"I know it, lad," he said, kindly. "And mind, I do not rebuke your spirit; I only ask you to learn discretion. This is no time to settle private matters. No man in America has that right now, because every man"s life belongs to the country!"
"On which side, sir?" I faltered.
Sir William was silent for a while. Presently he took my arm and we walked out under the stars.
"My boy," he said, sadly, "I cannot answer you, but I can place matters in a clear light for you. The decision must remain with yourself."
Then he told me how the Boston people had been taxed without their consent, but I could not see why they should not cheerfully give their all to their King, and I said so.
"Very well," replied Sir William, gravely. "Let us approach the matter from your personal view. Here are you, young, vigorous, of good lineage, and sure to succeed to your uncle"s t.i.tle and estate some day. You are, at sixteen, an officer of his Majesty"s border cavalry; you have every prospect of promotion; the King remembers your father, Governor Tryon is your friend. And I, Michael, have decided to leave you, in my testament, sufficient to maintain you handsomely should you desire to marry Felicity before your uncle"s death. _That_, my boy, is the _King"s side_.
"Now suppose, from a high motive of duty, you should suddenly resolve to embrace the cause of the plain people. Could you renounce your commission in the King"s army to shoulder a firelock, perhaps a stable-fork, in the ranks of your countrymen? Could you give up ease, hopes, position? Could you give up your friends and kinsmen? Could you give up what sum I may leave you in my will? For Sir John would never let a penny of my money go to a rebel. Could you give up, if need be, the woman you loved? Think, and be not in haste to answer. For _that_ is the _other_ side to embrace, with perhaps a hangman"s rope at the end."
"Am I to answer you to-night, sir?" I asked.
"G.o.d forbid!" he said, solemnly.
"I will say this," said I; "that where my heart is, I would follow in rags. And my heart is with you, sir."
He stood still, drawing me closer, but said nothing more, for there came running out of the darkness an officer with naked claymore shining in the starlight, and when he drew near we saw it was Mr.
Duncan.
"The Indian is gone!" he panted. "Gone away crazed with fever! The doctor lies in the hut with a broken shoulder; Quider crushed it in his madness!"
Sir William swayed as though struck.
"The sentries chased him to the woods," continued poor Duncan, out of breath; "but he ran like a panther and--we had your orders not to fire. He will die, anyhow; the doctor says he will seek some creek or pond and die in the water like a poisoned rat. They are bringing the doctor now."
Up out of the shadow loomed two soldiers, forming a litter with their muskets, on which sat our doctor, Pierson, head hanging. And when Sir William came to him he looked up with a sick grimace and shook his head feebly.
"He broke those ropes as though they had been worsted," he said. "I tried to hold him down, but he had the strength of delirium, Sir William. I want that fat surgeon of the Royal Americans to set this bone," he added, weakly, and fell a-groaning.
Mr. Duncan started on a run for the barracks; the soldiers and the injured man pa.s.sed on towards the guard-house, and Sir William stood staring after them.
Presently he said, aloud, "G.o.d"s will be done on my poor country!"
We walked back to the house together. Some of the guests were leaving, but the card-room was still crowded, and in the library my Lord Dunmore lay on the carpet cursing and vomiting and shrieking that no man should put him to bed, and that he meant to crack another bottle or a dozen heads.
Here and there, out through the orchard, drunken Indians lurched lodgeward, followed by their patient squaws; here and there sedan-chairs pa.s.sed, the grunting bearers stepping lively in the brisk night wind.
Below the hill, in Johnstown, the court-house windows were still twinkling with lights, and when the wind set our way, we could hear the distant strains of the brigade band playing for the dancers.
Sir William entered the hallway of his house and looked around. In a corner of one window sat Mrs. Hamilton and Mr. Bevan, somewhat close together; in another window were gathered Colonel Claus and his lady and Sir John Johnson, whispering. Brant, surrounded by a bevy of fine ladies, was turning over the pages of a book and answering questions in polite monosyllables, for he had a quiet contempt for those who regarded him as a curiosity, though susceptible enough to real homage.
"And out of all my house," murmured Sir William, in a bitter voice, "not one whom I can trust--not one!--not one!"
After a moment I plucked at his sleeve, reproachfully.
"Yes--I know--I know, my boy. But I need a man now--a man of experience, a man in bodily vigour, a man in devotion."
"You need a man to go to Colonel Cresap," I whispered. For the first and only time in my life I saw that I had startled Sir William.
"Let me go, sir?" I entreated, eagerly. "If I am keen enough to read your purpose, I am not too stupid to carry it out. I know what you wish. I know you cannot trust your message to paper, nor to a living soul except me. I know what to say to Colonel Cresap. Let me serve you, sir, for I do long so to help you?"
We had fallen back to the porch again while I was speaking, Sir William holding me so tightly by the elbow that his clutch numbed my arm.
"I cannot," he muttered, under his breath. "To-morrow Dunmore will set his spies to see that Cresap remains undisturbed. The Ohio trails will be watched for a messenger from me. Who knows what Dunmore"s and Butler"s men might do to carry out their designs on my Cayugas?"
"Dare they attack an officer in uniform?" I asked, astonished.
"What is there to prevent a shot in ambush? And are there no renegades in Johnstown to hire?" replied Sir William, bitterly. "Why, the town"s full of them, lad; men as desperate as Jack Mount himself."
"But I know the woods! You, yourself, sir, say I am a very Mohawk in the woods!" I pleaded. "I fear no ambush, though the highwayman Jack Mount himself were after me. Have I not been twice to the Virginia line with Brant? Do you think I could fail to reach Cresap with the whole forest as plain to me as the Stony Way below this hill? And remember I carry no papers to be stolen. I could first go with belts to the Cayugas, and tell the truth about Quider and his party. Then I would deliver the belts as you delivered them to Quider. Then I would find Cresap and show him what a fool he is."
"And so serve the enemies of the King?" said Sir William, looking keenly at me.
"And so serve you, sir," I retorted, in a flash. "Are you an enemy to the King?"
"But, my boy," said Sir William, huskily, "do you understand that you must go alone on this mission?"
I sprang forward and threw my arms around him with a hug like a young bear.
"Then I"m going! I"m going!" I whispered, enchanted, while he murmured brokenly that he could not spare me and that I was all he had on earth.
But I would not be denied; I coaxed him to my little bedroom, lighted the candle, and made him sit down on my cot. Then I explained excitedly my purpose, and to prove that I knew the trails, I sharpened my treasured Faber pencil and made a drawing for him, noting every ford and carrying-place--which latter I proposed to avoid--and finally hazarded a guess as to the exact spot where Colonel Cresap might be found.
Also, in pantomime and whispers, I rehea.r.s.ed the part I meant to play before the Cayugas, making the speeches that Sir William had made to Quider, as nearly as I could remember, and delivering each belt in dumb show and with all the dignity I could command, till I came to the last, which, by mistake, I spoke of as a _red_ instead of _black_ belt.
"Wait," interrupted Sir William, who had become deeply interested; "what is "black" in the Mohawk tongue?"
"Kahonji," I replied, promptly.
"And in Onondaga?"
"Osuntah, sir."
"And in Cayuga?"
I hesitated, then blushed, for I did not know.
"Sweandaea," said Sir William, gravely; "how are you to bear my peace-belts if you know not the red of war from the black of good intent?"
"I should have said "Hot-Kwah-Weyo"--_good_-red, not _war_-red," I replied, so navely that Sir William laughed outright.
"With such resourceful impudence," he said, "you cannot be misunderstood among the Six Nations. It eases my mind to find you quick and ingenious in a tight place, lad. But, Michael, have a care to use no Delaware words, for that would render my Cayugas suspicious."
I promised eagerly, and we sat down together to go over the trail, mile by mile, computing the circles I should be obliged to take to avoid the carrying-places where spies were most to be feared.