Feeling the necessity of communicating instantly with Elmsley on the subject, yet scarcely knowing how, without exposing Maria, to account to him for the manner in which he had received the singular warning, he sought his friend, who had now finally disposed of his men at their several posts, and told him that, without feeling himself at liberty to reveal to him the medium through which the suspicion had been awakened in his breast, he had every reason to believe that some treachery was intended at the council called by Headley, and that he had come to consult with him accordingly.

With infinite good taste and tact, Elmsley utterly abstained from making the slightest allusion to Mrs. Ronayne, not only because he had perceived that her husband did not seem to encourage any approach to a subject which gave him pain, but because he felt that the consolation of those words, on an occasion of such bereavement, was rather a mockery than a sympathy. Without, therefore, making the slightest allusion to the past, he answered gravely--

"If you have reason to apprehend this, Ronayne, we can take our precautions accordingly. As the whole object and intent of the council is to _seem_ to hold a consultation as to the course we ought to pursue in this emergency, whereas it is simply in fact to enable Headley, who is becoming stubborn and pompous as of old, to tell the chiefs that he intends at once to distribute the public stores among themselves and warriors, and then march with little more than the men can carry on their backs; as this only, I repeat, is his object in holding a council at all, I see no great reason why either you or I, who have already given our opinions on the matter, should attend it. We may do the 'state some service' by remaining within."

"Would it not be well," returned the Virginian thoughtfully, "to give Headley some hint of false dealing on the part of the Pottowatomies? not such as to lead him to believe that any direct intelligence has been received of that fact, but simply that some loose hints have been thrown out."

"My dear fellow," returned the lieutenant, with a faint smile, "do you think there is anything under the sun--scarcely even the tomahawk in his own brain--that could persuade Headley to mistrust his pet Pottowatomies? No, not even his long experience of the treachery of the race--not all his knowledge of the fickleness of their character--of the facility with which they turn over in a single day from the American to the British flag--would convince him."

"And yet," pursued Ronayne, musingly, "they know nothing of the war. What could be their motives, where their immediate interests will be rather r.e.t.a.r.ded than promoted by the maintenance of peaceful relations?"

"How do we know what pa.s.ses without the fort? They may have had their runners and news brought to them of the war before Winnebeg returned."

A sudden thought flashed across the brain of Ronayne. Could tidings of the event in any way be connected with the flight of his wife?

and had that, at the instigation of Wau-nan-gee, accelerated the moment of her departure? But Elmsley knew not what _he_ knew, and he offered no remark on the subject.

"It wants now an hour," resumed Lieutenant Elmsley, looking at his watch, "to the time named for the council which is to be held on the glacis immediately in front of the southern bastion, and, therefore, immediately under the flag. Join me here then, Ronayne, and I shall have made the necessary arrangements. All the responsibility I take upon myself, my friend, not only as your senior, but as one who is perfectly willing to take the lion's share of the anger that has been showered so plentifully upon both this day. Now I must hasten and regulate the '_imperium in imperio_'

for I am afraid that if, as you say, we trust alone to Headley's reading of Pottowatomie faith, we shall have rather a Flemish account of satisfaction to render to ourselves. Goodbye. In half an hour--not later."

Ronayne, having nothing in the meantime to do, sauntered towards his own apartments. When he entered his chamber, Catharine, the faithful servant of his wife, was leaning along the foot of the bed, her face buried in the covering and sobbing violently. The depth of her sorrow was anguish to him. He shuffled his feet along the floor to make her sensible of his presence. The girl heard him; she looked up--her face and eyes were so swollen with tears that she could scarcely see. She started to her feet, and raising her ap.r.o.n with both hands to her eyes, left the room sobbing even more violently than before.

"Poor girl--poor girl!" murmured Ronayne, while a tear forced itself into his own; "indeed I feel for your grief; but it will soon subside; you will soon be well, while I ---"

He threw himself, dressed as he was, even without removing his sword, upon, the bed--he took out Maria's hasty note--he read the words "Go not to the council" at least fifty times over. There was not the minutest particle of each letter of each word that he did not typify in his heart. Her delicate and expressive, yet faithless hand had traced the whole. It was enough. It was the last relic of herself.

CHAPTER XIV.

"I would have some conference with you that concerns you nearly."

--_Much Ado About Nothing._

When Ronayne rejoined his friend, all the preparations he intended making had been completed, and Mrs. Elmsley having despatched a servant to say that breakfast was waiting for them, the latter, after having stationed Corporal Collins at the gate to give early notice of the approach of the Indians, linked his arm in that of Ronayne, and conducted him to his rooms.

It was, of course, the first time the Virginian had seen Mrs.

Elmsley since the preceding evening, when, with Mrs. Headley, she had been a pained witness of the desolating grief she so deeply shared herself. The swollen eyelid and the pale cheek attested that little sleep had visited her eyes during the subsequent part of the night; and when she affectionately took the proffered hand of Ronayne, whose composedness she was greatly surprised and pleased to witness, there was a melancholy expression of sympathy in her glance that tried all the powers of self-possession of the latter.

How different was that breakfast table from what it had been on former occasions! How often, both before and after their marriage, had Ronayne and his wife partaken of the hospitable board, with hearts light as gratified love could render them, and exhilarated by the witty tallies of the amiable hostess, who, full of life and gaiety herself, sought ever to render her more sedate friend as exuberant in spirit as herself. How graceful the manner in which she recommended her exquisitely-made coffee, her deliciously-dried bear and venison hams, the luxuriously-flavored and slightly-smoked white fish from the Superior and the Sault; and with what art she allured the appet.i.te from one delicacy to another, until scarcely an article of food at her table was left untasted. And yet all this, not in a spirit of ostentatious display of her own apt.i.tude in these somewhat sensual enjoyments, but from a desire, by the exercise of those little niceties of attention which insensibly win upon the heart, to please, to gratify--to make sensible that she sought to please and to gratify--those whom both herself and her husband so deeply regarded.

The breakfast was now a hurried one. It had not been prepared with the usual care. The directing hand of the mistress seemed not to be visible--it was heavy as the hearts of those who now partook of it, and even the never failing claret, of which Elmsley compelled his friend to swallow several goblets, had lost more than half its power to exhilarate; for, oh! there was one of that once happy party gone for ever from their sight, and the solemn and restrained manner of each was sufficient evidence of the deep void her absence had created.

It was a relief to all when Corporal Collins hurriedly appeared at the door and announced that the greater portion of the warriors of the Pottowatomies, with Winnebeg at their head, were now advancing towards the glacis, where a large awning, open at the sides, had been erected soon after the morning's parade.

"Winnebeg at their head, did you say, Collins?"

"Yes, sir, Winnebeg, and with him--for I know them as well--Wau-ban-see, Black Partridge, To-pee nee-be, Kee-po-tah, and that tall, scowling chief that never looks friendly, Pee-to-tum.

They are all in their war dresses, and their young men as well."

"I am glad, at least, Winnebeg is with them," remarked Elmsley to his friend. "Whatever may be purposed by the others, neither he nor Black Partridge can have any knowledge of it. Has Serjeant Nixon had that three-pounder run up into the upper floor of the block-house, Collins?"

"They are at work at it now, sir. I expect it will be all ready by the time your honor gets there, Mr. Elmsley."

"You are on guard at the gate?"

"I have been where you posted me, sir."

"Good! Is Captain Headley gone out yet?"

"Not yet, your honor. I saw him, as I came along, go towards Doctor Von Voltenberg's rooms."

"We had better wait then, Ronayne, until he goes forth to a.s.semble the council; otherwise he may interfere and play the devil with us all, by countermanding my arrangements."

"And do you really mean to say that you would permit him to do so, Elmsley? I am sure I would not; for, if ever disobedience to orders could be justified it is on this occasion."

"I do not exactly say that I would, Ronayne; but it is just as well to avoid clashing if possible. I confess I am no particular advocate, where the thing can be avoided, of wilfully and deliberately thwarting the authority of a commanding officer. But once he is out of the fort I shall be in command."

Another non-commissioned officer entered. It was Weston, who, that morning, had been promoted to the dignity of lance corporal, and the commanding officer's immediate orderly.

"Lieutenant Elmsley, the captain desires me to say that he is waiting for you and Mr. Ronayne to accompany the doctor and himself to the council."

"Then," said the subaltern addressed, "you will give my compliments, Weston, to Captain Headley, and say to him that both Mr. Ronayne and myself decline attending that council--that we do not think it prudent to leave the fort without an officer, and that we conceive that having given our opinions on the matter for which the council is called, we can be of much more service here than there. Now mind, Weston, you will deliver this message respectfully, and in a manner befitting a soldier to his superior."

"Certainly, sir," replied the corporal, as he touched his, cap and withdrew.

"You will have a visit from himself next, Elmsley," remarked his wife. "But why refuse to attend the council? There is no enemy near us, and surely half an hour's absence on the glacis cannot much endanger the safety of the garrison, surrounded as we are by friendly Indians."

"Margaret, my love," said her husband, taking her hand affectionately, "we must trust nothing to chance. No one can tell what may not occur in the interim of our absence. Who, for instance, could have foretold yesterday morning that we should be as we are to-day!"

"True," said Ronayne, as he paced the room with sudden and bitter excitement; "who could have told yesterday that we should be as we are to-day? There is nothing certain in life--no, nothing--all is vanity."

This painful change of feeling and of manner, from the self-control so recently imposed upon himself, had not been without its cause.

The tenderness of his friends brought back to his memory the recollection of many an hour of happiness pa.s.sed in that room--when the same manifestations of affection had been exhibited in presence of the wife. But where was she now--where was his own share in that happiness which, for the first time, he almost half envied in his friend?

The door was again opened, and in walked not Captain Headley but Mr. McKenzie; his brow was overcast, and there was evidently deep care on his mind; but after tenderly embracing his daughter, he remarked to the officers, "I am glad you have come to the decision of not leaving the fort. I met Headley going out, and he is very angry. He has made me promise, however, to follow him in a few moments. I should have gone at once, but I could not resist the twofold temptation of pressing this dear girl to my heart, and telling you both how much I approve your prudence. For once you and Headley seem to have exchanged characters."

"No doubt," returned Elmsley, smiling, "that if we ever get to Fort Wayne, both Ronayne and myself will be hanged, drawn, and quartered by sentence of a court-martial, as a just punishment for our most glaring disobedience of orders here; but that will not be worse than being scalped here for obeying them; besides, there is this advantage attending the first--we shall have a little longer lease of life. But seriously, sir, there is now no time to lose. The moment you are out of the gates, I shall cause them to be fastened until the council is over. I have had cause for entertaining some little suspicion of your friends the Pottowatomies--nay," seeing that the trader looked surprised, "there is no time to enter into explanation now. Later, I will state to you."

"I have no doubt you have been correctly informed," replied Mr.

McKenzie, as, after throwing his arm around the waist of his daughter, he replaced his hat and prepared to depart. "Great as is the confidence I have in Winnebeg and the majority of the chiefs, I confess there has been a boldness--an almost insolence--perceptible in the behavior of many of the young men, seemingly urged on by Pee-to-tum, that I neither understand nor approve; but, as you say, there is no time to lose. G.o.d bless you, Margaret!"

When he had pa.s.sed the gates, to which he had been accompanied by his son-in-law and Ronayne, Serjeant Nixon, who, as previously instructed, stood near for the purpose, fastened the bars and turned the lock. What men could be spared for the purpose were divided between the two subalterns. The one took his post in the upper floor of the block-house nearest to and overlooking the glacis; the other ascending the south bastion, manned two of the guns--the burning matches of both being concealed.

Not less than four hundred warriors could have followed their leaders to this council. The chiefs had already a.s.sembled and taken their places under the awning, while a little above them sat Captain Headley, the Doctor, and Mr. McKenzie, when the great ma.s.s moved towards the glacis. All were habited in half war dress, if the term may be permitted, and a formidable number separated from the main body and drew near to the gate. This, much to their surprise, was in the very act of being closed as they appeared before it.

Much dissatisfaction was expressed in guttural sounds and exclamations, and one young Indian, more daring than the rest, struck his tomahawk deeply into the door. No notice was taken of this at first; but finding that the Indians persevered in their clamor and demand for admittance, Ronayne, who was in the block-house, ordered the three-pounder to be fired over their heads. This at once had the effect of dispersing and driving them towards the glacis, which they now tumultuously crowded, speaking loudly and angrily to the chiefs, who interrupted at the very opening of the council, yet not more surprised than the two officers were on hearing the gun, had started to their feet and turned their eyes towards the fort--the flashing light of the torches being now distinctly visible.

There being no repet.i.tion, however, of the report, Captain Headley, who had been questioned by the chiefs as to the cause, explained the discharge by attributing it to accident, or an intention on the part of Lieutenant Elmsley to compliment the opening of the council. But though he stated this, he did not himself believe that either was the reason, for he was well aware that no piece of ordnance had been in the block-house early that morning, and consequently, that it must have been placed there from some vague idea of danger connected with his officers' refusal to attend the council. He had observed, with some anxiety, the gathering of the Indians around the gate, and without being able to understand its exact character, entertained a vague impression that some danger was impending, yet by a strange contradiction, not at all uncommon, was more than ever annoyed with Elmsley for manifesting thus openly and markedly the distrust he entertained of their allies.