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THE LITTLE RED FOOT
BY ROBERT W. CHAMBERS
AUTHOR OF "THE SLAYER OF SOULS," "THE COMMON LAW," "IN SECRET,""LORRAINE," ETC.
NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY ROBERT W. CHAMBERS
COPYRIGHT, 1920, 1921. BY THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE COMPANY
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TO MY SON ROBERT H. CHAMBERS
CONTENTS
I SIR WILLIAM PASSES 11
II TWO PEERS SANS PEERAGE 13
III THE POT BOILS 23
IV TWO COUNTRY MICE 32
V A SUPPER 40
VI RUSTIC GALLANTRY 51
VII BEFORE THE STORM 60
VIII SHEEP AND GOATS 68
IX STOLE AWAY 81
X A NIGHT MARCH 86
XI SUMMER HOUSE POINT 94
XII THE SHAPE IN WHITE 102
XIII THE DROWNED LANDS 113
XIV THE LITTLE RED FOOT 124
XV WEST RIVER 132
XVI A TROUBLED MIND 141
XVII DEEPER TROUBLE 151
XVIII FIRELIGHT 169
XIX OUT OF THE NORTH 177
XX IN SHADOW-LAND 189
XXI THE DEMON 197
XXII HAG-RIDDEN 207
XXIII WINTER AND SPRING 220
XXIV GREEN-COATS 235
XXV BURKE'S TAVERN 253
XXVI ORDERS 267
XXVII FIRE-FLIES 283
XXVIII OYANEH! 292
XXIX THE WOOD OF BRAKABEEN 309
XXX A LONG GOOD-BYE 322
XXXI "IN THE VALLEY" 333
AFTERMATH 350
THE LITTLE RED FOOT
CHAPTER I
SIR WILLIAM PASSES
The day Sir William died there died the greatest American of his day.Because, on that mid-summer evening, His Excellency was still only aVirginia gentleman not yet famous, and best known because of courage andsagacity displayed in that bloody business of Braddock.
Indeed, all Americans then living, and who since have become famous,were little celebrated, excepting locally, on the day Sir WilliamJohnson died. Few were known outside a single province; scarcely oneamong them had been heard of abroad. But Sir William was a world figure;a great constructive genius; the greatest land-owner in North America; awise magistrate, a victorious soldier, a builder of cities amid awilderness; a redeemer of men.
He was a Baronet of the British Realm; His Majesty's Superintendent ofIndian Affairs for all North America. He was the only living white manimplicitly trusted by the savages of this continent, because he neverbroke his word to them. He was, perhaps, the only representative ofroyal authority in the Western Hemisphere utterly believed in by thedishonest, tyrannical, and stupid pack of Royal Governors, Magistratesand lesser vermin that afflicted the colonies with the British plague.
He was kind and great. All loved him. All mourned him. For he was a veryperfect gentleman who practiced truth and honour and mercy; anunassuming and respectable man who loved laughter and gaiety and plainpeople.
He saw the conflict coming which must drench the land in blood and drywith fire the blackened cinders.
Torn betwixt loyalty to his King whom he had so tirelessly served, andloyalty to his country which he so passionately loved, it has been saidthat, rather than choose between King and Colony, he died by his ownhand.
But those who knew him best know otherwise. Sir William died of a brokenheart, in his great Hall at Johnstown, all alone.
* * * * *
His son, Sir John, killed a fine horse riding from Fort Johnson to theHall. And arrived too late and all of a lather in the starlight.
And I have never ceased marvelling how such a man could have been theson of the great Sir William.
At the Hall the numerous household was all in a turmoil; and, besidesSir William's immediate family, there were a thousand guests--a thousandIroquois Indians encamped around the Hall, with whom Sir William hadbeen holding fire-council.
For he had determined to restrain his Mohawks, and to maintaintranquillity among all the fierce warriors of the Six Nations, and sopledge the entire Iroquois Confederacy to an absolute neutrality in theimminence of this war betwixt King and Colony, which now seemed to becoming so rapidly upon us that already its furnace breath was heatingrestless savages to a fever.
All that hot June day, though physically ill and mentally unhappy,--andunder a vertical sun and with head uncovered,--Sir William had spoken tothe Iroquois with belts.
The day's labour of that accursed council-fire ended at sunset; sachemand chief departed--tall spectres in the flaming west; there was a clashof steel at the guard-house as the guard presented arms; Mr. Duncansaluted the Confederacy with lifted claymore.
Then an old man, bareheaded, alone, turned away from the coveredcouncil-fire; and an officer, seeing how feebly he moved, flung an armabout his shoulders.
So Sir William came slowly to his great Hall, and slowly entered. Andlaid him down in his library on a sofa.
And slowly died there while the sun was going down.
Then the first star came out where, in the ashes of the June sunset, apale rose tint still lingered.
But Sir William lay dead in his great Hall, all alone.