The Hidden Children

militia, refugee-corps, and Legion-horsemen, harried the lines. Yet, except the enemy's cruisers which sometimes strayed far up the Hudson, like impudent hawks

at Poundridge. That hilly strip was then our southern frontier, bravely defended by Thomas and Lockwood, shamefully neglected by Sheldon, as we had seen. For which he was broke, poor devil, and a better man set there to watch the red fox Tarleton, to harry Emmer

orthward, before we struck the river-road, we had like to have had a brush with him, his fl

ich we galloped into safety, our Indian sticking to my crupper like a tree-cat with every claw. And I remember still the grim laughter that greeted us from t

ed in the rocky Westchester woods and made our first flying-camp, I had become uneasy

int my suspicions, because distrust in the mind of such a man as Boyd would be very difficult to er

ed: the Siwanois, while we slept, met and hel

hing under my blanket, and when he came in to the fire once more, it seemed to me that far in the woods I heard the f

for the Siwanois to relieve the man on guard. And once again, after he had silently inspected us all, the Sagamore stole away into leafy depths, but halted as be

hich never cease by night-unseen stirrings of sleeping birds, the ruffle, of feathers, the sudden rustle of some furry thing alarmed, the scratchings and pickings

his light and rapid footfall sounded on the leaves close to my head; and, as before, while again I feigned sleep, far in the thicket som

is talking with this unseen visitor while away in pretense of peeling bark, for

ed to follow the Siwanois if he stirred from our fire, and discover f

, at times, stuck to the Indian hour after hour, seeming not to watch him, but with every sense alert to surprise some glance, some significant movement, some cunning and t

moss, as far as I could see; dropped nothing, made no sound at all save when he gravely answered some observation that we offered. Once, e

a Siwanois Mohican, this Sagamore of the Magic Clan was the first of his tribe and ensign that I had ever beheld. And with every motive and every interest and desire in the world to believe him honest-and even in my secret heart believing him to be so-yet I could not close eye

in my journal, my habit being to set down every evening, or as near the

aan being eaten, let the coals die and whiten into ashes. This, partly because we needed not the warmth, partly from precaution. For although on the open roads our troops in detachments were now concentrating, moving on

made no more noise on the brookside moss than the moon-cast shadow of a flying cloud. Guy Johnson was no skilful woodsman, but his Indians were; and o

. But presently he turned off, and for a moment I thought to lose him in the utter blackness of the primeval trees. And surely would have had I not seen close to me a vast and smoothly

while, straining my eyes where I lay flat among the taller fringing ferns, I could just mak

im; and I felt my hair stir as chilling certainty shoc

er, nearer I crept, nearer, nearer, until I lay flat as a shadow there, stark on the shelf of rock. And, as though they had heard

at was all I heard, all I could make of it; and sniffed treason as I

stly figures formless against the woods; then on

d for a shadow or a cleft beneath his notice-perhaps for a fallen branch or heap of fern and withered leaf-I know not. But I let him g

nd hatchet in their beaded sheaths, stirred, moved forward inch by inch, closer, closer, then to the left to get behind, nearer, ever nearer, till the time ha

upright, and I heard a whisperi

ing silence fell

us, and she was looking back at me, still swaying on her feet an

made out t

ath; and when she gained it sighed deeply once or twic

g, a fragment of corn bread and meat. N

st? Are you mad to risk a scalping party, or, on the open road, hazard the rough gallantries of soldiers' biv

he hesitated, then bent her head. "--of any m

ll amazed a

w. The Sagamore brings

he said

in touch with us ev

h Ma

hy

I had no wish to tra

r prote

is ever on men's lips-that word meaning damnation.

Lieutenant Boyd

u twain are

as we are!" I dem

u," she answered, "sa

oyd-and his though

el without your leave on my own affairs and by myself-spite of the Iroquois." She added bitterly;

a world of men I did not know. Boyd's late gallantry, idle, and even ignoble as it had appear

business might be in lingering around barracks and soldiers' camps I could not guess; but women who haunted such resorts seldom complaine

ot surmise. Here was no barracks wench! But wench or gypsy or what not, it was im

amp this nig

ill

I may not leave

are for

hen I crept up behind you. And i

nd," she s

-perhaps marriage to som

nothing worse

ul youth of you with such a worldly-worn and bitter tongue? I

sing,

into camp?" I

f I wi

ll carry you in my a

, picked up the partly eaten food, and began to con

few moments, then sat dow

doubt me, Lo

ubt you," she answered

not of that strip

as you do-yes, with all the gentle condescension that you use, all of your confidence and masterful adv

oking aloft now and then at the

bit of corn bread

us. And had He made me one, doubtless I had been as all men are, taking the road through life as gaily, sword on thigh and hat in ha

said: "Who, in the name o

at conce

it concern m

very coolly, "I wish

not tr

trust every man-

animates me is a desire to re

and well. Yet, you are an officer in the corps d'élite; and you would be asha

ther morsel f

plaything of an officer should walk in silk, whatever clot

the stars, and th

e and fine it would be said of me, 'The hussy's gown is brave and fine!' And if I go in tatters, 'What slattern have we here, flaunting her boldness in the very sun?' So a comradeship with any man is all one to me. And

o fashioned. Can y

ay so,

I say that

ds s

l you let

feeds me; and the Mid

ddle Fort how

soldiers; sew for them-contrive

ith

my own

I not

ou would; you would

me, L

or the wish, Mr. Loskiel. But the Siwanois himself refuse

is you

: "It is useless t

hen she drained the tin cup of its chilly water, and, still sitting there cross-legged on the rock, tied the little cup to her girdle.

iel. But otherwise there

ten. As I am a man, I

ir, you will presen

if you will not come

d impat

ur leave of me-with whatever flight of fancy," she added mockingly, "th

ling burnt my face, b

ason; and neither Oneida Lake nor Fort Niagara itself are so d

r bundle a pillow. Then, very coolly, she extend

ur. Then, very stealthily, I leaned forward to see

e," she said in a low voice. "Best emp

not s

remain here aw

elbow, peering through the

y the stream watching us this full hour

at's eyes," I said

beside her. Then, stepping backward a pace or two, I unlaced my hunting shirt of doe-skin, d

estlessness, the misgivings which, since I first had seen this maid, had subtly invaded me, now, grown stronger, assailed me with an apprehension I coul

were loose enough, God knows, and the master of Guy Park had read me no lesson o

and remain aloof, even indifferent. Yet, this was so. Never had a woman's beauty stirred me otherwise than blameles

izabeth, and all that pretty company; and many another pretty minx and laughing, light-minded lass in county Tryon. And a few in Cambridge, too. So I was no nia

pillowed on my deer-skin shirt, my mind fell a-groping for

ed me that each day my memory of her returned, haunting me, puzzling me, plaguing my curiosity till imaginati

ature, nor ever felt for shabby dress and common folk aught but the mixture of pity and aversion which breeds a kind of charity. And,

s it that I felt no charity, nor pity of that sort, only a vague desire that she should understand me better-know that I meant

due to my very natural curiosity concerning her; forgetting

he used me with scant courtesy, I was convinced she had been schooled in manners, too, and was

a-gypsying through a land blackened with war, or haunting camps and forts, penniless, in r

he stars still glittered overhead when I a

e there came a rush of fear and anger and hurt

nd my belt, discovered it at my feet. As I buckled it, from

rk clung impaled. On it was scratched with a knife's keen point a message which I could n

"A rose for your ring, comra

in my pouch, glancing sideways at the reclining Mohican. Boyd b

Jack Mount a-cooking as