United States -- History -- French and Indian War, 1754-1763 -- Fiction
"You think it was a tree?"
Pierre shuffled. "There are no Hurons here. This is the Pottawatamie
country. But I have thought about it all day. It was a queer tree.
Shall I go back and see?"
I shook my head. I pointed to a stale bear print, and set the men upon
it. Then I turned and slipped back to camp.
I walked with uneasiness in my throat. Why did a Huron dog us in this
fashion? Was he alone? Did he mean mischief to the Englishman? Was
the Englishman in league with him? Too many questions for a slow man.
I felt entrapped and befogged. I must see for myself. And so I crept
to the camp to spy upon it.
I have never seen sweeter spot for an anchorage than we had found that
day. We had not camped on the open coast as had been our custom, but
in a sun-warmed meadow a few paces inland, where there were birds, and
tasseling grasses, and all kinds of glancing lights and odors to steal
into a man's blood. I parted the trees. The blur of gray ashes from
our fire was undisturbed; our canoes lay, bottom upwards, waiting to
have the seams newly pitched, and the cargo was piled, untouched,
against a tree. All was as we left it. And there, in the shade of a
maple, lay the Englishman, asleep on his scarlet blanket.
I went softly, and looked down at him. I ought to have waked him, and
rated him for sleeping at his post, but I could not. It was balm to
find him here safe. He was twisted like a kitten with his head in his
arm, and I noticed that his dark hair, which he kept roughly cut, was
curly. He must have been wandering in the woods, for he had a bunch of
pink blossoms, very waxy and odorous, shut tight in his hand. I looked
at him till I suddenly wanted him to wake and look at me. I picked a
grass stalk, and, leaning over, brushed it against his lips.
He woke as a child does, not alert at once, but with drowsy stirrings,
and finally with open eyes so sleep-filled that they were as
expressionless as a fawn's. He stared as if trying to remember who I
was.
I sat beside him. "I am the owner of that cargo you are guarding," I
supplied to aid his memory, and then laughed to see the red flood his
face when he came to himself and realized what he had done. But I was
not at ease. He had shivered and drawn back when he first opened his
eyes. Could he be afraid of me? I should not wish that. I tried to
be crafty.
"Who did you think I was when you first woke?" I asked, taking my pipe
and preparing to be comfortable.
He pushed back his hair. "Benjamin," he answered vaguely. He was
still half asleep.
"But you told me your name was Benjamin!" I put down my flint and
tinder.
He met my look. "I have a cousin Benjamin, as well," he rejoined. "I
was dreaming of him. Monsieur, I am humiliated to think that I went to
sleep. I have never done so before."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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