I could not find Father Cleary, and on making inquiries I learned that he was with the wounded, who had all been taken to the hastily improvised hospital in the men’s quarters. I was told that he had stuck to his post through the fighting, and had done as good and valorous service as any man in the fort.
Mr. Christopher Burley I came upon seated astride of an empty cask, with his musket across his knees. His cap was gone, and his hair was awry; he was scarcely recognizable for a mask of perspiration and powder grime.
“I congratulate you,” I said, “on keeping a sound skin.”
“The same to you,” he replied. “It was indeed a severe and bloody fight. I bore your advice in mind Mr. Carew, and I have fired six shots without discomfort.”
“To what purpose?” I inquired.
“I hope at least that I have hit none of our own men,” he answered with a touch of humor. “I confess I am more handy with a quill than a musket. I have friends in London, sir, who will not believe me when I relate my adventures in this barbarous country. But, alas! I may not live to see England again.”
I thought this more than likely, but did not tell him so.
“Come, come, Mr. Burley!” I replied, “keep up your spirits; don’t yield to depression. You will be spared to stamp many a blue document—to entangle scores of luckless litigants in the meshes of the law.”
I clipped on without waiting to see how he took this sally, and went as far as the northwest angle of the fort. Here I stopped to talk with some comrades who were drinking hot coffee flavored with a dash of rum.
Close by, other men were watching alertly at the loopholes. Occasionally they would fire at some partly exposed Indians, and then dodge back as a straggling volley of bullets pelted the stockade. Over on the east side muskets were cracking in the same desultory fashion. The storm showed no signs of abating. On the contrary, the snow was falling more thickly and in finer flakes, and a bitter wind was constantly heaping it in higher drifts, and blowing it in blinding, eddying showers about the inclosure.