'SIAH BOLDERWOOD'S STRATAGEM
Sheriff Ten Eyck was a man of determination and although he had before
tested the mettle of the Grants men, he felt a burden of confidence now
with this army behind him. The ridicule of the party in ambush stung his
pride, and although warned that a considerable number of settlers were
hidden in the wood, he was not disposed to temporize. But the men who
had accompanied him on his nefarious mission were far differently
impressed by the situation. They had followed the doughty sheriff in the
hope of plunder, it is true; if the settlers of the Hampshire Grants
were to be driven incontinently from their homes as Ten Eyck and the
Governor declared, somebody must benefit by the circumstance, and the
sheriff's men hoped to be of the benefited party. But this armed
opposition was disheartening. When the chorus of groans rose from the
surrounding forest, his men as well as himself, knew that they had
fallen into ambush, and this thought troubled the Yorkers greatly.
From the top of the ridge 'Siah Bolderwood had heard much of the
controversy at the door of the Breckenridge house and as the really
serious moment approached the old ranger was blessed with a sudden
inspiration. He sprang forward and seizing Enoch Harding by the collar
dragged him to his knees and whispered a command in his ear. "Quick, you
young snipe you!" he exclaimed, as Enoch prepared to obey. "Run like the
wind--and don't let 'em see you or you may get potted!"
Enoch was off in an instant, trailing his gun behind him and stooping
low that the passage of his body through the brush might not be noted.
He got the house between him and the sheriff's column and soon reached
the side of the road where the other settlers in ambush were stationed.
He found their leader and whispered Bolderwood's message to him.
Instantly the man caught the idea and the word was passed down the
straggling line. Enoch did not return but waited with these men, who
were nearer the enemy, to see the matter out.
The sheriff was on the verge of giving the command to break down the
door of the besieged house when suddenly a wild yell broke out upon the
ridge above and was taken up by the settlers in the brush by the
roadside. It was the warwhoop--the yell which originally incited the red
warriors to action and was supposed to strike terror to the hearts of
their enemies. The shrill cry echoed through the wood with startling
significance. At the same instant every man's cap was raised upon his
gun barrel and thrust forward into view of the startled Yorkers, while
the settlers themselves showed their heads, but nearer the ground. Only
for a moment were they thus visible; then they dropped back into hiding
again.
But the effect upon the sheriff's unwilling army was paralyzing. The
Yorkers thought that twice as many men were hidden in the forest as were
really there, for the hats on the gun barrels had seemed like heads,
too. They thought every man in Bennington--and indeed, as far east as
Brattleboro and Westminster--must have come to defend James
Breckenridge's farm, and they clamored loudly to return to the
Twenty-Mile Line and safety.
In vain the sheriff fumed and stormed, threatening all manner of
punishment for his mutinous troops; the army was determined to a man to
have no conflict with the settlers of the Disputed Ground. Like "the
noble Duke of York" in the old catch-song familiar at that day, Sheriff
Ten Eyck had marched his seven hundred or more men up to James
Breckenridge's door only "to march them down again!" 'Siah Bolderwood's
idea had taken all the desire for fight out of the Yorkers, and after
some wrangling between the personal attendants of the sheriff and the
volunteer army, the whole crew marched away, leaving the farm to the
undisputed possession of its rightful owner.
When the Yorkers departed the little garrison of the house appeared and
cheered lustily; but the men in the woods did not come out of hiding
until the last of the enemy had disappeared, for they did not wish the
invaders to know how badly they had been deceived regarding their
numbers. By and by Bolderwood and his men marched down from the ridge
and 'Siah was congratulated upon his happy thought in bringing about the
confusion of the Yorkers.
"You've a long head on those narrow shoulders of yours, neighbor,"
declared Ethan Allen, striking the old ranger heartily on the back.
"That little wile finished them. And this is the boy I saw trailing
through the bushes, is it?" and he seized Enoch and turned his face
upward that he might the better view his features. "Why, holloa, my
little man! I've seen you before surely?"
"It is poor Jonas Harding's eldest lad, neighbor Allen," Bolderwood
said. "He's the head of the family now, and bein' sech, had to come
along to fight the Yorkers."
"I remember your father," declared Allen, kindly. "A noble specimen of
the Almighty's workmanship. I stopped a night with him once at his
cabin--do you remember me?"
As though Nuck could have forgotten it! His youthful mind had made Ethan
Allen a veritable hero ever since, placing him upon a pedestal before
which he worshipped. But he only nodded for bashfulness.
"You'll make a big man, too," said the giant. "And if you can shoot
straight there'll be plenty of chance for you later on. This is only the
beginning, 'Siah," he pursued, turning to Bolderwood and letting his
huge hand drop from Enoch's head. "There will be court-doings,
now--writs, and ejectments, and enough red seals to run the King's court
itself. But while the Yorkers are red-sealing us, we'll blue-seal
them--if they come over here, eh?" and he went off with a great shout of
laughter at his own punning.
The men were minded to scatter but slowly. All were rejoiced that the
battle had been a bloodless one; yet none believed the matter ended. The
fiasco of the New York sheriff might act as a wet blanket for the time
upon the movements of the authorities across the line; but the land
speculators were too numerous and active to allow the people of the
Grants to remain in peace. Parties of marauders might swoop down at any
time upon the more unprotected settlers, drive them out of their homes,
destroy their property, and possibly do bodily injury to the helpless
people. Methods must be devised to keep these Yorkers on their own side
of the disputed line. Those settlers, such as the widow Harding, who
were least able to protect themselves, must have the help of their
neighbors. The present victory proved the benefit to be derived from
concerted action. Now, in the flush of this triumph, the leaders went
among the yeomanry who had gathered here and outlined a plan for
permanent military organization. In all the colonies at that day,
"training bands," or militia, had become popular, made so in part by the
interest aroused by the wars with the French and Indians. Many of the
men who joined these military companies did not look deeply into the
affairs of the colonies, nor were they much interested in politics; but
their leaders looked ahead--just as did Ethan Allen and his conferees in
the Grants--and realized that an armed yeomanry might some time be
called upon to face hirelings of the King.
"Even a lad like you can bear a rifle, and your mother will spare you
from the farm for drill," Allen said, with his hand again on Enoch's
shoulder, before riding away. "I shall expect to see Jonas Harding's boy
at Bennington when word is sent round for the first drill." And Enoch,
his heart beating high with pride at this notice, promised to gain his
mother's permission if possible.
Bolderwood had already gone, and Lot Breckenridge detained Enoch until
after the dinner hour. Lot would have kept him all night, but the latter
knew his mother would be anxious to see him safe home, and he started an
hour or two before sunset, on the trail which Bolderwood and he had
followed early in the morning. Being one of the last to leave James
Breckenridge's house, he traveled the forest alone. But he had no
feeling of fear. The trails and by-paths were as familiar to him as the
streets of his hometown are to a boy of to-day. And the numberless
sounds which reached his ears were distinguished and understood by the
pioneer boy. The hoarse laugh of the jay as it winged its way home over
the tree-tops, the chatter of the squirrel in the hollow oak, the sudden
scurry of deer in the brake, the barking of a fox on the hillside, were
all sounds with which Enoch Harding was well acquainted.
As he crossed a heavily shadowed creek, a splash in the water attracted
his particular attention and he crept to the brink in time to see a pair
of sleek dark heads moving swiftly down the stream. Soon the heads
stopped, bobbed about near a narrow part of the stream, and finally came
out upon the bank, one on either side. The trees stood thick together
here, and both animals attacked a straight, smooth trunk standing near
the creek, their sharp teeth making the chips fly as they worked. They
were a pair of beavers beginning a dam for the next winter. Enoch marked
the spot well. About January he would come over with Lot, or with Robbie
Baker, stop up the mouth of the beaver's tunnel, break in the dome of
his house, and capture the family. Beaver pelts were a common article of
barter in a country where real money was a curiosity.
But watching the beavers delayed Enoch and it was growing dark in the
forest when he again turned his face homewards. He knew the path well
enough--the runway he traveled was so deep that he could scarce miss it
and might have followed it with his eyes blindfolded,--but he quickened
his pace, not desiring to be too late in reaching his mother's cabin.
Unless some neighbor had passed and given them the news of the victory
at James Breckenridge's they might be worried for fear there had
actually been a battle. Deep in the forest upon the mountainside there
sounded the human-like scream of a catamount, and the memory of his
adventure of the morning was still very vivid in his mind. He began to
fear his mother's censure for his delay, too, for Mistress Harding
brought up her children to strict obedience and Enoch, man though he
felt himself to be because of this day's work, knew he had no business
to loiter until after dark in the forest.
He stumbled on now in some haste and was approaching the ford in the
wide stream near which he had shot the doe, when a flicker of light off
at one side of the trail attracted his attention. It was a newly kindled
campfire and the pungent smoke of it reached his nostrils at the instant
the flame was apparent to his eyes. He leaped behind a tree and peered
through the thickening darkness at the spot where the campfire was
built. His heart beat rapidly, for despite the supposed peacefulness of
the times there was always the possibility of enemies lurking in the
forest. And the settlers had grown wary since the controversy with the
Yorkers became so serious.
Enoch was nearing the boundaries of his father's farm now and ever since
Simon Halpen had endeavored to evict them and especially since Jonas
Harding's death, the possibility of the Yorkers' return had been a
nightmare to Enoch. Lying a moment almost breathless behind the tree, he
began to recover his presence of mind and fortitude. First he freshened
the priming of his gun and then, picking his way cautiously, approached
the campfire. Like a shadow he flitted from tree to tree and from brush
clump to stump, circling the camp, but ever drawing nearer. With the
instinct of the born wood-ranger he took infinite pains in approaching
the spot and from the moment he had observed the light he spent nearly
an hour in circling about until he finally arrived at a point where he
could view successfully the tiny clearing.
Now, at once, he descried a figure sitting before the blaze. The man had
his back against a tree and that is why Enoch had found such difficulty
at first in seeing him. He was nodding, half asleep, with his cap pulled
down over his eyes, so that only the merest outline of his face was
revealed. It was apparent that he had eaten his own supper, for there
were the indications of the meal upon the ground; but it looked as
though he expected some other person to join him. The wind began to moan
in the tree-tops; far away the mournful scream of the catamount broke
the silence again. The boy cast his gaze upward into the branches,
feeling as though one of the terrible creatures, with which he had
engaged in so desperate a struggle that very morning, was even then
watching him from the foliage.
[Illustration: A HAND WAS PRESSED OVER HIS LIPS]
And he was indeed being watched, and by eyes well nigh as keen as those
of the wild-cat. While he stood behind the tree, all of half a gun-shot
from the camp, a figure stepped silently out of the shadows and stood at
his elbow before the startled lad realized that he was not alone. A
vice-like hand seized his arm so that he could not turn his rifle upon
this unexpected enemy. Before he could cry out a second hand was pressed
firmly over his parted lips. "No speak!" breathed a voice in Enoch
Harding's ear. "If speak, white boy die!"
It was Crow Wing, the young Iroquois, and Enoch obeyed. He found himself
forced rapidly away from the campfire and when they were out of ear-shot
of the unconscious stranger, and not until then, did the grasp of the
Indian relax. "What do you want with me?" Enoch demanded, in a whisper.
The other did not reply. He only pushed the white boy on until they came
to the ford of the creek where Enoch and 'Siah Bolderwood had crossed
early in the day. There Crow Wing released him altogether and pointed
sternly across the river. "Your house--that way!" he said. "Go!"
"Who is that man back yonder?" cried Enoch, angrily. "You can't make me
do what you say----"
Crow Wing tapped the handle of the long knife at his belt suggestively.
"White boy go--go now!" he commanded again, and in spite of his being
armed with a rifle while the Indian had no such weapon, Enoch felt
convinced that it would be wiser for him to obey without parley.
Although Crow Wing could not have been three years his senior, he was
certainly the master on this occasion. With lagging step he descended
the bank and began to ford the stream. He glanced back and saw the
Indian, standing like a statue of bronze, on the bank above him. When he
reached the middle of the stream, however, he felt the full ignominy of
his retreat before a foe who was not armed equally with himself. What
would Bolderwood say if he told him? What would his father have done?
He swung about quickly and raised the rifle to his shoulder. But the
Indian lad had gone. Not an object moved upon the further shore of the
creek and, after a minute or two of hesitation, the white boy stumbled
on through the stream and reached the other bank. He was angry with
himself for being afraid of Crow Wing, and he was also angry that he had
not seen the face of the stranger at the campfire. It must have been
somebody whom Crow Wing knew and did not wish the white boy to see.
Enoch Harding continued his homeward way, his mind greatly disturbed by
the adventure and with a feeling of deep resentment against the Indian
youth.