The Little Red Foot Read online

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  THE LITTLE RED FOOT

  BY ROBERT W. CHAMBERS

  AUTHOR OF "THE SLAYER OF SOULS," "THE COMMON LAW," "IN SECRET,""LORRAINE," ETC.

  NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

  COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY ROBERT W. CHAMBERS

  COPYRIGHT, 1920, 1921. BY THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE COMPANY

  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

  TO MY SON ROBERT H. CHAMBERS

  CONTENTS

  I SIR WILLIAM PASSES 11

  II TWO PEERS SANS PEERAGE 13

  III THE POT BOILS 23

  IV TWO COUNTRY MICE 32

  V A SUPPER 40

  VI RUSTIC GALLANTRY 51

  VII BEFORE THE STORM 60

  VIII SHEEP AND GOATS 68

  IX STOLE AWAY 81

  X A NIGHT MARCH 86

  XI SUMMER HOUSE POINT 94

  XII THE SHAPE IN WHITE 102

  XIII THE DROWNED LANDS 113

  XIV THE LITTLE RED FOOT 124

  XV WEST RIVER 132

  XVI A TROUBLED MIND 141

  XVII DEEPER TROUBLE 151

  XVIII FIRELIGHT 169

  XIX OUT OF THE NORTH 177

  XX IN SHADOW-LAND 189

  XXI THE DEMON 197

  XXII HAG-RIDDEN 207

  XXIII WINTER AND SPRING 220

  XXIV GREEN-COATS 235

  XXV BURKE'S TAVERN 253

  XXVI ORDERS 267

  XXVII FIRE-FLIES 283

  XXVIII OYANEH! 292

  XXIX THE WOOD OF BRAKABEEN 309

  XXX A LONG GOOD-BYE 322

  XXXI "IN THE VALLEY" 333

  AFTERMATH 350

  THE LITTLE RED FOOT

  CHAPTER I

  SIR WILLIAM PASSES

  The day Sir William died there died the greatest American of his day.Because, on that mid-summer evening, His Excellency was still only aVirginia gentleman not yet famous, and best known because of courage andsagacity displayed in that bloody business of Braddock.

  Indeed, all Americans then living, and who since have become famous,were little celebrated, excepting locally, on the day Sir WilliamJohnson died. Few were known outside a single province; scarcely oneamong them had been heard of abroad. But Sir William was a world figure;a great constructive genius; the greatest land-owner in North America; awise magistrate, a victorious soldier, a builder of cities amid awilderness; a redeemer of men.

  He was a Baronet of the British Realm; His Majesty's Superintendent ofIndian Affairs for all North America. He was the only living white manimplicitly trusted by the savages of this continent, because he neverbroke his word to them. He was, perhaps, the only representative ofroyal authority in the Western Hemisphere utterly believed in by thedishonest, tyrannical, and stupid pack of Royal Governors, Magistratesand lesser vermin that afflicted the colonies with the British plague.

  He was kind and great. All loved him. All mourned him. For he was a veryperfect gentleman who practiced truth and honour and mercy; anunassuming and respectable man who loved laughter and gaiety and plainpeople.

  He saw the conflict coming which must drench the land in blood and drywith fire the blackened cinders.

  Torn betwixt loyalty to his King whom he had so tirelessly served, andloyalty to his country which he so passionately loved, it has been saidthat, rather than choose between King and Colony, he died by his ownhand.

  But those who knew him best know otherwise. Sir William died of a brokenheart, in his great Hall at Johnstown, all alone.

  * * * * *

  His son, Sir John, killed a fine horse riding from Fort Johnson to theHall. And arrived too late and all of a lather in the starlight.

  And I have never ceased marvelling how such a man could have been theson of the great Sir William.

  At the Hall the numerous household was all in a turmoil; and, besidesSir William's immediate family, there were a thousand guests--a thousandIroquois Indians encamped around the Hall, with whom Sir William hadbeen holding fire-council.

  For he had determined to restrain his Mohawks, and to maintaintranquillity among all the fierce warriors of the Six Nations, and sopledge the entire Iroquois Confederacy to an absolute neutrality in theimminence of this war betwixt King and Colony, which now seemed to becoming so rapidly upon us that already its furnace breath was heatingrestless savages to a fever.

  All that hot June day, though physically ill and mentally unhappy,--andunder a vertical sun and with head uncovered,--Sir William had spoken tothe Iroquois with belts.

  The day's labour of that accursed council-fire ended at sunset; sachemand chief departed--tall spectres in the flaming west; there was a clashof steel at the guard-house as the guard presented arms; Mr. Duncansaluted the Confederacy with lifted claymore.

  Then an old man, bareheaded, alone, turned away from the coveredcouncil-fire; and an officer, seeing how feebly he moved, flung an armabout his shoulders.

  So Sir William came slowly to his great Hall, and slowly entered. Andlaid him down in his library on a sofa.

  And slowly died there while the sun was going down.

  Then the first star came out where, in the ashes of the June sunset, apale rose tint still lingered.

  But Sir William lay dead in his great Hall, all alone.