Part 41 (1/2)

”You?” she broke out. And for the first time she seemed to see that his hair was white. ”Are you going?”

”Every one who has ever fought for America is going. There is a company of them behind me. Listen.”

Down the road there was faintly to be heard the clatter of hoofs.

”Some joined me in Virginia, some as we crossed the Potomac by Arlington, where there is a house which once belonged to a relative of mine. And there were others, old friends, who met me as we came through Valley Forge in Pennsylvania. You would not now know Valley Forge,” he finished, half to himself.

The river mist had crept farther up and was a little thicker now. The moon had risen and the mist s.h.i.+mmered and shone almost as if by its own light. The world was indeed of the very substance of a dream. The hoofbeats on the road grew nearer, and at last, while old Mrs. Buchan stood in a kind of amazed silence, they came into sight, even then mere shadowy, dim, wavering figures behind the gossamer silver veil which had drifted there from the lovely Delaware. The horses looked lean and weary, though perhaps this was a trick of the moonlight. Yet they dropped their heads and began eagerly to crop the short, dusty gra.s.s by the roadside. The moonlight seemed to play tricks with their riders, too. For in the fog some of them seemed to have almost grotesquely old-fas.h.i.+oned clothes, though all had a sort of military cut to them.

Some few, indeed, were trim and modern. But the greater part were, or seemed to Mrs. Buchan to be, in shabby blue or worn gray. The chance combination of the colors struck her. She was an old woman and she could remember unhappy far-off days when blue and gray had stood for the fight of brother against brother. Into her eyes the tears came, yet she suddenly smiled through them-a pair of quite young men lounged toward the fence, and then stood at ease there, the blue-clad arm of one affectionately and boyishly thrown around the other's gray shoulder.

”These go with you?” asked old Mrs. Buchan, still held by her memories.

”Yes. They are of all kinds and all ages, and some of them were not always friends. But you see-” He smiled and pointed to the lads by the fence. ”One of them is from Virginia and the other from Ohio. Virginia and Ohio fought once. But I only say that I can remember that Ohio was part of Virginia once long ago. And is not Virginia part of Ohio and Ohio part of Virginia again now? I should be pus.h.i.+ng on, however, not talking. It is the horses that are tired, not the men.”

”And hungry?” suggested Mrs. Buchan.

”The horses, yes, poor beasts!” he answered. ”For the men it does not matter. Yet we must reach New York by morning. And it is a matter of some five-and-fifty miles.”

”Rest a half-hour and let the horses graze. You can make it by sunrise.”

Mrs. Buchan went a little way down the path. It was lined with pink and white clove-pinks and their fragrance was sweet in the night.

”Open the gate there to the left, men,” she called out, and her voice rang, to her, unexpectedly strong and clear. ”Let the horses graze in my green meadow if they will.”

They gave an answering cheer from out the mist. She saw the meadow gate swing open and the lean horses pa.s.s through, a long, long file of them.

”But they will spoil your hay crop,” objected the horseman. ”And it should be worth a fair sum to you.”

Mrs. Buchan drew herself up. ”It is of no consequence,” she answered.

He bowed again.

”But I don't understand,” she almost pleaded, staring again at his white hair and the little flag in his hatband that looked so oddly like a c.o.c.kade. ”You say you sail to-morrow with my boy?”

”I think you understand as well as any one.”

”Do I?” she whispered. And the night suddenly seemed cold and she drew her little shawl of Shetland wool more tightly about her shoulders. Yet she was not afraid.

Her guest stooped and, rising, put one of her sweet-smelling clove-pinks in his b.u.t.ton-hole.

”If you permit, I will carry it for your boy to France. We are extra men, supercargo,” he went on. ”We shall cross with every boat-load of boys who sail for France-we who fought once as they must fight now. They said of me, only too flatteringly, that I was first in peace. Now I must be first in war again. I must be on the first troop-s.h.i.+p that goes. And I shall find friends in France. We have always had friends in France, I imagine, since those first days. Of course, madam, you are too young to remember the Marquis de la Fayette.”

”Yes, I am too young,” answered old Mrs. Buchan. And she smiled through her tears at the thought of her eighty years.

”You're a mere chit of a girl, of course,” he laughed-one of the few times his gravity was relaxed. ”Shall I know your boy, I wonder?” Then, without waiting for her answer, ”The George Buchan who fought at the battle of Princeton was about twenty-two, slim and straight, with blue eyes and brown hair and an honest, gallant way with him, and a smile that one remembered.”

”You will know my boy,” she told him. ”And I think he will know you, General.”

Even now she swears she does not quite know what she meant by this. The magic of the June night had for the moment made everything possible. Yet she will not to this day say who she thinks the horseman may have been.