Part 51 (1/2)

Down he sprawled across my hurt legs; down tumbled John Howell, too, and Silver, a-clinging to him tooth and nail, their broad knives flas.h.i.+ng and ripping and whipping into flesh.

Striving desperately to free me of Grinnis, and get up, I saw Tom Dawling throw his axe at G.o.dfrey; and saw Luysnes shoot him, then seize him and cut his throat, even as he was falling.

Johnny Silver began bawling l.u.s.tily for help, with John Howell atop of him, cursing him for a rebel and striving to disembowel him. De Golyer caught Howell by the throat, and Silver scrambled to his feet, his clothing in b.l.o.o.d.y ribbons. Then Joe's hatchet flashed level with terrific swiftness, cras.h.i.+ng to its mark; and Howell pitched backward with his head clean split from one eye to the other, making of the top of his skull a lid which hung hinged only by the hairy skin.

Luysnes and the Saguenay were now somewhere inside the house a-chasing of Balty Weed; and I could hear Balty screaming, and the thud and clatter of loose logs as they dragged him down from the loft overhead.

Nick came panting to me where I sat on the b.l.o.o.d.y gra.s.s, feeling sick o'

my wound and now vomiting.

”Are you bad?” he asked breathlessly.

”Balty shot me.... I don't know----”

Somebody knelt down behind me, and I laid back my head, feeling very sick and faint, but entirely conscious.

The awful screaming in the house had never ceased; Nick sat down on the gra.s.s and fumbled at my s.h.i.+rt with trembling fingers.

Presently the screaming ceased. Luysnes came out o' the house with a lighted lantern, followed by the Saguenay; and in the wavering radiance I saw behind them the feet of a man twitching above the floor.

”We hung the louse to the rafters,” said Luysnes, ”and your Indian asks your leave to scalp him as soon as he's done a-kicking.”

”Let him have the scalp,” said de Golyer, grimly. ”He shot John Drogue through the body. s.h.i.+ne your lantern on him, Ben.”

They crowded around me. Nick opened my s.h.i.+rt and drew off my leggins. I saw Johnny Silver, in tatters and all drenched with blood, come into the lantern's rays.

”Are you bad hurt, John?” I gasped.

”Bah! Non, alors. Onlee has Howell slash my s.h.i.+rt into leetle rags and I am scratch all raw. Zat ees nozzing, mon capitaine--a leetle cut like wiz a Barlow--like zat! Pouf! Bah! I laugh. I make mock!”

”Your ribs are broken, John,” says Nick, still squatting beside me. ”I think your bones turned the bullet, and it's not lodged in your belly at all, but in your right thigh.... Fetch a sop o' wet moss, Joe!”

De Luysnes also got up and went away to chop some stout alders for a litter. De Golyer was back in a moment, both hands full of dripping sphagnum; and Nick washed away the mess of blood.

After that I was sick at my stomach again; and not clear in my mind what they were about.

I gazed around out of fevered eyes, and saw dead men lying near me.

Suddenly the full horror of this civil war seemed to seize my senses;--all the shame of such a conflict, a black disgrace upon us here in County Tryon.

”Nick!” I cried, ”in G.o.d's name give those men burial.”

”Let them lie, d.a.m.n them!” said G.o.dfrey, sullenly.

”But they were our neighbors! I--I can't endure such a business.... And there are wolves in the tamaracks.”

”Let wolf eat wolf,” muttered Luysnes. But he drew his knife and went into the house. And I heard Balty's body drop when he cut it down.