A SCOUT OF SIX
We were now penetrating that sad and devastated region laid waste so
recently by Brant, Butler, and McDonald, from Cobus-Kill on the
pleasant river Askalege, to Minnisink on the silvery Delaware--a vast
and mournful territory which had been populous and prosperous a
twelvemonth since, and was now the very abomination of desolation.
Cherry Valley lay a sunken mass of blood-wet cinders; Wyoming had gone
up in a whirlwind of smoke, and the wretched Connecticut inhabitants
were dead or fled; Andrustown was now no more, Springfield, Handsome
Brook, Bowmans, Newtown-Martin--all these pretty English villages were
vanished; the forest seedlings already sprouted in the blackened
cellars, and the spotted tree-cats squalled from the girdled orchards
under the July moon.
Where horses, cows, sheep, men, women, and children had lain dead all
over the trampled fields, the tall English grass now waved, yellowing
to fragrant hay; horses, barns, sheds--nay, even fences, wagons,
ploughs, and haycocks had been laid in cinders. There remained not one
thing that could burn which had not been burned. Only breeze-stirred
ashes marked these silent places, with here and there a bit of iron
from wagon or plough, rusting in the dew, or a steel button from some
dead man's coat, or a bone gone chalky white--dumb witnesses that the
wrath of England had passed wrapped in the lightning of Divine Right.
But Great Britain's flaming glory had swept still farther westward, for
German Flatts was gone except for its church and one house, which were
too near the forts for the destructives to burn. But they had laid in
ashes more than a hundred humble homes, barns, and mills, and driven
off more than a thousand cattle, horses, sheep, and oxen, leaving the
barnyard creatures dead or dying, and ten thousand skipples of grain
afire.
So it was no wonder that the provisioning of our forces at Otsego had
been slow, and that we now had five hundred wagons flying steadily
between Canajoharie and the lake, to move our stores as they arrived by
batteaux from below. And there were some foolish and impatient folk in
Congress, so I heard, who cried out at our delay; and one more sinister
jackass, who had said that our army would never move until a few
generals had been court-martialed and shot. And our Major Parr said
that he wished to God we had the Congress with us so that for once they
might have their bellyful of stratagem and parched corn.
But it is ever so with those home-loving and unsurpassed
butcher-generals, baker-brigadiers, candlestick-colonels, who, yawning
in bed, win for us victories while we are merely planning them--and,
rolling over, go to sleep with a consciousness of work well done, the
candle snuffed, and the cat locked out for the night.
About eleven o'clock on the first night out, I halted my scout of six
and lay so, fireless, until sun-up. We were not far, then, from the
head of the lake; and when we marched at dawn next morning we
encountered a company of Alden's men mending roads as usual; and later
came upon an entire Continental regiment and a company of Irregular
Rifles, who were marching down to the lake to try out their guns. Long
after we quitted them we heard their heavy firing, and could
distinguish between the loud and solid "Bang!" of the muskets and the
sharper, whip-lash crack of the long rifles.
The territory that now lay before us was a dense and sunless
wilderness, save for the forest openings made by rivers, lakes, and
streams. And it was truly the enemy's own country, where he roamed
unchecked except for the pickets of General Sullivan's army, which was
still slowly concentrating at Tioga Point whither my scout of six was
now addressed. And the last of our people that we saw was a detail of
Alden's regiment demolishing beaver dams near the lake's outlet which,
they informed us, the beavers rebuilt as fast as they were destroyed,
to the rage and confusion of our engineers. We saw nothing of the
industrious little animals, who are accustomed to labor while human
beings sleep, but we saw their felled logs and cunningly devised dams,
which a number of our men were attacking with pick and bar, standing in
the water to their arm-pits.
Beyond them, at the Burris Farm, we passed our outlying
pickets--Irregular Riflemen from the Scoharie and Sacandaga, tall,
lean, wiry men, whose leaf-brown rifle-dress so perfectly blended with
the tree-trunks that we were aware of them only when they halted us.
And, Lord! To see them scowl at my Indians as they let us through, so
that I almost expected a volley in our backs, and was relieved when we
were rid o' them.
When, later, we passed Yokam's Place, we were fairly facing that vast
solitude of twilight which lay between us and the main army's outposts
at the mouth of the Tioga. Except for a very few places on the Ouleout,
and the Iroquois towns, the region was uninhabited. But the forest was
beautiful after its own somewhat appalling fashion, which was
stupendous, majestic, and awe-inspiring to the verge of apprehension.
Under these limitless lanes of enormous trees no sunlight fell, no
underbrush grew. All was still and vague and dusky as in pillared
aisles. There were no birds, no animals, nothing living except the
giant columns which bore a woven canopy of leaves so dense that no
glimmer of blue shone through. Centuries had spread the soundless
carpet that we trod; eons had laid up the high-sprung arches which
vanished far above us where vault and column were dimly merged, losing
all form in depthless shadow.
There was an Indian path all the way from the lake, good in places, in
others invisible. We did not use it, fearing an ambush.
The Mohican led us; I followed him; the last Oneida marked the trees
for a new and better trail, and a straighter one not following every
bend in the river. And so, in silence we moved southward over gently
sloping ground which our wagons and artillery might easily follow while
the batteaux fell down the river and our infantry marched on either
bank, using the path where it existed.
Toward ten o'clock we came within sound of the river again, its softly
rushing roar filling the woods; and after a while, far through the
forest dusk, we saw the thin, golden streak of sunlight marking its
lonely course.
The trail that the Mohican now selected swung ever nearer to the river,
and at last, we could see low willows gilded by the sun, and a patch of
blue above, and a bird flying.
Treading in file, rifles at trail, and knife and hatchet loosened, we
moved on swiftly just within that strip of dusk that divides the forest
from the river shrub; and I saw the silver water flowing deep and
smooth, where batteaux as well as canoes might pass with unvexed keels;
and, over my right shoulder, above the trees, a baby peak, azure and
amethyst in a cobalt sky; and a high eagle soaring all alone.
The Mohican had halted; an Oneida ran down to the sandy shore and waded
out into mid-stream; another Oneida was peeling a square of bark from a
towering pine. I rubbed the white square dry with my sleeve, and with a
wood-coal from my pouch I wrote on it:
"Ford, three feet at low water."
The Stockbridge Indian who had stepped behind a river boulder and laid
his rifle in rest across the top, still stood there watching the young
Oneida in midstream who, in turn, was intently examining the river bank
opposite.
Nothing stirred there, save some butterflies whirling around each other
over a bed of purple milkweed, but we all watched the crossing, rifles
at a ready, as the youthful Oneida waded slowly out into the full
sunshine, the spray glittering like beaded topazes on his yellow paint.
Presently he came to a halt, nosing the farther shore like a lean and
suspicious hound at gaze; and stood so minute after minute.
Mayaro, crouching beside me, slowly nodded.
"He has seen something," I whispered.
"And I, too," returned the Mohican quietly.
I looked in vain until the Sagamore, laying his naked arm along my
cheek, sighted for me a patch of sand and water close inshore--a tiny
bay where the current clutched what floated, and spun it slowly around
in the sunshine.
A dead fish, lying partly on the shore, partly in the water, was
floating there. I saw it, and for a moment paid it no heed; then in a
flash I comprehended. For the silvery river-trout lying there carried a
forked willow-twig between gill and gill-cover. Nor was this all; the
fish was fresh-caught, for the gills had not puffed out, nor the supple
body stiffened. Every little wavelet rippled its slim and limber
length; and a thread of blood trailed from the throat-latch out over
the surface of the water.
Suddenly the young Oneida in mid-stream shrank aside, flattening his
yellow painted body against a boulder, and almost at the same instant a
rifle spoke.
I heard the bullet smack against the boulder; then the Mohican leaped
past me. For an instant the ford boiled under the silent rush of the
Oneidas, the Stockbridge Indian, and the Mohican; then they were
across; and I saw the willows sway and toss where they were chasing
something human that bounded away through the thicket. I could even
mark, without seeing a living soul, where they caught it and where it
was fighting madly but in utter silence while they were doing it to
death--so eloquent were the feathery willow-tops of the tragedy that
agitated each separate slender stem to frenzy.
Suddenly I turned and looked at the Wyandotte, squatting motionless
beside me. Why he had remained when the red pack started, I could not
understand, and with that confused thought in mind I rose, ran down to
the water's edge, the Wyandotte following without a word.
A few yards below the ford a giant walnut tree had fallen, spanning the
stream to a gravel-spit; I crossed like a squirrel on this, the burly
Wyandotte padding over at my heels, sprang to the bottom sand, and ran
up the willow-gully.
They were already dragging out what they had killed; and I came up to
them and looked down on the slain man who had so rashly brought
destruction upon his own head.
He wore no paint; he was not a warrior but a hunter. "St. Regis," said
the Mohican briefly.
"The poor fool," I said sadly.
The young Oneida in yellow clapped the scalp against a tree-trunk
carelessly, as though we could not easily see by his blazing eyes and
quivering nostrils that this was his first scalp taken in war. Then he
washed the blade of his knife in the river, wiped it dry and sheathed
it, and squatted down to braid the dead hair into the hunters-lock.
We found his still smouldering fire and some split fish baking in green
leaves; nets, hooks, spears, and a bark shoulder-basket. And he had
been a King's savage truly enough, foraging, no doubt, for Brant or
Butler, who had great difficulty in maintaining themselves in a
territory which they had so utterly laid waste--for we found in his
tobacco pouch a few shillings and pennies, and some pewter buttons
stamped, "Butler's Rangers." Also I discovered a line of writing signed
by old John Butler himself, recommending the St. Regis to one Captain
Service, an uncle of Sir John Johnson, and a great villain who recently
had been shot dead by David Elerson, one of my own riflemen, while
attempting to brain Tim Murphy with an axe.
"The poor fool," I repeated, turning away, "Had he not meddled with war
when his business lay only in hunting, he had gone free or, if we had
caught him, only as a prisoner to headquarters."
Mayaro shrugged his contempt of the St. Regis hunter; the Oneida youth
sat industriously braiding his first trophy; the others had rekindled
the embers of the dead man's fire and were now parching his raw corn
and dividing the baked river-trout into six portions.
Mayaro and I ate apart, seated together upon a knoll whence we could
look down upon the river and upon the fire, which I now ordered to be
covered.
From where I sat I could see the burly Wyandotte, squatting with the
others at his feed, and from time to time my glance returned to him.
Somehow, though I knew not why, there was about this Indian an
indefinable something not entirely reassuring to me; yet, just what it
might be I was not able to say.
Truly enough he had a most villainous countenance, what with his native
swarthiness and his broken and dented nose, so horridly embellished
with a gash of red paint. He was broad and squat and fearfully
powerful, being but a bulk of gristly muscle; and when he leaped a
gully or a brook, he seemed to strike the earth like a ball of rubber
and slightly rebound an the light impact. I have seen a sinewy panther
so rebound when hurled from a high tree-top.
The Oneida youth had now braided and oiled his scalp and was stretching
it on a willow hoop, very busy with the pride and importance of his
work. I glanced at Mayaro and caught a gleam of faint amusement in his
eyes; but his features remained expressionless enough, and it seemed to
me that his covert glance rested on the Wyandotte more often than on
anybody.
The Mohican, as was customary among all Indians when painted for war,
had also repainted his clan ensign, although it was tatooed on his
breast; and the great Ghost Bear rearing on its hind quarters was now
brilliantly outlined in scarlet. But he also wore what I had never seen
any other Indian wear when painted for any ceremony in North America.
For, just below the scarlet bear, was drawn in sapphire blue the ensign
of his strange clan-nation--the Spirit Wolf, or Were-Wolf. And a double
ensign worn by any priest, hunter, or warrior I had never before
beheld. No Delaware wore it unless belonging to the Wolf Clan of the
Lenni-Lenape, or unless he was a Siwanois Mohican and a Sagamore. For
there existed nowhere at that time any social and political society
among any Indian nation which combined clan and tribal, and, in a
measure, national identity, except only among the Siwanois people, who
were all three at the same time.
As I salted my parched corn and ate it, sitting cross-legged on my
hillock, my eyes wandered from one Indian to another, reading their
clan insignia; and I saw that my Oneida youth wore the little turtle,
as did his comrade; that the Stockbridge Indian had painted a Christian
Cross over his tattooed clan-totem--no doubt the work of the Reverend
Mr. Kirkland--and that the squatting Wyandotte wore the Hawk in
brilliant yellow.
"What is yonder fellow's name?" I asked Mayaro, dropping my voice.
"Black-Snake," replied the Mohican quietly.
"Oh! He seems to wear the Hawk."
The Sagamore's face grew smooth and blank, and he made no comment.
"It's a Western clan, is it not, Mayaro?"
"It is Western, Loskiel."
"That clan does not exist among the Eastern nations?"
"Clans die out, clans are born, clans are altered with the years,
Loskiel."
"I never heard of the Hawk Clan at Guy Park," said I.
He said, with elaborate carelessness:
"It exists among the Senecas."
"And apparently among the Wyandottes."
"Apparently."
I said in a low voice:
"Yonder Huron differs from any Indian I ever knew. Yet, in what he
differs I can not say. I have seen Senecas like him physically. But
Senecas and Hurons not only fought but interbred. This Wyandotte may
have Seneca blood in him."
The Sagamore made no answer, and after a moment I said:
"Why not confess, Mayaro, that you also have been perplexed concerning
this stranger from Fort Pitt? Why not admit that from the moment he
joined us you have had your eye on him--have been furtively studying
him?"
"Mayaro has two eyes. For what are they unless to observe?"
"And what has my brother observed?"
"That no two people are perfectly similar," he said blandly.
"Very well," I said, vexed, but quite aware that no questions of mine
could force the Sagamore to speak unless he was entirely ready. "I
suppose that there exist no real grounds on which to suspect this
Wyandotte. But you know as well as do I that he crossed not the river
with the others when they did to death that wretched St. Regis hunter.
Also, that there are Wyandottes in our service at Fortress Pitt, I did
not know before."
I waited a moment, but the Mohican said nothing, and I saw his eyes,
veiled like a dreaming bird of prey, so immersed did he seem to be in
his own and secret reflections.
Presently I rose, went down to the fire, felt with my fingers among the
ashes to be certain no living spark remained, chatted a moment with the
Oneida youth, praising him till under all his modesty I saw he was like
to burst with pride; then gave the signal for departure.
"Nevertheless," I added, addressing them all, "this is not a scalping
party; it is the six eyes of an army spying out a way through this
wilderness, so that our wagons, artillery, horses, and cattle may pass
in safety to Tioga Point.
"Let the Sagamore strike each tree to be marked, as he leads forward.
Let the Mole repeat the blow unless otherwise checked. Then shall the
Oneida, Grey-Feather, mark clearly the tree so doubly designated. The
Oneida, Tahoontowhee, covers our right flank, marching abreast of the
Mohican; the Wyandotte, Black-Snake, covers our left flank, keeping the
river bank in view. March!"
All that afternoon we moved along south and west, keeping in touch with
the Susquehanna, which here is called Oak Creek, though it is the
self-same stream. And we scouted the river region thoroughly, routing
out nothing save startled deer that bounded from their balsam beds and
went off crashing through the osiers, or a band of wild turkeys that,
bewildered, ran headlong among us so that Tahoontowhee knocked over two
with his rifle butt, and, slinging them to his shoulders, went forward
buried in plumage like same monstrous feathered goblin of the forest.
The sun was now dropping into the West; the woods on our right had
darkened; on our left a pink light netted the river ripples. Filing in
perfect silence, save for the light sound of a hatchet and the
slithering of sappy bark, I had noticed, or thought I noticed, that the
progress of the Wyandotte was less quiet than ours, where he ranged our
left flank, supposedly keeping within the forest shadow.
Once or twice I thought I heard a small stone fall to the willow gully,
as though accidentally dislodged by his swiftly passing moccasins.
Once, at any rate, I caught the glimmer of the sun striking some bit of
metal on him, where he had incautiously ranged outside the protecting
shadow belt.
That these things were purely accidental I felt sure, yet I did not
care to have them repeated. And for a long while there was neither
sound nor sun-glitter from him. Then, without even a glance or a word
for me, the Mohican quietly dropped back from the lead, waited until
the last Oneida had passed, and moved swiftly on a diagonal course to
the left, which brought him in the tracks of the Wyandotte.
He continued on that course for a while, I taking his place in the
lead, and the Wyandotte unconscious that he was followed. Then the
Sagamore came gliding into our file again, and as he passed me to
resume his lead, he whispered:
"Halt, and return along the bank. The Black-Snake has overrun a ford
where there are signs for my brother to read and consider."
I turned sharply and lifted my hand; and as the file halted I caught a
glimpse of the Oneida, Tahoontowhee, on our right, and motioned him to
cross, head the Wyandotte, and return with him. And when in a few
moments he came toward us, followed by the Huron, I said, addressing
them all:
"There should be a ford hereabouts, if I am not badly mistaken, and I
think we have accidentally overrun it. Did you see nothing that might
indicate it, Black-Snake, my brother?"
There was a furtive flicker of the Wyandotte's eyes which seemed to
include everybody before him, then he said very coolly that he had seen
no riffle that might indicate shallow water, but that there was a ford
not far below, and we ought to strike it before sunset.
"Halt here," said I, pretending to remain still unconvinced. "Sagamore,
do you come with me a rod or so upstream."
"There is no ford within a rod or two," said the Wyandotte stolidly.
And, after we had left the others, the Mohican murmured, as we hastened
on:
"No, not with one rod or two, but the third rod marks it."
Presently, speeding under the outer fringe of trees, I caught sight of
a thin line across the water, slanting from shore to shore--not a
ripple, but as though the edge of an invisible reef slightly affected
the smooth-flowing, glassy surface of the stream.
"He might have overlooked that," said I.
The Sagamore's visage became very smooth; and we climbed down among the
willows toward the sand below, and there the Mohican dropped on his
hands and knees.
Directly under his eyes I saw the faint print of a moccasin. Startled,
I said nothing; the Mohican studied the print for a few moments, then,
crouching, crept forward among the sand-willows. I followed; and at
long intervals I could make out the string of moccasin tracks, still
visible in the loose, dry sand.
"Could it be the St. Regis?" I whispered. "He may have been here
spearing fish. These tracks are not new.... And the Wyandotte might
have overlooked these, too."
"Maybe St. Regis," he said.
We had now crept nearly to the edge of the water, the dry and scarcely
discernible tracks leading us. But they were no fresher in the damp
sand. However, the Mohican did not seem satisfied, so we pulled off our
thigh-moccasins and waded out.
Although the water looked deep enough along the unseen reef, yet we
found nowhere more than four feet, and so crossed to the other side.
But before I could set foot on the shelving sand the Mohican pulled me
back into the water and pointed. There was no doubting the sign we
looked upon. A canoe had landed here within an hour, had been pushed
off again with a paddle without anybody landing. It was as plain as the
nose on your face.
Which way had it gone, upstream or down? If it had gone upstream, the
Wyandotte must have seen it and passed it without reporting it. In
other words, he was a traitor. But if the canoe had gone downstream
from this spot, or from some spot on the left bank a little above it,
there was nothing to prove that the Wyandotte had seen it. In fact,
there was every probability that he had not seen it at all. And I said
as much to the Sagamore.
"Maybe," he replied calmly.
We now cautiously recrossed the stream, scarcely liking our exposed
position, but there was no help for it. After we had dressed, I marked
the trees from the ford across the old path, which was visible here,
and so through to our main, spotted trail; the Mohican peeled a square
of bark, I wiped the white spot dry, and wrote with my wood-coal the
depth of water at the crossing; then we moved swiftly forward to join
the halted scouts.
Mayaro said to me: "We have discovered old moccasin tracks, but no ford
and no canoe marks. It is not necessary for the Black-Snake to know."
"Very well," said I calmly. "Do you suspect him!"
"Maybe. Maybe not. But--he once wore his hair in a ridge."
"What!"
"I looked down on him while he ate fish at the St. Regis fire. He has
not shaved his head since two weeks. There is a thin line dividing his
head, where the hairs at their roots are bent backward. Much oil and
brushing make hairs grow that way."
"But--what Indians wear their hair that way--like the curved ridge on a
dragoon's helmet?"
"The Eries."
I stared at him without comprehension, for I knew an Erie scalp when I
saw one.
"Not the warriors," he added quietly.
"What in heaven's name do you mean?" I demanded. But we were already
within sight of the others, and I heeded the cautioning touch of his
hand on my arm, and was silent.
When we came up to them I said:
"There are no riffles to indicate a ford"--which was true enough--"and
on the sand were only moccasin tracks a week old."
"The Black-Snake saw them," said the Wyandotte, so frankly and calmly
that my growing but indefinite suspicions of his loyalty were arrested
for the moment.
"Why did not the Black-Snake report them?" I asked.
"They were St. Regis, and a week old, as my brother says." And he
smiled at us all so confidingly that I could no longer believe ill of
him.
"Nevertheless," said I, "we will range out on either flank as far as
the ford which should be less than a mile down stream." And I placed
the Wyandotte between both Oneidas and on the forest side; and as the
valley was dry and open under its huge standing timber, I myself led,
notching the trail and keeping a lively eye to the left, wherever I
caught a glimpse of water sparkling.
Presently the Mohican halted in view of the river-bank, making a sign
for me to join him, which I did, briefly bidding the Stockbridge Mole
to notch the trees in my stead.
"A canoe has passed," said the Sagamore calmly.
"What! You saw it?"
"No, Loskiel. But there was spray on a boulder in a calm pool."
"Perhaps a deer crossed, or a mink or otter crawled across the stone."
"No; the drops were many, but they lay like the first drops of a rain,
separate and distinct."
"A great fish leaping might have spattered it."
"There was no wash against the rock from any fish-swirl."
"Then you believe that there is a canoe ahead of us going with the
current?"
"An hour ahead--less, I think."
"Why an hour?"
"The sun is low; the river boulders are not hot. Water might dry on
them in an hour or less. These drops were nearly dry, save one or two
where the sun made them shine."
"A careless paddle-stroke did it," I said in a low voice.
"No Indian is careless."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean, Loskiel, that the boulder was splashed purposely, or that
there are white men in that canoe."
"Splashed purposely?" I said, bewildered.
"Perhaps. The Black-Snake had the river watch--until you changed our
stations."
"You think it might have been a sign for him from possible
confederates."
"Maybe. Maybe clumsy white men."
"What white men? No forest runners dare range these woods at such a
time as this. Do you mean a scalping party of Butler's men?"
"Maybe."
We had been walking swiftly while we spoke together in low and guarded
tones; now I nodded my comprehension, sheered off to the right, took
the trail-lead, replacing the Stockbridge Mole, and signalled the
nearest Oneida, Grey-Feather, to join Mayaro on the left flank. This
made it necessary for me to call the Wyandotte into touch, which I did;
and the other Oneida, the "Night-Hawk," or Tahoontowhee, closed in from
the extreme outer flank.
The presence of that canoe worried me, nor could I find any explanation
for it. None of our surveyors was out--no scouts had gone in that
direction. Of course I knew that we were likely to run across scouts or
scalping parties of the enemy almost anywhere between the outlet to
Otsego Lake and Tioga Point, yet somehow had not expected to encounter
them until we had at least reached the Ouleout.
Another thing; if this phantom canoe was now within an hour of us, and
going with the current, it must at one time have been very, very close
to us--in fact, just ahead and within sight of the Wyandotte, if,
indeed, it had not come silently downstream from behind us and shot
past us in plain view of the Black-Snake.
Was the Wyandotte a traitor? For only he could have seen this. And I
own that I felt more comfortable having him on our right flank in the
forest, and away from the river; and as I notched my trees I kept him
in view, sideways, and pondered an the little that I knew of him, but
came to no conclusion. For of all things in the world I know less of
treachery and its wiles than of any other stratagem; and so utterly do
I misunderstand it, and so profound is my horror of it, that I never
can credit it to anybody until I see them hanged by the neck for it or
shot in hollow square, a-sitting upon their coffins.
Presently I saw the Sagamore stop and make signs to me that the ford
was in sight. Immediately I signalled the Wyandotte and the farther
Oneida to close in; and a few moments later we were gathered in the
forest shadow above the river, lying on our bellies and gazing far down
stream at the distant line of ripples running blood-red under the
sunset light.
Was there an ambush there, prepared for us? God knew. Yet, we must
approach and examine that ford, and pass it, too, and resume our march
on the right bank of the river to avoid the hemlock swamps and rocky
hills ahead, which no wagons or artillery could hope to pass.
My first and naturally cautious thought was to creep nearer and then
send the Wyandotte out under cover of our clustered rifles. But if he
were truly in any collusion with an unseen enemy they would never fire
on him, and so it would be useless to despatch him on such a mission.
"Wait for the moon," said the Sagamore very quietly.
His low, melodious voice startled me from my thoughts, and I looked
around at him inquiringly.
"I will go," said the Wyandotte, smiling.
"One man will never draw fire from an ambush," said the Grey-Feather
cunningly. "The wild drake swims first into the net; the flock follows."
"Why does my younger brother of the Oneida believe that we need fear
any ambush at yonder ford?" asked the Wyandotte so frankly that again I
felt that I could credit no ill of any man who spoke so fairly.
"Listen to the crows," returned the Oneida. "Their evening call to
council is long and deliberate--Kaah! Kaah! Kaah--h! What are they
saying now, Black-Snake, my elder brother?"
I glanced at the Mohican in startled silence, for we all were listening
very intently to the distant crows.
"They have discovered an owl, perhaps," said the Wyandotte, smiling,
"and are tormenting him."
"Or a Mountain Snake," said the Sagamore blandly.
Now, what the Sagamore said so innocently had two meanings. He might
have meant that the cawing of the crows indicated that they were
objecting to a rattlesnake sunning on some rock. Also he might have
meant to say that their short, querulous cawing betrayed the presence
of Seneca Indians in ambush.
"Or a Mountain Snake," repeated the Siwanois, with a perfectly blank
face. "The red door of the West is still open."
"Or a bear," said the Grey-Feather, cunningly slurring the Canienga
word and swallowing the last syllable so that it might possibly have
meant "Mohawk."
The Wyandotte turned good-humouredly to the Mohican, not pretending to
misunderstand this subtle double entendre and play upon words.
"You, Sagamore of the Loups," he said, carrying out the metaphor, "are
closer to the four-footed people than are we Wyandottes."
"That is true," said the Grey-Feather. "My elder brother, the
Black-Snake, wears the two-legged hawk."
Which, again, if it was meant that way, hinted that the Hawk was an
alien clan, and neither recognized nor understood by the Oneida. Also,
by addressing the Wyandotte as "elder" brother, the Oneida conveyed a
broad hint of blood relationship between Huron and Seneca. Yet, there
need have been nothing definitely offensive in that hint, because among
all the nations a certain amalgamation always took place after an
international conflict.
The Wyandotte did not lose his temper, nor even, apparently, perceive
how slyly he was being baited by all except myself.
"What is the opinion of the Loup, O Sagamore?" he asked lightly.
"Does my brother the Black-Snake desire to know the Sagamore's opinion
concerning the cawing of yonder crows?"
The Wyandotte inclined his ugly head.
"I think," said the Mohican deliberately, "that there may be a tree-cat
in their vicinity."
A dead silence followed. The Wyandotte's countenance was still smiling,
but I thought the smile had stiffened and become fixed, though not a
tremour moved him. Yet, what the Mohican had said--always with two
meanings, and one quite natural and innocent--meant, if taken in its
sinister sense, that not only might there be Senecas lying in ambush at
the ford, but also emissaries from the Red Priest Amochol himself. For
the forest lynx, or tree-cat, was the emblem of these people; and every
Indian present knew it.
Still, also, every man there had seen crows gather around and scold a
lynx lying flattened out on some arching limb.
Whether now there was any particular suspicion of this Wyandotte among
the other Indians; whether it was merely their unquenchable and native
distrust of any Huron whatever; whether the subtle chaff were playful
or partly serious, I could not determine from their manner or
expression. All spoke pleasantly and quietly, and with open or
expressionless countenances. And the Wyandotte still smiled, although
what was going on under that urbane mask of his I had no notion
whatsoever.
I turned cautiously, and looked behind us. We were gathered in a kind
of natural and moss-grown rocky pulpit, some thirty feet above the
stream, and with an open view down its course to the distant riffles.
Beyond them the river swung southward, walling our view with its
flanking palisade of living green.
"We camp here," I said quietly. "No fire, of course. Two sentinels--the
Night Hawk and the Black-Snake. The guard will be relieved every two
hours. Wake me at the first change of watch."
I laid my watch on a rock where all could see it, and, opening my sack,
fished out a bit of dried beef and a handful of parched corn.
Mayaro shared with me on my motioned invitation; the others fell to in
their respective and characteristic manners, the Oneidas eating like
gentlemen and talking together in their low and musical voices; the
Wyandotte gobbling and stuffing his cheeks like a chipmunk. The
Stockbridge Mole, noiseless and mum as the occult and furry animal
which gave to him his name, nibbled sparingly all alone by himself, and
read in his Algonquin Testament between bites.
The last level sun rays stripped with crimson gold the outer edges of
the woods; the stream ran purple and fire, and the ceaseless sighing of
its waters sounded soft as foliage stirring on high pines.
I said to the Mole in a low voice:
"Brother in Christ, do you find consolation and peace in your Testament
when the whole land lies writhing under the talons and bloody beak of
war?"
The Stockbridge warrior looked up quietly:
"I read the promise of the Prince of Peace, brother, who came to the
world not bearing a sword."
"He came to fulfill, not to destroy," I said.
"So it is written, brother."
"And yet you and I, His followers, go forth armed to slay."
"To prepare a place for Him--His humble instruments--lest His hands be
soiled with the justice of God's wrath. What is it that we wade in
blood, so that He pass with feet unsoiled?"
"My brother has spoken."
The burning eyes of the calm fanatic were fastened on me, then they
serenely reverted to the printed page on his knees; and he continued
reading and nibbling at his parched and salted corn. If ever a convert
broke bread with the Lord, this red disciple now sat supping in His
presence, under the immemorial eaves of His leafy temple.
The Grey-Feather, who had been listening, said quietly:
"We Iroquois alone, among all Indians, have always acknowledged one
Spirit. We call Him the Master of Life; you Christians call Him God.
And does it truly avail anything with Tharon, O my brother Loskiel, if
I wear the Turtle, or if my brother the Mole paints out the Beaver on
his breast with a Christian cross?"
"So that your religion be good and you live up to it, sign and symbol
avail nothing with God or with Tharon," said I.
"Men wear what they love best," said the Mole, lightly touching his
cross.
"But under cross and clan ensign," said I, "lies a man's secret heart.
Does the Master of Life judge any man by the colour of his skin or the
paint he wears, or the clothing? Christ's friends were often beggars.
Did Tharon ever ask of any man what moccasins he wore?"
The Sagamore said gravely:
"Uncas went naked to the Holder of the Heavens."
It was a wonderful speech for a Sagamore and an Algonquin, for he used
the Iroquois term to designate the Holder of Heaven. The perfect
courtesy of a Christian gentleman could go no further. And I thought of
our trivial and petty and warring sects, and was silent and ashamed.
The Wyandotte wiped his powerful jaw with a handful of dead leaves, and
looked coldly around at the little circle of men who differed with one
another so profoundly in their religious beliefs.
"Is this then the hour and the place to discuss such matters, and
irritate the Unseen?"
All eyes were instantly turned on the pagan; the Oneidas seemed
troubled; the Sagamore serious. Only the Christian Indian remained
placid and indifferent, his Testament suspended in his hand. But he
also was listening.
As for me, I knew as well as did the others what the pagan and burly
Wyandotte meant.
To every Indian--even to many who had been supposedly converted--air,
earth, and water still remained thronged with demons. The vast and
sunless wilderness was peopled with goblins and fairies. No natural
phenomenon occurred except by their agency. Where the sun went after it
had set, where the moon hid, the stars, the four great winds, the eight
thunders--all remained mysteries to these red children of the forest.
And to these mysteries demons held the keys. For no star fell,
showering the night with incandescence, no comet blazed aloft, its
streaming hair sweeping from zenith to horizon, no eclipse devoured sun
or moon, no sunrise painted the Long House golden, no sunset stained
its lodge-poles crimson, no waters ran, no winds blew, no clouds piled
up quivering with lightning, no thunder rumbled, except that it was
done by demons.
Fur, feather, and silver-scale also had souls, and slyly took council
together when alone; the great trees talked to one another in forest
depths; moonlit rocks conversed in secret; and peak whispered to peak
above the flowing currents of the mist.
It was useless to dispute such matters with them, while every
phenomenon of nature remained to them a mystery. For they had brains
and a matchless imagination, and they were obliged to solve these
things for themselves as best they knew how, each people according to
its personal characteristics.
So, among the Onondagas, Oneidas, and Mohawks, evil demons were few,
and good fairies many; among the Cayugas good and bad seemed fairly
balanced; but among the sullen, brutal, and bestial Senecas, devils,
witches, demons, and goblins were in the vast majority. And their
perverted Erie priesthood, which had debauched some of their own
Sachems, was a stench in the nostrils of any orthodox Sachem, and, to
an ordained Sagamore, an offense and sacrilege unspeakable.
I sat looking hard at the Wyandotte, inclined to speak, yet unwilling
to meddle where intervention must be useless.
His small, unwinking eyes met mine.
"There are demons," he said in a low voice.
"Demons in human form," I nodded. "Some were at Cherry Valley a year
ago."
"There are witches," he said.
I shook my head: "None."
"And Giants of Stone, and Flying Heads, and the Dead Hunter, and the
Lake Serpent," he persisted sullenly.
"There never were either giants or witches," I replied.
The Mole looked up from his Testament in surprise, but said nothing.
Yet, by his expression I knew he was thinking of the Witch of Endor,
and the Dukes of Edom, and the giants of the scriptures. But it seemed
hopeless to modify his religious teachings by any self-developed
theories of mine.
All I desired to do was to keep this pagan Huron from tampering with my
warriors' nerves. And it required but little of the supernatural to
accomplish this.
No Indian, however brave and faithful and wise in battle, however
cunning and tireless and unerring on forest trail or on uncharted
waters, could remain entirely undisturbed by any menace of invisible
evil. For they were an impulsive race, ever curbing their impulses and
blindly seeking for reason. But what appealed to their emotions and
their imagination still affected them most profoundly, and hampered the
slow, gradual, but steady development of a noble race emerging by its
own efforts from absolute and utter ignorance.
I said quietly: "After all, the Master of Life stands sentry while the
guiltless sleep!"
"Amen," said the Mole, lifting his calm eyes to the roof of leaves
above.
An owl began to hoot--one of those great, fierce cat-owls of the North.
Every Indian listened.
The Sagamore said pleasantly to the Wyandotte:
"It is as though he were calling the lynxes together--as Amochol the
Accursed summons his Cat-People to the sacrifice."
"I know nothing of Amochol and his sacrifices," said the Wyandotte
carelessly.
"Yet you Wyandottes border the Western Gate."
The Huron shrugged.
"Hear the Eared One squall," said Grey-Feather, as the great owl yelled
through the darkening forest.
"One would think to hear an Erie speaking," said the Sagamore, looking
steadily at the Black-Snake. But the latter seemed totally unaware of
what amounted now to a persistent baiting.
"They say," continued the Sagamore, "that the Erie priesthood learned
from the Nez Perces a strange and barbarous fashion."
"What fashion?" asked Grey-Feather, so innocently that I could not
determine whether he was playing into the Sagamore's hands.
"The fashion of wearing the hair in a short, stiff ridge," said the
Mohican. "Has the Black-Snake ever seen it worn that way?"
"Never," said the Huron. And there was neither in his voice nor on his
features the slightest tremour that we could discover in the fading
light of the afterglow.
I rose to put an end to this, for my own nerves were now on edge; and I
directed the two sentinels to their posts, the Wyandotte and the
Oneida, Tahoontowhee.
Then I lay down beside the Mohican. All the Indians had unrolled and
put on their hunting shirts; I spread my light blanket and pillowed my
head on my pack.
In range of my vision the Mole had dropped to his knees and was praying
with clasped hands. Shamed, I arose and knelt also, to say in silence
my evening prayer, so often slurred over while I lay prone, or even
entirely neglected.
Then I returned to my blanket to lie awake and think of Lois, until at
last I dreamed of her. But the dream was terrible, and I awoke,
sweating, and found the Sagamore seated upright in the darkness beside
me.
"Is it time to change the guard?" I asked, still shivering from the
horror of my dream.
"You have scarce yet closed your eyes, Loskiel."
"Why are you seated upright wide awake, my brother?"
"There is evil in the wind."
"There is no wind stirring."
"A witch-wind came slyly while you slept. Did you not dream, Loskiel?"
In spite of me I shivered again.
"That is foolishness," said I. "The Wyandotte's silly talk has made us
wakeful. Our sentinels watch. Sleep, Mayaro."
"Have you need of sleep, Loskiel?"
"I? No. Sleep you, then, and I will sit awake if it reassures you."
The Sagamore set his mouth close to my ear:
"The Wyandotte is not posted where you placed him."
"What? How do you know?"
"I went out to see. He sits on a rock close to the water."
"Damn him," I muttered angrily. "I'll teach him----"
"No!"
The Mohican's iron grip held me in my place.
"The Night-Hawk understands. Let the Wyandotte remain unrebuked and
undisturbed while I creep down to yonder ford."
"I do not intend to reconnoitre the ford until dawn," I whispered.
"Let me go, Loskiel."
"Alone?"
"Secretly and alone. The Siwanois is a magic clan. Their Sagamores see
and hear where others perceive nothing. Let me go, Loskiel."
"Then I go, also."
"No."
"What of our blood-brotherhood, then?"
There was a silence; then the Mohican rose, and taking my hand in his
drew me noiselessly to my feet beside him.
By sense of touch alone we lifted our rifles from our blankets, blew
the powder from the pans, reprimed. Then, laying my left arm lightly on
his shoulder, I followed his silent figure over the moss and down among
the huge and phantom trees faintly outlined against the starlit water.