The Masters of the Peaks: A Story of the Great North Woods by Joseph A. Altsheler (christmas read aloud TXT) 📗

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MASTERS OF THE PEAKS *** Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders The MASTERS of the PEAKS A STORY OF THE GREAT NORTH WOODS BY JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER 1918 FOREWORD

"The Masters of the Peaks," while presenting a complete story in itself is the fourth volume of the French and Indian War Series, of which the predecessors were "The Hunters of the Hills," "The Shadow of the North," and "The Rulers of the Lakes." Robert Lennox, Tayoga, Willet, and all the other important characters of the earlier romances reappear in the present book.

CONTENTS CHARACTERS IN THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR SERIES
CHARACTERS
CHAPTER I: IN THE DEEP WOODS
CHAPTER II: ON THE RIDGES
CHAPTER III: THE BRAVE DEFENSE
CHAPTER IV: THE GODS AT PLAY
CHAPTER V: TAMING A SPY
CHAPTER VI: PUPILS OF THE BEAR
CHAPTER VII: THE SLEEPING SENTINELS
CHAPTER VIII: BEFORE MONTCALM
CHAPTER IX: THE SIGN OF THE BEAR
CHAPTER X: THE FLIGHT OF THE TWO
CHAPTER XI: THE MYSTIC VOYAGE
CHAPTER XII: THE MARVELOUS TRAILER
CHAPTER XIII: READING THE SIGNS
CHAPTER XIV: ST. LUC'S REVENGE
CHARACTERS IN THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR SERIES

ROBERT LENNOX: A lad of unknown origin

TAYOGA: A young Onondaga warrior

DAVID WILLET: A hunter

RAYMOND LOUIS DE ST. LUC: A brilliant French officer

AUGUSTE DE COURCELLES: A French officer

FRANÇOIS DE JUMONVILLE: A French officer

LOUIS DE GALISSONNIÈRE: A young French officer

JEAN DE MÉZY: A corrupt Frenchman

ARMAND GLANDELET: A young Frenchman

PIERRE BOUCHER: A bully and bravo

PHILIBERT DROUILLARD: A French priest

THE MARQUIS DUQUESNE: Governor-General of Canada

MARQUIS DE VAUDREUIL: Governor-General of Canada

FRANÇOIS BIGOT: Intendant of Canada

MARQUIS DE MONTCALM: French commander-in-chief

DE LEVIS: A French general

BOURLAMAQUE: A French general

BOUGAINVILLE: A French general

ARMAND DUBOIS: A follower of St. Luc

M. DE CHATILLARD: An old French Seigneur

CHARLES LANGLADE: A French partisan

THE DOVE: The Indian wife of Langlade

TANDAKORA: An Ojibway chief

DAGONOWEDA: A young Mohawk chief

HENDRICK: An old Mohawk chief

BRADDOCK: A British general

ABERCROMBIE: A British general

WOLFE: A British general

COL. WILLIAM JOHNSON: Anglo-American leader

MOLLY BRANT: Col. Wm. Johnson's Indian wife

JOSEPH BRANT: Young brother of Molly Brant, afterward the great Mohawk chief, Thayendanegea

ROBERT DINWIDDIE: Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia

CHARACTERS

WILLIAM SHIRLEY: Governor of Massachusetts

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: Famous American patriot

JAMES COLDEN: A young Philadelphia captain

WILLIAM WILTON: A young Philadelphia lieutenant

HUGH CARSON: A young Philadelphia lieutenant

JACOBUS HUYSMAN: An Albany burgher

CATERINA: Jacobus Huysman's cook

ALEXANDER MCLEAN: An Albany schoolmaster

BENJAMIN HARDY: A New York merchant

JOHNATHAN PILLSBURY: Clerk to Benjamin Hardy

ADRIAN VAN ZOON: A New York merchant

THE SLAVER: A nameless rover

ACHILLE GARAY: A French spy

ALFRED GROSVENOR: A young English officer

JAMES CABELL: A young Virginian

WALTER STUART: A young Virginian

BLACK RIFLE: A famous "Indian fighter"

ELIHU STRONG: A Massachusetts colonel

ALAN HERVEY: A New York financier

STUART WHYTE: Captain of the British sloop, Hawk

JOHN LATHAM: Lieutenant of the British sloop, Hawk

EDWARD CHARTERIS: A young officer of the Royal Americans

ZEBEDEE CRANE: A young scout and forest runner

ROBERT ROGERS: Famous Captain of American Rangers

CHAPTER I
IN THE DEEP WOODS

A light wind sang through the foliage, turned to varying and vivid hues now by the touch of autumn, and it had an edge of cold that made Robert Lennox shiver a little, despite a hardy life in wilderness and open. But it was only a passing feeling. A moment or two later he forgot it, and, turning his eyes to the west, watched the vast terraces of blazing color piled one above another by the sinking sun.

Often as he had seen it the wonderful late glow over the mighty forest never failed to stir him, and to make his pulse beat a little faster. His sensitive mind, akin in quality to that of a poet, responded with eagerness and joy to the beauty and majesty of nature. Forgetting danger and the great task they had set for themselves, he watched the banks of color, red and pink, salmon and blue, purple and yellow, shift and change, while in the very heart of the vast panorama the huge, red orb, too strong for human sight, glittered and flamed.

The air, instinct with life, intoxicated him and he became rapt as in a vision. People whom he had met in his few but eventful years passed before him again in all the seeming of reality, and then his spirit leaped into the future, dreaming of the great things he would see, and in which perhaps he would have a share.

Tayoga, the young Onondaga, looked at his comrade and he understood. The same imaginative thread had been woven into the warp of which he was made, and his nostrils and lips quivered as he drank in the splendor of a world that appealed with such peculiar force to him, a son of the woods.

"The spirit of Areskoui (the Sun God) is upon Dagaeoga, and he has left us to dwell for a little while upon the seas of color heaped against the western horizon," he said.

Willet, the hunter, smiled. The two lads were very dear to him. He knew that they were uncommon types, raised by the gift of God far above the normal.

"Let him rest there, Tayoga," he said, "while those brilliant banks last, which won't be long. All things change, and the glorious hues will soon give way to the dark."

"True, Great Bear, but if the night comes it, in turn, must yield to the dawn. All things change, as you say, but nothing perishes. The sun tomorrow will be the same sun that we see today. Black night will not take a single ray from its glory."

"It's so, Tayoga, but you talk like a book or a prophet. I'm wondering if our lives are not like the going and coming of the sun. Maybe we pass on from one to another, forever and forever, without ending."

"Great Bear himself feels the spell of Areskoui also."

"I do, but we'd better stop rhapsodizing and think about our needs. Here, Robert, wake up and come back to earth! It's no time to sing a song to the sun with the forest full of our red enemies and the white too, perhaps."

Robert awoke with a start.

"You dragged me out of a beautiful world," he said.

"A world in which you were the central star," rejoined the hunter.

"So I was, but isn't that the case with all the imaginary worlds a man creates? He's their sun or he wouldn't create 'em."

"We're getting too deep into the unknown. Plant your feet on the solid earth, Robert, and let's think about the problems a dark night is going to bring us in the Indian country, not far south of the St. Lawrence."

Young Lennox shivered again. The terraces in the west suddenly began to fade and the wind took on a fresh and sharper edge.

"I know one thing," he said. "I know the night's going to be cold. It always is in the late autumn, up here among the high hills, and I'd like to see a fire, before which we could bask and upon which we could warm our food."

The hunter glanced at the Onondaga.

"That tells the state of my mind, too," he said, "but I doubt whether it would be safe. If we're to be good scouts, fit to discover the plans of the French and Indians, we won't get ourselves cut off by some rash act in the very beginning."

"It may not be a great danger or any at all," said Tayoga. "There is much rough and rocky ground to our right, cut by deep chasms, and we might find in there a protected recess in which we could build a smothered fire."

"You're a friend at the right time, Tayoga," said Robert. "I feel that I must have warmth. Lead on and find the stony hollow for us."

The Onondaga turned without a word, and started into the maze of lofty hills and narrow valleys, where the shadows of the night that was coming so swiftly already lay thick and heavy.

The three had gone north after the great victory at Lake George, a triumph that was not followed up as they had hoped. They had waited to see Johnson's host pursue the enemy and strike him hard again, but there were bickerings among the provinces which were jealous of one another, and the army remained in camp until the lateness of the season indicated a delay of all operations, save those of the scouts and roving bands that never rested. But Robert, Willet and Tayoga hoped, nevertheless, that they could achieve some deed of importance during the coming cold weather, and they were willing to undergo great risks in the effort.

They were soon in the heavy forest that clothed all the hills, and passed up a narrow ravine leading into the depths of the maze. The wind