Hardscrabble; or, the fall of Chicago Part 13

"Am I braved in my own command, and by my own men? Mr. Elmsley, who are these Indians, and how came they in?"

"They are a part of the encampment without, sir. There was no order given against their admission this morning, besides it is Winnebeg, and you have said that the gates of the Fort was to be open to him at all hours."

"Ah! Winnebeg, my friend, how do you do. I did not know it was you or your people. You know you are always welcome."

"How do, gubbernor," answered the chief, coming round from the rear of the line, and taking the proffered hand--"'Spose not very angry now--him good warrior--him good soger," and he pointed to the young subaltern.

"Ensign Ronayne is, no doubt, very sensible to your good opinion,"

remarked the captain, with evident pique; "but, Winnebeg, as I am sure you never allow a white man to interfere with you, when you find fault with your young chiefs, you must let me do the same."

"What find him fault for?" asked the chief, with some surprise; "brave like a devil!"

"Captain Headley," interposed the ensign, with some impatience, "am I to surrender my sword, or resume my duty?"

But the captain either could not, or would not give a direct answer.

"Can you give me a good reason, Mr. Ronayne, why I should not receive your sword? Do you deny that you have been guilty of neglect of duty?"

"In what?" was the brief demand.

"In being absent from the Fort, without leave, sir."

"Indeed! To substantiate that, you must bring proofs, Captain Headley.

Who," and he looked around him, as if challenging his accuser, "pretends to have seen me beyond these defences?"

The commandant was for some moments at a loss, for he had not antic.i.p.ated this difficulty. At length he resumed. "Was it not to be absent without leave, that, when the guard was all ready to be marched off, you were not to be found?"

"Had the guard been marched off, or the parade even formed, I should of course, have come justly under your censure, Captain Headley; but it was not so--you ordered the parade and guard-mounting for a later hour. I am here at that hour."

"Hem!" returned the commandant, who was in some degree obliged to admit the justice of the remark; "you defend yourself more in the spirit of a lawyer, than of a soldier, Mr. Ronayne, but all this difficulty is soon set at rest. I require but your simple denial that you have been absent from the Fort, within the last twenty-four hours. That given, I shall be satisfied."

"And that, sir," was the firm reply of the youth, "I am not disposed to give. I am not much versed in military prudence, Captain Headley," he pursued, after a few moments' pause, and in a tone of slight irony, which that officer did not seem to perceive, "but at least sufficient to induce me to reserve what I have to say for my defence. You have charged me, sir, with having been absent from the Fort without leave; and it is for you to prove that fact before a competent authority."

"March off your guard, Mr. Ronayne," was the abrupt rejoinder of the commandant, for he liked not the continuation of a scene in which the advantage seemed not to rest with him, but with the very party whom he had sought to chasten; "Mr. Elmsley dismiss the parade. I had intended promoting on the spot, Corporal Nixon and private Collins for their conduct yesterday, but the gross insubordination I have just seen, has caused me to change my mind. Neither shall have the rank intended, until the guilty parties are named. I give until the hour of parade to-morrow for their production, and if, by that time, their names are not laid before me, no such promotion shall take place while I command the garrison. Dismiss the men, sir. Here, Winnebeg, my good fellow, you have come at a good moment. I have dispatches to send to Detroit this very evening, and I know no one I can trust so well as yourself."

"Good," was the answer, "Winnebeg always ready to do him order--no angry more, gubbernor, with young chief," pointing to the ensign, as he moved off with his small guard. "Dam good soger--you see dis?" and he touched his scalping-knife with his left hand, and looked very significantly.

"No, Winnebeg, not angry any more," was the reply; "but how do you know him to be good soger? What has your scalping-knife to do with it?"

"Winnebeg know all," said the chief gravely, as he laid his heavy hand upon the shoulder of the commandant, "but can't tell. Young chief say no, and Winnebeg love young chief."

This remark forcibly struck Captain Headley, and brought back to his mind, certain recollections. He, however, asked no further question, but pointed, as they moved in the direction of his own apartments, towards the sun, showing by his gesture that it was not too early to take the mid-day dram.

"Where the devil have you been, man, and with what confounded impudence you got through the sc.r.a.pe," was remarked at a distant part of the same ground, and at the same moment with the conversation just given.

"How is Maria?" eagerly asked Ronayne. "When shall I see her?"

"Well enough to hear all that pa.s.sed between you and Military Prudence,"

returned his friend; "but that is no answer to my question."

"There was nothing like braving it," answered the other evasively; "but I say, Elmsley, I am devilish hungry, that breakfast you invited me to last night is over long ago, of course." This last sentence was uttered in a mock piteous tone.

"Just what I was going to speak about, my dear boy. We have had number ONE, but before half an hour, we shall be seated at number TWO. When your sergeant has relieved his sentries, come over and you will find a piping hot breakfast."

"Will it be quite consistent with military prudence to leave my guard so soon, after the lecture I have had?" remarked the ensign, with a smile--"but, ah! I had nearly forgotten. Elmsley, I must say a few words to you before I go in, and a better opportunity cannot be afforded than while we are walking from this to your place. Just go then, and order the breakfast as you propose, and return here. I shall have completed the arrangements of the guard by that time, and all that I have to ask of you, can be answered as we go along."

"I hope it is no great secret you have to impart," returned the lieutenant, "for I am a sad hand at the mysterious, and shall be sure to tell my wife, if I do not tell Maria."

"Not you--you will tell neither, but au revoir."

CHAPTER X.

At the moment when Ensign Ronayne removed his sword, with the intention of handing it to his commanding officer, in antic.i.p.ation of the arrest which he expected, Maria Heywood, little conversant with those military formalities, and apprehending from the previous high tone of her lover, that something fearful was about to occur, had not absolutely fainted, but become so agitated, that Mrs. Elmsley was induced to take her back to the sofa, on which she had previously been reclining. As she was leaving her chair, Mrs. Headley, whose attention had also been arrested by the loud and angry voice of her husband, came from her own door and joined the little group, anxiously inquiring the cause of the disturbance without.

In a few brief sentences, and as correctly as she was able, Mrs. Elmsley explained to her the circ.u.mstances, and although her attentive auditor offered no very pointed remark, it was evident from her manner that she deeply deplored that strict military punctilio, which had led the husband whom she both loved and esteemed, to place himself in a false position with his own force--for that it was a false position in some degree, to provoke insubordination, and yet be without the power to punish it, she had too much good sense not to perceive. She felt the more annoyed, because she had on more than one occasion, observed that there was not that unanimity between her husband and Lieutenant Elmsley, which she conceived ought to exist between parties so circ.u.mstanced--a commander of a remote post, and his second in command, on whose mutual good understanding, not only the personal security of all might depend, but the existence of those social relations, without which, their isolated position involved all the unpleasantness of a voluntary banishment. This had ever been to her a source of regret, and she had on several occasions, although in the most delicate and un.o.btrusive manner, hinted at the fact; but the man who doated upon her, and to whom, in all other respects, her desire was law, evinced so much inflexibility in all that appertained to military etiquette, that she had never ventured to carry her allusions beyond the light commentary induced by casual reference to the subject.

If then she lamented that unfortunate coolness, if not absolute estrangement, which existed between Lieutenant Elmsley and her husband, bow much more acutely did she feel the difficulty of the position now, when the only other responsible officer of the garrison--and that a young man of high feeling and accomplishment, whom she had ever liked and admired--was fast being led into the same antagonism. Nay, what rendered the matter more painful to her, was the fact of the latter being the lover, or perhaps the affianced of a girl, whom she regarded with a fervor not often felt by one woman for another, and for whose interests she could have made every sacrifice, not affecting those of her husband.

Such were the women who were now seated on the ottoman, engaged more in their own reflections, than in conversation, when Lieutenant Elmsley entered the room, announcing that the truant would shortly be in for breakfast, which, he requested, might be instantly prepared in the usual manner, only adding thereto a couple of bottles of claret.

"Ah! pardon me, Mrs. Headley," he added, somewhat stiffly, as his wife left the room to issue the necessary orders, "I did not see you, or I should have been rather more ceremonious in my domestic communications."

Mrs. Headley slightly colored. She was sensible that pique towards her husband, and a belief that she wholly shared his sentiments, had induced this rather sarcastic speech.

"By no means, Mr. Elmsley. I trust you will not put ME down as a stranger, whatever your disposition to others."

There was a significance in the manner in which this was said, that deeply touched the lieutenant, and his tone immediately changed.

"Then, I take you at your word," he said. "It is a long time since I have had the pleasure of seeing you here, and you must positively join our second breakfast. I know Captain Headley is engaged with Winnebeg, whom he purposes sending off this evening with despatches, so that you will not be missed for at least an hour. There, look at Miss Heywood's imploring look--she pleads with her eyes in my favor, although there is no chance, it appears, of getting a word from her lips."

"Nay," remarked the other, who had rallied from her late despondency, on hearing the object of the breakfast; "you are very unreasonable, Mr.

Elmsley. You do not deserve that I should speak to you to-day, and I am not quite sure that I shall."

"And pray, fair lady, why not? Wherein have I had the misfortune to offend?"

"Ah! do you forget? You promised to bring me a certain report of certain occurrences, and yet instead of that, not a word have you condescended to address to me until this moment."

"I plead guilty," he answered deprecatingly, "but pray for a suspension of sentence, until the return of one through whose influence I hope to obtain your pardon! I go now," he whispered, "to lead him to your feet."

"Well, what is the great question you have to put to me?" said the lieutenant to his friend, whom he had rejoined, and with whom he now returned slowly towards the house--"one involving a case of life and death it might be imagined, from the long face you put on when alluding to the matter."

"Nay, not exactly that, but still involving a good deal. Tell me frankly, Elmsley, has Miss Heywood heard any further account of the events at the farm-house?"

"She has heard the report brought in by Nixon and the rest of the fishing-party."

"And what was that, I pray you?" eagerly returned the ensign.