CHAPTER XXIV. CONCLUSION.

The month of July had passed and gone, and yet Ruby had not yet kept her promise to Clark. The reason partly was that father Gibault had already gone before the American commandant could inform him of the nature of his discovery, and of the need of his services, partly because Ruby herself begged off with unwonted humility, till father Gibault returned from St. Vincent’s.

In the meantime the awakened lovers passed many a pleasant hour together, and explained away many a mystery of[102] the past. Then first Ruby learned that the apparent coldness with which Clark had treated her at Harrodsburg was put on only to hide the real interest he had felt in her from the first. Then, too, the colonel learned how Ruby’s mother was a niece of one of the Henry family, and how she had first obtained the letter which had introduced her under the name of John Frank. He learned also how the interest between them had been mutual, but hightened by pique on the part of Ruby at his supposed indifference. He learned how she had followed him to Kaskaskia, keeping in constant communication with her father’s warriors all the way, resolved to succor him if need should be. When she saw what an impression she had produced on him with her beauty in full dress, then it was that for the first time she resolved to try and see if he really loved her. Assisted by her Indian confederates, she had paraded about a dummy figure dressed in the adjutant’s uniform, so as to disarm any suspicion that might arise that Ruby and the little officer were one and the same person; and then, after exhibiting herself on several occasions at full speed, along with the dummy figure, on horseback, she dropped the pretense and boldly enacted either character at will.

At last August came in, and with it father Gibault. The old priest had been completely successful in his mission to St. Vincent’s. The French inhabitants, heartily sick of their English rulers, no sooner heard the priest’s news than they met in a body at their church, took the oath of allegiance to America in the most solemn manner, hoisted the American flag in their empty fort, and elected Helm their commandant. Thus was the last fruit of harvest saved without plucking, and the conquest of Illinois finished.

It was not many days after that Adjutant Frank disappeared to be seen no more. His chief said he had returned to Kentucky, but the men were all sorry to miss him. On the same day Captain Joseph Montgomery took Governor Rocheblave a prisoner to Richmond, and all the bells of Kaskaskia rung a joyful peal to celebrate the union of the border leader with his beautiful bride, Ruby Roland.

THE END.