HOW THE FORT WAS SAVED.
By this time the Pixies in the main camp had recovered from their
surprise. The Brownies' battle-cry "Rescue" showed plainly the object of
the assault. The Pixies were used to war's alarms; and, as for their
leader, Spite, lack of promptness and skill was not among his faults.
Therefore Rodney had scarcely been set free ere Spite had his followers
in line. However, he did not expect an attack upon himself, for he
fancied that the Brownies had been too much cowed lately to venture upon
the offensive. He thought they would be satisfied with rescuing Rodney,
and would then retreat, and that he determined to prevent.
"Come, my lads," he shouted, "we must not let these creatures escape us
this time. Teach them what it is to break into a Pixie camp. Fall on
them! Give no quarter; spare no one, let your battle-cry be 'Death!'" He
ran to the front as he spoke, shaking in one hand a poisoned dart and
holding in the other his war club.
[Illustration: FIG. 30.--Elf Whirlit Comes to the Rescue of Captain
Bruce.--(Illustration by Dan. C. Beard.)]
The Pixies followed keenly enough, shouting their terrible watchword.
But their confidence was dashed as they saw the Brownies, so far from
retreating, actually forming their line of battle in front of the
demilune. The Pixies paused at this sight. Even Spite hesitated a
moment. In that moment a shower of arrows rained upon them from the
Brownie bows. Then with a ringing cheer the brave fairies charged. The
two columns closed. Above the clash of weapons and clamor of battle were
heard ever and anon the voices of the Pixies sounding the war cry
"Death," and the cheery tenor of the Brownies answering with the sweet
word "Rescue."
The leaders of the two parties were in the thickest of the fight. Spite
was well seconded by his two lieutenants, Heady and Hide, and the rank
and file of the Pixies behaved valiantly. The Brownies had gained much
by their first onset upon the picket line and outposts, but, on the
other hand were far the weaker party. It were hard to say which army
might have won the fight had they been left to themselves; but this was
not to be. Madam Breeze swept down upon the struggling lines. For a
moment she hovered over the battle confused and angry at the prospect.
"Why, what can I do?" she cried. "Here, Whirlit, Keener, Bluster--you
rogues, stop I say! Don't you see?--hoogh! You can do nothing against
the Pixies without injuring the Brownies. They're so mixed together that
I can scarce tell one from the other."
Whirlit had already thrown himself into the midst of the fight. He
espied Captain Bruce and bounded to his side. Two great Pixies were
rushing upon the Captain with uplifted spears, and wide open mouths from
which terrible fangs were thrust. With one puff of his keen breath
Whirlit sent both these warriors spinning and tumbling in the dust.
"Thanks!" cried the Captain, "That was a kindly service right bravely
done." Whirlit threw himself over and over again as a token of his
satisfaction, and then said:
"Madam awaits your orders. She fears to mix in the fight lest she may do
more harm than good. What shall we do? Make haste, please, the old lady
is very much excited and won't wait long. She'll be in mischief if--"
"Silence, Sir!" said the Captain sternly. "Don't speak in such terms of
your mistress. Tell Madam Breeze with my compliments, to knock over the
Pixie camp, houses and fort, and leave the enemy themselves to us."
"Whew!" whistled Whirlit as he leaped into the air. "A peppery Brownie,
that! Served me right, however."
He found Madam Breeze almost bursting with anger, confusion, anxiety,
excitement and the exertion of self-restraint.
"You imp of ingratitude!" she began, "how could you dare--"
"Madam," cried Whirlit, interrupting her, "the Captain says, with his
compliments, you will please knock over the Pixie camp, tents, houses,
fort and all!"
Madam's brow cleared in a moment. "That I will," she answered in her
usual jovial tones. "Hie--away, my hearties! come, come now! 'Blow, ye
winds, and crack your cheeks!'"
Thereupon Madam Breeze and her company fell upon the Pixie camp. The
breastwork or demilune that had been woven around the outer bounds was
leveled in an instant. Then the clamorous crew fell upon the circle of
huts and tents that stood next within. It was not so easy work here.
"Whoop!" shouted Whirlit, as he threw himself, with full force, back
foremost, against one of the broad canvas sides. "Ugh!" was the next
exclamation heard from him as he bounded back like an india-rubber ball
and fell sprawling among tent pins and ropes.
"Ho, ho, ho!" The merry laugh of Madam Breeze rolled out through the
hurly-burly at this discomfiture of her page. "Try it again, Whirlie,
it's easily done, you know! You'd make a fine base ball, now, wouldn't
you? Ha, ha!"
Whirlit did try again; then Whisk and Bluster and Keener; and last of
all Madam Breeze threw her round body against the tent. The ropes
snapped, the walls tumbled together, and in a trice the noisy Breezes
had sent ropes, canvas, and poles streaming away into the air, broken
into a hundred pieces.[T]
One after another the Pixies' dens, nests, tents, huts, barns and
storehouses shared the same fate at the hands of the busy wreckers. In a
few moments the ruins of the camp were scattered in confused heaps upon
the earth, or were floating off upon the wings of the storm. The
females, or Pixinees, who with their broods of young had been left in
possession of the camp, at first showed fight. But they soon saw that
resistance was vain, and fled into the fort, where they hid themselves
in the sheltered corners and angles, or cowered against the lee side of
pebbles, leaves, clumps of grass, and the various rubbish that littered
the ground.[U]
All this time, the conflict was raging between the Brownies and Pixies
outside the barricade. Great as was the clamor raised at the overthrow
of the camp, the noise of battle was so loud and the feelings of the
combatants so intense, that none knew what havoc Madam Breeze was
making. A lad ran into the rear line of the Pixie troops calling for the
chief.
"Back to your mother, boy," was the gruff response, "and leave the
battle to warriors."
"But mother has fled into the fort. The house is broken down. The camp
is attacked. The barricades are leveled. Everything is ruined. I must
see the Captain."
The evil tidings rapidly spread, and even before it reached the chief
the line began to waver, and fall back toward the camp. Spite fell into
a towering rage when the message was brought to him. He cursed Madam
Breeze. He cursed the Pixie who stopped the messenger, and thus caused
the bad news to spread. He cursed Bruce and the Brownies. He cursed his
own eyes, also, although he might have saved himself that trouble, for
they had never been a blessing to anybody.
"But cursing won't mend matters, Chief," said Lieutenant Hide. "The fort
still stands; we can fall back to that, and save what we may."
"Drummer, sound the retreat," cried Spite; "and Hide, do you fall back
with the right wing to the fort. Orderly, bid Lieutenant Heady take
command and cover the retreat. Tell him to fight every inch of ground."
Then Spite turned upon his heels and hurried to the rear. In truth, he
was not sorry for an excuse to withdraw from the fight. He stumbled over
the ruins of the camp at every step. It was a complete wreck. Not a
tent, not a building of any kind remained, except the fort, to which he
bent his course. It was a huge structure, as we have seen, braced and
strengthened by every art and effort at the Pixies' command. But Spite's
heart failed him as he looked around, and saw how everything else in
camp had vanished away before the mighty breath of his adversaries.
"See!" he exclaimed, "Madam Breeze and her train have just attacked the
fort. Will it hold out, I wonder?" With this thought in mind he hurried
forward.
Keener saw him coming, and recognized him at once. "There comes Spite
the Spy!" he shouted. "At him, boys! let us toss him in one of his own
sticky blankets!"
"Aye, aye," answered Whisk, "suppose we fling him over the horns of the
moon, and let him--"
"Let him stick there," cried Whirlit, finishing the sentence. Whereat
the trio pounced pell-mell upon the Pixie chief.
"Very well, my lads," exclaimed Madam Breeze, "you're quite welcome to a
monopoly of the old beast. Phooh! How he smells of poison! He well nigh
takes my breath. Fort smashing suits me better." With these words she
threw herself against the Agalena wing of Fort Spinder. Every cord and
canvas in it shook with the violence of the onset. But it was unbroken.
Again and again the stout Elf cast herself against the walls; the cords
creaked and seemed about to part, but so elastic were they that they
swayed inward with a heavy surge and then back again. The weeds, blades
of grass and twigs to which the ropes and beams were fastened bent under
the weight of the blast, but were unbroken.
All this time Spite was struggling with the three Elves. They pinched
his skin, they plucked at his cheek, mouth and nostrils. They almost
blinded him with blasts which they cast full into his eyes. They pulled
his clothes, and held him by the limbs. But he kept on his path.
Stoutly, stubbornly he fought his way step by step until he stood at
last before the gate of the fort. He was seen at once, and a dozen of
the inmates ran forward to admit him.
"Not for your lives!" he shouted. "Don't leave a crack open, if you can
help it, for these blusterers to enter. It would be ruin to open the
gate."
He looked around him. Hide and his party were still a goodly distance
away. He could hear above the voices of the storm the rousing cheers of
the Brownies as they pressed more and more closely upon Heady, who was
doggedly giving way, disputing every inch of ground. Whirlit, Whisk and
Keener had left him, at the beck of Madam Breeze, and now joined that
lusty Elf in their assaults upon Fort Spinder.
"What is done, must be done quickly," thought Spite. "May all the furies
seize the old monster! She has broken a breach in the roof. See! the
garrison, aided by the women and children, are doing bravely. There;
that villain Keener has cut his way to the inside of Fort Agalena. And
there go Whisk and Whirlit after him. How the walls sway back and forth!
The roof bulges upward. The reprobates! They are trying to break through
the roof. If they do that and Madam Breeze gets in, all is lost; away
will go the whole building with a crash. What shall I do? If we could
only anchor the roof! But there's no ballast about. Hide and his men are
far away yet. Confusion seize them! Why aren't they here now?"
It was a trying moment for the interests of the Pixies. All seemed to
turn upon the fate of the fort; and that to depend upon one person. But
that person was Spite the Spy, and he had never yet been wholly without
resources. Hopeless as the case appeared, he was equal to the emergency.
He would save the fort if it could be saved! He jumped from the weed-top
which he had mounted for better observation, and plunged into the midst
of the ruins of the camp. He stopped before a pebble almost the size of
his own body.
"That will do, I think," he muttered. He seized the stone, twisted a
cable around it, and dragged it away toward the fort. It was but a
moment's work to climb upon an overhanging weed, fasten the cable to a
branch and swing the stone over upon the roof. The canvas sheet sank
downward under the pebble's weight. Spite watched it with keen interest.
The elastic stuff swayed upward and downward several times, and seemed
about to settle firmly, when Whirlit leaped upward against it with his
strong shoulders. The pebble flew off the roof, spinning through the air
close to the head of the Pixie chief, who looked on from his perch among
the leaves.
"Failure!" muttered Spite.
"Try again, old fellow!" shouted Whirlit from the inside, where he was
capering in high good humor above the heads of the enraged inmates.
[Illustration: FIG. 31.--"He Jumped from the Weed Top."]
"Good advice," Spite responded with feigned cheerfulness; "I will try
again. And succeed next time, too!"
A mocking laugh followed him as he swung himself down the weed by his
rope ladder, and hurried off again into the ruined camp. On--on--on! He
stopped at last.
"This is it--the very thing. But, can I manage it?" He stood before a
broken twig as thick as his own body and five or six times as long as
himself. Think of a man carrying a log as thick as himself and
twenty-five or thirty feet long! That was something like the feat that
Spite undertook.
"But I can do it," he said; "I _must_ do it!" The energy and strength
of despair were upon him. He seized the beam with his long arms, bowed
himself to the burden and lifted it. Tottering with the weight, and
stumbling over the debris of the desolate village, he laid down the beam
at last at the foot of the tall weed.
[Illustration: THE BOY'S ILLUSTRATION.
FIG. 32.--Spite the Spy Climbs a Weed to Reconnoitre.]
The task was not ended. He twisted a cable around the log and mounted
into the foliage. He stood a hundred times his own height above the
weight he wished to lift. Would he ever get it up? We shall see! He
hauled upon his rope until it was stretched to its utmost. Then one end
of the stick slowly rose above the earth; up--up--until the other end
was in the air. See! it swings quite free. It is rising higher and
higher. Hand over hand, the strong and patient workman is drawing the
beam slowly and surely toward the top of the plant.[V]
Madam Breeze began to be concerned about this new effort of Spite's. A
few more stout assaults and the roof must give way dragging with it
walls and all.
But what if Spite should manage to get his great log anchor on it? It
would hold the roof so steady that no power at her command could move
it. Moreover, it would bear the roof down toward the ground, and so
prevent Whirlit, Keener, and Whisk from breaking through by stretching
the elastic cords upward until they snapped. They could make no headway
by pressing downward since the earth stayed the cords in that direction.
And how could they heave the roof upward with a great log lying on it?
"I don't want to begin this affair all over again," quoth Madam Breeze,
"for in sooth, I'm pretty well out of breath now--wheeze! A few more
turns will use me up. Therefore, my good Mr. Spite, I fear that I must
interfere with this logging business of yours."
So saying, she flung herself upon the beam, as it hung far up in the
air, slowly mounting to its place. It swayed up and down a moment, as an
object fastened to an elastic thread will do, and then--crash! the rope
snapped, and the log fell to the ground.
Not a whit discouraged by this disaster, Spite looped the end of the
cable over the weed, and before Madam had fairly got her breath again,
he had made fast the log, reascended the bush, and was pulling might and
main upon the rope.
He had his reward. There was no second breaking of the cable, although
Madam Breeze threw her weight upon the log. It reached its position. It
hung nearly over the roof. Spite tied the rope, crept out upon the
branch, reached down to the log, and with one push of his long arm swung
it inward and over the roof. At the same time he cut the cable. The log
dropped to its place. The roof that had been bulging out, just ready to
burst, sank into its true position. The walls were anchored now. The
fort was saved![W]
Madam Breeze gathered all her strength for a last onset. Whirlit, Whisk,
and Keener on the inside vigorously seconded her attempt. But it failed.
[Illustration: FIG. 33.--A Spider Drawing up a Swathed Grasshopper to
its Leafy Den, "Hand Over Hand."]
"Well, well," said Madam, "I give it up! I'm out of breath--clear
blowed--hoogh! I've scarce wind enough to get home with--wheeze! Come
out of that, lads. Our work is done for to-day."
The three Elves crept, rather crestfallen, out of the opening in the
roof made by the pebble, and the whole party without more ado, or
another word, puffed back to Lone Aspen. Spite sat upon the branch and
watched their departure. He rubbed his hands, and said, "Aha!" He knew
that he had done a deed that would gain him glory among the Pixies. That
was pleasant; but after all, that which pleased him best was the thought
that he had saved a Pixie fort from which to plot and war against the
good Brownies.
[Illustration: FIG. 34.--An Orbweb with a Pebble Counterpoise.]
Yes, my dears, one may be clever, wise and accomplished, but very, very
bad withal. As poet Burns truly sang:
"The heart aye's the part aye
That maks us right or wrang."
Hide and his company of Pixies came up to the fort soon after Madam
Breeze and her retainers had gone. The south gate was thrown open, and
the inmates ran out and mingled with their friends, loudly praising the
deed by which Spite had saved the fort. The hero of all this praise sat
quietly on his perch resting, surveying the field, and thinking. He had
need of his wisest thoughts; for the victorious Brownies were already
beyond the outer line of the demilune, steadily driving Heady and his
division before them.
Spite dropped to the ground by the cable that still swung upon the bush.
"Go back into the fort," he said to the fugitives. "Your own homes are
gone, and that will be the safest place for you now. As for us,"
addressing the soldiers, "we must make a last stand here and keep it.
The sun is nearly down. If we can hold the position for a little
longer, night will bring relief, and give time for some plan that shall
change the fortune of battle. Advance!"
The line moved forward to support Heady. The site of the fort was well
chosen for defence. It stood upon a swelling height of the lake shore,
with a space of smooth grass in front. On this little plain, a short
distance beyond the height, at Spite's command the Pixies began putting
up a breastwork. They wrought rapidly, weaving together grass blades,
leaves and twigs, and spinning between them ropes and webs. Spite,
himself, with a few of the ablest warriors went to assist Heady in
holding back the Brownies. The plan succeeded; by the time the fighting
force was ready to fall back, the workers had thrown up a rampart behind
which the entire army retreated in good order. A series of skirmishes
began along the line of breastworks, but the evening shadows soon fell
and separated the combatants.
[Illustration: FIG. 35.--How a Spider Drops to the Ground.]
The Brownies were in fine spirits. They were confident of complete
victory on the morrow. A line of cavalry pickets, under Lieutenant
MacWhirlie, was posted throughout the plain, which skirted nearly
three-fourths of the knoll on which the fort stood. These pickets were
ordered to keep moving the whole night, thus keeping strict guard upon
the Pixies at the points whence they were most likely to make a sally or
seek to escape. Sentinels were also placed on the lake side or rear of
the fort. In that quarter the bank sloped toward the lake, and was
dotted with bushes that straggled singly and in clumps to the water's
edge. Soon the camp fires and lanterns of the Brownie army were
glimmering along the outer border of the plain and through the copse by
the lake side. They looked like fire-flies dancing among the boughs, and
indeed they were encaged fire-flies, or bits of fox-fire from decayed
stumps. As the whole country was now open to Captain Bruce, he had no
trouble in securing supplies for his troops, so that the Brownies went
to the night's rest or duty with refreshed bodies as well as hopeful
spirits.
[Illustration: FIG. 36.--"Weaving Together Grass, Leaves and Twigs."]
Matters were not so pleasant with the Pixies. The provisions laid up
within Fort Spinder were not abundant, and Spite had to order all to be
put upon short rations. Moreover, their hunting ground was quite
limited, of course, and the game on which they were used to prey had
been frightened off by the late commotions. However, the lights from the
watch fires of their enemies drew some unwary and over curious night
wanderers within the confines of the fort, and the hungry Pixies were
able to catch a few of them. As for Spite, their chief, he was silent
and moody. After mounting the guards, and giving necessary orders, he
threw himself upon the ground, wrapped his blanket around him and began
to think. We shall learn the fruits of his plotting, by and by.[X]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote T: Appendix, Note A.]
[Footnote U: Note B.]
[Footnote V: Appendix, Note C.]
[Footnote W: Appendix, Note D.]
[Footnote X: Appendix, Note E.]