CHAPTER VI
THE DIE IS CAST
"SAY it again, child!" roared the head of the little family, as hejumped to his feet, his strong features working.
"David, be careful; let me mother the girl a bit, until she gets overher cry!" said Mrs. Armstrong; and as usual her soothing voice gainedthe mastery over the temper of the impulsive man.
Bob and Sandy exchanged looks. Already smarting under the injusticeof many who had called themselves friends in times past, this newindignity aroused all the Scotch combativeness in their natures.
Instinctively they clenched their fists, and drew together, as thoughby mutual sympathy. The same thought had flashed into each mind--that_something_ must be done to check this rising tide before it utterlyoverwhelmed the Armstrong family.
The mother saw that look, and in her heart understood. Proud she mightbe of the love that influenced her boys; still there was somethinghigher than loyalty by which she must be governed, and this was duty.
She managed to draw the whole sad story from the girl, amid severallittle tear-storms. Then she soothed and quieted Kate, who in theshelter of that motherly breast found comfort and presently dried hertears.
The Irish trapper was a witness of this little excitement. He frowned,too, for his nature was impulsive, and he keenly sympathized with hisfriends. But at the same time more than once a ghost of a smile wouldchase across his jovial face. Evidently Pat O'Mara was thinking of theplans which he had been forming, and by means of which he hoped toinfluence the Armstrongs to leave this hateful community, where theirworth was not appreciated.
A short time later Bob gave Sandy a sly dig in the ribs, and made aquick motion with his head. Apparently the younger brother understoodwhat was meant, for soon afterwards, when he thought he was unobserved,he slipped out of the cabin.
Just as he expected, he found Bob awaiting him under the trees wherebubbled up the spring which, winter and summer, supplied them with theclearest of water.
And Bob was evidently in a mighty serious frame of mind, even for him.His face looked gloomy and forbidding, while he continually gnawed hisupper lip, after a fashion he had when deeply aroused.
Sandy recognized the signs. He had seen them on several occasionsbefore. Once a settlement bully--for they had them in those early daysjust the same as now--was engaged in the, to him, delightful task ofabusing a lad much smaller than himself, when the Armstrongs came uponthe scene. The bully had a crony at hand, just as big as himself, andsnapped his fingers at Bob when the other asked him to desist. Then itwas that Sandy had seen his brother's face assume the same expressionthat it carried now.
Unable to stand the sight of such cowardly practices, Bob had attackedthe fellow, and, spurred on by the righteousness of his cause,succeeded in giving him the beating he so richly deserved, while Sandyand the abused boy took care of the bully's friend.
There were other cases of a similar character, too, and Sandy wouldnever forget a single one of them. To him his brother Bob was theembodiment of all that was noble in a boy.
"There is no other way, Sandy," said the older one, shaking his head,as though he had a disagreeable duty to perform, which could not beevaded.
"You are right," declared Sandy, hotly. "I know, and you know, who isto blame for those children saying such things. Did not we hear theirfather, Abner Hodgkins, say almost the same thing just three days ago,when we passed him at the door of the alehouse?"
"Yes," said Bob, between his teeth, "and how red he turned when he knewthat we must have heard him. And he is the man our father once helpedwhen he was sorely distressed! This insult can only be wiped out in oneway."
"In only one way, brother," breathed Sandy.
"And since mother has brought father to her way of thinking, it fallson us to give Abner Hodgkins his lesson," went on Bob, his eyes takingon a steely glitter at thought of the many ill turns that had of latebeen showered on their heads.
"But we must not let mother know," ventured the younger brother.
"Surely not. Mother would never consent. In her eyes only the lastnecessity excuses fighting. After it is all over she will forgive us,"said Bob, his voice unconsciously becoming very tender.
"Perhaps they will have some care how they let their wicked tongues wagafter they hear what has happened to one tattler," went on Sandy.
"Then you are with me?" asked the elder brother, eagerly.
"The sooner the better!" cried Sandy, impulsive as usual; "let us gonow, and strike while the iron is hot!"
"Agreed. For Kate said he had arrived home just as she left, for hecalled out after her to know where she was going. I am ready, Sandy!"
The fact that the man under discussion was one of the most muscularin all that border community did not seem to worry the two boys atall, for they were fairly burning with a desire to avenge the constantinsults cast upon their loved ones.
Grasping the arm of Sandy, Bob turned around to hurry away ere any onecould see them, and, guessing their mission, bring it to a halt. Thenhe caught his breath, and his pale face took on the color of confusion.For he found himself confronted by his mother, the very last person inall the world whom he would have wished to see under such conditions.
While listening to Kate's pitiful story she had observed the signalthat passed between them. Understanding her boys, she knew whatthoughts must be passing through their heated brains. And when theyslipped away, unobserved as they believed, that fond heart had lost notime in following.
"I hope, my sons," she said sweetly, as she placed a hand on an arm ofeach, "that you are not thinking of doing aught that would only add toour troubles. Heaven knows that we have enough to bear now. Two wrongs,you know, never yet made a right. We must bear our cross, knowing thatin good season this bitter cloud will pass away. Promise me that youwill neither of you seek Abner Hodgkins, nor have one word to say tohim should you meet!"
The two confused boys looked at each other rather whimsically. Theyknew they could refuse their mother nothing. And perhaps, too, at thatmoment they realized the utter folly of the course they had mapped out.
So they promised, and, with an arm about the waist of each, sheaccompanied them back to the cabin.
The balance of that day passed slowly. Every one was uneasy savepossibly Pat O'Mara, whose jolly disposition could never be cast down.And that evening, after supper, as they gathered around the blazingfire, he exerted himself as never before to sway the minds of thesegood friends.
The boys sat there on the bench that stood against the wall, andlistened with wide-open ears when by degrees the trapper came around tothe entrancing subject of that magical country whose beauties he seemednever to tire of telling. David Armstrong and his wife harkened also,but said little, leaving it to Bob and his brother to ask questions.
It was a cozy picture. The flames darted up the wide-throated chimneyand took the place of the customary candle in lighting the room,glancing from the walls, where the chinks between the roughly hewn logshad been filled with hardened clay, and then whitewashed.
Herbs hung from the rafters overhead. High up alongside the chimneyseveral packages of the dried venison Sandy disliked so much had theirplaces. The shiny brass kettle, an heirloom in the family, stood uponthe hob near the flames, and occasionally sang a low accompaniment tothe trapper's enticing tales.
Would the new country offer them as comfortable a home as this? Afterall, so long as the mother were spared, it must ever be her deft handthat made home what it was; and no matter whether here in Virginia, orfar off on the banks of the storied Ohio, it would be the same.
"But how about the Indians, Pat?" asked Sandy finally. "You have toldus little of the red men. Are they disposed to be friendly; or would wehave to fight whenever we ran across them?"
"That is the only darrk spot to the picture, me byes," returned thetrapper, with a sigh. "Sorry am I to say the same, but the rid divelsare all for makin' throuble. But 'tis numbers that may hould thim incheck. Troth, if enough whites iver r'ach the
shore of that enchantin'river, they kin bid the Injuns defiance. In union there is strength, yeknow, Sandy, bye. 'Tis thim same rid divils that gives me pain in mehearrt."
To the boys, however, this was not so serious a drawback. In commonwith most young fellows of the day they had a contempt for the valor ofthe native sons of the forest. It was not so with the gentle mother;and her eyes involuntarily sought those of her husband, while sheshivered at the thought of the loneliness that must encompass pilgrimswho emigrated beyond the mountain chain, losing themselves in theuntracked wilderness.
But David was himself rapidly coming around. It is human nature not tocompare the ills we know not of with those visible ones by which wefind ourselves confronted on every hand.
And when Mary saw the way in which his face was set, she knew, just aswell as if he had spoken, that the die was cast. They would go into thewilderness, and hew out a new home _somewhere_. The sturdy spirit ofthe early pioneers had been fully awakened, and the call of the westcould no longer be ignored. Destiny was pushing them on.