Part 3 (2/2)
”I'll bear yer ht to be the day! An those jontleood as to ask them to lead the way”
Then he added in an undertone to his own lad on't I don't want the responsibility of takin' care of the baste I ht be accused of kidnapin' the craythure if anythin' was to happen to 'oat o' the whole worruld!”
Corporal O'Flynn cast the eye of a disciplinarian about him It was one of the rules of the tyranny he practiced, thus reht be not a trace of responsive merriment must decorate the faces of the rave and wooden At the orders in his clear, ringing voice--”Let fall!” and the oars struck the water with emphasis, ”Give way!”--Odalie's tears azed at the dozen fresh, florid young faces, as the boat swung round and they came once more near the canoe, as if they were a vision of saints vouchsafed to soht spirit,--when they were far indeed froh in their way, too! They all looked with unconscious sympathy at her as she sat and wept and looked at them, and Corporal O'Flynn, moved by the tears, exclaimed below his breath, ”But, be jabbers, afther all, what's the good of 'em now--better have been cryin' yesterday, or mebbe the day before Back oars! No! Give way!”
He was the last in the little fleet, and Hamish paddled briskly now to keep ahead, as he was evidently expected to do, for Corporal O'Flynn intended that his own boat should bring up the rear As they fared thus along, Odalie noted the inflowing of that tributary, the Tellico River--how solitary, how remote, how possible its loneliness had rendered the scheh Some distance beyond appeared a settler's cabin in an oasis of cultivated land in the midst of the dense cane-brake; then others, now dull and dusky in the blue twilight, with the afterglow of the sunset redly aflare above in the a water; noith a lucent yellow flicker froht with the scintillations of the hearthstone, set like a jewel in the center of the wilderness; now sending forth a babbling of childish voices where the roof-tree had been planted close by the river-side and the passing of the boats had drawn all the household to the brink How many they seemed--these cabins of the adventurous pioneers! How many happy homes--alas, that there should ever be cause to cry it were better for thean to realize that she owed her liberty and perhaps her life to the first of these settlers who had espied the craft upon the river; as she s and tortuous curves of the streaht, direct route to the fort to acquaint the officers with the suspicious aspect of the Indian party and their white captives As to the tremendous speed the commandant's boat hadsaints who had plied the oars with such fervent effort, which, however, could hardly have effected such speed had it not been too for the swift current running in their favor
Suddenly the fort careat red-clay exterior slopes and the sharp points of the high palisades on the raht It was very different from the stockaded stations of the early settlers hich she had been faovernth and adainst the subtle designs of the Indians but against possible artillery attacks of the French There were heavy bastions at the angles and within each a substantial block-house, the upper story built with projections beyond the lower, that would not only aid the advantage which the bastions gave of a flanking fire upon an assailant, but enable a watch to be maintained at all times and from all quarters upon the base of the wooden stockade on the ralacis should seek to fire the palisades But this was in itself well-nigh i both scarp and counterscarp, prevented approach The whole was guarded by twelve cannon, gri their black muzzles looked to one who hoped to ply the arts of peace beneath the protection of their threat of war Even the great gates were defended, being so thickly studded with iron spikes that not an inch of the as left uncovered They were broadly aflare now, and a trifle in advance of the sentry at the entrance two officers were standing, brilliant with their red coats and cocked hats They were gazing with a certain curiosity at the boats on the river, for Corporal O'Flynn, having pressed forward and landed first, had left hison their oars and taken his way into the presence of his superior officers to make his report He had paused for half a dozen words with Hamish MacLeod as the boat passed the canoe, and when Odalie and the boy, with a couple of soldiers at either side entle ascent at a slower pace, Captain Stuart was already fully apprised of their long and perilous flight fro their approach,--a tall , with dense light-brown hair braided in a broad, heavy queue and tied with a black ribbon He had a fair co white teeth with a wide arch of the jaw, and he regarded her with keen steel-blue eyes, steady and unfathomable, yet withal pleasant He took off his hat and cordially held out his hand Odalie could do naught but clasp it in both her cold hands and shed tears over it,
With that ready tact which always distinguished him, Captain Stuart broke the tension of the situation
”Do you wish to enlist, Mrs MacLeod?” he said, his sli, has need of stout-hearted soldiers And I will take my oath I never saw a braver one!”
And Odalie broke into laughter to blend with her tears, because she divined that it ith the intention of passing on a difficulty that he not ungracefully transferred her hands to the officer standing near with the words, ”I have the pleasure of presenting Captain Deht be of dealing with savages, he evidently shrank fro wept over and thanked by a woman
He has been described by a conteacity,” and although he may have demonstrated these qualities on more conspicuous occasions, they were neverhis escape froraver aspect He heard without impatience her wild insistence that the whole available force of the fort should turn out and scour the wilderness for her husband--he even argued the matter
It would be iht cost him his life ”So marked a demonstration of a military nature would alarm the Indians and precipitate an outbreak which we have soht, the hunters of the fort who always go out shall take that direction and scout the woods Rest assured everything shall be done which is possible”
She felt that she h the intervention of the officers that she and Hamish and Fifine were set free, it did not lie in her mouth to doubt their wisdom in suchback to the river, as upon a phase of her life already terminated, she saw the canoe in which she had spent this troublous day already beginning to push out upon the broad current Willinawaugh, with an Indian from the other crew to paddle the craft, had eluded Captain Stuart, who had reached the water's edge too late for a ith hiure, and blandly waved his hand in farewell, with a jovial outcry, ”_Canawlla! Canawlla!_”[C]
The features of the chief were slightly corrugated with those fine lines of diploht, and even at this distance he muttered the last word he had spoken to the corporal as he swiftly got away froliss!”
As Odalie turned, the interior of the fort was before her; the broad parade, the lines of barracks, the heavy, loo all, and the high, strong palisades that even surave her mo down in a populous and very secure well There was a pervasive sentiht fluctuated froress or just over, and savory odors gushed out into the air The chalad whinny betokened that the corn-bin was open in the stables somewhere in the dusk She felt as if the wilderness was a dreaht, and cheer, and activity, could not have existed while she wandered yonder, so forlorn, and desolate, and endangered; in pity of it,--surely it was a drearoups of fresh-faced soldiers passed, reat dress parade during the afternoon, perhaps to ith of the fort; perhaps to attach the that spectacular display, so new to all their experience, so iered, wistful, loath to depart, and were being hustled carefully out of the place by a very vigilant guard, who had kept thee all the afternoon A few soldiers of the post cos, shi+rt, and coonskin cap usual a the settlers, for it had been bitterly demonstrated that the thorns of the trackless wilderness had no sort of reverence for the texture of the king's red coat
Even the cat realized the transition to the demesne of civilization and in soave an able-bodied wriggle in the basket on Josephine's back where she had journeyed, pappoose-wise, sprang alertly out, and sca aloft, across the parade Josephine's shriek of despair rang shrilly on the air, and Captain Dee at the animal, as she sped swiftly past, with a seductive cry of ”Puss! puss!”
A young soldier hard by faced about alertly and gave ni up on all sides brought out half a dozen supple young runners fro lost none of the elasticity of herher late inaction, darted hither and thither a up the raan to walk coolly along the pointed eminence of this lofty structure as if it were a backyard fence, while the soldier boys cheered her fro whimper of despair and desertion was overborne, and with that juvenile disposition to force the recognition and a share of her woe on her elders she forthwith lost the use of her feet, and was half dragged, rather than led, by poor Odalie, who surely was not calculated to support any added burden She herself, with halting step, followed Captain Dele of the enclosure, wherein stood one of the block-houses, very secure of aspect, the for out above the open door, froolden light Josephine's whiled in her throat and the tears stood still on her cheeks, for as Captain Demere stepped aside at the door with a recollection of polite society, yielding precedence to the ladies, which for in these rude times so far on the frontier, Josephine seemed resolved into a stare of dumb amazement, for she had never seen a room half so fine Be it remembered she was born in the backwoods and had no faint recollection of such refineances as the colonial civilization had attained on the Carolina coast, and which her father and mother had relinquished to follow their fortunes to the West
And in truth the officers' mess-hall presented a brave barbaric effect that had a sort of splendor all its own It was a large rooe of the bastion, and its deep chireat fire burned with a searchingly illuh to afford a substantial settee on either hand without istones that joined the puncheons of the floor Around the log walls the suffusion of light revealed a projecting line of deer antlers and the horns of buffalo and elk, partly intended as decoration and trophies of the chase, and partly for utilitarian purposes Here and there a firelock lay fro A glittering knife and now and again a toht the reflection of the fire and bespoke trophies of less peaceful pursuit Over the antic antlers held suspended a hly cherished,--a sword in its sheath, but showing a richly chased hilt, which Odalie divined was a presentation in recognition of special service Other and hu Indian pipes, with bowls of deftly wrought stone; and tobacco-bags and shot-pouches beaded with intricate patterns; and belts of waeous moccasons; and bows and arroith finely chiseled flint-heads winged with gayly colored feathers--all hanging froh sh to have stretched with surprise ated tints of the stained quills and shells hich a splendid curious scarlet quiver was eht Odalie's attention, and rereat influence which this Captain Stuart had acquired a the Indians, and the extraordinary admiration that they entertained for hiinal art were all, she doubted not, little offerings of the chieftains to attest good-will, for if they had been ht with money they would not have been so proudly displayed
There was a continual fluttering ht fro her eyes she noted the swaying folds of several banners against the wall, carrying the flare of color to the ceiling, which was formed only by the rude floor of the room above
But in all the h up and withdrawn fro-ions at the period to protect the coarnet hue with a black lace frill, evidently treasured, yet expressively null And this was doubtless all that was left of some spent romance, a mere megesting a fair and distant face and eyes that looked forth on scenes more suave
With a sentiht ared about the hearth, draped, however, to real luxury by wolfskins, for the early settlers chiefly affected rough stools or billets of wood as seats, or benches er-holes at each end, through which four stout sticks were adjusted for legs, which were indeed often of unequal length and gave the unquiet juvenile pioneer of that day a peculiarly acceptable opportunity for cheerily jouncing to and fro There were several of these benches, too, but placed back against the walls, for the purpose she supposed of affording seats when the festive board was spread at length An absolute board, this figurative expression implied, for the stern fact set forth a half dozen puncheons secured together with cleats and laid across trestles when in use, but at other tiave access to the room above The table was now in the center of the floor, spread with some hasty refreshments, of which Captain Demere invited the forlorn travelers to partake At the other end lay a draughtsman's board, a Gunter's scale, a pair of dividers and otherto reduce to paper and topographical decoruion which Rayetaeh, a chief from Toquoe, who had visited the fort that afternoon, had drawn on the sand of the parade ground with a flint-headed arrow
The officer had found this no slight task, for Rayetaeh was prone to measure distance by the time required to traverse it--”tarriors, a canoe, and oneaso the space in question to the proportional scale Rayetaeh ion, and some of his maps, copied from the sand, are extant to this day Captain Demere laid the papers of this unfinished task carefully aside, and by way of giving his hospitality race took the head of the table himself
But Odalie could not eat, and wept steadily on as if for the purpose of salting her food with tears, and Fifine's hunger seeain her head in its little white ht have entered upon a series of questions save for the multiplicity of objects that enthralled her attention at once Captain Demere desisted from insistence after one or tell-meant efforts, and the man who had served the table waited in doubt and indecision
”It's a hard life for women on the frontier,” the officer observed as if in polite excuse for Odalie's ill-mannered tears that she could not control
”And forif the Indians would carry him on without resistance to Chote,--for he could not know she had found lodgement in the fort,--or further still and enslave him--many captives had lived for years in Indian tribes--she had heard of this even in Carolina; or would theyquarrel or on the discovery of his nationality or to make easier the robbery of the packhorses Ah, why had she brought so ht and risked their lives for these paltry belongings, treasures to the Indians, worth the shedding of much blood? How could she have sacrificed to these bits of household gear even her own comfort! She remembered, with an infinite yet futile wish to recall the ed the abandonht herselfand torn feet Is every woman an idolater at heart, Odalie wondered Do they all bon, in the verity of their inner worshi+p, to a few fibers of woven stuff and so of potter's clay, and s their Gods? It seemed so to her