Chapter XVIII For a Little Summer’s Sleep

We vaulted the fence, jumped a well-cut ditch (I took note that Anderson was an excellent farmer), and ran across the fields. Presently came a deep, baying bark, and a great, light-coloured English mastiff came bounding toward us.

“Quiet, Ban!” said Nicole; and the huge beast, with a puppy-whine of delight, fell fawning at his knees. We were close to the house. Nicole stopped, and pointed to a cabin just visible at the foot of a long slope falling away to our right.

“Julie’s brother may chance to be there, Master Paul,” said he. “He is known for his devotion to Monsieur Anderson, whom few of us love. I will go wake the lad, if he’s there, while you rouse the master.”

“If you should fail to get back this way, my friend,” said I, “let us meet, say, at the boat.”

“Yes, at the boat,” he answered confidently.

I paused, partly to get breath, partly to follow him with a look of grateful admiration, the 126modest, still, strong, faithful retainer, of a type nigh vanished. He ran with his black-shock head thrust forward, and the great dog bounded beside him like a kitten.

It was the last I ever saw of Nicole Brun; nor to this day, for all my searching, have I had word of what befell him. Of the dog I learned something, seeing his skin, a year later, worn upon the shoulders of an Indian boy of the Micmac settlement. From this I could make shrewd guess at the fate of my Nicole; but the Indian lies astutely, and I could prove nothing. Sleep well, Nicole, my brave and true!

George Anderson’s wide red door carried a brass knocker which grinned venomously in the moonlight. My first summons brought no answer. Then I thundered again, imperatively, and I heard Anderson’s voice within, calling to servants. No servants made reply, so again I hammered, and shook fiercely at the door. Then he came himself, looking bewildered.

“Monsieur Grande, pardon me! The servants”—

“The servants have fled,” I interrupted. “Come quickly! There is not a minute to lose. The abbé’s savages are near. They are coming to scalp you and burn your house. We will leave them the house.”

There was no sign of fear on his face, merely 127annoyance; and I saw that his mind worked but heavily.

“Come in!” he said, leading the way into a wide room looking out upon the Kenneticook tide. “I won’t be driven by those curs. They dare not touch me. At the worst, with the help of the servants we can fight them off. Sit down, monsieur.”

And he proceeded calmly to pull on his boots.

I had followed him inside, wild at his obstinacy.

“I tell you,” said I, “they want your scalp. The servants are traitors and have stolen away while you slept. We are alone. Come, man, come! Would you have my throat cut, too?” And I shook him by the shoulder.

“Why have you come?” he asked, unmoved, staring at me.

“For the sake of Yvonne de Lamourie!”

“Oh!” said he, eying me with a slow hostility.

“You fool!” I exclaimed. “They have burned De Lamourie’s. I swore to Yvonne de Lamourie that I would save you or die with you. If you think she loves you, stir yourself. I cannot carry you. Look at that!”

I pointed to the window. At Yvonne’s name he had risen to his feet. He looked out. A group of canoes was turning in to shore, not two furlongs distant.

128“Where is she?” he inquired, alert at last.

“Safe,” said I curtly, “at Father Fafard’s.”

Still he wavered, brave, but undecided. I think he wondered why I was her chosen messenger.

“She is in a frenzy at your peril,” I said, though the words stuck in my throat. That moved him. His face lighted with boyish pleasure.

“Come!” he cried, as if he had been urging me all the time. “We’ll slip out at the back, and keep the buildings between us and the river till we reach the woods.”

“Have you no weapon?” I asked.

“No,” said he, “but this will do,” and he picked up a heavy oak stick from behind the door of the room.

Great as was the haste, I told him to lock the main door. Then as we slipped out at the back we locked the kitchen door behind us. I knew this would delay the chase; whereas if they found the doors open they would realize at once the escape of their intended victim and rush in pursuit, leaving the little matter of the fire to be seen to afterwards.

From the back door we darted to the garden, a thicket of pole beans and hops and hollyhocks. From the furthest skirt of these shelters we ran along a ditch that fenced a field of growing buckwheat, not yet high enough to give covert; but I think we kept well in shadow of the house all the 129way to the woods. If afterwards our enemies tracked us with what seemed a quite unnecessary promptitude and ease, it must be remembered that our trail was not obscure.

I led the flight, intending we should strike the creek at some distance above the boat and make our way down to it along the water’s edge, to cover our traces. The more we could divide our pursuers, the better would be our chances in the struggle, if overtaken. The pace I set was a sharp one, and soon, as I could perceive by his breathing, began to tell upon my heavy-limbed and unhardened companion. I slackened gradually, that he might not think I did it on his account.

In a very few minutes there arose behind us, coming thinly through the trees, the screeching war-whoop of the Micmacs, which has ever seemed to me more demoniacal and inhuman than even that of the Iroquois. Then, when we took time to glance over our shoulders, we marked a red glare climbing slowly. I judged that our escape was by this time discovered, and the wolves hot upon our trail.

To my companion, however, the sight brought a different thought.

“Where were you,” he gasped, “when they attacked De Lamourie’s? Did you not—promise—to save the place?”

130“I was a fool,” said I, between my teeth. “I thought the might of my name had saved it. I went to the Habitants. When I got back it was over.”

“Ah!” was all he said, husbanding his breath.

“And they think I am a traitor—that I sanctioned it,” I went on in a bitter voice.

He gave a short laugh, impatiently.

“Who?” he asked.

“Monsieur and Madame,” said I, “and, possibly, Mademoiselle also.”

“I could—have told them better than that,” he panted; “I know a man.”

Under the circumstances I did not think that modesty required me to disclaim the compliment.

A little further on he clutched me by the arm, and stopped, gasping.

“Blown,” said he, smiling, as if the situation were quite casual. “Must—one minute.”

I chafed, but stood motionless.

Suddenly there was a heavy crash some distance behind us.

“They are so sure, they scorn the least precaution,” I whispered, foolishly wroth at their confidence. “But come, though your lungs should burst for it,” I went on. “I will seize the first hiding-place.”

He rallied like a man, and we raced on with fresh speed. Indeed, as I look back upon it, I see 131that he did miraculously well for one so unused to the exercise.

Five minutes later we came to a small brook crossing our path from left to right toward the Kenneticook. It was a place of low, brushy shrubs under large trees.

“Keep close to me,” I whispered, “and look sharp. We’ll stop right here.”

I stepped into the middle of the brook, and he did likewise, carefully. Setting our feet with precaution to disturb no stones, we descended the stream some twenty paces, then crept ashore beneath the thick growth, and lay at full length like logs.

“You must get your breathing down to silence absolute,” I whispered; “they will be here in two minutes.”

In half a minute he had his laboring lungs in harness. Though within an arm’s length of him I could hear no sound. But I could hear our pursuers thrashing along on our trail. In a minute they were at the brook, to find the trail cut short. I caught snatches of their guttural comment, and laughed in my sleeve as I realized that Anderson’s very weakness was going to serve our ends. The savages never dreamed that any one could be winded from so short a run. Had their quarry gone up the brook or down it, was all their wonder. Unable to decide, they split into two parties, going 132either way. From the corner of my eye, violently twisted, I marked seven redskins loping past down stream.

When they were out of hearing, I touched Anderson on the shoulder.

“Come,” said I, “now is our time.”

“That was neat, very,” he muttered, with a quiet little chuckle, rising and throwing off the underbrush like an ox climbing out of his August wallow.

“Straight ahead now for the creek,” I whispered, crossing the brook; but a sound from behind made me turn. There stood a huge savage, much astonished at the apparition of us.

His astonishment was our salvation. It delayed his signal yell. As his breath drew in for it and I sprang with my sword, the Englishman was upon him naked-handed. He forgot his stick; which indeed was well, for his two hands at the redskin’s throat best settled the matter of the signal. For a Quaker, whom I have heard to be peaceful folk, Anderson seemed to me a good deal in earnest. Big and supple though the savage was, he was choked in half a minute and his head knocked against a tree. Anderson let him drop, a limp carcass, upon the underbrush, and stood over him panting and clenching his fingers, ready to try a new hold.

I examined the painted mass.

133“Not dead, quite!” said I. “But he’s as good as dead for an hour, I should say. I think perhaps we need not finish him.”

“Better finish him, and make sure,” urged Anderson, to my open astonishment. “He may stir up trouble for us later.”

But I was firm. I like, positively like, to kill my man in fair fight; but once down he’s safe from me, though he were the devil himself.

“No,” said I, “you shall not. Come on. If the poor rascal ever gets over that mauling, he’ll deserve to. That was neat, now. You are much wasted in Quakerdom, monsieur, when your English armies are needing good men.”

He was following close at my heels, as I once more led the race through the woods. He made no answer. Either he was saving his wind, or he was angry at leaving a good job unfinished. I mocked myself in my own heart, thinking:

“Paul, you fool, out of this big Quaker you have made a fighter, and he seems to like it. You may find your hands full with him, one of these days.”

The thought was pleasant to me on the whole, for it is ill and dishonouring work to fight a man who is no fair match for you. That was something I never could stomach, and have ever avoided, even though at the cost of deep annoyance.

Now the ground began to rise, and I guessed 134we were nearing the creek at a point where the banks were high.

“Nearly there,” I whispered encouragingly, and thrust forward with sudden elation through a dense screen of underbrush. I was right—all too right. The leafage parted as parts a cloud. There was no ground beneath my feet.

“Back!” I hissed wildly, and went plunging down a dark steep, striking, rebounding, clutching now at earth and now at air. At last it appeared to me that I came partly to a stop and merely rolled; but it no longer seemed worth while to grasp at anything.