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We swing by the bush and pick up the Iroquois trail 'twixt the Hollow and Mayfield." As we galloped into Broadalbin Bush a house on our right loomed up black and silent, and I saw shutters and doors swinging wide open, and the stars shining through. There was something sinister in this stark and tenantless homestead, whose void casements stared, like empty eye-sockets.
Danny Redstock, sorr, th' tirror av the Sacandaga!" Redstock! I had seen him at Broadalbin that evening in May, threatening the angry settlers with his rifle, when Dorothy and the Brandt-Meester and I had ridden over with news of smoke in the hills. Murphy tied the prostrate man's legs, pulled him across the dusty road to the bushes, and laid him on his back under a great maple-tree.
We ride by Broadalbin, I think.... Whoa! back up! you long-eared ass! D'ye think to smell a Mohawk?... Or is it your comrades on the picket-rope that bedevil you?... Look at the troop-horses, sir, all a-rolling on their backs in the sand, four hoofs waving in the air. It's easier on yon sentry than when they're all a-squealin' and a-bitin' This way, sir.
Be warned, for ye stand knee-deep in ye're shrouds!" In the ruddy dusk their dark forms turned to shadows and were gone. Van Horn stirred in his saddle, then shook his shoulders as though freeing them from a weight. "Now you have it, you Broadalbin men," he said, grimly. "Go to the forts while there's time." In the darkness around us children began to whimper; a woman broke down, sobbing.
"If the Mohawks strike, they will strike through here at Balston or Saratoga, or at the half-dozen families left at Fonda's Bush, which some of them call Broadalbin." "Have these poor wretches no one to warn them?" I asked. "Oh, they have been warned and warned, but they cling to their cabins as cats cling to soft cushions.
Sir George sauntered forth from the doorway where he had been standing, and begged us to dismount, but the patroon declined, saying that we had far to ride ere sundown, and that one of us should go around by Broadalbin.
And he galloped on ahead, followed by Cato and Peter; so that, by reason of their dust, which we did not choose to choke in, Dorothy and I slackened our pace and fell behind. "Do you know why you are to pass by Broadalbin?" she asked, presently. I said I did not. "Folk at the Fish-House saw smoke on the Mayfield hills an hour since. That is twice in three days!" "Well," said I, "what of that?"
In the renewed melody of the song-birds there was a hint of approaching evening; shadows lengthened; the sunlight grew redder on the dusty road. "The Broadalbin trail swings into the forest just ahead," said Dorothy, pointing with her whip-stock. "See, there where they are drawing bridle. But I mean to ride with you, nevertheless.... And I'll do it!"
"I will take the rifleman Mount," I said, "unless he is detailed for other service " "Take him, Mr. Ormond. When do you wish to start? I ask it because there is a gentleman at Broadalbin who has news for you, and you must pass that way." "May I ask who that is?" I inquired, respectfully. "The gentleman is Sir George Covert, captain on my personal staff, and now under your orders."
In the dining-hall somebody blew the view-halloo on a hunting-horn, and I heard cheers and the dulled roar of a chorus: " Rally your men! Campbell and Cameron, Fox-hunting gentlemen, Follow the Jacobite back to his den! Run with the runaway rogue to his runway, Stole-away! Stole-away! Gallop to Galway, Back to Broadalbin and double to Perth; Ride! for the rebel is running to earth!"
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