Part 13 (1/2)
”Am I braved in my own command, and by my own men? Mr. Elmsley, who are these Indians, and how came they in?”
”They are a part of the encampment without, sir. There was no order given against their admission this morning, besides it is Winnebeg, and you have said that the gates of the Fort was to be open to him at all hours.”
”Ah! Winnebeg, my friend, how do you do. I did not know it was you or your people. You know you are always welcome.”
”How do, gubbernor,” answered the chief, coming round from the rear of the line, and taking the proffered hand--”'Spose not very angry now--him good warrior--him good soger,” and he pointed to the young subaltern.
”Ensign Ronayne is, no doubt, very sensible to your good opinion,”
remarked the captain, with evident pique; ”but, Winnebeg, as I am sure you never allow a white man to interfere with you, when you find fault with your young chiefs, you must let me do the same.”
”What find him fault for?” asked the chief, with some surprise; ”brave like a devil!”
”Captain Headley,” interposed the ensign, with some impatience, ”am I to surrender my sword, or resume my duty?”
But the captain either could not, or would not give a direct answer.
”Can you give me a good reason, Mr. Ronayne, why I should not receive your sword? Do you deny that you have been guilty of neglect of duty?”
”In what?” was the brief demand.
”In being absent from the Fort, without leave, sir.”
”Indeed! To substantiate that, you must bring proofs, Captain Headley.
Who,” and he looked around him, as if challenging his accuser, ”pretends to have seen me beyond these defences?”
The commandant was for some moments at a loss, for he had not antic.i.p.ated this difficulty. At length he resumed. ”Was it not to be absent without leave, that, when the guard was all ready to be marched off, you were not to be found?”
”Had the guard been marched off, or the parade even formed, I should of course, have come justly under your censure, Captain Headley; but it was not so--you ordered the parade and guard-mounting for a later hour. I am here at that hour.”
”Hem!” returned the commandant, who was in some degree obliged to admit the justice of the remark; ”you defend yourself more in the spirit of a lawyer, than of a soldier, Mr. Ronayne, but all this difficulty is soon set at rest. I require but your simple denial that you have been absent from the Fort, within the last twenty-four hours. That given, I shall be satisfied.”
”And that, sir,” was the firm reply of the youth, ”I am not disposed to give. I am not much versed in military prudence, Captain Headley,” he pursued, after a few moments' pause, and in a tone of slight irony, which that officer did not seem to perceive, ”but at least sufficient to induce me to reserve what I have to say for my defence. You have charged me, sir, with having been absent from the Fort without leave; and it is for you to prove that fact before a competent authority.”
”March off your guard, Mr. Ronayne,” was the abrupt rejoinder of the commandant, for he liked not the continuation of a scene in which the advantage seemed not to rest with him, but with the very party whom he had sought to chasten; ”Mr. Elmsley dismiss the parade. I had intended promoting on the spot, Corporal Nixon and private Collins for their conduct yesterday, but the gross insubordination I have just seen, has caused me to change my mind. Neither shall have the rank intended, until the guilty parties are named. I give until the hour of parade to-morrow for their production, and if, by that time, their names are not laid before me, no such promotion shall take place while I command the garrison. Dismiss the men, sir. Here, Winnebeg, my good fellow, you have come at a good moment. I have dispatches to send to Detroit this very evening, and I know no one I can trust so well as yourself.”
”Good,” was the answer, ”Winnebeg always ready to do him order--no angry more, gubbernor, with young chief,” pointing to the ensign, as he moved off with his small guard. ”Dam good soger--you see dis?” and he touched his scalping-knife with his left hand, and looked very significantly.
”No, Winnebeg, not angry any more,” was the reply; ”but how do you know him to be good soger? What has your scalping-knife to do with it?”
”Winnebeg know all,” said the chief gravely, as he laid his heavy hand upon the shoulder of the commandant, ”but can't tell. Young chief say no, and Winnebeg love young chief.”
This remark forcibly struck Captain Headley, and brought back to his mind, certain recollections. He, however, asked no further question, but pointed, as they moved in the direction of his own apartments, towards the sun, showing by his gesture that it was not too early to take the mid-day dram.
”Where the devil have you been, man, and with what confounded impudence you got through the sc.r.a.pe,” was remarked at a distant part of the same ground, and at the same moment with the conversation just given.
”How is Maria?” eagerly asked Ronayne. ”When shall I see her?”
”Well enough to hear all that pa.s.sed between you and Military Prudence,”