CHAPTER XV.
HORSE SHOE AND BUTLER RESUME THEIR JOURNEY, WHICH IS DELAYED BY A SAVAGEINCIDENT.
Morning broke, and with the first day-streak Robinson turned out of hisbed, leaving Butler so thoroughly bound in the spell of sleep, that hewas not even moved by the loud and heavy tramp of the sergeant, as thatweighty personage donned his clothes. Horse Shoe's first habit in themorning was to look after Captain Peter, and he accordingly directed hissteps towards the rude shed which served as a stable, at the foot of thehill. Here, to his surprise, he discovered that the fence-rails which,the night before, had been set up as a barrier across the vacantdoorway, had been let down, and that no horses were to be seen about thepremises.
"What hocus-pocus has been here?" said he to himself, as he gazed uponthe deserted stable. "Have these rummaging and thieving Tories been outmaraudering in the night? or is it only one of Captain Peter'sold-sodger tricks, letting down bars and leading the young geldings intomischief? That beast can snuff the scent of a corn field or a pastureground as far as a crow smells gunpowder. He'd dislocate and corruptifyany innocent stable of horses in Carolina!"
In doubt to which of these causes to assign this disappearance of theircavalry, the sergeant ascended the hill hard-by, and directed his eyeover the neighboring fields, hoping to discover the deserters in some ofthe adjacent pastures. But he could get no sight of them. He thenreturned to the stable and fell to examining the ground about the door,in order to learn something of the departure of the animals by theirtracks. These were sufficiently distinct to convince him that CaptainPeter, whose shoes had a peculiar mark well known to the sergeant, hadeloped during the night, in company with the major's gelding and twoothers, these being all, as Horse Shoe had observed, that were in thestable at the time he had retired to bed. He forthwith followed thefoot-prints which led him into the high road, and thence along itwestward for about two hundred paces, where a set of field bars, nowthrown down, afforded entrance into the cornfield. At this point thesergeant traced the deviation of three of the horses into the field,whilst the fourth, it was evident, had continued upon the road.
The conclusion which Galbraith drew from this phenomenon was expressedby a wise shake of the head and a profound fit of abstraction. He tookhis seat upon a projecting rail at the angle of the fence, and began tosum up conjectures in the following phrase:
"The horse that travelled along that road, never travelled of his ownfree will: that's as clear as preaching. Well, he wa'n't rode by Wat norby Mike Lynch, or else they are arlier men than I take them to be: butstill, I'll take a book oath that creetur went with a bridle across hishead, and a pair o' legs astride his back. And whoever held that bridlein his hand, did it for no good! Scampering here and scampering there,and scouring woods in the night too, when the country is as full ofTories as a beggar's coat with----, it's a dogmatical bad sign, take itwhich way you will. Them three horses had the majority, and it is thenature of these beasts always to follow the majority: that's anobservation I have made; and, in particular, if there's a cornfield, oran oatpatch, or a piece of fresh pasture to be got into, everyindividual horse is unanimous on the subject."
Whilst the sergeant was engrossed with these reflections, "he was ware,"as the old ballads have it, of a man trudging past him along the road.This was no other than Wat Adair, who was striding forward with a longand rapid step, and with all the appearance of one intent upon somepressing business.
"Halloo! who goes there? where away so fast, Wat?" was Robinson'schallenge.
"Horse Shoe!" exclaimed Adair, in a key that bespoke surprise, and evenalarm,--"Ha, ha, ha!--By the old woman's pipe, you frightened me! I'llswear, Galbraith Robinson, I heard you snoring as I passed by yourwindow three minutes ago."
"I'll swear that's not the truest word you ever spoke in your life,Wat; though true enough for you, mayhap. Do you see how cleverly yonlight has broke across the whole sky? When I first turned out thismorning it was a little ribbon of day: the burning of a block-house atnight, ten miles off, would have made a broader streak. It was your ownsnoring you heard, Wat; you have only forgot under whose window it was."
"What old witch has been pinching you, Horse Shoe, that _you_ are up soearly?" asked Adair. "Get back to the house, man, I will be with youpresently; I have my farm to look after, I'll see you presently."
"You seem to me to be in a very onreasonable hurry, Wat, consideringthat you have the day before you. But, softly, I'll walk with you, ifyou have no unliking to it."
"No, no, I'm busy, Galbraith; I'm going to look after my traps; I'drather you'd go back to the house and hurry breakfast. Go! You wouldonly get scratched with briers if you followed me."
"Ha, ha, ha! Wat! Briers, did you say? Look here, man, do you see themthere legs? Do they look as if they couldn't laugh at yourn in any sortof scrambling I had a mind to set them to? Tut, I'll go with you just tolarn you the march drill."
"Then I'll not budge a foot after the traps."
"You are crusty, Wat Adair; what's the matter with you?"
"Is Major Butler up yet?" asked the woodman thoughtfully.
"_Who_ do you say? _Major_ Butler."
"_Major!_" cried Adair, with affected surprise.
"Yes, you called him Major Butler?"
"I had some dream, I think, about him: or, didn't you call him soyourself, Horse Shoe?"
"Most undoubtedly, I did not," replied Robinson seriously.
"Then I dreamt it, Horse Shoe: these dreams sometimes get into the head,like things we have been told. But, Galbraith, tell me the plainup-and-down truth, what brings you and Mr. Butler into these parts? Whatare you after in Georgia? It does seem strange to find men that arewanted below, straggling here in our woods at such a time as this."
"There are two sorts of men in this world, Wat," said the sergeant, witha smile, "them that axes questions, and them that won't answerquestions. Now, which, do you think, I belong to? Why, to the last, youtinker! Where are our horses, Wat? Tell me that. Who let them out of thestable?"
"Perhaps they let themselves out," replied Adair, "they were nothaltered."
"You are either knave or fool, Wat. Come here. There are the tracks ofthe beast that carried the man up this road, who sot loose all thehorses that were in that stable."
"Mike Lynch, perhaps," said Adair, with an assumed expression ofignorance. "Where can that fellow have been so early? Oh, I remember, hetold me last night that he was going this morning to the blacksmith's.He ought to be back by this time."
"And you are here to larn the news from him?" said the sergeant, eyeingAdair with a suspicious scrutiny.
"You have just hit it, Horse Shoe," returned Wat, laughing. "I did wantto know if there were any more squads of troopers foraging about thisdistrict: for these cursed fellows whip in upon a man and cut him upblade and ear, without so much as thanks for their pillage, and so Itold Mike to inquire of the blacksmith, for he is more like to know thananybody else, whether there was any more of these pestifariousscrummagers abroad."
"And your traps, Wat?"
"That was only a lie, Galbraith--I confess it. I was afeard to make youuneasy by telling you what I was after. But still it wasn't a broad,stark, daylight lie neither; it was only a civil fib, for I was goingafter my wolf trap before I got my breakfast. But here comes Mike."
At this juncture Lynch was seen emerging from the wood, mounted on arough, untrimmed pony, which he was urging forward under repeated blowswith his stick. The little animal was covered with foam; and, from histravel-worn plight, gave evidence of having been taxed to the utmost ofhis strength in a severe journey. At some hundred paces distant, therider detected the presence of Adair and his companion, and came to asudden halt. He appeared to deliberate as if with a purpose to escapetheir notice; but finding that he was already observed by them, he puthis horse again in motion, advancing only at a slow walk. Adair hastilyquitted Robinson, and, walking forward until he met Lynch, turned aboutand accompanied him along the road, conversing during this in
terval ina key too low to be heard by the sergeant.
"Here's Horse Shoe thrusting his head into our affairs. Conjure a liequickly about your being at the blacksmith's; I told him you were thereto hear the news."
"Aye, aye! I understand."
"You saw Hugh?"
"Yes. The gang will be at their post."
"Hush! Be merry; laugh and have a joke--Horse Shoe is very suspicious."
"You have ridden the crop-ear like a stolen horse," continued Adair, assoon as he found himself within the sergeant's hearing. "See what aflurry you have put the dumb beast in. If it had been your own nag, MikeLynch, I warrant you would have been more tedious with him."
"The crop-ear is not worth the devil's fetching, Wat. He is as lazy as aland-turtle, and too obstinate for any good-tempered man's patience.Look at that stick--I have split it into a broom on the beast."
"You look more like a man at the end of the day than at the beginning ofit," said Robinson. "How far had you to ride, Michael?"
"Only over here to the shop of Billy Watson, in the Buzzard's nest,"replied Lynch, "which isn't above three miles at the farthest. My sawwanted setting, so I thought I'd make an early job of it, but this beastis so cursed dull I have been good three-quarters of an hour since Ileft the smith's."
"What news do you bring?" inquired Adair.
"Oh, none worth telling again. That cross-grained, contrary,rough-and-tumble bear gouger, old Hide-and-Seek, went down yesterdaywith the last squad of Ferguson's new draughts."
"Wild Tom Eskridge," said Wat Adair. "You knowed him, Horse Shoe, asuperfluous imp of Satan!" continued the woodman, laying a particularaccent on the penultimate of this favorite adjective, which he wasaccustomed to use as expressive of strong reprobation. "So he is clearedout at last! Well, I'm glad on't, for he was the only fellow in thesehills I was afeard would give you trouble, Galbraith."
"Superfluous or not," replied the sergeant, pronouncing the word in thesame manner as the woodman, and equally ignorant of its meaning, "itwill be a bad day for Tom Eskridge, the rank, obstropolous Tory, when hemeets me, Wat Adair. I have reason to think that he tried to clap someof Tarleton's dragoons on my back over here at the Waxhaws. There's hempgrowing for that scape-grace at this very time."
"You heard of no red coats about the Tiger?" asked Adair.
"Not one," replied Lynch; "the nearest post is Cruger's, in Ninety-Six."
"Then your way, Mr. Robinson, is tolerable for to-day," added Adair:"but war is war, and there is always some risk to be run when men areparading with their rifles in their hands. But see! it is hard uponsunrise. Let us go and give some directions about breakfast. I will sendout some of the boys to hunt up the horses; they will be ready by thetime we have had something to eat."
Without further delay, Adair strode rapidly up the hill to thedwelling-house, the sergeant and Lynch following as soon as the latterhad put his jaded beast in the stable. By the time these were assembledin the porch the family began to show signs of life, and it was a littleafter sunrise when Butler came forth ready for the prosecution of hisjourney. A few words were exchanged in private between Lynch and thewoodman, and after much idle talk and contrived delay, two lazy andloitering negro boys were sent off in quest of the travellers' horses.Not long after this the animals were seen coursing from one part of thedistant field to another, defying all attempts to get them into acorner, or to compel them to pass through the place that had been openedin order to drive them towards the stable.
There was an air of concern and silent bewilderment visible uponButler's features, and an occasional expression of impatience escapedhis lips as he watched from the porch the ineffectual efforts of thenegroes to force the truant steeds towards the house.
"All in good time," said Adair, answering the thoughts and looks ofButler, rather than his words, "all in good time; they must have theirplay out. It is a good sign, sir, to see a traveller's horse socapersome of a morning. Wife, make haste with your preparations; HorseShoe and his friend here mustn't be kept back from their day's journey.Stir yourself, Mary Musgrove!"
"Will the gentlemen stay for breakfast?" inquired Mary, with a doubtfullook at Butler.
"Will they? To be sure they will! Would you turn off friends from thedoor with empty stomachs, you mink, and especially with a whole day'sstarvation ahead of them?" exclaimed the woodman.
"I thought they had far to ride," replied the girl, "and would choose,rather than wait, to take some cold provision to eat upon the road."
"Tush! Go about your business, niece! The horses are not caught yet, andyou may have your bacon fried before they are at the door."
"It shall be ready, then, in a moment," returned Mary, and she betookherself diligently to her task of preparation. During the interval thatfollowed, the maiden several times attempted to gain a moment's speechwith Butler, but the presence of Adair or Lynch as frequently forbadeeven a whisper; and the morning meal was at length set smoking on thetable without the arrival of the desired opportunity. The repast wasspeedily finished, and the horses having surrendered to the emissarieswho had been despatched to bring them in, were now in waiting for theirmasters. Horse Shoe put into the woodman's hand a small sum of money inrequital for the entertainment afforded to his comrade and himself, andhaving arranged their baggage upon the saddles, announced that they wereready to set forward on their journey. Whilst the travellers werepassing the farewells customary on such occasions, Mary Musgrove, whosemanner during the whole morning gave many indications of a painfulsecret concern, now threw herself in Butler's way, and as she modestlyoffered him her hand at parting, and heard the little effusion ofgallantry and compliment with which it was natural for a well-bred manand a soldier to speak at such a moment, she took the opportunity towhisper--"The left hand road at the Fork--remember!" and instantlyglided away to another part of the house. Butler paused but for aninstant, and then hurried forward with the sergeant to their horses.
"Wat, you promised to put us on the track to Grindall's Ford," saidHorse Shoe, as he rose into his seat.
"I am ready to go part of the way with you," replied the woodman, "Iwill see you to the Fork, and after that you must make out foryourselves. Michael, fetch me my rifle."
It was not more than half past six when the party set forth on theirjourney. Our two travellers rode along at an easy gait, and Wat Adair,throwing his rifle carelessly across his shoulder, stepped out with along swinging step that kept him, without difficulty, abreast of thehorsemen, as they pursued their way over hill and dale.
They had not journeyed half a mile before they reached a point in thewoods at which Adair called a halt.
"My trap is but a little off the road," he said, "and I must beg you tostop until I see what luck I have this morning. It's a short businessand soon done. This way, Horse Shoe; it is likely I may give you sportthis morning."
"Our time is pressing," said Butler. "Pray give us your directions as tothe road, and we will leave you."
"You would never find it in these woods," replied Wat; "there are two orthree paths leading through here, and the road is a blind one till youcome to the fork; the trap is not a hundred yards out of your way."
"Rather than stop to talk about it, Wat," said the sergeant, "we willfollow you, so go on."
The woodman now turned into the thickets, and opening his way throughthe bushes, in a few moments conducted the two soldiers to the foot of alarge gum tree.
"By all the crows, I have got my lady!" exclaimed Wat Adair, with awhoop that made the woods ring. "The saucy slut! I have yoked her, HorseShoe Robinson! There's a picture worth looking at."
"Who?" cried Butler; "of whom are you speaking?"
"Look for yourself, sir," replied the woodman. "There's the mischievousdevil; an old she-wolf that I have been hunting these two years. Oh, ho,madam! Your servant!"
Upon looking near the earth, our travellers descried the object of thistriumphant burst of joy, in a large wolf that was now struggling torelease herself from the thraldom of h
er position. The trap wasingeniously contrived. It consisted of a long opening into the hollowtrunk of the tree, beginning about four feet from the ground and cut outwith an axe down to the root. An aperture had been made at the upper endof the slit about a foot wide, and the wood had been hewed awaydownwards, in such a manner as to render the slit gradually narrower asit approached the lower extremity, until near the earth it was not morethan four inches in width, thus forming a wedge-shaped loophole into thehollow body of the tree. A part of the carcase of a sheep had beenplaced on the bottom inside, the scent of which had attracted the wolf,and, in her eagerness to possess herself of this treasure she had risenon her hind legs high enough to find the opening sufficiently wide toallow her head to be thrust in, whence, slipping downwards, the slitbecame so narrow as to prevent her from withdrawing her jaws. The onlymode of extrication from this trap was to rear her body to the sameheight at which she found admission, an expedient which, it seems,required more cunning than this proverbially cunning animal was giftedwith. She now stood captive pretty much in the same manner that oxen arecommonly secured in their stalls.
For a few moments after the prisoner was first perceived, and during theextravagant yelling of Adair at the success of his stratagem, she madeseveral desperate but ineffectual efforts to withdraw her head; but assoon as Butler and Robinson had dismounted, and, together with theirguide, had assembled around her, she desisted from her struggles, andseemed patiently to resign herself to the will of her captor. She stoodperfectly still with that passive and even cowardly submission forwhich, in such circumstances, this animal is remarkable: her hind legsdrooped and her tail was thrust between them, whilst not a snarl nor anexpression of anger or grief escaped her. Her characteristic sagacityhad been completely baffled by the superior wolfish cunning of herensnarer.
Wat laughed aloud with a coarse and almost fiendish laugh, as he criedout--
"I have cotched the old thief at last, in spite of her cunning! With awarning to boot. Here is a mark I sot upon her last winter," he added,as he raised her fore leg, which was deprived of the foot; "but shewould be prowling, the superfluous devil! It is in the nature of thesehere blood-suckers, to keep a going at their trade, no matter how muchthey are watched. But I knowed I'd have her one of these days. Thesevarmints have always got to pay, one day or another, for theirvillanies. Wa'n't she an old fool, Horse Shoe, to walk into this heregum for a piece of dead mutton? Ha, ha, ha! if she had had only thesense to rear up, she might have had the laugh on us! But she hadn't;ha, ha, ha!"
"Well, Wat Adair," said Robinson, "you had a mischievous head when youcontrived that trap."
"Feel her ribs, Mr. Butler," cried Wat, not heeding the sergeant; "Iknow who packed that flesh on her. There isn't a lamb in my flock to-daythat wouldn't grin if he was to hear the news."
"Well, what are you going to do with her, Adair?" inquired Butler;"remember you are losing time here."
"Do with her!" ejaculated the woodman; "that's soon told: I will skinthe devil alive."
"I hope not," exclaimed Butler. "It would be an unnecessary cruelty.Despatch her on the spot with your rifle."
"I wouldn't waste powder and ball on the varmint," replied Adair. "No,no, the knife, the knife!"
"Then cut her throat and be done with it."
"You are not used to these hellish thieves, sir," said the woodman."There is nothing that isn't too good for them. By the old sinner, I'llskin her alive! That's the sentence!"
"Once more, I pray not," said Butler imploringly.
"It is past praying for," returned Adair, as he drew forth his knife andbegan to whet it on a stone. "She shall die by inches, and be damned toher!" he added, as his eye sparkled with savage delight. "Now look andsee a wolf punished according to her evil doings."
The woodman stood over his captive and laughed heartily, as he pointedout to his companions the quailing and subdued gestures of his victim,indulging in coarse and vulgar jests whilst he described minutely theplan of torture he was about to execute. When he had done with hisribaldry, he slowly drew the point of his knife down the back-bone ofthe animal, from the neck to the tail, sundering the skin along thewhole length. "That's the way to unbutton her jacket," he said, laughinglouder than ever.
"For God's sake, desist!" ejaculated Butler. "For my sake, save the pooranimal from this pain! I will pay you thrice the value of the skin."
"Money will not buy her," said Wat, looking up for an instant. "Besides,the skin is spoiled by that gash."
"Here is a guinea, if you will cut her throat," said Butler, "anddestroy her at once."
"That would be murder out-right," replied Adair; "I never take money todo murder; it goes agin my conscience. No, no, I will undress the oldlady, and let her have the benefit of the cool air in this hot weather.And if she should take cold, you know, and fall sick and die of that,why then, Mr. Butler, you can give me the guinea. That will save myconscience," he added, with a grin that expressed a struggle between hisavarice and cruelty.
"Come, Galbraith, I will not stay to witness the barbarity of thissavage. Mount your horse, and let us take our chance alone through thewoods. Fellow, I don't wish your further service."
"Look there now!" said Adair; "where were you born, that you are somighty nice upon account of a blood-sucking wolf? Man, it's impossibleto find your way through this country; and you might, by taking a wrongroad, fall in with them that would think nothing of serving you as Iserve this beast."
"Wat, curse your onnatural heart," interposed the sergeant. "Stob her atonce. It's no use, Mr. Butler," he said, finding that Adair did not heedhim, "we can't help ourselves. It's wolf agin wolf."
"I knowed you couldn't, Horse Shoe," cried Wat, with another laugh. "Soyou may as well stay to see it out."
Butler had now walked to his horse, mounted, and retired some distanceinto the wood to avoid further converse with the tormentor of theensnared beast, and to withdraw himself from a sight so revolting to hisfeelings. In the meantime, Adair proceeded with his operation with analacrity that showed the innate cruelty of his temper. He made a crossincision through the skin, from the point of one shoulder to the other,the devoted subject of his torture remaining, all the time, motionlessand silent. Having thus severed the skin to suit his purpose, thewoodman now, with an affectation of the most dainty precision,flourished his knife over the animal's back, and then burst into a loudlaugh.
"I can't help laughing," he exclaimed, "to think what a fine, dangling,holiday coat I am going to make of it. I shall strip her as low as theribs, and then the flaps will hang handsomely. She will be considered abeauty in the sheep-folds, and then she may borrow a coat, you see, fromsome lamb; a wolf in sheep's clothing is no uncommon sight in thisworld."
"Wat Adair," said Horse Shoe, angrily, "I've a mind to take the wolf'spart and give you a trouncing. You are the savagest wolf in sheep'sclothing yourself that it was ever my luck to see."
"You think so, Horse Shoe!" cried Wat, tauntingly. "You might chance tomiss your way to-day, so don't make a fool of yourself! Ill will wouldonly take away from you a finger-post--and it isn't every road throughthis district that goes free of the Tory rangers."
"Your own day will come yet," replied Horse Shoe, afraid to provoke thewoodman too far on account of the dependence of himself and hiscompanion upon Adair's information in regard to the route of theirjourney. "We have to give and take quarter in this world."
"You see, Horse Shoe," said Adair, beginning to expostulate, "I don'tlike these varmints, no how; that's the reason why. They are cruelthemselves and I like to be cruel to them. It's a downright pleasure tosee them winch, for, bless your soul! they don't mind commonthroat-cutting, no more than a calf. Now here's the way to touch theirfeelings."
At this moment he applied the point of his knife to separating the hidefrom the flesh on either side of the spine, and then, in his eagernessto accomplish this object, he placed his knife between his teeth andbegan to tug at the skin with his hands, accompanying the effort withmuttered
expressions of delight at the involuntary and butill-suppressed agonies of the brute. The pain, at length became tooacute for the wolf, with all her characteristic habits of submission,to bear, and, in a desperate struggle that ensued between her and hertormentor, she succeeded, by a convulsive leap, in extricating herselffrom her place of durance. The energy of her effort of deliverancerescued her from the woodman's hand, and turning short upon herassailant, she fixed her fangs deep into the fleshy part of his thigh,where, as the foam fell from her lips, she held on firmly as ifdetermined to sell her life dearly for the pain she suffered. Adairuttered a groan from the infliction, and, in the hurry of the instant,dropped his knife upon the ground. He was thus compelled to bear thetorment of the grip, until he dragged the still pertinaciously-adheringbeast a few paces forward, where, grasping up his knife, he planted it,by one deeply driven blow, through and through her heart. She silentlyfell at his feet, without snarl or bark, releasing her hold only in theimpotency of death.
"Curse her!" cried Adair, "the hard-hearted, bloody-minded devil! That'sthe nature of the beast--cruel and wicked to the last, damn her!" hecontinued, raving with pain, as he stamped his heel upon her head: "damnher in the wolf's hell to which she has gone!"
Robinson stood by, unaiding, and not displeased to see the summaryvengeance thus inflicted by the victim upon the oppressor. This calmnessprovoked the woodman, who, with that stoicism which belongs touncivilized life, seemed determined to take away all pretext for thesergeant's exultation, by affecting to make light of the injury he hadreceived.
"I don't mind the scratch of the cursed creature," he said, assuming abadly counterfeited expression of mirth, "but I don't like to be cheatedout of the pleasure of tormenting such mischievous varmints. It's wellfor her that she put me in a passion, or she should have carried afestered carcase that the buzzards might have fed upon before she died.But come--where is Mr. Butler? I want that guinea. Ho, sir!" hecontinued, bawling to Butler, as he tied up his wound with a strap ofbuckskin taken from his pouch, "my guinea! I've killed the devil toplease you, seeing you would have it."
Butler now rode up to the spot, and, in answer to this appeal, gave itan angry and indignant refusal.
"Lead us on our way, sir," he added. "We have lost too much time alreadywith your brutal delay. Lead on, sir!"
"You will get soon enough to your journey's end," replied Adair with asmile, and then sullenly took up his rifle and led the way through theforest.
A full half hour or more was lost by the incident at the trap, andButler's impatience and displeasure continued to be manifested by themanner with which he urged the woodman forward upon their journey. Afterregaining the road, and traversing a piece of intricate and tangledwoodland, by a bridle-path into which their guide had conducted them,they soon reached a broader and more beaten highway, along which theyrode scarce a mile before they arrived at the Fork.
"I have seen you safe as far as I promised," said the woodman, "and youmust now shift for yourselves. You take the right hand road; about tenmiles further you will come to another prong, there strike to the left,and if you have luck you will get to the ford before sundown. Threemiles further is Christie's. Good bye t' ye! And Horse Shoe, if youshould come across another wolf stuck in a tree, skin her, d' ye hear?Ha! ha! ha! Good bye!"
"Ride on!" said Butler to the sergeant, who was about making some replyto Adair; "ride on! Don't heed or answer that fellow, but take the roadhe directs. He is a beast and scoundrel. Faster, good sergeant, faster!"
As he spoke he set his horse to a gallop. Robinson followed at equalspeed, the woodman standing still until the travellers disappeared fromhis view behind the thick foliage that overhung their path. Having seenthem thus secure in his toil, the treacherous guide turned upon hisheel, shouldered his rifle, and limped back to his dwelling.
"I have a strange misgiving of that ruffian, sergeant," said Butler,after they had proceeded about a quarter of a mile. "My mind isperplexed with some unpleasant doubts. What is your opinion of him?"
"He plays on both sides," replied Horse Shoe, "and knows more of youthan by rights he ought. He spoke consarning of you, this morning, as_Major_ Butler. It came out of his mouth onawares."
"Ha! Is my name on any part of my baggage or dress?"
"Not that I know of," replied the sergeant; "and if it was, Wat can'tread."
"Were you interrupted in your sleep last night, Galbraith? Did you hearnoises in our room?"
"Nothing, Major, louder nor the gnawing of a mouse at the foot of theplank partition. Did you see a spirit that you look so solemn?"
"I did, sergeant!" said Butler, with great earnestness of manner. "I hada dream that had something more than natural in it."
"You amaze me, Major! If you saw anything, why didn't you awake me?"
"I hadn't time before it was gone, and then it was too late. I dreamed,Galbraith, that somehow--for my dream didn't explain how she camein--Mary Musgrove, the young girl we saw----"
"Ha! ha! ha! Major, that young girl's oversot you! Was that the sperit?"
"Peace, Galbraith, I am in earnest; listen to me. I dreamt Mary Musgrovecame into our room and warned us that our lives were in danger; how, Iforget, or perhaps she did not tell, but she spoke of our being waylaid,and, I think, she advised that at this very fork of the road we havejust passed, we should take the left hand--the right, according to mydream, she said, led to some spring."
"Perhaps the Dogwood, Major," said Robinson, laughing; "there is such aplace, somewhere in these parts."
"The Dogwood! by my life," exclaimed Butler; "she called it the Dogwoodspring."
"That's very strange," said Robinson gravely; "that's very strange,unless you have hearn some one talk about the spring before you went tobed last night. For, as sure as you are a gentleman, there is such aspring not far off, although I don't know exactly where."
"And what perplexes me," continued Butler, "is that, this morning,almost in the very words of my dream, Mary Musgrove cautioned me, in awhisper, to take the left road at the fork. How is she connected with mydream? Or could it have been a reality, and was it the girl herself whospoke? I have no recollection of such a word from her before I retiredto bed."
"I have hearn of these sort of things before, major, and never couldmake them out. For my share, I believe in dreams. There is somethingwrong here," continued the sergeant, after pondering over the matter fora few moments, and shaking his head, "there is something wrong here,Major Butler, as sure as you are born. I wasn't idle in making my ownobservations: first, I didn't like the crossness of Wat's wife lastnight; then, the granny there, she raved more like an old witch, withsomething wicked in her that wouldn't let her be still, than like yourdecent old bodies when they get childish. What did she mean by herpalaver about golden guineas in Wat's pocket, and the English officer?Such notions don't come naturally into the head, without something to goupon. And, moreover, when I turned out this morning, before it wascleverly day, who do you think I saw?"
"Indeed I cannot guess."
"First, Wat walking up the road with a face like a man that had sot ahouse on fire; and when I stopped him to ax what he was after, downcomes Mike Lynch--that peevish bull-dog--from the woods, on a littleknot of a pony, pretty nigh at full speed, and covered with lather; andthere was a sort of colloguing together, and then a story made up aboutMike's being at Billy Watson's, the blacksmith's. It didn't tell well,major, and it sot me to suspicions. The gray of the morning is not thetime for blacksmith's work: there's the fire to make up, and what not.Besides, it don't belong to the trade, as I know, here in the country,to be at work so arly. I said nothing; but I made a sort of reckoning inmy own mind that they looked like a couple of desarters trying to sham asentry. Then again, there was our horses turned loose. There issomething in these signs, you may depend upon it, Major Butler!"
"That fellow has designs against us, Galbraith," said Butler, musing,and paying but little attention to the surmises of the sergeant, "I canhardly think it was a dream.
It may have been Mary Musgrove herself, buthow she got there is past my conjecture. I saw nothing, I only heard thewarning. And I would be sworn she addressed me as Major Butler. You sayWat Adair gave me the same title?"
"As I am a living man," replied Horse Shoe, "he wanted to deny it; andthen he pretended it was a fancy of his own."
"It is very strange, and looks badly," said Butler.
"Never mind, let the worst come to the worst, we have arms and legsboth," returned the sergeant.
"I will take the hint for good or for ill," said the major. "Sergeant,strike across into the left hand road; in this I will move no farther."
"That's as wise a thing as we can do," replied Robinson. "If you havedoubts of a man, seem to trust him, but take care not to follow hisadvice. There is another hint I will give you, let us examine ourfire-arms to see that we are ready for a battle."
Butler concurring in this precaution, the sergeant dismounted, andhaving primed his rifle afresh, attempted to fire it into the air, butit merely flashed, without going off. Upon a second trial the result wasthe same. This induced a further examination, which disclosed the factthat the load which had been put in the day previous had beendischarged, and a bullet was now driven home in the place of the powder.It was obvious that this was designed. The machination of an enemybecame more apparent when, upon an investigation into the condition ofButler's pistols, they were also found incapable of being used.
"This is some of Michael Lynch's doings whilst we were eating ourbreakfast," said Horse Shoe, "and it is flat proof of treason in ourcamp. I should like to go back if it was only for the satisfaction ofblowing out Wat's brains. But there is no use in argufying about it. Wemust set things to rights, and move on with a good look-out ahead."
With the utmost apparent indifference to the dangers that beset them,the sergeant now applied himself to the care of restoring his rifle to aserviceable condition. With the aid of a small tool which he carried forsuch a use, he opened the breach and removed the ball: Butler's pistolswere likewise put in order, and our travellers, being thus restored toan attitude of defence, turned their horses' heads into the thicket upontheir left, and proceeded across the space that filled up the angle madeby the two branches of the road; and, having gained that branch whichthey sought, they pressed forward diligently upon their journey.
The path they had to travel was lonely and rugged, and it was but onceor twice, during the day, that they met a casual wayfarer traversingthe same wild. From such a source, however, they were informed that theywere on the most direct road to Grindall's ford, and that the route theyhad abandoned would have conducted them to the Dogwood spring, a pointmuch out of their proper course, and from which the ford might only havebeen reached by a difficult and tortuous by-way.
These disclosures opened the eyes of Butler and his companion to theimminent perils that encompassed them, and prompted them to the exerciseof the strictest vigilance. Like discreet and trusty soldiers, theypursued their way with the most unwavering courage, confident that thedifficulty of retreat was fully equal to that of the advance.
Horse-Shoe Robinson: A Tale of the Tory Ascendency Page 17
