The Little Red Foot Part 95

As he spoke, still far away along the river we heard several shots fired in rapid succession.

With that, the old man fetched a yell: "Durn-ding it!" he screeched, "if Sir John's in the Valley it ain't no place for my old woman and me!" And he lashed his horses with the reins, and drove at a crazy gallop toward the distant firing.

At the same moment I spurred Kaya, who bounded forward over the rise of land; and instantly I saw smoke in the sky beyond the Johnstown Road, and caught a glimpse of other fires in another direction, very near to where should stand the dwellings of Jim Davis and Sampson Sammons.

And now, seated by the roadside just ahead, I saw a young man whom I knew by sight, named Abe Veeder; and I pulled in my horse and called to him.

He would not move or notice me, and seemed distracted; so I spurred up to him and caught him by the shirt collar. At that he jumps up in a fright, and:

"Oh, Jesus!" he bawls, "Sir John's red devils are murdering everybody from Johnstown to the River!"

"Where are they?" I cried. "Answer me and compose yourself!"

"Where are they?" he shrieked. "Why, they're everywhere! Lodowick Putman's house is afire and they've murdered him and Aaron. Amasa Stevens' house is burning, and he hangs naked and scalped on his garden fence!

"They killed Billy Gault and that other man from the old country, and they murdered Captain Hansen in his bed, and his house is all afire!

Everything in the Valley is afire!" he screamed, wringing his scorched hands, "Tribes Hill is burning, Fisher's is on fire, and the Colonel and John and Harmon all murdered--all scalped and lying dead in the barn!----"

"Listen to me!" I cried, shaking the wretched fellow, "when did this happen? Are Sir John's people still here? Where are they?"

"It happened last night and lasted after sunrise this morning," he blubbered. "Everything is burning from Schoharie to the Nose, and they'll come back and kill the rest of us----"

I flung him aside, struck spurs, and galloped for Cayadutta Lodge.

Everywhere I looked I saw smoke; barns were but heaps of live coals, houses marked only by charred cellars out of which flames leaped.

Yet, I saw the church still standing, and Dr. Romeyn's parsonage still intact, though all doors and windows stood wide open and bedding and broken furniture lay scattered over the gra.s.s.

But Adam Fonda's house was burning and the dwelling of Major Jelles was on fire; and now I caught sight of Douw Fonda's great stone house, with its two wings and tall chimneys of hewn stone.

It was not burning, but shutters hung from their hinges, window gla.s.s was shattered, doors smashed in, and all over the trampled garden and lawn lay a debris of broken furniture, tattered books, bedding, fragments of fine china and torn garments.

And there, face downward on the b.l.o.o.d.y gra.s.s, lay old Douw Fonda, his aged skull split to the backbone, his scalp gone.

Such a sick horror seized me that I reeled in my saddle and the world grew dark before my eyes for a moment.

But my mind cleared again and my eyes, also; and I sat my horse, pistol in hand, searching the desolation about me for a sign of aught that remained alive in this awful spot.

I heard no more gun-shots up the river. The silence was terrible.

At length, ill with fear, I got out of my saddle and led Kaya to the shattered gate and there tied her.

Then I entered that ruined mansion to search it for what I feared most horribly to discover,--searched every room, every closet, every corner from attic to cellar. And then came out and took my horse by the bridle.

For there was n.o.body within the house, living or dead--no sign of death anywhere save there on the gra.s.s, where that poor corpse lay, a grotesque thing sprawling indecently in its blood.

Then, as I stood there, a man appeared, slinking up the road. He was in his shirt sleeves, wore no hat, and his face and hair were streaked red from a wet wound over his left ear. He carried a fire-lock; and when he discovered me in my Continental uniform he swerved and shuffled toward me, making a hopeless gesture as he came on.

"They've all gone off," he called out to me, "green-coats, red-coats and savages. I saw them an hour since crossing the river some three miles above. G.o.d! What a harm have they done us here on this accursed day!"

He crept nearer and stood close beside me and looked down at the body of Douw Fonda. But in my overwhelming grief I no longer noticed him.

"Why, sir," says he, "a devil out o' h.e.l.l would have spared yonder good old man. But Sir John's people slew him. I saw him die. I saw the murder done with my own eyes."

Startled from my agonized reflections, I turned and gazed at him, still stunned by the calamity which had crushed me.

"I say I saw that old man die!" he repeated shrilly. "I saw them scalp him, too!"

I summoned all my courage: "Did--did you know Penelope Grant?"

"Aye."

"Is--is she dead?" I whispered.

"I think she is, sir. Listen, sir: I am Jan Myndert, Bouw-Meester to Douw Fonda. I saw Mistress Grant this morning. It was after sunrise and our servants and black slaves had been long a-stirring, and soupaan a-cooking, and none dreamed of any trouble. No, sir! Why--G.o.d help us all!--the black wenches were at their Monday washing, and the farm bell was ringing, and I was at the new barrack a-sorting out seed.

"And the old gentleman, _he_ was up and dressed and supped his porridge along with me, sir; for he rose always with the sun, sir, feeble though he seemed.

"I----" he pa.s.sed a cinder-blackened hand across his hair; drew it away red and sticky; stood gazing at the stain with a stupid air until I could not endure his silence; and burst out:

"Where did you last see Mistress Grant?"

But my violence confused him, and it seemed difficult for him to speak when finally he found voice at all:

"Sir--as I have told you, I had been sorting seeds for early planting, in the barracks," he said tremulously, "and I was walking, as I remember, toward the house, when, of a sudden, I heard musket-firing toward Johnstown, and not very far distant.

"With that comes a sound of galloping and rattle o' wheels, and I see Barent Wemple standing up in his red-painted farm waggon, and whipping his fine colts, and a keg o' rum bouncing behind him in the waggon-box,--which rolled off as the horses reached the river--and galloped into it--them two colts, sir,--breast deep in the river!

"Then I shouts down to him: 'Barent! Barent! Is it them red devils of Sir John? Or why be you in such a G.o.d-a'mighty hurry?'

"But Barent he is too busy cutting his traces to notice me; and up onto one o' the colts he jumps and seizes t'other by the head, and away across the shoals, leaving his new red waggon there in the water, hub-deep.

"Then I run to the house and I fall to shouting: 'Look out! Look out!

Sir John is in the Valley!' And then I run to the house, where my gun stands, and where the black boys and wenches are all a-screeching and a-praying.

"Somebody calls out that Captain Fisher's house is on fire; and then, of a sudden, I see a flock o' naked, whooping devils come leaping down the road.

"Then, sir, I saw Mistress Grant in her shift come out in the dew and stand yonder in her bare feet, a-looking across at them red devils, bounding and leaping about the Fisher place.

"Then, out o' the house toddles Douw Fonda with his gold headed cane and his favorite book. Sir, though the poor old gentleman was childish, he still knew an Indian when he saw one. 'Fetch me a gun!' he cries. 'I take command here!' And then he sees Mistress Grant, and he pipes out in his cracked voice: 'Stand your ground, Penelope! Have no fear, my child.

I command this post! I will protect you!'

"The green-coats and savages were now swarming around the house of Major Jelles, whooping and yelling and capering and firing off their guns.

Bang-bang-bang! Jesus! the noise of their musketry stopped your ears.

"Then Mistress Grant she took the old gentleman by the arm and was begging him to go with her through the orchard, where we now could see Mrs. Romeyn running up the hill and carrying her two little children in her arms.

"I also went to Mr. Fonda and took him by the other arm, but he walked with us only to the porch and there seized my gun that I had left there.