Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 January 1893 — The Master of Ballantrae [ARTICLE]

The Master of Ballantrae

CHAPTER Vlll— CoStiniteft. '“Lead a hand,” said he, “I am in a bad place. ” “1 don’t know about that,” said . Ballantrae, standing still. Dutton broke out into the most violent baths, inking a little lower as he did, so that the mud was nearly to his waist, and plucking a pistol from his belt, “Help me,” he cries, “or die and be damned to you!” "Nay,” says Ballantrae, “I did but jest. I tun coming.” And he set down his own packet and Dutton’s, which he was then carrying. “Do not venture near till we see if you are needed," said he to mo, and went forward alone to where the man was •boggyd, He was quiet now, though he still held the pistol, and the marks of terror in liis countenance were movi ug to behold. “look sharp." Dalian true was now close to him. “Keep still,''says he, and seemed to consider; and then “Reach out both you hunds.” Dutton laid down his pistol, and so water}' was, the top surface that it went clear Out of sight; With an oath he stooped to snatch it. and as he did so Ballantrae leaned forth and stabbed him betweeu the.shoulders. Up went his hands over his head, I know not whether with the pain or to ward himself, and the next moment he doubled forward in the mud. Ballantrae was already over the ankles but he plucked himself out and came back to me, where I stood with my knees smiting one another. “The devil take you, Francis!” says he. “1 believe you are a half-hearted fellow after all. 1 have only done justice on a pirate. And here we arc quite clear of the ‘Sarah.’ Who shall now sav we have dipped our hands in any irregularities?” I assured him he did me injustice; but my sense of. humanity was so. , much affected by the horridness of the fact that I could scarce find breath to answer with. “Come," said he, “you must be more resolved. The need for this fellow ceased when he had shown you where the path ran, and you can not deny I would have been daft to let slip so fair au opportunity.” I could not deny that lie was right in principle, nor yet could I refrain from shedding dears, of which I think no man of valor need have been ashamed, and it was not until I had a share of the rum that I was able to proceed I repeat I am far from ashamed of my generous emotion; mercy is honorable in the warrior, and yet I cannot altogether censure Ballantrae, whose step was really fortunate, as we struck the path without further misadventure, and the same night about sundown came to the edge of the morass. We were too weary to seek far; on some dry sands, still warm with the day’s sun and close under a wood of pines, we lay down and were instantly plunged in sleep. We awaked the next morning very early and began .with a sullen spirit a conversation that came near to blows. We were now cast on shore in the southern provinces, thousands of miles from any French setlement; a dreadful journey and a thousaud peri’s jay in front of us; and sure if there was ever a need for amity it was in such an hour. I must suppose that Ballantrae had suffered in iiis seusc of what was truly polite; indeed, and there -w-as-nothing-stratrge in the idea, after the s„a wolves we had consorted with so long; and as for myself, lie snubbed me off unhandsomely and any gentleman would have reseated his behavior. I told him inivhat light 1 regarded his conduct; he walked a little off; I followed to upbraid him, and at last he stopped me with his hand. “Frank," says lie, “you know what we swore, and yet there is ho oath invented would induce me to swallow such expressions il I did not regard you with sincere affection. It is impossible you should doubt me there; I have given you proofs. Dutton I hath to take because he knew the pass, and Grady because Dutton would not move without him, but what call was there tb carry you along? You are perpetual danger to me with your cursed Irish tongue. B} - rights you should now be in irons in the cruiser. And you quarrel with me like a bahy, for some trinkets ” I considered this one of the most unhandsome speeches ever made, and indeed to this day I can scarce recon cile it to my notion of a gentleman who was my friend. I retorted upon him with his Scotch accent., of which he had not so much as some, but enough to be v@ry barbarous and disgusting, as I told him plainly, and the affair would have gone to a great leugtk but for an alarming intervention. ! —:.~S CHAPTER IX. We had got some way off upon the saod. Tlfe place where we had slept, with the packages lying undone and the money scattered openly, was now between us and the pines, and it was • out of these the stranger must have ' come. There lie was. at least, a great hulking fellow of the country, with* a broad-ax on his shoulder, looking open mouth, now at the treasure; which was just at his feel, and now at our disputation, in which we had 1 gone far enough tb have weapons in i our . bands. Wo had no sootier ob | served him than he found his legs j and made off again among the pines, i This was no scene to pit our I minds at rest; a couple of t> me*'! men in on clothes found quarreling frfc'-

BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

over a treasure, not many miles frSBF where a pirate had' been captured—here to bring the whole country about our ears. . The quarrel was not even made up; it was blotted from, our minds; and we got our packets together in the twinkling of an eye and made off, running with the best will in the world. But the trouble was, we did not know in what direction, and must continually return upon our steps, Ballentraebad indeed collected what lie could from Dutton; but its hard to travel upon hearsay, and the estuary, which spreads into a vast, irregular harbor, turned us off upon every side with a new stretch of water, ~ ; We were near besido ourselves and already quite spent with running, -Btbetrcoming to the top of a dune, wc saw we were again cut off bv another ramification of the bay. • This was a creek, however, very different from those that had arrested us before: being set in rocks, and so precipitously deep that a small veesel was able to lie alongside, made fast with a hawser, and her crew had laid a plank to the shore. Here they had lighted a -fire and wew sitting at their meal. As for the vessel herself, she was one of those they build in the Bermudas. The love of gold and the great hatred that everybody has to pirates were motives of thernost influential, and would certainly raise the country in our pursuit. Besides, it was now plain we were on some sort of a straggling peninsula like the fingers of a hand: and the wrist, or passage to the mainland, which we should have taken at the first, was by this time not improbably secured. These considerations put us on a bolder counsel. For as long as we dared, looking every moment to hear sounds of the chase, we lay lay among some bushes ou. the top of the dune; arid having by this means secured a little breath and recomposed our appearance, we strolled down at last, with a great affectation of carelessness to the party by the fire. It was a trader arid his negroes, belonging to Albany in the province of New York, and now on the way home from the Indies with a cargo; his name I cannot recall. We were amazed to learn he had put in here from terror of the “Sarah;” for we had no thought, our exploits had been so notorious. As soon as the Albanian heard she had been taken the day , before, be jumped to his feet, gave us a cup of spirits for our good news, and sent his negroes to get sail on the Bermudan. On our side, we profited by the dram to become more confidential, and at last offered ourselves as passengers. He looked askance at our tarry clothes arid pistols, and replied civilly enough that he had scarce accommodation for himself; nor could either our prayers or our offers of money, in which we advanced pretty far, avail to shake him. 1 “1 see you think ill of us,” says Ballantrae. “but I will show you how well we think of you by telling you the truth. We are Jacobite fugii tm>s, and there is a price upon our heads." At this the Albanian was plainly moved a little. He asked us many questions as to Ihe'Scbtcli war, wfiTeßi" BallCntrae very patiently answ'ered. And then, with a wink, in a vulgar manner. ."I guess you and yrrar "Prince Charlie got more than j'ou cared aboutv’-said ho. "Bedad, and that we did." said I. “And my dear man, 1 wish you would set a new example and give us just that much.'' This I said in the Irish way, about which there is allowed to be something very engaging, It is a remarkable thing, rind a testimony to the love with which our Nation is regarded, that this address scarce ever fails in a handsome fellow. Ii can not tell how often I have seen a private soldier o cape the horse, or a beggar wheedle out a good alms by a touch ot the brogue. And indeed, as soon as the Albanian had laughed at mo I was pretty much at rest. Even then, however, he made many conditions and (for one thing) took away our arms before he suffered us aboard, which was the signal to cast off; so that in a motneaf after we were gliding down the bay with a good breeze and blessing the name of God for our deliverance. Almost in the mouth of the estuary we I passed the cruiser , and a little later j the poor “Sarah” with her prize crew, and these were both sights to j make us tremble. The Bermudan seemed a very safe place to be in, i and our bold stroke to have been J fortunately played, when wc wero thus reminded of ti e c:>s3 of our companions. For ah that, we Tiad i only exchanged traps jumping out j of the frying pail into the lire, run from the yard-arm to the block, aud escaped the open hostility of the man-of-war s o be at tbo mccy of the doubtful 'ait-i cf car Albanian merchant. From many circumstance*, it happened we vreße safer than we could nave dared to hope.* The town of Albany was at that rime much concerned in contraband trade across the desert with the Indians and the French. This, as it was highly illegal, relaxed their loyalty, and as it bp ought them in relation with the politest people oa- earth, divined even their sympathies, Iu shot t. they were like ad the 3 nimgl ira in the world, sp'es and agents!’ for ither ride. Our Albanian, besides wee a v ar.V hoses t man indeed,

and very greedy; and to crown our luclf, he conceived a great delight In our society. Before we had near reached the town of New York* we had come to a full agreement; that he should carry us as far as Albany upon his ship, and thence put us on a way to pass the boundaries and join the French. For all this we were to pay at a high rate: but beggars can not be choosers, nor dntlaws bargainers. We saiied, tben, up the Hudson River which, I protest, is a very fine stream, and put up at the King's Arms in Albany. The town was full of the militia of the province, breathing slaughter against the French, Governor Clinton was there himself, a very busy man, and. by what I could learn, very near distracted by the factiousness of his Assembly. The Indians on both sides were on the war path; we saw parties of them bring iu prisoners and (what was much worse)"scalps, both male and fema'e, for which they were paid at a fixed rate; and I assure you the sight was not encouraging. Altogether we could scarce have come at a period more unsuitable for our designs; our position-ia tbe*chief inn was dreadfully conspicuous; our Albanian fobbed us off with a thousand delays and seemed upon the point of a retreat from his engagements; nothing but peril appeared to environ the poor fugitives; and for some time we drowned our concern in a very irregular course of living. This too proved to be unfortunat eand it’s one of the remarks that fail to bo made upon our escape, how providentially our steps were conducted to the very end. What a humiliation to the dignity of man! My philosophy, the extraordinary genius of Ballantrae, our valor, iii which I grant that we were equalall these might have proved insufficient without the Divine Blessing on our efforts. And how it is, astne Church tells us, that the truths of religion are after all quite applicable even to daily affairs! At least it was in the course of our revelry that we made the acquaintance of a spirited youth by the name of Chew, Ho was one of the most daring of the Indian traders, very well acquainted with the the secret paths of the wilderness, needy, dissolute, and by a la-.t good fortune, in some disgrace with his family. Him we persuaded to come to our relief; he privately provided what was needful for our night; and orie day we slipped out of Albany, without a wprd to Aur former friend, and embarked, a little above, in a canoe. To the toils and perils of the journey, it would require a pen more elegant than mine to do full justice. The reader must conceive for himself the dreadful wilderness which we had now to tread; its thickets, swamps, preciptiousrocks,impetuous rivers, aud amazing water falls. Among these barbarous scenes, we must toil all day, now paddling, now carrying our canoe upon our shoulders; and at night we slept about a fire, surrounded by the howling of wolves and other savage animals. It was our design to mount the headwaters of the Hudson, to the neighborhood of Crown Point, where the French had a strong place in the woods, upon Lake Champlain. Hut to have done this directly were too perilous; and it was accordingly gone upon by such a labyrinth of rivers, lakes, and portages as makes, my head giddy to remember. These paths were in ordinary times entirely desertp but the country was now up, the tribes on the war path, the woods full of Indian scouts. Again and again we came upon these par- , ties, when wo least expected them: and one day, in particular, I shall never forgot; how, as dawn was coming in, we were suddenly surrounded by five or six of these painted devils, uttering a very dreary sort of cry and brandishing their hatchets. It passed off harmlessly indeed, as did the rest of our encounters; for Chew was well known and highly valued among the different tribes. Indeed he was a very gallant, respectable young man. But even with the advantage of his companionship, you must not think these meetings were without sensible peril. To prove friendship on our part, it was ■needful to draw ou our stock of rum—indeed, under whatever disguise, that is the true business of the Indian trader, to keep a traveling public house in the forest; and wlv n once the braves had got their bottle of scaura (as they called this beastly liqoun, it behooved us to set forth and paddle for our scalps. Once they were a little drunk, goodbye to any sense of decency; they had-but the one thought, to get more scaura; they might easily take it in ihelr heads to give us chase; and had we beer, overtaken, I had never written these memoirs. We were come to the most critical portion of our course, where wo might equally expect to fall into the hands of French or English, when a terrible calamity befell us. Chew was taken suddenly sick with symptoms like those of poison, and iu the course of a few hours expired in the bottom of the canoe. We thus lost at once our guide, our interpreter; our boatman and our passport, for he was all these iu one; and found ourselves reduced, at a blow, 1o the most desperate and Irremediablo distress. Chew, who took a great pride in his knowledge, had indeed lectured us on the geography;, and Ballantrae, I believe, would listen. But for my part I have ulwavs found such information highly tedious; and beyond the fact that we are now in the country of tho Adirondack Indians, and not so distant from our destination, could we but have found tie way, I was eutirely ignorant. The wisdom of mv course was soon the more apparent;

for with all his pains, Ballantrae was no further advanced than myself. JBe knew.we must continue to go up one stream; then, by way of postage, down another; and then up a third. But you are to consider, in a mountain country, how many streams come rolling in from every hafid. Aud how is a gentleman, who is a perfect stranger in that part of the world, to tell any one of them from any other? Nor was this our only trouble. We were great novices, besides, in handling a canoe; the portages were almost beyond pur strength, so that I have seen us sit' down in despair for half an hour at a time without one word; and the appearance. of a single Indi&n, since we hud now no moans of speaking to them, would have been in all probability the means of our destruction. There is altogether some excuse if Ballantrae showed something of a glooming disposition; his habit of imputing blame to others, quite as capable as himself, was less tolerable and his language it was not always easy to accept, indeed he had contracted on board the pirate ship a manner of address which was iu a high degree unusual between gentlemen; and now, when you mightaay he was in a fever, it increased upon him hugely. The third day of these wanderings, as we were carrying the cauoe upon a rocky portage, she fell aud was entirely bilged. The portage was between two lakes, both.prctty extfen-| sive; the track, such us it was.open ® od at both ends upon the water, aud on both hands was inclosed by the unbroken woods; and Resides of the lakes were quite impassable with bog; so that we beheld ourselves not only condemned to go without our boat and t||p greater part of our provisions. bilcto plunge*at once into impenetrable thickets aud to desert what little guidance we still had - the course of the river. Each stuck his pistols in his belt, shouldered an ax, made a pack of his treasure and as much food as he could stagger under, and deserting the rest of our possessions, even to our swords, which would have much embarrassed us among the woods, -we set forth on this deplorable adventure. The labors of Hercules, so finely described by Homer, were a trifle to what we now underwent. Some parts of the forest were perfectly dense down to the ground, so that we must cut our Say like,mites in a cheese. In some e bottom was full of deep swamp, and the whole wood entirely rotten. 1 have leaped on a great falleu log and sunk to the knees in touchwood; I have sought to stay myself, in falling, against what seemed to be a solid trunk, and the whole thing has whiffed away at my touch like a sheet of paper. Stumbling, falling, bogging to the knees, hewing our way, our eyes almost put out with twigs and branches, our clothes plucked from our bodies, we labored all day, and it is doubtful if we made two miles. What was worse, as we could rarely get a view of the country and were perpetually jostled from our oath by obstacles, it was impossible even to have a guess in what direction we were moving. A little before sundown,in an open place with a stream and set about, with barbarous mountains, Ballantrae threw down his pack. “I will go no farther,” and he, and bade me light the fire, dimming iny blood in terms not proper for a chairman. I told him to try to forget he had even been a pirate, aud to remember he had been a gentleman. “Are you mad?” he cried “Don’t cross me here!” And then, slinking his fist at the hill, “To think.” cries lie, “that I must leave my bones in this miserable wilderness! Would God I had died upon the scaffold like a gentleman!” This he said ranting like an actor, and theu sat biting his fingers and staring on the ground, a moSt unchristiau object. I took a certain horror of the man, for I thought a soldier and a gentleman should confront his end with more philosophy. I made him no reply, therefore, in words; and presently the evening fell so chill that I was glad, for my own sake, to kindle a fire. And yet God knows, iu such an open spot, and the country alive with savages, the act was little short of lunacy. Ballantrae seemed never to observe me; but at last, as I was about parchiug a little corn, lie looked lap. “Have you ever a brother?” said he. “By the blessing of heaven,’’said I, “not less than five.” “I have the one," said he, with a strange voice; and then presently, “He shall pay me for all •this," he added. And when I asked him what was his brother’s part in our distress “What!” he cried, “he sits in my place, he bears my name, he courts my wife; and I am here alone with a damned Irishman in this tooth chattering desert! Oh. I have been a common gull!” he cried. CHAPTER X. The explosion was in all ways so foreign to my friend’s nature, that I was daunted out of all my just susceptibility. Sure, ao offensive expression, however vivacious, appears a wonderful small affair in circumstances so extreme! But here there is a strange thing to be noted. He had only once before referred to the lady with whom he was contracted. That was when we came in view of the town of New York, when he had told me, if all had their rights, he was now in sight of his own property for Miss Graeme enjoved a large estate in the province. And this was a certainly a natural occasion; but now here she was named a second time; and what is surely fit to be bbseryed, in this very month, which was November, '47, and I believe upon that Very day, as we sat among these barbarous mountains,

his brother and Miss Graeme were married. Xam the least suoerstious of men, but the hand of Providence is here displayed b>o openly not to be remarked. The next 4ay and the next were passed in similar labors. Ballantrae often deciding on our course by the spinning of a coin; and once, when I expostulated on this childishness, he had an odd remark that I have never forgotten. “I know no better way,” said he. “to express my scorn of human reason.!’ I think it was the third day we found the body of a Christian, scalped and most abominably mangled and lying in a puddle of his blood, the birds of the desert screaming over him as thick as flies. I cannot describe how dreadfully this sight affected us, but it robbed me of all strength and all hope for this world. The same day and only a little after we were scrambling over a part of the forest that had been burned, when Ballantrae, who was a little ahead, ducked suddenly behind a fallen trunk. I joined him in this shelter, whence we could look abroad without being seen ourselves, aud in the bottom of the next vale beheld a large war party of the savages going djy across our fine. -There might be the value of a weak battalion present, all naked to the waist, blacked with grease aud suet and painted with white lead and vermilion, according to their beastly habits. They went one behind another like a string uif geese, and at a quickisb trot, so *tfaivt they took but. iittlo while to rattle by and disappear again among the woods. Yet I suppose we endured a greater agony of hesitation aud suspense in these few minutes than goes usuaUv to a man’s whole life. Whether they were French or English Indians, whether they desired scalps or prisoners, whether’ we should declare ourseives upon the chances or lie quiet and continue the heart breaking business of our journey; sure I think these were ques tions to have puzzled the brains of Aristotle himself. Ballantrae turned to me with his face alf wrinkled up and his teeth showing iu his mouth, like that I havo read of people starving; he said no word, but his whole appearance was a kind of a dreadful question. (to EE CONTIXCED.)