In the Days of Poor Richard
2
In April the two friends set out afoot for the lower end of theHighlands. On the river they hired a Dutch farmer to take them on toAlbany in his sloop. After two delightful days at home, GeneralSchuyler suggested that they could do a great service by traversing thewilderness to the valley of the great river of the north, as far aspossible toward Swegachie, and reporting their observations to CrownPoint or Fort Edward, if there seemed to be occasion for it, and ifnot, they were to proceed to General Herkimer's camp at Oriskany andgive him what help they could in protecting the settlers in the west.
"You would need to take all your wit and courage with you," the Generalwarned them. "The Indians are in bad temper. They have taken toroasting their prisoners at the stake and eating their flesh. This isa hazardous undertaking. Therefore, I give you a suggestion and not anorder."
"I'll go 'lone," said Solomon. "If I get et up it needn't breaknobody's heart. Let Jack go to one o' the forts."
"No, I'd rather go into the bush with you," said Jack. "We're bothneeded there. If necessary we could separate and carry our warning intwo directions. We'll take a couple of the new double-barreled riflesand four pistols. If we had to, I think we could fight a hole throughany trouble we are likely to have."
So it was decided that they should go together on this scouting tripinto the north bush. Solomon had long before that invented what hecalled "a lightnin' thrower" for close fighting with Indians, to beused if one were hard pressed and outnumbered and likely to have hisscalp taken. This odd contrivance he had never had occasion to use.It was a thin, round shell of cast iron with a tube, a flint andplunger. The shell was of about the size of a large apple. It was tobe filled with missiles and gunpowder. The plunger, with its spring,was set vertically above the tube. In throwing this contrivance onereleased its spring by the pressure of his thumb. The hammer fell andthe spark it made ignited a fuse leading down to the powder. Its ownerhad to throw it from behind a tree or have a share in the peril it wassure to create.
While Jack was at home with his people Solomon spent a week in thefoundry and forge and, before they set out on their journey, had threeof these unique weapons, all loaded and packed in water-proof wrappings.
About the middle of May they proceeded in a light bark canoe to FortEdward and carried it across country to Lake George and made their waywith paddles to Ticonderoga. There they learned that scouts wereoperating only on and near Lake Champlain. The interior of TryonCounty was said to be dangerous ground. Mohawks, Cagnawagas, Senecas,Algonquins and Hurons were thick in the bush and all on the warpath.They were torturing and eating every white man that fell in theirhands, save those with a Tory mark on them.
"We're skeered o' the bush," said an elderly bearded soldier, who wassitting on a log. "A man who goes into the wildwood needs to be a goodfriend o' God."
"But Schuyler thinks a force of British may land somewhere along thebig river and come down through the bush, building a road as theyadvance," said Jack.
"A thousand men could make a tol'able waggin road to Fort Edward in amonth," Solomon declared. "That's mebbe the reason the Injuns are outin the bush eatin' Yankees. They're tryin' fer to skeer us an' keep userway. By the hide an' horns o' the devil! We got to know what'sa-goin' on out thar. You fellers are a-settin' eround these 'ere fortsas if ye had nothin' to do but chaw beef steak an' wipe yer rifles an'pick yer teeth. Why don't ye go out thar in the bush and do a littleskeerin' yerselves? Ye're like a lot o' ol' women settin' by the firean' tellin' ghos' stories."
"We got 'nuff to do considerin' the pay we git," said a sergeant.
"Hell an' Tophet! What do ye want o' pay?" Solomon answered. "Ain'tye willin' to fight fer yer own liberty without bein' paid fer it? Yebeen kicked an' robbed an' spit on, an' dragged eround by the heels,an' ye don't want to fight 'less somebody pays ye. What a dam' cornfiddle o' a man ye mus' be!"
Solomon was putting fresh provisions in his pack as he talked.
"All the Injuns o' Kinady an' the great grass lands may be snookin'down through the bush. We're bound fer t' know what's a-goin' on outthar. We're liable to be skeered, but also an' likewise we'll do someskeerin' 'fore we give up--you hear to me."
Jack and Solomon set out in the bush that afternoon and before nightfell were up on the mountain slants north of the Glassy Water, as LakeGeorge was often called those days. But for Solomon's caution an evilfate had perhaps come to them before their first sleep on the journey.The new leaves were just out, but not quite full. The little maplesand beeches flung their sprays of vivid green foliage above the darkershades of the witch hopple into the soft-lighted air of the great houseof the wood and filled it with a pleasant odor. A mile or so back,Solomon had left the trail and cautioned Jack to keep close and stepsoftly. Soon the old scout stopped, and listened and put his ear tothe ground. He rose and beckoned to Jack and the two turned aside andmade their way stealthily up the slant of a ledge. In the edge of alittle thicket on a mossy rock shelf they sat down. Solomon lookedserious. There were deep furrows in the skin above his brow.
When he was excited in the bush he had the habit of swallowing and theprocess made a small, creaky sound in his throat. This Jack observedthen and at other times. Solomon was peering down through the bushestoward the west, now and then moving his head a little. Jack looked inthe same direction and presently saw a move in the bushes below, butnothing more. After a few minutes Solomon turned and whispered:
"Four Injun braves jist went by. Mebbe they're scoutin' fer a bigband--mebbe not. If so, the crowd is up the trail. If they're comin'by, it'll be 'fore dark. We'll stop in this 'ere tavern. They's acave on t'other side o' the ledge as big as a small house."
They watched until the sun had set. Then Solomon led Jack to the cave,in which their packs were deposited.
From the cave's entrance they looked upon the undulating green roof ofthe forest dipping down into a deep valley, cut by the smooth surfaceof a broad river with mirrored shores, and lifting to the summit of adistant mountain range. Its blue peaks rose into the glow of thesunset.
"Yonder is the great stairway of Heaven!" Jack exclaimed.
"I've put up in this 'ere ol' tavern many a night," said Solomon. "Doye see its sign?"
He pointed to a great dead pine that stood a little below it, toweringwith stark, outreaching limbs more than a hundred and fifty feet intothe air.
"I call it The Dead Pine Tavern," Solomon remarked.
"On the road to Paradise," said Jack as he gazed down the valley, hishands shading his eyes.
"Wisht we could have a nice hot supper, but 'twon't do to build nofire. Nothin' but cold vittles! I'll go down with the pot to a springan' git some water. You dig fer our supper in that pack o' mine an'spread it out here. I'm hungry."
They ate their bread and dried meat moistened with spring water, pickedsome balsam boughs and covered a corner of the mossy floor with them.When the rock chamber was filled with their fragrance, Jack said:
"If my dream comes true and Margaret and I are married, I shall bringher here. I want her to see The Dead Pine Tavern and its outlook."
"Ayes, sir, when ye're married safe," Solomon answered. "We'll come uphere fust summer an' fish, an' hunt, an' I'll run the tavern an' do thecookin' an' sweep the floor an' make the beds!"
"I'm a little discouraged," said Jack. "This war may last for years."
"Keep up on high ground er ye'll git mired down," Solomon answered."Ain't nuther on ye very old yit, an' fust ye know these troubles 'llbe over an' done."
Jack awoke at daylight and found that he was alone. Solomon returnedin half an hour or so.
"Been scoutin' up the trail," he said. "Didn't see a thing but an ol'gnaw bucket. We'll jest eat a bite an' p'int off to the nor'west an'keep watch o' this 'ere trail. They's Injuns over thar on the slants.We got to know how they look an' 'bout how many head they is."
They went on, keeping well away from the trail.
"We'l
l have to watch it with our ears," said Solomon in a whisper.
His ear was often on the ground that morning and twice he left Jack "tosnook" out to the trail and look for tracks. Solomon could imitate thecall of the swamp robin, and when they were separated in the bush, hegave it so that his friend could locate him. At midday they sat downin deep shade by the side of a brook and ate their luncheon.
"This 'ere is Peppermint Brook," said Solomon. "It's 'nother one o' mytaverns."
"Our food isn't going to last long at the rate we are eating it," Jackremarked. "If we can't shoot a gun what are we going to do when it'sall gone?"
"Don't worry," Solomon answered. "Ye're in my kentry now an' there's abetter tavern up in the high trail."
They fared along, favored by good weather, and spent that night on theshore of a little pond not more than fifty paces off the old blazedthoroughfare. Next day, about "half-way from dawn to dark," as Solomonwas wont, now and then, to speak of the noon hour, they came suddenlyupon fresh "sign." It was where the big north trail from the upperwaters of the Mohawk joined the one near which they had been traveling.When they were approaching the point Solomon had left Jack in a thicketand cautiously crept out to the "juncshin." There was half an hour ofsilence before the old scout came back in sight and beckoned to Jack.His face had never looked more serious. The young man approached him.Solomon swallowed--a part of the effort to restrain his emotions.
"Want to show ye suthin'," he whispered.
The two went cautiously toward the trail. When they reached it the oldscout led the way to soft ground near a brook. Then he pointed down atthe mud. There were many footprints, newly made, and among them theprint of that wooden peg with an iron ring around its bottom, whichthey had seen twice before, and which was associated with the blackestmemories they knew. For some time Solomon studied the surface of thetrail in silence.
"More'n twenty Injuns, two captives, a pair o' hosses, a cow an' thedevil," he whispered to Jack. "Been a raid down to the Mohawk Valley.The cow an' the hosses are loaded with plunder. I've noticed that whenthe Injuns go out to rob an' kill folks ye find, 'mong their tracks,the print o' that 'ere iron ring. I seen it twice in the Ohio kentry.Here is the heart o' the devil an' his fire-water. Red Snout has gotto be started on a new trail. His ol' peg leg is goin' down to thegate o' hell to-night."
Solomon's face had darkened with anger. There were deep furrows acrosshis brow.
Standing before Jack about three feet away, he drew out his ram rod andtossed it to the young man, who caught it a little above the middle.Jack knew the meaning of this. They were to put their hands upon theram rod, one above the other. The last hand it would hold was to dothe killing. It was Solomon's.
"Thank God!" he whispered, as his face brightened.
He seemed to be taking careful aim with his right eye.
"It's my job," said he. "I wouldn't 'a' let ye do it if ye'd drawedthe chanst. It's my job--proper. They ain't an hour ahead.Mebbe--it's jest possible--he may go to sleep to-night 'fore I do, an'I wouldn't be supprised. They'll build their fire at the Caverns onRock Crick an' roast a captive. We'll cross the bush an' come up on t'other side an' see what's goin' on."
They crossed a high ridge, with Solomon tossing his feet in that long,loose stride of his, and went down the slope into a broad valley. Thesun sank low and the immeasurable green roofed house of the wild wasdim and dusk when the old scout halted. Ahead in the distance they hadheard voices and the neighing of a horse.
"My son," said Solomon as he pointed with his finger, "do you see thebrow o' the hill yonder whar the black thickets be?"
Jack nodded.
"If ye hear to me yell stay this side. This 'ere business is kind o'neevarious. I'm a-goin' clus up. If I come back ye'll hear the callo' the bush owl. If I don't come 'fore mornin' you p'int fer hum an'the good God go with ye."
"I shall go as far as you go," Jack answered.
Solomon spoke sternly. The genial tone of good comradeship, had lefthim.
"Ye kin go, but ye ain't obleeged," said he. "Bear in mind, boy.To-night I'm the Cap'n. Do as I tell ye--_exact_."
He took the lightning hurlers out of the packs and unwrapped them andtried the springs above the hammers. Earlier in the day he had lookedto the priming. Solomon gave one to Jack and put the other two in hispockets. Each examined his pistols and adjusted them in his belt.They started for the low lying ridge above the little valley of RockCreek. It was now quite dark and looking down through the thickets ofhemlock they could see the firelight of the Indians and hear the washof the creek water. Suddenly a wild whooping among the red men, savageas the howl of wolves on the trail of a wounded bison, ran beyond them,far out into the forest, and sent its echoes traveling from hilltop tomountain side. Then came a sound which no man may hear withoutgetting, as Solomon was wont to say, "a scar on his soul which he willcarry beyond the last cape." It was the death cry of a captive.Solomon had heard it before. He knew what it meant. The fire wastaking hold and the smoke had begun to smother him. Those cries werelike the stabbing of a knife and the recollection of them likeblood-stains.
They hurried down the slant, brushing through the thicket, the sound oftheir approach being covered by the appalling cries of the victim andthe demon-like tumult of the drunken braves. The two scouts wereracked with soul pain as they went on so that they could scarcely holdtheir peace and keep their feet from running. A new sense of thecapacity for evil in the heart of man entered the mind of Jack. Theyhad come close to the frightful scene, when suddenly a deep silencefell upon it. Thank God, the victim had gone beyond the reach of pain.Something had happened in his passing--perhaps the savages had thoughtit a sign from Heaven. For a moment their clamor had ceased. The twoscouts could plainly see the poor man behind a red veil of flame.Suddenly the white leader of the raiders approached the pyre, limpingon his wooden stump, with a stick in his hand, and prodded the face ofthe victim. It was his last act. Solomon was taking aim. His riflespoke. Red Snout tumbled forward into the fire. Then what a scurryamong the Indians! They vanished and so suddenly that Jack wonderedwhere they had gone. Solomon stood reloading the rifle barrel he hadjust emptied. Then he said:
"Come on an' do as I do."
Solomon ran until they had come near. Then he jumped from tree totree, stopping at each long enough to survey the ground beyond it.This was what he called "swapping cover." From behind a tree near thefire he shouted in the Indian tongue:
"Red men, you have made the Great Spirit angry. He has sent the Son ofthe Thunder to slay you with his lightning."
No truer words had ever left the lips of man. His hand rose and swungback of his shoulder and shot forward. The round missile sailedthrough the firelight and beyond it and sank into black shadows in thegreat cavern at Rocky Creek--a famous camping-place in the old time.Then a flash of white light and a roar that shook the hills! A blastof gravel and dust and debris shot upward and pelted down upon theearth. Bits of rock and wood and an Indian's arm and foot fell in thefirelight. A number of dusky figures scurried out of the mouth of thecavern and ran for their lives shouting prayers to Manitou as theydisappeared in the darkness. Solomon pulled the embers from around thefeet of the victim.
"Now, by the good God A'mighty, 'pears to me we got the skeer shiftedso the red man'll be the rabbit fer a while an' I wouldn't wonder,"said Solomon, as he stood looking down at the scene. "He ain't a-goin'to like the look o' a pale face--not overly much. Them Injuns that goterway 'll never stop runnin' till they've reached the middle o' nextweek."
He seized the foot of Red Snout and pulled his head out of the fire.
"You ol' hellion!" Solomon exclaimed. "You dog o' the devil! Tumbledinto hell whar ye b'long at last, didn't ye? Jack, you take thatluther bucket an' bring some water out o' the creek an' put out thisfire. The ring on this 'ere ol' wooden leg is wuth a hundred pounds."
Solomon took the hatchet from his belt and hacked off the end of RedSnou
t's wooden leg and put it in his coat pocket, saying:
"'From now on a white man can walk in the bush without gittin' hisbones picked. Injuns is goin' to be skeered o' us--a few an' Iwouldn't be supprised."
When Jack came back with the water, Solomon poured it on the embers,and looked at the swollen form which still seemed to be straining atthe green withes of moose wood.
"Nothin' kin be done fer him," said the old scout. "He's gone erway.I tell ye, Jack, it g'in my soul a sweat to hear him dyin'."
A moment of silence full of the sorrow of the two men followed.Solomon broke it by saying:
"That 'ere black pill o' mine went right down into the stummick o' thehill an' give it quite a puke--you hear to me."
They went to the cavern's mouth and looked in.
"They's an awful mess in thar. I don't keer to see it," said Solomon.
Near them they discovered a warrior who had crawled out of that deathchamber in the rocks. He had been stunned and wounded about theshoulders. They helped him to his feet and led him away. He wastrembling with fear. Solomon found a pine torch, still burning, nearwhere the fire had been. By its light they dressed his wounds--the oldscout having with him always a small surgeon's outfit.
"Whar is t' other captive?" he asked in the Indian tongue.
"About a mile down the trail. It's a woman and a boy," said thewarrior.
"Take us whar they be," Solomon commanded.
The three started slowly down the trail, the warrior leading them.
"Son of the Thunder, throw no more lightning and I will kiss yourmighty hand and do as you tell me," said the Indian, as they set out.
It was now dark. Jack saw, through the opening in the forest roofabove the trail, Orion and the Pleiades looking down at them, asbeautiful as ever, and now he could hear the brook singing merrily.
"I could have chided the stars and the brook while the Indian and Iwere waiting for Solomon to bring the packs," he wrote in his diary.