United States or Martinique ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
A crowd came jeering to the highway as we passed the little village. It was my great fear that somebody would recognize either one or both of us. Four of our men were sitting in a guardhouse at the British camp. After noon mess a teamster drove up with a big wagon. Guards came and shackled us in pairs, D'ri being wrist to wrist with me. They put a chain and ball on D'ri's leg also.
"Friend with the countersign," he replied. "Can't fool me," said D'ri. "Come up here 'n' set down 'n' mek yerself t' hum. Drop yer gun fust. Drop it, er I 'll drop you." He dropped his gun promptly and accepted the invitation to sit down. This last man had some arguments to offer, but D'ri stood sternly and made no reply.
"Don't much b'lieve I could," said he, thoughtfully. "I hev been t' meeting but I hain't never been no great hand fer prayin'." "'T wouldn't sound right nohow, fer me t' pray," said my father, "I got s' kind o' rough when I was in the army." "'Fraid it 'll come a leetle unhandy fer me," said D'ri, with a look of embarrassment, "but I don't never shirk a tough job ef it hes t' be done."
They were armed with swords and pistols. We sat in silence around the cockpit. They scanned each of us carefully in the light of the lantern. It struck me as odd they should look so closely at our hands. "Wha' d' ye want?" the skipper demanded. "This man," said one of them, pointing to D'ri. "He's a British sailor. We arrest him " He got no farther.
We came ashore in silence, and I hugged the nearest tree, and was not able to say the "Thank God!" that fell from my lips only half spoken. We got our bearings, a pair of boots for D'ri, and a hearty meal in the cabin of a settler. The good man was unfamiliar with the upper shore, and we got no help in our mystery.
He can peck a man's finger some, can't he?" The light was coming, and he went off to the spring for water, while I brought the spider and pots. The great, green-roofed temple of the woods, that had so lately rung with the howl of wolves, began to fill with far wandering echoes of sweet song. "They was a big cat over there by the spring las' night," said D'ri, as we all sat down to breakfast.
But D'ri and I had no cause for shame of our part in it. We wallowed to our waists in the snow, and it was red enough in front of us. But the others gave way there on the edge of the river, and we had to follow. We knew when it was time to run; we were never in the rear rank even then.
And, God knows, if one had ever a look at our bare bodies, he would see no sign of shirking on either D'ri or me. The shooting and shouting and the tramp of horse and man had roused everybody in the big house. Even the general came down to know what was the matter. The young ladies came, pale and frightened, but in faultless attire.
I started Seth by Caraway Pike for Ogdensburg with the count's message. Mine host laid hold of my elbow and gave it a good shake as I left him, with D'ri, taking a trail that led north by west in the deep woods. They had stuffed our saddle-bags with a plenty for man and horse. I could not be done thinking of the young ladies.
My mother had a few jewels and some fine old furniture that her father had given her, really beautiful things, I have since come to know, and she showed them to those simple folk with a mighty pride in her eyes. Business over, D'ri took down his fiddle, that hung on the wall, and made the strings roar as he tuned them.
Word Of The Day