thoughts.
+
+A few moments later, chancing to glance behind me, stirred by what
+instinct I know not, I espied two neighbors, young John, son of Philip
+Helmer, and Charles Cady, of Fonda's Bush, following us so stealthily
+and so closely that they might decently have hailed us had they been so
+minded.
+
+Now, when they perceived that I had noticed them, they dodged into the
+bush, as though moved by some common impulse. Then they reappeared in
+the road. And, said I in a low voice to John Putman:
+
+"Yonder comes slinking a proper pair o' tree-cats to sniff us to our
+destination. If these two be truly of the other party, then they have no
+business at John Stoner's."
+
+Putman and Salisbury both looked back. Said the one, grimly:
+
+"They are not coming to answer the militia call; they have rifles but
+neither regimentals nor packs."
+
+Said the other: "I wish we were clean split at Fonda's Bush, so that an
+honest man might know when 'neighbor' spells 'traitor' in low Dutch."
+
+"Some riddles are best solved by bullets," muttered the other. "Who
+argues with wolves or plays cat's-cradle with catamounts!"
+
+Glancing again over my shoulder, I saw that the two behind us were
+mending their pace and must soon come up with us. And so they did,
+Putman giving them a civil good-day.
+
+"Have you any news, John Drogue?" inquired young Helmer.
+
+I replied that I had none to share with him, meaning only that I had no
+news at all. But Cady took it otherwise and his flat-featured face
+reddened violently, as though the pox were coming out on him.
+
+And, "What the devil," says he, "does this young, forest-running
+cockerel mean? And why should he not share his news with John Helmer
+here,--yes, or with me, too, by God, or yet with any true man in County
+Tryon?"
+
+I said that I had not intended any such meaning; that he mistook me; and
+that I had aimed at no discourtesy to anybody.
+
+"And safer for you, too!" retorted Cady in a loud and threatening tone.
+"A boy's wisdom lies in his silence."
+
+"Johnny Helmer asked a question of me," said I quietly. "I replied as
+best I knew how."
+
+"Yes, and I'll ask a dozen questions if I like!" shouted Cady. "Don't
+think to bully me or cast aspersions on my political complexion!"
+
+"If," said I, "your political complexion be no clearer than your
+natural one, God only can tell what ferments under your skin."
+
+At which he seemed so taken aback that he answered nothing; but Helmer
+urgently demanded to know what political views I pretended to carry.
+
+"I wear mine on my back," said I pleasantly, glancing around at both
+Helmer and Cady, who bore no packs on their backs in earnest of their
+readiness for service.
+
+"You are a damned impudent boy!" retorted Cady, "whatever may be your
+politics or your complexion."
+
+Salisbury and Putman looked around at him in troubled silence, and he
+said no more for the moment. But Helmer's handsome features darkened
+again: and, "I'll not be put upon," said he, "whatever Charlie Cady
+stomachs! Who is Jack Drogue to flaunt his pack and his politics under
+my nose!
+
+"And," he added, looking angrily at me, "by every natural right a
+gentleman should be a King's man. So if your politics stink somewhat of
+Boston, you are doubly suspect as an ingrate to the one side and a
+favour-currying servant to the other!"
+
+I said: "Had Sir William lived to see this day in Tryon, I think he,
+also, would be wearing his regimentals as I do, and to the same
+purpose."
+
+Cady burst into a jeering laugh: "Say as much to Sir John! Go to the
+Hall and say to Sir John that his father, had he lived, would this day
+be sending out a district militia call! Tell him that, young cockerel,
+if you desire a flogging at the guard-house."
+
+"You know more of floggings than do I," said I quietly. Which stopt his
+mouth. For, despite my scarcity of years, I had given him a sound
+beating the year before, being so harassed and pestered by him because I
+had answered the militia-call on the day that General Schuyler marched
+up and disarmed Sir John's Highlanders at the Hall.
+
+Putman, beside whom I was marching, turned to me and said, loud enough
+for all to hear: "You are only a lad, John Drogue, but I bear witness
+that you display the patience and good temper of a grown man. For if
+Charlie Cady, here, had picked on me as he has on you, he sure had
+tasted my rifle-butt before now!"
+
+"Neighbors must bear with one another in such times," said I, "and help
+each other stamp down the earth where the war-axe lies buried."
+
+And, "Damn you!" shouts Cady at a halt, "I shall not stir a step more to
+be insulted. I shall not budge one inch, bell or no bell, call or no
+call!----"
+
+But Helmer dropped to the rear and got him by the elbow and pulled him
+forward; and I heard them whispering together behind us as we hastened
+on.
+
+Herman Salisbury said: "A pair of real tree-cats, old Tom and little
+Kit! I'm in half a mind to turn them back!" And he swung his brown rifle
+from the shoulder and let it drop to the hollow of his left arm--an
+insult and a menace to any man.
+
+"They but answer their nature, which is to nose about and smell out
+what's a-frying," growled Putman. "Shall we turn them back and be done
+with them? It will mean civil war in Fonda's Bush."
+
+"Watched hens never lay," said I. "Let them come with us. While they
+remain under our eyes the stale old plan they brood will addle like a
+cluck-egg."
+
+Salisbury nodded meaningly:
+
+"So that I can see my enemy," growled he, "I have no care concerning
+him. But let him out o' sight and I fret like a chained beagle."
+
+As he finished speaking we came into Stoner's clearing, which was but a
+thicket of dead weed-stalks in a fallow field fenced by split rails.
+Fallow, indeed, lay all the Stoner clearing, save for a patch o'
+hen-scratched garden at the log-cabin's dooryard; for old Henry Stoner
+and his forest-running sons were none too fond of dallying with plow and
+hoe while rifle and fish-pole rested across the stag-horn's crotch above
+the chimney-piece.
+
+And if ever they fed upon anything other than fish and flesh, I do not
+know; for I never saw aught growing in their garden, save a dozen
+potato-vines and a stray corn-stalk full o' worms.
+
+Around the log house in the clearing already were gathered a dozen or
+sixteen men, the greater number wearing the tow-cloth rifle-frock of the
+district militia.
+
+Other men began to arrive as we came up. Everywhere great, sinewy hands
+were extended to greet us; old Henry Stoner, sprawling under an apple
+tree, saluted us with a harsh pleasantry; and I saw the gold rings
+shining in his ears.
+
+Nick came over to where I stood, full of that devil's humour which so
+often urged him into--and led him safely out of--endless scrapes betwixt
+sun-up and moon-set every day in the year.
+
+"It's Sir John we're to take, I hear," he said to me with a grin. "They
+say the lying louse of a Baronet has been secretly plotting with Guy
+Johnson and the Butlers in Canada. What wonder, then, that our
+Provincial Congress has its belly full of these same Johnstown Tories
+and must presently spew them up. And they say we are to march on the
+Hall at noon and hustle our merry Baronet into Johnstown jail."
+
+I felt myself turning red.
+
+"Is it not decent to give Sir John the benefit of doubt until we learn
+why that bell is ringing?" said I.
+
+"There we go!" cried Nick Stoner. "Just because your father loved Sir
+William and you may wear gold lace on your hat, you feel an attachment
+to all quality. Hearken to me, John Drogue: Sir William is dead and the
+others are as honourable as a pack of Canada wolves." He climbed to the
+top of the rickety rail fence and squatted there. "The landed gentry of
+Tryon County are a pack of bloody wolves," said he, lighting his cob
+pipe;--"Guy Johnson, Colonel Claus, Walter Butler, every one of
+them--every one!--only excepting you, John Drogue! Look, now, where
+they're gathering in the Canadas--Johnsons, Butlers, McDonalds,--the
+whole Tory pack--with Brant and his Mohawks stole away, and Little
+Abraham like to follow with every warrior from the Lower Castle!
+
+"And do you suppose that Sir John has no interest in all this Tory
+treachery? Do you suppose that this poisonous Baronet is not in constant
+and secret communication with Canada?"
+
+I looked elsewhere sullenly. Nick took me by the arm and drew me up to a
+seat beside him on the rail fence.
+
+"Let's view it soberly and fairly, Jack," says he, tapping his palm with
+the stem of his pipe, through which smoke oozed. "Let's view it from the
+start. Begin from the Boston business. Now, then! George the Virginian
+got the Red-coats cooped up in Boston. That's the Yankee answer to too
+much British tyranny.
+
+"We, in the Northland, looked to our landed gentry to stand by us, lead
+us, and face the British King who aims to turn us into slaves.
+
+"We called on our own governing class to protect us in our ancient
+liberties,--to arm us, lead us in our own defense! We begged Guy Johnson
+to hold back his savages so that the Iroquois Confederacy should remain
+passive and take neither the one side nor t'other.
+
+"I grant you that Sir William in his day did loyally his uttermost to
+quiet the Iroquois and hold his own Mohawks tranquil when Cresap was
+betrayed by Dunmore, and the first breeze from this storm which is now
+upon us was already stirring the Six Nations into restlessness."
+
+"Sir William," said I, "was the greatest and the best of all Americans."
+
+He said gravely: "Sir William is dead. May God rest his soul. But this
+is the situation that confronts us here this day on the frontier: We
+appealed to the landed gentry of Tryon. They sneered at us, and spoke of
+us as rebels, and have used us very scornfully--all excepting yourself,
+John!
+
+"They forced Alec White on us as Sheriff, and he broke up our meetings.
+They strove by colour of law and by illegal force to stamp out in Tryon
+County the last spark of liberty, of manhood among us. God knows what we
+have endured these last few years from the landed gentry of Tryon!--what
+we have put up with and stomached since the first shot was fired at
+Lexington!
+
+"And what has become of our natural protectors and leaders! Where is the
+landed gentry of County Tryon at this very hour? Except you, John
+Drogue, where are our gentlemen of the Northland?"
+
+"Gone," said I soberly.
+
+"Gone to Canada with the murderous Indians they were supposed to hold
+neutral! Guy Park stands empty and locked. It is an accursed place! Guy
+Johnson is fled with every Tory desperado and every Indian he could
+muster! May God damn him!
+
+"Old John Butler followed; and is brigading malcontents in Canada.
+Butlersbury stands deserted. May every devil in hell haunt that house!
+Young Walter Butler is gone with many of our old neighbors of Tryon; and
+at Niagara he is forming a merciless legion to return and cut our
+throats.
+
+"And Colonel Claus is gone, and McDonald, the bloody thief!--with his
+kilted lunatics and all his Scotch banditti----"
+
+"But Sir John remains," said I quietly.
+
+"Jack! Are you truly so blinded by your caste! Did not you yourself
+answer the militia call last winter and march with our good General to
+disarm Sir John's popish Highlanders! And even then they lied--and Sir
+John lied--for they hid their broad-swords and pikes! and delivered them
+not when they paraded to ground their muskets!"
+
+"Sir John has given his parole," I repeated stubbornly.
+
+"Sir John breaks it every hour of the day!" cried Nick. "And he will
+break it again when we march to take him. Do you think he won't learn of
+our coming? Do you suppose he will stay at the Hall, which he has
+pledged his honour to do?"
+
+"His lady is still there."
+
+"With his lady I have no quarrel," rejoined Nick. "I know her to be a
+very young, very wilful, very bitter, and very unhappy Tory; and she
+treats us plain folk like dirt under her satin shoon. But for that I
+care nothing. I pity her because she is the wife of that cold, sleek
+beast, Sir John. I pity her because she is gently bred and frail and
+lonely and stuffed with childish pride o' race. I pity her lot there in
+the great Hall, with her girl companions and her servants and her
+slaves. And I pity her because everybody in County Tryon, excepting only
+herself, knows that Sir John cares nothing for her, and that Claire
+Putnam of Tribes Hill is Sir John's doxy!--and be damned to him! And you
+think such a man will not break his word?
+
+"He broke his vows to wife and mistress alike. Why should he keep his
+vows to men?" He slid to the ground as he spoke, and I followed, for our
+three drummers had formed rank and were drawing their sticks from their
+cross-belts. Our fifers, also, lined up behind them; and Nick and his
+young brother, John, took places with them.
+
+"Fall in! Fall in!" cried Joe Scott, our captain; and everybody ran with
+their packs and rifles to form in double ranks of sixteen files front
+while the drums rolled like spring thunder, filling the woods with their
+hollow sound, and the fifes shrilled like the swish of rain through
+trees.
+
+Standing at ease between Dries Bowman and Baltus Weed, I answered to the
+roll call. Some among us lighted pipes and leaned on our long rifles,
+chatting with neighbors; others tightened belts and straps, buttoned
+spatter-dashes, or placed a sprig of hemlock above the black and white
+cockades on their felt hats.
+
+Balty Weed, who lived east of me, a thin fellow with red rims to his
+eyes and dry, sparse hair tied in a queue with a knot of buckskin, asked
+me in his stealthy way what I thought about our present business, and if
+our Provincial Congress had not, perhaps, unjustly misjudged Sir John.
+
+I replied cautiously. I had never trusted Balty because he frequented
+taverns where few friends to liberty cared to assemble; and he was far
+too thick with Philip and John Helmer and with Charlie Cady to suit my
+taste.
+
+We, in the little hamlet of Fonda's Bush, were scarce thirty families,
+all counted; and yet, even here in this trackless wilderness, out of
+which each man had hewed for himself a patch of garden and a stump
+pasture along the little river Kennyetto, the bitter quarrel had long
+smouldered betwixt Tory and Patriot--King's man and so-called Rebel.
+
+And this was the Mohawk country. And the Mohawks stood for the King of
+England.
+
+The road, I say, ended here; but there was a Mohawk path through twenty
+odd miles of untouched forest to those healing springs called Saratoga.
+
+Except for this path and a deep worn war-trail north to the Sacandaga,
+which was the Iroquois road to Canada, and except for the wood road to
+Sir William's Mayfield and Fish House settlements, we of Fonda's Bush
+were utterly cut off. Also, save for the new Block House at Mayfield, we
+were unprotected in a vast wilderness which embodied the very centre of
+the Mohawk country.
+
+True, north of us stood that little pleasure house built for his hour of
+leisure by Sir William, and called "The Summer House."
+
+Painted white and green, it stood on a hard ridge jutting out into those
+dismal, drowned lands which we call the Great Vlaie. But it was not
+fortified.
+
+Also, to the north, lay the Fish House, a hunting lodge of Sir William.
+But these places were no protection for us. On the other hand, they
+seemed a menace; for Tories, it had been rumoured, were ever skulking
+along the Vlaie and the Sacandaga; and for aught we knew, these
+buildings were already designed to be made into block-houses and to be
+garrisoned by our enemies as soon as the first rifle-shot cracked out in
+the cause of liberty.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Our company of the Mohawk Regiment numbered thirty-six rifles--all that
+now remained of the old company, three-fourths of which had already
+deserted to the Canadas with Butler. All our officers had fled; Joe
+Scott of Maxon, formerly a sergeant, now commanded us; Benjamin de
+Luysnes was our lieutenant; Dries Bowman and Phil Helmer our
+sergeants--both already suspected.
+
+Well, we got away from Stoner's, marching in double file, and only the
+little creatures of the forest to hear our drums and fifes.
+
+But the old discipline which had obtained in all our Tryon regiments
+when Sir William was our Major General and the landed gentry our
+officers seemed gone; a dull sense of bewilderment reigned, confusing
+many among us, as when leaderless men begin to realize how they had
+depended upon a sturdy staff now broken forever.
+
+We marched with neither advanced guard nor flankers for the first half
+mile; then Joe Scott halted us and made Nick Stoner put away his beloved
+fife and sent him out on our right flank where the forest was heavy.
+
+Me he selected to scout forward on the left--a dirty job where alders
+and willows grew thick above the bogs.
+
+But why in God's name our music played to advertise our coming I can not
+guess, for our men needed no heartening, having courage and resolution,
+only the lack of officers causing them any anxiety at all.
+
+On the left flank of the little column I kept very easily in touch
+because of this same silly drumming and fifing. And I was glad when we
+came to high ground and breasted the hills which lead to that higher
+plateau, over which runs the road to Johnstown.
+
+Plodding along in the bush, keeping a keen watch for any enemy who might
+come in paint or in scarlet coat, and the far rhythm of our drums
+thumping dully in my ears, I wondered whether other companies of my
+regiment were marching on Johnstown, and if other Tryon regiments--or
+what was left of them--were also afoot that day.
+
+Was this, then, the beginning of the war in the Northland? And, when we
+made a prisoner of Sir John, would all the dusky forests glow with
+scarlet war-paint and scarlet coats?
+
+Today birds sang. Tomorrow the terrific panther-slogan of the Iroquois
+might break out into hell's own uproar among these purple hills.
+
+Was this truly the beginning? Would these still, leafy trails where the
+crested partridge strutted witness bloody combats between old
+neighbors--all the horrors of a fratricidal war?
+
+Would the painted men of the woods hold their hands while Tory and
+patriot fought it out? Or was this utter and supreme horror to be added
+to this unnatural conflict?
+
+Reflecting very seriously upon these matters, I trotted forward, rifle
+a-trail, and saw nothing living in the woods save a big hare or two in
+the alders, and the wild brown poultry of the woods, that ran to cover
+or rose into thunderous flight among the thickets.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+About four o'clock came to me Godfrey Shew, of Fish House, a private
+soldier like myself, with news of a halt on the Johnstown road, and
+orders that I eat a snack and rest in my tracks.
+
+He told me that a company of horse from Albany was out scouting along
+the Mohawk, and that a column of three thousand men under Colonel
+Dayton were marching on Johnstown and had passed Schenectady about noon.
+
+Other news he had none, excepting that our company was to remain where
+we had halted, in order to stop the road to Fonda's Bush and Saratoga,
+in case Sir John should attempt to retire this way.
+
+"Well, Godfrey," said I, "if Sir John truly turns out to be without
+shame and honour, and if he marches this way, there is like to be a
+lively time for us of the Bush, because Sir John has three hundred
+Highlanders to thirty odd of ourselves, and enough Borderers and Tory
+militia to double the count."
+
+"We all know that," said Shew calmly, "and are not afraid."
+
+"Do you think our people mean to stand?"
+
+"Yes," said he simply.
+
+A hot thrill of pride tingled my every vein. Suddenly I completely
+comprehended that these plain folk of Fonda's Bush were my own people;
+that I was one of them; that, as they meant to stand for the ancient
+liberties of all Englishmen, now wickedly denied them, so I also meant
+to stand to the end.
+
+And now, at last, I comprehended that I was in actual revolt against
+that King and against that nobility and gentry who were deserting us
+when we had so desperate need of them in this coming battle for human
+freedom in a slave-cursed world.
+
+The cleavage had come at last; the Northland was clean split; the red
+livery of the King's men had suddenly become a target for every honest
+rifle in Tryon.
+
+"Godfrey," I said, "the last chance for truce is passing as you and I
+stand here,--the last chance for any reconciliation and brotherly
+understanding between us and our Tory neighbors."
+
+"It is better that way," he said, giving me a sombre look.
+
+I nodded, but all the horror of civil war lay heavy in my heart and I
+thought of my many friends in Tryon who would wear the scarlet coat
+tomorrow, and whom I now must try to murder with my proper hands, lest
+they do the like for me.
+
+Around us, where we were standing, a golden dusk reigned in the forest,
+into which, through the roof of green above, fell a long sunbeam,
+lighting the wooded aisle as a single candle on the altar gleams athwart
+the gloom of some still cathedral.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At five o'clock Godfrey and I had not moved from that silent place where
+we stood on watch, leaning upon our rifles.
+
+Twice soldiers came to bid us keep close guard in these open woods
+which, being primeval, were clear of underbrush and deep with the brown
+carpet of dead leaves.
+
+At last, toward six o'clock, we heard our drums rolling in the
+distance--signal to scout forward. I ran out among the great trees and
+started on toward Johnstown, keeping Godfrey in view on my left hand.
+
+Very soon I came out of the forest on the edge of cleared land. Against
+the evening sky I saw the spires of Johnstown, stained crimson in the
+westering sun which was going down red as a cherry.
+
+But what held me in spell was the sight that met my eyes across the open
+meadows, where moving ranks of musket-barrels glanced redly in the last
+gleam of sunset and the naked swords and gorgets of mounted officers
+glittered.
+
+Godfrey Shew emerged from the edge of the forest on my left and stood
+knee deep in last year's wild grass, one hand shading his eyes.
+
+"What troops are those?" I shouted to him. "They look like the
+Continental Line!"
+
+"It's a reg'lar rig'ment," he bawled, "but whose I know not!"
+
+The clanking of their armament came clearly to my ears; the timing tap
+of their drum sounded nearer still.
+
+"There can be no mistake," I called out to Godfrey; "yonder marches a
+regiment of the New York line! We're at war!"
+
+We moved out across the pasture. I examined my flint and priming, and,
+finding all tight and bright, waded forward waist high, through last
+year's ghostly golden-rod, ready for a quick shot if necessary.
+
+The sun had gone down; a lilac-tinted dusk veiled the fields, through
+which the gay evening chirruping of the robins rang incessantly.
+
+"There go our people!" shouted Godfrey.
+
+I had already caught sight of the Fonda's Bush Company filing between
+some cattle-bars to the left of us; and knew they must be making
+straight for Johnson Hall.
+
+We shouldered our pieces and ran through the dead weeds to intercept
+them; but there was no need for haste, because they halted presently in
+some disorder; and I saw Joe Scott walking to and fro along the files,
+gesticulating.
+
+And then, as Godfrey and I came up with them, we witnessed the first
+shameful exhibition of disorder that for so many months disgraced the
+militia of New York--a stupidity partly cowardly, partly treacherous,
+which at one time so incensed His Excellency the Virginian that he said
+they were, as a body, more detrimental than helpful to the cause, and
+proposed to disband them.
+
+In the light of later events, I now realize that their apparent
+poltroonery arose not from individual cowardice. But these levies had no
+faith in their companies because every battalion was still full of
+Tories, nor had any regiment yet been purged.
+
+Also, they had no confidence in their officers, who, for the greater
+part, were as inexperienced as they themselves. And I think it was
+because of these things that the New York militia behaved so
+contemptibly after the battle of Long Island, and in Tryon County, until
+the terrific trial by fire at Oriskany had burnt the dross out of us and
+left only the nobler metal.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Our Fonda's Bush Company presented a most mortifying spectacle as
+Godfrey and I came up. Joe Scott stood facing the slovenly single rank
+which he had contrived to parade in the gathering dusk; and he was
+arguing with the men while they talked back loudly.
+
+There was a hubbub of voices, angry arguments, some laughter which
+sounded more sinister to me than the cursing.
+
+Then Charlie Cady and John Howell of Sacandaga left the ranks, refusing
+to listen to Scott, and withdrew a little distance, where they stood
+sullenly in their defiance.
+
+Elias Cady called out that he would not march to the Hall to take Sir
+John, and he, also, left the ranks.
+
+Then, and despite Joe Scott's pleading, Phil Helmer and his sullen son,
+John, walked away and joined the Cadys, and called on Andrew Bowman to
+do the like.
+
+Dries wavered; but Baltus Weed and Eugene Grinnis left the company.
+
+Which so enraged me that I, also, forgot all discipline and duty, and
+shook my rifles at the mutineers.
+
+"You Tory dogs!" I said, "we're well purged of you, and I for one thank
+God that we now know you for what you are!"
+
+Godfrey, a stark, fierce figure in his blackened buckskins, went out in
+front of our single rank and called to the malcontents:
+
+"Pull foot, you swine, or I'll mark you!"
+
+And, "Pull foot!" shouted Nick Stoner, "and be damned to you! Why do you
+loiter! Do you wait for a volley in your guts!"
+
+At that, Balty Weed turned and ran toward the woods; but the others
+moved more slowly and sullenly, not exactly menacing us with their
+rifles, but carrying them conveniently across the hollow of their left
+arms.
+
+In the increasing darkness I heard somebody sob, and saw Joe Scott
+standing with one hand across his eyes, as though to close from his
+sight such a scene of deep disgrace.
+
+Then I went to him. I was trembling and could scarce command my voice,
+but gave him a salute and stood at attention until he finally noticed
+me.
+
+"Well, John," said he, "this is like to be the death of me."
+
+"Sir; will you order the drums to beat a march?"
+
+"Do you think the men will march?"
+
+"Yes, sir--what remains of them."
+
+He came slowly back, motioning what was left of the company to close up.
+I could not hear what he said, but the men began to count off, and their
+voices were resolute enough to hearten all.
+
+So presently Nick Stoner, who acted as fife-major, blew lustily into his
+fife, playing the marching tune, which is called "The Little Red Foot";
+and the drums beat it; and we marched in column of fours to take Sir
+John at his ancestral Hall, if it chanced to be God's will.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+STOLE AWAY
+
+
+Johnson Hall was a blaze of light with candles in every window, and
+great lanterns flaring from both stone forts which flanked the Hall, and
+along the new palisades which Sir John had built recently for his
+defense.
+
+All gates and doors stood wide open, and officers in Continental uniform
+and in the uniform of the Palatine Regiment, were passing in and out
+with a great clanking of swords and spurs.
+
+Everywhere companies of regular infantry from Colonel Dayton's regiment
+of the New York Line were making camp, and I saw their baggage waggons
+drive up from the town below and go into park to the east of the Hall,
+where cattle were lying in the new grass.
+
+An officer of the Palatine Regiment carrying a torch came up to Joe
+Scott, where our little company stood at ease along the hedge fence.
+
+"What troops are these, sir?" he inquired, indicating us with a nervous
+gesture.
+
+And when he was informed:
+
+"Oho!" said he, "there should be material for rangers among your
+farmer-militia. Pick me two men for Colonel Dayton who live by rifle and
+trap and who know the wilderness from Albany to the Lakes."
+
+So our captain told off Nick Stoner and me, and we stepped out of the
+ranks into the red torch-glow.
+
+"Thank you, sir," said the Palatine officer to our Captain. And to us:
+"Follow me, lads."
+
+He was a brisk, handsome and smartly uniformed officer of militia; and
+his cheerful demeanor heartened me who had lately witnessed such
+humiliations and disgrace.
+
+We followed him through the stockade gate and into the great house, so
+perfectly familiar to me in happier days.
+
+Excepting for the noise and confusion of officers coming and going,
+there was no disorder within; the beautiful furniture stood ranged in
+stately symmetry; the pictures hung on the walls; but I saw no silver
+anywhere, and all the candlesticks were pewter.
+
+As we came to the library, an officer in the uniform of a colonel of the
+Continental Line turned from a group of men crowded around the centre
+table, on which lay a map. Nick Stoner and I saluted his epaulettes.
+
+He came close to us and searched our faces coolly enough, as a farmer
+inspects an offered horse.
+
+"This is young Nick Stoner, of Fonda's Bush, sir," said the Palatine
+officer.
+
+"Oh," said the Colonel drily, "I have heard of the Stoner boys. And what
+may be your name?" he inquired, fastening his piercing eyes on mine.
+
+"John Drogue, sir."
+
+"I have heard of you, also," he remarked, more drily still.
+
+For a full minute, it seemed to me, he scrutinized me from head to foot
+with a sort of curiosity almost brutal. Then, on his features a fine
+smile softened what had seemed insolence. With a glance he dismissed the
+Palatine, motioned us to follow him, and we three entered the
+drawing-room across the hall, which was lighted but empty.
+
+"Mr. Drogue," said he, "I am Colonel Dayton; and I have in my personal
+baggage a lieutenant's commission for you from our good Governor,
+procured, I believe, through the solicitation of our mutual and most
+excellent friend, Lord Stirling."
+
+I stood astonished to learn of my preferment, never dreaming nor even
+wishing for military rank, but perfectly content to carry the sack of a
+private soldier in this most just of all wars. And as for Billy
+Alexander remembering to so serve me, I was still more amazed. For Lord
+Stirling was already a general officer in His Excellency's new army, and
+I never expected him to remember me amid the desperate anxieties of his
+new position.
+
+"Mr. Drogue," said Dayton, "you, I believe, are the only example among
+the gentry of Tryon County who has openly embraced the cause of our
+thirteen colonies. I do not include the Albany Patroon; I speak only of
+the nobility and gentry of this county.... And it took courage to turn
+your back upon your own caste."
+
+"It would have taken more to turn against my own countrymen, sir."
+
+He smiled. "Come, sir, were you not sometime Brent-Meester to Sir
+William?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Then you should know the forest, Mr. Drogue."
+
+"I do know it."
+
+"So General Schuyler has informed me."
+
+He clasped his gloved hands behind his back and began to pace to and
+fro, his absent glances on the window candles. Presently he halted:
+
+"Sir John is fled. Did you know it?" he said abruptly.
+
+I felt the hot shame burn my face to the roots of my hair.
+
+"Broke his parole of honour and gone off," added Dayton. "Where do you
+suppose he is making for with his Tories and Highlanders?"
+
+I could scarcely speak, so mortified was I that a gentleman of my own
+class could have so foully conducted. But I made out to say that Sir
+John, no doubt, was traveling toward Canada. "Certainly," said the
+Colonel; "but which route?"
+
+"God knows, sir. By the Sacandaga and the Lakes, no doubt."
+
+"Could he go by Saratoga and the top o' the Hudson?"
+
+"It is a pathless wilderness."
+
+"Yes. And still I think the rogue went that way. I have rangers out
+looking for signs of him beyond Ballston. Also, I sent half a battalion
+toward the Sacandaga. Of course Albany Royalists warned him of my
+coming; I couldn't prevent that, nor could Schuyler, no, nor the very
+devil himself!
+
+"And here am I at the Hall, and the fox stole away to the Canadas. And
+what now to do I know not.... Do _you_?"
+
+He shot the question in my face point blank; and I stood dumb for a
+minute, striving to collect and marshall any ideas that might bear upon
+so urgent a matter.
+
+"Colonel," said I, "unless the British hold Champlain, Sir John would
+scarcely risk a flight in that direction. No. He would prefer to plunge
+into the wilderness and travel by Oswegatchi."
+
+"Do you so believe, Mr. Drogue?"
+
+I considered a moment more; then:
+
+"Yet, if Guy Johnson's Indians have come down toward the Sacandaga to
+protect him--knowing that he had meant to flee----"
+
+I looked at Dayton, then turned to Nick.
+
+"What think you, Nick?" I demanded.
+
+"By God," he blurted out, "I am of that mind too! Only a madman would
+attempt the wilderness by Oswegatchi; and I wager that Sir John is
+already beyond the Sacandaga and making for the Canadas on the old
+Mohawk war-trail!"
+
+Colonel Dayton laid one hand on my shoulder:
+
+"Mr. Drogue," said he, "we have militia and partizans more than
+sufficient in Tryon. What we need are more regulars, too; but most of
+all, and in this crisis, we need rangers. God alone knows what is coming
+upon Tryon County from the North,--what evil is breeding there,--what
+sinister forces are gathering to overwhelm these defenceless
+settlements.
+
+"We have scarcely a fort on this frontier, scarcely a block house. Every
+town and village and hamlet north of Albany is unprotected; every lonely
+settler is now at the mercy of this unknown and monstrous menace which
+is gathering like a thundercloud in the North.
+
+"Regular regiments require time to muster; the militia have yet to prove
+their worth; partizans, minute men, alarm companies--the value of all
+these remains a question still. Damn it, I want rangers! I want them
+_now_!"
+
+He began to stride about the room again in his perplexity, but presently
+came back to where we stood.
+
+"How many rifles in your company from Fonda's Bush?" he demanded.
+
+I blushed to tell him, and further confessed what had occurred that very
+evening in the open fields before Johnstown.
+
+"Well," said he coolly, "it is well to be rid of vermin. Now you should
+pick your men in safety, Mr. Drogue. And if none will volunteer--such as
+have families or are not fit material for rangers--you are authorized to
+go out into the wilderness and recruit any forest-running fellow you can
+persuade."
+
+He drove one gloved hand into the palm of the other to emphasize what he
+said:
+
+"I want real rangers, not militia! I want young men who laugh at any
+face old Death can pull at them! I want strong men, keen men, tough men,
+rough men.
+
+"I want men who fear God, if that may be, or who fear the devil, if that
+may be; but who fear nothing else on earth!"
+
+He shot a look at Nick, "--like that boy there!" he exclaimed--"or I am
+no judge of men! And like yourself, Mr. Drogue, when once they blood
+you! Come, sir; can you find a few such men for me, and take full
+charge?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"A pledge!" he exclaimed, beating his gloved palms. "And when you can
+collect a dozen--the first full dozen--I want you to stop the Iroquois
+trail at the Sacandaga. That's where you shall chiefly operate--along
+the Sacandaga and the mountains northward! That's where I expect
+trouble. There lies this accursed war-trail; and along it there is like
+to be a very bloody business!"
+
+He turned aside and stood smiting his hands softly together, his
+preoccupied eyes regarding the candles.
+
+"A very bloody business," he repeated absently to himself. "Only rangers
+can aid us now.... Help us a little in this dreadful crisis.... Until we
+can recruit--build forts----"
+
+An officer appeared at the open door and saluted.
+
+"Well, sir," inquired Dayton sharply.
+
+"Lady Johnson is not to be discovered in the town, sir."
+
+"What? Has Lady Johnson run away also? Does the poor, deluded woman
+imagine that any man in my command would offer insult to her?"
+
+"It is reported, sir, that Lady Johnson said some very bitter things
+concerning us. It is further reported that Lady Johnson is gone in a
+great rage to the hunting lodge of the late Sir William, as there were
+already family servants there at last accounts."
+
+"Where's this place?" demanded Dayton, turning to me.
+
+"The summer house on the Vlaie, sir."
+
+"Very well. Take what men you can collect and go there instantly, Mr.
+Drogue, and place that foolish woman under arrest!"
+
+A most painful colour burnt my face, but I saluted in silence.
+
+"The little fool," muttered Dayton, "to think we meant to insult her!"
+And to me: "Let her remain there, Mr. Drogue, if she so desires. Only
+guard well the house. I shall march a battalion of my regiment thither
+in the morning, and later I shall order a company of Colonel
+Livingston's regiment to Fish House. And then we shall see what we shall
+see," he added grimly to the officer in the doorway, who smiled in
+return.
+
+There ensued a silence through which, very far away, we heard the music
+of another regiment marching into the town, which lay below us under the
+calm, high stars.
+
+"That's Livingston, now!" said Colonel Dayton, briskly; and went out in
+a hurry, his sword and spurs ringing loudly in the hall. And a moment
+later we heard him ride away at a gallop, and the loud clatter of
+horsemen at his heels.
+
+I pulled a bit of jerked venison from my sack and bit into it. Nick
+Stoner filled his mouth with cold johnnycake.
+
+And so, munching our supper, we left the Hall, headed for the Drowned
+Lands to make prisoner an unhappy girl who had gone off in a rage to
+Summer House Point.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A NIGHT MARCH
+
+
+The village of Johnstown was more brightly lighted than I had ever
+before seen it. Indeed, as we came out of the Hall the glow of it showed
+rosy in the sky and the distant bustle in the streets came quite plainly
+to our ears.
+
+Near the hedge fence outside the Hall we came upon remnants of our
+militia company, which had just been dismissed from further duty, and
+the men permitted to go home.
+
+Some already were walking away across the fields toward the Fonda's Bush
+road, and these all were farmers; but I saw De Luysnes and Johnny
+Silver, the French trappers, talking to old man Stoner and his younger
+boy; and Nick and I went over to where they were gathered near a
+splinter torch, which burned with a clear, straight flame like a candle.
+
+Joe Scott, too, was there, and I told him about my commission, whereupon
+he gave me the officer's salute and we shook hands very gravely.
+
+"There is scarce a handful remaining of our company," said he, "and you
+had best choose from us such as may qualify for rangers, and who are
+willing to go with you. As for me, I can not go, John, because I have
+here a letter but just delivered from Honikol Herkimer, calling me to
+the Canajoharie Regiment."
+
+It appeared, also, that old man Stoner had already enlisted with Colonel
+Livingston's regiment, and his thirteen-year-old boy, also, had been
+taken into the same command as a drummer.
+
+Dries Bowman shook his head when I appealed to him, saying he had a wife
+and children to look after, and would not leave them alone in the Bush.
+
+None could find fault with such an answer, though his surly tone
+troubled me a little.
+
+However, the two French trappers offered to enlist in my company of
+Rangers, and they instantly began to strap up their packs like men
+prepared to start on any journey at a moment's notice.
+
+Then Godfrey Shew, of Fish House, said to me very simply that his
+conscience and his country weighed more together than did his cabin; and
+that he was quite ready to go with me at once.
+
+At that, Joe de Golyer, of Varick's, fetched a laugh and came up in the
+torch-light and stood there towering six foot eight in his greasy
+buckskins, and showing every hound's tooth in his boyish head.
+
+"Give me my shilling, John," quoth he, "for I, also, am going with you.
+I've a grist-mill and a cabin and a glebe fair cleared at Varick's. But
+my father was all French; I have seen red for many a day; and if the
+King of England wants my mill I shall take my pay for it where I find
+it!"
+
+Silver began to grin and strut and comb out his scarlet thrums with
+dirty fingers.
+
+"Enfin," said he, with both thumbs in his arm-pits, "we shall be ver'
+happee familee in our pretee Bush. No more Toree, no more Iroquois!
+Tryon Bush all belong to us."
+
+"All that belongs to us today," remarked Godfrey grimly, "is what we
+hold over our proper rifles, Johnny Silver!"
+
+Old man Stoner nodded: "What you look at over your rifle sight is all
+that'll ever feed and clothe you now, Silver."
+
+"Oh, sure, by gar!" cried Silver with his lively grin. "Deer in blue
+coat, man in red coat, meme chose, savvy? All good game to Johnee
+Silver. Ver' fine chasse! Ah, sacre garce!" And he strutted about like a
+cock-partridge, slapping his hips.
+
+Nick Stoner burst into a loud laugh.
+
+"Ours is like to be a rough companionship, John!" he said. "For the
+first shot fired will hum in our ears like new ale; and the first
+screech from the Iroquois will turn us into devils!"
+
+"Come," said I with a shiver I could not control.
+
+I shook hands with Joe Scott; Nick took leave of his big, gaunt father.
+We both looked at Dries Bowman, but he had turned away in pretense of
+firing the torch.
+
+"Good-bye, Brent-Meester!" cried little Johnny Stoner in his childish
+treble, as we started down the stony way toward the town below.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Johnstown streets were full of people and every dwelling, shop, and
+tavern lighted brightly as we came into the village.
+
+Mounted troopers of the Albany Horse guarded every street or clattered
+to and fro in search, they told us, of hidden arms and supplies.
+Soldiers of the regiments of Colonels Dayton and Livingston, too, were
+to be seen everywhere, some guarding the jail, some encamped before the
+Court House, others occupying suspected dwellings and taverns notorious
+as Tory nests.
+
+Such inhabitants as were known friends to liberty roamed about the
+streets or stood in knots under the trees, whispering together and
+watching the soldiers. But Tories and their families remained indoors,
+peering sullenly from their windows and sometimes scowling upon these
+soldiers of a new nation, within the confines of which they already were
+discovering that no place remained for any friend to England or her
+King.
+
+As my little file of riflemen passed on moccasined feet through the
+swarming streets of Johnstown, soldiers and townspeople gazed curiously
+after us, surmising immediately what might be our errand. And many
+greeted us or called out pleasantries after us, such as, "Hearkaway! The
+red fox will fool you yet!" And, "Dig him out, you wolf-hounds! He's
+gone to earth at Sacandaga!"
+
+Many soldiers cheered us, swinging their cocked hats; and Nick Stoner
+and Johnny Silver swung their coon-tailed caps in return, shouting the
+wolf-cry of the Coureur-du-Bois--"Yik-yik-hoo-hoolo--o!"
+
+And now we passed the slow-moving baggage waggons of Colonel
+Livingston's regiment, toiling up from Caughnawaga, the sleepy teamsters
+nodding, and armed soldiers drowsing behind, who scarce opened one eye
+as we trotted by them and out into the darkness of the Mayfield road.
+
+Now, in this dim and starlit land, we moved more slowly, for the road
+lay often through woods where all was dark; and among us none had
+fetched any lantern.
+
+It was close to midnight, I think, when we were challenged; and I knew
+we were near the new Block House, because I heard the creek, very noisy
+in the dark, and smelled English grass.
+
+The sentinel held us very firmly and bawled to his fellow, who arrived
+presently with a lantern; and we saw the grist-mill close to us, with
+its dripping wheel and the high flume belching water.
+
+When they were satisfied, I asked for news and they told us they had
+seen none of Sir John's people, but that a carriage carrying two ladies
+had nigh driven over them, refusing to halt, and that they had been
+ashamed to fire on women.
+
+He informed us, further, that a sergeant and five men of Colonel
+Dayton's regiment had arrived at the Block House and would remain the
+night.
+
+"Also," said one of the men, "we caught a girl riding a fine horse this
+morning, who gave an account that she came from Fonda's Bush and was
+servant to Douw Fonda at Caughnawaga."
+
+"Where is the horse?" I asked.
+
+"Safe stabled in the new fort."
+
+"Where is the girl?"
+
+"Well," said he, "she sits yonder eating soupaan in the fort, and all
+the Continentals making moon-eyes at her."
+
+"That's my horse," said I shortly. "Take your lantern and show her to
+me."
+
+One of the militia men picked up the lantern, which had been burning on
+the grass between us, and I followed along the bank of the creek.
+
+Presently I saw the Block House against the stars, but all loops were
+shuttered and no light came from them.
+
+There was a ditch, a bridge of three logs, a stockade not finished; and
+we passed in between the palings where a gateway was to be made, and
+where another militia-man sat guard on a chopping block, cradling his
+fire-lock between his knees, fast asleep.
+
+The stable was but a shed. Kaya turned her head as I went to her and
+made a soft little noise of welcome, and fell a-lipping me and rubbing
+her velvet nose against me.
+
+"The Scotch girl cared for your mare and fed her, paying four pence,"
+said the militia-man. "But we were ashamed to take pay."
+
+I examined Kaya. She had been well cared for. Then I lifted her harness
+from the wooden peg where it hung and saddled her by the lantern light.
+
+And when all was snug I passed the bridle over my arm and led her to the
+door of the Block House.
+
+Before I entered, I could hear from within the strains of a fiddle; and
+then opened the door and went in.
+
+The girl, Penelope, sat on a block of wood eating soupaan with a pewter
+spoon out of a glazed bowl upon her knees.
+
+Ten soldiers stood in a ring around her, every man jack o' them
+a-courting as hard as he could court and ogle--which all was as plain to
+me as the nose on your face!--and seemed to me a most silly sight.
+
+For the sergeant, a dapper man smelling rank of pomatum and his queue
+smartly floured, was a-wooing her with his fiddle and rolling big eyes
+at her to kill at twenty paces; and a tall, thin corporal was tying a
+nosegay made of swamp marigolds for her, which, now and again, he
+pretended to match against her yellow hair and smirked when she lifted
+her eyes to see what he was about.
+
+Every man jack o' them was up to something, one with a jug o' milk to
+douse her soupaan withal, another busy with his Barlow carving a basket
+out of a walnut to please her;--this fellow making pictures on
+birch-bark; that one scraping her name on his powder-horn and pricking a
+heart about it.
+
+As for the girl, Penelope, she sat upon her chopping block with downcast
+eyes and very leisurely eating of her porridge; but I saw her lips
+traced with that faint smile which I remembered.
+
+What with the noise of the fiddle and the chatter all about her, neither
+she nor the soldiers heard the door open, nor, indeed, noticed us at all
+until my militia-men sings out: "Lieutenant Drogue, boys, on duty from
+Johnstown!"
+
+At that the Continentals jumped up very lively, I warrant you, being
+troops of some little discipline already; and I spoke civilly to their
+sergeant and went over to the girl, Penelope, who had risen, bowl in one
+hand, spoon in t'other, and looking upon me very hard out of her brown
+eyes.
+
+"Come," said I pleasantly, "you have kept your word to me and I mean to
+keep mine to you. My mare is saddled for you."
+
+"You take me to Caughnawaga, sir!" she exclaimed, setting bowl and spoon
+aside.
+
+"Tomorrow. Tonight you shall ride with us to the Summer House, where I
+promise you a bed."
+
+I held out my hand. She placed hers within it, looked shyly at the
+Continentals where they stood, dropped a curtsey to all, and went out
+beside me.
+
+"Is there news?" she asked as I lifted her to the saddle.
+
+"Sir John is gone."
+
+"I meant news from Caughnawaga."
+
+"Why, yes. All is safe there. A regiment of Continentals passed through
+Caughnawaga today with their waggons. So, for the time at least, all is
+quite secure along the Mohawk."
+
+"Thank you," she said in a low voice.
+
+I led the horse back to the road, where my little squad of men was
+waiting me, and who fell in behind me, astonished, I think, as I started
+east by north once more along the Mayfield road.
+
+Presently Nick stole to my side through the darkness, not a whit
+embarrassed by my new military rank.
+
+"Why, John," says he in a guarded voice, "is this not the Scotch girl of
+Caughnawaga who rides your mare, Kaya?"
+
+I told him how she had come to the Bowmans the night before, and how,
+having stolen my mare, I bargained with her and must send her or guide
+her myself on the morrow to Cayadutta.
+
+I was conscious of his stifled mirth but paid no heed, for we were
+entering the pineries now, where all was inky dark, and the trail to be
+followed only by touch of foot.
+
+"Drop your bridle; Kaya will follow me," I called back softly to the
+girl, Penelope. "Hold to the saddle and be not afraid."
+
+"I am not afraid," said she.
+
+We were now moving directly toward Fonda's Bush, and not three miles
+from my own house, but presently we crossed the brook, ascended a hill,
+and so came out of the pinery and took a wide and starlit waggon-path
+which bore to the left, running between fields where great stumps stood.
+
+This was Sir William's carriage road to the Point; and twice we crossed
+the Kennyetto by shallow fords.
+
+Close beside this carriage path on the north, and following all the way,
+ran the Iroquois war trail, hard and clean as a sheep walk, worn more
+than a foot deep by the innumerable moccasined feet that had trodden it
+through the ages.
+
+Very soon we passed Nine-Mile Tree, a landmark of Sir William's, which
+was a giant pine left by the road to tower in melancholy majesty all
+alone.
+
+When I rode the hills as Brent-Meester, this pine was like a guide post
+to me, visible for miles.
+
+Now, as I passed, I looked at it in the silvery dusk of the stars and
+saw some strange object shining on the bark.
+
+"What is that shining on Nine-Mile Tree?" said I to Nick. He ran across
+the road; we marched on, I leading, then the Scotch girl on my mare,
+then my handful of men trudging doggedly with pieces a-trail.
+
+A moment later Nick same swiftly to my side and nudged me; and looking
+around I saw an Indian hatchet in his hand, the blade freshly
+brightened.
+
+"It was sticking in the tree," he breathed. "My God, John, the Iroquois
+are out!"
+
+Chill after chill crawled up my back as I began to understand the
+significance of that freshly polished little war-axe with its limber
+helve of hickory worn slippery by long usage, and its loop of braided
+deer-hide blackened by age.
+
+"Was there aught else?" I whispered.
+
+"Nothing except this Mohawk hatchet struck deep into the bark of
+Nine-Mile Tree, and sticking there."
+
+"Do you know what it means, Nick?"
+
+"Aye. Also, it is an _old_ war-axe _newly_ polished. And struck deep
+into the tallest pine in Tryon. Any fool must know what all this means.
+Shall you speak of this to the others, John?"
+
+"Yes," said I, "they must know at once."
+
+I waited for Kaya to come up, laid my hand on the bridle and called back
+in a low voice to my men: "Boys, an Indian war-axe was left sticking in
+Nine-Mile Tree. Nick drew it out. The hatchet is an old one, but _it is
+newly polished_!"
+
+"Sacre garce!" whispered Silver fiercely. "Now, grace a dieu, shall I
+reckon with those dirtee trap-robbers who take my pelts like the
+carcajou! Ha! So is it war? A la bonheur! Let them come for my hair
+then! And if they get Johnny Silver's hair they may paint the Little Red
+Foot on the hoop, nom de dieu!"
+
+"Get along forward, boys," said I. "Some of you keep an eye on the
+mountains lest they begin calling to Sir John with fire----"
+
+"A flame on Maxon!" whispered Nick at my elbow.
+
+I jerked my head around as though I had been shot. There it rose, a thin
+red streak above the blunt headland that towered over the Drowned Lands.
+Steadily as a candle's flame in a still room, it burned for a few
+moments, then was shattered into crimson jets.
+
+Far to the North, on some invisible mountain, a faint crimson flare
+replied.
+
+Nobody spoke, but I knew that every eye was fixed on those Indian
+signal-fires as we moved rapidly forward into the swale country where
+swampy willows spread away on either hand and little pools of water
+caught the starlight.
+
+The road, too, had become wet, and water stood in the ruts; and every
+few minutes we crossed corduroy.
+
+"Yonder stands the Summer House," whispered Nick.
+
+A ridge of hard land ran out into the reed-set water. A hinged gate
+barred the neck. Nick swung it wide; I led my mare and her rider through
+it; posted Godfrey and Silver there; posted Luysnes and De Golyer a
+hundred paces inland near the apple trees; left Nick by the well, and,
+walking beside my mare, continued on to the little green and white
+hunting lodge where, through the crescents of closed shutters, rays of
+light streamed out into the night.
+
+Here I lifted the Scotch girl from her saddle, walked with her to the
+kitchen porch, and knocked softly on the kitchen door.
+
+After a while I could hear a stirring within, voices, steps.
+
+"Nicholas! Pontioch! Flora!" I called in guarded tones.
+
+Presently I heard Flora's voice inquiring timidly who I might be.
+
+"Mr. Drogue is arrived to await her ladyship's commands," said I.
+
+At that the bolts slid and the door creaked open. Black Flora stood
+there in her yellow night shift, rolling enormous eyes at me, and behind
+her I saw Colas with a lighted dip, gaping to see me enter with a
+strange woman.
+
+"Is your mistress here?" I demanded.
+
+"Yassuh," answered Flora, "mah lady done gone to baid, suh."
+
+"Who else is here? Mistress Swift?"
+
+"Yassuh."
+
+"Is there a spare bed?"
+
+Flora rolled suspicious eyes at the Scotch girl, but thought there was a
+bed in Sir William's old gun room.
+
+I waited until the black wench had made sure, then bade Colas look to my
+mare, said a curt good-night to Penelope Grant, and went out to unroll
+my blanket on the front porch.
+
+When I whistled softly Nick came across the garden from the well.
+
+"Lady Johnson is here," said I. "Yonder lies my blanket. I stand first
+watch. Go you and sleep now while you can----"
+
+"Sleep first, John. I am not weary----"
+
+"Remember I am your officer, Nick!"
+
+"Oh, hell!" quoth he. "That does not awe me, John. What awes me in you
+is your kindness--and to remember that your ancestors wore their gold
+rings upon their fingers."
+
+I passed my arm about his shoulders, then released him and went slowly
+over to the well. And here I primed my rifle with bright, dry powder,
+shouldered it, and began to walk my post at a brisk pace to cheat the
+sleep which meddled with my heavy eyes and set me yawning till my young
+jaws crackled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+SUMMER HOUSE POINT
+
+
+The sun in my eyes and the noise of drums awoke me, where, relieved on
+post by Nick, I had been sleeping on the veranda.
+
+Beyond the orchard on the Johnstown road, mounted officers in blue and
+buff were riding amid undulating ranks of moving muskets; and I knew
+that the Continental Line had arrived at Summer House Point, and was
+glad of it.
+
+As I shook loose my blanket and stood up, black Flora and Colas came up
+from their kitchen below ground, and seemed astonished to see me still
+there.
+
+"Is your mistress awake?" I demanded. But they did not know; so I bade
+Flora go inside and awaken Lady Johnson. Then I went down to the well in
+the orchard, where Nick stood sentry, looking through the blossoming
+boughs at what was passing on the mainland road beyond the Point.
+
+It was a soft, sunny morning, and a pleasant scent from the apple bloom,
+which I remember was full o' bees.
+
+Through the orchard, on the small peninsula, now came striding toward us
+a dozen or more officers of the regiments of Colonels Dayton and
+Livingston, all laughing together and seeming very merry; and some, as
+they passed under the flowering branches, plucked twigs of white and
+pink flowers and made themselves nosegays.
+
+Their major, who seemed to know me as an officer, though I did not know
+him, called out in high good humour:
+
+"Well, my lord Northesk, did you and your rangers arrive in time to
+close the cage on our pretty bird?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said I, reddening, and not pleased.
+
+"Lady Johnson is here then?"
+
+"Yes, Major."
+
+At that instant the front door opened and Lady Johnson came out quickly
+and stood on the veranda, the sun striking across her pallid face, which
+paleness was more due to her condition than to any fear of our soldiery.
+
+She was but partly robed, and that hastily; her hair all unpowdered and
+undressed, and only a levete of China silk flung about her girlish
+figure, and making still more evident her delicate physical condition.
+
+But in her eyes I saw storms a-brewing, and her lips and features went
+white as she stood there, clenching and unclenching one hand, and still
+a little blinded by the sun in her face.
+
+We all had uncovered before her, bowing very low; and, if she noticed me
+at first, I am not certain, but she gave our Major such a deadly stare
+that it checked his speech and put him clean out o' countenance, leaving
+him a-twiddling his sword-knot and dumb as a fish.
+
+"What does this mean?" said she, her lip trembling with increasing
+passion. "Have you come here to arrest me?"
+
+And, as nobody replied, she stamped her bare foot in its silken
+chamber-shoe, like any angry child in petty fury when disobliged.
+
+"Is it not enough," she continued, "that you drive my unhappy husband
+out of his own house, but you must presently follow me here to mock and
+insult me? What has our family done to merit this outrage?"
+
+Our Major, astonished and out o' countenance, attempted a civil word to
+calm her, but she swept us all with scornful eyes and stamped her foot
+again in such anger that her shoe fell off and landed on the grass.
+
+"Our only crime is loyalty to a merciful and Christian King!" she cried,
+paying no heed to the shoe. "Our punishment is that we are like to be
+hunted as they hunt wild beasts! By a pack of rebels, too! Shame,
+gentlemen! Is this worthy even of embattled shop-keepers?"
+
+"Madame, I beg you----"
+
+But she had no patience to listen.
+
+"You have forced me out of my home in Johnstown," she said bitterly,
+"and I thought to find refuge under this poor roof. But now you come
+hunting me here! Very well, gentlemen, I leave you in possession and go
+to Fish House. And if you hunt me out o' Fish House, I shall go on, God
+knows where!--for I do not choose to endure the insult with which your
+mere presence here affronts me!"
+
+I had picked up her silk shoe and now went to her with it, where she
+stood on the veranda, biting at her lip, and her eyes all a-glitter with
+angry tears.
+
+"For God's sake, madam," said I, "do not use us so harshly. We mean no
+insult and no harm----"
+
+"John Drogue," she said with a great sob, "I have loved you as a
+brother, but I had rather see you dead there on this violated threshold
+than know that the Laird of Northesk is become a rebel to his King!"
+
+I knelt down and drew the shoe over her bare foot. Then I stood up and
+took her hand, laying it very gently upon my arm. She suffered me to
+lead her into the house--to the door of her bedroom, where Claudia,
+already dressed, took her from me.
+
+"Oh, John, John," she sobbed, "what is this pack o' riff-raff doing here
+with their cobbler majors and carpenter colonels--all these petty
+shop-keepers in uniform who come from filthy Boston to ride over us?"
+
+Claudia's eyes were very bright, but without any trace of fear or anger.
+
+"What troops are these, Jack?" she inquired coolly. "And do they really
+come here to make prisoners of two poor women?"
+
+I told her that these soldiers formed a mixed battalion from the
+commands of Colonels Dayton and Livingston, and that they would encamp
+for the present within sight of the Summer House.
+
+"Do you mean that Polly and I are prisoners?" she repeated
+incredulously.
+
+"I'm afraid I do mean that, Claudia," said I.
+
+At the word "prisoner" Lady Johnson flamed:
+
+"Are you not ashamed, Jack Drogue, to tell me to my face such barbarous
+news!" she cried. "You, a gentleman, to consort with vulgar bandits who
+make prisoners of women! What do you think of your Boston friends now?
+What do you think of your blacksmith generals and 'pothecary
+colonels----"
+
+"Polly! Be silent!" entreated Claudia, shaking her arm. "Is this a
+decent manner to conduct when the fortune of war fails to suit your
+tastes?"
+
+And to me: "No one is like to harm us, I take it. We are not in personal
+danger, are we?"
+
+"Good Lord!" said I, mortified that she should even ask me.
+
+"Well, then!" she said in a lively voice to Lady Johnson, who had turned
+her back on me in sullen rage, "it will be but a few days at worst,
+Polly. These rebel officers are not ogres. No! So in Heaven's name let
+us make the best of this business--until Mr. Washington graciously
+permits us to go on to Albany or to New York."
+
+"I shall not go thither!" stormed Lady Johnson, pacing her chamber like
+a very child in the tantrums; "I shall not deign to inhabit any city
+which is held by dirty rebels----"
+
+"But we shall drive them out first!" insisted Claudia, with an impudent
+look at me. "Surely, dear, Albany will soon be a proper city to reside
+in; General Howe has said it;--and so we had best address a polite
+letter to Mr. Washington, requesting a safe conduct thither and a
+flag----"
+
+"I shall not write a syllable to the arch-rebel Washington!" stormed
+Lady Johnson. "And I tell you plainly, Jack, I expect to have my throat
+cut before this shameful business is ended!"
+
+"You had best conduct sensibly, both of you," said I bluntly; "for I'm
+tired of your airs and vapours; and Colonel Dayton will stand no
+nonsense from either of you!"
+
+"John!" faltered Lady Johnson, "do--do you, too, mean to use us
+brutally?"
+
+"I merely beg you to consider what you say before you say it, Polly
+Johnson! You speak to a rebel of 'dirty' rebels and 'arch' rebels; you
+conduct as though we, who hold another opinion than that entertained by
+you, were the scum and offscouring of the earth."
+
+"I meant it not as far as it concerns you, John Drogue," she said with
+another sob.
+
+"Then be pleased to trim your speech to my brother officers," said I,
+still hotly vexed by her silly behaviour. "We went to Johnstown to take
+your husband because we believe he has communicated with Canada. And it
+was proper of us to do so.
+
+"We came here to detain you until some decent arrangement can be made
+whereby you shall have every conceivable comfort and every reasonable
+liberty, save only to do us a harm by communicating with your friends
+who are our enemies.
+
+"Therefore, it would be wise for you to treat us politely and not rail
+at us like a spoiled child. Our duty here is not of our own choosing,
+nor is it to our taste. No man desires to play jailer to any woman. But
+for the present it must be so. Therefore, as I say, it might prove more
+agreeable for all if you and Claudia observe toward us the ordinary
+decencies of polite usage!"
+
+There was a silence. Lady Johnson's back remained turned toward me; she
+was weeping.
+
+Claudia took her hand and turned and looked at me with all the lively
+mischief, all the adorable impudence I knew so well:
+
+"La, Mr. Drogue," says she mockingly, "some gentlemen are born so and
+others are made when made officers in armies. And captivity is irksome.
+So, if your friends desire to pay their respects to us poor captives, I
+for one shall not be too greatly displeased----"
+
+"Claudia!" cried Lady Johnson, "do you desire a dish of tea with tinkers
+and tin-peddlars?"
+
+"I hear you, Polly," said she, "but prefer to hear you further after
+breakfast--which, thank God! I can now smell a-cooking." And, to me:
+"Jack, will you breakfast with us----"
+
+She stopped abruptly: the door of Sir William's gun room opened, and the
+Scottish girl, Penelope Grant, walked out.
+
+"Lord!" said Claudia, looking at her in astonishment. "And who may you
+be, and how have you come here?"
+
+"I am Penelope Grant," she answered, "servant to Douw Fonda of
+Caughnawaga; and I came last night with Mr. Drogue."
+
+The perfect candour of her words should have clothed them with
+innocence. And, I think, did so. Yet, Claudia shot a wicked look at me,
+which did not please me.
+
+But I ignored her and explained the situation briefly to Lady Johnson,
+who had turned to stare at Penelope, who stood there quite
+self-possessed in her shabby dress of gingham.
+
+There was a silence; then Claudia asked the girl if she would take
+service with her; and Penelope shook her head.
+
+"I pay handsomely, and I need a clever wench to care for me," insisted
+Claudia; "and by your fine, white hands I see you are well accustomed to
+ladies' needs. Are you not, Penelope?"
+
+"I am servant to Douw Fonda," repeated the girl. "It would not be kind
+in me to leave him who offers to adopt me. Nor is it decent to abandon
+him in times like these."
+
+Lady Johnson came forward slowly, her tear-marred eyes clearing.
+
+"My brother, Stephen, has spoken of you. I understood him to say that
+you are the daughter of a Scottish minister. Is this true?"
+
+"Yes, my lady."
+
+"Then you are no servant wench."
+
+"I serve."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"My parents are dead. I must earn my bread."
+
+"Oh. You have no means to maintain you?"
+
+"None, madam."
+
+"How long have you been left an orphan?"
+
+"These three years, my lady."
+
+"You came from Scotland?"
+
+"From France, my lady."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"My father preached to the exiled Scots who live in Paris. When he was
+dying, I promised to take ship and come to America, because, he said,
+only in America is a young girl safe from men."
+
+"Safe?" quoth Claudia, smiling.
+
+"Yes, madam."
+
+"Safe from what, child?"
+
+"From the unlawful machinations of designing men, madam. My father told
+me that men hunt women as a sport."
+
+"Oh, la!" cried Claudia, laughing; "you have it hind end foremost! Man
+is the hunted one! Man is the victim! Is it not so, Jack?"--looking so
+impudently at me that I was too vexed to smile in return, but got very
+red and gazed elsewhere.
+
+"And what did you then, Penelope Grant?" inquired Lady Johnson, with a
+soft sort of interest which was natural and unfeigned, she having a
+gentle heart and tender under all her pride and childishness.
+
+"I took ship, my lady, and came to New York."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"I went to Parson Gano in his church,--who was a friend to my father,
+though a Baptist. I was but a child, and he cared for me for three
+years. But I could not always live on others' bounty; so he yielded to
+my desires and placed me as servant to Douw Fonda, who was at that time
+visiting New York. And so, when Mr. Fonda was ready to go home to
+Caughnawaga, I accompanied him."
+
+"And are his aid and crutch in his old age," said Lady Johnson, gently.
+"What wonder, then, he wishes to adopt you, Penelope Grant."
+
+"If you will be my companion," cried Claudia, "I shall dare adopt you,
+pretty as you are--and risk losing every lover I possess!"
+
+The Scottish girl's brown eyes widened at that; but even Lady Johnson
+laughed, and I saw the loveliest smile begin to glimmer on Penelope's
+soft lips.
+
+"Thank heaven for a better humour in the house," thought I, and was
+pleased that Claudia had made a gayety of the affair.
+
+I went to the window and looked out. Smoke from the camp fires of the
+Continentals made a haze all along the reedy waterfront. I saw their
+sentries walking their posts; heard the noise of their axes in the bush;
+caught a glimpse of my own men lying in the orchard on the new grass,
+and Nick cooking jerked meat at a little fire of coals, which gleamed in
+the grass like a heap of dusty jewels.
+
+And, as I stood a-watching, I felt a touch at my elbow, and turned to
+face the girl, Penelope.
+
+"Your promise, sir," she said. "You have not forgotten?"
+
+"No," I replied, flushing again under Claudia's mocking gaze. "But you
+should first eat something."
+
+"And you, also," said Lady Johnson, coming to me and laying both hands
+upon my shoulders.
+
+She looked into my eyes very earnestly, very sadly.
+
+"Forgive me, Jack," she said.
+
+I kissed her hands, saying that it was I who needed forgiveness, to so
+speak to her in her deep anxiety and unhappiness; but she shook her head
+and bade me remain and eat breakfast; and went away to her chamber to
+dress, carrying Claudia to aid her, and leaving me alone there with the
+girl Penelope.
+
+"So," said I civilly, though still annoyed by memory of my horse and how
+this girl had carried everything with so high a hand, "so you have lived
+in France?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Hum! Well, did you find the people agreeable?"
+
+"Yes, sir--the children. I was but fifteen when I left France."
+
+"Then you now own to eighteen years."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"A venerable age."
+
+At that she lifted her brown eyes. I smiled; and that enchanting,
+glimmering smile touched her lips again. And I thought of what I had
+heard concerning her in Caughnawaga, and how, when the old gentleman was
+enjoying his afternoon nap, she was accustomed to take her knitting to
+the porch.
+
+And I remembered, too, what Nick and others said concerning all the
+gallants of the countryside, how they swarmed about that porch like
+flies around a sap-pan.
+
+"I have been told," said I, "that all young men in Tryon sit ringed
+around you when you take your knitting to the porch at Cayadutta Lodge.
+Nor can I blame them, now that I have seen you smile."
+
+At that she blushed so brightly that I was embarrassed and somewhat
+astonished to see how small a progress this girl had really made in
+coquetry. I was to learn that she blushed easily; I did not know it
+then; but it presently amused me to find her, after all, so unschooled.
+
+"Why," said I, "should you show your colours to a passing craft that
+fires no shot nor even thinks to board you? I am no pirate, Penelope;
+like those Johnstown gallants who gather like flies, they say----"
+
+But I checked my words, not daring to plague her further, for the colour
+was surging in her cheeks and she seemed unaccustomed to such harmless
+bantering as mine.
+
+"Lord!" thought I, "here is a very lie that this maid is any such siren
+as Nick thinks her, for her pretty thumb is still wet with sucking."
+
+Yet I myself had become sensible that there really was about her a
+_something_--exactly what I knew not--but some seductive quality, some
+vague enchantment about her, something unusual which compelled men's
+notice. It was not, I thought, entirely the agreeable contrast of yellow
+hair and dark eyes; nor a smooth skin like new snow touched to a rosy
+hue by the afterglow.
+
+She sat near the window, where I stood gazing out across the water,
+toward the mountains beyond. Her hands, joined, rested flat between her
+knees; her hair, in the sun, was like maple gold reflected in a ripple.
+
+"Lord!" thought I, "small wonder that the gay blades of Tryon should
+come a-meddling to undo so pretty a thing."
+
+But the thought did not please me, yet it was no concern o' mine. But I
+now comprehended how this girl might attract men, and, strangely enough,
+was sorry for it.
+
+For it seemed plain that here was no coquette by intention or by any
+knowledge of the art of pleasing men; but she was one, nevertheless, so
+sweetly her dark eyes regarded you when you spoke; so lovely the glimmer
+of her smile.
+
+And it was, no doubt, something of these that men noticed--and her youth
+and inexperience, which is tender tinder to hardened flint that is ever
+eager to strike fire and start soft stuff blazing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE SHAPE IN WHITE
+
+
+We breakfasted on soupaan, new milk, johnnycake, and troutlings caught
+by Colas, who had gone by canoe to the outlet of Hans' Creek by
+daylight, after I had awakened him. Which showed me how easily one could
+escape from the Summer House, in spite of guards patrolling the neck and
+mainland road.
+
+We were four at table; Lady Johnson, Claudia, Penelope, and I; and all
+seemed to be in better humour, for Claudia's bright eyes were ever
+roaming toward the Continental camp, where smart officers passed and
+repassed in the bright sunlight; and Lady Johnson did not conceal her
+increasing conviction that Sir John had got clean away; which,
+naturally, pleased the poor child mightily;--and Penelope, who had
+offered very simply to serve us at table, sat silent and contented by
+the civil usage she received from Polly Johnson, who told her very
+sweetly that her place was in a chair and not behind it.
+
+"For," said my lady, "a parson's daughter may serve where her heart
+directs, but is nowise or otherwise to be unclassed."
+
+"Were I obliged by circumstances to labour for my bread," said Claudia,
+"would you still entertain honourable though ardent sentiments toward
+me, Jack?"
+
+Which saucy question I smiled aside, though it irritated me, and oddly,
+too, because Penelope Grant had heard--though why I should care a
+farthing for that I myself could not understand.
+
+Lady Johnson laid a hand on Penelope's, who looked up at her with that
+shy, engaging smile I had already noticed. And,
+
+"Penelope," said she, "if rumour does not lie, and if all our young
+gallants do truly gather 'round when you take your knitting to the porch
+of Cayadutta Lodge, then you should make it very plain to all that you
+are a parson's daughter as well as servant to Douw Fonda."
+
+"How should I conduct, my lady?"
+
+"Firmly, child. And send any light o' love a-packing at the first
+apropos!"
+
+"Oh, lud!" says Claudia, "would you make a nun of her, Polly? Sure the
+child must learn----"
+
+"Learn to take care of herself," quoth Polly Johnson tartly. "You have
+been schooled from childhood, Claudia, and heaven knows you have had
+opportunities enough to study that beast called man!"
+
+"I love him, too," said Claudia. "Do you, Penelope?"
+
+"Men please me," said the Scotch girl shyly. "I do not think them
+beasts."
+
+"They bite," snapped Lady Johnson.
+
+"Slap them," said Claudia,--"and that is all there is to it."
+
+"You think any man ever has been tamed and the beast cast out of him,
+even after marriage?" demanded Lady Johnson. She smiled, but I caught
+the undertone of bitterness in her gaiety, poor girl!
+
+"Before marriage," said Claudia coolly, "man is exactly as treacherous
+as he is afterward;--no more so, no less. What about it? You take the
+creature as he is fashioned by his Maker, or you drive him away and live
+life like a cloistered nun. What is your choice, Penelope?"
+
+"I have no passion for a cloister," replied the girl, so candidly that
+all laughed, and she blushed prettily.
+
+"That is best," nodded Claudia; "accept the creature as he is. We're
+fools if we're bitten before we're married, and fortunate if we're not
+nipped afterward. Anyway, I love men, and so God bless them, for they
+can't help being what they are and it's our own fault if they play too
+roughly and hurt us."
+
+Lady Johnson laughed and laid her hand lightly on my shoulder.
+
+"Dear Jack," said she, "we do not mean you, of course."
+
+"Oho!" cried Claudia, "it's in 'em all and crops out one day. Jack
+Drogue is no tamer than the next man. Nay, I know the sort--meek as a
+mouse among petticoats----"
+
+"Claudia!" protested Lady Johnson.
+
+"I hear you, Polly. But when I solemnly swear to you that I have been
+afraid of this young man----"
+
+"Afraid of what?" said I, smiling at her audacity, but vexed, too.
+
+"Afraid you might undo me, Jack----"
+
+"What!"
+
+"--And then refuse me an honest name----"
+
+"What mad nonsense do you chatter!" exclaimed Lady Johnson, out of
+countenance, yet laughing at Claudia's effrontery. And Penelope,
+abashed, laughed a little, too. But Claudia's nonsense madded me, though
+her speech had been no broader than was fashionable among a gentry so
+closely in touch with London, where speech, and manners, too, were
+broader still.
+
+Vexed to be made her silly butt, I sat gazing out of the window, over
+the great Vlaie, where, in the reeds, tall herons stood as stiff as
+driven stakes, and the painted wood-ducks, gorgeous as tropic birds,
+breasted Mayfield Creek, or whirred along the waterways to and fro
+between the Stacking Ridge and the western bogs, where they nested among
+trees that sloped low over the water.
+
+Beyond, painted blue mountains ringed the vast wilderness of bog and
+woods and water; and presently I was interested to see, on the blunt
+nose of Maxon, a stain of smoke.
+
+I watched it furtively, paying only a civil heed to the women's chatter
+around me--watched it with sideway glance as I dipped my spoon into the
+smoking soupaan and crumbled my johnnycake.
+
+At first, on Maxon's nose there was only a slight blue tint of vapour,
+like a spot of bloom on a blue plum. But now, above the mountain, a thin
+streak of smoke mounted straight up; and presently I saw that it became
+jetted, rising in rings for a few moments.
+
+Suddenly it vanished.
+
+Claudia was saying that one must assume all officers of either party to
+be gentlemen; but Lady Johnson entertained the proposition coldly, and
+seemed unwilling to invite Continental officers to a dish of tea.
+
+"Not because they are my captors and have driven my husband out of his
+own home," she said haughtily; "I could overlook that, because it is the
+fortune of war. But it is said that the Continental officers are a
+parcel of Yankee shop-keepers, and I have no desire to receive such
+people on equal footing."
+
+"But," said Claudia, "Jack is a rebel officer, and so is Billy
+Alexander."
+
+"I think Lord Stirling must be crazy," retorted Lady Johnson. Then she
+looked at me, bit her lip and laughed, adding:
+
+"You, too, Jack--and every gentleman among you must be mad to flout our
+King!"
+
+"Mad, indeed--and therefore to be pitied, not punished," says Claudia.
+"Therefore, let us drink tea with our rebel officers, Polly--out of
+sheer compassion for their common infirmity."
+
+"We rebels don't drink tea, you know," said I, smiling.
+
+"Oh, la! Wait till we invite your Continentals yonder. For, if Polly and
+I are to be imprisoned here, I vow I mean to amuse myself with the
+likeliest of these young men in blue and buff, whom I can see yonder,
+stalking to and fro along the Johnstown Road. May I not send them a
+civil invitation, Polly?"
+
+"If you insist. I, however, decline to meet them," pouted Lady Johnson.
+
+"I shall write a little letter to their commanding officer," quoth
+Claudia. "Do as you like, Polly, but, as for me, I do not desire to
+perish of dullness with only women to talk to, and only a swamp to gaze
+upon!"
+
+She sprang to her feet; Lady Johnson and Penelope also rose, as did I.
+
+"Is it true, Jack, that you are under promise to take this young girl to
+Douw Fonda's house in Caughnawaga?" asked Lady Johnson.
+
+"Yes, madam."
+
+She turned to Penelope: "When do you desire to set out?"
+
+"As soon as may be, my lady."
+
+"I like you. I wish you would remain and share my loneliness."
+
+"I would, my lady, only I feel in honour bound to go to Mr. Fonda."
+
+Claudia passed her arm around the Scottish girl's slim waist.
+
+"Come," she coaxed, "be my companion! Be more friend than servant, more
+sister than friend. For I, also, begin to love you, with your dark eyes
+and yellow hair, and your fine hands and sweet, fresh skin, like a child
+from a bath."
+
+They both laughed, looking at each other with a gaze shy but friendly,
+like two who seem to think they are, perhaps, destined to love each
+other.
+
+"I wish I might remain," said the Scottish girl, reluctantly turning
+toward me.
+
+"Are you for Caughnawaga?" I asked bluntly.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Very well," said I. "Polly Johnson, may I take your carriage?"
+
+"It is always at your command, Jack. But I am sorry that our little
+Scottish lass must go."
+
+However, she gave the order to black Colas, who must drive us, also,
+because, excepting for Colas and poor Flora, and one slave left in
+Johnstown, all servants, slaves, tenants, and officers of Sir John's
+household had fled with the treacherous Baronet and were now God knows
+where in the terrific wilderness and making, without doubt, for the
+Canadas.
+
+For personal reasons I was glad that the dishonoured man was gone. I
+should have been ashamed to take him prisoner. But I was deeply troubled
+on other accounts; for this man had gone northward with hundreds of my
+old neighbors, for the purpose of forming an army of white men and
+Indians, with which he promised to return and cut our throats and lay
+our beautiful countryside in ashes.
+
+We had scarce any force to oppose Sir John; no good forts except Stanwix
+and a few block-houses; our newly-organized civil government was
+chaotic; our militia untried, unreliable, poorly armed, and still rotten
+with toryism.
+
+To defend all this immense Tryon County frontier, including the river as
+far as Albany, only one regular regiment had been sent to help us; for
+what remained of the State Line was needed below, where His Excellency
+was busy massing an army to face the impending thunder-clap from
+England.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As I stood by the window, looking out across the Vlaie at Maxon Ridge,
+where I felt very sure that hostile eyes were watching the Sacandaga and
+this very house, a hand touched my arm, and, turning, I saw Penelope
+Grant beside me.
+
+"May I have a word alone with you, Mr. Drogue?" she asked in her serious
+and graver way--a way as winning as her lighter mood, I thought.
+
+So we went out to the veranda and walked a little way among the apple
+trees, slowly, I waiting to hear what she had for my ear alone.
+
+Beyond, by the well, I saw my Rangers squatting cross-legged on the
+grass in a little circle, playing at stick-knife. Beyond them a
+Continental soldier paced his beat in front of the gate which closed the
+mainland road.
+
+Birds sang, sunshine glimmered on the water, the sky was softly blue.
+
+The girl had paused under a fruit tree. Now, she pulled down an apple
+branch and set her nose to the blossoms, breathing their fresh scent.
+
+"Well," said I, quietly.
+
+Her level eyes met mine across the flowering branch.
+
+"I am sorry to disturb you," said she.
+
+"How disturb me?"
+
+"By obliging you to take me to Caughnawaga. It inconveniences you."
+
+"I promised to see you safely there, and that is all about it," said I
+drily.
+
+"Yes, sir. But I ask your pardon for exacting your promise.... And--I
+ask pardon for--for stealing your horse."
+
+There seemed to ensue a longer silence than I intended, and I realized
+that I had been looking at her without other thought than of her dark,
+young eyes under her yellow hair.
+
+"What did you say?" I asked absently.
+
+She hesitated, then: "You do not like me, Mr. Drogue."
+
+"Did I say so?" said I, startled.
+
+"No.... I feel that you do not like me. Is it because I used you without
+decency when I stole your horse?"
+
+"Perhaps some trifling chagrin remains. But it is now over--because you
+say you are sorry."
+
+"I am so."
+
+"Then--I am friendly--if you so desire, Penelope Grant."
+
+"Yes, sir, I do desire your countenance."
+
+I smiled at her gravity, and saw, dawning in return, that lovely,
+child's smile I already knew and waited for.
+
+"I wish to whisper to you," said she, bending the flowering bough lower.
+
+So I inclined my ear across it, and felt her delicate breath against my
+cheek.
+
+"I wish to make known to you that I am of your party, Mr. Drogue," she
+whispered.
+
+I nodded approval.
+
+"I wished you to know that I am a friend to liberty," she continued. "My
+sentiment is very ardent, Mr. Drogue: I burn with desire to serve this
+land, to which my father's wish has committed me. I am young, strong,
+not afraid. I can load and shoot a pistol----"
+
+"Good Lord!" I exclaimed, laughing, "do you wish to enlist and go for a
+soldier?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+I drew back in amazement and looked at her, and she blushed but made me
+a firm countenance. And so sweetly solemn a face did this maid pull at
+me that I could not forbear to laugh again.
+
+"But how about Mr. Fonda?" I demanded, "if you don jack-boots and hanger
+and go for a dragoon?"
+
+"I shall ask his permission to serve my country."
+
+"A-horse, Penelope? Or do you march with fire-lock and knapsack and a
+well-floured queue?" I had meant to turn it lightly but not to ridicule;
+but her lip quivered, though she still found courage to sustain my
+laughing gaze.
+
+"Come," said I, "we Tryon County men have as yet no need to call upon
+our loyal women to shoulder rifle and fill out our ranks."
+
+"No need of me, sir?"
+
+"Surely, surely, but not yet to such a pass that we strap a bayonet on
+your thigh. Sew for us. Knit for us----"
+
+"Sir, for three years I have done so, foreseeing this hour. I have
+knitted many, many score o' stockings; sewed many a shirt against this
+day that is now arrived. I have them in Mr. Fonda's house, against my
+country's needs. All, or a part, are at your requisition, Mr. Drogue."
+
+But I remained mute, astonished that this girl had seen so clearly what
+so few saw at all--that war must one day come between us and our King.
+This foreseeing of hers amazed me even more than her practical provision
+for the day of wrath--now breaking red on our horizon--that she had seen
+so clearly what must happen--a poor refugee--a child.
+
+"Sir," says she, "have you any use for the stockings and shirts among
+your men?"
+
+She stood resting both arms on the bent bough, her face among the
+flowers. And I don't know how I thought of it, or remembered that in
+Scotland there are some who have the gift of clear vision and who see
+events before they arrive--nay, even foretell and forewarn.
+
+And, looking at her, I asked her if that were true of her. And saw the
+tint of pink apple bloom stain her face; and her dark eyes grow shy and
+troubled.
+
+"Is it that way with you?" I repeated. "Do you see more clearly than
+ordinary folk?"
+
+"Yes, sir--sometimes."
+
+"Not always?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"But if you desire to penetrate the future and strive to do so----"
+
+"No, sir, I can not if I try. Visions come unsought--even undesired."
+
+"Is effort useless?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Then this strange knowledge of the future comes of itself unbidden?"
+
+"Unbidden--when it comes at all. It is like a flash--then darkness. But
+the glimpse has convinced me, and I am forewarned."
+
+I pondered this for a space, then:
+
+"Could you tell me anything concerning how this war is to end?"
+
+"I do not know, Mr. Drogue."
+
+I considered. Then, again: "Have you any knowledge of what Fate intends
+concerning yourself?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Nothing regarding your own future? That is strange."
+
+She shook her head, watching me. And then I laughed lightly:
+
+"Nothing, by any chance, concerning me, Penelope?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+I was so startled that I found no word to question her.
+
+"There is to be a battle," she said in a low voice. "Men will fight in
+the North. I do not know when. But there will be strange uniforms in the
+woods--not British red-coats.... And I know you, also, are to be there."
+Her voice sank to a whisper.... "And there," she breathed, "you shall
+meet Death ... or Love."
+
+When presently my composure returned to me, and I saw her still
+regarding me across the apple-bough, I felt inclined to laugh.
+
+"When did this strange knowledge come to you?" I asked, smiling my
+unbelief.
+
+"The day I first heard your voice at my cousin Bowman's--waking me in my
+bed--and I came out and saw you in the eye of the rising sun. _And you
+were not alone._ And instantly I saw a strange battle that is not yet
+fought--and I saw you--the way you stood--there--dark and straight in a
+blinding sheet of yellow light made by cannon!... The world was aflame,
+and I saw you, tall and dark, shadowed against the blaze--but you did
+not fall.
+
+"Then I came to my senses, and heard the bell ringing, and asked you
+what it meant. Do you remember?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+She released the apple-bough and came under it toward me, through a snow
+of falling blossoms.
+
+"It will surely happen--this battle," she said. "I knew it when I saw
+you, and that other figure near you, where I sat your stolen horse and
+heard you shout at me in anger, and turned to look at you--then, also, I
+caught a glimpse of that _other_ figure near you."
+
+"What other figure?"
+
+"The one which was wrapped in white--like a winding sheet--and
+veiled.... Like Death.... Or a bride, perhaps."
+
+A slight chill went over me, even in the warmth of the sun. But I
+laughed and said I knew not which would be the less welcome, having no
+stomach for Master Death, and even less, perhaps, for Mistress Bride.
+
+"Doubtless," said I, "you saw some ghost of the morning mist afloat from
+the wet earth where I stood."
+
+She made no answer.
+
+Now, as the carriage still tarried, though I had seen Colas taking out
+the horses, I asked her indulgence for a few moments, and walked over to
+the well, where my men still sat at stick-knife. And here I called Nick
+aside and laid one hand on his shoulder:
+
+"There was Indian smoke on Maxon an hour ago," said I. "Take Johnny
+Silver and travel the war trail north, but do not cross the creek to the
+east. I go as armed escort for a traveller to Caughnawaga, and shall
+return as soon as may be. Learn what you can and meet me here by sunrise
+tomorrow."
+
+Nick grinned and cast a sidelong glance at Penelope Grant, where she
+stood in the orchard, watching us.
+
+"Scotched by the Scotch," said he. "Adam fell; and so I knew you'd fall
+one day, John--in an apple orchard! Lord Harry! but she's a pretty
+baggage, too! Only take care, John! for she's soft and young and likes
+to be courted, and there's plenty to oblige her when you're away!"
+
+"Let them oblige her then," said I, vexed, though I knew not why. "She
+stole my horse and would not surrender him until I pledged my word to
+give her escort back to Caughnawaga. And that is all my story--if it
+interests you."
+
+"It does so," said he, his tongue in his cheek. At which I turned away
+in a temper, and encountered an officer, in militia regimentals of the
+Caughnawaga Regiment, coming through the orchard toward me.
+
+"Hallo, Jack!" he called out to me, and I saw he was a friend of mine,
+Major Jelles Fonda, and hastened to offer him his officer's salute.
+
+When he had rendered it, he gave me his honest hand, and we linked arms
+and walked together toward the house, exchanging gossip concerning how
+it went with our cause in Johnstown and Caughnawaga. For the Fonda clan
+was respectable and strong among the landed gentry of Tryon, and it
+meant much to the cause of liberty that all the Fondas, I think without
+exception, had stood sturdily for their own people at a time when the
+vast majority of the influential and well-to-do had stood for their
+King.
+
+When we drew near the house, Major Fonda perceived Penelope and went at
+once to her.
+
+She dropped him a curtsey, but he took her hands and kissed her on both
+cheeks.
+
+"I heard you were here," said he. "We sent old Douw Fonda to Albany for
+safety, not knowing what is like to come upon us out o' that damned
+Canada. And, knowing you had gone to your cousin Bowman's, I rode over
+to my Bush, got news of you through a Mayfield militia man, and trailed
+you here. And now, my girl, you may take your choice; go to Albany and
+sit snug with the Patroon until this tempest breaks and blows over, or
+go to Johnstown Fort with me."
+
+"Does not Douw Fonda need me?" she asked.
+
+"Only your pretty face and sweet presence to amuse him. But, until we
+are certain that Sir John and Guy Johnson do not mean to return and
+murder us in our beds, Douw Fonda will not live in Caughnawaga, and so
+needs no housekeeper."
+
+"Why not remain here with Lady Johnson and Mistress Swift," said I,
+"until we learn what to expect from Sir John and his friends in Canada?
+These ladies are alone and in great anxiety and sorrow. And you could be
+of aid and service and comfort."
+
+What made me say this I do not know. But, somehow, I did not seem to
+wish this girl to go to Albany, where there were many gay young men and
+much profligacy.
+
+To sit on Douw Fonda's porch with her knitting was one thing, and the
+sap-pan gallants had little opportunity to turn the head of this
+inexperienced girl; but Albany was a very different matter; and this
+maid, who said that she liked men, alone there with only an aged man to
+stand between her and idle, fashionable youth, might very easily be led
+into indiscretions. The mere thought of which caused me so lively a
+vexation that I was surprised at myself.
+
+And now I perceived the carriage, with horses harnessed, and Colas in a
+red waistcoat and a red and green cockade on his beaver.
+
+We walked together to the Summer House. Lady Johnson came out on the
+veranda, and Claudia followed her.
+
+When they saw Major Fonda, they bowed to him very coolly, and he made
+them both a stately salute, shrugged his epaulettes, and took snuff.
+
+Lady Johnson said to Penelope: "Are you decided on abandoning two lonely
+women to their own devices, Penelope?"
+
+"Do you really mean to leave me, who could love you very dearly?"
+demanded Claudia, coming down and taking the girl by both hands.
+
+"If you wish it, I am now at liberty to remain with you till Mr. Fonda
+sends for me," replied Penelope. "But I have no clothes."
+
+Claudia embraced her with rapture. "Come to my room, darling!" she
+cried, "and you shall divide with me every stitch I own! And then we
+shall dress each other's hair! Shall we not? And we shall be very fine
+to drink a dish of tea with our friends, the enemy, yonder!"
+
+She flung her arm around Penelope. Going, the girl looked around at me.
+"Thank you for great kindness, my lord," she called back softly.
+
+Lady Johnson said in a cold voice to Major Fonda: "If our misfortunes
+have not made us contemptible to you, sir, we are at home to receive any
+enemy officer who, like yourself, Major, chances to be also a
+gentleman."
+
+"Damnation, Polly!" says he with a short laugh, "don't treat an old beau
+to such stiff-neck language! You know cursed well I'd go down on both
+knees and kiss your shoes, though I'd kick the King's shins if I met
+him!"
+
+He passed his arm through mine; we both bowed very low, then went away
+together, arm in arm, the Major fuming under his breath.
+
+"Silly baggage," he muttered, "to treat an old friend so high and
+mighty. Dash it, what's come over these Johnstown gentlemen and ladies.
+Can't we fight one another politely but they must affect to treat us as
+dirt beneath their feet, who once were welcome at their tables?"
+
+At the well I called to my men, who got up from the grass and greeted
+Major Fonda with unmilitary familiarity.
+
+"Major," said I, "we're off to scout the Sacandaga trail and learn what
+we can. It's cold sniffing, now, on Sir John's heels, but there was
+Iroquois smoke on old Maxon this morning, and I should like at least to
+poke the dead ashes of that same fire before moonrise."
+
+"Certainly," said the Major, gravely; and we shook hands.
+
+"Now, Nick," said I briskly.
+
+"Ready," said he; and "Ready!" repeated every man.
+
+So, rifle a-trail, I led the way out into the Fish House road.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE DROWNED LANDS
+
+
+For two weeks my small patrol of six remained in the vicinity of the
+Sacandaga, scouting even as far as Stony Creek, Silver Lake, and West
+River, covering Maxon, too, and the Drowned Lands, but ever hovering
+about the Sacandaga, where the great Iroquois War Trail runs through the
+dusk of primeval woods.
+
+But never a glimpse of Sir John did we obtain. Which was scarcely
+strange, inasmuch as the scent was already stone cold when we first
+struck it. And though we could trace the Baronet's headlong flight for
+three days' journey, by his dead fires and stinking camp debris, and,
+plainer still, by the trampled path made by his men and horses and by
+the wheel-marks of at least one cannon, our orders, which were to stop
+the War Trail from Northern enemies, permitted no further pursuit.
+
+Yet, given permission, I think I could have come up with him and his
+motley forces, though what my six scouts could have accomplished against
+nearly two hundred people is but idle surmise. And whether, indeed, we
+could have contrived to surprise and capture Sir John, and bring him
+back to justice, is a matter now fit only for idlest speculation.
+
+At the end of the first week I sent Joe de Golyer and Godfrey Shew into
+Johnstown to acquaint Colonel Dayton of what we had seen and what we
+guessed concerning Sir John's probable route. De Luysnes and Johnny
+Silver I stationed on Maxon's honest nose, where the valley of the
+Sacandaga and the Drowned Lands lay like a vast map at their feet, while
+Nick Stoner and I prowled the silent Iroquois trail or slid like a pair
+of otters through the immense desolation of the Drowned Lands, from the
+jungle-like recesses of which we could see the distant glitter of
+muskets where our garrison was drilling at Fish House, and a white speck
+to the southward, which marked the little white and green lodge at
+Summer House Point.
+
+We had found a damaged birch canoe near the Stacking Ridge, and I think
+it was the property of John Howell, who lived on the opposite side of
+the creek a mile above. But his log house stood bolted and empty; and,
+as he was a very rabid Tory, we helped ourselves to his old canoe, and
+Nick patched it with gum and made two paddles.
+
+In this leaky craft we threaded the spectral Drowned Lands, penetrating
+every hidden water-lead, every concealed creek, every lost pond which
+glimmered unseen amid cranberry bogs, vast wastes of stunted willow,
+pinxter shrubs in bloom, and the endless wilderness of reeds. Nesting
+black-ducks rose on clattering wings in scores and scores at our
+stealthy invasion; herons and bitterns flapped heavily skyward; great
+chain-pike, as long as a young boy, slid like shadows under our dipping
+paddles. But we saw no Indians.
+
+Nor was there a sign of any canoe amid the Drowned Lands; not a moccasin
+print in swamp-moss or mud; no trace of Iroquois on the Stacking Ridge,
+where already wild pigeons were flying among the beech and oak trees,
+busy with courtship and nesting.
+
+It was now near the middle of June, but Nick thought that Sir John had
+not yet reached Canada, nor was like to accomplish that terrible journey
+through a pathless wilderness under a full month.
+
+We know now that he did accomplish it in nineteen days, and arrived with
+his starving people in a terrible plight.[4] But nobody then supposed it
+possible that he could travel so quickly. Even his own Mohawks never
+dreamed he was already so far advanced on his flight; and this was their
+vital mistake; for there had been sent from Canada a war party to meet
+and aid Sir John; and, by hazard, I was to learn of this alarming
+business in a manner I had neither expected nor desired.
+
+[Footnote 4: One of his abandoned brass cannon is--or recently
+was--lying embedded in a swamp in the North Woods.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I was sitting on a great, smooth bowlder, where the little trout stream,
+which tumbles down Maxon from the east, falls into Hans Creek. It was a
+still afternoon and very warm in the sun, but pleasant there, where the
+confluence of the waters made a cool and silvery clashing-noise among
+the trees in full new leaf.
+
+Nick had cooked dinner--parched corn and trout, which we caught in the
+brook with one of my fish hooks and a red wampum bead from my moccasins
+tied above the barb.
+
+And now, dinner ended, Nick lay asleep with a mat of moss over his face
+to keep off black flies, and I mounted guard, not because I apprehended
+danger, but desired not to break a military rule which had become
+already a habit among my handful of men.
+
+I was seated, as I say, on a bowlder, with my legs hanging over the
+swirling water and my rifle across both knees. And I was thinking those
+vague and dreamy thoughts which float ghost-like through young men's
+minds when skies are blue in early summer and life seems but an endless
+vista through unnumbered aeons to come.
+
+Through a pleasant and reflective haze which possessed my mind moved
+figures of those I knew or had known--my honoured father, grave,
+dark-eyed, deliberate in all things, living for intellectual pleasure
+alone;--my dear mother, ardent yet timid, thrilled ever by what was most
+beautiful and best in the world, and loving all things made by God.
+
+I thought, too, of my silly kinsman in Paris, Lord Stormont, and how I
+had declined his pompous patronage, to carve for myself a career, aided
+by the slender means afforded me; and how Billy Alexander did use me
+very kindly--a raw youth in a New York school, left suddenly orphaned
+and alone.
+
+I thought of Stevie Watts, of Polly, of the DeLancys, Crugers, and other
+King's people who had made me welcome, doubtless for the sake of my Lord
+Stormont. And how I finally came to know Sir William Johnson, and his
+great kindness to me.
+
+All these things I thought of in the golden afternoon, seated by Hans
+Creek, my eyes on duty, my thoughts a-gypsying far afield, where I saw,
+in my mind's eye, my log house in Fonda's Bush, my new-cleared land, my
+neighbors' houses, the dark walls of the forest.
+
+Yet, drifting between each separate memory, glided ever a slender shape
+with yellow hair, and young, unfathomed eyes as dark as the velvet on
+the wings of that earliest of all our butterflies, which we call the
+Beauty of Camberwell.
+
+Think of whom I might, or of what scenes, always this slim phantom
+drifted in between the sequences of thought, and vaguely I seemed to see
+her yellow hair, and that glimmer which sometimes came into her eyes,
+and which was the lovely dawning of her smile.
+
+War seemed very far away, death but a fireside story half forgotten. For
+my thoughts were growing faintly fragrant with the scent of apple
+blossoms--white and pink bloom--sweet as her breath when she had
+whispered to me.
+
+A strange young thing to haunt me with her fragrance--this girl
+Penelope--her smooth hands and snowy skin--and her little naked feet,
+like whitest silver there in the dew at Bowman's----
+
+Suddenly, thought froze; from the foliage across the creek, scarce
+twenty feet from where I sat, and without the slightest sound, stepped
+an Indian in his paint.
+
+Like a shot squirrel I dropped behind my bowlder and lay flat among the
+shore ferns, my heart so wild that my levelled rifle shook with the
+shock of palsy.
+
+The roar of the waters was loud in my ears, but his calm voice came
+through it distinctly:
+
+"Peace, brother!" he said in the soft, Oneida dialect, and lifted his
+right hand high in the sunshine, the open palm turned toward me.
+
+"Don't move!" I called across the stream. "Lay your blanket on the
+ground and place your gun across it!"
+
+Calmly he obeyed, then straightened up and stood there empty handed,
+naked in his paint, except for the beaded breadth of deer-skin that fell
+from belt to knee.
+
+"Nick!" I called cautiously.
+
+"I am awake and I have laid him over my rifle-sight," came Nick's voice
+from the woods behind me. "Look sharp, John, that there be not others
+ambuscaded along the bank."
+
+"He could have killed me," said I, "without showing himself. By his
+paint I take him for an Oneida."
+
+"That's Oneida paint," replied Nick, cautiously, "but it's war paint,
+all the same. Shall I let him have it?"
+
+"Not yet. The Oneidas, so far, have been friendly. For God's sake, be
+careful what you do."
+
+"Best parley quick then," returned Nick, "for I trust no Iroquois. You
+know his lingo. Speak to him."
+
+I called across the stream to the Indian: "Who are you, brother? What is
+your nation and what is your clan, and what are you doing on the
+Sacandaga, with your face painted in black and yellow bars, and fresh
+oil on your limbs and lock?"
+
+He said, in his quiet but distinct voice: "My nation is Oneida; my clan
+is the Tortoise; I am Tahioni. I am a young and inexperienced warrior.
+No scalp yet hangs from my girdle. I come as a friend. I come as my
+brother's ally. This is the reason that I seek my brother on the
+Sacandaga. Hiero! Tahioni has spoken."
+
+And he quietly folded his arms.
+
+He was a magnificent youth, quite perfect in limb and body, and as light
+of skin as the Mohawks, who are often nearly white, even when pure
+breed.
+
+He stood unarmed, except for the knife and war-axe swinging from
+crimson-beaded sheaths at his cincture. Still, I did not rise or show
+myself, and my rifle lay level with his belly.
+
+I said, in as good Oneida as I could muster:
+
+"Young Oneida warrior, I have listened to what you have had to say. I
+have heard you patiently, oh Tahioni, my brother of the great Oneida
+nation who wears an _Onondaga name_!" For Tahioni means _The Wolf_ in
+Onondaga dialect.
+
+There was a silence, broken by Nick's low voice from somewhere behind
+me: "Shall I shoot the Onondaga dog?"
+
+"Will you mind your business?" I retorted sharply.
+
+The Oneida had smiled slightly at my sarcasm concerning his name; his
+eyes rested on the rock behind which I lay snug, stock against cheek.
+
+"I am Tahioni," he repeated simply. "My mother's clan is the Onondaga
+Tortoise."
+
+Which explained his clan and name, of course, if his father was Oneida.
+
+"I continue to listen," said I warily.
+
+"Tahioni has spoken," he said; and calmly seated himself.
+
+For a moment I remained silent, yet still dared not show myself.
+
+"Is my brother alone?" I asked at last.
+
+"Two Oneida youths and my adopted sister are with me, brother."
+
+"Where are they?"
+
+"They are here."
+
+"Let them show themselves," said I, instantly bitten by suspicion.
+
+Two young men and a girl came calmly from the thicket and stood on the
+bank. All carried blanket and rifle. At a sign from Tahioni, all three
+laid their blankets at their feet and placed their rifles across them.
+
+One, a stocky, powerful youth, spoke first:
+
+"I am Kwiyeh.[5] My clan is the Oneida Tortoise."
+
+The other young fellow said: "Brother, I am Hanatoh,[6] of the Oneida
+Tortoise."
+
+[Footnote 5: The Screech-Owl.]
+
+[Footnote 6: The Water-Snake.]
+
+Then they calmly seated themselves.
+
+I rose from my cover, my rifle in the hollow of my left arm. Nick came
+from his bed of juniper and stood looking very hard at the Oneidas
+across the stream.
+
+Save for the girl, all were naked except for breech-clout, sporran, and
+ankle moccasins; all were oiled and in their paint, and their heads
+shaven, leaving only the lock. There could be no doubt that this was a
+war party. No doubt, also, that they could have slain me very easily
+where I sat, had they wished to do so.
+
+There was, just below us, a string of rocks crossing the stream. I
+sprang from one to another and came out on their bank of the creek; and
+Nick followed, leaping the boulders like a lithe tree-cat.
+
+The Oneidas, who had been seated, rose as I came up to them. I gave my
+hand to each of them in turn, until I faced the girl. And then I
+hesitated.
+
+For never anywhere, among any nation of the Iroquois Confederacy, had I
+seen any woman so costumed, painted, and accoutred.
+
+For this girl looked more like a warrior than a woman; and, save for her
+slim and hard young body's shape, and her full hair, must have passed
+for an adolescent wearing his first hatchet and his first touch of war
+paint.
+
+She, also, was naked to the waist, her breasts scarce formed. Two braids
+of hair lay on her shoulders, and her skin was palely bronzed and smooth
+in its oil, as amber without a flaw.
+
+But she wore leggins of doe-skin, deeply fringed with pale green and
+cinctured in at her waist, where war-axe and knife hung on her left
+thigh, and powder horn and bullet pouch on her right. And over these she
+wore knee moccasins of green snake-skin, the feet of which were
+deer-hide sewn thick with scarlet, purple, and greenish wampum, which
+glistened like a humming-bird's throat.
+
+I said, wondering: "Who is this girl in a young warrior's dress, who
+wears a disk of blue war-paint on her forehead?"
+
+But Nick pulled my arm and said in my ear:
+
+"Have you heard of the little maid of Askalege? Yonder she stands, thank
+God! For the Oneida follow their prophetess; and the Oneida are with us
+in this war if she becomes our friend!"
+
+I had heard of the little Athabasca girl, found in the forest by
+Skenandoa and Spencer, and how she grew up like a boy at Askalege, with
+the brave half-breed interpreter, Thomas Spencer; and how it was her
+delight to roam the forests and talk--they said--to trees and beasts by
+moonlight; how she knew the language of all things living, and could
+hear the tiny voices of the growing grass! Legends and fairy tales, but
+by many believed.
+
+Yet, Sir William had seen the child at Askalege dancing in the stream of
+sparks that poured from Spencer's smithy when the Oneida blacksmith
+pumped his home-made bellows or struck fire-flakes from the cherry-red
+iron.
+
+I said: "Are you sure, Nick? For never have I seen an Indian maid play
+boy in earnest."
+
+"She is the little witch-maid of Askalege--their prophetess," he
+repeated. "I saw her once at Oneida Lake, dancing on the shore amid a
+whirl of yellow butterflies at their strawberry feast. God send she
+favours our party, for the Oneidas will follow her."
+
+I turned to the girl, who was standing quietly beside a young silver
+birch-tree.
+
+"Who are you, my sister, who wear a little blue moon on your brow, and
+the dress and weapons of an adolescent?"
+
+"Brother," she said in her soft Oneida tongue, "I am an Athabascan of
+the Heron Clan, adopted into the Oneida nation. My name is Thiohero,[7]
+and my privilege is Oyaneh.[8] Brother, I come as a friend to liberty,
+and to help you fight your great war against your King.
+
+[Footnote 7: The River-reed.]
+
+[Footnote 8: The noble or honourable one. The feminine of Royaneh, or
+Sachem, in the Algonquin.]
+
+"Brother, I have spoken," she concluded, with lowered eyes.
+
+Surprised and charmed by this young girl's modesty and quiet speech, but
+not knowing how to act, I thanked her as I had the young men, and
+offered her my hand.
+
+She took it, lifted her deep, wide eyes unabashed, looked me calmly and
+intelligently in the face, and said in English:
+
+"My adopted father is Thomas Spencer, the friend to liberty, and Oneida
+interpreter to your General Schuyler. My adopted uncle is the great
+war-chief Skenandoa, also your ally. The Oneida are my people. And are
+now become your brothers in this new war."
+
+"Your words make our hearts light, my sister."
+
+"Your words brighten our sky, my elder brother."
+
+Our clasped hands fell apart. I turned to Tahioni:
+
+"Brother, why are you in battle-paint?" I demanded.
+
+At that the eyes of the Oneida youths began to sparkle and burn; and
+Tahioni straightened up and struck the knife-hilt at his belt with a
+quick, fierce gesture.
+
+"Give me a name that I may know my brother," he said bluntly. "Even a
+tree has a name." And I flushed at this merited rebuke.
+
+"My name is John Drogue, and I am lieutenant of our new State Rangers,"
+said I. "And this is my comrade, Nicholas Stoner, of Fonda's Bush, and
+first sergeant in my little company."
+
+"Brother John," said he, "then listen to this news we Oneidas bring from
+the North: a Canada war-party is now on the Iroquois trail, looking for
+Sir John to guide them to the Canadas!"
+
+Taken aback, I stared at the young warrior for a moment, then,
+recovering composure, I translated for Nick what he had just told me.
+
+Then I turned again to Tahioni, the Wolf:
+
+"Where is this same war-party?" I demanded, still scarce convinced.
+
+"At West River, near the Big Eddy," said he. "_They have taken scalps._"
+
+"Why--why, then, it _is_ war!" I exclaimed excitedly. "And what people
+are these who have taken scalps in the North? Are they Caniengas?"
+
+"Mohawks!" He fairly spat out the insulting term, which no friendly
+Iroquois would dream of using to a Canienga; and the contemptuous word
+seemed to inflame the other Oneidas, for they all picked up their rifles
+and crowded around me, watching my face with gleaming eyes.
+
+"How many?" I asked, still a little stunned by this reality, though I
+had long foreseen the probability.
+
+"Thirty," said the girl Thiohero, turning from Nick, to whom she had
+been translating what was being said in the Oneida tongue.
+
+Now, in a twinkling, I found myself faced with an instant crisis, and
+must act as instantly.
+
+I had two good men on Maxon, the French trapper, Johnny Silver and
+Benjamin De Luysnes; Nick and I counted two more. With four Oneida, and
+perhaps Joe de Golyer and Godfrey Shew--if we could pick them up on the
+Vlaie--we would be ten stout men to stop this Mohawk war-party until the
+garrisons at Summer House Point and Fish House could drive the impudent
+marauders North again.
+
+Turning to Thiohero, I said as much in English. She nodded and spoke to
+the others in Oneida; and I saw their eager and brilliant eyes begin to
+glitter.
+
+Now, I carried always with me in the bosom of my buckskin shirt a
+_carnet_, or tablet of good paper, and a pencil given me years ago by
+Sir William.
+
+And now I seated myself on a rock and took my instruments and wrote:
+
+     "Hans Creek, near
+     Maxon Brook,
+     June 13th, 1776.
+
+     "To the Officer comm{d'ng} ye
+     Garrison at ye Summer House
+     on Vlaie,
+
+     "Sir:
+
+     "I am to acquaint you that this day, about two o'clock, afternoon,
+     arrived in my camp four Oneidas who give an account that a Mohawk
+     War Party is now at ye Big Eddy on West River, headed south.
+
+     "By the same intelligence I am to understand that this War Party
+     _has taken scalps_.
+
+     "Sir, anybody familiar with the laws and customs of the Iroquois
+     Confederacy understands what this means.
+
+     "Murder, or mere slaying, when not accompanied by such mutilation,
+     need not constitute an act of war involving nation and Confederacy
+     in formal declaration.
+
+     "But the taking of a single scalp means only one thing: that the
+     nation whose warrior scalps an enemy approves the trophy and
+     declares itself at war with the nation of the victim.
+
+     "I am aware, sir, that General Schuyler and Mr. Kirkland and others
+     are striving mightily in Albany to placate the Iroquois, and that
+     they still entertain such hope, although the upper Mohawks are gone
+     off with Brant, and Guy Johnson holds in his grasp the fighting men
+     of the Confederacy, save only the Oneida, and also in spite of
+     news, known to be certain, that Mohawk Indians were in battle-paint
+     at St. John's.
+
+     "Now, therefore, conscious of my responsibility, and asking God's
+     guidance in this supreme moment, lest I commit error or permit hot
+     blood to confuse my clearer mind, I propose to travel instantly to
+     the West River with my scout of four Rangers, and four Oneidas, and
+     ask of this Mohawk War Party an explanation in the name of the
+     Continental Congress and His Excellency, our Com{'nder} in Chief.
+
+     "Sir, I doubt not that you will order your two garrisons to prepare
+     for immediate defense, and also to support my scout on the
+     Sacandaga; and to send an express to Johnstown as soon as may be,
+     to acquaint Colonel Dayton of what measures I propose to take to
+     carry out my orders which are _to stop the Sacandaga trail_.
+
+     "This, sir, it is my present endeavour to do.
+
+     "I am, sir, with all respect,
+
+     "Yr most obedient
+
+     "John Drogue, L{ieut} Rangers."
+
+When I finished, I discovered that Nick and the Oneidas had fastened on
+their blanket-packs and were gathered a little distance away in animated
+conversation, the little maid of Askalege translating.
+
+Nick had fetched my pack; I strapped it, picked up my rifle, and walked
+swiftly into the woods; and without any word from me they fell into file
+at my heels, headed west for Fish House and the fateful river.
+
+My scout of six moved very swiftly and without noise; and it was not an
+hour before I caught sight of a Continental soldier on bullock guard,
+and saw cattle among low willows.
+
+The soldier was scared and bawled lustily for his mates; but among them
+was one of the Sammons, who knew me; and they let us through with little
+delay.
+
+Fish House was full o' soldiers a-sunning in every window, and under
+them, on the grass; and here headquarters guards stopped us until the
+captain in command could be found, whilst the gaping Continentals
+crowded around us for news, and stared at our Oneidas, whose quiet
+dignity and war paint astonished our men, I think. To the west and
+south, and along the river, I saw many soldiers in their shirts,
+a-digging to make an earthwork; and presently from this redoubt came a
+Continental Captain, out o' breath, who listened anxiously to what news
+I had gathered, and who took my letter and promised to send it by an
+express to Summer House Point.
+
+A quartermaster's sergeant asked very civilly if I desired to draw
+rations for my scout; and I drew parched corn, salt, dried fish, jerked
+venison, and pork from the brine, for ten men; and Nick and I and my
+Oneidas did divide between us the burthen.
+
+"The dogs!" he kept repeating in a confused way--"the dirty dogs, to
+take our scalps! And I pray God your painted Oneidas yonder may do the
+like for them!"
+
+I saw a horse saddled and a soldier mount and gallop off with my letter.
+That was sufficient for me; I gave the Continental Captain the officers'
+salute, and looked around at my men, who had made a green fire for me on
+the grass in front of the house.
+
+It was smoking thickly, now, so I took a soldier's watch-coat by the
+skirts, glanced up at Maxon Ridge, then, flinging wide the garment above
+the fire, kept it a-flutter there and moved it up and down till the
+jetted smoke mounted upward in great clots, three together, then one,
+then three, then one.
+
+Presently, high on Maxon, I saw smoke, and knew that Johnny Silver
+understood. So I flung the watch-coat to the soldier, turned, and walked
+swiftly along the river bank, where sheep grazed, then entered the
+forest with Nick at my heels and the four Oneidas a-padding in his
+tracks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE LITTLE RED FOOT
+
+
+By dusk we were ten rifles; for an hour after we left Fish House Johnny
+Silver and Luysnes joined us on the Sacandaga trail; and, just as the
+sun set behind the Mayfield mountains, comes rushing down stream a canoe
+with Godfrey Shew's bow-paddle flashing red in the last rays and Joe de
+Golyer steering amid the rattling rapids, nigh buried in a mountain of
+silvery spray.
+
+And here, by the river, we ate, but lighted no fire, though it seemed
+safe to do so.
+
+I sent Godfrey Shew and the Water-snake far up the Iroquois trail to
+watch it. The others gathered in a friendly circle to munch their corn
+and jerked meat, and the Frenchmen were merry, laughing and jesting and
+casting sly, amorous eyes toward Thiohero, who laughed, too, in friendly
+fashion and was at her ease and plainly not displeased with gallantry.
+
+It had proved a swift comradery between us and our young Oneidas, and I
+marvelled at the rapid accomplishment of such friendly accord in so
+brief a time, yet understood it came through the perfect faith of these
+Oneidas in their young Athabasca witch; and that what their prophetess
+found good they did not even think of questioning.
+
+Her voice was soft, her smile bewitching; she ate with the healthy
+appetite of an animal, yet was polite to those who offered meat. And her
+sweet "neah-wennah"[9] never failed any courtesy offered by these rough
+Forest Runners, who now, for the first time in their reckless lives, I
+think, were afforded a glimpse of the forest Indian as he really is when
+at his ease and among friends.
+
+[Footnote 9: Thank you.]
+
+For it is not true that the Iroquois live perpetually in their paint;
+that they are cruel by nature, brutal, stern, and masters of silence; or
+that they stalk gloomily through life with hatchet ever loosened and no
+pursuit except war in their ferocious minds.
+
+White men who have mistreated them see them so; but the real Iroquois,
+except the Senecas, who are different, are naturally a kindly, merry,
+and trustful people among themselves, not quarrelsome, not fierce, but
+like children, loving laughter and all things gay and bright and
+mischievous.
+
+Their women, though sometimes broad in speech and jests, are more truly
+chaste in conduct than the women of any nation I ever heard of, except
+the Irish.
+
+They have their fixed and honourable places in clan, nation, and Federal
+affairs.
+
+Rank follows the female line; the son of a chief does not succeed to the
+antlers, but any of his mother's relatives may. And in the Great Rite of
+the Iroquois, which is as sacred to them as is our religion to us, and
+couched in poetry as beautiful as ever Homer sang, the most moving part
+of the ceremony concerns the Iroquois women,--the women of the Six
+Nations of the Long House, respected, honoured, and beloved.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We ate leisurely, feeling perfectly secure there in the starlight of the
+soft June night.
+
+The Iroquois war-trail ran at our elbows, trodden a foot deep, hard as a
+sheep path, and from eighteen inches to two feet in width--a clean,
+firm, unbroken trail through a primeval wilderness, running mile after
+mile, mile after mile, over mountains, through valleys, by lonely lakes,
+along lost rivers, to the distant Canadas in the North.
+
+On this trail, above us, two of my men lay watching, as I have said,
+which was merely a customary precaution, for we were far out of earshot
+of the Big Eddy, and even of our own sentries.
+
+We were like one family eating together, and Silver and Luysnes jested
+and played pranks on each other, and de Golyer and Nick entered into
+gayest conversation with the Oneidas through their interpreter, the
+River-reed.
+
+As for Nick, I saw him making calf's eyes at the lithe young sorceress,
+which I perceived displeased her not at all; yet she gaily divided
+herself between translating for the others and keeping up a lively
+repartee with Nick.
+
+The Oneidas, now, had begun to shine up their war-hatchets, sitting
+cross-legged and contentedly rubbing up knife, axe, and rifle; and I was
+glad to see them so at home and so confident of our friendship.
+
+Older men might not have been so easily won, but these untried young
+warriors seemed very children, and possessing the lovable qualities of
+children, being alternately grave and gay, serious and laughing, frank
+and impatient, yet caressing in speech and gesture.
+
+From Kwiyeh, the Screech-owl, I had an account of how, burning for
+glory, these four youngsters had stolen away from Oneida Lake, and,
+painting themselves, had gone North of their own accord, to win fame for
+the Oneida nation, which for the greater part had espoused our cause.
+
+He told me that they had seen Sir John pass, floundering madly northward
+and dragging three brass cannon; but explained naively that four Oneidas
+considered it unsafe to give battle to two hundred white men.
+
+For a week, however, it appeared, they had hung on Sir John's flanks,
+skulking for a stray scalp; but it was evident that the Baronet's people
+were thoroughly frightened, and the heavy flank guards and the triple
+line of sentries by night made any hope of a stray scalp futile.
+
+Then, it appeared, these four Oneidas gave up the quest and struck out
+for the Iroquois trail. And suddenly came upon nearly two score Mohawks,
+silently passing southward, painted for war, oiled, shaved, and
+stripped, and evidently searching for Sir John, to aid and guide him in
+his flight to Canada.
+
+Which proved to me the Baronet's baseness, because his flight was
+plainly a premeditated one, and the Mohawks could not have known of it
+unless Sir John had been in constant communication with Canada--a thing
+he had pledged his honour not to do.
+
+Others around me, now, were listening to the burly young Oneida's
+account of their first war-path; and presently their young sorceress
+took up the tale in English and in Oneida, explaining with lively
+gestures to both red men and white.
+
+"Not one of the Mohawks saw us," she said scornfully, "and when they
+made a camp and had sent their hunters out to kill game, we came so near
+that we could see their warriors curing and hooping the scalps they had
+taken and painting on every scalp the Little Red Foot[10]--even on the
+scalps of two little boys."
+
+[Footnote 10: To show that the late owner of the scalp had died fighting
+bravely.]
+
+Nick turned pale, but said nothing. A sickness came to my stomach and I
+spoke with difficulty.
+
+"What were these scalps, little sister, which you saw the Mohawks
+curing?"
+
+"White people's. Three were of men,--one very thin and gray; two were
+the glossy hair of women; and two the scalps of children----"
+
+She flung back her blanket with a peculiarly graceful gesture:
+
+"Be honoured, O white brothers, that these Mohawk dogs were forced to
+paint upon every scalp the Little Red Foot!"
+
+After a silence: "Some poor settler's family," muttered Nick; and fell
+a-fiddling with his hatchet.
+
+"All died fighting," I added in a dull voice.
+
+Thiohero snapped her fingers and her dark eyes flamed.
+
+"What are the Mohawks, after all!" she said in a tense voice. "Who are
+they, to paint for war without fire-right given them at Onondaga? What
+do they amount to, these Keepers of the Eastern Gate, since Sir William
+died?
+
+"They have become outlaws and there is no honour among them!
+
+"Their clan-right is destroyed and neither Wolf, Bear, nor Tortoise know
+them any longer. Nor does any ensign of my own clan of the Heron know
+these mad yellow wolves that howl and tear the Long House with their
+teeth to destroy it! Like carcajoux, they defile the Iroquois League and
+smother its fire in their filth! Dig up the ashes of Onondaga for any
+living ember, O you Oneidas! You shall find not one live spark! And this
+is what the Canienga have done to the Great Confederacy!"
+
+Tahioni said, looking straight ahead of him: "The Great League of the
+Iroquois is broken. Skenandoa has said it, and he has painted his face
+scarlet! The Long House crumbles slowly to its fall.
+
+"Those who should have guarded the Eastern Gate have broken it down.
+Death to the Canienga!"
+
+Kwiyeh lifted his right hand high in the starlight:
+
+"Death to the Canienga! They have defiled Thendara. Spencer has said it.
+They have spat upon the Fire at the Wood's Edge. They have hewn down the
+Great Tree. They have uncovered the war-axe which lay deep buried under
+the roots.
+
+"Death to the Canienga!"
+
+I turned to Thiohero: "O River-reed, my little sister! Oyaneh! Is it
+true that your great chief, Skenandoa, has put on red paint?"
+
+She said calmly: "It is true, my brother. Skenandoa has painted himself
+in red. And when your General Herkimer rides into battle, on his right
+hand rides Skenandoa; and on his left hand rides Thomas Spencer, the
+Oneida interpreter!"[11]
+
+[Footnote 11: This was a true prophecy for it happened later at
+Oriskany.]
+
+Tahioni said solemnly: "And before them rides the Holder of Heaven. We
+Oneidas can not doubt it. Is it true, my sister?"
+
+The girl answered: "The Holder of Heaven has flung a red wampum belt
+between Oneida and Canienga! Five more red belts remain in his hand.
+They are so brightly red that even the Senecas can see the colour of
+these belts from the Western Gate of the Long House."
+
+There was a silence; then I chose De Luysnes and Kwiyeh to relieve our
+sentinels, and went north with them along the starlit trail.
+
+When I returned with Hanoteh and Godfrey Shew, the Oneidas were still
+sitting up in their blankets, and the Frenchmen lay on theirs, listening
+to Nick, who had pulled his fife from his hunting shirt and was trilling
+the air of the Little Red Foot while Joe de Golyer sang the words of the
+endless and dreary ballad--old-time verses, concerning bloody deeds of
+the Shawanese, Western Lenape, and French in '56, when blood ran from
+every creek and man, woman and child went down to death fighting.
+
+I hated the words, but the song had ever haunted me with its quaint and
+sad refrain:
+
+      "Lord Loudon he weareth a fine red coat,
+    And red is his ladye's foot-mantelle;
+      Red flyeth ye flagge from his pleasure-boat,
+    And red is the wine he loves so well:
+      But, oh! for the dead at Minden Town,--
+    Naked and bloody and black with soot,
+      Where the Lenni-Lenape and the French came down
+    To paint them all with the Little Red Foot!"
+
+"For God's sake, quit thy piping, Nick," said I, "and let us sleep while
+we may, for we move again at dawn."
+
+At which Nick obediently tucked away his fife, and de Golyer, who had a
+thin voice like a tree-cat, held his songful tongue; and presently we
+all lay flat and rolled us in our blankets.
+
+The night was still, save for a love-sick panther somewhere on the
+mountain, a-caterwauling under the June stars. But the distant and
+melancholy love-song and the golden melody of the stream pouring through
+its bowlders blended not unpleasantly in my ears, and presently
+conspired to lull me into slumber.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The mountain peaks were red when I awoke and spoke aloud to rouse my
+people. One by one they sat up, owlish with sleep, yet soon clearing
+their eyes and minds with remembering the business that lay before us.
+
+I sent Joe de Golyer and Tahioni to relieve our sentinels, Luysnes and
+the Screech-owl.
+
+When these came in with report that all was still as death on the
+Iroquois trail, we ate breakfast and drank at the river, where some
+among us also washed our bodies,--among others the River-reed, who
+stripped unabashed, innocent of any shame, and cleansed herself
+knee-deep in a crystal green pool under the Indian willows.
+
+When she came back, the disk of blue paint was gone from her brow, and I
+saw her a-fishing in her beaded wallet and presently bring forth blue
+and red paint and a trader's mirror about two inches in diameter.
+
+Then the little maid of Askalege sat down cross-legged and began to
+paint herself for battle.
+
+At the root of her hair, where it made a point above her forehead, she
+painted a little crescent moon in blue. And touched no more her face;
+but on her belly she made a blue picture of a heron--her clan being the
+Heron, which is an ensign unknown among Iroquois.
+
+Now she took red paint, and upon her chest she made a tiny human foot.
+
+I was surprised, for neither for war nor for any ceremony I ever heard
+of had I seen that dread symbol on any Indian.
+
+The Oneidas, also, were looking at her in curiosity and astonishment,
+pausing in their own painting to discover what she was about.
+
+Then, as it struck me, so, apparently, it came to them at the same
+instant what their sorceress meant,--what pledge to friend and foe alike
+this tiny red foot embodied, shining above her breast. And the two young
+warriors who had painted the tortoise in blue upon their bellies, now
+made each a little red foot upon their chests.
+
+"By gar!" exclaimed Silver, "ees it onlee ze gens-du-bois who shall made
+a boast to die fighting? Nom de dieu, non!" And he unrolled his blanket
+and pulled out a packet of red cloth and thread and needle--which is
+like a Frenchman, who lacks for nothing, even in the wilderness.
+
+He made a pattern very deftly out of his cloth, using the keen point of
+his hunting knife; and, as we all, now, wished to sew a little red foot
+upon the breasts of our buckskin shirts, and as he had cloth enough for
+all, and for Joe de Golyer, too, when we should come up with him, I and
+my men were presently marked with the dread device, which was our
+pledge and our defiance.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The sun had painted scarlet the lower Adirondack peaks when we started
+north on the Sacandaga trail.
+
+When we came up with our sentinels, I gave Joe time to sew on his
+symbol, and the Oneida time to paint it upon his person. Then we
+examined flint and priming, tightened girth and cincture, tested knife,
+hatchet, and the stoppers of our powder horns; and I went from one to
+another to inspect all, and to make my dispositions for the march to the
+Big Eddy on West River.
+
+We marched in the following fashion: Tahioni and Nick as left flankers,
+two hundred yards in advance of us, and in sight of the trail. On the
+right flank, the Water-snake and Johnny Silver at the same intervals.
+
+Then, on the trail itself, I leading, Luysnes next, then the River-reed.
+Then a hundred yards interval, and Joe de Golyer on the left rear,
+Kwiyeh on the right rear, and Godfrey on the trail.
+
+"And," I said, "if you catch a roving Tree-eater, slay him not, but
+bring him to me, for if there be any of these wild rovers, the
+Montagnais, in our vicinity, they should know something of what is now
+happening in the Canadas, and they shall tell us what they know, or I'm
+a Tory! Forward! Our alarm signal is the long call-note of the Canada
+sparrow!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+WEST RIVER
+
+
+The Water-snake caught an Adirondack just before ten o'clock, and was
+holding him on the trail as I came up, followed by Luysnes and Thiohero.
+
+The Indian was a poor, starved-looking creature in ragged buckskins and
+long hair, from which a few wild-turkey quills fell to his scrawny neck.
+
+He wore no paint, had been armed with a trade-rifle, the hammer of which
+was badly loosened and mended with copper wire, and otherwise he carried
+arrows in a quiver and a greasy bow.
+
+Like a fierce, lean forest thing, made abject by fear, the Adirondack's
+sloe-black eyes now flickered at me, now avoided my gaze. I looked down
+at the rags which served him for a blanket, and on which lay his
+wretched arms, including knife and hatchet.
+
+"Let him loose," said I to the Water-snake; "here is no Mengwe but a
+poor brother, who sees us armed and in our paint and is afraid."
+
+And I went to the man and offered my hand. Which he touched as though I
+were a rattlesnake.
+
+"Brother," said I, "we white men and Oneidas have no quarrel with any
+Saguenay that I know about. Our quarrel is with the Canienga, and that
+is the reason we wear paint on this trail. And we have stopped our
+Saguenay brother in the forest on his lawful journey, to say to him, and
+to all Saguenays, that we mean them no harm."
+
+There was an absolute silence; Luysnes and Thiohero drew closer around
+the Tree-eater; the Water-snake gazed at his captive in slight disgust,
+yet, I noticed, held his rifle in a position for instant use.
+
+The Saguenay's slitted eyes travelled from one to another, then he
+looked at me.
+
+"Brother," I said, "how many Maquas are there camped near the Big
+Eddy?"
+
+His low, thick voice answered in a dialect or language I did not
+comprehend.
+
+"Can you speak Iroquois?" I demanded.
+
+He muttered something in his jargon. Thiohero touched my arm:
+
+"The Saguenay says he understands the Iroquois tongue, but can speak it
+only with difficulty. He says that he is a hunter and not a warrior."
+
+"Ask him to answer me concerning the Maqua."
+
+A burst of volubility spurted from the prisoner.
+
+Again the girl translated the guttural reply:
+
+"He says he saw painted Mohawks fishing in the Big Eddy, and others
+watching the trail. He does not know how many, because he can not count
+above five numbers. He says the Mohawks stoned him and mocked him,
+calling him Tree-eater and Woodpecker; and they drove him away from the
+Big Eddy, saying that no Saguenay was at liberty to fish in Canienga
+territory until permitted by the Canienga; and that unless he started
+back to Canada, where he belonged, the Iroquois women would catch him
+and beat him with nettles."
+
+As Thiohero uttered the dread name, Canienga, I could see our captive
+shrink with the deep fear that the name inspired. And I think any
+Iroquois terrified him, for it seemed as though he dared not sustain the
+half-contemptuous, half-indifferent glances of my Oneidas, but his eyes
+shifted to mine in dumb appeal for refuge.
+
+"What is my brother's name?" I asked.
+
+"Yellow Leaf," translated the girl.
+
+"His clan?"
+
+"The Hawk," she said, shrugging her shoulders.
+
+"Nevertheless," said I, very quietly, "my Saguenay brother is a man, and
+not an animal to be mocked by the Maqua!"
+
+And I stooped and picked up his blanket and weapons, and gave them to
+him.
+
+"The Saguenays are free people," said I. "The Yellow Leaf is free as is
+his clan ensign, the Hawk. Brother, go in peace!"
+
+And I motioned my people forward.
+
+Our flankers, who, keeping stations, had waited, now started on again,
+the Water-snake running swiftly to his post on the extreme right flank.
+
+After ten minutes' silent and swift advance, Thiohero came lightly to my
+side on the trail.
+
+"Brother," she whispered, "was it well considered to let loose that
+Tree-eating rover in our rear?"
+
+"Would the Oneida take such a wretched trophy as that poor hunter's
+tangled scalp?"
+
+"_Neah._ Yet, I ask again, was it wisdom to let him loose, who, for a
+mouthful of parched corn, might betray us to the Mengwe?"
+
+"Poor devil, he means no harm to anybody."
+
+"_Then why does he skulk after us?_"
+
+Startled, I turned and caught a glimpse of something slinking on the
+ridge between our flankers; but was instantly reassured because no
+living thing could dog us without discovery from the rear. And presently
+I did see the Screech-owl run forward and hurl a clod of moss into the
+thicket; and the Saguenay broke cover like a scared dog, running perdue
+so that he came close to Hanatoh, who flung a stick at him.
+
+That was too much for me; and, as the Tree-eater bolted past me, I
+seized him.
+
+"Come," said I, dragging him along, "what the devil do you want of us?
+Did I not bid you go in peace?"
+
+Thiohero caught him by the other arm, and he panted some jargon at her.
+
+"Koue!" she exclaimed, and her long, sweet whistle of the Canada sparrow
+instantly halted us in our tracks, flankers, rearguard, and all.
+
+Thiohero, still holding the Saguenay by his lean, muscular arm, spoke
+sharply to him in his jargon; then, at his reply, looked up at me with
+the flaming eyes of a lynx.
+
+"Brother," said she, "this Montagnais hunter has given an account that
+the Maquas have prepared an ambuscade, knowing we are on the Great
+Trail."
+
+I said, coolly: "What reason does the Saguenay give for returning to us
+with such a tale?"
+
+"He says," she replied, "that we only, of all Iroquois or white men he
+has ever encountered, have treated him like a man and not as an unclean
+beast.
+
+"He says that my white brother has told him he is a man, and that if
+this is true he will act as real men act.
+
+"He says he desires to be painted upon the breast with a little red
+foot, and wishes to go into battle with us. And," she added naively, "to
+an Oneida this seems very strange that a Saguenay can be a real man!"
+
+"Paint him," said I, smiling at the Saguenay.
+
+But no Oneida would touch him. So, while he stripped to the clout and
+began to oil himself from the flask of gun-oil I offered, I got from
+him, through Thiohero, all he had noticed of the ambuscade prepared for
+us, and into which he himself had run headlong in his flight from the
+stones and insults of the Mohawks at the Big Eddy.
+
+While he was thus oiling himself, Luysnes shaved his head with his
+hunting blade, leaving a lock to be braided. Then, very quickly, I took
+blue paint from Thiohero and made on the fellow's chest a hawk. And,
+with red paint, under this I made a little red foot, then painted his
+fierce, thin features as the girl directed, moving a dainty finger
+hither and thither but never touching the Saguenay.
+
+To me she said disdainfully, in English: "My brother John, this is a
+wild wolf you take hunting with you, and not a hound. The Saguenays are
+real wolves and not to be tamed by white men or Iroquois. And like a
+lone wolf he will run away in battle. You shall see, brother John."
+
+"I hope not, little sister."
+
+"You shall see," she repeated, her pretty lip curling as Luysnes began
+to braid the man's scalp-lock. "You think him a warrior, now, because he
+is oiled and wears war paint and lock. But I tell you he is only a wild
+Montagnais hunter. Warriors are not made with a word."
+
+"Sometimes men are," said I pleasantly.
+
+The girl came closer to me, looked up into my face with unfeigned
+curiosity.
+
+"What manner of white man are you, John?" she asked. "For you speak like
+a preacher, yet you wear no skirt and cross, as do the priests of the
+Praying Indians."
+
+"Little sister," said I, taking both her hands, "I am only a young man
+going into battle for the first time; and I have yet to fire my first
+shot in anger. If my white and red brothers--and if you, little
+sister--do full duty this day, then we shall be happy, living or dead.
+For only those who do their best can look the Holder of Heaven in the
+face."
+
+She gave me a strange glance; our hands parted. I gave the
+Canada-sparrow call in the minor key--as often the bird whistles--and,
+at the signal, all my scouts came creeping in.
+
+"We cross West River here," said I, "and go by the left bank in the same
+order of march, crossing the shoulder of the mountain by the Big Eddy,
+then fording the river once more, so as to take their ambuscade from the
+north and in the rear."
+
+They seemed to understand. The Montagnais, in his new paint, came around
+behind me like some savage dog that trusts only his owner. And I saw my
+Oneidas eyeing him as though of two minds whether to ignore him or sink
+a hatchet into his narrow skull.
+
+"Who first sights a Mohawk," said I, "shall not fire or try to take a
+scalp to satisfy his own vanity and his desire for glory. No. He shall
+return to me and report what he sees. For it is my business to order the
+conduct of this battle.... March!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We had forded West River, crept over the mountain's shoulder, recrossed
+the river roaring between its rounded and giant bowlders, and now were
+creeping southward toward the Big Eddy.
+
+Already I saw ahead of me the brook that dashes into that great
+crystal-green pool, where, in happier days, I have angled for those huge
+trout that always lurk there.
+
+And now I caught a glimpse of the pool itself, spreading out between
+forested shores. But the place was still as death; not a living thing
+nor any sign of one was to be seen there--not a trace of a fire, nor of
+any camp filth, nor a canoe, nor even a broken fern.
+
+Moment after moment, I studied the place, shore and slope and hollow.
+
+Tahioni, flat on his belly in the Great Trail, lay listening and looking
+up the slope, where our Saguenay had warned us Death lay waiting.
+
+The Water-snake slowly shook his head and cast a glance of fierce
+suspicion at the Montagnais, who lay beside me, grasping his sorry
+trade-rifle, his slitted gaze of a snake fixed on the forest depths
+ahead.
+
+Suddenly, Nick caught my arm in a nervous grasp, and "My God!" says he,
+"what is that in the tree--in the great hemlock yonder?"
+
+And now we began to see their sharpshooters as we crawled forward,
+standing upright on limbs amid the foliage of great evergreens, to scan
+the trail ahead and the forest aisles below--these Mohawk panthers that
+would slay from above.
+
+Under them, hidden close to the ground, lay their comrades on either
+side of the little ravine, through which the trail ran. We could not see
+them, but we never doubted they were there.
+
+Four of their tree-cat scouts were visible: I made the sign; our rifles
+crashed out. And, thump! slap! thud! crash! down came their dead
+a-sprawling and bouncing on the dead leaves. And up rose their astounded
+comrades from every hollow, bush and windfall, only to drop flat at our
+rifles' crack, and no knowing if we had hit any among them.
+
+A veil of smoke lay low among the ferns in front of us. There was a
+terrible silence in the forest, then screech on screech rent the air, as
+the panther slogan rang out from our unseen foes; and, like a dreadful
+echo, my Oneidas hurled their war cry back at them; and we all sprang to
+our feet and moved swiftly forward, crouching low in our own rifle
+smoke.
+
+There came a shot, and a cloud spread among the boughs of a tall
+hemlock; but the fellow left his tree and slid down on t'other side,
+like a squirrel, and my wild Saguenay was after him in a flash.
+
+I saw the Oneidas looking on as though stupefied; saw the Saguenay,
+shoulder deep in witch-hopple, seize something, heard the mad struggle,
+and ran forward with Tahioni, only to hear the yelping scalp-cry of the
+Montagnais, and see him in the tangle of witch-hopple, both knees on his
+victim's shoulders, ripping off the scalp, his arms and body spattered
+with blood.
+
+The stupefaction of the Oneidas lasted but a second, then their battle
+yell burst out in jealous fury indescribable.
+
+I saw Tahioni chasing a strange Indian through a little hollow full of
+ferns; saw Godfrey Shew raise his rifle and kill the fugitive as coolly
+as though he were a running buck.
+
+Nick, his shoulder against a beech tree, stood firing with great
+deliberation at something I could not see.
+
+The three Frenchmen, de Golyer, Luysnes, and Johnny, had gone around, as
+though deer driving, and were converging upon a little wooded knoll,
+from which a hard-wood hogback ran east.
+
+Over this distant ridge, like shadows, I could see somebody's light feet
+running, checkered against the sunshine beyond, and I fired, judging a
+man's height, if stooping. And saw something dark fall and roll down
+into a gully full o' last year's damp and rotting leaves.
+
+Re-charging my rifle, I strove to realize that I had slain, but could
+not, so fierce the flame in me was burning at the thought of the
+children's scalps these Iroquois had taken.
+
+"Is he down, Johnny Silver?" I bawled.
+
+"Fairly paunched!" shouted Luysnes. "Tell your Oneidas they can take his
+hair, for I shan't touch it."
+
+But Johnny Silver, in no wise averse, did that office very cheerfully.
+
+"Nom de Dieu!" he panted, tugging at the oiled lock and wrenching free
+the scalp; "I have one veree fine jou-jou, sacre garce! I take two; mek
+for me one fine wallet!"
+
+Down by the river the rifles were cracking fast and a smoke mist filled
+the woods. Ranging widely eastward we had turned their left flank--now
+their right--and were forcing them to a choice between the Sacandaga
+trail southward or the bee-line back to Canada by the left bank of West
+River.
+
+How many there were of them I never have truly learned; but that
+scarcely matters to the bravest Indian, when ambuscaded and taken so
+completely by surprise from the rear.
+
+No Indians can stand that, and but few white men are able to rally under
+such circumstances.
+
+The Screech-owl, locked in a death struggle with a young Mohawk, broke
+his arm, stabbed him, and took his scalp before I could run to his aid.
+
+And there on the ground lay four other scalps, two of white children,
+with the Little Red Foot painted on all.
+
+I looked down at the dead murderer. He was a handsome boy, not twenty,
+and wore a white mask of war paint and two bars of scarlet on his chin,
+I thought--then realized that they were two thick streaks of running
+blood.
+
+"May his clan bewail him!" shouted the burly Screech-owl. "Let the
+Mohawk women mourn their dead who died this day at West River! The
+Oneida mock them! Koue!" And his terrific scalp-yell pierced the racket
+of the rifles.
+
+I heard a gruffling sound and thick breathing from behind a pine, where
+the Water-snake was scalping one of the tree-cat scouts--grunting and
+panting as he tugged at the tough and shaven skin, which he had grasped
+in his teeth, plying his knife at the same time because the circular
+incision had not been continuous.
+
+Suddenly I felt sick, and leaned against a tree, fighting nausea and a
+great dizziness. And was aware of an arm around my shoulder.
+
+Whereupon I straightened up and saw the little maid of Askalege beside
+me, looking at me very strangely.
+
+At the same instant I heard a great roaring and cursing and a crash
+among the river-side willows, and was horrified to see Nick down on his
+back a-clawing and tearing and cuffing a Mohawk warrior, who was
+clinging to him and striving to use his hatchet.
+
+We made but a dozen leaps of it, Thiohero and I, and were in a wasp-nest
+of Mohawks ere we knew it.
+
+I heard Nick roar again with pain and fury, but had my hands too full to
+succor him, for a wild beast painted yellow was choking me and wrestling
+me off my feet, and little Thiohero was fighting like a demon with her
+knife, on the water's edge.
+
+The naked warrior I clutched was so vilely oiled that my fingers slipped
+over him as though it were an eel I plucked at, and his foul and
+stinking breath in my face was like a full fed bear's.
+
+Then, as he strangled me, out of darkening eyes I saw his arm
+lifted--glimpsed the hatchet's sparkle--saw an arm seize his, saw a
+broad knife pass into his belly as though it had been butter--pass
+thrice, slowly, ripping upward so that he stood there, already
+gralloched, yet still breathing horribly and no bowels in him.... His
+falling hatchet clinked among the stones. Then he sank like a stricken
+bull, bellowed, and died.
+
+And, as he fell, I heard my Saguenay gabbling, "Brother! brother!" in my
+ears, and felt his hand timidly seeking mine.
+
+Breath came back, and eyesight, too, in time to see Nick and his Mohawk
+enemy on their feet again, and the Indian strike my comrade with clubbed
+rifle, turn, and dart into the willows.
+
+My God, what a crack! And down went Nick, like a felled pine in the
+thicket.
+
+But now in my ears rang a distressful crying, like a gentle wild thing
+wounded to the death; and I saw two Mohawks had got the little maid of
+Askalege between them, and were drowning her in the Big Eddy.
+
+I ran out into the water, but Tahioni, her brother, came in a flying
+leap from the bank above me, and all four went down under water as I
+reached them.
+
+They came up blinded, staggering, one by one, and I got Thiohero by the
+hair, where she lay in shallow water, and dragged her ashore behind me.
+
+Then I saw her brother clear his eyes of water and swing his hatchet
+like swift lightning, and heard the smashing skull stroke.
+
+The other Mohawk dived like an otter between us, and I strove to spear
+him with my knife, but only slashed him and saw the long, thin string of
+blood follow where he swam under water.
+
+My powder-pan was wet and flashed when I tried to shoot him, where I
+stood shoulder deep in the Big Eddy.
+
+Then came a thrashing, splashing roar like a deer herd crossing a marshy
+creek, and, below us, I saw a dozen Mohawks leap into the water and
+thrash their way over. And not a rifle among us that was dry enough to
+take a toll of our enemies crossing the West River plain in sight!
+
+Lord, what a day! And not fought as I had pictured battles. No! For it
+was blind combat, and neither managed as planned nor in any kind of
+order or discipline. Nor did we ever, as I have said, discover how many
+enemies were opposed to us. And I am certain they believed that a full
+regiment had struck their rear; otherwise, I think it had proven a very
+bloody business for me and my people. Because the Mohawks are brave
+warriors, and only the volley at their backs and the stupefying
+down-crash of their tree-scouts demoralized them and left them capable
+only of fighting like cornered wild things in a maddened effort to get
+away.
+
+Lord, Lord! What a battle! For all were filthy with blood, and there
+were brains and hair and guts sticking to knives and hatchets, and
+bodies and limbs all smeared. Good God! Was this war? And the green
+flies already whirling around us in the sunshine, and settling on the
+faces of the dead!--
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The little maid of Askalege, leaning on her brother's shoulder, was
+coughing up water she had swallowed.
+
+Nick, with a bloody sconce, but no worse damage, sat upon a rock and
+washed out his clotted hair.
+
+"Hell!" quoth he, when he beheld me. "Here be I with a broken poll, and
+yonder goes the Indian who gave it me."
+
+"Sit still, idiot!" said I, and set the ranger's whistle to my lips.
+
+White and red, my men came running from their ferocious hunting. Not a
+man was missing, which was another lesson in war to me, for I thought
+always that death dealt hard with both sides, and I could not understand
+how so many guns could be fired with no corpse to mourn among us.
+
+We had taken ten scalps; and, as only Johnny Silver among my white
+people fancied such trophies, my Oneidas skinned the noddles of our
+quarry, and, like all Indians, counted any scalp a glory, no matter
+whose knife or bullet dropped the game.
+
+We all bore scratches, and some among us were stiff, so that the scratch
+might, perhaps, be called a wound. A bullet had barked de Golyer,
+another had burned Tahioni; Silver proudly wore a knife wound; the
+Screech-owl had been beaten and somewhat badly bitten. As for Nick, his
+head was cracked, and the little maid of Askalege still spewed water.
+
+As for me, my throat was so swollen and bruised I could scarce speak or
+swallow.
+
+However, there was work still to be done, so I took Godfrey and Luysnes,
+the Screech-owl, and the Water-snake; motioned Yellow Leaf, the
+Montagnais to follow, and set off across West River, determined to drive
+our enemies so deep into the wilderness that they would never forget the
+Big Eddy as long as they survived on earth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A TROUBLED MIND
+
+
+That was a wild brant chase indeed! And although there were good
+trackers among us, the fleeing Canienga took to the mountain streams and
+travelled so, wading northward mile after mile, which very perfectly
+covered their tracks, and finally left us travelling in circles near
+Silver Lake.
+
+I now think St. Sacrament must have mirrored their canoes--God and they
+alone know the truth!--for I never heard of any other Mohawks, or any
+Englishmen at all, or Frenchmen for that matter, who ever have heard of
+this Mohawk war party coming south to meet and rescue Sir John.[12] Nor
+do our own records, except generally, mention our measures taken to stop
+the Sacandaga trail, or speak of the fight at the Big Eddy as a separate
+and distinct combat.
+
+[Footnote 12: Years later, Thayendanegea made a reference to this
+attempt, but the inference was that he himself led the war party, which
+is not true, because Brant was then in England.]
+
+It may be that this fight at the Big Eddy remained unnoticed because we
+sustained no losses. Also, we were losing our people all along the
+wilderness, from the ashes of Falmouth to the Ohio. I do not know. But
+my chiefest concern, then and later, was that the survivors among these
+Caniengas got clean away, which misfortune troubled my mind, although my
+Oneidas had a Dutch dozen of their scalps, all hooped and curing, when
+we limped into the Drowned Lands from our wild brant chase above.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now, my orders being to stop the Sacandaga Trail, there seemed no better
+way than to cut this same trail with a ditch and plant in it a
+chevaux-de-frise; and then so dispose my men that even a scout might
+remain in touch by signal and be prepared to fall back behind this
+barrier if Sir John crept upon our settlements by stealth.
+
+Fish House could provision us, or the Point, if necessary; and any scout
+of ours in the Drowned Lands ought to see smoke by day or fire by night
+from Maxon's nose to Mayfield.
+
+My scout of four and I passed in wearily between the rough, low redoubts
+at Fish House, after sunset, and gave an account to Peter Wayland, the
+captain commanding the post, that the northward war-trail was now clean
+as far as Silver Lake, and that I proposed to block it and watch it
+above and below.
+
+Twilight was deepening when we came to John Howell's deserted log-house
+on the Vlaie, and heard the owls very mournful in the tamarack forests
+eastward.
+
+A few rods farther on the hard ridge and one of my men challenged
+smartly. In thick darkness he led us over hard ground along the vast
+wastes of bushes and reeds, to where a new ditch had been dug down to
+the Vlaie Water.
+
+Thence he guided us through our chevaux-de-frise; and I saw my own
+people lying in the shadowy gleam of a watch-fire; and an Oneida slowly
+moving around the smouldering coals, chanting the refrain of his first
+scalp-dance:
+
+             SCALP SONG
+
+    "Chiefs in your white plumes!
+    When your Tall Cloud glooms,
+    And we Oneidas wonder
+    To hear your thunder--
+    And the moon pales,
+    And the Seven Dancers wear veils,
+    Is it your rain that wails?
+    Is it the noise of hail?
+    Is it the rush of frightened deer
+    That we Oneidas hear?"
+
+And the others chanted in sombre answer:
+
+    "It is the weeping of the Mohawk Nation,
+    Mourning amid their desolation,
+    For the scalpless head
+    Of each young warrior dead.
+
+    _A Voice from the Dark_
+
+    "It is the cry of their women, who bewail
+    Their warriors dead,
+    Not the east wind we hear!
+    It is the noise of their women, who rail
+    At those who fled,
+    Not whistling hail we hear!
+    It is the rush of feet that are afraid,
+    Not the swift flight of deer!"
+
+    _Another Voice_
+
+    "Let them flee,--the East Gate Keepers--
+    Whose dead lie still as sleepers!
+    Let the Canienga fly before our wrath,
+    Scatter like chaff,
+    When we Oneidas laugh!
+                         Koue!"
+
+
+    _Tahioni_
+
+    "Holder of Heaven,
+    And every Chief named in the Great Rite!
+    Dancers Seven!
+    And the Eight Thunders plumed in white!
+    At dawn I was a young man,
+    Who had seen no enemy die.
+    But my foe was a deer who ran,
+    And I struck; and let him lie."
+
+
+    _The Screech-owl Dances_
+
+    "The Mohawk Nation has fled,
+    But my war-axe sticks in its head!
+                            Koue!"
+
+
+    _The Water-snake Dances_
+
+    "Let the Wild Goose keep to the skies!
+    Where the Brant alights, he dies!
+                              Koue!"
+
+
+    _Thiohero, their Prophetess_
+
+    "The Lodge poles crack in the East!
+    The Long House falls.
+    Who calls the Condolence Feast?
+    Who calls?"
+
+
+    _She Dances Very Slowly_
+
+    "Who calls the Roll of the Dead?
+    Who opens the door?
+    The Fire in the West burns red,
+    But our fire-place burns no more!
+    Thendara--Thendara no more!"
+
+It was plain to me that my Indians meant to make a night of it--even
+those who, dog weary, had but now returned with me from the futile brant
+chase and sat eating their samp.
+
+The French trappers squatted in a row, smoking their pipes and looking
+on with that odd sympathy for any savage rite, which, I think, partly
+explains French success among all Indians.
+
+Firelight glimmered red on their weather-ravaged faces, on their gaudy
+fringes and moccasins.
+
+Near them, lolling in the warm young grass, sprawled Nick and Godfrey. I
+sat down by them, my back against a log. My Saguenay crept to my side. I
+gave him to eat, and, for my own supper, ate slowly a handful of parched
+corn, watching my young Oneidas around the fire, where they moved in
+their slow dance, singing and boasting of their first scalps taken.
+
+The little maid of Askalege came and seated herself close to me on my
+right.
+
+"I am weary," she murmured, letting her head fall back against the log.
+
+"Tell me," said I in English, "is there any reason why this Saguenay,
+who has proved himself a real man and no wolf, should not sing his own
+scalp-song among our Oneidas?"
+
+"None," she repeated. "The Yellow Leaf is a real man."
+
+"Tell him so."
+
+The girl turned her head and spoke to the Saguenay in his own gutturals.
+I also watched to see what effect such praise might have.
+
+For a few minutes he sat motionless and without any expression upon his
+narrow visage, yet I knew he must be bursting with pride.
+
+"Tahioni!" I called out. "Here, also, is a real man who has taken scalps
+in battle. Shall not our _brother_, Yellow Leaf, of the Montagnais, sing
+his first scalp-song at an Oneida fire?"
+
+There was a pause, then every Oneida hatchet flashed high in the
+firelight.
+
+"Koue!" they shouted. "We give fire right to our brother of the
+Montagnais, who is a real man and no wolf!"
+
+At that the Saguenay hunter, who, in a single day, had became a warrior,
+leaped lightly to his feet, and began to trot like a timber wolf around
+the fire, running hither and thither as an eager, wild thing runs when
+searching.
+
+Then he shouted something I did not understand; but Thiohero
+interpreted, watching him: "He looks in vain for the tracks of a poor
+Saguenay hunter, which once he was, but he can find only the footprints
+of a proud Saguenay warrior, which now he has become!"
+
+Now, in dumb show, this fierce and homeless rover enacted all that had
+passed,--how he had encountered the Canienga, how they had mocked and
+stoned him, how we had captured him, proved kind to him, released him;
+how he had returned to warn us of ambuscade.
+
+He drew his war-axe and shouted his snarling battle-cry; and all the
+Oneidas became excited and answered like panthers on a dark mountain.
+
+Then Yellow Leaf began to dance an erratic, weird dance--and, somehow, I
+thought of dead leaves eddying in a raw wind as he whirled around the
+fire, singing his first scalp-song:
+
+    "Who are the Yanyengi,[13] that a
+    Saguenay should fear them?
+    They are but Mowaks,[14] and
+    Real men jeer them!
+    I am a warrior; I wear the lock!
+    I am brother to the People of the Rock![15]
+    Red is my hatchet; my knife is red;
+    Woe to the Mengwe, who wail their dead!
+    I wear the Little Red Foot and the Hawk;
+    Death to the Maquas who stone and mock!
+                        Koue! Hai!"
+
+
+    _An Oneida_
+
+    "Hah!
+    Hawasahsai!
+    Hah!"
+
+
+    _The Saguenay_
+
+    "Who are the Yanyengi, that
+    Real men should obey them?
+    We People of the Dawn were
+    Born to slay them!
+    I eat twigs in winter when there is no game;
+    What does he eat, the Maqua? What means his name?
+    To each of us a Little Red Foot! To each his clan!
+    Let the Mengwe flee when they scent a Man!
+                        Koue! Hai!"
+
+[Footnote 13: The Huron for Canienga.]
+
+[Footnote 14: A Mohican term of insult, but generally used to express
+contempt for the Canienga.]
+
+[Footnote 15: Oneida.]
+
+And
+
+    "Hah! Hawasahsai!"
+
+chanted the Oneidas, trotting to and fro in the uncertain red light,
+while we white men sat, chin on fist, a-watching them; and the little
+sorceress of Askalege beat her palms softly together, timing the rhythm
+for lack of a drum.
+
+An hour passed: my Indians still danced and sang and bragged of deeds
+done and deeds to be accomplished; my young sorceress sat asleep, her
+head fallen back against me, her lips just parted. At her feet a toad,
+attracted by the insects which came into the fire-ring, jumped heavily
+from time to time and snapped them up.
+
+An intense silence brooded over that vast wilderness called the Drowned
+Lands; not a bittern croaked, not a wild duck stirred among the reeds.
+
+Very far away in the mist of the tamaracks I heard owls faintly
+halooing, and it is a melancholy sound which ever renders me uneasy.
+
+I was weary to the bones, yet did not desire sleep. A vague
+presentiment, like a mist on some young peak, seemed to possess my
+senses, making me feel as lonely as a mountain after the sun has set.
+
+I had never before suffered from solitude, unless missing the beloved
+dead means that.
+
+I missed them now,--parents who seemed ages long absent,--or was it I,
+their only son, who tarried here below too long, and beyond a reasonable
+time?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I was lonely. I looked at the scalps, all curing on their hoops, hanging
+in a row near the fire. I glanced at Nick. He lay on his blanket,
+sleeping.... The head of the little Athabasca Sorceress lay heavy on my
+shoulder; she made no sound of breathing in her quiet sleep. Both her
+hands were doubled into childish fists, thumbs inside.
+
+Johnny Silver smoked and smoked, his keen, tireless eyes on the Scalp
+Dancers; Luysnes, also, blinked at them in the ruddy glare, his powerful
+hands clasping his knees; de Golyer was on guard.
+
+I caught Godfrey's eye, motioned him to relieve Joe, then dropped my
+head once more in sombre meditation, lonely, restless, weary, and
+unsatisfied....
+
+And now, again,--as it had been for perhaps a longer period of time than
+I entirely comprehended,--I seemed to see darkly, and mirrored against
+darkness, the face of the Scottish girl.... And her yellow hair and dark
+eyes; ... and that little warning glimmer from which dawned that faint
+smile of hers....
+
+That I was lonely for lack of her I never dreamed then. I was content to
+see her face grow vaguely; sweetly take shape from the darkness under my
+absent gaze;--content to evoke the silent phantom out of the stuff that
+ghosts are made of--those frail phantoms which haunt the secret recesses
+of men's minds.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I was asleep when Nick touched me. Thiohero still slept against my
+shoulder; the Yellow Leaf and the Oneidas still danced and vaunted their
+prowess, and they had set a post in the soft earth near the shore, and
+had painted it red; and now all their hatchets were sticking in it,
+while they trotted tirelessly in their scalping dance, and carved the
+flame-shot darkness with naked knives.
+
+Wearily I rose, took my rifle, re-primed it, and stumbled away to take
+my turn on guard, relieving Nick, who, in turn, had replaced Godfrey,
+whom I had sent after Joe de Golyer.
+
+They had dug our ditch so well that the Vlaie water filled it, making,
+with the pointed staves, an excellent abattis against any who came by
+stealth along the Sacandaga trail.
+
+Behind this I walked my post, watching the eastern stars, which seemed
+paler, yet still remained clearly twinkling. And no birds had yet
+awakened, though the owls had become quiet in the tamaracks, and neither
+insect nor frog now chanted their endless runes of night.
+
+Shouldering my rifle, I walked to and fro, listening, scanning the
+darkness ahead.... And, presently, not lonely; for a slim phantom kept
+silent pace with me as I walked my post--so near, at times, that my
+nostrils seemed sweet with the scent of apple bloom.... And I felt her
+breath against my cheek and heard her low whisper.
+
+Which presently became louder among the reeds--a little breeze which
+stirs before dawn and makes a thin ripple around each slender stem.
+
+Tahioni came to relieve me, grave, not seeming fatigued, and, in his
+eyes, the shining fire of triumph still unquenched.
+
+I went back to the fire and lay down on my blanket, where now all were
+asleep save my Saguenay.
+
+When he saw me he came and squatted at my feet.
+
+"Sleep you, also, brother," said I. "Day dawns and the sunset is far
+away."
+
+But the last time I looked before I slept I saw him still squatting at
+my feet like a fierce, lean dog, and staring straight before him.
+
+And I remember that the fresh, joyous chorus of waking birds was like
+the loud singing of spirit-children. And to the sweet sound of that
+blessed choir I surrendered mind and body, and so was borne on wings of
+song into the halls of slumber-land.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The sun was high when our sentinel hailed a detail from Fish House,
+bringing us a sheep, three sacks of corn, and a keg of fresh milk.
+
+I had bathed me in the Vlaie Water, had eaten soupaan, turned over my
+command to Nick, and now was ready to report in person to the Commandant
+at Summer House Point.
+
+My Saguenay had slain a gorgeous wood-duck with his arrows; and now,
+brave in fresh paint and brilliant plumage, he sat awaiting me in the
+patched canoe which had belonged, no doubt, to John Howell.
+
+I went down among the pinxter bushes and tall reeds to the shore; and so
+we paddled away on the calm, deep current which makes a hundred
+snake-like curls and bends to every mile, so that the mile itself
+becomes doubled,--nay, tripled!--ere one attains his destination.
+
+It was strange how I was not yet rid of that vague sense of impending
+trouble, nor could account for the foreboding in any manner, being full
+of health and now rested.
+
+My mind, occupied by my report, which I was now reading where I had
+written it in my _carnet_, nevertheless seemed crowded with other
+thoughts,--how we would seem each to the other when we met
+again,--Penelope Grant and I. And if she would seem to take a pleasure
+in my return ... perhaps say as much ... smile, perhaps.... And we might
+walk a little on the new grass under the apple bloom....
+
+A troubled mind! And knew not the why and wherefore of its own
+restlessness and apprehension. For the sky was softly blue, and the
+water, too; and a gentle wind aided our paddles, which pierced the
+stream so silently that scarce a diamond-drop fell from the sunlit
+blades.
+
+I could see the Summer House, and a striped jack flying in the sun. The
+green and white lodge seemed very near across the marshes, yet it was
+some little time before I first smelled the smoke of camp fires, and
+then saw it rising above the bushes.
+
+Presently a Continental on guard hailed our canoe. We landed. A corporal
+came, then a sergeant,--one Caspar Quant, whom I knew,--and so we were
+passed on, my Indian and I, until the gate-guard at the Point halted us
+and an officer came from the roadside,--one Captain Van Pelt, whom I
+knew in Albany.
+
+Saluted, and the officer's salute rendered, he became curious to see the
+fresh scalps flapping at my Saguenay's girdle, and the new war-paint and
+the oil smelling rank in the sweet air.
+
+But I told him nothing, asking only for the Commandant, who, he gave
+account, was a certain Major Westfall, lodging at the Summer House, and
+lately transferred from the Massachusetts Line, along with other Yankee
+officers--why?--God and Massachusetts knew, perhaps.
+
+So I passed the gate and walked toward the lodge. Sir John's blooded
+cattle were grazing ahead, and I saw Flora at the well, and Colas busy
+among beds of garden flowers, spading and weeding under the south porch.
+
+And I saw something else that halted me. For, seated upon a low limb of
+an apple tree, her two little feet hanging down, and garbed in
+pink-flowered chintz and snowy fichu, I beheld Penelope Grant,
+a-knitting.
+
+And by all the pagan gods!--there in a ring around her strolled and
+lolled a dozen Continental officers in buff and blue and gold!
+
+There was no reason why, but the scene chilled me.
+
+One o' these dandies had her ball of wool, and was a-winding of it as he
+sat cross-legged on the turf, a silly, happy look on his beardless face.
+
+Another was busy writing on a large sheet of paper,--verses, no
+doubt!--for he seemed vastly pleased with his progress, and I saw her
+look at him shyly under her dark lashes, and could have slain him for
+the smirk he rendered. Also, it did not please me that her petticoat was
+short and revealed her ankles and slim feet in silver-buckled shoon.
+
+I was near; I could hear their voices, their light laughter; and,
+rarely, her voice in reply to some pointed gallantry or jest.
+
+None had perceived me advancing among the trees, nor now noticed me
+where I was halted there in the checkered sunshine.
+
+But, as I stirred and moved forward, the girl turned her head, caught a
+glimpse of me and my painted Indian, stared in silence, then slid from
+her perch and stood up on the grass, her needles motionless.
+
+All the young popinjays got to their feet, and all stared as I offered
+them the salute of rank; but all rendered it politely.
+
+"Lieutenant of Rangers Drogue to report to Major Westfall," said I
+bluntly, in reply to a Continental Captain's inquiry.
+
+"Yonder, sir, on the porch with Lady Johnson," said he.
+
+I bared my head, then, and walked to Penelope. She curtsied: I bent to
+her hand.
+
+"Are you well, my lord?" she asked in a colourless voice, which chilled
+me again for its seeming lack of warmth.
+
+"And you, Penelope?"
+
+"I am well, I thank you."
+
+"I am happy to learn so."
+
+That was all. I bowed again. She curtsied. I replaced my mole-skin cap,
+saluted the popinjays, and marched forward. My Indian stalked at my
+heels.
+
+God knew why, but mine had become a troubled mind that sunny morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+DEEPER TROUBLE
+
+
+I had been welcomed like a brother by Polly Johnson. Claudia, too, made
+a little fete of my return, unscathed from my first war-trail. And after
+I had completed my report to the Continental Major, who proved
+complacent to the verge of flattery, I was free to spend the day at the
+Summer House--or, rather, I was at liberty to remain as long a time as
+it took a well-mounted express to ride to Johnstown with my report and
+return with further orders from Colonel Dayton for me and my small
+command.
+
+A Continental battalion still garrisoned the Point; their officers as I
+had been forced to notice in the orchard, were received decently by Lady
+Johnson.
+
+And, at that crisis in her career, I think I admired Polly Johnson as
+entirely as I ever had admired any woman I ever knew.
+
+For she was still only a child, and had been petted and spoiled always
+by flattery and attentions: and she was not very well--her delicate
+condition having now become touchingly apparent. She was all
+alone,--save for Claudia,--among the soldiery of a new and hostile
+nation; she was a fugitive from her own manor; and she must have been
+constantly a prey to the most poignant anxieties concerning her husband,
+whom she loved,--whatever were his fishy sentiments regarding her!--and
+who, she knew, was now somewhere in the Northern and trackless
+wilderness and fighting nature herself for his very life.
+
+Her handsome and beloved brother, also, was roaming the woods,
+somewhere, with Walter Butler and McDonald and a bloody horde of
+Iroquois in their paint,--and, worse still, a horde of painted white
+men, brutes in man's guise and Mohawk war-paint and feathers, who
+already were known by the terrifying name of Blue-eyed Indians.
+
+Yet this young girl, having resolved to face conditions with courage and
+composure, after her first bitter and natural outburst, never whimpered,
+never faltered.
+
+Enemy officers, if gentlemen, she received with quiet, dignified
+civility, and no mention of politics or war was suffered to embarrass
+anybody at her table.
+
+All, I noticed, paid her a deference both protective and tender, which,
+in gentlemen, is instinctive when a woman is in so delicate a condition
+and in straits so melancholy.
+
+Claudia, however, I soon perceived, had been nothing tamed, and even
+less daunted by the errant arrows of adversity; for her bright eyes were
+ever on duty, and had plainly made a havoc of the Continental Major's
+heart, to judge by his sheep's eyes and clumsy assiduities.
+
+For when he left the veranda and went away noisily in his big spurs, she
+whispered me that he had already offered himself thrice, and that she
+meant to make it a round half-dozen ere he received his final quietus.
+
+"A widower," quoth she, "and bald; and with seven hungry children in
+Boston! Oh, Lord. Am I come to that? Only that it passes time to play
+with men, I'd not trouble to glance askance at your Yankee gentlemen,
+Jack Drogue."
+
+"Some among them have not yet glanced askance at you," remarked Lady
+Johnson, placid above her sewing.
+
+"Do you mean those suckling babes in the orchard yonder? Oh, la! When
+the Major leaves, I shall choose the likeliest among 'em to amuse me.
+Not that I would cross Penelope," she added gaily, "or flout her. No.
+But these boys perplex her. They are too ardent, and she too kind."
+
+"What!" I exclaimed, feeling my face turn hot.
+
+"Why, it is true enough," remarked Lady Johnson. "Yonder child has no
+experience, and is too tender at heart to resent a gallantry over-bold.
+Which is why I keep my eye upon these youngsters that they make not a
+fool of a girl who is easily confused by flattery, and who remains
+silent when dusk and the fleeting moment offer opportunities to impudent
+young men, which they seldom fail to embrace."
+
+"And seldom fail to embrace the lady, also," added Claudia, laughing.
+"_You_ were different, Jack."
+
+"I saw that ensign, Dudley, kiss her behind the lilacs," added Lady
+Johnson, "and the girl seemed dumb, and never even upbraided the little
+beast. Had she complained to me I should have made him certain
+observations, but could not while she herself remained mute. Because I
+do not choose to have anybody think I go about eavesdropping."
+
+"Penelope Grant appears to find their company agreeable," said I, in a
+voice not like my own, but a dry and sullen voice such as I never before
+heard issue out o' my own mouth.
+
+"Penelope likes men," observed Lady Johnson, sewing steadily upon her
+baby's garments of fine linen.
+
+"Penelope is not too averse to a stolen kiss, I fear," said Claudia,
+smiling. "Lord! Nor is any pretty woman, if only she admit the truth!
+No! However, there is a certain shock in a kiss which silences maiden
+inexperience and sadly confuses the unaccustomed. Wait till the girl
+gains confidence to box some impertinent's ear!"
+
+I knew not why, yet never, I think, had any news sounded in my ears so
+distastefully as the news I now had of this girl, I remembered Nick's
+comment,--"Like flies around a sap-pan." And it added nothing to my
+pleasure or content of mind to turn and gaze upon that disquieting scene
+in the orchard yonder.
+
+For here, it seemed, was another Claudia in the making,--still unlearned
+in woman's wiles; not yet equipped for those subtle coquetries and
+polished cruelties which destroy, yet naturally and innocently an
+enchantress of men. And some day to be conscious of her power, and
+certain to employ it!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Flora came, wearing a blue and orange bandanna, and the great gold hoops
+in her ears glittering in the sun.
+
+Each day, now, it appeared, Lady Johnson retired for an hour's repose
+whilst Claudia read to her; and that hour had arrived.
+
+"You dine with us, of course," said Lady Johnson, going, and looking at
+me earnestly. Then there was a sudden flash of tears; but none fell.
+
+"My dear, dear Jack," she murmured, as I laid my lips against both her
+hands.... And so she went into the house, Claudia lingering, having
+shamelessly pressed my hand, and a devil laughing at me out of her two
+eyes.
+
+"Is there news of Sir John to comfort us?" she whispered, making a
+caress of her voice as she knew so well how to do.
+
+"And if I have any, I may not tell you, Claudia," said I.
+
+"Oh, la! Aid and comfort to the enemy? Is it that, Jack? And if you but
+wink me news that Sir John is safe?"
+
+"I may not even wink," said I, smiling forlornly.
+
+"Aye? So! That's it, is it! A wink from you at me, and pouf!--a
+courtmartial! Bang! A squad of execution! Is that it, Jack?"
+
+"I should deserve it."
+
+"Lord! If men really got their deserts, procreation would cease, and the
+world, depopulated, revert to the forest beasts. Well, then--so Sir John
+is got away?"
+
+"I did not say so."
+
+"You wear upon your honest countenance all the news you contain, dear
+Jack," said she gaily. "It was always so; any woman may read you like a
+printed page--if she trouble to do it.... And so! Sir John is safe at
+last! Well, thank God for that.... You may kiss my cheek if you ask me."
+
+She drew too near me, but I had no mind for more trouble than now
+possessed me, so let her pretty hand lie lightly on my arm, and endured
+the melting danger of her gaze.
+
+She said, while the smile died on her lips, "I jest with you, Jack. But
+you _are_ dear to me."
+
+"Dear as any trophy," said I. "No woman ever willingly lets any victim
+entirely escape."
+
+"You do not guess what you could do with me--if you would," she said.
+
+"No. But I guess what you could do to me, again, if you had an
+opportunity."
+
+"Jack!" she sighed, looking up at me.
+
+But the gentle protest alarmed me. And she was too near me; and the
+fresh scent of her hair and skin were troubling me.
+
+And, more than that, there persisted a dull soreness in my
+breast,--something that had hurt me unperceived--an unease which was not
+pain, yet, at times, seemed to start a faint, sick throbbing like a
+wound.
+
+Perhaps I assumed that it came from some old memory of her unkindness; I
+do not remember now, only that I seemed to have no mind to stir up dying
+embers. And so, looked at her without any belief in my gaze.
+
+There was a silence, then a bright flush stained her face, and she
+laughed, but as though unnerved, and drew her hand from my arm.
+
+"If you think all the peril between us twain is yours alone, Jack
+Drogue," she said, "you are a very dolt. And I think you _are_ one!"
+
+And turned her back and walked swiftly into the house.
+
+I took my rifle from where it stood against a veranda post, settled my
+war-belt, with its sheathed knife and hatchet, readjusted powder-horn
+and bullet pouch, and, picking up my cap of silver mole-skin, went out
+into the orchard.
+
+Behind me padded my Saguenay in his new paint, his hooped scalps
+swinging from his cincture, and the old trade-rifle covered carefully by
+his blanket, except the battered muzzle which stuck out.
+
+I walked leisurely; my heart was unsteady, my mind confused, my
+features, unless perhaps expressionless, were very likely grim.
+
+I went straight to the group around the twisted apple-tree, where
+Penelope sat knitting, and politely made myself a part of that same
+group, giving courteous notice by my attitude and presence, that I,
+also, had a right to be there as well as they.
+
+All were monstrous civil; some offered snuff; some a pipe and pouch; and
+a friendly captain man engaged me in conversation--gossip of Johnstown
+and the Valley--so that, without any awkwardness, the gay and general
+chatter around the girl suffered but a moment's pause.
+
+The young officer who had writ verses, now read them aloud amid lively
+approbation and some sly jesting:
+
+
+        IN PRAISE
+
+    "Flavilla's hair,
+    Beyond compare,
+    Like sunshine brightens all the earth!
+    Old Sol, beware!
+    She cheats you, there,
+    And robs your rays of all their worth!
+
+    "Impotent blaze!
+    I shall not praise
+    Your brazen ways,
+    Nor dare compare
+    Your flaming gaze
+    To those sweet rays
+    Which play around Flavilla's hair.
+
+    "For lo, behold!
+    No sunshine bold
+    Can hope to gild or make more fair
+    The living gold,
+    Where, fold on fold,
+    In glory shines Flavilla's hair!"
+
+
+There was a merry tumult of praise for the poet, and some rallied him,
+but he seemed complacent enough, and Penelope looked shyly at him over
+lagging needles,--a smile her acknowledgment and thanks.
+
+"Sir," says a cornet of horse, in helmet and jack-boots--though I
+perceived none of his company about, and wondered where he came
+from,--"will you consent to entertain our merry Council with some
+account of the scout which, from your appearance, sir, I guess you have
+but recently accomplished."
+
+To this stilted and somewhat pompous speech I inclined my head with
+civility, but replied that I did not yet feel at liberty to discuss any
+journey I may have accomplished until my commanding officer gave me
+permission. Which mild rebuke turned young Jack-boots red, and raised a
+titter.
+
+An officer said: "The dry blood on your hunting shirt, sir, and the
+somewhat amazing appearance of your tame Indian, who squats yonder,
+devouring the back of your head with his eyes, must plead excuse for our
+natural curiosity. Also, we have not yet smelled powder, and it is plain
+that you have had your nostrils full."
+
+I laughed, feeling no mirth, however, but sensible of my dull pain and
+my restlessness.
+
+"Sir," said I, "if I have smelled gun-powder, I shall know that same
+perfume again; and if I have not yet sniffed it, nevertheless I shall
+know it when I come to scent it. So, gentlemen, I can not see that you
+are any worse off in experience than I."
+
+A subaltern, smiling, ventured to ask me what kind of Indian was that
+who enquired me.
+
+"Of Algonquin stock," said I, "but speaks an odd lingo, partly
+Huron-Iroquois, partly the Loup tongue, I think. He is a Saguenay."
+
+"One of those fierce wanderers of the mountains," nodded an older
+officer. "I thought they were not to be tamed."
+
+"I owned a tame tree-cat once," remarked another officer.
+
+My friend, Jack-boots, now pulls out a bull's-eye watch with two fobs,
+and tells the time with a sort of sulky satisfaction. For many of the
+company arose, and made their several and gallant adieus to Penelope,
+who suffered their salute on one little hand, while she held yarn and
+needles in t'other.
+
+But when half the plague of suitors and gallants had taken themselves
+off to their several duties, there remained still too many to suit young
+Jack-boots. Too many to suit me, either; and scarce knowing what I did
+or why, I moved forward to the tree where she was seated on a low
+swinging limb.
+
+"Penelope," said I, "it is long since I have seen you. And if these
+gentlemen will understand and pardon the desire of an old friend to
+speak privately with you, and if you, also, are so inclined, give me a
+little time with you alone before I leave."
+
+"Yes," she said, "I am so inclined--if it seem agreeable to all."
+
+I am sure it was not, but they conducted civilly enough, save young
+Jack-boots, who got redder than ever and spoke not a word with his bow,
+but clanked away pouting.
+
+And there were also two militia officers, wrapped in great watch cloaks
+over their Canajoharie regimentals, and who took their leave in silence.
+One wore boots, the other black spatter-dashes that came above the knee
+in French fashion, and were fastened under it, too, with leather straps.
+
+Their faces were averted when they passed me, yet something about them
+both seemed vaguely familiar to me. No wonder, either, for I should
+know, by sight at least, many officers in our Tryon militia.
+
+Whether they were careless, or unmannerly by reason of taking offense at
+what I had done, I could not guess.
+
+I looked after them, puzzled, almost sure I had seen them both before;
+but where I could not recollect, nor what their names might be.
+
+"Shall we stroll, Penelope?" I said.
+
+"If it please you, sir."
+
+Sir William had cut the alders all around the point, and a pretty lawn
+of English grass spread down to the water north and west, and pleasant
+shade trees grew there.
+
+While she rolled her knitting and placed it in her silken reticule, I,
+glancing around, noticed that all the apple bloom had fallen, and the
+tiny green fruit-buds dotted every twig.
+
+Then, as she was ready, and stood prettily awaiting me in her pink
+chintz gown, and her kerchief and buckled shoon, I gave her my hand and
+we walked slowly across the grass and down to the water.
+
+Here was a great silvery iron-wood tree a-growing and spreading pleasant
+shade; and here we sat us down.
+
+But now that I had got this maid Penelope away from the pest of suitors,
+it came suddenly to me that my pretenses were false, and I really had
+nothing to say to her which might not be discussed in company with
+others.
+
+This knowledge presently embarrassed me to the point of feeling my face
+grow hot. But when I ventured to glance at her she smiled.
+
+"Have you been in battle?" she asked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+After a silence: "I am most happy that you returned in safety."
+
+"Did you ever--ever think of me?" I asked.
+
+"Why, yes," she replied in surprise.
+
+"I thought," said I, "that being occupied--and so greatly sought after
+by so many gallants--that you might easily have forgotten me."
+
+She laughed and plucked a grass-blade.
+
+"I did not forget you," she said.
+
+"That is amazing," said I, "--a maid so run after and so courted."
+
+She plucked another blade of grass, and so sat, pulling at the tender
+verdure, her head bent so that I could not see what her eyes were
+thinking, but her lips seemed graver.
+
+"Well," said I, "is there news of Mr. Fonda?"
+
+"None, sir."
+
+"Tell me," said I, smiling, "why, when I speak, do you answer ever with
+a 'sir'?"
+
+At that she looked up: "Are you not Lord Stormont, Mr. Drogue?" she
+asked innocently.
+
+"Why, no! That is, nobody believes it any more than did the Lords in
+their House so many years ago. Is that why you sometimes say 'my lord,'
+and sometimes call me 'sir'?"
+
+"But you still are the Laird of Northesk."
+
+"Lord!" said I, laughing. "Is it that Scottish title bothers you? Pay it
+no attention and call me John Drogue--or John.... Or Jack, if you
+will.... Will you do so?"
+
+"If it--pleases you."
+
+She was still busy with the grass, and I watched her, waiting to see her
+dark eyes lift again--and see that little tremor of her lips which
+presaged the dawning smile.
+
+It dawned, presently; and all the unrest left my breast--all that heavy
+dullness which seemed like the flitting shadow of a pain.
+
+"Tell me," said I, "are you happy?"
+
+"I am contented. I love my Mistress Swift. I love and pity Lady
+Johnson.... Yes, I am happy."
+
+"I know they both love you," said I. "So you should be happy here....
+And admired as you are by all men...."
+
+Again she laughed in her enchanting little way, and bent her bright
+head. And, presently:
+
+"John Drogue?"
+
+"I hear you, Penelope."
+
+"Do you wish warm woolen stockings for your men?"
+
+"Why--yes."
+
+"I sent to Caydutta Lodge for the garments. They are in the house. You
+shall choose for yourself and your men before the Continentals take
+their share."
+
+I was touched, and thanked her. And now, it being near the noon hour, we
+walked together to the house.
+
+The partition which Sir John had made for a gun-room, and which now
+served to enclose Penelope's chamber, was all hung with stout woolen
+stockings of her own knitting; and others lay on her trundle-bed. So I
+admired and handled and praised these sober fruits of her diligence and
+foresight, and we corded up some dozen pair for my white people; and I
+stuffed them into my soldier's leather sack.
+
+Then I took her hands and said my thanks; and she looked at me and
+answered, "You are welcome, John Drogue."
+
+I do not know what possessed me to put my arm around her. She flushed
+deeply. I kissed her; and it went to my head.
+
+The girl was dumb and scarlet, not resisting, nor defending her lips;
+but there came a clatter of china dishes, and I released her as Flora
+and Colas appeared from below, with dinner smoking, and clattering
+platters.
+
+And presently Lady Johnson's door opened, and she stepped out in her
+silk levete, followed by Claudia.
+
+"I invited no one else," said Lady Johnson, "--if that suits you, Jack."
+
+I protested that it suited me, and that I desired to spend my few hours
+from duty with them alone.
+
+As we were seated, I ventured a side glance at Penelope and perceived
+that she seemed nothing ruffled, though her colour was still high. For
+she gave me that faint, enchanting smile that now began to send a thrill
+through me, and she answered without confusion any remarks addressed to
+her.
+
+Remembering my Indian outside, I told Flora, and Colas took food to him
+on the veranda.
+
+And so we spent a very happy hour there--three old friends together once
+more, and a young girl stranger whom we loved already. And I did not
+know in what degree I loved her, but that I did love her now seemed
+somewhat clear to my confused senses and excited mind,--though to love,
+I knew, was one thing, and to be _in_ love was still another. Or so it
+seemed to me.
+
+My animation was presently noticed by Claudia; and she rested her eyes
+on me. For I talked much and laughed more, and challenged her gay
+conceits with a wit which seemed to me not wholly contemptible.
+
+"One might think you had been drinking of good news," quoth she; "so
+pray you share the draught, Jack, for we have none of our own to quench
+our thirst."
+
+"Unless none be good news, as they say," said Lady Johnson, wistfully.
+
+"News!" said I. "Nenni! But the sun shines, Claudia, and life is young,
+and 'tis a pretty world we live in after all."
+
+"If you admire a marsh," says she, "there's a world o' mud and rushes to
+admire out yonder."
+
+"Or if you admire a cabinful o' lonely ladies," added Lady Johnson, "you
+may gaze your fill upon us."
+
+"I should never be done or have my fill of beauty if I sat here a
+thousand years, Polly," said I.
+
+"A thousand years and a dead fish outshines our beauty," smiled Lady
+Johnson. "If you truly admire our beauty, Jack, best prove it now."
+
+"To which of us the Golden Apple?" inquired Claudia, offering one of the
+winter russets which had been picked at the Point.
+
+"Ho!" said I, "you think to perplex and frighten me? _Non, pas!_ Polly
+Johnson shall not have it, because, if she ever makes me wise, wisdom is
+its own reward and needs no other. And you shall not have it, Claudia!"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Mere beauty cannot claim it."
+
+"Why not? Venus received the apple cast by Eris."
+
+"But only because Venus promised Love! Do you promise me the reward of
+the shepherd?"
+
+"Myself?" she asked impudently.
+
+"Venus," said Lady Johnson, "made that personal exception, and so must
+you, Claudia. The goddess promised beauty; but not herself."
+
+"Then," said I, "Claudia has nothing to offer me. And so I give the
+apple to Penelope!"
+
+She refused it, shyly.
+
+"Industry is the winner," said I. "Thrift triumphs. I already have her
+gift. I have a dozen pair of woolen stockings for my men, knitted by
+this fair Penelope of today. And, as she awaits no wandering lord,
+though many suitors press her, then she should have at least this golden
+apple of Eris to reward her. And so she shall."
+
+And I offered it again.
+
+"Take it, my dear," said Claudia, laughing, "for this young man has
+given you a reason. Pallas offered military glory; you offer military
+stockings! What chance have Hera and poor Aphrodite in such a contest?"
+
+We all were laughing while the cloth was cleared, and Flora brought us a
+great dish of wild strawberries.
+
+These we sopped in our wine and tasted at our ease, there by the open
+windows, where a soft wind blew the curtains and the far-spreading azure
+waters sparkled in the sun.
+
+How far away seemed death!
+
+I looked out upon the mountains, now a pale cobalt tint, and their peaks
+all denting the sky like blue waves on Lake Erie against the horizon.
+
+Low over the Vlaie Water flapped a giant heron, which alighted not far
+away and stood like a sentry, motionless at his post.
+
+A fresh, wild breath of blossoms grew upon the breeze--the enchanting
+scent of pinxters. From the mainland, high on a sugar-maple's spire,
+came the sweet calling of a meadow-lark.
+
+Truly, war seemed far away; and death farther still in this dear
+Northland of ours. And I fell a-thinking there that if kings could only
+see this land on such a day, and smell the pinxters, and hear the
+sweetened whistle of our lark, there would be no war here, no slavery,
+no strife where liberty and freedom were the very essence of the land
+and sky.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+My Lady Johnson wished to rest; and there was a romance out of France
+awaiting her in gilt binding in her chamber.
+
+She went, when the board was cleared, linking her arm in Claudia's.
+
+Penelope took up her knitting with a faint smile at me.
+
+"Will you tell me a story to amuse me, sir?" she said in her shy way.
+
+"You shall tell me one," said I.
+
+"I? What story?"
+
+"Some story you have lived."
+
+"I told you all."
+
+"No," said I, "not any story concerning this very pest of suitors which
+plague you--or, if not you, then me!--as the suitors of the first
+Penelope plagued Telemachus."
+
+Now she was laughing, and, at one moment, hid her face in her yarn,
+still laughing.
+
+"Does this plague you, John Drogue?" she asked, still all rosy in her
+mirth.
+
+"Well," said I, "they all seem popinjays to me in their blue and gold
+and buff. But it was once red-coats, too, at Caughnawaga, or so I hear."
+
+"Oh. Did you hear that?"
+
+"I did. They sat like flies around a sap-pan."
+
+"Deary me!" she exclaimed, all dimples, "who hath gossiped of me at
+Cayadutta Lodge?"
+
+"Penelope?"
+
+"I am attentive, sir."
+
+"I suppose all maids enjoy admiration."
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"Hum! And do you?"
+
+"La, sir! I am a maid, also."
+
+"And enjoy it?"
+
+"Yes, sir.... Do not you?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Do not you enjoy admiration? Is admiration displeasing to young men?"
+
+"Well--no," I admitted. "Only it is well to be armed with
+experience--hum-hum!--and discretion when one encounters the flattery of
+admiration."
+
+"Yes, sir.... Are you so armed, Mr. Drogue?"
+
+At a loss to answer, her question being unexpected--as were many of her
+questions--and answers also--I finally admitted that flattery was a
+subtle foe and that perhaps experience had not wholly armed me against
+that persuasive enemy.
+
+"Nor me," said she, with serene candour. "And I fear that I lack as much
+in knowledge and experience as I do in years, Mr. Drogue. For I think no
+evil, nor perhaps even recognize it when I meet it, deeming the world
+kind, and all folk unwilling to do me a wrong."
+
+"I--kissed you."
+
+"Was that a wrong you did me?"
+
+"Have not others kissed you?" said I, turning red and feeling mean.
+
+But she laughed outright, telling me that it concerned herself and not
+me what she chose to let her lips endure. And I saw she was a very
+child, all unaccustomed, yet shyly charmed by flatteries, and already
+vaguely aware that men found her attractive, and that she also was not
+disinclined toward men, nor averse to their admiration.
+
+"How many write you verses?" I asked uneasily.
+
+"Gentlemen are prone to verses. Is it unbecoming of me to encourage them
+to verse?"
+
+"Why, no...."
+
+"Did you think the verses fine you heard in the orchard?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said I, carelessly, "but smacking strong of Major Andre's
+verses to his several Sacharissas."
+
+"Oh. I thought them fine."
+
+"And all men think you fine, I fear--from that soldier who pricked your
+name on his powder-horn at Mayfield fort to Bully Jock Gallopaway of the
+Border Horse at Caughnawaga, and our own little Jack-boots in the
+orchard yonder."
+
+"Only Jack Drogue dissents," she murmured, bending over her knitting.
+
+At that I caught her white hand and kissed it; and she blushed and sat
+smiling in absent fashion at the water, while I retained it.
+
+"You use me sans facon," she murmured at last. "Do you use other women
+so?"
+
+Now, I had used some few maids as wilfully, but none worse, yet had no
+mind to admit it, nor yet to lie.
+
+"You ask me questions," said I, "but answer none o' mine."
+
+At that her gay smile broke again. "What a very boy," quoth she, "to be
+Laird o' Northesk! For it is cat's-cradle talk between us two, and give
+and take to no advancement. Will you tell me, my lord, if it gives you
+pleasure to touch my lips?"
+
+"Yes," said I. "Does it please you, too?"
+
+"I wonder," says she, and was laughing again out of half-shy eyes at me.
+
+But, ere I could speak again, comes an express a-galloping; and we saw
+him dismount at the mainland gate and come swiftly across the orchard.
+
+"My orders," said I, and went to the edge of the veranda.
+
+The letter he handed me was from Colonel Dayton. It commended me,
+enjoined secrecy, approved my Oneidas and my Saguenay, but warned me to
+remain discreetly silent concerning these red auxiliaries, because
+General Schuyler did not approve our employing savages.
+
+Further, he explained, several full companies of Rangers had now been
+raised and were properly officered and distributed for employment.
+Therefore, though I was to retain my commission, he preferred that I
+command my present force as a scout, and not attempt to recruit a Ranger
+company.
+
+"For," said he, "we have great need of such a scout under an officer
+who, like yourself, has been Brent-Meester in these forests."
+
+However, the letter went on to say, I was ordered to remain on the
+Sacandaga trail with my scout of ten until relieved, and in the
+meanwhile a waggon with pay, provisions, and suitable clothing for my
+men, and additional presents for my Indians, was already on its way.
+
+I read the letter very carefully, then took my tinder-box and struck
+fire with flint and steel, blowing the moss to a glow. To this I touched
+the edge of my letter, and breathed on the coal till the paper flamed,
+crinkled, fell in black flakes, and was destroyed.
+
+For a few moments I stood there, considering, then dismissed the
+express; but still stood a-thinking.
+
+And it seemed to me that there was indecision in my commander's letter,
+where positive and virile authority should have breathed action from
+every line.
+
+I know, now, that Colonel Dayton proved to be a most excellent officer
+of Engineers, later in our great war for liberty. But I think now, and
+thought then, that he lacked that energy and genius which meets with
+vigour such a situation as was ours in Tryon County.... God knows to
+what sublime heights Willett soared in the instant agony of black days
+to come!... And comparisons are odious, they say.... So Colonel Dayton
+occupied Johnstown, garrisoned Summer House Point and Fish House, and
+was greatly embarrassed what to do with his prisoner, Lady Johnson.... A
+fine, brave, loyal officer--who made us very good forts.
+
+But, oh, for the dead of Tryon!--and the Valley in ashes from end to
+end; and the whole sky afire!--Lord! Lord!--what sights I have lived to
+see, and seeing, lived to tell!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+My memories outstrip my quill.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So, when I came out of my revery, I turned and walked back slowly to
+Penelope, who lifted her eyes in silence, clasping her fair hands over
+idle needles.
+
+"I go back tonight," said I.
+
+"To the forest?"
+
+"To the trail by the Drowned Lands."
+
+"Will you come soon again?"
+
+"Do you wish it?"
+
+"Why, yes, John Drogue," she said; and I saw the smile glimmer ere it
+dawned.
+
+And now comes my Lady Johnson and her Abagail for a dish of tea on the
+veranda, where a rustic table was soon spread by Colas, very fine in his
+scarlet waistcoat and a new scratch-wig.
+
+Now, to tea, comes sauntering our precious plague of suitors, one by
+one, and two by two, from the camp on the mainland. And all around they
+sit them down--with ceremony, it's true, but their manners found no
+favour with me either. And I thought of Ulysses, and of the bow that
+none save he could bend.
+
+Well, there was ceremony, as I say, and some subdued gaiety, not too
+marked, in deference to Lady Johnson's political condition.
+
+There was tea, which our officers and I forbore to taste, making a civil
+jest of refusal. But there was an eggnog for us, and a cooled punch, and
+a syllabub and cakes.
+
+Toward sundown a young officer brought his fiddle from camp and played
+prettily enough.
+
+Others sang in acceptable harmony a catch or two, and a romantic piece
+for concerted voices, which I secretly thought silly, yet it pleased
+Lady Johnson.
+
+Then, at Claudia's request, Penelope sang a French song made in olden
+days. And I thought it a little sad, but very sweet to hear there in the
+gathering dusk.
+
+Other officers came up in the growing darkness, paid their respects,
+tasted the punch. Candles glimmered in the Summer House. Shadowy forms
+arrived and departed or wandered over the grassy slope along the water.
+
+I missed Claudia. Later, I saw Penelope rise and give her hand to a man
+who came stalking up in a watch cloak; and presently they strolled away
+over the lawn, with her arm resting on his.
+
+Major Westfall and Lady Johnson were conversing gravely on the north
+porch. Others, dimly visible, chatted around me or moved with sudden
+clank of scabbard and spur.
+
+Penelope did not come back. At first I waited calmly enough, then with
+increasing impatience.
+
+Where the devil had she gone with her Captain Spatter-dash? Claudia I
+presently discovered with men a-plenty around her; but Penelope was not
+visible. This troubled me.
+
+So I went down to the orchard, carelessly sauntering, and not as though
+in search of anybody. And so encountered Penelope.
+
+She and her young man in the watch-cloak passed me, moving slowly under
+the trees. He wore black spatter-dashes. And, as we saluted, it came to
+me that this was one of the officers from the Canajoharie Regiment; but
+in the starlight I knew him no better than I had by day.
+
+"Strange," thought I, "that young Spatter-dashes seems so familiar to my
+eyes, yet I can not think who he may be."
+
+Then, looking after him, I saw his comrade walking toward me from the
+well, and with him was Colas, with a lantern, which shined dimly on both
+their faces.
+
+And, suddenly: "Why, sir!" I blurted out in astonishment, "are you not
+Captain Hare?"
+
+"No, sir," said he, "my name is Sims, and I am captain in the
+Canajoharie militia." And he bowed civilly and walked on, Colas
+following with the lantern, leaving me there perplexed and still
+standing with lifted cap in hand.
+
+I put it on, pondered for a space, striving to rack my memory, for that
+man's features monstrously resembled Lieutenant Hare's, as I saw him at
+supper that last night at Johnson Hall, when he came there with Hiokatoo
+and Stevie Watts, and that Captain Moucher, whom I knew a little and
+trusted less, for all his mealy flatteries.
+
+Well, then, I had been mistaken. It was merely a slight resemblance, if
+it were even that. I had not thought of Hare since that evening, and
+when I saw this man by lantern light, as I had seen him by candles, why,
+I thought he seemed like Hare.... That was all.... That certainly was
+all there could be to it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Near to the lilacs, where candle light fell from the south window of the
+little lodge, I stumbled once again upon Penelope. And she was in
+Spatter-dash's arms!
+
+For a moment I stood frozen. Then a cold rage possessed me, and God
+knows what a fool I had played, but suddenly a far whistle sounded from
+the orchard; and young Spatter-dash kisses her and starts a-running
+through the trees.
+
+He had not noticed me, nor discovered my presence at all; but Penelope,
+in his arms, had espied me over his shoulder; and I thought she seemed
+not only flushed but frightened, whether by the fellow's rough ardour or
+my sudden apparition I could not guess.
+
+Still cold with a rage for which there was no sensible warrant, I walked
+slowly to where she was standing and fumbling with her lace apron, which
+the callow fool had torn.
+
+"I came to say good-bye," said I in even tones.
+
+She extended her hand; I laid grim and icy lips to it; released it.
+
+There was a silence. Then: "I did not wish him to kiss me," said she in
+an odd voice, yet steady enough.
+
+"Your lips are your own."
+
+"Yes.... They were yours, too, for an instant, Mr. Drogue."
+
+"And they were Spatter-dash's, too," said I, almost stifled by my
+jealous rage. "Whose else they may have been I know not, and do not ask
+you. Good night."
+
+She said nothing, and presently picked at her torn apron.
+
+"Good night," I repeated.
+
+"Good night, sir."
+
+And so I left her, choked by I knew not what new and fierce
+emotions--for I desired to seek out Spatter-dash, Jack-boots, and the
+whole cursed crew of suitors, and presently break their assorted necks.
+For now I was aware that I hated these popinjays who came philandering
+here, as deeply as I hated to hear of the red-coat gallants at
+Caughnawaga.
+
+Still a-quiver with passion, I managed, nevertheless, to make my
+compliments and adieux to Lady Johnson and to Claudia--felt their warm
+and generous clasp, answered gaily I know not what, saluted all, took a
+lantern that Flora fetched, and went away across the grass.
+
+A shadow detached itself from darkness, and now my Saguenay was padding
+at my heels once more.
+
+As we two came to the mainland, young Spatter-dash suddenly crossed the
+road in front of my lantern. Good God! Was I in my right mind! Was it
+Stephen Watts on whose white, boyish face my lantern glimmered for an
+instant? How could it be, when it meant death to catch him here?...
+Besides, he was in Canada with Walter Butler. What possessed me, that in
+young Spatter-dash I saw resemblance to Stevie Watts, and in another
+respectable militia officer a countenance resembling Lieutenant Hare's?
+
+Sure my mind was obsessed tonight by faces seen that last unhappy
+evening at the Hall; and so I seemed to see a likeness to those men in
+every face I met.... Something had sure upset me.... Something, too, had
+suddenly awakened in me new and deep emotions, unsuspected, unfamiliar,
+and unwelcome.
+
+And for the first time in my life I knew that I hated men because a
+woman favoured them.
+
+We had passed through the Continental camp, my Indian and I, and were
+now going down among the bushes to the Vlaie Water, where lay our canoe,
+when, of a sudden, a man leaped from the reeds and started to run.
+
+Instantly my Indian was on his shoulders like a tree-cat, and down went
+both on the soft mud, my Saguenay atop.
+
+I cocked my rifle and poked the muzzle into the prostrate stranger's
+ribs, resting it so with one hand while I shined my lantern on his
+upturned face.
+
+He wore a captain's uniform in the Canajoharie Regiment; and, as he
+stared up at me, his throat still clutched by the Saguenay, I found I
+was gazing upon the blotched features of Captain Moucher!
+
+"Take your hands from his neck-cloth, cut your thrums, and make a cord
+to tie him," said I, in the Oneida dialect. "He will not move," I added.
+
+It took the Indian a little while to accomplish this. I held my rifle
+muzzle to Moucher's ribs. Until his arms were tied fast behind him, he
+had not spoken to me nor I to him; but now, as he rose to his knees from
+the mud and then staggered upright, I said to him:
+
+"This is like to be a tragic business for you, Captain Moucher."
+
+He winced but made no reply.
+
+"I am sorry to see you here," I added.
+
+"Do you mean to murder me?" he asked hoarsely.
+
+"I mean to question you," said I. "Be good enough to step into that
+canoe."
+
+The Indian and I held the frail craft. Moucher stepped into it,
+stumbling in the darkness and trembling all over.
+
+"Sit down on the bottom, midway between bow and stern!"
+
+He took the place as I directed.
+
+"Take the bow paddle," said I to Yellow Leaf. "Also loosen your knife."
+
+And when he was ready, I shoved off, straddled the stern, and, kneeling,
+took the broad paddle.
+
+"Captain Moucher," said I, "if you think to overturn the canoe, in hope
+of escape, my Indian will kill you in the water."
+
+The canoe slid out into darkness under the high stars.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+FIRELIGHT
+
+
+Now, no sooner did I reach my camp with my prisoner than my people came
+crowding around us from their watch-fire, which burned dull because they
+had made a smudge of it, black flies being lively after dark.
+
+I drew Nick aside and told him all.
+
+"You shall take Johnny Silver," said I, "and set off instantly for
+Summer House and the Continental camp. You shall deliver a letter to
+Major Westfall, and then you shall search with your lanterns every face
+you encounter; for I am beginning to believe that I truly saw Stephen
+Watts and Lieutenant Hare in the orchard at Summer House Point this
+night. And if I did, then they are a pair o' damned spies, and should be
+taken; and suffer as such!"
+
+"My God," says he, "Lady Johnson's brother!"
+
+"And my one-time friend. Is it not horrible, Nick? But any hesitation
+makes me a traitor to my own people."
+
+I sat down in the dull firelight, a block of wood for a seat, fished out
+my carnet, wrote a line to Major Westfall, and handed it to Nick.
+
+Silver came with a lantern and both rifles.
+
+"Use the canoe," said I, "and have a care that you reply clearly and
+promptly when challenged, for yonder Continentals are prone to shoot."
+
+They went off with their rifles and the lantern, and I waited until I
+heard the dip of paddles in the dark.
+
+"Throw a dry log on the fire, Godfrey," said I. And to Joe de Golyer:
+"Bring that prisoner here."
+
+Joe fetched him, and he stood before me, arms trussed up and head
+hanging. Tahioni approached.
+
+"Untie him," said I.
+
+Whilst they were fumbling with the knotted rope of thrums, I said to
+Tahioni:
+
+"Luysnes is on guard, I take it?"
+
+"My French brother watches."
+
+"That is well. Now, tell my Oneida brothers that here we have taken a
+very dangerous man; and that if he makes any move to escape from where
+he stands beside that fire, they shall not attempt to take him _alive_!"
+
+The young warrior turned calmly and translated. I saw my Oneidas loosen
+their knives and hatchets. The Saguenay quietly strung his short, heavy
+bow, and, laying an arrow across the string, notched it.
+
+"Thiohero!" I called.
+
+"I listen, my elder brother," said the little maid of Askalege.
+
+"You shall take a trade-rifle, move out one hundred paces to the west,
+and halt all who come. And fire on any who refuse to halt."
+
+"I listen," she said coolly.
+
+"You shall call to us if you need us."
+
+"I continue to listen."
+
+"And if there comes a wagon, then you shall take the horses by the head
+and lead them this way until the fire shines on their heads. Go, little
+sister."
+
+She took a trade-rifle from the stack, primed it freshly, and crossed
+the circle on light, swift feet.
+
+When she had gone into the darkness, I bade de Golyer kick the fire. He
+did so and it blazed ruddy, painting in sanguine colour the sombre,
+unhealthy visage of my prisoner.
+
+"Search him," said I briefly.
+
+Joe and my Oneida rummaged him to the buff. It was in his boots they
+discovered, at last, a sheaf of papers.
+
+I could not read what was writ, for the writing was in strange signs and
+figures; so presently I gave over trying and looked up at my prisoner,
+who now had dressed again.
+
+"You are Captain Moucher?"
+
+He denied it hoarsely; but I, having now no vestige of doubt concerning
+this miserable man's identity, ignored his answer.
+
+"What is this paper which was taken from your boot?"
+
+He seemed to find no word of explanation, but breathed harder and
+watched my eyes.
+
+"Is it writ in a military cipher?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"How came these papers in your boot?"
+
+He stammered out that somebody who had cleansed his boots must have
+dropped them in, and that, in pulling on his boots that morning, he had
+neither seen nor felt the papers.
+
+"Where did you dress this morning?"
+
+"At the Johnson Arms in Johnstown."
+
+"You wear the uniform of an officer in the Canajoharie Regiment. Are you
+attached to that regiment?"
+
+He said he was; then contradicted himself, saying he had been obliged to
+borrow the clothing from an officer because, while bathing in the Mohawk
+at Caughnawaga, his own clothing had been swept into the water and
+engulfed.
+
+Over this lie he was slow in speech, and stammered much, licking his dry
+lips, and his reddish, furtive eyes travelling about him as though his
+stealthy mind were elsewhere.
+
+"Do you recollect that we supped in company at Johnson Hall--you and
+I--and not so long ago?" I demanded.
+
+He had no remembrance.
+
+"And Lieutenant Hare and Captain Watts were of the company?"
+
+He denied acquaintance with these gentlemen.
+
+"Or Hiakatoo?"
+
+Had never heard of him.
+
+I bade Joe lay more dry wood on the fire and kick it well, for the
+sphagnum moss still dulled it. And, when it flared redly, I rose and
+walked close to the prisoner.
+
+"What are you doing here?"
+
+He had merely come out of curiosity to see the camp at Summer House.
+
+"In disguise?"
+
+He had no other clothing, and meant no harm. If we would let him go he
+would engage to return to Albany and never again to wear any clothing to
+which he was not entitled.
+
+"Oh. Who was your mate there in the orchard, who also wore the
+Canajoharie regimentals?" I demanded.
+
+An acquaintance made en passant, nothing more. He did not even know his
+name.
+
+"I'll tell you his name," said I. "That man was Lieutenant Hare. And you
+are Captain Moucher. You are spies in our camp. We've taken you; we
+ought to take him before midnight.
+
+"The paper I have of you is writ in British military cipher.
+
+"Now, before I send you to Colonel Dayton, with my report of this
+examination, what have you to confess that I might add to my report, in
+extenuation?"
+
+He made no answer. Presently a fit of ague seized him, so that he could
+scarce stand. Then he reeled sideways and, by accident, set foot in the
+live coals. And instantly went clean crazed with fright.
+
+As the Oneida caught him by the shoulder, to steady him, he shrieked and
+cowered, grasping Joe's arm in his terror.
+
+"They mean to murder me!" he yelled. "Keep your savages away, I tell
+you!"--struggling between Tahioni and Joe--"I'll say what you wish, if
+they won't burn me!----"
+
+"Be silent," I said. "We mean no bodily harm to you. Compose yourself,
+Captain Moucher. Do you take me for a monster to threaten you with
+torture?"
+
+But the awful fear of fire was in this whimpering wretch, and I was
+ashamed to have my Oneidas see a white man so stricken with cowardly
+terrors.
+
+His honour--what there was of it--he sold in stammering phrases to buy
+mercy of us; and I listened in disgust and astonishment to his
+confession, which came in a pell-mell of tumbling words, so that I was
+put to it to write down what he babbled.
+
+He had gone on his knees, held back from my feet by the Oneida; and his
+poltroonery so sickened me that I could scarce see what I wrote down in
+my _carnet_.
+
+Every word was a betrayal of comrades; every whine a plea for his own
+blotched skin.
+
+To save his neck--if treachery might save it--he sold his King, his
+cause, his comrades, and his own manhood.
+
+And so I learned of him that Stevie Watts, disguised, had been that
+night at Summer House with Lieutenant Hare; that they had brought news
+to Lady Johnson of Sir John's safe arrival in Canada; that they had met
+and talked to Claudia Swift; had counted our men and made a very
+accurate report, which was writ in the military cipher which we
+discovered, and a copy of which Captain Watts also carried upon his
+proper person.
+
+I learned that Walter Butler, now a captain of Royalist Rangers, also
+had come into the Valley in disguise, for the purpose of spying and of
+raising the Tory settlers against us.
+
+I learned that Brant and Guy Johnson had been in England, but were on
+their way hither.
+
+I learned that our army in Canada, decimated by battle, by smallpox, by
+fever, was giving ground and slowly retreating on Crown Point; and that
+Arnold now commanded them.
+
+I learned that we were to be invaded from the west, the north, and the
+south by three armies, and thousands of savages; that Albany must burn,
+and Tryon flame from Schenectady to Saint Sacrement.... And I wrote all
+down.
+
+"Is there more?" I asked, looking at him with utter loathing.
+
+"Howell's house," he muttered, "the log house of John
+Howell--tonight----"
+
+"The cabin on the hard ridge yonder?"
+
+"Yes.... A plot to massacre this post.... They meet there."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"King's people.... John Howell, Dries Bowman, the Cadys, the Helmers,
+Girty, Dawling, Gene Grinnis, Balty Weed----"
+
+"_Tonight!_"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Where are they now?"
+
+"Hid in the tamaracks--in the bush--God knows where!----"
+
+"When do they rendezvous?"
+
+"Toward midnight."
+
+"At John Howell's cabin?"
+
+He nodded, muttering.
+
+I got up, took him by the arm and jerked him to his feet.
+
+"Read this!" I said, and thrust the paper of cipher writing under his
+nose.
+
+But he could not, saying that Steve Watts had writ it, and that he was
+to carry it express to Oswego.
+
+Now, whilst I stood there, striving to think out what was best to do and
+how most prudently to conduct in the instant necessity confronting me,
+there came Thiohero's sweet, clear whistle of a Canada sparrow, warning
+us to look sharp.
+
+Then I heard the snort of a horse and the rattle and bump of a wagon.
+
+"Tie the prisoner," said I to Godfrey; and turned to see the little maid
+of Askalege, her rifle shouldered, leading in two horses, behind which
+rumbled the wagon carrying our pay, food, arms, and clothing sent from
+Johnstown.
+
+Two armed Continental soldiers sat atop; one, a corporal, driving,
+t'other on guard.
+
+I spoke to them; called my Indians to unload the wagon, and bade
+Thiohero sling our kettle and make soupaan for us all.
+
+The Continentals were nothing loth to eat with us. Tahioni had killed
+some wood-duck and three partridges; and these, with some dozen wild
+pigeons from the Stacking Ridge, furnished our meat.
+
+I heaped a wooden platter and Godfrey squatted by Captain Moucher to
+feed him; but the prisoner refused food and sat with head hanging and
+the shivers shaking him with coward's ague.
+
+When the meal was ended, I took the Continentals aside, gave the
+Corporal my report to Colonel Dayton, and charged them to deliver my
+prisoner at Johnstown jail. This they promised to do; and, as all was
+ready, horses fed, and a long, slow jog to Johnstown, the Corporal
+climbed to his seat and took the reins, and the other soldier aided my
+prisoner to mount.
+
+"Will you speak for me at the court martial?" pleaded Moucher, in hoarse
+and dreadful tones. "Remember, sir, as God sees me, my confession was
+voluntary, and I swear by my mother's memory that I now see the error
+and the wickedness of my ways! Say that I said this--in Christ's
+name----"
+
+The Corporal touched his cocked hat, swung his powerful horses. I am
+sure they were of Sir William's stock and came from the Hall.
+
+"Mr. Drogue!" wailed the doomed wretch, "let God curse me if I meant any
+harm----"
+
+I think the soldier beside him must have placed his hand over the poor
+wretch's mouth, for I heard nothing more except the rattle of wheels and
+the corporal-driver a-whistling "The Little Red Foot."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In my absence that day my men had erected an open-face hut for our
+stores.
+
+Here we set lanterns, and here divided the clothing, including the
+stockings given me by Penelope--which I distributed with a heavy heart.
+
+There was laid aside new buckskin clothing and fresh underwear for
+Luysnes, for Nick, and for Johnny Silver.
+
+Then I paid the men, and gave a cash bonus to every Indian, and also a
+new rifle each,--not the trade-gun, but good weapons carrying an ounce
+ball.
+
+To each, also, a new hatchet, new knife, blanket, leggins, tobacco,
+paints, razor, mirror, ammunition, and a flask of sweet-smelling oil.
+
+I think I never have seen any Iroquois so overjoyed as were mine. And as
+for my Saguenay, he instantly squatted by the fire, fixed his mirror on
+a crotched stick, and fell to adorning himself by the red glow of the
+coals.
+
+But I had scant leisure for watching them, where they moved about
+laughing and gossiping excitedly, comparing rifles, trying locks and
+pans, sorting out finery, or smearing themselves with gaudy symbols.
+
+For, not a hundred rods east of us, across the ridge, stood that log hut
+of Howell's; and the owl-haunted tamaracks stretched away behind it in
+a misty wilderness. And in that swampy forest, at this very moment, were
+hidden desperate men who designed our deaths--men I knew--neighbors at
+Fonda's Bush, like the Cadys, Helmers, and Dries Bowman!--men who lately
+served in my militia company, like Balty Weed and Gene Grinnis.
+
+Now, as I paced the fire circle, listening and waiting for Nick and
+Johnny Silver, I could scarce credit what the wretch, Moucher, had told
+me, so horrid bloody did their enterprise appear to me.
+
+That they should strive to kill us when facing us in proper battle, that
+I could comprehend. But to plan in the darkness!--to come by stealth in
+their farmer's clothes to surprise us in our sleep!--faugh!
+
+"My God," says I to Godfrey, who paced beside me, "why have they not at
+least embodied to do us such a filthy business? And if they were only a
+company with some officer to make them respectable--militia, minute men,
+rangers, anything!"
+
+"They be bloody-minded folk," said he grimly. "No coureur-du-bois is
+harder, craftier, or more heartless than John Howell; no forest runner
+more merciless than Charlie Cady. These be rough and bloody men, John.
+And I think we are like to have a rude fight of it before sun-up."
+
+I thought so too, but did not admit as much. I had ten men. They
+mustered ten--if Moucher's accounts were true. And I did not doubt it,
+under the circumstances of his pusillanimous confession.
+
+The River Reed came to me to show me her necklace of coloured glass. And
+I drew her aside, told her as much as I cared to, and bade her prepare
+her Oneidas for a midnight battle.
+
+At that moment I heard the Canada sparrow. Thiohero answered, sweet and
+clear. A few seconds later Nick and Silver came in, carrying the canoe
+paddles.
+
+"They've gone," said Nick, with an oath. "Two mounted men and a led
+horse rode toward Johnstown two hours since. They wore Canajoharie
+regimentals. Major Westfall sent a dozen riders after 'em; but men who
+came so boldly to spy us out are like to get away as boldly, too."
+
+He plucked my arm and I stepped apart with him.
+
+"Westfall's in his dotage; Dayton is too slow. Why don't they send up
+Willett or Herkimer?"
+
+"I don't know," said I, troubled.
+
+"Well," says Nick, "it's clear that Stevie Watts was there and has
+spoken with Lady Johnson. But what more is to be done? She's our
+prisoner. I wish to God they'd sent her to Albany or New York, where she
+could contrive no mischief. And that other lady, too. Lord! but Major
+Westfall is in a pother! And I wager Colonel Dayton will be in another,
+and at his wit's ends."
+
+The business distressed me beyond measure, and I remained silent.
+
+"By the way," he added, "your yellow-haired inamorata sends you a
+billet-doux. Here it is."
+
+I took the bit of folded paper, stepped aside and read it by the
+firelight:
+
+     "Sir:
+
+     "I venture to entertain a hope that some day it may please you to
+     converse again with one whose offense--if any--remains a mystery to
+     her still.
+
+     "P. G."
+
+I read it again, then crumpled it and dropped it on the coals. I had
+seen Steve Watts kiss her. That was enough.
+
+"There's a devil's nest of Tories gathering in Howell's house tonight to
+cut our throats," said I coldly. "Should we take them with ten men, or
+call in the Continentals?"
+
+"Who be they?" asked Nick, astounded.
+
+"The old pack--Cadys, Helmers, Bowman, Weed, Grinnis. They are ten
+rifles."
+
+He got very red.
+
+"This is a domestic business," said I. "Shall we wash our bloody linen
+for the world to see what filth chokes Fonda's Bush?"
+
+"No," said he, slowly, with that faint flare in his eyes I had seen at
+times, "let us clean our own house o' vermin, and make no brag of what
+is only our proper shame."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+OUT OF THE NORTH
+
+
+It lacked still an hour to midnight, which time I had set for our
+advance upon John Howell's house, and my Oneidas had not yet done
+painting, when Johnny Silver, who was on guard, whistled from his post,
+and I ran thither with Nick.
+
+A man in leather was coming in through the _chevaux-de-frise_, and
+Johnny dropped a tamarack log across the ditch for him, over which he
+ran like a tree-martin, and so climbed up into the flare of Nick's
+lantern.
+
+The man in forest runner's dress was Dave Ellerson, known to us all as a
+good neighbor and a staunch Whig; but we scarce recognized him in his
+stringy buckskins and coon-skin cap, with the ringed tail a-bobbing.
+
+On his hunting shirt there was a singular device of letters sewed there
+in white cloth, which composed the stirring phrase, "Liberty or Death."
+And we knew immediately that he had become a soldier in the 11th
+Virginia Regiment, which is called Morgan's Rifles.
+
+He seemed to have travelled far, though light, for he carried only rifle
+and knife, ammunition, and a small sack which flapped flat and empty;
+but his manner was lively and his merry gaze clear and untroubled as we
+grasped his powerful hands.
+
+"Why, Dave!" said I, "how come you here, out o' the North?"
+
+"I travel express from Arnold to Schuyler," said he. "Have you a gill of
+rum, John?"
+
+Johnny Silver had not drunk his gill, and poured it into Dave's
+pannikin.
+
+Down it went, and he smacked his lips. Then we took him back to the
+fire, where the Oneidas were still a-painting, and made him eat and
+drink and dry him by the flames.
+
+"Is there a horse to be had at Summer House?" he demanded, his mouth
+full of parched corn.
+
+"Surely," said I. And asked him news of the North, if he were at liberty
+to give us any account.
+
+"The news I can not give you is what I shall not," said he, laughing.
+"But there's plenty besides, and damned bad."
+
+"Bad?"
+
+"Monstrous bad, John. For on my forest-running south from Chambly, I saw
+Sir John and his crew as they gained the Canadas! They seemed near dead,
+too, but they were full three hundred, and I but one, so I did not tarry
+to mark 'em with a stealthy bullet, but pulled foot for Saint
+Sacrement."
+
+He grinned, bit a morsel from a cold pigeon, and sat chewing it
+reflectively and watching the Indians at their painting.
+
+"You know what is passing in Canada?" he demanded abruptly.
+
+"Nothing definite," said I.
+
+"Listen, then. We had taken Chambly, Montreal, and St. John's. Arnold
+lay before Quebec. Sullivan commanded us. Six weeks ago he sent Hazen's
+regiment to Arnold. Then the Canadians and Indians struck us at the
+Cedars, and we lost five hundred men before we were out of it."
+
+"What was the reason for such disaster?" I demanded, turning hot with
+wrath.
+
+"Cowardice and smallpox," said he carelessly. "They were new troops sent
+up to reinforce us, and their general, Thomas, died o' the pox.
+
+"And atop of that comes news of British transports in the St. Lawrence,
+and of British regulars and Hessians.
+
+"So Sullivan sends the Pennsylvania Line to strike 'em. St. Clair
+marches, Wayne marches, Irving follows with his regiment. Lord, how they
+were peppered, the Pennsylvania Line! And Thompson was taken, and
+Colonel Irving, and they wounded Anthony Wayne; and the Line ran!"
+
+"Ran!"
+
+"By God, yes. And our poor little Northern Army is on the run today,
+with thirteen thousand British on their heels.
+
+"They drove us out o' Chambly. They took the Cedars. Montreal fell. St.
+John's followed. Quebec is freed. We're clean kicked out o' Canada, and
+marching up Lake Champlain, our rear in touch with the red-coats.
+
+"If we stand and face about at Crown Point, we shall do more than I hope
+for.
+
+"Thomas is dead, Thompson and Irving taken, Arnold and Wayne wounded,
+the army a skeleton, what with losses by death, wounds, disease, and in
+prisoners.
+
+"Had not Arnold broke into the Montreal shops and taken food and woolen
+clothing, I think we had been naked now."
+
+"Good heavens!" said I, burning with mortification, "I had not heard of
+such a rout!"
+
+"Oh, it was no rout, John," said he carelessly. "Sullivan marched us out
+of that hell-hole in good order--whatever John Adams chooses to say
+about our army."
+
+"What does John Adams say?"
+
+"Why, he says we are disgraced, defeated, dispirited, discontented,
+undisciplined, diseased, eaten up with vermin."
+
+"My God!" exclaimed Nick.
+
+"It's true enough," said Dave, coolly. "And when John Adams also adds
+that we have no clothing, no beds, no blankets, no medicines, and only
+salt pork and flour to eat and little o' these, why, he's right, too.
+Why not admit truth? Does it help to conceal it? Nenni, lads! It is best
+always to face it and endeavour to turn into a falsehood tomorrow what
+is disgracefully true today.
+
+"So when I tell you that in three months our Northern Army has lost five
+thousand men by smallpox, camp fever, bullets, and privation--that out
+of five thousand who remain, two thousand are sick, why, it's the plain
+and damnable truth.
+
+"But any soldier who loses sleep or appetite over such cursed news
+should be run through with a bayonet, for he's a rabbit and no man!"
+
+After a silence: "Who commands them now?" I asked.
+
+"Gates is to take them over at Crown Point, I hear."
+
+This news chilled me, for Schuyler should have commanded. But the damned
+Yankees, plotting their petty New England plots to discredit our dear
+General, had plainly hoodwinked Congress; and now our generous and noble
+Schuyler had again fallen a victim to nutmeg jealousy and cunning.
+
+"Well," said I, "God help us all in Tryon, now; for a vain ass is in the
+saddle, and the counsel of the brave and wise remains unheeded. Will Guy
+Carleton drive us south of Crown Point?"
+
+"I think so," said Ellerson, carelessly.
+
+"Then the war will come among us here in Tryon!"
+
+"Straight as a storm from the North, John."
+
+"When?"
+
+"Oh, that? God knows. We shall hold the lakes as long as we can. But
+unless we are reinforced by Continentals--unless every Colony sends us a
+regiment of their Lines--we can not hope to hold Crown Point, and that's
+sure as shooting and plain as preaching."
+
+"Very well," said I between clenched teeth, "then we here in Tryon had
+best go about the purging of that same county, and physic this district
+against a dose o' red-coats."
+
+Ellerson laughed and rose with the lithe ease of a panther.
+
+"I should be on my way to Albany," says he. "You tell me there are
+horses at the Summer House, John?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+We shook hands.
+
+"You find Morgan's agreeable?" inquired Nick.
+
+"A grand corps, lad! Tim Murphy is my mate. And I think there's not a
+rifleman among us who can not shoot the whiskers off a porcupine at a
+hundred yards." And to me, with a nod toward my Oneidas: "They are
+painting. Do you march tonight, John?"
+
+"A matter of cleaning out a Tory nest yonder," said I.
+
+"A filthy business and not war," quoth he. "Well, God be with all
+friends to liberty, for all hell is rising up against us. A thousand
+Indians are stripped for battle on this frontier--and the tall ships
+never cease arriving crammed with red-coats and Germans.
+
+"So we should all do our duty now, whether that same duty lie in
+emptying barrack slops, or in cleaning out a Tory nest, or in marching
+to drum and fife, or guarding the still places of the wilderness--it's
+all one business, John."
+
+Again we shook hands all around, then, waving aside Joe de Golyer and
+his proffered lantern, the celebrated rifleman passed lightly into the
+shadows.
+
+"Yonder goes the best shot in the North," said Nick.
+
+"Saving only yourself and Jack Mount and Tim Murphy," remarked Godfrey
+Shew.
+
+"As for the whiskers of a porcupine," quoth Nick, with the wild flare
+a-glimmering in his eyes, "why, I have never tried such a target. But I
+should pick any button on a red coat at a hundred yards--that is, if I
+cast and pare my own bullet, and load in my own fashion."
+
+Silver swore that any rifle among us white men should shave an otter of
+his whiskers, as a barber trims a Hessian.
+
+"Sacre garce!" cried he, "why should we miss--we coureurs-du-bois, who
+have learn to shoot by ze hardes' of all drill-masters--a empty belly!"
+
+"We must not miss at Howell's house," said I, counting my people at a
+glance.
+
+The Saguenay, ghastly in scarlet and white, came and placed himself
+behind me.
+
+All the Oneidas were naked, painted from lock to ankle in terrific
+symbols.
+
+Thiohero was still oiling her supple, boyish body when I started a brief
+description of the part each one of us was to act, speaking in the
+Oneida dialect and in English.
+
+"Take these bloody men alive," I added, "if it can be done. But if it
+can not, then slay them. For every one of these that escapes tonight
+shall return one day with a swarm of hornets to sting us all to death in
+County Tryon!... Are you ready for the command?"
+
+"Ready, John," says Nick.
+
+"March!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At midnight we had surrounded Howell's house, save only the east
+approach, which we still left open for tardy skulkers.
+
+A shadowy form or two slinking out from the tamaracks, their guns
+trailing, passed along the hard ridge, bent nearly double to avoid
+observation.
+
+We could not recognize them, for they were very shadows, vague as
+frost-driven woodcock speeding at dusk to a sheltered swamp.
+
+But, as they arrived, singly and in little groups, such a silent rage
+possessed me that I could scarce control my rifle, which quivered to
+take toll of these old neighbors who were returning by stealth at night
+to murder us in our beds.
+
+The Saguenay lay in the wild grasses on my left; the little maid of
+Askalege, in her naked paint, lay on my right hand. Her forefinger
+caressed the trigger of her new rifle; the stock lay close to her cheek.
+And I could hear her singing her _Karenna_ in a mouse's whisper to
+herself:
+
+    "Listen, John Drogue,[16]
+    Though we all die,
+    You shall survive!
+    Listen, John Drogue,
+    This will happen,
+    And it is well,
+    Because I love you.
+
+    "Why do I love you?
+    Because you are a boy-chief,
+    And we are both young,
+    Thou and I.
+    Why do I love you?
+    Because you are my elder brother,
+    And you speak to the Oneidas
+    Very gently.
+
+    "I am a prophetess;
+    I see events beforehand;
+    This is my Karenna:
+    Though we all die tonight,
+    You shall survive in Scarlet:
+    And this is well,
+    Because I love you."
+
+[Footnote 16:
+
+_The Karenna of Thiohero_
+
+Yi-ya-thon-dek, _John Drogue_,
+Da-ed-e-wenh-he-i,
+Engh-si-tsko-dak-i!
+Yi-ya-thon-dek, _John Drogue_,
+Nenne-a-wenni
+Yo-ya-neri
+Kenonwes!]
+
+So, crooning her prophecy, she lay flat in the wild grasses, cuddling
+the rifle-stock close to her shoulder; and her song's low cadence was
+like the burden of some cricket amid the herbage.
+
+"Tharon alone knows all," I breathed in her ear.
+
+"Neah!" she murmured; and touched her cheek against mine.
+
+"Only God knows who shall survive tonight," I insisted.
+
+"Onhteh. Ra-ko-wan-enh,"[17] she murmured. "But I have seen you,
+_niare_,[18] through a mist, coming from this place,
+O-ne-kwen-da-ri-en.[19] And dead bodies lay about. Do you believe me?"
+
+[Footnote 17: Perhaps! He is Chief.]
+
+[Footnote 18: Beforehand.]
+
+[Footnote 19: Literally, in scarlet blood.]
+
+I made no reply but lay motionless, watching the tamaracks, ghostly in
+their cerements of silver fog. And I heard, through the low rhythm of
+her song, owls howling far away amid those spectral wastes, and saw the
+Oneida Dancers,[20] very small and pale above the void.
+
+[Footnote 20: The Pleiades.]
+
+I stared with fierce satisfaction at Howell's house. There was no gleam
+of light visible behind the closed shutters; but I already had counted
+nine men who came creeping to that silent rendezvous. And now there
+arrived the tenth man, running and stooping low; and went in by the east
+side of the house.
+
+I waited a full minute longer, then whistled the whitethroat's call.
+
+"Now!" said I to Thiohero; and we rose and walked forward through the
+light mist which lay knee-deep over the ground.
+
+We had not advanced ten paces when three men, whom I had not perceived,
+rose up on the ridge to our right.
+
+One of these shouted and fired a gun, and all three dropped flat again
+before we could realize what they had been about.
+
+But already, out of that shadowy house, armed men swarmed like black
+hornets from their nest, and we ran to cut them from the tamaracks, but
+could not mark their flight in the so great darkness.
+
+Then Nick Stoner struck flint, and dropped his tinder upon the remnants
+of a hay-stack, where wisps of last year's marsh grass still littered
+the rick.
+
+In the smoky glow which grew I saw that great villain, Simon Girty, fire
+his gun at us, then turn and run toward the water; and Dries Bowman took
+after him, shouting in his fear.
+
+Very carefully I fired at Girty, but he was not scotched, and was lost
+in the dark with Dries.
+
+Then, in the increasing glow of the marsh-hay afire, I saw and
+recognized Elias Cady, and his venomous son, Charlie; and called loudly
+upon them to halt.
+
+But they plunged into the shore reeds; and John and Phil Helmer at their
+heels; and we fired our guns into the dark, but could not stop them or
+again even hope to glimpse them in their flight.
+
+But the Oneidas had now arrived between the tamaracks and the log house,
+and my Rangers were swiftly closing in on the west and south, when
+suddenly a couple of loud musket shots came from the crescents in the
+bolted shutters, hiding the west window in a double cloud of smoke.
+
+I called out, "Halt!" to my people, for it was death to cross that
+circle of light ahead while the marsh-hay burned.
+
+There were at least five men now barricaded in Howell's house. I called
+to Tahioni, the Wolf, and he came crouching and all trembling with
+excitement and impatience, like a fierce hound restrained.
+
+"Take your people," said I, "and follow those dirty cowards who are
+fleeing toward the tamaracks."
+
+Instantly his terrific panther-cry shattered the silence, and the
+Oneidas' wild answer to his slogan hung quavering over the Drowned Lands
+like the melancholy pulsations of a bell.
+
+The hay-rick burned less brightly now. I crept out to the dark edge of
+the wavering glare and called across to those in the log-house:
+
+"If you will surrender I promise to send you to Johnstown and let a
+court judge you! If you refuse, we shall take you by storm, try you on
+the spot, and execute sentence upon you in that house! I allow you five
+minutes!"
+
+At that, two of them fired in the direction from whence came my voice;
+and I heard their bullets passing, aimed too high.
+
+Then John Howell's voice bawls out, "I know you, Drogue; and so help me
+God, I shall cut your throat before this business ends!--you dirty
+renegade and traitor to your King!"
+
+Such a rage possessed me that I scarce knew what I was about, and I ran
+across the grass to the bolted door of the house, and fell to slashing
+at it with my hatchet like a madman.
+
+They were firing now so rapidly that the smoke of their guns made a
+choking fog about the house; but the log cabin had no overhang, not
+being built for defense, and so they over-shot me whilst my hatchet
+battered splinters from the door and shook it almost from its hinges.
+
+Some one was coughing in the thick, rifle-fog near me, and presently I
+heard Nick swearing and hammering at the door with his gun butt.
+
+The French trappers, not so rash as we, lay close in the darkness,
+shooting steadily into the shutters at short range.
+
+Shutters and door, though splintering, held; the defenders fired at my
+men's rifle-flashes, or strove to shoot at Nick and me, where we
+crouched low in the sheltered doorway; but they could not sufficiently
+depress the muzzles of their guns to hit us.
+
+Suddenly, from out of the night, came a fire-arrow, whistling, with dry
+moss all aflame, and lodged on the roof of Howell's house.
+
+Quoth Nick: "Your Tree-eater is in action, John. God send that the fire
+catch!"
+
+From the darkness, Silver called out to me that the marsh-hay had nearly
+burned out, and what were he and Joe to do? Then came a-whizzing another
+fire-arrow, and another, but whether the dew was too heavy on the roof
+or the moss too damp, I do not know; only that when at length the roof
+caught fire, it was but a tiny blaze and flickered feebly, eating a slow
+way along the edges of the eaves.
+
+Nick, who had been wrenching at the imbedded door stone, finally freed
+and lifted it, and hurled it at the bolted shutters. In they crashed.
+Then the door, too, burst open, and Tom Dawling rushed upon me with his
+rifle clubbed high above me.
+
+"You damned Whig!" he shouted, "I'll knock your brains all over the
+grass!"
+
+My hatchet in a measure fended the blow and eased its murderous force,
+but I stumbled to my knees under it; and Baltus Weed came to the window
+and shot me through the body.
+
+At that, Gene Grinnis ran out o' the house to cut my throat, where like
+a crippled wild beast I floundered, a-kicking and striving to find my
+feet; and I saw Nick draw up and shoot Gene through the face, with a
+load of buck, so that where were his features suddenly became but a vast
+and raw hole.
+
+Down he sprawled across my hurt legs; down tumbled John Howell, too, and
+Silver, a-clinging to him tooth and nail, their broad knives flashing
+and ripping and whipping into flesh.
+
+Striving desperately to free me of Grinnis, and get up, I saw Tom
+Dawling throw his axe at Godfrey; and saw Luysnes shoot him, then seize
+him and cut his throat, even as he was falling.
+
+Johnny Silver began bawling lustily for help, with John Howell atop of
+him, cursing him for a rebel and striving to disembowel him. De Golyer
+caught Howell by the throat, and Silver scrambled to his feet, his
+clothing in bloody ribbons. Then Joe's hatchet flashed level with
+terrific swiftness, crashing to its mark; and Howell pitched backward
+with his head clean split from one eye to the other, making of the top
+of his skull a lid which hung hinged only by the hairy skin.
+
+Luysnes and the Saguenay were now somewhere inside the house a-chasing
+of Balty Weed; and I could hear Balty screaming, and the thud and
+clatter of loose logs as they dragged him down from the loft overhead.
+
+Nick came panting to me where I sat on the bloody grass, feeling sick o'
+my wound and now vomiting.
+
+"Are you bad?" he asked breathlessly.
+
+"Balty shot me.... I don't know----"
+
+Somebody knelt down behind me, and I laid back my head, feeling very
+sick and faint, but entirely conscious.
+
+The awful screaming in the house had never ceased; Nick sat down on the
+grass and fumbled at my shirt with trembling fingers.
+
+Presently the screaming ceased. Luysnes came out o' the house with a
+lighted lantern, followed by the Saguenay; and in the wavering radiance
+I saw behind them the feet of a man twitching above the floor.
+
+"We hung the louse to the rafters," said Luysnes, "and your Indian asks
+your leave to scalp him as soon as he's done a-kicking."
+
+"Let him have the scalp," said de Golyer, grimly. "He shot John Drogue
+through the body. Shine your lantern on him, Ben."
+
+They crowded around me. Nick opened my shirt and drew off my leggins. I
+saw Johnny Silver, in tatters and all drenched with blood, come into the
+lantern's rays.
+
+"Are you bad hurt, John?" I gasped.
+
+"Bah! Non, alors. Onlee has Howell slash my shirt into leetle rags and I
+am scratch all raw. Zat ees nozzing, mon capitaine--a leetle cut like
+wiz a Barlow--like zat! Pouf! Bah! I laugh. I make mock!"
+
+"Your ribs are broken, John," says Nick, still squatting beside me. "I
+think your bones turned the bullet, and it's not lodged in your belly at
+all, but in your right thigh.... Fetch a sop o' wet moss, Joe!"
+
+De Luysnes also got up and went away to chop some stout alders for a
+litter. De Golyer was back in a moment, both hands full of dripping
+sphagnum; and Nick washed away the mess of blood.
+
+After that I was sick at my stomach again; and not clear in my mind what
+they were about.
+
+I gazed around out of fevered eyes, and saw dead men lying near me.
+Suddenly the full horror of this civil war seemed to seize my
+senses;--all the shame of such a conflict, a black disgrace upon us here
+in County Tryon.
+
+"Nick!" I cried, "in God's name give those men burial."
+
+"Let them lie, damn them!" said Godfrey, sullenly.
+
+"But they were our neighbors! I--I can't endure such a business.... And
+there are wolves in the tamaracks."
+
+"Let wolf eat wolf," muttered Luysnes. But he drew his knife and went
+into the house. And I heard Balty's body drop when he cut it down.
+
+Nick came over to me, where I lay on a frame of alders, over which a
+blanket had been thrown, and he promised that a burial party should come
+out here as soon as they got me into camp.
+
+So two of my men lifted the litter, and, feeling sick and drowsy, I
+closed my eyes and felt the slow waves of pain sweep me with every step
+the litter-bearers took.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I had been lying in a kind of stupor upon my blanket, aware of dark
+figures passing to and fro before the lurid radiance of our watch fire,
+yet not heeding what they said and did, save only when I saw Nick and
+Luysnes go away carrying two ditch-spades. And was vaguely contented to
+have the dead put safe from wolves.
+
+Later, when I opened my burning eyes and asked for water, I saw Tahioni
+in the flushed light of dawn, and knew that my Indians had returned.
+
+Nick filled my pannikin. When I had drunk, I felt very ill and could
+scarcely find voice to ask him how my Oneidas had made out in the
+tamaracks.
+
+He admitted that they had not come up with the fugitives; and added that
+I was badly hurt and should be quiet and trouble my mind about nothing
+for the present.
+
+One by one my Indians came gravely to gaze upon me, and I tried to smile
+and to speak to each, but my mind seemed confused, what with the burning
+of my body and my great weariness.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When again I unclosed my eyes and asked for water, I was lying under the
+open-faced shed, and it was brilliant sunshine outside.
+
+Somebody had stripped me and had heated water in the kettle, and was
+bathing my body.
+
+Then I saw it was the little maid of Askalege.
+
+"Thiohero,--little sister?"
+
+At the sound of my voice, she came and bent over me. La one hand she
+held a great sponge of steaming sphagnum.
+
+Then came Nick, who leaned closer above me.
+
+"Their young sorceress," said he, "has washed your body with bitter-bark
+and sumach, and has cleansed the wounds and stopped them with dry moss
+and balsam, so that they have ceased bleeding."
+
+I turned my heavy eyes on the Oneida girl.
+
+"Truly," said I, "I have come back through the mist, returning in
+scarlet.... My little sister is very wise."
+
+She said nothing, but lifted a pannikin of cold water to my lips. It had
+bitter herbs in it, and, I think, a little gin. I satisfied my thirst.
+
+"Little sister," I gasped, "is the hole that Balty made in my body so
+great that my soul shall presently escape?"
+
+She answered calmly: "I have looked through the wound into your body;
+and I saw your soul there, watching me. Then I conjured your soul, which
+is very white, to remain within your body. And your soul, seeing that it
+was not the Eye of Tharon looking in to discover it, went quietly to
+sleep. And will abide within you."
+
+She spoke in the Oneida dialect, and Nick listened impatiently, not
+understanding.
+
+"What does the little Oneida witch say?" he demanded.
+
+Her brother, Tahioni, the Wolf, answered calmly: "The River-reed is a
+witch and is as wise as the Woman of the Sounding Skies. The River-reed
+sees events beforehand."
+
+"She says John Drogue will live?" demanded Nick.
+
+"He shall surely live," said Thiohero, drawing the blanket over me.
+
+"Well, then," said Nick, "in God's name let us get him to the Summer
+House, where the surgeon of the Continentals can treat him properly, and
+the ladies there nurse him----"
+
+That roused me, and I strove to sit up, but could not.
+
+"I shall not go to Summer House!" I cried. "If I am in need of a
+surgeon, bring him here; but I want no women near me!--I do not desire
+any woman at Summer House to nurse me or aid or touch me----"
+
+In my angry excitement at the very remembrance of Lady Johnson and
+Claudia, and of Penelope, whom I had beheld in Steve Watts' arms--and of
+that man himself, who had come spying,--I forced my body upright,
+furious at the mere thought and swore I had rather die here in camp than
+be taken thither.
+
+Then, suddenly my elbow crumpled under me, and I fell back in an agony
+of pain so great that presently the world grew swiftly black and I knew
+no more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+IN SHADOW-LAND
+
+
+When I became conscious, I was lying under blankets upon a trundle-bed,
+within the four walls of a very small room.
+
+I wore a night-shift which was not mine, being finer and oddly ruffled;
+and under it my naked body was as stiff as a pike pole, and bound up
+like a mummy. My right thigh, too, was stiffly swathed and trussed, and
+I thought I should stifle from the heat of the blankets.
+
+My mind was clear; I was aware of no sharp pain, no fever; but felt very
+weak, and could have slept again, only that perspiration drenched me and
+made me restless even as I dozed.
+
+Sometime afterward--the same day, I think--I awoke in some pain, and
+realized that I was lying on my right side and that the wound in my
+thigh was being dressed.
+
+The place smelled rank, like a pharmacy, and slightly sickened me.
+
+There were several people in the little room. I saw Nick kneeling beside
+the bed, holding a pewter basin full of steaming water, and a
+Continental officer with his wrist-bands tucked up, choosing forceps
+from a battered leather case.
+
+I could not move my body; my head seemed too heavy to lift; but I was
+aware of a woman standing close to where my head rested. I could see her
+two feet in their buckled shoes, and her petticoat of cotton stuff
+printed in flowers.
+
+When the surgeon had done a-packing my wound with lint, pain had left me
+weak and indifferent, and I lay heavily, with lids closed.
+
+Also, I had seen and heard enough to satisfy what languid curiosity I
+might have possessed. For I was in the gun-room at Summer House,
+whither, it appeared, they had taken me, despite my command to the
+contrary.
+
+But now I was too weary to resent it; too listless to worry; too
+incurious to wonder who it might be that was at any pains to care for my
+broken body at Summer House Point.
+
+Nick came, later, and I opened my eyes, but made no effort to speak. He
+seemed pleased, however, and gave me a filthy and bitter draught, which
+I swallowed, but which so madded me that I swore at him.
+
+Whereupon he smiled and wiped my lips and tucked in the accursed
+blankets that had been stifling me and which now scraped my unshaven
+chin.
+
+"Damnation!" I whispered, "you smother me, drown me in sweat, and feed
+me gall and wormwood!"
+
+And I closed my eyes to sleep; but found my mind not so inclined, and
+lay half dozing, conscious of the sunlight on the floor.
+
+So I was awake when he arrived again with a pot o' broth.
+
+"Can you not leave me in peace!" said I, so savagely that he laughed
+outright and bent over, stirring the broth and grinning down at me.
+
+Spoonful by spoonful I swallowed the broth. There was wine in it. This
+made me drowsy.
+
+To keep account of time, whether it were still this day or the next, or
+how the hours were passing, had been a matter of indifference to me. Or
+how the world wagged outside the golden dusk of this small room had
+interested me not at all.
+
+My Continental surgeon, whom they called Dr. Thatcher, came twice a day
+and went smartly about his business.
+
+Nick dosed me and fed me. I had asked no questions; but my mind had
+become sullen and busy; and now I was groping backward and searching
+memory to find the time and place when I had lost touch with the world
+and with the business which had brought me into these parts.
+
+All was clearly linked up to the time that Balty shot me. Afterward,
+only fragments of the chain of events remained in my memory. I heard
+again the thud of Balty's body on the puncheon floor, when Luysnes cut
+him down from the rafters of Howell's house. I remember that I saw men
+take ditch-spades to bury the dead. I remember that my body seemed all
+afire and that I became enraged and forbade them to take me to Summer
+House.
+
+Further--and of the blank spaces between--I had no recollection save
+that the whole world seemed burning up in darkness and that my body was
+being consumed like a fagot in some hellish conflagration, where the
+flames were black and gave no light.
+
+This day Dr. Thatcher and Nick washed me and closed my wounds.
+
+There had been, it appeared, some drains left in them. The stiff harness
+on my ribs they left untouched. I breathed, now, without any pain, but
+itched most damnably.
+
+My closed wounds itched. I desired broth no longer and demanded meat.
+But got none and swore at Nick.
+
+A barber from the Continental camp arrived to trim me. He took a beard
+from me that amazed me, and enough hair to awake the envy of a
+school-girl--for I refused to wear a queue, and bade him trim my pol a
+la Coureur-du-Bois.
+
+Now this barber, who was a private soldier, seemed willing to gossip;
+and of him I asked my first questions concerning the outside world and
+train of events.
+
+But I soon perceived that all he knew was the veriest camp gossip, and
+that his budget of rumours and reports was of no value whatever. For he
+said that our armies were everywhere victorious; that the British armies
+were on the run; and that the war would be over in another month.
+Everybody, quoth he, would become rich and happy, with General
+Washington for our King, and every general a duke or marquis, and every
+soldier a landed proprietor, with nothing to do save sit on his porch,
+smoke his pipe, and watch his slaves plow his broad acres.
+
+When this sorry ass took his leave, I had long since ceased to listen to
+him.
+
+I felt very well, except for the accursed itching where my flesh was
+mending, and rib-bones knitting.
+
+Dr. Thatcher came in. He was booted, spurred, wore pistols and sword,
+and a military foot-mantle.
+
+When he caught my eyes he smiled slightly and asked me how I did. And I
+expressed my gratitude as suitably as I knew how, saying that I was well
+and desired to rise and be about my business.
+
+"In two weeks," he said, which took me aback.
+
+"Do you know how long you have been here?" he asked, amused.
+
+"Some three or four days, I suppose.
+
+"A month today, Mr. Drogue."
+
+This stunned me. He seated himself on the camp-stool beside my
+trundle-bed.
+
+"What preys upon your mind, Mr. Drogue?" he asked pleasantly.
+
+"Sir?"
+
+"I ask you what it is that troubles you."
+
+I felt a slow heat in my cheeks:
+
+"I have nothing on my mind, sir, save desire to return to duty."
+
+He said in his kindly way: "You would mend more quickly, sir, if your
+mind were tranquil."
+
+I felt my face flush to my hair:
+
+"Why do you suppose that my mind is uneasy, Doctor?"
+
+"You have asked no questions. A sick man, when recovering, asks many.
+You seem to remain incurious, indifferent. Yet, you are in the house of
+old friends."
+
+He looked at me out of his kind, grave eyes: "Also," he said, "you had
+many days of fever."
+
+My face burned: I feared to guess what he meant, but now I must ask.
+
+"Did I babble?"
+
+"A feverish patient often becomes loquacious."
+
+"Of--of whom did I--rave?" I could scarce force myself to the question.
+Then, as he also seemed embarrassed, I added: "You need not name her,
+Doctor. But I beg you to tell me who besides yourself overheard me."
+
+"Only your soldier, Nicholas Stoner, and a Saguenay Indian, who squats
+outside your door day and night."
+
+"Nobody else?"
+
+"I think not."
+
+"Has Lady Johnson heard me? Or Mistress Swift? Or--Mistress Grant?" I
+stammered.
+
+"Why, no," said he. "These ladies were most tender and attentive when
+your soldiers brought you hither; but two days afterward, while you
+still lay unconscious,--and your right lung filling solid,--there came a
+flag from General Schuyler, and an escort of Albany Horse for the
+ladies. And they departed as prisoners the following morning, with their
+flag, to be delivered and set at liberty inside the British lines."
+
+"They are gone?"
+
+"Yes, sir. Lady Johnson, while happy in her prospective freedom, and
+hopeful of meeting her husband in New York City, seemed very greatly
+distressed to leave you here in such a plight. And Mistress Swift
+offered to remain and care for you, but our military authorities would
+not allow it."
+
+I said nothing.
+
+He added, with a faint smile: "Our authorities, I take it, were
+impatient to be rid of responsibility for these fair prisoners, Mr.
+Drogue. I know that Schuyler is vastly relieved."
+
+"Has Stephen Watts been taken?" I asked abruptly. "Or Hare, or Butler?"
+
+"Not that I have heard of."
+
+So they had got clean away, that spying crew!--Watts and Hare and Walter
+Butler! Well, that was better. God knows I had a million times rather
+meet Steve Watts in battle than take him skulking here inside our lines
+a-spying on our camp, exchanging information with his unhappy sister
+and with Claudia, or slinking about the shrubbery by night to press his
+sweetheart's waist and lips----
+
+I turned my hot face on the pillow and lay a-thinking. The doctor laid
+back my blanket, looked at my hurts, then covered me.
+
+"You do well," he said. "In two weeks you shall be out o' bed. Bones
+must knit and wounds scar before you carry pack again. And before your
+lung is strong you shall need six months rest ere you take the field."
+
+Aghast at such news, I asked him the true nature of my hurts, and
+learned that Balty's bullet had broken three ribs into my right lung,
+then, glancing, had made a hole clean through my thigh, but not
+splintering the bone.
+
+"That Oneida girl of Thomas Spencer's saved you," said he, "for she
+picked out the burnt wadding and bits of cloth, cleaned and checked the
+hemorrhage, and purged you. And there was no gangrene.
+
+"She did all that anybody could have done; but the cold had already
+seized your lung before she arrived, and it was that which involved you
+so desperately."
+
+After a silence: "Good God, doctor! _Six months_!"
+
+"Six months before you take the field, sir."
+
+"A half year of idleness? Why, that can not be, sir----"
+
+"It is better than eternity in a coffin, sir," said he quietly.
+
+Then he came and took my hand, saying that orders had come directing him
+to join our Northern Army at Crown Point, and that he was to set off
+within the hour.
+
+"A little nursing and continued rest are all you now require," said he;
+"and so I leave you without anxiety, Mr. Drogue."
+
+I strove to express my deep gratitude for his service to me; he pressed
+my hand, smilingly:
+
+"If you would hasten convalescence," said he, "seek to recover that
+serenity of mind which is a surer medicine than any in my phials."
+
+At the door he turned and looked back to me:
+
+"I think," said he in an embarrassed voice, "that you have really no
+true reason for unhappiness, Mr. Drogue. If you have, then my experience
+of men and women has taught me nothing."
+
+With that he went; and I heard his sword and spurs through the hallway,
+and the outer door close.
+
+What had he meant?
+
+For a long while I pondered this. Then into my mind came another and
+inevitable question: _What_ had I said in my delirium?
+
+I was hungry when Nick came.
+
+"Well," says he, grinning at me, "our Continental saw-bones permits this
+fat wild pigeon. And now I hope I shall have no more cursing to endure."
+
+Tears came into my eyes and I held out my hand. It was blanched white,
+and bony, and lay oddly in his great, brown paw.
+
+"Lord," says he, "what a fright you have given us, John, what with
+coughing all day and night like a sick bullock----"
+
+"I am mending, Nick."
+
+"So says Major Squills. Here, lad, eat thy pigeon. Does it smack? And
+here is a little Spanish wine in this glass to nourish you. I had three
+bottles of the Continentals ere they marched----"
+
+"Marched! Have they departed?" I demanded in astonishment.
+
+"Horse, foot, and baggage," said he cheerily. "When I say 'horse,' I
+mean young Jack-boots, for he departed first with the flag that took my
+Lady Johnson to New York."
+
+"So everybody has gone," said I, blankly.
+
+"Why, yes, John. The flag came from Schuyler and off went the ladies,
+bag, baggage, and servants.
+
+"Then come Colonels Van Schaick and Dayton from Johnstown to inspect our
+works at this place and at Fish House. And two days later orders come to
+abandon Fish House and Summer House Point.... You do not remember
+hearing their drums?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You were very bad that day," he said soberly. "But when their music
+played you opened your eyes and nothing would do but you must rise and
+dress. Lord, how wild you talked, and I was heartily glad when their
+drumming died away on the Johnstown road."
+
+"You mean to tell me that there is no longer any garrison on the
+Sacandaga?" I asked, amazed.
+
+"None. And but a meagre one at Johnstown. It seems we need troops
+everywhere and have none to send anywhere. They've even taken your scout
+and your Oneidas."
+
+"What!" I exclaimed.
+
+"They left a week ago, John, to work on the new fort which is being
+fashioned out of old Fort Stanwix. So Dayton sends your scout thither to
+play with pick and mattock, and your Oneidas to prowl along Wood Creek
+and guard the batteaux."
+
+"You tell me that the Sacandaga is left destitute of garrison or
+scouts!" I asked angrily. "And Tryon crawling alive with Tories!--and
+the Cadys and Helmers and Bowmans and Reeds and Butlers and Hares and
+Stephen Watts stirring the disloyal to violence in every settlement
+betwixt Schenectady and Ballston!"
+
+"I tell you we are too few for all our need, John,--too few to watch all
+places threatened. Schuyler has but one regiment of Continentals now.
+Gates commands at Crown Point and draws to him all available men. His
+Excellency is pressed for men in the South, too. Albany is almost
+defenceless, Schenectady practically unguarded, and only a handful of
+our people guard Johnstown."
+
+"Where are the militia?" I demanded.
+
+"Farming--save when the district call sends a regiment on guard or to
+work on the forts. But Herkimer has them in hand against a crisis, and I
+have no doubt that those Palatines will turn out to a man if Sir John
+comes hither with his murderous hordes."
+
+I sat in silence, picking the bones of my pigeon. Nick said:
+
+"Colonel Dayton came in here and looked at you. And when he left he said
+to me that you had proven a valuable scout; and that, if you survived,
+he desired you to remain here at the Summer House with me and with your
+Saguenay."
+
+"For what purpose?" I demanded, sullenly.
+
+"On observation."
+
+"A scout of three! To cover the Sacandaga! Do they think we have wings?
+Or are a company of tree-cats with nine lives apiece?"
+
+"Well," said Nick, scratching his ear in perplexity, "I know not what
+our colonels and our generals are thinking; but the soldiers are gone,
+and our doctor has now departed, so if Dayton leaves us four people
+alone here in the Summer House it must be because there is nothing for
+the present to apprehend, either from Sir John or from any Indian or
+Tory marauders."
+
+"_Four_ people?" I repeated. "I thought you said we were but three
+here."
+
+"Why," said he, "I mean that we are three men--three rifles!"
+
+"Is there a servant woman, also?"
+
+He looked at me oddly.
+
+"The Caughnawaga girl came back."
+
+"What!"
+
+"The Scottish girl, Penelope."
+
+"Came back! When?"
+
+"Oh, that was long ago--after the flag left.... It seems she had meant
+to travel only to Mayfield with them.... She had not said so to anybody.
+But in the dark o' dawn she rides in on your mare, Kaya, having
+travelled all night long."
+
+"'Why,' says I, 'what do you here on John Drogue's horse in the dark o'
+dawn?'
+
+"'If there's danger,' says she calmly, 'this sick man should have a
+horse to carry him to Mayfield fort.'
+
+"Which was true enough; and I said so, and stabled your mare where Lady
+Johnson's horses had left a warm and empty manger."
+
+"Well," said I harshly, as he remained silent.
+
+"Lord, Jack, that is all I know. She has cooked for you since, and has
+kept this house in order, washed dishes, fed the chickens and ducks and
+pig, groomed your horse, hoed the garden, sewed bandages, picked lint,
+knitted stockings and soldiers' vests----"
+
+"_Why?_" I demanded.
+
+"I asked her that, John. And she answered that there was nobody here to
+care for a sick man's comfort, and that Dr. Thatcher had told her you
+would die if they moved you to Johnstown hospital.
+
+"I thought she'd become frightened and leave when the Continentals
+marched out; they all came--the officers--where she sat a-knitting by
+the apple-tree; but she only laughed at their importunities, made light
+of any dangers to be apprehended, and refused a seat on their camp
+wagon. And it pleased me, John, to see how doleful and crestfallen were
+some among those same young blue-and-buffs when they were obliged to
+ride away that morning and leave here there a-sewing up your shirt where
+Balty's bullet had rent it."
+
+A slight thrill shot me through. But it died cold. And I thought of
+Steve Watts, and of her in his embrace under the lilacs.
+
+If she now remained here it was for no reason concerning me. It was
+because she thought her lover might return some night and take her in
+his arms again. That was the reason.
+
+And with this miserable conclusion, a more dreadful doubt seized me.
+What of the loyalty of a girl whose lover is a King's man?
+
+I remembered how, in the blossoming orchard, she had whispered to me
+that she was a friend to liberty.
+
+Was that to be believed of a maid whose lover came into our camp a spy?
+
+I lay back on my pillow and closed my eyes. What was this girl to me
+that I should care one way or the other?
+
+Nick took my platter and went away, leaving me to sleep as I seemed to
+desire it.
+
+But I had no desire to sleep. And as I lay there, I became sensible that
+my entire and battered body was almost imperceptibly a-tremble.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE DEMON
+
+
+I think that summer was the strangest ever I have lived,--the most
+unreal days of life,--so still, so golden, so strangely calm the
+solitude that ringed me where I was slowly healing of my hurt.
+
+Each dawn was heralded by gold fire, each evening by a rosy
+conflagration in the west. It rained only at night; and all that crystal
+clear mid-summer scarcely a shred of fleece dappled the empyrean.
+
+Those winds which blow so frequently in our Northland seemed to have
+become zephyrs, too; and there was but a reedy breeze along the Vlaie
+Water, and scarce a ripple to rock the lily pads in shallow reach and
+cove.
+
+It was strange. And, only for the loveliness of night and day, there
+might have seemed in this hushed tranquillity around me a sort of hidden
+menace.
+
+For all around about was war, where Tryon County lay so peacefully in
+the sunshine, ringed within the outer tumult, and walled on all sides by
+battle smoke.
+
+Above us our fever-stricken Northern army, driven from Crown Point, now
+lay and sickened at Ticonderoga, where General Gates did now command our
+people, while poor Arnold, turned ship's carpenter, laboured to match
+Guy Carleton's flotilla which the British were dragging piecemeal over
+Chambly Rapids to blow us out o' the lake.
+
+From south of us came news of the Long Island disaster where His
+Excellency, driven from Brooklyn and New York, now lay along the Harlem
+Heights.
+
+And it was a sorry business; for Billy Alexander, who is Lord Stirling,
+was taken a prisoner; and Sullivan also was taken; and their two
+brigades were practically destroyed.
+
+But worse happened at New York City, where the New York militia ran and
+two New England brigades, seized with panic, fled in a shameful manner.
+And so out o' town our people pulled foot, riotous and disorderly in
+retreat, and losing all our heavy guns, nearly all our stores, and more
+than three hundred prisoners.
+
+This was the news I had of the Long Island battle, where I lay in
+convalescence at Summer House that strange, still summer in the North.
+
+And I thought very bitterly of what advantage was it that we had but
+just rung bells and fired off our cannon to salute our new Declaration
+of Independence, and had upset the prancing leaden King from his
+pedestal on the Bowling Green, if our militia ran like rabbits at sight
+of the red-coats, and general officers like Lord Stirling were
+mouse-trapped in their first battle.
+
+Alas for poor New York, where fire and explosion had laid a third of the
+city in ruins; where the drums of the red-coats now rolled brazenly
+along the Broadway; where Delancy's horsemen scoured the island for
+friends to liberty; where that great wretch, Loring, lorded it like an
+unclean devil of the pit.
+
+God! to think on it when all had gone so well; and Boston clean o'
+red-coats, and Canada all but in our grasp; and old Charleston shaking
+with her dauntless cannonade, and our people's volleys pouring into
+Dunmore's hirelings through the levelled cinders of Norfolk town!
+
+What was the matter with us that these Southern gentlemen stood the
+British fire while, if we faced it, we crumpled and gave ground; or, if
+we shunned it, we ran disgracefully? Save only at Boston had we driven
+the red-coats on land. The British flame had scorched us on Long Island,
+singed us in New York, blasted us at Falmouth and Quebec, and left our
+armies writhing in the ashes from Montreal to Norfolk.
+
+And yet how tranquil, how fair, how ominously calm lay our Valley Land
+in the sunshine, ringed here by our blue mountains where no slightest
+cloud brooded in an unstained sky!
+
+And more still, more strange even than the untroubled calm of Tryon, lay
+the Summer House in its sunlit, soundless, and green desolation.
+
+Where, through the long days, nothing moved on the waste of waters save
+where a sun-burnished reed twinkled. Where, under star-powdered skies,
+no wind stirred; and only the vague far cry of some wandering wild thing
+ever disturbed that vast and velvet silence.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Long before she came near me to speak to me, and even before she had
+glanced at me from the west porch, whither she took her knitting in the
+afternoons, I had seen Penelope.
+
+From where I lay on my trundle in Sir William's old gun-room I could
+see out across the hallway and through the door, where the west veranda
+ran.
+
+In the mornings either my Indian, Yellow-Leaf, or Nick Stoner mounted
+guard there, watching the green and watery wastes to the northward,
+while his comrade freshened my sheets and pillows and cleansed my room.
+
+In the afternoons one o' them went a-fishing or prowling after meat for
+our larder, or, sometimes, Nick went a-horse to Mayfield on observation,
+or to Johnstown for news or a bag of flour. And t'other watched from the
+veranda roof, which was railed, and ran all around the house, so that a
+man might walk post there and face all points of the compass.
+
+As for Penelope, I soon learned her routine; for in the morning she was
+in the kitchen and about the house--save only she came not to my
+room--but swept and dusted the rest, and cooked in the cellar-kitchen.
+
+Sometimes I could see her in apron and pink print, drawing water from
+the orchard well, and her skirt tucked up against the dew.
+
+Sometimes I saw her early in the garden, where greens grew and beans and
+peas; or sometimes she hoed weeds where potatoes and early corn stood in
+rows along a small strip planted between orchard and posy-bed.
+
+And sometimes I could see her a-milking our three Jersey cows, or, with
+a sickle, cutting green fodder for my mare, Kaya, whose dainty hoofs I
+often heard stamping the barn floor.
+
+But after the dinner hour, and when the long, still afternoons lay
+listlessly betwixt mid-summer sun and the pale, cool dusk, she came from
+her chamber all freshened like a faint, sweet breeze in her rustling
+petticoat of sheer, sprigged stuff, to seat herself on the west veranda
+with her knitting.
+
+Day after day I lay on my trundle where I could see her. She never
+noticed me, though by turning her head she could have seen me where I
+lay.
+
+I do not now remember clearly what was my state of mind except that a
+dull bitterness reigned there.
+
+Which was, of course, against all common sense and decent reason.
+
+I had no claim upon this girl. I had kissed her--through no fault of
+hers, and by no warrant and no encouragement from her to so conduct in
+her regard.
+
+I had kissed her once. But other men had done that perhaps with no more
+warrant. And I, though convinced that the girl knew not how to parry
+such surprises, brooded sullenly upon mine own indiscretion with her;
+and pondered upon the possible behaviour of other men with her. And I
+silently damned their impudence, and her own imprudence which seemed to
+have taught her little in regard to men.
+
+But in my mind the chiefest and most sullen trouble lay in what I had
+seen under the lilacs that night in June.
+
+And when I closed my eyes I seemed to see her in Steve Watts' arms, and
+the lad's ardent embrace of her throat and hair, and the flushed passion
+marring his youthful face----
+
+I often lay there, my eyes on her where I could see her through the
+door, knitting, and strove to remember how I had first heard her name
+spoken, and how at that last supper at the Hall her name was spoken and
+her beauty praised by such dissolute young gallants as Steve Watts and
+Lieutenant Hare; and how even Sir John had blurted out, in his cups,
+enough to betray an idle dalliance with this yellow-haired girl, and
+sufficient to affront his wife and his brother-in-law, and to disgust
+me.
+
+And Nick had said that men swarmed about her like forest-flies around a
+pan o' syrup!
+
+And all this, too, before ever I had laid eyes upon this slim and silent
+girl who now sat out yonder within my sullen vision, knitting or winding
+her wool in silence.
+
+What, then, could be the sentiments of any honest man concerning her?
+What, when I considered these things, were my own sentiments in her
+regard?
+
+And though report seemed clear, and what I had witnessed plainer still,
+I seemed to be unable to come to any conclusion as to my true sentiments
+in this business, or why, indeed, it was any business of mine, and why I
+concerned myself at all.
+
+Men found her young and soft and inexperienced; and so stole from her
+the kiss that heaven sent them.
+
+And Steve Watts, at least, was more wildly enamoured.... And, no doubt,
+that reckless flame had not left her entirely cold.... Else how could
+she have strolled away to meet him that same night when her lips must
+still have felt the touch of mine?... And how endured his passion there
+in the starlight?... And if she truly were a loyal friend to liberty,
+how in God's name give secret tryst and countenance to a spy?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One morning, when Nick had bathed me, I made him dress me in forest
+leather. Lord, but I was weak o' the feet, and light in head as a blown
+egg-shell!
+
+Thus, dressed, I lay all morning on my trundle, and there, seated on the
+edge, was given my noon dinner.
+
+But I had no mind, now, to undress and rest. I desired to go to the
+veranda, and did fume and curse and bully poor Nick until he picked me
+up and carried me thither and did seat me within a large and cushioned
+Windsor chair.
+
+Then, madded, he went away to fish for a silver pike in our canoe,
+saying with much viciousness that I might shout my throat raw and perish
+there ere he would stir a foot to put me to bed again.
+
+So I watched him go down to the shore where the canoe lay, lift in rod
+and line and paddle, and take water in high dudgeon.
+
+"Even an ass knows when he's sick!" he called out to me. But I laughed
+at him and saw his broad paddle stab the water, and the birchen craft
+shoot out among the reeds.
+
+Now it was in my thoughts to see how Mistress Penelope would choose to
+conduct, who had so long and so tranquilly ignored me.
+
+For here was I established upon the spot where she had been accustomed
+to sit through the long afternoons ... and think on Steve Watts, no
+doubt!...
+
+Comes Mistress Penelope in sprigged gown of lavender, and smelling fresh
+of the herb itself or of some faint freshness.
+
+I rested both hands upon the arms of my Windsor chair and so managed to
+stand erect.
+
+She turned rosy to her ear-tips at the sudden encounter, but her voice
+was self-possessed and in nowise altered when she greeted me.
+
+I offered my hand; she extended hers and I saluted it.
+
+Then she seated herself at leisure in her Windsor reading-chair, laid
+her basket of wool-skeins upon the polished book-rest, and calmly fell
+to knitting.
+
+"So, you are mending fast, sir," says she; and her smooth little fingers
+travelling steadily with her shining needles, and her dark eyes intent
+on both.
+
+"Oh, for that," said I, "I am well enough, and shall soon be strong to
+strap war-belt and sling pack and sack.... Are you in health, Mistress
+Pen?"
+
+She expressed thanks for the civil inquiry. And knitted on and on. And
+silence fell between us.
+
+If it was then that I first began to fear I was in love with her, I do
+not surely remember now. For if such a doubt assailed me, then instantly
+my mind resented so unwelcome a notion. And not only was there no
+pleasure in the thought, but it stirred in me a kind of breathless
+anger which seemed to have long slumbered in its own ashes within me and
+now gave out a dull heat.
+
+"Have you news of Lady Johnson and of Mistress Swift?" I asked at last.
+
+She lifted her eyes in surprise.
+
+"No, sir. How should news come to us here?"
+
+"I thought there might be channels of communication."
+
+"I know of none, sir. York is far, and the Canadas are farther still. No
+runners have come to Summer House."
+
+"Still," said I, "communication was possible when I got my hurt last
+June."
+
+"Sir?"
+
+"Is that not true?"
+
+She looked at me in troubled silence.
+
+"Did not Lady Johnson's brother come here in secret to give her news,
+and take as much away?"
+
+She did not answer.
+
+"Once," said I, "although I had not asked, you told me that you were a
+friend to liberty."
+
+"And am so," said she.
+
+"And have a Tory lover."
+
+At that her face flamed and her wool dropped into her lap. She did not
+look at me but sat with gaze ahead of her as though considering.
+
+At last: "Do you mean Captain Watts?" she asked.
+
+"Yes, I mean him."
+
+"He is not my lover."
+
+"I ask your pardon. The inference was as natural as my error."
+
+"Sir?"
+
+"Appearances," said I, "are proverbially deceitful. Instead of saying
+'your lover,' I should, perhaps, have said '_one_ of your lovers.' And
+so again ask pardon."
+
+"Are you my lover, sir?"
+
+"I?" said I, taken aback at the direct shot so unexpected.
+
+"Yes, you, my lord. Are you one of my lovers?"
+
+"I think not. Why do you ask me that which never could be a question
+that yes or no need answer?"
+
+"I thought perhaps you might deem yourself my lover."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because you kissed me once,--as did Captain Watts.... And two other
+gentlemen."
+
+"Two other gentlemen?"
+
+"Yes, sir. A cornet of horse,--his name escapes me--and Sir John."
+
+"Who!" I blurted angrily.
+
+"Sir John Johnson."
+
+"The dissolute beast!" said I. "Had I known it that night at Johnson
+Hall----" But here I checked my speech and waited till the hot blood in
+my face was done burning.
+
+And when again I was cool: "I am sorry for my heat," said I. "Your
+conduct is your own affair."
+
+"You once made it yours, sir,--for a moment."
+
+Again I went hot and red; and how I had conducted with this maid plagued
+me so that I found no word to answer.
+
+She knitted for a little while. Then, lifting her dark young eyes:
+
+"You have as secure a title to be my lover as has any man, Mr. Drogue.
+Which is no title at all."
+
+"Steve Watts took you in his arms near the lilacs."
+
+"What was that to you, Mr. Drogue?"
+
+"He was a spy in our uniform and in our camp!"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And you gave him your lips."
+
+"He took what he took. I gave only what was in my heart to give to any
+friend in peril."
+
+"What was that?"
+
+"Solicitude."
+
+"Oh. You warned him to leave? And he an enemy and a spy?"
+
+"I begged him to go, Mr. Drogue."
+
+"Do you still call yourself a friend to liberty?" I asked angrily.
+
+"Yes, sir. But I was his friend too. I did not know he had come here.
+And when by accident I recognized him I was frightened, because I
+thought he had come to carry news to Lady Johnson."
+
+"And so he did! Did he not?"
+
+"He said he came for me."
+
+"To visit you?"
+
+"Yes, sir. And I think that was true. For when he made himself known to
+his sister, she came near to fainting; and so he spoke no more to her at
+all but begged me for a tryst before he left."
+
+"Oh. And you granted it?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I was in great fright, fearing he might be taken.... Also I pitied
+him."
+
+"Why so?" I sneered.
+
+"Because he had courted me at Caughnawaga.... And at first I think he
+made a sport of his courting,--like other young men of Tryon gentry who
+hunt and court to a like purpose.... And so, one day at Caughnawaga, I
+told him I was honest.... I thought he ought to know, lest folly assail
+us in unfamiliar guise and do us a harm."
+
+"Did you so speak to this young man?"
+
+"Yes, sir. I told him that I am a maiden. I thought it best that he
+should know as much.... And so he courted me no more. But every day he
+came and glowered at other men.... I laughed secretly, so fiercely he
+watched all who came to Cayadutta Lodge.... And then Sir John fled. And
+war came.... Well, sir, there is no more to tell, save that Captain
+Watts dared come hither."
+
+"To take you in his arms?"
+
+"He did so,--yes, sir,--for the first time ever."
+
+"Then he is honestly in love with you?"
+
+"But you, also, did the like to me. Is it a consequence of honest love,
+Mr. Drogue, when a young man embraces a maiden's lips?"
+
+Her questions had so disconcerted me that I found now no answer to this
+one.
+
+"I know nothing about love," said I, looking out at the sunlit waters.
+
+"Nor I," said she.
+
+"You seem willing to be schooled," I retorted.
+
+"Not willing, not unwilling. I do not understand men, but am not averse
+to learning something of their ways. No two seem similar, Mr. Drogue,
+save in the one matter."
+
+"Which?" I asked bluntly.
+
+"The matter of paying court. All seem to do it naturally, though some
+take fire quicker, and some seem to burn more ardently than others."
+
+"It pleasures you to be courted? Gallantries suit you? And the flowery
+phrases suitors use?"
+
+"They pleasurably perplex me. Time passes more agreeably when one is
+knitting. To be courted is not an unwelcome diversion to any woman, I
+think. And flowery phrases are pleasant to notice,--like music suitably
+played, and of which one is conscious though occupied with other
+matters."
+
+"If this be not coquetry," I thought, "then it is most perilously akin
+to it."
+
+Obscurely yet deeply disturbed by the blind stirring of emotions I could
+not clearly analyze, I sat brooding there. Now I watched her fingers
+playing with the steels, and her young face lowered; now I gazed afar
+across the blue Vlaie Water to the bluer mountains beyond, which dented
+the horizon as the great blue waves of Lake Ontario make molten
+mountains against an azure sky.
+
+So still was the world that the distant leap and splash of a great
+silver pike sounded like a gun-shot in that breathless, sun-drenched
+solitude.
+
+Yet I found no solace now in all this golden peace; for, of the silence
+between this maid and me, had been born a vague and malicious thing; and
+like a subtle demon it had come, now, into my body to turn me sullen and
+restless with the scarce-formed, scarce-comprehended thoughts it hatched
+within me. And one of these had to do with Stevie Watts, and how he had
+come here for the sake of this girl.... And had taken her into his arms
+under the stars, near the lilacs.... And my lips still warm from
+hers.... Yet she had gone to him in the dusk.... Was afeard for him....
+Pitied him.... And doubtless loved him, whatever she might choose to say
+to me.... Under any circumstances a coquette; and, innocent or wise, to
+the manner born at any rate.... And some Tryon County gallant likely to
+take her measure some day ere she awake from her soft bewilderment at
+the ways and conducting of mankind.
+
+Nick came at eventide, carrying a pike by the gills, and showed us his
+fingers bleeding of the watery conflict.
+
+"Is all calm on the Sacandaga?" I enquired.
+
+"Calm as a roadside puddle, Jack. And every day I ask myself if there be
+truly any war in North America or no, so placid shines God's sun on
+Tryon.... You mend apace, old friend. Do you suffer fatigue?"
+
+"None, Nick. I shall sit at table tonight with Mistress Grant and
+you----"
+
+My voice ceased, and, without warning, the demon that had entered into
+me began a-whispering. Then the first ignoble and senseless pang of
+jealousy assailed me to remember that this girl and my comrade had been
+alone for weeks together--supped all alone at table--companioned each
+the other while I lay ill!----
+
+Senseless, miserable clod that I was to listen to that demon's
+whispering till my very belly seemed sick-sore with the pain of it and
+my heart hurt me under the ribs.
+
+Now she rose and looked at Nick and laughed; and they said a word or two
+I could not quite hear, but she laughed again as though with some
+familiar understanding, and went lightly away to her evening milking.
+
+"We shall be content indeed," said Nick, "that you sit at supper with
+us, old friend."
+
+But I had changed my mind, and said so.
+
+"You will not sit with us tonight?" he asked, concerned.
+
+I looked at him coldly:
+
+"I shall go to bed," said I, "and desire no supper.... Nor any aid
+whatever.... I am tired. The world wearies me.... And so do my own
+kind."
+
+And I got up and all alone walked to my little chamber.
+
+So great an ass was I.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+HAG-RIDDEN
+
+
+So passed that unreal summer of '76; and so came autumn upon us with its
+crimsons, purples, and russet-gold; its cherry-red suns a-swimming in
+the flat marsh fogs; its spectral mists veiling Vlaie Water and
+curtaining the Sacandaga from shore to shore.
+
+Rumours of wars came to us, but no war; gossip of armies and of battles,
+but no battles.
+
+Armies of wild-fowl, however, came to us on the great Vlaie; duck and
+geese and companies of snowy swans; and at night I could hear their
+fairy trumpets in the sky heralding the white onset from the North.
+
+And pigeons came to the beech-woods, millions and millions, so that
+their flight was a windy roaring in the sky and darkened the sun.
+
+Birches and elms and chestnuts and soft maples turned yellow; and so
+turned the ghostly tamaracks ere their needles fell. Hard maples and
+oaks grew crimson and scarlet and the blueberry bushes and sumachs
+glowed like piles of fire.
+
+But the world of pines darkened to a deeper emerald; spruce and hemlock
+took on a more sober hue; and the flowing splendour of the evergreens
+now robed plain and mountain in sombre magnificence, dully brocaded here
+and there by an embroidery of silver balsam.
+
+When I was strong enough to trail a rifle and walk my post on the
+veranda roof, my Saguenay Indian took to the Drowned Lands, scouting the
+meshed water-leads like a crested diving-duck; and his canoe nosed into
+every creek from Mayfield to Fish House.
+
+Nick foraged, netting pigeons on the Stacking Ridge, shooting partridge,
+turkey, and squirrel as our need prompted, or dropping a fat doe at
+evening on the clearing's edge beyond Howell's house.
+
+Of fish we had our fill,--chain-pike and silver-pike from Vlaie Water;
+trout out of Hans Creek and Frenchman's Creek.
+
+Corn, milled grain, and pork we drew a-horse from Johnstown or Mayfield;
+we had milk and butter of our own cows, and roasting ears and potatoes,
+squash, beets, and beans, and a good pumpkin for our pies, all from
+Summer House garden. And a great store of apples--for it was a year for
+that fruit--and we had so many that Nick pitted scores of bushels; and
+we used them to eat, also, and to cook.
+
+Now, against first frost, Penelope had sewed for us sacks out o' tow
+cloth; and when frost came to moss the world with spongy silver, we went
+after nuts, Nick and I,--chestnuts from the Stacking Ridge, and gathered
+beechnuts there, also. Butternuts we found, sticky and a-plenty, along
+the Sacandaga; and hickory nuts on every ridge, and hazel filberts
+bordering clearing and windfall in low, moist woods.
+
+Sure we were well garnered if not well garrisoned at Summer House when
+the first snow flakes came a-drifting like errant feathers floating from
+a wild-fowl shot in mid-air.
+
+The painted leaves dropped in November, settling earthward through still
+sunshine in gold and crimson clouds.
+
+"Mother Earth hath put on war-paint," quoth Penelope, knitting. She
+spoke to Nick, turning her head slightly. She spoke chiefly to him in
+these days, I having become, as I have said, a silent ass; and so
+strange and of so infrequent speech that they did not even venture to
+remark to me my reticence; and I think they thought my hurt had changed
+me in my mind and nature. Yet I was but a simple ass, differing only
+from other asses in that they brayed more frequently than I.
+
+In silence I nursed a challenging in my breast, where love should have
+lain secure and warm; and I wrapped the feverish, mewling thing in envy,
+jealousy, and sullen pride,--fit rags to swaddle such a waif.
+
+For once, coming upon Penelope unawares, I did see her gazing upon a
+miniature picture of Steve Watts, done bravely in his red regimentals.
+
+Which, perceiving me, she hid in her bosom and took her milk-pails to
+the orchard without a word spoken, though the colour in her face was
+eloquent enough.
+
+And very soon, too, I had learned for sure what I already believed of
+her, that she was a very jade; for it was plain that she had now
+ensnared Nick, and that they were thick as a pair o' pup hounds, and had
+confidences between them in low voices and with smiles. Which my coming
+checked only so far. For it was mostly to him she spoke openly at table,
+when, the smoking dishes set, she took her seat between us, out o'
+breath and sweet as a sun-hot rose.
+
+God knows they were not to blame; for in one hour I might prove glum
+and silent as a stone; and in another I practiced carelessness and
+indifference in my speech; and in another, still, I was like to be
+garrulous and feverish, insisting upon any point raised; laughing
+without decent provocation; moody and dull, loquacious and quarrelsome
+by turns,--unstable, unhinged, out o' balance and incapable of any
+decent equilibrium. Oh, the sorry spectacle a young man makes when that
+sly snake, jealousy, hath fanged him!
+
+And my disorder was such that I knew I was sick o' jealousy and sore
+hurt of it to the bones, yet conducted like a mindless creature that,
+trapped, falls to mutilating itself.
+
+And so I was ever brooding how I might convince her of my indifference;
+how I might pain her by coldness; how I might subtly acquaint her of my
+own desirability and then punish her by a display of contempt and a
+mortifying revelation of the unattainable. Which was to be my proper
+self.
+
+Jealousy is sure a strange malady and breaketh out in divers disorders
+in different young men, according to their age and kind.
+
+I was jealous because she had been courted by others; was jealous
+because she had been caressed by other men; I was wildly jealous because
+of Steve Watts, their tryst by the lilacs; his picture which I
+discovered she wore in her bosom; I was madly jealous of her fellowship
+with my old comrade, Nick, and because, chilled by my uncivil conduct
+and by my silences, she conversed with him when she spoke at all.
+
+And for all this silly grievance I had no warrant nor any atom of lucid
+reason. For until I had seen her no woman had ever disturbed me. Until
+that spring day in the flowering orchard I had never desired love; and
+if I even desired it now I knew not. I had certainly no desire for
+marriage or a wife, because I had no thought in my callow head of
+either.
+
+Only jealousy of others and a desire to be first in her mind possessed
+me,--a fierce wish to clear out this rabble of suitors which seemed to
+gather in a very swarm wherever she passed,--so that she should turn to
+me alone, lean upon me, trust only me in the world to lend her
+countenance, shelter her, and defend her. And, though God knows I meant
+her no wrong, nor had passion, so far, played any role in this my
+ridiculous behaviour, I had not so far any clear intention in her
+regard. A fierce and selfish longing obsessed me to drive others off and
+keep her for my own where in some calm security we could learn to know
+each other.
+
+And this--though I did not understand it--was merely the romantic
+desire of a very young man to study, unhurried and untroubled, the first
+female who ever had disturbed his peace of mind.
+
+But all was vain and troubled and misty in my mind, and love--or its
+fretful changeling--weighed on my heart heavily. But I carried double
+weight: jealousy is a heavy hag, and I was hag-ridden morn and eve and
+all the livelong day to boot.
+
+All asses are made to be ridden.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The first snow came, as I have said, like shot-scattered down from a
+wild-duck's breast. Then days of golden stillness, with mornings growing
+ever colder and the frost whitening shady spots long after sun-up.
+
+I remember a bear swam Vlaie Water, but galloped so swiftly into the
+bush that no rifle was ready to stop him.
+
+We mangered our cattle o' nights; and, as frosty grazing checks milk
+flow, Nick and I brought in hay from the stacks which the Continental
+soldiers had cut against a long occupation of Summer House Point.
+
+Nights had become very cold and we burned logs all day long in the
+chimney place. My Indian was snug enough in the kitchen by the oven,
+where he ate and slept when not on post; and we, above, did very well by
+the blaze where we roasted nuts and apples and drank new cider from
+Johnstown and had a cask of ale from the Johnson Arms by waggon.
+
+Also, in the cellar, was some store of Sir William's--dusty bottles of
+French and Spanish wines; but of these I took no toll, because they
+belonged not to me.
+
+But a strange circumstance presently placed these wines in my
+possession; for, upon a day before the first deep snow fell, comes
+galloping from Johnstown a man in caped riding coat, one Jerry Van
+Rensselaer, to nail a printed placard upon our Summer House--notice of
+sale by the Committee for Sequestration.
+
+But who was to read this notice and attend the vendue save only the
+birds and beasts of the wilderness I do not know; for on the day of the
+sale, which was conducted by Commissioner Harry Outthout, only some half
+dozen farmer folk rode hither from Johnstown, and only one man among 'em
+bid in money--a sullen fellow named Jim Huetson, who had Tory friends, I
+knew, if he himself were not of that complexion.
+
+His bid was L5; which was but a beggarly offer, and angered me to see
+Sir William's beloved Lodge come to so mean an end. So, having some
+little money, I showed the Schoharie fellow a stern countenance, doubled
+his bid, and took snuff which I do not love.
+
+And Lord! Ere I realized it, Summer House Point, Lodge and contents, and
+riparian rights as far as Howell's house were mine; and a clear deed
+promised.
+
+Bewildered, I signed and paid the Sequestration Commissioner out o' my
+buckskin pouch in hard coin.
+
+"You should buy the cattle, too," whispered Nick. "There be folk in
+Johnstown would pay well for such a breed o' cow. And there's the pig,
+Jack, and the sheep and the hens, and all that grain and hay so snug in
+the barn."
+
+So I asked very fiercely if any man desired to bid against me; and
+neither Huetson nor his sulky comrade, Davis, having any such stomach, I
+fetched ale and apples and nuts and made them eat and drink, and so drew
+aside the Commissioner and bargained with him like a Jew or a shoe-peg
+Yankee; and in the end bought all.[21]
+
+[Footnote 21: The Commissioners for selling real estate in Tryon County
+sold the personal property of Sir John Johnson some time before the Hall
+and acreage were sold. The Commissioners appointed for selling
+confiscated personal property in Tryon County were appointed later,
+March 6, 1777.]
+
+"Shall you move hither from Fonda's Bush and sell your house?" asked
+Nick, who now was going out on watch.
+
+But I made him no answer, for I had been bitten by an idea, the mere
+thought of which fevered me with excitement. Oh, I was mad as a March
+fox running his first vixen, in that first tide of romantic love,--clean
+daft and lacking reason.
+
+So when Commissioner Outthout and those who had come for the vendue had
+drank as much of my new ale as they cared to carry home a-horse, and
+were gone a-bumping down the Johnstown road like a flock of Gilpins all,
+I took my parchment and went into my bed chamber; and there I sat upon
+my trundle bed and read what was writ upon my deed, making me the owner
+of Summer House and of all that appertained to the little hunting lodge.
+
+But I had not purchased it selfishly; and the whole business began with
+an impulse born of love for Sir William, who had loved this place so
+well. But even as that impulse came, another notion took shape in my
+love-addled sconce.
+
+I sat on my trundle bed a-thinking and--God forgive me--admiring my own
+lofty and romantic purpose.
+
+The house was still, but on the veranda roof overhead I could hear the
+moccasined tread of Nick pacing his post; and from below in the kitchen
+came the distant thump and splash of Penelope's churn, where she was
+making new butter for to salt it against our needs.
+
+Now, as I rose my breath came quicker, but admiration for my resolve
+abated nothing--no!--rather increased as I tasted the sad pleasures of
+martyrdom and of noble renunciation. For I now meant to figure in this
+girl's eyes in a manner which she never could forget and which, I
+trusted, might sadden her with a wistful melancholy after I was gone and
+she had awakened to the irreparable loss.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When I came down into the kitchen where, bare of arms and throat, she
+stood a-churning, she looked at me out of partly-lowered eyes, as though
+doubting my mood--poor child. And I saw the sweat on her flushed cheeks,
+and her yellow hair, in disorder from the labour, all curled into damp
+little ringlets. But when I smiled I saw that lovely glimmer dawning,
+and she asked me shyly what I did there--for never before had I come
+into her kitchen.
+
+So, still smiling, I gave an account of how I had bought Summer House;
+and she listened, wide-eyed, wondering.
+
+"But," continued I, "I have already my own glebe at Fonda's Bush, and a
+house; but there be many with whom fortune has not been so complacent,
+and who possess neither glebe nor roof, yet deserve both."
+
+"Yes, sir," she said, smiling, "there be many such folk and always will
+be in the world. Of such company am I, also, but it saddens me not at
+all."
+
+I went to her and showed her my deed, and she looked down on it, her
+hands clasped on the churn handle.
+
+"So that," said she, "is a lawful deed! I have never before been shown
+such an instrument."
+
+"You shall have leisure enough to study this one," said I, "for I convey
+it to you."
+
+"Sir?"
+
+"I give Summer House to you," said I. "Here is the deed. When I go to
+Johnstown again I will execute it so that this place shall be yours."
+
+She gazed at me in dumb astonishment.
+
+"Meanwhile," said I, "you shall keep the deed.... And now you are, in
+fact, if not yet in title, mistress of Summer House. And I think, this
+night, we should break a bottle of Sir William's Madeira to drink health
+to our new chatelaine."
+
+She came from her churn and caught my arm, where I had turned to ascend
+the steps.
+
+"You are jesting, are you not, my lord?"
+
+"No! And do not use that term, 'lord,' to me."
+
+"You--you offer to give me--me--this estate!"
+
+"Yes. I do give it you."
+
+There was a tense silence.
+
+"Why do you offer this?" she burst out breathlessly.
+
+"Why should I have two estates and you have none, Penelope?"
+
+"But that is no reason!" she retorted, almost violently. "For what
+reason, then, do you give me Summer House? It--it must be you are
+jesting, my lord!----"
+
+At that, displeasure made me redden, and I damned the title under my
+breath.
+
+"If you please," said I, "you will have done with all these 'sirs' and
+'my lords,' for I am a plain yoeman of County Tryon and wear a buckskin
+shirt. Not that I would criticise Lord Stirling or any such who still
+care to wear by courtesy what I have long ago worn out," I added, "but
+the gentry and nobility of Tryon travel one way and I the other; and my
+friends should remember it when naming me."
+
+She stood looking at me out of her brown eyes, and slowly their troubled
+wonder changed to dumb perplexity. And, looking, took up her apron's
+edge and stood twisting it between both hands.
+
+"I give you Summer House," said I, "because you are orphaned and live
+alone and have nothing. I give it because a maid ought to possess a
+portion; and, thirdly, I give it because I have enough of my own, and
+never desired more of anything than I need. So take the Summer House,
+Penelope, with the cattle and fowl and land; for it gives you a station
+and a security among men and women of this odd world of ours, and lends
+to yourself a confidence and dignity which only sheerest folly can
+overthrow."
+
+She came, after a silence, slowly, and took me by the hand.
+
+"John Drogue," says she in a voice not clear, "I can not take of you
+this estate."
+
+"You shall take it! And when again, where you sit a-knitting, the young
+men gather round you like flies around a sap-pan--then, by God, you
+shall know what countenance to give them, and they shall know what
+colour to give their courting!--suitors, gallants, Whig or Tory--the
+whole damned rabble----"
+
+"Oh," she cried softly, "John Drogue!" And fell a-laughing--or was it a
+quick sob that checked her throat?
+
+But I heeded it not, having caught fire; and presently blazed noisily.
+
+"Because you are servant to Douw Fonda!" I cried, "and because you are
+alone, and because you are young and soft with a child's eyes and yellow
+hair, they make nothing of schooling you to their pot-house
+gallantries, and every damned man jack among them comes a-galloping to
+the chase. Yes, even that pallid beast, Sir John!--and the tears of
+Claire Putnam to haunt him if he were a man and not the dirty libertine
+he is!"
+
+I looked upon her whitened face in ever-rising passion:
+
+"I tell you," said I, "that the backwoods aristocracy is the better and
+safer caste, for the other is rotten under red coat or blue; and a
+ring-tailed cap doffed by a gnarled hand is worth all your laced cocked
+hats bound around with gold and trailed in the dust with fine, smooth
+fingers!"
+
+Sure I was in a proper phrensy now, nor dreamed myself a target for the
+high gods' laughter, where I vapoured and strode and shouted aloud my
+moral jeremiad.
+
+"So," said I, "you shall have Summer House; and shall, as you sit
+a-knitting, make your choice of honest suitors at your ease and not be
+waylaid and hunted and used without ceremony by the first young hot-head
+who entraps you in the starlight! No! Nor be the quarry of older
+villains and subtler with persuasion. No!
+
+"For today Penelope Grant, spinster, is a burgesse of Johnstown, and is
+a person both respectable and taxed. And any man who would court her
+must conduct suitably and in a customary manner, nor, like a wild
+falcon, circle over head awaiting the opportunity to strike.
+
+"No! All that sport--all that gay laxity and folly is at an end. And
+here's the damned deed that ends it!" I added, thrusting the parchment
+into her hands.
+
+She seemed white and frightened. And, "Oh, Lord!" she breathed, "have I,
+then, conducted so shamelessly? And did I so wholly lose your favour
+when you kissed me?"
+
+I had not meant that, and I winced and grew hot in the cheeks.
+
+"I am not a loose woman," she said in her soft, bewildered way. "Unless
+it be a fault that I find men somewhat to my liking, and their gay
+manners pleasure me and divert me."
+
+I said: "You have a way with men. None is insensible to your youth and
+beauty."
+
+"Is it so?" she asked innocently.
+
+"Are you not aware of it?"
+
+"I had thought that I pleased."
+
+"You do so. Best tread discreetly. Best consider carefully now. Then
+choose one and dismiss the rest."
+
+"Choose?"
+
+"Aye."
+
+"Whom should I choose, John Drogue?"
+
+"Why," said I, losing countenance, "there is the same ardent rabble like
+that plague of suitors which importuned the Greek Penelope. There are
+the sap-pan flies all buzzing."
+
+"Oh. Should I make a choice if entreated?"
+
+"A burgesse is free to choose."
+
+"Oh. And to which suitor should I give my smile?"
+
+"Well," said I, sullenly, "there is Nick. There also is your Cornet of
+Horse--young Jack-boots. And there is the young gentleman whose picture
+you wear in your bosom."
+
+"Captain Watts?" she asked, so naively that jealousy stabbed me
+instantly, so that my smile became a grimace.
+
+"Sure," said I, "you think tenderly on Stephen Watts."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"In fact," I almost groaned, "you entertain for him those virtuous
+sentiments not unbecoming to the maiden of his choice.... Do you not,
+Penelope?"
+
+"He has courted me a year. I find him agreeable. Also, I pity
+him--although his impatience causes me concern and his ardour
+inconveniences me.... The sentiments I entertain for him are virtuous,
+as you say, sir. And so are my sentiments for any man."
+
+"But is not your heart engaged in this affair?"
+
+"With Captain Watts?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Oh, I thought you meant with you, sir."
+
+I affected to smile, but my heart thumped my ribs.
+
+"I have not pretended to your heart, Penelope."
+
+"No, sir. Nor I to yours. And, for the matter, know nothing concerning
+hearts and the deeper pretensions to secret passions of which one hears
+so much in gossip and romance. No, sir; I am ignorant. Yet, I have
+thought that kindness might please a woman more easily than sighs and
+vapours.... Or so it seems to me.... And that impatient ardour only
+perplexes.... And passion often chills the natural pity that a woman
+entertains for any man who vows he is unhappy and must presently perish
+of her indifference....
+
+"Yet I am not indifferent to men.... And have used men gently.... And
+forgiven them.... Being not hard but pitiful by disposition."
+
+She made a movement of unconscious grace and drew from her bosom the
+little picture of Steve Watts.
+
+"You see," said she, "I guard it tenderly. But he went off in a passion
+and rebuked me bitterly for my coquetry and because I refused to flee
+with him to Canada.... He, being an enemy to liberty, I would not
+consent.... I love my country.... And better than I love any man."
+
+"He begged an elopement that night?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"With marriage promised, doubtless."
+
+"Lord," says she, "I had not thought so far."
+
+"Did he not promise it?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"What? Nor mention it?"
+
+"I did not hear him."
+
+"But in his courtship of a year surely he conducted honestly!" I
+insisted angrily.
+
+"Should a man ask marriage when he asks love, Mr. Drogue?"
+
+"If he means honestly he must speak of it."
+
+"Oh.... I did not understand.... I thought that love, offered, meant
+marriage also.... I thought they all meant that--save only Sir John."
+
+We both fell silent. After a little while: "I shall some day ask Captain
+Watts what he means," said she, thoughtfully. "Surely he must know I am
+a maiden."
+
+"Do you suppose such young men care!" I said sullenly.
+
+But she seemed so white and distressed at the thought that the sneer
+died on my lips and I made a great effort to do generously by my old
+school-mate, Stevie Watts.
+
+"Surely," said I, "he meant no disrespect and no harm. Stephen Watts is
+not of the corrupt breed of Walter Butler nor debauched like Sir
+John.... However, if he is to be your lover--perhaps it were convenient
+to ask him something concerning his respectful designs upon you."
+
+"Yes, sir, I shall do so--if he comes hither again."
+
+So hope, which had fallen a-flickering, expired like a tiny flame. She
+loved Steve Watts!
+
+I turned and limped up the stairway.
+
+And, at the stair-head, met Nick.
+
+"Well," said I savagely, "you may not have her. For she loves Steve
+Watts and dotes on his picture in her bosom. And as for you, you may go
+to the devil!"
+
+"Why, you sorry ass," says he, "have you thought I desired her?"
+
+"Do you not?"
+
+"Good God!" cried he, "because this poor and moon-smitten gentleman hath
+rolled sheep's eyes upon a yellow-haired maid, then, in his mind, all
+the world's aflame to woo her too and take her from his honest arms!
+What the plague do I want of your sweetheart, Jack Drogue, when I've one
+at Pigeon Wood and my eye on another, too!"
+
+Then he fell a-laughing and smote his thighs with a loud slapping.
+
+"Aha!" he cried, "did I not warn you? Did I not foresee, foretell, and
+prophesy that you would one day sicken of a passion for this
+yellow-haired girl from Caughnawaga!"
+
+"Idiot," said I in a rage, "I do not love her!"
+
+"Then you bear all the earmarks!" said he, and went off stamping his
+moccasins and roaring with laughter.
+
+And I went on watch to walk my post all a-tremble with fury, and fair
+sick of jealousy and my first boyish passion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now, it is a strange thing how love undid me; but it is still stranger
+how, of a sudden, my malady passed. And it came about in this way, that
+toward sunset one day, when I came from walking my post on the veranda
+roof to find why Nick had not relieved me, I descended the stairs and
+looked into the kitchen, where was a pleasant smell of cinnamon crullers
+fresh made and of johnnycake and of meat a-stewing.
+
+And there I did see Nick push Penelope into a corner to kiss her, and
+saw her fetch him a clout with her open hand.
+
+Then again, and broad on his surprised and silly face, fell her little
+hand like the clear crack of a drover's whip.
+
+And, "There!" she falters, out o' breath, "there's for you, friend
+Nicholas!"
+
+"My God!" says he, in foolish amaze, "why do you that, Penelope!"
+
+"I kiss whom I please and none other!" says she, fast breathing, and her
+dark eyes wide and bright.
+
+"Whom you please," quoth Nick, abashed but putting a bold face on
+it--"well then, you please me, and therefore ought to kiss me----"
+
+"No, I will not! John Drogue hath shown me what is my privilege in this
+idle game of bussing which men seem so ready to play with me, whether I
+will or no!... Have I hurt you, Nick?"
+
+She came up to him, still flushed and her childish bosom still rising
+and falling fast.
+
+"You love Jack Drogue," said he, sulkily, "and therefore belabour me who
+dote on you."
+
+"I love you both," said she, "but I am enamoured of neither. Also, I
+desire no kisses of you or of Mr. Drogue, but only kindness and good
+will."
+
+"You entertain a passion for Steve Watts!" he muttered sullenly, "and
+there's the riddle read for you!"
+
+But she laughed in his face and took up her pan of crullers and set them
+on the shelf.
+
+"I am chatelaine of Summer House," said she, "and need render no account
+of my inclinations to you or to any man. Who would learn for himself
+what is in my mind must court me civilly and in good order.... Do you
+desire leave to court me, Nick?"
+
+"Not I!--to be beaten by a besom and flouted and mocked to boot! Nenni,
+my pretty lass! I have had my mouthful of blows."
+
+"Oh. And your comrade? Is he, do you think, inclined to court me?"
+
+"Jack Drogue?"
+
+"The same."
+
+"You have bedeviled him," said Nick sulkily, "as you have witched all
+men who encounter you. He hath a fever and is sick of it."
+
+She was slicing hot johnnycake with a knife in the pan; and now looked
+up at him with eyes full of curiosity.
+
+"Bewitched him? I?"
+
+"Surely. Who else, then?"
+
+"You are jesting, Nick."
+
+"No. Like others he has taken the Caughnawaga fever. The very air you
+breathe is full of it. But, with a man like my comrade, it is no more
+than a fever. And it passes, pretty maid!--it passes."
+
+"Does it so?"
+
+"It does. It burns out folly and leaves him the healthier."
+
+"Oh, then--with a gentleman like your comrade, Mr. Drogue--l'amour n'est
+qu'une maladie legere qui se guerira sans medecin, n'est-ce pas?"
+
+"Say that in Canada and doubtless the very dicky-birds will answer
+wee-wee-wee!" he retorted. "But if you mean, does John Drogue mate below
+his proper caste, then there's no wee-wee-wee about it; for that the
+Laird of Northesk will never do!"
+
+"I know that," said she coolly. And opened the pot to fork the steaming
+stew, then set on the cover and passed her hand over her brow where a
+slight dew glistened and where her hair curled paler gold and tighter,
+like a child's.
+
+"Friend Nick?"
+
+"I hear thee, breeder of heart-troubles."
+
+"Listen, then. No thought of me should trouble any man as yet. My heart
+is not awake--not troublesome,--not engaged,--no, not even to poor
+Stephen Watts. For the sentiment I entertain for him is only pity for a
+boy, Nick, who is impetuous and rash and has been too much flattered by
+the world.... Poor lad--in his play-hour regimentals!--and no beard on
+his smooth cheek.... Just a fretful, idle, and self-indulgent boy!...
+Who protests that he loves me.... Oh, no, Nick! Men sometimes bewilder
+me; but I think it is our own passion that destroys us women--not
+theirs.... And there is none in me,--only pity, and a great friendliness
+to men.... And these only have ever moved me."
+
+He was sitting on a pine table and munching of a cruller. "Penelope,"
+says he, "your honesty and wholesome spirit should physic men of their
+meaner passions. If you are servant to Douw Fonda, nevertheless you
+think like a great lady. And I for one," he added, munching away, "shall
+quarrel with any man who makes little of the mistress of Summer House
+Point!"
+
+And then--oh, Lord!--she turns from her oven, takes his silly head
+between both hands, and gives him a smack on the lips!
+
+"There," says she, "you have had of your sister what you never should
+have had of the Scottish lass of Caughnawaga!"
+
+He got off the table at that, looking mighty pleased but sheepish, and
+muttered something concerning relieving me on post.
+
+And so, lest I should be disgraced by my eavesdropping, and feeling mean
+and degraded, yet oddly contented that Penelope loved no man with secret
+passion, I slunk away, my moccasins making no sound.
+
+So when Nick came to relieve me he discovered me still on post; and said
+he pettishly: "Penelope Grant hath clouted me, mind and body; and I am
+the better man by it, though somewhat sore; and I shall knock the head
+of any popinjay who fails in the respect all owe this girl. And I wish
+to God I had a hickory stick here, and Sir John Johnson across my knee!"
+
+I went into my chamber and laid me down on my trundle bed.
+
+I was contented. I no longer seemed to burn for the girl. Also, I knew
+she burned for no man. A vast sense of relief spread over me like a soft
+garment, warming and soothing me.
+
+And so, pleasantly passed my sick passion for the Scottish girl; and
+pleasantly I fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+WINTER AND SPRING
+
+
+Snow came as it comes to us in the Northland--a blinding fall, heavy and
+monotonous--and in forty-eight hours the Johnstown Road was blocked.
+
+Followed a day of dazzling sunshine and intense cold, which set our
+timbers cracking; and the snow, like finest flour, creaked under our
+snow-shoes.
+
+All the universe had turned to blue and silver; and the Vlaie Water ran
+fathomless purple between its unstained snows. But that night the clouds
+returned and winds grew warmer, and soon the skies opened with feathery
+white volleys, and the big, thick flakes stormed down again,
+obliterating alike the work of nature and of man.
+
+Summer House was covered to the veranda eaves. We made shovels and
+cleared the roofs and broke paths to stable and well.
+
+Here, between dazzling ramparts, we lived and moved and had our being,
+week after week; and every new snow-storm piled higher our palisades and
+buried the whole land under one vast white pall.
+
+Vlaie Water froze three feet solid; fierce winds piled the ice with
+gigantic drifts so that no man could mark the course of the creeks any
+more; and a vast white desolation stretched away to the mountains,
+broken only by naked hard-wood forests or by the interminable ocean of
+the pines weighted deep with snow.
+
+Only when a crust came were we at any pains to set a watch against a war
+party from the Canadas. But none arrived; no signal smoke stained the
+peaks; nothing living stirred on that dead white waste save those little
+grey and whining birds which creep all day up and down tree-trunks, or a
+sudden gusty flight of snow-birds, which suddenly arrive from nowhere
+and are gone as suddenly.
+
+Once a white owl with yellow eyes sat upon the ridge-pole of our barn;
+but our pullets were safe within, and Penelope drove him away with
+snowballs.
+
+The deer yarded on Maxon; lynx-tracks circled our house and barn, and
+we sometimes heard old tassel-ears a-miauling on the Stacking Ridge.
+
+And, toward the end of February, there were two panthers that left huge
+cat-prints across the drifts on the Johnstown Road; but they took no
+toll of our sheep, which were safe in a stone fold, though the oaken
+door to it bore marks of teeth and claws, where the pumas had striven
+hard to break in and do murder.
+
+Save when a crust formed and we took our turns on guard, my Indian
+rolled himself in bear-furs by the kitchen oven, and like a bear he
+slept there until hunger awoke him long enough to gorge for another
+stretch of sleep.
+
+Nick and I took axes to the woods and drew logs on a sledge to split for
+fire use. Our tasks, too, kept us busy feeding our live creatures,
+fetching water, keeping paths open, and fishing through the ice.
+
+In idler intervals we carved devices upon our powder-horns, cured
+deer-skins in the Oneida fashion, boiled pitch and mended our canoe,
+fashioned paddles, poles, and shafts for fish-spears, strung snow-shoes,
+built a fine sledge out of ash and hickory, and made Kaya draw us on the
+crust.
+
+So, all day, each was busy with tasks and duties, and had little leisure
+left for that dull restlessness which, in idle people, is the root of
+all the mischief they devise to do.
+
+Penelope mended our clothing and knitted mittens and jerkins. All
+house-work and cooking she accomplished, and milked and churned and
+cared for the pullets. Also, she dipped candles and moulded bullets from
+the lead bars I found in the gun-room. And when our deer-skins were
+cured and softened, she made for us soft wallets, sacks, and pouches,
+and sewed upon them bright beads in the Oneida fashion, from the pack of
+trade beads in Sir William's gun-room. She sewed upon every accoutrement
+a design done in scarlet beads, showing a picture of a little red foot.
+
+Lord, but we meant to emerge from our snows in brave fashion, come
+spring-tide; for now our deer-skin garments were splendid with beads,
+and our fringes were green and purple. Also, Nick had trapped it some
+when opportunity offered, setting his line from Summer House along Vlaie
+Water to Howell's house, thence across the frozen Drowned Lands to the
+Stacking Ridge, and from there back over the Spring Pool, and thence
+down-creek to the Sacandaga, where Fish House stood with its glazed
+windows empty as a blind man's eyes.
+
+He had, by March, a fine pack of peltry; and of these we cured and used
+sufficient muskrat to sew us blankets, and made a mantle of otter for
+Penelope and a hood and muff to match.
+
+For ourselves we made us caps out of black mink, and sewed all together
+by our dip-lights in the red firelight, where apples slowly sizzled with
+the rich, sweet perfume I love to smell.
+
+Sometimes Nick played upon his fife; and sometimes we all told stories
+and roasted chestnuts. Nick had more stories and more imagination than
+had I, and a livelier wit in the telling of tales. But chiefly I was
+willing to hear Penelope when she told us of her childhood in France,
+and how folk lived in that warm and sweet country, and what were their
+daily customs.
+
+Also, she sang sometimes children's songs of France, and other pretty
+ballads, mostly concerning love. For the French occupy themselves
+chiefly with love and cooking and the fine arts, I judge, and know how
+to make an art of eating, also. For there in France every meal is a
+ceremony; but in this land we eat not for the pleasurable taste which,
+in savory food, delights and tempts, but we eat swiftly and carelessly
+and chiefly to stay our hunger.
+
+Yet, at times, food smacks smartly to my tongue; as when at Christmas
+tide I shot a great wild turkey on the Stacking Ridge; and when Penelope
+basted it in the kitchen my mouth watered as I sniffed the door-crack.
+
+And again, gone stale with soupaan and jerked meat and fish soused or
+dried with salt, Nick shot a yearling buck near our barn at daylight;
+and the savour of his cooking filled all with pleasure.
+
+Upon the New Year we made a feast and had a bottle of Sir William's
+port, another of Madeira, a punch of spirits, and three pewters of
+buttery ale.
+
+Lord! there was a New Year. And first, not daring to give drink to my
+Saguenay, we fed him till he was gorged, and so rolled him in a pile of
+furs till he slept by the oven below. Then we set twenty dips afire by
+the chimney, and filled it up with dry logs.... I am sorry we had so
+little sense; for I was something fuddled, and sang ballads--which I can
+not--and Nick would dance, which he did by himself; and his hornpipes
+and pigeon-wings and shuffles and war-dances made my head spin and my
+heavy eyes desire to cross.
+
+Penelope's cheeks burned, and she fanned and fanned her with a turkey
+wing and laughed to see Nick caper and to hear the piteous squalling
+which was my way of singing.
+
+But she complained that the dip-lights danced and that the floor behaved
+in strange fashion, running like ripples on Vlaie Water in a west wind.
+
+She had sipped but one glass of Sir William's port, but I think it was a
+glass too much; for the wine made her so hot, so she vowed, that her
+body was all one ardent coal, and so presently she pulled the hair-pegs
+from her hair and let it down and shook it out in the firelight till it
+flashed like a golden scarf flung about her.
+
+Her pannier basque of rose silk--gift of Claudia and made in France--she
+presently slipped out of, leaving her in her petticoat and folded like a
+Quakeress in her crossed foulard, and her white arms as bare as her
+neck.
+
+Which innocently concerned her not a whit, nor had she any more thought
+of her throat's loveliness than she had of herself in her shift that
+morning at Bowman's.
+
+She sat cooling her face with the turkey-wing fan and watching Nick's
+contre-dancing--his own candle-cast shadow on the wall dancing
+vis-a-vis--and she laughed and laughed, a-fanning there, like a child
+delighted by the antics of two older brothers, while Nick whirled on
+moccasined feet in his mad career, and I fifed windily to time his
+gambolading.
+
+Then we played country games, but she would not kiss us as forfeit,
+defending her lips and vowing that no man should ever again take that
+toll of her.
+
+Which contented me, though I remonstrated; and I was glad that Nick
+should not cheapen her lips though it cost me the same privilege. For we
+played "Swallow! Swallow!" and I guessed correctly how many apple pips
+she held in her hand when she sang:
+
+    "Who can count the swallow's eggs?
+    Try it, Master Nimble-legs!
+    Climb and find a swallow's nest,
+    Count the eggs beneath her breast,
+    Take an egg and leave the rest
+    And kiss the maid you love the best!"
+
+But it was her hand only we might kiss, and but one finger at that--the
+smallest--for, says she, "John Drogue hath said it, and I am mistress of
+Summer House! What I choose to give--or forgive--is of my proper
+choice.... And I do not choose to be kissed by any man whether he wears
+silk puce or deer-skin shirt!"
+
+But the devil prompted me to remember Steve Watts, and my countenance
+changed.
+
+"Do you bar regimentals?" I asked, forcing a wry smile.
+
+She knew what was in my mind, for jealousy grinned at her out of my
+every feature; and she came toward me and laid her light hand upon my
+arm.
+
+"Or red coat or blue, my lord," she said, her smile fading to a glimmer,
+"men have had of me my last complaisance. Are you not content? You
+taught me, sir."
+
+"If he taught you that a kiss is folly, he taught you more folly than is
+in a thousand kisses!" cries Nick. "Why," said he, turning on me, "you
+pitiful, sober-faced, broad-brimmed spoil-sport!" says he, "what are
+lips made for, you meddlesome ass, and be damned to you!"
+
+Instantly we were in clinch like two bears; and we wrestled and strained
+and swayed there, panting and nigh stifled with our laughter, till we
+fell with a crash that shook the house and set the bottles clinking; and
+there thrashed like a pair o' pups till I got his shoulders flat.
+
+But it was nothing--he being the younger--and he leaped up and fell to
+treading an Oneida battle-dance, while Penelope and I did beat upon the
+table, singing:
+
+    "Ha-wa-sa-say!
+    Hah!
+    Ha-wa-sa-say--"
+
+till the door opened and there stands my Saguenay, bleary-eyed,
+sleep-muddled, but his benumbed brain responsive to the thumping cadence
+of the old scalp-song.
+
+But I pushed him down stairs ere he had sniffed a lung-full of our
+punch, having no mind to face a drink-mad Indian that night or any
+other.
+
+So I went below and piled the furs upon him and waited till he snored
+before I left him to his hibernation.
+
+Such childishness! Who would believe it of us that were no longer
+children! And all alone there in a little house amid a vast and wintry
+wilderness, where no living thing stirred abroad save the white hare's
+ghost in the starlight, and the shadow of the lean, weird beast that
+tracked her.
+
+Well, if we conducted like children we were as light-minded and as
+innocent. There was in our behaviour no lesser levity; in our mirth no
+grossness; in our jests and stories no license of the times nor any
+country coarseness in our speech.
+
+Nor, in me, now remained aught of that sick-heart jealousy nor
+sentimental disorder which lately had seized me and upset my sense and
+reason.
+
+My sentiments concerning Penelope seemed very clear to me now;--a warm
+liking; a chivalrous desire for her well-being and happiness; a pride
+that I had been, in some measure, the instrument which had awakened her
+to her own prerogatives in a world whose laws are made by men.
+
+And if, on such an occasion as this, she gave us her countenance and
+even frolicked with us, there was a new and clearer note in her
+laughter, a swifter confidence in her smile, and, in voice and look and
+movement, a subtle and shy authority which had not been there in the
+inexperienced and candid child whose heart seemed bewildered when
+assaulted, and whose lips, undefended, rendered them to the first
+marauder.
+
+I said as much, one day, to Nick.
+
+"You've turned the child's head," said he, "with your kingly
+benefactions. You have but to woo her if you want her to wife."
+
+"Wife!" said I, scared o' the very word. "What the devil shall I do with
+a wife, who am contented as I am? Also, it is not in her mind, nor in
+mine, who now are pleasant friends and comrades.... Also," I added,
+"love is a disorder and begets a brood of jealousies to plague a man to
+death! I am calm and contented. I am enamoured of no woman, and do not
+desire to be so.... Although, when I pass thirty, and possess estates,
+doubtless I shall desire an heir."
+
+"And go a-hunting a mother for this same heir among the gilt-hats of New
+York," said Nick. "Which is your destiny, John Drogue, for like seeks
+like, and a yeoman is born, not made;--and wears his rings in his
+ears----"
+
+"Have done!" said I impatiently. "I _am_ of the soil! I love it! I love
+plowed land and corn and the smell of stables! I love my log house and
+my glebe and the smell of English grass!"
+
+"But a servant is a servant, John Drogue, and the mistress of your roof
+shall have walked in silk before she ever puts on homespun and pattens
+for love of you! Lord, man! I am I, and you are you! And we mate not
+with the same breed o' birds. No! For mine shall be a ground-chick of
+sober hue and feather; and your sweetheart shall have bright wings and
+own the air for a home.
+
+"That is already written: 'each after its kind.' So God send you your
+rainbow lady from the clouds, and give you a pretty heir in due event;
+and as for me, if I guess right, my mate to be hath never fluttered
+higher than her garret nor worn a shred of silk till she sews her
+wedding dress!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the last day of March maple sap ran.
+
+Nick and I set out that day to seek a sugar-bush for the new mistress of
+Summer House.
+
+Snow was soft and our snow-shoes scarce bore us, but we floundered along
+the hard woods, and presently discovered a grove of stately maples.
+
+All that day we were busy in the barn making buckets out o' staves
+stored there; and on the first day of April we waded the softening snow
+to the new sugar-bush, tapped the trees, set our spouts and buckets, and
+also drew thither a kettle and dry wood against future need.
+
+I remember that the day was clear and warm, where, in the sun, the barn
+doors stood open and the chickens ventured out to scratch about, where
+the sun had melted the snow.
+
+All day long our cock was a-crowing and a-courting; the south wind came
+warm with spring and fluttered the wash which Penelope was hanging out
+to dry and whiten under soft, blue skies.
+
+In pattens she tripped about the slushy yard, her thick, bright hair
+pegged loosely, and her child's bosom and arms as white as the snow she
+stepped on.
+
+Save only for my Saguenay, who stood on the veranda roof, resting upon
+his rifle, the scene was sweet and peaceful. Sheep bleated in yard and
+fold; cattle lowed in their manger; our cock's full-throated challenge
+rang out under sunny skies; and everywhere the blue air was murmurous
+with the voice of rills running from the melting snows like mountain
+brooks.
+
+On Vlaie Water the ice rotted awash; and already black crows were
+walking there, and I could see them busily searching the dead and yellow
+sedge, from where I sat hooping my sap-buckets and softly whistling to
+myself.
+
+Nick made a snowball and flung it at me, but I dodged it. Then Penelope
+made another and aimed it at me so truly that the soft lump covered my
+cap and shoulders with snow.
+
+But her quick peal of laughter was checked when I sprang up to chasten
+her, and she fled on her pattens, but I caught her around the corner of
+the house under the lilacs.
+
+"You should be trussed up and trounced like any child," said I, holding
+her with one hand whilst I scraped out snow from my neck with t'other.
+
+At that she bent and flung a handful of snow over me; and I seized her,
+bent her back, and scrubbed her face till it was pink.
+
+Choked with snow and laughter, we swayed together, breathless, she still
+defiant and snatching up snow to fling over me.
+
+"_You_ truss _me_ up!" she panted. "Do you think you are more than a boy
+to use me as a father or a husband only has the right?"
+
+"You little minx!" said I, when I had spat out a mouthful of snow, "is
+not anyone free to trounce a child!----"
+
+At that I slipped, or she tripped me; into a drift I went, and she
+pounced on me and sat astride with a cry of triumph.
+
+"Now," says she, "I shall take your scalp, my fine friend"; and twisted
+one hand in my hair.
+
+"Hiu-u! Kou-ee!" she cried, "a scalp taken means war to the end! Do you
+cry me mercy, John Drogue?"
+
+I struggled, but the snow was soft and I sank the deeper, and could not
+unseat her.
+
+"I drown in snow," said I. "Get up, you jade!"
+
+"Jade!" cries she, and stopped my mouth with snow.
+
+I struggled in vain; under her clinging weight the soft snow engulfed
+and held me like a very quicksand. I looked up at her and she laughed
+down at me.
+
+"Do you yield you, John Drogue?"
+
+"It seems I must. But wait!----"
+
+"You threaten!"
+
+"No! Do you mean to drown me, you vixen!"
+
+"You engage not to seek revenge?"
+
+"I do so."
+
+"Why? Because you love me tenderly?"
+
+"Yes," said I, half choked. "Let me up, you plague of Egypt!"
+
+"That is not a loving speech, John Drogue. Do you love me or no?"
+
+"Yes, I do,--you little,----"
+
+"Little what?"
+
+"Object of my heart's desire!" I fairly yelled. "I am like to smother
+here!----"
+
+"This is All Fools' Day," says she, sick with laughter to see me mad and
+at her mercy. "Therefore, you must tell me lies, not truths. Tell me a
+pretty lie,--quickly!--else I scrub your features!"
+
+After a helpless heave or two I lay still.
+
+"You say you love me tenderly. That is a lie, John Drogue--it being All
+Fools' Day. So you shall vow, instead, that you hate me. Come, then!"
+
+"I hate you!" said I, licking the snow from my lips.
+
+"Passionately?"
+
+I looked up at her where deep in the snow, under the lilacs, I lay, my
+arms spread and her two hands pinning my wrists. She was flushed with
+laughter and I saw the devils o' mischief watching me deep in her dark
+eyes.
+
+"It was under these lilacs," said I, "that I had my first hurt of you.
+You should heal that hurt now."
+
+That confused her, and she blushed and swore to punish me for that
+fling; but I grinned at her.
+
+"Come," said I, "heal me of my ancient wound as you dealt it me--with
+your lips!"
+
+"I did not kiss Steve Watts!"
+
+"But he kissed you. So do the like by me and I forgive you all."
+
+"All?"
+
+"Everything."
+
+"Even what I have now done?"
+
+"Even that."
+
+"And you will not truss me up to chasten me when you go free? For it
+would shame me and I could not endure it."
+
+"I promise."
+
+She looked down at me, smiling, uncertain.
+
+"What will you do to me if I do not?" she asked.
+
+"Drown you in snow three times every day."
+
+"And I needs must kiss you to buy my safety?"
+
+"Yes, and with hearty good will, too."
+
+She glanced hastily around, perhaps to seek an avenue for escape,
+perhaps to see who might spy us.
+
+Then, looking down at me, a-blush now, yet laughing, she bent her head
+slowly, very slowly to mine, and rested her lips on mine.
+
+Then she was up and off like a young tree-lynx, fleeing, stumbling on
+her pattens; but, like a white hare, I lay very still in my form,
+unstirring, gazing up into the bluest, softest sky that my dazzled eyes
+ever had unclosed upon.
+
+There was a faint fragrance in the air. It may have been arbutus--or the
+trace of her lips on mine.
+
+In my ears trilled the pretty melody of a million little snow rills
+running in the sunshine. I heard the gay cock-crow from the yard, the
+restless lowing of cattle, the distant caw of a crow flying high over
+the Drowned Lands.
+
+When at last I got to my feet a strange, new soberness had come over me,
+stilling exhilaration, quieting the rough and boyish spirits which had
+possessed me.
+
+Penelope, hanging out linen to sweeten, looked at me over her shoulder,
+plainly uncertain concerning me. But I kept my word and did not offer to
+molest her, and so went about my cooper's work again, where Nick also
+squatted, matching bucket staves, whilst I fell to shaping sap-pans.
+
+It was very still there in the sunshine. And, as I sat there, it seemed
+to me that I was putting more behind me than the icy and unsullied
+months of winter,--and that I should never be a boy any more, with a
+boy's passionless and untroubled soul.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And so came spring upon us in the Northland that fateful year of '77,
+with blue skies and melting snow and the cock's clarion sounding clear.
+
+But it was mid-April before the first Forest Runner, with pelts, passed
+through the Sacandaga, twelve days out from Ty, and the woods nigh
+impassable, he gave account, what with soft drifts choking the hills and
+all streams over their banks.
+
+And then, for the first, we learned something concerning the great war
+that was waging everywhere around our outer borders,--how His Excellency
+had surprised the Hessians at Trenton, and had tricked Cornwallis and
+beat up the enemy at Princeton. It was amazing to realize that His
+Excellency, with only the frozen fragments of a meagre and defeated
+army, had recovered all the Jerseys. But this was so, thank God; and we
+wondered to hear of it.
+
+All this the Forest Runner told us as he ate and drank in the
+kitchen,--and how Lord Stirling had been made a major-general, and that
+we had now enlisted four fine regiments of horse to curb DeLancy's bold
+riders; and how that great Tory, John Penn, who was lately Governor of
+Pennsylvania, Thomas Wharton, and Benjamin Chew, had been packed off
+with other villains as prisoners into Virginia. Which pleased me,
+because of all that Quaker treachery in the proprietary; and I deemed
+them mean and selfish and self-righteous dogs who whined all day of
+peace and brotherhood and non-resistance, and did conduct most cruelly
+by night for greed and sordid gain.
+
+Not that I liked the New Englanders the better; but, of the two,
+preferred them and had rather they settled the Pennsylvania wilds than
+that the sly, smug proprietaries multiplied there and nursed treason at
+the breast.
+
+Well, our Coureur-du-Bois, in his greasy leather, quills, and scarlet
+braid, had other news for us less palatable.
+
+For it seemed that we had lost two thousand men and all their artillery
+when Fort Washington fell; that we had lost a hundred more men and
+eleven vessels to Sir Guy Carleton on Lake Champlain; that the garrison
+at Ty was a slim one and sick for the most, and the relief regiments
+were so slow in filling that three New England states were drafting
+their soldiery by force.
+
+There were rumours rife concerning the summer campaign, and how the
+British had a plan to behead our new United States by lopping off all
+New England.
+
+It was to be done in this manner: Guy Carleton's army was to come down
+from the North through the lakes, driving Gates, descend the Hudson to
+Albany and there join Clinton and his British, who were to force the
+Highlands, march up the river, and so hold all the Hudson, which would
+cut the head--New England--from the body of the new nation.
+
+And to make this more certain, there was now gathering in the West an
+army under Butler and Brant, to strike the Mohawk Valley, sweep through
+it to Schenectady, and there come in touch with Burgoyne.
+
+To oppose this terrible invasion from three directions we had forts on
+the Hudson and a few troops; but His Excellency was engaged south of
+these points and must remain there.
+
+We had, at Ty, a skeleton army, and Gates to lead it, with which to face
+Burgoyne. We had, in the Mohawk Valley, to block the west and show a
+bold front to Brant and Butler, only fragments of Van Schaick's and
+Livingston's Continental line, now digging breastworks at Stanwix, a
+company at Johnstown, and at a crisis, our Tryon County militia, now
+drilling under Herkimer.
+
+And, save for a handful of Rangers and Oneidas, these were all we had in
+Tryon to resist the hordes that were gathering to march on us from
+north, west and south,--British regulars with horse, foot, and
+magnificent artillery; partizans and loyalists numbering 1200; a
+thousand savages in their paint; Highlanders, Canadians, Hessians; Sir
+John Johnson's regiment of Royal Greens; Colonel John Butler's regiment
+of Rangers; McDonald's renegades and painted Tories--God! what a
+murderous horde; and all to make their common tryst here in County
+Tryon!
+
+Our grim, lank Forest Runner sprawled on the settle by the kitchen
+table, smoking his bitter Indian tobacco and drinking rum and water,
+well sugared; and Penelope and Nick and I sat around him to listen, and
+look gravely at one another as we learned more and more of what it
+seemed that Fate had in storage for us.
+
+The hot spiced rum loosened the Runner's tongue. His name was Dick
+Jessup; and he was a hard, grim man whose business, from youth--which
+was peltry--had led him through perilous ways.
+
+He told us of wild and horrid doings, where solitary settlers and lone
+trappers had been murdered by Guy Carleton's outlying Iroquois, from
+Quebec to Crown Point.
+
+Scores and scores of scalps had been taken; wretched prisoners had
+suffered at the Iroquois stake under tortures indescribable--the mere
+mention of which made Penelope turn sickly white and set Nick gnawing
+his knuckles.
+
+But what most infuriated me was the thought that in the regiments of old
+John Butler and Sir John Johnson were scores of my old neighbors who now
+boasted that they were coming back to cut our throats on our own
+thresholds,--coming back with a thousand savages to murder women and
+children and ravage all with fire so that only a blackened desert should
+remain of the valleys and the humble homes we had made and loved.
+
+Jessup said, puffing the acrid willow smoke from his clay: "Where I lay
+hidden near Oneida Lake, I saw a Seneca war party pass on the crust; and
+they had fresh scalps which dripped on the snow.
+
+"And, near Niagara, I saw Butler's Rangers manoeuvring on snow-shoes,
+with drums and curly bugle-horns."
+
+"Did you know any among them?" I asked sombrely.
+
+"Why, yes. There was Michael Reed, kin to Henry Stoner."
+
+"My cousin, damn him!" quoth Nick, calmly.
+
+"He was a drummer in the Rangers of John Butler," nodded Jessup. "And I
+saw Philip Helmer there in a green uniform, and Charles Cady, too, of
+Fonda's Bush."
+
+"All I ask," says Nick, "is to get these two hands on them. I demand no
+weapons; I want only to feel my fingers closing on them." He sat staring
+into space with the blank glare of a panther. Then, "Were they painted?"
+he demanded.
+
+"No," said Jessup, "but Simon Girty was and Newberry, too. There were a
+dozen painted Tories or blue-eyed Indians,--whatever you call 'em,--and
+they sat at a Seneca fire where the red post stood, and all eating
+half-raw venison, guts and all----"
+
+Penelope averted her pallid face and leaned her head on her hand.
+
+Jessup took no notice: "They burned a prisoner that day. I was sick,
+where I lay hidden, to hear his shrieks. And the British in their
+cantonments could hear as plainly as I, yet nobody interfered."
+
+"There could have been no British officer there," said Penelope, in the
+ghost of a voice.
+
+"Well, there were, then," said Jessup bluntly. Turning to me he added:
+"There's a gin'rall there at Niagara, called St. Leger, and he's a
+drunken son of a slut! We should not be afeard of that puffed up
+bladder, and I hope he comes against us. But Butler has some smart
+officers, like his son Walter, and Lieutenant Hare, and young Stephen
+Watts----"
+
+"You saw _him_ there!" exclaimed Penelope.
+
+"Yes, I saw him in a green uniform; and, with him also, a-horse, rode
+Sir John Johnson, all in red, and Walter Butler in black and green, and
+his long cloak a-trail to his spurs. By God, there is a motley crew for
+you--what with Brant in the saddle, in paint and buckskins and fur robe,
+and shaved like any dirty Mohawk; and Hiakatoo, like a blackened devil
+out o' hell, all barred with scarlet and wearing the head of a great
+wolf for a cap, as well as the pelt to cover his war-paint!--and
+McDonald, with his kilt and dirk, and the damned black eyes of him and
+the two buck-teeth shining on his lips!--God!" he breathed; and took a
+long pull at his pannikin of spiced rum.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That evening Jessup left for Johnstown on his way to Albany with his
+peltry; and took with him a letter which I wrote to the Commandant at
+Johnstown fort.
+
+But it was past the first of May before I had any notice taken of my
+letter; and on a Sunday came an Oneida runner, bearing two letters for
+me; one from the Commandant, acquainting me that it was not his
+intention to garrison Fish House or Summer House, that Nick and I were
+sufficient to stand watch on the Mohawk Trail and Drowned Lands and
+report any movement threatening the Valley from the North, and that what
+few men he had must go to Stanwix, where the fort had not yet been
+completed.
+
+The other letter was writ me from Fonda's Bush by honest John Putman:
+
+     "Friend Jack" (says he), "this Bush is a desert indeed and all run
+     off,--the Tories to Canady,--such as the Helmers, Cadys, Bowmans,
+     Reeds, and the likes,--save Adam Helmer, who is of our
+     complexion,--and our own people who are friends to liberty have
+     fled to Johnstown excepting me,--all the women and children,--Jean
+     De Silver's family, De Luysnes' people, the Salisburys, Scotts,
+     Barbara Stoner, who married Conrad Reed and has gone to New York
+     now; and all the Putmans save myself, who shall go presently in
+     fear of the savages and Sir John.
+
+     "Sir, it is sad to see our housen empty and our fields fallow, and
+     weeds growing in plowed land. There remain no longer any cattle or
+     fowls or any beasts at all, only the wild poultry of the woods come
+     to the deserted doorsteps, and the red fox runs along the fence.
+
+     "Your house stands empty as it was when you marched away. Only
+     squirrels inhabit it now, and porcupines gnaw the corn-crib.
+
+     "Well, friend Jack, this is all I have to say. I shall drive my
+     oxen to Johnstown Fort tomorrow, and give this letter to the first
+     runner or express.
+
+     "I learn that you have bought the Summer House of the Commission. I
+     wish you joy of it, but it seems a perilous purchase, and I fear
+     that you shall soon be obliged to leave it.
+
+     "So, wishing you health, and beholden to you for many
+     kindnesses--as are we all who come from Fonda's Bush--I close, sir,
+     with respect and my obedience and duty to my brave young friend who
+     serves liberty that we old folk and our women and children shall
+     not perish or survive as British slaves.
+
+     "Sir, awaiting the dread onset of Sir John with that firmness which
+     becomes a good American, I am,
+
+     "Your obliged and humble servant,
+
+     "JOHN PUTMAN.
+
+The Oneida left in an hour for Ty.
+
+And it was, I think, an hour later when Nick comes a-running to find me.
+
+"A fire at Fish House," he cries, "and a dense smoke mounting to the
+sky!"
+
+I flung aside my letter, ran to the kitchen, and called Penelope.
+
+"Pack up and be ready to leave!" said I. And, to Nick: "Saddle Kaya and
+be ready to take Penelope a-horse to Mayfield block-house. Call my
+Indian!"
+
+As I belted my shirt and stood ready, my Saguenay came swiftly, trailing
+his rifle.
+
+"Come," said I, "we must learn why that smoke towers yonder to the
+sky."
+
+Penelope took me by the sleeve:
+
+"Do nothing rash, John Drogue," she said in a breathless way.
+
+"Get you ready for flight," said I, fixing a fresh flint. "Nick shall
+run at your stirrup if it comes to that pinch----"
+
+"But _you_!"
+
+"Why, I am well enough; and if the Iroquois are at Fish House then I
+retreat through Varick's, and so by Fonda's Bush to Mayfield Fort."
+
+She clasped her hands.
+
+"I do not wish to leave Summer House," she said pitifully. "What is to
+happen to our sheep and cattle--and to our fowls and all our stores--and
+to Summer House itself?"
+
+"God knows," said I impatiently. "Why do you stand there idle when you
+must make ready for flight!"
+
+"I--I can not bear to have you go to Fish House--all alone----"
+
+"I have the Yellow Leaf, and can keep clear o' trouble. Come,
+Penelope!----"
+
+"When you move toward trouble I do not desire to flee the other way,
+toward safety!----"
+
+"Pack up, Penelope!" shouted Nick, leading Kaya into the orchard, all
+saddled; and fell to making up his pack on the grass.
+
+"At Mayfield Fort!" I called across to Nick. "And if I be not there by
+night, then take Penelope to Johnstown, for it means that the Iroquois
+are on the Sacandaga!"
+
+"I mark you, Jack!" he replied. I turned to the girl:
+
+"Farewell, Penelope," I said. "You shall be safe with Nick."
+
+"But you, John Drogue?"
+
+"Safe in the forest, always, and the devil himself could not catch me,"
+said I cheerily.
+
+She stretched out her hand. I took it, looked at her, then kissed her
+fingers. And so went away swiftly, to where our canoe lay, troubled
+because of this young girl whom I had no desire to fall truly in love
+with, and yet knew I had been near to it many times that spring.
+
+I got into the canoe and took the stern paddle; my Saguenay kneeled down
+in the bow; and we shot out across the Vlaie Water.
+
+Once I turned and looked back over my shoulder; and I saw Penelope
+standing there on the grass, and Nick awaiting her with Kaya.
+
+But I did not wish to feel as I felt at that moment. I did not desire to
+fall in love. No!
+
+"Au large!" I said to my Indian, and swept the birchen craft out into
+the deep and steady current.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+GREEN-COATS
+
+
+Nothing stirred on the Drowned Lands as we drove our canoe at top speed
+between tall bronzed stalks of rushes and dead water-weeds. Vlaie Water
+was intensely blue and patched with golden debris of floating
+stuff--shreds of cranberry vine, rotting lily pads, and the like--and in
+twenty minutes we floated silently into the Spring Pool, opposite the
+Stacking Ridge, where hard earth bordered both shores and where maples
+and willows were now in lusty bud.
+
+Two miles away, against Maxon's sturdy bastion, a vast quantity of smoke
+was writhing upward in dark and cloudy convolutions. I could not see
+Fish House--that oblong, unpainted building a story and a half in
+height, with its chimneys of stone and the painted fish weather vane
+swimming in the sky. But I was convinced that it was afire.
+
+We beached our canoe and drew it under the shore-reeds, and so passed
+rapidly down the right bank of the stream along the quick water, holding
+our guns cocked and primed, like hunters ready for a hazard shot at
+sight.
+
+There was no snow left; all frost was out of the ground along the
+Drowned Lands; and the earth was sopping wet. Everywhere frail green
+spears of new grass pricked the dead and matted herbage; and in
+sheltered places tiny green leaves embroidered stems and twigs; and I
+saw wind-flowers, and violets both yellow and blue, and the amber shoots
+of skunk cabbage growing thickly in wet places. The shadbush, too, was
+in exquisite white bloom along the stream, and I remember that I saw one
+tree in full flower, and a dozen bluejays sitting amid the snowy
+blossoms like so many lumps of sapphire.
+
+Now, on the mainland, a clearing showed in the sunshine; and beyond it I
+saw a rail fence bounding a field still black and wet from last autumn's
+plowing.
+
+We took to the brush and bore to the right, where on firm ground a grove
+of ash and butternut forested the ridge, and a sandy path ran through.
+
+I knew this path. Sir William often used it when hunting, and his cows,
+kept at Fish House when his two daughters lived there, travelled this
+way to and from pasture.
+
+Between us and the Sacandaga lay one of those grassy gulleys where, in
+time of flood, back-water from the Sacandaga spread deep.
+
+My Indian and I now lay down and drew our bodies very stealthily toward
+the woods' edge, where the setback from the river divided us from Fish
+House.
+
+Ahead of us, through the trees, dense volumes of smoke crowded upward
+and unfolded into strange, cloudy shapes, and we could hear a loud and
+steady crackling noise made by feeding flames.
+
+Presently, through the trees, I saw Fish House all afire, and now only a
+glowing skeleton in the sunshine. But the dense smoke came not now from
+Fish House, but from three barracks of marsh-hay burning, which vomited
+thick smoke into the sky. Near the house some tall piles of hewn logs
+were blazing, also a corn-crib, a small barn, and a log farmhouse, where
+I think that damned rascal, Wormwood, once lived. And it had been bought
+by a tenant of Sir William,--one of the patriot Shews or Helmers, if I
+mistake not, who was given favourable advantages to undertake such a
+settlement, but now had fled to Johnstown.
+
+Godfrey Shew's own house, just over the knoll to the eastward, was also
+on fire: I could see the flames from it and a thin brownish smoke which
+belched out black cinders and shreds of charred bark.
+
+I did not see a living creature near these fires, but farther toward the
+east clearing I heard voices and the sound of picks and axes; and my
+Saguenay and I crept thither along the bank of the flooded hollow.
+
+Very soon I perceived the new earthwork and log-stockade made the
+previous summer by our Continentals; and there, to my astonishment, I
+saw a motley company of white men and Indians, who were chopping down
+the timbers of the palisades, levelling the earthwork with pick and
+shovel.
+
+So near were they across the flooded hollow that I recognized Elias
+Beacraft, brother to Benjy, who had gone off with McDonald. Also, I saw
+and knew Captain James Hare, brother to Lieutenant Henry Hare, of
+Butler's regiment; and Henry, also, was there; and Captain Nellis, of
+the forester service. Both the Hares and Nellis were dressed in green
+uniforms, and there were two other green-coats whom I knew not, but all
+busy with their work of destruction, and their axes flashing in the
+sunshine.
+
+The others I had, of course, taken for very savages, for they were
+feathered and painted and wore Indian dress; but when one of these came
+down to the flooded hollow to fill his tin cup and drink, to my horror I
+saw that the eyes in that hideously-painted face were a _light blue_!
+
+"Nai! Yengese!" whispered the Yellow Leaf.
+
+The painted Tory was not ten yards from where we lay, and, as I gazed
+intently at those hideously daubed features, all at once I knew the man.
+
+For this horrid and grotesque figure, all besmeared with ochre and
+indigo, and wearing Indian dress, was none other than an old neighbour
+of mine in Tryon County, one George Cuck, who lived near Jan Zuyler and
+his two buxom daughters, and who had gone off with Sir John last May.
+
+As I stared at him in ever-rising astonishment and rage, comes another
+_blue-eyed Indian_--Barney Cane,--wearing Iroquois paint and feathers,
+and all gaudy in his beaded war-dress. And, at his belt, I saw a fresh
+scalp hanging by its hair,--_the light brown hair of a white man_!
+
+I could hear Cane speaking with Cuck in English. Beacraft came down to
+the water; and Billy Newberry[22] and Hare[22] also came down, both
+wearing the uniform of the forester service. And I was astounded to see
+Henry Hare back again after his narrow escape at Summer House last
+autumn, the night I got my hurt.
+
+[Footnote 22: This same man, William Newberry, a sergeant in Butler's
+regiment; and Henry Hare, lieutenant in the same regiment, were caught
+inside the American lines, court-martialed, convicted of unspeakable
+cruelties, and Were hung as spies by order of General Clinton, July 6th,
+1779.]
+
+But he wore no Valley militia disguise now; all these men were in
+green-coats, openly flaunting the enemy uniform in County Tryon,--save
+only those painted beasts Cuck and Cane.
+
+It was a war party, and it had accomplished a clean job at Fish House;
+and now they all were coming down to the flooded hollow and looking
+across it where lay the short route west to Summer House.
+
+Presently I heard a great splashing to our left, and saw a skiff and two
+green-coats and two Mohawk Indians in it pulling across the back-water.
+
+And these latter were real Mohawks, stripped, oiled, their heads shaved,
+and in their battle-paint, who squatted there in the skiff, scanning
+with glowing eyes the bank where my Saguenay and I lay concealed.
+
+It was perfectly plain, now, what they meant to do. Beacraft, Cane, and
+Cuck went back to the ruined redoubt, and presently returned loaded with
+packs. Baggage and rifles were laid in the skiff.
+
+I touched Yellow Leaf on the arm, and we wriggled backward out of sight.
+Then, rising, we turned and pulled foot for our canoe.
+
+Now my chiefest anxiety was whether Penelope and Nick had got clean away
+and were already well on the road to the Mayfield Block House.
+
+We found our canoe where we had hid it, and we made the still water boil
+with our two paddles, so that, although it seemed an age to me, we came
+very swiftly to our landing at Summer House Point.
+
+Here we sprang out, seized the canoe, ran with it up the grassy slope,
+then continued over the uncut lawn and down the western slope, where
+again we launched it and let it swing on the water, held anchored by its
+nose on shore.
+
+House, barn, orchard, all were deathly still there in the brilliant
+sunshine; I ran to the manger and found it empty of cattle. There were
+no fowls to be seen or heard, either. Then I hastened to the sheep-fold.
+That, also, was empty.
+
+Perplexed, I ran down to the gates, found them open, and, in the mud of
+the Johnstown Road, discovered sheep and cattle tracks, the imprint of
+Kaya's sharp-shod hoofs, a waggon mark, and the plain imprint of Nick's
+moccasins.
+
+So it was clear enough what he and Penelope had done. A terrible anxiety
+seized me, and I wondered how far they had got on the way to Mayfield,
+with cattle and sheep to drive ahead of a loaded waggon and one horse.
+
+And now, more than ever, it was certain that my Indian and I must make a
+desperate stand here to hold back these marauders until our people were
+safe in Mayfield without a shadow of doubt.
+
+The Saguenay had gone to the veranda roof with his rifle, where he could
+see any movement by land or water.
+
+I called up to him that the destructives might come by both routes; then
+I went to my room, gathered all the lead bars and bags of bullets,
+seized our powder keg, and dragged all down to the water, where I stored
+everything in the canoe.
+
+That was all I could take, save a sack of ground corn mixed with maple
+sugar, a flask of rum, and a bag of dry meat.
+
+These articles, with our fur robes and blankets, a fish-spear, and a
+spontoon which I discovered, were all I dared attempt to save.
+
+I stood in the pretty house, gazing desperately about me, sad to leave
+this place to flames, furious to realize that this little lodge must
+perish, which once was endeared to me because Sir William loved it, and
+now had become doubly dear because I had given it to a young girl whom I
+loved--and tenderly--yet desired not to become enamoured with.
+
+Sunshine fell through the glazed windows, where chintz curtains stirred
+in the wind.
+
+I looked around at the Windsor chairs, the table where we had supped
+together so often. I went into Penelope's room and looked at her maple
+bed, so white and fresh.
+
+There was a skein of wool yarn on the table. I took it; gazed at it with
+new and strange emotions a-fiddling at my throat and twitching eyes and
+lips; and placed it in the breast of my hunting shirt.
+
+Then I listened; but my Indian overhead remained silent. So I went on
+through the house, and then down to the kitchen, where I saw all sweetly
+in order, and pan and china bright; and soupaan still simmering where
+Penelope had left it.
+
+There was a bowl of milk there, and the cream thick on it. And she had
+set a dozen red apples handy, with flour and spices and a crock of lard
+for to fashion a pie, I think.
+
+Slowly I went up stairs and then out the kitchen door, across the grass.
+The Saguenay saw me from above and made a sign that all was still quiet
+on the Drowned Lands.
+
+So I went to the manger again, and thence to the barn and around the
+house.
+
+The lilacs had bursted their buds, and I could see tiny bunches pushing
+out on every naked stem where the fragrant, grape-like bunches of bloom
+should hang in May.
+
+Then I looked down, and remembered where I had lain in the snow under
+these same lilacs, and how there Penelope had bullied me and then
+consented to kiss me on the mouth.... And, as I was thinking sadly of
+these things,--bang! went my Indian's rifle from the veranda roof.
+
+I sprang out upon the west lawn and saw the powder cloud drifting over
+the house, and my Indian, sheltered by the roof, reloading his piece on
+one knee.
+
+"By water!" he called out softly, when he saw me.
+
+At that I ran into the house by the front door, which faced south;
+closed and bolted the four heavy green shutters in the two rooms on the
+ground floor, barred the south door and the west, or kitchen door below;
+and sprang up the ladder to the low loft chamber, from whence, stooping,
+I crept out of the south-gable window upon the veranda.
+
+This piazza promenade was nearly as high as the eaves. The gable ends of
+the roof, in which were windows, faced north and south, but the
+promenade ran all around the east end and sides, which, supported by
+columns, afforded a fine rifle-platform for defense against a water
+attack, and gave us a wide view out over the mysterious Drowned Lands.
+
+It was a vast panorama that lay around us--a great misty amphitheatre
+more than a hundred miles in circumference. At our feet lay that immense
+marsh of fifteen thousand acres, called the Great Vlaie; mountains
+walled the Drowned Lands north, east, west; and to the south stretched a
+wilderness of pine and spectral tamaracks.
+
+Lying flat on the roof, and peering cautiously between the spindles of
+the railing, I saw, below on the Vlaie Water, the same skiff I had seen
+at Fish House.
+
+In the heavy skiff, the gunwales of which were barricaded with their
+military packs, lay six green-coats,--Captains Hare and Nellis, Sergeant
+Newberry, Beacraft, and two strangers in private's uniform.
+
+They had a white flag set in the prow.
+
+But the two blue-eyed Indians, Barney Cane and George Cuck, were not
+with them, nor were the two Mohawks. And in a whisper I bade my Saguenay
+go around to the south gable and keep his eye on the gate and the
+Johnstown Road on the mainland.
+
+Hare took the white flag from the prow and waved it, the two rowers
+continuing up creek and heading toward our landing.
+
+Then I called out to them to halt and back water; and, as they paid no
+heed, I fired at their white flag, and knocked the staff and rag out of
+Hare's hand without wounding him.
+
+At that two or three cried out angrily, but their rowers ceased and
+began to back water hastily; and I, reloading, kept an eye on them.
+
+Then Hare stood up in the skiff and bawled through his hollowed hand:
+
+"Will you parley? Or do you wish to violate a flag?"
+
+"Keep your interval, Henry Hare!" I retorted. "If you have anything to
+say, say it from where you are or I'll drill you clean!"
+
+"Is that John Drogue, the Brent-Meester?" he shouted.
+
+"None other," said I. "What brings you to Summer House in such fair
+weather, Harry Hare?"
+
+"I wish to land and parley," he replied. "You may blindfold me if you
+like."
+
+"When I put out your lights," said I, "it will be a quicker job than
+that. What do you wish to do--count our garrison?"
+
+Captain Nellis got up from his seat and replied that he knew how many
+people occupied Summer House, and that, desiring to prevent the useless
+effusion of blood, he demanded our surrender under promise of kind
+treatment.
+
+I laughed at him. "No," said I, "my hair suits my head and I like it
+there rather than swinging all red and wet at the girdle of your
+blue-eyed Indians."
+
+As I spoke I saw Newberry and Beacraft bring the butts of their rifles
+to their shoulders, and I shrank aside as their pieces cracked out
+sharply across the water.
+
+Splinters flew from the painted column on the corner of the house; the
+green-coats all fell flat in their skiff and lay snug there, hidden by
+their packs.
+
+Presently, as I watched, I saw an oar poked out.
+
+Very cautiously somebody was sculling the skiff down stream and across
+in the direction of the reeds.
+
+As the craft turned to enter the marsh, I had a fleeting view of the
+sculler--only his head and arm--and saw it was Eli Beacraft.
+
+I was perfectly cool when I fired on him. He let go his oar and fell
+flat on the bottom of the boat. The echo of my shot died away in
+wavering cadences among the shoreward woods; an intense stillness
+possessed the place.
+
+Then, of a sudden, Beacraft fell to kicking his legs and screeching, and
+so flopped about in the bottom of the boat, like a stranded fish all
+over blood.
+
+The boat nosed in between the marsh-grasses and tall sedge, and I could
+not see it clearly any more.
+
+But the green-coats in it were no sooner hid than they began firing at
+Summer House, and the storm of lead ripped and splintered the gallery
+and eaves, tore off shingles, shattered chimney bricks, and rang out
+loud on the iron hinges of door and shutter.
+
+I fired a few shots into their rifle-smoke, then lay watching and
+waiting, and listening ever for the loud explosion of my Indian's piece,
+which would mean that the painted Tories and the Mohawks were stealing
+upon us from the mainland.
+
+Every twenty minutes or so the men in the batteau-skiff let off a rifle
+shot at Summer House, and the powder-cloud rising among the dead weeds,
+pinxters, and button-ball bushes, discovered the location of their
+craft.
+
+Sometimes, as I say, I took a shot at the smoke; but time was the
+essence of my contract, and God knows it contented me to stand siege
+whilst Penelope and Nick, with waggon and cattle, were plodding westward
+toward Mayfield.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+About four o'clock in the afternoon I was hungry and went to get me a
+piece in the pantry.
+
+Then I took Yellow Leaf's place whilst he descended to appease his
+hunger.
+
+We ate our bread and meat together on the roof, our rifles lying cocked
+across our knees.
+
+"Brother," said I, munching away, "if, indeed, you be, as they say, a
+tree-eater, and live on bark and buds when there is no game to kill,
+then I think your stomach suffers nothing by such diet, for I want no
+better comrade in a pinch, and shall always be ready to bear witness to
+your bravery and fidelity."
+
+He continued to eat in silence, scraping away at his hot soupaan with a
+pewter spoon. After he had licked both spoon and pannikin as clean as a
+cat licks a saucer, he pulled a piece of jerked deer meat in two and
+gravely chewed the morsel, his small, brilliant eyes ever roving from
+the water to the mainland.
+
+Presently, without looking at me, he said quietly:
+
+"When I was only a poor hunter of the Montagnais, I said to myself, 'I
+am a man, yet hardly one.'[23] I learned that a Saguenay was a real man
+when my brother told me.
+
+[Footnote 23: Kon-kwe-ha. Literally, "I am a little of a real man."]
+
+"My brother cleared my eyes and wiped away the ancient mist of tears. I
+looked; and lo! I found that I was a real man. I was made like other men
+and not like a beast to be kicked at and stoned and driven with sticks
+flung at me in the forest."
+
+"The Yellow Leaf is a warrior," I said. "The Oneida Anowara[24] bear
+witness to scalps taken in battle by the Yellow Leaf. Tahioni, the Wolf,
+took no more."
+
+[Footnote 24: "Tortoise," or Noble Clan.]
+
+"Ni-ha-ron-ta-kowa,"[25] said the Saguenay proudly, "onkwe honwe![26]
+Yet it was my _white_ brother who cleared my eyes of mist. Therefore,
+let him give me a new name--a warrior's name--meaning that my vision is
+now clear."
+
+[Footnote 25: He is an Oneida.]
+
+[Footnote 26: "A real man," in Canienga dialect. The Saguenay's Iroquois
+is mixed and imperfect.]
+
+"Very well," said I, "your war name shall be Sak-yen-haton!"[27]--which
+was as good Iroquois as I could pronounce, and good enough for the
+Montagnais to comprehend, it seemed, for a gleam shot from his eyes, and
+I heard him say to himself in a low voice: "Haiah-ya! I am a real
+warrior now!... Onenh! at last!"
+
+[Footnote 27: "Disappearing Mist"--Sakayen-gwaration.]
+
+A shot came from the water; he looked around contemptuously and smiled.
+
+"My elder brother," said he, "shall we two strip and set our knives
+between our teeth, and swim out to scalp those muskrats yonder?"
+
+"And if they fire at us in the water?" said I, amused at his mad
+courage, who had once been "hardly a man."
+
+"Then we dive like Tchurako, the mink, and swim beneath the water, as
+swims old 'long face' the great wolf-pike![28] Shall we rush upon them
+thus, O my elder brother?"
+
+[Footnote 28: Che-go-sis--pickerel. In the Oneida dialect, Ska-ka-lux or
+_Bad-eye_.]
+
+Absurd as it was, the wild idea began to inflame me, and I was seriously
+considering our chances at twilight to accomplish such a business, when,
+of a sudden, I saw on the mainland an officer of the Indian Department,
+who bore a white rag on the point of his hanger and waved it toward the
+house.
+
+He came across the Johnstown Road to our gate, but made no motion to
+open it, and stood there slowly waving his white flag and waiting to be
+noticed and hailed.
+
+"Keep your rifle on that man," I whispered to my Indian, "for I shall go
+down to the orchard and learn what are the true intentions of these
+green-coats and blue-eyed Indians. Find a rest for your piece, hold
+steadily, and kill that flag if I am fired on."
+
+I saw him stretch out flat on his belly and rest his rifle on the
+veranda rail. Then I crawled into the garret, descended through the
+darkened house, and, unbolting the door, went out and down across the
+grass to the orchard.
+
+"What is your errand?" I called out, "you flag there outside our gate?"
+
+"Is that you, John Drogue?" came a familiar voice.
+
+I took a long look at him from behind my apple tree, and saw it was Jock
+Campbell, one of Sir John's Highland brood and late a subaltern in the
+Royal Provincials.
+
+And that he should come here in a green coat with these murderous
+vagabonds incensed me.
+
+"What do you want, Jock Campbell!" I demanded, controlling my temper.
+
+"I want a word with you under a flag!"
+
+"Say what you have to say, but keep outside that gate!" I retorted.
+
+"John Drogue," says he, "we came here to burn Summer House, and mean to
+do it. We know how many you have to defend the place----"
+
+"Oh, do you know that? Then tell me, Jock, if you truly possess the
+information."
+
+"Very well," said he calmly. "You are two white men, a Montagnais dog,
+and a girl. And pray tell me, sir, how long do you think you can hold us
+off?"
+
+"Well," said I, "if you are as thrifty with your skins as you have been
+all day, then we should keep this place a week or two against you."
+
+"What folly!" he exclaimed hotly. "Do you think to prevail against us?"
+
+"Why, I don't know, Jock. Ask Beacraft yonder, who hath a bullet in his
+belly. He's wiser than he was and should offer you good counsel."
+
+"I offer you safe conduct if you march out at once!" he shouted.
+
+"I offer you one of Beacraft's pills if you do not instantly about face
+and march into the bush yonder!" I replied.
+
+At that he dashed the flag upon the road and shook his naked sword at
+me.
+
+"Your blood be on your heads!" he bawled. "I can not hold my Indians if
+you defy them longer!"
+
+"Well, then, Jock," said I, "I'll hold 'em for you, never fear!"
+
+He strode to the fence and grasped it.
+
+"Will you march out? Shame on you, Stormont, who are seduced by this
+Yankee rabble o' rebels when your place is with Sir John and with the
+loyal gentlemen of Tryon!
+
+"For the last time, then, will you parley and march out? Or shall I give
+you and your Caughnawaga wench to my Indians?"
+
+I walked out from behind my tree and drew near the fence, where he was
+standing, his sword hanging from one wrist by the leather knot.
+
+"Jock Campbell," said I, "you are a great villain. Do you lay aside your
+hanger and your pistols, and I will set my rifle here, and we shall soon
+see what your bragging words are worth."
+
+At that he drove his sword into the earth, but, as I set my rifle
+against a tree, he lifted his pistol and fired at me, and I felt the
+wind of the bullet on my right cheek.
+
+Then he snatched his sword and was already vaulting the gate, when my
+Saguenay's bullet caught him in mid-air, and he fell across the top rail
+and slid down on the muddy road outside.
+
+Then, for the first time, I saw the two real Mohawks where they lay in
+ambush in the bush. One of them had risen to a kneeling position, and I
+saw the red flash of his piece and saw the smoke blot out the
+tree-trunk.
+
+For a second I held my fire; then saw them both on the ground under the
+alders across the road, and fired very carefully at the nearest one.
+
+He dropped his gun and let out a startling screech, tried to get up off
+the ground, screeching all the while; then lay scrabbling on the dead
+leaves.
+
+I stepped behind an apple tree, primed and reloaded in desperate haste,
+and presently drew the fire of the other Indian with my cap on my
+ramrod.
+
+Then, as I ran to the gate, my Saguenay rushed by me, leaping the fence
+at a great bound, and I saw his up-flung hatchet sparkle, and heard it
+crash through bone.
+
+I shouted for him to come back, but when he obeyed he had two Mohawk
+scalps,[29] and came reluctantly, glancing down at Campbell where he lay
+still breathing on the muddy road, and darting an uncertain glance at
+me.
+
+[Footnote 29: In October, 1919, the author talked to a farmer and his
+son, who, a few days previously, while digging sand to mend the
+Johnstown road at this point, had disinterred two skeletons which had
+been buried there. From the shape of the skulls, it is presumed that the
+remains were Indian.]
+
+But I told him with an oath that it would be an insult to me if he
+touched a white man's hair in my presence; and he opened the gate and
+came inside like a great, sullen dog from whom I had snatched a bone of
+his own digging.
+
+Very cautiously we retreated through the orchard to the house, entered,
+and climbed again to the roof.
+
+And from there we saw that, in our absence, the boat had been rowed to
+our landing, and that its occupants were now somewhere on the mainland,
+doubtless preparing to assault the place as soon as dusk offered them
+sufficient cover.
+
+Well, the game was nearly up now. Our people should have arrived by this
+time at Mayfield with sheep, cattle, and waggon. We had remained here to
+the limit of safety, and there was no hope of aid in time to save our
+skins or this house from destruction.
+
+The sun was low over the forest when, at length, we crept out of the
+house and stole down to our canoe.
+
+We made no sound when we embarked, and our craft glided away under the
+rushes, driven by cautiously-dipped paddles which left only silent
+little swirls on the dark and glassy stream.
+
+Up Mayfield Creek we turned, which, above, is not fair canoe-water save
+at flood; but now the spring melting filled it brimfull, and a heavy
+current set into Vlaie Water so that there was labour ahead for us; and
+we bent to it as dusk fell over the Drowned Lands.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was not yet full dark when, over my shoulder, I saw a faint rose
+light in the north. And I knew that Summer House was on fire.
+
+Then, swiftly the rosy light grew to a red glow, and, as we watched, a
+great conflagration flared in the darkness, mounting higher, burning
+redder, fiercer, till, around us, vague smouldering shadows moved, and
+the water was touched with ashy glimmerings.
+
+Summer House was all afire, and the infernal light touched us even here,
+painting our features and the paddle-blades, and staining the dark water
+with a prophecy of blood.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was a long and irksome paddle, what with floating trees we
+encountered and the stream over its banks and washing us into sedge and
+brush and rafts of weed in the darkness. Again and again, checked by
+some high dam of drifted windfall, we were forced to make a swampy
+carry, waist high through bog and water.
+
+Often, so, we were forced to rest; and we sat silent, panting,
+skin-soaked in the chilly night air, gazing at the distant fire, which,
+though now miles away, seemed so near. And I could even see trees black
+against the blaze, and smoke rolling turbulently, and a great whirl of
+sparks mounting skyward.
+
+It was long past midnight when I hailed the picket at the grist-mill and
+drove our canoe shoreward into the light of a lifted lantern.
+
+"Is Nick Stoner in?" I called out.
+
+"All safe!" replied somebody on shore.
+
+A dark figure came down to the water and took hold of our bow to steady
+us.
+
+"Summer House and Fish House are burned," said I, climbing out stiffly.
+
+"Aye," said the soldier, "and what of Fonda's Bush, Mr. Drogue?"
+
+"What!" I exclaimed, startled.
+
+"Look yonder," said he.
+
+I scarce know how I managed to stumble up the bushy bank. And then, when
+I came out on level land near the block house, I saw fire to the
+southeast, and the sky crimson above the forest.
+
+"My God!" I stammered, "Fonda's Bush is all afire!"
+
+There was a red light toward Frenchman's Creek, too, but where Fonda's
+Bush should lie a vast sea of fire rose and ebbed and waxed and faded
+above the forest.
+
+"Were any people left there?" I asked.
+
+"None, sir."
+
+"Thank God," I said. But my heart was desolate, for now my house of logs
+that I had builded and loved was gone; my glebe destroyed; all my toil
+come to naught in the distant mockery of those shaking flames. All I had
+in the world was gone save for my slender funds in Albany.
+
+"Where are my friends?" said I to a soldier.
+
+"At the Block House, sir, and very anxious concerning you. They have not
+long been in, but Nick Stoner is all for going back to Summer House to
+discover your whereabouts, and has been beating up recruits for a flying
+scout."
+
+Even as he spoke, I saw Nick come up the road with a torch, and called
+out to him.
+
+"Where have you been, John Drogue?" said he, coming to me and laying a
+hand on my shoulder.
+
+"Is Penelope safe?" I asked.
+
+"She is as safe as are any here in Mayfield. Is it Summer House that
+burns in the north, or only the marsh hay?"
+
+"The whole place is afire," said I. "A dozen green-coats, blue-eyed
+Indians, and two real ones, burnt Fish House and attacked us at Summer
+House. I saw and knew Jock Campbell, Henry Hare, Billy Newberry, Barney
+Cane, Eli Beacraft, and George Cuck. My Saguenay mortally wounded Jock.
+He's lying on the road. He tomahawked a Canienga, too, and took his
+scalp and another's."
+
+"Did _you_ mark any of the dirty crew?" demanded Nick.
+
+"I shot Beacraft and one Mohawk. How many are we at the Block House?"
+
+"A full company to hold it safe," said he, gloomily. "Do you know that
+Fonda's Bush is burning?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+After a silence I said: "Who commands here? I think we ought to move
+toward Johnstown this night. I don't know how many green-coats have come
+to the Sacandaga, but it must have been another detachment that is
+burning Fonda's Bush."
+
+As I spoke a Continental Captain followed by a Lieutenant came up in the
+torch-light; and I gave him his salute and rendered an account of what
+had happened on the Drowned Lands.
+
+He seemed deeply disturbed but told me he had orders to defend the
+Mayfield Fort. He added, however, that if I must report at Johnstown he
+would give me a squad of musket-men as escort thither.
+
+"Yes, sir," said I, "my report should not be delayed. But I have Nick
+Stoner and an Indian, and apprehend no danger. So if I may beg a dish of
+porridge for my little company, and dry my clothing by your block-house
+fire-place, I shall set out within the hour."
+
+He was very civil,--a tall, haggard, careworn man, whose wife and
+children lived at Torloch, and their undefended situation caused him
+deep anxiety.
+
+So I walked to the Fort, Nick and my Indian following; and presently saw
+Penelope on the rifle-platform of the stockade, among the soldiers.
+
+She was gazing at the fiery sky in the north when I caught sight of her
+and called her name.
+
+For a moment she bent swiftly down over the pickets as though to pierce
+the dark where my voice came from; then she turned, and was descending
+the ladder when I entered by the postern.
+
+As I came up she took my shoulders between both hands, but said nothing,
+and I saw she had trouble to speak.
+
+"Yes," said I, "there is bad news for you. Your pretty Summer House is
+no more, Penelope."
+
+"Oh," she stammered, "did you--did you suppose it was the loss of a
+house that has driven me out o' my five senses?"
+
+"Are your sheep and cattle safe?" I asked in sudden alarm.
+
+"My God," she breathed, and stood with her face in both hands, there at
+the foot of the ladder under the April stars.
+
+"What is it frightens you?" I asked.
+
+Her hands fell to her side and she looked at me: "Nothing, sir....
+Unless it be myself," she said calmly. "Your clothing is wet and you are
+shivering. Will you come into the fort?"
+
+We went in. I remembered how I had seen her there that night, nearly a
+year ago, and all the soldiers gathered around to entertain her, whilst
+she supped on porridge and smiled upon them over her yellow bowl's edge,
+like a very child.
+
+The few soldiers inside rose respectfully. A sergeant drew a settle to
+the blazing fire; a soldier brought us soupaan and a gill of rum. Nick
+came in with the Saguenay, and they both squatted down in their blankets
+before the fire, grave as a pair o' cats; and there they ate their fill
+of porridge at our feet, and blinked at the blaze and smoked their clays
+in silence.
+
+I told Penelope that we must travel this night to Johnstown, it being my
+duty to give an account of what had happened, without delay.
+
+"There can be no danger to us on the road," said I, "but the thought of
+leaving you here in this fort disturbs me."
+
+"What would I do here alone?" she asked.
+
+"What will you do alone in Johnstown?" I inquired in turn.
+
+At the same time I realized that we both were utterly homeless; and that
+in Johnstown our shelter must be a tavern, or, if danger threatened, the
+fortified jail called Johnstown Fort.
+
+"You will not abandon me, will you, sir?" she asked, touching my sleeve
+with the pretty confidence of a child.
+
+"Why, no," said I. "We can lodge at Jimmy Burke's Tavern. And there is
+Nick to give us countenance--and a most respectable Indian."
+
+"Is it scandalous for me to go thither in your company?"
+
+"What else is there for us to do?"
+
+"I should go to Albany," said she, "as soon as may be. And I am resolved
+to do so and to seek out Mr. Fonda and disembarrass you of any further
+care for me."
+
+"It is no burden," said I; "but I do not know where I shall be sent, now
+that the war is come to Tryon County. And--I can not bear to think of
+you alone and unprotected, living the miserable life of a refugee in the
+women's quarters at Johnstown Fort."
+
+"Does solicitude for my welfare truly occupy your thoughts, sir?"
+
+"Why, yes, and naturally. Are we not close friends and comrades in
+misfortune, Penelope?"
+
+"I counted it no misfortune to live at Summer House."
+
+"No, nor I.... I was very happy there.... Alas for your pretty
+cottage!--poor little chatelaine of Summer House!"
+
+"John Drogue?"
+
+"I hear you."
+
+"Did you suppose I ever meant to take that gift of you?"
+
+"Why--why, yes! I gave it! Even now I have the deed to the land and
+shall convey it to you. And one day, God willing, a new cottage shall be
+built----"
+
+"Then you must build it, John Drogue, for the land is yours and I never
+meant to take it of you, and never shall.... And I thank you,--and am
+deeply beholden--and touched in my heart's deep depths--that you have
+offered this to me.... Because you desired me to be respectable, and
+well considered by men.... And you wished me to possess substance which
+I lacked--so that none could dare use me lightly and without
+consideration.... And I promise you that I have learned my lesson. You
+have schooled me well, Mr. Drogue.... And if for no other reason save
+respect for you, and gratitude, I promise you I shall so conduct
+hereafter that you shall have no reason to think contemptuously of me."
+
+"I never held you in contempt."
+
+"Yes; when I stole your horse; and when you deemed me easy--and proved
+me so----"
+
+"I meant it not that way!" said I, reddening.
+
+"Yet it was so, John Drogue. I was not difficult. I meant no harm, but
+had not sense enough to know harm when it approached me!... And so I
+thank you for schooling me. But I never could have taken any gift from
+you."
+
+After a silence I rose and went into the officer's quarters.
+
+The Continental Captain was lying on his trundle-bed, but got up and
+sent two men to harness Kaya to our waggon.
+
+I told him I should leave all stores and provisions with him, and asked
+if he would look after our sheep and cattle and fowls until they could
+be fetched to Johnstown and cared for there.
+
+He was a most kindly man, and promised to care for our creatures, saying
+that the eggs and milk would be welcome to his garrison, and that if he
+took a lamb or two he would pay for it on demand.
+
+So when our waggon drove up in the darkness outside, he came and took
+leave of us all very kindly, saying he hoped that Penelope would be safe
+in Johnstown, and that the raiders would soon be driven out of the
+Sacandaga.
+
+I gave him our canoe, for which he seemed grateful.
+
+Then I helped Penelope into the waggon, got in myself and took the
+reins. Nick and the Saguenay vaulted into the box and lay down on our
+pile of furs and blankets.
+
+And so we drove out of the stockade and onto the Johnstown Road,
+Penelope in a wolf-robe beside me, and both her hands clasped around my
+left arm.
+
+"Are you a-chill?" I asked.
+
+"I do not know what ails me," she murmured, "but--the world is so vast
+and dark.... and God is so far--so far----"
+
+"You are unhappy."
+
+"No."
+
+"You grieve for somebody?"
+
+"No, I do not grieve."
+
+"Are you lonesome?"
+
+"I do not know if I am.... I do not know why I tremble so.... The world
+is so dark and vast.... I am so small a thing to be alone in it.... It
+is the war, perhaps, that awes me. It seems so near now. Alas for the
+battles to be fought!--the battles in the North.... Where you shall be,
+John Drogue."
+
+"You said that once before."
+
+"Yes. I saw you there against a cannon's rising cloud.... And a white
+shape near you."
+
+"You said it was Death," I reminded her.
+
+"Death or a bride.... I did not wish to see that vision. I never desire
+to see such things."
+
+"Pooh! Do you really believe in dreams, Penelope?"
+
+"There were strange uniforms there," she murmured, "--not red-coats."
+
+"Oh; green-coats!"
+
+"No. I never saw the like. I never saw such soldiery in England or in
+France or in America."
+
+"They were only dream soldiers," said I gaily. "So now you must laugh a
+little, and take heart, Penelope, because if we two have been made
+homeless this night by fire, still we are young, and in health, and have
+all life before us. Come, then! Shall we be melancholy? And if there are
+to be battles in the North, why, there will be battles, and some must
+die and some survive.
+
+"So, in the meanwhile, shall we be merry?"
+
+"If you wish, sir."
+
+"Excellent! Sing me a pretty French song--low voiced--in my ear,
+Penelope, whilst I guide my horse."
+
+"What song, sir?"
+
+"What you will."
+
+So, holding my arm with both her hands, she leaned close to me on the
+jolting seat and placed her lips at my ear; and sang "Malbrook," as we
+drove toward Johnstown through the dark forest under the April stars.
+
+Something hot touched my cheek.
+
+"Why, Penelope!" said I, "are you weeping?"
+
+She shook her head, rested her forehead a moment against my shoulder,
+and, sitting so, strove to continue--
+
+    "Il ne--ne reviendra--"
+
+Her voice sank to a tremulous whisper and she bowed her face in her two
+hands and rested so in silence, her slender form swaying with the
+swaying waggon.
+
+It was plain to me that the child was afeard. The shock of flight, the
+lurid tokens of catastrophe in the heavens, the alarming rumours in
+those darkening hours, anxiety, suspense, all had contributed to shake a
+heart both gentle and courageous.
+
+For in the thickening gloom around us a very murk of murder seemed to
+brood over this dark and threatened land, seeming to grow more sinister
+and more imminent as the fading crimson in the northern heavens paled to
+a sickly hue in the first faint pallor of the coming dawn.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+BURKE'S TAVERN
+
+
+Now, whether it was the wetting I got on Mayfield Creek and the chill I
+took on the long night's journey to Johnstown, or if my thigh-wound
+became inflamed from that day's exertion at Fish House, Summer House,
+and Mayfield, I do not know for certain.
+
+But when at sunrise we drove up to Jimmy Burke's Tavern in Johnstown, I
+discovered that I could not move my right leg; and, to my mortification,
+Nick and my Indian were forced to make a swinging chair of their linked
+hands, and carry me into the tavern, Penelope following forlornly, her
+arms full of furs and blankets.
+
+Here was a pretty dish! But try as I might I could not set my foot to
+the ground; so they laid me upon a bed and stripped me, and my Saguenay
+wrapped my leg in hot blankets and laid furs over me, till I was wet
+with sweat to the hair.
+
+Presently comes Jimmy Burke himself--that lively, lovable scamp, to whom
+all were friendly; for he was both kind and gay, though a great
+braggart, and few believed that he had any stomach for the deeds he said
+he meant to do in battle.
+
+"Faith," says he, "it's Misther Drogue, God bless him, an' in a sad
+plight along o' the bloody Sacandaga Tories! Wisha then, sorr, had I
+been there it's me would ha' trimmed the hair o' them!"
+
+"Are you well, Jimmy?" I inquired, smiling, spite my pain.
+
+"Am I well? I am that! I was never fitter f'r to fight thim dirty green
+coats of Sir John's. Och--the poor lad! Lave me fetch a hot brick----"
+
+"I'm lame as a one-legged duck, Jimmy," said I. "Send word to the Fort
+that I've an account to render, and beg the Commandant to overlook my
+tardiness until I can be carried thither on a litter."
+
+"And th' yoong leddy, sorr? Will she bait here?"
+
+"Yes; where is she?"
+
+"She lies on a wolf-skin on the bed in the next chamber, foreninst the
+wall, sorr. There's tears on her purty face, but I think she sleeps, f'r
+all that. Is she hurted, too, Misther Drogue?"
+
+"Oh, no. When she wakes send a maid-servant to care for her. Find a
+loft-bed for my Indian and give him no rum--mind that, James Burke!--or
+we quarrel."
+
+"Th' red divil gets no sup in my shabeen!" said he. "Do I lave him gorge
+or no?"
+
+"Certainly. Let him stuff himself. And let no man use him with contempt.
+He is faithful and brave. He is my _friend._ Do you mark me, Jimmy?"
+
+"I do, sorr. And Nick Stoner--that long-legged limb of Satan!--av he
+plays anny thricks on Jimmy Burke may God help him--the poor little
+scut!----"
+
+I had some faint recollection of pranks played upon Burke by Nick in
+this same tavern; but what he had done to Jimmy I did not remember, save
+that it had set Sir William and the town all a-laughing.
+
+"Nick is a good lad and my friend," said I. "Use him kindly. Your wit is
+a match for his, anyway, and so are your fists."
+
+"Is it so!" muttered Burke, casting a smouldering side-look at me. "D'ye
+mind what he done three year come Shrove Tuesday? The day I gave out I
+was a better man than Sir William's new blacksmith? Well, then--av ye
+disremember--that scut of a Nick shtole me breeches, an' he put them on
+a billy-goat, an' tuk him to the tap-room where was company. An',
+'Here,' says he, 'is a better Irishman than you, Jimmy Burke!--an' a
+better fighter, too.' An' wid that the damned goat rares up an' butts me
+over; an' up I gets an' he butts me over, an' up an' down I go, an' the
+five wits clean knocked out o' me, an' the company an' Sir William all
+yelling like loons an' laying odds on the goat----"
+
+I lay there convulsed with laughter, remembering now this prank of the
+most mischievous boy I ever knew.
+
+Burke licked his lips grimly at the memory of that ancient wrong.
+
+"Sure, he's th' bould wan f'r to come into me house wid the score
+unreckoned an' all that balance agin' him."
+
+"Touch pewter with him and forgive the lad," said I. "These are sterner
+days, Jimmy, and we should cherish no private malice here where we may
+be put to it to stand siege."
+
+"Is it thrue, sor, that the destructives are on the Sacandaga?"
+
+"Yes, it is true. Fish House, Summer House, and Fonda's Bush are in
+ashes, Jimmy, and your late friend, Sir John, is at Buck Island with a
+thousand Indians, regulars, and Tories, and like to pay us a call before
+planting time."
+
+"Oh, my God," says Burke, "the divil take Sir John an' the black heart
+of him av he comes back here to murther his old neighbors! Sorra the day
+we let him scape!--him an' Alex White, an' Toby Tice an' moody Wally
+Butler,--an' ould John, an' Indian Claus, an' Black Guy!--may the divil
+take the whole Tory ruck o' them!----"
+
+He checked himself; behind him, through the door, entered a Continental
+Captain; and I sat up in bed to do him courtesy.
+
+As I suspected, here proved to be our Commandant come to learn of me my
+news; and it presently appeared that Nick had run to the jail with an
+account of how I lay here crippled.
+
+Well, the Commandant was a simple, kindly man, whose present anxiety
+made little of military custom. And so he had come instantly to learn my
+news of me; and we talked there alone for an hour.
+
+At his summons a servant fetched paper, ink, pen and sand; and, whilst
+he looked on, I wrote out my report to him.
+
+Also, I made for him a drawing of the Drowned Lands from Fish House to
+Mayfield, marking all roads and paths and trails, and all canoe water,
+carries, and cleared land. For, as Brent-Meester, no man had more
+accurate knowledge of Tryon than had I; and it was all clearly in my
+mind, so that to make a map of it proved no task at all.
+
+I asked him if I was to remain detached and with authority to raise a
+company of rangers--as had once been given me--or whether, perhaps, the
+Line lacked commissioned officers, saying that it was all one to me and
+that I wished only to serve where most needed.
+
+He replied that, unless I went to Morgan's corps of Virginia Riflemen,
+concerning which detail he had heard some talk, my full value lay in my
+woodcraft and in my wide, personal knowledge of the wilderness.
+
+"Who better than you, Mr. Drogue, could take a scout to this same Buck
+Island, where Sir John's hordes are gathering? Who better than yourself
+could undertake a swift and secret mission to any point within the
+confines of this vast desolation of mountain, lake, and forest, which
+promises soon to be the theatre of a most bloody struggle?
+
+"Champlain already spews red-coats upon us in the North. Sir John
+threatens in the West. A great army menaces the Highland Forts and
+Albany from the South. And only such officers as you, sir, are
+competent to discover and dog the march of enemy marauders, come to
+touch with their scouts, follow and ambush them, and lead others to
+vital points across an uncharted world of woods when there are raiders
+to check or communications to threaten and cut."
+
+He rose, hooked up his sword, and shook hands with me.
+
+"I have asked Colonel Willett," said he, "to use your talents in this
+manner, and he has very kindly consented. Johnstown will remain your
+base, therefore, and your employment is certain as soon as you are able
+to walk."
+
+I thanked him and said very confidently that I should be rid of all
+lameness and pain within a day or so.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That night I had a fever; and for pearly four weeks my leg remained
+swollen and red, and the pain was such that I could not bear the weight
+of a linen sheet, and Nick made a frame for my bed-covers, like a tent,
+so that they should not touch me.
+
+Dr. Younglove came from the Flatts,--who was surgeon in General
+Herkimer's brigade of militia--and he said it was a pernicious
+rheumatism consequent upon the cold wetting I got upon a wound still
+green.
+
+Further, he concluded, there was naught to do save that I must lie on my
+back until my trouble departed of its own accord; but he could not say
+how soon that might me--whether within a day or two or as many months,
+or more.
+
+He recommended hot blankets and some draughts which they sent me from
+the pharmacy at the Fort, but I think they did me neither good nor evil,
+but were pleasant and spicy and cooled my throat.
+
+So that was now the dog's life I led during the early summer in
+Johnstown,--a most vexatious and inglorious career, laid by the heels at
+a time when, from three points o' the compass, three separate storms
+were brewing and darkening the heavens, and a tempest more frightful
+than man could conceive was threatening to shatter Tryon, sweep the
+whole Mohawk Valley, and leave Johnstown but a whirl of whitened ashes
+in the evening winds.
+
+We were comfortably established at Burke's Inn, and, as always, baited
+well where food and bed were ever clean and good.
+
+Penelope had the chamber next to mine; Nick slept in the little bedroom
+on my left; and the Saguenay haunted the kitchen, with a perpetual
+appetite never damaged by gorging.
+
+All the news of town and country was fetched me by word o' mouth, by
+penny broadsides, by journals, so that I never wanted for gossip to
+entertain or alarm me.
+
+Town tattle, rumours from West and North, camp news conveyed by
+Coureurs-du-Bois, by runners, by expresses, all this came to my chamber
+where I lay impatient, brought sometimes by Burke, often by Nick, more
+often by Penelope.
+
+She was very kind and patient with me. In the first feverish and
+agonizing days of my illness I had sent for her, and begged her to take
+the first convenient waggon and escort into Albany, where surely Douw
+Fonda would now care for her and the Patroon's household would welcome
+and shelter her until the oncoming storm had passed and her aged charge
+should again return to Caughnawaga.
+
+She would not go, but gave no reason. And, my sickness making me
+peevish, I was often fretful and short with her; and so badgered and
+bullied her that one night, in desperation, she wrote a letter to Douw
+Fonda at my request, offering to go to Albany and care for him if he
+desired it.
+
+But presently there came a polite letter in reply, writ kindly to her by
+the young Patroon himself, who very delicately revealed how it was with
+Mr. Fonda. And it appeared that he had become childish from great age,
+and seemed now to retain no memory of her, and desired not to be cared
+for by anybody--as he said--who was a stranger to him.
+
+Which was sad to know concerning so good and wise and gallant an old
+gentleman as had been Mr. Douw Fonda,--a fine, honourable, educated and
+cultivated man, whose chiefest pleasure was in his books and garden, and
+who never in all his life had uttered an unkind word.
+
+This news, too, was disturbing in another manner; for Mr. Fonda had
+wished, as all knew, to adopt Penelope and make provision for her. And
+now, if his mind had begun to cloud and his memory betray him, no
+provision was likely to be made to support this young girl who was
+utterly alone in the world, and entirely without fortune.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On an afternoon late in May I was feeling less pain, and could permit
+the covers to rest on me, and was impatient for a dish o' porridge.
+About five o'clock Penelope brought me a bowl of chocolate. When she had
+seated herself near me, she took her sewing from her apron pocket, and
+stitched away busily whilst I drank my sweet, hot brew, and watched her
+over the blue bowl's edge.
+
+"Are you better this afternoon, sir?" she inquired presently, not
+lifting her eyes.
+
+I told her, fretfully, that I was but a lame dog and fit only to be
+knocked on the head by some obliging Tory. "I'm sick o' life," said I,
+"where no one heeds me, and I am left alone all day without food or
+companionship, to play at twiddle-thumb."
+
+At that she looked at me in sweet concern, but, seeing me wear a wry
+grin, smiled too.
+
+"Poor lad," said she, "it is nearly a month you lie there so patiently."
+
+"Not patiently; no! And if I knew more oaths than I think up all day
+long it might ease me to endure more meekly this accursed sickness....
+What is it you sew?"
+
+"Wrist-bands."
+
+"Whose?"
+
+As she offered no reply I supposed that she was making a pair o' bands
+for Nick.
+
+"Do you hear further from Albany?" I inquired.
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Then it is sure that Mr. Fonda has become childish and his memory is
+gone," said I, "because if he comprehended your present situation and
+your necessity he would surely have sent for you long since."
+
+"He always was kind," she said simply.
+
+I lay on my pillows, sipping chocolate and watching her fingers so deft
+with thread and needle. After a long silence I asked her rather bluntly
+why she had not long ago consented to the necessary legal steps offered
+her by Mr. Fonda, which would have secured her always against want.
+
+As she made me no answer, I looked hard at her over my bowl, and saw her
+eyes very faintly glimmering with tears.
+
+"The news of Mr. Fonda's condition has greatly saddened you," said I.
+
+"Yes. He was kind to me."
+
+"Why, then, did you evade his expressed wishes?" I repeated. "He must
+surely have loved you like a father to offer you adoption."
+
+"I could not accept," she said in a low voice, sewing rapidly the while.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"I scarcely know. It was because of pride, perhaps.... I was his
+servant. He paid me well. I could not permit him to overpay my poor
+services.... And he has other children, and grandchildren, with whose
+proper claims I would not permit myself--or him--to interfere. No, it
+was unthinkable--however kindly meant----"
+
+"That," said I impatiently, "smacks of a too Scotch and stubborn
+conscience, does it not, Penelope?"
+
+"Stubborn Scotch pride, I fear. For it is not in my Scottish nature to
+accept benefits for which I never can hope to render service in return."
+
+"Imaginary obligation!" said I scornfully, yet admiring the independence
+which, naked and defenceless, prefers to spin its own raiment rather
+than accept the divided cloak of charity.
+
+And it was plain to me that this girl was no beggar, no passive accepter
+of bounties unearned from anybody. And now I was secretly chagrined and
+ashamed that I had so postured before her as My Lord Bountiful, and had
+offered her the Summer House who had refused a modest fortune from a
+good old man who loved her and who had some excuse and reason to so deal
+by one to whom his bodily comfort had long been beholden.
+
+"Few," said I, "would have put aside so agreeable an opportunity for
+ease and comfort in life. I fear you were foolish, Penelope."
+
+She smiled at me: "There is a family saying, 'A Grant grants but never
+accepts'.... I have youth, health, two arms, two legs, and a pair of
+steady eyes. If these can not keep me alive through the world's journey,
+then I ought to perish and make room for another."
+
+"What do you meditate to keep you?" I asked uneasily.
+
+"For the present," said she, still smiling, "what I am doing is well
+enough to keep me in food and clothes and lodging."
+
+At first I did not understand her, then an odd suspicion seized me; for
+I remembered during the last two weeks, when I lay sick, hearing strange
+voices in her ante-chamber, and strange people coming and going in the
+passageway.
+
+Seeing me perplexed and frowning, she laughed and took the empty bowl
+from my hands, and set it aside. Then she smoothed my pillow.
+
+"I am employed by the garrison," said she, "to work for them with needle
+and shears. I do their mending; I darn, stitch, sew, and alter. I patch
+shirts and under-garments; I also make shirts, and devise officers'
+neck-cloths, stocks, and wrist-bands at request.
+
+"Also, I now employ a half-breed Oneida woman as tailoress; and she
+first measures and then I cut out patterns of coats, breeches,
+rifle-frocks, and watch-coats, which she then takes home and sews, then
+tries on her customers, and finally finishes,--I sewing on all galons,
+laces, and braids.... And so you see I pay my way, Mr. Drogue, and am in
+no stress for the present at any rate."
+
+"Good heavens!" said I amazed, "I never dreamed that you were so
+employed!"
+
+"But I am obliged to eat, John Drogue!"
+
+"I have sufficient for both," I muttered. "I thought it was
+understood----"
+
+"That I should live on your bounty, my lord?"
+
+"Will you ever have done with lording me?" I said angrily. "I think you
+do it to plague me."
+
+"I ask forgiveness," she murmured, still smiling. "Also, I crave pardon
+for refusing to live on your kind bounty."
+
+"I do not mean it that way!" said I sharply. "Besides, you kept Summer
+House for us, and did all things indoors and most things outdoor; and
+had no pay for the labour----"
+
+"I had food and a bed. And your protection.... And most excellent
+company," she added, smiling saucily upon me. "You owe me nothing, John
+Drogue. Nor do I mean to owe you,--or any man,--more than that proper
+debt of kindness which kindness to me begets."
+
+I lay back on my pillows, not knowing whether to laugh or scowl. That
+Penelope had become a tailoress and sempstress to the garrison did not
+pleasure me at all; and it was as though I had lost some advantage or
+influence over this girl, whose present situation and whose future did
+now considerably begin to concern me.
+
+Yet, what was I to say against this business, or what offer make her
+that her modesty and pride could consider?
+
+It was perfectly clear to me that she never had intended to be obliged
+to me for anything, and never would be. And now her saucy smile and
+gentle mockery confirmed this conclusion and put me out of countenance.
+
+I cast a troubled glance at her from my pillow, where she sat by my bed
+sewing on a pair of wrist-bands for some popinjay of the garrison--God
+knew who he might be!--and, as I regarded her, further and further she
+seemed to be slipping out of my influence and out of the care which,
+mentally at least, I had felt it my duty to give to her.
+
+She troubled me. She troubled me deeply. Her independence, her
+sufficiency, her beauty, her sly and pretty mockery of me, all conspired
+to give me a new concern for her, and I had not experienced the like
+since Steve Watts kissed her by the lilacs.
+
+I had seen her in many phases, but never before in this phase, and I
+knew not what face to put on such a disturbing situation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For a while I lay there frowning and sulky, and spoke not. She
+tranquilly finished her wrist-bands, went to her chamber, returned with
+a dozen stocks, all cut out and basted, and picked up one to fit a plain
+military frill to it.
+
+From my window, near where my head rested, I saw a gold sunset between
+the maple trees and the roofs across the street. Birds sang their
+evening carols,--robins on every fence post, orioles in the elms, and
+far away a wood-thrush filled the quiet with his liquid ecstasies.
+
+And suddenly it seemed to me horrible and monstrous that this heavenly
+tranquillity should be shattered by the red blast of war!--that men
+could actually be planning to devastate this quiet land where already
+the new harvest promised, tender and green; where cattle grazed in
+blossoming meadows; where swallows twittered and fowls clucked; where
+smoke drifted from chimneys and the homely sights and sounds of a
+peaceful town sweetened the evening silence.
+
+Then the thought of my own helplessness went through me like a spear,
+and I groaned,--not meaning to,--and turned over on my pillow.... And
+presently felt her hand lightly on my shoulder.
+
+"Is it pain?" she asked softly.
+
+"No, only the weariness of life," I muttered.
+
+She was silent, but presently her hand smoothed back my hair, and passed
+in a sort of gentle rhythm across my forehead and my hair.
+
+"If I lie here long enough," said I bitterly, "I may have to beg a crust
+of you. So get you to your sewing and see that you earn enough against a
+beggared cripple's need."
+
+"You mock me," she said in a low voice.
+
+"Why, no," said I. "If I am to remain crippled my funds will dwindle and
+go, and one day I shall sit in the sun like any poor old soldier, with
+palm lifted for alms----"
+
+"I beg--I beg you----" she stammered; and her hand closed on my lips as
+though to stifle the perverse humour.
+
+"Would you offer me charity if I remain crippled?" I managed to say.
+
+"Hush. You sadden me."
+
+"Would you aid me?" I insisted.
+
+She drew a long, deep breath but made no answer.
+
+"Tell me," I repeated, taking her by the hand, "would you aid me,
+Penelope Grant?"
+
+"Why do you ask?" she protested. "You know I would."
+
+"And yet," said I, "although I am in funds, you refuse aid and choose
+rather to play the tailoress! Is that fair?"
+
+"But--I am nothing to you----"
+
+"Are you not? And am I then more to you than are you to me, that you
+would aid me in necessity?"
+
+She drew her hand from mine and went back to her chair.
+
+"That is my fate," said she, smiling at me. "I was born to give, not to
+receive. I can not take; I can not refuse to give."
+
+"Yes," said I, "you even gave me your lips once."
+
+She blushed vividly, her eyes hard on her sewing.
+
+"I shall not do the like again," said she, all rosy to the roots of her
+gold hair.
+
+"And why, pray?"
+
+"Because I know better now."
+
+After a silence I turned me on my pillow and sighed heavily.
+
+"John?" she inquired in gentle anxiety, "are you in great pain?"
+
+I groaned.
+
+She came to me again and laid her cool, soft hand on my head; and I
+caught it in both of mine and drew her down to me.
+
+"I am a cripple and a beggar for your kindness, Penelope," I said. "I
+ask alms of you. Will you kiss me?"
+
+"Oh," she exclaimed, "you have deceived me! Let me go! Loose me
+instantly!"
+
+"Will you kiss me out of that charity which you say you practice?"
+
+"That is not charity!----"
+
+"What is begged for is charity. And you say you are made to give."
+
+"But you taught me otherwise! And now you undo your own schooling!----"
+
+"But I owe it you--this kiss!"
+
+"How do you owe it me?"
+
+"You kissed me in the snow, and left me in your debt."
+
+"Oh, goodness! That frolic! Have you not long ago forgotten our winter
+madness----"
+
+"Like you," said I, "I must pay my just debts and owe nobody." And I
+drew her nearer, all flushed with protest, firm to escape, yet gentle in
+her supple, pretty way lest she hurt me.
+
+I laughed, and saw my gaiety reflected in her eyes an instant.
+
+Then, of a sudden, she put one arm around my neck and rested her lips on
+mine. And so I kissed her, and she suffered it, resting so against me
+with lowered eyes.
+
+The flower-sweetness of her mouth bewildered me, and I was confused by
+it and by the stifled tumult of my heart, so that I scarce had sense
+enough to detain her when she drew away.
+
+She sat at my side, the faint smile still stamped on her lips, but her
+brown eyes seemed a little frightened, and her breast rose and fell like
+a scared bird's under the snowy kerchief.
+
+"Well--and well," says she in her pretty, breathless way--"I am
+overpaid, I think, and you are now acquitted of your debt. And so--and
+so our folly ends ... and now is finally ended."
+
+She took her sewing. A golden light was in the room; and she seemed to
+me the loveliest thing I had ever looked upon. I realized it. I knew she
+was loveliest of all. And the swift knowledge seemed to choke me.
+
+After a little while she stole a look at me, met my eyes, laughed
+guiltily.
+
+"You!" said she, "a schoolmaster! You teach me one thing and would have
+me practice another. What confidence can I entertain for such wisdom as
+is yours, John Drogue?"
+
+"Rules," said I, "are made to be proven by their more interesting
+exceptions. However, in future you are to endure no kiss and no
+caress--unless from me."
+
+"Oh. Is that the new lesson I am to learn and understand?"
+
+"That is the lesson. Will you remember it when I am gone?"
+
+"Gone?"
+
+"Yes. When I am gone away on duty. Will you remember, Penelope?"
+
+"I am like to," she said under her breath, and sewing rapidly.
+
+She stitched on in silence for a while; but now the light was dimming
+and she moved nearer the window, which was close by my bed head.
+
+After a while her hands dropped in her lap; she looked out into the
+twilight. I took her tired little hand in mine, but she did not turn her
+head.
+
+"I have," said I, "two thousand pounds sterling at my solicitor's in
+Albany. I wish you to have it if any accident happens to me.... And my
+glebe in Fonda's Bush.... I shall so write it in my will."
+
+She shook her head slightly, still gazing from the window.
+
+"Will you accept?" I asked.
+
+"What good would it do me? If I accept it I should only divide it among
+the needy--in memory of--of my dear boy friend--Jack Drogue----"
+
+She rose hastily and walked to the door, then very slowly retraced her
+steps to my bedside.
+
+"You are so kind to me," she murmured, touching my forehead.
+
+"You are so different to other men,--so truly gallant in your boy's
+soul. There is no evil in you,--no ruthlessness. Oh, I know--I
+know--more than I seem to know--of men.... And their importunities....
+And of their wilful selfishness."
+
+I sat up straight. "Has any man made you unhappy?" I demanded in angry
+surprise.
+
+She seated herself and looked at me gravely.
+
+"Do you know," she said, "men have courted me always--even when I was
+scarce more than a child? And mine is a friendly heart, Mr. Drogue. I
+have a half shy desire to please. I am loath to inflict pain. But always
+my kindness seems like to cost me more than I choose to pay."
+
+"Pay to whom?"
+
+"To any man.... For example, I would not elope with Stephen Watts when
+he begged me at Caughnawaga. And Walter Butler addressed me also--in
+secret--being a friend of the Fondas and so free of the house.... And
+was ever stealthily importuning me to a stolen rendezvous which I had
+sense enough to refuse, knowing him to be both married and a rake, and
+cruel to women.
+
+"Oh, I tell you that they all courted me,--not kindly,--for ever there
+seemed to me in their ardent gaze and discreet whisperings something
+vaguely sinister. Not that it frightened me, nor did I take alarm, being
+too ignorant----"
+
+She folded her hands and looked down at them.
+
+"I like men.... I cared most for Stephen Watts.... Then one day I had a
+great fright.... Shall I tell it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, then, Sir John's gallantries neither pleased nor flattered me
+from the first. But he was very cautious what he said and did in Douw
+Fonda's house, and never spoke to me save coldly when others were
+present, or when he was alone with us and Mr. Fonda was awake and not
+dozing in his great chair.... Well, there came a day when Mr. Fonda went
+to the house of Captain Fonda, and I was alone in the house....
+
+"And Sir John came.... Shall I tell it?"
+
+"Tell it, Penelope."
+
+"I've had it long in my mind. I wished to ask you if it lessened me in
+your esteem.... For Sir John was drunk, and, finding me alone, he
+conducted roughly--and followed me and locked us in my chamber.... I was
+horribly afraid.... I had never struck any living being before. But I
+beat his red face with my hands until he became confused and stupid--and
+there was blood on him and on me.... And my kerchief was torn off and my
+hair all tangled.... I beat him till he dropped my door key, and so
+unlocked my door and returned again to him, silent and flaming, and
+drove him with blows out o' my chamber and out of the house--all over
+blood as he was, and stupid and drunk.... His negro man got him on his
+horse and rode off, holding him on.
+
+"And none knew--none know, save Sir John and you and I."
+
+After a silence I said in a controlled voice: "If Sir John comes this
+way I shall hope not to miss him.... I shall pray God not to miss
+this--gentleman."
+
+"Do you think meanly of me that he used me so?"
+
+I did not answer.
+
+"I have told you all," she said timidly. "I am still honest. If I were
+not I would not have let you touch my lips."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"For both our sakes.... I would not do you any evil."
+
+I said impatiently: "No need to tell me you never had a lover. I never
+believed it of you from the day I saw you first. And, God willing, I
+mean to stop a mouth or two in Tryon, war or no war----"
+
+"John Drogue!" she exclaimed in consternation--"you shall seek no
+quarrel on my account! Swear to me!"
+
+But I made no reply. Whatever the quarrel, I knew now it was to be on my
+own account; for whether or no I was falling in love with this girl,
+Penelope Grant, I realized at all events that I would suffer no other
+man to interfere, however he conducted, and should hold any man to stern
+account who would make of this girl a toy and plaything.
+
+And so, all hotly resolved on that point; sore, also, at the knowledge
+of Sir John's baseness which seemed to touch my proper honour; and
+swifter, too, with tenderness in my heart to reassure her, I did exactly
+that for which I was now prepared to cut the throats of various other
+gentlemen--I drew her into my arms and held her close, body and lips
+imprisoned.
+
+She sought her chair and sat there silent and subdued until a
+maid-servant brought lights and my supper.
+
+In the candle light she ventured to look at me and laugh.
+
+"Such schooling" says she. "I never knew before that there was such a
+personage as a sweetheart pro tem! But you seem to know the role by
+heart, Mr. Drogue. And so, no doubt, feel warranted to instruct others.
+But this is the end of it, my friend. For one day you shall have to
+confess you to your wife! And I think my future Lady Northesk is like to
+have a pretty temper and will give you a mauvais quart d'heur when she
+hears of this May day's folly in a Johnstown public house!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+ORDERS
+
+
+In June I was out o' bed and managed to set foot on ground for the first
+time since early spring. By the end of the month I had my strength in a
+measure and was able to hobble about town. Pernicious rheumatism is no
+light matter, for with the agony,--and weakness afterward,--a dull
+despair settles upon the victim; and it was mind, not body, that caused
+me the deeper distress, I think.
+
+Life seemed useless; effort hopeless. Dark apprehensions obsessed me; I
+despaired of my country, of my people, of myself. And this all was part
+of my malady, but I did not know it.
+
+All through June and July an oppressive summer heat brooded over Tryon.
+Save for thunder storms of unusual violence, the heat remained unbroken
+day and night. In the hot and blinding blue of heaven, a fierce sun
+blazed; at night the very moon looked sickly with the heat.
+
+Never had I heard so many various voices of the night, nor so noisy a
+tumult after dark, where the hylas trilled an almost deafening chorus
+and the big frogs' stringy croaking never ceased, and a myriad confusion
+of insects chirred and creaked and hummed in the suffocating dark.
+
+At dawn the birds' outburst was like the loud outrush of a torrent
+filling the waking world; at twilight scores of unseen whippoorwills put
+on their shoes[30] and shouted in whistling whisper voices to one
+another across the wastes of night like the False Faces [31] gathering
+at a secret tryst.
+
+[Footnote 30: Indian lore. The yellow moccasin flower is the
+whippoorwill's shoe.]
+
+[Footnote 31: A secret society common to all nations of the Iroquois
+Confederacy.]
+
+If the whole Northland languished, drooping and drowsy in the heat, the
+very air, too, seemed heavy with the foreboding gloom of dreadful
+rumours.
+
+Every day came ominous tidings from North, from West, from South of
+great forces uniting to march hither and crush us. And the terrible
+imminence of catastrophe, far from arousing and nerving us for the
+desperate event, seemed rather to confuse and daze our people, and
+finally to stupefy all, as though the horror of the immense and hellish
+menace were beyond human comprehension.
+
+Men laboured on the meagre defences of the county as though weighted by
+a nightmare--as though drowsing awake and not believing in their ghostly
+dream.
+
+And all preparation went slow--fearfully slow--and it was like dragging
+a mass of chained men, whose minds had been drugged, to drive the
+militia to the drill ground or force the labourers to the unfinished
+parapets of our few and scattered forts.
+
+Men still talked of the Sacandaga Block House as though there were such
+a refuge; but there was none unless they meant the ruins at Fish House
+or the unburned sheep-fold at Summer House Point, or the Mayfield
+defenses.
+
+There remained only one fort of consequence south of the Lakes--Fort
+Stanwix, now called Schuyler, and that was far from finished, far from
+properly armed, garrisoned, and provisioned.
+
+Whatever else of defense Tryon County possessed were merest
+makeshifts--stone farmhouses fortified by ditch, stockade, and bastions;
+block-houses of wood; nothing more.
+
+Fragments of our two regular regiments were ever shifting garrison--a
+company here, a battalion there. A few rangers kept the field; a
+regiment of Herkimer's militia, from time to time, took its turn at
+duty; a scout or two of irregulars and Oneida Indians haunted the trail
+toward Buck Island--which some call Deer Island, and others speak of as
+Carleton Island, and others still name it Ile-aux-Chevreuil, which is a
+mistake.
+
+But any name for the damned spot was good enough for me, who had been
+there in years past, and knew how strong it could be made to defy us and
+to send out armed hordes to harass us on the Mohawk.
+
+And at that instant, under Colonel Barry St. Leger, the Western flying
+force of the enemy was being marshalled at Buck Island.
+
+Our scouts brought an account of the forces already there--detachments
+of the 8th British regulars, the 34th regulars, the regiment of Sir
+John, called the Royal New Yorkers by some, by others the
+Greens--(though our scouts told us that their new uniforms were to be
+scarlet)--the Corps of Chasseurs, a regiment of green-coats known as
+Butler's Rangers, a detachment of Royal Artillery, another of
+Highlanders, and, most sinister of all, Brant's Iroquois under
+Thayendanegea himself and a number of young officers of the Indian
+Department, with Colonel Claus to advise them.
+
+This was the flying force that threatened us from the West, directed by
+Burgoyne.
+
+From the South we were menaced by the splendid and powerful British army
+which held New York City, Long Island, and the lower Hudson, and stood
+ready and equipped to march on a straight road right into Albany,
+cleaning up the Hudson, shore and stream, on their way hither.
+
+But our most terrible danger threatened us from the North, where General
+Burgoyne, with a superb army and a half thousand Iroquois savages, had
+been smashing his way toward us through the forests, seizing the lakes
+and the vessels and forts defending them, outmanoeuvring our General
+St. Clair; driving him from our fortress of Ticonderoga with loss of all
+stores and baggage; driving Francis out of Skenesborough and Fort Anne,
+and destroying both posts; chasing St. Clair out of Castleton and
+Hubbardton, destroying two-thirds of Warner's army; driving Schuyler's
+undisciplined militia from Fort Edward, toward Saratoga.
+
+Every day brought rumours or positive news of disasters in our immediate
+neighbourhood. We knew that St. Leger, Sir John, Walter Butler, and
+Brant had left Buck Island and that Burgoyne was directing the campaign
+planned for the most hated army that ever invaded the Northland. And we
+learned the horrid details of these movements from Thomas Spencer, the
+Oneida who had just come in from that region, and whose certain account
+of how matters were swiftly coming to a crisis at last seemed to
+galvanize our people into action.
+
+I was now, in August, well enough to take the field with a scout, and I
+applied for active duty and was promised it; but no orders came, and I
+haunted the Johnstown Fort impatiently, certain that every man who rode
+express and who went galloping through the town must bring my marching
+orders.
+
+Precious days succeeded one another; I fretted, fumed, sickened with
+anxiety, deemed myself forgotten or perhaps disdained.
+
+Then I had a shock when General Herkimer, ignoring me, sent for my
+Saguenay, but for what purpose I knew not, only that old Block's
+loud-voiced son-in-law, Colonel Cox, desired a Montagnais tracker.
+
+The Yellow Leaf came to me with the courier, one Barent Westerfelt, who
+had brought presents from Colonel Cox; and I had no discretion in the
+matter, nor would have exercised any if I had.
+
+"Brother," said I, taking him by both hands, "go freely with this
+messenger from General Herkimer; because if you were not sorely needed
+our brother Corlear had not ordered an express to find and fetch you."
+
+He replied that he made nothing of the presents sent him, but desired to
+remain with me. I patiently pointed out to him that I was merely a
+subaltern in the State Rangers and unattached, and that I must await my
+turn of duty like a good soldier, nor feel aggrieved if fortune called
+others first.
+
+Still he seemed reluctant, and would not go, and scowled at the express
+rider and his sack of gew-gaws.
+
+"Brother," said I, "would you shame me who, as you say, found you a wild
+beast and have taught you that you are a real man?"
+
+"I am a man and a warrior," he said quickly.
+
+"Real men and warriors are known by their actions, my younger brother.
+When there is war they shine their hatchets. When the call comes, they
+bound into the war-trail. Brother, the call has come! Hiero!"
+
+The Montagnais straightened his body and threw back his narrow,
+dangerous head.
+
+"Haih!" he said. "I hear my brother's voice coming to me through the
+forests! Very far away beyond the mountains I hear the panther-cry of
+the Mengwe! My axe is bright! I am in my paint. Koue! I go!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He left within the hour; and I had become attached to the wild rover of
+the Saguenay, and missed him the more, perhaps, because of my own sore
+heart which beat so impotently within my idle body.
+
+That Herkimer had taken him disconcerted and discouraged me; but there
+was a more bitter blow in store for a young soldier of no experience in
+discipline or in the slow habit of military procedure; for, judge of my
+wrath when one rainy day in August comes Nick Stoner to me in a new
+uniform of the line, saying that Colonel Livingston's regiment lacked
+musicians, and he had thought it best to transfer and to 'list and not
+let opportunity go a-glimmering.
+
+"My God, Jack," says he, "you can not blame me very well, for my father
+is drafted to the same regiment, and my brother John is a drummer in it.
+It is a marching regiment and certain to fight, for there be three
+Livingstons commanding of it, and who knows what old Herkimer can do
+with his militia, or what the militia themselves can do?"
+
+"You are perfectly right, Nick," said I in a mortified voice. "I am not
+envious; no! only it wounds me to feel I am so utterly forgotten, and my
+application for transfer unnoticed."
+
+Nick took leave of us that night, sobered not at all by the imminence of
+battle, for he danced around my chamber in Burke's Inn, a-playing upon
+his fife and capering so that Penelope was like to suffocate with
+laughter, though inclined to seriousness.
+
+We supped all together in my chamber as we had so often gathered at
+Summer House, but if I were inclined to gloomy brooding, and if Penelope
+seemed concerned at parting with a comrade, Nick permitted no sad
+reflexions to disturb us whom he was leaving behind.
+
+He made us drink a very devilish flip-cup, which he had devised in the
+tap-room below with Jimmy Burke's aid, and which filled our young
+noddles with a gaiety not natural.
+
+He sang and offered toasts, and played on his fife and capered until we
+were breathless with mirth.
+
+Also, he took from his new knapsack a penny broadside,--witty, but like
+most broadsides of the kind, somewhat broad,--which he had for
+thrippence of a pedlar, the same being a parody on the Danbury
+Broadside; and this he read aloud to us, bursting with laughter, while
+standing upon his chair at table to recite it:
+
+
+THE EXPEDITION TO JOHNSTOWN[32]
+
+(In search of provisions)
+
+Scene--New York City
+
+(_Enter_ General Sir Wm. Howe and Mrs. ----, preceded by
+Fame in cap and bells, flourishing a bladder.)
+
+_Fame_ (speaks)
+
+    "Without wit, without wisdom, half stupid, half drunk,
+    And rolling along arm-in-arm with his Punk,
+    Comes gallant Sir William, the warrior (by proxy)
+    To harangue his soldiers (held up by his Doxy)!"
+
+_Sir Wm._ (speaks)
+
+    "My boys, I'm a-going to send you to Tryon,
+    To Johnstown, where _you'll_ get as groggy as I am!
+    By a Tory from there I have just been informed
+    That there's nobody there, so the town shall be stormed!
+    For if nobody's there and nobody near it,
+    My army shall conquer that town, never fear it!"
+
+(_Enter_ Joe Gallopaway, a refugee Tory)
+
+_Joe_
+
+    "Brave soldiers, go fight that we all may get rich!"
+
+_Regular Soldiers_
+
+    "We'll fetch you a halter, you * * * * !
+    Get out! And go live in the woods upon nuts,
+    Or we'll give you our bayonets plump in your guts!
+    Do you think we are fighting to feed such a crew
+    As Butler, Sir John, Mr. Singler and you?"
+
+(_Enter_ Sir John Johnson)
+
+_Sir John_
+
+    "Come on, my brave boys! Now! as bold as a lion!
+    And march at my heels to the County called Tryon;
+    My lads, there's no danger, for this you should know,
+    That I'd let it alone if I thought it was so!
+    So point all your noses towards the Dominion
+    And we'll all live like lords is my honest opinion!"
+
+Scene--Buck Island Trail
+
+(_Enter_ Fame, Sir John, and his Royal Greens)
+
+_Fame_
+
+    "In cunning and canting, deceit and disguise,
+    In breaking parole by inventing cheap lies,
+    Sir John is a match for the worst of his species,
+    But in this undertaking he'll soon go to pieces.
+    He'll fall to the rear, for he'd rather go last,
+    Crying, 'Forward, my boys! Let me see you all past!
+    For his Majesty's service (so reads my commission)
+    Requires I push forward the whole expedition!"
+
+_Sir John_
+
+    "I care not a louse for the United States,--
+    For General Schuyler or General Gates!
+    March forward, my lads, and account for each sinner,
+    While Butler, St. Leger, and I go to dinner.
+    For plenty's in Tryon of eating and drinking,
+    Who'd stay in New York to be starving and stinking."
+    March over the Mohawk! March over, march over,
+    You'll live like a parcel of hogs in sweet clover!"
+
+Scene--Outside Fort Stanwix
+
+(A council of war. At a distance the new American flag flying above the
+bastions)
+
+_Sir John_
+
+    "I'm sorry I'm here, for I'm horribly scared,
+    But how did I know that they'd all be prepared?
+    The fate of our forray looks darker and darker,
+    The state of our larder grows starker and starker,
+    I fear that a round-shot or one of their carkers[33]
+    May breech my new breeches like poor Peter Parker's![34]
+    Oh, say, if my rear is uncovered, what then!--"
+
+(_Enter_ Walter Butler in a panic)
+
+_Butler_
+
+    "Held! Schuyler is coming with ten thousand men!"
+
+(A canon shot from the Fort)
+
+_Sir John_ (falls flat)
+
+    "I'm done! A cannon ball of thirty pound
+    Has hit me where Sir Peter got his wound.
+    I'm done! I'm all undone! So don't unbutt'n'm;
+    But say adieu for me to Clairette Putnam!"[35]
+
+(_Enter_ a swarm of surgeons)
+
+_Surgeons_
+
+    "Compose yourself, good sir--forget your fright;
+    We promise you you are not slain outright.
+    The wound you got is not so mortal deep
+    But bleeding, cupping, patience, rest, and sleep,
+    With blisters, clysters, physic, air and diet
+    Will set you up again if you'll be quiet!"
+
+_Sir John_
+
+    "So thick, so fast the balls and bullets flew,
+    Some hit me here, some there, some thro' and thro',
+    Beneath my legs a score of hosses fell,
+    Shot under me by twice as many shell;
+    And though my soldiers falter and beseech,
+    Forward I strode, defiant to the breech,
+    And there, as History my valour teaches,
+    I fell as Caesar fell, and lost--my breeches!
+    His face lay in his toga, in defeat,
+    So let me hide my face within my seat,
+    My requiem the rebel cannons roar,
+    My duty done, my bottom very sore.
+    Tell Willett he may keep his flour and pork,
+    For I am going back to dear New York."
+
+    (Exit on a litter to the Rogue's March)
+
+[Footnote 32: 32 parallel to _The Expedition to Danbury_, printed in a
+Pennsylvania newspaper, May 14th, 1777.]
+
+[Footnote 33: Carkers--carcass--a shell fired from a small piece of
+artillery.]
+
+[Footnote 34: Sir Peter Parker's breeches were carried away by a round
+shot at Fort Moultrie.]
+
+[Footnote 35: His charming but abandoned mistress.]
+
+"If we fight at Stanwix," says Penelope, "God send the business end as
+gaily as your broadside, Nick!"
+
+And so, amid laughter, our last evening together came to an end, and it
+was time to part.
+
+Nick gave Penelope a hearty smack, grinned broadly at me, seized my
+hands and whispered: "What did I tell you of the Scotch girl of
+Caughnawaga, who hath a way with her which is the undoing of all
+innocent young men?"
+
+"Idiot!" said I fiercely, "I am not undone in such a manner!" Like two
+bear-cubs we clutched and wrestled; then he hugged me, laughed, and
+broke away.
+
+"Farewell, comrades," he cried, snatching sack and musket from the
+corner. "If I can not fife the red-coats into hell to the Rogue's March,
+or my brother John drum them there to the Devil's tattoo, then my daddy
+shall persuade 'em thither with musket-music! Three stout Stoners and
+three lanky Livingstons, and all in the same regiment! Hurrah!"
+
+And off and down the tavern stairs he ran, clattering and clanking, and
+shouting out a fond good-bye to Burke, who had forgiven him the goat.
+
+Standing in the candle-light by the window, where a million rainwashed
+stars twinkled in the depthless ocean of the night, I rested my brow
+against the cool, glazed pane, lost in most bitter reflexion.
+
+Penelope had gone to her chamber; behind me the dishevelled table stood,
+bearing the candles and the debris of our last supper; a nosegay of
+bright flowers--Nick's parting token--lay on the floor, where they had
+fallen from Penelope's bosom.
+
+After a while I left the window and sat down, taking my head between my
+hands; and I had been sitting so for some time in ugly, sullen mood,
+when a noise caused me to look up.
+
+Penelope stood by the door, her yellow hair about her face and
+shoulders, and still combing of it while her brown eyes regarded me with
+an odd intentness.
+
+"Your light still blazed from your window," she said. "I had some
+misgiving that you sat here brooding all alone."
+
+I felt my face flush, for it had deeply humiliated me that she should
+know how I was offered no employment while others had been called or
+permitted to seek relief from inglorious idleness.
+
+She flung the bright banner of her hair over her right shoulder,
+caressed the thick and shining tresses, and so continued combing, still
+watching me, her head a little on one side.
+
+"All know you to be faithful, diligent and brave," said she. "You should
+not let it chafe your pride because others are called to duty before you
+are summoned. Often it chances that Merit paces the ante-chamber while
+Mediocrity is granted audience. But Opportunity redresses such
+accidents."
+
+"Opportunity," I repeated sneeringly, "--where is she?--for I have not
+seen or heard of that soft-footed jade who, they say, comes a-knocking
+once in a life-time; and thereafter knocks at our door no more."
+
+"Oh, John Drogue--John Drogue," said she in her strange and wistful way,
+"you shall hear the clear summons on your door very soon--all too soon
+for one of us,--for one of us, John Drogue."
+
+Her brown eyes were on me, unabashed; by touch she was dividing the
+yellow masses of her hair into two equal parts. And now she slowly
+braided each to peg them for the night beneath her ruffled cap.
+
+When she had braided and pegged her hair, she took the night-cap from
+her apron pocket and drew it over her golden head, tying the tabs under
+her chin.
+
+"It is strange," she said with her wistful smile, "that, though the
+world is ending, we needs must waste in sleep a portion of what time
+remains to us.... And so I am for bed, John Drogue.... Lest that same
+tapping-jade come to your door tonight and waken me, also, with her loud
+knocking."
+
+"Why do you say so? Have you news?"
+
+"Did I not once foresee a battle in the North? And men in strange
+uniforms?"
+
+"Yes," said I, smiling away the disappointment of a vague and momentary
+hope.
+
+"I think that battle will happen very soon," she said gravely.
+
+"You said that I should be there,--with that pale shadow in its shroud.
+Very well; only that I be given employment and live to see at least one
+battle, I care not whether I meet my weird in its winding-sheet. Because
+any man of spirit, and not a mouse, had rather meet his end that way
+than sink into dissolution in aged and toothless idleness."
+
+"If you were not a very young and untried soldier," said she, "you would
+not permit impatience to ravage you and sour you as it does. And for me,
+too, it saddens and spoils our last few days together."
+
+"Our last few days? You speak with a certainty--an authority----"
+
+"I know the summons is coming very soon."
+
+"If I could but believe in your Scottish second-sight----"
+
+"Would you be happy?"
+
+"Happy! I should deem myself the most fortunate man on earth!--if I
+could believe your Scottish prophecy!"
+
+She came nearer, and her eyes seemed depthless dusky in her pale face.
+
+"If that is all you require for happiness, John Drogue," said she in her
+low, still voice, "then you may take your pleasure of it. I tell you I
+_know_! And we have but few hours left together, you and I."
+
+Spite of common sense and disbelief in superstitions I could not remain
+entirely unconcerned before such perfect sincerity, though that she
+believed in her own strange gift could scarcely convince me.
+
+"Come," said I smilingly, "it may be so. At all events, you cheer me,
+Penelope, and your kindness heartens me.... Forgive my sullen
+temper;--it is hard for a man to think himself ignored and perhaps
+despised. And my ears ache with listening for that same gentle tapping
+upon my door."
+
+"I hear it now," she said under her breath.
+
+"I hear nothing."
+
+"Alas, no! Yet, that soft-footed maid is knocking on your door.... If
+only you had heart to hear."
+
+"One does not hear with one's heart," said I, smiling, and stirred to
+plague her for her mixed metaphor.
+
+"I do," said she, faintly.
+
+After a little silence she turned to go; and I followed, scarce knowing
+why; and took her hand in the doorway.
+
+"Little prophetess," said I, "who promises me what my heart desires,
+will you touch your lips to mine as a pledge that your prophecy shall
+come true?"
+
+She looked back over her shoulder, and remained so, her cheek on her
+right shoulder.
+
+"Your heart desires a battle, John Drogue; your idle vanity my lips....
+But you may possess them if you will."
+
+"I do love you dearly, Penelope Grant."
+
+She said with a breathless little smile:
+
+"Would you love me better if my prophecy came true this very night?"
+
+But I was troubled at that, and had no mind to sound those unventured
+deeps which, at such moments, I could feel vaguely astir within me. Nor
+yet did I seriously consider what I truly desired of this slender maid
+within the circle of my arms, nor what was to come of such sudden
+encounters with their swift smile and oddly halting breath and the
+heart, surprised, rhyming rapidly and unevenly in a reckless measure
+which pleasured less than it embarrassed.
+
+She loosed her hands and drew away from me, and leaned against the wall,
+not looking toward me.
+
+"I think," she said in a stifled voice, "you are to have your wish this
+night.... Do you hear anything?"
+
+In the intense stillness, straining my ears, I fancied presently that I
+heard a distant sound in the night. But if it had been so it died out,
+and the beat of my heart was louder. Then, of a sudden, I seemed to hear
+it again, and thought it was my pulses startled by sudden hope.
+
+"What is that sound?" I whispered. "Do you hear it?"
+
+"Aye."
+
+"I hear it also.... Is it imagination? Is there a horse on the highway?
+Why, I tell you there is!... There _is_! Do you think he rides express?"
+
+"Out o' the North, my lord," she whispered. And suddenly she turned,
+gave me a blind look, stretched out one hand.
+
+"_Why_ do you think that horseman comes for me!" I said. My imagination
+caught fire, flamed, and I stood shivering and crushing her fingers in
+my grasp. "Why--why--do you think so?" I stammered. "He's turned into
+William Street! He gallops this way! Damnation! He heads toward the
+Hall!--No! _No!_ By God, he is in our street, galloping--galloping----"
+
+Like a pistol shot came a far cry in the darkness: "Express-ho! I pass!
+I pass!" The racket of iron-shod hoofs echoed in the street; doors and
+windows flew open; a confusion of voices filled my ears; the rattling
+roar of the hoofs came to a clashing halt.
+
+"Jimmy Burke's Tavern!" shouted a hoarse voice.
+
+"Ye're there, me gay galloper!" came Burke's bantering voice. "An'
+phwat's afther ye that ye ride the night like a banshee? Is it Sir John
+that's chasin' ye crazy, Jock Gallopaway?"
+
+"Ah-h," retorted the express, "fetch a drink for me and tell me is there
+a Mr. Drogue lodging here? Hey? Upstairs? Well, wait a minute----"
+
+I still had Penelope's hand in mine as in the grip of a vise, so excited
+was I, when the express came stamping up the stairs in his jack-boots
+and pistols--a light-horseman of the Albany troop, who seemed smart
+enough in his mud-splashed helmet and uniform.
+
+"You are Mr. Drogue, sir?"
+
+"I am."
+
+He promptly saluted, fished out a letter from his sack and offered it.
+
+In my joy I gave him five shillings in hard money, and then, dragging
+Penelope by the hand, hastened to break the numerous and heavy seals and
+open my letter and read it by the candle's yellow flare.
+
+     "Headquarters Northern Dist:
+     Dept: of Tryon County.
+     Albany, N. Y.
+     August 1st, 1777.
+
+     _Confidential_
+     "To John Drogue, Esqr,
+     Lieut: Rangers.
+
+     Sir,
+
+     "An Oneida runner arrived today, who gives an account that Genl
+     St. Leger, with the corps of Sir John Johnson and Colonel John
+     Butler, including a thousand savages under Joseph Brant, has been
+     detached from the army of Genl Burgoyne, and is marching on Fort
+     Schuyler.
+
+     "You are directed to take the field instantly with a scout of
+     Oneida Indians, who await you at a rendezvous marked upon the
+     secret map which I enclose herewith.
+
+     "You will cross the Buck Island trail somewhere between Rocky River
+     and the Mohawk, and observe St. Leger's line of communications,
+     cutting off such small posts as prove not too strong, taking
+     prisoners if possible, and ascertaining St. Leger's ultimate
+     objective, which may be Johnstown or even Schenectady.
+
+     "Having satisfied yourself concerning these matters, you will send
+     your despatch by a runner to Albany, and instantly move your
+     detachment toward Saratoga, where you should come into touch with
+     our Northern forces under General Gates, and there render a verbal
+     report to General Gates in person.
+
+     "You are strictly cautioned to destroy this letter after reading,
+     and to maintain absolute secrecy concerning its contents. The map
+     you may retain, but if you are taken you should endeavour to
+     destroy it.
+
+     "Sir, I have the honour to be, etc., etc.,
+
+     "Ph. Schuyler,
+     "Maj: Gen'l."
+
+Twice I read the letter before I twisted it to a torch and burned it in
+the candle flame.
+
+Then I called out to the express: "Say to the personage who sent you
+hither that his letter is destroyed, and his orders shall be instantly
+obeyed. Burke has fresh horses for those who ride express."
+
+Off downstairs he went in his jack-boots, equipments jingling and
+clanking, and I unfolded my map but scarce could hold it steady in my
+excitement.
+
+Immediately I perceived that I did not need the map to find the
+rendezvous, for, as Brent-Meester, I had known that wilderness as
+perfectly as I knew the streets in Johnstown.
+
+So I made another torch of the map, laughing under my breath to think
+that Sir William's late forest warden should require such an article.
+
+All this time, too, I had forgotten Penelope; and turned, now, and saw
+her watching me, slim and motionless and white as snow.
+
+When her eyes met mine she strove to smile, asking me whether indeed she
+had not proven a true prophetess.
+
+As she spoke, suddenly a great fear possessed me concerning her; and I
+stood staring at her in a terrible perplexity.
+
+For now there seemed to be nothing for it but to leave her here, the
+Schenectady road already being unsafe, or so considered by Schuyler
+until more certain information could be obtained.
+
+"Do you leave tonight?" she asked calmly.
+
+"Yes, immediately."
+
+She cast a glance at my rifle standing in the corner, and at my pack,
+which I had always ready in the event of such sudden summons.
+
+Now I went over to the corner where my baggage lay, lifted the pack and
+strapped it; put on powder horn, bullet pouch, and sack, slung my knife
+and my light war-hatchet, and took my cap and rifle.
+
+The moment of parting was here. It scared and confused me, so swiftly
+had it come upon us.
+
+As I went toward her she turned and walked to the door, and leaned
+against the frame awaiting me.
+
+"If trouble comes," I muttered, "the fort is strong.... But I wish to
+God you were in Albany."
+
+"I shall do well enough here.... Will you come again to Johnstown?"
+
+"Yes. Good-bye."
+
+"Good-bye, John Drogue."
+
+"Will you care for Kaya?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And if I do not return you are to have all with which I die possessed.
+I have written it."
+
+"In that event I keep only my memory of you. The rest I offer to the
+needy--in your name."
+
+Her voice was steady, and her hand, too, where it lay passive in mine.
+But it crisped and caught my fingers convulsively when I kissed her; and
+crept up along my fringed sleeve to my shoulder-cape, and grasped the
+green thrums.
+
+And now her arm lay tightly around my neck, and I looked down into the
+whitest face I ever had gazed upon.
+
+"I love you dearly," I said, "and am deep in love.... I want you,
+Penelope Grant."
+
+"I want you," she said.
+
+My heart was suffocating me:
+
+"Shall we exchange vows?" I managed to say.
+
+"What vows, sir?"
+
+"Such as engage our honour. I want you to wife, Penelope Grant."
+
+"Dear lad! What are you saying? You should travel widely and at leisure
+before you commit your honour to an unconsidered vow. I desire that you
+first see great cities, other countries, other women--of your own
+caste.... And then ... if you return ... and are still of the same
+mind ... concerning me...."
+
+"But _you_? There are other men in the world. And I must have your vows
+before I go!"
+
+"Oh, if it be only mine you desire, then I promise you, John Drogue, to
+look at no man with kindness in your absence, think of no man excepting
+you, pray for none save only His Excellency and General Schuyler, dream
+of none, God willing, but you. And to remain in deed and thought and
+word and conduct constant and faithful to you alone."
+
+"Then," said I, trembling, "I also promise----"
+
+"No!"
+
+"But I----"
+
+"Wait! For God's sake mind what you say; for I will not have it that
+your honour should ever summon you hither and not your heart! No! Let be
+as it is."
+
+Her sudden warmth and the quick flush of determination on her face
+checked and silenced me.
+
+She said very coolly: "Any person of sense must know that a marriage is
+unsuitable between a servant to Douw Fonda and John Murray Drogue
+_Forbes_, Laird of Northesk, and a Stormont to boot!"
+
+"Where got you that _Forbes_?" I demanded, astonished and angry.
+
+She laughed. "Because I know the clan, _my lord_!"
+
+"How do you know?" I repeated, astounded.
+
+"Because it is my own clan and name. Drogue-Forbes, Grant-Forbes!--a
+claymore or a pair of scissors can snip the link when some Glencoe or
+Culloden of adversity scatters families to the four winds and seven
+seas.... Well, sir, as the saying is in Northesk, 'a Drogue stops at
+nothing but a Forbes. And a Grant is as stubborn.' Did you ever hear
+that?"
+
+"Yes.... And _you_ are a Forbes of Northesk?"
+
+"Like yourself, sir, we _stop before a liaison_."
+
+Her rapier wit confused and amazed me; her sudden revelation of our
+kinship confounded me.
+
+"Good God," said I, "why have you never told me this, Penelope?"
+
+She shook her yellow head defiantly: "A would na," quoth she, her chin
+hanging down, but the brown eyes of her watching me. "And it was a
+servant-maid you asked to wife you, and none other either.... D'ye ken
+that, you Stormont lad? It was me--me!--who may wear the _Beadlaidh_,
+too!--me who can cry '_Lonach! Lonach! Creag Ealachaidh!_' with as stout
+a heart and clean a pride as you, Ian Drogue, Laird o' Northesk!--laird
+o' my soul and heart--my lord--my dear, dear lord----"
+
+She flung her arms across her face and burst into a fit of weeping; and
+as I caught her in my arms she leaned so on my breast, sobbing out her
+happiness and fears and pride and love, and her gratitude to God that I
+should have loved her for herself in the body of a maid-servant, and
+that I had bespoken her fairly where in all the land no man had offered
+more than that which she might take from him out of his left hand.
+
+So, for a long while, we stood there together, clasped breast to breast,
+dumb with tenderness and mazed in the spell of first young love.
+
+I stammered my vows, and she now opposed me nothing, only clinging to me
+the closer, confident, submissive, acquiescent in all I wished and asked
+and said.
+
+There were ink, paper, a quill, and sand in her chamber. We went
+thither, and I wrote out drafts upon Schenectady, and composed letters
+of assurance and recognition, which would be useful to her in case of
+necessity.
+
+I got Jimmy Burke out o' bed and shewed him all I had writ, and made him
+witness our signatures and engaged him to appear if necessary.
+
+These papers and money drafts, together with Penelope's papers and
+letters she had of Douw Fonda and of the Patroon, were sufficient to
+establish her with the new will I made and had witnessed at the fort a
+week before.
+
+And so, at midnight, in her little chamber at Burke's Inn, I parted from
+Penelope Grant,--dropped to my knee and kissed her feet, who had been
+servant to the county gentry and courted by the county quality, but had
+been mistress of none in all the world excepting only of herself.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When I was ready she handed me my rifle, buckled up my shoulder sack,
+smoothed my fringed cape with steady hands, walked with me to her
+chamber door.
+
+Her face rested an instant against mine, but there were no tears, no
+trembling, only the swift passion of her lips; and then--"God be with
+you, John Drogue!" And so, with gay courage, closed her chamber door.
+
+I turned and stumbled out along the corridor, carrying my rifle and
+feeling my way to the hand-rail, down the creaking stairway, and out
+into the starry night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+FIRE-FLIES
+
+
+That night I lay on my blanket in the forest, but slept only three
+hours, and was awake in the gates of morning before the sun rose, ready
+to move on to the Wood of Brakabeen, our rendezvous in Schoharie.
+
+Never shall I forget that August day so crowded with events.
+
+And first in the yellow flare of sun-up, on the edge of a pasture where
+acres of dew sparkled, I saw a young girl milking; and went to her to
+beg a cup of new milk.
+
+But she was very offish until she learned to what party I belonged, and
+then gave me a dipper full of sweet milk.
+
+When I had satisfied my thirst, she took me by the hand and drew me into
+a grove of pines where none could observe us. And here she told me her
+name, which was Angelica Vrooman, and warned me not to travel through
+Schoharie by any highway.
+
+For, said she, the district was all smouldering with disloyalty, and the
+Tories growing more defiant day by day with news of Sir John's advance
+and McDonald also on the way from the southward to burn the place and
+murder all.
+
+"My God, sir," says she, in a very passion of horror and resentment, "I
+know not how we, in Schoharie, shall contrive, for Herkimer has called
+out our regiment and they march this morning to their rendezvous with
+the Palatine Regiment.
+
+"What are we to do, sir? The Middle Fort alone is defensible; the Upper
+and Lower Forts are still a-building, and sodders still at labour, and
+neither ditch nor palisade begun."
+
+"You have your exempts," said I, troubled, "and your rangers."
+
+"Our exempts work on the forts; our rangers are few and scattered, and
+Colonel Harper knows not where to turn for a runner or a rifleman!
+
+"General Schuyler has writ to my father and says how he desires General
+Ten Broeck to order out the whole of the militia, only that he fears
+that they will behave like the Schenectady and Schoharie militia have
+done and that very few will march unless provision is made for their
+families' security.
+
+"A man rides express today to the garrison in the Highlands to pray for
+two hundred Continentals. Which is only just, as we are exposed to
+McDonald and Sir John, and have already sent most of our men to the
+Continental Line, and have left only our regiment, which marches today,
+and the remainder all disaffected and plotting treason."
+
+"Plotting treason? What do you mean, child?" I demanded anxiously.
+
+"Why, sir, Captain Mann and his company refuse to march. He declares
+himself a friend to King George, has barricaded Brick House,[36] is
+collecting Indians and Tories, and swears he will join McDonald's
+outlaws and destroy us unless we lay down our arms and accept royal
+protection."
+
+[Footnote 36: The house stood in the forks of the Albany and Schenectady
+road.]
+
+"Why--why the filthy dog!" I stammered, "I have never heard the like of
+such treason!"
+
+"Can you help us, sir?" she asked earnestly.
+
+"I shall endeavour to do so," said I, red with wrath.
+
+"Our people have planned to seize and barricade Stone House," said she.
+"My father rides express to Albany. Why, sir, so put to it are we that
+Henry Hager, an aged exempt of over seventy years, is scouting for our
+party. Is our situation not pitiful?"
+
+"Have all the young men gone? Have you no brothers to defend this
+house?"
+
+"No, sir.... I have a lover.... He is Lieutenant Wirt, of the Albany
+Light Horse. But he has writ to my father that he can not leave his
+cavalry to help us."
+
+It was sad enough; and I promised the girl I would do what I could; and
+so left her, continuing on along the fences in the shadow of the woods.
+
+It was not long afterward when I heard military music in the distance.
+And now, from a hill, I saw long files of muskets shining in the early
+sun.
+
+It was the Canajoharie Regiment marching with fife, drum, and bugle-horn
+to join Herkimer; and so near they passed at the foot of the low hill
+where I stood that I could see and recognize their mounted officers; and
+saw, riding with them, Spencer, the Oneida interpreter, splendidly
+horsed; and Colonel Cox, old George Klock's smart son-in-law, who, when
+Brant asked him if he were not related to that thieving villain of the
+Moonlight Survey, replied: "Yes, I am, but what is that to you, you
+s--- of an Indian!"
+
+I saw and recognized Colonels Vrooman and Zielie, Majors Becker and
+Eckerson, and Larry Schoolcraft, the regimental adjutant; and, sitting
+upon their transport waggon, Dirck Larraway, Storm Becker, Jost Bouck of
+Clavarack, and Barent Bergen of Kinderhook.
+
+So, in the morning sunshine, marched the 15th N. Y. Militia, carrying in
+its ranks the flower of the district's manhood and the principal
+defenders of the Schoharie Valley.
+
+Very soberly I turned away into the woods.
+
+For it was a strange and moving and dreadful sight I had beheld, knowing
+personally almost every man who was marching there toward the British
+fire, and aware that practically every soldier in those sturdy ranks had
+a brother, or father, or son, or relative of some description in the
+ranks of the opposing party.
+
+Here, indeed, were the seeds of horror that civil war sprouts! For I
+think that only the Hager family, and perhaps the Beckers, were all
+mustered in our own service. But there were Tory Vroomans, Swarts, Van
+Dycks, Eckersons, Van Slycks--aye, even Tory Herkimer, too, which most
+furiously saddened our brave old General Honikol.
+
+Well, I took to the forest as I say, but it was so thick and the
+travelling so wearisome, that I bore again to the left, and presently
+came out along the clearings and pasture fences.
+
+Venturing now to travel the highway for a little way, and being stopped
+by nobody, I became more confident; and when I saw a woman washing
+clothes by the Schoharie Creek, I did not trouble to avoid her, but
+strode on.
+
+She heard me coming, and looked up over her shoulder; and I saw she was
+a notorious slattern of the Valley, whose name, I think, was Staats, but
+who was commonly known as Rya's Pup.
+
+"Aha!" says she, clearing the unkempt hair from her ratty face. "What is
+Forbes o' Culloden doing in Schoharie? Sure," says she, "there must be
+blood to sniff in the wind when a Northesk bloodhound comes here
+a-nosing northward!"
+
+"Well, Madame Staats," said I calmly, "you appear to know more about
+Culloden than do I myself. Did that great loon, McDonald, tell you all
+these old-wives' tales?"
+
+"Ho-ho!" says she, her two hands on her hips, a-kneeling there by the
+water's edge, "the McDonalds should know blood, too, when they smell
+it."
+
+"You seem to be friends with that outlaw. And do you know where he now
+is?" I asked carelessly.
+
+"If I do," says the slut, with an oath, "it is my own affair and none
+of the Forbes or Drogues or such kittle-cattle either;--mark that, my
+young cockerel, and journey about your business!"
+
+"You are not very civil, Madame Staats."
+
+"Why, you damned rebel," says she, "would you teach me manners?"
+
+"God forbid, madam," said I, smiling. "I'd wear gray hairs ere you
+learned your a-b-c."
+
+"You'll wear no hair at all when McDonald is done with you," she cries,
+and bursts into laughter so shocking that I go on, shivering and sad to
+see in any woman such unkindness.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+About noon I saw Lawyer's Tavern; and from the fences north of the house
+I secretly observed it for a long while before venturing thither.
+
+John Lawyer, whatever his political complexion, welcomed me kindly and
+gave me dinner.
+
+I asked news, and he gave an account that Brick House was now but a
+barracks full of Tories and Schoharie Indians, led by Sethen and Little
+David or Ogeyonda, a runner, who now took British money and wore scarlet
+paint.
+
+"We in this valley know not what to do," said he, "nor dare, indeed, do
+aught save take protection from the stronger party, as it chances to be
+at the moment, and thank God we still wear our proper hair."
+
+And, try as I might, I could not determine to which party he truly
+belonged, so wary was mine host and so fearful of committing himself.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The sun hung low when I came to the Wood of Brakabeen; and saw the tall
+forest oaks, their tops all rosy in the sunset, and the great green
+pines wearing their gilded spires against the evening sky.
+
+Dusk fell as I traversed the wood, where, deep within, a cool and ferny
+glade runs east and west, and a small and icy stream flows through the
+nodding grasses of the swale, setting the wet green things and
+spray-drenched blossoms quivering along its banks.
+
+And here, suddenly, in the purple dusk, three Indians rose up and barred
+my way. And I saw, with joy, my three Oneidas, Tahioni the Wolf, Kwiyeh
+the Screech-owl, Hanatoh the Water-snake, all shaven, oiled, and in
+their paint; and all wearing the Tortoise and The Little Red Foot.
+
+So deeply the encounter affected me that I could scarce speak as I
+pressed their extended hands, one after another, and felt their eager,
+caressing touch on my arms and shoulders.
+
+"Brother," they said, "we are happy to be chosen for the scout under
+your command. We are contented to have you with us again.
+
+"We were told by the Saguenay, who passed here on his way to the Little
+Falls, that you had recovered of your hurts, but we are glad to see for
+ourselves that this is so, and that our elder brother is strong and well
+and fit once more for the battle-trail!"
+
+I told them I was indeed recovered, and never felt better than at that
+moment. I inquired warmly concerning each, and how fortune had treated
+them. I listened to their accounts of stealthy scouting, of ambushes in
+silent places, of death-duels amid the eternal dusk of shaggy forests,
+where sunlight never penetrated the matted roof of boughs.
+
+They shewed me their scalps, their scars, their equipment, accoutrement,
+finery. They related what news was to be had of the enemy, saying that
+Stanwix was already invested by small advance parties of Mohawks under
+forester officers; that trees had been felled across Wood Creek; that
+the commands of Gansevoort and Willett occupied the fort on which
+soldiers still worked to sod the parapets.
+
+Of McDonald, however, they knew nothing, and nothing concerning
+Burgoyne, but they had brazenly attended the Iroquois Federal Council,
+when their nation was summoned there, and saw their great men, Spencer
+and Skenandoa treated with cold indifference when the attitude of the
+Oneida nation was made clear to the Indian Department and the Six
+Nations.
+
+"Then, brother," said Tahioni sadly, "our sachems covered themselves in
+their blankets, and Skenandoa led them from the last Onondaga fire that
+ever shall burn in North America."
+
+"And we young warriors followed," added Kwiyeh, "and we walked in
+silence, our hands resting on our hatchets."
+
+"The Long House is breaking in two," said the Water-snake. "In the
+middle it is sinking down. It sags already over Oneida Lake. The serpent
+that lives there shall see it settling down through the deep water to
+lie in ruins upon the magic sands forever."
+
+After a decent silence Tahioni patted the Little Red Foot sewed on the
+breast of my hunting shirt.
+
+"If we all are to perish," he said proudly, "they shall respect our
+scalps and our memory. Haih! Oneida! We young men salute our dying
+nation."
+
+I lifted my hatchet in silence, then slowly sheathed it.
+
+"Is our Little Maid of Askalege well?" I asked.
+
+"Thiohero is well. The River-reed makes magic yonder in the swale," said
+Tahioni seriously.
+
+"Is Thiohero here?" I exclaimed.
+
+Her brother smiled: "She is a girl-warrior as well as our Oneida
+prophetess. Skenandoa respects and consults her. Spencer, who worships
+your white God and is still humble before Tharon, has said that my
+sister is quite a witch. All Oneidas know her to be a sorceress. She can
+make a pair of old moccasins jump about when she drums."
+
+"Where is she now?"
+
+"Yonder in the glade dancing with the fire-flies."
+
+I walked forward in the luminous dusk, surrounded by my Oneidas. And, of
+a sudden, in the swale ahead I saw sparks whirling up in clouds, but
+perceived no fire.
+
+"Fire-flies," whispered Tahioni.
+
+And now, in the centre of the turbulent whirl of living sparks, I saw a
+slim and supple shape, like a boy warrior stripped for war, and dancing
+there all alone amid the gold and myriad greenish dots of light eddying
+above the swale grass.
+
+Swaying, twisting, graceful as a thread of smoke, the little sorceress
+danced in a perfect whirlwind of fire-flies, which made an incandescent
+cloud enveloping her.
+
+And I heard her singing in a low, clear voice the song that timed the
+rhythm of her naked limbs and her painted body, from which the cinctured
+wampum-broidered sporran flew like a shower of jewels:
+
+    "Wood o' Brakabeen,
+    Hiahya!
+    Leaves, flowers, grasses green,
+    Dancing where you lean
+    Above the stream unseen,
+    Hiahya!
+    Dance, little fireflies,
+    Like shooting stars in winter skies;
+    Dance, little fireflies,
+    As the Oneida Dancers whirl,
+    Where silver clouds unfurl,
+    Revealing a dark Heaven
+    And Sisters Seven.
+    Hiahya! Wood o' Brakabeen!
+    Hiahya! Grasses green!
+    You shall tell me what they mean
+    Who ride hither,
+    Who 'bide thither,
+    Who creep unseen
+    In red coats and in green;
+    Who come this way,
+    Who come to slay!
+    Hiahya! my fireflies!
+    Tell me all you know
+    About the foe!
+    Where hath he hidden?
+    Whither hath he ridden?
+    Where are the Maquas in their paint,
+    Who have forgotten their Girl-Sainte?[37]
+    Hiahya!
+    I am The River-Reed!
+    Hiahya!
+    All things take heed!
+    Naked, without drum or mask
+    I do my magic task.
+    Fireflies, tell me what I ask!..."
+
+[Footnote 37: Catherine. Her shrine is at Auriesville--the Lourdes of
+America--where many miraculous cures are effected.]
+
+"He-he!" chuckled The Water-snake, "Thiohero is quite a witch!"
+
+We seated ourselves. If the Little Maid of Askalege, whirling in her
+dance, perceived us through her veil of living phosphorescence, she made
+no sign.
+
+And it was a long time before she stood still, swayed outward, reeled
+across the grass, and fell face down among the ferns.
+
+As I sprang to my feet Tahioni caught my arm.
+
+"Remain very silent and still, my elder brother," he said gravely.
+
+For a full hour, I think, the girl lay motionless among the ferns. The
+cloud of fire-flies had vanished. Rarely one sparkled distantly now, far
+away in the glade.
+
+The delay, in the darkness, seemed interminable before the girl stirred,
+raised her head, slowly sat upright.
+
+Then she lifted one slim arm and called softly to me:
+
+"Nai, my Captain!"
+
+"Nai, Thiohero!" I answered.
+
+She came creeping through the herbage and gathered herself cross-legged
+beside me. I took her hands warmly, and released them; and she caressed
+my arms and face with velvet touch.
+
+"It is happiness to see you, my Captain," she said softly.
+
+"Nai! Was I not right when I foretold your hurt at the fight near the
+Drowned Lands?"
+
+"Truly," said I, "you are a sorceress; and I am deeply grateful to you
+for your care of me when I lay wounded by Howell's house."
+
+"I hear you. I listen attentively. I am glad," she said. "And I continue
+to listen for your voice, my Captain."
+
+"Then--have you talked secretly with the fire-flies?" I asked gravely.
+
+"I have talked with them."
+
+"And have they told you anything, little sister?"
+
+"The fire-flies say that many green-coats and Maquas have gone to
+Stanwix," she replied seriously, "and that other green-coats,--who now
+wear _red_ coats,--are following from Oswego."
+
+I nodded: "Sir John's Yorkers," I said to Tahioni.
+
+"Also," she said, "there are with them men in _strange uniforms_, which
+are not American, not British."
+
+"What!" I exclaimed, startled in spite of myself.
+
+"Strange men in strange dress," she murmured, "who speak neither English
+nor French nor Iroquois nor Algonquin."
+
+Then, all in an instant, it came to me what she meant--what Penelope had
+meant.
+
+"You mean the Chasseurs from Buck Island," said I, "the Hessians!"
+
+But she did not know, only that they wore gray and green clothing and
+were tall, ruddy men--taller for the odd caps they wore, and their long
+legs buttoned in black to the hips.
+
+"Hessians," I repeated. "Hainault riflemen hired out to the King of
+England by their greedy and contemptible German master and by that great
+ass, George Third, shipped hither to stir in us Americans a hatred for
+himself that never shall be extinguished!"
+
+"Are their scalps well haired?" inquired Tahioni anxiously.
+
+It seemed a ludicrous thing to say, and I was put to it to stifle my
+sudden mirth.
+
+"They wear pig-tails in eel-skins, and stiffened with pomade that stinks
+from New York to Albany," said I.
+
+Then my mood sobered again; and I thought of Penelope's vision and
+wondered whether I was truly fated to meet my end in combat with these
+dogs of Germans.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Screech-owl had made a fire. Also, before my arrival he had killed
+an August doe, and a haunch was now a-roasting and filling my nostrils
+with a pleasant odour.
+
+We spread our blankets and ate our parched corn, watching our meat
+cooking.
+
+"And McDonald?" I inquired of Thiohero, who sat close to me and rested
+her head on my shoulder while eating her parched com.
+
+"My fire-flies tell me," said she gravely, "that the outlaws travel this
+way, and shall hang on the Schoharie in ambush."
+
+"When?"
+
+"When there is a battle near Stanwix."
+
+"Oh. Shall McDonald come to Brakabeen?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+I gazed absently at the fire, slowly chewing my parched corn.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+OYANEH!
+
+
+The problem which I must now solve staggered me. How was it possible,
+with my little scout of five, to discover McDonald's approach and also
+find Sir John's line of communication and penetrate his purpose?
+
+On a leaf of my _carnet_ I made a map which was shaped like an immense
+right-angle triangle, its apex Fort Stanwix in the west; its base
+Schoharie Creek; the Mohawk River its perpendicular; its hypothenuse my
+bee's-flight to Oneida.
+
+The only certain information I possessed was that Sir John and St. Leger
+had sailed from Buck Island to Oswego, and from there were marching
+somewhere. I guessed, of course, that they were approaching the Mohawk
+by way of Oneida Lake; yet, even so, they might have detached McDonald's
+outlaws and sent them to Otsego; or they might be coming upon us in full
+force from that same direction, with flanking war parties flung out
+toward Stanwix to aid their strategy.
+
+One thing, however, seemed almost certain, and that was the direction
+their waggons must take from Oneida Lake; for I did not think Sir John
+would attempt Otsego in any force after his tragic dose of a pathless
+wilderness the year before.
+
+I saw very plainly, however, that I must now give up any attempt to
+scout for McDonald's painted demons on the Schoharie until I had
+discovered Sir John's objective and traced his line of communications.
+And I realized that I must now move quickly.
+
+There were only two logical methods left open to me to accomplish this
+hazardous business with my handful of scouts. The easier way was
+instantly to face about, secure two good canoes at Schoharie, make
+directly for the Mohawk River, and follow it westward by water day and
+night.
+
+But the surer way to run across Sir John's trail--and perhaps
+McDonald's--was to take to the western forests, follow the hypothenuse
+of the great triangle, and, travelling lightly and swiftly northwest,
+headed straight for Oneida Lake.
+
+This was what, finally, I decided to attempt as I lay on my blanket
+that night; and I was loath to leave the Schoharie and ashamed to turn
+tail to McDonald's ragamuffins, when the entire district was in so great
+distress, and Brakabeen farms a rat's nest of disloyal families.
+
+But there seemed to be no other way to conduct if I obeyed my orders,
+too;--no better method of discovering McDonald and of devising
+punishment for him, even though in the meanwhile he should carry fire
+and sword through Schoharie,--perhaps menace Schenectady,--perhaps
+Albany itself.
+
+No, there was no other choice; and finally I realized this, after a
+night passed in agonized indecision, and asking God's guidance to aid my
+inexperience in this so terrible a crisis.
+
+At dawn my Indians began to paint.
+
+After we had eaten a bowl of samp I called them around me, shewed them
+the map I had made in my _carnet_, told them what I had decided, and
+invited opinions from everybody. I added that there now was no time for
+any customary formalities of deliberation so dear to all Indians: I told
+them that Tharon and God were one; and that our ancestors understood and
+approved what we were about to do.
+
+Then I laid a handful of dry sticks upon the ground, pretended that this
+was a fire; warmed my hands at it; lighted an imaginary pipe; puffed it
+and passed it around in pantomime.
+
+Still employing symbols to reassure these young Oneida warriors
+concerning time-honoured formalities which they dared not disregard, I
+drew a circle in the air with my finger, cut it twice with an imaginary
+horizontal line to indicate a sunrise and a sunset, then turned to
+Tahioni and bade him answer my speech of _yesterday_ after a _night's
+deliberation_.
+
+The young warrior replied gravely that he and his comrades had
+consulted, and were of one mind with me. He said that it was with sorrow
+that they turned their backs on McDonald, who was a great villain and
+who surely would now be coming to Schoharie to murder and destroy; but
+that _it did no good to sever the tail of a snake_. He said that the
+fanged head of the Tory Serpent was somewhere east of Oneida Lake; that
+if we scouted swiftly and thoroughly in that direction we could very
+soon surmise where the poisonous head was about to strike, by
+discovering and then observing the direction in which the body of the
+serpent was travelling.
+
+One by one I asked my young men for an opinion: the youthful warriors
+were unanimous.
+
+Then I turned and gazed fearfully at Thiohero, knowing well enough that
+these other adolescents would obey her blindly, and in dread lest her
+own dreams should sway her judgment and counsel her to advise us to some
+folly. She was their prophetess; there was nothing to do without her
+sanction. I could not order these Oneidas; I could only attempt to use
+them through their own instincts and personal loyalty to myself.
+
+The early sun gilded the painted body of their sorceress, making of her
+clan ensign and the Little Red Foot two brilliant and jewelled symbols.
+
+She stood lithely upright, one smooth knee nestling to the other, her
+feet in their ankle moccasins planted parallel and close together, and
+her body all glistening like a gold dragon-fly.
+
+From her painted cincture hung her war-sporran,--a narrow cascade of
+pale blue wampum barred with scarlet and lined with winter weasel.
+Hatchet and knife swung from either hip; powder-horn and bullet-wallet
+dangled beneath her arm-pits. A war bow and a quiver full of scarlet
+arrows hung at her back. Her hair, shoulder-short and glossy-thick, was
+bound above the brows by a tight scarlet circlet. From this, across her
+left ear, sagged a heron's feather.
+
+Never had I beheld such wild and supple grace in any living thing save
+only in a young panther clothed in the soft, dun-gold of her wedding
+fur.
+
+"Thiohero," I said, "little sister to whom has been given an instinct
+more delicate than ours, and senses more subtle, and a wisdom both human
+and superhuman,--you who listen when the forest trees talk one to
+another under the full moon's lustre,--you who understand the speech of
+our lesser comrades that fly through the air paths on bright wings, or
+run through the dusky woodlands on four furry feet--you who speak
+secretly with the mighty dead; who whisper and laugh with fairies and
+little people and stone-throwers; who with your magic drum can make
+worn-out and cast-off moccasins dance; whose ancestress ate live coals
+to frighten away the Flying Heads; whose forefathers destroyed the
+Stonish Giants; _we Oneidas of the clan of the Little Red Foot_ are now
+of one mind concerning the war-trail we ought to take and follow to the
+end!
+
+"_Little sister_; we desire to know your opinion. _Hiero!_"
+
+Then the Little Maid of Askalege folded her arms, looking me intently in
+the eyes.
+
+"_Brother_, and my Captain," she said very quietly, "a year ago I told
+you that you should come from Howell's house _in scarlet_. And it was
+so.
+
+"And while you lay at Summer House a Caughnawaga woman, with yellow
+hair, washed the scarlet from your body.
+
+"And there came a day when, we met under apple-trees in green
+fruit--this Yellow Haired woman and I. And, stopping, we confronted each
+the other; and looked deeply into one another's minds.
+
+"_Brother_: when I discovered that Yellow Hair was in love with you I
+became angry. But when I discovered that this young woman also _was a
+sorceress_, then I became afraid.
+
+"_Brother_: there was a vision in her mind, and I also beheld the scene
+she gazed at.
+
+"_Brother_: we saw a battle in the North, and men in strange uniforms,
+and cannon smoke. And we _both_ were looking upon _you_; and upon a
+shape near you, which stood wrapped to the head in white garments.
+
+"_Brother_: I do not know what that shape may have been which stood
+robed in white like a Chief of the Eight Plumed Ones.
+
+"But at that moment we both understood--the Yellow Haired one and
+I--that you must surely travel to this place we gazed at.
+
+"So it makes no difference where you decide to go; all trails lead to
+that appointed place; and you shall surely come there at the hour
+appointed, though you travel the world over and across before you shall
+at last arrive.
+
+"_Brother_: we Oneida, of the Allied Clan of the Little Red Foot, are
+now of one mind with our elder brother. He is our chief and Captain. He
+has spoken as an Oneida to Oneidas. We understand. We thank him for his
+love offered. We thank him for his kinship offered. We accept; and, in
+our turn, we offer to our elder brother and Captain our love and our
+kinship. We take him among us as an Oneida.
+
+"At this our fire--for alas! no fire shall burn again at Onondaga, nor
+at Oneida Lake, nor at The Wood's Edge, nor at Thendara--I, Thiohero,
+Sorceress of Askalege, and _Oyaneh_, salute an Oneida chief and Sachem.
+Hail Royaneh!"
+
+"Hai! Royaneh!" shouted the young warriors in rising excitement.
+
+The girl come to me slowly, stooped and tore from the ground a strand of
+club-moss. Then, straightening up, she lifted her arms and held the
+chaplet of moss over my head,--symbol of the chief's antlers.
+
+"O nen ti eh o ya nen ton tah ya qua wen ne ken...."
+
+Her young voice faltered, broke:
+
+"Tah o nen sah gon yan nen tah ah tah o nen ti ton tah ken yahtas!" she
+added in a strangled voice: "Now I have finished. Now show me the
+_man_!"
+
+"He is here!" cried the excited Oneidas. "He wears the antlers!"
+
+Tahioni stretched out his hand; it was trembling when he touched the red
+foot sewed on my hunting shirt.
+
+"What is his name, O Thiohero, whom you have raised up among the Oneida?
+Who mourn a great man dead?"
+
+A deep silence fell among them; for what their prophetess had done meant
+that she must have knowledge that a great man and chief among the Oneida
+lay dead somewhere at that very moment.
+
+Slowly the girl turned her head from one to another; a veiled look
+drowned her gaze; the young men were quivering in the imminence of a
+revelation based upon knowledge which could be explained only by
+sorcery.
+
+Then the Little Maid of Askalege took a dry stick from the pretended
+fire, crumbled it, touched her lips with the powder in sign of personal
+and intimate mourning.
+
+"Spencer, Interpreter and Oneida Chief, shall die this week in battle,"
+she said in a dull voice.
+
+A murmur of horror and rage, instantly checked and suppressed, left the
+Oneidas staring at their prophetess.
+
+"Therefore," she whispered, "I acquaint you that we have chosen this
+young man to take his place; we lift the antlers; we give him the same
+name,--Hahyion!"[38]
+
+[Footnote 38: Haghriron, of the Great Rite, in the Canienga dialect.]
+
+"Haih! Hahyion!" shouted the Oneidas with up-flung hands.
+
+I was dumb. I could not speak. I dared not ask this girl why and by what
+knowledge she presumed to predict the death of Spencer, and to raise me
+up in his place and give me the same name.
+
+In spite of me her magic made me shudder.
+
+But now that I was truly an Oneida, and in absolute authority, I must
+act quickly.
+
+"Come, then," said I in a shaky voice, "we People of the Rock must march
+on the Gates of Sunset. If my fate lies there, why then I am due to die
+in that place!... Make ready, Oneidas!"
+
+The Screech-owl found a hollow under a windfall; and here we hurriedly
+hid our heavier baggage.
+
+Then, when all had completed painting the Little Red Foot on their
+bellies, I stepped swiftly ahead of them and turned northwest.
+
+"March," I said in a low voice.
+
+We travelled as the honey-bee flies, and as rapidly while the going was
+good en route; but to cover this great triangle of forests we were
+obliged to use the tactics of hunting wolves and, from some given point,
+circle the surrounding country, in hopes of cutting the hidden British
+trail we sought.
+
+This delayed us; but it was the only way. And, like trained hunting
+dogs, we even quartered and cut up the wilderness, halting and
+encircling Cherry Valley on the second day out, because I knew how
+familiar was Walter Butler with that region and with the people who
+inhabited it, and suspected that he might be likely to lead his first
+attack over ground he knew so well.
+
+Ah, God!--had I known then what all the world knows now! And I erred
+only in guessing at the time of Cherry Valley's martyrdom, not in
+estimating the ferocious purpose of young Walter Butler.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the afternoon of our second day out from Schoharie, while we were
+still beating up the bush of the Cherry Valley district, I left my
+Indians and went alone down into the pretty settlement in quest of
+information and also to renew our scanty stock of provisions. I found
+the lovely place almost deserted, save for a few old men of the exempts
+working on a sort of fort around Colonel Clyde's house, and a few women
+and children who had not yet gone off to Schenectady or Albany.
+
+I stopped at the house of the Wells family. John Wells, the father of my
+friend Bob, had been one of the Judges of the Tryon County courts,
+sitting on the bench with old John Butler, who now was invading us, with
+Sir John, in arms.
+
+Bob was away on military duty, but there were in the house his mother,
+his wife, his four little children, his brother Jack, and Janet, his
+engaging sister whom I had admired so often at the Hall, and who was
+beloved like a daughter by Sir William.
+
+I shall never forget the amazement of these delightful and kindly people
+when I appeared at their door in Cherry Valley, nor their affectionate
+hospitality when they learned my purpose and my errand.
+
+A sack of provisions was immediately provided me; their kindness and
+courtesy seemed inexhaustible, although even now the shadow of terror
+lay over Cherry Valley. Their young men under Colonels Clyde and
+Campbell had gone to join Herkimer; they were utterly destitute of
+defense against McDonald or Sir John if Schoharie were invaded, or if
+Stanwix fell, or if Herkimer gave way before St. Leger.
+
+They asked news of me very calmly, and I told them all I had learned and
+something of the sinister rumours which now were current in the Mohawk
+and Schoharie Valleys.
+
+They, in their turn, knew nothing positive of Sir John, but had heard
+that he was marching on Stanwix with St. Leger and Brant, and that a
+thousand savages were with them.
+
+My sojourn at the Wells house was brief; the family was evidently very
+anxious but not gloomy; even the children smiled courageously when I
+made my adieux; and my dear little friend, Janet, led me by the hand to
+the edge of the brush-field, through which I must travel to regain the
+forest, and kissed me at our parting.
+
+On the wood's edge, I paused and looked back at the place called Cherry
+Valley, lying so peacefully in the sunshine, where in the fields grain
+already was turning golden green; and fat cattle grazed their pastures;
+and wisps of smoke drifted from every chimney.
+
+That is my memory of Cherry Valley in the sunny tranquillity of late
+afternoon, where tasseled corn like ranks of plumed Indians, covered
+vale and hillock; and clover and English grass grew green again after
+the first haying; and on some orchard trees the summer apples glimmered
+rosy ripe or lush gold among the leaves;--ah, God!--if I could have
+known what another year was to bring to Cherry Valley!
+
+There was no sound in the still settlement except a dull and distant
+stirring made by the workmen sodding parapets on the new and unfinished
+fort.
+
+From where I stood I could see the Wells house, and the little children
+at play in the dooryard; and Peter Smith, a servant, drawing water, who
+one day was to see his master's family in their blood.
+
+I could make out Colonel Campbell's house, too, and the chimney of
+Colonel Clyde's house; and had a far glimpse of the residence of the
+Reverend Mr. Dunlop, the aged minister of Cherry Valley.
+
+From a gilded weather-cock I was able to guess about where Captain
+M'Kean should reside; and Mr. Mitchell's barn I discovered, also. But
+M'Kean and his rangers must now be marching with Herkimer's five
+regiments to meet the hordes of St. Leger.
+
+The sun sank blood-red behind the unbroken forests, and the sky over
+Cherry Valley seemed to be all afire as I turned away and entered the
+twilight of the woods, lugging my sack of provisions on my back.
+
+That night my Indians and I lay within rifle-shot of the Mohawk River;
+and at dawn we made a crow-flight of it toward Oneida Lake; and found
+not a trace of Sir John or of anybody in that trackless wilderness; and
+so camped at last, exhausted and discouraged.
+
+On the fourth day, toward sunset, the Screech-owl, roaming far out on
+our western flank, returned with news of a dead and stinking fire in the
+woods, and fish heads rotting in it; and he thought the last ember burnt
+out some four days since.
+
+He took us to it in the dark, and his was a better woodcraft than I
+could boast, who had been Brent-Meester, too. At dawn we examined the
+ashes, but discovered nothing; and we were eating our parched corn and
+discussing the matter of the fire when, very far away in the west, a
+shot sounded; and in that same second we were on our feet and listening
+like damned men for the last trumpet.
+
+My heart made a deadened rataplan like a muffled drum, and seemed to
+deafen me, so terribly intent was I.
+
+Tahioni stretched out like a panther sunning on a log; and laid his ear
+flat against the earth. Seconds grew to minutes; nobody stirred; no
+other sound came from the westward.
+
+Presently I turned and signalled in silence; my Indians crawled
+noiselessly to their allotted intervals, extending our line north and
+south; then, trailing my rifle, I stole forward through an open forest,
+beneath the ancient and enormous trees of which no underbrush grew in
+the eternal twilight.
+
+Nothing stirred. There were no animals here, no birds, no living
+creature that I could hear or see,--not even an insect.
+
+Under our tread the mat of moist dead leaves gave back no sound; the
+silence in this dim place was absolute.
+
+We had been creeping forward for more than an hour, I think, before I
+discovered the first sign of man in that spectral region.
+
+I was breasting a small hillock set with tall walnut trees, in hopes of
+obtaining a better view ahead, and had just reached the crest, and,
+lying flat, was lifting my head for a cautious survey, when my eye
+caught a long, wide streak of sunlight ahead.
+
+My Indians, too, had seen this tell-tale evidence which indicated either
+a stream or a road. But we all knew it was a road. We could see the
+sunshine dappling it; and we crawled toward it, belly dragging, like
+tree-cats stalking a dappled fawn.
+
+Scarce had we come near enough to observe this road plainly, and the
+crushed ferns and swale grasses in the new waggon ruts, when we heard
+horses coming at a great distance.
+
+Down we drop, each to a tree, and lie with levelled pieces, while slop!
+thud! clink! come the horses, nearer, nearer; and, to my astonishment
+and perplexity, from the _east_, and travelling the wrong way.
+
+I cautioned my Oneidas fiercely against firing unless I so signalled
+them; we lay waiting in an excitement well nigh unendurable, while
+nearer and nearer came the leisurely sound of the advancing horses.
+
+And now we saw them!--three red-coat dragoons riding very carelessly
+westward on this wide, well-trodden road which now I knew must lead to
+Oneida Lake.
+
+I could see the British horsemen plainly. The day was hot; the sun beat
+down on their red jackets and helmets; they sat their saddles wearily;
+their faces were wet with perspiration, and they had loosened jacket and
+neck-cloth, and their pistols were in holster, and their guns slung upon
+their backs.
+
+It was plain that these troopers had no thought of precaution nor
+entertained any apprehension of danger on this road, which must lie in
+the rear of their army, and must also be their route of communication
+between the Lake and the Mohawk.
+
+Slap, slop, clink! they trampled past us where my Oneidas lay a-tremble
+like crouched cats to see the rats escaping on their runway.
+
+But my ears had caught another sound,--the distant noise of wheels; and
+I guessed that this was a waggon which the three horsemen should have
+escorted, but, feeling entirely secure, had let their horses take their
+own gait, and so had straggled on far ahead of the convoy with which
+they should have kept in touch.
+
+The waggon was far away. It approached slowly. Already the horsemen had
+ridden clear out o' sight; and we crept to the edge of the road and lay
+flat in the weeds, waiting, listening.
+
+Twice the approaching vehicle halted as though to rest the horses; the
+dragoons must have been a long way ahead by this time, for it was some
+minutes since the sound of their horses' hoofs had died away in the
+woods.
+
+And now, near and ever nearer, creeps the waggon; and now it seems close
+at hand; and now we see it far away down the road, slowly moving toward
+us.
+
+But it is no baggage-wain,--no transport cart that approaches us. The
+two horses are caparisoned in bright harness; the driver wears a red
+waistcoat and is a negro, and powdered. The vehicle is a private coach
+which lurches, though driven cautiously.
+
+"Good God!" said I, "that is Sir John's family coach! Tahioni, hold
+your Oneidas! For I mean to find out who rides so carelessly to Oneida
+Lake, confiding too much in the army which has passed this way!"
+
+Slowly, slowly the coach drew near our ambush. I recognized Colas as the
+coachman _pro tem_; I knew the horses and the family coach; saw the
+Johnson arms emblazoned on the panels as I rose from the roadside weeds.
+
+"Colas!" I said quietly.
+
+The negro pulled in his horses and sat staring at me, astounded.
+
+I walked leisurely past the horses to the window of the coach. And
+there, seated, I saw Polly Johnson and Claudia Swift.
+
+There ensued a terrible silence and they gazed upon me as though they
+were looking upon a dead man.
+
+"Jack Drogue!" whispered Claudia, "how--how come you here?"
+
+I bowed, my cap in my hand, but could not utter a word.
+
+"Jack! Jack, are--are you alone?" faltered Lady Johnson. "Good heavens,
+what does this mean, I beg of you?----"
+
+"Where are your people, Polly?" I asked in a dead voice.
+
+"My--my people? Do you mean my husband?"
+
+"I mean him.... And his troops. Where are they at this moment?"
+
+"Do you not know that the army is before Stanwix?"
+
+"I know it now," said I gravely.
+
+"Mercy on us, Jack!" cried Claudia, finding her voice shrilly; "will you
+not tell us how it is that we meet you here on the Oneida road and close
+to our own army?"
+
+I shook my head: "No, Claudia, I shall not tell you. But I must ask you
+how you came here and whither you now are bound. And you must answer."
+
+They gazed at my sombre face with an intentness and anxiety that made me
+sadder than ever I was in all my life.
+
+Then, without a word, Lady Johnson laid aside the silken flap of her red
+foot-mantle. And there my shocked eyes beheld a new born baby nursing at
+her breast.
+
+"We accompanied my husband from Buck Island to Oswego," she said
+tremulously. "And, as the way was deemed so utterly secure, we took boat
+at Oneida Lake and brought our horses.... And now are returning--never
+dreaming of danger from--from your people--Jack."
+
+I stared at the child; I stared at her.
+
+"In God's name," I said, "get forward then, and hail your horsemen
+escort. Say to them that the road is dangerous! Take to your batteau
+and get you to Oswego as soon as may be. And I strictly enjoin you, come
+not this way again, for there is now no safety in Tryon for man or woman
+or child, nor like to be while red-coat or green remains within this
+new-born nation!
+
+"And you, Claudia, say to Sir Frederick Haldimand that he has lighted in
+Tryon a flame that shall utterly consume him though he hide behind the
+ramparts of Quebec itself! Say that to him!"
+
+Then I stepped back and bade Colas drive on as fast as he dare. And when
+he cracked his long whip, I stood uncovered and looked upon the woman I
+once had loved, and upon the other woman who had been my childhood
+playmate; and saw her child at her breast, and her pale face bowed above
+it.
+
+And so out of my life passed these two women forever, without any word
+or sign save for the white faces of them and the deadly fear in their
+eyes.
+
+I stood there in the Oneida Road, watching their coach rolling and
+swaying until it was out of view, and even the noise of it had utterly
+died away.
+
+Then I walked slowly back to the wood's edge; in silence my Oneidas rose
+from the weeds and stood around me where I halted, the sleeve of my
+buckskin shirt across my eyes.
+
+Then, when I was ready, I turned and went forward, swiftly, in a
+southeasterly direction; and heard their padded footsteps falling
+lightly at my heels as I Hastened toward the Mohawk, a miserable, sad,
+yet angry man.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+All that long, hot day we travelled; and in the afternoon black clouds
+hid the sun, and presently a most furious thunder storm burst on us in
+the woods, so that we were obliged to shelter us under the hemlocks and
+lie there while rain roared and lightning blinded, and deafening thunder
+shook the ground we lay on.
+
+It was over in an hour. The forest dripped and steamed as we unwrapped
+our rifles and started on.
+
+Twice, it seemed to me, far to the east I heard a duller, vaguer noise
+of thunder; and my Indians also noticed it.
+
+Later, with the sky all blue above, it came again--dull, distant shocks
+with no rolling echo trailing after.
+
+Tahioni came to me, and I saw in his uneasy eyes what I also now
+divined. For to the bravest Indian the sound of cannon is a terror and
+an abomination. And I now had become very sure that it was cannon we
+heard; for Stanwix lay far across the wilderness in that direction, and
+the heavy, lifeless, and superheated air might carry the solemn sound
+from a great distance.
+
+But I said nothing, not choosing to share my conclusions with these
+young warriors who, though they had taken scalps at Big Eddy, were yet
+scarcely tried in war.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That night we lay near an old trail which I knew ran to Otsego and
+passed by Colonel Croghan's new house.
+
+And on this trail, early the following morning, we encountered two men
+whom my Indians, instead of taking as they should have done, instantly
+shot down. Which betrayed their inexperience in war; and I rated them
+roundly.
+
+The two dead men were _blue-eyed_ Indians in all the horror of their
+shameful paint and forest dress.
+
+I knew one of them, for when Tahioni washed their lifeless visages and
+laid them on their backs, there, to my hot indignation, I beheld young
+Thomas Hare, brother to Lieutenant Henry Hare and to Captain James Hare,
+of the Indian Service.
+
+Horror-stricken, bitterly mortified, I gazed down at the dead features
+of these two renegades who had betrayed their own race and colour; and
+my Indians, watching me, understood when I turned and spat upon the
+ground; and so they scalped both--which otherwise they had not dared in
+my presence.
+
+We found on them every evidence that they were serving as a scout for
+McDonald. Probably when we encountered them they had been on their way
+to Sir John at Stanwix with verbal intelligence. But now it was idle to
+surmise what they might have been able to tell us.
+
+We found upon their bodies no papers to shew where McDonald might be
+lurking; and so, as I would not trouble to bury the carrion, my Oneidas
+despoiled them, hid their weapons, pouched their money and ammunition,
+and left them lying on the trail for their more respectable relatives,
+the wolves, to devour.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now, on the Otsego trail, which was but a vile one and nigh impassable
+with undergrowth, we beat toward the Mohawk like circling hounds cast
+out and at fault to find a scent.
+
+And at evening of that day, the seventh of August, I saw a man in the
+woods, and, watching, ordered my Indians to surround him and bring him
+in alive.
+
+Judge, then, of my chagrin when presently comes walking up, and arm in
+arm with my Oneidas, one Daniel Wemple in his militia regimentals, a
+Torloch farmer whom I knew.
+
+"Great God, John!" says he, "what are you doing here with your tame
+panthers and a pair o' raw scalps that smell white in my nostrils?"
+
+I told him, and asked in turn for news.
+
+"You know nothing?" he demanded.
+
+"Nothing, Dan, only that we heard cannon to the eastward yesterday."
+
+"Well," says he, "there has been a bloody fight at Oriska, John; and
+Tryon must mourn her sons.
+
+"For our fine regiments marched into an ambuscade on our way to drive
+Sir John from Stanwix, which he had invested. Colonel Cox is dead, and
+Majors Eisinlord and Klepsattle and Van Slyck. Colonel Paris is taken,
+and our brigade surgeon, Younglove, and Captain Martin of the batteaux
+service. John Frey, Major of brigade, is missing, and so is Colonel
+Bellinger. Scarce an inferior officer but is slain or taken; our dead
+soldiers are carted off by waggon-loads; our wounded lie in their
+alder-litters. And among them our general,--old Honikol Herkimer!--and I
+myself saw that brave Oneida die--our interpreter, Spencer----"
+
+A cry escaped me, instantly checked as I looked at Thiohero. The girl
+came and rested her arm on my left shoulder and gazed steadily at the
+militia man.
+
+He passed his hand wearily through his hair: "Only one regiment ran," he
+said dully. "I shall not name it to you because it was not entirely
+their fault; and afterward they lost heavily and fought bravely. But
+this is a dreadful blow to Tryon, John Drogue."
+
+"We were routed, then?"
+
+"No. We drove them from the field pell mell! We cut Brant's savages to
+pieces. We went at Sir John's Greens with our bayonets and tore the guts
+out of them! We put the fear o' God into Butler's green-coats, too, and
+there'll be caterwauling in Canada when the news is carried, for I saw
+young Stephen Watts[39] dead in his blood, and Hare running off with a
+broken arm a-flapping and he a-screaming like a singed wildcat----"
+
+[Footnote 39: Captain Watts was left for dead but ultimately recovered.]
+
+"Steve Watts! Dead!"
+
+"I saw him. I saw one of our soldiers take his watch from his body. God!
+What a shambles was there at Oriska!"
+
+But I was thinking of young Stevie Watts, Polly Johnson's brother, and
+my one-time friend, lying dead in his blood. And I thought of his
+boyish passion for Penelope. And her kindness for him. And remembered
+how last I had seen him.... And now he lay dead; and I had seen his
+sister but a few hours ago--seen her for the last time I should ever
+behold her.
+
+I drew a breath like a deep and painful sigh.
+
+"And the Fort?" I asked in a low voice.
+
+"Stanwix holds fast, John Drogue. Willett is there, and Gansevoort with
+the 3rd New York of the Line."
+
+"Have you news of McDonald, Dan?"
+
+"None."
+
+"Whither do you travel express?"
+
+"To Johnstown with the news if I can get there."
+
+I warned him concerning conditions in Schoharie. We shook hands, and I
+watched the brave militia man stride away through the forest all alone.
+
+When we camped that night, Thiohero touched her brow and breasts with
+ashes from our fire. That was her formal symbol of mourning for Spencer.
+Later we all should mourn him in due ceremony.
+
+Then she came and lay down close against me and rested her child's face
+on my hollow'd arm. And so slept all night long, trembling in her
+dreams.
+
+I know not how it chanced that I erred in my scouting and lost
+direction, but on the tenth day of August my Indians and I came out into
+a grassy place where trees grew thinly.
+
+The first thing I saw was an Indian, hanging by the heels from a tree,
+and lashed there with the traces from a harness.
+
+At the same time one of my Oneidas discovered a white man lying with his
+feet in a pool of water. But when Tahioni drew the cocked hat from his
+head to see his countenance, hair and skin stuck to it, and a most
+horrid smell filled the woods.
+
+And now, everywhere, we beheld evidences of the Oriska combat, for here
+lay a soldier's empty knapsack, and yonder a ragged shirt, and there a
+rusting tin cup, and here a boot all bloody and slit to the toe.
+
+And now, looking about me, I suddenly comprehended that we were nearer
+to Stanwix Fort than to Oriska; and had no business any nearer to either
+place.
+
+We now were in a most perilous region and must proceed with every
+caution, for in this forest Brant's Iroquois must be roaming everywhere
+in the rear of the troops which had invested Stanwix.
+
+My Oneidas understood this without explanation from me; and they and I
+also became further alarmed when, to our astonishment, we came upon a
+broad road running through a forest where I swear no road had existed a
+twelve-month past.
+
+Where this road led, and from whence, neither my Oneidas nor I knew. It
+was a raw and new road, yet it had been heavily travelled both ways by
+horse, foot, and waggons. It seemed to have as many windings as the
+Kennyetto at Fonda's Bush; and I saw it had been builded to run clear of
+hills and swampy land, as though made for a traffic heavier than a log
+road might easily sustain.
+
+We left the road but scouted eastward along its edge, I desiring to
+learn more of it; for it seemed to bear toward Wood Creek; and if there
+were enemy batteaux to be seen I wished to count them.
+
+Suddenly Thiohero touched my arm,--caught my sleeve convulsively.
+
+"Hahyion--Royaneh--my elder brother--O my white Captain!" she stammered,
+clinging to me in her excitement, "here is the _place_! Here is the
+place I saw in my vision! Here I saw strange uniforms and cannon
+smoke--and a strange white shape--and you--O Hahyion--my Captain!----"
+
+I looked around me, suddenly chilled and shivering in spite of the heat
+of a summer afternoon. But I perceived nobody except my Oneidas. We were
+on a long, sparsely-wooded hillock where juniper spread waist high.
+Below I could see the new road curving sharply to the eastward. But
+nobody moved down there; there was not a sound to be heard, not a
+movement in the forest. All around us was still as death.
+
+Something about the abrupt bend in the empty road below me attracted my
+attention. I examined it intently for a while, then, cautioning my
+Indians, I ventured to move forward and around the south slope of the
+hillock, wading waist-deep in juniper, in order to get a look at what
+might lie behind the bend in this road of mystery.
+
+The road appeared to end abruptly just around the curve, as though it
+had been opened only so far and then abandoned. This first amazed me and
+then alarmed me, because I knew it could not be so as I had seen on the
+roadbed evidences of recent and heavy travel.
+
+I stood peering down at it where it seemed to stop short against the
+green and tangled barrier of the woods which blocked it like a living
+abattis----
+
+God! It _was_ an abattis!--a mask!
+
+As I realized this I saw a man in a strange, outlandish uniform run out
+from the green and living barrier, look up at me where I stood in the
+juniper, shout out something _in German_, and stand pointing up at me
+while a score of soldiers, all in this same outlandish uniform, swarmed
+out upon the road and started running toward where I stood.
+
+Then I came to my senses, clapped my rifle to my cheek and fired,
+stopping one of these strange soldiers and curing him of his running
+habits forever.
+
+To me arrived swiftly my Oneidas, and dropped in the juniper, kneeling
+and firing upon the soldiers below. Two among them fell down flat on the
+road, and then the others turned and fled straight into their green
+barrier of branches. From there they fired at us wildly, keeping up a
+strange, hoarse shouting.
+
+"Hessian chasseurs!" I exclaimed. "These troops can be no other than the
+filthy Germans hired by King George to come here and cut our throats!"
+
+"_Those men wear the uniform I saw in my vision of this place!_"
+whispered Thiohero, quietly reloading her rifle. "I think that this is
+truly your battle, my Captain."
+
+Then, as her prophecy of cannon came into my mind, there was a blinding
+flash from that green barrier below; a vast cloud blotted it from view;
+the pine beside which I stood shivered as though thunder-smitten; and
+the entire top of it crashed down upon us, burying us all in lashing,
+writhing branches.
+
+So stunned and stupefied was I that I lay for an instant without motion,
+my ears still deafened by that clap of thunder.
+
+But now I floundered to my feet amid the pine-top's debris; around me
+rose my terrified Oneidas, nearly paralyzed with fright.
+
+"Come," said I, "we should pull foot ere they blow us into pieces with
+their damned artillery. Thiohero, where are you?"
+
+"I come, Royaneh!"
+
+"Tahioni! Kwiyeh! Hanatoh!" I called anxiously.
+
+Then I saw them all creeping like weasels from under the green debris.
+
+"Hasten," I muttered, "for we shall have all the Iroquois in North
+America on our backs in another moment."
+
+As we started to retreat, the Germans emptied their muskets after us;
+but I did not think anybody had been hit.
+
+We now were running in single file, our rifles a-trail, Tahioni leading,
+and I some distance in the rear, turning my head over my shoulder from
+moment to moment to see if we were followed.
+
+And now, as I ran on, I understood that this accursed road had been made
+expressly to transport their siege artillery; that their guns were still
+in transit; that they had masked a cannon and manned it with Hessian
+chasseurs to keep their gun-road safe against surprise from any party
+scouting out of Oriska.
+
+Lord, what an ambuscade! And what an escape for us!
+
+As I jogged on at the heels of my Indians, still dazed and shaken by the
+deadly surprise of it all, I saw Thiohero, who was some little distance
+in front of me, reel sideways as though out o' breath, and stand still
+near a beech tree, holding her scarlet blanket against her body.
+
+When I came up to her she was leaning against the tree, clutching her
+blanket to her face and breast with both hands. But she heard me and
+lifted her head from the gaily coloured folds.
+
+"Hahyion--Royaneh!" she panted, "_this_ was your battle.... And now--it
+is over ... and you shall live!..."
+
+My Oneidas had halted and were looking back at us. And now they returned
+rapidly and clustered around us.
+
+"Are you exhausted, little sister?" I demanded, drawing nearer. "Are you
+hurt----"
+
+"Listen--my brother and--my Captain!" she burst out breathlessly.
+"_This_ was the battle of my vision!--the strange uniforms--the
+cannon-cloud--the white shape!... I saw it near you where--where you
+stood in the cannon smoke!--a shape like mist at sunrise.... Haihee! It
+was the face and shape of the Caughnawaga girl!... It was Yellow Hair
+who floated there beside you in the cannon smoke!--covered to her eyes
+in white and flowers----"
+
+The Little Maid of Askalege clutched her gay blanket closer to her
+breast and began to sway gently on her feet as though the thumping of a
+distant partridge were a witch-drum.
+
+"Haihya Hahyion!" she whispered--"Thiohero Oyaneh salutes--her
+Captain.... I speak--as one dying.... Haiee! Haie--e! Yellow Hair is--is
+quite--a witch!----"
+
+Her voice failed; down on her knees she sank. And, as I snatched her
+from the ground and lifted her, she looked up into my face and smiled.
+Then, in a long-drawn sigh, her soul escaped between my arms that could
+not stay its flight to Tharon.
+
+Her face became as wax; her head fell forward on my breast; her eyes
+rolled upward. And, as I pressed her in my arms, all my body grew warm
+and wet with bright blood pouring from her softly parted lips.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+THE WOOD OF BRAKABEEN
+
+
+It was the 12th day of August when we came again to the Wood of
+Brakabeen,--we four young warriors of the clan of the Little Red Foot.
+
+We were ragged and bruised and weary, and starving; but the fierce rage
+burning in our breasts gave to each a strength and purpose that nerved
+our briar-torn and battered bodies to effort inexhaustible.
+
+Under scattered and furtive shots from German muskets we had retreated
+through the forest with our dead prophetess, until night ended pursuit
+by the chasseurs, and we ourselves had lost our direction.
+
+All the next day we travelled southwest with our dead. On the tenth day
+we came out on Otsego Lake, near to Croghan's new house.
+
+Where he had cleared the bush and where Indian grass was growing as tall
+as a man's head, we made a deep grave. And here we four clansmen buried
+the Little Maid of Askalege; and sodded the mound with wild grasses
+where strawberries grew, and blue asters and plumes of golden-rod.
+
+A Canada whitethroat called sweetly, sadly, from the forest in the
+sunset glow. We made for the grave a white cross of silver birch. We
+placed parched corn and a cup of water at the foot of the cross; and her
+bow and scarlet arrows against her needs where deer, God willing, should
+be plenty. And near these we set her little moccasins lest in that
+unknown land her tender feet should suffer on the trail.
+
+In the morning we made a fire of ozier, sweet-birch, cherry wood, and
+samphire.
+
+When the aromatic smoke blew over us I rose and spoke. After I had
+finished, the others in turn rose and spoke their mind, saying very
+simply what was in their hearts concerning their little prophetess, who
+had died wearing a little red foot painted on her body.
+
+So we left her at rest under the wild flowers and Indian grass, near to
+Croghan's empty house, with a vast wilderness around to guard the
+sanctuary, and the sad whitethroats to mourn her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now, fierce and starved and ragged, we came once more to the Wood of
+Brakabeen. And heard McDonald's guns in the valley and his pibroch on
+the hills.
+
+The afternoon was still and hot, the deep blue sky cloudless. Over
+Vrooman's Land a brown smoke hung; more smoke was rising above Clyberg;
+more rolled up beyond the swampy ground near the Flockey.
+
+From the edge of Brakabeen Wood, looking out over the valley, we could
+hear firing in the direction of Stone House, more musketry toward Fox
+Creek.
+
+"McDonald is in Schoharie," I said to Tahioni. "There will be many dead
+here, women and children and the grey-haired. Are my brothers of the
+Little Red Foot too weary to strike?"
+
+The young Oneida warrior laughed. I looked at my ragged comrades where
+they crouched in their frightful paint, listening excitedly to the
+distant firing, and I saw their lean cheeks twitching and their nostrils
+a-flare as they scented the distant fighting.
+
+The wild screaming of the pibroch, too, seemed to madden them; and it
+enraged me, also, because I saw that Sir John's Highlanders were here
+with McDonald's fantastic crew and had come to slaughter us all with
+their dirks and broad-swords as they had threatened before Sir John fled
+North.
+
+We turned to the left and I led my Oneidas in a file through the ferny
+glades of Brakabeen Wood, and amid still places where clear streams ran
+deep in greenest moss; where tall lilies nodded their yellow Chinese
+caps in the flowery swale; where, in the demi-light of forest aisles,
+nothing grew save the great trees bedded there since the dawn of time,
+which sprung their vast arches high above us to support their glowing
+tapestry of leaves.
+
+It was mid-afternoon when, smelling hot smoke, we came near the woods by
+the river; and saw, close to us, a barn afire, and three men carrying
+guns, running hither and thither in a hay field and setting every stack
+aflame with their torches.
+
+One o' the fellows was a drummer in the green uniform of Butler's
+Rangers, and his drum was slung on his back. And I knew him. He was
+Michael Reed of Fonda's Bush, and cousin to Nick Stoner.
+
+And then, to my astonishment and rage, I saw Dries Bowman in his
+farmer's clothes; and the other man was a huge German--one of their
+chasseurs, who wore a stiff pig-tail that was greased, and a black
+mustache, and waist-high spatter-dashes--a very barbarian in red and
+blue and green; and grunting and puffing as he ran about in the hot
+sunshine to set the hay-cocks afire with his torch.
+
+I remember giving no command; we sprang out of the woods, trailing our
+rifles in our left hands; and Bowman fired at me and, missing, started
+to run; but I got him by his collar and knocked him over with my
+gun-butt.
+
+The Hessian chasseur instantly drew up and fired in our direction; and
+Tahioni shot him dead in his tracks, where he fell heavily on his back
+and lay in the grass with limbs outspread.
+
+"You may take his scalp! I care not!" shouted I, watching my Oneidas,
+who had got at Micky Reed and were striving to take him alive as I had
+ordered.
+
+But Reed had a big dragoon's pistol in his belt and would have used it
+had not Kwiyeh killed him swiftly with his hatchet.
+
+But I would not permit them to take Reed's scalp, and bade them despoil
+the body quickly and bring the leather cross-belts and girdle to me.
+
+Hanatoh ran up and caught Dries Bowman by the collar; and we jerked him
+to his feet and dragged and hustled him into the woods. And here
+despoiled him, pulling from his pockets a Royal Protection and a bundle
+of papers, which revealed him as a spy sent down to preach treason in
+Schoharie and carry what men he might corrupt as recruits to McDonald
+and Sir John.
+
+"That's enough to hang him!" I said sharply to Tahioni. "Link me up
+those drummer's cross-belts!"
+
+"What--what do you mean, John Drogue!" stammered the wretch. "Would you
+murder an old neighbour?"
+
+"That same old neighbour would have murdered me at Howell's house. And
+now is come disguised in civilian clothing to Schoharie with a spy's
+commission, to raise the district in arms against us."
+
+"My God!" he shrieked, as Tahioni flung the leather halter about his
+neck, "is it a crime if honest men stand by their King?"
+
+"Not when they stand out in plain day and wear a red coat or a green,"
+said I, flinging the leather halter over the oak tree's limb.
+
+Hanatoh swiftly pinioned his arms and tied his wrists; I tossed the
+halter's end to Kwiyeh. Tahioni also took hold of it.
+
+"Hoist that spy!" I said coldly. And in a second more his feet were
+kicking some half dozen inches above the ground.
+
+My Oneidas fastened the halter to a stout bush; I was shaking all over
+and felt sick and dizzy to hear him raling and choking in the leather
+noose which was too stiff for the ghastly business.
+
+But at that instant Tahioni shouted a shrill warning; I looked over my
+shoulder and saw a great number of soldiers wearing red patches on their
+hats, running across the burning hayfield to surround us.
+
+Yet it needed better men than McDonald's to take me and my Oneidas in
+Brakabeen Wood. We turned and plunged into the bush, leaving the
+wretched spy[40] hanging to the oak, his convulsed body now spinning
+dizzily round and round above the ground.
+
+[Footnote 40: The historian, J. R. Simms, says that Benjamin De Luysnes
+and his party strung up Dries Bowman, and then cut him down and let him
+go with a warning. Simms also gives a different date to this affair. At
+all events, it seems that Bowman was cut down in time to save his life.
+Simms, by the way, spells De Luysnes' name De Line. Campbell mentions
+Captain Stephen Watts as Major Stephen Watson. We all commit error.]
+
+Looking back as I ran, I soon saw that the men who were chasing us had
+little stomach for a pursuit which must presently lead to bush-fighting.
+They shouted and halooed, but lagged as they arrived at the denser
+woods; and they seemed to have no officers to encourage them, or if they
+indeed possessed any I saw none.
+
+Tahioni came fiercely to me, where I had halted, to watch the red-patch
+soldiers, saying that we had now been out thirteen days and had taken
+but three scalps. He said that to hang a man was not a proper vengeance
+to atone the death of Thiohero; and wanted to know why my prisoners
+should not be delivered to him and his Oneida comrades, who knew how to
+punish their enemies.
+
+Which speech so angered me that I had a mind to take him by the throat.
+Only the sudden memory of our Red Foot clan-ship, and of Thiohero,
+deterred me. Also, that was no way to treat any Indian; and to lose my
+self-control was to lose the Oneidas' respect and my authority over
+them.
+
+"My brother, Tahioni," said I coldly, "should not forget that he is my
+_younger_ brother.
+
+"If Tahioni were older, and possessed of more wisdom and experience, he
+would know that unless a chief asks opinions none should be offered."
+
+The youth's eyes flashed at me and he stiffened under a rebuke that is
+hard for any Iroquois to swallow.
+
+"My younger brother," said I, "ought to know that I am not like an
+officer of Guy Johnson's Indian Department, who delivers prisoners to
+the Mohawks. I deliver no prisoner to any Indian. I obey my orders, and
+expect my Indians to obey mine. They are free always to take Indian
+scalps. The scalps of white men they take only if permitted by me."
+
+Tahioni hung his head, the Screech-owl and the Water-snake nodded
+emphatic assent.
+
+"Yonder," said I, "are the red-patch soldiers. They are Tory marauders
+and outlaws. If you can ambush and cut off any of them, do so. And I
+care not if you scalp them, either. But if any are taken I shall not
+deliver them to any Oneida fire. No prisoner of this flying scout shall
+burn."
+
+The Water-snake twitched my sleeve timidly.
+
+"Hahyion," he said, "we obey. But an Iroquois prefers the fire and
+torment to the noose. Because he can sing his death songs and laugh at
+his enemies through the flames. But what man can sing or boast when a
+rope chokes his speech in his throat?"
+
+I scarcely heeded him, for I was watching the red-patch soldiers, who
+now were leaving the woods and crossing the hayfield, which still was
+smoking where the fire made velvet-black patches in the dry grass.
+
+The barn had fallen in and was only a great heap of glowing coals, over
+which a pale flame played in the late afternoon sunshine.
+
+Listening and looking after the red-patches, I heard very distinctly the
+sound of guns in the direction of Stone House.
+
+Now, while it was none of my business to hang on McDonald's flanks for
+prisoners and scalps, it _was_ my business to observe him and what he
+might be about in Schoharie; and to carry this news to Saratoga by way
+of Johnstown, along with my budget concerning Stanwix and St. Leger.
+
+Besides, Stone House lay on my way. So I signalled my Indians and
+started west. And it was not very long before we came upon two Schoharie
+militia-men whom I knew, Jacob Enders and George Warner, who took to a
+tree when they discovered my Oneidas in their paint, but came out when I
+called them by name, and gave an account that they were hunting a
+notorious Tory,--a renegade and late officer in the Schoharie
+Regiment,--a certain George Mann, a captain, who would have carried his
+entire company to McDonald, but was surprised in his villainy and had
+fled to the woods near Fox Creek.
+
+I told them that we had not seen this fellow, and asked for news; and
+Warner showed me a scalp which he said he took an hour ago from
+Ogeyonda, after shooting that treacherous savage at the Flockey.
+
+He gave it to Tahioni, which pleased the Oneida mightily and contented
+me; for I hate to see any white man take a scalp, though Tim Murphy and
+Dave Elerson took them as coolly as they took any other peltry.
+
+Warner said that McDonald was up the valley, murdering and burning his
+way westward; that cavalry from Albany had just arrived, had raided
+Brick House and taken prisoner a lot of red-patch militia, forced them
+to tear up their Royal Protections, tied up the most obnoxious, and
+kicked out the remainder with a warning.
+
+He said, further, that Adam Crysler and Joseph Brown, of Clyberg, were
+great villains and had joined McDonald with Billy Zimmer and others; and
+that McDonald had a motley army, full of kilted Highlanders, chasseurs,
+red-patches, Indians, and painted Tories; and that the cavalry from
+Albany were marching to meet them, reinforced by Schoharie
+mounted-militia under Colonel Harper.
+
+And now, even as Warner was still speaking, we heard the trumpet of the
+cavalry on the river road below; and, running out to the forest's edge,
+we saw the Albany Riders marching up the river,--two hundred horsemen in
+bright new helmets and uniforms, finely horsed, their naked sabers all
+glittering in the sun, and their trumpeter trotting ahead on a handsome
+white charger.
+
+The horses, four abreast, were at a fast walk; flankers galloped ahead
+on either wing. And, as we hurried down to the road, an officer I knew,
+Lieutenant Wirt, came spurring forward to meet and question us, followed
+by two troopers,--one named Rose and the other was Jake Van Dyck, whom I
+also recognized.
+
+"Jack Drogue, by all the gods of war!" cried the handsome lieutenant, as
+I saluted and spoke to him by name.
+
+"Dave Wirt!" I exclaimed, offering my hand, which he grasped, leaning
+wide from his saddle.
+
+He turned his mount toward the road again, and I and my Oneidas walked
+along beside him.
+
+"Are those your tame panthers?" he demanded, pointing toward my Oneidas
+with his sword. "If they are, then we should have agreeable work for
+them and for you, Jack Drogue. For Vrooman and his men are in Stone
+House and the red-patches fire on them whenever they show a head; and
+our cavalry are like to strike McDonald at any moment now. We caught two
+of his damned spies----"
+
+At that instant, far down the road I saw a woman; and even at that
+distance I recognized her.
+
+"Yonder walks a bad citizen," said I sharply. "That is Madame Staats!"
+
+We had now arrived beside the moving column of riders; and, as I spoke,
+a dozen cavalrymen shouted: "Here comes Rya's Pup!"
+
+A captain of cavalry who spoke English with a French accent shouted to
+the Pup and beckoned her; but she turned and ran the other way.
+
+Immediately two troopers spurred after her and caught her as she was
+fording the river; and each seized her by a hand, turned their horses,
+and trotted back to us with their prisoner, amid shouts of laughter.
+
+Rya's Pup, breathless from her enforced run, fairly spat at us in her
+fury, cursing and threatening and holding her panting flanks in turn.
+
+"You dirty rebel dogs!" she screamed, "wait till McDonald catches you!
+Ah--there'll be blood enow for you all to wade in as I waded in the
+river yonder, when your filthy cavalry headed me!"
+
+Wirt tried to question her, but she mocked us all, boasted that McDonald
+had a huge army at the Flockey, and that he was now on his way to Stone
+House to destroy us all.
+
+"Turn that slut loose!" said the Captain sharply.
+
+So we let go the Pup, and she turned and legged it, yelling her scorn
+and fury as she ran; and we saw her go floundering and splashing across
+the river, doubtless to carry news of us to McDonald.
+
+And it contented us that she so do, because now we came upon Stone
+House, where the small garrison under a Lieutenant Wallace had ventured
+out and were a-digging of a ditch and piling fence rails across the road
+to stop McDonald's riders in a charge.
+
+Here, also, were Harper's mounted militia, sitting their saddles, poorly
+armed with militia fire-locks.
+
+But we had a respectable force and were ashamed to await the outlaws
+behind ditch and rail; so we marched on through the gathering dusk to a
+house about two miles further, where a dozen strangely painted horsemen
+galloped away as we approached.
+
+A yell of rage at sight of those blue-eyed Indians arose from our
+riders. Our trumpet sounded; the cavalry broke into a gallop.
+
+It was now twilight.
+
+I begged some mounted militia-men to take me and my Oneidas up behind
+them; and they were obliging enough to do so; and we jogged away into
+the rosy dusk of an August evening.
+
+Almost immediately I saw the Flockey ahead, and Adam Crysler's house on
+the bank; and on the lawn in front of it I saw McDonald's grotesque
+legion drawn up in line of battle.
+
+As I came up our cavalry was forming to charge; Lieutenant Wirt had just
+turned in his saddle to speak to me, when one of the outlaws ran out to
+the edge of the lawn and called across the road to Wirt that he should
+never live to marry Angelica Vrooman,[41] but would die a dog's death as
+he deserved.
+
+[Footnote 41: Angelica Vrooman sewed the winding sheet for Lieutenant
+Wirt's body.]
+
+As the cavalry charged, Wirt rode directly at this man, who coolly shot
+him out of his saddle.
+
+I saw and recognized the outlaw, who was a Tory named Shafer.
+
+As Wirt fell to the grass, stone dead, his horse knocked down Shafer.
+The Tory got up, streaming with blood but not badly hurt, and, clubbing
+his piece, attempted to dash out Wirt's dead brains; but Trooper Rose
+swung his horse violently against Shafer, sabred him, and, in turn, fell
+from his own saddle, fatally wounded.
+
+Another trooper dismounted to pick up poor Rose, who was in a bad way,
+but one of McDonald's painted Tories fired on them and both fell.
+
+I fired at this man and wounded him, and Tahioni chased him, caught him,
+and slew him by the fence.
+
+Then, above the turmoil of horses and gun-shots, the Oneida's terrific
+scalp-yell rang out in the deepening dusk; and at that dread panther-cry
+a panic seemed to seize McDonald's men, for their grotesque riders
+suddenly whirled their horses and stampeded ventre-a-terre, riding
+westward like damned men; and I saw their Highlanders and Chasseurs and
+renegade Greens break and scatter into the forest on every side, melting
+away into the night before our eyes.
+
+Into the brush leaped my Oneidas; their war-yells awoke the shuddering
+echoes of Brakabeen Wood. I saw a chasseur leap a rail fence, stumble,
+and fall with the Screech-owl on top of him. Again the awful Oneida
+scalp-yelp rang out under the first dim stars.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The cavalry returned and camped at Stone House that night. They brought
+in their dead by torch-light; and I saw Wirt's body borne on a
+stretcher, and the corpse of Trooper Rose, and others.
+
+One by one my Oneidas returned like blood-slaked and weary hounds. All
+had taken scalps, and sat late at our fire to hoop and stretch them, and
+neatly plait the miserable dead hair that hung all draggled from the
+pitiful shreds of skin.
+
+At a cavalry watch-fire near to ours were also some people I
+knew--Mayfield men of a scout of six, just come in; and I went over to
+their fire and greeted them and questioned them concerning news from
+home.
+
+Truman Christie was their lieutenant; Sol and Seely Woodworth, the two
+Reynolds, and Billy Dunham composed the scout; and all were in
+rifle-dress and keen to try their rifles on McDonald, but were arrived
+too late, and feared now that the outlaws were on their way to Canada.
+
+Christie told me that the alarm in Johnstown and at Mayfield was great;
+that hostile Indians had been seen near Tribes Hill, and had killed a
+farmer there; that some people were leaving Caughnawaga and moving their
+household goods down the river to Schenectady.
+
+"By God," says he, "and I don't blame 'em, John Drogue! No! For a Mohawk
+war party is like to strike Caughnawaga at any hour; and why foolish
+folk, like old Douw Fonda, remain there is beyond my comprehension."
+
+"Douw Fonda!" said I, astonished. "Why, he is gone to Albany."
+
+"He came back a week ago," says Christie. "They tell me that the young
+Patroon tried to dissuade the old gentleman from going, but could do
+nothing with him--Mr. Fonda being childish and obstinate--and so he had
+his way and summoned his coach and his three niggers and drove in state
+up the river to Caughnawaga. We passed that way on scout, and I saw the
+old gentleman two days ago sitting on his porch with his gold-headed
+walking stick and his book, and dozing there in the sun; and the
+yellow-haired girl knitting at his feet----"
+
+"What!"
+
+He looked at me, startled by my vehemence.
+
+"Sir," said he, "did I say aught to offend you?"
+
+"Good God, no. You say that the--the yellow-haired girl, Penelope Grant,
+is at Caughnawaga with Douw Fonda!"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Did you see her?"
+
+"I did; and spoke with her."
+
+"What did she say?" I asked unsteadily.
+
+"She said that Mr. Fonda had sent a negro servant to Johnstown to fetch
+her, because, having returned to Caughnawaga, he needed her."
+
+"I think Mr. Fonda's three sons and their families must all be mad to
+permit the old gentleman to come to Caughnawaga in such perilous times
+as these!" I said sharply.
+
+"And so do I think likewise," rejoined Christie. "Let them think and say
+what they like, but, Mr. Drogue, I am an old Indian fighter and have
+served under Colonel Claus and Sir William Johnson. I know the Iroquois;
+I know their ways and wiles and craft and subtle designs; and I know how
+they think, and what they are most likely to do.
+
+"And I say to you very solemnly, Mr. Drogue, that were I Joseph Brant I
+would strike Caughnawaga before snow flies. And, sir, under God, it is
+my honest belief that he will do exactly that very thing. And it will be
+a sorry business for the Valley when he does so!"
+
+It was a dreadful thing for me to hear this veteran affirm what I myself
+already feared.
+
+But I had never dreamed that the aged Douw Fonda would return to
+Caughnawaga, or that his sons would permit the obstinate, helpless, and
+childish old gentleman to so have his say and way in times like these.
+
+Nor did I dream that Penelope would go to him again. I knew, of course,
+that she would surely go if he asked for her; but thought he had too
+completely forgotten her--as the Patroon wrote--and that his
+childishness and feeble memory no longer retained any remembrance of the
+young girl he had loved and had offered to adopt and to make his
+legatee.
+
+The news that Captain Christie brought was truly dismal news for me and
+most alarming.
+
+What on earth I could do about it I had no idea. Penelope, the soul of
+loyalty, believed that her duty lay with Mr. Fonda, and that, if he
+asked for her, she must go and care for him, who had been to her a
+father when she was poor, shelterless, and alone.
+
+I realized that no argument, no plea of mine could move her to abandon
+him now. And what logic could I employ to arouse this childish and
+obstinate old gentleman to any apprehension of his own peril or hers?
+
+To think of it madded me, because Mr. Fonda had three wealthy sons
+living near him, who could care for him properly with their ample means
+and all their servants and slaves. And why in God's name Captain John
+Fonda, Major Jelles Fonda, or Major Adam Fonda did not take some means
+of moving themselves and their families into the Queens Fort, or, better
+still, into Albany, I can not comprehend.
+
+But it was a fact, as Christie related to me, that scarce a soul had
+fled from Caughnawaga. All the landed gentry remained; all people of
+high or low degree were still there--folk like the Veeders, Sammons,
+Romeyns, Hansens, Yates, Putmans, Stevens, Fishers, Gaults.
+
+That night my dreams were horrible: I seemed to see Dries Bowman's body
+spinning in the sunshine, whilst he darted his swollen tongue at me like
+a snake. And always I seemed all wet with blood and could not dry myself
+or escape the convulsed embrace of the Little Maid of Askalege.
+
+Moaning, waking with a cry on my lips to gaze on the red embers of our
+fire and see my Indians stir under their blankets and open slitted eyes
+at me--or to lie exhausted in body and all trembling in my thoughts,
+while the slow, dark hours dragged to the dead march beating in my
+heart--thus passed the night at Stone House, full of visions of the
+dead.
+
+Long ere the cavalry trumpet pealed and the tired troopers awakened
+after near fifty miles of riding the day before, I had dragged my weary
+Indians from their sleep; and almost immediately we were on our way,
+eating a pinch of salted corn from the palms of our hands as we moved
+forward. For, after a brief ceremony in the Wood of Brakabeen, I meant
+to make Johnstown without a halt. My mind was full of anxiety for
+Caughnawaga, and for her who had promised herself to me when again I
+should come to seek her.
+
+But first we must halt in the Wood of Brakabeen to fulfill in ceremony
+that office due to the memory of a brave and faithful Oneida
+warrior--our little Maid of Askalege.
+
+It was not yet dawn, and the glades of Brakabeen Wood were dark and
+still; and on the ferns and grasses rested myriads of fire-flies, all
+pulsating with faint phosphorescence.
+
+I thought of Thiohero as I had beheld her in this glade, swaying on her
+slender feet amid a dizzy whirl of fire-flies.
+
+Tahioni had gathered a dry faggot; Kwiyeh carried a bundle of
+cherry-birch, samphire, and witch-hopple. The Water-snake laid the fire.
+
+All seated themselves; I struck flint, blew the tinder to a coal, and
+lighted a silver birch-shred.
+
+The scented smoke mounted straight up through the trees; I rose in
+silence; and when the first burning stick fell into soft white ashes, I
+took a few flakes in my palm and rubbed them across my forehead. Then I
+spoke, facing the locked gates of morning in the dark:
+
+"Now--now I hear your voice coming to us through the forest in the
+night.
+
+"Now our hearts are heavy, little sister. The gates of morning are still
+locked; the forest is still; everywhere there is thick darkness.
+
+"_Thiohero, listen!_
+
+"Now we Oneidas are depressed in our minds. You were a prophetess. You
+foretold events. You were a warrior. We were your clansmen of the Little
+Red Foot. You were a sorceress. Empty moccasins danced when you touched
+the witch-drum. Now, in white plumes, you have mounted to the stars like
+morning mist.
+
+"_Oyaneh! Continue to listen._
+
+"Our lodge is empty without you. Our fire is lonely without you. Our
+hearts are desolate, O Thiohero Oyaneh!
+
+"_Little Sister, continue to listen!_
+
+"We have heard your voice at this hour coming to us through the Wood of
+Brakabeen. It comes in darkness like light when the gates of morning
+open.
+
+"Thiohero Oyaneh, virgin warrior of the People of the Rock, we are come
+to the Wood of Brakabeen to greet and thank you.
+
+"We give you gratitude and love. You were a warrior and wore the Little
+Red Foot. You struck your enemies where you found them. They are dead
+and without scalps, your enemies. The Canienga howl. Your war-axe sticks
+in their heads. The Hessians are swine. Your scarlet arrows turn them
+into porcupines. The green-coats flee and your bullets burn their
+bowels.
+
+"_O my little sister, listen now!_
+
+"Our trail is very lonely without you. We are dejected. We move like
+old men and sick. We need your wisdom. We are less wise than those
+littlest ones still strapped to the cradle board.
+
+"_Thiohero!_
+
+"We have placed food and a cup of water for you lest you hunger and
+thirst.
+
+"We have laid a bow and scarlet arrows near you so that you shall hunt
+when you wish.
+
+"We have given you moccasins so that the strange, bright trail shall not
+hurt your feet.
+
+"We have placed paint for you so that Tharon shall know you by your
+clan. And we have made for your grave a cross of silver-birch, so that
+our white Lord Christ shall meet you and take you by the hand in a land
+so new and strange.
+
+"_Oyaneh!_
+
+"We have said what is in our hearts and minds. We think that is all we
+have to say. We turn our eyes to the morning. When the gates open we
+shall depart."
+
+As I ended, the three Oneidas rose and faced the east in silence. All
+the sky had become golden. Minute after minute passed. Suddenly a
+blinding lance of light pierced the Wood of Brakabeen.
+
+"Haih!" they exclaimed softly. "Nai Thiohero Oyaneh!"
+
+Tahioni covered the fire. The Screech-owl marked us all with a coal
+still warm.
+
+Then, in silence, I led my people from the misty Wood of Brakabeen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+A LONG GOOD-BYE
+
+
+On the evening of the 15th of August, the Commandant of Johnstown Fort
+stood aghast to see a forest-running ragamuffin and three scare-crow
+Indians stagger into headquarters at the jail.
+
+"Gad a-mercy!" says he as I offered the salute, "is it _you_, Mr.
+Drogue!"
+
+I was past all speech; for we had wolf-jogged all the way up from the
+river, but from my rags I fished out my filthy papers and thrust them at
+him. He was kind enough to ask me to sit; I nodded a like permission to
+my Oneidas and dropped onto a settle; a sergeant fetched new-baked
+bread, meat, buttermilk, and pipes for my Indians; and for me a draught
+of summer cider, which presently I swallowed to the dregs when I found
+strength to do it.
+
+This refreshed me. I asked permission to lodge my Oneidas in some
+convenient barn and to draw for them food, pay, tobacco, and clothing;
+and very soon a corporal of Continentals arrived with a lantern and led
+the Oneidas out into the night.
+
+Then, at the Commandant's request, I gave a verbal account of my scout,
+and reminded him of my instructions, which were to report at Saratoga.
+
+But he merely shuffled my papers together and smiled, saying that he
+would attend to that matter, and that there were new orders lately
+arrived for me, and a sheaf of letters, among which two had been sent in
+with a flag, and seals broken.
+
+"Sir," he said, still smiling in kindly fashion, "I have every reason to
+believe that patriotic service faithfully performed is not to remain too
+long unrecognized at Albany. And this business of yours amounts to that,
+Mr. Drogue."
+
+He laughed and rubbed his powerful hands together, peering
+good-humouredly at me out of a pair of small and piercing eyes.
+
+"However," he added, "all this is for you to learn from others in higher
+places than I occupy. Here are your letters, Mr. Drogue."
+
+He laid his hand on a sheaf which lay near his elbow on the table and
+handed them to me. They were tied together with tape which had been
+sealed.
+
+"Sir," said he, "you are in a woeful plight for lack of sleep; and I
+should not detain you. You lodge, I think, at Burke's Tavern. Pray, sir,
+retire to your quarters at your convenience, and dispose of well-earned
+leisure as best suits you."
+
+He rose, and I got stiffly to my feet.
+
+"Your Indians shall have every consideration," said he. "And I dare
+guess, sir, that you are destined to discover at the Tavern news that
+should pleasure you."
+
+We saluted; I thanked him for his kind usage, and took my leave, so
+weary that I scarce knew what I was about.
+
+How I arrived at the Tavern without falling asleep on my two legs as I
+walked, I do not know. Jimmy Burke, who had come out with a light to
+greet me, lifted his hands to heaven at sight of me.
+
+"John Drogue! Is it yourself, avic? Ochone, the poor lad! Wirra the
+day!" says he,--"and luk at him in his rags and thin as a clapperrail!"
+And, "Magda! Betty!" he shouts, "f'r the sake o' the saints, run fetch a
+wash-tub above, an' b'ilin' wather in a can, and soft-soap, too, an'
+a-bite-an'-a-sup, or himself will die on me two hands----"
+
+I heard maids running as I climbed the stairway, gripping at the rail to
+steady me. I was asleep in my chair when some one shook me.
+
+Blindly I pulled the dirty rags from my body and let them fall anywhere;
+and I near died o' drowning in the great steaming tub, for twice I fell
+asleep in the bath. I know not who pulled me out. I do not remember
+eating. They say I did eat. Nor can I recollect how, at last, I got me
+into bed.
+
+I was still deeply asleep when Burke awoke me. He had a great bowl of
+smoking soupaan and a pitcher of sweet milk; and I ate and drank, still
+half asleep. But now the breeze from the open window and the sunshine in
+my room slowly cleared my battered senses. I began to remember where I
+was, and to look about the room.
+
+Mine was the only bed; and there was nobody lying in it save only
+myself, yet it was evident that another gentleman shared this room with
+me; for yonder, on a ladder-back chair, lay somebody's clothing neatly
+folded,--a Continental officer's uniform, on which I perceived the
+insignia of a staff-captain.
+
+Spurred boots also stood there, and a smartly cocked hat.
+
+And now, on a peg in the wall, I discovered this unknown officer's
+watch-coat, and his sword dangling by it, and a brace o' pistols.
+
+But where the devil the owner of these implements might be I could not
+guess.
+
+And now my eyes fell upon the sheaf of letters lying on the table beside
+me. I broke the sealed tape that bound them; they fell upon the bed
+clothes; and I picked up the first at hazard, which was a packet, and
+broke the seal of it. And sat there in my night shift, utterly astounded
+at what I beheld.
+
+For within the packet were two papers. One was a captain's commission in
+the Continental Line; and my own name was writ upon it.
+
+And the other paper was a letter, sent express from the Forest of Dean,
+five days since, and it was from Major General Lord Stirling to me,
+acquainting me that he had taken the liberty to request a captain's
+commission in the Line for me; that His Excellency had concurred in the
+request; that a commission had been duly granted and issued; and
+that--His Excellency still graciously concurring and General Schuyler
+endorsing the request--I had been transferred from the State Rangers to
+the Line, and from the Line to the military family of General Lord
+Stirling. And should report to him at the Forest of Dean.
+
+To this elegant and formal and amazing letter, writ by a secretary and
+signed by my Lord Stirling, was appended in his own familiar hand this
+postscript:
+
+"Jack Drogue will not refuse his old friend, Billy Alexander. So for
+God's sake leave your rifle-shirt and moccasins in Johnstown and put on
+the clothing which I have bespoken of the same Johnstown tailoress who
+made your forest dress and mine when in happier days we hunted and
+fished with Sir William in the pleasant forests of Fonda's Bush."
+
+I sat there quite overcome, gazing now upon my commission, now upon my
+friend's kind letter, now at my beautiful new uniform which his
+consideration had procured for me while I was wandering leagues away in
+the Northern bush, never dreaming that a celebrated Major General had
+time to waste on any thought concerning me.
+
+There was a bell-rope near my bed, and now I pulled it, and said to the
+buxom wench who came that I desired a barber to trim me instantly, and
+that the pot-boy should run and fetch him and bid him bring his irons
+and powder and an assortment of queue ribbons for a club.
+
+The barber arrived as I, having bathed me, was dressing in fresh
+underwear which I found rolled snug in the pack I had left here when I
+went away.
+
+Lord, but my beard and hair were like Orson's; and I gave myself to the
+razor with great content; and later to the shears, bidding young Master
+Snips shape my pol for a club and powder in the most fashionable and
+military mode then acceptable to the service.
+
+Which he swore he knew how to accomplish; so I took my letters from the
+bed and disposed myself in a chair to peruse them while Snips should
+remain busy with his shears.
+
+The first letter I unsealed was from Nick Stoner, and written from
+Saratoga:
+
+     "FRIEND JACK,
+
+     "I take quill and ink to acquaint you how it goes with us here in
+     the regiment.
+
+     "I am fifer, and when in action am stationed near to the colours
+     for duty. Damn them, they should give me a gun, also, as I can
+     shoot better than any of 'em, as you know.
+
+     "My brother John is a drummer in our regiment, and has learned all
+     his flamms and how to beat all things lively save the devil.
+
+     "My father is a private in our regiment, which is pleasant for all,
+     and he is a dead shot and afeard of nothing save hell.
+
+     "I have got into mischief and been punished on several occasions. I
+     like not being triced up between two halbards.
+
+     "I long to see Betsy Browse. She hath a pretty way of kissing. And
+     sometimes I long to see Anne Mason, who has her own way, too. You
+     are not acquainted with that saucy baggage, I think. But she lives
+     only two miles from where my Betsy abides. And I warrant you I was
+     put to it, sparking both, lest they discover I drove double
+     harness. And there was Zuyler's pretty daughter, too--but enough of
+     tender memories!
+
+     "Anna has raven hair and jet black eyes and is snowy otherwise. I
+     don't mean cold. Angelica Zuyler is fair of hair but brown for the
+     rest----
+
+     "Well, Jack, I think on you every day and hope you do well with
+     your Oneidas, who, we hear, are out with you on the Schoharie.
+
+     "Our headquarters runner is your old Saguenay, and he is much
+     trusted by our General, they say. Sometimes the fierce fellow comes
+     to visit me, but asks only for news of you, and when I say I have
+     none he sits in silence. And always, when he leaves, he says very
+     solemnly: 'Tell my Captain that I am a real man. But did not know
+     it until my Captain told me so.'
+
+     "Now the news is that Burgoyne finds himself in a pickle since the
+     bloody battle at Oriskany. I think he flounders like a big
+     chain-pike stranded belly-deep in a shallow pool which is slowly
+     drying up around him.
+
+     "We are no longer afeard of his Germans, his General Baum-Boom, his
+     famous artillery, or his Indians.
+
+     "What the Tryon County lads did to St. Leger we shall surely do to
+     that big braggart, John Burgoyne. And mean to do it presently.
+
+     "I send this letter to you by Adam Helmer, who goes this day to
+     Schenectady, riding express.
+
+     "I give you my hand and heart. I hope Penelope is well.
+
+     "And beg permission to remain, sir, your most humble and obliged
+     and obedient servant,
+
+     "NICHOLAS STONER."
+
+I laid aside Nick's letter, half smiling, half sad, at the thoughts it
+evoked within me.
+
+Young Master Snips was now a-drying of my hair. I opened another letter,
+which bore the inscription, 'By flag.' It had been unsealed, which, of
+course, was the rule, and so approved and delivered to me:
+
+     "DEAR JACK,
+
+     "I am fearfully unhappy. This day news is brought of the action at
+     Oriska, and that my dear brother is dead.
+
+     "I pray you, if it be within your power, to give my poor Stephen
+     decent burial. He was your boyhood friend. Ah, God, what an
+     unnatural strife is this that sets friend against friend, brother
+     against brother, father against son!
+
+     "Can you not picture my wretchedness and distress to know that my
+     darling brother is slain, that my husband is at this moment facing
+     the terrible rifle-fire of your infuriated soldiery, that many of
+     my intimate friends are dead or wounded at this terrible Oriskany
+     where they say your maddened soldiers flung aside their muskets and
+     leaped upon our Greens and Rangers with knife and hatchet, and tore
+     their very souls out with naked hands.
+
+     "I pray that you were not involved in that horrible affair. I pray
+     that you may live through these fearful times to the end, whatever
+     that end shall be. God alone knows.
+
+     "I thank you for your generous forbearance and chivalry to us on
+     the Oneida Road. I saw your painted Oneida Indians crouching in
+     the roadside weeds, although I did not tell you that I had
+     discovered them. But I was terrified for my baby. You have heard
+     how Iroquois Indians sometimes conduct.
+
+     "Dear Jack, I can not find in my heart any unkind thought of you. I
+     trust you think of me as kindly.
+
+     "And so I ask you, if it be within your power, to give my poor
+     brother decent burial. And mark the grave so that one day, please
+     God, we may remove his mangled remains to a friendlier place than
+     Tryon has proven for me and mine.
+
+     "I am, dear Jack, with unalterable affection,
+
+     "Your unhappy,
+
+     "POLLY."
+
+My eyes were misty as I laid the letter aside, resolving to do all I
+could to carry out Lady Johnson's desires. For not until long afterward
+did I hear that Steve Watts had survived his terrible wounds and was
+finally safe from the vengeance of outraged Tryon.
+
+Another letter, also with broken seal, I laid open and read while Snips
+heated his irons and gazed out of the breezy window, where, with fife
+and drum, I could hear the garrison marching out for exercise and
+practice.
+
+And to the lively marching music of _The Huron_, I read my letter from
+Claudia Swift:
+
+     "Oneida; Aug: 7th, 1777.
+
+     "MY DEAREST JACK,
+
+     "I am informed that I may venture to send this epistle under a flag
+     that goes out today. No doubt but some Yankee Paul Pry in
+     blue-and-buff will crack the seal and read it before you receive
+     it.
+
+     "But I snap my fingers at him. I care not. I am bold to say that I
+     do love you. And dearly! So much for Master Pry!
+
+     "But, alas, my friend, now indeed I am put to it; for I must
+     confess to you a sadder and deeper anxiety. For if I love you, sir,
+     I am otherwise in love. And with another! I shall not dare to
+     confess his name. But _you saw and recognized him_ at Summer House
+     when Steve was there a year ago last spring.
+
+     "Now you know. Yes, I am madly in love, Jack. And am racked with
+     terrors and nigh out o' my wits with this awful news of the Oriska
+     battle.
+
+     "We hear that Captain Walter Butler is taken out o' uniform within
+     your lines; and so, lacking the protection of his regimentals, he
+     is like to suffer as a spy. My God! Was he _alone_ when
+     apprehended by Arnold's troops? And will General Arnold hang him?
+
+     "This is the urgent news I ask of you. I am horribly afraid. In
+     mercy send me some account; for there are terrible rumours afloat
+     in this fortress--rumours of other spies taken by your soldiery,
+     and of brutal executions--I can not bring myself to write of what I
+     fear. Pity me, Jack, and write me what you hear.
+
+     "Could you not beg this one mercy of Billy Alexander, that he send
+     a flag or contrive to have one sent from your Northern Department,
+     explaining to us poor women what truly has been,--and is like to
+     be--the fate of such unfortunate prisoners in your hands?
+
+     "And remember who it is appeals to you, dear Jack; for even if I
+     have not merited your consideration,--if I, perhaps, have even
+     forfeited the regard of Billy Alexander,--I pray you both to
+     remember that you once were a little in love with me.
+
+     "And so, deal with me gently, Jack. For I am frightened and sick at
+     heart; and know very little about love, which, for the first time
+     ever in my life, has now undone me.
+
+     "Will you not aid and forgive your unhappy,
+
+     "CLAUDIA."
+
+Good Lord! Claudia enamoured! And enamoured of that great villain, Henry
+Hare! Why, damn him, he hath a wife and children, too, or I am most
+grossly in error.
+
+I had not heard that Walter Butler was taken. I knew not whether
+Lieutenant Hare had been caught in Butler's evil company or if, indeed,
+he had fought at all with old John Butler at Oriska.
+
+Frowning, disgusted, yet sad also to learn that Claudia could so rashly
+and so ignobly lavish her affections, nevertheless I resolved to ask
+Lord Stirling if a flag could not be sent with news to Claudia and such
+other anxious ladies as might be eating their hearts out at Oneida, or
+Oswego, or Buck Island.
+
+And so I laid aside her painful letter, and unfolded the last missive.
+And discovered it was writ me by Penelope:
+
+     "You should not think harshly of me, Jack Drogue, if you return and
+     discover that I am gone away from Johnstown.
+
+     "Douw Fonda is returned to Cayadutta Lodge. He has now sent a
+     carriage for to fetch me. It is waiting while I write. I can not
+     refuse him.
+
+     "If, when we meet again, you desire to know my mind concerning
+     you, then, if you choose to look into it, you shall discover that
+     my mind contains only a single thought. And the thought is for you.
+
+     "But if you desire no longer to know my mind when again--if
+     ever--we two meet together, then you shall not feel it your duty to
+     concern yourself about my mind, or what thought may be within it.
+
+     "I would not write coldly to you, John Drogue. Nor would I
+     importune with passion.
+
+     "I have no claim upon your further kindness. You have every claim
+     upon my life-long gratitude.
+
+     "But I offer more than gratitude if you should still desire it; and
+     I would offer less--if it should better please you.
+
+     "Feel not offended; feel free. Come to me if it pleaseth you; and,
+     if you come not, there is in me that which shall pardon all you do,
+     or leave undone, as long as ever I shall live on earth.
+
+     "PENELOPE GRANT."
+
+When Snips had powdered me and had tied my club with a queue-ribbon of
+his proper selection, he patched my cheek-bone where a thorn had torn
+me, and stood a-twirling his iron as though lost in admiration of his
+handiwork.
+
+When I paid him I bade him tell Burke to bring around my horse and fetch
+my saddle bags; and then I dressed me in my regimentals.
+
+When Burke came with the saddle-bags, we packed them together. He
+promised to care for my rifle and pack, took my new light blanket over
+his arm, and led the way down stairs, where I presently perceived Kaya
+saddled, and pricking ears to hear my voice.
+
+Whilst I caressed her and whispered in her pretty ear the idle
+tenderness that a man confides to a beloved horse, Burke placed my
+pistols, strapped saddle-bags and blanket, and held my stirrup as I
+gathered bridle and set my spurred boot firmly on the steel.
+
+And so swung to my saddle, and sat there, dividing bridles, deep fixed
+in troubled thought and anxiously concerned for the safety of the
+unselfish but very stubborn girl I loved.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I had said my adieux to Jimmy Burke; I had taken leave of the Commandant
+at the palisades jail. I now galloped Kaya through the town, riding by
+way of Butlersbury;[42] and saw the steep roof of the Butler house
+through the grove, and shuddered as I thought of the unhappy young man
+who had lived there and who, at that very moment, might be hanging by
+his neck while the drums rolled from the hollow square.
+
+[Footnote 42: A letter written by Colonel Butler so designates the place
+where the ancient Butler house is still standing. The letter mentioned
+is in the possession of the author.]
+
+Down the steep hill I rode, careful of loose stone, and so came to the
+river and to Caughnawaga.[43]
+
+[Footnote 43: Now the town of Fonda.]
+
+All was peaceful and still in the noonday sunshine; the river wore a
+glassy surface; farm waggons creaked slowly through golden dust along
+the Fort Johnson highway; fat cattle lay in the shade; and from the
+brick chimneys of Caughnawaga blue smoke drifted where, in her cellar
+kitchen, the good wife was a-cooking of the noontide dinner.
+
+When presently I espied Douw Fonda's great mansion of stone, I saw
+nobody on the porch, and no smoke rising from the chimneys, yet the
+front door stood open.
+
+But when I rode up to the porch, a black wench came from the house, who
+said that Mr. Fonda dined at his son's that day, and would remain until
+evening.
+
+However, when I made inquiry for Penelope, I found that she was
+within,--had already been served with dinner,--and was now gone to the
+library to read and knit as usual when alone.
+
+The black wench took my mare and whistled shrilly for a slave to come
+and hold the horse.
+
+But I had already mounted the stoop and entered the silent house; and
+now I perceived Penelope, who had risen from a chair and was laying
+aside her book and knitting.
+
+She seemed very white when I went to her and drew her into my embrace;
+and she rested her cheek against my shoulder and took close hold of my
+two arms, but uttered not a word.
+
+Under her lace cap her hair glimmered like sun-warmed gold; and her
+hands, which had become very fine and white again, began to move upward
+to my shoulders, till they encircled my neck and rested there, tight
+linked.
+
+For a space she wept, but presently staunched her tears with her laced
+apron's edge, like a child at school. And when I made her look upon me
+she smiled though she still breathed sobbingly, and her lips still
+quivered as I kissed her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We sat close together there in the golden gloom of the curtained room,
+where only a bar of dusty sunlight fell across a row of gilded books.
+
+I had told her everything--had given an account of all that had
+befallen my little scout, and how I had returned to Johnstown, and how
+so suddenly my fortunes had been completely changed.
+
+I told her of what I knew of the battle at Oriskany, of the present
+situation at Stanwix and at Saratoga, and of what I saw of the fight at
+the Flockey, where McDonald ran.
+
+I begged her to persuade Mr. Fonda to go to Albany, and she promised to
+do so. And when I pointed out in detail how perilous was his situation
+here, and how desperate her own, she said she knew it, and had been
+horribly afraid, but that Caughnawaga folk seemed strangely indifferent
+to the danger,--could not bring themselves to believe in it,
+perhaps,--and were loath to leave their homes unprotected and their
+fields untilled.
+
+But when I touched on her leaving these foolish people and, as my wife,
+travelling southward with me to the great fortress on the Hudson, she
+only wept, saying, in tears, that she was needed by an old and feeble
+man who had protected her when she was poor and friendless, and that,
+though she loved me, her duty still lay first at Douw Fonda's side.
+
+Quit him she utterly refused to do; and it was in vain I pointed out his
+three stalwart sons and their numerous families, retainers, tenants,
+servants, and slaves, who ought to care for the obstinate old gentleman
+and provide a security for him whether he would or no.
+
+But argument was useless; I knew it. And all I obtained of her was that,
+whether matters north of us mended or grew worse, she would persuade Mr.
+Fonda to return to Albany until such time as Tryon County became once
+more safe to live in.
+
+This she promised, and even assured me that she had already spoken of
+the matter to Mr. Fonda, and that the old gentleman appeared to be quite
+willing to return to Albany as soon as his grain could be reaped and
+threshed.
+
+So with this I had to content my heavy heart. And now, by the tall
+clock, I perceived that my time was up; for Schenectady lay far away,
+and Albany father still; and it was like to be a long and dreary journey
+to West Point, if, indeed, I should find Lord Stirling still there.
+
+For at Johnstown fort that morning I was warned that my General Lord
+Stirling had already rejoined his division in the Jerseys; and that the
+news was brought by riflemen of Morgan's corps, which was now swiftly
+marching to join our Northern forces near Saratoga.
+
+Well, God's will must obtain on earth; none can thwart it; none
+foretell----
+
+At the thought I looked down at Penelope, where I held her clasped; and
+I told her of the vision of Thiohero.
+
+She remained very still when she learned what the Little Maid of
+Askalege had seen there beside me in the cannon-cloud, where the German
+foresters of Hainau, in their outlandish dress, were shouting and
+shooting.
+
+For Penelope had seen the same white shape; and had been, she said,
+afeard that it was my own weird she saw,--so white it seemed to her, she
+said,--so still and shrouded in its misty veil.
+
+"Was it I?" she whispered in an awed voice. "Was it truly I that the
+Oneida virgin saw? And did she know my features in the shroud?"
+
+"She saw you all in white and flowers, floating there near me like mist
+at sunrise."
+
+"She told you it was I?"
+
+"Dying, she so told me. And, 'Yellow Hair,' she gasped, 'is quite a
+witch!' And then she died between my arms."
+
+"I am no witch," she whispered.
+
+"Nor was the Little Maid of Askalege. Both of you, I think, saw at times
+things that we others can not perceive until they happen;--the shadow of
+events to come."
+
+"Yes."
+
+After a silence: "Have you, perhaps, discovered other shadows since we
+last met, Penelope?"
+
+"Yes; shadows."
+
+"What coming event cast them?"
+
+After a long pause: "Will it make his mind more tranquil if I tell him?"
+she murmured to herself; and I saw her dark eyes fixed absently on the
+dusty ray of sunlight slanting athwart the room.
+
+Then she looked up at me; blushed to her hair: "I saw children--with
+_yellow_ hair--and _your_ eyes----"
+
+"With _your_ hair!"
+
+"And _your_ eyes--John Drogue--John Drogue----"
+
+The stillness of Paradise grew all around us, filling my soul with a
+great and heavenly silence.
+
+We could not die--we two who stood here so closely clasped--until this
+vision had been fulfilled.
+
+And so, presently, her hands fell into mine, and our lips joined slowly,
+and rested.
+
+We said no word. I left her standing there in the golden twilight of the
+curtains, and got to my saddle,--God knows how,--and rode away beside
+the quiet river to the certain destiny that no man ever can hope to
+hinder or escape.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+"IN THE VALLEY"
+
+
+On the 24th of June, 1777, Major General Lord Stirling had disobeyed the
+orders of His Excellency; and, in consequence, his flank was turned, he
+lost two guns and 150 men.[44]
+
+[Footnote 44: The British account makes it three guns and 200 men.]
+
+It is the only military mistake that my Lord Stirling ever made; the
+only lesson he ever had to learn in military judgment and obedience.
+
+I was of his family for three years,--serving as one of his secretaries
+and aids-de-camp.
+
+I was present at the battle of Brandywine; I served under him at
+Germantown in the fog, and at Monmouth; and never doubted that my Lord
+Stirling was a fine and capable and knightly soldier, if not possibly a
+great one.
+
+Yet, perhaps, there was only one great soldier in that long and bloody
+war of the American Revolution. I need not name His Excellency.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For nearly three years, as I say, I served as a member of Lord
+Stirling's military family. The lights and shadows of those days of fire
+and ice, of plenty and starvation, of joy and despair, of monstrous and
+incredible effort, and of paralyzing inaction, are known now to all.
+
+And the end is not yet--nor, I fear, very near to a finish. But we all
+await our nation's destiny with confidence, I think;--and our own fate
+with composure.
+
+No man can pass through such years and remain what he was born. No man
+can regret them; none can dare wish to live through such days again;
+none would shun them. And how many months, or years, maybe, of fighting
+still remain before us, no man can foretell. But the grim men in their
+scare-crow regimentals who today, in the present year of 1780, are
+closing ranks to prepare for future battles, even in the bitter
+aftermath of defeat, seem to know, somehow, that this nation is
+destined to survive.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+From the month of August in 1777 to May, 1780, I had not seen Penelope;
+I had asked for no leave to travel, knowing, by reason of my
+confidential office and better than many others, how desperate was our
+army's plight and how utterly every able-bodied man was needed.
+
+In consequence, I had not seen my own Northland in all those months; I
+had not seen Penelope. Letters I wrote and sent to her when opportunity
+offered; letters came from her, and always written from Caughnawaga.
+
+For it appeared that Douw Fonda had never consented to return to Albany;
+but, by some miracle of God, the Valley so far had suffered no serious
+harm. Yet, the terrible business at Wyoming renewed my every crudest
+fear for the safety of Caughnawaga; and when, in the same year, a
+Continental regiment of the Pennsylvania Line marched out from Schoharie
+to destroy Unadilla, I, who knew the Iroquois, knew that their revenge
+was certain to follow.
+
+It followed in that very year; and Cherry Valley became a bloodsoaked
+heap of cinders; and there, under Iroquois knife and hatchet, and under
+the merciless clubbed muskets of the _blue-eyed_ Indians, many of my old
+friends died--all of the Wells family save only one--old and young and
+babies. What a crime was done by young Walter Butler on that fearful
+day! And I sometimes wonder, now, what our generous but sentimental
+young Marquis thinks of his deed of mercy when he saw and pitied Walter
+Butler in an Albany prison, sick and under sentence of death, and
+procured medical treatment for him and more comfortable quarters in a
+private residence.
+
+And Butler drugged his sentry and slipped our fingers like a rat and was
+off in a trice and gone to his bloody destiny in the West!
+Lord--Lord!--the things men do to men!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Brant burned Minnisink I trembled anew for Caughnawaga; and
+breathed freely only when our General Sullivan marched on Tioga with six
+thousand men.
+
+Yet, though he cleaned out the foul and hidden nests of the Iroquois
+Confederacy, I, knowing these same Iroquois, knew in my dreading heart
+that Iroquois vengeance would surely strike again, and this time at the
+Valley.
+
+Because, out of the Mohawk Valley, came all their chiefest woes;
+Oriskany, which set the whole Six Nations howling their dead;
+Stillwater; Unadilla; Tioga; The Chemung--these battles tore the
+Iroquois to fragments.
+
+The Long House, in ruins, rang with the frantic wailing of four fierce
+nations. The Senecas screamed in their pain from the Western Gate; the
+Cayugas and Onondagas were singing the death song of their nations; the
+proud Keepers of the Eastern Gate, driven headlong into exile, gathered
+like bleeding panthers on the frontier, their glowing gaze intent and
+patient, watching the usurpers and marking them for vengeance and
+destruction.
+
+To me, personally, the conflict in my Northland had become unutterably
+horrible.
+
+Our battles in the Jerseys, in Pennsylvania, in Delaware, and farther
+south, held for me no such horror and repugnance; for if the panoply of
+war be dreadful, its pomp and circumstance make it endurable and to be
+understood by human beings.
+
+But to me there was something terrifying in secret ambush and ghastly
+massacre amid the eternal twilight of the Northern wilderness, where
+painted men stole through still places, intent on murder; where death
+was swift and silent, where all must watch and none dared rest; where
+children wept in their sleep, and mothers lay listening all night long,
+and hollow-eyed men cut their corn with sickle in one hand and rifle in
+the other.
+
+We, in the Jerseys, watching red-coat and Hessian, heard of scalps taken
+in the North from babies lying in their cradles--aye, the very watch-dog
+at the gate was scalped; and painted Tories threw their victims over
+rail fences to hang there, disembowelled, like dead game.
+
+We heard terrible and inhuman tales of Simon Girty, of Benjy Beacraft,
+of Billy Newbury--all old neighbours of mine, and now turned
+child-killers and murderers of helpless women--all painted men, now,
+ferocious and without mercy.
+
+But these men had never been more than ignorant peasants and dull
+tillers of the soil for thriftier masters. Yet they were no crueller
+than others of birth and education. And what was I to think of Walter
+Butler and other gentlemen of like condition,--officers who had
+delivered Tom Boyd of Derry to the Senecas,--Colonel Paris to the
+Mohawks!
+
+The day we heard that Sergeant Newbury and Henry Hare were taken, I
+thanked God on my knees. And when our General Clinton hung them both for
+human monsters as well as spies, then I thanked God again.... And wrote
+tenderly to Claudia, poor misguided girl!--condoling with her--not for
+her grief and the death of Henry Hare[45]--but that the black disgrace
+of it should so nearly touch and soil her.
+
+[Footnote 45: In the writer's possession is a letter written by the
+widow of Lieutenant Hare, retailing the circumstances of his execution
+and praying for financial relief from extreme poverty. General Sir
+Frederick Haldimand indorses the application in his own handwriting and
+recommends a pension. The widow mentions her six little children.]
+
+I have received, so far, no letter from Claudia in reply. But Lord
+Stirling tells me that she reigns a belle in New York; and that she hath
+wrought havoc among the Queen's Rangers, and particularly in De Lancy's
+Horse and the gay cavalry of Colonel Tarleton.
+
+I pray her pretty, restless wings may not be singed or broken, or
+flutter, dying, in the web of Fate.
+
+Nick Stoner's father, Henry, that grim old giant with his two earhoops
+in his leathery ears, and with all his brawn, and mighty strength, and
+the lurking scowl deep bitten betwixt his tiger eyes,--old Henry Stoner
+is dead and scalped.
+
+Nick, who is now fife-major, has writ me this in a letter full of oaths
+and curses for the Iroquois who have done this shame to him and his.
+
+For every hair on old Henry's mangled head, said he, an Iroquois should
+spit out his death-yell. He tells me that he means to quit the army and
+enter the business of tanning Iroquois hides to make boots and
+moccasins; and says that Tim Murphy has knee moccasins as fine as ever
+he saw, and made out o' leather skinned off an Indian's legs!
+
+Faugh! Grief and shame have made Nick blood-mad.... Yet, I know not what
+I should do, or how conduct, if she who is nearest to my heart should
+ever suffer from an Indian.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+This sweet April day, taking the air near Lord Stirling's marquee, I see
+the first white butterflies a-fluttering like windblown bits o' paper
+across the new grass.... In the North the woodlands should be soft with
+snow; and, in warm places, perhaps the butterfly we call the beauty of
+Camberwell may sit sipping the first drops o' maple sap.... And there
+should be a scent of pink arbutus in the breeze, if winds be soft....
+Lord--Lord--I am become sick for home.... And would see my glebe again
+in Fonda's Bush; and hear the spring roaring of the Kennyetto between
+melting banks.... And listen to the fairy thunder of the cock partridge
+drumming on his log.
+
+My neighbours are all dead or gone away, they say. My house is a heap of
+wind-stirred ashes,--as are all houses in Fonda's Bush save only
+Stoner's. My cleared land sprouts young forests; my fences are gone;
+wolves travel my paths; deer pasture my hill; and my new orchard stands
+dead and girdled by wood-mouse and rabbit.... And still I be sick for a
+sight of it that was once my home,--and ever shall be while I possess a
+handful of mother earth to call mine own.
+
+It is near the end of April and I seem sick, but would not have Billy
+Alexander think I mope.
+
+I have a letter from Penelope. She lately saw a small scout on the
+Mohawk, it being a part of M'Kean's corps; and she recognized and
+conversed with several men who once composed my first war party--Jean de
+Silver, Benjamin De Luysnes, Joe de Golyer of Frenchman's Creek, and
+Godfrey Shew of Fish House.
+
+They were on their way to Canada by way of Sacandaga, to learn what Sir
+John might be about.... God knows I also desire very earnestly to know
+what the sinister Baronet may be planning.
+
+Penelope writes me that Tahioni the Wolf is dead in his glory; and that
+Hiakatoo took his scalp and heart.... I suppose that is glory enough for
+any dead young warrior, but the intelligence fills me with foreboding.
+And Kwiyeh the Screech-owl is dead at Lake Desolation, and so is Hanatoh
+the Water-snake, where some Praying Indians caught them in a canoe and
+made a dreadful example of my two young comrades.... But at least they
+were permitted to sing their death-songs, and so died happy--if that
+indeed be happiness....
+
+The Cadys, who were gone off to Canada, and John and Phil Helmer, have
+been seen in green uniforms and red; and Adam Helmer has sworn an oath
+to seek them, follow them, and slay them for the bloody turncoat dogs
+they are. Lord, Lord, how hast Thou changed Thy children into creatures
+of the wild to prey one upon another till all the Northland becomes once
+more a desert and empty of human life!
+
+It is May. I sicken for Penelope and for my home.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I am given a furlough! I asked it not. Lord Stirling dismisses me--with
+a grin. Pretense of inspection covering the Johnstown district, and to
+count the batteaux between Schenectady and the Creek of Askalege! Which
+is but sheer nonsense; and I had as well spend the time a-telling of my
+thumbs--which Lord Stirling knows as well as I is the pastime of an
+idiot.... God bless him!
+
+I am given a month, to arrange my personal affairs. I have asked for
+nothing; and am given a month!... And stand here at the tent door all
+a-tremble while my mare is saddled, not trusting my voice lest it break
+and shame me before all....
+
+I close my _carnet_ and strap it with a buckle.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I am on my way! Shad-bushes drop a million snowy petals in the soft May
+breeze; dogwood is in bloom; orchards are become great nosegays of pink
+and silver. Everywhere birds are singing.
+
+And through this sweet Paradise I ride in my dingy regimentals; but my
+pistols are clean and my leathers; and my sword and spurs are bright,
+and chime gaily as I ride beside the great gray river northward, ever
+northward to my sweetheart and my home.
+
+I baited at Tarrytown. The next night I was at Poughkeepsie, where the
+landlord was a low-Dutchman and a skinflint too.
+
+I passed opposite to where Kingston lay in ashes, burned wantonly by a
+brute. And after that I advanced but slowly, for roads were bad and folk
+dour and suspicious--which state of mind I also shared and had no
+traffic with those I encountered, and chose to camp in the woods, too,
+rather than risk a night under the dubious roofs I saw, even though
+invited.
+
+Only near the military posts in the Highlands did I feel truly secure
+until, one day at sunrise, I beheld the shining spires of Albany, and
+hundreds of gilded weather-cocks all shining me a welcome.
+
+But in Albany streets I encountered silent people who looked upon me
+with no welcome in their haunted gaze; and everywhere I saw the same
+strange look,--pinched faces, brooding visages, a strained, intent gaze,
+yet vacant too, as though their eyes, which looked at me, saw nothing
+save some hidden vision within their secret minds.
+
+I baited at the Half-Moon; and now I learned for the first what
+anxieties harassed these good burghers of the old Dutch city. For rumour
+had come the night before on the heels of a galloping light-horseman,
+that Sir John was expected to enter the Valley by the Sacandaga route;
+and that already strange Indians had been seen near Askalege.
+
+How these same rumours originated nobody seemed to know. The light
+horseman had them from batteaux-men at Schenectady. But who carried such
+alarming news to the Queen's Fort nobody seemed to know, only that the
+garrison had become feverishly active, and three small scouts were
+preparing to start for Schoharie and Caughnawaga.
+
+All this from the landlord, a gross, fat, speckled man who trembled like
+a dish of jelly as he told it.
+
+But as I went out to climb into my saddle, leaving my samp and morning
+draught untasted, comes a-riding a gay company of light horse, careless
+and debonaire. Their officer saluted my uniform and, as I spurred up
+beside him and questioned him, he smilingly assured me that the rumours
+had no foundation; that if Sir John came at all he would surely arrive
+by the Susquehanna; and that our scouts would give warning to the Valley
+in ample time.
+
+God knows that what he said comforted me somewhat, yet I did not choose
+to lose any time at breakfast, either; so bought me a loaf at a
+bake-shop, and ate as I rode forward.
+
+At noon I rode into the Queen's Fort and there fed Kaya. I saw no
+unusual activity there; none in the town, none on the river.
+
+Officers of whom I made inquiry had heard nothing concerning Sir John;
+did not expect a raid from him before autumn anyway, and vowed that
+General Sullivan had scotched the Iroquois snake in its den and driven
+the fear o' God into Sir John and the two Butlers with the cannon at
+Chemung.
+
+As I rode westward again, I saw all around me men at work in the fields,
+plowing here, seeding there, clearing brush-fields yonder. There seemed
+to be no dread among these people; all was calm as the fat Dutch cattle
+that stood belly deep in meadows, watching me out o' gentle, stupid eyes
+as I rode on toward Caughnawaga.
+
+A woman whom I encountered, and who was driving geese, stopped to answer
+my inquiries. From her I learned that Colonel Fisher, at Caughnawaga,
+had received a letter from Colonel Jacob Klock six days ago, which
+stated that Sir John Johnson was marching on the Valley. But she assured
+me that this news was now entirely discredited by everybody, because on
+Sunday a week ago Captain Walter Vrooman, of Guilderland, had marched
+his company to Caughnawaga, but on arriving was told he was not needed,
+and so continued on to Johnstown.
+
+I do not know why all these assurances from the honest people of the
+Valley did not ease my mind.
+
+Around me as I rode all was sunny, still, and peaceful, yet deep in my
+heart always I seemed to feel the faint pulse of fear as I looked
+around me upon a smiling region once familiar and upon which I had not
+laid eyes for nearly three whole years.
+
+And my nearness to Penelope, too, so filled me with happy impatience
+that the last mile seemed a hundred leagues on the dusty Schenectady
+road.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I had just come into view of the first chimneys of Caughnawaga, and was
+riding by an empty waggon driven by an old man, when, very far away, I
+heard a gun-shot.
+
+I drew bridle sharply and asked the man in the waggon if he also had
+heard it; but his waggon rattled and he had not. However, he also pulled
+up; and we stood still, listening.
+
+Then, again, and softened by distance, came another gun-shot.
+
+The old man thought it might be some farmer emptying his piece to clean
+it.
+
+As he spoke, still far away along the river we heard several shots fired
+in rapid succession.
+
+With that, the old man fetched a yell: "Durn-ding it!" he screeched, "if
+Sir John's in the Valley it ain't no place for my old woman and me!" And
+he lashed his horses with the reins, and drove at a crazy gallop toward
+the distant firing.
+
+At the same moment I spurred Kaya, who bounded forward over the rise of
+land; and instantly I saw smoke in the sky beyond the Johnstown Road,
+and caught a glimpse of other fires in another direction, very near to
+where should stand the dwellings of Jim Davis and Sampson Sammons.
+
+And now, seated by the roadside just ahead, I saw a young man whom I
+knew by sight, named Abe Veeder; and I pulled in my horse and called to
+him.
+
+He would not move or notice me, and seemed distracted; so I spurred up
+to him and caught him by the shirt collar. At that he jumps up in a
+fright, and:
+
+"Oh, Jesus!" he bawls, "Sir John's red devils are murdering everybody
+from Johnstown to the River!"
+
+"Where are they?" I cried. "Answer me and compose yourself!"
+
+"Where are they?" he shrieked. "Why, they're everywhere! Lodowick
+Putman's house is afire and they've murdered him and Aaron. Amasa
+Stevens' house is burning, and he hangs naked and scalped on his garden
+fence!
+
+"They killed Billy Gault and that other man from the old country, and
+they murdered Captain Hansen in his bed, and his house is all afire!
+Everything in the Valley is afire!" he screamed, wringing his scorched
+hands, "Tribes Hill is burning, Fisher's is on fire, and the Colonel and
+John and Harmon all murdered--all scalped and lying dead in the
+barn!----"
+
+"Listen to me!" I cried, shaking the wretched fellow, "when did this
+happen? Are Sir John's people still here? Where are they?"
+
+"It happened last night and lasted after sunrise this morning," he
+blubbered. "Everything is burning from Schoharie to the Nose, and
+they'll come back and kill the rest of us----"
+
+I flung him aside, struck spurs, and galloped for Cayadutta Lodge.
+
+Everywhere I looked I saw smoke; barns were but heaps of live coals,
+houses marked only by charred cellars out of which flames leaped.
+
+Yet, I saw the church still standing, and Dr. Romeyn's parsonage still
+intact, though all doors and windows stood wide open and bedding and
+broken furniture lay scattered over the grass.
+
+But Adam Fonda's house was burning and the dwelling of Major Jelles was
+on fire; and now I caught sight of Douw Fonda's great stone house, with
+its two wings and tall chimneys of hewn stone.
+
+It was not burning, but shutters hung from their hinges, window glass
+was shattered, doors smashed in, and all over the trampled garden and
+lawn lay a debris of broken furniture, tattered books, bedding,
+fragments of fine china and torn garments.
+
+And there, face downward on the bloody grass, lay old Douw Fonda, his
+aged skull split to the backbone, his scalp gone.
+
+Such a sick horror seized me that I reeled in my saddle and the world
+grew dark before my eyes for a moment.
+
+But my mind cleared again and my eyes, also; and I sat my horse, pistol
+in hand, searching the desolation about me for a sign of aught that
+remained alive in this awful spot.
+
+I heard no more gun-shots up the river. The silence was terrible.
+
+At length, ill with fear, I got out of my saddle and led Kaya to the
+shattered gate and there tied her.
+
+Then I entered that ruined mansion to search it for what I feared most
+horribly to discover,--searched every room, every closet, every corner
+from attic to cellar. And then came out and took my horse by the bridle.
+
+For there was nobody within the house, living or dead--no sign of death
+anywhere save there on the grass, where that poor corpse lay, a
+grotesque thing sprawling indecently in its blood.
+
+Then, as I stood there, a man appeared, slinking up the road. He was in
+his shirt sleeves, wore no hat, and his face and hair were streaked red
+from a wet wound over his left ear. He carried a fire-lock; and when he
+discovered me in my Continental uniform he swerved and shuffled toward
+me, making a hopeless gesture as he came on.
+
+"They've all gone off," he called out to me, "green-coats, red-coats and
+savages. I saw them an hour since crossing the river some three miles
+above. God! What a harm have they done us here on this accursed day!"
+
+He crept nearer and stood close beside me and looked down at the body of
+Douw Fonda. But in my overwhelming grief I no longer noticed him.
+
+"Why, sir," says he, "a devil out o' hell would have spared yonder good
+old man. But Sir John's people slew him. I saw him die. I saw the murder
+done with my own eyes."
+
+Startled from my agonized reflections, I turned and gazed at him, still
+stunned by the calamity which had crushed me.
+
+"I say I saw that old man die!" he repeated shrilly. "I saw them scalp
+him, too!"
+
+I summoned all my courage: "Did--did you know Penelope Grant?"
+
+"Aye."
+
+"Is--is she dead?" I whispered.
+
+"I think she is, sir. Listen, sir: I am Jan Myndert, Bouw-Meester to
+Douw Fonda. I saw Mistress Grant this morning. It was after sunrise and
+our servants and black slaves had been long a-stirring, and soupaan
+a-cooking, and none dreamed of any trouble. No, sir! Why--God help us
+all!--the black wenches were at their Monday washing, and the farm bell
+was ringing, and I was at the new barrack a-sorting out seed.
+
+"And the old gentleman, _he_ was up and dressed and supped his porridge
+along with me, sir; for he rose always with the sun, sir, feeble though
+he seemed.
+
+"I----" he passed a cinder-blackened hand across his hair; drew it away
+red and sticky; stood gazing at the stain with a stupid air until I
+could not endure his silence; and burst out:
+
+"Where did you last see Mistress Grant?"
+
+But my violence confused him, and it seemed difficult for him to speak
+when finally he found voice at all:
+
+"Sir--as I have told you, I had been sorting seeds for early planting,
+in the barracks," he said tremulously, "and I was walking, as I
+remember, toward the house, when, of a sudden, I heard musket-firing
+toward Johnstown, and not very far distant.
+
+"With that comes a sound of galloping and rattle o' wheels, and I see
+Barent Wemple standing up in his red-painted farm waggon, and whipping
+his fine colts, and a keg o' rum bouncing behind him in the
+waggon-box,--which rolled off as the horses reached the river--and
+galloped into it--them two colts, sir,--breast deep in the river!
+
+"Then I shouts down to him: 'Barent! Barent! Is it them red devils of
+Sir John? Or why be you in such a God-a'mighty hurry?'
+
+"But Barent he is too busy cutting his traces to notice me; and up onto
+one o' the colts he jumps and seizes t'other by the head, and away
+across the shoals, leaving his new red waggon there in the water,
+hub-deep.
+
+"Then I run to the house and I fall to shouting: 'Look out! Look out!
+Sir John is in the Valley!' And then I run to the house, where my gun
+stands, and where the black boys and wenches are all a-screeching and
+a-praying.
+
+"Somebody calls out that Captain Fisher's house is on fire; and then, of
+a sudden, I see a flock o' naked, whooping devils come leaping down the
+road.
+
+"Then, sir, I saw Mistress Grant in her shift come out in the dew and
+stand yonder in her bare feet, a-looking across at them red devils,
+bounding and leaping about the Fisher place.
+
+"Then, out o' the house toddles Douw Fonda with his gold headed cane and
+his favorite book. Sir, though the poor old gentleman was childish, he
+still knew an Indian when he saw one. 'Fetch me a gun!' he cries. 'I
+take command here!' And then he sees Mistress Grant, and he pipes out in
+his cracked voice: 'Stand your ground, Penelope! Have no fear, my child.
+I command this post! I will protect you!'
+
+"The green-coats and savages were now swarming around the house of Major
+Jelles, whooping and yelling and capering and firing off their guns.
+Bang-bang-bang! Jesus! the noise of their musketry stopped your ears.
+
+"Then Mistress Grant she took the old gentleman by the arm and was
+begging him to go with her through the orchard, where we now could see
+Mrs. Romeyn running up the hill and carrying her two little children in
+her arms.
+
+"I also went to Mr. Fonda and took him by the other arm, but he walked
+with us only to the porch and there seized my gun that I had left
+there.
+
+"'Stand fast, Penelope!' he pipes up, 'I will defend your life and
+honour!' And further he would not budge, but turns mulish, yet too
+feeble to lift the gun he clung to with a grip I could not loosen lest I
+break his bones.
+
+"We got him, with his gun a-dragging, into the house, but could force
+him no farther, for he resisted and reproached me, demanding that I
+stand and face the enemy.
+
+"At that, through the window of the library wing I see a body of
+green-coats,--some three hundred or better,--marching down the
+Schenectady road. And some score of these, and as many Indians, were
+leaving the Major's house, which they had fired; and now all began to
+run toward us, firing off their muskets at our house as they came on.
+
+"I was grazed, as you see, sir, and the blow dashed out my senses for a
+moment. But when I came alive I found I had fallen beside the wainscot
+of the east wall, where is a secret spring panel made for Mr. Fonda's
+best books. My fall jarred it open; and into this closet I crawled; and
+the next moment the library was filled with the trample of yelling men.
+
+"I heard Mistress Grant give a kind of choking cry, and, through the
+crack of the wainscot door, I saw a green-coat put one hand over her
+mouth and hold her, cursing her for a rebel slut and telling her to hush
+her damned head or he'd do the proper business for her.
+
+"An Indian I knew, called Quider, and having only one arm, took hold of
+Mr. Fonda and led him from the library and out to the lawn, where I
+could see them both through the west window. The Indian acted kind to
+the old gentleman, gave him his hat and his book and cane, and conducted
+him south across the lawn. I could see it all plainly through the
+wainscot crack.
+
+"Then, of a sudden, the one-armed Indian swung his hatchet and clove
+that helpless and bewildered old man clean down to his neck cloth. And
+there, before all assembled, he took the old man's few white hairs for a
+scalp!
+
+"Then a green-coat called out to ask why he had slain such an old and
+feeble man, who had often befriended him; and the one-armed Indian,
+Quider, replied that if he hadn't killed Douw Fonda somebody else might
+have done so, and so he, Quider, thought he'd do it and get the
+scalp-bounty for himself.
+
+"And all this time the Indians and green-coats were running like wild
+wolves all over the house, stealing, destroying, yelling, flinging out
+books from the library shelves, ripping off curtains and bed-covers,
+flinging linen from chests, throwing crockery about, and keeping up a
+continual screeching.
+
+"Sir, I do not know why they did not set fire to the house. I do not
+know how my hiding place remained unnoticed.
+
+"From where I kneeled on the closet floor, and my face all over blood, I
+could see Mistress Grant across the room, sitting on a sofa, whither the
+cursing green-coat had flung her. She was deathly white but calm, and
+did not seem afraid; and she answered the filthy beasts coolly enough
+when they addressed her.
+
+"Then a big chair, which they had ripped up to look for money, was
+pushed against my closet, and the back of it closed the wainscot crack,
+so that I could no longer see Mistress Grant.
+
+"And that is all I know, sir. For the firing began again outside; they
+all ran out, and when I dared creep forth Mistress Grant was gone....
+And I lay still for a time, and then found a jug o' rum. When I could
+stand up I followed the destructives at a distance. And, an hour since,
+I saw the last stragglers crossing the river rifts some three miles
+above us.... And that is all, I think, sir."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And that was all.... The end of all things.... Or so it seemed to me.
+
+For now I cared no longer for life. The world had become horrible; the
+bright sunshine seemed a monstrous sacrilege where it blazed down,
+unveiling every detail of this ghastly Golgotha--this valley in ashes
+now made sacred by my dear love's martyrdom. Slowly I looked around me,
+still stupefied, helpless, not knowing where to seek my dead, which way
+to turn.
+
+And now my dulled gaze became fixed upon the glittering river, where
+something was moving.... And presently I realize it was a batteau, poled
+slowly shoreward by two tall riflemen in their fringes.
+
+"Holloa! you captain-mon out yonder!" bawled one o' them, his great
+voice coming to me through his hollowed hand.
+
+Leading my horse I walked toward them as in a fiery nightmare, and the
+sun but a vast and dancing blaze in my burning eyes. One of the riflemen
+leaped ashore:
+
+"Is anny wan alive in this place?" he began loudly; then: "Jasus! It's
+Captain Drogue. F'r the love o' God, asthore! Are they all dead entirely
+in Caughnawaga, savin' yourself, sorr, an' the Dominie's wife an'
+childer, an' the yellow-haired lass o' Douw Fonda----"
+
+I caught him by the rifle-cape. My clutch shook him; and I was shaking,
+too, so I could not pronounce clearly:
+
+"Where is Penelope Grant?" I stammered. "Where did you see her, Tim
+Murphy?"
+
+"Who's that?" he demanded, striving to loosen my grip. "Ah, the poor
+lad, he's crazy! Lave me loose, avie! Is it the yellow-haired lass ye
+ask for?"
+
+"Yes--where is she?"
+
+"God be good to you, Jack Drogue, she's on the hill yonder with Mrs.
+Romeyn an' the two childer!----" He took my arm, turned me partly
+around, and pointed:
+
+"D'ye mind the pine? The big wan, I mean, betchune the two ellums? 'Twas
+an hour since that we seen her foreninst the pine-tree yonder, an' the
+Romeyn childer hidin' their faces in her skirt----"
+
+I swung my horse and flung myself across the saddle.
+
+"She's safe, I warrant," cried Murphy, as I rode off; "Sir John's divils
+was gone off two hours whin we seen her safe and sound on the long
+hill!"
+
+I galloped over the shattered fence which was still afire where the
+charred rails lay in the grass.
+
+As I spurred up the bank opposite, I caught sight of a mounted officer
+on the stony Johnstown road, advancing at a trot, and behind him a mass
+of sweating militia jogging doggedly down hill in a rattle of pebbles
+and dust.
+
+When the mounted officer saw me he shouted through the dust-cloud that
+Sir John had been at the Hall, seized his plate and papers, and a lot of
+prisoners, and had murdered innocent people in Johnstown streets.
+
+Tim Murphy and his comrade, Elerson, also came up, calling out to the
+Johnstown men that they had come from Schoharie, and that both militia
+and Continentals were marching to the Valley.
+
+There was some cheering. I pushed my horse impatiently through the crowd
+and up the hill. But a little way farther on the road was choked with
+troops arriving on a run; and they had brought cohorns and their
+ammunition waggon, and God knows what!--alas! too late to oppose or
+punish the blood-drenched demons who had turned the Caughnawaga Valley
+to a smoking hell.
+
+Now, my horse was involved with all these excited people, and I,
+exasperated, thought I never should get clear of the soldiery and
+cohorns, but at length pushed a way through to the woods on my right,
+and spurred my mare into them and among the larger elms and pines where
+sheep had pastured, and there was less brush.
+
+I could not see the great pine now, but thought I had marked it down;
+and so bore again to the right, where through the woods I could see a
+glimmer of sun along cleared land.
+
+It was rocky; my horse slipped and I was obliged to walk him upward
+among stony places, where moss grew green and deep.
+
+And now, through a fringe of saplings, I caught a glimpse of the two
+elms and the tall pine between.
+
+"Penelope!" I cried. Then I saw her.
+
+She was standing as once she stood the first time ever I laid eyes on
+her. The sun shone in her face and made of her yellow hair a glory. And
+I saw her naked feet shining snow white, ankle deep in the wet grass.
+
+As though sun-dazzled she drew one hand swiftly across her eyes when I
+rode up, leaned over, and swung her up into my arms. And earth and sky
+and air became one vast and thrilling void through which no sound
+stirred save the wild beating of her heart and mine.
+
+Then, as from an infinite distance, came a thin cry, piercing our still
+paradise.
+
+Her arms loosened on my neck; we looked down as in a dream; and there
+were the little Romeyn children in the grass, naked in their shifts, and
+holding tightly to my stirrup.
+
+And now we saw light horsemen leading their mounts this way, and the
+poor Dominie's lady carried on a trooper's saddle, her bare foot
+clinging to the shortened stirrup.
+
+Other troopers lifted the children to their saddles; a great hubbub
+began below us along the Schenectady highway, where I now heard drums
+and the shrill marching music of an arriving regiment.
+
+I reached behind me, unstrapped my military mantle, clasped it around
+Penelope, swathed her body warmly, and linked up the chain. Then I
+touched Kaya with my left knee--she guiding left at such slight
+pressure--and we rode slowly over the sheep pasture and then along the
+sheep-walk, westward until we arrived at the bars. The bars were down
+and lay scattered over the grass. And thus we came quietly out into the
+Johnstown road.
+
+So still lay Penelope in my arms that I thought, at times, she was
+asleep; but ever, as I bent over her, her dark eyes unclosed, gazing up
+at me in tragic silence.
+
+Cautiously we advanced along the Johnstown road, Kaya cantering where
+the way was easy.
+
+We passed ruined houses, still smoking, but Penelope did not see them.
+And once I saw a dead man lying near a blackened cellar; and a dead
+hound near him.
+
+Long before we came in sight of Johnstown I could hear the distant
+quaver of the tocsin, where, on the fort, the iron bell rang ceaselessly
+its melancholy warning.
+
+And after a while I saw a spire above distant woods, and the setting sun
+brilliant on gilt weather-vanes.
+
+I bent over Penelope: "We arrive," I whispered.
+
+One little hand stole out and drew aside the collar of the cloak; and
+she turned her head and saw the roofs and chimneys shining red in the
+westering sun.
+
+"Jack," she said faintly.
+
+"I listen, beloved."
+
+"Douw Fonda is dead."
+
+"Hush! I know it, love."
+
+"Douw Fonda is with God since sunrise," she whispered.
+
+"Yes, I know.... And many others, too, Penelope."
+
+She shook her head vaguely, looking up at me all the while.
+
+"It came so swiftly.... I was still abed.... The guns awoke me.... And
+the blacks screaming. I ran to the window of my chamber.
+
+"A Continental soldier was driving an army cart toward the Johnstown
+road. And I saw him jump out of his cart,[46] cut his traces, mount,
+turn his horse, and gallop down the valley.... That was the first real
+fear that assailed me, when I saw that soldier flee.... I went below
+immediately; and saw Indians near the Fisher place.... But I could not
+persuade Mr. Fonda to escape with me through the orchard.... He would
+not go, Jack--he would not listen to me or to the Bouw-Meester, who also
+had hold of him.
+
+[Footnote 46: The gossipy, industrious, and diverting historian, Simms,
+whose account of this incident would seem to imply that Penelope Grant
+herself related it to him, gives a different version of her testimony.
+The statement he offers is signed: "_Mrs. Penelope Fortes. Her maiden
+name was Grant._" So Simms may have had it first hand.]
+
+"And when we went into the library somebody fired through the window and
+hit the Bouw-Meester.... I don't know what happened to him or where he
+fell.... For the next moment the house was full of green-coats and
+savages.... They led Mr. Fonda out of the house.... An Indian killed him
+with a hatchet.... A green-coat took hold of me and said he meant to
+cut my throat for a damned rebel slut! But an Indian pushed him away....
+They disputed. An officer of the Indian Department came into the library
+and told me to go out to the orchard and escape if I was able.
+
+"Then a Tory neighbour of ours, Joseph Clement, came in and shouted out
+in low Dutch: Laat de vervlukten rabble starven!'[47] ... A green-coat
+clubbed his musket to slay me, but the Indian officer caught the gun and
+called out to me: 'Run! Run, you yellow-haired slut!'
+
+[Footnote 47: In Valley Dutch: "Let the accursed rebel die!"]
+
+"But I dared not stir to pass by where Clement stood with his gun. I
+caught up a heavy silver candle-stick, broke the window with two blows,
+and leaped out into the orchard.... Clement ran around the house and I
+saw him enter the orchard, carrying a gun and looking for me; but I lay
+very still under the lilac hedge; and he must have thought I had run
+down to the river, for he went off that way.
+
+"Then I got to my feet and crept up the hill.... And presently saw Mrs.
+Romeyn and the children toiling up the hill; and helped her carry
+them.... All the morning we hid there and looked down at the burning
+houses.... And after a long while the firing grew more distant.
+
+"And then--and then--_you_ came! My dear lord!--my lover.... My own
+lover who has come to me at last!"
+
+
+
+
+AFTERMATH
+
+
+I know not how it shall be with me and mine! In this year of our Lord,
+1782, in which I write, here in the casemates at West Point, the war
+rages throughout the land, and there seems no end to it, nor none likely
+that I can see.
+
+That horrid treason which, through God's mercy, did not utterly confound
+us and deliver this fortress to our enemy, still seems to brood over
+this calm river and the frowning hills that buttress it, like a low,
+dark cloud.
+
+But I believe, under God, that our cause is now clean purged of all
+villainy, and all that is sordid, base, and contemptible.
+
+I believe, under God, that we shall accomplish our freedom and recover
+our ancient and English liberties in the end.
+
+That dull and German King, who sits yonder across the water, can never
+again stir in any American the faintest echo of that allegiance which
+once all offered simply and without question.
+
+Nor can his fat jester, my Lord North, contrive any new pleasantry to
+seduce us, or any new and bloody deviltry to make us fear the wrath of
+God's anointed or the monkey chatter of his clown.
+
+For us, the last king has sat upon a throne; the last privilege has been
+accorded to the last and noble drone; the last slave's tax has long been
+paid.
+
+Yet--and it sounds strange--_England_ still seems _home_ to us.... We
+think of it as home.... It is in our blood; and I am not ashamed to say
+it. And I think a hundred years may pass, and, in our hearts, shall
+still remain deep, deep, a tenderness for that far, ocean-severed home
+our grandsires knew as England.
+
+I say it spite o' the German King, spite of his mad ministers, spite o'
+British wrath and scorn and jibes and cruelty. For, by God! I believe
+that we ourselves who stand in battle here are the true mind and heart
+and loins of England, fighting to slay her baser self!
+
+Well, we are here in the Highlands, my sweetheart-wife and I.... I who
+now wear the regimentals of a Continental Colonel, and have a regiment
+as pretty as ever I see--though it be not over-strong in numbers. But,
+oh, the powder toughened line o' them in their patched blue-and-buff!
+And their bright bayonets! Sir, I would not boast; and ask I pardon if
+it seems so....
+
+Below us His Excellency, calm, imperturbable, holds in his hand our
+destinies, juggling now with Sir Henry Clinton, now with my Lord
+Cornwallis, as suits his temper and his purpose.
+
+The traitor, Arnold, ravages where he may; the traitor, Lee, sulks in
+retreat; and Conway has confessed his shame; and the unhappy braggart,
+Gates, now mourns his laurels, wears his willows, and sits alone, a
+broken and preposterous man.
+
+I think no day passes but I thank God for my Lord Stirling, for our wise
+Generals Greene and Knox and Wayne, for the gallant young Marquis, so
+loved and trusted by His Excellency.
+
+But war is long--oh, long and wearying!--and a dismal and vexing
+business for the most.
+
+I, being in garrison at this fortress, which is the keystone of our very
+liberties, find that, in barracks as in the field, every hour brings its
+anxieties and its harassing duties.
+
+Yet, thank God, I have some hours of leisure.... And we have leased a
+pretty cottage within our works--and our two children seem wondrous
+healthy and content.... Both have yellow hair. I wish they had their
+mother's lovely eyes!... But, for the rest, they have her beauty and her
+health.
+
+And shall, no doubt, inherit all the beauty of her mind and heart.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Comes a soldier servant where I sit writing:
+
+"Sir: Colonel Forbes' lady; her compliments to Colonel Forbes, and
+desires to be informed how soon my Colonel will be free to drink a dish
+of tea with my lady?"
+
+"Pray offer my compliments and profound respect to my lady, Billy, and
+say that I shall have the honour of drinking a dish of tea with my lady
+within no more than five amazing minutes!"
+
+And so he salutes and off he goes; and I gather up the sheaf of memoirs
+I have writ and lock them in my desk against another day.
+
+And so take leave of you, with every kindness, because Penelope should
+not sit waiting.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Little Red Foot, by Robert W. Chambers
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE RED FOOT ***
+
+***** This file should be named 37333.txt or 37333.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/3/3/37333/
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/37333.zip b/37333.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..459b1a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/37333.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4e35aaa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #37333 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37333)