“Roger, won’t you say good-bye, maybe for the last time? He was not there; he did not do those cruel deeds. Oh, will you never forgive?”
“Never,” he answered, and passed on.
The first dawn of day found them all assembled in Father Nat’s kitchen, partaking of their last meal. It was soon over, and then a quick farewell, a silent pressure of hand in hand, and the travellers crossed that hospitable threshold, many of them never to return again.
“God speed you. His blessing be with you all!” said Father Nat, standing in the porch; and so they went forth. As Lord Howe passed Loïs he took her hand, and said gently,—
“Be of good courage; you will win him yet.”
Her face was very white, with a strained, weary look about the soft blue eyes. A short sigh, almost like a gasp of pain, escaped her. “Thank you,” she said.
When the last of the troop had disappeared into the wood, the women returned to their work with quiet, animal-like patience, and Nathaniel and Marcus went into the village with John Cleveland to see that their orders for the proper protection of the settlement had been carried out.
Striking straight across the woods, Roger and his followers walked rapidly, but with great care, for some miles without speaking. Their object was to escape the redskins; and to do this they must needs mislead them—a most difficult task. To conceal their track they walked as lightly as possible, avoiding even brushing against a tree, lest its bark should betray them; winding in and out, taking a circuitous road, and practising many other devices. They did not dare to stop and rest even after several hours’ tramp, because if they had lain down their bodies would necessarily have left marks on the ground; so they went forward till nightfall, when they found themselves on a high open plain, where it would have been impossible for an enemy to take them unawares. Here they rested, not venturing even to light a fire, but eating a portion of the dried meat, with which each man had been supplied; and then, wrapped in their bearskins and blankets, they slept. The following morning they started off again, and at midday were joined by a party of their own men, who reported that the Indians were swarming in the woods, and were only kept at bay by the knowledge that Roger’s Rangers were abroad.
“We shall have to take to the river,” said Roger; “the banks are thickly wooded down to the very edge. We have scouts on either bank: if the red men see us, which they are sure to do, they will not dare attack us.”
The following day three canoes were launched, into which Roger, Howe and his companions, with two or three of the scouts, entered, and the remainder of the corps dispersed. Noiselessly and rapidly the canoes were paddled forward, for some time without their perceiving any sign betokening the presence of the Indians. Before long they entered the vast solitudes of the forests; a solemn silence reigned over all, broken only by the sound of the beaver or the otter as it plunged into the water, or the cries of the birds as they flew from tree-top to tree-top.