Part 3 (2/2)
We opened the door of the hut, hoping that possibly by this time the missing men might have returned; but neither of them was there. The drunken fellow was, however, still sleeping on, and probably would have slept on until his hut companions came back, had we not roused him up.
”You must take care that your people do not give him any more liquor, or he will be in the same state to-morrow morning,” observed the lieutenant.
We had some difficulty in bringing the man to his senses; but the lieutenant finding a pitcher of water, poured the contents over him, which effectually roused him up.
”Hullo! murther! are we all going to be drowned entirely at the bottom?
Sure the river's burst over us!” he exclaimed, springing out of his bunk. He looked very much astonished at seeing the lieutenant and me; but quickly bringing himself into position, and giving a military salute, ”All right, your honour,” said he.
”Yes, I see that you are so now,” said the lieutenant; ”but little help you could have afforded us, had we been attacked by the enemy. I must call you to account by-and-by. What has become of your comrades?”
”Sure, your honour, are they not all sleeping sweetly as infants in their bunks?” He peered as he spoke into the bunks which had been occupied by the other men. ”The drunken bastes, it was there I left them barely two hours ago, while I jist turned in to get a quiet snooze.
They are not there now, your honour,” he observed, with a twinkle in his eye; ”they must have gone out unbeknown to me. It is mighty surprising!”
”Why, you impudent rascal, you have been asleep for the last twelve hours,” said the lieutenant, scarcely able to restrain his gravity.
”Take care that this does not happen again; keep sober while you remain here.”
”Sure, your honour, I would not touch a dhrop of the cratur, even if they were to try and pour it down me throat,” he answered. ”But I found a countryman of mine living here. It is a hard matter, when one meets a boy from Old Ireland, to refuse jist a sip of the potheen for the sake of gintility!”
”Follow me to the house as soon as you have put yourself into decent order,” said the lieutenant, not wis.h.i.+ng to exchange further words with the trooper.
Pat touched his hat, to signify that he would obey the order, and the lieutenant and I walked on.
”I cannot put that fellow under arrest, seeing that I have no one to whom I can give him in charge,” said the lieutenant, laughing. ”But what can have become of the others? I do not think, notwithstanding what Sergeant Custis said, that they can have deserted. They would scarcely make an attempt to get over this wild country alone, and on foot.”
As soon as Pat made his appearance, the lieutenant ordered him to stand on guard at the door, where he kept him until nightfall.
When our men came in, I inquired whether they knew anything of the troopers. They one and all averred that they had left them sleeping in the hut, and that they had no notion where they could have gone.
”Could the fellows, when probably as drunk as Pat, have fallen into the torrent and been drowned!” exclaimed the lieutenant anxiously.
”Sure, they were as sober as judges,” observed Dan, one of our men.
Then an idea seemed to strike him. ”To be sure, your honour, they might have gone fis.h.i.+ng up the stream. That broth of a boy Barney might jist have rolled in, and the long Dutchman have tried to haul him out, and both have been carried away together. Ill luck to Roaring Water, if it has swallowed up my countryman Barney.”
I suspected, from the way in which Dan spoke, that he had no great belief that such a catastrophe had occurred; in fact, knowing the fellow pretty well, I thought it very probable that, notwithstanding what he said, he was cognisant of the whereabouts of the truants.
Uncle Jeff and the lieutenant examined and cross-examined all the men; but no satisfactory information could be got out of them.
”Whether they come back or not, I must be on my way to-morrow morning with Sperry; while I leave my sergeant under your care, if you will take charge of him,” said the lieutenant.
Uncle Jeff willingly undertook to do this.
”As you are unacquainted with the way, and Pat is not likely to be of much a.s.sistance, if Uncle Jeff will allow me I will act as your guide to the mouth of the pa.s.s, after which you will have no great difficulty in finding your way to Fort Harwood,” I said to the lieutenant.
He gladly accepted my offer.
”But what about the possibility of the farm being attacked by the Indians? You would not like in that case to be absent, and I should be unwilling to deprive your friends of your aid,” he observed. ”If you accompany me, I must leave Sperry to attend on Sergeant Custis, and to come on with him when he is well enough. Although I do not compare the Irishman to you, yet, should the farm be attacked, I can answer for his firing away as long as he has a bullet left in his pouch.”
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