A Hero of Ticonderoga Part 8

"There'll be work for us here. The sign o' that fresh water mairmaid is comin' true agin."

They pa.s.sed a week in restless, impatient waiting, when, unheralded by the hound, Newton again entered the cabin and chanced to come face to face with the boy.

"Well, here you be," he said, without surprise and smiling good-humoredly; "I s'pected as much t'other day when I see the extry knife an' pile o' mushrats. Say, Job, how is't? Can I speak out afore him consarnin' the business we was talkin' on?"

"To be sure. He's close-mouthed an' he's achin' to go an' jine our folks down in the ol' Bay Colony."

"Good; he's the same stuff as his father." He laid his friendly hand on Nathan's shoulder and continued in a low, earnest voice: "There's a plan all fixed to take Ti and Crown P'int. It seems a Connecticut feller named Brown started the thing a-goin' some weeks ago. There's nigh ontu two hunderd and fifty men in the Grants engaged to do the job. Ethan Allen commands. We muster at Beeman's Crik, day after to-morrow night.

You'll be there?" Job stretched forth his hand to his friend, who warmly clasped it.

"Me, too; let me go, too." Nathan's heart swelled with pride, and he felt himself suddenly leaping to manhood and a place among men.

"He's a stout lad an' he handles a gun like a man. Let him come," said Job. "But how be we goin' to git across the lake? There hain't boats enough hereabouts to take more'n thirty men to oncet."

"Colonel Skeene's is goin' to be borrowed, an' there's a plan to git some more without askin' at Crown P'int; with them an' what we can pick up we'll make enough. How many'll your birch carry?"

"Six men that's used to such craft, but not one lummax."

"Well, bring it along. Everything of the boat kind'll be needed. Toombs troubles me most. He's on the fence, which means he ain't to be trusted.

He'll see our men a musterin' an' s'pect what's up, an' let the garrison know some way. He and his Canuck has got to be watched."

"Easy done! We can tie 'em, neck an' heels, an' leave 'em to take keer o' theirselves."

"Well, I'll send a guard an' see to that," Newton said as he hurried away to warn other settlers of the projected enterprise.

Those left began to clean their weapons carefully and prepare to mould some bullets. Job rehea.r.s.ed his long disused manual of arms, in which he found Nathan familiar through his close observation of the soldiers'

drill at the Fort.

"You don't want to aim that way," the old man said, when, at the command, Nathan held his piece ready to fire with the b.u.t.t end under his elbow. "Lord, how I've heard Major Rogers swear to see the reg'lars wastin' lead, shootin' int' the tree tops wi' the enemy fair afore 'em!

Fightin' hain't no foolin'. Aim to kill, jes' as ye would at a pa'tridge. There-that's the talk," when Nathan, following his instructions, laid his cheek to the stock and flashed the priming at the breast of an imaginary foe.

CHAPTER XIV-GABRIEL'S GOOD SERVICE

On the afternoon of the 9th of May, 1775, Job and Nathan laid their guns in the canoe and stood beside her ready to set her afloat in the brown water, whose ripples softly lapped the drift of dried sedges along the sh.o.r.e. Job looked anxiously about, and once more, as he had several times previously done, he whistled a loud shrill note through his fingers.

"Where on airth is that dog? He mistrusted somethin' was up and run off.

He'd ortu be tied up, but we can't wait any longer, an' he'll hafter run loose. Wal, le's be off."

Lifting the canoe, they set her afloat, stepped lightly on board, and, kneeling in the bottom, sent her flying down the creek. They skirted the lake almost beneath the spreading branches of the maples, now already dappled with the tender green of budding leaves. A little back from the naked, western sh.o.r.e, with its crumbling ruins of the old French water battery, uprose the gray battlements and barracks of Ticonderoga, and the blazoned cross of England floating lazily in the breeze.

"I've follered it for many a day," said Job sadly, "an' I never thought to go agin it. But I b'lieve I'm right," and he turned his face resolutely forward.

The turmoil and horror of war seemed far removed from the serene sky, the rippled water kissing the quiet sh.o.r.es, and the pervading sense of the earth's renewing life, enforced by bursting buds and opening flowers and songs of birds. Even the grim fortress seemed but a memento of conflict long since ended forever.

Sweeping into the broad mouth of the creek, they joined the motley crowd already gathered there. The a.s.semblage was composed of all who were capable of bearing arms, from gray-headed veterans of the last war, to the striplings who had not yet been mustered on a training field. Job received hearty greetings from more than one old comrade whom he had not seen since they ranged this region, then an unreclaimed wilderness, under the leadership of the brave and wary Robert Rogers, and he was soon in reminiscences of scouts and ambuscades, while Nathan watched and noted everything, a most interested spectator of what was pa.s.sing so un.o.btrusively into history.

Presently there was a stir and gathering together of the detached groups and an expectant hush. Then he saw towering among them, in c.o.c.ked hat and military garb of blue and buff, the stalwart figure of Ethan Allen.

"Fall in, men," said the deep-toned voice of Allen, and the groups formed in line as best they could among the trees.

As they moved forward to take their places Nathan noticed an unfamiliar form skulking among the tree trunks near him-a swarthy little man wearing a ta.s.seled, woolen cap and gray coat unlike the Yankee garb. It flashed across his mind that this was the Canadian employed by his stepfather, and he tried to keep watch of his movements. But there was much else to engage him, and just then he felt a touch on his leg, and, turning, saw Gabriel's sorrowful face looking wistfully up to his own.

"Down, Gabe," he said in a low tone, and the hound crouched behind. Just then Ethan Allen, having pa.s.sed slowly down the line, accosting one and another, broke the silence:

"Friends of the Grants, we are already enough for this business in hand, but there are more to come. There will be boats enough to cross us all in good time. Keep quiet. Cook your rations and eat your supper.

To-morrow we'll eat our breakfast in Ticonderoga, or know the reason why."

As Nathan's entranced gaze was for a moment withdrawn from the beloved commander, he caught a glimpse of the little unknown man stealing away among the shadows. Being more accustomed to the rigid discipline of the garrison than to the free and easy customs of volunteers, he did not dare to leave the ranks till many of his comrades had straggled away.

Then he sought Job and told him his suspicions.

"I thought Newton was goin' to tend to them critters. Newton," he called to his neighbor, "didn't you put a guard over Toombs and his man?"

"Toombs is safe in care of a good man, but his Canuck couldn't be found.

I guess he's too stupid to do any mischief, anyway."

"Well, he's ben a sneakin' round here an' now he's gone, an' there's no tellin' where. Where's Toombs's boat?"

"Here," and Newton pointed to the landing, where it lay among many others.

"Gabe's round here somewheres," said Nathan inadvertently.

"Jest the one I was a wishin' for," said the old man, aroused from his troubled pondering. "He can help when n.o.b'dy else can." He then sent one of his shrill whistles into the woods, and then another, with such good effect that Gabriel presently appeared, loping easily along. "Good fellow, good fellow. Now, Newton, we'll ketch that skunk. Here, here, old boy," and he hurried swiftly away with the hound at heel.

Arrived at the house they found Toombs unconfined, but under the vigilant guard of a lynx-eyed Green Mountain Boy. When Job inquired for the Canadian, he detected a gleam of triumph in the glowering eyes of the surly, half-defiant prisoner.

"The fox has slipped," said Job; "but never mind. If he can fool Gabe he's a smart 'un. Ruth, where's somethin' that 'ere Canuck has wore?"

Ruth, who stood near her idle spinning wheel, half dazed at the unwonted commotion and afraid of she knew not what, pointed covertly to a much worn pair of moccasins hanging near the fireplace to dry.

"Hisn? There couldn't be nothin' better. See here, Gabe."

The hound snuffed eagerly at the soiled footgear, slowly wagging his tail, and then looked inquiringly at his master.

"Sarch him out, boy. Sarch him out," Job encouraged him, pointing along the ground.

The hound circled about the yard a little, and then, finding the trail, followed it silently and steadily down to the creek to where the men were mustered. There, on the much trodden ground, it baffled him for a while. Resorting to his usual tactics, he made widening circles and again found the trail and went off upon it in a steady, untiring pace southward in the direction of Ticonderoga.

"I knowed it," said Job to himself, "and I'll bet ye there'll be a Canuck treed afore sundown." Guided by the deep, mellow baying of the hound, he set off, with his gun at atrail, in rapid pursuit.

The agile little Canadian had at least an hour's start, and made such brisk use of it that he was on the sh.o.r.e opposite the Fort when he was overtaken by the hound, who at once set furiously upon him. Being unarmed, he was forced to scramble up a tree, from which, when he had recovered his breath, he began l.u.s.tily to hail the Fort, and at intervals to curse the hound. His shouts, and Gabriel's insistent deep-mouthed bayings, could scarcely fail to attract the attention of the garrison, and Job, pushing forward at his best pace, presently appeared upon the scene.

"h.e.l.lo de Forrt," the Canuck was shouting. "Hey! h.e.l.lo de Forrt! Sacre chien! Go home, Ah tol' you! h.e.l.lo, Carillon. Tac-con-derrrque! All de Bastonais was comin' for took you, Ah tol' you! Sacre chien! Stop off you nowse so Ah can heard me spik."

"Shut yer head an' come down out o' that mighty quick," Job commanded in a low voice.

"Me no onstan' Angleesh," and again the voice rang out over across the water: "h.e.l.lo de Forrt!"