The Forge in the Forest

by Sir Charles G. D. Roberts

  Chapter IV

  The Governor's Signature

  The clouds slipped clear of the moon's face, and we three--Marc, I, andthe stake--cast sudden long black shadows which led all the way down tothe edge of the increeping tide. I looked at the shadows, and ashudder passed through me as if a cold hand had been laid upon my back.Marc stood off a little,--never have I seen such quick control, suchcomposure, in one so inexperienced,--and remarked to me:--

  "What a figure of a man you are, Father, to be sure!"

  I fell into his pretence of lightness at once, a high relief after thelong and deadly strain; and I laughed with some pleasure at the praise.In very truth, I cherished a secret pride in my body.

  "'Tis well enough, no doubt, in a dim light," said I, "though by nowsurely somewhat battered!"

  Marc was already taking off his clothes. As he knotted them into aconvenient bundle, there came from the woods, a little way back of thepoint, the hollow "Too-hoo-hoo-whoo-oo!" of the small gray owl.

  "There's Tamin!" said I, and was on the point of answering in likefashion, when the cry was reiterated twice.

  "That means danger, and much need of haste for us," I growled.Together we ran down into the tide, striking out with long strokes forthe fine white line that seethed softly along the dark base of thepoint. I commended the lad mightily for his swimming, as we scrambledupon the beach and slipped swiftly into our clothes. Though carryinghis bundle on his head, he had given me all I could do to keep abreastof him.

  We climbed the bluff, and ran through the wet, keen-scented bushestoward the creek where lay the boat. Ere we had gone half-way Taminmet us, breathless.

  "What danger?" I asked.

  "I think they're coming back to tuck the lad in for the night, and seethat he's comfortable!" replied Tamin, panting heavily. "I heardpaddles when they should have been long out of earshot."

  "Something has put them in doubt!" said Marc.

  "Sure," said I, "and not strange, if one but think of it!"

  "Yet I told them a fair tale," panted Tamin, as he went on swiftlytoward his boat.

  The boat lay yet some yards above the edge of tide, having been runaground near high water. The three of us were not long in dragging herdown and getting her afloat. Then came the question that was uppermost.

  "Which way?" asked Tamin, laconically, taking the tiller, while Marcstood by to hoist the dark and well-patched sail.

  I considered the wind for some moments.

  "For Chignecto!" said I, with emphasis. "We must see de Ramezay andsettle this hound La Garne. Otherwise Marc stands in hourly peril."

  As the broad sail drew, and the good boat, leaning well over, gatheredway, and the small waves swished and gurgled merrily under her quarter,I could hardly withhold from laughing for sheer gladness. Marc wasalready smoking with great composure beside the mast, his lean facethoughtful, but untroubled. He looked, I thought, almost as old as hiswar-battered sire who now watched him with so proud an eye. PresentlyI heard Tamin fetch a succession of mighty breaths, as he emptied andfilled the ample bellows of his lungs. He snatched the green andyellow cap of knitted wool from his head, and let the wind cool thesweating black tangle that coarsely thatched his broad skull.

  "Hein!" he exclaimed, with a droll glance at Marc, "that's better than_that_!" And he made an expressive gesture as of setting a knife tohis scalp. To me this seemed much out of place and time; but Tamin wasever privileged in the eyes of a de Mer, so I grumbled not. As forMarc, that phantom of a smile, which I had already learned to watchfor, just touched his lips, as he remarked calmly:

  "Vraiment, much better. That, as you call it, my Tamin, came so nearto-night that my scalp needs no cooling since!"

  "But whither steering?" I inquired; for the boat was speedingsouth-eastward, straight toward Grand Pre.

  Tamin's face told plainly that he had his reasons, and I doubted notthat they were good. For some moments that wide, grave mouth openednot to make reply, while the little, twinkling, contradictory eyes werefixed intently on some far-off landmark, to me invisible. This pointbeing made apparently to his satisfaction, he relaxed and explained.

  "You see, M'sieu," said he, "we must get under the loom o' the shore,so's we'll be out of sight when the canoes come round the point. Ifthey see a sail, at this time o' night, they'll suspicion the wholething and be after us. Better let 'em amuse themselves for a spellhunting for the lad on dry land, so's we won't be rushed. Been enoughrush!"

  "Yes! Yes!" assented I, scanning eagerly the point behind us. AndMarc said:--

  "Very great is your sagacity, my Tamin. The Black Abbe fooled himselfwhen he forgot to take you into his reckoning!"

  At this speech the little wrinkles gathered thicker about Tamin's eyes.At length, deeming us to have gone far enough to catch the loom of theland, as it lay for one watching from the sand-spit, Tamin altered ourcourse, and we ran up the basin. Just then we marked two canoesrounding the point. They were plainly visible to us, and I made surewe should be seen at once; but a glance at Tamin's face reassured me.The Fisher understood, as few even among old woodsmen understand it,the lay of the shadow-belts on a wide water at night.

  Noiselessly we lowered our sail and lay drifting, solicitous to markwhat the savages might do. The sand-spit was by this so small thatfrom where we lay it was not to be discerned; but we observed theIndians run their canoes upon it, disembark, and stoop to examine thefootprints in the sand. In a moment or two they embarked again, andpaddled straight to the point.

  "Shrewd enough!" said Marc.

  "Yes," said I, "and now they'll track us straight to Tamin's creek, andunderstand that we've taken the boat. But they won't know whatdirection we've taken!"

  "No, M'sieu," muttered Tamin, "but no use loafing round here till theyfind out!"

  Which being undoubted wisdom of Tamin's, we again hoisted sail andcontinued our voyage.

  Having run some miles up the Basin, we altered our course and stoodstraight across for the northern shore. We now felt secure frompursuit, holding it highly improbable that the savages would guess ourpurpose and destination. As we sat contenting our eyes with the greatbellying of the sail, and the fine flurries of spray that ever andagain flashed up from our speeding prow, and the silver-blue creamingof our wake, Marc gave us a surprise. Thrusting his hand into thebosom of his shirt he drew out a packet and handed it to me.

  "Here, perhaps, are the proofs on which the gentle Abbe relied!" saidhe.

  Taking the packet mechanically, I stared at the lad in astonishment.But there was no information to be gathered from that inscrutablecountenance, so I presently recollected myself, and unfolded thepapers. There were two of them. The moon was partly clear at themoment, and I made out the first to be an order, written in English, onone Master Nathaniel Apthorp, merchant, of Boston, directing him to payMaster Marc de Mer, of Grand Pre in Nova Scotia, the sum of two hundredand fifty pounds. It was signed "Paul Mascarene, Gov^r of NovaScotia." The other paper was written in finer and more hastycharacters, and I could not decipher it in the uncertain light. Butthe signature was the same as that appended to the order on Mr. Apthorp.

  "I cannot decipher this one, in this bad light," said I; "but what doesit all mean, Marc? How comes the English Governor to be owing you twohundred and fifty pounds?"

  "Does he owe me two hundred and fifty pounds? That's surely news ofinterest!" said Marc.

  I looked at him, amazed.

  "Do you mean to say that you don't know what is in these papers?" Iinquired, handing them back.

  "How should I know that?" said Marc, with a calmness which was not alittle irritating. "They were placed in my pocket by the good Abbe;and since then my opportunities of reading have been but scant!"

  Tamin ejaculated a huge grunt of indignant comprehension; and I,beholding all at once the whole wicked device, threw up my hands andfell to whistling an idle air. It seemed to me a case for which curseswould seem but tame and pale.

  "This
other, then," said I, presently, "must be a letter that wouldseem to have been written to you by the Governor, and worded in such afashion as to compromise you plainly!"

  "'Tis altogether probable, Father," replied Marc, musingly, as hescanned the page. He was trying to prove his own eyesight better thanmine, but found the enterprise beyond him,--as I knew he would.

  "I can make out nothing of this other, save the signature," hecontinued. "We must even wait for daylight. And in the meanwhile Ithink you had better keep the packet, Father, for I feel my wits and myexperience something lacking in this snarl."

  I took the papers and hid them in a deep pocket which I wore within thebosom of my shirt.

  "The trap was well set, and deadly, lad," said I, highly pleased at hisconfidence in my wisdom to conduct the affair. "But trust me to springit. Whatever this other paper may contain, de Ramezay shall see themboth and understand the whole plot."

  "'Twill be hard to explain away," said Marc, doubtfully, "if it beforged with any fair degree of skill!"

  "Trust my credit with de Ramezay for that. It is something the BlackAbbe has not reckoned upon!" said I, with assurance, stuffing my pipecontentedly with the right Virginia leaf. Marc, being well tired withall that he had undergone that day, laid his head on the cuddy and waspresently sound asleep. In a low voice, not to disturb the slumberer,I talked with Tamin, and learned how he had chanced to come so pat uponme in my bonds. He had been on the way up to the Forge, coming not bythe trail, but straight through the forest, when he caught a view ofthe Indians, and took alarm at the stealth of their approach. He hadtracked them with a cunning beyond their own, and so achieved to outdothem with their own weapons.

  The moon now swam clear in the naked sky, the clouds lying far below.By the broad light I could see very well to read the letter. It wasbut brief, and ran thus:--

  _To my good Friend and trusted Helper Monsieur Marc de Mer_:--

  DEAR SIR,--As touching the affair which you have so prudently carriedthrough, and my gratitude for your so good help, permit the enclosedorder on Master Apthorp to speak for me. If I might hope that youwould find it in your heart and within your convenience to put me underyet weightier obligations, I would be so bold as to desire an exactaccount of the forces at Chignecto, and of the enterprize upon whichMonsieur de Ramezay is purposing to employ them.

  Believe me to be, my dear Sir, yours with high esteem and consideration,

  PAUL MASCARENE.

  With a wonder of indignation I read it through, and then again aloud toTamin, who cursed the author with such ingenious Acadian oaths as mademe presently smile.

  "It is right shrewdly devised," said I, "but the deviser knew little ofthe blunt English Governor, or never would he have made him write withsuch courtly circumlocutions. De Ramezay, very like, will have seencommunications of Mascarene's before now, and will scarce fail to notethe disagreement."

  "The fox has been known to file his tongue too smooth," said Tamin,sententiously.

  By this we were come over against the huge black front of Blomidon, butour course lay far outside the shadow of his frown, in the silvery runof the seas. The moon floated high over the great Cape, yellow asgold, and the bare sky was like an unruffled lake. Far behind usopened the mouth of the Piziquid stream, a bright gap in the dark butvague shore-line. On our right the waters unrolled without obstructiontill they mixed pallidly with the sky in the mouth of Cobequid Bay.Five miles ahead rose the lofty shore which formed the northern wall ofMinas Channel,--grim and forbidding enough by day; but now, in suchfashion did the moonlight fall along it, wearing a face of fairyland,and hinting of fountained palaces in its glens and high hollows. AfterI had filled my heart with the fairness and the wonder of it, I laydown upon a thwart and fell asleep.