Part 11 (1/2)
Stuart, the solare of his red uniforh the open portal at the scattered huts of the town, at the occasional passing of an Indian's figure, at Chilhowee Mountain in the rowths of sue, a soft velvet blue against the hard turquoise blue of the sky The object, however, on which his eyes fixed ht spot of color of the orderly's red coat, like a buoy, one round, as he rested on his oars in the glow of the sunset, while the little boat swung idly in the shallows
Not again did either of the chiefs speak De out in English, now froent, persuasive, flattering, fruitless; repeated by the interpreter in Cherokee, and followed by a blank pause Finally Demere rose, and with a curt phrase of formal farewell, to which neither of the chiefs responded, bowed angrily, and walked out, pausing near the entrance to wait for Stuart, ith blandest cere how much he hoped there would be no interruption to the kind friendshi+p hich the great hly valued; and how earnestly he desired to express their thanks for the interview, although it grieved him to perceive that the chiefs felt they could say so little on the subject that had brought him hither He could not have boiththe presence of General A low as he e of expression, except that the eye of Oconostota twinkled with derision or anger or pleasure--who can say? He left the motionless there in the deep red dusk reflected down fro as wooden as his voice sounded, standing bolt upright behind them
Stuart did not comment on the character of the audience vouchsafed as, shoulder to shoulder, he and De soldier awaited them He only said, ”I have been uneasy about that orderly all the time for fear our presence here did not protect him, as he was not on the ever-sacred soil of the 'beloved city of refuge'--Chote--old town I wished we had taken the precaution of ordering him ashore Affairs are near the crisis, Paul”
They seated the soldier pulled out fro as he had not heretofore the imminence of the peril to the settlean to palpitate elusively in the pallid sky; shadowsthe bank Suddenly a sound, sharp, discordant, split the air, and a rifle-ball whizzed past between the two officers and struck the water on the further side of the boat
The unare into the river
”Steady--steady--give way,” said Stuart Then to Delance along the shore preparatory to taking aim,--”Why do you return the fire, Paul? To make our fate certain? We should be riddled in a moment I have counted nearly fifty red rascals in those laurel bushes”
Why thebraves feared the displeasure of their own authorities, or the coolness of the little group extorted their admiration, so quick to respond to an exhibition of stoical courage, no further demonstration was offered, and the boat was pulled down the five miles from Chote to Fort Loudon in better tiht on that river The landing was reached, to the relief even of the phleg Stuart
”So ends so o to Chote--old town--no more”
But he was destined one day to retrace his way, and, sooth to say, with a heavier heart
The season waxed to ripeness The opulent beauty of the early su the heavily-woodedrhododendron gloith a splendor in these savage solitudes which ardens of Europe Vast lengths of cabling grape-vines hung now and again froround, and thence clihs of another, affording aan to be craftily eyed by the soldiers, whose daily hunt for the provisions of the post carried theles Everywhere the exquisite rance pervading the air as the appreciation of some noble virtue penetrates and possesses the soul, so intinition It seemed the essential element of the atht--how pure! sheer existence was a cherished privilege And always on this fine ethereal medium ca wild grape seemed the smell of blood; the rare variety of flah, secluded slope showed a color re roof-trees and stockades of destroyed ho their peaks and domes in stillness and with diaphanous cloud; peace upon the flashi+ng rivers, infinitely clear and deep in their cliff-bound channels; and peace upon all the heavily-leaved shadowy forests to the e, level of suantic rae that in the south were e, that rapine was loosed upon the land, and that this external fixity of calm was as unstable as the crystalline sphere of a bubble to collapse at a touch Every ear was strained to a whisper; the express frolers fro by word of e was rendered up to the officers at the fort Every heart seean as ht serve Captain Stuart for the cardiacal functions He appeared wholly engrossed in perfecting the details of battalion drill, and the attention of the garrison was concentrated on these military maneuvers; even the lestrong enough to furnish the cogings, with their muscular, keen activity, their ready practice, and their suppleness in handling their rifles, the pioneers made what he was pleased to call ”a very pretty body of fencibles” His praise and their evident advance in proficiency gratified therowths of this wild and rocky country were at a discount, since the defeat of that martinet and military precisian, General Braddock Thus the afternoon drill at the fort beca public interest, and afforded the social opportunity of a rendezvous for the whole settle disaffection of the Cherokees, now and again groups of Indian spectators appeared at the gate
Stuart's tact never deserted hi a knot of pioneers near the sally-port to ”fall in”--for he himself drilled the fencibles--he esture, to half a dozen braves ere standing hard by, as if he hbors One moment of astounded doubt, then they ”fell in” as front-rank men, evidently infinitely flattered andthe ain there was an expression of keen interest on their stolid faces, and more than once oe befell the effort to ploy the battalion into double column to forhed out gutturally--that rare Indian ether pleasant to hear And as they went home in the red sunset to Citico, and Great Tellico, and Tennessee Town and Chote, fro the river banks came their harsh cries--”Shoulder firelock!” or ”Fa'lock,” as they rehearsed it ”Feex Bay'net! Pleasant A'hms!”
It beca the action to the word, once too often,--for they returned no e of their acquiring the secret of the military maneuvers fro Captain Stuart, the powers that were at Chote had nowiles of thatthe troops, perchance, a personal regard for the officer and an _esprit de corps_ in addition to a more available military spirit If he had had a scheme and the scheme had failed there was no intimation to that effect on the imperturbable exterior he maintained
It had always been known that Captain Stuart was somewhat fond of the pleasures of the table, and he suddenly developed a certain doard He desired to experiues,”--as he politely called those of the buffalo,--and for the sake of this delicacy utilized a floorless hut, otherwise unoccupied, at the further end of the whole enclosure, as a s thence, but with this understanding it created no surprise Soeant and two or three other non-coain Captain Demere stood at the door and looked in One day it chanced that Ha to offer them as a small tribute, came up close to him, in his deft, noiseless deerskin buskins, before Captain Demere are As he turned and saw the boy, he instantly let the door in his hand fly back--not, however, before the quick young fellow had had a dissolving view of the interior
A fire smoked in the center of the chimneyless place, half smothered with stones that constituted at once a hearth and protection fro shred of flaues which Captain Stuart coveted, but rows of haunches and saddles of venison and bear hareat sections of buffalo meat, as well as pork and beef
The boy understood in an instant, for the hunters froarrison froaainst a state of siege, kept secret that the garrison roundless, and the settlehted Haht, , and took his way and his speculations ho of the discovery; it was very proper, Sandy thought, for the garrison to be prepared even against reh he could but feel very wise to know the secret workings of Captain Stuart's subtle mind and divine his hidden plans, when that officer seeravely interested in the development and resources of the country, in which he had no share save the minimum of space that the ramparts enclosed He speculated adroitly about roups of settlers at the gates after the drill He told soe stories that Atta-Kulla-Kulla had recounted of the vestiges of previous vanished inhabitants of this country--of certain evidences of ancientventures where still lay curious outlandish tools; he felt certain of the existence of copper and lead, and he believed old; for his own part, he declared, he thought the geological formation indicated its presence These theer discussions and clouds of tobacco sulations would admit of the presence of visitors As to iron and other s indicated iron ore beyond a doubt, and he inquired earnestly had any one ever tried to obtain salt by the usual pri salt-lick down the river? Thus nobody was surprised when Captain Stuart and the quarter cauldrons were reported to be actively engaged in the effort to manufacture salt down at the lick No necessary connection was apprehended between the circumstances when four packhorses came over the mountain laden with salt, for even after that event Captain Stuart continued the boiling and stirring that went on down at the lick
Ha he would care to keep up the blind, for the need of salt for the preservation of more meat had by this last importation been satisfied Perhaps Stuart himself felt it a relief when one day it chanced that some buffalo bulls met at the salt-lick,--as if by appoint and stormy So numerous were the contestants, and so fiercely did the conflict wage, that the officer and his force were coantic trees, used by the settlers ont to wait here for the big ga trareat panther in the same tree crouched on a limb not far above the soldiers, and sly and cowardly as the creature is, gazed at the fierce distention of jaws, plainly unaware of any weapons that could obviate the distance, and counting on a lingering remnant of the party as evidently as on the slain bison to be left on the ground when the battle should be over Now and again calimpse of the stealthy approach of wolves, which the tureat carcass of the defeated
Although the salt-h several hours for the dispersal of the combatants, and were constrained to fire their pistols almost in the faces of the wolves and panthers, Captain Stuart's chief e the prowess of a cha _yanasa_[I] that was the pivotthe quarterreat cauldrons, for their tranizable; but indeed, this worthy's countenance was lugubrious enough to grace the appellation of chiefof the salt- kettle, as only a quartermaster or a cook can, in a country in which utensils are small and few and not to be replaced
That Stuart felt more than he seenizant of how the tension gave ith a snap one day in the autu suspense Deed face from the dispatches just received--the first express that had coed and eluded bands of wandering Indian marauders all the way
”Governor Lyttleton has taken the field,” he said
”_At last!_” cried Stuart, as in the extremity of impatience
For upon thestation, carried by storm, in addition to other isolated overnor of South Carolina had initiated a series of aggressive inia to send reenforce a place which from its remote situation was very difficult at all times to victual, but in the event of a Cherokee war entirely cut off froreat exertions succeeded in ht hundred ulars to advance into the Indian country froor and proportions of this derown accustomed to mere remonstrance and bootless threats They had realized, with their predoly developed of their mental traits, that the occupation of all the available forces of the government in Canada and on the northwestern frontiers crippled the capacity to ood Thus they had reveled in a luxury of fancied impunity and a turbulent sense of power Now they were smitten with consternation to perceive the cloud upon the horizon Suddenly the privileges of trade which they had forfeited,--for they had become dependent on the supplies of civilization, such as auns, tools, blankets, etc, and certain stores in transit to them had been, by Governor Lyttleton's instructions, intercepted by Captain Coyte;--the opportunities of a strong alliance that they had discarded; the advantageous stipulations of the treaties they had annulled; all seemed precious when annihilated by their own act
The Upper towns and the Lower towns--the _Ottare_ and the _Ayrate_--met in solemn conclave at Chote to consider the situation
Fort Loudon, hard by, maintained quiet and keen watch and strict discipline The drules sounded for thewaved in the sunshi+ne, slipping up to ment of the vermilion disk slipped behind the dark, level, rae, and the sunset-gun boomed till the echoes blared faintly even about the council-chaathered in state
Whether the distant thunderous tone of that potent force which the Indians adht to comprehend beyond all other arested anew the untried menace of Lyttleton's invasion of their country with a th; whether they had becoain those values of trade and alliance that they had throay in haste; whether their repeated reprisals had satiated their greed of vengeance for their co the defense of the Virginia frontier; whether they were inspired only by their veiled deceit and savage craft, in which they excelled and delighted, and whichcall diplohtened statesed their decision, no gun barrel was sawed off, an unfailing preparation for battle, no corn pounded, no knife whetted, no face painted, no bow strung, no mysterious scalp-dance celebrated--the Cherokees were not upon the war-path!