THE HALTING OF THE FLEET
Adam Colfax had been making slow progress up the Ohio, far slower than
he had hoped, and his brave soul was worn by hardships and troubled by
apprehensions. A great hurricane had caused him serious alarm for his
smaller boats. They had been saved from sinking with the greatest
difficulty, and the precious stores had to be kept well and guarded
well.
He was grieved and troubled, too, over the disappearance of the five,
the valiant five who had continually been doing him such great service
from the very moment of the start at New Orleans. He liked them all, and
he mourned them for their own sakes as well. He also realized quickly
that he had lost more than the five themselves. His fleet seemed to have
come into a very nest of dangers. Men who went ashore to hunt never
returned. At narrow points in the river they were fired upon from the
dense forest on the bank, and if they sent a strong force ashore, they
found nothing. If they camped at night, bullets drew blood or scattered
the coals at their feet.
Invisible but none the less terrible foes hung upon them continually,
and weakened their spirits. The men in the fleet were willing and eager
to fight a foe whom they could see, but to be stung to death by
invisible hornets was the worst of fates.
Adam Colfax missed the "eyes of the fleet" more and more every day. If
Henry Ware and Shif'less Sol and their comrades had been there, they
could have discovered these unseen foes, and they could have told him
what to do. At night he often saw signal fires, blazing on either side
of the Ohio and, although he did not know what they meant, he felt sure
that they were lighted by his enemies, who were talking to one another.
Two or three of his men who had been originally woodsmen of the great
valley told him that the allied tribes had come to destroy him. They had
seen certain signs in the forest that could not be mistaken. The woods
were full of warriors. They had heard, too, that further on was a fort
on the river bank which the Indians had probably taken by this time, and
which they would certainly use against the fleet. Adam Colfax wished
once more for the five, who were more familiar than anybody else with
the country, and who were such magnificent scouts. Never had he felt
their absence more.
He came at last to the narrowest place in the river that he had yet
seen, enclosed on either bank by jutting hills. As the fleet approached
this watery pass a tremendous fire was opened upon it from either shore.
The bullets not only came from the level of the water, but from the tops
of the hills, and the sides of the boat offered no protection against
the latter. The men of the fleet returned the fire, but their lead was
sent into the forest and the undergrowth, and they did not know whether
it hit anything except inoffensive wood and earth.
Adam Colfax drew back. He felt that he might have forced the pass, but
the loss in men and stores would be too great. It was not his chief
object to fight battles even if every battle should prove a victory.
When he withdrew, the forest relapsed into silence, but when he
attempted the passage again the next day he was attacked by a similar,
though greater, fire. He was now in a terrible quandary. He did not wish
another such desperate battle as that which he had been forced to fight
on the Lower Mississippi. He might win it, but there would be a great
expenditure of men and ammunition, and at this vast distance from New
Orleans neither could be replaced.
He drew back to a wider part of the river and decided to wait a day or
two, that is, to take counsel of delay.
Adam Colfax was proud of his fleet and the great amount of precious
stores that it carried. The reinforcements after the Battle of the Bayou
had raised it to more than its original strength and value. All the men
had recovered from their wounds, and everybody was in splendid health.
He had made up his mind that fleet and cargo should be delivered intact
at Pittsburgh, otherwise he could never consider his voyage wholly a
success.
The night after he fell back from the watery pass he held a council of
his captains and guides on his own flat boat, which had been named the
_Independence_. He had with him Adolphe Drouillard, a brave and devoted
French Creole from New Orleans; James Tilden, a Virginian; Henry
Eckford, a south Carolinian; Charles Turner, a New Yorker, and William
Truesdale, and Eben Barber, New Englanders, and besides these, Nat
Thrale and Ned Lyon, the best of the scouts and guides since the
disappearance of the five, were present.
The fleet was anchored in the middle of the river, out of rifle shot for
the present, but Adam Colfax knew very well that the enemy was in the
dense wood lining either bank. He had sent skirmishers ashore in the
afternoon, and they did not go many yards from the stream before they
were compelled to exchange shots with the foe. Thrale and Lyon, who were
on the southern bank, reported that the Indians were still thick in the
forest.
"They see us here on the river," said Thrale, "an' ef we don't keep well
in the middle uv it they kin reach us with thar bullets. But we won't be
able to see the least speck or sign uv them."
Adam Colfax had sighed when he heard these words, and now, as his little
council gathered, it seemed that all predictions of evil were about to
be fulfilled. A smoky red sun had set behind the hills, and the night,
true to the promise of the sun, had come on dark and cloudy. It was not
exactly the cloudiness of rain; it was rather that of heat and
oppressiveness, and it had in it a certain boding quality that weighed
heavily upon the spirits of Adam Colfax.
The boats were anchored in a double row in the exact center of the
stream, swaying just a little with the gentle current. All those
carrying sails had taken them down. Adam Colfax's boat was outside the
two lines, slightly nearer to the southern shore, but still beyond rifle
shot.
While the leader sat in the stern of his boat waiting for the two scouts
who were last to come, he surveyed the fleet with the anxious eyes of
one who carries a great responsibility. In the darkness the boats were
not much more than dark lines on the darker river. Now and then they
were lighted up by flares of heat lightning, but the eyes of Adam Colfax
turned away from them to the banks, those high banks thick with forest
and undergrowth, which contained so many dangers, real dangers, not
those of the imaginary kind, as he had ample proof. Now and then a shot,
apparently as a taunt, was fired from either shore, and two or three
times he heard the long, whining yell which is the most ominous of human
cries. This, too, he knew, was a taunt, but in every case, cunning,
ferocity and power lay behind the taunt, which was another truth that he
knew.
They were all soon gathered on the deck of the little _Independence_,
and the faces of the two scouts who came last were very grave.
"What do you think of it, Lyon?" said Adam Colfax.
Lyon gave his head one brief shake.
"We're right in the middle of the biggest hornet's nest the country ever
saw," he replied. "Looks ez ef we couldn't git past without another
terrible fight."
"And you, Drouillard?" Adam Colfax asked of the Creole.
"Eet ees hard to go on," replied Drouillard in his broken English, "but
we cannot go back at all. So eet ees true that we must go on. Eet ees is
the only thing we can do."
"But how?" said Adam Colfax. "We cannot use up all the ammunition that
we have in these battles. If we were to reach Pittsburgh in that
condition we'd be a burden instead of a help."
"But as Mr. Drouillard says, we can't go back," said Truesdale.
They sat dumbly a minute or two, no one knowing what to propose, and all
looking toward the southern bank, where they believed the chief danger
to lie. The dark green forest made a high black line there in the night,
a solid black until it was broken by a pink dot, which they knew to be
the flash of a rifle.
"They are jeering at us again," said Adam Colfax.
"'Tain't no jeer, either," said Thrale, as five or six pink dots
appeared where the one had been, and faint sounds came to their ears.
Lyon confirmed the opinion of his brother scout.
"So many wouldn't let off their guns at once jest fur fun," he said. "I
wonder what in tarnation it means!"
The spray of pink dots did not reappear, and they turned their minds
once more to their great problem, which seemed as insoluble as ever. The
flowing of the current, gentle but deep and strong, swung the
_Independence_ a little further from the two lines of boats, but those
on board, in their absorption, did not notice it. Three or four minutes
passed, and there was the report of a rifle shot from the southern bank,
followed an instant later by another. Two bullets splashed in the water
near the _Independence_.
"We'd better pull back a leetle," said Drouillard. "We are drifting
within range of ze warriors."
"So we are," said Lyon, laying his hand on a sweep. "Now, what under the
moon is that?"
He pointed to a dark object, a mere black dot on the dusky surface of
the river. But it was not a stationary dot, and in its movement it came
toward the _Independence_.
"Shorely they don't mean to come swimmin' to attack us," said the other
guide, Thrale. "That's a human head on top uv the water an' thar's a
body belongin' to it under the water. An' see, thar's another head
behind it, an' behind that another, an' likely thar's more."
"Eet ees certainlee the warriors trying to reach us on the water," said
Adolphe Drouillard, and, raising his rifle, he took aim at the first
swimming head.
"Hold a little," said Adam Colfax, pushing down the barrel of the
weapon. "Look, as they come closer now, you can see a fourth and a fifth
head and then no more. Five swimming heads on the water must mean
something, I hope; yet I'm afraid I hope too much."
The foremost of the swimming figures raised a hand out of the water, and
held it high in token of amity. Instantly the four behind did the same
thing.
"Most amazing," said Adolphe Drouillard. "Ees eet possible that they are
friends?"
"I think it not only possible, but probable," said Adam Colfax with a
rising tone of joy in his voice. "They are near now, and that first head
looks familiar to me. I devoutly hope that I'm not mistaken."
The leader's head, propelled by the powerful strokes of the arms below,
came within a yard or two of the _Independence_, and some stray rays of
the moon, falling upon it, brought it from dusk into light. It was the
face of a young river god, strong features cut cleanly, a massive
projecting chin, and long yellow hair from which the water flowed in
streams.
The head was raised from the water, the hands grasped the edge of the
boat, and the figure sprang lightly on board, standing perfectly erect
for a moment, while the water ran from his fringed hunting shirt, his
moccasins, the knife and tomahawk at his belt, and flowed away over the
boards.
"Henry Ware alive!" exclaimed Adam Colfax, springing forward and seizing
the hand which dripped water from the tip of every finger.
"An' don't furgit me," said Shif'less Sol, as he leaped aboard and stood
beside Henry, a tiny cataract pouring from every seam of his clothing.
"Nor me," said Tom Ross briefly, taking his place with his comrades.
"An' I'm here, too," said Jim Hart, uprearing his thin six feet four.
"So am I," said Paul, as he drew himself over the rail of the
_Independence_.
"All of you alive and well!" exclaimed Adam Colfax, departing for once
from his New Hampshire calm. "All returned from the dead together! I
feel as if an army had come to our relief!"
"We ain't been dead," said Shif'less Sol. "An' we ain't been havin' sech
a hard time, either. It's true three o' us hev been troubled by Injun
bullets, but Jim Hart thar spent his time inventin' a new way o' cookin'
rabbits, which will keep him happy for the next five years."
"And he could not spend his spare time in a better way," said Adolphe
Drouillard. "Ze man who invents a new wholesome dish ees a blessing to
hees country."
"Shake, friend," said Long Jim, holding out a huge hand still dripping
with portions of the Ohio, and Adolphe Drouillard, without hesitation,
shook.
"Them two shots that hit in the water close to us wuz fired at you,
wuzn't they?" asked Thrale.
"Yes, they were aimed at us," replied Henry, "and so was the little
volley on the bank, which you must have heard. As you probably know,
there's a fort and settlement not many miles on called Fort Prescott.
We've warned it, and the garrison has also beaten off all attacks. But
all the allied tribes of the north are here, and they expect to catch
you, the fort, and everything else, in their net. They are led by all
their great chiefs, but Timmendiquas, the White Lightning of the
Wyandots, is the soul of the attack. We have seen his vigilance in our
effort to reach the river. We were discovered, fired upon by a party,
although their bullets missed us in the dark, and then we had to swim
for it."
"You must have dry clothing at once," said Adam Colfax.
"We won't mind changin'," said Shif'less Sol, "an' we'd like to dry our
rifles an' have 'em reloaded ez soon ez you kin."
"We'll have that done for you," said Adam Colfax, looking at them with
admiration.
They resigned their weapons to his men, although they had succeeded in
keeping their powder dry in tightly closed horns. Adam Colfax then led
the way to his cabin, where dry clothing was brought them, and food and
drink were given. Then Henry told to the little, but deeply interested,
company the tale of their wanderings and adventures.
"It certainly seems as if Providence were watching over you," said the
devout New Englander.
"We have sometimes thought so ourselves," said Paul with the utmost
sincerity.
"This Timmendiquas, as you describe him, is a most formidable chief,"
said Adam Colfax, pondering, "and the renegade, Girty, too, is a very
dangerous man. As I see that we shall have to fight them, I would spare
this fleet further loss if I could."
"We will have to fight," said Drouillard, "eef not to-night, then
to-morrow, and eef not to-morrow, then next week."
"I think he tells a fact, sir," said Henry to Adam Colfax. "But we can
rely upon the fort making a powerful defense. Major Braithwaite is a
brave and active man, and we must not forget, sir, that Daniel Boone and
Simon Kenton are somewhere near in the woods. If they have gathered
their forces, we can gather ours, too."
"That is so," said Adam Colfax, as the council and the five returned to
the deck of the _Independence_. The council might have been depressed,
but the five were not. Warm food and warm clothing restored them
physically, and here they were with the fleet once more, meanwhile
having done many things well.
"Ain't it fine fur a lazy man like me to be back on a boat," said
Shif'less Sol in a low voice to Paul. "Nuthin' to do but set still an'
talk, nuthin' to do but eat an' drink what's brought to you, nuthin' to
do but sleep when you're sleepy, no Injuns shootin' at you, no havin' to
run on your legs 'till you drop. Everything done fur you. It's a life
fur me, but I don't git much av it."
Paul laughed at Shif'less Sol's tone of deep satisfaction.
"Yes, it's good, Sol," he rejoined, "but it won't last. We won't have
more than a day of it."
The face of the shiftless one took on a look of deep disgust. "Nuthin'
good never lasts more'n a day," he said, "an' ef it does last more'n a
day you gen'ally git tired o' it."
Adam Colfax resumed his watch of the shores. Like Major Braithwaite, he
had a pair of powerful glasses, and he sought with their aid to detach
something from the black wall of the southern shore.
"I can make out nothing," he said in disappointing tones, after a long
look, "except a bright spot which must be a fire a little distance back
in the woods. You have keen eyes, Henry, my boy, see what you can see."
Henry also saw the "bright spot," and he was quite sure that it was a
fire. Then he took a look at the heavens, now a solid expanse of cloud
behind which the stars twinkled unseen. A slight wind was blowing up the
river, and its touch was damp on his face. When the lightning flared, as
it still did now and then, he saw that it was not mere heat lightning
but the token of something graver.
"I have a suggestion to make to you, sir," he said to Adam Colfax.
"Unless I am mistaken, a storm is coming. Is it not so, Tom, and you,
Sol?"
"It is," they replied together. "All the signs are sayin' so out loud."
"In an hour it will be here," resumed Henry. "The wind is blowing up
river, and I don't think it will change. That favors us. In the darkness
and tumult of the storm we ought to force the pass. It is our best
chance, sir."
He spoke very earnestly, and the rest of the five nodded their assent.
Adam Colfax was impressed, but he wished to have the endorsement of his
lieutenants.
"What do you say, gentlemen?" he asked, turning to them.
"We make zee passage, and we make eet queek to-night, as zee boy says,"
replied the brave and impulsive Drouillard.
Adam Colfax turned to the Virginian and the Northerners. All nodded in
affirmation. Then he turned to the two scouts, Thrale and Lyon.
"It's now or never," they said, looking up at the dark skies.
"Then it shall be done," said Adam Colfax firmly. "We can't afford to
delay here any longer, nor can we permit this fort to fall. Our need to
hold Kentucky is scarcely less great than our need to help our
hard-pressed brethren in the east."
Then he turned to the five, in whose valor, skill and fidelity he had
the utmost confidence.
"Do you wish to remain on the _Independence_," he said, "or would you
prefer another place in the fleet?"
Shif'less Sol, the talkative and resourceful, looked at Henry. Tom Ross,
the man of few words but resourceful, also looked at Henry. The gaze of
Long Jim was turned in the same direction, and that of Paul followed. It
was an unconscious revelation of the fact that all always looked upon
Henry Ware as their leader, despite his youth.
"If you don't mind, sir," said Henry Ware to Adam Colfax, "give us a
boat to ourselves, a small one that we can row, and we will advance
somewhere near the head of the fleet."
"The boat will be ready for you in five minutes," said Adam Colfax.
"Whatever you ask we will always give to you, if we can. Meanwhile, I
will get the fleet ready, for I see that the time cometh fast."
He spoke in almost Biblical words. In fact, there was much in Adam
Colfax that made for his resemblance to the heroes of the Old Testament,
his rigid piety, his absolute integrity, his willingness to fight in
what he thought a just cause, his stern joy when the battle was joined,
and his belief--perhaps not avowed--in the doctrine of an eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth.
He quickly summoned a small boat, and the five, refreshed and armed,
dropped into it. Then he sent the word throughout the fleet, the
_Independence_ moved up near the head of the column, and they prepared
to force the watery pass.