The Story of Old Fort Loudon, Page 3

  CHAPTER III

  In the next instant from beyond a curve in the river a boat shot intothe current,--a large row-boat, manned by twelve red-coated soldiers,bending to the oars, whose steady strokes sent the craft down the streamwith the speed, it seemed, of a meteor.

  They were alongside and a non-commissioned officer was in diplomaticconverse with Willinawaugh before Hamish had regained possession of hisfaculties. Very diplomatic was the conference, for the corporal had hispacific orders and Willinawaugh was burdened with the grave anxiety tomake the facts conform at once to the probabilities, yet sustain theimpeccability of his own conduct. A little network of wrinkles, almostlike a visible mesh, gathered at the corners of his eyes and gave tokenof his grave cogitation.

  The corporal, a dark-haired, blue-eyed, florid young Irishman, lookingvery stanch and direct and steady, but not without a twinkle of humorwhich betokened some histrionic capacity to support the situation,speaking partly in English and partly, glibly enough, in very tolerableCherokee, although incongruously embellished with an Irish brogue,detailed that Captain Stuart had been apprised that there was a band ofIndians on the river who had some white people with them, and he wishedto know if these white people were French, in which case, according tothe treaty made with the Cherokees, they must be arrested and deliveredup to the commandant of the fort, or if English, he wished to be assuredthat they were at liberty to go where they pleased, and were under norestraint.

  As the officer concluded, having bowed to Odalie with much politeness,considering he was not yet informed as to whether she were of a party ofFrench emissaries, forever sowing dissension amongst the Cherokee alliesof the English, he drew himself up very erect, with a complacent mien.He was conscious of being a fine-looking fellow, and he had not seen sohandsome a young woman of her evident position in life for a month ofSundays. Nevertheless he kept one eye on Willinawaugh, who was alsoeminently worthy of his respectful attention.

  "Ingliss--all Ingliss," said the chief, unexpectedly.

  The Indians in the pettiaugre, listening attentively, gave no sign ofsurprise upon this statement, so at variance with the warrior's previousrepresentations. His ruse to shield the travelers now by declaring themEnglish shielded himself as well, for being a chief and head-man hecould hardly find a plausible subterfuge to cloak his playing the _role_of guide, philosopher, and friend to people of a nation so obnoxious tohis English allies, and establishing them in the very heart of theCherokee nation, contrary to its many solemn obligations and treaties.

  After a moment's further reflection, Willinawaugh said again withemphasis, "Ingliss, Ingliss." Perhaps he did not desire to avail himselfof the added fluency of explanation which the Cherokee language wouldhave afforded him, and which Corporal O'Flynn evidently understood. "GoChote--Old Town. Buy fur--man--packhorse," he added, pointing across thewoods in the direction in which Alexander MacLeod was presumably stillwearily tramping.

  The corporal for the moment forgot how good-looking he was. Heconcentrated his whole attention on Willinawaugh's disingenuouscountenance, and then turned and cast a long, searching look uponOdalie. The eyes that met his own were swimming in tears, and with anexpression of pleading insistence that fairly wrung his heart, althoughhe hardly understood it. If she were English, why then she was free asthe air. If French--well, bedad, thin, Corporal O'Flynn wished himselfat the bottom of the Tennessee River, for a French lady in grief andunder arrest had no right to be so good-looking at all, at all. Here wassomething wrong, he could but perceive, and yet because ofWillinawaugh's diplomacy he could not fix upon it.

  "What's your name, my lad?" he said abruptly to Hamish.

  Hamish had his eyes on the water. His fortitude, too, had given way inthe sudden relaxation of the strain of suspense. He could not, wouldnot, lift his face and let that boat's crew of stalwart soldiers restingon their oars, the two ranks gazing at him, see the tears in his eyes.

  "Hamish MacLeod," he made shift to say, and could say no more.

  "A good English name, bedad, for a Scotch one, and an English accent,"Corporal O'Flynn mentally commented, as he looked curiously at the boy,standing with downcast face, mechanically handling the paddle.

  "Now by the powers," said the young soldier to himself with suddenresolution, "Captain Stuart may undertake the unraveling o' this tanglehimself."

  "English!" he exclaimed aloud. Then with much courtesy of manner,"Captain Stuart desires his compliments, and begs the English party todo him the honor to lie at Fort Loudon to-night and pursue theirjourney at their convanience." He glanced up at the sky. "It grows lateand there are catamounts out, an' other bletherin' bastes, an' theirhowlin' might frighten the leddy."

  Odalie, remembering the real dangers that had beset her and catching hisserious, unconscious glance as he animadverted on the possiblyterrifying vocalizations, burst into momentary laughter, and then into atorrent of tears.

  At which the corporal, the boat's crew, and the Indian braves gazed ather in blank astonishment. Hysterics were a new importation on thefrontier. She controlled with an effort her tendency to laugh, but stillwept with the profusion of exhaustion and nervous tension.

  Willinawaugh's eyes were fixed on her with deep displeasure. "Ugh!" hegrunted from time to time. "Ugh!"

  "Oh, there's bloody murder here, if one could but chance upon thecarpse," said the corporal to himself, looking bewildered from her tothe boy.

  And now was demonstrated the fact that although the corporal had but theslightest bit of a brogue in the world, there was a twist in his tonguewhich showed that he had at some time in his career made a practice ofkissing the "Blarney Stone" and was as Irish as County Clare.

  "Of course Captain Stuart couldn't have known that his valued friend,the great chief, Willinawaugh, was to be passing with the English party,but, sure, he would take it mighty ill if the chief did not stop over,too, and lie at the fort to-night,--an' he so seldom up from Toquoe!Captain Demere, too, will expect the great chief. My word on't, hewill."

  Now Willinawaugh, an epitome of craft, had no idea of adventuring withhis supposed French friends, whom he had endeavored to pass off asEnglish, into the British stronghold, for he doubted their capacity tosustain their character of compatriots; he had no means of judging oftheir knowledge of the English language and how soon their ignorancemight betray them. Since the ruse he had adopted had evidently notsufficed to evade the enforced stoppage at Fort Loudon, he hadrelinquished the intention to take them on past Chote to some other ofthe Overhill towns, and let them establish themselves as French traders.He feared that were they once inside the walls of Fort Loudon thisdesign against the agreement with his allies would become transparent.To be sure, it must be soon elucidated, but Willinawaugh was determinedto be far away by that time, and, moreover, he could send a "talk"(letter) to Captain Stuart, whose good opinion he greatly coveted, tosay that the French trader had deceived him and made him believe thatthe party was English. At the same time he was too wary to venture intohis valued friend's power with this fresh grievance and with stormytimes for the two peoples evidently in prospect.

  But he was flattered, infinitely flattered, as indeed who would not havebeen, by Corporal O'Flynn's tone and expression of ingenuous eyes andrespectful word of mouth. Willinawaugh was glad to have these ChoteCherokees see how highly he was esteemed--he was indeed a great warriorand a "Big Injun" of exclusive privilege. The invitation in no wise wasto be extended to the others to pass the night at Fort Loudon--not evento Savanukah, a chief himself, who spoke French!

  Corporal O'Flynn was now going over in his mind how Willinawaugh mightbest be insulated, so to speak, that he might not have means to fire thebarracks, should that enterprise suggest itself to his fertile brain, orfind a way to open the gates, or otherwise afford ingress toconfederates without; how to lock him in, and yet not seem to treat himas a prisoner; to leave him at liberty, and yet free to do nothing butthat which his hosts should please. All such complicated andcontradictory details did Corporal O'Fl
ynn deem himself capable ofreconciling--but one such subject was enough. Unfortunately for thetriumphant elucidation of these puzzling problems, Willinawaugh, withdignity and a certain gruffness; yet now and again a flicker of covertsmile as if to himself, declined to partake of Captain Stuart'shospitality. He had a mission to the head-men of Chote which would notbrook delay. Yet he had a message to leave for the English officer. Hedesired to tell Captain Stuart that he often thought of him! Whenever heheard tales of famous warriors, of British generals, he thought of_him_! He considered these fighting men brave and noble, when he learnedof their splendid deeds in battle; and then again, they were as naughtin his mind,--for he had once more thought of the great Captain Stuart!

  The corporal, listening attentively to pick out the meaning of Cherokeeand English, made a low bow in behalf of Captain Stuart, with aflourishing wave of his hat.

  "I'll bear yer message, sir, and a proud man Captain Stuart ought to bethe day! An those jontlemen,"--he glanced at the pettiaugre full ofIndians,--"be so good as to ask them to lead the way."

  Then he added in an undertone to his own men, "I am glad on't. I don'twant the responsibility of takin' care of the baste. I might be accusedof kidnapin' the craythure if anythin' was to happen to 'm,--though asto kids, he's more like the old original Billy-goat o' the wholeworruld!"

  Corporal O'Flynn cast the eye of a disciplinarian about him. It was oneof the rules of the tyranny he practiced, thus remote from civilization,that however jocose he might be not a trace of responsive merriment mustdecorate the faces of the men. They were all now, as was meet, grave andwooden. At the orders in his clear, ringing voice--"Let fall!" and theoars struck the water with emphasis, "Give way!"--Odalie's tears mustneeds flow anew. She gazed at the dozen fresh, florid young faces, asthe boat swung round and they came once more near the canoe, as if theywere a vision of saints vouchsafed to some poor groping, distraughtspirit,--when they were far indeed from being saints, though good enoughin their way, too! They all looked with unconscious sympathy at her asshe sat and wept and looked at them, and Corporal O'Flynn, moved by thetears, exclaimed below his breath, "But, be jabbers, afther all, what'sthe good of 'em now--better have been cryin' yesterday, or mebbe the daybefore. Back oars! Now--now! Give way!"

  He was the last in the little fleet, and Hamish paddled briskly now tokeep ahead, as he was evidently expected to do, for Corporal O'Flynnintended that his own boat should bring up the rear. As they fared thusalong, Odalie noted the inflowing of that tributary, the TellicoRiver--how solitary, how remote, how possible its loneliness hadrendered the scheme of Willinawaugh. Some distance beyond appeared asettler's cabin in an oasis of cultivated land in the midst of the densecane-brake; then others, now dull and dusky in the blue twilight, withthe afterglow of the sunset redly aflare above in the amber sky andbelow in the gray and glimmering water; now with a lucent yellow flickerfrom the wide-open door gemming the night with the scintillations of thehearthstone, set like a jewel in the center of the wilderness; nowsending forth a babbling of childish voices where the roof-tree had beenplanted close by the river-side and the passing of the boats had drawnall the household to the brink. How many they seemed--these cabins ofthe adventurous pioneers! How many happy homes--alas, that there shouldever be cause to cry it were better for them had they never been!

  Odalie began to realize that she owed her liberty and perhaps her lifeto the first of these settlers who had espied the craft upon the river;as she marked the many windings and tortuous curves of the stream sheunderstood that he must have galloped along some straight, direct routeto the fort to acquaint the officers with the suspicious aspect of theIndian party and their white captives. As to the tremendous speed thecommandant's boat had made to their rescue,--she blessed anew thosereckless young saints who had plied the oars with such fervent effort,which, however, could hardly have effected such speed had it not beentoo for the swift current running in their favor.

  Suddenly the fort came into view--stanch, grim, massive, with the greatred-clay exterior slopes and the sharp points of the high palisades onthe rampart distinct in the blue twilight. It was very different fromthe stockaded stations of the early settlers with which she had beenfamiliar. This fort had been erected by the British government, and wasa work of very considerable strength and admirably calculated fordefensive purposes, not only against the subtle designs of the Indiansbut against possible artillery attacks of the French. There were heavybastions at the angles and within each a substantial block-house, theupper story built with projections beyond the lower, that would not onlyaid the advantage which the bastions gave of a flanking fire upon anassailant, but enable a watch to be maintained at all times and from allquarters upon the base of the wooden stockade on the rampart lest anenemy passing the glacis should seek to fire the palisades. But this wasin itself well-nigh impracticable. Strong fraises, defending both scarpand counterscarp, prevented approach. The whole was guarded by twelvecannon, grimly pointed from embrasures, and very reassuring their blackmuzzles looked to one who hoped to ply the arts of peace beneath theprotection of their threat of war. Even the great gates were defended,being so thickly studded with iron spikes that not an inch of the woodwas left uncovered. They were broadly aflare now, and a trifle inadvance of the sentry at the entrance two officers were standing,brilliant with their red coats and cocked hats. They were gazing with acertain curiosity at the boats on the river, for Corporal O'Flynn,having pressed forward and landed first, had left his men resting ontheir oars and taken his way into the presence of his superior officersto make his report. He had paused for half a dozen words with HamishMacLeod as the boat passed the canoe, and when Odalie and the boy, witha couple of soldiers at either side maintaining the aspect of a guard,came up the gentle ascent at a slower pace, Captain Stuart was alreadyfully apprised of their long and perilous flight from Virginia. He stoodawaiting their approach,--a tall man of about twenty-eight years of age,bluff and smiling, with dense light-brown hair braided in a broad, heavyqueue and tied with a black ribbon. He had a fair complexion,considerably sun-burned, strong white teeth with a wide arch of the jaw,and he regarded her with keen steel-blue eyes, steady and unfathomable,yet withal pleasant. He took off his hat and cordially held out hishand. Odalie could do naught but clasp it in both her cold hands andshed tears over it, mute and trembling.

  With that ready tact which always distinguished him, Captain Stuartbroke the tension of the situation.

  "Do you wish to enlist, Mrs. MacLeod?" he said, his smile showing aglimpse of his white teeth. "His majesty, the king, has need ofstout-hearted soldiers. And I will take my oath I never saw a braverone!"

  And Odalie broke into laughter to blend with her tears, because shedivined that it was with the intention of passing on a difficulty thathe not ungracefully transferred her hands to the officer standing nearwith the words, "I have the pleasure of presenting Captain Demere."However capable Captain Stuart might be of dealing with savages, heevidently shrank from the ordeal of being wept over and thanked by awoman.

  He has been described by a contemporary historian as "an officer ofgreat address and sagacity," and although he may have demonstrated thesequalities on more conspicuous occasions, they were never more definitethan in thus securing his escape from feminine tearfulness.

  Captain Demere was of a graver aspect. He heard without impatience herwild insistence that the whole available force of the fort should turnout and scour the wilderness for her husband--he even argued the matter.It would be impossible to find Mr. MacLeod at night and the effort mightcost him his life. "So marked a demonstration of a military nature wouldalarm the Indians and precipitate an outbreak which we have some reasonto expect. If he does not appear by daylight, the hunters of the fortwho always go out shall take that direction and scout the woods. Restassured everything shall be done which is possible."

  She felt that she must needs be content with this, and as it had beenthrough the intervention of the officers that she and Hamish and Fifinewere set free, it did n
ot lie in her mouth to doubt their wisdom in suchmatters, or their capacity to save her husband. Looking back to theriver, as upon a phase of her life already terminated, she saw the canoein which she had spent this troublous day already beginning to push outupon the broad current. Willinawaugh, with an Indian from the other crewto paddle the craft, had eluded Captain Stuart, who had reached thewater's edge too late for a word with him, and who stood upon the bank,an effective martial figure, and blandly waved his hand in farewell,with a jovial outcry, "_Canawlla! Canawlla!_"[C]

  The features of the chief were slightly corrugated with those fine linesof diplomatic thought, and even at this distance he muttered the lastword he had spoken to the corporal as he swiftly got away fromhim--"Ingliss!" he said again. "All Ingliss!"

  As Odalie turned, the interior of the fort was before her; the broadparade, the lines of barracks, the heavy, looming block-houses, thegreat red-clay wall encircling all, and the high, strong palisades thateven surmounted the rampart. It gave her momentarily the sensation, asshe stood in its shadow, of being down in a populous and very securewell. There was a pervasive sentiment of good cheer; here and there theflicker of firelight fluctuated from an open door. Supper was either inprogress or just over, and savory odors gushed out into the air. Thechamping of horses and now and then a glad whinny betokened that thecorn-bin was open in the stables somewhere in the dusk. She felt as ifthe wilderness was a dream, for surely all this cordial scene of warmth,and light, and cheer, and activity, could not have existed while shewandered yonder, so forlorn, and desolate, and endangered; in pity ofit,--surely it was a dream! Now and again groups of fresh-faced soldierspassed, most of them in full uniform, for there had been a great dressparade during the afternoon, perhaps to impress the Indians with theresources and military strength of the fort; perhaps to attach them byaffording that spectacular display, so new to all their experience, soimposing and splendid. Some of the savage visitors lingered, wistful,loath to depart, and were being hustled carefully out of the place by avery vigilant guard, who had kept them under surveillance as a specialcharge all the afternoon. A few soldiers of the post coming in ladenwith game wore the buckskin leggings, shirt, and coonskin cap usualamong the settlers, for it had been bitterly demonstrated that thethorns of the trackless wilderness had no sort of reverence for thetexture of the king's red coat.

  Even the cat realized the transition to the demesne of civilization andin some sort the wonted domestic atmosphere. She suddenly gave anable-bodied wriggle in the basket on Josephine's back where she hadjourneyed, pappoose-wise, sprang alertly out, and scampered, tail up andwaving aloft, across the parade. Josephine's shriek of despair rangshrilly on the air, and Captain Demere himself made a lunge at theanimal, as she sped swiftly past, with a seductive cry of "Puss! puss!"A young soldier hard by faced about alertly and gave nimble chase; thecry of "Puss! puss!" going up on all sides brought out half a dozensupple young runners from every direction, but Kitty, having lost noneof the elasticity of her muscles during her late inaction, dartedhither and thither amongst her military pursuers, eluded them all, andscampering up the rampart, thence scaled the stockade and there began towalk coolly along the pointed eminence of this lofty structure as if itwere a backyard fence, while the soldier boys cheered her from below. Inthis jovial demonstration poor Josephine's wailing whimper of despairand desertion was overborne, and with that juvenile disposition to forcethe recognition and a share of her woe on her elders she forthwith lostthe use of her feet, and was half dragged, rather than led, by poorOdalie, who surely was not calculated to support any added burden. Sheherself, with halting step, followed Captain Demere across the parade toa salient angle of the enclosure, wherein stood one of the block-houses,very secure of aspect, the formidable, beetling upper story jutting outabove the open door, from which flowed into the dusky parade a greatgush of golden light. Josephine's whimper was suddenly strangled in herthroat and the tears stood still on her cheeks, for as Captain Demerestepped aside at the door with a recollection of polite society,yielding precedence to the ladies, which formality Odalie marveled tofind surviving in these rude times so far on the frontier, Josephineseemed resolved into a stare of dumb amazement, for she had never seen aroom half so fine. Be it remembered she was born in the backwoods andhad no faint recollection of such refinement and elegances as thecolonial civilization had attained on the Carolina coast, and which herfather and mother had relinquished to follow their fortunes to the West.And in truth the officers' mess-hall presented a brave barbaric effectthat had a sort of splendor all its own. It was a large room, enteredthrough the gorge of the bastion, and its deep chimney-place, in therecesses of which a great fire burned with a searchingly illuminatingflare, was ample enough to afford a substantial settee on either handwithout impinging on the roomy hearth of flagstones that joined thepuncheons of the floor. Around the log walls the suffusion of lightrevealed a projecting line of deer antlers and the horns of buffalo andelk, partly intended as decoration and trophies of the chase, and partlyfor utilitarian purposes. Here and there a firelock lay from one toanother, or a powder-horn or brace of pistols swung. A glittering knifeand now and again a tomahawk caught the reflection of the fire andbespoke trophies of less peaceful pursuit. Over the mantel-shelf aspreading pair of gigantic antlers held suspended a memento evidentlymore highly cherished,--a sword in its sheath, but showing a richlychased hilt, which Odalie divined was a presentation in recognition ofspecial service. Other and humbler gifts were suggested in the longIndian pipes, with bowls of deftly wrought stone; and tobacco-bags andshot-pouches beaded with intricate patterns; and belts of wampum andgorgeous moccasons; and bows and arrows with finely chiseled flint-headswinged with gayly colored feathers--all hanging from antlers on eitherside, which, though smaller than the central pair, were still largeenough to have stretched with surprise more sophisticated eyes thanFifine's. The variegated tints of the stained quills and shells withwhich a splendid curious scarlet quiver was embroidered, caught Odalie'sattention, and reminded her of what she had heard in Carolina of thegreat influence which this Captain Stuart had acquired among theIndians, and the extraordinary admiration that they entertained for him.These tokens of Aboriginal art were all, she doubted not, littleofferings of the chieftains to attest good-will, for if they had beenmerely bought with money they would not have been so proudly displayed.

  There was a continual fluttering movement in the draught from theloop-holes and open door, and lifting her eyes she noted the swayingfolds of several banners against the wall, carrying the flare of colorto the ceiling, which was formed only by the rude floor of the roomabove.

  But in all the medley her feminine eye did not fail to perceive high upand withdrawn from ordinary notice, a lady's silk riding-mask such aswas used in sophisticated regions at the period to protect thecomplexion on a journey,--dainty, fresh, of a garnet hue with a blacklace frill, evidently treasured, yet expressively null. And this wasdoubtless all that was left of some spent romance, a mere memory in therude military life on the far frontier, barely suggesting a fair anddistant face and eyes that looked forth on scenes more suave.

  With a sentiment of deep respect Odalie observed the six or eightarm-chairs of a rude and untoward manufacture, which were ranged aboutthe hearth, draped, however, to real luxury by wolfskins, for the earlysettlers chiefly affected rough stools or billets of wood as seats, orbenches made of puncheons with a couple of auger-holes at each end,through which four stout sticks were adjusted for legs, which wereindeed often of unequal length and gave the unquiet juvenile pioneer ofthat day a peculiarly acceptable opportunity for cheerily jouncing toand fro. There were several of these benches, too, but placed backagainst the walls, for the purpose she supposed of affording seats whenthe festive board was spread at length. An absolute board, thisfigurative expression implied, for the stern fact set forth a half dozenpuncheons secured together with cleats and laid across trestles when inuse, but at other times placed against the wall beside the ladder whichgave access to the room
above. The table was now in the center of thefloor, spread with some hasty refreshments, of which Captain Demereinvited the forlorn travelers to partake. At the other end lay adraughtsman's board, a Gunter's scale, a pair of dividers and othermaterials, where he had been trying to reduce to paper and topographicaldecorum for transference to an official report a map of the region whichRayetaeh, a chief from Toquoe, who had visited the fort that afternoon,had drawn on the sand of the parade ground with a flint-headed arrow.The officer had found this no slight task, for Rayetaeh was prone tomeasure distance by the time required to traverse it--"two warriors, acanoe, and one moon" very definitely meaning a month's journey bywatercourse, but requiring some actively minute calculation to bring thespace in question to the proportional scale. Rayetaeh might beconsidered the earliest cartographer of this region, and some of hismaps, copied from the sand, are extant to this day. Captain Demere laidthe papers of this unfinished task carefully aside, and by way of givinghis hospitality more grace took the head of the table himself.

  But Odalie could not eat, and wept steadily on as if for the purpose ofsalting her food with tears, and Fifine's hunger seemed appeased by thefeast of her eyes. Now and again her head in its little white mob-capturned actively about, and she seemed as if she might have entered upona series of questions save for the multiplicity of objects thatenthralled her attention at once. Captain Demere desisted frominsistence after one or two well-meant efforts, and the man who hadserved the table waited in doubt and indecision.

  "It's a hard life for women on the frontier," the officer observed as ifin polite excuse for Odalie's ill-mannered tears that she could notcontrol.

  "And for men," she sobbed, thinking of Alexander and marveling if theIndians would carry him on without resistance to Chote,--for he couldnot know she had found lodgement in the fort,--or further still andenslave him--many captives had lived for years in Indian tribes--she hadheard of this even in Carolina; or would they murder him in sometrifling quarrel or on the discovery of his nationality or to makeeasier the robbery of the packhorses. Ah, why had she brought so much;why had she hampered their flight and risked their lives for thesepaltry belongings, treasures to the Indians, worth the shedding of muchblood? How could she have sacrificed to these bits of household geareven her own comfort! She remembered, with an infinite yet futile wishto recall the moment, how eagerly Sandy had urged the abandonment ofthese poor possessions, that she might herself mount the horse and easeher bleeding and torn feet. Is every woman an idolater at heart, Odaliewondered. Do they all bow down, in the verity of their inner worship, toa few fibers of woven stuff and some poor fashioning of potter's clay,and make these feeble, trivial things their gods? It seemed so to her.She had bled for the things she had brought through the wilderness. Shehad wept for others that she had left. And if for such gear Sandy hadcome to grief--"I wonder--I wonder if I could find a pretext to care forthem still!"

  But she only said aloud, with a strong effort to control her attention,"And for men, too."

  "Men must needs follow when duty leads the way," said Captain Demere, atrifle priggishly.

  Odalie, trying to seem interested, demanded, lifting her eyes, "And whatdo women follow?"

  If Captain Demere had said what he truly thought, he would haveanswered:--

  "Folly! their own and that of their husbands!"

  He had had close observation of the fact that the pioneers gave heavyhostages to fate in their wives and children, and a terrible advantageto a savage foe, and the very bravery of so many of these noblehelpmeets only proved the value of all they risked. He could notelaborate, however, any scheme by which a new country should be enteredfirst by the settlers aided by a strong occupancy of soldiery, and onlywhen the lands should be cleared and the savages expelled the women andchildren venture forth. So he said:--

  "They follow their destiny."

  He had a smile in his eyes as if appealing to her clemency not to taxhim with ascribing a humbler motive to the women than to the men, as hewas only making talk and spoke from a natural deprecation of dangers tonon-combatants who of right should be exempt from peril. His eyes, whichwere large, were of a color between gray and brown--darker than the oneand lighter than the other. His hair was brown and smooth; he wasslender and tall; his aquiline nose and finely cut lips gave a certaincast of distinction to his face, although the temples were slightlysunken and the thinness of his cheek revealed the outline of the jaw andchin which showed determination and force, despite his mild expressionat present. Josephine fixed an amazed stare upon his polished shoes ashe crossed his legs, never having seen any men's foot-gear save a buskinof deer hide.

  "The men have a natural interest in warfare," suggested Odalie,forlornly, seeking to be responsive to his conversational efforts.

  "Warfare!" exclaimed Captain Demere, with sudden animation. "Contentionwith savages is not warfare! It cannot be conducted on a singlerecognized military principle." He went on to say that all militarytactics counted for naught; the merely mechanical methods of movingbodies of troops were unavailable. Discipline, the dexterities ofstrategy, an enlightened courage, and the tremendous force of _esprit decorps_ were alike nullified.

  The problem of Indian fighting in America was then far greater than ithas been since the scene has shifted to the plains, the densely woodedcharacter of the tangled wilderness affording peculiar advantage to theskulking individual methods of the savage and embarrassing inconceivablythe more cumbrous evolutions of organized bodies. But long beforeCaptain Demere's time, and often since, the futility of opposing regularscientific tactics to the alert wiles of the savage native in his owndifficult country has been commented upon by observers of militarymethods, and doubtless recognized in the hard knocks of experience bythose whose fate it has been to try again the experiment.[6]

  "As to military ethics," he added, "to induce the Indian to accept andabide by the principles governing civilized warfare seems animpossibility. He cannot be constrained for a pledge of honor to foregoan advantage. He will not respect his parole. He continually violatesand sets at naught the provisions of his solemn treaty."

  Odalie would not ask if the white man never broke faith with the red--ifthe Indian had not been taught by example near at hand of what brittlestuff a treaty was made. It was not worth while to reason logically witha mere man, she said to herself, with a little secret sentiment ofderision, which served to lighten a trifle the gloom of her mentalatmosphere, and since she could not eat and little backwoods Fifine'seyes had absorbed her appetite, it was just as well that Hamish, who hadbeen greatly interested in being shown over the fort by the jollyCorporal O'Flynn, appeared at the door with the intelligence that theirquarters were assigned them. The courteous Captain Demere handed her tothe door, and she stepped out from the bizarre decorated mess-hall intothe dark night, with the stars showing a chill scintillation as of theapproach of winter in their white glitter high in the sky, and thelooming bastion close at hand. The barracks were silent; "tattoo" hadjust sounded; the great gates were closed, and the high walls shut offthe world from the deserted parade.

  Naught was audible in all the night save the measured tread of a sentrywalking his beat, and further away, seeming an echo, the step ofanother sentinel, while out in the wilderness the scream of a wildcatcame shrilly on the wind from the darkness where Alexander roamed withsavage beasts and still more savage men far from the sweet security sotrebly protected here.

  Not even the flare of another big homelike fire in the cabin assigned toher could efface the impression of the bleak and dark loneliness outsidethe walls of the fort, and when the three were together, untrammeled bythe presence of others, they were free to indulge their grief and theirawful terror for husband and brother and father. They could not speak ofit, but they sat down on a buffalo rug spread before the fire, and allthree wept for the unuttered thought. The suspense, the separation ofthe little party, seemed unbearable. They felt that they might betterhave endured anything had they been together. Perhaps it was well forthe
elder two that their attention was diverted now and again by theeffort to console Fifine in a minor distress, for with the ill-adjustedsense of proportion peculiar to childhood she had begun to clamor loudlytoo for her cat--her _mignonne_, her _douce fillette_ that she hadbrought so far in her arms or on her back.

  Alas, poor Fifine! to learn thus early how sharper than a serpent'stooth it is to have a thankless child! For indeed Kitty might haveseemed to lie under the imputation of having merely "played baby" inorder to secure free transportation. At all events, she was a cat now,the only one in the fort, and for all she knew in the settlement. The_douce mignonne_ was in high elation, now walking the palisades, nowpeeping in at a loop-hole in the upper story of one of the block-houseswhere a sentinel was regularly on guard, being able to scan from thejutting outlook not only the exterior of the fort on two sides, but avast extent of darkling country. In his measured tramp to and fro in theshadowy apartment lighted only by the glimmer of the night without, hesuddenly saw a flicker at the loop-hole he was approaching, caught atransient glimpse of a face, the gleam of a fiery eye, and he nearlydropped his loaded firelock in amazement.

  "By George!" he exclaimed, "I thought that was a blarsted cat!"

  He had not seen one since he left Charlestown a year before.

  He walked to the loop-hole and looked far down from the projecting walland along the parapet of the curtain and the scarp to the oppositebastion with its tower-like block-house.

  Nothing--all quiet as the grave or the desert. He could hear the riversing; he could see in the light of the stars, and a mere flinder of amoon, the clods of earth on the ground below,--naught else. For the_douce mignonne_, with her back all handsomely humped, had suddenlysprung aside and fled down the interior slope of the rampart into theparade and over to the cook's quarters neighboring the kitchen. Shenosed gleefully about among pots and kettles, feeling very much at homeand civilized to the verge of luxury; she pried stealthily, every inch acat, into the arrangements for to-morrow's breakfast, with a noiselessstep and a breathless purr, until suddenly a tin pan containing beanswas tumultuously overturned, being within the line of an active spring.For the _douce fillette_ had caught a mouse, which few sweet littlegirls are capable of doing;--a regular domestic fireside mouse, a thingwhich the _douce fillette_ had not seen in many weeks.

  The stir in the neighboring cabin did not affright Kitty, and when theofficers' cook, a veritable African negro, suddenly appeared with anebony face and the rolling whites of astonished eyes, she exhibited hercapture and was rewarded by a word of commendation which she quiteunderstood, although it was as outlandish as the gutturals ofWillinawaugh.

  When the night was nearly spent, a great star, splendidly blazing in thesorceries of a roseate haze, seemed to conjure into the blackness a coldglimmer of gray light above the high, bleak, serrated summit line ofthe mountains of the eastern horizon, showing here and there white blankintervals, that presently were revealed as stark snowy domes rising intothe wintry silence of a new day. The resonant bugle suddenly sounded thereveille along the far winding curves of the river, rousing greetings ofmorning from many a mountain crag, and before the responsive echoes ofthe forest were once more mute the parade was full of the commotionelicited by the beating of the drums; shadowy military figures werefalling in line, and the brisk authoritative ringing voice of the firstsergeant was calling the roll in each company.

  And on the doorstep of Odalie's cabin, when Josephine opened the door,sat the _douce mignonne_ with her most babified expression on her face,now and again mewing noiselessly, going through the motions of grief,and cuddling down in infantile style when with wild babbling cries ofendearment the little girl swooped up maternally the renegade cat.

  FOOTNOTES:

  [Footnote C: Friendship! Friendship!]