Every man was present, and each
person stood by his arms, no one betraying the slightest
consciousness of knowing whence the unaccountable summons had
proceeded!
"This has been done by you, corporal, in order to bring us together,
under arms, by way of practice," le Bourdon at length exclaimed.
"False alarms is useful, if not overdone; especially among raw
troops," answered Flint, coolly; "but I have given none to-night. I
will own I did intend to have you all out in a day or two by way of
practice, but I have thought it useless to attempt too much at once.
When the garrison is finished, it will be time enough to drill the
men to the alarm-posts."
"What is your opinion, Peter?" continued le Bourdon. "You understand
the wilderness, and its ways. To what is this extr'or'nary call
owing? Why have we been brought here, at this hour?"
"Somebody blow horn, most likely," answered Peter, in his unmoved,
philosophical manner. "'Spose don't know; den can't tell. Warrior
often hear 'larm on war-path."
"This is an onaccountable thing! If I ever heard a horn, I heard one
to-night; yet this is the only horn we have, and no one has touched
it! It was not the conch I heard; there is no mistaking the
difference in sound between a shell and a horn; and there is the
conch, hanging at Gershom's neck, just where it has been the whole
night.
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