CHAPTER XV.
I GATHER THE CLANS.
I was at the Governor's house next day before he had breakfasted. Hegreeted me laughingly.
"Has the champion come to cry forfeit?" he asked. "It is a long, soreroad to the hills, Mr. Garvald."
"I've come to make confession," I said, and I plunged into my story ofthe work of the last months.
He heard me with lowering brows, "Who the devil made you Governor ofthis dominion, sir? You have been levying troops without His Majesty'spermission. Your offence is no less than high treason. I've a prettymind to send you to the guard-house."
"I implore you to hear me patiently," I cried. Then I told him what Ihad learned in the Carolinas and at the outland farms. "You yourselftold me it was hopeless to look for a guinea from the Council. I wasbut carrying out your desires. Can you blame me if I've toiled for thepublic weal and neglected my own fortunes?"
He was scarcely appeased. "You're a damnable kind of busybody, sir, thebreed of fellow that plunges states into revolutions. Why, in Heaven'sname, did you not consult me?"
"Because it was wiser not to," I said stoutly. "Half my recruits areold soldiers of Bacon. If the trouble blows past, they go back to theirsteadings and nothing more is heard of it. If trouble comes, who aresuch natural defenders of the dominion as the frontier dwellers? All Ihave done is to give them the sinews of war. But if Governor Nicholsonhad taken up the business, and it were known that he had leaned on oldrebels, what would the Council say? What would have been the view of mylord Howard and the wiseacres in London?"
He said nothing, but knit his brows. My words were too much in tunewith his declared opinions for him to gainsay them.
"It comes to this, then," he said at length. "You have raised a body ofmen who are waiting marching orders. What next, Mr. Garvald?"
"The next thing is to march. After what befell on the Rapidan, wecannot sit still."
He started. "I have heard nothing of it."
Then I told him the horrid tale. He got to his feet and strode up anddown the room, with his dark face working.
"God's mercy, what a calamity! I knew the folk. They came here withletters from his Grace of Shrewsbury. Are you certain your news istrue?"
"Alas! there is no doubt. Stafford county is in a ferment, and the nextpost from the York will bring you word."
"Then, by God, it is for me to move. No Council or Assembly will daregainsay me. I can order a levy by virtue of His Majesty's commission."
"I have come to pray you to hold your hand till I send you betterintelligence," I said.
His brows knit again. "But this is too much. Am I to refrain from doingmy duty till I get your gracious consent, sir?"
"Nay, nay," I cried. "Do not misunderstand me. This thing is far graverthan you think, sir. If you send your levies to the Rapidan, you leavethe Tidewater defenceless, and while you are hunting a Cherokee partyin the north, the enemy will be hammering at your gates."
"What enemy?" he asked.
"I do not know, and that is what I go to find out." Then I told him allI had gathered about the unknown force in the hills, and the apparentstrategy of a campaign which was beyond an Indian's wits. "There is awhite man at the back of it," I said, "a white man who talks in Biblewords and is mad for devastation."
His face had grown very solemn. He went to a bureau, unlocked it, andtook from a drawer a bit of paper, which he tossed to me.
"I had that a week past to-morrow. My servant got it from an Indian inthe woods."
It was a dirty scrap, folded like a letter, and bearing thesuperscription, "_To the man Francis Nicholson, presently Governor inVirginia_." I opened it and read:--
"_Thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield:but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of thearmies of Israel, whom thou hast defied_."
"There," I cried, "there is proof of my fears. What kind of Indiansends a message like that? Trust me, sir, there is a far more hellishmischief brewing than any man wots of."
"It looks not unlike it," he said grimly. "Now let's hear what youpropose."
"I can have my men at their posts by the week end. We will string themout along the frontier, and hold especially the river valleys. Ifinvasion comes, then at any rate the Tidewater will get early news ofit. Meantime I and my friends, looking for Studd's powder-horn, with amind to confirm your birthday gift to Miss Elspeth Blair, will push onto the hills and learn what is to be learned there."
"You will never come back," he said tartly. "An Indian stake and abloody head will be the end of all of you."
"Maybe," I said, "though I have men with me that can play the Indiangame. But if in ten days' time from now you get no word, then you canfear the worst, and set your militia going. I have a service of postswhich will carry news to you as quick as a carrier pigeon. Whatever welearn you shall hear of without delay, and you can make yourdispositions accordingly. If the devils find us first, then get intouch with my men at Frew's homestead on the South Fork River, for thatwill be the headquarters of the frontier army."
"Who will be in command there when you are gallivanting in the hills?"he asked.
"One whose name had better not be spoken. He lies under sentence ofdeath by Virginian law; but, believe me, he is an honest soul and agood patriot, and he is the one man born to lead these outland troops."
He smiled, "His Christian name is Richard, maybe? I think I know youroutlaw. But let it pass. I ask no names. In these bad times we cannotafford to despise any man's aid."
He pulled out a chart of Virginia, and I marked for him our posts, andindicated the line of my own journey.
"Have you ever been in the wars, Mr. Garvald?" he asked.
I told him no.
"Well, you have a very pretty natural gift for the military art. Yourmen will screen the frontier line, and behind that screen I will getour militia force in order, while meantime you are reconnoitring theenemy. It's a very fair piece of strategy. But I am mortally certainyou yourself will never come back."
The odd thing was that at that moment I did not fear for myself. I hadlived so long with my scheme that I had come to look upon it almostlike a trading venture, in which one calculates risks and gains onpaper, and thinks no more of it. I had none of the black fright which Ihad suffered before my meeting with Grey. Happily, though a young man'sthoughts may be long, his fancy takes short views. I was far moreconcerned with what might happen in my absence in the Tidewater thanwith our fate in the hills.
"It is a gamble," I said, "but the stakes are noble, and I have aprivate pride in its success."
"Also the goad of certain bright eyes," he said, smiling. "Little Ithought, when I made that offer last night, I was setting so desperatea business in train. There was a good Providence in that. For now wecan give out that you are gone on a madcap ploy, and there will be nosleepless nights in the Tidewater. I must keep their souls easy, foronce they are scared there will be such a spate of letters to New Yorkas will weaken the courage of our Northern brethren. For the militia Iwill give the excuse of the French menace. The good folk will laugh atme for it, but they will not take fright. God's truth, but it is adevilish tangle. I could wish I had your part, sir, and be free to rideout on a gallant venture. Here I have none of the zest of war, but onlya thousand cares and the carking task of soothing fools."
We spoke of many things, and I gave him a full account of thecomposition and strength of our levies. When I left he paid me acompliment, which, coming from so sardonic a soul, gave me peculiarcomfort.
"I have seen something of men and cities, sir," he said, "and I knowwell the foibles and the strength of my countrymen; but I have nevermet your equal for cold persistence. You are a trader, and have turnedwar into a trading venture. I do believe that when you are at your lastgasp you will be found calmly casting up your accounts with life. And Ithink you will find a balance on the right side. God speed you, Mr.Garvald. I love your sober folly."
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*
I had scarcely left him when I met a servant of the Blairs, who handedme a letter. 'Twas from Elspeth--the first she had ever written me. Itore it open, and found a very disquieting epistle. Clearly she hadwritten it in a white heat of feeling. "_You spoke finely ofreverence_," she wrote, "_and how you had never named my name to amortal soul. But to-night you have put me to open shame. You haveoffered yourself for a service which I did not seek. What care I forhis Excellency's gifts? Shall it be said that I was the means ofsending a man into deadly danger to secure me a foolish estate? Youhave offended me grossly, and I pray you spare me further offence, Icommand you to give up this journey. I will not have my name bandiedabout in this land as a wanton who sets silly youth by the ears togratify her pride. If you desire to retain a shred of my friendship, goto his Excellency and tell him that by my orders you withdraw from thewager."_
This letter did not cloud my spirits as it should. For one thing, shesigned it "Elspeth," and for another, I had the conceited notion thatwhat moved her most was the thought that I was running into danger. Ilonged to have speech with her, but I found from the servant thatDoctor Blair had left that morning on a journey of pastoral visitation,and had taken her with him. The man did not know their destination, butbelieved it to be somewhere in the north. The thought vaguelydisquieted me. In these perilous times I wished to think of her as safein the coastlands, where a ship would give a sure refuge.
I met Grey that afternoon at the Half-way Tavern. In the last week heseemed to have aged and grown graver. There was now no hint of thelight arrogance of old. He regarded me curiously, but withouthostility.
"We have been enemies," I said, "and now, though there may be nofriendship, at any rate there is a truce to strife. Last night I beggedof you to come with me on this matter of the Governor's wager, but'twas not the wager I thought of."
Then I told him the whole tale. "The stake is the safety of this land,of which you are a notable citizen. I ask you, because I know you are abrave man. Will you leave your comfort and your games for a season, andplay for higher stakes at a more desperate hazard?"
I told him everything, even down to my talk with the Governor. I didnot lessen the risks and hardships, and I gave him to know that hiscompanions would be rough folk, whom he may well have despised. Heheard me out with his eyes fixed on the ground. Then suddenly he raiseda shining face.
"You are a generous enemy, Mr. Garvald. I behaved to you like a peevishchild, and you retaliate by offering me the bravest venture that manever conceived. I am with you with all my heart. By God, sir, I am sickof my cushioned life. This is what I have been longing for in my soulsince I was born...."
That night I spent making ready. I took no servant, and in mysaddle-bags was stored the little I needed. Of powder and shot I hadplenty, and my two pistols and my hunting musket. I gave Faulknerinstructions, and wrote a letter to my uncle to be sent if I did notreturn. Next morning at daybreak we took the road.