University of Virginia Library

13. CHAPTER XIII.
THE ICE BARRIER.

About nine o'clock the ensuing morning,
Red Beard and Griffitt, embarked together in
a large freighting barge that belonged to the
camp, the flyer being attached to the stern.
The morning was bright, and the air clear
and bracing. The ice was still freely running,
but there were many open spaces in
the river in which the boat could be steered
without much peril. There was a mast to
the boat, and sail, but as there was no wind,
it lay in the bottom of the barge.

Several of the men came round them as
they shoved off, to see them depart, and Whitlock
urged the captain very hard to suffer
him to accompany his friend Ringold, and
at length, at the last moment, was told to detatch
the flyer and embark and pull after them.

All the forenoon they floated down the river,
now rowing where the water was open
and free from ice, and now skillfully steering
between the huge fragments that they would
pass. At a little passed noon, after having
been wafted down for four hours between majestic
forest coverd banks, without seeing a
habitation or any signs of civilization, starting
the deer and the wolf as they shot past
their leafy haunts, they came in sight of a
log cabin. It stood upon a cleared spot on a
green knoll, and was overshadowed by sycamore
trees. Here they stopped, and fastening
their boats, went up to the house, at
the door of which, a tall, rough-looking man
met them, extending his hand to Red Beard.

`So captain, you take the first break to
come down, I see,' he said in a frank hearty
voice. `I am glad to see you looking
so well and stout, and you master Griffitt, and
Ned! Glad to shake hands with you both,
walk in, and I'll have something to eat for
you, and give you a dram of genuine 'gahely.
It never was no nearer water than it is now,
and it is strong enough, if there was only
enough, to bear an Indian. Come in gentlemen,
what is the news up? and how has chopping
been?'

`We can stop only for a few moments,'
answered Red Beard as he entered the hut.
`We will drink your health all round, Gibb's,
and then to boat. We have meat and bread
in our locker.'

`Well, you know your own business best,
and whether you can spare time to talk with
an old woodsman. I don't see much company
this way, except tis you and your men going
and coming; but I did have two men
with me yesterday morning, that took breakfast
with me, such as I had, whiskey and
shoat, with a cold cut from a bear's fore shoulder.'

`Who were they?' demanded Red Beard
quickly. `The very two men I dare say
that I have stopped here to question you
about. Were they in a sleigh with a team
of greys.'

`The same. One on 'em was a short
lively man full of talk and bustle, and could
not keep still a minute; and the other an oldish
gentleman with hair as white as a rabbit's
in January.'

`The very men! How long did they remain
with you?' asked Red Beard with
visible agitation.

`Why you seem to know 'em. They
wan't rogues nor nothing.' said the woodsman,
regarding him with surprise.

`No, no! One was a speculator the other
a purchaser. When did they leave you?'

`They staid about one hour and a half,
and then started again on the river, though
I told them that it was a little ticklish so late
in the season to trust the ice, and advised
'em to strike for the land as soon as they
came to the bull ferry.'

`And did they say they would?'

`Yes, the little man said he knew where
the road struck from the river into the valley,
and hoped he should reach it safely.'

`What did they talk about?' asked
Red Beard who was deeply interested to
know all that could be gained, touching the
men of whom he was in pursuit.

`Wall, about land, the white head had
bought up to the forks o' the river and about,
about getting back to Baltimore; and I
heard 'em say when they got to Havre de
Grace at the mouth, they'd find a vessel to
take 'em down the bay.'

`To the city?'

`That I didn't hear,' answered the woodsman;
`but you seem to question right
short about 'em. If they've been to any
mischief, cheatin' or sich like, I am sorry I
did not know of it, so I might have stopped
'em.'

`No, I have only a desire to see them,
and if possible, overtake them before they
reached Baltimore. Come, master Ringold, it
is time we were a' boat.'

Once more embarked, they floated down
upon the surface of the wild stream, until near
the close of day, when, as the boat round
ed a rugged point closely followed by the flyer
they came in sight of the blue range of
hills, far distant to the south, in the bosom
of which reposed the valley of Griffitt's nativity,
and the abode of the little party in
the boats.

`It will be midnight before we reach home,'
said Whitlock, `for the hills are full twenty
miles south of us, and the river has so many
crooked windings through the gorges bofore
it comes out into the valley, it will be a long
drift to reach it.

`With the current running as it does, and
with no ice to obstruct us at the Devil's Gap,
we shall get to the Hamlet Ferry Rock by
two in the morning,' remarked Griffitt.

`I am afraid we shall find the ice blocked
in the gap,' said Red Beard. `It has gone
down in such large fields it will be sure to
jam in that narrow gorge. I am in no mood
to bear such a dely as this will cause.'

`We can leave the boats, and strike across
the mountain, and by morning descend into
the valley,' said Ringold,

`That may be done. But let us hope for
the best.'

`If we foot it across the hills,' said Whitlock,
whose light bark was gliding along
abreast of the larger boat, and both borne
swiftly on the current, past dark woods and
frowning rocks, `if we foot it across the hills
we shall have a chance of seeing the hermit
of blue mountain; for the way we shall have
to take will pass near his cave.'

`I shall heed little of hermits, Master Whitlock,'
answered Red Beard, in a quick tone,
as if he could reprove him for thinking about
gratifying curiosity at such a time.

Night at length fell over the scene, and the
boats shot through the darkness, guided by
the skilful hand and eye of Griffitt; though
the dark shores were scarcely discernable from
the black waters that flowed past them. For
three or four hours they continued to be
borne onward in perilous companionship, with
the cakes of ice thickly swimming around
them. The hills grew nigher, and rose darker

and loftier into the sky, and they knew they
were approaching the gorge or Devil's Gap.

`In a few minutes we shall know whether
the river is open through,' said Red Beard,
in a voice that betrayed his anxiety. `Listen!
Is that not the roar and crash of ice
piling on ice?'

`Yes,' answered both the young men instantly.
`The ice has stopped below us without
doubt!'

They continued to drive on! Louder and
wilder came the sounds of the grinding masses
as they came in contact with the vast barrier
which had blocked up the passage of the
river. In a few minutes they found themselves
borne among the heaving masses, lifted
up on a huge block, and launched quite
out of water upon the solid field that spanned
the river from cliff to cliff.

`It is as I feared,' said Red Beard, in a
tone of disappointment, as he sprang from
the boat. Let us leave the boats and make
for the shore, and try to find the path over
the mountain. It is but eight miles to the
valley.'

`I know the path well, sir,' said Ringold,
having frequently been over the mountain,
hunting.

`Then we will at once start. No doubt
the jam is a mile or two thick. The boats
will come down with ice, and some one must
be on the lookout for them as they pass.
Forward!'

Having collected together a few articles
of value and use, Griffitt closely followed after
Red Beard who did not wait to take any
thing save an oar to aid him in crossing open
places in the ice, and in ascending the steep
side of the mountain. Whitlock followed,
drawing the flyer after him.

The night was dark, but not so unillumined
that the black mass of the mountains on
either shore were not visible, almost meeting
in the sky, so closely at the gorge did they
approach each other. The mountain which
they contemplated crossing was a vast niche
dense with forest, and towering at its highest
point full eleven hundred feet. Beyond it,
at its southern base, lay the beautiful valley
we have heretofore particularily described.
There was no path along the river, as the
cliffs were perpendicular; and had there
been, the windings of the river were so great
that twenty miles travel would hardly have
brought them to the valley, if they had followed
its meanderings. As, therefore, the
ice barred further progress by boat, it was
necessary that they should take the way
over the hills. There was no proper path,
other than old Indian trails, and the beaten
foot-ways made by deer as they descended
from the hill sides, to drink and bathe in the
river.

It was with some peril the banks of the
river was gained in the darkness, and over
the unsteady ice; but they at length stood upon
the firm land. Whitlock, whose friendship
for Griffitt, led him to drag his flyer to the
shore in order to ensure its safety, now called
upon him to assist him in lifting it into a
tree where they securely bound it to a strong
branch far above any possible rise of the
flooded river.

`At least this is safe, and though the barge
goes,' said Whitlock. `I would rather have
had a passage all the way by water, but travellers
mustn't be choosers. What can be the
captain's hurry, that he wont stop for anything.
There he is a hundred yards on his
way already crackling the underbrush beneath
his feet like an enraged bear. Something
uncommon is in the wind. What have
the two men been at?'

`You must ask me no questions, Ned,'
answered Griffitt, to whom he addressed himself.
`It is some private affair of his own
I believe.'

`You believe. You know all about it;
or why have you made me keep my boat a
gun-shot astern so often to day, while you
have had your heads together. But it is none
of my matter, Ringold. Only if there is
danger and you are like to be in it, I want
to be by your side. I saw something was in

the wind when you started which made me
so urgent to go with you. It is nothing to
me if the captain don't want to let me into
the secret; only, if there is fighting to be
done he must just let Ned Whitlock have a
hand in it. Promise me that, Ringold.'

`I promise it, Ned,' answered his friend
as he walked by his side and endeavored to
come up with Red Beard, whom they could
hear marching ahead of them, making his
way as Whitlock had said `like a wild beast
through the dark woods.'

`He is going wrong,' said Ned, `he should
strike more up the mountain to the left.'

`Yes, halloo, Captain Burnside,' shouted
Griffitt, and hastening on as he called to him.

`Well, ho, then,' answered Red Beard as
if annoyed by being delayed.

`The path lies more to the left. If you
will let me, I will be guide.'

`Very well, go in advance. Do not, I beg
of you, delay me master Griffitt, nor loose
me the way, for you know what is upon my
mind demanding all haste.'

`I know it well, sir,' answered Griffitt, as
he took his place in advance, and at once
turning to the left and he commenced mounting
the precipitous side.

`I wish I knew it as well,' muttered Ned
Whitlock, as he took his place in the rear of
Red Beard; and the three thus moving in
Indian file pressed rapidly onward; now ascending
the shelvy sides of a pine covered
cliff, now crossing a soft moss covered pla
teau, and then entering a thick wood which
was passed only to mount some high ragged
rock at which it terminated. Steadily in
this manner with the quick hardy step of
trained woodsmen, and with a skill and patience
only to be found in foresters, they
achieved their way, and after three hours' toil
they reached the level of the summit of the
Blue Mountain. As they gained its top they
discovered that dawn was breaking in the
east, where was visible a faint, grey light, if
it were not too faint to be termed light.'

`We had best rest here for an hour, my
friend,' said Red Beard. `It has been a fatiguing
climb for you; and we must sleep
at some time if we would act with energy.—
When the sun rises we will move again, and
it being all descent, and as we shall have
daylight to do it by we shall not be long in
reaching the valley, which but for the darkness
we could now see lying at our feet.'

But Griffitt and Whitlock heard the proposition
to lie down and rest with unfeigned
pleasure. Their ascent up the mountain had
been attended with great toil and fatigue,
and neither of them had got much sleep the
night previous, one having been the camp
watch, while the other had past the night
in listening to the strange history of Red
Beard.

The place where they paused was under a
group of firs with thick moss beneath, on
which they cast themselves with wearied
limbs.