CHAPTER XXII.
Upon the southern slope of the Black Mountain--that is, on the risinguplands which lead from Albania to Montenegro--lay the ancient andprincely estates of the De Streeses. A dense forest of pines spreadfor miles, like a myriad gigantic pillars in some vast temple. Theyseemed to support, as it were, some Titanic dome surrounded withpinnacles and turrets, a huge cluster of jagged rocks, which wascalled by those who gazed upon it from leagues away "The Eyrie." Inthe midst of these great monoliths, and hardly distinguishable fromthem, rose the walls of the new castle which the voivode Amesa hadbuilt upon the ruins of that destroyed at the time of the massacre ofits former possessor.
The horse of the voivode stood within the court, his head drooping,and the white sweat-foam drying upon his heated flanks. His masterpaced up and down the enclosure, engaged in low but excitedconversation with a soldier.
The voivode was of princely mien; tall, but compactly built; face fullin its lower development, and somewhat sensual; eyes gray andrestless, which gave one at first a sharp, penetrating glance, andthen seemed to hide behind the half-closed lids, like some wild animalthat inspects the hunter hastily, then takes to covert.
"You are sure, Drakul, that the party which drove you from the hamletwere Turks, and not Arnaouts in disguise, like yourselves?"
"I could not mistake," said Drakul, a hard-faced man, one of whoseeyebrows was arched higher than the other, and whose entirecountenance was distorted from the symmetrical balance of its twosides, giving an expression of duplicity and cruelty. "I could notmistake, noble Amesa, for I have too often eyed those rascals over thepoint of my sword not to know a Turk in the dark. But all the fiendscombined against us that night. We left our two best men dead, and thetwo we wanted, the boy and the girl, escaped us. The she-witch did notcome back to the village the next day; but the red-headed imp did, andraved like a hyena when he found the girl missing. I watched him as hesuddenly went off, doubtless, to some spot they both knew of. Theyoung thief stole the clothes off a dead Turk. The next day we spiedhim again; this time with that Arnaud-Kabilovitsch, Albanian-Servian,forester-colonel, or whatever he may be, who came back when Castriotdid. The fellow escaped us a second time."
"Track him! track him!" cried Amesa spitefully. "I will make you rich,Drakul, the day you bring me that fox's brush of red hair from hishead."
"I have tracked him and could take you to the very spot where he andthe girl are to-day," said the man. "Come this way, my nobleAmesa,"--leading him to the side of the court commanding a far stretchof country to the north-west. "Now let your eye follow Skadar[54]along the left shore: then up the great river.[55] Not two leaguesfrom the mountain spur that bends the stream out of your sight, at thehamlet just off the road into your Uncle Ivan's country--"
"The stargeshina has a red goitre like a turkey cock? I know every hutin the hamlet," interrupted Amesa. "But why think you she is there?"
"Why? I have seen her, and him with her. I followed the fellow dayafter day. Once I saw him yonder on the spur. He clipped the bark of atree, and in the smoothed spot cut a line. A little beyond he did thesame thing again. He spied this way and that way with all the painsone would take to pick a way for an army. Then he took a roll of paperfrom his bosom, and marked down something for every mark he had madeupon the trees. And when he was out of sight I took the range of hismarks, and by St. Theckla! they pointed straight to a path which leddown the mountain to the ford in the great river that is opposite theold turkey cock's konak."
"But you may have mistaken the man," suggested Amesa.
"Not I, Sire. I know his head as well as a bull knows a red rag; andhis duck legs, and his walk like an ambling horse."
"It is he," submitted Amesa. "But how know you that the girl was therein the hamlet?"
"Did I not see her, my noble Amesa? And could I not know her from thelook of her father? If I could forget him living, I have never passeda night without seeing his face as it was dead, when we dragged him tothe burning beams of the old house that stood on this----"
"Silence!" cried Amesa in a sudden burst of rage. "How dare you alludeto my uncle's death without my bidding?"
There was a pause for a few moments, during which Amesa stampedheavily upon the stone pavement of the court as he walked, like oneendeavoring to shake off from his person some noisome thing thattroubled him. The man resumed--
"Besides, the children of the village said she was a stray kid there,and not of kin to anybody. And while I was there the same stump-headedfellow who marked the direction came to the hamlet."
"Be ready to accompany me to-morrow, Drakul. You can say that we arescouting."
FOOTNOTES:
[54] Lake Scadar or Scutari.
[55] The Tsernoyevitcha, the great river of Montenegro which emptiesinto Lake Scutari.
The Captain of the Janizaries Page 22
