The Minute Boys of the Mohawk Valley Part 9

The old man paused an instant, as if quite as much perplexed as I, and then whispered:

"Go on. We are like to run across more than one such snag, an', what is worse, don't have a clear idea of whether we shall come plump on to the fort, or go a considerable distance to one side of it."

Again I advanced, making an even wider detour than before, and in ten minutes, perhaps, we were come upon a single sentinel,--a soldier,--who stood leaning against a tree as if half-asleep, and I was less careful in pa.s.sing him because he did not appear to be particularly on the alert.

Again and again we nearly stumbled upon a squad of men, small parties of Indians, or a single sentinel, until it seemed to me as if all St. Leger's force must be distributed throughout the thicket, and I began to despair of ever making our way through.

Now we were where it seemed as dangerous to retreat as to advance, and I strove manfully to keep from my mind all thoughts of the perils that surrounded us, lest I grow faint-hearted at the very time when all my courage was needed if we would save our lives.

To do this it was only necessary I think of Jacob and his hazardous venture, which could serve no good purpose even though he succeeded in avoiding the enemy, therefore my mind dwelt on the perils which confronted him, causing me in a measure to forget where I myself stood.

To go on in such a manner was most wearisome, and I was well-nigh at the end of my strength when a faint lightness in the eastern sky gave warning that the day was near at hand.

At the same moment I observed this fact, the sergeant gripped me by the arm, and, understanding he would have speech with me, I halted.

"It is time we went into hidin', lad, although I did count we would come within sight of the fort before bein' obliged to call a halt."

"Where can we hide here?" I asked, bitterly, and, strange as it may seem, I began to realize, for the first time since the general had explained what he would have us do, that we must remain concealed from view during all the hours of daylight, and that while we were literally surrounded by the enemy.

"We must take our chances in the first dense thicket, wherein may be found a stout tree, that we come across," he replied, "an' now instead of tryin'

to get a sight of the fortification, turn all your efforts toward findin'

a hidin'-place."

This promised to be as difficult a task as I had ever undertaken, for how would it be possible in the darkness to say whether one thicket was denser than another, and, without spending precious time in the examination, to learn if there was a stout tree within any certain clump of bushes?

Because the sergeant had said we were to halt where was a tree, I believed he proposed spending the day amid the branches, and any one who has ever been in a forest can readily understand how few there are of such hiding-places.

However, we were there, and within another hour must be screened from view after some fas.h.i.+on, therefore it was useless to grumble, or say this or that movement was impossible; but rather I should do the best I might, and trust to the chapter of accidents that I did not lead my companion into what would prove to be a trap.

All the thicket looked dense in the night, but when I was finally come to a clump of bushes through which it was difficult to force my way, I stopped and whispered to Sergeant Corney.

"This seems to be such a place as you would have; but who can say whether it will answer our purpose?"

"So much the worse for us if it does not," the old man replied, grimly.

"Make your way in, an' if there be no tree to give us a roostin'-place, we must take our chances on the ground, for the day is comin' on apace."

And indeed he said no more than the truth; already was it possible for me to see surrounding objects, dimly, to be sure, but more clearly than when we first began searching for a place of refuge.

Unless we were concealed from view within half an hour, we might as well march straight to the nearest sentinel and give ourselves up as prisoners.

There was much to be desired in this thicket which we had chosen by chance, as was learned when we were well within it. Several large trees grew amid the clump of bushes, to be sure; but the foliage was not so dense that one who pa.s.sed near at hand with reasonable alertness would have failed to discover us lurking there.

"It is better than the open country," Sergeant Corney said, when I would have found fault with our blind choice. "We will burrow amid these small bushes until daylight, an' then, if necessary, go to roost."

I had in my pocket a small piece of corn bread, and, when I would have divided it with the old man, he showed me about the same quant.i.ty, which he had saved in event of just such an emergency, and we munched the dry food with no very keen appet.i.tes, but eating at this the first opportunity, in order to keep up our strength for the struggle which must ensue before we gained speech with those in the fort.

My sorrow because Jacob had left us on a venture from which I did not believe he could ever return, was so great that I felt no desire for food, but ate it from a sense of duty, even as I had turned my back on my comrade when he needed aid.

One does not make haste with such a meal, and when I had swallowed the last dry crumbs, which were like to have choked me, the day had fully come.

It can readily be imagined that we crept even nearer the edge of the thicket than was really safe in order to get some idea of our position, and to my great surprise and delight I found that we had come in as direct a course as if we had followed a blazed trail.

There before us, and less than three hundred yards distant, was the fortification over which was floating the flag made from Capt. Abraham Swartwout's cloak, and because we were on high ground it was possible to see the Americans moving about within, bent on this task or that duty.

After one hasty glance we crept back into the middle of the thicket, and there, surrounded by hundreds of enemies, we two held a whispered conversation regarding the situation.

It was only natural we should first congratulate each other on our good fortune in having come unwittingly to the very spot we most desired to gain, and then I said, simply giving words to the thoughts which had entered my mind as I gazed upon the fortification:

"He who crosses the clearing between here and the fort, even though it be in the night, needs to wriggle along like a snake, else will one of Thayendanega's painted beauties lift his scalp."

"It is a bit open jest in front of here; but I took note that further to the westward was a little more of green," Sergeant Corney said, half to himself, and I knew he was picturing in his mind the two of us making the attempt where was not a blade of gra.s.s to give shelter, for the "green" of which he spoke was nothing more than the fragment of a bush near the stockade.

"How are we to attract their attention, providin' we succeed in creepin'

up under the wall?" I asked, after a long pause, and he replied, grimly:

"I'll answer that question after you've told me how we're goin' to stop 'em shootin' at us while we're tryin' to get across."

Then it was I understood that even though the enemy did not see us while we were making our way over the plain, the sentinels in the fort were doubtless on the alert against just such an attempt on the part of the Indians, and there was little question but that they would fire at any moving thing which came within their line of vision.

"It seems to me that we'll be between two fires," I said, with a feeble attempt to speak in a jovial tone, and Sergeant Corney's reply was much like a bucket of cold water full in my face.

"That's exactly the case, lad, an' I'm countin' that betwixt 'em we'll be peppered in fine shape, else there are some mighty poor marksmen hereabouts."

"Why didn't you tell the general that we couldn't carry his message?

Didn't you think of all this at the time?"

"Ay, lad, it was pictured in my mind much as we see it now; but he said we were to do the job, an' it wasn't for me to point out the danger."

"Why not, if you felt certain we would be shot?" I cried, angrily.

"Because a soldier has good reason when he enlists to expect he'll stop a bullet, else what would be the need of powder an' ball?"

Having said this, the old man relapsed into silence, as if he was trying to figure out how the work might be done with less of danger, and I sat staring at him in a rage, for to my mind he had much the same as compa.s.sed his own death and mine by not speaking of all the perils in our path.

Now it was that I almost envied Jacob his position. It is true the odds were strongly against his being able to make his way through the camp without being captured, yet it was possible for him at any time to give over the attempt and retrace his steps, whereas we were absolutely penned up in the thicket, where retreat was even more perilous than advance.

Fume and fret as I might, it was not possible to mend matters, and I stretched myself out at full length under the bushes, with the idea in mind that it would be better if we were captured at once, for then we would be spared just so much suspense, yet when Sergeant Corney suggested that we were not as well hidden from view as we should be, I was alarmed on the instant.

How that day was pa.s.sed by us I can hardly say even now, when I look back calmly upon all the incidents which were then so terrifying.

We had eaten the last crumb of our corn bread in the morning, without appeasing the hunger which a.s.sailed us, and now could only chew the twigs of the bushes, striving to make ourselves believe we extracted nourishment therefrom.

More than once straggling soldiers or Indians pa.s.sed near where we were hidden; but no one thought of searching the thicket for those who were friendly to the garrison, because none save idiots like ourselves would thus have ventured into the lion's mouth.

Screened as we were from the lightest breath of wind, it was cruelly hot in that hiding-place. Tiny streams of perspiration ran down my face, wetting the leaves beneath my head, and I chewed them in the vain hope that the suspicion of moisture might serve to quench my thirst.

I rejoiced when the sun began to sink in the west, even though it was, as I believed, bringing the hour of my death so much the nearer; but I soon came to understand that Sergeant Corney was not disposed to make the perilous venture without first having taken all possible precautions for our safety.

When the day was within an hour of its close, I suddenly became aware that the old soldier was stripping the fringe from his s.h.i.+rt, and immediately I sat bolt upright, fancying for the moment that he had lost his reason.