MR. ISAAC PERKINS.
Grinning in his imperturbable fashion, the Mohawk turned part way round,
and made a signal, evidently for some one invisible to all. Be that as
it may, it was instantly responded to by the coming forward of a man in
the ordinary dress of a farmer settler of the valley. He had an honest
countenance, and was about forty years old. As he came into full view,
so that the firelight fell full upon his face, he was recognized as an
old acquaintance, named Perkins, who lived but a short distance from
where the camp fire was burning.
"Wall, how are ye all?" he asked in a drawling voice and an accent that
betrayed the fact that he was one of the descendants of the Connecticut
pioneers that built Forty Fort, not a great many years before. "I say,
how are ye all?" he continued, as he began shaking hands round. "I'll be
shot if I expected to see any one of ye folks round here. I say, how
are ye all agin?"
"Well, Ike," replied Ned Clinton, who was well acquainted with him, and
felt authorized to answer, "we are all right, as you can see for
yourself, and you seem to be equally fortunate."
"Wall, I s'pose I am," was the hesitating answer, "the main trouble
being that we have been suffering for the last few days from a dreadful
scare; but then we hain't been injured in any way, thanks be to the Lord
for it all."
"Then you aren't alone--"
"Yes, I am," interrupted the farmer; "that is, when I'm abroad."
The precise meaning of this was not clear to the listeners, but Ned
continued without noticing it:
"I did not see you in the battle, Mr. Perkins."
"No, thanks be to the Lord for it all, I was able to keep out by running
away, when the battle begun, or rather a little before. I had hard work
to get clear; thanks to the Lord, I managed to do it."
"Where's your family?"
"Wall, now, thar's where I've ben specially favored again. You know that
there are three of us--myself, Mrs. Perkins, and Master George
Washington Perkins, aged four years, so I had my hands full in looking
after them; but the second Mrs. Perkins is a remarkable woman, and
possesses an exceedingly powerful mind--an exceedingly powerful mind,
beyond all question. I must give her the credit for the able management
of this enterprise, for she deserves more credit than I. You know how
brave a man I am by nature, and how I have a natural hankering for gore.
Wall, that yearning to be killing some one made me furious to plunge
head first into the battle when it began raging down the valley, and I
started seventeen times--yes, seventeen times--to go in to do or die, I
didn't care which, but Mrs. Perkins had her eagle eye on me, and every
time I made a rush, she rushed also, and caught me by the coat-tails,
and nothing short of an earthquake could have persuaded her to let go.
Wall, to make that story short, she prevailed, and kept me out of the
struggle, thanks be to the Lord for all that."
"But how did you manage to keep clear of the Indians?"
"There it was her planning again. She called to mind a spot in the woods
not far away, where, when she was a sweet little girl, she used to play
hide-and-whoop with her playmates, and where she was always able to
secure a hiding that baffled the skill of her young friends, and
straightway it occurred to her that there was the very spot in which to
take refuge, and there we went."
"Any trouble in getting there?"
"Nothing to speak of," replied the farmer, in his lofty way. "Of course
the Tories and Indians tried to head us off, but I had a gun, and the
strength of my good right arm, and more than all that, I had Mrs.
Perkins as my second in command, and where was the use of any one trying
to break such a combination as that? We were bound to prevail, and we
never allowed ourselves to be turned aside by any trifles, and we
reached the refuge in safety, and there we are staying, and expect to
stay till things quiet down again."
"But how did you manage for food?" asked Jo, desirous of testing the
accuracy of the Mohawk's judgment when he declared that the first gun
fired had been discharged by a man in the situation of Perkins while
searching for something to eat.
"Wall," he said, in the old drawling style peculiar to men who love to
hear themselves talk, "when stealing becomes a matter of necessity, it
ain't stealing any longer, and I have been in the habit of slipping out
on the sly and fetching down some of the stock that's roaming through
the woods without knowing who their master is--thanks be to the Lord for
all that!"
"Was that you who fired off your gun a little while ago?"
"I've shot off my rifle twice within the last hour. The first time was
at a hog, and I missed him, for, somehow or other, the rampaging of the
Indians and Tories through the valley seems to have upset everything,
the dumb animals as well--Mrs. Perkins is more nervous than
usual--thanks be to the--I was about to say that the dumb critters know
that something is going on round them that ain't right, and they are as
wild as mad bulls, which is why I come to miss hitting that porker."
So the rather lengthy reply of the loquacious farmer proved that
Lena-Wingo was accurate in his opinion as to the reason the former shot
was fired.
"Was your second shot sent after another wild animal?"
At this question, Mr. Perkins looked meaningly at the Mohawk and
laughed:
"Wall, no; I don't suppose it would be safe to call Red Jack a wild
animal, but when I caught sight of him, or, rather, heard him moving
through the woods, I set him down as one of the Iroquois, who have made
Mrs. Perkins so nervous--thanks to the--I say I set him down as one of
those villains, and I blazed away."
"Did you hit him?"
"Wall, no--thanks to the Lord for it all--for, to tell the truth, I
didn't try, for I don't like to pick off a man in that style without
giving him a little notice, though I'm sorry to say I've had to do it
more than once. I just meant to give him a scare, and I guess I made out
to do that--didn't I, Jack?"
"Not much scare--don't shoot straight," was the rather uncomplimentary
reply of the Mohawk.
"Wall, we won't quarrel over that, Jack, for I'm mighty glad I didn't
hurt you. I would have felt very bad if I had shot such a good fellow as
you."
"Do you know whether there are any more Indians in this neighborhood?"
"I don't think there are any nearer than Forty Fort; they have been
rampaging up and down the valley for the past two or three days, but
they must have found that I'm around, for they are a good deal more
afraid than they were. But then there was quite a lot of them through
these parts to-day."
"Did you see Colonel Butler and his party?"
"Oh, yes," answered the settler, as though he pitied the ignorance of
his listeners, "I have had them under my eye ever since they came out of
the fort. Do you know that I came very near capturing them all?"
Ned replied that they had no knowledge of such a startling fact.
"The minute I laid eyes onto them, I made up my mind they were up to
some deviltry, and I watched them--watched them as a cat does a mouse. I
heard that old rascal say something about his looking for the purtiest
lady in the valley, and I knew at once he meant Mrs. Perkins, and that
roused my dander, as you may guess, and I swore I would go for him. I
was so mad that I was determined to snatch the whole party, and I laid
my plans to do it."
"And how was it that you failed?"
"By the merest slip in the world. My plan was to follow close behind,
dogging their footsteps, and picking them off one by one till they were
all gone. It would have been a big thing, wouldn't it?"
"Most certainly it would; and why did you fail?"
"Wall, I'm just telling you; it didn't take me long to fix up all my
scheme, and I had just drawn a bead on Colonel Butler, having Captain
Bagley in a line, too, so that I was sure to fetch them both, when I
happened to remember that my gun wasn't loaded. I drew off to load it
with an extra large charge, when something must have told them of the
danger that threatened, for they moved off and before I could find them
again it was so dark that they couldn't be found, and so by that narrow
chance they all escaped."