Indianapolis Times, Volume 35, Number 286, Indianapolis, Marion County, 10 April 1923 — Page 8

8

Alice of Old Vincennes By Maurice Thompson COPYRIGHT. 100 8, BY ALICE LEE THOMPSON

IT was soon discovered that Alice had escaped from the stockade, and some show of search was made for her by Hamilton’s order, but Farnsworth looked to it that the order was not carried out. He thought he saw at once that his chief knew where she was. The mystery perplexed and pained the young man. and caused him to fear all sorts of evil: but there was a chance that Alice had found a safe retreat and he knew that nothing but ill could befall her if she were discovered and brought back to the fort. Therefore his search for her became \hls own secret and for his own heart’s ease. And doubtless he would have found her: for even handicapped and distorted love like his is lynx-eyed and sure on the track of its object; but a great event intervened and swept away his opportunity. Hamilton’s uneasiness, which was that of a strong, misguided nature trying to Justify itself amid a confusion of unmanageable doubts and misgivings. now vented Itself in a resumption of the repairs he had been making at certain points in the fort. These he completed Just in time for the coming of Clark.

CHAPTER XIX IT has already been mentioned that Indians, arriving singly or in squads, to report at Hamilton’s headquarters, were in the habit of firing their guns before entering the town or the fort, not only as a signal of their approach, but in order to rid their weapons of their charges preliminary to cleaning them before setting out upon another scalp-hunt-ing expedition. A shot, therefore, or ■wen a volley, heard on the outskirts of the village, was not a noticeable incident in the daily and nightly experience of the garrison. Still, for some reason. Governor Hamilton started violently when, just after nightfall, five or six rifles cracked sharply a short distance from the stockade. He and Helm with two other offi- . ccrs were in the midst of a game of cards, while a kettle, swinging on a crane in the ample fire-place, sang a shrill promise of hot apple-jack toddy. “By jove!” exclaimed Farnsworth, who, although not in the game, was amusing himself with looking on; "you jump like a fine lady! I almost fancied I heard a bullet hit you.” "Tou may all jump while you can,” j remarked Helm. “That’s Clark, and 1 your time’s short. He’ll have this fort tumbling on your heads before i daylighte of tomorrow morning comes.” As he spoke he arose from his seat at the card table and went to look after the toddy, which, as an expert, he had under supervision. Hamilton frowned. The mention of Clark was disturbing. Ever since the strange disappearance of Lieutenant Barlow he had nursed the fear that possibly Clark’s scouts had captured him and that the American forces might be much nearer than Ivaskaskia. Besides, his nerves were unruly, as they had been ever since the encbunter with Father Beret: and his vision persisted In turning bark upon the accusing cold face of Alice, lying in the moonlight. One little detail of that scene almost maddened him at times; It was a sheeny, crinkled wisp of vyarm looking hair looped across the cheek In which he had often seen a saucy dimple dance when Alice spoke or smiled. He was bad enough, but not wholly bad, and the thought of having darkened those merry eyes and stilled those sweet dimples tore through him with a cold, rasping pang. “Just as soon as this toddy is properly mixed and tempered,” said Helm, with a magnetic jocosity beaming from his genial face, “I’m going to propose a toast to the banner of Alice Roussillon, which a whole garrison of British braves has been unable to taker "If you do I’ll blow a hole through you as big as the south door of hell,” said Hamilton. In a voice fairly shaken to a husky quaver with rage. “Tou may do a great many insulting things; but not that.” Helm was In a half stooping attitude with a ladle in one hand, a cup in the other. He had met Hamilton’s glowering look \vlth a peculiarly innocent smile, as If to say: “What in the world is the matter now? I never felt in a better humor in all my life. Can’t you take a joke, I wonder?" He

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did not speak, however, for a rattling volley of musket and rifle shots hit the top of the clay-daubed chimney, sending down into the toddy a shower of soot and dirt. In a wink every man was on his feet and staring. “Gentlemen,” said Helm, with an impressive oath, “that-is Clark's soldiers, and they will take your fort; but they ought not to have spoiled this apple, today:” “Oh, the devil'” said Hamilton, forcibly resuming a calm countenance, “Tt is only a squad of drunken Indians coming in. We’ll forego excitement; there's no battle on hand, gentlemen.” “I’m glad you think so. Governor Hamilton,” Helm responded, “but I should imagine that I ought to know the crack of a Kentucky rifle. I’ve heard one occasionally in my life. Besides, I got a whiff of freedom just now.” “Captain Helm is right,” observed Farnsworth. “That is an attack.” Another volley, this time nearer and more concentrated, convinced Hamilton that he was. Indeed, at tho opening of a fight. Even while he was giving some hurried orders to Ills officers, a man was wounded at one of the port-holes. Then came a series of yells, answered by a ripple of sympathetic Freqch shouting that ran throughout the town. The patrol guards came straggling in. breathless with excitement. They swore to having seen a thousand men marching across the water-covered meadows. Hamilton was brave. The approach of danger stirred him like a trumpetetraln. His fighting blood rose to full tide, and he gave his orders with the steadiness and commanding force of a born soldier. The officers hastened to their respective positions. On all sides sounds indicative of rapid preparations for the fight mingled Into a confused strain of military energy. Men marched to their places; cannon were wheeled Into position, and soon enough the firing begun In good earnest.

Late in the afternoon a rumor of Clark’s approach had gone abroad through the village; but not a French lip breathed it to a friend of the British. The creoles were loyal to the cause of freedom; moreover, they cordially hated Hamilton, and their hearts beat high at the prospect of a change in masters at the fort. Every cabin had Its hidden gun and supply of ammunition, despite the order to disarm Issued by Hamilton. There was a hustling to bring these forth, which iras accompanied with a guarded yet Irrepressible chattering, delightfully French and infinitely volatile. “Tiens! je vats frotter mon fusil. ,T ai vu un singe!” said Jaques Bourcier to his daughter, the pretty Adrienne, who was coming out of the room In which Alice lay. “I saw a monkey Just now; I must rub up my gun!” He could not be solemn; not he. The thought of an opportunity to get even with Hamilton was like wine In his blood. If you had seen those hardy and sinewy Frenchmen gilding In the dusk of evening from cottage to cottage, passing the word that the Americans had arrived, saying airy things and pinching one another as they met and i urrled on, you would have thought something very amusing and wholly jocund was In preparation for the people of Vincennes. There was a current belief in the town that Gaspard Roussillon never missed a good thing and always somehow got the lion’s share. He went out with the ebb to return on the food. Nobody was surprised, therefore. when he suddenly appeared in the midst of his friends, armed to the teeth and emotionally warlike to suit the occasion. Os course he took charge of everybody and everything. You could have heard him whisper a bowshot away. “Talsons!” he hissed, whenever he met an acquaintance. “We will surprise the fort and scalp the whole garrison. Aux armes! les Americains viennent d'ar-river!” At his own house he knocked and called in vain. He shook the door violently; for he was thinking of the stores under the floor, of the grimy bottles, of the fragrant Bordeaux—ah, his throat, how it throbbed! But where was Madame Roussillon? Where was Alice? “Jean! Jean!” he cried, forgertting all precaution, "come here, you scamp, and let me in this minute!"

A profoundly impressive silence gave him to understand that his home was deserted. “Chiff! frightened and gone to stay with Madame Godere, I suppose—and I so thirsty! Hah! hum, hum, apres 1 evin la bataille, ziff!” Ke kicked in the door and groped his way to the liquors. While he hastily swigged and smacked, he heard the firing begin with a crackling, desultory volley. He laughed jovially, there in the dark, between draughts and deep swigs of enjoyment. “Et moi aussi," he murmured, like the vast murmur of the sea. “I want to be l/i that dance! Pardonnez, messieurs. Mol, je veux danser, s’ll vous plait.” And when he had filled himself he plunged out and rushed away, wrought up to the extreme fighting pitch of temper. Diable! if he could but come across that Lieutenant Barlow, how he would smash him and mangle him! In magnifying his prowess wl'h the lens of imagination he swelled and puffed as he lumbered along. The firing sounded as if it w'ere between the fort and the river; but presently when one of Hamilton’s cannon spoke, M. Roussillon saw the yellow spike Ht flame from its muzzle leap directly toward the church, and Jie thought it best to make a wide detour to avoid going between the firing lines. Once or twice he heard the whine of a stray bullet high overhead. Before he had gone very far he met a man hurrying toward the fort. It was Captain Francis Maisonville. one of Hamilton’s chief scouts, who had been out on a reconnolssance and, cut off from his party by some of Clark’s forces, was trying to make his way to the piain gate of the stockade. M. Roussillon knew Maisonville as i somewhat desperate character, a leader of Indian forays and a trader n human scalps. Sm-ely the fellow was legitimate prey. “Ziff! diable de gredin!” he snarled, and leaping upon him choked him to the ground. “Je vais vous scalper immelatement!" Oark’s plan of approach showed

DOINGS OF THE DUFFS—

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OUT OUR WAY—By WILLIAMS

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THEM DAYS IS GOAF EoKEYEIG-

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masterly strategy. Lieutenant Bailey, with fourteen regulars, made a show of attack on the east, while Major Bowman led a company through the town, on a line near where Alain St. in Vincennes is now located, to a point north of the stockade. Charleville, a brave creole, who was at the he.ad of some daring fellows, by a brilliant dash got position under cover of a natural terrace at the edge of the prairie, opposite the fort’s southwestern angle. Lieutenant Beverley,

THE OLD HOME TOWN—By STANLEY

in whom the commander placed highest confidence, was sent to look for a supply of ammunition, and to gather up all the Frenchmen In the town who wished to join In the attack. Oncle Jazon and ten other available men went with him. They all made a great noise when they felt that the place was completely invested. Nor can we deny, much as we would like to, the strong desire for vengeance whioh raised those shouting volaes and nerved those

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steady hearts to do or die In an undertaking which certainly had a desperate look. Patriotism of the purest strain those men had, and that alone would have borne them up; but the recollection of smouldering cabin homes in Kentucky, of women and children murdered and scalped, of men brave and true burned at the stake, and of all the indescribable outrages of Indian warfare incited and rewarded by the commander of the fort yonder, added to patriotism the

Breaking It Gently

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terrible urge of that dark passion w-hlch clamors for blood to quench the fire of wrath. Not a few of those wet, half-frozen, emaciated soldiers of freedom had experienced the soul rending shock of returning from a day’s hunting in the forest to find home in ashes and loved ones brutally murdered and scalped, or dragged away to unspeakable outrage under circumstances too harrowing for description, the bare thought of which turns our blood cold, even at this di&tance. Now

FRECKLES AND HIS FRIENDS—By BLOSSER

OUR BOARDING HOUSE—By AHERN

the opportunity had arrived for a stroke of retaliation. The thought was tremendously stimulating. Beverley, with the aid of Oncle Jazon, was able to lead his little company as far as the church before the enemy saw him. Here a volley from the nearest angle of the stockade had to be answered, anci pretty soon a cannon began to play upon the position. “We kin do better aom’ers else,” was Oncle Jazon’s laconic remark

TUESDAY, APRIL ID, 1923

♦—By ALLMAN

—By AL POSEN

flung hack over his shoulder, as be moved briskly away from the spot just swept by a six-pounder. "Come thflh yer way. Lieutenant. I hyer some the fellers a talkin' loud jes' beyant Legrace's place. They ain’t no sort o' sense a tryin’ to hit anything a shootin’ In the dark nohow.” (To Be Continued.) Japanese policemen are rinding It necessary to shut down dance halls In Tokyo and Yokohama.