*CHAPTER XXXVI*
*THE LAST FIGHT*
Out from the forest rushed the remnant of that band which had smoked thepeace pipe with the Governor one sunny afternoon on the banks of thePamunkey. Tall and large of limb, painted with all fantastic andghastly devices, and decorated with hideous mementoes of nameless deeds;with the lust of blood written large in every fierce lineament and darkand rolling eye; with raised hands grasping knife and tomahawk, and lipsuttering cries that seemed not of earth--a more appalling vision couldnot have issued from out the beautiful, treacherous forest, a morecrashing discord have come into the music of the golden evening.
For the two in their rocky fortress beneath the crags the apparition hadno terrors. All the pain, the anguish, the hopelessness of the worldwas passing from them--the cry that swelled through the forest was itsknell. They smiled to hear it, and with raised faces looked beyond themany-tinted evening skies into clear spaces where Love was all. Theintoxication of the moment when hidden and despairing love became lovetriumphant and acknowledged abode with them. In the very grasp of deathineffable bliss possessed them. Their countenances changed; the linesof care and pain, the marks of tears, were all gone, and the beauty ofthe happy soul shone out. For that brief space of time transcendentyouth and loveliness was theirs. About them, as about the sun nowsinking behind the low hills, there breathed a glory, a dying splendoras bright as it was fleeting. They felt, too, a lightness and gaiety ofspirit--they had drunk of the nectar of the gods, and no leaden weightof care, no heavy sorrow, could ever touch them, ever drag them downagain to the sad earth.
"You are beautiful," said Landless, gazing at her, even in the act ofraising his gun to his shoulder; "as beautiful as you were the day Ifirst saw you. I hear the drone of the bees in the vines at VerneyManor. I smell the roses. I look up and see the Rose of the World. Myeyes were dazzled then, are dazzled now, my Rose of the World."
"That day I wore brocade and lace, and there were pearls around mythroat," she said with a laugh of pure delight. "There was rouge uponmy cheeks, too, sir, and my eyes were darkened. To-day I go a beggarmaid, in rags, burnt by the sun--"
"The nut-brown maid," he said.
"Ay," she answered, "the nut-brown maid--'For in my mind of allmankind'--you may e'en finish it yourself, sir."
The Ricahecrians had paused at the foot of the ascent to hold a council.It was soon over. With another burst of cries they rushed up the steepand upon the rocks, behind which were hidden their victims. Landless,kneeling to one side of the gap between the boulders by which he andPatricia had entered, fired, and the foremost of the savages threw uphis arms, uttered a dreadful cry, and fell across the path of hisfellows. For one moment the rush was checked, the next on they came,yelling furiously and brandishing their weapons. Landless fired andmissed, fired again and pierced the thigh of a gigantic warrior,bringing him crashing to the ground. The line wavered, paused, thenturning, swept to one side and so passed out of sight.
"They have found this pass too formidable," said Landless. "They willtry now to force an entrance from the side. Do you watch the front, myqueen, while I face them, coming over the rocks."
"I looked only at the mulatto," she said. "The others are shadows tome."
"His time is come," said Landless. "Do not fear him, sweetheart."
"I fear not," she answered. "I have the perfect love."
Along the top of a tall boulder to their right appeared a dark redline--the arm of a savage, with clutching fingers. Above it, veryslowly and cautiously, there rose first an eagle's feather, then coarseblack scalp lock, then a high forehead and fierce eyes. The echo ofLandless's shot reverberated through the cliffs, and when the smokecleared only the bare gray boulder faced him. But from behind it came aderisive yell.
"Thou wilt think me a poor marksman, my dear," he said, smiling, as hereloaded his musket. "I have missed again."
"It is because you are wounded," she said. "I would I had thy wounds."
"I had a wounded heart, but you have healed it," he said, and looked ather with shining eyes.
The sun sank and the long twilight of the hills set in. The eveningstar was brightening through the pale amethyst of the sky when Landlesssaid quietly: "The last charge," and emptied it into an arm which forone incautious moment had waved above the rocks.
"It is the end, then," said Patricia.
"Yes, it is the end. We have beaten them back for the moment, butpresently they will find that all we could do we have done, and then--"
She left her post beside the gap in the front, and came and knelt besidehim, and he took her in his arms.
"It is not Death before us, but Life," she said in a low voice.
"It is God and Love, naught else," he answered. "But the river betweenwill be bitter for you to cross, sweetheart."
"We cross it together," she said, "and so--" She raised her head thathe might see her radiant smile, and their lips met.
"Hark!" she said directly with her hand on his. "What is that sound?"
He shook his head. "The wind has risen, and the forest rustles andsighs. There is nothing more."
"It is far off," she answered, "but it is like the dip of oars. Ah!"
Over against them, framed in the narrow opening between the rocks, hislithe, half-nude figure dark against the crimson west, and with a smileupon his evil lips and in his evil eyes, stood Luiz Sebastian. In thedead silence that succeeded he looked with a smiling countenance fromthe musket, now useless and thrown aside, to his enemy, wounded andunarmed save for a knife, and to the woman in that enemy's arms; then,without turning, he said a few words in an Indian tongue. From thedusky mass behind him came one short, wild cry of savage triumph,followed by another dead silence.
Still holding Patricia in one arm, Landless rose from his knee, andstood confronting him.
"We are met again, Senor Landless," said Luiz Sebastian smoothly.Receiving no answer, he spoke again with a tigerish expansion of histhick lips. "You have had an accident, I see. Mother of God! that footmust pain you! But you will forget it presently in the pleasure of thepine splinters."
"I will forget it in the pleasure of this," said Landless, releasingPatricia, and springing upon the mulatto with a suddenness and violencethat sent them both staggering through the opening between the rocks,out upon the narrow plateau and into the ring of Ricahecrians. LuizSebastian was strong, with the easy masked strength of the panther, butLandless had the strength of despair. The mulatto, thrown heavily tothe ground, and pinned there by his adversary's knee, saw the gleam ofthe lifted knife, and would have seen nothing more in this life, butthat a woman's cry rang out and saved him. Landless heard, turned, sawPatricia dragged from the shelter of the rocks, leaped to his feet,leaving his work undone, and rushed upon the knot of savages with whomshe was struggling. A moment saw him beside her with the Indian who hadheld her dead at his feet. Behind them was the great boulder which hadformed the front wall of their chamber of defense. He put his armaround her, and drew her back with him until they stood against thisrock, then faced the advancing savages with uplifted knife.
So determined was his attitude, so terribly had they proved his power,so certain it was that before he should be taken one at least of theirnumber would taste that knife, that the Ricahecrians paused, swaying toand fro, yelling, working themselves into a fury that should send themon like maddened brutes, blind and deaf to all things but their lust forblood.
"I hear a sound of footsteps over the leaves," said Patricia.
"The wind rustles in them, or the deer pass," answered Landless. "Oh,my life! are you content?"
She answered with a low, clear laugh. "I hold happiness fast," shesaid. "It cannot escape us now."
"They are coming," he said. "The last kiss, heart of my heart."
Their lips met, and their eyes with a smile in them met, and then he puther gently behind him, and turned to again face Luiz Sebastian.
With his eyes fixed upon the yellow face, he had raised his hand tostrike at the yellow breast, spotted and barred with the black of thewar paint, when an Indian, gliding between, struck up his arm, and sentthe knife tinkling down upon the rocks. With a yell of triumph thesavage snatched up the weapon, and brandished it, showing it to hisfellows, who, seeing their work accomplished, and the two whom they hadtracked so far actually in their hands, made the forest ring with theirexultant shouts. A few closed in around the devoted pair, directing atthem fiendish cries and no less fiendish laughter, and menacing themwith knife and tomahawk, but the majority streamed down the steep andinto the forest at its base.
"They go to gather wood," said the still smiling Luiz Sebastian. "Byand by we are to have a bonfire. Senor Landless has often carried wood,I think, in those old times when he was a slave, and when the prettymistress behind him there treated him as such--unless she gave himfavors in secret. But, Mother of God! now that she has made him master,we must carry the wood for him!"
Landless, standing with folded arms, looked at him with quiet scorn."It is the nature of the viper to use his venom," he said calmly. "Sucha thing cannot anger me."
"At the same time it is as well to crush the viper," said a voice at hiselbow.
The speaker, who was Sir Charles Carew, had come from behind theboulders which ran in a straggling line down the hillside toward theriver. He had his drawn sword in his hand, and as he spoke, he ran themulatto through the body. The wretch, his oath of rage and astonishmentstill upon his lips, fell to the ground without a groan, writhed there amoment or two, and then lay still forever.
From the forest below rose a loud confusion of shouts and cries,followed by a volley of musketry. At the sound the half dozen savagesupon the plateau turned and plunged down the hillside, to be met beforethey reached the bottom by the upward rush of a portion of the rescuingparty. For a short while the twilight glades, low hills and frowningcrags rang to the sound of a miniature battle, to the quick crack ofmuskets, the clear shouts of the whites, and the whoops of the savages.But by degrees these latter became fainter, further between, diedaway--a short ten minutes, and there were no warriors left to return tothe village in the Blue Mountains. Fierce shedders of blood, they werepaid in their own coin.
On the hill-top Sir Charles shot his rapier into its scabbard, andstrode over to Patricia, standing white and still against the rock. "Iwas in time," he said. "Thank God!"
She made no motion to meet his extended hands, but stood looking pasthim at Landless. Her face was like marble, her eyes one dumb question.Landless met their gaze, and in his own she read despair, renunciation,strong resolve--and a long farewell.
"You are come in time, Sir Charles Carew," he said. "A little more, andwe should have been beyond your reach. You will find the lady safe andwell, though shaken, as you see, by this last alarm. She will speak forme, I trust, will tell you that I have used her with all respect, that Ihave done for her all that I could do.... Madam, all danger is past.Will you not collect yourself and speak to your kinsman and savior?"
He spoke with a certain calm stateliness of voice and manner, as of onewho has passed beyond all emotion, whether of hope or fear, and in hiseyes which he kept fixed upon her there was a command.
"Speak to me, my cousin; tell me that I am welcome," said Sir Charles,flinging himself upon his knee before her.
With a strong shudder she looked away from the still, white, and sternlycomposed face opposite to the darkening river and the evening starshining calmly down upon a waste world.
At length she spoke. "I was all but beyond this world, cousin, sopardon me if I seem to come back to it somewhat tardily. You have mythanks, of course--my dear thanks--for saving my life--my life which isso precious to me."
She gave him her hand with a strange smile, and he pressed his lips uponit. "Your father is below, dearest cousin. Shall we descend to meethim? As to this--gentleman," turning with a smile that was like a frownto Landless, "I regret that circumstances combine to prevent ourrewarding him as the guardian (a trusty one, I am sure) of so precious ajewel should be rewarded. But Colonel Verney will do--I will do--allthat is possible. In the mean time I observe with regret that he iswounded. If he will allow me, I will send him my valet, who is below,and is the best barber surgeon in the three kingdoms. Come, dearestmadam."
He bowed low and ceremoniously to Landless, who returned the salute withgrave courtesy, and gave his hand to Patricia. For one moment shelooked at Landless with wide, dark eyes, then, her spirit obedient tohis spirit, she turned and went from him without one word or backwardlook.
The color had quite faded from the west, and the stars were thickeningwhen Landless became conscious that the overseer was standing besidehim. "You are the hardest one to hold that ever I saw," said thatworthy grimly, and yet with a certain appreciation of the qualities thatmade the man at his feet hard to hold showing in his tone, "but I fancywe 've got you at last. You 've gone and put yourself in bilboes."
Landless smiled. "This time you may keep me. I shall not interfere.But tell me how you come here. You were sent back to the Plantations."
"Ay," said the other, "and there was the devil to pay, I can tell you,when I had to report you missing to Sir William. But Major Carringtonstood my friend, and I got off with a tongue-drubbing. Well, afterabout three weeks or so, during which time the dogs and the searchersbrought back most all of the run away niggers, and Mistress Lettice hadhysterics every day, back comes the Colonel and Sir Charles with ten ofthe twenty men who had rowed them up the Pamunkey. The rest had fallenin a brush with the Monacans. They had n't come up with theRicahecrians, had n't seen hair nor hide of them, had but one reportfrom the Indian villages along the river, and that was that noRicahecrians had passed that way. So after a while they were forced tobelieve that they were upon a false scent, and back they comes posthaste to the Plantations to get more men, and go up the Rappahannock.Well, they went up the Rappahannock, and found nothing to their purpose,so back they came again to try the James and the country above theFalls. This time they found the Settlements, which had been before likean overturned hive, pretty quiet, the ringleaders of your precious plothaving all been strung up, and the rest made as mild as sheep withbranding and whipping and doubling of times. So, the tobacco being inand the plantation quiet, things were left to Haines, and I came alongwith the Colonel. Major Carrington, too, who they say is in theGovernor's black books, though Lord knows he was active enough instamping out this insurrection, asked to be allowed to join in thesearch for his old friend's daughter, and so he's down in the woodsyonder. And Mr. Cary is there, and Mr. Peyton (Mistress BettyCarrington made _him_ come) and Mr. Jaclyn Carter. Fegs! half the younggentry in the colony pressed their services on the Colonel. It got tobe the fashion to volunteer to run their heads into the wolf's mouth forMistress Patricia. But Sir Charles choked most of them off.'Gentlemen,' he says, says he, 'despite the saying that there cannot betoo much of a good thing, I beg to remind you that the disastrousfortunes of those who first struggled with the forest and the Indians inthis western paradise are attributed to the fact that they were twothirds gentlemen. Wherefore let us shun the rock upon which theysplit'--"
"How many of my fellow conspirators were put to death?" interruptedLandless.
"All the principal ones--them that Trail denounced as leaders. The restwe pardoned after giving them a lesson they won't soon forget. We letbygones be bygones with the redemptioners and slaves--all but thosedevils who got away that night at Verney Manor, and with Trail at theirhead, made for Captain Laramore's ship which was going to turn pirate.Well, they got to the boats, and one lot got off safe to the ship whichhoisted the black flag, and sailed away to the Indies, and is sailingthere, murdering and ruining, to this day, I reckon. But the other boatwas over full, and the steersman was drunken, and she capsized beforeshe got to the middle of the channel. Some were drowned, and those thatgot ashore we hung next morning. But Trail w
as in the first boat."
"When do you--do we--start down the river?"
"At midnight. And it's the Colonel's orders that until then you stayhere among the rocks and not show yourself to the men below. He 'll seeyou before we start. In the mean time I 'll keep you company." And theoverseer took out his pipe and tobacco pouch, filled the former, lightedit, and leaning back against the rock fell to smoking in contentedsilence.
Landless too sat in silence, with his head thrown back against the rockand his face uplifted to the growing splendor of the skies. The nightwind, blowing mournfully around the bare hill and the broken crag,struck upon his brow with a hint of winter in its touch. With it camethe tide of forest sounds--the sough of the leaves, the dull creaking ofbranch against branch, the wash of the water in the reeds, the whirr ofwings, the cries of night birds--all the low and stealthy notes of theearth chant which had become to him as old and tenderly familiar as thelullabies of his childhood. Below him, at the foot of the hill, asquare of dark and stately pines was irradiated by a great fire whichburnt redly, casting flickering shadows far across the smooth brownearth, and around which sat or moved many figures. Laughter and jest,oaths and scraps of song floated up to the lonely watcher upon thehilltop. He heeded them not--he was above that world--and no sound camefrom that other and smaller fire blazing at some distance from thefirst--and the tree trunks between were so many and so thick that hecould see naught but the light.
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