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John Richardson >> Hardscrabble
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14 This etext was produced by Gardner Buchanan with help from
Charles Franks and Distributed Proofers.
HARDSCRABBLE; or, The Fall of Chicago
A Tale of Indian Warfare
by John Richardson
CHAPTER I.
It was on a beautiful day in the early part of the month
of April, 1812, that four persons were met in a rude
farm-house, situated on the Southern Branch of the Chicago
river, and about four miles distant from the fort of that
name. They had just risen from their humble mid-day meal,
and three of them were now lingering near the fire-place,
filled with blazing logs, which, at that early season,
diffused a warmth by no means disagreeable, and gave an
air of cheerfulness to the interior of the smoke-discolored
building.
He who appeared to be master of the establishment was a
tall, good looking man of about forty-five, who had,
evidently, been long a denizen of the forest, for his
bronzed countenance bore traces of care and toil, while
his rugged, yet well-formed hands conveyed the impression
of the unceasing war he had waged against the gigantic
trees of this Western land. He was habited in a
hunting-frock of grey homespun, reaching about half way
down to his knee, and trimmed with a full fringe of a
somewhat darker hue. His trowsers were of the same
material, and both were girt around his loins by a common
belt of black leather, fastened by a plain white buckle,
into which was thrust a sheath of black leather also,
containing a large knife peculiar to the backwoodsmen of
that day. His feet were encased in moccasins, and on his
head, covered with strong dark hair, was carelessly donned
a slouched hat of common black felt, with several plaited
folds of the sweet grass, of the adjoining prairie for
a band. He was seemingly a man of strong muscular power,
while his stern dark eye denoted firmness and daring.
The elder of the two men, to whom this individual stood,
evidently, in the character of a superior, was a short
thick-set person of about fifty, with huge whiskers that,
originally black, had been slightly grizzled by time.
His eyebrows were bushy and overhanging, and almost
concealed the small, and twinkling eyes, which it required
the beholder to encounter more than once before he could
decide their true color to be a dark gray. A blanket coat
that had once been white, but which the action of some
half dozen winters had changed into a dirty yellow,
enveloped his rather full form, around which it was
confined by a coarse worsted sash of mingled blue and
red, thickly studded with minute white beads. His trowsers,
with broad seams, after the fashion of the Indian legging,
were of a dark crimson, approaching to a brick-dust color,
and on his feet he wore the stiff shoe-pack, which, with
the bonnet bleu on his grizzled head, and the other parts
of his dress already described, attested him to be what
he was--a French Canadian. Close at his heels, and moving
as he moved, or squatted on his haunches, gazing into
the face of his master when stationary, was a large dog
of the mongrel breed peculiar to the country--evidently
with wolf blood in his veins.
His companion was of a different style of figure and
costume. He was a thin, weak-looking man, of middle
height, with a complexion that denoted his Saxon origin.
Very thin brows, retrousse nose, and a light gray eye in
which might be traced an expression half simple, half
cunning, completed the picture of this personage, whose
lank body was encased in an old American uniform of faded
blue, so scanty in its proportions that the wrists of
the wearer wholly exposed themselves beneath the short,
narrow sleeves, while the skirts only "shadowed not
concealed," that part of the body they had been originally
intended to cover. A pair of blue pantaloons, perfectly
in keeping, on the score of scantiness and age, with the
coat, covered the attenuated lower limbs of the wearer,
on whose head, moreover, was stuck a conical cap that
had all the appearance of having been once a portion of
the same uniform, and had only undergone change in the
loss of its peak. A small black leather, narrow ridged
stock was clasped around his thin, and scare-crow neck,
and that so tightly that it was the wonder of his companions
how strangulation had so long been avoided. A dirty, and
very coarse linen shirt, showed itself partially between
the bottom of the stock, and the uppermost button of the
coat, which was carefully closed, while his feet were
protected from the friction of the stiff, though nearly
wornout, military shoes, by wisps of hay, that supplied
the absence of the sock. This man was about five and
thirty.
The last of the little party was a boy. He was a raw-boned
lad of about fourteen years of age, and of fair complexion,
with blue eyes, and an immense head of bushy hair, of
the same hue, which seemed never to have known the use
of the comb. His feet were naked, and his trowsers and
shirt, the only articles of dress upon him at the moment,
were of a homespun somewhat resembling in color the
hunting frock of his master. A thick black leather strap
was also around his loins--evidently part of an old bridle
rein.
The two men first described, drew near the fire and
lighted their pipes. The ex-militaire thrust a quid of
tobacco into his cheek, and taking up a small piece of
pine board that rested against the chimney corner, split
a portion off this with his jack-knife, and commenced
whittling. The boy busied himself in clearing the table,
throwing occasionally scraps of bread and dried venison,
which had constituted the chief portion of the meal, to
the dog, which, however, contrary to custom, paid little
attention to these marks of favor, but moved impatiently,
at intervals, to the door, then returning, squatted
himself again on his haunches, at a short distance from
his master, and uttering a low sound betwixt a whine and
a growl, looked piteously up into his face.
"Vat the devil is de matter wid you, Loup Garou?" remarked
the Canadian at length, as, removing the pipe from his
lips, he stretched his legs, and poised himself in his
low wood-bottomed chair, putting forth his right hand at
the same time to his canine follower. "You not eat, and
you make noise as if you wish me to see one racoon in de
tree."
"Loup Garou don't prate about coons I guess," drawled
the man in the faded uniform, without, however, removing
his eyes from the very interesting occupation in which
he was engaged. "That dog I take it, Le Noir, means
something else--something more than we human critters
know. By gosh, boss," looking for the first time at him
who stood in that position to the rest of the party--"If
WE can't smell the varmint, I take it Loup Garou does."
At this early period of civilization, in these remote
countries, there was little distinction of rank between
the master and the man--the employer and the employed.
Indeed the one was distinguished from the other only by
the instructions given and received, in regard to certain
services to be performed. They labored together--took
their meals together--generally smoked together--drank
together--conversed together, and if they did not
absolutely sleep together, often reposed in the same
room. There was, therefore, nothing extraordinary in the
familiar tone in which the ci-devant soldier now addressed
him whose hired help he was. The latter, however, was in
an irritable mood, and he answered sharply.
"What have you got into your foolish head now, Ephraim
Giles? You do nothing but prophesy evil. What varmint do
you talk of, and what has Loup Garou to do with it? Speak,
what do you mean?--if you mean anything at all."
As he uttered this half rebuke, he rose abruptly from
his chair, shook the ashes from his pipe, and drew himself
to his full height, with his back to the fire. There had
been nothing very remarkable in the observation made by
the man to whom he had addressed himself, but he was in
a peculiar state of mind, that gave undue importance to
every word, sounding, as it did, a vague presentiment of
some coming evil, which the very singular manner of the
dog had created, although he would scarcely acknowledge
this to himself.
The man made no reply, but continued whittling, humming,
at the same time, the air of "Yankee Doodle."
"Answer me, Ephraim Giles," peremptorily resumed his
master; "leave off that eternal whittling of yours, if
you can, and explain to me your meaning."
"Etarnal whittling! do you call it, Boss? I guess it's
no such thing. No man knows better nor you, that, if I
can whittle the smallest stick in creation, I can bring
down the stoutest tree as well as ere a fellow in Michigan.
Work is work--play is play. It's only the difference, I
reckon, of the axe and the knife."
"Will you answer my question like a man, and not like a
fool, as you are?" shouted the other, stooping, and
extending his left hand, the fingers of which he insinuated
into the stock already described, while, with a powerful
jerk, he both brought the man to his feet, and the blood
into his usually cadaverous cheek.
Ephraim Giles, half-throttled, and writhing with pain,
made a movement as if he would have used the knife in a
much less innocent manner than whittling, but the quick,
stern eye of his master, detected the involuntary act,
and his hand, suddenly relinquishing its hold of the
collar, grasped the wrist of the soldier with such a
vice-like pressure, that the fingers immediately opened,
and the knife fell upon the hearth.
The violence of his own act, brought Mr. Heywood at once
to a sense of the undue severity he had exercised towards
his servant, and he immediately said, taking his hand:
"Ephraim Giles, forgive me, but it was not intended. Yet,
I know not how it is, the few words you spoke just now
made me anxious to know what you meant, and I could not
repress my impatience to hear your explanation."
The soldier had never before remarked so much dignity of
manner about his Boss, as he termed Mr. Heywood, and this
fact, added to the recollection of the severe handling
he had just met with, caused him to be a little more
respectful in his address.
"Well, I reckon," he said, picking up his knife, and
resuming his whittling, but in a less absorbed manner,
"I meant no harm, but merely that Loup Garou can nose an
Injin better than ere a one of us."
"Nose an Indian better than any one of us! Well, perhaps
he can--he sees them every day, but what has that to do
with his whining and growling just now?"
"Well, I'll tell you, Boss, what I mean, more plain-like.
You know that patch of wood borderin' on the prairie,
where you set me to cut, t'other day?"
"I do. What of that?"
"Well, then, this mornin' I was cuttin' down as big an
oak as ever grew in Michigan, when, as it went thunderin'
through the branches, with noise enough to scare every
buffalo within a day's hunt, up started, not twenty yards
from it's tip, ten or a dozen or so of Injins, all gruntin'
like pigs, and looking as fierce as so many red devils.
They didn't look quite pleasant, I calcilate."
"Indeed," remarked Mr. Heywood, musingly; "a party of
Pottawattamies I presume, from the Fort. We all know
there is a large encampment of them in the neighborhood,
but they are our friends."
"May-be so," continued Ephraim Giles, "but these varmint
didn't look over friendly, and then I guess the
Pottawattamies don't dress in war paint, 'cept when they
dance for liquor."
"And are you quite sure these Indians were in their war
paint?" asked his master, with an ill-concealed look of
anxiety.
"No mistake about it," replied Giles, still whittling,
"and I could almost swear, short as the squint was I got
of 'em, that they were part of those who fought us on
the Wabash, two years ago."
"How so, den, you are here, Gile. If dey wicked Injin,
how you keep your funny little cap, an' your scalp under
de cap?"
This question was asked by the Canadian, who had hitherto,
while puffing his pipe, listened indifferently to the
conversation, but whose attention had now become arrested,
from the moment that his fellow-laborer had spoken of
the savages, so strangely disturbed by him.
"Well, I don't exactly know about that, myself," returned
the soldier, slightly raising his cap and scratching his
crown, as if in recollection of some narrowly escaped
danger. "I reckon, tho', when I see them slope up like
a covey of red-legged pattridges, my heart was in my
mouth, for I looked for nothin' else but that same
operation: but I wur just as well pleased, when, after
talkin' their gibberish, and makin' all sorts of signs
among themselves, they made tracks towards the open
prairie."
"And why did you not name this, the instant you got home?"
somewhat sternly questioned Mr. Heywood.
"Where's the use of spilin' a good dinner?" returned the
soldier. "It was all smokin' hot when I came in from
choppin', and I thought it best for every man to tuck it
in before I said a word about it. Besides, I reckon I
don't know as they meant any harm, seein' as how they
never carried off my top-knot;--only it was a little
queer they were hid in that way in the woods, and looked
so fierce when they first jumped up in their nasty paint."
"Who knows," remarked Mr. Heywood, taking down his rifle
from the side of the hut opposite to the chimney, and
examining the priming, "but these fellows may have tracked
you back, and are even now, lurking near us. Ephraim
Giles, you should have told me of this before."
"And so," replied the soldier, "I was goin' to, when Loup
Garou began with his capers. Then it was I gave a parable
like, about his scentin' the varmint better nor we human
critters could."
"Ephraim Giles," said Mr. Heywood, sharply, while he
fixed his dark eye upon him, as if he would have read
his inmost soul, "you say that you have been a soldier,
and fought with our army on the Wabash. Why did you leave
the service?"
"Because," drawled the ex-militaire, with a leering
expression of his eye, "my captin was a bad judge of good
men when he had 'em, and reckoned I was shammin' when I
fell down rale sick, and was left behind in a charge made
on the Injins at Tippecanoe. I couldn't stand the abuse
he gave me for this, and so I left him."
"Cool, indeed," sneered Mr. Heywood; "now then, Ephraim
Giles, hear my opinion. Your captain thought you were a
coward, for he judged you from your conduct. I, too,
judge you from your conduct, and have no hesitation in
pronouncing you to be a rogue or a fool."
"Well, I want to know!" was the only rejoinder of the
man, as he went on unconcernedly with his whittling.
"Le Noir," said his master to the Canadian, who, imitating
his example, had taken down a long duck gun from the same
side of the hut, "take your dog with you and reconnoitre
in the neighborhood. You speak Indian, and if any of
these people are to be seen, ascertain who they are and
why--"
Here he was interrupted by the gradually approaching
sounds of rattling deer hoofs, so well known as composing
one of the lower ornaments of the Indian war-dress, while,
at the same moment, the wild moaning of Loup Garou, then
standing at the front door-way, was renewed even more
plaintively than before.
Mr. Heywood's cheek blanched. It was not with fear, for
he was a man incapable of fear in the common acceptation
of the word, but independently of certain vague
apprehensions for others, his mind had been in a great
degree unhinged by an unaccountable presentiment of evil,
which instinctively had come over it that day. It was
this, that, inducing a certain irresoluteness of thought
and action, had led him into a manifestation of peevish
contradiction in his address to Ephraim Giles. There are
moments, when, without knowing why, the nerves of the
strongest--the purposes of the wisest, are unstrung--and
when it requires all our tact and self-possession to
conceal from others, the momentary weakness we almost
blush to admit to ourselves.
But there was no time for reflection. The approach to
the door was suddenly shaded, and in the next instant
the dark forms of three or four savages, speedily followed
by others, amounting in all to twelve, besides their
chief, who was in the advance, crossed the threshold,
and, without uttering a word, either of anger or salutation,
squatted themselves upon the floor. They were stout,
athletic warriors, the perfect symmetry of whose persons
could not be concealed even by the hideous war-paint with
which they were thickly streaked--inspiring anything but
confidence in the honesty or friendliness of their
intentions. The head of each was shaved and painted as
well as his person, and only on the extreme crown had
been left a tuft of hair, to which were attached feathers,
and small bones, and other fantastic ornaments peculiar
to their race--a few of them carried American rifles--the
majority, the common gun periodically dealt out to the
several tribes, as presents from the British Government,
while all had in addition to their pipe-tomahawks the
formidable and polished war-club.
Such visitors, and so armed, were not of a description
to remove the apprehensions of the little party in the
farm-house. Their very silence, added to their dark and
threatening looks, created more than mere suspicion--a
certainty of evil design--and deeply did Mr. Heywood
deplore the folly of Ephraim Giles in failing to apprise
him of his meeting with these people, at the earliest
moment after his return. Had he done so, there might have
been a chance, nay, every assurance of relief, for he
knew that a party from the fort, consisting of a
non-commissioned officer and six men, were even now
fishing not more than two miles higher up the river. He
was aware that the boy, Wilton, was an excellent runner,
and that within an hour, at least, he could have reached
and brought down that party, who, as was their wont, when
absenting themselves on these fishing excursions, were
provided with their arms. However, it might not yet be
too late, and he determined to make the attempt. To call
and speak to the boy aside, would, he was well aware,
excite the suspicions of his unwelcome guests, while it
was possible that, as they did not understand English,
(so at least he took it for granted) a communication made
to him boldly in their presence, would be construed into
some domestic order.
"Wilton," he said calmly to the boy, who stood near the
doorway with alarm visibly depicted on his countenance,
and looking as if he would eagerly seize a favorable
opportunity of escape, "make all haste to the fishing
party, and tell Corporal Nixon who commands it, to lose
no time in pulling down the stream. You will come back
with them. Quick, lose not a moment."
Delighted at the order, the boy made no answer, but
hatless--shoeless as he was, disappeared round the corner
of the house. Strange to say, the Indians, although they
had seemingly listened with attention to Mr. Heywood
while issuing these directions, did not make the slightest
movement to arrest the departure of the boy, or even to
remark upon it--merely turning to their chief, who uttered
a sharp and satisfied "ugh."
During all this time, Mr. Heywood and Le Noir stood at
some little distance from the Indians, and nearly on the
spot they had occupied at their entrance, the one holding
his rifle, the other his duck-gun, the butts of both,
resting on the floor. At each moment their anxiety
increased, and it seemed an age before the succor they
had sent for could arrive. How long, moreover, would
these taciturn and forbidding-mannered savages wait before
they gave some indication of overt hostility, and even
if nothing were done prior to the arrival of the fishing
party, would these latter be in sufficient force to awe
them into a pacific departure? The Indians were twelve
in number, exclusive of their chief, all fierce and
determined. They, with the soldiers, nine; for neither
Mr. Heywood nor Le Noir seemed disposed to count upon
any efficient aid from Ephraim Giles, who, during this
dumb scene, continued whittling before the Indians,
apparently as cool and indifferent to their presence, as
if he had conceived them to be the most peaceably disposed
persons in the world. He had, however, listened attentively
to the order given to Wilton by his master, and had not
failed to remark that the Indians had not, in any way,
attempted to impede his departure.
"What do you think of these people, Le Noir," at length
asked Mr. Heywood, without, however removing his gaze
from his visitors. "Can they be friendly Pottawattamies?"
"Friendly Pottawattamies! no, sare," returned the Canadian
seriously, and shrugging up his shoulders. "Dey no dress,
no paint like de Pottawattamie, and I not like der black
look--no, sare, dey Winnebago."
He laid a strong emphasis on the last word, and as he
expected, a general "ugh" among the party attested that
he had correctly named their tribe.
While they were thus expressing their conjectures in
regard to the character and intentions of their guests,
and inwardly determining to sell their lives as dearly
as possible if attacked. Ephraim Giles had risen from
his seat in the corner of the chimney, and with his eyes
fixed on the stick he was whittling, walked coolly out
of the door, and sauntered down the pathway leading to
the river. But if he had calculated on the same indifference
to his actions that the Indians had manifested towards
the boy, he was mistaken. They all watched him keenly as
he slowly sauntered towards the water, and then, when he
had got about half way, the chief suddenly springing to
his feet, and brandishing his tomahawk demanded in broken,
but perfectly intelligible English, where he was going.
"Well, I want to know," exclaimed the soldier, turning
round, and in a tone indicating surprise that he had thus
been questioned--"only goin over thar," he continued,
pointing to the haystacks on the opposite side of the
river, around which stood many cattle, "goin I guess to
give out some grub to the beasts, and I'll he back in no
time, to give you out some whisky." Then, resuming his
course, he went on whittling as unconcernedly as before.
The chief turned to his followers, and a low, yet eager
conversation ensued. Whether it was that the seeming
indifference of the man, or his promise of the whisky on
his return, or that some other motive influenced them,
they contented themselves with keeping a vigilant watch
upon his movements.
Mr. Heywood and the Frenchman exchanged looks of surprise;
they could not account for the action of Ephraim Giles,
for although it was his office to cross the river daily
for the purpose he had named, it had never been at that
period of the day. How the Indians could suffer his
departure, if their intentions were really hostile, it
was moreover impossible for them to comprehend; and in
proportion as the hopes of the one were raised by this
circumstance, so were those of the other depressed.
Mr. Heywood began to think that the suspicions of the
Canadian were unfounded, and that their guests were,
after all, but a party of warriors on their way to the
Fort, either for purposes of traffic with the only merchant
residing in its vicinity, or of business with the officer
commanding. It was not likely, he reasoned, that men
coming with hostile designs, would have suffered first
the boy to be despatched on a mission which, obscurely
as he had worded his directions, must in some measure
have been understood by the chief; and, secondly, permitted
Ephraim Giles to leave the house in the manner just
seen--particularly when the suspicion entertained by him
as well as by Le Noir and himself, must have been apparent.
But the Canadian drew no such inference from these facts.
Although he could not speak the Winnebago language, he was
too conversant with the customs of the Indians, to perceive,
in what they permitted in this seeming confidence, anything
but guile. He felt assured they had allowed the boy to
depart on his errand SOLELY that they might have a greater
number of victims in their power. Nothing was more easy,
numerous as they were, than to despatch THEM, and then,
lying in ambush among the trees that skirted the banks, to
shoot down every one in the fishing boat before a landing
could be effected, and preparations made for defence; while,
in the indifference of their conduct in regard to the
departure of Ephraim Giles, he saw but a design to disarm
suspicion, and thus induce them to lay by their arms, the
reports of which would necessarily alarm the party expected,
and so far put them on their guard as to defeat their plans.
The very appearance of Giles, moreover, crossing the water,
if seen by the descending boat would, he thought they
imagined, be a means of lulling the party into security,
and thus rendering them a more easy prey.
While the master and the servant were thus indulging
their opposite reflections, without, however, making any
intercommunication of them, Ephraim Giles, who had now
thrust his knife and stick into the pocket of his short
skirt, shoved off the only canoe that was to be seen,
and stepping into it, and seizing the paddle, urged it
slowly, and without the slightest appearance of hurry,
to the opposite bank, where, within less than ten minutes,
he had again hauled it up. Then, as coolly ascending the
bank, he approached one of the haystacks, and drew from
it a few handfuls of fodder which he spread upon the
ground, continuing to do so, as the cattle assembled
around, until he had gained the outermost haystack
bordering immediately upon the wood. This reached, he
gave a loud yell, which was promptly answered by the
Indians, who had continued to watch his movements up to
the very moment of his disappearance; and darting along
a narrow path which skirted the wood, ran with all his
speed towards the Fort. His flight had not lasted five
minutes, when the reports of several guns, fired from
the direction he had just quitted, met his ear, and urged
him to even greater exertion, until at length, haggard
and breathless, he gained his destination, and made his
way to the commanding officer, to whom he briefly detailed
the startling occurrences he had witnessed.
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