"I will watch to-night;
Perchance 't will walk again."
Hamlet.
"May not this be a warning given in mercy?" the Puritan, at all times
disposed to yield credit to supernatural manifestations of the care of
Providence, demanded with a solemnity that did not fail to produce its
impression on most of his auditors. "The history of our Colonies is full
of the evidences of these merciful interpositions."
"We will thus consider it;" returned the stranger, to whom the question
seemed more particularly addressed. "The first measure shall be to seek
out the danger to which it points. Let the youth they call Dudley, give me
the aid of his powerful frame and manly courage; then trust the discovery
of the meaning of these frequent speakings of the conch, to me."
"Surely, Submission, thou wilt not again be the first to go forth!"
exclaimed Mark, in a surprise that was equally manifested by Content and
Ruth, the latter of whom pressed her little image to her side as though
the bare proposal presented a powerful picture of supernatural danger.
"'Twill be well to think maturely on the step, ere thou runnest the hazard
of such an adventure."
"Better it should be I," said Content, "who am accustomed to forest
signs, and all the usual testimonials of the presence of those who may
wish us harm."
"No," said he, who for the first time had been called 'Submission,' a name
that savored of the religious enthusiasm of the times, and which might
have been adopted as an open avowal of his readiness to bow beneath some
peculiar dispensation of Providence. "This service shall be mine. Thou art
both husband and father; and many are there who look to thy safety as to
their rock of earthly support and comfort, while neither kindred, nor--but
we will not speak of things foreign to our purpose! Thou knowest, Mark
Heathcote, that peril and I are no strangers. There is little need to bid
me be prudent. Come, bold woodsman; shoulder thy musket, and be ready to
do credit to thy manhood, should there be reason to prove it."
"And why not Reuben Ring?" said a hurried female voice, that all knew to
proceed from the lips of the sister of the youth just named. "He is quick
of eye and ready of hand, in trials like these; would it not be well to
succor thy party with such aid?"
"Peace, girl," meekly observed Ruth. "This matter is already in the
ordering of one used to command; there needeth no counsel from thy short
experience."
Faith shrunk back abashed, the flush which had mantled over her brown
cheek deepening to a tint like that of blood.
Submission (we use the appellation in the absence of all others) fastened
a searching glance, for a single moment, on the countenance of the girl;
and then, as if his intention had not been diverted from the principal
subject in hand, he rejoined coolly--
"We go as scouters and observers of that which may hereafter call for the
ready assistance of this youth; but numbers would expose us to
observation, without adding to our usefulness--and yet," he added,
arresting his footstep, which was already turned towards the door, and
looking earnestly and long at the Indian boy, "perhaps there standeth one
who might much enlighten us, would he but speak!"
This remark drew every eye on the person of the captive. The lad stood the
scrutiny with the undismayed and immovable composure of his race. But
though his eye met the looks of those around him haughtily and in pride,
it was not gleaming with any of that stern defiance which had so often
been known to glitter in his glances, when he had reason to think that his
fortunes, or his person, was the subject of the peculiar observation of
those with whom he dwelt. On the contrary, the expression of his dark
visage was rather that of amity than of hatred, and there was a moment
when the look he cast upon Ruth and her offspring was visibly touched with
a feeling of concern. A glance, charged with such a meaning, could not
escape the quick-sighted vigilance of a mother.
"The child hath proved himself worthy to be trusted," she said; "and in
the name of him who looketh into and knoweth all hearts, let him once
more go forth."
Her lips became sealed, for again the conch announced the seeming
impatience of those without to be admitted. The full tones of the shell
thrilled on the nerves of the listeners, as though they proclaimed the
coming of some great and fearful judgment.
In the midst of these often-repeated and mysterious sounds, Submission
alone seemed calm and unmoved. Turning his look from the countenance of
the boy, whose head had dropped upon his breast as the last notes of the
conch rang among the buildings, he motioned hurriedly to Dudley to follow,
and left the place.
There was, in good truth, that in the secluded situation of the valley,
the darkness of the hour, and the nature of the several interruptions,
which might readily awaken deep concern in the breasts of men as firm
even as those who now issued into the open air, in quest of the solution
of doubts that were becoming intensely painful. The stranger, or
Submission, as we may in future have frequent occasion to call him, led
the way in silence to a point of the eminence, without the buildings,
where the eye might overlook the palisadoes that hedged the sides of the
acclivity, and command a view beyond of all that the dusky and imperfect
light would reveal.
It was a scene that required familiarity with a border life to be looked
on, at any moment, with indifference. The broad, nearly interminable, and
seemingly trackless forest lay about them, bounding the view to the narrow
limits of the valley, as though it were some straitened oasis amidst an
ocean of wilderness. Within the boundaries of the cleared land, objects
were less indistinct; though even those nearest and most known were now
seen only in the confused and gloomy outlines of night.
Across this dim prospect, Submission and his companion gazed long and
cautiously.
"There is nought but motionless stumps, and fences loaded with snow,"
said the former, when his eye had roamed over the whole circuit of the
view which lay on the side of the valley where they stood, "We must go
forth, that we may look nearer to the fields."
"Thither then is the postern," said Dudley, observing that the other took
a direction opposite to that which led to the gate. But a gesture of
authority induced him at the next instant to restrain his voice, and to
follow whither his companion chose to lead the way.
The stranger made a circuit of half the hill ere he descended to the
palisadoes, at a point where lay long and massive piles of wood, which
had been collected for the fuel of the family. This spot was one that
overlooked the steepest acclivity of the eminence, which was in itself,
just there, so difficult of ascent, as to render the provision of the
pickets far less necessary than in its more even faces. Still no useful
precaution for the security of the family had been neglected, even at
this strong point of the works. The piles of wood were laid at such a
distance from the pickets as to afford no facilities for scaling them,
while, on the other hand, they formed platforms and breast-works that
might have greatly added to the safety of those who should be required to
defend this portion of the fortress. Taking his way directly amid the
parallel piles, the stranger descended rapidly through the whole of their
mazes, until he had reached the open space between the outer of the
rows and the palisadoes, a space that was warily left too wide to be
passed by the leap of man.
"'Tis many a day since foot of mine has been in this spot," said Eben
Dudley, feeling his way along a path that his companion threaded without
any apparent hesitation. "My own hand laid this outer pile, some winters
since, and certain am I, that from that hour to this, man hath not touched
a billet of the wood--And yet, for one who hath come from over sea, it
would appear that thou hast no great difficulty in making way among the
narrow lanes!"
"He that hath sight may well choose between air and beechen logs,"
returned the other, stopping at the palisadoes, and in a place that was
concealed from any prying eyes within the works, by triple and quadruple
barriers of wood. Feeling in his girdle, he then drew forth something
which Dudley was not long in discovering to be a key. While the latter,
aided by the little light that fell from the heavens, was endeavoring to
make the most of his eyes, Submission applied the instrument to a lock
that was artfully sunk in one of the timbers, at the height of a man's
breast from the ground; and giving a couple of vigorous turns, a piece of
the palisado, some half a fathom long, yielded on a powerful hinge below,
and, falling, made an opening sufficiently large for the passage of a
human body.
"Here is a sally-port ready provided for our sortie," the stranger
coolly observed, motioning to the other to precede him. When Dudley had
passed, his companion followed, and the opening was then carefully
closed and locked.
"Now is all fast again, and we are in the fields without raising alarm to
any of mortal birth, at least," continued the guide, thrusting a hand into
the folds of his doublet, as if to feel for a weapon, and preparing to
descend the difficult declivity which still lay between him and the base
of the hill. Eben Dudley hesitated to follow. The interview with the
traveller in the mountains occurred to his heated imagination, and the
visions of a prestigious agency revived with all their original force.
The whole manner and the mysterious character of his companion, was
little likely to reassure a mind disturbed with such images.
"There is a rumor going in the Colony," muttered the borderer, "that the
invisibles are permitted for a time to work their evil; and it may well
happen that some of their ungodly members shall journey to the
Wish-Ton-Wish, in lack of better employment."
"Thou sayest truly," replied the stranger; "but the power that allows of
their wicked torments may have seen fit to provide an agent of its own, to
defeat their subtleties. We will now draw nearer to the gate, in order
that an eye may be kept on their malicious designs."
Submission spoke with gravity, and not without a certain manner of
solemnity. Dudley yielded, though with a divided and a disturbed mind, to
his suggestion. Still he followed in the footsteps of the stranger, with a
caution that might well have eluded the vigilance of any agency short of
that which drew its means of information from sources deeper than any of
human power.
When the two watches had found a secret and suitable place, not far from
the postern, they disposed themselves in silence to await the result. The
outbuildings lay in deep quiet, not a sound of any sort arising from all
of the many tenants they were known to contain. The lines of ragged
fences; the blackened stumps, capped with little pyramids of snow; the
taller and sometimes suspiciously-looking stubs; an insulated tree, and
finally the broad border of forest,--were alike motionless, gloomy, and
clothed in the doubtful forms of night. Still, the space around the
well-secured and trebly-barred postern was vacant. A sheet of spotless
snow served as a back-ground, that would have been sure to betray the
presence of any object passing over its surface. Even the conch might be
seen suspended from one of the timbers, as mute and inoffensive as the
hour, when it had been washed by the waves, on the sands of the sea-shore.
"Here will we watch for the coming of the stranger, be he commissioned by
the powers of air, or be he one sent on an errand of earth;" whisper ed
Submission, preparing his arms for immediate use, and disposing of his
person, at the same time, in a manner most convenient to endure the
weariness of a patient watch.
"I would my mind were at ease on the question of right-doing in dealing
harm to one who disturbs the quiet of a border family," said Dudley, in a
tone sufficiently repressed for caution; "it may be found prudent to
strike the first blow, should one like an over-sea gallant, after all, be
inclined to trouble us at this hour."
"In that strait thou wilt do well to give little heed to the order of the
offences," gloomily returned the other. "Should another messenger of
England appear----"
He paused, for a note of the conch was heard rising gradually on the air,
until the whole of the wide valley was filled with its rich and
melancholy sound.
"Lip of man is not at the shell!" exclaimed the stranger, who like Dudley
had made a forward movement towards the postern, the instant the blast
reached his ear, and who like Dudley, recoiled in an amazement that even
his practised self-command could not conceal, as he undeniably perceived
the truth of that his speech affirmed. "This exceedeth all former
instances of marvellous visitations!"
"It is vain to pretend to raise the feeble nature of man to the level of
things coming from the invisible world," returned the woodsman at his
side. "In such a strait, it is seemly that sinful men should withdraw to
the dwellings, where we may sustain our feebleness by the spiritual
strivings of the Captain."
To this discreet proposal the stranger raised no objection. Without taking
the time necessary to effect their retreat with the precaution that had
been observed in their advance, the two adventurers quickly found
themselves at the secret entrance through which they had so lately issued.
"Enter," said the stranger, lowering the piece of the palisado for the
passage of his companion. "Enter, of a Heaven's sake! for it is truly meet
that we assemble all our spiritual succor."
Dudley was in the act of complying, when a dark line, accompanied by a low
rushing sound, cut the air between his head and that of his companion. At
the next instant, a flint-headed arrow quivered in the timber.
"The heathen!" shouted the borderer, recovering all his manhood as the
familiar danger became apparent, and throwing back a stream of fire in the
direction from which the treacherous missile had come. "To the
palisadoes, men! the bloody heathen is upon us!"
"The heathen!" echoed the stranger, in a deep steady, commanding voice,
that had evidently often raised the warning in scenes of even greater,
emergency, and levelling a pistol, which brought a dark form that was
gliding across the snow to one knee. "The heathen! the bloody heathen
is upon us!"
As if both assailants and assailed paused, one moment of profound
stillness succeeded this fierce interruption of the quiet of the night.
Then the cries of the two adventurers were answered by a burst of yells
from a wide circle, that nearly environed the hill. At the same moment,
each dark object, in the fields, gave up a human form. The shouts were
followed by a cloud of arrows, that rendered further delay without the
cover of the palisadoes eminently hazardous. Dudley entered; but the
passage of the stranger would have been cut off, by a leaping, whooping
band that pressed fiercely on his rear, had not a broad sheet of flame,
glancing from the hill directly in their swarthy and grim countenances,
driven the assailants back upon their own footsteps. In another moment,
the bolts of the lock were passed, and the two fugitives were in safety
behind the ponderous piles of wood.