第4章 THE GOD OF HIS FATHERS(4)

"He's worried me, Baptiste, in the past and now, and caused me all manner of troubles; but can't you see, he's my own breed--white--and--and--why, I couldn't buy my life with his, not if he was a nigger.""So be it," Baptiste the Red made answer."I have given you grace and choice.I shall come presently, with my priests and fighting men, and either shall I kill you, or you deny your god.Give up the priest to my pleasure, and you shall depart in peace.

Otherwise your trail ends here.My people are against you to the babies.Even now have the children stolen away your canoes." He pointed down to the river.Naked boys had slipped down the water from the point above, cast loose the canoes, and by then had worked them into the current.When they had drifted out of rifle-shot they clambered over the sides and paddled ashore.

"Give me the priest, and you may have them back again.Come!

Speak your mind, but without haste."

Stockard shook his head.His glance dropped to the woman of the Teslin Country with his boy at her breast, and he would have wavered had he not lifted his eyes to the men before him.

"I am not afraid," Sturges Owen spoke up."The Lord bears me in his right hand, and alone am I ready to go into the camp of the unbeliever.It is not too late.Faith may move mountains.Even in the eleventh hour may I win his soul to the true righteousness.""Trip the beggar up and make him fast," Bill whispered hoarsely in the ear of his leader, while the missionary kept the floor and wrestled with the heathen."Make him hostage, and bore him if they get ugly.""No," Stockard answered."I gave him my word that he could speak with us unmolested.Rules of warfare, Bill; rules of warfare.

He's been on the square, given us warning, and all that, and--why, damn it, man, I can't break my word!""He'll keep his, never fear.""Don't doubt it, but I won't let a half-breed outdo me in fair dealing.Why not do what he wants,--give him the missionary and be done with it?""N-no," Bill hesitated doubtfully.

"Shoe pinches, eh?"

Bill flushed a little and dropped the discussion.Baptiste the Red was still waiting the final decision.Stockard went up to him.

"It's this way, Baptiste.I came to your village minded to go up the Koyukuk.I intended no wrong.My heart was clean of evil.

It is still clean.Along comes this priest, as you call him.Ididn't bring him here.He'd have come whether I was here or not.

But now that he is here, being of my people, I've got to stand by him.And I'm going to.Further, it will be no child's play.

When you have done, your village will be silent and empty, your people wasted as after a famine.True, we will he gone; likewise the pick of your fighting men--""But those who remain shall be in peace, nor shall the word of strange gods and the tongues of strange priests be buzzing in their ears."Both men shrugged their shoulder and turned away, the half-breed going back to his own camp.The missionary called his two men to him, and they fell into prayer.Stockard and Bill attacked the few standing pines with their axes, felling them into convenient breastworks.The child had fallen asleep, so the woman placed it on a heap of furs and lent a hand in fortifying the camp.Three sides were thus defended, the steep declivity at the rear precluding attack from that direction.When these arrangements had been completed, the two men stalked into the open, clearing away, here and there, the scattered underbrush.From the opposing camp came the booming of war-drums and the voices of the priests stirring the people to anger.

"Worst of it is they'll come in rushes," Bill complained as they walked back with shouldered axes.

"And wait till midnight, when the light gets dim for shooting.""Can't start the ball a-rolling too early, then." Bill exchanged the axe for a rifle, and took a careful rest.One of the medicine-men, towering above his tribesmen, stood out distinctly.

Bill drew a bead on him.

"All ready?" he asked.

Stockard opened the ammunition box, placed the woman where she could reload in safety, and gave the word.The medicine-man dropped.For a moment there was silence, then a wild howl went up and a flight of bone arrows fell short.

"I'd like to take a look at the beggar," Bill remarked, throwing a fresh shell into place."I'll swear I drilled him clean between the eyes.""Didn't work." Stockard shook his head gloomily.Baptiste had evidently quelled the more warlike of his followers, and instead of precipitating an attack in the bright light of day, the shot had caused a hasty exodus, the Indians drawing out of the village beyond the zone of fire.

In the full tide of his proselyting fervor, borne along by the hand of God, Sturges Owen would have ventured alone into the camp of the unbeliever, equally prepared for miracle or martyrdom; but in the waiting which ensued, the fever of conviction died away gradually, as the natural man asserted itself.Physical fear replaced spiritual hope; the love of life, the love of God.It was no new experience.He could feel his weakness coming on, and knew it of old time.He had struggled against it and been overcome by it before.He remembered when the other men had driven their paddles like mad in the van of a roaring ice-flood, how, at the critical moment, in a panic of worldly terror, he had dropped his paddle and besought wildly with his God for pity.And there were other times.The recollection was not pleasant.It brought shame to him that his spirit should be so weak and his flesh so strong.But the love of life! the love of life! He could not strip it from him.Because of it had his dim ancestors perpetuated their line; because of it was he destined to perpetuate his.His courage, if courage it might be called, was bred of fanaticism.The courage of Stockard and Bill was the adherence to deep-rooted ideals.Not that the love of life was less, but the love of race tradition more; not that they were unafraid to die, but that they were brave enough not to live at the price of shame.