Hugh Pendexter

“ The scream and the explosion of the gun had been heard by some one outside, for now both the girl and the ranger heard the sound of heavy pounding on the roof of the underground chamber, and loose dirt began falling into the fire. With a bound the girl was under the blanket and swarming from the hole, shrilly calling:
“Help! Help! Who will help a woman!”
Stuffing the bits of paper inside his hunting-shirt, Putnam followed after her and gained the well just as strong hands lifted her over the edge. ”

“ In fact, inimitable hunters of men as they were, the Mohawks must have been so thoroughly startled that they could account for their failure only by ascribing it to the supernatural.
Putnam approached the clearing around the fort with all his cunning, hoping to glimpse the man in black although the sun still rode the horizon. So softly did he tread that he all but stepped on a fox dozing behind a log. Rabbits hopped across his path without taking fright. ”

“ Some one had a hiding-place beneath the rampart. Some one was risking a small fire, knowing the smoke could not be seen in the darkness.
Gingerly feeling his way, Putnam descended the other side of the rampart and began feeling about. It was several minutes before he discovered a hole. In the daylight it would have appeared to be an opening formed by timbers falling and piling up in a criss-cross jumble with the earth caving in over the mass. But as he passed his hand over the lip of the hole he noted it was worn smooth. ”

“ It's for General Winslow to say whether you're spy or rate as a ranger. You men take him to the fort. His wound is only a flesh wound. Very poor shooting. Whitten, you're to carry the paper. Report to General Winslow how it all happened and say I shall be in shortly if he cares to question me. By the way, cap'n, you speak good English. Better than I do.”
“I am a Frenchman. It is natural I should do things better than you, a beggarly provincial,” was the haughty rejoinder.
“I admire to see you going down with your colors flying,” said Putnam. ”

“ It had not resented the pursuit of the friendly Mohawks. It would scarcely be sportsmanlike to fire. The figure passed behind a tree, then reappeared, moving even more slowly. With a yell of “Halt!” Putnam raced after it, whereat it vanished.
Its deliberate retreat, its failure to seek concealment until he gave chase, reminded him of the mother bird fluttering from her nest and simulating a broken wing to decoy some intruder away from her young. Instead of keeping up the pursuit Putnam stole back to the clearing and entered one of the game-paths. ”

“ But as there must be a definite explanation for its presence near the lake the next step was to link it with Putnam's slaying of the sorcerer, the most recent event of interest to the friendly Indians. Now the nature of the phenomenon and the reason for its being were adequately explained.
“THAT'S the Indian of it,” he mused. “See something; try to catch it and can't. It becomes a spirit—spirit of man just killed. Back to kill some one. That some one is me.
“They try to catch it just after sundown several times, but it gets away. Then it must have a mighty good hiding-place. ”

“ Putnam sought to put these enigmatic words together. That the Iroquois—he was one of Johnson's Mohawks—wished to warn him against some peril was obvious. The ranger knew it would be useless to question him. Whatever the Indian desired to reveal would be given voluntarily. Putnam repeated:
“A little black man. He walks these woods at night. Then he can not be seen.”
The Mohawk traced an outline on the forest floor with the toe of his moccasin, and said:
“After the sun goes down and before the night comes, then he is seen. The Mohawks have seen him and he has done them no harm. ”

“ Where the trail swung in toward Fort William Henry he made a détour and struck into the Fort Edward road below the fort. The road ran through a swamp, and once clear of this he struck off southeast in a direct line for the abandoned fort.
The more he turned it over the more puzzling it became. The appearance of the man in black had been persistent and confined to one locality, else the superstitious fears of the Mohawks would not have been aroused.
The disappearance of the mysterious being must have been marked by an abruptness and a completeness that had nonplused the Indians. ”

“ So long as nothing more serious than a deep sympathy for the French cause, and at the worst a mischievous activity in embarrassing the English, could be proved against her she stood in danger of nothing more grave than temporary restraint. ”

“ She dropped her lids, but not quickly enough to prevent his reading her great joy.
“Oh, you won't have any chance to talk with Cap'n Pean,” he warned. “He was the man you was whistling to, I take it. Only birds don't sound their mating-call after their families have grown up and are getting their own living.”
He paused and studied her keenly. Now the small face was under control but he knew she was secretly gloating over something. No; it did not disappoint her to hear she could not see the Frenchman. Yet she was pleased to be taken a prisoner to the fort, he believed. ”

“ Facing him were two of Rogers' Rangers, one of them holding a long pistol, the other aiming a rifle. As Putnam gained a position behind the officer the latter angrily demanded in excellent English:
“You villains! Why did you shoot me? I had surrendered.”
“How'd I know you didn't have a pistol hid in them gay clothes?” defended the man with the pistol. “I'd rather kill the devil then to have him kill me. We ain't particular how we treat spies.”
“I am no spy, you idiot. I am Captain Claude Raymond Pean, aid to Chevalier de Levis. I am here in my uniform, detailed to make discoveries.” ”

“ I come and I go. I visit your town of Albany. I procure important papers. I come here alone and I pick up two prisoners, No one stops me. And yet the pig of a Loudoun says he will take Ticonderoga.
“Now ahead of me, little ones. I have a canoe on the lake. You shall paddle me to the Carrying-Place in great state.”
The ranger with the pistol caught a glimpse of Putnam's face in the bushes and only his woods. training enabled him to conceal his joy. ”

“ We was near this clearing. Huh! We shot a Indian carrying a message from you. Now I know why he was so far south of the lake. He come here to get it. We caught him going away.”
She shuddered and twisted her fingers together convulsively.
“Poor lad! Poor Ephraim Willis!” she whispered, burying her face in her hands.
“More play-acting to kill time till the candle goes out——”
“How dare you?” she hissed; lifting her head and revealing eyes that blazed through tears.
“Good Lord, child! What next?” roared the exasperated ranger. “Enough of this foolishness. We're going to get out of this hole. ”

“ Then he motioned the men to start with the prisoner to the fort.
Putnam felt deeply concerned over the Lidindick girl. Although a lion in battle the sight of suffering in women and children easily reduced him to tears. ”

“ Not now. No more chance then you have of being named governor of New France. I took a paper away from her. One that would have put us all in pickle if it fell into Montcalm's hands. It is a list of our troops, giving our full strength and showing where the men are distributed. There were two of them——”
“Three, unless you're counting the one I got back in Albany. I had my head nearly knocked-off. There's a spy, dresses in a scarlet uniform of the Jersey Blues. Is he down in that hole? —— his liver, I'll kill him.” ”