"It is not all," said Shelby. "Mr. Pengarvin, stand forth."
There was another stir in the backgrounding group and the pettifogger edged his way into the circle, keeping well out of hand-reach of me. How he had made shift to escape from Ferguson"s men, to change sides, and to turn up thus serenely in the ranks of the over-mountain men, I know not to this day, nor ever shall know.
"Tell these gentlemen what you have told me," said Shelby, briefly; and the factor, cool and collected now, rehea.r.s.ed the undeniable facts: how in Charlotte I had figured as a member of Lord Cornwallis"s military family; how I had carried my malignancy to the patriot cause to the length of throwing a stanch friend to the commonwealth, to wit, one Owen Pengarvin, into the common jail; how, as Lord Cornwallis"s trusted aide-de-camp, I had been sent with an express to Major Ferguson. Also, he suggested that if I should be searched some proof of my duplicity might be found upon me.
At this William Campbell nodded to two of his Virginians, and I was searched forthwith, and that none too gently. In the breast pocket of my hussar jacket they found that accursed duplicate despatch; the one I had taken from Tybee and which had so nearly proved my undoing in the interview with Major Ferguson.
Isaac Shelby opened and read the accusing letter and pa.s.sed it around among his colleagues.
"I shall not ask you why this was undelivered, sir," he said to me, sternly. ""Tis enough that it was found upon your person, and it sufficiently proves the truth of this gentleman"s accusation. Have you aught further to say, Captain Ireton?--aught that may excuse us for not leaving you behind us in a halter?"
Do you wonder, my dears, that I lost my head when I saw how completely the toils of this little black-clothed fiend had closed around me?
Twice, nay, thrice I tried to speak calmly as the crisis demanded. Then mad rage ran away with me, and I burst out in yelling curses so hot they would surely dry the ink in the pen were I to seek to set them down here.
"Twas a silly thing to do, you will say, and much beneath the dignity of a grown man who cared not a bodle for his life, and not greatly for the manner of its losing. I grant you this; and yet it was that same bull-bellow of soldier profanity that saved my life. Whilst I was in the storm of it, cursing the lawyer by every shouted epithet I could lay tongue to, a miracle was wrought and Richard Jennifer and Ephraim Yeates pushed their way through the ever-thickening ring of onlookers; the latter to range himself beside me with his brown-barreled rifle in the hollow of his arm, and my dear lad to fling himself upon me in a bear"s hug of joyous recognition and greeting.
"Score one for me, Jack!" he cried. "We were fair at t"other end of the mountain, and "twas I told Eph there was only one man in the two Carolinas who could swear the match of that." Then he whirled upon my judges. "What is this, gentlemen?--a court martial? Captain Ireton is my friend, and as true a patriot as ever drew breath. What is your charge?"
Colonel Sevier, in whose command Richard and the old borderer had fought in the hilltop battle, undertook to explain. I stood self-confessed as the bearer of despatches from Lord Cornwallis to Major Ferguson, he said, and I had claimed that the orders had been so altered as to delay the major"s retreat and so to bring on the battle. But they had just found Lord Cornwallis"s letter in my pocket, still sealed and undelivered. And the tenor of it was precisely opposite to that of an order calculated to delay the major"s march, as Mr. Jennifer could see if he would read it.
While Sevier was talking, the old borderer was fumbling in the breast of his hunting-shirt, and now he produced a packet of papers tied about with red tape.
""Pears to me like you Injun-killers from t"other side o" the mounting is in a mighty hot sweat to hang somebody," he said, as coolly as if he were addressing a mob of underlings. "Here"s a mess o" billy-doos with Lord Cornwallis"s name to "em that I found "mongst Major Ferguson"s leavings. If you"ll look "em over, maybe you"ll find out, immejitly _if_ not sooner, that Cap"n John here is telling ye the plumb truth."
The papers were examined hastily, and presently John Sevier lighted upon the despatch I had carried and delivered. Thereat the colonels put their heads together; and then my case was re-opened, with Sevier as spokesman.
"We have a letter here which appears to be the original order to Ferguson, Captain Ireton. Can you repeat from memory the _postscriptum_ which you say was added to it?"
I gave the gist of my old patriarch"s addendum as well as I could; and thereupon suspicion fled away and my late judges would vie with one another in hearty frontier hand-grasps and apologies, whilst the throng that ringed us in forgot caution and weariness and gave me a cheer to wake the echoes.
"Twas while this burst of gratulation was abuzz that Ephraim Yeates raised a cry of his own.
"Stop that there black-legged imp o" the law!" he shouted, pushing his way out of the circle. "He"s the one that ought to hang!"
There was a rush for the wagon barricade, a clatter of horse-hoofs on the hillside below, and Yeates"s rifle went to his face. But the bullet flew wide, and the black-garbed figure clinging to the horse"s mane was soon out of sight among the trees.
"Ez I allow, ye"d better look out for that yaller-skinned little varmint, Cap"n John," quoth the old man, carefully wiping his rifle preparatory to reloading it. "He"s rank pizen, he is, and ye"ll have to break his neck sooner "r later. I "lowed to save ye the trouble, but old Bess got mighty foul yestiddy, with all the shootings and goings on, and I hain"t got no lead-brush to clean her out."
Now that I was fully exonerated I was free to go and come as I chose; nay, more, I was urged to cast in my lot with the over-mountain partizans. As to this, I took counsel with Richard Jennifer whilst the colonels were setting their commands in order for the march and loading the prisoners with the captured guns and ammunition.
"What is to the fore, d.i.c.k?" I asked; "more fighting?"
The lad shook his head. "Never another blow, I fear, Jack. These fellows crossed the mountain to whip Ferguson. Having done it they will go home."
I could not forego a hearty curse upon this worst of all militia weaknesses, the disposition to disperse as soon as ever a battle was fought.
""Tis nigh on to a crime," said I. "This victory, smartly followed up, might well be the turning of the tide for us."
But the lad would not admit the qualifying condition. ""Twill be no less as it is," he declared. "Mark you, Jack; "twill put new life into the cause and nerve every man of ours afresh. And as for the redcoats, if my Lord Cornwallis gets the news of it in a lump, as he should, Gates will have plenty of time to set himself in motion, slow as he is."
"Twas then I had an inspiration, and I thought upon it for a moment.
"What are your plans, Richard?"
He shook his head. "I have none worth the name."
"Then you are not committed to Colonel Sevier for a term of service?"
"No; nor to Cleaveland, nor McDowell, nor any. We heard there was to be fighting hereaway,--Ephraim Yeates and I,--and we came as volunteers."
"Good! then I have a thought which may stand for what it is worth. To make the most of this victory over Major Ferguson, Gates should be apprised at once and by a sure tongue; and his Lordship should have the news quickly, too, and in a lump, as you say. Let us take horse and ride post, we two; you to Gates at Hillsborough, and I to Charlotte."
"I had thought of my part of that," he said in a muse. Then he came alive to the risk I should run. "But you can"t well go back to Cornwallis now, Jack: "tis playing with death. There will be other news-carriers--there are sure to be; and a single breath to whisper what you have done will hang you higher than Haman."
I shrugged at this. ""Tis but a war hazard."
He looked at me curiously. I saw a shrewd question in his eyes and set instant action as a barrier in the way of its asking.
"Let us find Colonel Sevier and beg us the loan of a pair of horses,"
said I; and so we were kept from coming upon the dangerous ground of pointed questions and evasive answers.
Somewhat to my surprise, both Sevier and Shelby fell in at once with our project, commending it heartily; and I learned from the lips of that courtliest of frontiersmen, "Nolichucky Jack," the real reason for the proposed hurried return of the over-mountain men. The Cherokees, never to be trusted, had, as it seemed, procured war supplies from the British posts to the southward, and were even now on the verge of an uprising.
By forced marches these hardy borderers hoped to reach their homes in time to defend them. Otherwise, as both commanders a.s.sured us, they would take the field with Gates.
"We have done what we could, Captain Ireton, and not altogether what we would," said Sevier in the summing-up. "It remains now for General Gates to drive home the wedge we have entered." Then he looked me full in the eyes and asked if I thought Horatio Gates would be the man to beetle that wedge well into the log.
I made haste to say that I knew little of the general; that I was but a prejudiced witness at best, since my father had known and misliked the man in Braddock"s ill-fated campaign against the French in "55. But Richard spoke his mind more freely.
""Tis not in the man at this pa.s.s, Colonel Sevier," he would say; "not after Camden. I know our Carolinians as well as any, and they will never stand a second time under a defeated leader. If General Washington would send us some one else; or, best of all, if he would but come himself--"
"George Washington; ah, there is a man, indeed," said Sevier, his dark-blue eyes lighting up. "Whilst he lives, there is always a good hope. But we must be doing, gentlemen, and so must you. G.o.d speed you both. Our compliments to General Gates, Mr. Jennifer; and you may tell him what I have told you--that but for our redskin threateners we should right gladly join him. As for Lord Cornwallis, you, Captain Ireton, will know best what to say to him. I pray G.o.d you may say it and come off alive to tell us how he took it."
We made our acknowledgments; and when I had bespoken good care for Tybee, we took leave of these stout fighters, and of old Ephraim as well, since the borderer was to serve as a guide for the over-mountain men, at least till they were come upon familiar ground to the westward.
"Twas now hard upon ten of the clock in the forenoon, and we had our last sight of the brave little army whilst it was wending its way slowly down the slopes of King"s Mountain. Of what became of it; how its weary march dragged on from day to day; how it was hampered by the train of captives, halted by rain-swollen torrents, and was well-nigh starved withal; of all these things you may read elsewhere. But now you must ride with Richard Jennifer and me, and our way lay to the eastward.
All that Sunday we pressed forward, hasting as we could through the stark columned aisles of the autumn-stripped forest, and looking hourly to come upon Tarleton"s legion marching out to Ferguson"s relief.
Since Richard Jennifer had ridden to the hounds in all this middle ground from boyhood, we were able to take my blind wanderings in reverse as the arrow flies; and by nightfall we were well down upon the main traveled road leading to Beattie"s fording of the Catawba.
As your map will show you, this was taking me somewhat out of my way to the northward; but it was Richard"s most direct route to Salisbury and beyond, and by veering thus we made the surer of missing Colonel Tarleton, who, as we thought, would likely cross the river at the lower ford.
Once in the high road we pushed on briskly for the river, nor did we draw rein until the sweating beasts were picking their way in the darkness down the last of the hills which sentinel the Catawba to the westward.
At the foot of this hill a by-road led to Macgowan"s ford some six miles farther down the river, and here, as I supposed, our ways would lie apart. But when we came to the forking of the road, Richard pulled his mount into the by-path, clapping the spurs to the tired horse so that we were a good mile beyond the forking before I could overtake him.
"How now, lad?" said I, when I had run him down. "Would you take a fighting hazard when you need not? There is sure to be a British patrol at the lower ford."
He jerked his beast down to a walk and we rode in silence side by side for a full minute before he said gruffly: "You"d never find the way alone."