Works of Robert W Chambers

by Robert W. Chambers

  “Now another thing we will say, we younger brothers. You mourn. I will clear the sky for you so that you shall not behold a cloud. And also I give the sun to shine upon you, so that you can look peacefully upon it when it goes down. You shall see it when it is going. Yea, ye shall look peacefully upon it when it goes down....

  “Now another thing we say, we younger brothers. If any one should fall, then the antlers shall be left on the grave....

  “Now another thing we say, we younger brothers. We will gird the belt on you with the quiver, and the next death will receive the quiver whenever you shall know that there is death among us, when the fire is made and the smoke is rising. This we say and do, we three brothers.

  “Now I have finished. Now show me the man!”

  Slowly the Oneida rose from my side and crossed the circle. Every eye was on him; he smiled as he halted, sweeping the throng with a tranquil glance. Then, drawing his blanket about him he stepped from the sanctuary of the council-ring out into the forest; and after him glided a Mohawk warrior, with face painted black, in token of his terrific office.

  A dead silence fell upon the council.

  The pulse was drumming in ears and throat when I arose; and, as the Mohawk executioner slipped noiselessly past me, I seized him by the clout-belt, and, summoning every atom of strength, hurled him headlong at my feet, so that he lay stunned and like one dead.

  A roar of astonishment greeted me; a score of voices cried out savagely on my violation of the fire.

  “It is you who violate it!” I answered, trembling with fury; “you who dare pronounce the sentence of death without consulting the four classes of the Oneida!”

  A Mohawk sachem arose, casting his scarlet robes at his feet, and pointed at me, hissing: “Where are the Oneida classes? I dare you to tell us where the ensigns hide! Where are they? Speak!”

  “Here!” I said, tearing my cape open. “Read that sign, O Canienga! I answer for the four classes of my nation, and I say that Oneida shall go free! Now let him who dare accuse me stand forth. It is a Wolf of Tharon who has spoken!”

  Absolute silence greeted me. I had risked all on the hazard.

  The executioner had staggered to his feet again, and now stood outside the circle leaning against a young oak-tree, half stunned, mechanically rubbing the twigs and dead leaves from the sticky black paint that masked his visage. I wheeled on him and bade him remain where he was until the council’s will was made known; then I walked into the circle; and when they cried out that I had no franchise, I laughed at them, challenging them to deny me my right to stand here for the entire Oneida nation.

  For there was nothing now to do but to carry the desperate enterprise through or perish. I dared not stop to consider; to attempt to remember precedents. I turned on the Mohawks haughtily, demanding that privilege which even they could not refuse; I claimed clan-brotherhood from every Wolf in the Long House; and when the council accorded it, I spoke:

  “Now I say to you, O you wise men and sachems, that this Oneida shall not die, because the four classes speak through my mouth! Who is there to give me the lie? Why are your eight score Oneidas absent — the eight score who still remain in the Long House? Surely, brothers, there are sachems among them? Why are they not here? Do you fear they might not agree to the punishment of the Oneida nation?”

  I folded my arms and stared at the Mohawks.

  “Clan ties are close, national ties closer, but strongest and closest of all, the six iron links that form the Great League! Why do you punish now? How can you punish now? Is it well to break the oldest League law to punish those who have broken the law of the League?”

  A Mohawk sachem answered in a dozen stinging words that the League itself was broken; but ere he could finish I stopped him with a gesture.

  Then, summoning all my powers, I burst out into a passionate protest, denying that the Great League was broken, glorying in its endurance, calling on every nation to uphold it. And instantly, although not a muscle moved nor a word was uttered, I felt that I had the council with me, that my passion was swaying them, that what I asserted they believed. I laughed at the neutrality of the Tuscaroras, at the half-hearted attitude of the Onondagas; I made light of the rebellion of the greater portion of the Oneida nation.

  “It is a passing fancy, a whim. The battle-breeze from this white man’s war has risen to a tempest, unroofing the Long House, scattering you for the moment, creating a disorder, inciting a passion foreign to the traditions of the Iroquois. I tell you to let the tempest pass and blame no one, neither Tuscarora, Onondaga, nor Oneida. And when the storm has died out, let the Six Nations gather again from their hiding-places and build for the Long House a new roof, and raise new lodge-poles, lest the sky fall down and the Confederacy lie in ashes forever!”

  I had ended. A profound hush followed, broken by a low word of approval, then another, then another. Excited, scarcely knowing what I had done, incredulous that I alone had actually stemmed the tide, and, in a breath, overturned the entire plan of the Butlers and of the demoralized Iroquois, I seated myself beside the Tuscaroras, breathing heavily, alert for a sound that might indicate how my harangue had been received.

  Muttered expressions of approval, an emphatic word here and there, and not an orator to dispute me! — why, this was victory — though, until the clans had deliberated, I could not know the Federal verdict. But gradually it dawned on me that I had at least stopped the murder of my Oneida, and had lulled all suspicion concerning myself. With a thrill of joy I heard the Seneca spokesman call for the youth to be raised in place of the dead chief; with a long-drawn breath of relief I saw the ancient belts brought, and listened to the reading of the archives from them.

  The council ended. One by one the sachems spoke to me kindly, then went their way, some taking to canoes, others filing off through the forest, until I found myself standing there alone before the smoldering fire, the forest before me, the noon sun blazing overhead.

  The Oneida, motionless now in the midst of those who had but an hour before decreed his death, watched the plumed sachems pass him in silence. Neither he nor they uttered a word; but when the last canoe had glided off down the Dead Water toward the Sacandaga, and the last tall form faded from view in thicket, marsh, and forest, Little Otter turned and came quietly to me, laying my hands on his heart, and looking me steadily in the eyes. Then together we returned, picking our path through the marsh, until we came to Lyn Montour. As she rose to meet us, a distant sound in the forest attracted the Oneida’s attention. I heard it, too; it was the gallop of horses, coming from the north. No Iroquois rode a horse.

  Nearer, nearer sounded the drumming thud of the hoofs. I could feel the sodden marsh jarring now — hear the brush crackle and snap.

  Suddenly a horseman galloped out of the forest’s edge, drew bridle at the clearing, bent and examined the covered fire, struck his forehead, and stared around him.

  The horseman was Walter Butler.

  CHAPTER XIII

  THENDARA NO MORE

  Astounded at the apparition, yet instantly aware of his purpose, I sprang forward to meet him. That he did not immediately know me in my forest dress was plain enough, for he hastened my steps with an angry and imperious gesture, flung himself from his saddle, laid down his rifle, and strode to the heap of ashes that had once been the council-fire of Thendara — now Thendara no more.

  His face was still flushed with passion when I came up, my rifle cradled in the hollow of my left arm; his distorted features worked silently as he pointed at the whitening ashes. Suddenly he burst out into a torrent of blasphemy.

  “What in God’s name does this mean?” he shouted. “Have the Iroquois dared leave this fire before I’ve had my say?”

  His rifle rested between him and me, barrel tilted across a rotting log, butt in the wet marsh grass. I took a quick step forward and dislodged the weapon, as though by accident, so that it lay where I could set my foot upon it if necessary. Instantly he faced me, alert, menacin
g; his dusky eyes lighted to a yellow glare; but when his gaze met mine sheer astonishment held him dumb.

  “Captain Butler,” I said, controlling the fierce quiver in my voice, “it is not this dead council-fire of Thendara that concerns a Yellow Wolf-whelp.”

  “No,” he said, drawing a long breath, “it is not this fire that concerns us—” The voice died in his throat. Astonishment still dominated; he stared and stared. Then a ghastly laugh stretched his features — a soundless, terrible laugh.

  “So you have come to Thendara after all!” he said. “In your fringes and thrums and capes and bead-work I did not know you, Mr. Renault, nor did I understand that Gretna Green is sometimes spelled Thendara!” He pointed at the ashes; an evil laugh stretched his mouth again:

  “Thendara was! Thendara will be! Thendara — Thendara no more! And I am too late?”

  The evil, silent laugh grew terrible: “Well, Mr. Renault, I had business elsewhere; yet, had I known you had taken to forest-running, I would have come to meet you at Thendara. However, I think there is still time to arrange one or two small differences of opinion that have arisen between you and me.”

  “There is still time,” I said slowly.

  He cast an involuntary glance at his rifle; made the slightest motion; hesitated, looking hard at me. I shook my head.

  “Not that way?” he inquired blandly. “Well,” with a cool shrug, “that was one way to arrange matters, Mr. Renault — and remember I offered it! Remember that, Mr. Renault, when men speak of you as they speak of Boyd!”

  The monstrous insult of the menace left me outwardly unmoved; yet I wondered he had dared, seeing how helpless he must be did I but raise my rifle.

  “Well, Mr. Renault,” he sneered, “I was right, it seems, concerning that scrap o’ treason unearthed in your chambers. God! how you flouted that beast, Sir Henry, and his fat-headed adjutant!”

  He studied me coldly: “Do you mean to let me have my rifle?”

  “No.”

  “Oh! you mean murder?”

  “I am no executioner,” I said contemptuously. “There are those a-plenty who will paint black for a guinea — after a court martial. There are those who paint for war, too, Mr. Butler.”

  I talked to gain time; and, curiously enough, he seemed to aid me, being in nowise anxious to force my hand. Ah! I should have been suspicious at that — I realized it soon enough — yet the Iroquois, leaving Thendara for the rites at the Great Tree, were not yet out of sound of a shout, or of a rifle-shot — though I meant to take him alive, if that were possible. And all the while I watched his every careless gesture, every movement, every flutter of his insolent eyelids, ready to set foot upon his rifle and hold him to the spot. He no longer appeared to occupy himself with the recovery of his rifle; he wore neither pistol nor knife nor hatchet; indeed, in his belt I saw a roll of paper, closely scribbled, and knew it to be a speech composed for delivery at this fire, now burned out forever.

  He placed his hands on his hips, pacing to and fro the distance between the fire and the edge of the Dead Water, now looking thoughtfully up into the blue sky, now lost in reverie. And every moment, I believed, was a precious moment gained, separating him more and more hopelessly from his favorite Senecas, whom he might even now summon by a shout.

  Presently he halted, with an absent, upward glance, then his gaze reverted to me; he drew out a handsome gold watch, examined it with expressionless interest, and slowly returned it to the fob-pocket.

  “Well, sir,” he inquired, “do I take it that you desire to further detain me here, or do you merely wish to steal my rifle?”

  “I think, truly, that you no longer require your rifle, Mr. Butler,” I said quietly.

  “A question — a matter of opinion, Mr. Renault.” He waved his hand gracefully. “Who are your red friends yonder?” pointing toward the two distant forms at the edge of the willows.

  “An Oneida and a quarter-breed.”

  “Oh — a squaw? By the head-gear I take the smaller one to be a Huron squaw. Which reminds me, Mr. Renault,” he added, with a dull stare, “that the last time I had the pleasure of seeing your heels you were headed for the nearest parson!”

  That awful, soundless laugh distorted his mouth again:

  “I could scarcely be expected to imagine,” he added, “that it was as far as this to Gretna Green. Is the Hon. Miss Grey with you here?”

  “No, Mr. Butler, but your wife is with me.”

  “Oh!” he sneered; “so you have learned at last what she is?”

  “You do not understand,” I continued patiently. “I speak of your wife, Mr. Butler. Shall I name her?”

  He looked at me narrowly. Twice his lips parted as though to speak, but no sound came.

  “The woman yonder is Lyn Montour,” I said in a low voice.

  The yellow flare that lighted his black eyes appalled me.

  “Listen to me,” I went on. “That I do not slay you where you stand is because she is yonder, watching us. God help her, you shall do her justice yet! You are my prisoner, Mr. Butler!” And I set my foot upon his rifle.

  He did not seem to hear me; his piercing gaze was concentrated on the two distant figures standing beside the horse.

  I waited, then spoke again; and, at the sound of my voice, he wheeled on me with a snarl.

  “You damned spy!” he stammered; “I’ll stop your dirty business now, by God!” and, leaping back, whipped a ranger’s whistle to his lips, waking the forest echoes with the piercing summons ere I had bounded on him and had borne him down, shoulder-deep in moss and marsh-grass.

  Struggling, half smothered by the deep and matted tangle, I heard the startled shout of the Oneida; the distant crashing of many men running in the underbrush; and, throttling him with both hands, I dragged him to his feet and started toward the Oneida, pulling my prisoner with me. But a yell from the wood’s edge seemed to put fresh life into him; he bit and scratched and struggled, and I labored in vain to choke him or stun him. Then, in very desperation and fear of life, I strove to kill him with my hands, but could not, and at last hurled him from me to shoot him; but he had kicked the flint from my rifle, and, as I leveled it, he dropped on the edge of the Dead Water and wriggled over, splash! into the dark current, diving as my hatchet hit the waves. Then I heard the loud explosion of rifles behind me; bullets tore through the scrub; I turned to run for my life. And it was time.

  “Ugh!” grunted the Oneida, as I came bursting headlong through the willows. “Follow now!” He seized the horse by the bridle; the girl mounted; then, leading the horse at a trot, we started due south through the tossing bushes.

  A man in a green uniform, knee-deep in the grass, fired at us from the Stacking-Ridge as we passed, and the Oneida shook his rifle at him with a shout of insult. For now at last the whole game was up, and my mission as a spy in this country ended once and forever. No chance now to hobnob with Johnson’s Greens, no chance to approach St. Leger and Haldimand. Butler was here, and there could be no more concealment.

  Such an exhilaration of savage happiness seized me that I lost my head, and begged the Oneida to stop and let me set a flint and give the Royal Greens a shot or two; but the wily chief refused; and he was wise, for I should have known that the Sacandaga must already be a swarming nest of Johnson’s foresters and painted savages.

  The heat was terrific in the willows; sweat poured from the half-naked Oneida as he ran, and my hunting-shirt hung soaked, flapping across my thighs.

  We had doubled on them now, going almost due west. Far across the Vlaie I could see dark spots moving along the Dead Water, and here and there a distant rifle glimmering as the sun struck it. Now and then a faint shout was borne to our ears as we halted, dripping and panting in the birches to reconnoiter some open swale ahead, or some cranberry-bog crimsoning under the October sun.

  We swam the marshy creek miles to the west, coming out presently into a rutty wagon-trail, which I knew ran south to Mayfield; but we dared not use it, so steered the
dripping horse southeast, chancing rather to cross Frenchman’s Creek, four miles above Varicks, and so, by a circle bearing east and south, reaching the Broadalbin trail, or some safe road between Galway and Perth, or, if driven to it, making for Saratoga as a last resort.

  My face was burned deep red, and I was soaked from neck to heels, so that my moccasins rubbed and chafed at every step. The girl had sat her saddle while the horse swam, so that her legs only were wet. As for the Oneida, his oiled and painted skin shed water like the plumage of a duck. Lord knows, we left a trail broad and wet enough for even a Hessian to follow; and for that reason dared not halt north of Frenchman’s Creek or short of Vanderveer’s grist-mill.

  As I plodded on, rifle atrail, I began to comprehend the full import of what had occurred since the day before, when I, with soul full of bitterness, had left Burke’s Inn. Was it only a day ago? By Heaven, it seemed a year since I had looked upon Elsin Grey! And what a change in fortune had come upon us in these two score hours! Free to wed now — if we dared accept the heart-broken testimony of this poor girl — if we dared deny the perjured testimony of a dishonored magistrate, leagued with his fellow libertine, who, thank God, had at length learned something of the fury he used on others. Strange that in all this war I had never laid a rifle level save at him; strange that I had never seen blood shed in anger, through all these battle years, except the blood that now dried, clotting on my cheek-bone, where his shoulder-buckle had cut me in the struggle. His spurs, too, had caught in the skirt of my hunting-shirt, tearing it to the fringed hem, and digging a furrow across my instep; and the moccasin on that foot was stiff with blood.

  Ah, if I might only have brought him off; if I might only have carried this guilty man to Johnstown! Yet I should have known that Sir John’s men were likely to be within hail, fool that I was to take the desperate chance when a little parley, a little edging toward him, a sudden blow might have served. Yet I was glad in my heart that I had not used craft; cat traits are not instinctive with me; craft, stealth, a purring ambush — faugh! I was no coward to beat him down unawares. I had openly declared him prisoner, and I was glad I had done so. Why, I might have shot him as we talked, had I been of a breed to do murder — had I been inhuman enough to slay him, unwarned, before the very eyes of the woman he had wronged, and who still hoped for mercy from him lest she pass her life a loathed and wretched outcast among the people who had accepted her as an Iroquois.