Complete weird tales of.., p.189
Complete Weird Tales of Robert W Chambers, page 189
All the loathsome and filthy side of war seemed concentrated around the barn-yard, where sleepy, unshaven, half-dressed soldiers were burning the under-clothes of a man who had died of the black measles; while a great, brawny fellow, naked to the waist and smeared from hair to ankles with blood, butchered sheep, so that the army might eat that day.
The thick stench of the burning clothing, the odor of blood, the piteous bleating of the doomed creatures sickened me; and I made my way out of the barn and down to the river, where I stripped and waded out to wash me and my clothes.
A Caughnawaga soldier gave me a bit of soap; and I spent the morning there. By noon the fierce heat of the sun had dried my clothes; by two o’clock our small scout of four left the Stanwix and Johnstown road and struck out through the unbroken wilderness for German Flatts.
* * *
XIX
THE HOME TRAIL
FOR ELEVEN DAYS we lay at German Flatts, Colonel Visscher begging us to aid in the defence of that threatened village until the women and children could be conveyed to Johnstown. But Sir John Johnson remained before Stanwix, and McCraw’s riders gave the village wide berth, and on the 18th of August we set out for Varicks’.
Warned by our extreme outposts, we bore to the south, forced miles out of our course to avoid the Oneida country, where a terrific little war was raging. For the Senecas, Cayugas, a few Mohawks, and McCraw’s renegade Tories, furious at the neutral and pacific attitude of the Oneidas towards our people, had suddenly fallen upon them, tooth and nail, vowing that the Oneida nation should perish from the earth for their treason to the Long House.
We skirted the doomed region cautiously, touching here and there the fringe of massacre and fire, often scenting smoke, sometimes hearing a distant shot. Once we encountered an Oneida runner, painted blue and white, and naked save for the loin-cloth, who told us of the civil war that was already rending the Long House; and I then understood more fully what Magdalen Brant had done for our cause, and how far-reaching had been the effects of her appearance at the False-Faces’ council-fire.
The Oneida appeared to be disheartened. He sullenly admitted to us that the Cayugas had scattered his people and laid their village in ashes; he cursed McCraw fiercely and promised a dreadful retaliation on any renegade captured. He also described the fate of the Oriskany prisoners and some bateaux-men taken by Walter Butler’s Rangers near Wood Creek; and I could scarcely endure to listen, so horrid were the details of our soldiers’ common fate, where Mohawk and Tory, stripped and painted alike, conspired to invent atrocities undreamed of for their wretched victims.
It was then that I heard for the second time the term “Blue-eyed Indian,” meaning white men stained, painted, and disguised as savages. More terrifying than the savages themselves, it appeared, were the blue-eyed Indians to the miserable settlers of Tryon. For hellish ingenuity and devilish cruelty these mock savages, the Oneida assured us, had nothing to learn from their red comrades; and I shall never be able to efface from my mind the memory of what we saw, that very day, in a lonely farm-house on the flats of the Mohawk; nor was it necessary that McCraw should have left his mark on the shattered door — a cock crowing, drawn in outline by a man’s forefinger steeped in blood — to enlighten those who might not recognize the ghastly work as his.
We stayed there for three hours to bury the dead, an old man and woman, a young mother, and five children, the youngest an infant not a year old. All had been scalped; even the watch-dog lay dead near the bloody cradle. We dug the shallow graves with difficulty, having nothing to work with save our hunting-knives and some broken dishes which we found in the house; and it was close to noon before we left the lonely flat and pushed forward through miles of stunted willow growth towards the river road which led to Johnstown.
I shall never forget Mount’s set face nor Murphy’s terrible, vacant stare as we plodded on in absolute silence. Elerson led us on a steady trot hour after hour, till, late in the afternoon, we crossed the river road and wheeled into it exhausted.
The west was all aglow; cleared land and fences lay along the roadside; here and there houses loomed up in the red, evening light, but their inhabitants were gone, and not a sign of life remained about them save for the circling swallows whirling in and out of the blackened chimneys.
So still, so sad this solitude that the sudden chirping of a robin in the evening shadows startled us.
The sun sank behind the forest, turning the river to a bloody red; a fox yapped and yapped from a dark hill-side; the moon’s yellow light flashed out through the trees; and, with the coming of the moon, far in the wilderness the owls began and the cries of the night-hawks died away in the sky.
The first human being that we encountered was a miller riding an ancient horse towards a lane which bordered a noisy brook.
When he discovered us he whipped out a pistol and bade us stand where we were; and it took all my persuasion to convince him that we were not renegades from McCraw’s band.
We asked for news, but he had none, save that a heavy force of our soldiers was lying by the roadside some two miles below on their way to relieve Fort Stanwix. The General, he believed, was named Arnold, and the troops were Massachusetts men; that was all he knew.
He seemed stupid or perhaps stunned, having lost three sons in a battle somewhere near Bennington, and had that morning received word of his loss. How the battle had gone he did not know; he was on his way up the creek to lock his mill before joining the militia at Johnstown. He was not too old to carry the musket he had carried at Braddock’s battle. Besides, his boys were dead, and there was no one in his family except himself to help our Congress fight the red-coats.
We watched him ride off into the darkness, gray head erect, pistol shining in his hand; then moved on, searching the distance for the outpost we knew must presently hail us. And, sure enough, from the shadow of a clump of trees came the smart challenge: “Halt! Who goes there?”
“Officer from Herkimer and scout of three with news for General Schuyler!” I answered.
“Halt, officer with scout! Sergeant of the guard! Post number three!”
Dark figures swarmed in the road ahead; a squad of men came up on the double.
“Advance officer!” rang out the summons; a torch blazed, throwing a red glare around us; a red-faced old officer in brown and scarlet walked up and took the packet of papers which I extended.
“Are you Captain Ormond?” he asked, curiously, glancing at the endorsement on my papers.
I replied that I was, and named Murphy, Elerson, and Mount as my scout.
When the soldiers standing about heard the notorious names of men already famed in ballad and story, they craned their necks to see, as my tired riflemen filed into the lines; and the staff-officer made himself exceedingly agreeable and civil, conducting us to a shelter made of balsam branches, before which a smudge was burning.
“General Arnold has despatches for you, Captain Ormond,” he said; “I am Drummond, Brigade Major; we expected you at Varick Manor on the ninth — you wrote to your cousin, Miss Varick, from Oriskany, you know.”
A soldier came up with two headquarters lanterns which he hung on the cross-bar of the open-faced hut; another soldier brought bread and cheese, a great apple-pie, a jug of spring water, and a bottle of brandy, with the compliments of Brigadier-General Arnold, and apologies that neither cloth, glasses, nor cutlery were included in the camp baggage.
“We’re light infantry with a vengeance, Captain Ormond,” said Major Drummond, laughing; “we left at twenty-four hours’ notice! Gad, sir! the day before we started the General hadn’t a squad under his orders; but when Schuyler called for volunteers, and his brigadiers began to raise hell at the idea of weakening the army to help Stanwix, Arnold came out of his fit of sulks on the jump! ‘Who’ll follow me to Stanwix?’ he bawls; and, by gad, sir, the Massachusetts men fell over each other trying to sign the rolls.”
He laughed again, waving my papers in the air and slapping them down on a knapsack.
“You will doubtless wish to hand these to the General yourself,” he said, pleasantly. “Pray, sir, do not think of standing on ceremony; I have dined, Captain.”
Mount, who had been furtively licking his lips and casting oblique glances at the bread and cheese, fell to at a nod from me. Murphy and Elerson joined him, bolting huge mouthfuls. I ate sparingly, having little appetite left after the sights I had seen in that lonely house on the Mohawk flats.
The gnats swarmed, but the smoke of the green-moss smudge kept them from us in a measure. I asked Major Drummond how soon it might be convenient for General Arnold to receive me, and he sent a young ensign to headquarters, who presently returned saying that General Arnold was making the rounds and would waive ceremony and stop at our post on his return.
“There’s a soldier, sir!” said Major Drummond, emphasizing his words with a smart blow of his riding-cane on his polished quarter-boots. “He’s had us on a dog-trot since we started; up hill, down dale, across the cursed Sacandaga swamps, through fords chin-high! By gad, sir! allow me to tell you that nothing stopped us! We went through windfalls like partridges; we crossed the hills like a herd o’ deer in flight! We ran as though the devil were snapping at our shanks! I’m half dead, thank you — and my shins! — you should see where that razor-boned nag of mine shaved bark enough off the trees with me to start every tannery between the Fish-House and Half-moon!”
The ruddy-faced Major roared at the recital of his own misfortunes. Mount and Murphy looked up with sympathetic grins; Elerson had fallen asleep against the side of the shack, a bit of pie, half gnawed, clutched in his brier-torn fist.
I had a pipe, but no tobacco; the Major filled my pipe, purring contentedly; a soldier, at a sign from him, took Mount and Murphy to the nearest fire, where there was a gill of grog and plenty of tobacco. I roused Elerson, who gaped, bolted his pie with a single mighty effort, and stumbled off after his comrades. Major Drummond squatted down cross-legged before the smudge, lighting his corn-cob pipe from a bit of glowing moss, and leaned back contentedly, crossing his arms behind his head.
“I’m tired, too,” he said; “we march again at midnight. If it’s no secret, I should like to know what’s going on ahead there.”
“It’s no secret,” I said, soberly; “the Senecas and Cayugas are harrying the Oneidas; the renegades are riding the forest, murdering women and infants. St. Leger is firing bombs at Stanwix, and Visscher is holding German Flatts with some Caughnawaga militia.”
“And Herkimer?” asked Drummond, gravely.
“Dead,” I replied, in a low voice.
“Good gad, sir! I had not heard that!” he exclaimed.
“It is true, Major. The old man died while I was at German Flatts. They say the amputation of his leg was a wretched piece of work.... He died bolt upright in his bed, smoking his pipe, and reading aloud the thirty-eighth Psalm.... His men are wild with grief, they say.... They called him a coward the morning of Oriskany.”
After a silence the Major’s emotion dimmed his twinkling eyes; he dragged a red bandanna handkerchief from his coat-tails and blew his nose violently.
“All flesh is grass — eh, Captain? And some of it devilish poor grass at that, eh? Well, well; we can’t make an army in a day. But, by gad, sir, we’ve done uncommonly well. You’ve heard of — but no, you haven’t, either. Here’s news for you, friend, since you’ve been in the woods. On the sixth, while you fellows were shooting down some three hundred and fifty of the Mohawks, Royal Greens, and renegades, that sly old wolverine, Marinus Willett, slipped out of the fort, fell on Sir John’s camp, and took twenty-one wagon-loads of provisions, blankets, ammunition, and tools; also five British standards and every bit of personal baggage belonging to Sir John Johnson, including his private papers, maps, memoranda, and all orders and instructions for the completed plans of campaign.... Wait, if you please, sir. That is not all.
“On the sixteenth, old John Stark fell upon Baum’s and Breyman’s Hessians at Bennington, killed and wounded over two hundred, captured seven hundred; took a thousand stand of arms, a thousand fine dragoon sabres, and four excellent field-cannon with limbers, harness, and caissons.... And lost fourteen killed!”
Speechless at the good news, I could only lean across the smudge and shake hands with him while he chuckled and slapped his knee, growing ruddier in the face every moment.
“Where are the red-coats now?” he cried. “Look at ‘em! Burgoyne, scared witless, badgered, dogged from pillar to post, his army on the defensive from Still water down to Half-moon; St. Leger, destitute of his camp baggage, caught in his own wolf-pit, flinging a dozen harmless bombs at Stanwix, and frightened half to death at every rumor from Albany; McDonald chased out of the county; Mann captured, and Sir Henry Clinton dawdling in New York and bothering his head over Washington while Burgoyne, in a devil of a plight, sits yonder yelling for help!
“Where’s the great invasion, Ormond? Where’s the grand advance on the centre? Where’s the gigantic triple blow at the heart of this scurvy rebellion? I don’t know; do you?”
I shook my head, smilingly; he beamed upon me; we had a swallow of brandy together, and I lay back, deathly tired, to wait for Arnold and my despatches.
“That’s right,” commented the genial Major, “go to sleep while you can; the General won’t take it amiss — eh? What? Oh, don’t mind me, my son. Old codgers like me can get along without such luxuries as sleep. It’s the young lads who require sleep. Eh? Yes, sir; I’m serious. Wait till you see sixty year! Then you’ll understand.... So I’ll just sit here, ... and smoke, ... and talk away in a buzz-song, ... and that will fix—”
* * *
I looked up with a start; the Major had disappeared. In my eyes a lantern was shining steadily. Then a shadow moved, and I turned and stumbled to my feet, as a cloaked figure stepped into the shelter and stood before me, peering into my eyes.
“I’m Arnold; how d’ye do,” came a quick, nervous voice from the depths of the military cloak. “I’ve a moment to stay here; we march in ten minutes. Is Herkimer dead?”
I described his death in a few words.
“Bad, bad as hell!” he muttered, fingering his sword-hilt and staring off into the darkness. “What’s the situation above us? Gansevoort’s holding out, isn’t he? I sent him a note to-night. Of course he’s holding out; isn’t he?”
I made a short report of the situation as I knew it; the General looked straight into my eyes as though he were not listening.
“Yes, yes,” he said, impatiently. “I know how to deal with St. Leger and Sir John — I wrote Gansevoort that I understood how to deal with them. He has only to sit tight; I’ll manage the rest.”
His dark, lean, eager visage caught the lantern light as he turned to scan the moonlit sky. “Ten minutes,” he muttered; “we should strike German Flatts by sundown to-morrow if our supplies come up.” And, aloud, with an abrupt and vigorous gesture, “McCraw’s band are scalping the settlers, they say?”
I told him what I had seen. He nodded, then his virile face changed and he gave me a sulky look.
“Captain Ormond,” he said, “folk say that I brood over the wrongs done me by Congress. It’s a lie; I don’t care a damn about Congress — but let it pass. What I wish to say is this: On the second of August the best general in these United States except George Washington was deprived of his command and superseded by a — a — thing named Gates.... I speak of General Philip Schuyler, my friend, and now my fellow-victim.”
Shocked and angry at the news of such injustice to the man whose splendid energy had already paralyzed the British invasion of New York, I stiffened up, rigid and speechless.
“Ho!” cried Arnold, with a disagreeable laugh. “It mads you, does it? Well, sir, think of me who have lived to see five men promoted over my head — and I left in the anterooms of Congress to eat my heart out! But let that pass, too. By the eternal God, I’ll show them what stuff is in me! Let it pass, Ormond, let it pass.”
He began to pace the ground, gnawing his thick lower lip, and if ever the infernal fire darted from human eyes, I saw its baleful flicker then.
With a heave of his chest and a scowl, he controlled his voice, stopping in his nervous walk to face me again.
“Ormond, you’ve gone up higher — the commission is here.” He pulled a packet of papers from his breast-pocket and thrust them at me. “Schuyler did it. He thinks well of you, sir. On the first of August he learned that he was to be superseded. He told Clinton that you deserved a commission for what you did at that Iroquois council-fire. Here it is; you’re to raise a regiment of rangers for local defence of the Mohawk district.... I congratulate you, Colonel Ormond.”
He offered his bony, nervous hand; I clasped it, dazed and speechless.
“Remember me,” he said, eagerly. “Let me count on your voice at the next council of war. You will not regret it, Colonel. Even if you go higher — even if you rise over my luckless head, you will not regret the friendship of Benedict Arnold. For, by Heaven, sir, I have it in me to lead men; and they shall not keep me down, and they shall not fetter me — no, not even this beribboned lap-dog Gates!... Stand my friend, Ormond. I need every friend I have. And I promise you the world shall hear of me one day!”
I shall never forget his worn and shadowy face, the long nose, the strong, selfish chin, the devouring flame burning his soul out through his eyes.
“Luck be with you!” he said, abruptly, extending his hand. Once more that bony, fervid clasp, and he was gone.
A moment later the ground vibrated; a dark, massed column of troops appeared in the moonlight, marching swiftly without drum-tap or spoken command; the dim forms of mounted officers rode past like shadows against the stars; vague shapes of wagons creaked after, rolling on muffled wheels; more troops followed quickly; then the shadowy pageant ended; and there was nothing before me but the moon in the sky above a world of ghostly wilderness.
