the summer day was all but spent when richard jennifer, riding express, brought me captain falconnet's challenge.
'twas a dayfall to be marked with a white stone, even in our carolina calendar. the sun, reaching down to the mountain-girt horizon in the west, filled all the upper air with the glory of its departing, and the higher leaf plumes of the great maples before my cabin door wrought lustrous patterns in gilded green upon a zenith background of turquoise shot with crimson, like the figurings of some rich old tapestries i had once seen in my field-marshal's castle in the mark of moravia.
beyond the maples a brook tinkled and plashed over the stones on its way to the near-by catawba; and its peaceful brawling, and the evensong of a pair of clear-throated warblers poised on the topmost twigs of one of the trees, should have been sweet music in the ears of a returned exile. but on that matchless bride's-month evening of dainty sunset arabesques and brook and bird songs, i was in little humor for rejoicing.
the road made for the river lower down and followed its windings up the valley; but jennifer came by the indian trace through the forest. i can see him now as he rode beneath the maples, bending to the saddle horn where the branches hung lowest; a pretty figure of a handsome young provincial, clad in fashions three years behind those i had seen in london the winter last past. he rode gentleman-wise, in small-clothes of rough gray woolen and with stout leggings over his hose; but he wore his cocked hat atilt like a trooper's, and the sword on his thigh was a good service blade, and no mere hilt and scabbard for show such as our courtier macaronis were just then beginning to affect.
now i had known this handsome youngster when he was but a little lad; had taught him how to bend the indian bow and loose the reed-shaft arrow in those happier days before the tyrant governor tryon turned hangman, and the battle of the great alamance had left me fatherless. moreover, i had drunk a cup of wine with him at the mecklenburg arms no longer ago than yesterweek—this to a renewal of our early friendship. hence, i must needs be somewhat taken aback when he drew rein at my door-stone, doffed his hat with a sweeping bow worthy a courtier of the great louis, and said, after the best manner of sir charles grandison:
"i have the honor of addressing captain john ireton, sometime of his majesty's royal scots blues, and late of her apostolic majesty's twenty-ninth regiment of hussars?"
it was but an euphuism of the time, this formal preamble, declaring that his errand had to do with the preliminaries of a private quarrel between gentlemen. yet i could scarce restrain a smile. for these upcroppings of courtier etiquette have ever seemed to march but mincingly with the free stride of our western backwoods. none the less, you are to suppose that i made shift to match his bow in some fashion, and to say: "at your service, sir."
whereupon he bowed again, clapped hat to head and tendered me a sealed packet.
"from sir francis falconnet, knight bachelor of beaumaris, volunteer captain in his majesty's german legion," he announced, with stern dignity.
having no second to refer him to, i broke the seal of the cartel myself. since my enemy had seen fit to come thus far on the way to his end in some gentlemanly manner, it was not for me to find difficulties among the formalities. in good truth, i was overjoyed to be thus assured that he would fight me fair; that he would not compel me to kill him as one kills a wild beast at bay. for certainly i should have killed him in any event: so much i had promised my poor dick coverdale on that dismal november morning when he had choked out his life in my arms, the victim first of this man's treachery, and, at the last, of his sword. so, as i say, i was nothing loath, and yet i would not seem too eager.
"i might say that i have no unsettled quarrel with captain falconnet," i demurred, when i had read the challenge. "he spoke slightingly of a lady, and i did but—"
"your answer, captain ireton!" quoth my youngster, curtly. "i am not empowered to give or take in the matter of accommodations."
"not so fast, if you please," i rejoined. "i have no wish to disappoint your principal, or his master, the devil. let it be to-morrow morning at sunrise in the oak grove which was once my father's wood field, each man with his own blade. and i give you fair warning, master jennifer; i shall kill your bullyragging captain of light-horse as i would a vermin of any other breed."
at this jennifer flung himself from his saddle with a great laugh.
"if you can," he qualified. "but enough of these 'by your leave, sirs.' i am near famished, and as dry as king david's bottle in the smoke. will you give me bite and sup before i mount and ride again? 'tis a long gallop back to town on an empty stomach, and with a gullet as dry as mr. gilbert stair's wit."
here was my fresh-hearted dick jennifer back again all in a breath; and i made haste to shout for darius, and for tomas to take his horse, and otherwise to bestir myself to do the honors of my poor forest fastness as well as i might.
luckily, my haphazard larder was not quite empty, and there were presently a bit of cold deer's meat and some cakes of maize bread baked in the ashes to set before the guest. also there was a cup of sweet wine, home-pressed from the berries of the indian scuppernong, to wash them down. and afterward, though the evening was no more than mountain-breeze cool, we had a handful of fire on the hearth for the cheer of it while we smoked our reed-stemmed pipes.
it was over the pipes that jennifer unburdened himself of the gossip of the day in queensborough.
"have you heard the newest? but i know you haven't, since the post-riders came only this morning. the war has shifted from the north in good earnest at last, and we are like to have a taste of the harryings the jerseymen have had since '76. my lord cornwallis is come as far as camden, they say; and colonel tarleton has crossed the catawba."
"so? then mr. rutherford is like to have his work cut out for him, i take it."
jennifer eyed me curiously. "grif rutherford is a stout indian fighter; no west carolinian will gainsay that. but he is never the man to match cornwallis. we'll have help from the north."
"de kalb?" i suggested.
again the curious eyeshot. "nay, john ireton, you need not fear me, though i am just now this redcoat captain's next friend. you know more about the baron de kalb's doings than anybody else in mecklenburg."
"i? what should i know?"
"you know a deal—or else the gossips lie most recklessly."
"they do lie if they connect me with the baron de kalb, or with any other of the patriot side. what are they saying?"
"that you come straight from the baron's camp in virginia—to see what you can see."
"a spy, eh? 'tis cut out of whole cloth, dick, my lad. i've never took the oath on either side."
he looked vastly disappointed. "but you will, jack? surely, you have not to think twice in such a cause?"
"as between king and congress, you mean? 'tis no quarrel of mine."
"now god save us, john ireton!" he burst out in a fine fervor of youthful enthusiasm that made him all the handsomer, "i had never thought to hear your father's son say the like!"
i shrugged.
"and why not, pray? the king's minion, tryon, hanged my father and gave his estate to his minion's minion, gilbert stair. so, in spite of your declarations and your confiscations and your laws against alien landholders, i come back to find myself still the son of the outlawed roger ireton, and this same gilbert stair firmly lodged in my father's seat."
jennifer shrugged in his turn.
"gilbert stair—for sweet madge's sake i'm loath to say it—gilbert stair blows hot or cold as the wind sets fair or stormy. and i will say this for him: no other tryon legatee of them all has steered so fine a course through these last five upsetting years. how he trims so skilfully no man knows. a short month since, he had general rutherford and colonel sumter as guests at appleby hundred; now it is sir francis falconnet and the british light-horse officers who are honored. but let him rest: the cause of independence is bigger than any man, or any man's private quarrel, friend john; and i had hoped—"
i laid a hand on his knee. "spare yourself, dick. my business in queensborough was to learn how best i might reach mr. rutherford's rendezvous."
for a moment he sat, pipe in air, staring at me as if to make sure that he had heard aright. then he clipt my hand and wrung it, babbling out some boyish brava that i made haste to put an end to.
"softly, my lad," i said; "'tis no great thing the congress will gain by my adhesion. but you, richard; how comes it that i find you taking your ease at jennifer house and hobnobbing with his majesty's officers when the cause you love is still in such desperate straits?"
he blushed like a girl at that, and for a little space only puffed the harder at his pipe.
"i did go out with the minute men in '76, if you must know, and smelt powder at moore's creek. when my time was done i would have 'listed again; but just at that my father died and the jennifer acres were like to go to the dogs, lacking oversight. so i came home and—and—"
he stopped in some embarrassment, and i thought to help him on.
"nay, out with it, dick. if i am not thy father, i am near old enough to stand in his stead. 'twas more than husbandry that rusted the sword in its scabbard, i'll be bound."
"you are right, jack; 'twas both more and less," he confessed, shamefacedly. "'twas this same margery stair. as i have said, her father blows hot or cold as the wind sets, but not she. she is the fiercest little tory in the two carolinas, bar none. when i had got jennifer in order and began to talk of 'listing again, she flew into a pretty rage and stamped her foot and all but swore that dick jennifer in buff and blue should never look upon her face again with her good will."
i had a glimpse of jennifer the lover as he spoke, and the sight went somewhat on the way toward casting out the devil of sullen rage that had possessed me since first i had set returning foot in this my native homeland. 'twas a life lacking naught of hardness, but much of human mellowing, that lay behind the home-coming; and my one sweet friend in all that barren life was dead. what wonder, then, if i set this frank-faced richard in the other richard's stead, wishing him all the happiness that poor dick coverdale had missed? i needed little: would need still less, i thought, before the war should end; and through this love-match my lost estate would come at length to richard jennifer. it was a meliorating thought, and while it held i could be less revengeful.
"dost love her, dick?" i asked.
"aye, and have ever since she was in pinafores, and i a hobbledehoy in master wytheby's school."
"so long? i thought mr. stair was a later comer in mecklenburg."
"he came eight years ago, as one of tryon's underlings. madge was even then motherless; the same little wilful prat-a-pace she has ever been. i would you knew her, jack. 'twould make this shiftiness of mine seem less the thing it is."
"so you have stayed at home a-courting while others fought to give you leisure," said i, thinking to rally him. but he took it harder than i meant.
"'tis just that, jack; and i am fair ashamed. while the fighting kept to the north it did not grind so keen; but now, with the redcoats at our doors, and the tories sacking and burning in every settlement, 'tis enough to flay an honest man alive. god-a-mercy, jack! i'll go; i've got to go, or die of shame!"
he sat silent after that, and as there seemed nothing that a curst old campaigner could say at such a pass, i bore him company.
by and by he harked back to the matter of his errand, making some apology for his coming to me as the baronet's second.
"'twas none of my free offering, you may be sure," he added. "but it so happened that captain falconnet once did me a like turn. i had chanced to run afoul of that captain of hessian pigs, lauswoulter, at cards, and falconnet stood my friend—though now i bethink me, he did seem over-anxious that one or the other of us should be killed."
"as how?" i inquired.
"when lauswoulter slipped and i might have spitted him, and didn't, falconnet was for having us make the duel à outrance. but that's beside the mark. having served me then, he makes the point that i shall serve him now."
"'tis a common courtesy, and you could not well refuse. i love you none the less for paying your debts; even to such a villain as this volunteer captain."
"true, 'tis a debt, as you say; but i like little enough the manner of its paying. how came you to quarrel with him, jack?"
now even so blunt a soldier as i have ever been may have some prickings of delicacy where the truth might breed gossip—gossip about a tale which i had said should die with richard coverdale and be buried in his grave. so i evaded the question, clumsily enough, as has ever been my hap in fencing with words.
"the cause was not wanting. if any ask, you may say he trod upon my foot in passing."
jennifer laughed.
"and for that you struck him? heavens, man! you hold your life carelessly. do you happen to know that this volunteer captain of light-horse is accounted the best blade in the troop?"
"who should know that better than—" i was fairly on the brink of betraying the true cause of quarrel, but drew rein in time. "i care not if he were the best in the army. i have crossed steel before—and with a good swordsman now and then."
"anan?" said jennifer, as one who makes no doubt. and then: "but this toe-pinching story is but a dry crust to offer a friend. you spoke of a lady; who was she? or was that only another way of telling me to mind my own affairs?"
"oh, as to that; the lady was real enough, and falconnet did grossly asperse her. but i know not who she is, nor aught about her, save that she is sweet and fair and good to look upon."
"young?"
"aye."
"and you say you do not know her? let me see her through your eyes and mayhap i can name her for you."
"that i can not. mr. peale's best skill would be none too great for the painting of any picture that should do her justice. but she is small, with the airs and graces of a lady of the quality; also, she has witching blue eyes, and hair that has the glint of summer sunshine in it. also, she sits a horse as if bred to the saddle."
to my amazement, jennifer leaped up with an oath and flung his pipe into the fire.
"curse him!" he cried. "and he dared lay a foul tongue to her, you say? tell me what he said! i have a good right to know!"
i shook my head. "nay, richard; i may not repeat it to you, since you are the man's second. truly, there is more than this at the back of our quarrel; but of itself it was enough, and more than enough, inasmuch as the lady had just done him the honor to recognize him."
"his words—his very words, jack, if you love me!"
"no; the quarrel is mine."
"by god! it is not yours!" he stormed, raging back and forth before the fire. "what is margery stair to you, jack ireton?"
i smiled, beginning now to see some peephole in this millstone of mystery.
"margery stair? she is no more than a name to me, i do assure you; the daughter of the man who sits in my father's seat at appleby hundred."
"but you are going to fight for her!" he retorted.
"am i? i pledge you my word i did not know it. but in any case i should fight sir francis falconnet; aye, and do my best to kill him, too. sit you down and fill another pipe. whatever the quarrel, it is mine."
"mayhap; but it is mine, too," he broke in, angrily. "at all events, i'll see this king's volunteer well hanged before i second him in such a cause."
"that as you choose. but you are bound in honor, are you not?"
"no." he filled a fresh pipe, lighted it with a coal from the hearth, and puffed away in silence for a time. when he spoke again it was not as falconnet's next friend.
"what you have told me puts a new face on the matter, jack. sir francis may find him another second where he can. if he has aught to say, i shall tell him plain he lied to me about the quarrel, as he did. now who is there to see fair play on your side, john ireton?"
at the question an overwhelming sense of my own sorry case grappled me. fifteen years before, i had left appleby hundred and my native province as well befriended as the son of roger ireton was sure to be. and now—
"dick, my lad, i am like to fight alone," said i.
he swore again at that; and here, lest i should draw my loyal richard as he was not, let me say, once for all, that his oaths were but the outgushings of a warm and impulsive heart, rarely bitter, and never, as i believe, backed by surly rancor or conscious irreverence.
"that you shall not, jack," he asserted, stoutly. "i must be a-gallop now to tell this king's captain to look elsewhere for his next friend; but to-morrow morning i'll meet you in the road between this and the stair outlands, and we'll fare on together."
after this he would brook no more delay; and when tomas had fetched his horse i saw him mount and ride away under the low-hanging maples—watched him fairly out of sight in the green and gold twilight of the great forest before turning back to my lonely hearth and its somber reminders.
i stirred the dying embers, throwing on a pine knot for better light. then i took down my father's sword from its deer-horn brackets over the chimney-piece, and set myself to fine its edge and point with a bit of scotch whinstone. it was a good blade; a true old andrea ferara got in battle in the seventeenth century by one of the nottingham iretons.
i whetted it well and carefully. it was not that i feared my enemy's strength of wrist or tricks of fence; but fighting had been my trade, and he is but a poor craftsman who looks not well to see that his tools are in order against their time of using.
