Part 18 (1/2)
He stood on the parapet of the covered way, ainst the background of the great red clay elass Demere in the block-house tower noted the instant stillness that fell like a spell upon the Indian line; the figures of the warriors, crouching or erect, seemed petrified in the chance attitude of thescouts in the woods was as evident
His tall, sinewy figure; his long, dense, blond hair, with its heavy queue hanging on the shoulders of his red coat; a certain daring, martial insouciance of hted Cherokees, and the white flag in his hand--a token which they understood, although they did not always respect it--intie i of a rifle ball, and De of the fate of Coytan to breathe ue sense of renewed confidence thrilled through the watching group Stuart had stipulated that he should go alone--otherwise he would not make the essay The presence of two or three armed men, officers of the fort, intier, and yet, helpless a such numbers, afforded no protection The others had yielded to this argument, for he knew the Indian character by intuition, it would see now, too, upon a certain personal popularity He had soed the ad their prejudice--a sort of inimical friendshi+p They all realized that any other lacis with a bullet through his brain, if but for the sheer teet of uncoht have betokened
How to accomplish this mission became a probleure stirred of the distant Cherokee braves; not one uns that carried such terror to the Indian heart Stuart stood in momentary indecision, his head thrown back, his chin up, his keen, far-seeing gray-blue eyes fixed on the ust air the leaves of the trees seemed to quiver; the ripples of the river scintillated in the sun; not a breath of wind stirred; on the horizon the solidities of the Great Se
Suddenly Stuart was running, lightly, yet at no great speed; he reached the river-bank, thrust a boat out fro froan to roith long, steady strokes straight up the river He was going to Chote!
The observers at Fort Loudon, petrified, stared at one another in blank amazement The observers at the Cherokee camp were freed fro the river-bank the braves were speeding, keeping abreast of the swift little craft in the uttural voices with their unintelligible excla of a flight of ss In less than five minutes the boat, distinctly visible, with those salient points of color, the red coat and the white flag against the silver-gray water, had rounded the bend; every Indian runner was out of sight; and the line of warriors had relapsed into their silent staring at the fort, where the garrison dragged out three hours of such poignant suspense as seldom falls to the lot of even unhappy men
The sun's rays deepened their intensity; the exhausted, half-famished sentries dripped with perspiration, the effects of extre their firelocks and anxiously watching from the loop-holes of the block-house towers, the roofs of which, blistering in the sun, s odor which their nerves, grown sensitive by suffering, discriminated like a pain The men off duty lay in the shadow of the block-houses, for the rows of trees had vanished to furnish fuel for the kitchen, or on the porches of the barracks, and panted like lizards; the officers looked at one another with the significance of silent despair, and believed Stuart distraught Deive hiree that Stuart should appear
Beyond the out-works, however, they had had no drea
To try the effect of a personal appearance and invitation to a conference was the extent of the maneuver as it was planned There was scant expectation in Fort Loudon that he would be again seen alive
When the tension of the sun began to slacken and the heat to abate; when the wind vaguely flapped the folds of the flag with a drowsing murmur, as if frorew vibratory and strident, suggestive of the passing of the day's ths of the afternoon to coht touch of scarlet, shot out from behind the wooded bend of the river, and in a few ates of Fort Loudon
He cary, puzzled excitement that surprised his brother officers, whose discrimination may have been blunted in the joy of his safe and unexpected return and the fair promises of the terms of capitulation he had secured Never had a vanquished enemy been more considerately and cordially entreated than he at Chote Oconostota and Cunigacatgoah had come down to the river-bank on the news of his approach and had welcoreat council-hall he was taken, and not one ould Oconostota hear of his mission till food was placed before him,--fish and fowl, bread, and a flask of wine!
”And when Oconostota saw that I had been so nearly starved that I could hardly eat--Lord!--how his eyes twinkled!” cried Stuart, angrily
But Oconostota had perrieved his froarrison--for were they not all the children of the same Great Father! But Captain Stuart must have heard of the hideous iniquities perpetrated by the British Colonel in burning the Cherokee towns in the southern region, wheretheir warriors who did naught but defend their own land froiven to the Cherokees, and which was theirs And, now that the terrible Colonel Montgo with Cherokee blood, it was but fit that the Cherokees should take possession of Fort Loudon, which was always theirs, built for them at their request, and paid for with their blood, shed in the English service, against the enelish colonists, the French, who had always dealt fairly with the Cherokees
Captain Stuart bluntly replied that it did not become him to listen to reflections upon the methods in which British commanders had seen fit to carry out the instructions of the British govern to their orders, as was their duty For his own er, in which time reenforceht cos of the garrison were such that they were not justified in prolonging their distress, provided such terms of capitulation could be had as would warrant the surrender of the fort
As the interpreter, with the wooden voice, standing behind the chief, gabbled out this rebuke of the Cherokee king's aspersions on Montgomery, Stuart's ever quick eye noted an expression on the man's face, habitually so blank and wooden,--he remembered it afterward,--an expression almost applausive Then his attention was concentrated on the circu phrase almost affectionate, inti for these reenforcearrison could be overpowered now and destroyed to the lastthe place by storthened the negation
”Not so long as the great guns bark,” he declared ”They are the dogs of war that reed of the warlike Cherokee for the details concerning this great arm of the British service, the artillery, always coveted by the Indians, yet hardly understood, listened to a description of the process by which these guns could be rendered useless in a few arrison
Their cannoneers could spike the the last round And of what value would the fort be to the Cherokees without them,--it would be mere intrenchs under the sun The English governle day The great chief knew the power of England In the days when Moy Toy sent his delegation to London, of which he and Atta-Kulla-Kulla were e, they had seen the uns fired in salute to the princely guests, and had assisted at the review of thousands and thousands of soldiers
And with the rereat enelad to secure possession of these few of King George's great guns uninjured, fit to bark, and, if occasion should offer, to bite
Fro With many a crafty recurrence on the part of Stuart to the coveted artillery at every balking doubt or denial, it was agreed that the stronghold should be evacuated;--”That the garrison of Fort Loudonas much powder and ball as their officer shall think necessary for their arrison be pere, as the co officer shall think proper, unmolested; and that a number of Indians be appointed to escort the their march: That such soldiers as are la, be received into the Indian towns and kindly used until they recover, and then be allowed to return to Fort Prince George: That the Indians do provide for the garrison aswith the officers and soldiers for payuns, powder, ball, and spare arms, be delivered to the Indians without fraud or further delay on the day appointed for the march of the troops”
These terned by Paul Dereat was the joy the neoke aarrison of Fort Loudon The sick arose from their beds; the lame walked, and were ready to march; alreat guns, werethe paces of horses, and chaffering over the terht in; every chiether their little store of valuables in sood from feeble incapacity to be otherwise, were now healthily bad, fortified by a generousthe cat's huround bits ofher that now she would not be eaten,--so had that terror preyed upon thetears to shed for Haht be as well off, and those whoht to console her
The officers were hilarious They could hardly credit their own good fortune--perallant defense to the last extree Cherokees, upon just such terms as would have been dictated by a liberal and civilized enemy! Demere, after the first burst of reproach that Stuart should have so recklessly endangered himself, and of joy that his mission had been so successfully acco such official papers as, falling into the hands of the French, ht be detrimental to the British interest Of thery, disconsolate Perhaps because some fiber of sensitive pride, buried deep, had been touched to the quick by Oconostota's ill-disguised triu here, and suffered arrison felt that the fort ht still be held till relief could reach it; or he was of the temperahted by failure; or he was only staggered by the cootiations with the Cherokees and doubtful of their good faith,--at all events he had lost his poise He was glooain with futileletter-books and other papers on the hearth of the great chimney-place of the hall, looked up from the table where he sorted them to remind Stuart, as he strode s of value to fall into the hands of the eneloorily
The little red silk riding-mask, that ont to look down froestion in its vacant, sightlessob of the brightness of vanished eyes, with no faint trace of the fair face that it had once sheltered, save as an to blaze hu papers on the hearth An odd interpretation of things of value, certainly--a flio, and far ahen, not all unwelcome, he had ridden at a lady's bridle-rein Demere looked at him with sudden interest, see And thus with this souvenir the romance of Stuart's life perished unstoried