CHAPTER XII
The definite ranks were soon broken; the soldiers marched at ease in andout amongst the Indians and the settlers, all in high good humor; jestand raillery were on every side. They ate their dinner, still on themarch, the provisions for the purpose having been cooked with themorning meal. Thus they were enabled, despite the retarding presence ofthe women and children, and the enfeebling effects of the long siege, tomake the progress of between fifteen and twenty miles that day. Theyencamped on a little plain near the Indian town of Taliquo. There, thesupper having been cooked and eaten--a substantial meal of game shotduring the day's march--and the shades of night descending thick in thesurrounding woods, Captain Stuart observed the inexplicable phenomenonthat every one of their Indian guards had suddenly deserted them.
The fact, however contemplated, boded no good. The officers, doubtlesskeenly sensitive to the renewal of anxiety after so slight a surcease ofthe sufferings of suspense, braced themselves to meet the emergency. Apicket line was thrown out; sentinels were posted in the expectation ofsome imminent and startling development; the soldiers were ordered tosleep on their arms, to be in readiness for defense as well as to gainstrength for the morrow's march and rest from the fatigues of the day.The little gypsy-looking groups of women and children, too, were soonhushed, and naught was left the anxious senior officers but to sleep ifthey might, or in default, as they lay upon the ground, to watch thegreat constellations come over the verge of the gigantic trees at theeast of the open space, and deploy with infinite brilliance across theparade of the sky, and in glittering alignment pass over the verge ofthe western woods and out of sight. So came the great Archer, lettingfly myriads of arrows of flakes of light in the stream near the camp. Socame in slow, gliding majesty the Swan, with all the splendor of theGalaxy, like infinite unfoldings of white wings, in her wake. So camethe Scorpio, with coil on coil of sidereal scintillations, and here andagain the out-thrust dartings of a malign red star. And at last so camethe morn.
Demere, who had placed himself, wrapped in his military cloak, on theground near Stuart, that they might quietly speak together in the nightwithout alarming the little camp with the idea of precautions and dangerand plotting and planning, noted first a roseate lace-like scrollunrolled upon the zenith amidst the vague, pervasive, gray suggestionsof dawn. He turned his head and looked at his friend with a smile ofbanter as if to upbraid their fears;--for here was the day, and thenight was past!
A sudden wild clamor smote upon the morning quiet. The outposts wererushing in with the cry that the woods on every side were full ofCherokees, with their faces painted, and swinging their tomahawks; thenext moment the air resounded with the hideous din of the war-whoop.Demere's voice rose above the tumult, calling to the men to fall in andstand to their arms. A volley of musketry poured in upon the little campfrom every side.
Demere fell at the first fire with three other officers and twenty-sevensoldiers. Again and again, from the unseen enemy masked by the forest,the women and children, the humble beasts of burden,--fleeing wildlyfrom side to side of the space,--the soldiers and the backwoodsmen, allreceived this fusillade. The men had been hastily formed into a squareand from each front fired volleys as best they might, unable to judge ofthe effect and conscious of the futility of their effort, surrounded asthey were on every side. Now and again a few, impelled by despair, madea wild break for liberty, unrestrained by the officers who gave themwhat chance they might secure, and with five or six exceptions thesewere shot down by the Indians after reaching the woods. The devotedremnant, fighting until the last round of ammunition was exhausted, weretaken prisoners by the triumphant savages. Stuart, his face covered withblood and his sword dripping, was pinioned before he could be disarmed,and then helpless, hopeless, with what feelings one may hardly imagine,he was constrained to set forth with his captor on the return march toFort Loudon.
"The men had been hastily formed into a square."]
The Cherokees could hardly restrain their joy in thus taking him alive.So far-famed had he become among them, so high did they esteem hismilitary rank, so autocratic seemed his power in the great stronghold ofFort Loudon, with his red-coated soldiers about him, obeying his words,even saluting his casual presence, that it afforded the most aestheticzest of revenge, the most acute realization of triumph, to contemplatehim as he stood bound, bloody, bareheaded in the sun, while the verymeanest of the lowest grade of the tribesmen were free to gather roundhim with gibes and menacing taunts and buffets of derision. His hat hadbeen snatched off in order to smite him with it in the face; his hair,always of special interest to the Indians because of its light browncolor and dense growth, was again and again caught by its thick, fairplait with howls of delight, and if the grasp of the hand unaided couldhave rent the scalp from the head, those fierce derisive jerks wouldhave compassed the feat; more than one whose rage against him was not tobe gratified by these malevolently jocose manifestations of contempt,gave him such heavy and repeated blows over the head with the butt oftheir firelocks that they were near clubbing the prisoner to death, whenthis circumstance attracted the attention of his captor, Willinawaugh,who was fain to interfere. Stuart, regretting the intervention, realizedthat he was reserved to make sport for their betters in the fiercer andmore dramatic agonies of the torture and the stake.
His fortitude might well have tempted them. In a sort of stoical pridehe would not wince. Never did he cry out. He hardly staggered beneaththe crushing blows of the muskets, delivered short hand and at closequarters, that one might have thought would have fractured his skull.That the interposition of Willinawaugh was not of the dictates ofclemency might be inferred from the manner in which the return journeywas accomplished. Forced to keep pace with his captor on horsebackStuart traveled the distance from Taliquo Town to Old Fort Loudon indouble-quick time, bareheaded, pinioned, in the blazing meridian heat ofa sultry August day. He hoped he would die of exhaustion. In thelong-continued siege of Fort Loudon, necessitating much indoor life, towhich he was little used, the texture of his skin had become delicateand tender, and now blistered and burned as if under the touch of actualcautery. With the previous inaction and the unaccustomed exposure theheat suggested the possibility of sunstroke to offer a prospect ofrelease.
But he came at last to the great gates of Fort Loudon with no moreimmediate hurt than a biting grief deep in his heart, the stinging painof cuts and bruises about his head and face, and a splitting, throbbing,blinding headache. Not so blinding that he did not see every detail ofthe profane occupancy of the place on which so long he had expended allhis thought and every care, in the defense of which he had cheerfullystarved, and would with hearty good-will have died. All the precisemilitary decorum that characterized it had vanished in one short day.Garbage, filth, bones, broken bits of food lay about the parade, thatwas wont to be so carefully swept, with various litter from the plunderof the officers' quarters, for owing to the limited opportunity oftransportation much baggage had been left. This was still in progress,as might be judged from the figures of women and men seen through theopen doors and now again on the galleries, chaffering and bargainingover some trifle in process of sale or exchange. Indian children racedin and out of the white-washed interiors of the barracks which had beenglaringly clean; already the spring branch was choked by various debrisand, thus dammed, was overflowing its rocky precincts to convert theundulating ground about it into a slimy marsh. Myriads of flies haddescended upon the place. Here and there horses were tethered and cowsroamed aimlessly. Idle savages lay sprawling about over the ground,sleeping in the shade. In the block-houses and towers and along theparade, where other braves shouldered the firelocks, the surrenderedspare arms, mimicking the drill of the soldiers with derisive cries of"Plesent _Ahms_!" "Shouldie _Fa'lock_!" "Ground _Fa'lock_!" only suchinjury as bootless folly might compass was to be deplored, but upon theterrepleine in the northeast bastion several Cherokees were working atone of the great cannons, among whom was no less a personage thanOconostota himself,
striving to master the secrets of its service. Thebox of gunner's implements was open, and Stuart with a touch ofreturning professional consciousness wondered with that contempt forignorance characteristic of the expert what wise project they had inprogress now. For the gun had just been charged, but with that economyof powder, the most precious commodity in these far-away wilds, forwhich the Indians were always noted. The ball, skipping languidly out,had dropped down the embankment outside and rolled along the groundwith hardly more force than if impelled down an alley by a passableplayer at bowls, barely reaching the glacis before coming to a fullhalt. Realizing the difficulty, the gun under the king's directions wasshotted anew; erring now in the opposite extreme, it was charged soheavily that, perhaps from some weakness in the casting, or the failureto duly sponge and clean the bore, or simply from the expansive force ofthe inordinate quantity of powder, the piece exploded, killing two ofthe savages, serving as gunners, and wounding a third. The ball, for thecannon had been improperly pointed by some mischance, struck the side ofthe nearest block-house, and as its projectile force was partly spent bythe explosion, the tough wood turned it; it ricochetted across the wholeexpanse of the enclosure, striking and killing an Indian lying asleep onthe opposite rampart. A vast uproar ensued, and Stuart could havelaughed aloud in bitter mirth to see Oconostota almost stunned alike bythe surprise and the force of the concussion, timorously and dubiouslyeying the wreck. Then, with a subdued air of renunciation and finality,"Old Hop," as the soldiers called him, came limping carefully down thesteep ramp from the terrepleine, evidently just enlightened as to thedangers lurking about the breech of the cannon, well as he had long beenacquainted with the menace of its muzzle. The fury of the savages boresome similarity to the ricochet forces of the misdirected cannon-ball.Stuart plainly perceived himself destined to bear the brunt of theinfuriating mishap in which, although he had no agency, he might besuspected of taking secret and extreme delight. It was for a moment areversal of the red man's supremacy in the arts of war, that had beendemonstrated by the results of the siege, the acquisition of theordnance, the surprise and the massacre of the capitulated garrison. Inthe stress of the noisy moment, when the corpses had been carried offand the howling women and their friends had followed them to theirassigned homes in the barracks, several braves, including Oconostotahimself, had become aware of Stuart's return and gathered around him.
Nothing could have been more acutely malevolent than Oconostota'stwinkling eyes; no words could have shown a keener edge of sarcasm thanhis greeting of the officer once more by the title of his dear brother.Stuart, impolitic for once, disdained to respond, and, grimly silent,eyed him with a sort of stoical defiance that struck the Indian'smummery dumb. There was a moment of inaction as they all contemplatedhim. His vigor, his fortitude, his rank, the consciousness how his proudspirit raged in his defeat and despair, all combined to render him anotable victim and promised a long and a keen extension of thepleasures of witnessing his torture.
And at that instant of crisis, as if to seal his doom, a great gutturalclamor arose about the southeast bastion, and here was Willinawaugh,with wild turbulent gesticulations, and starting gleaming eyes, and aglancing upheaving tomahawk, for in the perspective a dozen hale fellowswere dragging out of the pit beneath the old smoke-house the ten bags ofpowder that Stuart had concealed there--only two nights ago, was it?--itseemed a century! How had they the craft to find them, so securely, soimpenetrably were they hidden! Stuart's store of Cherokee enabled him togather the drift of the excited talk. One of the Indians, with the keennatural senses of the savage, had smelled the freshly turnedclay--_smelled it_ in that assortment of evil odors congregated in theparade!--and had sought to discover what this might be so recentlyburied. Fraud! Fraud! the cry went up on every side. Unmasked fraud, andStuart should die the death! He had violated the solemn agreement bywhich the garrison was liberated; he had surrendered the spare arms andthe cannon indeed, but only a fraction of the powder of the warlikestores--and he should die the death and at once. Stuart wondered that hewas not torn to pieces by the infuriated savages, protesting theirindignation because of his violation of the treaty,--while hisgarrison, under the Cherokees' solemn agreement of safe-conduct, lay inall their massacred horrors unburied on the plains of Taliquo. The cantof the Cherokees, their hypocrisy, and their vaunting clamor ofconscience made them seem, if one were disposed to be cynical, almostcivilized! Doubtless, but for Oconostota's statesmanlike determinationto sift the matter first, Stuart could not have been torn from among thetribesmen and dragged to the seclusion of his own great mess-hall, wherethe door was closed and barred in their distorted faces as they followedwith their howls. He was required to stand at one end of the grievouslydismantled room and detail his reason for this reserve of the powder.Had he grounds to suspect any renewal of the English occupancy? Had heknowledge of forces now on the march in the expectation of raising thesiege of Fort Loudon? Oconostota pointed out the desirability of tellingthe truth, with a feeling allusion to the Great Spirit, the folly ofseeking to deceive the omniscient Indian, as the discovery of the powdersufficiently illustrated, and the discomforts that would ensue toCaptain Stuart, should it be found necessary to punish him for lying, byburning him alive in his own chimney-place, admirably adapted for thepurpose. Oconostota sat now with his back to it, with all his council ofchiefs in a semicircle about him, on the buffalo rug on the broadhearth. The Indian interpreter Quoo-ran-be-qua, the great Oak, stoodbehind him and looked across the length of the room at Captain Stuart,the only other person standing, and clattered out his wooden sentences.
Stuart could make no further effort. His capacity to scheme seemedexhausted. He replied in his bluff, off-hand manner, his bloody headheld erect, that they now had more powder than was good forthem,--witness the bursting of that costly great gun! He had buried thepowder in the hope of further English occupancy of the fort, which hehad, however, no reason to expect; it was only his hope,--his earnesthope! He had left them spare arms, great guns, ball, powder,--muchpowder,--and if he had seen fit to reserve some store he could say, witha clear conscience, that it was done only in the interests of peace andhumanity, and because of doubts of their good faith,--how well groundedthe blood shed this day upon the plains of Taliquo might testify! Hisfriends, his comrades, were treacherously murdered under thesafe-conduct of the Cherokee nation. And if he were to die too, he wasfully prepared to show with what courage he could do it.
His eyes flashed as he spoke; they seemed to transmit a spark across theroom to the dull orbs of the interpreter. And what was this? Stuart'sknowledge of the Cherokee language enabled him to discern the fact thatafter a moment's hesitation Quoo-ran-be-qua was clacking out a coherentstatement to the effect that the concealment of the powder was CaptainDemere's work, and wrought unknown to Stuart during his absence on hismission to Chote, where, as the great chiefs well knew, he was detainedseveral hours. Stuart stared in astonishment at the interpreter, who,blandly secure in the conviction that the prisoner did not comprehendthe Cherokee language, maintained his usual stolid aspect. WhetherStuart's courage so enforced admiration, or whatever quality had securedfor him the regard of the higher grade of Indians, the interpreter hadsought, by an unrecognized, unrewarded effort, to save the officer'slife by a sudden stroke of presence of mind,--a subterfuge which hesupposed, in his simplicity, undiscoverable.
There were milder countenances now in the circle, and Stuart's attentionwas presently concentrated upon an eager controversy betweenAtta-Kulla-Kulla and Willinawaugh that was curiously enough, at thismoment of gravest council, sitting in judgment on the disposal of ahuman life, a matter of chaffer, of bargain and sale. Willinawaugh hadalready refused a new rifle and a horse--and then two horses besides,and, still untempted, shook his head. And suddenly the interest in theconcealment of the powder collapsed, and they were all looking atWillinawaugh, who gazed much perplexed down at the ground, all hiswrinkles congregated around his eyes, eager to acquire yet loath totrade, while Atta-Kulla-Kulla, kee
n, astute, subtle, plied him withoffers, and tempting modifications of offers, for the Cherokees of thatdate were discriminating jockeys and had some fine horses.
The wind came in at the loop-holes and stirred the blood-clotted hair onthe prisoner's brow, and the suspension of the mental effort that theexamination cost him was for a moment a relief; the shadowy dusk of theill-lighted room was grateful to his eyes, the heavy, regular throbbingof his head grew less violent. He could even note the incongruity of thesituation when he saw that Willinawaugh resisted upon the point that thematter was with him a question of character! The chief said he had losthis standing in public estimation because he had allowed the Englishman,MacLeod, and his brother, to deceive him on the pretense of beingFrench,--for although he (Willinawaugh) spoke French himself, and thatbetter than some people who had lost their front tooth, he could notunderstand such French as the two Scotchmen spoke, nor, indeed, as someCherokees spoke, with their front tooth out.
Savanukah, seated on the rug an expression of poignant mortification onhis face, his lips fast closed over the missing tooth, only muttereddisconsolately, in his mingled French and Cherokee jargon, "_C'estdommage! Sac-lle bleu! Noot-te![J] Ugh! en verite--O-se-u!_"[K]
Willinawaugh, pausing merely for effect, continued. He himself was notan interpreter, to be sure; he was a Cherokee war-captain, with a greatreputation to sustain. He had captured the prisoner, and it ill accordedwith his honor to yield him to another.
"_Cho-eh!_"[L] said Atta-Kulla-Kulla, softly.
And Stuart became aware, with a start that almost dislocated hispinioned arms, that it was the transfer of his custody, the purchase ofhimself, over which they were bargaining.
"_Nankke--soutare_,"[M] urged Atta-Kulla-Kulla.
Again Willinawaugh shook his head. Was he some slight thing,--_seequa,cheefto_, an opossum, a rabbit? "_Sinnawah na wora!_"[N] he criedsonorously. For months, he said, he had besieged that man in his greatstronghold of Fort Loudon. Like a panther he had watched it; like aspider he had woven his webs about it; like a wolf by night he hadassaulted it; like a hawk he had swooped down upon it and had taken itfor the Cherokee nation; and it was a small matter if he, who spokeFrench so well, had not comprehended an Englishman who spoke Frenchlike an unknown tongue, and had let him pass, being deceived!
Would the great chief, whose words in whatever language were ofparamount importance, accept a money price?
As several gold pieces rolled out on the buffalo rug, the wrinkles sogathered around Willinawaugh's eyes that those crafty orbs seemedtotally eclipsed. He wagged his head to and fro till "him top-feathers"temporarily obliterated the squad of henchmen behind him, in woe that hecould not take the money, yet not in indecision.
For lo, he said, who had done so much as he, whose prestige had beentouched for a trifle, whose best-beloved brother, Savanukah, hadmaligned him--for the sake of an Englishman who could not speak Frenchso that it could be understood. He had let that Englishman pass--it wasa small matter, and if any had sustained harm it was he himself--for theEnglish brother in the French squaw's dress had escaped through hislines, and came near raising the siege, perhaps--because of the Frenchsquaw's dress. But he was not there, and he gave the English boy nofront tooth!
At this reiterated allusion, Savanukah's guttural grunt, _O-se-u!_ wasalmost a groan.
"Rifle, six horses, seven pieces of gold in ransom," saidAtta-Kulla-Kulla, slowly massing his wealth.
Once more Willinawaugh shook his head. His prestige had suffered becauseof aspersions. Yet he had besieged the fort and reduced the two captainsand their splendid cannon--this for the Cherokee nation! He had followedhard on the march of the garrison, and with Oconostota and his force hadsurrounded them and killed many, and captured the great Captain Stuartalive!--this for the revenge of the Cherokee nation! But the scalp ofthe great Captain Stuart, with its long fair hair, like none others, wasa trophy for himself--this he should wear at his belt as long as heshould live, that when he told how he had wrought for the Cherokeenation none should say him nay!
Oconostota suddenly showed a freshened interest. He turned toAtta-Kulla-Kulla, who sat on his right hand, and in an eager, low voicespoke for a moment; the half-king seeming anxious, doubtful, then noddedin slow and deliberative acquiescence. Meantime Willinawaugh's wordsflowed on.
And--he lifted his fierce eyes in triumph to the captive's face--for allthose weary days of beleaguerment, for every puff of smoke from theshotted guns, for every blaze they belched, for every ball, deathfreighted, they vomited, for every firelock that spoke from theloop-holes in the midnight attack, would be meted out Captain Stuart'spenalty--in pangs, with knives, with cords, with hot coals, with flamesof fire! The time had come to reward his patience!
"You have done well," said Atta-Kulla-Kulla, "you should think well onyour reward!"
And he laid before Willinawaugh a fine gold watch--an English huntingwatch, with a double case, and the works were running; doubtless, it wasanother trophy from the slaughtered officers of Colonel Montgomery'sharassed march. Willinawaugh was stricken dumb.
Stuart, in whose heart poor Hope, all bruised and bleeding, with wingsbroken but about to spread anew, astonished, overcome, with somepoignant pang of gratitude that the semblance of kindness should beagain extended to him by aught on earth, felt a stifling suffocationwhen Oconostota's voice broke in on his behalf, for naught from thecrafty Cherokee king boded good. The "Great Warrior" declared thatWillinawaugh's deeds spoke for themselves--not in French, not inEnglish, but in the Cherokee tongue--in flame and in blood, in courageand in victory. The prisoner's scalp was no great matter in the face ofthe fact of Fort Loudon. The long fair hair of the English Captain tohang at his belt if he liked, but here was Fort Loudon to swing foreverat the silver belt of the Tennessee River! He thought the greatWillinawaugh had a right to choose his reward--the goods or the scalp.The scalp Atta-Kulla-Kulla could not wear, not having taken it. And thegreat Willinawaugh could be present and rejoice when Atta-Kulla-Kullashould choose to burn the captive; for whom he, himself, andAtta-Kulla-Kulla had devised a certain opportunity of usefulness to theCherokee nation before Stuart should be called upon to expiate hiscrimes at the stake to satisfy the vengeance of his conqueror.
And who so glad as Willinawaugh to lose naught of hissatisfaction--neither his material nor immaterial reward? who now soglad to protest that he would waive any personal gratification thatstood in the way of utility to the Cherokee nation? He had the watch inhis hand, dangling by the gold chain and seals; the ticking caught hisear. He held it up close, with an expression of childish delight thatmetamorphosed his fierce face and seemed actually to freshen theexpression of "him top-feathers."
In obedience to a motion of Atta-Kulla-Kulla's hand, Stuart followed himout to the parade in the red rays of the sinking sun,--how often thencehad he watched it go down behind the level ramparts of the CumberlandMountains! They passed through the staring motley throng to CaptainDemere's house which the half-king had chosen for his own quarters. Itwas a log-cabin, floored, and of two rooms with a roofed but openpassage between, not unlike the cabins of the region of the presentday. Here the Cherokee paused, and with a pass or two of thescalping-knife cut the ropes that pinioned Stuart, opened the door ofDemere's bedroom and with an impassive face sternly motioned him toenter.
The door was closed and Stuart was alone in the quarters reserved forthe chief. It had not yet been invaded by the filthy plundering gangswithout, and its order and military neatness and decorum affected hisquivering nerves as a sort of solace--as of a recurrence of the saneatmosphere of right reason after a period of turbulent mania. Andsuddenly his heart was all pierced by grief and a sense of bereavement.He had realized his friend was dead, and he felt that this might fairlybe considered the better fate. But somehow the trivial personalbelongings so bespoke the vanished presence that he yearned for Demerein his happy release; the shaken nerves could respond to the echo of avoice forever silenced; he could look into vacancy upon a face he wasdestined
to see never again. His jaded faculties, instead of reachingforward to the terrible future, began to turn back vaguely to thedetails of their long service together; as a reflex of the agitation hehad endured he could not, in the surcease of turmoil, compass a quietmind; he began to experience that poignant anguish of bereavement,self-reproach. He remembered trifling differences they had had in thelife they lived here like brothers, and his own part in them gnawed inhis consciousness like a grief; he repented him of words long agoforgiven; he thought of personal vexations that he might have sought tosmooth away but carelessly left in disregard; and when he lay down inthe darkness on the narrow camp-bed with his friend's pillow under hishead, Demere's look this morning, of affectionate banter, with which hehad turned on the ground as they lay in the bivouac was so present tohis mind that the tears which all his pains and griefs were powerless tosummon, sprang to his eyes.
But the weary physical being sunk to rest, and then in the midst of hissomnolent mental impressions was wrought a change. Demere was with himstill,--not in the guise of that white, stark face, upturned now to thestars on the plains of Taliquo,--but in his serene, staid presence as helived; together they were at Fort Loudon, consulting, planning, as inits happier days; now it was the capacity of the spring which theywished to enlarge, and this they had done with blasting-powder; now itwas the device to add to the comfort of the garrison by framing thelittle porches that stood before the doors of the barracks; now it wasthe erection of an out-work on the side exposed to assault by the river,and they were marking off the ravelin,--Corporal O'Flynn and a squad,with the tapes,--and directing the fashioning of the gabions, theIndians peacefully sitting by the while like some big, unintelligent,woodland animals, while the great, basket-like frames were woven ofwhite oak splints and then filled with the solid earth. He was trying totell Demere that he was afraid something would happen to that second gunin the barbette battery on the northeast bastion, for the metal alwaysrang with a queer vibration, and he had had a dream that Oconostota hadovercharged and fired it, and it had exploded; and as Demere waslaughing at this folly Stuart realized suddenly the fact that the daywas coming in to him again there in his friend's place, as it would comeno more to Demere, though dawning even now at Taliquo Plains where helay. Instead of that essential presence, on which Stuart had leaned andrelied, and which in turn had leaned and relied on him, there was in hismind but a memory, every day to grow dimmer.
Nevertheless, he rose, refreshed and strengthened with the stimulus ofthat unreal association, which was yet so like reality, with the comradeof his dreams. The orderly instincts of a soldier, as mechanical as thefunctions of respiration, enabled him, with the use of fresh linen fromhis friend's relinquished effects, to obliterate the traces of theexperiences of the previous day, and fresh and trim, with that precisemilitary neatness that was so imposing to the poor Indian, who could notcompass its effect, he went out to meet the half-king with a gaitassured and steady, a manner capable and confident, and an air ofexecutive ability, that bade fair for the success of any scheme to whichhe might lend his aid.
Now and again he marked a glance of deep appreciation from the subtleAtta-Kulla-Kulla,[13] the result of much cogitation and effort at mentalappraisement. He feared that important developments were to ensue, andafter breakfast, at which meal he was treated like a guest and an equal,and not in the capacity of slave, as were most captives, his hostnotified him that his presence would be necessary at a council to beheld at Chote.
Too acute, far too acute was Atta-Kulla-Kulla not to recognize andcomment upon the different aspect of life at Fort Loudon. "The red mancannot, without use, become capable of handling the advantages of thewhite man," he said in excuse of the anarchy everywhere, with all theriot and grotesqueness and discomfort incident to being out of one'ssphere. At Chote the Cherokees would have seemed as easy, asappropriate, as graceful, as native as the deer.
And at Chote Oconostota seemed as native as the fox. There he sat onthe great buffalo rugs, even his faculties much more at command in hiswonted place, under the dusky red walls of the clay-daubed dome of thecouncil-chamber. And there Captain Stuart learned the reason of theCherokee king's interference yesterday to postpone his fate.
For Oconostota had evolved the bold project of the reduction of FortPrince George. This would consummate the triumph of the fall of FortLoudon, rid the greater portion of the Cherokee country of the presenceof the English, and, with their strongholds in the hands of the Indians,reinforced by a few French gunners, prevent them from ever renewingfoothold. The powder left by Stuart he had found, in experimenting withthe guns, was not enough for a siege, but with the discovery of the tenextra bags, the supply would prove most ample. The ammunition, togetherwith the guns, was to be at once removed and transported thither,laborious though it might prove.
Stuart attempted to set forth the great difficulties of the undertaking,but was met at every point by the foresight and ingenuity of Oconostota,who had considered evidently each detail. It was plain that the projectwas feasible, for the Indian, too lazy in peace to hoe a row of beans,is capable in war of prodigies of valorous industry. Stuart began tofeel singularly placed, since he did not perceive in this his personalconcern, to be thus admitted to a council of war with the enemy. Theaffability of Oconostota he knew was insincere, but being in theCherokee king's power the fraud of his amiability was more acceptablethan the ferocity of his candor.
"You will accompany the expedition," said the king of the Cherokees,suavely.
"In what capacity?" Stuart asked, also politic, seeking to disguise hisanxiety, for any hesitation or refusal would renew his straits ofyesterday, Atta-Kulla-Kulla being as eager, as capable, and even moresubtle in planning the campaign than Oconostota.
"You will write the letters to the commandant of Fort Prince George,summoning him in our names to surrender, and"--with a twinkle of theeye--"advising him in your own name to comply."
Stuart bowed in bland acquiescence. "And the commandant will find itvery easy reading between the lines of any letters I shall write him,"he said to himself.
Nevertheless, he still sought to dissuade them. In ignorance of thestate of the defenses at Fort Prince George, the strength of the works,the supply of ammunition and provisions, the difficulties that mighthave arisen in communicating with Charlestown, he sought to avert thedangers of a siege and a possible ultimate disaster such as hadbefallen Fort Loudon. But although he spoke with force and readiness itwas very guardedly.
"If the great Cherokee kings would please to consider the experiencewhich I have had in the management of cannon, I should like to representthat such an attack on Fort Prince George can but be a duel withartillery. I am not well acquainted with the armament of Fort PrinceGeorge," he declared, "but it may well chance that the cannon, capturedby the Cherokees at so great a cost, may be disabled under a heavy fireand lost to Fort Loudon, which would then become mere intrenchments, tobe leveled by a single brisk cannonade."
Atta-Kulla-Kulla, his quick, keen, fiery face aglow, informed him thatthey would leave a reserve of cannon at Fort Loudon, his advice havingbeen to take with them only six of the great guns and two coehorns.
Stuart was baffled for a moment by the definiteness and the militarycoherence of these plans. He rallied, however, to say that the gunnersof Fort Prince George were trained men, doubtless, and drilled withfrequent target practice. And a commander of skill, such as theirs, wasessential to the effectiveness of an aggressive demonstration.
A flicker of triumph illuminated Atta-Kulla-Kulla's spirited face. Theywere provided in this emergency also. He, the great Captain Stuart,would command the artillery of the expedition, the guns to be served byIndians as cannoneers under his direction; nicety of aim was notessential; a few days' practice would suffice, and at short range FortPrince George was a large target.
For his life Stuart could not control his countenance; the color flaredto the roots of his hair; his eyes flashed; his hand trembled; he couldnot find his voice; and yet angry
as he was, he was both amazed anddaunted.
Oconostota broke in upon his speechless agitation in a smooth, soothingvoice to remind him of the clemency he enjoyed in that his life had beenspared, and only yesterday, even at the supreme moment of the discoveryof the treachery of his garrison in the concealment of the powder. Theyhad not acquainted Willinawaugh with their designs, for Oconostotahimself would lead the expedition. (Stuart as a military man realized anecessity, that sometimes supervenes in more sophisticatedorganizations, which they felt of curbing the power of a possibly toosuccessful and a too aspiring subordinate.) How generous,declared Oconostota, had been the intercession of the nobleAtta-Kulla-Kulla,--half-king of the Cherokees,--who had given in effectall his wealth to ransom him, a mere _eeankke_, a prisoner, from hiswarlike captor, the great Willinawaugh, that this military servicemight be rendered in exchange for his life.
Stuart's eyes turned away; he sought to veil their expression; he lookedthrough the tall narrow door of the red clay walls at the waters of theTennessee River, silver-shotted and blue as ever, still flowing down anddown beyond the site of Fort Loudon--unmindful of its tragic fate,unmindful! The august domes of the Great Smoky Mountains showed now adull velvet blue against the hard blue of the turquoise sky, and anondrew a silver shimmer of mists about them. Chilhowee Mountain, richlybronze and green, rose in the middle distance, and he was vaguelyreminiscent of the day when he watched the young soldier rocking in hisboat on the shallows close to the shore, the red coat giving a brightspot of color to the harmonious duller tones of the landscape, andwondered were it possible among these friendly people that the lad couldbe in danger of a stealthy rifle shot. Now there were no redcoats,--nevermore were they to be seen here! Between himself and thewater he watched only the white swaying of a tall cluster of the greatethereally delicate snowy blossoms, since known as the Chilhowee lily.
He kept his eyes still averted, his voice deepening with the seriousnessof his sentiment as he replied that this was impossible--he could notundertake the command of the Cherokee artillery against Fort PrinceGeorge; he was bound by his oath of fidelity which he had sworn to theEnglish government; he could not bear arms against it.
A choking chuckle recalled his gaze to the dusky red interior of thecouncil-chamber. Oconostota's countenance was distorted with derision,and his twinkling eyes were swimming in the tears of the infrequentlaughter of the grave Indian--even Atta-Kulla-Kulla's face wore aprotesting smile of scorn as of a folly.
Twice Oconostota sought to speak, and he sputtered, and choked, andcould not, for his relish of the thought in his mind. Then with a deepmock-seriousness he demanded slowly if it were fireproof. And relapsedinto his shaking chuckle.
"What?" demanded Stuart, uncomprehending.
"This oath of yours--to the English government. Does this fidelity soclothe your body that it will not burn and crisp and crinkle in theanguish as of your hell? Does your oath harden your flesh as a rock,that arrows and knives shall not pierce it and sting and ache as theystick there waiting for the slow fires to do their work? Will your oathrestore sight to your eyes when a red-hot iron has seared them?" Hecould say no more for the chuckling delight that shook and shook hislean old body.
Atta-Kulla-Kulla spoke in reproach. The Cherokee kings had offeredCaptain Stuart life and practically liberty in exchange for thisservice. If he denied it and talked of his oath, it was but just thatvengeance should take its way. Many a Cherokee had fallen dead from thefire of his garrison of Loudon, both of great guns and small, and theirblood called still from the ground. A wise man was Captain Stuart, andhe would choose wisely.
He was a hearty man, still young, and in full vigor, and, although hislife had been but little worth of late, he was loath to throw it away.
He began to temporize, to try to gain time. He sought to talkdiscontentedly of the project, as if he found it infeasible. Thecommandant, he said, as if he contemplated him only as the leader of anopposing force, would fight at an infinite advantage within the strongdefenses of Fort Prince George, while he outside, without intrenchmentsexcept such hasty works as could be thrown up in a night, and beatendown by the enemy's cannonade in the morning, could but expect to havehis guns soon silenced. A regular approach would be impracticable. TheIndians were not used to fight unscreened. They would never open aparallel under fire, and a vigilant defense would make havoc among theworking parties.
He noted the effect of the unfamiliar military theories upon theIndians, as they both seemed to anxiously canvass them.
"You cannot skulk behind a tree with cannon," he continued. "Theartillery, to be able to command the fort with its fire, would be withinrange of the enemy's batteries, and without efficient cover it would benecessary, in serving each piece, for the gunners to be exposed to fireall the time."
An interval of deep, pondering silence ensued. At lengthAtta-Kulla-Kulla said he believed there would be little or no fight onaccount of the prisoners.
"What prisoners?" demanded Stuart, shortly.
Then Oconostota explained, with his blandest circumlocutions, that,partly as a check upon his dear brother's good faith, bound as he was byhis oath of fidelity to the English government,--and he almost chokedwith the relish of his derision every time he mentioned it,--and to makesure that he should handle the guns properly, and fire them with dueeffect,--not aiming them wildly, so that the balls might fly over thefort, or fall short, not spiking the guns, or otherwise demolishingthem, all of which his great knowledge of the arm rendered possible, andthe ignorance of the poor red man unpreventable, they had determined totake with them the remnant of the garrison, their lives to be pledges ofhis good conduct and effective marksmanship; and if at last his earnestand sincere efforts should prove unavailing, and the commandant shouldcontinue to hold out and refuse to surrender when finally summoned,these, the countrymen and fellow-soldiers of that officer, should besingly tortured and burned before his eyes, within full sight andhearing of Fort Prince George.
As the fiendish ingenuity of this scheme was gradually unfolded, Stuartsat stunned. All the anguish he had suffered seemed naught to thisprospect. He staggered under the weight of responsibility. The lives ofthe poor remnant of his garrison,--more, their death by fire andtorture,--hung upon such discretion as he could summon to aid hisexhausted powers in these repeated and tormented ordeals. He saidnothing; he could not see and he did not care for the succession ofchuckles in which Oconostota was resolved at the delightful spectacle ofhis dismay. The Cherokee had beaten this man of resource at his littlegame of war, and now had outmaneuvered him at his mastercraft ofscheming!
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote J: Tooth!]
[Footnote K: Very excellent.]
[Footnote L: Three.]
[Footnote M: Four--six.]
[Footnote N: The great hawk is at home!]