Works of Robert W Chambers

by Robert W. Chambers

  Farther and farther away sounded the musketry in my ears, until the pounding pulses deadened and finally obliterated the sound. I could no longer carry the shattered and bloody fragment of my rifle, and dropped it. Bullet-pouch, shot-pouch, powder-horn, water-bottle, hatchet I let fall, keeping only my knife, belt, and the thin, flat wallet which contained my letters from Lois and my journal. Even my cap I flung away, moving always forward on a dog-trot, and ever twisting my sweat-drenched head to look behind.

  Several times I caught distant glimpses of my pursuers, and saw that they walked sometimes, as though exhausted. Yet, I dared not bear to the South, not knowing how many of them had continued on westward to cut me off from a return; so I jogged on northward, my heart nigh broken with misery and foreboding, sickened to the very soul with the memory of our slaughtered men upon the knoll. For of some thirty-odd riflemen, Indians, line soldiers, and scouts that Boyd had led out the night before, only Elerson, Murphy, McDonald, Youse, the coureur-de-bois, and I remained alive or untaken. Boyd was a prisoner, together with Sergeant Parker; all the others were dead to a man, excepting possibly my three Indians, Mayaro, Grey-Feather, and Tahoontowhee, who Boyd had sent in to report us before we had sighted the Senecas, and who might possibly have escaped the ambuscade.

  As I plodded on, I dared not let my imagination dwell on Boyd and Parker, for a dreadful instinct told me that the dead men on the knoll were better off. Yet, I tried to remember that a red-coated officer had taken Boyd, and one of Sir John’s soldiers had captured Michael Parker. But I could find no comfort, no hope in this thought, because Walter Butler was there, and Hiokatoo, and McDonald, and all that bloody band. The Senecas would surely demand the prisoners. There was not one soul to speak a word for them, unless Brant were near. That noble and humane warrior alone could save them from the Seneca stake. And I feared he was at the burnt bridge with his Mohawks, facing our army as he always faced it, dauntless, adroit, resourceful, and terrible.

  A little stony stream ran down beside the trackless course I travelled and I seized the chance of confusing the tireless men who tracked me, and took to the stones, springing from one step to the next, taking care not to wet my moccasins, dislodge moss or lichen, or in any manner mark the stones I trod on or break or disturb the branches and leaves above me.

  The stream ran almost north as did all the little water-courses hereabouts, and for a long while I followed it, until at last, to my great relief, it divided; and I followed the branch that ran northeast. Again this branch forked; I took the eastern course until, on the right bank, I saw long, naked beds of rock stretching into low crags and curving eastward.

  Over this rock no Seneca could hope to track a cautious and hunted man. I walked sometimes, sometimes trotted; and so jogged on, bearing ever to the east and south, meaning to cross the Chinisee River north of the confluence, and pass clear around the head of the lake.

  Here I made my mistake by assuming that, as our pioneers must still be working on the burnt bridge, the enemy that had merely enveloped our party by curling around us his right flank, would again swing back to their bluffs along the lake, and, though hope of ambuscade was over, dispute the passage of the stream and the morass with our own people.

  But as I came out among the trees along the river bank, to my astonishment and alarm I saw an Indian house, and smoke curling from the chimney. So taken aback was I that I ran south to a great oak tree and stood behind it, striving to collect my thoughts and make out my proper bearings. But off again scattered every idea I had in my head, and I looked about me in a very panic, for I heard close at hand the barking of Indian dogs and a vast murmur of voices; and, peering out again from behind my tree I could see other houses close to the strip of forest where I hid, and the narrow lane between them was crowded with people.

  Where I was, what this town might be, I could not surmise; nor did I perceive any way out of this wasp’s nest where I was now landed, except to retrace my trail. And that I dared not do.

  There was now a great shouting in the village as though some person had just made a speech and his audience remained in two nods concerning its import.

  Truly, this seemed to be no place for me; the woods were very open — a sugar bush in all the gorgeous glory of scarlet, yellow, and purple foliage, heavily fringed with thickets of bushes and young hardwood growth, which for the moment had hid the town from me, and no doubt concealed me from the people close at hand. To retreat through such a strip of woodland was impossible without discovery. Besides, somewhere on my back trail were enemies, though just where I could not know. For a moment’s despair, it seemed to me that only the wings of a bird could save me now; then, as I involuntarily cast my gaze aloft, the thought to climb followed; and up I went into the branches, where the blaze of foliage concealed me; and lay close to a great limb looking down over the top of the thicket to the open river bank. And what I saw astounded me; the enemy’s baggage wagons were fording the river; his cattle-drove had just been herded across, and the open space was already full of his gaunt cows and oxen.

  Rangers and Greens pricked them forward with their bayonets, forcing them out of the opening and driving them northwest through the outskirts of the village. The wagons, horses, and vehicles, in a dreadful plight, followed the herd-guard. After them marched Butler’s rear-guard, rangers, Greens, renegades, Indians sullenly turning their heads to listen and to gaze as the uproar from the village increased and burst into a very frenzy of diabolical yelling.

  Suddenly, out through the narrow lane or street surged hundreds of Seneca warriors, all clustering and crowding around something in the centre of the mass; and as the throng, now lurching this way, now driving that way, spread out over the cleared land up to the edges of the very thicket which I overlooked, my blood froze in my veins.

  For in the centre of that mass of painted, capering demons, walked Boyd and Parker, their bloodless faces set and grim, their heads carried high.

  Into this confusion drove the baggage wagons; the herd-guards began to shout angrily and drive back the Indians; the wagons drove slowly through the lane, the drivers looking down curiously at Boyd and his pallid companion, but not insulting them.

  One by one the battered and rickety wagons jolted by; then came the bloody and dishevelled soldiery plodding with shouldered muskets through the lanes of excited warriors, scarcely letting their haggard eyes rest on the two prisoners who stood, unpinioned in the front rank.

  A mounted officer, leaning from his saddle, asked the Senecas what they meant to do with these prisoners; and the ferocious response seemed to shock him, for he drew bridle and stared at Boyd as though fascinated.

  So near to where I lay was Boyd standing that I could see the checked quiver of his lips as he bit them to control his nerves before he spoke. Then he said to the mounted officer, in a perfectly even and distinct voice:

  “Can you not secure for us, sir, the civilized treatment of prisoners of war?”

  “I dare not interfere,” faltered the officer, staring around at the sea of devilish faces.

  “And you, a white man, return me such a cowardly answer?”

  Another motley company came marching up from the river, led by a superb Mohawk Indian in full war-paint and feathers; and, blocked by the mounted officer in front, halted.

  I saw Boyd’s despairing glance sweep their files; then suddenly his eyes brightened.

  “Brant!” he cried.

  And then I saw that the splendid Mohawk leader was the great Thayendanegea himself.

  “Boyd,” he said calmly, “I am sorry for you. I would help you if I could. But,” he added, with a bitter smile, “there are those in authority among us who are more savage than those you white men call savages. One of these — gentlemen — has overruled me, denying my more humane counsel.... I am sorry, Boyd.”

  “Brant!” he said in a ringing voice. “Look at me attentively!”

  “I look upon you, Boyd.”

  Then something extraordinary happened;
I saw Boyd make a quick sign; saw poor Parker imitate him; realized vaguely that it was the Masonic signal of distress.

  Brant remained absolutely motionless for a full minute; suddenly he sprang forward, pushed away the Senecas who immediately surrounded the prisoners, shoving them aside right and left so fiercely that in a moment the whole throng was wavering and shrinking back.

  Then Brant, facing the astonished warriors, laid his hand on Boyd’s head and then on Parker’s.

  “Senecas!” he said in a cold and ringing voice. “These men are mine; Let no man dare interfere with these two prisoners. They belong to me. I now give them my promise of safety. I take them under my protection — I, Thayendanegea! I do not ask them of you; I take them. I do not explain why. I do not permit you — not one among you to — to question me. What I have done is done. It is Joseph Brant who has spoken!”

  He turned calmly to Boyd, said something in a low voice, turned sharply on his heel, and marched forward at the head of his company of Mohawks and halfbreeds.

  Then I saw Hiokatoo come up and stand glaring at Boyd, showing his teeth at him like a baffled wolf; and Boyd laughed in his face and seated himself on a log beside the path, coolly and insolently turning his back on the Seneca warriors, and leisurely lighting his pipe.

  Parker came and seated himself beside him; and they conversed in voices so low that I could not hear what they said, but Boyd smiled at intervals, and Parker’s bruised visage relaxed.

  The Senecas had fallen back in a sullen line, their ferocious eyes never shifting from the two prisoners. Hiokatoo set four warriors to guard them, then, passing slowly in front of Boyd, spat on the ground.

  “Dog of a Seneca!” said Boyd fiercely. “What you touch you defile, stinking wolverine that you are!”

  “Dog of a white man!” retorted Hiokatoo. “You are not yet in your own kennel! Remember that!”

  “But you are!” said Boyd. “The stench betrays the wolverine! Go tell your filthy cubs that my young men are counting the scalps of your Cat-People and your Andastes, and that the mangy lock of Amochol shall be thrown to our swine!”

  Struck entirely speechless by such rash effrontery and by his own fury, the dreaded Seneca war-chief groped for his hatchet with trembling hands; but a warning hiss from one of his own Mountain Snakes on guard brought him to his senses.

  Such an embodiment of devilish fury I had never seen on any human countenance; only could it be matched in the lightning snarl of a surprised lynx or in the deadly stare of a rattlesnake. He uttered no sound; after a moment the thin lips, which had receded, sheathed the teeth again; and he walked to a tree and stood leaning against it as another company of Sir John’s Royal Greens marched up from the river bank and continued northwest, passing between the tree where I lay concealed, and the log where Boyd and Parker sat.

  McDonald, mounted, naked claymore in his hand, came by, leading a company of his renegades. He grinned at Boyd, and passed his basket-hilt around his throat with a significant gesture, then grinned again.

  “Not yet, you Scotch loon!” said Boyd gently. “I’ll live to pepper your kilted tatterdemalions so they’ll beg for the mercies of Glencoe!”

  After that, for a long while only stragglers came limping by — lank, bloody, starved creatures, who never even turned their sick eyes on the people they passed among.

  Then, after nearly half an hour, a full battalion of Johnson’s Greens forded the river, and behind them came Butler’s Rangers.

  Old John Butler, squatting his saddle like a weather-beaten toad, rode by with scarcely a glance at the prisoners; and Greens and Rangers passed on through the village and out of sight to the northwest.

  I had thought the defile was ended, when, looking back, I saw some Indians crossing the ford, carrying over a white officer. At first I supposed he was wounded, but soon saw that he had not desired to wet his boots.

  What had become of his horse I could only guess, for he wore spurs and sword, and the sombre uniform of the Rangers.

  Then, as he came up I saw that he was Walter Butler.

  As he approached, his dark eyes were fixed on the prisoners; and when he came opposite to them he halted.

  Boyd returned his insolent stare very coolly, continuing to smoke his pipe. Slowly the golden-brown eyes of Butler contracted, and into his pale, handsome, but sinister face crept a slight colour.

  “So you are Boyd!” he said menacingly.

  “Yes, I am Boyd. What next?”

  “What next?” repeated Walter Butler. “Well, really I don’t know, my impudent friend, but I strongly suspect the Seneca stake will come next.”

  Boyd laughed: “We gave Brant a sign that you also should recognize. We are now under his protection.”

  “What sign?” demanded Butler, his eyes becoming yellow and fixed. And, as Boyd carelessly repeated the rapid and mystical appeal, “Oh!” he said coolly. “So that is what you count on, is it?”

  “Naturally.”

  “With me also?”

  “You are a Mason.”

  “Also,” snarled Butler, “I am an officer in his British Majesty’s service. Now, answer the questions I put to you. How many cannon did your Yankee General send back to Tioga after Catharines-town was burnt, and how many has he with him?”

  “Do you suppose that I am going to answer your questions?” said Boyd, amused.

  “I think you will, Come, sir; what artillery is he bringing north with him?”

  And as Boyd merely looked at him with contempt, he stepped nearer, bent suddenly, and jerked Boyd to his feet.

  “You Yankee dog!” he said; “Stand up when your betters stand!”

  Boyd reddened to his temples.

  “Murderer!” he said. “Does a gentleman stand in the presence of the Cherry Valley butcher?” And he seated himself again on his log.

  Butler’s visage became deathly, and for a full minute he stood there in silence. Suddenly he turned, nodded to Hiokatoo, pointed at Boyd, then at Parker. Both prisoners rose as a yell of ferocious joy split the air from the Senecas. Then, wheeling on Boyd:

  “Will you answer my questions?”

  “No!”

  “Do you refuse to answer the military questions put to you by an officer?”

  “No prisoner of war is compelled to do that!”

  “You are mistaken; I compel you to answer on pain of death!”

  “I refuse.”

  Both men were deadly pale. Parker also had risen and was now standing beside Boyd.

  “I claim the civilized treatment due to an officer,” said Boyd quietly.

  “Refused unless you answer!”

  “I shall not answer. I am under Brant’s protection!”

  “Brant!” exclaimed Butler, his pallid visage contorted. “What do I care for Brant? Who is Brant to offer you immunity? By God, sir, I tell you that you shall answer my questions — any I think fit to ask you — every one of them — or I turn you over to my Senecas!”

  “You dare not!”

  “Answer me, or you shall soon learn what I dare and dare not do!”

  Boyd, pale as a sheet, said slowly:

  “I do believe you capable of every infamy, Mr. Butler. I do believe, now, that the murderer of little children will sacrifice me to these Senecas if I do not answer his dishonorable questions. And so, believing this, and always holding your person in the utmost loathing and contempt, I refuse to reveal to you one single item concerning the army in which I have the honour and privilege to serve.”

  “Take him!” said Butler to the crowding Senecas.

  I have never been able to bring myself to write down how my comrade died. Many have written something of his death, judging the manner of it from the condition in which his poor body was discovered the next day by our advance. Yet, even these have shrunk from writing any but the most general details, because the horror of the truth is indescribable, and not even the most callous mind could endure it all.

  God knows how I myself survived the swimming
horror of that hellish scene — for the stake was hewn and planted full within my view.... And it took him many hours to die — all the long September afternoon.... And they never left him for one moment.

  No, I can not write it, nor could I even tell my comrades when they came up next day, how in detail died Thomas Boyd, lieutenant in my regiment of rifles. Only from what was left of him could they draw their horrible and unthinkable conclusions.

  I do not know whether I have more or less of courage than the usual man and soldier, but this I do know, that had I possessed a rifle where I lay concealed, long before they wrenched the first groan from his tortured body I would have fired at my comrade’s heart and trusted to my Maker and my legs.

  No torture that I ever heard of or could ever have conceived — no punishment, no agony, no Calvary ever has matched the hellish hideousness of the endless execution of this young man.... He was only twenty-two years old; only a lieutenant among the thousands who served their common motherland. No man who ever lived has died more bravely; none, perhaps, as horribly and as slowly. And it seemed as though in that powerful, symmetrical, magnificent body, even after it became scarcely recognizable as human, that the spark of life could not be extinguished even though it were cut into a million shreds and scattered to the winds like the fair body of Osiris.

  And this is all I care to say how it was that my comrade died, save that he endured bravely; and that while consciousness remained, not one secret would he reveal; not one plea for mercy escaped his lips.

  Parker died more swiftly and mercifully.

  It was after sunset when the Senecas left the place, but the sky above was still rosy. And as they slowly marched past the corpses of the two men whom they had slain, every Seneca drew his hatchet and shouted: