Part 9 (1/2)
”Captain Headley,” said the ensign, quickly and almost beseechingly, ”let me pick out a dozen men from the company, and I pledge myself to restore the party before mid-day to-morrow. Nay, sir,” seeing strong surprise and disapproval on the countenance of the commandant, ”I am ready to forfeit my commission if I fail--”
”Are you mad, Mr. Ronayne, or do you suppose that I am mad enough to entertain such a proposition, and thus weaken my force still more?
Forfeit your commission if you fail! Why, sir, you would deserve to forfeit your commission, if you even succeeded in any thing so wholly at variance with military prudence. Gentlemen, recollect what I have said--I expect you to use the utmost vigilance to-night, and, Mr.
Elmsley, fail not instantly to report the fis.h.i.+ng-boat.” Thus enjoining, he pa.s.sed slowly on to his quarters.
”D--n your military prudence, and d--n your pompous cold-bloodedness!”
muttered the fiery ensign between his teeth--scarcely waiting until his captain was out of hearing.
”Hush,” interrupted Elmsley in a whisper. ”He will hear you. Ha!” he continued after a short pause, during which they moved on towards the mess-room, ”you begin to find out his amiable military qualities, do you! But tell me, Ronayne, what the deuce has put this Quixotic expedition into your head? What great interest do you take in these fishermen, that you should volunteer to break your s.h.i.+ns in the wood, this dark night, for the purpose of seeking them, and that on the very day when your ladye faire honors these walls, if I may so dignify our stockade, with her presence for the first time. Come, come, thank Headley for his refusal. When you sit down to-morrow morning, as I intend you shall, to a luxurious breakfast of tea, coffee, fried venison, and buckwheat-cakes, you will find no reason to complain of his adherence to military prudence.”
”Elmsley,” returned his friend, seriously, ”I can have no disguise from you at such a moment. You know my regard for Maria Heywood, although you cannot divine its depth, and could I but be the means of saving her father, you can well understand the joy I should feel.”
”Certainly, my dear fellow, but you know as well as myself, that there exists not the shadow of a hope of this. That scarecrow, Giles, half-witted as he is, tells too straightforward a story.”
”Elmsley,” persisted his friend, ”there is every hope--every reasonable expectation that he may yet survive. Maria herself first opened my eyes to the possibility, for, until then, I had thought as you do; and deeply did her words sink in my heart, when she said, reproachfully, that, instead of sending a party to escort her, it would have been far better to dispatch them to the farm, where her father might, at that moment, be sustaining a siege--the house being strong enough to admit of a temporary defence, by even a couple of persons.”
”And what said you to that?”
”What could I say? I looked like a fool, and felt like a school-boy under the iron rod of a pedagogue--but I resolved.”
”And what did you resolve, my enterprising KNIGHT errant?”
”You have just heard my proposal to the gentleman who piques himself upon his military prudence.” returned the youth, with bitter irony.
”Yes, and he refused you. What then?”
”True, and what then,” and he nodded his head impatiently.
”You will sleep upon it, my dear fellow, after we have had a gla.s.s of the Monongahela, and the pipe. Thus refreshed, you will think better of it in the morning.”
”We will have the Monongahela and the pipe, for truly I feel that I require something to soothe, if not absolutely to exhilarate me; but no sleep for me this night. Elmsley,” he added, more seriously, ”you will pa.s.s me out of the gate?”
”Pa.s.s you out of what?” exclaimed the other, starting from the chair on which he had thrown himself only the moment before. ”What do you mean, man?”
”I mean that, as officer of the guard, you alone can pa.s.s me through after dark, and this service you must render me.”
”Why! where are you going? Single-handed like Jack the Giant Killer to deliver, not a beautiful damsel from the fangs of a winged monster, but a tough old backwoodsman from the dark paws of the savage?”
”Elmsley,” again urged the ensign, ”you forget that Mr. Heywood is the father of my future wife.”
”Ah! is it come to that at last. Well, I am right glad of it. But, my dear Ronayne,” taking and cordially pressing his hand, ”forgive my levity. I only sought to divert you from your purpose. What I can do for you, I will do; but tell me what it is you intend.”
”Yet, Elmsley, before we enter further into the matter, do you not think that you will incur the serious displeasure of Military Prudence?”
”If he discovers that you are gone, certainly; and I cannot see how it can be otherwise; he will be in the fidgets all night, and probably ask for you; but even if not THEN, he will miss you on parade in the morning.”
”And what will be the consequence to you? Answer me candidly, I entreat.”