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This book must not 
 be taken from the 
 Library building. 
 
Tie blaster of 
 — C^pplehy — 
 
But now I was fronting death 
 and could be as firm as she 
 
The Master of 
 Appleby 
 
 A Novel Tale Concerning Itself in Part With 
 the Great Stru^^le in the Two Caroiinas ; but 
 Chiefly With the Adventures Therein of Two 
 Gentlemen Who Loved One and the Same Lady 
 
 By Francis Lynde 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS BY 
 T. de THULSTRUP 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 GROSSET & DUNLAP 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
Copyright 1902 
 The Bowen-Merrill Company 
 
 October 
 
 < 
 
 y 
 
TO 
 
 Mr. Edward G. Richmond 
 
 OF CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE, 
 
 WHOSE KINDNESS AND ENCOURAGEMENT 
 
 MUST ALV/AYS BE HELD IN LIVELY 
 
 REMEMBRANCE BY THE AUTHOR 
 
 THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY 
 
 INSCRIBED 
 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 ;hapter page; 
 
 1 1 WHET MY FATHER'S SWORD 1 
 
 n KNITS UP SOME BROKEN ENDS 15 
 
 HI MY ENEMY SCORES FIRST 25 
 
 IV MAY BE PASSED OVER LIGHTLY 36 
 
 V I LOST WHAT I HAD NEVER GAINED 47 
 
 VI RED WRATH MAY HEAL A WOUND 60 
 
 VII MY LADY HATH NO PART 75 
 
 VIII I TASTE THE QUALITY OF MERCY 88 
 
 IX A GOLDEN KEY UNLOCKED A DOOR 98 
 
 X A FORLORN HOPE CAME TO GRIEF 107 
 
 XI A LIE WAS MADE THE VERY TRUTH 114 
 
 XII THE NEWS CAME TO UNWELCOME EARS 129 
 
 XIII A PILGRIMAGE BEGINS 141 
 
 XIV THE BARONET PLAYED ROUGE-ET-NOIR 150 
 XV A HATCHET SINGS A MAN TO SLEEP 164 
 
 XVI JENNIFER THREW A MAIN W^ITH DEATH 171 
 
 XVII LOVE TOOK TOLL OF FRIENDSHIP 183 
 
 XVIII WE HEAR NEWS FROM THE SOUTH 194 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XIX A STUMBLING HORSE BROUGHT TIDINGS 207 
 
 XX WE STRIVE AS MEN TO RUN A RACE 217 
 
 XXI WE KEPT LENTEN VIGILS IN TRINITYTIDE 228 
 
 XXII THE FATES GAVE LARGESS OF DESPAIR 235 
 
 XXIII WE KEPT THE FEAST OF BITTER HERBS 251 
 
 XXIV WE FOUND THE SUNKEN VALLEY 259 
 XXV UNCANOOLA TRAPPED THE GREAT BEAR 269 
 
 XXVI THE CHARRED STICK FOR A GUIDE 279 
 
 XXVII A KING'S TROOPER BECAME A WASTREL 287 
 
 XXVIII I SADDLE THE BLACK MARE 296 
 
 XXIX HAVING DANCED, WE PAY THE PIPER 309 
 
 XXX EPHRAIM YATES PRAYED FOR HIS ENEMIES 324 
 
 XXXI WE MAKE A FORCED MARCH 336 
 
 XXXII I AM BEDDED IN A GARRET 351 
 
 XXXIII I HEAR CHANCEFUL TIDINGS 861 
 
 XXXIV I MET A GREAT LORD AS MAN TO MAN 369 
 
 XXXV I FIGHT THE DEVIL WITH FIRE 376 
 
 XXXVI I RODE POST ON THE KING'S BUSINESS 382 
 
 XXXVII WHAT BEFELL AT KING'S CREEK 395 
 
 XXXVIII WE FIND THE GUN-MAKER 412 
 
 XXXIX THE THUNDER OF THE CAPTAINS 418 
 
 XL VAE VICTIS 432 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XLI I PLAYED THE HOST AT MY OWN FIRESIDE 446 
 
 XLII MY LORD HAS HIS MARCHING ORDERS 454 
 
 XLIII I DRINK A DISH OF TEA 460 
 
 XLIV WE COME TO THE BEGINNING OF THE END 470 
 
 XLV WE FIND WHAT WE NEVER SOUGHT 480 
 
 XLVI OUR PIECE MISSED FIRE AT HARNDON ACRES 488 
 
 XLVII ARMS AND THE MAN 505 
 
 XLVIII WE KEPT TRYST AT APPLEBY 517 
 
 XLIX A LAWYER HATH HIS FEE 531 
 
 L RICHARD COVERDALE'S DEBT WAS PAID 549 
 
 LI THE GOOD CAUSE GAINS A CONVERT 562 
 
 LII BRINGS US TO THE JOURNEY'S END 573 
 
THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 IN WHICH I WHET MY FATHER^S SWORD 
 
 The summer day was all but spent when Richard 
 Jennifer, riding express, brought me Captain Fal- 
 connet's challenge. 
 
 'Twas a dayfall to be marked with a white stone, 
 even in our Carolina calendar. The sun, reaching 
 down to the mountain-girt horizon in the west, 
 filled all the upper air with the glory of its depart- 
 ing, and the higher leaf plumes of the great maples 
 before my cabin door wrought lustrous patterns in 
 gilded green upon a zenith background of turquoise 
 shot with crimson, like the figurings of some rich 
 old tapestries I had once seen in my field-marshars 
 castle in the Mark of Moravia. 
 
 Beyond the maples a brook tinkled and plashed 
 over the stones on its way to the near-by Catawba ; 
 and its peaceful brawling, and the evensong of a 
 pair of clear-throated warblers poised on the top- 
 most twigs of one of the trees, should have beea 
 
 I 
 
12 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY, 
 
 sweet music in the ears of a returned exile. But 
 on that matchless bride's-month evening of dainty 
 sunset arabesques and brook and bird songs, I was 
 in Httle humor for rejoicing. 
 
 The road made for the river lower down and fol- 
 lowed its windings up the valley ; but Jennifer came 
 by the Indian trace through the forest. I can see 
 him now as he rode beneath the maples, bending 
 to the saddle horn where the branches hung lowest ; 
 a pretty figure of a handsome young provincial, 
 clad in fashions three years behind those I had seen 
 in London the winter last past. He rode gentleman- 
 wise, in small-clothes of rough gray woolen and 
 with stout leggings over his hose ; but he wore his 
 cocked hat atilt like a trooper's, and the sword on 
 his thigh was a good service blade, and no mere hilt 
 and scabbard for show such as our courtier maca- 
 ronis were just then beginning to affect. 
 
 Now I had known this handsome youngster when 
 he was but a little lad ; had taught him how to 
 bend the Indian bow and loose the reed-shaft arrow, 
 in those happier days before the tyrant Governor 
 Tryon turned hangman, and the battle of the Great 
 Alamance had left me fatherless. ^loreover, I had 
 drunk a cup of wine with him at the Alecklenburg 
 Arms no longer ago than yesterweek — this to a re- 
 newal of our early friendship. Hence, I must needs 
 be somewhat taken aback when he drew rein at 
 my door-stone, doffed his hat with a sweeping bow 
 worthy a courtier of the great Louis, and said, 
 after the best manner of Sir Charles Grandison : 
 
I WHET MY FATHER'S SWORD 
 
 'C 
 
 T have the honor of addressing Captain John 
 Ireton, sometime of his !\Iajesty's Royal Scots Blues, 
 and late of her Apostolic Majesty's Twenty-ninth 
 Regiment of Hussars ?" 
 
 It was but an euphuism of the time, this formal 
 preamble, declaring that his errand had to do with 
 the preliminaries of a private quarrel between gen- 
 tlemen. Yet I could scarce restrain a smile. For 
 these upcroppings of courtier etiquette have ever 
 seemed to march but mincingly with the free stride 
 of our western backwoods. None the less, you are 
 to suppose that I made shift to match his bow in 
 some fashion, and to say : "At your service, sir." 
 
 Whereupon he bowed again, clapped hat to head 
 and tendered me a sealed packet. 
 
 "From Sir Francis Falconnet, Knight Bachelor of 
 Beaumaris, volunteer captain in his Majesty's Ger- 
 man Legion," he announced, with stern dignity. 
 
 Having no second to refer him to, I broke the seal 
 of the cartel myself. Since my enemy had seen fit 
 to come thus far on the way to his end in some 
 gentlemanly manner, it was not for me to find dif- 
 ficulties among the formalities. In good truth, I 
 was overjoyed to be thus assured that he would 
 fight me fair; that he would not compel me to kill 
 him as one kills a wild beast at bay. For certainly 
 I should have killed him in any event : so much 
 I had promised my poor Dick Cover dale on that 
 dismal November morning when he had choked out 
 his life in my arms, the victim first of this man's 
 treachery, and, at the last, of his sword. So, as 
 
4 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 I say, I was nothing loath, and yet I would not seem 
 too eager. 
 
 *T might say that I have no unsettled quarrel 
 with Captain Falconnet," I demurred, when I had 
 read the challenge. ''He spoke slightingly of a 
 lady, and I did but — " 
 
 "Your answer. Captain Ireton !" quoth my young- 
 ster, curtly. "I am not empowered to give or take 
 in the matter of accommodations." 
 
 "Not so fast, if you please," I rejoined. "I have 
 no wish to disappoint your principal, or his master, 
 the devil. Let it be to-morrow morning at sunrise 
 in the oak grove which was once my father's wood 
 field, each man with his own blade. And I give 
 you fair warning. Master Jennifer ; I shall kill your 
 bullyragging captain of light-horse as I would a 
 vermin of any other breed." 
 
 At this Jennifer flung himself from his saddle 
 with a great laugh. 
 
 "If you can," he qualified. "But enough of these 
 *by your leave, sirs.' I am near famished, and as 
 dry as King David's bottle in the smoke. Will you 
 give me bite and sup before I mount and ride again ? 
 'Tis a long gallop back to town on an empty 
 stomach, and with a gullet as dry as Mr. Gilbert 
 Stair's mt." 
 
 Here was my fresh-hearted Dick Jennifer back 
 again all in a breath ; and I made haste to shout for 
 Darius, and for Tomas to take his horse, and other- 
 wise to bestir myself to do the honors of my poor 
 forest fastness as well as I might. 
 
I WHET MY FATHER'S SWORD 5 
 
 Luckily, my haphazard larder was not quite 
 empty, and there were presently a bit of cold deer's 
 meat and some cakes of maize bread baked in the 
 ashes to set before the guest. Also there was a 
 cup of sweet wine, home-pressed from the berries 
 of the Indian scuppernong, to wash them dowTi. 
 And afterward, though the evening was no more 
 than mountain-breeze cool, we had a handful of fire 
 on the hearth for the cheer of it while we smoked 
 our reed-stemmed pipes. 
 
 It was over the pipes that Jennifer unburdened 
 himself of the gossip of the day in Queensborough. 
 
 "Have you heard the newest? But I know you 
 haven't, since the post-riders came only this morn- 
 ing. The war has shifted from the North in good 
 earnest at last, and we are like to have a taste of 
 the harryings the Jerseymen have had since ^"j^i. 
 My Lord Cornwallis is come as far as Camden, they 
 say ; and Colonel Tarleton has crossed the Catawba.'* 
 
 "So? Then Mr. Rutherford is like to have his 
 work cut out for him, I take it." 
 
 Jennifer eyed me curiously. "Grif Rutherford is 
 a stout Indian fighter ; no West Carolinian will gain- 
 say that. But he is never the man to match Corn- 
 wallis. We'll have help from the North." 
 
 "DeKalb?" I suggested. 
 
 Again the curious eyeshot. "Nay, John Ireton, 
 you need not fear me, though I am just now this 
 redcoat captain's next friend. You know more 
 about the Baron de Kalb's doings than anybody 
 else in Mecklenburg." 
 
6 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 "I ? What should I know r 
 
 "You know a deal — or else the gossips lie most 
 recklessly." 
 
 ''They do lie if they connect me with the Baron 
 de Kalb, or with any other of the patriot side. 
 What are they saying ?" 
 
 "That you come straight from the baron's camp 
 in Virginia — to see what you can see." 
 
 "A spy, eh? 'Tis cut out of whole cloth, Dick, 
 my lad. I've never took the oath on either side." 
 
 He looked vastly disappointed. "But you will. 
 Jack ? Surely, you have not to think twice in such a 
 
 cause 
 
 ?" 
 
 As between King and Congress, you mean ? 'Tis 
 no quarrel of mine." 
 
 "Now God save us, John Ireton !" he burst out 
 in a fine fervor of youthful enthusiasm that made 
 him all the handsomer. "I had never thought to 
 hear your father's son say the like !" 
 
 I shrugged. 
 
 "And why not, pray ? The king's minion, Tryon, 
 hanged my father and gave his estate to his minion's 
 minion, Gilbert Stair. So, in spite of your declara- 
 tions and your confiscations and your laws against 
 alien landholders, I come back to find myself still 
 the son of the outlawed Roger Ireton, and this same 
 Gilbert Stair firmly lodged in my father's seat." 
 
 Jennifer shrugged in his turn. 
 
 "Gilbert Stair — for sweet Madge's sake I'm loath 
 to say it — Gilbert Stair blows hot or cold as the 
 wind sets fair or stormy. And I will say this for 
 
I WHET MY FATHER'S SWORD 7 
 
 him : no other Tryon legatee of them all has steered 
 so fiiie a course through these last five upsetting 
 years. How he trims so skilfully no man knows. 
 A short month since^ he had General Rutherford 
 and Colonel Sumter as guests at Appleby Hun- 
 dred ; now it is Sir Francis Falconnet and the Brit- 
 ish light-horse officers who are honored. But let him 
 rest: the cause of independence is bigger than any 
 man, or any man's private quarrel, friend John ; 
 and I had hoped — " 
 
 I laid a hand on his knee. "Spare yourself, Dick. 
 My business in Queensborough was to learn how 
 best I might reach Mr. Rutherford's rendezvous." 
 
 For a moment he sat, pipe in air, staring at me 
 as if to make sure that he had heard aright. Then 
 he dipt my hand and wrung it, babbling out some 
 boyish brava that I made haste to put an end to. 
 
 ^'Softly, my lad," I said; "'tis no great thing 
 the Congress will gain by my adhesion. But you, 
 Richard; how comes it that I find you taking your 
 ease at Jennifer House and hobnobbing with his 
 Majesty's officers when the cause you love is still 
 in such desperate straits ?" 
 
 He blushed like a girl at that, and for a little 
 space only puffed the harder at his pipe. 
 
 'T did go out with the Minute Men in '76, if you 
 must know, and smelt powder at Moore's Creek. 
 When my time was done I would have 'listed again ; 
 but just at that my father died and the Jennifer 
 acres were like to go to the dogs, lacking oversight. 
 So I came home and — and — " 
 
8 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 He stopped in some embarrassment, and I 
 thought to help him on. 
 
 "Nay, out with it, Dick. If I am not thy father, 
 I am near old enough to stand in his stead. 'Twas 
 more than husbandry that rusted the sword in its 
 scabbard, I'll be bound." 
 
 "You are right, Jack ; 'twas both more and less," 
 he confessed, shamefacedly. " 'Twas this same Llar- 
 gery Stair. As I have said, her father blows hot or 
 cold as the wind sets, but not she. She is the fiercest 
 little Tory in the two Carolinas, bar none. When I 
 had got Jennifer in order and began to talk of 'list- 
 ing again, she flew into a pretty rage and stamped 
 her foot and all but swore that Dick Jennifer in buff 
 and blue should never look upon her face again 
 with her good will." 
 
 I had a glimpse of Jennifer the lover as he spoke, 
 and the sight went somewhat on the way toward 
 casting out the devil of sullen rage that had pos- 
 sessed me since first I had set returning foot in this 
 my native homeland. 'Twas a life lacking naught of 
 hardness, but much of human mellowing, that lay 
 behind the home-coming; and my one sweet friend 
 in all that barren life was dead. What wonder, 
 then, if I set this frank-faced Richard in the other 
 Richard's stead, wishing him all the happiness that 
 poor Dick Coverdale had missed? I needed little: 
 would need still less, I thought, before the war 
 should end ; and through this love-match my lost 
 estate would come at length to Richard Jennifer. 
 
I WHET MY FATHER'S SWORD 9 
 
 It was a meliorating thought, and while it held I 
 could be less revengeful. 
 
 *'Dost love her, Dick?" I asked. 
 
 *'Aye, and have ever since she was in pinafores, 
 and I a hobbledehoy in ?\Iaster Wytheby's school." 
 
 "So long? I thought Mr. Stair was a later comer 
 in ]\Iecklenburg." 
 
 ''He came eight years ago, as one of Tryon's un- 
 derlings. Madge was even then motherless ; the 
 same little wilful prat-a-pace she has ever been. I 
 would you knew her. Jack. 'Twould make this 
 shiftiness of mine seem less the thing it is." 
 
 "So you have stayed at home a-courting while 
 others fought to give you leisure," said I, thinking 
 to rally him. But he took it harder than I meant. 
 
 " 'Tis just that, Jack; and I am fair ashamed. 
 While the fighting kept to the North it did not grind 
 so keen; but now, with the redcoats at our doors, 
 and the Tories sacking and burning in every settle- 
 ment, 'tis enough to flay an honest man alive. God- 
 a-mercy. Jack ! I'll go ; I've got to go, or die of 
 shame !" 
 
 He sat silent after that, and as there seemed 
 nothing that a curst old campaigner could say at 
 such a pass, I bore him company. 
 
 By and by he harked back to the matter of his 
 errand, making some apology for his comxing to me 
 as the baronet's second. 
 
 " 'Twas none of my free offermg, you may be 
 sure," he added. "But it so happened that Cap- 
 
J 
 
 10 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 tain Falconnet once did me a like turn. I had 
 chanced to run afoul of that captain of Hessian 
 pigs, Lauswoulter, at cards, and Falconnet stood 
 my friend — though now I bethink me, he did seem 
 over-anxious that one or the other of us should be 
 killed." 
 
 *As how ?" I inquired. 
 
 'When Lauswoulter slipped and I might have 
 spitted him, and didn't, Falconnet was for having 
 us make the duel a outrance. But that's beside 
 the mark. Having served me then, he makes the 
 point that I shall serve him now." 
 
 " 'Tis a common courtesy, and you could not well 
 refuse. I love you none the less for paying your 
 debts ; even to such a villain as this volunteer cap- 
 tain." 
 
 "True, 'tis a debt, as you say; but I like little 
 enough the manner of its paying. How came you 
 to quarrel with him. Jack?" 
 
 Now even so blunt a soldier as I have ever been 
 may have some prickings of delicacy where the 
 truth might breed gossip — gossip about a tale which 
 I had said should die with Richard Coverdale and 
 be buried in his grave. So I evaded the question, 
 clumsily enough, as has ever been my hap in fencing 
 with words. 
 
 "The cause was not wanting. If any ask, you 
 may say he trod upon my foot in passing." 
 
 Jennifer laughed. 
 
 "And for that you struck him? Heavens, man! 
 you hold your life carelessly. Do you happen to 
 
1 WHET MY FATHER'S SWORD ii 
 
 know that this volunteer captain of light-horse is 
 accounted the best blade in the troop ?" 
 ' ''Who should know that better than — " I was 
 fairly on the brink of betraying the true cause of 
 quarrel, but drew rein in time. 'T care not if he 
 were the best in the army. I have crossed steel 
 before — and with a good swordsman now and then." 
 
 "Anan?" said Jennifer, as one who makes no 
 doubt. And then : "But this toe-pinching story is 
 but a dry crust to offer a friend. You spoke of a 
 lady ; who was she ? Or was that only another way 
 of telling me to mind my own affairs ?" 
 
 "Oh, as to that ; the lady was real enough, and 
 Falconnet did grossly asperse her. But I know not 
 who she is, nor aught about her, save that she is 
 sweet and fair and good to look upon." 
 
 'Young?' 
 
 K-KT - ■:i" 
 
 'Aye." 
 
 'And you say you do not know her ? Let me see 
 her through your eyes and mayhap I can name her 
 for you." 
 
 "That I can not. Mr. Peak's best skill would be 
 none too great for the painting of any picture that 
 should do her justice. But she is small, with the 
 airs and graces of a lady of the quality; also, she 
 has witching blue eyes, and hair that has the glint 
 of summer sunshine in it. Also, she sits a horse as 
 if bred to the saddle." 
 
 To my amazement, Jennifer leaped up with an 
 oath and flung his pipe into the fire. 
 
 "Curse him !" he cried. "And he dared lay a foul 
 
12 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 tongue to her, you say ? Tell me what he said ! I 
 have a good right to know !" 
 
 I shook my head. "Nay, Richard ; I may not re- 
 peat it to you, since you are the man's second. 
 Truly, there is more than this at the back of our 
 quarrel ; but of itself it was enough, and more than 
 enough, inasmuch as the lady had just done him the 
 honor to recognize him." 
 
 "His words — his very words, Jack, if you love 
 
 me! 
 
 V 
 
 No; the quarrel is mine." 
 
 "By God ! it is not yours !" he stormed, raging 
 back and forth before the fire. "What is Margery 
 Stair to you, Jack Ireton ?" 
 
 I smiled, beginning now to see some peephole in 
 this millstone of mystery. 
 
 "Margery Stair ? She is no more than a name to 
 me, I do assure you ; the daughter of the man who 
 sits in my father's seat at Appleby Hundred." 
 
 "But you are going to fight for her !" he retorted. 
 
 "Am I? I pledge you my word I did not know 
 it. But in any case I should fight Sir Francis Fal- 
 connet : aye, and do my best to kill him, too. Sit you 
 down and fill another pipe. Whatever the quarrel, 
 it is mine." 
 
 "Mayhap; but it is mine, too," he broke in, an- 
 grily. "At all events, I'll see this king's volunteer 
 well hanged before I second him in such a cause." 
 
 "That as you choose. But you are bound in 
 honor, are you not ?" 
 
I WHET MY FATHER'S SWORD 13 
 
 "No." He filled a fresh pipe, lighted it with a 
 coal from the hearth, and puffed away in silence for 
 a time. When he spoke again it was not as Falcon- 
 net's next friend. 
 
 ''What you have told me puts a new face on the 
 matter, Jack. Sir Francis may find him another 
 second where he can. If he has aught to say, I shall 
 tell him plain he lied to me about the quarrel, as he 
 did. Now who is there to see fair play on your side, 
 John Ireton ?" 
 
 At the question an overwhelming sense of my 
 own sorry case grappled me. Fifteen years before, 
 I had left Appleby Hundred and my native 
 province as well befriended as the son of Roger Ire- 
 ton was sure to be. And now — 
 
 ''Dick, my lad, I am like to fight alone," said I. 
 
 He swore again at that ; and here, lest I should 
 draw my loyal Richard as he was not, let me say, 
 once for all, that his oaths were but the outgush- 
 ings of a warm and impulsive heart, rarely bitter, 
 and never, as I believe, backed by surly rancor or 
 conscious irreverence. 
 
 "That you shall not. Jack," he asserted, stoutly. 
 "I must be a-gallop now to tell this king's captain 
 to look elsewhere for his next friend ; but to-morrow 
 morning I'll meet you in the road between this and 
 the Stair outlands, and we'll fare on together." 
 
 After this he would brook no m.ore delay; and 
 when Tomas had fetched his horse I saw him mount 
 and ride away under the low-hanging maples — 
 
14 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 watched him fairly out of sight in the green and 
 gold twilight of the great forest before turning back 
 to my lonely hearth and its somber reminders. 
 
 I stirred the dying embers, throwing on a pine 
 knot for better light. Then I took down my father's 
 sword from its deer-horn brackets over the chimney- 
 piece, and set myself to fine its edge and point v/ith 
 a bit of Scotch whinstone. It was a good blade; 
 a true old Andrea Ferara got in battle in the seven- 
 teenth century by one of the Nottingham Iretons. 
 
 I whetted it well and carefully. It was not that I 
 feared my enemy's strength of wrist or tricks of 
 fence ; but fighting had been my trade, and he is but 
 a poor craftsman who looks not well to see that his 
 tools are in order against their time of using. 
 
II 
 
 WHICH KNITS UP SOME BROKEN ENDS 
 
 It was in the autumn of the year '64, as I was 
 coming of age, that my father made ready to send 
 me to England. Himself a conscience exile from 
 Episcopal Virginia, and a descendant of those Not- 
 tingham Iretons whose best-known son fought 
 stoutly against Church and King under Oliver 
 Cromwell, he was yet willing to humor my bent 
 and to use the interest of my mother's family to 
 enter me in the king's service. 
 
 Accordingly, I took ship at Norfolk for "home,'* 
 as we called it in those days ; and, after a stormy 
 passage and overmuch waiting as my cousins' guest 
 in Lincolnshire, had my pair of colors in the Scots 
 Blues, lately home from garrison duty in the 
 Canadas. 
 
 Of the life in barracks of a young ensign with 
 little wit and less wisdom, and with more guineas in 
 his purse than was good for him, the less said the 
 better. But of this you may like to know that, what 
 with a good father's example, and some small her- 
 itage of Puritan decency come down to me from the 
 
 15 
 
i6 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 sound-hearted old Roundhead stock, I won out of 
 that devil's sponging-house, an army in the time of 
 peace, with somewhat less to my score than others 
 had to theirs. 
 
 It was in this barrack life that I came to know 
 Richard Coverdale and his evil genius, the man 
 Francis Falconnet. Coverdale was an ensign in my 
 own regiment, and we were sworn friends from the 
 first. His was a clean soul and a brave ; and it was 
 to him that I owed escape from many of the grosser 
 chargings on that score above-named. 
 
 As for Falconnet, he was even then a ruffler and 
 a bully, though he was not of the army. He was a 
 younger son, and at that time there were two lives 
 between him and the baronetcy ; but with a mother's 
 bequeathings to purchase idleness and to gild his 
 iniquities, he was a fair example of the jeunesse 
 doree of that England; a libertine, a gamester, a 
 rakehell ; brave as the tiger is brave, and to the full 
 as pitiless. He was a boon companion of the offi- 
 cers' mess ; and for a time — and purpose — posed as 
 Coverdale's friend, and mine. 
 
 Since I would not tell my poor Dick's story to 
 Richard Jennifer, I may not set it down in cold 
 words here for you. It was the age-old tragic com- 
 edy of a false friend's treachery and a woman's 
 weakness ; a duel, and the wrong man slain. And 
 you m^ay know this ; that Falconnet's most merciful 
 role in it was the part he played one chill November 
 morning when he put Richard Coverdale to the wall 
 and ran him through. 
 
^ 
 
 KNITS UP SOME BROKEN ENDS 17 
 
 As you have guessed, I was Coverdale's next 
 friend and second in this affair, and but for the 
 upsetting news of the Tryon tyranny in CaroHna, — 
 news which reached me on the very day of the meet- 
 ing, — I should there and then have called the slayer 
 to his account. 
 
 How my father who, Presbyterian and Ireton 
 though he was, had always been of the king's side, 
 came to espouse the cause of the "Regulators," as 
 they called themselves, I know not. In my youth- 
 ful memories of him he figures as the feudal lord of 
 his own domain, more absolute than many of the 
 petty kinglings I came afterward to know in the 
 German marches. But this, too, I remember; that 
 while his rule at Appleby Hundred was stern and 
 despotic enough, he was ever ready to lend a willing 
 ear to any tale of oppression. And if what men say 
 of the tyrant Tryon 's tax-gatherers and law-court 
 robbers be no more than half truth, there was need 
 for any honest gentleman to oppose them. 
 
 What that opposition came to in '71 is now a tale 
 twice told. Taken in arms against the governor's 
 authority, and with an estate well worth receiving, 
 my father had little justice and less mercy accorded 
 him. With many others he was outlawed ; his es- 
 tates were declared forfeit ; and a few days later he, 
 with Benjamin Merrill and four more captivated at 
 the Alamance, was given some farce of a trial and 
 hanged. 
 
 When the news of this came to me you may well 
 suppose that I had no heart to continue in the serv- 
 
i8 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 ice of the king who could sanction and reward such' 
 villainies as these of the butcher William Tryon. 
 So I threw up my lieutenant's commission in the 
 Blues, took ship for the Continent, and, after wear- 
 ing some half-dozen different uniforms in Germany, 
 was lucky enough to come at length to serviceable 
 blows under my old field-marshal on the Turkish 
 frontier. 
 
 To you of a younger generation, bom in the day 
 of swift mail-coaches and well-kept post-roads, tha 
 slowness with which our laggard news traveled in 
 that elder time must needs seem past belief. It was 
 early in the year '79 before I began to hear more 
 than vague camp-fire tales of the struggle going on 
 between the colonies and the mother country; and 
 from that to setting foot once more upon the soil 
 of my native Carolina was still another year. 
 
 What I found upon landing at New Berne and 
 saw while riding a jog-trot thence to the Catawba 
 was a province rent and torn by partizan warfare. 
 Though I came not once upon the partizans them- 
 selves in all that long faring, there were trampled 
 fields and pillaged houses enough to serve as mile- 
 stones ; and in my native Mecklenburg a mine full 
 charged, with slow-match well alight for its firing. 
 
 Charleston had fallen, and Colonel Tarleton's 
 outposts were already widespread on the upper wa- 
 ters of the Broad and the Catawba. Thus it was 
 that the first sight which greeted my eyes when I 
 rode into Queensborough was the familiar trappings 
 
KNITS UP SOME BROKEN ENDS 19 
 
 of my old service, and I was made to know that in 
 spite of Mr. Jefferson's boldly written Declaration 
 of Independence, and that earlier casting of the 
 king's yoke by the patriotic Mecklenburgers them- 
 selves, my boyhood home was for the moment by 
 sword-right a part of his Majesty's province of 
 North Carolina. 
 
 You are not to suppose that these things moved 
 me greatly. As yet I was chiefly concerned with 
 my own affair and anxious to learn at first hands 
 the cost to me of my father's connection with the 
 Regulators. 
 
 Touching this, I was not long kept in ignorance. 
 Of all the vast demesne of Appleby Hundred there 
 was no roof to shelter the son of the outlawed Roger 
 Ireton save that of this poor hunting lodge in the 
 mighty forest of the Catawba, overlooked, with the 
 few runaway blacks inhabiting it, in the intaking 
 of an estate so large that I think not even my father 
 knew all the metes and bounds of it. 
 
 I shall not soon forget the interview with the law- 
 yer in which I was told the inhospitable truth. Nor 
 shall I forget his truculent leer when he hinted that 
 I had best be gone out of these parts, since it was 
 
 not yet too late to bring down the sentence of out- 
 lawry from the father to the son. 
 
 It was well for him that I knew not at the time 
 that he was Gilbert Stair's factor. For I was mad 
 enough to have throttled him where he sat at his 
 writing table, matching his long fingers and smirk- 
 
20 THE I\IASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 inof at me with his evil smile. But of this man more 
 in his time and place. His name was Owen Pen- 
 garvin. I would have you remember it. 
 
 For a week and a day I lingered on at Queens- 
 borough, for what I knew not, save that all the 
 world seemed suddenly to have grown stale and 
 profitless, and my life a thing of small account. 
 One day I would be minded to go back to my old 
 field-marshal and the keeping of the Turkish bor- 
 der ; the next I would ride over some part of my 
 stolen heritage and swear a great oath to bide till 
 I should come to my own again. And on these 
 alternating days the storm of black rage filled my 
 horizons and I became a derelict to drive on any 
 rock or shoal in this uncharted sea of vvTath. 
 
 On one of these gallops farthest afield I chanced 
 upon the bridle-path that led to our old hunting 
 lodge in the forest depths. Tracing the path to its 
 end among the maples I found the cabin, so lightly 
 touched by time that the mere sight of it carried 
 me swiftly back to those happy days when my father 
 and I had stalked the w4iite-tailed deer in the hill 
 glades beyond, with this log-built cabin for a 
 rest-camp. I spurred up under the low-hanging 
 trees. The door stood wide, and a thin wreath of 
 blue smoke curled upward from the mouth of the 
 wattled chimnev. 
 
 Then and there I had my first welcome home. 
 Old black Darius — old when I had last seen him at 
 Appleby Hundred, and a very grandsire of ancients 
 now — vvas one of the runaways who made the for- 
 
KNITS UP SOME BROKEN ENDS 21 
 
 est lodge a refuge. He had been my father's body- 
 servant, and, notwithstanding all the years that lay 
 between, he knew me at once. 
 
 Thereupon, as you would guess, I came immedi- 
 ately into some small portion of my kingdom. 
 Though Darius was the patriarch, the other blacks 
 were also fugitives from Appleby Hundred ; and 
 for the son of Roger Ireton there was instant vas- 
 salage and loyal service. But best of all, on my first 
 evening before the handful of fire in the great fire- 
 place, Darius brought me a package swathed in many 
 wrappings of Indian-tanned deerskin. It contained 
 rny father's sword, and, more precious than this, a 
 message from the dead. My father's farewell was 
 written upon a leaf torn from his journal, and was 
 but a hasty scrawl. I here transcribe it. 
 
 My Son: 
 
 I know not if this zvill ever come into your 
 hands, hut it and my szvord shall he left in trust 
 with the faithful Darius. We have made our ill- 
 timed cast for liberty and it has failed, and to-mor- 
 row I and five others are to die at the rope's end. 
 I hequeath you my sword — 'tis all the tyrant hath 
 left me to devise — and my Messing to go with it 
 when you, or another Ireton, shall once more hare 
 the true old hlade in the sacred cause of liherty. 
 
 Thy father, 
 
 Roger Ireton. 
 
 You may be sure I conned these few brave words 
 
22 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 till I had them well by heart; and later, when my 
 voice was surer and my eyes less dim, I summoned 
 Darius and bade him tell me all he knew. And it 
 was thus I learned what 1 have here set down of 
 my father's end. 
 
 The next day, all indecision gone, I rode to 
 Queensborough to ascertain, if so I might, how best 
 to throw the weight of the good old Andrea into 
 the patriot scale, meaning to push on thence to Char- 
 lotte when I had got the bearings of the nearest 
 patriot force. 
 
 'Twas none so easy to learn what I needed to 
 know ; though, now I sought for information, a 
 curious thing or two developed. One was that this 
 light-horse outpost in our hamlet was far in advance 
 of the army of invasion — so far that it was danger- 
 somely isolated, and beyond support. Another was 
 the air of secrecy maintained, and the holding of the 
 troop in instant readiness for fight or flight. 
 
 Why this little handful of British regulars should 
 stick and hang so far from Lord Cornwallis's main, 
 which was then well down upon the Wateree, I 
 could not guess. But for the secrecy and vigilance 
 there were good reasons and suflicient. The patriot 
 militia had been called out, and was embodying 
 tmder General Rutherford but a few miles distant 
 near Charlotte. 
 
 I had this information in guarded whispers from 
 mine host of the tavern, and was but a moment 
 free of the tap-room, when I first saw Margery 
 
KNITS UP SOME BROKEN ENDS 2^ 
 
 Stair and so drank of the cup of trembling witK 
 madness in its lees. She was riding, unmasked, 
 down the high road, not on a pillion as most women 
 rode in that day, but upon her own mount with a 
 black groom two lengths in the rear. I can picture 
 her for you no better than I could for Richard Jenni- 
 fer ; but this I know, that even this first sight of her 
 moved me strangely, though the witching beauty 
 of her face and the proudness of it were more a 
 challenge than a beckoning. 
 
 A blade's length at my right where I was stand- 
 ing in front of the tavern, three redcoat officers 
 lounged at ease ; and to one of them my lady tossed 
 a nod of recognition, half laughing, half defiant. 
 I turned quickly to look at the favored one. He 
 stood with his back to me ; a man of about my own 
 bigness, heavy-built and well-muscled. He wore a 
 bob-wig, as did many of the troop officers, but his 
 uniform was tailor-fine, and the hand with which 
 he was resettling his hat was be jeweled — overmuch 
 be jeweled, to my taste. 
 
 Something half familiar in the figure of him 
 made me look again. In the act he turned, and then 
 I saw his face — saw and recognized it though nine 
 years lay between this and my last seeing of it 
 across the body of Richard Coverdale. 
 
 "So!" thought I. "My time has come at last." 
 And while I was yet turning over in my mind how 
 best to bait him, the lady passed out of earshot, and 
 I heard him say to the two, his comrades, that foul 
 
24 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 thing which I would not repeat to Jennifer; a vile 
 boast with which I may not soil my page here for 
 you. 
 
 *'0h, come, Sir Frank ! that's too bad !" cried the 
 younger of the twain ; and then I took two strides 
 to front him fairly. 
 
 "Sir Francis Falconnet, you are a foul-lipped 
 blackguard!" I said; and, lest that should not be 
 enough, I smote him in tbe face so that he fell like 
 an ox in the shambles. 
 
Ill 
 
 IN WHICH MY ENEMY SCORES FIRST 
 
 True to his promise, Richard Jennifer met me in 
 the cool gray birthlight of the new day at a turn in 
 the river road not above a mile or two from the 
 rendezvous, and thence we jogged on together. 
 
 After the greetings, which, as you may like to 
 know, were grateful enough on my part, I would 
 fain inquire how the baronet had taken his second's 
 defection ; but of this Jennifer would say little. 
 He had broken with his principal, whether in anger 
 or not I could only guess ; and one of Falconnet's 
 .; brother officers, that younger of the twain who had 
 cried shame at the baronet's vile boast, was to serve 
 in his stead. 
 
 It was such a davdawn as I have sometimes seen 
 in the Carpathians ; cool and clear, but with that 
 sweet dewy wetness in the lower air which washes 
 the over-night cobwebs from the brain, and is both 
 meat and drink to one who breathes it. On the left 
 the road was overhung by the bordering forest, and 
 where the branches drooped lowest we brushed the 
 fragrance from the wild-grape bloom in passing. 
 
 25 
 
26 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 On the right the river, late in flood, eddied softly; 
 and sounds other than the murmuring of the waters, 
 the matin songs of the birds, and the dust-muffled 
 hoof-beats of our horses there were none. Peace, 
 deep and abiding, was the key-note of nature's 
 morning hymn ; and in all this sylvan byway there 
 was naught remindful of the fierce internecine war- 
 fare aflame in all the countryside. Some rough 
 
 forging of this thought I hammered out for Jennifer 
 as we rode along, and his laugh was not devoid of 
 bitterness. 
 
 ''Old Mother Nature ruffles her feathers little 
 enough for any teapot tempest of ours," he said. 
 "But speaking of the cruelties, we provincial sav- 
 ages, as my Lord Cornwallis calls us, have no mo- 
 nopoly. The post-riders from the south bring blood- 
 curdling stories of Colonel Tarleton's doings. 'Tis 
 said he overtook some of Mr. Lincoln's reinforce- 
 ments come too late. They gave battle but faint- 
 heartedly, being all unready for an enemy, and pres- 
 ently threw down their arms and begged for quar- 
 ter — begged, and were cut down as they stood." 
 
 "Faugh !" said L "That is but hangman's work. 
 And yet in London I heard that this same Colonel 
 Tarleton was with Lord Howe in Philadelphia and 
 was made much of by the ladies." 
 
 Jennifer's laugh was neither mirthful nor 
 pleasant. 
 
 " 'Tis a weakness of the sex," he scoffed. "The 
 women have a fondness for a man with a dash of 
 the brute in him." 
 
]\IY ENEMY SCORES FIRST 27 
 
 I laughed also, but without bitterness. 
 
 **You say it feeHngly. Do you speak by the 
 book ?" 
 
 "Aye, that I do. Now here is my lady Madge 
 preaching peace and all manner of patience to me 
 in one breath, and upholding in the next this baro- 
 net captain who, though I would have seconded 
 him at a pinch, is but a pattern of his brutal colonel." 
 
 I put two and two together. 
 
 "So Falconnet is on terms at Appleby Hundred, 
 is he r 
 
 "Oh, surely. Gilbert Stair keeps open house for 
 any and all of the winning hand, as I told you." 
 
 The thought of this unspoiled young maiden 
 having aught to do with such a thrice-accursed 
 despoiler of women made my blood boil afresh ; 
 and in the heat of it I let my secret slip, or rather 
 some small part of it. 
 
 "Sir Francis had ever a sure hand with the 
 women," I said; and then I could have bitten my 
 masterless tongue. 
 
 "So?" queried Jennifer. "Then this is not your 
 first knowing of him ?" 
 
 "No." So much I said and no more. 
 
 We rode on in silence for a little space, and then 
 my youthling must needs break out again in fresh 
 beseechings. 
 
 "Tell me what you know of him, and what it was 
 he said of ]\Iadge," he entreated. "You can't deny 
 me now, Jack.' 
 
 » 
 
28 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 "I can and shall. It matters not to you or to any 
 what he is or has been." 
 
 "Why ?" 
 
 "Because, as God gives me strength and skill, 
 I shall presently run him through, and so his ac- 
 count will be squared once for all with all men — 
 and all women, as well." 
 
 "God speed you," quoth my loyal ally. "I knew 
 not your quarrel with him was so bitter." 
 
 "It is to the death." 
 
 "So it seems. In that case, if by any accident 
 he—" 
 
 I divined what he would say and broke in upon 
 him. 
 
 "Nay, Dick; if he thrusts me out, you must not 
 take up my quarrel. I know not where you learned 
 to twirl the steel, or how, but you may be sure he 
 would spit you like a trussed fowl in the first bout. 
 I have seen him kill a man who was reckoned the 
 best short sword in my old regiment of the Blues." 
 
 "Content yourself," said my young Hotspur, 
 grandly. "If you spare him he shall answer to me 
 for that thing he said of IMadge Stair ; this though 
 I know not what it was he said." 
 
 I smiled at his fuming ardor, and glancing at 
 the pair of pistols hanging from his saddle-bow, 
 asked if he could shoot. 
 
 "Indifferent well." 
 
 "Then make him challenge you and choose your 
 own weapon. 'Tis your only hope, and poor enough 
 
MY ENEMY SCORES FIRST 2^ 
 
 at that, I fear. I have heard he can clip a guinea 
 at ten paces." 
 
 From that we fell silent again, being but a little 
 way from the rendezvous, and so continued until, 
 at a sudden turn in the road, we came in sight of a 
 rude barricade of felled trees barring the way. 
 Jennifer saw it first and pulled up short, loosing 
 his pistols in their cases as he drew rein. 
 
 " 'Ware the wood !" he said sharply, and none too 
 soon, for even as he spoke the glade at our left filled 
 as by magic with a motley troop deploying into the 
 road as to surround us. 
 
 "Now who are these?" I asked; "friends or 
 foes?" 
 
 "Foes who will hang you in your own halter 
 strap ; Jan Howart's Tories — the same that burned 
 the Westcotts in their cabin a fortnight since. Will 
 your horse take that barricade, think you ?" 
 
 "Aye, — standing, if need be." 
 
 "Then at them, in God's name. Charge !" 
 
 It needed but the word and we were in the thick 
 of it. I remembered my old field-marshal's maxim, 
 Von Feinden iimrhigt, ist die Zeit sii serschmettern; 
 and truly, being so plentifully outnumbered, we did 
 strike both first and hard. 
 
 A line of the ragged horsemen strung itself awk- 
 wardly across the road to guard the flimsy barricade, 
 and at this we charged, stirrup to stirrup. In the 
 dash there was a scattering volley from the wood, 
 answered instantly by the bellowings of Jennifer's 
 great pistols ; and then we came to the steel. 
 
30 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 It was my first fleshing of the good old Andrea, 
 and a better balanced blade I had never swung in 
 hand-to-hand mellay. As we closed with the half- 
 dozen defenders of the barrier, Jennifer reined aside 
 to give me room to play to right and left, and in the 
 midst of it went nigh to death because he held his 
 hand to watch a cut and double thrust of mine. 
 
 *'Over with you!" I shouted, pricking the man 
 who would have mowed him down with a great 
 scythe handled as a sword. 
 
 Our horses took the barrier in a flying leap, 
 straining themselves for the race beyond. When we 
 had pulled them down to a foot pace we were safely 
 out of rifle shot and there was space to count the 
 cost. 
 
 There was no cost worth counting. A saddle 
 horn bullet-shattered for me, and the back of Jenni- 
 fer's sword hand scored lightly across by another 
 of the random missiles sum^med up our woundings. 
 Dick whipped out his kerchief to twist about the 
 scored hand, while I glanced back to see if any 
 Tory cared to follow. 
 
 "Lord, Jack ! I owe you one to keep and one 
 to pay back," quoth my youngster, warmly. "I 
 never saw a swordsman till this day !" 
 
 "Mere tricks, Dick, my lad; I have had fifteen 
 years in which to learn them. And these were but 
 country yokels armed with farming tools. The two 
 with swords had little wit to use them." 
 
 "Oh, come!" said he. "I know a pretty bit of 
 sword play when I see it. If we come whole out of 
 
MY ENEMY SCORES FIRST 31 
 
 this adventure with the baronet you shall teach me 
 some of these 'mere tricks' of yours." 
 
 I promised, glancing back toward the dust-veiled 
 barrier in the distance. 
 
 "Dick, you passed this way an hour ago ; was that 
 breastwork in the road then ?" 
 
 *'Not a stick of it." 
 
 "Then we may dare say our volunteer captain 
 fights unwillingly." 
 
 "How so?" he demanded, being much too 
 straightforward himself to suspect duplicity in oth- 
 
 ers. 
 
 Tis plain enough. This was a trap, meant to 
 stop or delay us, and I'll w^ager high it was the 
 baronet who set and baited it. It would please 
 him well to be able to say what our failure to come 
 would give him warrant for. Let us gallop a bit, 
 lest we be late and so play into his hand." 
 
 Jennifer smiled grimly and gave his horse the 
 rein. "I think you'd charge the Fall of Man to him 
 if that would give you better leave to kill him. I'd 
 hate to own you for my enemy, John Ireton." 
 
 For all our swift speeding we were yet a little 
 late at the rendezvous under the tall oaks. When we 
 came on the ground the baronet was walking up 
 and down arm in arm with his second, a broad- 
 shouldered young Briton, fair of skin and ruddy of 
 face. 
 
 If Falconnet had set the Tory trap for us he 
 veiled his disappointment at its failure. His face, 
 dark and inscrutable as it always was, was made 
 
32 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 more sinister by the plasters knitting up his broken 
 cheek, but I was right glad to make sure that my 
 blow had spared his eyes. Richly as he deserved 
 his fate, I thought it would be ill to think on after- 
 ward that I had had him at a disadvantage of my 
 own making. 
 
 There was little time wasted in the prelimina- 
 ries. When Falconnet saw us he dropped his sec- 
 ond's arm and began to make ready. I gave my 
 5word to Jennifer, and the seconds went apart to- 
 gether. There was some measuring and balancing 
 of weapons, and then Richard came back. 
 
 "The baronet's sword is a good inch longer than 
 yours in the blade, and is somewhat heavier. Tybee 
 has brought a pair of French short-swords which he 
 offers. Will you change your terms?" 
 
 "No ; I am content to fight with my own weapon." 
 
 Jennifer nodded. "So I told him." And then: 
 "There was no surgeon to be had in town, Dr. Ca- 
 rew having gone with the Minute Men to join Mr. 
 Rutherford. Tybee says 'tis scarce in accordance 
 with the later rulings to fight without one." 
 
 "To the devil with their hairsplittings !" said I. 
 "Let us have done with them and be at it." 
 
 Falconnet was removing his coat, and I stripped 
 mine. The seconds chose the ground where the 
 turf was short and firm, and yet yielding enough to 
 give good footing. We faced each other, my antag- 
 onist baring an arm which, despite the bejeweled 
 hand, was to the full as big-muscled as my own. 
 My glance went from his weapon, a rather heavy 
 
MY ENEMY SCORES FIRST 33 
 
 German blade, straight and slender-pointed, to his 
 face. He was smiling as one who strives to make 
 the outer man a mask to cover all emotion, and the 
 plasters on his cheek drew the smile into a grimace 
 that was all but devilish. 
 
 The seconds fell back, but when Jennifer would 
 have given the signal I stopped him. 
 
 ''One moment, if you please. Sir Francis Fal- 
 connet, you know me ?" 
 
 The thin-lidded eves were veiled for an instant, 
 and then he lied smoothly. 
 
 "Your pardon, Captain Ireton ; I have not that 
 honor." 
 
 " 'Tis a small matter, but you do lie this morning 
 as basely as you lied to Richard Coverdale nine years- 
 agone," said I ; and then I signed Jennifer to give 
 the word. 
 
 "Attention, gentlemen ! On guard !" 
 
 My enemy's sword leaped to meet mine, and at 
 the same instant I heard another click of steel be- 
 tokening that the seconds had fallen to in a bit of by- 
 play between themselves, as was then the fashion. 
 After that I heard nothing for a time save the sibi- 
 lant whisperings of the Ferara and the German 
 long-sword, and saw nothing save the fierce eyes 
 glaring at me out of the midst of the plaster-marred 
 smile. 
 
 Recreant though he was, I must do my adver- 
 sary the justice to say that he was a skilful master 
 of fence, agile as a French dancer, and witKal well- 
 breathed and persevering. Twice, nay, thrice, be- 
 
/ 
 
 / 
 
 34 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 fore I found my advantage he had pricked me 
 Hghtly with that extra inch of slender point. But 
 when I had fairly felt his wrist I knew that his 
 heavier weapon would shortly prove his undoing; 
 knew that the quick parry and lightning-like thrust 
 would presently lag a little, and then I should have 
 him. 
 
 Something of this prophecy of triumph he must 
 have read in my eyes, for on the instant he was 
 up and at me like a madman, and I had my work 
 well cut out to hold him at the blade's length. I 
 was so holding him ; was, in my turn, beginning to 
 press him slowly, when there came a drumming of 
 hoofbeats on the soft turf, and then a woman's 
 cry. 
 
 I looked aside, and to my dying day I shall swear 
 that my antagonist did likewise. What I saw was 
 Mistress Margery Stair riding dovm upon us at a 
 hand-gallop, and I lowered my point, as any gen- 
 tleman would. 
 
 In the very act — 'twas while Jennifer was clutch- 
 ing at her bridle rein to stay her from riding fair 
 between us — I felt the hot-wire prick of the steel 
 in my shoulder and knew that my enemy had run 
 me through as I stood. 
 
 Of what befell afterward I have but dim memo- 
 ries. There were more hoof-tramplings, and the«i I 
 felt the dewy turf under my hands and soft fingers 
 tremblingly busy at my neckerchief. Then I saw 
 swimmingly, as through a veil of mist, a woman's 
 face just above my own, and it was full of horror; 
 
MY ENEMY SCORES FIRST 35 
 
 and I heard my enemy say : " 'Twas most unfortu- 
 nate and I do heartily regret it, Mr. Jennifer. I 
 saw not why he had lowered his point. Can I say 
 more ?" 
 
 How Richard Jennifer made answer to this lie I 
 know not ; nor do I know aught else, save by hear- 
 say, of any further happening in that grassy glade 
 beneath my father's oaks. For the big German 
 blade was a shrewd blood-letter, and I fell asleep 
 what time my lady was trying to stanch with her 
 kerchief the ebbing tide of life. 
 
IV 
 
 WHICH MAY BE PASSED OVER LIGHTLY 
 
 When I came back to some clearer sensing of 
 things, I found myself abed in a room which was 
 strange and yet strangely familiar. Barring a great 
 oaken clothes-press in one corner, a raree-show of 
 curious china on the shelves w4iere the books should 
 have been, and the face of an armored soldier star- 
 ing down at me from its frame over the chimney 
 piece, where I should have looked to see my 
 mother's portrait, the room was a counterpart of my 
 pld bedchamber at Appleby Hundred. There was 
 even a faint odor of lavender in the bed-linen ; and 
 the sense of smell, which hath ever a better memory 
 than any other, carried me swiftly back to my boy- 
 hood, and to the remembrance that my mother had 
 always kept a spray or two of that sweet herb in 
 her linen closet. 
 
 At the bedside there was a claw-footed table, 
 which also had the look of an old friend ; and on it 
 a dainty porringer, filled with cuttings of fragrant 
 sweetbriar. This was some womanly conceit, I said 
 to myself; and then I laughed, though the laugh set 
 
 36 
 
MAY BE PASSED OVER LIGHTLY 37 
 
 a pair of wolf's jaws at work on my shoulder. For 
 you must know that I had lived the full half of 
 King David's span of three-score and ten years, and 
 more, and what womanly softness had fallen to my 
 lot had been well got and paid for. 
 
 I closed my eyes the better to remember what had 
 befallen, and when I opened them again was fain to 
 wonder if the moment of back-reaching stood not 
 for some longer time. In the deep bay of the win- 
 dow was a great chair of Indian wickerwork, and I 
 could have sworn it had but now been empty. Yet 
 when I looked again a woman sat in it. 
 
 Now of a truth I had seen this woman's face but 
 twice ; and once it wore a smile of teasing mockery 
 and once was full of terror ; but I thought I should 
 live long and suffer much before the winsome chal- 
 lenging beauty of it would let me be as I had been 
 before I had looked upon it. 
 
 She knew not that I w^as awake and slaking the 
 thirst of my eyes upon the sweetness of her, and 
 so I saw her then as few ever saw her, I think, with 
 the womanly barriers of defense all down. 'Tis a 
 hard test, and one that makes a blank at rest of 
 many a face beautiful enough in action ; but though 
 this lady's face was to the full as changeful as any 
 April sky, it was never less than triumphantly beau- 
 tiful. 
 
 I had said her eyes were blue, but now they were 
 deep wells reflecting the soft gray of the clouded 
 sky beyond the window-panes. I had made sure 
 that her lips lent themselves most readily to mocking 
 
SS THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 smiles scornful of any wit less trenchant than her 
 own ; but now these mocking lips were pensive, and 
 with the rounded cheek and chin gave her the look 
 of a sweet child wanting to be kissed. I had said 
 her hair was bright in the sunlight, and so, indeed, 
 it was ; but lacking the sun it still held the dull luster 
 of burnished copper in its masses, and her simple, 
 care-free dressing of it at a time when les grandes 
 dames were frizzing and powdering and adding art 
 to art to mar the woman's crown of glory, gave her 
 yet more the look of a child. 
 
 Lastly, I had called her small, and certainly her 
 figure was girlish beside those grenadier dames of 
 Maria Theresa's court to whom my old field-marshal 
 had once presented me. But when she rose and 
 went to stand in the window-bay I marked this ; 
 that not any duchess or margravine of them all had 
 a more queenly bearing, or, with all their stays and 
 furbelows, could match her supple grace and lissom 
 figure. 
 
 What with the blood-lettings and the wound 
 fever, coupled with the subtle witchery of her pres- 
 ence thus in my sick room, it is little to be wondered 
 at that a curious madness came over me, or that I 
 forgot for the moment the loyalty due to my dear 
 lad. Could I have stood before her and, reading but 
 half consent in the deep-welled eyes, have dipt her 
 in my arms and laid my lips to hers, I would have 
 run to pay the price, in earth or heaven or hell, I 
 thought, deeming the fierce joy of it well worth any 
 penalty. 
 
MAY BE PASSED OVER LIGHTLY 39 
 
 At this I should have stirred, I suppose, for she 
 came quickly and stood beside me. 
 
 ''You have slept long and well. Captain Ireton/* 
 she said; and in all the thrilling joy of her nearer 
 presence I found space to mark that her voice had in 
 it that sweet quality of sympathy which is all 
 womanly. "They say I am good only to fetch and 
 carry — may I fetch you anything?" 
 
 I fear the madness of the moment must still have 
 been upon me, for I said : "Since you are here 
 yourself, dear lady, I need naught else." 
 
 At a flash I had my whipping in a low dipped 
 curtsy and a mocking smile like that she had flung 
 to Falconnet. 
 
 "Merci! mon Captfaine/' she said; and for all my 
 wincings under the sharp lash of her sarcasm I was 
 moved to wonder how she had the French of it. 
 And then she added : *Ts it the custom for her 
 Apostolic Majesty's officers to come out of a death- 
 swound only to pay pretty compliments?" 
 
 " 'Twas no compliment," I denied ; and, indeed, I 
 meant it. Then I asked where I was, and to whom 
 indebted, though I had long since guessed the an- 
 swer to both questions. 
 
 In a trice the mocking mood was gone and she 
 became my lady hostess, steeped to her finger-tips 
 in gracious dignity. 
 
 "You are at Appleby Hundred, sir. Twas here 
 they fetched you because there was no other house 
 so near, and you were sorely hurt. Richard Jenni- 
 fer and my black boy made a litter of the saddle- 
 
40 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 cloths, and with Sir Francis and Mr. Tybee to 
 help—" 
 
 I think she must have seen that this thrust was 
 sharper than that of the German long-sword, for 
 she stopped in mid-sentence and looked away from 
 me. And, surely, I thought it was the very irony of 
 fate that I should thus be brought half dead to the 
 house that was my father's, with my enemy and his 
 second to share the burden of me. 
 
 "But your father?" I queried, when the silence 
 had grown over-long. 
 
 "My father is away at Queensborough, so you 
 must e'en trust yourself to my tender mercies. Cap- 
 tain Ireton. Are you strong enough to have your 
 wound dressed?" 
 
 She asked, but waited for no answer of mine. 
 Summoning a black boy to hold the basin of water, 
 she fell to upon the wound-dressing with as little 
 ado as if she had been a surgeon's apprentice on a 
 battle-field, and I a bloodless ancient too old to 
 thrill at the touch of a woman's hands. 
 
 "Dear heart ! 'tis a monstrous ugly hurt," she de- 
 clared, replacing the wrappings with deft fingers. 
 "How came you to go about picking a quarrel with 
 Sir Francis ?" 
 
 " 'Twas not of my seeking," I returned, and then 
 I could have cursed my foolish tongue. 
 
 "Is that generous. Captain Ireton? We hear 
 something of the talk of the town, and that says — " 
 
 "That says I struck him without sufficient cause. 
 I am content to let it stand so." 
 
MAY BE PASSED OVER LIGHTLY 41 
 
 ((■ 
 
 'Nay, but you should not be content. Is there 
 not strife enough in this unhappy land without these 
 causeless bickerings ?" 
 
 Here was my lady turned preacher all in a breath 
 and I with no words to answer her. But I could 
 not let it go thus. 
 
 "I knew Sir Francis Falconnet in England," said 
 I, hoping by this to turn her safe aside. 
 
 "Ah ; then there was a cause. Tell it me." 
 
 "Nay, that I may not." 
 
 Though she was hurting me sorely in the wound- 
 dressing, and knew it, she laughed. 
 
 " 'Tis most ungallant to deny a lady, sir. But I 
 shall know without the telling; 'twas about a 
 woman. Tell me, Captain Ireton, is she fair?" 
 
 Seeing that her mood had changed again, I tried 
 to give her quip for jest; but what with the pain 
 of the sword-thrust and the sweet agony of her 
 touches I could only set my teeth against a groan. 
 She went on drawing the bandagings, little heedful 
 how she racked me, I thought ; and yet when all was 
 done she stood beside me all of a tremble, as any 
 tender-hearted woman might. 
 
 "There," she said ; " 'tis over for a time, and I 
 make no doubt you are glad enough. Now you 
 have nothing to do save to lie quiet till it heals." 
 
 "And how long will that be, think you ?" 
 
 "We shall see; a long time, I hope. You shall 
 be punished properly for your hot temper, I prom- 
 ise you. Captain Ireton." 
 
 With that she left me and went to stand in the 
 
42 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 window-bay ; and from lying mouse-still and watcK- 
 ing her over-steadily I fell asleep again. When I 
 awoke the day was in its gloaming and she was 
 gone. 
 
 After this I saw her no more for six full circlings 
 of the clock-hands, and grew fair famished for a 
 sight of her sweet face. But to atone, she, or some 
 messenger of Richard Jennifer's, brought me my 
 faithful Darius, and he it was who fetched me my 
 food and drink and dressed my wound. From him 
 I gleaned that the master of Appleby Hundred had 
 returned from Queensborough, and that there were 
 officers in red coats continually going back and 
 forth, always with a hearty welcome from Gilbert 
 Stair, 
 
 Now, though the master of my stolen heritage had 
 little cause to love me, I thought he had still less to 
 fear me ; so it seemed passing strange that he came 
 not once to my bedchamber to pass the time of day 
 with his unbidden guest, or to ask how he fared. 
 But in this, as in many other things, I reckoned 
 without my enemy, though I might have known that 
 Sir Francis would be oftenest among the red-coated 
 officers coming and going. 
 
 But stranger than this, or than my lady's con- 
 tinued avoidance of me, was the lack of a visit from 
 Richard Jennifer. Knowing well my dear lad's 
 loyalty to the patriot cause, I could only conjecture 
 that he had finally broken Margery's enforced truce 
 to go and join Mr. Rutherford's militia, which, as 
 
MAY BE PASSED OVER LIGHTLY 43 
 
 Darius told me, was rallying to attack a Tory 
 stronghold at Ramsour's Mill. 
 
 With this surmise I was striving to content my- 
 self on that evening of the third day, when Mistress 
 Margery burst in upon me, bright-eyed and with her 
 cheeks aflame. 
 
 "Captain Ireton, I will know the true cause of this 
 quarrel which, failing in yourself, you pass on to 
 Richard Jennifer !" she cried. ''Was it not enough 
 that you should get yourself half slain, without send- 
 ing this headstrong boy to his death ?" 
 
 Now in all my surmisings I had not thought of 
 this, and truly if she had sought far and wide for 
 a whip to scourge me with she could have found no 
 thong to cut so deep. 
 
 "God help me !" I groaned. "Has this fiend in- 
 carnate killed my poor lad ?" 
 
 "No, he is not dead," she confessed, relenting a 
 little. "But he has the baronet's bullet through his 
 sword-arm for the sake of your over-seas disagree- 
 ment with Sir Francis." 
 
 I could not tell her that though my quarrel with 
 this villain w^as but the avenging of poor Dick 
 Coverdale's wrongs, Richard Jennifer's was for the 
 baronet's affront to her. So I bore the blame in 
 silence, glad enough to be assured that my dear lad 
 was only wounded. 
 
 "Why don't you speak, sir?" she snapped, flying 
 out at me in a passion for my lack of words. 
 
 "What should I say ? I have not forgot that once 
 you called me ungenerous." 
 
44 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 ''You should defend yourself, if you can. And 
 you should ask my pardon for calling my father's 
 guest hard names." 
 
 ''The last I will do right heartily. 'Twas but the 
 simple truth, but it was ill-spoken in your presence, 
 Mistress Stair." 
 
 At this she laughed merrily ; and in all my world- 
 wanderings I had never heard a sound so gladsome 
 as this sweet laugh of hers when she would be on 
 the forgiving hand. 
 
 "Surely any one would know you are a soldier, 
 Captain Ireton. No other could make an apology 
 and renew the offense so innocently in the same 
 breath." Then her mood changed again in the 
 dropping of an eyelid, and she sighed and said: 
 "Poor Dick !" 
 
 As ever when she was with me, my eyes were de- 
 vouring her; and at the sigh and the trembling of 
 the sweet lips in sympathy I found that curious 
 love-madness coming upon me again. Then I saw 
 that I must straightway dig some chasm impassa- 
 ble between this woman and me, as I should hope 
 to be loyal to my friend. So I said: "He loves 
 you well, Mistress Margery." 
 
 She glanced up quickly with a smile w^hich might 
 have been mocking or loving ; I could not tell which 
 it was. 
 
 "Did he make you his deputy to tell me so. Cap- 
 tain Ireton?" 
 
 Now I might have known that she was only lur- 
 ing me on to some pitfall of mockery, but I did not, 
 
MAY BE PASSED OVER LIGHTLY 45 
 
 and must needs burst out in some clumsy disclaimer 
 meant to shield my dear lad. And in the midst of 
 it she laughed again. 
 
 "Oh, you do amuse me mightily, mon Capitaine/' 
 she cried. "I do protest I shall come to see you 
 oftener. 'Tis as good as any play !" 
 
 "Saw you ever a play in this backwoods wilder- 
 ness?" I asked, glad of any excuse to change the 
 talk and keep her by me. 
 
 "No, indeed. But you are not to think that no 
 one has seen the great world save only yourself, 
 Captain Ireton. What would you say if I should 
 tell you that I, too, have seen your London, and 
 even your Paris ?" 
 
 Here I must blunder again and say that I had 
 been wondering how else she came by the Parisian 
 French ; but at this her jesting mood vanished sud- 
 denly and she spoke softly. 
 
 "I had it of my mother, who came of the Hugue- 
 nots. She spoke it always to me. But my father 
 speaks it not, and now I am losing it for want of 
 practice." 
 
 How is it that love transforms the once contempti- 
 ble into a thing most highly to be prized? My 
 eight years of campaigning on the Continent had 
 given me the French speech, or so much of it as 
 the clumsy tongue of me could master, and I had 
 always held it in hearty English scorn. Yet now 
 I was eager enough to speak it with her, and to 
 take as my very own the little cry of joy wherewith 
 she welcomed my hesitant mouthing of it. 
 
46 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 From that we fell to talking in her mother's 
 tongue of the hardships of those same Huguenot 
 emigres; and when I looked not at her I could speak 
 in terms dispassionate and cool of this or aught 
 else; and when I looked upon her my heart beat 
 faster and my blood leaped quickly, and I knew not 
 always what it was I said. 
 
 After a time — 'twas when Darius fetched me my 
 supper and the candles — she went away ; and so 
 ended a day which saw the beginning of a struggle 
 fiercer than any the turbaned Turk had ever given 
 me. For when I had eaten, and was alone with 
 time to think, I knew well that I loved this woman 
 and should always love her; this in spite of honor, 
 or loyalty to Richard Jennifer, or any other thing in 
 heaven or earth. 
 
V 
 
 HOW I LOST WHAT I HAD NEVER GAINED 
 
 Though I dared not hope she would keep her 
 promise and was sometimes so sorely beset as to 
 tremble at her coming, Margery looked in upon me 
 oftener, and soon there grew up between us a com- 
 radeship the like of which, I think, had never been 
 between a woman loved and a man who, loving her, 
 was yet constrained to play the part of her true 
 lover's friend. 
 
 If I played this part but stumblingly ; if at times 
 the madness of my passion would not be denied 
 the look or word or hand-clasp not of poor cool 
 friendship ; I have this to comfort me : that in after 
 time, when my dear lad came to know, he forgave 
 me freely — nay, held me altogether blameless, as 
 I was not. 
 
 Of what these looks and words and hand-clasps 
 meant to ]\Iargery I had no hint. But in my hours 
 of sanity, when I would pass these slippings in re- 
 view, I could recall no answering flash of hers to 
 salt the woundings of the conscience-whip. So far 
 from it, it seemed, as this sweet comradeship budded 
 
 47 
 
48 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 and blossomed on the stock of a better acquaintance, 
 she came to hold me more as if I were some cross 
 between a father or an elder brother, and some 
 closer confidant of her own sex. 
 
 You are not to understand that she was always 
 thus, nor over-often. More frequently that side of 
 her which I soon came to call the mother's was 
 turned to me, and I was made to stand a target for 
 her wit and raillery. But she was ever changeful 
 as a child, and in the midst of some light jesting 
 mood would sober instantly and give my age its 
 due. 
 
 In some of these, her soberer times, I felt her 
 lean upon me as my sister might, had I had one ; 
 at others she would frankly set me in her father's 
 place, declaring I must tell her what to say or do 
 in this or that entanglement. Again, and this came 
 oftener as our friendship grew, she would talk to 
 me as surely woman never talked to any but a 
 kinsman, telling me naively of her conquests, and 
 sparing no gallant of them all save only Richard 
 Jennifer. 
 
 And of Dick and his devotion she spoke now and 
 then, as well, though never mockingly, as of the 
 others. Nay, once when I pressed her on this point, 
 asking her plainly if my dear lad had not good cause 
 to hope, she would only smile and turn her face 
 away, and say that of all the men she knew the hope- 
 ful ones pleased her best. So I was thus assured 
 that if it were a scale for love to tip, my lady's heart 
 would fall to Richard. 
 
WHAT I HAD NEVER GAINED 40 
 
 Now I took this to be a hopeful sign, that she 
 would tell me freely of these her little heart affairs ; 
 and seeing her so safe upon the side of friendship, 
 held the looser rein upon my own unchartered pas- 
 sion. So long as I could keep my love well masked 
 and hidden what harm could come to her or any 
 if I should give it leave to live in prison ? None, I 
 thought ; and yet at times was made a very coward 
 by the thought. For love, like other living things, 
 will grow by what it feeds upon, and once full- 
 grown, may haply come to laugh at bonds, however 
 strong or cunningly devised. 
 
 With such a fever in my veins it was little wonder 
 that my wound healed slowly. As time passed by, 
 with never a word of news from the world without 
 — if Margery knew aught of the fighting she would 
 never lisp a syllable to me — and with Gilbert Stair 
 still keeping churlishly beyond the sight or sound 
 of me, I fretted sorely and would be gone. 
 
 Yet this was but a passing mood. When Mar- 
 gery was with me I was not ill-content to eat the 
 bread of sufferance in her father's house, and angry 
 pride had scanty footing. But when she was away 
 this same pride took sharp revenges, getting me out 
 of bed to bully Darius into dressing me that I might 
 foot it up and down the room while I was still unfit 
 for any useful thing. 
 
 One morning in the summer third of June my 
 lady came early and surprised me at this business of 
 pacing back and forth. Whereat she scolded me 
 as was her wont when I grew restive. 
 
50 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 "What weighty thing have you to do that you 
 should be so fierce to be about it, J\Ionsieur Impetu- 
 ous?" she cried. "Fi done! you'd try the patience 
 of a saint !" 
 
 ''Which you are not," I ventured. "But truly, 
 Margery, I am growing stronger now, and the bed 
 does irk me desperately, if you must know. Be- 
 sides — " 
 
 "Well, what is there else besides? Do I not 
 pamper you enough ?" 
 
 I laughed. "I'll say whatever you would have 
 me say — so it be not the truth." 
 
 "I'll have you say nothing until you sit down." 
 
 She pushed the great chair of Indian wickerwork 
 into place before the window-bay, and when I was 
 at rest she drew up a low hassock and sat at my 
 feet. 
 
 "Now you may go on," she said. 
 
 "You have not told me what you would have me 
 say." 
 
 "The truth," she commanded. 
 
 " ' "What is truth," said jesting Pilate,' " I quoted. 
 "Why do you suppose my Lord Bacon thought the 
 Roman procurator jested at such a time and place?" 
 
 "You are quibbling, Monsieur John. I want to 
 know why you are so impatient to be gone." 
 
 "Saw you ever a man worthy the name who could 
 be content to bide inactive when duty calls ?" 
 
 "That is not the whole truth," she said, half ab- 
 sently. "You think you are unwelcome here." 
 
WHAT I HAD NEVER GAINED 51 
 
 " 'Twas you said that ; not I. But I must needs 
 know your father will be relieved when he is safely 
 quit of me." 
 
 " 'Twas you said that, not I, IMonsieur John," she 
 retorted, giving me back my own words. *'Has 
 ever word been brought you that he would speed 
 your parting ?" 
 
 "Surely not, since I am still here. But you must 
 know that I have never seen his face, as yet." 
 
 ''And is that strange ? You must not forget that 
 he is Gilbert Stair, and you are Roger Ireton's 
 son." 
 
 "1 am not likely to forget it. But still a word of 
 welcome to the unbidden guest would not have come 
 amiss. And it was none of my seeking — this 
 asylum in his house." 
 
 "True ; but that has naught to do with any cool- 
 ness of my father's." 
 
 "What is it^ then? — besides the fact that I am 
 Roger Ireton's son?" 
 
 "I think 'twas what you said to ]\Ir. Pengarvin." 
 
 "That little smirking wretch? What has he to 
 say or do in this ?" 
 
 She looked away from me and said : "He is my 
 father's factor and man of affairs." 
 
 "Ah, I have always to be craving your pardon, 
 ]\Iargery. But I said naught to this parchment- 
 faced — to this ]\Ir. Pengarvin, that might offend 
 your father, or any." 
 
 "How. then, will you explain this, that you swore 
 
52 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 to drive my father from Appleby Hundred as soon 
 as ever you had raised a following among the 
 rebels ?" 
 
 " 'Tis easily explained : this thrice-accursed — oh, 
 pardon me again, I pray you ; I will not name him 
 any name at all. What I meant to say was that he 
 lied. I made no threats to him; to tell the plain 
 truth, I was too fiercely mad to bandy words with 
 him.'' 
 
 "What made you mad. Monsieur John?" 
 " 'Twas his threat to me — ^to taint me with my 
 father's outlawry. Do you greatly blame me. Mar- 
 .gery?" 
 
 ((AT- If 
 1\0. 
 
 Thereat a silence came and sat between us, and 
 I fell to loving her the more because of it ; but when 
 she spoke I always loved her more for speaking. 
 
 "My father has had little peace since coming 
 here," she said, at length. "He is old and none 
 too well ; and as for king and Congress, asks nothing 
 but his right to hold aloof. And this they will not 
 give him." 
 
 Remembering what Jennifer had told me of Gil- 
 bert Stair's trimming, I smiled within. 
 
 "That is the way of all the v/orld in war-time, 
 ma petite. A partizan may suffer once for all, but 
 both sides hold a neutral lawful prey." 
 
 'Twas as the spark to tinder ; my word the spark 
 and in her eyes the answering flash. 
 
 "I tell him so !" she cried. "I tell him always that 
 the king will have his own again. But still he halts 
 
WHAT I HAD NEVER GAINED 53 
 
 and hesitates ; and when these rebels come and quar- 
 ter on us — '* 
 
 I fear she must have seen my inward smile this 
 time, for she broke off in the midst, and I made 
 haste to forestall her flying out at me. 
 
 "Oh, come, my dear ; you should not be so fierce 
 with him when you yourself have brought a rebel 
 to his house to nurse alive." 
 
 She looked me fairly in the eye. "You should 
 be the last to remind me of my treason, Monsieur 
 John.'^ 
 
 "Then you are free to call it treason, are you, 
 Margery?" I said. 
 
 She looked away from me again. "How can it 
 well be less than treason?" Then suddenly she 
 turned and clasped her hands upon my knee. "You 
 must not be too hard upon me, Monsieur John. 
 I've tried to do my duty as I saw it, and I have 
 asked no questions. And yet I know much more 
 than you have told me.' 
 
 "What do you know ?' 
 
 "I know your wound has been your safety. If 
 you should leave this room and house to-day you 
 would never wear the buff and blue again, Cap- 
 tain Ireton." 
 
 "You mean they would hang me for a spy. Will 
 you believe me, Margery, if I say I have not yet 
 worn the buff and blue at all ?" 
 
 "Oh!" The little exclamation was of pure de- 
 light. "Then they were all mistaken ? You are no 
 rebel, after all ?" 
 
 5'> 
 
54 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 Was ever man so tempted since the fall of Adam ? 
 As I have writ it down for you in measured words, 
 I was no more than half a patriot at this time. And 
 love has made more traitors than its opposites of 
 lust or greed. In no uncertain sense I was a man 
 without a country; and this fair maiden on the 
 hassock at my feet was all the world to me. I saw 
 in briefer time than any clock hands ever measured 
 how much a yielding word might do for me; and 
 then I thought of Richard Jennifer and was myself 
 again. 
 
 "Nay, little one," I said ; "there has been no mis- 
 take. For their ov/n purposes my enemies have 
 passed the word that I am here as the Baron de 
 Kalb's paid spy. That is no mistake; 'tis a lie cut 
 out of whole cloth. I came here straight from 
 New Berne, and back of that from London and the 
 Continent, and scarcely know the buff and blue by 
 sight. But I am Carolina born, dear lady ; and this 
 King George's governor hanged my father. So, 
 when God gives me strength to mount and ride — " 
 
 "Now who is fierce?" she cried. And then, like 
 lightning: "Will you raise a band of rebels and 
 come and take your own again ?" 
 
 "You know I will not," I protested, so gravely 
 that she laughed again, though now there were 
 tears, from what well-spring of emotion I knew not, 
 in her eves. 
 
 "Oh, mercy me ! Have you never one little grain 
 of imagination. Monsieur John ? You are too mon- 
 
WHAT I HAD NEVER GAINED 55 
 
 strons literal for our poor jesting age." Then she 
 sobered quickly and added this : "And yet I fear 
 that this is what my father fears." 
 
 I did not tell her that he might have feared it 
 once with reason^ or that now the houseless dog 
 she petted should have life of me though mine 
 enemy should sick him on. But I did say her father 
 had no present cause to dread me. 
 
 "He thinks he has. And surely there is cause 
 enough," she added. 
 
 I smiled, and, loving her the more for her fair- 
 ness, must smile again. 
 
 "Nay, you have changed all that, dear lady. 
 Truly, I did at first fly out at him and all con- 
 cerned for what has made me a poor pensioner in 
 my father's house — or rather in the house that was 
 my father's. But that was while the hurt was new. 
 I have been a soldier of fortune too long to think 
 overmuch of the loss of Appleby Hundred. 'Twas 
 my father's, certainly ; but 'twas never mine." 
 
 "And yet — and yet it should be yours, John Ire- 
 ton." She said it bravely, with uplifted face and 
 eloquent eyes that one who ran might read. 
 
 " 'Tis good and true of you to say so, little one ; 
 but there be two sides to that, as well. So my 
 father's acres come at last to you and Richard Jen- 
 nifer, I shall be well content, I do assure you, 
 Margery." 
 
 She sprang up from her low seat and went to 
 stand in the window-bay. After a time she turned 
 
56 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 and faced me once again, and the warm blood was 
 in cheek and neck, and there was a soft light in her 
 eves to make them shine like stars. 
 
 "Then you would have me marry Richard Jenni- 
 fer?" she asked. 
 
 'Twas but a little Vsrord that honor bade me say, 
 and yet it choked me and I could not say it. 
 
 "Dick would have you, Alargery; and Dick is 
 my dear friend — as I am his." 
 
 "But you?" she queried. "Were you my friend, 
 as well, is this as you would have it ?" 
 
 My look went past her through the lead-rimmed 
 window-panes to the great oaks and hickories on 
 the lawn ; to these and to the white road winding in 
 and out among them. While yet I sought for words 
 in which to give her unreservedly to my dear lad, 
 two horsemen trotted into view. One of them was 
 a king's man ; the other a civilian in sober black. 
 The redcoat rode as English troopers do, with a 
 firm seat, as if the man were master of his mount ; 
 but the smaller man in black seem.ed little to the 
 manner born, and daylight shuttled in and out be- 
 neath him, keeping time to the jog-trot of his beast. 
 
 I thought it passing strange that with all good 
 will to answer her, these coming horsemen seemed 
 to hold me silent. And, indeed, I did not speak 
 until they came so near that I could make them 
 out. 
 
 "I am your friend, Margery mine ; as good a 
 friend as you will let me be. And as between Rich- 
 
WHAT I HAD NEVER GAINED 57 
 
 ard Jennifer and another, I should be a sorry friend 
 to Dick did I not — " 
 
 She heard the cHnk of horseshoes on the gravel 
 and turned, signing to me for silence while she 
 looked below. The window overhung the entrance 
 on that side, and through the opened air-casement I 
 heard some babblement of voices, though not the 
 words. 
 
 'T must go down," she said. " 'Tis company 
 come, and my father is away." 
 
 She passed behind my chair, and, hearing her 
 hand upon the latch, I had thought her gone — gone 
 down to welcome my enemy and his riding mate, 
 the factor. But while I was cursing my unready 
 tongue and repenting that I had not given her some 
 small word of warning, she spoke again. 
 
 "You say 'Richard Jennifer or another.' What 
 know^ you of any other. Monsieur John ?" 
 
 "Nay, I know nothing save what you have told 
 me ; and from that I have been hoping there was 
 no other." 
 
 "But if I say there may be ?" 
 
 My heart vrent sick at that. True, I had thought 
 to give her generously to Dick, whose right was 
 paramount ; but to another — 
 
 "Margery, come hither where I may see you." 
 And when she stood before me like a bidden child: 
 "Tell me, little comrade, who is that other?" 
 
 But now her mood was changed again, and from 
 standing sweet and pensive she fell a-laughing. 
 
58 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 "What impudence!" she cried. ''Ma foi! You 
 should borrow Pere Matthieu's cassock and brev- 
 iary; then, mayhap, I might confess to you. But 
 not before." 
 
 But still I pressed her. 
 
 "Tell me, Margery." 
 
 She tossed her head and would not look at me. 
 "Dick Jennifer is but a boy ; suppose this other were 
 a man full-grown." 
 
 "Yes?" 
 
 "And a soldier." 
 
 The sickness in my heart became a fire. 
 
 "O Margery! Don't tell me it is this fiend who 
 came just now !" 
 
 All in a flash the jesting mood was gone, but 
 that which took its place was strange to me. Tears 
 came ; her bosom heaved. And then she would 
 have passed me but I caught her hands and held 
 them fast. 
 
 "Margery, one moment : for your own sweet sake, 
 if not for Dick's or mine, have naught to do with 
 this devil's emissary of a man. If you only knew — 
 if I dared tell you — " 
 
 But for once, it seemed, I had stretched my privi- 
 lege beyond the limit. She whipped her hands from 
 my hold and faced me coldly. 
 
 "Sir Francis says you are a brave gentleman, 
 Captain Ireton, and though he knows well what you 
 would be about, he has not sent a file of men to 
 put you in arrest. And in return you call him 
 
WHAT I HAD NEVER GAINED 59 
 names behind his back. I shall not stay to listen, 
 
 sir." 
 
 With that she passed again behind my chair, and 
 once again I heard her hand upon the latch. But 
 I would say my say. 
 
 'Torgive me, Margery, I pray you ; 'twas only 
 what you said that made me mad. 'Tis less than 
 naught if you'll deny it." 
 
 I waited long and patiently, and thought she must 
 have gone before her answer came. And this is 
 what she said : 
 
 *'If I must tell you then ; 'tis now two weeks and 
 more since Sir Francis Falconnet asked me to marr}/ 
 him. I — I hope you do feel better. Captain Ire- 
 ton." 
 
 And with these bitterest of all words to her leave- 
 taking, she left me to endure as best I might the 
 hell of torment they had lighted for me. 
 
VI 
 
 SHOWING HOW RED W^RATH MAY HEAL A W^OUND. 
 
 It was full two days after the coming of the baro- 
 net and the factor-lawyer Pengarvin before I saw 
 my lady's face near-hand again, and sometimes I 
 was glad for Richard Jennifer's sake, but oftener 
 would curse and swear because I was bound hand 
 and foot and could not balk my enemy. 
 
 I knew Sir Francis and the lawyer still lingered 
 on at Appleby Hundred — indeed, I saw them daily 
 from my window — and Darius Vv'ould be telling me 
 that they waited upon the coming of some courier 
 from the south. But this I disbelieved. Some such- 
 like lie the baronet might have told, I thought ; but 
 when I saw him walk abroad with Margery on his 
 arm, pacing back and forth beneath the oaks and 
 bending low to catch her lightest word with grave 
 and courtly deference that none knew better how to 
 feign, I knew wherefore he stayed — knew and raged 
 afresh at my own impotence, and for the thought 
 that Margery was wholly at the mercy of this devil. 
 
 Yours is a colder century than was ours, my 
 dears. Your art has tempered love and passion into 
 
 60 
 
RED WRATH :\IAY HEAL A WOUXD 6i 
 
 sentiment, and hate you have learned to call aversion 
 or dislike. But we of that simple-hearted elder 
 time were more downright ; and I have writ the 
 word I mean in saying that my love was at the 
 mercy of this fiend. 
 
 I know not how it is or why, but there are men 
 who have this gift — some vrinning way to turn a 
 woman's head or touch her heart; and I knew well 
 this gift was his. 'Twas not his face, for that was 
 something less than handsome, to my fancy; nor 
 yet his figure, though that was big and soldierly 
 enough. It was rather in some subtlety of man- 
 ner, some power of simulation whereby in any 
 womanly heart he seemed to stand at will for that 
 which he was not. 
 
 As I have said, I knew him well enough ; knew 
 him incapable of love apart from passion, and that 
 to him there was no sacredness in maiden chastity 
 or wifely vows. So he but gained his end he cared 
 no whit what followed after ; ruin, broken hearts, 
 lost souls, a man slain now and then to keep the 
 scale from tipping — all were as one to him, or to 
 the Francis Falconnet I knew. 
 
 And touching marriage, with ^Margery or any 
 other, I feared that love would have no word to 
 say. Passion there might be, and that fierce desire 
 to have and wear which bums like any miser's fever 
 in the blood ; but never love as lovers measure it. 
 Why, then, had he proposed to Margery? The an- 
 swer did not tarry. Since he was now but a gentle- 
 man volunteer it was plain that he had squandered 
 
62 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 his estate, and so might brook the marriage chain 
 if it were Hnked up with my father's acres. 
 
 It w^as a bait to lure such a gamester strongly. 
 As matters stood with us in that wan summer of 
 exhaustion and defeat, the king's cause waxed and 
 grew more hopeful day by day. And in event of 
 final victory a landless baronet, marrying Margery's 
 ■dower of Appleby Hundred, might snap his fingers 
 at the Jews who, haply, had driven him forth from 
 England. 
 
 And as for Margery? Truly, she had told me, 
 or as good as told me, that her maiden love had 
 pledged itself a pawn for Jennifer's redeeming. But 
 there be other things than love to sway a woman's 
 will. This volunteer captain with the winning way 
 was of the haute noblesse, and he could make her 
 Lady Falconnet. Moreover, he was with her day 
 by day ; and you may mark this as you will ; that a 
 present suitor hath ever the trump cards to play 
 against the absent lover. 
 
 So, brooding over this, I wore out two most dis- 
 mal days — the first in many I had had to pass alone. 
 But on the morning of the third the sky was light- 
 ened, though then the light was but a flash and 
 darkness followed quickly after. She came again 
 and brought me a visitor ; it was this same Father 
 Matthieu with whom she had jestingly compared 
 me, and lest I should take my punishment too lightly, 
 stayed but to make the good priest known to me. 
 
 Now I was born and bred an heretic, by any 
 papist's reckoning, but I have ever held it witless in 
 
RED WRATH MAY HEAL A WOUND b3 
 
 that man who lets a creed obstruct a friendship. 
 Moreover, this sweet-faced cleric was the friendliest 
 of men ; friendly, and yet the wiliest Jesuit of them 
 all, since he read me at a glance and fell straight- 
 way to praising Margery. 
 
 "A truly sweet young demoiselle,'* he said, by 
 way of foreword, no sooner was the door closed 
 behind her, and while he preached a sermon on this 
 text I grew to know and love him. 
 
 He was a little man, as bone and muscle go, with' 
 deep-set eyes, and features kind and mild and fine 
 as any woman's ; some such face as Leonardo gave 
 St. John, could that have been less youthful. I 
 could not tell his order, though from his well-worn 
 cassock girded at the waist with a frayed bit of 
 hempen cord he might have been a Little Brother 
 of the Poor. But this I noted ; that he was not 
 tonsured, and his white hair, soft and fine as Mar- 
 gery's, was like an aureole to the finely chiseled 
 features. As missionary men of any creed are apt, 
 he looked far older than he really was ; and when 
 he came to tell me of his life among the Indians, 
 it was patent how the years had multiplied upon 
 him. 
 
 I listened, well enougfi content to learn him bet- 
 ter by his own report. 
 
 "But you must find it thankless work; this gos- 
 peling in the wilderness," I ventured, when all was 
 said. " 'Tis but a hermit's life for any man of 
 parts ; and after all, when you have done your ut- 
 most, your converts are but savages, as they were.'* 
 
64 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 At this he smiled and shook his head. "Non, 
 Monsieur, not so. You are a soldier and can not 
 see beyond your point of sword. Mais, mon ami, 
 they have souls to save, these poor children of the 
 forest, and they are far more sinned against than 
 sinning. I find them kind and true and faithful ; 
 and some of them are noble, in their way." 
 
 I laughed. "Fve read about those noble ones," 
 I said. *' 'Twas in a book called 'Hakluyt's Voy- 
 ages.' Truly, I know them not as you do, for in 
 my youth I knew them most in war. We called 
 them brave but cruel then ; and when I was a boy I 
 could have shown you where, within a mile of this, 
 they burned poor Davie Davidson at the stake." 
 
 "Ah, yes ; there has been much of that," he 
 sighed. "But you must confess, Captain Ireton, 
 that you English carry fire and sword among them, 
 too." 
 
 From that he would have told me more about the 
 savages, but I was interested nearer home. As I 
 have said, I was like any prisoner in a dungeon 
 for lack of news, and so by degrees I fetched him 
 round to telling me of what was going on beyond 
 my window-sight of lawn and forest. 
 
 Brave deeds were to the fore, it seemed. At 
 Ramsour's Mill, a few miles north and west, some 
 little handful of determined patriots had bested 
 thrice their number of the king's partizans, and that 
 without a leader bigger than a county colonel. 
 Lord Rawdon, in command of Lord Cornwallis's 
 van, had come as far as Waxhaw Creek, but, being 
 
RED WRATH MAY HEAL A WOUND 65 
 
 unsupported, had withdrawn to Hanging Rock. 
 Our ]Mr. Rutherford was on his way to the Forks 
 of Yadkin to engage the Tories gathering under 
 Colonel Bryan. As yet, it seemed, we had no force 
 of any consequence to take the field against Com- 
 wallis, though there were flying rumors of an army 
 marching from Virginia, with a new-appointed gen- 
 eral at its head. 
 
 On the whole it was the king's cause that pros- 
 pered, and the rising wave of invasion bade fair to 
 inundate the land. So thought my kindly gossip; 
 and, having naught to gain or lose in the great war, 
 or rather having naught to lose and everything to 
 gain, whichever way these worldly cards might run, 
 he was a fair, impartial witness. 
 
 As you may well suppose, this news awoke in me 
 the lust of battle, and I must chafe the more for 
 having it. And while my visitor talked on, and I 
 was listening with the outward ear, my brain was 
 busy putting two and two together. How came it 
 that the British outpost still remained at Queens- 
 borough, with my Lord Rawdon withdrawn and the 
 patriot home guard well down upon its rear ? Some 
 urgent reason for the stay there must be ; and at 
 that I remembered wdiat Darius had told me of its 
 captain's waiting for some messenger from the 
 south. 
 
 I scored this matter with a question mark, putting 
 it aside to think on more when I should be alone. 
 And when the priest had told me all the news at 
 large, we came again to sp^ak of Margery. 
 
66 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 'T go and come through all this borderland," he 
 said, when I had asked him how and why he came 
 to Appleby Hundred, "but it was mam'selle's mes- 
 sage brought me here. She is my one ewe lamb in 
 all this region, and I would journey far to see her." 
 
 I wondered pointedly at this, for in that day the 
 West was fiercely Protestant and the Mother 
 Church had scanty footing in the borderland. 
 
 "But Mistress Margery is not a Catholic !" said I. 
 
 His look forgave the protest in the words. 
 
 "Indeed, she is, my son. Has she not told you ?" 
 
 Now truly she had not told me so in any measured 
 word or phrase ; and yet I might have guessed it, 
 since she had often spoken lovingly of this same 
 Father Matthieu. And yet it was incredible to me. 
 
 "But how — I do not understand how that can 
 be," I stammered. "Surely, she told me she was of 
 Huguenot blood on the mother's side^ and that 
 
 IS — 
 
 The missionary's smile was lenient still, but full 
 of meaning. 
 
 "Not all who wander from the Catholic fold are 
 lost forever, Captain Ireton. The mother of this 
 demoiselle lived all her life a Protestant, I think, 
 but when she came to die she sent for me. And 
 that is how her child was sent to France and grew 
 up convent-bred. Monsieur Stair gave his promise 
 at the mother's death-bed, and though he liked it not, 
 he kept it." 
 
 "Aha, I see. And for this single lamb of your 
 scant fold you brave the terrors of our heretic back- 
 
RED WRATH MAY HEAL A WOUND 67 
 
 woods? It does you credit, Father Matthieu. The 
 war fills all horizons now, mayhap, but I have seen 
 the time in Mecklenburg when your cassock would 
 have been a challenge to the mob." 
 
 His smile was quite devoid of bitterness. "The 
 time has not yet passed," he said, gently. "I have 
 been six weeks on the way from Maryland hither, 
 hiding in the forest by day and faring on at night. 
 Indeed, I was in hiding on a neighboring planta- 
 tion when our demoiselle's messenger found me." 
 
 This put me keen upon remembering what had 
 gone before; how he had said at first that she had 
 sent for him. I thought it strange, knowing how 
 perilous the time and place must be for such as he. 
 But not until he rose and, bidding me good day, 
 left me to myself, did I so much as guess the thing 
 his coming meant. When I had guessed it ; when 
 I put this to that — her telling me Sir Francis had 
 proposed for her, and this her sending for the 
 priest — the madness of my love for her was as 
 naught compared to that anger which seized and 
 racked me. 
 
 I know not how the hours of this black day were 
 made to come and go, grinding me to dust and 
 ashes in their passage, yet leaving me alive and 
 keen to suffer at the end. 
 
 A thousand times that day I lived in torment 
 through the scene in which the priest had doubtless 
 come to play his part of joiner. The stage for it 
 would be the great room fronting south; the room 
 my father used to call our castle hall. For guests 
 
68 THE IMASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 I thought there would be space enough and some to 
 spare, for, as you know, our Mecklenburg was 
 patriot to the core. But as to this, the bridegroom's 
 troopers might fill out the tale, and in my heated 
 fancy I could see them grouped beneath the candle- 
 sconces with belts and baldrics fresh pipe-clayed, 
 and shakos doffed, and sabretaches well in front. 
 "A man full-grown — a soldier," she had said; and 
 trooper-guests were fitting in such case. 
 
 From serving in a Catholic land I knew the cus- 
 toms of the Mother Church. So I could see the 
 priest in cassock, alb and stole as he would stand 
 before some makeshift altar lit w^ith candles. And 
 as he stands they come to kneel before him ; my 
 winsome Alargery in all her royal beauty, a child 
 to love, and yet an empress peerless in her woman's 
 realm ; and at her side, with his knee touching hers, 
 this man who w^as a devil ! 
 
 What wonder if I cursed and choked and cursed 
 again when the maddening thought of what all this 
 should mean for my poor wounded Richard — and 
 later on, for Margery herself — possessed me? In 
 which of these hot fever-gusts of rage the thought 
 of interference came, I know not. But that it came 
 at length — a thought and plan full-grown at birth 
 — I do know. 
 
 The pointing of the plan was desperate and sim- 
 ple. It w^as neither more nor less than this : I 
 knew the house and every turn and passage in it, 
 and when the hour should strike I said I should go 
 down and skulk among the guests, and at the cru- 
 
RED WRATH MAY HEAL A WOUND 69 
 
 cial moment find or seize a weapon and fling" my- 
 self upon this bridegroom as he should kneel before 
 the altar. 
 
 With strength to bend him back and strike one 
 blow, I saw not why it might not win. And as for 
 strength, I have learned this in war : that so the 
 rage be hot enough 'twill nerve a dying man to 
 hack and hew and stab as with the strength of ten. 
 
 Although it was most terribly over-long in com- 
 ing, the end of that black day did come at last, and 
 with it Darius to fetch my supper and the candles. 
 You may be sure I questioned him, and, if you 
 know the blacks, you'll smile and say I had my la- 
 bor for my pains — the w^iich I had. His place was 
 at the quarters, and of what went on within the 
 house he knew no more than I. But this he told 
 me ; that company surely was expected, and that 
 some air of mystery was abroad. 
 
 When he was gone I ate a soldier's portion, 
 knowing of old how ill a thing it is to take an empty 
 stomach into battle. For the same cause I drank a 
 second cup of wine, — 'twas old madeira of my 
 father's laying-in, — and would have drunk a third 
 but that the bottle would not yield it. 
 
 It was fully dark when I had finished, and, think- 
 ing ever on my plan, would strive afresh to weld 
 its weakest link. This was the hazard of the 
 weapon-getting. With full-blood health and 
 strength I might have gone bare-handed ; but as it 
 was, I feared to take the chance. So with a candle 
 I went a-prowling in the deep drawers of the old 
 
70 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 oaken clothes-press and in the escritoire which once 
 had been my mother's, and found no weapon bigger 
 than a hairpin. 
 
 It was no great disappointment, for I had looked 
 before with daylight in the room. Besides, the wine 
 was mounting, and when the search was done the 
 hazard seemed the less. So I could rush upon him 
 unawares and put my knee against his back, I 
 thought the Lord of Battles would give me strength 
 to break his neck across it. 
 
 At that I capped the candles, and, taking post in 
 the deep bay of the window, set myself to watch 
 for the lighting of the great room at the front. This 
 had two windows on my side, and while I could not 
 see them, I knew that I should see the sheen of 
 light upon the lawn. 
 
 The night was clear but moonless, and the thick- 
 leafed masses of the oaks and hickories rose a wall 
 of black to curtain half the hemisphere of starry 
 sky. As always in our forest land, the hour was 
 shrilly vocal, though to me the chirping din of 
 frogs and insects hath ever stood for silence. Some- 
 where beyond the thicket-w^all an owl w^as calling 
 mournfully, and I bethought me of that supersti- 
 tion — old as man, for aught I know — of how the 
 hooting of an owl betokens death. And then I 
 laughed, for surely death would come to one or 
 more of those beneath my father's roof within the 
 compass of the night. 
 
 Behind the close-drawn curtain, though I could 
 see it not, the virgin forest darkened all the land ; 
 
RED WRATH AIAY HEAL A WOUXD 71 
 
 and from afar within its secret depths I heard, or 
 thought I heard, the dismal howling of the timber 
 wolves. Below, the house was silent as the grave, 
 and this seemed strange to me. For in the time of 
 my youth a wedding was a joyous thing. Yet I 
 would remember that these present times were per- 
 ilous ; and also that my bridegroom, captained but a 
 little band of troopers in a land but now become 
 fiercely debatable. 
 
 It must have been an hour or more before the 
 sound of distance-muffled hoofbeats on the road 
 broke in upon the chirping silence of the night. I 
 looked and listened, straining eye and ear, hearing 
 but little and seeing less until three shadowy horse- 
 men issued from the curtain-wall of black beneath 
 my window. 
 
 It was plain that others watched as well as I, for 
 at their coming a sheen of light burst from the 
 opened door below, at which there were sword- 
 clankings as of armed men dismounting, and then 
 a few low-voiced words oi welcome. Followed 
 quickly the closing of the door and silence ; and 
 when my eyes grew once again accustomed to the 
 gloom, I saw below the horses standing head to 
 head, and in t^-.e midst a man to hold them. 
 
 "So !" I thought ; ''but three in all, and one of 
 them a servant. 'Twill be a scantly guested w^ed- 
 ding." And then I raged within again to think of 
 how my love should be thus dishonored in a corner 
 when she should have the world to clap its hands 
 and praise her beauty. 
 
'22 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 At that, and while I looked, the lawn was banded 
 farther on by two broad beams of light ; and then I 
 knew my time was come. 
 
 Feeling my way across the darkened chamber I 
 softly tried the door-latch. It yielded at the touch, 
 but not the door. I pulled, and braced myself and 
 pulled again. 'Twas but a waste of strength. The 
 door was fast with that contrivance wherewith my 
 father used to bar me in what time I was a boy and 
 would go raccooning with our negro hunters. My 
 enemy was no fool. He had been shrewd enough 
 to lock me in against the chance of interruption. 
 
 I wish you might conceive the helpless horror 
 grappling with me there behind that fastened door ; 
 but this, indeed, you may not, having felt it not. 
 For one dazed moment I was sick as death w4th 
 fear and frenzy and I know not what besides, and all 
 the blackness of the night swam sudden red before 
 my eyes. Then, in the twinkling of an eye, the 
 madness left me cool and sane^ as if the fit had been 
 the travail-pain of some new birth of soul. And 
 after that, as I remember, I knew not rage nor haste 
 nor weakness — knew no other thing save this ; that I 
 had set myself a task to do and I would do it. 
 
 My window was in shape like half a cell of honey- 
 comb, and close beside it on the outer wall there 
 grew an ancient ivy-vine which more than once had 
 held my weight when I was younger and would 
 evade my father's vigilance. 
 
 I swung the casement noiselessly and clambered 
 out, with hand and foot in proper hold as if those 
 
RED WRATH ^lAY HEAL A WOUND -j^ 
 
 youthful flittings of my boyhood days had been but 
 yesternight. A breathless minute later I was down 
 and afoot on solid ground ; and then a thing chanced 
 which I would had not. The man whom I had 
 called a servant turned and saw me. 
 
 "Halt ! Who goes there ?" he cried. 
 
 "A friend," said I, between my wishings for a 
 weapon. For this servant of my prefigurings 
 proved to be a trooper, booted, spurred and armed. 
 
 "By God, I think you lie," he said ; and after 
 that he said no more, for he was down among the 
 horses' hoofs and I upon him, kneeling hard to 
 scant his breath for shoutings. 
 
 It grieves me now through all these years to 
 think that I did kneel too hard upon this man. He 
 was no enemv of mine, and did but do — or seek to 
 do — his duty. But he would fight or die, and I must 
 fight or die ; and so it ended as such strivings will, 
 with some grim crackling of ribs — and when I rose 
 he rose not with me. 
 
 With all the fierce excitement of the struggle 
 yet upon me, I stayed to knot the bridle reins upon 
 his arm to make it plain that he had fallen at his 
 post. That done, I took his sword as surer for my 
 purpose than a pistol ; and hugging the deepest 
 shadow of the wall, approached the nearer window. 
 It was open wide, for the night was sultry warm, 
 and from within there came the clink of glass and 
 now a toast and now a trooper's oath. 
 
 I drew myself by inches to the casemicnt, which 
 was high, finding some foothold in the wall ; and 
 
74 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 when I looked within I saw no wedding guests, no 
 priest, no altar ; only this : a table in the midst with 
 bottles on it, and round it five men lounging at their 
 ease and drinking to the king. Of these five two, 
 the baronet and the lawyer, were known to me, and 
 I have made them known to you. A third I guessed 
 for Gilbert Stair. The other two were strangers. 
 
VII 
 
 IN WHICH MY LADY HATH NO PART 
 
 Seeing that I had taken a man's life for this, the 
 chance of looking in upon a drinking bout, you will 
 not wonder that I went aghast and would have fled 
 for very shame had not a sudden weakness seized 
 me. But in the midst I heard a mention of my name 
 and so had leave, I thought, to stay and listen. 
 
 It was one of the late-comers who gave me this 
 leave ; a man well on in years, grizzled and weather- 
 beaten ; a seasoned soldier by his look and garb. 
 Though his frayed shoulder-knot was only that of 
 a captain of foot, 'twas plain enough he ranked his 
 comrade, and the knight as well. 
 
 "You say you've bagged this Captain Ireton? 
 Who may he be ? Surely not old Roger's son ?" 
 
 "The same," said the baronet, shortly, and would 
 be filling his glass again. He could always drink 
 more and feel it less than anv sot I ever knew. 
 
 "But how the devil came he here? The last I 
 knew of him — 'twas some half-score years ago, 
 though, come to think — he was a lieutenant in the 
 Royal Scots." 
 
 75 
 
y6 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 Mine enemy nodded. ''So he was. But after- 
 ward he cut the service and levanted to the Conti- 
 nent." 
 
 The questioner fell into a muse ; then he laughed 
 and clapped his leg. 
 
 "Ecod ! I do remember now. There was a 
 damned good mess-room joke about him. When he 
 was in the Blues they used to say his solemn face 
 would stop a merry-making. Well, after he had 
 been in Austria a while they told this on him ; that 
 his field-marshal had him listed for a majority, and 
 so he was presented to the empress. But when 
 Maria Theresa saw him she shrieked and cried out, 
 'U est le pere mix fetes rondes, lui-meme! he portez-^, 
 voiis dehors!' So he got but a captaincy after all; 
 ha! ha! ha!" 
 
 Now this w^as but a mess-room gibe, as he had 
 said, cut out of unmarred cloth, at that. Our Aus- 
 trian Maria ever had a better word than "round- 
 head" for her soldiers- But yet it stung, and stung 
 the more because I had and have the Ireton face, 
 and that is unbeloved of women, and glum and 
 curst and solemn even when the man behind it 
 would be kindly. So when they laughed and chuck- 
 led at this jest, I lingered on and listened with the 
 better grace. 
 
 "What brought him over-seas, Sir Francis?" 
 'Twas not the grizzled jester who asked, but the 
 younger officer, his comrade. 
 
 Falconnet smiled as one who knows a thing and 
 will not tell, and turned to Gilbert Stair. 
 
]\IY LADY HATH NO PART 7> 
 
 "What was it, think you, ^Ir. Stair?" he said, 
 passing the question on. 
 
 At this they all looked to the master of Appleby 
 Hundred, and I looked, too. He was not the man 
 I should have hit upon in any throng as the reaver 
 of my father's estate; still less the man who might 
 be Alargery's father. He had the face of all the 
 Stairs of Ballantrae without its simple Scottish rug- 
 gedness ; a sort of weasel face it was, with pale- 
 gray eyes that had a trick of shifty dodging, and 
 deep-furrowed about the mouth and chin with lines 
 that spoke of indecision. It was not of him that 
 ^largery got her firm round chin, or her steadfast 
 eyes that knew^ not how to quail, nor aught of any- 
 thing she owed a father save only her paternity, 
 you'd say. And when he spoke the thin falsetto 
 voice matched the weak chin to a hair. 
 
 'T? Damme, Sir Francis, I know not why he 
 came — how should I know?" he quavered. "Ap- 
 pleby Hundred is mine — mine, I tell you ! His title 
 was well hanged on a tree with his damned rebel 
 father !" 
 
 A laugh uproarious from the three soldiers 
 greeted his petulant outburst ; after which the baro- 
 net enlightened the others. 
 
 "As you know. Captain John, Appleby Hundred 
 once belonged to the rebel Roger Ireton, and ]\Ir. 
 Stair here holds but a confiscator's title. 'Tis likely 
 the son heard of the war and thought he stood some 
 chance to come into his own again," 
 
 "Oh, aye; sure enough," quoth the elder officer, 
 
78 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 tilting his bottle afresh. And then : "Of course 
 he promptly 'listed with the rebels when he came? 
 Trust Roofer Ireton's son for that." 
 
 My baronet wagged his head assentingly to this ; 
 then clinched the lie in words. 
 
 *'Of course ; we have his commission. He is on 
 De Kalb's staff, 'detached for special duty.' " 
 
 "A spy !" roared the jester. "And yet you haven't 
 hanged him ?" 
 
 Sir Francis shrugged like any Frenchman. "AH 
 in good time, my dear Captain. There were reasons 
 why I did not care to knot the rope myself. Besides, 
 we had a little disagreement years agone across the 
 water; 'twas about a woman — oh, she was no mis- 
 tress of his, I do assure you !" — this to quench my 
 jester's laugh incredulous. "He was keen upon me 
 for satisfaction in this old quarrel, and I gave it 
 him, thinking he'd hang the easier for a little blood- 
 ing first." 
 
 Here the factor-lawyer cut in anxiously. "But 
 you will hang him. Sir Francis ? You've promised 
 that, you know." 
 
 I did not hate my enemy the more because he 
 turned a shoulder to this little bloodhound and quite 
 ignored the interruption. 
 
 "So we fought it out one morning in Mr. Stair's 
 wood-field, and he had what he came for. Not to 
 give him a chance to escape, we brought him here, 
 and as soon as he is fit to ride Fll send him to the 
 colonel. Tarleton will give him a short shrift, I 
 
MY LADY HATH NO PART p$ 
 
 promise you, and then" — this to the master of Ap^ 
 pleby Hundred — "then your title will be well qui- 
 eted, ]\Ir. Stair." 
 
 At this the weather-beaten captain roared again 
 and smote the table till the bottles reeled. 
 
 "I say, Sir Frank, that's good — damned good! 
 So you have him crimped here in his own house, 
 stuffing him like a penned capon before you wring 
 his neck. Ah ! ha ! ha ! But 'tis to be hoped you 
 have his legs well tied. If he be any son of my 
 old mad-bull Roger Ireton, you'll hardly hang him 
 peacefully like a trussed fowl before the fire." 
 
 The baronet smiled and said : "I'll be your war- 
 rant for his safety. We've had him well guarded 
 from the first, and to-night he is behind a barred 
 door with Mr. Stair's overseer standing sentry be- 
 fore it. But as for that, he's barely out of bed from 
 my pin-prick." 
 
 Having thus disposed of me, they let me be and 
 came to the graver business of the moment, with a 
 toast to lay the dust before it. It was Falconnet 
 who gave the toast. 
 
 "Here's to our bully redskins and their king — 
 How do you call him. Captain Stuart? Ocon — 
 Ocona— "' 
 
 "Oconostota is the Chelakee of it, though on the 
 border they know him better as 'Old Hop.' Fill up, 
 gentlemen, fill up ; 'tis a dry business, this. Allow 
 me, Mr. Stair; and you, ]\Ir. — er — ah — Pengarden. 
 This same old heathen is the king's friend now, but, 
 
8o THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 gentlemen all, I do assure you he's the very devil 
 himself in a copper-colored skin. 'Twas he who 
 ambushed us in '60, and but for Attakullakulla — " 
 
 "Oh, Lord!" groaned Falconnet. 'T say, Caj> 
 tain, drown the names in the wine and we'll drink 
 them so. Tis by far the easiest way to swallow 
 them.'' 
 
 By this, the grizzled captain's mention of the old 
 Fort Loudon massacre, I knew him for that same 
 John Stuart of the Highlanders who, with Captain 
 Damare, had so stoutly defended the frontier fort 
 against the savages twenty years before ; knew him 
 and wondered I had not sooner placed him. 
 When I was but a boy, as I could well remember, he 
 had been king's man to the Cherokees ; a sort of go- 
 between in times of peace, and in the border wars 
 a man the Indians feared. But now, as I was soon 
 to learn, he was a man for us to fear. 
 
 " 'Tis carried through at last," he went on, when 
 the toast was drunk. And then he stopped and held 
 up a warning finger. "This business will not brook 
 unfriendly ears. Are we safe to talk it here, Mr. 
 Stair ?" 
 
 It was Falconnet who answered. 
 
 "Safe as the clock. You passed my sentry in the 
 road ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "He is the padlock of a chain that reaches round 
 the house. Let's have your news. Captain." 
 
 "As I was saying, the Indians are at one with us. 
 'Twas all fair sailing in the council at Echota; the 
 

 UY LADY HATH NO PART 8i 
 
 Chelakees being to a man fierce enough to dig the 
 hatchet up. But I did have the devil's own teapot 
 tempest with my Lord Charles. He says we have 
 more friends than enemies in the border settlements, 
 and these our redskins will tomahawk them all 
 alike." 
 
 I made a mental note of this and wondered if my 
 Lord Cornwailis had met with some new change of 
 heart. He was not over-squeamish as I had known 
 him. Then I heard the baronet say : 
 
 'But yet the thing is done ?" 
 
 'As good as done. The Indians are to have pow- 
 der and lead of us, after which they make a sudden 
 onfall on the over-mountain settlements. And that 
 fetches us to your part in it, Sir Frank ; and to 
 yours, i^.Ir. Stair. Your troop, Captain, will be the 
 convoy for this powder; and you, Mr. Stair, are 
 requisitioned to provide the commissary." 
 
 There was silence while a cat might w^nk, and 
 then Gilbert Stair broke in upon it shrilly. 
 
 'T can not, Captain Stuart ; that I can not !" he 
 protested, starting from his chair. " 'Twill ruin me 
 outright ! The place is stripped, — you know it well. 
 Sir Francis, — stripped bare and clean by these thiev- 
 ing rebel militia-men ; bare as the back of your hand, 
 I tell you ! I—" 
 
 But the captain put him down in brief. 
 
 ''Enough, ]\Ir. Stair ; we'll not constrain you 
 against your will. But 'tis hinted at headquarters 
 that you are but a fair-weather royalist at best — nay, 
 that for some years back you have been as rebel as 
 
82 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 the rest In this nesting-place of traitors. As a friend 
 — mind you, as a friend — I would advise you to find 
 the wherewithal to carry out my Lord's commands. 
 Do you take me, Mr. Stair?" 
 
 The trembling old man fell back in his chair, nod- 
 ding his "yes" dumbly like a marionette when the 
 string has been jerked a thought too violently, and 
 his weasel face was moist and clammy. I know not 
 what double-dealing he would have been at before 
 this, but it was surely something with the promise 
 of a rope at the publishing of it. 
 
 So he and his factor fell to ciphering on a bit of 
 paper, reckoning ways and means, as I took it, while 
 Falconnet Avas asking for more particular orders. 
 
 "You'll have them from headquarters direct," 
 said Stuart. "Oconostota will furnish carriers, a 
 Cherokee escort, and guides. The rendezvous will 
 be hereabouts, and your route will be the Great 
 Trace." 
 
 "Then we are to hold on all and wait still longer ?" 
 
 "That's the word : wait for the Indians and your 
 
 cargo." 
 
 Falconnet's oath was of impatience. 
 
 "We've waited now a month and more like men 
 with halters round their necks. The country is 
 alive with rebels." 
 
 Whereupon Captain Stuart began to explain at 
 large how the northern route had been chosen for its 
 very hazards, the better to throw the partizans off 
 the scent. I listened, eager for every word, but 
 when the horses stirred behind me I was set back 
 
MY LADY HATH NO PART 83 
 
 upon the oft-recurrent under-thought of how the 
 gloom did also hide a silent figure tying prone, with 
 the three bridle reins knotted round its wrist. 
 
 But though the unnerving under-thought would 
 not begone, the scene within the great room held me 
 fast by eye and ear. The master and his factor sat 
 apart, their heads together over the knotty problem 
 of subsistence for the convoy troop. At the table- 
 end, with the bottle gurgling nov/ at one right hand 
 and now at another, the three king's men drank 
 confusion to the rebels, and in the intervals discussed 
 the powder-convoy's route across the mountains. 
 The senior plotter had some map or chart of his own 
 making, and he was pricking out on it for Falconnet 
 the route agreed upon in council with the Cherokees. 
 
 At this cool outlaying of the working plan, some 
 proper sense of what this plot of savage-arming 
 meant to every tmdefended cabin on the frontier 
 seized and thrilled me. I knew, as every border- 
 born among us knew, the dismal horrors of an 
 Indian massacre ; and this these men were planning 
 was treacherous murder on an unwarned people. 
 All was to be done in midnight secrecy. Supplied 
 with ammunition, the Cherokees, led by this Captain 
 Stuart or some other, were first to fall upon the 
 over-mountain settlements. These laid waste, the 
 Indians were to form a junction with the army of 
 invasion, and so to add the torch and tomahawk and 
 scalping knife to British swords and muskets. 
 
 It \y3ls a plot to make the blood run cold In my 
 veins, or in the veins of any man who knew the 
 
84 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 cruel temper of these savages ; and when I thought 
 upon the fate of my poor countrym.en beyond the 
 mountains, I saw what lay before me. 
 
 The settlers must be warned in time to light or fly. 
 
 But while I listened, with every faculty alert to 
 reckon with the task of rescue, I take no shame in 
 saying that the problem balked me. Lacking the 
 strength to mount and ride in my own proper per- 
 son, there was nothing for it but to find a messen- 
 ger ; and who would he be in a region at the moment 
 distraught with war's alarums, and needing every 
 man for self-defense? 
 
 At that, I thought of Jennifer. True, he was 
 w^ounded, too ; but he would know how best to pass 
 the word to those in peril. I made full sure he'd 
 find a way if I could reach him ; and when I had it 
 simmered down to this, the problem simplified itself. 
 I must have speech with Dick before the night was 
 out, though I should have to crawl on hands and 
 knees the half-score miles to Jennifer House. 
 
 Having decided, I was keen to be about it while 
 the night should last — the friendly darkness, and 
 some fine flush of excitement which again had come 
 at need to take the place of healthful vigor. But 
 when I would have quit the window to begone upon 
 my errand a sober second thought delayed me. If 
 my simple counterplot should fail, some knowledge 
 of the powder-convoy's route vrould be of prime 
 im.portance. Lacking the time to warn the over- 
 mountain men, the next best thing would be to set 
 some band of patriot troopers upon the trail and 
 
MY LADY HATH NO PART 85 
 
 so to overtake the convoy. Nay, on this second 
 thought's rehearsing the last expedient seemed the 
 better of the two, since thus the plot would come to 
 naught and we would be the gainers by the capture 
 of the powder. 
 
 So now you know why I should stick and hang by 
 ,toe and finger-tip and glare across the little space 
 that gaped between my itching fingers and the bit 
 of parchment passed from hand to hand around the 
 table's end. If I could make a shift to rob them of 
 this map — 
 
 It was a desperate chance, but in the frenzy of 
 the moment I resolved to take it. Their placings 
 round the table favored me. Gilbert Stair and the 
 lawyer sat fair across from me, but they were still 
 intent upon their figurings. Of the trio at the table's 
 end, the baronet and the captain had their backs to 
 me. The younger officer sat across, and he was 
 staring broadly at my window, though with wine- 
 fogged eyes that saw not far beyond the bottle-neck, 
 I thought. 
 
 My one hope hinged upon the boldness of a dash. 
 If I could spring within and sweep the two candle- 
 sticks from the table, there was a chance that I 
 might snatch the parchment in the darkness and 
 confusion and escape as I had come. 
 
 So I began by inches to draw me up and feel for 
 some better launching hold. But in the midst, for 
 all my care and caution, I slipped and lost my grip 
 upon the casement ; lost that and got another on the 
 wooden shutter opened back against the outer wall. 
 
86 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 and then went down, pulling the shutter from its 
 rusted hinges in crashing clamor fit to rouse the 
 dead. 
 
 As if they were quick echoes, other crashings fol- 
 lowed as of chairs flung back ; and then the window 
 just above me filled with crowding figures. I marvel 
 that I had the wit to lie quiet as I had fallen, but 
 I had; and those above, looking from a lighted 
 room into the belly of the night, saw nothing. Then 
 Captain Stuart shouted to his dragoon horse-holder. 
 
 "Ho! Tom Garget; this way, man!" he cried; 
 and when he had no answer, put a leg across the 
 window seat to clamber out. 'Twas in the very act, 
 while I was watching catlike every movement, that 
 I saw the precious scrap of parchment in his hand. 
 
 Here was the chance I had prayed for. Tom 
 Garget's sword had clattered down beside me, and 
 with it I sprang afoot and cut a whizzing circle by 
 my doughty captain's ear that made him cringe and 
 gasp and all but tumble out upon me. The bit of 
 parchment fluttered down and in a trice I had it 
 safe. 
 
 You may think small of me, if so you must, my 
 dears, when I confess what followed after. No man 
 is braver than his opportunity, and I had little stom- 
 ach for a fight with three unwounded men. Hence 
 it was narrowed now to a bold sortie for the horses, 
 and this I made while yet the captain hung in air 
 and sought his foothold. 
 
 With all my breathless haste it was not done too 
 soon, nor soon enough. When I had quickly freed 
 
MY LADY HATH NO PART 87 
 
 a horse from the dead hand that held it tethered, 
 and was making shift to cHmb into the saddle, they 
 thronged upon me ; the captain from his window, the 
 others pouring hotly through the gaping doorway. 
 
 I made shift to get astride the horse, to prick 
 the poor beast with the point of sword, and so to 
 break away in some brief dash beneath the oaks. 
 But it was a chase soon ended. As I remember, I 
 was reeling in the saddle what time the foremost 
 of them overtook me. I held on grimly till the 
 horse pursuing lapped the one I rode by head, by 
 neck and presently by withers. Then I turned and 
 would be making frantic-feeble passes with the 
 sword at the man upon his back. 
 
 It was my plotting captain who rode me thus to 
 earth ; and when I thrust he laughed and swore, 
 and turned the blade aside with his bare hand. 
 Then, pressing closer, he struck me with his fist, 
 and thereupon the night and all its happenings went 
 blank as if the blow had been a cannon shot to 
 crush my skull. 
 
VIII 
 
 IN WHICH I TASTE THE QUALITY OF MERCY 
 
 Two ways there be to fetcH a stunned man to bis 
 senses, as they will tell you who have seen the rack 
 applied : one is to slack the tension on the cracking 
 joints and minister cordials to the victim ; the other 
 to give the straining winch a crueller twist. It was 
 not the gentler way my captors took, as you would 
 guess ; and when I came to know and see and feel 
 again a pair of them were kicking me alive, and I 
 was sore and aching from their buffetings. 
 
 How long a time came in between my futile dash 
 for liberty and this harsh preface to their dragging 
 of me back to the manor house, I could not tell. 
 It must have been an hour or more, for now a gib- 
 bous moon hung pale above the tree-tops, and all 
 around were bivouac fires and horses tethered to 
 show that in the interval a troop had come and 
 camped. 
 
 The scene within the great fore-room of the house 
 had been shifted, too. A sentry was pacing back 
 and forth before the door — a Hessian grenadier by 
 the size and shako of him; and when the two 
 
 88 
 
THE QUALITY OF MERCY 89 
 
 trooper bailiffs thrust me in, and I had winked and 
 blinked my eyes accustomed to the candle-light, I 
 saw the table had been swept of its bottles and 
 glasses, and around it, sitting as in council, were 
 some half-score officers of the British light-horse 
 with their colonel at the head. 
 
 As it chanced, this was my first sight near at hand 
 of that British commander whose name in after 
 years the patriot mothers spoke to fright their chil- 
 dren. He did not look a monster. As I recall him 
 now, he was a short, square-bodied man, younger 
 by some years than myself, and yet with an old 
 campaigner's head well set upon aggressive shoul- 
 ders. His eyes were black and ferrety ; and his face, 
 well seasoned by the Carolina sun, was swart as any 
 Arab's. A man, I thought, who could be gentle- 
 harsh or harsh-revengeful, as the mood should 
 prompt ; who could make well-turned courtier com- 
 pliments to a lady and damn a trooper in the self- 
 same breath. 
 
 This was that Colonel Banastre Tarleton who 
 gave no quarter to surrendered men ; and when I 
 looked into the sloe-black eyes I saw in them for me 
 a waiting gibbet. 
 
 "Sol" he rapped out, when I was haled before 
 him. "You're the spying rebel captain, eh? Are 
 you alive enough to hang?" 
 
 His lack of courtesy rasped so sorely that I must 
 needs give place to wrath and answer sharply that 
 there was small doubt of it^ since I could stand and 
 curse him. 
 
90 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 He scowled at that and cursed me back again as 
 heartily as any fishwife. Then suddenly he changed 
 his tune. 
 
 ''They tell me you were in the service once and 
 left it honorably. I am loath to hang a man who 
 has worn the colors. Would it please you best to 
 die a soldier's death, Captain Ireton ?" 
 
 I said it would, most surely. 
 
 He said I should have the boon if I would tell 
 him what an officer on the Baron de Kalb's staff 
 should know : the strength of the Continentals, the 
 general's designs and dispositions, and I know not 
 what besides. I think it was my laugh that made 
 him stop short and damn me roundly in the midst. 
 
 "By God, ril make you laugh another tune !" he 
 swore. "You rebels are all of a piece, and clemency 
 is wasted on you !" 
 
 "Your mercy comes too dear ; you set too high a 
 price upon it. Colonel Tarleton. If, for the mere 
 swapping of a rope for a bullet, I could be the poor 
 caitiff your offer implies, hanging would be too 
 good for me." 
 
 "If that is your last word — But stay; I'll give 
 you an hour to think it over." 
 
 "It needs not an hour nor a minute," I replied. 
 "If I knew aught about the Continental army — 
 which I do not — I'd see you hanged in your own 
 stirrup-leather before I'd tell you, Colonel Tarleton. 
 Moreover, I marvel greatly — " 
 
 "At what?" he cut in rudely. 
 
 "At your informant's lack of invention. He 
 
THE QUALITY OF :\IERCY 91 
 
 might have brought me straight from General 
 Washington's headquarters while he was about it. 
 'Twould be no greater He than that he told you." 
 
 He heard me through, then fell to cursing me 
 afresh, and would be sending an aide-de-camp hot- 
 foot for Falconnet. 
 
 While the messenger was going and coming there 
 was a chance for me to look around like a poor 
 trapped animal in a pitfall, loath to die without a 
 struggle, yet seeing not how any less inglorious end 
 should offer. The eye-search went for little of en- 
 couragement ; there w^as no chance either to fight or 
 fly. But apart from this, the probing of the shadows 
 revealed a thing that set me suddenly in a fever, first 
 of rage, and then of apprehension. 
 
 As I have said, this gathering-room of our old 
 house was in size like an ancient banquet hall. It 
 had a gable to itself in breadth and height, and at 
 the farther end there was a flight of some few steps 
 to reach the older portion of the house beyond. The 
 upper end of this low stair pierced the thick wall of 
 the older house, and in the shadows of the niche 
 thus formed I saw my lady ^Margery. 
 
 She Avas standing as one who looks and listens ; 
 and my rage-fit blazed out upon the descrying of 
 a shadowy figure of a man behind her; a man I 
 guessed in jealous wrath to be the baronet — a rea- 
 sonless suspicion, since the volunteer captain would 
 certainly have made his presence known when his 
 colonel had called for him. But while my heart was 
 yet afire my lady moved aside as if to have a better 
 
92 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 sight of us below ; and then I saw it was the priest 
 behind her. 
 
 While I was watching her, and we were waiting 
 yet upon the aide-de-camp's return, there was a stir 
 without, and when it reached the door the sentry 
 challenged. Some confab followed, and I overheard 
 enough to tell me that a scouting party had come 
 in, bringing a prisoner. The colonel bade me stand 
 aside, and passed the word to fetch the prisoner be- 
 fore him. When the thing was done I set my teeth 
 upon a groan. For it was Richard Jennifer. 
 
 Luckily, he did not single me out among the by- 
 standers, being fresh come from the night without 
 to the glare of candle-light within ; and while the 
 swart-faced colonel plied him with questions I had 
 a chance to look him up and down. Though his 
 arm was still in its sling, he was seemingly the better 
 of his wound. There was a glow of health and 
 strength returning in cheek and eye, and I thought 
 him handsomer than ever what time he stood forth 
 boldly and fronted down the bullying colonel. 
 
 Knowing the Jennifer stock and its fine scorn of 
 subterfuge, I feared it would go hard with Richard ; 
 and so, indeed, it had gone, lacking a word in sea- 
 son from an enemy. When Tarleton would have 
 made him choose between the taking of the king's 
 oath and captivity in the hulks at Charleston, a 
 burly Flessian captain at the table spoke the word 
 in season. 
 
 'Verdammt! mine Colonel; I vill know dis Mr. 
 
 <■<■ ; 
 
THE QUALITY OF IMERCY 93 
 
 Yennifer. He is a prave yoong schalavags, and he 
 is not gone out mit der rebels. Give him to me for 
 mine phmders." 
 
 The colonel laughed and showed his teeth. Hav- 
 ing one man to hang he could afford to be lenient 
 with another. 
 
 *'What will you do with him, Captain Lauswoul- 
 ter? By the look of him he'd make but indifferent 
 sausage-meat." 
 
 "Vat shall I do mit him ? I shall make him mine 
 best bows and send him home, py Gott ! Ve did 
 had some liddle troubles mit der cards, and ven 
 mine foot was slipped on dis verdainmt grease- 
 grass, he did not run me t'rough so like he might." 
 
 ''Oh ; an affair of honor ? Well, we'll count that 
 in his favor. Take him away, Trelawny, and quar- 
 ter yourself and twenty men upon him at Jennifer 
 House. You have your parole, Mr. Jennifer ; but by 
 the Lord, if you break it by so miuch as a Avink or a 
 nod, Trelawny will hang you to your own ridge- 
 pole." 
 
 Given a hearing, Jennifer would have spoiled it 
 all by swearing hotly he had given no parole, but at 
 the word the colonel roared him down like a bull 
 of Bashan, and in the hubbub my brave lad was hus- 
 tled out. 
 
 Though I Avas full to bursting with my news 
 there was nothing I could do ; and when it was 
 fairly over and he was gone, I was right glad 
 he had not seen me. For I knew well his steel-true 
 loyalty, and that at sight of me in trouble he would 
 
94 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 have lost his slender chance of guarded hberty, and 
 with it my last hope of sending word across the 
 mountains ; though, as for that, the hope was well- 
 nigh dead at any rate. 
 
 While Jennifer's guard and quota were mounting 
 at the door the aide-de-camp returned, and that 
 without the baronet. I caught but here and there a 
 word of his report ; enough to gather that the cap- 
 tain-knight was not yet in from posting out the 
 sentries. 
 
 I made no doubt his absence was designed. He 
 would have Margery believe that he had spared me 
 honorably as an enemy wounded, and so had left 
 me to the tender mercies of his colonel, well assured 
 that Tarleton would not spare me. And this the 
 colonel did not mean to do, as I was now to hear in 
 brief. 
 
 "You put a bold front on, Captain Ireton, but 'tis 
 to no purpose, this time," he began. " 'Tis charged 
 against you that you rode here from the baron's 
 camp with your commission in your pocket, and 
 came and went within our lines like any other spy. 
 You are a soldier, sir, and you know that's hanging. 
 Yet I will hear you if you've anything to say." 
 
 I made so sure that I should hang in any case 
 that it seemed foolish to answer, and so I saved my 
 breath. Withal he was the terror of our Southland, 
 this tyrant colonel gave me time to consider; and 
 while he waited, grim and silent, the candles on the 
 table guttered and ran down, and the dim light 
 
THE QUALITY OF LIERCY 95 
 
 failed till I could no longer see the face of her I 
 loved framed in the archway of the stair. 
 
 I thought it hard that I had seen my last of her 
 sweet face thus through thickening shadows, as 
 
 a dream might fade. Nevertheless, I would be glad 
 that I had seen her thus, since otherwise, I thought, 
 I must have gone without this last or any other 
 sight of her. 
 
 It was while I was still straining my eyes for one 
 more glimpse of her, and while the court room 
 silence deepened dense upon us like the shadows, 
 that Colonel Tarleton signed to those who guarded 
 me. A hand was laid upon my shoulder, but when 
 I would have turned to go with them a woman's 
 cry cut sharp into the stillness. Then, before any 
 one could say a word or think a thought, my daunt- 
 less little lady stood beside me, her eyes alight and 
 all her glorious beauty heightened in a blaze of gen- 
 erous emotion. 
 
 "For shame ! Colonel Tarleton," she cried. "Do 
 you come thus into my father's house and take a 
 wounded guest and hang him? You say he is a 
 spy, but that he can not be, for he has lain abed In 
 this same house a month or more. You shall not 
 hang him !" 
 
 At this there was a mighty stir about the table, 
 as you may guess ; and some would smile, and some 
 would snuff the candles for a better sight of her 
 sweet face. And through it all, the while my heart 
 went near to bursting at this fresh proof of her most 
 
96 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 fearless loyalty, I ground my teeth in wrath that all 
 those men should look their fill and say by wink 
 and nod and covert smile that this were somewhat 
 more than hostess loyalty. 
 
 But it was the colonel's mocking smile that lashed 
 me sharpest ; his smile and what he said ; and yet not 
 that so much as what he left to be inferred. 
 
 ''Ha ! Plow is this, Mistress Margery ? Do you 
 keep open house for the king's enemies? That 
 spells treason, my dear young lady, and hath an 
 ugly look for you, besides." 
 
 'Tt should have no look at all, save that of hospi- 
 tality, sir," she countered, bravely. "Surely I may 
 plead for justice to a wounded man who was, and is, 
 my father's guest?" 
 
 "And yet he is a spy, and spies must hang." 
 
 "He is no spy." 
 
 The colonel's bow made but a mock of true polite- 
 
 ness. 
 
 You should not make me contradict a lady, j\Iis- 
 trcss Margery. 'Tis evident you have not all his 
 confidence. He was captured red-handed in the act 
 at yonder window, listening to that which he may 
 never know and live to prate about. Besides, he 
 killed a sentry for his chance to listen, and for that 
 Fd hang him if he were my own father's guest." 
 So much he said as mild as if he had not left his 
 reading of the law to figure in our annals as King 
 George's butcher. Then in a sudden gust of rag-e he 
 turned upon the priest, cursing him brutally and 
 
THE QUALITY OF IMERCY 97 
 
 threatening vengeance for his bringing of the lady 
 to the court room. 
 
 Lly brave one stood a moment, shocked as she 
 had warrant for. Then, before the priest or I 
 or any one could stop her, she ran to throw herself 
 upon her knees at Colonel Tarleton's feet — to kneel 
 and plead for me as I would gladly have died a 
 thousand deaths rather than have her plead ; for life 
 for me, or if not that, at least for some brief respite 
 that the priest might shrive me. 
 
 And in the end she won the respite, though I did 
 think it far too dearly bought. When he granted 
 it the colonel lifted her and took her hand, bowing 
 low over it with courtly deference. "For your sake, 
 Mistress Margery, it shall be put off till morning," 
 he said ; then gave the order : At dawn they would 
 march me out and hang me, and I would best be 
 ready. For later than the sunrise of a new day the 
 king himself might not delay my taking off. 
 
 "You know too much, my cursing Captain," was 
 his parting word. "Were it not for Mistress Mar- 
 gery and my promise, you should not keep the 
 breath to tell it over night." 
 
IX 
 
 HOW 'K GOLDEN KEY UNLOCKED X DOOR 
 
 Having my dismissal and reprieve I was re- 
 manded to the custody of that young Lieutenant 
 Tybee whom you have met and known as Falcon- 
 net's second in the duel. Interpreting his orders 
 liberally, he suffered me to keep my own room for 
 the night. I had expected manacles and a room- 
 mate guard at the least, but my gentlemanly jailer 
 spared me both. When he had me safe above-stairs, 
 he barred the door upon me, set a sentry pacing 
 back and forth in the corridor without, and another 
 to keep an eye upon the window from below, and so 
 left me. 
 
 There was no great need for either sentry, or for 
 bolts and bars. What with the night's adventures 
 and my scarce-healed wound, I was far sped on that 
 road which ends against the blind wall of exhaus- 
 tion, as you may well suppose. For while a man 
 may borrow strength of wine or rage or passion, 
 these lenders are but pitiless usurers and will de- 
 mand their pound of flesh; aye, and have it, too, 
 when all the principal is spent. 
 
 98 
 
A GOLDEN KEY 99 
 
 So, when Tybee barred the door and left me 
 with a single candle to my lighting, I was fain to 
 fall upon the bed in utter weariness, thinking that 
 the respite bought by my sweet lady's humbling 
 was more dearly bought than ever, and that the 
 truest mercy would have been the rope and tree 
 without this interval of waiting. 
 
 To me in this grim Doubting Castle of despair 
 the priest came. He was a good man and a true, 
 this low-voiced missioner to the savages, and he 
 would be a curster man than I who failed to give 
 him his due meed of praise and love. For in this 
 dismal interval of waiting, with death so sure and 
 near that all the air was growing chill and lifeless at 
 its presence, he was a ready help in time of need. If 
 I W'Cre ''heretic" to him, I swear I knew it not for 
 aught he said or did ; and though I trusted that 
 when my time was come I should stand forth with 
 some small simple-hearted show of courage, yet 
 when he went away I felt I was the stronger for his 
 coming. And this, mark you, though I was still 
 unshriven, and he had never named the churchly 
 rite to me. 
 
 When he was gone I fell to wearing out the time 
 afoot ; and, lest you think me harder than I was, 
 it may be said that while I did not make confes- 
 sion to the kindly priest, I hope I tried to make my 
 peace with God in some such simpler fashion as 
 our forebears did. 'Twas none so great a matter, 
 for one who lives a soldier's life must needs be ripe 
 for plucking hastily. 
 
100 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 But in the final casting of accounts there was an 
 item written down in red, and one in black, and 
 these would not be scored across for all the travail 
 of a soul departing. The one in black was bitter 
 sorrow for the fate from which I might not live to 
 save my loved one ; the one in red was this ; that I 
 should die and carry hence the knowledge that 
 might else nip the Indian onfall in the bud. 
 
 No sooner was the priest away than I began to 
 upbraid myself because I had not told him of this 
 British-Indian murder plan. And yet on second 
 thought 'twas clear that it had been but a poor 
 shifting of the burden to weaker shoulders ; and 
 thankless, too, for Tarleton would be sure to put 
 him on the question-rack to make him tell of all 
 that passed between us. 
 
 As I had let him go, he would have naught to 
 tell, and so was safe, where otherwise he might be 
 hanged or buried in the hulks for knowing what 
 I knew. No, it were best he knew it not; but how 
 was I to rid me of this burden? — of this and of 
 that other laid upon me for my love? 
 
 The question asked itself a many a time, and was 
 as often answerless, before there came a stir with- 
 out and voices in the corridor. It was the chang- 
 ing of the guard, I guessed, and so it proved, since 
 presently I heard the clanking of the officer's sword, 
 and double footfalls minishing into silence. 
 
 The sentry newly come paced back and forth 
 
 to a low-hummed quick-step of his own, bestirring 
 him.self as one who, roused but now from sleep, 
 
A GOLDEN KEY loi 
 
 would wake himself and be alert. He made more 
 noise than did the other, and that is why I marked 
 it when the footfalls ceased abruptly. A moment 
 afterward the bar was lifted cautiously from its 
 socket, the latch clicked gently, and the door swung 
 open. I looked, and must needs look again to 
 make assurance sure. For on the threshold stood 
 my lady Margery, and just behind her some broad 
 figure of a woman whom I knew for her stout 
 Norman tiring-maid. 
 
 She gave me little time for any word of welcome 
 or of deprecation. While still I stood amazed 
 she dragged the woman in with her and closed the 
 door. At that I found my tongue. 
 
 "Margery! Vvliy have you come?" I spoke in 
 French, and she was quick to lay a finger on her 
 lip. 
 
 "Speak to me in English, if you please," she 
 whispered. "Jeanne knows nothing, and she need 
 not know. But you ask why I come: could I do 
 less than come, dear friend?" 
 
 I had always marveled that she could be so 
 mocking hard at times, and at other times — as 
 now — so soft and gentle. And though I thought 
 it cruel that I should have to fight my battle for the 
 losing of her over again, I had not the heart to chide 
 her. 
 
 "You could have done much less, dear lady," I 
 said, taking her hands in mine ; "much less, and 
 still be blameless. You have done too much for me 
 already. I would you had not done so much; I 
 
jy 
 
 102 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 would to God I had been hanged before you went 
 upon your knees to that — '' 
 
 She freed one hand and laid a finger on my lip — 
 nay, it was her palm, and if I took a dying man's 
 fair leave and kissed it softly, I think she knew it 
 not. 
 
 "Hush !" she commanded. "Is this a time to har- 
 bor bitter thoughts? I thought you might have 
 other things to say to me, Monsieur John." 
 
 "There is no other thing that I may say." 
 
 "Not anything at all ?" 
 
 "Naught but a parting hope for you. I hope you 
 will be true and loyal to yourself, Margery mia.' 
 
 "To myself? I do not understand." 
 
 "I think you do — I think you must.' 
 
 "But I do not." 
 
 I turned it over more than once in my mind 
 if I should tell her all I had feared; should tell 
 her how I came to kill a man and was fair set 
 to kill another had I found a wedding afoot in the 
 great fore-room. I could not bring myself to do 
 it, and yet I thought it would go hard with me 
 if I shoiild leave her still unwarned. 
 
 "If I should try to make you understand, you will 
 be angiy, as you were before." 
 
 The whicker chair was close beside the table and 
 she sat down. And when she spoke she had her 
 hands tight-clasped across her knee and would not 
 look at me. 
 
 "Is it — about — Sir Francis?" 
 
 » 
 
A GOLDEN KEY 103 
 
 "It is/' said I, pausing once more upon the brink 
 of full confession. 
 
 She waited patiently for me to speak further; 
 waited and let me fight it out in slow pacings up 
 and down before her chair. Without, the night was 
 calm and still, and through the opened casement 
 came the measured beat of footfalls on the gravel 
 where the outer sentry kept his watch beneath the 
 window. Within, the single candle battled feebly 
 with the gloom and lighted naught for me save 
 my dear lady's face, pensive now and saintly sweet 
 as it had been that morning when I had dwelt upon 
 it the while she knew it not. And in the back- 
 ground stood the sleepy tire-woman, giving no sign 
 of life save now and then a tortured yawn behind 
 her hand. 
 
 I think my lady must have known how hard 
 it was for me to speak, for, when the silence had 
 grown overlong, she said, gently : "I bought these 
 flying minutes of the sentry, IMonsieur John. Will 
 you not use them ?" 
 
 ''If I should say the thing I ought to say, you'll 
 think the minutes dearly bought, I fear." 
 
 'No, that I shall not, if it will ease your mind." 
 
 Then tell me why you sent for Father Matthieu." 
 
 The light was dim, as I have said, 3-et I could see 
 the faint flush spread from neck to cheek. 
 
 ''You are not of the Church, Monsieur John. 
 You would not understand if I should tell you." 
 
 "I think I understand without your telling. You 
 said Sir Francis Falconnet had asked for you." 
 
 
104 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 (C > 
 
 Twas you who drove me to say it.'* 
 
 "Because I tried to warn you ?" 
 
 "Because you would be vengeful when you should 
 have been forgiving." 
 
 " 'Twas not revenge, just then, though while I 
 live I shall have ample cause to hate this man." 
 
 "What was it, then ?" 
 
 "It was love; love for you, and — and Richard 
 Jennifer.'^ 
 
 She rose, and I could see her eyes ashine for all 
 the half-gloom of the candle-light. 
 
 "You are a loyal friend !" she said, and there was 
 that within the words to make me glad, whatever 
 fate the dawn should have in store for me. "You 
 always think of others first ; you think of others 
 now, when — when death — Oh, Monsieur John ! 
 what can I do for you? Say quick! The man is 
 coming to the door !" 
 
 "Now I have told you this, there is but one other 
 thing, Margery dear; one little thing that will not 
 let me die in peace. If I might have ten words 
 with Richard Jennifer — " 
 
 She left me in a fever-flutter of excitement, 
 whipped to the door, and had a word with him who 
 stood without. I heard the chink of coin, and then 
 she hastened back to me, all eagerness and tremu- 
 lous impatience. 
 
 "Tell me — ^tell me Instantly what I must do. I 
 am not afraid. Shall I ride down to Jennifer House 
 and fetch Dick here ?" 
 
 "He is a prisoner, and if he were not, they would 
 
A GOLDEN KEY 105 
 
 not let him see me. Besides, I would not let you 
 go on such an errand. And yet — God help me, 
 Margery! there is many an innocent life hanging 
 on this ; the lives of helpless women and little chil- 
 dren. Have you ever a messenger to send, a man 
 who will risk his life and can be trusted fully ?" 
 
 ''Yes, yes !" she cried. "Write it down for me 
 and Dick shall have it. Quick ; for Our Lady's 
 sake, be quick about it! Sancta Maria, mater^ 
 Dei—" 
 
 The low imipassioned chant of the Roman litany 
 was ringing in my ears as I sat down to the table 
 to write my message to Richard Jennifer. There 
 were quills and an ink-pot at hand, but no paper. 
 I felt mechanically in my pocket and found, not 
 some old letter, as I hoped, but the crumpled parch- 
 ment map snatched and hidden when Captain Stuart 
 had winced and dropped it at the bidding of the 
 whistling sword about his ears. 
 
 How it was they had not searched me for it, I 
 knov/ not ; though haply the captain did not guess 
 how he had lost it. Be that as it might, I had it 
 safe, and Dick should have it safe, and use it, 
 too, to some good purpose, as I fondly hoped. 
 
 You'd hardly think from the slow and clumsy 
 spinning of this tale that I could crowd the narra- 
 tive of all that I had seen and heard into a niggard 
 three-score words or less. But this I did, writing 
 them upon the margin of the captain's map, and 
 noting in an added line the pricking out of the pow- 
 der convoy's route. And while my pen was looping 
 
io6 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 on the flourish to my name, my eager little lady 
 seized the pounce-box, sanded me the heavy trail- 
 ings of the quill, snatched and hid the parchment in 
 her bosom, and was gone. 
 
 And but for this; that I heard the door-latch 
 click behind her, and then the heavy wooden bar 
 fall into place, I might have thought the happen- 
 ings of the hour the unsubstantial fancies of a 
 dream. 
 
X 
 
 HOW A FORLORN HOPE CAME TO GRIEF 
 
 Although I could not hope to know the outcome 
 of this desperate cast to speed the warning to the 
 over-mountain settlements — could never live to 
 know it, as I thought — I screened the candle and 
 stood beside the open window, not to see or hear, 
 but rather from the lack of sight or sound to gather 
 some encouragement. For sure, I reasoned, if Mar- 
 gery's messenger should fail to pass the sentries 
 there would be clamor enough to tell me of it. 
 
 So while the minutes of this safety-silence multi- 
 plied and there was space for sober after-thought, 
 I fell to casting up the chances of success. Now 
 that Margery was gone, and with her all the fine 
 enthusiasm that such devoted souls as hers do al- 
 ways radiate, it was plain enough that nothing less 
 than a miracle could bring success. Tarleton's 
 Legion was made up of veterans schooled well 
 in border warfare, and though the bivouac seemed 
 but a camp of motionless figures fast mana- 
 cled in sleep — I could see them strewn like dead 
 men round the smoldering fires — I made no doubt 
 
 107 
 
io8 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 the sentries were alert and wakeful. How then was 
 any messenger of Margery's to pass the lines, or, 
 passing them, to come at Jennifer, who by this time 
 would be at Jennifer House, a prisoner in all but 
 name? 
 
 Chewing such wormwood thoughts as these, I 
 watched and listened while the measured minutes, 
 circling slow on leaden wings, pecked at my heart 
 in passing, and despair, cold like a winter fog, 
 had chilled me to the bone. For now it came to 
 me that while I would be saving life, mayhap I 
 had been periling it again. There was small doubt 
 that if the messenger were taken with my letter, 
 his life would pay the forfeit. x\nd if the fear of 
 death should make him tell who sent him and to 
 whom he was sent, — I had been careful so to word 
 the letter as to shield my correspondent, — both Mar- 
 gery and Dick would be involved. 
 
 'Tis worthy of remark how, building on the sim- 
 plest supposition, we seldom prophes}^ aright. For 
 all my fine-spun theories the manner of the thing 
 that happened was all unlike the forecast. Suddenly, 
 and in silence, out of the ghostly shadows of the 
 trees and into the wan moonlight of the open space 
 beneath my window, with neither shout nor crash 
 of sentry-gun to give me warning, came three fig- 
 ures riding abreast — a man in trooper trappings on 
 either hand, and on the led horse sandwiched in 
 between, a woman. 
 
 You may believe my heart went cold at the sight. 
 I knew at once what she had done — this fearless 
 
HOPE CAME TO GRIEF 109 
 
 maid who would be loyal to her friend at any cost. 
 Having no messenger she could trust — she knew it 
 well when she had promised me — she had taken the 
 errand upon herself, braving a hazard that would 
 have daunted many a man. 
 
 I thought the worst had surely now befallen, 
 and wished a hundred times that I had died before 
 it came to this. But there was worse in store. Her 
 captors passed the word while yet I looked and 
 choked with rage and grief; and then the bivouac 
 buzzed alive, and men came running, some with 
 arms and some with torches, these last to flash the 
 light upon her and to jeer and laugh. At length — 
 it seemed an age to me — an officer appeared to 
 flog the rabble into order ; then she was taken from 
 her horse and led into the house. 
 
 Anon the windows of the great fore-room flung 
 bands of yellow torchlight out upon the lawn, and 
 I knew that Tarleton's court was set again. At 
 that the pains of hell gat hold upon me and I did 
 pray as I had never prayed before that God would 
 grant me this one boon — to stand beside her in this 
 time of trial ; to give me tongue of eloquence to 
 tell them all that she was Innocent ; to give me 
 breath to swear she knew not why she went, or what 
 the message was she carried. 
 
 Yours is a skeptic age, my dears, and you have 
 learned to scoff at things you do not understand. 
 But, so long as I shall live, I must believe that 
 agonizing plea was answered. While yet the an- 
 guish of it wrung my soul there came a hasty 
 
no THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 trampling in the corridor, the sentry's challenge, 
 and then a quick unbarring of the door. I turned 
 upon my heel to face a young ensign come with two 
 m^en at his back to take me to the colonel. 
 
 They bound me well and strongly with many 
 wrappings of stout cord before they led me downo 
 Nor must you think me broken-spirited because I 
 let them. In any other cause but this I hope I should 
 have fought to die unmanacled ; but now I suffered 
 gladly this little, seeing I had made my dear lady 
 suffer so greatly. 
 
 When we were come into the room below they 
 let me stand beside her, as I had prayed God they 
 might ; and when I stole a glance at her I was fain 
 to think my coming gave her courage and support. 
 For you must know the place was fair alive with 
 men, and flaring light with torches ; and they had 
 never offered her a chair. 
 
 The colonel stood apart, the center of a group of 
 officers, and Falconnet was with him. Hovering 
 on the edges of the group, as if afraid to show them- 
 selves too boldly in such a coil, w^ere Gilbert Stair 
 and that smooth parchment-visaged knave, his fac- 
 tor. The while they thrust me forth to take my 
 place at Margery's side, the good old priest came 
 and would have joined us ; but they would not suffer 
 him. 
 
 So we two stood alone together as we had stood 
 before ; but now my lady's eyes were downcast, and 
 her lips and cheeks were pale. Yet she Vv^as more 
 beautiful than I had ever seen her — so beautiful 
 
^ 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 ^Km^y- 
 
 
HOPE CAAIE TO GRIEF iii 
 
 that I would swear the sum of all the precious gifts 
 in God's great universe might be expressed for me 
 in this ; that I might die to save her from this shame 
 and ag^onv. 
 
 ^^llen m}' guards had thrust me forward, the 
 colonel made short work of our fresh offense. 
 
 " 'Twas a dastard's trick, my Captain — ^this tang- 
 ling of the lady in your treason," he began. "How 
 did you get your speech with her ?" 
 
 **That is none of your affair, Colonel Tarleton," 
 I retorted boldly, thinking that with such a man the 
 shortest word were ever the best. "Yet I may say 
 that the lady knew not what she did, nor why. As 
 for my getting speech with her, she was not any way 
 to blame. I tampered with your sentry." 
 
 "By God, you lie!" was his comment on this. 
 "She might have tampered with the guard and so 
 got leave to keep a midnight tryst with you, but 
 not you." And then to my poor frighted love : 
 "Have you no shame, l^.Iistress JMargery Stair?" 
 
 Now I have said that she was changeful as any 
 child or April sky, but never had I seen her pass 
 from mood to mood as she did then. One moment 
 she stood a woman tremulous and tearful as any 
 woman caught in desperate deed ; the next she be- 
 came a goddess vilified, and if her look had been 
 a dagger I think her flashing eyes had killed him 
 where he stood. 
 
 "You've found a way to make me speak, sir, 
 and I wish you joy of it. 'Twas I who bribed your 
 sentry, and I did go to Captain Ireton's room." 
 
112 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 The colonel laughed and shot a gibe sharp at 
 my enemy. 
 
 "How is this, Sir Francis. Did I not tell you 
 you had thrust an inch or so too high? By God, 
 sir, I think you will come over-late, if ever you 
 do come at all. This captain-emeritus hath fore- 
 stalled you beautifully.'' 
 
 As more than once before in this eventful night, 
 the air went flaming red before my eyes and help- 
 less wrath came uppermost. I saw no way to clear 
 her, and had there been the plainest way, dumb 
 rage would still have held me tongue-tied. So I 
 could only mop and mow and stammer, and, when 
 the words were found, make shift to blunder out 
 that such an accusation did the lady grievous wrong ; 
 that she had come attended and at my beseeching, 
 to take a message from a dying man to one who was 
 his friend. 
 
 For my pains I had a brutal laugh in payment ; 
 a laugh that, starting with the colonel, went the 
 rounds in jeering grins of incredulity. And on the 
 heels of it the colonel swore afresh, cursing me for 
 a clumsy liar. 
 
 "A likely story, that!" he scoffed. "Next you 
 will say she knew not what this message was." 
 
 "I said it once. She knew not what the message 
 was, nor why I sent it." 
 
 I felt her eyes upon me as I spoke, and turned to 
 find them full of tearful pleading. "Oh, tell the 
 truth I" she whispered. "Don't you see ? He has 
 the letter !" 
 
HOPE CAME TO GRIEF 113 
 
 I looked, and sure enough he held it in his hand ; 
 and then I understood the flash of irony in the sloe- 
 black eves of him. 
 
 ''You lie clumsily, Captain Ireton, though it is a 
 gentlemanly lie and does you honor. But we have 
 trapped you fairly and you may as well make a 
 clean breast of it. Your mistress knew very well 
 what you v/ould have her do, and since she is your 
 mistress, went to do it." 
 
 While he was speaking I had a thought white- 
 hot from some forge-fire of inspiration — a thought 
 to tip an arrow of conviction and set it quivering 
 in the mark. I would not stop to measure it; to 
 look aside at her or any other lest one brief glance 
 apart should send the arrow wavering from its 
 course. So I looked the colonel boldly in the eye 
 and drew the bow and sped the shaft. 
 
 "You think no other than a mistress would have 
 done this, Colonel Tarleton — that it was done for 
 love ? Well, so it was ; but with the love there went 
 a duty." 
 
 "A duty, say you ? How is that ?" 
 
 I bowed as best I might, being so tightly bound ; 
 then fixed his eye again. 
 
 "You had forgot that honor is not wholly dead, 
 sir. This lady is my wif( 
 
 
XI 
 
 HOW A LIE WAS MADE THE VERY TRUTH 
 
 For some small instant I dared not loose my eye- 
 grip on the colonel, to glance aside at Falconnet, 
 or Gilbert Stair, or at the woman close beside me. 
 If I had flinched or wavered, or let an eyelid droop 
 but by the thickness of a hair, this keen-eyed colonel 
 would have been upon me to cut the ground be- 
 neath my feet and leave me dangling by the lie. 
 
 But as it was, I faced him down ; and winning 
 him, won all. There v/as a muttered oath from 
 Falconnet, a tremulous cry of rage from where her 
 father stood; and then I sought my lady's eyes to 
 read my sentence in them. 
 
 She gave me but a glance, and though I tried 
 as I had never tried before to read her meaning 
 it was hid from me. But this I marked ; that she 
 did draw aside from me_, and that her face was cold 
 and still, and that her lips were pressed together as 
 if not all nor any should ever make her speak 
 again. 
 
 At this sharp crisis, when a look or word would 
 cost me more than death and my dear lady her 
 honor, it was the colonel who, all unwittingly, 
 
 114 
 
' A LIE MADE THE VERY TRUTH 115 
 
 stood my friend. A breath of doubt upon my lie 
 and we were lost ; and once I thought he would have 
 breathed it. But he did not. Instead, he broke out 
 in a laugh, with a gibe flung first at Gilbert Stair 
 and then at Falconnet. 
 
 ''God save us! I give you joy, ]\Ir. Stair, and 
 you, Sir Francis. These two have duped you 
 bravely. By heavens ! Sir Frank ; 'twas you who 
 should have had the sword thrust in the duel. In 
 that event you might have stood in Captain Ireton's 
 shoes, and so had the priest fetched for your bene- 
 fit." Then he turned to Margery with a bow that 
 had no touch of mockery in it. 'T crave your 
 pardon, Aladam ; I knew not you were pleading for 
 your husband's life an hour ago. It grieves me 
 that I may not spare him to you longer than the 
 night, but war is cruel at its best." 
 
 She stood like any statue done in cold Carrara 
 while he spoke; and when she made no sign he 
 gave the word to recommit me. 
 
 "Take him away, Lieutenant Tybee, and see he 
 has a bribe-proof man this time to keep him com- 
 pany. Madam Ireton, I'll put you on your honor: 
 you may have access to him, but there must 
 be no messages carried in or out. To your quar- 
 ters, gentlemen. We must ride far and hard to- 
 
 morrow." 
 
 When his final word had set her free, my frozen 
 maiden came to life and ran to throw herself in 
 helpless sobbings, not upon her father, as you would 
 think, but upon the good priest. And it was Father 
 
ii6 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 Matthieu who led her, still crying softly, out of 
 the throng- and up the low stair ; and now I marked 
 that all the rough soldiery stood aside and made 
 way for her with never a man among them to scoft 
 or sneer or point a gibe. 
 
 At her going, Tybee drew his sword and cut the 
 cord that bound me. 
 
 "These youngling cubs are over-cautious. Captain 
 Ireton. We shall not make it harder for each other 
 than we must," he said, with bluff good nature. 
 And then : "Will you lead the way to your room, 
 sir?" — this to give the youngling cub another les- 
 son, I suppose. 
 
 I walked beside him to the stair, and when I 
 stumbled, being weak and spent, he took my arm 
 and steadied me, and I did think it kindly done. 
 At my own door he gave me precedence again, say- 
 ing, with a touch of the grateful Old World cour- 
 tesy, "After you, sir," and standing aside to let me 
 enter first. When we were both within he touched 
 upon the colonel's mandate. 
 
 "I must obey my orders. Captain Ireton, but by 
 your good leave I shall not lock you up with any 
 trooper ; I'll stay with you myself." 
 
 I thought this still more kindly than aught he 
 had done before, and so I told him. But he put it 
 off lightly. 
 
 " 'Tis little enough any one can do for you, 
 my friend, but I will do that little as I can. You 
 are like to have a visitor, I take it; if you have, 
 
A LIE MADE THE VERY TRUTH 117 
 
 I'm sure 'twill be a comfort if your body-guard 
 can be stone blind and deaf." 
 
 So saying", he dragged the big wicker chair into 
 the window-bay, planted himself deep within it 
 with his back to all the room, and so left m.e to my 
 own devices. 
 
 Being spent enough to sleep beneath the shadow 
 of a gibbet, I threw myself full-length upon the bed 
 and was, I think, adrift upon the ebb tide of ex- 
 haustion and forgetfulness when once again the 
 shifting of the wooden door-bar roused me. I rose 
 up quickly, but Tybee was before me. There was 
 some low-voiced conference at the door ; then Tybee 
 came to me. 
 
 " Tis Mr. Gilbert Stair," he said. "He has per- 
 mission from the colonel and insists that he must 
 see you solus. I'll take your word and leave you, 
 if you like." 
 
 At first I hung reluctant, wanting little of the 
 host who came so late to see his guest. Then, as 
 if a sudden flash of lightning had revealed it, I 
 realized, as I had not before, how I had set the feet 
 of my dear lady in a most hideous labyrinth of de- 
 ception; how this lie that I had told to bridge a 
 momentary gap must leave her neither maid nor 
 widow in the morning. 
 
 *'Yes, yes ; for God's sake let him in, IMr. Tybee !" 
 I burst out. "I am fair crazed with weariness, and 
 had forgot. 'Tis most important, I do assure you." 
 
 The thing was done at once, and before I knew it 
 
Ii8 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 il was alone with the old man who, though he was 
 my supplanter, was also Margery's father. He en- 
 tered cautiously, shielding his bedroom candle with 
 his hand and peering over it to make me out, as if 
 his venturing in wxre not unperllous. And I 
 marked that when he put the candle down upon 
 the table, he edged away and felt behind him for 
 the door as if to make sure of his retreat in case of 
 need. 
 
 *'Sit down. Captain Ireton ; sit down, I beg of 
 you," he said, in his thin, rasping treble. And when 
 I had obeyed: 'T think you must know what I've 
 come for, Captain Ireton?" 
 
 I said I could guess ; and he began again, volu- 
 bly now, as if to have it over in the shortest space. 
 
 " 'Twas not a gentlemanly thing for you to do, 
 Captain Ireton — this marrying of a foolish girl out 
 of hand w^hile you were here a guest ; and as for the 
 priest that did it, I — I'll have him hanged before 
 the army leaves, I promise you. But now 'tis done, 
 I hope ye're prepared to make the best of it ?" 
 
 I saw at once that his daughter had not yet 
 confided in him; that he was still entangled in my 
 lie. So I thought it well to probe him deeper while 
 I might. 
 
 "What would you call *the best,' if I may ask?" 
 said I, growing the cooler with some better seeing 
 of the way ahead. 
 
 "The marriage settlements !" he cried shrilly, com- 
 ing to the point at once, as any miser would. " 'Tis 
 
(( 
 (( 
 
 A LIE :MADE the very truth 119 
 
 the merest matter of form, as ye may say, for your 
 title to Appleby Hundred is well burnt out, I prom- 
 ise you. But for the decent look of it you might 
 make over your quitclaim to your wife." 
 
 'Aye, truly ; so I might." 
 
 And so you should, sir ; that you should, ye mis- 
 erable, spying runag" — he choked and coughed be- 
 hind his hand and then began again without the 
 epithets. " "Tis the very least ye can do for her now, 
 when you have the rope fair around your curs — 
 ahem — your — your rebel neck. Only for the form's 
 sake, to be sure, ye understand, for she'd inherit 
 after you in any case." 
 
 I saw his drift at last, and, not caring to spare 
 him, sped the shaft of truth and let it find the joint 
 in his harness. 
 
 " 'Tis as you say, Mr. Stair. But as it chances, 
 Mistress jNIargery is not my wife." 
 
 If I had flung the candle at him where he stood 
 fumbling behind him for the door-latch, 'twould not 
 have made him shrink or dodge the more. 
 
 - *' Wha — what's that ye say ?" he piped in shrillest 
 cadence. "Xot married ? Then you — you — " 
 
 "I lied to save her honor — that was all. A wife 
 might do the thing she did and go scot free of 
 any scandal ; but not a maid, as you could see and 
 hear." 
 
 - For some brief time it smote him speechless, and 
 in the depth of his astoundment he forgot his foolish 
 fear of me and fell to pacing up and down, though 
 always with the table cannily between us. And as he 
 
120 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 shuffled back and forth the thin lips muttered fool- 
 ish nothings, with here and there a tremulous oath. 
 When all was done he dropped into a chair and 
 stared across at me with leaden eyes ; and truly he 
 had the look of one struck with a mortal sickness. 
 
 'T think — I think you owe me something now 
 beyond your keeping, Captain Ireton," he quavered, 
 at length, mumbling the words as do the palsied. 
 
 "Since you are Margery's father, I owe you any- 
 thing a dying man can pay," said I. 
 
 "Words ; empty words," he fumed. "If it were 
 a thing to do, now — " 
 
 "You need but name the thing and I will do it 
 willingly." 
 
 Instead of naming it he shot a question at me, 
 driving it home with certain random thrustings of 
 the shifty eyes. 
 
 "Who is your next of kin. Captain Ireton ?" 
 
 "Septimus, of the same name, master of Ireton- 
 dene, on the James River, and a major in the Vir- 
 ginia line," I answered, wondering how my cousin 
 once removed should figure in the present coil. But 
 Gilbert Stair's next question dispelled the mystery. 
 
 "If you should die intestate, this Septimus would 
 be your heir?" 
 
 "As next of kin, I should suppose he would. But 
 I have nothing to devise." 
 
 "True ; and yet" — he paused again as if the word- 
 ing of it were not easy. 
 
 "Be free to speak your mind, Mr. Stair," said L 
 
A LIE MADE THE VERY TRUTH 121 
 
 " 'Tis this," he cried, gathering himself as with 
 an effort. "You've claimed my daughter as your 
 wife before them all, and when you die to-morrow 
 morning you'll leave her neither wife nor maid. 
 I think — I think you'd best make that lie of yours 
 the truth." 
 
 If one of his thin hands that clutched the chair 
 arms had pressed a secret spring and loosed a trap 
 to send me gasping down an oubliette, I should have 
 been the less astounded. Indeed, for some short 
 space I thought him mad ; yet, on second thought, 
 I saw the method in his madness. Could IMarger}' 
 be brought to view it calmly, this was a sv*rord to 
 cut the knot of all entanglements. 
 
 As matters stood, the world would call her widow 
 at my death ; and since a woman is first of all the 
 keeper of her own good name, she would never 
 dare aver the truth. So in common justice she 
 should own the name the world would call her by. 
 Again, as matters stood, no wrong could come of 
 it to her, or Richard Jennifer, or any. Dick would 
 love her none the less because a dying man had 
 given her his name for some few hours. And if, 
 at anv future time, the Ireton title should revive' 
 and this poor double-dealing miser should be forced 
 to quit his hold on Appleby Hundred, my father's 
 acres would be hers in her own right. One breach in 
 all this sudden-builded wall I saw, but could not 
 mend it. With the Ireton acres hers by double 
 right, the baronet v/ould press his suit with greater 
 
122 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 vigor than before. But as to this, no further act 
 of mine could help or hinder; and if I died her 
 husband she would in decency delay a while. 
 
 So summing up in far less time than it has cost 
 to write it otit for you, I gave my host his answer. 
 
 "I told you you might name the deed, and I would 
 do it, Mr. Stair. If you can make your daughter 
 understand — " 
 
 "The jade will do as she is bid,'* he cut in wrath- 
 fully. *Tf she will drag my good name in the 
 mire, I'm damned if she sha n't pay the scot. And 
 now about the settlements. Captain Ireton; you'll 
 be making her legatee residuary ?" 
 
 At this I saw his drift again, most clearly; that 
 he would never stickle for his daughter's honor, 
 but for the quieting of his title to my father's 
 lands — a title that my cousin Septimus might dis- 
 pute. It was enough to set me obstinate against 
 him ; but I constrained myself to think of Margery 
 and Richard Jennifer, and not at all of this poor 
 petty miser. 
 
 "I'll sign a quitclaim in her favor, if that is what 
 you mean/' I said. "But 'tis a mere pen-scratch 
 for the lawyers to haggle over. As you said a while 
 ago, the wife will be the husband's heir-at-law, in 
 any event." 
 
 "True ; but we'd best be at it in due and proper 
 form." He rose and hobbled to the door and was 
 so set upon haste that his shaking hand played a 
 rattling tattoo on the latch. "I — I'll go and have 
 the papers drawn, and you will sign them, Captain 
 
A LIE MADE THE VERY TRUTH 123 
 
 Ireton; I have your passed word that you will sign 
 them r 
 
 "Aye ; they shall be signed." 
 
 He went away at that, and Tybee entered. !Much 
 to my comfort, the lieutenant asked no questions ; 
 so far from it, he crossed the room without a word, 
 flung himself into the great chair and left me to my 
 own communings. 
 
 These were not altogether of assurance." Though 
 I had promised readily enough to miake my lie a 
 truth, I saw that all was yet contingent upon my 
 lady's viewing of the proposal. That I could win 
 her over I had some hope, if only they would leave 
 the task for me. But there was room to fear that 
 this poor miser father would make it all a thing of 
 property and so provoke her to resistance. And, 
 notwithstanding what he said — that she would do 
 as she was bid — I thought I knew her temper well 
 enough to prophesy a hitch. For I made sure of 
 one thing, that if she put her will against the world, 
 the v/orld would never move her. 
 
 'Twas past midnight, Vv'ith Tybee dozing in his 
 chair, when next I heard some stirrings in the cor- 
 ridor. As before, it was the lifting of the wooden 
 bar that roused my friendly guard, and when he 
 went to parley at the door I stood apart and turned 
 my back. 
 
 When I looked again my company was come. 
 At the table, busied with a parchment that might 
 have been a ducal title deed for size, stood Gilbert 
 Stair and the factor-lawyer, Owen Pengarvin. A 
 
124 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 little back of them the good old Father Matthieu 
 had jMargery on his arm. And in the corner Tybee 
 stood to keep the door. 
 
 I grouped them all in one swift eye-sweep, and 
 having listed them, strove to read some lesson- 
 ing of my part in my dear lady's face. She gave 
 me nothing of encouragement, nor yet a cue of any 
 kind to lead to what it was that she would have me 
 say or do. As I had seen it last, under the light of 
 the flaring torches in the room below, her face was 
 cold and still ; and she was standing motionless 
 beside the priest, looking straight at me, it seemed, 
 with eyes that saw nothing. 
 
 It was the factor-lawyer who broke the silence, 
 saying, with his predetermined smirk, that the 
 parchment was ready for my signature. Thinking 
 it well beneath me to measure words with this knav- 
 ish pettifogger, I looked beyond him and spoke to 
 his master. 
 
 "1 would have a word or two m private with 
 your daughter before this matter ripens further, Mr. 
 Stair," I said. 
 
 My lady dropped the priest's arm and came to 
 stand beside me in the window-bav. I oftered her 
 a chair but she refused to sit. There was so little 
 time to spare that I must needs begin without pre- 
 liminary. 
 
 "What has your father told you, Margery?" I 
 asked. 
 
 "He tells me nothing that I care to know." 
 
 "But he has told you what you must do ?" 
 
A LIE MADE THE VERY TRUTH 125 
 
 "Yes." She looked with eyes that saw me not. 
 "And you are here to do it of your own free 
 
 will r 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Yet it must be done.'* 
 
 "So he says, and so you say. But I had rather 
 die." 
 
 " 'Tis not a pleasing thing, I grant you, Mar- 
 gery ; notwithstanding, of our two evils it is by far 
 the less. Bethink you a moment : 'tis but the 
 saying of a few words by the priest, and the bear- 
 ing of my name for some short while till you can 
 change it for a better." 
 
 Her deep-welled eyes met mine, and in them was 
 a flash of anger. 
 
 "Is that what marriage means to you, Captain 
 Treton ?" 
 
 "No, truly. But we have no choice. 'Tis this, 
 or I must leave you in the morning to worse things 
 than the bearing of my name. I would it had not 
 thus been thrust upon us, but I could see no other 
 way." 
 
 "See what comes of tampering with the truth," 
 she said, and I could see her short lip curl with 
 scorn. "Why should you lie and lie again, when 
 any one could see that it must come to this — or 
 worse ?" 
 
 "I saw It not," I said. "But had I stopped to look 
 beyond the moment's need and seen the end from 
 the beginning, I fear I should have lied yet other 
 times. Your honor was at stake, dear lady." 
 
12^ THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 "My honor!" — this in bitterest irony. "WHat 
 is a woman's honor, sir, when you or any man 
 has patched and sewed and sought to make it whole 
 again? I will not say the word you'd have me 
 say !" 
 
 "But you must say it, Alargery. Tis but the 
 merest form ; you forget that 3'Ou will be a wife only 
 in name. I shall not live to make you rue it." 
 
 "You m.ake me rue it now^ beforehand. Mon 
 Dieu! is a woman but a thing, to stand before the 
 priest and plight her troth for 'merest form' ? You'll 
 make me hate you while I live — and after !" 
 
 "You'd hate me worse, Margery dear, if I should 
 leave you drowning in this ditch. And I can bear 
 your hatred for some few hours, knowing that if I 
 sinned and robbed you, I did make restitution as 
 I could." 
 
 She heard me through with eyelids down and 
 som.e fierce storm of passion shaking her. And 
 when she answered her voice was low and soft; 
 yet it cut me like a knife. 
 
 "You drive me to it — listen, sir, yoti drive me to 
 iff And I have said that I shall hate you for it. 
 Com.e ; 'tis but a mockery, as you say ; and they are 
 
 waiting." 
 
 I sought to take her hand and lead her forth, 
 but this she would not suffer. She walked beside 
 me, proud and cold and scornful ; stood beside me 
 while I sat and read the parchment over. It was 
 no marriage settlement ; it was a will, drawn out 
 in legal form. And In it I bequeathed to Margery 
 
A LIE MADE THE VERY TRUTH 127 
 
 Treton as her true jointure, not any claim of mine 
 to Appleby Hundred, hut the estate itself. 
 
 I read it through as I have said, and, looking 
 across to these two plotters, the miser-master and 
 his henchman, smiled as I had never thought to 
 smile a.'srain. 
 
 "So," said I ; "the truth is out at last. I wondered 
 if the confiscation act had left you wholly scathe- 
 less, Mr. Stair. Well, I am content. I shall die 
 the easier for knowing that I have lain a guest in 
 my own house. Give me the pen." 
 
 Twas given quickly, and I signed the will, with 
 Tybee and the lawyer for the witnesses ; Margery 
 standing by the while and looking on; though 
 not, I made sure, w^ith any realizing of the business 
 matter. 
 
 When all was done the priest found his book, 
 and we stood before him ; the woman who had 
 sworn to hate, and the man who, loving her to 
 full forgetfulness of death itself, must yet be 
 cold and formal, masking his love for her dear sake, 
 and for the sake of loyalty to his friend. And 
 here again 'twas Tybee and the lawyer who were 
 the witnesses ;^ the one well hated, and the other 
 loved if but for this ; that when the time came for 
 the giving of the ring, he drew a gold band from 
 his little finger and made me take and use it. 
 
 And so that deed was done in some such sorry 
 fashion as the time and place constrained ; and had 
 you stood within the four walls of that upper room 
 you would have thought the chill of death had 
 
128 THE PIASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 touched us, and that the low-voiced priest was 
 shriving us the while we knelt to take his benedic- 
 tion. All through this farce — which was in truth 
 the grimmest of all tragedies — my lady played her 
 part as one who walks in sleep ; and at the end she 
 let her father lead her out with not a word or look 
 or sign to me. 
 
 You'd guess that I would take it hard — her leav- 
 ing of me thus, as I made sure, for all eternity; 
 and I did take it hard. For when the strain was 
 off, and there was no one by to see or hear save 
 my good-hearted death-watch, I must needs go 
 down upon my knees beside the bed in childish 
 weakness, and sob and choke and let the hot tears 
 come as I had not since at this same bedside I had 
 knelt a little lad to take my mother's dying love. 
 
XII 
 
 HOW THE NEWS CAME TO UNWELCOME EARS 
 
 Though all the western quarter of the sky was 
 night-black and spangled yet with stars, the dawn 
 was graying slowly in the east when Tybee 
 roused me. 
 
 'They have not come for you as yet," he said; 
 " so I took time by the forelock and passed the word 
 for breakfast. It heartens a man to eat a bite and 
 drink a cup of wine just on the battle's edge. Will 
 you sit and let me serve you, Captain Ireton?" 
 
 "That I will not," said I; adding that I would 
 blithely share the breakfast with him. Whereat he 
 laugh id and dipt my hand, and swore I was a true 
 soldirr and a brave gentleman to boot. 
 
 So we sat and hobnobbed at the table ; and Tybee 
 lighted all the remnant candle-ends, and broached 
 the wine and pledged me in a bumper before we fell 
 to upon the cold haunch of venison. 
 
 My summons came when we had shared the heel- 
 tap of the bottle. It was my toast to this kind- 
 hearted youngster, and we drained it standing what 
 tim.e the stair gave back the tread of marching 
 
 129 
 
130 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 men. Tybee crashed his glass upon the floor and 
 wrung my hand across the table. 
 
 "Good by, my Captain ; they have come. God 
 damn me, sir, I'll swear they might do worse than 
 let you go, for all your spying. You've carried off 
 this matter with the lady as a gentleman should, 
 and whilst I live, she shall not lack a friend. If 
 you have any word to leave for her — " 
 
 I shook my head. "No," said I ; then, on second 
 thought : "And yet there is a word. You saw how 
 I must see the matter through to shield the lady?" 
 
 "Surely ; 'twas plain enough for any one to see." 
 
 "Then I shall die the easier if you will undertake 
 to make it plain to Richard Jennifer. He must be 
 made to know that I supplanted him only in a formal 
 way, and that to save the lady's honor." 
 
 The lieutenant promised heartily, and as he spoke, 
 the oaken bar was lifted and my reprieve was at 
 an end. 
 
 Having the thing to despatch before they broke 
 their fast, my soldier hangmen marched me off 
 without ado. The house and all within it seemed 
 yet asleep, but out of doors the legion vanguard was 
 astir, and newly kindled camp-fires smoked and 
 blazed among the trees. In shortest space we left 
 these signs of life behind, and I began to think 
 toward the end. 
 
 'Tis curious how sweet this troubled life of ours 
 becomes when that day wakes wherein it must be 
 shuffled off! As a soldier must, I thought I had 
 held life lightly enough; nay, this I know; I had 
 
THE NEWS TO UNWELCOME EARS i^i 
 
 often worn it upon my sleeve in battle. But now, 
 when I was marching forth to this cold-blooded 
 end without the battle-chance to make it welcome, 
 all nature cried aloud to me. 
 
 The dawn was not unlike that other dawn a 
 month past when I had ridden down the river 
 road with Jennifer; a morning fair and fine, its 
 cup abrim and running over with the wine of life. 
 I thought the cool, moist air had never seemed so 
 sweet and fragrant; that nature's garb had never 
 seemed so blithe. There was no hint nor sign of 
 death in all the wooded prospect. The birds were 
 singing joyously; the squirrels, scarce alarmed 
 enough to scamper out of sight, sat each upon his 
 bough to chatter at us as w^e passed. And once, 
 when we were filing through a bosky dell with 
 softest turf to muffle all our treadings, a fox ran 
 
 out and stood with one uplifted foot, and was as 
 still as any stock or stone until he had the scent 
 of us. 
 
 A mile beyond the outfields of Appleby Hundred 
 we passed the legion picket line, and I began to 
 wonder whv we went so far ; wondered and 
 made bold to ask the ensign in command, turning 
 it into a grim jest and saying I misliked to come 
 too weary to my end. 
 
 The ensign, a curst young popinjay, as little 
 officer cubs are like to be, answered flippantly that 
 the colonel had commuted my sentence; that 1 was 
 to be shot like a soldier, and that far enough afield 
 so the volleying would not wake the house. 
 
132 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 So we fared on, and a hundred yards beyond 
 this point of question and reply came out into an 
 open grove of oaks : then I knew where they had 
 brought me — and why. 'Twas the glade where I 
 had fought my losing battle with the baronet. On 
 its farther confines two horses nibbled rein's-length 
 at the grass, with Falconnet's trooper serving-man 
 to hold them ; and, standing on the very spot where 
 he had thrust me out, my enemy was waiting. 
 
 'Twas all prearranged ; for when the ensign had 
 saluted he marched his men a little w^ay apart and 
 drew them up in line v/ith muskets ported. But 
 at a sign from Falconnet, two of the men broke 
 ranks and came to strap me helpless with their belts. 
 I smiled at that^ and would not miss the chance to 
 jeer. 
 
 ''You are a sorry coward. Captain Falconnet, as 
 bullies ever are," I said. "Would not your sword 
 suffice against a man with empty hands ?" 
 
 He passed the taunt in silence, and when the men 
 had left me^ said : "I have come to speed your 
 parting. Captain Ireton. You are a thick-headed, 
 witless fool, as you have always been ; yet since 
 you've blundered into serving me, I would not 
 grudge the time to come and thank you." 
 
 'T serve you?" I cried. ''God knows Vd serve 
 you up in collops at the table of your master, the 
 devil, could I but stand before you with a carving 
 tool !" 
 
 He laughed softly. "Always vengeful and vin- 
 dictive, and always because you murt ever mess 
 
THE NEWS TO UNWELCO^^IE EARS 133 
 
 and meddle with other men's concerns," he retort- 
 ed. "And vet I say you've serv^ed me." 
 
 "Tell me how, in God's name, that I may not die 
 with that sin unrepented of." 
 
 "Oh, in many small ways, but chiefly in this af- 
 fair with the little lady of Appleby." 
 
 "Never!" I denied, "So far as decent speech 
 could compass it, I have ever sought to tell her what 
 a conscienceless villain you are." 
 
 He laughed again at that. 
 
 "You know women but indifferently, my Captain, 
 if you think to breach a love affair by a cannonade 
 of hard words. But I am In no humor to dis- 
 pute with you. You have lost, and I have won; 
 and, were I not here to come between, you'd look 
 your last upon the things of earth in shortest order, 
 I do assure you." 
 
 "You? — you come between?" I scoffed. "You 
 are all kinds of a knave, Sir Francis, but your worst 
 enemy never accused you of being a fool !" 
 
 There was a look in his eyes that I could never 
 fathom. 
 
 "You are bitter hard, John Treton — bitter and 
 savage and unforgiving. You knew the wild blade 
 of a half-score years ago, and now you'd make the 
 grown man pay scot and lot for that same young- 
 ster's misdeeds. Have you never a touch of human 
 kindliness in you?" 
 
 To know how this affected me you must turn 
 back to that place where I have tried to picture out 
 this man for vou. I said he had a gift to turn a 
 
134 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 woman's head or touch her heart. I should have 
 said that he could use this gift at will on any one. 
 For the moment I forgot his cool disposal of me 
 in the talk with Captain Stuart ; forgot how he had 
 lied to make me out a spy and so had brought me 
 to this pass. 
 
 So I could only say: "You killed my friend, 
 Frank Falconnet, and — " 
 
 "Tush !" said he. "That quarrel died nine years 
 ago. Your reviving of it now is but a mask." 
 
 "For what ?" I asked. 
 
 "For your just resentment in sweet Margery's 
 behalf. Believe it or not, as you like, but I could 
 love you for that blow you gave me, John Ireton. 
 I had been losing cursedly at cards that day, and 
 mine host's wine had a dash of usquebaugh in it, 
 I dare swear. At any rate, I knew not what it was 
 I said till Tybee said it over for me." 
 
 "But the next morning you took a cur's advan- 
 tage of me on this very spot and ran me through," 
 I countered. 
 
 "Name it what 3^ou will and let it go at that. 
 There was murder in your eye, and you are the bet- 
 ter swordsman. You put me upon it for my life, 
 and when you gave me leave, I did not kill you, as 
 I might." 
 
 "No ; you reserved me for this." 
 
 He took a step nearer and seemed strangely agi- 
 tated. 
 
 "You forced mxy hand, John Ireton," he said, 
 speaking low that the others might not hear. "You 
 
THE NEWS TO UNWELC0:ME EARS 135 
 
 had her ear from day to day and used your privi- 
 lege against me. As an enemy who merely sought 
 my life for vengeance's sake I could spare you; 
 but as a rival — " 
 
 I laughed, and sanity began to come again. 
 "]\Iake an end of it," I said. "I'd rather hear the 
 muskets speak than you." 
 
 For reply he took a folded paper from his pocket 
 and spread and held it so that I might read. It was 
 a letter from my Lord Cornwallis, directing Captain 
 Falconnet to send his prisoner. Captain John Ire- 
 ton, sometime lieutenant in the Royal Scots Blues, 
 under guard to his Lordship's headquarters in 
 South Carolina. 
 
 "Can you read it ?" he asked. 
 
 I nodded. 
 
 "Well, this supersedes the colonel's sentence. If 
 I say the word to Ensign Farquharson you will be 
 remanded." 
 
 "To be shot or hanged a little later, I suppose ?" 
 
 "No. Have you any notion why my Lord Charles 
 is sending for you ?" 
 
 "No," said I, in my turn; and, indeed, I had 
 not. 
 
 "He knows your record as an officer, and would 
 give you a chance to 'list in your old service. 
 
 "I would not take it — at your hands or his. 
 
 "You'd best take it. But in any event, you'll 
 have your life and honorable safe-conduct beyond 
 the lines." 
 
 "Make an end," I said again. "I understand you 
 
 
12,6 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 will obey his Lordship's order, or disregard it, as 
 3^our own interest directs. What would you have 
 me do ?" 
 
 ''A very little thing to weigh against a life. MrJ 
 Gilbert Stair is my very good friend." 
 
 I let that go uncontradicted. 
 
 "His title to the estate is secure enough, as you 
 know, but you can make it better," he went on. 
 
 This savins: of his told me what I had onlv 
 guessed : that as yet he had not been admitted into 
 Gilbert Stair's full confidence ; also, that he had no 
 hint of what had taken place in my chamber some 
 hour or two past midnight. At that, a joy fierce 
 like pain came to thrill me. 
 'Go on," said I. 
 
 'Your route to Camden lies through Charlotte. 
 Your guard will give you time and opportunity to 
 execute a quitclaim in ]\Ir. Stair's favor." 
 
 "Is that all?" I asked. 
 
 "No; after that our ways must lie apart — or 
 yours and INIargery's, at all events. Give me your 
 word of honor that you relinquish any claim you 
 have, or think you have, upon her, and I pass this 
 letter on to the ensign." 
 
 "And if I refuse?" 
 
 He came so near that I could see the lurkinsf devil 
 in his eyes. 
 
 "If you refuse? Harken, John Ireton; if you 
 had a hundred lives to thrust between me and the 
 thing I crave, I'd take them all." So much he said 
 calmly; then a sudden gust of passion seized him, 
 
 
THE NEWS TO UNWELCOME EARS 137 
 
 and for once, I think, he spoke the simple truth. 
 "God ! I'd sink my soul in Calvin's hell to have 
 her !" 
 
 I could not wholly mask the smile of triumph 
 that his words evoked. This fox of maiden vine- 
 yards was entrapped at last. I saw the fire of 
 such a passion as such a man may know burning 
 in his eyes ; and then I knew why he v;as come upon 
 this errand. 
 
 "So?" said I. "Then Mistress Margery sent 
 you here to save me?" 'Twas but a guess, but I 
 made sure it hit the truth. 
 
 He swore a sneering oath. "So the priest carried 
 tales, did he ? Well, make the most of it ; she would 
 not have her father's guest taken from his bed and 
 hanged like a dog." 
 
 I smiled again. " 'Twas more than that : she 
 would even go so far as to beg her husband's life 
 a boon from that same husband's mortal enemy." 
 
 "Bah !" he scoffed. "That lie of yours imposed 
 upon the colonel, but I had better information." 
 
 "A lie, you say? True, 'twas a lie when it was 
 uttered. But afterward, some hour or so past mid- 
 night, by the good help of Father ]\Iatthieu, and 
 with your Lieutenant Tybee for one witness and the 
 lawyer for another, we made a sober truth of it." 
 
 I hope, for your own peace of mind, my dears, 
 that you may never see a fellow human turn devil 
 in a breath as I did then. His man's face fell away 
 from him like a vanishing mask, and in the place 
 of it a hideous demon, malignant and murderous, 
 
138 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 glared upon me. Twice his hand sought the sword- 
 hilt, and once the blade was half unsheathed. Then 
 he thrust his devil-face in mine and hissed his part- 
 ing word at me so like a snake it made me shudder 
 Avith abhorrence. 
 
 ** You've signed your own -death warrant, you wit- 
 less fool ! You'd play the spoil-sport here as you 
 did once before, w'ould you? Curse you! I wish 
 you had a hundred lives that I might take them one 
 by one !" Then he wheeled sharp upon his heel 
 and gave the order to the ensign. *'Belt him to 
 the tree, Farquharson, and make an end of him. 
 IVe kept you waiting over-long." 
 
 They strapped me to a tree with other belts, and 
 when all was ready the ensign stepped aside to give 
 the word. Just here there came a little pause pro- 
 longed beyond the moment of completed prepara- 
 tion. I knew not Avhy they waited, having other 
 things to think of. I sav/ the firing line drawn up 
 with muskets leveled. I marked the row of weath- 
 er-beaten faces pillowed on the gun-stocks w4th 
 eyes asquint to sight the pieces. I remem.ber count- 
 ing up the pointing muzzles ; remember wondering 
 which would be the first to belch its fire at me, and 
 if, at that short range, a man might live to see the 
 flash and hear the roar before the bullets killed the 
 senses. 
 
 But while I screwed my courage to the stick- 
 ing place and sought to hold it there, the pause be- 
 came a keen-edged agony. A glance aside — a 
 glance that cost a mightier effort than it takes to 
 
THE NEWS TO UNWELCOME EARS 139 
 
 break a nightmare — showed me the ensign standing 
 ear a-cock, as one who Hstens. 
 
 What he heard I know not, for all the earth 
 seemed hushed to silence waiting on his word. But 
 on the Instant the early morning stillness of the for- 
 est crashed alive, and pandemonium was come. A 
 savage yell to set the very leaves a-tremble ; a 
 cracklinsf vollev from the underwood that left a 
 heap of wTithIng, dying men where but now the fir- 
 ing squad had stood ; then a headlong charge of 
 rough-clad horsemen — all this befell In less than 
 anv time the written words can measure. 
 
 I sensed it all but vaguely at the first, but when 
 a passing horseman slashed me free I came alive, 
 and life and all it meant to me was centered in a 
 single fierce desire. Falconnet had escaped the 
 fusillade ; was making swiftly for his horse, safe as 
 yet from any touch of lead or steel. So I might 
 reach and pull him down, I cared no groat what 
 followed after. 
 
 It was not so to be. In the swift dash across the 
 glade I went too near the shambles in the midst. 
 The corporal of the firing squad, a bearded Saxon 
 giant, v/hose face, hideously distorted, will haunt me 
 w^hile I live, lay fairly in the way, his heels drum- 
 ming in the death agony, and his great hands clutch- 
 ing at the empty air. 
 
 I leaped to clear him. In the act the clutching 
 hands laid hold of me and I was tripped and thrown 
 upon the heap of dead and dying men, and could 
 not free myself In time to stop the baronet. 
 
140 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 I saw him gain his horse and mount; saw the 
 flash of his sword and the skilful parry that in a 
 single parade warded death on either hand ; saw 
 him drive home the spurs and vanish among the 
 trees, with his horse-holding trooper at his heels. 
 
 And then my rescuers, or else my newer captors, 
 picked me up hastily ; and I was hoisted behind the 
 saddle of the nearest, and so was borne away in all 
 the hue and cry of a most unsoldierly retreat. 
 
XIII 
 
 IN WHICH A PILGRIMAGE BEGINS 
 
 As you have guessed before you turned this page, 
 the men who charged so opportunely to cut me out 
 of peril were my captors only in the saving sense. 
 
 Their overnight bivouac was not above a mile 
 beyond the glade of ambushment. It was in a little 
 dell, cunningly hid ; and the embers of the camp- 
 fires were still alive when we of the horse came 
 first to this agreed-on rallying point. 
 
 Here at this rendezvous in the forest's heart I 
 had my first sight of any fighting fragment of that 
 undisciplined and yet unconquerable patriot home- 
 guard that even in defeat proved too tough a morsel 
 for British jaws to masticate. 
 
 They promised little to the eye of a trained sol- 
 dier, these border levies. In fancy I could see my 
 old field-marshal, — he was the father of all the 
 martinets, — turn up his nose and dismiss them with 
 a contemptuous ''Ach! mein Gott!" And, truly, 
 there was little outward show among them of the 
 sterling metal underneath. 
 
 They came singly and in couples, straggling 
 
 141 
 
142 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 like a routed band of brigands ; some loading their 
 pieces as they ran. There was no hint of soldier 
 discipline, and they might have been leaderless for 
 aught I saw of deference to their captain. Indeed, 
 at first I could not pick the captain out by any 
 sign, since ali were clad in coarsest homespun and 
 well-worn leather, and all wore the long, fringed 
 hunting shirt and raccoon-skin cap of the free bor- 
 derers. 
 
 Yet these were a handful of the men who had 
 fought so stoutly against the Tory odds at Ram- 
 sour's Mill, their captain being that Abram Forney 
 of whom you may read in the histories ; and though 
 they made no military show, they lacked neither 
 hardihood nor courage, of a certain persevering 
 sort. 
 
 ''Ever come any closter to your Amen than that, 
 stranger?" drawled one of them, a grizzled bor- 
 derer, lank, lean and weather -tanned, with a face 
 that might have been a leathern mask for any hint 
 it gave of what went on behind it. 'T'll swear that 
 little whip'-snap' officer cub had the word 'Fire' 
 sticking in his teeth when I gave him old Sukey's 
 mouthful o' lead to chaw on." 
 
 I said I had come as near my exit a time or two 
 before, though always in fair fight ; and thereupon 
 was whelmed in an avalanche of questions such as 
 only simple-hearted folk know how to ask. 
 
 When I had sufficiently accounted for myself, 
 Captain Forney — he was the limber-backed young 
 
A PILGRIMAGE BEGINS 143 
 
 fellow I had ridden behind — gripped my hand and 
 gave me a hearty welcome and congratulation. 
 
 "My father and yours were handfast friends, 
 Captain Ireton. More than that, Eve heard my 
 father say he owed yours somewhat on the score 
 of good turns. I'm master glad I've had a chance 
 to even up a little; though as for that, we should 
 both thank the Indian." At which he looked around 
 as one who calls an eye-muster and marks a missing 
 man. "Where is the chief, Ephraim ?" — this to the 
 grizzled hunter who was methodically reloading his, 
 long rifle. 
 
 "He's back yonder, gathering in the hair-crop, I 
 reckon. Never you mind about him, Cap'n. He'll 
 turn up when he smells the meat a-cooking, imme- 
 jitly, if not sooner." 
 
 Here, as I imagine, I looked all the questions that 
 lacked answers ; for Captain Forney took it in hand 
 to fit them out with explications. 
 
 " 'Tis Uncanoola, the Catawba," he said ; "one of 
 the friendlies. He was out a-scouting last night 
 and came in an hour before daybreak with the news 
 that Colonel Tarleton w^as set upon hanging a spy 
 of ours. From that to our little ambushment — " 
 
 "I see," said I, wanting space to turn the memory 
 leaves. "This Catawba : is he a man about my age ?" 
 Captain Forney laughed. "God He only knows 
 an Indian's age. But Uncanoola has been a man 
 grown these fifteen years or more. I can recall 
 his coming to my father's house when I was but a 
 little cadger.'' 
 
144 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 At that, I remembered, too; remembered a tall, 
 straight young savage, as handsome as a figure 
 done in bronze, who used sometimes to meet me in 
 the loneHer forest wilds when I was out a-hunting; 
 remembered how at first I was afraid of him ; how 
 once I would have shot him in a fit of boyish race 
 antipathy and sudden fright had he not flung away 
 his firelock and stood before me defenseless. 
 
 Also, I recalled a little incident of the terrible 
 scourge in '60 when the black pox bade fair to blot 
 out this tribe of the Catawbas ; how when my father 
 had found this young savage lying in the forest, 
 plague-stricken and deserted by all his tribesmen, 
 he had saved his life and earned an Indian friend- 
 ship. 
 
 *T know this Uncanoola," I said. "My father 
 befriended him in the plague of '60, and was never 
 sorry for it, as I believe." Then I would ask if 
 these Catawbas had ranged themselves on the 
 patriot side, a question which led the young militia 
 captain to give me the news at large while his bor- 
 derers were breaking camp and making their hasty 
 preparations for the day's march. 
 
 " 'Tis liberty or death with us now ; we've burnt 
 our bridges behind us," he said, when he had con- 
 firmed the tidings I had had the day before from 
 Father Matthieu. "And since here in Carolina we 
 have to fight each man against his neighbor, 'tis 
 like to go hard with us, lacking help from the 
 North." 
 
 "Measured by this morning's work, Captain For- 
 
A PILGRMAGE BEGINS 145 
 
 ney, these irregulars of yours seem well able to 
 give a good account of themselves," I ventured. 
 
 He shook his head doubtfully. He was but a boy 
 in years, but war is a shrewd schoolmaster, and this 
 youth, like many another en the fighting frontier, 
 had matriculated earlv. 
 
 "You've seen us at our best," he amended. "We 
 can ambush like the Indians, fire a volley, yell, 
 charge — and run away." 
 
 "What's that ye're saying, youngster?" The 
 grizzled hunter had finished reloading his rifle, and, 
 lounging in earshot with all the freedom of the bor- 
 der, would take the captain up sharply on this last. 
 
 "You heard me, Eph Yeates," replied my young 
 captain, curtly. 
 
 The old man leaned his rifle against a tree, spat 
 on his hands, cut a clumsy caper in air, and gave 
 tongue in a yell that should have been heard by 
 Tarleton's men at Appleb}^ 
 
 "By the eternal 'coonskins ! I can gouge the eye 
 out of ary man that says Eph Yeates carn't stand 
 up fair and square and whop his weight in wild- 
 cats ; and I can do it now, if not sooner !" he shrilled. 
 "Come on, you pap-eating, apron-stringed, French- 
 daddied— " 
 
 Where the blast of vituperative insult would have 
 spent itself in natural course we were not to know, 
 for in the midst another of the borderers, a wiry 
 little man in greasy deerskin, came up behind the 
 capering ancient, whipped an arm around his neck, 
 and in a trice the two went down, kicking, scratch- 
 
146 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 ing, buffeting and mauling, as like to a pair of bat- 
 tling bobcats as was ever seen. 
 
 For a moment I thought my youngster would 
 let them have it out to the finish, but he did not. 
 At his order some of the others pulled the tw^ain 
 apart, reluctantly, I fancied; and when the thing 
 was done the old man caught up his rifle and strode 
 away in blackest wrath without a look behind him. 
 
 Captain Forney shrugged and spread his hands 
 as his French father might have done. 
 
 "Now you know wherein our weakness lies, Cap- 
 tain Ireton," he said. "There goes as true a man 
 and as keen a shot as ever pulled trigger. Let him 
 fight in his own way, and he'll take cover and name 
 his man for every bullet in his pouch. But as for 
 yielding to decent authority, or standing against 
 trained troops in open field — " He shrugged again 
 and turned to tighten his saddle-girth. 
 
 "I see," said I. Then I asked him of his plans 
 and intendings, and was told that he and his handful 
 were a-march to join General Rutherford, who vvas 
 gone to the Forks of Yadkin to break up some Tory 
 embodiment thereabouts. 
 
 "You have your work cut out to dodge the British 
 light-horse. Captain Forney," said I; capping the 
 venture by telling him what little I knew of Tarle- 
 ton's dispositions, and also of the Indian-arming 
 plot I had overheard. 
 
 "We'll dodge the redcoats, never you fear ; we're 
 at our best in that," he rejoined, carelessly. "And 
 as to the Cherokee upstirring, that's an old story. 
 
A PILGRIMAGE BEGIXS 147 
 
 The king's men have tried it twice and they have not 
 yet caught Jack Sevier or Jimmie Robertson a-nap- 
 ping. Ease your mind on that score, Captain Ireton, 
 and come along with us, if you have nothing better 
 to do. I can promise you hard living, and hard 
 fighting enough to keep it in countenance." 
 
 At this I was brought down to some consideration 
 of the present and its demands. As fortune's wheel 
 had twirled, I had my life, to be sure ; but by the 
 having of it was made the basest traitor to my friend 
 — to Jennifer, and no whit less to Margery. 
 
 'Twas out of any thought that I should take the 
 field against the common enemy, leaving this tan- 
 gled web of mystery and misery behind. In sheerest 
 decency I owed it first to Jennifer to make a swift 
 and frank confession of the ill-concluded tale of 
 happenings. That done, I owed it equally to him 
 and Alargery to find some way to set aside the mid- 
 night marriage. 
 
 So I fell back upon my wound for an excuse, 
 telling the captain that I was not yet fit to 
 take the field — which was true enough. AVhereupon 
 he and his men set me well beyond the danger of 
 immediate pursuit and we parted company. 
 
 When I was left alone I had no plan that reached 
 beyond the day's end. Since to go to Jennifer House 
 by daylight would be to run my neck afresh into 
 the noose, I saw nothing for it but to lie in hiding 
 till nightfall. The hiding place that promiised best 
 was the old hunting lodge in the forest, and thither- 
 ward I turned my face. 
 
148 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 It was a wise man who said that he who goes 
 with heavy heart drags heavy feet as well ; but while 
 I live I shall remember how that saying clogged the 
 path for me that morning, making the shrub-sweet 
 summer air grow thick and lifeless as I toiled along. 
 For sober second thought, and the unnerving reac- 
 tion which comes upon the heels of some sharp peril 
 overpast, left me aghast at the coil in which a tricky 
 fate had entangled me. 
 
 The second thought made plain the dispiteous 
 hardness of it all, showing me how I had reasoned 
 like a boy in planning for retrieval. Would Jennifer 
 believe my tale, though I should swear it out word 
 for word on the Holy Evangelists ? I doubted it ; 
 and striving to see it through his eyes, was made to 
 doubt it more. For death should have been my 
 justifier, and death had played me false. 
 
 As for setting the midnight marriage aside, I 
 made sure the lawyer tribe could find a way, if that 
 were all. But here there was a loyal daughter of the 
 Church to reckon with. Loathing her bonds, as any 
 true-hearted maiden must, would Margery consent 
 to have them broken by the law? I knew well she 
 would not. Though our poor knotting of the tie 
 had been little better than a tragic farce, it lacked 
 nothing of force to bind the tender conscience of a 
 woman bred to look upon the churchly rite as final. 
 
 So, twist and turn it as I might, the coil was des- 
 perate ; and as I strode on gloomily, measuring this 
 the first stage in a pilgrimage I had never thought 
 to make, a fire of sullen anger began to smoke and 
 
A PILGRIAIAGE BEGINS 149 
 
 smolder within me, and I could find it in my heart 
 to curse the cruel kindness of my rescuers ; to sor- 
 row in my inmost soul that they had come between 
 to make a living recreant of one who would fain 
 have died an honest man. 
 
XIV 
 
 HOW THE BARONET PLAYED ROUGE-ET-NOIR 
 
 The sun was well above the tree-tops, and the 
 morning was abroad for all the furred and feathered 
 wood-folk, when I forsook the Indian path to make 
 a prudent circle of reconnaissance around the cabin 
 in the maple grove. 
 
 Happily, there was no need for the cautionary 
 measure. The hunting lodge was undiscovered as 
 yet by any enemy; and when I showed myself my 
 poor black vassals ran to do my bidding, weeping 
 with childish joy to have me back again. 
 
 Since old Darius was still at Appleby Hundred, 
 Tomas ranked as majordomo ; and I bade him post 
 the blacks in a loosely drawn sentry line about the 
 cabin, this against the chance that Falconnet might 
 stumble on the place in searching for me. For I 
 made no doubt his Tory spies would quickly pass 
 the word that I was not with Abram Forney's band, 
 and hence must be in hiding. 
 
 When all was done I flung myself upon the couch 
 of panther-skins, hoping against hope that sleep 
 might come to help me through the hours of wait- 
 
 150 
 
A GAME OF ROUGE-ET-NOIR 151 
 
 ing. 'Twas a vain hope. There was never a wink 
 of f orgetf ulness for me in all the long watches of the 
 summer day, and I must lie wide-eyed and haggard, 
 thinking night would never come, and making 
 sure that fate had never before walled a man in 
 such a dungeon of despair. 
 
 There was no loophole of escape with honor. 
 The heavens were brass, with all the horizons nar- 
 rowed to a bounding wall to hem me in on every 
 side. There was no sally-port in all this wall save 
 one — the one that death had promised to open at the 
 dawn. The promise had been broken. True, death 
 had thrust the kev within the lock, and I had heard 
 the grating of the bolts ; and yet the key had been 
 withdrawn and I was left a prisoner of life. 
 
 There was no hope of other outlet. Now there 
 was space to view it calmly, I saw how foolish was 
 the thought that Margery would connive at any 
 breaking of the marriage bond. She would bear 
 my name, and hate me for the giving of it ; would 
 go on hating me, I thought, to all eternity ; but she 
 would never take her freedom back again, save at 
 a dead man's hands. 
 
 It was thus that each fresh scanning of the 
 prison wall that shut me in this dungeon of dis- 
 honor fetched me once and again to this one sally- 
 port of death. And when it came to this; that I 
 had searched in vain for other outlet, you will not 
 
 think it strange that I sat down in spirit at this 
 postern to see if I might open it with my own 
 hands. 
 
152 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 It was not love of life that made me hesitate. 
 At two-score years he who has lived at all has lived 
 his best ; and if he live beyond the turning point of 
 youthful ardor he must beg the grace of younger 
 men to linger yet a little longer on the stage which 
 once was his and now is theirs. 
 
 No, it was not any love of life for life's own sake 
 that held me back. 'Twas rather that the Ireton 
 blood is linked up with that thing we call a con- 
 science, a heritage from those simple-hearted ances- 
 tors to whom the suicide was a soul accurst — a soul 
 impenitent, whose very outer husk of flesh and bones 
 they used to bury at the crossing of the ways, with 
 a sharpened stake to pinion it. 
 
 'Twas this ancestral conscience made me cow- 
 ardly; and when the sight of my father's sword — 
 Darius had rescued and restored it to its place upon 
 the chimney-breast — would set me thinking of the 
 Israelitish king, and how, when all was lost, he fell 
 upon his blade and died, this horror of the suicide 
 came to give me pause. 
 
 Besides, that way to right the double wrong was 
 not so clear as it might seem. As matters stood, 
 my living for the present was Alargery's best safe- 
 guard. Till she became my widow and my heir-at- 
 law, the mercenary baronet would play his cards to 
 win her honorably. I doubted not he'd make hot 
 love to her; but while she stayed a wife, and was 
 not yet a widow, he'd keep his passion decently in 
 bounds, if only for the better compassing of his end. 
 
 But from this horn of the dilemma I slipped to 
 
A GAME OF ROUGE-ET-NOIR 153 
 
 fall upon the other. If my living on as Margery's 
 husband was her safety for the time, it was an offer- 
 ing of idol-meats upon the altar of my dear lad's 
 friendship. What would he think of me? How 
 could I go about to make it plain that I haa robbed 
 him for his own honor's sake? — that it was not I 
 but fate that was to blame ? 
 
 These questions came up answerless, like deep- 
 sea plummets where no bottom is. I saw the way 
 no farther on than this ; that I must go straightway 
 to Jennifer and tell him all. Beyond that point the 
 darkness was Eg}'ptian, and I could only hope that 
 tricky fate would turn again and blot me out, and 
 make it plain to Richard, and to my dear lady, that 
 love, and not base treachery, had set me on to do 
 as I had done. 
 
 In some such dismal grindings of the mill of 
 thought the hours of waiting were outworn at 
 length ; and when the sun was dipping to the moun- 
 tains in the west I rose and washed me in the brook, 
 and afterward constrained myself to eat what Tomas 
 had prepared for me. 
 
 The sunset glow was fading in the upper air, and 
 underneath the canopy of leaves the wood was dark- 
 ening on to twilight, when I made ready to be gone. 
 Because I thought I might have need of it before 
 the night was done, I buckled on the heirloom 
 sword ; and telling Tomas and the other blacks for 
 their own safety to keep an alarm guard waking 
 through the night, I sallied forth upon my errand. 
 
 I've wished a thousand times, as I sit here before 
 
154 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 the fire and jot these memories down in crabbed 
 black on white, that I could conjure up for you some 
 speaking- picture of this scene primeval in which 
 the story moves. 
 
 True, its hills and valleys are the same ; the river 
 keeps its course ; and in the west the mountain sky- 
 line is unchanged. But here similitude is at an 
 end. You've hacked the virgin forest into shapes 
 and fringes where once it was an ample mantle 
 seamed only by the rivers, and frayed here and there 
 at distant intervals by the settler's ax. 
 
 Beneath this mantle lay a world unlike the world 
 you know. Plunged in its furtive depths you felt 
 the spell of nature's mystery upon you ; the mystery 
 of the hoary wood, age-old, steeped in the nepenthe 
 of the centuries. In brightest summer day, which, 
 in these forest aisles, became a misty green translu- 
 cence, the silence, the vastness, the solitude laid 
 each a finger on you, bidding you go softly all the 
 way. But in the twilight hour the real held still 
 more aloof, and all the shadows bristled with dim 
 fantastic shapes to awe and affright the alien-born. 
 
 T w^as not alien-born. From earliest childhood I 
 had known and loved these forest solitudes. Yet 
 now, as when I was a little lad, the twilight shad- 
 ows awed me. Here it was a gnarled and twisted 
 tree-trunk so like a crouching panther that I sprang 
 aside and had the steel half out before the clearer 
 vision came. There it was the figure of a man 
 gliding stealthily from tree to tree, it seemed ; keep- 
 ing even pace with me as if with sinister intent. 
 
A GAME OF ROUGE-ET-XOIR 155 
 
 I pushed on faster, drawing the sword to keep 
 me better company, though inwardly I scofied and 
 jeered at this new twittering of the nen-es. What 
 threat was there for me in silent shadows in the 
 wood ? The dogs I had to fear were bred in British 
 kennels, and there was never any lack of clamor 
 when they were beating up a cover. 
 
 Yet this persistent shadow clung upon my foot- 
 steps until from casting furtive glances sidewise I 
 came to holding it craftily in the tail of my eye. 
 'Twas surely moving as I moved, and surely draw- 
 ing nearer. I picked a time and place, measured my 
 distance, and darting suddenly aside, sent home a 
 thrust which should have pinned the phantom to a 
 tree. 
 
 *'Ugh! What for Captain Long-knife want kill 
 the tree?" 
 
 The voice came from behind, and when I wheeled 
 again my shadow was become incarnated in flesh 
 and blood ; a stalwart Indian, naked to the belt, 
 standing so near he could have pricked me with his 
 scalping knife. 
 
 It was God's mercy that by some swift Intuition 
 I knew him for the friendly Catawba. It is an ill 
 thing to take a frighted man unawares. 
 
 ''Uncanoola?'' said I. 
 
 He nodded. ''Where 'bouts Captain Long-knife 
 going ?" 
 
 I told him briefly ; whereat he shook his head. 
 
 "No find Captain Jennlf this way; find him fhaf 
 way," pointing back along the path. 
 
156 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 in 
 
 'How does the chief know that? Has he seen 
 him?" Though my long exile had well-nigh cost 
 me the trick of it, I made shift to drop into the 
 stately Indian hyperbole. 
 
 " Wah ! Uncanoola has seen the Great Water : 
 that make him have long eyes — see heap things." 
 
 "Will the Catawba tell the friend whose life he 
 saved what he has seen ?" 
 
 "Uncanoola see heap things," he repeated. "See 
 Captain Jennif so" — he threw himself flat upon the 
 ground and pictured me a fugitive crawling snake- 
 like through the underwood. "Bime-by, come to 
 river and find canoe — jump in and paddle fas'; 
 bime-by, 'gain, stop paddling and laugh and shake 
 fist this way, and say 'God-damn.' " 
 
 By this I knew that Jennifer had escaped ; nay, 
 more ; had somehow learned of my escape and was 
 seeking me. 
 
 "Is that all the chief saw ?" I asked. 
 
 "Ugh ! See heap more things : see one thing 
 white squaw no let him tell Captain Long-knife. 
 Maybe some time tell, anyhow." 
 
 "The white squaw ?" said I. "Who is she ?" 
 
 The Catawba laughed, an Indian laugh, silent 
 and suppressed ; a mere shaking of the ribs. 
 
 "No can tell that, neither, too," he said. Then, 
 with a swift dart aside from the subject : "Captain 
 Long-knife care much 'bout black dogs yonder?" 
 
 I knew he meant the negroes at the hunting lodge. 
 
 "The white man cares for the black as a kind mas- 
 ter should," I returned. 
 
A GAME OF ROUGE-ET-XOIR 157- 
 
 The Indian spat upon the ground in token of his 
 hatred and contempt for all the black skins in his 
 fatherland. I never understood this bitter race an- 
 tipathy between the red and black, but 'tis a tale 
 well written out in many a bloody massacre of that 
 earlier day. 
 
 "The wolves will kill all the black dogs and drink 
 their blood before the moon is awake. Uncanoola 
 has spoken." 
 
 I sheathed my sword and turned to take the 
 backward trace. 
 
 "Captain Long-knife will go and fight for his 
 black dogs with wool on their heads ?" he queried. 
 
 "If need be," I asserted. 
 
 "Wah !" he ejaculated, and at the word was gone 
 as if the earth had swallowed him. 
 
 I lost no time in indecision. Since Jennifer was 
 abroad, I had no business at the plantations ; and 
 if Tomas and the other refugees were like to come 
 to harm, I could do no less than hasten back to 
 warn or help them. 
 
 So I retraced my steps, hurriedly, as the business 
 urged ; and saw no more shadows in the ancient 
 wood — in truth, had much ado to see the single 
 step ahead, so thickly did the darkness gather in 
 those skyless depths. 
 
 I was breasting the last low hill, was come so near 
 that I could hear the murmur of the river, when in 
 the farthest hazy vista of the tree-tops a softened 
 glow appeared, changing the black to green and 
 
158 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 then to red. 'Twas like the childish Africans, I 
 said, to draw a secret sentry line for safety's sake, 
 and then to build a fire to advertise it far and wide. 
 Truly, the Catawba's wolves might find an easy — 
 
 A chattering scream of agony sent shrill and 
 sharp upon the stillness of the night halted me and 
 broke the gibing comment in the midst. I stood 
 and listened. The cry rang out again ; then I loosed 
 the Andrea in its scabbard and fell a-running, 
 though the half-healed wound scanted me sorely 
 of the breath I wanted. 
 
 The cabin clearing, or rather the thinned-out 
 grove which stood in lieu thereof, was but a nig- 
 gard acre hemmed in on every side, save that toward 
 the river, by the virgin forest. For cover there 
 were holly thickets here and there, and into one of 
 these I plunged, creeping on hands and knees to 
 gain a hidden view-point. 
 
 The scene in the little clearing was one to brand 
 itself in lasting shapes upon the memory. A brush 
 heap newly kindled gave out a dusky glow flaring 
 in waves of smoky red against the over-arching 
 foliage. The open space around the cabin was 
 alive with half-naked savages running to and fro ; 
 and in the gloom beyond the fire I saw a shadowy 
 horseman backed by others still more phantom-like. 
 
 There was no mystery about it. My enemy had 
 come with sleuth-hound Indians at his back to run 
 me down. The savages were, no doubt, that band 
 of over-mountain Cherokees pledged by their chief 
 
A GAME OF ROUGE-ET-XOIR 159 
 
 to pilot the powder convoy; and by their help the 
 baronet had tracked me. 
 
 This was the first thought, caught at in passing; 
 but when I came to look again I saw what had been 
 done. Sprawled on the ground before the burning 
 brush pile, his wrinkled face a hideous mask of suf- 
 fering, with the eyeballs starting from their sock- 
 ets in the death-wrench, lay my faithful Darius. 
 
 By what inhuman tortures they had made him 
 point the way, or how or why they slew him at the 
 last, I know not, but I made sure it was his death- 
 scream that had halted me and set the stillness of 
 the forest alive with ghastly echoes. 
 
 At sight of the stiftening body of the faithful 
 slave you may suppose my blood ran cold and hot 
 by turns^ and that his blood cried out for vengeance 
 from the sod that soaked it up. With ten years 
 more of youth and less of age I might have tried 
 to hew my way to Falconnet's stirrup, and so to 
 square accounts with him. But had I been a-mind 
 to rush upon the stage without my cue, another 
 climax in the ghastly tragedy forbade it. 
 
 This climax turned upon the capture of my 
 
 horse-boy, Tomas. The other blacks, it seemed, 
 
 had made good their escape ; but Tomas, lagging 
 
 behind through fear or foolishness, had given these 
 
 copper-colored devils leave to run him. down and 
 
 drag him back into the fire light, with yells of 
 savage triumph. 
 
 They flung him down upon his knees beside the 
 
i6o THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 captain's horse, and though I caught but here and 
 there a word above the frenzied yipping of the In- 
 dians, it was plain the baronet was asking him 
 of me. 
 
 I could not hear the black boy's gibbering an- 
 swers, but that he would not tell them what they 
 wished to know — could not, indeed, since I had 
 left no word behind to track me by — was quickly 
 evident. A cord was found, and while I crouched 
 behind the holly screen, aghast and helpless as one 
 against two-score or more, they looped him by the 
 thumbs and swung him up to dangle from a maple 
 bough a musket's length or such a matter before 
 the cabin door. 
 
 He bore the torture patiently, as some poor dumb 
 beast suffering at the hand of man, and would not 
 part his lips for all the captain's curses. But this 
 was only the merciful beginning. With yells of 
 savage fury the Indians carried brands to make a 
 slow fire at his feet ; and, lest that should not be 
 enough, a brace of them climbed to the roof, tore 
 off the splits for kindling, and set the cabin w^all 
 alight behind him. 
 
 You may thank God, my dears, that you are liv- 
 ing in a kindlier age. Mayhap the savage, now 
 a-march toward the setting sun, is still as pitiless 
 as he was ; but not in any corner of the world, I 
 think, would Anglo-Saxon men, wearing the king's 
 or any other uniform, be witnesses unmoved of such 
 a devil's carnival of torment as this that made me 
 nauseate with horron 
 
A GAME OF ROUGE-ET-NOIR i6i 
 
 As with the stretching of the cord the wretched 
 black spun slowly round and round before the 
 growing blaze, his cries were something terrible to 
 hear. And when the fire light played upon his face 
 it was a sight to freeze the blood : the eyes shut 
 tight against the shriveling heat, the cracking lips 
 drawn back, the black skin changing to a dry and 
 sickly brown. And ever and anon between the 
 shrieks the parched lips shaped a plea : "O ]\Iassa ! 
 Massa Cap'm ! shoot po' nigga and let um die !" 
 
 This plea for cruel kindness cut me to the marrow 
 of my bones ; and lacking means to save his life, I 
 thought I might at least make shift to try to put 
 him out of misery. 
 
 The enemy's dispositions favored me. The 
 savages, drunk with lust of blood, leaped and danced 
 around their victim. Falconnet sat his horse apart 
 beneath the maples, and with his bodyguard of 
 troopers, was well within the borderland of lurid 
 shadow where the fire light mingled with the night. 
 
 I crept away and made a swift detour to the right 
 to come behind the rearmost horseman of the troop. 
 As his ill luck would have it, his horse, affrighted 
 at the firelit pandemonium, was in the act of wheel- 
 ing to run away. Being cumbered with a musket, 
 the man made clumsy work of handling his mount, 
 and when the beast came down in a snorting trem- 
 ble to rear afresh at sight of me, the man flung 
 away the musket and drew his sword. 
 
 In cooler blood I might have given him his sol- 
 dier's chance, but here again it was another's life 
 
i62 THE PIASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 or mine. Even so, I might have fought him fair, 
 had he but held his tongue and fought in silence. 
 But this he would not, so I had to quiet him or have 
 the others about my ears upon his shoutings. 
 
 That done, I snatched the musket that had cost 
 the man his life, and, staying not to see what should 
 befall, ran back to cover. In the interval of weapon- 
 getting the fire against the cabin wall had gnawed 
 its way from log to log and now was lapping with 
 its yellow tongues beneath the eaves. But lest the 
 victim should not suffer long enough, the Indians 
 were at work in yelling frenzy, flogging the blaze 
 with green branches broken from the trees so that 
 the fire itself should not be merciful. 
 
 I waited till the slowly spinning figure of the 
 black should turn and make a mark I could not 
 miss. The pause gave space for some swift steady- 
 ing of the nerves, but with the colder thought it 
 also brought a fierce and terrible temptation. The 
 finger on the musket's trigger held a life in pa\vn, 
 and I might pick and choose and say what life I'd 
 take. 
 
 I glanced aside at Falconnet. He was a fairer 
 mark than my poor Tomas, and by the laws of God 
 and man had earned his death. The tortured slave 
 had little time to suffer at the worsts and with the 
 bullet that would give him surcease I could well 
 avenge him. More than this ; that bullet planted 
 in my enemy's heart would save my lady Margery 
 harmless, leaving me free to go to my own place 
 and so to right the wrong that I had done. 
 
A GAME OF ROUGE-ET-NOIR 163 
 
 All in the pivoting instant of the pause the musket 
 swung" slowly round as of its own volition, and 
 through its sights I saw the slashings, gold on 
 red, across the breasting of his captain's riding 
 coat. One little crooking of the trigger-finger and 
 the lead had gone upon its errand. But at the bal- 
 ancing instant that piteous cry was lifted once 
 again : ''O ]\Iassa ! Massa Cap'm ! God V mussy — 
 shoot po' nigga and let 'um die !" 
 
 I did as any other man would do, as you have 
 guessed. The great king's musket swept another 
 arc, and roared and belched and spat its messenger 
 of death ; and my poor Tomas had the boon he 
 prayed for. 
 
 And then, as if the musket flash and roar had 
 been a lodestone and these fierce Cherokees so many 
 bits of steel to cluster thick upon it, I was sur- 
 rounded in the twinkling of an eye, and whizzing 
 hatchets and rifle bullets whining sibilant were but 
 an earnest of the fate I had invited. 
 
XV 
 
 IN WHICH A HATCHET SINGS A MAN TO SLEEP 
 
 In such a coil as this I'd looped about me there 
 was nothing for it, as it seemed, but to draw the 
 steel and die as a soldier should. So I broke cover 
 on the forest side of the holly thicket with a yell as 
 fierce as theirs, and picked a tree to set my back 
 against, and ran for it. 
 
 I never reached the tree. In mid career, when all 
 the Cherokee wolf pack was bursting through the 
 holly tangle at my heels, two men, a white man and 
 an Indian, ran in ahead, as I supposed to cut me off. 
 Just then the dry roof of the hunting lodge roared 
 aflame, reddening the forest far and near. The light 
 was at my back and on the faces of the two who 
 ran to meet me. A great sob swelled in my throat 
 and choked me, but I ran the faster. For these were 
 my dear lad and the friendly Catawba, charging 
 gallantly to cover my retreat. 
 
 It was a ready help in time of need. They ran in 
 bravely, the chief ahead, twirling his tomahawk for 
 the throw, with Dick a pace to right and rear, his 
 two great pistols brandished and the grandsire of 
 
 164 
 
A HATCHET SINGS TO SLEEP 165 
 
 all the broadswords dangling by a thong at his 
 wrist. 
 
 "Follow the chief!" he shouted in passing; and 
 at the word the Catawba stopped short, sent his 
 hatchet whistling into the yapping pack behind me, 
 and swerved to run aside and point the way for me. 
 
 Left to myself, I hope I should have had the 
 grace to stand with Jennifer. But at the turning 
 point of indecision the quick-witted Indian read my 
 thought, and snatching the sword from my hand, 
 gave me no choice but to follow him. 
 
 So I ran with him ; but as I fled I looked behind 
 and saw a sight to put the ancient hero tales to the 
 blush. One man against two-score my brave Dick 
 stood, while through the underwood the mounted 
 soldiery came to make the odds still greater. 
 
 He never flinched for all the hurtling missiles sent 
 on ahead to cut him down, nor gave a glance aside 
 to where the horsemen were deplo}-ing to surround 
 him. As I looked, the two great pistols belched in 
 the verv faces of the nearest Cherokees ; and in 
 the momicntary check the firearms made, the basket- 
 hilted claymore went to work, rising and falling 
 like a weaver's beam. 
 
 I saw no more ; but some heart-bursting minutes 
 later, when Jennifer came racing on behind to share 
 the flight his heroic stand had made a possibility, the 
 swelling sob choked m.e once again ; and when I 
 thought of what this his rescue of me meant to him, 
 I could have blubbered like a boy. 
 
 But there was little time or space to give re- 
 
i66 THE ]\IASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 morse an inning. The Cherokees, checked but for 
 the moment, were storming hotly at our heels. And 
 as we ran I heard the shouted command of Falcon- 
 net to his mounted men : "A rescue ! Right ob- 
 lique, and head them in the road! Gallop, you 
 devils !'' 
 
 We ran in Indian file, I at the chief's heels and 
 Jennifer at mine. I followed the Catawba bHndly; 
 and being as yet little better than half a man in 
 breath and muscle, was well-nigh spent before we 
 crashed down through a tangled briar thicket into 
 the river road. 
 
 We were in time, but with no fraction of a 
 minute to spare. We could hear the pad-pad-pad 
 of the light-footed runners close upon us, following 
 now by the noise we made ; and on our left the air 
 was trembling to the thunder of the mounted men 
 coming at a break-neck gallop down the road. 
 
 "Thank God !'' says Richard, with a quick eye- 
 shot to right and left in the lesser gloom of the open. 
 *T was afeard even the chief might miss the place in 
 the dark. Down the bank to the river! — quick, 
 man, and cautious ! If they smell us out now, we're 
 no better than buzzard-meat !" And when we 
 reached the water's edge : ''You taught me how to 
 paddle a pirogue. Jack ; I hope you haven't lost the 
 knack of it yourself." 
 
 ''No," said I ; and the three of us slid the hollowed 
 log into the stream. 
 
 We were afloat in shortest order, holding the 
 canoe against the current by clinging to the over- 
 
A HATCHET SINGS TO SLEEP 167 
 
 hanging trees that fringed the bank ; yet with pad- 
 dles poised for a second dash for freedom should 
 the need arise. I should have dipped forthwith to 
 save the precious minutes, but Jennifer stayed me. 
 
 *'Hist!" he whispered. "Hold steady and Hsten. 
 They can not see us from above; mayhap we've 
 thrown them off the scent." 
 
 I thought it most unlikely; but his guess was 
 right and mine was wrong. Though any of these 
 savages could lift a trail in daylight, following it 
 at top speed like a trained blood-hound, yet now 
 the darkness baffled them. 
 
 So there was some running to and fro in the road 
 above our heads, and then the troopers galloped 
 down. Followed hastily a labored confab through 
 the linguister, broken in the midst by a fury of hot 
 oaths from Falconnet ; and then the chase swept on 
 toward the plantations, and we were left to make 
 their losing of us sure by whatsoever means we 
 chose. 
 
 We paddled slowly up stream in silence, keeping 
 well within the blacker shadow of the tree fringe. 
 When we came opposite the glowing ruins of the 
 hunting lodge, Jennifer backed upon his paddle. 
 
 "You'll go ashore?" said he. 
 
 I said I would, adding : "They have slaughtered 
 poor old Darius, and I am loath to leave his bones 
 for the buzzards to pick." 
 
 He made no comment other than to swear in sym- 
 pathy. When the pirogue grounded, the Indian 
 was out like a cat, to vanish phantom-wise among 
 
i68 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 the trees. I followed in some clumsier fashion, 
 leaving Jennifer to keep the canoe; but half way 
 up the hill he joined me, and would not turn back 
 for all my urging. ''No; hang me if Fll let you 
 out of eye-grip again," was all he would say ; and 
 so we went together, and were together at the see- 
 ing of what the glowing ember-heap would show 
 us. 
 
 Poor Tomas had his sepulture already. His cord 
 had burned in two and let him down so close beside 
 the cabin wall that all the blazing debris from the 
 overhanging eaves had made his funeral pile. Da- 
 rius lav as I had last seen him ; and him we buried 
 in the maize clearing at the back, with the ember 
 glow for funeral lights. 
 
 It was a chanceful thing to do. Since the Chero- 
 kees had left their dead and wounded, and Falcon- 
 net the body of his trooper who had yielded me the 
 musket, there was small doubt thev would return. 
 Yet we had time to dig a shallow grave for my old 
 henchman ; to dig and fill it up again ; and afterward 
 to make a circuit round the burning pile to reach the 
 river side once more. 
 
 When we had launched the canoe, and were afloat 
 and ready for the start, the Catawba was still 
 missing. 
 
 ''Where is the chief, think you?" I asked; but 
 Dick's answer, if, indeed, he f;ave me any, w^as lost 
 in a chorus of ear splitting yells rending the silence 
 of the night like demon cries. Then a single ulula- 
 tion, long drawn and fair blood chilling, answered 
 
A HATCHET SINGS TO SLEEP 169 
 
 back, and Jennifer swept the pirogue stern to strand 
 with a quick paddle stroke. 
 
 **That last was Uncanoola's war cry; they've 
 doubled back in time to catch him at it!" he cried. 
 ''Stand by to drive her when I give the word ! Here 
 he comes !" 
 
 Down the sloping hillside, looking, in the red 
 glow of the ember heap, more like a flying demon 
 than a man, came the Catawba, one hand gripping 
 the scalping-knife, the other flung aloft to flaunt 
 his terrible trophies in sight of his pursuers. They 
 were so close upon him that waiting promised death 
 for all of us ; so Jennifer dipped again to send the 
 canoe a broad jump from the bank. 
 
 ''Ready!" he cried. "He'll take the water like a 
 fish, and we can pick him up afterward — Now!" 
 
 I heard the clean-cut dive of the Indian, and 
 struck the paddle deep to balance Jennifer's stroke. 
 But as I bent to put my back into it, some flying 
 missile caught me fair behind the ear, and but for 
 Jennifer's quick wit I should have swamped the 
 crazy shallop. In a flash he jerked me flat between 
 his knees and sent the pirogue with a mighty thrust 
 beyond the zone of fire light. 
 
 At that, though all the sense w^as beaten out of 
 me, I was alive enough to hear the savage yells of 
 disappointed rage behind us ; these and the spitting 
 crackle of a dozen rifles fired at random in the 
 darkness. But afterward all sounds, save the rhyth- 
 mic dip and drip of Jennifer's paddle, faded on the 
 sense of hearing till, as it would seem, this gentle 
 
170 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 monody of dipping blade and tinkling drops became 
 a crooning lullaby to blot out all the years that lay 
 between, and make me once again a little child 
 sinking asleep in my young mother's arms. 
 
XVI 
 
 HOW JENNIFER THREW A MAIN WITH DEATH 
 
 'Tis a sure mark of healthful sleep that it never 
 makes account of time. Xo odds how long the 
 night, 'tis but a moment from the lapse of con- 
 sciousness to its recovery in the morning. But 
 this deep sleep that crept upon me as I lay in the 
 pirogue, listening to the tinkling drip from Jenni- 
 fer's paddle, was not of healthful weariness ; and 
 when I came awake from it there was a dim and 
 troubled vista of vague and broken dreams to meas- 
 ure off the longest night I could ever remember. 
 
 The place of this awakening was a burrow in the 
 earth. ]\Iy bed of bearskins over fragrant pine- 
 tufts was spread upon the ground, and by the 
 flickering light of a handful of fire I could see 
 the earth walls of the burrow, which were v/orn 
 smooth as if the place had been the well-used den 
 of some wild creature. But overhead there was 
 the mark of human occupancy, since the earth-arch 
 was sooted and blackened with the reek of many 
 fires. 
 
 \\^hen I stirred there was another stir beyond the 
 
 171 
 
172 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 handful of fire, and Jennifer came to kneel beside 
 me, taking my hand and chafing it as a tender- 
 hearted woman might, and asking if I knew him. 
 
 "Know you? Why should I not?" I said, won- 
 dering why the words took so many breaths be- 
 tween. 
 
 "O Jack !" was all I had in answer ; but when he 
 had found a tongue to babble out his joy, I learned 
 the why and wherefore. Once more grim death 
 had reached for me, lying await in the twirled toma-| 
 hawk that set me dreaming of my mother's lap 
 and lullaby. For a week I had lain here upon the 
 bed of pine-tufts, poised upon the brink of the death 
 pit with only my dear lad to hold and draw me back. 
 
 ''A week?" I queried, when he had named the 
 interval. "And you have been here all the time?" 
 
 "Eve never left you, save to forage for the pot," , 
 he admitted. "I dared not leave you. Jack." 
 
 "But where are we?" I would ask. 
 
 "In a den on the river's edge, a mile or more 
 above your sacked cabin. 'Tis some dodge-hole 
 hollowed out by the Catawbas long ago and shared 
 since by them and the bears, judging from the 
 stinking reek of it. Uncanoola steered me hither 
 the night of the raid." 
 
 "Then the chief came off safely?" I said, falling 
 into a dumb and impotent rage that the saying of 
 two words should scant me so of strength to say a 
 third. 
 
 "Right as a trivet — scalps and all," laughed Jen- 
 nifer. "He'll be the envy of every warrior in the 
 

 A MAIN WITH DEATH 173 
 
 tribe when he vaunts himself at the Catawbas' coun- 
 cil fire." 
 
 I let it rest a while at that, casting about for 
 words to shape a hungrier question. 
 
 'Have you no news ?" I asked, at length. 
 'Little or none," he answered shortly. 
 
 *'But you have had some word — some news — 
 from Appleby Hundred ?" I stammered feebly. 
 
 "Nothing you'd care to hear," he rejoined, eva- 
 sively, I thought. " 'Tis as you left it, save that 
 Tarleton whipped away to the south again as sud- 
 denly as he came, and our cursing baronet has made 
 the manor house his headquarters in fact, lodging 
 himself and all his troop on Mr. Stair. From his 
 lying quiet and keeping the Cherokees in tow, there 
 will be some deviltry afoot, I'll warrant." 
 
 I knew that Falconnet was waiting for the powder 
 cargo, but another matter crowded this aside. 
 
 "But — but IMargery?" I queried, on sharpest 
 tenter-hooks to know how much or little he had 
 heard. 
 
 I thought his brow darkened at the question, but 
 mayhap it was only a shadow cast by the flickering 
 fire. At any rate, he laughed hardily. 
 
 "She is well — and v.-ell content, I dare swear. 
 'Twas only yesterday I saw her taking the air on 
 the river road, with Falconnet for an escort. You 
 told me once He had a sure hand with the women 
 and it made me mad ; but, truly, I have come to think 
 you drew it mild. Jack." 
 
 Now though I could ply a decent ready blade. 
 
174 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 or keep a firing line from lurching at a pinch, I 
 had not learned to put a snaffle on a blundering 
 tongue, as I have said before. 
 
 "Damn him as you please, Dick, and he'll war- 
 rant it. But you must not judge the lady over 
 harshly, nor always by appearances. She may have 
 flouted you as a boyish lover, and yet I think — " 
 
 I stopped in sheer bewilderment, shot through 
 and through with keenest agonies of remorseful 
 recollection. For at the moment I had clean for- 
 got the gulf impassable I had set between these 
 two. So I would have lapsed into shamed silence, 
 but Jennifer would not suffer it. 
 
 'Well, what is it that you think?" he demanded. 
 'I think — nay, I may say I know that she thinks 
 well of you, Dick," I blundered on, seeing no way 
 to put him off. 
 
 He gripped my hand, and in his eyes there was 
 the light of the old love reawakening. 
 
 "Don't lift me up to fling me down again. Jack! 
 How can you know what she thinks of me?" he 
 broke in, eagerly. 
 
 I should have told him then all there was to 
 tell. He had been thrice my savior, and his heart 
 was soft and malleable on the side of friendship. 
 I knew it — knew that the pregnant moment for full 
 confession had arrived; and yet I could not force 
 my tongue to shape the words. Indeed, I saw more 
 clearly than before that never any word of mine 
 could make him understand that I was not a faith- 
 
 til 
 
A ^lAIX WITH DEATH 175 
 
 less traitor in intention. So I paltered with the 
 truth, like any wretched coward of them all. 
 
 "You forget that I have come to know her well," 
 I said. "I was a month or more under the same 
 roof with her, and in that time she told me many 
 things." 
 
 Now, this witless speech was no better than a 
 whip to flog him on. 
 
 "What things ?" he questioned, promptly. 
 
 "Oh, many things. She spoke often of you." 
 
 "What did she say of me, Jack? Tell me what 
 she said," he begged. "It can make no difference 
 now ; she is less than nothing to me — nay, 'tis even 
 worse than that, since she would play Delilah if 
 she could. But oh, Jack, I love her! — I should 
 love her if I stood on the gallows and she stood by 
 to spring the drop and turn me off !" 
 
 Truly, if the lash of remorse had lacked its keen- 
 est thong, this passionate outburst of his would 
 have added it. None the less, I must needs be 
 weaker than water and fall back another step and 
 put him off. 
 
 "Another time, Richard. I am strangely un- 
 nen-ed and dizzy-headed now. By and by, when 
 I am stronger, I will tell you all." 
 
 Taking a reproach where none was meant, he 
 sprang up with a self-aimed malison upon his lack 
 of care for me, stirred the fire alive and brewed me 
 a most delicious-smelling cup of broth. And after- 
 ward, when I had drunk the broth with some small 
 
176 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 beckonings of returning appetite, he spread his coat 
 to screen me from the fire Hght and would have 
 driven me to sleep again. 
 
 "At any rate, you shall not talk," he promised. 
 'Tf you are wakeful I wall talk to you and tell you 
 what little I have gleaned about the fighting." 
 
 His news was chiefly a later repetition of Father 
 Matthieu's and Captain Abram Forney's, but there 
 was this to add : the Congress had appointed the 
 Englishman, Horatio Gates, chief of the army in 
 the South, and this new leader was on his way to 
 take command. 
 
 De Kalb, with the Maryland and Delaware lines 
 and Colonel Armand's legion, was encamped on 
 Deep River, waiting for the newly-appointed gen- 
 eral ; and Caswell and Griffith Rutherford, with the 
 militia, were already pressing forward to some 
 handgrips with my Lord Cornwallis in the South. 
 
 Nearer at hand, the partizan war-fire flamed 
 afresh wherever a Tory company met a patriot, and 
 there were wicked doings, more like savage massa- 
 cres than fair-fought battles of the soldier sort. 
 
 When he had made an end of his small war 
 budget, I set him on to tell me how he came to be 
 at hand to help me so in the nick of time on the 
 night of the cabin sack. 
 
 " 'Twas partly chance," he said. "A redcoat 
 troop had me in durance at Jennifer House, and 
 while they affected to hold me at parole, I never 
 gave consent to that, and so was kept a prisoner. 
 They shut me in the wine-bin with a guard, and 
 
A MAIN WITH DEATH 177 
 
 when the fellow was well soaked and silly, I bound 
 and gagged him and broke jail. I took the river 
 for it, meaning to outlie until the hue and cry was 
 over; and just at dusk Uncanoola dropped upon me 
 and told me of vour need. From that to helDinsr 
 him cut you out of your raffle with the Cherokees 
 was but a hand's turn in the day's work." 
 
 "A lucky turn for me," I said ; and then at second 
 thought I would deny the saying, though not for 
 him to hear. But this was dangerous ground again, 
 and I clawed off from it like a desperate mariner 
 tempest-driven on a lee shore; asking him how he 
 had learned the broadsword play, and where he got 
 the antique claymore. 
 
 He laughed heartily, and more like my care-free 
 Dick, this time. 
 
 "Thereby hangs a tale. I told you how I was out 
 Avith the [Minute ]\Ien in 'yG at ]\Ioore's Creek, where 
 we fought the Scotchmen. It was our first pitched 
 battle, and I opine it smelled somewhat of severity 
 on both sides — no quarter was asked, and the Tory 
 MacDonalds fought like fiends for King George, 
 small cause as they had to love the House of Han- 
 
 over." 
 
 "How v/as that?" I Vv'ould ask, being as little 
 familiar with the low countr}^ settlements as any 
 native-born Carolinian could be. 
 
 "They were expatriates for the Pretender's sake, 
 many of them. ^listress Flora's husband was one 
 of the prisoners we took. But, as I was saying, 
 they were Tories to a man, and they fought wicked- 
 
178 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 ly. When it was over, the prisoners would have 
 fared hardly but for a woman. In the thick of the 
 fight, Mistress Mary Slocumb, of Dobbs, whose 
 husband was with us, came storming down upon the 
 field, having rode a-gallop some forty-odd miles 
 because she dreamed her goodman was killed. She 
 begged for the prisoners, and so Caswell hanged 
 only those who were blood guilty — these and the 
 house burners. A raw-boned piper named M'Gilli- 
 cuddy fell to my lot, and he is now my majordom^o 
 at Jennifer House ; as honest a fellow as ever skirled 
 a pibroch." 
 
 'That was like you," I said ; '' to make a friend 
 and retainer out of your prisoner. And so this 
 Highland piper has been your fencing master, 
 has he?" 
 
 " 'Twas he taught me what little I know of the 
 claymore play ; and this stout old blade is his. 'Tis 
 as good as a woodman's ax when you have the 
 knack of swinging it=" 
 
 "Truly," said I. "Also, you seemed to have the 
 knack, and the strength as well, in spite of the 
 crippled arm you were carrying in a sling the night 
 before when they haled you into Colonel Tarleton's 
 court at Appleby." 
 
 "A little ruse of war," he said, laughing and mak- 
 ing a fist to show me his arm was strong and sound 
 again. " 'Twas IM'Gillicuddy put me up to it, say- 
 ing they would be like to deal the gentler with a 
 wounded man. But how came you to know ?" 
 
 Here was another chance to tell him what he 
 
A MAIN WITH DEATH 179 
 
 should be told, but the words would not say them- 
 selves. 
 
 *T stood within arm's reach of you that night," 
 said I ; and from that I hastened swiftly through 
 the story of my trial as a spy and what it came to in 
 the morning, and never mentioned ]\Iargery's part 
 in it at all. 
 
 *'You have a bitter enemy in Frank Falconnet," 
 was his comment^ when I had made an end of this 
 recounting of my adventures. *'He knows you are 
 in hiding hereabouts, and has been scouring the 
 neighborhood well for you — or, more belike, for 
 both of us." 
 
 ''How do you know this ?" I asked. 
 
 "I have both seen and heard. This den of ours 
 opens on the river's edge, and, two days since, his 
 Indians came within an ace of nabbing me. 'Twas 
 just at dusk, and I made out to dodge them by 
 doubling past in the canoe." 
 
 "But you say you have heard, as well?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "How ?" 
 
 "Don't ask me, Jack." 
 
 I said I had no right to ask more than he chose 
 to tell ; and at this he blurted out an oath and let 
 me have the sharp-edged truth. 
 
 "Falconnet has an ally whose wit is shrewder 
 than his. Can you guess who it is ?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 " 'Tis this same Madge Stair you have been de- 
 fending. Jack," he said, bitterly. "It seems that 
 
i8o THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 Falconnet made sure we had both gone to join the 
 army, which was but natural. If she were less than 
 the spiteful little Tory vixen that she is, she would 
 have been content to let it rest so. But she would 
 not let it rest so. With her own lips she assured 
 Falconnet he still had us to reckon with ; nay, 
 more — she made a boast of it that we would never 
 go so far away from her." 
 
 Weak and fever-shaken as I was, I yet made shift 
 to get upon my elbow feebly fierce, denouncing it 
 hotly for a lie. 
 
 ''Who slandered her like this, Dick ? Put a name 
 to the cur, and as I live and get my strength again, 
 I'll hunt him down and choke him with that lie !" 
 
 ''Nay," he objected soberly; ''that would be my 
 quarrel, were there ever a peg to hang a quarrel 
 on. But it came by a sure hand, and one that is 
 friendly enough to all concerned. An old free 
 borderer, Ephraim Yeates by name, brought me the 
 tale. He had been spying round at Appleby Hun- 
 dred, wanting to know, for some purpose of his 
 own, why the redcoats and Cherokees were hanging 
 on so long; and this much he overheard one night 
 when he was outlying under the window of the 
 withdrawing-room. He says she was in a pretty 
 passion at the baronet's slackness, stamping her foot 
 at him and lashing him with the taunt that he was 
 afeard of one or both of us." 
 
 I fell back on the bearskins to shut my eyes and 
 call up all the might of love to grapple with this 
 fresh misery. It was in this fierce conflict of faith 
 
A MAIN WITH DEATH i8r 
 
 against apparent fact that I descried the parting" 
 of the ways for the lover and the husband. 
 
 Jennifer beheved this most incredible thing, and 
 yet he loved her — would go on loving her, as he 
 had said, in spite of all. That was the lover's road, 
 and I could never bear him company on it. Could 
 I believe her so pitiless cruel as this, I made sure 
 no husband-love could live beyond that moment of 
 conviction. 
 
 But at this perilous pass the husband's road ran 
 truer than the lover's. Richard believed her capa- 
 ble of this hard-hearted thing and went on loving 
 her blindly in spite of it. But as for me, I said I 
 would never give belief an inch of standing-room; 
 that had I stood in Ephraim Yeates's shoes, having 
 the witness of my own eyes and ears, I would still 
 have found excuse and exculpation for her. 
 
 I stole a glance at Jennifer. He was sitting with 
 his face in his hands, a silent figure of a strong man 
 humbled. He had called her a Delilah, and the 
 green withes of her binding cut sore into the flesh. 
 
 "You say you love her, Dick ; can you believe her 
 capable of this, and yet go on loving her ?" I asked. 
 
 He let me see his face. It was haggard and grief- 
 marred. 
 
 'T'd pay the devil's own price could I say 'no' 
 to that, Jack. But I can not." 
 
 "Then I swear I love her better than you do, 
 Richard Jennifer. She hates me well — God knows 
 she has good cause to hate me fiercely ; yet I w^ould 
 trust her with my life." 
 
i82 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 I looked to see him pin me down at this ; and 
 though the words had fairly shaped and said them- 
 selves, I laid fast hold of my courage and was pre- 
 pared to make them good. But he would only smile 
 and draw the bearskin cover over me, tucking me 
 in as tenderly as a mother, and saying very gently : 
 
 "So she has bewitched you, too; and now there 
 are two poor fools of love instead of one. But you 
 are stronger than I, Jack. You will break the spell 
 and put it down and live beyond it, and that I never 
 shall — God help me !" And with that, he went to 
 his own bed beside the fire, telling m.e I must lie 
 quiet and try to sleep. 
 
 I did lie quiet, but sleep came not, nor did I 
 w^oo it. For long past the time when I could hear 
 his measured breathing, I lay awake to plan how I 
 might draw the baronet's man-hunt to myself, and 
 so free my loyal Richard of the peril that by rights 
 was mine. 
 
XVII 
 
 SHOWING HOW LOVE TOOK TOLL OF FRIENDSHIP 
 
 For some few days after Jennifer's narrow escape 
 at the entrance to our hiding place, the Cherokees 
 were hot upon our scent, quartering the forest on 
 both banks of the river, determined, as it seemed, 
 to hunt or starve us out. 
 
 It was in this time of siege that I came to know, 
 as I had not known before, the depth and tender- 
 ness of my dear lad's love for me. While the life- 
 tide was at its ebb and I was querulous and helpless 
 weak, he was my leech and nurse and heartening 
 friend in one. And later, when the tide was fairly 
 turned and I had found my soldier's appetite again, 
 he spent many of the nights abroad and never let 
 me guess what risks he ran to fetch me dainties from 
 the outer world. 
 
 In this night raiding no danger was too great to 
 hold him back from serving me. Once, when we 
 were washing down our evening meal of meat and 
 maize cake with plain cold water, I mourned the 
 good wine idling in its bin at Jennifer House. At 
 that, without a word to me, he took the whole night 
 
 183 
 
i84 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 for a perilous adventure and fetched a dozen bot- 
 tles of the Jennifer port to make me choke and 
 strangle at the thought of what its bringing had 
 cost in toil and hazard. 
 
 Another time I spoke of English beef, saying how 
 it would rebuild a man at need — how it had made 
 the English soldier what he is. Whereupon, as 
 before, my loving forager took a hint where none 
 was intended ; was gone the night long, and slaugh- 
 tered me some Tory yearling, — 'twas Mr. Gilbert 
 Stair's, I mistrusted, though Dick would never name 
 the owner, and so I had a sirloin to my breakfast. 
 
 In these and m^any other ways he spent himself 
 freely for love of me. If he had been a younger 
 brother of my own blood the common parentage 
 could not have made him tenderer. 
 
 'Twas not the mere outgushing of a nature open- 
 armed to make a bosom friend of all the world ; 
 nor any feminine softness on his part. If I have 
 drawn him thus my pen is but a clumsy quill, for 
 he w^as manly-rough and masterful, with all the 
 native strength and vigor of the border-born. 
 
 But on the side of love and friendship no woman 
 ever had a truer heart, a keener eye or a lighter 
 hand. And in a service for friend or mJstress he 
 would spend himself as recklessly as those old 
 knights you read about who made a business of their 
 chivalry. 
 
 With his daily offerings of unselfishness to shame 
 me, you may be sure that I was flayed alive; self- 
 flogged like a miserable monk, with all the wound- 
 
LOVE TOOK TOLL OF FRIENDSHIP 185 
 
 ings of the whip well salted by remorse. As you 
 have guessed, I had not yet summoned up the cour- 
 age to tell him how I had staked his chance of hap- 
 piness upon a casting of the die of fate — staked 
 and lost it. Now that it was gone, I saw how I had 
 missed the golden opportunity ; how I had weakly 
 hesitated when delay could only make the telling 
 harder. 
 
 By tacit consent we never spoke of Margery. 
 Richard's silence hung upon despair, I thought ; 
 and as for mine, since the husband's road and the 
 lover's lay so far apart, I could not bring myself 
 to speak of her. But she was always first in my 
 thoughts in that tim.e of convalescence, as I made 
 sure she was in his ; and at the last the hidden thing 
 between us was brought to light. 
 
 It was on a night some three weeks or more 
 after my fever turn. Our larder had run low 
 ' again, and Jennifer had spent the earlier hours of 
 the night abroad — to little purpose, as it chanced. 
 'Twas midnight or thereabouts when he came swear- 
 ing in to tell me that the Tories were out again 
 to harry our side of the river afresh, and to make a 
 refugee's begging of a bag of meal a thing of peril. 
 
 "They'll starve us out in shortest measure at this 
 rate," he prophesied. "They have trampled down 
 all the standing com for miles around, and this 
 morning they burned the mill. 'Tis our notice to 
 quit, and we'd best take it. There has been fight- 
 ing to the south of us — a plenty of it — at Rocky 
 Mount and Hanging Rock, and elsewhere, and 
 
i86 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 every man is needed. If you are strong enough to 
 stand the march, we'll run the gantlet down the 
 river in the pirogue and cut across from the lower 
 ford to join IMajor Davie or Air. Gates." 
 
 I said I was fit enough, and would do whatever 
 he thought best. And then I took a step upon the 
 forbidden ground. 
 
 'Talconnet is still at Appleby Hundred?" I said. 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 "And you will join the army at the front and 
 leave Margery to his tender mercies ?" 
 
 His laugh was bitter ; so bitter that I scarce knew 
 it for Richard Jennifer's. 
 
 "Mistress Alargery Stair is well, and well con- 
 tent, as I told you once before. She has no wisli 
 for you or me, unless it be to see us well hanged." 
 
 "Nay, Richard; you judge her over-harshly. I 
 fear you do not love her as her lover should." 
 
 "Say you so? Listen: to-night I got as far as 
 the manor house, being fool enough to risk my 
 neck for another sight of her. God help me, Jack ! 
 I had It. They have scraped together all the Tory 
 riff-raff this side of the river — Falconnet and the 
 others — and are holding high revel at Appleby. 
 Since it is still our true-blue borderland, they are 
 scant enough of women of their own kidney, and I 
 saw Madge dancing like any light o' love with every 
 jackanapes that offered." 
 
 "In her father's house she could not well do less,'* 
 I averred, cut to the heart, as he was, and yet with- 
 
LOVE TOOK TOLL OF FRIENDSHIP 187 
 
 out his younger lover's jealousy to make me un- 
 just. 
 
 "Or more," he added, savagely. " 'Tis as I say ; 
 she lacks nothing we can give her, and we'd as 
 well be off about our business." 
 
 I think he never had it in his heart to leave her 
 in any threat of danger. But from his point of 
 view there was no danger threatening her save that 
 which she seemed willing enough to rush upon — 
 a life of titled misery as Lady Falconnet. i saw 
 how he would see it ; saw, too, that his was the saner 
 summing of it up. And yet — 
 
 He broke into my musings with a pointed ques- 
 tion. "What say you, Jack? 'Tis but a little whif- 
 fet of a Tory jade who cares not the snap of her fin- 
 ger for either of us. The night is fine and dark. 
 Shall we float the canoe and give them all the slip ?" 
 
 This was how it came to turn upon a "yes" or 
 "no" of mine, I hesitated, I know not why. In 
 the little pause the fire burned low between us, and 
 the shadows deepened in the burrow cavern until 
 they strangled the eye as mephitic vapors scant a 
 man of breath. The silence, too, was stifling. 
 There was no sound to breach it save the gurgling 
 murmur of the river, and this was subdued and in- 
 termittent like the death-rattle in the throat of the 
 dying. 
 
 I've always made a scoff of superstition, and yet, 
 my dears, a thousand questions in this life of ours 
 must hang answerless to the crack of doom if you 
 
i88 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 deny it standing-room. I knew no more than I have 
 set down here of Margery's besetment ; nay, I had 
 every reason Richard Jennifer had to beUeve that 
 she was well and well content, lacking nothing, save, 
 mayhap, the freedom to marry where she chose. 
 
 And yet, out of the stifling silence there came a 
 sudden cry for help ; a cry voiceless to the outward 
 ear, but sharp and piercing to that finer inward 
 sense ; a cry so real that I would start and listen, 
 marveling that Jennifer made no sign of having 
 heard it. 
 
 In the barkening instant there was a faint twang 
 like the thrumming of a distant harp string, and 
 then the grave-like silence was rent smartly by the 
 whistling hiss of an arrow, the shaft passing evenly 
 between us and scattering the handful of fire where 
 it struck. 
 
 Jennifer came alive with a start, leaping up with 
 a malediction between his teeth upon our dallying. 
 
 "'Too late, by God!" he cried. ''They've trapped 
 us like a pair of blind moles !" And with that he 
 caught up the ancient broadsword, only to swear 
 again when he found no room to swing it in. 
 
 Having the handier weapon, I slipped out before 
 him, creeping on hands and knees till I could see 
 the leafy screen at the den's mouth, and the shim- 
 mering reflection of the stars upon the Vv^ater be- 
 yond it. There v/as no sight nor sound of any 
 enemy, and the canoe lay safe as Jennifer had 
 left it. 
 
 To make assurance sure, I would have scrambled 
 
LOVE TOOK TOLL OF FRIENDSHIP 189 
 
 to the bank above ; but at the moment Jennifer 
 hallooed softly to me, and so I crept back into the 
 burrow. 
 
 "See here," he said, excitedly. "What a devil 
 will you make of this ?" 
 
 He had drawn the scattered embers together, fan- 
 ning them ablaze again, and had sought and found 
 the arrow. It was a blunt-head reed and no war 
 shaft. And around the middle of it, tightly 
 wrapped and tied with silken threads, was a little 
 scroll of parchment. 
 
 " 'Tis the Catawba's arrow," said Jennifer, though 
 how he knew I could not guess; and then he cut 
 the threads to free the scroll. 
 
 Unrolled and spread at large, the parchment 
 proved to be that map of Captain Stuart's that I 
 had found and lost again. And on the margin of 
 it was my note to Jennifer, written in that trying 
 moment when the bribed sentry waited at the door 
 and my sweet lady stood trembling beside me, mur- 
 muring her "Holy Marys." 
 
 "Read it," said I. "It explains itself. Tarleton 
 had laid me by the heels to wait for the hangman, 
 and I would have passed the word about the Indian- 
 arming on to you. But my messenger was over- 
 hauled, and — " 
 
 "Yes, yes," he broke in ; "I've spelled it out. 
 But this line added at the bottom — surely, that is 
 never your crabbed fist. By heaven ! 'tis in Aladge's 
 hand !" 
 
 He knelt to hold it closer to the flickering fire- 
 
190 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 light, and we deciphered it together. It was but 
 a Hne, as he had said, with neither greeting nor 
 leave-taking, address nor signature. 
 
 'Tf this should come into the hands of any true- 
 hearted gentleman" — here was a blot as if the pen 
 had slipped from the fingers holding it ; and then, 
 in French, the very wording of the inarticulate cr}-" 
 that had come to me out of the darkness and 
 silence : ^'A moil pour l' amour de Dieu!" 
 
 We fell apart, each to his own side of the handful 
 of embers. 
 
 "You make it out?" said I, after a moment of 
 strained silence. 
 
 He nodded. "She has prattled the parlez-vous 
 to me ever since we wxre boy and maid together." 
 
 A full minute more of the threatening silence, 
 and at the end of it we were glaring at each other 
 like two wild creatures crouching for the spring. 
 
 It was Jennifer who spoke first. " 'Twas meant 
 for me," he said ; and his voice had the warning of 
 a mastifif's growl in it. 
 
 "No !" said I, curtly. 
 
 "I say it was !" 
 
 "Then you say the thing which is not." 
 
 Had I been Richard Jennifer, I know not what 
 bitter reproach I should have found to hurl at the 
 man who had thrice owed his life to me. But he 
 said no word of what had gone before. 
 
 "You may give me the lie, if you like, John Ire- 
 ton ; I shall not strike you." He said it slowly, 
 but his face was gray with anger. Then he added, 
 
LOVE TOOK TOLL OF FRIENDSHIP 191 
 
 hotly: "You know well that word was meant for 
 me!" 
 
 At this — God forgive me! — my jealous wrath 
 broke bounds and I cursed him for a beardless 
 coxcomb who must needs think he stood alone in 
 the eye of every woman he should meet. "She 
 needs a man !" I raged, lost now to every sense of 
 decent justice, " a man, I say ! And to whom would 
 she send if not to her — " 
 
 I choked upon the word. He had risen with me, 
 and we stood face to face in that grim earth-womb, 
 snarling fiercely at each other across the narrow 
 firelit space ; two men with every tie to knit us close 
 together, and yet — God save us all ! — a pair of wild 
 beasts strung up to the killing pitch because, for- 
 sooth, we must needs front each other across a dead- 
 line drawn by the finger of a woman ! 
 
 God knows what would have come of all this had 
 my dear lad been as fierce a fool as I. 'Twas his 
 good common sense that saved us both, I think, 
 for when the savage rival madness was at its height 
 he turned away, swearing we were the very pick and 
 choice of a world of asses to stand thus feeling for 
 each other's throats when, mayhap, the lady needed 
 both of us. 
 
 This brought me to my senses at a gallop, as 
 you would guess ; to them and to the lighting of 
 the conscience fire within whereon to grill the 
 wicked heart that but now had thirsted for a 
 brother's blood. 
 
 'Now God have mercy on us both !" I groaned.. 
 
 {(■ 
 
192 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 ''Forgive me, Dick, if you can ; I was as mad as any 
 Bedlamite. If I have any claim on her, 'tis not of 
 her good will, you may be sure. You have the 
 baronet to fear — ^not me." 
 
 He shook his head and pointed to the parchment 
 — to the line in French. 
 
 "Francis Falconnet was under the same roof with 
 her — or at least in easy call — when she wrote that, 
 Jack. He is no longer my rival — nor yours." 
 
 His word set me thinking, and I would fall to 
 picking out the strands that jealous wrath had 
 w^oven for me into the web of happenings. Setting 
 aside the story brought by Ephraim Yeates, there 
 was no certain proof that she had ever favored the 
 Englishman ; nay, more, till I had come to be madly 
 jealous of Falconnet, I had made sure that Jennifer 
 was the favored one. 
 
 At this, as one sees a landscape struck out clear 
 and vivid by the lightning's flash, I saw the true 
 meaning of the word the hunter had brought — saw 
 it and went upon my knees to grope blindly for the 
 sword I had let fall when Dick had found the 
 arrow. 
 
 "What is it. Jack ?" he asked, gently. 
 
 "My sword !" I gasped. "We should have been 
 half-way there by this. Yeates was misled. 'Tis 
 Falconnet she fears. She was at bay — hark you, 
 at bay and fair desperate. That word of hers to 
 the baronet was her poor pitiful defiance built on 
 her trust in us, and we have lain here — " 
 
LOVE TOOK TOLL OF FRIENDSHIP 193 
 
 He found the sword and thrust it into my hand, 
 crying : 
 
 "Come on ! You can strew the dust and ashes on 
 me later. You said you loved her the better, and 
 I do believe it now. Jack! You trusted her, as I 
 did not. We'll fight as one man to cut her out of 
 this coil, whatever it may be ; and after that is done 
 I'll make my bow and leave you a fair field." 
 
 "Nay, nay; that you shall not, Dick," I began; 
 but he was half-way through the narrow passage 
 to the open, trailing the ancient broadsword and the 
 bearskin from his bed; and I was fain to follow 
 quickly, leaving the protest all unfinished. 
 
XVIII 
 
 IN WHICH WE HEAR NEWS FROM THE SOUTH 
 
 As near as might be guessed, it wanted yet an| 
 hour or two of daybreak when we made a landing 
 within the boundaries of Appleby Hundred, and 
 beached and hid the pirogue in the bushes. 
 
 Of the down-stream flitting through the small 
 hours of the warm midsummer night there is no 
 sharp-etched picture on the memory page. As I 
 recall it, no spoken word of Jennifer's or mine came 
 in to break the rhythm of the hasting voyage. Our 
 paddles rose and fell, dipping and sweeping in uni- 
 son as if we two, kneeling in bow and stern, were 
 separate halves of some relentless mechanism driven 
 by a single impulse. Overhead the starlit dome cir- 
 cled solemnly to the right or left to match the wind- 
 ings of the stream. On each hand the tree-fringed 
 shores sped backward in the gloom ; and beneath 
 the light shell of poplar wood that barely kissed the 
 ripples in passing, the river lapped and gurgled, 
 chuckling weirdly at the paddle plungings, and 
 swirling aft in the longer reaches to point at 
 us down the lengthening wake with a wavering 
 finger silver-tipped in the wan starlight. 
 
 194 
 
WE HEAR NEWS FROIM THE SOUTH 195 
 
 With the canoe safely 'hidden at the landing place, 
 which was some little distance from that oak grove 
 where I had twice kept tryst with death, we set 
 out for the manor house, skulking Indian fashion 
 through the wood ; and, when we reached the in- 
 fields, looking momently to come upon a sentry. 
 
 Thinking the approaches from the road and river 
 would be better guarded than that from the wood, 
 we skirted a widespread thicket tangle, spared by 
 my father tv/enty years before to be a grouse and 
 pheasant cover, and fetching a compass of half a 
 mile or more across the maize fields, came in among 
 the oaks and hickories of the manor grounds. 
 
 Still there was no sight nor sound of any enemy ; 
 no light of candles at the house, or of camp-fires 
 beneath the trees. 
 
 A little way within the grove, where the inter- 
 lacing tree-tops made the darkness like Egyptian 
 night, Jennifer went on all fours to feel around as 
 if in search of something on the sward. Whereat 
 I called softly to know what he would be at. 
 
 He rose, muttering, half as to himself : "I thought 
 I'd never be so far out of reckoning." Then to me : 
 **A few hours since, the Cherokees were encamped 
 just here. You are standing in the ashes of their 
 fire." 
 
 "So?" said I. "Then they have gone?" 
 
 "Gone from this safely enough, to be sure. They 
 have been gone some hours; the cinders are cold 
 and dew wet." 
 
196 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 *'So much the better," I would say, thinking only 
 that now there would be the fewer enemies to fight. 
 
 He dipt my arm suddenly, putting the value of 
 an oath into his gripping of it. 
 
 "Come awake, man ; this is no time to be a-daze !" 
 His whisper was a sharp behest, with a shake of 
 the gripped arm for emphasis. 'Tf the Indians are 
 gone, it means that the powder train has come and 
 gone, too." 
 
 "Well ?" said I. 
 
 I was still thinking, with less than a clod's wit, 
 that this v/ould send the baronet captain about his 
 master's business, and so Margery would have 
 surcease of him for a time, at least. But Jennifer 
 fetched me awake with another whip-lash word or 
 two. 
 
 "Jack! has the night's work gone to your head? 
 If Falconnet has got his marching orders you may 
 be sure he's tried by hook or crook to play 'safe 
 bind, safe find,' with Madge. By heaven ! 'twas 
 that she was afeard of, and we are here too late ! 
 Come on!" 
 
 I With that he faced about and ran; and forget- 
 ting to loose his grip on my arm, took me with 
 him till I broke away to have my sword hand free. 
 So running, we came presently to the open space 
 before the house, and, truly, it was well for us that 
 the place was clean deserted; for by this we had 
 both forgot the very name of prudence. 
 
 Jennifer outran me to the door by half a lengtH, 
 
WE HEAR NEWS FROAI THE SOUTH 197 
 
 and fell to hammering fiercely on the panel with 
 the pommel of his broadsword. 
 
 "Open! Mr. Stair; open!" he shouted, between 
 the batterings; but it was five full minutes before 
 the fan-light overhead began to show some faint 
 glimmerings of a candle coming from the rooms be- 
 yond. 
 
 Richard rested at that, and in the pause a thin 
 voice shrilled from within. 
 
 "Be off, you runagates ! Off, I say ! or I fire 
 upon ye through the door !" 
 
 Giving no heed to the threat, Dick set up his 
 clamor again, calling out his name, and bidding 
 the old man open to a friend. In some notching 
 of the hubbub I heard the unmistakable click of a 
 gun-flint on steel. There was barety time to trip 
 my reckless batterer and to fall flat with him 
 on the door-stone when a gun went off within, and 
 a handful of slugs, breaching the oaken panel at 
 the height of a man's middle, went screeching 
 over us. 
 
 Before I knew what he would be at, Richard was 
 up with an oath, backing off to hurl himself, shoul- 
 der on, against the door. It gave with a splintering 
 crash, letting him in headlong. I followed less hast- 
 ily. It was as black as a setter's mouth within, 
 the gun fire having snuffed the old man's candle 
 out. But we had flint and steel and tinder-box, 
 and when the punk was alight, Jennifer found the 
 candle under foot and gave it me. It took fire 
 
198 THE AlASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 with a fizzing like a rocket fuse, and was well 
 blackened with gunpowder. When the flinc had 
 failed to bring the firing spark, the old man had 
 set his piece off with the candle flame. 
 
 We found him in the nook made by the turn 
 of the stair, flung thither, as it seemed, by the recoil 
 of the great bell-mouthed blunderbuss which he was 
 still clutching. The fall had partly stunned him, 
 but he was alive enough to protest feebly that he 
 would take a dozen oaths upon his loyalty to the 
 cause; that he had mistook us for some thieving 
 marauders of the other side ; craftily leaving cause 
 and party without a name till he should have his 
 cue from us. 
 
 Whereupon Richard loosed his neckcloth to give 
 him better breathing space, and bidding me see if 
 the revelers had left a heel-tap of wine in any bottle 
 nearer than the wine cellar, lifted the old man and 
 propped him in the corner of the high-backed hall 
 settle. 
 
 The wine quest led me to the banqueting-room. 
 Here disorder reigned supreme. The table stood 
 as the roisterers had left it ; the very wreck and 
 litter of a bacchanalian feast. Bottles, some with 
 the necks struck off, were scattered all about, and 
 the floor was stained and sticky with spilt wine 
 and well sanded with shattered glass. 
 
 T found a remnant draining in one of the broken 
 bottles, and a cup to pour it in ; and with this salvage 
 from the wreck returned to Jennifer and his charge. 
 The old man had come to some better sensing of 
 
WE HEAR NEWS FROM THE SOUTH 199 
 
 things, — he had been vastly more frightened than 
 hurt, as I suspected, — and to Richard's eager ques- 
 tionings was able to give some feebly querulous re- 
 plies. 
 
 "Yes, they're gone — all gone, curse 'em ; and 
 they've taken every plack and bawbee they could 
 lay their thieving hands upon," he mumbled. " 'Tis 
 like the dogs ; to stay on here and eat and drink me 
 out of house and home, and then to scurry off when 
 I'm most like to need protection." 
 
 "But Madge?" says Richard. "Is she safe in 
 bed ?" 
 
 "She's a jade!" was all the answer he got. Then 
 the old man sat up and peered around the end of 
 the settle to where I stood, cup and bottle in hand. 
 " 'Tis a Christian thought," he quavered. "Give 
 me a sup of the wine, man." 
 
 I served him and had a Scottish blessing for my 
 wastefulness, because, forsooth, the broken bottle 
 spilt a thimbleful in the pouring. I saw he did not 
 recognize me, and was well enough content to let 
 it rest thus. 
 
 Richard suffered him to drink in peace, but when 
 the cup was empty he renewed his asking for ]Mar- 
 gery. At this the master of the house, heartened 
 somewhat by my father's good madeira, made shift 
 to get upon his feet in some tremulous fashion. 
 
 "Madge, d'ye say ? She's gone ; gone where 
 neither vou nor that dour-faced deevil that befooled 
 us all will find her soon, I promise you, Dickie 
 Jennifer !" he snapped ; and I gave them my back 
 
200 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 and stumbled blindly to the door, making sure his 
 next word would tell my poor wronged lad all that 
 he should have learned from never any other lips 
 but mine own. But Richard himself parried the 
 impending stroke of truth, saying : 
 
 "So she is safe and well, Mr. Stair, 'tis all I ask 
 to know." 
 
 "She is safe enough ; safer by far than you are 
 at this minute, my young cock-a-hoop rebel, now 
 that the king — God save him ! — has his own again." 
 
 I turned quickly on the broad door-stone to look 
 within. Out of doors the early August dawn was 
 graying mistily overhead, but in the house the 
 sputtering tallow dip still struggled feebly with 
 the gloom. They stood facing each other, these 
 two, my handsome lad, the pick and choice of a 
 comely race, looking, for all his toils and vigils, 
 fresh and fit ; and the old man in his woolen dress- 
 ing-gown, his wig awry, and his lean face yellow 
 in the candle-light. 
 
 "How is that you say, ]\Ir. Stair?" says Dick. 
 "The king — but that is only the old Tory cry. 
 There will never be a king again this side of the 
 water." 
 
 The old man reached out and hooked a lean 
 finger in the lad's buttonhole. "Say you so, Richard 
 Jennifer? Then you will never have heard the 
 glorious news?" This with a leer that might have 
 been of triumph or the mere whetting of gossip 
 eagerness — I could not tell. 
 
WE HEAR NEWS FRO:\I THE SOUTH 201 
 
 *'No," says Richard, with much indifference. 
 
 ''Hear it, then. 'Twas at Camden, four days 
 since. They came together in the murk of the 
 Wednesday morning, my Lord ComwaUis and that 
 poor fool Gates. De Kalb is dead ; your blethering 
 Irishman, Rutherford, is captured; and your rag- 
 tag rebel army is scattered to the four winds. And 
 that's not all. On the Friday, Colonel Tarleton 
 came up with Sumter at Fishing Creek and caught 
 him napping. Whereupon, Charlie McDowell and 
 the over-mountain men, seeing all was lost, broke 
 their camp on the Broad and took to their heels, 
 every man jack of them for himself. So ye see, 
 Dickie Jennifer, there's never a cursed corporal's 
 guard left in either Carolina to stand in the king's 
 way." 
 
 He rattled all this off glibly, like a child repeating 
 some lesson got by heart ; but when I would have 
 found a grain of comfort in the hope that it was a 
 farrago of Falconnet's lies, Jennifer made the truth 
 appear in answer to a curt question. 
 
 " 'Tis beyond doubt?— all this, Mr. Stair?" 
 
 The old loyalist — loyalist now, if never certainly 
 before — sat down on the settle and laughed ; a dry 
 wizened cackle of a laugh that sounded like the 
 crumpling of nev/ parchment. 
 
 "You'd best be off, light foot and tight foot, 
 Master Richard, lest you learn shrewdly for your- 
 self. 'Tis in everybody's mouth by this. There 
 were some five-and-forty of the king's friends come 
 
202 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 together here no longer ago than yestere'en to drink 
 his Majesty's health, and ^h, man! but it will cost 
 me a pretty penny! Will that satisfy ye?" 
 
 "Yes," said Jennifer, thinking, mayhap, as I did, 
 that nothing short of gospel-true news would have 
 sufficed to unlock this poor old miser's wine cellar. 
 
 "Well, then; you'd best be off w^hile you may; 
 d'ye hear ? I bear ye no ill-v/ill, Richard Jennifer ; 
 and if Mr. Tarleton lays hold of you, you'll hang 
 higher than Haman for evading your parole, I 
 promise you. We'll say naught about this rape 
 of the door-lock, though 'tis actionable, sir, and 
 I'll warn you the law would make you smart finely 
 for it. But we'll enter a nolle prosequi on that till 
 you're amnestied and back, then you can pay me the 
 damage of the broken lock and we'll cry quits." 
 
 At this my straightforward Richard snorted in 
 wTathful derision. However much he loved the 
 daughter, 'twas clear he had small regard for the 
 father. 
 
 "Seeing we came to do you a service, Mr. Stair, 
 I think we may set the blunderbuss and the handful 
 of slugs over against the smashed door. And that 
 fetches me back to our errand here. You say Madge 
 is safe. Does that mean that you have spirited her 
 
 away since last night?" 
 
 "Dinna fash yoursel' about Madge, Richard Jen- 
 nifer. She's meat for your betters, sir!" rasped the 
 old man, lapsing into the mother tongue, as he did 
 now and then in fear or anger. 
 
 "Still I would know v/hat you mean when you 
 
WE HEAR NEWS FROM THE SOUTH 203 
 
 say she is safe," says Richard, whose determination 
 to crack a nut was always proportioned to the hard- 
 ness of the shell. 
 
 Gilbert Stair cursed him roundly for an imperti- 
 nent jackanapes, and then gave him his answer. 
 
 " 'Tis none of your business, Dickie Jennifer, but 
 you may know and be hanged to you ! She rode 
 home with the Witherbys last night after the rout, 
 and will be by this safe away in t'other Carolina 
 where your cursed Whiggeries darena lift head or 
 hand." 
 
 "Of her own free will ?" Dick persisted. 
 
 "Damme! yes; bag, baggage, serving wench and 
 all. Now will you be ofif about your business before 
 some spying rascal lays an information against me 
 for harboring you ?" 
 
 Richard joined me on the door-stone. The dawn 
 was in its twilight now, and the great trees on the 
 lawn were taking gray and ghostly shapes in the 
 dim perspective. 
 
 "You heard what he had to say ?" said he. 
 
 I nodded. 
 
 "It seems we have missed our cue on all sides/' 
 he went on, not without bitterness. "I w^ould we 
 might have had a chance to fire a shot or two before 
 the ship went down." 
 
 "At Camden, you mean? That's but the begin- 
 ning; the real battles are all to be fought yet, I 
 should say." 
 
 He shook his head despondently. "You are a 
 newcomer, Jack, and you know not how near out- 
 
204 THE PIASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 worn the country is. Gilbert Stair has the right 
 of it when he says there will be nothing to stop the 
 redcoats now." 
 
 I called to mind the resolute little handful under 
 Captain Abram Forney, one of many such, he had 
 told me, and would not yield the point. 
 
 ''There will be plenty of fighting yet, and we must 
 go to bear a hand where it is needed most," said 
 I. "Where will that be, think you ? At Charlotte?" 
 
 He looked at me reproachfully. 
 
 "This time 'tis you who are the laggard in love, 
 John Ireton. Will you go and leave IMistress Mar- 
 gery wanting an answer to her poor little cry for 
 help ?" 
 
 I shrugged. "What would you? Has she not 
 taken her affair into her own hands ?" 
 
 "God knows how much or little she has had to 
 say about it," said he. "But I mean to know, too, 
 before I put my name on any company roll." We 
 were among the trees by this, moving off for safety's 
 sake, since the day was coming; and he broke off 
 short to wheel and face me as one who would 
 throttle a growling cur before it has a chance tot 
 bite. "We know the worst of each other now. Jack, 
 and we must stand to our compact. Let us see her 
 safe beyond peradventure of a doubt ; then I'm with 
 you to fight the redcoats single-handed, if you like. 
 I know what you will say — that the country calls 
 us now more than ever; but there must needs be 
 some little rallying interval after all this disaster, 
 and—" 
 
WE HEAR NEWS FROM THE SOUTH 205 
 
 ''Have done, Richard," said I. "Set the pace 
 and mayhap I can keep step with you. What do 
 you propose?" 
 
 'This; that we go to Witherby Hall and get 
 speech w4th Mistress Madge, if so be — " 
 
 "Stay a moment ; who are these Witherbys?'* 
 
 "A dyed-in-the-wool Tory family seated some ten 
 miles across the line in York district. True, 'tis a 
 rank Tory hotbed over there, and we shall run some 
 risk." 
 
 "Never name risk to me if you love me, Richard 
 Jennifer !" I broke in. "What is your plan ?" 
 
 His answer was prompt and to the point. 
 "To press on afoot through the forest till we come 
 to the York settlement ; then to borrow a pair of 
 Tory horses and ride like gentlemen. Ave you 
 game for it?" 
 
 I hesitated. "I see no great risk in all this, and 
 whatever the hazard, 'tis less for one than for two. 
 You'd best go alone, Richard." 
 
 He saw my meaning ; that I would stand aside and 
 let him be her succor if she needed help. But he 
 would not have it so. 
 
 "No," he said, doggedly. "We'll go together, 
 and she shall choose between us for a champion, if 
 she is in the humor to honor either of us. That 
 is what 'twill come to in the end ; and I warn you 
 fairly, John IretonJ shall neither give nor take ad- 
 vantage in this strife. I said last night that I would 
 stand aside, but that I can not — not till she herself 
 savs the killing word with her own lips." 
 
2q6 the master of APPLEBY 
 
 "And that word will be—?" 
 
 "That she loves another man. Come; let us be 
 at it; we should be well out of this before the 
 plantation people are astir," 
 
XIX 
 
 HOW A STUMBLING HORSE BROUGHT TIDINGS 
 
 Having a definite thing to do, we set about it 
 forthwith, taking to the fields and making a wide 
 circuit around the manor house and the quarters 
 where the blacks were already stirring, to come out 
 to the river and so to cross in our canoe. 
 
 The morning, soft and warm enough, threatened 
 now to break the fair weather promise of the star- 
 lit night. Away in the east a heavy cloud bank 
 curtained off the sunrise, and in the fields the few 
 dry maize blades left by the partizan harriers were 
 whispering to the gusts. 
 
 In the great forest all was yet dim and shadowy, 
 and silent as the grave but for the whispering mur- 
 mur of the rising wind in the higher tree-tops ; a 
 sound so like the babbling of brooks as most cun- 
 ningly to deceive the ear and make it set the eye at 
 work to look for water where there was none. 
 
 Not to take a certain hazard for the sake of bet- 
 ter speed, we shunned the road, and for the first 
 hour or so were not greatly hindered by keeping to 
 the forest paths. In vast areas this virgin wood 
 
 207 
 
2o8 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 was free of undergrowth, open and park-like as a 
 well-kept grove. Fireside tradition on the border 
 tells how the Indians kept the forest clear by yearly 
 burnings of the smaller growth ; this for the better 
 hunting of the deer. I vouch, not for the truth of 
 this accounting for the fact, but for the fact itself. 
 For endless miles between the watercourses these 
 park-like stretches covered hill and dale; a vast 
 mysterious temple of God's own building, its naves 
 and choirs and transepts columned by the countless 
 trees, with all their leafy crowns to interlace 
 and form the groined arches overhead. 
 
 Through these pillared aisles we tramped abreast, 
 shunning the road, as I have said, yet holding it 
 parallel with our course where its direction served. 
 In the open vistas we had frequent glimpses of it, 
 winding, at feud with all the points of the compass, 
 among the trees. But farther on we came into the 
 lower land of a creek bottom, and here a thickset 
 undergrowth robbed us of any view and made the 
 march a toilsome struggle vvith the bushes. 
 
 It was in the densest of this underwood, when 
 we could hear the purring of the stream ahead, that 
 Jennifer stopped suddenly and began to sniff the 
 air. 
 
 "Smoke," he said, briefly, in answer to my query. 
 "A camp-fire, with meat abroil. Never tell me you 
 can't smicll it.'* 
 
 I said I could not — did not, at all events. 
 
 "Then you are not as sharp set for breakfast as 
 I am. Call up your woodcraft and we'll stalk it." 
 
A HORSE BROUGHT TIDINGS 209 
 
 And, suiting;' the action to the word, he dropped 
 noiselessly on hands and knees to inch his way 
 cautiously out of the thicket. 
 
 I followed at his heels, marveling at his skill in 
 threading the maze with never a snapped twig to 
 betray him. For though I have called him a youth- 
 ling, he came of great, square-shouldered English 
 stock, and was well upon fourteen stone for weight. 
 Yet upon occasion, as now, he could be as lithe and 
 cat-like as an Indian, stealthy in approach and tiger- 
 strong to spring. 
 
 In due time our creeping progress brought us out 
 of the thicket on the brink of the higher creek 
 bank. Just here the stream ran in a shallow ravine 
 with shelving banks of clay, and on its hither mar- 
 gin was a bit of grassy intervale big enough for a 
 horse to roll upon. Though it was sadly out of 
 season, the carcass of a deer, fresh killed, hung 
 upon a branch of the nearest tree, with a rifle lean- 
 ing against the trunk as if to guard it. In the middle 
 of the bit of sward a tiny camp-fire burned ; and at 
 the fire, squatting with their backs to us and each 
 toasting a cut of the deer's meat on a forked stick, 
 were two men. 
 
 One of these men would pass by courtesy as a 
 white. His hunting-shirt and leggings were of 
 deer skin, well grimed and greasy, with leather 
 fringes at the seams of leg and sleeve. For all the 
 summer heat, he wore a cap fashioned of raccoon- 
 skin with the fur on ; and for this great cap his iron- 
 gray hair, matted and unkempt, served as a fringe 
 
i 
 
 2IO THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 to keep the other tassehngs in countenance. The 
 hunting-shirt was behed at the waist, and in the 
 belt w^as thrust a sheathless knife huge enough to 
 serve a butcher's purpose. From two leather 
 thongs crossed upon his shoulders hung the powder- 
 horn and bullet-pouch ; and these, with the knife 
 and rifle, summed up his accoutrements. 
 
 The other was a red man, and his attire was sim- 
 pler. Like all our southern Indians, he went naked 
 to the waist; but the savage's love of ornament 
 showed forth in the fringe of colored porcupine 
 quills on his leggings and in his raven hair bestuck 
 with feathers. For arms he had an arsenal in his 
 belt ; two great pistols, a tomahawk, and the scalp- 
 ing-knife, this last smaller than the white man's 
 carving tool, but far more vicious looking. 
 
 For a moment or two we crouched irresolute on 
 the brink of the ravine^ neither of us recognizing 
 the two below. Then my young rashling must 
 needs let out a yell. 
 
 "Now, by all that's lucky!" he cried, and would 
 have leaped to his feet. But at the instant the 
 earth-edge gave way under him, and he was sent 
 tumbling with the small landslide of clay down 
 upon the twain at the fire. 
 
 It went within a trembling hair's-breadth of a 
 tragedy. The two at the fire sprang up as one man ; 
 and the bound that set the hunter afoot brought 
 his long rifle to his shoulder. But that the Indian 
 was the quicker, Richard's life would have paid the 
 penalty of his slip, I think. At the trigger-pulling 
 
A HORSE BROUGHT TIDINGS 211 
 
 instant the Catawba thrust the thick of his hand 
 between stone and steel, and the flint bit, harmless 
 for Jennifer, into the palm of the Indian. 
 
 *'Wah!" he ejaculated, in his soft guttural. "No 
 want kill Captain Jennif, hey?" 
 
 Ephraim Yeates lowered his weapon and released 
 the pinched hand held fast by the gun-flint. 
 
 "Well, I'm daddled, fair and square. Cap n Dick !" 
 he declared. "Jest one more shake of a dead lamb's 
 tail, and I'd V had ye on my mind, sartain sure! 
 I allowed ye knowed better than to come whamm- 
 ling down that-away behint a man whilst he's 
 a-cooking his ven'son.'* 
 
 Dick laughed and called to me to follow as I 
 could. And his answer to the old borderer was no 
 answer at all. 
 
 " 'Tis to be hoped you and the chief don't meaa 
 to be niddering with that deer's meat. We were 
 guessing but a half-hour back, Captain Ireton and 
 I, whether or no we'd have to take up belt-slack 
 for our breakfast." 
 
 At the word the Catawba whipped out his knife 
 and fell to w^ork hospitably on the meat supply, 
 ^^leanwhile I came upon the scene, something less 
 'hurriedly than Richard. Ephraim Yeates looked 
 me up and down with a sniff for my foreign-cut 
 coat, another for my queue, and a third for the Ger- 
 man ritter-boots I wore. 
 
 "Umph !" said he. "Now if here ain't that there 
 dad-blame' Turkey-fighter again! What almighty 
 cur 'is things the good Lord do let loose on a stiff- 
 
212 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 necked and rebellious gineration!" Then to me, 
 most pointedly: "Say, Cap'n; the big woods ain't 
 no fitting place for such as you, ez I allow. Ye 
 mought be getting them purty boots o' your'n all 
 tore up on the briars." 
 
 He ended with a dry little laugh not unlike Mr. 
 Gilbert Stair's parchment crackle ; and, being his 
 guest for the nonce, I laughed with him. 
 
 *'Have your joke and welcome, Mr. Yeates," said 
 I. "I am too near famished to quarrel with my 
 chance of breakfast." 
 
 Much to my astoundment he flung his raccoon- 
 skin cap into the air, spat upon his hands and began 
 that insane war-dance of his. 
 
 "Whoop !" he yelled. "No band-box dandy from 
 the settlemints ever sot out to call me 'Mister' and 
 got away alive to brag on't ! Ketch hold, you in- 
 fergotten, Turkey-fighting, silver-buttoned jack-a- 
 dandy till I dip ye in the creek and soak a flour- 
 ration 'r two out 'n that there pig-tail top-knot o' 
 your'n! Yip-pee!" 
 
 By this Jennifer was trying, as well as a man 
 bent double with laughter might, to interpose in the 
 interest of peace and amity ; and even the stoical 
 Catawba was all a-grin. So, seeing I was like to 
 lose countenance with all of them, I watched my 
 chance, and closing with my capering ancient, gave 
 him a hearty wrestler's hug. 
 
 For all he was so gaunt and thin, and full twenty 
 years or more my senior, he was a pretty handful. 
 'Twas much like trying to catch a fall out of some 
 
A HORSE BROUGHT TIDINGS 213 
 
 piece of steel-wired mechanism. None the less, after 
 some wild stampings and strivings in which the old 
 man all but made good his promise to put me in the 
 creek, I took him unawares with a Cornishman's 
 trick — a cross-buttock shifted suddenly to a 
 shoulder-lift — which sent him flying overhead to 
 land all abroad in the soft clay of the landslide, 
 y The effect of this little triumph was magical and 
 wholly unlooked for. When he had gathered 
 himself and set his limbs in order, Ephraim Yeates 
 sat up and thrust out a claw-like hand. 
 
 'Tut it there, stranger," he said. 'T reckon ez 
 how that settles it. Old Eph Yeates '11 share fair, 
 powder and lead, parched com and pan-meat with 
 the man that can flop him that-away. Whilst ye're 
 a-needing a friend in the big woods — a raw-meat- 
 eating Injun-skinner that can jest or'narily whop 
 his weight in wildcats — why, old Eph's your man ; 
 from now on, if not sooner." And in this wise 
 began an alliance the like of which, for true-blue 
 loyalty on this old borderer's part, these colder- 
 hearted times of yours, my dears, wall never see. 
 
 As you would guess, I gripped the hand of pledg- 
 ing most heartily, pulling the old man to his feet 
 and protesting it was but a trick lie w^ould never 
 let another play on him. And then we four fell 
 upon the deer's meat which was by this time — not 
 cooked, to be sure, but seared a little on the outside 
 in true hunter fashion. 
 
 While we ate, Richard spoke freely of our intend- 
 ings ; and in return Ephraim Yeates was able to con- 
 
214 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 firm Mr. Gilbert Stair's war news to the letter. For 
 all his Tory bias and prejudice, it seemed that 
 Margery's father had spoken by the book. Gates' 
 army was crushed and scattered to the four winds ; 
 Thomas Sumter's free-lances had been at- 
 tacked, worsted and driven, with the leader 
 himself so sorely wounded that he was carried from 
 the field in a blanket slung between the horses of 
 two of his men ; and, as was to be expected, the 
 Tories were up and arming in all the north countr}'. 
 Truly, the prospect was most gloomy and the out- 
 look for the patriot cause was to the full as desper- 
 ate as King George himself could wish. 
 
 "But you, Ephraim, and the chief, here ; are you 
 two running away like all the others?" Richard 
 would ask. 
 
 The old hunter growled his denial between the 
 mouthfuls of scarce-warmed meat. "I reckon ez 
 how 'tis t'other w^ay 'round ; we're sort o' camping 
 on the redcoats' trail, ez I allow. Ain't we, Chief, 
 
 hey r 
 
 The Catawba's assent was a guttural "Wah !" and 
 Ephraim Yeates went on to explain. 
 
 "Ye see, 'tis this-away. You took a laugh out'n 
 me. Cap'n Dick, for spying 'round on that there 
 Britisher hoss-captain and his redskins ; but 'long 
 to'ards the last I met up with a thing 'r two wo'th 
 knowing. 'Twas a powder and lead cargo they was 
 a-waiting for; and they're allowing to sneak it 
 through the mountings to the overhill Cherokees." 
 
 "Well ?" says Dick. 
 
A HORSE BROUGHT TIDINGS 215 
 
 The old man cut another slice of the venison and 
 took his time to impale it on the forked toasting 
 stick. 
 
 ''Well, then I says to the chief, here, says I, 
 'Chief, this here's our A-number-one chance to 
 spile the 'Gyptians ; get heap gun, heap powder, 
 heap lead, heap scalp.' The chief, he says, 'Wah !' 
 — which is good Injun-talk for anything ye like, — 
 and so here we are, hot-foot on the trail o' that there 
 hoss-captain and his powder varmints." 
 
 "Alone ?" said I, in sheer amazement at the brazen 
 effrontery of this chase of half a hundred well- 
 armed men by two. 
 
 The old hunter chuckled his dry little laugh. 
 "We ain't sich tarnation big fools ez we look, Cap'n 
 John. There's a good plenty of 'em to wallop us, 
 ez I'll allow, if it come to fighting 'em fair and 
 square. But there'll be some dark night 'r other 
 whenst we can slip up on 'em and raise a scalp 'r 
 two and lift v.'hat plunder we can tote; hey. Chief?" 
 
 But now Richard would inquire what time in the 
 night the powder convoy left Appleby Hundred, 
 and if Gilbert Stair's York District guests had trav- 
 eled with it. To these askings Yeates made answer 
 that Falconnet and his troop, with the Cherokee 
 contingent, had taken the road at midnight, or 
 thereabouts ; and that the Witherbys, with Mistress 
 ]\Iarger\' riding her own black mare, and her maid 
 on a pillion behind a negro groom, had passed some 
 two hours later. 
 
 This was as w^e had hoped it might be ; but when 
 
2i6 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 Dick's satisfaction would have set itself in Avords, 
 the old hunter made a sudden sign for silence and 
 quickly flung himself full length to lay his ear to 
 the ground. Whereat we all began likewise to 
 listen, but I, for one, heard nothing till Yeates said : 
 "A boss ; a-taking the back track like old Jehu the 
 son of Nimshi was a-giving him the whip and spur," 
 and then we all marked the distant drumming of 
 hoofbeats. 
 
 The old borderer sprang afoot, kicked the fire 
 into the stream, and caught up his rifle. "Let's be 
 a-moving," he said. "We must make out to stop 
 that there hoss-galloper at the ford and find out 
 what-ali he's a rip-snorting that-away for." 
 
 The road crossing of the stream was but a little 
 way above our breakfast camp ; and we were out of 
 the thicket in time to see the horseman, a negro 
 clinging with locked arms to the neck of his mount, 
 come tearing down to the ford. At sight of us, or 
 else because he would not take the water at full 
 speed, the horse reared, pawed the air, and fell clum- 
 sily, carrying his skilless rider with him. 
 
 We picked the black up and soused him in the 
 stream till he found his tongue ; and the .irst wag- 
 ging of that useful member gave us news to fire the 
 blood in our veins — in Jennifer's and mine, at any 
 rate. 
 
 "Yah!" he screamed, choking out the muddy 
 creek water that had well-nigh strangled him. 
 "Yah ! red debbil In j ins kill ebberybody and tote off 
 Mistis Marg'y and dat Jeanne 'ooman ! Dat's what 
 dey done !" 
 
XX 
 
 IN WHICH WE STRIVE AS MEN TO RUN A RACE 
 
 It was some time before the affrighted black 
 could give us any connected account of what had 
 befallen ; and when at length the story was told, all 
 save the principal fact of the carrying off of Alis- 
 tress Margery and her maid was hazy enough. 
 
 Pruned down to the simple statement of the fact, 
 and with all the foolish terror chatterings weeded 
 out, his news came to this : the party of homing 
 revelers had been ambushed and waylaid at the 
 fording of a creek somie miles to the southward, 
 and in the mellay the young mistress and her tire- 
 woman had been captured. 
 
 So far as any actual witness of the eye went, the 
 negro had seen nothing. There had been a volley 
 fire from the thicket-belly of black darkness, a 
 swarming attack to a chorus of Indian yells, shouts 
 from the m.en, shrieks from the women, confusion 
 worse confounded in which the newsbearer himself 
 had been unhorsed and trodden under foot. After 
 which he knew no more till some one — his master, 
 as he thought — kicked him alive and bade him 
 
 217 
 
Si8 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 mount and ride post-haste on the backward track 
 to Appleby Hundred, crying the news as he went 
 that Mistress Margery Stair and her maid had been 
 kidnapped by the Indians. 
 
 Pinned to the mark and questioned afresh, the 
 slave could not affirm of his ow^n knowledge that 
 any one had been killed outright. Pinned again, it 
 proved to be only a guess of his that the one who 
 had given him his orders was his master. In the 
 darknesr and confusion he could make sure of noth- 
 ing; had made sure of nothing save his own frenzy 
 of terror and the wording of the message he carried. 
 
 When we had quizzed him empty we hoisted him 
 upon his beast and sent him once more a-gallop on 
 the road to Appleby Hundred. That done, a hur- 
 ried council of war was held in which we four fell 
 apart, three against one. Jennifer was for instant 
 pursuit, afoot and at top speed ; and Ephraim 
 Yeates and the Catawba, abandoning their own 
 emprise apparently without a second thought, sided 
 indifferently with him. For my part, I was for 
 going back to prepare in decent order for a cam- 
 paign which should promise something more hope- 
 ful than the probability of speedy exhaustion, starv- 
 ation and failure. 
 
 We grew hot upon it, Richard and I ; he with a 
 young lover's unrecking rashness, and I with an old 
 campaigner's foresight to make me stubborn; and 
 Ephraim Yeates and the Catawba drew aside and let 
 us have it out. Dick argued angrily that time was 
 the all-important item, and was not above taunting 
 
WE STRIVE TO RUN A RACE 219 
 
 me bitterly, flinging the reproach of cold-blooded 
 age in my face and swearing hotly that I knew not 
 so much as the alphabet of love. 
 
 The taunts were passed in silence, since I would 
 set them over against the irrevocable wrong I had 
 done him, saying in my heart that nothing he could 
 say or do should again tempt me to give place to the 
 devil of jealous wrath. 
 
 But when he would give me space I set the hope- 
 lessness of pursuit, all unprepared as we were, in 
 plainest speech. The chase might well be a long 
 one, and we were but scantily armed and without 
 provisions. The hunter's rifle must be our sole 
 dependence for food, and in the summer heat we 
 would be forced to kill daily. On the other hand, 
 with horses, a bag of corn apiece, firearms and am- 
 munition, we should be in some more hopeful case ; 
 and, notwithstanding the delay in starting, could 
 make far better speed. 
 
 For all the good it did I might have spared my 
 pains and saved my breath. Jennifer broke me in 
 the midst, crying out that I was even now killing 
 the precious minutes ; and so our ill-starred venture 
 had its launching in the frenzied haste that seldom 
 makes for speed. One small concession I wrung 
 out of his impatience — this with the help of Yeates 
 and the Catawba. We went back to the breakfast 
 camp, rekindled the fire, and cooked what we could 
 keep and carry of the venison. 
 
 In spite of this delay it was yet early in the fore- 
 noon of that memorable Sunday, the twentieth of 
 
220 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 August, when we set our faces southward and took 
 up the line of march to the ford of the ambushment^ 
 By now the sky was wholly overcast, and the wind 
 was blowing fresher in the tree-tops ; but though 
 as yet the storm held off, the air was the cooler for 
 the threatened rain and this was truly a blessing, 
 since the old hunter put us keen upon our mettle 
 to keep pace with him. 
 
 We marched in Indian file, Ephraim Yeates in the 
 lead, Uncanoola at his heels, and the two of us 
 heavier-footed ones bringing up the rear. Knowing 
 the wooded wilderness by length and breadth, the 
 old man held on through thick and thin, straight as 
 an arrow to the mark ; and so we had never a sight 
 of the road again till we came out upon it suddenly 
 at the ford of violence. 
 
 Here I should have been in despair for the lack 
 of any intelligible hint to point the way ; and I 
 think not even Jennifer, with all his woodcraft, 
 could have read the record of the onfall as Yeates 
 and the Catawba did. But for all the overlapping 
 tangle of moccasin and hoof prints neither of these 
 men of the forest was at fault, though ten minutes 
 later even their skill must have been baffled, inas- 
 much as the first few spitting raindrops were pat- 
 tering in the tree-tops when we came upon the 
 ground. 
 
 "That's jest about what T was most afeard of," 
 said the borderer, with a hasty glance skyward. 
 "Down on your hunkers. Chief, and help me read 
 this sisrn afore the eood Lord takes to sending: His 
 
WE STRIVE TO RUN A RACE 221 
 
 rain on the jest and the unjest," and therewith these 
 two fell to quartering all the ground like trained 
 dogs nosing for a scent. 
 
 \Yq stood aside and watched them, Richard and 
 I, realizinsf that we were of small account and should 
 be until, perchance, it should come to the laying on 
 of hearty blows. After the closest scrutiny, which 
 took account of every broken twig and trampled 
 blade of grass, this prolonged until the rain was fall- 
 ing smartly to wash out all the foot-prints in the 
 dusty road, Yeates and the Indian gave over and 
 came to join us under the sheltering branches of 
 an oak. 
 
 " 'Tis a mighty cur'is sign ; most mighty cur'is," 
 quoth the hunter, slinging the rain-drops from his 
 fur cap and em.ptying the pan of his rifle, not upon 
 the ground, as a soldier would, but saving every 
 precious grain. ''Ez I allow, I never heerd tell of 
 any Injuns a-doing that-away afore; have you, 
 Chief ? hey ?" 
 
 The Catawba's negative was his guttural "Wah," 
 and Ephraim Yeates, having carefully restored the 
 final grain of the priming to his powder-horn, pro- 
 ceeded to enlighten us at some length. 
 
 "i\lighty cur'is, ez I was a-saying. Them Injuns 
 fixed up an Simhushment, blazed in a volley at the 
 clostest sort o' range, and followed it up with a 
 tom.ahawk and knife rush, — lessen that there Afri- 
 kin was too plumb daddled to tell any truth, what- 
 somedever. And, spite of all this here rampaging, 
 they never drawed a single drop o' blood in the 
 
^22. THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 •whole enduring scrimmage ! Mighty cur'is, that ; 
 ain't it, now ? And that ain't all : some o' them same 
 Injuns, or leastwise one of 'em, was a-wearing boots 
 with spurs onto 'em. What say. Chief?" 
 
 Uncanoola held up all the fingers of one hand 
 and two of the other. ''Sebben Injun; one pale- 
 face," he said, in confirmation. 
 
 I looked at Richard, and he gave me back the eye- 
 shot, with a hearty curse to speed it. 
 
 "Falconnet !" said he, by way of tail-piece to 
 the oath ; and I nodded. 
 
 " 'Twas that there same hoss-captain, sure 
 enough, ez I reckon," drawled Yeates. "Maybe one 
 o' you two can tell what-all he mought be a-driv- 
 ing at." 
 
 Jennifer shook his head, and I, too, was silent. 
 'Twas out of all reason to suppose that the baronet 
 would resort to sheer violence and make a terrified 
 captive of the woman he wanted to marry. It was 
 a curious mystery, and the hunter's next word in- 
 volved it still more. 
 
 "And yit that ain't all. Whilst some o' the Injuns 
 was a-whooping it up acrost the creek, a-chasing 
 the folks that was making tracks for their city o* 
 refuge, t'others run the two gals off into the big 
 woods at the side o' the road. Then Mister Hoss- 
 Captain picks up the Afrikin, chucks him on a boss 
 and sends him a-kiting with his flea in his ear ; after 
 which he climbs his boss and makes tracks hisself — 
 not to ketch up with the gals, ez you mought reckon, 
 
WE STRIVE TO RUN A RACE 22^ 
 
 but off yon way," pointing across the creek and 
 down the road to the southward. 
 
 Jennifer heard him through, had him set it all 
 out again in plainest fashion, and after all could only 
 say: "You are sure you have the straight of it, 
 Eph r 
 
 The borderer appealed to Uncanoola. *'Come, 
 Chief; give us the wo'th of your jedgment. Has 
 the old Gray Wolf gone stun-blind? or did he read 
 them sign like they'd ort to be read?" 
 
 ''Wah ! the Gray Wolf has sharp eye — sharp nose 
 — sharp tongue, sometime. Sign no can lie when he 
 read 'um." 
 
 Jennifer turned to me. "What say you, Jack? 
 'Tis all far enough beyond me, I'll confess." 
 
 I was as much at sea touching the mystery as he 
 was ; yet the thing to do seemed plain enough. 
 
 "Never mind the baronet's mystery ; 'tis Mistress 
 Margery's hazard that concerns us," I would say. 
 And then to Ephraim Yeates : "Will this rain kill 
 the trail, think you ?" 
 
 He shook his head dubiously. "I dunno for sar- 
 tain ; 'twill make a heap o' differ' if they w^as any- 
 ways anxious to hide it. Ez it starts out, with the 
 women a-hossback, 'tis plain enough for a blind 
 man to lift on the run." 
 
 "Then let us be at it," said I. "We can very 
 well afford to let the mystery untangle itself as we 
 go." And with this the pursuit began in relentless 
 earnest. 
 
224 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 The trail of the two horses ridden by Margerv 
 and her woman cut a right angle with the road, 
 turning northwest along the left bank of the stream ; 
 and, despite the rain, which was now pouring stead- 
 ily even in the thick wood, the hoof-prints were so 
 plainly marked that we could follow at a smart 
 dog-trot. 
 
 In this speeding the old hunter and the Indian 
 easily outwearied Jennifer and me. They both ran 
 with a slow swinging leap, like the racking gait, 
 half pace, half gallop, of a well-trained troop horse. 
 Mile after mile they put behind them in these swing- 
 ing bounds ; and v/hen, well on in the afternoon, 
 we stopped to eat a snack of the cold meat and to 
 slake our thirst at one of the many rain pools, I was 
 fain to follow Jennifer's lead, throwing myself flat 
 on the soaking mold to pant and gasp and pay off 
 the arrears of breathlessness. 
 
 This breathing halt was of the briefest ; but before 
 the race began again, Ephraim Yeates took time to 
 make a careful scrutiny of the trail, measurinrr the 
 stride of the horses, and looking sharply on the 
 briars for some bit of cloth or other token of assur- 
 ance. When we came up with him he was mum- 
 bling to himself. 
 
 "Um-hm ; jes' so. They was a-making tracks 
 along hereaway, sartain, sure ; larruping them 
 bosses to a keen jump, lickity-split. Now, says I 
 to myself, what's the tarnation hurry? Ain't they 
 got all the time there is to get where they're a-going, 
 immejitly, if not sooner?" Then he turned upon 
 
WE STRIVE TO RUN A RACE 22^ 
 
 me. "Cap'n John, can't you and the youngster lay 
 your heads side and side and make out what-all this 
 here hoss-captain mought be up to? It do look like 
 he had some sort o' hatchet to grind, a-sending that 
 Afrikin back to raise a hue and cry, and then a-let- 
 ting his Injuns leave a trail like this here that any 
 tow-head boy from the settlemints could follow at a 
 canter." 
 
 Richard said he could never guess the meaning of 
 it all ; an4 my mind was to the full as blank as his. 
 I made sure some deep-laid plot was at the bottom 
 of the mystery ; but we had measured many weary 
 miles in the wilderness, and the plotter's trap had 
 been fairly baited, set and sprung, before the light- 
 ning flash of explication came to show us all its 
 devilish ingenuity. 
 
 But now "Forward," vv^as the word, and we fell 
 in line again, and again the tireless running of the 
 two guides stretched and held us on the rack of 
 weariness. Happily for us two who were out of 
 training, the rainy-day dusk came early ; and though 
 Yeates and the Indian, running nov; with their bod- 
 ies bent double and their noses to the ground, held 
 on long after Richard Jennifer and I were bat- 
 blind for any seeing of the hoof-prints, the end came 
 at length and we bivouacked as we were, flreless, 
 and with the last of the cooked ration of deer's 
 meat for a scanty supper. 
 
 After the meal, which was swallowed hastily in 
 the silence of utter fatigue, we scooped a hollow in 
 a last year's leaf bed and lay down to sleep, wet to 
 
226 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 the skin as any four half -drowned water rats, and 
 to the full as miserable. 
 
 Fagged as I was, 'twas a long time before sleep 
 came to make me forget ; a weary interval fraught 
 with dismal mental miseries to march step and step 
 with the treadmill rackings of the aching muscles. 
 What grievous hap had befallen my dear lady ? and 
 how much or how little was I to blame for this 
 kidnapping of her by my relentless enemy? Was 
 it a sharp foreboding of some such resort to savage 
 violence that had tortured her into sending the 
 appeal for help ? 
 
 With this, I fell to dwelling afresh upon the 
 wording of her message, hungering avidly for some 
 hint to give me leave to claim it for my own. 
 Though I made sure she did not love me, — had 
 never loved me as other than a make-shift con- 
 fidant, whose face and age would set him far be- 
 yond the pale of sentiment, — yet I had hoped this 
 friendship-love would give her leave to call upon 
 me in her hour of need. 
 
 Was I the one to whom her message had been 
 sped? Suddenly I remembered what Richard had 
 said ; that the arrow was the Catawba's. If Un- 
 canoola were the bearer of the parchment, he would 
 surely know to whom he had been sent. 
 
 His burrow in the leaf bed chanced to be next 
 to mine, and I could hear his steady breathing, 
 light and long-drawn, like that of some wild crea- 
 ture — as, truly, he was — sleeping with all the senses 
 alert to spring awake at a touch or the snapping of 
 
WE STRR'E TO RUN A RACE 22-7 
 
 a twig. A word would arouse him, and a single 
 question might resolve the doubt. 
 
 I thought of all this, and yet, when I would have 
 wakened the Indian, a shaking ague-fit of poltroon 
 cowardice gave me pause. For while the doubt re- 
 mained there was a chance to hope that she had 
 sent to me, making the little cry for help a token, 
 not of love, perchance, but of some dawning of for- 
 giveness for my desperate wronging of her. And 
 in that hesitant moment it was borne in upon me 
 that without this slender chance for hope I should 
 go mad and become a v/retched witling at a time 
 when every faculty should be superhuman sharp 
 and strong for spending in her service. 
 
 So I forebore to wake the Indian ; and following 
 cut this thought of service fitness, would force my- 
 self to go to sleep and so to gather fresh strength 
 for the new day's measure. 
 
XXI 
 
 HOW WE KEPT LEXTEX VIGILS IX TRIXITYTIDE 
 
 'Twould weary you beyond the limit of good-na- 
 ture were I to try to picture out at large the varied 
 haps and hazards of our wanderings in the savage 
 wilderness. For the actors in any play the trivial 
 details have their place and meaning momentous 
 enough, it may be ; yet these are often wearisome to 
 the box or stall yawning impatiently for the climax. 
 
 So, if you please, you are to conceive us four, the 
 strangest ill-assorted company on the footstool, 
 pushing on from day to day deeper and ever deeper 
 into the pathless forest solitudes, yet always with 
 the plain-marked trail to guide us. 
 
 At times the march measured a full day's length 
 amid the columned aisles of the forest temple 
 through lush green glades dank and steaming in 
 the August heat, or over hillsides slippery with the 
 fallen leaves of the pine-trees. Anon it traced the 
 crooked windings of some brawling mountain 
 stream through thicket tangles where, you would 
 think, no woman-ridden horse could penetrate. 
 
 One day the sun would shine resplendent and all 
 
 228 
 
LEXTEX VIGILS 229 
 
 the columned distances would fill with soft suffus- 
 ings of the gray and green and gold, with here and 
 there a dusky flame where the sweet-gumi heralded 
 the autumn, whilst overhead the leafy arches were 
 fine-lined traceries and arabesques against the blue. 
 But in the night, mayhap, a dismal rain would come, 
 chill vrith the breath of the nearing mountains ; and 
 then the trees turned into dripping sprinkling-pots 
 to drench us where we lay, sodden already with the 
 heaviness of exhaustion. 
 
 Since the hasting pursuit was a thing to tap the 
 very fountain-head of fortitude and endurance, we 
 fared on silent for the better part ; and in a little 
 time the hush of the solitudes laid fast hold of us, 
 scanting* us of speech and bidding us go softly. And 
 after this the march became a soundless shadow- 
 flitting, and we a straggling file of voiceless 
 mechanisms wound up and set to measure off the 
 miles till famine or exhaustion should thrust a finger 
 in among the wheels and bid them stop forever. 
 
 This was the loom on which we wove the back- 
 ward-reaching web of strenuous onpressing. But 
 through that web the scarlet thread of famine shut- 
 tled in and out, and hunger came and marched with 
 us till all the days and nights were filled with crav- 
 ings, and we recked little of fair skies or dripping 
 clouds, or aught besides save this ever-present spec- 
 ter of starvation. 
 
 You will not think it strange that I should have 
 but dim and misty memories of this fainting time. 
 Of all privations famine soonest blunts the senses, 
 
230 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 making" a man oblivious cf all save that which drives 
 him onward. The happenings that I remember 
 clearest are those which turned upon some tempo- 
 rary bridging of the hunger gulf. One was Yeates*s 
 killing of a milch doe which, with her fa\\Ti, ran 
 across our path when we had fasted two whole 
 days. By this, a capital crime in any hunter's code, 
 you may guess how cruelly we Vv-ere nipped in the 
 hunger vise. Also, I remember this : as if to mock 
 us all the glades and openings on the hillsides were 
 thicketed with berry bushes, long past bearing. 
 And, being too late for these, we were as much too 
 early for the nuts of the hickory and chestnut and 
 black walnut that pelted us in passing. 
 
 The doe's meat, coming at a time of sharpest 
 need, set us two days farther on the march; 
 and when that was spent or spoiled we did as we 
 could, being never comfortably filled, I think, and 
 oftener haggard and enfeebled for the want of food. 
 Since we dared not stop to go aside for game, the 
 Catawba would set over-night snares for rabbits ; 
 and for another shift we cut knobbed sticks for 
 throwing and ran keen-eyed along the trace, alert 
 to murder anything alive and fit to eat. In this hap- 
 hazard hunting nothing ever fell to Jennifer's 
 skilless clubbing, or to mine ; but the old borderer 
 and the Indian were better marksmen, and now and 
 then some bird or squirrel or rabbit sitting on its 
 form came to the pot, though never enough of all 
 or any to more than sharpen the famine edge of 
 hunger. 
 
LENTEN VIGILS 231 
 
 For all the sharp privations of the forced march 
 there was no hint on any lip of turning back. With 
 Margery's desperate need to key us to the unflinch- 
 ing pitch, Richard and I would go on while there 
 was strength to set one foot before the other. But 
 for the old borderer and the Indian there was no 
 such bellows to blow the fire of perseverance. None 
 the less, these two did mo*"c than second us ; they 
 set the strenuous pace and held us to it; the 
 Catawba Spartan-proud and uncomplaining ; the old 
 hunter no whit less tireless and enduring. At this 
 far-distant day I can close my eyes and see the 
 gaunt, leather-clad figure of Ephraim Yeates, 
 striding on always in the lead and ever pressing 
 forward, tough, wiry and iron to endure, and yet 
 withal so elastic that the shrewdest discouragement 
 served only to make him rebound and strike the 
 harder. Good stuff and true there was in that old 
 man ; and had Richard or I been less determined, 
 his fine and noble heroism in a cause which was not 
 his own would have shamed us into following where 
 he led. 
 
 We had been ten days in this starving wilderness, 
 driving onward at the pace that kills and making 
 the most of every hour of daylight, before Yeates 
 and the Indian began to give us hope that w^e were 
 finally closing in upon our quarry. 
 
 The dragging length of the chase grew upon two 
 conditions. From the beginning the kidnappers 
 were able to increase their lead by stretching out the. 
 days and borrowing from the nights ; also, they 
 
232 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 were doubtless well provisioned, and they had 
 horses for the captives and their impedimenta. But 
 as for us, we could follow only while the daylight 
 let us see the trail ; and though we ran well at first, 
 the lack of proper food soon took toll of speed. 
 
 So now, though the hoof prints grew hourly 
 fresher, and we were at last so close upon the heels 
 of the kidnappers that their night camp-fires were 
 scarcely cold when we came upon them, we ran no 
 longer — could hardly keep a dogged foot-pace for 
 the hunger pains that griped and bent us double. 
 
 The tenth day, as I well remember, was furnace- 
 hot, as were all the fair-weather days of that never- 
 to-be-forgotten summer, with a still air in the forest 
 that hung thick and lifeless like the atmosphere of 
 an oven ; this though we were well among the moun- 
 tains and rising higher with every added mile of 
 westering. 
 
 The sun had passed the meridian, and we w^ere 
 toiling, sweaty-weak, up a rock-strewn mountain 
 side, when a thing occurred to rouse us roughly 
 from the famine stupor and set us watchfully alert. 
 In the steepest part of the ascent where the wood, 
 scanted of rooting ground by the thickly sov/n 
 strewing of boulders, was open and free of under- 
 growth, Ephraim Yeates halted suddenly, signed to 
 us wath upflung hand, and dropped behind a tree as 
 one shot; and in the same breath the Catawba, run- 
 ning at Yeates's heels, lurched aside and vanished as 
 if the earth had gaped and swallowed him. 
 
 A moment later the twang of a bow-string buzzed 
 
LENTEN VIGILS 233 
 
 upon the breathless noontide stillness, and Jennifer 
 clutched and drag-ged me down in good time to let 
 the arrow whistle harmless over us. Then, like a 
 distorted echo of the buzzing bow-string, the sharp 
 crack of the old borderer's rifle rang out smartly, 
 setting the cliff-crowned mountain side all a-clamor 
 with mocking repetitions. 
 
 "Missed him, slick and clean, by the eternal coon- 
 skin !" growled the marksman, sitting up behind his 
 tree to reload. "That there's what comes o' being 
 so dad-blame' hongry that ye can't squinch fair 
 atween the gun-sights. I reckon ez how ye'd better 
 hunker down and lie clost, you two. 'Twouldn't 
 s'prise me none if that redskin had a wheen more o* 
 them sharp-p'inted sticks in his — The Lord be 
 praised for all His marcies ! the chief's got him !" 
 
 But Uncanoola had not. He came in presently, 
 his black eyes snapping with disappointment, 
 saying in answer to Yeates's question that the yell 
 had been his own ; that his tomahawk had sped no 
 truer than the old borderer's bullet. 
 
 "Chelakee snake heap slick : heap quick dodge," 
 was all we could get out of him ; and when that was 
 said he squatted calmly on a flat stone and fell to 
 work grinding the nick out of the edge of the mis- 
 sped hatchet. 
 
 This incident told us plainly enough that the 
 kidnappers were now but a little way ahead, and 
 that their rear-guard scouts were holding us well in 
 hand. So from that on we went as men whose lives 
 are held in pawn by a hidden foe, looking at every 
 
234 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 turn for an ambushment. Nevertheless, we were 
 not waylaid again ; and when at length the long hot 
 afternoon drew to its close with the mountain of 
 peril well behind us, we had neither seen nor heard 
 aught else of the Cherokees. 
 
 That night we camped, fireless and foodless, 
 on the banks of a swift-flowing stream in a valley 
 between tv/o great mountains. We reached this 
 stream a little before dark, and since the trail led 
 straight into the water, we would have put this 
 obstacle behind us if we could. But though the 
 little river was not above five or six poles in width 
 it was exceeding swift and deep ; so impassable, in 
 truth, that we were moved to wonder how the cap- 
 tive party had made shift to cross. 
 
 We guessed at it a while, Richard and I, and then 
 gave it up until we might have the help of better 
 daylight. But the old borderer's curiosity was not 
 so readily postponed. Cutting a slim pole from a 
 sapling thicket, he waded in cautiously, anchoring 
 himself by the drooping branches of the willows 
 whilst he prodded and sounded and proved beyond 
 a doubt that the current was over man-head deep, 
 and far too rapid for swimming. 
 
 Satisfied of this, he came out, dripping, and with 
 a monitory word to us to keep a sharp lookout, dis- 
 appeared up-stream in the growing dusk, his long 
 rifle at the trail, and his body bent to bring his keen 
 old eyes the nearer to the ground* 
 
XXII 
 
 HOW THE FATES GAVE LARGESS OF DESPAIR 
 
 Ephraim Yeates was gone a full hour. When he 
 returned he gave us cause to wonder at his lack of 
 caution, since he filled his earthen Indian pipe and 
 coolly struck a light wherewith to fire it. But when 
 the pipe was aglow he told us of his findings, 
 
 *' 'Twas about ez I reckoned ; them varmints 
 waded in the shallows a spell to throw us off, and 
 then came out and forded higher up." 
 
 "That will be a shrewd guess of yours, I take it, 
 Ephraim?" said I; for the night was black as 
 Erebus. 
 
 "Ne'er a guess at all; IVe had 'em fair at eye- 
 holts," this as calmly as if we had not been for ten 
 long days pinning our faith to an ill-defined trace 
 of foot-prints. "Ez I was a-going on to say, they're 
 incamped on t'other bank ruther eenside o' two 
 sights and a horn-blow from this. I saw 'em and 
 counted 'em : seven redskins and the two gals." 
 
 "Thank God !" says Richard, as fervently as if 
 our rescue of the women were already a thing ac- 
 complished. Then he fell upon the scout with an 
 
 235 
 
236 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 eager question: "How does she look, Ephraim? — 
 tell me how she looks !" 
 
 "Listen at him!" said the old man, cackling his 
 dry little laugh. "How in tarnation am I going to 
 know which 'she' he's a-stewing about? There's a 
 pair of 'em, and they both look like wimmin ez have 
 been dragged hilter-skilter through the big woods 
 for some better 'n a week. Natheless, they're fit- 
 ting to set up and take their nourishment, both on 
 'em. They was perching on a log afore the fire, 
 with ever' last idintical one o' them redskins a-wait- 
 ing on 'em like they was a couple of Injun queens. 
 I reckon ez how the hoss-captain gave them var- 
 mints their orders, partic'lar." 
 
 Dick was upon his feet, lugging out the great 
 broadsw^ord. 
 
 "Show us the way, Eph Yeates !" he burst out 
 impatiently. "We are w-asting a deal of precious 
 time !" 
 
 But the old man only puffed the more placidly 
 at his pipe, making no move to head a sortie. 
 
 "Fair and easy, Cap'n Dick ; fair and easy. There 
 ain't no manner o' hurry, ez I allow\ Whenst I've 
 got to tussle with a wheen o' full redskins, and me 
 Avith my stummick growed fast to my backbone, I 
 jest ez soon wait till them same redskins are asleep. 
 Bime-by they'll settle down for the night, and then 
 w^e'll go up yonder and pizen 'em immejitly, // not 
 sooner. But there ain't no kind o' use to spile It all 
 by rampaging 'round too soon." 
 
 There was wisdom undeniable in this, and, ac- 
 
LARGESS OF DESPAIR ^^-j 
 
 cordingly, we waited, taking turns at the hunter's 
 terrible pipe in Heu of supper, and laying our plan 
 of attack. This last was simple enough, as our re- 
 sources, or rather our lack of thern, would make it. 
 At midnight we would move upon the enemy, feel- 
 ing our way along the river till we should discover 
 the ford by which the captive party had crossed. 
 The stream safely passed, we would deploy and sur- 
 round the camp of the Indians, and at the signal, 
 which was to be the report of Yeates's rifle, we were 
 to close in and smite, giving no quarter. 
 
 The old borderer dwelt at length upon the need 
 for this severity, saying that a single Cherokee es- 
 caping would bring the warriors of the Erati tribe 
 down upon us to cut off all chance of our retreat 
 with the women. 
 
 "Onless I'm mightily out o' my reckoning, this 
 here spot we're a-setting on ain't more than a day's 
 Injun-running from the Tuckasege Towns. With 
 them gals to hender us we ain't a-going to be in no 
 fettle for a skimper-scam.per race with a fresh 
 wheen o' the redskins. Therefore and wherefore, 
 says I, make them chopping-knives o' your'n cut and 
 come again, even to the dividing erpart of soul and 
 marrer." 
 
 Dick laughed, and, speaking for both of us, said 
 between his teeth that we were not like to be. over- 
 merciful. 
 
 But now the old wolf of the border gave us a 
 glimpse of an unsuspected side of him, taking Jenni- 
 fer sharply to task and reading him a homily on the 
 
238 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 sin of vengeance for vengeance's sake. In this 
 harangue he evinced a most astonishing tongue- 
 grasp of Scripture, and for a good half-hour the air 
 was thick with texts. And to cap the cHmax, when 
 the sermon paused he laid his pipe aside, doffed his 
 cap, and went upon his knees to pour forth such a 
 militant prayer as brought my father's stories of 
 the grim old fighting Roundheads most vividly to 
 mind. 
 
 Here, being as good a place as any, I may say 
 frankly that I never fully understood this side of 
 Ephraim Yeates. Like all the hardy borderers, he 
 was a fighter by instinct and inclination ; and I can 
 bear him witness that when he smote the *'Amale- 
 kites," as he would call them — red skin or red coat — 
 he smote them hip and thigh, and w^as as ruthless as 
 that British Captain Turnbull who slew the 
 wounded. Yet withal, on the very edge of battle, 
 or mayhap fair in the midst of it, he was like to fall 
 upon his knees to pray most fervently; though, as 
 I have hinted, his prayers were like his blows — of 
 the biting sort, full of Scriptural anathema upon the 
 enemy. 
 
 Richard Jennifer, carelessly profane as all men 
 were in that most godless day, would say 'twas the 
 old borderer's way of swearing; that since he left 
 out the oaths in common speech, — as, truly, he 
 did, — he would fetch up the arrears and wipe out the 
 score in one fell blast upon his knees. Be this as it 
 may, he was a good man and a true, as I have said ; 
 and his warlike supplication that our blades should 
 
LARGESS OF DESPAIR 239 
 
 be as the sword of the Lord and of Gideon in the 
 coming onfall was no whit out of place. 
 
 It wanted yet a full hour of midnight when Rich- 
 ard began again to plead piteously for instant 
 action. Yeates thought it still over-early ; but when 
 Jennifer pressed him hard the old borderer left th^ 
 casting vote to me. 
 
 "What say ye, Cap'n John? Your*n will be th^ 
 next oldest head, and I reckon it hain't been turned 
 plumb foolish rampaging crazy by this here purty 
 gal o' Gilbert Stair's." 
 
 Now you have read thus far in my poor tale to 
 little purpose if you have not yet discovered the 
 major weakness of an old campaigner, which is to 
 weigh and measure all the chances, holding it to 
 the full as culpable to strike too soon as too late. 
 This weakness was mine, and in that evil moment I 
 gave my vote for further waiting, arguing sapiently 
 that my old field-marshal would never set a night 
 assault afoot till well on toward the dawn. 
 
 Jennifer heard me through and yielded, perforce, 
 though with little good-will. 
 
 "I can not compass it alone, or, by the gods, I'd 
 go !" he asserted, angrily. "Mark you, John Ireton, 
 this delay is a thing you'll rue whilst you live. 
 Your cold-cut pros and cons mouth well enough, 
 and I'm no soldier-lawyer to argue them down. 
 But something better than your damnable reasons 
 tells me that the hour has struck — that these very 
 present seconds are priceless." Whereupon he 
 flung himself face down in the grass and would 
 
240 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 not speak again until the waiting time was fully 
 over and Yeates gave the word to fall in line for 
 the advance. 
 
 Having learned the lay of the land in his earlier 
 reconnaissance, the old borderer shortened the dis- 
 tance for us by guiding us across the neck of a 
 horseshoe bend in the stream ; and a half-hour's 
 blind groping through the forest fetched us out 
 upon the river bank again, this time precisely oppo- 
 site the Indians' lodge fire on the other side. 
 
 Here there was a little pause for three of us 
 while Ephraim Yeates crept down the bank to try 
 with his sounding-pole wdiat chance we had of cross- 
 ing. 
 
 Measured by what could be seen from our covert, 
 the narrow width of quick water seemed the last of 
 the many obstacles. 
 
 Lulled to security, as we guessed, by the apparent 
 success of their ruse to throw us off the scent, six 
 of the Cherokees were lying feet to fire like the 
 spokes of a wheel for which the fitful blaze was the 
 hub. The seventh man was squatted before a small 
 tepee-lodge of dressed skins, which, as we took it, 
 would be the sleeping quarters of the captives. 
 Whilst all the others lay stiff and stark as if wrapped 
 in soundest sleep, this sentry guard, too, it seemed, 
 was scarcely more than half awake, for as we 
 looked, his gun was slipping from the hollow of his 
 arm and he was nodding to forgetfulness. 
 
 Richard was a-crouch beside m.e in this peeping 
 
LARGESS OF DESPAIR 241 
 
 reconnaissance, and I could feel him trembling in 
 impatient easferness. 
 
 "It should be easy enough — what think you?" he 
 whispered ; and then, with a sudden grasp upon my 
 wrist : "You are cool and steady-nerved, John Ire- 
 ton ; I swear you do not love her as I do !" 
 
 "Nay, I grant you that, Dick," said I, making 
 sure that his excitement would obscure the double 
 meaning in the admission. And then I added, sin- 
 cerely enough : "She has never given me the right 
 to love her at all." 
 
 "God help her at this pass !" he said, more to him- 
 self than to me ; and then he would go in a breath 
 from blessing Margery to cursing Ephraim Yeates 
 for this fresh delay. 
 
 It was Uncanoola w^ho broke in upon the mut- 
 tered malediction. 
 
 "Wah ! Captain Jennif ' cuss plenty heap, like mis- 
 sionary medicine-man. Look-see ! L^ncanoola no 
 can find white squaw horse yonder. Mebbe Captain 
 Jennif see 'um, hey ?" 
 
 At his word we both looked for the horses, mark- 
 ing now that they were nowhere to be seen within 
 the circle lighted by the lodge fire. The Catawba 
 grunted his doubt that the enemy was as inalert 
 as he appeared to be ; then he set the doubt in words. 
 "Chelakee heap slick. Sleep only one eye, mebbe, 
 hey? Injun warrior no hide horse and go sleep 
 both eye on v/ar-path !" 
 
 Here our scout came gliding back, so noiselessly 
 
242 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 that he was within arm's reach before we heard him. 
 Dick had said I was over-cool, but the old man's 
 ghostlike reappearance gave me such a start as 
 made me prinkle to my fingers' ends. 
 
 *'How will it be, Eph ?" Dick queried, hotly eager 
 to be at work. ''We can make it across? Never 
 say we can't pass that bit of still water, man !" 
 
 But Ephraim Yeates did say so in set terms. 
 
 "I reckon ez how we've got to cross, but not jest 
 here-away, Cap'n Dick. She ain't making any fuss 
 about it, but she's a-slipping along like greased 
 lightning, deep and mighty powerful. I ain't say- 
 ing we mought n't swim her and come out some- 
 wheres this side o' Dan'l Boone's country ; but we'll 
 make it a heap quicker by projec'ing 'round till we 
 find the ford where them varmints made out to 
 
 cross." 
 
 *'God !" said Dick, deep in his throat ; "more time 
 to be killed ! By—" 
 
 The old man was parting the bushes to have a 
 better sight of the encampment opposite, but at 
 Dick's outbreak he fell back quickty and clapped a 
 hand on the lips of cursing. 
 
 ''Hist ! Lookee over yonder, will ye !" he cut in. 
 And then in a whisper meant for no ear but mine : 
 "The Lord be marciful to that little gal, Cap'n 
 John ; we've fooled our chance away — ^the game's 
 afoot, and we ain't in it !" 
 
 I looked and saw nothing save that the sen- 
 try guard had risen to throw a handful of dry 
 branches on the dying fire. But on the instant the 
 
LARGESS OF DESPAIR 243 
 
 dry wood blazed up, and in the wider circle of 
 firelight I saw what the keener eyes of Ephraim 
 Yeates had descried the sooner. In the shadowy 
 background of the surrounding forest a dozen horse- 
 men were converging in orderly array upon the en- 
 campment, and at the blazing up of the dry 
 branches their leader gave the command to charge. 
 
 What sham battle there was, or was meant to be, 
 was over in the briefest space. The troopers gal- 
 loped in with shouts and aimless pistolings, raising 
 a clamor that was instantly doubled by the yells of 
 the Indians. As for resistance, the charging troop 
 met w4th nothing worse than the yellings and a 
 scattering fusillade in air. Then the ring of horse- 
 men narrowed in to closer quarters and there 
 was some flashing* of bare steel in the firelight, 
 at which the Cherokee kidnappers melted away and 
 vanished as if by magic. 
 
 With the shouts and the firing Margery and her 
 maid had burst out of the sleeping-lodge to find 
 themselves in the thick of the sham battle; and it 
 was but womanlike that they should add their 
 shrieks to the din, being as well terrified as they 
 had a right to be. But now the leader of the at- 
 tacking troop speedily brought order with a word 
 of command ; and when his men fell back to post 
 themselves as vedettes among the trees, the officer 
 dismounted to uncover courteously and to bow low 
 to the lady. 
 
 'The hoss-captain !" muttered Ephraim Yeates, 
 under his breath ; but we did not need his word for 
 
244 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 it. 'Twas but a child's pebble-toss across the bar- 
 rier stream, and we could both see and hear. 
 
 "I give you joy of your escape, i\Iistress Mar- 
 gery," said the baronet, mouthing his words like a 
 player who had long since conned his lines and 
 got them well by heart and letter-perfect. "These 
 slippery savages have given us a pretty chase, I do 
 assure you. But you are trembling yet, calm your- 
 self, dear lady ; you are quite safe now." 
 
 I was watching her intently as he spoke. 'Twas 
 now hard upon two months since I had seen her 
 last in that fateful upper room at Appleby Hun- 
 dred, and the interval — or mayhap it v/as only the 
 hardships and distresses of the captive flight — had 
 changed her woefully. Yet now, as when we 
 had stood together at the bar of Colonel 
 Tarleton's court, I saw^ her pass from mood to 
 mood in the turning of a leaf, her natural terror 
 slipping from her like a cast-off garment, and a 
 sweet dignity coming to clothe her in a queenlier 
 robe, making her, as I w^ould think, more beautiful 
 than ever. 
 
 "I thank you, Sir Francis — for myself and for 
 poor Jeanne," she said. "You have come to 
 take us back to my father ?" 
 
 He bowed again and spread his hands as a friend 
 willing but helpless. 
 
 "Upon my honor, my dear lady, nothing would 
 give m^e greater pleasure. But what can I say? 
 We are upon the king's business, as you well know, 
 and our mission will not brook an hour's delay — 
 
LARGESS OF DESPAIR 245 
 
 indeed, we are here only by the good chance which 
 led your captors to choose our route for theirs. 
 I have no alternative but to take you and your 
 woman with us to the west ; but I do assure you — " 
 
 She stopped him with an impassioned gesture of 
 dissent, and darting a despairing glance around 
 that minded me of some poor hunted thing hope- 
 lessly enmeshed in the net of the fowler, she clasped 
 her hands and wrung them, breaking down pite- 
 ously at the last, and begging him by all that men 
 hold sacred to send her and her maid back to her 
 father, if only with a single soldier for a guard. 
 
 'Twas then we had to drag my dear lad down 
 and hold him fast, else he had flung himself into 
 the torrent in some mad endeavor to spend his life 
 for her. So I know not in what false phrase the 
 baronet refused her, but when I looked again she 
 was no longer pleading as his suppliant ; she was 
 standing before him in the martyr steadfastness of 
 a true, clean-hearted woman at bay. 
 
 "Then you will not by so much undo the wrong 
 you have done me, Captain Falconnet ?" she said. 
 
 "A wrong ? How then ; do you call it a wrong 
 to rescue you from these brutal savages, I^vlistress 
 Margery ?" 
 
 She took a step nearer, and though the dry-stick 
 blaze was dying down and I could no longer see her 
 face distinctly, I knew well how the scornful eyes 
 were whipping him. 
 
 ''Listen!" she said. "When you set Tallachama 
 and his braves upon us in the road that night, you 
 
246 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 were not cautious enough, Captain Falconnet. I 
 saw and heard you. More than that, Tallachama 
 and the others have spoken freely of your plans in 
 their own tongue, not knowing that my poor Jeanne 
 had been three years a captive among the Telli- 
 quos." 
 
 The attack was so sudden-sharp and so com- 
 pletely a surprise that he was taken off his guard, 
 else I made sure he would not at such a time have 
 dropped the gentlemanly m^ask to stand forth the 
 confessed ravisher. 
 
 *'So ho? Then you have been playing fast and 
 loose with me as you did with the handsome young 
 planter and that beggarly captain of Austrians? 
 'Twas a bold game, ma petite, but you have lost 
 and I have won, for my game was still bolder than 
 yours. What I need, I take, Mistress Madge, be it 
 the body of a woman or the life of a man. Savez- 
 vous U7i homnie desespe're, ma cherie ? I am that 
 man. You pique me, and I need the dowry you 
 will bring. If I could have killed your lover out 
 of hand, I might have been content to leave you 
 for a time. Since I could not, you go where I 
 go ; and when we return I shall do you the honor 
 to make you Lady Falconet !" 
 
 The effect of this fierce tirade, poured out in a 
 torrent of hot words, was less marked upon his 
 helpless captive than it was upon her four would- 
 be defenders. It moved us variously, each after 
 his kind ; nevertheless, I think the same thought 
 lighted instantly upon each of us. Though we 
 
LARGESS OF DESPAIR 247 
 
 might not reach and rescue her, her sharpest peril 
 would be blunted upon the quieting of this fiend- 
 in-chief. 
 
 So Ephraim Yeates stretched himself face down- 
 ward in the damp grass and brought his long rifle 
 to bear, while the Indian sprang up and poised his 
 hatchet for the throw ; but neither lead nor steel 
 was loosed because the light was poor, and a hair's- 
 breadth swerving of the aim might spare the man 
 and slay the woman. As for the two of us who 
 must needs come within stabbing distance, the same 
 thought set us both to stripping coats and foot-clogs 
 for a plunge into the barrier torrent. But when we 
 would have broken cover, the old borderer dropped 
 his weapon and gripped us with a hand for each. 
 
 "No, no; none o' that!" he whispered, hoarsely. 
 "Ye'd drown like rats, and we can't afford no sech 
 foolish sakerfices on the altar o' Baal. Hunker 
 do\vn and lie clost ; if there's any dying to be done, 
 ye've got a good half o' the night ahead of ye, and 
 there's all o' to-morrow that ain't teched yet." 
 
 It takes a pitiless avalanche of words to spread 
 these interlinear doings out for you ; but you are 
 to conceive that the pause is miine and not the ac- 
 tion's. While the old man was yet pulling us down, 
 my fearless little lady had dra^\-n back a pace and 
 was giving the villai-. his answer. 
 
 "I am glad I know you now for what you are, 
 Captain Falconnet," she said, coldly. And then : 
 "You can take me with you, if you choose, having 
 the brute strength to make good so much of your 
 
248 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 threat. But that is all. You can not take for your- 
 self what I have given to another." 
 
 "Can not, you say?" He clapped his hat on 
 smartly and whistled for his horse-holder ; and when 
 the man was gone to fetch the mounts for the 
 women, he finished out the sentence. ''Listen you, 
 in your turn, Mistress Spitfire. I shall take w^hat 
 I list, and before you see your father's house again, 
 you'll beg me on your knees, as other women have, 
 to marry you for very shame's sake !" 
 
 It was then that Uncanoola did the skilfulest bit 
 of jugglery it has ever been my lot to witness. 
 Posturing like one of those old Grecian discus- 
 throwers, he sent his scalping-knife handle foremost 
 to glide snake-like through the grass to stop at 
 Margery's feet. Though I think she knew not how 
 it got there, she saw it, and the courage of the sight 
 helped her to say, quickly : 
 
 ''When it comes to that, sir, I shall know how to 
 keep faith with honor." 
 
 His laugh was the harshest mockery of mirth. 
 "You will keep faith with me, dear lady; do you 
 hear ? Otherwise — " 
 
 He turned to take the black mare from his man. 
 At this my brave one set her foot upon the weapon 
 in the grass. 
 
 "I have no faith to keep with you. Captain Fal- 
 connet," she said. 
 
 He struck back viciously. "Then, by heaven, 
 you'd best make the occasion. It has happened, ere 
 this, that a lady as dainty as you are has become a 
 
LARGESS OF DESPAIR 249 
 
 plaything for an Indian camp. It lies with me to 
 save you from that, my Mistress." 
 
 She stooped to gather her skirts for mounting, 
 and in the act secured and hid the knife. So her 
 ansvv'er had in it the fine steadfastness of one who 
 may make desperate terms with death for honor's 
 sake. 
 
 "I thank you for the v/arning. Captain Falconnet," 
 she said, facing him bravely to the last. "When the 
 time comes, mayhap the dear God will give me leave 
 to die as my mother's daughter should." 
 
 "Bah !" said he ; and with that he whistled for his 
 troopers ; and while we looked, m.y dear lady and her 
 tirewoman v/ere helped upon their horses, and at 
 the leader's word of command the escort formed 
 upon the captives as a center. A moment later the 
 little glade, with the smoldering embers of the 
 lodge fire to prick out its limits in dusky red, 
 was empty, and on the midnight stillness of the 
 forest the minishing hoofbeats of the horses came 
 fainter and fainter till the distance swallowed 
 them. 
 
 Then it was that my poor lad, famine-mad and 
 frenzied, rose up to curse me bitterly. 
 
 "Xow may all the devils in hell drag you down 
 to everlasting torments, John Ireton, for your cold- 
 hearted caution that made us lose when we had 
 good hope to win !" he cried. "One little hour I 
 begged for, and that hour had fought her battle and 
 set her free. But now — " 
 
 He broke off in the midst, choking with what 
 
■2SO THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 miserable despair I knew, and shared as well; and 
 throwing himself down in the wet grass, he would 
 eke out the bitter words with such ravings and 
 sobbings as bubble up in sheer abandonment of rage 
 and misery. 
 
XXIII 
 
 HOW WE KEPT THE FEAST OF BITTER HERBS 
 
 You may be sure that Richard Jennifer's bitter 
 reproachings came home to me in sharpest fashion, 
 the more since now I saw how we had lost our 
 chance by neglecting the commonest precau- 
 tions. Having determined to attack, the merest 
 novice of a general would have moved his forces 
 to the nearest point ; would have had his scouts 
 search out the ford beforehand; and, above all, 
 would never have delayed the blow beyond the 
 earliest moment of the enemy's unwatchfulness. 
 
 So now, when all was lost, I fell to kneading out 
 this sodden dough of afterwit with Ephraim 
 Yeates ; but when I sought to carry off the blame 
 as mine by right, the old borderer would not give 
 me leave. 
 
 "Fair and easy, Cap'n John ; fair and easy," he 
 protested. "Let's give that old sarpent, which is 
 the devil and Satan, his dues. Ez I allow, there 
 was the v/hole enduring passel of us to ricoll ct all 
 them things. To be sure, we had our wan ings, 
 mistrusting all along that this here dad-blame' hoss- 
 
 251 
 
252 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 captain had his finger in the pie. But, lawzee ! we 
 had ne'er a man o' God 'mongst us to rise up and 
 prophesy what was a-going to happen if we did n't 
 get up and scratch gravel immejitly, if not sooner; 
 though I won't deny that Cap'n Dick did try his 
 hand that-away." 
 
 "True ; and I would now we had listened to him," 
 said I, gloomily enough. "We have lost our chance, 
 and God knows if we shall ever have another. 
 Falconnet must have half a hundred men, red and 
 white, in the powder train ; and by this time he has 
 learned from the Indian who reconnoitered us on 
 the mountain that we are within striking distance. 
 With the enemy forewarned, as he is, Vv^e might as 
 well try to cut the women out of my Lord Com- 
 wallis's headquarters." 
 
 The old man chuckled his dry little laugh, though 
 what food for merriment he could find in the hope- 
 less prospect was more than I could understand. 
 
 "Ho ! ho ! Cap'n John ; I reckon ez hovv" ye 're 
 a-taking that word from yonder down-hearted boy 
 of our'n. Wait a spell till ye're ez old ez I be ; 
 then you'll never say die till ye're plumb dead." 
 
 Now, truly, though I was dismally disheartened, 
 I could reassure him on the point of perseverance. 
 'Tis an Ireton failing to lose heart and hope when 
 the skies are dark; but this is counterbalanced in 
 some of us by a certain quality of unreasoning per- 
 sistence which will go on running long after the race 
 is well lost. My father had this stubborn virtue to 
 
THE FEAST OF BITTER HERBS 253 
 
 the full; and so had that old Ironside Ireton from 
 whom we are descended. 
 
 "That's the kind o' talk !" was the old man's com- 
 ment. "Now we'll set to work in sure-enough 
 amest. Ez I said a spell back, m.y stummick is 
 crying cupboard till I can't make out to hear my 
 brain a-sizzling. Maybe you took notice o' me 
 a-praying down yonder that the good Lord'd 
 vouchsafe to give us scalps and provender. For 
 our onfaithfulness He's seed fit to withhold the one ; 
 but maybe we'll find a raven 'r two, or a widder's 
 mite 'r meal-bar'l, somewheres in this howling wil- 
 derness, yit." 
 
 So saying, he summoned the Catawba with a low 
 whistle, and when Uncanoola joined us, told him 
 to stay with Jennifer whilst we should make another 
 effort to find the ford. 
 
 "There's nobody like an Injun for a nuss when a 
 man's chin-deep into trouble," quoth this wise old 
 woodsman, when we were feeling our v/ay cautious- 
 ly along the margin of the swift little river. "If 
 Cap'n Dick rips and tears and pulls the grass up 
 by the roots, the chief '11 only say, *Wah!' If he 
 sits up and cusses till he's black in the face, the 
 chief'll say, *Ugh!' And that's just about all a man 
 hankers for when his sore's a-running in the night 
 season, and all Thy waters have gone over his head. 
 Selah !" 
 
 Now you are to remember the sky was overcast 
 and the night was pitchy dark, and how the old 
 
254 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 borderer could read a sign of any sort was far be- 
 yond my comprehension. Yet when we had gone 
 a scant half-mile along the river brink he stopped 
 short, sniffed the air and stooped to feel and grope 
 on the ground like a blind man seeking for some- 
 thing he had lost. 
 
 "Right about here-away is where they made out 
 to cross," he announced ; "the whole enduring pas- 
 se! of 'em, ez I reckon — our seven varmints and 
 the hoss-captain's powder train. Give me the heft 
 o' your shoulder till we take the water and projec' 
 'round a spell on t'other side." 
 
 We squared ourselves, wholly by the sense of 
 touch, with the river's edge, locked arms for the 
 better bracing against the swift current, and so 
 essayed the ford. It was no more than thigh deep, 
 and though the water lashed and foamed over the 
 shoal like a torrent in flood, there was a clean bot- 
 tom and good footing. Once safe across, we 
 turned our faces down-stream, and in a little time 
 came to the deserted glade with the embers of the 
 kidnappers' fire glowing dully in the midst. 
 
 Here a sign of some later visitants than Falcon- 
 net's horsemen set us warily on our guard. The 
 tepee-lodge of dressed skins, which had been left 
 undisturbed by the sham rescuers, had vanished. 
 
 "Umph! The redskins have been back to make 
 sure o' what they left behind," said Yeates, in a 
 whisper. "I jing! that's jest the one thing I was 
 a-hoping they'd forget to do. I reckon ez how that 
 
THE FEAST OF BITTER HERBS 255 
 
 spiles our last living chance o' finding anything that 
 mought help slack off on the belly-pinch." 
 
 So he said, but for this once his wisdom was at 
 fault and tricky fortune favored us. When we had 
 found the covert in the bushes where the two horses 
 had been concealed we lighted upon a precious prize. 
 'Twas a bag of parched corn in the grain ; some 
 share of the provision of the captive party over- 
 looked by those who had returned to gather up the 
 leavings. 
 
 With this treasure-trove we made all haste to re- 
 join our companions. And now behold what a 
 miracle of reanimation may be wrought by a few 
 handfuls of bread grain! In a trice the Catawba 
 had found a water- worn stone to serve for a mortar, 
 and another for a pestle. These and the bag of 
 corn were carried back to a sheltered ravine which 
 w^e had crossed on our late advance ; and here the 
 Indian fell to work to grind the corn into coarse 
 meal, whilst Yeates and I kindled a fire to heat the 
 baking-stones. 
 
 In these preparations for the breaking of our 
 long fast even Richard bestirred himself to help ; 
 and when the cakes were baked and eaten — with 
 what zestful sharp-sauce of appetite none but the 
 famished may ever know — we were all in better 
 heart, and better able to face the new and far more 
 desperate plight in which our lack of common fore- 
 sight had entangled us. 
 
 For now, since we knew the full measure of the 
 
256 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 peril menacing our dear lady, there was need for 
 swift determination and a blow as swift and sure ; 
 a coup de main which should atone in one shrewd 
 push for the sleeveless failure of the night. So 
 we would grip hands around, even to the stolid 
 Indian, and swear a solemn oath to cut the women 
 out or else to leave our bones to whiten in the forest 
 wilderness. 
 
 You'll laugh at all these vowings and handstrik- 
 ings, I dare say, and protest there was a deal of 
 such fustian heroics in your doddering old chron- 
 icler's day. 
 
 Mayhap there was. But, my dears, I would you 
 might remember as you laugh that we of that sim- 
 ple-hearted elder time lived by some half-century 
 nearer to that age of chivalry you dote on — 
 in the story-books. Also, I would you might mingle 
 with your merriment a little of the saving grace of 
 charity; letting it hint that, perchance, these you 
 call "heroics" were but the free, untrammeled folk- 
 speech of that sincerer natural heart which you have 
 learned to silence and suppress. For I dare affirm 
 that now, as then and always, there will be some 
 spark of the Promethean fire in every heart of man 
 or maid, else this would indeed be a sorry world to 
 live in. 
 
 So, as I say, we four struck hands anew on the 
 desperate venture ; and, after carefully burying the 
 fire to the end that it might not betray us while we 
 slept, we burrowed in the nearest leaf bed to snatch 
 
THE FEAST OF BITTER HERBS 257 
 
 an hour or two of rest before the toils and hazards 
 of the chase should begin afresh. 
 
 In the thick darkness following hard upon the 
 douting of the fire, I saw not who my nearest bed- 
 fellow might be. But ere I slept a hand was laid 
 on my shoulder, and a voice that I knew well, said : 
 "Are you waking yet, Jack ?" 
 
 I said I was ; and at that my poor lad would 
 blurt out all his sorrow and shame for the mad fit 
 of despair that had set him on to rail and curse me. 
 
 ''You will say with good reason that I am but a 
 sorry jockey for a friend — to fly out at you like 
 a madman as I did," he added, by way of fitting 
 epilogue ; and to this I gave him the answer he 
 washed, bidding him never let a thought of it spoil 
 him of the rest he needed. 
 
 "The debt of obligation and forgiveness is all 
 upon the other side, as you will some day know, 
 Dick, my lad," said I, hovering, as a coward always 
 will, upon the innuendo-edge of the confession he 
 will never make. 
 
 He mistook the pointing of this protest, as he 
 w^as bound to. 
 
 "Never say that. Jack. 'Twould be a dog-in-the- 
 manger trick in me to blame you for loving her. 
 And since you speak of debts, I do protest I owe 
 you somewhat, too. With so fair a chance to cut 
 a clean swath in that fair-weather month at Appleby 
 Hundred, another man would have left me scant 
 gleanings in the field, I'll be bound ; whereas — " 
 
258 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 "Damn you!" I broke in roughly, "will you never 
 have done and go to sleep ?" And so, taking surly 
 harshness for a mask when my heart was nigh burst- 
 ing with shame and grief, I turned my back and cut 
 him off. 
 
XXIV 
 
 HOW WE FOUND THE SUNKEN VALLEY 
 
 Looking back upon the hazards and chance-tak- 
 ings of our adventure in the wilderness, I recall no 
 more promising risk than that we ran by sleeping 
 unsentried within rifle-shot, for aught we knew, of 
 the camp of the enemy. 
 
 But touching this, 'tis only on the mimic stage of 
 the romances that the players rise to the plane of 
 superhuman sagacity and angel-wit, never faltering 
 in their lines nor betraying by slip or tongue-trip 
 their kinship with common humankind. Being mere 
 mortals we were not so endowed ; we were 
 but four out wearied men, well spent in the long 
 chase, with never a leg among us fit to pace a 
 sentry beat nor a decent wakeful eye to keep it 
 company. So, as I have said, we took the risk and 
 slept ; would have slept as soundly, I dare say, had 
 the risk been twice as great. 
 
 We were astir at the earliest graying of the dawn, 
 Richard and I, and were the laggards of the com- 
 pany at that, since the old hunter was already out 
 and away, and the Indian had kindled a fire and 
 
 259 
 
26o THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 was grinding more of the parched corn for the 
 morning meal. Dick sat up in his leaf litter, yawn- 
 ing like a sleepy giant. 
 
 ''Lord, Jack," said he ; "if ever we win out of this 
 coil with a full day to spare, I mean to sleep the 
 clock hands twice around at a stretch, I promise 
 you. 'T^^^s but a catch, this cat-nap ; no more 
 than enough to leave a bad taste in the mouth." 
 
 *'Aye ; but the taste may be washed out," said I. 
 "I am for a dip in the river ; what say you ?" 
 
 He took me at the word, and we had an eye-open- 
 ing plunge in the spring-cold flood of the swift 
 little river at the mouth of our ravine. 'Twas most 
 marvelous refreshing; and with appetites sharp set 
 and whetted by the stripping and plunging we were 
 back at the fire in time to give good day to Ephraim 
 Yeates, at that moment returned with the hindquar- 
 ters of a fine yearling buck, fresh-killed, across his 
 shoulders. 
 
 Seeing the deer's meat, we would think the old 
 hunter's thrift of the dawn sufficiently accounted 
 for ; but when the cuts were a-broil, we were made 
 to know that the buck was merely a lucky incident in 
 the early morning scouting. 
 
 Taking time by the forelock, the old borderer had 
 swept a circle of reconnaissance around our halting 
 place, *'to get the p'ints of the compass," as he would 
 say. His first discovery was that the ford we had 
 found in the darkness served as the river crossing 
 of an ancient and well-used Indian trace. Along 
 this trace from the eastward the powder train had 
 
WE FOUND THE SUNKEN VALLEY 261 
 
 come, no longer ago than mid-afternoon of yes- 
 terday ; and arguing from this that the night camp 
 of the band would be but a short march to the west- 
 ward, Yeates had pushed on to feel out the enemy's 
 position. 
 
 For a mile or more beyond the ford he had trailed 
 the convoy easily. The Indian trace or path, \ve\\- 
 trampled by the numerous horses of the cavalcade, 
 followed the up-stream windings of the swift river 
 straight into the eye of the western mountains. But 
 in the eye itself, a rocky defile where the slopes on 
 each hand became frowning battlements to narrow 
 valley and stream, the one to a darkling gorge, the 
 other to a thundering torrent, the trail was lost as 
 completely as if the powder convoy had vanished 
 into thin air. 
 
 Here was a fresh complication, and one that called 
 for instant action. We had counted upon a battle 
 royal in any attempt to rescue the women ; but that 
 Falconnet, impeded as he was by the slow move- 
 ments of the powder cargo, could slip away, was a 
 contingency for which we w^ere wholly unprepared. 
 
 So, as you would guess, the hunter breakfast w^as 
 hurriedly despatched ; and by the time the sun was 
 shoulder high over the eastern hills we had broken 
 cam.p and crossed the river, and were pressing for- 
 ward to the gorg-e of disappearance. 
 
 On each hand the mountains rose precipitous, 
 the one on the left swelling unbroken to a bald and 
 rounded summit, forest covered save for its ton- 
 sured head high in air, while that on the right v/as 
 
262 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 steeper and lower, with a line of cliffs at the top. 
 As we fared on, the valley narrowed to a mere 
 chasm, with the river thundering along the base of 
 the tonsured mountain, and the Indian path hug- 
 ging the cliff on the right. 
 
 In the gloomiest depths of this defile we came 
 upon the hunter's stumbling-block. A tributary 
 stream, issuing from a low cavern in the right-hand 
 cliff, crossed the Indian path and the chasm at a 
 bound and plunged noisily into the flood of the larg- 
 er river. On the hither side of this barrier stream 
 the trail of the powder convoy led plainly down 
 into the water; and, so far as one might see, that 
 was the end of it. 
 
 As we made sure, we left no stone unturned in 
 the effort to solve the mystery. No horse, ridden 
 or led, could have lived to cross the pouring tor- 
 rent of the main river, or to wade up or down its 
 bed; and if the cavalcade had turnet up the barrier 
 stream its progress must have ended abruptly 
 against the sheer wall of the cliff* at the entrance 
 to the low-arched cavern whence the tributary came 
 , into being. But if Falconnet and his following had 
 ridden neither up nor down the bed of the barrier 
 stream, it seemed equally certain that no horse of 
 the troop had crossed it. The Indian trace, which 
 held straight on up the gorge and presently came 
 out above into a high upland valley, was unmarked 
 by any hoof print, new or old. 
 
 "Well, now ; I'll be daddled if this here ain't about 
 the beatin'est thing I ever chugged up ag'inst," was 
 
WE FOUND THE SUNKEN VALLEY 26^ 
 
 the old borderer's comment, when we had flogged 
 our wits to small purpose in the search for some 
 clue to the mystery. "What's your mind about 
 it, hey, Chief ?" 
 
 Uncanoola shook his head. "Heap plenty slick. 
 No go up-stream, no go down, no cross over, no go 
 bade. Mebbe go up like smoke — w'at?" 
 
 The hunter shook his head and would by no means 
 admit the alternative. "Ez I allow, that would ax 
 for a merricle ; and I reckon ez how when the good 
 Lord sends a chariot o' fire after sech a clanjamfrey 
 as this'n o' the hoss-captain's, it'll be mighty dad- 
 blame' apt to go down 'stead of up." 
 
 We were standing on the brink of the barrier 
 stream no more than a fisherman's cast from the 
 black rock-mouth that spewed it up from its under- 
 ground maw. While the hunter was speaking, the 
 Catav/ba had lapsed into statue-like listlessness, his 
 gaze fixed upon the eddying flood which held the 
 secret of the vanished cavalcade. Suddenly he came 
 alive with a bound and made a quick dash into the 
 water. What he retrieved was only a small piece 
 of wood, charred at one end. But Ephraim Yeates 
 caught at it eagerly. 
 
 "Now the Lord be praised for all His marcies !" 
 he exclaimed. "It do take an Injun to come a-run- 
 ning whenst ever'body else is plumb beat out ! 
 Ne'er another one of us had an eye sharp enough 
 to ketch that bit o' sign a-floating past. What say, 
 Cap'n John ?" 
 
 I shook my head, seeing no special significance in 
 
264 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 the token ; and Dick asked : "What will it be, 
 Ephraim, now that it is caught ?" 
 
 The old man looked his pity for our dullard wit, 
 and then set a moiety of it in words. 
 
 "Well, well, now ; Vm fair ashamed of ye ! What 
 all d ye reckon blackened the end o' this bit o' r'ne- 
 branch ?" 
 
 "Why, fire," says Richard, beginning, as I did, to 
 see some glimmering of light. 
 
 "In course. And it come from yonder, did n't 
 it?" pointing to the cavern under the cliff. 
 "More than that, 'twas cut wi' a hatchet — this 
 fresh end of it — ^no longer ago than last night, 
 at the furdest ; the pitch that the fire fried out'n it 
 is all soft and gummy, yit. Gentlemen all : whenst 
 we find where this here creek comes out into day- 
 light again we're a-going lo find the hoss-captain 
 and the whole enduring passel o' redskins and red- 
 coats, immejitly, if not sooner!" 
 
 What comment this startling announcement would 
 have evoked I know not, for at the moment of its 
 utterance the Catawba went flat upon the ground, 
 making most urgent signs for us to do likewise. 
 What he had seen we all saw a flitting instant later ; 
 the painted face of a Cherokee warrior as a settmg 
 for a pair of fierce basilisk eyes peering out of 
 the low-arched cavern whence the stream issued, 
 an apparition looking for all the world like a dis- 
 membered head floating on the surface of the out- 
 gushing flood. 
 
 'Twas the old borderer who took the initiative in 
 
WE FOUND THE SUNKEN VALLEY 265 
 
 the swift retreat, and we followed his lead like well- 
 drilled soldiers. A crook in the stream, and the 
 thickset underw^ood, screened us for the moment 
 from the basilisk eyes ; and in a twinkling we had 
 rolled one after another into the mimic torrent and 
 were quickly swept down to its mouth. 
 
 Here death lay in wait for us in the mad plung- 
 ings of the main river; but we made shift to catch 
 at the overhanging branches of the willows in pass- 
 ing, to draw ourselves out, to scramble up the gorge 
 and to gain a great boulder on the mountain side 
 w^hence we could look down upon the scene of our 
 late surprisal. 
 
 By this we saw, from the wings, as it were, the 
 setting of the stage for a tragedy which might have 
 been ours. One by one a score of heads with painted 
 faces floated silently out of the spewing rock-mouth. 
 One by one the glistening, bronze-red bodies apper- 
 taining thereto emerged from the w^ater, each to take 
 its place in an ambuscade enclosing the stream- 
 crossing of the Indian path in a pocket-like line of 
 crouching figures, with the mouth of the pocket open 
 toward the lower valley. 
 
 Ephraim Yeates chuckled under his breath and 
 smiote softly upon his thigh. 
 
 ''They tell ez how the good Lord has a mighty 
 tender care for chillern and simples," he whispered. 
 "Whenst we was a-coming a-rampaging up the trace 
 a hour 'r two ago, I saw the moccasin track o' that 
 there spy, and was too dad-blame' biggity in my own 
 consate to ax what it mought mean." 
 
266 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 <e^ 
 
 'What spy?" says Dick, matching the hunter's 
 low whisper. 
 
 "Why, the varmint that tracked me back from 
 here 'twixt dawn and daybreaK, to be sure. He 
 waited till we broke camp and then took out up here 
 ahead of us to tell his chief 'twas e'ena'most time to 
 set the trap for three white simples and a red one. 
 Friends, I'm a-telling ye plain that the sperrit's 
 a-moving me mighty powerful to get down on my 
 hunkers and — " 
 
 "For heaven's sake, don't do it here and now!" 
 gasped Dick. "Let's get out of this spider's-web 
 while we may." 
 
 The old hunter postponed his prayerful motion, 
 most reluctantly, as it would seem, and led the way 
 in a silent withdrawal from the dangerous neighbor- 
 hood of the ambushment. When we had pushed on 
 somewhat higher up the gorge and stood on the 
 confines of the upland valley for which it served as 
 the approach, there was a halt for a council of 
 war. 
 
 Since it was now evident that the powder convoy 
 was encamped in some hidden gorge or valley to 
 i which the cavern of the underground stream was 
 one of the approaches, 'twas plain that we must 
 climb to some height whence we could command a 
 wider view. 
 
 We were all agreed that the cavern entrance could 
 not have been used by the entire company: this 
 though the conclusion left the vanishing trail an 
 unsolved riddle. For if the women could have been 
 
WE FOUND THE SUNKEN VALLEY 2^^ 
 
 dragged through the low-springing arch of the 
 waterway, we knew the horses could not — ^to say 
 nothing of the certain destruction of the powder 
 cargo in such a passage. 
 
 So we addressed ourselves to the ascent of the 
 northern mountain ; though Richard and I would 
 first beg a little space in which to drain the water 
 from our boots, and to wring some pounds' weight of 
 it from our clothes. That done, we fell in line once 
 more ; and being so fortunate as to hit upon a 
 ravine which led to the cliff-crowned summit, the 
 climb was shorn of half its toil and difficulty. Never- 
 theless, by the sun's height it was well on in the 
 forenoon before we came out, perspiring like sap- 
 pers in a steam bath, upon the mountain top. 
 
 As Yeates had guessed, this northern mountain 
 proved to be a lofty table-land. So far as could 
 be seen, the summit was an undulating plain, less 
 denselv forested than the vallev, but with a thick 
 sprinkling of pines to make the still, hot air heavy 
 with their resinous fragrance. As it chanced, our 
 ravine of ascent headed w^ell back from the cliff 
 edge, so we must needs fetch a compass through the 
 pine groves before we could win out to any com- 
 manding point of view. 
 
 The old borderer took his bearings by the sun 
 and laid the course quartering to bring us out as 
 near as might be on the heights above the gorge. 
 But v\'hen we had gone a little way, a thinning of the 
 wood ahead warned us that we were approaching 
 some nearer break in the table-land. 
 
268 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 Five minutes later we four stood on the brink 
 of a precipice, looking abroad upon one of nature's 
 most singular caprices. Conceive if you can a seg- 
 ment of the table-land, in shape like a broad-bilged 
 
 man o' war, sunk to a depth of, mayhap, six or 
 seven hundred feet below the general level of the 
 
 plateau. Give this ship-shaped chasm a longer di- 
 mension of two miles or more, and a breadth of 
 somewhat less than half its length : bound it with a 
 wall-like line of cliffs falling sheer to steep, forested 
 slopes below ; prick out a silver ribbon of a 
 stream winding through grassy savannas and well- 
 set groves of lordly trees from end to end of the 
 sunken valley; and you will have some picture of 
 the scene we looked upon. 
 
 But what concerned us most was a sight to make 
 us crouch quickly lest sharp eyes below should descry 
 us on the sky-line of the cliff. Pitched on one of the 
 grassy savannas by the stream, so fairly be- 
 neath us that the smallest cannon planted on our 
 cliff could have dropped a shot into it, was the camp 
 of the powder train. 
 
XXV 
 
 HOW UNCANOOLA TRAPPED THE GREAT BEAR 
 
 'Twas Richard Jennifer who first broke the noon- 
 tide silence of the mountain top, voicing the query 
 which was thrusting sharp at all of us. 
 
 "Now how in the name of all the fiends did they 
 make shift to burrow from yonder bag-bottom into 
 this?" he would say. 
 
 "Ez I allow, that's jest what the good Lord 
 fetched us here for — to find out," was Yeates's 
 rejoinder. "Do you and the chief, Cap'n John, 
 circumambylate this here pitfall yon way, whilst 
 Cap'n Dick and I go t'other way 'round. By time 
 we've made the circuit and j'ined company again, I 
 reckon we'll know for sartain whether 'r no they 
 climm' the miounting to get in." 
 
 So when we had breathed us a little the circuiting 
 was begun, Ephraim Yeates and Jennifer going 
 toward the lower end of the sink, and the Catawba 
 and I in the opposite direction. 
 
 Since we must examine closely every rift and 
 crevice in the boundary cliff, it was a most tedious 
 undertaking; and I do remember how my great 
 
 269 
 
270 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 trooper boots, sun-drying on my feet, made every 
 step a wincing agony. They say an arm.y goes upon 
 its bell}^ but an old campaigner will tell you that 
 you can march a soldier till he be too thin lO cast 
 a shadow if only he hath ease of his footgear. 
 
 Taking it all in all, it proved a slow business, this 
 looping of the sunken valley ; and when w^e had 
 worked around to the eastern cliff and to a meeting 
 point with the old hunter and Richard Jennifer, the 
 sun was level in our faces and the day v/as waning. 
 
 Coming together again, we made haste to com- 
 pare notes. There was little enough to add to the 
 common fund of information, and the mystery of 
 the lost trail remained a mystery. True, we, the 
 Indian and I, had found a ravine at the extremie 
 upper end of the valley through which, we thought, 
 a sure-footed horse might be led at a pinch, up or 
 down ; but this ravine had not been used by the 
 powder train, and apart from it there was no prac- 
 ticable horse path leading down from the plateau. 
 
 As for the hunter and Richard, they had made 
 a discovery which might stand for what it was 
 worth. At its lower extremity the sunken valley 
 was separated from the great gorge without only 
 by a ridge which was no more than a huge dam ; 
 and this diking ridge was evidently tunneled by the 
 stream, since the latter had no visible outlet. 
 
 Inasmuch as the most favorable point of espial 
 upon the camp below was the cliff whence we had 
 first looked down into the sink, we harked back 
 thither, passing around the lower end of the valley 
 
TRAPPING THE GREAT BEAR ■; 271 
 
 and along the barrier ridge. Plan we had none as 
 yet, for the preliminary to any attempt at a rescue 
 must be some better knowledge of the way into and 
 out of Falconnet's cunningly chosen stronghold. 
 True, we might win in and out again by the ravine 
 which the chief and I had explored at the upper 
 end, and Dick was for trying this when the night 
 should give us the curtain of darkness for a shield. 
 But the old hunter would hold this forlorn hope in 
 reserve as a last resort. 
 
 ''Sort it out for yourself, Cap'n Dick/' he ar- 
 gued. "WHiatsomedever we make out to do — four 
 on us ag'inst that there whole enduring army o' 
 their 'n — has got to be done on the keen jump, with 
 a tolerble plain hoss-road for the skimper-scamper 
 race when it is done. For, looking it up and down 
 and side to side, we've got to have bosses — some o' 
 their bosses, at that. I jing! if we could jest make 
 out somehow 'r other to lay our claws on the 
 beasteses aforehand — " 
 
 We had reached the cliff and were once more 
 peering down at the enemy's camp. Though for the 
 cliff-shadowed valley it was long past sunset and 
 all the depths were blue and purple in the changing 
 half-lights of the hour, the shadow veil was but 
 a gauze of color, softening the details w^ithout ob- 
 scuring them. So we could mark well the metes 
 and bounds of the camp and prick in all the items. 
 
 The camp field was the largest of the savannas 
 or natural clearings. On the margin of the stream 
 the Indian lodges were pitched in a semicircle to 
 
2'j2 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 face the water. Farther back, Falconnet's troop 
 was hutted in rough-and-ready shelters made of pine 
 boughs — these disposed to stand between the camp 
 of the Cherokees and the tepee-lodge of the captive 
 women which stood among the trees in that edge 
 of the forest hemming the slope which buttressed 
 our cliff of observation. 
 
 At first we sought in vain for the storing-place 
 of the powder. It was the sharp eyes of the Cataw- 
 ba that finally descried it. A rude housing of pine 
 boughs, like the huts of the troopers, had been built 
 at the base of a great boulder on the opposite bank 
 of the stream ; and here was the lading of the pow- 
 der train. 
 
 From what could be seen 'twas clear that the 
 camp was no mere bivouac for the day ; indeed, the 
 Englishmen were still working upon their pine- 
 bough shelters, building themselves in as if for a 
 stay indefinite. 
 
 " 'Tis a rest camp," quoth Dick ; "though why 
 they should break the march here is more than I 
 can guess." 
 
 "No," said Ephralm Yeates. " 'Tain't jest right- 
 ly a rest camp, ez I take it. Ez I was a-saying last 
 night, this here is Tuckasege country, and we ain't 
 no furder than a day's running from the Cowee 
 Towns. Now the Tuckaseges and the over-mount- 
 ing Cherokees ain't always on the best o' tarms, and 
 I was a wondering if the hoss-captain had n't sot 
 down here to wait whilst he could send a peac^ 
 
TRAPPING THE GREAT BEAR 2^^:, 
 
 offer' o' powder and lead on to the Cowee chiefs to 
 sort o' smooth the way." 
 
 "No send him yet; going to send," was Unca- 
 noola's amendment. "Look-see, Chelakee braves 
 make haste for load horses do\vn yonder now !" 
 
 Again the sharp eyes of the Catawba had come 
 in play. At the foot of the great boulder some 
 half dozen of the Cherokees were busy with the 
 powder cargo, lashing pack-loads of it upon two 
 horses. One of the group, who appeared to be 
 directing the labor of the others, stood apart, hold- 
 ing the bridle reins of three other horses caparisoned 
 as for a journey. When the loading was accom- 
 plished to the satisfaction of the horse-holding chief- 
 tain, he and tw^o others mounted, took the burdened 
 animals in tow, and the small cavalcade filed off 
 down the stream toward the apparent cul de sac 
 at the lower end of the vallev. 
 
 Ephraim. Yeates was up in a twinkling, dragging 
 us back from the cliff edge. 
 
 "Up with ye!" he cried. "Now's our chance to 
 kill two pa'tridges with one stone ! If we can make 
 out to get down Into t'other valley In time to see 
 how them varqiints come out, we'll knov/ the way 
 In. jMore'n that, we can ambush 'em and so make 
 sartain sure o' five o' the six bosses we're a-going 
 to need, come night. But we've got to leg for it 
 like Ahlmaaz the son of Zadok!" 
 
 Thus the old borderer ; and being only too eager 
 to come to handgrips with the enemy, we were up 
 
274 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 and running faster than ever Joab's messenger ran, 
 long before the old man finished with his Scriptural 
 simile. 
 
 Not to take the risk of delay on any unexplored 
 short cut, we made straight for the ravine of our 
 ascent, found it as by unerring instinct, and were 
 presently racing down to the Indian trace in the 
 little upland valley above the gorge. 
 
 For all the helter-skelter haste I found time to 
 remember that the gorge as we had last seen it had 
 been well besprinkled with armed Cherokees lying in 
 wait for us. If they were still there we should be 
 like to have a hot welcome ; and some reminder of 
 this I gasped out to Yeates in mid flight. 
 
 "Ne'm mind that ; if we run up ag'inst 'em any- 
 where, 'twon't be there-away. They've took the 
 hint and quit; scattered out to hunt us long ago," 
 was his answer, jerked out between bounds. And 
 after that I loosed the Ferara in its sheath and saved 
 my breath as I might for the killing business of the 
 moment. 
 
 'Twas a sharp disappointment that, for all the 
 haste of our mad scramble down the mountain, we 
 were too late to surprise the secret of the enemy's 
 stronghold. The Catawba was leading when we 
 dashed down into the valley, and one glance sent 
 him flying back to stop us short with a dumb show 
 purporting that the quarry was already out of the 
 defile and coming up the Indian path. 
 
 Richard swore grievously, but the old backwoods- 
 man took the checkmate placidly and began to set 
 
TRAPPING THE GREAT BEAR 275 
 
 the pieces for the second game in which the horses 
 were the stake, hiding his useless rifle in a hollow 
 tree, — his powder had been soaked and spoiled in 
 the early morning plunge for life, — and drawing his 
 hunting-knife to feel its edge and point. 
 
 "Ez I allow, that fetches us to the hoss-lifting," 
 he said, in his slow drawl. Then he laid his com- 
 mands upon us. "Ord'ly, and in sojer-fashion, 
 now; no whooping and yelling. If the hoss-cap- 
 tain's got scouts out a-s'arching for us, one good 
 screech from these here varmints we're a-going to 
 put out'n their mis'ry 'u'd fix our flints for kingdom 
 come. I ain't none afeard o' your nerve," — this to 
 Richard and me — "leastwise, not when it comes to 
 fair and square sojer-fighting. But this here onfall 
 has got to be like the smiting o' the 'Malekites — 
 root and branch ; and if ye're tempted to be anywise 
 marciful, jest ricollect that for the sake o' them 
 wimmen-folks zve'Tje got to have these hosses!" 
 
 You are not to suppose that he was holding us 
 inactive while he thus exhorted us. On the con- 
 trary, he was posting us skilfully beside the trace 
 like the shrewd old Indian fighter that he was, with 
 a rare and practised eye to the maximum of cover 
 Iw^ith the minimum of thicket tangle to impede the 
 rush or to shorten the sword-swing. 
 
 But when all was done we were at this disadvan- 
 tage ; that since the enemy was close at hand we 
 dared not cross the path to give our trap a jaw on 
 either side. To offset this, the Catawba dropped 
 out of line and disappeared ; and when the Chero- 
 
276 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 kees were no more than a hundred yards away, Un- 
 canoola came in sight a Hke distance in the opposite 
 direction, running easily down the path to meet the 
 up-coming riders. 
 
 Richard let slip an admiration-oath under his 
 breath. ^There's a fine bit of strategy for you !" he 
 whispered. "That wily Jack-at-a-pinch of ours will 
 befool them into believing that he is a runner from 
 the Cowee Towns. 'Tis our cue to lie close ; he will 
 Halt them just here, and there will be roving eyes 
 in the heads of the two who have not to talk." 
 
 We had not long to wait. Our cunning ally 
 timed his halting of the emissaries to a nicety, and 
 when the three Cherokees drew rein they were with- 
 in easy blade's reach. The powwow, lengthened 
 by Uncanoola till vv^e were near bursting with im- 
 patience, vv^as spun out wordily, and presently we 
 saw the pointing of it. The Catawba was affecting 
 to doubt the protests of the emissaries and would 
 have them dismount and prove their good faith by 
 smoking the peace-pipe with him. 
 
 I give you fair warning, my dears, that you may 
 turn the page here and skip what follows if you are 
 fain to be tender-hearted on the score of these sav- 
 age enemies of ours. It was in the very summer 
 solstice of the year of violence ; a time when he who 
 took the sword was like to perish with the sword ; 
 and we thought of little save that Margery and her 
 handmaiden v/ere in deadliest peril, and that these 
 Indians had five horses which we must have. 
 
 And as for my own part in the fray, when I rec- 
 
TRAPPING THE GREAT BEAR ^jy 
 
 ognized in the five-feathered chieftain of the three 
 that copper-hued imp of Satan who had been the 
 merciless master of ceremonies at the torturing of 
 my poor black Tomas, the decent meed of mercy 
 which even a seasoned soldier may cherish died 
 within me, and I made sure the steel would find its 
 mark. ^ 
 
 So, when Uncanoola drew forth his tobacco pipe 
 and made the three doomed ones sit with him in the 
 path to smoke the peace-whiff all around, we picked 
 out each his man and smote to slay. The scythe-like 
 sweep of Jennifer's mighty claymore left the five- 
 feathered chieftain the shorter bv a head in the same 
 pulse-beat that the Ferara scanted a second of the 
 breath to yell with ; though now I recall it, the gurg- 
 ling death-cry of the poor wretch with the steel in 
 his throat w^as more terrible to hear than any war- 
 whoop. As for the old borderer, he was more de- 
 liberate. Being fair behind and within arm's reach 
 of his man, he seized him by the scalp-lock, bent the 
 head backward across his knee — but, faugh ! these 
 are the merest butcher details, and I would spare 
 you — and myself, as well. 
 
 While yet this most merciless deed was a-doing, 
 the Catawba bounded to his feet and made sure of 
 the horses which were rearing and snorting with 
 affright. That done, he must needs gloat, Indian- 
 wise, over his fallen adversary, turning the headless 
 body with his foot and gibing at it. 
 
 "Wah! Call hisself the Great Bear, hey? Heap 
 lie ; heap no bear ; heap nothing, now. Papoose 
 
278 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 bear no let hisself be trap' that way. No smoke 
 peace-pipe — " 
 
 But now Ephraim Yeates, standing ear a-cock and 
 motionless, like some grim old statue done in leather, 
 cut him short with a sudden, "Hist, will ye !" and a 
 twinkling instant later we had other work to do. 
 
 "Onto the bosses with this here Injun-meat, ez 
 quick ez the loving Lord'll let ye !" was the sharp 
 command. "There's a whole clanjamfrey o' the 
 varmints a-coming down the trace, and I reckon ez 
 how we'd better scratch gravel immejitly, if not 
 sooner !" 
 
XXVI 
 
 WE TAKE THE CHARRED STICK FOR A GUIDE 
 
 Luckily for us the new danger was approaching 
 from tlie westward. So, by dint of the maddest 
 hurryings we got the bodies of the three Cherokees 
 hoist upon the horses, and were able to efface in 
 part the signs of the late encounter before the band 
 of riders coming down the Indian path was upon 
 us. But there was no time to make an orderly 
 retreat. At most we could only withdraw a little 
 way into the wood, halting when we were well in 
 cover, and hastily stripping coats and waistcoats to 
 muffle the heads of the horses. 
 
 So you are to conceive us waiting with nerves 
 upstrung, ready for fight or flight as the event 
 should decide, stifling in such pent-up suspense as 
 any or all of us would gladly have exchanged for 
 the fiercest battle. Happily, the breath-scanting in- 
 terval was short. From behind our thicket 
 screen we presently saw a file of Indian horsemen 
 riding at a leisurely footpace down the path. 
 Ephraim Yeates quickly named these new-comers 
 for us. 
 
 279 
 
28o THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 " 'Tis about ez I allowed — some o' the Tuckaseges 
 a-scouting down to hold a powwow with the lioss- 
 captain. Now, then; if them sharp-nosed ponies o' 
 their'n don't happen to sniff the blood — " 
 
 The hope was dashed on the instant by the sud- 
 den snorting and shying of two or three of the 
 'horses in passing, and we laid hold of our weapons, 
 keying ourselves to the fighting pitch. But, curi- 
 ously enough, the riders made no move to pry into 
 the cause. So far from it, they flogged the shying 
 ponies into line and rode on stolidly ; and thus in a 
 little time that danger was overpast and the evening 
 silence of the mighty forest was ours to keep or 
 break as we chose. 
 
 The old frontiersman was the first to speak. 
 
 "Well, friends, I reckon ez how w^e mought ez 
 well thank the good Lord for all His marcies afore 
 we go any furder," he would say ; and he doffed 
 his cap and did it forthwith. 
 
 It was as grim a picture as any limner of the 
 weird could Vv^ish to look upon. The twilight shad- 
 ows were empurpling the mountains and gathering 
 in dusky pools here and there where the trees stood 
 thickest in the valley. The hush of nature's mystic 
 hour was abroad, and even the swiftly flowing river, 
 rushing sullenly along its rocky bed no more than 
 a stone's cast beyond the Indian path, seemed to 
 pretermit its low thunderings. There was never a 
 breath of air astir in all the wood, and the leaves of 
 the silver poplar that will twinkle and ripple in the 
 lightest zephyr hung stark and motionless. 
 
A CHARRED STICK FOR A GUIDE 281 
 
 Barring the old borderer, who had gone upon his 
 loiees, we stood as we were; the Catawba holding 
 the pack horses, and Jennifer and I the three that 
 bore the ghastly burdens of mortality. The bodies 
 of the slain had been flung across the saddles to 
 balance as they might ; and to the pommel of that 
 saddle which bore the trunk of the five-feathered 
 chieftain, Uncanoola had knotted the grisly head 
 by its scalp-lock to dangle and roll about with every 
 restless movement of the horse — a hideour> aeath- 
 mask that seemed to mop and mow and staie fear- 
 somely at us with its wide-open glassy eyes. 
 
 With this background fit for the staging of a 
 scene in Dante Alighieri's tragic comedy, the loom- 
 ing mountains, the upper air graying on to dusk, and 
 the solemn forest aisles full of lurking shadows, 
 you are to picture the old frontiersman, bareheaded 
 and on his knees, pouring forth his soul in all the 
 sonorous phrase of Holy Writ, now in thanksgiving, 
 and now in most terrible beseechings that all the 
 vials of Heaven's wrath might be poured out upon 
 our enemies. 
 
 His face, commonly a leather mask to hide the 
 man behind it, was now ablaze with the fire of zeal- 
 otry ; and, truly, in these his spasm-fits of supplica- 
 tion he stood for all that is most awe-inspiring and 
 unnerving, asking but a little stretch of the imagina- 
 tion to figure him as one of those old iron-hard 
 prophets of denunciation come back to earth to be 
 the herald of the wrath of God. 
 
 'Twas close upon actual nightfall when the old 
 
282 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 man rose from his knees and, with the rising, put 
 off the beadsman and put on the shrewd old Indian 
 fighter. Followed some hurried counselings as to 
 how we should proceed, and in these the hunter set 
 the pace for us as his age and vast experience in 
 woodcraft gave him leave. 
 
 His plan had all the merit of simplicity. Now 
 that we had the horses, Richard's notion of an ap- 
 proach from the head of the sunken valley became 
 at once the most hopeful of any. So Ephraim 
 Yeates proposed that we betake ourselves to the 
 mountain top and to the head of that ravine which 
 the Catawba and I had discovered. Here we should 
 leave the horses well hidden and secured, make our 
 way down the ravine, and, with the stream for a 
 guide, follow the sunken valley to the camp at its 
 lower end. Once on the ground without having 
 given the alarm, we might hope to free the captives 
 under cover of the darkness ; and our retreat up the 
 valley would be far less hazardous than any open 
 flight by way of the unexplored road the powder 
 train had used. 
 
 So said the old backwoodsman ; but neither Dick 
 nor I would agree to this in fofo. Dick argued that 
 while we were killing time in the roundabout ad- 
 vance we should be leaving Margery wholly at the 
 mercy of the baronet, and that every hour of delay 
 was full of hideous menace to her. Hence he pro- 
 posed that three of us should carry out the hunter's 
 plan, leaving the fourth to take the hint given by the 
 charred stick and the swimming ambush crew, and 
 
A CHARRED STICK FOR A GUIDE 283 
 
 so penetrating to the valley by the stream cavern, 
 be at hand to strike a blow for our dear lady's 
 honor in case of need. 
 
 " 'Tis a thing to be done, and I am with you, 
 Dick," said I. This before Ephraim Yeates could 
 object. "Should there be need for any, two blades 
 will be better than one. If it come to blows and we 
 are killed or taken, Yeates and the chief must make 
 the shift to do without our help." 
 
 As you would guess, the old hunter demurred to 
 this halving of our slender force, but we over-per- 
 suaded him. If all went well, we were to rendez- 
 vous on the scene of action to carry out the plan of 
 rescue. But if our adventure should prove disas- 
 trous, Yeates and Uncanoola were to bide their time, 
 striking in when and how they might. 
 
 Touching this contingency, I drew the old man 
 aside for a word in private. 
 
 "If aught befall us, Ephraim, — if we should be 
 nabbed as we are like to be, — you are not to let any 
 hope of helping us lessen by a feather's weight the 
 rescue chance of the women. You'll promise me 
 this ?" 
 
 "Sartain sure ; ye can rest easy on that, Cap'n 
 John. But don't ye go for to let that rampaging 
 boy of our'n upsot the fat in the fire with any o' 
 his foolishness. He's love-sick, he is ; and there 
 ain't nothing in this world so ridic'lous foolish ez a 
 love-sick boy — less'n 'tis a love-sick gal." 
 
 I promised on my part and so we went our sep- 
 arate ways in the gathering darkness ; though not 
 
284 iTHE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 until the lashings of the packs had been cut and 
 the powder and lead, save such spoil of both as 
 Ephraim Yeates and Uncanoola would reserve, had 
 been spilled into the river. As for the bodies of the 
 dead Indians, the old hunter said he would let them 
 ride till he should come to some convenient chasm 
 for a sepulcher; but I mistrusted that he and the 
 Catawba would scalp and leave them once we were 
 safely out of sight. 
 
 At the parting we took the river's edge for it, 
 Richard and I, keeping well under the bank and 
 working our way cautiously down the gorge until 
 we were stopped by the pouring cross-torrent of the 
 underground tributary. Here we turned short to 
 the left along the margin of the barrier stream, and 
 tracing its course across the gorge came presently 
 to the northern cliff at the lip of the spewing cavern 
 mouth. 
 
 By now the night was fully come and in the 
 wooded defile we could place ourselves only by the 
 sense of touch. 
 
 'Are you ready, Dick ?" said I, 
 
 'As ready as a man with a shaking ague can be," 
 he gritted out. "This dog's work we have been 
 doing of late has brought my old curse upon me 
 and I am like to rattle my teeth loose." 
 
 "Let me go alone then. Another cold plunge may 
 be the death of you," 
 
 "No," said he, stubbornly. "Wait but a minute 
 and the fever v/ill be on me ; then I shall be fighting- 
 fit for anything that comes." 
 
 
A CHARRED STICK FOR A GUIDE 285 
 
 So we waited, and I could hear his teeth clicking 
 like castanets. Having had a tertian fever more 
 than once in the Turkish campaigning, I had a fel- 
 low-feeling for the poor lad, knowing well how the 
 thought of a plunge into cold water would make him 
 shrink. 
 
 In a little time he felt for my hand and grasped it. 
 
 "I'm warm enough now, in all conscience," he 
 said ; and with that we slipped into the stream. 
 
 'Twas a disappointment of the grateful sort to 
 find the water no more than mid-thigh deep. The 
 current was swift and strong, but with the pebbly 
 bottom to give good footing 'twas possible to stem 
 it slowly. Laying hold of each other for the better 
 breasting of the flood we felt our way warily to the 
 middle of the pool ; felt for the low-sprung cavern 
 arch, and for that scanty lifting of it where we 
 hoped to find head room between stone above and 
 stream below. 
 
 We found the highest part of the arch after some 
 blind groping, and making lowly obeisance to the 
 gods of the underworld began a snail-like progress 
 into the gurgling throat of the spewing rock- 
 monster. 
 
 I here confess to you, my dears, that, had I loved 
 my sweet lady less, no earthly power could have 
 driven me into that dismal stifling place. All my 
 life long I have had a most unspeakable horror of 
 low-roofed caverns and squeezing passages that 
 cramp a man for breath and for the room to draw it 
 in; and when the suffocating madness came upon 
 
■2S6 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 me, as it did when we were well jammed in this 
 •cursed horror-hole, I was right glad to have my love 
 for Margery to make an outward-seeming man of 
 me ; glad, too, that my dear lad was close behind to 
 shame me into going on. 
 
 Yet, after all, the passage through the throat of 
 the rock dragon was vastly more terrifying than 
 difficult. Once well within the closely drawn upper 
 lip we could brace our backs against the roof and so 
 have a purchase for the foothold. Better still, when 
 we had passed a pike's-length beyond the lip the 
 breathing space above the water grew wider and 
 higher till at length we could stand erect and come 
 abreast to lock arms and push on side by side. 
 
 From that the stream broadened and grew shal- 
 lower with every step, and presently we could hear 
 it on ahead babbling over the stones like any peace- 
 ful woodland brook. Then suddenly the dank and 
 noisome air of the cavern gave place to the pine- 
 scented breath of the forest ; and, looking straight 
 up, we could see the twinkling stars shining down 
 upon us from a narrow breadth of sky. 
 
XXVII 
 
 HOW A king's trooper BECAME A WASTREL 
 
 Dick pressed closer to me, and I could feel him 
 drinking- in deep drafts of the grateful outer air. 
 
 "What new wonder is this?" he would ask, with 
 something akin to awe in his voice; but we must 
 needs grope this way and that to feel out the answer 
 with our finger-tips. 
 
 When the answer was found, the mystery of the 
 lost trail was solved most simply. As we made out, 
 we were in a deep crevice cut crosswise by the 
 stream which, issuing from a yawning cavern in 
 the farther wall, was quickly engulfed again by 
 that lower archway we had just traversed. In some 
 upheaval of the earthquake age a huge slice of the 
 mountain's face had split off and settled away from 
 the parent cliff to leave a deep cleft open to the sky. 
 One end of this crevice chasm — that toward the up- 
 land valley — was choked and filled by the debris of 
 later landslides ; but the lower end was open. 
 
 Through this lower end, as we made no doubt, 
 the powder train had come, turning from the Indian 
 path in the gorge up the bed of the barrier stream,, 
 
 287 
 
288 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 turning again at the outer cavern mouth to squeeze 
 in single file between the thickly matted under- 
 growth and tha cliff's face, and so to pass around 
 the split-off mass and come into the crevice rift. 
 
 How the sharp eyes of the old hunter, and those 
 of the Catawba as well, had missed the finding of 
 this squeezing place where the cavalcade had left 
 the stream-bed, we could never guess ; but on the 
 chance that we might yet need to know all the 
 crooks and turnings of this outlet, we felt our way 
 quite around the masking cliff and down to the 
 stream's edge in the gorge. 
 
 That done we were ready for a farther advance, 
 and clambering back into the crevice we once more 
 took the stream for our guide and were presently 
 deep in the natural tunnel piercing the mountain 
 proper. This extension of the subterranean water- 
 way proved to be a noble cavern, wide and high 
 enough to pass a loaded wain, as we determined by 
 tossing pebbles against the arching roof. None the 
 lesSj 'twas full of crooks and windings ; and in the 
 sharpest elbow of them all, where we were like to 
 lose our way by blundering Into one of the many 
 branching side passages, Richard stopped me with 
 a hand thrust back. 
 
 "Softly !" he cautioned ; ''here are their vedettes !' 
 
 Just beyond the crooking elbow the dull red glow 
 from a tiny fire gone to coals showed us two Indian 
 sentries set to keep the pass. Dick drew his clay- 
 more, but he was chilling again and the hand that 
 grasped the great blade was shaking as with a 
 
A TROOPER BECA^IE A WASTREL 289 
 
 palsy. Yet he would mutter, as the teeth-chattering 
 suffered him: 
 
 ''What say you, Jack? Shall we rush them? 
 There's naught else for it." And then, with a grit- 
 ting oath: "Oh, damn this cursed chilling!" 
 
 I whispered back that we would wait till he was 
 better fit. He was loath to admit the necessity, but, 
 as it chanced, the momentary delay saved our lives 
 in that strait. While we paused, hugging the shad- 
 ows in the crooking elbow, the gloomy depths be- 
 yond the sentries were suddenly starred with flaring 
 flambeaux lighting the way for a hasting rabble of 
 savages ; and had we been entangled in the struggle 
 with the two sentinels we should have been taken 
 red-handed. 
 
 As it was, we had to make the quickest play to 
 save ourselves. In the same breath w^e both remem- 
 bered the narrow side passage just behind in which 
 we were nigh to losing our way, and into this we 
 plunged, reckless of possible pitfalls. We were no 
 more than safely out of the main corridor when the 
 runners, some score of them, as we guessed, trooped 
 past our covert in full cry, leaving us half smoth- 
 ered in the smoky trail of their pitch-pine flambeaux. 
 
 ''Xow v/hat a-devil has set this hornet's nest of 
 theirs abuzz so suddenly?" I whispered, when the 
 smoke-choke gave us liberty to speak without cough- 
 ing to betray ourselves. 
 
 ''Our pony-riding Tuckaseges, doubtless," was 
 Richard's ready answer. "By all the chances, they 
 should have met the Great Bear and his peace-offer- 
 
290 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 ing out yonder on the trace — which same they did 
 not. So when they bring this tale to camp there is 
 the devil to pay and no pitch hot. God help our 
 tough old Ephraim and the Catawba if these blood- 
 hounds win out in time to overtake them !" 
 
 "Aye," said I; and then we crept out of our 
 dodge-hole and made ready to go about our business 
 with the sentries. 
 
 But when we came to peer again around the 
 crooking elbow it would seem that the hurrying 
 search party had fought our battle for us. The 
 watch-fire was there to light a little circle in the 
 gloom, but the watchers were gone. We chanced a 
 guess that they had joined the hue and cry, and so 
 we pressed forward, past the handful of embers 
 and into the pit-black depths beyond. 
 
 Twenty paces farther on it came to playing blind 
 man's buff with the rocky walls again, and meas- 
 ured by the trippings and stumblings 'twas a long 
 Sabbath day's journey to that final turn in the great 
 earth-burrow whence we could see the glimmering 
 of the enemy's camp-fires in the sunken valley. 
 
 "Now God be praised !" quoth Richard most fer- 
 vently. "Another hour in this cursed kennel with' 
 the fever on me and I should be a yammering loose- 
 wit." And I, too, was glad enough to see the stars 
 again, and to be at large beneath them. 
 
 Emerging from the subterranean way, we held to 
 the camp side of the stream, making an ample cir- 
 cuit to the left to come down upon the enemy's 
 position from the wooded slope behind the encamp- 
 
A TROOPER BECA:\IE A WASTREL 291 
 
 ment. We met no let or hindrance in this approach. 
 Secure in their stronghold, the Indians had no 
 patrols out ; and as for the Englishmen, every moth- 
 er's son of them, it seemed, was basking in the light 
 of a great fire built before the pine-bough shelters. 
 
 Favored by a dense thicketing of laurel we made 
 a near-hand reconnaissance of the little wigwam 
 wdiich held our dear lady. As I have said, this was 
 pitched in the thinning of the forest which covered 
 the steep slope behind the encampment, and so was 
 the farthest removed from the stream, and from the 
 Indian lodges disposed in a half-moon at the water's 
 edge. Here all was quiet as the grave, and the 
 clamor of the Indian camp came softened by the 
 distance to a low monotonous humming like the 
 buzzing of a bee-hive. The flap of the tepee-lodge 
 was closely drawn, and the bit of fire before it had 
 burned out to a heap of white-ashed embers. 
 
 "They are safe as yet, thank God !" says Richard, 
 heaving a most palpable sigh of relief. Then, with 
 the fever in his veins to whip his natural ardor into 
 hasty action : " 'Twill be hours before Eph and the 
 Catawba can come in by your upper ravine, Jack, 
 and we shall never have a better chance than this. 
 Hold you quiet here, whilst I — ^' 
 
 But I laid fast hold of him and would not hear to 
 any such a foolhardy marring of Ephraim Yeates's 
 plan. 
 
 "Heavens, boy! are you gone clean mad?" I would 
 say. " 'Twill be risky enough with midnight in our 
 favor; with the camp well asleep, and that great 
 
292 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 fire burned down to give us something lesg ihan 
 broad daylight to work in !" 
 
 He turned upon me Hke a pettish" child. "Oh, to 
 the devil with your stumbling-blocks, John Ireton ! 
 You are always for holding back. By heaven ! Til 
 swear you have no drop of lover's blood in your 
 vems ! 
 
 "So you have said before. But let that pass, we 
 must bide by our promise to Yeates, which was not 
 to interfere unless Margery stood in present peril. 
 Moreover, \\g should learn the lay of the land better 
 while we have the firelight to help. When the time 
 for action comes we must be able to make the play 
 with our eyes shut, if need be. Come." 
 
 'Twas like pulling sound teeth to get him away, 
 but he yielded at length and we crept on to have 
 some better sight of the troop camp. We had it ; 
 had also a glimpse of the baronet-captain playing 
 loo with his lieutenant and another. The tableau at 
 the fire gave us better courage. The men had laid 
 their arms aside and were sprawling at their ease ; 
 and while the arch scoundrel was in the gaming 
 mood, Margery had less to fear from him. 
 
 I said as much to Dick, and for answer he pointed 
 to the flask of usquebaugh which was at that mo- 
 ment making the round of the loo players. 
 
 "I know Frank Falconnet better than you do. 
 Jack, for I have known him later. He is all kinds 
 of a villain sober, but he is a fiend incarnate with 
 the liquor in him. 'Tis lucky we are here. If he do 
 
A TROOPER BECAME A WASTREL 293 
 
 but drink deep enough, Margery Is like to have 
 need — " 
 
 "Hist !" said I ; "some of these lounging rascals 
 may not be so drowsy as they look." 
 
 He nodded, and we backed away to make another 
 circuit which fetched us out on the up-valley side 
 of the encampment. Here we could look down into 
 a smaller glade or bottom meadow on the stream 
 where the horses of the band were cropping the 
 lush grass. It was the sight of these, and of Mar- 
 gery's black mare among them, that set me thinking 
 of a pickeering venture to the full as harebrained as 
 that from which I had but now dissuaded Richard 
 Jennifer. 
 
 "We shall need another mount, and Alistress Mar- 
 gery's saddle," I said. "Lie you close here whilst I 
 play the horse-thief on these reavers." 
 
 But my dear lad was rash only for himself. "Now 
 who is daft?" he retorted. "The Catavv^ba himself 
 could never run that gantlet and come through 
 alive." 
 
 "Mayhap," I admitted. "But yet—" 
 
 He cut me off in the midst, winding an arm about 
 my head by way of an extinguisher. One of the 
 redcoat troopers lounging before the great fire had 
 risen and was coming straight for our hiding place. 
 
 I saw not what to do ; should have done nothing, 
 I dare say, till the man had walked fair upon us. 
 But Richard was quicker witted. 
 
 'Give me your sword I" he muttered; "mine will 
 
 t(i 
 
294 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 be too long to shorten upon," and when the English- 
 man's next stride would have kicked us out of hid- 
 ing, Dick rose up before him like the devil in a play, 
 gripped him by the collar and laid his sword's point 
 at his throat. 
 
 "Follow me, step for step, or you are a dead 
 man !" he commanded ; and so, pacing backward, he 
 led the fellow, with the hulking body of him for a 
 shield and mask, out of the circle of firelight and 
 into the safer shadows of the forest. 
 
 When I had made a creeping detour to join him, 
 he still had his man by the collar and was empha- 
 sizing the need for silence by sundry prickings with 
 the Ferara. 
 
 ''Say, quick! what to do with him, Jack?" He de- 
 manded, when I came up ; and now my slower wit 
 came into play. 
 
 "Out of this to some safer dressing-room, and I'll 
 show you," said I ; and forthwith we marched our 
 prize up the valley a long musket-shot or more. 
 
 When the soldier had leave to speak he begged 
 right lustily for his life, as you would guess ; but 
 we" gave him a short shrift. If the plan I had in 
 mind should have a fighting chance for success it 
 must be set in train before this trooper should be 
 missed. 
 
 So, having first gagged the poor devil with his 
 own neckerchief, we stripped him quickly ; and I 
 as quickly donned the borrowed uniform and be- 
 came, at least in outward semblance, a light-horse 
 trooper of that king whose service I had once for- 
 
A TROOPER BECAME A WASTREL 295 
 
 swcrn. The items of small-clothes, waistcoat and 
 head-gear fitted me passing well, but when it came 
 to the boots we stuck fast, and I was forced to wear 
 my own foot-coverings. 
 
 The change made, — and you may believe no play- 
 house actor of them all ever doffed or donned a cos- 
 tume quicker, — we bound our luckless captive hand 
 and foot, pinned him face downward in the sward, 
 and so leaving him with only his boots for a me- 
 mento, — happily for him the night was no more 
 than goose-flesh cool, — we raced back to our peep- 
 ing-place on the skirting of the camp ground. 
 
 Here Dick wrung my hand, calling himself all the 
 knaves unspeakable for letting me take a risk which 
 he was pleased to call his own ; and with that I 
 stepped out into the firelight and was fair afoot in 
 the enemy's camp. 
 
XXVIII 
 
 IN WHICH I SADDLE THE BLACK MARE 
 
 Having so good a disguise, the thing I had set 
 myself to do would seem to ask for httle more than 
 peaceful boldness held in check by common caution. 
 
 The point where I had broken cover to step into 
 the circle of fire light was nearly equidistant from 
 the Englishmen's camp on the right and the horse 
 meadow on the left, so I had not to pass within rec- 
 ognition range of the great fire ; indeed, I might 
 have skulked in the laurel cover all the way, thus 
 coming to the horses unseen by any, but that I was 
 afraid Falconnet might miss his trooper. So I 
 thought it best to show myself discreetly. 
 
 Copying our captive's lounging stride, I first held 
 a sauntering course down to the stream's edge, keep- 
 ing the great camp-fire and the droning Indian hive 
 well to the right and far enough aloof to baffle any 
 over-curious eye at either. Coming to the stream 
 without mishap, I stopped and made a feint of 
 drinking: after which I crossed and climbed slowly 
 toward the makeshift powder magazme. 
 
 As I have said, the camp was pitched in a small 
 savanna or natural clearing on the right bank of the 
 
 296 
 
I SADDLE THE BLACK :\L\RE 297 
 
 little river. This clearing was hedged about by the 
 forest on three sides, and backed by the densely 
 wooded steeps and crags of the western cliff. I 
 guessed the compass of it to be something more 
 than an acre ; not greatly more, since the fire at the 
 troop camp lighted all its boundaries. 
 
 On the left or opposite bank of the stream there 
 was no intervale at all. The ground rose sharply 
 from the water's edge in a rough hillside thickly 
 studded and bestre\\Ti with boulders great and 
 sm.all; fallen cleavings and hewings from the crags 
 of the eastern cliff. 'Twas at the foot of one of the 
 boulders, a huge overhanging m.ass of weather- 
 riven rock facing the camp, that the powder cargo 
 was sheltered ; so Isolated to be out of danger from 
 the camp-fires. 
 
 From the hillside just below this powder rock I 
 could look back upon the camp en enilladej as an 
 artilleryman would say. Nearest at hand was the 
 half-moon of Indian lodges with the hollow of the 
 crescent facing the stream, and a caldron fire burn- 
 ing in the midst. Around the fire a ring of warriors 
 naked to the breech-clout kept time In a slow shuf- 
 fling dance to a monotonous chanting; and for on- 
 lookers there was an outer ring of squatting figures 
 — the visiting Tuckaseges, as I supposed. 
 
 Beyond the Indian lodges, and a little higher up 
 the gentle slope of the savanna, were the troop 
 shelters ; and beyond these, half concealed In the 
 fringing of the boundary forest, was the tepee- 
 lodge of the women. 
 
298 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 On the bare hillside beneath the powder maga- 
 zine I made no doubt I was in plainest view from 
 the great fire, and the proof of this conclusion came 
 shortly in a bellowing hail from Falconnet. 
 
 *'Ho, Jack Warden !" he called, making a speak- 
 ing-trumpet of his hands to lift the hail above the 
 chanting of the Indian dancers. *'Have a look at 
 that shelter whilst you are over there and make 
 sure 'twill shed rain if the weather shifts." 
 
 Now some such long-range marking down as 
 this was what I had been angling for. So I came to 
 attention and saluted in soldierly fashion, thereby 
 raising a great laugh among my pseudo-comrades 
 around the trooper fire — a laugh that pointed 
 shrewdly to the baronet-captain's lack of proper 
 discipline. But that is neither here nor there. Hav- 
 ing my master's order for it, I climbed to the foot 
 of the powder rock. 
 
 Here the bare sight of all the stored-up devasta- 
 tion set me athirst with a fierce longing for leave to 
 snap a pistol in the well-laid mine. For if these 
 enemies of ours had planned their own undoing 
 they could never have given a desperate foeman a 
 better chance. To hold the pine boughs of the rude 
 shelter in place they had piled a great loose wall of 
 stones around and over the cargo ; and the firing 
 of the powder, heaped as it was against the backing 
 cliff of the boulder, would hurl these weight- 
 ing stones in a murderous broadside upon the camp 
 across the stream. 
 
I SADDLE THE BLACK MARE 299 
 
 But since my dear lady would also share the haz- 
 ard of such a broadside, I had no leave to blow my- 
 self and the powder convoy to kingdom come, as I 
 thirsted to — could not, you will say, having neither 
 pistol to snap nor flint and steel to fire a train. Nay, 
 nay, my dears, I would not have you think so lightly 
 of my invention. Had this been the only obstacle, 
 you may be sure I should have found a way to grind 
 a firing spark out of two bits of stone. 
 
 But being otherwise enjoined, as I say, I turned 
 my back upon the temptation and held to the busi- 
 ness in hand, which was to reach and recross the 
 stream higher up and so to come among the horses. 
 
 As I had hoped to find them, the saddles were 
 hung upon the branches of the nearest trees, Mar- 
 gery's horse-furnishings among them. At first the 
 black mare was shy of me, but a gentling word or 
 two won her over, and she let me take her by the 
 forelock and lead her deeper into the herd where I 
 could saddle and bridle her in greater safety. 
 
 ]\Iy plan to cut her out was simple enough. 
 Trusting to the darkness — the horse meadow was 
 far enough from the fires to make a murky twilight 
 of the ruddy glow — I thought to lead the mare 
 quietly away up the stream and thus on to the foot 
 of that ravine by which we hoped to climb to the 
 old borderer's rendezvous on the plateau. But when 
 all was ready and I sought to set this plan in action, 
 an unforeseen obstacle barred the way. To keep 
 the horses from straying up the valley an Indian 
 
300 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 sentry line was strung above the grazing- meadow, 
 and into this I blundered like any unlicked knave 
 of a raw recruit. 
 
 Had I been armed, the warrior who rose before 
 me phantom-like in the laurel edging of the meadow 
 would have had a most sharp-pointed answer 
 to his challenge. As it was, — I had left my sword 
 with Jennifer because the captured trooper whose 
 understudy I was had left his sword in camp, — 
 I tried to parley with the sentry. He knew no word 
 of English, nor I of Cherokee; but that deadlock 
 was speedily broken. A guttural call summoned 
 others of the horse-keepers, and among them one 
 who spoke a little English. 
 
 "Ugh! What for take white squaw horse?" he 
 demanded. 
 
 " 'Tis the captain's order," I replied, lying boldly 
 to fit the crisis. 
 
 At that they gave me room ; and had I hastened, 
 I had doubtless gone at large without more ado. 
 But at this very apex point of hazard I must needs 
 play out the part of unalarm to the fool's envoi, tak- 
 ing timie to part the mare's forelock under the head- 
 stall, and looking leisurely to the lacings of the 
 saddle-girth. 
 
 This foolhardy delay cost me all, and more than 
 all. I v/as still fiddle-faddling with the girth strap, 
 the better to impose upon my Indian horse-guards, 
 when suddenly there arose a yelling hubbub of 
 laughter in the camp behind. I turned to look and 
 
I SADDLE THE BLACK MARE 301 
 
 beheld a thing- laughable enough", no doubt, and yet 
 it broke no bubble of mirth in me. Half-way from 
 the nearest forest fringe to the great lire a man, 
 white of skin, and clothed only in a pair of trooper 
 boots, was running swiftly for cover to the nearest 
 pine-bough shelter, shouting like an escaped Bed- 
 lamite as he fled. It asked for no second glance, 
 this apparition of the yelling madman ; 'twas our 
 captive soldier, foot-loose and racing in to raise the 
 hue and cry. 
 
 Now you may always count upon this failing in a 
 cautious man, that at a crisis he is like to do the 
 unwisest thing that offers. This cutting out of 
 Alargery's mare was none so vital a matter that I 
 should have risked the marring of Ephraim Yeates's 
 plan upon it. Yet having done this very thing, I 
 must needs make a bad matter infinitely worse. 
 
 Instead of mounting to ride a charge through the 
 camp, and so to draw the pursuit after me toward 
 the cavern entrance, as I should, I slapped the mare 
 to send her bounding through the guard line, 
 snatched a saddle from its oak-branch peg to hurl 
 it in the faces of the sentry group, and darting aside, 
 plunged into the laurel thicket to come by running 
 where I could and creeping where I must to that 
 place where I had left Richard Jennifer. 
 
 All hot and exasperated as I was, 'twas something 
 les5 than cooling to find Dick a-double on the 
 ground, holding his sides and laughing like a yokel 
 at his first pantomime. 
 
302 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 ''Oh, ho, ho! did you — did you twig him, Jack?" 
 he gasped. ''Saw you ever such a mincing puss-in- 
 boots since the Lord made you ? Ah ! ha ! ha !" 
 
 "The devil take your ill-timed humor !" I cried. 
 "Up with you, man, and let us vanish while we 
 may !'' 
 
 By this the camp was in a pretty ferment, as you 
 would guess — our late captive having had space 
 enough to tell his tale. Drunk or sober, Falconnet 
 was afoot and alert, shouting his orders to the 
 Englishmen who were scrambling for their arms, 
 and to the Indians who came swarming up from 
 the lodges. 
 
 Whilst we looked, the Cherokees scattered like a 
 company of trained gillies to beat us out of 
 cover ; and when the hunt was fairly up, the baronet- 
 captain set his men in marching order to surround 
 the wigwam of the captives. 
 
 As yet there was time for a swift retreat up the 
 valley, or at least for the choosing of some battle- 
 field of our ov/n where the enemy need not outnum- 
 ber us twenty to one ; and again I urged Richard to 
 bestir himself. But it was the sight of Falconnet's 
 troopers deploying to surround the tepee-lodge, 
 and not any word of mine, that broke his merriment 
 in the midst. 
 
 At a bound he was up and handing me my 
 sword. 
 
 "Good by, Jack; go you whilst you can. You'll 
 be like to meet Eph and the Catawba coming in; 
 turn them back and tell them to bide their time." 
 
I SADDLE THE BLACK MARE 303 
 
 "But you ?" I would say. 
 
 "yiy place is inside of that soldier-cordon our 
 friend is drawing about his dove-cote. I shall be at 
 hand v/hen she needs me, as I promised." 
 
 "Aye, so you may be ; but not alone," said I ; and 
 with that we fell to running like a pair of doubling 
 foxes through the wood on the steep slope behind 
 the lodge, striving with might and main to gain 
 the laurel thicket whence we had made our first 
 reconnaissance before the converging lines of the 
 redcoat cordon should close and shut us out. 
 
 We did it by the skin of our teeth, diving to cover 
 through the closing gap not a second too soon. 
 When we were in and hugging the bare ground un- 
 der the scanty leafing of the laurel, I take no shame 
 in saying that I would have given a king's ransom 
 to be at large again. Had there been but one of us 
 the covert would have been cramped enough ; and I 
 was painfully conscious that my borrowed coat of 
 scarlet was but a poor thing to hide in. 
 
 To make it worse, Falconnet, who had lagged 
 behind at the fire, was now heaping fresh fuel on, 
 and this reviving of the blaze made the place as 
 light as day. With the nearest links in the redcoat 
 chain no more than a pike's-length at our backs, we 
 dared not stir or breathe a word ; and, all in all, we 
 might have been taken like rats in a trap had any 
 one of the sentries on our side of the circle chanced 
 to look behind him. 
 
 Having repaired the fire to his liking, the troop- 
 captain came up to pass a word or two wdth his 
 
304 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 lieutenant. They spoke guardedly, but we could hear 
 — could not help hearing. 
 
 *'You have seen nothing, Gordon?" 
 
 ''Nothing, as yet." 
 
 "Make the round again and tell the men 'twill be 
 ten gold joes and a double allowance of liquor to 
 the man who first claps eyes on any one of the four." 
 
 The subaltern went to carry out the order, and 
 Falconnet fell to pacing back and forth before the 
 little wigwam. I could see his face at the turn 
 where the firelight fell upon him; 'twas the face 
 of a villain at his worst, namely, a villain half in 
 liquor. There was a lurking devil of passion peer- 
 ing out of the sensuous eyes ; and ever and anon he 
 stopped as if to listen for some sound within the 
 captives' lodge. 
 
 When the lieutenant returned to make his report, 
 he was given another order to cap the first. 
 
 "Your line is too close-drawn and too conspicu- 
 ous," said the captain, shortly. "Move the men out 
 fifty paces in advance, and bid them take cover." 
 
 "They will scarce be within hail of each other at 
 that," says the lieutenant. 
 
 "Near enough, with ten gold pieces to sharpen 
 their eyesight. Go you with them and hold them 
 to their work." 
 
 The line was presently extended as the order ran, 
 each link in the cordon chain advancing fifty paces 
 on its front into the forest. Dick fetched a deep 
 sigh of relief ; and I thought less of the thin-leafed 
 cover and the scarlet coat of me. 
 
I SADDLE THE BLACK ]^>IARE 305 
 
 Falconnet had resumed the pacing of his sentry 
 beat before the lodge, but when his men were out 
 of sight and hearing he stopped short and stole on 
 tiptoe to lay his ear to the flap. 
 
 *'So, you are awake, ^Mistress ]\Iargery? Send 
 your woman out. I would speak with you — alone." 
 
 There was no reply, but we could both hear the 
 low anguished voice of our dear lady praying for 
 help in this her hour of trial. Dick inched aside 
 to give me room, freeing his weapon, as I did mine. 
 We were not over-quiet about it, but the captain of 
 horse vv'as too hot upon his own devil's business to 
 look behind him. 
 
 Having no answer from within, he stooped to 
 loose the flap. It was pegged down on the inside. 
 He rose and whipped out his sword ; the firelight 
 fell upon his face again and we saw it as it had been 
 the face of a foul fiend from the pit. 
 
 "Open !'' he commanded ; and Vv^hen there was 
 neither reply nor obedience, he cut the flap free with 
 his sword and flung it back. 
 
 The two women within the wigwam were on their 
 knees before a little crucifix hanging on the lodge 
 wall. So much we saw as we broke cover and ran 
 in upon the despoiler. Then the battle-madness 
 came upon us and I, for one, saw naught but the 
 tense-drawn face of a swordsman fighting for his 
 life — a face in which the hot flush of evil passion 
 had given place to the ashen graying of fear. 
 
 We drove at him together, Dick and I, and so 
 must needs fall afoul of each other clumsily, giving 
 
3o6 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 him time to spring back and so to miss the claymore 
 stroke which else would have shorn him to the mid- 
 dle. Then ensued as pretty a bit of blade work as 
 any master of the old cut-and-thrust school could 
 wish to see ; and through it all this king's captain of 
 horse seemed to bear a charmed life. 
 
 There was no punctilio of the code of honor in 
 this duel a outrance. Knowing our time was short, 
 we fought as men who fight with halters round 
 their necks ; not to decide a nice point at issue, but 
 to kill this accursed villain as we would kill a mad 
 dog or a venomous reptile whose living on imper- 
 iled the life and honor of the woman we loved. 
 
 Thrice, whilst I held him in play, Dick rushed in 
 to end it with a scythe-sweep of the broadsword ; 
 and thrice the Scottish death was turned aside by the 
 flashing circle of steel wherevv^ith the man striving 
 shrewdly to gain time made shift to shield himself. 
 
 Yet it was not in flesh and blood to fend the 
 double onslaught for more than some brief minute 
 or two. Play as he would — and no schl'd germeister 
 of my old field-marshars picked troop could best him 
 at this game of parry and defense — he must give 
 ground step by step ; slowly at the pressing of the 
 Ferara, and in quick backward leaps when the great 
 broadsword bit at him. 
 
 For the first few bouts he withstood us in grim 
 silence. But now Richard cut in again and the 
 claymore stroke, less skilfully turned aside, brought 
 him to his knees. This broke his bull courage some- 
 what, and though he was afoot and on guard before 
 
I SADDLE THE BLACK MARE 307 
 
 my point could reach him, he began to bellow 
 lustily for help. 
 
 As you would suppose, the call was all unneeded. 
 At the first clash of steel the outlying troopers 
 were up and swarming to the rescue ; and now on 
 all sides came the trampling rush of the in-closing 
 cordon line. 
 
 Had Falconnet held his ground a moment longer 
 he would have had us fast in the jaws of the trooper- 
 trap ; but 'tis the fatal flaw in mere brute courage 
 that it will break at the pinch. No sooner did the 
 volunteer captain catch a glimpse of his up-coming 
 reinforcements than he must needs show us a clean 
 pair of heels, running like a craven coward and 
 shouting madly to his men to close with us and cut 
 us down. 
 
 "After him !" roared Dick, who was by now as 
 rage-mad as any berserker ; and with a cut and 
 thrust to right and left for the nipping trap- jaws 
 we were out and away in chase. 
 
 Now you may mark this as you will ; that whilst 
 the devil hath need of his bond-servant he will come 
 between with a miracle if need be to keep the 
 villain breath of life in his vassal. Three bounds 
 beyond the closing trap- jaws fetched us, pursued 
 and pursuers, to the open camp field ; and here the 
 devil's miracle was wrought. Out of the forest 
 fringe, out of the skirting of undergrowth, out of 
 the very earth, as it seemed, uprose a yelling mob 
 of Cherokees — the detachment we had met in the 
 cavern returned in the very nick of time to cut us 
 
3o8 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 off from the pursuit and to ring us in a whooping 
 circle of death. 
 
 ''Back to back, lad!" I shouted; and 'twas thus 
 we met their onslaught. 
 
 In such a fray as that which followed 'tis the 
 trivial things that leave their mark upon the mem- 
 ory. For one, I recall the curious thrill of master- 
 might it gave me to feel the play of Jennifer's great 
 shoulder muscles against my back in his plying of 
 the heavy claymore. For another, I remember the 
 sickening qualm I had when the warm blood of my 
 second — or mayhap 'twas the third — gushed out 
 upon my sword hand, and I remember, too, how 
 the impaled one, driven in upon the blade by the 
 pressure of his fellows behind, would lay hold of the 
 sharp steel and try in the death throe to with- 
 draw it. 
 
 But after that sickening qualm I recall only this ; 
 that I could not free the sword for another thrust, 
 and whilst I tugged and fought for space they 
 dragged me dov/n and buried me, these fierce tribes- 
 men, piling so thick upon me that sight and sotind 
 and breath went out together, and I was but an 
 atom crushed to earth beneath the human avalanche. 
 
XXIX 
 
 IN WHICH, HAVING DANCED, WE PAY THE PIPER 
 
 Measured by the sense which takes cognizance 
 of pauses it seemed no more than a moment between 
 the stamping out of breath and its gasping recovery. 
 But in the interval the scene had shifted from the 
 open savanna to a thinly set grove of oaks with the 
 stream brawling through the midst. 
 
 To the biggest of the trees I was tightly bound ; 
 and a little way apart a fire, newly kindled, smoked 
 and blazed up fitfully. By the light of the fire a 
 good score of the Cherokees were gathering dead- 
 falls and dry branches to heap beside me ; and from 
 the camp below, the Indian lodges of which were 
 in plain view beyond the intervening horse meadow, 
 other savages were hurrying to join the wood 
 carriers. 
 
 So far as these hasting preliminaries applied to 
 me, their meaning was not difficult to read. I was 
 to be burned at the stake in proper savage fashion. 
 But Richard Jennifer — what had become of him? 
 A sound, half sigh, half groan, told me where to 
 look. Hard by, bound to a tree as I was, and so 
 
 309 
 
3IO THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 near that with a free hand I could have touched 
 him, was my poor lad. 
 
 "Dick !" I cried. 
 
 He turned his head as the close-drawn thongs 
 permitted and gave me a smile as loving-tender as 
 a woman's. 
 
 "Aye, Jack ; they have us hard and fast this time. 
 I have been praying you'd never come alive enough 
 to feel the fire." 
 
 "We were taken together?" So much I dared 
 ask. 
 
 "In the same onset. Twas but a question of 
 clock ticks in that back-to-back business. But they 
 paid scot and lot," this with an inching nod toward 
 a row of naked bodies propped sitting against a 
 fallen tree ; nine of them in all, one with its severed 
 head between its knees, and three others showing 
 the gaping hacks and hewings of the great broad- 
 sword. 
 
 "They've fetched them here to see us burn," he 
 went on. "But by the gods, we have the warrant 
 of two good blades and Ephraim Yeates's hunting- 
 knife that the only fires they'll ever see are those 
 of hell." 
 
 "Yeates ?" I queried. "Then they have taken him 
 and the Catawba, as well?" 
 
 "Not alive, you may be sure, else we should have 
 them for company. But it has a black look for our 
 friends that the flying column we met in the stream- 
 cave came back so soon. Moreover, the bodies of 
 the three peace-pipe smokers were found and 
 
HAVING DANCED, WE PAY 311 
 
 brought in ; that will be the Great Bear holding his 
 head in his hands at the end of yonder bloody 
 masquerade." 
 
 "I guessed as much. God rest our poor com- 
 rades !" 
 
 "Aye ; and God help Madge ! 'Tis no time for 
 reproaches, but amongst us we have signed her 
 death warrant with our bunglings." 
 
 "If it were only death !" I groaned. 
 
 " 'Tis just that. Jack," said he; "no better, may- 
 hap, but no worse. When we were downed by that 
 screeching mob, she was out and on her loiees to 
 Falconnet, beseeching him to spare us. He put her 
 off smoothly at first, saying 'twas the Indians' 
 affair — that they would not be balked of their ven- 
 geance by any interference of his. But when she 
 only begged the more piteously, he showed his true 
 colors, rapping out that we should have as swift 
 a quittance as we had meant to give him, and that 
 within the hour she should be the mistress of Ap- 
 pleby and free to miarry an English gentleman." 
 
 "Well?" said I, making sure that now at last he 
 must know all. 
 
 "At that she stood before him bravely, and I saw 
 that all the time she had had the Catawba's knife 
 hidden in the folds of her gown. 'You have spoken 
 truth for once, Captr,in Falconnet; I shall be free,' 
 she said. 'Come and tell me when you have added 
 these to your other murders.' " 
 
 "And then ?" 
 
 "Then she went back to her prison wigwam, 
 
312 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 walking through the rabble of redcoats and red- 
 skins as proudly as the Scottish Mary went to the 
 block." 
 
 *'She will do it, think you?" I queried, fearful 
 lest she would, but more fearful lest her courage 
 should fail at the pinch. 
 
 ''Never doubt it. Good Catholic as she is, there 
 is martyr blood in her on the mother's side, and that 
 w^ill help her to die unsullied. And God nerve her 
 to it, say I." 
 
 I said "Amen" to that ; and thereupon we both 
 fell silent, watching as condemned men on the gal- 
 lows the busy preparations for our taking off. 
 
 Again, as in the late battle, it was the trivial 
 things that moved me most. Chief among them 
 the grinning row of dead Indians propped against 
 the fallen tree is the constant background for all 
 the memory pictures of that w^aiting interval, and 
 I can see those stiffening corpses now, some erect, 
 as if defying us ; some lopping this way or that, as 
 if their bones had gone to water at the touch of the 
 steel. 
 
 I know not why these poor relics of mortality 
 should have held me fascinated as they did. Yet 
 when I would look away, through the vista 
 to where the light of the great fire in the savanna 
 camp played luridly upon the Indian lodges, or, 
 nearer at hand, upon the savages gathering the 
 wood to burn us with, this ghastly file of the dead 
 drew me irresistibly, and I must needs pass the 
 fearsome figures in review again, marking the star- 
 
HAVING DANCED, WE PAY 313 
 
 ing eyes* and unnatural postures, and the circular 
 blood-black patches on the heads of the three peace- 
 men whom Yeates and the Catawba had scalped. 
 
 While they were making ready for the burning, 
 our executioners were strangely silent; but when 
 the work was done they formed in a semicircle to 
 front the row of corpses and set up a howling chant 
 that would have put a band of Mohammedan 
 dervishes to the blush. 
 
 " 'Tis the death song for the slain," said Richard ; 
 and while it lasted, this moving tableau of naked 
 figures, keeping time in a weird stamping dance to 
 the rising and falling ululation of the chant, held us 
 spellbound. 
 
 But we were not long suffered to be mere curious 
 onlookers. In its dismalest flight the death song 
 ended in a shrill hubbub, and the dancers turned as 
 one man to face us. 
 
 I hope it may never be your lot, my dears, to 
 meet and endure such a horrid glare of human 
 ferocity as that these wrought-up avengers of blood 
 bent upon us. 'Twas more unnerving than aught 
 that had gone before ; more terrible, I thought, than 
 aught that could come after. Yet, as to this, you 
 shall judge for yourselves. 
 
 The pause was brief, and when a lad ran up to 
 cut the thongs that bound us from the middle up, 
 the torture-play began in deadly earnest. Whilst 
 the Indian youth was slashing at the deerskin, Rich- 
 ard gave me my cue. 
 
 'Tis the knife and hatchet play ; they are loosing 
 
 (( )' 
 
314 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 us to give us freedom to shrink and dodge. Look 
 straight before you and never flinch a hair, as you 
 would keep the life in you from one minute to the 
 next !" 
 
 "Trust me," said I. "We must eke it out as long 
 as we can, if only to give our dear lady time for 
 another prayer or two. INIayhap she will name us 
 in them ; God knows, our need is sore enough." 
 
 The lad ran back, and a warrior stood out, jug- 
 gling his tomahawk in air. He made a feint to 
 cast it at Richard, but instead sent it whizzing 
 at me. 
 
 That first missile was harder to face unflinching 
 than were all the others. I saw it leave the 
 thrower's hand ; saw it coming straight, as I would 
 think, to split my skull The prompting to dodge 
 was well-nigh masterful enough to override the 
 strongest vv^ill. Yet I did m.ake shift to hold fast, 
 and in mJd flight the twirling ax veered aside to 
 miss me by a hair's-breadth, gashing the tree at my 
 ear when it struck. 
 
 "Bravo ! well met !" cried Richard ; and then, be- 
 twixt his teeth : "Here comes mine." 
 
 As he spoke, a second tomahawk was sped. I 
 heard it strike with a dull crash that might have been 
 on flesh and bone, or on oak-bark — I could not 
 tell. I dared not look aside till Richard's taunting 
 laugh gave me leave to breathe again. 
 
 The Indians answered the laugh with a yell; 
 and now the marksmen stood out quickly one after 
 another and for a little space the air was full of 
 
HAVING DANCED, WE PAY 315 
 
 hurtling missiles. You will read in the romances 
 of the wondrous skill of these savages in such 
 diversions as these ; how they will pin the victim to 
 a tree and never miss of sticking knife* or hatchet 
 within the thickness of the blade where they will. 
 But you must take these tales with a dash of al- 
 lowance for the romancers' fancy. Truly, these 
 Indians of ours threw well and skilfully ; 'tis a part 
 of the only trade they know — the trade of war — 
 to send a weapon true to the mark. None the less, 
 some of the missiles flew wide ; and now and then 
 one would nip the cloth of sleeve or body covering — 
 and the flesh beneath it, as well. 
 
 Dick had more of the nippings than I ; and though 
 he kept up a running fire of taunts and gibing flings 
 at the marksmen, I could hear the gritting oaths 
 aside when they pinked him. 
 
 Notwithstanding, the worst of these miscasts fell 
 to my lot. A hatchet, sped by the clumsiest hand 
 of all, missed its curving, turned, and the helve of 
 it struck me fair in the stomach. Not all the part- 
 ing pangs of death, as I fondly believe, will lay a 
 heavier toll on fortitude than did this griping-stroke 
 which I must endure standing erect. 'Tis no figure 
 of speech to say that I would have given the rever- 
 sion of a kingdom, and a crown to boot, for leave 
 to double over and groan out the agony of it. 
 
 Happily for us, there were no women wi.h the 
 band, so we were spared the cruder refinements of 
 these ante-burning torments ; the flaying alive by 
 inch-bits, and the sticking of blazing splints of pitch- 
 
3i6 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 wood in the flesh to make death a thing to be prayed 
 for. There was naught of this ; and tiring finally 
 of the marksman play, the Indians made ready to 
 burn us. Some ran to recover the spent weapons ; 
 others made haste to heap the wood in a broad 
 circle about our trees ; and the chief, with three or 
 four to help, renewed the deer-thong lashings. 
 
 'Twas in the rebinding that this headman, a 
 right kingly-Iooking savage as tnese barbarians go, 
 thrust a bit of paper into my hand, and gave me time 
 to glance its message out by the light of the fire. 
 'Twas a line from Margery; and this is what she 
 said: 
 
 Dear Heart: 
 
 Though yoii must needs believe my love is 
 pledged to your good friend and mine, 'tis yours, 
 and yours alone, my lion-hearted one. I am pray- 
 ing the good God to give you dying grace, and me 
 the courage to follozv you quickly. Margery. 
 
 This by the hand of Tallachama. 
 
 For one brief instant a wave of joy caught and 
 flung me upon its highest crest, and all these savage 
 tormentors could do to me became as naught. Then« 
 the true meaning of this her brave Ave atque vale 
 smote me like a space-flung meteor, and the joy- 
 wave became an ocean of despair to engulf me 
 in its blackest depths. The letter was never meant 
 for me; 'twas for Richard Jennifer, who, as she 
 
HAVING DANCED, WE PAY 317 
 
 would think, must know the storv of her marriasfe 
 to his friend and must believe her love went with 
 the giving of her hand. And she named him Lion- 
 Heart because he was brave, and true, and strong, 
 like that first English Richard of the kingly line. 
 
 I thrust the message back upon the bearer of it, 
 begging him in dumb show to give it quickly to my 
 companion. I knew not at the time if he did it, be- 
 ing so crushed and blinded by this fresh misery. 
 But when the Indians drew off to ring us in a chant- 
 ing circle for the final act, I would not let the lad see 
 my face for fear he might fathom the heart-break 
 in me and know the cause of it. 
 
 'Twas at this crisis, when all was ready and one 
 had run to fetch the fire, that I heard a smothered 
 oath from Dick and saw the Indian who was coming 
 up to fire the wood heaps drop his brand and tread 
 upon it. 
 
 "Ecod !" said a voice, courtier-like and smoothly 
 modulated. " 'Tis most devilish lucky I came. Cap- 
 tain Ireton. Another moment and they would have 
 grilled you in the king's uniform — a rank trea- 
 son, to say naught of poor Jack Warden left with- 
 out a clout to cover him." 
 
 It needed not the glance aside to name mine en- 
 emy. But I would not pleasure him with an answer. 
 Neither would Richard Jennifer. He stood silent 
 for a little space, smiling and nursing his chin 
 in one hand, as his habit was. Then he spoke 
 again. 
 
 "I came to bid you God-speed, gentlemen. You 
 
3i8 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 tumbled bravely into my little trap. I made no 
 doubt you'd follow where the lady led, and so you 
 did. But you'll turn back from this, I do assure 
 you, if there be any virtue in an Indian barbecue." 
 
 At this Richard could hold in no lon^-er. 
 
 "Curse you !" he gritted. ''Do you mean that 
 you kidnapped Mistress Stair to draw us out 
 of hiding?" 
 
 "Truly," said this arch-fiend, smiling again. 
 *'Most unluckily for you, you both stood in my way, 
 — you see I am speaking of it now as a thing past, 
 — and I chanced upon this thought of killing two 
 birds with the one stone ; nay, three, I should say, 
 if you count the lady in." 
 
 "Have done !" choked Richard, in a voice thick 
 with impotent rage. "Give place, you hound, and 
 let your savages to their work !" 
 
 "At your pleasure, ]\Ir. Jennifer. I have no fancy 
 for funeral baked meats, hot or cold, though they 
 be made, as now, to furnish forth a marriage sup- 
 per. I bid you good night, gentlemen. I'll go 
 and make that call upon the lady which you 
 were so rude as to interrupt a little while ago." 
 And with that he turned his back upon us and strode 
 away, forgetting to tell his redskinned myrmidons 
 to strip me of that king's uniform he was so loath 
 to have me burned in. 
 
 The Cherokees waited till the master-executioner 
 was out of sight among the trees. Then they set 
 up their infernal howling again, and the fire-lighter 
 ran to fetch a fresh brand. 
 
HAVING DAXCED, WE PAY 319 
 
 ''Courage, lad ! 'twill soon be over now," said I, 
 hearing a groan from my poor Dick. 
 
 His reply was a chattering curse, not upon Fal- 
 connet or the Indians, but upon his malady, the 
 tertian fever. ' 
 
 "Now, by all the fiends ! I'm chilling again. 
 Jack !" he gasped. "If these cursed wood-wolves 
 mark it, they'll set it down to woman cowardice and 
 that will break my heart !" 
 
 Again I bade him be of good courage, assuring 
 him, not derisively, as it looks when 'tis written out, 
 that the fire w^ould presently medicine the chilling. 
 In the middle of the saying the lighted brand was 
 fetched and thrust among our fagotings, and the 
 upward-curling smoke wreaths made me gasp and 
 strangle at the finish. 
 
 For a little time after the sucking in of that fi.rst 
 smoke-breath — nature's anodyne for any of her poor 
 creatures doomed to die by fire — I saw and heard 
 less clearly and suffered only by anticipation. But 
 to this day the smell of burning pine-wood is 
 like a sleeping potion to me ; and the sleep it brings 
 is full of dreams vaguely troubled. 
 
 So, while the Indians danced and leaped about us, 
 brandishing their weapons and chanting the captives' 
 death song, and while the blue and yellovv^ tongues 
 of flame mounted from twig to twig, climbing 
 stealthily to flick at us like little vanishing demon 
 whips, I saw and heard and felt as one remote 
 from all the torture turmoil of the moment. 
 Through the dimming haze of sleeping sensibility 
 
320 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 the dancing savages became as marionettes in some 
 cunning puppet show ; and the blood stained figures 
 stiffening against their log took shapes less horri- 
 fying. 
 
 'Twas Dick's voice, coming, as it seemed, from a 
 mighty distance, that broke the spell and brought 
 me back to quickened agonies. He spoke in panting 
 gasps, as the smoke would let him. 
 
 "One word, Jack, before we go — go to our own 
 place. He said — he said she would be free to — • 
 to miarry him. Tell me ... O God in 
 Heaven !" 
 
 His agony was a lash to cut me deeper than any 
 flicking demon whip of flame, yet I must needs 
 add to it. 
 
 "Aye, Richard, I have wronged you, wronged you 
 desperately ; can you hear me yet ? I say I have 
 wronged you, and I shall die the easier if you'll 
 forgive — " 
 
 Once more the smoke, rising again in denser 
 clouds, cut me off, and through the blinding blue 
 haze of it I saw the Indians running up with green 
 branches to beat it down lest it should spoil their 
 sport oversoon by smothering us out of hand. 
 
 With the chance to gasp and breathe again I 
 would have confessed in full to Richard Jennifer 
 and had him shrive me if he would. But when I 
 called, he did not answer. His head was rolling 
 from side to side, and his handsome young face 
 was all drawn and distorted as in the awful grimaces 
 of the death throe. 
 
HAVING DANCED, WE PAY 321 
 
 You will not wonder that I could not look at him ; 
 that I looked av/ay for very pity's sake, praying 
 that I might quickly breathe the flam.es, as I made 
 sure he had, and so be the sooner past the anguish 
 crisis. 
 
 There was good hope that the prayer would have 
 a speedy answer. The fires were burning clearer 
 now, leaping up in broad dragon's tongues of flame 
 from the outer edges of the fagot piles to curtain 
 off all that lay beyond. Through the luminous 
 flame-veil the capering savages took on shapes the 
 most weird and grotesque ; and when I had a glimpse 
 of the dead men's row, each hideous face in it 
 seemed to wear a grin of leering triumph. 
 
 Thus far there had been never a puff of wind 
 to fan the blaze. But now above the shrilling of 
 the Indian chant and the crackling of the flames 
 a low growl of thunder trembled in the upper air, 
 and a gentle breeze swept through the tree-tops. 
 
 So now I would commend my soul to God, making 
 sure that the breath He gave would go out on the 
 wings of the first gust that should come to drive 
 the fiery veil inward. But when the gust came it 
 was from behind ; a sweeping besom to beat down 
 the leaping dragons' tongues ; a pouring flood of 
 blessed coolness to turn the ebbing life-tide and to 
 set the dulled senses once more keenly alert. 
 
 With the wind came the rain, a passing summer- 
 night's shower of great drops spattering on the 
 leaves above and dripping thence to fall hissing 
 in the fires. Then the thunder growled again ; and 
 
322 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 into the monotonous droning of the Indian chant, 
 or rather rising sharp and clear above it, came a 
 sudden ratthng fire of musketry from the camp in 
 the savanna — this, and the sharp skirHng of the 
 troop captain's whistle shrilling the assembly. 
 
 While yet the flames lay flattened in the wind, I 
 saw the Indians wheel and bound away to the rescue 
 of their camp like a pack of hounds in full cry. In 
 a trice they were wallowing through the stream 
 at the foot of the powder boulder; and then, as 
 the flames leaped up again, a dark form burst 
 through the fiery barrier, my bonds were cut, and 
 a strong hand plucked me out of the scorching 
 hell-pit. 
 
 If I did aught to help it was all mechanical. 
 I do remember dimly some fierce struggle to free 
 my legs from the blazing tangle ; this, and the swell- 
 ing sob of joy at the sight of the faithful Catawba 
 hacking at Dick's lashings and dragging him also 
 free of the fire. And you may believe the welcome 
 tears came to ease the pain of my seared eyes when 
 my poor lad — I had thought him gone past human 
 help — took two staggering steps and flung his arms 
 about my neck. 
 
 Uncanoola gave us no time to come by easy stages 
 to full-wit sanity. In a twinkling he had pounced 
 upon us to crush us one upon the other behind the 
 larger tree. And now I come upon another of those 
 flitting instants so crowded with happenings that 
 the swiftest pen must seem to make them lag. 
 ^Twas all in a heart -beat, as it were : the Catawba's 
 
HAVING DANCED, WE PAY 323 
 
 freeing of us ; his flinging us to earth behind the 
 tree ; a spurt of bhnding yellow flame from the foot 
 of the powder-clifi, and a booming, jarring shock 
 like that of an earthquake. 
 
 The momentary glare of the yellow flash lit up 
 a scene most awe-inspiring. The spouting fountain 
 of fire at the base of the great powder-rock was 
 thick with flying m.issiles ; and on high the very 
 cliff itself was tottering and crumbling. So much 
 I saw ; then the Catawba sprang up to haul us afoot 
 by main strength, and to rush us, with an arm for 
 each, headlong through the wood toward the valley 
 head. 
 
 But Dick hung back, and when the dull thunder 
 of the falling rocks, the crash of the tumbling cliff 
 and the shrill death yells of the doomed ones came 
 to our ears, he fought loose from the Indian and 
 flung himself down, crying as if his heart would 
 break. 
 
 "O God ! she's lost, she's lost ! — and I have missed 
 the chance to die with her or for her !" 
 
XXX 
 
 HOW EPHRAIM YEATES PRAYED FOR HIS ENEMIES 
 
 However much or little the Catawba understood 
 of Richard Jennifer's grief or its cause, the faithful 
 Indian had a thing to do and he did it, loosing his 
 grasp of me to turn and fall upon Dick with pullings 
 and haulings and buffetings, fit to bring a man alive 
 out of a very stiffening rigor of despair. 
 
 So, in a hand-space he had him up, and we were 
 pressing on again, in midnight darkness once we 
 had passed beyond the light of our grilling fires. 
 No word was spoken ; under the impatient urging 
 of the Indian there was little breath to spare for 
 speech. But when Richard's afterthought had set 
 its fangs in him, he called a halt and would not be 
 denied. 
 
 "Go on, you two, if you are set upon it," he said. 
 "I must go back. Bethink you. Jack ; what if she 
 be only maimed and not killed outright. 'Tis too 
 horrible ! I'm going back, I say." 
 
 The Catawba grunted his disgust. 
 
 "Captain Jennif talk fas'; no run fas'. What 
 think? White squaw yonder — no yonder," pointing 
 
 324 
 
PRAYED FOR HIS ENEMIES 325 
 
 first forward and then back in the direction of the 
 stricken camp. 
 
 Richard spun around and gripped the Indian hy 
 the shoulders. ''Then she is aHve and safe?" he 
 burst out. "Speak, friend, whilst I leave the breath 
 in you to do it !" 
 
 "Ugh!" said the chief, in nowise moved either 
 by Jennifer's vehemence or by the dog-like shake. 
 "What for Captain Jennif think papoose thinks 
 'bout the Gray Wolf and poor Injun? Catch um 
 white squaw firs'; then blow um up Chelakee camp 
 and catch um Captain Jennif and Captain Long- 
 knife if can. Heap do firs' thing firs', and las' thing 
 las'. Wah !" 
 
 It was the longest speech this devoted ally of 
 ours was ever know^n to make ; and having made it 
 he went dumb again save for his urglngs of us 
 forward. But presently both he and I had our 
 hands full with the poor lad. The swift transition 
 from despair to joy proved too much for Dick; 
 and, besides, the fever was in his blood and he was 
 grievously burned. 
 
 So we went stumbling on through the cloud- 
 darkened wood, locked arm in arm like three 
 drunken men, tripping over root snares and bramble 
 nets spread for our feet, and getting well sprinkled 
 by the dripping foliage. And at the last, when we 
 reached the ravine at the valley's head, Dick was 
 muttering in the fever delirium and we were well- 
 nigh carrying him a dead weight between us. 
 
 'Twas a most heart-breaking business, getting the 
 
Z26 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 poor lad up that rock-ladder of escape in the dark- 
 ness ; for though I had come out of the fire witH 
 fewer bums than the roasting of me warranted, 
 the battle preceding it had opened the old sword 
 wound in my shoulder. So, taking it all in all, I 
 was but a short-breathed second to the faithful 
 Catawba. 
 
 None the less, we tugged it through after some 
 laborious fashion, and were glad enough when the 
 steep ascent gave place to leveler going, and we 
 could sniff the fragrance of the plateau pines and 
 feel their wire-like needles under foot. 
 
 By this the shower cloud had passed and the stars 
 were coming out, but it was still pitch black under 
 the pines ; so dark that I started like a nervous 
 woman and went near to panic when a horse snorted 
 at my very ear, and a voice, bodiless, as it seemed, 
 said : "Well, now ; the Lord be praised ! if here 
 ain't the whole enduring — " 
 
 What Ephraim Yeates would have said, or did 
 say, w^as lost upon me. For now my poor Dick's 
 strength was quite spent, and when the chief and I 
 were easing him to lie full length upon the ground, 
 there was a quick little cry out of the darkness, a 
 swish of petticoats, and my lady darted in to 
 fall upon Richard in a very transport of pity. 
 
 "Oh, my poor Dick ! they have killed you !" 
 she sobbed; "oh, cruel, cruel!" Then she lashed 
 out at us. "Why don't you strike a light? How 
 can I find and dress his hurts in the dark ?'' 
 
 "Your pardon. Mistress Margery," I said ; " 'tis 
 
PRAYED FOR HIS ENEMIES 327 
 
 only that the fever has overcome him. He has no 
 sore hurts, as I beheve, save the fire-scorching." 
 
 "A Hght !" she commanded ; "I must have a Hght 
 and see for myself." 
 
 We had to humor her, though it was something 
 against prudence. Ephraim found dry punk in a 
 roLcen log, and firing it with the flint and steel of a 
 great king's musket — one of his reavings from the 
 enemy — soon had a pine-knot torch for her. She 
 gave it to the Catawba to hold ; and while she was 
 cooing over her patient and binding up his burns 
 in some simples gathered near at hand by the Indian, 
 I had the story of the double rescue from the old 
 hunter. 
 
 Set forth in brief, that which had come as a mir- 
 acle to Dick and me figured as a daring bit of strat- 
 egy made possible by the emptying of the Indian 
 camp at our torture spectacle. 
 
 Yeates and the Catawba, following out the plan 
 agreed upon, had come within spying distance while 
 yet we were in the midst of that hopeless back-to- 
 back battle, and had most wisely held aloof. But 
 later, when every Indian of the Cherokee band was 
 busy at our torture trees, they set to work. 
 
 With no watch to give the alarm, 'twas easy to 
 rifle the Indian wigwams of the firearms and ammu- 
 nition. The latter they threw into the stream ; the 
 muskets they loaded and trained over a fallen tree 
 at the northern edge of the savanna, bringing them 
 to bear pointblank upon the light-horse guard 
 gathered again around the great fire. 
 
328 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 The next step was the cutting out of the women ; 
 this was effected whilst the baronet-captain was 
 paying his courtesy call on us. Like the looting of 
 the Indian camp, 'twas quickly planned and daringly 
 done ; it asked but the quieting of the tv/o trooper 
 guards on tlie forest side of the tepee-lodgc, a 
 warning word to Margery and her woman, and a 
 shadow-like flitting with them over the dead bodies 
 of their late jailers to the shelter of the wood. 
 
 Once free of the camp, Yeates had hurried his 
 charges to a place of temporary safety farther up 
 the valley, leaving the Catawba to cross the stream 
 to lay a train of dam.pened powder to the makeshift 
 magazine. When he had led the women to a 
 place of safety, the old man left them and ran back 
 to his masked battery of loaded muskets. Here, at 
 an owl-cry signal from Uncanoola, he opened fire 
 upon the redcoats. 
 
 The outworking of the coup de main was a tri- 
 umph for the old borderer's shrewd generalship. 
 At the death-dealing volley the Englishmen were 
 thrown into confusion; w4nlst the Indians, sum- 
 moned by the firing and the shrilling of the captain's 
 whistle, dashed blindly into the trap. At the right 
 moment LTncanoola touched off his powder train 
 and cut in with a clear field for his rescue of Dick 
 
 and me. 
 
 Of the complete success of these various climax- 
 ings, Ephraim Yeates had his first assurance when 
 we three came safely to the rendezvous; for, after 
 firing his masked battery, the old hunter lost no 
 
PRAYED FOR HIS ENEMIES 329 
 
 time in rejoining the women and in hastening with 
 them out of the valley. Had these three been afoot 
 we might have overtaken them ; but Yeates had 
 been lucky enough to stumble upon the black mare 
 peacefully cropping the grass in a little glade ; and 
 with this mount for ]\Iargery and her tire-woman 
 he had easily outpaced us. 
 
 All this I had from Yeates what time Alargery 
 was pouring the wine and oil of womanly sympathy 
 into Richard's woundings ; and I may confess that 
 whilst the ear w^as listening to the hunter's tale, the 
 eye was taking note of these her tender ministra- 
 tions, and the heart was setting them down to the 
 score of a great love which would not be denied. 
 'Twas altogether as I would have had it ; and yet 
 the thought came unbidden that she might spare a 
 niggard moment and the breath to ask me how I 
 did. And because she would not, I do think my 
 burns smarted the cruder. 
 
 It was to have surcease of these extra smartings 
 that I turned my back upon the trio under the 
 flaring torch and took up with Ephraim Yeates the 
 pressing question of the moment. 
 
 "As I take it, we may not linger here," I said. 
 "Have you marked out a line of retreat ?" 
 
 The old borderer was busied with his loot of the 
 Indian camp — 'twas not in his nature to come off 
 empty-handed, however hard pressed he had been 
 for time. In the raffle of it, guns and pistols, 
 dressed skins and warrior finery, he came upon mv 
 good old blade and Richard's great claymore — 
 
330 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 trophies claimed by the head men of the Cherokees 
 after our taking, as we made no doubt. 
 
 ''Found 'em hanging in the lodge that usen to 
 belong to the Great Bear," said the hunter, and 
 then with grim humor : " 'Lowed to keep 'em to 
 ricollect ye by if so be ye was foreordained and pre- 
 destinated to go up in a fiery chariot, like the good 
 old Elijah." The weapons disposed of, he made 
 answer to my query. "Rz for making tracks im- 
 mejitly, // not sooner, I allow there ain't no two 
 notions about that. But Fm dad-daddled if I know 
 which-a-way to put out, Cap'n John, and that's the 
 gospil fact." 
 
 "Why not strike for the Great Trace, and so go 
 back the way the powder convoy came ?" I asked. 
 
 It could be done, he said, but the hazard was 
 great. 'Twas out of all reason to hope that there 
 were no survivors left in the sunken valley to carry 
 the news of the earthquake massacre. That news 
 once cried abroad in the near-by Co wee Towns, the 
 entire Tuckasege nation would turn out to run 
 us down. Moreover, the avengers would look 
 to find us in the only practicable horse-path leading 
 eastward. 
 
 "Ez Fm telling you right now, Cap'n John, we 
 made one more blunder in this here onfall of 
 our'n, owin' to our having ne'er a seventh son of 
 a seventh son amongst us to look a little ways ahead. 
 Where we flashed in the pan was in not making our 
 rendyvoo down yonder vvhere you and Cap'n Dick 
 got in. Ever' last one of 'em able to crawl is 
 
PRAYED FOR HIS ENEMIES 331 
 
 a-making" straight for that crivvis dodge-hole right 
 now, and if we was there we could do 'em Hke the 
 Gileadites did the men o' Ephraim at the passages 
 o' the Jordan." 
 
 Fresh as I was from the torture fire, I could not 
 forbear a shudder at this old man's savagery. 
 
 "Kill them in cold blood ?" I would say. 
 
 "Anan?" he queried, as not understanding my 
 point of view ; and I let the matter rest. He was of 
 those who slay and spare not where an enemy is 
 concerned. 
 
 But when we came to consider of it there seemed 
 to be no alternative to the eastward flitting by way 
 of the Great Trace. To the west and south there was 
 only the trackless wilderness ; and to the north no 
 white settlement nearer than that of the over-moun- 
 tain folk on the Watauga. I asked if we might 
 hope to reach this. 
 
 " 'Tis a long fifty mile ez the crow flies, over 
 e'enabout the mountainousest patch o' land that ever 
 laid out o' doors," was the hunter's reply. "And 
 there ain't ne'er a deer-track, ez I knows on, to 
 p'int the way." 
 
 "Then we must ride eastward and run the risk 
 of pursuit by the Tuckaseges," said I. 
 
 "Ez I reckon, that's about the long and short of 
 it. And I do everlastedly despise to make that 
 poor little gal jump her boss and ride skimper- 
 scamper again, when she's been fair living a-horse- 
 back for a fortnight." 
 
 "She will not fail you," I ventured to say, ad- 
 
ZZ2 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 ding: "But Jennifer is in poor fettle for making 
 speed." 
 
 *Tt's ride or be skulped for him, and I allow he'll 
 ride," quoth the old hunter, hastening his prepara- 
 tions for the start. "Reckon we can get him on a 
 hoss right now." 
 
 I went to see. Margery rose at my approach, 
 and even in the poor light I could see her draw 
 herself up as if she would hold me at my proper 
 distance. 
 
 "Your patient, Mistress Margery, — We must 
 mount and ride at once. Is he fit?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "But we must be far to the eastward before day- 
 break." 
 
 "I can not help it. If you make him ride to- 
 night you will finish what those cruel savages be- 
 gan. Captain Ireton." 
 
 "We have little choice — none, I should say." 
 
 "Oh, you are bitter hard !" she cried, though 
 wherein my offending lay just then I was wholly 
 at a loss to know. 
 
 " 'Tis your privilege to say so," I rejoined. "But 
 as for making Dick ride, that will be but the kindest 
 cruelty. We are only a little way from the nearest 
 Indian towns, and if the daylight find us here — " 
 
 "Spare me," she broke in; and with that she 
 turned shortly and asked Ephraim Yeates to put 
 her in her saddle. 
 
 Richard was still in the fever stupor, but he 
 roused himself at my urging and let us set him upon 
 
PRAYED FOR HIS ENEMIES 333 
 
 "his beast. Once safe in the saddle, we lashed him 
 fast like a prisoner, with a forked tree-branch at 
 his back to hold him erect. This last was the old 
 hunter's invention and 'twas most ingenious. The 
 forked limb, in shape like a Y, was set astride the 
 cantle, with the lower ends thonged stoutly to 
 Dick's legs and to the girths. Thus the upright stem 
 of the inverted Y became an easy back-rest for the 
 sick man ; and when he was securely lashed thereto 
 there was little danger for him save in some stumb- 
 ling of the beast he rode. 
 
 When all was ready we had first to find our way 
 down from the mountain top ; and now even the 
 old borderer and the Indian confessed their inabil- 
 ity to do aught but retrace their steps by the only 
 route they knew : namely, by that ravine which we 
 had twice traversed in daylight, and up v/hich they 
 had led the captured horses in the dusk. 
 
 This route promised all the perils of a gantlet- 
 running, since by it we must take the risk of meeting 
 the fleeing fugitives from the convoy camp, if the 
 explosion had spared any fit to lift and carry the 
 vengeance-cry. But here again there was no alter- 
 native, and we set us in order for the descent, with 
 Yeates and the Catawba ahead, the women and Dick 
 In the midst, and her Apostolic Majesty's late 
 captain of hussars, masquerading as a British 
 trooper, to bring on the rear. 
 
 Once in motion beneath the blue-black shadows 
 of the pines, I quickly lost all sense of direction. 
 After we had ridden in wordless silence a short 
 
334 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 half hour or less, and I supposed we should be 
 Hearing the head of our descending ravine, our 
 little cavalcade was halted suddenly in a thickset 
 grove of the pines, and Ephraim Yeates appeared 
 at my stirrup to say : 
 
 "H'ist ye off your nag, Cap'n John, and let's take 
 a far'well squinch at the inimy whilst we can." 
 
 "Where? what enemy?" I would ask, slipping 
 from, the saddle at his word. 
 
 "Why, the hoss-captain's varmints, to be sure; 
 or what-all the abomination o' desolation has left 
 of 'em. We ain't more than a cat's jump from the 
 edge o' the big rock where we first sot eyes on 'em 
 this morning." 
 
 I saw not what was to be gained by any such 
 long-range espial in the darkness. None the less, 
 I followed the old man to the cliff's edge. He was 
 wiser in his forecastings than I was in mine. There 
 was a thing to look at, and light enough to see it 
 by. One of the missile stones, it seems, had crashed 
 into the great fire, scattering the brands in all direc- 
 tions. The pine-bough troop shelters w^ere ablaze, 
 and creeping serpents of fire were worming their 
 way hither and yon over the year-old leaf beds in 
 the wood. Ever and anon some pine sapling in 
 the path of these fiery serpents would go up in a 
 torch-like flare; and so, as I say, there was light 
 enough. 
 
 What we looked down upon was not inaptly pic- 
 tured out by Ephraim Yeates's Scripture phrase, 
 the abomination of desolation. Every vestige of the 
 
PRAYED FOR HIS ENEMIES 335 
 
 camp save the glowing skeletons of the troop shel- 
 ters had disappeared, and the swarded sa- 
 vanna was become a blackened chaos-blot on the 
 fair woodland scene. I have said that the powder- 
 sheltering boulder was a cliff for size ; the mighty 
 upheaval of the explosion had toppled it in ruins 
 into the stream, and huge fragments the bigness of 
 a wine-butt had been hurled with the storm of 
 lighter debris broadcast upon the camp. 
 
 At first we saw no sign of life in all the firelit 
 space. But a moment later, when three or four of 
 the sapling torches blazed up together, we made 
 out some half dozen figures of human beings — 
 whether red or white we could not tell — stumbling 
 and reeling about among the rocks like blind men 
 drunken. 
 
 At sight of these the old hunter doffed his cap 
 and fell upon his knees with hands uplifted to pour 
 out his zealot's soul in the awful sentences of the 
 Psalmist's imprecation. 
 
 " 'Let God arise, and let His inimies be scattered ; 
 let them also that hate Him flee before Him. Like 
 as the smoke vanisheth, so shalt thou drive them 
 away ; and like as the wax melteth at the fire, so let 
 the ungodly perish at the presence of God . . . 
 
 ) >> 
 
XXXI 
 
 IN WHICH WE MAKE A FORCED MARCH 
 
 It could have been but little short of midnight 
 when we came down into the Great Trace near the 
 ambush ground where we had set our trap for the 
 peace men. 
 
 The night had cleared most beautifully, and over- 
 head the stars were burning like points of white 
 fire in the black dome of the heavens. As often 
 happens after a shower, the night shrillings of the 
 forest were in fullest tide ; and a whip-will's-widow, 
 disturbed by our approach, fluttered to a higher 
 perch and set up his plaintive protest. 
 
 At our turning eastward on the trace, the old hun- 
 ter massed our little company as compactly as the 
 path allowed, and giving us the word to follow 
 cautiously, tossed his bridle rein to the Catawba 
 and went on ahead to feel out the way. 
 
 This rearrangement set me to ride abreast with 
 Margery ; and for the first time since that fateful 
 night in the upper room at Appleby Hundred we 
 were together and measurably alone. 
 
 Since death might be lying in wait for us at any 
 
 336 
 
WE MAKE A FORCED AIARCH 2>2>7 
 
 turn in the winding bridle-path, I had no mind to 
 break the strained silence. But, womanHke, she 
 would not miss the chance to thrust at me. 
 
 "Are 3-0U not afire with shame. Captain Ireton?" 
 she said, bitterly ; and then : ''How you must de- 
 spise me!" 
 
 I knew not what she meant ; but being most anx- 
 ious for her safety, I begged her not to talk, put- 
 ting it all upon the risk we ran in passing the 
 outlet of the sunken valley. Now, as you have long 
 since learned, my tongue Vv^as but a skilless servant ; 
 and though I sought to make the command the gen- 
 tlest plea, she took instant umbrage and struck back 
 smartly. 
 
 "You need not make the danger an excuse. I 
 will be still ; and when I speak to you again, you 
 will be willing enough to hear me, I promise you !" 
 
 "Nay, then, dear lady ; you must not take it 
 so!" I protested. " 'Tis my misfortune to be ever 
 blundering." 
 
 But to this she gave me no answer at all ; and 
 barring a word or two of heartening for her serving 
 woman, she never opened her lips again throughout 
 the passage perilous. 
 
 By good hap we came to the crossing of the cavern 
 stream vv^ithout meeting any foeman ; and on the 
 farther side of the shallow ford we . found the old 
 borderer awaiting us. 
 
 "Ez I allow, we've smelt the bait in the trap and 
 come off with v/hole bones, like Shadrach, Meshach 
 and Abednego," he said, mixing mictaphor, Scrip- 
 
338 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 ture phrase and frontier idiom as was his wont. 
 Then he put a leg over his horse and gave the stir- 
 rup-word: ''From now on, old Jehu, the son o' 
 Nimshi, is the hoss-whipper weVe got to beat. Get 
 ye behind, Cap'n John, and give the hoss that lags 
 a half inch 'r so of your sword-p'int." 
 
 Then and there began a night flight long to be 
 remembered. Down the valley of the swift river 
 to the ford where Yeates and I had crossed after 
 the mock rescue of Marger}^ the night before, we 
 let the horses pick the way as they could. But 
 once beyond the ford, where the trace was wider 
 and the footing less precarious, we plied whip and 
 spur, pushing the saddle-beasts for every stride we 
 could get out of them in the blind race. 
 
 I have marveled often that we came not once to 
 grief in all this long night-gallop through the dark- 
 ness. There was every chance for it. The over- 
 arching trees of the great forest shut out all the 
 starlight, and the trace was no more than a bridle- 
 path, rougher than any cart road. Yet we held the 
 breakneck pace steadily, save for the time it took 
 to thread some steep defile to a stream cross- 
 ing, or to scramble up its fellovv^ on the oppo- 
 site side ; and when the dawn began to gray in the 
 sky ahead, we were well out of the broken mountain 
 region and into the opener forest of the hill coun- 
 try. 
 
 The sun was yet below the eastern horizon when 
 we came to the fording of a larger stream than any 
 we had crossed in the night. Its course was toward 
 
WE MAKE A FORCED MARCH 339 
 
 the sunrise, hence I took it for some tributary of 
 the Catawba or the Broad. 
 
 " 'Tis the Broad itself," said Ephraim Yeates, in 
 answer to my asking; "and yit it ain't; leastwise, 
 it ain't the one you know. 'Tis the one the Parley- 
 voos claimed in the old war, and they call it the 
 Frinch Broad." 
 
 "But that flows north and westward, if I remem- 
 ber aright," said I. 
 
 "So it do, so it do — in gineral. But hereabouts 
 'twill run all ways for Sunday, by spells." 
 
 "If this be the French Broad we are not yet out 
 of the Tuckasege country, as I take it." 
 
 "Mighty nigh to it ; nigli enough to make camp 
 for a resting spell. I reckon ye're a-needing that 
 same pretty toler'ble bad, ain't ye, little gal?" this 
 last to Margery. 
 
 Weary as she was she smiled upon him brightly, 
 as though he had been her grandsire and so free 
 to name her how he pleased. 
 
 "I shall sleep well w^hen we are out of danger. 
 But you must not stop for me, or for Jeanne, till 
 'tis safe to do so." 
 
 "Safe? Lord love ye, child! 'safe' is a word be- 
 yond us yit, and will be till we sot ye down on your 
 daddy's door-stone. But \ve'll make out to give ye 
 a bite and sup and forty winks o' sleep immejitly, // 
 not sooner, now." 
 
 So, on the farther side of the stream the hunter 
 led the way aside, and when we were come to a 
 small meadow gflade with eood sjazing" for the 
 
340 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 horses, he called a halt, lifted the women from their 
 saddles and came to help me ease Dick down. The 
 poor lad was stiff and sore, having no more use of 
 his joints than if he were a bandaged mummy; but 
 the fever delirium had passed and he was able to 
 laugh feebly at the tree-limb contrivance rigged to 
 hold him in the saddle. 
 
 ''How did we come out of it, Jack?" he asked,^ 
 when we had let him feel the comfort of lying flat 
 upon his back on the soft sward. 
 
 "As you see. We are all here, and all in fair 
 fettle, saving yourself. You're the heaviest loser." 
 
 He smiled, and his eyes languid with the fever 
 sought out Margery, who would not come anigh 
 whilst I was with him. 
 
 "That remains to be seen. Jack. If my dream 
 comes true, I shall be the richest gainer." 
 
 "What did you dream ?" 
 
 He beckoned me to bend lower over him. "I 
 dreamed I was sore hurt, and that she was bind- 
 ing up my bruises and crying over me." 
 
 " 'Twas no dream," I said ; and with that T went 
 to help Yeates make a bough shelter for the women 
 while Uncanoola was grinding the maize for the 
 breakfast cakes. 
 
 'Tis not my purpose to weary you with a day-by- 
 day accounting for all that befell us on the way back 
 to Mecklenburg. Suffice it to say that we ate and 
 slept and rose to mount and ride again; this for 
 five days and nights, during which Jennifer's fever 
 grew upon him steadily. 
 
WE MAKE A FORCED :^IARCH 341 
 
 At the close of the fifth day our night halt was in 
 a deserted log cabin at the edge of an unfinished 
 clearing in the heart of the forest. Here Richard's 
 sickness anchored us, and for three full weeks the 
 journey paused. 
 
 We nursed the lad as best we could for a fort- 
 night, dosing him with ste\\4ngs of such roots and 
 herbs as the Catawba could find in the wood. Then, 
 when we were at our wits' ends, and Yeates and I 
 were casting about how we could compass the bring- 
 ing of a doctor from the settlements, the fever took 
 a turn for the better, — of its own accord, or for Un- 
 canoola's physickings, we knew not which, — and at 
 the end of the third week Dick was up and able to 
 ride again, this time without the forked stick to 
 hold him in the saddle. 
 
 After this we went on without mishap, and witK 
 no hardship greater than that of living solely upon 
 the meat victual provided by the hunter's rifle ; and 
 you who know this plough-dressed region at this 
 later day will wonder when I write it down that in 
 all that long faring, or rather to the last day's stage 
 of it, we saw never a face of any of our kind, or of 
 the Catawba's. 
 
 You may be sure the month or more we spent 
 thus in the heart of the wildwood was but a sorry 
 time for me. While the excitement of the pursuit 
 and rescue lasted, and later, when anxiety for Rich- 
 ard filled the hours of the long days and nights, 
 I was held a little back from slipping into that pit 
 of despair which I had digged for myself. 
 
342 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 But when the strain was off and Dick was up 
 and fit again, the misery of it all came back with 
 added goadings. I had never dreamed how cutting 
 sharp 'twould be to see these two together day 
 by day ; to see her loving, tender care of him, and to 
 hear him babble of his love for her in his feverish 
 vaporings. Yet all this I must endure, and with it 
 a thing even harder. For, to make it worse, if 
 worse could be, the shadow of complete estrange- 
 ment had fallen between T^largery and me. True 
 to her word, given in that moment when I had be- 
 sought her not to speak aloud for her own safety's 
 sake, she had never opened her lips to me ; and for 
 aught she said or did I might have been a deaf-mute 
 slave beneath her notice. 
 
 And as she drew away from me, she seemed to 
 draw the closer to Richard Jennifer, nursing him 
 alive when he was at his worst, and giving him all 
 the womanly care and sympathy a sick man longs 
 for. And later, when he was fit to ride again, she 
 had him always at her side in the onward faring. 
 
 As I have said before, this was all as I would 
 have it. Yet it made me sick in my soul's soul ; 
 and at times I must needs fall behind to rave it 
 out in solitude, cursing the day that I was born, 
 and that other more mnsfortunate day when I had 
 reared the barrier impassable between these two. 
 
 What wonder, then, that, as we neared the fight- 
 ing field of the great war, I grew more set upon 
 seizing the first chance that might offer an honorable 
 escape from all these heartburnings? 'Twas a 
 
WE MAKE A FORCED MARCH 343 
 
 weakness, if you choose; I set down here naught 
 but the simple fact, which had by now gone as far 
 beyond excusings as the underlying cause of it was 
 beyond forgiveness. 
 
 'Twas on the final day, the day when we were 
 riding tantivy to reach Queensborough by evening, 
 that my deliverance came. I say deliverance be- 
 cause at the moment it had the look of a short shrift 
 and a ready halter. 
 
 We had crossed our own Catawba and were put- 
 ting our horses at the steep bank on the outcoming 
 side, when my saddle slipped. Dismounting to 
 tighten the girth, I called to the others to press on, 
 saying I should overtake them shortly. 
 
 The promise was never kept. I scarce had my 
 head under the saddle flap before a couple of stout 
 knaves in homespun, appearing from I know not 
 w^iere, had me fast gripped by the arms, whilst a 
 third made sure of the horse. 
 
 "A despatch rider," said the bigger of the two 
 who pinioned me. ''Search him, Martin, lad, whilst 
 I hold him ; then we'll pay him out for Tarleton's 
 hanging of poor Sandy M'Guire." 
 
 I held my peace and let them search, taking the 
 threat for a bit of soldier bullyragging meant to 
 keep me quiet. But when they had turned the pock- 
 ets of my borrowed coat inside out and ripped the 
 lining and made it otherwise as much the worse 
 for their mishandling as it was for wear, the third 
 man fetched a rope. 
 
 "Did you mean that, friend? — about tHe hang- 
 
344 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 ing?" I asked, wondering if this should be my 
 loophole of escape from the life grown hateful. 
 
 "Sure enough," said the big man, coolly. "You'd 
 best be saying your prayers." 
 
 I laughed. "Were you wearing my coat and I 
 yours, you might hang me and welcome ; in truth, 
 you may as it is. Which tree will you have me at?" 
 
 The man stared at me as at one demented. Then 
 he burst out in a guffaw. "Damme, if you bean't a 
 cool plucked one ! I've a mind to take you to the 
 colonel." 
 
 "Don't do it, my friend. Though I am something 
 loath to be snuffed out by the men of my own side, 
 we need not haggle over the niceties. Point out 
 your tree." 
 
 "No, by God ! you're too willing. What's at the 
 back of all this ?" 
 
 "Nothing, save a decent reluctance to spoil your 
 sport. Have at it, man, and let's be done with it." 
 
 "Not if you beg me on your knees. You'll go 
 to the colonel, I say, and he may hang you if he 
 sees fit. You must be a most damnable villain to 
 want to die by the first rope you lay eyes on." 
 
 "That is as it may be. Who is your colonel ?" 
 
 "Nay, rather, wdio are you ?" 
 
 I gave my name and circumstance and was loosed 
 of the hand-grip, though the third man dropped the 
 cord and stepped back to hold me covered with his 
 rifle. 
 
 An Ireton, you say ? Not little Jock, surely !" 
 'No, big Jock; big enough to lay you on your 
 
 
WE MAKE A FORCED MARCH 345 
 
 back, though you do have a hand as thick as a 
 lam. 
 
 He ignored the challenge and stuck to his text. 
 "1 never thought to see the son of old Mad-bull 
 Roger wearing a red coat," he said. 
 
 "That is nothing. Many as good a Whig as I 
 am has been forced to wear a red coat ere this, or 
 go barebacked. But why don't you knot the halter ? 
 In common justice you should either hang me or 
 feed me. 'Tis hard upon noon, and I bixcikfasted 
 early." 
 
 'Tall in !" said the big man ; and so I was marched 
 quickly aside from the road and into the denser 
 thicketing of the wood. Here my captors blind- 
 folded me, and after spinning me around to make 
 me lose the compass points, hurried me away to 
 their encampment which was inland from the stream, 
 though not far^ for I could still hear the distance- 
 minished splashing of the water. 
 
 When the kerchief was pulled from my eyes I 
 was standing in the midst of a mounted riflemen's 
 halt-camp, face to face with a young officer wear- 
 ing the uniform of the colonelcy in the North Caro- 
 lina home troops. He was a handsome young fel- 
 low, with curling hair and trim side-whiskers to 
 frame a face fine-lined and eager — the face of a 
 gentleman well-born and well-bred. 
 
 "Captain Ireton?" he said; by w^hich I guessed 
 that one of my capturers had run on ahead to make 
 report. 
 
 "The same," I replied. 
 
346 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 "And you are the son of Mr. Justice Roger Ire- 
 ton, of Appleby Hundred?" 
 
 "I have that honor." 
 
 He gave me his hand most cordially. 
 
 "You are very welcome, Captain ; Davie is my 
 name. I trust we may come to know each other 
 better. You are in disguise, as I take it ; do you 
 bring news of the army ?" 
 
 "On the contrary, I am thirsting for news," I 
 rejoined. "I and three others have but now re- 
 turned from pursuing a British and Indian powder 
 convoy into the mountains to the w^estward. We 
 have been out five weeks and more." 
 
 He looked at me curiously. "You and three 
 others?" he queried. "Come apart and tell me 
 about it whilst Pompey is broiling the venison. I 
 scent a whole Iliad in that word of yours, Captain 
 Ireton." 
 
 "One thing first, if you please, Colonel Davie," 
 I begged. "My companions are faring forward on 
 the road to Queensborough. They know naught 
 of my detention. Will you send a man to overtake 
 them with a note from me ?" 
 
 The colonel indulged me in the most gentlemanly 
 manner; and when my note to Jennifer was de- 
 spatched we sat together at the roots of a great oak 
 and I told him all that had befallen our little rescue 
 party. He heard me through patiently, and when 
 the tale was ended was good enough to say that I 
 had earned a commission for my part in the affair. 
 
WE MAKE A FORCED MARCH 347 
 
 I laughed and promptly shifted that burden to 
 Ephralm Yeates's shoulders. 
 
 "The old hunter was our general, Colonel Davie. 
 He did all of the planning and the greater part 
 of the executing. But for him and the friendly 
 Catawba, it would have gone hard with Jennifer 
 and me." 
 
 "I fear you are over-modest, Captain,'' was all 
 the reply I got ; and then my kindly host fell amuse. 
 When he spoke again 'twas to give me a resume 
 in brief of the military operations North and South. 
 
 At the North, as his news ran, affairs remained as 
 they had been, save that now the French king had 
 sent an army to supplement the fleet, and Count 
 Rochambeau and the allies were encamped on Rhode 
 Island ready to take the field. 
 
 In the South the distressful situation we had left 
 behind us on that August Sunday following the 
 disastrous battle of Camden was but little changed. 
 General Gates, with the scantiest following, had 
 hastened first to Salisbury and later to Hillsborough, 
 and had since been busy striving to reassemble his 
 scattered forces. 
 
 A few military partizans, like my host, had kept 
 the field, doing what the few might against the 
 many to retard my Lord Comwallis's northward 
 march ; and a week earlier the colonel with his hand- 
 ful of mounted riflemen had dared to oppose his 
 entry into Charlotte. 
 
 'Twas no more than a hint to his Lordship that 
 
 (C f 
 
348 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 we were not afraid of him," said my doughty colo- 
 nel. "You know the town, I take it ?'* 
 
 "Very well, indeed." 
 
 "Well, we had harassed him all the way from 
 Blair's Mill, and 'twas midnight when we reached 
 Charlotte. There we determined to make a stand 
 and give him a taste of our mettle. We dis- 
 mounted, took post behind the stone wall of the 
 court house green and under cover of the fences 
 along the road." 
 
 "Good ! an ambush," said I. 
 
 "Hardly that, since they were looking to have re- 
 sistance. Tarleton was sick, and Major Hanger 
 commanded the British van. He charged, and we 
 peppered them smartly. They tried it again, and 
 this time their infantry outflanked us. We aban- 
 doned the court house and formed again in the 
 eastern edge of the town ; and now, bless you ! 'twas 
 my Lord Charles himself who had to ride forward 
 and flout at his men for their want of enterprise." 
 
 "But you could never hope to hold on against 
 such odds !" I exclaimed. 
 
 "Oh, no ; but we held them for a third charge, 
 and beat them back, too. Then they brought up 
 two more regiments and we mounted and got off 
 in tolerably good order, losing only six men killed. 
 But Colonel Francis Locke was one of these ; and 
 my brave Joe Graham was all but cut to pieces — 
 a sore blow to us just now." 
 
 The colonel sighed and a silence fell upon us. 
 
WE MAKE A FORCED MARCH 349 
 
 'Twas I who broke it to say : "Then we are still 
 playing a losing hand in the South, as I take it ?" 
 
 " 'Tis worse than that. As the game stands we 
 have played all our trumps and have not so much as 
 a long suit left. Cornwallis will go on as he pleases 
 and overrun the state, and the militia will never 
 stand to front him again under Horatio Gates. 
 Worse still, Ferguson is off to the westward, em- 
 bodying the Tories by the hundred, and we shall 
 have burnings and hangings and harryings to the 
 king's taste." 
 
 I nursed my knee a moment and then saidr 
 "What may one man do to help. Colonel Davie ?" 
 
 He looked up quickly. "Much, if 3^ou are thai- 
 man, and you do not value your life too highly, 
 Captain Ireton." 
 
 "You may leave that out of the question," said 
 I. "I shall count it the happiest moment of my life 
 when I shall have done something worth their 
 killing me for." 
 
 Again he gave me that curious look I had noted 
 before. Then he laughed. 
 
 "If you were as young as Major Joe Graham, 
 and had been well crossed in love, I could under- 
 stand you better, Captain. But, jesting aside, 
 there is a thing to do, and you are the man to do it. 
 Our spies are thick in Cornwallis's camp, but what 
 is needed is some master spirit who can plot as 
 well as spy for us. Major Ferguson moves as Corn- 
 wallis pulls the strings. Could we know the major's 
 
350 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 instructions and designs, we might cut him off, 
 bring the Tory uprising to the ground, and so 
 hearten the country beyond measure. I say we 
 might cut him off, though I know not where the 
 men would come from to do it." 
 
 '* Well ?" said I, when he paused. 
 
 "The preliminary is some better information than 
 our spies can give us. Now you have been an 
 officer in the British service, and — " 
 I I smiled. "Truly; and I have the honor, if you 
 please to call it so, of his Lordship's acquaintance. 
 Also, I have that of Colonel Tarleton and the mem- 
 bers of his staff, the same having tried and con- 
 demned me as a spy at Appleby Hundred some few 
 weeks before this chase I have told you of." 
 
 His face fell. "Then, of course, it is out of the 
 question for you to show yourself in Cornwallis's 
 headquarters." 
 
 I rose and buttoned my borrowed coat. 
 
 "On the contrary, Colonel Davie, I am more than 
 ever at your service. Let me have a cut of your 
 venison and a feed for my horse, and I shall be at 
 my Lord's headquarters as soon as the nag can 
 carry me there." 
 
XXXII 
 
 IN WHICH I AM BEDDED IN A GARRET 
 
 " 'Tis a very pretty hazard, Captain Ireton. But 
 can it be brought off successfully, think you ?" 
 
 *'As I have said, it hangs somewhat upon the 
 safety of my portmanteau. If that has come through 
 unseized to Mr. Pettigrew at Charlotte, and I can 
 lay hands on it, 'twill be half the battle." 
 
 "You say you left it behind you at New Berne?" 
 "Yes ; ]\Ir. Carey was to forward it as he could." 
 Colonel Davie had given me bite and sup, and 
 I was ready to take the road. My plan, such as it 
 was, had been determined upon, and to the further- 
 ing of it, the colonel had written me a letter to a 
 friend in the town who might shelter me for a night 
 and make the needed inquiry for my belongings. 
 Also, he had given me another letter, of which more 
 anon, and had pressed upon me a small purse of 
 gold pieces — a treasure rare enough in patriot 
 hands in that impoverished time. 
 
 When all was done, two of my late captors were 
 ordered to set me straight in the road ; and some 
 half-hour past noon I had shaken hands with the 
 
 351 
 
352 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 big fellow in homespun who had been so bent upon 
 hanging me without benefit of clergy, had crossed 
 the river, and was making the first looping in a 
 detour which should bring me into Charlotte from 
 the westward. 
 
 'Twas drawing on toward evening, and I had 
 recrossed the river a mile or more below Appleby 
 Hundred, when I began to meet the outposts of 
 the British army. I was promptly halted by the 
 first of these ; but my borrowed uniform and a ready 
 word or two passed me within the lines as a courier 
 riding post to headquarters from Major Ferguson 
 in the west. 
 
 The lieutenant in command of the first vedette 
 line was not over-curious. He asked me a few ques- 
 tions about the major's plans and dispositions, — 
 questions which, thanks to Colonel Davie's informa- 
 tion, I was able to answer glibly enough, svral- 
 lowed my tale whole, and was so obliging as to give 
 me the password for the night to help me through 
 the inner sentry lines. 
 
 Thus fortified, I rode on boldly, and having the 
 countersign the difficulties vanished. When I was 
 come to town it was well past candle-lighting; and 
 the patrol was out In force. But by dint of using 
 the password freely I made m.y way unhindered to 
 the house of the gentleman to whom Colonel Davie's 
 letter accredited me. 
 
 Here, however, the difficulties began. Though 
 the camp of the army lay just without the town to 
 the southward, the officers were quartered In every 
 
• BEDDED IN A GARRET 353 
 
 house, and that of Colonel Davie's friend was full 
 to overflowing. What was to be done we knew not, 
 but at the last moment my friend's friend thought 
 of an expedient and wrote a note for me whilst I 
 waited, half in hiding, in the outer hall. 
 
 " 'Tis a desperate chance, but these are desperate 
 times," said my would-be helper. "I am sending 
 you to the town house of one of our plantation 
 seigneurs — a man who is fish, flesh or fowl, as his 
 interest demands. I hear he came in to-day to take 
 protection, and there is a chance that he will shelter 
 you for the sake of your red coat and a gold piece 
 or two. But I warn you, you must be what you 
 appear to be — a soldier of the king — and not what 
 this note of Colonel Davie's says you are." 
 
 Seeing a wide field of danger-chances in this 
 haphazarding, I would have asked more about this 
 trimming gentleman to whom I was to be handed 
 on ; but at that moment there came a thundering 
 at the door, and my anxious host was fain to hustle 
 me out through the kitchen as he could, catching up 
 a black boy on the way to be my guide. 
 
 "God speed you," he said at parting. "Make 
 your footing good for the night, if you can, and 
 we'll see what can be done to-morrow. I'll send 
 your portmanteau around in the morning, if so be 
 Mr. Pettigrew has it." 
 
 With that I was out in the night again, turning 
 and doubling after my guide, who seemed to be 
 greatly afeard lest I should come nigh enough to 
 cast an evil eye upon him. 
 
354 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 'Twas but a little distance we had to go, and I 
 had no word out of my black rascal till we reached 
 the door-stone of a familiar mansion but one remove 
 from the corner of the court house green. Here, 
 with a stuttering "D-d-dis de house, Massa," he 
 fled and left me to enter as I could. 
 
 Since the street was busily astir with redcoat 
 officers and men coming and going, and any squad 
 of these might be the questioners to doubt my 
 threadbare courier tale, I lost no time in running 
 up the steps and hammering a peal with the heavy 
 knocker. Through the side-lights I could see that 
 the wide entrance hall was for the moment unoccu- 
 pied ; but at the knocker-lifting I had a flitting 
 glimpse of some one — a little man all in sober black 
 — coming down the stair. There was no immediate 
 answer to my peal, but when I would have knocked 
 again the door was swung back and I stepped 
 quickly within to find myself face to face with — 
 Margery. 
 
 I know not which of the two of us was the more 
 dumbfounded ; but this I do know ; that I was still 
 speechless and fair witless when she swept me a 
 low-dipped curtsy and gave me my greeting. 
 
 'T bid you good evening. Captain Treton," she 
 said, coldly; and then with still more of the frost 
 of unwelcome in her voice: ''To what may we be 
 indebted for this honor ?" 
 
 Now, chilling as these words were, they thrilled 
 me to my finger-tips, for they were the first she had 
 spoken to me since the night of my ofifending in the 
 
BEDDED IN A GARRET 355 
 
 black gorge of the far-off western mountains. None 
 the less, they were blankly unanswerable, and had 
 the door been open I should doubtless have van- 
 ished as I had come. Of all the houses in the town 
 this was surely the last I should have run to for 
 refuge had I known the name of its master ; and it 
 was some upflashing of this thought that helped 
 me find my tongue. 
 
 "I never guessed this was your father's house," 
 I stammered, bowing low to match her curtsy. 
 "I beg you will pardon me, and let me go as I came." 
 
 She laid a hand on the door-knob. "Is — is there 
 any one here whom you would see V she asked ; and 
 now her eyes did not meet mine, and I would think 
 the chill had melted a little. 
 
 "No. I was begging a night's lodging of a friend 
 whose house is full. He sent me here with a note to 
 — ah — ^to your father, as I suppose, though in his 
 haste he did not mention the name." 
 
 She held out her hand. "Give me the letter." 
 
 "Nay," said I ; "that would be but thankless work. 
 Knowing me, your father must needs conceive it 
 his duty to denounce me." 
 
 "Give it me !" she insisted ; this with an impatient 
 little stamp of the foot and an upglance of the com- 
 pelling eyes that would have constrained me to do 
 a far foolisher thing, had she asked it. 
 
 So I gave her the letter and stood aside, hat in 
 hand, while she read it. There were candles in 
 their sconces over the mantel and she moved 
 nearer to have the better light. The soft glow of 
 
356 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 the candles fell upon her shining hair, and upon 
 cheek and brow ; and I could see her bosom rise 
 and fall with the quick-coming breath, and the pulse 
 throbbing in her fair wdiite neck. And with the see- 
 ing I became a fool of love again in very earnest, 
 and was within a hair's breadth of sinking honor 
 and all else in an outpouring of such words as a 
 man may say once to one woman in all the world — 
 and having said them may never unsay them. 
 
 'Twas a most practical little thing she did that 
 saved me from falling headlong into this last ditch 
 of dishonor. Twisting the letter into a spill she 
 stood on tiptoe to light it at one of the candles, 
 saying : " 'Twas a foolish thing to put on paper, 
 and might well hang the writer in such times as 
 these. He says you are a king's man and well 
 known to him, and you are neither." But when the 
 letter was a crisp of blackened paper-ash she turned 
 upon me, and once again the changeful eyes were 
 cold and her words were stranger- formal. 
 
 *'What is it you would have me do, Captain 
 Ireton ?" 
 
 "Nothing," I made haste to say ; "nothing save 
 to believe that I came here unwittingly — and to let 
 
 me go." 
 
 "Where will you go? The town is alive with 
 those who would — who would — " 
 
 "Who would show me scant mercy, you would 
 say. True ; and yet I came hither — to the town, I 
 mean — of my own free will." 
 
 Her mood changed in the pivoting fraction of 
 
BEDDED IN A GARRET 357 
 
 an instant, and now the beautiful eyes were alight 
 and warm and pleadingly eloquent. 
 
 "Oh, why did you come ? Are you — are you what 
 they said you were ?" 
 
 "A spy? If I am, you would scarce expect me 
 to confess it, even to you." 
 
 " 'Tis dishonorable — most dishonorable !" she 
 cried. "I could respect a brave soldier enemy; 
 but a spy — " 
 
 There was a clattering of hoofs in the street and a 
 jingle of sword-scabbards on the door-stone. I 
 wheeled to face the newcomers, determined now to 
 front it boldly as a desperate man at bay. But be- 
 fore the fumbling hands without could find the 
 door-knob ^largery was beside me, all a-flutter in a 
 trembling-fit of excitement. 
 
 "Up the stair, quickly, pour V amour de DieuT 
 she whispered; and we w^ere at the clock landing 
 when the great door opened and some half-dozen 
 king's ofiicers came in. We crouched together be- 
 hind the balustrade till they should pass beyond the 
 sight of us, and in the group I marked a man stout 
 and heavy built, walking full solidly for his two- 
 and-fortv vears. He v^^ore his own hair dressed 
 high in front in the fashion first set for the women 
 by the Grand Alonarque's loose-wife; and as he 
 passed under the candles I saw that it was graying 
 slightly. His face, high-browed, long-nosed, 
 double-chinned,, with the eyes womanish for bigness 
 and marked with brows that might have been pen- 
 ciled by the hair-dresser, I had seen before; but 
 
358 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 lacking- this present sight of it, the orders on his 
 breast would have named him the ranking general 
 of the army in the field — Lord Charles Cornwallis. 
 With all the houses in the town to choose among, I 
 had blundered into this — my Lord's own headquar- 
 ters. 
 
 I had but a passing glimpse of the incoming 
 group, for when it was well beneath the turn of the 
 stair, my lady had me up and running again, driving 
 me on before her to the chamber floor above, along a 
 dimly lighted corridor with many turnings, and so 
 to a cul-de-sac in the same — a doorless passage with 
 a high dormer window in the end and no other ap- 
 parent means of egress. 
 
 Margery had snatched a candle from one of the 
 corridor holders in the flight, and now she bade me 
 sit on the floor and draw my boots. I did it, shame- 
 facedly enough, being but a foul and ragged vaga- 
 bond unfit to have her come anigh me. But I might 
 have spared my blushings for she had turned her 
 back and was opening a secret door in the high 
 wainscot. 
 
 Beyond the door lay a raftered garret half filled 
 with cast-off house lumber and lighted and aired 
 by two high roof windows. Into this she led me, 
 with a finger on her lip for silence. A hum of 
 voices, the clinking of glass, and now and again a 
 hearty soldier laugh told me that my garret was 
 above some living-room of the house. 
 
 While I stood, boots in hand, she found a make- 
 
BEDDED IN A GARRET 359 
 
 shift candlestick and in a trice had spread me a 
 pallet on an ancient oaken settle big enough to 
 serve for a choir stall in a cathedral. 
 
 ''You'll be safe here for the night, if so be you 
 will make no more noise than a rat might make," 
 she whispered. ''Mais, mon Dieu! 'tis a terrible 
 risk. How you will get off in the morning I do not 
 know." 
 
 "Leave that to me," I rejoined. Then I remem- 
 bered the portmanteau and the promise that it 
 should be sent hither. Here was a further compli- 
 cation, and I must needs beg a boon of her. "A 
 black boy will bring my portmanteau in the morn- 
 ing. I have a decent desire to be hanged in clean 
 clothing ; may I beg you to — " 
 
 She made a quick little gesture of impatience; 
 at the further complication, or at my boldness in 
 asking, I knew not which. But her whispered re- 
 ply was of assent, and then she turned to leave me. 
 
 At that a sudden fierce desire to know why she 
 had thus befriended me came to throttle prudence. 
 
 "One more word before you go, Mistress Mar- 
 gery. Will you tell me why you have done this 
 for the man Avho can serve you only by thrusting 
 his neck into the hangman's noose?" 
 
 She was silent for a little space, and I knew not 
 v/hat emotion it was that moved her to turn away 
 and cover her face with her hands. But when she 
 spoke her voice was low and tremulous with pent- 
 up anger, as I thought. 
 
36o THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 "Truly, Captain Ireton, you have done a thing to 
 make me hate you — and myself, as well. But I may 
 not forget my duty, sir." 
 
 And with this cruel word she was gone. 
 
XXXIII 
 
 ^N WHICH I HEAR CHANCEFUL TIDINGS 
 
 f"ou are not to suppose that the hazards of this 
 hiding place in my Lord CornwalHs's headquarters 
 would keep me from sleeping well and soundly. 
 One of the things a soldier learns soonest is to take 
 his rest when and as he can ; and after peering curi- 
 ously into the nooks and corners of my garret to 
 make sure I was alone, I flung myself a-sprawl on 
 the broad settle and was dropping off into forget- 
 fulness when I heard a tapping at the wainscot. 
 
 It fetched me wide awake with a start, and I was 
 up and weaponed instantly — having taken the pre- 
 caution to lay my sword in easy reach before blow- 
 ing out the candle. Groping my way cautiously 
 to the secret door, I crouched and listened. All was 
 silent save for the intermittent clamor of the was- 
 sailers in the room beneath. After waiting a full 
 minute I opened the door and looked without. The 
 high dormer window in the end of the corridor 
 made the darkness something less than visible, and I 
 could see that the passage was empty. But on the 
 floor at my feet was my supper ; a roasted fowl on a; 
 
 361 
 
Z(^2 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 server, hot from the spit, with maize bread and gar- 
 nishings fit for an epicure. 
 
 Since, as an appanage of Appleby Hundred, this 
 was mine own house, and, by consequence, the fowl 
 was mine, I ate as a hungry man should, making no 
 scruple on the score of pride. Nor did I forget to 
 be grateful to my lady ; though when I remembered 
 that this was doubtless but another leaf out of her 
 duty-book, the meat was like to choke me. And it 
 was this thought that made me resolve thrice over 
 to loose her from the onerous burden of me so soon 
 as ever the morning light should come to help me 
 find the way out of my covert prison. 
 
 None the less, for all my fine resolves to be astir 
 and off by daybreak, the sun was shining broadly 
 in at my garret window when I awoke. 
 
 Seeing the sun, I tumbled out of my settle-bed, 
 with a malediction on the sloth that had bound me so 
 fast, and made for the door. But some one had 
 been before me, entering whilst I slept. On a 
 broken chair were a basin and ewer, with soap and 
 towels ; beside the chair was my portmanteau ; and 
 on a deal box, neatly covered with a linen cloth, 
 was my breakfast. 
 
 You, my dears, who have your maid or man to 
 tell you when your bath is ready, and to lay out the 
 fresh, clean garments sweet from the laundering, 
 may wonder that I put away the thought of flight 
 and let the breakfast cool whilst I shaved and 
 washed and scrubbed, and doffed the vagabond and 
 donned the gentleman. I did it; did it leisurely, 
 
CHANCEFUL TIDIXGS 363 
 
 rolling the privilege as a sweet morsel under my 
 tongue. They say the raiment never makes the 
 man ; 'tis a half-truth only. For in his own regard, 
 at least, the man is vagabond or gentleman as he 
 may dress the one part or the other. And I am sure 
 of this ; that when I drew up another of the cast- 
 off chairs to sit at meat, freshly groomed, and clad in 
 the field uniform of a captain of her Apostolic 
 Majesty's Hussars, I was the fitter by many trans- 
 migrations to cope with fate or any other adversary. 
 
 And now, the claims of decency paid in full, and 
 the keen edge of hunger somew^hat dulled, I was 
 free to think of my sweet lady's loving-kindness to 
 one she hated — and to wonder what she would do 
 and be for one she loved. As you would guess, 
 there were dregs of bitterness in that cup ; and I was 
 once again set sharp upon relieving her of the bur- 
 den of me. 
 
 Having my Austrian uniform, I was now ready 
 to move in that venture outlined in part to Colonel 
 Davie ; but to set my plan in action I must first get 
 free of the house unseen by my Lord or any of his 
 suite. How to do this unaided I could not deter- 
 mine ; and, since any fresh blundering would surely 
 breed new trouble for IMargery, I was forced to 
 wait for her return. 
 
 I made sure she would come, if only to be the 
 sooner quit of me ; and so she did, tapping at the 
 Avainscot door whilst I was dallying with the break- 
 fast leavings. 'Twas worth something to see her 
 start of surprise when I opened to her ; but she was 
 
364 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 far too true a lady to be one thing to the unwashed 
 vagabond and another to the gentleman-clad. 
 
 I gave her good morning, and was beginning in 
 some formal fashion to thank her for her thoughtful 
 care, when she cut me short. 
 
 " 'Tis my bounden duty, sir/* she said, twanging 
 once again upon that frayed string. ''You are my 
 guest and my — husband ; though God knows I 
 would you were neither." 
 
 ''Merci, Madame," said I; stung so sharply that 
 the retort would out in spite of everything. "As 
 once before, I am your poor misfortunate pensioner ; 
 but this time you are not less willing to give than I 
 am to receive." 
 
 She gave me a look that I could not fathom, and 
 for a flitting instant I could have sworn there was 
 a mocking smile a-lurk at the back of the beautiful 
 eyes. Then she went straight to the subject-matter 
 of her errand, brushing aside the small passage at 
 arms as if it had not been. 
 
 "You are in a most perilous situation, Captain 
 Ireton ; do you know it ? News of your presence in 
 Charlotte has got abroad, and at this very moment 
 Tarleton's dragoons are making a house-to-house 
 search for you." 
 
 "So; some one has betrayed me?'* 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 "Do you know who it was?" 
 
 She nodded again. 
 
 I considered of it for a little time, and then said : 
 "I must not be taken here. Will your — ah — duty 
 
CHANCEFUL TIDINGS 365 
 
 stretch the length of showing me an unwatched 
 door r 
 
 "There are no doors unwatched. You must stay 
 here till nightfall." 
 
 "Nay, that I will not. Will you tell me who it 
 was set them on?" 
 
 " 'Twas a man you hate — and who hates you 
 heartily in return. He saw you come here last 
 night ; he knows you are here now — or guesses it." 
 
 I had no right to pry into her confidence as a thief 
 would break into a house. But I was loath to fight 
 my battle in the dark if she, or any one, could give 
 me light. 
 
 "His name, if you may give it, Mistress Margery. 
 It may point the way out of this coil." 
 
 " 'Tis Owen Pengarvin. He was here last night 
 when you came." 
 
 Now I remembered the little man in black whom 
 I had seen coming down the stair whilst I knocked 
 at the door. But this left me in a greater maze 
 than ever. 
 
 "If he knows I am here, why does he let them 
 search elsewhere?" 
 
 At this she looked away from me, and I made 
 sure I saw the sweet chin quiver when she spoke. 
 
 "He has reasons of his own ; reasons of — of — " 
 but instead of telling me what they were she broke 
 off to say : "But now you know why all the doors 
 of this house are under guard." 
 
 "Truly," said I; and therewith I fell to pacing 
 up and down the narrow clear-way in the garret, 
 
366 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 striving to see how I might come off with nothing 
 worse than the loss of my burdensome Hfe. 
 
 'Twas easy to guess how this shaveHng lawyer 
 had discomfited me. Forewarned is forearmed in 
 any soldier camp ; and through his blabbing, the plan 
 by which I had hoped to lull resentment and fore- 
 stall suspicion was nipped in the bud. I saw the 
 far-reaching consequences, and was made to know 
 how a trapped rat will turn and fight in sheer des- 
 peration whilst the terrier is shaking him to death. 
 
 When that leaven began to work in me I was fit 
 for the daringest thing that offered ; so I paused to 
 ask if my Lord Cornwallis were yet in the house. 
 
 "He is writing letters in his bed-room," was her 
 
 answer 
 
 If you will show me the way thither I shall be 
 your poor debtor by that much more." 
 
 "I will not — unless you first tell me what you 
 mean to do." She said it firmly, but now I was 
 fronting death and could be as firm as she. 
 
 *Tf you will not show me the way, I shall find it 
 for myself." So much I said ; but as for telling her 
 that I meant to save his Lordship and all the others 
 the trouble of running me down, I could not do that. 
 
 "You are going to give yourself up," she said; 
 and when I would not deny it, she darted before me 
 and set her back against the wainscot door. " 'Tis 
 folly, folly!" she cried. "He would but pull the 
 bell-cord and — " 
 
 "And give the order that Colonel Tarleton's 
 sentence be executed upon me, you would say. Be 
 
CHANCEFUL TIDINGS 367 
 
 it so. But in that event I can at least clear you and 
 your father of any complicity in my hiding." 
 
 "I say you shall not go !" 
 
 What touch of savagery is it in a man that will 
 not suffer him to let a woman, loved or unloved, 
 stand in the last resort against his will? At any 
 other time I would have pleaded with her; would 
 have ended, mayhap, by weakly deferring to her 
 wish. But now — well, you must remember, my 
 dears, that I was the trapped rat. I took her gently 
 in my arms, set her aside, and stepped out into the 
 corridor. 
 
 I looked for nothing less than a volcano-burst of 
 righteous indignation to pay me out for this piece 
 of tyranny. But now, as twice or thrice before, my 
 lady showed me how little a man may know of a 
 woman's moods. 
 
 "You need not be so masterful rough with me," 
 she said, with a pouting of the sweet lips that set 
 me back upon that thought of a wayward child 
 wanting to be kissed. ''If you say I must, I am in 
 duty bound to show you the way." And so she led 
 on and I followed, in a deeper maze than any she 
 had ever set me in. 
 
 Arrived at a pair of doors in the main passage, 
 she showed me the one that opened to my Lord's 
 bed-chamber and ran away ; ran with her hands to 
 her face as if to shut out a sight which would not 
 bear looking upon. 
 
 I turned my back stiffly upon this newer wonder, 
 pulled myself together and rapped on the door. A 
 
368 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 voice within bade me enter; the door opened 
 under my hand and I stood in the presence of the 
 man who, as I made no doubt, would shortly sum- 
 mon his guards and have me out to my rope and 
 tree. 
 
XXXIV 
 
 HOW I MET K GREAT LORD AS MAN TO MAN 
 
 The room in which I found myself was the guest- 
 chamber, furnished luxuriously, for that day and 
 place, in French-fashioned mahogany and gilt. The 
 bed was high and richly canopied, as befitted a 
 peer's resting place ; there was a square of Turkish 
 drugget on the floor, a cheerful fire burning in the 
 chimney arch, and on the small table whereat the 
 occupant of the guest-room had lately breakfasted, 
 a goodly display of the Ireton silver. 
 
 My Lord was busy at his writing-desk when I 
 entered ; but when he looked up I saw the light of 
 instant recognition in his eye. Never, I think, did 
 another prisoner at the bar strive harder to read his 
 sentence in his judge's eyes than I did in that mo- 
 ment of suspense. I liked not much the look he 
 gave me; but his greeting was affable and kindly 
 enough. 
 
 ''Ah, Captain Ireton ; 'tis you, is it ? We are 
 well met, at last. They told me you were gone to 
 join the rebels, did they not?" 
 
 Here was an opening for a bold man, and in a 
 
 369 
 
370 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 flash I came to the right-about, choked down the 
 defiance I had meant to hurl at him, and took quick 
 counsel of cool audacity. 
 
 "Indeed, my Lord, I know not what they have 
 told you. In times past, the king had no truer 
 soldier than I ; and when I came across seas 'twas 
 not to fight against him. But that I have not joined 
 the rebels is no fault of certain of your Lordship's 
 officers." 
 
 "Say you so? But how is this ? Surely I am not 
 mistaken. I could be certain Colonel Tarleton re- 
 ported your taking as a spy, and his trying of you. 
 And was there not something about a rescue at the 
 last moment by a band of these border bravos? 
 But stay; let us have the colonel's story at first 
 hands. Have the goodness to ring the bell for me, 
 will you, Captain?" 
 
 The crisis was come. A pull at the bell-cord 
 would summon the guard, and the guard would be 
 sent after Colonel Tarleton. Well, said the demon 
 Despair, 'tis time you were gone to make room for 
 Richard Jennifer; and I laid a hand upon the tas- 
 seled rope. But when I w^ould have rung, all the 
 man-pride, of race and of soldier training, rose up to 
 bid me fight for space to strike one good blow in 
 freedom's cause by way of leave-taking. 
 
 So, as it had been an afterthought, I said: "A 
 
 word further with you first, my Lord, and then, i£ 
 
 you please, I will call the guard. All you remember 
 
 is true, save as to the principal fact. So far from 
 being a spy in intent, or even a partizan of either 
 
A GREAT LORD AS MAN TO MAN 371 
 
 side, I was at the time but newly come into the 
 province, knowing Httle of the cause of quarrel and 
 caring still less. But Captain Falconnet and Colonel 
 Tarleton did their earnest best to make a rebel of 
 me out of hand." 
 
 "Ah ? But the proof of all this. Captain Ireton." 
 
 "The best I can offer is the present fact of my 
 coming to place myself at your Lordship's disposal, 
 being moved thereto by your Lordship's own desire 
 expressed in an order sent some weeks since to Sir 
 Francis Falconnet." 
 
 "So ? — ^then you knew of that order ?" 
 
 "Captain Falconnet showed it to me after I 
 was condemned and the firing squad was drawn 
 up to snuff me out." 
 
 My Lord Charles gave me the courtier smile that 
 so endeared him to his soldiers, — he was well-loved 
 of his men, — and bade me sit. 
 
 "The plot thickens, as Mr. Richardson would 
 say. Let me have your story, Captain Ireton. I 
 would rejoice to know why Captain Sir Francis 
 Falconnet saw fit to disobey his orders." 
 
 I was clear of the lee shore and the breakers at 
 last, but I was fain to believe that not Machiavelli 
 himself could hope to weather the storm in the open. 
 How much or how little did Lord Cornwallis re- 
 member of Colonel Tarleton's report? How ex- 
 plicit had that report been? — was there any men- 
 tion in it of my eavesdropping at the conference 
 between Captain John Stuart and the baronet; of 
 my attempt to warn the over-mountain men against 
 
372 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 the Indian-arming? Could I hope to tell his Lord- 
 ship a tale so near the truth as to be unassailable 
 by Tarleton and his officers, by Gilbert Stair and the 
 spiteful little pettifogger, and yet so deftly garbled 
 as to keep my neck out of the halter for the time 
 being ? 
 
 All these questions thronged upon me as a mob 
 to pull cool reason from her seat, and I could only 
 play the part of the trapped rat and snap back at 
 them. Yet my Lord Cornwallis was waiting for 
 his answer, and a single moment's hesitation might 
 breed suspicion. 
 
 You must forgive me, my dears, if I confess it 
 beyond me to set down here in measured words the 
 tale I told his Lordship. A lie is a lie, be it told in 
 never so good a cause ; a thing deplorable and not 
 to be glozed over or boasted of after the fact. So 
 I beg 3'OU to let these quibblings to which I was 
 driven rest in oblivion, figuring to yourselves that 
 I used all the truth I dared, and that I strove 
 through it all not wholly to sink the gentleman and 
 the man of honor in the spy. 
 
 'TvN^as but a bridge of glass when all was said ; 
 a bridge that carried m.e safely over for the moment 
 into my Lord's confidence, yet one which a pebble 
 flung by any one of a dozen hands might shiver in 
 the dropping of an eyelid. 
 
 "Truly, you have had a most romantic experi- 
 ence," said his Lordship, when I had made an end. 
 Then he lay back in his chair and laughed till the 
 stout body of him shook again. "And all about a 
 
A GREAT LORD AS MAN TO MAN 373 
 
 little wench of the provincials. Well, well; Sir 
 Francis was always a sad dog with the \vomen. 
 But all this was in the early summer, you say ; 
 where have you been since?" 
 
 Here was a chance for more romancing-, this time 
 of a sort less dangerous. So I drew breath and 
 plunged again, telling how I had been carried off 
 by m}^ captor-rescuers ; how I had fallen into the 
 hands of the Indians — not all of whom, I would 
 remind his Lordship, Avere friendly to the king; 
 and lastly how I had but lately escaped from the 
 mountain fastnesses back of Major Ferguson's 
 camp at Gilbert Town. At this point my Lord in- 
 terrupted the tale-telling. 
 
 ''So you know of the major and his doings? I 
 would you had brought me late news of him. 'Tis 
 a week since his last courier reached us." 
 
 This was the moment for the playing of my trump 
 card — the only one I held. I rose, bowed, took from 
 my pocket that other letter given me by Colonel 
 Davie and handed it to his Lordship. 'Twas Major 
 Ferguson's last report, intercepted by one of Davie's 
 vigilant scouting parties. 
 
 *'Ah !" said my Lord ; and I strolled to the window 
 whilst he read the letter. 
 
 When I turned to front him again he w^as all 
 affability ; and I knew I was safe — for the time, at 
 least. 
 
 "The major commends you highly as a good man 
 and a true, Captain Ireton," he said, and truly the 
 letter did contain a warm-hearted commendation of 
 
374 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 *'the bearer," whose name, for safety's sake, was 
 omitted ; and not only this, but the writer desired 
 to have his man back again. Then my Lord 
 added : ''You are here to take your old service 
 again, I assume?" 
 
 I hesitated. There be things that even a spy 
 may balk at ; and the taking of the oath of allegi- 
 ance to the other side I conceived to be one of 
 them. So I said : 
 
 "I have worn many uniforms since I doffed that 
 of King George, my Lord, and — " 
 
 He laughed cheerily. " 'But me no buts,' Captain 
 Ireton ; once an Englishman, always an English- 
 man, you know. I shall assign you to duty in my 
 own family." 
 
 At this I made a bold stroke. "Let it be then as 
 an officer of her Apostolic ]\Iajesty's service, and 
 your Lordship's guest for the time. Believe me, 
 it is thus I may best serve your — ah — the cause." 
 
 "As how ?" he would ask. 
 ; I smiled and touched the braided jacket of my 
 hussar uniform. 
 
 ' "As an Austrian officer on a tour of observation 
 in the campaign I may go and come where others 
 may not, and see and hear things which your Lord- 
 ship may wish to know. Does your Lordship take 
 me?" 
 
 He laughed and rose and clapped me on the 
 shoulder. 
 
 "You may call the guard now, Captain, and I 
 will turn you over — not to a firing squad, but to 
 
A GREAT LORD AS MAN TO MAN 375 
 
 the tender mercies of our old rascal host who is 
 a 'trimmer" of the devil's own school. If he tries 
 to screw a penny's pay out of you, as he is like to, 
 put him in arrest." 
 
 "It is your Lordship's meaning that I should be 
 quartered here? — in this house?" I gasped. 
 
 "And why not? Ah, my good Captain of Hus- 
 sars, I have made you my honorary aide-de-camp 
 and a member of my family so that I may keep an 
 eye on you. Comprenez-voiisf 
 
 He said it with a laugh and another hearty 
 hand-clap on my shoulder, and I would fain take 
 it for a jest. Yet there be playful gibes that hint 
 at gibbets ; and I may confess to you here, my dears, 
 that I left my Lord's presence with the conviction 
 that my acquittal was but a reprieve conditioned 
 upon the best of future good behavior. So it took 
 another turn of the audacity screw to tune me up 
 for the battle royal with Gilbert Stair and the petti- 
 fogger, Owen Pengarvin. 
 
XXXV 
 
 IN WHICH I FIGHT THE DEVIL WITH FIRE 
 
 With the house guard for a guide I found my 
 host in a box-Hke den below stairs ; a room with a 
 writing-table, two chairs and a great iron strong- 
 box for its scanty furnishings. 
 
 The old man was sitting at the table when I 
 looked in, his long nose buried in a musty parchment 
 deed. The light from the single small window 
 was none too good, but it sufficed to help him rec- 
 ognize me at a glance, despite the hussar uniform. 
 In a twinkling he put the breadth of the oaken table 
 between us, hurled the parchment deed into the 
 open strong-box, slammed to the cover and gave 
 a shrill alarm. 
 
 *'Ho! you devils without, there! Here he Is — I 
 have him ! Help ! Murder !" 
 
 The guard, a burly, bearded Darmstadter, turned 
 on his heel and stood at attention in the doorway, 
 looking stolidly for his orders, not to the shrilling 
 master of the house^ but to the man who wore a 
 uniform. 
 
 'Tis naught," I said, speaking in German. "He 
 
 376 
 
 a J' 
 
I FIGHT THE DEVIL WITH FIRE 377 
 
 mistakes me for a rittmeister of the rebels. Ver- 
 stehen Sief" 
 
 The soldier saluted, wheeled and vanished ; and I 
 sat down to wait till the old man's outcry should 
 pause for lack of breath. When my chance came, 
 I said: 
 
 "Calm yourself, ]\Ir. Stair. You are in no pres- 
 ent danger greater than that which you may bring 
 upon yourself. Blot out all the past, if you please, 
 and consider me now as a member of Lord Corn- 
 wallis's military family seeking quarters in your 
 house by my Lord's express command." 
 
 ''Quarters in my house? — ^ye're a damned rebel 
 spy !" he cried. "Fll denounce ye to my Lord for 
 what ye are. Ho ! ye rascals, I say !" 
 
 "Peace!" I commanded, sternly; "this is but 
 child's folly. No man in the British army would 
 arrest me at your behest. Ring the bell and sum- 
 mon your factor lawyer. I would have a word or 
 two in private with both of you." 
 
 He dropped into a chair, and I could see the 
 sweat standing in great beads on his wrinkled fore- 
 head. 
 
 "D' ye — d' ye mean to kill us both?" he gasped. 
 
 "Not if I can help it. But some better under- 
 standing is needful, and we will have it here and 
 now, once for all. Will you ring, or shall I ?" 
 
 He made no move to reach the bell-cord, and I 
 rang for him. A grinning black boy came to the 
 door, and seeing that Mr. Gilbert Stair was beyond 
 giving the order, I gave it myself. 
 
378 THE IMASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 "Find Master Pengarvin and send him here 
 quickly. Tell him J\Ir. Stair wants him." 
 
 There was a short interval of waiting and then 
 the lawyer came. Being but a little wisp of a man, 
 all malignance and no courage, he w^ould have fled 
 when he saw me. But I caught him by the collar 
 and sent him scurrying around the table to keep his 
 master company. 
 
 ''Now, then; how much or how little have you 
 two blabbed of the doings at Appleby Hundred some 
 weeks since?" I demanded. ''Speak out, and 
 quickly." 
 
 'Twas the lawyer who obeyed, and now he was 
 the trapped rat to snap blindly in despair. 
 
 "You will hang higher than Haman when the 
 dragoons find you," he gritted out. 
 
 "On your information ?" 
 
 "On mine and Mr. Stair's." 
 
 "Ye lie !" shrieked the miser. "I tell't ye to keep 
 hands off, ye bletherin' little deevil, ye !" 
 
 "Never mind," said I ; "what's done is done. But 
 it must be undone, and that swiftly and thoroughly. 
 Lie out of it to Colonel Tarleton and the others as 
 you will; Captain John Stuart and the baronet are 
 not here to contradict you, and you are the only 
 witnesses. Knock together some story that will 
 hold water and lose no time about it. Do you 
 understand ?" 
 
 Seeing he was not to be put to the wall and 
 spitted on the spot, the lawyer recovered himself. 
 
 "'Tis not the criminal at the bar who dictates 
 
I FIGHT THE DEVIL WITH FIRE 379 
 
 terms, Captain Ireton," he said, with his hateful 
 smirk. *'You are under sentence of death, and that 
 by a court lawful enough in war time." 
 
 "You refuse ?" I said. 
 
 He shrugged. 
 
 ''Speaking for myself, I shall leave no stone un- 
 turned to bring you to book, Captain, — when it 
 suits my purpose." 
 
 I was loath to go to extremities with either of 
 them ; but my bridge of glass must be defended at 
 all hazards. 
 
 "You would best reconsider, Mr. Pengarvln. At 
 this present moment I am of my Lord Cornwallis's 
 military family and I have his confidence. A word 
 from me will put you both in arrest as persons 
 whose loyalty in times past has been somewhat 
 more than blown upon." 
 
 "Bah!" said the pettifogger. "Bluster is a good 
 dog, but Holdfast is the better. You can prove 
 nothing, as you w^ell know. Moreover, with your 
 own neck in a noose you dare not mess and meddle 
 with other men's affairs." 
 
 "Dare not, you say? I'll tell you what I may 
 dare. Master Attorney. If you are not disposed to 
 meet me half way in this matter, I shall go to my 
 Lord, tell him how I have been cheated out of my 
 estate, declare the marriage with Mistress Margery, 
 and see that you get your just deserts. And you 
 may rest assured that this soldier-earl will right 
 me, come what may." 
 
 'Twas a bold stroke, the boldest of any I had made 
 
38o THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 that morning; but I was wholly unprepared for its 
 effect upon the lawyer. His rage was like that of 
 some venomous little animal, a thing to make an on- 
 looker shudder and draw back. 
 
 "Never!" he hissed; "never, I say! I'll kill her 
 first — I'll — " He choked in the very exuberance 
 of his malignance, and his face was like the face of 
 a man in a fit. 
 
 'Twas then that I saw the pointing of his villainy 
 and knew what Margery had meant when she said 
 that for reasons of his own he was holding my 
 betrayal in abeyance. He was Falconnet's suc- 
 cessor and my rival. This little reptile aspired to 
 be the master of my father's acres and the husband 
 of my dear lady! And his holding off from de- 
 nouncing me at once was also explained. Taking it 
 for granted that the wife would bargain for the hus- 
 band's life, he had made a whip of his leniency to 
 flog Margery into subjection. 
 
 ' My determination was taken upon the instant. 
 There was no safety for Margery whilst this plot- 
 ting pettifogger was at large, and I stepped to the 
 door and called the sentry. The Darmstadter came 
 back and I pointed to the lawyer. Then, indeed, 
 the furious little madman found his tongue and 
 shrilled out his defiance. 
 
 "Curse you!" he yelled. "I'll be quits with you 
 for this, Master Spy! 'Tis your hearing now, but 
 mine will come, and you shall hang like a dog! 
 I'll follow you to the ends of the earth — I'll — " 
 
 I made a sign and the soldier brought his musket 
 
I FIGHT THE DEVIL WITH FIRE 381 
 
 into play and pricked his prisoner with the bayonet 
 in token that time pressed. So we were rid of the 
 lawyer in bodily presence, though I could hear his 
 snarlings and spittings as the big Darmstadter raa 
 him out at the bayonet's point. 
 
 During this tilt between his factor and me, Mr. 
 Gilbert Stair had stood apart, watchful but trem- 
 bling. When we were alone I said : 
 
 "Now, Mr. Stair, I shall trouble you to billet me 
 somewhere in your house, as a member of my 
 Lord's family. Lead on, if you please, and I'll fol- 
 low.'' 
 
 He went before me without a word, out of the 
 little den and up the broad stair, doddering like a 
 man grown ten years older in a breath, and catch- 
 ing at the balustrade to steady himself as we as- 
 cended. The room he gave me was at an angle In 
 one of the crookings of the corridor, and pointing 
 me to the door he went pottering away, still without 
 a word or a look behind him. 
 
 The door was on the latch, but it gave reluctantly, 
 letting me in suddenly when I set my shoulder to 
 it. There was a quick little cry, half of anger, half 
 of affright, from within. I drew back hastily, with 
 a muttered curse upon the old man's spite, and in 
 the act my spur caught the door and slammed it shut 
 behind me. 
 
 For reasons known only to Omniscience and to 
 himself, Gilbert Stair had shown me to my lady's 
 chamber ; she was standing, with her bodice off, be- 
 fore the oval mirror on the high dressing case. 
 
XXXVI 
 
 HOW I RODE POST ON THE KINO's BUSINESS 
 
 If a look might be a leven-stroke to do a man to 
 death, I warrant you my lady's flashing eyes would 
 have crisped me to a cinder where I stood fumbling 
 with one hand behind me for the latch of the 
 slammed door. Scorn, indignation, outraged 
 maiden modesty, all these thrust at me like air- 
 drawn daggers ; and it needed not her, "Fie, for 
 shame, Captain Ireton! — and you would call your- 
 self a gentleman !" to set me afire with prinklings 
 of abashment. 
 
 What could I say or do? The accursed door- 
 latch would not find itself to let me fly ; and as for 
 excusings, I could not tell her that her own father 
 had thrust me thus upon her. Yet, had she let me 
 be, I hope I should have had the wit to find the 
 door fastening and the grace to run away ; in truth, 
 I had the latch in hand when she lashed out at me 
 again, and my tingling shame began to give place to 
 that master-devil of passion which is never more 
 than half whipped into subjection in the best of us. 
 
 382 
 
I RODE POST FOR THE KING 383 
 
 "How are you better than the man you warned 
 me of ?'' she cried. And then, in a tempest of grief : 
 "Oh ! you would not leave me the respect I bore 
 you ; you must even rob me of that to fling it down 
 and trample it under foot !" 
 
 Figure to yourselves, my dears, that I w^as wholly 
 blameless in this unhappy breaking and entering, 
 and so, mayhap, you may find excuse for me. For 
 now, jthough I could have gone, I would not. Her 
 glorious beauty, heightened beyond compare by the 
 passionate outburst, held me spellbound. And at 
 my ear the master-devil whispered: She is your 
 wedded wife; yours for better or worse, till death 
 part you. Who has a better right to look upon her 
 thus? 
 
 So it was that the love-madness came upon me 
 again, and that thin veneering wherewith the Chris- 
 tian centuries have so painfully overlaid the natural 
 man in us was cracked and riven, and the barbarian 
 which lies but skin-deep underneath bestirred him- 
 self and winked and blinked himself awake in 
 giant might, as did the primal man when he rose 
 up to look about him for his mate. 
 
 Before I knew what I would do, I was beside her, 
 and honor, or what may stand therefor betwixt a 
 man and his friend, was flung away. But when 
 I would have crushed her sweetness in my arms 
 she went upon her knees to me. . . Ah, God ! 
 she knelt to me as she had knelt to that other would- 
 be ravisher and begged me for mine own honor's 
 sake to bethink me of what I would do. 
 
384 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 ''Oh, Monsieur John ! be merciful as you are 
 strong!" she pleaded. "Think what it will mean 
 to you, and how you will loathe me and yourself 
 as well when this madness is overpast ! Oh, go ; 
 go quickly, lest I, too, forget — '* 
 
 And so it was that I found sudden strength to 
 turn and leave her kneeling there ; turned to grope 
 blindly for the door with all the pains of hell aflame 
 within me. 
 
 For now I had put honor under foot ; now I 
 knew that I had truly earned her scorn and loath- 
 ing. I could no longer plead that I was the puppet 
 of fate flung against my will between this maiden 
 and my dear lad. I was the wilful offender ; false to 
 my love, false to my friend, a recreant to every oath 
 wherewith I had bound myself to be true and loyal 
 to these two. 
 
 With such a flaming sword to drive me forth, I 
 stumbled from the room, thinking only how I should 
 quickest rid me of myself. Hastening to my garret 
 sleeping-place I buckled on my sword, found my 
 shako, and went straight to my Lord's bed-chamber. 
 My rap at the door went unanswered, and a broad- 
 shouldered young fellow in a lieutenant's uniform, 
 lounging on a settle in the clock landing of the 
 stair, told me Lord Cornwallis was gone out. 
 
 I was face to face with this young lieutenant 
 before I recognized him ; being so bent upon haste 
 I should have passed him on the landing without 
 a second glance had he not risen to grip me by the 
 'shoulders. 
 
I RODE POST FOR THE KING 385 
 
 "By the Lord Harry !" he cried, "is it thus you 
 pass an old friend without a word, Captain Ireton ?'^ 
 
 'Twas my good death-watch ; that Lieutenant Ty- 
 bee of the Hght-horse who had sunk the British of- 
 ficer in the man in that trying night at Appleby Hun- 
 dred. I returned his hearty greeting as well as I 
 might, and would have explained my present state 
 and standing but that I was loath to lie to him. But 
 as to this, he saved me the shame of it. 
 
 "I could have sworn you were no rebel. Captain 
 Ireton ; indeed, I made bold to say as much to our 
 colonel, after it was all over. I told him a soft 
 word or two would have won you back to your old 
 service. You see I knew better than the others 
 what lay beneath all your madnesses that night." 
 
 "You knew somewhat, but not all," I said ; and 
 thereupon, lest he should involve me deeper and 
 detain me longer when I was athirst to be gone, 
 I hastened to ask where I might hope to find his 
 Lordship and Colonel Tarleton. 
 
 " 'Tis the hour for parade; you will find them at 
 the camp," he replied. And then, out of the honest 
 English heart of him : "Have you made your peace, 
 Captain? Do you need a friend to go with you?" 
 
 I said I had been granted a hearing by Lord Corn- 
 wallis but a little while before; that by my Lord's 
 appointment I was now a sort of honorary aide-de- 
 camp. 
 
 "Good!" said the lieutenant, gripping my hand 
 in a way to make me wince for the lie-in-efifect hid- 
 den in the simple statement of fact. Then he 
 
386 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 roared at the soldier standing guard at the house 
 door below: "A mount for Captain Ireton — and 
 be swift about it !" 
 
 He held me in talk till the horse was fetched, 
 happily doing most of the talking himself, and when 
 I was in the saddle gave me a hearty God-speed. Be- 
 ing so sick with self-despisings, I fear I made but 
 a poor return for all this good comradeship ; but at 
 the time I could think of nothing but the hell that 
 flamed within me, and of how I could soonest 
 quench the fires of it. 
 
 ' The town, which I had not seen since early sum- 
 mer, was but little changed by the British occupa- 
 tion, save in the livening of it by the near-at-hand 
 camp of an armed host. Being but a halt-point en 
 route in the northward march, it was not fortified ; 
 indeed, for the matter of that, the camp proper was 
 a little way without the town, as I have said. 
 
 I rode slowly across the common, skirting the 
 commissary's quarters and making mental notes of 
 all I saw ; this from soldier habit solely, for at the 
 time I had little thought of living on to make a 
 spy's use of them. Arrived at the parade ground, 
 I found my Lord galloping through the lines on 
 inspection, and so I must draw rein in the back- 
 ground and wait my opportunity. 
 
 The pause gave space for some eye-sweep of 
 the scene, and all the soldier blood in me was 
 stirred by the sight, the first I had had in many 
 a day, of a well-ordered army, fit, disciplined, ma- 
 
I RODE POST FOR THE KING 387 
 
 chine-drilled to move like the parts of a wondrous 
 mechanism. 
 
 At the back of Lord Cornwallis and his gallop- 
 ing suite, Tarleton's famous light-horse legion was 
 drawn up ; and fronting it was the infantry, rank 
 on rank, the glittering bayonets slanting in the 
 October sunlight as the regiments moved into place, 
 or standing in rigid groves of steel at the command 
 to halt and port arms. 
 
 What was there in all our poor raw land to stand 
 against this well-trained host, armed — as we were 
 not— with the deadly bayonet, and moving as one 
 man at the word of command? Not the bravest 
 home guard or militia troop, I thought ; and this 
 seeing of what he had had to front on the field of 
 Camden made me think less scornfully of Horatio 
 Gates. 
 
 Riding presently around the field to be the nearer 
 to the general when my time should come, I missed 
 the mark completely. It so chanced that as the 
 parade was ended my Lord and his suite were at 
 the extreme right; and when the regiments broke 
 ranks I was forced to skirt the entire camp to come 
 into the road. By this time those I sought were 
 gone into the town, so I must needs turn about 
 and follow, with the thing I had to say still un- 
 spoken. 
 
 I need not drag you back and forth with me on 
 the search I made to find Lord Cornwallis again. 
 'Tis enough to say that after missing him here and 
 
388 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 there, I ran him to earth at the court house, where, 
 it was told me, my Lord was sitting in council with 
 his staff officers. 
 
 Thinking it worse than useless to try to force my 
 way into the council chamber, I waited in the raff 
 of soldiery without, cursing the delay which gave 
 my despairing resolution time to cool. When I had 
 closed the door of my dear lady's chamber behind me 
 I was resolved to fling myself upon that fate whicK 
 needed but a word from me to make my calling and 
 election to a gibbet swift and sure. Had I found 
 my Lord Comwallis in his bed-room the word would 
 have been spoken ; but now the iron of resolution 
 cooled in spite of me. 
 
 'Twas not that I was less willing to pay tlie price 
 of expiation ; that must be done in any case. But 
 I had seen the enemy, and all the soldier in me re- 
 belled at the thought of dying like a noosed bullock 
 in the shambles. Could I but strike that one good 
 blow — 
 
 The old court house of our greater Mecklenburg 
 was such as some of you may remember ; a stout 
 wooden building raised upon brick pillars to leave 
 a story underneath. In the time of the British 
 occupation this lower story served as a market 
 house, and the public entrance to the court room 
 above was reached by steps on the outside. In my 
 boyhood days this outer stair was the only one; 
 but now in wandering aimlessly throusrh the mar- 
 ket-place beneath I found another flight in a cor- 
 ner; the "jury stair," they called it, since it pro- 
 
I RODE POST FOR THE KING 389 
 
 vided the means of egress from the jury box 
 above. 
 
 The sight of this inner stair set me plotting. 
 Could I make use of it to come unseen into the 
 council chamber of Lord Cornwallis and his of- 
 ficers ? 
 
 The market-place was well thronged with venders 
 and soldier buyers ; the patriotic Mecklenburgers 
 were not averse to the turning of an honest penny 
 upon the needs of their oppressors, as it seemed. I 
 watched my chance, and when there were no prying 
 eyes to mark it, made the dash up the steps. 
 
 Happily for the success of the adventure there 
 was an angle in the narrow stair to hide me whilst 
 I lifted the trap door in the court-room floor a scant 
 half-inch and got my bearings. As I had hoped, 
 the trap opened behind the jury box, and I was able 
 to raise it cautiously and so to draw myself up into 
 the room above, unseen and unheard. 
 
 A peep around the corner of the high jury stalls 
 showed me my Lord and his suite gathered about the 
 lawyers' table in front of the bar. Of the staff I 
 recognized only Stedman, the commissary-general ; 
 Tarleton, looking something the worse for his late 
 illness ; Major Hanger, his second in command, 
 and the young Irishman, Lord Rawdon. 
 
 At the moment of my espial, Cornwallis was speak- 
 ing, and I drew back to listen, well enough content 
 to be in earshot. For if my good angel had timed 
 my coming I could not have arrived at a more op- 
 portune moment. 
 
390 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 ''What we have to consider now is how best to 
 reach Ferguson with an express instantly," his 
 Lordship was saying. "This rising of the over- 
 mountain men is hkely to prove a serious matter — 
 not only for the major, but for the king's cause 
 in the two provinces. Lacking positive orders to 
 the contrary, Ferguson will fight — we all know that ; 
 and if he should be defeated 'twill hopelessly undo 
 his work among the border loyalists and set us back 
 another twelvemonth." 
 
 "Then your Lordship will order him to come in 
 with what he has?" said a voice which I knew for 
 Colonel Tarleton's. 
 
 "Instanter, had I a sure man to send." 
 
 "Pshaw! I can find you a hundred amongst tHe 
 late royalist recruits." 'Twas young Lord Rawdon 
 who said this. 
 
 "Damn them!" said his Lordship shortly; "I 
 would sooner trust this new aide of mine. He 
 comes straight from the major and can find his way 
 back again." 
 
 Tarleton laughed. "I fear we shall never agree 
 upon him, my Lord. I know not how he has made 
 his peace with you, but I do assure you he is as great 
 a rascal as ever went unhung, 'Tis true, as you say, 
 I did not go into the particulars ; but were Captain 
 Stuart or Sir Francis Falconnet here, either of 
 them would convince your Lordship in a twinkling." 
 
 There was silence for a little space following the 
 colonel's denunciation of me, and then my Lord 
 broke it to say : "I may not be so credulous as you 
 
I RODE POST FOR THE KING 391 
 
 think, Colonel. Rebel spy or true-blue loyalist, he 
 is safe enough for the present. In the meantime 
 in this matter of reaching Ferguson we may make 
 good use of him." 
 
 *Tn what manner, your Lordship?" asked one 
 whose voice I did not recognize. 
 
 "He has come straight from Major Ferguson, as 
 I say ; and, loyalist or rebel, he can find his way back 
 to Gilbert Town." 
 
 "But you'll never be trusting him with de- 
 spatches !" said Lord Rawdon. 
 
 "There is no need to trust him. He can be given 
 the despatches with some hint of their purport, and 
 of how much the king's cause will profit by their 
 safe delivery." 
 
 Again a silence fell upon the group around the 
 lawyers' table^ and then some one — 'twas Major 
 Hanger, as I thought — said : " 'Tis an unread rid- 
 dle for me as yet, my Lord." 
 
 Cornwallis laughed. "Where are your wits this 
 morning, gentlemen? If he be loyal and true, the 
 despatches will go safe enough. If, on the other 
 hand, he be a rebel and a spy, he will doubtless 
 tamper with them ; but in that case he will none 
 the less ride straight enough to i\Iajor Ferguson's 
 headquarters in the West." 
 
 "H'm ; your Lordship is still too deep for me," 
 said Tarleton's second in command. "If he be a 
 rebel and a spy, why, in God's name, should he carry 
 your Lordship's letters to any but some rag-tag 
 colonel of his own kidney?" 
 
392 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 My Lord laughed again. "Truly, Major, you 
 should go to a dame's school and learn diplomacy. 
 If we tell him beforehand what our object is, how 
 could any rebel of them all defeat it more surely 
 than by going to Ferguson with a garbled message 
 that would make him stand and fight a losing bat- 
 tle ?" 
 
 "But, my Lord — the risk !" cut in the commissary- 
 general. 
 
 "There need be none. An hour after he sets out 
 we shall send a mounted detail after him with an 
 Indian tracker to nose out his trail. The lieutenant 
 in command will carry duplicate despatches. At 
 the worst, Ireton will guide these followers to Fer- 
 guson's rendezvous ; and, so far as we know, he is 
 the only man who knows exactly where to find the 
 major." 
 
 1 had heard enough. Under cover of the chorus 
 of bravos raised by Lord Cornwallis's explication of 
 his plot within a plot, I lifted the trap-door and 
 made my exit as noiselessly as I had come. 
 
 Guessing that no time would be lost in putting 
 the plan into action, I made haste to be found 
 inquiring hither and yon for the commander-in- 
 chief when my Lord and his suite came down the 
 outer stair; and when we were met I was quickly 
 told of my assignment to courier duty. 
 
 "Make your preparations to take the road within 
 the hour, and report to me at Friend Stair's," said 
 my Lord, most aflrably. "We shall put your new- 
 found loyalty to the test, Captain Ireton, by entrust- 
 
I RODE POST FOR THE KING 393 
 
 ing you with a most important mission. Go with 
 the commissary-general and he will find you your 
 mount and equipment." 
 
 Thus dismissed, I went with Stedman, and was 
 accorded a more gentlemanly welcome than my 
 overhearings had given me leave to expect. 
 
 On the way to the horse paddock the commissary- 
 general told me of his plan to write a history of 
 the campaign ; a bit of confidence which set me 
 laughing inwardly and wondering if he would put 
 one John Ireton, sometime of the Scots Blues, and 
 late captain in her Apostolic Majesty's Hussars, be- 
 tween the covers of his book. 'Tis small wonder 
 that he did not. I have since had the pleasure of 
 reading his history of the great war, and I find it 
 curiously lacking in those incidents which did not 
 redound to the honor and glory of the king's cause 
 and army in the field. 
 
 Not to digTess,however, my makeshift mount was 
 soon exchanged for a better ; I was allowed to draw 
 what I would of accoutrements and provender from 
 the king's stores ; and so, to cut it short, I was 
 presently at the door of my Lord's headquarters 
 fully equipped and ready for the road. 
 
 I did hope in those last few moments that I might 
 have a chance to exchange a word with my dear 
 lady ; might ask her forgiveness, or, failing so much 
 grace of her, might at least have another sight of 
 her sweet face. 
 
 But even this poor boon was denied me. I was 
 scarce out of the saddle when an aide came to 
 
394 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 conduct me to the general, and I saw no one in the 
 house save my Lord himself. 
 
 As you would guess, my instructions conformed 
 exactly to the plan outlined by Lord Cornwallis in 
 the council. I was entrusted with a sealed packet 
 for delivery to Major Ferguson, and, for safety's 
 sake, as my Lord explained, I was given the meat 
 of the message to deliver verbally should the need 
 arise. Ferguson was to be ordered to come in in- 
 stantly by forced marches, if necessary, and he w^as 
 on no account to risk a battle with the over-mountain 
 men. 
 
 You may be sure, my dears, that I scarce drew 
 breath till I was a-horse and out of the town and 
 galloping hard on the road to that ford of Master 
 Macgowan's which afterward became famous in our 
 history under the misspelling "Cowan's Ford.'^ 
 'Twas too good to be true that I should be thrust 
 thus into the very gaping mouth of opportunity, and 
 now and again I would feel the packet buttoned 
 tight beneath my hussar jacket to make sure 'twas 
 not a dream to vanish at a touch. 
 
 In the mad joy of it the spirit of prophecy came 
 upon m_e, and I saw as if the thing were done, how 
 at last I held the fate of the patriot cause in all 
 our west country in the hollow of my hand. 
 
XXX\'II 
 
 OF WHAT BEFELL AT KIXG's CREEK 
 
 Skipping lightly over the happenings of the two 
 days following my departure from Charlotte on 
 the king's errand, I may say that after passing the 
 British outposts at the crossing of the Catawba, I 
 met neither friend nor foe ; and from noon on I 
 rode to the westward through' a pitiless drizzling 
 rain, splashed to the belt with the mire of the road, 
 and having little chance to inquire my way. 
 
 This last lack grew with the passing hours to the 
 size of a threatening hazard. As you may have 
 guessed, I knew no more than a blind man the route 
 I should take ; knew no more of the whereabouts of 
 Gilbert Town and ]\Iajor Ferguson's rendezvous 
 than that both were some eighty miles to the west- 
 ward. 
 
 At the outset I had thought to feel out the way 
 in general by cautious inquiry along the road ; but 
 when I came to consider of this, the risk of betraying 
 my ignorance to those who followed me was too 
 great to let me turn aside to any of the wayside 
 houses ; and as for chance passers-by, there were 
 none — the rain kept all within doors. 
 
 395 
 
396 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 So I was constrained to gallop on without pause ; 
 and throughout that comfortless afternoon and the 
 scarce less miserable day which followed, there were 
 no incidents to break the dull monotony of the blind 
 race save these two ; that once the clouds lifted 
 enough to give me a glimpse of my pursuers in a 
 far reach to the eastward ; and once again I had a 
 sight of an av^^kward horseman in the road before 
 me — saw him and tried to overtake him, and could 
 not, for all his clumsy riding. 
 
 Now I was curious about this lone horseman 
 ahead for more reasons than one, but chiefly be- 
 cause my glimpse of him seemed to show me the 
 back of a man whom I made sure I had left safe 
 behind in the British guard-house in Charlotte, to 
 wit : the scoundrelly little pettifogger. 
 
 At first I scoffed at the idea. Saying he were free 
 to leave Charlotte, how should he be riding post 
 on my haphazard road to the westward? 'Twas 
 against all reason, and yet the tittuping figure of 
 which I had but a rain-veiled glimpse named itself 
 Owen Pengarvin in spite of all the reasons I could 
 bring to bear. 
 
 'Twas close on eventide of the second day, the 
 early evening gloaming of a chill autumnal rain- 
 day, and I had been since morning dubiously lost 
 in the somber trackless forest, when an elfish cry 
 rose, as it would seem, from beneath the very hoofs 
 of my horse. 
 
 "God save the king !" 
 
 The bay shied suddenly, standing with nostrils 
 
WHAT BEFELL AT THE CREEK 397 
 
 a-quiver ; and I had to look closely to make out 
 the little brown dot of humanity clad in russet 
 homespun crouching in the path, its childish eyes 
 wide with fear and its lips parted to shrill again: 
 *'God save the king!" 
 
 I threw a stiff leg over the cantle and swung down 
 to go on one knee to my stout challenger. I can 
 never make you understand, my dears, how the 
 sight of this helpless waif appearing thus unaccount- 
 ably in the heart of the great forest mellowed and 
 softened me. 'Twas a little maid, not above three 
 or four years old, and with a face that Master 
 Raphael might have taken as a pattern for one of his 
 seraphs. 
 
 "What know you of the king, little one?" I 
 asked. 
 
 "Gran'dad told me," she lisped. "If I was to 
 see a soldier-man I must say, quick, 'God save the 
 king,' or 'haps he'd eat me. Is — is you hungry, 
 IMister Soldier-man?" 
 
 "Truly I am that, sweetheart ; but I don't eat 
 little maids. Where is your grandfather?" 
 
 "Ain't got any gran'favver ; I said 'gra.n'dad/ '* 
 
 "Well, your gran'dad, then; can you take me to 
 him?" 
 
 "I don't know. 'Haps you'd eat him/* 
 
 "Mo fear of that, my dear. Do I look as if I 
 ate people ?" 
 
 She gave me a long scrutiny out of the innocent 
 ey^.ii and then put up two little brown hands to be 
 taken. "I tired," she said ; and my sore heart went 
 
398 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 warm within me when I took her in my arms and 
 cuddled her. After a long-drawn sigh of content- 
 ment, she said: "My name Polly; what's yours?" 
 
 "You may call me Jack, if you please — Captain 
 Jack, if that comes the easier. And now will you 
 let me take you to your gran'dad ?" 
 
 She nodded, and I spoke to the bay and mounted, 
 still holding her closely in my arms. 
 
 "Tell me quickly which way to go, Polly," I said ; 
 for besides being, as I would fear, far out of the 
 way to Gilbert Town, the last hilltop to the rear 
 had given me another sight of my shadowing pur- 
 suers riding hard as if they meant to overtake me. 
 
 The little maid sat up straight on the saddle liom 
 and looked about her as if to get her bearings. 
 
 "That way," she said, pointing short to the right ; 
 and I wheeled the horse in:,'o a blind path that wound 
 in and out among the trees for a long half mile, 
 to end at a little clearing on the banks of a small 
 stream. 
 
 In the midst of the clearing was a rude log cabin ; 
 and in the open doorway stood a man bent and aged, 
 a patriarchal figure with white hair falling to his 
 shoulders and a snowy beard such as Aaron might 
 have worn. At sight of me the old watcher disap- 
 peared within the house, but a moment later he was 
 out again, fingering the lock of an ancient Queen's- 
 arm. 
 
 I drew rein quickly, and the little maid sat up and 
 saw the musket. 
 
WHAT BEFELL AT THE CREEK 399 
 
 "Don't shoot, gran'dad!" she cried. "He's Gap- 
 py Jack, and he does n't eat folkses." 
 
 At this the old man came to meet us, though still 
 with the clumsy musket held at the ready. 
 
 "These be parlous times, sir," he said, half in 
 apology, I thought. And then: "You have made 
 friends with my little maid, and I owe you somewhat 
 for bringing her safe home." 
 
 "Nay," said I; "the debt is mine, inasmuch as I 
 have the little one for my friend. 'Tis long since 
 I have held a trusting child in my arms, I do assure 
 you, sir." 
 
 He bowed as grandly as any courtier. "I hope 
 her trust is not misplaced, sir ; though for the matter 
 of that, vv^e have little enough now to take or leave." 
 
 "You have given it all to the king?" said I, feel- 
 ing my way as I had need to. 
 
 His eyes flashed and he drew himself up proudly. 
 
 "The king has taken all, sir, as you see," this 
 with a wave of the hand to point me to the forlorn 
 homestead. "There is naught left me save this 
 poor hut and my little maid." 
 
 " 'Taken,' you say ? Then you are not of the 
 king's side?" 
 
 He came a step nearer and faced me boldly. 
 "Listen, sir : two of my sons were left on the bloody 
 field of Camden, and the butcher Banastre Tarleton 
 slew the other two at Fishing Creek. A month 
 since a band of roving savages, armed with King 
 George's muskets, mind you, sir, came down upon 
 us at Northbv, and this little maid's mother — " 
 
400 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 He stopped and choked ; and the child looked up 
 into my face with her blue eyes full of nameless 
 terror. *'Oh, I want my mammy!" she said. 
 "Won't you find her for me, Cappy Jack?" 
 
 I slipped from the saddle, still clasping the little 
 one tightly in my arms. 
 
 "Enough, sir," I said, when I could trust myself 
 to speak. "This same King George's minions have 
 made me a homeless outcast, too. I live but to give 
 some counter stroke, if I may." 
 
 "Ha!" said the old man, starting back; "then 
 you are for our side ? But your uniform — " 
 
 "Is that of an Austrian officer, my good sir, 
 which I should right gladly exchange for the buff 
 and blue^ but that I can serve the cause better in 
 this." 
 
 He dropped the Queen's-arm, took the child from 
 me and bade me welcome to his cabin and all it 
 held. But I was not minded to make him a sharer 
 in my private peril. 
 
 "No," said I. "Tell me how I may find Gilbert 
 Town and Major Ferguson's rendezvous, and I will 
 ride whilst I can see the way." 
 
 He looked at me narrowly. "Ferguson left Gil- 
 bert Town some days since. If 'tis the place you 
 seek, you are gone far out of your way ; if 'tis the 
 
 man — " 
 
 'Tis the man," I cut in hastily. 
 The patriarch shook his head. 
 "If you be of our side, as you say, he will hang 
 you out of hand." 
 
WHAT BEFELL AT THE CREEK 401 
 
 ''So I can make my errand good, I care little 
 how soon he hangs me." 
 
 "And what may your errand be ? Mayhap I can 
 help you." 
 
 'Tt is to bring him to a stand till the mountain 
 men can overtake him." 
 
 The old man trembled with excitement like a 
 boy going into his first battle. 
 
 "x\h, if you could — if you could !" he cried. "But 
 'tis too late, now. Listen: his present camp is but 
 three miles to the westward on Buffalo Creek. I 
 was there no longer ago than the Wednesday. I — 
 I made my submission to him — curse him — so that 
 I might mayhap learn of his plans. He told me all ; 
 how that now he was safe ; that the mountaineers 
 were gone off from the fording of the Broad on a 
 false scent ; that Tarleton with four hundred of the 
 legion would soon be marching to his relief. 
 
 'T stole away when I could, and that night took 
 horse and rode twenty miles to Tom Sumter's camp 
 at Flint Hill — all to little purpose, I fear. Poor 
 Tom is still desperately sick of his Fishing Creek 
 wounds, and Colonel Lacey was the only officer 
 fit to go after Shelby and the mountain men to set 
 them straight. I should have gone myself, but — " 
 
 "Stay, my good friend," said I ; "you go too fast 
 for me. If Ferguson is still out of communication 
 with the main at Charlotte, we may halt him yet." 
 
 The old man made a gesture of impatience. 
 
 " 'Tis a thing done because it is as good as done. 
 The major will break camp and march to-morrow 
 
402 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 morning, and he can reach Charlotte at ease in two 
 days. What with their losing of his trail, the moun- 
 tain men are those same two days behind him." 
 
 "None the less, we shall halt him," said I. "Have 
 you ever an inkhom and a quill in your cabin ?" 
 
 "Both; at your service, sir. But I can not un- 
 derstand — " 
 
 "We may call it the little maid's judgment on 
 those who have made her fatherless. But for her 
 stopping of me I should have come unprepared into 
 the camp of the enemy. I am the bearer of a letter 
 from Lord Cornwallis to this same Major Fergu- 
 
 son." 
 
 'You? — a bearer of Lord Cornwallis's de- 
 spatches?" The old man put a blade's length be- 
 tween us and held the little one aloft as if he feared 
 I might do her a mischief. I laughed and bade him 
 be comforted. 
 
 " 'Tis a long story, and I may not take the time 
 to tell it now. But a word will suffice. Like your- 
 self, I made my submission — and for the same pur- 
 pose. My Lord accepted it and made me his de- 
 spatch-bearer because he thought I knew the w^ay 
 to Ferguson when no one else knew it. But enough 
 of this ; time presses. Let me have ink and the 
 quill." 
 
 The old man led the way into the cabin and 
 put his writing tools at my disposal. Left to my- 
 self, I should have broken the seal of the packet; 
 but my wise old ally, cool and collected now, showed 
 me how to split the paper beneath the wax. Opened 
 
WHAT BEFELL AT THE CREEK 403 
 
 and spread before us on the rude slab table, the let- 
 ter proved to be the briefest of military commands : 
 a peremptory order to Ferguson to rejoin the main 
 body at once, proceeding by forced marches if need- 
 ful, and on no account to risk engagement with the 
 over-mountain men. 
 
 How to change such an order to reverse it In ef- 
 fect, I knew no more than a yokel ; but here again 
 my ancient ally showed himself a man of parts. 
 Dressing the pen to make it the fellow of that used 
 by my Lord Cornwallis, he scanned the handwrit- 
 ing of the letter closel}^, made a few practice pot- 
 hooks to get the imitative hang of it, and wrote this 
 postscriptum at the bottom of the sheet. 
 
 Since writing the foregoing I haz^e your courier, 
 and his despatches. Lieutenant-colonel Tarleton, 
 with four hundred of the legion, will take the road 
 for you to-night. If battle is forced upon you, make 
 a stand and hold the enemy in check till reinforce- 
 ments come. Cornwallis. 
 
 The old man sanded the wet penstrokes and bade 
 me sav if it would serve. 'Twas a most beautiful 
 forgery. My Lord's crabbed handwriting was 
 copied to a nicety, and of the two signatures I doubt 
 if the earl himself could have told which v/as his 
 own; 'twas the same circle ''C," the same printing 
 "r," the same heavy precision throughout. 
 
 "Capital !" said L "Now, if the lightning would 
 but strike these pursuers of mine, we should have 
 the Scotsman at bay in a hand's turn." 
 
 "How ?" said the patriarch ; "are you follovs^ed ?'* 
 
404 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 I told him I was; told liim of my Lord's plot 
 within a plot — that three light-horse riders, one of 
 them a lieutenant bearing duplicate despatches, had 
 been hard upon my heels all the way from Char- 
 lotte. 
 
 At this the old warhorse — I learned afterward 
 that he had fought through the French and Indian 
 war — wagged his beard and his eye flashed. 
 
 ''We must stop them," he said. "Three of them, 
 do you say ?" 
 
 "Three white men and an Indian trailer." 
 
 "Ha ! If it were not for the little maid. . . . 
 Let me think." 
 
 He fell to pacing up and down before the fire 
 on the hearth, and I took the small one on my knee 
 to let her chatter to me. 'Twas five full minutes 
 before my ancient gave me the worth of his cogi- 
 tations, but when he did speak it was much to the 
 purpose. 
 
 "These marplot rear-guards of yours will spoil it 
 all If they come to Ferguson's camp either before 
 or after you. Do they know the major's present 
 whereabouts ?" 
 
 "No more than I did an hour ago. As I take it, 
 they are depending on me to show them the way.'* 
 
 "Well, then ; dead men tell no tales." 
 
 "But, my good friend, you forget there are four 
 of them and only two of us ! We should stand little 
 chance with them in fair fight." 
 
 Again the old man's eyes snapped and glowed 
 :as if pent-fires were behind them. 
 
WHAT BEFELL AT THE CREEK 405 
 
 "Was it fair fight when Tarleton's men rode in 
 upon Tom Sumter's rest camp at Fishing Creek 
 and cut down this Httle maid's father whilst he was 
 naked and bathing in the stream ? Was it fair fight 
 when King George's Indian devils came down in 
 the dead of night upon our defenseless house at 
 Northby ? Never talk to me of fairness, sir, whilst 
 all this bloody tyranny is afoot !" 
 
 I thought upon it for a little space. 'Twas none 
 so easy to decide. On one hand, stem loyalty to 
 the cause I had espoused passed instant sentence 
 on these four men whose lives stood in the way ; 
 on the other, common humanity cried out and called 
 it murder. 
 
 Never smile, my dears, and hint that I had found 
 me a new heart of mercy since that ambush-killing of 
 the three Cherokee peace-men in the lone valley of 
 the western mountains. We did but give the savages 
 a dole out of their own store of cruel cunning and 
 ferocity. But as for these my trackers, three of 
 them, at least, were soldiers and men of my own 
 race. I could not do it. 
 
 "No," said I, firmly. "These followers of mine 
 must be stopped, as you say, else there is no need of 
 my going on. But there must be no butcher's 
 work." 
 
 The patriarch frowned and wagged his beard 
 again. 
 
 "A true patriot should hold himself ready to 
 give his own life or take another's," quoth he. 
 
 "Truly; and I am most willing on both heads.- 
 
4o6 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 But we have had enough and more than enough of 
 midnight massacre." 
 
 Where this argument would have led us in the 
 end, I know not, since we were both waxing warm 
 upon it. But in the midst the little maid came 
 running from the open door, her blue eyes wide 
 in childish terror. 
 
 'Tnjun man!" was all she could say; but that 
 was enough. At a bound I reached the door. An 
 Indian was at my horse's head, loosing the halter, 
 as I thought. Before he could twist to face me the 
 point of the Ferara was at his back. 
 
 Luckily, he had the wit not to move. "No kill 
 Uncanoola," he muttered, this without the stirring 
 of a muscle. Then, as if he were talking to the 
 horse : "White squaw, she send 'um word ; say 
 ^good by.' " 
 
 My point dropped as if another blade had parried 
 the thrust. 
 
 "Mistress Margery, you mean? Do you come 
 from her?" 
 
 "She send 'um word ; say *good by,' " he repeated. 
 What else did she say?" I demanded. 
 No say anyt'ing else : say 'good by.' " He turned 
 upon me at that and I saw why he had kept his face 
 averted. He had on the war paint of a Cherokee 
 chief. 
 
 "Uncanoola good Chelakee now," he grinned. 
 "Help redcoat soldier find Captain Long-knife. 
 Wah !" 
 
 I saw his drift, and though I knew his courage 
 
 
WHAT BEFELL AT THE CREEK 407 
 
 well, the boldness of the thing staggered me. He, 
 too, had penetrated to the inner lines of the British 
 encampment at Charlotte ; and when they had sought 
 an Indian tracker to lift my trail, 'twas he who had 
 volunteered. But now my spirits rose. With this 
 unexpected ally we might hope to deal forcefully and 
 yet fairly with my rear-guard. 
 
 "Where are your masters now?" I asked. 
 
 He spat upon the ground. "Catawba chief has 
 no master," he said, proudly. "Redcoat pale-faces 
 yonder," pointing back the way I had come. "Make 
 fire, boil tea, sing song, heap smoke pipe." 
 
 "We must take them," said L 
 
 He nodded. "Kill 'um all ; take scalp. Wah !" 
 
 The bloodthirstiness of my two allies was appall- 
 ing. But I undertook to cool the Indian's ardor, 
 explaining that the redcoat soldiers were the Long- 
 knife's brothers, in a way, not to be slain save in 
 honorable battle. I am not sure whether I earned 
 the Catawba's contempt, or his pity for my weak- 
 ness ; but since he was loyal to the son of his old 
 benefactor first, and a savage afterward, he yielded 
 the point. 
 
 So now I made him known to my patriarchal host, 
 who all this time had been standing guard at the 
 cabin door with the old Queen's-arm for a weapon. 
 So we three sat on the door-stone and planned it 
 out. When the night was far enough advanced, we 
 would stalk the soldiers in their camp, sparing life 
 as we could. 
 
 When all was settled, the old man gave us a sup- 
 
4o8 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 per of his humble fare, after which we went into 
 the open again to sit out the hours of waiting. The 
 rain had ceased, but the night was cloudy and the 
 darkness a soft black veil to shroud the nearest 
 objects. High overhead the autumn wind was sigh- 
 ing in the tree-tops, and now and again a sharper 
 gust would bring down a pattering volley of lodged 
 rain-drops on the fallen leaves. 
 
 Uncanoola sat apart in stoical silence, smoking 
 his long-stemmed pipe. The old man and I talked 
 in low tones, or rather he would tell me of his past 
 whilst I sat and listened, holding the little maid in 
 my arms. 
 
 After a time the child fell asleep, and I craved per- 
 mission to put her in the little crib bed in the chim- 
 ney corner. The flickering light of the fire fell 
 upon her innocent face when I loosed the clasp of 
 the tiny hands about my neck and laid her down. 
 Again the wave of softness submerged me and I 
 bent to leave a kiss upon the sweet unconscious 
 lips. 
 
 Ah, my dears, you may smile again, if you will ; 
 but at that moment I had a far-off glimpse of the 
 beatitude of fatherhood ; I was no longer the hard 
 old soldier I have drawn for you ; I was but a man, 
 hungering and thirsting for the love of a wife and 
 trusting, clinging little children like this sweet maid. 
 
 I rose, turning my back upon the chimney corner 
 and its holdings with a sigh. For now the time was 
 come for action, and I must needs be a man of blood 
 and iron again. 
 
WHAT BEFELL AT THE CREEK 409 
 
 Lacking the Catawba to guide us, I doubt if 
 either the old man or I could have found my rear- 
 guard's bivouac near the trail I had left. But Un- 
 canoola led us straight through the pitchy dark- 
 ness; and when we were come upon the three 
 soldiers we found them all asleep around the hand- 
 ful of camip-fire. 
 
 Twould have been murder outright to kill them 
 thus ; and now I think the old patriarch forgot his 
 wrongs and was as merciful as L But not so the 
 Catawba. He had armed himself with a stout war- 
 club, and before I was free to stop him he had 
 knocked two of the three sleepers senseless, and 
 would have battered out their brains but for the old 
 man's intervention. 
 
 As for the officer, I had flung myself upon him 
 in the rush and was having a pretty handful of 
 him. But though he was broad in the shoulders, 
 and as agile as a cat, he w^as taken at a sleeping 
 man's disadvantage, and so I presently had the bet- 
 ter of him. 
 
 "Enough, man ! 'tis as good as a feast !" he cried, 
 W'hen I had him fast pinioned; and thereupon I let 
 him have breath and freedom to sit up. In the act 
 he had his first good sight of me, as I had mine of 
 him. 'Twas Tybee and no other. 
 
 ''Gad ! my Captain," he said, feeling his throat. 
 "If you have a grip like that for your friends, I'm 
 damned glad I'm not your enemy." 
 
 "But you are," I rejoined, rather shamefacedly, 
 yet thankful to the finger-tips that I had not con- 
 
410 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 sented to a massacre. 'T am for the Congress and 
 the Commonwealth, Lieutenant, and you are my 
 prisoner. May I trouble you for the despatches you 
 carry ?" 
 
 He looked up at me with a queer grimace on his 
 boyish face. 
 
 "The devil! but you're a cool hand, Captain Ire- 
 ton ! Whatever you were in that coil at Appleby, 
 you've led the spy's long suit this time. And I'm not 
 sure wdiether I like you any the worse for it, if so 
 be you must be a rebel." And with that, he gave 
 me the sealed packet and asked what I would do 
 with him. 
 
 His query set me thinking. As for the two 
 stunned troopers, I meant to turn them over to the 
 old man for safe keeping; but I was loath to make 
 it harder than need be for this good-natured young- 
 ster. So I put him upon his Tionor. 
 
 '*Do you know what this packet contains?" I 
 asked. 
 
 He laughed. "My Lord did not honor me with" 
 his confidence. I was to follow you in to Major 
 Ferguson's camp, deliver the despatches, and van- 
 ish." 
 
 "Good ; then you need tell no lies. When the In- 
 dian has fetched my horse, I shall ride to Ferguson's 
 camp, and you may ride with me. I shall ask no 
 more than this ; that you do not fight again till you 
 are exchanged; and that you will not tell ^lajor 
 Ferguson whose prisoner you are. Do you accept 
 the terms ?" 
 
WHAT BEFELL AT THE CREEK 411 
 
 "Gadl Vd be a fool not to. But what's in the 
 wind, Captain? Surely you can tell me, now that 
 I am safely out of the running." 
 
 "You will know in a day or two ; and in the mean- 
 time ignorance is your best safety. You can tell 
 Major Ferguson that you were waylaid on the road 
 by a party of the enemy, and that you were paroled 
 and fell in with me." 
 
 He looked a little rueful, as a good soldier would, 
 but was disposed to make the best of a bad bar- 
 gain. 
 
 ''Here's my hand on it," he said ; and a little later 
 we had dragged the two troopers to the cabin, where 
 the old man became surety for their safe keeping, 
 and were feeling our way cautiously westward at the 
 heels of the Catawba who had taken his directions 
 from our patriarch. 
 
 We pressed forward in silence through the shad- 
 owy labyrinth of the wood for a time, but at the 
 crossing of a small runlet where we would stop to 
 let the horses drink, Tybee burst out a-laughing. 
 
 " 'Tis as good as a play," he said. "Three sev- 
 eral times Fve had to change my mind about you, 
 Captain Ireton, and I'm not cock-sure I have your 
 measure yet. But Fll say this : if you've strung my 
 Lord successfully, you'll be the first to do it and 
 come off alive in the end." 
 
 "The end is not yet, my good friend ; and I may 
 not come off better than the others," I rejoined. 
 And with that we fared on again till we could see 
 the camp-fires of Ferguson's little army twinkling 
 between the tree trunks. 
 
XXXVIII 
 
 IN WHICH WE FIND THE GUN-MAKER 
 
 As you may be sure, Major Patrick Ferguson was 
 far too good a soldier to leave his camp unguarded 
 on any side, and whilst we were yet a far cannon- 
 shot from the glimmering fires a sentry's challenge 
 halted us. 
 
 To the man's "Halt! Who goes there?" I gave 
 the word "Friends," salving my conscience for the 
 needful lie as I might. 
 
 "Advance, friends, and give the countersign." 
 
 I confessed my ignorance of the night-word, say- 
 ing that we were a paroled prisoner and a bearer 
 of despatches, and asking that we be taken to Major 
 Ferguson's headquarters. There was some little 
 cautious demurring on the part of the sentry, but 
 finally he passed the word for the guard-captain 
 and we were escorted to the tent of the field com- 
 mander. 
 
 I marked the encampment as I could in passing 
 through it. The little army was three-fourths made 
 up of Tory militia ; and there was drinking and 
 song-singing and a plentiful lack of discipline 
 
 412 
 
WE FIND THE GUN-MAKER 413 
 
 around the camp-fires of these auxiHaries. But a 
 different air was abroad in the camp of the regulars ; 
 you would see a soldierly alertness on the part of 
 the men, and there was no roistering in that quar- 
 ter. 
 
 Major Ferguson's tent was on a hillock some dis- 
 tance back from the stream, and thither we were 
 conducted ; we, I say, meaning Tybee and myself, for 
 Uncanoola had disappeared like a whiff of smoke at 
 our challenging on the sentry line. 
 
 Late as it was, the major was up and hard at 
 work. His tent table, transformed for the time 
 into a mechanic's work-bench, was littered with 
 gun-barrels and tools and screws and odd-shaped 
 pieces of mechanism — the disjointed parts of that 
 breech-loading musket of which the ingenious 
 Scotchman was the inventor. 
 
 Being deep in the creative trance when we came 
 upon him, the major gave us but an absent-minded 
 greeting, listening with the outward ear only when 
 Tybee reported his mission, and his capture and 
 parole. 
 
 "From my Lord, ye say? I hope ye left him 
 well," was all the answer the Lieutenant got, the 
 inventor fitting away at his gun-puzzle the while. 
 
 Tybee made proper rejoinder and stood aside to 
 give me room. I drew a sealed inclosure from my 
 pocket and laid it on the work-bench table. 
 
 "I also have the honor to come from my Lord 
 Cornwallis, bringing despatches" — so far I got in 
 my cut-and-dried speech, and then my tongue clave 
 
414 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 to the roof of mv mouth and I could no more finish 
 the sentence than could a man suddenly nipped in 
 a vise. Instead of the carefully doctored original, 
 I had given the major the duplicate despatch taken 
 from Tybee. 
 
 Ah, my dears, that was a moment for swift 
 thought and still swifter action ; and 'tis the Ireton 
 genius to be slow and sure and no wise "gleg at 
 the uptakV as a Scot would say. Yet for this 
 once my good angel gave me a prompting and the 
 wit to use it. In that clock-tick of benumbing de- 
 spair when the success of the hazardous venture, 
 and much more that I wist not of, hung suspended 
 by a hair over the abyss of failure, I minded me of 
 a boyish trick wherewith I used to fright the timid 
 blacks in the old days at Appleby Hundred. So 
 whilst the major was reaching for the packet — nay, 
 when he had it in his hand — I started back with a 
 warning cry, giving that imitation of the ominous 
 ^kir-r-r of a rattlesnake which had more than once 
 got me a cuffing from my father. 
 
 In any crisis less tremendous I should have roared 
 a-laughing to see the doughty major and my good 
 friend the lieutenant vie with each other in their skip- 
 pings to escape the unseen enemy. But it was no 
 laughing moment for me. At a flash my sword 
 was out and I was hacking hither and yon at the 
 imaginary foe. In the hurly-burly I contrived to 
 sprawl all across the work-bench table, and the 
 packet which would have killed my plot — and, be- 
 
WE FIND THE GUN-MAKER 415 
 
 like, the plotter as well — was secured and quickly 
 juggled into hiding. 
 
 *'Damme ! see now what you've done ; you've spilt 
 my breech-charger all about the place!" rasped the 
 major, when all was over. And then: "Who the 
 devil are ye, anyway; and what do ye want wi* 
 me?" 
 
 I clicked my heels, saluted, and gave him the ex- 
 press from my Lord — the right one, this time. He 
 tore off the wrapping, swore a hearty soldier oath 
 when he read the fore part of the letter and clapped 
 his leg joyfully, like the brave gentleman that he 
 was, when he came to the posfscripturn. 
 
 "Ye're a fine fellow. Captain; ye've brought me 
 good news," he said ; then he bade an aide call Cap- 
 tain de Peyster, his second in command, and in the 
 same breath gave Tybee and me in charge to an 
 ensign for our billeting for the night. 
 
 You will conceive that I was overjoyed at this 
 seemingly safe and easy planting of the petard 
 which was to blow my Lord Comwallis's plans into 
 the air; and in anticipation I saw the tide-turning 
 battle and heard the huzzas of the mountaineer vic- 
 tors. But 'tis a good old saw that cautions against 
 hallooing before you are out of the wood. Captain 
 de Peyster was come, and Tybee and I were taking 
 our leave of the major, when there was a sudden 
 commotion among the guards without, and a little 
 man in black, his wig awry and his clothing torn 
 by the rough man-handling of the sentries, burst 
 into the tent. 
 
4i6 THE ZvIASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 "Seize him! seize him! he is a rebel spy!" he 
 shrieked, pointing at me. 
 
 As you would guess, all talk paused at this dra- 
 matic interruption, and all eyes were turned upon 
 me. Had the little viper been content to rest his 
 charge upon the simple accusation, I know not what 
 might have happened. But when he got his breath 
 he burst out in a tirade of the foulest abuse, curs- 
 ing me up one side and down the other, and ending 
 in a gibbering fit of rage that left him pallid and 
 foaming at the lips — and gave me my cue. 
 
 " 'Tis the little madman of Queensborough," I 
 said, coolly, explaining to the bluff major. "His 
 mania takes the form of a curious hatred for me, 
 though I know not why. Two days since, he was 
 put in arrest by my Lord's authority for threatening 
 my life and that of his master's daughter. Now, 
 it w^ould seem, he has broken jail and followed me 
 hither." 
 
 "A lunatic, eh? He looks it, every inch," said the 
 major; and the blackguard lawyer, hearing my 
 counter accusation, was doing his best to give it 
 a savor of likelihood by fighting frantically with 
 the two soldiers who had followed him into the 
 tent. 
 
 "Out wi' him!" commanded the major. "We've 
 no time to foolish away wi' a Bedlamite. Take him 
 away and peg him out, and gi' him a dash o' water 
 to cool his head." 
 
 Pengarvin fought like a fury, and his venomous 
 rage defeated all his attempts to say calmly the 
 
WE FIND THE GUN-MAKER 417 
 
 words which might have got him a hearing. So 
 he was haled away, spitting and struggHng Hke a 
 trapped wildcat ; and when we were rid of him the 
 major bade us good night again. 
 
 Tybee held his peace like a good fellow till we 
 had rolled us in our blankets before one of the 
 camp-fires. But just as I was dropping asleep 
 he broke out with, "I would you might tell me what 
 piece of rebel villainy this is that I've been a wink- 
 ing accomplice to." 
 
 I laughed. " 'Tis a thing to make Major Fer- 
 guson rejoice, as you saw. And surely, it can be 
 no great villainy to give a man what he's thirsting 
 for. Bide your time, Lieutenant, and you shall see 
 the outcome." 
 
XXXIX 
 
 THE THUNDER OF THE CAPTAINS AND THE SHOUTING 
 
 The camp was astir early the next morning, and 
 it soon became noised about that we were to fall 
 back, but only so far as might be needful to find 
 a strong position. From this it was evident that 
 a battle was imminent, though as yet there were no 
 signs of the approach of the patriots. 
 I From the camp talk we, Tybee and I, gleaned 
 some better information of the situation. A fort- 
 night earlier Major Ferguson had captured two of 
 the over-mountain men of Clark's party and had 
 sent them to the settlement on the Watauga with 
 a challenge in due form — or rather with the threat 
 to come and lay the over -mountain region waste 
 in default of an instant return of the pioneers to 
 their allegiance to the king. 
 
 This challenge, so our scouts told us, had been 
 immediately accepted. Sevier and Shelby had em- 
 bodied some two hundred men each from the Wa- 
 tauga and the Holston settlements, and Colonel Wil- 
 liam Campbell, the stout old Presbyterian Indian 
 fighter, had joined them with as many more Vir- 
 ginians. 
 
 418 
 
THUNDER OF THE CAPTAINS 419 
 
 Crossing the mountain these three troops had 
 fallen in with other scattered parties of the border 
 patriots under Benjamin Cleaveland, Major Chron- 
 icle and Colonel WiUiams, of South Carolina, until 
 now, as the scouts reported, the challenged outnum- 
 bered the challengers. Learning this, Ferguson, 
 who was as prudent as he was brave, thought it 
 best to make his stand at some point nearer the 
 main body of the army ; and so the withdrawal 
 from Gilbert Town had fallen into a retreat and a 
 pursuit. 
 
 From what Captain de Peyster has since told me, 
 there would seem to be little doubt that the major' 
 meant to fight when he had manoeuvered himself 
 into a favorable position ; this in spite of Lord Corn- 
 wallis's commands to the contrary. In his de- 
 spatches he was continually urging the need for a 
 bold push in his quarter, and asking for Tarleton 
 and a sufficient number of the legion to enable him 
 to cope with a mounted enemy. But be this as it 
 may, the garbled letter I had brought him turned 
 whatever scale there was to turn. He had now with 
 him some eleven hundred regulars and Tories, the 
 latter decently well drilled ; he had every reason to 
 expect the needed help from Cornwallis ; and, on the 
 night of my arrival, he had word that another Tory 
 force under Major Gibbs would join him in a day or 
 two, at farthest. 
 
 For his battle-'];-round Major Ferguson chose the 
 
 top of a forest-covered hill, the last and lowest ele- 
 
 'yation in the spur named that day King's Mountain. 
 
420 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 In some respects the position was all that could 
 be desired. There was room on the flat hilltop for 
 an orderly disposition of the fighting force; and 
 the slopes in front and rear were steep enough to 
 give an attacking enemy a sharp climb. Moreover, 
 there was a plentiful outcropping of stone on the 
 summit, scantiest on the broad or outer end of the 
 hill, and this was so disposed as to form a natural 
 breastwork for the defenders. 
 
 But there were disadvantages also, the chief of 
 these being the heavy wooding of the slopes to 
 screen the advance of the assaulting party ; and 
 while the major was busy making his dispositions 
 for the fight, I was on tenter-hooks for fear he 
 would have the trees felled to belt the breastwork 
 with a clear space. 
 
 He did not do it, being restrained, as I afterward 
 learned, by his uncertainty as to whether or no the 
 mountain men had cannon. Against artillery post- 
 ed on the neighboring hillocks the trees were his 
 best defense, and so he left them standing. 
 
 As you would suppose, my situation was now be- 
 come most trying, and poor Tybee's was scarcely 
 less so. Knowing my name and circumstance, and 
 having, moreover, a high regard for my old field- 
 marshal's genius, Major Ferguson was very willing 
 to make use of my experience. These askings from 
 one whom I knew for a brave and honorable gentle- 
 man let me fall between two stools. As a patriot 
 spy, it was my duty to turn the major's confidence 
 
THUNDER OF THE CAPTAINS 421 
 
 as a weapon against him. But as an ofucer and a 
 gentleman I could by no means descend to such 
 depths of perfidy. 
 
 In this dilemma I sought to steer a middle course, 
 saying that I must beg exemption because my long 
 hard ride had re-opened my old sword wound — as 
 indeed it had. So the major generously let me be, 
 thus heaping coals of fire upon my head; and I 
 kept out of his way, consorting with Tybee, who, 
 like myself, must be an onlooker in the coming 
 fray. 
 
 As for the lieutenant, he was all agog to learn more 
 than I dared tell him, and it irked him most nettle- 
 somely to have a fight in prospect in the which he 
 was in honor bound not to take a hand. Time and 
 again he begged me to release him from his parole ; 
 and when I would not, he was for fighting me a duel 
 w4th his freedom for a stake. 
 
 "Consider of it. Captain Ireton," he pleaded. "For 
 God's sake, put yourself in my place. Here am I, 
 in the camp of my friends, gagged and bound by 
 my word to you whilst your infernal plot, whatever 
 it may be, works out to the coup de grace. Ye 
 gods ! it would have been far more merciful had you 
 run me through in our wrestling match last night !" 
 
 "^layhap," said I, curtly. " 'Twas but the choice 
 between two evils. Nevertheless, in time to come 
 I hope you may conclude that this is the lesser of 
 the two." 
 
 "No, I'm damned if I shall !" he retorted, fuming 
 
422 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 like a disappointed boy, and minding me most forci- 
 bly of my hot-headed Richard Jennifer. And then 
 he would repeat : 'T thought you were my friend." 
 
 *'So I am, as man to man. But this matter con- 
 cerns the welfare of a cause to which I have swom 
 fealty. Take your own words back, my lad, and put 
 yourself in my place. Can I do less than hold you 
 to your pledge?" 
 
 "No, I suppose not," he would say, grumpily. 
 "Yet 'tis hard ; most devilish hard !" 
 
 " Tis the fortune of war. Another day the shoe 
 may be upon the other foot." 
 
 The baggage wagons had been massed across the 
 broad end of the hill to eke out the stone breast- 
 work, and the last of these arguing colloquies took 
 place beneath one of the wagons whither we had 
 crept for shelter from the rain, which was now 
 pouring again. In the midst of our talk. Major 
 Ferguson dived to share our shelter, dripping like 
 a water spaniel. 
 
 "Ha ! ye're carpet soldiers, both of ye !" he snort- 
 ed, and then he began to sw^ear piteously at the 
 rain. 
 
 " 'Twill be worse for the enemy than for us," 
 said Tybee. "We can at least keep our powder 
 dry." 
 
 "Damn the enemy!" quoth the major, cheerfully. 
 "So the weather does not put the creeks up and 
 hold Tarleton and ^lajor Gibbs back from us, 'tis 
 a small matter whether the rebels' powder be dry 
 or soaked." 
 
THUNDER OF THE CAPTAINS 423 
 
 "You have made all your dispositions, -Major?" 
 Tvbee asked 
 
 The major nodded. "All in apple-pie order, no 
 thanks to either of ye. 'Tis a strong position, this, 
 eh, Captain Ireton? Em thinking not all the rebel 
 banditti out of hell will drive us from it." 
 
 " 'Tis good enough," I agreed ; and here the talk 
 was broken off by the major's diving out to berate 
 some of his Tory militiamen who were preparing 
 to make a night of it with a jug of their vile coun- 
 try liquor. 
 
 The rain continued all that Friday night and well 
 on into the forenoon of the Saturday. During this 
 interval we waited with scouts out for the upcoming 
 of the mountain men. At noon ^lajor Ferguson 
 sent a final express to Lord CornwaUis, urging the 
 hurrying on of the reinforcements, not knowing 
 that his former despatch had been intercepted, nor 
 that Tarleton had not as yet started to the rescue. 
 A little later the scouts began to come in one by one 
 with new^s of the approaching riflemen. 
 
 There was but a small body of them, not above a 
 thousand men in all, so the spies said, and my heart 
 misgave me. They were without cannon and they 
 lacked bayonets ; and moreover, when all was said, 
 they were but militia^ all untried save in border 
 warfare with the Indians. Could they successfully 
 assault the fortified camp whose defenders — thanks 
 to the major's ingenuity — had fitted butcher-knives 
 to the muzzles of their guns in lieu of bayonets? 
 Nay, rather' would they have the courage to try ? 
 
424 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 'Twas late in the afternoon before these ques- 
 tions were answered. The rain had ceased, and 
 the chill October sunlight filtered aslant through 
 the trees. With the clearing skies a cold wind had 
 sprung up, and on the hilltop the men cowered be- 
 hind the rock breastwork and waited in strained 
 silence. At the last moment Major Ferguson sent 
 Captain de Peyster to me with the request that I 
 take command of the Tory force set apart to defend 
 the wagon barricade — this if my weariness would 
 permit. I went with the captain to make my ex- 
 cuses in person. 
 
 "Say no more, Captain," said this generous sol- 
 dier, when I began some lame plea for further ex- 
 emption ; "I had forgot your sword-cut. Take shel- 
 ter for yourself, and look on whilst we skin this 
 riffraff alive." 
 
 And so he let me off; a favor which will make 
 me think kindly of Patrick Ferguson so long as I 
 shall live. For now my work was done ; and had he 
 insisted, I should have told him flatly who and what 
 I was — and paid the penalty. 
 
 I had scarce rejoined Tybee at the wagons when 
 the long roll of the drums broke the silence of the 
 hilltop, and a volley fire of musketry from the 
 rock breastwork on the right told us the battle 
 was on. Tybee gave me one last reproachful look 
 and stood out to see what could be seen, and I stood 
 with him. 
 
 ''Your friends are running," he said, when there 
 was no reply to the opening volley; and truly, I 
 
THUNDER OF THE CAPTAINS 425 
 
 feared he was right. At the bottom of the slope, 
 scattering groups of the riflemen could be seen has- 
 tening to right and left. But I would not admit 
 the charge to Tybee. 
 
 'T think not," I objected, denying the apparent 
 fact. "They have come too far and too fast to 
 turn back now for a single overshot volley." 
 
 "But they'll never face the fire up the hill with 
 the bayonet to cap it at the top," he insisted. 
 
 "That remains to be seen; we shall know pres- 
 ently. Ah, I thought so ; here they come !" 
 
 At the word the forest-covered steep at our end 
 of the hill sprang alive with dun-clad figures dart- 
 ing upward from tree to tree. Volley after volley 
 thundered down upon them as they climbed, but not 
 once did the dodging charge up the slope pause or 
 falter. Unlike all other irregulars I had ever seen, 
 whose idea of a battle is to let oflf the piece and run, 
 these mountain men held their fire like veterans, 
 closing in upon the hilltop steadily and in a grim 
 silence broken only by the shouting encouragements 
 of the leaders — this until their circling line was 
 completed. 
 
 Then suddenly from all sides of the beleaguered 
 camp arose a yell to shake the stoutest courage, 
 and with that the wood-covered slopes began to spit 
 fire, not in volleys, but here and there in irregular 
 snappings and cracklings as the sure-shot riflemen 
 saw a mark to pull trigger on. 
 
 The effect of this fine-bead target practice — for it 
 was naught else — was most terrific. All along the 
 
426 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 breastwork, front and rear, crouching men sprang 
 up at the rifle crackings to fling their arms all 
 abroad and to fall writhing and wrestling in the 
 death throe. At our end of the hill, where the rock 
 barrier was thinnest, the slaughter was appalling; 
 and above the din of the firearms we could hear the 
 bellowed commands of the sturdy old Indian fighter, 
 Benjamin Cleaveland, urging his men up to still 
 closer quarters. "A little nearer, my brave boys ; a 
 little nearer and we have them ! Press on up to the 
 rocks. They'll be as good a breastwork from our 
 side as from theirs !" 
 
 You will read in the histories that the Tory help- 
 ers of Ferguson fought as men with halters round 
 their necks; and so, indeed, a-many of them did. 
 But though they were most pitiless enemies of ours, 
 I bear them witness that they did fight well and 
 bravely, and not as men who fight for fear's sake. 
 
 And they were most bravely officered. Major 
 Ferguson, boldly conspicuous in a white linen 
 hunting-shirt drawn on over his uniform, was 
 'here and there and everywhere, and always in 
 the place where the bullets flew thickest. His left 
 hand had been hurt at the first patriot gun fire, 
 but it still held the silver whistle to his lips, and the 
 shrill skirling of the little pipe was the loyalist rally- 
 ing signal. Captain de Peyster, too, did ample jus- 
 tice to the uniform he wore ; and when Campbell's 
 Virginians gained the summit at the far end of the 
 hilltop, 'twas de Peyster who led the bayonet charge 
 
THUNDER OF THE CAPTAINS 427 
 
 that forced the patriot riflemen some Httle way down 
 the slope. 
 
 But these are digressions. No man sees more 
 of a battle than that little circle of which he is the 
 center; and the fighting was hot enough at the 
 wagon barricade to keep both Tybee and me from 
 knowing at the time what was going on beyond 
 our narrow range of sight or hearing. You must 
 picture, therefore, for yourselves, a very devils' 
 pandemonium let loose upon the little hilltop so 
 soon as the mountain men gained their vantage 
 ground at the fronting of the rock breast^vork: 
 cries; frantic shouts of ^'God save the king!" yells 
 fierce and wordless ; men in red and men in home- 
 spun rushing madly hither and yon in a vain at- 
 tempt to repel a front and rear attack at the same 
 instant. 'Twas a hell set free, with no quarter 
 asked or given, and where we stood, the Tory de- 
 fenders of the wagon barrier were presently drop- 
 ping around us in heaps and windrows of dead and 
 dying, like men suddenly plague-smitten. 
 
 In such a time of asking you must not think we 
 stood aloof and looked on coldly. At the first fire 
 Tybee stripped off his coat and fell to work with the 
 wounded, and I quickly followed his lead, praying 
 that now my work was done, some one of the flying 
 missiles would find its mark in me and let me die 
 a soldier's death. 
 
 So it was that I saw little more of the battle de- 
 tail, and of that fierce frenzy-time I have memory 
 
428 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 pictures only of the dead and dying ; of the torn and 
 wounded and bleeding men with whom we wrought, 
 striving as we might to stanch the ebbing life-tide 
 or to ease the dying gently down into the valley of 
 shadows. 
 
 And as for my prayer, it went all unanswered. 
 Once when I had a dying Tory's head pillowed on 
 my knee I saw a rifleman thrust his weapon between 
 the wheel-spokes of the outer wagon and draw a 
 bead on me. I heard the crack of the Deckard, the 
 £ip of the bullet singing at my ear, and the man's 
 angry oath at his missing of me. Once again a 
 rifle-ball passed through my hair at the braiding 
 of the queue and I felt the hot touch of it on my 
 scalp like a breath of flame. Another time a moun- 
 taineer leaped the rock barrier to beat me down 
 with the butt of his rifle — and in the very act Tybee 
 rose up and throttled him. I saw the grapple, 
 sprang to my feet and whipped out my sword. 
 
 "Stop !" I commanded ; "you have broken your 
 parole. Lieutenant !" 
 
 The freed borderer glared from one to the other 
 of us. "Loonies!" he yelled; 'T'll slaughter the 
 both of ye !" And so he would have done, I make 
 no doubt, had we not laid hold of him together and 
 heaved him back over the breastwork. 
 
 These are but incidents, points of contact where 
 the fray touched us two at the wagon barricade. 
 I pass them by with the mention, as I have passed 
 by the sterner horrors of that furious killing-time. 
 These last are too large for my poor pen. As we 
 
THUNDER OF THE CAPTAINS 429 
 
 could gather in the din and tumult, the mountain 
 men rushed again and again to the attack, and as 
 often the brave major, or De Peyster, led the bayo- 
 net charges that pushed them back. Yet in the end 
 the unerring bullet outpressed the bayonet; there 
 came a time when flesh and blood could no longer 
 endure the death-dealing cross-fire from front and 
 rear. 
 
 I saw the end was near when the major ordered 
 the final charge, and Captain de Peyster formed his 
 line and led it forward at a double-quick. The 
 mountaineers held more than half the hilltop now, 
 and this forlorn hope was to try to drive them 
 down the farther slopes. On it went, and I could 
 see the men pitch and tumble out of the line until 
 at bayonet-reach of the riflemen there were less 
 than a dozen afoot and fit to make the push. 
 
 De Peyster fought his way back to the wagons, 
 gasping and bloody. Some of the Tories crowding 
 around us raised a white flag. The major, sorely 
 wounded now and all but disabled, swore a great 
 oath and rode rough-shod into the ruck of cowering 
 militiamen to pull down the flag. Again the white 
 token of surrender was raised, and again the major 
 rode in to beat it down with his sword. At this 
 Captain de Peyster put in his word. 
 
 " 'Tis no use. Major; there is no more fight left in 
 us! Five minutes more of this and we'll be shot 
 down to a man !" 
 
 Ferguson's reply was a raging oath broad enough 
 to cover all the enemy and his own beaten remnant 
 
430 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 as well ; and then, before a hand could be lifted to 
 stay him, he had wheeled his horse and was gallop- 
 ing straight for the patriot line at the farther ex- 
 tremity of the hilltop. 
 
 What he meant to do will never be known till 
 that great day when all secrets shall be revealed. 
 For that furious oath was this brave gentleman's 
 last word to us or to any. A dozen bounds, it may 
 be, the good charger carried him ; then the storm 
 of rifle-bullets beat him from the saddle. And so 
 died one of the gallantest officers that ever did an 
 unworthy king's work on the field of battle. 
 
 I would I might forget the terrible scene which 
 followed this killing of the British commander. 
 'Twas little to our credit, but I may not pass it over 
 in silence. De Peyster quickly sent a man to the 
 front with a white flag, and the answer was a mur- 
 derous volley which killed the flag-bearer and many 
 others. Again the flag was raised on a rifle-barrel, 
 and once more the answer was a storm of the leaden 
 death poured into the panic-stricken crowd huddled 
 like sheep at the wagons. 
 
 "God !" said de Peyster ; and with that he began 
 to beat his men into line with the flat of his sword 
 in a frenzy of desperation, being minded, as he 
 afterward told me, to give them the poor chance to 
 die a-fighting. 
 
 I saw not what followed upon this last despairing 
 effort, for now Tybee was down and I was kneeling 
 beside him to search for the wound. But when I 
 looked again, the crackling crashes of the rifle-firing 
 
V 
 
 Vi 
 
 j^l. 
 
 ■^... 
 
 "^"*f:^i«*i;ty^ir 
 
THUNDER OF THE CAPTAINS 431 
 
 had ceased. A stout, gray-headed man, whom I 
 afterward knew as Isaac Shelby's father, was riding 
 up from the patriot Hne to receive Captain de Peys- 
 ter's sword, and the battle was ended. 
 
XL 
 
 VAE VICTIS 
 
 If my hand were not sure enough to draw you 
 some speaking picture of this our epoch-marking 
 battle of King's Mountain, it falters still more on 
 coming to the task of setting forth the tragic hor- 
 rors of the dreadful after-night. Wherefore I pray 
 you will hold me excused, my dears, if I hasten over 
 the events tripping upon the heels of the victory, 
 touching upon them only as they touch upon my tale. 
 
 But as for the stage-setting of the after-scene 
 you may hold in your mind's eye the stony hilltop 
 strewn with the dead and dying; the huddle of 
 cowed prisoners at the wagon barricade ; the moun- 
 taineers, mad with the victor's frenzy, swarming to 
 surround us. 'Twas a clipping from Chaos and 
 Night gone blood-crazed till Sevier and Isaac 
 Shelby brought somewhat of order out of it; and 
 then came the reckoning. 
 
 Of the seven hundred-odd prisoners the greater 
 number were Tories, many of them red-handed from 
 scenes of rapine in v/hich their present captors had 
 suffered the loss of all that men hold dear. So 
 
 432 
 
VAE VICTIS 433 
 
 you will not wonder that there were knives and 
 rifles shaken aloft, and fierce and vengeful counsels 
 in w^iich it was proposed to put the captives one 
 and all to the cord and tree. 
 
 But now again Sevier and Shelby, seconded by 
 the fiery Presbyterian, William Campbell, flung 
 themselves into the breach, pleading for delay and 
 a fair trial for such as were blood guilty. And so 
 the dismal night, made chill and comfortless by the 
 cold wind and most doleful by the groans and cries 
 of the wounded, wore away, and the dawn of the 
 Sunday found us lying as we wxre in the bloody 
 shambles of the hilltop. 
 
 With the earliest morning light the burial parties 
 were at work ; and since the stony battle-ground 
 would not lend itself for the trenching, the graves 
 were dug in the vales below. Captain de Peyster 
 begged hard for leave to bury the brave Ferguson 
 on the spot where he fell, but 'twas impossible ; and 
 now, I am told, the stout old Scotsman lies side by 
 side with our Major Will Chronicle, of ]\Iecklen- 
 burg, who fell just before the ending of the battle. 
 
 The dead buried and the wounded cared for in 
 some rough and ready fashion, preparations were 
 made in all haste for a speedy withdrawal from the 
 neighborhood of the battle-field. Rumor had it 
 that Tarleton with his invincible legion was within 
 a few hours' march ; and the mountain men, sodden 
 weary with the toils of the flying advance and the 
 hard-fought conflict, were in no fettle to cope with a 
 fresh foe. 
 
434 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 As yet I had not made myself known to the 
 patriot commanders, having my hands and heart 
 full with the care of poor Tybee, who was griev- 
 ously hurt, and being in a measure indifferent to 
 what should befall me. 
 
 But now as we were about to march I was 
 dragged before the committee of colonels and put 
 to the question. 
 
 "Your uniform is a strange one to us, sir," said 
 Isaac Shelby, looking me up and down w^ith that 
 heavy-lidded right eye of his. "Explain your rank 
 and standing, if you please." 
 
 I told my story simply, and, as I thought, effect- 
 ively ; and had only black looks for my pains. 
 
 " 'Tis a strange tale, surely, sir, — too strange to 
 be believable," quoth Shelby. "You are a traitor. 
 Captain Ireton — of the kind we need not cumber 
 ourselves with on a march." 
 
 "Who says that word of me?" I demanded, car- 
 ing not much for that to which his threat pointed, 
 but something for my good name. 
 
 Shelby turned and beckoned to a man in the group 
 behind him. "Stand out, John Whittlesey," he di- 
 rected ; and I found myself face to face with that 
 rifleman of Colonel Davie's party who had been so 
 fierce to hang me at the fording of the Catawba. 
 
 This man gave his testimony briefly, telling but 
 the bare truth. A week earlier I had passed in 
 Davie's camp for a true-blue patriot, this though I 
 was wearing a ragged British uniform at the mo- 
 ment. As for the witness himself, he had mis- 
 
VAE VICTIS 435 
 
 doubted me all along, but the colonel had trusted 
 me and had sent me on some secret mission, the 
 inwardness of which he, John Whittlesey, had been 
 unable to come at, though he confessed that he had 
 tried to worm it out of me before parting company 
 with me on the road to Charlotte. 
 
 I looked from one to another of my judges. 
 
 "If this be all, gentlemen, the man does but con- 
 firm my story," I said. 
 
 "It is not all," said Shelby. "Mr. Pengarvin, 
 stand forth." 
 
 There was another stir in the backgrounding 
 group and the pettifogger edged his way into the 
 circle, keeping well out of hand-reach of me. How 
 he had made shift to escape from Ferguson's men, to 
 change sides, and to turn up thus serenely in the 
 ranks of the over-mountain men, I know not to this 
 day, nor ever shall know. 
 
 "Tell these gentlemen what you have told me," 
 said Shelby, briefly; and the factor, cool and col- 
 lected now, rehearsed the undeniable facts : how in 
 Charlotte I had figured as a member of Lord Corn- 
 wallis's military family; hov/ I had carried my 
 malignancy to the patriot cause to the length of 
 throwing a stanch friend to the commonwealth, to 
 wit, one Owen Pengarvin, into the common jail ; 
 how, as Lord Cornwallis's trusted aide-de-camp, I 
 had been sent with an express to Major Ferguson. 
 Also, he suggested that if I should be searched some 
 proof of my duplicity might be found upon me. 
 
 At this William Campbell nodded to two of his 
 
436 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 Virginians, and I was searched forthwith, and that 
 none too gently. In the breast pocket of my hussar 
 jacket they found that accursed duphcate despatch; 
 the one I had taken from Tybee and which had so 
 nearly proved my undoing in the interview with' 
 Major Ferguson. 
 
 Isaac Shelby opened and read the accusing letter 
 and passed it around among his colleagues. 
 
 "I shall not ask you why this was undelivered, 
 sir," he said to me, sternly. " 'Tis enough that it 
 was found upon your person, and it sufficiently 
 proves the truth of this gentleman's accusation. 
 Have you aught further to say. Captain Ireton? — 
 aught that may excuse us for not leaving you behind 
 us in a halter?'* 
 
 Do 3^ou wonder, my dears, that I lost my head 
 when I saw how completely the toils of this little 
 black-clothed fiend had closed around me? Twice, 
 nay, thrice I tried to speak calmly as the crisis 
 demanded. Then mad rage ran away with me, and 
 I burst out in yelling curses so hot they would 
 surely dry the ink in the pen were I to seek to set 
 them down here. 
 
 'Twas a silly thing to do, you will say, and much 
 beneath the dignity of a grown man who cared 
 not a bodle for his life, and not greatly for the 
 manner of its losing. I grant you this ; and yet it 
 was that same bull-bellow of soldier profanity that 
 saved my life. Whilst I was in the storm of it, 
 cursing the lawyer by every shouted epithet I could 
 lay tongue to, a miracle was wrought and Richard 
 
VAE VICTIS 437 
 
 Jennifer and Ephraim Yeates pushed their way 
 through the ever-thickening ring of onlookers ; the 
 latter to range himself beside me with his brown- 
 barreled rifle in the hollow of his arm, and my dear 
 lad to fling himself upon me in a bear's hug of 
 joyous recognition and greeting. 
 
 ''Score one for me, Jack!" he cried. "We were 
 fair at t'other end of the mountain, and 'twas I told 
 Eph there was only one man in the two Carolinas 
 who could swear the match of that." Then he 
 whirled upon my judges. "What is this, gentle- 
 men? — a court martial? Captain Ireton is my 
 friend, and as true a patriot as ever drew breath. 
 What is your charge?" 
 
 Colonel Sevier, in whose command Richard and 
 the old borderer had fought in the hilltop battle, 
 undertook to explain. I stood self-confessed as the 
 bearer of despatches from Lord Cornwallis to Major 
 Ferguson, he said, and I had claimed that the orders 
 had been so altered as to delay the major's retreat 
 and so to bring on the battle. But they had just 
 found Lord Cornwallis's letter in my pocket, still 
 sealed and undelivered. And the tenor of it v/as 
 precisely opposite to that of an order calculated to 
 delay the major's march, as Mr. Jennifer could see 
 if he would read it. 
 
 While Sevier was talking, the old borderer w^as 
 fumbling in the breast of his hunting-shirt, and now 
 he produced a packet of papers tied about with red 
 tape. 
 
 " 'Pears to me like you Injun-killers from t'other 
 
438 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 side o' the mounting is in a mighty hot sweat to 
 hang somebody," he said, as coolly as if he were 
 addressing a mob of underlings. "Here's a mess 
 o' billy-doos with Lord Cornwallis's name to 'em 
 that I found 'mongst Major Ferguson's leavings. 
 If you'll look 'em over, maybe you'll find out, im- 
 mejitly if not sooner, that Cap'n John here is telling 
 ye the plumb truth." 
 
 The papers were examined hastily, and presently 
 John Sevier lighted upon the despatch I had carried 
 and delivered. Thereat the colonels put their heads 
 together; and then my case was re-opened, with 
 Sevier as spokesman. 
 
 *'We have a letter here which appears to be the 
 original order to Ferguson, Captain Ireton. Can 
 you repeat from memory the posfscripttiin which 
 you say was added to it ?" 
 
 I gave the gist of my old patriarch's addendum as 
 well as I could; and thereupon suspicion fled away 
 and my late judges would vie with one another in 
 hearty frontier hand-grasps and apologies, whilst 
 the throng that ringed us in forgot caution and 
 weariness and gave me a cheer to wake the echoes. 
 
 'Twas while this burst of gratulation was abuzz 
 that Ephraim Yeates raised a cry of his own. 
 
 "Stop that there black-legged imp o' the law!'* 
 he shouted, pushing his way out of the circle. "He's 
 the one that ought to hang !" 
 
 There was a rush for the wagon barricade, a 
 clatter of horse-hoofs on the hillside below, and 
 Yeates's rifle went to his face. But the bullet flew 
 
VAE VICTIS 439 
 
 wide, and the black-garbed figure clinging to the 
 horse's mane was soon out of sight among the trees. 
 
 "Ez I allow, ye'd better look out for that yaller- 
 skinned little varmint, Cap'n John," quoth the old 
 man, carefully wiping his rifle preparatory to re- 
 loading it. "He's rank pizen, he is, and ye'll have to 
 break his neck sooner 'r later. I 'lowed to save ye 
 the trouble, but old Bess got mighty foul yestiddy, 
 with all the shootings and goings on, and I hain't 
 got no lead-brush to clean her out." 
 
 Now that I was fully exonerated I was free to 
 go and come as I chose ; nay, more, I was urged to' 
 cast in my lot with the over-mountain partizans. 
 As to this, I took counsel with Richard Jennifer 
 whilst the colonels were setting their commands in 
 order for the march and loading the prisoners with 
 the captured guns and ammunition. 
 
 "What is to the fore, Dick?" I asked; "more 
 fighting?" 
 
 The lad shook his head. "Never another blow, 
 I fear. Jack. These fellows crossed the mountain 
 to whip Ferguson. Having done it they will go 
 home." 
 
 I could not forego a hearty curse upon this worst 
 of all militia weaknesses, the disposition to disperse 
 as soon as ever a battle was fought. 
 
 " 'Tis nigh on to a crime," said I. "This victory, 
 smartly followed up, might well be the turning of 
 the tide for us." 
 
 But the lad would not admit the qualifying con- 
 dition. " 'Twill be no less as it is," he declared. 
 
440 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 ''Mark you, Jack ; 'twill put new life into the cause 
 and nerve every man of ours afresh. And as for the 
 redcoats, if my Lord Cornwallis gets the news of 
 it in a lump, as he should, Gates will have plenty 
 of time to set himself in motion, slow as he is." 
 
 'Twas then I had an inspiration, and I thought 
 upon it for a moment. 
 
 *'What are your plans, Richard ?" 
 
 He shook his head. *T have none worth the 
 name.'' 
 
 "Then you are not committed to Colonel Sevier 
 for a term of service ?" 
 
 "No ; nor to Cleaveland, nor McDowell, nor any. 
 We heard there was to be fighting hereaway, — 
 Ephraim Yeates and I, — and we came as volun- 
 teers." 
 
 "Good! then I have a thought which may stand 
 for what it is worth. To make the most of this 
 victory over IMajor Ferguson, Gates should be ap- 
 prised at once and by a sure tongue ; and his Lord- 
 ship should have the news quickly, too, and in a 
 lump, as you say. Let us take horse and ride post, 
 we two; you to Gates at Hillsborough, and I to 
 Charlotte." 
 
 "I had thought of my part of that," he said in a 
 muse. Then he came alive to the risk I should 
 run. "But you can't well go back to Cornwallis 
 now. Jack: 'tis playing with death. There will be 
 other news-carriers — ther^ are sure to be; and a 
 single breath to whisper what you have done will 
 hang you higher than Haman." 
 
VAE VICTIS 441 
 
 I shrugged at this. " 'Tis but a war hazard." 
 
 He looked at me curiously. I saw a shrewd 
 question in his eyes and set instant action as a 
 barrier in the way of its asking. 
 
 "Let us find Colonel Sevier and beg us the loan 
 of a pair of horses," said I ; and so we were kept 
 from coming upon the dangerous ground of pointed 
 questions and evasive answers. 
 
 Somewhat to my surprise, both Sevier and Shelby 
 fell in at once with our project, commending it 
 heartily ; and I learned from the lips of that court- 
 liest of frontiersmen, ''Nolichucky Jack," the real 
 reason for the proposed hurried return of the over- 
 mountain men. The Cherokees, never to be trusted, 
 had, as it seemed, procured war supplies from the 
 British posts to the southward, and were even now 
 on the verge of an uprising. By forced marches 
 these hardy borderers hoped to reach their homes 
 in time to defend them. Otherwise, as both com- 
 manders assured us, they would take the field wath 
 Gates. 
 
 '*We have done what we could, Captain Ireton, 
 and not altogether what we would," said Sevier in 
 the summing-up. "It remains now for General 
 Gates to drive home the wedge we have entered." 
 Then he looked me full in the eyes and asked if I 
 thought Horatio Gates would be the man to beetle 
 that wedge well into the log. 
 
 I made haste to say that I knew little of the gen- 
 eral; that I was but a prejudiced witness at best, 
 since my father had known and misliked the man 
 
442 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 in Braddock's ill-fated campaign against the Frencli 
 in '55. But Richard spoke his mind more freely. 
 
 " 'Tis not in the man at this pass, Colonel Se- 
 vier," he would say ; "not after Camden. I know our 
 Carolinians as well as any, and they will never stand 
 a second time under a defeated leader. If General 
 Washington would send us some one else; or, best 
 of all, if he would but come himself — " 
 
 "George Washington ; ah, there is a man, indeed," 
 said Sevier, his dark-blue eyes lighting up. "Whilst 
 he lives, there is always a good hope. But we must 
 be doing, gentlemen, and so must you. God speed 
 you both. Our compliments to General Gates, Mr. 
 Jennifer; and you may tell him what I have told 
 you — that but for our redskin threateners we 
 should right gladly join him. As for Lord Corn- 
 wallis, you. Captain Ireton, will know best what to 
 say to him. I pray God you may say it and come 
 off alive to tell us how he took it." 
 
 We made our acknowledgments ; and when I had 
 bespoken good care for Tybee, we took leave of these 
 stout fighters, and of old Ephraim as well, since the 
 borderer was to serve as a guide for the over- 
 mountain men, at least till they were come upon fa- 
 miliar ground to the westward. 
 
 'Twas now hard upon ten of the clock in the fore- 
 noon, and we had our last sight of the brave little 
 army whilst it was wending its way slowly down 
 the slopes of King's Mountain. Of what became of 
 it; how its weary march dragged on from day to 
 day ; how it was hampered by the train of captives, 
 
VAE VICTIS 443 
 
 halted by rain-swollerx torrents, and was well-nigh 
 starved withal; of all these things you may read 
 elsewhere. But now you must ride with Richard 
 Jennifer and me, and our way lay to the eastward. 
 
 All that Sunday we pressed forward, hasting as 
 we could through the stark columned aisles of the 
 autumn-stripped forest, and looking hourly to come 
 upon Tarleton's legion marching out to Ferguson's 
 relief. 
 
 Since Richard Jennifer had ridden to the hounds 
 in all this middle ground from boyhood, we were 
 able to take my blind wanderings in reverse as the 
 arrow flies ; and by nightfall we were vv ell down 
 upon the main traveled road leading to Seattle's 
 fording of the Catawba. 
 
 As your miap will show you, this was taking me 
 somewhat out of my way to the northward ; but it 
 was Richard's most direct route to Salisbury and 
 beyond, and by veering thus we made the surer of 
 missing Colonel Tarleton, who, as we thought, 
 would likely cross the river at the lower ford. 
 
 Once in the high road we pushed on briskly for 
 the river, nor did we draw rein until the sweating 
 beasts were picking their way in the darkness down 
 the last of the hills which sentinel the Catawba to 
 the westward. 
 
 At the foot of this hill a by-road led to Mac- 
 gowan's ford some six miles farther dov/n the river, 
 and here, as I supposed, our ways would lie apart. 
 But when we came to the forking of the road, 
 Richard pulled his mount into the by-path, clapping 
 
444 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 the spurs to the tired horse so that we were a good 
 mile beyond the forking before I could overtake 
 him. 
 
 *'How now, lad?" said I, when I had run him 
 down. "Would you take a fighting hazard when 
 you need not? There is sure to be a British patrol 
 at the lower ford." 
 
 He jerked his beast down to a walk and we rode 
 in silence side by side for a full minute before he 
 said gruffly : "You'd never find the way alone." 
 
 I laughed. "Barring myself, you are the clum- 
 siest of evaders, Dick. I am on my own ground 
 here, and that you know as well as I." 
 
 Damn you !" he gritted between his teeth. 
 When we are coming near Appleby Hundred you 
 are fierce enough to be rid of me." 
 
 I saw his drift at that : how he would take all the 
 chance of capture and a spy's rope for the sake of 
 passing within a mile of Mistress Margery, or of 
 the house he thought she was in. 
 
 "Go back, Dick, whilst you may," said I. "She 
 is not at Appleby Hundred." 
 
 He turned upon me like a lion at bay. 
 
 "What have you done with her?" 
 
 "Peace, you foolish boy. I am not her keeper. 
 Her father took her to Charlotte on the very day 
 you saw her safe at home." 
 
 He reined up short in the narrow way. "So?" 
 he said, most bitingly. "And that is why you take 
 the embassy to Lord Cornwallis and fub me off. 
 
 
VAE VICTIS 445 
 
 with the one to Gates. By heaven, Captain Ireton, 
 we shall change roles here and now !" 
 
 Ah, my dears, the love-madness is a curious 
 thing. Here was a man who had saved my life so 
 many times I had lost the count of them, feeling for 
 my throat in the murk of that October night as my 
 bitterest foeman might. 
 
 And surely it was the love-demon in me that made 
 me say: *'You think I am standing in your way, 
 Richard Jennifer ? Well, so I am ; for whilst I live 
 you may not have her. Why don't you draw and 
 cut me down ?" 
 
 'Twas then Satan marked my dear lad for his 
 very own. 
 
 "On guard !" he cried ; "draw and defend your- 
 self !" and with that the great claymore leaped from 
 its sheath to flash in the starlight. 
 
 What with his reining back for space to whirl 
 the steel I had the time to parry the descending 
 blow. But at the balancing instant the brother- 
 hating devil had the upper hand, whispering me 
 that here was the death I coveted ; that Margery 
 might have her lover, if so she would, vv^ith her 
 husband's blood upon his head. 
 
 So I sat motionless while the broadsword cut its 
 circle in air and came down; and then I knew no 
 more till I came to with a bees' hive buzzing in my 
 ears, to find myself lying in the dank grass at the 
 path side. My head was on Richard's knee, and he 
 was dabbling it with water in his soaked kerchief. 
 
XLI 
 
 HOW I PLAYED THE HOST AT MY OWN FIRESIDE 
 
 You may be sure that by now the anger gale had 
 t)lown itself out, that the madness had passed for 
 both of us ; and when I stirred, Richard broke out 
 in a tremulous babblement of thanksgiving for that 
 he had not slain me outright. 
 
 "I was mad, Jack ; as mad as any Bedlamite," he 
 would say. "The devil whispered me that you 
 would fight ; that you wanted but a decent excuse 
 to thrust me out of the way. And when I saw you 
 would not stir, 'twas too late to do aught but turn 
 the flat of the blade. Oh, God help me ! I'll never 
 let a second thought of that little Tory prat-a-pace 
 send me to hell again." 
 
 "Nay," said I ; "no such rash promises, I pray 
 you, Richard. We are but two poor fools, with the 
 love of a woman set fair between us. But you need 
 not fight me for it. The love is yours — not mine." 
 
 "Don't say that, Jack ; I'm selfish enough to wish 
 it were true ; as it is not. I know whereof I speak." 
 
 "No," I denied, struggling to my feet; "it has 
 been yours from the first, Dick. I am but a sorry 
 interloper," 
 
 446 
 
HOST AT MY OWN FIRESIDE 447 
 
 For a moment he was all solicitude to know If 
 my head would let me stand; but when I showed 
 him I was no more than clumsily dizzy from the 
 effects of the blow, he went on. 
 
 "I say I know, and I do, Jack. She has refused 
 me again." 
 
 I groaned in spirit. I knew it must have come 
 to that. Yet I would ask when and where. 
 
 " Twas on our last day's riding," he went on ; 
 *'after we had had your note saying you would 
 undertake a mission for Colonel Davie." 
 
 I took two steps and groped for the horse's bridle 
 rein. 
 
 ''Did she tell you why she must refuse you ?" 
 
 He helped me find the rein for my hand and the 
 stirrup for my foot. 
 
 "There was no *why' but the one — she does not 
 love me." 
 
 ''But I say she does, Dick; and I, too, know 
 whereof I speak." 
 
 He flung me into the saddle as a strong man 
 might toss a boy, and I understood how that saying 
 of mine had gone into his blood. 
 
 ''Then there must be some barrier that I know not 
 of," he said. Whereupon he put hand to head as one 
 who tries to remember. "Stay ; did you not say 
 there was a barrier. Jack ? — when we were wrestling 
 with death in the Indian fires ? Or did I dream it ?" 
 
 "You did not dream it. But you were telling me 
 what she said." 
 
 "Oh, yes ; 'twas little enough. She cut me off at 
 
448 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 the first word as if my speaking were a mortal sin. 
 And when I would have tried again, she gave me a 
 look to make me wince and broke out crying as if 
 her heart would burst." 
 
 I steadied myself as I could by the saddle horn 
 and waited till he was up and we were moving on. 
 Then I would say: "Truly, there is a barrier, 
 Richard ; if I promise you that I am going to Char- 
 lotte to remove it once for all, will you trust me 
 and go about your affair with General Gates ?" 
 
 "Trust you. Jack? Who am I that I should do 
 aught else? When I am cool and sane, Pm none so 
 cursed selfish ; I could even give her over to you 
 with a free hand, could I but hear her say she loves 
 you as I would have her love me. But when I am 
 mad. . . Ah, God only knows the black blood 
 there is in the heart at such times." 
 
 We rode on together in silence after that, and 
 were come to the bank of the river before we spoke 
 again. But here Dick went back to my warning, 
 saying, whilst we let the horses drink : " 'Tis pa- 
 trolled on the other bank, you say ?" 
 
 "It was when I passed it a few days agone." 
 
 "Then I will turn back and cross at Beattie's. 
 'Twill make you a risk you need not take — ^to have 
 me with you." 
 
 But I thought now that the upper ford might be 
 
 guarded as well ; and if there must be a cutting of 
 
 a road through the enemy's outpost line for Dick, 
 
 two could do it better than one. So I said : 
 
 - "No ; we are here now, and if need be I can lend 
 
HOST AT MY OWN FIRESIDE 449 
 
 you the weight of a second blade to see you safe 
 through." 
 
 "And you with your head humming Hke a basket 
 of bees, as I make no doubt it will ?" 
 
 I laughed. *T should be but a sorry soldier and 
 a sorrier friend if I should let a love-tap with the 
 flat of a blade make me fail you at the pinch." 
 
 He reached across the little gap that parted us 
 and grasped my hand. 
 
 "By God !" he swore, most feelingly, "you are as 
 true as the steel you carry, Jack Ireton !" 
 
 "Nay," said I, in honest shame ; "I do confess I 
 was thinking less of my friend than of the impor- 
 tance of the errand he rides on." 
 
 "But if there should be a fight, you will spoil 
 your chance of coming peaceably to Charlotte and 
 my Lord's headquarters." 
 
 "If I am recognized — yes. But the night is dark, 
 and a brush with the outpost need not betray me." 
 
 At this he consented grudgingly, and we pushed 
 on to the crossing. Now since this fording place 
 of Master Macgowan's has marched into our his- 
 tory, you will like to know what the historians do 
 not tell you : namely, how it was but a makeshift 
 wading place, armpit deep over a muddy bottom 
 from the western bank to the bar above an island in 
 mid-stream, and deflecting thence through rocky 
 shallows to a point on the eastern bank some dis- 
 tance below the island. 'Twas here that Lord Corn- 
 wallis got entangled some months later — ^but I must 
 not anticipate. 
 
450 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 We made the crossing of the main current in 
 safety and were a-splash in the rocky shallows be- 
 yond the island when we sighted the camp-fires of 
 the outpost. To ride straight upon the patrol was 
 to invite disaster, and though Jennifer was for a 
 charging dash, a hurly-burly with the steel, and so 
 on to freedom beyond, he listened when I pointed 
 out that our beasts were too nearly outworn to 
 charge, and that the noise we must make w^ould 
 rouse the camp and draw the fire of every piece in 
 it long before we could reach the bank and come to 
 blade work. 
 
 "What for it, then?" he asked, impatiently. "My 
 courage is freezing whilst we wait." 
 
 "There is nothing for it but to hold straight on 
 across," I said. 
 
 "That we can not ; 'twill be over the horses' ears. 
 The beasts will drown themselves and us as well." 
 
 How we should have argued it out I do not know, 
 for just then Jennifer's horse, scenting the troop 
 mounts on the farther shore, cocked tail and ears, 
 let out a squealing neigh, and fell to curveting and 
 plunging in a racket that might have stood for the 
 splashings of an advancing army. 
 
 In a twinkling the outpost camp was astir and a 
 bellowing hail came to us across the water. Having 
 no answer, the troopers began to let off their pieces : 
 haphazard in the darkness ; and with the singing 
 zip of the first musket ball, Richard went battle- 
 mad, as he always did in the face of danger. 
 
 "At them!" he thundered, clapping spurs to his 
 
HOST AT MY OWN FIRESIDE 451 
 
 jaded beast and whipping out the great claymore ; 
 and so we charged, the forlornest hope that ever 
 fell upon an enemy. 
 
 How we came ashore alive through the gun-fire 
 is one of those mysteries to which ever}- battle adds 
 its quota ; but the poor beasts we rode were not so 
 lucky. Jennifer's horse went down while we were 
 yet some yards from the bank ; and mine fell a mo- 
 ment later. To face a score of waiting enemies 
 afoot was too much for even Richard's rash cour- 
 age ; so when we were free of the struggling horses 
 we promptly dove for shelter under the up-stream 
 bank. 
 
 Here the darkness stood our friend; and when 
 the redcoat troopers came down to the river's 
 edge with torches to see what had become of us, 
 we took advantage of the noise they made and stole 
 away up-stream till a shelving beach gave us leave 
 to climb to the valley level above. 
 
 Richard shook himself like a water-soaked spaniel 
 and laughed grimly. 
 
 "Well, here we are, safe across, horseless, and 
 well belike to freeze to death," he commented. 
 *' What next ?" 
 
 I made him a bow. "You are on my demesne of 
 Appleby Hundred, Captain Jennifer, and it shall go 
 hard with us if we can not find a fire to warm a 
 guest and a horse to mount him withal. Let us go 
 to the mianor house and see what we can discover." 
 
 He entered at once into the spirit of the jest, and 
 together we trudged the scant mile through the 
 
452 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 stubble-fields to my old roof-tree. As you would 
 guess, we looked to find the manor house turned 
 into an outpost headquarters; but now we were 
 desperate enough to face anything. 
 
 Howbeit, not to rush blindly into the jaws of a 
 trap, we first routed out the old black majordomo 
 at the negro quarters; and when we learned from 
 him that the great house was quite deserted, we 
 took possession and had the black make us a rous- 
 ing fire in the kitchen-arch. Nay, more ; when we 
 had steamed ourselves a little dry, we had old An- 
 thony stew and grill for us, and fetch us a bottle 
 of that madeira of my father's laying in. 
 
 "A toast!" cried Richard, when the bottle came, 
 springing to his feet with the glass held high. "To 
 the dear lady of Appleby Hundred, and may she 
 forgather with the man she loves best, be it you, or 
 I, or another. Jack Ireton !" 
 
 We drank it standing ; and after would sit before 
 the fire, havering like two love-sick school-boys 
 over the charms of that dear lady to whom one of 
 us was less than naught, and to w^iom the other 
 could be but naught whilst that first one lived. 
 
 You will smile, my dears, that we should come to 
 this when, but a short hour before, one of us had 
 been bent upon slaying the other for Mistress Mar- 
 ger>''s sake. But the human heart is many-sided; 
 notably that heart the soldier carries. And though 
 I looked not to live bevond the settinsr of another 
 sun, I was glad to my finger-tips to have this last 
 loving-cup with my dear lad. I thought it would 
 
HOST AT MY OWN FIRESIDE 453 
 
 nerve me bravely for what must come — and so it 
 did, though not as I prefigured. 
 
 We were still sitting thus before the kitchen-arch 
 when the dawn began to dim the firelight, and the 
 work of the new day confronted us. Pinned down, 
 old Anthony confessed that some two or three 
 horses of the Appleby Hundred stables had escaped 
 the hands of the foragers of both sides ; and two of 
 these he fetched for us. Of the twain one chanced 
 to be Blackstar, the good beast which had carried 
 me from New Berne in, the spring; and so I had 
 my own horse betwixt my knees when I set Dick a 
 mile on the road to Salisbury, and bade him farewell. 
 
 His last word to me was one of generous caution. 
 
 "Remember, Jack; 'haste, haste, post haste' is 
 your watchword. There will be other couriers in 
 from the battle-field at King's Mountain; and you 
 must hang and fire your news-petard and vanish 
 before they come to betray you." 
 
 "Trust me," said I, evasively; and so we parted, 
 he to gallop eastward, and I to charge down peace- 
 ably upon that British outpost we had set abuzz in 
 the small hours of the night. 
 
XLII 
 
 IN WHICH MY LORD HAS HIS MARCHING ORDERS 
 
 Though I had passed out of the British lines 
 less than a week before in decent good odor, save 
 for Colonel Tarleton's ill word, I met with nothing 
 like the welcome at the outpost camp that a king's 
 courier had a right to expect. 
 
 The captain in command was not the one who 
 had passed me out. He was a surly brute of the 
 Yorkshire breed ; and when he had heard that I 
 was an express rider from Major Ferguson, he was 
 pleased to demand my papers. 
 
 To this I must needs make answer that I carried 
 no written despatches ; that my news was for the 
 commander-in-chief's private ear. This I told my 
 Yorkshire pig, demanding to be sent, under guard 
 if he chose, to the headquarters in Charlotte. 
 
 But Captain Nobbut would hear to no such rea- 
 sonable proposal. On the contrary, he would hold 
 me in arrest till he could report me and have in- 
 structions from his colonel. 
 
 Knowing what a stake it was I rode for, you may 
 imagine how this day in durance ate into me like a 
 
 454 
 
• MY LORD'S MARCHING ORDERS 455 
 
 canker. With ordinary diligence the trooper who 
 carried the news of me should have gone to Char- 
 lotte by way of Queensborough and returned by 
 noon. But being of the same surly breed with his 
 captain, 't\vas full three of the clock before he came 
 ambling back with an order to set me forthwith 
 upon the road to headquarters. 
 
 Once free of the camp of detention you may be 
 sure I put Blackstar to his best paces ; but hasten 
 as I would it was coming on to evening when I 
 passed the inner safety line and galloped down the 
 high street of the town. 
 
 As luck would have it^ the first familiar face I 
 saw was that of Charles Stedman, the commissary- 
 general. On my inquiry he directed me straight. 
 
 *'My Lord is at supper at Mr. Stair's. Have you 
 news, Captain?" 
 
 I drew breath of relief. Happily the loss of 
 the day had not made me the bearer of stale tidings. 
 So I made answer with proper reticence, saying 
 that I had news_, but it was for Lord Cornwallis's 
 ear first of all. None the less, if the commissary- 
 general were pleased to come with me — 
 
 He took the hint at once ; and he it was who pro- 
 cured me instant admittance to the house, and who 
 took on himself the responsibility of breaking in 
 upon the party in the supper-room. 
 
 I shall not soon forget the scene that fronted us 
 when we came into my Lord's presence. The supper 
 was in some sort a gala feast held in honor of my 
 Lord's accession to his earldom. The table, lighted 
 
456 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 by great silver candelabra which I recognized as 
 Ireton heirlooms, was well filled around by the 
 members of the commander-in-chief's military fam- 
 ily, with the earl at the head, and Mistress Margery, 
 bedight as befitted a lady of the quality, behind the 
 tea-urn at the foot. 
 
 At our incoming all eyes were turned upon us, 
 but it required my Lord's sharp question to make me 
 leave off dwelling upon my sweet lady's radiant 
 beauty. 
 
 "How now. Captain Ireton? Do you bring us 
 news from the major?" 
 
 I broke the fascinating eyehold and turned slowly 
 to face my fate. 
 
 "I do, my Lord." 
 
 "Well, what of him? You left him hastening to 
 rejoin with his new loyalist levies, I hope ?" 
 
 I drew my sword, reversed it and laid it upon the 
 table. 
 
 "Mav all the enemies of the Commonwealth be 
 even as he is, my Lord," I said, quietly. 
 
 Now, truly, I had hanged my petard well and 
 'twas plain the shock of it had gone far to shatter 
 the wall of confidence our enemies had builded on 
 the field of Camden and elsewhere. Had a hand- 
 grenade with the fuse alight been dropped upon 
 the table, the consternation could scarce have been 
 greater. To a man the tableful was up and throng- 
 ing round me ; but above all the hubbub I heard a 
 little cry of misery from the table-foot where my 
 lady sat. 
 
tl- 
 
 MY LORD'S ]MARCHIXG ORDERS 457 
 
 "How is this, sir? — explain yourself!" thundered 
 my Lord, forgetting for once his mild suavity. 
 
 " 'Tis but a brief tale, and I will make it as crisp 
 as may be in the telling," I replied. ''I came upon 
 the major some miles this side of the crossing of 
 the Broad. He was marching to rejoin you, in ac- 
 cordance with his orders. But when he had vour 
 Lordship's command to stand and fight, he obeyed." 
 ^^ly command ? — but I gave him no such order !" 
 'Nay, truly, you did not — neither in the original 
 nor in the duplicate, my Lord. But when we had 
 waylaid Lieutenant Tybee and quenched the dupli- 
 cate, and had so amended the original as to make 
 it fit our purpose, the brave major thanked you for 
 what you had not done and made his stand to 
 await the upcoming of the over-m.ountain men." 
 
 For a moment I thought they would hew me limb 
 from limb, but my Lord quelled the fierce outburst 
 with a word. 
 
 "Put up your swords, gentlemen. We shall know 
 how to deal with this traitor," he said. And then 
 to me : "Go on, sir, if you please ; there has been a 
 battle, as I take it?" 
 
 "There has, indeed. The mountain men came up 
 with us in the afternoon of the Saturday. In an 
 hour one-third of the major's force was dead or 
 dying, the major himself was slain, and every living 
 man left on the field was a prisoner." 
 
 Again a dozen swords hissed from their scab- 
 bards, and again I heard the little cry of misery 
 from the table-foot. I bowed my head, looking 
 
,458 THE ]\I ASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 momently to pay the penalty; but once more my 
 'Lord put the swords aside. 
 
 "Let us have a clean breast of It this time, Cap- 
 tain Ireton," he said. "You know well what you 
 (have earned, and nothing you can say will make it 
 better or worse for you. Was this your purpose 
 in making your submission to me ?" 
 
 "It was."' 
 
 "And you have been a rebel from the first ?" 
 
 I met the cold anger in the womanish eyes as a 
 condemned man might. 
 
 "I have, my Lord — since the day nine years 
 agone when I learned that your king's minions had 
 hanged my father in the Regulation." 
 
 "Then it was a farrago of lies you told me about 
 your adventures in the western mountains ?" 
 
 "Not wholly. It was your Lordship's good pleas- 
 ure to send succors of powder and lead to your 
 allies, the western savages. I and three others fol- 
 lowed Captain Falconnet and his Indians, and I 
 have the honor to report that we overtook and ex- 
 ploded them with their own powder cargo." 
 
 "And Captain Sir Francis Falconnet with 
 them?" 
 
 "I do so hope and trust, my Lord." 
 
 He turned short on his heel, and for a moment a 
 silence as of death fell upon the room. Then he 
 took the Ferara from the table and sought to break 
 it over his knee ; but the good blade, like the cause 
 it stood for, bent like a withe and would not snap. 
 
 "Put this spy in irons and clear the room," he 
 
MY LORD'S MARCHING ORDERS 459 
 
 ordered sharply. And this is how the Httle drama 
 ended : with the supper guests crowding to the door ; 
 with my Lord pacing back and forth at the table- 
 head ; with two sergeants bearing me away to await, 
 where and how I knew not^ the word which should 
 efface me. 
 
XLIII 
 
 IN WHICH I DRINK A DISH OF TEA 
 
 Being without specific orders what to do with 
 me, my two sergeant baihffs thrust me into that 
 little den of a strong-room below stairs where I 
 had once found the master of the house, and one of 
 them mounted guard whilst the other fetched the 
 camp armorer to iron me. 
 
 The shackles securely on, I was left to content me 
 as I could, with the door ajar and my two jailers 
 hobnobbing before it. Having done all I had 
 hoped to do, there was nothing for it now but to 
 wait upon the consequences. So, hitching my chair 
 up to the oaken table, I made a pillow of my fettered 
 wrists and presently fell adoze. 
 
 I know not what hour of the night it was when 
 the half-blood Scipio, who was Mr. Gilbert Stair's 
 body-servant, came in and roused me. I started up 
 suddenly at his touch, making no doubt it was my 
 summons. But the mulatto brought me nothing 
 worse than a cold fowl and a loaf, with a candle- 
 end to see to eat them by, and a dish of hot tea to 
 wash them down. 
 
 ^60 
 
I DRIXK A DISH OF TEA 461 
 
 I knew well enough whom I had to thank for 
 this, and was set wondering that my lady's charity 
 was broad enough to mantle even by this little my 
 latest sins against the king's cause. None the less, 
 I ate and drank gratefully, draining the tea-dish to 
 the dregs — which, by the by, were strangely bitter. 
 
 I had scarce finished picking the bones of the 
 capon before sleep came again to drag at my eye- 
 lids, a drowsiness so masterful that I could make 
 no head against it. And so, with the bitter taste 
 of the tea still on my tongue, I fell away a second 
 time into the pit of forgetfulness. 
 
 When I awakened from what seemed in the mem- 
 ory of it the most unresting sleep I ever had, it 
 was no longer night, and I was stretched upon the 
 oaken settle in that same lumber garret where I had 
 been bedded through that other night of hiding. 
 So much I saw at the waking glance ; and then I 
 realized, vaguely at first, but presently with startling 
 emphasis, that it was the westering sun which w^as 
 shining in at the high roof windows, that the 
 shackles were still on, and that my temples were 
 throbbing with a most skull-splitting headache. 
 
 Being fair agasp with astoundment at this new 
 spinning of fate's wheel, I sprang up quickly — and 
 was as quickly glad to fall back upon the pallet. 
 For with the upstart a heaving nausea came to 
 supplement the headache, and for a long time I 
 lay bat-blind and sick as any landsman in his first 
 gale at sea. 
 
 The sunlight was fading from the high windows, 
 
462 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 and I was deep sunk in a sick man's megrims, before 
 aught came to disturb the silence of the cobwebbed 
 garret. From nausea and racking pains I had 
 come to the stage of querulous self-pity. 'Twas 
 monstrous, this burying a man alive, ill, fettered, 
 uncared-for, to live or die in utter solitude as might 
 happen. I could not remotely guess to whom I 
 owed this dismal fate, and was too petulant to 
 speculate upon it. But the meddler, friend or foe, 
 who had bereft me of my chance to die whilst I was 
 fit and ready, came in for a Turkish cursing — ^the 
 curse that calls down in all the Osmanli variants 
 the same pangs in duplicate upon the banned one. 
 
 It was in the midst of one of these impotent fits 
 of malediction that the wainscot door was opened 
 and closed softly, and light footsteps tiptoed to my 
 bedside. I shut my eyes wilfully when a voice low 
 and tender asked: "Are you awake, Monsieur 
 John ?" 
 
 I hope you will hold me forgiven, my dears, if 
 I confess that what with the nausea and the head- 
 ache, the fetters and the solitude, I was rabid enough 
 to rail at her. 'Twas so near dusk in the ill-lighted 
 garret that I could not see how she took it ; but she 
 let me know by word of mouth. 
 
 "Merci, Monsieur/' she said, icily. And then: 
 "Gratitude does not seem to be amongst your gifts." 
 
 At this I broke out in all a sick man's pettish- 
 
 ness. 
 
 Gratitude! Mayhap you will tell me what it 
 is I have to be grateful for. All I craved was the 
 
I DRINK A DISH OF TEA 463 
 
 cHance to die as a soldier should, and some one must 
 needs spoil me of that !" 
 
 "Selfish — selfish always and to the last," she mur- 
 mured. "Do you never give a moment's thought to 
 the feelings of others, Captain Ireton?" 
 
 This was past all endurance. 
 
 "If I had not, should I be here this moment ?" I 
 raved. "You do make me sicker than I was, my 
 lady.'' 
 
 "Yet I say you are selfish," she insisted. "What 
 have I done that you should come here to have 
 yourself hanged for a spy ?" 
 
 "Let us have plain speech, in God's name," I re- 
 torted. "You know well enough there was no better 
 way in which I could serve you." 
 
 "Do I, indeed, mon amif she flashed out. "Let 
 me tell you, sir, had she ever a blush of saving pride, 
 Margery Stair — or Margery Ireton, if you like that 
 better — would kill you with her own hand rather 
 than have it said her husband died upon a gal- 
 lows !" 
 
 A sudden light broke in upon me and I went blind 
 in the horror of it. 
 
 "God in Heaven!" I gasped; "'twas you, then? 
 I do believe you poisoned me in that dish of tea 
 you sent me last night !" 
 
 She laughed, a bitter little laugh that I hated to 
 think on afterward. 
 
 "You have a most chivalrous soul. Captain Ireton. 
 I do not wonder you are so fierce to shake it free 
 of the poor body of clay." 
 
464 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 "But you do not deny it !" I cried. 
 
 *'Of what use would it be? I have said that I 
 would not have you die shamefully on the gallows ; 
 so I may as well confess to the poppy-juice in the 
 tea. Tell me, Monsieur John ; was it nasty bitter ?" 
 
 "Good Lord !" I groaned ; "are you a woman, or a 
 fiend r 
 
 "Either, or both, as you like to hold me, sir. But 
 come what might, I said you should not die a felon's 
 death. And you have not, as yet." 
 
 "Better a thousand times the rope and tree than 
 that I should rot by inches here with you to sit 
 by and gird at me. Ah, my lady, you are having 
 your revenge of me." 
 
 ''Merci, encore. Shall I go aw^ay and leave you ?" 
 
 "No, not that." A cold sweat broke out upon 
 me in a sudden childish horror of the solitude and 
 the darkness and the fetters. And then I added: 
 "But 'twould be angel kindness if you would leave 
 off torturing me. I am but a man, dear lady, and a 
 sick man at that." 
 
 All in a flash her mood changed and she bent to 
 lay a cool palm on my throbbing temples. 
 
 "Poor Monsieur John !" she said softly ; "I meant 
 not to make you suffer more, but rather less." Then 
 she found w^ater and a napkin to wring out and bind 
 upon my aching head. 
 
 At the touch and the w^ord of womanly sympathy 
 I forgot all, and the love-madness came again 
 to blot out the very present memory of how she 
 had brought me to this. 
 
I DRINK A DISH OF TEA 465 
 
 "Ah, that is better — better," I sighed, when the 
 pounding hammers in my temples gave me some 
 surcease of the agony. 
 
 "Then you forgive me?" she asked, whether jest- 
 ingly or in earnest I could not tell. 
 
 "There is none so much to forgive," I replied. 
 "One hopeless day last summer I put my life in 
 pledge to you; and you — in common justice you 
 have the right to do what you will with it." 
 
 "Ah ; now you talk more like my old-time ]\Ion- 
 sieur John with the healing sword-thrust. But that 
 day you speak of was not more hopeless for you 
 than for me." 
 
 "I know it," said I, thinking only of how the 
 loveless marriage must grind upon her. "But it 
 must needs be hopeless for both till death steps in 
 to break the bond." 
 
 Again she laughed, that same bitter little laugh. 
 
 "Indeed, it was a great wrong you did that night, 
 sir. I could wish, as heartily as you, that it might 
 be undone. But this is idle talk. Let me see if this 
 key will fit your manacles. I have been all day find- 
 ing out who had it, and I am not sure it will be the 
 right one, after all." 
 
 But it did prove to be the right one; and when 
 the irons w^re ofif I felt more like a man and 
 less like a baited bear. 
 
 "That is better," said I, drawing breath of un- 
 feigned relief. "I bear my Lord Charles no malice, 
 but 'twas a needless precaution, this ironing of a 
 man who was never minded to run away." 
 
466 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 "But you are going to run away," she said, de- 
 cisively; "and that as soon as ever you are able to 
 hold a horse between your knees. Shall I bring 
 you another dish of tea? Nay, never look so hor- 
 rified ; I shall not poison you this time." 
 
 "Stay," I cried. "You mean that you are going 
 to help me escape? 'Tis a needless prolonging 
 of the agony. Go and tell the guards where they 
 can find me." 
 
 She stopped midway to the wainscot door and 
 turned to give me my answer. 
 
 "No; you are a soldier, and — and I will not be a 
 gallows-widow. Do you hear, sir? If you are so 
 eager to die, there is always the battle-field." And 
 with that she left me. 
 
 I may pass over the two succeeding days in the 
 silence I was condemned to endure through the 
 major part of them. After that first visit, IMargery 
 came only at stated intervals to bring me food and 
 drink, and my nurse was an old black beldame, 
 either deaf and dumb, or else so newly from the 
 Guinea Coast as to be unable to twist her tongue to 
 the English. 
 
 And in the food-bringings I could neither make 
 my lady stay nor answer any question ; this though 
 I was hungering to know what was going on be- 
 yond the walls of my garret prison. Indeed, she 
 would not even tell me how I had been spirited 
 away from the two sergeants keeping watch over 
 me in her father's strong-room below stairs. "That 
 
I DRINK A DISH OF TEA 467 
 
 is Scipio's secret," she would say, laughing at me, 
 "and he shall keep it." 
 
 But in the evening of the third day the mystery 
 bubble was bursty and I learned from Margery's 
 lips the thing I longed to know. Lord Cornwallis 
 had decided to abandon North Carolina, and in an 
 hour or two the army would be in motion for with- 
 drawal to the southward. 
 
 "Now, thanks be to God !" I said, most fervently. 
 "King's Mountain has begun the good work, and we 
 shall show Farmer George a thing or two he had not 
 guessed." 
 
 On this, my lady drew herself up most proudly 
 and her lip curled. 
 
 "A'ou forget, sir, you are speaking to Mr. Gilbert 
 Stair's daughter." 
 
 "True," said I; "I did forget. We are at cross 
 purposes in this, as in all things else. I crave your 
 pardon, Aladam." 
 
 Her eyes were snapping by now. Never tell me, 
 my dears, that eyes of the blue-gray can not flash' 
 fire when they will. 
 
 "How painstakingly you v/ill go about to make 
 me hate you !" she burst out. And then, all in the 
 same breath : "But you will be rid of me presently, 
 for good and all." 
 
 "Nay, then, ^listress Margery, you are always 
 taking an ell of meaning for my inch of speech. 
 'Tis I who should do the ridding." 
 
 "Mon Dieti!" she cried, in a sudden burst of petu- 
 
468 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 lance ; *'I am sick to death of all this ! Is there no 
 way out of this coil that is strangling us both, 
 Captain Ireton?" 
 
 ''I had thought to make a way three days ago; 
 did so make it, but you kept me from walking in it. 
 Yet that way is still open — if you will but drop a 
 word in my Lord's ear when you go belov/ stairs." 
 
 "Oh, yes — a fine thing; the wife betray the hus- 
 band !" This with another lip-curl of scorn. 'T 
 have some shreds and patches of pride left, sir, 
 if you have not." 
 
 "Then free me of my obligation to you and let 
 me do it myself. I am well enough to hang." 
 
 "x\nd so make me a consenting accomplice? 
 Truly, as I have said before, you have a most 
 knightly soul. Captain Ireton." 
 
 I closed my eyes in very weariness. 
 'You are hard to please, my lady." 
 Y^ou have not to try to please me, sir. I am 
 going away — to-night." 
 
 "Going away?" I echoed. "Whither, if I may 
 ask ?" 
 
 "My father has taken protection and we shall go 
 south with the army. As Lord Cornwallis says, 
 IMecklenburg is a hornets' nest of rebellion, and in 
 an hour or two after we are gone you will be 
 amongst your friends." 
 
 She made to leave me now, but I would not let 
 her go without trying the last blunt-pointed arrow 
 in the quiver of expedients. 
 
 "Stay a moment," I begged. "You are leaving 
 
 
I DRINK A DISH OF TEA 469 
 
 tKe untangling of this coil you speak of to a chance 
 bullet on a battle-field. Had you ever thought that 
 the Church can undo what the Church has done?" 
 
 Again I had that bitter laugh which was to rankle 
 afterward in memory. 
 
 ''You are a most desperate, pertinacious man, 
 Captain Ireton. Failing all else, you would even 
 storm Heaven itself to gain your end," she scoffed ; 
 then, at the very pitch-point of the scornful out- 
 burst she put her face in her hands and fell a-sob- 
 bing as if her heart would break. 
 
 I knew not what to say or do, and ended, man- 
 like, by saying and doing nothing. And so, still 
 crying softly, she let herself out at the wainscot 
 door, and this was our leave-taking. 
 
XLIV 
 
 HOW WE CAME TO THE BEGINNING OF THE END 
 
 It was on the third day of December, a cheerless 
 and comfortless dav at the close of the most In- 
 clement autumn I ever remember, that the patriot 
 Army of the South was paraded on the court-house 
 common in Charlotte to listen to the reading of 
 General Gates's final order, the order announcing 
 the arrival of Major-general Greene from Wash- 
 ington's headquarters to take over the command of 
 the field forces in the Carollnas. 
 
 As mxcmbers of Colonel William Washington's 
 light-horse, Richard Jennifer and I were both pres- 
 ent at this installation of the new field commander ; 
 and it was here that we both had our first sight 
 of Nathaniel Greene, the "Hickory Quaker." 
 
 Now the historians, as is their wont, have pic- 
 tured Greene the general to the complete eft'acement 
 of Greene the man, and it is in my mind that you 
 may like to see the new commander as we saw him, 
 making his first inspection of Horatio Gates's poor 
 "shadow of an army" on that dismal December 
 day in Charlotte. 
 
 470 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE END 471 
 
 In years he was rising forty ; and as weight goes 
 he was a heavy man, pressing hard upon fifteen 
 stone with the knuckle of it under his waistcoat. 
 None the less, though his great bulk made him sit 
 his horse more like a farmer than a soldier, he had 
 the muscular shoulders and arms of the anchor- 
 smiths, to which trade he had been bred. 
 
 The hint of grossness which his figure gave was 
 not borne out by his face. Like my Lord Comwal- 
 lis's, his eyes were womanish large, and nose and 
 mouth and the lift of the brow were cast in a mold 
 to match ; yet there was that in his face which made 
 it the mask of a soul thoughtful and serene; and 
 his ruddy complexion and fair hair gave him a look 
 of openness that a dark man is like to miss. 
 
 A skilled soldier, with a good promise of strenu- 
 ous patience, was my summing up of him, and 
 Dick saw him as I did, though with a more prophetic 
 eye. 
 
 '*He will make his mark, Jack, look you; not in 
 stubborn in-fighting at the barrier, mayhap, like 
 Dan Morgan, nor in a brilliant dash, like our col- 
 onel, but in his own anchor-smith's way — a heat 
 at a time, and a blow at a time," said Jennifer; 
 and I nodded. 
 
 Stirrup to stirrup with the new commander as 
 he passed down the line rode Daniel Morgan, big, 
 strong, masterful, handsome, the very pick and 
 choice of leaders for his rough and ready riflemen. 
 Like most of his men, he scorned to wear a uni- 
 form, appearing on parade, as in the field, in a neat- 
 
472 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 fitting hunting-shirt of Indian-tanned buckskin with 
 fringings of the same — a costume that set off his 
 gigantic figure as no tailor-fine coat could have set 
 it off. 
 
 When he pulled his horse down to make it keep 
 step with the sedater pacings of the general's, we 
 could hear him declaring, wath an oath, that his 
 Eleventh Virginia alone would give a good account 
 of all the Tories between the Catawba and the 
 Broad; and when the cavalcade passed the rifle 
 corps, the men flung their hats and cheered their 
 leader in open defiance of all discipline. 
 
 Ah me ! they tell me that in after years this stout 
 Daniel, the "Lion-bearder," as we used to dub 
 him, became a doddering old man, even as thy old 
 tale-teller is now ; that he put ofif all his roistering 
 ways and might be found any Lord's Day shouting, 
 not curses, as of yore, but psalm tunes, in the church 
 whereof he was a pillar ! But 'twas the other Dan- 
 iel we knew ; the blufif, hearty man of his two hands, 
 who could pummel the best boxer in his own regi- 
 ment of fisticuffers ; who could out-curse, out-bufTet 
 and out-drink the hardiest frontiersman on the bor- 
 der. 
 
 Next conspicuous in the general's suite was our 
 colonel, the pink of light-horse commanders, with 
 only Harry Lee in all the patriot rank and file 
 for his peer. 'Tis a thousand pities that William 
 Washington, "the Marcellus of the army," has had 
 to suffer the eclipse which must dim the luster of 
 all who walk in the shadow of a greater of the same 
 
THE BEGIXXIXG OF THE END 473 
 
 name. For surely there never was a finer gentle- 
 man, a truer friend, a nobler patriot, or, according 
 to his opportunities, an abler officer than was our 
 beloved colonel of the light dragoons. 
 
 But this is all beside the mark, you will say; 
 and you will be chafing restively to know how^ Dick 
 and I had come together in this troop of Colonel 
 Washington's ; to know this in a word and to pass 
 on at a gallop to the happenings which followed. 
 Nay, In fancy's eye I can see you turning the page 
 impatiently, wondering where and when and how 
 this tiresome old word-spinner v/ill make an end. 
 
 As ]\Iargery had promised, I passed out of my 
 garret prison and out of door on that memorable 
 evening of October fourteenth to find the British 
 gone from Charlotte and the town jubilant with 
 patriotic joy. 
 
 Having nothing to detain me, and being bound in 
 honor by the wish of my dear lady not to follow 
 and give myself up to the retreating British general, 
 I took horse and rode to Salisbury, where I had the 
 great good fortune to find Dick, already breveted 
 a captain In Colonel Washington's command, hur- 
 rying his troop southward to whip on the British 
 withdrawal. 
 
 Here was my chance to drown heartburnings In 
 an onsweeping tide of action, and then and there 
 I became a gentleman volunteer in Dick's company, 
 asking nothing of my dear lad save that I might 
 ride at his stirrup and share his hazards. 
 
 Touching the hazards, there were plenty of them 
 
474 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 in the seven weeks preceding and the month or 
 more following our new general's coming to take 
 the field, as you may know in detail if you care 
 to follow the gallopings of Colonel Washington's 
 light-horse troop through the pages of the histo- 
 ries. But these have little or naught to do with my 
 tale, and I pass them by with the word you will an- 
 ticipate ; that in all the dashes and forays and 
 brushes with the enemy's foraging parties and out- 
 posts, no British or Tory bullet could find its billet 
 in the man who was enamored of death. 
 
 As for my most miserable entanglement, the lapse 
 of time made it neither better nor worse, nor 
 greatly different ; and there was little in all the 
 skirmishings and gallopings to beat off the bandog 
 of conscience, or that other and still fiercer wild 
 beast of starved love, that gnawed at me day and 
 night. 
 
 Though the hope for some easement would now 
 and then lift its head, I was reminded daily that 
 hope itself was hopeless ; and when the days length- 
 ened into weeks and the weeks into months, bring- 
 ing no salving for the double hurt, I knew that 
 time could only make me love Margery the more ; 
 that there be wounds that heal, and others that 
 open afresh at each remembrance of the hand that 
 gave them. 
 
 One grain of comfort I had in all these dreary 
 weeks. 'Twas whilst we were quartering in Char- 
 lotte, and I had chanced to fall upon the half-blood 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE END 475 
 
 Scipio who had been left by Gilbert Stair to be the 
 caretaker of the deserted town house. 
 
 As you will remember, 'twas he who had brought 
 me the drugged tea, and the word I had from him 
 made me hot with shame for the cruel imputation 
 I had put upon my dear lady. ''Yas, sar; gib um 
 sleep-drop to make buckra massa hoi' still twell we 
 could tote 'im froo de window an' 'roun' de house 
 an' up de sta'r. Sol j ah g}^ards watch um mighty 
 close dat night; yes, sar!" And thus this night- 
 mare thought of mine was turned into another 
 thorn to prick me on the self-accusing side. 'Twas 
 her keen woman's wit, and no cold-blooded plan to 
 cheat the gallows, that made her give me the sleep- 
 ing draft. Having the object-lesson of my late 
 surrender before her, she had no mind to let me 
 mar the rescue by waking to forbid it. And when 
 I taxed her, 'twas natural pride that drove her to let 
 me go on thinking the unworthy thought, if so I 
 w^ould. 
 
 I did penance for my disloyalty as a despairing 
 lover might, and I do think it made me tenderer of 
 Dick, whose bearing to me through all these tem- 
 pestuous weeks was most nobly generous and for- 
 giving. I say forgiving because I was often but 
 the curstest of companions, as you would guess. 
 For when I was not bent upon finding that wicket 
 gate of death which would let me from the path 
 of these two, I was in a wicked tertian of the mind 
 whose chill was of despair, and whose fever was a 
 
4/6 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 hot desire to look once more into the eyes of my dear 
 lady before the wicket gate should open for me. 
 
 'Twas this desire that finally drew me to her — 
 the desire and another thing which shall have men- 
 tion in its place. The new year was now come, 
 and the Southern Army, as yet too weak to cope 
 with the enemy, was cut into two wings of observa- 
 tion; one under General Greene himself at Cheraw 
 Hill, the other and lesser in the knoll forests of the 
 Broad with Daniel Morgan for its chief; both 
 watching hawk-like the down-sitting of my Lord 
 Cornwallis, who seemed to have taken root at 
 Winnsborough. 
 
 As you will know, Washington's light-horse was 
 with Morgan; and we ate, drank and well-nigh 
 slept in the saddle. But for all our scoutings and 
 outridings, and all Dan Morgan's hearty cursings at 
 the ill success of them, we could come by no sure 
 inkling of Lord Cornwallis's designs. As I have 
 said, the British commander seemed to have taken 
 root and was now waiting to sprout and grow. 
 
 It was at this lack-knowledge crisis that I vol- 
 unteered to go to the British camp at Winnsborough 
 in my old quality of spy ; did this and had my leave 
 and orders before Dick learned of it. 
 
 Left to my own devices, I fear I should have 
 slipped away without telling Jennifer. But, as so 
 many times before, fate intervened to drive me 
 where I had not meant to go. On the morning set 
 for my departure I woke to find a letter pinned to 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE END 477 
 
 the ground beside me with an Indian scalping-knife 
 thrust through it. 
 
 Dick was sitting by the newly-kindled fire, nurs- 
 ing his knees and most palpably waiting for me to 
 wake and find my missive. 
 
 "What is it?" I asked, eying the ominous thing 
 distrustfully. 
 
 " 'Tis a letter, as you see. Uncanoola left it." 
 Then, most surlily : " 'Tis from Madge, and to you. 
 There is your name on the back of it." 
 
 At this I must needs read the letter, with the lad 
 looking on as if he would eat me. 'Twas dated 
 at Winnsborough, and was brief and to the point. 
 
 Monsieur: 
 
 ''When last we met you said the Church might 
 undo what the Church had done. I have spoken to 
 the good Pcre Matthicu, and he has consented to 
 write to the Holy Father at Rome. But it is neces- 
 sary that he should have your declaration. Since 
 the matter is of your own seeking, mayhap you can 
 devise a zvay to communicate with Pere Matthieu, 
 who is at present with us under our borrowed roof 
 here. 
 
 That was all, and it was signed only with her in- 
 itial. I read it through twice and then again to gain 
 time. For Dick was waiting. 
 
 " 'Tis a mere formal matter of business," said I, 
 when I could put him off no longer. 
 
47S THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 ''Business ?" he queried, the red Hght of suspicion 
 coming and going in his eye. "What business can 
 you have with Mistress Madge Stair, pray?" 
 
 " 'Tis about — it touches the title to Appleby Hun- 
 dred," said I, equivocating as clumsily as a school- 
 boy caught in a fault. "Of course you know that the 
 confiscation act of the North Carolina Congress re- 
 established my right and title to the estate ?" 
 
 "No," said he; "you never told me." Then: 
 "She writes you about this?" 
 
 "About a matter touching it, as I say." 
 
 "As you did not say," he growled; after which 
 a silence came and sat between us, I holding the open 
 letter in my hand and he staring gloomily at the 
 back of it. 
 
 When the silence grew portentous I told him of 
 my design to go a-spying. He looked me in the eye 
 and his smile was not pleasant to see. 
 
 "You are lying most clumsily. Jack; or at best 
 you are telling me but half the truth. You are 
 going to see Mistress Margery." 
 
 "That is altogether as it may happen," I retorted, 
 striving hard to keep down the flame of insensate 
 rivalry which his accusings always kindled in me. 
 
 "It is not. Winnsborough is neither London nor 
 yet Philadelphia, that you may miss her in the 
 crowd. And you do not mean to miss her." 
 
 "Well? And if I do chance to see her — what 
 then ?" 
 
 "Don't mad me. Jack. You should know by this 
 what a fool she has made of me." 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE END 479 
 
 (( J' 
 
 'Tis your own folly," I rejoined hotly. "You 
 should blame neither the lady nor the man to whom 
 she has given nothing save — " 
 
 "Save what?'' he broke in savagely. 
 
 I recoiled on the brink as I had so many times be- 
 fore. The months of waiting for the death I craved 
 had hardened me. 
 
 "Save a thing you would value lightly enough 
 w^ithout her love. Let us have done with this 
 bickering; find the colonel and ask his leave to go 
 with me, if you like. Then you may do the love- 
 making whilst I do the spying." 
 
 "No," said he ; "not while you stand it upon such 
 a leg as that." 
 
 I reached across and gripped his hand and wrung 
 it. "Shall we never have the better of these sense- 
 less vaporings ?" I cried. " 'Tis as you say ; I can 
 neither live sane nor die mad without another sight 
 of her, Dick, and that is the plain truth. And yet, 
 mark me, this next seeing of her will surely set a 
 thing in train that will make her yours and not mine. 
 Get your leave and come with me on your own 
 terms. Mayhap she will show you how little she 
 cares for me, and how much she cares for you." 
 
 So this is how it came about that we two, garbed 
 as decent planters and mounted upon the sleekest 
 cobs the regiment afforded, took the road for Winns- 
 borough together on a certain summer-fine morning 
 in January in the year of battles, seventeen hun- 
 dred and eighty-one. 
 
XLV 
 
 IN WHICH WE FIND WHAT WE NEVER SOUGHT 
 
 'Tis fifty miles as a bird would fly it from tHe 
 grazing uplands of the Broad known as the Cowpens 
 to the lower plantation region lying between that 
 stream and the farther Catawba or Wateree; and 
 Richard Jennifer and I ambled the distance leisurely, 
 as befitted our mission and disguise, cutting the 
 journey evenly in half for the first night's lodging, 
 which we had at the house of one Philbrick — as 
 hot a Tory as we pretended to be. 
 
 From our host of the night we learned that within 
 two days the British outposts on the Wateree and 
 the Broad had been advanced ; and there were ru- 
 mors in the air that Lord Cornwallis, who was 
 hourly expecting General Leslie with two thousand 
 of Sir Henry Clinton's men from New York, would 
 presently move on to the long-deferred conquest of 
 North Carolina. 
 
 "Has Cornwallis lost his wits?" Dick would say, 
 when we were a- jog on the southward road again. 
 " 'Tis a braver lordling than I gave him credit for 
 being — if he will put his head in a trap that will 
 
 480 
 
WHAT WE NEVER SOUGHT 481 
 
 close behind him and cut him off from his Hne and 
 base." 
 
 I laughed. "You may wager Jennifer House 
 against an acre of the Cowpens that Lord Charles 
 will do no such unsoldierly thing. If this rumor be 
 true, we have heard only the half of it." 
 
 "And the other half will be ?— " 
 
 "That my Lord Corn-wallis will do his prettiest 
 to pull the teeth of one or the other of the trap- 
 jaws before he trusts himself within them." 
 
 Jennifer was silent for an ambling minute or 
 two. Then he said : " "Twill be our teeth he'll try 
 to pull, then. The Broad is nearer than the Pedee ; 
 and ours is the weaker of the two jaws." 
 
 "Right you are," said L "And now we know 
 what we have to discover." 
 'Anan ?" he queried. 
 
 'We must learn by hook or crook who is to be 
 sent against Dan Morgan, and wdien." 
 
 "That should be easy — if the use of it afterward 
 be not choked out of us at a rope's end." 
 
 "We can divide the rope's-end chance of failure 
 by two. We may work together as the opportunity 
 offers, but once within the lines we must pass as 
 strangers to each other, or at most as chance ac- 
 quaintances of the road." 
 
 "Good," said he ; and then his jaw dropped. "But 
 what if one of us be taken ? Never ask me to stand 
 by stranger-wise and see you hanged. Jack !" 
 
 "I shall both ask it and promise to do the same by 
 
 
(( J' 
 
 .482 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 you. Your hand on it before we go a step farther, 
 if you please." 
 
 'Tis out of all reason," he demurred. 
 'Tis the only reasonable course. Bethink you, 
 this is no knight-errant venture ; we are two of Dan 
 Morgan's soldiers bent upon doing a thing most 
 needful for the welfare of the country and its cause. 
 'Tis a duty higher than any obligation friendship 
 lays on Richard Jennifer or John Ireton." 
 
 At this he yielded the point, though I could see 
 that the proposal jumped little with the promptings 
 of his generous heart. 
 
 " 'Tis a scurvy trap you have set for me," he 
 grumbled. "The risk is chiefly yours, and you know 
 it. You are known to Lord Cornwallis, and to God 
 knows how many more of them, and belike — " 
 
 The interruption came in the shape of a troop 
 of redcoat horsemen galloping in the road to meet 
 us, and we were shortly surrounded and put sharply 
 to the question. We answered each for himself. 
 Dick was a loyalist from Yorkville way, eager to be 
 set in arms against the bandit Daniel Morgan. I 
 was a refugee from ''hornets'-nest" Mecklenburg, 
 also bent upon revenge. 
 
 The troop officer passed us on, something doubt- 
 ing, as I suspected. But we were riding in the 
 right direction, and he was unwilling to clog him- 
 self with a pair of plain country gentlemen held in 
 leash as prisoners. 
 
 A few miles farther down the road the same brace 
 
WHAT WE NEVER SOUGHT 483 
 
 of lies got us safely through the loosely drawn ve- 
 dette line, and by evening we were in sight of our 
 goal. 
 
 Viewing it from the rising ground of approach, 
 Wlnnsborough appeared less as a town than as a 
 partly fortified camp. The few houses of the vil- 
 lage were lost in the field of tents, huts and troop 
 shelters, and measuring by the spread of these, it 
 would seem that my Lord Cornwallis's army had 
 been considerably augmented since I had last seen 
 it in Charlotte. I spoke of this, but Dick was intent 
 upon the business of the moment. 
 
 "Aye ; there are enough of them, God knows. But 
 tell me, Jack — Fm new to this game — what's to do 
 first when we are among them ?" 
 
 I laughed at him. "You are my troop comman- 
 der. Captain Jennifer. 'Tis for you to make the 
 dispositions." 
 
 "Have your joke and be hanged to you. There 
 are no captains here." 
 
 "If you leave it to me, we shall ride boldly to the 
 tavern, put up as travelers, and listen to the gos- 
 sips, each for himself," I replied ; and this is what 
 we did. 
 
 The village tavern, servilely bearing the klng*s 
 arms thinly painted over the palm.etto tree of South 
 Carolina on its swinging sign-board, was a miserable 
 doggery, full to overflowing with a riffraff of 
 carousing soldiery. Separating by mutual consent 
 in the public tap-room, Richard and I presently 
 
484 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 drifted together again at a small table in a corner, 
 with a black boy in attendance to set before us such 
 poor entertainment as the hostelry afforded. 
 
 *'Well, what luck?" asked Dick, mumbling it be- 
 hind his hand, though he might safely have shouted 
 it aloud in the din and clamor of the place. 
 
 I shook my head. ^'Nothing as yet, save that 
 I overheard a tipsy corporal telling his tipsier ser- 
 geant that the officers would be holding a revel 
 to-night at a Tory manor house situate somewhere 
 beyond the camp confines to the northward ; the 
 house of one Master Marmaduke Harndon, if I 
 heard the name aright." Then I added: "This 
 rabble is too drunken to serve our purpose. "Tis 
 only the common soldiery, and we shall learn noth- 
 ing here." 
 
 "There was at least one who was not a ranker," 
 said Dick, and there was something akin to awe 
 in his voice. Then he leaned across the table to 
 whisper. "Jack, Pve fair had a fright !" 
 
 I smiled. Fear, of God, man or the devil, was not 
 one of the lad's weaknesses. 
 
 "You may grin as you please," he went on ; "but 
 answer me this ; do the dead come back to life ?" 
 
 "Not this side of the resurrection reveille, if we 
 may believe the dominies." 
 
 "Then I have seen a ghost — a most horrible 
 mask of a man we both know to our cost." 
 
 "Name him and I will tell you whether he be a 
 ghost or no." 
 
 " 'Tis the ghost of Frank Falconnet ; or else it 
 
WHAT WE NEVER SOUGHT 485 
 
 is what of the man himself the fire hath left," said 
 Dick, and I marked his shiver at the word. 
 
 "No !" said I. 
 
 "I tell you yes." 
 
 I sprang up, but the lad reached across the table 
 and smote me back into the chair. 
 
 "Softly, old firebrand; 'twas you who said the 
 public matter must take precedence of the private. 
 Moreover, if this be Francis Falconnet whom I have 
 seen, your sweetest revenge on him will be to let 
 him live — as he is." 
 
 "I will kill him as I would a wild beast," I raged, 
 thinking of that midnight scene in the great forest 
 when my sweet lady had gone on her knees to this 
 fiend in human guise. "And so should you," I 
 added, "if you care aught for the honor of the 
 woman who loves you." 
 
 But now it was this hot-headed Richard I have 
 drawn for you who saw farthest and clearest. 
 
 "All in good time," he said, coolly. "At this 
 present we have Dan Morgan's fish to fry, and sit- 
 ting here saucing this devil's mess of a supper with 
 thoughts of private revenge will never fry it. Set 
 your wits at work ; Falconnet^s ghost has put mine 
 hopelessly out of gear. Ye gods ! but 'twas a most 
 fearsome thing to look at !" 
 
 I did not answer him at once, and whilst I plied 
 knife and fork for the sake of appearances, I would 
 think upon what he had discovered. This reap- 
 pearance of Francis Falconnet was not to be passed 
 over lightly. What would he do, or seek to do? 
 
486 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 Nay, what devilish thing was it he might not do? 
 If the fire had burned his passion out, it had doubt- 
 less kindled a feller blaze of revenge. And if his 
 thirst was for vengeance, how could he quench it 
 in a deeper draft than by harrying the woman 
 we both loved ? 'Twas only by a mighty effort that 
 I could drag myself back to Dick's urging and the 
 needs of the hour. 
 
 ''To have some chance of hearing gossip to our 
 purpose, we must make shift to gain admittance to 
 this officers' rout at the manor house," I said. 
 
 "The devil !" quoth Dick, "I venture that's easier 
 said than done — for two plain country gentlemen." 
 
 "Never fear; there will be others there lacking 
 fine clothes, and so the throng be great enough, we 
 may pass current in it." 
 
 Richard pushed his plate back with a grimace 
 of disgust. 
 
 "Let us be at it, then. Another grapple with this 
 pig-bait will finish me outright." 
 
 A half-hour later we were tethering our cobs at 
 the already crowded hitching-rail in front of a 
 goodly mansion some mile or more beyond the camp 
 limits on the northward road ; a rambling manor 
 house to the full as large as Appleby Hundred, with 
 a shaven lawn in front, and within, lights and music 
 and sounds of revelry. 
 
 "By the Lord Harry! but this Master Harndon 
 would seem to be a man of substance," says Dick. 
 And then: "Can you pick out a good horse in the 
 dark, Jack? It may come to a race for our necks, 
 
WHAT WE NEVER SOUGHT 487 
 
 by and by, and these cobs of ours are too broad- 
 backed for speed." 
 
 I said I could, and so we went deeper into the 
 cavalcade at the hitch-rail and marked out two clean- 
 limbed chargers, a gray and a sorrel ; this before we 
 gave the final touches to our plan of action and 
 passed up the broad avenue to the manor house. 
 
XLVI 
 
 HOW OUR PIECE MISSED FIRE AT HARNDON ACRES 
 
 For a doorkeeper some one or another of the 
 officer guests had set a sergeant on guard ; but 
 though the night was yet young the man passed us 
 into the great entrance hall with a hiccough and a 
 w^ink that spoke thus early of an open house and 
 freely flowing good cheer. 
 
 As we had hoped to find it, this rout at Master 
 Harndon's was a stifling jam, and a good half of 
 the guests were in civilian plain clothes, neither 
 Paris nor London having as yet reached so far into 
 the Carolina plantations to proscribe homespun and 
 to prescribe the gay toggeries of the courts. This 
 for the men, I hasten to add ; for then, as now, our 
 American dames and maids would put a year's 
 cropping of a plantation on their backs, thinking 
 nothing of it : and there was no lack of shimmering 
 silks and stiff brocades, of high-piled coiffures, paint, 
 patches and powder at this merrymaking at Harn- 
 don Acres. 
 
 Lacking an introducer, and wanting, moreover, 
 nothing save the leave to have standing-room in the 
 
 488 
 
OUR PIECE AlISSED FIRE 489 
 
 throng as lookers-on, we gave yiv. IMarmaduke 
 Harndon, a sleek, rotund little gentleman, smirking 
 and bowing and tapping the lid of his silver snuff- 
 box, a wide berth ; and with an agreement to meet 
 later for the comparing of notes, Jennifer and I 
 went apart at the door of the ball-room, each to lose 
 himself in the assembled company as an otter slips 
 into a pool, namely, without ruffling it. 
 
 'Twas easily done. Winnsborough had by this time 
 become a refuge camp for all the loyalists in the re- 
 gion roundabout, and there were many in the present 
 company who were strangers one to another, uneasy, 
 shifting figures in the gay throng, beneath the notice 
 alike of haughty dames and prinking dandy officers. 
 Beneath the notice, I say ; yet I would qualify this, 
 for more than one of the epauletted macaronis trod 
 upon my toes or bustled me rudely in the crush till 
 I trembled, not for my own self-control, but for 
 Richard's, making sure that the lad was having 
 no more gentlemanly welcome than I. 
 
 'Twas with some notion of finding ampler room 
 for my feet that I edged away through the fring- 
 ing wall-crowd in the dancing-room toward a cur- 
 tained archway at the back. As yet I had over- 
 heard naught save the silly persiflage of the belles 
 and beaux — a word here and another there — and I 
 was beginning to fear that this w^as as poor a place 
 to look for information as was the pothouse, when 
 a thing befell to set me a-quiver with all the thrill- 
 ings the human heart-strings can thrum to in one 
 and the same instant of time. 
 
490 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 I had shouldered my way out of the ball-room 
 medley and into the less crowded room at the back. 
 This proved to be a rear withdrawing-room serving 
 for the nonce as a refectory. There were little 
 groups and knots of chatterers standing about; 
 fair maids, each with her ring of redcoated court- 
 iers, laughing and jesting or picking daintily at 
 the viands on the great oaken table in the midst. 
 
 Rounding the promontory of the table's-end to 
 come to anchor in some quiet eddy where I could 
 listen unnoticed for the word I was thirsting for, 
 I must needs entangle the button of my coat-cuff 
 in the delicate lace of a lady's sleeve in passing. 
 
 The wearer of the sleeve had her back to me, and 
 I saw the white shoulders go up -in a little shrug 
 of petulance whilst I sought to disentangle the 
 button. Then she turned to face me and the words 
 of apology froze on my lips. 'Twas Mistress Mar- 
 gery, standing at ease with — good heavens! with 
 Richard Jennifer and Colonel Banastre Tarleton for 
 her company ! 
 
 Here was a halter, with a double snaffle at the 
 end of it, was the thought that flashed upon me; 
 and I was gathering my wits to brazen it out in 
 some such manner as to leave Jennifer unattainted, 
 when my lady give a little start and a shriek. 
 
 "La, Mr. Septimus ; how you startled me !" she 
 cried. Then, without a tremor of the lip or a 
 pause for breath-taking, she presented m.e : "Colo- 
 nel Tarleton; Mr. Septimus Ireton, of Iretondene 
 
OUR PIECE ]\IISSED FIRE 491 
 
 in Virginia." And next to Dick: "Mr. Richard; 
 my very good friend, Mr. Ireton." 
 
 'Twas done so cleverly and with such an air that 
 even Dick, who had known her from childhood, was 
 struck dumb with admiration, as his face sufficiently 
 advertised. And, indeed, I had much ado to play 
 my own part with any decent self-possession, though 
 I did make shift to bow stiffly, and to say : "I see I 
 should have brought the Iretondene title deeds with' 
 me to make you sure that I am not my rebel cousin 
 John, ]\Iistress IMargery. Your servant, Colonel 
 Tarleton ; and yours, Mr. Richard." 
 
 Dick's bow was an elaborate hiding of his tell- 
 tale face ; but the colonel's was the slightest of nods, 
 and I could feel the sloe-black eyes of him boring 
 into my very soul. 
 
 Had my lady given him but a moment's time I 
 make no doubt he would have come instantly at the 
 truth and the little farce would have been turned 
 into a tragedy on the spot. But she gave him no 
 time. The spinet in the ball-room alcove was tink- 
 ling out the overture to a minuet, and she laid the 
 tips of her dainty fingers on the colonel's arm. 
 
 "This will be ours to walk through, will it not, 
 Colonel Tarleton?" she said, playing the sprightly 
 minx to the very climax of perfection. Then she 
 dipped us a curtsy. "An revoir, gentlemen. 'Tis a 
 thousand pities you had not joined sooner and so 
 had the red coat and small-sword to grace you 
 here." 
 

 492 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 When they were gone, Dick laughed sardonically. 
 
 '^Saw you ever such a cool-blood little jade in 
 all your life? 'Twas with me as it w^as with you; 
 I, too, stumbled upon them, and the colonel bustled 
 me and set his heel on my foot. I daresay I should 
 have had myself in irons in another moment but 
 for Madge. She slipped in between and introduced 
 us as sweetly as you please." 
 
 "Nevertheless," said I, "the colonel recognized 
 us both." 
 
 'No ! Think you so ?" 
 'Tis certain enough to play upon. What we 
 do now must be done quickly or not at all. What 
 have you overheard?" 
 
 He sw^ore softly. "Never a cursed word ; less 
 than nothing of any interest to Dan Morgan." 
 
 "We must try again. *Twill surely be talked of 
 here if the army is about to move. Do you take a 
 turn in the anteroom and meet me in a quarter of 
 an hour at the outer door." 
 
 At the word, Dick promptly lost himself in the 
 throng whilst I made a slow circuit of the refresh- 
 ment table. Once I thought I had the clue when a 
 girl hanging on the arm of an infantry lieutenant 
 said : "Will it be true that you will presently go out 
 to hunt the rebels down, Mr. Thornicroft ?" But the 
 prudent lieutenant smiled and put her off cleverly, 
 leaving his fair questioner — and me — none the 
 wiser. 
 
 I went on, drifting aimlessly from group to group 
 
OUR PIECE MISSED FIRE 493 
 
 and dallying of set purpose. If I had read Colonel 
 Tarleton's glance aright, the moments were growing 
 diamond-precious ; but as yet neither half of my er- 
 rand was done. Come what might, I must see ]\Iar- 
 gery again and have her tell me where and how to 
 find the priest ; and 'twas borne in upon me that she 
 would come back to seek me as soon as she could be 
 free of her partner in the dance. 
 
 The forecast as to my lady had its fulfilment 
 while yet the spinetter was striking out the final 
 chords of the minuet. A lady dropped her ker- 
 chief, and I was before her swain in stooping to 
 pick it up. As I bowed low in returning the bit of 
 lace to its owner, a voice that I had learned to knov/ 
 and love whispered in my ear. 
 
 "Mdke your way to the clock landing of the stair ; 
 I must have speech with you," it said; and for a 
 wonder I was cool enough to obey with no more 
 than a sidelong glance at my lady passing on the 
 arm of another epauletted dangler. 
 
 She was before me at the meeting place, and there 
 was no laughing welcome in the deep- welled eyes. 
 Instead, they flashed me a look that made me wince. 
 
 "What folly is this, sir?" she demanded. "Will 
 you never have done taking my honor and your own 
 life into your reckless hands ?" 
 
 I bowed my head to the storm. With the dagger 
 of my miserable errand sticking in my heart there 
 was no fight in me. 
 
 "I am but come to do your bidding," I said, 
 
494 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 slowly, foi the words cost me sorely in the coin of 
 anguish. "I had your letter, and if you will say 
 how I may find Father Matthieu — " 
 
 She broke me in the midst. "Mon Dieu!" she 
 cried. "Could I guess that you would come here, 
 into the very noose of the gallows? Oh, how you 
 do heap scorn on scorn upon me ! Once you made 
 me give silent consent to a falsehood you told; 
 twice, nay, thrice, you have made me disloyal to 
 the king; and now you come again to make me 
 look the world in the face and tell a smiling lie to 
 shield you! O Holy Mother, pity me!" And with 
 this she put her face in her hands and began to sob. 
 
 Now we were only measurably isolated on the 
 stair, and some sense of the hazard we took — a haz- 
 ard involving her as well as Richard and myself — 
 steadied me with a sudden shock. 
 
 "Control yourself," I whispered. "What is done, 
 is done ; and the misery is not all yours to suffer. 
 Tell me how I may find the priest, and I will do my 
 errand and begone." 
 
 "You can not stay to find him now — ^}^ou must 
 not," she insisted, coming out of the fit of despair 
 with a rebound. "He is in the town — indeed, I 
 know not where he is just now. Can you not en- 
 dure it a little longer, Captain Ireton?" 
 
 "No," said I, sullenly. "I have been living a lie 
 all these months to the friend I love best, and I will 
 not do it more." 
 
 Could I be mistaken? Surely there was a flash 
 not of anger in the eyes that were lifted to mine, 
 
OUR PIECE MISSED FIRE 495 
 
 and a tremulous note of eagerness in the voice that 
 said: "Then Dick does not know? — you have not 
 told him ?" 
 
 "'No ; I have told no one." 
 
 "Poor Dick!" she said softly. "I thought he 
 knew, and I — " 
 
 She paused, and in the pause it flashed upon me 
 how she had wTonged my dear lad; how she had 
 thought he would make brazen love to her knowing 
 she was the wife of another. I thanked God in my 
 heart that I had been able to right him thus far. 
 , After a time she said: "Why did you make me 
 marry you. Monsieur John ? Oh, I have racked my 
 brain so for the answer to that question. I know 
 you said it was to save my honor. But surely we 
 have paid a heavier penalty than any that could have 
 been laid upon me had you left me as I was." 
 
 "I was but a short-sighted fool, and no prophet," 
 I rejoined, striving hard to keep the bitterness of 
 soul out of my words. "At the moment it seemed 
 the only way out of the pit of doubt into which my 
 word to Colonel Tarleton had plunged you. But 
 there was another motive. You saw the paper I 
 signed that night, with Lieutenant Tybee and your 
 father's factor for the witnesses ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Do you know what it was ?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 " 'Twas the last will and testament of one John 
 Ireton, gentleman, in which he bequeathed to ]\Iar- 
 gery, his wife, his estate of Appleby Hundred." 
 
496 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 "Appleby Hundred?" she echoed. "But my 
 father—" 
 
 "Your father holds but a confiscator's title, and it, 
 with many others, has been voided by the Congress 
 of North Carolina. Richard Jennifer is my dear 
 friend, and you — " 
 
 "I begin to understand — a little," she said, and 
 now her voice was low and she would not look at 
 me. Then, in the same low tone: "But now — 
 now you would be free again ?" 
 
 "How can you ask? As matters stand, I have 
 marred your life and Dick's most hopelessly. Do 
 you wonder that I have been reckless of the hang- 
 man? that I care no jot for my interfering life at 
 this moment, save as the taking of it may involve 
 you and Richard?" 
 
 "No, surely," she said, still speaking softly. And 
 now she gave me her eyes to look into, and the hard- 
 ness was all melted out of them. "Did you come 
 here, under the shadow of the gallows, to tell me 
 this, Monsieur John ?" 
 
 "There shall be no more half-confidences be- 
 tween us, dear lady. I had my leave of General 
 Morgan on the score of our need for better informa- 
 tion of Lord Cornwallis's designs ; but I should have 
 come in any case — wanting the leave, my commis- 
 sion as a spy, or any other excuse." 
 
 "To tell me this ?" 
 
 "To do the bidding of your letter, and to say that 
 whilst I live I shall be shamed for the bitter words 
 I gave you when I was sick." 
 
OUR PIECE MISSED FIRE 497 
 
 "I mind them not; I had forgotten them," she 
 said. 
 
 "But I have not forgotten, nor ever shall. Will 
 you say you forgive me, Margery?" 
 
 'Tor thinking I had poisoned you ? How do you 
 know I did not ?" 
 
 "I have seen Scipio. Will you shrive me for that 
 disloyalty, dear lady ?" 
 
 "Did I not say I had forgotten it ?" 
 
 "Thank you," I said, meaning it from the bottom 
 of my heart. "Now one thing more, and you shall 
 send me to Father Matthieu. 'Tis a shameful thing 
 to speak of, but the thought of it rankles and will 
 rankle till I have begged you to add it to the things 
 forgotten. That morning in your dressing-room — " 
 
 She put up her hands as if she would push the 
 words back. 
 
 "Spare me, sir," she begged. "There are some 
 things that must always be unspeakable between 
 us, and that is one of them. But if it will help you 
 to know — that I know — how — how you came 
 there — " 
 
 She was flushing most painfully, and I was scarce 
 more at ease. But having gone thus far, I must 
 needs let the thought consequent slip into words. 
 
 "Your father's motives have ever been misunder- 
 standable to me. What could he hope to gain by 
 such a thing?" 
 
 I had no sooner said it than I could have bitten 
 my masterless tongue. For in the very voicing of 
 the wonder I saw, or thought I saw, Gilbert Stair's 
 
498 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 purpose. Since I had not made good my promise 
 to die and leave the estate to Alargery, he would at 
 least make sure of his daughter's dowry in it by 
 putting it beyond us to set the marriage aside as a 
 thing begun but not completed. So, having this 
 behind-time flash of after-wit, I made haste to efface 
 the question I had asked. 
 
 "Your pardon, I pray you ; I see now 'tis a thing 
 we must both bury out of sight. But to the other 
 — the matter which has brought me hither ; will you 
 put me in the way of finding Father ^latthieu ?" 
 
 We had talked on through the measures of a 
 cotillion, and the dancers, warm and wearied, were 
 beginning to fill the entrance hall below. Our poor 
 excuse for privacy would be gone in a minute or 
 two, and she spoke quickly. 
 
 *'You shall see Father Matthieu, and I will help 
 you. But you must not linger here. In a few^ days 
 the army will be moving northward — Oh, heavens! 
 what have I said!" 
 
 "Nothing," I cut in swiftly ; "you are speaking 
 now to your husband — not to the spy. Go on, if 
 you please." 
 
 "We shall return to Appleby Hundred within the 
 fortnight. There, if you are still — if you desire it, 
 you may meet the good cure, and — " 
 
 A much-bepowdered captain of cavalry was com- 
 ing up the stair to claim her, and I was fain to let 
 her go. But at my passing of her to the step below, 
 I whispered: "I shall keep the tryst — my first and 
 last with you, dear lady. Adieu." 
 
OUR PIECE MISSED FIRE 499 
 
 So soon as she was gone I made haste to find 
 Richard, having, as I feared, greatly overstayed 
 my appointment to meet him at the door. He was 
 not among the promenaders in the hall, so I began 
 to drift again, through the ball-room and so on to 
 where the spread table stood ringed with its groups 
 of nibblers. I had made no more than half the 
 round of the refectory when I saw. Margery stand- 
 ing in the curtained arch, looking this way and that, 
 with anxious terror written plainly in her face. 
 
 "What is it?" I asked, when she had found me 
 out. 
 
 " 'Tis the worst that could happen," she whis- 
 pered. "You are discovered, both of you. Colonel 
 Tarleton was too shrewd for us. He has let it be 
 known among the officers that there are two spies 
 in the house, and now — Hark ! what is that ?" 
 
 We were standing in a deep window-bay and I 
 drew the curtain an inch or two. The air without 
 was filled with the trampling of hoofbeats on green- 
 sward. A light-horse troop was surrounding the 
 manor house. 
 
 I drew her arm in mine and led her back to the 
 ball-room.; 'twas now come to this, that open pub- 
 licity was our best safeguard. "We must find 
 Dick," said I. "Have you seen him ?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 Too:ether we made the slow circuit of the danc- 
 ing-room, but Jennifer was not to be found. Out 
 of the tail of my eye I saw a soldier slipping in here 
 and there to stand statue-like ag:ainst the wall. 
 
500 THE ]\L\STER OF APPLEBY 
 
 This brought it to a matter of minutes, of seconds, 
 mayhap, and still we looked in vain for Dick. 
 
 "Oh, why did you bring him here ? He will surely 
 be taken !" Her voice was tremulous with fear, 
 and I answered as I could, being sore at heart, in 
 spite of all, that her chief concern should be for 
 Richard. 
 
 But by now my purpose was well taken, and 
 though it appeared that Richard Jennifer vv^as more 
 than ever my successful rival, I pledge you, my 
 dears, I had no thought of leaving him behind. 
 So w^e miade another slow round of the rooms, and 
 whilst we were looking for Dick I spoke in guarded 
 whispers to warn my lady of Falconnet's return. 
 But the warning was not needed. 
 
 Her shudder of loathing shook the hand on my 
 arm. "That man ! Oh, Monsieur John ! I fear 
 him day and night ! If I could but run away ; but 
 we are not finding Dick — we must find him 
 quickly r' 
 
 There was no other place to look save In the en- 
 trance hall, and at the door one of the statue-like 
 soldiers took two steps aside and barred the way. 
 I faced about and we plunged once again into the 
 throng, but not before I had had a glimpse of Rich- 
 ard in the hall beyond. When the chance offered, I 
 bent to whisper. 
 
 "Dick is in the hall, looking for me, go you to 
 him and warn him. I may not pass the door, as 
 you have seen." 
 
 "He will not escape without you," she demurred. 
 
OUR PIECE MISSED FIRE 501 
 
 "Tel! him he must. Tell him I say he must!" 
 
 She glanced over her shoulder with a look in her 
 eyes that made me think of a wounded bird flutter- 
 ing in the net of the fowler. 
 
 "Oh, 'tis hard, hard!" she murmured. 
 
 I snatched the word from her lips. "To choose 
 between love and wafely duty? Then I make it a 
 command. Go, quickly !" 
 
 She w^nt at that, and I made my way slowly to 
 the far side of the ball-room, taking post in a deep- 
 recessed window giving upon the lawn. Though it 
 was January and the night was chill and raw, the 
 rooms were summer warm with the breath of the 
 crush, and some one had swung the casement. 
 
 Without, I could hear the horses of the waiting 
 troop champing restlessly at their bits, and now 
 and again the low gentling words of the riders. 
 Why the colonel did not spring his trap at once 
 I could not guess ; though I learned later that he 
 had magnified our two-man spying venture into 
 a patriot foray meant to capture the whole houseful 
 of British officers at a sw^oop, and was taking his 
 measures accordingly. 
 
 'Twas while I was listening to the champing 
 horses that I heard my name whispered in the dark- 
 ness beyond the open casement. I turned slowly, 
 and the nearest of the soldier watchers began to 
 edge his way toward my window. 
 
 " 'Tis I — Dick Jennifer," whispered the voice 
 without. "Swing the casement a little wider and out 
 with you. Be swift about it, for God's sake !" 
 
502 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 "I am fair trapped," I whispered back. *'Make 
 off as you can." 
 
 "And leave you behind ?" So much I heard ; and 
 then came sounds of a struggle ; the breath-catch- 
 ings of two men locked in a strangler's hold, a 
 smothered oath or two^ a fall on the turf under the 
 window, followed by the soft thudding of fist blows. 
 I could bear it no longer. The edging soldier had 
 come within arm's reach, and when I swung the 
 casement a little wider, he laid a hand on my shoul- 
 der. 
 
 'Tn the name of the king !" he said ; and this was 
 all he had time or leave to say. For at the summons 
 I drove my fist against the point of his wagging 
 jaw, to send him plunging among the dancers, and 
 the recoil of the blow carried me clear of the win- 
 dow-seat with what a din and clamor of a hue 
 and cry to speed the parting guest as you may figure 
 for yourselves. 
 
 The alighting ground of the leap was the body of 
 Dick's late antagonist lying prone beneath the win- 
 dow ledge ; but the lad himself was up and ready 
 to catch me when I stumbled over the vanquished 
 one. 
 
 " Tis legs for it now," he cried. "Make for the 
 avenue and the horses at the hitch-rail !" 
 
 At rising twenty a man may run fast and far; 
 at rising forty he may still run far if the first hun- 
 dred yards do not burst his bellows. So when we 
 had darted through the thin line of encircling horse- 
 men and were flying down the broad avenue with 
 
OUR PIECE MISSED FIRE 503 
 
 all the troopers who had caught sight of us thun- 
 dering at our heels, Dick was the pace-setter, 
 whilst I made but a shifty second, gasping and pant- 
 ing and dying a thousand deaths in the effort to 
 catch my second wind. 
 
 "Courage !" shouted Dick, flinging the word back 
 over his shoulder as he ran, *'There is help ahead 
 if we can live to reach the gate !" 
 
 But, luckily for me, the help vv^as nearer at hand. 
 Half way down the box-bordered drive, when I 
 was at my last gasp, the shrill yell of the border 
 partizans rose from the shrubbery on the right, and 
 a voice that I shall know and welcome in another 
 w^orld cried out : 
 
 "Stiddy, boys ! stiddy till ye can see the whites o' 
 their eyes ! Now, then ; give it to 'em hot and 
 heavy !" 
 
 A haphazard banging of guns followed and the 
 pursuit drew rein in some confusion, giving us 
 time to reach the great gate and the horse-rail, and 
 to loose and mount the gray and the sorrel we had 
 marked out. 
 
 Whilst we were about this last, Ephraim Yeates 
 came loping down the avenue and through the gate 
 to vault into the saddle of the first horse he could 
 lay hands on ; and so it was that we three took the 
 northward road in the silver starlight, with the 
 pursuit now in order again and in full cry be- 
 hind us. 
 
 'Twas not until we had safely run the gantlet 
 of the vedette lines by a by-path known to the old 
 
504 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 hunter, and had shaken off the troopers that were 
 following, that I found time to ask what had be- 
 come of the men who had formed the ambush in 
 the shrubbery. 
 
 The old man gave m.e his dry chuckle of a laugh. 
 
 *' 'Twas the same old roose de geer, as the down- 
 country Frenchers 'u'd say. I stole the drunken ser- 
 geant's gun and two others, and let 'em off one to a 
 time. As for the screechin', one bazoo's as good as 
 a dozen, if so be ye blow it fierce enough." 
 
 '' 'Twas cut and dried beforehand," Dick ex- 
 olained. 'T had an inklinsf of what was afoot from 
 Ephraim, here, whom I stumbled on when I dropped 
 from the stair window that Aladge opened for me. 
 He went to set his one-man ambush whilst I was 
 trying to warn you." 
 
 *'So," said I. "Our skins are whole, but after 
 all we have come off with never a word to take 
 back to Dan Morgan — unless you have the word." 
 
 "Not I," Dick said, ruefully. 
 .' The old man chuckled asrain. 
 
 "Ye ain't old enough, neither one o' ye, ez I 
 allow. It takes a right old person to fish out the 
 innards of an inimy's secrets. Colonel Tarleton, 
 boss, foot and dragoons, with the seventh rigiment 
 and a part o' the seventy-first, will take the big 
 road for Dan Morgan's camp to-morrow at sun-up. 
 And right soon atterwards, Gin'ral Cornwallis '11 
 foller on. Is that what you youngsters was try- 
 ing to find out?" 
 
XLVII 
 
 ARMS AND THE MAN 
 
 In that book he wrote — ^the book in which he 
 never so much as names the name of Ireton — my 
 Lord CornwalHs's commissary-general, Charles 
 Stedman, damns Colonel Tarleton in a most gentle- 
 manly manner for his ill-success at the Cowpens, 
 and would charge to his account personal the failure 
 of CornwalHs's plan to crush in detail the patriot 
 Army of the South. 
 
 Now little as I love, or have cause to love. Sir 
 Banastre Tarleton, — they tell me he has been 
 knighted and now wears a major-general's sword- 
 knot, — 'tis but the part of outspoken honest enmity 
 to say that we owed the victory at the Cowpens to 
 no remissness on the part of the young legion com- 
 mander who, if he were indeed the most brutal, 
 was also the most active and enterprising of Lord 
 CornwalHs's field officers. 
 
 No, it was no remissness nor lack of bravery on 
 the part of the enemy. 'Twas only that the tide had 
 turned. King's Mountain had been fought and won, 
 and there were to be no more Camdens for us. 
 
 505 
 
5o6 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 In the affair at the cow pastures, which followed 
 hard upon Richard's and my return from our flying 
 visit to Winnsborough, the very elements fought 
 for us and against the British. As for instance: 
 Tarleton, with his famous legion of horse, and in- 
 fantry enough to make his numbers exceed ours, 
 began his march on the eleventh and was rained on 
 and mired for four long days before he had crossed 
 the Broad and had come within scouting distance 
 of us. 
 
 Left to himself, Dan Morgan would have locked 
 horns with the enemy at the fording of the Pacolet ; 
 but in the council of war, our colonel and John How- 
 ard of the Marylanders were for drawing Tarleton 
 still deeper into the wilderness, and farther from 
 the British main, which was by this moved up as far 
 as Turkey Creek. So we broke camp hastily and 
 fell back into the hill country ; and on the night of 
 the sixteenth took post on the northern slope of a 
 low ridge between two running streams. 
 
 For its backbone our force had some three hun- 
 dred men of the Maryland line and two companies 
 of Virginians. These formed our main, and were 
 posted on the rising ground with John Howard for 
 their commander. A hundred and fifty paces in 
 their front, partly screened in the open pine, oak 
 and chestnut wooding of the ground, were Pickens's 
 Carolinians and the Georgians ; militiamen, it is 
 true, but skilled riflemen, and every man of them 
 burning hot to be avenged on Tarleton's pillagers. 
 
ARMS AND THE MAN 507 
 
 Still farther to the front, disposed as right and 
 left wings of outliers, were Yeates and his fellow 
 borderers and some sixty of the Georgians set to 
 feel the enemy's approach ; and in the reserve, 
 posted well to the rear of the jMarylanders and \^ir- 
 ginians, was our own colonel's troop guarding the 
 horses of the dismounted Georgians. 
 
 'Twas when we Vv'ere all set in order to await the 
 sun's rising and the enemy's approach that Dan 
 Morgan rode the lines and harangued us. He w^as 
 better at giving and taking shrewd blows than at 
 speech-making; but we all knew his mettle well by 
 now, and I think there was never a man of us to 
 laugh at his unw^onted grandiloquence and solemn 
 periods. In the harangue the two battle lines had 
 their orders : to be steady ; to aim low ; and above 
 all to hold their fire till the enemy Vv^as within sure 
 killing distance. 
 
 " 'Tis a brave old Daniel," said Dick, whilst the 
 general was sawing the air for the benefit of the 
 South Carolinians. " 'Twill not be his fault if we 
 fail. But you are older at this business than any 
 of us, Jack ; vvhat think you of our chances ?" 
 
 I laughed, and the laugh was meant to be grim. 
 I knew the temper of the British regulars, and how, 
 when wxll led, they could play the hammer to any- 
 body's anvil. 
 
 "Any raw recruit can prophesy before the fact," 
 said I. "We have Tarleton, his legion, the Seventh, 
 a good third of the Seventy-first, and two pieces of 
 
5o8 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 artillery in our front. If they do not give a good 
 account of themselves, 'twill be because Tarleton has 
 marched them leg-stiff to overtake us." 
 
 Dick fell silent for the moment, and when he 
 spoke again some of Dan Alorgan's solemnity 
 seemed to have got into his blood. 
 
 "I have a sort of coward inpricking that I sha'n't 
 come out of this with a whole skin, Jack ; and there's 
 a thing on my mind that mayhap you can take off. 
 You have had Madge to yourself a dozen times 
 since that day last autumn when I asked her for 
 the hundredth time to put me out of misery. As I 
 have said, she would not hear me through ; but she 
 gave me a look as I had struck her with a whip. 
 Can you tell me why ?" 
 
 The niorning breeze heralding the sunrise was 
 whispering to the leafless branches overhead, and 
 there was nothing in all Dame Nature's peaceful 
 setting of the scene to hint at the impending war- 
 clash. Yet the war portent was abroad in all the 
 peaceful morning, and my mood marched with the 
 lad's when I gave him his answer. 
 
 "Truly, I could tell you, Richard ; and it Is your 
 due to know it from no other lips than mine. May- 
 hap, a little later, when restitution can go hand In 
 hand with repentance and confession — " 
 
 "No, no;" he cut in quickly. "Tell me now, 
 Jack ; your 'little later' may be all too late — for me. 
 Does she love you ? — has she said she loves you ?" 
 
 "Nay, dear lad ; she despises me well and truly, 
 and has never missed the chance of saying so. Walt 
 
ARMS AND THE MAN 509 
 
 but a little longer and I pledge you on the honor of 
 a gentleman you shall have her for your very own. 
 Will that content you ?" 
 
 At my assurance his mood changed and In a 
 twinkling he became the dauntless soldier who fights,, 
 not to die, but to win and live. 
 
 "With that word to keep me I shall not be killed 
 to-day, I promise you, Jack; and that in spite of 
 this damned queasiness that was showing me the 
 burying trench." And then he added softly : "God 
 bless her!" 
 
 I could say amen to that most heartily ; did it, 
 and would have gone on to add a benison of my own,. 
 but at the moment there were sounds of galloping 
 horses on our front, and presently three red-coated 
 officers, one of them the redoubtable Colonel Tarle- 
 ton himself, rode out to reconnoitre us most coolly. 
 
 I doubt if he would have been so rash had he 
 known that Yeates and his borderers were con- 
 cealed in easy pistol-shot ; but the simultaneous 
 cracking of a dozen rifles warned and sent the trio 
 scuttling back to cover. 
 
 Dick swore piteously, with the snap-shot skir- 
 mishers for a target. "The fumblers !" he raged. 
 " 'Twas the chance of a life-time, and they all missed 
 like a lot of boys at their first deer stalking !" 
 
 "They will have another chance, and that speed- 
 ily," I ventured; and, truly, the chance did not 
 tarry. 
 
 From our view point on the rising ground we 
 could see the enemy forming under cover of the 
 
5IO THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 wood; and as we looked, the two pieces of cannon 
 were thrust to the front to bellow out the signal for 
 the assault. 
 
 'Twas a sight to stir the blood when the enemy 
 broke cover into the opener wooding of the field 
 to the tune of the roaring cannon, the volleyings 
 of small arms and the defiant huzzaings of the men. 
 The sun was just peering over the summit of Thick- 
 etty Mountain, and his level rays fell first upon the 
 charging line sweeping in like a tidal wave of red 
 death to crumple our skirmishers before it. 
 
 *'Lord !" says Richard ; "if Yeates and the Indian 
 come alive out of that — " 
 
 But the outliers closed upon our first line in 
 decent good order, firing as they could ; and in less 
 time than it takes to write it down the onsweeping 
 wave of red was upon the Carolinians, We looked 
 to see the militia fire and run, home-guard fashion ; 
 but these men of Pickens's were made of more sol- 
 dierly stuff. They took the fire of the assaulting 
 line like veterans, giving ground only when it came 
 to the bayonet push. 
 
 "That fetches it to us," said Richard, most coolly ; 
 drawing his claymore when the Carolinians began 
 to come home like spindrift ahead of the wave of 
 red. Then he had a steadying word for the men of 
 his company, and a hearty shout and a curse for 
 some of the Georgians who had cut around the 
 flanks of our main to come at their horses in the 
 rear. 
 
 But the lad's assertion that our time was come 
 
ARMS AND THE MAN 511 
 
 was only a half prophecy. The Marylanders, with 
 the \^irgmians on either flank, stood firm, giving 
 the onrushing wave a shock that went near to 
 breaking it. But the British were better bayoneted 
 than we, and when it came to the iron our lads must 
 needs give ground sullenly, fighting their way back- 
 ward as a stubborn assault fights its way inch by 
 inch forward. 
 
 "Here come their reserves," said Dick, pointing 
 with his blade to a second red line forming in the 
 farther vistas of the wood. ''Lord ! shall we never 
 get into it?" 
 
 'Twas just here that an order sent by Colonel 
 Howard to his first company, directing it to charge 
 by the flank, came near costing us a rout. The order 
 was misunderstood, — 'twas received at the precise 
 moment of the upcoming of the British reserves, — 
 and the Marylanders fell back. In the turning of 
 a leaf our entire fighting front gave way, and what 
 of the Georgians there were left in the mellay made 
 a frantic dash for the horses. 
 
 At this crisis John Howard saved the day for 
 us by shrewdly executing the most difficult 
 manoeuver that is ever essaved bv a field officer in 
 the heat of battle. Suffering his men to drift back- 
 ward until the enemy, sure now of success, were 
 rushing on in disorder to give the coup de grace, 
 he gave the quick command : "About face ! Fire ! 
 Charge !" 
 
 I saw the vollev delivered in the faces of the red- 
 coats at pike's length range ; saw the Virginians on 
 
512 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 the flanks bend to encircle the enemy ; saw the rout 
 transfer itself at the roar of the muskets from our 
 side to the recoiling British. Then I heard Dick's 
 shouted command. ''Charge them, lads ! they're 
 sabering the Georgians !" 
 
 A section of Tarleton's horse had hewed its way 
 past our flank and was at work on the militiamen 
 scrambling for their mounts. At it we went, with 
 our brave colonel a horse's length ahead of the best 
 rider in the troop, pistols banging and sword blades 
 whistling, and that other curious sound you will 
 hear only when the cavalry engages — the heavy 
 dunch of the horses coming together like huge liv- 
 ing missiles hurled from catapults. 
 
 'Twas soon over, and the enemy, horse and foot, 
 was flying in hopeless confusion through the open 
 wood. Our troop led the pursuit ; and this brings 
 me to an incident in which thy old chronicler — 
 figuring in the histories as an unnamed sergeant — 
 had his share. 
 
 It was in the hot part of the chase, and Colonel 
 Tarleton — a true Briton in this, that he would be 
 first in the charge and last in the retreat — was gal- 
 loping with two of his aides in rear of the dragoons. 
 Since many of us knew the British commander by 
 sight, there was a great clapping-to of spurs to 
 overtake and cut him off. In this race three horses 
 outdistanced all the others ; the great bay ridden by 
 Colonel Washington, a snappy little gray bestrid- 
 den by the colonel's boy bugler, and my own mount. 
 
 When the crisis came, our colonel had the wind 
 
ARMS and: the man 513 
 
 of the boy and me and was calling on Colonel 
 Tarleton to surrender at discretion. For answer 
 the three British officers wheeled and fell upon him. 
 Never was a man nearer his death. In a whiff, 
 Tarleton was foining at him in front whilst the two 
 aides were rising in their stirrups on either hand to 
 cut him down. 
 
 'Twas the little bugler boy who saved his colonel's 
 life, and not the unnamed "sergeant," as the his- 
 tories have it. Having neither a sword nor the 
 strength to wield one, the boy reined sharp to the 
 left and pistoled his man as neatly as you please. 
 Seeing his fellow sahreiir drop his weapon and clap 
 his hand to the pistol-wound, my man hesitated 
 just long enough to let me in with the clumsiest of 
 upcuts to spoil the muscles of his sword arm. This 
 transferred the duel to the two principals, who were 
 now at it, hammer and tongs. Both were good 
 swordsmen, but of the twain our colonel was far 
 the cooler. So when Tarleton made to end it with 
 a savage thrust in tierce, Washington parried deftly 
 and his point found his antagonist's sword hand. 
 
 At this, Tarleton dropped his blade, — it hangs now 
 over the chimney-piece in j\Ir. Washington's town 
 house in Charleston, — gave the signal for flight, and 
 the three Britons, each with a wound to nurse, 
 wheeled and galloped on. But in the act Tarleton 
 snatched a pistol from his holster and let drive at 
 our colonel, wounding him in the knee, so we did 
 not come off scatheless. 
 
 This pistoling of Colonel Washington by the 
 
514 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 British commander skimm.ed a little of the cream 
 from our great and glorious victory. 'Twas no 
 serious hurt, but wanting it I make no doubt we 
 should have ridden down the flying dragoons, add- 
 ing them, and their doughty colonel to boot, to the 
 five-hundred-odd prisoners we took. 
 
 The battle fought and won, — 'twas over and done 
 with two full hours before noon, — Dan Morgan 
 knew well what must befall, lacking the swiftest 
 after-doing on our part. With Greene near a hun- 
 dred miles away, and my Lord Cornwallis less than 
 three hours' gallop to the southward on Turkey 
 Creek, the time was come for the hastiest welding 
 of our little army with that of the general-in-com- 
 mand ; if, indeed, the promptest running would take 
 us to the upper fords of the Catawba before Corn- 
 wallis should intervene and cut us off. 
 
 Accordingly, Jennifer and I were detailed to carry 
 the news of the victory to Greene's camp at Cheraw 
 Hill ; and when we rode away on the warm trail of 
 the flying British, we left Dan Morgan's men hard 
 at it, burning the heavy impedimenta of the capture, 
 and otherwise making ready for the swiftest of 
 forced marches to the north. 
 
 'Twould be a thankless task to take you with us 
 stage by stage on our cross-country gallop to adver- 
 tise General Greene of the victory at the cow pas- 
 tures. Suffice it to say that we made shift to turn 
 the head of the advancing British main, now in 
 motion and hastening with all speed to cut Dan 
 Morgan off; that we were by turns well soaked by 
 
ARMS AND THE MAN 515 
 
 rain and stream, deep mired in bogs, chased times 
 without number by the enemy's outriders, and hard- 
 shipped freely for food and horse provender before 
 we saw the camp on the Pedee. All this you may 
 figure for yourselves, the main point being that we 
 came at length to the goal, weary, mire-splashed 
 and belted to the last buckle-hole to pinch down the 
 hunger pains, but sound of skin, wind and limb. 
 
 Having our news, which set the camp in a pretty 
 furor of rejoicing, I promise you, General Greene 
 lost not an hour in making his dispositions. Leav- 
 ing Isaac Huger and Colonel Otho Williams in 
 command at Cheraw, the general sent Edward Ste- 
 vens with the Virginians by way of Charlotte to 
 Morgan's aid, and himself took horse, with a hand- 
 ful of dragoons in which Dick and I were volun- 
 teers, to ride post haste to a meeting with Morgan 
 at the upper fords. 
 
 Again I may pass lightly over an interval of 
 three days spent hardily in the saddle, coming at 
 once to that rain-drenched thirty-first of January, 
 cold, raw and dismal, when we drew rein at Sher- 
 rard's Ford and found Dan Morgan and his men 
 safe across the Catawba with his prisoners, and 
 my Lord Cornwallis quite as safely flood-checked 
 on the western bank of the stream. 
 
 Having done our errand, Dick and I reported at 
 once to our colonel. 'Twas of a piece with William 
 Washington's goodness of heart to offer us leave 
 to rest. 
 
 "You have had weary work of it, I doubt not, 
 
5i6 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 gentlemen," he would say. "Your time is your own 
 until General Greene sets us in order for what he 
 has in mind to do." 
 
 I looked at Dick, and he looked at me. 
 
 "]\Iay we count upon twenty-four hours, think 
 you. Colonel?" I asked. 
 
 "Safely, I should say." 
 
 "Then I shall ask leave of absence for Captain 
 Jennifer and myself till this time to-morrow," I 
 went on. "This is our home neighborhood, as you 
 know, and we have a little matter of private busi- 
 ness w^hich may be despatched in a day." 
 
 "Will this business take you without the lines?" 
 
 "That is as it may be, sir. I do not know the 
 bounds of the outposting." 
 
 The colonel wrote us passes to com^e and go at 
 will past the sentries, and I drew Dick away. 
 
 "What is it, Jack?" he asked, when we were by 
 ourselves. 
 
 " 'Tis the fulfilling of my promise to you, Richard. 
 Get your horse and we will ride together." 
 'But whither?" he queried. 
 To Appleby Hundred — and Mistress Margery." 
 
 "] 
 
XLVIII 
 
 HOW WE KEPT TRYST AT APPLEBY HUNDRED 
 
 'Twas late in the afternoon of the last day of 
 January when we set out together, Jennifer and I, 
 from the camp of conference at Sherrard's Ford. 
 
 The military situation, lately so critical for us, 
 had reached and passed one of its many subclimaxes. 
 Morgan's little army, with its prisoners still safe 
 in hand, was on its way northward to Charlottes- 
 ville in Virginia, and only the officers remained 
 behind to confer with General Greene. 
 
 For the others, Huger and Williams were hurry- 
 ing up from Cheraw to meet the general at Salis- 
 bury; and General Davidson, with a regiment of 
 North Carolina volunteers, was set to keep the fords 
 of the Catavrba. 
 
 As for the British commander's intendings, we 
 had conflicting reports. Two days earlier, Lord 
 Cornwallis had burned his heavy baggage at Ram- 
 sour's Mill, and so we had assurance that the pur- 
 suit was only delayed. But whether, when he should 
 break his camp at Forney's plantation, he would go 
 northward after Morgan and the prisoners, or cross 
 
 517 
 
5i8 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 the river at some nearhand ford to chase our main, 
 none of our scouts could tell us. 
 
 We were guessing at this, Richard and I, as we 
 jogged on together down the river road, and were 
 agreed that could my Lord cross the flooded river 
 without loss of time, his better chance would be to 
 fall upon our main at Salisbury or thereabouts. 
 But as to the possibility of his crossing, we fell 
 apart. 
 
 "Lacking another drop of rain, we are safe for 
 forty-eight hours yet," Dick would say, pointing to 
 the brimming river rolling its brown flood at our 
 right as we fared on. "And with two days' start 
 we shall have him burning more than his camp wag- 
 ons to overtake us." 
 
 "Have it so, if you will," said I, to end the argu- 
 ment. "But this I know : were Dan Morgan or 
 General Greene, or you or I, in Lord Cornwallis's 
 shoes, the two davs would not be lost." 
 
 Jennifer laughed. "Leave the rest of us out. Sir 
 Hannibal Ireton, and tell what you would do," he 
 said, mocking me. 
 
 We were at that bend in the road where Jan 
 Howart and his Tories had sought to waylay us 
 in the cool gray dawn of a certain June morning 
 when we were galloping this same road to keep 
 my appointment with Sir Francis Falconnet. A 
 huge rock makes a promontory in the stream just 
 here, and I pointed to a water-worn cavity in it 
 where the flood lapped in and out in gurgling eddies. 
 
WE KEPT TRYST AT APPLEBY 519 
 
 "You've been sharp to take me up on my forget- 
 ting of the landmarks, but there is one Fve not for- 
 got/* said I. "One day, about the time you were 
 getting yourself born, I was passing this way with 
 my father and a company of the county gentlemen. 
 'Twas in the Seven Years' War, and the Cherokees 
 were threatening us from the other side. The river 
 was in flood as it is now; and I mind my father 
 saying that when you could see that hole in the rock, 
 Macgowan's Ford would be no more than armpit 
 deep." 
 
 "So?" said Richard; "then it behooves us to — '* 
 He stopped in mid sentence, drew rein and shifted 
 his sword hilt to the front. 
 
 "What is it ?" I asked. 
 
 For reply he pointed me to a canoe half hidden 
 in the bushes where roadside and river-edge came 
 together. 
 
 I laughed. "An empty pirogue. Shall we charge 
 and run it through ?" 
 
 "Hist !" said he ; "that canoe was afloat a minute 
 since. Mark the paddle — 'tis dripping yet." 
 
 As he spoke an Indian stood up in the bushes 
 beside the pirogue, holding out his empty hands in 
 token of amity. We rode up and were presently 
 shaking hands with our old-time ally, the Catawba. 
 
 "How !" said he ; "heap how ! Chief Harris glad ; 
 wah! Make think have to go to Sal'bury to find 
 Captain Long-knife and Captain Jennif. Heap 
 much glad !" 
 
 "Chief Harris?" I queried. "Who may he be?" 
 
520 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 The Catawba drew himself up and drummed upon 
 his breast. 
 
 ''Chief Harris here," he answered, proudly. "The 
 Great War Chief," by which we understood he 
 meant General Greene, ''say all Catawba take war- 
 path 'gainst redcoat ; make Uncanoola headm.an ; 
 give um new name. Wah !" 
 
 At this we shook hands with him again, well 
 pleased that our stanch ally should have recogni- 
 tion at the hands of the general. Then I would ask 
 if he were on the way to raise his tribesmen to fight 
 with us. 
 
 "Bimeby ; no have time now ; big thing over yon- 
 der," pointing across the river. "Manitou Corn- 
 wally fool Great War Chief, mebbe, hey?" 
 
 "How is that ?" said Dick ; and the query elicited 
 a bit of news to make us prick our ears. The 
 Catawba had been in the British camp at Forney's, 
 posturing again as a Cherokee friendly to the king's 
 side. Some sudden movement had been determined 
 upon, though what it was to be he could not learn. 
 At the end of his own resources he had crossed the 
 river in a stolen pirogue to find and warn us. 
 
 "What say you, Dick?" I asked, when we had 
 heard the Catawba through. 
 
 The lad was holding his lip in his hand and scowl- 
 ing as one who pits duty against inclination. 
 
 " 'Tis our cursed luck !" he gloomed. Then he 
 swore it out by length and breadth, and, when the 
 air was cleared, let me have what was in his mind. 
 
VvE KEPT TRYST AT APPLEBY 521 
 
 "After all, 'tis like enough we should find Appleby 
 house deserted. Gilbert Stair will cling to Lord 
 Cornwallis's coat-skirt as long as he can for sheer 
 safety's sake. At all events, our business must wait ; 
 the countr}^'s weal comes first." Then to the Indian : 
 "If we can make the beasts take the water, will you 
 ferry us across, Chief?" 
 
 The Catawba nodded, and made the nod good by 
 setting us dry-shod on the farther bank of the brown 
 flood. By the time we had the horses rubbed down 
 and resaddled 'twas twilight in the open and night 
 dark in the wood ; but we were on our own ground 
 and knew every by-path through the forest. 
 
 So, w^hen we had sent the Indian back to carry 
 news of us to General Davidson at the lower ford, 
 and to advertise him of our purpose, we mounted 
 to begin a scouting jaunt, keeping to the wood 
 paths and bearing cautiously northward toward the 
 enemy's camp at Forney's plantation. 
 
 At times we were close upon the British sentries, 
 with every nerve strained tense for fight or flight ; 
 anon we would be making wide detours through 
 bog and fen, or beneath the black network of wet 
 branches with the rain-soaked leaf beds under foot 
 to make the horses' treadings as noiseless as a cat's. 
 
 None the less, in the fullness of time — 'twas near 
 about midnight as we guessed it — we had our pa- 
 tience well rewarded. Hovering on the confines of 
 the camp we heard the muffled drum-tap of the 
 reveille, and soon there was the stir of an army 
 making ready for the march. 
 
522 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 "Which way will it be, north or south?" whis- 
 pered Dick, when we had dismounted to cloak the 
 heads of the horses. 
 
 "We shall know shortly," said I ; and truly, we 
 did, being well-nigh enveloped and ridden down 
 by the fringe of light-horse deploying to pioneer the 
 way. When we had sheered off to let this skirmish 
 cloud blow by, Dick struck a spark into his tinder- 
 box to have a sight of his compass needle. 
 
 "South and by east," he announced; "that will 
 mean Beattie's Ford, I take it." 
 
 "Not unless they swim, horse and foot," I ob- 
 jected. " 'Twill be Macgowan's, more likely." 
 
 Having this uncertainty to resolve, we must hang 
 upon the skirts of the British advance till we could 
 make sure, and this proved to be a most perilous 
 business. Yet by riding abreast of the moving 
 main we did resolve the uncertainty; heard the or- 
 ders passed from man to man, and later saw a small 
 feinting detachment split off to take the road for 
 Beattie's, whilst the main body held on for Mac- 
 gowan's ; all this before we were discovered in the 
 gloaming of the dawn by some of Tarleton's men. 
 
 Then, I promise you, my dears, it was neck or 
 nothing, with the devil to take the hindmost. Away 
 we sped toward the near-by river, spurring our 
 wearied beasts as men who ride for life, with a 
 dozen troopers so close upon us that when I glanced 
 over my shoulder the foremost of the redcoat riders 
 Avas having his face well bespattered with the mud 
 from my horse's heels. 
 
WE KEPT TRYST AT APPLEBY 523 
 
 'Twas touch and go, but happily, as I have said, 
 the river was at hand. We came to the high bank 
 some hundred yards above the fording place, and 
 lacking Dick's example to shame me to the braver 
 course, I fear I should have recoiled at the brink. 
 But vv^hen the lad sent his horse without the missing 
 of a bound far out over the eddying flood, I shook 
 the reins on the sorrel's neck, gave him the word 
 and shut my eyes. 
 
 After all, it was nothing w^orse than a cold plunge, 
 with a few pistol bullets to spatter harmlessly 
 around us when we came up for air. Moreover, 
 there were the camp-fires of Davidson's men on the 
 farther bank to encourage us; and so swimming 
 and wading by turns we got across in time to give 
 the alarum.. 
 
 As you would guess, there was a mighty stir on 
 our side of the river when we had splashed ashore 
 and got our news well born. As it turned out, 
 General Davidson's main camp was a good half- 
 mile back from the river in one of the outfields of 
 Appleby Hundred. So it chanced there were upon 
 the spot only brave Joe Graham and his fifty rifle- 
 men to dispute the passage of an army. 
 
 What was done at Macgowan's Ford In the gray 
 of the morning of February first, 1781, has become a 
 page In our history. But I protest that not any 
 of the chroniclers do even-handed justice to the little 
 band of patriot riflemen doing their utmost to hold 
 a hundred-to-one outnumbering host in check. 
 
524 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 'Twas a fine sight, be the onlooker Whig or Tory. 
 The Guards, led by the fiery Irishman, O'Hara, took 
 the water first, the men crowding shoulder to shoul- 
 der to brace against the sweep of the current 
 which, on the western side of the stream, was little 
 less than a mill-tail for swiftness. After them came 
 the foot and horse in solid squares, and always with 
 more to follow. None the less, our little handful did 
 not blanch ; and when the Guards in midstream held 
 straight across instead of bearing to the right as 
 the ford ran, a shout went up on our side and the 
 fifty hastened up from the ford-head as one man to 
 face the enemy squarely. 
 
 Now it was that the brown-barreled rifles began 
 to crack and spit fire ; and I do think if we had had 
 our other two hundred and fifty out of that back field 
 on the manor lands, we might at least have made 
 the wading redcoats hurry a little. Indeed, as it 
 was, the van of the Guards broke here and there, 
 and we could hear O'Hara berating his men as only 
 a battle-mad Irishman can, with blarneyings and 
 curses intermingled. 
 
 Having no firearms save our wetted pistols, Jen- 
 nifer and I crouched in cover, waiting to do what 
 two swordsmen might when the blade's length 
 should bridge the fast-narrowing distance between 
 us and the advancing host. 
 
 'Twas in this little interval of forced inaction that 
 we heard a most familiar voice issuing from a 
 clump of holly just below our covert ; a voice lifted 
 
WE KEPT TRYST AT APPLEBY 525 
 
 now in fervent prayer and again in Scriptural anath- 
 ema on the foe. 
 
 " 'Let God arise and let His inimies be scattered. 
 . . Let them be as the chaif upon a threshing- 
 floor'—" 
 
 The sharp crack of the old borderer's rifle filled 
 the momentary pause, and a British officer in a 
 colonel's uniform swayed drunkeniy in his saddle 
 and plunged headlong in the stream. 
 
 " 'Let them be as the children of Amalek before 
 the Mighty One of Israel : make them and their 
 princes like Oreb and Zeeb ; yea, make all their 
 princes Hke as Zebah and Zalmunna. . . O my 
 God, make them like unto a wheel, and as the stub- 
 ble before the wind ; like as the fire that burneth up 
 the wood, and as the flame that consumeth the 
 mountains.' " 
 
 Crack ! went the long-barreled piece again, and 
 again an officer hallooing on his floundering bat- 
 talion bent to his saddle horn and slipped into the 
 turbid flood. 
 
 My gorge rose. This picking off of officers has 
 always seemed to me the savagest of war's barbari- 
 ties. How Richard divined my thought and pur- 
 pose, I know not; but when I would have slipped 
 down to Yeates's holly bush he laid a detaining 
 hand on my arm. 
 
 ''Let be," he said : " 'tis murder, if you like, but 
 all war is that. When old Eph's turn comes, they 
 will kill him as relentlessly as he is killing them.'* 
 
526 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 By this time the British vanguard was storming 
 ashore through the shallows below the tree fringe 
 which served as cover for Graham's men, and the 
 king's muskets, silent hitherto, began to roar and 
 belch by platoon and volley fire. Jennifer craned 
 his neck and took a swift view of the situation. 
 
 "By the Lord Harry !" he cried, " 'tis high time 
 Joe Graham was getting his lads in order for a 
 foot race. Once those fellows come ashore they'll 
 play hare and hounds with us to the king's taste. 
 Keep your eye on the nags. Jack. It may chance 
 us to do what two men can to cover a belated 
 retreat." 
 
 We had tethered our horses in a thicket of scrub 
 oak where they would be out of bullet-reach until 
 the enemy gained the bank. As I looked to make 
 sure of them, the sorrel gave a shrill neigh to wel- 
 come the pounding of hoofs on the Appleby road. 
 I made sure this would be General Davidson bring- 
 ing in the reserves ; and so, indeed, it was ; but he 
 came too late. O'Hara's men were already climbing 
 the bank; and Joe Graham w^as rallying his little 
 company for flight in the face of an onset that made 
 the tree fringe sing with musket balls. 
 
 " 'Tis our cue to run away !" Dick shouted, drag- 
 ging me to my feet. "To the horses !" 
 
 But now we were too late. Davidson's men were 
 between us and the scrub oak thicket, and we must 
 wait till the column swept by. 
 
 Dick swore fervently and put his face to the foe 
 
WE KEPT TRYST AT APPLEBY 527 
 
 and his back to a tree. Whereupon I dragged him 
 down as promptly as he had just now dragged me 
 up, telHng him his broadsword would make but a 
 poor shift parrying musket-balls. 
 
 What followed after was over and done with in a 
 dozen fluttering heart-beats. Seeing the case was 
 desperate, General Davidson gathered Graham's 
 fifty into his flying column, flogged his rear into the 
 retreat, and was pitched out of his saddle by a Tory 
 rifle-bullet whilst he was doing it. And when the 
 way to our horses was clear of the galloping Caro- 
 linians, and we would have run to mount and ride 
 after them, the swarming redcoat van was upon us. 
 
 "Up with you and out of this !" cried Jennifer, 
 setting me the example. "We must e'en gallop as 
 we can. Quick, man !" 
 
 But in the gathering and the retreat our old 
 sharpshooter under his holly bush had been left be- 
 hind ; and now we heard him again, chanting his 
 terrible imprecations on the enemy. 
 
 Dick saw the meaning in my look, and together 
 we pounced to drag the old man out of hiding. 
 When we burst down upon him, Yeates had his 
 piece to his face and was drawing a bead on a stout 
 man in cocked hat and plain regimentals whose 
 horse was curveting and sidling in the nearer shal- 
 lows ; no less a fig'ure, in truth, than my Lord Com- 
 wallis himself, cheering his men on to the attack. 
 
 We had scarce made out the old hunter's ta.rgQt 
 when the rifle spat fire, the curveting chari,^** 
 
528 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 reared in its death plunge, and the British com- 
 mander-in-chief, unhurt, as it seemed, was dragged 
 from the entanglement of his stirrups by his aides. 
 
 The old marksman sprang up in a fury of wrath. 
 "Dad blast ye for a pair of aim-sp'ilin' — " 
 
 A roar of musketry cut the rebuke in half, and a 
 storm of bullets smote through the branches over- 
 head. A falling bough knocked my hat off, and I 
 stooped to recover it. When I rose, Dick was clip- 
 ping the old man tightly in his arms. Yeates's belt 
 was cut, and a little oozing well-spring of red was 
 slowly soaking the fringe of his hunting-shirt. 
 
 "Ease me down, Cap'n Dick ; ease me down. The 
 old man's done for, this time, ez I allow — spang in 
 the innards. Ease me down and get off for yer- 
 selves, if so be ye can, im — me — jit — " 
 
 The wagging jaw dropped and the keen old eyes 
 went dim and sightless. Dick's oath was more a 
 sob than an imprecation ; and now it was I who 
 said : "Come on — the living before the dead !" and 
 so we made the well-nigh hopeless dash for the 
 horses. 
 
 How we rode free out of that hurly-burly at the 
 ford-head you must figure for yourselves, if you 
 can. The men of the British vanguard were all 
 about us when we got to the scrub oak thicket and 
 mounted, but no one of them raised a hand to stay 
 us. I have thought since that mayhap they took 
 us for a pair of their own Tory allies who were not 
 above wearing the stolen uniforms of the dead. Be 
 that as it may, we rode away unhindered, Dick in 
 
WE KEPT TRYST AT APPLEBY 529 
 
 all the bravery of his captain's slashings, and I in 
 light-horse buff and blue, taking the road toward 
 the manor house because that was the only one open 
 to us, and ambling leisurely till we were beyond 
 the sight and sound of the victors at the ford. 
 
 But once at large, we put spurs to our horses in 
 true rittcr fashion ; and we had galloped half way 
 to Appleby house before Dick said : 
 
 *'Now we are well out of that, what next? We 
 can not go to Margery with the whole British army 
 at our heels." 
 
 "Nay, but we shall, if only for a short half-hour," 
 I asserted. Then, as once before, I gave him my 
 best bow. ''For the last time, it may be, let me 
 play the lord of the manor. You are very welcome 
 to m.y father's demesne, Richard, and to all of its 
 Holdings." 
 
 "All ?" said he, giving me a quick eye-shot as we 
 pressed on side by side. 
 
 "Yes, all," said I; and I meant it in good faith. 
 He should have the lady, too ; that precious holding 
 of the old manse without whom my father's acres 
 would be but a bauble to be lost or won indifferently. 
 
 "Then you do not love Madge more ?" he queried, 
 his eye kindling. ^ 
 
 "Nay, I did not say that. But I did say the other ; 
 that you should have the house and all its holdings." 
 
 We were cantering up the oak-sentried avenue 
 to that door which Gilbert Stair had once sought to 
 keep against us with his bell-mouthed blunderbuss. 
 There was no sign of any living thing about the 
 
530 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 place ; and when we had no answer to our sword- 
 hilt knockings on the door, the lad turned upon me 
 with a flash of anger in his eyes and his lip a-curl. 
 "You knew full well what you were promising^ 
 John Ireton !" he said. "She is not here." 
 
XLIX 
 
 IN WHICH A LAWYER HATH HIS FEE 
 
 What Richard's most natural resentment would 
 have led to, in what new tangle of the net of bitter- 
 ness we might have been enmeshed, we were spared 
 the knowing. For when he said, "She is not here," 
 two happenings intervened to give us both other 
 things to think of. 
 
 The first was the advent, at the far end of the 
 oak-lined avenue, of a troop of British light-horse, 
 trotting leisurely ; the second was the swinging in- 
 ward of the door of unwelcome, with old Anthony 
 grinning and bowing behind it. 
 
 Now when you have fairly surprised a fox in the 
 open, he asks nothing more than a hole to hide him 
 in. There were the hunters coming up the avenue ; 
 and here was our dodge-hole gaping before us. So, 
 as hunted things will, v/e took earth quickly; 
 though, truly, 'twas an ostrich-trick rather than a 
 fox's, since we left the horses standing without to 
 advertise our presence to all and sundry. 
 
 It was Richard who first found the wit to realize 
 the ostrich-play. 
 
 531 
 
532 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 ''The horses ! — we may as well have left the town 
 crier outside to ring his bell and tell the redcoats 
 we are here," he would say ; and before I knew what 
 he would be at he had snatched the door open and 
 was whistling softly to the big gray. 
 
 Hearing his master's call, the gray pricked his 
 ears and came obediently, with the sorrel tagging 
 at his heels. A moment later, when the up-coming 
 troop was hidden by a turn in the avenue, we had 
 the pair of them in the hall with the door shut and 
 barred behind them. 
 
 ''So far, so good," quoth Dick. Then to the old 
 black, who had stood by, saucer-eyed and speech- 
 less, the while : "Anthony, do you be as big a numb- 
 skull as you were born to be, and hold these redcoat 
 gentlemen in palaver till we can win out at the 
 back." 
 
 The old majordomo nodded his good- will, but 
 now my slow wit came in play. "We've done it 
 now%" said I. "The horses will go out as they came 
 in, or not at all. Had you forgotten the stair at the 
 back ?" 
 
 Judge for yourselves, my dears, if this were the 
 time, place or crisis for a man to fling himself upon 
 the hall settle, grip his ribs and laugh like any 
 lack-wit. Yet this is what Richard Jennifer did. 
 
 It was in the very midst of his gust of ill-timed 
 merriment, while the horses were nosing niftily at 
 their strange surroundings, and the hoof-strokes of 
 the redcoat troop could be plainly heard on the 
 gravel of the avenue, that I chanced to lift my eyes 
 
A LAWYER HATH HIS FEE 533 
 
 to the stair. There, looking down upon us with 
 speechless astoundment in the blue-gray eyes, stood 
 our dear lady. 
 
 Another instant and she was with us, stamping 
 her foot and crying: "Mon Dieu! what is this? 
 Are you gone mad, both of you ?" 
 
 Dick's answer was another burst of laughter, loud 
 enough, you would think, to be heard by those be- 
 yond the door. 
 
 ''Behold four witless brute beasts, ^listress 
 [Madge — two horses and two asses," he said. And 
 then to old Anthony: ''Open the door, Tony, and 
 invite the gentlemen in." 
 
 But Margery was before him. Ah, my dears, a 
 man's wit is like a matchlock, fizzing and sputtering 
 its way noisily to find the powder w^hilst the enemy 
 hath time to ride up and saber the musketeer; but 
 a woman's is like the spark in a tinder-box — a quick 
 snip of flint and steel and you have your fire. In a 
 flash my lady had torn down the heavy curtains 
 from an inner doorway and was carpeting a horse 
 path for us to the rear. 
 
 "Quick!" she cried; "lead them gently, for the 
 love of heaven !" 
 
 She went before us, padding the way with what- 
 ever came first to hand, rugs, curtains, table-cover- 
 ings, and I know not what besides ; and by the time 
 the British troopers were hammering at the outer 
 door, we were deep v/ithin the old mansion and 
 had made shift to drag the unwilling horses by one 
 and two-step descents to a room half under and half 
 
534 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 out of ground, which served as a sort of ante- 
 dun.^feon to the wine cellar. 
 
 Here I thought we might be safe for the moment, 
 but not so my lady. Calling Dick to help her — 
 in all the fierce haste of it I marked that she called 
 to Dick and not to me — she unlocked and opened 
 the door to the wine vault, and in a trice we two 
 and the luckless horses were safely jailed in pitchy 
 darkness, with the stout oaken door slammed be- 
 hind us, the bolt shot in the lock, and the key with- 
 drawn, as we could see by the spot of light which 
 came through the keyhole. 
 
 Richard was the first to break the grave-like 
 silence of our dungeon. 
 
 "Lord !" said he ; "did ever you see such sharp-wit 
 work in all your adventures ? What a soldier's wife 
 she'd make!" 
 
 I smiled at that, being safe to smile in the dark- 
 ness. For was she not a soldier's wife? I hugged 
 that saying as we cling to the thing that is slipping 
 from us. True, I was here to give her freely over 
 to another and a better soldier; but while she was 
 mine I would claim her, in my heart, at least. 
 
 The excitement of the narrow escape somewhat 
 overpast, we sat long on the edge of a wine-bin, 
 speculating in whispers as to what would befall, and 
 listening vainly for the footsteps which would fore- 
 cast our release or our capture by the enemy. But 
 when no sounds, threatening or encouraging, came 
 from the upper world, we groped about till we 
 found the cellar candle, lighted it with flint and 
 
A LAWYER HATH HIS FEE 535 
 
 steel and tinder-box, and took a survey of our 
 jail. 
 
 'Twas the same old cavernous wine vault of my 
 youthful remembrance, such an one as has not its 
 mate in all Carolina to this good day, as I firmly 
 believe. My father's hobby v/as to build for all 
 eternity; and this stone-arched cellarage was more 
 like a cathedral crypt than a store-room for a coun- 
 try gentleman's table-stock of wines. 
 
 Dick held the candle aloft and scanned the bottle 
 racks, none so greatly depleted as they might have 
 been, had any hand but that close-fisted one of Gil- 
 bert Stair's taken the key in charge after my father. 
 
 ''There is no lack of potables," says my candle- 
 bearer; ''but, unhappily, there is never so much 
 as a dry crust to soak in them. And as for the 
 horses, I'll venture they'd give it all, pint for pint, 
 for a good feeding of oats." 
 
 "Truly," said I ; and then we fell to stripping the 
 straw casings from the bottles of madeira to give 
 the poor beasts a feed of rye-stalks which had grown 
 and ripened their grain many a year before either 
 the sorrel or the gray was foaled. 
 
 Having no time-measure save our own impatience, 
 it seemed a weary while before we heard the key 
 rasping in the lock of our prison door. 
 
 " 'Tis ]\Iadge," said Dick, with a true lover's 
 gift of second sight ; and 'twas he who went to help 
 her swing the thick-slabbed oak. 
 
 What passed between them I did not hear, nor 
 want to hear. But when the door w^as swung to 
 
536 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 and locked again I knew we were not free to go 
 abroad. 
 
 Richard came back to me in the inner vault 
 bearing gifts ; the better part of a boiled ham with 
 bread to match, a jug of water from the well, and 
 more candles. 
 
 '*We are not to starve, but that is our best news, 
 thus far," he said. "Of all the houses on our side 
 of the river. Lord Cornwallis must needs pitch upon 
 this manor of Appleby for his rallying headquarters. 
 Madge can not guess when he and the army will be 
 gone, and she is frighted stiff for our sakes." 
 
 This was sober news, indeed, but we could do 
 naught but make the best of it. As for me, I was 
 m.ost anxious to know if the good priest were at 
 Appleby, and what of my chance for seeing him ; 
 but of this I could say no word to Richard. 
 
 So, when we had done full justice to my lady's 
 bounty, we stowed the horses in the deepest of the 
 vaults and stripped more of the bottle coverings for 
 them. But having only the jug of water, we could 
 do no more than swab their mouths out with a wet- 
 ted kerchief in lieu of giving them a drink. 
 
 When all was done we sat ourselves dovv'n to wait 
 as we must ; and when the silence and solitude had 
 wrought their perfect work, we fell to talking in 
 low tones to match the place and circumstance ; and 
 I do think in those quiet hours, walled in as we 
 v/ere from all the disturbments of the outer world, 
 we came closer than we had come for many months. 
 
A LAWYER HATH HIS FEE 537 
 
 And while we sat and talked the long day wore 
 on to evening and a storm came on, as we could 
 determine, though no otherwise than by the mufiled 
 rolling of the thunder which, since we could not 
 see the lightning nor hear the rain, we took at first 
 for the booming of distant cannon. 
 
 I can not tell you all we spoke of in that day-long 
 immurement. There w^as some talk of the great 
 struggle for independence, now, though we knew it 
 not, drawing near to its close ; and there was mucK 
 of reminiscence, harking back to the exciting and 
 tragic scenes in which we two had had our entrances 
 and our exits. Also, there was a tribute paid to the 
 memory of our true old friend and trusted comrade 
 in arms, Ephraim Yeates, so lately gone to his own 
 place. 'Twas at this time I learned what of the 
 old man's gifts and peculiarities I have hereinbefore 
 set down; for Richard had known him long and 
 well. 
 
 From speaking of old Ephraim and his sudden 
 taking-off we came to things more nearly present; 
 and at length Dick would lay a finger gently upon 
 the m.ystery in which he was as yet walking as one 
 blindfolded. 
 
 " 'Tis not a shameful thing ; don't tell me it is 
 that. Jack," he would say; and I gave him speedy 
 assurance upon that head. 
 
 "No, 'tis never shameful ; so much I may lay an 
 oath to." 
 
 "Yet you said once — in that black night when I 
 
538 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 went mad and would have killed you — ^that your life 
 lay between Madge and me." 
 
 "So it did — and does. And God will bear me wit- 
 ness, dear lad, that I have worn that life upon my 
 sleeve." 
 
 "Nay," he said, very gently ; "you need not go so 
 high for a witness ; have I not seen ?" 
 
 We fell silent upon that, and there, in the candle- 
 yellowed gloom of our dungeon harbor, I fought the 
 fellest battle of my life; fought it and won it, too, 
 my dears, once and for all. There was a cold sweat 
 on my brow v/hen I began in low tones to tell him 
 the story of that fateful night in June. At rising 
 forty 'tis no light thing to lose a friend — ^nay, to 
 turn a friend's love into scorn and loathing and bit- 
 ter hatred. 
 
 He heard me through without a word ; and at the 
 end, when I looked to see him spring up and bid me 
 draw and let him have his one poor chance for satis- 
 faction, he still sat motionless, winking and staring 
 at the guttering candle. And when he spoke 'twas 
 with a quivering of the lip that was not of anger. 
 
 "Dear God," said he ; " 'tis 1 who stand in the 
 way." 
 
 "No ; for she loves you, Richard, as dearly as she 
 hates me. And 'tis not so hopeless now, else I had 
 never screwed together the courage to tell you all 
 this. She has at last consented to the Church's un- 
 doing of the incomplete marriage — 'twas this she 
 wrote me about when we were at the Cowpens, and 
 'twas her letter that set me upon going to Winns- 
 
A LAWYER HATH HIS FEE 539 
 
 borough to see the priest. I missed him there, as 
 you know; but I am here now by her own appoint- 
 ment to meet him in her father's house." 
 
 He shook his head slowly. "You've killed the 
 hope in me, Jack. I do think you are all at sea; 
 'tis you she loves — not me." 
 
 I could afford to smile at that. 
 
 "If you could see how she has ever gone about 
 to prove that she did not love me, you would rest 
 easy on that score, dear lad." 
 
 But he would only shake his head again. 
 
 " 'Twas to save your life she rode in on us that 
 morning under the oaks in the glade." 
 
 " 'Twas a womanly horror of a duel and blood- 
 shed, more belike," said I. 
 
 "But she has saved your life thrice since then, as 
 vou confess." 
 
 "Yes ; from a strained sense of wifely duty, as 
 she took good care to tell me." 
 
 "None the less — ah, Jack, you do not know her 
 as I do ; she would never have consented to stand 
 before the priest with you had there not been some- 
 thing warmer than hatred in her heart." 
 
 " 'Twas a bitter necessity, fairly forced upon her. 
 Tell me ; had there been a spark of love for me in 
 her heart, would she have treated me as the dust 
 beneath her feet on that long infaring from the 
 western mountains? She never spoke a v/ord to 
 me, Dick, in all those weeks." 
 
 "Which may prove no more than that you said 
 or did something to cut her to the quick. 'Twould 
 
540 THE :^IASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 be well in your way, Jack. She is as sensitive as 
 she should be, and you are blunter than I — which is 
 the worst I could say of you." 
 
 "No, no ; you are far beside the mark. You for- 
 get that the breaking of the marriage is of her own 
 proposing — at least, I should say I only hinted 
 at it." 
 
 "There may be two sides to that, as well. Have 
 you ever told her that you love her, Jack ?" 
 
 "Surely not ! I have been all kinds of a poltroon 
 in this matter, as I have confessed, but this one thing 
 I have not done." 
 
 "Well," said he, speaking slowly, as one who 
 thinks the path out word by word, "what if she be- 
 lieves 'tis you who ^^^nt your freedom? What if 
 you have made her that bitterest thing in all the 
 .world — a woman scorned ?" 
 
 I would not listen to him more. 
 
 "This is all the merest folly, Richard, as I will 
 prove to you beyond the question of a doubt. Do 
 YOU mind that little interval in the Cherokees' tor- 
 ture-play when they came to bind us afresh for the 
 burning ?" 
 
 "I mind no more of that horror-night than I can 
 help." 
 
 "Well, in that hour, when death was waiting for 
 all three of us, she wrote a little farewell note to the 
 man she loved. 'Twas for you, Dick, but her Indian 
 messenger blundered and gave it me." 
 
 He got upon his feet at that and began to pace 
 slowly back and forth under the gloomy archings. 
 
A LAWYER HATH HIS FEE 541 
 
 But ere long he paused to grasp and wring my hand 
 most lovingly, saying, "Who am I, Jack, to buy my 
 happiness at such a price ?" 
 
 "Nay, lad ; 'tis neither you nor I who should figure 
 greatly in the matter ; 'tis our dear lady. She must 
 e'en have what she longs for, if you, or I, or both 
 of us, should have to go above stairs and put our 
 necks into mv Lord Cornwallis's noose." 
 
 "Now, by heaven. Jack Ireton, 'tis you who are the 
 true lover and the gentleman ; and I am naught but 
 a selfish churl with my face in my own trencher !" 
 he burst out, wringing my hand yet again. " 'Tis 
 as you say ; yet I w^ill not be driven from this ; for 
 aught you have told me to prove it otherwise, Aladge 
 has yet to choose between us, and she shall have that 
 choice, fairly and squarely, and knowing that you 
 love her, before we three go apart again." 
 
 I smiled, and tried hard to keep the heart-soreness 
 out of my reply. 
 
 "As for that, my lad, I have had my stirrup-cup 
 long since, and have drained it to the dregs with a 
 wr}^ face, as an old man must wdien a young man 
 brews for him. But if the priest — " 
 
 Jennifer had resumed his pacing sentry beat, and 
 at this juncture a most singular thing happened. 
 Though vv^e were sealed in, as I have said, from all 
 the outer world with no crack nor cranny for a 
 peephole, a blinding flash of lightning, blue and 
 ghastly, came suddenly to fill the whole cellar with 
 its vivid glare. 
 
542 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 "Good Lord !" says Richard, clapping his hands 
 to his eyes ; "where did that come from ?" 
 
 I was wholly at a loss for a moment. Then I 
 remembered that there was, or had been in my boy- 
 hood days, a narrow, iron-barred window in the 
 farther end of the wine cellar, opening beneath that 
 other window of the great south room where I had 
 climbed to spy upon the conspirators on the night 
 of Captain John Stuart's visit to Appleby. So it 
 chanced that when another flash cam.e I was looking 
 straight over Dick's head at the place in the farther 
 arching of the vault where the little wdndow 
 should be. 
 
 The momentary glare showed me the low square 
 of the window opening, and framed for a flitting 
 instant therein a face of most devilish malignity 
 peering in upon me with foxy-fierce eyes ; the face, 
 to wit, of Gilbert Stair's lawyer-factor. 
 
 In a twinkling the vision was gone, and In the 
 space between the flash and the crash there was a 
 sound as of a wooden shutter slamming in place. 
 Dick heard the noise without knowing the cause of 
 it, being so far beneath the window as to see nothing 
 but the lighting of the glare. 
 
 "What was that?" he demanded, when the thun- 
 der gave him leave. 
 
 " 'Twas our trapper clapping the shutter on the 
 window over your head," said I. "He was looking 
 in to see if we wxre ripe for hanging." 
 
 " 'Tis no time for riddles ; what mean you ?" 
 
 "I mean that we shall have a file of redcoats 
 
A LAWYER HATH HIS FEE 543 
 
 down upon us as soon as ever ]\Ir. Owen Pengarvin 
 can give the alarm." 
 
 "Oho !" said Dick ; and then lie pulled his sword 
 from its scabbard, and I could see the battle-veins 
 swelling in his forehead. "They can hang me when 
 I am too dead to cut and thrust more — not sooner." 
 
 I got me up and went to find the sword which I 
 had laid aside in the horse-baiting. 'Twas a poor 
 blade — one of our captures at the Cowpens ; and 
 when I tried its temper it snapped in my hand. 
 
 "Never mind," said I ; "give me the broadsword 
 scabbard and I will play it as a cudgel, 'tis long 
 enough and full heavy enough." 
 
 He laughed and clapped me on the shoulder, 
 swearing out his love for me as if I had said some- 
 thing moving. "You are every inch a soldier, Jack ; 
 you w^ould put heart into a worse craven than I 
 am ever like to be." And he loosed the iron scab- 
 bard and gave it me. 
 
 Now ensued a most painful time of w^aiting and 
 listening for the tramp of our takers. We posted 
 us near the door, a little to the side, so that its in- 
 swing might not catch us ; and so, bracing for the 
 onset, we waited till the strain of suspense grew so 
 great that we both started like frighted children, 
 when finally the key was thrust into the lock and the 
 bolt shot back. 
 
 But when the heavy door gave inward, as at the 
 pushing of a weak or timid hand, we saw our dear 
 lady standing in the half gloom of the ante-dungeon, 
 breathless and trembling with excitement. 
 
544 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 "Come !" she panted ; "come quickly — ^there is not 
 an instant to spare. The factor has betrayed you ; 
 he will be here directly with the dragoons !" 
 
 I cut in swiftly. "He has not seen Dick; does 
 he know we are both here ?" 
 
 She had one hand on her heart to still its tumultu- 
 ous beating, and the other held behind her, and 
 she could scarce speak more for her eagerness to 
 have us out and away. 
 
 "No; it was you he saw; and my father heard 
 Colonel Tarleton give the order. Lieutenant Tybee 
 is to take a file of his troopers and hang without 
 grace the man he will find hiding in the wine cel- 
 lar; those were his very words. Oh, merciful 
 heaven ! will you never stir ?" 
 
 Richard gave a low whistle. 
 
 "So Tybee has come alive in good time to square 
 the old account with us," he would say ; but my 
 wonder was greater on the other head. "Your 
 father ?" I gasped. "And he sent you to save me ?" 
 
 "Surely," she said. "Are you not once again 
 his guest. Captain Ireton ?" Then she stamped her 
 foot, and though the candle-light was of the poorest, 
 I could see her eyes flash. "Will you squander the 
 last moment in silly questions?" she burst out. 
 "Come, I say !" 
 
 I smiled. "Give me that sword you are hiding 
 behind you and I will keep the door whilst you 
 spirit Dick away. He is not to be in this." 
 
 She gave me the weapon, though not, as I made 
 sure, in any consenting to my proposal. I could 
 
A LAWYER HATH HIS FEE 545 
 
 have cried out in sheer joy when I found the sword 
 to be my own good blade of proof — the ancient 
 Ferara willed me by my father. 
 
 Sharp as the crisis was, I make no doubt I should 
 'lave asked her then and there how she came by the 
 blade I had last seen when my Lord Cornwallis 
 tried to break it over his knee; but the march of 
 events suddenly became too svv^ft for me. There 
 was a sound of cautious footsteps in the inclined 
 passage leading from the butler's pantry above, and 
 our chance for escape that way v^as gone. 
 
 "Too late !" said Dick ; and with an arm^ about 
 ^largery he whipped behind the great oaken door 
 opened back against the cellar v/all, whispering me 
 to follow. 
 
 We were scarce in hiding, with the door well 
 drawn back to screen us, when the cautious foot- 
 steps came slowly into the out-cellar. Peeping 
 through the crack behind the door we saw Pen- 
 garvin — alone. 
 
 What brought him there without his tale of 
 armed men at his back no man will ever know ; 
 but since his ways were always crooked and de- 
 vious, I guessed he would not wish to appear in the 
 matter in his own proper person, and yet could not 
 deny himself a 'forehand peep to see if the trap 
 were still safe shut and secure. 
 
 'Twas evident he was much disconcerted at find- 
 ing the door open and the wine vault apparently 
 empty. At first he would start and dodge as if to 
 run away ; then his rage got the better of his caution 
 
546 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 and he had one of those senseless cursing fits I have 
 before told you of, raving and swearing and prom- 
 ising all manner of fiendish recompense to Mistress 
 ]\Iargery when he should have her in his power. 
 
 A little longer dwelling upon this variation of the 
 cursing theme — ravings in which Dick learned for 
 the first time of the factor's design to marry my 
 widow and the estate — and I do think the lad would 
 have gone out to make him sing another tune. But 
 now the factor left off suddenly to cock his ear and 
 listen, and afterward to come tiptoeing into the cel- 
 lar, all eyes to spy and legs to run if a mouse should 
 but squeak at him. 
 
 He was muttering to himself as he passed our 
 hiding place. 
 
 "By all the devils, he must be here, some gait. 
 The little jade would have warned him if she had 
 known ; but it is known only to the doddering old 
 miser and me, and the girl is safe in her bed-room. 
 Happen this devil of an Austrian captain has 
 drunken himself sodden ; ah, that would be a rare 
 jest — to wake with the rope around his neck! If 
 those cursed, slow-footed dragoons would but come ! 
 Damme! I'll have that bull-necked lieutenant cash- 
 iered if his high and mighty loitering balks me in 
 this." 
 
 He stopped before the wine cask whereon the 
 flickering candle stood and craned his neck to look 
 beyond it. The candle was guttering smokily, and 
 he reached a shaking thumb and finger to pluck the 
 
A LAWYER HATH HIS FEE 547 
 
 I **dead man" from the wick. At that we heard him 
 muttering again. 
 
 " 'Twas a play to make the very devil envious ; 
 and to have it marred by that pig of a lieutenant ! 
 No one knew me in it save the legion colonel, and 
 could we have sprung the trap fair and softly, not 
 even JMistress Margery herself could have laid this 
 swashbuckler's death at my door. But now he's 
 gone — vanished like a straw bailee, and all because 
 that damned understrapper of Colonel Tarleton's 
 must needs turn up his nose at a bit of sheriff's 
 work. Curse him !" 
 
 The candle was burning brightly now, and he 
 crept catlike around the cask to peer into the bin 
 beyond it. Just then the shutter to the little window 
 of espial fell open with a shrill creaking of its rusty 
 hinges, and a blue glare of lightning came to prick 
 out ever}^ nook and corner of the cellar. Being 
 almost within a blade's length of the factor, I saw 
 him plainly ; saw him start back and put his hands 
 to his face and drop down all of a tremble on the 
 bin's edge, where I had been sitting when he dis- 
 covered me. 
 
 To second the flash a prolonged drum-roll of 
 thunder dinned upon the still air of the vault, and 
 mingled with the thunder came other flashes, sear- 
 ing the eye and making the candle flame appear as 
 a sickly orange halo in the blue-white glare. What 
 wath the play of the storm artillery we could neither 
 see nor hear for the moment; but when the candle- 
 
548 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 light came to its own again the scene had changed 
 as if by magic. Under cover of the thunder din 
 a squad of dragoons had come to ring the factor in 
 where he sat upon the edge of the wine bin. 
 
 *'So-ho!" said my good friend Tybee, with a Httle 
 strident laugh, " 'tis you I am to take out and hang, 
 is it, Piaster Lawyer? I thought mayhap you'd 
 double on your track once too often, and so it 
 seems you have. Up with you and come along." 
 
 All in a flash Pengarvin was up and bursting out 
 in a trembling frenzy-fit of protestation. 
 
 "Oh, 'tis all a mistake, my good sir — a devil's 
 own trap ! I — I am not the man ; I pledge 3'ou my 
 sacred word ! I — hands off, you cursed villains, or 
 I'll have the law on you !" this last when one of the 
 mien cast the noose of a rope over his head whilst 
 a second drew his arms to his sides in the looping 
 of another cord. "By God ! you shall all smart for 
 this ; all, I say ! Take me to Colonel Tarleton. The 
 king has no stancher friend in all the province 
 than I. Why, damme, 'twas I who — " 
 
 A trooper came behind and gagged him with the 
 loose end of the rope ; and Tybee held the candle 
 to light the knotting of it. And so they marched 
 him out, with Tybee muttering between his teeth 
 that it was rat-catcher's work, and no soldier's, 
 this killing of vermin, and bidding his men make 
 haste. 
 
HOW RICHARD COVERDALE^S DEBT WAS PAID 
 
 For some breathless moments after we three were 
 left alone In the Stygian darkness of the wine cellar, 
 no word was spoken. The rolling of the thunder 
 drum was muffled now, as It were booming out the 
 dirge of the man who had digged a pit and had 
 himself fallen therein; and the lightning flashes 
 coming at longer Intervals served but to Intensify 
 the gloom they lit up for the instant. 
 
 It was a minced oath from Richard that first 
 broke the spell that bound us. 
 
 " 'Twas too much for Madge," said he, "she has 
 fainted. Swing the door, and light another candle." 
 
 I did both as quickly as might be, and we bedded 
 her on the floor, stripping our coats to soften the 
 stone flagging for her and trying by all the means 
 known to two unskilled soldier leeches to bring 
 her to. 
 
 "Water !" said Dick ; but when we had laved her 
 face with that, and with wine as well, without effect, 
 we were well dismayed, I do assure you. For all 
 
 549 
 
550 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 our efforts she lay as one dead; and neither of us 
 could be cold enough to pry her lips apart to play 
 the drenching doctor with the wine. 
 
 "Lord !" cried Dick, the sweat standing out upon 
 his face in great drops ; "this is terrible ! What shall! 
 we do ?" 
 
 "Jeanne will know what to do," I asserted. "We 
 must get her out of this and up to her chamber." 
 
 Richard started to his feet and stooped to gather 
 the dear body of her in his arms. But in the act 
 he paused and straightened himself to look fixedly 
 at me. 
 
 "Do you take her. Jack; she is — she is — your 
 wife." 
 
 "Nay," said I, drawing back. "You are her own 
 true lover ; and could she choose her bearer — " 
 
 "A murrain on your finickings !" he burst out. 
 "She may die whilst we are haggling over the right 
 to help her. Take her up quick, man, and be- 
 gone !" 
 
 "But bethink you, Dick," I urged ; "if you are 
 taken, you have one chance in ten of faring as an 
 officer and a prisoner of war. For me 'tis a spy's 
 death as swift as they can drag me to it." 
 
 Now you will know, my dears, how much I loved 
 these two when I could twist a cord of such mean 
 fiber to bind them closer together. Richard's eyes 
 flashed and his lip curled. 
 
 "Overlook it in me, if you can," he said, with fine 
 scorn. "I had not thought upon the peril of it." 
 'And with that he took her in his arms as she had 
 
RICHARD'S DEBT WAS PAID 551 
 
 been a child to be carried, and I swung the door for 
 him. But on the threshold he gave me back my 
 sorry little subterfuge. "Once more, your forgive- 
 ness, Jack. I knew well you were but lying to give 
 me precedence. Can you trust me with her?" 
 
 ''Aye, dear lad ; now and ever," said I ; and so I 
 pushed him out. 
 
 After he was gone I made shift to lead the horses 
 through the narrow passage and out by a rear door, 
 giving them a friendly slap to point them toward 
 the stables. 
 
 This done I went back to my immurement, and 
 I know not how long it was that I paced a weary 
 sentry beat up and down the narrow limits of the 
 wine cellar, alone with such thoughts as go to 
 make the sum of that despair which follows hard 
 upon the heels of some climaxing catastrophe. But 
 I do know that, as the hours dragged on leaden- 
 shod, a slow fever of impatience came to dry the 
 blood in my veins ; to make me hunger and thirst 
 for leave to say the final word to Father Alatthieu, 
 and so to be set at liberty to find the bottom of the 
 pit into which a mocking fate had plunged me. 
 
 'Twas all over now. My dear lad was told, and 
 he had forgiven me ; the persecuting, plotting factor 
 was effaced, and he could never trouble my sweet 
 lady more. Between the two I loved there stood 
 only the shadow^ of the marriage, and this the good 
 priest would presently help me to dispel. 
 
 And after that ... I dared not look be- 
 yond. There is a way beset with lions, and any 
 man who bears the name of man in honor may draw 
 his sword and fix his eye upon the goal and hew 
 
552 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 his path to It, joying in the conflict. But there is 
 also another way, a desert trail owning no peril more 
 affrighting than its own dread waste and limitless 
 monotony; and when his eyes behold the dismal 
 prospect, and his feet have pressed the hitherward 
 sands of this desert of despair, a man may well 
 pause to gird his loins, to cross himself and patter 
 such a prayer for strength and fortitude as his creed 
 hath taught him. 
 
 To such a faring through all the days and nights 
 of this grim desert of a future these lonely hours in 
 the wine vault were a fitting vigil, as I conceived ; 
 and when I had hugged my misery close, and a sort 
 of monstrous self-pity had come to make a seeming 
 virtue of the hard necessity, I was best pleased to 
 be alone. In such a frame of mind the sound of 
 footsteps in the out-cellar, warning me that more 
 company was coming, sent a wave of sullen anger 
 to subm.erge me, and I do think 'twas in me to 
 turn my back upon a friend who should come to 
 tell me I was free to go at large. 
 
 Since I had led forth the good horses the great 
 oaken door had stood ajar. So I wondered why 
 my visitor made so much ado rattling the key in 
 the lock. Then it came to me suddenly that the 
 noise and delay were meant to give me timely warn- 
 ing; and at the scent of threatening peril — a peril 
 I might cope with and grapple soldierwise — I be- 
 came a man again. A sweep of my hat sent the 
 sputtering candle flying from its barrel head to the 
 
RICHARD'S DEBT WAS PAID 553 
 
 farther corner of the vault, and I dropped quickly 
 behind a row of empty wine-butts to await what 
 should befall. 
 
 Had she been a ghost, Mistress !Margery would 
 scarce have startled me more when she swung the 
 door to let me see her. She was gowned in her 
 best; there was a heightened color in her cheek; 
 her eyes were like stars. Truly, I do think I never 
 saw her so beautiful as she appeared at that 
 moment, standing under the massive arch of the 
 doorway \\'ith her candle held high to light the 
 inner gloom. 
 
 "This way, Scipio," she said, tripping ahead of 
 the mulatto to point out the madeira bin. "We shall 
 give my Lord and his gentlemen the best the Ap- 
 pleby cellar holds to speed their parting.'' Where- 
 with she stood aside to wait whilst he filled his 
 basket with the straw-cased bottles. 
 
 At this I saw why she had come. Lord Cornwal- 
 lis and his gentlemen were about to take the road, 
 and the wine was wanted for the stirrup-cup. Trust- 
 ing my fate to no hand less loyal than her own, she 
 had come herself with Scipio to stand betwixt me 
 and possible discovery. And her word to the serv- 
 ing man v.^as also a word to me to let me know 
 my prisonment was near an end. 
 
 I thought it a n:cst generous thing in her; the 
 last of all her many wifely loyalties ; and I would 
 have given much for leave to stand forth and tell 
 her so. Indeed, when the mxulatto had poised his 
 
554 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 basket upon 'his head and vanished, and she was 
 Hngering to take a last look around before she fol- 
 lowed him, I was upon the point of speaking. 
 
 But whilst I hesitated I saw her start back with 
 a little cry of terror. Standing in the arched door- 
 way through which the mulatto had but now passed 
 was a man cloaked, hatted, booted and spurred as 
 for the road. At her cry he doffed his hat and . . . 
 
 My dears, I shall never be able to draw for you 
 the hideous death-mask this man was wearing for 
 a face. Seamed and scarred, shriveled and livid in 
 purple and crimson welts, you would think a nine- 
 thonged w^hip of fire had scourged out every sem- 
 blance of comeliness, leaving only the skeleton frame 
 on which to hang this ghastly caricature of a hu- 
 man face. Fearing him not at all, I could scarce 
 forbear a shudder at the sight of this walking death- 
 mask of the libertine, Sir Francis Falconnet. 
 
 And if his face were terrifying in repose, 'twas 
 fair demoniac when he laughed. 
 
 "Ha!" he said, bowing again in a mockery of 
 politeness. "You are surprised. Mistress Margery; 
 you heard my Lord's order and thought I would be 
 by now some miles on the road to Salisbury ?" 
 
 "If you were the loyal soldier you should be, 
 sir," she said, drawing herself up proudly, "you 
 would be at the head of your troop, as his Lordship 
 directed." And then, with a gesture that was most 
 queenly: "Stand aside, Sir — Libertine, and let me 
 pass." 
 
 His answer was another mocking laugh, and he 
 
RICHARD'S DEBT WAS PAID 555 
 
 stepped within to close the door and lock it. When 
 he turned to front her again his face was the face 
 of a tormented devil. 
 
 "By God! you think too lightly of me, Mistress 
 Margery. Before ever this day dawned I owed you 
 much, but like a spiteful little hellicat you must 
 needs add to the score by making me a target for 
 3^our wit at the supper-table. 'Twill cost a life to 
 more than one of them who laughed with you, my 
 lady, but 'twill cost you dearer still." 
 
 He came nearer as he spoke, thrusting that hor- 
 rible face farther into the circle of candle-light; 
 but she would not draw back nor flinch a hair, and 
 I marked that the hand that held the candlestick 
 was as steady as a rock. But when he made an 
 end she flung a quick glance over her shoulder and 
 my heart leaped for joy. For then I knew she was 
 leaning upon me. 
 
 "Once more, Captain Falconnet, will you let me 
 pass ?" she said. 
 
 "No!" he snarled, adding a horrid blasphemy. 
 " 'Twas passion in me once, and I am none so sure 
 there was not a time when you could have cooled 
 it into love. But now 'tis hatred and revenge." 
 He snapped his fingers in her face. "The thing 
 they'll find here in the morning — " 
 
 He fell face downward at her feet and I set my 
 heel in the small of his back to hold him whilst I 
 could drive the point of the Ferara between his 
 ribs. But my dear lady would not have it so. 
 
 "No, no! for the love of heaven, not that, Mon- 
 
556 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 sieur John !" she cried ; and for the moment her fine 
 courage was all swallowed up of pity and she be- 
 came a compassionate woman pleading for a life. 
 
 But now my blood was up. ''You are my wife," 
 I said, coldlv. 'Tf he had a dozen lives I should 
 take them all for that which he said to you." 
 
 "But not that w^ay — oh, not that way, I do be- 
 seech you !" she begged. "Think of what it will 
 mean to you — and — and to me. For your own sake, 
 Monsieur John." 
 
 I took my heel from the man's back. 
 
 "Your wish is law to me, dear lady. But your 
 way is clear now ; you may go." 
 
 She took a step toward the door. 
 
 "You will not kill him when I am gone, Alonsieur 
 John ?" 
 
 "By the name he bears he was doubtless born a 
 gentlemen ; since you wish it, he shall die like one." 
 
 I saw she did not take my meaning; that when 
 she was gone I should let him have his chance to 
 die sword in hand. 
 
 "Remember, I have your promise," she said, turn- 
 ing to go. "The army is on the march for Salisbury, 
 and in a little while your friends will be here to — " 
 
 The sentence ended in a verv womanlv shriek of 
 terror. Watching his chance, my dastard enemy 
 had bounded to his feet to make a quick lunge, not 
 at m.e, but at her. 
 
 Of course I came between to parry the murder- 
 ous thrust, and after that it was life for one of us 
 and death for the other. I looked to see my lady 
 
RICHARD'S DEBT WAS PAID 557 
 
 run, shrieking; indeed, I called to her to go; but 
 she stood fast as if her terror had frozen her ; and 
 so it was her candle that lighted the grim vault for 
 the duel. 
 
 As you will know full well, I was not minded to 
 give this thrice-accursed fiend more than the gentle- 
 man's chance I had promised to give him. But 
 now, as twice before, he fought most desperately, 
 trying by ever)^ trick of fence to come between me 
 and the silent little figure holding the candle aloft. 
 As I have often said, he was a pretty swordsman, 
 and at this crisis, with life at stake, and all the fury 
 of the seven devils of disappointed vengeance to 
 nerve his arm, his sword play was most masterly. 
 
 Yet twice in his stamping rushes I found my 
 opening; once the Ferara's point passed his blade, 
 and but for the ringed guard of the German long- 
 sword that stopped it when his parry failed, the 
 steel would have passed through him. After this 
 he grew warier, having in mind, as I supposed, that 
 other time when I had shown him that my wrist 
 and arm could outweary his. Yet his savage onset 
 never flagged for an instant; and when the light 
 fell upon his hideous face, I could see the fierce eyes 
 glinting like a basilisk's, with no sign in them that 
 my time was come to press him home. 
 
 None the less, I did press him, inch by inch, driv- 
 ing him at each new clash of the steel a little deeper 
 into the gloom that crowded close upon the narrow 
 circle of candle-light. He saw my object — to push 
 him to unfamiliar ground where he might trip and 
 
558 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 stumble in the darkness — and he strove furiously 
 to defeat it. Yet he had no choice, and presently 
 I had him among the empty wine-butts, foining and 
 parrying for his life and pouring out such blas- 
 phemies as would make your blood run cold. 
 
 Here the end came quickly. Being entangled 
 among the broached butts he had no room to play 
 skilfully. So presently it chanced that he caught 
 his point in the chine of a cask and his blade snapped 
 short at the hilt. With a yelling oath, hissing hot 
 from the devil's thumb-book, he snatched up the 
 broken blade to fling and stick it javelin- wise in my 
 shoulder ; and then I saw the dull gleam of the can- 
 dle-light on the barrel of a pistol. 
 
 Had he aimed the pistol at me, I trust I should 
 still have given him his gentleman's chance. But 
 when I saw him level the weapon at my dear 
 lady . . . they came in one and the same heart- 
 beat ; the sword-thrust that found his life and took 
 it ; the crash of the pistol-shot echoing like a clap of 
 thunder in the close vault, and pitchy darkness to 
 draw its curtain over all. 
 
 I know not how I reached her, pulling the broken 
 sword-blade from my shoulder as I ran; nor can 
 I tell you how an upgushing spring of thankfulness 
 choked me when I found her unharmed by the bullet 
 which had snuffed the candle out. 
 
 She was in a most piteous state, now it was all 
 over ; and though I charged it all where I supposed it 
 should belong — to the account of a natural womanly 
 
RICHARD'S DEBT WAS PAID 559 
 
 passion to cling to something in her moment of 
 weakness — yet the blood ran quick in my veins when 
 she suffered me to lead her out of that dismal, 
 smoking death-pit, she clinging to me the while 
 so close that I could feel the warmth of her and the 
 fluttering of her dear heart beneath my hand. 
 
 She said no word, nor did I, till we were come 
 above stairs. We found the rooms on the main 
 floor deserted by all save the blacks, vvdio were clear- 
 ing away the debris of the feast of leave-taking. 
 In the hall we came upon old Anthony, putting on 
 the chain of the outer door. Here my lady drew 
 apart from me. 
 
 'Is my Lord gone ?" she asked. 
 'Yis, ]\Iissa. He say tell yo' he gwine tek it 
 mighty hawd yo' no come ter gib him de sti'up- 
 cup." 
 
 'And my father?" 
 
 'Gone to de lib'ry to wait fo' Massa Pengarbin; 
 yis, Alissa." 
 
 She turned away, shuddering at this mention of 
 the factor for whose coming the master would wait 
 long and in vain, and I heard her munnur: "Oh, 
 the horror of this night!" But in a moment she 
 came back to me, and was her cool, calm self again. 
 
 'Tor that I am here, alive and well, I thank you, 
 Captain Ireton. Need I say more?" 
 
 I can not tell you what was in the words to make 
 me hot with anger, as I had but now been hot with 
 love. But the new wound in my shoulder was 
 
 
 ill 
 
56o THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 bleeding freely, and I would not let her see I was 
 hurt; and if aught will stanch a wound, 'tis an- 
 ger. 
 
 "You need not say so much," I retorted, bowing 
 low. "You have spoken now and then of certain 
 duties binding upon those who are knotted up, ever 
 so loosely, in the marriage bond ; I have my part in 
 these as well as you, Mistress Margery." 
 
 She bit her lip and was upon the edge of tears. 
 I saw what I had done and would curse the master- 
 less tongue that must needs add its word-thong to 
 the night's whip of scourgings. 
 
 When she spoke again it was to say : "This is 
 your own house, Captain Ireton ; what will you do?" 
 
 "One question first, is Richard Jennifer safe?" 
 
 "He is." 
 
 "Then, by your good leave, I shall do what I 
 came to do." 
 
 She bent her head in acquiescence. 
 
 "You will find the — the person whom you wish 
 to see in your old room in the north gable. Shall 
 I have Anthony light you up ?" 
 
 "No ; I can find the way." 
 
 My hand was on the stair rail when the cruel 
 irony of it struck me like a blow. She had planned 
 the loosing of the bond in the very room where we 
 had knelt to take the good father's blessing upon it. 
 
 I stepped back, stumbled, I should say, for a 
 curious weakness had come upon me, and drew her 
 arm in mine. 
 
 "We will go together, if you please, my lady. 
 
RICHARD'S DEBT WAS PAID 561 
 
 'Tis only just to me that you should hear what I 
 must say to Father ]\Iatthieu." 
 
 And so, dear heart ! she bore vrlth me to the 
 last ; and together we climbed the stair to come into 
 the upper corridor with the room of destiny at its 
 farther end. 
 
 We came as far as the door ; I mind it perfectly, 
 for I remember marking that the wooden bar my 
 father had put upon it was gone, and the iron 
 brackets as well. But whilst I was groping for the 
 latch there came a taste of blood in my mouth, and 
 I heard miy dear lady's voice as if she were calling 
 to me across the eternal abysses. "Monsieur John ! 
 — you are hurt!" And then, from a still remoter 
 distance: "Oh, Father Matthieu— Dick ! come 
 quickly ! He is dying !" 
 
LI 
 
 IN WHICH THE GOOD CAUSE GAINS A CONVERT 
 
 Which one of you, my dears, faring across the 
 frontier of the shadow land of dreams into the no 
 less mysterious country of the real, can not recall 
 the struggle of the waking senses to knot up the 
 gossamer filament of the night's fantasies with the 
 coarser web of reality ? 
 
 For a time, longer or shorter as the dream thread 
 holds, the vagaries of the night are shuttled into the 
 warp of life. But presently comes the master- 
 weaver Reason to point out this or that fantastic 
 pattern ; to bid the ear listen to the measured clack- 
 ing of the day-loom., and the eye to mark that the 
 web of reality has grown never an inch for all the 
 shuttlings of the sleeping-time. Whereupon, full- 
 blood consciousness regains her sway, and you sigh, 
 gladly or sorrowfully, and say, ''Dear God, 'twas 
 but a dream I dreamed !" 
 
 Some such awakening came to me on a day 
 whereof I knew not the name or its number in the 
 calendar. 
 
 I was lying in bed in my old room at Appleby 
 Hundred. The armored soldier was glowering 
 
 562 
 
THE CAUSE GAINS A CONVERT 563 
 
 down upon me from his frame over the chimney 
 piece; the great blackened clothes-press loomed 
 darklv in its corner ; the show of curious china 
 filled the shelves where my boyhood books had 
 rested ; and there was the same faint smell of 
 lavender in the bed linen that once — was it yester- 
 day or months ago ? — had minded me of my mother. 
 
 When I sought to move me on the pillows the 
 dream seemed more than ever dream-sure. The 
 pain of a sword wound was grinding at my shoul- 
 der, and I was bandaged stiff as I had been that 
 other day. 
 
 So I said, as you have said in like awakenings, 
 "Dear God, 'twas but a dream!" and saying it, 
 would turn my head to see if ^listress Alargery 
 were sitting where I last remembered her. 
 
 She w^as there, in very deed and truth, deep in 
 the hollow of the great chair of Indian wickerwork ; 
 and as before, the soft graying of the evening sky 
 was mirrored in her eyes. 
 
 I sighed, and there was a catching of the breath 
 at the bottom of it. Truly, the wondrous dream had 
 had its agonies, but there were also beatitudes to 
 tip the scale the other way. For I had dreamed 
 this sweet-faced watcher was my wife — in name, at 
 least. 
 
 'Twas while I looked, minding not the eye-ache 
 the effort cost, that she rose and came softly to the 
 bedside. She said no word, but, as once in the 
 dream-time, she laid a cool palm on my forehead. 
 Weak as I was — and surely King David was not 
 
564 THE ]\IASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 weaker when he wrote his bones were gone to water 
 — ^the old love-madness of that other day came to 
 thrill me at her touch, and I made as if I would take 
 her hand and press it to my lips. 
 
 "Nay, sir," she said, with a swift return to sick- 
 room discipline, "you must not stir; you have been 
 sorely hurt." 
 
 "Aye," said I; "I do remember; 'twas in a duel 
 with one Francis Falconnet. He said he would 
 make you his — " 
 
 Now the soft palm was laid on my lips, and I 
 kissed it till she snatched it away. 
 
 '^Ma foir she cried ; "I think you are in a hopeful 
 way to recover now, Captain Ireton. I do protest I 
 shall go and send old Anthony to sit with you." 
 
 "Anthony ?" said I ; "he was in the dream, too, 
 putting up the chain on the hall door." 
 
 "Ah, mon DieuT she said softly, as if to herself, 
 "he is wandering yet." At which, as if to try to 
 help me : " 'Twas no dream ; you did see him put- 
 ting on the chain." 
 
 "Did I ? I made sure I dreamed it. But tell me 
 another thing; was it not yesterday that I met Sir 
 Francis Falconnet under the oaks in the wood field 
 and got this pair of redhot pincers in my shoulder ?" 
 
 She turned away, and if I ever saw a tear there 
 was one trembling in her eyelashes. 
 
 " Twas three full weeks ago," she said. "And 
 it was not in the wood field — 'twas in the wine 
 cellar. Never tell me you do not remember; I — I 
 
THE CAUSE GAINS A CONVERT 565 
 
 could never — ah, ^lother of Sorrows ! that would be 
 worse than all." 
 
 Here was a curious coil, but I could break one 
 strand of it, at least, and so I did. 
 
 'T remember well enough," I hastened to say. 
 "But being here, and seeing you there in the great 
 chair, carried me back to that other time, making 
 all the interval stand as a dream. Have I been 
 ailing?" 
 
 *'You have been terribly near to death, ^Monsieur 
 John; so near that Doctor Carew has twice given 
 you over." 
 
 "No," said I ; "there was no fear of that. I am 
 like that man in the old German folk tale who made 
 a compact with the Evil One, selling thereby his 
 chance to die. Death would not take me as a gift, 
 ^Mistress Margery; I have tried him too often." 
 
 "Hush !" she said; " 'tis an ill thing to jest about. 
 Why should you w^ant to die ?" 
 
 "Rather ask why I should choose to live. But 
 this is beside the mark. You should have let me 
 die, dear lady ; but since you did not, we must e'en 
 make the best of it." 
 
 She faced me with a smile that struggled with 
 some deeper stirring of the heart ; I knew not what. 
 
 " 'Tis a monstrous doleful alternative, n'est-ce 
 pas? And I must not let you talk of doleful things ; 
 indeed, I must not let you talk at all — 'tis Doctor 
 Carew's order." 
 
 So saying, she smoothed the counterpane and 
 
566 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 straightened my pillows ; and after giving me a 
 great spoonful of some cordial that first set a pleas- 
 ant glow alight in me and afterward made me 
 drowsy, she took post again in the hollow of the 
 big chair and was so sitting when I fell asleep. 
 
 This day's awakening was the first of many so 
 nearly of a piece that I lost the count of themi ; 
 and sleep, deep and dreamless for the better part, 
 stole away the hours till the memory of that inch- 
 by-inch return to health and strength is itself like 
 the memory of the vaguest of dreams. 
 
 By times when I awoke it was the bluff Doctor 
 Carew bending over me to dress my wound ; at other 
 times it w^as Margery come to tempt me w^th a bowl 
 of broth or some other kickshaw from the kitchen. 
 Now and again I awoke to find Scipio or old An- 
 thony standing w^atch at my bedside ; and once — 
 but that was after I was up and in my clothes and 
 able to sit and drowse in the great chair — I opened 
 my eyes to find that my company was the master of 
 the house. 
 
 He was sitting as I had seen him sit once before, 
 behind a lighted candle at the little table with a 
 parchment spread out under his bony hands. He 
 was mumbling over the written words of it when 
 I looked, but at my stirring he gave over and sat 
 back in his chair to cross his thin legs and match 
 his long fingers by the ends, and wink and blink at 
 me as though he had but now discovered that he 
 was not alone. 
 
 "I give ye good even, Captain Ireton," he said, 
 
THE CAUSE GAINS A CONVERT 567 
 
 finally, rasping the greeting out at me as it had been 
 a curse. *T hope ye've slept well." 
 
 I said I had, and thanked him, once for the wish, 
 and again for his coming to see me. I know not 
 how it was, but if there had been rancor in my 
 former thoughts of him 'twas som.ething abated now. 
 
 "Ye've had a nearhand escape this time, sir," he 
 said, after a longish pause. 
 
 "One more or less of a good many since we were 
 last met together in this room, Ivlr. Stair," I would 
 say. 
 
 He muttered something to himself about the devil 
 taking precious good care of his own ; and I laughed. 
 
 "That is as it may be ; but my being here this sec- 
 ond time a pensioner on your bounty is by no good 
 will of mine, I do assure you, sir." 
 
 He sat nodding at me as if I had said a thing 
 to be most heartily agreed to. But his spoken word 
 belied the nods. 
 
 "The ways of Providence are inscrutable — some- 
 thing inscrutable. Captain Ireton. I make no doubt 
 ye are sufficiently thankfu' for all your mercies." 
 
 "Why, as to that, there may be two ways of look- 
 ing at it. As a soldier, I may justly repine at a fate 
 Vv^hich ties m.e here when I should be in the field." 
 
 "Well said, sir; brawly said; 'tis the part of a 
 good soldier to be ay wanting to be in the thick 
 o' the fighting. But now that ye're a man of sub- 
 stance, Captain Ireton, ye will be owing other debts 
 to our country than the one ye can pay with a 
 hantle o' steel." 
 
568 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 (C (I 
 
 'Our country/ did you say, Mr. Stair?" I asked> 
 feigning a surprise which no one knowing him could 
 feel in very truth. 
 
 "And what for no ? 'Tis the birthland of some — 
 yourself, for example, and the leal land of adoption 
 for others — ^your humble servant, to wit. I've taken 
 the solemn oath of allegiance to the Congress, I'd 
 have ye to know." 
 
 At this I must needs laugh outright. 
 
 "Have you taken it one more time than you have 
 forsworn it, Mr. Stair?" 
 
 "Laugh and ye will," he said, quite placably ; "ye 
 shall never laugh the peetriotism out o' me. 'Tis 
 little enough an old man can do, but the precious 
 cause o' liberty will never have to ask that little 
 twice, Captain Ireton." 
 
 Since he would ever be on the winning side, this 
 foreshadowed good tidings, indeed. So I would 
 ask him straight what news there was. 
 
 "Have they not told ye? 'Tis braw news," he 
 chuckled. "Whilst ye were on your back. General 
 Greene led Lord Cornwallis a fine dance all across 
 the prov — the state, I mean, crooking his finger 
 at him and saying, 'Come on, ye led-captain of a 
 tyrant king, and when I'm ready I'll turn and rend 
 ye.' And by the same token, that is juist what he 
 did the other day at Guilford Court House." 
 
 "A victory?" I would ask. 
 
 "Well, not precisely that, maybe; they're calling 
 it a drawn battle. But I'm thinking 'tis Lord Corn- 
 wallis that's drawn. He's off to Wilmington, they 
 
THE CAUSE GAINS A CONVERT 569 
 
 say, and I'm fain to hope we've seen the last o' him 
 and his reaving redcoats in these parts." 
 
 His words set me in a muse. I could never make 
 out what he would be at, telling me all this. But 
 he had an object, well-defined, and presently it 
 showed its head. 
 
 ''Ye're the laird o' the manor, now, Captain Ire- 
 ton, with none to gainsay ye," he went on. "So 
 I've come to give ye an account o' my stewardship. 
 I made no doubt, all along, ye'd come back to your 
 own when ye'd had your fling wi' the Old Worldies, 
 and so I've kept tab o' the poor bit land for ye." 
 
 "Oh, you have ?" said I, being so far out-brazened 
 as to be incapable of saying more. 
 
 "I have that — every plack and bawbee. 'Tis ten 
 years come Michaelmas since I took over the charge 
 o' Appleby Hundred, and I'm ready to account to 
 ye for every season's crop — when ye'll pay down the 
 bit steward's fee." 
 
 "Truly," said I ; "you are an honest man, Mr. 
 Stair." Then, to humor him to the top of his bent : 
 "Haphazarding a guess, now ; would this accounting 
 leave a balance in my favor, or in yours ?'* 
 
 He gave me a look like that of a costermonger 
 weighing and measuring the gullibility of his cus- 
 tomer. 
 
 "Oh, aye ; I'm no saying there might n't be a bit 
 siller coming to me ; a few himdred pounds, more or 
 less — sterling, man, sterling; not Scots," he added 
 hastily. And then, as if it were best to leave this 
 nail as it was driven, he changed the subject ab- 
 
570 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 ruptly. "I've brought ye that last will and testa- 
 ment ye signed," handing me the parchment. "No 
 doubt you'll let it stand ; but when the bairns come, 
 ye'll want to be adding a codicil or two." 
 
 Leaving the matter of the estate, I thought it 
 high time to cut to the marrow of the bigger bone. 
 So I said : "Let us be frank with each other in this, 
 Mr. Stair. How much has your daughter told you 
 of the matter between us ?" 
 
 "She's a jade!" he rasped, lapsing for a moment 
 into his real self. But he recovered his self-control 
 instantly. "Ye'd no expect a romantic bit lassie wi' 
 French blood in her veins to be confidencing wi' 
 her old dried-up wisp of a father, now, would ye? 
 She's no tell't me everything, I daresay." 
 
 "Then I will tell you the plain truth of it," I 
 said. "This marriage was never anything more 
 than the form we all agreed it should be at the time ; 
 a makeshift to serve a purpose. If you think I 
 would hold your daughter to it — " 
 
 "Hut, tut, man ! what will ye be havering about ! 
 Ye'll never cast the poor bit lassie off that way ! 
 Ye canna, if ye would; her Church will have a 
 word to say to that." 
 
 For all his aping the manner of the Ignored 
 father, I shrewdly suspected that he knew more 
 about the ins and outs. of our affair than he owned 
 to. Nevertheless, I was forced to meet him on his 
 own ground. 
 
 "There is no ^casting off' about It, Mr. Stair ; and 
 as to the Church, there is good ground for an ap- 
 
THE CAUSE GAINS A CONVERT 571 
 
 peal to Rome. The marriage as it stands is little 
 more than a formal betrothal, as you well know, 
 sound enough legall}^ to make IMistress Margery 
 my heir-at-law, mayhap, but still lacking every- 
 thing of—" 
 
 He could not wait to let me finish. 
 
 ''Lacking, d'ye say?" he rapped out, wrathfully. 
 "And whose fault is that, ye cold-blooded stick? 
 Tell me this ; did I no bundle ye neck and heels into 
 your own wife's bed-room? And how do you 
 thank me? I'm to suppose ye quarrel wi' her like 
 the dour-faced imp o' Sawtan that ye are, and 
 presently ye come raging out, swearing most 
 shamefully at a man old enough to be your father !" 
 
 'Twas far enough in the retrospect now so that 
 I could smile at it. Yet I would not suffer him to 
 bluster me aside. 
 
 "It was an ill thing for you to do, none the less, 
 Mr. Stair; the more as you must have known that 
 IMistress Margery's faith was plighted to Richard 
 Jennifer long before all this came to pass." 
 
 "Did I know it?" he shrilled. "That lang-legged 
 jackanapes of a Dickie Jennifer? Light o' love 
 jade that she is, she never cared the snap of a finger 
 for him." 
 
 "You are talking far enough beside the mark 
 now," I retorted. "Your daughter loves Richard 
 Jennifer well and truly ; and with this entanglement 
 brushed aside she will marry him when he comes 
 back from the wars." 
 
 "She will, ye say? And what will become o' the 
 
572 THE ]\IASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 braw acres of Appleby that gait. Pd like to know? 
 But ye're daft, man ; clean daft. Didn't I speir 
 her giving him his quittance once for all that night 
 when he rode away after they had pitten ye to bed ? 
 She tell't him flat she loved anither man." 
 
 "Another man ?" I echoed. ''I — explain yourself, 
 if you please, Mr. Stair. What other man — " 
 
 He was at the door by this, and he broke out 
 upon me in such a blast of cursing as I hope never 
 to hear from the lips of such an old man again. 
 
 "Ye cold-blooded, crusty deevil !" he quavered, 
 when all his breath was spent upon the bigger mali- 
 sons. "Has it never come intil your thick numb- 
 skull that the poor fule lassie is sick wi' love for ye, 
 ye dour-faced loon?" 
 
 And with that he let himself out and slammed 
 the door behind him, and I heard him go pottering 
 down the corridor, still cursing me by all the choice 
 phrases he could lay tongue to. 
 
LII 
 
 WHICH BRINGS US TO THE JOURNEY^'s END 
 
 I may confess to you, my dears, that Mr. Gilbert 
 Stair's parting tirade did not move me greatly, 
 since I would set down everything he had said to 
 the one account — -the miser's. 
 
 Yet when I came to second thoughts upon it, this 
 account balanced but indifferently. Why should he 
 be so eager to make me think small of IMargery's 
 love for Richard Jennifer ? And why, misliking me, 
 as I made sure he did, should he be so hot to make 
 the shadow marriage a thing of substance? From 
 the miser-father's point of view, Richard, with his 
 goodly heritage of Jennifer House, was a match to 
 be angled for ; yet here was the man in whose eye 
 house and lands loomed largest flying into rage be- 
 cause I sought to put his daughter in the way of 
 marrying them. 
 
 I was pondering thoughtfully on this, giving the 
 pinching old man credit for any and every motive 
 save that which he had so cursingly avowed, to wit, 
 the furthering of his daughter's happiness, when 
 there came a tap at the door and Alistress Margery 
 entered. 
 
 573 
 
574 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 *'Dear heart ! Do they Hmit you to a single can- 
 dle when my back is turned?" she said, in mock 
 pity ; and saying it, went to light the candles in the 
 mantel sconces. 
 
 The sight of her standing a-tiptoe to touch off 
 the candles on the chimney breast set the old love- 
 spell at work to make my heart beat faster. What if 
 there were a hint of truth in Gilbert Stair's wrath- 
 ful protest? What if, after all, she cared less for 
 Richard and more for me? 
 
 Do not, I pray you, my dears, think too hardly 
 of the man who thus lays bare the secret thoughts 
 of his heart for you. 'Twas but a passing gust of 
 the tempest of disloyalty, and I was not swept 
 wholly from my moorings. Nay, when she came 
 to sit on the hassock at my feet, as she used to do 
 in that other halcyon-time of convalescence, I was 
 myself again and could look upon her sweet face 
 with eyes that saw beyond her to the camp or battle- 
 field where my dear lad was spending himself. 
 
 For a time we sat in silence, and 'twas she who 
 spoke first. 
 
 "My father has been with you," she said. "I 
 hope you did not quarrel with him." 
 
 "No," I denied, salving my conscience with the 
 remembering that it takes two to make a quarrel ; 
 and I had done none of the cursing. "He came to 
 give me this," I added, handing her the will. 
 
 She opened the folded parchment, reading a line 
 of it here and there softly to herself. 
 
THE JOURNEY'S END 575 
 
 — " 'Being of sound mind, doth bequeath and 
 devise to his loving wife, Margery — ' Ah, had you 
 been writing it you would not have written it so, 
 would you, ^Monsieur John ?" 
 
 " 'Tis but a form," I would say. "All wives are 
 'loving' in lawyers' speech." 
 
 She smiled up at me so like an innocent and fear- 
 less child that for the moment I could figure her no 
 otherwise. Yet her rejoinder was a woman's. 
 
 "I say you would not have written it so; is not 
 that the truth ?" 
 
 I would not let her pin me down. 
 
 "If I should write it now, it should be written 
 in great letters, dear lady. Though it is but a form, 
 though that which followed was but another form, 
 you have not failed in any wifely duty, Mistress 
 Margery." 
 
 "Not once?" 
 
 "No, not once. Three times you have done what 
 the lovingest wife could do to save a husband's 
 life ; and I do greatly suspect there was a fourth 
 and earlier time. Tell me^ little one ; was it not 
 you who sent the Indian to Captain Forney to tell 
 him a patriot spy was to be executed at day-dawn 
 in the oak glade ?" 
 
 She would not answer me direct. 
 
 " 'Twas I who brought you to that pass," she 
 said, speaking soft and low. "But for my riding 
 down upon you one other morning in that same 
 oak glade, you would not have had Sir Francis 
 
576 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 Falconnet's sword in your shoulder. And but for 
 that sword wound, nothing that followed would 
 have follovv'ed." 
 
 Saying this she fell silent for a space, and when 
 she spoke again she was become by some subtle 
 transmutation my trusting little maid of the by- 
 gone halcyon-time. 
 
 "Do you remember how you used to make a com- 
 rade of me in the old days, Monsieur John, telling 
 me things my elder brother might have told me, 
 had I had one ?" 
 
 I said I remembered; that I was not likely to 
 forget. 
 
 "Are you strong enough to stand in that elder 
 brother's place again to-night?" 
 
 "Try me and see, dear lady." 
 
 "Not whilst you say Mear lady,' " she pouted. 
 " 'Twas 'Margery' and 'Monsieur John' a year 
 agone." 
 
 "Have it as you will ; I will even call you 'Madge' 
 if it pleases you better." 
 
 "No," she said ; "that is Dick's name for me ; and 
 — and it is of Dick that I would speak. You love 
 him well, do you not, Monsieur John ?" 
 
 I said I could never make her, or any woman, 
 fully understand the bond there was between us. 
 
 "Truly?" There w^as the merest flavor of play- 
 ful sarcasm in the uptilt of the word, but it was 
 gone when she went on. 
 
 "Being so good a friend to Dick, then, you can 
 
THE JOURNEY'S END 577 
 
 advise me the better. Tell me, if you please, must 
 I mai'i/ him — when — " 
 
 "When you are free to do it?" I finished for 
 her. "Why should you not, my dear ?" 
 
 She was pulling the threads from the lace edging 
 of her kerchief and would not for a king's ransom 
 let her eyes meet mine. 
 
 "You used to say — in that other time — that love 
 should go before a marriage ; did you not ? Or do 
 I remember badly?" 
 
 "You remember well. I said it then, and I say 
 it again at this present. But Dick loves you well 
 and truly, sweetheart ; and you — -" 
 
 She looked up quickly with the little laugh that 
 used to mind me of happy children at play. 
 
 "And I ? — now you will read a woman's heart for 
 me, IMonsieur John. Tell me ; do I love him as his 
 mistress should?" 
 
 "Nay, surely," said I, gravely, for somehow her 
 laugh jarred upon me, "surely that is for you to 
 say. But you have said it, long since." 
 
 "Have I?" she queried, with an arch lifting of 
 the penciled brows that came straight from her 
 French mother. "Mayhap you overheard me say it, 
 Monsieur Eavesdropper?" 
 
 "God help me, little one — so I did," said I. 
 
 All in a flash her laughing mood was gone and 
 she stood before me like an accusing goddess. 
 
 "You told me once the past was like a dream to 
 you; you must have dreamed that part of it, sir. 
 
578 THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 And yet you said a little while ago that I had not 
 failed in any wifely duty !" 
 
 ''The time and circumstance were their own best 
 excuse. Sure I am far from blaming you, my dear. 
 But let it pass, 'tis enough that I know you love 
 him as he loves you." 
 
 Again her mood changed in the twinkling of an 
 eye. She sank down upon the hassock, laughing 
 merrily. 
 
 "O wise Monsieur John ! how well you read a 
 woman's heart ! 'Tis you should be the lover, in- 
 stead of Dick. He rides a-courting as he would 
 charge a legion on a battle-field. But nothing 
 w^ould ever tempt you to be so masterful rough, 
 would it, Monsieur John? You would look deep 
 into your sweetheart's eyes and say — Tell me what 
 you would say, in on amif" 
 
 Ah, my dears, I hope no one of you will ever be 
 tempted as I was tempted then. I forgot my dear 
 lad, forgot honor, forgot everything save that I 
 had leave to tell her how I had loved her from the 
 first; how I should go on loving her to the end. 
 So for a moment I hung trembling on the brink; 
 and then she pushed me over. 
 
 "Is this how you would do. Monsieur — Monsieur 
 Ogre? — sit stock still and glower at the poor thing 
 as if you were between two minds as to loving her 
 or eating her ?" 
 
 I bent quickly, took her face between my hands 
 and kissed her twice — thrice. 
 
THE JOURNEY'S END 579 
 
 "That is what I should do. Now that you have 
 made me what I was not before, are you satisfied ?" 
 
 'Twas long before she gave me a word. And 
 when she spoke it was only to say : "Are you not 
 most monstrous ashamed, Monsieur John ?" 
 
 "No!" said I. "I am but a man, and you have 
 roused that part of me that knows neither shame 
 nor remorse. I love you, ^listress Margery ; do you 
 hear? I have loved you since that day in June 
 when I came back from death's door to find you 
 sitting here to bear me company." 
 
 She locked her fingers across her knee and would 
 not look at me. 
 
 "But by your own showing you should be 
 ashamed, sir," she insisted. "What of the dear 
 friend to whom, you would give up even the love 
 of your mistress ?" 
 
 "You may flay me as you will; I shall neither 
 flinch nor go back from my word. You are mine, 
 and I shall give you up to no man. I know I have 
 not your love — shall never have it. Also, I know 
 that I have gained an enemy where once I had a 
 loving friend. Richard Jennifer may kill me if he 
 please — he shall have the chance to do it; but you 
 are mine and shall be whilst I live to claim and hold 
 you." 
 
 There was something less than anger in the blue- 
 gray eyes when she let me see them ; nay, I could 
 have sworn there was a flash of playful mockery 
 in them when she said : "Dear heart ! how master- 
 
^8o THE MASTER OF APPLEBY 
 
 ful rough you have grown, all in a moment, my 
 Lord." And then the beautiful eyes filled and she 
 said, "Poor Dick !" in a way to make me suffer all 
 the torments of that old myth-king who could never 
 quaff the water that was ever rising to his lips. 
 
 "Aye, you may love him, if 5^ou must and will,'* 
 I gloomed. "God pity me! I know you do love 
 him." 
 
 She looked up quickly. "So you have said a 
 dozen times before. Tell me, Monsieur Oracle, 
 how do you know it ?" 
 
 "If I tell you, you will hate me more than you 
 do now." 
 
 "That would be hard, indeed," she murmured. 
 "Yet I would hear you say it." 
 
 "Listen, then: once_, when we three were at the 
 very door and threshold of death, you wrote the 
 cry of your heart out on a bit of paper for a leave- 
 taking and sent it to the man you loved. You said, 
 'Though you must needs believe my love is pledged 
 to your dear friend and mine, 'tis yours, and yours 
 alone.' Were not these your very words ?" 
 
 Her "yes" was but the lightest whisper, but I 
 heard it and went on. "That is all, save this; the 
 Indian bearer of your letter blundered and gave it 
 me instead of Dick." 
 
 She looked me full in the eyes and my soul went 
 all afire. Then she laid her cheek against my knee 
 and I heard her dear voice as it had been a chime 
 of sweet-toned joy-bells : 
 
 "Ah, Monsieur John ; how blind this thing called 
 
THE JOURNEY'S END 581 
 
 love can make us all. Suppose — suppose the Indian 
 did not blunder, dear lord and master of me ?" 
 
 THE END 
 
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