by John Buchan
CHAPTER XXII.
HOW A FOOL MUST GO HIS OWN ROAD.
It was a sorry party that looked at each other in the first light ofdawn.
Our eyes were hollow with suspense, and all but Shalah had the huntedlook of men caught in a trap. Not till the sun had got above thetree-tops did we venture to leave our posts and think of food. It wasnow that Elspeth's spirit showed supreme. The courage of that pale girlput us all to the blush. She alone carried her head high and forced anair of cheerfulness. She lit the fire with Donaldson's help, andbroiled some deer's flesh for our breakfast, and whistled gently as shewrought, bringing into our wild business a breath of the orderlycomfort of home. I had seen her in silk and lace, a queen among thegallants, but she never looked so fair as on that misty morning, herhair straying over her brow, her plain kirtle soiled and sodden, buther eyes bright with her young courage.
During the last hours of that dark vigil my mind had been torn withcares. If we escaped the perils of the night, I asked myself, whatthen? Here were the seven of us, pinned in a hill-fort, with no helpwithin fifty miles, and one of the seven was a woman! I judged that theIndian force was large, and there was always the mighty army waitingfarther south in that shelf of the hills. If they sought to take us, itmust be a matter of a day or two at the most till they succeeded. Ifthey only played with us--which is the cruel Indian way--we mightresist a little, but starvation would beat us down. Where were we toget food, with the forests full of our subtle enemies? To sit stillwould mean to wait upon death, and the waiting would not be long.
There was the chance, to be sure, that the Indians would be drawn offin the advance towards the east. But here came in a worse anxiety. Ihad come to get news to warn the Tidewater. That news I had got. Themighty gathering which Shalah's eyes and mine had beheld in that uplandglen was the peril we had foreseen. What good were easy victories overraiding Cherokees when this deadly host waited on the leash? I had nodoubt that the Cherokees were now broken. Stafford county would be fullof Nicholson's militia, and Lawrence's strong hand lay on the line ofthe Borders. But what availed it? While Virginia was flattering herselfthat she had repelled the savages, and the Rappahannock men werenotching their muskets with the tale of the dead, a wave was gatheringto sweep down the Pamunkey or the James, and break on the walls ofJames Town. I did not think that Nicholson, forewarned and prepared,could stem the torrent; and if it caught him unawares the proudTidewater would break like a rotten reed.
I had been sent to scout. Was I to be false to the word I had given,and let any risk to myself or others deter me from taking back thenews? The Indian army tarried; why, I did not know--perhaps some madwhim of their soothsayers, perhaps the device of a wise general; but atany rate they tarried. If a war party could spend a night in baiting usand slaying our horses, there could be no very instant orders for theroad. If this were so, a bold man might yet reach the Border line. Atthat moment it seemed to me a madman's errand. Even if I slipped pastthe watchers in the woods and the glens, the land between would bestrewn with fragments of the Cherokee host, and I had not the Indiancraft. But it was very seriously borne in upon me that 'twas my duty totry. God might prosper a bold stroke, and in any case I should be trueto my trust.
But what of Elspeth? The thought of leaving her was pure torment. Inour hideous peril 'twas scarcely to be endured that one should go. Itold myself that if I reached the Border I could get help, but my heartwarned me that I lied. My news would leave no time there for ridinghillward to rescue a rash adventure. We were beyond the pale, and mustface the consequences. That we all had known, and reckoned with, but wehad not counted that our risk would be shared by a woman. Ah I thatluckless ride of Elspeth's! But for that foolish whim she would be safenow in the cool house at Middle Plantation, with a ship to take her tosafety if the worst befell. And now of all the King's subjects in thathour we were the most ill-fated, islanded on a sand heap with the tideof savage war hourly eating into our crazy shelter.
Before the daylight came, as I stood with my cheek to my musket, I hadcome to a resolution. In a tangle of duties a man must seize thesolitary clear one, and there could be no doubt of what mine was, Imust try for the Tidewater, and I must try alone, Shalah had the bestchance to get through, but without Shalah the stockade was no sort ofrefuge. Ringan was wiser and stronger than I, but I thought I had morehill-craft, and, besides, the duty was mine, not his. Grey had noknowledge of the wilds, and Donaldson and Bertrand could not handle thenews as it should be handled, in the unlikely event of their gettingthrough alive. No, there were no two ways of it. I must make theeffort, though in that leaden hour of weariness and cold it seemed asif my death-knell were ringing.
Morn showed a grey world, strewn with the havoc of the storm. Theeagles were already busy among the dead horses, and our first job wasto bury the poor beasts. Just outside the stockade we dug as best wecould a shallow trench, while the muskets of the others kept watch overus. There we laid also the body of the man I had shot in the night. Hewas a young savage, naked to the waist, and curiously tattooed on theforehead with the device of what seemed to be a rising or setting sun.I observed that Shalah looked closely at this, and that his face worean unusual excitement. He said something in his own tongue, and, whenthe trench was dug, laid the dead man in it so that his head pointedwestwards.
We wrought in a dogged silence, and Elspeth's cheery whistling was theonly sound in that sullen morning. It fairly broke my heart. She waswhistling the old tune of "Leezie Lindsay," a merry lilt with the hillwind and the heather in it. The bravery of the poor child was thehardest thing of all to bear when I knew that in a few hours' time theend might come. The others were only weary and dishevelled and ill atease, but on me seemed to have fallen the burden of the cares of thewhole earth.
Shalah had disappeared for a little, and came back with the word thatthe near forests were empty. So I summoned a council, and talked as webreakfasted. I had looked into the matter of the food, and found thatwe had sufficient for three days. We had boucanned a quantity of deer'sflesh two days before, and this, with the fruit of yesterday'strapping, made a fair stock in our larder.
Then I announced my plan. "I am going to try to reach Lawrence," Isaid.
No one spoke. Shalah lifted his head, and looked at me gravely.
"Does any man object?" I asked sharply, for my temper was all of anedge.
"Your throat will be cut in the first mile," said Donaldson gruffly.
"Maybe it will, but maybe not. At any rate, I can try. You have notheard what Shalah and I found in the hills yesterday. Twelve milessouth there is a glen with a plateau at its head, and that plateau isas full of Indians as a beehive. Ay, Ringan, you and Lawrence wereright. The Cherokees are the least of the trouble. There's a great armycome out of the West, men that you and I never saw the like of before,and they are waiting till the Cherokees have drawn the fire of theBorderers, and then they will bring hell to the Tidewater. You and Iknow that there's some sort of madman in command, a man that quotes theBible and speaks English; but madman or not, he's a great general, andwoe betide Virginia if he gets among the manors. I was sent to thehills to get news, and I've got it. Would it not be the part of acoward to bide here and make no effort to warn our friends?"
"What good would a warning do?" said Ringan. "Even if you got throughto Lawrence--which is not very likely--d'you think a wheen Borderers ina fort will stay such an army? It would only mean that you lost yourlife on the South Fork instead of in the hills, and there's littlecomfort in that."
"It's not like you to give such counsel," I said sadly. "A man cannotthink whether his duty will succeed as long as it's there for him to doit. Maybe my news would make all the differ. Maybe there would be timeto get Nicholson's militia to the point of danger. God has queer waysof working, if we trust Him with honest hearts. Besides, a word on theBorder would save the Tidewater folk, for there are ships on the Jamesand the York to flee to if they hear in time. Let Virginia go down andbe delivered over to painted savages, and som
e day soon we will win itback; but we cannot bring life to the dead. I want to save the lowlandmanors from what befell the D'Aubignys on the Rapidan, and if I canonly do that much I will be content. Will you counsel me, Ringan, toneglect my plain duty?"
"I gave no counsel," said Ringan hurriedly. "I was only putting thecommon sense of it. It's for you to choose."
Here Grey broke in. "I protest against this craziness. Your first dutyis to your comrades and to this lady. If you desert us we lose our bestmusket, and you have as little chance of reaching the Tidewater as themoon. Arc you so madly enamoured of death, Mr. Garvald?" He spoke inthe old stiff tones of the man I had quarrelled with.
I turned to Shalah. "Is there any hope of getting to the South Fork?"
He looked me very full in the face. "As much hope as a dove has whofalls broken-winged into an eyrie of falcons! As much hope as the deerwhen the hunter's knife is at its throat! Yet the dove may escape, andthe deer may yet tread the forest. While a man draws breath there ishope, brother."
"Which I take to mean that the odds are a thousand against one," saidGrey.
"Then it's my business to stake all on the one," I cried. "Man, don'tyou see my quandary? I hold a solemn trust, which I have the means offulfilling, and I'm bound to try. It's torture to me to leave you, butyou will lose nothing. Three men could hold this place as well as six,if the Indians are not in earnest, and, if they are, a hundred would betoo few. Your danger will be starvation, and I will be a mouth less tofeed. If I get to the Border I will find help, for we cannot stay herefor ever, and how d'you think we are to get Miss Blair by ourselves tothe Rappahannock with every mile littered with fighting clans? I mustgo, or I will never have another moment's peace in life." Grey was not convinced. "Send the Indian," he said.
"And leave the stockade defenceless," I cried. "It's because he staysbehind that I dare to go. Without him we are all bairns in the dark."
"That's true, anyway," said Ringan, and fell to whittling a stick.
"For three days," I continued, "you have food enough, and if by the endof it you are not attacked you may safely go hunting for more. Ifnothing happens in a week's time you will know that I have failed, andyou can send another messenger. Ringan would be the best."
"That can hardly be," he said, "because I'm coming with you now."
I could only stare blankly.
"Two's better than one for this kind of business, and I am no usehere--only _fruges consumere natus_, as I learned from the Inveraraydominie. It's my concern as much as yours, for I brought you here, andI'm trysted with Lawrence to take back word. I'm loath to leave myfriends, but my place is at your side, Andrew. So say no more aboutit."
I knew it was idle to protest. Ringan was as obstinate as a Spanishmule when he chose, and, besides, there was reason in what he said. Twowere better than one both for speed in travel and for fighting if theneed came, and though I had more woodcraft than he, he had ten times mywisdom. There was something about his matter-of-fact tone which tookthe enterprise out of the land of impossibilities into a more soberrealm. I even began to dream of success.
But when. I looked at Elspeth her eyes were so full of grief and carethat my spirits sank again.
"Tell me," I cried, "that you think I am doing right, God knows it ishard to leave you, and I carry the sorest heart in Virginia. But youwould not have me stay idle when my plain duty commands. Say that youbid me go, Elspeth."
"I bid you go," she said bravely, "and I will pray God to keep yousafe." But her eyes belied her voice, for they were swimming withtears. At that moment I got the conviction that I was more to her thana mere companion, that by some miracle I had won a place in that proudand loyal heart. It seemed a cruel stroke of fate that I should getthis hope at the very moment when I was to leave her and go into theshadow of death.
But that was no hour to think of love, I took every man apart and sworehim, though there was little need, to stand by the girl at all costs.
To Grey I opened my inmost thoughts.
"You and I serve one mistress," I said, "and now I confide her to yourcare. All that I would have done I am assured you will do. My heart iseasier when I know that you are by her side. Once we were foes, andsince then we have been friends, and now you are the dearest friend onearth, for I leave you with all I cherish."
He flushed deeply and gave me his hand.
"Go in peace, sir," he said. "If God wills that we perish, my last actwill be to assure an easy passage to heaven for her we worship. If wemeet again, we meet as honourable rivals, and may that day come soon."
So with pistols in belt, and a supply of cartouches and some littlefood in our pockets, Ringan and I were enfolded in the silence of thewoods.
