What he said was true; moreover, upon the setting out of the expedition it
had been laughingly agreed that any gentleman who might find his spirits
dashed by the dangers and difficulties of the way should be at liberty at
any time to turn his back upon the mountains, and his face toward safety
and the settlements. The Governor frowned, bit his lips, but finally burst
into unwilling laughter.
"You are a very young gentleman, Mr. Marmaduke Haward!" he cried. "Were
you a little younger, I know what ointment I should prescribe for your
hurt. Go your ways with your broken ankle; but if, when I come again to
the cabin in the valley, I find that your own injury has not contented
you, look to it that I do not make you build a bridge across the bay
itself! Gentlemen, Mr. Haward is bent upon intrusting his cure to other
and softer hands than Dr. Robinson's, and the expedition must go forward
without him. We sorrow to lose him from our number, but we know better
than to reason with--ahem!--a twisted ankle. En avant, gentlemen! Mr.
Haward, pray have a care of yourself. I would advise that the ankle be
well bandaged, and that you stir not from the chimney corner"-"I thank your Excellency for your advice," said Mr. Haward imperturbably,
"and will consider of taking it. I wish your Excellency and these merry
gentlemen a most complete victory over the mountains, from which conquest
I will no longer detain you."
He bowed as he spoke, and began to move, slowly and haltingly, across the
width of the rocky way to where his negro stood with the two horses.
"Mr. Haward!" called the Governor.
The recreant turned his head. "Your Excellency?"
"It was the right foot, was it not?" queried his sometime leader. "Ah, I
thought so! Then it were best not to limp with the left."
Homeric laughter shook the air; but while Mr. Haward laughed not, neither
did he frown or blush. "I will remember, sir," he said simply, and at once
began to limp with the proper foot. When he reached the bank he turned,
and, standing with his arm around his horse's neck, watched the company
which he had so summarily deserted, as it put itself into motion and went
slowly past him up its dusky road. The laughter and bantering farewells
moved him not; he could at will draw a line around himself across which
few things could step. Not far away the bed of the stream turned, and a
hillside, dark with hemlock, closed the view. He watched the train pass
him, reach this bend, and disappear. The axemen and the four Meherrins,
the Governor and the gentlemen of the Horseshoe, the rangers, the
negroes,--all were gone at last. With that passing, and with the ceasing
of the laughter and the trampling, came the twilight. A whippoorwill began
to call, and the wind sighed in the trees. Juba, the negro, moved closer
to his master; then upon an impulse stooped, and lifting above his head a
great rock, threw it with might into one of the shallow pools. The
crashing sound broke the spell of the loneliness and quiet that had fallen
upon the place. The white man drew his breath, shrugged his shoulders, and
turned his horse's head down the way up which he had so lately come.