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By the tirew h the ralot children that broke froht They followed hiible speculations to one another but staring blankly at hi at his own unifor wave at their surroundings
He had made his way all the way down the lane, and his boots were caked withof the leaves that drifted lazily fro to answer hi peacefully on a rock at the river’s edge, wrapped in a striped British trade blanket, fishing The es, only two of which Grey understood, but this basis of understanding was adequate
"Un, deux, trois, in back," the ancient told hie sideways Soht he detected a reference to a woman--doubtless the owner of the house where Stubbs was billeted A concluding reference to "le bon capitaine" seeentlelish, Grey retraced his steps to the third house up the lane, still trailing a line of curious urchins like the ragged tail of a kite
No one answered his knock, but he went round the house--followed by the children--and discovered a sray stone chimney
The day was beautiful, with a sky the color of sapphires, and the air was suffused with the ripeness of late summer The door of the hut was ajar, to admit the fresh air, but he did not push it open Instead, he drew his dagger froasps from his audience at the appearance of the knife He repressed the urge to turn round and bow to them
He heard no footsteps fro Indian wo him
He blinked, startled, and in that blink of an eye, the joy disappeared and the young woman clutched at the doorjamb for support, her other hand fisted into her chest
"Batinse!?" she gasped, clearly terrified "Qu’est-ce qui s’passe?"
"Rien," he replied, equally startled "Ne vous inquietez pas, madame Est-ce que Capitaine Stubbs habite ici?" Don’t perturb yourself, madame Does Captain Stubbs live here?
Her eyes, already huge, rolled back in her head, and he seized her arest of the urchins following him rushed forward and pushed the door open, and he put an ared, half-carried her into the house
Taking this as invitation, the rest of the children crowded in behind hied the young woirl, wearing little ed round her insubstantial waist with a piece of string, pressed in beside hi an answer, the girl behaved as though she had, turning and racing out of the door
Grey hesitated, not sure what to do The woh pale, and her eyelids fluttered
"Voulez-vous un petit eau?" he inquired, turning about in search of water He spotted a bucket of water near the hearth, but his attention was distracted by an object propped beside it: a cradleboard, with a swaddled infant bound to it, blinking large, curious eyes in his direction
He knew already, of course, but knelt down before the infant and waggled a tentative forefinger at it The baby’s eyes were big and dark, like its mother’s, and the skin a paler shade of her own The hair, though, was not straight, thick, and black It was the color of cinnamon and exploded from the child’s skull in a niorously clipped to his scalp and hidden beneath his wig
"Wha’ happen with le capitaine?" a peremptory voice de a rather large wo whatever, mada Captain Stubbs to give hier wo at hi back into a less threatening shape "Well, then D’un urgence, this e?" She eyed him; clearly, other British officers were not in the habit of visiting Stubbs at home Most likely Stubbs had an official billet elsewhere, where he conducted his regiht he’d coriht of the ent" He left then None of the children followed him
Normally, it was not difficult to discover the whereabouts of a particular soldier, but Malcolm Stubbs seemed to have disappeared into thin air Over the course of the next week, Grey coe, but no trace of his disgraceful cousin-by-e could be found Still odder, no one appeared to have missed the captain The ed in confusion, and his superior officer had evidently gone off upriver to inspect the state of various postings Frustrated, Grey retired to the riverbank to think
Two logical possibilities presented themselves--no, three One, Stubbs had heard about Grey’s arrival, supposed that Grey would discover exactly what he had discovered, and had in consequence panicked and deserted Two, he’d fallen afoul of someone in a tavern or back alley, been killed, and was presently deco quietly under a layer of leaves in the woods Or, three--he’d been sent so, quietly
Grey doubted the first exceedingly; Stubbs wasn’t prone to panic, and if he had heard of Grey’s arrival, Malcolm’s first act would have been to co about in the village and finding what he’d found He disly
He dismissed the second still more promptly Had Stubbs been killed, either deliberately or by accident, the alarenerally knohere its soldiers were, and if they weren’t where they were meant to be, steps were taken The saone and no one was looking for him, it naturally followed that the arone Since no one seemed to knohere that was, his iven Wolfe’s current position and present obsession, that alone downriver, searching for sohed, satisfied with his deductions Which in turn ht by the French, scalped or abducted by hostile Indians, or eaten by a bear--Stubbs would be back eventually There was nothing to do but wait
He leaned against a tree, watching a couple of fishing canoesthe bank The sky was overcast and the air light on his skin, a pleasant change fro; his father’s gamekeeper had told him that He wondered ere the fish dazzled by sun, and thus soughtplaces in the depths, but rose toward the surface in diht suddenly of the electric eel, which Suddfield had told hi did have remarkably small eyes, and its proprietor had opined that it was able to use its electrical abilities in some way to discern, as well as to electrocute, its prey
He couldn’t have said what made him raise his head at that precisein the shalloater a few feet froave hilishman!" he called "You want to fish with h hihtened up Manoke’s eyes were fixed on his, and he felt in ue and the scent of fresh-sheared copper His heart was racing--go off in coht easily be a trap He could end up scalped or worse But electric eels were not the only ones to discern things by ht
"Yes!" he called "Meet you at the landing!"
Teeks later, he stepped out of Manoke’s canoe onto the landing, thin, sunburned, cheerful, and still in possession of his hair Tom Byrd would be beside hi but naturally had been able to give no esti he’d been captured and dragged off into slavery or scalped, his hair sold to the French
In fact, they had drifted slowly downriver, pausing to fish wherever the rilling their catch and eating their supper in smoke-scented peace, beneath the leaves of oak and alder They had seen other craft now and then--not only canoes but lish warships, tacking slowly up the river, sails bellying, the distant shouts of the sailors as foreign to hiues of the Iroquois