Frederick Roberts

“ To HIS EXCELLENCY GENERAL THE RIGHT HONOURABLE FREDERICK BARON ROBERTS OF KANDAHAR AND WATERFORD, BART., V.C., G.C.B., G.C.I.E., R.A., Commander-in-Chief of Her Majesty's Forces in India.
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY,
We, the Mahomedans of the Punjab, have dared to approach Your Excellency with this address with eyes tear-bedimmed, but a face smiling. The departure of a noble and well-beloved General like yourself from our country is in itself a fact that naturally fills our eyes with tears. ”

“ Roberts made his appearance at Rochester. From thence he went to Buffalo, where he was for some time concerned in the Newspaper Press, from which place he removed to Detroit, where he was similarly engaged. Was Police Justice of the city, and finally Clerk of the Senate of Michigan. Whether he is still a resident of that city or not, is more than I am able to say. Mr. Roberts is by no means deficient in talent, but he is wanting in that firmness and decision of character, which is so essential to success in life. ”

“ At an hour almost unseemly Robert came, of course. And Barbara was gracious to him. As if there had been no estrangement, she talked frankly of Second Westings matters,—of Doctor John's service in the siege of Boston, of Doctor Jim's danger because of his opinions, of Mistress Mehitable's need of her presence at Westings House,—just as if they were Robert's concern as well as hers. The gladness came back to Robert's dark face, and for a moment he was forgetting the barrier between them.
"And what are you doing, Robert? Is it not becoming a little dangerous for you in New York now?" ”

“ Yet Robert's eye was the eye of the hunter, skilled in the ruses of all quarry. Barbara's woodcraft went immeasurably beyond his,—and perceiving this, her last resentment faded out and she began to initiate him. She named and distinguished for him birds of which he had never even heard, and corrected him with gleeful pride when he innocently mistook the cry of a woodpecker for that of a jay. As for Robert, his delight in this initiation was second only to his delight in his wilful initiator, who was now all earnestness and to him a marvel of abstruse erudition. ”

“ Every English tree and flower one comes across on first landing is a distinct and lively pleasure, while the greenness and freshness are a delicious rest to the eye, wearied with the deadly whitey-brown sameness of dried-up sandy plains, or the all-too gorgeous colouring of eastern cities and pageants. ”

“ That is the way with strong black and white water. The canoe seemed to be stationary, trembling slightly from bow to stern as if gathering herself to spring at the last moment to meet the shock, but otherwise as motionless as if held by ropes. Up came the raging waters, up and past the jumping, squirming canoe. Big black rocks bared themselves suddenly from white veils of froth and green vails of smooth water, shouldered at the canoe, roared at her, then vanished to the rear.
Uncle Jim felt a strong impulse, an impulse of curiosity, to look back at young Ben O'Dell. ”

“ Towards evening the scene changes, and the snow takes the most gorgeous colouring from the descending rays of the brilliant eastern sun—brilliant even in mid-winter—turning opal, pink, scarlet, and crimson; gradually, as the light wanes, fading into delicate lilacs and grays, which slowly mount upwards, till at last even the highest pinnacle loses the life-giving tints, and the whole snowy range itself turns cold and white and dead against a background of deepest sapphire blue. ”

“ A dog barked—Pat Kavanagh's black crackie—and the whisper of the tide fumbling at edges of ice came up from the land-wash below the fish-house and drying-stages. He saw the spars of his little schooner etched black against the slate-gray of the eastern sky. He stood at the edge of the broken slope, looking and listening. Presently he heard a mutter of voices and saw two dark figures ascending the path.
"Good evenin', men," he said.
The two halted. "Glory be!" exclaimed the voice of Bill Brennen. "The skipper himself, sure, praise the saints! Bes it yerself, skipper, an' no mistake?" ”

“ I makes the law for this harbor—an' them as don't like the laws I makes kin go somewheres else."
"Leave him be, skipper. That bes what I tells ye, for yer own good. Don't kill him. Ye kin break up desarted wracks; ye kin fill yer pockets wid gold; ye kin bat yer mates over the nob if ye wants to; but once ye gets to killin' men, Denny Nolan, then ye'll find the law to yer back sure enough, a-fixin' a noose around yer neck! Aye, lad, that bes the truth! I warns ye because I likes ye—an' I bes glad to see ye so prosperous." ”

“ He was up in the hills with me, and we struck it rich—got a lot of gold, we did, you bet we did," he went on in an irritating drawl; "and then came down when the snow flew. We had such a time getting out, young feller, and then at last we came to the Columbia and there——"
"He was drowned?" said Harmer growing pale.
"No, he warn't," replied Mac. "We got across all right, and stayed all winter trapping with Bill here. And let me tell you, young man, you mustn't trifle with Bill. He's a snorter, he is."
I could see "Damn Bill!" almost on Jack's lips, but he restrained it. ”

“ She'll never marry Ridley so long as you're runnin' around unbranded, son."
"A lot you know about girls, Jumbo," said Roberts with a rueful grin. "I don't know sic' 'em about the things they like. I'm one chaparral-raised roughneck. That little lady never wasted two thoughts on me. But Art—he knows a lot about books an' style an' New York's four hundred. He's good to look at, clean, knows how to talk, an' makes a sure-enough hit with the girls." ”

“ An' then—an' then ye'll be mine—an' when Father McQueen comes in June 'twill be time for the weddin'—for that part o' it. Ye've put the names o' coward an' beast on to me—an' by Saint Peter, ye'll live to change them names or to know them!"
Some color came back to Flora's cheeks and her clear eyes shone to their depths.
"If you fight fair," she said, faintly but steadily, "he will give you what you deserve. I am not afraid. God will be with him—and he is the better man!"
The skipper laughed, then stooped suddenly, caught her in his arms and kissed her on the lips. ”

“ Take the chance I offer you. Hit the trail. Life is precious, man!... You've no chance here. And what's one girl more or less to you?”
“Kells, I may be a fool, but I'm a man,” passionately rejoined Roberts. “Why, you're somethin' inhuman! I knew that out in the gold-fields. But to think you can stand there—an' talk sweet an' pleasant—with no idee of manhood!... Let her come now—or—or I'm a-goin' for my gun!”
“Roberts, haven't you a wife—children?”
“Yes, I have,” shouted Roberts, huskily. “An' that wife would disown me if I left Joan Randle to you. An' I've got a grown girl. ”

“ For a few seconds the two gazed in silence.
“Who are you?” asked the occupant of the red pirogue.
“I'm Ben O'Dell,” replied the youth in the water, smiling encouragingly and brushing aside a bang of wet hair. “I live on the point when I'm not away downriver at school. I was surprised when I first saw you—so surprised that I upset and had to swim.”
“Is that O'Dell's Point?” asked the other.
“Yes. You can't see the house for those big willows on the bank.”
“Are you Mrs. O'Dell's boy?”
“Yes, I'm her son. I'm not so small as I look with just my head out of water. ”

“ But truth compelled her to protest.
"Oh, no, no, Robert, not at all! It wasn't you that ran away from Aunt Hitty, and took the canoe, and persuaded a nice, civil gentleman whom you'd never seen before in your life to do a perfectly crazy thing like you read of in story-books—" But, as she paused for breath, Doctor Jim, too impatient to be amused, interrupted her:
"Well, well, Robert, you and Barbara can settle all that between you some other time. We must get away. Good night—good night. My best compliments to your honoured grandmother! And ride over the first day you can, lad!" ”

“ John was talking with quite a Western twang, as though he was determined not to be taken for an Englishman.
"Rain!" he was saying; "well, you bet it's something like it! On the lake it takes an old hand to know which is land and which is water. Old Hank was nearly drowned in his tent the other day."
"Serve him right!" growled Bill. "But who are you, young feller?—I never see you before, and I mostly know everybody in this country."
Harmer looked up coolly, and taking off his hat, swung it round. ”

“ Roberts was not without some humanism, if such a word may be used; certainly he never gave away a penny, but as certainly he cheated no man. He was upright in conduct, and not unpleasant in manner. He could not have been utterly crabbed for this one labourer, Bill, to stay with him five and twenty years. This was the six and twentieth year they had dwelt there together in the gaunt, grey lonely house, with woods around them, isolated from the world, and without a hearth. A hearth is no hearth unless a woman sit by it. ”

“ She had not seen Robert. She had just once heard his name, spoken casually, as that of one whose absence seemed a thing unusual, whose presence seemed a thing to be desired. She knew that she had made an impression. She knew, even, that she had made herself popular, at least with the men. With her accustomed candour she had proclaimed herself a rebel, in response to some jest at the expense of Boston, and had settled the score thrice over by her witty jibes at King George. But even in that royalist circle her audacity had done her no harm. ”

“ I heard the old man's quick breathing, then a grunt, then a soft thud.
"Come on up, Giddy," he whispered.
I went up the ladder, seeing nothing. I felt the top of the ladder and a floor thick with dust. As I thrust head and shoulders through the hatchway, the breath of dust and cobwebs and dry-rot was so stifling that I held my breath. I felt his hand on my shoulder, then under my arm.
"You've got the whole length of the house here," he whispered. "Mind your head—how you stand up! The old house will hide you, lad, from the devil himself." ”

“ If she could not be strong now, what right had she to call herself a woman, or to love a man. She felt at his heart and found that he was alive. She saw that he was sorely wounded. She told herself that he had swooned from loss of blood, weariness, hunger,—but that he had lived, would live, must live. Then she dragged him further back into the grass, where he was hidden.
Calling Keep from the canoe, she sat down for a moment with Robert's head in her lap, and planned what should be done. He must not be found in Second Westings, that she knew. ”

“ This appeal was to every one, but it was Robert, at last awaking from his rapture and finding breath, who answered:
"There was never anything else so wonderful in all the world," he said, solemnly.
Doctor John and Doctor Jim, with one impulse, jumped up, each seized one of Barbara's hands, and plucked her to her feet. They then stood hand in hand in a row before Mistress Mehitable and Robert, bowing their thanks for such appreciation of their poor efforts to please.
"We are going to London to perform before the king!" declared Doctor Jim. ”

“ I didn't want him to think me just a—an unreasoning coward. And he set a trap in the bread box last night, a steel fox trap. I didn't know anything about it. I would have taken it away if I had known.”
“A trap!” cried Ben, his face flushing and then swiftly paling and his eyes darkling. “A trap in this house! To hurt some one in need of bread! If he wasn't your brother I'd—I'd——”
“Same here!” muttered Uncle Jim.
“I didn't know until this morning,” continued Mrs. O'Dell, glancing from her son to her brother with horrified eyes. “I found it outside, with an ax lying beside it. ”

“ It had been arranged that Robert should borrow a horse from Doctor John's stables, ride it over to Gault House, and keep it there till his return to Second Westings. But as he was strolling down the village street before breakfast, he saw, in a paddock beside an unpretentious cottage, a splendid Narragansett pacer, a dark sorrel, one of the handsomest of the breed that he had ever seen. He had long coveted one of these horses, famous in all the thirteen colonies for their easy gait, speed over rough country, and unparalleled endurance. ”

“ But I'd sooner stop home and work with Uncle Jim,” he replied.
At that moment they cleared the orchard and came upon the ell and woodshed of the wide gray house and Mr. James McAllister in the door of the shed. McAllister backed and vanished in the snap of a finger. “He is shy with strangers, but he's a brave man and a good one,” said Ben.
Mrs. O'Dell appeared in the doorway just then.
“Mother, here's a little girl who came from somewhere or other in a big red pirogue,” said Ben. “I found her out at the net. She has a letter for you.” ”

“ There's a sword in the air, John!"
"It's surely a stiff-necked king, Jim," muttered Doctor John.
"The sword of a Gault will ever leap from its scabbard to serve the king!" said Robert, loftily, his grave eyes aglow with exaltation.
As he made this proclamation of his faith, devoting himself to a cause of which she disapproved, and quite ignoring her feelings in the matter, Barbara felt a sudden pang of loneliness. She seemed forgotten, or, at least, grown secondary and trivial.
"Do let us hurry home to Uncle Bob!" she pleaded, her voice pathetic, her eyes tired and dissatisfied. ”

“ He thought of nothing but the girl herself. Never before had he seen or dreamed of such a face as hers, and a breathless desire possessed him to see her eyes unveiled. He worked feverishly, heedless of the yeasting seas beneath, of the wind that worried at him as if it would tear him from his leaping perch, of the wealth of cargo under the reeking deck and the men of Chance Along on the edge of the cliff. He returned the glove to the left hand with fumbling fingers, stripped the other hand and rubbed it with brandy. ”