Part 1 (2/2)
”So ,” Ha the phrase a bit of ridicule of her and her Frenchy forbears
Her grandfather had been a Huguenot refugee, driven out of his country by the religious persecution about the time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, seventy odd years previously Her father had prospered but indifferently in the more civilized section of the New World, and had died early There his daughter hadScotchman, as piqued by her dainty disdain of his French accent, which MacLeod had recklessly placed on exhibition, and was always seeking to redee that hea perfect Mentor at hand He had brought from the land of his birth, which he had quitted in early years, but few distinctive local expressions, yet a certain burr clung to his speech, and coht be with his French accent She evidently considered the latter incurable, intolerable, and always eyed hie, with ostentatious wonder that such verbal atrocities could be, and ently in lieu of reply--”_Quelle barbarie!_” He found his revenge in repeating a sian, one that had often been as a supplement to this more usual phrase,--”_Partons pour la France aujourd'hui, pour l'arandmother in moments of depression, and Odalie, born and reared in the royal province of South Carolina, had always the logic and grace to wince at this ungrateful aspiration to return to France,--the dear France that had been so much too hot to hold them For the family had rejoiced to escape thence with their lives, even at the forfeiture of all that they possessed
This jesting warfare of words had become established in the MacLeod household, and often recurred, soht how significant it was to be and how it should serve the down Far, far purple reat clifty gateere bathed in the glory of the last red suffusion of the west; the evening star of an unparalleled whiteness pulsated in the arance of the autuht air One could s a watercourse near at hand, the branch fro up in the solid rock hard by Odalie had seated herself on the horizontal ledge at the base of one of the crags and had thrown back her hood, against which her head rested Her large eyes were soft and lustrous, but pensive and weary
”Rest, Odalie, while Has for supper,” her husband admonished her
It was the first time that they had halted that day, and dinner had been but the fragments of breakfast eaten while on the march There had been a sudden outbreak of the Cherokee Indians which had driven them from the more frequented here they feared pursuit,--this, and the fate of the brave who had sought to lure Haobbler, and was killed in consequence hie whether he had been alone or one of a party; whether his body ed by the death or capture of them all; whether he had been a scout, thrown out to discover the direction they took, and his natural blood-thirstiness had overmastered his instructions, and he must needs seek to kill the boy before his return with his news
With this more recent fear that they were followed they had not to-day dared to build a fire lest its sh at a great distance, their presence in this remote quarter of the wilderness, far even fro down the valley between the cue and the eastern mountains, was then not only the road that the Indians followed to battle, but the highway of traffic and travel, the only recognized and known path leading froh this great uninhabited park or hunting-ground to the regions of other Indian tribes on the Scioto and to Western Virginia
Noever, rest and refreshment were necessary; even more imperative was the need of a fire as a protection to the caainst the encroachments of wild beasts; for wolves were plentiful and roareat Aar, ont to look down fro trees The horses were not safe beyond the flare of the fla of wife and child Therefore the risk of attracting observation from Indiansdusk The little treacherous sainst the blue sky need not be feared at night The darkness would hide all fro nearer at hand, why, if any such there were, then their fate was already upon them With the stout heart of the pioneer, Alexander MacLeod heaped the fagots upon the ground and struck the flint and steel together after giving the officious little Josephine a chance to try her luck with the tinder Soon the dry dead as timidly ablaze, while Hamish led the horses to the water and picketed them out
Odalie's eyes followed the boy with a sort of belated yet painful anxiety, thinking how near he had been to parting with that stanch young spirit, and what a bereavement would have been the loss of that blithe element from their daily lives
”_Quelle barbarie!_” she exclaimed suddenly ”_Quelle barbarie!_”
Perhaps her husband realized her fatigue and depression and illing to put his French accent on parade for her a retort; he theatrically rejoined without looking up, ”_Partons pour la France aujourd'hui, pour l'a the cat out of its basket and kissing its whiskers and the top of its head, was condoling with it on its long restraint:--”_Quelle barbarie, ly babbled
Alexander MacLeod paused to listen to this affectionate lanced up at his ith a smile, to call her attention to it
She had not moved She had turned to stone It see blotch of red su hard by had caught her notice A waving blotch of red leaves in the autumnal dusk,--what more natural?
What more wonderful? What h stir? There was no bough The blotch of color was the red and black of a hideous painted face that in the dusk, the treacherous dusk, had approached very near and struck her dumb and turned her to stone It had approached so near that she could see its expression change as the sound of the words spoken about the fireside arose on the air Herfro; she understood the reason for this facial change, and by a hty effort of the will summoned all her powers to avail herself of it
Alexander MacLeod, glancing up with a casual laugh on his face, was almost stunned to see a full-ar the bushes about the foot of the cliff Standing distinctly outlined against the softly tinted mountain landscape, which was opalescent in its illu his hand with a e demanded in a lordly tone,--”Flinch? Flanzy?”
As in a drea her head in silent acquiescence,--as easily as shea tune and hardly cared to desist from melody for words She could not speak!
The Cherokee, his face sreat white circle around one eye and a great black circle around the other, looked not ill-pleased, yet baffled for a moment ”Me no talk him,” he observed
[Illustration: ”What more wonderful? What more fearful?”]
He had never heard of Babel, poor soul, but he was as subject to the inconvenience of the confusion of tongues as if he had had an active share in the sacrilegious industry of those ambitious architects who builded in the plains of shi+nar
”But I can speak English too,” said Odalie
”Hi at Alexander and then at Hamish--at Hamish, with his recollection of that dead Indian, a Cherokee, lying, face doard, somewhere there to the northward under the dark trees, his blood crying aloud for the ferocious reprisal in which his tribe ont to glut their vengeance
”Both speak French,” said Odalie
The Indian gazed upon her doubtfully He had evidently only a few disconnected sentences of English at coh he understood far more than he could frauish the sound of the admired ”Flanzy” Odalie realized with a shi+ver that it was only this trifle that had preserved the lives of the whole party