Роберт Чамберс - The Hidden Children

"Lanette," said he, disconcerted but laughing, "do you mean in hell or at the Iroquois stake?"

Whereupon Lana flushed and said somewhat violently that he should not make a jest of either hell or stake; and that she for one marvelled at his ill–timed pleasantries and unbecoming jests.

So here was a pretty quarrel already sur le tapis; but neither I nor Lois interposed, and Lana, pink and angry, seated herself on the moss and gazed steadily at our watchful Indians. But in her fixed gaze I saw the faint glimmer of tears.

After a moment Boyd got up, went down to her, and asked her pardon. She made no answer; they remained looking at each other for another second, then both smiled, and Boyd lay down at her feet, resting his elbow on the moss and his cheek on his hand, so that he could converse with me across her shoulder.

And first he cautioned both Lana and Lois to keep secret whatever was to be said between us two, then, nodding gaily at me:

"You were quite right, Loskiel, in speaking to the General about the proper trap for this Wizard–Sachem Amochol, who is inflaming the entire Seneca nation to such a fury."

"I know no other way to take and destroy him," said I.

"There is no other way. It must be done secretly, and by a small party manoeuvring ahead and independently of our main force."

"Are you to command?" I asked.

"I am to have that honour," he said eagerly, "and I take you, your savages, and twenty riflemen―"

"What is this?" said Lana sharply; but he lifted an impatient hand and went on in his quick, interested manner, to detail to me the plan he had conceived for striking Amochol at Catharines–town, in the very midst of the Onon–hou–aroria.

"Last night," he said, "I sent out Hanierri and Iaowania, the headquarters scouts; and I'm sorry I did, for they came in this morning with their tails between their legs, saying the forest swarmed with the Seneca scouts, and it was death to stir.

"And I was that disgusted—what with their cowardice and the aftermath of that headquarters punch—that I bade them go paint and sing their death–songs―"

"Oh, Lord! You should not lose your temper with an Indian!" I said, vexed at his indiscretion.

"I know it. I'll not interfere with your tame wolves, Loskiel. But Hanierri madded me; and now he's told Dominie Kirkland's praying Indians, and not one o' them will stir from Tioga—the chicken–hearted knaves! What do you think of that, Loskiel?"

"I am sorry. But we really need no other Indians than my Sagamore, the two Oneidas, and the Stockbridge, Yellow Moth, to do Amochol's business for him, if you and your twenty riflemen are going."

"I think as you do; and so I told the General, who wanted Major Parr to command and the entire battalion to march. 'Oh, Lord!' says I. 'Best bring Colonel Proctor's artillery band, also!' And was frightened afterward at what I said, with so little reflection and respect; but the General, who had turned red as a pippin, burst out laughing and says he: 'You are a damnably disrespectful young man, sir, but you and your friend Loskiel may suit yourselves concerning the taking of this same Amochol. Only have a care to take or destroy him, for if you do not, by God, you shall be detailed to the batteaux and cool your heels in Fort Sullivan until we return!'"

We both laughed heartily, and Boyd added:

"He said it to fright me for my impudence. Trust that man to know a man when he sees one!"

"Meaning yourself?" said I, convulsed.

"And you, too, Loskiel," he said so naively that Lois, too, laughed, exclaiming:

"What modest opinions of themselves have these two boys! Do you hear them, Lana, dubbing each other men?"

"I hear," said Lana listlessly.

Boyd plucked a long, feathery stalk, and with its tip caressed Lana's cheeks.

"Spiders!" said he. "Spinning a goblin veil for you!"

"I wish the veil of Fate were as transparent," said she.

"Would you see behind it if you could?"

She said under her breath:

"I sometimes dream I see behind it now."

"What do you see?" he asked.

She shook her head; but we all begged her to disclose her dreams, saying laughingly that as dreams were the most important things in the lives of all Indians, our close association with them had rendered us credulous.

"Come, Lanette," urged Boyd, "tell us what it is you see in dreams behind the veil."

She hesitated, shuddered:

"Flames—always flames. And a man in black with leaden buttons, whose face is always hidden in his cloak. But, oh! I know—I seem to know that he has no face at all, but is like a skull under his black cloak."

"A merry dream," said Boyd, laughing.

"Is there more to it?" asked Lois seriously.

"Yes…. Lieutenant Boyd is there, and he makes a sign—like this―"

"What!" exclaimed Boyd, sitting up, astounded. "Where did you learn that sign?"

"In my dream. What does it mean?"

"Make it no more, Lana," he said, in a curiously disturbed voice. "For wherever you have learned it—if truly from a dream, or from some careless fellow—of my own―" He hesitated, glanced at me. "You are not a Mason, Loskiel. And Lana has just given the Masonic signal of distress—having seen me give it in a dream. It is odd." He sat very silent for a moment, then lay down again at Lana's feet; and for a little while they conversed in whispers, as though forgetting that we were there at all, his handsome head resting against her knees, and her hand touching the hair on his forehead lightly at intervals.

After a few moments I rose and, with Lois, walked forward toward our picket line, from where we could see very plainly the great cattle herd among the trees along the river.

She said in a low and troubled voice:

"It has come so far, then, that Lana makes no longer a disguise of her sentiments before you and me. It seems as though they had bewitched each other—and find scant happiness in the mutual infatuation."

I said nothing.

"Is he not free to marry her?" asked Lois.

"Why, yes—I suppose he is—if she will have him," I said, startled by the direct question. "Why not?"

"I don't know. Once, at Otsego Camp I overheard bitter words between them—not from him, for he only laughed at what she said. It was in the dusk, close to our tent; and either they were careless or thought I slept…. And I heard her say that he was neither free nor fit to speak of marriage. And he laughed and vowed that he was as free and fit as was any man. 'No,' says she, 'there are other men like Euan Loskiel in the world.' 'Exceptions prove the case,' says he, laughing; and there was a great sob in her voice as she answered that such men as he were born to damn women. And he retorted coolly that it was such women as she who ever furnished the provocation, but that only women could lose their own souls, and that it was the same with men; but neither of 'em could or ever had contributed one iota toward the destruction of any soul except their own…. Then Lana came into our tent and stood looking down at me where I lay; and dimly through my lashes I could perceive the shadow of Boyd behind her on the tent wall, wavering, gigantic, towering to the ridge–pole as he set the camp–torch in its socket on the flooring." She passed her slim hand across her eyes. "It was like an unreal scene—a fevered vision of two phantoms in the smoky, lurid lustre of the torch. Boyd stood there dark against the light, edged with flickering flame as with a mantle, figure and visage scintilant with Lucifer's own beauty—and Lana, her proud head drooping, and her sad, young eyes fixed on me—Oh, Euan!" She stood pressing down both eyelids with her fingers, motionless; then, with a quick–drawn breath and a brusque gesture, flung her arms wide and let them drop to her sides. "How can men follow what they call their 'fortune,' headlong, unheeding, ranging through the world as a hot–jowled hound ranges for rabbits? Are they never satiated? Are they never done with the ruthless madness? Does the endless chase with its intervals of killing never pall?"