CHAPTER XIX
THE WATERY PASS
Henry was at the tiller of their boat, and the others pulled on theoars. Their strong arms soon sent it to a point near the head of thefleet. On the way they passed the _Independence_ and Adam Colfax.Adolphe Drouillard and the others waved their hands to them. Paul, as herested one hand from his oar, waved in reply, and then put both hands tothe oar again.
All signs were being fulfilled. The darkness was increasing, and it wasmore than that of the night. Heavy clouds were moving up toward thezenith and joining in one until they covered all the heavens. Save whenthe lightning flashed, both shores were hidden in the darkness. Thevoyagers saw only the turbid current of the Ohio, raised into waves nowby the wind which was coming stronger and stronger.
"Rough night, but good fur us," said Tom Ross.
"And it will be rougher, also better," said Henry.
The lightning increased, blazing across the skies with dazzlingintensity, and heavy thunder rolled all around the half circle of thehorizon. The darkness turned into a bluish gray, ghostly and full ofthreat. Adam Colfax went through his fleet, warning everybody to coverup the stores and to beware of wind and wave.
The men wrapped themselves in their cloaks and protected beneath thesame cloaks their rifles and ammunition. But, despite every order, a humran through the fleet, and rowers, riflemen, and guides talked inwhispers. They recalled the great double battle on the LowerMississippi, that of the bank and that of the bayou. The crisis now wasequally as great, and the surroundings were more ominous. They advancedin the darkness with thunder and lightning about them, and they feltthat they were about to face the bravest of all the Indian tribes, ledby the greatest of their leaders.
The heat was succeeded by a rushing cold wind, the lightning flaredbrighter than ever, and the thunder became a slow, monotonous, unbrokenroll. Paul, despite his work at the oar, shivered a little.
"She'll be here in a minute," said Tom Ross. "Be shore you fellers keepyour powder dry."
It was about midnight, and they were advancing rapidly toward the pass.They saw by the flashes of lightning that the cliffs were rising and theriver narrowing.
"The hills on both sides here are jest covered with warriors," said JimHart.
"Thar may be a million uv 'em," said Shif'less Sol, "but in the rain an'a black night they can't shoot straight."
The wind began to whistle and its coldness increased. Great cold dropsstruck the five in the face.
"Here she is!" said Tom Ross.
Then the rain swept down, not in a wild gush but steady, persistent, andfull of chill. Lightning and thunder alike ceased. Every boat saw onlythe outline of the one before it and the rolling current of the Ohiobeneath it. Noise had ceased on the fleet at the stern command of AdamColfax and his lieutenants. The men talked only in whispers, there wasno flapping of sail, only the swash of the oars in the water, drowned bythe wind. Since the lightning had ceased, both shores were lostpermanently in the darkness, and the five, who now knew this part of theriver thoroughly, moved up to the head of the line, leading the way.After them came the _Independence_ and then the fleet in the same doubleline formation that it had used before.
"Do you see anything on either side, Henry?" asked Tom Ross, raising hisback from the oar.
"Nothing, Tom," replied Henry, "and it seems strange to me. So great achief as Timmendiquas would foresee such an attempt as this of ours, atsuch a time."
"We ain't goin' to git through without a fight, rain or no rain, nightor no night," said Shif'less Sol in a tone of finality, and Henrysilently, but in his heart, agreed with him.
They were going so slowly now, to prevent collision or noise, that onlyTom Ross and Long Jim rowed. Henry and Shif'less Sol, near the front ofthe boat, leaned forward and tried to pierce the darkness with theireyes. The rain was beating heavily upon their backs, and they were wetthrough and through, but at such a time they did not notice it. Theirrifles and their powder were dry under their buckskin hunting shirts,and that was sufficient.
Henry and Shif'less Sol near the prow bent forward, and, shielding theireyes from the rain with their hands, never moved. The blackest darknesseven can be pierced in time by a persistent gaze, and, as the channel ofthe river narrowed still further, Henry thought he saw something blackerupon the black waters. He turned his head a little and met the eyes ofShif'less Sol.
"Do you see it?" he whispered.
"I see it," replied the shiftless one, "an' I take it to be an Indiancanoe."
"So do I," rejoined Henry, "and I think I can see another to the rightand another to the left."
"Indian sentinels watchin' fur us. The White Lightnin' o' the Wyandotsis ez great a chief ez you said he wuz. He ain't asleep."
"I can see three more canoes now," said Henry as they proceeded further."They must have a line of them across the river. Look, they see us,too!"
They saw an Indian in the canoe nearest them rise suddenly to his knees,fire a rifle in the air, and utter a long warning whoop, which rose highabove the rush of the rain. All the Indian canoes disappeared almostinstantly, as if they had been swallowed up in the black water. ButHenry and his comrades knew very well that they had merely beenpropelled by swift paddles toward the shore.
"It's the signal," exclaimed Henry. "We are not to pass without afight."
The five stopped their boat, the _Independence_ also stopped, and thewhole fleet stopped with them. The sound of a rifle shot from the rightbank rose above the sweep of the wind and the rain, and then from theleft bank came a similar report. The five knew at once that these weresignals, although they could not yet surmise what they portended. Butthe fact was soon disclosed.
A sudden blaze of light appeared on the high south bank, and then, as ifin answer to it, another blaze sprang up on the equally high north bank.Both leaped high, and the roar of the flames could be heard minglingwith that of the wind and rain.
The effect of this sudden emergence of light from dark was startling.The hills clothed in forest, dripping with water, leaped out, the waterturned from black to gray, and the fleet in its two stationary linescould now be seen distinctly.
"What a transformation!" exclaimed Paul. The faces of his comrades werelurid in the light from the two great bonfires, taking on an almostunearthly tinge.
But Henry Ware said:
"It is Timmendiquas! It is his master-stroke! He has built these greatbonfires which rain cannot put out in order to place us in the light!On, boys, the faster we go now the better!"
Adam Colfax also understood, and, as he gave the signal, the huge sweepsmade the _Independence_ leap forward. Behind her the whole fleetadvanced rapidly. It was well that they had protected the sides of theirboats as much as they could with planks and bales of goods, as a greatrifle fire was immediately opened upon them from either bank. Hundredsof bullets splashed the water, buried themselves in the bales or wood,and some struck the rowers.
But the fleet did not stop. It went straight on as fast as the men couldsend it, and few shots were fired in reply. Yet they could see the formsof warriors outlined in black tracery against the fires. Two otherfires, equally large, and opposite each other, leaped up further on.Henry had not underrated the greatness of Timmendiquas as a forestgeneral. Even with all the elements against him, he would devise plansfor keeping his enemy from forcing the watery pass.
Paul was appalled. He had been through scenes of terror, but never suchanother as this. The Indians had begun to shout, as if to encourage oneanother and to frighten the foe, and the sweep of the wind and the rainmingling with their yelling gave it an effect tremendously weird andterrifying. Nature also helped man. It began to thunder again, andsudden flashes of lightning blazed across the stream.
"Don't fire unless you see something that you can hit," was the orderpassed down the lines by Adam Colfax, and the fleet pulled steadily on,while the hail of bullets from either shore beat upon it. Many men werewounded, and a few were killed, but the fleet never stopped, going onlike
a great buffalo with wolves tearing at its flanks, but still strongand dangerous.
The smallness of their boat and the fact that it lay so low in the watermade for the safety of the five. The glare of the fires threw the biggervessels into relief, but it was not likely that many of the warriorswould notice their own little craft.
There was a blaze of lightning so vivid that it made all of them blink,and with a mighty crash a thunderbolt struck among the trees on thesouth bank. Paul had a vision of a blasted trunk and rending boughs, andhis heart missed a few beats, before he could realize that he himselfhad not been struck down.
The whole fleet paused an instant as if hurt and terrified, but inanother instant it went on again. Then the bullets began to sing andwhistle over their heads in increased volume, and Henry lookedattentively at the southern shore.
"I think that warriors in canoes are hovering along the bank there andfiring upon us. What do you say, Sol?"
"I say you're right," replied the shiftless one.
"Then we'll let the _Independence_ take the lead for a while," saidHenry, "and burn their faces a little for their impudence."
The boat turned and slid gently away toward the southern shore. Thelight cast from the fires was brightest in the middle of the stream, andthey were soon in half shadow.
"Can you make 'em out clearly, Sol?" asked Henry.
"If I ain't mistook, an' I know I ain't," replied the shiftless one,"thar's a little bunch o' canoes right thar at the overhangin' ledge."
"Sol is shorely right," added Tom Ross, "an' I kin reach the fust canoewith a bullet."
"Then let 'em have it," said Henry.
Silent Tom raised his rifle, and with instant aim fired. An Indianuttered a cry and fell from his canoe into the water. Henry and theshiftless one fired with deadly aim, and Long Jim and Paul followed.There was terror and confusion among the canoes, and the survivors,abandoning them, dashed up the bank and into the darkness.
They reloaded their rifles, scattered some canoes further up, and thenswung back to the fleet, which was still going forward at the samesteady, even pace under a ceaseless shower of bullets. It was here thatAdam Colfax best showed his courage, tenacity, and judgment. Althoughhis men were being slain or wounded, he would not yet let them returnthe fire, because there was no certainty that they could do any damageamong the warriors in the forest. He might have fired the brass twelvepounders, and they would have made a great noise, but it would have beena waste of powder and ball badly needed in the east.
He had run more than one blockade, but this awed even his iron soul. Thenote of the Indian yell was more like the scream of a savage wild beastthan the sound of a human voice, and the mingling of the thunder andlightning with all this noise of battle shook his nerves. But his willmade them quiet again, and from the deck of the _Independence_ hecontinually passed back the word: "Push on! push on! But don't reply totheir fire."
The two scouts, Thrale and Lyon, with several of the best riflemen, alsodropped into a small boat and began to pick off the skirmishers near thewater's edge. Two other boats were filled with sharpshooters for thesame purpose, and their daring and skill were a great help to theharassed fleet.
The pass was several miles in length, and at such a time the fleet wascompelled to move slowly. The boats must not crash into and destroy oneanother. Above all, it was necessary to preserve the straight andnecessary formation of the fleet, as confusion and delay, in alllikelihood, would prove fatal.
Adam Colfax calculated that he had passed less than one-third of thelength of the narrows, as they had been described to him, and his heartbecame very heavy. The fire of the Indian hordes was increasing involume. The great bonfires blazed higher and higher, and every minutethe fleet was becoming a more distinct target for the savagesharpshooters. The souls of more good men were taking flight.
"We have not gone more than a third of the distance," he said to AdolpheDrouillard. "At this rate can we last all the way?"
The brave Creole replied: "We have to do it."
But his face looked doubtful. He saw, and Adam Colfax saw, signs ofdistress in the fleet. Under the persistent and terrible fire of thewarriors the two lines of boats were beginning to sag apart. There weresome collisions, and, although no boat had yet been sunk, there wasdanger of it. The apprehensions of Adam Colfax and his lieutenants weremany and great, and they were fully justified.
The boat of the five came alongside the _Independence_, and Adam Colfaxlooked down at it.
"We want to come on board," called out Henry.
The _Independence_ slowed just a little, and Henry and Shif'less Solsprang upon her. The other three remained in the boat. Bullets strucknear them as they boarded the _Independence_, but none touched them. Itwas still raining hard, with the vivid accompaniment of wind, thunder,and lightning. Another thunderbolt had struck close by, but fortunatelynobody had been hurt.
"We've a plan to suggest, if you should think good of it, sir," shoutedHenry in Adam Colfax's ear--he was compelled to shout just then becauseof the thunder.
"What is it?" Adam Colfax shouted back.
"How far away would you say that bonfire is?" asked Henry, pointing toone of the great fires on the southern shore.
"Not more than four hundred yards."
"Then, sir, we can put it out."
"Put it out?" exclaimed Adam Colfax in amazement. "I would not dare toland men for such a purpose!"
"It is not necessary. We must shoot it out. You've got good gunners, andthe cannon can then do it. They might put a lot of the warriors thereout of the fight at the same time."
One of the brass twelve pounders was mounted on the _Independence_, andAdam Colfax was taken at once with the idea.
"I should have thought of that before," he said. "I hate to lose any ofour cannon balls, but we must spare a few. Uncover the gun and aim atthe nearest fire, hitting it at the base if you can."
This to the gunners, who obeyed eagerly. They had been chafingthroughout the running of the gantlet as they stood beside their belovedbut idle piece.
The tompion was drawn from the gun, the polished brass of which gleamedthrough the night and the rain. It was a splendid piece, and the chiefgunner, as well as Adam Colfax, looked at it with pride.
"You are to shoot that fire out, and at the same time shoot out as muchelse with it as you can," the leader said to the gunner.
"I can do it," replied the gunner with pride and confidence. "I shallload with grape shot, triple charge."
Adam Colfax nodded. The triple charge of grape was rammed into the mouthof the brass piece. The muzzle was raised, and the gunner took long aimat the base of the blazing pyramid. Henry and the shiftless one stoodby, watching eagerly, and the three in the boat at a little distancewere also watching eagerly. Every one of them ran water from head totoe, but they no longer thought about rain, thunder, or lightning.
"He'll do it," the shiftless one said in the ear of Henry.
The gun was fired. A great blaze of flame leaped from its muzzle, andthe _Independence_ shook with the concussion. But the bonfire seemed tospring into the air. It literally went up in a great shower of timberand coals, like fireworks, and when it sank darkness blotted out thespace where it had been.
"A hit fa'r an' squar'!" exclaimed Shif'less Sol.
From the fleet came a thunder of applause, which matched the thunderfrom the heavens, while from the shore rose a fierce yell of rage andexecration.
"Well done! Well done!" shouted Adam Colfax to the gunner, who saidnothing, but whose smile showed how much he was pleased at this justpraise.
"It's likely that some warriors went out with their fire," said Henry."A lot of them were bound to be around it, feeding it and making it goin all this rain."
"They can be well spared," said Adam Colfax. "God knows I am not aseeker of human life, but I am resolved to do my errand. Now for theopposite bonfire on the northern bank."
The _Independence_ swung through the fleet, which parted to let herpass, quickly cl
osing up again. The boat came within seventy or eightyyards of the northern shore, all those aboard her sheltering themselvesby one means or another from the Indian bullets, one of which struckupon the brazen muzzle of the twelve pounder, but which did no damage.
The triple load of grape was used again, and the first shot was notsuccessful, but the second seemed to strike fairly at the base of thebonfire, and it was extinguished as the first had been. The two furtherup were soon put out in the same manner.
The thunder of applause rose in the fleet at every successful shot, andthen it swung forward with increased speed. The river at this point sankinto darkness, save when the lightning flared across it, and the Indianbullets, which still came like the rain itself, were of necessity firedat random, doing, therefore, little damage.
Shif'less Sol laughed in sheer delight.
"It was a good trick they played on us," he said, "worthy uv a greatchief, but we hev met it with another jest ez good. I s'pose it's a newway to put out fires with a cannon, but it's fine when you know how toshoot them big guns straight. A-kill-us an' Hannibal an' Homer an' allthem old soldiers Paul talks about wuz never ez smart ez that."
But the battle was not over, nor had they yet forced all the waterypass. The northern Indians were numerous, hardy, and wild for triumph.The great mind and spirit of Timmendiquas, the White Lightning of theWyandots, urged them on, and they swarmed in hundreds along eithershore, standing in the water among the bushes and sending in anincessant rifle fire. Others waded beyond the bushes, and still othersdarted out in their light canoes, from which they sent bullets at thetwo dark lines of boats in the middle of the river.
The rain came in gusts, and mingled with it was a wind which shriekednow and then like a human being, as it swept over the forests and thewater. The thunder formed a bass note to all these noises, and thelightning at times fairly danced upon the water with dazzlingbrilliancy. It was a confused and terrible advance, in which the boatswere in imminent danger from one another. Every one was compelled tomove slowly lest it be sunk by the one behind it, and half the fightingforce of the fleet was forced to pay its whole attention to the oars andsweeps and steering gear.
Paul was dazed a little by the tremendous confusion and mingling ofsights and sounds. He saw an Indian near the southern bank aiming hisrifle at their boat, and he sought to aim his own in return, but theflash of lightning that had disclosed the warrior was gone, and for themoment he looked only into blank darkness. He shut his eyes, rubbed hishands over them, and then opened them again. The darkness was stillthere. He did not at that time feel fear. It was too unreal, too muchlike a hideous nightmare, and he did not realize its full import untilafterward.
"Shall we ever get through?" he asked, raising his voice above thetumult.
"Some o' us will! most o' us, I hope!" shouted Shif'less Sol in reply."Jumpin' Jehoshephat, but that bullet was close! I think I got a freeshave on my left cheek. Did you ever hear sech a yellin' an' shriekin'an' whizzin' o' bullets!"
"They are certainly making a determined attack," said Henry. "If theyhad the fires to go by they'd get us yet. Look, there goes a new firethat they've lighted on the southern bank."
A high flame flared among the bushes, but the brass twelve pounder waspromptly turned upon it, and after the second shot it disappeared.
"It ain't healthy, lightin' fires to-night," said Long Jim grimly.
The boats swung forward now at a slightly increased pace. On the_Independence_, Adam Colfax, Adolphe Drouillard, Thrale, Lyon and theothers half stood, half knelt, looking steadily ahead, their mindsattuned as only the minds of men can be concentrated at such a crisis.In this hour of darkness and danger the souls of the New HampshirePuritan and of the Louisiana Frenchman were the same. One prayed to hisProtestant God and the other to his Catholic God with like fervor anddevotion, each praying that He would lead them through this danger, notfor themselves, but for their suffering country.
The five in their own boat were not less devoted. They, too, felt that aMighty Presence which was above wind, rain, and fire, alone could savethem. Their hands were not on the trigger now. Instead they bent overthe oars. Every one of them knew that bullets could do little the restof the way, and it was for Providence to say whether they should reachthe end of the watery pass.
The river narrowed still further. They were now at the point where thehigh banks came closest together and the danger would be greatest. Butthere was no flinching. The fire from either shore increased. Thunderand lightning, wind and rain raged about them, but they merely bent alittle lower over the oars and sent their boats straight toward theflaming gate.