"What do you think of this Englishman?"
Dale was pacing Kenneth's office with his hands in his pockets, while
the latter, seated before his table, where were arranged various
bottles, gallipots, and a delicate pair of scales, was busily engaged
in weighing out medicines and putting them in powders.
He smiled slightly, then answered in a grave, somewhat preoccupied
tone:
"Handsome, intelligent, travelled, apparently wealthy! can be very
interesting in conversation, but haunts my office a little more than
is perfectly agreeable to a man whose time is often more than money."
"No insinuation I hope?" returned Dale, laughing and shrugging his
shoulders.
"Not at all, Godfrey, I feel at liberty to invite you to retire when
I wish to be rid of you."
"Thank you; I regard that as an incontrovertible proof of friendship.
But to return; I don't fancy the fellow; he's too highly polished;
his extreme suavity of manner fills me with a desire to knock him
down. There's nothing like an air of patronage to make my angry
passions rise."
"And then he's forever at Miss Lamar's side, robbing every other
fellow of the least chance to bask in her smiles. I haven't been able
to exchange a dozen sentences with her in the week that he's been in
our town. I vote that he be sent back to his own country."
Dale did not see the half spasm of pain that contracted Kenneth's
brow for an instant.
"I must go now, have to ride ten miles into the country," he said,
folding the last powder; then bestowing them, along with such other
medical and surgical appliances as he might have need of, in his
saddle-bags, he summoned Zeb to put them on his horse, ready saddled,
at the door, and donning overcoat and hat, hurried out, mounted and
away at a rapid gallop.
The principal streets had now been cleared of trees and Indians
wigwams alike; they were very wide and straight, giving an extended
view and plenty of room for the passage of equestrians and vehicles.
Far ahead of him Kenneth could see a lady and gentleman on horseback
cantering briskly along; he overtook them, and in passing caught, and
returned, a smile and bow from Nell Lamar and the Englishman.
They were out for a ride through the gay, beautiful woods this
delicious October morning.
Something akin to envy of Lyttleton stirred for a moment in Kenneth's
breast; but he struggled against it.
"Why should I grudge to him the prize that can never be mine?" he
asked himself. "And am I so utterly, so abominably selfish, that I
cannot rejoice in her happiness, though it be with another? Faster,
faster, good Romeo," he continued aloud, patting the neck of his
noble steed; "let us bestir ourselves, my boy, for we are needed
yonder, and jealousy and envy must be left behind."
The intelligent creature seemed to understand, and urged by neither
whip nor spur, flew over the ground with almost the speed of the
wind.
Far in the distance a farm-house loomed up into sight, and as they
drew rapidly nearer Kenneth could descry a horseman galloping
furiously toward it from the opposite direction.
His first thought was that it might be another messenger from the
house to which he was bound, some miles farther on, and where a
patient lay very ill.
But no; the man drew rein at the gate of the dwelling already in
sight, and as Kenneth came dashing up, was in earnest colloquy with
the farmer.
They hailed him.
"Hollo, doctor! stop a bit. Have you heard the news?"
"No," he answered, coming to a sudden halt alongside of the other
horseman, whom he now recognized as a farmer living some distance
down the prairie. "Are you the bearer of evil tidings, Coe, an
accident, some one hurt? I have hardly time to stop unless my
services are needed."
"Worse than that, doctor; he's beyond your help, poor fellow; but
you'd best listen, for all that!"
"Yes," put in the other man, with an oath, "it's the doin's o' those
cussed red skins, an' if ye don't look out doc, they'll be takin'
your scalp afore ye know it."
"What! you don't mean that the Indians have begun hostilities again,
Wolf?"
"Yes, sir; I do!" he cried with a yet fiercer oath, and bringing his
fist down heavily upon the palm of the other hand; "here's Coe brings
news that Captain Herrod's found lyin' in the woods murdered and
scalped; Captain Herrod, a man greatly loved by his neighbors, as ye
must know, and of course it's their work; and the next thing they'll
be burning down our houses about our ears, and butcherin' and
scalpin' men, women and children, as they did afore Mad Anthony Wayne
whipped 'em into good behavior. The dirty, sneakin', treacherous
rascals!" he went on, "I hate 'em like pizen."
"Is there any positive proof that Herrod met his death at their
hands?" Kenneth asked, turning to Coe.
"No; but it looks likely; and I'm out to warn the settlers in
the valley that we'd best be moving close together and building
block-houses for protection."
"That we had," exclaimed Wolf, again cursing the savages as cruel and
treacherous.
"They have often proved so in past times," said Kenneth; "yet there
have been some noble exceptions, and certainly we have not been
guiltless in our treatment of them."
"We've paid 'em back in their own coin," Wolf answered with a savage
grin; "and we'll do it again; I'd as lief shoot a red skin as a dog
any day."
"Yet it is as truly murder as to kill a white man," said Kenneth,
"for God hath made of one blood all nations of men. But we have no
time to talk, Coe. You go on to Chillicothe?"
"Yes, and beyond, warning everybody to be getting ready for the
worst. I must be off. Good day to ye both, gentlemen."
He put spurs to his horse, but Kenneth called after him:
"Stay a moment; I passed a lady and gentleman riding out from the
town. Be on the lookout for them and warn them to hurry back, will
you?"
"All right, doc!" and each sped on his way, Kenneth's thoughts
divided between grief for the violent death of a friend and neighbor,
and anxiety for his patient, and for sweet Nell Lamar, who might be
even now in danger from the savages.
Alas, to have to trust her to the Englishman's care, and he in all
probability entirely unarmed!
It was sorely against his will that Kenneth continued to increase the
distance between her and himself.
Nor did he tarry unnecessarily in the sick room or snatch even
a moment to refresh himself with food, though in need of it and
urgently pressed to sit down to a well spread board.
"Do now, doctor, stop and take a bite," entreated the lady of the
house, following him to the door; "why it'll be the middle of the
afternoon or even later before you can get back to Chillicothe."
"Thank you kindly, Mrs. Bray," he said, tightening his saddle girth
as he spoke, "but I really do not feel hungry, and am in very great
haste to return."
"Excited over this news of poor Captain Herrod?" she said. "Well,
it's just as likely to have been the work of some white man as of the
Indians, I think; somebody that's had a grudge against him."
"He was much beloved, Mrs. Bray."
"That's true too, and yet I've heard he had an enemy."
"I do not know, but hope it may not prove the beginning of
hostilities," Kenneth returned as he sprang into the saddle. "Good
afternoon, madame. Now, Romeo, good fellow, on at the top of your
speed."
He glanced warily from side to side, alert but courageous, as he
skimmed over the prairies and plunged through the forests; yet no
sign of lurking savage rewarded his vigilance.
He did not halt or slacken his pace till fairly within the limits
of the town; then allowing his panting steed to fall into a walk, he
looked up and down the streets.
People were hurrying along in unusual haste, or standing in groups
talking earnestly, with grave, sad, anxious faces.
Major Lamar, detaching himself from one of these knots of talkers,
called to Kenneth to stop, then coming to his side asked if he had
heard the news.
"Of poor Captain Herrod? Yes. What is thought of it, that it's the
doing of the Indians?"
"There are various opinions. We have held a town meeting, resolved
to prepare for the worst, discovered that there is no ammunition in
town, and started a party down the river in a pirogue, to bring a
supply from Cincinnati."
"No ammunition in town, is it possible, and we may be attacked at any
moment!"
"True: but we do not hear of any Indians being seen on the war path.
We will hope for the best."
"Miss Nell?" inquired Kenneth, "I passed her and Lyttleton as I left
town this morning."
"Yes; they met Coe and came back in something of a panic. Nell hardly
the more alarmed of the two, I fancy;" and there was a sly twinkle
in the major's eye, an almost imperceptible smile lurking about the
corners of his mouth.
"She is safe then? I was a little uneasy, not knowing how far they
meant to go."
By this time quite a little crowd had collected about Romeo, and
Kenneth was plied with eager queries as to the road he had been
travelling, and whether he had seen any signs of hostile Indians.
His replies negativing the last question, seemed to afford some
slight satisfaction, some hope that there was less occasion for alarm
than had been feared.
Still all were in favor of proceeding with the work, already resolved
upon in the public meeting, of fortifying the town. Kenneth was
dismounting at his office door when Barbour hailed him, with a
request that he would come at once to his house, as his wife seemed
in a very bad way.
"What is the matter?" asked the doctor, hurrying along by Barbour's
side.
"I hardly know, doc; she's a good deal alarmed with this story of
Captain Herrod's murder, and really seems hardly able to breathe."
"Hysteria, doubtless."
"Dangerous?"
"No, not particularly so," returned the doctor dryly.
But Mrs. Barbour managed to detain him in attendance upon her for a
couple of hours, insisting that she should certainly die if he left
her, till at last he was compelled to tell her that he could not stay
another moment, nor was it at all necessary that he should.
Returning to his office he found Major Lamar waiting for him, with
an invitation to tea. Kenneth demurred, though beginning to be most
uncomfortably sensible that he had not tasted food since an early
breakfast, but the major would take no denial.
"I have some very fine game, and have set my heart upon sharing the
enjoyment of it with you," he said; "and I shall be quite in disgrace
with my wife if I fail to bring you according to promise. Bernard
and Lyttleton are to sup with us too; so that you may feel assured
of a feast of reason and a flow of soul," he added, jocosely; "the
Englishman is a good talker, you know."
"Yes, his conversational powers are enviable," Kenneth answered in a
tone of hearty good will. "And since you are so kindly urgent, major,
I will go with you."
A vision of Lyttleton basking in Nell's sunny smiles, calling forth
her silvery laughter with his mirth-provoking sallies, thrilling her
with his stories of wild adventure, or moving her to tears with the
pathos of his description of human suffering or heroism in times of
danger, had brought about this decision, erroneously ascribed by the
major to the attractiveness of the picture he had drawn.
Kenneth made a hasty toilet and they walked over to the major's
together.
Full half of Lyttleton's time during this week in Chillicothe had
been spent there, as Kenneth knew to his no small disturbance. In
vain he reminded himself that he could never claim Nell as his own,
therefore had not the shadow of a right to stand in the way of
another; he could not school his heart into a willingness to utterly
resign the faint hope that would linger there, spite of reason's
mighty arguments against it.