SALUTE TO ADVENTURERS

BY

JOHN BUCHAN

[Illustration: 1798 EDINBURGH]

TO MAJOR-GENERAL THE HON. SIR REGINALD TALBOT, K. C. B. 

 I tell of old Virginian ways; And who more fit my tale to scan Than you, who knew in far-off days The eager horse of Sheridan; Who saw the sullen meads of fate, The tattered scrub, the blood-drenched sod, Where Lee, the greatest of the great, Bent to the storm of God?

 I tell lost tales of savage wars; And you have known the desert sands, The camp beneath the silver stars, The rush at dawn of Arab bands, The fruitless toil, the hopeless dream, The fainting feet, the faltering breath, While Gordon by the ancient stream Waited at ease on death. 

 And now, aloof from camp and field, You spend your sunny autumn hours Where the green folds of Chiltern shield The nooks of Thames amid the flowers: You who have borne that name of pride, In honour clean from fear or stain, Which Talbot won by Henry's side In vanquished Aquitaine. 

_The reader is asked to believe that most of the characters in thistale and many of the incidents have good historical warrant. The figureof Muckle John Gib will be familiar to the readers of Patrick Walker_. 

CONTENTS. 

 * * * * *

 I. THE SWEET-SINGERS II. OF A HIGH-HANDED LADY III. THE CANONGATE TOLBOOTH IV. OF A STAIRHEAD AND A SEA-CAPTAIN V. MY FIRST COMING TO VIRGINIA VI. TELLS OF MY EDUCATION VII. I BECOME AN UNPOPULAR CHARACTER VIII. RED RINGAN IX. VARIOUS DOINGS IN THE SAVANNAH X. I HEAR AN OLD SONG XI. GRAVITY OUT OF BED XII. A WORD AT THE HARBOUR-SIDE XIII. I STUMBLE INTO A GREAT FOLLY XIV. A WILD WAGER XV. I GATHER THE CLANS XVI. THE FORD OF THE RAPIDAN XVII. I RETRACE MY STEPS XVIII. OUR ADVENTURE RECEIVES A RECRUIT XIX. CLEARWATER GLEN XX. THE STOCKADE AMONG THE PINES XXI. A HAWK SCREAMS IN THE EVENING XXII. HOW A FOOL MUST GO HIS OWN ROAD XXIII. THE HORN OF DIARMAID SOUNDS XXIV. I SUFFER THE HEATHEN'S RAGE XXV. EVENTS ON THE HILL-SIDE XXVI. SHALAH XXVII. HOW I STROVE ALL NIGHT WITH THE DEVILXXVIII. HOW THREE SOULS FOUND THEIR HERITAGE

SALUTE TO ADVENTURERS. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE SWEET-SINGERS. 

When I was a child in short-coats a spaewife came to the town-end, andfor a silver groat paid by my mother she riddled my fate. It came tolittle, being no more than that I should miss love and fortune inthe sunlight and find them in the rain. The woman was a haggard, black-faced gipsy, and when my mother asked for more she turned on herheel and spoke gibberish; for which she was presently driven out of theplace by Tarn Roberton, the baillie, and the village dogs. But thething stuck in my memory, and together with the fact that I was aThursday's bairn, and so, according to the old rhyme, "had far to go, "convinced me long ere I had come to man's estate that wanderings andsurprises would be my portion. 

It is in the rain that this tale begins. I was just turned of eighteen, and in the back-end of a dripping September set out from our moorlandhouse of Auchencairn to complete my course at Edinburgh College. Theyear was 1685, an ill year for our countryside; for the folk were atodds with the King's Government, about religion, and the land was fullof covenants and repressions. Small wonder that I was backward with mycolleging, and at an age when most lads are buckled to a calling wasstill attending the prelections of the Edinburgh masters. My father hadblown hot and cold in politics, for he was fiery and unstable bynature, and swift to judge a cause by its latest professor. He had castout with the Hamilton gentry, and, having broken the head of a dragoonin the change-house of Lesmahagow, had his little estate mulcted infines. All of which, together with some natural curiosity and a familylove of fighting, sent him to the ill-fated field of Bothwell Brig, from which he was lucky to escape with a bullet in the shoulder. Thereupon he had been put to the horn, and was now lying hid in a denin the mosses of Douglas Water. It was a sore business for my mother, who had the task of warding off prying eyes from our ragged householdand keeping the fugitive in life. She was a Tweedside woman, as strongand staunch as an oak, and with a heart in her like Robert Bruce. Andshe was cheerful, too, in the worst days, and would go about the placewith a bright eye and an old song on her lips. But the thing was beyonda woman's bearing; so I had perforce to forsake my colleging and take ahand with our family vexations. The life made me hard and watchful, trusting no man, and brusque and stiff towards the world. And yet allthe while youth was working in me like yeast, so that a spring day or awest wind would make me forget my troubles and thirst to be about akindlier business than skulking in a moorland dwelling. 

My mother besought me to leave her. "What, " she would say, "has youngblood to do with this bickering of kirks and old wives' lamentations?You have to learn and see and do, Andrew. And it's time you werebeginning. " But I would not listen to her, till by the mercy of God wegot my father safely forth of Scotland, and heard that he was dwellingsnugly at Leyden in as great patience as his nature allowed. ThereuponI bethought me of my neglected colleging, and, leaving my books andplenishing to come by the Lanark carrier, set out on foot forEdinburgh. 

The distance is only a day's walk for an active man, but I startedlate, and purposed to sleep the night at a cousin's house byKirknewton. Often in bright summer days I had travelled the road, whenthe moors lay yellow in the sun and larks made a cheerful chorus. Insuch weather it is a pleasant road, with long prospects to cheer thetraveller, and kindly ale-houses to rest his legs in. But that day itrained as if the floodgates of heaven had opened. When I crossed Clydeby the bridge at Hyndford the water was swirling up to the key-stone. The ways were a foot deep in mire, and about Carnwath the bog hadoverflowed and the whole neighbourhood swam in a loch. It was pitifulto see the hay afloat like water-weeds, and the green oats scarcelyshowing above the black floods. In two minutes after starting I was wetto the skin, and I thanked Providence I had left my little Dutch_Horace_ behind me in the book-box. By three in the afternoon I was asunkempt as any tinker, my hair plastered over my eyes, and every foldof my coat running like a gutter. 

Presently the time came for me to leave the road and take the short-cutover the moors; but in the deluge, where the eyes could see no morethan a yard or two into a grey wall of rain, I began to misdoubt myknowledge of the way. On the left I saw a stone dovecot and a clusterof trees about a gateway; so, knowing how few and remote were thedwellings on the moorland, I judged it wiser to seek guidance before Istrayed too far. 

The place was grown up with grass and sore neglected. Weeds made acarpet on the avenue, and the dykes were broke by cattle at a dozenplaces. Suddenly through the falling water there stood up the gaunt endof a house. It was no cot or farm, but a proud mansion, though badlyneeding repair. A low stone wall bordered a pleasance, but the gardenhad fallen out of order, and a dial-stone lay flat on the earth. 

My first thought was that the place was tenantless, till I caught sightof a thin spire of smoke struggling against the downpour. I hoped tocome on some gardener or groom from whom I could seek direction, so Iskirted the pleasance to find the kitchen door. A glow of fire in oneof the rooms cried welcome to my shivering bones, and on the far sideof the house I found signs of better care. The rank grasses had beenmown to make a walk, and in a corner flourished a little group ofpot-herbs. But there was no man to be seen, and I was about to retreatand try the farm-town, when out of the doorway stepped a girl. 

She was maybe sixteen years old, tall and well-grown, but of her face Icould see little, since she was all muffled in a great horseman'scloak. The hood of it covered her hair, and the wide flaps were foldedover her bosom. She sniffed the chill wind, and held her head up to therain, and all the while, in a clear childish voice, she was singing. 

It was a song I had heard, one made by the great Montrose, who hadsuffered shameful death in Edinburgh thirty years before. It was aman's song, full of pride and daring, and not for the lips of a youngmaid. But that hooded girl in the wild weather sang it with a challengeand a fire that no cavalier could have bettered. 

 "My dear and only love, I pray That little world of thee Be governed by no other sway Than purest monarchy. "

 "For if confusion have a part, Which virtuous souls abhor, And hold a synod in thy heart, I'll never love thee more. "

So she sang, like youth daring fortune to give it aught but the best. The thing thrilled me, so that I stood gaping. Then she looked asideand saw me. 

"Your business, man?" she cried, with an imperious voice. 

I took off my bonnet, and made an awkward bow. 

"Madam, I am on my way to Edinburgh, " I stammered, for I was mortallyill at ease with women. "I am uncertain of the road in this weather, and come to beg direction. "

"You left the road three miles back, " she said. 

"But I am for crossing the moors, " I said. 

She pushed back her hood and looked at me with laughing eyes, I saw howdark those eyes were, and how raven black her wandering curls of hair. 

"You have come to the right place, " she cried. "I can direct you aswell as any Jock or Sandy about the town. Where are you going to?"

I said Kirknewton for my night's lodging. 

"Then march to the right, up by yon planting, till you come to the HoweBurn. Follow it to the top, and cross the hill above its well-head. Thewind is blowing from the east, so keep it on your right cheek. Thatwill bring you to the springs of the Leith Water, and in an hour or twofrom there you will be back on the highroad. "

She used a manner of speech foreign to our parts, but very soft andpleasant in the ear. I thanked her, clapped on my dripping bonnet, andmade for the dykes beyond the garden. Once I looked back, but she hadno further interest in me. In the mist I could see her peering oncemore skyward, and through the drone of the deluge came an echo of hersong. 

 "I'll serve thee in such noble ways, As never man before; I'll deck and crown thy head with bays, And love thee more and more. "

The encounter cheered me greatly, and lifted the depression which theeternal drizzle had settled on my spirits. That bold girl singing amartial ballad to the storm and taking pleasure in the snellness of theair, was like a rousing summons or a cup of heady wine. The pictureravished my fancy. The proud dark eye, the little wanton curls peepingfrom the hood, the whole figure alert with youth and life--they cheeredmy recollection as I trod that sour moorland. I tried to remember hersong, and hummed it assiduously till I got some kind of version, whichI shouted in my tuneless voice. For I was only a young lad, and my lifehad been bleak and barren. Small wonder that the call of youth setevery fibre of me a-quiver. 

I had done better to think of the road. I found the Howe Burn readilyenough, and scrambled up its mossy bottom. By this time the day waswearing late, and the mist was deepening into the darker shades ofnight. It is an eery business to be out on the hills at such a season, for they are deathly quiet except for the lashing of the storm. Youwill never hear a bird cry or a sheep bleat or a weasel scream. Theonly sound is the drum of the rain on the peat or its plash on aboulder, and the low surge of the swelling streams. It is the place andtime for dark deeds, for the heart grows savage; and if two enemies metin the hollow of the mist only one would go away. 

I climbed the hill above the Howe burn-head, keeping the wind on myright cheek as the girl had ordered. That took me along a rough ridgeof mountain pitted with peat-bogs into which I often stumbled. Everyminute I expected to descend and find the young Water of Leith, but ifI held to my directions I must still mount. I see now that the windmust have veered to the south-east, and that my plan was leading meinto the fastnesses of the hills; but I would have wandered for weekssooner than disobey the word of the girl who sang in the rain. Presently I was on a steep hill-side, which I ascended only to dropthrough a tangle of screes and jumper to the mires of a great bog. WhenI had crossed this more by luck than good guidance, I had anotherscramble on the steeps where the long, tough heather clogged myfootsteps. 

About eight o'clock I awoke to the conviction that I was hopelesslylost, and must spend the night in the wilderness. The rain still fellunceasingly through the pit-mirk, and I was as sodden and bleached asthe bent I trod on. A night on the hills had no terrors for me; but Iwas mortally cold and furiously hungry, and my temper grew bitteragainst the world. I had forgotten the girl and her song, and desiredabove all things on earth a dry bed and a chance of supper. 

I had been plunging and slipping in the dark mosses for maybe two hourswhen, looking down from a little rise, I caught a gleam of light. Instantly my mood changed to content. It could only be a herd'scottage, where I might hope for a peat fire, a bicker of brose, and, atthe worst, a couch of dry bracken. 

I began to run, to loosen my numbed limbs, and presently fell headlongover a little scaur into a moss-hole. When I crawled out, with peatplastering my face and hair, I found I had lost my notion of thelight's whereabouts. I strove to find another hillock, but I seemed nowto be in a flat space of bog. I could only grope blindly forwards awayfrom the moss-hole, hoping that soon I might come to a lift in thehill. 

Suddenly from the distance of about half a mile there fell on my earsthe most hideous wailing. It was like the cats on a frosty night; itwas like the clanging of pots in a tinker's cart; and it would rise nowand then to a shriek of rhapsody such as I have heard at field-preachings. Clearly the sound was human, though from what kind of crazyhuman creature I could not guess. Had I been less utterly forwanderedand the night less wild, I think I would have sped away from it as fastas my legs had carried me. But I had little choice. After all, Ireflected, the worst bedlamite must have food and shelter, and, unlessthe gleam had been a will-o'-the-wisp, I foresaw a fire. So I hastenedin the direction of the noise. 

I came on it suddenly in a hollow of the moss. There stood a ruinedsheepfold, and in the corner of two walls some plaids had beenstretched to make a tent. Before this burned a big fire of heatherroots and bog-wood, which hissed and crackled in the rain. Round itsquatted a score of women, with plaids drawn tight over their heads, who rocked and moaned like a flight of witches, and two--three men wereon their knees at the edge of the ashes. But what caught my eye was thefigure that stood before the tent. It was a long fellow, who held hisarms to heaven, and sang in a great throaty voice the wild dirge I hadbeen listening to. He held a book in one hand, from which he wouldpluck leaves and cast them on the fire, and at every burnt-offering awail of ecstasy would go up from the hooded women and kneeling men. Then with a final howl he hurled what remained of his book into theflames, and with upraised hands began some sort of prayer. 

I would have fled if I could; but Providence willed it otherwise. Theedge of the bank on which I stood had been rotted by the rain, and thewhole thing gave under my feet. I slithered down into the sheepfold, and pitched headforemost among the worshipping women. And at that, witha yell, the long man leaped over the fire and had me by the throat. 

My bones were too sore and weary to make resistance. He dragged me tothe ground before the tent, while the rest set up a skirling thatdeafened my wits. There he plumped me down, and stood glowering at melike a cat with a sparrow. 

"Who are ye, and what do ye here, disturbing the remnant of Israel?"says he. 

I had no breath in me to speak, so one of the men answered. 

"Some gangrel body, precious Mr. John, " he said. 

"Nay, " said another; "it's a spy o' the Amalekites. "

"It's a herd frae Linton way, " spoke up a woman. "He favours the lookof one Zebedee Linklater. "

The long man silenced her. "The word of the Lord came unto His prophetGib, saying, Smite and spare not, for the cup of the abominations ofBabylon is now full. The hour cometh, yea, it is at hand, when theelect of the earth, meaning me and two--three others, will be enthronedabove the Gentiles, and Dagon and Baal will be cast down. Are ye stillin the courts of bondage, young man, or seek ye the true light whichthe Holy One of Israel has vouchsafed to me, John Gib, his unworthyprophet?"

Now I knew into what rabble I had strayed. It was the company whocalled themselves the Sweet-Singers, led by one Muckle John Gib, once amariner of Borrowstoneness-on-Forth. He had long been a thorn in theside of the preachers, holding certain strange heresies thatdiscomforted even the wildest of the hill-folk. They had clapped himinto prison; but the man, being three parts mad had been let go, andever since had been making strife in the westland parts of Clydesdale. I had heard much of him, and never any good. It was his way to drawafter him a throng of demented women, so that the poor, draggle-tailedcreatures forgot husband and bairns and followed him among the mosses. There were deeds of violence and blood to his name, and the look of himwas enough to spoil a man's sleep. He was about six and a half feethigh, with a long, lean head and staring cheek bones. His brows grewlike bushes, and beneath glowed his evil and sunken eyes. I rememberthat he had monstrous long arms, which hung almost to his knees, and agreat hairy breast which showed through a rent in his seaman's jerkin. In that strange place, with the dripping spell of night about me, andthe fire casting weird lights and shadows, he seemed like some devil ofthe hills awakened by magic from his ancient grave. 

But I saw it was time for me to be speaking up. 

"I am neither gangrel, nor spy, nor Amalekite, nor yet am I ZebedeeLinklater. My name is Andrew Garvald, and I have to-day left my home tomake my way to Edinburgh College. I tried a short road in the mist, andhere I am. "

"Nay, but what seek ye?" cried Muckle John. "The Lord has led ye to ourcompany by His own good way. What seek ye? I say again, and yea, athird time. "

"I go to finish my colleging, " I said. 

He laughed a harsh, croaking laugh. "Little ye ken, young man. Wetravel to watch the surprising judgment which is about to overtake thewicked city of Edinburgh. An angel hath revealed it to me in a dream. Fire and brimstone will descend upon it as on Sodom and Gomorrah, andit will be consumed and wither away, with its cruel Ahabs and itspainted Jezebels, its subtle Doegs and its lying Balaams, its priestsand its judges, and its proud men of blood, its Bible-idolaters and itsfalse prophets, its purple and damask, its gold and its fine linen, andit shall be as Tyre and Sidon, so that none shall know the sitethereof. But we who follow the Lord and have cleansed His word fromhuman abominations, shall leap as he-goats upon the mountains, andenter upon the heritage of the righteous from Beth-peor even unto thecrossings of Jordan. "

In reply to this rigmarole I asked for food, since my head wasbeginning to swim from my long fast. This, to my terror, put him into agreat rage. 

"Ye are carnally minded, like the rest of them. Ye will get no fleshlyprovender here; but if ye be not besotted in your sins ye shall drinkof the Water of Life that floweth freely and eat of the honey and mannaof forgiveness. "

And then he appeared to forget my very existence. He fell into a sortof trance, with his eyes fixed on vacancy. There was a dead hush in theplace, nothing but the crackle of the fire and the steady drip of therain. I endured it as well as I might, for though my legs were sorelycramped, I did not dare to move an inch. 

After nigh half an hour he seemed to awake. "Peace be with you, " hesaid to his followers. "It is the hour for sleep and prayer. I, JohnGib, will wrestle all night for your sake, as Jacob strove with theangel. " With that he entered the tent. 

No one spoke to me, but the ragged company sought each theirsleeping-place. A woman with a kindly face jogged me on the elbow, andfrom the neuk of her plaid gave me a bit of oatcake and a piece ofroasted moorfowl. This made my supper, with a long drink from aneighbouring burn. None hindered my movements, so, liking little thesmell of wet, uncleanly garments which clung around the fire, I made mybed in a heather bush in the lee of a boulder, and from utter wearinessfell presently asleep. 

CHAPTER II. 

OF A HIGH-HANDED LADY. 

The storm died away in the night, and I awoke to a clear, rain-washedworld and the chill of an autumn morn. I was as stiff and sore as if Ihad been whipped, my clothes were sodden and heavy, and not till I hadwashed my face and hands in the burn and stretched my legs up thehill-side did I feel restored to something of my ordinary briskness. 

The encampment looked weird indeed as seen in the cruel light of day. The women were cooking oatmeal on iron girdles, but the fire burnedsmokily, and the cake I got was no better than dough. They were adisjaskit lot, with tousled hair and pinched faces, in which shonehungry eyes. Most were barefoot, and all but two--three were ancientbeldames who should have been at home in the chimney corner. I noticedone decent-looking young woman, who had the air of a farm servant; andtwo were well-fed country wives who had probably left a brood ofchildren to mourn them. The men were little better. One had the sallowlook of a weaver, another was a hind with a big, foolish face, andthere was a slip of a lad who might once have been a student ofdivinity. But each had a daftness in the eye and something weak andunwholesome in the visage, so that they were an offence to the fresh, gusty moorland. 

All but Muckle John himself. He came out of his tent and prayed tillthe hill-sides echoed. It was a tangle of bedlamite ravings, with longscreeds from the Scriptures intermixed like currants in a bag-pudding. But there was power in the creature, in the strange lift of his voice, in his grim jowl, and in the fire of his sombre eyes. The others Ipitied, but him I hated and feared. On him and his kind were to beblamed all the madness of the land, which had sent my father overseasand desolated our dwelling. So long as crazy prophets preachedbrimstone and fire, so long would rough-shod soldiers and cunninglawyers profit by their folly; and often I prayed in those days thatthe two evils might devour each other. 

It was time that I was cutting loose from this ill-omened company andcontinuing my road Edinburgh-wards. We were lying in a wide trough ofthe Pentland Hills, which I well remembered. The folk of the plainscalled it the Cauldstaneslap, and it made an easy path for sheep andcattle between the Lothians and Tweeddale. The camp had been snuglychosen, for, except by the gleam of a fire in the dark, it wasinvisible from any distance. Muckle John was so filled with hisvapourings that I could readily slip off down the burn and join thesouthern highway at the village of Linton. 

I was on the verge of going when I saw that which pulled me up. A riderwas coming over the moor. The horse leaped the burn lightly, and beforeI could gather my wits was in the midst of the camp, where Muckle Johnwas vociferating to heaven. 

My heart gave a great bound, for I saw it was the girl who had sung tome in the rain. She rode a fine sorrel, with the easy seat of a skilledhorsewoman. She was trimly clad in a green riding-coat, and over thelace collar of it her hair fell in dark, clustering curls. Her face wasgrave, like a determined child's; but the winds of the morning hadwhipped it to a rosy colour, so that into that clan of tatterdemalionsshe rode like Proserpine descending among the gloomy Shades. In herhand she carried a light riding-whip. 

A scream from the women brought Muckle John out of his rhapsodies. Hestared blankly at the slim girl who confronted him with hand on hip. 

"What seekest thou here, thou shameless woman?" he roared. 

"I am come, " said she, "for my tirewoman, Janet Somerville, who left methree days back without a reason. Word was brought me that she hadjoined a mad company called the Sweet-Singers, that lay at theCauldstaneslap. Janet's a silly body, but she means no ill, and hermother is demented at the loss of her. So I have come for Janet. "

Her cool eyes ran over the assembly till they lighted on the one I hadalready noted as more decent-like than the rest. At the sight of thegirl the woman bobbed a curtsy. 

"Come out of it, silly Janet, " said she on the horse; "you'll nevermake a Sweet-Singer, for there's not a notion of a tune in your head. "

"It's not singing that I seek, my leddy, " said the woman, blushing. "Ifollow the call o' the Lord by the mouth o' His servant, John Gib. "

"You'll follow the call of your mother by the mouth of me, ElspethBlair. Forget these havers, Janet, and come back like a good Christiansoul. Mount and be quick. There's room behind me on Bess. "

The words were spoken in a kindly, wheedling tone, and the girl's facebroke into the prettiest of smiles. Perhaps Janet would have obeyed, but Muckle John, swift to prevent defection, took up the parable. 

"Begone, ye daughter of Heth!" he bellowed, "ye that are like thedevils that pluck souls from the way of salvation. Begone, or it isstrongly borne in upon me that ye will dree the fate of the women ofMidian, of whom it is written that they were slaughtered and sparednot. "

The girl did not look his way. She had her coaxing eyes on her haltingmaid. "Come, Janet, woman, " she said again. "It's no job for a decentlass to be wandering at the tail of a crazy warlock. "

The word roused Muckle John to fury. He sprang forward, caught thesorrel's bridle, and swung it round. The girl did not move, but lookedhim square in the face, the young eyes fronting his demoniac glower. Then very swiftly her arm rose, and she laid the lash of her whiproundly over his shoulders. 

The man snarled like a beast, leaped back and plucked from his seaman'sbelt a great horse-pistol. I heard the click of it cocking, and thenext I knew it was levelled at the girl's breast. The sight of her andthe music of her voice had so enthralled me that I had made no plan asto my own conduct. But this sudden peril put fire into my heels, and ina second I was at his side. I had brought from home a stout shepherd'sstaff, with which I struck the muzzle upwards. The pistol went off in agreat stench of powder, but the bullet wandered to the clouds. 

Muckle John let the thing fall into the moss, and plucked anotherweapon from his belt. This was an ugly knife, such as a cobbler usesfor paring hides. I knew the seaman's trick of throwing, having seentheir brawls at the pier of Leith, and I had no notion for the steel inmy throat. The man was far beyond me in size and strength, so I darednot close with him. Instead, I gave him the point of my staff with allmy power straight in the midriff. The knife slithered harmlessly overmy shoulder, and he fell backwards into the heather. 

There was no time to be lost, for the whole clan came round me like aflock of daws. One of the men, the slim lad, had a pistol, but I saw bythe way he handled it that it was unprimed. I was most afraid of thewomen, who with their long claws would have scratched my eyes out, andI knew they would not spare the girl. To her I turned anxiously, and, to my amazement, she was laughing. She recognized me, for she criedout, "Is this the way to Kirknewton, sir?" And all the time sheshook with merriment. In that hour I thought her as daft as theSweet-Singers, whose nails were uncommonly near my cheek. 

I got her bridle, tumbled over the countryman with a kick, and forcedher to the edge of the sheepfold. But she wheeled round again, crying, "I must have Janet, " and faced the crowd with her whip. That was wellenough, but I saw Muckle John staggering to his feet, and I feareddesperately for his next move. The girl was either mad orextraordinarily brave. 

"Get back, you pitiful knaves, " she cried. "Lay a hand on me, and Iwill cut you to ribbons. Make haste, Janet, and quit this folly. "

It was gallant talk, but there was no sense in it. Muckle John was onhis feet, half the clan had gone round to our rear, and in a second ortwo she would have been torn from the saddle. A headstrong girl wasbeyond my management, and my words of entreaty were lost in the babelof cries. 

But just then there came another sound. From the four quarters of themoor there closed in upon us horsemen. They came silently and wereabout us before I had a hint of their presence. It was a troop ofdragoons in the king's buff and scarlet, and they rode us down as if wehad been hares in a field. The next I knew of it I was sprawling on theground with a dizzy head, and horses trampling around me, I had aglimpse of Muckle John with a pistol at his nose, and the sorrelcurveting and plunging in a panic. Then I bethought myself of saving mybones, and crawled out of the mellay behind the sheepfold. 

Presently I realized that this was the salvation I had been seeking. Gib was being pinioned, and two of the riders were speaking with thegirl. The women hung together like hens in a storm, while the dragoonslaid about them with the flat of their swords. There was one poorcreature came running my way, and after her followed on foot a longfellow, who made clutches at her hair. He caught her with ease, andproceeded to bind her hands with great brutality. 

"Ye beldame, " he said, with many oaths, "I'll pare your talons for ye. "

Now I, who a minute before had been in danger from this very crew, wassmitten with a sudden compunction. Except for Muckle John, they were sopitifully feeble, a pack of humble, elderly folk, worn out with fastingand marching and ill weather. I had been sickened by their crazydevotions, but I was more sickened by this man's barbarity. It was thewoman, too, who had given me food the night before. 

So I stepped out, and bade the man release her. 

He was a huge, sunburned ruffian, and for answer aimed a clour at myhead. "Take that, my mannie, " he said. "I'll learn ye to follow thepetticoats. "

His scorn put me into a fury, in which anger at his brutishness and thepresence of the girl on the sorrel moved my pride to a piece of nakedfolly. I flew at his throat, and since I had stood on a littleeminence, the force of my assault toppled him over. My victory lastedscarcely a minute. He flung me from him like a feather, then picked meup and laid on to me with the flat of his sword. 

"Ye thrawn jackanapes, " he cried, as he beat me. "Ye'll pay dear forplaying your pranks wi' John Donald. "

I was a child in his mighty grasp, besides having no breath left in meto resist. He tied my hands and legs, haled me to his horse, and flungme sack-like over the crupper. There was no more shamefaced lad in theworld than me at that moment, for coming out of the din I heard agirl's light laughter. 

CHAPTER III. 

THE CANONGATE TOLBOOTH. 

"Never daunton youth" was, I remember, a saying of my grandmother's;but it was the most dauntoned youth in Scotland that now jogged overthe moor to the Edinburgh highroad. I had a swimming head, and a hardcrupper to grate my ribs at every movement, and my captor would shiftme about with as little gentleness as if I had been a bag of oats forhis horse's feed. But it was the ignominy of the business that kept meon the brink of tears. First, I was believed to be one of the maniaccompany of the Sweet-Singers, whom my soul abhorred; _item_, I had beenworsted by a trooper with shameful ease, so that my manhood cried outagainst me. Lastly, I had cut the sorriest figure in the eyes of thatproud girl. For a moment I had been bold, and fancied myself hersaviour, but all I had got by it was her mocking laughter. 

They took us down from the hill to the highroad a little north ofLinton village, where I was dumped on the ground, my legs untied, andmy hands strapped to a stirrup leather. The women were given a countrycart to ride in, and the men, including Muckle John, had to run each bya trooper's leg. The girl on the sorrel had gone, and so had the maidJanet, for I could not see her among the dishevelled wretches in thecart. The thought of that girl filled me with bitter animosity. Shemust have known that I was none of Gib's company, for had I not riskedmy life at the muzzle of his pistol? I had taken her part as bravely asI knew how, but she had left me to be dragged to Edinburgh without aword. Women had never come much my way, but I had a boy's distrust ofthe sex; and as I plodded along the highroad, with every now and then acuff from a trooper's fist to cheer me, I had hard thoughts of theirheartlessness. 

We were a pitiful company as, in the bright autumn sun, we came in bythe village of Liberton, to where the reek of Edinburgh rose straightinto the windless weather. The women in the cart kept up a continuallamenting, and Muckle John, who walked between two dragoons with hishands tied to the saddle of each, so that he looked like a crucifiedmalefactor, polluted the air with hideous profanities. He cursedeverything in nature and beyond it, and no amount of clouts on the headwould stem the torrent. Sometimes he would fall to howling like a wolf, and folk ran to their cottage doors to see the portent. Groups ofchildren followed us from every wayside clachan, so that we gave greatentertainment to the dwellers in Lothian that day. The thing infuriatedthe dragoons, for it made them a laughing-stock, and the sins of Gibwere visited upon the more silent prisoners. We were hurried along at acruel pace, so that I had often to run to avoid the dragging at mywrists, and behind us bumped the cart full of wailful women. I was sickfrom fatigue and lack of food, and the South Port of Edinburgh was awelcome sight to me. Welcome, and yet shameful, for I feared at anymoment to see the face of a companion in the jeering crowd that linedthe causeway. I thought miserably of my pleasant lodgings in the Bow, where my landlady, Mistress Macvittie, would be looking at the boxesthe Lanark carrier had brought, and be wondering what had become oftheir master. I saw no light for myself in the business. My father'sill-repute with the Government would tell heavily in my disfavour, andit was beyond doubt that I had assaulted a dragoon. There was nothingbefore me but the plantations or a long spell in some noisome prison. 

The women were sent to the House of Correction to be whipped anddismissed, for there was little against them but foolishness; allexcept one, a virago called Isobel Bone, who was herded with the men. The Canongate Tolbooth was our portion, the darkest and foulest of thecity prisons; and presently I found myself forced through a gateway andup a narrow staircase, into a little chamber in which a score of beingswere already penned. A small unglazed window with iron bars high up onone wall gave us such light and air as was going, but the place reekedwith human breathing, and smelled as rank as a kennel. I have adelicate nose, and I could not but believe on my entrance that an hourof such a hole would be the death of me. Soon the darkness came, and wewere given a tallow dip in a horn lantern hung on a nail to light us tofood. Such food I had never dreamed of. There was a big iron basin ofsome kind of broth, made, as I judged, from offal, from which we drankin pannikins; and with it were hunks of mildewed rye-bread. Onemouthful sickened me, and I preferred to fast. The behaviour of theother prisoners was most seemly, but not so that of my company. Theyscrambled for the stuff like pigs round a trough, and the woman Isobelthreatened with her nails any one who would prevent her. I was blackashamed to enter prison with such a crew, and withdrew myself as fardistant as the chamber allowed me. 

I had no better task than to look round me at those who had tenantedthe place before our coming. There were three women, decent-lookingbodies, who talked low in whispers and knitted. The men were mostlycountryfolk, culled, as I could tell by their speech, from the westcountry, whose only fault, no doubt, was that they had attended somefield-preaching. One old man, a minister by his dress, sat apart on astone bench, and with closed eyes communed with himself. I ventured toaddress him, for in that horrid place he had a welcome air of sobrietyand sense. 

He asked me for my story, and when he heard it looked curiously atMuckle John, who was now reciting gibberish in a corner. 

"So that is the man Gib, " he said musingly. "I have heard tell of him, for he was a thorn in the flesh of blessed Mr. Cargill. Often have Iheard him repeat how he went to Gib in the moors to reason with him inthe Lord's name, and got nothing but a mouthful of devilishblasphemies. He is without doubt a child of Belial, as much as anyproud persecutor. Woe is the Kirk, when her foes shall be of her ownhousehold, for it is with the words of the Gospel that he seeks tooverthrow the Gospel work. And how is it with you, my son? Do you seekto add your testimony to the sweet savour which now ascends from moors, mosses, peat-bogs, closes, kennels, prisons, dungeons, ay, andscaffolds in this distressed land of Scotland? You have not told meyour name. "

When he heard it he asked for my father, whom he had known in old daysat Edinburgh College. Then he inquired into my religious condition withso much fatherly consideration that I could take no offence, but toldhim honestly that I was little of a partisan, finding it hard enough tokeep my own feet from temptation without judging others. "I am weary, "I said, "of all covenants and resolutions and excommunications and theconstraining of men's conscience either by Government or sectaries. Some day, and I pray that it may be soon, both sides will be dead oftheir wounds, and there will arise in Scotland men who will preachpeace and tolerance, and heal the grievously irritated sores of thisland. "

He sighed as he heard me. "I fear you are still far from grace, lad, "he said. "You are shaping for a Laodicean, of whom there are many inthese latter times. I do not know. It may be that God wills that theLaodiceans have their day, for the fires of our noble covenant haveflamed too smokily. Yet those fires die not, and sometime they willkindle up, purified and strengthened, and will burn the trash andstubble and warm God's feckless people. "

He was so old and gentle that I had no heart for disputation, and couldonly beseech his blessing. This he gave me and turned once more to hisdevotions. I was very weary, my head was splitting with the foul air ofthe place, and I would fain have got me to sleep. Some dirty straw hadbeen laid round the walls of the room for the prisoners to lie on, andI found a neuk close by the minister's side. 

But sleep was impossible, for Muckle John got another fit of cursing Hestood up by the door with his eyes blazing like a wild-cat's, anddelivered what he called his "testimony. " His voice had been used toshout orders on shipboard, and not one of us could stop his earsagainst it. Never have I heard such a medley of profane nonsense. Hecursed the man Charles Stuart, and every councillor by name; he cursedthe Persecutors, from his Highness of York down to one Welch ofBorrowstoneness, who had been the means of his first imprisonment; hecursed the indulged and tolerated ministers; and he cursed every man ofthe hill-folk whose name he could remember. He testified against alldues and cesses, against all customs and excises, taxes and burdens;against beer and ale and wines and tobacco; against mumming andpeep-shows and dancing, and every sort of play; against Christmas andEaster and Pentecost and Hogmanay. Then most nobly did he embark ontheology. He made short work of hell and shorter work of heaven. Heraved against idolaters of the Kirk and of the Bible, and against allpreachers who, by his way of it, had perverted the Word. As he went on, I began to fancy that Muckle John's true place was with the Mussulmans, for he left not a stick of Christianity behind him. 

Such blasphemy on the open hill-side had been shocking enough, but inthat narrow room it was too horrid to be borne. The minister stuck hisfingers in his ears, and, advancing to the maniac, bade him be silentbefore God should blast him. But what could his thin old voice doagainst Gib's bellowing? The mariner went on undisturbed, and gave theold man a blow with his foot which sent him staggering to the floor. 

The thing had become too much for my temper. I cried on the other mento help me, but none stirred, for Gib seemed to cast an unholy spell onordinary folk. But my anger and discomfort banished all fear, and Irushed at the prophet in a whirlwind. He had no eyes for my coming tillmy head took him fairly in the middle, and drove the breath out of hischest. That quieted his noise, and he turned on me with something likewholesome human wrath in his face. 

Now, I was no match for this great being with my ungrown strength, butthe lesson of my encounter with the dragoon was burned on my mind, andI was determined to keep out of grips with him. I was light on my feet, and in our country bouts had often worsted a heavier antagonist by myquickness in movement. So when Muckle John leaped to grab me, I dartedunder his arm, and he staggered half-way across the room. The womenscuttled into a corner, all but the besom Isobel, who made clutches atmy coat. 

Crying "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon, " Gib made a great lunge atme with his fist. But the sword of Gideon missed its aim, and skinnedits knuckles on the stone wall. I saw now to my great comfort that theman was beside himself with fury, and was swinging his arms wildly likea flail. Three or four times I avoided his rushes, noting withsatisfaction that one of the countrymen had got hold of the shriekingIsobel. Then my chance came, for as he lunged I struck from the sidewith all my force on his jaw. I am left-handed, and the blow wasunlocked for. He staggered back a step, and I deftly tripped him up, sothat he fell with a crash on the hard floor. 

In a second I was on the top of him, shouting to the others to lend mea hand. This they did at last, and so mazed was he with the fall, beinga mighty heavy man, that he scarcely resisted. "If you want a quietnight, " I cried, "we must silence this mountebank. " With three leathernbelts, one my own and two borrowed, we made fast his feet and arms, Istuffed a kerchief into his mouth, and bound his jaws with another, butnot so tight as to hinder his breathing. Then we rolled him into acorner where he lay peacefully making the sound of a milch cow chewingher cud. I returned to my quarters by the minister's side, andpresently from utter weariness fell into an uneasy sleep. 

 * * * * *

I woke in the morning greatly refreshed for all the closeness of theair, and, the memory of the night's events returning, was muchconcerned as to the future. I could not be fighting with Muckle Johnall the time, and I made no doubt that once his limbs were freed hewould try to kill me. The others were still asleep while I tiptoed overto his corner. At first sight I got a fearsome shock, for I thought hewas dead of suffocation. He had worked the gag out of his mouth, andlay as still as a corpse. But soon I saw that he was sleeping quietly, and in his slumbers the madness had died out of his face. He lookedlike any other sailorman, a trifle ill-favoured of countenance, anddirty beyond the ordinary of sea-folk. 

When the gaoler came with food, we all wakened up, and Gib asked verypeaceably to be released. The gaoler laughed at his predicament, andinquired the tale of it; and when he heard the truth, called for a voteas to what he should do. I was satisfied, from the look of Muckle John, that his dangerous fit was over, so I gave my voice for release. Gibshook himself like a great dog, and fell to his breakfast without aword. I found the thin brose provided more palatable than the soup ofthe evening before, and managed to consume a pannikin of it. As Ifinished, I perceived that Gib had squatted by my side. There wasclearly some change in the man, for he gave the woman Isobel some veryill words when she started ranting. 

Up in the little square of window one could see a patch of clear sky, with white clouds crossing it, and a gust of the clean air of morningwas blown into our cell. Gib sat looking at it with his eyesabstracted, so that I feared a renewal of his daftness. 

"Can ye whistle 'Jenny Nettles, ' sir?" he asked me civilly. 

It was surely a queer request in that place and from such a fellow. ButI complied, and to the best of my skill rendered the air. 

He listened greedily. "Ay, you've got it, " he said, humming it afterme. "I aye love the way of it. Yon's the tune I used to whistle mysel'on shipboard when the weather was clear. "

He had the seaman's trick of thinking of the weather first thing in themorning, and this little thing wrought a change in my view of him. Hismadness was seemingly like that of an epileptic, and when it passed hewas a simple creature with a longing for familiar things. 

"The wind's to the east, " he said. "I could wish I were beating downthe Forth in the _Loupin' Jean. _ She was a trim bit boat for him thatcould handle her. "

"Man, " I said, "what made you leave a clean job for the ravings ofyesterday?"

"I'm in the Lord's hands, " he said humbly. "I'm but a penny whistle forHis breath to blow on. " This he said with such solemnity that themeaning of a fanatic was suddenly revealed to me. One or two distortednotions, a wild imagination, and fierce passions, and there you havethe ingredients ready. But moments of sense must come, when the betternature of the man revives. I had a thought that the clout he got on thestone floor had done much to clear his wits. 

"What will they do wi' me, think ye?" he asked. "This is the secondtime I've fallen into the hands o' the Amalekites, and it's no likelythey'll let me off sae lightly. "

"What will they do with us all?" said I. "The Plantations maybe, or theBass! It's a bonny creel you've landed me in, for I'm as innocent as anewborn babe. "

The notion of the Plantations seemed to comfort him. "I've been thereafore, once in the brig _John Rolfe_ o' Greenock, and once in the_Luckpenny _o' Leith. It's a het land but a bonny, and full o' allmanner o' fruits. You can see tobacco growin' like aits, and mair bigtrees in one plantin' than in all the shire o' Lothian. Besides--"

But I got no more of Muckle John's travels, for the door opened on thatinstant, and the gaoler appeared. He looked at our heads, then singledme out, and cried on me to follow. "Come on, you, " he said. "Ye'rewantit in the captain's room. "

I followed in bewilderment; for I knew something of the law's delays, and I could not believe that my hour of trial had come already. The mantook me down the turret stairs and through a long passage to a doorwhere stood two halberdiers. Through this he thrust me, and I foundmyself in a handsome panelled apartment with the city arms carved abovethe chimney. A window stood open, and I breathed the sweet, fresh airwith delight. But I caught a reflection of myself in the polished steelof the fireplace, and my spirits fell, for a more woebegone ruffian myeyes had never seen. I was as dirty as a collier, my coat was half offmy back from my handling on the moor, and there were long rents at theknees of my breeches. 

Another door opened, and two persons entered. One was a dapper littleman with a great wig, very handsomely dressed in a plum-coloured silkencoat, with a snowy cravat at his neck. At the sight of the other myface crimsoned, for it was the girl who had sung Montrose's song in therain. 

The little gentleman looked at me severely, and then turned to hiscompanion. "Is this the fellow, Elspeth?" he inquired. "He looks asorry rascal. "

The minx pretended to examine me carefully. Her colour was high withthe fresh morning, and she kept tapping her boot with her whip handle. 

"Why, yes, Uncle Gregory, " she said, "It is the very man, though nonethe better for your night's attentions. "

"And you say he had no part in Gib's company, but interfered on yourbehalf when the madman threatened you?"

"Such was his impertinence, " she said, "as if I were not a match for adozen crazy hill-folk. But doubtless the lad meant well. "

"It is also recorded against him that he assaulted one of His Majesty'sservants, to wit, the trooper John Donald, and offered to hinder him inthe prosecution of his duty. "

"La, uncle!" cried the girl, "who is to distinguish friend from foe ina mellay? Have you never seen a dog in a fight bite the hand of one whowould succour him?"

"Maybe, maybe, " said the gentleman. "Your illustrations, Elspeth, woulddo credit to His Majesty's advocate. Your plea is that this young man, whose name I do not know and do not seek to hear, should be freed orjustice will miscarry? God knows the law has enough to do withoutclogging its wheels with innocence. "

The girl nodded. Her wicked, laughing eyes roamed about the apartmentwith little regard for my flushed face. 

"Then the Crown assoilzies the panel and deserts the diet, " said thelittle gentleman. "Speak, sir, and thank His Majesty for his clemencyand this lady for her intercession. "

I had no words, for if I had been sore at my imprisonment, I was blackangry at this manner of release. I did not reflect that Miss ElspethBlair must have risen early and ridden far to be in the Canongate atthis hour. 'Twas justice only that moved her, I thought, and nogratitude or kindness. To her I was something so lowly that she neednot take the pains to be civil, but must speak of me in my presence asif it were a question of a stray hound. My first impulse was to refuseto stir, but happily my good sense returned in time and preserved mefrom playing the fool. 

"I thank you, sir, " I said gruffly--"and the lady. Do I understand thatI am free to go?"

"Through the door, down the left stairway, and you will be in thestreet, " said the gentleman. 

I made some sort of bow and moved to the door. 

"Farewell, Mr. Whiggamore, " the girl cried, "Keep a cheerfulcountenance, or they'll think you a Sweet-Singer. Your breeches willmend, man. "

And with her laughter most unpleasantly in my ears I made my way intothe Canongate, and so to my lodgings at Mrs. Macvittie's. 

 * * * * *

Three weeks later I heard that Muckle John was destined for thePlantations in a ship of Mr. Barclay of Urie's, which traded to NewJersey. I had a fancy to see him before he went, and after much troubleI was suffered to visit him. His gaoler told me he had been mighty wildduring his examination before the Council, and had had frequent boutsof madness since, but for the moment he was peaceable. I found him in alittle cell by himself, outside the common room of the gaol. He wassitting in an attitude of great dejection, and when I entered couldscarcely recall me to his memory. I remember thinking that, what withhis high cheek-bones, and lank black hair, and brooding eyes, and greatmuscular frame, Scotland could scarcely have furnished a wilder figurefor the admiration of the Carolinas, or wherever he went to. I did notenvy his future master. 

But with me he was very friendly and quiet. His ailment washome-sickness; for though he had been a great voyager, it seemed he wasloath to quit our bleak countryside for ever. "I used aye to think o'the first sight o' Inchkeith and the Lomond hills, and the smell o'herrings at the pier o' Leith. What says the Word? '_Weep not for thedead, neither bemoan him; but weep sore for him that goeth away, for heshall return no more, nor see his native country_. '"

I asked him if I could do him any service. 

"There's a woman at Cramond, " he began timidly. "She might like to kenwhat had become o' me. Would ye carry a message?"

I did better, for at Gib's dictation I composed for her a letter, sincehe could not write. I wrote it on some blank pages from my pocket whichI used for College notes. It was surely the queerest love-letter everindited, for the most part of it was theology, and the rest wasinstructions for the disposing of his scanty plenishing. I haveforgotten now what I wrote, but I remember that the woman's name wasAlison Steel. 

CHAPTER IV. 

OF A STAIRHEAD AND A SEA-CAPTAIN. 

With the escapade that landed me in the Tolbooth there came an end tothe nightmare years of my first youth. A week later I got word that myfather was dead of an ague in the Low Countries, and I had to be offpost-haste to Auchencairn to see to the ordering of our little estate. We were destined to be bitter poor, what with dues and regalitiesincident on the passing of the ownership, and I thought it best toleave my mother to farm it, with the help of Robin Gilfillan thegrieve, and seek employment which would bring me an honest penny. Herone brother, Andrew Sempill, from whom I was named, was a merchant inGlasgow, the owner of three ships that traded to the Western Seas, andby repute a man of a shrewd and venturesome temper. He was single, too, and I might reasonably look to be his heir; so when a letter came fromhim offering me a hand in his business, my mother was instant for mygoing. I was little loath myself, for I saw nothing now to draw me tothe profession of the law, which had been my first notion. "Hame'shame, " runs the proverb, "as the devil said when he found himself inthe Court of Session, " and I had lost any desire for that sinistercompany. Besides, I liked the notion of having to do with ships and farlands; for I was at the age when youth burns fiercely in a lad, and hisfancy is as riotous as a poet's. 

Yet the events I have just related had worked a change in my life. Theyhad driven the unthinking child out of me and forced me to reflect onmy future. Two things rankled in my soul--a wench's mocking laughterand the treatment I had got from the dragoon. It was not that I was inlove with the black-haired girl; indeed, I think I hated her; but Icould not get her face out of my head or her voice out of my ears. Shehad mocked me, treated me as if I was no more than a foolish servant, and my vanity was raw. I longed to beat down her pride, to make hercreep humbly to me, Andrew Garvald, as her only deliverer; and how thatshould be compassed was the subject of many hot fantasies in my brain. The dragoon, too, had tossed me about like a silly sheep, and mymanhood cried out at the recollection. What sort of man was I if anylubberly soldier could venture on such liberties?

I went into the business with the monstrous solemnity of youth, andtook stock of my equipment as if I were casting up an account. Many atime in those days I studied my appearance in the glass like a foolishmaid. I was not well featured, having a freckled, square face, abiggish head, a blunt nose, grey, colourless eyes, and a sandy thatchof hair, I had great square shoulders, but my arms were too short formy stature, and--from an accident in my nursing days--of indifferentstrength. All this stood on the debit side of my account. On the creditside I set down that I had unshaken good health and an uncommon powerof endurance, especially in the legs. There was no runner in the UpperWard of Lanark who was my match, and I had travelled the hills soconstantly in all weathers that I had acquired a gipsy lore in thematter of beasts and birds and wild things, I had long, clear, unerringeyesight, which had often stood me in good stead in the time of myfather's troubles. Of moral qualities, Heaven forgive me, I fear Ithought less; but I believed, though I had been little proved, that Iwas as courageous as the common run of men. 

All this looks babyish in the writing, but there was a method in thisself-examination. I believed that I was fated to engage in strangeventures, and I wanted to equip myself for the future. The pressingbusiness was that of self-defence, and I turned first to a gentleman'sproper weapon, the sword. Here, alas! I was doomed to a bitterdisappointment. My father had given me a lesson now and then, but neverenough to test me, and when I came into the hands of a Glasgow mastermy unfitness was soon manifest. Neither with broadsword nor small swordcould I acquire any skill. My short arm lacked reach and vigour, andthere seemed to be some stiffness in wrist and elbow and shoulder whichcompelled me to yield to smaller men. Here was a pretty business, forthough gentleman born I was as loutish with a gentleman's weapon as anycountry hind. 

This discovery gave me some melancholy weeks, but I plucked up heartand set to reasoning. If my hand were to guard my head it must findsome other way of it. My thoughts turned to powder and shot, to themusket and the pistol. Here was a weapon which needed only a stoutnerve, a good eye, and a steady hand; one of these I possessed to thefull, and the others were not beyond my attainment. There lived anarmourer in the Gallowgate, one Weir, with whom I began to spend myleisure. There was an alley by the Molendinar Burn, close to thearchery butts, where he would let me practise at a mark with guns fromhis store. Soon to my delight I found that here was a weapon with whichI need fear few rivals. I had a natural genius for the thing, as somemen have for sword-play, and Weir was a zealous teacher, for he lovedhis flint-locks. 

"See, Andrew, " he would cry, "this is the true leveller of mankind. Itwill make the man his master's equal, for though your gentleman maycock on a horse and wave his Andrew Ferrara, this will bring him offit. Brains, my lad, will tell in coming days, for it takes a head toshoot well, though any flesher may swing a sword. "

The better marksman I grew the less I liked the common make of guns, and I cast about to work an improvement. I was especially fond of theshort gun or pistol, not the bell-mouthed thing which shot a handfulof slugs, and was as little precise in its aim as a hailstorm, but thelight foreign pistol which, shot as true as a musket. Weir had learnedhis trade in Italy, and was a neat craftsman, so I employed him to makeme a pistol after my own pattern. The butt was of light, tough wood, and brass-bound, for I did not care to waste money on ornament. Thebarrel was shorter than the usual, and of the best Spanish metal, andthe pan and the lock were set after my own device. Nor was that all, for I became an epicure in the matter of bullets, and made my own withthe care of a goldsmith. I would weigh out the powder charges as nicelyas an apothecary weighs his drugs, for I had discovered that with thepistol the weight of bullet and charge meant much for goodmarksmanship. From Weir I got the notion of putting up ball and powderin cartouches, and I devised a method of priming much quicker and surerthan the ordinary. In one way and another I believe I acquired moreskill in the business than anybody then living in Scotland. I cherishedmy toy like a lover; I christened it "Elspeth "; it lay by my bed atnight, and lived by day in a box of sweet-scented foreign wood given meby one of my uncle's skippers. I doubt I thought more of it than of myduty to my Maker. 

All the time I was very busy at Uncle Andrew's counting-house in theCandleriggs, and down by the river-side among the sailors. It was theday when Glasgow was rising from a cluster of streets round the HighKirk and College to be the chief merchants' resort in Scotland. Standing near the Western Seas, she turned her eyes naturally to theAmericas, and a great trade was beginning in tobacco and raw silk fromVirginia, rich woods and dye stuffs from the Main, and rice and fruitsfrom the Summer Islands. The river was too shallow for ships of heavyburthen, so it was the custom to unload in the neighbourhood ofGreenock and bring the goods upstream in barges to the quay at theBroomielaw. There my uncle, in company with other merchants, had hiswarehouse, but his counting-house was up in the town, near by theCollege, and I spent my time equally between the two places. I becamefuriously interested in the work, for it has ever been my happy fortuneto be intent on whatever I might be doing at the moment. I think Iserved my uncle well, for I had much of the merchant's aptitude, andthe eye to discern far-away profits. He liked my boldness, for I wasimpatient of the rule-of-thumb ways of some of our fellow-traders. "Weare dealing with new lands, " I would say, "and there is need of newplans. It pays to think in trading as much as in statecraft, " Therewere plenty that looked askance at us, and cursed us as troublers ofthe peace, and there were some who prophesied speedy ruin. But wediscomforted our neighbours by prospering mightily, so that there wastalk of Uncle Andrew for the Provost's chair at the next vacancy. 

They were happy years, the four I spent in Glasgow, for I was young andardent, and had not yet suffered the grave miscarriage of hope which isour human lot. My uncle was a busy merchant, but he was also somethingof a scholar, and was never happier than when disputing some learnedpoint with a college professor over a bowl of punch. He was a greatfisherman, too, and many a salmon I have seen him kill between the townand Rutherglen in the autumn afternoons. He treated me like a son, andby his aid I completed my education by much reading of books and afrequent attendance at college lectures. Such leisure as I had I spentby the river-side talking with the ship captains and getting news offar lands. In this way I learned something of the handling of a ship, and especially how to sail a sloop alone in rough weather, I haveventured, myself the only crew, far down the river to the beginning ofthe sealocks, and more than once escaped drowning by a miracle. Of aSaturday I would sometimes ride out to Auchencairn to see my mother andassist with my advice the work of Robin Gilfillan. Once I remember Irode to Carnwath, and looked again on the bleak house where the girlElspeth had sung to me in the rain. I found it locked and deserted, andheard from a countrywoman that the folk had gone. "And a guidriddance, " said the woman. "The Blairs was aye a cauld and oppressiverace, and they were black Prelatists forbye. But I whiles miss yonhellicat lassie. She had a cheery word for a'body, and she keepit theplace frae languor. "

But I cannot linger over the tale of those peaceful years when I haveso much that is strange and stirring to set down. Presently came theRevolution, when King James fled overseas, and the Dutch King Williamreigned in his stead. The event was a godsend to our trade, for withScotland in a bicker with Covenants and dragoonings, and new taxesthreatened with each new Parliament, a merchant's credit was apt to bea brittle thing. The change brought a measure of security, and as weprospered I soon began to see that something must be done in ourVirginian trade. Years before, my uncle had sent out a man, Lambie byname, who watched his interests in that country. But we had to facesuch fierce rivalry from the Bristol merchants that I had smallconfidence in Mr. Lambie, who from his letters was a sleepy soul. Ibroached the matter to my uncle, and offered to go myself and putthings in order. At first he was unwilling to listen. I think he wassorry to part with me, for we had become close friends, and there wasalso the difficulty of my mother, to whom I was the natural protector. But his opposition died down when I won my mother to my side, and whenI promised that I would duly return. I pointed out that Glasgow andVirginia were not so far apart. Planters from the colony would dwellwith us for a season, and their sons often come to Glasgow for theirschooling. You could see the proud fellows walking the streets in braveclothes, and marching into the kirk on Sabbath with a couple ofservants carrying cushions and Bibles. In the better class of tavernone could always meet with a Virginian or two compounding their curiousdrinks, and swearing their outlandish oaths. Most of them had goneafield from Scotland, and it was a fine incentive to us young men tosee how mightily they had prospered. My uncle yielded, and it wasarranged that I should sail with the first convoy of the New Year. Fromthe moment of the decision I walked the earth in a delirium ofexpectation. That February, I remember, was blue and mild, with softairs blowing up the river. Down by the Broomielaw I found a new rapturein the smell of tar and cordage, and the queer foreign scents in myuncle's warehouse. Every skipper and greasy sailor became for me afigure of romance. I scanned every outland face, wondering if I shouldmeet it again in the New World. A negro in cotton drawers, shivering inour northern dune, had more attraction for me than the fairest maid, and I was eager to speak with all and every one who had crossed theocean. One bronzed mariner with silver earrings I entertained to threestoups of usquebaugh, hoping for strange tales, but the little I hadfrom him before he grew drunk was that he had once voyaged to theCanaries. You may imagine that I kept my fancies to myself, and wasoutwardly only the sober merchant with a mind set on freights andhogsheads. But whoever remembers his youth will know that such terms tome were not the common parlance of trade. The very names of thetobaccos Negro's Head, Sweet-scented, Oronoke, Carolina Red, GloucesterGlory, Golden Rod sang in my head like a tune, that told of greenforests and magic islands. 

But an incident befell ere I left which was to have unforeseen effectson my future. One afternoon I was in the shooting alley I have spokenof, making trial of a new size of bullet I had moulded. The place wasjust behind Parlane's tavern, and some gentlemen, who had been drinkingthere, came out to cool their heads and see the sport. Most of themwere cock-lairds from the Lennox, and, after the Highland fashion, hadin their belts heavy pistols of the old kind which folk called "dags. "They were cumbrous, ill-made things, gaudily ornamented with silver andDamascus work, fit ornaments for a savage Highland chief, but littlegood for serious business, unless a man were only a pace or two fromhis opponent. One of them, who had drunk less than the others, came upto me and very civilly proposed a match. I was nothing loath, so acourse was fixed, and a mutchkin of French _eau de vie_ named as theprize. I borrowed an old hat from the landlord which had stuck in itsside a small red cockade. The thing was hung as a target in a leaflesscherry tree at twenty paces, and the cockade was to be the centre mark. Each man was to fire three shots apiece. 

Barshalloch--for so his companions called my opponent after hislairdship--made a great to-do about the loading, and would not becontent till he had drawn the charge two--three times. The spin of acoin gave him first shot, and he missed the mark and cut the bole ofthe tree. 

"See, " I said, "I will put my ball within a finger's-breadth of his. "Sure enough, when they looked, the two bullets were all but in the samehole. 

His second shot took the hat low down on its right side, and clippedaway a bit of the brim. I saw by this time that the man could shoot, though he had a poor weapon and understood little about it. So I toldthe company that I would trim the hat by slicing a bit from the otherside. This I achieved, though by little, for my shot removed only halfas much cloth as its predecessor. But the performance amazed theonlookers. "Ye've found a fair provost at the job, Barshalloch, " one ofthem hiccupped. "Better quit and pay for the mutchkin. "

My antagonist took every care with his last shot, and, just missing thecockade, hit the hat about the middle, cut the branch on which itrested, and brought it fluttering to the ground a pace or two fartheron. It lay there, dimly seen through a low branch of the cherry tree, with the cockade on the side nearest me. It was a difficult mark, butthe light was good and my hand steady. I walked forward and broughtback the hat with a hole drilled clean through the cockade. 

At that there was a great laughter, and much jocosity from thecock-lairds at their friend's expense. Barshalloch very handsomelycomplimented me, and sent for the mutchkin. His words made me warmtowards him, and I told him that half the business was not my skill ofshooting but the weapon I carried. 

He begged for a look at it, and examined it long and carefully. 

"Will ye sell, friend?" he asked. "I'll give ye ten golden guineas andthe best filly that ever came out o' Strathendrick for that pistol. "

But I told him that the offer of Strathendrick itself would not buy it. 

"No?" said he. "Well, I won't say ye're wrong. A man should cherish hisweapon like his wife, for it carries his honour. "

Presently, having drunk the wager, they went indoors again, all but atall fellow who had been a looker-on, but had not been of the Lennoxcompany. I had remarked him during the contest, a long, lean man with abright, humorous blue eye and a fiery red head. He was maybe ten yearsolder than me, and though he was finely dressed in town clothes, therewas about his whole appearance a smack of the sea. He came forward, and, in a very Highland voice, asked my name. 

"Why should I tell you?" I said, a little nettled. 

"Just that I might carry it in my head. I have seen some prettyshooting in my day, but none like yours, young one. What's your tradethat ye've learned the pistol game so cleverly?"

Now I was flushed with pride, and in no mood for a stranger'spatronage. So I told him roundly that it was none of his business, andpushed by him to Parlane's back-door. But my brusqueness gave nooffence to this odd being. He only laughed and cried after me that, ifmy manners were the equal of my marksmanship, I would be the best ladhe had seen since his home-coming. 

I had dinner with my uncle in the Candleriggs, and sat with him lateafterwards casting up accounts, so it was not till nine o'clock that Iset out on my way to my lodgings. These were in the Saltmarket, closeon the river front, and to reach them I went by the short road throughthe Friar's Vennel. It was an ill-reputed quarter of the town, and notlong before had been noted as a haunt of coiners; but I had gonethrough it often, and met with no hindrance. 

In the vennel stood a tall dark bit of masonry called Gilmour'sLordship, which was pierced by long closes from which twistingstairways led to the upper landings. I was noting its gloomy aspectunder the dim February moon, when a man came towards me and turned intoone of the closes. He swung along with a free, careless gait thatmarked him as no townsman, and ere he plunged into the darkness I had aglimpse of fiery hair. It was the stranger who had accosted me inParlane's alley, and he was either drunk or in wild spirits, for he wassinging:--

 "We're a' dry wi' the drinkin' o't, We're a' dry wi' the drinkin' o't. The minister kissed the fiddler's wife, And he couldna preach for thinkin' o't. "

The ribald chorus echoed from the close mouth. 

Then I saw that he was followed by three others, bent, slinkingfellows, who slipped across the patches of moonlight, and eagerlyscanned the empty vennel. They could not see me, for I was in shadow, and presently they too entered the close. 

The thing looked ugly, and, while I had no love for the red-haired man, I did not wish to see murder or robbery committed and stand idly by. The match of the afternoon had given me a fine notion of my prowess, though. Had I reflected, my pistol was in its case at home, and I hadno weapon but a hazel staff. Happily in youth the blood is quicker thanthe brain, and without a thought I ran into the close and up the longstairway. 

The chorus was still being sung ahead of me, and then it suddenlyceased. In dead silence and in pitchy darkness I struggled up the stonesteps, wondering what I should find at the next turning. The place wasblack as night, the steps were uneven, and the stairs corkscrewed mostwonderfully. I wished with all my heart that I had not come, as Igroped upwards hugging the wall. 

Then a cry came and a noise of hard breathing. At the same moment adoor opened somewhere above my head, and a faint glow came down thestairs. Presently with a great rumble a heavy man came rolling past me, butting with his head at the stair-side. He came to anchor on a landingbelow me, and finding his feet plunged downwards as if the devil wereat his heels. He left behind him a short Highland knife, which I pickedup and put in my pocket. 

On his heels came another with his hand clapped to his side, and hemoaned as he slithered past me. Something dripped from him on the stonesteps. 

The light grew stronger, and as I rounded the last turning a third camebounding down, stumbling from wall to wall like a drunk man. I saw hisface clearly, and if ever mortal eyes held baffled murder it was thatfellow's. There was a dark mark on his shoulder. 

Above me as I blinked stood my red-haired friend on the top landing. Hehad his sword drawn, and was whistling softly through his teeth, whileon the right hand was an open door and an old man holding a lamp. 

"Ho!" he cried. "Here comes a fourth. God's help, it's my friend themarksman!"

I did not like that naked bit of steel, but there was nothing for itbut to see the thing through. When he saw that I was unarmed hereturned his weapon to its sheath, and smiled broadly down on me. 

"What brings my proud gentleman up these long stairs?" he asked. 

"I saw you entering the close and three men following you. It lookedbad, so I came up to see fair play. "

"Did ye so? And a very pretty intention, Mr. What's-your-name. But yeneedna have fashed yourself. Did ye see any of our friends on thestairs?"

"I met a big man rolling down like a football, " I said. 

"Ay, that would be Angus. He's a clumsy stot, and never had muchsense. "

"And I met another with his hand on his side, " I said. 

"That would be little James. He's a fine lad with a skean-dhu on a darknight, but there was maybe too much light here for his trade. "

"And I met a third who reeled like a drunk man, " I said. 

"Ay, " said he meditatively, "that was Long Colin. He's the flower o'the flock, and I had to pink him. At another time and in a better placeI would have liked a bout with him, for he has some notion ofsword-play. "

"Who were the men?" I asked, in much confusion, for this laughingwarrior perplexed me. 

"Who but just my cousins from Glengyle. There has long been a sort ofbicker between us, and they thought they had got a fine chance ofending it. "

"And who, in Heaven's name, are you, " I said, "that treats murder solightly?"

"Me?" he repeated. "Well, I might give ye the answer you gave me thisvery day when I speired the same question. But I am frank by nature, and I see you wish me well. Come in bye, and we'll discuss the matter. "

He led me into a room where a cheerful fire crackled, and got out froma press a bottle and glasses. He produced tobacco from a brass box andfilled a long pipe. 

"Now, " said he, "we'll understand each other better. Ye see before youa poor gentleman of fortune, whom poverty and a roving spirit havedriven to outland bits o' the earth to ply his lawful trade ofsea-captain. They call me by different names. I have passed for a Dutchskipper, and a Maryland planter, and a French trader, and, in spite ofmy colour, I have been a Spanish don in the Main. At Tortuga you willhear one name, and another at Port o' Spain, and a third at Cartagena. But, seeing we are in the city o' Glasgow in the kindly kingdom o'Scotland, I'll be honest with you. My father called me Ninian Campbell, and there's no better blood in Breadalbane. "

What could I do after that but make him a present of the trivial factsabout myself and my doings? There was a look of friendly humour aboutthis dare-devil which captured my fancy. I saw in him the stuff ofwhich adventurers are made, and though I was a sober merchant, I wasalso young. For days I had been dreaming of foreign parts and anOdyssey of strange fortunes, and here on a Glasgow stairhead I hadfound Ulysses himself. 

"Is it not the pity, " he cried, "that such talents as yours should rustin a dark room in the Candleriggs? Believe me, Mr. Garvald, I have seensome pretty shots, but I have never seen your better. "

Then I told him that I was sailing within a month for Virginia, and hesuddenly grew solemn. 

"It looks like Providence, " he said, "that we two should come together. I, too, will soon be back in the Western Seas, and belike we'll meet. I'm something of a rover, and I never bide long in the same place, butI whiles pay a visit to James Town, and they ken me well on the EasternShore and the Accomac beaches. "

He fell to giving me such advice as a traveller gives to a novice. Itwas strange hearing for an honest merchant, for much of it wasconcerned with divers ways of outwitting the law. By and by he wasdetermined to convoy me to my lodgings, for he pointed out that I wasunarmed; and I think, too, he had still hopes of another meeting withLong Colin, his cousin. 

"I leave Glasgow the morrow's morn, " he said, "and it's no likely we'llmeet again in Scotland. Out in Virginia, no doubt, you'll soon be agreat man, and sit in Council, and hob-nob with the Governor. But amidge can help an elephant, and I would gladly help you, for you hadthe goodwill to help me. If ye need aid you will go to Mercer's Tavernat James Town down on the water front, and you will ask news of NinianCampbell. The man will say that he never heard tell of the name, andthen you will speak these words to him. You will say 'The lymphads areon the loch, and the horn of Diarmaid has sounded. ' Keep them well inmind, for some way or other they will bring you and me together. "

Without another word he was off, and as I committed the gibberish tomemory I could hear his song going up the Saltmarket:--

 "The minister kissed the fiddler's wife, And he couldna preach for thinkin' o't. "

CHAPTER V. 

MY FIRST COMING TO VIRGINIA. 

There are few moments in life to compare with a traveller's first sightof a new land which is destined to be for short or long his home. When, after a fair and speedy voyage, we passed Point Comfort, and had ridourselves of the revenue men, and the tides bore us up the estuary of anoble river, I stood on deck and drank in the heady foreign scents witha boyish ecstasy. Presently we had opened the capital city, whichseemed to me no more than a village set amid gardens, and Mr. Lambiehad come aboard and greeted me. He conveyed me to the best ordinary inthe town which stood over against the Court-house. Late in theafternoon, just before the dark fell, I walked out to drink my fill ofthe place. 

You are to remember that I was a country lad who had never set footforth of Scotland. I was very young, and hot on the quest of new sightsand doings. As I walked down the unpaven street and through the narrowtobacco-grown lanes, the strange smell of it all intoxicated me likewine. 

There was a great red sunset burning over the blue river and kindlingthe far forests till they glowed like jewels. The frogs were croakingamong the reeds, and the wild duck squattered in the dusk. I passed anIndian, the first I had seen, with cock's feathers on his head, and acuriously tattooed chest, moving as light as a sleep-walker. One or twotownsfolk took the air, smoking their long pipes, and down by the watera negro girl was singing a wild melody. The whole place was like a mad, sweet-scented dream to one just come from the unfeatured ocean, andwith a memory only of grim Scots cities and dour Scots hills. I felt asif I had come into a large and generous land, and I thanked God that Iwas but twenty-three. 

But as I was mooning along there came a sudden interruption onmy dreams. I was beyond the houses, in a path which ran amongtobacco-sheds and little gardens, with the river lapping astone's-throw off. Down a side alley I caught a glimpse of a figurethat seemed familiar. 

'Twas that of a tall, hulking man, moving quickly among the tobaccoplants, with something stealthy in his air. The broad, bowed shouldersand the lean head brought back to me the rainy moorlands about theCauldstaneslap and the mad fellow whose prison I had shared. MuckleJohn had gone to the Plantations, and 'twas Muckle John or the devilthat was moving there in the half light. 

I cried on him, and ran down the side alley. 

But it seemed that he did not want company, for he broke into a run. 

Now in those days I rejoiced in the strength of my legs, and I wasdetermined not to be thus balked. So I doubled after him into a maze oftobacco and melon beds. 

But it seemed he knew how to run. I caught a glimpse of his hairy legsround the corner of a shed, and then lost him in a patch of cane. ThenI came out on a sort of causeway floored with boards which covered amarshy sluice, and there I made great strides on him. He was clearagainst the sky now, and I could see that he was clad only in shirt andcotton breeches, while at his waist flapped an ugly sheath-knife. 

Rounding the hut corner I ran full into a man. 

"Hold you, " cried the stranger, and laid hands on my arm; but I shookhim off violently, and continued the race. The collision had cracked mytemper, and I had a mind to give Muckle John a lesson in civility. ForMuckle John it was beyond doubt; not two men in the broad earth hadthat ungainly bend of neck. 

The next I knew we were out on the river bank on a shore of hard claywhich the tides had created. Here I saw him more clearly, and I beganto doubt. I might be chasing some river-side ruffian, who would give mea knife in my belly for my pains. 

The doubt slackened my pace, and he gained on me. Then I saw hisintention. There was a flat-bottomed wherry tied up by the bank, andfor this he made. He flung off the rope, seized a long pole, and beganto push away. 

The last rays of the westering sun fell on his face, and my hesitationvanished. For those pent-house brows and deep-set, wild-cat eyes werefixed for ever in my memory. 

I cried to him as I ran, but he never looked my road. Somehow it wasborne in on me that at all costs I must have speech with him. Thewherry was a yard or two from the shore when I jumped for its stern. 

I lighted firm on the wood, and for a moment looked Muckle John in theface. I saw a countenance lean like a starved wolf, with great weals asof old wounds on cheek and brow. But only for a, second, for as Ibalanced myself to step forward he rammed the butt of the pole in mychest, so that I staggered and fell plump in the river. 

The water was only up to my middle, but before I could clamber back hehad shipped his oars, and was well into the centre of the stream. 

I stood staring like a zany, while black anger filled my heart. Iplucked my pistol forth, and for a second was on the verge of murder, for I could have shot him like a rabbit. But God mercifully restrainedmy foolish passion, and presently the boat and the rower vanished inthe evening haze. 

"This is a bonny beginning!" thought I, as I waded through the mud tothe shore. I was wearing my best clothes in honour of my arrival, andthey were all fouled and plashing. 

Then on the bank above me I saw the fellow who had run into me andhindered my catching Muckle John on dry land. He was shaking withlaughter. 

I was silly and hot-headed in those days, and my wetting had notdisposed me to be laughed at. In this fellow I saw a confederate ofGib's, and if I had lost one I had the other. So I marched up to himand very roundly damned his insolence. 

He was a stern, lantern-jawed man of forty or so, dressed very roughlyin leather breeches and a frieze coat. Long grey woollen stockings wererolled above his knees, and slung on his back was an ancient musket. 

"Easy, my lad, " he said. "It's a free country, and there's no statuteagainst mirth. "

"I'll have you before the sheriff, " I cried. "You tripped me up when Iwas on the track of the biggest rogue in America. "

"So!" said he, mocking me. "You'll be a good judge of rogues. Was it arunaway redemptioner, maybe? You'd be looking for the twenty hogsheadsreward. "

This was more than I could stand. I was carrying a pistol in my hand, and I stuck it to his ear. "March, my friend, " I said. "You'll walkbefore me to a Justice of the Peace, and explain your doings thisnight. "

I had never threatened a man with a deadly weapon before, and I was tolearn a most unforgettable lesson. A hand shot out, caught my wrist, and forced it upwards in a grip of steel. And when I would have used myright fist in his face another hand seized that, and my arms werepadlocked. 

Cool, ironical eyes looked into mine. 

"You're very free with your little gun, my lad. Let me give you a wordin season. Never hold a pistol to a man unless you mean to shoot. Ifyour eyes waver you had better had a porridge stick. "

He pressed my wrist back till my fingers relaxed, and he caught mypistol in his teeth. With a quick movement of the head he dropped itinside his shirt. 

"There's some would have killed you for that trick, young sir, " hesaid. "It's trying to the temper to have gunpowder so near a man'sbrain. But you're young, and, by your speech, a new-comer. So insteadI'll offer you a drink. "

He dropped my wrists, and motioned me to follow him. Very crestfallenand ashamed, I walked in his wake to a little shanty almost on thewateredge. The place was some kind of inn, for a negro brought us twotankards of apple-jack, and tobacco pipes, and lit a foul-smellinglantern, which he set between us. 

"First, " says the man, "let me tell you that I never before clappedeyes on the long piece of rascality you were seeking. He looked likeone that had cheated the gallows. "

"He was a man I knew in Scotland, " I said grumpily. 

"Likely enough. There's a heap of Scots redemptioners hereaways. I'mout of Scotland myself, or my forbears were, but my father was settledin the Antrim Glens. There's wild devils among them, and your friendlooked as if he had given the slip to the hounds in the marshes. Therewas little left of his breeches.... Drink, man, or you'll get feverfrom your wet duds. "

I drank, and the strong stuff mounted to my unaccustomed brain; mytongue was loosened, my ill-temper mellowed, and I found myself tellingthis grim fellow much that was in my heart. 

"So you're a merchant, " he said. "It's not for me to call down anhonest trade, but we could be doing with fewer merchants in theseparts. They're so many leeches that suck our blood. Are you here tomake siller?"

I said I was, and he laughed. "I never heard of your uncle's business, Mr. Garvald, but you'll find it a stiff task to compete with the ladsfrom Bristol and London. They've got the whole dominion by the scruffof the neck. "

I replied that I was not in awe of them, and that I could hold my ownwith anybody in a fair trade. 

"Fair trade!" he cried scornfully. "That's just what you won't get. That's a thing unkenned in Virginia. Look you here, my lad. TheParliament in London treats us Virginians like so many puling bairns. We cannot sell our tobacco except to English merchants, and we cannotbuy a horn spoon except it comes in an English ship. What's the resultof that? You, as a merchant, can tell me fine. The English fix whatprice they like for our goods, and it's the lowest conceivable, andthey make their own price for what they sell us, and that's as high asa Jew's. There's a fine profit there for the gentlemen-venturers ofBristol, but it's starvation and damnation for us poor Virginians. "

"What's the result?" he cried again. "Why, that there's nothing to behad in the land except what the merchants bring. There's scarcely asmith or a wright or a cobbler between the James and the Potomac. If Iwant a bed to lie in, I have to wait till the coming of the tobaccoconvoy, and go down to the wharves and pay a hundred pounds ofsweet-scented for a thing you would buy in the Candleriggs for twentyshillings. How, in God's name, is a farmer to live if he has to payusury for every plough and spade and yard of dimity!"

"Remember you're speaking to a merchant, " I said. "You've told me thevery thing to encourage me. If prices are high, it's all the better forme. "

"It would be, " he said grimly, "if your name werena what it is, and youcame from elsewhere than the Clyde. D'you think the proud Englishcorporations are going to let you inside? Not them. The most you'll getwill be the scraps that fall from their table, my poor Lazarus, and forthese you'll have to go hat in hand to Dives. "

His face grew suddenly earnest, and he leaned on the table and lookedme straight in the eyes. 

"You're a young lad and a new-comer, and the accursed scales ofVirginia are not yet on your eyes. Forbye, I think you've spirit, though it's maybe mixed with a deal of folly. You've your choice beforeyou, Mr. Garvald. You can become a lickspittle like the rest of them, and no doubt you'll gather a wheen bawbees, but it will be a poorshivering soul will meet its Maker in the hinder end. Or you can playthe man and be a good Virginian. I'll not say it's an easy part. You'llfind plenty to cry you down, and there will be hard knocks going; butby your face I judge you're not afraid of that. Let me tell you thisland is on the edge of hell, and there's sore need for stout men. They'll declare in this town that there's no Indians on this side themountains that would dare to lift a tomahawk. Little they ken!"

In his eagerness he had gripped my arm, and his dark, lean face wasthrust close to mine. 

"I was with Bacon in '76, in the fray with the Susquehannocks. I speakthe Indian tongues, and there's few alive that ken the tribes like me. The folk here live snug in the Tidewater, which is maybe a hundredmiles wide from the sea, but of the West they ken nothing. There mightbe an army thousands strong concealed a day's journey from the manors, and never a word would be heard of it. "

"But they tell me the Indians are changed nowadays, " I put in. "Theysay they've settled down to peaceful ways like any Christian. "

"Put your head into a catamount's mouth, if you please, " he saidgrimly, "but never trust an Indian. The only good kind is the deadkind. I tell you we're living on the edge of hell. It may come thisyear or next year or five years hence, but come it will. I hear we arefighting the French, and that means that the tribes of the Canadas willbe on the move. Little you know the speed of a war-party. They wouldcut my throat one morning, and be hammering at the doors of James Townbefore sundown. There should be a line of forts in the West from theRoanoke to the Potomac, and every man within fifty miles should keep agun loaded and a horse saddled. But, think you the Council will move?It costs money, say the wiseacres, as if money were not cheaper than aslit wizzand!"

I was deeply solemnized, though I scarce understood the full drift ofhis words, and the queer thing was that I was not ill-pleased. I hadcome out to seek for trade, and it looked as if I were to find war. Andall this when I was not four hours landed. 

"What think you of that?" he asked, as I kept silent, "I've beenwarned. A man I know on the Rappahannock passed the word that the LongHouse was stirring. Tell that to the gentry in James Town. What sideare you going for, young sir?"

"I'll take my time, " I said, "and see for myself. Ask me again this daysix months. "

He laughed loud. "A very proper answer for a Scot, " he cried. "See foryourself, travel the country, and use the wits God gave you to formyour judgment. "

He paid the lawing, and said he would put me on the road back. "Thesealleys are not very healthy at this hour for a young gentleman in brawclothes. "

Once outside the tavern he led me by many curious by-paths till I foundmyself on the river-side just below the Court-house. It struck me thatmy new friend was not a popular personage in the town, for he wouldstop and reconnoitre at every turning, and he chose the darkest side ofthe road. 

"Good-night to you, " he said at length. "And when you have finishedyour travels come west to the South Fork River and ask for Simon Frew, and I'll complete your education. "

I went to bed in a glow of excitement. On the morrow I should begin anew life in a world of wonders, and I rejoiced to think that there wasmore than merchandise in the prospect. 

CHAPTER VI. 

TELLS OF MY EDUCATION. 

I had not been a week in the place before I saw one thing very clear--that I should never get on with Mr. Lambie. His notion of business wasto walk down the street in a fine coat, and to sleep with a kerchiefover his face in some shady veranda. There was no vice in the creature, but there was mighty little sense. He lived in awe of the great andrich, and a nod from a big planter would make him happy for a week. Heused to deafen me with tales of Colonel Randolph, and worshipful Mr. Carew, and Colonel Byrd's new house at Westover, and the rare fashionin cravats that young Mr. Mason showed at the last Surrey horse-racing. Now when a Scot chooses to be a sycophant, he is more whole-hearted inthe job than any one else on the globe, and I grew very weary of Mr. Lambie. He was no better than an old wife, and as timid as a hareforbye. When I spoke of fighting the English merchants, he held up hishands as if I had uttered blasphemy. So, being determined to find outfor myself the truth about this wonderful new land, I left him thebusiness in the town, bought two good horses, hired a servant, by nameJohn Faulkner, who had worked out his time as a redemptioner, and setout on my travels. 

This is a history of doings, not of thoughts, or I would have much totell of what I saw during those months, when, lean as a bone, and brownas a hazelnut, I tracked the course of the great rivers. The roads wererough, where roads there were, but the land smiled under the sun, andthe Virginians, high and low, kept open house for the chance traveller. One night I would eat pork and hominy with a rough fellow who wascarving a farm out of the forest; and the next I would sit in a finepanelled hall and listen to gentlefolks' speech, and dine off damaskand silver. I could not tire of the green forests, or the marshes alivewith wild fowl, or the noble orchards and gardens, or even the saltydunes of the Chesapeake shore. My one complaint was that the land wasdesperate flat to a hill-bred soul like mine. But one evening, awaynorth in Stafford county, I cast my eyes to the west, and saw, blue andsharp against the sunset, a great line of mountains. It was all Isought. Somewhere in the west Virginia had her high lands, and one day, I promised myself, I would ride the road of the sun and find theirsecret. 

In these months my thoughts were chiefly of trade, and I saw enough toprove the truth of what the man Frew had told me. This richest land onearth was held prisoner in the bonds of a foolish tyranny. The richwere less rich than their estates warranted, and the poor were grounddown by bitter poverty. There was little corn in the land, tobaccobeing the sole means of payment, and this meant no trade in the commonmeaning of the word. The place was slowly bleeding to death, and I hada mind to try and stanch its wounds. The firm of Andrew Sempill waslooked on jealously, in spite of all the bowings and protestations ofMr. Lambie. If we were to increase our trade, it must be at theEnglishman's expense, and that could only be done by offering thepeople a better way of business. 

When the harvest came and the tobacco fleet arrived, I could see howthe thing worked out. Our two ships, the _Blackcock_ of Ayr and the_Duncan Davidson_ of Glasgow, had some trouble getting their cargoes. We could only deal with the smaller planters, who were not thirled tothe big merchants, and it took us three weary weeks up and down theriver-side wharves to get our holds filled. There was a madness in theplace for things from England, and unless a man could label his wares"London-made, " he could not hope to catch a buyer's fancy. Why, I haveseen a fellow at a fair at Henricus selling common Virginianmocking-birds as the "best English mocking-birds". My uncle had sentout a quantity of Ayrshire cheeses, mutton hams, pickled salmon, Dunfermline linens, Paisley dimity, Alloa worsted, sweet ale fromTranent, Kilmarnock cowls, and a lot of fine feather-beds from theClydeside. There was nothing common or trashy in the whole consignment;but the planters preferred some gewgaws from Cheapside or some worthlessLondon furs which they could have bettered any day by taking a gun andhunting their own woods. When my own business was over, I would look onat some of the other ladings. There on the wharf would be the planterwith his wife and family, and every servant about the place. And therewas the merchant skipper, showing off his goods, and quoting for each aweight of tobacco. The planter wanted to get rid of his crop, and knewthat this was his only chance, while the merchant could very well sellhis leavings elsewhere. So the dice were cogged from the start, and Ihave seen a plain kitchen chair sold for fifty pounds of sweet-scented, or something like the price at which a joiner in Glasgow would make ascore and leave himself a handsome profit. 

 * * * * *

The upshot was that I paid a visit to the Governor, Mr. FrancisNicholson, whom my lord Howard had left as his deputy. GovernorNicholson had come from New York not many months before with a greatrepute for ill-temper and harsh dealing; but I liked the look of hishard-set face and soldierly bearing, and I never mind choler in a manif he have also honesty and good sense. So I waited upon him at hishouse close by Middle Plantation, on the road between James Town andYork River. 

I had a very dusty reception. His Excellency sat in his long parlouramong a mass of books and papers and saddle-bags, and glared at me frombeneath lowering brows. The man was sore harassed by the King'sGovernment on one side and the Virginian Council on the other, and hetreated every stranger as a foe. 

"What do you seek from me?" he shouted. "If it is some merchants'squabble, you can save your breath, for I am sick of the Shylocks. "

I said, very politely, that I was a stranger not half a year arrived inthe country, but that I had been using my eyes, and wished to submit myviews to his consideration. 

"Go to the Council, " he rasped; "go to that silken fool, His Majesty'sAttorney. My politics are not those of the leather-jaws that prate inthis land. "

"That is why I came to you, " I said. 

Then without more ado I gave him my notions on the defence of thecolony, for from what I had learned I judged that would interest himmost. He heard me with unexpected patience. 

"Well, now, supposing you are right? I don't deny it. Virginia is atreasure house with two of the sides open to wind and weather. I toldthe Council that, and they would not believe me. Here are we at warwith France, and Frontenac is hammering at the gates of New York. Ifthat falls, it will soon be the turn of Maryland and next of Virginia. England's possessions in the West are indivisible, and what threatensone endangers all. But think you our Virginians can see it? When Ipresented my scheme for setting forts along the northern line, I couldnot screw a guinea out of the miscreants. The colony was poor, theycried, and could not afford it, and then the worshipful councillorsrode home to swill Madeira and loll on their London beds. God's truth!were I not a patriot, I would welcome M. Frontenac to teach themdecency. "

Now I did not think much of the French danger being far more concernedwith the peril in the West; but I held my peace on that subject. It wasnot my cue to cross his Excellency in his present humour. 

"What makes the colony poor?" I asked. "The planters are rich enough, but the richest man will grow tired of bearing the whole burden of thegovernment. I submit that His Majesty and the English laws are chieflyto blame. When the Hollanders were suffered to trade here, they paidfive shillings on every anker of brandy they brought hither, and tenshillings on every hogshead of tobacco they carried hence. Now everypenny that is raised must come out of the Virginians, and theEnglishmen who bleed the land go scot free. "

"That's true, " said he, "and it's a damned disgrace. But how am I tobetter it?"

"Clap a tax on every ship that passes Point Comfort outward bound, " Isaid. "The merchants can well afford to pay it. "

"Listen to him!" he laughed. "And what kind of answer would I get frommy lord Howard and His Majesty? Every greasy member would be on hisfeet in Parliament in defence of what he called English rights. Thenthere would come a dispatch from the Government telling the poorDeputy-Governor of Virginia to go to the devil!"

He looked at me curiously, screwing up his eyes. 

"By the way, Mr. Garvald, what is your trade?"

"I am a merchant like the others, " I said; "only my ships run fromGlasgow instead of Bristol. "

"A very pretty merchant, " he said quizzically. "I have heard that hawksshould not pick out hawks' eyes. What do you propose to gain, Mr. Garvald?"

"Better business, " I said. "To be honest with you, sir, I am sufferingfrom the close monopoly of the Englishman, and I think the country issuffering worse. I have a notion that things can be remedied. If youcannot put on a levy, good and well; that is your business. But I meanto make an effort on my own account. "

Then I told him something of my scheme, and he heard me out with apuzzled face. 

"Of all the brazen Scots--" he cried. 

"Scot yourself, " I laughed, for his face and speech betrayed him. 

"I'll not deny that there's glimmerings of sense in you, Mr. Garvald. But how do you, a lad with no backing, propose to beat a strongmonopoly buttressed by the whole stupidity and idleness of Virginia?You'll be stripped of your last farthing, and you'll be lucky if itends there. Don't think I'm against you. I'm with you in yourprinciples, but the job is too big for you. "

"We will see, " said I. "But I can take it that, provided I keep withinthe law, His Majesty's Governor will not stand in my way?"

"I can promise you that. I'll do more, for I'll drink success to yourenterprise. " He filled me a great silver tankard of spiced sack, and Iemptied it to the toast of "Honest Men. "

 * * * * *

All the time at the back of my head were other thoughts thanmerchandise. The picture which Frew had drawn of Virginia as a smilinggarden on the edge of a burning pit was stamped on my memory. I hadseen on my travels the Indians that dwelled in the Tidewater, remnantsof the old great clans of Doeg and Powhatan and Pamunkey. They werecivil enough fellows, following their own ways, and not molesting theirscanty white neighbours, for the country was wide enough for all. Butso far as I could learn, these clanlets of the Algonquin house were nomore comparable to the fighting tribes of the West than a Highlandcaddie in an Edinburgh close is to a hill Macdonald with a claymore. But the common Virginian would admit no peril, though now and then somerough landward fellow would lay down his spade, spit moodily, and tellme a grim tale. I had ever the notion to visit Frew and finish myeducation. 

It was not till the tobacco ships had gone and the autumn had grownlate that I got the chance. The trees were flaming scarlet and saffronas I rode west through the forests to his house on the South ForkRiver. There, by a wood fire in the October dusk, he fed me on wildturkey and barley bread, and listened silently to my tale. 

He said nothing when I spoke of my schemes for getting the better ofthe Englishman and winning Virginia to my side. Profits interested himlittle, for he grew his patch of corn and pumpkins, and hunted the deerfor his own slender needs. Once he broke in on my rigmarole with apiece of news that fluttered me. 

"You mind the big man you were chasing that night you and me firstforgathered? Well, I've seen him. "

"Where?" I cried, all else forgotten. 

"Here, in this very place, six weeks syne. He stalked in about ten o'the night, and lifted half my plenishing. When I got up in my bed toface him he felled me. See, there's the mark of it, " and he showed along scar on his forehead. "He went off with my best axe, a gill ofbrandy, and a good coat. He was looking for my gun, too, but that wasin a hidy-hole. I got up next morning with a dizzy head, and followedhim nigh ten miles. I had a shot at him, but I missed, and his legswere too long for me. Yon's the dangerous lad. "

"Where did he go, think you?" I asked. 

"To the hills. To the refuge of every ne'er-do-weel. Belike the Indianshave got his scalp, and I'm not regretting it. "

I spent three days with Frew, and each day I had the notion that he wasputting me to the test. The first day he took me over the river into agreat tangle of meadow and woodland beyond which rose the hazy shapesof the western mountains. The man was twenty years my elder, but myyouth was of no avail against his iron strength. Though I was hard andspare from my travels in the summer heat, 'twas all I could do to keepup with him, and only my pride kept me from crying halt. Often when hestopped I could have wept with fatigue, and had no breath for a word, but his taciturnity saved me from shame. 

In a hollow among the woods we came to a place which sent him on hisknees, peering and sniffing like a wild-cat. 

"What make you of that?" he asked. 

I saw nothing but a bare patch in the grass, some broken twigs, and afew ashes. 

"It's an old camp, " I said. 

"Ay, " said he. "Nothing more? Use your wits, man. "

I used them, but they gave me no help. 

"This is the way I read it, then, " he said. "Three men camped herebefore midday. They were Cherokees, of the Matabaw tribe, and one was amaker of arrows. They were not hunting, and they were in a mightyhurry. Just now they're maybe ten miles off, or maybe they're watchingus. This is no healthy country for you and me. "

He took me homeward at a speed which well-nigh foundered me, and, whenI questioned him, he told me where he got his knowledge. 

They were three men, for there were three different footmarks in theashes' edge, and they were Cherokees because they made their fire inthe Cherokee way, so that the smoke ran in a tunnel into the scrub. They were Matabaws from the pattern of their moccasins. They were in ahurry, for they did not wait to scatter the ashes and clear up theplace; and they were not hunting, for they cooked no flesh. One was anarrow-maker, for he had been hardening arrow-points in the fire, andleft behind him the arrow-maker's thong. 

"But how could you know how long back this had happened?" I asked. 

"The sap was still wet in the twigs, so it could not have been muchabove an hour since they left. Besides, the smoke had blown south, forthe grass smelt of it that side. Now the wind was more to the east whenwe left, and, if you remember, it changed to the north about midday. "

I said it was a marvel, and he grunted. "The marvel is what they'vebeen doing in the Tidewater, for from the Tidewater I'll swear theycame. "

Next day he led me eastward, away back in the direction of the manors. This was an easier day, for he went slow, as if seeking for something. He picked up some kind of a trail, which we followed through the longafternoon. Then he found something, which he pocketed with a cry ofsatisfaction. We were then on the edge of a ridge, whence we lookedsouth to the orchards of Henricus. 

"That is my arrow-maker, " he cried, showing me a round stone whorl. "He's a careless lad, and he'll lose half his belongings ere he wins tothe hills. "

I was prepared for the wild Cherokees on our journey of yesterday, butit amazed me that the savages should come scouting into the Tidewateritself. He smiled grimly when I said this, and took from his pocket acrumpled feather. 

"That's a Cherokee badge, " he said. "I found that a fortnight back onthe river-side an hour's ride out of James Town. And it wasna therewhen I had passed the same place the day before. The Tidewater thinksit has put the fear of God on the hill tribes, and here's a redCherokee snowking about its back doors. "

The last day he took me north up a stream called the North Fork, whichjoined with his own river. I had left my musket behind, for this heavytravel made me crave to go light, and I had no use for it. But that dayit seemed we were to go hunting. 

He carried an old gun, and slew with it a deer in a marshy hollow--apretty shot, for the animal was ill-placed. We broiled a steak for ourmidday meal, and presently clambered up a high woody ridge which lookeddown on a stream and a piece of green meadow. 

Suddenly he stopped. "A buck, " he whispered. "See what you can do, youthat were so ready with your pistol. " And he thrust his gun into myhand. 

The beast was some thirty paces off in the dusk of the thicket. Itnettled me to have to shoot with a strange weapon, and I thought toolightly of the mark. I fired, and the bullet whistled over its back. Helaughed scornfully. 

I handed it back to him. "It throws high, and you did not warn me. Loadquick, and I'll try again. "

I heard the deer crashing through the hill-side thicket, and guessedthat presently it would come out in the meadow. I was right, and beforethe gun was in my hands again the beast was over the stream. 

It was a long range and a difficult mark, but I had to take the risk, for I was on my trial. I allowed for the throw of the musket and thesteepness of the hill, and pulled the trigger. The shot might have beenbetter, for I had aimed for the shoulder, and hit the neck. The buckleaped into the air, ran three yards, and toppled over. By the grace ofGod, I had found the single chance in a hundred. 

Frew looked at me with sincere respect. "That's braw shooting, " hesaid. "I can't say I ever saw its equal. "

That night in the smoky cabin he talked freely for once. "I never had awife or bairn, and I lean on no man. I can fend for myself, and cook mydinner, and mend my coat when it's wanting it. When Bacon died I sawwhat was coming to this land, and I came here to await it. I've hadsome sudden calls from the red gentry, but they havena got me yet, andthey'll no get me before my time. I'm in the Lord's hands, and He has ajob for Simon Frew. Go back to your money-bags, Mr. Garvald. Beat theEnglish merchants, my lad, and take my blessing with you. But keep thatgun of yours by your bedside, for the time is coming when a man's handswill have to keep his head. "

CHAPTER VII. 

I BECOME AN UNPOPULAR CHARACTER. 

I did not waste time in getting to work. I had already written to myuncle, telling him my plans, and presently I received his consent. Iarranged that cargoes of such goods as I thought most suitable forVirginian sales should arrive at regular seasons independent of thetobacco harvest. Then I set about equipping a store. On the high landnorth of James Town, by the road to Middle Plantation, I bought someacres of cleared soil, and had built for me a modest dwelling. Besideit stood a large brick building, one half fitted as a tobacco shed, where the leaf could lie for months, if need be, without taking harm, and the other arranged as a merchant's store with roomy cellars andwide garrets. I relinquished the warehouse by the James Town quay, andto my joy I was able to relinquish Mr. Lambie. That timid soul had beenon thorns ever since I mooted my new projects. He implored me to putthem from me; he drew such pictures of the power of the Englishtraders, you would have thought them the prince merchants of Venice; hesaw all his hard-won gentility gone at a blow, and himself an outcastprecluded for ever from great men's recognition. He could not bear it, and though he was loyal to my uncle's firm in his own way, he sought achange. One day he announced that he had been offered a post as stewardto a big planter at Henricus, and when I warmly bade him accept it, hesmiled wanly, and said he had done so a week agone. We parted verycivilly, and I chose as manager my servant, John Faulkner. 

This is not a history of my trading ventures, or I would tell at lengththe steps I took to found a new way of business. I went among theplanters, offering to buy tobacco from the coming harvest, and to payfor it in bonds which could be exchanged for goods at my store. I alsooffered to provide shipment in the autumn for tobacco and other wares, and I fixed the charge for freight--a very moderate one--in advance. Myplan was to clear out my store before the return of the ships, and tohave thereby a large quantity of tobacco mortgaged to me. I hoped thatthus I would win the friendship and custom of the planters, since Ioffered them a more convenient way of sale and higher profits. I hopedby breaking down the English monopoly to induce a continual andwholesome commerce in the land. For this purpose it was necessary toget coin into the people's hands, so, using my uncle's credit, I had aparcel of English money from the New York goldsmiths. 

In a week I found myself the most-talked-of man in the dominion, andsoon I saw the troubles that credit brings. I had picked up a verycorrect notion of the fortunes of most of the planters, and the men whowere most eager to sell to me were just those I could least trust. Somefellow who was near bankrupt from dice and cock-fighting would offer mefive hundred hogsheads, when I knew that his ill-guided estate couldscarce produce half. I was not a merchant out of charity, and I had todecline many offers, and so made many foes. Still, one way and another, I was not long in clearing out my store, and I found myself with somethree times the amount of tobacco in prospect that I had sent home atthe last harvest. 

That was very well, but there was the devil to pay besides. Everywastrel I sent off empty-handed was my enemy; the agents of theEnglishmen looked sourly at me; and many a man who was swindled grosslyby the Bristol buyers saw me as a marauder instead of a benefactor. Forthis I was prepared; but what staggered me was the way that some of thebetter sort of the gentry came to regard me. It was not that they didnot give me their custom; that I did not expect, for gunpowder alonewould change the habits of a Virginian Tory. But my new business seemedto them such a downcome that they passed me by with a cock of the chin. Before they had treated me hospitably, and made me welcome at theirhouses. I had hunted the fox with them--very little to my credit; andshot wildfowl in their company with better success. I had dined withthem, and danced in their halls at Christmas. Then I had been agentleman; now I was a shopkeeper, a creature about the level of aredemptioner. The thing was so childish that it made me angry. It wasright for one of them to sell his tobacco on his own wharf to a tarryskipper who cheated him grossly, but wrong for me to sell kebbucks andlinsey-woolsey at an even bargain. I gave up the puzzle. Some folks'notions of gentility are beyond my wits. 

I had taken to going to the church in James Town, first at Mr. Lambie'sdesire, and then because I liked the sermons. There on a Sunday youwould see the fashion of the neighbourhood, for the planters' ladiesrode in on pillions, and the planters themselves, in gold-embroideredwaistcoats and plush breeches and new-powdered wigs, leaned on thetombstones, and exchanged snuffmulls and gossip. In the old ramshacklegraveyard you would see such a parade of satin bodices and tabbypetticoats and lace headgear as made it blossom like the rose. I wentto church one Sunday in my second summer, and, being late, went up theaisle looking for a place. The men at the seat-ends would not stir toaccommodate me, and I had to find rest in the cock-loft. I thoughtnothing of it, but the close of the service was to enlighten me. As Iwent down the churchyard not a man or woman gave me greeting, and whenI spoke to any I was not answered. These were men with whom I had beenon the friendliest terms; women, too, who only a week before hadchaffered with me at the store. It was clear that the little societyhad marooned me to an isle by myself. I was a leper, unfit forgentlefolks' company, because, forsooth, I had sold goods, which everyone of them did also, and had tried to sell them fair. 

The thing made me very bitter. I sat in my house during the hot noonswhen no one stirred, and black anger filled my heart. I grew as peevishas a slighted girl, and would no doubt have fretted myself into somesignal folly, had not an event occurred which braced my soul again. This was the arrival of the English convoy. 

When I heard that the ships were sighted, I made certain of trouble. Ihad meantime added to my staff two other young men, who, like Faulkner, lived with me at the store. Also I had got four stalwart negro slaveswho slept in a hut in my garden. 'Twas a strong enough force to repel adrunken posse from the plantations, and I had a fancy that it would beneeded in the coming weeks. 

Two days later, going down the street of James Town, I met one of theEnglish skippers, a redfaced, bottle-nosed old ruffian calledBullivant. He was full of apple-jack, and strutted across the way toaccost me. 

"What's this I hear, Sawney?" he cried. "You're setting up as apedlar, and trying to cut in on our trade. Od twist me, but we'll putan end to that, my bully-boy. D'you think the King, God bless him, madethe laws for a red-haired, flea-bitten Sawney to diddle true-bornEnglishmen? What'll the King's Bench say to that, think ye?"

He was very abusive, but very uncertain on his legs. I saidgood-humouredly that I welcomed process of law, and would defend myaction. He shook his head, and said something about law not beingeverything, and England being a long road off. He had clearly somegreat threat to be delivered of, but just then he sat down so heavilythat he had no breath for anything but curses. 

But the drunkard had given me a notion. I hurried home and gaveinstructions to my men to keep a special guard on the store. Then I setoff in a pinnace to find my three ships, which were now lading up anddown among the creeks. 

That was the beginning of a fortnight's struggle, when every man's handwas against me, and I enjoyed myself surprisingly. I was never at restby land or water. The ships were the least of the business, for thedour Scots seamen were a match for all comers. I made them anchor attwilight in mid-stream for safety's sake, for in that drouthy clime afirebrand might play havoc with them. The worst that happened was thatone moonless night a band of rascals, rigged out as Indian braves, cameyelling down to the quay where some tobacco was waiting to be shipped, and before my men were warned had tipped a couple of hogsheads into thewater. They got no further, for we fell upon them with marling-spikesand hatchets, stripped them of their feathers, and sent them to cooltheir heads in the muddy river. The ring-leader I haled to James Town, and had the pleasure of seeing him grinning through a collar in thecommon stocks. 

Then I hied me back to my store, which was my worst anxiety, I wasfollowed by ill names as I went down the street, and one day in atavern, a young fool drew his shabble on me. But I would quarrel withno man, for that was a luxury beyond a trader. There had been an attackon my tobacco shed by some of the English seamen, and in the mellay oneof my blacks got an ugly wound from a cutlass. It was only a foretaste, and I set my house in order. 

One afternoon John Faulkner brought me word that mischief would beafoot at the darkening. I put each man to his station, and I had thesense to picket them a little distance from the house. The Englishmenwere clumsy conspirators. We watched them arrive, let them pass, andfollowed silently on their heels. Their business was wreckage, and theyfixed a charge of powder by the tobacco shed, laid and lit a fuse, andretired discreetly into the bushes to watch their handiwork. 

Then we fell upon them, and the hindquarters of all bore witness to ourgreeting. 

I caught the fellow who had laid the fuse, tied the whole thing roundhis neck, clapped a pistol to his ear, and marched him before me intothe town. "If you are minded to bolt, " I said, "remember you have acharge of gunpowder lobbing below your chin. I have but to flash mypistol into it, and they will be picking the bits of you off the hightrees. "

I took the rascal, his knees knocking under him, straight to theordinary where the English merchants chiefly forgathered. A dozen ofthem sat over a bowl of punch, when the door was opened and I kicked myGuy Fawkes inside. I may have misjudged them, but I thought every eyelooked furtive as they saw my prisoner. 

"Gentlemen, " said I, "I restore you your property. This is a penitentthief who desires to make a confession. "

My pistol was at his temple, the powder was round his neck, and he musthave seen a certain resolution in my face. Anyhow, sweating andquaking, he blurted out his story, and when he offered to halt I maderings with the barrel on the flesh of his neck. 

"It is a damned lie, " cried one of them, a handsome, over-dressedfellow who had been conspicuous for his public insolence towards me. 

"Nay, " said I, "our penitent's tale has the note of truth. One word toyou, gentlemen. I am hospitably inclined, and if any one of you will sofar honour me as to come himself instead of dispatching his servant, his welcome will be the warmer. I bid you good-night and leave you thisfellow in proof of my goodwill. Keep him away from the candle, I prayyou, or you will all go to hell before your time. "

That was the end of my worst troubles, and presently my lading wasfinished and my store replenished. Then came the time for the returnsailing, and the last enterprise of my friends was to go off without mythree vessels. But I got an order from the Governor, delivered readilybut with much profanity, to the commander of the frigates to delay tillthe convoy was complete. I breathed more freely as I saw the last hullsgrow small in the estuary. For now, as I reasoned it out, the plantersmust begin to compare my prices with the Englishmen's, and must come tosee where their advantage lay. 

But I had counted my chickens too soon, and was to be woefullydisappointed. At that time all the coast of America from New England tothe Main was infested by pirate vessels. Some sailed under Englishletters of marque, and preyed only on the shipping of France, with whomwe were at war. Some who had formed themselves into a company calledthe Brethren of the Coast robbed the Spanish treasure-ships andmerchantmen in the south waters, and rarely came north to our partssave to careen or provision. They were mostly English and Welsh, with afew Frenchmen, and though I had little to say for their doings, theyleft British ships in the main unmolested, and were welcomed as agodsend by our coast dwellers, since they smuggled goods to them whichwould have been twice the cost if bought at the convoy markets. Lastly, there were one or two horrid desperadoes who ravaged the seas liketigers. Such an one was the man Cosh, and that Teach, surnamedBlackbeard, of whom we hear too much to-day. But, on the whole, we ofVirginia suffered not at all from these gentlemen of fortune, andpiracy, though the common peril of the seas, entered but little intothe estimation of the merchants. 

Judge, then, of my disgust when I got news a week later that one of myships, the Ayr brig, had straggled from the convoy, and been seized, rifled, and burned to the water by pirates almost in sight of CapeCharles. The loss was grievous, but what angered me was the mystery ofsuch a happening. I knew the brig was a slow sailer, but how in thename of honesty could she be suffered in broad daylight to fall intosuch a fate? I remembered the hostility of the Englishmen, and fearedshe had had foul play. Just after Christmas-tide I expected two shipsto replenish the stock in my store. They arrived safe, but only by theskin of their teeth, for both had been chased from their first entranceinto American waters, and only their big topsails and a favouring windbrought them off. I examined the captains closely on the matter, andthey were positive that their assailant was not Cosh or any one of hiskidney, but a ship of the Brethren, who ordinarily were on the best ofterms with our merchantmen. 

My suspicions now grew into a fever. I had long believed that there wassome connivance between the pirates of the coast and the Englishtraders, and small blame to them for it. 'Twas a sensible way to avoidtrouble, and I for one would rather pay a modest blackmail every monthor two than run the risk of losing a good ship and a twelve-month'scargo. But when it came to using this connivance for private spite, thething was not to be endured. 

In March my doubts became certainties. I had a parcel of gold coincoming to me from New York in one of the coasting vessels--no greatsum, but more than I cared to lose. Presently I had news that the shipwas aground on a sandspit on Accomac, and had been plundered by apirate brigantine. I got a sloop and went down the river, and, sureenough, I found the vessel newly refloated, and the captain, an old NewHampshire fellow, in a great taking. Piracy there had been, but of aqueer kind, for not a farthing's worth had been touched except mypacket of gold. The skipper was honesty itself, and it was plain thatthe pirate who had chased the ship aground and then come aboard toplunder, had done it to do me hurt, and me alone. 

All this made me feel pretty solemn. My uncle was a rich man, but nofirm could afford these repeated losses. I was the most unpopularfigure in Virginia, hated by many, despised by the genteel, whose onlyfriends were my own servants and a few poverty-stricken landward folk. I had found out a good way of trade, but I had set a hornet's nestbuzzing about my ears, and was on the fair way to be extinguished. Thisalliance between my rivals and the Free Companions was the last strawto my burden. If the sea was to be shut to him, then a merchant mightas well put up his shutters. 

It made me solemn, but also most mightily angry. If the stars in theircourses were going to fight against Andrew Garvald, they should findhim ready. I went to the Governor, but he gave me no comfort. Indeed, he laughed at me, and bade me try the same weapon as my adversaries. Ileft him, very wrathful, and after a night's sleep I began to seereason in his words. Clearly the law of Virginia or of England wouldgive me no redress. I was an alien from the genteel world; why should Inot get the benefit of my ungentility? If my rivals went for theirweapons into dark places, I could surely do likewise. A line of Virgilcame into my head, which seemed to me to contain very good counsel:"_Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo_", which means that ifyou cannot get Heaven on your side, you had better try for the Devil. 

But how was I to get into touch with the Devil? And then I rememberedin a flash my meeting with the sea-captain on the Glasgow stairhead andhis promise to help me, I had no notion who he was or how he could aid, but I had a vague memory of his power and briskness. He had looked likethe kind of lad who might conduct me into the wild world of the FreeCompanions. 

I sought Mercer's tavern by the water-side, a melancholy place grown upwith weeds, with a yard of dark trees at the back of it. Old Mercer wasan elder in the little wooden Presbyterian kirk, which I had taken toattending since my quarrels with the gentry. He knew me and greeted mewith his doleful smile, shaking his foolish old beard. 

"What's your errand this e'en, Mr. Garvald?" he said in broad Scots. "Will you drink a rummer o' toddy, or try some fine auld usquebaugh Ihae got frae my cousin in Buchan?"

I sat down on the settle outside the tavern door. "This is my errand. Iwant you to bring me to a man or bring that man to me. His name isNinian Campbell. "

Mercer looked at me dully. 

"There was a lad o' that name was hanged at Inveraray i' '68 forstealin' twae hens and a wether. "

"The man I mean is long and lean, and his head is as red as fire. Hegave me your name, so you must know him. "

His eyes showed no recognition. He repeated the name to himself, mumbling it toothlessly. "It sticks i' my memory, " he said, "but whenand where I canna tell. Certes, there's no man o' the name inVirginia. "

I was beginning to think that my memory had played me false, whensuddenly the whole scene in the Saltmarket leaped vividly to my brain. Then I remembered the something else I had been enjoined to say. 

"Ninian Campbell, " I went on, "bade me ask for him here, and I was totell you that the lymphads are on the loch and the horn of Diarmaid hassounded. "

In a twinkling his face changed from vacancy to shrewdness and fromsenility to purpose. He glanced uneasily round. 

"For God's sake, speak soft, " he whispered. "Come inside, man. We'llsteek the door, and then I'll hear your business. "

CHAPTER VIII. 

RED RINGAN. 

Once at Edinburgh College I had read the Latin tale of Apuleius, andthe beginning stuck in my memory: "_Thraciam ex negotio petebam_"--"Iwas starting off for Thrace on business. " That was my case now. I wasabout to plunge into a wild world for no more startling causes thanthat I was a trader who wanted to save my pocket. It is to those whoseek only peace and a quiet life that adventures fall; the homelymerchant, jogging with his pack train, finds the enchanted forest andthe sleeping princess; and Saul, busily searching for his father'sasses, stumbles upon a kingdom. 

"What seek ye with Ringan?" Mercer asked, when we had sat down insidewith locked doors. 

"The man's name is Ninian Campbell, " I said, somewhat puzzled. 

"Well, it's the same thing. What did they teach you at Lesmahagow if yedon't know that Ringan is the Scots for Ninian? Lord bless me, laddie, don't tell me ye've never heard of Red Ringan?"

To be sure I had; I had heard of little else for a twelvemonth. Inevery tavern in Virginia, when men talked of the Free Companions, itwas the name of Red Ringan that came first to their tongues. I had beentoo occupied by my own affairs to listen just then to fireside tales, but I could not help hearing of this man's exploits. He was a kind ofleader of the buccaneers, and by all accounts no miscreant like Cosh, but a mirthful fellow, striking hard when need be, but at other timesmerciful and jovial. Now I set little store by your pirate heroes. Theyare for lads and silly girls and sots in an ale-house, and a merchantcan have no kindness for those who are the foes of his trade. So when Iheard that the man I sought was this notorious buccaneer I showed myalarm by dropping my jaw. 

Mercer laughed. "I'll not conceal from you that you take a certain riskin going to Ringan. Ye need not tell me your business, but it should bea grave one to take you down to the Carolina keys. There's time to drawback, if ye want; but you've brought me the master word, and I'm boundto set you on the road. Just one word to ye, Mr. Garvald. Keep a stoutface whatever you see, for Ringan has a weakness for a bold man. Behere the morn at sunrise, and if ye're wise bring no weapon. I'll seeto the boat and the provisioning. "

I was at the water-side next day at cock-crow, while the mist was stilllow on the river. Mercer was busy putting food and a keg of water intoa light sloop, and a tall Indian was aboard redding out the sails. Mytravels had given me some knowledge of the red tribes, and I spoke alittle of their language, but this man was of a type not often seen inthe Virginian lowlands. He was very tall, with a skin clear andpolished like bronze, and, unlike the ordinary savage, his breast wasunmarked, and his hair unadorned. He was naked to the waist, and belowwore long leather breeches, dyed red, and fringed with squirrels'tails. In his wampum belt were stuck a brace of knives and a tomahawk. It seemed he knew me, for as I approached he stood up to his fullheight and put his hands on his forehead. "Brother, " he said, and hisgrave eyes looked steadily into mine. 

Then I remembered. Some months before I had been riding back the roadfrom Green Springs, and in a dark, woody place had come across anIndian sore beset by three of the white scum which infested theriver-side. What the quarrel was I know not, but I liked little thevillainous look of the three, and I liked much the clean, lithe figureof their opponent. So I rode my horse among them, and laid on to themwith the butt of my whip. They had their knives out, but I managed todisarm the one who attacked me, and my horse upset a second, while theIndian, who had no weapon but a stave, cracked the head of the last. Igot nothing worse than a black eye, but the man I had rescued bled fromsome ugly cuts which I had much ado stanching. He shook hands with megravely when I had done, and vanished into the thicket. He was a SenecaIndian, and I wondered what one of that house was doing in theTidewater. 

Mercer told me his name. "Shalah will take you to the man you ken. Dowhatever he tells you, Mr. Garvald, for this is a job in which you'renothing but a bairn. " We pushed off, the Indian taking the oars, and infive minutes James Town was lost in the haze. 

On the Surrey shore we picked up a breeze, and with the ebbing tidemade good speed down the estuary. Shalah the Indian had the tiller, andI sat luxuriously in the bows, smoking my cob pipe, and wondering whatthe next week held in store for me. The night before I had had qualmsabout the whole business, but the air of morning has a trick of firingmy blood, and I believe I had forgotten the errand which was taking meto the Carolina shores. It was enough that I was going into a new landand new company. Last night I had thought with disfavour of Red Ringanthe buccaneer; that morning I thought only of Ninian Campbell, withwhom I had forgathered on a Glasgow landing. 

My own thoughts kept me silent, and the Indian never opened his mouth. Like a statue he crouched by the tiller, with his sombre eyes lookingto the sea. That night, when we had rounded Cape Henry in fine weather, we ran the sloop into a little bay below a headland, and made camp forthe night beside a stream of cold water. Next morning it blew hard fromthe north, and in a driving rain we crept down the Carolina coast. Oneincident of the day I remember. I took in a reef or two, and adjustedthe sheets, for this was a game I knew and loved. The Indian watched meclosely, and made a sign to me to take the helm. He had guessed that Iknew more than himself about the handling of a boat in wind, and sincewe were in an open sea, where his guidance was not needed, he preferredto trust the thing to me. I liked the trait in him, for I take it to bea mark of a wise man that he knows what he can do, and is not ashamedto admit what he cannot. 

That evening we had a cold bed; but the storm blew out in the night, and the next day the sun was as hot as summer, and the wind a point tothe east. Shalah once again was steersman, for we were inside some veryugly reefs, which I took to be the beginning of the Carolina keys. Onshore forests straggled down to the sea, so that sometimes they almosthad their feet in the surf; but now and then would come an open, grassyspace running far inland. These were, the great savannahs where herdsof wild cattle and deer roamed, and where the Free Companions came tofill their larders. It was a wilder land than the Tidewater, for onlyonce did we see a human dwelling. Far remote on the savannahs I couldpick out twirls of smoke rising into the blue weather, the signs ofIndian hunting fires. Shalah began now to look for landmarks, and totake bearings of a sort. Among the maze of creeks and shallow bayswhich opened on the land side it needed an Indian to pick out a track. 

The sun had all but set when, with a grunt of satisfaction, he swunground the tiller and headed shorewards. Before me in the twilight I sawonly a wooded bluff which, as we approached, divided itself into two. Presently a channel appeared, a narrow thing about as broad as acable's length, into which the wind carried us. Here it was very dark, the high sides with their gloomy trees showing at the top a thin lineof reddening sky. Shalah hugged the starboard shore, and as the screenof the forest caught the wind it weakened and weakened till it diedaway, and we moved only with the ingoing tide. I had never been in soeery a place. It was full of the sharp smell of pine trees, and as Isniffed the air I caught the savour of wood smoke. Men were somewhereahead of us in the gloom. 

Shalah ran the sloop into a little creek so overgrown with vines thatwe had to lie flat on the thwarts to enter. Then, putting his mouth tomy ear, he spoke for the first time since we had left James Town. "Itis hard to approach the Master, and my brother must follow me close asthe panther follows the deer. Where Shalah puts his foot let my brotherput his also. Come. "

He stepped from the boat to the hill-side, and with incredible speedand stillness began to ascend. His long, soft strides were made withoutnoise or effort, whether the ground were moss, or a tangle of vines, orloose stones, or the trunks of fallen trees, I had prided myself on myhill-craft, but beside the Indian I was a blundering child, I mighthave made shift to travel as fast, but it was the silence of hisprogress that staggered me, I plunged, and slipped, and sprawled, andmy heart was bursting before the ascent ceased, and we stole to theleft along the hill shoulder. 

Presently came a gap in the trees, and I looked down in the lastgreyness of dusk on a strange and beautiful sight. The channel led to alandlocked pool, maybe a mile around, and this was as full of shippingas a town's harbour. The water was but a pit of darkness, but I couldmake out the masts rising into the half light, and I counted more thantwenty vessels in that port. No light was shown, and the whole placewas quiet as a grave. 

We entered a wood of small hemlocks, and I felt rather than saw theground slope in front of us. About two hundred feet above the water theglen of a little stream shaped itself into a flat cup, which wasinvisible from below, and girdled on three sides by dark forest. Herewe walked more freely, till we came to the lip of the cup, and there, not twenty paces below me, I saw a wonderful sight. The hollow was litwith the glow of a dozen fires, round which men clustered. Some werebusy boucanning meat for ship's food, some were cooking supper, somesprawled in idleness, and smoked or diced. The night had now grown veryblack around us, and we were well protected, for the men in the glowhad their eyes dazed, and could not spy into the darkness. We came veryclose above them, so that I could hear their talk. The smell ofroasting meat pricked my hunger, and I realized that the salt air hadgiven me a noble thirst. They were common seamen from the piratevessels, and, as far as I could judge, they had no officer among them. I remarked their fierce, dark faces, and the long knives with whichthey slashed and trimmed the flesh for their boucanning. 

Shalah touched my hand, and I followed him into the wood. We climbedagain, and from the tinkle of the stream on my left I judged that wewere ascending to a higher shelf in the glen. The Indian moved verycarefully, as noiseless as the flight of an owl, and I marvelled at thegift. In after days I was to become something of a woodsman, and trackas swiftly and silently as any man of my upbringing. But I nevermastered the Indian art by which the foot descending in the darkness onsomething that will crackle checks before the noise is made. I could doit by day, when I could see what was on the ground, but in the dark thething was beyond me. It is an instinct like a wild thing's, andpossible only to those who have gone all their days light-shod in theforest. 

Suddenly the slope and the trees ceased, and a new glare burst on oureyes. This second shelf was smaller than the first, and as I blinked atthe light I saw that it held about a score of men. Torches made of pineboughs dipped in tar blazed at the four corners of the assembly, and inthe middle on a boulder a man was sitting. He was speaking loudly, andwith passion, but I could not make him out. Once more Shalah put hismouth to my ear, with a swift motion like a snake, and whispered, "TheMaster. "

We crawled flat on our bellies round the edge of the cup. The trees hadgone, and the only cover was the long grass and the low sumach bushes. We moved a foot at a time, and once the Indian turned in his tracks andcrawled to the left almost into the open. My sense of smell, as sharpalmost as a dog's, told me that horses were picketed in the grass infront of us. Our road took us within, hearing of the speaker, andthough I dared not raise my head, I could hear the soft Highland voiceof my friend. He seemed now to be speaking humorously, for a laugh camefrom the hearers. 

Once at the crossing of a little brook, I pulled a stone into thewater, and we instantly lay as still as death. But men preoccupied withtheir own concerns do not keep anxious watch, and our precautions wereneedless. Presently we had come to the far side of the shelf abreast ofthe boulder on which he sat who seemed to be the chief figure. Now Icould raise my head, and what I saw made my eyes dazzle. 

Red Ringan sat on a stone with a naked cutlass across his knees. Infront stood a man, the most evil-looking figure that I had ever beheld. He was short but very sturdily built, and wore a fine laced coat notmade for him, which hung to his knees, and was stretched tight at thearmpits. He had a heavy pale face, without hair on it. His teeth hadgone, all but two buck-teeth which stuck out at each corner of hismouth, giving him the look of a tusker. I could see his lips movinguneasily in the glare of the pine boughs, and his eyes darted about thecompany as if seeking countenance. 

Ringan was speaking very gravely, with his eyes shining like swordpoints. The others were every make and manner of fellow, fromwell-shaped and well-clad gentlemen to loutish seamen in leatherjerkins. Some of the faces were stained dark with passion and crime, some had the air of wild boys, and some the hard sobriety of traders. But one and all were held by the dancing eyes of the man that spoke. 

"What is the judgment, " he was saying, "of the Free Companions? By theold custom of the Western Seas I call upon you, gentlemen all, for yourdecision. "

Then I gathered that the evil-faced fellow had offended against someone of their lawless laws, and was on his trial. 

No one spoke for a moment, and then one grizzled seaman raised hishand, "The dice must judge, " he said. "He must throw for his lifeagainst the six. "

Another exclaimed against this. "Old wives' folly, " he cried, with anoath. "Let Cosh go his ways, and swear to amend them. The Brethren ofthe Coast cannot be too nice in these little matters. We are not pursyjustices or mooning girls. "

But he had no support. The verdict was for the dice, and a seamanbrought Ringan a little ivory box, which he held out to the prisoner. The latter took it with shaking hand, as if he did not know how to useit. 

"You will cast thrice, " said Ringan. "Two even throws, and you arefree. "

The man fumbled a little and then cast. It fell a four. 

A second time he threw, and the dice lay five. 

In that wild place, in the black heart of night, the terror of thething fell on my soul. The savage faces, the deadly purpose in Ringan'seyes, the fumbling miscreant before him, were all heavy with horror. Ihad no doubt that Cosh was worthy of death, but this cold and mercilesstreatment froze my reason. I watched with starting eyes the last throw, and I could not hear Ringan declare it. But I saw by the look on Cosh'sface what it had been. 

"It is your privilege to choose your manner of death and to name yoursuccessor, " I heard Ringan say. 

But Cosh did not need the invitation. Now that his case was desperate, the courage in him revived. He was fully armed, and in a second he haddrawn a knife and leaped for Ringan's throat. 

Perhaps he expected it, perhaps he had learned the art of the wildbeast so that his body was answerable to his swiftest wish. I do notknow, but I saw Cosh's knife crash on the stone and splinter, whileRingan stood by his side. 

"You have answered my question, " he said quietly. "Draw your cutlass, man. You have maybe one chance in ten thousand for your life. "

I shut my eyes as I heard the steel clash. Then very soon came silence. I looked again, and saw Ringan wiping his blade on a bunch of grass, and a body lying before him. 

He was speaking--speaking, I suppose, about the successor to the deadman, whom two negroes had promptly removed. Suddenly at my shoulderShalah gave the hoot of an owl, followed at a second's interval by asecond and a third. I suppose it was some signal agreed with Ringan, but at the time I thought the man had gone mad. 

I was not very sane myself. What I had seen had sent a cold gruethrough me, for I had never before seen a man die violently, and thecircumstances of the place and hour made the thing a thousandfold moreawful. I had a black fright on me at that whole company of mercilessmen, and especially at Ringan, whose word was law to them. Now theworst effect of fear is that it obscures good judgment, and makes a manin desperation do deeds of a foolhardiness from which at other times hewould shrink. All I remembered in that moment was that I had to reachRingan, and that Mercer had told me that the safest plan was to show abold front. I never remembered that I had also been bidden to followShalah, nor did I reflect that a secret conclave of pirates was nooccasion to choose for my meeting. With a sudden impulse I forcedmyself to my feet, and stalked, or rather shambled, into the light. 

"Ninian, " I cried, "Ninian Campbell! I'm here to claim your promise. "

The whole company turned on me, and I was gripped by a dozen hands andflung on the ground. Ringan came forward to look, but there was norecognition in his eyes. Some one cried out, "A spy!" and there was afierce murmur of voices, which were meaningless to me, for fear had gotme again, and I had neither ears nor voice. Dimly it seemed that hegave some order, and I was trussed up with ropes. Then I was consciousof being carried out of the glare of torches into the cool darkness. Presently I was laid in some kind of log-house, carpeted with firboughs, for the needles tickled my face. 

Bit by bit my senses came back to me, and I caught hold of my vagrantcourage. 

A big negro in seaman's clothes with a scarlet sash round his middlewas squatted on the floor watching me by the light of a ship's lantern. He had a friendly, foolish face, and I remember yet how he rolled hiseyeballs. 

"I won't run away, " I said, "so you might slacken these ropes and letme breathe easy. "

Apparently he was an accommodating gaoler, for he did as I wished. 

"And give me a drink, " I said, "for my tongue's like a stick. "

He mixed me a pannikin of rum and water. Perhaps he hocussed it, ormaybe 'twas only the effect of spirits on a weary body; but threeminutes after I had drunk I was in a heavy sleep. 

CHAPTER IX. 

VARIOUS DOINGS IN THE SAVANNAH. 

I awoke in broad daylight, and when my wits came back to me, I saw Iwas in a tent of skins, with my limbs unbound, and a pitcher of waterbeside me placed by some provident hand. Through the tent door I lookedover a wide space of green savannah. How I had got there I knew not;but, as my memory repeated the events of the night, I knew I hadtravelled far, for the sea showed miles away at a great distancebeneath me. On the water I saw a ship in full sail, diminished to a toysize, careering northward with the wind. 

Outside a man was seated whistling a cheerful tune. I got to my feetand staggered out to clear my head in the air, and found the smilingface of Ringan. 

"Good-morning, Andrew, " he cried, as I sat down beside him. "Have youslept well?"

I rubbed my eyes and took long draughts of the morning breeze. 

"Are you a warlock, Mr. Campbell, that you can spirit folk about thecountry at your pleasure? I have slept sound, but my dreams have beenbad. "

"Yes, " he said; "what sort of dreams, maybe?"

"I dreamed I was in a wild place among wild men, and that I saw murderdone. The look of the man who did it was not unlike your own. "

"You have dreamed true, " he said gravely; "but you have the wrong wordfor it. Others would call it justice. "

"What sort of justice?" said I, "when you had no court or law but justwhat you made yourself. "

"Is it not a stiff Whiggamore?" he said, looking skywards. "Why, man, all justice is what men make themselves. What hinders the FreeCompanions from making as honest laws as any cackling Council in thetowns? Did you see the man Cosh? Have you heard anything of his doings, and will you deny that the world was well quit of him? There's adecency in all trades, and Cosh fair stank to heaven. But I'm glad thething ended as it did. I never get to like a cold execution. 'Twasbetter for everybody that he should fly at my face and get six inchesof kindly steel in his throat. He had a gentleman's death, which wasmore than his crimes warranted. "

I was only half convinced. Here was I, a law-abiding merchant, pitchforked suddenly into a world of lawlessness. I could not beexpected to adjust my views in the short space of a night. 

"You gave me a rough handling, " I said, "Where was the need of it?"

"And you showed very little sense in bursting in on us the way you did!Could you not have bided quietly till Shalah gave the word? I had to beharsh with you, or they would have suspected something and cut yourthroat. Yon gentry are not to take liberties with. What made you do it, Andrew?"

"Just that I was black afraid. That made me more feared of being acoward, so I forced myself to yon folly. "

"A very honourable reason, " he said. 

"Are you the leader of those men?" I asked. "They looked a scurvy lot. Do you call that a proper occupation for the best blood inBreadalbane?"

It was a silly speech, and I could have bitten my tongue out when I haduttered it. But I was in a vile temper, for the dregs of the negro'srum still hummed in my blood. His face grew dark, till he looked likethe man I had seen the night before. 

"I allow no man to slight my race, " he said in a harsh voice. 

"It's the truth whether you like it or not. And you that claimed to bea gentleman! What is it they say about the Highlands?" And I quoted aribald Glasgow proverb. 

What moved me to this insolence I cannot say, I was in the wrong, and Iknew it, but I was too much of a child to let go my silly pride. 

Ringan got up very quickly and walked three steps. The blackness hadgone from his face, and it was puzzled and melancholy. 

"There's a precious lot of the bairn in you, Mr. Garvald, " he said, "and an ugly spice of the Whiggamore. I would have killed another manfor half your words, and I've got to make you pay for them somehow. "And he knit his brow and pondered. 

"I'm ready, " said I, with the best bravado I could muster, thoughthe truth is I was sick at heart. I had forced a quarrel like anill-mannered boy on the very man whose help I had come to seek. And Isaw, too, that I had gone just that bit too far for which no recantationwould win pardon. 

"What sort of way are you ready?" he asked politely. "You would fightme with your pistols, but you haven't got them, and this is no a matterthat will wait. I could spit you in a jiffy with my sword, but itwouldna be fair. It strikes me that you and me are ill matched. We'relike a shark and a wolf that cannot meet to fight in the same element. "

Then he ran his finger down the buttons of his coat, and his eyes weresmiling. "We'll try the old way that laddies use on the village green. Man, Andrew, I'm going to skelp you, as your mother skelped you whenyou were a breechless bairn, " And he tossed his coat on the grass. 

I could only follow suit, though I was black ashamed at the wholebusiness. I felt the disgrace of my conduct, and most bitterly thedisgrace of the penalty. 

My arm was too short to make a fighter of me, and I could only striveto close, that I might get the use of my weight and my great strengthof neck and shoulder. Ringan danced round me, tapping me lightly onnose and cheek, but hard enough to make the blood flow, I defendedmyself as best I could, while my temper rose rapidly and made meforget my penitence. Time and again I looked for a chance to slip in, but he was as wary as a fox, and was a yard off before I could get myarm round him. 

At last in extreme vexation, I lowered my head and rushed blindly forhis chest. Something like the sails of a windmill smote me on the jaw, and I felt myself falling into a pit of great darkness where littlelights twinkled. 

The next I knew I was sitting propped against the tent-pole with a coldbandage round my forehead, and Ringan with a napkin bathing my face. 

"Cheer up, man, " he cried; "you've got off light, for there's no ascratch on your lily-white cheek, and the blood-letting from the nosewill clear out the dregs of Moro's hocus. "

I blinked a little, and tried to recall what had happened. All myill-humour had gone, and I was now in a hurry to set myself right withmy conscience. He heard my apology with an embarrassed face. 

"Say no more, Andrew. I was as muckle to blame as you, and I've beengiving myself some ill names for that last trick. It was ower hard, but, man, the temptation was sore. "

He elbowed me to the open air. 

"Now for the questions you've a right to ask. We of the Brethren havenot precisely a chief, as you call it, but there are not many of themwould gainsay my word. Why? you ask. Well, it's not for a modest man tobe sounding his own trumpet. Maybe it's because I'm a gentleman, andthere's that in good blood which awes the commonalty. Maybe it'sbecause I've no fish of my own to fry. I do not rob for greed, likeCalvert and Williams, or kill for lust, like the departed Cosh. To meit's a game, which I play by honest rules. I never laid finger on abodle's worth of English stuff, and if now and then I ease the Dons ofa pickle silver or send a Frenchman or two to purgatory, what worse amI doing than His Majesty's troops in Flanders, or your black frigatesthat lie off Port Royal? If I've a clear conscience I can more easilytake order with those that are less single-minded. But maybe the chiefreason is that I've some little skill of arms, so that the lad thatquestions me is apt to fare like Cosh. "

There was a kind of boastful sincerity about the man which convincedme. But his words put me in mind of my own business. 

"I came seeking you to ask help. Your friends have been making too freewith my belongings. I would never complain if it were the common riskof my trade, but I have a notion that there's some sort of designbehind it. " Then I told him of my strife with the English merchants. 

"What are your losses?" he asked. 

"The Ayr brig was taken off Cape Charles, and burned to the water. Godhelp the poor souls in her, for I fear they perished. "

He nodded. "I know. That was one of Cosh's exploits. He has paid by nowfor that and other things. "

"Two of my ships were chased through the Capes and far up the Tidewaterof the James not two months back, " I went on. 

He laughed. "I did that myself, " he said. 

Astonishment and wrath filled me, but I finished my tale. 

"A week ago there was a ship ashore on Accomac. Pirates boarded her, but they took nothing away save a sum of gold that was mine. Was thatyour doing also, Mr. Campbell?"

"Yes, " he said; "but the money's safe. I'll give you a line to Mercer, and he'll pay it you. "

"I'm much obliged to you, Mr. Campbell, " I said, choking with anger. "But who, in Heaven's name, asked you to manage my business? I thoughtyou were my friend, and I came to you as such, and here I find you thechief among my enemies. "

"Patience, Andrew, " he said, "and I'll explain everything, for I grantyou it needs some explaining. First, you are right about the Englishmerchants. They and the Free Companions have long had an understanding, and word was sent by them to play tricks on your ships. I was absent atthe time, and though the thing was dirty work, as any one could see, some of the fools thought it a fair ploy, and Cosh was suffered to dohis will. When I got back I heard the story, and was black angry, so Itook the matter into my own keeping. I have ways and means of gettingthe news of Virginia, and I know pretty well what you have been doing, young one. There's spirit in you and some wise notions, but you wanthelp in the game. Besides, there's a bigger thing before you. So I tooksteps to bring you here. "

"You took a roundabout road, " said I, by no means appeased. 

"It had to be. D'you think I could come marching into James Town andcollogue with you in your counting-house? Now that you're here, youhave my sworn word that the Free Companions will never lay hand againon your ventures. Will that content you?"

"It will, " I said; "but you spoke of a bigger thing before me. "

"Yes, and that's the price you are going to pay me for my goodwill. It's what the lawyers call _consideratio_ for our bargain, and it's thereason I brought you here. Tell me, Andrew, d'you ken a man Frew wholives on the South Fork River?" "A North Ireland fellow, with a hatchetface and a big scar? I saw him a year ago. "

"It stuck in my mind that you had. And d'you mind the advice he gaveyou?"

I remembered it very well, for it was Frew who had clinched my views onthe defencelessness of our West. "He spoke God's truth, " I said, "but Icannot get a Virginian to believe it. "

"They'll believe in time, " he said, "though maybe too late to save someof their scalps. Come to this hillock, and I will show you something. "

From the low swell of ground we looked west to some little hills, andin the hollow of them a spire of smoke rose into the blue. 

"I'm going to take you there, that you may hear and see something toyour profit. Quick, Moro, " he cried to a servant. "Bring food, and havethe horses saddled. "

We breakfasted on some very good beefsteaks, and started at a canterfor the hills. My headache had gone, and I was now in a contented frameof mind; for I saw the purpose of my errand accomplished, and I had ayoung man's eagerness to know what lay before me. As we rode Ringantalked. 

"You'll have heard tell of Bacon's rising in '76? Governor Berkeley hadridden the dominion with too harsh a hand, and in the matter of itsdefence against the Indians he was slack when he should have beentight. The upshot was that Nathaniel Bacon took up the job himself, andafter giving the Indians their lesson, turned his mind to thegovernment of Virginia. He drove Berkeley into Accomac, and would haveturned the whole place tapsalteery if he had not suddenly died of abowel complaint. After that Berkeley and his tame planters got theupper hand, and there were some pretty homings and hangings. There weretwo men that were lieutenants to Bacon, and maybe put the notion intohis head. One was James Drummond, a cousin of my own mother's, and hegot the gallows for his trouble. The other was a man Richard Lawrence, a fine scholar, and a grand hand at planning, though a little slow in afight. He kept the ordinary at James Town, and was the one thatcollected the powder and kindled the fuse. Governor Berkeley had a longscore to settle with him, but he never got him, for when the thing waspast hope Mr. Richard rode west one snowy night to the hills, andVirginia saw him no more. They think he starved in the wilderness, orgot into the hands of the wild Indians, and is long ago dead. "

I knew all about Dick Lawrence, for I had heard the tale twenty times. "But surely they're right, " I said, "It's fifteen years since any manhad word of him. "

"Well, you'll see him within an hour, " said Ringan, "It's a queerstory, but it seems he fell in with a Monacan war party, and since heand Bacon had been fighting their deadly foes, the Susquehannocks, theytreated him well, and brought him south into Carolina. You must know, Andrew, that all this land hereaways, except for the little Algonquinvillages on the shore, is Sioux country, with as many tribes as thereare houses in Clan Campbell. But cheek by jowl is a long strip held bythe Tuscaroras, a murdering lot of devils, of whom you and I'll getnews sooner than we want. The Tuscaroras are bad enough in themselves, but the worst part is that all the back country in the hills belongs totheir cousins the Cherokees, and God knows how far north their swayholds. The Long House of the Iroquois controls everything west of thecoast land from Carolina away up through Virginia to New York and theCanadas. That means that Virginia has on two sides the most powerfultribes of savages in the world, and if ever the Iroquois found ageneral and made a common attack things would go ill with theTidewater. I tell you that so that you can understand Lawrence'sdoings. He hates the Iroquois like hell, and so he likes their enemies. He has lived for fifteen years among the Sioux, whiles with theCatawbas, whiles with the Manahoacs, but mostly with the Monacans. Weof the Free Companions see him pretty often, and bring him the news andlittle comforts, like good tobacco and _eau de vie_, that he cannot getamong savages. And we carry messages between him and the Tidewater, forhe has many friends still alive there. There's no man ever had hisknowledge of Indians, and I'm taking you to him, for he has somethingto tell you. "

By this time we had come to a place where a fair-sized burn issued froma shallow glen in the savannah. There was a peeled wand stuck in aburnt tree above the water, and this Ringan took and broke verycarefully into two equal pieces, and put them back in the hole. Fromthis point onwards I had the feeling that the long grass and the clumpsof bushes held watchers. They made no noise, but I could have sworn tothe truth of my notion. Ringan, whose senses were keener than mine, would stop every now and again and raise his hand as if in signal. Atone place we halted dead for five minutes, and at another he dismountedand cut a tuft of sumach, which he laid over his saddle. Then at theedge of a thicket he stopped again, and held up both hands above hishead. Instantly a tall Indian stepped from the cover, saluted, andwalked by our side. In five minutes more we rounded a creek of the burnand were at the encampment. 

'Twas the first time I had ever seen an Indian village. The tents, orteepees, were of skins stretched over poles, and not of bark, likethose of the woodland tribes. At a great fire in the centre women weregrilling deer's flesh, while little brown children strove andquarrelled for scraps, I saw few men, for the braves were out huntingor keeping watch at the approaches. One young lad took the horses, andled us to a teepee bigger than the others, outside of which stood afinely-made savage, with heron's feathers in his hair, and a necklaceof polished shells. On his Iron face there was no flicker of welcome orrecognition, but he shook hands silently with the two of us, and strucka blow on a dry gourd. Instantly three warriors appeared, and tooktheir place by his side. Then all of us sat down and a pipe was lit andhanded by the chief to Ringan. He took a puff and gave it to one of theother Indians, who handed it to me. With that ceremony over, the tongueof the chief seemed to be unloosed. "The Sachem comes, " he said, and anold man sat himself down beside us. 

He was a strange figure to meet in an Indian camp. A long white beardhung down to his middle, and his unshorn hair draped his shoulders likea fleece. His clothing was of tanned skin, save that he had a belt ofSpanish leather, and on his feet he wore country shoes and not theIndian moccasins. The eyes in his head were keen and youthful, andthough he could not have been less than sixty he carried himself withthe vigour of a man in his prime. Below his shaggy locks was a high, broad forehead, such as some college professor might have borne who hadgiven all his days to the philosophies. He seemed to have beendisturbed in reading, for he carried in his hand a little book with afinger marking his place. I caught a glimpse of the title, and saw thatit was Mr. Locke's new "Essay on the Human Understanding. "

Ringan spoke to the chief in his own tongue, but the Sioux language wasbeyond me. Mr. Lawrence joined in, and I saw the Indian's eyes kindle. He shook his head, and seemed to deny something. Then he poured forth aflood of talk, and when he had finished Ringan spoke to me. 

"He says that the Tuscaroras are stirring. Word has come down from thehills to be ready for a great ride between the Moon of Stags and theCorngathering. "

Lawrence nodded. "That's an old Tuscarora habit; but somehow theseridings never happen. " He said something in Sioux to one of thewarriors, and got an emphatic answer, which he translated to me. "Hethinks that the Cherokees have had word from farther north. It lookslike a general stirring of the Long House. "

"Is it the fighting in Canada?" I asked. 

"God knows, " he said, "but I don't think so. If that were the cause weshould have the Iroquois pushed down on the top of the Cherokees. Butmy information is that the Cherokees are to move north themselves, andthen down to the Tidewater. It is not likely that the Five Nations haveany plan of conquering the lowlands. They're a hill people, and theyknow the white man's mettle too well. My notion is that some devilry isgoing on in the West, and I might guess that there's a white man init. " He spoke to the chief, who spoke again to his companion, andLawrence listened with contracting brows, while Ringan whistled betweenhis teeth. 

"They've got a queer story, " said Lawrence at last. "They say that whenlast they hunted on the Roanoke their young men brought a tale that atribe of Cherokees, who lived six days' journey into the hills, hadfound a great Sachem who had the white man's magic, and that God wasmoving him to drive out the palefaces and hold his hunting lodge intheir dwellings. That is not like an ordinary Indian lie. What do youmake of it, Mr. Campbell?"

Ringan looked grave, "It's possible enough. There's a heap ofrenegades among the tribes, men that have made the Tidewater and eventhe Free Companies too warm for them. There's no knowing the mischief astrong-minded rascal might work. I mind a man at Norfolk, a Scotsredemptioner, who had the tongue of a devil and the strength of a wolf. He broke out one night and got clear into the wilderness. "

Lawrence turned to me briskly. "You see the case, sir. There's troublebrewing in the hills, black trouble for Virginia, but we've somemonths' breathing space. For Nat Bacon's sake, I'm loath to see the warpaint at James Town. The question is, are you willing to do yourshare?"

"I'm willing enough, " I said, "but what can I do? I'm not exactly apopular character in the Tidewater. If you want me to hammer sense intothe planters, you could not get a worse man for the job. I have toldGovernor Nicholson my fears, and he is of my opinion, but his hands aretied by a penurious Council. If he cannot screw money for troops out ofthe Virginians, it's not likely that I could do much. "

Lawrence nodded his wise head. "All you say is true, but I want adifferent kind of service from you. You may have noticed in yourtravels, Mr. Garvald--for they tell me you are not often out of thesaddle--that up and down the land there's a good few folk that are notvery easy in their minds. Many of these are former troopers of Bacon, some are new men who have eyes in their heads, some are old settlerswho have been soured by the folly of the Government. With such poormeans as I possess I keep in touch with these gentlemen, and in them wehave the rudiments of a frontier army. I don't say they are many; butfive hundred resolute fellows, well horsed and well armed, and led bysome man who knows the Indian ways, might be a stumbling-block in theway of an Iroquois raid. But to perfect this force needs time, and, above all, it needs a man on the spot; for Virginia is not a healthyplace for me, and these savannahs are a trifle distant, I want a man inJames Town who will receive word when I send it, and pass it onto thosewho should hear it, I want a discreet man, whose trade takes him aboutthe country. Mr. Campbell tells me you are such an one. Will you acceptthe charge?"

I was greatly flattered, but a little perplexed. "I'm a law-abidingcitizen, " I said, "and I can have no hand in rebellions. I've noambition to play Bacon's part. "

Lawrence smiled. "A proof of your discretion, sir. But believe me, there is no thought of rebellion. We have no quarrel with the Counciland less with His Majesty's Governor. We but seek to set the house inorder against perils which we alone know fully, I approve of yourscruples, and I give you my word they shall not be violated. "

"So be it, " I said, "I will do what I can. "

"God be praised, " said Mr. Lawrence, "I have here certain secret paperswhich Will give you the names of the men we can trust. Messages willcome to you, which I trust you to find the means of sending on. Mercerhas our confidence, and will arrange with you certain matters of arms. He will also supply you with what money is needed. There are many inthe Tidewater who would look askance at this business, so it must bedone in desperate secrecy; but if there should be trouble I counsel youto play a bold hand with the Governor. They tell me that you and he arefriendly, and, unless I mistake the man, he can see reason if he iswisely handled. If the worst comes to the worst, you can take Nicholsoninto your confidence. "

"How long have we to prepare?" I asked. 

"The summer months, according to my forecast. It may be shorter orlonger, but I will know better when I get nearer the hills. "

"And what about the Carolina tribes?" I asked. "If we are to hold thewestern marches of Virginia, we cannot risk being caught on the flank. "

"That can be arranged, " he said. "Our friends the Sioux are notover-fond of the Long House. If the Tuscaroras ride, I do not think theywill ever reach the James. "

The afternoon was now ending, and we were given a meal of corn-cakesand roast deer's flesh. Then we took our leave, and Mr. Lawrence's lastword to me was to send him any English books of a serious cast whichcame under my eye. This request he made with so much hesitation, butwith so hungry a desire in his face, that I was moved to pity thisill-fated scholar, wandering in Indian lodges, and famished for lack ofthe society of his kind. 

Ringan took me by a new way which bore north of that we had ridden, andthough the dusk began soon to fall, he never faltered in his guiding. Presently we left the savannah for the woods of the coast, and, dropping down hill by a very meagre path, we came in three hours to acreek of the sea. There by a little fire we found Shalah, and the sloopriding at anchor below a thick covert of trees. 

"Good-bye to you, Andrew, " cried Ringan. "You'll be getting news of mesoon, and maybe see me in the flesh on the Tidewater. Remember the wordI told you in the Saltmarket, for I never mention names when I take theroad. "

CHAPTER X. 

I HEAR AN OLD SONG. 

When we sailed at daybreak next morning I had the glow of satisfactionwith my own doings which is a safe precursor of misfortunes. I hadsettled my business with the Free Companions, and need look for no moretrouble on that score. But what tickled my vanity was my talk withRingan and Lawrence at the Monacan lodge and the momentous trust theyhad laid on me. With a young man's vanity, I saw myself the saviour ofVirginia, and hailed as such by the proud folk who now scorned me. Myonly merits, as I was to learn in time, are a certain grasp of simpletruths that elude cleverer men, and a desperate obstinacy which isreluctant to admit defeat. But it is the fashion of youth to glory inwhat it lacks, and I flattered myself that I had a natural gift forfinesse and subtlety, and was a born deviser of wars. Again and again Itold myself how I and Lawrence's Virginians--grown under my hand to apotent army--should roll back the invaders to the hills and beyond, while the Sioux of the Carolinas guarded one flank and the streams ofthe Potomac the other. In those days the star of the great Marlboroughhad not risen; but John Churchill, the victor of Blenheim, did notesteem himself a wiser strategist than the raw lad Andrew Garvald, nowsailing north in the long wash of the Atlantic seas. 

The weather grew spiteful, and we were much buffeted about by thecontrary spring winds, so that it was late in the afternoon of thethird day that we turned Cape Henry and came into the Bay ofChesapeake. Here a perfect hurricane fell upon us, and we sought refugein a creek on the shore of Norfolk county. The place was marshy, and itwas hard to find dry land for our night's lodging. Our provisions hadrun low, and there seemed little enough for two hungry men who had allday been striving with salt winds. So, knowing that this was aneighbourhood studded with great manors, and remembering thehospitality I had so often found, I left Shalah by the fire with suchfood as remained, and set out with our lantern through the woods tolook for a human habitation. 

I found one quicker than I had hoped. Almost at once I came on a trackwhich led me into a carriage-road and out of the thickets to a bigclearing. The daylight had not yet wholly gone, and it guided me to twogate-posts, from which an avenue of chestnut trees led up to a greathouse. There were lights glimmering in the windows, and when I reachedthe yard and saw the size of the barns and outbuildings, I wished I hadhappened on a place of less pretensions. But hunger made me bold, and Itramped over the mown grass of the yard, which in the dusk I could seeto be set with flower-beds, till I stood before the door of as fine amansion as I had found in the dominion. From within came a sound ofspeech and laughter, and I was in half a mind to turn back to my coldquarters by the shore. I had no sooner struck the knocker than I wantedto run away. 

The door was opened instantly by a tall negro in a scarlet livery. Heasked no questions, but motioned me to enter as if I had been aninvited guest. I followed him, wondering dolefully what sort of figureI must cut in my plain clothes soaked and stained by travel; for it wasclear that I had lighted on the mansion of some rich planter, who waseven now entertaining his friends. The servant led me through an outerhall into a great room full of people. A few candles in tallcandlesticks burned down the length of a table, round which sat a scoreof gentlemen. The scarlet negro went to the tablehead, and saidsomething to the master, who rose and came to meet me. 

"I am storm-stayed, " I said humbly, "and I left my boat on the shoreand came inland to look for a supper. "

"You shall get it, " he said heartily. "Sit down, and my servants willbring you what you need. "

"But I am not fit to intrude, sir. A weary traveller is no guest forsuch a table. "

"Tush, man, " he cried, "when did a Virginian think the worse of a manfor his clothes? Sit down and say no more. You are heartily welcome. "

He pushed me into a vacant chair at the bottom of the table, and gavesome orders to the negro. Now I knew where I was, for I had seen beforethe noble figure of my host. This was Colonel Beverley, who in hisyouth had ridden with Prince Rupert, and had come to Virginia long agoin the Commonwealth time. He sat on the Council, and was the mostrespected of all the magnates of the dominion, for he had restrainedthe folly of successive Governors, and had ever teen ready to standforth alike on behalf of the liberties of the settlers and their dutiesto the Crown. His name was highly esteemed at Whitehall, and more thanonce he had occupied the Governor's place when His Majesty was slow infilling it. His riches were large, but he was above all things a greatgentleman, who had grafted on an old proud stock the tolerance andvigour of a new land. 

The company had finished dining, for the table was covered with fruitsand comfits, and wine in silver goblets. There was sack and madeira, and French claret, and white Rhenish, and ale and cider for those withhomelier palates. I saw dimly around me the faces of the guests, forthe few candles scarcely illumined the dusk of the great panelled hallhung with dark portraits. One man gave me good-evening, but as I sat atthe extreme end of the table I was out of the circle of the company. They talked and laughed, and it seemed to me that I could hear women'svoices at the other end. Meantime I was busy with my viands, and no manever punished a venison pie more heartily. As I ate and drank, I smiledat the strangeness of my fortunes--to come thus straight from the wildseas and the company of outlaws into a place of silver and damask andsatin coats and lace cravats and orderly wigs. The soft hum ofgentlefolks' speech was all around me, those smooth Virginian voicescompared with which my Scots tongue was as strident as a raven's. Butas I listened, I remembered Ringan and Lawrence, and, "Ah, my silkenfriends, " thought I, "little you know the judgment that is preparing. Some day soon, unless God is kind, there will be blood on the lace andthe war-whoop in these pleasant chambers. "

Then a voice said louder than the rest, "Dulcinea will sing to us. Shepromised this morning in the garden. "

At this there was a ripple of "Bravas, " and presently I heard thetuning of a lute. The low twanging went on for a little, and suddenly Iwas seized with a presentiment. I set down my tankard, and waited withmy heart in my mouth. 

Very clear and pure the voice rose, as fresh as the morning song ofbirds. There was youth in it and joy and pride--joy of the fairness ofthe earth, pride of beauty and race and strength, "_My dear and onlylove_" it sang, as it had sung before; but then it had been a girl'shope, and now it was a woman's certainty. At the first note, the pastcame back to me like yesterday. I saw the moorland gables in the rain, I heard the swirl of the tempest, I saw the elfin face in the hoodwhich had cheered the traveller on his way. In that dim light I couldnot see the singer, but I needed no vision. The strangeness of thething clutched at my heart, for here was the voice which had never beenout of my ears singing again in a land far from the wet heather and thedriving mists of home. 

As I sat dazed and dreaming, I knew that a great thing had befallen me. For me, Andrew Garvald, the prosaic trader, coming out of the darknessinto this strange company, the foundations of the world had been upset. All my cares and hopes, my gains and losses, seemed in that moment nobetter than dust. Love had come to me like a hurricane. From now I hadbut the one ambition, to hear that voice say to me and to mean ittruly, "My dear and only love. " I knew it was folly and a madman'sdream, for I felt most deeply my common clay. What had I to offer forthe heart of that proud lady? A dingy and battered merchant might aswell enter a court of steel-clad heroes and contend for the love of aqueen. But I was not downcast. I do not think I even wanted to hope. Itwas enough to know that so bright a thing was in the world, for at onestroke my drab horizon seemed to have broadened into the infiniteheavens. 

The song ended in another chorus of "Bravas. " "Bring twenty candles, Pompey, " my host called out, "and the great punch-bowl. We will pledgemy lady in the old Beverley brew. "

Servants set on the table a massive silver dish, into which sundrybottles of wine and spirits were poured. A mass of cut fruit and sugarwas added, and the whole was set alight, and leaped almost to theceiling in a blue flame. Colonel Beverley, with a long ladle, filledthe array of glasses on a salver, which the servants carried round tothe guests. Large branching candelabra had meantime been placed on thetable, and in a glow of light we stood to our feet and honoured thetoast. 

As I stood up and looked to the table's end, I saw the dark, restlesseyes and the heavy blue jowl of Governor Nicholson. He saw me, for Iwas alone at the bottom end, and when we were seated, he cried out tome, --

"What news of trade, Mr. Garvald? You're an active packman, for theytell me you're never off the road. "

At the mention of my name every eye turned towards me, and I felt, rather than saw, the disfavour of the looks. No doubt they resented astorekeeper's intrusion into well-bred company, and some were there whohad publicly cursed me for a meddlesome upstart. But I was not lookingtheir way, but at the girl who sat on my host's right hand, and inwhose dark eyes I thought I saw a spark of recognition. 

She was clad in white satin, and in her hair and bosom spring flowershad been set. Her little hand played with the slim glass, and her eyeshad all the happy freedom of childhood. But now she was a grown woman, with a woman's pride and knowledge of power. Her exquisite slimnessand grace, amid the glow of silks and silver, gave her the air of afairy-tale princess. There was a grave man in black sat next her, towhom she bent to speak. Then she looked towards me again, and smiledwith that witching mockery which had pricked my temper in the CanongateTolbooth. 

The Governor's voice recalled me from my dream. 

"How goes the Indian menace, Mr. Garvald?" he cried. "You must know, "and he turned to the company, "that our friend combines commerce withhigh policy, and shares my apprehensions as to the safety of thedominion. "

I could not tell whether he was mocking at me or not. I think he was, for Francis Nicholson's moods were as mutable as the tides. In everyword of his there lurked some sour irony. 

The company took the speech for satire, and many laughed. One younggentleman, who wore a purple coat and a splendid brocaded vest, laughedvery loud. 

"A merchant's nerves are delicate things, " he said, as he fingered hiscravat. "I would have said 'like a woman's, ' had I not seen this veryday Miss Elspeth's horsemanship. " And he bowed to her very neatly. 

Now I was never fond of being quizzed, and in that company I could notendure it. 

"We have a saying, sir, " I said, "that the farmyard fowl does not fearthe eagle. The men who look grave just now are not those who livesnugly in coast manors, but the outland folk who have to keep theirdoors with their own hands. "

It was a rude speech, and my hard voice and common clothes made itruder. The gentleman fired in a second, and with blazing eyes asked meif I intended an insult. I was about to say that he could take whatmeaning he pleased, when an older man broke in with, "Tush, Charles, let the fellow alone. You cannot quarrel with a shopman. "

"I thank you, George, for a timely reminder, " said my gentleman, and heturned away his head with a motion of sovereign contempt. 

"Come, come, sirs, " Colonel Beverley cried, "remember the sacred law ofhospitality. You are all my guests, and you have a lady here, whosebright eyes should be a balm for controversies. "

The Governor had sat with his lips closed and his eyes roving thetable. He dearly loved a quarrel, and was minded to use me to baitthose whom he liked little. 

"What is all this talk about gentility?" he said. "A man is as good ashis brains and his right arm, and no better. I am of the creed of theLevellers, who would have a man stand stark before his Maker. "

He could not have spoken words better calculated to set the companyagainst me. My host looked glum and disapproving, and all the silkengentlemen murmured. The Virginian cavalier had as pretty a notion ofthe worth of descent as any Highland land-louper. Indeed, to be honest, I would have controverted the Governor myself, for I have ever heldthat good blood is a mighty advantage to its possessor. 

Suddenly the grave man who sat by Miss Elspeth's side spoke up. By thistime I had remembered that he was Doctor James Blair, the lately comecommissary of the diocese of London, who represented all that Virginiahad in the way of a bishop. He had a shrewd, kind face, like a Scotsdominie, and a mouth that shut as tight as the Governor's. 

"Your tongue proclaims you my countryman, sir, " he said. "Did I hearright that your name was Garvald?"

"Of Auchencairn?" he asked, when I had assented. 

"Of Auchencairn, or what is left of it, " I said. 

"Then, gentlemen, " he said, addressing the company, "I can settle thedispute on the facts, without questioning his Excellency's dogma. Mr. Garvald is of as good blood as any in Scotland. And that, " said hefirmly, "means that in the matter of birth he can hold up his head inany company in any Christian land. "

I do not think this speech made any man there look on me with greaterfavour, but it enormously increased my own comfort. I have never feltsuch a glow of gratitude as then filled my heart to the staid cleric. That he was of near kin to Miss Elspeth made it tenfold sweeter. Iforgot my old clothes and my uncouth looks; I forgot, too, myirritation with the brocaded gentleman. If her kin thought me worthy, Icared not a bodle for the rest of mankind. 

Presently we rose from table, and Colonel Beverley summoned us to theGreen Parlour, where Miss Elspeth was brewing a dish of chocolate, thena newfangled luxury in the dominion. I would fain have made my escape, for if my appearance was unfit for a dining-hall, it was an outrage ina lady's withdrawing-room. But Doctor Blair came forward to me andshook me warmly by the hand, and was full of gossip about Clydesdale, from which apparently he had been absent these twenty years. "My niecebade me bring you to her, " he said. "She, poor child, is a happy exile, but she has now and then an exile's longings. A Scots tongue ispleasant in her ear. "

So I perforce had to follow him into a fine room with an oaken floor, whereon lay rich Smyrna rugs and the skins of wild beasts from thewood. There was a prodigious number of soft couches of flowered damask, and little tables inlaid with foreign woods and jeweller's work. 'Twaswell enough for your fine gentleman in his buckled shoes and silkstockings to enter such a place, but for myself, in my coarse boots, Iseemed like a colt in a flower garden. The girl sat by a brazier ofcharcoal, with the scarlet-coated negro at hand doing her commands. Shewas so busy at the chocolate making that when her uncle said, "Elspeth, I have brought you Mr. Garvald, " she had no hand to give me. She lookedup and smiled, and went on with the business, while I stood awkwardlyby, the scorn of the assured gentlemen around me. 

By and by she spoke: "You and I seem fated to meet in odd places. Firstit was at Carnwath in the rain, and then at the Cauldstaneslap in amotley company. Then I think it was in the Tolbooth, Mr. Garvald, whenyou were very gruff to your deliverer. And now we are both exiles, andonce more you step in like a bogle out of the night. Will you taste mychocolate?"

She served me first, and I could see how little the favour was to theliking of her little retinue of courtiers. My silken gentleman, whosename was Grey, broke in on us abruptly. 

"What is this story, sir, of Indian dangers? You are new to thecountry, or you would know that it is the old cry of the landless andthe lawless. Every out-at-elbows republican makes it a stick to beatHis Majesty. "

"Are you a republican, Mr. Garvald?" she asked. "Now that I remember, Ihave seen you in Whiggamore company. "

"Why, no, " I said. "I do not meddle with politics. I am a merchant, andam well content with any Government that will protect my trade and myperson. "

A sudden perversity had taken me to show myself at my most prosaic andunromantic. I think it was the contrast with the glamour of those finegentlemen. I had neither claim nor desire to be of their company, andto her I could make no pretence. 

He laughed scornfully. "Yours is a noble cause, " he said. "But you maysleep peacefully in your bed, sir. Be assured that there are a thousandgentlemen of Virginia whose swords will leap from their scabbards at abreath of peril, on behalf of their women and their homes. And these, "he added, taking snuff from a gold box, "are perhaps as potent spurs toaction as the whims of a busybody or the gains of a house-keepingtrader. "

I was determined not to be provoked, so I answered nothing. But MissElspeth opened her eyes and smiled sweetly upon the speaker. 

"La, Mr. Grey, I protest you are too severe. Busybody--well, it may be. I have found Mr. Garvald very busy in other folks' affairs. But I doassure you he is no house-keeper, I have seen him in desperate conflictwith savage men, and even with His Majesty's redcoats. If trouble evercomes to Virginia, you will find him, I doubt not, a very boldmoss-trooper. "

It was the, light, laughing tone I remembered well, but now it did notvex me. Nothing that she could say or do could break the spell thathad fallen on my heart, "I pray it may be so, " said Mr. Grey as heturned aside. 

By this time the Governor had come forward, and I saw that my presencewas no longer desired. I wanted to get back to Shalah and solitude. Thecold bed on the shore would be warmed for me by happy dreams. So Ifound my host, and thanked him for my entertainment. He gave megood-evening hastily, as if he were glad to be rid of me. 

At the hall door some one tapped me on the shoulder, and I turned tofind my silken cavalier. 

"It seems you are a gentleman, sir, " he said, "so I desire a word withyou. Your manners at table deserved a whipping, but I will condescendto forget them. But a second offence shall be duly punished. " He spokein a high, lisping voice, which was the latest London importation. 

I looked him square in the eyes. He was maybe an inch taller than me, ahandsome fellow, with a flushed, petulant face and an overweening pridein his arched brows. 

"By all means let us understand each other, " I said. "I have no wish toquarrel with you. Go your way and I will go mine, and there need be notrouble. "

"That is precisely the point, " said he. "I do not choose that your wayshould take you again to the side of Miss Elspeth Blair. If it does, weshall quarrel. "

It was the height of flattery. At last I had found a fine gentleman whodid me the honour to regard me with jealous eyes. I laughed loudly withdelight. 

He turned and strolled back to the company. Still laughing, I passedfrom the house, lit my lantern, and plunged into the sombre woods. 

CHAPTER XI. 

GRAVITY OUT OF BED. 

A week later I had a visit from old Mercer. He came to my house in theevening just after the closing of the store. First of all, he paid outto me the gold I had lost from my ship at Accomac, with all the gravityin the world, as if it had been an ordinary merchant's bargain. Then heproduced some papers, and putting on big horn spectacles, proceeded toinstruct me in them. They were lists, fuller than those I had alreadygot, of men up and down the country whom Lawrence trusted. Some I hadmet, many I knew of, but two or three gave me a start. There was aplanter in Henricus who had treated me like dirt, and some names fromEssex county that I did not expect. Especially there were several inJames Town itself--one a lawyer body I had thought the obedient serf ofthe London merchants, one the schoolmaster, and another a drunkenskipper of a river boat. But what struck me most was the name ofColonel Beverley. 

"Are you sure of all these?" I asked. 

"Sure as death, " he said. "I'm not saying that they're all friends ofyours, Mr. Garvald. Ye've trampled on a good wheen toes since you cameto these parts. But they're all men to ride the ford with, if thatshould come which we ken of. "

Some of the men on the list were poor settlers, and it was our businessto equip them with horse and gun. That was to be my special duty--thatand the establishing of means by which they could be summoned quickly. With the first Mercer could help me, for he had his hand on all thelines of the smuggling business, and there were a dozen ports on thecoast where he could land arms. Horses were an easy matter, requiringonly the doling out of money. But the summoning business was to be myparticular care. I could go about the country in my ordinary way oftrade without exciting suspicion, and my house was to be the rendezvousof every man on the list who wanted news or guidance. 

"Can ye trust your men?" Mercer asked, and I replied that Faulkner wasas staunch as cold steel, and that he had picked the others. 

"Well, let's see your accommodation, " and the old fellow hopped to hisfeet, and was out of doors before I could get the lantern. 

Mercer on a matter of this sort was a different being from the decayedlandlord of the water-side tavern. His spectacled eyes peeredeverywhere, and his shrewd sense judged instantly of a thing's value. He approved of the tobacco-shed as a store for arms, for he could reachit from the river by a little-used road through the woods. It was easyso to arrange, the contents that a passing visitor could guess nothing, and no one ever penetrated to its recesses but Faulkner and myself. Isummoned Faulkner to the conference, and told him his duties, which, heundertook with sober interest. He was a dry stick from Fife, who spokeseldom and wrought mightily. 

Faulkner attended to Mercer's consignments, and I took once more to theroad. I had to arrange that arms from the coast or the river-sidescould be sent inland, and for this purpose I had a regiment of packhorses that delivered my own stores as well. I had to visit all the menon the list whom I did not know, and a weary job it was. I repeatedagain my toil of the first year, and in the hot Virginian summer rodethe length and breadth of the land. My own business prospered hugely, and I bought on credit such a stock of tobacco as made me write myuncle for a fourth ship at the harvest sailing. It seemed a strangething, I remember, to be bargaining for stuff which might never bedelivered, for by the autumn the dominion might be at death grips. 

In those weeks I discovered what kind of force Lawrence leaned on. Hewho only knew James Town and the rich planters knew little of the trueVirginia. There were old men who had long memories of Indian fights, and men in their prime who had risen with Bacon, and young men who hadtheir eyes turned to the unknown West. There were new-comers fromScotland and North Ireland, and a stout band of French Protestants, most of them gently born, who had sought freedom for their faith beyondthe sway of King Louis. You cannot picture a hardier or more spiritedrace than the fellows I thus recruited. The forest settler who swung anaxe all day for his livelihood could have felled the ordinary finegentleman with one blow of his fist. And they could shoot too, withtheir rusty matchlocks or clumsy snaphances. In some few the motive wasfear, for they had seen or heard of the tender mercies of the savages. But in most, I think, it was a love of bold adventure, and especiallythe craving to push the white man's province beyond the narrow bordersof the Tidewater. If you say that this was something more than defence, I claim that the only way to protect a country is to make sure of itsenvirons. What hope is there of peace if your frontier is the rim of anunknown forest?

My hardest task was to establish some method of sending news to theoutland dwellers. For this purpose I had to consort with queer folk. Shalah, who had become my second shadow, found here and there littleIndian camps, from which he chose young men as messengers. In one placeI would get a settler with a canoe, in another a woodman with a fasthorse; and in a third some lad who prided himself on his legs. The rarecountry taverns were a help, for most of their owners were in thesecret. The Tidewater is a flat forest region, so we could not lightbeacons as in a hilly land. But by the aid of Shalah's woodcraft Iconcocted a set of marks on trees and dwellings which would speak alanguage to any initiate traveller. The Indians, too, had their ownsilent tongue, by which they could send messages over many leagues in ashort space. I never learned the trick of it, though I tried hard withShalah as interpreter; for that you must have been suckled in a wigwam. 

When I got back to James Town, Faulkner would report on his visitors, and he seems to have had many. Rough fellows would ride up at thedarkening, bringing a line from Mercer, or more often an agreedpassword, and he had to satisfy their wants and remember their news. Sofar I had had no word from Lawrence, though Mercer reported that Ringanwas still sending arms. That tobacco-shed of mine would have made abrave explosion if some one had kindled it, and, indeed, the thing morethan once was near happening through a negro's foolishness. I spent allmy evenings, when at home, in making a map of the country. I had got arough chart from the Surveyor-General, and filled up such parts as Iknew, and over all I spread a network of lines which meant my ways ofsending news. For instance, to get to a man in Essex county, the wordwould be passed by Middle Plantation to York Ferry. Thence in anIndian's canoe it would be carried to Aird's store on the Mattaponey, from which a woodman would take it across the swamps to a clump ofhemlocks. There he would make certain marks, and a long-legged lad fromthe Rappahannock, riding by daily to school, would carry the tidings tothe man I wanted. And so forth over the habitable dominion. Icalculated that there were not more than a dozen of Lawrence's men whowithin three days could not get the summons and within five be at theproper rendezvous. 

One evening I was surprised by a visit from Colonel Beverley. He cameopenly on a fine bay horse with two mounted negroes as attendants. Ihad parted from him dryly, and had been surprised to find that he wasone of us; but when I had talked with him a little, it appeared that hehad had a big share in planning the whole business. We mentioned nonames, but I gathered that he knew Lawrence, and was at least aware ofRingan. He warned me, I remember, to be on my guard against some of theyoung bloods, who might visit me to make mischief. "It's not that theyknow anything of our affairs, " he said, "but that they have got aprejudice against yourself, Mr. Garvald. They are foolish, hot-headedlads, very puffed up by their pride of gentrice, and I do not like thenotion of their playing pranks in that tobacco-shed. "

I asked him a question which had long puzzled me, why the naturaldefence of a country should be kept so secret. "The Governor, at anyrate, " I said, "would approve, and we are not asking the burgesses fora single guinea. "

"Yes, but the Governor would play a wild hand, " was the answer. "Hewould never permit the thing to go on quietly, but would want to rideat the head of the men, and the whole fat would be in the fire. Youmust know. Mr. Garvald, that politics run high in our Virginia. Thereare scores of men who would see in our enterprise a second attempt likeBacon's, and, though they might approve of our aims, would never hearof one of Bacon's folk serving with us. I was never a Bacon's man, forI was with Berkeley in Accomac and at the taking of James Town, but Iknow the quality of the rough fellows that Bacon led, and I want themall for this adventure. Besides, who can deny that there is more in ourplans than a defence against Indians? There are many who feel with methat Virginia can never grow to the fullness of a nation so long as sheis cooped up in the Tidewater. New-comers arrive by every ship fromEngland, and press on into the wilderness. But there can be no conquestof the wilderness till we have broken the Indian menace, and pushed ourfrontier up to the hills--ay, and beyond them. But tell that to theordinary planter, and he will assign you to the devil. He fears thesenew-comers, who are simple fellows that do not respect his grandeur. Hefears that some day they may control the assembly by their votes. Hewants the Tidewater to be his castle, with porters and guards to houndaway strangers. Man alive, if you had tried to put reason into some oftheir heads, you would despair of human nature. Let them get a hint ofour preparations, and there will be petitions to Council and a howlingabout treason, and in a week you will be in gaol, Mr. Garvald. So wemust move cannily, as you Scots say. "

That conversation made me wary, and I got Faulkner to keep a specialguard on the place when I was absent. At the worst, he could summonMercer, who would bring a rough crew from the water-side to his aid. Then once more I disappeared into the woods. 

In these days a new Shalah revealed himself. I think he had beenwatching me closely for the past months, and slowly I had won hisapproval. He showed it by beginning to talk as he loped by my side inour forest wanderings. The man was like no Indian I have ever seen. Hewas a Senecan, and so should have been on the side of the Long House;but it was plain that he was an outcast from his tribe, and, indeed, from the whole Indian brotherhood. I could not fathom him, for heseemed among savages to be held in deep respect, and yet here he was, the ally of the white man against his race. His lean, supple figure, his passionless face, and his high, masterful air had a singularnobility in them. To me he was never the servant, scarcely even thecompanion, for he seemed like a being from another world, who had aknowledge of things hid from human ken. In woodcraft he was a masterbeyond all thought of rivalry. Often, when time did not press, he wouldlead me, clumsy as I was, so that I could almost touch the muzzle of acrouching deer, or lay a hand on a yellow panther, before it slippedlike a live streak of light into the gloom. He was an eery fellow, too. Once I found him on a high river bank at sunset watching the red glowbehind the blue shadowy forest. 

"There is blood in the West, " he said, pointing like a prophet with hislong arm, "There is blood in the hills which is flowing to the waters. At the Moon of Stags it will flow, and by the Moon of Wildfowl it willhave stained the sea. "

He had always the hills at the back of his head. Once, when we caught aglimpse of them from a place far up the James River, he stood like astatue gazing at the thin line which hung like a cloud in the west. Iam upland bred, and to me, too, the sight was a comfort as I stoodbeside him. 

"The _Manitou_ in the hills is calling, " he said abruptly. "I wait alittle, but not long. You too will follow, brother, to where the hawkswheel and the streams fall in vapour. There we shall find death orlove, I know not which, but it will be a great finding. The gods havewritten it on my heart. "

Then he turned and strode away, and I did not dare to question him. There was that about him which stirred my prosaic soul into a wildpoetry, till for the moment I saw with his eyes, and heard strangevoices in the trees. 

Apart from these uncanny moods he was the most faithful helper in mytask. Without him I must have been a mere child. I could not read thelore of the forest; I could not have found my way as he found itthrough pathless places. From him, too, I learned that we were not tomake our preparations unwatched. 

Once, as we were coming from the Rappahannock to the York, he dartedsuddenly into the undergrowth below the chestnuts. My eye could see noclue on the path, and, suspecting nothing, I waited on him to return. Presently he came, and beckoned me to follow. Thirty yards into thecoppice we found a man lying dead, with a sharp stake holding him tothe ground, and a raw, red mass where had been once his head. 

"That was your messenger, brother, " he whispered, "the one who was tocarry word from the Mattaponey to the north. See, he has been dead fortwo suns. "

He was one of the tame Algonquins who dwelt by Aird's store. 

"Who did it?" I asked, with a very sick stomach. 

"A Cherokee. Some cunning one, and he left a sign to guide us. "

He showed me a fir-cone he had picked up from the path, with the sharpend cut short and a thorn stuck in the middle. 

The thing disquieted me horribly, for we had heard no word yet of anymovement from the West. And yet it seemed that our enemy's scouts hadcome far down into the Tidewater, and knew enough to single out fordeath a man we had enrolled for service. Shalah slipped off without aword, and I was left to continue my journey alone. I will not pretendthat I liked the business. I saw an Indian in every patch of shadow, and looked pretty often to my pistols before I reached the security ofAird's house. 

Four days later Shalah appeared at James Town. "They were three, " hesaid simply. "They came from the hills a moon ago, and have been makingbad trouble on the Rappahannock. I found them at the place above thebeaver traps of the Ooniche. They return no more to their people. "

After that we sent out warnings, and kept a close eye on the differentlodges of the Algonquins. But nothing happened till weeks later, whenthe tragedy on the Rapidan fell on us like a thunderclap. 

 * * * * *

All this time I had been too busy to go near the town or thehorse-racings and holiday meetings where I might have seen Elspeth. ButI do not think she was ever many minutes out of my mind. Indeed, I wasalmost afraid of a meeting, lest it should shatter the bright picturewhich comforted my solitude. But one evening in June as I jogged homefrom Middle Plantation through the groves of walnuts, I came suddenlyat the turn of the road on a party. Doctor James Blair, mounted on astout Flanders cob, held the middle of the path, and at his side rodethe girl, while two servants followed with travelling valises. I wasupon them before I could rein up, and the Doctor cried a heartygood-day. So I took my place by Elspeth, and, with my heart beatingwildly, accompanied them through the leafy avenues and by the greenmelon-beds in the clearings till we came out on the prospect of theriver. 

The Doctor had a kindness for me, and was eager to talk of his doings. He was almost as great a moss-trooper as myself, and, with Elspeth forcompany, had visited near every settlement in the dominion. Educationand Christian privileges were his care, and he deplored the backwardstate of the land. I remember that even then he was full of his schemefor a Virginian college to be established at Middle Plantation, and hewrote weekly letters to his English friends soliciting countenance andfunds. Of the happy issue of these hopes, and the great college whichnow stands at Williamsburg, there is no need to remind this generation. 

But in that hour I thought little of education. The Doctor boomed awayin his deep voice, and I gave him heedless answers. My eyes were everwandering to the slim figure at my side. She wore a broad hat of straw, I remember, and her skirt and kirtle were of green, the fairies'colour. I think she was wearied with the sun, for she spoke little; buther eyes when they met mine were kind. That day I was not ashamed of myplain clothes or my homely face, for they suited well with the road. Mygreat boots of untanned buckskin were red with dust, I was bronzed likean Indian, and the sun had taken the colour out of my old blue coat. But I smacked of travel and enterprise, which to an honest heart aredearer than brocade. Also I had a notion that my very homelinessrevived in her the memories of our common motherland. I had nothing tosay, having acquired the woodland habit of silence, and perhaps it waswell. My clumsy tongue would have only broken the spell which thesunlit forests had woven around us. 

As we reached my house a cavalier rode up with a bow and a splendidsweep of his hat. 'Twas my acquaintance, Mr. Grey, come to greet thetravellers. Elspeth gave me her hand at parting, and I had from thecavalier the finest glance of hate and jealousy which ever comfortedthe heart of a backward lover. 

CHAPTER XII. 

A WORD AT THE HARBOUR-SIDE. 

The next Sunday I was fool enough to go to church, for Doctor Blair wasannounced to preach the sermon. Now I knew very well what treatment Ishould get, and that it takes a stout fellow to front a conspiracy ofscorn. But I had got new courage from my travels, so I put on my bestsuit of murrey-coloured cloth, my stockings of cherry silk, the goldbuckles which had been my father's, my silk-embroidered waistcoat, freshly-ironed ruffles, and a new hat which had cost forty shillings inLondon town. I wore my own hair, for I never saw the sense of a wigsave for a bald man, but I had it deftly tied. I would have cut a greatfigure had there not been my bronzed and rugged face to give the lie tomy finery. 

It was a day of blistering heat. The river lay still as a lagoon, andthe dusty red roads of the town blazed like a furnace. Before I had gotto the church door I was in a great sweat, and stopped in the porch tofan myself. Inside 'twas cool enough, with a pleasant smell from thecedar pews, but there was such a press of a congregation that many wereleft standing. I had a good place just below the choir, where I saw theGovernor's carved chair, with the Governor's self before it on hiskneeling-cushion making pretence to pray. Round the choir rail andbelow the pulpit clustered many young exquisites, for this was asovereign place from which to show off their finery. I could not get asight of Elspeth. 

Doctor Blair preached us a fine sermon from the text, "_My people shalldwell in a pleasant habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quietresting-places!"_ But his hearers were much disturbed by the continualchatter of the fools about the choir rail. Before he had got to thePrayer of Chrysostom the exquisites were whispering like pigeons in adovecot, exchanging snuff-boxes, and ogling the women. So intolerableit grew that the Doctor paused in his discourse and sternly rebukedthem, speaking of the laughter of fools which is as the crackling ofthorns under a pot. This silenced them for a little, but the noisebroke out during the last prayer, and with the final word of theBenediction my gentlemen thrust their way through the congregation, that they might be the first at the church door. I have never seen sounseemly a sight, and for a moment I thought that Governor Nicholsonwould call the halberdiers and set them in the pillory. He refrained, though his face was dark with wrath, and I judged that there would besome hard words said before the matter was finished. 

I must tell you that during the last week I had been coming more intofavour with the prosperous families of the colony. Some one may havespoken well of me, perhaps the Doctor, or they may have seen thejustice of my way of trading. Anyhow, I had a civil greeting fromseveral of the planters, and a bow from their dames. But no sooner wasI in the porch than I saw that trouble was afoot with the young bloods. They were drawn up on both sides the path, bent on quizzing me. Isternly resolved to keep my temper, but I foresaw that it would not beeasy. 

"Behold the shopman in his Sunday best, " said one. 

"I thought that Sawney wore bare knees on his dirty hills, " saidanother. 

One pointed to my buckles. "Pinchbeck out of the store, " he says. 

"Ho, ho, such finery!" cried another. "See how he struts like agamecock. "

"There's much ado when beggars ride, " said a third, quoting theproverb. 

It was all so pitifully childish that it failed to provoke me. Imarched down the path with a smile on my face, which succeeded inangering them. One young fool, a Norton from Malreward, would havehustled me, but I saw Mr. Grey hold him back. "No brawling here, Austin, " said my rival. 

They were not all so discreet. One of the Kents of Gracedieu tried totrip me by thrusting his cane between my legs. But! was ready for him, and, pulling up quick and bracing my knees, I snapped the thing short, so that he was left to dangle the ivory top. 

Then he did a wild thing. He flung the remnant at my face, so that theragged end scratched my cheek. When I turned wrathfully I found acircle of grinning faces. 

It is queer how a wound, however slight, breaks a man's temper andupsets his calm resolves, I think that then and there I would have beeninvolved in a mellay, had not a voice spoke behind me. 

"Mr. Garvald, " it said, "will you give me the favour of your arm? Wedine to-day with his Excellency. "

I turned to find Elspeth, and close behind her Doctor Blair andGovernor Nicholson. 

All my heat left me, and I had not another thought for my tormentors. In that torrid noon she looked as cool and fragrant as a flower. Herclothes were simple compared with the planters' dames, but of a farmore dainty fashion. She wore, I remember, a gown of pale spriggedmuslin, with a blue kerchief about her shoulders and blue ribbonsin her wide hat. As her hand lay lightly on my arm I did not thinkof my triumph, being wholly taken up with the admiration of her grace. The walk was all too short, for the Governor's lodging was but astone's-throw distant. When we parted at the door I hoped to find someof my mockers still lingering, for in that hour I think I could haveflung any three of them into the river. 

None were left, however, and as I walked homewards I reflected veryseriously that the baiting of Andrew Garvald could not endure for long. Pretty soon I must read these young gentry a lesson, little though Iwanted to embroil myself in quarrels. I called them "young" in scorn, but few of them, I fancy, were younger than myself. 

Next day, as it happened, I had business with Mercer at the water-side, and as I returned along the harbour front I fell in with the Receiverof Customs, who was generally called the Captain of the Castle, fromhis station at Point Comfort. He was an elderly fellow who had oncebeen a Puritan, and still cherished a trace of the Puritan modes ofspeech. I had often had dealings with him, and had found him honest, though a thought truculent in manner. He had a passion against allsmugglers and buccaneers, and, in days to come, was to do good servicein ridding Accomac of these scourges. He feared God, and did notgreatly fear much else. 

He was sitting on the low wall smoking a pipe, and had by him a verysingular gentleman. Never have I set eyes on a more decorous merchant. He was habited neatly and soberly in black, with a fine white cravatand starched shirt-bands. He wore a plain bob-wig below a hugeflat-brimmed hat, and big blue spectacles shaded his eyes. His mouthwas as precise as a lawyer's, and altogether he was a very whimsical, dry fellow to find at a Virginian port. 

The Receiver called me to him and asked after a matter which we hadspoken of before. Then he made me known to his companion, who was a Mr. Fairweather, a merchant out of Boston. 

"The Lord hath given thee a pleasant dwelling, friend, " said thestranger, snuffling a little through his nose. 

From his speech I knew that Mr. Fairweather was of the sect of theQuakers, a peaceable race that Virginia had long ill-treated. 

"The land is none so bad, " said the Receiver, "but the people are aperverse generation. Their hearts are set on vanity, and puffed up withpride. I could wish, Mr. Fairweather, that my lines had fallen amongyour folk in the north, where, I am told, true religion yetflourisheth. Here we have nothing but the cold harangues of theCommissary, who seeketh after the knowledge that perisheth rather thanthe wisdom which is eternal life. "

"Patience, friend, " said the stranger. "Thee is not alone in thycrosses. The Lord hath many people up Boston way, but they are sorebeset by the tribulations of Zion. On land there is war and rumour ofwar, and on the sea the ships of the godly are snatched by every mannerof ocean thief. Likewise we have dissension among ourselves, and aconstant strife with the froward human heart. Still is Jerusalemtroubled, and there is no peace within her bulwarks. "

"Do the pirates afflict you much in the north?" asked the Receiver withkeen interest. The stranger turned his large spectacles upon him, andthen looked blandly at me. Suddenly I had a notion that I had seen thatturn of the neck and poise of the head before. 

"Woe is me, " he cried in a stricken voice. "The French have two fairvessels of mine since March, and a third is missing. Some say it ranfor a Virginian port, and I am here to seek it. Heard thee ever, friend, of a strange ship in the James or the Potomac?"

"There be many strange ships, " said the Receiver, "for this dominion isthe goal for all the wandering merchantmen of the earth. What was thename of yours?"

"A square-rigged schooner out of Bristol, painted green, with a whitefigurehead of a winged heathen god. "

"And the name?"

"The name is a strange one. It is called _The Horn of Diarmaid_, but Iseek to prevail on the captain to change it to _The Horn of Mercy_. "

"No such name is known to me, " and the Receiver shook his head. "But Iwill remember it, and send you news. "

I hope I did not betray my surprise, but for all that it wasstaggering. Of all disguises and of all companies this was the mostcomic and the most hazardous. I stared across the river till I hadmastered my countenance, and when I looked again at the two they weresoberly discussing the harbour dues of Boston. 

Presently the Receiver's sloop arrived to carry him to Point Comfort. He nodded to me, and took an affectionate farewell of the Boston man. Iheard some good mouth-filling texts exchanged between them. 

Then, when we were alone, the Quaker turned to me. "Man, Andrew, " hesaid, "it was a good thing that I had a Bible upbringing. I can managethe part fine, but I flounder among the 'thees' and 'thous. ' I would bethe better of a drink to wash my mouth of the accursed pronouns. Willyou be alone to-night about the darkening? Then I'll call in to seeyou, for I've much to tell you. "

 * * * * *

That evening about nine the Quaker slipped into my room. 

"How about that tobacco-shed?" he asked. "Is it well guarded?"

"Faulkner and one of the men sleep above it, and there are a couple offierce dogs chained at the door. Unless they know the stranger, he willbe apt to lose the seat of his breeches. "

The Quaker nodded, well pleased. "That is well, for I heard word in thetown that to-night you might have a visitor or two. " Then he walked toa stand of arms on the wall and took down a small sword, which hehandled lovingly. "A fair weapon, Andrew, " said he. "My new sectforbids me to wear a blade, but I think I'll keep this handy beside mein the chimney corner. "

Then he gave me the news. Lawrence had been far inland with theMonacans, and had brought back disquieting tales. The whole nation ofthe Cherokees along the line of the mountains was unquiet. Old familyfeuds had been patched up, and there was a coming and going ofmessengers from Chickamauga to the Potomac. 

"Well, we're ready for them, " I said, and I told him the full story ofour preparations. 

"Ay, but that is not all. I would not give much for what the Cherokeesand the Tuscaroras could do. There might be some blood shed and a goodfew blazing roof-trees in the back country, but no Indian raid wouldstand against our lads. But I have a notion--maybe it's only a notion, though Lawrence is half inclined to it himself--that there's more inthis business than a raid from the hills. There's something stirring inthe West, away in the parts that no White man has ever travelled. Fromwhat I learn there's a bigger brain than an Indian's behind it. "

"The French?" I asked. 

"Maybe, but maybe not. What's to hinder a blackguard like Cosh, withten times Cosh's mind, from getting into the Indian councils, andturning the whole West loose on the Tidewater??

"Have you any proof?" I asked, much alarmed. 

"Little at present. But one thing I know. There's a man among thetribes that speaks English. "

"Great God, what a villain!" I cried, "But how do you know?"

"Just this way. The Monacans put an arrow through the neck of a youngbrave, and they found this in his belt. "

He laid before me a bit of a printed Bible leaf. About half was blankpaper, for it came at the end of the Book of Revelation. On the blankpart some signs had been made in rude ink which I could not understand. 

"But this is no proof, " I said. "It's only a relic from some plunderedsettlement. Can you read those marks?"

"I cannot, nor could the Monacans. But look at the printed part. "

I looked again, and saw that some one had very carefully underlinedcertain words. These made a sentence, and read, "_John, servant of theprophecy, is at hand. _"

"The underlining may have been done long ago, " I hazarded. 

"No, the ink is not a month old, " he said, and I could do nothing butgape. 

"Well what's your plan?" I said at last. 

"None, but I would give my right hand to know what is behind the hills. That's our weakness, Andrew. We have to wait here, and since we do notknow the full peril, we cannot fully prepare. There may be mischiefafoot which would rouse every sleepy planter out of bed, and turn theTidewater into an armed camp. But we know nothing. If we had only ascout--". 

"What about Shalah?" I asked. 

"Can you spare him?" he replied; and I knew I could not. 

"I see nothing for it, " I said, "but to wait till we are ready, andthen to make a reconnaissance, trusting to be in time. This is thefirst week of July. In another fortnight every man on our list will bearmed, and every line of communication laid. Then is our chance to makea bid for news. "

He nodded, and at that moment came the growling of dogs from the sheds. Instantly his face lost its heavy preoccupation, and under his Quaker'smask became the mischievous countenance of a boy. "That's yourfriends, " he said. "Now for a merry meeting. "

In the sultry weather I had left open window and door, and every soundcame clear from the outside. I heard the scuffling of feet, and someconfused talk, and presently there stumbled into my house half a dozenwild-looking figures. They blinked in the lamplight, and one begged toknow if "Mr. Garbled" were at home. All had decked themselves for thisplay in what they fancied was the dress of pirates--scarlet sashes, andnapkins or turbans round their heads, big boots, and masks over theireyes. I did not recognize a face, but I was pretty clear that Mr. Greywas not of the number, and I was glad, for the matter between him andme was too serious for this tomfoolery. All had been drinking, and oneat least was very drunk. He stumbled across the floor, and all but fellon Ringan in his chair. 

"Hullo, old Square-Toes, " he hiccupped; "what the devil are you?"

"Friend, thee is shaky on thy legs, " said Ringan, in a mild voice, "Itwere well for thee to be in bed. "

"Bed, " cried the roysterer; "no bed for me this night! Where is thatdamnable Scots packman?"

I rose very quietly, and lit another lamp. Then I shut the window, andclosed the shutters. "Here I am, " I said, "very much at your service, gentlemen. "

One or two of the sober ones looked a little embarrassed, but theleader, who I guessed was the youth from Gracedieu, was brave enough. 

"The gentlemen of Virginia, " he said loudly, "being resolved that theman Garvald is an offence to the dominion, have summoned the FreeCompanions to give him a lesson. If he will sign a bond to leave thecountry within a month, we are instructed to be merciful. If not, wehave here tar and feathers and sundry other adornments, and to-morrow'smorn will behold a pretty sight. Choose, you Scots swine. " In theexcess of his zeal, he smashed with the handle of his sword a clock Ihad but lately got from Glasgow. 

Ringan signed to me to keep my temper. He pretended to be in a greattaking. 

"I am a man of peace, " he cried, "but I cannot endure to see my friendoutraged. Prithee, good folk, go away. See, I will give thee a guineaeach to leave us alone. "

This had the desired effect of angering them. "Curse your money, " onecried. "You damned traders think that you can buy a gentleman. Takethat for your insult. " And he aimed a blow with the flat of his sword, which Ringan easily parried. 

"I had thought thee a pirate, " said the mild Quaker, "but thee tells methee is a gentleman. "

"Hold your peace, Square-Toes, " cried the leader, "and let's get tobusiness. "

"But if ye be gentlefolk, " pleaded Ringan, "ye will grant a fair field. I am no fighter, but I will stand by my friend. "

I, who had said nothing, now broke in. "It is a warm evening forsword-play, but if it is your humour, so be it. "

This seemed to them hugely comic. "La!" cried one. "Sawney with asword!" And he plucked forth his own blade, and bent it on the floor. 

Ringan smiled gently, "Thee must grant me the first favour, " he said, "for I am the challenger, if that be the right word of the carnallyminded. " And standing up, he picked up the blade from beside him, andbowed to the leader from Gracedieu. 

Nothing loath he engaged, and the others stood back expecting a highfiasco. They saw it. Ringan's sword played like lightning round thewretched youth, it twitched the blade from his grasp, and forced himback with a very white face to the door. In less than a minute, itseemed, he was there, and as he yielded so did the door, and hedisappeared into the night. He did not return, so I knew that Ringanmust have spoke a word to Faulkner. 

"Now for the next bloody-minded pirate, " cried Ringan, and the nextwith a very wry face stood up. One of the others would have joined in, but, crying, "For shame, a fair field, " I beat down his sword. 

The next took about the same time to reach the door, and disappearedinto the darkness, and the third about half as long. Of the remainingthree, one sulkily declined to draw, and the other two were over drunkfor anything. They sat on the floor and sang a loose song. 

"It seems, friends, " said the Quaker, "that ye be more ready with wordsthan with deeds. I pray thee"--this to the sober one--"take off thesegarments of sin. We be peaceful traders, and cannot abide the thoughtof pirates. "

He took them off, sash, breeches, jerkin, turban, and all, and stood upin his shirt. The other two I stripped myself, and so drunk were theythat they entered into the spirit of the thing, and themselves tore atthe buttons. Then with Ringan's sword behind them, the three marchedout of doors. 

There we found their companions stripped and sullen, with Faulkner andthe men to guard them. We made up neat parcels of their clothes, and Iextorted their names, all except one who was too far gone in drink. 

"To-morrow, gentlemen, " I said, "I will send back your belongings, together with the tar and feathers, which you may find useful someother day. The night is mild, and a gentle trot will keep you fromtaking chills. I should recommend hurry, for in five minutes the dogswill be loosed. A pleasant journey to you. "

They moved off, and then halted and apparently were for returning. Butthey thought better of it, and presently they were all six of themracing and stumbling down the hill in their shifts. 

The Quaker stretched his legs and lit a pipe. "Was it not a scurvytrick of fate, " he observed to the ceiling, "that these poor ladsshould come here for a night's fooling, and find the best sword in theFive Seas?"

CHAPTER XIII. 

I STUMBLE INTO A GREAT FOLLY. 

I never breathed a word about the night's doings, nor for diversreasons did Ringan; but the story got about, and the young fools werethe laughing-stock of the place. But there was a good deal of wrath, too, that a trader should have presumed so far, and I felt that thingswere gathering to a crisis with me. Unless I was to suffer endlesslythese petty vexations, I must find a bold stroke to end them. Itannoyed me that when so many grave issues were in the balance I shouldhave these troubles, as if a man should be devoured by midges whenwaiting on a desperate combat. 

The crisis came sooner than I looked for. There was to be a greathorse-racing at Middle Plantation the next Monday, which I had half amind to attend, for, though I cared nothing for the sport, it wouldgive me a chance of seeing some of our fellows from the York River. Onemorning I met Elspeth in the street of James Town, and she criedlaughingly that she looked to see me at the races. After that I had nochoice but go; so on the Monday morning I dressed myself with care, mounted my best horse, and rode to the gathering. 

'Twas a pretty sight to see the spacious green meadow, now a littleyellowing with the summer heat, set in the girdle of dark and leafyforest. I counted over forty chariots which had brought the rank of thecountryside, each with its liveried servant and its complement ofoutriders. The fringe of the course blazed with ladies' finery, and atent had been set up with a wide awning from which the fashionablescould watch the sport. On the edge of the woods a multitude of horseswere picketed, and there were booths that sold food and drink, merry-go-rounds and fiddlers, and an immense concourse of everycondition of folk, black slaves and water-side Indians, squatters fromthe woods, farmers from all the valleys, and the scum and ruck of theplantations. I found some of my friends, and settled my business withthem, but my eyes were always straying to the green awning where I knewthat Elspeth sat. 

I am no judge of racing, but I love the aspect of sleek, slim horses, and I could applaud a skill in which I had no share. I can keep myseat on most four-legged beasts, but my horsemanship is a clumsy, rough-and-ready affair, very different from the effortless grace of yourtrue cavalier. Mr. Grey's prowess, especially, filled me with awe. Hewould leap an ugly fence without moving an inch in his saddle, and bothin skill and the quality of his mounts he was an easy victor. The sightof such accomplishments depressed my pride, and I do not think I wouldhave ventured near the tent had it not been for the Governor. 

He saw me on the fringe of the crowd, and called me to him. "Whatbashfulness has taken you to-day, sir?" he cried, "That is not likeyour usual. There are twenty pretty dames here who pine for a word fromyou. "

I saw his purpose well enough. He loved to make mischief, and knew thatthe sight of me among the Virginian gentry would infuriate myunfriends. But I took him at his word and elbowed my way into theenclosure. 

Then I wished to Heaven I had stayed at home. I got insolent glancesfrom the youths, and the cold shoulder from the ladies. Elspeth smiledwhen she saw me, but turned the next second to gossip with her littlecourt. She was a devout lover of horses, and had eyes for nothing butthe racing. Her cheeks were flushed, and it was pretty to watch herexcitement; how she hung breathless on the movements of the field, andclapped her hands at a brave finish. Pretty, indeed, but exasperatingto one who had no part in that pleasant company. 

I stood gloomily by the rail at the edge of the ladies' awning, acutelyconscious of my loneliness. Presently Mr. Grey, whose racing was over, came to us, and had a favour pinned in his coat by Elspeth's fingers. He was evidently high in her good graces, for he sat down by her andtalked gleefully. I could not but admire his handsome eager face, andadmit with a bitter grudge that you would look long to find a comelierpair. 

All this did not soothe my temper, and after an hour of it I was indesperate ill-humour with the world. I had just reached the conclusionthat I had had as much as I wanted, when I heard Elspeth's voicecalling me. 

"Come hither, Mr. Garvald, " she said. "We have a dispute which a thirdmust settle. I favour the cherry, and Mr. Grey fancies the blue; but Imaintain that blue crowds cherry unfairly at the corners. Use youreyes, sir, at the next turning. "

I used my eyes, which are very sharp, and had no doubt of it. 

"That is a matter for the Master of the Course, " said Mr. Grey. "Willyou uphold your view before him, sir?"

I said that I knew too little of the sport to be of much weight as awitness. To this he said nothing, but offered to wager with me on theresult of the race, which was now all but ending. "Or no, " said he, "Ishould not ask you that. A trader is careful of his guineas. "

Elspeth did not hear, being intent on other things, and I merelyshrugged my shoulders, though my fingers itched for the gentleman'sears. 

In a little the racing ceased, and the ladies made ready to leave. Doctor Blair appeared, protesting that the place was not for his cloth, and gave Elspeth his arm to escort her to his coach. She cried a merrygood-day to us, and reminded Mr. Grey that he had promised to sup withthem on the morrow. When she had gone I spied a lace scarf which shehad forgotten, and picked it up to restore it. 

This did not please the other. He snatched it from me, and when Iproposed to follow, tripped me deftly, and sent me sprawling among thestools. As I picked myself up, I saw him running to overtake theBlairs. 

This time there was no discreet girl to turn the edge of my fury. Allthe gibes and annoyances of the past months rushed into my mind, andset my head throbbing. I was angry, but very cool with it all, for Isaw that the matter had now gone too far for tolerance. Unless I wereto be the butt of Virginia, I must assert my manhood. 

I nicked the dust from my coat, and walked quietly to where Mr. Greywas standing amid a knot of his friends, who talked of the races andtheir losses and gains. He saw me coming, and said something which madethem form a staring alley, down which I strolled. He kept regarding mewith bright, watchful eyes. 

"I have been very patient, sir, " I said, "but there is a limit to whata man may endure from a mannerless fool. " And I gave him a hearty slapon the face. 

Instantly there was a dead silence, in which the sound seemed to lingerintolerably. He had grown very white, and his eyes were wicked. 

"I am obliged to you, sir, " he said. "You are some kind of raggedgentleman, so no doubt you will give me satisfaction. "

"When and where you please, " I said sedately. 

"Will you name your friend now?" he asked. "These matters demand quicksettlement. "

To whom was I to turn? I knew nobody of the better class who would actfor me. For a moment I thought of Colonel Beverley, but his age anddignity were too great to bring him into this squabble of youth. Then anotion struck me. 

"If you will send your friend to my man, John Faulkner, he will makeall arrangements. He is to be found any day in my shop. "

With this defiance, I walked nonchalantly out of the dumbfounderedgroup, found my horse, and rode homewards. 

My coolness did not last many minutes, and long ere I had reached JamesTown I was a prey to dark forebodings. Here was I, a peaceful trader, who desired nothing more than to live in amity with all men, involvedin a bloody strife. I had sought it, and yet it had been none of myseeking. I had graver thoughts to occupy my mind than the punctilios ofidle youth, and yet I did not see how the thing could have beenshunned. It was my hard fate to come athwart an obstacle which couldnot be circumvented, but must be broken. No friend could help me in thebusiness, not Ringan, nor the Governor, nor Colonel Beverley. It was myown affair, which I must go through with alone. I felt as solitary as apelican. 

Remember, I was not fighting for any whimsy about honour, nor even forthe love of Elspeth. I had openly provoked Grey because the hostilityof the young gentry had become an intolerable nuisance in my dailylife. So, with such pedestrian reasons in my mind, I could have none ofthe heady enthusiasm of passion. I wanted him and his kind cleared outof my way, like a noisome insect, but I had no flaming hatred of him togive me heart. 

The consequence was that I became a prey to dismal fear. That braverywhich knows no ebb was never mine. Indeed, I am by nature timorous, formy fancy is quick, and I see with horrid clearness the incidents of aperil. Only a shamefaced conscience holds me true, so that, though Ihave often done temerarious deeds, it has always been because I fearedshame more than the risk, and my knees have ever been knocking togetherand my lips dry with fright. I tried to think soberly over the future, but could get no conclusion save that I would not do murder. Myconscience was pretty bad about the whole business. I was engaged inthe kind of silly conflict which I had been bred to abhor; I had noneof the common gentleman's notions about honour; and I knew that if byany miracle I slew Grey I should be guilty in my own eyes of murder. Iwould not risk the guilt. If God had determined that I should perishbefore my time, then perish I must. 

This despair brought me a miserable kind of comfort. When I reachedhome I went straight to Faulkner. 

"I have quarrelled to-day with a gentleman, John, and have promised himsatisfaction. You must act for me in the affair. Some one will come tosee you this evening, and the meeting had better be at dawn to-morrow. "

He opened his eyes very wide. "Who is it, then?" he asked. 

"Mr. Charles Grey of Grey's Hundred, " I replied. 

This made him whistle low, "He's a fine swordsman, " he said. "I neverheard there was any better in the dominion. You'll be to fight withswords?"

I thought hard for a minute. I was the challenged, and so had thechoice of weapons. "No, " said I, "you are to appoint pistols, for it ismy right. "

At this Faulkner slowly grinned. "It's a new weapon for these affairs. What if they'll not accept? But it's no business of mine, and I'llremember your wishes. " And the strange fellow turned again to hisaccounts. 

I spent the evening looking over my papers and making variousappointments in case I did not survive the morrow. Happily the work Ihad undertaken for Lawrence was all but finished, and of my ordinarybusiness Faulkner knew as much as myself. I wrote a letter to UncleAndrew, telling him frankly the situation, that he might know howlittle choice I had. It was a cold-blooded job making thesedispositions, and I hope never to have the like to do again. PresentlyI heard voices outside, and Faulkner came to the door with Mr. GeorgeMason, the younger, of Thornby, who passed for the chief buck inVirginia. He gave me a cold bow. 

"I have settled everything with this gentleman, but I would beg of you, sir, to reconsider your choice of arms. My friend will doubtless beready enough to humour you, but you have picked a barbarous weapon forChristian use. "

"It's my only means of defence, " I said. 

"Then you stick to your decision?"

"Assuredly, " said I, and, with a shrug of the shoulders, he departed. 

I did not attempt to sleep. Faulkner told me that we were to meet thenext morning half an hour after sunrise at a place in the forest a miledistant. Each man was to fire one shot, but two pistols were allowed incase of a misfire. All that night by the light of a lamp I got myweapons ready. I summoned to my recollection all the knowledge I hadacquired, and made sure that nothing should be lacking so far as humanskill would go. I had another pistol besides the one I called"Elspeth, " also made in Glasgow, but a thought longer in the barrel. For this occasion I neglected cartouches, and loaded in the old way. Itested my bullets time and again, and weighed out the powder as if ithad been gold dust. It was short range, so I made my charges small. Itried my old device of wrapping each bullet in soft wool smeared withbeeswax. All this passed the midnight hours, and then I lay down for alittle rest, but not for sleep. 

I was glad when Faulkner summoned me half an hour before sunrise. Iremember that I bathed head and shoulders in cold water, and verycarefully dressed myself in my best clothes. My pistols lay in the boxwhich Faulkner carried. I drank a glass of wine, and as we left I tooka long look at the place I had created, and the river now lit with thefirst shafts of morning. I wondered incuriously if I should ever see itagain. 

My tremors had all gone by now, and I was in a mood of cold, thoughtless despair. The earth had never looked so bright as we rodethrough the green aisles all filled with the happy song of birds. Oftenon such a morning I had started on a journey, with my heart gratefulfor the goodness of the world. Could I but keep the road, I should comein time to the swampy bank of the York; and then would follow thechestnut forest: and the wide marshes towards the Rappahannock; andeverywhere I should meet friendly human faces, and then at night Ishould eat a hunter's meal below the stars. But that was all past, andI was moving towards death in a foolish strife in which I had no heart, and where I could find no honour, I think I laughed aloud at myexceeding folly. 

We turned from the path into an alley which led to an open space on theedge of a derelict clearing. There, to my surprise, I found aconsiderable company assembled. Grey was there with his second, and adozen or more of his companions stood back in the shadow of the trees. The young blood of Virginia had come out to see the trader punished. 

During the few minutes while the seconds were busy pacing the courseand arranging for the signal, I had no cognizance of the world aroundme. I stood with abstracted eyes watching a grey squirrel in one of thebranches, and trying to recall a line I had forgotten in a song. Thereseemed to be two Andrew Garvalds that morning, one filled with animmense careless peace, and the other a weak creature who had lived solong ago as to be forgotten. I started when Faulkner came to place me, and followed him without a word. But as I stood up and saw Grey twentypaces off, turning up his wristbands and tossing his coat to a friend, I realized the business I had come on. A great flood of light wasrolling down the forest aisles, but it was so clear and pure that itdid not dazzle. I remember thinking in that moment how intolerable hadbecome the singing of birds. 

I deadened my heart to memories, took my courage in both hands, andforced myself to the ordeal. For it is an ordeal to face powder if youhave not a dreg of passion in you, and are resolved to make no return. I am left-handed, and so, in fronting my opponent, I exposed my heart. If Grey were the marksman I thought him, now was his chance forrevenge. 

My wits were calm now, and my senses very clear. I heard a man sayslowly that he would count three and then drop his kerchief, and at thedropping we should fire. Our eyes were on him as he lifted his hand andslowly began, --"One--two--"

Then I looked away, for the signal mattered nothing to me. I suddenlycaught Grey's eyes, and something whistled past my ear, cutting thelobe and shearing off a lock of hair. I did not heed it. What filled mymind was the sight of my enemy, very white and drawn in the face, holding a smoking pistol and staring at me. 

I emptied my pistol among the tree-tops. 

No one moved. Grey continued to stare, leaning a little forward, withhis lips working. 

Then I took from Faulkner my second pistol. My voice came out of mythroat, funnily cracked as if from long disuse. 

"Mr. Grey, " I cried, "I would not have you think that I cannot shoot. "

Forty yards from me on the edge of the covert a turkey stood, with itsfoolish, inquisitive head. The sound of the shots had brought the birdout to see what was going on. It stood motionless, blinking its eyes, the very mark I desired. 

I pointed to it with my right hand, flung forward my pistol, and fired. It rolled over as dead as stone, and Faulkner walked to pick it up. Heput back my pistols in the box, and we turned to seek the horses.... 

Then Grey came up to me. His mouth was hard-set, but the lines were notof pride. I saw that he too had been desperately afraid, and I rejoicedthat others beside me had been at breaking-point. 

"Our quarrel is at an end, sir?" he said, and his voice was hesitating. 

"Why, yes, " I said. "It was never my seeking, though I gave theoffence. "

"I have behaved like a cub, sir, " and he spoke loud, so that all couldhear. "You have taught me a lesson in gentility. Will you give me yourhand?"

I could find no words, and dumbly held out my right hand. 

"Nay, sir, " he said, "the other, the one that held the trigger. I countit a privilege to hold the hand of a brave man. "

I had been tried too hard, and was all but proving my bravery byweeping like a bairn. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

A WILD WAGER. 

That July morning in the forest gave me, if not popularity, at any ratepeace. I had made good my position. Henceforth the word went out that Iwas to be let alone. Some of the young men, indeed, showed signs ofaffecting my society, including that Mr. Kent of Gracedieu who had beenstripped by Ringan. The others treated me with courtesy, and I repliedwith my best manners. Most of them were of a different world to mine, and we could not mix, so 'twas right that our deportment should be thatof two dissimilar but amiable nations bowing to each other across afrontier. 

All this was a great ease, but it brought one rueful consequence. Elspeth grew cold to me. Women, I suppose, have to condescend, andprotect, and pity. When I was an outcast she was ready to shelter me;but now that I was in some degree of favour with others the need forthis was gone, and she saw me without illusion in all my angularity androughness. She must have heard of the duel, and jumped to theconclusion that the quarrel had been about herself, which was not thetruth. The notion irked her pride, that her name should ever be broughtinto the brawls of men. When I passed her in the streets she greeted mecoldly, and all friendliness had gone out of her eyes. 

 * * * * *

My days were so busy that I had little leisure for brooding, but at oddmoments I would fall into a deep melancholy. She had lived soconstantly in my thoughts that without her no project charmed me. Whatmattered wealth or fame, I thought, if she did not approve? Whatavailed my striving, if she were not to share in the reward? I was inthis mood when I was bidden by Doctor Blair to sup at his house. 

I went thither in much trepidation, for I feared a great company, inwhich I might have no chance of a word from her. But I found only theGovernor, who was in a black humour, and disputed every word that fellfrom the Doctor's mouth. This turned the meal into one long wrangle, inwhich the high fundamentals of government in Church and State weredebated by two choleric gentlemen. The girl and I had no share in theconversation; indeed, we were clearly out of place: so she could notrefuse when I proposed a walk in the garden. The place was all cool anddewy after the scorching day, and the bells of the flowers made the airheavy with fragrance. Somewhere near a man was playing on theflageolet, a light, pretty tune which set her feet tripping. 

I asked her bluntly wherein I had offended. 

"Offended!" she cried, "Why should I take offence? I see you once in ablue moon. You flatter yourself strangely, Mr. Garvald, if you thinkyou are ever in my thoughts. "

"You are never out of mine, " I said dismally. 

At this she laughed, something of the old elfin laughter which I hadheard on the wet moors. 

"A compliment!" she cried, "To be mixed up eternally with the weightsof tobacco and the prices of Flemish lace. You are growing a verypretty courtier, sir. "

"I am no courtier, " I said. "I think brave things of you, though I havenot the words to fit them. But one thing I will say to you. Since everyou sang to the boy that once was me your spell has been on my soul. And when I saw you again three months back that spell was changed fromthe whim of youth to what men call love. Oh, I know well there is nohope for me. I am not fit to tie your shoe-latch. But you have made afire in my cold life, and you will pardon me if I dare warm my hands. The sun is brighter because of you, and the flowers fairer, and thebirds' song sweeter. Grant me this little boon, that I may think ofyou. Have no fears that I will pester you with attentions. No priestever served his goddess with a remoter reverence than mine for you. "

She stopped in an alley of roses and looked me in the face. In the duskI could not see her eyes. 

"Fine words, " she said. "Yet I hear that you have been wrangling overme with Mr. Charles Grey, and exchanging pistol shots. Is that yourreverence?"

In a sentence I told her the truth. "They forced my back to the wall, "I said, "and there was no other way. I have never uttered your name toa living soul. "

Was it my fancy that when she spoke again there was a faint accent ofdisappointment?

"You are an uncomfortable being, Mr. Garvald. It seems you arepredestined to keep Virginia from sloth. For myself I am for the rosesand the old quiet ways. "

She plucked two flowers, one white and one of deepest crimson. 

"I pardon you, " she said, "and for token I will give you a rose. It isred, for that is your turbulent colour. The white flower of peace shallbe mine. "

I took the gift, and laid it in my bosom. 

 * * * * *

Two days later, it being a Monday, I dined with his Excellency at theGovernor's house at Middle Plantation. The place had been built new formy lord Culpepper, since the old mansion at James Town had been burnedin Bacon's rising. The company was mainly of young men, but threeladies--the mistresses of Arlington and Cobwell Manors, and Elspeth ina new saffron gown--varied with their laces the rich coats of the men. I was pleasantly welcomed by everybody. Grey came forward and greetedme, very quiet and civil, and I sat by him throughout the meal. TheGovernor was in high good humour, and presently had the whole companyin the same mood. Of them all, Elspeth was the merriest. She had thequickest wit and the deftest skill in mimicry, and there was that inher laughter which would infect the glummest. 

That very day I had finished my preparations. The train was now laid, and the men were ready, and a word from Lawrence would line the Westwith muskets. But I had none of the satisfaction of a completed work. It was borne in upon me that our task was scarcely begun, and that theperil that threatened us was far darker than we had dreamed. Ringan'stale of a white leader among the tribes was always in my head. The hallwhere we sat was lined with portraits of men who had borne rule inVirginia. There was Captain John Smith, trim-bearded and bronzed; andArgall and Dale, grave and soldierly; there was Francis Wyat, with thescar got in Indian wars; there hung the mean and sallow countenance ofSir John Harvey. There, too, was Berkeley, with his high complexion andhis love-locks, the great gentleman of a vanished age; and the grossrotundity of Culpepper; and the furtive eye of my lord Howard, who waseven now the reigning Governor. There was a noble picture of KingCharles the Second, who alone of monarchs was represented. Soft-footedlackeys carried viands and wines, and the table was a mingling ofsilver and roses. The afternoon light came soft through the trellis, and you could not have looked for a fairer picture of settled ease. YetI had that in my mind which shattered the picture. We were feastinglike the old citizens of buried Pompeii, with the lava even now, perhaps, flowing hot from the mountains. I looked at the painted faceson the walls, and wondered which I would summon to our aid if I couldcall men from the dead. Smith, I thought, would be best; but Ireflected uneasily that Smith would never have let things come to sucha pass. At the first hint of danger he would have been off to the Westto scotch it in the egg. 

I was so filled with sober reflections that I talked little; but therewas no need of me. Youth and beauty reigned, and the Governor was asgay as the youngest. Many asked me to take wine with them, and thecompliment pleased me. There was singing, likewise--Sir WilliamDavenant's song to his mistress, and a Cavalier rant or two, and athroat ditty of the seas; and Elspeth sang very sweetly the old air of"Greensleeves. " We drank all the toasts of fashion--His Majesty ofEngland, confusion to the French, the health of Virginia, richharvests, full cellars, and pretty dames. Presently when we had waxedvery cheerful, and wine had risen to several young heads, the Governorcalled on us to brim our glasses. 

"Be it known, gentlemen, and you, fair ladies, " he cried, "that to-dayis a more auspicious occasion than any Royal festival or Christian holyday. To-day is Dulcinea's birthday. I summon you to drink to the flowerof the West, the brightest gem in Virginia's coronal. "

At that we were all on our feet. The gentlemen snapped the stems oftheir glasses to honour the sacredness of the toast, and there was sucha shouting and pledging as might well have turned a girl's head. Elspeth sat still and smiling. The mockery had gone out of her eyes, and I thought they were wet. No Queen had ever a nobler salutation, andmy heart warmed to the generous company. Whatever its faults, it diddue homage to beauty and youth. 

Governor Francis was again on his feet. 

"I have a birthday gift for the fair one. You must know that once atWhitehall I played at cartes with my lord Culpepper, and the stake onhis part was one-sixth portion of that Virginian territory which is hisfreehold. I won, and my lord conveyed the grant to me in a deedproperly attested by the attorneys. We call the place the NorthernNeck, and 'tis all the land between the Rappahannock and the Potomac asfar west as the sunset. It is undivided, but my lord stipulated that myportion should lie from the mountains westward. What good is such anestate to an aging bachelor like me, who can never visit it? But 'tis afine inheritance for youth, and I propose to convey it to Dulcinea as abirthday gift. Some day, I doubt not, 'twill be the Eden of America. "

At this there was a great crying out and some laughter, which died awaywhen it appeared that the Governor spoke in all seriousness. 

"I make one condition, " he went on. "Twenty years back there was an oldhunter, called Studd, who penetrated the mountains. He travelled to thehead-waters of the Rapidan, and pierced the hills by a pass which hechristened Clearwater Gap. He climbed the highest mountain in thoseparts, and built a cairn on the summit, in which he hid a powder-hornwith a writing within. He was the first to make the journey, and nonehave followed him. The man is dead now, but he told me the tale, and Iwill pledge my honour that it is true. It is for Dulcinea to choose achampion to follow Studd's path and bring back his powder-horn. On theday I receive it she takes sasine of her heritage. Which of yougallants offers for the venture?"

To this day I do not know what were Francis Nicholson's motives. Hewished the mountains crossed, but he cannot have expected to meet apathfinder among the youth of the Tidewater. I think it was the whim ofthe moment. He would endow Elspeth, and at the same time test hercavaliers. To the ordinary man it seemed the craziest folly. Studd hadbeen a wild fellow, half Indian in blood and wholly Indian in habits, and for another to travel fifty miles into the heart of the desert wasto embrace destruction. The company sat very silent. Elspeth, with ablushing cheek, turned troubled eyes on the speaker. 

As for me, I had found the chance I wanted. I was on my feet in asecond. "I will go, " I said; and I had hardly spoken when Grey wasbeside me, crying, "And I. "

Still the company sat silent. 'Twas as if the shadow of a sterner lifehad come over their young gaiety. Elspeth did not look at me, but satwith cast-down eyes, plucking feverishly at a rose. The Governorlaughed out loud. 

"Brave hearts!" he cried. "Will you travel together?"

I looked at Grey. "That can hardly be, " he said. 

"Well, we must spin for it, " said Nicholson, taking a guinea from hispocket. "Royals for Mr. Garvald, quarters for Mr. Grey, " he cried as hespun it. 

It fell Royals. We had both been standing, and Grey now bowed to me andsat down. His face was very pale and his lips tightly shut. 

The Governor gave a last toast "Let us drink, " he called, "toDulcinea's champion and the fortunes of his journey. " At that there wassuch applause you might have thought me the best-liked man in thedominion. I looked at Elspeth, but she averted her eyes. 

As we left the table I stepped beside Grey. "You must come with me, " Iwhispered. "Nay, do not refuse. When you know all you will comegladly. " And I appointed a meeting on the next day at the Half-wayTavern. 

I got to my house at the darkening, and found Ringan waiting for me. 

This time he had not sought a disguise, but he kept his fiery headcovered with a broad hat, and the collar of his seaman's coat envelopedhis lower face. To a passer-by in the dusk he must have seemed anordinary ship's captain stretching his legs on land. 

He asked for food and drink, and I observed that his manner was verygrave. 

"Are things in train, Andrew?" he asked. 

I told him "to the last stirrup buckle. "

"It's as well, " said he, "for the trouble has begun. "

Then he told me a horrid tale. The Rapidan is a stream in the north ofthe dominion, flowing into the Rappahannock on its south bank. Twoyears past a family of French folk--D'Aubigny was their name--had madea home in a meadow by that stream and built a house and a strongstockade, for they were in dangerous nearness to the hills, and had noneighbours within forty miles. They were gentlefolk of some substance, and had carved out of the wilderness a very pretty manor with orchardsand flower gardens. I had never been to the place, but I had heard thepraise of it from dwellers on the Rappahannock. No Indians came nearthem, and there they abode, happy in their solitude--a husband andwife, three little children, two French servants, and a dozen negroes. 

A week ago tragedy had come like a thunderbolt. At night the stockadewas broke, and the family woke from sleep to hear the war-whoop and seeby the light of their blazing byres a band of painted savages. It seemsthat no resistance was possible, and they were butchered like sheep. The babes were pierced with stakes, the grown folk were scalped andtortured, and by sunrise in that peaceful clearing there was nothingbut blood-stained ashes. 

Word had come down the Rappahannock. Ringan said he had heard it inAccomac, and had sailed to Sabine to make sure. Men had ridden out fromStafford county, and found no more than a child's toy and some bloodygarments. 

"Who did it?" I asked, with fury rising in my heart. 

"It's Cherokee work. There's nothing strange in it, except that such adeed should have been dared. But it means the beginning of ourbusiness. D'you think the Stafford folk will sleep in their beds afterthat? And that's precisely what perplexes me. The Governor will bebound to send an expedition against the murderers, and they'll not beeasy found. But while the militia are routing about on the Rapidan, what hinders the big invasion to come down the James or theChickahominy or the Pamunkey or the Mattaponey and find a defencelessTidewater? As I see it, there's deep guile in this business. A Cherokeemurder is nothing out of the way, but these blackguards were notkilling for mere pleasure. As I've said before, I would give my righthand to have better information. It's this land business that ficklesone. If it were a matter of islands and ocean bays, I would have longago riddled out the heart of it. "

"We're on the way to get news, " I said, and I told him of my wager thatevening. 

"Man, Andrew!" he cried, "it's providential. There's nothing to hinderyou and me and a few others to ride clear into the hills, with theTidewater thinking it no more than a play of daft young men. You mustsee Nicholson, and get him to hold his hand till we send him word. Intwo days Lawrence will be here, and we can post our lads on each of therivers, for it's likely any Indian raid will take one of the valleys. You must see that Governor of yours first thing in the morning, and gethim to promise to wait on your news. Then he can get out his militia, and stir up the Tidewater. Will he do it, think you?"

I said I thought he would. 

"And there's one other thing. Would he agree to turning a blind eye toLawrence, if he comes back? He'll not trouble them in James Town, buthe's the only man alive to direct our own lads. "

I said I would try, but I was far from certain. It was hard to forecastthe mind of Governor Francis. 

"Well, Lawrence will come whether or no. You can sound the man, and ifhe's dour let the matter be. Lawrence is now on the Roanoke, and hisplan is to send out the word to-morrow and gather in the posts. He'llcome to Frew's place on the South Fork River, which is about the middleof the frontier line. To-day is Monday, to-morrow the word will go out, by Friday the men will be ready, and Lawrence will be in Virginia. Thesooner you're off the better, Andrew. What do you say to Wednesday?"

"That day will suit me fine, " I said; "but what about my company?"

"The fewer the better. Who were you thinking of?"

"You for one, " I said, "and Shalah for a second. "

He nodded. 

"I want two men from the Rappahannock--a hunter of the name ofDonaldson and the Frenchman Bertrand. "

"That makes five. Would you like to even the number?"

"Yes, " I said. "There's a gentleman of the Tidewater, Mr. Charles Grey, that I've bidden to the venture. "

Ringan whistled. "Are you sure that's wise? There'll be little use forbraw clothes and fine manners in the hills. "

"All the same there'll be a use for Mr. Grey. When will you join us?"

"I've a bit of business to do hereaways, but I'll catch you up. Lookfor me at Aird's store on Thursday morning. "

CHAPTER XV. 

I GATHER THE CLANS. 

I was at the Governor's house next day before he had breakfasted. Hegreeted me laughingly. 

"Has the champion come to cry forfeit?" he asked. "It is a long, soreroad to the hills, Mr. Garvald. "

"I've come to make confession, " I said, and I plunged into my story ofthe work of the last months. 

He heard me with lowering brows, "Who the devil made you Governor ofthis dominion, sir? You have been levying troops without His Majesty'spermission. Your offence is no less than high treason. I've a prettymind to send you to the guard-house. "

"I implore you to hear me patiently, " I cried. Then I told him what Ihad learned in the Carolinas and at the outland farms. "You yourselftold me it was hopeless to look for a guinea from the Council. I wasbut carrying out your desires. Can you blame me if I've toiled for thepublic weal and neglected my own fortunes?"

He was scarcely appeased. "You're a damnable kind of busybody, sir, thebreed of fellow that plunges states into revolutions. Why, in Heaven'sname, did you not consult me?"

"Because it was wiser not to, " I said stoutly. "Half my recruits areold soldiers of Bacon. If the trouble blows past, they go back to theirsteadings and nothing more is heard of it. If trouble comes, who aresuch natural defenders of the dominion as the frontier dwellers? All Ihave done is to give them the sinews of war. But if Governor Nicholsonhad taken up the business, and it were known that he had leaned on oldrebels, what would the Council say? What would have been the view of mylord Howard and the wiseacres in London?"

He said nothing, but knit his brows. My words were too much in tunewith his declared opinions for him to gainsay them. 

"It comes to this, then, " he said at length. "You have raised a body ofmen who are waiting marching orders. What next, Mr. Garvald?"

"The next thing is to march. After what befell on the Rapidan, wecannot sit still. "

He started. "I have heard nothing of it. "

Then I told him the horrid tale. He got to his feet and strode up anddown the room, with his dark face working. 

"God's mercy, what a calamity! I knew the folk. They came here withletters from his Grace of Shrewsbury. Are you certain your news istrue?"

"Alas! there is no doubt. Stafford county is in a ferment, and the nextpost from the York will bring you word. "

"Then, by God, it is for me to move. No Council or Assembly will daregainsay me. I can order a levy by virtue of His Majesty's commission. "

"I have come to pray you to hold your hand till I send you betterintelligence, " I said. 

His brows knit again. "But this is too much. Am I to refrain from doingmy duty till I get your gracious consent, sir?"

"Nay, nay, " I cried. "Do not misunderstand me. This thing is far graverthan you think, sir. If you send your levies to the Rapidan, you leavethe Tidewater defenceless, and while you are hunting a Cherokee partyin the north, the enemy will be hammering at your gates. "

"What enemy?" he asked. 

"I do not know, and that is what I go to find out. " Then I told him allI had gathered about the unknown force in the hills, and the apparentstrategy of a campaign which was beyond an Indian's wits. "There is awhite man at the back of it, " I said, "a white man who talks in Biblewords and is mad for devastation. "

His face had grown very solemn. He went to a bureau, unlocked it, andtook from a drawer a bit of paper, which he tossed to me. 

"I had that a week past to-morrow. My servant got it from an Indian inthe woods. "

It was a dirty scrap, folded like a letter, and bearing thesuperscription, "_To the man Francis Nicholson, presently Governor inVirginia_. " I opened it and read:--

"_Thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield:but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of thearmies of Israel, whom thou hast defied_. "

"There, " I cried, "there is proof of my fears. What kind of Indiansends a message like that? Trust me, sir, there is a far more hellishmischief brewing than any man wots of. "

"It looks not unlike it, " he said grimly. "Now let's hear what youpropose. "

"I can have my men at their posts by the week end. We will string themout along the frontier, and hold especially the river valleys. Ifinvasion comes, then at any rate the Tidewater will get early news ofit. Meantime I and my friends, looking for Studd's powder-horn, with amind to confirm your birthday gift to Miss Elspeth Blair, will push onto the hills and learn what is to be learned there. "

"You will never come back, " he said tartly. "An Indian stake and abloody head will be the end of all of you. "

"Maybe, " I said, "though I have men with me that can play the Indiangame. But if in ten days' time from now you get no word, then you canfear the worst, and set your militia going. I have a service of postswhich will carry news to you as quick as a carrier pigeon. Whatever welearn you shall hear of without delay, and you can make yourdispositions accordingly. If the devils find us first, then get intouch with my men at Frew's homestead on the South Fork River, for thatwill be the headquarters of the frontier army. "

"Who will be in command there when you are gallivanting in the hills?"he asked. 

"One whose name had better not be spoken. He lies under sentence ofdeath by Virginian law; but, believe me, he is an honest soul and agood patriot, and he is the one man born to lead these outland troops. "

He smiled, "His Christian name is Richard, maybe? I think I know youroutlaw. But let it pass. I ask no names. In these bad times we cannotafford to despise any man's aid. "

He pulled out a chart of Virginia, and I marked for him our posts, andindicated the line of my own journey. 

"Have you ever been in the wars, Mr. Garvald?" he asked. 

I told him no. 

"Well, you have a very pretty natural gift for the military art. Yourmen will screen the frontier line, and behind that screen I will getour militia force in order, while meantime you are reconnoitring theenemy. It's a very fair piece of strategy. But I am mortally certainyou yourself will never come back. "

The odd thing was that at that moment I did not fear for myself. I hadlived so long with my scheme that I had come to look upon it almostlike a trading venture, in which one calculates risks and gains onpaper, and thinks no more of it. I had none of the black fright which Ihad suffered before my meeting with Grey. Happily, though a young man'sthoughts may be long, his fancy takes short views. I was far moreconcerned with what might happen in my absence in the Tidewater thanwith our fate in the hills. 

"It is a gamble, " I said, "but the stakes are noble, and I have aprivate pride in its success. "

"Also the goad of certain bright eyes, " he said, smiling. "Little Ithought, when I made that offer last night, I was setting so desperatea business in train. There was a good Providence in that. For now wecan give out that you are gone on a madcap ploy, and there will be nosleepless nights in the Tidewater. I must keep their souls easy, foronce they are scared there will be such a spate of letters to New Yorkas will weaken the courage of our Northern brethren. For the militia Iwill give the excuse of the French menace. The good folk will laugh atme for it, but they will not take fright. God's truth, but it is adevilish tangle. I could wish I had your part, sir, and be free to rideout on a gallant venture. Here I have none of the zest of war, but onlya thousand cares and the carking task of soothing fools. "

We spoke of many things, and I gave him a full account of thecomposition and strength of our levies. When I left he paid me acompliment, which, coming from so sardonic a soul, gave me peculiarcomfort. 

"I have seen something of men and cities, sir, " he said, "and I knowwell the foibles and the strength of my countrymen; but I have nevermet your equal for cold persistence. You are a trader, and have turnedwar into a trading venture. I do believe that when you are at your lastgasp you will be found calmly casting up your accounts with life. And Ithink you will find a balance on the right side. God speed you, Mr. Garvald. I love your sober folly. "

 * * * * *

I had scarcely left him when I met a servant of the Blairs, who handedme a letter. 'Twas from Elspeth--the first she had ever written me. Itore it open, and found a very disquieting epistle. Clearly she hadwritten it in a white heat of feeling. "_You spoke finely ofreverence_, " she wrote, "_and how you had never named my name to amortal soul. But to-night you have put me to open shame. You haveoffered yourself for a service which I did not seek. What care I forhis Excellency's gifts? Shall it be said that I was the means ofsending a man into deadly danger to secure me a foolish estate? Youhave offended me grossly, and I pray you spare me further offence, Icommand you to give up this journey. I will not have my name bandiedabout in this land as a wanton who sets silly youth by the ears togratify her pride. If you desire to retain a shred of my friendship, goto his Excellency and tell him that by my orders you withdraw from thewager. "_

This letter did not cloud my spirits as it should. For one thing, shesigned it "Elspeth, " and for another, I had the conceited notion thatwhat moved her most was the thought that I was running into danger. Ilonged to have speech with her, but I found from the servant thatDoctor Blair had left that morning on a journey of pastoral visitation, and had taken her with him. The man did not know their destination, butbelieved it to be somewhere in the north. The thought vaguelydisquieted me. In these perilous times I wished to think of her as safein the coastlands, where a ship would give a sure refuge. 

I met Grey that afternoon at the Half-way Tavern. In the last week heseemed to have aged and grown graver. There was now no hint of thelight arrogance of old. He regarded me curiously, but withouthostility. 

"We have been enemies, " I said, "and now, though there may be nofriendship, at any rate there is a truce to strife. Last night I beggedof you to come with me on this matter of the Governor's wager, but'twas not the wager I thought of. "

Then I told him the whole tale. "The stake is the safety of this land, of which you are a notable citizen. I ask you, because I know you are abrave man. Will you leave your comfort and your games for a season, andplay for higher stakes at a more desperate hazard?"

I told him everything, even down to my talk with the Governor. I didnot lessen the risks and hardships, and I gave him to know that hiscompanions would be rough folk, whom he may well have despised. Heheard me out with his eyes fixed on the ground. Then suddenly he raiseda shining face. 

"You are a generous enemy, Mr. Garvald. I behaved to you like a peevishchild, and you retaliate by offering me the bravest venture that manever conceived. I am with you with all my heart. By God, sir, I am sickof my cushioned life. This is what I have been longing for in my soulsince I was born.... "

That night I spent making ready. I took no servant, and in mysaddle-bags was stored the little I needed. Of powder and shot I hadplenty, and my two pistols and my hunting musket. I gave Faulknerinstructions, and wrote a letter to my uncle to be sent if I did notreturn. Next morning at daybreak we took the road. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

THE FORD OF THE RAPIDAN. 

'Twas the same high summer weather through which I had ridden afortnight ago with a dull heart on my way to the duel. Now Grey rode bymy side, and my spirits were as light as a bird's. I had forgotten thegrim part of the enterprise, the fate that might await me, the horrorswe should certainly witness. I thought only of the joys of movementinto new lands with tried companions. These last months I had borne apretty heavy weight of cares. Now that was past. My dispositionscompleted, the thing was in the hands of God, and I was free to go myown road. Mocking-birds and thrushes cried in the thickets, squirrelsflirted across the path, and now and then a shy deer fled before us. There come moments to every man when he is thankful to be alive, andevery breath drawn is a delight; so at that hour I praised my Maker forHis good earth, and for sparing me to rejoice in it. 

Grey had met me with a certain shyness; but as the sun rose and theland grew bright he, too, lost his constraint, and fell into the samehappy mood. Soon we were smiling at each other in the frankestcomradeship, we two who but the other day had carried ourselves likegame-cocks. He had forgotten his fine manners and his mincing Londonvoice, and we spoke of the outland country of which he knew nothing, and of the hunting of game of which he knew much, exchanging ourdifferent knowledges, and willing to learn from each other. Long ere wehad reached York Ferry I had found that there was much in commonbetween the Scots trader and the Virginian cavalier, and the chiefthing we shared was youth. 

Mine, to be sure, was more in the heart, while Grey wore his open andfearless. He plucked the summer flowers and set them in his hat. He wasfull of catches and glees, so that he waked the echoes in the forestglades. Soon I, too, fell to singing in my tuneless voice, and Ianswered his "My lodging is on the cold ground" with some Scots ballador a song of Davie Lindsay. I remember how sweetly he sang ColonelLovelace's ode to Lucasta, writ when going to the wars:--

 "True, a new mistress now I chase, The first foe in the field; And with a stronger faith embrace A sword, a horse, a shield. "

 "Yet this inconstancy is such As thou too shalt adore: I could not love thee, dear, so much, Loved I not Honour more. "

I wondered if that were my case--if I rode out for honour, and not forthe pure pleasure of the riding. And I marvelled more to see the two ofus, both lovers of one lady and eager rivals, burying for the nonce ourfeuds, and with the same hope serving the same cause. 

We slept the night at Aird's store, and early the next morning foundRingan. A new Ringan indeed, as unlike the buccaneer I knew as he wasunlike the Quaker. He was now the gentleman of Breadalbane, dressed forthe part with all the care of an exquisite. He rode a noble roan, inhis Spanish belt were stuck silver-hafted pistols, and a long swordswung at his side. When I presented Grey to him, he became at once thecavalier, as precise in his speech and polite in his deportment as anyWhitehall courtier. They talked high and disposedly of genteel matters, and you would have thought that that red-haired pirate had lived hislife among proud lords and high-heeled ladies. That is ever the way ofthe Highlander. He alters like a clear pool to every mood of the sky, so that the shallow observer might forget how deep the waters are. 

Presently, when we had ridden into the chestnut forests of theMattaponey, he began to forget his part. Grey, it appeared, was astudent of campaigns, and he and Ringan were deep in a discussion ofConde's battles, in which both showed surprising knowledge. But theglory of the weather and of the woodlands, new as they were to aseafarer, set his thoughts wandering, and he fell to tales of his pastwhich consorted ill with his former decorum. There was a madcap zest inhis speech, something so merry and wild, that Grey, who had fallen backinto his Tidewater manners, became once more the careless boy. Westopped to eat in a glade by a slow stream, and from his saddle-bagsRingan brought out strange delicacies. There were sugared fruits fromthe Main, and orange sirop from Jamaica, and a kind of sweet punch madeby the Hispaniola Indians. As we ate and drank he would gossip aboutthe ways of the world; and though he never mentioned his own doings, there was such an air of mastery about him as made him seem the centrefigure of his tales, I could see that Grey was mightily captivated, andall afternoon he plied him with questions, and laughed joyously at hisanswers. As we camped that night, while Grey was minding his horseRingan spoke of him to me. 

"I like the lad, Andrew. He has the makings of a very proper gentleman, and he has the sense to be young. What I complain of in you is thatyou're desperate old. I wonder whiles if you ever were a laddie. Forme, though I'm ten years the elder of the pair of you, I've no moreyears than your friend, and I'm a century younger than you. That's theHighland way. There's that in our blood that keeps our eyes youngthough we may be bent double. With us the heart is aye leaping tillDeath grips us. To my mind it's a lovable character that I fain wouldcherish. If I couldn't sing on a spring morning or say a hearty graceover a good dinner I'd be content to be put away in a graveyard. "

And that, I think, is the truth. But at the time I was feeling prettyyouthful, too, though my dour face and hard voice were a bad clue to mysentiments. 

Next day on the Rappahannock we found Shalah, who had gone on to warnthe two men I proposed to enlist. One of them, Donaldson, was a big, slow-spoken, middle-aged farmer, the same who had been with Bacon inthe fight at Occaneechee Island. He just cried to his wife to expecthim back when she saw him, slung on his back an old musket, cast a longleg over his little horse, and was ready to follow. The other, theFrenchman Bertrand, was a quiet, slim gentleman, who was some kin tothe murdered D'Aubignys. I had long had my eye on him, for he was verywise in woodcraft, and had learned campaigning under old Turenne. Hekissed his two children again and again, and his wife clung to hisarms. There were tears in the honest fellow's eyes as he left, and Ithought all the more of him, for he is the bravest man who has most torisk. I mind that Ringan consoled the lady in the French tongue, whichI did not comprehend, and would not be hindered from getting out hissaddle-bags and comforting the children with candied plums. He had nearas grave a face as Bertrand when we rode off, and was always lookingback to the homestead. He spoke long to the Frenchman in his ownspeech, and the sad face of the latter began to lighten. 

I asked him what he said. 

"Just that he was the happy man to have kind hearts to weep for him. Afine thing for a landless, childless fellow like me to say! But it'sgospel truth, Andrew. I told him that his bairns would be great folkssome day, and that their proudest boast would be that their father hadridden on this errand. Oh, and all the rest of the easy consolations. If it had been me, I would not have been muckle cheered. It's well Inever married, for I would not have had the courage to leave myfireside. "

We were now getting into a new and far lovelier country. The heavyforests and swamps which line the James and the York had gone, andinstead we had rolling spaces of green meadowland, and little hillswhich stood out like sentinels of the great blue chain of mountainsthat hung in the west. Instead of the rich summer scents of theTidewater, we had the clean, sharp smell of uplands, and cool windsrelieved the noontide heat. By and by we struck the Rapidan, a watermore like our Scots rivers, flowing in pools and currents, verydifferent from the stagnant reaches of the Pamunkey. We were joined fora little bit by two men from Stafford county, who showed us the pathsthat horses could travel. 

It was late in the afternoon that we reached a broad meadow hemmed inby noble cedars. I knew without telling that we were come to the sceneof the tragedy, and with one accord we fell silent. The place had beenwell looked after, for a road had been made through the woods, and hadbeen carried over marshy places on a platform of cedar piles. Presentlywe came to a log fence with a gate, which hung idly open. Within was apaddock, and beyond another fence, and beyond that a great pile ofblackened timber. The place was so smiling and homelike under thewestering sun that one looked to see a trim steading with the smoke ofhearth fires ascending, and to hear the cheerful sounds of labour andof children's voices. Instead there was this grim, charred heap, withthe light winds swirling the ashes. 

Every man of us uncovered his head as he rode towards the melancholyplace. I noticed a little rosary, which had been carefully tended, buthorses had ridden through it, and the blossoms were trailing crushed onthe ground. There was a flower garden too, much trampled, and in onecorner a little stream of water had been led into a pool fringed withforget-me-nots. A tiny water-wheel was turning in the fall, achildren's toy, and the wheel still turned, though its owners had gone. The sight of that simple thing fairly brought my heart to my mouth. 

That inspection was a gruesome business. One of the doorposts of thehouse still stood, and it was splashed with blood. On the edge of theashes were some charred human bones. No one could tell whose they were, perhaps a negro's, perhaps the little mistress of the water-wheel. Ilooked at Ringan, and he was smiling, but his eyes were terrible. TheFrenchman Bertrand was sobbing like a child. 

We took the bones, and made a shallow grave for them in the rosary. Wehad no spades, but a stake did well enough to dig a resting-place forthose few poor remains. I said over them the Twenty-third Psalm: "_Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear noevil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff shall comfort me_. "

Then suddenly our mood changed. Nothing that we could do could help thepoor souls whose bones lay among the ashes. But we could bring theirmurderers to book, and save others from a like fate. 

We moved away from the shattered place to the ford in the river wherethe road ran north. There we looked back. A kind of fury seized me as Isaw that cruel defacement. In a few hours we ourselves should be beyondthe pale, among those human wolves who were so much more relentlessthan any beasts of the field. As I looked round our little company, Inoted how deep the thing had bitten into our souls. Ringan's eyes stilldanced with that unholy blue light. Grey was very pale, and his jaw wasset grimly. Bertrand had ceased from sobbing, and his face had thefar-away wildness of the fanatic, such a look as his forbears may haveworn at the news of St. Bartholomew. The big man Donaldson lookedpuzzled and sombre. Only Shalah stood impassive and aloof, with notrace of feeling on the bronze of his countenance. 

"This is the place for an oath, " I said. "We are six men against anarmy, but we fight for a holy cause. Let us swear to wipe out this deedof blood in the blood of its perpetrators. God has made us theexecutors of His judgments against horrid cruelty. "

We swore, holding our hands high, that, when our duty to the dominionwas done, we should hunt down the Cherokees who had done this deed tillno one of them was left breathing. At that moment of tense nerves, noother purpose would have contented us. 

"How will we find them?" quoth Ringan. "To sift a score of murderersout of a murderous nation will be like searching the ocean for a wave. "

Then Shalah spoke. 

"The trail is ten suns old, but I can follow it. The men were of theMeebaw tribe by this token. " And he held up a goshawk's feather. "Thebird that dropped that lives beyond the peaks of Shubash. The Meebaware quick hunters and gross eaters, and travel slow. We will find themby the Tewawha. "

"All in good time, " I said. "Retribution must wait till we havefinished our task. Can you find the Meebaw men again?"

"Yea, " said Shalah, "though they took wings and flew over the seas Ishould find them. "

Then we hastened away from that glade, none speaking to the other. Wecamped an hour's ride up the river, in a place secure against surprisesin a crook of the stream with a great rock at our back. We were outsidethe pale now, and must needs adopt the precautions of a campaign; so wesplit the night into watches, I did my two hours sentry duty at thatdead moment of the dark just before the little breeze which is theprecursor of dawn, and I reflected very soberly on the slender chancesof our returning from this strange wild world and its cruel mysteries. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

I RETRACE MY STEPS. 

Next morning we passed through the foothills into an open meadowcountry. As I lifted up my eyes I saw for the first time the mountainsnear at hand. There they lay, not more than ten miles distant, woodyalmost to the summit, but with here and there a bold finger of rockpointing skywards. They looked infinitely high and rugged, far higherthan any hills I had ever seen before, for my own Tinto or Cairntablewould to these have been no more than a footstool. I made out a clearbreach in the range, which I took to be old Studd's Clearwater Gap. Thewhole sight intoxicated me. I might dream of horrors in the low coastforests among their swampy creeks, but in that clear high world of thehills I believed lay safety. I could have gazed at them for hours, butShalah would permit of no delay. He hurried us across the open meadows, and would not relax his pace till we were on a low wooded ridge withthe young waters of the Rapidan running in a shallow vale beneath. 

Here we halted in a thick clump of cedars, while he and Ringan wentforward to spy out the land. In that green darkness, save by folktravelling along the ridge, we could not be detected, and I knewenough of Indian ways to believe that any large party would keep thestream sides. We lit a fire without fear, for the smoke was hid in thecedar branches, and some of us roasted corn-cakes. Our food in thesaddle-bags would not last long, and I foresaw a ticklish business whenit came to hunting for the pot. A gunshot in these narrow glens wouldreverberate like a cannon. 

We dozed peacefully in the green shade, and smoked our pipes, waitingfor the return of our envoys. They came towards sundown, slipping amongus like ghosts. 

Ringan signalled to me, and we put our coats over the horses' heads toprevent their whinnying. He stamped out the last few ashes of the fire, and Shalah motioned us all flat on our faces. Then I crawled to theedge of the ridge, and looked down through a tangle of vines on thelittle valley. 

Our precautions had been none too soon, for a host was passing below, as stealthily as if it had been an army of the sheeted dead. Most weremounted, and it was marvellous to see the way in which they managedtheir horses, so that the beasts seemed part of the riders, and partookof their vigilance. Some were on foot, and moved with the long, loping, in-toed Indian stride. I guessed their number at three hundred, butwhat awed me was their array. This was no ordinary raid, but aninvading army. My sight, as I think I have said, is as keen as ahawk's, and I could see that most of them carried muskets as well asknives and tomahawks. The war-paint glistened on each breast andforehead, and in the oiled hair stood the crested feathers, dyedscarlet for battle. My spirits sank as I reflected that now we were cutoff from the Tidewater. 

When the last man had gone we crawled back to the clump, now gloomywith the dusk of evening. I saw that Ringan was very weary, but Shalah, after stretching his long limbs, seemed fresh as ever. 

"Will you come with me, brother?" he said. "We must warn theRappahannock. "

"Who are they?" I asked. 

"Cherokees. More follow them. The assault is dearly by the line of theRappahannock. If we hasten we may yet be in time. "

I knew what Shalah's hastening meant. I suppose I was the one of usbest fitted for a hot-foot march, and that that was the reason why theIndian chose me. All the same my heart misgave me. He ate a littlefood, while I stripped off the garments I did not need, carrying onlythe one pistol. I bade the others travel slowly towards the mountains, scouting carefully ahead, and promised that we should join them beforethe next sundown. Then Shalah beckoned me, and I plunged after him intothe forest. 

On our first visit to Ringan at the land-locked Carolina harbour I hadthought Shalah's pace killing, but that was but a saunter to what henow showed me. We seemed to be moving at right angles to the Indianmarch. Once out of the woods of the ridge, we crossed the meadows, mostly on our bellies, taking advantage of every howe and crinkle. Ifollowed him as obediently as a child. When he ran so did I; when hecrawled my forehead was next his heel. After the grass-lands camebroken hillocks with little streams in the bottoms. Through these wetwisted, moving with less care, and presently we had left the hills andwere looking over a wide, shadowy plain. 

The moon was three-quarters full, and was just beginning to climb thesky. Shalah sniffed the wind, which blew from the south-west, and setoff at a sharp angle towards the north. We were now among the woodsagain, and the tangled undergrowth tried me sore. We had been going forabout three hours, and, though I was hard and spare from much travel inthe sun, my legs were not used to this furious foot marching. My feetgrew leaden, and, to make matters worse, we dipped presently into a bigswamp, where we mired to the knees and often to the middle. It wouldhave been no light labour at any time to cross such a place, pullingoneself by the tangled shrubs on to the rare patches of solid ground. But now, when I was pretty weary, the toil was about the limit of mystrength. When we emerged on hard land I was sobbing like a strickendeer. But Shalah had no mercy. He took me through the dark cedars atthe same tireless pace, and in the gloom I could see him flittingahead of me, his shoulders squared, and his limbs as supple as arace-horse's. I remember I said over in my head all the songs and versesI knew, to keep my mind from my condition. I had long ago got and lostmy second wind and whatever other winds there be, and was moving less bybodily strength than by sheer doggedness of spirit. Weak tears wererunning down my cheeks, my breath rasped in my throat, but I was in theframe of mind that if death had found me next moment my legs wouldstill have twitched in an effort to run. 

At an open bit of the forest Shalah stopped and looked at the sky. Iblundered into him, and then from sheer weakness rolled on the ground. He grunted and turned to me. I felt his cool hand passing over my browand cheek, and his fingers kneading the muscles of my forlorn legs. 'Twas some Indian device, doubtless, but its power was miraculous. Under his hands my body seemed to be rested and revived. New strengthstole into my sinews, new vigour into my blood. The thing took maybefive minutes--not more; but I scrambled to my feet a man again. IndeedI was a better man than when I started, for this Indian wizardry hadgiven me an odd lightness of head and heart. When we took up therunning, my body, instead of a leaden clog, seemed to be a thing of airand feathers. 

It was now hard on midnight, and the moon was high in the heavens. Webore somewhat to the right, and I judged that our circuit wascompleted, and that the time had come to steal in front of the Indianroute. The forest thinned, and we traversed a marshy piece, of countrywith many single great trees. Often Shalah would halt for a second, strain his ears, and sniff the light wind like a dog. He seemed to findguidance, but I got none, only the hoot of an owl or the rooty smell ofthe woodland. 

At last we struck a little stream, and followed its course between highbanks of pine. Suddenly Shalah's movements became stealthy. Crouchingin every patch of shade, and crossing open spaces on our bellies, weturned from the stream, surmounted a knoll, and came down on a woodedvalley. Shalah looked westwards, held up his hand, and stood poised fora minute like a graven image. Then he grunted and spoke. "We are safe, "he said. "They are behind us, and are camped for the night, " How heknew that I cannot tell; but I seemed to catch on the breeze a whiff ofthe rancid odour of Indian war-paint. 

For another mile we continued our precautions, and then moved morefreely in the open. Now that the chief peril was past, my fatigue cameback to me worse than ever. I think I was growing leg-weary, as I hadseen happen to horses, and from that ailment there is no relief. Myhead buzzed like a beehive, and when the moon set I had no power topick my steps, and stumbled and sprawled in the darkness. I had to askShalah for help, though it was a sore hurt to my pride, and, leaning onhis arm, I made the rest of the journey. 

I found myself splashing in a strong river. We crossed by a ford, so wehad no need to swim, which was well for me, for I must have drowned. The chill of the water revived me somewhat, and I had the strength toclimb the other bank. And then suddenly before me I saw a light, and achallenge rang out into the night. 

The voice was a white man's, and brought me to my bearings. Weak as Iwas, I had the fierce satisfaction that our errand had not been idle. Ireplied with the password, and a big fellow strode out from a stockade. 

"Mr. Garvald!" he said, staring. "What brings you here? Where are therest of you?" He looked at Shalah and then at me, and finally took myarm and drew me inside. 

There were a score in the place--Rappahannock farmers, a lean, watchfulbreed, each man with his musket. One of them, I mind, wore a rustycuirass of chain armour, which must have been one of those sent out bythe King in the first days of the dominion. They gave me a drink of rumand water, and in a little I had got over my worst weariness and couldspeak. 

"The Cherokees are on us, " I said, and I told them of the army we hadfollowed. 

"How many?" they asked. 

"Three hundred for a vanguard, but more follow. "

One man laughed, as if well pleased. "I'm in the humour for Cherokeesjust now. There's a score of scalps hanging outside, if you could seethem, Mr. Garvald. "

"What scalps?" I asked, dumbfoundered. 

"The Rapidan murderers. We got word of them in the woods yesterday, andsix of us went hunting. It was pretty shooting. Two got away with somelead in them, the rest are in the Tewawha pools, all but theirtopknots. I've very little notion of Cherokees. "

Somehow the news gave me intense joy. I thought nothing of thebarbarity of it, or that white men should demean themselves to theIndian level. I remembered only the meadow by the Rapidan, and thelittle lonely water-wheel. Our vow was needless, for others had doneour work. 

"Would I had been with you!" was all I said. "But now you have morethan a gang of Meebaw raiders to deal with. There's an invasion comingdown from the hills, and this is the first wave of it, I want word sentto Governor Nicholson at James Town. I was to tell him where thetrouble was to be feared, and in a week you'll have a regiment at yourbacks. Who has the best horse? Simpson? Well, let Simpson carry theword down the valley. If my plans are working well, the news should beat James Town by dawn to-morrow. "

The man called Simpson got up, saddled his beast, and waited mybidding. "This is the word to send, " said I. "Say that the Cherokeesare attacking by the line of the Rappahannock. Say that I am going intothe hills to find if my fears are justified. Never mind what thatmeans. Just pass on the words. They will understand them at James Town. So much for the Governor. Now I want word sent to Frew's homestead onthe South Fork. Who is to carry it?"

One old fellow, who chewed tobacco without intermission, spat out theleaf, and asked me what news I wanted to send. 

"Just that we are attacked, " I said. 

"That's a simple job, " he said cheerfully. "All down the Border postswe have a signal. Only yesterday we got word of it from the place youspeak of. A mile from here is a hillock within hearing of the stockadeat Robertson's Ford. One shot fired there will tell them what you wantthem to know. Robertson's will fire twice for Appleby's to hear, andAppleby's will send on the message to Dopple's. There are six postsbetween here and the South Fork, so when the folk at Frew's hear sevenshots they will know that the war is on the Rappahannock. "

I recognized old Lawrence's hand in this. It was just the kind ofdevice that he would contrive. I hoped it would not miscarry, for Iwould have preferred a messenger; but after all the Border line was hisconcern. 

Then I spoke aside to Shalah. In his view the Cherokees would notattack at dawn. They were more likely to wait till their supportsovertook them, and then, to make a dash for the Rappahannock farms. Plunder was more in the line of these gentry than honest fighting. Ispoke to the leader of the post, and he was for falling upon them inthe narrows of the Rapidan. Their victory over the Meebaws had firedthe blood of the Borderers, and made them contemptuous of the enemy. Still, in such a predicament, when we had to hold a frontier with ahandful, the boldest course was likely to be the safest. I could onlypray that Nicholson's levies would turn up in time to protect thevalley. 

"Time passes, brother, " said Shalah. "We came by swiftness, but wereturn by guile. In three hours it will be dawn. Sleep till then, forthere is much toil before thee. "

I saw the wisdom of his words, and went promptly to bed in a corner ofthe stockade. As I was lying down a man spoke to me, one Rycroft, atwhose cabin I had once sojourned for a day. 

"What brings the parson hereaways in these times?" he asked. 

"What parson?" I asked. 

"The man they call Doctor Blair. "

"Great God!" I cried, "what about him?"

"He was in Stafford county when I left, hunting for schoolmasters. Ay, and he had a girl with him. "

I sat upright with a start. "Where is he now?" I asked. 

"I saw him last at Middleton's Ford. I think he was going down theriver. I warned him this was no place for parsons and women, but hejust laughed at me. It's time he was back in the Tidewater. "

So long as they were homeward-bound I did not care; but it gave me aqueer fluttering of the heart to think that Elspeth but yesterdayshould have been near this perilous Border. I soon fell asleep, for Iwas mighty tired, but I dreamed evilly. I seemed to see Doctor Blairhunted by Cherokees, with his coat-tails flying and his wig blown away, and what vexed me was that I could not find Elspeth anywhere in thelandscape. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

OUR ADVENTURE RECEIVES A RECRUIT. 

At earliest light, with the dew heavy on the willows and the river linea coil of mist, Shalah woke me for the road. We breakfasted off friedbacon, some of which I saved for the journey, for the Indian wascontent with one meal a day. As we left the stockade I noted the row ofMeebaw scalps hanging, grim and bloody, from the poles. The Bordererswere up and stirring, for they looked to take the Indians in the rivernarrows before the morning was old. 

No two Indian war parties ever take the same path, so it was Shalah'splan to work back to the route we had just travelled, by which theCherokees had come yesterday. This sounds simple enough, but the dangerlay in the second party. By striking to right or left we might walkinto it, and then good-bye to our hopes of the hills. But the wholething was easier to me than the cruel toil of yesterday. There was needof stealth and woodcraft, but not of yon killing speed. 

For the first hour we went up a northern fork of the Rappahannock, thencrossed the water at a ford, and struck into a thick pine forest. I wasfeeling wonderfully rested, and found no discomfort in Shalah's longstrides. My mind was very busy on the defence of the Borders, and Ikept wondering how long the Governor's militia would take to reach theRappahannock, and whether Lawrence could reinforce the northern postsin time to prevent mischief in Stafford county. I cast back to mymemory of the tales of Indian war, and could not believe but that thewhite man, if warned and armed, would roll back the Cherokees. 'Twasnot them I feared, but that other force now screened behind themountains, who had for their leader some white madman with a fire inhis head and Bible words on his lips. Were we of Virginia destined tofight with such fanatics as had distracted Scotland--fanatics namingthe name of God, but leading in our case the armies of hell?

It was about eleven in the forenoon, I think, that Shalah dropped hiseasy swing and grew circumspect. The sun was very hot, and the noonsilence lay dead on the woodlands. Scarcely a leaf stirred, and theonly sounds were the twittering grasshoppers and the drone of flies. But Shalah found food for thought. Again and again he became rigid, andthen laid an ear to the ground. His nostrils dilated like a horse's, and his eyes were restless. We were now in a shallow vale, throughwhich a little stream flowed among broad reed-beds. At one point hekneeled on the ground and searched diligently. 

"See, " he said, "a horse's prints not two hours old--a horse goingwest. "

Presently I myself found a clue. I picked up from a clump of wildonions a thread of coloured wool. This was my own trade, where I knewmore than Shalah. I tested the thing in my mouth and between myfingers. 

"This is London stuff, " I said. "The man who had this on his personbought his clothes from the Bristol merchants, and paid sweetly forthem. He was no Rappahannock farmer. "

Shalah trailed like a bloodhound, following the hoof-marks out of thevalley meadow to a ridge of sparse cedars where they showed clear onthe bare earth, and then to a thicker covert where they were hiddenamong strong grasses. Suddenly he caught my shoulder, and pulled me tothe ground. We crawled through a briery place to where a gap opened tothe vale on our left. 

A party of Indians were passing. They were young men with the fantasticmarkings of young braves. All were mounted on the little Indian horses. They moved at leisure, scanning the distance with hands shading eyes. 

We wormed our way back to the darkness of the covert. "The advanceguard of the second party, " Shalah whispered. "With good fortune, weshall soon see the rest pass, and then have a clear road for thehills. "

"I saw no fresh scalps, " I said, "so they seem to have missed our manon the horse. " I was proud of my simple logic. 

All that Shalah replied was, "The rider was a woman. '

"How, in Heaven's name, can you tell?" I asked. 

He held out a long hair. "I found it among the vines at the level of arider's head. "

This was bad news indeed. What folly had induced a woman to ride so faracross the Borders? It could be no settler's wife, but some dame fromthe coast country who had not the sense to be timid. 'Twas a grievousaffliction for two men on an arduous quest to have to protect a foolishfemale with the Cherokees all about them. 

There was no help for it, and as swiftly as possible and with allcircumspection Shalah trailed the horse's prints. They kept the highground, in very broken country, which was the reason why the rider hadescaped the Indians' notice. Clearly they were moving slowly, and fromthe frequent halts and turnings I gathered that the rider had not muchpurpose about the road. 

Then we came on a glade where the rider had dismounted and let thebeast go. The horse had wandered down the ridge to the right in searchof grazing, and the prints of a woman's foot led to the summit of aknoll which raised itself above the trees. 

There, knee-deep in a patch of fern, I saw what I had never dreamed of, what sent the blood from my heart in a cold shudder of fear: a girl, pale and dishevelled, was trying to part some vines. A twig crackledand she looked round, showing a face drawn with weariness and eyeslarge with terror. 

It was Elspeth!

At the sight of Shalah she made to scream, but checked herself. It waswell, for a scream would have brought all of us to instant death. 

For Shalah at that moment dropped to earth and wriggled into a covertoverlooking the vale. I had the sense to catch the girl and pull herafter him. He stopped dead, and we two lay also like mice. My heart wasgoing pretty fast, and I could feel the heaving of her bosom. 

The shallow glen was full of folk, most of them going on foot. Irecognized the Cherokee head-dress and the long hickory bows whichthose carried who had no muskets. 'Twas by far the biggest party we hadseen, and, though in that moment I had no wits to count them, Shalahtold me afterwards they must have numbered little short of a thousand. Some very old fellows were there, with lean, hollow cheeks, and scantylocks, but the most were warriors in their prime. I could see it was abig war they were out for, since some of the horses carried heavy loadsof corn, and it is never the Indian fashion to take much provender fora common raid. In all Virginia's history there had been no suchinvasion, for the wars of Opechancanough and Berkeley and the fight ofBacon against the Susquehannocks were mere bickers compared with thisdeliberate downpour from the hills. 

As we lay there, scarce daring to breathe, I saw that we were in deadlyperil. The host was so great that some marched on the very edge of ourthicket. I could see through the leaves the brown Skins not a yardaway. The slightest noise would bring the sharp Indian eyes peeringinto the gloom, and we must be betrayed. 

In that moment, which was one of the gravest of my life, I had happilyno leisure to think of myself. My whole soul sickened with anxiety forthe girl. I knew enough of Indian ways to guess her fate. For Shalahand myself there might be torture, and at the best an arrow in ourhearts, but for her there would be things unspeakable. I remembered thelittle meadow on the Rapidan, and the tale told by the grey ashes. There was only one shot in my pistol, but I determined that it shouldbe saved for her. In such a crisis the memory works wildly, and Iremember feeling glad that I had stood up before Grey's fire. Thethought gave me a comforting assurance of manhood. 

Those were nightmare minutes. The girl was very quiet, in a stupor offatigue and fear. Shalah was a graven image, and I was too tenselystrung to have any of the itches and fervours which used to vex me inhunting the deer when stillness was needful. Through the frettedgreenery, I saw the dim shadows of men passing swiftly. The thought ofthe horse worried me. If the confounded beast grazed peaceably down theother side of the hill, all might be well. So long as he was out ofsight any movement he made would be set down by the Indians to someforest beast, for animals' noises are all alike in a wood. But if hereturned to us, there would be the devil to pay, for at a glimpse ofhim our thicket would be alive with the enemy. 

In the end I found it best to shut my eyes and commend our case to ourMaker. Then I counted very slowly to myself up to four hundred, andlooked again. The vale was empty. 

We lay still, hardly believing in our deliverance, for the matter of aquarter of an hour, and then Shalah, making a sign to me to remain, turned and glided up lull. I put my hand behind me, found Elspeth'scheek, and patted it. She stretched out a hand and clutched minefeverishly, and thus we remained till, after what seemed an age, Shalahreturned. 

He was on his feet and walking freely. He had found the horse, too, andhad it by the bridle. 

"The danger is past, " he said gravely. "Let us go back to the glade andrest. "

I helped Elspeth to her feet, and on my arm she clambered to the grassyplace in the woods. I searched my pockets, and gave her the remnantsof the bread and bacon I had brought from the Rappahannock post. Better still, I remembered that I had in my breast a little flask ofeau-de-vie, and a mouthful of it revived her greatly. She put her handsto her head, and began to tidy her dishevelled hair, which is a suresign in a woman that she is recovering her composure. 

"What brought you here?" I asked gently. 

She had forgotten that I was in her black books, and that in her lettershe forbade my journey. Indeed, she looked at me as a child in a picklemay look at an upbraiding parent. 

"I was lost, " she cried. "I did not mean to go far, but the night camedown and I could not find the way back. Oh, it has been a hideousnightmare! I have been almost mad in the dark woods. "

"But how did you get here?" I asked, still hopelessly puzzled. 

"I was with Uncle James on the Rappahannock. He heard something thatmade him anxious, and he was going back to the Tidewater yesterday. Buta message came for him suddenly, and he left me at Morrison's farm, andsaid he would be back by the evening. I did not want to go home beforeI had seen the mountains where my estate is--you know, the land thatGovernor Francis said he would give me for my birthday. They told meone could see the hills from near at hand, and a boy that I asked saidI would get a rare view if I went to the rise beyond the river. So Ihad Paladin saddled, and crossed the ford, meaning to be back long eresunset. But the trees were so thick that I could see nothing from thefirst rise, and I tried to reach a green hill that looked near. Then itbegan to grow dark, and I lost my head, and oh! I don't know where Iwandered. I thought every rustle in the bushes was a bear or a panther. I feared the Indians, too, for they told me they were unsafe in thiscountry. All night long I tried to find a valley running east, but themoonlight deceived me, and I must have come farther away every hour. When day came I tied Paladin to a tree and slept a little, and then Irode on to find a hill which would show me the lie of the land. But itwas very hot, and I was very weary. And then you came, and thosedreadful wild men. And--and----" She broke down and wept piteously. 

I comforted her as best I could, telling her that her troubles wereover now, and that I should look after her. "You might have met with usin the woods last night, " I said, "so you see you were not far fromfriends. " But the truth was that her troubles were only beginning, andI was wretchedly anxious. My impulse was to try to get her back to theRappahannock; but, on putting this to Shalah, he shook his head. 

"It is too late, " he said. "If you seek certain death, go towards theRappahannock. She must come with us to the mountains. The only safetyis in the hill-tops. "

This seemed a mad saying. To be safe from Indians we were to go intothe heart of Indian country. But Shalah expounded it. The tribes, hesaid, dwelt only in the lower glens of the range, and never ventured tothe summits, believing them to be holy land where a great _manitou_dwelt. The Cherokees especially shunned the peaks. If we could find away clear to the top we might stay there in some security, till welearned the issue of the war, and could get word to our friends. "Moreover, " he said, "we have yet to penetrate the secret of the hills. That was the object of our quest, brother. "

Shalah was right, and I had forgotten all about it. I could not suffermy care for Elspeth to prevent a work whose issue might mean thesalvation of Virginia. We had still to learn the truth about themassing of Indians in the mountains, of which the Cherokee raids werebut scouting ventures. The verse of Grey's song came into my head:--

 "I could not love thee, dear, so much, Loved I not Honour more. "

Besides--and this was the best reason--there wasno other way. We had gone too far to turn back, and, as our proverbsays, "It is idle to swallow the cow and choke on the tail. "

I put it all to Elspeth. 

She looked very scared. "But my uncle will go mad if he does not findme. "

"It will be worse for him if he is never to find you again. Shalah saysit would be as easy to get you back over the Rappahannock as for achild to cross a winter torrent. I don't say it's pleasant either way, but there's a good hope of safety in the hills, and there's noneanywhere else. "

She sat for a little with her eyes downcast. "I am in your hands, " shesaid at last, "Oh, the foolish girl I have been! I will be a drag and adanger to you all. "

Then I took her hand. "Elspeth, " I said, "it's me will be the proud manif I can save you. I would rather be the salvation of you than the Kingof the Tidewater. And so says Shalah, and so will say all of us. "

But I do not think she heard me. She had checked her tears, but herwits were far away, grieving for her uncle's pain, and envisaging thedesperate future. At the first water we reached she bathed her face andeyes, and using the pool as a mirror, adjusted her hair. Then shesmiled bravely, "I will try to be a true comrade, like a man, " shesaid. "I think I will be stronger when I have slept a little. "

All that afternoon we stole from covert to covert. It was hot andoppressive in the dense woods, where the breeze could not penetrate. Shalah's eagle eyes searched every open space before we crossed, but wesaw nothing to alarm us. In time we came to the place where we had leftour party, and it was easy enough to pick up their road. They hadtravelled slowly, keeping to the thickest trees, and they had taken nopains to cover their tracks, for they had argued that if trouble cameit would come from the front, and that it was little likely that anyIndian would be returning thus soon and could take up their back trail. 

Presently we came to a place where the bold spurs of the hills overhungus, and the gap we had seen opened up into a deep valley. Shalah wentin advance, and suddenly we heard a word pass. We entered a cedarglade, to find our four companions unsaddling the horses and makingcamp. 

The sight of the girl held them staring. Grey grew pale and thenflushed scarlet. He came forward and asked me abruptly what it meant. When I told him he bit his lips. 

"There is only one thing to be done, " he said. "We must take Miss Blairback to the Tidewater. I insist, sir. I will go myself. We cannotinvolve her in our dangers. "

He was once again the man I had wrangled with. His eyes blazed, and hespoke in a high tone of command. But I could not be wroth with him;indeed, I liked him for his peremptoriness. It comforted me to thinkthat Elspeth had so warm a defender. 

I nodded to Shalah. "Tell him, " I said, and Shalah spoke with him. Hetook long to convince, but at, the end he said no more, and went tospeak to Elspeth. I could see that she lightened his troubled mind alittle, for, having accepted her fate, she was resolute to make thebest of it, I even heard her laugh. 

That night we made her a bower of green branches, and as we ate oursupper round our modest fire she sat like a queen among us. It was oddto see the way in which her presence affected each of us. With her Greywas the courtly cavalier, ready with a neat phrase and a line from thepoets. Donaldson and Shalah were unmoved; no woman could make anydifference to their wilderness silence. The Frenchman Bertrand grewalmost gay. She spoke to him in his own tongue, and he told her allabout the little family he had left and his days in far-away France. Butin Ringan was the oddest change. Her presence kept him tongue-tied, andwhen she spoke to him he was embarrassed into stuttering. He was eagerto serve her in everything, but he could not look her in the face oranswer readily when she spoke. This man, so debonair and masterfulamong his fellows, was put all out of countenance by a wearied girl. Ido not suppose he had spoken to a gentlewoman for ten years. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

CLEARWATER GLEN. 

Next morning we came into Clearwater Glen. 

Shalah spoke to me of it before we started. He did not fear theCherokees, who had come from the far south of the range and had neverbeen settled in these parts. But he thought that there might be othersfrom the back of the hills who would have crossed by this gap, andmight be lying in the lower parts of the glen. It behoved us, therefore, to go very warily. Once on the higher ridges, he thought wemight be safe for a time. An invading army has no leisure to explorethe rugged summits of a mountain. 

The first sight of the place gave me a strong emotion of dislike. Alittle river brawled in a deep gorge, falling in pools and linns likeone of my native burns. All its course was thickly shaded with bushesand knotted trees. On either bank lay stretches of rough hill pasture, lined with dark and tangled forests, which ran up the hill-side tillthe steepness of the slope broke them into copses of stunted pinesamong great bluffs of rock and raw red scaurs. The glen was verynarrow, and the mountains seemed to beetle above it so as to shut outhalf the sunlight. The air was growing cooler, with the queer, acridsmell in it that high hills bring. I am a great lover of uplands, andthe sourest peat-moss has a charm for me, but to that strange glen Iconceived at once a determined hate. It is the way of some places withsome men. The senses perceive a hostility for which the mind has noproof, and in my experience the senses are right. 

Part of my discomfort was due to my bodily health. I had proudlythought myself seasoned by those hot Virginian summers, in which I hadescaped all common ailments. But I had forgotten what old hunters hadtold me, that the hills will bring out a fever which is dormant in theplains. Anyhow, I now found that my head was dizzy and aching, and mylimbs had a strange trembling. The fatigue of the past day had draggedme to the limits of my strength and made me an easy victim. My heart, too, was full of cares. The sight of Elspeth reminded me how heavy wasmy charge. 'Twas difficult enough to scout well in this tangled place, but, forbye my duty to the dominion, I had the business of taking onewho was the light of my life into this dark land of bloody secrets. 

The youth and gaiety were going out of my quest. I could only plodalong dismally, attentive to every movement of Shalah, prayingincessantly that we might get well out of it all. To make mattersworse, the travelling became desperate hard. In the Tidewater therewere bridle paths, and in the vales of the foothills the going had beengood, with hard, dry soil in the woods, and no hindrances save athicket of vines or a rare windfall. But in this glen, where the hillrains beat, there was no end to obstacles. The open spaces were marshy, where our horses sank to the hocks. The woods were one medley of fallentrees, rotting into touchwood, hidden boulders, and matted briers. Often we could not move till Donaldson and Bertrand with their hatchetshad hewn some sort of road. All this meant slow progress, and by middaywe had not gone half-way up the glen to the neck which meant the ridgeof the pass. 

This was an occasion when Ringan showed at his best. He had lost hisawe of Elspeth, and devoted himself to making the road easy for her. Grey, who would fain have done the same, was no match for the seafarer, and had much ado to keep going himself. Ringan's cheery face was betterthan medicine. His eyes never lost their dancing light, and he wasready ever with some quip or whimsy to tide over the worst troubles. Wekept very still, but now and again Elspeth's laugh rang out at hisfooling, and it did my heart good to hear it. 

After midday the glen seemed to grow darker, and I saw that the bluesky, which I had thought changeless, was becoming overcast. As I lookedupwards I saw the high ridge blotted out and a white mist creepingdown. I had noticed for some time that Shalah was growing uneasy. Hewould halt us often, while he went a little way on, and now he turnedwith so grim a look that we stopped without bidding. 

He slipped into the undergrowth, while we waited in that dark, lonesomeplace. Even Ringan was sober now. 

Elspeth asked in a low voice what was wrong, and I told her that theIndian was uncertain of the best road. 

"Best road!" she laughed. "Then pray show me what you call the worst. "

Ringan grinned at me ruefully. "Where do you wish yourself at thismoment, Andrew?"

"On the top of this damned mountain, " I grunted. 

"Not for me, " he said. "Give me the Dry Tortugas, on a moonlight nightwhen the breaming fires burn along the shore, and the lads are singing'Spanish Ladies. ' Or, better still, the little isle of St. John theBaptist, with the fine yellow sands for careening, and Mother Dariabrewing bobadillo and the trades blowing fresh in the tops of thepalms. This land is a gloomy sort of business. Give me the bright, changeful sea. "

"And I, " said Elspeth, "would be threading rowan berries for a necklacein the heather of Medwyn Glen. It must be about four o'clock of amidsummer afternoon and a cloudless sky, except for white streamersover Tinto. Ah, my own kind countryside!"

Ringan's face changed. 

"You are right, my lady. No Tortugas or Spanish isles for NinianCampbell. Give him the steeps of Glenorchy on an October morn when thedeer have begun to bell. My sorrow, but we are far enough from ourdesires--all but Andrew, who is a prosaic soul. And here comes Shalahwith ugly news!"

The Indian spoke rapidly to me. "The woods are full of men. I do notthink we are discovered, but we cannot stay here. Our one hope is togain the cover of the mist. There is an open space beyond this thicket, and we must ride our swiftest. Quick, brother. "

"The men?" I gasped. "Cherokees?"

"Nay, " he said, "not Cherokees. I think they are those you seek frombeyond the mountains. "

The next half-hour is a mad recollection, wild and confused, anddistraught with anxiety. The thought of Elspeth among savages maddenedme, the more so as she had just spoken of Medwyn Glen, and had sent mymemory back to fragrant hours of youth. We scrambled out of the thicketand put our weary beasts to a gallop. Happily it was harder ground, albeit much studded with clumps of fern, and though we all slipped andstumbled often, the horses kept their feet. I was growing so dizzy inthe head that I feared every moment I would fall off. The mist had nowcome low down the hill, and lay before us, a line, of grey vapour drawnfrom edge to edge of the vale. It seemed an infinite long way off. 

Shalah on foot kept in the rear, and I gathered from him that thedanger he feared was behind. Suddenly as I stared ahead something fellten yards in advance of us in a long curve, and stuck, quivering in thesoil. 

It was an Indian arrow. 

We would have reined up if Shalah had not cried on us to keep on. I donot think the arrow was meant to strike us. 'Twas a warning, a grimjest of the savages in the wood. 

Then another fell, at the same distance before our first rider. 

Still Shalah cried us on. I fell back to the rear, for if we were toescape I thought there might be need of fighting there. I felt in mybelt for my loaded pistols. 

We were now in a coppice again, where the trees were short and sparse. Beyond that lay another meadow, and, then, not a quarter-mile distant, the welcome line of the mist, every second drawing down on us. 

A third time an arrow fell. Its flight was shorter and dropped almostunder the nose of Elspeth's horse, which swerved violently, and wouldhave unseated a less skilled horsewoman. 

"On, on, " I cried, for we were past the need for silence, and when Ilooked again, the kindly fog had swallowed up the van of the party. 

I turned and gazed back, and there I saw a strange sight. A dozen menor more had come to the edge of the trees on the hill-side. They werequite near, not two hundred yards distant, and I saw them clearly. Theycarried bows or muskets, but none offered to use them. They were tallfellows, but lighter in the colour than any Indians I had seen. Indeed, they were as fair as many an Englishman, and their slim, golden-brownbodies were not painted in the maniac fashion of the Cherokees. Theystood stock still, watching us with a dreadful impassivity which wasmore frightening to me than violence. Then I, too, was overtaken by thegrey screen. 

"Will they follow?" I asked Shalah. 

"I do not think so. They are not hill-men, and fear the high placeswhere the gods smoke. Further-more, there is no need. "

"We have escaped, then?" I asked, with a great relief in my voice. 

"Say rather we have been shepherded by them into a fold. They will findus when they desire us. "

It was a perturbing thought, but at any rate we were safe for themoment, and I resolved to say nothing to alarm the others. We overtookthem presently, and Shalah became our guide. Not that more guiding wasneeded than Ringan or I could have given, for the lift of the groundgave us our direction, and there was the sound of a falling stream. Toan upland-bred man mist is little of a hindrance, unless on afeatureless moor. 

Ever as we jogged upward the air grew colder. Rain was blowing in ourteeth, and the ferny grass and juniper clumps dripped with wet. Almostit might have been the Pentlands or the high mosses between DouglasWater and Clyde. To us coming fresh from the torrid plains it wasbitter weather, and I feared for Elspeth, who was thinly clad for thehill-tops. Ringan seemed to feel the cold the worst of us, for he hadspent his days in the hot seas of the south. He put his horse-blanketover his shoulders, and cut a comical figure with his red face peepingfrom its folds. 

"Lord, " he would cry, "I wish I was in the Dry Tortugas or snug in thebeach-house at the Isle o' Pines. This minds me painfully of my youngdays, when I ran in a ragged kilt in the cold heather of Cruachan. Imust be getting an old man, Andrew, for I never thought the hills couldfreeze my blood. "

Suddenly the fog lightened a little, the slope ceased, and we had thatgust of freer air which means the top of the pass. My head was lessdizzy now, and I had a momentary gladness that at any rate we had donepart of what we set out to do. 

"Clearwater Gap!" I cried. "Except for old Studd, we are the firstChristians to stand on this watershed. "

Below us lay a swimming hollow of white mist, hiding I knew not whatstrange country. 

From the vales below I had marked the lie of the land on each side ofthe gap. The highest ground was to the right, so we turned up theridge, which was easier than the glen and better travelling. Presentlywe were among pines again, and got a shelter from the driving rain. Myplan was to find some hollow far up the mountain side, and there tomake our encampment. After an hour's riding, we came to the very placeI had sought. A pocket of flat land lay between two rocky knolls, witha ring of good-sized trees around it. The spot was dry and hidden, andwhat especially took my fancy was a spring of water which welled up inthe centre, and from which a tiny stream ran down the hill. 'Twas afine site for a stockade, and so thought Shalah and the two Borderers. 

There was much to do to get the place ready, and Donaldson and Bertrandfell to with their axes to fell trees for the fort. Now that we hadreached the first stage in our venture, my mind was unreasonablycomforted. With the buoyancy of youth, I argued that since we had gotso far we must get farther. Also the fever seemed to be leaving mybones and my head clearing. Elspeth was almost merry. Like a childplaying at making house, she ordered the men about on divers errands. She was a fine sight, with the wind ruffling her hair and her cheeksreddened from the rain. 

Ringan came up to me. "There are three Hours of daylight in front ofus. What say you to make for the top of the hills and find Studd'scairn? I need some effort to keep my blood running. "

I would gladly have stayed behind, for the fever had tired me, but Icould not be dared by Ringan and not respond. So we set off at a greatpace up the ridge, which soon grew very steep, and forced us to acrawl. There were places where we had to scramble up loose cliffs amida tangle of vines, and then we would dip into a little glade, and thenonce again breast a precipice. By and by the trees dropped away, andthere was nothing but low bushes and boulders and rank mountaingrasses. In clear air we must have had a wonderful prospect, but themist hung close around us, the drizzle blurred our eyes, and the mostwe saw was a yard or two of grey vapour. It was easy enough to find theroad, for the ridge ran upwards as narrow as a hog's back. 

Presently it ceased, and with labouring breath we walked a step or twoin flat ground. Ringan, who was in front, stumbled over a little heapof stones about a foot high. 

"Studd had a poor notion of a cairn, " he said, as he kicked them down. There was nothing beneath but bare soil. 

But the hunter had spoken the truth. A little digging in the earthrevealed the green metal of an old powder-flask with a wooden stopper. I forced it open, and shook from its inside a twist of very dirtypaper. There were some rude scratchings on it with charcoal, which Iread with difficulty. 

 _Salut to Adventrs_. _Robbin Studd on ye Sumit of Mountaine ye 3rd_ _dy of June, yr_ 1672 _hathe sene ye_ _Promissd Lande_. 

Somehow in that bleak place this scrap of a human message wonderfullyuplifted our hearts. Before we had thought only of our danger andcares, but now we had a vision of the reward. Down in the mists lay anew world. Studd had seen it, and we should see it; and some day theVirginian people would drive a road through Clearwater Gap and enterinto possession. It is a subtle joy that which fills the heart of thepioneer, and mighty unselfish too. He does not think of payment, forthe finding is payment enough. He does not even seek praise, for it isthe unborn generations that will call him blessed. He is content, likeMoses, to leave his bones in the wilderness if his people may pass overJordan. 

Ringan turned his flask in his hands. "A good man, this old Studd, " hesaid. "I like his words, _Salute to Adventurers_. He was thinking ofthe folk that should come after him, which is the mark of a big mind, Andrew. Your common fellow would have writ some glorification of hisown doings, but Studd was thinking of the thing he had done and not ofhimself. You say he's dead these ten years. Maybe he's looking down atus and nodding his old head well pleased. I would like fine to drinkhis health. "

We ran down the hill, and came to the encampment at the darkening. Ringan, who had retained the flask, presented it to Elspeth with a bow. 

"There, mistress, " he says, "there's the key of your new estate. "

CHAPTER XX. 

THE STOCKADE AMONG THE PINES. 

It took us a heavy day's work to get the stockade finished. There wereonly the two axes in the party, besides Shalah's tomahawk, and no onecan know the labour of felling and trimming trees tin he has tried it. We found the horses useful for dragging trunks, and but for them shouldhave made a poor job of it. Grey's white hands were all cut andblistered, and, though I boasted of my hardiness, mine were littlebetter. Ringan was the surprise, for you would not think that sailing aship was a good apprenticeship to forestry. But he was as skilful asBertrand and as strong as Donaldson, and he had a better idea offortification than us all put together. 

The palisade which ran round the camp was six feet high, made of logslashed to upright stakes. There was a gate which could be barredheavily, and loopholes were made every yard or so for musket fire. Onone side--that facing the uplift of the ridge--the walls rose to ninefeet. Inside we made a division. In one half the horses were picketedat night, and the other was our dwelling. 

For Elspeth we made a bower in one corner, which we thatched with pinebranches; but the rest of us slept in the open round the fire. It was arough place, but a strong one, for our water could not be cut off, and, as we had plenty of ball and powder, a few men could hold it against ahost. To each was allotted his proper station, in case of attack, andwe kept watch in succession like soldiers in war. Ringan, who hadfought in many places up and down the world, was our general in thesematters, and a rigid martinet we found him. Shalah was our scout, andwe leaned on him for all woodland work; but inside the palisadeRingan's word was law. 

Our plan was to make this stockade the centre for exploring the hillsand ascertaining the strength and purposes of the Indian army. Wehoped, and so did Shalah, that our enemies would have no leisure tofollow us to the high ridges; that what risk there was would be run bythe men on their spying journeys; but that the stockade would bereasonably safe. It was my intention, as soon as I had sufficient news, to send word to Lawrence, and we thought that presently theRappahannock forces would have driven the Cherokees southward, and theway would be open to get Elspeth back to the Tidewater. 

The worst trouble, as I soon saw, was to be the matter of food. Thesupplies we had carried were all but finished by what we ate after thestockade was completed. After that there remained only a single bag offlour, another bag of Indian meal, and a pound or two of boucannedbeef, besides three flasks of eau-de-vie, which Ringan had brought in aleather casket. The forest berries were not yet ripe, and the only foodto be procured was the flesh of the wild game. Happily in Donaldson andBertrand we had two practised trappers; but they were doubtful aboutsuccess, for they had no knowledge of what beasts lived in the hills. Ihave said that we had plenty of powder and ball, but I did not relishthe idea of shooting in the woods, for the noise would be a signal toour foes. Still, food we must have, and I thought I might find asecluded place where the echoes of a shot would be muffled. 

The next morning I parcelled up the company according to their duties, for while Ringan was captain of the stockade, I was the leader of theventure. I sent out Bertrand and Donaldson to trap in the woods;Ringan, with Grey and Shalah, stayed at home to strengthen stillfurther the stockade and protect Elspeth; while I took my musket andsome pack-thongs and went up the hill-side to look for game. We weretrysted to be back an hour before sundown, and if some one of us didnot find food we should go supperless. 

That day is a memory which will never pass from me. The weather wasgrey and lowering, and though the rain had ceased, the air was stillheavy with it, and every bush and branch dripped with moisture. It wasa poor day for hunting, for the eye could not see forty yards; but itsuited my purpose, since the dull air would deaden the noise of mymusket. I was hunting alone in a strange land among imminent perils, and my aim was not to glorify my skill, but to find the means of life. The thought strung me up to a mood where delight was more notable thancare. I was adventuring with only my hand to guard me in those ancient, haunted woods, where no white man had ever before travelled. Toexperience such moments is to live with the high fervour which God gaveto mortals before towns and laws laid their dreary spell upon them. 

Early in the day I met a bear--the second I had seen in my life. I didnot want him, and he disregarded me and shuffled grumpily down thehill-side. I had to be very careful, I remember, to mark my path, sothat I could retrace it, and I followed the Border device of making achip here and there in the bark of trees, and often looking backward toremember the look of the place when seen from the contrary side. Trailswere easy to find on the soft ground, but besides the bear I saw nonebut those of squirrel and rabbit, and a rare opossum. But at last, in amarshy glen, I found the fresh slot of a great stag. For two hours andmore I followed him far north along the ridge, till I came up with himin a patch of scrub oak. I had to wait long for a shot, but when atlast he rose I planted a bullet fairly behind his shoulder, and hedropped within ten paces. His size amazed me, for he was as big as acart-horse in body, and carried a spread of branching antlers like aforest tree. To me, accustomed to the little deer of the Tidewater, this great creature seemed a portent, and I guessed that he was thatelk which I had heard of from the Border hunters. Anyhow he gave mewealth of food. I hid some in a cool place, and took the rest with me, packed in bark, in a great bundle on my shoulders. 

The road back was easier than I had feared, for I had the slope of thehill to guide me; but I was mortally weary of my load before I plumpedit down inside the stockade. Presently Bertrand and Donaldson returned. They brought only a few rabbits, but they had set many traps, and in ahill burn they had caught some fine golden-bellied trout. Soon venisonsteaks and fish were grilling in the embers, and Elspeth set to bakingcakes on a griddle. Those left behind had worked well, and the palisadewas as perfect as could be contrived. A runlet of water had been ledthrough a hollow trunk into a trough--also hewn from a log--close byElspeth's bower, where she could make her toilet unperplexed by othereyes. Also they had led a stream into the horses' enclosure, so thatthey could be watered with ease. 

The weather cleared in the evening, as it often does in a hill country. From the stockade we had no prospect save the reddening western sky, but I liked to think that in a little walk I could see old Studd'sPromised Land. That was a joy I reserved for myself on the morrow, Ilook back on that late afternoon with delight as a curious interlude ofpeace. We had forgotten that we were fugitives in a treacherous land, Ifor one had forgotten the grim purpose of our quest, and we cookedsupper as if we were a band of careless folk taking our pleasure in thewilds. Wood-smoke is always for me an intoxication like strong drink. It seems the incense of nature's altar, calling up the shades of theold forest gods, smacking of rest and comfort in the heart of solitude. And what odour can vie for hungry folk with that of roasting meat inthe clear hush of twilight? The sight of that little camp is still inmy memory. Elspeth flitted about busied with her cookery, the glow ofthe sunset lighting up her dark hair. Bertrand did the roasting, crouched like a gnome by the edge of the fire. Grey fetched and carriedfor the cooks, a docile and cheerful servant, with nothing in his lookto recall the proud gentleman of the Tidewater. Donaldson sat on a log, contentedly smoking his pipe, while Ringan, whistling a strathspey, attended to the horses. Only Shalah stood aloof, his eyes fixedvacantly on the western sky, and his ear intent on the multitudinousvoices of the twilit woods. 

Presently food was ready, and our rude meal in that darkling place wasa merry one. Elspeth sat enthroned on a couch of pine branches--I cansee her yet shielding her face from the blaze with one little hand, anddividing her cakes with the other. Then we lit our pipes, and fell tothe long tales of the camp-fire. Ringan had a story of a black-hairedprincess of Spain, and how for love of her two gentlemen did marvels onthe seas. The chief one never returned to claim her, but died in afight off Cartagena, and wrote a fine ballad about his mistress whichRingan said was still sung in the taverns of the Main. He gave a verseof it, a wild, sad thing, with tears in it and the joy of battle. Afterthat we all sang, all but me, who have no voice. Bertrand had a lay ofNormandy, about a lady who walked in the apple-orchards and fell inlove with a wandering minstrel; and Donaldson sang a rough ballad ofVirginia, in which a man weighs the worth of his wife against a tankardof apple-jack. Grey sang an English song about the north-country maidwho came to London, and a bit of the chanty of the Devon men who sackedSanta Fe and stole the Almirante's daughter. As for Elspeth, she sangto a soft Scots tune the tale of the Lady of Cassilis who followed thegipsy's piping. In it the gipsy tells of what he can offer the lady, and lo! it was our own case!--

 "And ye shall wear no silken gown, No maid shall bind your hair; The yellow broom shall be your gem, Your braid the heather rare. 

 "Athwart the moor, adown the hill, Across the world away! The path is long for happy hearts That sing to greet the day, My love, That sing to greet the day. "

I remember, too, the last verse of it:--

 "And at the last no solemn stole Shall on thy breast be laid; No mumbling priest shall speed thy soul, No charnel vault thee shade. But by the shadowed hazel copse, Aneath the greenwood tree, Where airs are soft and waters sing, Thou'lt ever sleep by me, My love, Thou'lt ever sleep by me. "

Then we fell to talking about the things in the West that no man hadyet discovered, and Shalah, to whom our songs were nothing, now lent anear. 

"The first Virginians, " said Grey, "thought that over the hills lay thewestern ocean and the road to Cathay. I do not know, but I am confidentthat but a little way west we should come to water. A great river orelse the ocean. "

Ringan differed. He held that the land of America was very wide inthose parts, as wide as south of the isthmus where no man had yetcrossed it. Then he told us of a sea-captain who had travelled inlandin Mexico for five weeks and come to a land where gold was as common aschuckiestones, and a great people dwelt who worshipped a god who livedin a mountain. And he spoke of the holy city of Manoa, which Sir WalterRaleigh sought, and which many had seen from far hill-tops. Likewise ofthe wonderful kings who once dwelt in Peru, and the little isle in thePacific where all the birds were nightingales and the Tree of Lifeflourished; and the mountain north of the Main which was all oneemerald. "I think, " he said, "that, though no man has ever had thefruition of these marvels, they are likely to be more true than false. I hold that God has kept this land of America to the last to be theloadstone of adventurers, and that there are greater wonders to be seenthan any that man has imagined. The pity is that I have spent my bestyears scratching like a hen at its doorstep instead of entering. I havea notion some day to travel straight west to the sunset. I think Ishould find death, but I might see some queer things first. "

Then Shalah spoke:--

"There was once a man of my own people who, when he came to man'sstrength, journeyed westward with a wife. He travelled all his days, and when his eyes were dim with age he saw a great water. His spiritleft him on its shore, but on his road he had begotten a son, and thatson journeyed back towards the rising sun, and came after many years tohis people again. I have spoken with him of what he had seen. "

"And what was that?" asked Ringan, with eager eyes. 

"He told of plains so great that it is a lifetime to travel over them, and of deserts where the eagle flying from the dawn dies of drought bymidday, and of mountains so high that birds cannot cross them but arechanged by cold into stone, and of rivers to which our little watersare as reeds to a forest cedar. But especially he spoke of the fiercewarriors that ride like the wind on horses. It seems, brother, that hewho would reach that land must reach also the Hereafter. "

"That's the place for me, " Ringan cried. "What say you, Andrew? Whenthis affair is over, shall we make a bid for these marvels? I can cullsome pretty adventurers from the Free Companions. "

"Nay, I am for moving a step at a time, " said I. "I am a trader, andwant one venture well done before I begin on another, I shall becontent if we safely cross these mountains on which we are nowperched. "

Ringan shook his head. "That was never the way of the Highlands, 'Better a bone on the far-away hills than a fat sheep in the meadows, 'says the Gael. What say you, mistress?" and he turned to Elspeth. 

"I think you are the born poet, " said she, smiling, "and that Mr. Garvald is the sober man of affairs. You will leap for the top of thewall and get a prospect while Mr. Garvald will patiently pull it down. "

"Oh, I grant that Andrew has the wisdom, " said Ringan. "That's why himand me's so well agreed. It's because we differ much, and so fittogether like opposite halves of an apple.... Is your traveller stillin the land of the living?" he asked Shalah. 

But the Indian had slipped away from the fireside circle, and I saw himwithout in the moonlight standing rigid on a knoll and gazing at theskies. 

 * * * * *

Next day dawned cloudless, and Shalah and I spent it in a longjourney along the range. We kept to the highest parts, and at everyvantage-ground we scanned the glens for human traces. By this time Ihad found my hill legs, and could keep pace even with the Indian'sswift stride. The ridge of mountains, you must know, was not a singlebackbone, but broken up here and there by valleys into two and eventhree ranges. This made our scouting more laborious, and prevented usfrom getting the full value out of our high station. Mostly we kept incover, and never showed on a skyline. But we saw nothing to prove theneed of this stealth. Only the hawks wheeled, and the wild pigeonscrooned; the squirrels frisked among the branches; and now and then agreat deer would leap from its couch and hasten into the coverts. 

But, though we got no news, that journey brought to me a revelation, for I had my glimpse of Studd's Promised Land. It came to me early inthe day, as we halted in a little glade, gay with willowherb andgoldenrod, which hung on a shelf of the hills looking westwards. Thefirst streamers of morn had gone, the mists had dried up from thevalleys, and I found myself looking into a deep cleft and across at asteep pine-clad mountain. Clearly the valley was split by this mountaininto two forks, and I could see only the cool depth of it and catch agleam of broken water a mile or two below. But looking more to thenorth, I saw where the vale opened, and then I had a vision worthy ofthe name by which Studd had baptized it. An immense green pasture landran out to the dim horizon. There were forests scattered athwart it, and single great trees, and little ridges, too, but at the height wherewe stood it seemed to the eye to be one verdant meadow as trim andshapely as the lawn of a garden. A noble river, the child of many hillstreams, twined through it in shining links. I could see dots, which Itook to be herds of wild cattle grazing, but no sign of any humandweller. 

"What is it?" I asked unthinkingly. 

"The Shenandoah, " Shalah said, and I never stopped to ask how he knewthe name. He was gazing at the sight with hungry eyes, he whose gazewas, for usual, so passionless. 

That prospect gave me a happy feeling of comfort; why, I cannot tell, except that the place looked so bright and habitable. Here was no sourwilderness, but a land made by God for cheerful human dwellings. Someday there would be orchards and gardens among those meadows, and milesof golden corn, and the smoke of hearth fires. Some day I would enterinto that land of Canaan which now I saw from Pisgah. Some day--and Iscarcely dared the thought--my children would call it home. 

CHAPTER XXI. 

A HAWK SCREAMS IN THE EVENING

Those two days in the stockade were like a rift of sun in a stormy day, and the next morn the clouds descended. The face of nature seemed to bea mirror of our fortunes, for when I woke the freshness had gone out ofthe air, and in the overcast sky there was a forewarning of storm. Butthe little party in the camp remained cheerful enough. Donaldson andBertrand went off to their trapping; Elspeth was braiding her hair, thehandsomest nymph that ever trod these woodlands, and trying in vain todiscover from the discreet Ringan where he came from, and what was hiscalling. The two Borderers knew well who he was; Grey, I think, had asuspicion; but it never entered the girl's head that this debonairgentleman bore the best known name in all the Americas. She fancied hewas some exiled Jacobite, and was ready to hear a pitiful romance. Thisat another time she would have readily got; but Ringan for the noncewas in a sober mood, and though he would talk of Breadalbane, was charyof touching on more recent episodes. All she learned was that he was agreat traveller, and had tried most callings that merit a gentleman'sinterest. 

The day before, Shalah and I had explored the range to the south, keeping on the west side where we thought the enemy were likely togather. This day we looked to the side facing the Tidewater, adifficult job, for it was eaten into by the upper glens of many rivers. The weather grew hot and oppressive, and over the lowlands of Virginiathere brooded a sullen thundercloud. It oppressed my spirits, and Ifound myself less able to keep up with Shalah. The constant sight ofthe lowlands filled me with anxiety for what might be happening inthose sullen blue flats. Gone was the glad forgetfulness of yesterday. The Promised Land might smile as it pleased, but we were still on theflanks of Pisgah with the Midianites all about us. 

My recollection of that day is one of heavy fatigue and a pressinghopelessness. Shalah behaved oddly, for he was as restive as afrightened stag. No covert was unsuspected by him, and if I ventured toraise my head on any exposed ground a long brown arm pulled me down. Hewould make no answer to my questions except a grunt. All this gave methe notion that the hills were full of the enemy, and I grew as restiveas the Indian. The crackle of a branch startled me, and the movement ofa scared beast brought my heart to my throat. 

Then from a high place he saw something which sent us both crawlinginto the thicket. We made a circuit of several miles round the head ofa long ravine, and came to a steep bank of red screes. Up this wewormed our way, as flat as snakes, with our noses in the dusty earth. Iwas dripping with sweat, and cursing to myself this new madness ofShalah's. Then I found a cooler air blowing on the top of my prostrateskull, and I judged that we were approaching the scarp of a ridge. Shalah's hand held me motionless. He wriggled on a little farther, andwith immense slowness raised his head. His hand now beckoned meforward, and in a few seconds I was beside him and was lifting my eyesover the edge of the scarp. 

Below us lay a little plain, wedged in between two mountains, andbreaking off on one side into a steep glen. It was just such a shelf asI had seen in the Carolinas, only a hundred times greater, and it laysome five hundred feet below us. Every part of the hollow was filledwith men. Thousands there must have been, around their fires andteepees, and coming or going from the valley. They were silent, likeall savages, but the low hum rose from the place which told of humanlife. 

I tried to keep my eyes steady, though my heart was beating like afanner. The men were of the same light colour and slimness as those Ihad seen on the edge of the mist in Clearwater Glen. Indeed, they werenot unlike Shalah, except that he was bigger than the most of them. Iwas not learned in Indian ways, but a glance told me that these folknever came out of the Tidewater, and were no Cherokees of the hills orTuscaroras from the Carolinas. They were a new race from the west orthe north, the new race which had so long been perplexing us. Somewhereamong them was the brain which had planned for the Tidewater a suddendestruction. 

Shalah slipped noiselessly backward, and I followed him down the screeslope, across the ravine, and then with infinite caution through thesparse woods till we had put a wide shoulder of hill between us and theenemy. After that we started running, such a pace as made the rush backto the Rappahannock seem an easy saunter. Shalah would avoid short-cutsfor no reason that I could see, and make long circuits in places whereI had to go on hands and feet. I was weary before we set out, and soonI began to totter like a drunken man. The Indian's arm pulled me upcountless times, and his face, usually so calm, was now sharp withcare. "You cannot fail here, brother, " he would say, "On our speed hangthe lives of all. " That put me on my mettle, for it was Elspeth'ssafety I now strove for, and the thought gave life to my leaden limbs. Every minute the air grew heavier, and the sky darker, so that whenabout five in the afternoon we passed the Gap and struggled up the lasthill to the stockade, it seemed as if night had already fallen. 

Elspeth and Ringan were there, and the two trappers had just returned. I could do nothing but pant on the ground, but Shalah cried out fornews of Grey. He heard that he had gone into the woods with his muskettwo hours past. At this he flung up his hands with a motion of despair. "We cannot wait, " he said to Ringan. "Close the gate and put every manto his post, for the danger is at hand. "

Ringan gave his orders. The big log gate was barred, the fire trampledout, and we waited in that thunderous darkness. A long draught of coldwater had revived me, and I could think clearly of Elspeth. Her bowerwas in the safest part of the stockade, but she would not stay there, Icould see terror in her eyes, but she gave no sign of it. She madeready our supper of cold meat as if she had no other thought in theworld. 

Waiting on an attack is a hard trial for mortal nerves. I am notashamed to confess that in those minutes my courage was little to boastof. I envied Ringan his ease, and Bertrand his light cheerfulness, andDonaldson his unshaken gravity, and especially I envied Shalah hisgodlike calm. But most of all I envied Elspeth the courage which couldknow desperate fear and never show it. Most likely I did myself somewrong. Most likely my own face was firm enough, but, if it were, 'twasa poor clue to the brain behind it. I fell to wondering about Greystill travelling in the woods. Was there any hope for him? Was therehope, indeed, for any one of us penned in a wooden palisade fifty milesfrom aid, a handful against an army?

Presently in the lowering silence came the scream of a hawk. 

An uncommon sound, half croak, half cry, which only hill dwellers know, but 'tis an eery noise in the wilderness. It came again, less near, anda third time from a great distance. I thought it queer, for a hawk doesnot scream twice in the same hour. I looked at Shalah, who stood by thegate, every sinew in his body taut with expectation. He caught my eye. 

"That hawk never flew on wings, " he said. 

Then an owl hooted, and from near at hand came the cough of a deer. Thethicket was alive with life, which mimicked the wild things of thewoods. 

Then came a sound which drowned all others. From the inky sky descendeda jagged line of light, and in the same second the crash of the thunderbroke. Never have I seen such a storm. Down in the Tidewater we hadthunderstorms in plenty during the summer-time, but they growled andpassed and scarce ruffled the even blue of the sky. But here it lookedas if we had found the home of the lightnings, where all thethunderbolts were forged. It blazed around us like a steady fire. By amiracle the palisade was not struck, but I heard a rending andsplintering in the forest where tall trees had met their doom. Thenoise deafened me, and confused my senses. Out of the loophole I couldsee the glade that sloped down to the Gap, and it was as bright as ifit had been high noonday. The clumps of fern and grass stood out yellowand staring against the inky background of the trees. I remember Inoted a rabbit run confusedly into the open, and then at a fresh flareof lightning scamper back. 

Something was crouching and shivering at my side. I found it wasElspeth, whose courage was no match for the terrors of the heavens. Shesnuggled against me for companionship, and hid her face in the sleeveof my coat. 

Suddenly came a cry from Shalah on my left. He pointed his hand to theglade, and in it I saw a man running. A new burst of light sprang up, for some dry tindery creepers had caught fire, and were blazing toheaven. It lit a stumbling figure which I saw was Grey, and behind himwas a lithe Indian running on his trail. 

"Open the gate, " I cried, and I got my musket in the loophole. 

The fugitive was all but spent. He ran, bowed almost to the ground, with a wild back glance ever and again over his shoulder. His pursuergained on him with great strides, and in his hand he carried a bareknife. I dared not shoot, for Grey was between me and his enemy. 

'Twas as well I could not, for otherwise Grey would never have reachedus alive. We cried to him to swerve, and the sound of our voicesbrought up that last flicker of hope which waits till the end in everyman. He seemed actually to gain a yard, and now he was near enough forus to see his white face and staring eyes. Then he stumbled, and theman with the knife was almost on him. But he found his feet again, andswerved like a hunted hare in one desperate bound. This gave me mychance: my musket cracked, and the Indian pitched quietly to theground. The knife flew out of his hand and almost touched Grey's heel. 

With the sound Shalah had leaped from the gate, picked up Grey like achild, and in a second had him inside the palisade and the bars down. He was none too soon, for as his pursuer fell a flight of arrows brokefrom the thicket, and had I shot earlier Grey had died of them. As itwas they were too late. The bowmen rushed into the glade, and fivemuskets from our side took toll of them. My last vision was of leapingyellow devils capering from among blazing trees. 

Then without warning it was dark again, and from the skies fell adeluge of rain. In a minute the burning creepers were quenched, and thewhole world was one pit of ink, with the roar as of a thousand torrentsabout our ears. As the vividness of the lightning, so was the weight ofthe rain. Ringan cried to us to stand to our places, for now was thelikely occasion for attack; but no human being could have fought insuch weather. Indeed, we could not hear him, and he had to staggerround and shout his command into each several ear. The might of thedeluge almost pressed me to the earth, I carried Elspeth into herbower, but the roof of branches was speedily beaten down, and it was nobetter than a peat bog. 

That overwhelming storm lasted for maybe a quarter of an hour, and thenit stopped as suddenly as it came. Inside the palisade the ground swamlike a loch, and from the hill-side came the rumour of a thousandswollen streams. That, with the heavy drip of laden branches, madesound enough, but after the thunder and the downpour it seemed silenceitself. Presently when I looked up I saw that the black wrack wasclearing from the sky, and through a gap there shone a watery star. 

Ringan took stock of our defences, and doled out to each a portion ofsodden meat. Grey had found his breath by this time, and had got aspare musket, for his own had been left in the woods. Elspeth had hadher wits sorely jangled by the storm, and in the revulsion was on thebrink of tears. She was very tender towards Grey's condition, and thesight gave me no jealousy, for in that tense hour all things wereforgotten but life and death. Donaldson, at Ringan's bidding, saw tothe feeding of the horses as if he were in his own stable on theRappahannock. It takes all sorts of men to make a world, but I thoughtat the time that for this business the steel nerves of the Bordererwere worth many quicker brains and more alert spirits. 

The hours marched sombrely towards midnight, while we stayed every manby his post. I asked Shalah if the enemy had gone, and he shook hishead. He had the sense of a wild animal to detect danger in the forestwhen the eye and ear gave no proof. He stood like a stag, sniffing thenight air, and peering with his deep eyes into the gloom. Fortunately, though the moon was all but full, the sky was so overcast that only thefaintest yellow glow broke into the darkness of the hill-tops. 

It must have been an hour after midnight when we got our next warningof the enemy. Suddenly a firebrand leaped from farther up the hill, andflew in a wide curve into the middle of the stockade. It fell on thepartition between the horses and ourselves and hung crackling there. Ashower of arrows followed it, which missed us, for we were close to theedges of the palisade. But the sputtering torch was a danger, forpresently it would show our position; so Bertrand very gallantly pulledit down, stamped it out, and got back to his post unscathed. 

Yet the firebrand had done its work, for it had showed the savageswhere the horses stood picketed. Another followed, lighting in theirvery midst, and setting them plunging at their ropes. 

I heard Ringan curse deeply, for we had not thought of this stratagem. And the next second I became aware that there was some one among thehorses. At first I thought that the palisade had been stormed, and thenI heard a soft voice which was no Indian's. Heedless of orders, I flungmyself at the rough gate, and in a trice was beside the voice. 

Elspeth was busy among the startled beasts. She had a passion forhorses, and had, as we say, the "cool" hand with them, for she wouldsoothe a frightened stallion by rubbing his nose and whispering in hisear. By the time I got to her she had stamped out the torch, and wasstroking Grey's mare, which was the worst scared. Her own fear hadgone, and in that place of plunging hooves and tossing manes she was ascalm as in a summer garden. "Let me be, Andrew, " she said. "I am betterat this business than you. "

She had the courage of a lion, but 'twas a wild courage, withoutforesight. Another firebrand came circling through the darkness, andbroke on the head of Donaldson's pony. I caught the girl and swung heroff her feet into safety. And then on the heels of the torch came aflight of arrows, fired from near at hand. 

By the mercy of God she was unharmed. I had one through the sleeve ofmy coat, but none reached her. One took a horse in the neck, and thepoor creature screamed pitifully. Presently there was a wild confusionof maddened beasts, with the torch burning on the ground and lightingthe whole place for the enemy. I had Elspeth in my arms, and wascarrying her to the gate, when over the palisade I saw yellow limbs andfierce faces. 

They saw it too--Ringan and the rest--and it did not need his cry tokeep our posts to tell us the right course. The inner palisade whichshut off the horses must now be our line of defence, and the poorbeasts must be left to their fate. But Elspeth and I had still to getinside it. 

Her ankle had caught in a picket rope, which in another second wouldhave wrenched it cruelly, had I not slashed it free with my knife. Thissent the horse belonging to it in wild career across the corral, and Ithink 'twas that interruption which saved our lives. It held back thesavages for an instant of time, and prevented them blocking our escape. It all took place in the flutter of an eye-lid, though it takes long inthe telling. I pushed Elspeth through the door, and with all mystrength tore at the bars. 

But they would not move. Perhaps the rain had swollen the logs, andthey had jammed too tightly to let the bar slide in the groove. So Ifound myself in that gate, the mad horses and the savages before me, and my friends at my back, with only my arm to hold the post. 

I had my musket and my two pistols--three shots, for there would be notime to reload. A yellow shadow slipped below a horse's belly, andthere came the cry of an animal's agony. Then another and another, andyet more. But no one came near me in the gateway. I could not seeanything to shoot at--only lithe shades and mottled shadows, for thetorch lay on the wet ground, and was sputtering to its end. The moaningof the horses maddened me, and I sent a bullet through the head of myown poor beast, which was writhing horribly. Elspeth's horse got thecontents of my second pistol. 

And then it seemed that the raiders had gone. There was one bit of thefar palisade which was outlined for me dimly against a gap in thetrees. I saw a figure on it, and whipped my musket to my shoulder. Something flung up its arms and toppled back among the dying beasts. 

Then a hand--Donaldson's, I think--clutched me and pulled me back. Witha great effort the bars were brought down, and I found myself besideElspeth. All her fortitude had gone now, and she was sobbing like achild. 

Gradually the moaning of the horses ceased, and the whole world seemedcold and silent as a stone. We stood our watch till a wan sunrisestruggled up the hill-side. 

CHAPTER XXII. 

HOW A FOOL MUST GO HIS OWN ROAD. 

It was a sorry party that looked at each other in the first light ofdawn. 

Our eyes were hollow with suspense, and all but Shalah had the huntedlook of men caught in a trap. Not till the sun had got above thetree-tops did we venture to leave our posts and think of food. It wasnow that Elspeth's spirit showed supreme. The courage of that pale girlput us all to the blush. She alone carried her head high and forced anair of cheerfulness. She lit the fire with Donaldson's help, andbroiled some deer's flesh for our breakfast, and whistled gently as shewrought, bringing into our wild business a breath of the orderlycomfort of home. I had seen her in silk and lace, a queen among thegallants, but she never looked so fair as on that misty morning, herhair straying over her brow, her plain kirtle soiled and sodden, buther eyes bright with her young courage. 

During the last hours of that dark vigil my mind had been torn withcares. If we escaped the perils of the night, I asked myself, whatthen? Here were the seven of us, pinned in a hill-fort, with no helpwithin fifty miles, and one of the seven was a woman! I judged that theIndian force was large, and there was always the mighty army waitingfarther south in that shelf of the hills. If they sought to take us, itmust be a matter of a day or two at the most till they succeeded. Ifthey only played with us--which is the cruel Indian way--we mightresist a little, but starvation would beat us down. Where were we toget food, with the forests full of our subtle enemies? To sit stillwould mean to wait upon death, and the waiting would not be long. 

There was the chance, to be sure, that the Indians would be drawn offin the advance towards the east. But here came in a worse anxiety. Ihad come to get news to warn the Tidewater. That news I had got. Themighty gathering which Shalah's eyes and mine had beheld in that uplandglen was the peril we had foreseen. What good were easy victories overraiding Cherokees when this deadly host waited on the leash? I had nodoubt that the Cherokees were now broken. Stafford county would be fullof Nicholson's militia, and Lawrence's strong hand lay on the line ofthe Borders. But what availed it? While Virginia was flattering herselfthat she had repelled the savages, and the Rappahannock men werenotching their muskets with the tale of the dead, a wave was gatheringto sweep down the Pamunkey or the James, and break on the walls ofJames Town. I did not think that Nicholson, forewarned and prepared, could stem the torrent; and if it caught him unawares the proudTidewater would break like a rotten reed. 

I had been sent to scout. Was I to be false to the word I had given, and let any risk to myself or others deter me from taking back thenews? The Indian army tarried; why, I did not know--perhaps some madwhim of their soothsayers, perhaps the device of a wise general; but atany rate they tarried. If a war party could spend a night in baiting usand slaying our horses, there could be no very instant orders for theroad. If this were so, a bold man might yet reach the Border line. Atthat moment it seemed to me a madman's errand. Even if I slipped pastthe watchers in the woods and the glens, the land between would bestrewn with fragments of the Cherokee host, and I had not the Indiancraft. But it was very seriously borne in upon me that 'twas my duty totry. God might prosper a bold stroke, and in any case I should be trueto my trust. 

But what of Elspeth? The thought of leaving her was pure torment. Inour hideous peril 'twas scarcely to be endured that one should go. Itold myself that if I reached the Border I could get help, but my heartwarned me that I lied. My news would leave no time there for ridinghillward to rescue a rash adventure. We were beyond the pale, and mustface the consequences. That we all had known, and reckoned with, but wehad not counted that our risk would be shared by a woman. Ah I thatluckless ride of Elspeth's! But for that foolish whim she would be safenow in the cool house at Middle Plantation, with a ship to take her tosafety if the worst befell. And now of all the King's subjects in thathour we were the most ill-fated, islanded on a sand heap with the tideof savage war hourly eating into our crazy shelter. 

Before the daylight came, as I stood with my cheek to my musket, I hadcome to a resolution. In a tangle of duties a man must seize thesolitary clear one, and there could be no doubt of what mine was, Imust try for the Tidewater, and I must try alone, Shalah had the bestchance to get through, but without Shalah the stockade was no sort ofrefuge. Ringan was wiser and stronger than I, but I thought I had morehill-craft, and, besides, the duty was mine, not his. Grey had noknowledge of the wilds, and Donaldson and Bertrand could not handle thenews as it should be handled, in the unlikely event of their gettingthrough alive. No, there were no two ways of it. I must make theeffort, though in that leaden hour of weariness and cold it seemed asif my death-knell were ringing. 

Morn showed a grey world, strewn with the havoc of the storm. Theeagles were already busy among the dead horses, and our first job wasto bury the poor beasts. Just outside the stockade we dug as best wecould a shallow trench, while the muskets of the others kept watch overus. There we laid also the body of the man I had shot in the night. Hewas a young savage, naked to the waist, and curiously tattooed on theforehead with the device of what seemed to be a rising or setting sun. I observed that Shalah looked closely at this, and that his face worean unusual excitement. He said something in his own tongue, and, whenthe trench was dug, laid the dead man in it so that his head pointedwestwards. 

We wrought in a dogged silence, and Elspeth's cheery whistling was theonly sound in that sullen morning. It fairly broke my heart. She waswhistling the old tune of "Leezie Lindsay, " a merry lilt with the hillwind and the heather in it. The bravery of the poor child was thehardest thing of all to bear when I knew that in a few hours' time theend might come. The others were only weary and dishevelled and ill atease, but on me seemed to have fallen the burden of the cares of thewhole earth. 

Shalah had disappeared for a little, and came back with the word thatthe near forests were empty. So I summoned a council, and talked as webreakfasted. I had looked into the matter of the food, and found thatwe had sufficient for three days. We had boucanned a quantity of deer'sflesh two days before, and this, with the fruit of yesterday'strapping, made a fair stock in our larder. 

Then I announced my plan. "I am going to try to reach Lawrence, " Isaid. 

No one spoke. Shalah lifted his head, and looked at me gravely. 

"Does any man object?" I asked sharply, for my temper was all of anedge. 

"Your throat will be cut in the first mile, " said Donaldson gruffly. 

"Maybe it will, but maybe not. At any rate, I can try. You have notheard what Shalah and I found in the hills yesterday. Twelve milessouth there is a glen with a plateau at its head, and that plateau isas full of Indians as a beehive. Ay, Ringan, you and Lawrence wereright. The Cherokees are the least of the trouble. There's a great armycome out of the West, men that you and I never saw the like of before, and they are waiting till the Cherokees have drawn the fire of theBorderers, and then they will bring hell to the Tidewater. You and Iknow that there's some sort of madman in command, a man that quotes theBible and speaks English; but madman or not, he's a great general, andwoe betide Virginia if he gets among the manors. I was sent to thehills to get news, and I've got it. Would it not be the part of acoward to bide here and make no effort to warn our friends?"

"What good would a warning do?" said Ringan. "Even if you got throughto Lawrence--which is not very likely--d'you think a wheen Borderers ina fort will stay such an army? It would only mean that you lost yourlife on the South Fork instead of in the hills, and there's littlecomfort in that. "

"It's not like you to give such counsel, " I said sadly. "A man cannotthink whether his duty will succeed as long as it's there for him to doit. Maybe my news would make all the differ. Maybe there would be timeto get Nicholson's militia to the point of danger. God has queer waysof working, if we trust Him with honest hearts. Besides, a word on theBorder would save the Tidewater folk, for there are ships on the Jamesand the York to flee to if they hear in time. Let Virginia go down andbe delivered over to painted savages, and some day soon we will win itback; but we cannot bring life to the dead. I want to save the lowlandmanors from what befell the D'Aubignys on the Rapidan, and if I canonly do that much I will be content. Will you counsel me, Ringan, toneglect my plain duty?"

"I gave no counsel, " said Ringan hurriedly. "I was only putting thecommon sense of it. It's for you to choose. "

Here Grey broke in. "I protest against this craziness. Your first dutyis to your comrades and to this lady. If you desert us we lose our bestmusket, and you have as little chance of reaching the Tidewater as themoon. Arc you so madly enamoured of death, Mr. Garvald?" He spoke inthe old stiff tones of the man I had quarrelled with. 

I turned to Shalah. "Is there any hope of getting to the South Fork?"

He looked me very full in the face. "As much hope as a dove has whofalls broken-winged into an eyrie of falcons! As much hope as the deerwhen the hunter's knife is at its throat! Yet the dove may escape, andthe deer may yet tread the forest. While a man draws breath there ishope, brother. "

"Which I take to mean that the odds are a thousand against one, " saidGrey. 

"Then it's my business to stake all on the one, " I cried. "Man, don'tyou see my quandary? I hold a solemn trust, which I have the means offulfilling, and I'm bound to try. It's torture to me to leave you, butyou will lose nothing. Three men could hold this place as well as six, if the Indians are not in earnest, and, if they are, a hundred would betoo few. Your danger will be starvation, and I will be a mouth less tofeed. If I get to the Border I will find help, for we cannot stay herefor ever, and how d'you think we are to get Miss Blair by ourselves tothe Rappahannock with every mile littered with fighting clans? I mustgo, or I will never have another moment's peace in life. " Grey was not convinced. "Send the Indian, " he said. 

"And leave the stockade defenceless, " I cried. "It's because he staysbehind that I dare to go. Without him we are all bairns in the dark. "

"That's true, anyway, " said Ringan, and fell to whittling a stick. 

"For three days, " I continued, "you have food enough, and if by the endof it you are not attacked you may safely go hunting for more. Ifnothing happens in a week's time you will know that I have failed, andyou can send another messenger. Ringan would be the best. "

"That can hardly be, " he said, "because I'm coming with you now. "

I could only stare blankly. 

"Two's better than one for this kind of business, and I am no usehere--only _fruges consumere natus_, as I learned from the Inveraraydominie. It's my concern as much as yours, for I brought you here, andI'm trysted with Lawrence to take back word. I'm loath to leave myfriends, but my place is at your side, Andrew. So say no more aboutit. "

I knew it was idle to protest. Ringan was as obstinate as a Spanishmule when he chose, and, besides, there was reason in what he said. Twowere better than one both for speed in travel and for fighting if theneed came, and though I had more woodcraft than he, he had ten times mywisdom. There was something about his matter-of-fact tone which tookthe enterprise out of the land of impossibilities into a more soberrealm. I even began to dream of success. 

But when. I looked at Elspeth her eyes were so full of grief and carethat my spirits sank again. 

"Tell me, " I cried, "that you think I am doing right, God knows it ishard to leave you, and I carry the sorest heart in Virginia. But youwould not have me stay idle when my plain duty commands. Say that youbid me go, Elspeth. "

"I bid you go, " she said bravely, "and I will pray God to keep yousafe. " But her eyes belied her voice, for they were swimming withtears. At that moment I got the conviction that I was more to her thana mere companion, that by some miracle I had won a place in that proudand loyal heart. It seemed a cruel stroke of fate that I should getthis hope at the very moment when I was to leave her and go into theshadow of death. 

But that was no hour to think of love, I took every man apart and sworehim, though there was little need, to stand by the girl at all costs. 

To Grey I opened my inmost thoughts. 

"You and I serve one mistress, " I said, "and now I confide her to yourcare. All that I would have done I am assured you will do. My heart iseasier when I know that you are by her side. Once we were foes, andsince then we have been friends, and now you are the dearest friend onearth, for I leave you with all I cherish. "

He flushed deeply and gave me his hand. 

"Go in peace, sir, " he said. "If God wills that we perish, my last actwill be to assure an easy passage to heaven for her we worship. If wemeet again, we meet as honourable rivals, and may that day come soon. "

So with pistols in belt, and a supply of cartouches and some littlefood in our pockets, Ringan and I were enfolded in the silence of thewoods. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE HORN OF DIARMAID SOUNDS. 

We reached the gap, and made slantwise across the farther hill. I didnot dare to go clown Clearwater Glen, and, besides, I was aiming for apoint farther south than the Rappahannock. In my wanderings with ShalahI had got a pretty good idea of the lie of the mountains on theireastern side, and I had remarked a long ridge which flung itself like acape far into the lowlands. If we could leave the hills by this, Ithought we might strike the stream called the North Fork, which wouldbring us in time to the neighbourhood of Frew's dwelling. The ridgeswere our only safe path, for they were thickly overgrown with woods, and the Indian bands were less likely to choose them for a route. Thedanger was in the glens, where the trees were sparser and the broadstretches of meadow made better going for horses. 

The movement of my legs made me pluck up heart. I was embarked at anyrate in a venture, and had got rid of my desperate indecision. The twoof us held close together, and chose the duskiest thickets, crawlingbelly-wise over the little clear patches and avoiding the crown of theridge like the plague. The weather helped us, for the skies hung greyand low, with wisps of vapour curling among the trees. The glens werepits of mist, and my only guide was my recollection of what I had seen, and the easterly course of the streams. 

By midday we had mounted to the crest of a long scarp which fell awayin a narrow and broken promontory towards the plains. So far we hadseen nothing to give us pause, and the only risk lay in some Indianfinding and following our trail. We lay close in a scrubby wood, andrested for a little, while we ate some food. Everything around usdripped with moisture, and I could have wrung pints from my coat andbreeches. 

"Oh for the Dry Tortugas!" Ringan sighed. "What I would give for a hotsun and the kindly winds o' the sea! I thought I pined for the hills, Andrew, but I would not give a clean beach and a warm sou'-wester forall the mountains on earth. "

Then again: "Yon's a fine lass, " he would say. 

I did not reply, for I had no heart to speak of what I had left behind. 

"Cheer up, young one, " he cried. "There was more lost at Flodden. Agentleman-adventurer must live by the hour, and it's surprising howFortune favours them that trust her. There was a man I mind, inBreadalbane.... " And here he would tell some tale of how light came outof black darkness for the trusting heart. 

"Man, Ringan, " I said, "I see your kindly purpose. But tell me, didever you hear of such a tangle as ours being straightened out?

"Why, yes, " he said. "I've been in worse myself, and here I am. I havebeen in a cell at Cartagena, chained to a man that had died of theplague, with the gallows preparing for me at cock-crow. But in thenight some friends o' mine came into the bay, and I had the solemn joyof stepping out of yon cell over the corp of the Almirante. I've beenmad with fever, and jumped into the Palmas River among the alligators, and not one of them touched me, though I was swimming about crying thatthe water was burning oil. And then a lad in a boat gave me a clout onthe head that knocked the daftness out of me, and in a week I wasmarching on my own deck, with my bonnet cocked like a king's captain. I've been set by my unfriends on a rock in the Florida Keys, with a kegof dirty water and a bunch of figs, and the sun like to melt my brains, and two bullet holes in my thigh. But I came out of the pickle, andlived to make the men that put me there sorry they had been born. Ay, and I've seen my grave dug, and my dead clothes ready, and in a week Iwas making napkins out of them. There's a wonderful kindness inProvidence to mettled folk. "

"Ay, Ringan, but that was only the risk of your own neck. I think Icould endure that. But was there ever another you liked far better thanyourself, that you had to see in deadly peril?"

"No. I'll be honest with you, there never was. I grant you that's thehardest thing to thole. But you'll keep a stiff lip even to that, seeing you are the braver of the two of us. "

At that I cried out in expostulation, but Ringan was firm. 

"Ay, the braver by far, and I'll say it again. I'm a man of the dancingblood, with a rare appetite for frays and forays. You are the sedatesoul that would be happier at home in the chimney corner. And yet youare the most determined of the lot of us, though you have no pleasurein it. Why? Just because you are the bravest. You can force yourself toa job when flesh and spirit cry out against it. I let no man alive crydown my courage, but I say freely that it's not to be evened withyours. "

I was not feeling very courageous. As we sped along the ridge in theafternoon I seemed to myself like a midge lost in a monstrous net. Thedank, dripping trees and the misty hills seemed to muffle and deadenthe world. I could not believe that they ever would end; that anywherethere was a clear sky and open country. And I had always the feelingthat in those banks of vapour lurked deadly enemies who any momentmight steal out and encompass us. 

But about four o'clock the weather lightened, and from the cock's-combon which we moved we looked down into the lower glens. I saw that wehad left the main flanks of the range behind us, and were now fairly ona cape which jutted out beyond the other ridges. It behoved us now togo warily, and where the thickets grew thin we moved like hunters, inevery hollow and crack that could shelter a man. Ringan led, and ledwell, for he had not stalked the red deer on the braes of Breadalbanefor nothing. But no sign of life appeared in the green hollows oneither hand, neither in the meadow spaces nor by the creeks of thegrowing streams. The world was dead silent; not even a bird showed inthe whole firmament. 

Lower and lower we went, till the end of the ridge was before us, aslope which melted into the river plains. A single shaft of brightsunshine broke from the clouds behind us, and showed the tumbledcountry of low downs and shallow vales which stretched to the Tidewaterborder. I had a momentary gleam of hope, as sudden and transient asthat ray of light. We were almost out of the hills, and, thataccomplished, we were most likely free of the Indian forces thatgathered there. I had come to share the Rappahannock men's opinionabout the Cherokees. If we could escape the strange tribes from thewest, I looked for no trouble at the hands of those common raiders. 

The thicket ended with the ridge, and there was a quarter-mile ofbroken meadow before the forest began. It was a queer place, that patchof green grass set like an arena for an audience on the mountain side. A fine stream ran through it, coming down the glen on our right, andfalling afterwards into a dark, woody ravine. I mistrusted the look ofit, for there was no cover, and 'twas in full view of the whole flanksof the hills. 

Ringan, too, was disturbed. "Twould be wiser like to wait for darknessbefore trying that bit, " he said. "We'll be terrible kenspeckle to thegentry we ken of. "

But I would not hear of delay. Now that we were all but out of thehills I was mad to get forward. I thought foolishly that every minutewe delayed there we increased our peril, and I longed for the coveringof the lowland forest. Besides, I thought that by using some of thecrinkles in the meadow we could be sheltered from any eyes on theslopes. 

Ringan poked his head out of the covert and took a long gaze. "Theplace seems empty enough, but I cannot like it. Have you your pistolshandy, Andrew? I see what looks like an Indian track, and if we were tomeet a brave or two, it would be a pity to let them betray us. "

I looked at my pistols to see if the damp woods had spoiled thepriming. 

"Well, here's for fortune, " said Ringan, and we scrambled off theridge, and plunged into the lush grasses of the meadow. 

Had we kept our heads and crossed as prudently as we had made themorning's journey, all might have been well. But a madcap haste seemedto possess us. We tore through the herbage as if we had been running arace in the yard of a peaceful manor. The stream stayed us a little, for it could not be forded without a wetting, and I went in up to thewaist. As we scrambled up the far bank some impulse made me turn myhead. 

There, coming down the water, was a band of Indians. 

They were still some distance off, but they saw us, and put theirhorses to the gallop. I cried to Ringan to run for the shelter of thewoods, for in the open we were at their mercy. He cast one glance overhis shoulder, and set a pace which came near to foundering me. 

We got what we wanted earlier than we had hoped. The woods in frontrose in a high bluff, and down a little ravine a burn trickled. Thesides were too steep and matted for horses to travel, and he who stoodin the ravine had his back and flanks defended. 

"Now for a fight, Andrew lad, " cried Ringan, his eyes dancing. "Stickyou to the pistols, and I'll show them something in the way ofsword-play. "

The Indians wheeled up to the edge of the ravine, and I saw to my joythat they did not carry bows. 

One had a musket, but it looked as if he had no powder left, for itswung idly on his back. They had tomahawks at their belts and longshining knives with deerhorn handles. I only got a glimpse of them, but'twas enough to show me they were of that Western nation that Idreaded. 

They were gone in an instant. 

"That looks bad for us, Andrew, " Ringan said. "If they had come down onus yelling for our scalps, we would have had a merry meeting. Butthey're either gone to bring their friends or they're trying to take usin the back. I'll guard the front, and you keep your eyes on the hinderparts, though a jackdaw could scarcely win over these craigs. "

A sudden burst of sun came out, while Ringan and I waited uneasily. Thegreat blue roll of mountain we had left was lit below the mist with aglory of emerald and gold. Ringan was whistling softly through histeeth, while I scanned the half moon of rock and matted vines whichmade our shelter. There was no sound in the air but the tap of awoodpecker and the trickling of the little runlets from the wet sides. 

The mind in a close watch falls under a spell, so that while the sensesare alert the thoughts are apt to wander. As I have said before, I havethe sharpest sight, and as I watched a point of rock it seemed to moveever so slightly. I rubbed my eyes and thought it fancy, and a suddennoise above made me turn my head. It was only a bird, and as I lookedagain at the rock it seemed as if a spray of vine had blown athwart it, which was not there before. I gazed intently, and, following the sprayinto the shadow, I saw something liquid and mottled like a toad's skin. As I stared it flickered and shimmered. 'Twas only the light on a wetleaf, I told myself; but surely it had not been there before. A suddensuspicion seized me, and I lifted my pistol and fired. 

There was a shudder in the thicket, and an Indian, shot through thehead, rolled into the burn. 

At the sound I heard Ringan cry out, and there came a great war-whoopfrom the mouth of the ravine. I gave one look, and then turned to myown business, for as the dead man fell another leaped from the mattedcliffs. 

My second pistol missed fire. In crossing the stream I must have dampedthe priming. 

What happened next is all confusion in my mind. I dodged the fall ofthe knife, and struck hard with my pistol butt at the uplifted arm. Ifelt no fear, only intense anger at my folly in not having lookedbetter to my priming. But the shock of the man's charge upset me, andthe next I knew of it we were wrestling on the ground. 

I had his right arm by the wrist, but I was no match for him insuppleness, and in the position in which we lay I could not use theweight of my shoulders. The most I could do was to keep him fromstriking, and to effect that my strength was stretched to itsuttermost. My eyes filmed with weariness, and my breath came in gasps, for, remember, I had been up all night, and that day had alreadytravelled many miles. I remember yet the sickly smell of his greasyskin and the red hate of his eyes. As we struggled I could see Ringanholding the mouth of the ravine with his sword. One of his foes he hadshot, and the best blade in the Five Seas was now engaged with threeIndian knives. I heard his happy whistling, and a grunt now and thenfrom a wounded foe. He had enough to do, and could give me no aid. Andas I realized this I felt the grip of my arms growing slacker, and knewthat in a second or two I should feel that long Indian steel. 

I made a desperate effort, and swung round so that I got my leftshoulder on his knife arm. That brought my right shoulder close to hismouth, and he bit me to the bone. The wound did me good, for itmaddened me, and I got a knee loose, and forced it into his loins. Fora moment I dreamed of victory, but I had not counted on the wiles of asavage. He lay quite limp for a second, and, as I relaxed my effort alittle, seized the occasion to slip from beneath me and let me rollinto the burn. The next instant he was above me, and I saw the knifeagainst the sky. 

I thought that all was over. He pushed back his hair from his eyes, andthe steel quivered. And then something thrust between me and the point, there was a leap and a shudder, and I was gazing at emptiness. 

I lay gazing, for I seemed bereft of wits. Then a voice cried, "Are youhurt, Andrew?" and I got to my feet. 

My enemy lay in the pool of the burn, with a hole through his throatfrom Ringan's sword. A little farther off lay the savage I had shot. Atthe mouth of the ravine lay three dead Indians. The last of the sixmust have fled. 

Ringan had sheathed his blade, and was looking at me with a queer smileon his face. 

"Yon was a merry bout, Andrew, " he said, and his voice sounded very faraway. Then he swayed into my arms, and I saw that his vest was darkwith blood. 

"What is it?" I cried in wild fear. "Are you hurt, Ringan?" I laid himon a bed of moss, and opened his shirt. In his breast was a gapingwound from which the bright blood was welling. 

He lay with his eyes closed while I strove to stanch the flow. Then hechoked, and as I raised his head there came a gush of blood from hislips. 

"That man of yours.... " he whispered. "I got his knife before he got mysword.... I doubt it went deep.... "

"O Ringan, " I cried, "it's me that's to blame. You got it trying tosave me. You're not going to leave me, Ringan?"

He was easier now, and the first torrent of blood had subsided. But hisbreath laboured, and there was pain in his eyes. 

"I've got my call, " he said faintly. "Who would have thought thatNinian Campbell would meet his death from an Indian shabble? They'll nobelieve it at Tortuga. Still and on.... "

I brought him water in my hat, and for a moment he breathed freely. Hemotioned me to put my ear close. 

"You'll send word to the folk in Breadalbane.... Just say that I cameby an honest end.... Cheer up, lad. You'll live to see happy daysyet.... But keep mind of me, Andrew.... Man, I liked you well, andwould have been blithe to keep you company a bit longer.... "

I was crying like a child. There was a little gold charm on a cordround his neck, now dyed with his blood. He motioned me to look at it. 

"Give it to the lass, " he whispered. "I had once a lass like yon, and Iaye wore it for her sake. I've had a roving life, with many ill deedsin it, but doubtless the Almighty will make allowances. Can you say abit prayer, Andrew?"

As well as I could, I repeated that Psalm I had said over the graves bythe Rapidan. He looked at me with eyes as clear and honest as achild's. 

"'In death's dark vale I will fear no ill, '" he repeated after me. "That minds me of lang syne. I never feared muckle on earth, and I'llnot begin now. "

I saw that the end was very near. The pain had gone, and there was aqueer innocence in his lean face. His eyes shut and opened again, andeach time the light was dimmer. 

Suddenly he lifted himself. "The Horn of Diarmaid has sounded, " hecried, and dropped back in my arms. 

That was the last word he spoke. 

I watched by him till the dark fell, and long after. Then as the moonrose I bestirred myself, and looked for a place of burial. I would nothave him lie in that narrow ravine, so I carried him into the meadow, and found a hole which some wild beast had deserted. Painfully andslowly with my knife I made it into a shallow grave, where I laid him, with some boulders above. Then I think I flung myself on the earth andwept my fill. I had lost my best of friends, and the ache of regret andloneliness was too bitter to bear. I asked for nothing better than tojoin him soon on the other side. 

After a while I forced myself to rise. He had praised my courage thatvery day, and if I was to be true to him I must be true to my trust. Itold myself that Ringan would never have countenanced this idle grief. I girt on his sword, and hung the gold charm round my neck. Then I tookmy bearings as well as I could, re-loaded my pistols, and marched intothe woods, keeping to the course of the little river. 

As I went I remember that always a little ahead I seemed to hear themerry lilt of Ringan's whistling. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

I SUFFER THE HEATHEN'S RAGE

As I stumbled through the moonlit forest I heard Ringan's tunes evercrooning among the trees. First it was the old mad march of "Bundle andgo, " which the pipers play when the clans are rising. Then it changedto the lilt of "Colin's Cattle, " which is an air that the fairies made, and sung in the ear of a shepherd who fell asleep in one of their holyplaces. And then it lost all mortal form, and became a thing as faintas the wind in the tree-tops or the humming of bees in clover. My wearylegs stepped out to this wizard music, and the spell of it lulled myfevered thoughts into the dull patience of the desperate. 

At an open space where I could see the sky I tried to take furtherbearings. I must move south-east by east, and in time I must come toLawrence. I do not think I had any hope of getting there, for I knewthat long ere this the man who escaped must have returned with others, and that now they would be hot on my trail. What could one lad do in awide woodland against the cunningest trackers on earth? But Ringan hadpraised my courage, and I could not fail him. I should go on till Idied, and I did not think that would be very long. My pistols, re-loaded, pressed against my side, and Ringan's sword swung by mythigh. I was determined to make a good ending, since that was all nowleft to me. In that hour I had forgotten about everything--about theperil of Virginia, even about Elspeth and the others in the fort on thehill-top. There comes a time to every one when the world narrows for himto a strait alley, with Death at the end of it, and all his thoughts arefixed on that waiting enemy of mankind. 

My senses were blunted, and I took no note of the noises of the forest. As I passed down a ravine a stone dropped behind me, but I did notpause to wonder why. A twig crackled on my left, but it did notdisquiet me, and there was a rustling in the thicket which was not thebreeze. I marked nothing, as I plodded on with vacant mind and eye. Sowhen I tripped on a vine and fell, I was scarcely surprised when Ifound I could not rise. Men had sprung up silently around me, and I waspinned by many hands. 

They trussed me with ropes, binding my hands cruelly behind my back, and swathing my legs till not a muscle could move. My pistols hungidle, and the ropes drove the hafts into my flesh. This is the end, thought I, and I did not even grieve at my impotence. My courage nowwas of the passive kind, not to act but to endure. Always I kepttelling myself that I must be brave, for Ringan had praised my courage, and I had a conviction that nothing that man could do would shake me. Thanks be to God, my quick fancy was dulled, and I did not try to lookinto the future. I lived for the moment, and I was resolved that themoment should find me unmoved. 

They carried me to where their horses were tied up in a glade, andpresently we were galloping towards the hills, myself an inert bundlestrapped across an Indian saddle. The pain of the motion was great, butI had a kind of grim comfort in bearing it. After a time I think mysenses left me, and I slipped into a stupor, from which I woke with afiery ache at every joint and eyes distended with a blinding heat. Someone tossed me on the ground, where I lay with my cheek in a cool, wetpatch of earth. Then I felt my bonds being unloosed, and a strong armpulled me to my feet. When it let go I dropped again, and not till manyhands had raised me and set me on a log could I look round at mywhereabouts. 

I was in a crook of a hill glen, lit with a great radiance ofmoonlight. Fires dotted the flat, and Indian tents, and there seemed tome hundreds of savages crowding in on me. I do not suppose that Ishowed any fear, for my bodily weakness had made me as impassive as anyIndian. 

Presently a voice spoke to me, but I could not understand the words. Ishook my head feebly, and another spoke. This time I knew that thetongue was Cherokee, a speech I could recognize but could not follow. Again I shook my head, and a third took up the parable. This one spokethe Powhatan language, which I knew, and I replied in the same tongue. 

There was a tall man wearing in his hair a single great feather, whom Itook to be the chief. He spoke to me through the interpreter, and askedme whence I came. 

I told him I was a hunter who had strayed in the hills. He asked wherethe other was. 

"He is dead, " I said, "dead of your knives. But five of your bravesatoned for him. "

"You speak truth, " he said gravely. "But the Children of the West Winddo not suffer the death of, their sons to go unrewarded. For each oneof the five, three Palefaces shall eat the dust in the day of ourtriumph. "

"Be it so, " said I stoutly, though I felt a dreadful nausea coming overme. I was determined to keep my head high, if only my frail body wouldnot fail me. 

"The Sons of the West Wind, " he spoke again, "have need of warriors. You can atone for the slaughter you have caused, and the blood feudwill be forgotten. In the space of five suns we shall sweep thePalefaces into the sea, and rule all the land to the Eastern waters. Mybrother is a man of his hands, and valour is dear to the heart ofOnotawah. If he casts in his lot with the Children of the West Wind awigwam shall be his, and a daughter of our race to wife, and six of ouryoung men shall follow his commands. Will my brother march with usagainst those whom God has delivered to us for our prey?"

"Does the eagle make terms with the kite?" I asked, "and fly with themto raid his own eyrie? Yes, I will join with you, and march with youtill I have delivered you to, perhaps, a score of the warriors of myown people. Then I will aid them in making carrion of you. "

Heaven knows what wrought on me to speak like this, I, a poor, brokenfellow, face to face with a hundred men-at-arms. I think my mind hadforsaken me altogether, and I spoke like a drunken man with a tonguenot my own. I had only the one idea in my foolish head--to be true toRingan, and to meet the death of which I was assured with anunflinching face. Yet perhaps my very madness was the course ofdiscretion. You cannot move an Indian by pity, and he will show mercyonly to one who, like a gamecock, asks nothing less. 

The chief heard me gravely, and spoke to the others. One cried outsomething in a savage voice, and for a moment a fierce argument wasraised, which the chief settled with uplifted hand. 

"My brother speaks bold words, " he said. "The spirits of his fatherscry out for the companionship of such a hero. When the wrongs of ourrace have been avenged, I wish him good hunting in the Kingdom of theSunset. "

They took me and stripped me mother naked. Has any man who reads thistale ever faced an enemy in his bare feet? If so, he will know that theheart of man is more in his boots than philosophers wot of. Withoutthem he feels lost and unprepared, and the edge gone from his spirit. But without his clothes he is in a far worse case. The winds of heavenplay round his nakedness; every thorn and twig is his assailant, andthe whole of him seems a mark for the arrows of his foes. Thatstripping was the thing that brought me to my senses. I recognized thatI was to be the subject of those hellish tortures which the Indiansuse, the tales of which are on every Borderer's lips. 

And yet I did not recognize it fully, or my courage must have left methen and there. My imagination was still limping, and I foresaw only adeath of pain, not the horrid incidents of its preparation. Death Icould face, and I summoned up every shred of my courage. Ringan's voicewas still in my ear, his airy songs still sang themselves in my brain. I would not shame him, but oh! how I envied him lying, all troublespast, in his quiet grave!

The night was mild, and the yellow radiance of the moon seemed almostwarmth-giving. I sat on that log in a sort of stupor, watching myenemies preparing my entertainment. One thing I noted, that there wereno women in the camp. I remembered that I had heard that the mostdevilish tortures were those which the squaws devised, and that theIndian men were apt to be quicker and more merciful in theirmurderings. 

Then I was lifted up and carried to a flat space beside the stream, where the trunk of a young pine had been set upright in the ground. Aman, waving a knife, and singing a wild song, danced towards me. Heseized me by the hair, and I actually rejoiced, for I knew that thepain of scalping would make me oblivious of all else. But he only drewthe sharp point of the knife in a circle round my head, scarce breakingthe skin. 

I had grace given me to keep a stout face, mainly because I wasrelieved that this was to be my fate. He put the knife back in hisgirdle, and others laid hold on me. 

They smeared my lower limbs with some kind of grease which smelt ofresin. One savage who had picked up a brand from one of the littlefires dropped some of the stuff on it, and it crackled merrily. Hegrinned at me--a slow, diabolical grin. 

They lashed me to the stake with ropes of green vine. Then they pileddry hay a foot deep around me, and laid above it wood and greenbranches. To make the fuel still greener, they poured water on it. Atthe moment I did not see the object of these preparations, but now Ican understand it. The dry hay would serve to burn my legs, which hadalready been anointed with the inflammable grease. So I should suffer agradual torture, for it would be long ere the flames reached a vitalpart. I think they erred, for they assumed that I had the body of anIndian, which does not perish till a blow is struck at its heart;whereas I am confident that any white man would be dead of the anguishlong ere the fire had passed beyond his knees. 

I think that was the most awful moment of my life. Indeed I could nothave endured it had not my mind been drugged and my body stupid withfatigue. Men have often asked me what were my thoughts in that hour, while the faggots were laid about my feet. I cannot tell, for I have novery clear memory. The Power which does not break the bruised reedtempered the storm to my frailty. I could not envisage the future, andso was mercifully enabled to look only to the moment. I knew that painwas coming; but I was already in pain, and the sick man does nottrouble himself about degrees of suffering. Death, too, was coming; butfor that I had been long ready. The hardest thing that man can do is toendure, but this was to me no passive endurance; it was an activestruggle to show a fortitude worthy of the gallant dead. 

So I must suppose that I hung there in my bonds with a motionless faceand a mouth which gave out no cry. They brought the faggots, and pouredon water, and I did not look their way. Some score of braves began awar dance, circling round me, waving their tomahawks, and singing theirwild chants. For me they did not break the moonlit silence, I washearing other sounds and seeing far other sights. An old sad song ofRingan's was in my ears, something about an exile who cried out inFrance for the red heather and the salt winds of the Isles. 

"_Nevermore the deep fern_, " it ran, "_or the bell of the dun deer, farmy castle is wind-blown sands, and my homelands are a stranger's. "_

And the air brought back in a flash my own little house on the greyhill-sides of Douglasdale, the cluck of hens about the doors on a hotsummer morn, the crying of plovers in the windy Aprils, the smell ofpeatsmoke when the snow drifted over Cairntable. Home-sickness hasnever been my failing, but all at once I had a vision of my own land, the cradle of my race, well-beloved and unforgotten over the leagues ofsea. Somehow the thought strengthened me. I had now something besidesthe thought of Ringan to keep my heart firm. If all hell laid hold onme, I must stand fast for the honour of my own folk. 

The edge of the pile was lit, and the flames crackled through the haybelow the faggots. The smoke rose in clouds, and made me sneeze. Suddenly there came a desperate tickling in my scalp where the knifehad pricked. Little things began to tease me, notably the ache of myswollen wrists, and the intolerable cramp in my legs. 

Then came a sharp burst of pain as a tongue of flame licked on myanointed ankles. Anguish like hell-fire ran through my frame. I think Iwould have cried out if my tongue had had the power. Suddenly Ienvisaged the dreadful death which was coming. All was wiped from mymind, all thought of Ringan, and home, and honour; everything but thisawful fear. Happily the smoke hid my face, which must have beendistraught with panic. The seconds seemed endless. I prayed thatunconsciousness would come. I prayed for death, I prayed for respite. Iwas mad with the furious madness of a tortured animal, and the immortalsoul had fled from me and left only a husk of pitiful and shrinkingflesh. 

Suddenly there came a lull. A dozen buckets of water were flung on thepile, and the flames fell to smouldering ashes. The smoke thinned, andI saw the circle of my tormentors. 

The chief spoke, and asked me if my purpose still held. 

With the cool shock of the water one moment of bodily comfort returnedto me, and with it a faint revival of my spirit. But it was of no setintention that I answered as I did. My bones were molten with fright, and I had not one ounce of bravery in me. Something not myself tookhold on me, and spoke for me. Ringan's tunes, a brisk one this time, lilted in my ear. 

I could not believe my own voice. But I rejoice to say that my replywas to consign every Indian in America to the devil. 

I shook with fear when I had spoken. I looked to see them bring dryfuel and light the pile again. But I had played a wiser part than Iknew. The chief gave an order, the faggots were cleared, my bonds werecut, and I was led away from the stake. 

The pain of my cramped and scorched limbs was horrible, but I had justenough sense left to shut my teeth and make no sound. 

The chief looked at me long and calmly as I drooped before him, forthere was no power in my legs. He was an eagle-faced savage, with themost grave and searching eyes. 

"Sleep, brother, " he said. "At dawn we will take further counsel. "

I forced some kind of lightness into my voice, "Sleep will begrateful, " I said, "for I have come many miles this day, and thewelcome I have got this evening has been too warm for a weary man. "

The Indian nodded. The jest was after his own taste. 

I was carried to a teepee and shown a couch of dry fern. A young manrubbed some oil on my scorched legs, which relieved the pain of them. But no pain on earth could have kept me awake. I did not glide butpitched headforemost into sleep. 

CHAPTER XXV. 

EVENTS ON THE HILL-SIDE. 

My body was too sore to suffer me to sleep dreamlessly, but my dreamswere pleasant. I thought I was in a sunny place with Elspeth, and thatshe had braided a coronet of wild flowers for her hair. They weresimple flowers, such as I had known in childhood and had not found inVirginia--yarrow, and queen of the meadow, and bluebells, and thelittle eyebright. A great peace filled me, and Ringan came presently tous and spoke in his old happy speech. 'Twas to the accompaniment ofElspeth's merry laughter that I wakened, to find myself in a dark, strange-smelling place, with a buffalo robe laid over me, and no stitchof clothing on my frame. 

That wakening was bitter indeed. I opened my eyes to another day ofpain and peril, with no hope of deliverance. For usual I am one ofthose who rise with a glad heart and a great zest for whatever thelight may bring. Now, as I moved my limbs, I found aches everywhere, and but little strength in my bones. Slowly the events of the last daycame back to me--the journey in the dripping woods, the fight in theravine, the death of my comrade, the long horror of the hours oftorture. No man can be a hero at such an awakening. I had not thecourage of a chicken in my soul, and could have wept with weakness andterror. 

I felt my body over, and made out that I had taken no very desperatehurt. My joints were swollen with the bonds, and every sinew seemed asstiff as wire. The skin had been scorched on my shins and feet, and waspeeling off in patches, but the ointment which had been rubbed on ithad taken the worst ache out of the wounds. I tottered to my feet, andfound that I could stand, and even move slowly like an old man. Myclothes had been brought back and laid beside me, and with muchdifficulty I got into them; but I gave up the effort to get mystockings and boots over my scorched legs. My pistols, too, had beenrestored, and Ringan's sword, and the gold amulet he had entrusted tome. Somehow, in the handling of me, my store of cartouches haddisappeared from my pockets. My pistols were loaded and ready for use, but that was the extent of my defences, for I was no more good withRingan's sword than with an Indian bow. 

A young lad brought me some maize porridge and a skin of water. I couldeat little of the food, but I drank the water to the last drop, for mythroat was as dry as the nether pit. After that I lay down on my couchagain, for it seemed to me that I would need to treasure every atom ofmy strength. The meal had put a little heart in me--heart enough towait dismally on the next happening. 

Presently the chief whom they called Onotawah stood at the tent door, and with him a man who spoke the Powhatan tongue. 

"Greeting, brother, " he said. 

"Greeting, " I answered, in the stoutest tone I could muster. 

"I come from the council of the young men, where the blood of our kincries for the avenger. The Sons of the West Wind have seen the courageof the stranger, and would give him the right of combat as a free manand a brave. Is my brother ready to meet our young men in battle?"

I was about as fit to right as an old horse to leap a fence, but I hadthe wit to see that my only hope lay in a bold front. At any rate, aclean death in battle was better than burning, and my despair was toodeep to let me quibble about the manner of leaving this world. 

"You see my condition, " I said. "I am somewhat broken with travel andwounds, but, such as I am, I am willing to meet your warriors. Sendthem one at a time or in battalions, and I am ready for them. "

It was childish brag, but I think I must have delivered it with somespirit, for I saw approbation in his eye. 

"When we fight, we fight not as butchers but as men-at-arms, " he said. "The brother of one of the dead will take on himself the cause of ourtribe. If he slay you, our honour is avenged. If he be slain, we saveyou alive, and carry you with us as we march to the rising sun. "

"I am content, " I said, though I was very little content. What earthlychance stood I against a lithe young brave, accustomed from hischildhood to war? I thought of a duel hand-to-hand with knives ortomahawks, for I could not believe that I would be allowed to keep mypistols. It was a very faint-hearted combatant who rose and staggeredafter Onotawah into the clear morning. The cloudy weather had gone, andthe glen where we lay was filled with sun and bright colours. Even inmy misery I saw the fairness of the spectacle, and the cool plunge ofthe stream was grateful to my throbbing eyes. 

The whole clan was waiting, a hundred warriors as tall and clean-limbedas any captain could desire. I bore no ill-will to my captors; indeed, I viewed them with a respect I had never felt for Indians before. Theywere so free in their walk, so slim and upstanding, so hawklike in eyeand feature, and withal so grave, that I could not but admire them. Ifthe Tidewater was to perish, 'twould be at the hands of no unworthyfoes. 

A man stood out from the others, a tall savage with a hard face, wholooked at me with eyes of hate. I recognized my opponent, whom thechief called by some name like Mayoga. 

Before us on the hill-side across the stream was a wood, with itslimits cut as clear on the meadow as a coppice in a nobleman's park. 'Twas maybe half a mile long as it stretched up the slope, and aboutthe same at its greatest width. The shape was like a stout bean with ahollow on one side, and down the middle ran the gorge of a mountainstream. 

Onotawah pointed to the wood. "Hearken, brother, to the customs of ourrace in such combats. In that thicket the twain of you fight. Mayogawill enter at one end and you at the other, and once among the trees itis his business to slay you as he pleases and as he can. "

"What, are the weapons?" I asked. 

"What you please. You have a sword and your little guns. "

Mayoga laughed loud. "My bow is sufficient, " he cried. "See, I leaveknife and tomahawk behind, " and he cast them on the grass. 

Not to be outdone, I took off my sword, though that was more anencumbrance than a weapon. 

"I have but the two shots, " I said. 

"Then I will take but the two arrows, " cried my opponent, shaking therest out of his quiver; and at this there was a murmur of applause. There were some notions of decency among these Western Indians. 

I bade him take a quiverful. "You will need them, " said I, looking astruculent as my chicken heart would permit me. 

They took me to the eastern side of the wood, and there we waited forthe signal, which was a musket shot, telling me that Mayoga was readyto enter at the opposite end. My companions were friendly enough, andseemed to look on the duel as a kind of sport. I could not understandtheir tongue, but I fancy that they wagered among themselves on theissue, if, indeed, that was in doubt, or, at any rate, on the timebefore I should fall. They had forgotten that they had tortured me thenight before, and one clapped me on the shoulder and seemed toencourage me. Another pointed to my raw shins, and wound some kind ofsoft healing fibre round my feet and ankles. I did my best to keep astout face, and when the shot came, I waved my hand to them and plungedboldly into the leafy darkness. 

But out of the presence of men my courage departed, and I became theprey of dismal fear. How was I, with my babyish woodcraft, to contendfor a moment against an Indian who was as subtle and velvet-footed as awild beast? The wood was mostly of great oaks and chestnuts, with adense scrub of vines and undergrowth, and in the steepest parts of thehill-side many mossgrown rocks. I found every movement painful in thatrough and matted place. For one thing, I made an unholy noise. Mytender limbs shrank from every stone and twig, and again and again Irolled over with the pain of it. Sweat blinded my eyes, and thefatigues of yesterday made my breath labour like a foundered horse. 

My first plan--if the instinct of blind terror can be called a plan--was to lie hid in some thick place and trust to getting the first shotat my enemy when he found me. But I realized that I could not do this. My broken nerves would not suffer me to lie hidden. Better the tortureof movement than such terrible patience. So I groped my way on, starting at every movement in the thicket. Once I roused a deer, whichbroke off in front of me towards my adversary. That would tell him mywhereabouts, I thought, and for some time I lay still with apalpitating heart. But soon the silence resumed its sway, a deathlikesilence, with far off the faint tinkle of water. 

By and by I reached the stream, the course of which made an open spacea few yards wide in the trees. The sight of its cool foaming currentmade me reckless. I dipped my face in it, drank deep of it, and let itflow over my burning legs. Then I scrambled up the other bank, andentered my enemy's half of the wood. He had missed a fine chance, Ithought, in not killing me by the water's edge; and this escape, andthe momentary refreshment of the stream, heartened me enough to carryme some way into his territory. 

The wood was thinner here, and the ground less cumbered. I moved fromtree to tree, crawling in the open bits, and scanning each circle ofgreen dusk before I moved. A red-bird fluttered on my right, and I laylong watching its flight. Something moved ahead of me, but 'twas only asquirrel. 

Then came a mocking laugh behind me. I turned sharply, but saw nothing. Far up in the branches there sounded the slow flap of an owl's flight. Many noises succeeded, and suddenly came one which froze my blood--theharsh scream of a hawk. My enemy was playing with me, and calling thewild things to mock me. 

I went on a little, and then turned up the hill to where a clump ofpines made a darker patch in the woodland. All was quiet again, and myeyes searched the dusk for the sign of human life. Then suddenly I sawsomething which stiffened me against a trunk. 

Forty paces off in the dusk a face was looking from behind a tree. Itwas to the west of me, and was looking downhill towards a patch ofundergrowth. I noted the long feather, the black forelock, the red skinof the forehead. 

At the sight for the first time the zest of the pursuit filled me, andI forgot my pain. Had I outwitted my wily foe, and by some miraclestolen a march on him? I dared not believe it; but yet, as I rubbed myeyes, I could not doubt it. I had got my chance, and had taken himunawares. The face still peered intently downhill. I lifted a pistol, took careful aim, and fired at the patch of red skin. 

A thousand echoes rang through the wood. The bullet had grazed the treetrunk, and the face was gone. But whither? Did a dead man lie behindthe trunk, or had a wounded man crawled into cover?

I waited breathlessly for a minute or two, and then went forward, withmy second pistol at the cock. 

There was nothing behind the tree. Only a piece of red bark with abullet hole through it, some greasy horsehair, and a feather. And thenfrom many quarters seemed to come a wicked laughter, I leaned againstthe trunk, with a deadly nausea clutching at my heart. Poor fool, I hadrejoiced for a second, only to be dashed into utter despair!

I do not think I had ever had much hope, but now I was convinced thatall was over. The water had made my burns worse, and disappointment hadsapped the little remnants of my strength. My one desire was to get outof this ghoulish thicket and die by the stream-side. The cool sound ofit would be a fitting dirge for a foolish fellow who had wandered farfrom his home. 

I could hear the plunge of it, and struggled towards it. I was longpast taking any care. I stumbled and slipped along the hill-side, mybreath labouring, and a moaning at my lips from sheer agony andweakness. If an arrow sped between my ribs I would still reach thewater, for I was determined to die with my legs in its flow. 

Suddenly it was before me. I came out on a mossy rock above a deep, clear pool, into which a cascade tumbled. I knelt feebly on the stone, gazing at the blue depths, and then I lifted my eyes. 

There on a rock on the other side stood my enemy. 

He had an arrow fitted to his bow, and as I looked he shot. It struckme on the right arm, pinning it just above the elbow. The pistol, whichI had been carrying aimlessly, slipped from my nerveless hand to themoss on which I kneeled. 

That sudden shock cleared my wits. I was at his mercy, and he knew it. I could see every detail of him twenty yards off across the water. Hestood there as calm and light as if he had just arisen from rest, hispolished limbs shining in the glow of the sun, the muscles on his rightarm rippling as he moved his bow. Madman that I was, ever to hope tocontend with such dauntless youth, such tireless vigour! There was acruel, thin-lipped smile on his face. He had me in his clutches like acat with a mouse, and he was going to get the full zest of it. Ikneeled before him, with my strength gone, my right arm crippled. Hecould choose his target at his leisure, for I could not resist. I sawthe gloating joy in his eyes. He knew his power, and meant to missnothing of its savour. 

Yet in that fell predicament God gave me back my courage. But I took aqueer way of showing it. I began to whimper as if in abject fear. Everylimb was relaxed in terror, and I grovelled on my knees before him. Imade feeble plucks at the arrow in my right arm, and my shoulderdrooped almost to the sod. But all the time my other hand was behind myback, edging its way to the pistol. My fingers clutched at the butt, and slowly I began to withdraw it till I had it safe in the shadow ofmy pocket. 

My enemy did not know that I was left-handed. 

He fitted a second arrow to his bow, while his lips curved maliciously. All the demoniac, pantherlike cruelty of his race looked at me out ofhis deep eyes. He was taking his time about it, unwilling to lose theslightest flavour of his vengeance. I played up to him nobly, squirmingas if in an agony of terror. But by this time I had got a comfortableposture on the rock, and my left shoulder was towards him. 

At last he made his choice, and so did I. I never thought that I couldmiss, for if I had had any doubt I should have failed. I was asconfident in my sureness as any saint in the mercy of God. 

He raised his bow, but it never reached his shoulder. My left arm shotout, and my last bullet went through his brain. 

He toppled forward and plunged into the pool. The grease from his bodyfloated up, and made a scum on the surface. 

Then I broke off the arrow and pulled it out of my arm, putting thepieces in my pocket. The water cleared, and I could see him lying inthe cool blue depths, his eyes staring, his mouth open, and a littledark eddy about his forehead. 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

SHALAH. 

I came out of the wood a new being. My wounded arm and my torn andinflamed limbs were forgotten. I held my head high, and walked like afree man. It was not that I had slain my enemy and been delivered fromdeadly peril, nor had I any clearer light on my next step. But I hadsuddenly got the conviction that God was on my side, and that I neednot fear what man could do unto me. You may call it the madness of alad whose body and spirit had been tried to breaking-point. But, madness or no, it gave me infinite courage, and in that hour I wouldhave dared every savage on earth. 

I found some Indians at the edge of the wood, and told one who spokePowhatan the issue of the fight. I flung the broken arrow on theground. 

"That is my token, " I said. "You will find the other in the pool belowthe cascade. "

Then I strode towards the tents, looking every man I passed squarely inthe eyes. No one spoke, no one hindered me; every face was like agraven image. 

I reached the teepee in which I had spent the night, and flung myselfdown on the rude couch. In a minute I was sunk in a heavy sleep. 

I woke to see two men standing in the tent door. One was the chiefOnotawah, and the other a tall Indian who wore no war paint. 

They came towards me, and the light fell on the face of the second. Tomy amazement I recognized Shalah. He put a finger on his lip, and, though my heart clamoured for news, I held my peace. 

They squatted on a heap of skins and spoke in their own tongue. ThenShalah addressed me in English. 

"The maiden is safe, brother. There will be no more fighting at thestockade. Those who assaulted us were of my own tribe, and yesterday Ireasoned with them. "

Then he spoke to the chief, and translated for me. 

"He says that you have endured the ordeal of the stake, and have slainyour enemy in fight, and that now you will go before the great Sachemfor his judgment. That is the custom of our people. "

He turned to Onotawah again, and his tone was high and scornful. Hespoke as if he were the chief and the other were the minion, and, whatwas strangest of all, Onotawah replied meekly. Shalah rose to his feetand strode to the door, pointing down the glen with his hand. He seemedto menace the other, his nostrils quivered with contempt, and his voicewas barbed with passion. Onotawah bowed his head and said nothing. 

Then he seemed to dismiss him, and the proud chief walked out of theteepee like a disconsolate schoolboy. 

Instantly Shalah turned to me and inquired about my wounds. He lookedat the hole in my arm and at my scorched legs, and from his belt took aphial of ointment, which he rubbed on the former. He passed his coolhands over my brow, and felt the beating of my heart. 

"You are weary, brother, and somewhat scarred, but there is no gravehurt. What of the Master?"

I told him of Ringan's end. He bent his head, and then sprang up andheld his hands high, speaking in a strange tongue. I looked at hiseyes, and they were ablaze with fire. 

"My people slew him, " he cried. "By the shades of my fathers, a scoreshall keep him company as slaves in the Great Hunting-ground. "

"Talk no more of blood, " I said. "He was amply avenged. 'Twas I whoslew him, for he died to save me. He made a Christian end, and I willnot have his memory stained by more murders. But oh, Shalah, what a mandied yonder!"

He made me tell every incident of the story, and he cried out, impassive though he was, at the sword-play in the neck of the gorge. 

"I have seen it, " he cried. "I have seen his bright steel flash and mengo down like ripe fruit. Tell me, brother, did he sing all the while, as was his custom? Would I had been by his side!"

Then he told me of what had befallen at the stockade. 

"The dead man told me a tale, for by the mark on his forehead I knewthat he was of my own house. When you and the Master had gone I wentinto the woods and picked up the trail of our foes. I found them in acrook of the hills, and went among them in peace. They knew me, and myword was law unto them. No living thing will come near the stockadesave the wild beasts of the forest. Be at ease in thy mind, brother. "

The news was a mighty consolation, but I was still deeply mystified. 

"You speak of your tribe. But these men were no Senecas. "

He smiled gravely. "Listen, brother, " he said. "The white men of theTidewater called me Seneca, and I suffered the name. But I am of agreater and princelier house than the Sons of the Cat. Some littlewhile ago I spoke to you of the man who travelled to the Western Seas, and of his son who returned to his own people. I am the son of him whoreturned. I spoke of the doings of my own kin. "

"But what is your nation, then?" I cried. 

"One so great that these little clanlets of Cherokee and Monacan, andeven the multitudes of the Long House, are but slaves and horseboys bytheir side. We dwelt far beyond these mountains towards the settingsun, in a plain where the rivers are like seas, and the cornlands widerthan all the Virginian manors. But there came trouble in our royalhouse, and my father returned to find a generation which had forgottenthe deeds of their forefathers. So he took his own tribe, who stillremembered the House of the Sun, and, because his heart was unquietwith longing for that which is forbidden to man, he journeyedeastward, and found a new home in a valley of these hills. Thine eyeshave seen it. They call it the Shenandoah. "

I remembered that smiling Eden I had seen from that hill-top, and howShalah had spoken that very name. 

"We dwelt there, " he continued, "while I grew to manhood, livinghappily in peace, hunting the buffalo and deer, and tilling ourcornlands. Then the time came when the Great Spirit called for myfather, and I was left with the kingship of the tribe. Strange thingsmeantime had befallen our nation in the West. Broken clans had comedown from the north, and there had been many battles, and there hadbeen blight, and storms, and sickness, so that they were grown poor andharassed. Likewise men had arisen who preached to them discontent, andother races of a lesser breed had joined themselves to them. My owntribe had become fewer, for the young men did not stay in our valley, but drifted back to the West, to that nation we had come from, or wentnorth to the wars with the white man, or became lonely hunters in thehills. Then from the south along the mountain crests came anotherpeople, a squat and murderous people, who watched us from the ridgesand bided their chance. "

"The Cherokees?" I asked. 

"Even so. I speak of a hundred moons back, when I was yet a stripling, with little experience in war. I saw the peril, but I could not thinkthat such a race could vie with the Children of the Sun. But one blacknight, in the Moon of Wildfowl, the raiders descended in a torrent andtook us unprepared. What had been a happy people dwelling with fullbarns and populous wigwams became in a night a desolation. Our wivesand children were slain or carried captive, and on every Cherokee belthung the scalps of my warriors. Some fled westwards to our nation, butthey were few that lived, and the tribe of Shalah went out like a torchin a roaring river. 

"I slew many men that night, for the gods of my fathers guided my arm. Death I sought, but could not find it; and by and by I was alone in thewoods, with twenty scars and a heart as empty as a gourd. Then I turnedmy steps to the rising sun and the land of the white man, for there wasno more any place for me in the councils of my own people. 

"All this was many moons ago, and since then I have been a wandereramong strangers. While I reigned in my valley I heard of the whiteman's magic and of the power of his gods, and I longed to prove them. Now I have learned many things which were hid from the eyes of ouroldest men. I have learned that a man may be a great brave, and yetgentle and merciful, as was the Master, I have learned that a man maybe a lover of peace and quiet ways and have no lust of battle in hisheart, and yet when the need comes be more valiant than the best, evenas you, brother. I have learned that the God of the white men wasHimself a man who endured the ordeal of the stake for the welfare ofHis enemies. I have seen cruelty and cowardice and folly among Hisworshippers; but I have also seen that His faith can put spirit into acoward's heart, and make heroes of mean men. I do not grudge my yearsof wandering. They have taught me such knowledge as the Sachems of mynation never dreamed of, and they have given me two comrades after myown heart. One was he who died yesterday, and the other is now by myside. "

These words of Shalah did not make me proud, for things were tooserious for vanity. But they served to confirm in me my strangeexaltation. I felt as one dedicated to a mighty task. 

"Tell me, what is the invasion which threatens the Tidewater?"

"The whole truth is not known to me; but from the speech of mytribesmen, it seems that the Children of the West Wind, twelve moonsago, struck their tents and resolved to seek a new country. There is arestlessness comes upon all Indian peoples once in every fivegenerations. It fell upon my grandfather, and he travelled towards thesunset, and now it has fallen upon the whole race of the Sun. As theywere on the eve of journeying there came to them a prophet, who toldthem that God would lead them not towards the West, as was thetradition of the elders, but eastwards to the sea and the dwellings ofthe Palefaces. "

"Is that the crazy white man we have heard of?"

"He is of your race, brother. What his spell is I know not, but itworks mightily among my people. They tell me that he hath bodilyconverse with devils, and that God whispers His secrets to him in thenight-watches. His God hath told him--so runs the tale--that He hathchosen the Children of the Sun for His peculiar people, and laid onthem the charge of sweeping the white men off the earth and reigning intheir stead from the hills to the Great Waters. "

"Do you believe in this madman, Shalah?" I asked. 

"I know not, " he said, with a troubled face. "I fear one possessed ofGod. But of this I am sure, that the road of the Children of the WestWind lies not eastward but westward, and that no good can come of warwith the white man. This Sachem hath laid his magic on others than ourpeople, for the Cherokee nation and all the broken clans of the hillsacknowledge him and do his bidding. He is a soldier as well as aprophet, for he has drilled and disposed his army like a master ofwar. "

"Will your tribe ally themselves with Cherokee murderers?"

"I asked that question of this man Onotawah, and he liked it little. Hesays that his people distrust this alliance with a race they scorn, andI do not think they pine for the white man's war. But they are underthe magic of this prophet, and presently, when blood begins to flow, they will warm to their work. In time they will be broken, but thattime will not be soon, and meanwhile there will be nothing left alivebetween the hills and the bay of Chesapeake. "

"Do you know their plans?" I asked. 

"The Cherokees have served their purpose, " he said. "Your forecast wasright, brother. They have drawn the fire of the Border, and been drivenin a rabble far south to the Roanoke and the Carolina mountains. Thatis as the prophet planned. And now, while the white men hang up theirmuskets and rejoice heedlessly in their triumph, my nation prepares tostrike. To-night the moon is full, and the prophet makes intercessionwith his God. To-morrow at dawn they march, and by twilight they willhave swarmed across the Border. "

"Have you no power over your own people?"

"But little, " he answered. "I have been too long absent from them, andmy name is half forgotten. Yet, were they free of this prophet, I thinkI might sway them, for I know their ways, and I am the son of theirancient kings. But for the present his magic holds them in thrall. Theylisten in fear to one who hath the ear of God. "

I arose, stretched my arms, and yawned. 

"They carry me to this Sachem, " I said. "Well and good. I will outfacethis blasphemous liar, whoever he may be. If he makes big magic, I willmake bigger. The only course is the bold course. If I can humble thisprophet man, will you dissuade your nation from war and send them backto the sunset?"

"Assuredly, " he said wonderingly. "But what is your plan, brother?"

"None, " I answered. "God will show me the way. Honesty may trust in Himas well as madness. "

"By my father's shade, you are a man, brother, " and he gave me theIndian salute. 

"A very weary, feckless cripple of a man, " I said, smiling. "But thearmies of Heaven are on my side, Shalah. Take my pistols and Ringan'ssword. I am going into this business with no human weapons. " And asthey set me on an Indian horse and the whole tribe turned their eyes tothe higher glens, I actually rejoiced. Light-hearted or light-headed, Iknow not which I was, but I know that I had no fear. 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

HOW I STROVE ALL NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL. 

It was late in the evening ere we reached the shelf in the high glenswhich was the headquarters of the Indian host. I rode on a horse, between Onotawah and Shalah, as if I were a chief and no prisoner. Onthe road we met many bands of Indians hastening to the trysting-place, for the leader had flung his outposts along the whole base of therange, and the chief warriors returned to the plateau for the lastritual. No man spoke a word, and when we met other companies the onlygreeting was by uplifted hands. 

The shelf was lit with fires, and there was a flare of torches in thecentre. I saw an immense multitude of lean, dark faces--how many Icannot tell, but ten thousand at the least. It took all my faith towithstand the awe of the sight. For these men were not the commonIndian breed, but a race nurtured and armed for great wars, disciplinedto follow one man, and sharpened to a needle-point in spirit. Perhapsif I had been myself a campaigner I should have been less awed by thespectacle; but having nothing with which to compare it, I judged this ahost before which the scattered Border stockades and Nicholson's scantymilitia would go down like stubble before fire. 

At the head of the plateau, just under the brow of the hill, and facingthe half-circle of level land, stood a big tent of skins. Before it wasa square pile of boulders about the height of a man's waist, heaped onthe top with brushwood so that it looked like a rude altar. Around thisthe host had gathered, sitting mostly on the ground with knees drawn tothe chin, but some few standing like sentries under arms. I was takento the middle of the half-circle, and Shalah motioned me to dismount, while a stripling led off the horses. My legs gave under me, for theywere still very feeble, and I sat hunkered up on the sward like theothers. I looked for Shalah and Onotawah, but they had disappeared, andI was left alone among those lines of dark, unknown faces. 

I waited with an awe on my spirits against which I struggled in vain. The silence of so vast a multitude, the sputtering torches, lightingthe wild amphitheatre of the hills, the strange clearing with itsaltar, the mystery of the immense dusky sky, and the memory of what Ihad already endured--all weighed on me with the sense of impendingdoom. I summoned all my fortitude to my aid. I told myself that Ringanbelieved in me, and that I had the assurance that God would not see mecast down. But such courage as I had was now a resolve rather than anyexhilaration of spirits. A brooding darkness lay on me like a cloud. 

Presently the hush grew deeper, and from the tent a man came. I couldnot see him clearly, but the flickering light told me that he was verytall, and that, like the Indians, he was naked to the middle. He stoodbehind the altar, and began some incantation. 

It was in the Indian tongue which I could not understand. The voice washarsh and discordant, but powerful enough to fill that whole circle ofhill. It seemed to rouse the passion of the hearers, for grave facesaround me began to work, and long-drawn sighs came from their lips. 

Then at a word from the figure four men advanced, bearing somethingbetween them, which they laid on the altar. To my amazement I saw thatit was a great yellow panther, so trussed up that it was impotent tohurt. How such a beast had ever been caught alive I know not. I couldsee its green cat's eyes glowing in the dark, and the striving of itsmuscles, and hear the breath hissing from its muzzled jaws. 

The figure raised a knife and plunged it into the throat of the greatcat. The slow lapping of blood broke in on the stillness. Then thevoice shrilled high and wild. I could see that the man had marked hisforehead with blood, and that his hands were red and dripping. Heseemed to be declaiming some savage chant, to which my neighbours beganto keep time with their bodies. Wilder and wilder it grew, till itended in a scream like a seamew's. Whoever the madman was, he knew themystery of Indian souls, for in a little he would have had that hostlusting blindly for death. I felt the spell myself, piercing through myawe and hatred of the spell-weaver, and I won't say but that my wearyhead kept time with the others to that weird singing. 

A man brought a torch and lit the brushwood on the altar. Instantly aflame rose to heaven, through which the figure of the magician showedfitfully like a mountain in mist. That act broke the wizardry for me. To sacrifice a cat was monstrous and horrible, but it was alsouncouthly silly. I saw the magic for what it was, a maniac's trickery. In the revulsion I grew angry, and my anger heartened me wonderfully. Was this stupendous quackery to bring ruin to the Tidewater? Though Ihad to choke the life with my own hands out of that warlock's throat, Ishould prevent it. 

Then from behind the fire the voice began again. But this time Iunderstood it. The words were English. I was amazed, for I hadforgotten that I knew the wizard to be a white man. 

"_Thus saith the Lord God_, " it cried, "_Woe to the bloody city! I willmake the pile great for fire. Heap on wood, kindle the fire, consumethe flesh, and spice it well, and let the bones be burned_. "

He poked the beast on the altar, and a bit of burning yellow fur felloff and frizzled on the ground. 

It was horrid beyond words, lewd and savage and impious, anddesperately cruel. And the strange thing was that the voice wasfamiliar. 

"_O thou that dwellest upon many waters_, " it went on again, "_abundantin treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness. The Lord of Hosts hath sworn by Himself, saying, Surely I will fillthee with men as with caterpillars_.... "

With that last word there came over me a flood of recollection. It wasspoken not in the common English way, but in the broad manner of my ownfolk.... I saw in my mind's eye a wet moorland, and heard a voiceinveighing against the wickedness of those in high places.... I smelledthe foul air of the Canongate Tolbooth, and heard this same mantestifying against the vanity of the world.... "_Cawterpillars!_" Itwas the voice that had once bidden me sing "Jenny Nettles. "

Harsh and strident and horrible, it was yet the voice I had known, nowblaspheming Scripture words behind that gruesome sacrifice. I think Ilaughed aloud. I remembered the man I had pursued my first night inVirginia, the man who had raided Frew's cabin. I remembered Ringan'stale of the Scots redemptioner that had escaped from Norfolk county, and the various strange writings which had descended from the hills. Was it not the queerest fate that one whom I had met in my boyishscrapes should return after six years and many thousand miles to playonce more a major part in my life! The nameless general in the hillswas Muckle John Gib, once a mariner of Borrowstoneness, and some timeleader of the Sweet-Singers. I felt the smell of wet heather, and thefishy odours of the Forth; I heard the tang of our country speech, andthe swirl of the gusty winds of home. 

But in a second all thought of mirth was gone, and a deep solemnityfell upon me. God had assuredly directed my path, for He had broughtthe two of us together over the widest spaces of earth. I had no fearof the issue. I should master Muckle John as I had mastered him before. My awe was all for God's mysterious dealing, not for that poor foolposturing behind his obscene sacrifice. His voice rose and fell ineldritch screams and hollow moans. He was mouthing the words of someBible Prophet. 

"_A Sword is upon her horses, and upon her chariots, and upon all themingled people that are in the midst of her, and they shall become aswomen. A Sword is upon her treasures, and they shall be robbed; adrought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is theland of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols_. "

Every syllable brought back some memory. He had the whine and sough inhis voice that our sectaries prized, and I could shut my eyes andimagine I was back in the little kirk of Lesmahagow on a hot summermorn. And then would come the scream of madness, the high wail of theSweet-Singer. 

"_Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will bring a King of kings fromthe north, with horses and with chariots, and with horsemen andcompanies and muck people. He shall slay with the sword thy daughtersin the field_.... "

"Fine words, " I thought; "but Elspeth laid her whip over yourshoulders, my man. "

"... _With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets. He shall slay thy people by the sword, and thy strong garrisons shallgo down to the ground.... And I will cause the music of thy songs tocease, and the sound of thy harps shall no more be heard. "_

I had a vision of Elspeth's birthday party when we sat round theGovernor's table, and I had wondered dismally how long it would bebefore our pleasant songs would be turned to mourning. 

The fires died down, the smoke thinned, and the full moon rising overthe crest of the hills poured her light on us. The torches flickeredinsolently in that calm radiance. The voice, too, grew lower and theincantation ceased. Then it began again in the Indian tongue, and thewhole host rose to their feet. Muckle John, like some old priest ofDiana, flung up his arms to the heavens, and seemed to be invoking hisstrange gods. Or he may have been blessing his flock--I know not which. Then he turned and strode back to his tent, just as he had done on thatnight in the Cauldstaneslap.... 

A hand was laid on my arm and Onotawah stood by me. He motioned me tofollow him, and led me past the smoking altar to a row of painted whitestones around the great wigwam. This he did not cross, but pointed tothe tent door, I pushed aside the flap and entered. 

An Indian lamp--a wick floating in oil--stood on a rough table. But itsthin light was unneeded, for the great flood of moonshine, comingthrough the slits of the skins, made a clear yellow twilight. By it Imarked the figure of Muckle John on his knees. 

"Good evening to you, Mr. Gib, " I said. 

The figure sprang to its feet and strode over to me. 

"Who are ye, " it cried, "who speaks a name that is no more spoken onearth?"

"Just a countryman of yours, who has forgathered with you before. Haveyou no mind of the Cauldstaneslap and the Canongate Tolbooth?"

He snatched up the lamp and peered into my face, but he was long pastrecollection. 

"I know ye not. But if ye be indeed one from that idolatrous country ofScotland, the Lord hath sent you to witness the triumph of His servant, Know that I am no longer the man John Gib, but the chosen of the Lord, to whom He hath given a new name, even Jerubbaal, saying let Baal pleadagainst him, because he hath thrown down his altar. "

"That's too long a word for me to remember, Mr. Gib, so by your leaveI'll call you as you were christened. "

I had forced myself to a slow coolness, and my voice seemed to maddenhim. 

"Ye would outface me, " he cried. "I see ye are an idolater from thetents of Shem, on whom judgment will be speedy and surprising. Know yenot what the Lord hath prepared for ye? Down in your proud cities yeare feasting and dicing and smiling on your paramours, but the writingis on the wall, and in a little ye will be crying like weaned bairnsfor a refuge against the storm of God. Your strong men shall be slain, and your virgins shall be led captive, and your little children shallbe dashed against a stone. And in the midst of your ruins I, even I, will raise a temple to the God of Israel, and nations that know me notwill run unto me because of the Lord my God. "

I had determined on my part, and played it calmly. 

"And what will you do with your Indian braves?" I asked. 

"Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place tolie down in, for my people that have sought me, " he answered. 

"A bonny spectacle, " I said. "Man, if you dare to cross the Border youwill be whipped at a cart-tail and clapped into Bedlam as a crazyvagabond. "

"Blasphemer, " he shrieked, and ran at me with the knife he had used onthe panther. 

It took all my courage to play my game. I stood motionless, looking athim, and his head fell. Had I moved he would have struck, but to hismad eyes my calmness was terrifying. 

"It sticks in my mind, " I said, "that there is a commandment, Do nomurder. You call yourself a follower of the Lord. Let me tell you thatyou are no more than a bloody-minded savage, a thousandfold more guiltythan those poor creatures you are leading astray. You serve Baal, notGod, John Gib, and the devil in hell is banking his fires and countingon your company. "

He gibbered at me like a bedlamite, but I knew what I was doing. Iraised my voice, and spoke loud and clear, while my eyes held his inthat yellow dusk. 

"Priest of Baal, " I cried, "lying prophet! Go down on your knees andpray for mercy. By the living God, the flames of hell are waiting foryou. The lightnings tremble in the clouds to scorch you up and sendyour black soul to its own place. "

His hands pawed at my throat, but the horror was descending on him. Heshrieked like a wild beast, and cast fearful eyes behind him. Then herushed into the dark corners, stabbing with his knife, crying that thedevils were loosed. I remember how horribly he frothed at the mouth. 

"Avaunt, " he howled. "Avaunt, Mel and Abaddon! Avaunt, Evil-Merodachand Baal-Jezer! Ha! There I had ye, ye muckle goat. The stink of hellis on ye, but ye shall not take the elect of the Lord. "

He crawled on his belly, stabbing his knife into the ground. I easilyavoided him, for his eyes saw nothing but his terrible phantoms. VerilyShalah had spoken truth when he said that this man had bodily conversewith the devils. 

Then I threw him--quite easily, for his limbs were going limp in theextremity of his horror. He lay gasping and foaming, his eyes turningback in his head, while I bound his arms to his sides with my belt. Ifound some cords in the tent, and tied his legs together. He moanedmiserably for a little, and then was silent. 

 * * * * *

I think I must have sat by him for three hours. The world was verystill, and the moon set, and the only light was the flickering lamp. Once or twice I heard a rustle by the tent door. Some Indian guard wason the watch, but I knew that no Indian dared to cross the forbiddencircle. 

I had no thoughts, being oppressed with a great stupor of weariness. Imay have dozed a little, but the pain of my legs kept me fromslumbering. 

Once or twice I looked at him, and I noticed that the madness had goneout of his face, and that he was sleeping peacefully. I wiped the frothfrom his lips, and his forehead was cool to my touch. 

By and by, as I held the lamp close, I observed that his eyes wereopen. It was now time for the gamble I had resolved on. I rememberedthat morning in the Tolbooth, and how the madness had passed, leavinghim a simple soul. I unstrapped the belt, and cut the cords about hislegs. 

"Do you feel better now, Mr. Gib?" I asked, as if it were the mostordinary question in the world. 

He sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Was it a dwam?" he inquired. "I getthem whiles. "

"It was a dwam, but I think it has passed. "

He still rubbed his eyes, and peered about him, like a big collie dogthat has lost its master. 

"Who is it that speirs?" he said. "I ken the voice, but I havena heardit this long time. "

"One who is well acquaint with Borrowstoneness and the links of Forth, "said I. 

I spoke in the accent of his own country-side, and it must have wokesome dim chord in his memory, I made haste to strike while the iron washot. 

"There was a woman at Cramond... " I began. 

He got to his feet and looked me in the face. "Ay, there was, " he said, with an odd note in his voice. "What about her?" I could see that hishand was shaking. 

"I think her name was Alison Steel. "

"What ken ye of Alison Steel?" he asked fiercely. "Quick, man, whatword have ye frae Alison?"

"You sent me with a letter to her. D'you not mind your last days inEdinburgh, before they shipped you to the Plantations?"

"It comes back to me, " he cried. "Ay, it comes back. To think I shouldlive to hear of Alison! What did she say?"

"Just this. That John Gib was a decent man if he would resist the devilof pride. She charged me to tell you that you would never be out of herprayers, and that she would live to be proud of you. 'John will nevershame his kin, ' quoth she. "

"Said she so?" he said musingly. "She was aye a kind body. We were tobe married at Martinmas, I mind, if the Lord hadna called me. "

"You've need of her prayers, " I said, "and of the prayers of everyChristian soul on earth. I came here yestereen to find you mouthingblasphemies, and howling like a mad tyke amid a parcel of heathen. Andthey tell me you're to lead your savages on Virginia, and give thatsmiling land to fire and sword. Think you Alison Steel would not beblack ashamed if she heard the horrid tale?"

"'Twas the Lord's commands, " he said gloomily, but there was noconviction in his words. 

I changed my tone. "Do you dare to speak such blasphemy?" I cried. "TheLord's commands! The devil's commands! The devil of your own sinfulpride! You are like the false prophets that made Israel to sin. Whatbrings you, a white man, at the head of murderous savages?"

"Israel would not hearken, so I turned to the Gentiles, " said he. 

"And what are you going to make of your Gentiles? Do you think you'veput much Christianity into the heart of the gentry that were watchingyour antics last night?"

"They have glimmerings of grace, " he said. 

"Glimmerings of moonshine! They are bent on murder, and so are you, andyou call that the Lord's commands. You would sacrifice your own folk tothe heathen hordes. God forgive you, John Gib, for you are noChristian, and no Scot, and no man. "

"Virginia is an idolatrous land, " said he; but he could not look up atme. 

"And are your Indians not idolaters? Are you no idolater, with yourburnt offerings and heathen gibberish? You worship a Baal and a Molochworse than any Midianite, for you adore the devils of your own rottenheart. "

The big man, with all the madness out of him, put his towsy head in hishands, and a sob shook his great shoulders. 

"Listen to me, John Gib. I am come from your own country-side to saveyou from a hellish wickedness, I know the length and breadth ofVirginia, and the land is full of Scots, men of the Covenant you haveforsworn, who are living an honest life on their bits of farms, andworshipping the God you have forsaken. There are women there likeAlison Steel, and there are men there like yourself before youhearkened to the devil. Will you bring death to your own folk, withwhom you once shared the hope of salvation? By the land we both haveleft, and the kindly souls we both have known, and the prayers you saidat your mother's knee, and the love of Christ who died for us, I adjureyou to flee this great sin. For it is the sin against the Holy Ghost, and that knows no forgiveness. "

The man was fairly broken down. "What must I do?" he cried. "I'm all ina creel. I'm but a pipe for the Lord to sound through. "

"Take not that Name in vain, for the sounding is from your own corruptheart. Mind what Alison Steel said about the devil of pride, for it wasthat sin by which the angels fell. "

"But I've His plain commands, " he wailed. "He hath bidden me cast downidolatry, and bring the Gentiles to His kingdom. "

"Did He say anything about Virginia? There's plenty idolatry elsewherein America to keep you busy for a lifetime, and you can lead yourGentiles elsewhere than against your own kin. Turn your face westward, John Gib. I, too, can dream dreams and see visions, and it is borne inon me that your road is plain before you. Lead this great people awayfrom the little shielings of Virginia, over the hills and over thegreat mountains and the plains beyond, and on and on till you come toan abiding city. You will find idolaters enough to dispute your road, and you can guide your flock as the Lord directs you. Then you will beclear of the murderer's guilt who would stain his hands in kindlyblood. "

He lifted his great head, and the marks of the sacrifice were still onhis brow. 

"D'ye think that would be the Lord's will?" he asked innocently. 

"I declare it unto you, " said I. "I have been sent by God to save yoursoul. I give you your marching orders, for though you are half a madmanyou are whiles a man. There's the soul of a leader in you, and I wouldkeep you from the shame of leading men to hell. To-morrow morn you willtell these folk that the Lord has revealed to you a better way, and bynoon you will be across the Shenandoah. D'you hear my word?"

"Ay, " he said. "We will march in the morning. "

"Can you lead them where you will?"

His back stiffened, and the spirit of a general looked out of his eyes. 

"They will follow where I bid. There's no a man of them dare cheep atwhat I tell them. "

"My work is done, " I said. "I go to whence I came. And some day I shallgo to Cramond and tell Alison that John Gib is no disgrace to his kin. "

"Would you put up a prayer?" he said timidly. "I would be the better ofone. "

Then for the first and last time in my life I spoke aloud to my Makerin another's presence, and it was surely the strangest petition everoffered. 

"Lord, " I prayed, "Thou seest Thy creature, John Gib, who by theperverseness of his heart has come to the edge of grievous sin. Takethe cloud from his spirit, arrange his disordered wits, and lead him toa wiser life. Keep him in mind of his own land, and of her who praysfor him. Guide him over hills and rivers to an enlarged country, andmake his arm strong against his enemies, so be they are not of his ownkin. And if ever he should hearken again to the devil, do Thou blasthis body with Thy fires, so that his soul may be saved. "

"Amen, " said he, and I went out of the tent to find the grey dawnbeginning to steal up the sky. 

Shalah was waiting at the entrance, far inside the white stones. 'Twasthe first time I had ever seen him in a state approaching fear. 

"What fortune, brother?" he asked, and his teeth chattered. 

"The Tidewater is safe. This day they march westwards to look for theirnew country. "

"Thy magic is as the magic of Heaven, " he said reverently. "My heartall night has been like water, for I know no charm which hath prevailedagainst the mystery of the Panther. "

"'Twas no magic of mine, " said I. "God spoke to him through my lips inthe night watches. "

We took our way unchallenged through the sleeping host till we hadclimbed the scarp of the hills. 

"What brought you to the tent door?" I asked. 

"I abode there through the night, I heard the strife with the devils, and my joints were loosened. Also I heard thy voice, brother, but Iknew not thy words. "

"But what did you mean to do?" I asked again. 

"It was in my mind to do my little best to see that no harm befellthee. And if harm came, I had the thought of trying my knife on theribs of yonder magician. "

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

HOW THREE SOULS FOUND THEIR HERITAGE. 

In that hour I had none of the exhilaration of success. So strangelyare we mortals made that, though I had won safety for myself and mypeople, I could not get the savour of it. I had passed too far beyondthe limits of my strength. Now that the tension of peril was gone, mylegs were like touchwood, which a stroke would shatter, and my foolishhead swam like a merry-go-round. Shalah's arm was round me, and helifted me up the steep bits till we came to the crown of the ridge. There we halted, and he fed me with sops of bread dipped in eau-de-vie, for he had brought Ringan's flask with him. The only result was to makeme deadly sick. I saw his eyes look gravely at me, and the next I knewI was on his back. I begged him to set me down and leave me, and Ithink I must have wept like a bairn. All pride of manhood had flown inthat sharp revulsion, and I had the mind of a lost child. 

As the light grew some strength came back to me, and presently I wasable to hobble a little on my rickety shanks. We kept the very crest ofthe range, and came by and by to a promontory of clear ground, thesame, I fancy, from which I had first seen the vale of the Shenandoah. There we rested in a nook of rock, while the early sun warmed us, andthe little vapours showed, us in glimpses the green depths and thefar-shining meadows. 

Shalah nudged my shoulder, and pointed to the south, where a glendebouched from the hills. A stream of mounted figures was pouring outof it, heading for the upper waters of the river where the valleybroadened again. For all my sickness my eyes were sharp enough toperceive what manner of procession it was. All were on horseback, riding in clouds and companies without the discipline of a march, butmoving as swift as a flight of wildfowl at twilight. Before the othersrode a little cluster of pathfinders, and among them I thought I couldrecognize one taller than the rest. 

"Your magic hath prevailed, brother, " Shalah said. "In an hour's timethey will have crossed the Shenandoah, and at nightfall they will campon the farther mountains. "

That sight gave me my first assurance of success. At any rate, I hadfulfilled my trust, and if I died in the hills Virginia would yet blessher deliverer. 

And yet my strongest feeling was a wild regret. These folk were makingfor the untravelled lands of the sunset. You would have said I had gotmy bellyful of adventure, and should now have sought only a quiet life. But in that moment of bodily weakness and mental confusion I was shakenwith a longing to follow them, to find what lay beyond the farthestcloud-topped mountain, to cross the wide rivers, and haply to come tothe infinite and mystic Ocean of the West. 

"Would to God I were with them!" I sighed. 

"Will you come, brother?" Shalah whispered, a strange light in hiseyes. "If we twain joined the venture, I think we should not be thelast in it. Shalah would make you a king. What is your life in themuddy Tidewater but a thing of little rivalries and petty wrangles andmoping over paper? The hearth will soon grow cold, and the bright eyesof the fairest woman will dull with age, and the years will find youheavy and slow, with a coward's shrinking from death. What say you, brother? While the blood is strong in the veins shall we ride westwardon the path of a king?"

His eyes were staring like a hawk's over the hills, and, light-headedas I was, I caught the infection of his ardour. For, remember, I was solow in spirit that all my hopes and memories were forgotten, and I wasin that blank apathy which is mastered by another's passion. For alittle the life of Virginia seemed unspeakably barren, and I quickenedat the wild vista which Shalah offered. I might be a king over a proudpeople, carving a fair kingdom out of the wilderness, and ruling itjustly in the fear of God. These western Indians were the stuff of agreat nation. I, Andrew Garvald, might yet find that empire of whichthe old adventurers dreamed. 

With shame I set down my boyish folly. It did not last, long, for to mydizzy brain there came the air which Elspeth had sung, that song ofMontrose's which had been, as it were, the star of all my wanderings. 

 "For, if Confusion have a part, Which virtuous souls abhor--"

Surely it was confusion that had now overtaken me. Elspeth's clearvoice, her dark, kind eyes, her young and joyous grace, filled again mymemory. Was not such a lady better than any savage kingdom? Was not theservice of my own folk nobler than any principate among strangers?Could the rivers of Damascus vie with the waters of Israel?

"Nay, Shalah, " I said. "Mine is a quieter destiny. I go back to theTidewater, but I shall not stay there. We have found the road to thehills, and in time I will plant the flag of my race on the Shenandoah. "

He bowed his head. "So be it. Each man to his own path, but I wouldours had run together. Your way is the way of the white man. Youconquer slowly, but the line of your conquest goes not back. Slowly iteats its way through the forest, and fields and manors appear in thewaste places, and cattle graze in the coverts of the deer. Listen, brother. Shalah has had his visions when his eyes were unsealed in thenight watches. He has seen the white man pressing up from the sea, andspreading over the lands of his fathers. He has seen the glens of thehills parcelled out like the meadows of Henricus, and a great multitudesurging ever on to the West. His race is doomed by God to perish beforethe stranger; but not yet awhile, for the white man comes slowly. Ithath been told that the Children of the West Wind must seek theircradle, and while there is time he would join them in that quest. Thewhite men follow upon their heels, but in his day and in that of hisson's sons they will lead their life according to the ancient ways. Hehath seen the wisdom of the stranger, and found among them men afterhis own heart; but the Spirit of his fathers calls, and now he returnsto his own people. "

"What will you do there?" I asked. 

"I know not. I am still a prince among them, and will sway theircouncils. It may be fated that I slay yonder magician and reign in hisstead. "

He got to his feet and looked proudly westward. 

"In a little I shall overtake them. But I would my brother had been ofmy company. "

Slowly we travelled north along the crests, for though my mind was nowsaner, I had no strength in my body. The hill mists came down on us, and the rain drove up from the glens. I was happy now for all myweakness, for I was lapped in a great peace. The raw weather, which hadonce been a horror of darkness to me, was now something kindly andhomelike. The wet smells minded me of my own land, and the cool buffetsof the squalls were a tonic to my spirit. I wandered into pleasantdreams, and scarce felt the roughness of the ground on my bare feet andthe aches in every limb. 

Long ere we got to the Gap I was clean worn out. I remember that I fellconstantly, and could scarcely rise. Then I stumbled, and the lastpower went out of will and sinew. I had a glimpse of Shalah's graveface as I slipped into unconsciousness. 

I woke in a glow of firelight. Faces surrounded me, dim wraith-likefigures still entangled in the meshes of my dreams. Slowly the scenecleared, and I recognized Grey's features, drawn and constrained, andyet welcoming. Bertrand was weeping after his excitable fashion. 

But there was a face nearer to me, and with that face in my memory Iwent off into pleasant dreams. Somewhere in them mingled the words ofthe old spaewife, that I should miss love and fortune in the sunshineand find them in the rain. 

The strength of youth is like a branch of yew, for if it is bent itsoon straightens. By the third day I was on my feet again, with onlythe stiffness of healing wounds to remind me of those desperatepassages. When I could look about me I found that men had arrived fromthe Rappahannock, and among them Elspeth's uncle, who had girded on agreat claymore, and looked, for all his worn face and sober habit, amighty man of war. With them came news of the rout of the Cherokees, who had been beaten by Nicholson's militia in Stafford county anddriven down the long line of the Border, paying toll to every stockade. Midway Lawrence had fallen upon them and driven the remnants into thehills above the head waters of the James. It would be many a day, Ithought, before these gentry would bring war again to the Tidewater. The Rappahannock men were in high feather, convinced that they hadborne the brunt of the invasion. 'Twas no business of mine to enlightenthem, the more since of the three who knew the full peril, Shalah wasgone and Ringan was dead. My tale should be for the ear of Lawrence andthe Governor, and for none else. The peace of mind of Virginia shouldnot be broken by me. 

Grey came to me on the third morning to say good-bye. He was going backto the Tidewater with some of the Borderers, for to stay longer with ushad become a torture to him. There was no ill feeling in his proudsoul, and he bore defeat as a gentleman should. 

"You have fairly won, Mr. Garvald, " he said. "Three nights ago I sawclearly revealed the inclination of the lady, and I am not one tostrive with an unwilling maid. I wish you joy of a great prize. Youstaked high for it, and you deserve your fortune. As for me, you havetaught me much for which I owe you gratitude. Presently, when my heartis less sore, I desire that we should meet in friendship, but till thenI need a little solitude to mend broken threads. "

There was the true gentleman for you, and I sorrowed that I should everhave misjudged him. He shook my hand in all brotherliness, and wentdown the glen with Bertrand, who longed to see his children again. 

Elspeth remained, and concerning her I fell into my old doubting mood. The return of my strength had revived in me the passion which had dweltsomewhere in my soul from, the hour she first sang to me in the rain. She had greeted me as girl greets her lover, but was that any more thanthe revulsion from fear and the pity of a tender heart? Doubtsoppressed me, the more as she seemed constrained and uneasy, her eyesfalling when she met mine, and her voice full no longer of its frankcomradeship. 

One afternoon we went to a place in the hills where the vale of theShenandoah could be seen. The rain had gone, and had left behind it ataste of autumn. The hill berries were ripening, and a touch of flamehad fallen on the thickets. 

Soon the great valley lay below us, running out in a golden haze to thefar blue mountains. 

"Ah!" she sighed, like one who comes from a winter night into a firelitroom. She was silent, while her eyes drank in its spacious comfort. 

"That is your heritage, Elspeth. That is the birthday gift to which oldStudd's powder-flask is the key. "

"Nay, yours, " she said, "for you won it. "

The words died on her lips, for her eyes were abstracted. My legs werestill feeble, and I had leaned a little on her strong young arm as wecame up the hill, but now she left me and climbed on a rock, where shesat like a pixie. The hardships of the past had thinned her face anddeepened her eyes, but her grace was the more manifest. Fresh and dewyas morning, yet with a soul of steel and fire--surely no loveliernymph ever graced a woodland. I felt how rough and common was my ownclay in contrast with her bright spirit. 

"Elspeth, " I said hoarsely, "once I told you what was in my heart. "

Her face grew grave. "And have you not seen what is in mine?" sheasked. 

"I have seen and rejoiced, and yet I doubt. "

"But why?" she asked again. "My life is yours, for you have preservedit. I would be graceless indeed if I did not give my best to you whohave given all for me. "

"It is not gratitude I want. If you are only grateful, put me out ofyour thoughts, and I will go away and strive to forget you. There weretwenty in the Tidewater who would have done the like. "

She looked down on me from the rock with the old quizzing humour in hereyes. 

"If gratitude irks you, sir, what would you have?"

"All, " I cried; "and yet, Heaven knows, I am not worth it. I am no manto capture a fair girl's heart. My face is rude and my speech harsh, and I am damnably prosaic. I have not Ringan's fancy, or Grey'sgallantry; I am sober and tongue-tied and uncouth, and my mind runsterribly on facts and figures. O Elspeth, I know I am no hero ofromance, but a plain body whom Fate has forced into a month ofwildness. I shall go back to Virginia, and be set once more at myaccompts and ladings. Think well, my dear, for I will have nothing lessthan all. Can you endure to spend your days with a homely fellow likeme?"

"What does a woman desire?" she asked, as if from herself, and hervoice was very soft as she gazed over the valley. "Men think it is ahandsome face or a brisk air or a smooth tongue. And some will have itthat it is a deep purse or a high station. But I think it is the honestheart that goes all the way with a woman's love. We are not so blind asto believe that the glitter is the gold. We love romance, but we seekit in its true home. Do you think I would marry you for gratitude, Andrew?"

"No, " I said. 

"Or for admiration?"

"No, " said I. 

"Or for love?"

"Yes, " I said, with a sudden joy. 

She slipped from the rock, her eyes soft and misty. Her arms were aboutmy neck, and I heard from her the words I had dreamed of and yet scarcehoped for, the words of the song sung long ago to a boy's ear, andspoken now with the pure fervour of the heart--"My dear and only love. "

Years have flown since that day on the hills, and much has befallen;but the prologue is the kernel of my play, and the curtain which roseafter that hour revealed things less worthy of chronicle. Why should Itell of how my trade prospered mightily, and of the great house webuilt at Middle Plantation; of my quarrels with Nicholson, which weremany; of how we carved a fair estate out of Elspeth's inheritance, andled the tide of settlement to the edge of the hills? These things wouldseem a pedestrian end to a high beginning. Nor would I weary the readerwith my doings in the Assembly, how I bearded more Governors than one, and disputed stoutly with His Majesty's Privy Council in London. Thehistorian of Virginia--now by God's grace a notable land--may, perhaps, take note of these things, but it is well for me to keepsilent. It is of youth alone that I am concerned to write, for it is acomfort to my soul to know that once in my decorous progress throughlife I could kick my heels and forget to count the cost; and as youthcries farewell, so I end my story and turn to my accounts. 

Elspeth and I have twice voyaged to Scotland. The first time my uncleand mother were still in the land of the living, but they died in thesame year, and on our second journey I had much ado in settling theirestates. My riches being now considerable, I turned my attention to thelittle house of Auchencairn, which I enlarged and beautified, so thatif we have the wish we may take up our dwelling there. We have found inthe West a goodly heritage, but there is that in a man's birth placewhich keeps tight fingers on his soul, and I think that we desire todraw our last breath and lay our bones in our own grey country-side. So, if God grants us length of days, we may haply return to Douglasdalein the even, and instead of our noble forests and rich meadows, lookupon the bleak mosses and the rainy uplands which were our childhood'smemory. 

That is the fancy at the back of both our heads. But I am very surethat our sons will be Virginians. 

THE END.