"This must be looked to, at once," cried the captain; "lead the way, Mike, and show us the spot."
As the Irishman was nothing loth, all three were soon in the court, whence Mike led the way through the gate, round to the point where the stockade came near the cliffs, on the eastern side of the buildings.
This was the spot where the path that led down to the spring swept along the defences, and was on the very route by which the captain contemplated retreating, as well as on that by which Maud had entered the Hut, the night of the invasion. At a convenient place, a palisade had been sawed off, so low in the ground that the sods, which had been cut and were moveable, concealed the injury, while the heads of the pins that ought to have bound the timber to the cross-piece, were in their holes, leaving everything apparently secure. On removing the sods, and pushing the timber aside, the captain ascertained that a man might easily pa.s.s without the stockade. As this corner was the most retired within the works, there was no longer any doubt that the hole had been used by all the deserters, including the women and children.
In what manner it became known to Nick, however, still remained matter of conjecture.
Orders were about to be given to secure this pa.s.sage, when it occurred to the captain it might possibly be of use in effecting his own retreat. With this object in view, then, he hastened away from the place, lest any wandering eye without might detect his presence near it, and conjecture the cause. On returning to the library, the examination of Mike was resumed.
As the reader must be greatly puzzled with the county Leitrim-man"s manner of expressing himself, we shall relate the substance of what he now uttered, for the sake of brevity. It would seem that Nick had succeeded in persuading Mike, first, that he, the Tuscarora, was a fast friend of the captain and his family, confined by the former, in consequence of a misconception of the real state of the Indian"s feelings, much to the detriment of all their interests; and that no better service could be rendered the Willoughbys than to let Nick depart, and for the Irishman to go with him. Mike, however, had not the slightest idea of desertion, the motive which prevailed on him to quit the Hut being a desire to see the major, and, if possible, to help him escape. As soon as this expectation was placed before his eyes, Mike became a convert to the Indian"s wishes. Like all exceedingly zealous men, the Irishman had an itching propensity to be doing, and he was filled with a sort of boyish delight at the prospect of effecting a great service to those whom he so well loved, without their knowing it.
Such was the history of Michael"s seeming desertion; that of what occurred after he quitted the works remains to be related.
The Tuscarora led his companion out of the Hut, within half an hour after they had been left alone together, in the room of Mr. Woods. As this was subsequently to Joel"s flight, Nick, in antic.i.p.ation of this event, chose to lie in ambush a short time, in order to ascertain whether the defection was likely to go any further. Satisfied on this head, he quietly retired towards the mill. After making a sufficient _detour_ to avoid being seen from the house, Nick gave himself no trouble about getting into the woods, or of practising any of the expedients of a time of real danger, as had been done by all of the deserters; but he walked leisurely across the meadows, until he struck the highway, along which he proceeded forthwith to the rocks. All this was done in a way that showed he felt himself at home, and that he had no apprehensions of falling into an ambush. It might have arisen from his familiarity with the ground; or, it might have proceeded from the consciousness that he was approaching friends, instead of enemies.
At the rocks, however, Nick did not deem it wise to lead Mike any farther, without some preliminary caution. The white man was concealed in one of the clefts, therefore, while the Indian pursued his way alone. The latter was absent an hour; at the end of that time he returned, and, after giving Mike a great many cautions about silence and prudence, he led him to the cabin of the miller, in the b.u.t.tery of which Robert Willoughby was confined. To this b.u.t.tery there was a window; but, as it was so small as to prevent escape, no sentinel had been placed on the outside of the building. For his own comfort, too, and in order to possess his narrow lodgings to himself, the major had given a species of parole, by which he was bound to remain in duresse, until the rising of the next sun. Owing to these two causes, Nick had been enabled to approach the window, and to hold communications with the prisoner. This achieved, he returned to the rocks, and led Mike to the same spot.
Major Willoughby had not been able to write much, in consequence of the darkness. That which he communicated, accordingly, had to pa.s.s through the fiery ordeal of the Irishman"s brains. As a matter of course it did not come with particular lucidity, though Mike did succeed in making his auditors comprehend this much.
The major was substantially well treated, though intimations had been given that he would be considered as a spy. Escape seemed next to impossible; still, he should not easily abandon the hope. From all he had seen, the party was one of that irresponsible character that would render capitulation exceedingly hazardous, and he advised his father to hold out to the last. In a military point of view, he considered his captors as contemptible, being without a head; though many of the men:--the savages in particular--appeared to be ferocious and reckless. The whole party was guarded in discourse, and little was said in English, though he was convinced that many more whites were present than he had at first believed. Mr. Woods he had not seen, nor did he know anything of his arrest or detention.
This much Mike succeeded in making the captain comprehend, though a great deal was lost through the singular confusion that prevailed in the mind of the messenger. Mike however, had still another communication, which we reserve for the ears of the person to whom it was especially sent.
This news produced a pause in captain Willoughby"s determination. Some of the fire of youth awoke within him, and he debated with himself on the possibility of making a sortie, and of liberating his son, as a step preliminary to victory; or, at least, to a successful retreat.
Acquainted with every foot of the ground, which had singular facilities for a step so bold, the project found favour in his eyes each minute, and soon became fixed.
Chapter XXIII.
Yet I well remember The favours of these men: were they not mine?
Did they not sometimes cry, all hail! to me?
So Judas did to Christ: but he, in twelve Found truth in all but one; I in twelve thousand none.
Willis.
While the captain and Joyce were digesting their plans Mike proceeded on an errand of peculiar delicacy with which he had been entrusted by Robert Willoughby. The report that he had returned flew through the dwellings, and many were the hearty greetings and shakings of the hand that the honest fellow had to undergo from the Plinys and Smashes, ere he was at liberty to set about the execution of this trust. The wenches, in particular, having ascertained that Mike had not broken his fast, insisted on his having a comfortable meal, in a sort of servants"
hall, before they would consent to his quitting their sight. As the county Leitrim-man was singularly ready with a knife and fork, he made no very determined opposition, and, in a few minutes, he was hard at work, discussing a cold ham, with the other collaterals of a substantial American breakfast.
The blacks, the Smashes inclusive, had been seriously alarmed at the appearance of the invading party. Between them and the whole family of red-men there existed a sort of innate dislike; an antipathy that originated in colour, and wool, and habits, and was in no degree lessened by apprehensions on the score of scalps.
"How you look, ole Plin, widout wool?" Big Smash had reproachfully remarked, not five minutes before Mike made his appearance in the kitchen, in answer to some apologetic observation of her husband, as to the intentions of the savages being less hostile than he had at first imagined; "why you say dey _no_ murder, and steal and set fire, when you know dey"s Injin! Natur" be natur"; and dat I hear dominie Woods say t"ree time one Sunday. What "e dominie say _often_, he mean, and dere no use in saying dey don"t come to do harm."
As Great Smash was an oracle in her own set, there was no gainsaying her dogmas, and Pliny the elder was obliged to succ.u.mb. But the presence of Mike, one who was understood to have been out, _near_, if not actually _in_, the enemy"s camp, and a great favourite in the bargain, was a circ.u.mstance likely to revive the discourse. In fact, all the negroes, crowded into the hall, as soon as the Irishman was seated at table, one or two eager to talk, the rest as eager to listen.
"How near you been to sabbage, Michael?" demanded Big Smash, her two large coal-black eyes seeming to open in a degree proportioned to her interest in the answer.
"I wint as nigh as there was occasion, Smash, and that was nigher than the likes of yer husband there would be thinking of travelling. Maybe "twas as far as from my plate here to yon door; maybe not quite so far.
They "re a dhirty set, and I wish to go no nearer."
"What dey look like, in "e dark?" inquired Little Smash--"Awful as by daylight?"
"It"s not meself that stopped to admire "em. Nick and I had our business forenent us, and when a man is hurried, it isn"t r"asonable to suppose he can kape turning his head about to see sights."
"What dey do wid Misser Woods?--What sabbage want wid dominie?"
"Sure enough, little one; and the question is of yer own asking. A praist, even though he should be only a heretic, can have no great call for his sarvices, in _sich_ a congregation. And, I don"t think the fellows are blackguards enough to scalp a parson."
Then followed a flood of incoherent questions that were put by all the blacks in a body, accompanied by divers looks ominous of the most serious disasters, blended with bursts of laughter that broke out of their risible natures in a way to render the medley of sensations as ludicrous as it was strange. Mike soon found answering a task too difficult to be attempted, and he philosophically came to a determination to confine his efforts to masticating.
Notwithstanding the terror that actually prevailed among the blacks, it was not altogether unmixed with a resolution to die with arms in their hands, in preference to yielding to savage clemency. Hatred, in a measure, supplied the place of courage, though both s.e.xes had insensibly imbibed some of that resolution which is the result of habit, and of which a border life is certain to instil more or less into its subjects, in a form suited to border emergencies. Nor was this feeling confined to the men; the two Smashes, in particular, being women capable of achieving acts that would be thought heroic under circ.u.mstances likely to arouse their feelings.
"Now, Smashes," said Mike, when, by his own calculation, he had about three minutes to the termination of his breakfast before him, "ye"ll do what I tells ye, and no questions asked. Ye"ll find the laddies, Missus, and Miss Beuly, and Miss Maud, and ye"ll give my humble respects to "em all--divil the bit, now, will ye be overlooking either of the t"ree, but ye"ll do yer errand genteely and like a laddy yerself--and ye"ll give my jewty and respects to "em _all_, I tells ye, and say that Michael O"Hearn asks the honour of being allowed to wish "em good morning."
Little Smash screamed at this message; yet she went, forthwith, and delivered it, making reasonably free with Michael"s manner and gallantry in so doing.
"O"Hearn has something to tell us from Robert"--said Mrs. Willoughby, who had been made acquainted with the Irishman"s exploits and return; "he must be suffered to come in as soon as he desires."
With this reply, Little Smash terminated her mission.
"And now, laddies and gentlemen," said Mike, with gravity, as he rose to quit the servants" hall, "my blessing and good wishes be wid ye. A hearty male have I had at yer hands and yer cookery, and good thanks it desarves. As for the Injins, jist set yer hearts at rest, as not one of ye will be scalp"d the day, seeing that the savages are all to be forenent the mill this morning, houlding a great council, as I knows from Nick himself. A comfortable time, then, ye may all enjoy, wid yer heads on yer shoulters, and yer wool on yer heads."
Mike"s grin, as he retreated, showed that he meant to be facetious, having all the pleasantry that attends a full stomach uppermost in his animal nature at that precise moment. A shout rewarded this sally, and the parties separated with mutual good humour and good feeling. In this state of mind, the county Leitrim-man was ushered into the presence of the ladies. A few words of preliminary explanations were sufficient to put Mike in the proper train, when he came at once to his subject.
"The majjor is no way down-hearted," he said, "and he ordered me to give his jewty and riverence, and obligations, to his honoured mother and his sisters. "Tell "em, Mike," says he, says the majjor, "that I feels for "em, all the same as if I was their own fader; and tell "em,"
says he, "to keep up their spirits, and all will come right in the ind.
This is a throublesome wor-r-ld, but they that does their jewties to G.o.d and man, and the church, will not fail, in the long run, to wor-r-k their way t"rough purgatory even, into paradise.""
"Surely my son--my dear Robert--never sent us such a message as this, Michael?"
"Every syllable of it, and a quant.i.ty moor that has slipped my memory,"
answered the Irishman, who was inventing, but who fancied he was committing a very pious fraud--""Twould have done the Missuses heart good to have listened to the majjor, who spoke more in the cha_rack_ter of a praist, like, than in that of a souldier."
All three of the ladies looked a little abashed, though there was a gleam of humour about the mouth of Maud, that showed she was not very far from appreciating the Irishman"s report at its just value. As for Mrs. Willoughby and Beulah, less acquainted with Mike"s habits, they did not so readily penetrate his manner of subst.i.tuting his own desultory thoughts for the ideas of others.
"As I am better acquainted with Mike"s language, dear mother"-- whispered Maud--"perhaps it will be well if I take him into the library and question him a little between ourselves about what actually pa.s.sed.
Depend on it, I shall get the truth."
"Do, my child, for it really pains me to hear Robert so much misrepresented--and, as Evert must now begin to have ideas, I really do not like that his uncle should be so placed before the dear little fellow"s mind."
Maud did not even smile at this proof of a grandmother"s weakness, though she felt and saw all its absurdity. Heart was ever so much uppermost with the excellent matron, that it was not easy for those she loved to regard anything but her virtues; and least of all did her daughter presume to indulge in even a thought that was ludicrous at her expense. Profiting by the a.s.sent, therefore, Maud quietly made a motion for Mike to follow, and proceeded at once to the room she had named.
Not a word was exchanged between the parties until both were in the library, when Maud carefully closed the door, her face pale as marble, and stood looking inquiringly at her companion. The reader will understand that, Mr. Woods and Joyce excepted, not a soul at the Hut, out of the limits of the Willoughby connection, knew anything of our heroine"s actual relation to the captain and his family. It is true, some of the oldest of the blacks had once some vague notions on the subject; but _their_ recollections had become obscured by time, and habit was truly second nature with all of the light-hearted race.
"_That_ was mighty injanious of you, Miss Maud!" Mike commenced, giving one of his expressive grins again, and fairly winking. "It shows how fri"nds wants no s.p.a.che but their own minds. Barrin" mistakes and cra.s.s-accidents, I"m sartain that Michael O"Hearn can make himself understood any day by Miss Maud Willoughby, an" niver a word said."
"Your success then, Mike, will be greater at dumb-show than it always is with your tongue," answered the young lady, the blood slowly returning to her cheek, the accidental use of the name of Willoughby removing the apprehension of anything immediately embarra.s.sing; "what have you to tell me that you suppose I have antic.i.p.ated?"
"Sure, the like o" yees needn"t be tould, Miss Maud, that the majjor bad me spake to ye by yerself, and say a word that was not to be overheerd by any one else."