The Black Eagle; or, Ticonderoga

by G. P. R. James

  CHAPTER XVIII.

  The day went by; night fell; and Walter Prevost did not appear in hisfather's house. No alarm, however, was entertained; for, out of thewide range of chances, there were many events which might haveoccurred to detain him. A shade of anxiety, perhaps, came over Edith'smind; but it passed away the next morning, when she heard from thenegro Chando, or Alexander (who, having been brought up amongst theIndians from his infancy, was better acquainted with their habits thanany person in the house), that not a single red man had been in theneighbourhood since the preceding morning at eight o'clock.

  "All gone west, missy," he said; "the last to go were old chief BlackEagle. I hear of him coming to help you, and I go out to see."

  Edith asked no questions in regard to the sources of his information;for he was famous for finding out all that was going on in theneighbourhood, and, with a childlike vanity, making somewhat of asecret of the means by which he obtained intelligence; but she arguedreasonably, though wrongly, that, as Walter was not to set out fromAlbany till about the same hour that the Indians left, he could nothave fallen in with any of their parties.

  Thus passed the morning, till about three o'clock; but then, when thelad did not appear, anxiety rose up, and became strong, as hour afterhour went by, and he came mot. Each tried to sustain the hopes of theothers; each argued against the apprehensions he himself entertained.Lord H---- pointed out that the Commander-in-Chief, to whom Walter hadbeen sent, might be absent from Albany. Mr. Prevost suggested that theyoung man might have found no boat coming up the river; and Edithremembered that very often the boatmen were frightfully exorbitant intheir charge for bringing any one on the way who seemed eager toproceed. Knowing her brother's character well, she thought it verylikely that he would resist an attempt at imposition, even at the riskof delay. But still she was very, very anxious; and as night againfell, and the hour of repose arrived without his presence, tearsgathered in her eyes, and trembled on the silken lashes.

  The following morning dawned in heavy rain; a perfect deluge seemeddescending from the sky. Still Lord H---- ordered his horse at anearly hour, telling Edith and Mr. Prevost, in as quiet and easy a toneas he could assume, that he was going to Albany.

  "Although I trust and believe," he said, "that my young friend Walterhas been detained by some accidental circumstance, yet it will besatisfactory to us all to know what has become of him; and, moreover,it is absolutely necessary that I should have some communication asspeedily as possible with the Commander-in-Chief. I think it likelythat Walter may have followed him down the river, as he knows myanxiety for an immediate answer. I must do so too, if I find him stillabsent; but you shall hear from me when I reach Albany; and I will beback myself as soon as possible."

  Edith gazed at him with a melancholy look, for she felt how much sheneeded, and how much more she might still need, the comfort of hispresence; but she would not say a word to prevent his going.

  The breakfast that day was a sad and gloomy meal. The lowering sky,the pouring rain, the thoughts that were in the hearts of all,banished everything like cheerfulness. Various orders were given forone of the servants to be ready to guide Lord H---- on his way, forascertaining whether the little river were in flood, and othermatters; and the course which Walter was likely to take on his return,was considered and discussed, in order that the nobleman might takethe same road, and meet him, if possible; but this was the onlyconversation which took place.

  Just as they were about to rise from table, however, a bustle washeard without, amongst the servants; and Mr. Prevost started up,exclaiming,--

  "Here he is, I do believe!"

  But the hope was dispelled the next instant; for a young man, in fullmilitary costume, but drenched with rain, was ushered into the room,and advanced towards Lord H----, saying, in a quiet, commonplacetone,--

  "We arrived last night, my lord, and I thought it better to come upand report myself immediately, as the quarters are very insufficient,and we may expect a great deal of stormy weather, I am told."

  Lord H---- looked at him gravely, as if he expected to hear somethingmore; and then said, after a moment's pause,--

  "I do not exactly understand you, Captain Hammond. You have arrivedwhere?"

  "Why, at the boatman's village on the point, my lord," replied theyoung officer, with a look of some surprise; "have you not receivedLord Loudon's dispatch, in answer to your lordship's own letters?"

  "No, sir," replied Lord H----; "but you had better come and confer withme in another room."

  "Oh, George, let us hear all," exclaimed Edith, laying her hand uponhis arm, and divining his motives at once; "if there be noprofessional reason for secrecy, let us hear all."

  "Well," said Lord H----, gravely, "pray, Captain Hammond, when werehis lordship's letters dispatched, and by whom?"

  "By the young gentleman you sent, my lord," replied Captain Hammond;"and he left Albany two days ago, early in the morning. He was a finegentlemanly young fellow, who won us all, and I went down to the boatwith him myself."

  Edith turned very pale, and Mr. Prevost inquired--

  "Pray, has anything been heard of the boat since?"

  "Yes, sir," answered the young officer, beginning to perceive thestate of the case; "she returned to Albany the same night, and we cameup in her yesterday, as far as we could. I made no inquiries afteryoung Mr. Prevost, for I took it for granted he had arrived with thedispatches."

  Lord H---- turned his eyes towards the face of Edith, and saw quitesufficient there to make him instantly draw a chair towards her, andseat her in it.

  "Do not give way to apprehension," he said, "before we know more. Thecase is strange, undoubtedly, dear Edith; still the enigma may besolved in a happier way than you think."

  Edith shook her head sadly, saying, in a low tone,--

  "You do not know all, dear George--at least, I believe not. TheIndians have received an offence they never forgive. They werewandering about here on the night we were caught by the fire,disappearing the next morning; and, some time during that night, mypoor brother must have been--"

  Tears broke off the sentence; but her lover eagerly caught at a few ofher words to find some ground of hope for her--whatever he might fearhimself.

  "He may have been turned from his course by the burning forest," hesaid, "and have found a difficulty in retracing his way. The woodswere still burning yesterday, and we cannot tell how far the fire mayhave extended. At all events, dearest Edith, we have gained someinformation to guide us. We can now trace poor Walter to the placewhere he disembarked, and that will narrow the ground we have tosearch. Take courage, love, and let us all trust in God."

  "He says that Walter intended to disembark four miles south of theKing's road," said Mr. Prevost, who had been talking earnestly toCaptain Hammond. "Let us set out at once, and examine the groundbetween this place and that."

  "I think not," remarked Lord H----, after a moment's thought. "I willride down, as fast as possible, to the house, and gain whatinformation I can there. Then, spreading a body of men to thewestward, we will sweep all the trails up to this spot. You, and asmany of your people as can be spared from the house, may come on tomeet us, setting out in an hour; but, for Heaven's sake, do not leavethis dear girl alone."

  "I fear not--I fear not for myself," replied Edith; "only seek forWalter; obtain some news of him, and let us try to save him, if therebe yet time to do so."

  Covering her eyes with her handkerchief, which was wetted with hertears, Edith took no more part in what was going on, but gave herselfup to bitter thought; and many and complex were the trains which itfollowed. Now a gleam of hope would rise up and cheer her for aninstant into a belief that her lover's supposition might be correct,and that Walter might, indeed, have been cut off by the fire, and, notknowing which way it extended, might have taken a course leading faraway from the house. With the hope, as ever, came the fear; and sheasked herself,--

  "Might he not have perished in the woods--perished of hunger--perishedby
the flame? But he was prompt, resolute, and accustomed, for someyears, to the life of the woods. He had his rifle with him too, andwas not likely to want food when that was in his hand."

  But, prominent over all in darkness and dread, was the fear of Indianvengeance; and the more she thought of the probability of her brotherhaving been entrapped by some party of the Oneidas, the more terriblegrew her apprehensions, the more completely her hopes dwindled away.There were certainly Indians in the forest, she thought, at a timewhen Walter must have been there. With their quick sight and hearing,and their tenacity of pursuit, he was not likely to escape them; and,if once he fell into their hands, his fate seemed to her sealed. Theprotection promised to herself by the old chief, but not extended toher family, alarmed rather than re-assured her; and she saw nothing inBlack Eagle's unwillingness to give any assurances of their safety,but a determination to take vengeance, even on those who were dear tohim. As she recalled, too, all the particulars of the old chief'svisit to that lonely farmhouse, and her interviews with him, animpression, at first faint, but growing stronger and stronger, tookpossession of her mind, that the chief knew of her brother's capturebefore he parted from her.

  These thoughts did not indeed present themselves in regularsuccession, but came all confused and whirling through her mind; whilethe only thing in the gloomy crowd of fancies and considerations towhich she could fix a hope, was the cool deliberation with which theIndians pursued any scheme of vengeance, and the slow and systematicmanner with which they carried their purposes into execution.

  While Edith remained plunged in these gloomy reveries, an active butnot less sad consultation was going on at the other side of the room,which ended in the adoption of the plan proposed by Lord H----, veryslightly modified by the suggestions of Mr. Prevost. An orderly, whomCaptain Hammond had brought with him, was left at the house, as a sortof guard to Edith, it being believed that the sight of his red coatwould act as an intimation to any Indians who might be in the woodsthat the family was under the protection of the British government.

  Lord H----and the young officer set off together for the boatmen'svillage, whence Walter had departed for Albany, and where a smallparty of English soldiers were now posted, intending to obtain all theaid they could, and sweep along the forest till they came to the vergeof the recent fire, leaving sentinels on the different trails, which,the reader must understand, were so numerous throughout the whole ofwhat the Iroquois called their Long House, as often to be within hailof each other.

  Advancing steadily along these small pathways, Lord H---- calculatedthat he could reconnoitre the whole distance between the greater riverand the fire with sufficient closeness to prevent any numerous partyof Indians passing unseen, at least till he met with the advancingparty of Mr. Prevost, who were to search the country thoroughly forsome distance round the house, and then to proceed steadily forward ina reverse course to that of the nobleman and his men.

  No time was lost by Lord H---- and Captain Hammond on the road, thepath they took being, for a considerable distance, the same by whichLord H---- had first arrived at Mr. Prevost's house, and, for itswhole length, the same which the captain had followed in the morning.It was somewhat longer, it is true, than the Indian trail by whichWoodchuck had led them on his ill-starred expedition; but its widthand better construction more than made up for the difference indistance; and the rain had not been falling long enough to affect itssolidity to any great extent.

  Thus, little more than an hour sufficed to bring the two officers tothe spot where a company of Lord H----'s regiment was posted. Theprimary task--that of seeking some intelligence of Walter's firstmovements after landing--was more successful than might have beenexpected. A settler, who supplied the boatmen with meal and flour, waseven then in the village; and he averred truly that he had seen youngMr. Prevost, and spoken with him, just as he was quitting thecultivated ground on the bank of the river, and entering the forestground beyond. Thus, his course was traced up to a quarter beforethree o'clock on the Thursday preceding, and to the entrance of agovernment road, which all the boatmen knew well. The distance betweenthat spot and Mr. Prevost's house was about fourteen miles, and fromthe boatmen's village to the mouth of the road through the forest somesix or seven.

  Besides the company of soldiers, numbering between seventy and eightymen, there were at least forty or fifty stout, able-bodied fellowsamongst the boatmen, well acquainted with all the intricacies of thewoods round about, and fearless and daring, from the constant perilsand exertions of their mode of life. These were soon gathered roundLord H----, whose rank and military station they now learned for thefirst time; and he found that the tidings of the disappearance ofWalter Prevost, whom most of them knew and loved, excited a spirit inthem which he had little expected.

  Addressing a few words to them at once, he offered a considerablereward to each man who would join in searching thoroughly the whole ofthat part of the forest which lay between the spot where the young manwas last seen and his father's house. But one tall, stout man, aboutforty years of age, stepped forward, and spoke for the rest, saying--

  "We want no reward for such work as that, my lord. I guess there's nota man of us who will not turn out to search for young Master Walter,if you'll but leave red coats enough with the old men to protect ourwives and children in case of need."

  "I cannot venture, for anything not exactly connected with theservice," replied Lord H----, "to weaken the post by more than onequarter its number. Still we shall make up a sufficient party tosearch the woods adequately, if you will all go with me."

  "That we will, that we will!" exclaimed a dozen voices.

  Everything was soon arranged. Signals and modes of communication andco-operation were speedily agreed upon; and the practical knowledge ofthe boatmen proved fully as serviceable as the military science ofLord H----, who was far too wise not to avail himself of it to thefullest extent.

  With about twenty regular soldiers, thirty-seven or thirty-eight menfrom the village, each armed with his invariable rifle and hatchet,and a number of good, big, active boys, who volunteered to act as asort of runners, and keep up the communications between the differentparts of the line, the nobleman set out upon his way along the edge ofthe forest, and reached the end of the government road, near whichWalter had been last seen, about one o'clock in the day.

  Here the men dispersed, the soldiers guided by the boatmen; and theforest ground was entered at about fourteen different places, whereveran old or a new trail could be discovered. Whenever an opportunitypresented itself, by the absence of brushwood, or the old trees beingwide or far apart, the boys ran across from one party to another,carrying information or directions; and, though each little group wasoften hidden from the other, as they advanced steadily onwards, stillit rarely happened that many minutes elapsed without their catching asight of some friendly party, on the right or left, while whoop andhallo marked their progress to each other. Once or twice, the trailscrossing, brought two parties to the same spot; but then, separatingagain immediately, they sought each a new path, and proceeded asbefore.

  Few traces of any kind could be discovered on the ground; for therain, though it had now ceased, had so completely washed the face ofthe earth, that every print of shoe or moccassin was obliterated. Thetracks of cart-wheels, indeed, seemingly recent, and the foot-marks ofa horse and some men were discovered along the government road; butnothing more, till at a spot where a large and deeply-indented trailleft the highway, the ground appeared a good deal trampled byhoof-marks, as if a horse had been standing there for some littletime; and under a thick hemlock-tree, at the corner of the trail,sheltering the ground beneath from the rain, the print of a well-madeshoe was visible. The step had evidently been turned in the directionof Mr. Prevost's house; and up that trail Lord H---- himselfproceeded, with a soldier and two of the boatmen. No further stepcould be traced, however; but the boatman, who had been the spokesmana little while before, insisted upon it that they must be on youngMaster Walter's track.r />
  "A New York shoe," he said, "made that print, I'm sure; and dependupon it we are right where he went. Keep a sharp look under all thethick trees at the side, my lord. You may catch another track. Keepbehind, boys--you'll brush 'em out."

  Nothing more was found, however, though the man afterwards thought hehad discovered the print of a moccassin in the sand, where it had beenpartly protected. But some rain had reached it, and there was nocertainty.

  The trail they were then following was, I have said, large and deeplyworn, so that the little party of Lord H---- soon got somewhat inadvance of all the others, except that which had continued on thegovernment road.

  "Stay a bit, my lord," said the boatman, at length; "we are too farahead, and might chance to get a shot, if there be any of them reddevils in the wood. I know them well, and all their ways, I guess,having been among them, man and boy, this thirty years; and it wasmuch worse when I first came. They'll lie as close to you as thatbush, and the first thing you'll know of it will be a ball whizzinginto you. If, however, we all go on in line, they can't keep back, butwill creep away like mice. What I can't understand is, why they shouldtry to hurt young Master Walter; for they were all as fond of him asif he were one of themselves."

  "The fact is, my good friend," replied Lord H----, in a low tone, "theday I came down to your landing last, one of the Oneidas wasunfortunately killed, and we are told that they will have some whiteman's life in retaliation."

  "To be sure they will!" rejoined the man, with a look ofconsternation. "They'll have blood for blood, if all of 'em die for't.But did Master Walter kill him?"

  "No," replied Lord H----; "it was our friend the Woodchuck; but he didit entirely in self-defence."

  "What, Brooks?" exclaimed the boatman, in much surprise. "Do let'shear about it, and I guess I can tell you how it will all go, betterthan any other man between this and Boston." And he seated himself onthe slump of a tree, in an attitude of attention.

  Very briefly, but with perfect clearness, Lord H---- related all thatoccurred on the occasion referred to. The boatman listened withevident anxiety, and then sat for a moment in silence, with the air ofa judge pondering over the merits of a case just pleaded before him.

  "I'll tell you how it is, my lord," he said at length, in an oraculartone; "they've got him, depend on't. They've caught him here in theforest. But, you see, they'll not kill him yet--no, no; they'll wait.They've heard that Woodchuck has got away, and they've kidnapped youngWalter to make sure of some one. But they'll stay to see if they can'tget Brooks into their clutches somehow. They'll go dodgering about allmanner o' ways, and try every trick you can think of to lure him back.Very like you may hear that they've killed the lad; but don't youbelieve it for a good many months to come. I guess it's likely they'llset that story afloat just to get Brooks to come back; for then he'llthink that they've had all they wanted, and will know that he's safefrom all but the father, or the brother, or the son of the man hekilled. But they'll wait and see. Oh, they're the most cunningest setof critturs that ever dived, and no doubt of it! But let's get on, forthe others are up--there's a red-coat through the trees there--andthey may perhaps have scalped the boy, though I don't think it's nohowlikely."

  Thus saying, he rose, and led the way again through the dark glades ofthe wood, till the clearer light of day, shining amidst the trunks andbranches on before, showed that the party was approaching the spotwhere the late conflagration had laid the shady monarchs of the forestlow. Suddenly, at a spot where another trail crossed, the soldier whowas with them stooped down and picked something up off the ground,saying--

  "Here's a good large knife, anyhow."

  "Let me see--let me see!" cried the boatman; "that's his knife, for ascore of dollars. Ay! 'Warner, London,' that's the maker; it'sWalter's knife. But that shows nothing--he might have dropped it; buthe's come precious near the fire, he surely would never try to breakthrough and get himself burnt to death. If the Ingians had got him, Ishould have thought they'd have caught him farther back. Hallo! whatare they all a-doing on there? They've found the corpse, I guess."

  The eyes of Lord H---- were bent forward in the same direction; and,though his lips uttered no sound, his mind had asked the same questionand come to the same conclusion. Three negroes were standing gatheredtogether round some object lying on the ground; and the figure of Mr.Prevost himself, partly seen, partly hidden by the slaves, appearedsitting on a fallen tree, with his head resting on his hand,contemplating fixedly the same object which seemed to engage all theattention of the negroes.

  Lord H---- hurried his pace, and reached the spot in a few moments. Hewas somewhat relieved by what he saw when he came nearer; for theobject at which Mr. Prevost was gazing so earnestly was Walter'sknapsack, and not the dead body of his son. The straps which hadfastened it to the lad's shoulders had been cut, not unbuckled; and itwas, therefore, clear that it was not by his own voluntary act that ithad been cast off. It did not appear, however, to have been opened;and the boatman, looking down on it, muttered--

  "No, no! They would not steal anything--not they. That was not whatthey wanted. It's no use looking any farther. The case is clearenough."

  "Too clear!" ejaculated Mr. Prevost, in a dull, stern tone. "That man,Brooks, has saved his own life, and sacrificed my poor boy."

  The tears gushed into his eyes as he spoke; and he rose and turnedaway to hide them. Lord H---- motioned to the negroes to take up theknapsack, and carry it home; and then advancing to Mr. Prevost's side,he took his hand, saying, in a low tone--

  "There may yet be hope, my dear sir. Let us not give way to despair;but exert ourselves instantly and strenuously to trace out the poorlad, and save him. Much may yet be done--the Government mayinterfere--Walter may be rescued by a sudden effort."

  Mr. Prevost shook his head heavily, and murmuring, "Are _all_ myfamily destined to perish by Indians?" took his way slowly backtowards his house.

  Nothing more was said till he was within a quarter of a mile of hisown door; but then, just before emerging from the cover of the wood,the unhappy father stopped, and took the hand of Lord H----.

  "Break it to her gently," he said, in a low tone: "I am unfit.Misfortunes, disappointments, and sorrows have broken the spirit whichwas once strong, and cast down the energies which used never to fail.It is in such moments as these that I feel how much I am weakened.Prepare her to leave this place, too. My pleasant solitude has becomeabhorrent to me, and I cannot live here without a dread and a memoryalways upon me. Go forward, my good lord: I will follow you soon."