Part 48 (1/2)
”The Neponsets number forty warriors,” suggested Winslow.
”Yes, but they will not be gathered together, having no knowledge of our purpose, and if the shallop is watched from sh.o.r.e, as belike it will be, a large force of armed men would bewray our intent, and runners would gather the braves in a few hours and so bring down a great slaughter upon the tribe,” replied the captain in confident simplicity. ”But if we go no more in number than ordinary, no more than in our late voyage to Nauset for corn, they will suspect nothing, and the matter may be well concluded with no more than five or six examples, Wituwamat being the princ.i.p.al.”
”And glad am I, brother, to see a certain tenderness of human life in your counsels,” said the elder approvingly.
”Nay, elder, I am not all out a cannibal and ogre,” replied the captain.
”So now I will choose me Hopkins and Howland and Billington, and Eaton and Browne and Cooke and Soule, seven hearts of oak and arms of steel: it is enough.”
”And not one of us Fortune men, Captain?” demanded Robert Hicks, a stalwart fellow who afterward became almost a rebel to the colony's authority.
”Nay, Master Hicks,” replied the captain gravely. ”I mean no discredit to the courage or the good will of the new-comers, of whom you are a princ.i.p.al; but this service is one of strategy as well as daring, and so soon as the pinnace leaves yon Rock, there must be but one mind and one will in her, and that is mine. The men whom I have chosen, my comrades of the Mayflower, I know as I know mine own sword, and I can trust them as I do him. There's no offense Master Hicks, but a stricken field is no place to learn to handle a new sword or a new comrade.”
”And not me, Master,” said a low voice as the captain stepped out of the Common house and turned his face homeward.
”Nay, Jack, I've a text for thee too. 'I have married a wife and cannot come.'” And with a somewhat bitter laugh he strode on up the hill, leaving John Alden looking sadly after him.
That night as Standish slowly entered the Fort to fire his sunset gun, he was startled at seeing a m.u.f.fled figure seated upon an empty powder keg in an angle of the works. As he appeared she rose, and pus.h.i.+ng back her hood showed the beautiful face of Priscilla Molines, now strangely pale and distraught.
”You here, Mistress Molines,” exclaimed the captain somewhat sternly.
”Alden is not coming.”
”It is not Alden but Captain Standish I fain would speak withal, and I hope he will pardon my forwardness in seeking him here.”
The captain briefly waved the apology aside. ”Your commands, madam?”
inquired he.
”Nay, nay sir, my father's dear loved friend, my brother's tender nurse,--mine--oh what shall I say, how shall I plead for a little kindness. Have pity on a froward maid's distress”--
”What Priscilla, thou canst weep!”
”And why not when my heart is sorrowful unto death.”
”But--there then, child, wipe thine eyes and look up and let me see thee smile as thou art wont. What is it, maid? What is thy sorrow?”
”That you will not forgive me, sir.”
”Forgive thee for what?” But the captain dropped the hand he had seized in his sympathy, and the dark look crept back to his face.
”Thou 'rt going to a terrible danger--my friend--and it may be to thy death.”
”Well girl, 't is not worth crying for if I am. Life is not so sweet to me that I should over much dread to lay it down with honor.”
”Oh, oh, and it is my fault!”--sobbed Priscilla.
The captain strode up and down the narrow s.p.a.ce pulling at his red beard and frowning thoughtfully; then stopping before the girl who stood as he had left her, he quietly said,--
”Priscilla, I was indeed thy father's friend, and I am thine, and I fain would have wed thee, and thou didst refuse, preferring John Alden, who also is my friend, even as my younger brother, whose honor and well being are dear to me as mine own. What then is the meaning of thy grief, and what is thy request?”