Lana Helmer

Our Sunday morning gun had scarce been fired when from up the river came the answering thunder of artillery. Thirteen times did the distant cannon bellow their salute, announcing Clinton's advance, our camp swarmed like an excited hive, mounted officers galloping, foot officers running, troops tumbling out as the drums rattled the "general" in every regimental bivouac.
Colonel Proctor's artillery band marched out toward the landing place as I entered No. 2 Block-House and ran up the ladder, and I heard the ford-guard hurrahing and the garrison troops on the unfinished parapets answering them with cheer after cheer.
At my loud rapping on the flooring, Lois opened the trap for me, her lovely, youthful features flushed with excitement; Lana, behind her, beckoned me; and I sprang up into the loft and paid my duty to them both.
"What a noble earthquake of artillery up the river!" said Lois. "Butler has no cannon, has he?"
"Not even a grasshopper!" said I gaily. "Those cannon shot are Clinton's how d'ye do!"
"Poor's guns, were they not?" asked Lana, striving to smile. "And that means you march away and leave us with 'The World Turned Upside Down!'" And she shrugged her shoulders and whistled a bar of the old-time British air.
"Come to the parapet!" said Lois impatiently. "For the last few minutes there has been a sound in the woods-- very far away, Euan-- yet, if one could hear so far I would swear that I heard the conch-horn of your rifles!"
"Did I not tell you she knew it well?" said Lana with her pallid smile, as we opened the massive guard-door, squeezed through the covered way, and came out along the rifle-platform among our noisy soldiers.
"Listen!" murmured Lois, close at my elbow. "There! It comes again! Do you not hear it, Euan! That low, long, sustained and heart-thrilling undertone droning in the air through all this tumult!"
And presently I heard the sound-- the wondrous melancholy, yet seductive music of our conch-horn. Its magic call set my every pulse a-throbbing. All the alluring mystery and solitude, all the sorrow of the wilderness were in those long-drawn blasts; all the enchantment of the woodland, too, calling, calling to the sons of the forest, riflemen, hunter, Coureur-de-Bois.
For its elfin monotone was the very voice of the forest itself-- the deep, sweet whisper of virgin wilds, sacred, impenetrable, undefiled, tempting forever the sons of men.
And now, across the misty river, there was a great tumult of shouting as the first Otsego batteaux came into view; louder boomed our jolly cohorn, leaping high in its sulphurous powder-cloud; and the artillery band at the landing began to play "Iunadilla," which so deeply pleasured me that I forgot and caught Lois's hands between my own and pressed them there while her shoulder trembled against mine, and her breath came faster as the music swung into "The Huron" with a barbaric clash of cymbals.
It was a wondrous spectacle to see the navy of our Right Wing coming on, the waves slapping on bow and quarter-- two hundred and ten loaded batteaux in line falling grandly down with the smooth and sunlit current, three men to every boat. Then, opposite, a wild flurry of bugle-horns announced our light infantry; and on they came, our merry General Hand riding ahead. And we saw him dismount, fling his bridle to an orderly, and lifting his sword and belt above his head, wade straight into the ford. And Asa Chapman and Justus Gaylord guided him.
After these came the light troops in their cocked hats, guided by Frederick Eveland; then a dun-coloured and dusty column emerged from the brilliant green of the woods, a mass of tossing fringes and ringed coon-tails and flashing rifle-barrels.
"The Rifles! hurrah for Morgan's men! Ha-i! The Eleventh Virginia!" roared the soldiery all about us, while Lois tightened her arm around mine and almost crushed my fingers with her own.
"There is Major Parr-- and Captain Simpson-- oh, and yonder minces my macaroni Ensign!" cried Lois, as the brown column swung straight into the ford, every rifle lifted, powder-horn and cartouche-box high swinging and glittering in the sun.
I turned to look for Lana; and first caught sight of the handsome wench, Dolly Glenn. And, following her restless gaze, I saw that Boyd had come up to the rifle-platform to join Lana, and that they stood together at a little distance from us. Also, I noticed that Lana's hand was resting an his arm. In sharp contrast to the excited, cheering soldiery thronging the platform, the attitude of these two seemed dull and spiritless; and Boyd looked more frequently at her than on the stirring pageant below; and once, under cover of the movement and tumult, I saw her pale cheek press for a moment against his green fringed shoulder cape-- lightly-- only for one brief moment. Yonder was no coquetry, no caprice of audacity. There was a heart there as heavy as the cheek was pale. It was love and nothing less-- the pitiful devotion of a lass in love whose lover marches on the morrow. Lord-- Lord! Had we but known!
As I stood beside Lois, I could not refrain from glancing toward them at moments, not meaning to spy, yet somehow held fascinated and troubled by what I had seen; for it seemed plain to me that if there was love there, little of happiness flavored it. Also, whenever I looked at them always I saw Dolly Glenn watching Boyd out of her darkly beautiful and hostile eyes.
And afterward, when our big riflemen marched on to the parade below, and we all hastened down, and the whole fort was a hubbub of cries and cheers and the jolly voices of friends greeting friends-- even then I could scarce keep my eyes from these two and from the Glenn girl. And I was glad when a large, fat dame came a-waddling, who proved to be Mrs. Sabin; and she had a cold and baleful eye for Boyd, which his gay spirits and airy blandishments neither softened nor abated.
Lois made me known to her very innocently and discreetly, and I made her my best manners; but to my mortification, the disdain in her gaze increased, as did her stiffness with Boyd and her chilling hauteur. Lord! Here was no friend to men-- at least, no friend to young men! That I comprehended in a trice; and my chagrin was nothing mended as I caught a sly glance from the merry and slightly malicious eyes of Boyd.
"Her husband is a fussy fat-head and she's a basalisk," he whispered. "I thought she'd bite my head of when the ladies came on under my protection."
She was more square and heavily solid than fat, like a squat block-house; and as I stole another glance at her I wondered how she was to mount the ladder and get her through the trap above. And by heaven! When the moment came to try it, she could not. She attempted it thrice; and the third effort hung her there, wedged in, squeaking like a fat doe-rabbit-- and Boyd and I, stifling with laughter, now pushing, now tugging at her fat ankles. And finally got her out upon the ladder platform, crimson and speechless in her fury; and we lingered not, but fled together, not daring to face the lady at whose pudgy and nether limbs we had pulled so heartily.
"Lord!" said Boyd. "If she complains of us to her Commissary husband, there'll be a new issue not included in his department!"
And it doubled us with laughter to think on't, so that for lack o' breath I sat down upon a log to hold my aching sides.
"Now, she'll be ever on their heels," muttered Boyd, "hen-like, malevolent, and unaccountable. No man dare face and flout that lady, whose husband also is utterly subjected. It was Betty Bleecker who set her on me. Well, so no more of yonder ladies save in her bristling presence."
Yet, as it happened, one thing barred Mistress Sabin from a perpetual domination and sleepless supervision of her charges, and that was the trap-door. Through it she could not force herself, nor could she come around by the guard-door, for the covered way would not admit her ample proportions. She could but mount her guard at the ladder's foot. And there were two exits to that garret room.
That day I would have messed with my own people, Major Parr inviting me, but that our General had all the Otsego officers to dine with him at headquarters, and a huge punch afterward, from which I begged to be excused, as it was best that I look to my Indians when any rum was served in camp.
Boyd came later to the bush-hut, overflushed with punch, saying that he had drawn sixty pair of shoes for his men, to spite old Sabin, and meant to distribute them with music playing; and that afterward I was to join him at the fort as he had orders for himself and for me from the General, and desired to confer with me concerning them.
Later came word from him that he had a headache and would confer with me on the morrow. Neither did I see Lois again that evening, a gill of rum having been issued to every man, and I sticking close as a wood-tick to my red comrades-- indeed, I had them out after sunset to watch the cattle-guard, who were in a sorry pickle, sixty head having strayed and two soldiers missing. And the manoeuvres of that same guard did ever sicken me.
It proved another bloody story, too, for first we found an ox with throat cut; and, it being good meat, we ordered it taken in. And then, in the bushes ahead, a soldier begins a-bawling that the devil is in his horses, and that they have run back into the woods.
I heard him chasing them, and shouted for him to wait, but the poor fool pays no heed, but runs on after his three horses; and soon he screams out:
"God a'mighty!" And, "Christ have mercy!"
With that I blow my ranger's whistle, and my Indians pass me like phantoms in the dusk, and I hot-foot after them; but it was too late to save young Elliott, who lay there dead and already scalped, doubled up in the bed of a little brook, his clenched hand across his eyes and a Seneca knife in his smooth, boyish throat.
Late that night the Sagamore started, chased, and quickly cornered something in a clump of laurel close to the river bank; and my Indians gathered around like fiercely-whining hounds. It was starlight, but too dark to see, except what was shadowed against the river; so we all lay flat, waiting, listening for whatever it was, deer or bear or man.
Then the Night Hawk, who stood guard at the river, uttered the shrill Oneida view-halloo; and into the thicket we all sprang crashing, and strove to catch the creature alive; but the Sagamore had to strike to save his own skull; and out of the bushes we dragged one of Amochol's greasy-skinned assassins, still writhing, twisting, and clawing as we flung him heavily and like a scotched snake upon the river sand, where the Mohican struck him lifeless and ripped the scalp from his oiled and shaven head.
The Erie's lifeless fist still clutched the painted casse-tete with which he had aimed a silently murderous blow at the Sagamore. Grey-Feather drew the death-maul from the dead warrior's grasp, and handed it to the Siwanois.
Then Tahoontowhee, straightening his slim, naked figure to its full and graceful height, raised himself on tiptoe and, placing his hollowed hands to his cheeks, raised the shuddering echoes with the most terrific note an Indian can utter.
As the forest rang with the fierce Oneida scalp-yell, very far away along the low-browed mountain flank we could hear the far tinkle of hoof and pebble, where the stolen horses moved; and out of the intense blackness of the hills came faintly the answering defiance of the Senecas, and the hideous miauling of the Eries, quavering, shuddering, dying into the tremendous stillness of the Dark Empire which we had insulted, challenged, and which we were now about to brave.
Once more Tahoontowhee's piercing defiance split the quivering silence; once more the whining panther cry of the Cat-People floated back through the far darkness.
Then we turned away toward our pickets; and, as we filed into our lines, I could smell the paint and oil on the scalp that the Siwanois had taken. And it smelled rank enough, God wot!
About nine on Monday morning the entire camp was alarmed by irregular and heavy firing along the river; but it proved to be my riflemen clearing their pieces; which did mortify General Clinton, and was the subject of a blunt order from headquarters, and a blunter rebuke from Major Parr to Boyd, who, I am inclined to think, did do this out of sheer deviltry. For that schoolboy delight of mischief which never, while he lived, was entirely quenched, was ever sparkling in those handsome and roving eyes of his. For which our riflemen adored him, being by every instinct reckless and irresponsible themselves, and only held to discipline by their worship of Daniel Morgan, and the upright character and the iron rigour of Major Parr.
Not that the 11th Virginia ever shrank from duty. No regiment in the Continental army had a prouder record. But the men of that corps were drawn mostly from those free-limbed, free-thinking, powerful, headlong, and sometimes ruthless backwoodsmen who carried law into regions where none but Nature's had ever before existed. And the law they carried was their own.
It was a reproach to us that we scalped our red enemies. No officer in the corps could prevent these men from answering an Indian's insult with another of the same kind. And there remained always men in that command who took their scalps as carelessly as they clipped a catamount of ears and pads.
As for my special detail, I understood perfectly that I could no more prevent my Indians from scalping enemies of their own race than I could whistle a wolf-pack up wind. But I could stop their lifting the hair from a dead man of my own race, and had made them understand very plainly that any such attempt would be instantly punished as a personal insult to myself. Which every warrior understood. And I have often wondered why other officers commanding Indians, and who were ever complaining that they could not prevent scalping of white enemies, did not employ this argument, and enforce it, too. For had one of my men, no matter which one, disobeyed, I would have had him triced up in a twinkling and given a hundred lashes.
Which meant, also, that I would have had to kill him sooner or later.
There was a stink of rum in camp that morning and it is a quaffing beverage which while I like to drink it in punch, the smell of it abhors me. And ever and anon my Indians lifted their noses, sniffling the tainted air; so that I was glad when a note was handed me from Boyd saying that we were to take a forest stroll with my Indians around the herd-guard, during which time he would unfold to me his plans.
So I started for the fort, my little party carrying rifles and sidearms but no packs; and there waited across the ditch in the sunshine my Indians, cross-legged in a row on the grass, and gravely cracking and munching the sweet, green hazelnuts with which these woods abound.
On the parade inside the fort, and out o' the tail of my eye, I saw Mistress Sabin knitting on a rustic settle at the base of Block-house No. 2, and Captain Sabin beside her writing fussily in a large, leather-bound book.
She did not know that the dovecote overhead was now empty, and that the pigeons had flown; nor did I myself suspect such a business, even when from the woods behind me came the low sound of a ranger's whistle blown very softly. I turned my head and saw Boyd beckoning; and arose and went thither, my Indians trotting at my heels.
Then, as I came up and stood to offer the officer's salute, Lois stepped from behind a tree, laughing and laying her finger across her lips, but extending her other hand to me.
And there was Lana, too, paler it seemed to me than ever, yet sweet and simple in her greeting.
"The ladies desire to see our cattle," said Boyd, "The herd-guard is doubled, our pickets trebled, and the rounds pass every half hour. So it is safe enough, I think."
"Yet, scarce the country for a picnic," I said, looking uneasily at Lois.
"Oh, Broad-brim, Broad-brim!" quoth she. "Is there any spice in life to compare to a little dash o' danger?"
Whereat I smiled at her heartily, and said to Boyd:
"We pass not outside our lines, of course."
"Oh, no!" he answered carelessly. Which left me still reluctant and unconvinced. But he walked forward with Lana through the open forest, and I followed beside Lois; and, without any signal from me my Indians quietly glided out ahead, silently extending as flankers on either side.
"Do you notice what they are about?" said I sourly. "Even here within whisper of the fort?"
"Are you not happy to see me, Euan?" she cooed close to my ear.
"Not here; inside that log curtain yonder."
"But there is a dragon yonder," she whispered, with mischief adorable in her sparkling eyes; then slipped hastily beyond my reach, saying: "Oh, Euan! Forget not our vows, but let our conduct remain seemly still, else I return."
I had no choice, for we were now passing our inner pickets, where a line of bush-huts, widely set, circled the main camp. There were some few people wandering along this line-- officers, servants, boatmen, soldiers off duty, one or two women.
Just within the lines there was a group of people from which a fiddle sounded; and I saw Boyd and Lana turn thither; and we followed them.
Coming up to see who was making such scare-crow music, Lana said in a low voice to us:
"It's an old, old man-- more than a hundred years old, he tells us-- who has lived on the Ouleout undisturbed among the Indians until yesterday, when we burnt the village. And now he has come to us for food and protection. Is it not pitiful?"
I had a hard dollar in my pouch, and went to him and offered it. Boyd had Continental money, and gave him a handful.
He was not very feeble, this ancient creature, yet, except among Indians who live sometimes for more than a hundred years, I think I never before saw such an aged visage, all cracked into a thousand wrinkles, and his little, bluish eyes peering out at us through a sort of film.
To smile, he displayed his shrivelled gums, then picked up his fiddle with an agility somewhat surprising, and drew the bow harshly, saying in his cracked voice that he would, to oblige us, sing for us a ballad made in 1690; and that he himself had ridden in the company of horse therein described, being at that time thirteen years of age.
And Lord! But it was a doleful ballad, yet our soldiers listened, fascinated, to his squeaking voice and fiddle; and I saw the tears standing in Lois's eyes, and Lana's lips a-quiver. As for Boyd, he yawned, and I most devoutly wished us all elsewhere, yet lost no word of his distressing tale:
"God prosper long our King and Queen, Our lives and safeties all; A sad misfortune once there did Schenectady befall.
"From forth the woods of Canady The Frenchmen tooke their way, The people of Schenectady To captivate and slay.
"They march for two and twenty daies, All thro' ye deepest snow; And on a dismal winter night They strucke ye cruel blow.
"The lightsome sunne that rules the day Had gone down in the West; And eke the drowsie villagers Had sought and found their reste.
"They thought they were in safetie all, Nor dreamt not of the foe; But att midnight they all swoke In wonderment and woe.
"For they were in their pleasant beddes, And soundlie sleeping, when Each door was sudden open broke By six or seven menne!
"The menne and women, younge and olde, And eke the girls and boys, All started up in great affright Att the alarming noise.
"They then were murthered in their beddes Without shame or remorse; And soon the floors and streets were strew'd With many a bleeding corse.
"The village soon began to blaze, Which shew'd the horrid sight; But, O, I scarce can beare to tell The mis'ries of that night.
"They threw the infants in the fire, The menne they did not spare; But killed all which they could find, Tho' aged or tho' fair.
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
"But some run off to Albany And told the doleful tale; Yett, tho' we gave our chearful aid, It did not much avail.
"And we were horribly afraid, And shook with terror, when They gave account the Frenchmen were More than a thousand menne.
"The news came on a Sabbath morn, Just att ye break o' day; And with my companie of horse I galloped away.
"Our soldiers fell upon their reare, And killed twenty-five; Our young menne were so much enrag'd They took scarce one alive.
"D'Aillebout them did command, Which were but thievish rogues, Else why did they consent to goe With bloodye Indian dogges?
"And here I end my long ballad, The which you just heard said; And wish that it may stay on earth Long after I be dead."
The old man bowed his palsied head over his fiddle, struck with his wrinkled thumb a string or two; and I saw tears falling from his almost sightless eyes.
Around him, under the giant trees, his homely audience stood silent and spellbound. Many of his hearers had seen with their own eyes horrors that compared with the infamous butchery at Schenectady almost a hundred years ago. Doubtless that was what fascinated us all.
But Boyd, on whom nothing doleful made anything except an irritable impression, drew us away, saying that it was tiresome enough to fight battles without being forced to listen to the account of 'em afterward; at which, it being true enough, I laughed. And Lois looked up winking away her tears with a quick smile. As for Lana, her face was tragic and colourless as death itself. Seeing which, Boyd said cheerfully:
"What is there in all the world to sigh about, Lanette? Death is far away and the woods are green."
"The woods are green, repeated Lana under her breath, "yet, there are many within call who shall not live to see one leaf fall."
"Why, what a very dirge you sing this sunny morning!" he protested, still laughing; and I, too, was surprised and disturbed, for never had I heard Lana Helmer speak in such a manner.
"'Twas that dreary old fiddler," he added with a shrug. "Now, God save us all, from croaking birds of every plumage, and give us to live for the golden moment."
"And for the future," said Lois.
"The devil take the future," said Boyd, his quick, careless laugh ringing out again. "Today I am lieutenant, and Loskiel, here, is ensign. Tomorrow we may be captains or corpses. But is that a reason for pulling a long face and confessing every sin?"
"Have you, then, aught to confess?" asked Lois, in pretense of surprise.
"I? Not a peccadillo, my pretty maid-- not a single one. What I do, I do; and ask no leniency for the doing. Therefore, I have nothing to confess."
Lana stopped, bent low over a forest blossom, and touched her face to it. Her cheeks were burning. All about us these frail, snowy blossoms grew, and Lois gathered one here and yonder while Boyd and I threw ourselves down on a vast, deep bed of moss, under which a thread of icy water trickled.
Ahead of us, in plain view, stood one of our outer picket guards, and below in a wide and bowl-shaped hollow, running south to the river, we could see cattle moving amid the trees, and the rifle-barrel of a herd guard shining here and there.
My Indians on either flank advanced to the picket line, and squatted there, paying no heed to the challenge of the sentinels, until Boyd was obliged to go forward and satisfy the sullen Pennsylvania soldiery on duty there.
He came back in his graceful, swinging stride, chewing a twig of black-birch, his thumbs hooked in his belt, damning all Pennsylvanians for surly dogs.
I pointed out that many of them were as loyal as any man among us; and he said he meant the Quakers only, and cursed them for rascals, every one. Again I reminded him that Alsop Hunt was a Quaker; and he said that he meant not the Westchester folk, but John Penn's people, Tories, every one, who would have hired ruffians to do to the Connecticut people in Forty Fort what later was done to them by Indians and Tory rangers.
Lana protested in behalf of the Shippens in Philadelphia, but Boyd said they were all tarred with the same brush, and all were selfish and murderous, lacking only the courage to bite-- yes, every Quaker in Penn's Proprietary-- the Shippens, Griscoms, Pembertons, Norrises, Whartons, Baileys, Barkers, Storys-- "'Every damned one o' them!" he said, "devised that scheme for the wanton and cruel massacre of the Wyoming settlers, and meant to turn it to their own pecuniary profit!"
He was more than partly right; yet, knowing many of these to be friends and kinsmen to Lana Helmer, he might have more gracefully remained silent. But Boyd had not that instinctive dread of hurting others with ill-considered facts; he blurted out all truths, whether timely or untimely, wherever and whenever it suited him.
For the Tory Quakers he mentioned I had no more respect than had he, they being neither fish, flesh, nor fowl, but a smooth, sanctimonious and treacherous lot, more calculated to work us mischief because of their superior education and financial means. Indeed, they generally remained undisturbed by the ferocious Iroquois allies of our late and gentle King; secure in their property and lives while all around them men, women, and little children fell under the dripping hatchets.
"Had I my say," remarked Boyd loudly, "I'd take a regiment and scour me out these rattlesnakes from the Proprietary, and pack 'em off to prison, bag and baggage!"
Lana had knelt, making a cup of her hand, and was drinking from the silvery thread of water at our feet. Now, as Boyd spoke, she straightened up and cast a shower of sparkling drops in his face, saying calmly that she prayed God he might have the like done for him when next he needed a cooling off.
"Lanette," said he, disconcerted but laughing, "do you mean in hell or at the Iroquois stake?"
Whereupon Lana flushed and said somewhat violently that he should not make a jest of either hell or stake; and that she for one marvelled at his ill-timed pleasantries and unbecoming jests.
So here was a pretty quarrel already sur le tapis; but neither I nor Lois interposed, and Lana, pink and angry, seated herself on the moss and gazed steadily at our watchful Indians. But in her fixed gaze I saw the faint glimmer of tears.
After a moment Boyd got up, went down to her, and asked her pardon. She made no answer; they remained looking at each other for another second, then both smiled, and Boyd lay down at her feet, resting his elbow on the moss and his cheek on his hand, so that he could converse with me across her shoulder.
And first he cautioned both Lana and Lois to keep secret whatever was to be said between us two, then, nodding gaily at me:
"You were quite right, Loskiel, in speaking to the General about the proper trap for this Wizard-Sachem Amochol, who is inflaming the entire Seneca nation to such a fury."
"I know no other way to take and destroy him," said I.
"There is no other way. It must be done secretly, and by a small party manoeuvring ahead and independently of our main force."
"Are you to command?" I asked.
"I am to have that honour," he said eagerly, "and I take you, your savages, and twenty riflemen----"
"What is this?" said Lana sharply; but he lifted an impatient hand and went on in his quick, interested manner, to detail to me the plan he had conceived for striking Amochol at Catharines-town, in the very midst of the Onon-hou-aroria.
"Last night," he said, "I sent out Hanierri and Iaowania, the headquarters scouts; and I'm sorry I did, for they came in this morning with their tails between their legs, saying the forest swarmed with the Seneca scouts, and it was death to stir.
"And I was that disgusted-- what with their cowardice and the aftermath of that headquarters punch-- that I bade them go paint and sing their death-songs----"
"Oh, Lord! You should not lose your temper with an Indian!" I said, vexed at his indiscretion.
"I know it. I'll not interfere with your tame wolves, Loskiel. But Hanierri madded me; and now he's told Dominie Kirkland's praying Indians, and not one o' them will stir from Tioga-- the chicken-hearted knaves! What do you think of that, Loskiel?"
"I am sorry. But we really need no other Indians than my Sagamore, the two Oneidas, and the Stockbridge, Yellow Moth, to do Amochol's business for him, if you and your twenty riflemen are going."
"I think as you do; and so I told the General, who wanted Major Parr to command and the entire battalion to march. 'Oh, Lord!' says I. 'Best bring Colonel Proctor's artillery band, also!' And was frightened afterward at what I said, with so little reflection and respect; but the General, who had turned red as a pippin, burst out laughing and says he: 'You are a damnably disrespectful young man, sir, but you and your friend Loskiel may suit yourselves concerning the taking of this same Amochol. Only have a care to take or destroy him, for if you do not, by God, you shall be detailed to the batteaux and cool your heels in Fort Sullivan until we return!'"
We both laughed heartily, and Boyd added:
"He said it to fright me for my impudence. Trust that man to know a man when he sees one!"
"Meaning yourself?" said I, convulsed.
"And you, too, Loskiel," he said so naively that Lois, too, laughed, exclaiming:
"What modest opinions of themselves have these two boys! Do you hear them, Lana, dubbing each other men?"
"I hear," said Lana listlessly.
Boyd plucked a long, feathery stalk, and with its tip caressed Lana's cheeks.
"Spiders!" said he. "Spinning a goblin veil for you!"
"I wish the veil of Fate were as transparent," said she.
"Would you see behind it if you could?"
She said under her breath:
"I sometimes dream I see behind it now."
"What do you see?" he asked.
She shook her head; but we all begged her to disclose her dreams, saying laughingly that as dreams were the most important things in the lives of all Indians, our close association with them had rendered us credulous.
"Come, Lanette," urged Boyd, "tell us what it is you see in dreams behind the veil."
She hesitated, shuddered:
"Flames-- always flames. And a man in black with leaden buttons, whose face is always hidden in his cloak. But, oh! I know-- I seem to know that he has no face at all, but is like a skull under his black cloak."
"A merry dream," said Boyd, laughing.
"Is there more to it?" asked Lois seriously.
"Yes.... Lieutenant Boyd is there, and he makes a sign-- like this----"
"What!" exclaimed Boyd, sitting up, astounded. "Where did you learn that sign?"
"In my dream. What does it mean?"
"Make it no more, Lana," he said, in a curiously disturbed voice. "For wherever you have learned it-- if truly from a dream, or from some careless fellow-- of my own----" He hesitated, glanced at me. "You are not a Mason, Loskiel. And Lana has just given the Masonic signal of distress-- having seen me give it in a dream. It is odd." He sat very silent for a moment, then lay down again at Lana's feet; and for a little while they conversed in whispers, as though forgetting that we were there at all, his handsome head resting against her knees, and her hand touching the hair on his forehead lightly at intervals.
After a few moments I rose and, with Lois, walked forward toward our picket line, from where we could see very plainly the great cattle herd among the trees along the river.
She said in a low and troubled voice:
"It has come so far, then, that Lana makes no longer a disguise of her sentiments before you and me. It seems as though they had bewitched each other-- and find scant happiness in the mutual infatuation."
I said nothing.
"Is he not free to marry her?" asked Lois.
"Why, yes-- I suppose he is-- if she will have him," I said, startled by the direct question. "Why not?"
"I don't know. Once, at Otsego Camp I overheard bitter words between them-- not from him, for he only laughed at what she said. It was in the dusk, close to our tent; and either they were careless or thought I slept.... And I heard her say that he was neither free nor fit to speak of marriage. And he laughed and vowed that he was as free and fit as was any man. 'No,' says she, 'there are other men like Euan Loskiel in the world.' 'Exceptions prove the case,' says he, laughing; and there was a great sob in her voice as she answered that such men as he were born to damn women. And he retorted coolly that it was such women as she who ever furnished the provocation, but that only women could lose their own souls, and that it was the same with men; but neither of 'em could or ever had contributed one iota toward the destruction of any soul except their own.... Then Lana came into our tent and stood looking down at me where I lay; and dimly through my lashes I could perceive the shadow of Boyd behind her on the tent wall, wavering, gigantic, towering to the ridge-pole as he set the camp-torch in its socket on the flooring." She passed her slim hand across her eyes. "It was like an unreal scene-- a fevered vision of two phantoms in the smoky, lurid lustre of the torch. Boyd stood there dark against the light, edged with flickering flame as with a mantle, figure and visage scintilant with Lucifer's own beauty-- and Lana, her proud head drooping, and her sad, young eyes fixed on me-- Oh, Euan!" She stood pressing down both eyelids with her fingers, motionless; then, with a quick-drawn breath and a brusque gesture, flung her arms wide and let them drop to her sides. "How can men follow what they call their 'fortune,' headlong, unheeding, ranging through the world as a hot-jowled hound ranges for rabbits? Are they never satiated? Are they never done with the ruthless madness? Does the endless chase with its intervals of killing never pall?"
"Hounds are hounds," I said slowly. "And the hound will chase his thousandth hare with all the unslaked eagerness that thrilled him when his first quarry fled before him."
"Why?"
But I shook my head in silence.
"Are you that way?"
"I have not been."
"The instinct then is not within you?"
"Yes, the instinct is.... But some hounds are trained to range only as far as their mistress, Old Dame Reason, permits. Others slip leash and take to the runways to range uncontrolled and mastered only by a dark and second self, urging them ever forward.... There are but two kinds of men, Lois-- the self-disciplined, and the unbroken. But the raw nature of the two differed nothing at their birth."
She stood looking down at the distant cattle along the river for a while without speaking; then her hand, which hung beside her, sought mine and softly rested within my clasp.
"It is wonderful," she murmured, "that it has been God's pleasure I should come to you unblemished-- after all that I have lived to learn and see. But more wonderful and blessed still it is to me to find you what you are amid this restless, lawless, ruthless world of soldiery-- upright and pure in heart.... It seems almost, with us, as though our mothers had truly made of us two Hidden Children, white and mysterious within the enchanted husks, which only our own hands may strip from us, and reveal ourselves unsullied as God made us, each to the other-- on our wedding morn."
I lifted her little hand and laid my lips to it, touching the ring. Then she bent timidly and kissed the rough gold circlet where my lips had rested. Somehow, a shaft of sunlight had penetrated the green roof above, and slanted across her hair, so that the lovely contour of her head was delicately edged with light.
* "Nene-nea-wen-ne, Lois!" I whispered passionately.
[* "This thing shall happen, Lois!"]
* "Nen-ya-wen-ne, O Loskiel! Teni-non-wes."
[* "It shall happen, O Loskiel! We love, thou and I."]
We stood yet a while together there, and I saw her lift her eyes and gaze straight ahead of us beyond our picket line, and remain so, gazing as though her regard could penetrate those dim and silent forest aisles to the red altar far beyond in unseen Catharines-town.
"When must you go?" she asked under her breath.
"The army is making ready today."
"To march into the Indian country?"
I nodded.
"When does it march?"
"On Friday. But that is not to be known at present."
"I understand. By what route do you go?"
"By Chemung."
"And then?"
"At Chemung we leave the army, Boyd and I. You heard."
"Yes, Euan."
I said, forcing myself to speak lightly:
"You are not to be afraid for us, Little Rosy Pigeon of the Forest. Follow me with your swift-winged thoughts and no harm shall come to me."
"Must you go?"
I laughed: * "Ka-teri-oseres, Lois."
[* "I am going to this war, Lois."]
* "Wa-ka-ton-te-tsihon," she said calmly. "Wa-ka-ta-tiats-kon."
[* "I understand perfectly. I am resigned."]
Then I gave way to my increasing surprise:
"Wonder-child!" I exclaimed. "When and where have you learned to understand and answer me in the tongue of the Long House?"
*"Kio-ten-se," she said with a faint smile.
[* "I am working for somebody."]
"For whom?"
"For my mother, Euan. Did you suppose I could neglect anything that might be useful in my life's quest? Who knows when I might need the tongue I am slowly learning to speak?... Oh, and I know so little, yet. Something of Algonquin the Mohican taught me; and with it a little of the Huron tongue. And now for nearly a month every day I have learned a little from the Oneidas at Otsego-- from the Oneida girl whose bridal dress you bought to give to me. Do you remember her? The maid called Drooping Wings?"
"Yes-- but-- I do not understand. To what end is all this? When and where is your knowledge of the Iroquois tongue likely to aid you?"
She gave me a curious, veiled look-- then turned her face away.
"You do not dream of following our army, do you?" I demanded. "Not one woman would be permitted to go. It is utterly useless for you to expect it, folly to dream of such a thing.... You and Lana are to go to Easton as soon as the heavier artillery is sent down the river, which will be the day we start-- Friday. This frontier gypsying is ended-- all this coquetting with danger is over now. The fort here is no place for you and Lana. Your visit, brief as it has been, is rash and unwarranted. And I tell you very plainly, Lois, that I shall never rest until you are at Easton, which is a stone town and within the borders of civilization. The artillery will be sent down by boat, and all the women and children are to go also. Neither Boyd nor I have told this to you and Lana, but----" I glanced over my shoulder. "I think he is telling her now."
Lois slowly turned and looked toward them. Evidently they no longer cared what others saw or thought, for Lana's cheek lay pressed against his shoulder, and his arm encircled her body.
We walked back, all together, to the fort, and left Lois and Lana at the postern; then Boyd and I continued on to my bush-hut, the Indians following.
Muffled drums of a regiment were passing, and an escort with reversed arms, to bury poor Kimball, Captain in Colonel Cilly's command, shot this morning through the heart by the accidental discharge of a musket in the careless hands of one of his own men.
We stood at salute while the slow cortege passed.
Said Boyd thoughtfully:
"Well, Kimball's done with all earthly worries. There are those who might envy him."
"You are not one," I said bluntly.
"I? No. I have not yet played hard enough in the jolly blind man's buff-- which others call the game of life. I wear the bandage still, and still my hands clutch at the empty air, and in my ears the world's sweet laughter rings----" He smiled, then shrugged. "The charm of Fortune's bag is not what you pull from it, but what remains within."
"Boyd," I said abruptly. "Who is that handsome wench that followed us from Otsego?"
"Dolly Glenn?"
"That is her name."
"Lord, how she pesters me!" he said fretfully. "I chanced upon her at the Middle Fort one evening-- down by the river. And what are our wenches coming to," he exclaimed impatiently, "that a kiss on a summer's night should mean to them more than a kiss on a night in summer!"
"She is a laundress, is she not?"
"How do I know? A tailoress, too, I believe, for she has patched and mended for me; and she madded me because she would take no pay. There are times," he added, "when sentiment is inconvenient----"
"Poor thing," I said.
"My God, why? When I slipped my arm around her she put up her face to be kissed. It was give and take, and no harm done-- and the moon a-laughing at us both. And why the devil she should look at me reproachfully is more than I can comprehend."
"It seems a cruel business," said I.
"Cruel!"
"Aye-- to awake a heart and pass your way a-whistling."
"Now, Loskiel," he began, plainly vexed, "I am not cruel by nature, and you know it well enough. Men kiss and go their way-- -- "
"But women linger still."
"Not those I've known."
"Yet, here is one----"
"A silly fancy that will pass with her. Lord! Do you think a gentleman accountable to every pretty chit of a girl he notices on his way through life?"
"Some dare believe so."
He stared at me, then laughed.
"You are different to other men, of course," he said gaily. "We all understand that. So let it go----"
"One moment, Boyd. There is a matter I must speak of-- because friendship and loyalty to a childhood friend both warrant it. Can you tell me why Lana Helmer is unhappy?"
A dark red flush surged up to the roots of his hair, and the muscles in his jaw tightened. He remained a moment mute and motionless, staring at me. But if my question, for the first moment, had enraged him, that quickly died out; and into his eyes there came a haggard look such as I had never seen there.
He said slowly:
"Were you not the man you are, Loskiel, I had answered in a manner you might scarcely relish. Now, I answer you that if Lana is unhappy I am more so. And that our unhappiness is totally unnecessary-- if she would but listen to what I say to her."
"And what is it that you say to her?" I inquired as coolly as though his answer might not very easily be a slap with his fringed sleeve across my face.
"I have asked her to marry me," he said. "Do you understand why I tell you this?"
I shook my head.
"To avoid killing you at twenty paces across the river.... I had rather tell you than do that."
"So that you have told me," said I, "the reason for your telling matters nothing. And my business with you ends with your answer.... Only-- she is my friend, Boyd-- a playmate of pleasant days. And if you can efface that wretchedness from her face-- brighten the quenched sparkle of her eyes, paint her cheeks with rose again-- do it, in God's name, and make of me a friend for life."
"Shall I tell you what has gone amiss-- from the very first there at Otsego?"
"No-- that concerns not me----"
"Yes, I shall tell you! It's that she knew about-- the wench here-- Dolly Glenn."
"Is that why she refuses you and elects to remain unhappy?" I said incredulously.
"Yes-- I can say no more.... You are right, Loskiel, and such men as I are wrong-- utterly and wretchedly wrong. Sooner or later comes the bolt of lightning. Hell! To think that wench should hurl it!"
"But what bolt had she to hurl?" said I, astonished.
He reddened, bit his lip savagely, made as though to speak, then, with a violent gesture, turned away.
A few moments later a cannon shot sounded. It was the signal for striking tents and packing up; and in every regiment hurry and confusion reigned and the whole camp swarmed with busy soldiery.
But toward evening orders came to unpack and pitch tents again; and whether it had been an exercise to test the quickness of our army for marching, or whether some accident postponed the advance, I do not know.
All that evening, being on duty with my Indians to watch the cattle-guard, I did not see Lois.
The next day I was ordered to take the Indians a mile or two toward Chemung and lie there till relieved; so we went very early and remained near the creek on observation, seeing nothing, until evening, when the relief came with Hanierri and three Stockbridges. These gave us an account that another soldier had been shot in camp by the accidental discharge of a musket, and that the Light Troops had marched out of their old encampment and had pitched tents one hundred rods in advance.
Also, they informed us that the flying hospital and stores had been removed to the fort, and that Colonel Shreve had taken over the command of that place.
By reason of the darkness, we were late in getting into camp, so again that day I saw nothing of Lois.
On Wednesday it rained heavily about eleven o'clock, and the troops made no movement. Some Oneidas came in and went to headquarters. My Indians did not seem to know them.
I was on duty all day at headquarters, translating into Iroquois for the General a speech which he meant to deliver to the Tuscaroras on his return through Easton. The rain ceased late in the afternoon. Later, an express came through from Fort Pitt; and before evening orders had gone out that the entire army was to march at eight o'clock in the morning.
Morning came with a booming of cannon. We did not stir.
Toward eleven, however, the army began to march out as though departing in earnest; but as Major Parr remained with the Rifles, I knew something had gone amiss.
Yet, the other regiments, including my own, marched away gaily enough, with music sounding and colours displayed; and the garrison, boatmen, artillerymen, and all the civil servants and women and children waved them adieu from the parapets of the fort.
But high water at Tioga ford, a mile or two above, soon checked them, and there they remained that night. As I was again on duty with Hanierri and the Dominie, I saw not Lois that day.
Friday was fair and sunny, and the ground dried out. And all the morning I was with Dominie Kirkland and Hanierri, translating, transcribing, and writing out the various speeches and addresses left for me by General Sullivan.
Runners came in toward noon with news that our main forces had encamped at the pass before Chemung, and were there awaiting us.
Murphy, the rifleman, came saying that our detail was packing up at the fort, that Major Parr had sent word for Lieutenant Boyd to strike tents and pull foot, and that the boats were now making ready to drop down the river with the non-combatants.
My pack, and those of my Indians, had been prepared for days, and there was little for me to do to make ready. Some batt-men carried my military chest to the fort, where it was bestowed with the officers' baggage until we returned.
Then I hastened away to the fort and discovered our twenty riflemen paraded there, and Boyd inspecting them and their packs. His face seemed very haggard under its dark coat of sunburn, but he returned my salute with a smile, and presently came over to where I stood, saying coolly enough:
"I have made my adieux to the ladies. They are at the landing place expecting you. Best not linger. We should reach Chemung by dusk."
"My Indians are ready," said I.
"Very well," he said absently, and returned to his men, continuing his careful inspection.
As I passed the log bridge, I saw Dolly Glenn standing there with a frightened look on her face, but she paid no heed to me, and I went on still haunted by the girl's expression.
A throng of people-- civilians and soldiers-- were at the landing. The redoubtable Mrs. Sabin was bustling about a batteau, terrorizing its crew and bullying the servants, who were stowing away her property. Looking about me, I finally discovered Lois and Lana standing on the shore a little way down stream, and hastened to them.
Lana was as white as a ghost, but to my surprise Lois seemed cheerful and in gayest spirits, and laughed when I saluted her hand. And it relieved me greatly to find her so animated and full of confidence that all would be well with us, and the parting but a brief one.
"I know in my heart it will be brief," she said smilingly, and permitting both her hands to remain in mine. "Soon, very soon, we shall be again together, Euan, and this interrupted fairy tale, so prettily begun by you and me, shall be once more resumed."
"To no fairy finish," I said, "but in sober reality."
She looked at Lana, laughing:
"What a lad is this, dear! How can a fairy tale be ever real? Yet, he is a magician like Okwencha, this tall young Ensign of mine, and I make no doubt that his wizardry can change fancy to fact in the twinkling of an eye. Indeed, I think I, too, am something of a witch. Shall I make magic for you, Euan? What most of anything on earth would you care to see tonight?"
"You, Lois."
"Hai-e! That is easy. I will some night send to you my spirit, and it shall be so like me and so vivid nay, so warm and breathing-- that you shall think to even touch it.... Shall I do this with a spell?"
"I only have to close my eyes and see you. Make it that I can also touch you."
"It shall be done."
We both were smiling, and I for one was forcing my gay spirits, for now that the moment had arrived, I knew that chance might well make of our gay adieux an endless separation.
Lana had wandered a little way apart; I glanced at Lois, then turned and joined her. She laid her hand on my arm, as though her knees could scarcely prop her, and turned to me a deathly face.
"Euan," she breathed, "I have said adieu to him. Somehow, I know that he and I shall never meet again.... Tell him I pray for him-- for his soul.... And mine.... And that before he goes he shall do the thing I bid him do.... And if he will not-- tell him I ask God's mercy on him.... Tell him that, Euan."
"Yes," I said, awed.
She stood resting her arm on mine to support her, closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them and looked at me. And in her eyes I saw her heart was breaking as she stood there.
"Lana! Lanette! Little comrade! What is this dreadful thing that crushes you? Could you not tell me?" I whispered.
"Ask him, Euan."
"Lana, why will you not marry him, if you love him so?"
She shuddered and closed her eyes.
Neither of us spoke again. Lois, watching us, came slowly toward us, and linked her arm in Lana's.
"Our batteau is waiting," she said quietly.
I continued to preserve my spirits as we walked together down to the shore where Mrs. Sabin stood glaring at me, then turned her broad back and waddled across the planks.
Lana followed; Lois clung a second to my hands, smiling still; then I released her and she sprang lightly aboard.
And now batteau after batteau swung out into the stream, and all in line dropped slowly down the river, pole and paddle flashing, kerchiefs fluttering.
For a long way I could see the boat that carried Lois gliding in the channel close along shore, and the escort following along the bank above, with the sunshine glancing on their slanting rifles. Then a bend in the river hid them; and I turned away and walked slowly toward the fort.
By the gate my Indians were waiting. The Sagamore had my pack and rifle for me. On the rifle-platform above, the soldiers of the garrison stood looking down at us.
And now I heard the short, ringing word of command, and out of the gate marched our twenty riflemen, Boyd striding lightly ahead.
Then, as he set foot on the log bridge, I saw Dolly Glenn standing there, confronting him, blocking his way, her arms extended and her eyes fixed on him.
"Are you mad?" he said curtly.
"If you go," she retorted unsteadily, "leaving me behind you here-- unwedded-- God will punish you."
The column had came to a halt. There was a dead silence on parapet and parade while three hundred pair of eyes watched those two there on the bridge of logs.
"Dolly, you are mad!" he said, with the angry colour flashing in his face and staining throat and brow.
"Will you do me justice before you go?"
"Will you stand aside?" he said between his teeth.
"Yes-- I will stand aside.... And may you remember me when you burn at the last reckoning with God!"
"'Tention! Trail arms! By the left flank-- march!" he cried, his voice trembling with rage.
The shuffling velvet tread of his riflemen fell on the bridge; and they passed, rifles at a trail, and fringes blowing in the freshening breeze.
Without a word I fell in behind. After me loped my Indians in perfect silence.