Erskine Dale: Pioneer

Chapter 14

Straightway the lad sensed a curious change in the attitude of the garrison. The old warmth was absent. The atmosphere was charged with suspicion, hostility. Old Jerome was surly, his old playmates were distant. Only Dave, Mother Sanders, and Lydia were unchanged. The predominant note was curiosity, and they started to ply him with questions, but Dave took him to a cabin, and Mother Sanders brought him something to eat.

Had a purty hard time, stated Dave. The boy nodded.

I had only three bullets. Firefly went lame and I had to lead him. I couldnt eat cane and Firefly couldnt eat pheasant. I got one from a hawk, he explained. Whats the matter out there?

Nothin, said Dave gruffly and he made the boy go to sleep. His story came when all were around the fire at supper, and was listened to with eagerness. Again the boy felt the hostility and it made him resentful and haughty and his story brief and terse. Most fluid and sensitive natures have a chameleon quality, no matter what stratum of adamant be beneath. The boy was dressed like an Indian, he looked like one, and he had brought back, it seemed, the bearing of an Indianhis wildness and stoicism. He spoke like a chief in a council, and even in English his phrasing and metaphors belonged to the red man. No wonder they believed the stories they had heard of himbut there was shame in many faces and little doubt in any save one before he finished.

He had gone to see his foster-mother and his foster-fatherold chief Kahtoo, the Shawneebecause he had given his word. Kahtoo thought he was dying and wanted him to be chief when the Great Spirit called. Kahtoo had once saved his life, had been kind, and made him a son. That he could not forget. An evil prophet had come to the tribe and through his enemies, Crooked Lightning and Black Wolf, had gained much influence. They were to burn a captive white woman as a sacrifice. He had stayed to save her, to argue with old Kahtoo, and carry the wampum and a talk to a big council with the British. He had made his talk andescaped. He had gone back to his tribe, had been tied, and was to be burned at the stake. Again he had escaped with the help of the white woman and her daughter. The tribes had joined the British and even then they were planning an early attack on this very fort and all others.

The interest was tense and every face was startled at this calm statement of their immediate danger. Dave and Lydia looked triumphant at this proof of their trust, but old Jerome burst out:

Why did you have to escape from the counciland from the Shawnees? The boy felt the open distrust and he rose proudly.

At the council I told the Indians that they should be friends, not enemies, of the Americans, and Crooked Lightning called me a traitor. He had overheard my talk with Kahtoo.

What was that? asked Dave quickly.

I told Kahtoo I would fight with the Americans against the British and Indians; and with you against him! And he turned away and went back to the cabin.

Whatd I tell ye! cried Dave indignantly and he followed the boy, who had gone to his bunk, and put one big hand on his shoulder.

They thought youd turned Injun agin, he said, but its all right now.

I know, said the lad and with a muffled sound that was half the grunt of an Indian and half the sob of a white man turned his face away.

Again Dave reached for the lads shoulder.

Dont blame em too much. Ill tell you now. Some fur traders came by here, and one of em said you was goin to marry an Injun girl named Early Morn; that you was goin to stay with em and fight with em alongside the British. Of course I knowed better but

Why, interrupted Erskine, they must have been the same traders who came to the Shawnee town and brought whiskey.

Thats what the feller said and why folks here believed him.

Who was he? demanded Erskine.

You know himDane Grey.

All tried to make amends straightway for the injustice they had done him, but the boys heart remained sore that their trust was so little. Then, when they gathered all settlers within the fort and made all preparations and no Indians came, many seemed again to get distrustful and the lad was not happy. The winter was long and hard. A blizzard had driven the game west and south and the garrison was hard put to it for food. Every day that the hunters went forth the boy was among them and he did far more than his share in the killing of game. But when winter was breaking, more news came in of the war. The flag that had been fashioned of a soldiers white shirt, an old blue army coat, and a red petticoat was now the Stars and Stripes of the American cause. Burgoyne had not cut off New England, that head of the rebellion, from the other colonies. On the contrary, the Americans had beaten him at Saratoga and marched his army off under those same Stars and Stripes, and for the first time Erskine heard of gallant Lafayettehow he had run to Washington with the portentous news from his kingthat beautiful, passionate France would now stretch forth her helping hand. And Erskine learned what that news meant to Washingtons naked and starving soldiers dying on the frozen hillsides of Valley Forge. Then George Rogers Clark had passed the fort on his way to Williamsburg to get money and men for his great venture in the Northwest, and Erskine got a ready permission to accompany him as soldier and guide. After Clark was gone the lad got restless; and one morning when the first breath of spring came he mounted his horse, in spite of arguments and protestations, and set forth for Virginia on the wilderness trail. He was going to join Clark, he said, but more than Clark and the war were drawing him to the outer world. What it was he hardly knew, for he was not yet much given to searching his heart or mind. He did know, however, that some strange force had long been working within him that was steadily growing stronger, was surging now like a flame and swinging him between strange moods of depression and exultation. Perhaps it was but the spirit of spring in his heart, but with his minds eye he was ever seeing at the end of his journey the face of his little cousin Barbara Dale.