Part 44 (1/2)
”Your honour will remark one circ.u.mstance. Not a rascal of them all comes within the fair range of a musket, for, as to throwing away ammunition at such distances, it would be clearly unmilitary, and might be altogether useless.”
”I have half a mind to scatter them with a volley”--said the captain, doubtingly. ”Bullets would take effect among those ploughmen, could they only be made to hit.”
”And amang the cattle, too,” observed the Scotsman, who had an eye on the more economical part of the movement, as well as on that which was military. ”A ball would slay a horse as well as a man in such a skairmish.”
”This is true enough, Jamie; and it is not exactly the sort of warfare I could wish, to be firing at men who were so lately my friends. I do not see, Joyce, that the rascals have any arms with them?”
”Not a musket, sir. I noticed that, when Joel first detailed his detachments. Can it be possible that the savages have retired?”
”Not they; else would Mr. Strides and his friends have gone with them.
No, serjeant, there is a deep plan to lead us into some sort of ambush in this affair, and we will be on the look-out for them.”
Joyce stood contemplating the scene for some, time, in profound silence, when he approached the captain formally, and made the usual military salute; a ceremony he had punctiliously observed, on all proper occasions, since the garrison might be said to be placed under martial law.
”If it's your honour's pleasure,” he said, ”I will detail a detachment, and go out and bring in two or three of these deserters; by which means we shall get into their secrets.”
”A detachment, Joyce!” answered the captain, eyeing his subordinate a little curiously--”What troops do you propose to tell-off for the service?”
”Why, your honour, there's corporal Allen and old Pliny off duty; I think the thing might be done with them, if your honour would have the condescension to order corporal Blodget, with the two other blacks, to form as a supporting party, under the cover of one of the fences.”
”A disposition of my force that would leave captain Willoughby for a garrison! I thank you, serjeant, for your offer and gallantry, but prudence will not permit it. We may set down Strides and his companions as so many knaves, and----”
”That may ye!” cried Mike's well-known voice, from the scuttle that opened into the garrets, directly in front of which the two old soldiers were conversing--”That may ye, and no har-r-m done the trut', or justice, or for that matther, meself. Och! If I had me will of the blackguards, every rogue of 'em should be bound hand and fut and laid under that pratthy wather-fall, yon at the mill, until his sins was washed out of him. Would there be confessions then?--That would there; and sich letting out of sacrets as would satisfy the conscience of a hog!”
By the time Mike had got through this sentiment he was on the staging, where he stood hitching up his nether garment, with a meaning grin on his face that gave a peculiar expression of heavy cunning to the ma.s.sive jaw and capacious mouth, blended with an honesty and good- nature that the well-meaning fellow was seldom without when he addressed any of the captain's family. Joyce glanced at the captain, expecting orders to seize the returned run-away; but his superior read at once good faith in the expression of his old retainer's countenance.
”You have occasioned us a good deal of surprise, O'Hearn, on more accounts than one,” observed the captain, who thought it prudent to a.s.sume more sternness of manner than his feelings might have actually warranted. ”You have not only gone off yourself, but you have suffered your prisoner to escape with you. Then your manner of getting into the house requires an explanation. I shall hear what you have to say before I make up my mind as to your conduct.”
”Is it spake I will?--That will I, and as long as it plase yer honour to listen. Och! Isn't that Saucy Nick a quare one? Divil burn me if I thinks the likes of him is to be found in all Ameriky, full as it is of Injins and saucy fellies! Well, now, I suppose, sarjeant, ye've set me down as sin riding off with Misther Joel and his likes, if ye was to open yer heart, and spake yer thrue mind?”
”You have been marked for a deserter, O'Hearn, and one, too, that deserted from post.”
”Post! Had I been _that_, I shouldn't have stirred, and ye'd be wanting in the news I bring ye from the Majjor, and Mr. Woods, and the savages, and the rest of the varmints.”
”My son!--Is this possible, Michael? Have you seen _him_, or can you tell us anything of his state?”
Mike now a.s.sumed a manner of mysterious importance, laying a finger on his nose, and pointing towards the sentinel and Jamie.
”It's the sarjeant that I considers as one of the family,” said the county Leitrim-man, when his pantomime was through, ”but it isn't dacent to be bawling out sacrets through a whole nighbourhood; and then, as for _Ould_ Nick--or Saucy Nick, or whatever ye calls him--Och! isn't he a _pratthy_ Injin! Ye'll mar-r-ch t'rough Ameriky, and never see his aiquel!”
”This will never do, O'Hearn. Whatever you have to say must be said clearly, and in the simplest manner. Follow to the library, where I will hear your report. Joyce, you will accompany us.”
”Let him come, if he wishes to hear wonderful achaivements!” answered Mike, making way for the captain to descend the steps; then following himself, talking as he went. ”He'll niver brag of his campaigns ag'in to the likes of me, seeing that I've outdone him, ten--ay, forty times, and boot. Och! that Nick's a divil, and no har-r-m said!”
”In the first place, O'Hearn,” resumed the captain, as soon as the three were alone in the library--”you must explain your own desertion.”
”Me!--Desart! Sure, it isn't run away from yer honour, and the Missus, and Miss Beuly, and pratthy Miss Maud, and the child, that's yer honour's m'aning?”
This was said with so much nature and truth, that the captain had not the heart to repeat the question, though Joyce's more drilled feelings were less moved. The first even felt a tear springing to his eye, and he no longer distrusted the Irishman's fidelity, as unaccountable as his conduct did and must seem to his cooler judgment. But Mike's sensitiveness had taken the alarm, and it was only to be appeased by explanations.
”Yer honour's not sp'aking when I questions ye on that same?” he resumed, doubtingly.