colonel telfair was striding excitedly up and down the wide verandah, lashing as he went at the tall riding boots he wore. his plum-colored, long-skirted riding coat, his much-beruffled white shirt, and his tight-fitting breeches were dusty and spattered with dried mud. it needed not the white-lathered horse with drooping head that a negro was leading from the horseblock to show that he had ridden fast and furiously.
from one end of the porch to the other he strode, stopping at each to scan the landscape, then restlessly paced back again. a dozen negroes racing in every direction confirmed the urgent haste that his manner showed.
abruptly he paused as jack, followed by cato, came hurrying up the drive. “hurry, sir, hurry,” he bawled. “don’t keep me waiting all day.”
jack quickened his steps. “i didn’t know you were back, father,” he declared, as he came close. “i’m glad you are, sir. i’ve news, important news!”
the elder telfair scowled. “news, have you, sir?” he rumbled. “so have i. come inside, quick, and we’ll exchange.” turning, he led the way through a deep hall into a great room, whose oak-panelled walls were hung with full-length portraits of dead and gone telfairs—distinguished men and[21] women whose strong faces showed that in their time they had cut a figure in the world. there he faced round.
“now, sir, tell your news,” he ordered. “i’ll warrant it’s short and foolish.”
“perhaps!” jack grinned; he and his father were excellent friends. “did you know, sir, that our kinsman, delaroche telfair, was dead, leaving a daughter who is a ward of tecumseh, the shawnee chief?”
the elder telfair blinked. “good lord!” he said, softly. he tottered a step or two backward and dropped heavily into a chair. “you’ve had a letter, too?” he gasped.
“a letter? no, sir; not a letter——”
“you must have, sir. don’t trifle with me! i’m in no temper to stand it. who brought you the letter?”
“i haven’t any letter, father. i haven’t heard of any letter. i met an indian——”
“an indian?”
“yes. a shawnee from ohio, a messenger from tecumseh——”
“tecumseh! good lord! do you know—but that can wait. go on.”
“delaroche seems to have pledged him to call on us in case certain things happened. they have happened and he has sent. he wants me to come and get the girl.”
[22]“good god!” muttered the elder man once more. “look—look at this, jack!” he held out an open letter. “i got it at montgomery, and i rode like the devil to bring it, and here a murdering shawnee gets ahead of me and——” his words died away; clearly the situation was beyond him.
jack took the letter doubtfully and unfolded it. then he looked at his father amazedly.
“it’s from capron, the lawyer for the telfair estates in france,” interjected the elder man. “it’s in french, of course. read it aloud! translate it as you go.”
jack walked to the window, threw up the blind, and held the letter to the light.
“my very dear sir,” he read. “it is my sad duty to apprise you that my so justly honored patron, louis, count of telfair, passed away on the 30th ultimo, videlicet, december 30, 1811. the succession to the title and the estate now falls to the descendants of his brother, m. delaroche telfair, who, as you of course know, emigrated to america in 1790 and settled at gallipolis on the ohio, which without doubt is very close to your own estates in alabama. perhaps it is that you have exchanged frequent visits with him and that his history and the so sad circumstances of his death are to you of the most familiar. if so, much of this letter is unnecessary.
“in the remote contingency, however, that you may not know of his history in america, permit me to repeat[23] the little that is known to us here in france. it will call the attention; this:
“among the papers of my so noble patron, just deceased, i have found a letter, dated june 10, 1800, with the seal yet unbroken, which appears to have reached the château telfair many years ago but not to have been brought to his lordship’s attention. of a truth this is not surprising, the year 1800 being of the most disturbed and the years following being attended by turbulence both of politics and of strife, during which his lordship seldom visited the château.
“this letter inclosed certificates of the marriage at marietta, ohio, of m. delaroche telfair to mlle. margaret de la war, on june 18, 1794, and of the birth of a daughter, estelle, on oct. 9, 1795. the originals appear to be on file at marietta. m. delaroche says that he sends the copies as a precaution.
“no other information of father or daughter or of any other children appears to be of record, but the late count had without a doubt received further news, for he several times spoke to me of his so sadly deceased brother.
“in default of a possible son the title of count of telfair devolves on m. brito telfair, representative of the branch of the family so execrated by his lordship now departed. your own line comes last. the estates go to the lady estelle telfair, or, if she be deceased, to count brito telfair, whose ancestors have long been domiciled in england.”
jack looked up. “brito telfair!” he exclaimed. “that’s the name the indian mentioned. who is he exactly?”
[24]“he’s the head of the british branch. his people moved there a hundred years or so ago, after the revocation of the edict of nantes. we came to america and they stopped in england. i understand he’s an officer in the british army, heavily in debt, and a general roué. i reckon he’s about forty years old.”
with a shrug of his shoulders—a trick inherited from his gallic ancestors—jack resumed:
“not knowing where to reach the lady estelle (or other descendants of m. delaroche) i address you, asking that you convey to her my most humble felicitations. i can not close, my dear sir, without a word of the caution. the lady estelle would appear to be about seventeen years of age. her property in france is of a value, ah! yes, but of a value the most great. adventurers will surely seek her out and she will need friends. above all she should not be allowed to fall into the hands of m. brito, who would undoubtedly wed her out of all hand to gain possession of her estates. both the late count and m. delaroche (when i knew him) hated and despised the english branch of m. brito. to you, beloved of my master the count, i appeal to save and protect his heiress from those he so execrated. i have the honor, my very dear sir, to be your obedient servant. verbum sapientes satis est.
henri capron, avocat.
postscriptum.—i open this to add that i have just learned that m. brito sailed with his regiment for montreal a month ago. he is of a repute the most evil.[25] if he gets possession of the lady estelle he will without the doubt wed her, forcibly if need be. and it would be of a shame the most profound if the telfair estates should be squandered in paying the debts of one so disreputable.”
jack crumpled the letter in his hand. “i should think it would be,” he cried. “thank the lord tecumseh remembered delaroche’s warning. but let me tell you my story.”
rapidly jack recounted the circumstances of the shawnee’s visit and recited the message he had brought. “this explains everything,” he ended. “brito telfair wants to get possession of the girl and marry her before she knows anything about her rights. well! he shan’t!”
colonel telfair laughed. “lord! jack! you’re heated,” he exclaimed. “brito telfair probably isn’t much worse than other men of his age and surroundings. you’ve got to allow for capron’s prejudices, national and personal. marriage with him mightn’t be altogether unsuitable. still, we’ve got to make sure that it is suitable, and if it isn’t, we’ve——”
“we’ve got to stop it!” jack struck in. “the first thing is to find the girl and bring her here. we can decide what to do after that.”
colonel telfair became suddenly grave. “yes!” he answered, “i reckon we can, if—” he broke off and contemplated his son curiously. “how does[26] tecumseh happen to send for you, sir?” he demanded. “but i reckon it comes of your running wild in their villages while they were down here. they adopted you or something, didn’t they?”
jack nodded. “yes! tecumseh’s mother adopted me into the panther clan. she was born down here, you know, and was back here on a visit when i knew her.”
“humph!” the old gentleman pondered a moment. then suddenly he caught fire. “yes! go, jack, go!” he thundered. “damme, sir! i’d like to go with you, sir. i envy you! if i was a few years younger i’d go, too, sir! damme! i would.”
“i wish you could, father.” the boy threw his arm affectionately about the older man’s shoulders. “lord! wouldn’t we have times together. we’d rescue the girl and then we’d help general hull smash the redcoats and the redskins.”
“we would, sir! damme, we would!” the old gentleman shook his fist in the air. “we’d—we’d——” he broke off, catching at his side, and dropped into a chair, which jack hurriedly pushed forward. “oh! jack! jack!” he groaned. “what d’ye mean by getting your old father worked up till he’s ill?” then with a sudden change of front—“you—you’ll be careful, won’t you, jack? not too careful, you know—not when you face the enemy, but—but—damme, sir, you know what i mean.[27] you needn’t get yourself killed for the fun of it, sir. i—i’m an old man, jack, and you’re my only son and if you——”
“don’t fear, father! i know the woods. i know the trails. i know the indian tongues. i am a member of the panther clan. more, i am going to ohio at the invitation of tecumseh. until war begins every member of my clan will be bound to help me because i am their clan brother; every shawnee will be bound to help me because i am the friend of tecumseh; every other warrior will befriend me once he knows who i am. if i travel fast i may rescue cousin estelle before——”
“estelle! estelle! good god! yes! i’d forgotten her altogether. i wonder what she’ll be like: not much like our young ladies; that’s certain. bring her back to us, jack. we need a daughter in the family. and as for france, damme, i’ll go over with her myself, sir.”
“i’ll wager you will, father. i’ll get her before war begins if i can. if i can’t—well, i’ll get her somehow. once war begins, my clan membership fails and——”
“well! let it fail, sir. i don’t half understand about this clan business of yours, sir. i don’t approve of it, sir. how will war effect that, sir?”
colonel telfair’s ignorance as to the indian clans was no greater than that of nine-tenths of his fellow citizens, whether of his own times or of later[28] ones, dense ignorance having commonly prevailed not only as to the nature but as to the very existence of the clans.
but jack knew them. much had he forgotten, but in the last hour much had come back to him. thoughts, memories, bits of ritual, learned long before and buried beneath later knowledge, struggled upward through the veil of the years and rose to his lips.
“they—they are like masonic orders, father,” he began, vaguely. “they know no tribe, no nation. mohawks and shawnees and creeks of the same clan are brothers, and yet—and yet—if the shawnee sends a war belt to the creeks, clan ties are suspended—just as between masons of different nations. but when the battle is over, fraternity brothers are bound to succor each other, bound to ransom each other from the flame. this they may perhaps do by persuading the tribe to adopt them in place of some warrior who has been slain.”
“humph! i thought they had been adopted already?”
“as members of the clan, yes! adoption by the tribe is different. it changes the entire blood of him who is adopted. he becomes the man whose name and place he takes, and he is bound to live and fight as his predecessor would have lived and fought and to forget that he ever lived another life. membership in the clans by birth is strictly[29] in the female line. the women control them and decide who shall be adopted into them.”
“all right. i don’t half understand. but i suppose you do. anyway, i’m glad you’ve got your membership to help you—look here, jack!” an idea had struck the elder man. “d—d if i don’t believe that warrior of yours was tecumseh himself. i started to speak of it when you first named him. i met colonel hawkins—he’s the indian agent—this morning and he told me that a big chief from the north was down here, powwowing to the creeks at takabatchi—urging them to dig up the hatchet, i reckon. tecumseh was here a year ago, you know. maybe he’s come back!”
jack nodded, absently. “maybe it was tecumseh, father,” he answered. he had just remembered sally habersham and he was wondering if she would grieve when she heard that he had gone away. for a time, perhaps! but not for long. she would have other thoughts to engross her. jack knew it and was glad to know it. he wanted no one to be unhappy because of him—least of all sally habersham. she who had been so kind—so kind—his lips burned at the memory of her kiss. “i’ll prove myself worthy of it!” he swore to himself. “i’ll carry it unsullied to the end. no other woman——”
telfair broke in. “damme! sir! what are you moonshining about now?” he roared. “about your[30] cousin estelle? bring her back and marry her, jack. she’s a great heiress, my lad, a great heiress.”
jack drew himself up. strangely enough he had thought little about the girl-child for whose sake he was going to undertake the long journey. his father’s words grated on him.
“i shall never marry, father,” he declared.
