Part 32 (2/2)
In that, the Brigadier insisted, lay our only chance of success.
”But I say the sortie _will_ be made! They are waiting for us--only we are too far off to hear their signal!” cried one of the impatient colonels.
”If the wind was in the east,” said the Brigadier, ”that might be the case. But in breathless air like this I have heard the guns from that fort two miles farther back.”
”Our messengers may not have got through the lines last night,” put in Thomas Spencer, the half-breed. ”The swamp back of the fort is difficult travelling, even to one who knows it better than Helmer does, and Butler's Indians are not children, to see only straight ahead of their noses.”
”Would it not be wise for Spencer here, and some of our young trappers, or some of Skenandoah's Indians, to go forward and spy out the land for us?”
I asked.
”These would do little good now,” answered Herkimer; ”the chief thing is to know when Gansevoort is ready to come out and help us.”
”The chief thing to know, by G.o.d,” broke forth one of the colonels, with a great oath, ”is whether we have a patriot or a Tory at our head!”
Herkimer's tanned and swarthy face changed color at this taunt. He stole a swift glance at me, as if to say, ”This is what I warned you was to be looked for,” and smoked his pipe for a minute in silence.
His brother-in-law, Colonel Peter Bellinger, took the insult less tamely.
”The man who says Honikol Herkimer is a Tory lies,” he said, bluntly, with his hand on his sword-hilt, and honest wrath in his gray eyes.
”Peace, Peter,” said the Brigadier. ”Let them think what they like. It is not my affair. My business is to guard the lives of these young men here, as if I were their father. I am a childless man, yet here I am as the parent of all of them. I could not go back again and look their mothers in the eye if I had led them into trouble which could be avoided.”
”We are not here to avoid trouble, but rather to seek it,” shouted Colonel c.o.x, angrily.
He spoke loud enough to be heard by the throng beyond, which now numbered four-fifths of our whole force, and there rolled back to us from them a loud answering murmur of approval. At the sound of this, others came running up to learn what was going on; and the line, hitherto with difficulty kept back by the sentries, was broken in in more than one place. Matters looked bad for discipline, or wise action of any sort.
”A man does not show his bravery by running his head at a stone wall,”
said the Brigadier, still striving to keep his temper, but rising to his feet as he spoke.
”_Will_ you give the order to go on?” demanded c.o.x, in a fierce tone, pitched even higher.
”Lead us on!” came loud shouts from many places in the crowd. There was a general pus.h.i.+ng in of the line now, and some men at the back, misinterpreting this, began waving their hats and cheering.
”Give us the word, Honikol!” they yelled.
Still Herkimer stood his ground, though with rising color.
”What for a soldier are you,” he called out, sharply, ”to make mutiny like this? Know you not your duty better?”
”Our duty is to fight, not to sit around here in idleness. At least _we_ are not cowards,” broke in another, who had supported c.o.x from the outset.
”_You_!” cried Herkimer, all roused at last. ”_You_ will be the first to run when you see the Britis.h.!.+”
There was no longer any pretence of keeping the square. The excited farmers pressed closely about us now, and the clamor was rising momentarily. All thought of order or military grade was gone. Men who had no rank whatever thrust their loud voices into the council, so that we could hear nothing clearly.
There was a brief interchange of further hot words between the Brigadier, Colonel Bellinger, and John Frey on the one side, and the mutinous colonels and men on the other. I heard the bitter epithets of ”Tory” and ”coward” hurled at the old man, who stood with chin defiant in air, and dark eyes ablaze, facing his antagonists. The scene was so shameful that I could scarce bear to look upon it.
There came a hurly-burly of confusion and tumult as the shouts of the crowd grew more vehement, and one of the refractory colonels impetuously drew his sword and half turned as if to give the command himself.
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