CHAPTER XXXIV
Very different from the array of Abercrombie's army was the march ofthe Oneidas through the deep woods on the western side of LakeHoricon. Far spread out and separate from each other, they pursued anumber of different trails in profound silence, and in single files ofnot more than twenty or thirty each; and yet, with what seemed a sortof instinct, each party directed its course unerringly to oneparticular point. They knew the spot they were to strike, they knewthe time they were to be there; and at that spot, and at that time,each little band appeared with its most famous warrior at its head.Thus, in the small savanna where the poor negress, Sister Bab, hadfound the advance guard of the whole nation, nearly six hundredwarriors of the children of the Stone assembled on the night ofSaturday.
Dressed like themselves, with tomahawk and knife in his belt, andmoccasins upon his feet, appeared Walter Prevost, distinguished fromthe rest by his fair skin and flowing hair. The sports of the field,the wild life he had led for several years, and even the hardships hehad lately suffered, had fitted him for all the fatigues of an Indianmarch, and rendered a frame naturally strong, extraordinarily robustand active. Ignorant of any danger to those he best loved, rejoicingin deliverance from captivity and the peril of death, and full ofbright hopes for the future, his heart was light and gay, andhappiness added energy to vigor. The hardy warriors with whom hemarched saw with surprise and admiration the son of the paleface beardifficulties and fatigues as well as themselves, and come in at theclose of the day as fresh and cheerful.
The fires were lighted, the rifles piled near to each separate band,and the food which they brought with them cooked after their fashionand distributed amongst them. But the meal was not over ere anothersmall band joined them; and Black Eagle himself passed round thedifferent fires, till he paused by that at which Walter was seated.None of his own people had taken any notice of his appearance. Once ortwice one of the warriors, indeed, looked up as he went by; but nosign of reverence or recognition was given, till Walter, after theEuropean fashion, rose and extended his hand.
"Thou art before me, my son," said the chief. "The wings of the BlackEagle have had far to fly. I have visited thy father's lodge, and havefollowed him to the new Castle at the midday end of Horicon."
"My father!" said Walter, in great surprise. "Was he not at hishouse?"
"Nay. He is a war chief with the army," said Black Eagle.
"Then where is Edith?" inquired the young man. "Did you leave theBlossom with her?"
"I left Otaitsa at thy father's house," answered the chief, "but thysister was not there."
"Where was she, then?" asked Walter, with some alarm.
"I know not," answered Black Eagle, and was silent.
"Perhaps he has taken her to Albany," rejoined the young man. "But yousaw my father; how did he fare?"
"Well," answered Black Eagle; "quite well; and he gives thee toOtaitsa. The Blossom is thine."
"Then Edith is safe," said Walter, in a tone of relief, "and myfather's mind must have been relieved about me, for he could not bewell or seem well if either of his children were in danger."
"The redman feels as much as the white man," answered Black Eagle,"but he leaves tears and lamentations, sighs, and sad looks to womenand to children. Where is the Night Hawk and the warriors who werewith him?"
"They are on before," replied the youth; "we have not seen them, buttheir fires have been lighted here."
No further questions were asked by the chief, and walking slowly away,he seated himself with those who had accompanied him, to partake ofthe meal they were making ready. Few words were spoken amongst thevarious groups assembled there, and some twenty minutes had elapsedwhen one of the young men seated at the fire with the Black Eaglestarted up and darted away toward the north like a frightened deer. Noone took any notice, and several soon after composed themselves tosleep. The others sat round their fires, with their heads bent downalmost to their knees, and the murmur of a few sentences spoken hereand there was the only sound that broke the silence for nearly anhour. At the end of that time two young warriors on the north side ofthe savanna started up and listened, and shortly after, several of theOneidas who had rested in the neighborhood of the same spot the nightbefore, were seen coming through the long grass and crossing the tinybrook which meandered through the midst.
Led by the young messenger who had lately departed to seek for them,they glided up to the fire of the great chief and seated themselvesbeside him. The conversation then grew earnest, and quick and eagergestures and flashing eyes might be seen.
The great body of the Oneidas took not the slightest notice of whatwas taking place around the council fire of the Black Eagle, butWalter watched every look with an indefinable feeling of interest andcuriosity; and after much discussion, and many a long pause between,the chief beckoned him up and made him sit in the circle.
"Thou art young to talk with warriors," said the Black Eagle, when hewas seated; "thy hand is strong against the panther and the deer, butit has never taken the scalp of an enemy. But the daughter of thewhite man Prevost is my daughter, and she is thy sister. Know, then,my son, that she is in the power of the French. The Honontkoh whom wehave expelled--they are wolves--they have taken her--they have run herdown as a hungry pack runs down a fawn, and have delivered her andthemselves into the hands of the enemy. The muzzles of their rifleshave fire for our bosoms; their knives are thirsty for our scalps. Benot a woman, who cannot hear with a calm eye or limbs that are still;but sit and listen, and then prove thyself a warrior in the fight."
He then went on to repeat all that he had just heard from the chiefwho had succored the poor negress on the preceding night, and all thathad been done since.
"The Night Hawk was right," he said, "to send word that we woulddeliver thy sister, for she is a daughter of the Oneida. The storyalso of the Dark Cloud is true, for the children of the Stone havecaused search to be made, and they have found the horses that werelost and the body of the man they slew. They scalped him not, it istrue, for what is the scalp of a negro worth? but the print of thetomahawk was between his eyes."
"Let me have a horse," cried Walter, "and I will bring her out of themidst of them!"
"The swallow flies faster than the Eagle," said the chief, "but whereis his strength? Listen, boy, to the words that come forth from manyyears. Thy sister must be delivered; but our brethren, the English,must know of this ambush, lest they fall into it. So, too, shall shebe saved more surely. Draw, then, upon paper the history of the thing,and send it to the great chief, thy friend, the Falling Cataract. Iwill find a messenger who knows him. Then will we break in upon thisambush at the same time with the English, and the scalps of theHonontkoh shall hang upon the war post, for they are not the childrenof the Stone; they spat upon their mother. One of the horses, too,shalt thou have to save thy sister out of the fight, if a thing withfour feet can run easily in this forest."
"There is the great trail from the setting sun to the place of theSounding Waters," said the Night Hawk; "a horse can run there as wellas a deer. It passes close by the back of the hiding place of theFrenchman."
"Let me hear," said Walter, mastering his emotion, and striving toimitate the calm manner of the Indians, "let me hear where this hidingplace is, and what it is like. The white man, though he be but young,knows the ways of the white man best, and he may see light where oldereyes fail."
In language obscured by figures, but otherwise clear and definite, theNight Hawk described the masked redoubt of the French and itsposition.
Ignorant of the ground around the fortress, Walter could form but aninsufficient judgment of the spot where it was situated; but the formand nature of the work he comprehended well enough. He mused insilence for a minute or two after the chief had spoken, giving theBlack Eagle good hope of his acquiring, in time, the Indian coolness,and then he said: "It would be better for us, while the army attacksthe redoubt in front, to take it in reverse."
"What meanest thou, my son?" asked Black E
agle, for Walter, still busywith his own thoughts, had spoken in English.
The young man explained his meaning more clearly in the Iroquoistongue, showing that as the enemy's position was, probably from wantof time, only closed on three sides, it would be easy for an Indianparty, by making a circuit, to come upon the rear of the French,unless some considerable body of natives were thrown out upon theirwestern flank. But the Night Hawk nodded his head slowly, with a lookof approbation, saying: "The Hurons are dogs, and creep close to thebowl of their masters. They are all within the stones or the mounds ofearth, except those watching by the side of Horicon. The Night Hawkhas skimmed over the ground toward the setting sun, and there was noprint of a moccasin upon the trail."
"Thou hast the cunning of a warrior, when thou art calm," said BlackEagle, addressing Walter, "and it shall be as thou hast said. We willspring upon the back of the game; but let the Falling Cataract knowquickly. Hast thou the means? He will not understand the belt ofwampum, and knows not the tongue of the Oneida."
"I can find means," said Walter, taking from the pouch he carried apencil and an old pocketbook; "but where will thy messenger find him,my father?"
"He is not far," answered the chief. "He sailed to-day from the middaytoward the cold wind, with the war party of the English. I watchedthem from the black mountains, and they are a mighty people. Theyfloated on Horicon like a string of swans, and their number upon theblue waters was like a flight of passage pigeons upon the sky whenthey travel westward. They landed where the earth becomes a lizard, bythe rattlesnake dens. But how long they may tarry who shall say? Sendquickly, then!"
Walter had been writing on his knee while the chief spoke, and thebrief note, which we have already seen delivered, was speedilyfinished. A messenger was then chosen for his swiftness of foot, anddispatched at once to the point where the English army first landed.When he returned all was still amongst the Oneidas, and the warriors,with but few exceptions, were sleeping in the long grass. The news hebrought, however, soon roused the drowsiest. The English flotilla hadgone on, he said. He had found but a solitary canoe with a fewMohawks, who told him that the battle would be on the followingmorning. Every warrior was on his feet in a moment; their lightbaggage and arms were snatched up in haste. One party was detached tothe east, to watch the movements of the army; another messenger waschosen and sent to bear the letter, and ere half an hour had gone bythe dusky bands were once more moving silently through the dark pathsof the forest, only lighted from time to time by glimpses of the moon,and directed by the well-known stars which had so often guided theirfathers through the boundless wilderness.