the Warrior's Path (1980)

by L'amour, Louis - Sackett's 03

  The first I saw was Max Bauer. "Miles away by now," he was saying. "An army would be needed for the searching, and it is sad, for they were so young. Yet we can try an approach to the Pequots. I am sure that Joseph Pittingel..."

  Deep within the forest, an owl hooted. My eyes were on Bauer, and I saw him pause, head turning slightly toward the sound. It was no owl, and I believed he guessed as much, although the difference was subtle.

  Yance, telling me had found something.

  Penney left Bauer's side and crossed the meadow to me. "You will seek them, then?"

  "I will. You go home now, and leave it to Yance and to me. Remember, Yance is wed to Temperance, and although we are not of one blood, their children will be. Kinship is a strong thing between us, Penney."

  "Sackett, we, Anna and I, we thank you. We--" He choked up, and I turned my eyes from his embarrassment.

  My hand touched his shoulder. "Go, man, go home to your Anna, and trust in us. If she be alive, we will find her."

  He turned back to them. Macklin hesitated as if he would speak, then turned away with Penney. Bauer lingered. "If there is aught I can do, call upon me, but I fear you waste your time."

  "It is only a trail," I said, looking straight at him, "and we have followed many such from boyhood. Where a hound can follow, or an Indian, there we can follow, too."

  There was a dark look upon him, and I liked it not, but the man nettled me with his assurance. Of Max Bauer I knew nothing but that he was employed by, or seemed to be employed by Pittingel, but I trusted him none at all. There was power in the man but evil, also. I knew a little of fear as I watched him go, and it angered me. Why should I fear? Or Yance? Who had ever defeated us?

  Yet all men can fail, and each man must somewhere find his master, with whatever strength, whatever weapon. So we must be wary, we must use what guile we had, for it was upon my shoulders that nothing we had ever attempted or done was so fearsome a thing as this we now would try.

  I knew not why I believed so, yet believe it I did.

  Through the dappled light and shadow of the forest I walked on gentle feet, knowing only that Yance had come upon something. Of course, it would be no great thing. If the ground is trampled, one has only to cast about in a great circle, an ever-widening circle, for when those who were here left this place, they did not make tracks only in the meadow but in the leaving of it.

  Yance was squatted at the foot of a huge old chestnut awaiting me. When I squatted beside him, he said, "Old tracks." He paused. "Five or six men ... two of them barefooted."

  "Barefooted?"

  "Aye, an' they've gone barefooted a lot. Feet spread wide." He paused again, throwing down the twig on which he was chewing. "Looked to be carrying heavy. Deep prints."

  We were silent together, each thinking it over. "It ain't likely," Yance said, "that any folks native to this country would go barefoot. The Indians didn't, and certainly those Puritan folk or Separatists or whatever they are, they hold to boots."

  We straightened up, looked carefully about, and listened; then we moved off. He pointed the trail, and it was as he said. Five men, two of them barefoot.

  The trail was not an easy one, but we hung to it. At times, rains had washed it away entirely, but we were helped by the fact that these folks did little hunting, and most were afeared to go into the woods alone, so after the meadow nobody had messed up what tracks there were.

  We saw deer tracks, too. There was game here if a man were to hunt it down.

  We lost the trail.

  In the morning we found it again, just a few tracks where they had crossed a stream and one of the barefooted men had slipped. A few hours later we found what we both had been watching for. A camp.

  We studied it carefully before we moved in, and then it was only I who went in, and Yance began hunting the tracks made when they left.

  He came up to the edge of camp. "Still going north," he said. "Find anything?"

  "All three have muskets," I said.

  "Three?"

  "Two of them, the barefooted ones, are not armed."

  "Slaves," he said.

  "Maybe ... likely," I added.

  "That Pittingel now ... that man I was in the stocks with ... he thought Pittingel was a slaver."

  "He thought. We know nothing, Yance, and it doesn't pay to decide anything without we've evidence for it. The man may be a fine Christian gentleman."

  Yance snorted. Then I said, "What else?"

  "It's the girls, all right. I found their tracks, only a couple of them, for they weren't allowed to walk about. One set of smaller tracks, the others a shade larger. Then they were tied up and dumped on the ground. There was some cooking done."

  "Slave?"

  "No, one of the others." We sat together in the dappled shade of a tree, alert for sound. "It's an old camp, Yance. Been used two, three times before. Several times, I think.

  "They had more than one fire, some old smoke-blackened stones, some fresh. Found where ashes had been beaten down by rain, then a fire laid atop that. Not so large a fire."

  We rested, chewing on venison jerky. "No Indians made this trail, an' those girls were carried in a litter, looks like. No Indian ever done that."

  Yance looked across his shoulder at me. "What do you make of it, Kin?"

  "Same as you do. Somebody else has taken those girls and blamed it on Indians."

  "Slaves?"

  "Why not? Read the Bible. There'd been whites held as slaves for several thousand years before the blacks were enslaved. The Egyptians had Hebrew slaves as well as others. The Romans had Greek slaves as well as slaves from England and Gaul.

  "Jeremy told me about raids on the coast of England and Ireland by slavers from Africa. One whole village, Baltimore, on the Irish coast, was carried off in one raid."

  After a moment I said, "Young, pretty girls, they'd bring a price in Africa or to some planter in the West Indies."

  "They'd have to have a way, a ship. They'd need a ship."

  "And the ship would need a cove or a bay, somewhere to come in either to tie up or lie at anchor."

  Yance got to his feet suddenly. "Let's get away from here!"

  We had no need to talk of it, for each had the same realization. If the men who had taken the girls were slavers, then they must be careful not to be found, and we were searching for them. That meant they must find us, and that meant we must be killed.

  Once within the woods, we moved swiftly, keeping a few yards apart to leave a less distinct trail. We found an open meadow and skirted it, running swiftly. We had left our horses, and we had to approach them now with care. We would have been better served had we left them with Penney, for in these woods and along the shore that lay not far off upon our right there was little need of them.

  We found the horses alone and safe, and we moved, riding swiftly away and putting miles behind us, turning away from the shore and into the deepest forest. When we slept that night, I lay long awake, listening to Yance's easy breathing.

  I thought of my sister Noelle, far away now, in England, and I thought of her being a prisoner, as they were, hoping but scarcely daring to hope.

  Frightened they would be, and Diana Macklin trying to give courage to little Carrie, and those strange men close by. As they lay bound, they could look into the future only with dark, trembling fear. They could not believe they would be found.

  "Yance?" I whispered.

  He was suddenly awake. "Aye?"

  "We've got to find them, Yance."

  "We will." He turned on his back. "You think of something, Kin? That Joseph Pittingel? He had a ship. It was overdue."

  Chapter V

  Diana Macklin opened her eyes and looked up into the leafy pattern above. It was not yet day, but already she heard one of the slaves stirring about. They were the first black Africans she had seen, and at first she had not known how to think of them or speak to them. Indians she had known, but these were different.

  So far there had been little
opportunity, for the three white men were always about, always suspicious, trusting nobody, yet one of the slaves, she sensed, was at least sympathetic. The two slaves, although both were black, were utterly different in nature and appearance.

  She had no illusions. Nobody at the Cove would try very hard to find her. Carrie was another question, for the Penneys would try. Her father would do what he could, but he knew less of the woods than she, and the people of the Cove would promise, but they would not carry out much of a search. If she and Carrie were to escape, they must do so themselves, and there was little time left.

  Her captors were irritable and frightened. She had sensed that as the days went by they grew more and more worried. Obviously they were frightened at the prospect of holding two white girls prisoner on this shore. Although few of the Puritan folk of Plymouth, Cape Ann, or the scattering of small settlements in their vicinity were given to wandering in the forest, there were a few who were looking for new sites with commercial advantages, and that meant somewhere along the shore. And the ship that was to have picked up the girls and themselves was already overdue.

  Lying quietly, Diana thought of what she must do. Her only hope was the slave they called Henry.

  He was a tall, strongly built young man with regular features. That he had been a warrior was obvious both in the way he carried himself and in a few scars she had noticed. The other slave was shorter, stockier, more subservient, but she had gathered from talk among the others that he was an excellent fisherman and boatman.

  She sat up and began brushing herself off and arranging her hair. Henry passed near her, gathering twigs. "Soon," she said softly, "it must be soon."

  He made no reply. Had he heard? Had he understood? If he had understood, would he help? Or would she fall into even worse hands? She thought not, but was that only hopeful thinking? No matter where they went, what they did, one of the three white men was always present, always watchful.

  Henry, she was sure, planned to escape. Yet in all the time they had traveled together, she had heard him use but one or two English words. He usually spoke in Portuguese to one of the white men, the tall, thin one, who spoke it well.

  "If you helped us," she spoke softly again as he came to her side of the fire, "you would be welcomed."

  The fat, dirty-looking white man sat up, staring at her. "You talkin' to him?" he demanded.

  "What?" Her face was innocent. "If you must know, I was complaining. I am tired of sleeping on this dusty earth."

  He leered at her. "Aye, but ye'll be sleepin' elsewhere soon, y' can bank on that."

  The camp stirred to life, yet within her was developed the resolution. No matter what, it must be today, or at the latest, tonight or tomorrow.

  She bathed her face and hands in the stream. After their capture they had walked westward for two days. Twenty miles? Possibly. Then for two more days they had walked north, following an old Indian trading path, and then they had walked east, toward the coast.

  They were within a short distance of the seashore now. She could smell the salt air. The stream flowed east. Washing her face, she tasted the water. It was tidal water, she was sure. Not fresh water, certainly.

  They were awaiting a ship, a slave ship. Very coolly she considered that. Once aboard a ship there would be small chance of escape. And the ship would come, so it must be soon.

  She had risked speaking to Henry because it was a time for risks. So far they had not complained, not made any attempt at escape. They thought she was frightened, and they knew Carrie was. Somewhere along the coast to the north of Cape Ann, that was as close as she could guess.

  Once free, they must go south--south. Or west, for they would pursue, they must pursue. They would expect them to go south.

  West.

  Diana Macklin was seventeen at a time when most girls of fifteen and sixteen were wed. She could scarcely recall a time when she had not known responsibility, and long since she had learned that a certain coolness, aloofness, bred respect and some hesitation on the part of too aggressive males.

  Their capture had been simple. She had knelt to pick some leaves from a plant and arose to see a man holding Carrie with a knife at her throat. Now, looking back, she wished she had just screamed. There was a good chance the men would have fled, but she was not the screaming type, and by the time she thought of it, a man had a hand over her mouth, and it was too late.

  For three days they were hurried, almost running, until when night came they could only fall to the earth, utterly tired, utterly whipped. Very quickly she decided they could not escape by running away, for their captors could run faster and longer. Nor would crying and pleading help. Carrie tried that.

  They must first escape; then they must hide, and once free, they must never again be caught. Meanwhile, she thought, planned, and discarded plans, watching every chance, noticing everything. What she wanted most of all was a hiding place, somewhere they could go immediately and keep out of sight and just wait. She saw hollows under fallen trees, overhangs half hidden by brush, hollows among the rocks, and caves. None looked right; on none dared they take a chance.

  Carrie got up and bathed her hands and face, then straightened her clothing, brushing off the dust and fragments of dried leaves and bark. Then she straightened her hair, and Diana combed it for her and helped her braid it again

  "Never," Diana had warned her, "give up, and never let down. Keep youself just as neat as you can, for if you respect yourself, they will respect you, also."

  "Do you no good," Lashan had said. "Whoever gits you will fix you up the way he likes."

  She had not replied, ignoring him, which was far better than exchanging comments in a war she could not win. She must seem to be going along, seem to accept until the moment came.

  Now she watched Lashan as he stood by the fire. He was tall, thin, almost emaciated, yet she knew he was strong, with a strength far beyond what it seemed possible he could have.

  Suddenly he looked up at her. "Be you a witch?"

  Carrie turned her head, half frightened, to look at her.

  "They say that I am," she said. Suddenly she knew all present were looking at her. Both the blacks had looked around. Henry was curious; Feebro stared at her, suddenly arrested in movement.

  "Ain't much of a witch," Porney commented, hitching his pants to a more secure position with hands that needed washing, "or we'd never ha' taken you."

  She turned her head and looked right at him. "It isn't over yet, is it? Give it time to work."

  Suddenly frightened, Porney came to his feet and moved back from her. "Give what time to work? What? What've you done?"

  "Be still!" Lashan's voice was a whip. "She's making a fool of you."

  "No pains yet? None at all?" She was still looking at Porney. "I thought you looked a little stiff when you got up this morning." She was smiling. "But give it time."

  "All right! Be still!" Lashan held a willow switch in his hand. "Any more such talk, and I'll..."

  Diana merely looked at him. "You, too, Lashan. You, too."

  He struck with the switch, a vicious cut across the shoulders. She stood very still, her face white. "If I am damaged, Lashan, there will be questions. He who buys us will wish us unblemished."

  Lashan stared at her, his eyes ugly. "You're not aboard ship yet, lass, an' don't y' forget it. Many a bit can happen afore we make it, with Injuns about an' such. Y' push me too far and I may sell y' to the Injuns m'self."

  There were no more words, but she had done what she wished and had made the others, at least, wary of her. She put her hand on Carrie's shoulder and felt her cringe a little. That was the worst of it; she had frightened the child. Of one thing she was sure. The others might be wary of crossing her, but Henry was the only one who might help; because he was thinking of escape for himself.

  Under the trees they waited another long, slow afternoon. Lashan paced restlessly, irritably. At any moment some Indian or some men out searching for good land on which to locate might discov
er them. Even a fisherman along the shore, for it was nearby. Already the ship was two weeks overdue.

  "You must not be afraid, Carrie. Not of them or of me. I am no witch, but let them think so if they wish. It may frighten them."

  She spoke very softly that they might not hear, yet her words did not allay her own fears. And she was frightened. No matter how much she might reassure Carrie, she knew that nobody was coming; there would be no rescue.

  Vern went away through the trees again. He was a small, well-made man with a narrow face and a pointed chin. He wore a stocking cap with a tassel, and a wide leather belt held up his canvas pants. The others she had not seen before, but she remembered Vern, for she had seen him one day at Shawmut when he came ashore from a shallop.

  He had not been among the group that kidnapped them but had been waiting for them here, probably with the news the ship was delayed, for Lashan had cursed viciously after they talked.

  She had seen him an instant before he saw her, so she had let her eyes sweep past him with no sign of recognition. Yet he had recognized her, and his eyes lingered on her from time to time.

  None of them talked to her but Lashan. The fat one, whose name she had heard but could not remember, had spoken to her but once, that very morning. Lashan did not like it, and she was sure he was under orders to permit no such thing.

  They slept, awakened, let the fire burn down. Vern came back, helped himself to a swallow of cider, then went away again.

  It was very still.

  She was good in the woods. She could move quietly, and she had endurance beyond most of the men she knew, but none of them were woodsmen. She could escape, but what of Carrie? Could the little girl run fast enough, keep quiet enough, endure enough? Yet there was no choice. They must try. With or without the help of Henry.

  He was quiet, respectful, and well-mannered. He carried himself with dignity and with some assurance. Moreover, she had noticed him in the woods, and he moved like a woodsman.

  Slowly the afternoon waned away. Vern came in, sat by the fire, and dished up food for himself from the pot Feebro had prepared; it was some kind of stew of wild plants and wild meat. She had seen turtle meat, some pieces of rabbit, and some bits of fish go into it. It was good, very good.