by John Buchan
CHAPTER XIV.
A WILD WAGER.
That July morning in the forest gave me, if not popularity, at any ratepeace. I had made good my position. Henceforth the word went out that Iwas to be let alone. Some of the young men, indeed, showed signs ofaffecting my society, including that Mr. Kent of Gracedieu who had beenstripped by Ringan. The others treated me with courtesy, and I repliedwith my best manners. Most of them were of a different world to mine,and we could not mix, so 'twas right that our deportment should be thatof two dissimilar but amiable nations bowing to each other across afrontier.
All this was a great ease, but it brought one rueful consequence.Elspeth grew cold to me. Women, I suppose, have to condescend, andprotect, and pity. When I was an outcast she was ready to shelter me;but now that I was in some degree of favour with others the need forthis was gone, and she saw me without illusion in all my angularity androughness. She must have heard of the duel, and jumped to theconclusion that the quarrel had been about herself, which was not thetruth. The notion irked her pride, that her name should ever be broughtinto the brawls of men. When I passed her in the streets she greeted mecoldly, and all friendliness had gone out of her eyes.
* * * * *
My days were so busy that I had little leisure for brooding, but at oddmoments I would fall into a deep melancholy. She had lived soconstantly in my thoughts that without her no project charmed me. Whatmattered wealth or fame, I thought, if she did not approve? Whatavailed my striving, if she were not to share in the reward? I was inthis mood when I was bidden by Doctor Blair to sup at his house.
I went thither in much trepidation, for I feared a great company, inwhich I might have no chance of a word from her. But I found only theGovernor, who was in a black humour, and disputed every word that fellfrom the Doctor's mouth. This turned the meal into one long wrangle, inwhich the high fundamentals of government in Church and State weredebated by two choleric gentlemen. The girl and I had no share in theconversation; indeed, we were clearly out of place: so she could notrefuse when I proposed a walk in the garden. The place was all cool anddewy after the scorching day, and the bells of the flowers made the airheavy with fragrance. Somewhere near a man was playing on theflageolet, a light, pretty tune which set her feet tripping.
I asked her bluntly wherein I had offended.
"Offended!" she cried, "Why should I take offence? I see you once in ablue moon. You flatter yourself strangely, Mr. Garvald, if you thinkyou are ever in my thoughts."
"You are never out of mine," I said dismally.
At this she laughed, something of the old elfin laughter which I hadheard on the wet moors.
"A compliment!" she cried, "To be mixed up eternally with the weightsof tobacco and the prices of Flemish lace. You are growing a verypretty courtier, sir."
"I am no courtier," I said. "I think brave things of you, though I havenot the words to fit them. But one thing I will say to you. Since everyou sang to the boy that once was me your spell has been on my soul.And when I saw you again three months back that spell was changed fromthe whim of youth to what men call love. Oh, I know well there is nohope for me. I am not fit to tie your shoe-latch. But you have made afire in my cold life, and you will pardon me if I dare warm my hands.The sun is brighter because of you, and the flowers fairer, and thebirds' song sweeter. Grant me this little boon, that I may think ofyou. Have no fears that I will pester you with attentions. No priestever served his goddess with a remoter reverence than mine for you."
She stopped in an alley of roses and looked me in the face. In the duskI could not see her eyes.
"Fine words," she said. "Yet I hear that you have been wrangling overme with Mr. Charles Grey, and exchanging pistol shots. Is that yourreverence?"
In a sentence I told her the truth. "They forced my back to the wall,"I said, "and there was no other way. I have never uttered your name toa living soul."
Was it my fancy that when she spoke again there was a faint accent ofdisappointment?
"You are an uncomfortable being, Mr. Garvald. It seems you arepredestined to keep Virginia from sloth. For myself I am for the rosesand the old quiet ways."
She plucked two flowers, one white and one of deepest crimson.
"I pardon you," she said, "and for token I will give you a rose. It isred, for that is your turbulent colour. The white flower of peace shallbe mine."
I took the gift, and laid it in my bosom.
* * * * *
Two days later, it being a Monday, I dined with his Excellency at theGovernor's house at Middle Plantation. The place had been built new formy lord Culpepper, since the old mansion at James Town had been burnedin Bacon's rising. The company was mainly of young men, but threeladies--the mistresses of Arlington and Cobwell Manors, and Elspeth ina new saffron gown--varied with their laces the rich coats of the men.I was pleasantly welcomed by everybody. Grey came forward and greetedme, very quiet and civil, and I sat by him throughout the meal. TheGovernor was in high good humour, and presently had the whole companyin the same mood. Of them all, Elspeth was the merriest. She had thequickest wit and the deftest skill in mimicry, and there was that inher laughter which would infect the glummest.
That very day I had finished my preparations. The train was now laid,and the men were ready, and a word from Lawrence would line the Westwith muskets. But I had none of the satisfaction of a completed work.It was borne in upon me that our task was scarcely begun, and that theperil that threatened us was far darker than we had dreamed. Ringan'stale of a white leader among the tribes was always in my head. The hallwhere we sat was lined with portraits of men who had borne rule inVirginia. There was Captain John Smith, trim-bearded and bronzed; andArgall and Dale, grave and soldierly; there was Francis Wyat, with thescar got in Indian wars; there hung the mean and sallow countenance ofSir John Harvey. There, too, was Berkeley, with his high complexion andhis love-locks, the great gentleman of a vanished age; and the grossrotundity of Culpepper; and the furtive eye of my lord Howard, who waseven now the reigning Governor. There was a noble picture of KingCharles the Second, who alone of monarchs was represented. Soft-footedlackeys carried viands and wines, and the table was a mingling ofsilver and roses. The afternoon light came soft through the trellis,and you could not have looked for a fairer picture of settled ease. YetI had that in my mind which shattered the picture. We were feastinglike the old citizens of buried Pompeii, with the lava even now,perhaps, flowing hot from the mountains. I looked at the painted faceson the walls, and wondered which I would summon to our aid if I couldcall men from the dead. Smith, I thought, would be best; but Ireflected uneasily that Smith would never have let things come to sucha pass. At the first hint of danger he would have been off to the Westto scotch it in the egg.
I was so filled with sober reflections that I talked little; but therewas no need of me. Youth and beauty reigned, and the Governor was asgay as the youngest. Many asked me to take wine with them, and thecompliment pleased me. There was singing, likewise--Sir WilliamDavenant's song to his mistress, and a Cavalier rant or two, and athroat ditty of the seas; and Elspeth sang very sweetly the old air of"Greensleeves." We drank all the toasts of fashion--His Majesty ofEngland, confusion to the French, the health of Virginia, richharvests, full cellars, and pretty dames. Presently when we had waxedvery cheerful, and wine had risen to several young heads, the Governorcalled on us to brim our glasses.
"Be it known, gentlemen, and you, fair ladies," he cried, "that to-dayis a more auspicious occasion than any Royal festival or Christian holyday. To-day is Dulcinea's birthday. I summon you to drink to the flowerof the West, the brightest gem in Virginia's coronal."
At that we were all on our feet. The gentlemen snapped the stems oftheir glasses to honour the sacredness of the toast, and there was sucha shouting and pledging as might well have turned a girl's head.Elspeth sat still and smiling. The mockery had gone out of her eyes,and I thought they were wet. No Queen had ever a nobler sa
lutation, andmy heart warmed to the generous company. Whatever its faults, it diddue homage to beauty and youth.
Governor Francis was again on his feet.
"I have a birthday gift for the fair one. You must know that once atWhitehall I played at cartes with my lord Culpepper, and the stake onhis part was one-sixth portion of that Virginian territory which is hisfreehold. I won, and my lord conveyed the grant to me in a deedproperly attested by the attorneys. We call the place the NorthernNeck, and 'tis all the land between the Rappahannock and the Potomac asfar west as the sunset. It is undivided, but my lord stipulated that myportion should lie from the mountains westward. What good is such anestate to an aging bachelor like me, who can never visit it? But 'tis afine inheritance for youth, and I propose to convey it to Dulcinea as abirthday gift. Some day, I doubt not, 'twill be the Eden of America."
At this there was a great crying out and some laughter, which died awaywhen it appeared that the Governor spoke in all seriousness.
"I make one condition," he went on. "Twenty years back there was an oldhunter, called Studd, who penetrated the mountains. He travelled to thehead-waters of the Rapidan, and pierced the hills by a pass which hechristened Clearwater Gap. He climbed the highest mountain in thoseparts, and built a cairn on the summit, in which he hid a powder-hornwith a writing within. He was the first to make the journey, and nonehave followed him. The man is dead now, but he told me the tale, and Iwill pledge my honour that it is true. It is for Dulcinea to choose achampion to follow Studd's path and bring back his powder-horn. On theday I receive it she takes sasine of her heritage. Which of yougallants offers for the venture?"
To this day I do not know what were Francis Nicholson's motives. Hewished the mountains crossed, but he cannot have expected to meet apathfinder among the youth of the Tidewater. I think it was the whim ofthe moment. He would endow Elspeth, and at the same time test hercavaliers. To the ordinary man it seemed the craziest folly. Studd hadbeen a wild fellow, half Indian in blood and wholly Indian in habits,and for another to travel fifty miles into the heart of the desert wasto embrace destruction. The company sat very silent. Elspeth, with ablushing cheek, turned troubled eyes on the speaker.
As for me, I had found the chance I wanted. I was on my feet in asecond. "I will go," I said; and I had hardly spoken when Grey wasbeside me, crying, "And I."
Still the company sat silent. 'Twas as if the shadow of a sterner lifehad come over their young gaiety. Elspeth did not look at me, but satwith cast-down eyes, plucking feverishly at a rose. The Governorlaughed out loud.
"Brave hearts!" he cried. "Will you travel together?"
I looked at Grey. "That can hardly be," he said.
"Well, we must spin for it," said Nicholson, taking a guinea from hispocket. "Royals for Mr. Garvald, quarters for Mr. Grey," he cried as hespun it.
It fell Royals. We had both been standing, and Grey now bowed to me andsat down. His face was very pale and his lips tightly shut.
The Governor gave a last toast "Let us drink," he called, "toDulcinea's champion and the fortunes of his journey." At that there wassuch applause you might have thought me the best-liked man in thedominion. I looked at Elspeth, but she averted her eyes.
As we left the table I stepped beside Grey. "You must come with me," Iwhispered. "Nay, do not refuse. When you know all you will comegladly." And I appointed a meeting on the next day at the Half-wayTavern.
I got to my house at the darkening, and found Ringan waiting for me.
This time he had not sought a disguise, but he kept his fiery headcovered with a broad hat, and the collar of his seaman's coat envelopedhis lower face. To a passer-by in the dusk he must have seemed anordinary ship's captain stretching his legs on land.
He asked for food and drink, and I observed that his manner was verygrave.
"Are things in train, Andrew?" he asked.
I told him "to the last stirrup buckle."
"It's as well," said he, "for the trouble has begun."
Then he told me a horrid tale. The Rapidan is a stream in the north ofthe dominion, flowing into the Rappahannock on its south bank. Twoyears past a family of French folk--D'Aubigny was their name--had madea home in a meadow by that stream and built a house and a strongstockade, for they were in dangerous nearness to the hills, and had noneighbours within forty miles. They were gentlefolk of some substance,and had carved out of the wilderness a very pretty manor with orchardsand flower gardens. I had never been to the place, but I had heard thepraise of it from dwellers on the Rappahannock. No Indians came nearthem, and there they abode, happy in their solitude--a husband andwife, three little children, two French servants, and a dozen negroes.
A week ago tragedy had come like a thunderbolt. At night the stockadewas broke, and the family woke from sleep to hear the war-whoop and seeby the light of their blazing byres a band of painted savages. It seemsthat no resistance was possible, and they were butchered like sheep.The babes were pierced with stakes, the grown folk were scalped andtortured, and by sunrise in that peaceful clearing there was nothingbut blood-stained ashes.
Word had come down the Rappahannock. Ringan said he had heard it inAccomac, and had sailed to Sabine to make sure. Men had ridden out fromStafford county, and found no more than a child's toy and some bloodygarments.
"Who did it?" I asked, with fury rising in my heart.
"It's Cherokee work. There's nothing strange in it, except that such adeed should have been dared. But it means the beginning of ourbusiness. D'you think the Stafford folk will sleep in their beds afterthat? And that's precisely what perplexes me. The Governor will bebound to send an expedition against the murderers, and they'll not beeasy found. But while the militia are routing about on the Rapidan,what hinders the big invasion to come down the James or theChickahominy or the Pamunkey or the Mattaponey and find a defencelessTidewater? As I see it, there's deep guile in this business. A Cherokeemurder is nothing out of the way, but these blackguards were notkilling for mere pleasure. As I've said before, I would give my righthand to have better information. It's this land business that ficklesone. If it were a matter of islands and ocean bays, I would have longago riddled out the heart of it."
"We're on the way to get news," I said, and I told him of my wager thatevening.
"Man, Andrew!" he cried, "it's providential. There's nothing to hinderyou and me and a few others to ride clear into the hills, with theTidewater thinking it no more than a play of daft young men. You mustsee Nicholson, and get him to hold his hand till we send him word. Intwo days Lawrence will be here, and we can post our lads on each of therivers, for it's likely any Indian raid will take one of the valleys.You must see that Governor of yours first thing in the morning, and gethim to promise to wait on your news. Then he can get out his militia,and stir up the Tidewater. Will he do it, think you?"
I said I thought he would.
"And there's one other thing. Would he agree to turning a blind eye toLawrence, if he comes back? He'll not trouble them in James Town, buthe's the only man alive to direct our own lads."
I said I would try, but I was far from certain. It was hard to forecastthe mind of Governor Francis.
"Well, Lawrence will come whether or no. You can sound the man, and ifhe's dour let the matter be. Lawrence is now on the Roanoke, and hisplan is to send out the word to-morrow and gather in the posts. He'llcome to Frew's place on the South Fork River, which is about the middleof the frontier line. To-day is Monday, to-morrow the word will go out,by Friday the men will be ready, and Lawrence will be in Virginia. Thesooner you're off the better, Andrew. What do you say to Wednesday?"
"That day will suit me fine," I said; "but what about my company?"
"The fewer the better. Who were you thinking of?"
"You for one," I said, "and Shalah for a second."
He nodded.
"I want two men from the Rappahannock--a hunter of the name ofDonaldson and the Frenchman Bertrand."
"That makes five. Would you like to even the numb
er?"
"Yes," I said. "There's a gentleman of the Tidewater, Mr. Charles Grey,that I've bidden to the venture."
Ringan whistled. "Are you sure that's wise? There'll be little use forbraw clothes and fine manners in the hills."
"All the same there'll be a use for Mr. Grey. When will you join us?"
"I've a bit of business to do hereaways, but I'll catch you up. Lookfor me at Aird's store on Thursday morning."
