Part 1 (2/2)

”And leather-cape, too, sir.”

My lieutenant laughed, showing his white teeth; laid belt, hatchet, and heavy knife on a wine-stained table, and placed his rifle against it.

Then, slipping cartridge sack, bullet pouch, and powder horn from his shoulders, stood eased, yawning and stretching his fine, powerful frame.

”I take it that you see few of our corps here below,” he observed indulgently.

The landlord's lack-l.u.s.tre eyes rested on me for an instant, then on Boyd:

”Few, sir.”

”Do you know the uniform, landlord?”

”Rifles,” he said indifferently.

”Yes, but whose, man? Whose?” insisted Boyd impatiently.

The other shook his head.

”Morgan's!” exclaimed Boyd loudly. ”d.a.m.nation, sir! You should know Morgan's! Sixth Company, sir; Major Parr! And a likelier regiment and a better company never wore green thrums on frock or c.o.o.n-tail on cap!”

”Yes, sir,” said the man vacantly.

Boyd laughed a little:

”And look that you hint as much to the idle young bucks hereabouts--say it to some of your Westchester squirrel hunters----” He laid his hand on the landlord's shoulder. ”There's a good fellow,” he added, with that youthful and winning smile which so often carried home with it his reckless will--where women were concerned--”we're down from Albany and we wish the Bedford folk to know it. And if the gallant fellows hereabout desire a taste of true glory--the genuine article--why, send them to me, landlord--Thomas Boyd, of Derry, Pennsylvania, lieutenant, 6th company of Morgan's--or to my comrade here, Mr. Loskiel, ensign in the same corps.”

He clapped the man heartily on the shoulder and stood looking around at the stripped and dishevelled room, his handsome head a little on one side, as though in frankest admiration. And the worn and pallid landlord gazed back at him with his faded, lack-l.u.s.tre eyes--eyes that we both understood, alas--eyes made dull with years of fear, made old and hopeless with unshed tears, stupid from sleepless nights, haunted with memories of all they had looked upon since His Excellency marched out of the city to the south of us, where the red rag now fluttered on fort and s.h.i.+pping from King's Bridge to the Hook.

Nothing more was said. Our landlord went away very quietly. An hostler, presently appearing from somewhere, pa.s.sed the broken windows, and we saw our rifleman go away with him, leading the three tired horses. We were still yawning and drowsing, stretched out in our hickory chairs, and only kept awake by the flies, when our landlord returned and set before us what food he had. The fare was scanty enough, but we ate hungrily, and drank deeply of the fresh small beer which he fetched in a Liverpool jug.

When we two were alone again, Boyd whispered:

”As well let them think we're here with no other object than recruiting. And so we are, after a fas.h.i.+on; but neither this state nor Pennsylvania is like to fill its quota here. Where is your map, once more?”

I drew the coiled linen roll from the breast of my rifle s.h.i.+rt and spread it out. We studied it, heads together.

”Here lies Poundridge,” nodded Boyd, placing his finger on the spot so marked. ”Roads a-plenty, too. Well, it's odd, Loskiel, but in this cursed, debatable land I feel more ill at ease than I have ever felt in the Iroquois country.”

”You are still thinking of our landlord's deathly face,” I said. ”Lord!

What a very shadow of true manhood crawls about this house!”

”Aye--and I am mindful of every other face and countenance I have so far seen in this strange, debatable land. All have in them something of the same expression. And therein lies the horror of it all, Mr. Loskiel G.o.d knows we expect to see deathly faces in the North, where little children lie scalped in the ashes of our frontier--where they even scalp the family hound that guards the cradle. But here in this sleepy, open countryside, with its gentle hills and fertile valleys, broad fields and neat stone walls, its winding roads and orchards, and every pretty farmhouse standing as though no war were in the land, all seems so peaceful, so secure, that the faces of the people sicken me. And ever I am asking myself, where lies this other h.e.l.l on earth, which only faces such as these could have looked upon?”

”It is sad,” I said, under my breath. ”Even when a la.s.s smiles on us it seems to start the tears in my throat.”

”Sad! Yes, sir, it is. I supposed we had seen sufficient of human degradation in the North not to come here to find the same cringing expression stamped on every countenance. I'm sick of it, I tell you.

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