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Last Rebel

<h2 id="V">CHAPTER V. A CHANGE OF SITUATIONS.</h2></div> Crothers as usual brought me my meals, and in that respect I was well treated. The night passed without event, and the next morning I was allowed to take a walk around the fort between Crothers and another soldier, but I saw nothing of either the colonel or his daughter. I tried to pump Crothers, but he was proof against my most skilful questions, and when I returned to my room I could boast no increase of knowledge. Yet I was not much depressed. I comforted myself with the old reflection that it was the year of peace 1896, and I would not become really alarmed until I stood up before[112] a file of the colonel's men and looked into the muzzles of their rifles. I received a visit the next morning from the colonel himself. His manner was still of a piece with that he had shown on the return march from the mountains, marked by a certain haughtiness and reserve differing much from the fiery temperament characteristic of him. "Well, am I to be shot to-day, colonel?" I asked, and I think I asked it cheerfully, for, mark you, I had returned to my old state of incredulity. "Not to-day," he said. "I have decided to postpone it until I find out where the treason in my garrison lies. You can see that your death might be in the way of my investigation." I could see it with ease, and I was glad that it was so. He asked me a lot of questions which he intended to be adroit, but I saw their drift clearly enough, and led him further astray. When he was through he knew[113] less than ever about my rescuer, and I let him think it was one of his men. "I shall discover the man by to-morrow," he said, with a show of confidence which was but a show, "and his fate shall be severe enough to put a stop to any leanings others may have the same way." Three days more passed in this manner. I was permitted to take two walks daily around the fort in the company of Crothers and another man, but, as before, I could obtain no information from them, and I remained in ignorance of the colonel's progress or lack of progress with his secret service. On the fourth day my door was abruptly thrown open, and Grace Hetherill entered. Her face showed great excitement. The door was not closed behind her, but stood wide open, and I noticed that no sentry was in the hall. I was convinced that something of importance had happened. [114] "Mr. West," she said, "we need your help." "My help," I exclaimed, involuntarily. "How can I, who need it so much myself, give anybody help?" "But you can," she cried. "There is trouble in Fort Defiance." Then, her first flush of excitement over, she told me the story calmly. She was not long in the telling. Her hint to her father that Dr. Ambrose might have been the man who assisted in my escape had produced greater results than she expected. The old colonel had watched the doctor closely, and at last had accused him of treason to the Confederate government. Thereupon the doctor, who was superior in intelligence and information to the other men, and knew what was passing in the world, had advised him to free me, and to haul down the stars and bars, as the cause was lost beyond the hope of revival. [115] "My father flew into a terrible rage," said Grace. "He ordered that Dr. Ambrose be locked up at once, and it is his intention to have him shot when he shoots you." "Miss Hetherill," I said, "you must tell your father that Dr. Ambrose had nothing to do with my escape." "That would do no good now," she said, "and might do harm. It would not help Dr. Ambrose, for my father regards his proposition to surrender as the worst treason of all, and if I were to say that it was I and not the doctor who helped you, he would not believe me." This put a new phase on the matter. I felt very sorry for the doctor, who had got himself into trouble on my account. I did not know what to say, but Miss Hetherill interpreted my look. "Do not fear for Dr. Ambrose," she said. "Some of the men have begun to be of his way of thinking, and my father will not be able to carry out his[116] sentence against either the doctor or you." I understood at once. A revolt was threatened in the camp, and her fear was neither for the doctor nor for me, but for her father. I felt rather cheap. "I will help you all I can, Miss Hetherill," I said, a little stiffly, "but I fail to see anything that I can do. As you know, I am a prisoner here." "But you are not as strictly guarded as you were," she said. "My father's rage against Dr. Ambrose has withdrawn his attention from you, and within a day you may have another chance to escape. He wants you to come now and testify against Dr. Ambrose." "I cannot do that," I said. "I do not want you to do so," she said, quickly. "You must say that you made your escape without help, that you picked the lock of your door,—or anything else you choose to say." It was a falsehood she asked me to[117] tell, but I was willing to tell it, since the interests of four persons were involved in it,—hers, the doctor's, mine, and, not least of all, the colonel's. Truly my coming had aroused a mighty commotion in the house of Colonel Hetherill, C.S.A., and perhaps too had opened it to new ideas. It had never occurred to me before that I was such an important personage. I followed Miss Hetherill to the second sitting of the military court in the trial-room, though this time as a witness and not as the accused. The colonel was majestic at the head of the table. He was in a splendid gray uniform, gay with gold lace, as if he deemed the occasion worthy of his best appearance. Crothers had taken the place of Dr. Ambrose as secretary, and the doctor himself was at the foot of the table. The examination was brief, and to the colonel very unsatisfactory. I made a[118] poor witness. I denied that any one had helped me, and the doctor with equal emphasis denied complicity. The colonel frowned at me, but the doctor received the larger share of his attention, and I was of the opinion that the colonel considered him a greater villain than myself, as I was an enemy by birth, while the doctor was a household traitor. "You do not deny making to me the proposition that we surrender to the Federal government?" finally said the colonel. "Not at all," said the doctor, firmly. "That was my suggestion, and I repeat it. We alone are holding out. What chance have we ever to carry our cause through to success?" Colonel Hetherill looked around at his men as if he feared the effect of those words upon them. They were impassive, though I inferred from what Grace had said that several were beginning to share the doctor's way of thinking. [119] "Your answer," said the colonel to Dr. Ambrose, "is sufficient proof of treasonable designs. The answer itself I consider treason. I will hear no more." He promptly dissolved the court, ordered Dr. Ambrose and myself to be locked up again, and refused to listen to anything his daughter wished to say. What further steps he took I did not know then, for under escort I passed on to my room and was out of sight and hearing. That evening Grace came to my room again, and, as before, she was visibly under the influence of strong emotion. "You must escape again to-night," she said, "and this time you must not be overtaken. I have arranged everything, and it will be easy enough for you to reach the mountains." "What will become of Dr. Ambrose?" I asked. "We will save him, too, though I do not yet know how," she said. [120] The doctor had taken his risk partly on my account, and I did not feel like abandoning him in danger. I am willing to admit also that I wanted to see how events at Fort Defiance would culminate. So I refused to leave the fort. My refusal greatly disturbed Grace, and she begged me to go. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes luminous, and she looked very beautiful. "Would you have me think of myself alone?" I asked. "It is true that I seem to have brought trouble here, but I can't cure it by slipping away to-night. I mean to stay." She had nothing more to say, but one look she gave me seemed to approve of my decision. She left the room hastily, and I did not hear the key turn in the lock. I tried the door, and found that it was not locked. Through neglect or intention, I was free to go about Fort Defiance, and I inferred that the colonel's affairs in truth were in a critical state, if[121] so little attention was paid to me. I looked out in the hall, but saw no one. I walked lightly to the top of the stair-case, but, hearing voices below, concluded it would be best to return to my room. From the window I saw that the drawbridge was up, and I doubted the chances of escape, even had I wished it. I remained there an hour or so, trying to decide upon the wisest course. Unable to come to any decision, I went into the hall again for lack of something better to do. From the top of the stair-case I heard voices in loud and excited conversation. I crept half-way down the steps. I stopped there to listen further, and feeling sure that some event of great importance had happened, I walked boldly all the way down. The front door, which looked out upon the little brass cannon, was wide open. Grace and Crothers stood near it, talking in hurried and excited tones. A[122] half-dozen soldiers were about them, and occasionally they said something as if by way of suggestion. They paid no attention to me until I came so close that Grace herself could not help noticing me. "Oh, Mr. West!" she cried. "We are so glad you are here now!" Naturally I was full of interest and curiosity, and asked the cause of the trouble. Then they told me that Dr. Ambrose had escaped, by the connivance of some one, I guessed, and had fled to the mountains. The colonel, discovering his escape, had called upon his men to pursue him, and if necessary shoot him on sight. They had refused unanimously to go, and the colonel in his rage had taken his old army rifle and had gone alone. Here in truth was a pretty muddle. The colonel's state of mind was such that without doubt he would shoot the doctor if he found an opportunity,[123] which would be a double tragedy to all the people of Fort Defiance. "The colonel must be pursued and overtaken," I said. "At once," said Grace, with an emphasis that showed I had only seconded her own argument. Crothers and all the others looked at me as if waiting for a suggestion. I seemed by an easy transition to change from the prisoner of Fort Defiance to its chief. Since they looked upon me as such, that I decided to be. "What road did the colonel take?" I asked of Crothers. "There is only one passable way out of the mountains," replied Crothers; "the one you followed. We know that both the doctor and the colonel took it." I saw a look of intelligence pass between him and Grace, and I wondered no longer at the doctor's escape or his destination. Our duty and the method of doing it were plainly before us. [124] It required but a few minutes for me to organize our search and rescue expedition. I made Crothers my lieutenant, and took all but four men, leaving these to care for the house. Food enough for several days and blankets for the night were collected hastily, and then we were ready. Miss Hetherill approached cloaked and hooded. To my protest she replied with much firmness that she was going with us. "But the road over these mountains is not fit for a lady to travel," I said. "I have been over that road often, and I know these mountains much better than you, Mr. West," she replied. I could not dispute her assertion, and moreover her presence would be useful to us in certain contingencies. She was a strong, active girl; and I made no further objection. We left the house; the drawbridge was lowered to let us pass, and when we had crossed was raised again. [125] In a few minutes we were out of the valley and in the mountains, following the old road. As it was my second journey, I saw how easy it was for the colonel and his men to pursue and overtake me. It was the only real road through the mountains, and one followed it as naturally as the waters of a brook flow down its channel. "How long a start of us has the colonel?" I asked. "Not more than an hour," replied Crothers; "but he is strong, in spite of his age, and a good mountaineer. I guess he can go faster than we can." It is true that one man, other things being equal, can travel faster than half a dozen who stick together, and in it lay the danger that the colonel would out-foot us. But there was consolation in the thought that Dr. Ambrose had the same advantage. It was an indifferent night, neither very clear nor very dark. There was light[126] enough to show the peaks and the ravines, but only to distort them. I let Crothers, who knew the way, take the lead, and I dropped back by the side of Miss Hetherill. We were silent for some time; then I made a lame apology for blundering upon Fort Defiance and bringing such trouble to its inmates. "It is not your fault that you came, Mr. West," she said, "and even if you had come by intention we would have no right to complain. Something of the kind was bound to happen some day." I was glad that she admitted the abnormal conditions of Fort Defiance. That she knew them was obvious, for she had passed but little of her life there and knew the swing of the world. We made speed, despite the roughness of the way. Some mists or fine clouds sifted before the moon, and the visible world became small. But we went on without uncertainty. The fugitive could[127] not well turn from the path, nor could the pursuer. I saw Crothers looking up at the white, silky clouds: once he shook his head doubtfully, but I did not ask him his thought. With plenty of company, the mountains did not impress or awe me as on the night of my flight. Once our course dipped into a little valley down which a brook trickled. In the soft earth on either side of it the vigilant Crothers saw footsteps which he said were those of two men. We knew the two men must be the doctor and the colonel. "I should judge from those footprints, though I can't tell precisely," said Crothers, "that we haven't gained anything on them." This was somewhat discouraging, and our enthusiasm did not grow when the path, after leaving the valley, or rather slit in the hills, led up a very steep and long slope. Our muscles relaxed under[128] the strain, and the breath came in irregular puffs. I was very tired, but I was not willing to own it, especially as I saw Grace walking with still vigorous step. She had told the truth when she said she was a better mountaineer than I. The mists thickened. The moon was but a faint glimmer through them, and they drifted like lazy clouds. Our world narrowed again, and instinctively we walked very close together. It was like a fog at sea; the damp of it carried a raw penetrating chill. There was no wind to moan or sing through the ravines; the mountains were silent save for ourselves. Crothers suggested a light, and produced from under his coat the torch with which he had provided himself in view of such emergency. It was a long stick, soaked in some compound of tar and turpentine, and when he lighted one end and held it aloft it burned with energy, casting a bright, cheerful light. [129] Nevertheless we shivered in our clothes; the chill in the air was insistent, and the mist was soaking into the ground and the autumn foliage. All the world seemed to be a-sweat, and, poor woodsman as I was, I knew that this had its perils. Pneumonia is not picturesque, but it is very dangerous. Crothers looked at me several times as if he expected me to make a suggestion, but, though by common consent I was the leader of the party, I waited for him to make it, as he knew more about mountains and forests than I. But we plodded on for a long time before he spoke. Then he announced that we must stop for a while and build a fire. "If we don't," he said, "we'll be soaked through and through with the cold mist, and in another hour some of us will be shaking with the chills and fever." Grace protested against stopping.[130] She was in the greatest alarm lest a tragedy should happen ahead of us, but, while we felt the same fear, we recognized also the truth of the old maxim about the futility of too much haste. I pointed out the dangers to her, and urged that her father probably had sought shelter somewhere before this. She was compelled to yield, not to my arguments necessarily, but to her own judgment. I often think what a jolly world this would be if our judgment and our wishes were always agreed. We chose a somewhat sheltered spot, which was not difficult to find in a region of hill on hill, criss-crossed with ravines and gullies, and gathered heaps of brushwood. The fire was much more difficult to light than on the night when I was the colonel's prisoner, but we set it to burning at last, and glad we were when the flames rose high up in the chilly darkness. We refreshed ourselves with a little[131] supper. Then Crothers insisted that some of us, and especially Miss Hetherill, should get a little sleep. Again she showed herself a wise girl by trying to obey, despite her wishes. We made her a bed of blankets between the fire and a cliff, and, though she said she would not be able to sleep, in half an hour she slept. As she lay there with a bit of her pale, weary face showing above the blankets, I felt very sorry for her, far sorrier than I had ever felt for myself, even when under sentence of death; I could see the reality of her trouble, and I had never believed fully in mine. All the men except Crothers and I and a third rolled themselves in their blankets and slept. I sat by the fire, wondering what the outcome of it all would be. I noticed that Crothers continued to look up uneasily at the skies and the clouded moon, and at last I asked him what he might have on his mind. [132] "Bad weather," he replied, briefly. "We have that already," I said, pointing to the cliffs soaking in the wet mist. "More coming," he said, putting on a very weatherwise look. "What do you expect?" I asked. "Maybe snow, but more likely sleet, and that, too, before morning," he replied. "It's early for such things, but all the signs point that way." I asked him no more. This was most unpromising, and gave full warrant for his grave looks. The mists were lifting, though very slowly, and were gathering in clouds above us. The peaks were ghostly gray, and the moon narrowed to a half-rim of steel and then disappeared altogether. The dampness remained in the air, but the cold was too great for rain. As Crothers said, either snow or sleet would come. I suggested to Crothers that we make some sort of protection for Miss Hetherill. We built up little walls of brush[133] on three sides of her and covered them over with the same material. She slept so heavily from exhaustion, poor girl, that she never awakened to our noise, and when we finished our improvised hut our satisfaction was all the greater because we had not disturbed her at all. Then we built up the fires and waited for what might come. I dozed awhile, and awoke to find that the clouds had thickened. All the peaks were hidden by them, and there was some wind, just enough to make a subdued moan. Crothers said it lacked about two hours of day. I noticed that he had put the men at work again, and they had gathered brushwood sufficient to make the camp-fire of a regiment. "The clouds will do what they are going to do very soon," said Crothers; and he was right. Presently we heard a patter upon the dry leaves like the falling of dust-shot. Little white kernels re[134]bounded and fell again. One lodged in my eye, and I winked until I got it out. The patter increased; the dust-shot turned to bird-shot. "Hail," said Crothers. "We're in for it." We woke all the men and made shelter for ourselves as best we could in the lee of the cliff. Another blanket spread over the top of Grace's rude bower was sufficient protection for her. Soon we had a fine downpour of hail. It was like a white bombardment, from which we were safe within our works. I would have been content to watch it, had it not put such obstacles in the way of our pursuit. The ground whitened quickly under the fall of the hail, and by and by, when the wind shifted to the south, the clouds discharged rain instead of hail. This was no improvement, and in fact its probable sequel was what we dreaded most. The shift of the wind came again, and then happened what often happens[135] in our fickle climate: the rain which covered everything turned to ice under the wind from the north, and in an hour the earth was clad in a complete suit of white armor. The sun was just rising above the last peaks. Every cloud had gone from the sky, and the day, hidden before by the wall of mountains, seemed to come all at once. Every ray of the sun was caught up by the sheet of white and gleaming ice and reflected back. Our eyes were dazzled by the brilliancy of the morning, for the ice covered everything. Every leaf, every twig, was encrusted with it. It was all very beautiful, and all very dangerous. Mountain-climbing on sheets of ice is a slippery business. As usual, I turned to Crothers for advice. "We'll have to creep along as best we can," he said. "But, while we can't go fast, neither can the doctor nor the colonel." [136] This was the one redeeming point of the situation. Whatever affected us affected both the pursued, and we remained on an equal footing. We awoke Grace, who was astonished and dismayed at the sight of the earth cased in ice. Then we had a little breakfast, and prepared to resume our dangerous pursuit. I had heard of Alpine climbing, and, though I had never done any of it, the virtues of an alpenstock were not unknown to me. We selected slender but stout sticks from the brushwood, sharpened the ends, and, having hardened them in the fire, made our start, each thus provided. It was treacherous work, and our falls were many, but we were satisfied to escape with mere bruises, for one might easily pitch over a precipice or tumble down a long, steep-hill slope and become a mere bag of broken bones. The sun shone in splendor, but the rays were without warmth. They were[137] white, not yellow, and a white light is always cold. The brilliant reflection from the ice-fields forced us to keep our eyes half closed, if we did not want to be blinded. <hr class="chap" /> [138] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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