第38章

"I know that man," said Shif'less Sol."His name is Standish.Iwas there nine or ten hours ago, an' I told him it wuz time to take his family an' run.But he knowed more'n I did.Said he'd stay, he wuzn't afraid, an' now he's got to pay the price.""No, he mustn't do that," said Henry."It's too much to pay for just being foolish, when everybody is foolish sometimes.Boys, we can yet save that man an' his wife and children.Aren't you willing to do it?""Why, course," said Long Jim."Like ez not Standish will shoot at us when we knock on his door, but let's try it."The others nodded assent.

"How far back from the river is the Standish house, Sol?" asked Henry.

"'Bout three hundred yards, I reckon, and' it ain't more'n a mile down.""Then if we pull with all our might, we won't be too late.Tom, you and Jim give Sol and me the oars now."Henry and the shiftless one were fresh, and they sent the boat shooting down stream, until they stopped at a point indicated by Sol.They leaped ashore, drew the boat down the bank, and hastened toward a log house that they saw standing in a clump of trees.The enemy had not yet come, but as they swiftly approached the house a dog ran barking at them.The shiftless one swung his rifle butt, and the dog fell unconscious.

"I hated to do it, but I had to," he murmured.The next moment Henry was knocking at the door.

"Up! Up!" he cried, "the Indians are at hand, and you must run for your lives!"How many a time has that terrible cry been heard on the American border!

The sound of a man's voice, startled and angry, came to their ears, and then they heard him at the door.

"Who are you?" he cried."Why are you beating on my door at such a time?""We are friends, Mr.Standish," cried Henry, "and if you would save your wife and children you must go at once! Open the door!

Open, I say!"

The man inside was in a terrible quandary.It was thus that renegades or Indians, speaking the white man's tongue, sometimes bade a door to be opened, in order that they might find an easy path to slaughter.But the voice outside was powerfully insistent, it had the note of truth; his wife and children, roused, too, were crying out, in alarm.Henry knocked again on the door and shouted to him in a voice, always increasing in earnestness, to open and flee.Standish could resist no longer.

He took down the bar and flung open the door, springing back, startled at the five figures that stood before him.In the dusk he did not remember Shif'less Sol.

"Mr.Standish," Henry said, speaking rapidly, "we are, as you can see, white.You will be attacked here by Indians and renegades within half an hour.We know that, because we heard them talking from the bushes.We have a boat in the river; you can reach it in five minutes.Take your wife and children, and pull for Forty Fort."Standish was bewildered.

"How do I know that you are not enemies, renegades, yourselves?"he asked.

"If we had been that you'd be a dead man already," said Shif'less Sol.

It was a grim reply, but it was unanswerable, and Standish recognized the fact.His wife had felt the truth in the tones of the strangers, and was begging him to go.Their children were crying at visions of the tomahawk and scalping knife now so near.

"We'll go," said Standish."At any rate, it can't do any harm.

We'll get a few things together."

"Do not wait for anything! "exclaimed Henry."You haven't a minute to spare! Here are more blankets! Take them and run for the boat! Sol and Jim, see them on board, and then come back!"Carried away by such fire and earnestness, Standish and his family ran for the boat.Jim and the shiftless one almost threw them on board, thrust a pair of oars into the bands of Standish, another into the hands of his wife, and then told them to pull with all their might for the fort.

"And you," cried Standish, "what becomes of you?"Then a singular expression passed over his face-he had guessed Henry's plan.

"Don't you trouble about us," said the shiftless one."We will come later.Now pull! pull!"Standish and his wife swung on the oars, and in two minutes the boat and its occupants were lost in the darkness.Tom Ross and Sol did not pause to watch them, but ran swiftly back to the house.Henry was at the door.

"Come in," he said briefly, and they entered.Then he closed the door and dropped the bar into place.Shif'less Sol and Paul were already inside, one sitting on the chair and the other on the edge of the bed.Some coals, almost hidden under ashes, smoldered and cast a faint light in the room, the only one that the house had, although it was divided into two parts by a rough homespun curtain.Henry opened one of the window shutters a little and looked out.The dawn had not yet come, but it was not a dark night, and he looked over across the little clearing to the trees beyond.On that side was a tiny garden, and near the wall of the house some roses were blooming.He could see the glow of pink and red.But no enemy bad yet approached.

Searching the clearing carefully with those eyes of his, almost preternaturally keen, he was confident that the Indians were still in the woods.He felt an intense thrill of satisfaction at the success of his plan so far.

He was not cruel, he never rejoiced in bloodshed, but the borderer alone knew what the border suffered, and only those who never saw or felt the torture could turn the other cheek to be smitten.The Standish house had made a sudden and ominous change of tenants.

"It will soon be day," said Henry, "and farmers are early risers.