The Forge in the Forest
Page 6
Chapter V
In the Run of the Seas
It seemed as if I had but fairly got my eyes shut, when I was awakenedby a violent pitching of the boat. I sat up, grasping the gunwale, andsaw Marc just catching my knee to rouse me. The boat, heeling farover, and hauled close to the wind, was heading a little up the channeland straight for a narrow inlet which I knew to be the joint mouth oftwo small rivers.
"Where are you going? Why is our course changed?" I asked sharply,being nettled by a sudden notion that they had made some change of planwithout my counsel.
"Look yonder, Father!" said Marc, pointing.
I looked, and my heart shook with mingled wrath and apprehension.Behind us followed three canoes, urged on by sail and paddle.
"They outsail us?" I inquired.
"Ay, before the wind, they do, M'sieu!" said Tamin. "On this tack,maybe not. We'll soon see!"
"But what's this but a mere trap we are running our heads into?" Iurged.
"I fear there's nothing else but to quit the boat and make through thewoods, Father," explained Marc; "that is, if we're so fortunate as tokeep ahead till we reach land."
"In the woods, I suppose, we can outwit them or outfoot them," said I;"but those Micmacs are untiring on the trail."
"I know a good man with a good boat over by Shulie on the Fundy shore,"interposed Tamin. "And I know the way over the hills. We'll cheat therogue of a priest yet!" And he shrewdly measured the distance thatparted us from our pursuers.
"It galls me to be running from these dogs!" I growled.
"Our turn will come," said Marc, glowering darkly at the canoes. "Doyou guess the Black Abbe is with them?"
"Not he!" grunted Tamin.
"Things may happen this time," said I, "and the good father may wish tokeep his soutane clear of them. It's all plain enough to me now. TheIndians, finding themselves tricked, have gone back on the Pereau trailand most inopportunely have released the gentle Abbe from his bonds.He has seen through our game, and has sent his pack to look to it thatwe never get to de Ramezay. But _he_ will have no hand in it. Oh, no!"
"What's plain to me now," interrupted Tamin, with some anxiety in hisvoice, "is that they're gaining on us fast. They've put downleeboards; an' with leeboards down a Micmac canoe's hard to beat."
"Oh!" I exclaimed bitterly, "if we had but our muskets! Fool that Iwas, thus to think to save time and not go back for our weapons! Trustme, lad, it's the first time that Jean de Mer has had that particularkind of folly to repent of!"
"But there was nought else for it, Father," said Marc. "And if, asseems most possible, we come to close quarters presently, we are not sonaked as we might be. Here's your two pistols, my good whinger, andTamin's fishy dirk. And Tamin's gaff here will make a pretty lance.It is borne in upon me that some of the good Abbe's lambs will bleatfor their shepherd before this night's work be done!"
There was a steady light in his eyes that rejoiced me much, and hisvoice rose and fell as if fain to break into a war song; and I said tomyself, "The boy is a fighter, and the fire is in his blood, for allhis scholar's prating of peace!" Yet he straightway turned his backupon the enemy and with great indifference went to filling his pipe.
"Ay, an' there be a right good gun in the cuddy!" grunted Tamin, aftera second or two of silence.
"The saints be praised!" said I. And Marc's long arm reached in tocapture it. It was a huge weapon, and my heart beat high at sight ofit. Marc caressed it for an instant, then reluctantly passed it to me,with the powder-horn.
"I can shoot, a little, myself," said he, "but I would be presumptuousto boast when you were by, Father!"
"Ay, vraiment," said Tamin, sharply; "don't think you can shoot withthe Sieur de Briart yet!"
"I don't," replied Marc, simply, as he handed me out a pouch of bulletsand a pouch of slugs.
The pursuing canoes were by this come within fair range. There came astrident hail from the foremost:--
"Lay to, or we shoot!"
"Shoot, dogs!" I shouted, ramming home the good measure of powder whichI had poured into my hand. I followed it with a fair charge of slugs,and was wadding it loosely, when--
"Duck!" cries Tamin, bobbing his head lower than the tiller.
Neither Marc nor I moved a hair. But we gazed at the canoes. On theinstant two red flames blazed out, with a redoubled bang; and onebullet went through the sail a little above my head.
"Not bad!" said Marc, glancing tranquilly at the bullet hole.
But for my own part, I was angry. To be fired upon thus, at a priest'sorders, by a pack of scurvy savages in the pay of our own party,--neverbefore had Jean de Briart been put to such indignity. I kneeled, andtook a very cautious aim,--not, however, at the savages, but at the bowof the nearest canoe.
Tamin's big gun clapped like a cannon, and kicked my shoulder veryvilely. But the result of the shot was all that we could desire. As Imade haste to load again I noticed that the savage in the bow hadfallen backward in his place, hit by a stray slug. The bulk of thecharge, however, had torn a great hole in the bark, close to thewater-line.
Tamin's big gun clapped like a cannon, and kicked myshoulder very vilely.]
"You've done it, Father!" said Marc, in a tone of quiet exultation.
"Hein!" grunted Tamin. "They don't like the wet!"
The canoe was going down by the bow. The other two craft rangedhurriedly alongside, and took in the gesticulating crew,--all but one,whom they left in the stern to paddle the damaged canoe to land, beingloth to lose a serviceable craft. With broken bow high in air thecanoe spun around, and sped off up the Basin before the wind. Theremaining two resumed the chase of us. We had gained a great spaceduring the confusion, yet they came up upon us fast.
But now, ere I judged them to be within gunshot, they slackened speed.
"They think better of it!" said I, raising the gun again to myshoulder. As I did so they sheered off in haste to a safer distance.
"They are not such fools as I had hoped!" said Marc.
"I so far flatter myself as to think," said I, with some complacency,"that they won't trust themselves willingly again within range of thisgood barker."
By this we were come well within the wide mouth of the estuary, and asteep, wooded point thrust out upon our right. All at once I muttereda curse upon my dulness.
"What fools we are, to be sure!" I cried. "No reason that we shouldtoil across the mountains to your good man's good boat at Shulie, myTamin. Put her about, and we'll sail in comfort around to Chignecto;and let these fellows come in range again at their peril!"
"To be sure, indeed!" grunted Tamin; and with a lurch and greatflapping we went about.
The canoes, indeed, now fled before us with excellent discretion. Ournew course carried us under the gloom of the promontory, whence, in afew minutes, we shot out again into the moonlight. It was pleasant tosee our antagonists making such courteous haste to give us room. Icould not forbear to chuckle over it, and wished mightily that theBlack Abbe were in one of the canoes.
"I fear me there's to be no work for Tamin's fishy dirk or my goodwhinger," sighed Marc, with a nice air of melancholy; and Tamin, withthe little wrinkles thicker than ever about his eyes, yelled drolltaunts after our late pursuers. In fact, we were all three in immensehigh feather,--when on a sudden there came a crashing bump that tumbledus headlong, the mast went overboard, and there we were stuck fast upona sharp rock. The boat was crushed in like an egg-shell, and lay overon her side. The short, chopping seas huddled upon us in a smother.As I rose up, sputtering, I took note of Tamin's woollen cap washingaway debonairly, snatched off, belike, by a taut rope as the mast fell.Then, clinging all three to the topmost gunwale, the waves jumping andsousing us derisively, we stared at each other in speechless dismay.But a chorus of triumphant screeches from the canoes, as they noted ourmishap and made to turn, brought us to our senses.
"Nothing for it but to swim!" said I, thrusting down the now uselessmusket into
the cuddy, where I hoped it might stay in case the wreckedboat should drift ashore. It was drenched, of course, and somethingtoo heavy to swim with. I emptied the slugs from my pocket. Taminducked his head under water and fumbled in the cuddy till I was on thepoint of plucking him forth, fearing he would drown,--Marc, meanwhile,looking on tranquilly and silently, with that fleeting remembrance of asmile. But now Tamin arose, gasping, with a small sack and a saltedhake in his hands. The fish he passed over to me.
"Bread, M'sieu!" said he, holding up the drenched sack in triumph."Now for the woods!"
'Twas but the toss of a biscuit to shore, and we had gained it ere ourenemies were come within gunshot. Running swiftly along the strip ofbeach that skirted the steep, we put the shoulder of the cape between,and were safe from observation for a few minutes.
"To the woods, M'sieu!" cried Tamin, in a suppressed voice.
"No!" said I, sternly. "Straight along the beach, till I give the wordto turn in! Follow me!"
"'Tis the one chance, to get out of sight now!" grumbled Tamin, runningbeside me, and clutching at his wet sack of bread.
"Don't you suppose he knows what he is doing, my Tamin?" interruptedMarc. "'Tis for you and me to obey orders!"
Tamin growled, but said no more.
"Now in with you to cover," I commanded, waving my salt fish as it hadbeen a marshal's baton. At the same moment I turned, ran up the wetslope where a spring bubbled out of the wood's edge and spread itselfover the stones, and sprang behind a thick screen of viburnums. Mycompanions were beside me on the instant,--but it was not an instanttoo soon. As we paused to look back, there were the canoes comingfuriously around the point.
Staying not long to observe them, I led the way straight into thedarkness of the woods, aiming for the seashore at the other side of thepoint. But Tamin was not satisfied.
"Our road lies straight up yon river," said he.
"My friend," said I, "we must e'en find another road to Shulie. Thosefellows will be sure to agree that we have gone that way. Knowing thatI am a cunning woodsman, they will say, 'He will make them to run inthe water, and so leave no trail.' And they will give hot chase up theriver."
"But there be two rivers," objected Tamin.
"Bien," said I, "they will divide their party, and give hot chase uptwo rivers!"
"And in the meanwhile?" inquired Marc.
"I'll find the way to Shulie," said I. "The stars and the sun areguide enough! I know the main lay of all these coasts."