Part 17 (2/2)
”Letto be very funny, brushi+ng his right eye with his right hand ”And for Sandy,” his left eye with his left hand ”And Fifine,” his right eye with his right hand ”And the cat,” his left eye with his left hand
There could be nothing unirlish in this jovial demonstration!
”Co to think these tremulous farewells very jocose
”Yes,” said Demere, seriously, ”we do not kno soon the Indians e,--up to this tiathered up his calash, and the precise Demere assisted him to adjust it and his disordered dress more after the manner in which Odalie wore it Hamish, as directed, took Stuart's arm as they went out, his eyes still full of tears, and for his life he could not control the tremor of emotion, not of fear, in the fibers of his hand, which he was sure the officer must note But Stuart's attention was fixed on the skies It was later than in those days when Odalie ont to keep tryst with Choo-qualee-qualoo, now nearly a low of the sunset the Indians ht discern the color and the style of the costume Now and then a ball flew from the cannon to the woods, to clear the forest of too close observers,--whatever risk there was must needs be dared The cannoneers summoned to this queer duty looked at ”Mrs MacLeod” curiously, as she slipped through the eility down the slope a at a fresh, firazed at Stuart, who presently bade the, and they had no excuse to wait to see her return A queer rown so inelastic because of the taut tension to which its fine fibers had been subjected, that Stuart felt a thrill of merely mechanical apprehension when the next day Daniel Eske, the young soldier, cauard duty he had heard a deep subterranean explosion, which had been reported to the officer of the day Later, Choo-qualee-qualoo had co vainly for Mrs MacLeod, she had ventured up the slope of the scarp, knowing full well that she was safe under that white flag She had brought a bag of beans, which she had given him,--he bit his lip and colored with vexation, consciously ridiculous in speaking of his feminine admirer to his superior officer,--and he had taken the opportunity to ask some questions about affairs outside the fort, upon which she detailed that an Indian--it was Savanukah--had seen Mrs MacLeod, as he thought, enter the subterranean passage that used to lead to MacLeod Station At first he had considered it a slight matter, since the Carolinian's French wife had come so often to talk to Choo-qualee-qualoo But it somehow flashed into hisstride, hat strength, and how fast! And suddenly he realized that it was a s of capes and calash So Savanukah ran swiftly to his boat and pulled down the river, and made MacLeod Station just in time to see a youth, arrayed in buckskins, issue from the cave and mount a tethered horse Savanukah fired at hi man wheeled in his saddle and returned the fire with such accuracy that even at the distance and in the twilight the ball, although nearly spent, struck Savanukah in the mouth with such force as to knock out a tooth Then the boy own and the calash which the youth had ere found inside the passage And great was the wrath of Willinawaugh! He had blown up with powder both ends of the passage,--like thunder, _een-ta-qua ros-ke_,--use could nothe paleface to return by that way, so that he e This was i had burst forth, forced in a new direction, and was flooding all that part of the slope, flowing outside instead of within, and Willinawaugh could not now change its disposition if he would
Stuart breathed more freely If Hamish should return alone, which God forbid, and not with an arht at MacLeod Station would preclude his effort to enter into the cavern, and force him to devise soh--to destroy so proe may overpower at ti on, seearrison watched the iainst hope The wonted routine caed of necessity; the men on their reduced fare were incapable of drill duty; the best hope was that they ht make shi+ft to stand to their arms should a sudden attack require the exertion of all their reserve force in the imminent peril of their lives The diet of horse-flesh proved not only unpalatable but insanitary, perhaps because the anie, and were in ht, and there were as many men on the sick list as the hospital could accoree when Choo-qualee-qualoo brought another bag of beans to the hero of the long-range flirtation, and he generously offered to share the food with his fellow-sufferers Odalie suggested its devotion to hospital uses; and a few days of a certain potage which she compounded of the beans and her economic French skill, and administered with her own hands to the invalids, with her own co words, put a nuain
The efforts to aiven way under the stress of a misery that could form no compact with mirth, but from time to time the officers made short spirited addresses to the troops to anie their hope, and continue to the utmost their power of resistance And the exhalation of every sigh ith a thought of South Carolina, and the respiration of every breath ith a prayer toward Virginia
As the nureatly dis had gone to the kitchen on an errand far different from the one that used to lure thereedily and piteously snuff and whine, the quiescent waiting and reliance on the judgarrison froerew rife The return of Hamish MacLeod, at the moment when starvation seereat a peril, for the circumstances of his escape had been learned by the soldiers fro Eske, as always free with his tongue, implied that Hamish's earlier mission had failed, and that no troops were now on theIndian in the red coat of an officer of rank, the lace cravat of a man of quality which Choo-qualee-qualoo flourished, and they deduced a shrewd suroainst the hardshi+ps now entertained rebellious sentileaders in the food riot, they had been summarily placed in irons, their punishment had been too brief perhaps for a salutary moral effect Demere's severity was always theoretical,--ashackles to the agonies of slow starvation so preyed upon his heart that he had ordered the prisoners released before a sober reflection had done its full work The exemplary conduct, for a time, of the culprits had no sufficient counterpart in chastened hearts, for they nourished bitterness and secretly agitated er supply of repulsive food had shrunken to the scope of a few days' rations, the quantity always dwindling in a regularly di ratio; it had recently barely enabled the uard duty, and they lay about the parade at other tith on the porches of the barracks, too feeble and dispirited to stir hand or foot without necessity
Corporal O'Flynn, one of the few officers fit for duty, with a shade of pallor on his face a trifle hastly than that of starvation, reported that five ation it was found that they had burrowed out of the fort in the darkness, seeking to desert to the ene mistaken, or their overtures scorned, they had been stabbed and scalped at the edge of the forest, and there their bodies were visible in the early rays of the sun
”May become unpleasant when the wind shi+fts,” remarked Stuart easily, and without emotion apparently, ”but we are spared the duties of punishi+ng deserters according to their deserts”
Demere's face had shown a sudden nervous contraction but resu
Corporal O'Flynn's report, however, was not yet exhausted He hesitated, almost choked The blood rushed so scarlet to his face that one ht have wondered, at the show it made, that he had so much of that essential element in circulation in his whole thin body He lifted his voice as if to urge the concentration of Stuart's attention which seemed so casual--he had it the next moment
”I feel like a traitor in tellin' it, sor,” said O'Flynn, ”I'm just one of the in 'em with the officers But me duty as a soldier is to the commandant of the fort, an' as a ain, so reluctant was he in unfolding the fact that this was but the first step, providentially disastrous, of a plan by which the fort and the officers were to be abandoned, the rank and file deteres, since even to die at their hands was better than this long and futile waiting for succor Through Choo-qualee-qualoo sootiations with the enemy had been set on foot, of which O'Flynn was unaware hitherto, being excluded from their councils as a non-commissioned officer, but after the result of the desertion in the early hours before dawn, Daniel Eske, thoroughly dismayed, had once more reverted to his reliance on the superior wisdom of the commandant, and had seen fit to disclose the state of affairs to the corporal, whose loyalty to his superior officers was always marked
O'Flynn was commended, cautioned to be silent, and the door closed
The two captains looked blankly at one another
”The catastrophe is upon us,” said Stuart ”Fort Loudon must fall”
In this extremity a council of as held Yet there seemed no course open even to deliberation On the one hand rose mutiny, starvation, and desertion; but to surrender to such an enemy as the Cherokees meant massacre Their terrible fate held them in a remorseless clutch! At last, with some desperate hope, such as the unsubstantial illusion hich drowning ht reed that Captain Stuart, at his earnest desire, should be the officer to treat with the enemy and secure such terms of capitulation as they could be induced to hold forth
It ined that the little band of officers, in their hard stress, had become incapable of any further vivid emotion, but in vicarious terror they watched Stuart step forth boldly and alone fro in his hand, and arrayed, in deference to the Indians' love of ceremony and susceptibility to compliment, in full uniform