One of the Indians had killed a deer, and they butchered it roughly, sticking chunks of meat on sticks and roasting it over the fire. They ate most of it half cooked and some of it raw. Hannah had cooked two pieces and brought one part of it to Sabrina, urging her to eat.
“I can’t.”
“You have to, Sabrina. The men will be after us.”
“They can’t follow these trails.”
“My father can, and Sequatchie will be with him. He can follow any trail. God’s going to get us out of all this.”
Sabrina took the tough meat and forced herself to chew and swallow it.
She lay huddled against Hannah, and finally the savages settled down. Fire Cloud came over and lay down beside Sabrina. He pulled at her for a while, and she knew that he intended to have her. But he was completely drunk now, and he finally fell back, his mouth open, and began to snore.
It was there in the darkness, in the vile embrace of a drunken savage, that Sabrina Fairfax felt the presence of God in a way she never had before. She had been weeping silently when suddenly a silence seemed to fall on her spirit. She could still hear the snores and mutterings of the Indians and the crackling of the fire, but that seemed far away. This silence was pregnant with meaning. It was not simply the absence of sound, but there was something—holy about it. Holy, that was the word. She could think of no other word that might describe it, and she suddenly remembered the many times her Christian friends had spoken of being “in the presence of the Lord.”
Those words had had no meaning to Sabrina. She had never had an experience like that, but now as she lay there, the silence seemed to wrap her in a mantle, as if someone had wrapped a blanket about her. The blanket was warm and comforting, and Sabrina knew that this was not a natural thing at all.
For a long time she simply lay there calmly, aware that all fear had left her. She was no longer afraid of what would happen to her body. She no longer held any fear of the Indians. Even the fear of death, which had been with her constantly, had ceased to exist for her.
She thought of what Hannah had said about the eternal God’s consciousness of all people at all times. And in her mind a simple prayer began to form, just a reaching out in thought into the silence that surrounded her. It was almost like a conversation, except she did not hear her own voice and she certainly did not hear an audible voice in response. Nevertheless, she knew she was speaking out of her heart to God as she never had before.
I don’t know you, God. I’ve heard other people talk about you as if you were real, and I’ve longed for that. But I haven’t been able to find you. I’ve been lost for such a long time, and I’ve envied those who could call you Father. I can’t call you that, but I do call out to you wherever you are and whoever you are. Right here I know you’re listening to me.
Sabrina lay quietly, and she remembered the text of the sermon on Christmas Day. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” The words echoed inside Sabrina’s heart. They reminded her as she went over them again and again of the sound of silver bells, and they were more beautiful than any words she had ever heard.
I need rest. I’m so tired, Lord, and I know that Jesus is the only answer. I ask you, Lord, to come and forgive me of my sins. I don’t deserve anything, but Sion says you are a God of mercy, so I ask you to have mercy right now. Forgive my sins in the name of Jesus.
Sabrina paused, and the silence seemed to swell. She still heard no sound, but there was a song in her heart. She did not know the words, and she did not know the tune, but nevertheless, it was there. And as the song went on, she was conscious of a great shock and surprise. There was no fear left, and she whispered, “Father, thank you for Jesus.”
Sabrina slept soundly that night. As the sun came up in the morning, she wondered if it had all been real and waited for the peace to leave and for the fear to return. It did not, and a great feeling of gladness came to her. She reached over and touched Hannah’s shoulder and pulled her closer. Hannah whispered, “What is it, Sabrina?”
“I called upon the Lord, and He’s done something to me. I’m not afraid, Hannah. I’m not afraid!”
Hannah immediately turned over and put her arm around Sabrina. She held her tightly and whispered fiercely, “No matter what happens to us now, you’re a handmaiden of the Lord, Sabrina!”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Pursuit
The men who had gathered around the cabin were all armed and wore grim faces. Sion silently struggled with the emotions that made a tumult within his heart. When he had returned to the cabin from a hunting trip with Fox and found signs of the raid and Sabrina missing, it had been Fox who had taken charge. He had commanded Sion to remain at the cabin in case the women returned and had ridden off to alert the Spencers and other neighbors. His last words had been, “Don’t give up, Sion. She’s not dead. My uncle can track a bird across the sky. We’ll get her back.”
Sion had listened with part of his mind, but something in him practically screamed to go charging out to look—to do something!
He had forced himself to remain calm as he examined the cabin for clues. He found no signs of blood. The cabin had been ransacked, as had his own lean-to. Many things had been destroyed, and other lighter things had been carried away. Fox had said the Indians were probably renegade Cherokee, but how he knew that Sion could not tell.
For what seemed like a long time he moved around the cabin touching things that belonged to Sabrina, his mind crying out and his spirit struggling with sinking into despair. He had heard all the tales of the cruelty of Indians to their captives. He had heard of some women carried away who had dropped off the earth, it seemed. Some of them had been saved years later but had practically forgotten their native tongue and had become toothless crones—not at all the women that had disappeared.
But Fox had come back with a small party. Hawk Spencer was there, of course, with Joshua, and Andrew McNeal and Seth Donovan had joined them. Sequatchie had been visiting with Hawk, and he had come along too.
Sion was relieved when he saw the men ride into the yard, and he heard Hawk call out, “Sequatchie, you find their tracks out of here before we mess them up.” Sequatchie covered the ground quickly. He went to the edge of the clearing, leaning over and moving back and forth like a dog on the scent. Joshua came over to say bitterly, “Hannah’s gone, too. She had come over to visit Sabrina.”
Hawk joined the two, saying, “I’ve got a man out raising more men. We’ll have a hundred militia here, but we can’t wait. We’ll leave now. Are you going, Sion?”
“Aye.” Sion’s voice was flat.
“Get your weapons, then. We’ll take any food we can. We won’t have time to stop and hunt.”
As the others prepared to leave, Hawk said, “They didn’t kill them outright, Sion. That’s good news. It means they want them as captives.”
“They’ll mistreat them, won’t they?”
“Maybe not if we move fast enough. They know we’ll be after them, so they’ll be going as fast as they can. The harder we push them, the better the chance they’ll be unharmed.”
“Then let’s go after them,” Sion said grimly.
Sion joined the party with Sequatchie in the lead. Hawk was right behind him, and the rest of them followed in single file. They traveled hard, stopping just long enough to get a drink with their cupped hands from a creek.
“It’s a good thing we’ve got Sequatchie here, Sion,” Josh said as the two trotted along. “He’s the best tracker among the Cherokees, which means he’s the best there is, I think.”
“I don’t mind telling you that I’m worried sick.”
“We have to put that aside. We can worry later. We’ve got some praying men here. You and me. Hawk, Sequatchie. All of us are praying men, as a matter of fact. I can’t think of a better group to have out on a job like this.”
Josh’s words encouraged Sion, and he turned his attention to the task at hand. He was happy to find that
he could keep pace with the rest of the men. He knew he could not have done this when he first arrived, but now he had become a woodsman himself, though not as skilled as many of the others in the party. They had been at it for a lifetime, while he’d only lived here for a few months. Still, he determined, I’ll die before I drop aside. If I need to, I’ll run until my legs are run off at the knees.
Sion’s thoughts were interrupted when suddenly Sequatchie held up his hand and uttered a cry as he slid off his horse.
“Something’s up,” Josh said.
Sion moved forward with the rest of the men with fear in his heart. What he feared most was to find the body of one of the women. Sequatchie had indeed come upon a dead body, but it was clearly the body of a man with a horrifying wound to the back of his head. Sequatchie rolled the man over so they could see his face.
“It’s Jack Fry!” Sion said aloud.
“Yes. He got a hatchet in his head,” Sequatchie added.
“I don’t think it was an accident,” Sion said.
The men turned to look at him. “What do you mean by that?” Hawk asked.
“I think he was behind this raid. Everyone knows he worked for Caleb Files.”
“You may be right. Caleb’s a shrewd man. He wouldn’t be connected with it, but he’d send Fry to do his dirty work.”
“Well, he didn’t get it done,” Fox said, staring down at the body. “Something went wrong. I wonder what?”
“We don’t have time to wonder about it. Dig a hole and dump him in it. We’ll bury him.”
“He doesn’t deserve it,” Josh said, “but I guess we can do that much for him.”
The men made quick work of digging a shallow grave. They put Jack Fry’s body in it, and Seth Donovan said a quick prayer for him. Then Fox said, “Let’s go. We’ve lost time.”
****
As darkness fell, Sequatchie finally called them to a halt, saying, “We can’t go on. I can’t read the signs.”
“Can’t we just continue on?” Sion asked, dreading the thought of stopping.
“If we missed them, it would be all over,” Hawk said. “We’ll rest, and we’ll move on at first light.”
Joshua started a fire, and they worked together to cook some of the venison they had brought along.
Fox sat down beside Sion and was quiet for a time. Finally Fox said, “I can’t eat, Sion. I know Christians aren’t supposed to worry, but I am worried.”
“So am I. I don’t see how anybody keeps from it. I’ve got faith, but still I keep thinking about Sabrina and Hannah in the hands of those savages.”
Fox stared down at his hands and said, “I didn’t know how much love I had for Hannah until I had to face up to losing her.”
Sion did not answer, and Fox asked, “You think that’s wrong, Sion, that a man can love a woman too much?”
Sion turned with surprise. “I don’t know. I never thought of it like that. I know God has to come first, but after God a man should love his wife with all of his heart.”
“Even more than children, do you think?”
“I think so. More than anything. It’s hard to divide love like that.”
Fox was quiet, and the two men listened as Hawk and Sequatchie spoke of their plans for the next day from across the fire.
After a time Sion said, “I found out something about myself.”
“What’s that?”
“I love Sabrina.”
“You never told her that?”
“How could I do that, Fox? I’m her servant. She’s a woman of property.”
“That wouldn’t matter if she cared for you.”
“I think you’re right.” Sion dropped his head down on his arms, which were folded across his knees. “I wish I had told her,” he whispered.
“You’ll have a chance,” Fox said. “Let’s pray again. I’ve been praying in my heart all the time, but I need to hear a pray-er’s voice.”
Fox prayed a short but fervent prayer, and then Sion prayed also. He had difficulty finding the words he wanted to say, but he cried out to God hoarsely, “Lord, I ask you to preserve their lives, keep them safe, lead us to them.”
Others in the party became aware of what the two men were doing and soon all of the men were praying.
Finally, when the prayers died down, Hawk turned to his friend and said, “Sequatchie, I’ve never seen anything like that.”
“These are praying men. Men of God. God’s going to honor our prayers, friend.”
****
They rose before dawn, ate a cold breakfast of meat left over from the night before, drank deeply from the stream, and then followed Sequatchie as he led them out again.
They traveled hard, and once Seth Donovan dropped back to say to Sion, “They’re trying to lose our trail. Have you noticed how they’ve led us through creek beds?”
“Yes. They’re clever.”
“Not as clever as Sequatchie.”
Sion found he put great faith in Sequatchie. The old Indian said little, and he looked like he was tired, but he sniffed out the trail as a hound would sniff out a deer or any other animal he was pursuing. Each time the trail disappeared into a creek, he made the whole party stop, and he traveled both sides of the creek until he figured out where they had come out.
“I don’t see how he does it,” Sion said in despair.
“It’s something that’s born in a man. You can learn a little tracking,” Hawk answered as he joined the conversation, “but the good ones have a gift.”
It was late afternoon that day when Sequatchie suddenly brought the party to a halt. They all hurried forward, and Sequatchie shook his head. “They have split up. Some went this way and some that.”
“Can you tell which party the women are with?”
“No, the trail’s too faint.”
“We’ll have to divide up. We can’t take any chances on missing the right party,” Hawk said. There was no uncertainty in his voice, and he looked over the group and said, “Andrew, you and Seth go with me. Fox, you, Sion, and Joshua go with Sequatchie. Just remember that we’ll be outnumbered. I make out there’s at least ten of them.”
Sion knew it had to be done. He had counted on a full party to battle against the Indians, but now there was no hope of that.
Fox must have read his thoughts. “Don’t worry,” he said. “We’ll find them, and we’ll come on them by surprise.”
The two groups went their separate ways, with Hawk leading his party.
Sequatchie looked at the faces of the men in his party. “Fox, you must help me track. I’m getting tired.”
Fox immediately joined Sequatchie. The party moved forward, and when they crossed the stream it was Fox who ran quickly to his left. He returned after half an hour and went the other way. This time he was back in ten minutes. “They came out down this way.”
They pressed the trail all day and finally, not long before sunset, Sequatchie called the men together. “Look.”
The men gathered around to look at the definite footprint in the sandy soil.
“You see how fresh it is?” said Sequatchie, who could read a trail as a scholar could read a book. “You see the edges are not crumbled in yet. They’re not more than an hour ahead. Maybe even less.”
“What’ll we do?” Sion asked.
“Someone must go locate them, and then we must creep in after darkness. We can’t wait until dawn. We have to catch them by surprise. Their party is smaller than it was before, of course, but we don’t know how many. I think at least five.”
“Those aren’t long odds,” Josh said.
“I know. Fox, you must go,” said his uncle. “But remember, if they see you, it’s all up with us. You must go like the fox you were named after. Be as still as a mouse with your eyes like the eagle’s.”
“Yes, Uncle,” Fox said. He turned and disappeared at once, his eyes down on the ground.
“He is a good man,” Sequatchie said. “I’m very proud of Fox. Everyone check your weapons. Fox w
ill come back soon, and then we must creep in on them. Not everyone is as quiet as Fox, but this time we must be.”
———
“He’s coming,” Sequatchie said, and instantly the men all got to their feet. They had been tensely listening but had heard nothing until Sequatchie spoke.
Now Sion looked and saw nothing in the darkness, but finally he heard a voice say, “I’m here.” Fox’s dark form finally appeared only a few feet away. There was practically no moon overhead and only the light of a few stars broke the darkness.
“They’re about a half a mile from here.”
“How can we approach them, Nephew?” Sequatchie asked, and everyone noticed that Sequatchie had turned the command of the small force over to Fox.
“Most of them are drunk.”
“Did you see Sabrina and Hannah?”
“Yes. They’re there, and they’re safe. I heard them speak to each other.”
A rain of pure joy opened up in Sion. “Thank God!” he breathed.
“Yes,” Fox said. “Thank God, indeed. We cannot wait until morning.”
“How will we attack them, Nephew?”
“I listened to their conversation long enough to learn they have only one scout out. I think there are five of them at the camp. We will surprise the scout, and I will take him silently. As soon as he is dead, we’ll all rush in.”
Sequatchie said, “They may try to kill the women if we give them time, so we must be swift. Swifter than the striking snake.”
“Just get me close enough,” Sion said. “That’s all I ask.”
“Battle is a hard thing, but we must save our people,” Sequatchie said. “Fox, is it time?”
“It is time,” Fox said. “Stay close behind me.”
****
Fire Cloud had been angry. He had split his forces to divide and confuse his pursuers, but he still somehow knew that the enemy was closing in on him. Bitterly he wished he had kept his whole band together so they could ambush those who came. They would have had a much better chance. Now he saw the folly of letting his men have whiskey. They were so drunk they could barely stand and would have been completely unconscious if he had not finally taken the whiskey away from them. Now the whiskey was in his own bag, and a murderous anger was boiling over in him.
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