Audrey

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.