 CHAPTER V. A CHANGE OF SITUATIONS. Crothers, as usual, brought me my meals, and in that respect I was well treated. The night passed without event, and the next morning I was allowed to take a walk around the fort between Crothers and another soldier, but I saw nothing of either the Colonel or his daughter. I tried to pump Crothers, but he was proof against my most skillful questions, and when I returned to my room I could boast no increase of knowledge. Yet I was not much depressed. I comforted myself with the old reflection that it was the year of peace, 1896, and I would not become really alarmed until I stood up before a file of the Colonel's men and looked into the muzzles of their rifles. I received a visit the next morning from the Colonel himself. His manner was still of a peace with that he had shown on the return march from the mountains, marked by a certain haughtiness and reserve differing much from the fiery temperament characteristic of him. "'Well, am I to be shot to-day, Colonel?' I asked, and I think I asked it cheerfully. For, mark you, I had returned to my old state of incredulity.' "'Not to-day,' he said, I have decided to postpone it until I find where the treason in my garrison lies. You can see that your death might be in the way of my investigation. I could see it with ease, and I was glad that it was so. He asked me a lot of questions which he intended to be adroit, but I saw their drift clearly enough and led him further astray. When he was through he knew less than ever about my rescuer, and I let him think it was one of his men. "'I shall discover the man by to-morrow,' he said, with a show of confidence which was but a show, and his fate shall be severe enough to put a stop to any leanings others may have the same way. Three days more passed in this manner. I was permitted to take two walks daily around the fort in the company of crothers and another man, but as before I could obtain no information from them, and I remained in ignorance of the Colonel's progress or lack of progress with his secret service. On the fourth day my door was abruptly thrown open, and Grace Heatherill entered. Her face showed great excitement. The door was not closed behind her but stood wide open, and I noticed that no sentry was in the hall. I was convinced that something of importance had happened. "'Mr. West,' she said, "'we need your help.' "'My help,' I exclaimed involuntarily. How can I, who needed so much myself, give anybody help?' "'But you can,' she cried. There is trouble in Fort Defiance.' Then her first flush of excitement over, she told me the story calmly. She was not long in the telling. Her hint to her father that Dr. Ambrose might have been the man who assisted in my escape had produced greater results than she expected. The old Colonel had watched the doctor closely, and at last had accused him of treason to the Confederate government. Thereupon the doctor, who was superior in intelligence and information to the other men and knew what was passing in the world, had advised him to free me and to haul down the stars and bars as the cause was lost beyond the hope of revival. "'My father flew into a terrible rage,' said Grace. "'He ordered that Dr. Ambrose be locked up at once, and it is his intention to have him shot when he shoots you.' "'Miss Heatherle,' I said, "'you must tell your father that Dr. Ambrose has nothing to do with my escape.' "'That would do no good now,' she said, "'and might do harm. It would not help Dr. Ambrose, for my father regards his proposition to surrender as the worst treason of all, and if I were to say that it was I and not the doctor who helped you, he would not believe me.' This put a new phase on the matter. I felt very sorry for the doctor who had got himself into trouble on my account. I did not know what to say, but Miss Heatherle interpreted my look. "'Do not fear for Dr. Ambrose,' she said. Some of the men had begun to be of his way of thinking, and my father will not be able to carry out his sentence against either the doctor or you.' I understood it once. A revolt was threatened in the camp, and her fear was neither for the doctor nor for me, but for her father. I felt rather cheap. "'I will help you all I can,' Miss Heatherle I said, a little stiffly, but I failed to see anything that I can do. As you know, I am a prisoner here.' "'But you are not as strictly guarded as you were,' she said. My father's rage against Dr. Ambrose has withdrawn his attention from you, and within a day you may have another chance to escape. He wants you to come now and testify against Dr. Ambrose.' "'I cannot do that,' I said. "'I do not want you to do so,' she said quickly. You must say that you made your escape without help, that you picked the lock of your door or anything else you choose to say.' It was a falsehood she asked me to tell, but I was willing to tell it since the interests of four persons were involved in it—hers, the doctors, mine, and not least of all the colonels. Truly my coming had aroused a mighty commotion in the house of Colonel Heatherle's C.S.A., and perhaps, too, had opened to it new ideas. It had never occurred to me before that I was such an important personage. I followed Miss Heatherle to the second sitting of the military court and the trial room, though this time as a witness and not as the accused. The Colonel was majestic at the head of the table. He was in a splendid grey uniform, gay with gold lace, as if he deemed the occasion worthy of his best appearance. Crothers had taken the place of Dr. Ambrose as secretary, and the doctor himself was at the foot of the table. The examination was brief and to the Colonel very unsatisfactory. I made a poor witness. I denied that any one had helped me, and the doctor with equal emphasis denied complicity. The Colonel frowned at me, but the doctor received the larger share of his attention, and I was of the opinion that the Colonel considered him a greater villain than myself, as I was an enemy by birth, while the doctor was a household trader. You do not deny making to me the proposition that we surrender to the Federal Government, finally said the Colonel. Not at all, said the doctor, firmly. That was my suggestion, and I repeat it. We alone are holding out. What chance have we ever to carry our cause through to success? Colonel Heatherle looked round at his men as if he feared the effect of those words upon them. They were impassive, though I inferred from what Grace had said that several were beginning to share the doctor's way of thinking. Your answer, said the Colonel to Dr. Ambrose, is sufficient proof of treasonable designs. The answer itself I consider treason. I will hear no more. He promptly dissolved the court, ordered Dr. Ambrose and myself to be locked up again, and refused to listen to anything his daughter wished to say. What further steps he took I do not know then, for under escort I passed on to my room and was out of sight and hearing. That evening Grace came to my room again, and as before she was visibly under the influence of strong emotion. You must escape again tonight, she said, and this time you must not be overtaken. I have arranged everything, and it will be easy enough for you to reach the mountains. What will become of Dr. Ambrose, I asked. We will save him too, though I do not yet know how, she said. The doctor had taken his risk partly on my account, and I did not feel like abandoning him in danger. I am willing to admit also that I wanted to see how events at Fort Defiance would culminate, so I refused to leave the Fort. My refusal greatly disturbed Grace, and she begged me to go. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes luminous, and she looked very beautiful. Would you have me think of myself alone, I asked. Is it true that I seem to have brought trouble here, but I can't cure it by slipping away to-night? I mean to stay. She had nothing more to say, but one look she gave me seemed to approve of my decision. She left the room hastily, and I did not hear the key turn in the lock. I tried the door, and found that it was not locked. Through neglect or intention I was free to go about Fort Defiance, and I inferred that the Colonel's affairs in truth were in a critical state if so little attention was paid to me. I looked out in the hall but saw no one. I walked lightly to the top of the staircase, but hearing voices below concluded it would be best to return to my room. From the window I saw that the drawbridge was up, and I doubted the chances of escape even had I wished it. I remained there an hour or so trying to decide upon the wisest course. Unable to come to any decision I went into the hall again for lack of something better to do. From the top of the staircase I heard voices in loud and excited conversation. I crept halfway down the steps. I stopped there to listen further, and feeling sure that some event of great importance had happened I walked boldly all the way down. The front door which looked out upon the little brass cannon was wide open. Grace and Crothers stood near it, talking in hurried and excited tones. A half-dozen soldiers were about them, and occasionally they said something as if by way of suggestion. They paid no attention to me until I came so close that Grace herself could not help noticing me. Oh, Mr. West, she cried. We are so glad you are here now. Naturally I was full of interest and curiosity and asked the cause of the trouble. Then they told me that Dr. Ambrose had escaped by the connivance of some one, I guess, and had fled to the mountains. The Colonel, discovering his escape, had called upon his men to pursue him, and if necessary shoot him on sight. They had refused unanimously to go, and the Colonel in his rage had taken his old army rifle and had gone alone. Here in truth was a pretty muddle. The Colonel's state of mind was such that without doubt he would shoot the doctor if he found an opportunity, which would be a double tragedy to all the people of Fort Defiance. The Colonel must be pursued and overtaken, I said. At once, said Grace, with an emphasis that showed I had only seconded her own argument. Others and all the others looked at me as if waiting for a suggestion. It seemed by an easy transition to change from the prisoner of Fort Defiance to its chief. Since they looked upon me as such, that I decided to be. What road did the Colonel take, I asked of Crothers. There is only one passable way out of the mountains, replied Crothers, the one you followed. We know that both the doctor and the Colonel took it. I saw a look of intelligence pass between him and Grace, and I wondered no longer at the doctor's escape or his destination. Our duty and the method of doing it were plainly before us. It required but a few minutes for me to organize our search-and-rescue expedition. I made Crothers my Lieutenant, and took all but four men, leaving these to care for the house. Food enough for several days, and blankets for the night were collected hastily, and then we were ready. Miss Heatherill approached, cloaked, and hooded. To my protest she replied with much firmness that she was going with us. But the road over these mountains is not fit for a lady to travel, I said. I had been over that road often, and I know these mountains much better than you, Mr. West, she replied. I could not dispute her assertion, and moreover her presence would be useful to us in certain contingencies. She was a strong, active girl, and I made no further objection. We left the house. The drawbridge was lowered to let us pass, and when we had crossed was raised again. In a few minutes we were out of the valley and in the mountains following the old road. As it was my second journey I saw how easy it was for the Colonel and his men to pursue and overtake me. It was the only real road through the mountains, and one followed it as naturally as the waters of a brook flowed down its channel. How long a start of us has the Colonel, I asked. Not more than an hour, replied Crothers, but he is strong in spite of his age and a good mountaineer. I guess he can go faster than we can. It is true that one man, other things being equal, can travel faster than a dozen who stick together, and in it lay the danger that the Colonel would outfoot us, but there was consolation in the thought that Dr. Ambrose had the same advantage. It was an indifferent night, neither very clear nor very dark. There was light enough to show the peaks and the ravines, but only to distort them. I let Crothers, who knew the way, take the lead, and I dropped back to the right of Miss Heathero. We were silent for some time. Then I made a lame apology for blundering upon fort defiance and bringing such trouble to its inmates. It is not your fault that you came, Mr. West, she said, and even if you had come by intention we would have no right to complain. Something of the kind was bound to happen some day. I was glad that she admitted the abnormal conditions of fort defiance. That she knew them was obvious, for she had passed but little of her life there and knew the swing of the world. We made speed, despite the roughness of the way. Some mists or fine clouds sifted before the moon, and the visible world became small. But we went on without uncertainty. The fugitive could not well turn from the path nor could the pursuer. I saw Crothers looking up at the white silky clouds. Once he shook his head doubtfully, but I did not ask him his thought. With plenty of company the mountains did not impress or awe me as on the night of my flight. Once our course dipped into a little valley down which a brook trickled. In the soft earth on either side of it the vigilant Crothers saw footsteps which he said were those of two men. We knew the two men must be the doctor and the colonel. I should judge from those footprints, though I can't tell precisely, said Crothers, that we haven't gained anything on them. This was somewhat discouraging and our enthusiasm did not grow when the path after leaving the valley, or rather slit in the hills, led up a very steep and long slope. Our muscles relaxed under the strain and the breath came in irregular puffs. I was very tired, but I was not willing to own it, especially as I saw Grace walking with still vigorous step. She had told the truth when she said she was a better than I. The mists thickened. The moon was but a faint glimmer through them and they drifted like lazy clouds. Our world narrowed again and instinctively we walked very close together. It was like a fog at sea. The damp of it carried a raw penetrating chill. There was no wind to moan or sing the veins. The mountains were silent, save for ourselves. Crothers suggested a light and produced from under his coat the torch with which he had provided himself in view of such emergency. It was a long stick soaked in some compound of tar and turpentine, and when he lighted one end and held it aloft it burned with energy casting a bright, cheerful light. Nevertheless we shivered in our clothes. The chill in the air was insistent, and the mist was soaking into the ground and the autumn foliage. All the world seemed to be a sweat, and poor woodsmen as I was I knew that this had its perils. Pneumonia is not picturesque, but it is very dangerous. Crothers looked at me several times as if he expected me to make a suggestion, but though by common consent I was the leader of the party, I waited for him to make it as he knew more about the mountains and forests than I. But we plotted on for a long time before he spoke. Then he announced that we must stop for a while and build a fire. If we don't, he said, we'll be soaked through and through with the cold mist, and in another hour some of us will be shaking with the chills and fever. Grace protested against stopping. She was in the greatest alarm lest a tragedy should happen ahead of us, but while we felt the same fear we recognized also the truth of the old maxim about the futility of too much haste. I pointed out the dangers to her and urged that her father probably had sought shelter somewhere before this. She was able to yield, not to my arguments necessarily, but to her own judgment. I often think what a jolly world this would be if our judgment and our wishes were always agreed. We chose a somewhat sheltered spot which was not difficult to find in a region of hill on hill crisscrossed with ravines and gullies and gathered heaps of brushwood. The fire was much more difficult to light than on the night when it was the Colonel's prisoner, but we set it to burning at last and glad we were when the flames rose high up in the chilly darkness. We refreshed ourselves with a little supper. Then Crothers insisted that some of us, and especially Miss Heatherle, should get a little sleep. Again she showed herself a wise girl by trying to obey despite her wishes. We made her a bed of blankets between the bed and a cliff, and though she said she would not be able to sleep, in half an hour she slept. As she lay there with a bit of her pale, weary face showing above the blankets, I felt very sorry for her, far sorryer than I had ever felt for myself, even when under sentence of death. I could see the reality of her trouble and I had never believed fully in mine. All the men except Crothers and I and a third rolled themselves into their blankets and slept. I sat by the fire, wondering what the outcome of it all would be. I noticed that Crothers continued to look up uneasily at the skies and the clouded moon, and at last I asked him what he might have on his mind. He said weather, he replied briefly. We have that already, I said, pointing to the cliffs soaking in the wet mist. More coming, he said, putting on a very weatherwise look. What do you expect? I asked. Maybe snow, but more likely sleep, and that too before morning, he replied. It's early for such things, but all the signs point away. I asked him no more. This was most unpromising and gave full warrant for his grave looks. The mists were lifting, though very slowly, and were gathering in clouds above us. The peaks were ghostly gray, and the moon narrowed to a half rim of steel and then disappeared altogether. The dampness remained in the air, but it was too great for rain. As Crothers said, either snow or sleep would come. I suggested to Crothers that we make some sort of protection for Miss Heatheral. We built up little walls of brush on three sides of her and covered them with the same material. She slept so heavily from exhaustion, poor girl, that she never awakened to our noise, and we finished our improvised hut. Our satisfaction was all the greater because we had not disturbed her at all. Then we built up the fires and waited for what might come. I dozed awhile and awoke to find that the clouds had thickened. All the peaks were hidden by them, and there was some wind just enough to make a subdued moan. Crothers said it lacked about two hours of day. I noticed that he had put the men at work again, and they had gathered brushwood sufficient to make the campfire of a regiment. The clouds would do what they're going to do very soon, said Crothers, and he was right. Presently we heard a patter upon the dry leaves like the falling of dust shot. Little white kernels rebounded and fell again. One lodged in my eye, and I winked until I got it out. The patter increased. The dust shot turned to bird shot. Hail, said Crothers, we're in for it. We woke all the men and made shelter for ourselves as best we could in the lee of the cliff. Another blanket spread over the top of Grace's rude bower was sufficient protection for her. Soon we had a fine downpour of hail. It was like a white bombardment from which we were safe within our works. I would have been content to watch it had it not put such obstacles in the way of our pursuit. The ground whitened quickly under the fall of the hail, and by and by when the wind shifted to the south the clouds discharged rain instead of hail. This was no improvement, and in fact its probable sequel was what we dreaded most. The shift of the wind came again, and then happened what often happens in our fickle climate, the rain which covered everything turned to ice under the wind from the north, and in an hour the earth was clad in a complete suit of white armour. The sun was just rising above the last peaks. Every cloud had gone from the sky, and the day hidden before by the wall of mountains seemed to come all at once. Every ray of the sun was caught up by the sheet of white and gleaming ice and reflected back. Our eyes were dazzled by the brilliancy of the morning, for the ice covered everything. Every leaf, every twig was encrusted with it. It was all very beautiful and all very dangerous. Mountain climbing on sheets of ice is a slippery business. As usual I turned to Crothers for advice. We'll have to creep along as best we can, he said, but while we can't go fast neither can the doctor nor the colonel. This was the one redeeming point of the situation. Whatever affected us affected both the pursuit and we remained on an equal footing. We awoke Grace, who was astonished and dismayed at the sight of the earth cased in ice. Then we had a little breakfast and prepared to resume our dangerous pursuit. I had heard of alpine climbing, and though I had never done any of it, the virtues of an Alpenstock were not unknown to me. We selected slender but stout sticks from the brushwood, sharpened the ends, and having hardened them in the fire made our start, each thus provided. It was treacherous work, and our falls were many, but we were satisfied to escape with mere bruises, for one might easily pitch over a precipice or tumble down a long steep hill slope and become a mere bag of broken bones. The sun shone in splendor, but the rays were without warmth. They were white, not yellow, and a white light is always cold. The brilliant reflection from the ice fields forced us to keep our eyes half closed if we did not want to be blinded. End of Chapter 5, Recording by David Gore Chapter 6 of The Last Rebel by Joseph A. Altschiller This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 6 at the Hut The way was still certain, a rude path coiling among the hills from which the sheets of ice glistening like new glass and as treacherous for baddest to turn. Sometimes the wind would blow and the ice-clad bushes would rattle together to the tune of castanets. Our stock of bruises grew with steadiness and certainty, but we could boast of progress. Once the path dipped down between two peaks of unusual height. The wind was blowing rather sharply at the time, and from the white head of the higher peak on our left came a faint rumble. Crothers showed alarm and urged us to greater speed. I half guessed what he meant, and lent grace and arm to hurry forward. The rumble grew to a roar and we had just turned the dangerous defile when the avalanche plunged down the slope into the path we had left setting all the echoes a stir and sending up a cloud of white snow-dust. I am of opinion that several tons of valuable ice and packed hail were wasted in that drift, but as we escaped at all perhaps we have no right to complain. We passed the spot at which I had been retaken and thence the way was new to me, but its character did not change. The untenanted mountains seemed to roll away to the end of the world. We ought to reach the hut by the middle of the afternoon, said Crothers. What's the hut? I asked, having heard nothing before of such a place. Then Crothers explained that it was a rude little cabin which the Colonel had erected beside the path to be used as a stopping place on the way to the outside world or as a lodge on hunting expeditions. He was hopeful that we would find the Colonel or the Doctor or both there. It seemed to me very probable that we would. Grace, who had been somewhat downhearted, though she never complained, cheered up at the prospect of the hut, and in truth all our little army pressed forward with fresh zest and enthusiasm. Hope was easily able to pin itself upon little things. We walked and slid along at much better speed, and Crothers even told stories of winter campaigns, though he was forced to admit that he had never found skates quite so necessary as they seemed to be now. Our path led directly toward a ridge which seemed to block the way like a wall. Down the comb of that ridge is the hut, said Crothers. Though my muscles complained and my bruises were as numerous as the spots on a leopard, I was full of ambition to reach this little lodge of logs which seemed to me to be a fit home for some Robinson Crusoe of the mountains. Presently Crothers uttered a joyful grunt. He never rose to the dignity of an exclamation and pointed to a fine blue trail of smoke rising like a white plume from the slender comb of the ridge. That's from the hut, he said, and somebody's there, sure. His logic seemed sound. The smoke had a most comfortable, home-like look. It was a bit of warmth and cheer in the cold, white wilderness. It encouraged us so much that we were willing to wager we would find both the colonel and the doctor there, good friends again and ready to return with us to Fort Defiance. As we advanced the column was defined more clearly against the sky and Crothers was positive that it came from the hut. It's built in a little patch of woods on a level spot of about a quarter of an acre, he said, and my eye says the smoke rises straight from that spot. By and by as we climbed the slope we could see the hut itself coated with ice like the trees. The smoke was coming from the little mud chimney and we guessed that a fine fire was blazing on the hearth. I for one began to wish that I was sitting in front of that same fire listening to the popping of the dry wood as the flames ate into it. But Grace outstripped us in so far as her cause for anxiety was greater than ours. She ran forward, pushed open the door of the hut and sprang inside. We heard a cry of disappointment and following her found the hut was empty, safe for ourselves. Upon the stone hearth the fine fire that I had pictured to myself was really blazing. Upon a bench lay some scraps of bread and meat, but the host, whoever he might be, was absent. It was a little place, not more than seven or eight feet square with a roof that the head of a tall man could touch. Two or three deer-skins were on the floor, some antlers were fastened on the wall, and besides the bench there were three rude little stools. It was not exactly a drawing-room, but it was a warm and hospitable spot in the wilderness. At least it seemed so to me. Grace sat down on one of the stools and leaned her head against the wall, too brave to cry, but not strong enough to conceal all her disappointment. She had been sure that we would find the Colonel in the hut. Since the landlord of the hotel is away and there is no one to welcome us, I propose that we welcome ourselves, I said, wishing to appear cheerful. Crothers silently seconded the motion by throwing fresh wood on the fire, drawing up a stool and warming his hands. Then we held a brief council of war. It was obvious that someone had been at the hut, but whether the Colonel or the Doctor there was nothing to indicate. Whichever it might be, it was most likely that he would soon return, and we concluded that it was our best plan to pass the night there. It was late in the day, and no one could think of any other course that promised better. Crothers and I scouted a bit in the neighborhood, but we discovered nothing of the lodge's missing tenant. Whoever he was, he seemed to have gone on a long journey from his table and fireside, and we had little to do but appropriate his table, sit at his fireside, and wait for his return. The end of the day was near, and the night promised to be very cold. Autumn might be lingering yet in the lowlands, but up here in the mountains, close to the skies, winter was sovereign. The sun went over the hills, the whiteness of the earth turned to pallor, and in the dusk the icy mountains gleamed cheerless and cold. I was very glad that necessity bad us stay at the hut. We besturred ourselves and gathered wood, for we intended to keep a good fire all night. We assigned grace to one corner beside the fireplace, and made a screen for it by hanging up two or three deer-skins. Then we heaped the wood on the fire until the blaze roared up the chimney. A little window, a mere cut in the logs a half-foot square, was left open. When I went out I could see the light of the fire shining through it, and casting long streaks of red across the ice, the one friendly beacon in the dreary wilderness. As the day waned and the night took its place I began to fear that it was neither the colonel nor the doctor who had built the fire, or surely he would have returned before this. After all it might have been some stray hunter or mountaineer who had lighted the comfortable blaze, warmed himself, and passed on, leaving it to serve the same purpose for any other who might come. At that point the mountains were more accessible than farther back toward Fort Defiance. One might penetrate them in several directions if he were willing to risk falls on the sheet-ice. Several of us, taking our Alpenstocks, explored the neighborhood again. The light was sufficient, the reflection from the ice throwing a kind of pale glow over everything, but our explorations brought no profit, and the night as we had expected turning very cold we returned to the hut. We stacked our rifles against the wall and composed ourselves for rest. We did not realize until the necessity for exertion was over how very tired we were. Grace retired to her curtained corner, and in a few minutes was so still there that we knew she must be asleep despite anxiety. Some of the soldiers stretched themselves upon the floor, and they too soon slept. Another, sitting upon a stool with his head against the wall, snored placidly. We saw no necessity for keeping watch, and even the vigilant crothers laid down upon the bench where his eyes soon closed and his breathing became long and regular. The last army of the Confederacy was sound asleep, and the Colonel's Yankee spy alone was awake. They were old, men mostly, heads gray, almost white, and faces deeply seemed like the Colonel's. But they looked to me like a loyal lot, and my sympathy went out to these old fellows, every one of whom I had no doubt carried old scars on his body. I was sitting on a stone before the fire, trying to read my fortune in the deep bed of coals. Tiring of the vain pursuit I walked to the little window. The old soldier slept such a tired and heavy sleep that my footsteps did not disturb them. I could see nothing but the mountains, cold and white as a tombstone, and hear nothing but the occasional rattle of the loose ice as it fell from the trees and shattered on the thicker ice below. I went back to the fire, picked out a convenient place in front of it, and decided that I too would recognize the claims of exhaustion and sleep which were now growing clamorous. Doubling up my blanket and putting it under my head for a pillow, I stretched myself out with my feet to the fire and resumed my old occupation of studying the red coals and the fortune that might be written for me there. I had done it many times as a boy, and as a man I was not changed. The regular and heavy breathing of the sleepers had something soothing in it. The logs burned through, crumbled and fell in coals adding to the glowing mass. With my half-closed eyes making much from little and seeing things that were not, I built castles in the fire and sent troops of real soldiers marching through them. When the fourth castle was but half finished, I closed my eyes and joined the others in sleep. Perhaps it was the strangeness of these scenes much more strange to me than to the others that disturbed and excited my brain while I slept, and by and by made me waken. The great heap of coals had sunk but little lower, and I reckoned that I had not slept more than two hours at the farthest. It was very warm in the room, for we had not been cherry with the fire, and I turned to the little window for fresh air. Framed in the window I saw very distinctly a pair of bright eyes and a part of a human face. The eyes gazed at me, and I am quite sure I returned the stair with equal intentness. We had hoped for a visitor, but we did not expect to find him at the window. I rose quickly to my feet, and the face was withdrawn. Wishing to look into the matter myself without disturbing the others, I walked lightly to the door on the way stepping over the prostrate bodies of two or three members of the Confederate army. I opened the door and went out. When I came to the window I found that my man was gone, but not fifty feet away walking toward the recesses of the mountains was a tall slender figure. I knew that military bearing could belong to none other in those mountains than Colonel Heatherill, and I felt sure also that it was he who had been looking through the window at us. I ran after him, but he was better accustomed to sleety mountains than I, and the distance between us widened. He curved around a hillock, and for a few moments was out of my sight. But when I, too, passed the hillock I saw him straight ahead, his shoulders stooped a little, but walking swiftly as if he were bent upon reaching the very heart of the highest and most difficult mountains. I shouted to him to stop, and I knew he must have heard me, but for some time he paid no attention. At last he turned around and faced me. Why do you go away, Colonel? I asked. I am no enemy of yours. I am your friend. We have come to rescue you from the wilderness. Your daughter is back there in the hut. You are an infernal Yankee spy, he said, and you are worse than that. You have turned my people against me. Colonel, I said, protesting, don't delude yourself that way any longer. The war is over. It is not, he said. All my men may surrender, but I at least will hold out. Don't I know that they have given up? I saw them in the hut with you, and you were not a prisoner. Keep off, I tell you, do not come near me. I was advancing toward him, not with any intent to harm him, instead the precise reverse, and he, seeing that I would not stop, whipped a pistol out of his belt and fired at me. I suppose his hand was chilled by the cold, for the bullet flew wide of me, chipping splinters from the icy side of a hill. But I stopped out of regard for my life, expecting another pistol, and he turned and continued his course into the higher mountains. I shouted to him to stop, and I shouted to my comrades in the hut, but the one would not, and the others would not hear. He never looked back, and at last disappeared in a thicket, every bush of which in the moonlight looked as if it were cast in silver. I walked back toward the hut, feeling some chagrin over my failure to keep one of the men for whom we had been looking after I had found him. I can say with truth that I was not angered at the Colonel's bullet, as I thought I understood him. The light of the fire was still shining through the little window, or rather hole in the wall, and through a long red bar of light across the whitened earth. It was a friendly beacon to any man in a normal state of mind. All the people in the hut were still sound asleep, the snore of some of the veterans placidly riding the night wind. I took crothers gently by the shoulders, and succeeded in waking him without waking any of the others. Then I led him out of the hut, and told him my story. He agreed with me that it was best not to say anything to grace of the incident. But he was in a quandary about the wisest course for us to pursue in the morning as the possible paths now led in several directions. This quandary was ended for the time by the sound of a rifle shot. We were so far from expecting anything of the kind that it startled us both very much. My fear, and I believe that of Crothers was the same, was lest the Colonel and the Doctor had met. We knew that the Colonel had taken a rifle with him when he left Fort Defiance, and probably he had put it in some convenient place nearby when he came down to spy us out in the hut. Take this pistol, said Crothers, shoving one into my hand. But remember, Colonel Heatherle must not be harmed. The people in the hut seemed to be sleeping on calmly, and leaving them to their rest, we ran as fast as we could in the direction from which the shot had come. Though we had heard the report distinctly owing to the rarified mountain air, I judged that the gun had been fired at least a mile away. There were many echoes, and it was somewhat difficult for us to distinguish the true sound from the false, but we agreed upon a general northeast course. When we had gone half a mile, the gun was fired again, the report echoing as gallantly in the still night as if it had a little cannon instead of an ordinary rifle. Up the valley there, cried Crothers, followed that, and it will be sure to take us right. I disagreed with him, however. The report seemed to me to have been farther to the left, and I insisted upon my opinion. All right, said Crothers, you go that way, and I'll go up the gully. One or the other of us will be likely to strike it right. He ran up the gully, and obedient to his suggestion, I bent away to the left. But I found myself in a very slippery country, the mountains breaking there into successive little ridges like the waves of the sea, though the general direction was upward. Luckily there was a good growth of bushes, and more than once I bent myself from falling by grasping at the outstretched boughs. When I had nearly reached the spot from which I thought the shot had come, I saw a man standing near a tree. The next instant he saw me and sprang behind the tree. I caught but a glimpse of the slender figure and gray hair, but it was enough for me. I had found the Colonel again, and I did not mean for him to try a second shot at me better aimed than the first. I sprang behind some rocks where I was adequately sheltered so long as he remained in his present position. I feared that he would try to get a shot at me thinking I was trying to do him harm, and I shifted my position a little, moving farther on behind the wall of rock. I had no intention of firing at him for several reasons, and I recognized that it was a very difficult task for me to take an armed man against whom I had no intention of using arms. But I believed that if I could slip upon him unawares I could overpower him with superior force and strength and disarm him. Ledges of rock were plentiful there, the mountain being broken into an infinite succession of ridges and ravines. Once I slipped on the sleet and crashed into a thicket which stopped me. But the ice knocked off the boughs fell with a rattle-like hail, and I was in a tremor lest the Colonel should fire at me from some point of vantage before I could regain my feet. But the shot did not come, and writing myself, I went on, wishing that my shoes were shod with sharp nails and plenty of them. The ground seemed favorable for my design. The gully up which I was creeping curved around behind the tree that sheltered Colonel Heatherill, and I believed that with caution I could suddenly throw myself upon him from the rear and overwhelm him. I dropped down on my hands and knees, and though my progress was slow I avoided another fall. The Colonel gave no sign. I presumed that he was behind the tree, watching for an attack and seeking an opening in his turn. I rose up a little, trying to peep over the wall of the gully toward the tree, and caught a glimpse of a gray head lifted above the same gully wall, but just around the curve. He dropped back like a flash, and from prudential motives I did the same. The curve of the gully at that point was sharp. In fact it was more of an angle than a curve, and he was only a yard or two from me. As I hugged the wall I could hear his heavy, tired breathing. I thought once of turning about and going back, but I concluded that it would never do. The Colonel had escaped me once, and I would be ashamed to confess to my comrades that he had escaped me twice. I resumed my continuous creep, stealing forward inch by inch until I came to that point in the curve beyond which I could not pass without coming into his sight. Then I gathered myself for a great effort, sprang to my feet, and darted around the curve, ready to spring upon him and surprise him. I encountered another large and living body rushing in my direction, and the encounter was so violent that I fell back on the ice and sleet, half stunned. In a few moments I recovered and sat up. Dr. Ambrose was sitting on the stone and looking at me, his eyes full of reproach. He pointed to a purple contusion on his forehead. You did that, he said. I felt a growing lump over my left ear. You did that, I said. He surveyed me still with reproach. I took you for Colonel Heatherill, he said. I put some reproach into my own gaze. I took you for Colonel Heatherill, too, I said. I expected to take Colonel Heatherill to the hut, he said mournfully. I expected to do the same, I said sadly. Since I can't take the Colonel to the hut, he said, I will take you. Very well, then, I said. While you are taking me there, I will take you, too. Shake hands, Doctor. I'm tremendously glad to see you, you old rebel. We shook hands with the greatest good will. Then he went to the tree and recovered the rifle which was leaning behind it, taken by him in his flight. We started back to the hut, and on the way he gave an account of himself. He had fled from Fort Defiance without any clear object in view except to escape the Colonel's wrath, which he believed would be but temporary. When the sleetstorm came on, he had endured it for a while. At last he reached the hut, built a big fire, warmed himself thoroughly, and then went out to look for the Colonel, thinking that the fierceness of the weather would have killed his rage by this time. Seeing nothing of him, he had fired his rifle twice in the hope of attracting his attention, and was returning to the hut when he caught a glimpse of me and believed by my actions that I was Colonel Heatherill, and moreover that I was Colonel Heatherill still inflamed against him. Then he had hidden behind the tree, hoping just what I had hoped and trying to do it. If it had been the Colonel and he had got the first chance and fired at you, what would you have done, Doctor? I asked. Colonel Heatherill saved my life twice, once at Stone River, and once at Chickamauga, he replied. And I could get no more direct answer out of him. The Doctor looked as if he had been having a hard time. There was no counterfeit about his joy at seeing me. His face was haggard, and scales of ice were on his clothing. I told him about my meeting with the Colonel earlier in the evening, and it seemed to take some of the hope out of him. Colonel has one idea fixed in his head, he said, and I do not think anything can drive it out. I raised my voice and shouted for Crothers, and in a few moments his answering cry came. His meeting with the Doctor was, as that of two veterans should be, joyful, but repressed. We went back to the hut where we found the Army still asleep. But we awoke two of the men, directing them to watch until daylight, while we three lay down upon the floor and went to sleep. Grace's pleasure, when she saw the Doctor in the morning, sound and well, was great, though she said but little. I knew the relief it was to her. But we began at once to organize the search for the Last Rebel. The hut was to remain a base of generations for the present, and despite her protests we insisted that Grace remain there at least that day. I had some hope that the Colonel, pressed by cold and hunger, might return to the hut. But the Doctor shattered this hope by saying that he might find shelter and food elsewhere in the mountains. He was fond of hunting, said the Doctor, and it is more than likely that in such a wilderness he provided one or more little camps besides this for future use. We divided into two parties. Crothers led one and the Doctor the other. I went with the Doctor. I waved my handkerchief as a sign of good cheer to Grace, who stood in the doorway, and we were soon in the mazes of the higher mountains. A good sun came out, and in an hour the weather had turned warm enough to permit snow, but not warm enough to melt the ice and sleep. The clouds soon gathered, obscuring the sun, and for an hour we had a gentle snow which covered the ground a quarter of an inch deep, but did not trouble us as the morning was without wind. It made our footing much less uncertain, and the Doctor drew further encouragement from it as we might find the Colonel's footsteps if he should move about after the snowfall. The Doctor hoped no more than what proved to be the truth, for as the noon hour approached one of the men called attention to footsteps in the snow. We believed they could be no other than the Colonel's, and we followed the trail which led along the hillside over rocks and through scrub. It was difficult to follow, and we might well have credited it to a younger man had not the Doctor assured us that the Colonel was a most agile mountaineer. The trail left the hillside shortly and entered a fairly level bit of country which by a stretch of courtesy one might have called a small plateau. Many scrub bushes grew upon it, but we could follow the footsteps whether they led through the thickets or they open. The Doctor confessed that the region was new to him, but from the direct manner in which the trail led on he did not believe it was strange to Colonel Heatherill. The plateau by and by dipped down into a valley which in its turn gave way to a lot of snow, and knife-edged hills thick set with sharp and pointed stones. But after this we had the plateau again, and the trail was there still before us, though it seemed to lead straight toward a white peak too steep for ascent. The peak was fringed with woods at the base. As we approached these woods with our heads down, our eyes fixed upon the trail of footsteps in the snow, we were hailed in a loud voice and ordered to stop. We saw a little shack built against the trunk of one of the big trees. It was stached over with bark. Under the pent the muzzle of a rifle was poked out at us in the most alarming way. All of us had recognized the voice as that of Colonel Heatherill, and we believed the rifle barrel to be an asset of the same man. The doctor answered the hail with the loud announcement that we were friends. But the Colonel bad us be off at once or he would shoot. Knowing his temper we shifted our ground with great promptness. But we did not leave. Instead we took refuge in the woods and undertook to prepare a plan of campaign. The shack was an exceedingly small affair, but from the roof we saw a piece of old stove-pipe projecting and we guessed that he was provided against the cold. How he stood in the matter of food and water we could not know. But we decided to treat with him at once thinking we could not appeal to his better reason. The doctor hoisted my white handkerchief on the end of a stick and approached the hut. But the Colonel threatened us again with the rifle and was all the more furious because the bearer of the flag was the doctor who had assisted in my escape and therefore was the worst traitor in fort defiance. End of Chapter 6. Recording by David Gore Chapter 7 of The Last Rebel by Joseph A. Alceller This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 7. Besiegers and Besieged The doctor compelled to return, I took the flag and advanced with it. But the Colonel hated a Yankee spy as much as a traitor and warned me off in short order. We gave the flag to one of the soldiers whom the Colonel allowed to approach a little closer. They held a brief dialogue and then our messenger came back to us announcing that the Colonel regarded all his men as traitors or deserters and would parley no further with them. They might besiege him if they would, but he meant to take a last stand for the Confederacy. "'Was he well?' I asked the man. "'I didn't see him at all,' he replied, for he talked through a chink in the wall, but his voice was mighty high and had a crack in it. This confirmed me in my belief that privation and excitement had mastered the Colonel. Nevertheless we must sit down to a siege of the Last Rebel. We arranged our forces in such manner as he could not leave the hut and escape unseen into the further mountains. We waited an hour. Then as the Colonel in his castle made no sign, I and a soldier went back for grace. We found her in the hut, waiting impatiently to hear from us, and she did not show much surprise when I told her that her father had fortified himself against us. She came at once with us, and we sent her to the Colonel's castle. She returned in a quarter of an hour, much cast down, and told us he was in a fever with wild eyes and flushed face. He refused to come out, and nothing she said could move him. He even spoke harsh words to her, saying she had joined his enemies. We sent her back with a couple of blankets and some provisions, and then she returned to us again. The Colonel would allow no second person in his defensive works. It looked like a long siege, and we prepared for it. We soon found Crothers and his party, and we built another shack in the woods, bringing from it the furs and other useful articles in the hut. It was well that we did the work quickly, for grace fell quite ill with hardships and excitement, and soon was in a fever and talking a bit wildly. We put her in the shack on a bed of furs, and Dr. Ambrose, who did not have the title of doctor in vain, attended her and said she would be all right in a day or so. But her illness was a misfortune, for she was the only one who could be considered a strict neutral and could carry messages between our little army and the Colonel. We were sufficient in number to form a picket around Fort Heatherill, for so I named the Colonel's shack, but we were very careful not to come within range of its defender's rifle. One of the men, a good fellow named Kimball, went a little closer than the rest of us, and the prompt discharge of the rifle from Fort Heatherill showed that the Colonel was watching. The bullets skipped across the ice fifty feet short of its mark. Kimball moved farther away. Having posted the men, I made a round and cautioned each to watch faithfully. But the caution was scarcely necessary. Every man there was under heavy obligations to the Colonel for something or other, and all meant to take him alive. It was cold work there on the ice, but we had brought provisions with us, and that supply, coupled with what was stored in the hut, prepared us amply for a siege in form. We made some coffee and served it to the men on picket duty, following it up a little later with a nip of whiskey for each, and they felt quite warm and comfortable. The Colonel, after his rifle shot, rested on his arms and maybe looked to his defences. The piece of old stovepipe which projected through the roof began to smoke, showing that he had firewood and that he, too, was able to keep warm. It looked like a long siege. The general commanding, who was myself, and Crothers, the second in command, held a council of war and decided to postpone operations until nightfall, when Crothers thought he would be able, under cover of the darkness, to steal upon the Colonel and take him. Then we waited for the slow afternoon to limp away. The sun was of a dazzling brightness, but there was no warmth in it. The ice fields glittered under the rays but did not melt. The light was reflected, and with half-shut eyes we watched the peaks and the coated trees. Sometimes faint blue, purple, and green tents showed through the white glare. Crothers said I, if I ever go on another winter campaign like this, I will not forget a pair of green goggles, largest size. I wish I had them now, said Crothers. The glow on the ice fields turned to gold as the sun began to set behind the highest peak. From gold shifted to a blood-red, and as the sun went out of sight faded and left the pale green of a one twilight. These sheets of ice are in our way in more ways than one, said Crothers. They light up the nights so much that I could put a bullet in a silver quarter at twenty paces. Do you think the Colonel could do as well? I asked somewhat anxiously. We thought it well to wait until past midnight when the night would be darkest. So we served supper and hot coffee, relieved the pickets, and waited. The Colonel in his fortress seemed to be content. At least he gave no sign. Dr. Ambrose reported that Miss Heatherill was much better and would be on her feet again in the morning. The night limped as painfully as the day and had the added demerit of being colder. A wind came down from the northeast and there was a raw, sharp edge to it. I shivered and my bones creaked with cold inside the heavy overcoat Crothers had given me. May the good Lord deliver me from any more winter campaigns! The moon, pale and icy, rose, and its chilly rays were reflected from the more chilly ice. Pieces of ice blown from the crusted bowels rattled dryly as they fell. As Crothers had foretold, the white glare of the earth lighted up the night until objects were almost as distinct as by daylight. The outlines of Fort Heatherill were clear. I could even trace the ridges in the bark. Any of us advancing would make a most beautiful target and we stuck to our determination to wait for further darkness. The column of smoke from the Colonel's hut increased as if he too felt the wind cold and would ward it off. Midnight came, and shortly afterward the heavens began to darken. The outlines of Fort Heatherill grew dimmer. I could no longer trace the ridges in the bark. Then the hut itself became an indistinct mass, seeming to wave in the wind which still came down from the mountaintops and presented bayonet points to us. The time seemed favorable for an advance upon the enemy's fortifications. Our plan was very simple. We formed a circle around the hut, intending to contract this circle until we reached the house itself when we would rush in and seize the garrison. The difficult part of it was to steal up so silently that the garrison would not hear us coming. To do it we would be compelled to creep along, taking advantage of every elevation that would shelter us. Crothers and I started from adjacent points in the little wood and set out upon our hazardous advance. The ground was broken and rough and I soon lost sight of him. But despite his efforts to be noiseless I could hear his heavy-sold boots scraping over the ice and his breath puffy like that of a man who was working hard. I dare say I was interrupting the atmosphere in a similar manner, but then I was criticizing Crothers, not myself. I got along pretty well and was halfway to Fort Heatherill. I ceased to hear Crothers for two or three minutes and then I heard him scraping along and puffing as before. As we had come half the distance without trouble or resistance I thought I would go over to him and hold another conference. It seemed to me that we needed at least one more Council of War before attacking the hut if we were to follow strictly the mode of procedure prescribed in the military manuals. Turning about I crept and slid toward him until a little ridge not more than half a foot high divided us. I could see his figure stretched out on the ice and I reached out to touch him. But I was anticipated for he reached up and grasped me by the throat with two very strong hands. Then I saw that instead of stalking Colonel Heatherill he had stalked me. The stalker was stalked and I recognized it in effect as painful as it was alarming. The Colonel seemed to me to be prodigiously strong for the sick man the soldier had reported him to be. His hands compressed my throat so tightly that I could not cry out and my limbs were paralyzed, an unpleasant situation for an invading army I willingly admit. The Colonel's eyes were angry and his face was very red which could be the result both of fever and of wrath. Both I think added to the strength of his arms. He sat up on the ice and held me out at arm's length like a big doll. I knew that Crothers was near and I wanted to cry out instantly and wanted to do it very badly. But for the life of me I could not with that old Confederate's iron fingers on my throat. I had no doubt that Crothers and the men would continue to creep upon the hut, rush into it and find nobody there. Meanwhile I would be turning into a cold corpse on the ice. The Colonel released his hold upon my throat so suddenly that I fell upon my back and gasped, which however was much better than not breathing at all. Why did you do that? I asked, feeling injured in the spirit as well as in the flesh. It was my intention to kill you, he said, but I've changed my mind. Thank heaven! I exclaimed devoutly. I couldn't do it. It was too easy, he said. If that was the reason I was not so thankful. But I considered it good policy not to explain my views just then. Although the Colonel had released me he kept his hand on the butt of a very large pistol in his hand. I thought it wise to withdraw. Good evening, Colonel, I said, giving the military salute as well as I could in my undignified position. Good evening, he said. This is a sortie of mine, understand, and if I have chosen to spare your life it is for reasons of my own. I am going back to my house, and you would better notify your friends that I am awake and on guard. It may save them much hard work and a little loss of blood. He slipped back over the ice toward the fort with an agility marvellous in an old and ill man. Despite his calm manner I had no doubt that fever was still in his veins. Being so nervous and excitable when well it was natural that he should be calm when ill, especially in certain stages. I could see him for at least twenty feet and then he disappeared in the darkness that now clothed the hut like a mask on a man's face. I felt no doubt that he was inside ready to shoot down the first man who attempted to enter after him. In this emergency I thought it best to find Crothers, notify him that the attack had failed, and withdraw our forces. I believe a prudent general always withdraws when things go wrong. Moreover I was getting very cold. Embracing the earth when it has an inch coat of ice on its bosom is no such delightful proceeding. Putting my ear to the ice I heard the scraping of Crothers's hobnails not fifteen feet away. I was sure that I was making no mistake this time and I speedily overhauled him to find that it was the real Crothers. He coincided with my view that it would be better to withdraw like the King of France of the ancient Rhime and try again. He gave a whistle which may have been a part of the Confederate set of signals, though I don't know, and in a few minutes our entire army had retreated and assembled at our own hut, casualties none, and the enemy still in possession of his defences. As we had satisfactory proof that the Colonel was vigilant we decided to end the military operations for that night and devote what was left of it to keeping warm. The hut was occupied by Miss Heatheral whom the doctor reported to be in a sound slumber and doing well. As all the space under the shelter was necessarily reserved for the lady we decided to build a big fire near the hut and sit around it until morning. It was a hard task owing to the icy condition of the firewood, but we got it to going at last and the cheerful crackling blaze put heart in us all. We had no fear that the Colonel would come out and shoot at us in the light. He was not that kind of a soldier, and besides his plan as far as we could divine it was to escape from us, not to inflict any special injury upon us. Dr. Ambrose was somewhat cast down at our failure to seize the Colonel at the first attempt, but his spirits were revived presently and when I asked him to tell me about some of the old battles in which he and the Colonel and the others present except myself had fought he became animated and time ceased to limp. An hour of this and the doctor broke off abruptly. As Crothers and I had been in the thick of campaign all the time he suggested that we roll ourselves in our blankets and try to get a little sleep by the fire. We followed his advice and in five minutes I was dead to the world and its vanities. But presently I was dragged back out of infinite depths and told to sit up and open my eyes. Why, I have just closed them and it was at your suggestion, I said to my brothers, you've been asleep for the last three hours. Wake up and look at the weather. I thought the weather a trifling pretext to awake a man from such pleasant slumbers, but when I looked about I saw better. The air had turned much warmer. There was a smack of wet in it which to an experienced man was certain proof of snow to come and more of it too than the skim of the day before. Even in the skies naturally dark from the night we could see heavy masses of clouds rolling. It will begin inside of a half hour, said Dr. Ambrose, and a snowstorm in the mountains is no light matter, doctor, I said. Certainly not. A deep snow would be sure to put a great check upon our military operations. It might even make our own situation precarious, for one must have food and keep warm. We bestirred ourselves with the utmost vigor gathering firewood and soon had a huge heap of it beside the hut. But the snow came inside the doctor's predicted half hour and with ten minutes to spare. The clouds opened and had just dropped down. The skim of ice was soon covered which was an advantage saving us some falls and bruises, but it impeded the work on our new house. It was perfectly obvious to us all that we must have shelter from such a snowfall. We were trying to make a sort of rude shed with sticks and brushwood in the lee of a cliff. My comrades were old hands at the business, and it was marvellous how expert they were. With some sticks and brushwood, two or three blankets to help out on the roof which they banked up in ridges at the sides, they made a comfortable place. I was busy on this rude structure and trying to keep the snow out of my eyes when someone tapped me on the shoulder and said, You are a promising architect, Mr. West. I looked around in the greatest surprise and beheld Grace Heatherill, pale but otherwise showing no traces of illness. The heavy dark cloak which she wore when we started was buttoned high up around her throat and a neat dark fur cap enclosed her hair. She looked very handsome and picturesque. I congratulate you, Miss Heatherill, on your speedy recovery," I said. It was merely nervousness and excitement, she replied. A draft of something very bitter that Dr. Ambrose gave me and a good sleep have restored me. Very well, I said, thinking to cheer her up, then there is no reason why you should not help in the making of the camp and show that you are a better architect than I am. I am mountain bread in part, at least, she said, and I know hard chips. What may I do? Take hold of the end of that pole, I said, and lift. She seized it and with strong young muscles lifted it up. I was at the other end and together we swung it into place. That does pretty well for a rabble lass," I said. Here you are the rabble, she said, for this is our territory and you are our prisoner. What's this? What's this? cried Dr. Ambrose. His back had been turned toward us and he had not seen the approach of Miss Heatherill. Just up from a fever and out here in the snow, go back in the hut. There was sound sense in his command and I added my advice to it, but she would not go until we assured her that Colonel Heatherill was safe in his own hut and pointed to the curl of smoke which still came from his stove-pipe. On second thought we took our own little hut and moved it boldly to the shed, deeming at best that all our forces should keep as close together as possible. Then our main task finished, we took breakfast and watched the snow casting an occasional glance toward Fort Heatherill. We were glad on the whole now that the snow had come, for if we should be snowed up the Colonel would be treated likewise and perhaps it would induce him to hoist the white flag. The day had come, but it was a very dark and dreary pattern of a day. I have seen some people who imagined that Kentucky has a warm climate. It may have in summer, and so for the matter of that has Manitoba, but for real deep snows or piercing cold that goes right through your bones and comes out on the other side I will match the Kentucky mountains against anything this side of the Arctic Circle. The snow that morning seemed bent upon making a record. Some of the flakes looked like big white goose feathers. Nor was there any nonsense about them. They came straight down and took their appointed place on the earth. Others immediately fell and covered them up, and in turn were served the same way. There was no wind at all. The clouds were drawn like a huge dirty blanket across the sky and gave to everything except the snow itself a muddy grayish-brown tint. Presently we heard a sharp report in the adjacent forest and then another followed speedily by another and many others until they blended often together like a rolling rifle fire. A dreaming veteran might have thought he was back in the wars, but none of us stirred for each knew that it was the boughs of the trees breaking with a snap under the weight of new snow. That might scare a man who was never in the woods in big snowtime, said Crothers, who had lighted a pipe and was taking things calmly. The snow deepened faster than I had ever seen it before. I could mark it by the way the surface lines crept up the side of our rude shed. A few hours of such industrious clouds and the mountains would be past traveling. The skies made promise of nothing else. There was no break in the dawn expanse. The defiant curl of smoke from the Colonel's little fort still rose. I devoutly hoped that he would remember soon to come out and join us. Then we could go back together to Fort Defiance and make merry behind stout walls that cared nothing for snow and cold. But his hut remained tightly closed and the snow was deepening as fast as ever. Since the Colonel would make no sign it became evident to me that we must. I called again my Council of Officers, the Doctor, and Crothers. There is nothing else for us to do, I said, but send Miss Heatherill to the hut and see if she cannot persuade her father to join us. He has said that he would not admit her a second time, said the Doctor. She must push her way in, I said. The door to that hut is not strong and a father would not fire upon his own daughter. They agreed that my plan was the only thing feasible and we called Miss Heatherill. She was eager to undertake the mission. She had been waiting to propose it but held back, expecting us to act first. She started at once toward the hut which was only two or three hundred yards away but her progress was slow. The snow which had now attained a great depth blocked the way. We watched her breaking her path through it toward the hut where the Colonel was silent and invisible. The little building seemed almost crushed under its weight of snow but the languid coil of smoke still curled from the mouth of the pipe. Miss Heatherill was within twenty feet of the door. The Colonel hasn't taken notice yet, said the Doctor. It would be funny if she should find him sound asleep and in our power for hours if we had only thought to take him. I watched with eager interest as the twenty feet between Miss Heatherill and the door diminished. She reached the door and knocked. As she stood there and waited I guessed that she received no answer. She knocked a second time, waited a minute or so, and then pushed the door open and entered. She ran out again in a moment, uttering a cry and turning a dismayed face toward us. We ran to the hut as fast as we could, plunging through the snow. I was the first to arrive. When I thrust my head in at the open door I saw that the place was empty. Some coals still smoldered upon the flat stone which served for a rude fireplace. A dressed dearskin lay in the corner, but the Colonel was gone beyond the doubt. One large man would nearly fill the place. He's taken his rifle and ammunition with him, said Crothers, so he's all right. I was glad that he had called attention to the fact so promptly, for it seemed to indicate deliberation and not delirium on the Colonel's part. There was no need to ask what next from the men about me. Their obligations to the Colonel would never permit them to abandon the search for him, as long as one hope that he was alive existed. But the great snow was a formidable obstacle to any expedition. How shall we go about it? I asked hopelessly of Dr. Ambrose. There is no trail, he replied. The falling snow covers up his footsteps a half minute after he makes them, but he must have gone up that slash through the hills there. It is the easiest route from here, and the one a man with no fixed idea in his head would most likely take. There was a general agreement with the doctor's opinion, and we planned our pursuit at once. Four men would remain at the camp and protect it, and relieve us, should we return exhausted and without the fugitive. Miss Heatheral would remain with them. She made some demure, saying she was a good mountaineer and sighting-proof, but she yielded to the obvious fact that a woman could make but little progress through the deep snow. We will be sure to bring him back, I said to her when we started. Take care of yourself, too, she said. For my sake only, I asked. For all our sakes, she replied. But she blushed a little despite the anxiety which was foremost in her mind. We passed up the defile, and then our party spread out like a fan. I was convinced that the snow would not have gone far. The snow was an added obstacle to the naturally difficult character of the mountains. It was still pouring down, half-blinding us, and compelling us to scrutinize every inch of the way lest the loosening drifts should carry us in an avalanche to the bottom of some precipice which would be highly disagreeable. CHAPTER VIII. THE RESULTS OF A SNOW SLIDE Dr. Ambrose and I stuck together, picking our way through the storm. Snow-covered mountains under an angry sky are not a cheerful prospect, and the work was fearfully tiresome. Down my boot would crush under my weight through a foot of snow, and to lift it out again was like drawing a wedge from a log. It was winter, but I grew hot, and my brow produced sweat. My breath shortened, and my muscles said they were tired. The doctor noticed me. You'd better go back, Mr. West, he said. This is very exhausting business for one who is not used to it. But I was a bit ashamed of playing out so soon and insisted upon going on. He said nothing then, but when he raised the question a half hour later I was forced to confess that he was right. A talkered-out man was of no use on such a trail. You'd better go straight back to the camp, and I've no doubt you'll find one or two there who played out before you did, he said. Leaving him regretfully, I faced about and began to plow my way through the snow on the return journey. I had noted the landmarks well and recognized them easily. The snow, still falling, had buried all trace of our footsteps under two or three inches of white. I tugged along with a fair degree of patience, wishing at the same time that I was back at the camp drying my boots and drinking a hot toddy. Unpicturesque, but pleasant occupations. But walking beat wishing, and at last I saw the smoke of our campfire over a hill. I increased my speed trying to make a run through the deep snow. I passed near the edge of a cliff, but no nearer than we had gone when we started on the search. I forgot that the snow had grown deeper and more weight was pressing down upon the slopes. When I was nearest the edge the snow seemed to slip from under my feet. The mountain tilted up at a new angle. There was the rumble of tons of snow sliding over the steeps, and away it went in a huge white avalanche bearing me who had started it upon its crest, sick with sudden fear. The itch of life was in my fingers. It and no thought of mine made me reach out and grasp at the sturdy shrubs which grew on the mountainside. With each handful I hung on and shouted and kicked. Big waves of snow tumbled over me and loosened my arms in their sockets, but I swung to my brave bushes until I had received my last dose of snow and the slope was swept clean. I managed to get my toes into a cleft and my arms felt better. My head was beginning to think and come to the relief of instinct. I saw that I was about ten feet from the crest of the cliff, which was not far, but too far. I tried to draw myself up by the bushes, but I was no sailor and I failed. Then I shouted with all my might. I had seen the smoke of the camp just before my fall and I hoped my voice would reach the men there. I never knew before that I had such a good voice. Hello! I shouted. The mountains took up the cry and sent it back to me. What's the matter down there? cried out someone. The matter, I said angrily. There's no matter at all. I came down here merely for amusement. I do this sort of thing often. I looked up and saw the red face of Colonel Heatherill peeping over the brink at me. Ah! it's young West, the Yankee spy, he said. I'm young West, I'll admit, but I'm no Yankee spy, I replied. I insist that you are a Yankee spy, he said, in an infernally calm and convincing manner. What proof can you give that you are not? Colonel, I cried, and I'm sure that my tone was convincing. For heaven's sake, drop that Yankee spy business and get me out of this. Sir, he said very stiffly, I have accused you of being a Yankee spy and I will compel you to admit that you are a Yankee spy. Colonel, I shouted, my arms are growing tired and so are my toes, and it is at least two hundred feet to the bottom. Sir, he said, still very stiff and haughty, I despise falsehoods, and so do all Southern gentlemen. You are a Yankee spy and you still have the face to deny it. Pull me up, Colonel, I cried, I'm getting awful tired. Are you not a Yankee spy, he asked. I thought I felt some of the muscles in my arms cracking, the time to despise trifles had arrived. Yes, Colonel, I said, I'll admit that I'm a Yankee spy or anything else you want to charge against me. Good enough, he said. Now when I let my coat down, grip it with your right hand and hold on as if you had grown to it. He pulled off his confederate overcoat, curved his left arm around a jutting rock and with his right hand lowered the coat to me. I embedded my right hand in the gray garment and grasping with the other at the short shrubs tried to scramble up. I did get about half way but as I could find no more crevices for my toes I hung there limp and exhausted. I can't do it, Colonel, I gassed. You must, he said. He tried to draw me up but I was too heavy a weight for a single arm. He was half over the gulf himself but his left arm was wound like a rock around the rock. His face was red as a beat and his breath was short but he showed no inclination to let go. You can't do it, Colonel, I gassed. Save yourself. No need for both of us to drop. What sort of a man do you take me to be? he asked indignantly. He breathed hard and made a great effort to pull me up. A flake of blood appeared on his temple. I was raised up about a foot and got a new grip on some of the shrubs but there I stopped. I could not lift myself up any farther nor could the Colonel lift me. I could hear men plunging through the snow in their haste so my shouts had been heard by more than the Colonel. My voice to its best uses again. The Colonel said nothing but how he hung on to that old army overcoat. The men had begun to shout and I never ceased wanting them to make sure the direction. Weather-steamed faces looked over the brink. Two or three pairs of hands grasped the overcoat and pulled me up. Nobody else seized the Colonel and I have but a hazy idea of the next five minutes. A man who has been hanging at the verge of death gets tired in both brain and muscle and I needed rest. When things came around all right again, I was sitting up on the snow and drinking out of a brown bottle. The Colonel was lying on that blessed overcoat, his head on his daughter's lap and his face quite pale. They were binding a white cloth around his temples. What's the matter? I asked weakly. An old wound on his head has broken, replied one of the men in a low voice. I'm afraid he's in a pretty bad way. I put down the brown bottle which had comforted me and I saw that the Colonel, in fact, was in a bad way. He was unconscious and his breathing was weak. He seemed to have collapsed after a season of fever and excitement followed by the great physical strain put upon him by the attempted rescue of me. I was struck with remorse. My arrival at Fort Defiance had caused all this trouble. But my going there was an accident, not a matter that I could have helped. I sent one of the men after Dr. Ambrose, pointing out the direction in which he had gone and urging the man to make all haste. Then we lifted the Colonel and carried him to the hut where with overcoats and blankets we fixed up a warm bed for him and did what else we could until the doctor came, which was not till late. As about an even chance, Miss Heatherill said the doctor after he had made his examination. The odds might be his if I had hear all that I need, but this is no hospital. I think it is best to tell you the exact truth. I thought so too. There are women and women. Some are brave and some are not. I like the brave one's best. She became chief nurse at once. Lucky it is for a man ill in such a place to have a woman's care. I, still feeling remorse, although my reason told me I was not at fault, helped all I could. The snow ceased, and toward evening the Colonel grew stronger. Dr. Ambrose had managed to close up the reopened wound and stopped the bleeding, but a burning fever came over him, and he began to talk very wildly. Then I saw how the things on which a man's mind is centered when he wakes come out again in sleep or delirium. His talk was all of the war and the old battles which he was fighting as if he rode and charged in them again. I who loved the Union could not help feeling a deep sympathy for him. He seemed to have taken the matter so much to heart. When he rambled on to the end of the war, that is, the end according to history, and repeated again and again his declaration to stand out forever, I was touched and touched very deeply. Someone brought him the news that Lee was dead. I will not believe it, he cried in his delirium. It's a lie. He is living, and he will lead us again. He rose suddenly, and fixing his fever-filled eyes upon me, demanded of me to bear witness that it was a lie. Yes, Colonel, I said as soothingly as I could. It's a lie. The general is living, and he is your commander still. I think I will get forgiveness for my own lie. After a while he sank into something which resembled sleep more and delirium less, and was quiet. Miss Heatheral stepped to the little door for air. Only she and I were there. Miss Heatheral, I said, reproaching myself, how you must blame me for bringing all this grief upon you and yours. You could not help it, she said very gently, and perhaps, as I told you before, it may be for the best after all. A rough cure may be the best cure. Dr. Ambrose came up then and insisted that we should take rest while others watched. We fenced off a corner of the camp for grace. I sought my own place, and was soon sound asleep. In the morning I found the Colonel in delirium again, though not so violent as he had been in the early part of the night. He was talking about me. I seemed to weigh upon his conscience as he had weighed upon mine. He had never meant to do it, he said. He would not have executed me, though he still seemed to think that his military duty commanded it. At any rate he was apologizing to me in his sleep when a man's talk speaks his thoughts and no falsehoods or evasions. How could I execute him, he said, and we slept under the same blanket too. The second attack of delirium did not last long, and Dr. Ambrose then said that the patient's progress was good. If we could only get him back to Fort Defiance he would guarantee his recovery. The snow had ceased and the clouds had gone, leaving a cheerful sun shining on a white wilderness. We decided to undertake the journey to Fort Defiance, and our preparations were brief. We had sufficient skill and material to make a rude litter for the Colonel, and we lifted him gently into it. Then we gathered up our baggage and set out, four men carrying the litter and relieved at brief intervals by the other sets. We had to trample away through the deep snow and there was plenty of hard work for us, but we became a cheerful little army. The Colonel was asleep in his litter and seemed to be growing steadily better. The doctor reported that his pulse was stronger and his fever was departing. Grace passed from sadness into cheerfulness, almost gaiety. I called her our vivandiere. She replied she was proud of the place. You heard what my father said about you in his delirium, she said, when we became the last two of the procession, he would not have executed you. Colonel Heatherill is a fine man and he has my gratitude, I replied, not liking to see her under the necessity of excusing him. He saved my life a second time. If it hadn't been for him I'd now be a very cold corpse at the bottom of a two hundred foot precipice under about fifteen feet of snow. That would have been a chilly tomb, she said gaiety, but it was not for you and we are all thankful. The weather, it seemed, wished to make some amends for its previous wickedness. The sun was bright and the air fresh and full of tonic. Only the snow stood in our way. But we made good progress in spite of it. At night we devised another rude camp and took plenty of sleep. The Colonel continued to improve and his head became quite clear again. He talked a little but in a weak tone and the doctor ordered him to be silent for his own good. He obeyed like a little child. In fact his change in manner and appearance was very striking. He was no longer the haughty, high-tempered Colonel. He was crushed and forlorn. All the spirit seemed to have gone out of him. It was most pitiful. I knew he looked upon himself as a defeated man. We caught the first glimpse of Fort Defiance that afternoon. I saw the comb of its roof shining like a great white sword-blade in the sun. The valley, like the mountains, was in garments of white. But the sight of the houses and fields, under snow though they were, warmed the heart after the weary tramp among the clefts and peaks. We descended the slopes and entered the valley. It was my turn to be one of the four at the Colonel's litter. As we swung along at a good pace I noticed suddenly that the old man had put his hands to his face and a tear was dropping between two fingers. I was silent for a while from fact, but as he did not take his hands away I asked at last, though quietly as I could, what is the matter, Colonel? Do you feel worse? He took his hands away and his face was like that of a dead man. Not worse in body, Mr. West, he replied, but worse, much worse in mind. I have failed in everything and through the treachery of my own people. You have corrupted them all. Even my own daughter has turned against me. I am going to Fort Defiance, which was our last stronghold, a prisoner. Colonel, said I, what are you thinking about? What are you dreaming of? You, a prisoner? Fort Defiance betrayed? Look yonder. We were near the fort now and I pointed to the Confederate flag that waved over it, folding and unfolding in the clear frosty breeze. The Colonel looked and his face changed in a moment from death to life. The blood flowed into his cheeks. His eyes sparkled like a soldier's eager for battle. Why, what does that mean? he exclaimed. Mean, I said. It means that you've been dreaming or you wouldn't talk about being betrayed, a prisoner. What made you rush off in such a haste? Dr. Ambrose's suggestion of surrender was a sudden thought, of which he has repented. Fort Defiance is as loyal to you as ever. You are its absolute commander. I am the prisoner, not you. Dr. Ambrose had been walking by the litter. The Colonel beckoned to him. Is this so, Dr. Ambrose? he asked. Is what Mr. West tells me true? Am I still master of my own? Certainly. How could it be otherwise? replied the doctor with great emphasis. What are your orders, Colonel? Tell one of the men, he said, in a voice very firm despite its physical weakness, to go on ahead to the fort and direct those who are there to salute us as we approach. Mr. West, you are my prisoner, but there are certain circumstances in your favour which I will consider. You shall have the liberty of the fort and valley if you pledge your word not to attempt to escape for the present. With pleasure, Colonel, I said, and thank you for your kindness. Praise, he said to his daughter, remember that while Mr. West is our prisoner, he is to be treated as our guest. See to it, for I am afraid this unfortunate illness will interfere somewhat with my duties as host. I will do my best, she said. We proceeded at a deliberate pace across the plain. As we came close to the fort, the little brass cannon boomed again and again. The draw bridge was down, and the men whom we left at the fort were drawn up at parade in their best uniforms on either side of the bridge-head. They saluted as the Colonel rode proudly and triumphantly between their lines in his litter. He looked up at the flag which he loved so well, took off his hat, his face flushing with pride, and thus we carried him into the fort. End of Chapter 8, Recording by David Gore