"Injun-killer, bad man of the border, will you drink with a jolly old tar from England?"
Suddenly a silence reigned, like that in the depths of the forest. To those who knew the borderman, and few did not know him, the invitation was nothing less than an insult. But it did not appear to them, as to him, like a pre-arranged plot to provoke a fight.
"Will you drink, redskin-hunter?" bawled the sailor.
"No," said Jonathan in his quiet voice.
"Maybe you mean that against old England?" demanded Case fiercely.
The borderman eyed him steadily, inscrutable as to feeling or intent, and was silent.
"Go out there and I"ll see the color of your insides quicker than I"d take a drink," hissed the sailor, with his brick-red face distorted and hideous to look upon. He pointed with a long-bladed knife that no one had seen him draw, to the green sward beyond the porch.
The borderman neither spoke, nor relaxed a muscle.
"Ho! ho! my brave pirate of the plains!" cried Case, and he leered with braggart sneer into the faces of Jonathan and his companions.
It so happened that Sheppard sat nearest to him, and got the full effect of the sailor"s hot, rum-soaked breath. He arose with a pale face.
"Colonel, I can"t stand this," he said hastily. "Let"s get away from that drunken ruffian."
"Who"s a drunken ruffian?" yelled Case, more angry than ever. "I"m not drunk; but I"m going to be, and cut some of you white-livered border mates. Here, you old masthead, drink this to my health, d.a.m.n you!"
The ruffian had seized a tumbler of liquor from the table, and held it toward Sheppard while he brandished his long knife.
White as snow, Sheppard backed against the wall; but did not take the drink.
The sailor had the floor; no one save him spoke a word. The action had been so rapid that there had hardly been time. Colonel Zane and Silas were as quiet and tense as the borderman.
"Drink!" hoa.r.s.ely cried the sailor, advancing his knife toward Sheppard"s body.
When the sharp point all but pressed against the old man, a bright object twinkled through the air. It struck Case"s wrist, knocked the knife from his fingers, and, bounding against the wall, fell upon the floor. It was a tomahawk.
The borderman sprang over the table like a huge catamount, and with movement equally quick, knocked Case with a crash against the wall; closed on him before he could move a hand, and flung him like a sack of meal over the bluff.
The tension relieved, some of the crowd laughed, others looked over the embankment to see how Case had fared, and others remarked that for some reason he had gotten off better than they expected.
The borderman remained silent. He leaned against a post, with broad breast gently heaving, but his eyes sparkled as they watched Brandt, Williams, Mordaunt and Metzar. The Englishman alone spoke.
"Handily done," he said, cool and suave. "Sir, yours is an iron hand.
I apologize for this unpleasant affair. My man is quarrelsome when under the influence of liquor."
"Metzar, a word with you," cried Colonel Zane curtly.
"Come inside, kunnel," said the innkeeper, plainly ill at ease.
"No; listen here. I"ll speak to the point. You"ve got to stop running this kind of a place. No words, now, you"ve got to stop. Understand?
You know as well as I, perhaps better, the character of your so-called inn. You"ll get but one more chance."
"Wal, kunnel, this is a free country," growled Metzar. "I can"t help these fellars comin" here lookin" fer blood. I runs an honest place.
The men want to drink an" gamble. What"s law here? What can you do?"
"You know me, Metzar," Colonel Zane said grimly. "I don"t waste words.
"To h.e.l.l with law!" so you say. I can say that, too. Remember, the next drunken boy I see, or shady deal, or gambling spree, out you go for good."
Metzar lowered his s.h.a.ggy head and left the porch. Brandt and his friends, with serious faces, withdrew into the bar-room.
The borderman walked around the corner of the inn, and up the lane.
The colonel, with Silas and Sheppard, followed in more leisurely fashion. At a shout from some one they turned to see a dusty, b.l.o.o.d.y figure, with ragged clothes, stagger up from the bluff.
"There"s that blamed sailor now," said Sheppard. "He"s a tough nut.
My! What a knock on the head Jonathan gave him. Strikes me, too, that tomahawk came almost at the right time to save me a whole skin."
"I was furious, but not at all alarmed," rejoined Colonel Zane.
"I wondered what made you so quiet."
"I was waiting. Jonathan never acts until the right moment, and then--well, you saw him. The little villain deserved killing. I could have shot him with pleasure. Do you know, Sheppard, Jonathan"s aversion to shedding blood is a singular thing. He"d never kill the worst kind of a white man until driven to it."
"That"s commendable. How about Wetzel?"
"Well, Lew is different," replied Colonel Zane with a shudder. "If I told him to take an ax and clean out Metzar"s place--G.o.d! what a wreck he"d make of it. Maybe I"ll have to tell him, and if I do, you"ll see something you can never forget."
CHAPTER IX
On Sunday morning under the bright, warm sun, the little hamlet of Fort Henry lay peacefully quiet, as if no storms had ever rolled and thundered overhead, no roistering ever disturbed its stillness, and no Indian"s yell ever horribly broke the quiet.
""Tis a fine morning," said Colonel Zane, joining his sister on the porch. "Well, how nice you look! All in white for the first time since--well, you do look charming. You"re going to church, of course."
"Yes, I invited Helen and her cousin to go. I"ve persuaded her to teach my Sunday-school cla.s.s, and I"ll take another of older children," replied Betty.
"That"s well. The youngsters don"t have much chance to learn out here.
But we"ve made one great stride. A church and a preacher means very much to young people. Next shall come the village school."
"Helen and I might teach our cla.s.ses an hour or two every afternoon."
"It would be a grand thing if you did! Fancy these tots growing up unable to read or write. I hate to think of it; but the Lord knows I"ve done my best. I"ve had my troubles in keeping them alive."
"Helen suggested the day school. She takes the greatest interest in everything and everybody. Her energy is remarkable. She simply must move, must do something. She overflows with kindness and sympathy.
Yesterday she cried with happiness when Mabel told her Alex was eager to be married very soon. I tell you, Eb, Helen is a fine character."
"Yes, good as she is pretty, which is saying some," mused the colonel.
"I wonder who"ll be the lucky fellow to win her."
"It"s hard to say. Not that Englishman, surely. She hates him.
Jonathan might. You should see her eyes when he is mentioned."