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diff --git a/old/13724.txt b/old/13724.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a1afc73 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13724.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6997 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Frontiersmen, by Charles Egbert Craddock + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Frontiersmen + +Author: Charles Egbert Craddock + +Release Date: October 12, 2004 [eBook #13724] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FRONTIERSMEN*** + + +E-text prepared by the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading +Team from images provided by the Million Book Project + + + +THE FRONTIERSMEN + +by + +CHARLES EGBERT CRADDOCK + +Author of _A Spectre of Power_, _The Prophet of the Great Smoky +Mountains_, _In the Tennessee Mountains_, etc. + +1904 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +THE LINGUISTER + +A VICTOR AT CHUNGKE + +THE CAPTIVE OF THE ADA-WEHI + +THE FATE OF THE CHEERA-TAGHE + +THE BEWITCHED BALL-STICKS + +THE VISIT OF THE TURBULENT GRANDFATHER + +NOTES + + + + +THE LINGUISTER + + +The mental image of the world is of individual and varying compass. It +may be likened to one of those curious Chinese balls of quaintly carved +ivory, containing other balls, one within another, the proportions ever +dwindling with each successive inclosure, yet each a more minute +duplicate of the external sphere. This might seem the least world of +all,--the restricted limits of the quadrangle of this primitive +stockade,--but Peninnah Penelope Anne Mivane had known no other than +such as this. It was large enough for her, for a fairy-like face, very +fair, with golden brown hair, that seemed to have entangled the +sunshine, and lustrous brown eyes, looked out of an embrasure (locally +called "port-hole") of the blockhouse, more formidable than the swivel +gun once mounted there, commanding the entrance to the stockade gate. +Her aspect might have suggested that Titania herself had resorted to +military methods and was ensconced in primitive defenses. It was even +large enough for her name, which must have been conferred upon her, as +the wits of the Blue Lick Station jocularly averred, in the hope of +adding some size to her. It was large enough also for the drama of +battle and the tragedy of bloody death--both had befallen within its +limits. + +There had been a night, glooming very dark in the past, an unwary night +when the row of log houses, all connected by the palisades from one to +the other, presenting a blank wall without, broken only by loopholes for +musketry, had been scaled by the crafty Cherokees, swarming over the +roofs, and attacking the English settlers through the easy access of the +unglazed windows and flimsy batten doors that opened upon the +quadrangle. Although finally beaten off, the Indians had inflicted great +loss. Her father had been one of the slain settlers who thus paid +penalty for the false sense of security, fostered by long immunity. Even +more troublous times came later,--the tumult of open war was rife in all +the land; the station was repeatedly attacked, and although it held out +stanchly, fear and suspense and grief filled the stockade,--yet still +there was space for Cupid to go swaggering hither and thither within the +guarded gates, and aim his arrows with his old-time dainty skill, albeit +his bow and quiver might seem somewhat archaic in these days of powder +and lead. For Peninnah Penelope Anne Mivane spent much of her time in +the moulding of bullets. Perhaps it was appropriate, since both she and +her young pioneer lover dealt so largely in missiles, that it was thus +the sentimental dart was sped. Lead was precious in those days, but +sundry bullets, that she had moulded, Ralph Emsden never rammed down +into the long barrel of his flintlock rifle. Some question as to whether +the balls had cooled, or perhaps some mere meditative pause, had carried +the bits of lead in her fingers to her lips, as they sat together on the +hearth and talked and worked in the fire-lit dusk for their common +defense. He was wont to watch, lynx-eyed, the spot where these +consecrated bullets were placed, and afterward carried them in a +separate buckskin bag over his heart, and mentally called them his +"kisses;" for the youths of those days were even such fools as now, +although in the lapse of time they have come to pose successfully in the +dignified guise of the "wise patriots of the pioneer period." More than +once when the station was attacked and the women loaded the guns of the +men to expedite the shooting, she kept stanchly at his elbow throughout +the thunderous conflict, and charged and primed the alternate rifles +which he fired.[1] Over the trigger, in fact, the fateful word was +spoken. + +"Oh, Nan," he exclaimed, looking down at her while taking the weapon +from her hand in the vague dusk where she knelt beside him,--he stood on +the shelf that served as banquette to bring him within reach of the +loophole, placed so high in the hope that a chance shot entering might +range only among the rafters,--"How quick you are! How you help me!" + +The thunderous crash of the double volley of the settlers firing twice, +by the aid of their feminine auxiliaries, to every volley of the +Indians, overwhelmed for the moment the tumult of the fiendish whoops in +the wild darkness outside, and then the fusillade of the return fire, +like leaden hail, rattled against the tough log walls of the station. + +"Are you afraid, Nan?" he asked, as he received again the loaded weapon +from her hand. + +"_Afraid?_--No!" exclaimed Peninnah Penelope Anne Mivane--hardly taller +than the ramrod with which she was once more driving the charge home. + +He saw her face, delicate and blonde, in the vivid white flare from the +rifle as he thrust it through the loophole and fired. "You think I can +take care of you?" he demanded, while the echo died away, and a lull +ensued. + +"I know you can," she replied, adjusting with the steady hand of an +expert the patching over the muzzle of the discharged weapon in the +semi-obscurity. + +A blood-curdling shout came from the Cherokees in the woods with a +deeper roar of musketry at closer quarters; and a hollow groan within +the blockhouse, where there was a sudden commotion in the dim light, +told that some bullet had found its billet. + +"They are coming to the attack again--Hand me the +rifle--quick--quick--Oh, Nan, how you help me! How brave you are--I love +you! I love you!" + +"Look out now for a flash in the pan!" Peninnah Penelope Anne merely +admonished him. + +Being susceptible to superstition and a ponderer on omens, Ralph Emsden +often thought fretfully afterward on the double meaning of these words, +and sought to displace them in their possible evil influence on his +future by some assurance more cheerful and confident. With this view he +often earnestly beset her, but could secure nothing more pleasing than a +reference to the will of her grandfather and a protestation to abide by +his decision in the matter. + +Now Peninnah Penelope Anne's grandfather was deaf. His was that hopeless +variety of the infirmity which heard no more than he desired. His +memory, however, was unimpaired, and it may be that certain +recollections of his own experiences in the past remained with him, +making him a fine judge of the signs of the present. Emsden, appalled by +the necessity of shrieking out his love within the acute and +well-applied hearing facilities of the families of some ten +"stationers," to use the phrase of the day, diligently sought to decoy, +on successive occasions, Richard Mivane out to the comparative solitudes +of the hunting, the fishing, the cropping. In vain. Richard Mivane +displayed sudden extreme prudential care against surprise and capture by +Indians, when this was possible, and when impossible he developed +unexpected and unexampled resources of protective rheumatism. The young +lover was equally precluded from setting forth the state of his +affections and the prospects of his future in writing. Apart from the +absurdity of thus approaching a man whom he saw twenty times a day, old +Mivane would permit no such intimation of the extent of his +affliction,--it being a point of pride with him that he was merely +slightly hard of hearing, and suffered only from the indistinctness of +the enunciation of people in general. And indeed, it was variously +contended that he was so deaf that he could not hear a gun fired at his +elbow; and yet that he heard all manner of secrets which chanced to be +detailed in his presence, in inadvertent reliance on his incapacity, and +had not the smallest hesitation afterward in their disclosure, being +entitled to them by right of discovery, as it were. + +Emsden, in keen anxiety, doubtful if his suit were seriously +disapproved, or if these demonstrations were only prompted by old +Mivane's selfish aversion to give away his granddaughter, finally +summoned all his courage, and in a stentorian roar proclaimed to the old +gentleman his sentiments. + +Richard Mivane was a man of many punctilious habitudes, who wore cloth +instead of buckskin, however hard it might be to come by, and silver +knee-buckles and well-knit hose on his still shapely calves, and a +peruke carefully powdered and tended. He had a keen, wrinkled, bloodless +face, discerning, clever, gray eyes, heavy, overhanging, grizzled +eyebrows, and a gentlemanly mouth of a diplomatic, well-bred, +conservative expression. + +It was said at Blue Lick Station that he had fled from his own country, +the north of England, on account of an affair of honor,--a duel in early +life,--and that however distasteful the hardships and comparative +poverty of this new home, it was far safer for him than the land of his +birth. His worldly position there gave him sundry claims of superiority, +for all of which his hardy pioneer son had had scant sympathy; and Ralph +Emsden, in the difficult crisis of the disclosure of the state of his +affections, heaved many a sigh for this simple manly soul's untimely +fate. + +The elder Mivane, with his head bent forward, his hand behind his ear, +sat in his arm-chair while he hearkened blandly to the sentimental +statements which Emsden was obliged to shout forth twice. Then Richard +Mivane cleared his throat with a sort of preliminary gentlemanly +embarrassment, and went fluently on with that suave low voice so common +to the very deaf. "Command me, sir, command me! It will give me much +pleasure to use my influence on your behalf to obtain an ensigncy. I +will myself write at the first opportunity, the first express, to +Lieutenant-Governor Bull, who is acquainted with my family connections +in England. It is very praiseworthy, very laudable indeed, that you +should aspire to a commission in the military service,--the provincial +forces. I honor you for your readiness to fight--although, to be sure, +being Irish, you can't help it. Still, it is to your credit that you are +Irish. I am very partial to the Irish traits of character--was once in +Ireland myself--visited an uncle there"--and so forth and so forth. + +And thus poor Ralph Emsden, who was only Irish by descent, and could not +have found Ireland on the map were he to hang for his ignorance, and had +been born and bred in the Royal province of South Carolina,--which +country he considered the crown and glory of the world,--was constrained +to listen to all the doings and sayings of Richard Mivane in Ireland +from the time that he embarked on the wild Irish Sea, which scrupled not +to take unprecedented liberties with so untried a sailor, till the +entrance of other pioneers cut short a beguiling account of his first +meeting with potheen in its native haunts, and the bewildering pranks +that he and that tricksy sprite played together in those the +irresponsible days of his youth. + +Emsden told no one, not even Peninnah Penelope Anne, of his +discomfiture; but alack, there were youngsters in the family of +unaffected minds and unimpaired hearing. This was made amply manifest a +day or so afterward, when he chanced to pause at the door of the log +cabin and glance in, hoping that, perhaps, the queen of his dreams might +materialize in this humble domicile. + +The old gentleman slept in his chair, with dreams of his own, perchance, +for his early life might have furnished a myriad gay fancies for his +later years. The glare of noonday lay on the unshaded spaces of the +quadrangle without; for all trees had been felled, even far around the +inclosure, lest thence they might afford vantage and ambush for musketry +fire or a flight of arrows into the stockade. Through rifts in the +foliage at considerable distance one could see the dark mountain looming +high above, and catch glimpses of the further reaches of the Great Smoky +Range, blue and shimmering far away, and even distinguish the crest of +"Big Injun Mountain" on the skyline. The several cabins, all connected +by that row of protective palisades from one to another like a visible +expression of the chord of sympathy and mutual helpful neighborliness, +were quiet, their denizens dining within. At the blockhouse a guard was +mounted--doubtless a watchful and stanch lookout, but unconforming to +military methods, for he sang, to speed the time, a metrical psalm of +David's; the awkward collocation of the words of this version would +forever distort the royal poet's meaning if he had no other vehicle of +his inspiration. There were long waits between the drowsy lines, and in +the intervals certain callow voices, with the penetrating timbre of +youth, came to Emsden's ear. His eyes followed the sound quickly. + +The little sisters of Peninnah Penelope Anne were on the floor before a +playhouse, outlined by stones and sticks, and with rapt faces and +competent fancies, saw whatsoever they would. In these riches of +imagination a little brother also partook. A stick, accoutred in such +wise with scraps of buckskin as to imitate a gallant of the place and +period, was bowing respectfully before another stick, vested in the +affabilities of age and the simulacrum of a dressing-gown. + +"I love your granddaughter, sir, and wish to make her my wife," said the +bowing stick. + +"Command me, sir; command me!" suavely replied the stick stricken in +years. + +The scene had been an eye-opener to the tender youth of the little +Mivanes; the pomp and circumstance of a sentimental disclosure they +would never forget. + +Emsden, as hardy a pioneer as ever drew a bead on a panther or an +Indian, passed on, quaking at the thought of the wits of the Station as +he had never yet feared man, and his respected Irish blood ran cold. And +when it waxed warm with wrath once more it came to pass that to utter +the simple phrase "Command me" was as much as a man's life was worth at +Blue Lick Station. + +Emsden thought ruefully of the girl's mother and wondered if her +intercession would avail aught with the old autocrat. But he had not yet +ventured upon this. There was nothing certain about Mrs. Mivane but her +uncertainty. She never gave a positive opinion. Her attitude of mind was +only to be divined by inference. She never gave a categorical answer. +And indeed he would not have been encouraged to learn that Richard +Mivane himself had already consulted his daughter-in-law, as in this +highhanded evasion of any decision he felt the need of support. For once +the old gentleman was not displeased with her reply, comprehensive, +although glancing aside from the point. Since there were so many young +men in the country, said Mrs. Mivane, she saw no reason for despair! +With this approval of his temporizing policy Richard Mivane left the +matter to the development of the future. + +Emsden's depression would have been more serious had he not fortunately +sundry tokens of the old man's favor to cherish in his memory, which +seemed to intimate that this elusiveness was only a shrewd scheme to +delay and thwart him rather than a positive and reasonable disposition +to deny his suit. In short, Emsden began to realize that instead of a +damsel of eighteen he had to court a coquette rising sixty, of the +sterner sex, and deafer than an adder when he chose. His artful quirks +were destined to try the young lover's diplomacy to the utmost, and +Emsden appreciated this, but he reassured himself with the reflection +that it was better thus than if it were the girl who vacillated and +delighted to torture him with all the arts of a first-class jilt. He was +constantly in and out of the house almost as familiarly as if he were +already betrothed, for in the troublous period that seemed now closing, +with its sudden flights, its panics, its desperate conflicts with the +Indians, he had been able to give an almost filial aid to Richard Mivane +in the stead of the son whom the old man had lost. + +Richard Mivane had always felt himself an alien, a sojourner in this new +land, and perchance he might not have been able even partially to +reconcile himself to the ruder conditions of his later life if the +bursting of a financial bubble had not swept away all hope of returning +to the status of his earlier home in England when the tragedy of the +duel had been sunk in oblivion. The frontier was a fine place to hide +one's poverty and fading graces, he had once remarked, and thereafter +had seemed to resign himself to its hardships,--indeed, sometimes he +consigned his negro body-servant, Caesar, to other duties than his +exclusive attendance. He had even been known to breakfast with his head +tied up in a handkerchief when some domestic crisis had supervened, such +as the escape of all the horses from the pinfold, to call away his +barber. As this functionary was of an active temperament and not at all +averse to the labor in the fields, he proved of more value thus utilized +than in merely furnishing covert amusement to the stationers by his +pompous duplication of his master's attitude of being too cultured, +traveled, and polished for his surroundings. He was a trained valet, +however, expert in all the details of dressing hair, powdering, curling, +pomatuming, and other intricacies of the toilet of a man of fashion of +that day. Caesar had many arts at command touching the burnishing of +buckles and buttons, and even in clear-starching steinkirks and the +cambric ruffles of shirts. As he ploughed he was wont to tell of his +wonderful experiences while in his master's service in London (although +he had never crossed the seas); and these being accepted with seeming +seriousness, he carried his travels a step farther and described the +life he remembered in the interior of Guinea (although he had never seen +the shores of Africa). This life so closely resembled that of London +that it was often difficult to distinguish the locality of the +incidents, an incongruity that enchanted the wags of the settlement, who +continually incited him to prodigies of narration. The hairbreadth +escapes that he and his fellow-servants, as well as the white people, +had had from the wrath of the Indians, whom the negroes feared beyond +measure, and their swift flights from one stockade to another in those +sudden panics during the troubled period preceding the Cherokee War, +might have seemed more exciting material for romancing for a venturesome +Munchausen, but perhaps these realities were too stern to afford any +interest in the present or glamour in the past. + +It was somewhat as a prelude to the siege of Fort Loudon by the +Cherokees in 1760 that they stormed and triumphantly carried several +minor stations to the southeast. Although Blue Lick sustained the +attack, still, in view of the loss of a number of its gallant defenders, +the settlers retreated at the first opportunity to the more sheltered +frontier beyond Fort Prince George, living from hand to mouth, some at +Long Cane and some at Ninety-Six, through those years when first +Montgomerie and then Grant made their furious forays through the +Cherokee country. Emsden, having served in the provincial regiment, +eagerly coveted a commission, of which Richard Mivane had feigned to +speak. Now that the Cherokees were ostensibly pacified,--that is, +exhausted, decimated, their towns burned, their best and bravest slain, +their hearts broken,--the fugitives from this settlement on the +Eupharsee River, as the Hiwassee was then called, gathered their +household gods and journeyed back to Blue Lick, to cry out in the +wilderness that they were "home" once more, and clasp each other's hands +in joyful gratulation to witness the roofs and stockade rise again, +rebuilt as of yore. Strangely enough, there were old Cherokee friends to +greet them anew and to be welcomed into the stockade; for even the rigid +rule of war and hate must needs be proved by its exceptions. And there +were one or two pensive philosophers among the English settlers vaguely +sad to see all the Cherokee traditions and prestige, and remnants of +prehistoric pseudo-civilization, shattered in the dust, and the +tremulous, foreign, unaccustomed effort--half-hearted, half-believing, +half-understanding--to put on the habitude of a new civilization. + +"The white man's religion permits poverty, but the Indian divides his +store with the needy, and there are none suffered to be poor," said +Atta-Kulla-Kulla, the famous chief. "The white men wrangle and quarrel +together, even brother with brother; with us the inner tribal peace is +ever unbroken. The white men slay and rob and oppress the poor, and with +many cunning treaties take now our lands and now our lives; then they +offer us their religion;--why does it seem so like an empty bowl?" + +"Atta-Kulla-Kulla, you know that I am deaf," said Richard Mivane, "and +you ask me such hard questions that I am not able to hear them." + +It is more than probable that these stationers in the vanguard of the +irrepressible march of western emigration had been trespassers, and thus +earned their misfortunes, in some sort, by their encroachment on Indian +territory; although since the war the Cherokee boundaries had become +more vague than heretofore, it being considered that Grant's operations +had extended the frontier by some seventy miles. It may be, too, that +the Blue Lick settlers held their own by right of private purchase; for +the inhibition to the acquisition of land in this way from the Indians +was not enacted till the following year, 1763, after the events to be +herein detailed, and, indeed, such purchases even further west and of an +earlier date are of record, albeit of doubtful legality. + +Now that peace in whatever maimed sort had come to this stricken land +and these adventurous settlers, who held their lives, their all, by such +precarious tenure, internecine strife must needs arise among them; not +the hand of brother against brother,--they were spared that grief,--but +one tender, struggling community against another. + +And it came about in this wise. + +One day Peninnah Penelope Anne Mivane, watching from the "port-hole" of +the blockhouse, where the muzzle of that dog of war the little swivel +gun had once been wont to look forth, beheld Ralph Emsden ride out from +the stockade gate for a week's absence with a party of hunters; with +bluff but tender assurance he waved his hat and hand to her in farewell. + +"Before all the men!" she said to herself, half in prudish dismay at his +effrontery, and yet pleased that he did not sheepishly seek to conceal +his preference. And although the men (there were but two or three and +not half the province, as her horror of this publicity would seem to +imply) said with a grin "Command me!" they said it _sotto voce_ and only +to each other. + +Spring was once more afoot in the land. They daily marked her advance as +they went. Halfway up the mountains she had climbed: for the maples were +blooming in rich dark reds that made the nearer slopes even more +splendid of garb than the velvet azure of the distant ranges, the elms +had put forth delicate sprays of emerald tint, and the pines all bore +great wax-like tapers amidst their evergreen boughs, as if ready for +kindling for some great festival. It is a wonderful thing to hear a wind +singing in myriads of their branches at once. The surging tones of this +oratorio of nature resounded for miles along the deep indented ravines +and the rocky slopes of the Great Smoky Mountains. Now and again the +flow of a torrent or the dash of a cataract added fugue-like effects. +The men were constantly impressed by these paeans of the forests; the +tuft of violets abloom beneath a horse's hoofs might be crushed +unnoticed, but the acoustic conditions of the air and the high floating +of the tenuous white clouds against a dense blue sky, promising rain in +due season, evoked a throb of satisfaction in the farmer's heart not +less sincere because unaesthetic. The farmer's toil had hardly yet +begun, the winter's hunt being just concluded, and each of the +stationers with a string of led horses was bound for his camps and +caches to bring in the skins that made the profit of the season. + +One of this group of three was the psalm-singer of the blockhouse. His +name was Xerxes Alexander Anxley, and he was unceremoniously called by +the community "X," and by Mivane "the unknown quantity," for he was +something of an enigma, and his predilections provoked much speculation. +He was a religionist of ascetic, extreme views,--a type rare in this +region,--coming originally from the colony of the Salzburgers +established in Georgia. + +We are less disposed to be tolerant of individual persuasions which +imply a personal and unpleasant reflection. Xerxes Alexander Anxley +disapproved of dancing, and the community questioned his sanity; for +these early pioneers in the region of the Great Smoky Range carried the +rifle over one shoulder and the fiddle over the other. He disapproved of +secular songs and idle stories, and the settlement questioned his taste; +for it was the delight of the stationers, old and young, to gather +around the hearth, and, while the chestnuts roasted in the fire for the +juniors, and the jovial horn, as it was called, circulated among the +elders, the oft-told story was rehearsed and the old song sung anew. He +even disapproved of the jovial horn--and the settlement questioned his +sincerity. + +This man Anxley looked his ascetic character. He had a hard pragmatic +countenance, and one of those noses which though large and bony come +suddenly short and blunted. His eyes, small, gray, and inscrutable, +seemed unfriendly, so baffling, introspective, unnoting was their +inattentiveness. His hair was of a sort of carrot tint, which color was +reproduced in paler guise in his fringed buckskin shirt and leggings, +worn on a sturdy and powerful frame. His mouth was shut hard and fast +upon his convictions, as if to denote that he could not be argued out of +them, and when the lips parted its lines were scarcely more mobile, and +his words were usually framed to doubt one's state of grace and to +contravene one's tenets as to final salvation. He rode much of the time +with the reins loose on his horse's neck, and perhaps no man in the +saddle had ever been so addicted to psalmody since the days of +Cromwell's troopers. His theological disputations grated peculiarly upon +Emsden's mood, and he always laid at his door the disaster that +followed. + +"If I hadn't been so traveled that day,--dragged through hell and +skirting of purgatory and knocking at the gates of heaven,--I wouldn't +have lost my wits so suddenly when I came back to earth with a bounce," +Emsden afterward declared. + +For as the hunters were coming at a brisk trot in single file along the +"old trading path," as it was called even then, the fleecy white clouds +racing above in the dense blue of the sky, their violet shadows fleeting +as swift along the slopes of the velvet-soft azure mountains, and the +wind far outstripping them in the vernal budding woods, a sudden stir +near at hand caused Emsden to turn his head. Just above him, on a rugged +slope where no trees grew save a scraggy cedar here and there amidst the +shelving ledges of rock outcropping through the soft verdant turf, he +saw a stealthy, furtive shape; he was aware of a hasty cowed glance over +the shoulder, and then a stretching of supple limbs in flight. Before he +himself hardly knew it the sharp crack of his rifle rang out,--the aim +was almost instinctive. + +And it was as true as instinct,--a large black wolf, his pelt glossy and +fresh with the renewal of the season, lay stretched dead in an instant +upon the slope. Emsden sprang from his horse, tossed the reins to "X," +and, drawing his knife, ran up the steep ascent to secure the animal's +skin. + +Only vaguely, as in a dream, he heard a sudden deep roar, beheld a +horned creature leaping heavily upon its fore quarters, tossing its hind +legs and tail into the air. Then an infuriated bull, breaking from the +bushes, charged fiercely down upon him. Emsden threw himself into a +posture of defense as instantly as if he had been a trained bullfighter +and the arena his wonted sphere, holding the knife close in front of +him, presenting the blade with a quick keen calculation for the animal's +jugular. The knife was Emsden's only weapon, for his pistols were in the +holster on the saddle, and his discharged rifle lay where he had flung +it on the ground after firing. He had only time to wonder that his +comrades vouchsafed him no assistance in his extremity. Men of such +accurate aim and constant practice could easily risk sending a +rifle-ball past him to stop that furious career. He could see the pupil +of the bull's wild dilated eyes, fiery as with a spark of actual flame. +He could even feel the hot puffs of the creature's breath upon his +cheeks, when all at once the horned head so close above his own swerved +aside with a snort from the dead body of the wolf at his feet. The bull +passed him like a thunderbolt, and he heard the infuriated stamping +which fairly shook the ground in the thicket below, where this king of +the herds paused to bellow and paw the earth, throwing clods high above +the environing copse. + +The woods seemed full of maddened, frightened cattle, and Emsden's horse +was frantically galloping after the cavalcade of hunters and their +pack-train, all the animals more or less beyond the control of the men. +He felt it an ill chance that left him thus alone and afoot in this +dense wilderness, several days' travel from the station. He was hardly +sure that he would be missed by his comrades, themselves scattered, the +pack-horses having broken from the path which they had traveled in +single file, and now with their burdens of value all foolishly careering +wildly through the woods. The first prudential care of the hunters he +knew would be to recover them and re-align the train, lest some +miscreant, encountering the animals, plunder the estrays of their loads +of hard-won deerskins and furs. + +The presence of cattle suggested to Emsden the proximity of human +dwellings, and yet this was problematic, for beyond branding and +occasional saltings the herds ranged within large bounds on lands +selected for their suitability as pasturage. The dwellings of these +pioneer herdsmen might be far away indeed, and in what direction he +could not guess. Since the Cherokee War, and the obliteration of all +previous marks of white settlements in this remote region, Emsden was +unfamiliar with the more recent location of "cow-pens," as the ranches +were called, and was only approximately acquainted with the new site of +the settlers' stations. Nothing so alters the face of a country as the +moral and physical convulsion of war. Even many of the Indian towns were +deserted and half charred,--burned by the orders of the British +commanders. One such stood in a valley through which he passed on his +homeward way; the tender vernal aspect of this green cove, held in the +solemn quiet of the encircling mountains, might typify peace itself. Yet +here the blue sky could be seen through the black skeleton rafters of +the once pleasant homes; and there were other significant skeletons in +the absolute solitude,--the great ribs of dead chargers, together with +broken bits and bridles, and remnants of exploded hand-grenades, and a +burst gun-barrel, all lying on the bank of a lovely mountain stream at +the point where he crossed it, as it flowed, crystal clear, through this +sequestered bosky nook. + +Something of a job this transit was, for with the spring freshets the +water was high and the current strong, and he was compelled to use only +one hand for swimming, the other holding high out of the water's reach +his powder horn. For, despite any treaties of peace, this was no country +for a man to traverse unarmed, and an encounter with an inimical +wandering Indian might serve to make for his comrades' curiosity +concerning his fate, when they should chance to have leisure to feel it, +a perpetual conundrum. + +He had never, however, made so lonely a journey. Not one human being did +he meet--neither red man nor white--in all the long miles of the endless +wilderness; naught astir save the sparse vernal shadows in the budding +woods and the gentle spring zephyr swinging past and singing as it went. +Now and again he noted how the sun slowly dropped down the skies that +were so fine, so fair, so blue that it seemed loath to go and leave the +majestic peace of the zenith. The stars scintillated in the dark night +as if a thousand bivouac fires were kindled in those far spaces of the +heavens responsive to the fire which he kept aglow to cook the supper +that his rifle fetched him and to ward off the approach of wolf or +panther while he slept. He was doubtless in jeopardy often enough, but +chance befriended him and he encountered naught inimical till the fourth +day when he came in at the gate of the station and met the partners of +the hunt, themselves not long since arrived. + +They waited for no reproaches for their desertion. They were quick to +upbraid. As they hailed him in chorus he was bewildered for a moment, +and stood in the gateway leaning on his rifle, his coonskin cap thrust +back on his brown hair, his bright, steady gray eyes concentrated as he +listened. His tall, lithe figure in his buckskin hunting shirt and +leggings, the habitual garb of the frontiersmen, grew tense and gave an +intimation of gathering all its forces for the defensive as he noted how +the aspect of the station differed from its wonted guise. Every house of +the assemblage of little log cabins stood open; here and there in the +misty air, for there had been a swift, short spring shower, fires could +be seen aglow on the hearths within; the long slant of the red sunset +rays fell athwart the gleaming wet roofs and barbed the pointed tops of +the palisades with sharp glints of light, and a rainbow showed all the +colors of the prism high against the azure mountain beyond, while a +second arch below, a dim duplication, spanned the depths of a valley. +The frontiersmen were all in the open spaces of the square excitedly +wrangling--and suddenly he became conscious of a girlish face at the +embrasure for the cannon at the blockhouse, a face with golden brown +hair above it, and a red hood that had evidently been in the rain. +"Looking out for me, I wonder?" he asked himself, and as this glow of +agitated speculation swept over him the men who plied him with questions +angrily admonished his silence. + +"He has seen a wolf! He has seen a wolf! 'Tis plain!" cried old Mivane, +as he stood in his metropolitan costume among the buckskin-clad +pioneers. "One would know that without being told!" + +"You shot the wolf and stampeded the cattle, and the herders at the +cow-pens on the Keowee River can't round them up again!" cried one of +the settlers. + +"The cattle have run to the Congarees by this time!" declared another +pessimistically. + +"And it was _you_ that shot the wolf!" cried "X" rancorously. + +"The herders are holding _us_ responsible and have sent an ambassador," +explained John Ronackstone, anxiously knitting his brows, "to inform us +that not a horse of the pack-train from Blue Lick Station shall pass +down to Charlestown till we indemnify them for the loss of the cattle." + +"Gadso! they can't _all_ be lost!" exclaimed old Mivane floutingly. + +"No, no! the herders go too far for damages--too far! They are putting +their coulter _too_ deep!" said a farmer fresh from the field. He had +still a bag of seed-grain around his neck, and now and again he thrust +in his hand and fingered the kernels. + +"They declare they'll seize our skins," cried another +ambiguously,--then, conscious of this, he sought to amend the +matter,--"Not the hides we wear,"--this was no better, for they were all +arrayed in hides, save Richard Mivane. "Not the hides that we were born +in, but our deerhides, our peltry,--they'll seize the pack-train from +Blue Lick, and they declare they'll call on the commandant of Fort +Prince George to oppose its passing with the king's troops." + +An appalled silence fell on the quadrangle,--save for the fresh notes of +a mockingbird, perching in jaunty guise on the tower of the blockhouse, +above which the rainbow glowed in the radiant splendors of a misty amber +sky. + +"The king's troops? Would the commandant respond?" anxiously speculated +one of the settlers. + +The little handful of pioneers, with their main possessions in the fate +of the pack-train, looked at one another in dismay. + +"And tell me, friend Feather-pate, why did it seem good to you to shoot +a wolf in the midst of a herd of cattle?" demanded Richard Mivane. + +Ralph Emsden, bewildered by the results of this untoward chance, and the +further catastrophe shadowed forth in the threatened seizure of the +train, rallied with all his faculties at the note of scorn from this +quarter. + +"Sir, I did not shoot the wolf among the cattle. There was not a horn +nor a hoof to be seen when I fired." + +Mivane turned to "X" with both hands outstretched as much as to say, +"Take _that_ for your quietus!" and shouldering his stick, which had an +ivory head and a sword within, strode off after his jaunty fashion as if +there were no more to be said. + +It was now Alexander Anxley's turn to sustain the questioning clamor. "I +will not deny"--"That is, I said"--"I meant to say,"--but these +qualifications were lost in the stress of Emsden's voice, once more +rising stridently. + +"Not a horn nor a hoof to be seen till after I had fired. I didn't know +there were any cow-pens about--didn't use to be till after you had +crossed the Keowee. But if there _had_ been, is a man to see a wolf pull +down a yearling, say, and not fire a rifle because Madam Cow will take +the high-strikes or Cap'n Bull will go on the rampage? Must I wait till +I can make a leg,"--he paused to execute an exaggerated obeisance, +graceful enough despite its mockery,--"'Under your favor, Cap'n Bull,' +and 'With your ladyship's permission,' before I kill the ravening brute, +big enough to pull down a yearling? Don't talk to me! Don't talk to me!" +He held out the palms of his hands toward them in interdiction, and made +as if to go--yet went not! + +For a reactionary sentiment toward him had set in, and there were those +fair-minded enough, although with their little all at stake, to admit +that he had acted with reasonable prudence, and that it was only an +unlucky chance which had sent the panic through the herds with such +disastrous effect. + +"The herders should not stop the pack-train, if I had my will," declared +one of the settlers with a belligerent note. + +"No, no," proclaimed another; "not if it takes all the men at Blue Lick +Station to escort it!" + +"Those blistered redcoats at Fort Prince George are a deal too handy to +be called on by such make-bates as the herders on the Keowee River." + +"Fudge! The commandant would never let a bayonet stir." + +"Gad! I'd send an ambassador for an ambassador. Tit for tat," declared +Emsden. "I'd ask 'em what's gone with all our horses,--last seen in +those desolated cow-pens,--that the voice of mourning is now lifted +about!" + +There was a chuckle of sheer joy, so abrupt and unexpected that it rose +with a clatter and a cackle of delight, and culminated in a yell of +pleasurable derision. + +Now everybody knew that the horses bought in that wild country would, +unless restrained, return every spring to "their old grass," as it was +called,--to the places where they had formerly lived. When this annual +hegira took place in large numbers, some permanent losses were sure to +ensue. The settlers at Blue Lick had experienced this disaster, and had +accepted it as partly the result of their own lack of precaution during +the homing fancy of the horses. But since the herders manifested so +little of the suavity that graces commercial intercourse, and as some of +the horses had been seen in their cow-pens, it was a happy thought to +feather the arrow with this taunt. + +"And who do you suppose will promise to carry such a message to those +desperate, misguided men, riding hither an' thither, searching this wild +and woeful wilderness for hundreds o' head o' cattle lost like needles +in a hayrick, and eat by wolves an' painters by this time?" demanded "X" +derisively. + +"I promise, I promise!--and with hearty good will, too!" declared +Emsden. "And I'll tell 'em that we are coming down soon armed to the +teeth to guard our pack-train, and fight our way through any resistance +to its passage through the country on the open trading-path. And I'll +acquaint the commandant of Fort Prince George of the threats of the +herders against the Blue Lick Stationers, and warn him how he attempts +to interfere with the liberties of the king's loyal subjects in their +peaceful vocations." + +Thus Emsden gayly volunteered for the mission. + +The next morning old Richard Mivane, thinking of it, shook his head over +the fire,--and not only once, but shook it again, which was a great deal +of trouble for him to take. Having thus exerted his altruistic interest +to the utmost, Richard Mivane relapsed into his normal placidity. He +leaned back in his arm-chair, the only one at the station, fingering his +gold-lined silver snuffbox, with its chain and ladle, his eyes dwelling +calmly on the fire, and his thoughts busy with far away and long ago. + +He was old enough now to enter into the past as a sort of heritage, a +promised land which memory had glozed with a glamour that can never +shine upon the uncertain aspects of the future. The burning sense of +regret, the anguish of nostalgia, the relinquishment of an accustomed +sphere, its prospects and ideals, the revolt against the uncouth and +rude conditions of the new status, the gradual reluctant naturalization +to a new world,--these were forgotten save as the picturesque elements +of sorrow and despair that balanced the joys, the interest, the +devil-may-care joviality, the adventure, the strange wild +companionship,--all that made the tale worth rehearsing in the flare and +the flicker of the fireside glow. + +The rains had come. The dark slate-tinted clouds hung low over the +station, but every log house, freshly dight with whitewash of the marly +clay, after the Indian method, still shone in the shadow as if the sun +were upon it. The turf was green, despite the passing of many feet, and +where a slight depression held water, a few ducks, Carolina bred, were +quacking and paddling about; now and then these were counted with great +interest, for they had a trick of taking to the woods with others of +their kind, and relapsing to savagery,--truly distressing to the +domestic poultry prospects of the station. The doors of the Mivane cabin +were all ajar,--the one at the rear opening into a shed-room, unfloored, +which gave a vista into more sheds, merely roofed spaces, inclosed at +either end. A loom was in the shed-room, and at it was seated on the +bench in front, as a lady sits at an organ, the mistress of the house, +fair but faded, in a cap and a short gown and red quilted petticoat, +giving some instruction, touching an intricate weave, to a negro woman, +neatly arrayed in homespun, with a gayly turbaned head, evidently an +expert herself, from the bland and smiling manner and many +self-sufficient and capable nods with which she perceived and +appropriated the knotty points of the discourse. + +In the outer shed, Caesar, clad like the Indians and the pioneers in +buckskin, was mending the plough-gear, and talking with great loquacity +to another negro, of the type known then and later as "the new nigger," +the target of the plantation jokes, because of his "greenness," being of +a fresh importation. He possibly remembered much of Africa, but he +accepted without demur and with admiring and submissive meekness stories +of the great sights that Caesar protested he had seen there,--Vauxhall +Gardens and Temple Bar (which last Caesar thought in his simplicity was +a bar for the refreshment of the inner man) and a certain resort +indisputably for that purpose called White's Chocolate House,--all +represented as pleasantly and salubriously situated in the interior of +Guinea. But after all, if a story is well told, why carp at slight +anachorisms? + +Richard Mivane's attention had been diverted from the thread of his own +reminiscences by the fact that the little flax-wheel of Peninnah +Penelope Anne had ceased to whirl, and the low musical monody of its +whir that was wont to bear a pleasant accompaniment to the burden of his +thoughts was suddenly silent. He lifted his eyes and saw that she was +gazing dreamily into the flare of the great fire, the spinning-wheel +still, the end of the thread motionless in her hand. The burnished waves +of her golden brown hair were pushed a bit awry, and her face was so wan +and thoughtful that even her dress of crimson wool did not lessen its +pallor. The voices of the three children on the floor grated on the old +man's mood as they were busied in defending a settler's fort, insecurely +constructed of stones and sticks, and altogether roofless, garrisoned by +a number of pebbles, while a poke full of wily Indian kernels of corn +swarmed to the attack. + +"Why is my pretty pet so idle?" he asked, for while the wheel should +whirl he could dream. + +She made no answer, only turned her troubled, soft hazel eyes upon him. + +"And have you seen a wolf, too, that you have lost your tongue?" + +At the word "wolf" she burst into tears. And then, discarding all +caution in the breaking down of her reserve, she sprang up, overturning +the wheel and rushing to his chair. + +Now Richard Mivane had never encouraged his grandchildren to clamber +over his chair. He protested great fear of the sticky fingers of the +more youthful in contact with his preternaturally fine clothes; he +declared they reminded him of squirrels, which he detested; he was not +sure they did not look like rats. All this was of great effect; for his +many contemptuous whimsical prejudices were earnestly respected. + +For instance, whenever 'possum was served at the pioneer board they who +partook carried their plates for the purpose to a side table. "The look +of the animal's tail is enough for me--it curls," he would say. + +"So does a pig's tail curl," his son used to remonstrate sensibly. + +"Not having kept a straight course so long,--then twirling up +deceitfully like a second thought. This fellow is a monstrosity,--and +his wife has a pocket for a cradle,--and I don't know who they are nor +where they came from,--they were left over from before the Flood, +perhaps,--they look somehow prehistoric to me. I am not acquainted with +the family." + +And turning his head aside he would wave away the dainty, the delight of +the pioneer epicure time out of mind. + +The diplomatic reason, however, that Richard Mivane was wont to shove +off his grandchildren from the arm of that stately chair was that here +they got on his blind side,--his simple, grandfatherly, affectionate +predilection. The touch of them, their scrambling, floundering, little +bodies, their soft pink cheeks laid against his, their golden hair in +his clever eyes, their bright glances at close range,--he was then like +other men and could deny them nothing! His selfishness, his vanity, his +idleness, his frippery were annulled in the instant. He was resolved +into the simple constituent elements of a grandfather, one part doting +folly, one part loving pride, and the rest leniency, and he was as wax +in their hands. + +None of them had so definitely realized this, accurately discriminating +cause and effect, as Peninnah Penelope Anne. She felt safe the moment +that she was perched on the arm of her grandfather's chair, her soft +clasp about his stiff old neck, her tears flowing over her cheeks, all +pink anew, escaping upon his wrinkled, bloodless, pale visage and taking +all the starch out of his old-fashioned steinkirk. He struggled futilely +once or twice, but she only hugged him the closer. + +"Oh, don't let him go! Oh, don't let him go!" she cried. + +"The wolf that we were talking about? By no means! Lovely creature that +he is! We'll preserve, if you like, wolves instead of pheasants! I +remember a gentleman's estate in Northumberland--a little beyond the +river"-- + +"Oh, grandfather, don't let him go!" she sobbingly interrupted. "It was +he who shot the wolf and stampeded the herds, and the cow-drivers will +quarrel with him when they would not have angry words with another +ambassador. They will kill him! They will kill him!" + +"What for? Poaching?--shooting their wolf?" + +"Any one else would be safe, grandfather--except poor Ralph!" + +"Go yourself then. May-day!" + +"I would, grandfather! I would not be afraid!" She put her soft little +hand on his cheek to turn his head to look into her confident eyes. + +"An able and worshipful ambassador!" he said banteringly. + +"Oh, grandfather, this is no time to risk quarrels among the settlers, +and bloodshed. Oh, the herders would kill him! And the Injuns all so +unfriendly--they might take the chance to get on the war-path again when +the settlers are busy killing each other--and oh, the cow-drivers will +kill Ralph Emsden!" + +All this persuasion was of necessity in a distinct loud voice; +unnoticed, however, for a crisis had supervened in the play of the +children by the chimney-place settle, and the sanguinary struggles and +scalping in the storming of the fort were blood-curdling to behold to +any one with enough imagination to discern a full-armed and fierce +savage in a kernel of corn, and a stanch and patriotic Carolinian in a +pebble. But when Peninnah Penelope Anne, all attuned to this high key, +burst out weeping with commensurate resonance, all the vocations of the +household came to a standstill, and her mother appeared, surprised and +reproving, in the doorway. + +"Peninnah Penelope Anne," she said with her peculiar exact deliberation +and gift of circumlocution, "it is better to go and sew your sampler +than to tease your grandfather." + +"She does not tease me--I have not shed a tear! That was not the sound +of my weeping!" he declared facetiously, one arm protectingly about the +little sobbing figure. + +"He does not like his grandchildren to climb about him like squirrels +and wild cattle," the lady continued. Then irrelevantly, "Long stitches +were always avoided in our family. The work you last did in your sampler +has been taken out, child, and you can sew it again and to better +advantage." + +"And earn your name of Penelope," said Richard Mivane. + +But he was putting on his hat and evidently had some effort in prospect, +for how could he resist,--she looked so childish and appealing as she +sat before the fire, weeping those large tears, and absently preparing +to sew her sampler anew. + +While Richard Mivane, by virtue of his early culture, the scanty remains +of his property, his fine-gentleman habits and traditions, and the +anomaly of his situation, was the figure of most mark at the station, +its ruling spirit was of far alien character. This was John Ronackstone, +a stanch Indian fighter; a far-seeing frontier politician; a man of +excellent native faculties, all sharpened by active use and frequent +emergencies; skilled and experienced in devious pioneer craft; and +withal infinitely stubborn, glorying in the fact of the unchangeableness +of his opinions and his immutable abiding by his first statements. After +one glance at his square countenance, his steady noncommittal black +eyes, the upward bulldog cant of a somewhat massive nose, the firm +compression of his long thin lips, one would no more expect him to +depart from the conditions of a conclusion than that a signpost would +enter into argument and in view of the fatigue of a traveler mitigate +and recant its announcement. + +Nevertheless Richard Mivane expected "some sense," as he phrased it, +from this adamantine pioneer. Such a man naturally arrogated and +obtained great weight among his fellows, and perhaps his lack of +vacillation furthered this preeminence. He was a good man in the main as +well as forceful, but an early and a very apt expression of the +demagogue. And as he tolerated amongst his mental furniture no illusions +and fostered no follies, his home life harbored no fripperies. His +domicile was a contrast to the better ordered homes of the station, but +here one might have meat and shelter, and what more should mortal ask of +a house! He often boasted that not an atom of iron entered into its +structure more than into an Indian's wigwam. Even the clapboards were +fastened on to the rafters with wooden pegs in lieu of nails, although +nails were not difficult to procure. He had that antagonism to the mere +conventions of civilization often manifested by those who have been +irked by such fetters before finally casting them off. It was a +wholesome life and a free, and if the inmates of the house did not mind +the scent of the drying deerskins hanging from the beams, which made the +nose of Richard Mivane very coy, the visitor saw no reason why they +should not please themselves. The stone-flagged hearth extended half +across the room, and sprawling upon it in frowsy disorder was a bevy of +children of all ages, as fat as pigs and as happy-go-lucky. He had +hardly seated himself, having stepped about carefully among their chubby +fingers and toes lest a crushing disaster supervene, than he regretted +his choice of a confidant. He had his own, unsuspected sensitiveness, +which was suddenly jarred when the wife in the corner, rocking the +cradle with one foot while she turned a hoe-cake baking on the hearth +with a dextrous flip of a knife, and feeling secure in his deafness, +cast a witty fling at his fastidious apparel. With that frequent yet +unexplained phenomenon of acoustics, her voice was so strung that its +vibrations reached his numb perceptions as duly as if intended for his +ears. He made no sign, in his pride and politeness, both indigenous. But +he said to himself, "I don't laugh at her gown,--it is what she likes +and what she is accustomed to wear. And why can't she let me dress in +peace as I was early trained to do? God knows I feel myself better than +nobody." + +And he was sensible of his age, his infirmity, his isolation, and his +jauntiness was eclipsed. + +Thus he entered the race with a handicap, and John Ronackstone would +hear none of his reasons with grace. He could not and he would not +consent to the nomination of an ambassador in the stead of Emsden, who +had volunteered for the service, which was the more appropriate since it +was he who had shot the wolf and brought the stampede and its attendant +difficulties upon the herders of the Keowee River, and this threat of +retaliation upon the Blue Lick Stationers. If there were danger at hand, +let a volunteer encounter it! In vain Mivane argued that there was +danger to no one else. John Ronackstone, who found an added liberty of +disputation in the emphasis imposed by the necessity of roaring out his +immutable opinions in an exceeding loud voice, retorted that so far as +he was informed the "cow-drivers" on the Keowee were not certain who it +was that had committed this atrocity, unless perhaps their messenger +during his sojourn at Blue Lick Station had learned the name from "X." +But this uncertainty, Mivane argued, was the very point of difficulty. +It was the maddest folly to dispatch to angry men, smarting under a +grievous injury, messages of taunt and defiance by the one person who in +their opinion, perhaps, had carelessly or willfully wrought this wrong. +His life would pay the forfeit of the folly of his fellow-stationers. + +Mivane noted suddenly that the woman rocking the cradle was laughing +with an ostentatious affectation of covert slyness, and a responsive +twinkle gleamed in the eyes of John Ronackstone. As he caught the grave +and surprised glance of his visitor he made a point of dropping the air +of a comment aside, which he, as well as she, had insistently brought to +notice, and Mivane was aware that here was something which sought an +opportunity of being revealed as if by necessity. + +"Well, sir," Ronackstone began in a tone of a quasi-apology, "we were +just saying--that is, I sez to X, who was in here a while ago,--I sez, +'I'll tell you what is goin' to happen,'--I sez, 'old Gentleman +Rick,'--excuse the freedom, sir,--'he'll be wantin' to send somebody +else in Ralph Emsden's place.' X, he see the p'int, just as you see it. +He sez, 'Somebody that won't be missed--somebody not genteel enough to +play loo with him after supper,' sez X. 'Or too religious,' sez I. 'Or +can't sing a good song or tell a rousing tale,' sez X. 'Or listen an' +laugh in the right places at the gentleman's old cracks about the great +world,' sez I. 'He'll never let Ralph Emsden go,' sez X. 'Jus' some poor +body will do,' sez I. 'Jus' man enough to be scalped by the Injuns if +the red sticks take after him,' sez X. 'Or have his throat cut if the +cow-drivers feel rough yet,' sez I. 'Jus' such a one ez me,' sez X. 'Or +me,' sez I." + +"Sir," said old Mivane, rising, and the impressive dignity of his port +was such that the cradle stopped rocking as if a spell were upon it, and +every child paused in its play, sprawling where it lay, "I am obliged to +you for your polite expression of opinion of me, which I have never done +aught to justify. I have nothing more to urge upon the question of the +details which brought me hither, but of one thing be certain,--if Emsden +does not go upon this mission _I_ shall be the ambassador. I apprehend +no danger whatever to myself, and I wish you a very good day." + +And he stepped forth with his wonted jaunty alacrity, leaving the man +and his wife staring at each other with as much surprise as if the roof +had fallen in. + +A greater surprise awaited Mivane without. The rain was falling anew. In +vast transparent tissues it swept with the gusty wind over the nearest +mountains of the Great Smoky Range, whose farther reaches were lost in +fog. The slanting lines, vaguely discerned in the downpour, almost +obliterated the presence of the encompassing forests about the stockade. +He noted how wildly the great trees were yet swaying, and he realized, +for he could not have heard the blast, that a sudden severe wind-storm +had passed over the settlement while he was within doors. The +blockhouse, the tallest of the buildings, loomed up darkly amidst the +gathering gray vapor, and through the great gates of the stockade, which +opened on the blank cloud, were coming at the moment several men bearing +a rude litter, evidently hastily constructed. On this was stretched the +insensible form of Ralph Emsden, who had been stricken down in the woods +with a dislocated shoulder and a broken arm by the falling of a branch +of a great tree uprooted by the violence of the gusts. He had almost +miraculously escaped being crushed, and was not fatally hurt, but +examination disclosed that he was absolutely and hopelessly disabled for +the time being, and Richard Mivane realized that he himself was the duly +accredited ambassador to the herders on the Keowee River. + +He went home in a pettish fume. No sooner was he within and the door +fast shut, that none might behold save only those of his own household, +who were accustomed to the aberrations of his temper and who regarded +them with blended awe and respect, than he reft his cocked hat from his +head and flung it upon the floor. Peninnah Penelope Anne sprang up so +precipitately at the dread sight that she overturned her stool and drew +a stitch awry in her sampler, longer than the women of her family were +accustomed to take. The children gazed spellbound. The weavers at the +loom were petrified; even the creak of the treadle and the noisy +thumping of the batten--those perennial sounds of a pioneer home--sunk +into silence. The two negroes at the end of the vista beyond the +shed-room, with the ox-yoke and plough-gear which they were mending +between them, opened wide mouths and became immovable save for the +whites of astonished rolling eyes. Then, and this exceeded all +precedent, Richard Mivane clutched his valued peruke and, with an inward +plaintive deprecation of the extremity of this act of desperation, he +cast it upon the hat, and looked around, bald, despairing, furious, and +piteous. + +It was, however, past the fortitude of woman to behold without protest +this desecration of decoration. Peninnah Penelope Anne sprang forward, +snatched the glossy locks from the puncheons, and with a tender hand +righted the structure, while the powder flew about in light puffs at her +touch, readjusting a curl here and a cleverly wrought wave there. The +valet's pious aspiration from the doorway, "Bress de Lord!" betokened +the acuteness of the danger over-past. + +"Why, grandfather!" the girl admonished Mivane; "your beautiful +peruke!--sure, sir, the loveliest curls in the world! And sets you like +your own hair,--only that nobody _could really_ have such very genteel +curls to grow--Oh--oh--grandfather!" + +She did not offer to return it, but stood with it poised on one hand, +well out of harm's way, while she surveyed Mivane reproachfully yet with +expectant sympathy. + +Perhaps he himself was glad that he could wreak no further damage which +he would later regret, and contented himself with furiously pounding his +cane upon the puncheon floor, a sturdy structure and well calculated to +bear the brunt of such expressions of pettish rage. + +"Dolt, ass, fool, that I am!" he cried. "That I should so far forget +myself as to offer to go as an ambassador to the herders on the Keowee!" +And once more he banged the floor after a fashion that discounted the +thumping of the batten, and the room resounded with the thwacks. + +An old dog, a favorite of yore, lying asleep on the hearth, only opened +his eyes and wrinkled his brows to make sure, it would seem, who had the +stick; then closing his lids peacefully snoozed away again, presently +snoring in the fullness of his sense of security. But a late +acquisition, a gaunt deerhound, after an earnest observation of his +comrade's attitude, as if referring the crisis to his longer experience, +scrutinized severally the faces of the members of the family, and, +wincing at each resounding whack, finally gathered himself together +apprehensively, as doubtful whose turn might come next, and discreetly +slunk out unobserved by the back door. + +Peninnah Penelope Anne rushed to the rescue. + +"And why should you not be an ambassador, sir?" she demanded. + +"Why--why--because, girl, I am deafer than the devil's dam! I cannot +fetch and carry messages of import. I could only give occasion for +ridicule and scorn in even offering to assume such an office." + +Peninnah Penelope Anne had flushed with the keen sensitiveness of her +pride. She instantly appreciated the irking of the dilemma into which he +had thrust himself forgetting his infirmity, and she could have smitten +with hearty enmity and a heavy stick any lips which had dared to smile. +She responded, however, with something of her mother's indirection. + +"Under your favor, sir, you don't know how deaf the devil's dam may +be--and it is not your wont to speak in that strain. I'm sure it reminds +me of that man they call 'X,'--a sort of churl person,--who talks of the +devil and blue blazes and brimstone and hell as if--as if he were a +native." + +This was a turning of the sword of the pious "X" upon himself with a +vengeance, for he was prone in his spiritual disquisitions to detail +much of the discomfort of the future state that awaited his careless +friends. + +The allusion so far pleased old Mivane, who resented a suspected +relegation of himself to a warm station in the schemes of "X," that, +although his head was still bald and shining like a billiard ball, he +suffered himself to drop into his chair, his stick resting motionless on +the long-suffering puncheon floor. + +"If I could only hear for a day I'd forgive twenty soundless years!" he +declared piteously, for he so deprecated the enforced withdrawal from +the enterprise that he had heedlessly undertaken, and felt so keenly the +reflections upon his sentiments and sincerity surreptitiously canvassed +between Ronackstone and "X," and then cavalierly rehearsed in his +presence. + +"You are only deaf to certain whanging voices in queer keys," his +granddaughter declared. + +"And how do I know in what sort of key the herders on the Keowee talk? +They may 'moo' like the cow, or 'mew' like the cat! I should be in +danger of losing half that was said. And that is what these varlets here +in the station know right well. It must seem but a mere bit of bombast +on my part. It could never be seriously countenanced--unless I had an +interpreter. Stop me! but if you were a grandson instead of a +granddaughter, I would not mind taking you with me to interpret for me, +though, Gadzooks, I'd be like a heathen red Injun with a linguister!" + +"And why am I not as good as any grandson?" demanded Peninnah Penelope +Anne, with a spirited flash of her bright hazel eyes and great temerity +of speculation; for be it remembered the days of the theories of woman's +equality with man had not yet dawned. "Sure, sir, I can speak when I am +spoken to. I understand the English language; and"--her voice rising +into a liquid crescendo of delight--"I can wear my gray sergedusoy sack +made over my carnation taffeta bodice and cashmere petticoat, all +pranked out with bows of black velvet, most genteel, and my hat of +quilled primrose sarcenet, grandfather. I'd take them in a bundle, for +if we should have rain I would rather be in my old red hood and blue +serge riding-coat on the way, grandfather." + +And thus it was settled before she had fairly readjusted the peruke on +his head as he sat in his great chair and she clambered on its arm. + +She had not heard of the disaster that had befallen Ralph Emsden, and +she turned rather pale and wistful when the news was communicated to +her. Then realizing how opportune was the accident, how slight was its +ultimate danger in comparison with the jeopardy of the mission from +which he was rescued, she fairly gloated upon the chance which had +conferred it upon her grandfather, and made her an instrument in its +execution. + +It was a queerly assorted embassy that rode out of the gates of the +stockade, the ambassador and his linguister. Richard Mivane was mounted +upon a strong, sprightly horse, with Peninnah Penelope Anne behind him +upon a pillion. Following them at a little distance came his +body-servant, Caesar, more fitted by temperament than either to enjoy +the change, the spirit of adventure, and reveling in a sense of +importance which was scarcely diminished by the fact that it was +vicarious. He rode a sturdy nag and had charge of a led horse, that bore +a pack-saddle with a store of changes of raiment, of edible provisions, +and tents to fend off the chances of inclement weather. They were to +travel under the protection of a trader's pack-train, from a +reestablished trading-house in the Overhill Towns of the Cherokees on +the Tennessee River; and so accurately did they time their departure and +the stages of their journey that they met this caravan just at the hour +and place designated, and risked naught from the unsettled state of the +country or an encounter with some ignorant or inimical savage, prone to +wreak upon inoffensive units vengeance for wrongs, real or fancied, +wrought by a nation. + +The trader, being a man habituated by frequent sojourns in Charlestown +to metropolitan customs and a worldly trend of thought, instantly +recognized the quality of Mivane and his granddaughter, despite the old +red hood and blue serge riding-coat and their residence here so far from +all the graces that appertain to civilization; though, to be sure, +Richard Mivane, in his trim "Joseph," his head cowled in an appropriate +"trotcozy," and his jaunty self-possession quite restored by the cutting +of the Gordian knot of his dilemma, demonstrating his capacity to duly +perform all his undertakings, bore himself in a manner calculated to +enhance even the high estimation of his fellow-traveler. After the +custom of a gentleman, however, he was most augustly free from +unwarrantable self-assertion, but he could not have failed to be +flattered by the phrase of the trader, could he have heard it, in +delivering over his charge to the herders on the Keowee River. +"Gadzooks, neighbors, but I shouldn't be a whit surprised if that old +party is a duke in disguise!" + +But the cow-drivers heard him not! They hardly heeded the coming and the +going of the pack-train and their gossips the packmen! They cared naught +for the news the caravan brought of the country-side far above, nor the +commissions they were wont to give for the various settlements and the +metropolis far below! For so featly came riding in to the humble prosaic +precincts of the cow-pens and into their hearts the vernal beauty of +Spring herself, the living Bloom of charm and love, all arrayed in +delicate gray sergedusoy opening upon carnation taffeta, and crowned +with sheer quillings of primrose sarcenet, with a cheek that repeated +these roseate tints and a glint of golden brown tresses curling softly +against a nape of pearl, that the ranchmen were bewitched and dazed, and +knew no more of good common-sense. Their equilibrium thus shaken, some +busied themselves in what might be called "housewifely cares," that the +dainty visitant might be acceptably lodged and fed, and afterward they +cursed their industry and hospitality that thus left her conversation +and charming aspect to the shirks and drones, who languished about her, +and affected to seek her comfort and minister to her entertainment. For +the cow-drivers, like the other pioneer settlers of that region and day, +represented various states of society and degrees of refinement, and to +those to whom she was not as a blissful reminiscence of long ago, she +appeared as a revelation, new and straight from heaven, a fancy, a +dream! It seemed meet to them that she arrived in the illusory sunset of +a sweet spring day, like some lovely forecast of the visions of the +night. + +With their artless bucolic ideals of entertainment they invited her out +to show her the new calves. One of these little creatures, being +exquisitely white and eminently pleasing to look upon, was straightway +named, with her gracious permission, "Peninnah Penelope Anne," and she +was assured that because of this name its owner, a slim, sentimental, +red-haired youth, would never part from it. And it may be presumed that +he was sincere, and that at the time of this fervent asseveration he had +not realized the incongruity of living his life out in the constant heed +of the well-being and companionship of a large white cow of the name of +"Peninnah Penelope Anne." A more interesting denizen of the pen was a +fawn, a waif found there one morning, having prudently adopted as a +mother a large red cow, and a heavy brindled calf as a foster-brother. +The instant Peninnah admired this incongruous estray, bleating its queer +alien note in resonant duet with the calf in the plea for supper, a cord +was slipped about its neck and it was presented in due form. In order +that she might not be harassed by its tendance, a gigantic Scotch +herder, six feet six inches high and twenty-five years of age, showed +how far involuntary inanity can coexist with presumptive sanity as he +led it about, the creature holding back heavily at every step and now +and again tangling itself, its cord, and its disconcerted bleats about +its conductor's long and stalwart legs. Another of the herders,--all of +whom were hunters and explorers as well,--whose mind was of a +topographical cast, introduced her to much fine and high company in the +various mountain peaks, gathered in solemn symposium dark and purple in +the faintly tinted and opaline twilight. He repeated their Cherokee +names and gave an English translation, and called her attention to marks +of difference in their configuration which rendered them distinguishable +at a distance; and when she lent some heed to this and noted on the +horizon contours of the mountains about her home, faint and far in an +elusive amethystine apotheosis against the red and flaming west, and +called out her glad recognition in a voice as sweet as a thrush, his +comrades waxed jealous, and contravened his statements and argued and +wrangled upon landmarks to which they had never before given a second +thought in all their mountaineering experience, so keenly they competed +for her favor. It was her little day of triumph, and right royally she +reigned in it and was wont to tell of it for forty years thereafter! + +At last the dusk was slipping down; the mountains grew a shadowy gray +far away and a looming black close at hand; a star palpitated in the +colorless crystal-clear concave of the fading skies; the vernal stretch +of the savannas, whose intense green was somehow asserted till the +latest glimmer of light, ceased to resound with the voices of the herds; +only here and there a keen metallic note of a bell clanked forth and was +silent, and again the sound came from a farther pen like a belated echo; +the fire flaring out from the open door of the nearest hut of the +ranchmen's little hamlet gave a pleasant sense of hospitality and homely +hearth-side cheer, for it requires only a few nights under a tent or the +open canopy of heaven to make a woman, always the most artificially +disposed of all creatures, exceedingly respectful to a roof. + +To be sure the interior of this roof was well garnished with cobwebs, +and Peninnah Penelope Anne's mother was so notable a housekeeper and had +inculcated such horror of these untoward drapings and festoons that the +girl was compelled to look sedulously away from them to avoid staring in +amazement at their morbid development and proportions. The +superintendent of the ranch--being an establishment of magnitude it had +several sub-agents also--was so occupied in putting the best foot of his +menage foremost, not being prepared for such company that, like many a +modern housekeeper, he let the opportunity for pleasure slip. When he +proffered tea--he had sent a negro servant all the way to Fort Prince +George for the luxury, where it could be found among the hospital +stores, for tea was too mild a tipple for the pioneer cow-drivers--he +suffered the egregious mortification of pouring out plain hot water, +having forgotten to put in the tea leaves to steep. He looked very hot +and ruefully distressed as he repaired his error, and would not, could +not meet the laughing eyes of his comrades, nor yet the polite glances +of his guests resolutely seeing naught amiss. He was oppressed with a +sense of the number and prominence of his dogs about the wide hearth of +his cabin; when the animals were therefore vigorously kicked out to make +more space, instead of retiring with the usual plaintive yelp of protest +appropriate to such occasions they took advantage of the presence of +guests of distinction and made the rafters ring and resound with their +ear-splitting shrieks, and it was even necessary to chase them about the +room before they could be ejected. Indeed, several with super-canine +strategy succeeded in countermarching their tormentors and remained in +the group about the fire, wearing that curiously attentive look peculiar +to an intelligent animal when animated conversation is in progress. + +The blazing fire in the great chimney-place, that stretched almost half +across one end of the herder's cabin, illumined the walls and showed the +medley of articles suspended upon them,--horns, whips, branding-irons, +skins, cattle-bells, lariats, and such-like appurtenances of the ranch. +The little lady was seated in the centre of the group of ranchmen ranged +in a wide semicircle about the hearth of flagstones; the ethereal tints +of her shimmering attire showed all their highlights; her face and +golden brown hair seemed particularly soft and delicate in contrast with +the rough tousled heads and bearded countenances about her; here and +there the muzzle of a great animal, the flash of fangs and red glow of +formidable jaws, were half discriminated amidst the alternate flare of +the flames and flicker of the shadows,--all might have suggested the +"mystick Crew of Comus" to Richard Mivane, being the only person present +who had ever heard of that motley company, had not his thoughts been +otherwise engrossed. He meditatively cleared his throat, took a sip of +brandy and water, for he had long ago lost his genteel affiliations with +tea, and hopefully opened the subject of his mission. + +A change fell upon the scene, instant, definite, complete. In the mere +broaching of business it might seem that beauty and charm are but +tenuous at best, and powerless to subdue the fiercer nature of man when +his acquisitive and aggressive commercial instincts are aroused. One of +the most devout admirers of Peninnah Penelope Anne tossed his head with +a very bellicose and bovine obduracy when he intimated an incredulity of +the statement that the herd had been stampeded without an ulterior +motive of malice or nefarious profit. The gentle soul who had assumed +the tendance and protection of the fawn held down as he listened a +shaggy intent head, like that of a bull about to charge, at the mere +mention of the shooting of the wolf. In fact, the suggestion of shadowy +monsters which the dusky flicker and evanescent flare of the fire +fostered and which was intensified by the proximity of open jaws, sharp +fangs, heavy muzzles, and standing bristles amongst them, owed much of +its effect to the unanimous expression of truculent challenge and averse +disfavor. There were frequent confirmatory emphatic nods of great +disheveled heads, the scarlet flushing of angry faces, already florid, +and now and again a violent descriptive gesture of a long brawny arm +with a clenched fist at its extremity. Richard Mivane's well-rounded +periods and gentlemanly phrasings were like the educated thrusts and +feints of an expert fencer who opposes his single rapier to the +bludgeons and missiles of a furious mob. He saw in less than five +minutes that the scheme of extenuation and conciliation was futile, that +retort and retaliation would be returned in kind, that the stoppage of +the pack-train from Blue Lick on the way to Charlestown was inevitable, +and that the redcoats, invoked by both parties, would doubtless become +embroiled with one or the other,--in short, bloodshed was a foregone +conclusion. + +Much as this was to be deprecated in any event, it was suicidal amongst +these infant settlements by reason of the vicinage and antagonism of the +fierce and only half-subdued Cherokees, sullenly nourishing schemes of +revenge for their recent defeat and many woes. But when he urged this +upon the attention of the herders, the retort came quick and pointed: +"We ain't talkin' 'bout no Injuns!--the Cherokees never meddled with our +cattle! We'll settle about the stampede first, an' 'tend to the +Cherokees in good time--all in good time!" + +Richard Mivane was not possessed of much affinity with the ruder +primitive qualities, the stalwart candor and uncultured forces of the +natural man; and never had these inherent elements appeared to less +advantage in his mind than when he was brought into disastrous conflict +with them. He only held his ground for form's sake, and often his voice +was overborne by the clamors of many responsive tones, all blaring and +arguing together. Much that was said he could not hear, and refrained +from speaking when he perceived from the loud contending faces that he +was denied for the nonce a rejoinder. But ever and anon the silver +vibrations of the little linguister's voice rose into the big bass +tumult as she rehearsed what had been said for her grandfather's +benefit, and the angry rush of sound stopped with an abrupt recoil for a +moment, then surged on as before. + +She looked very mild and petite among them, quite like a sedate child, +her cheeks pinker than any of the rose tints of her apparel that were +her pride, her lips red and breathlessly parted, her eyes bright and +very watchful, her golden brown hair all red gold in the flicker of the +fire. There was one wild taunting threat that she did not repeat, as if +she thought it of no consequence,--the threat of personal violence +against Ralph Emsden. They had found out his name patly enough from +their own messenger to Blue Lick Station. They would take out their +grudge against him on his hide, they averred,--if they had to go all the +way to Blue Lick to get it! + +Now and again they sufficiently remembered that indeterminate quantum of +courtesy which they called their "manners" to interpolate "No offense to +_you_, sir," or "Begging the lady's pardon." Throughout she preserved a +cool, almost uncomprehending, passive manner; and it was in one of the +moments of a heady tumult of words, in which they sometimes involved +themselves beyond all interpretation or distinguishment, that she +observed with a sort of childish inconsequence that they could get Ralph +Emsden easily enough if they would go to Blue Lick Station,--he was +there now, and his arm and shoulder were so hurt that he would not be +able to make off,--they could get him easily enough, that is, if the +French did not raze Blue Lick Station before the herders could reach +there. + +If a bomb had exploded in the midst of the hearthstone, the astonishment +that ensued upon this simple statement could not have been greater. A +sudden blank silence supervened. A dozen excited infuriated faces, the +angry contortions of the previous moment still stark upon their +features, were bent upon her while their eyes stared only limitless +amazement. + +"The French!" the herders cried at last in chorus. "Blue Lick Station!" + +"It was razed once," she said statistically, "to the ground. The +Cherokees did it that time!" + +Her grandfather, always averse to admit that he did not hear, noted the +influx of excitement, and was fain to lean forward. He even placed his +hand behind his ear. + +"The French!" bellowed out one of the cow-drivers in a voice that might +have graced the king of the herds. "The French! Threatening Blue Lick +Station!" + +The elderly gentleman drew back from, the painful surcharged vibrations +of sound and the unseemly aspect of this interpreter, who was in good +sooth like a bull in disguise. "To be sure--the French," Richard Mivane +said in response, repeating the only words which he had heard. "Our +nearest white neighbors--the dangerous Alabama garrison!" + +A tumult of questions assailed the little linguister. + +"Be they mightily troubled at Blue Lick Station?" asked one +sympathetically. + +The little flower-like head was nodded with meaning, deep and serious. +"Oh, sure!" she cried. "And having the Cow-pens against them too--'tis +sad!" + +"Zooks!" cried the bull in disguise, with a snort. "The Cow-pens ain't +against 'em--when the French are coming!" + +"Why haven't they sent word to the soldiers?" demanded another of the +cow-drivers suspiciously. + +"The soldiers?" she exclaimed incredulously. "Why--the Cow-pens sent +word that the soldiers were against Blue Lick too, and were going to +stop the station's pack-train. Maybe the stationers were afraid of the +soldiers." + +To a torrent of questions as to how the news had first come, how the +menace lowered, what disposition for defense the stationers could make, +the little girl seemed bewildered. She only answered definitely and very +indifferently that they could easily get Ralph Emsden if they would go +now to Blue Lick, and take his hide,--that is, if the French and their +Choctaw Indians had not already possessed themselves of that valuable +integument,--as if this were their primal object. + +"Why, God-a-mercy, child," cried the superintendent of the ranch, "this +news settles all scores; when it comes to a foreign foe the colonists +are brothers." + +"And besides," admitted one of the most truculent of the cow-drivers, +"the cattle are all pretty well rounded in again; I doubt if more are +lost than the wolves would have pulled down anyhow." + +"And the Blue Lick Stationers' horses can be herded easy enough,--they +are all on their old grass,--and be driven up to the settlement." + +A courier had been sent off full tilt to the commandant at Fort Prince +George, and night though it was, a detail of mounted soldiers appeared +presently with orders to escort the ambassador and his linguister into +the presence of that officer. + +For this intelligence was esteemed serious indeed. Although hostilities +had now practically ceased in America, the Seven Years' War being near +its end, and peace negotiations actually in progress, still the treaty +had not been concluded. So far on the frontier were such isolated +garrisons as this of Fort Prince George, so imperfect and infrequent +were their means of communicating with the outside world, that they were +necessarily in ignorance of much that took place elsewhere, and a +renewal of the conflict might have supervened long before their regular +advices from headquarters could reach them. Even a chance rumor might +bring them their first intimation of a matter of such great import to +them. Therefore the commandant attached much significance to this +account of an alarm at Blue Lick Station, because of a menace from the +nearest French at Fort Toulouse, often called in that day, by reason of +this propinquity, "the dangerous Alabama garrison." + +For this reason, also, the hospitable hosts made no protest against the +removal of the guests to Fort Prince George, although it might seem that +the age of the one and the tender youth of the other ill fitted them to +encounter this sudden transition from the cosy fireside to the raw +vernal air on a misty midnight jaunt of a dozen miles through a primeval +wilderness. And in truth the little lady seemed loath to leave the +hearth; she visibly hesitated as she stood beside her chair with her +hand on its back, and looked out at the black night, and the vague vista +which the ruddy flare, from the wide door, revealed amidst the dense +darkness; at the vanishing point of this perspective stood a group of +mounted soldiers, "in column of twos" with two led horses, the scarlet +uniforms and burnished accoutrements appearing and disappearing +elusively as the flames rose and fell. The sounds of the champing of +bits and the pawing of hoofs and the jingle of spurs were keenly clear +on the chill rare air and seemed somehow consonant with the frosty +glitter of the stars, very high in the black concave of the moonless +sky. The smell of the rich mould, permeated with its vernal growths; the +cool, distinct, rarefied perfume of some early flower already abloom; +the antiphonal chant of frogs roused in the marsh or stream hard by, so +imbued her senses with the realization of the hour and season that she +never afterward thought of the spring without a vivid renewal of these +impressions. + +Her grandfather also seemed vaguely to hold back, even while he slowly +mounted his horse; yet aware that naught is so imperative as military +authority, it was only his inner consciousness that protested. Outwardly +he professed alacrity, although in great surprise declaring that he +could not imagine what the commandant could want with him. The little +linguister, for her part, had no doubts. She was well aware indeed of +the cause of the summons, and so dismayed by the prospect was even her +doughty heart that the swift ride through the black forest was less +terrible to her than the thought of the ordeal of the arrival. But the +march was not without its peculiar trials. She shrank in instinctive +affright from the unaccustomed escort of a dragoon on either side of +her, looming up in the darkness like some phantom of the midnight. Even +her volition seemed wrested from her by reason of the military training +of the troop-horse which she rode;--he whirled about at the command +"right-wheel!" ringing out in the darkness in the crisp peremptory tones +of the non-commissioned officer, and plunged forward at the words "trot, +march!" and adjusted his muscles instantaneously to the acceleration +implied in "gallop!" and came to an abrupt and immovable pause at +"halt!"--all with no more regard to her grasp on the reins than if she +had been a fly on the saddle. As they went the wind beset her with cool, +damp buffets on chin and cheek; the overhanging budding boughs, all +unseen, drenched her with perfumed dew as she was whisked through their +midst; the pace was adopted rather with reference to military custom and +the expectation of the waiting commandant than her convenience; at every +sudden whirl responsive to the word of command she was in momentary fear +of being flung beneath the swiftly trampling hoofs of the horses on +either side of her, and despite her recoil from the bigness and +bluffness and presumable bloody-mindedness of the two troopers beside +her she was sensible of their sympathy as they took heed of the +instability with which she bounced about, perched up side-wise on a +military saddle. Indeed, one was moved to ask her if she would not +prefer to be strapped on with a girth, and to offer his belt for the +purpose; and the other took the opportunity to gird at the forgetfulness +of the cow-drivers to furnish her with her own pillion. + +Nevertheless she dreaded the journey's end; and as they came out of the +forests on the banks of the Keowee River, and beheld the vague glimmers +of the gray day slowly dawning, albeit night was yet in the woods, and +the outline of the military works of Fort Prince George taking symmetry +and wonted proportions against the dappled eastern sky, all of blended +roseate tints and thin nebulous grays, her heart so sank, she felt so +tremulously guilty that had all the sixteen guns from the four bastions +opened fire upon her at once she would not have been surprised. + +No such welcome, however, did the party encounter. The officer +commanding it stopped the ambassador and the linguister and let the +soldiers go on at a round trot toward the great gate, which stood open, +the bayonet on the musket of the sentry shining with an errant gleam of +light like the sword of fire at the entrance of Paradise. For now the +sun was up, the radiance suffusing the blue and misty mountains and the +seas of fog in the valleys. Albeit its dazzling focus was hardly visible +above the eastern heights, it sent a red glow all along the parapet of +the covered way and the slope beyond to the river bank, where only two +years before Captain Coytmore, then the commandant, had been murdered at +a conference by the treacherous Cherokees. The senior officer, Captain +Howard, being absent on leave, the present commandant, a jaunty +lieutenant, smart enough although in an undress uniform, was standing at +the sally-port now, all bland and smiling, to receive the ambassador and +his linguister. He perceived at once that the old gentleman was deaf +beyond any save adroit and accustomed communication. He looked puzzled +for a moment, then spoke to the sergeant. + +"And who is this pretty little girl?" he asked. + +The sergeant, who had heard of her prowess in the havoc of hearts among +the herders at the ranch, looked bewildered, then desperate, saluted +mechanically, and was circumspectly silent. + +"I am not a little girl," said Peninnah Penelope Anne Mivane with adult +dignity. + +"Ah, indeed," said the embarrassed and discomfited officer. Then, +turning to lead the way, he added civilly, "Beg pardon, I'm sure!" + +If the sight of the sixteen guns on the four bastions of Fort Prince +George had caused Peninnah Penelope Anne to shrink from her normal +proportions, not too expansive at best, she dwindled visibly and +continually when conducted within the palisaded parapets, across the +parade, past the barracks, built for a hundred men but now somewhat +lacking their complement, and into the officers' quarters, where in a +large mess-hall there sat all the commissioned officers at a table, near +the foot of which the two strangers were accommodated with chairs. It +had so much the air of a court-martial, despite their bland and +reassuring suavity, that Peninnah Penelope Anne, albeit a free lance and +serving under no banner but her own whim, had much ado to keep up her +courage to face them. Naturally she was disposed to lean upon her +grandfather, but he utterly failed her. She had never known him so deaf! +He could neither hear the officers nor her familiar voice. He would not +even tell his name, although she had so often heard him voice it +sonorously and in great pride, "Richard Mivane Huntley Mivane, youngest +son of the late Sir Alexander Mivane Huntley Mivane, of Mivane Hall, +Fenshire, Northumberland." Now he merely waved his hand to deputize her. +In truth he shrank from rehearsing to these young men the reason of his +flight from home, his duel and its fatal result, although his pride +forbade him to suppress it. He had come to think the cause of quarrel a +trifle, and the challenge a wicked folly. It was a bitter and remorseful +recollection as his age came on, and its details were edifying in no +sense. Hence, as Peninnah Penelope Anne knew naught of the story she +could not tell it, and he escaped the distasteful pose of a merciless +duelist. + +She gave his name with much pride, noting the respect with which the +officers heard it. She accounted for the incongruities of his presence +here as the result of a trip from England to the province, where, as she +said, "he was detained by the snare of matrimony." It was his own +phrase, for as a snare he regarded the holy estate; but the younger of +the officers were pleased to find it funny, and ventured to laugh; +whereat she grew red and silent, and they perforce became grave again +that they might hear of the French. Here she was vague and discursive, +and prone to detail at great length the feud between the Blue Lick +Stationers and the "cow-drivers" on the Keowee, evidently hoping that it +might lie within the latitude of the commandant's military authority to +take some order with the herder gentry,--for which they would not have +thanked her in the least! But the officers of the garrison of Fort +Prince George had thought for naught but the French, and now and again +conferred dubiously together on the unsatisfactory points of her +evidence. + +"Do you suppose she really knows anything about it?" the commandant said +aside to one of his advisers. + +Suddenly, however, her grandfather's hearing improved, and they were +able to elicit from him the reports which he had had at second hand from +the cow-drivers themselves, in retailing which he honestly conceived +that he was repeating genuine news, never dreaming that the information +had blossomed forth from his own mission. + +While less circumstantial and satisfactory than the commandant could +have wished, the details were too significant and serious of import to +be ignored, and therefore he acted upon his information as far as it was +developed. + +He ordered out a scouting party of ten men, and, that he might utilize +Blue Lick Station as an outpost in some sort where they might find +refuge and aid, he dispatched to the settlement a present of gunpowder +to serve in the defense of the station, in case of attack by the French, +and two of the small coehorns of that day, each of which could be +carried between two men, to assist the little piece already at the +station. In return for the prospective courtesy and shelter to his +troops, he wrote a very polite letter urging the settlers to hold out if +practicable, relying on his succor with men, ammunition, and provisions; +but if compelled to give way, assuring the stationers of a welcome at +Fort Prince George. + +The herders at the cow-pens on the Keowee had also determined to +reinforce Blue Lick Station, and with a number of the runaway horses of +the settlers, rounded up and driven in strings, several of them set +forth with the British soldiers from the fort. In this company Richard +Mivane and his grand daughter also took their way to Blue Lick Station +in lieu of waiting for a pack-train with provisions from Charlestown, as +they had anticipated. + +It was a merry camping party as they fared along through the wilderness, +and she had occasion to make many sage observations on the inconsistency +and the unwisdom of man! That the prospect of killing some Frenchman, or +being themselves cruelly killed, in a national quarrel which neither +faction, the cow-drivers nor the Blue Lick Stationers, half understood, +should so endear men to each other was a sentiment into which she could +not enter. It was better, after all, to be a woman, she said to herself, +and sit soberly at home and sew the rational sampler, and let the world +wag on as it would and the cutthroats work their wild will on each +other. The least suggestion that brought the thought of the French to +their minds was received with eyes alight, and nerves aquiver, and blood +all in a rush. The favorite of the whole camp was a young fellow who had +achieved that enviable station by virtue of an inane yet inconceivably +droll intonation of the phrase, "Bong chure" _(Bon jour_), delivered at +all manner of unconformable times and in inappropriate connections, and +invariably greeted with shouts of laughter. And when at last the party +reached the vicinity of Blue Lick and the stationers swarmed out to meet +them, taking the news of the French invasion at second hand, each +repeating it to the other, and variously recounting it back again, never +dreaming that it was supposed to have originally issued from the +station, she meditated much upon this temperamental savagery in man, and +the difficulty it occasioned in conforming him to those sagacious +schemes for his benefit which she nourished in her inventive little +pate. The antagonisms of the Blue Lick Stationers and the cow-drivers +from the Keowee vanished like mist. On the one hand the stationers were +assured that the stampede of the cattle was now regarded as inadvertent, +and although it had occasioned an immense deal of vexatious trouble to +the ranchmen, all were now well rounded up and restored to the cow-pens +as of yore. And the ranchmen in turn received a thousand thanks for +their neighborly kindness in the restoration of the horses of the Blue +Lick Stationers, who knew that the animals had not been decoyed off by +the herders, as a malicious report sought to represent, but had merely +returned to their "old grass," according to their homing propensities. +And both parties loved the British soldiers, who had reinforced them, +and intended to go a-scouting with the military expedition; and the +soldiers earnestly reciprocated by assisting in the preparations for the +defense of the station. Especially active and efficient was the only +artilleryman among them, and the paradisaic peace amidst all the +preparations for war was so complete that his acrid scorn of that pride +of the settlement, the little swivel gun, and of the stationers' methods +of handling it, occasioned not even a murmur of resentment. + +Peninnah Penelope Anne, although restored to private life and the +maternal domicile, having retired from statecraft and the functions of +linguister to the embassy, did not altogether escape public utility in +these bellicose preparations. The young gunner, who had had the +opportunity of observing her during the march hither, shortly applied to +her for assistance in his professional devoir. He wanted a deft-handed +young person to construct the cartridge-bags for the ammunition which he +was fixing for the little piece and the two coehorns. And thus it +chanced that she found herself in the blockhouse, cheek by jowl with the +little cannon, its grisly muzzle now looking out of the embrasure where +she herself had once been fond of taking observations of the stockade +entrance; the men came and went and speculated upon the chances of the +scouting quest, now about to set forth, while spurs clanking, ramrods +rattling down into gun-barrels, voices lifted in argument or joyous +resonance, made the whitewashed walls ring anew. The gunner, seated at a +table carefully and accurately measuring out the powder, now and again +urged strict cautions against the lighting of pipes or striking of +sparks from gun-flints. When he applied himself briskly to the cutting +out of more bags from flannel for his cartridges, he looked very +harmless and domestic in his solicitude to follow his wooden pattern, or +"pathron" as he called it, for the creature was Irish. He gave minute +and scrupulous directions to Peninnah Penelope Anne to sew the cylinder +with no more than twelve stitches to the inch, and to baste down the +seams, "now, moind ye that!--ivery wan!--that no powther might slip +through beyant!" + +In the pride of the expert he was chary of commendation and eyed +critically the circular bottom of every bag before he filled it with +powder. + +"See that, now," he said, snipping briskly with the scissors; "that +string of woolen yarn that yez left there, a-burnin' away outside, might +burst the whole gun, an' ivery sowl in the blockhouse would be kilt +intirely,--moind ye that, now!--an they would n't be the Frenchies, +nayther!" He gave her a keen warning glance at rather close range, then +once more renewed his labors. + +The mockingbirds were singing in the woods outside. The sun was in the +trees. The leafage had progressed beyond the bourgeoning period and the +branches flung broad green splendors of verdure to the breeze. The Great +Smoky Mountains were hardly less blue than the sky as the distant +summits deployed against the fair horizon; only the nearest, close at +hand, were sombre, and showed dark luxuriant foliage and massive craggy +steeps, and their austere, silent, magnificent domes looked over the +scene with solemn uplifting meanings. Oh, life! life was so sweet, and +love and friendship were so easy to come by and so hard to part withal, +and glad, oh, glad was she that no men of the French nation or any other +were on their march hitherward to be torn in cruel lacerations by those +wicked cartridges, so cleverly and artfully and cheerfully +constructed,--men with homes, wives, mothers, sisters, children, every +soldier representing to some anxious, tender heart a whole world, a +microcosm of affection, all illuminated with hope and joy or to be +clouded with grief and terror and loss and despair,--oh, glad, glad was +she that the French invasion was but a figment,--a tissue of +misconceptions and vague innuendoes and groundless assumptions. + +And yet she was sad and sorry and ashamed, because of the futile bustle +and bluster and cheerful courageous activity about her. Not a cheek had +blenched; not a hand had trembled; not a voice had been lifted to +protest or counsel surrender, despite their meagre capacities for +defense and their number, but a handful. What would these men say to her +if they knew that their patriotism and their valor were expended in +vain,--above all, their mutual cause of quarrel wasted!--as pretty a bit +of neighborhood spite as ever stopped a bullet--all foolishly and +needlessly reconciled without a blow! She had saved them from a bloody +feud, the chances of which were terrifying to her for their own sakes. +But what would they say when discovery should come! + +Still, it might never come. And yet, should they patrol the woods in +vain and at last disperse and return each to his own home, she had no +placidity in prospect,--she was troubled and sad and her sorry heart was +heavy. Her scheme had succeeded beyond her wildest hopes. Her beneficent +artifice had fully worked its mission. And now, since there was no more +to be done, she had time to repent her varied deceits. Was it right? she +asked herself in conscientious alarm, not the less sincere because +belated. Ought she to have interfered, with what forces it was possible +for her limited capacity to wield? Had they an inalienable right to cut +each other's throats? Should she have so presumed? And now-- + +"Howly Moses!" a voice in shrill agitation broke in upon her +preoccupation. "An' is it sheddin' tears ye are upon the blessed +gunpowther? Sure the colleen's crazed! Millia Murther! the beautiful +ca'tridges is ruint intoirely! Any man moight be proud an' plazed to be +kilt by the loikes o' them! How many o' them big wathery tears have yez +been after sheddin' into aich o' them lovely ca'tridges?" + +He had risen; one hand was laid protectingly upon the completed pile of +fixed ammunition as if to ward off the damping influences of her woe, +while he ruefully contemplated the suspected cartridge bags, all plump +and tidy and workmanlike, save for their possible charge of tears. She +made no answer, but sat quite motionless upon her low stool, a cartridge +bag unfinished in her lap, her golden brown curls against the cannon, +still weeping her large tears and looking very small. + +His clamors brought half the force to the scene of the disturbance. A +keen question here, an inference heedfully taken there, and the +situation was plain! + +In the abrupt pause in this headlong career it was difficult to sustain +one's poise. Now and again, indeed, sheepish conscious glances were +interchanged; for since the grievance of the cow-drivers had been +publicly annulled and the horses of the Blue Lick Stationers had been +restored in pure neighborly good-will, a resumption of the quarrel on +the old invalid scores was impossible. Perhaps some token of their +displeasure might have been visited upon her who had inaugurated so bold +and extensive a wild goose chase, but she looked so small as she sat by +the cannon weeping her large tears that she disarmed retaliation. + +So small she looked, indeed, that certain of the young blades, who filed +in to gaze upon her and filed out again, would not believe that she +could have invented so large a French invasion, and for several days +they futilely scouted the woods in search of some errant "parlez-vous," +all of whom, however, were very discreetly tucked away within the strong +defenses of Fort Toulouse. + +The young gunner alone was implacable. He was the first of the returning +force to reach Fort Prince George, and he carried with him all the +powder that had been sent under mistake to the Blue Lick Station, +together with the tear-shotted cartridges, whose problematic interior +damage he explained to the amazed, chagrined, and nonplussed commandant. + +"Oh, sor," the gunner said in conclusion, solemnly shaking his head, +"that gurl, sor!--she is a wily one! An' I should n't be surprised, sor, +if she is a dale taller than she looks!" + +The Blue Lick Station in time recovered its equilibrium, and was +afterward prone to protest that of all frontier communities it bore the +palm for the efficiency of its "linguister." + + + + +A VICTOR AT CHUNGKE + + +At Tennessee Town, on the Tennessee River, there used to be a great +chungke-yard. It was laid off in a wide rectangular area nine hundred +feet long, two feet lower than the surface of the ground, level as a +floor, and covered with fine white sand. The ancient, curiously shaped +chungke-stones, fashioned with much labor from the hardest rock, perfect +despite immemorial use, kept with the strictest care, exempt by law from +burial with the effects of the dead, were the property of this Cherokee +town, and no more to be removed thence than the council-house,--the +great rotunda at one side of the "beloved square," built upon a mound in +the centre of the village. + +Surely no spot could seem more felicitously chosen for the favorite +Indian game. The ground rose about the chungke-yard like the walls of an +amphitheatre, on every side save the slope toward the "beloved square" +and the river, furnishing an ideal position of vantage for spectators +were they even more numerous than the hundreds of Cherokees of all ages +that had gathered on the steep acclivities to overlook the game--some +ranged on the terrace or turfy ridge around the chungke-yard, formed by +the earth thrown out when the depressed area was delved down long ago, +others disposed beneath the spreading trees, others still, precariously +perched on clifty promontories beetling out from the sharp ascent. Above +all, Chilhowee Mountain, aflare with the scarlet glow of its autumnal +woods, touched the blue sky. The river, of a kindred blue, with a +transient steely change under the shadow of a cloud, showed flashes of +white foam, for the winds were rushing down from the Great Smoky +Mountains, which were revealed for an instant in a clear hard azure +against the pearl-tinted horizon--then again only a mirage, an illusion, +a dream of stupendous ranges in the shimmering mist. + +In the idle, sylvan, tribal life of that date, one hundred and fifty +years ago, it might seem that there was scant duty recognized, imposing +serious occupation, to debar the population of Tennessee Town from +witnessing the long-drawn game, which was continued sometimes half the +day by the same hardy young warriors, indefatigable despite the hot sun +and the tense exercise, straining every muscle. A few old women, their +minds intent upon the preparation of dinner, a few of the very young +children, relishing their own pottering devices as of a finer flavor of +sport, a few old men, like other old men elsewhere, with thoughts of the +past so vivid that the present could show but a pallid aspect--these +were absent, and were not missed. For the most part, however, the little +dwellings were vacant. The usual groups of loungers had deserted the +public buildings, which consisted of a bark-and-log house of three +rooms, or divisions, at each angle of the "beloved square," and in which +were transacted the business affairs of the town;--one, painted red, was +the "war-cabin," whence arms, ammunition, etc., were distributed, the +divisions implying distinctions as to rank among the warriors; another, +painted white, was devoted to the priestcraft of the "beloved men"--head +men of note, conjurers, and prophets; the cabin of the aged councilors +faced the setting sun, as an intimation that their wars were ended and +their day done; and in the fourth cabin met the "second men," as the +traders called the subordinate authorities who conducted municipal +affairs, so to speak--the community labor of raising houses, and laying +off and planting with maize and pompions the common fields to be tilled +by the women, "who fret at the very shadow of a crow," writes an old +trader. All these cabins were now still and silent in the sun. The +dome-shaped town-house, of a different style of architecture, plastered +within and without with red clay, placed high on the artificial mound, +and reached by an ascent of stairs which were cut in regular gradations +in the earth, lacked its strange religious ceremonies; its secret +colloguing council of chiefs with the two princes of the town; its +visitors of distinction, ambassadors from other towns or Indian nations; +its wreaths of tobacco sent forth from diplomatically smoked pipes; its +strategic "talks;" its exchange of symbolic belts and strings of wampum +and of swans' wings--white, or painted red and black, as peace hovered +or war impended--and other paraphernalia of the savage government. Even +the trading-house showed a closed door, and the English trader, his pipe +in his mouth, smoked with no latent significance, but merely to garner +its nicotian solace, sat with a group of the elder braves and watched +the barbaric sport with an interest as keen as if he had been born and +bred an Indian instead of native to the far-away dales of Devonshire. +Nay, he bet on the chances of the game with as reckless a nerve as a +Cherokee,--always the perfect presentment of the gambler,--despite the +thrift which characterized his transactions at the trading-house, where +he was wont to drive a close bargain, and look with the discerning +scrupulousness of an expert into the values of the dressing of a +deerskin offered in barter. But the one pursuit was pleasure, and the +other business. The deerskins which he was wearing were of phenomenal +softness and beauty of finish, for the spare, dapper man was arrayed +like the Indians, in fringed buckskin shirt and leggings; but he was +experiencing a vague sentiment of contempt for his attire. He had been +recently wearing a garb of good camlet-cloth and hose and a bravely +cocked hat, for he was just returned from a journey to Charlestown, five +hundred miles distant, where he had made a considerable stay, and his +muscles and attitude were still adjusted to the pride of preferment and +the consciousness of being unwontedly smart. Indeed, his pack-train, +laden with powder and firearms, beads and cloth, cutlery and paints, for +his traffic with the Indians under the license which he held from the +British government, had but come in the previous day, and he had still +the pulses of civilization beating in his veins. + +For this reason, perhaps, as he sat, one elbow on his knee, his chin in +his hand, his sharp, commercially keen face softened by a thought not +akin to trade, his eyes were darkened, while he gazed at one of the +contestants, with a doubt that had little connection with the odds which +he had offered. He was troubled by a vague regret, a speculation of +restless futility, for it concerned a future so unusual that no detail +could be predicted from the resources of the present. And yet this +sentiment was without the poignancy of personal grief--it was only a +vicarious interest that animated him. For himself, despite the +flattering, smooth reminiscence of the camlet-cloth yet lingering in the +nerves of his finger-tips, the recent relapse into English speech, the +interval spent once more among the stir of streets and shops, splendid +indeed to an unwonted gaze, the commercial validities, which he so +heartily appreciated, of the warehouses, and crowded wharves, and laden +merchantmen swinging at anchor in the great harbor, he was satisfied. He +was possessed by that extraordinary renunciation of civilization which +now and again was manifested by white men thrown among the Cherokee +tribe--sometimes, as in his instance, a trader, advanced in years, "his +pile made," to use the phrase of to-day, the world before him where to +choose a home; sometimes a deserter from the British or French military +forces, according to the faction which the shifting Cherokees affected +at the time; more than once a captive, spared for some whim, set at +liberty, free to go where he would--all deliberately and of choice cast +their lot among the Cherokees; lived and died with the treacherous race. +Whether the wild sylvan life had some peculiarly irresistible +attraction; whether the world beyond held for them responsibilities and +laborious vocations and irksome ties which they would fain evade; +whether they fell under the bewitchment of "Herbert's Spring," named +from an early commissioner of Indian affairs, after drinking whereof one +could not quit the region of the Great Smoky Mountains, but remained in +that enchanted country for seven years, fascinated, lapsed in perfect +content--it is impossible to say. There is a tradition that when the +attraction of the world would begin to reassert its subtle reminiscent +forces, these renegades of civilization were wont to repair anew to this +fountain to quaff again of the ancient delirium and to revive its potent +spell. Abram Varney had no such necessity in his own case; he only +doubted the values of his choice as fitted for another. + +Apart from this reflection, it was natural that his eyes should follow +the contestant whom he had backed for a winner to the tune of more +silver bangles, and "ear-bobs," and strings of "roanoke," and gunpowder, +and red and white paint, than he was minded to lightly lose. He had laid +his wagers with a keen calculation of the relative endowments of the +players, their dexterity, their experience, their endurance. He was not +influenced by any pride of race in the fact that his champion was also a +white man, who, indeed, carried a good share of the favor of the +spectators. + +A strange object was this champion, at once pathetic and splendid. No +muscular development could have been finer, no athletic grace more +pronounced than his physique displayed. The wild life and training of +the woods and the savage wars had brought out all the constitutional +endurance and strength inherited from his stanch English father and his +hardy Scotch mother. Both had been murdered by the Cherokees in a +frontier massacre, and as a boy of ten years of age, his life spared in +some freak of the moment, he had been conveyed hither, exhorted to +forget, adopted into the tribe, brought up with their peculiar kindness +in the rearing of children, taught all the sylvan arts, and trained to +the stern duties of war by the noted chief Colannah Gigagei, himself, +the Great Red Raven of Tennessee Town (sometimes called Quorinnah, the +name being a favorite war-title specially coveted). The youth had had +his baptism of fire in the ceaseless wars which the Cherokees waged +against the other Indian tribes. He had already won the "warrior's +crown" and his "war-name," a title conferred only upon the bravest of +the brave. He was now Otasite, the "Man-killer" of Tennessee Town. He +was just twenty years of age, and Abram Varney, gazing at him, wondered +what the people in Charlestown would think of him could they see him. +For a few days, a week, perhaps, the trader would refer all his thoughts +to this civilized standard. + +Tall, alert as an Indian, supple too, but heavier and more muscular, +Otasite was instantly to be distinguished by his build from among the +other young men, although, like the Indians, he wore a garb of dressed +deerskin. His face, albeit no stranger to the use of their pigments and +unguents, still showed fair and freckled. His hair bore no resemblance +to their lank black locks; of an auburn hue and resolutely curling, it +defied the tonsure to which it had been for years subjected, coming out +crisp and ringleted close to his head where he was designed to be bald, +and on the top, where the "war-lock" was permitted to grow, it floated +backward in two long tangled red curls that gave the lie direct to the +Indian similitude affected by the two surmounting tips of eagle +feathers. He was arrayed in much splendor, according to aboriginal +standards; the fringed seams of his hunting shirt and leggings, +fashioned of fine white dressed doeskin, as pliable as "Canton silk +crape," were hung with fawns' trotters; his moccasins were white and +streaked with parti-colored paint; he had a curious prickly belt of +wolves' teeth, which intimated his moral courage as well as sylvan +prowess, for the slaying of these beasts was esteemed unlucky, and +shooting at them calculated to spoil the aim of a gun; many glancing, +glittering strings of "roanoke" swung around his neck. + +Nothing could have been finer, athletically considered, than his +attitude at this moment of the trader's speculative observation. The +discoidal quartz chungke-stone[2] had been hurled with a tremendous +fling along the smooth sandy stretch of the yard, its flat edge, two +inches wide, and the curiously exact equipoise of its fashioning causing +it to bowl swiftly along a great distance, to fall only when the +original impetus should fail; his competitor, Wyejah, a sinewy, powerful +young brave, his buckskin garb steeped in some red dye that gave him the +look when at full speed of the first flying leaf of the falling season, +his ears split and barbarically distended on wire hoops[3] and hung with +silver rings, his moccasins scarlet, his black hair decorated with +cardinal wings, had just sent his heavy lance, twelve feet long, +skimming through the air; then Otasite, running swiftly but lightly +abreast with him, launched his own long lance with such force and nicety +of aim that its point struck the end of Wyejah's spear, still in flight +in mid-air, deflecting its direction, and sending it far afield from the +chungke-stone which it was designed in falling to touch. This fine cast +counted one point in the game, which is of eleven points, and the Indian +braves among the spectators howled like civilized young men at a +horse-race. + +The sport was very keen, the contest being exceedingly close, for Wyejah +had long needed only one additional point to make him a winner, and when +Otasite had failed to score he had also failed. The swift motion, the +graceful agility, the smiling face of Otasite,--for it was a matter of +the extremest exaction in the Indian games that however strenuous the +exertion and tense the strain upon the nerves and grievous the +mischances of the sport, the utmost placidity of manner and temper must +be preserved throughout,--all appealed freshly to the trader, although +it was a long-accustomed sight. + +"Many a man in Charlestown--a well-to-do man" (applying the commercial +standard of value)--"would be proud to have such a son," he muttered, a +trifle dismayed by the perverse incongruities of fate. "He would have +sent the boy to school. If there was money enough he would have sent him +to England to be educated--and none too good for him!" + +The shadows of the two players, all foreshortened by the approach of +noontide, bobbed about in dwarfish caricature along the smooth sandy +stretch. The great chungke-pole, an obelisk forty feet high planted on a +low mound in the centre of the chungke-yard, and with a target at its +summit used for trials of skill in marksmanship, cast a diminished +simulacrum on the ground at its base scarcely larger than the +chungke-lances. Now and again these heavy projectiles flew through the +air, impelled with an incredible force and a skill so accurate that it +seemed impossible that both contestants should not excel. There was a +moment, however, when Otasite might have made the decisive point to +score eleven had not the chungke-stone slipped from the hand of Wyejah +as he cast it, falling only a few yards distant. Otasite's lance, flung +instantly, shot far beyond that missile, for which, had the stone been +properly thrown, he should have aimed. Wyejah, disconcerted and shaken +by the mischance, launching his lance at haphazard, almost mechanically, +struck by obvious accident the flying lance of his adversary, deflecting +its course--the decisive cast, for which he had striven so long in vain, +and which was now merely fortuitous. + +The crowds of Indian gamblers, with much money and goods at hazard upon +the event, some, indeed, having staked the clothes upon their backs, the +rifles and powder for their winter hunt that should furnish them with +food, were at once in a clamor of discussion as to the fair adjustment +of the throw in the score. The backers of Wyejah claimed the accidental +hit as genuine and closing the game. The backers of Otasite protested +that it could not be thus held, since Wyejah's defective cast of the +chungke-stone debarred their champion from the possibility of first +scoring the eleventh point, which chance was his by right, it being his +turn to play; they met the argument caviling at Otasite's lack of aim by +the counter-argument that one does not aim at a moving object where it +is at the moment, but with an intuitive calculation of distance and +speed where it will be when reached by the projectile hurled after it, +illustrating cleverly by the example of shooting with bow and arrow at a +bird on the wing. + +Otasite and Wyejah both, preserved an appearance of joyous indifference. +With their lances poised high in the right hand they were together +running swiftly up the long alley again to the starting-point, Otasite +commenting on the evident lack of intention in Wyejah's lucky cast with +a loud, jocosely satiric cry, "_Hala! Hala_!" (signifying, "You are too +many for me!") + +"Lord! how the boy does yell!" Abram Varney exclaimed, a smile pervading +the wrinkles wrought about his eyes by much pondering on the problems of +the Indian trade, feeling incongruously a sort of elation in the youth's +noisy shouts, which echoed blatantly from the rocky banks of the +Tennessee River, and with reduced arrogance and in softer tones from the +cliffs of towering Chilhowee. + +A sympathetic sentiment glowed in the dark eyes of an Indian chief on +the slope hard by, the great Colannah Gigagei. He was fast aging now; +the difficulties of diplomacy constantly increasing in view of +individual aggressions and encroachments of the Carolina colonists on +the east, and the ever specious wiles and suave allurements of the +French on the west, to win the Cherokees from their British alliance; +the impossibility, in the gentle patriarchal methods of the Cherokee +government, to control the wild young men of the tribe, who, as the +half-king, Atta-Kulla-Kulla said, "often acted like madmen rather than +people of sense" (and it is respectfully submitted that this peculiarity +has been observed in other young men elsewhere); the prophetic vision, +doubtless, of the eventual crushing of his people in the collisions of +the great international struggle of the Europeans for the possession of +this country,--all fostered tokens of time in the face of Colannah, and +bowed his straight back, and set an unwonted quiver in the nerves of his +old hand that had been firm in his heyday, and strong and crafty and +cruelly bloody. But his face now was softened with pleasure, and the +pride it expressed was almost tender. + +"When a few years ago the Governor of South Carolina," he said +majestically, speaking in the Cherokee tongue but for the English names +(he pronounced the title "Goweno"), "offered to take some Cherokee +youths to train in his schools and make _scholars_ of them, I thanked +him with affection, for his thought was kind. But I told him that if he +would send some South Carolina youths to the Cherokee nation to be +trained, we would make _men_ of them!" + +His blanket, curiously woven of feathers and wild hemp, requiring years +of labor in its intricate manufacture, fell away from one gaunt arm as +he lifted it to point with a kingly gesture at the young white man as +the illustration of his training. Every muscle of strength was on parade +in the splendid pose of hurling the great chungke-spear through the air, +as Otasite thus passed the interval while waiting the decision of the +umpire of the game. Then, with a laugh, oddly blent of affection and +pride, Colannah took his way down the slope and toward the +council-house: the council sat there much in these days of 1753, clouded +with smoke and perplexity. + +Judging by this specimen of his athletic training to feats of prowess, +Colannah Gigagei might boast to the "Goweno" of South Carolina. It was +not, however, merely in muscle that the young captive excelled. As Abram +Varney thought of certain sterling manly traits of the highest type +which this poor waif had developed here in this incongruous environment, +one might suppose from the sheer force of heredity, he shook his head +silently, and his eyes clouded, the pulses of Charlestown still beating +in his veins. For he was wont to leave for months the treasures of his +trading-house, not merely a matter of trinkets and beads, but powder, +lead, and firearms, sufficient for accoutring an expedition for the +"war-path," and great store of cloths, cutlery, paints, in the charge of +this valiant gamester of chungke, stanch alike against friend and foe, +as safely as if its wealth were beneath his own eye. So insecure had +become the Cherokee allegiance to the government that it was impossible +now under its uncertain protection to retain white men from the colonies +here in his employ as agents and under-traders, or, indeed, those whose +interest and profits amounted to an ownership in a share of the stock. +The earlier traders in neighboring towns one by one had gone, affecting +a base several hundred miles nearer the white settlements. Some had +shifted altogether from the tribe, and secured a post among the +Chickasaws, who were indubitably loyal to the British. While their +withdrawal added to Varney's profits,--for each trader was allowed to +hold at this time a license only for two Indian towns, it being before +the date of the issuance of general licenses, and the custom which they +had relinquished, the barter with the Cherokees for deerskins, now came +from long distances, drawn as by a magnet to his trading-house at +Tennessee Town,--it had resulted in his isolation, and for years he had +been almost the only British subject west of the Great Smoky Mountains. +He had no fear of the Cherokees, however--not even should the political +sky, always somewhat overcast, become yet more lowering. He had long +been accustomed to these Indians, and he felt that he had fast friends +among them. His sane mercantile judgment appraised and appreciated the +added opportunities of his peculiar position, which he would not lightly +throw away, and the development of Otasite's incongruous commercial +values not only removed the possibility of loss during his absence, but +added to his facilities in enabling him to secure the fidelity of +Indians as packmen, hitherto impracticable, but now rendered to Otasite +as one of the tribe. He had recognized with satisfaction, mingled with +amusement, national traits in the boy, who, despite his Indian training, +would not, like them, barter strings of wampum measuring "from elbow to +wrist" without regard to the relative length of arm. Yet he had none of +the Indian deceit and treachery. He was blunt, sincere, and bold. His +alertness in computation gave Varney genuine pleasure, although they +wrangled much as to his method, for he used the Cherokee numeration, and +it set the trader's mercantile teeth on edge to hear twenty called +"_tahre skoeh_"--two tens. + +"And why not?" Otasite would demand, full of faith in his own education. +"The Chickasaw will say '_pokoole toogalo_'--ten twos"--and he would +smile superior. This was his world, and these his standards--the +Cherokees and the Chickasaws! + +He was not to be easily influenced or turned save by some spontaneous +acquiescence of his own mind, and Varney found himself counting "_skoeh +chooke kaiere_" (the old one's hundred) before he ever induced Otasite +to say instead "one thousand." + +The boy even ventured on censorship in his turn. "You say 'Cherokee_s_' +and 'Chickasaw_s_' when you speak of the Tsullakee and the Chickasaw; +why don't you then say the English-_es_ and the French-_es_?" For the +plural designation of these tribes was a colonial invention. + +His bulldog tenacity, his orderly instincts, his providence, so contrary +to the methods of the wasteful Indian, his cheerful industry, his +indomitable energy and perseverance,--all were so national that in days +gone past Varney used now and again to clap him on the shoulder with a +loud, careless vaunt, "British to the marrow!" + +A fact, doubtless--and all of a sudden it had begun to seem a very +serious fact. So very serious, indeed, that the old trader did not +notice the crisis in the chungke-yard, the increasing excitement in the +crowds of spectators, the clamors presently when the game was declared a +draw and the bets off, the stir of the departing groups. It was silence +at last that smote upon his senses with the effect of interruption which +the continuance of sound had not been able to compass. He drew himself +up with a perplexed sigh, and looked drearily over the expanse of the +river. Its long glittering reaches were vacant, a rare circumstance, for +the Cherokees of that date were almost amphibious in habit, reveling in +the many lovely streams of their mountain country; on the banks their +towns were situated, and this fact doubtless contributed to the neatness +of their habitations and personal cleanliness, to which the travelers of +those times bear a surprised testimony. The light upon the water was +aslant now from a westering sun, and glittering on the snowy breasts of +a cluster of swans drifting, dreaming perhaps, on the current. The +scarlet boughs on the summit of Chilhowee were motionless against the +azure zenith. Not even the vaguest tissue of mist now lingered about the +majestic domes of the Great Smoky Mountains, painted clearly and +accurately in fine and minute detail in soft dense velvet blues against +the hard polished mineral blue of the horizon. The atmosphere was so +exquisitely luminous and pellucid that it might have seemed a fit medium +to dispel uncertainty in other than merely material subjects of +contemplation. Nevertheless he did not see his way clearly, and when he +came within view of his trading-house he paused as abruptly as if he had +found his path blocked by an obstacle. + +There, seated on the step of the closed door which boasted the only lock +and key in Tennessee Town, or for the matter of that in all the stretch +of the Cherokee country west of the Great Smoky Range, was Otasite, the +incongruity of his auburn curls and his Indian headdress seeming a +trifle more pronounced than usual, since it had been for a time an +unfamiliar sight. He was awaiting the coming of the trader, and was +singing meanwhile in a loud and cheerful voice, "Drink with me a cup of +wine," a ditty which he had heard in his half-forgotten childhood. The +robust full tones gave no token of the draught made upon his endurance +by the heavy exercise of the day, but he seemed a bit languid from the +heat, and his doeskin shirt was thrown open at the throat, showing his +broad white chest, and in its centre the barbarous blue discolorations +of the "warrior's marks." These disfigurements, made by the puncturing +of the flesh with gars' teeth and inserting in the wound paint and +pitch, indelible testimonials to his deeds of courage and prowess, +Otasite valued as he did naught else on earth, and he would have parted +with his right hand as readily. The first had been bestowed upon him +after he had gone, a mighty gun-man, against the Muscogees. The others +he had won in the course of a long, furious, and stubborn contest of the +tribe with the Chickasaws, who, always impolitic, headlong, and brave, +were now reduced by their own valor in their many wars from ten thousand +fighting men to a few hundred. He had attained the "warrior's crown" +when he had shown their kindred Choctaws a mettle as fierce and a craft +as keen as their own. And now he was looking at Abram Varney with kindly +English eyes and an expression about the brow, heavily freckled, that +almost smote the tears from the elder man. The trader knew from long +experience what was coming, but suddenly he had begun to regard it +differently. Always upon the end of each journey from Charlestown he had +been met here within a day or two by Otasite on the same mission. The +long years as they passed had wrought only external changes since, as a +slender wistful boy of eleven years, heart-sick, homeless, forlorn, +friendless, save for his Indian captors, likely, indeed, to forget all +language but theirs, he had first come with his question, always in +English, always with a faltering eyelash and a deprecatory lowered +voice, "Did you hear anything in Charlestown of any people named +'Queetlee'?" + +This was the distorted version of his father's name that Colannah had +preserved. As to the child himself, his memory had perhaps been shaken +by the events of that terrible night of massacre, which he only realized +as a frightful awakening from sleep to smoke, flames, screams, the +ear-splitting crack of rifle-shots at close quarters, the shock of a +sudden hurt--and then, after an interval of unconsciousness, a +transition to a new world of strange habitudes that grew speedily +familiar, and of unexpected kindness that became dear to a frank, +affectionate heart. Perhaps in the isolations of the frontier life he +had never heard his father addressed by his surname by a stranger; he +was called "Jan" by his wife, and her name was "Eelin," and this Otasite +knew, and this was all he knew, save that he himself also had been +called "Jan." + +"They don't want you, my buck, or they would have been after you," the +trader used to reply, being harder, perhaps when he was younger. +Besides, he honestly thought the cadaverous brat, all legs, like a +growing colt, and skinny arms, was better off here in the free woodland +life which he himself considered no hardship, and affected long after +necessity or interest had dictated his environment. The little lad was +safe in the care of the powerful chief Colannah Gigagei of Tennessee +Town, who had adopted him, and who was a man of great force and +influence. Why should the child seek a home among his own people, +unwelcome doubtless, to eat the meagre crust of charity, or serve as an +overworked drudge somewhere on the precarious frontier? The trader did +not greatly deplore the lack of religious training, for in the remote +settlements this was often still an unaccustomed luxury, albeit some +thirty years had now gone by since Sir Francis Nicholson, then the +Governor, declared that no colony could flourish without a wider +diffusion of the gospel and education, and forthwith ordered spiritual +drill, so to speak, in the way of preaching and schooling. Although +himself described as "a profane, passionate, headstrong man, bred a +soldier," as if the last fact were an excuse for the former, he +contributed largely to the furtherance of these pious objects, "spending +liberally all his salary and perquisites of office," for which generous +trait of character an early and strait-laced historian is obviously of +the opinion that General Nicholson should have been suffered to swear in +peace and, as it were, in the odor of sanctity. + +More than once, when in Charlestown, Varney, notwithstanding his +persuasions on the subject, had been minded to inquire concerning the +"Queetlees," who he understood from Colannah had come originally from +Cumberland in England. With his mercantile cronies he had canvassed the +question whether the queer, evidently distorted name could have been +"Peatley" or "Patey" or "Petrie,"--for the Cherokees always substituted +"Q" for "P," as the latter letter they could not pronounce,--and after +this transient consideration the matter would drop. + +As the child, running about the Indian town with his new-found +playmates, grew robust and merry-hearted, and happiness, confidence, and +strength brought their embellishing influence to the expression of his +large dark gray eyes and straightened the nervous droop from his thin +little shoulders, the trader noticed casually once or twice how comely +the brat had become, and he experienced a fleeting, half-ridiculing pity +for his mother--how the woman would have resented and resisted the +persistent shearing and shaving of those silken, loosely twining red +curls! Then he thought of her no more. But when the child had come to +man's estate, when he was encased in a network of muscle like elastic +steel wires, when stature and strength had made him alike formidable and +splendid, when the development of his temperament illustrated virtues so +stanch that they seemed the complement of his physical endowment and a +part of his resolute personality, the old trader thought of the boy's +father, and thought of him daily--how the sturdy Cumbrian yeoman would +have rejoiced in so stalwart a son! Thus, with this vague bond of +sympathy with a man whom he had never seen, never known, so long ago, so +cruelly dead, this intuitive divination of his paternal sentiment, +Varney's fatherly attitude grew more definite daily and became +accustomed, and he was jealous of the influence of Colannah, who in turn +was jealous of his influence. + +Now as Varney stood in the dusky trading-house among the kegs and bags +and bales of goods, the high peak of the interior of the roof lost in +the lofty shadows, he felt that he had been much in default in long-past +years, and he experienced a very definite pang of conscience as Otasite +swung abruptly around a stack of arms, a new rifle in his hand, the +flint and pan of which he had been keenly examining. + +He lifted his eyes suddenly with that long-lashed dreary look of his +childhood. + +"Did you hear of any Queetlees in Charlestown?" he asked. + +"It is _you_ who should seek your kindred, Jan Queetlee!" Varney said +impulsively, calling him by his unaccustomed English name. "It is _you_ +who should go to Charlestown to find the Queetlees!" + +Otasite's face showed suddenly the unwonted expression of fear. He +recoiled abruptly, and Abram Varney was sensible of a deep depression. +It was as he had thought. The wish for restoration to those of his name +and his kindred which had animated the boy's earlier years had now +dwindled to a mere abstract sentiment of loyalty as of clanship, but was +devoid of expectation, of intention. All the members of his immediate +family had perished in the massacre, and he had been trained to regard +this as the fortunes of war, cherishing no personal antagonism, as +elsewhere among civilized people reconciliations are frequent between +the victors and the friends of the slain in battle. Moreover, he was not +brought close to it. The participators in the affray were of the distant +Ayrate settlements of the tribe, southeast of the mountains, and not +individualized. The Indians of Tennessee Town, which was then one of the +most remote of the Cherokee villages of the Ottare division, and this +perhaps was the reason it was selected as his home, were not concerned +in the foray, nor were any others of the Overhill towns. Thus he had +grown up without the thirst for vengeance, which showed how little the +methods of his Cherokee environment had influenced his heart. And truly +the far-away Queetlees, if any such were cognizant of his existence, had +troubled themselves nothing about it, and had infinitely less claim on +his gratitude and filial affection than Colannah. They had left him to +be as a waif, a slave. He had been reared as a son, nursed and tended, +fed and fostered, bedecked in splendor, armed in costly and formidable +wise, given command and station, carefully trained in all that the +Indian knew. + +"Colannah would never consent!" he said at last. + +Abram Varney afterward wondered why he should then have had a +vision--oh, so futile, so fleeting, so fantastic!--of the twenty, the +forty, nay, the sixty years that this man, so munificently endowed by +nature, might pass here among the grotesque, uncouth barbarities of the +savage Cherokee, while his heritage--his religion, the religion into +which he was born of Christian parents, his name and nation, his tongue +and station, his opportunity--doubtless some fair, valid, valuable +future--all lay there to the eastward but scant five hundred miles away +on the Carolina coast. He said as much, and the retort came succinctly, +"You live here!" + +Otasite's English speech was as simple as a child's, but he thought as +diplomatically as Colannah himself, whom he esteemed the greatest man in +all the world, and he could argue in the strategic Cherokee method. +Nevertheless, to give him full sway, that everything possible might be +said in contravention of the proposition, the old trader lapsed into the +Indian speech, that was indeed from long usage like a mother tongue to +them both. He stayed here, he said, from choice, it was true, but for +the sake of the trade that gave him wealth, and with wealth he could +return to the colonies at any time, and go whither he would in all the +world. But Otasite was restricted; he had no goods for trade, no +adequate capital to invest; he could only return to the colonies while +young, to work, to make a way, to secure betimes a place appropriate to +his riper years. Even this could not be done without great +difficulty,--witness how many settlers came empty-handed to barely exist +on the frontier and wrest a reluctant living from the wilderness,--and +it could not be done at all without friends. Now he, Abram Varney, was +prepared to stand his friend; Otasite could take a place in the service +of the company, in the main depot of the trade at Charlestown. His +knowledge of the details of the business of which Abram Varney's long +absences had given him experience; of the needs of the Cherokee nation; +of the ever-continued efforts of the French traders, by means of the +access to the Overhill towns afforded by the Cherokee and Tennessee +rivers, despite the great distance from their settlements on the +Mississippi, to insinuate their supplies at lower prices, in the teeth +of the Cherokee treaty with the British monopolizing such traffic, and +bring down profits--all would have a special and recognized value and be +appreciated by his mercantile associates, who would further the young +man's advancement. Thence he could at his leisure make inquiries +concerning his father's family, and doubtless in the course of time be +restored to his kindred. + +Otasite listened throughout with the courteous air of deliberation which +his Indian training required him to accord to any discourse, without +interruption, however unwelcome or trivial it might be esteemed. Then, +smiling slowly, he shook his head. + +"You cannot be serious," he said. "It would break old Colannah's heart, +who has been like a father to me." + +Abram Varney too had the British bulldog tenacity. "What will you do, +then," he asked slowly and significantly, "when Colannah takes up arms +against the British government? Will you fight men of your own blood?" + +He was reinforced in this argument by the habit of thought of the +Indians--the absolute absence of tribal dissensions, of internecine +strife, so marked among the Cherokees: here no man's hand was lifted +against his brother. + +Jan Queetlee palpably winced. Come what might, he could never fight for +the Cherokees against the British--his father's people, his mother's +people--no more than he could fight for the British against his adopted +tribe--the Cherokee--and he the "Man-killer!" + +"They will fight each other," said Varney weightily, "and the day is not +far--the day is not far!" + +For in 1753 the cumulative discontents of the tribe were near the +crisis, earnestly fostered by the French on the western boundaries, that +vast domain then known as Louisiana, toward whose siren voice the +Cherokees had ever lent a willing ear. The building by the British +government, two or three years later, of those great defensive works, +Fort Prince George and Fort Loudon, situated respectively at the eastern +and western extremities of the Cherokee territory, mounted with cannon +and garrisoned by British forces, served to hold them in check and +quieted them for a time, but only for a time. Jan Queetlee, by reason of +his close association with the chiefs, knew far more than Varney dreamed +of the bitterness roused in the hearts of the Indians by friction with +the government, the aggressions of the individual colonist, the +infringements of their privileges in the treaty, and in opposition the +influence of the ever seductive suavity of the French. + +As with a sudden hurt, Jan Queetlee cried out with a poignant voice +against the government and its patent unfaith, striking his clinched +fist so heavily on the head of a keg of powder that the stout fibres of +the wood burst beneath the passionate blow, and in a moment he was +covered with the flying particles of the black dust. Realizing the +possibility of an explosion should a candle or a pipe be lighted here, +Varney did not wait for the return of one of the brawny packmen to +remove the keg to a cave beneath the trading-house, which he utilized +for storage as a cellar, but addressed himself to the job. Jan Queetlee +silently assisted, his face darker, more lowering with the thought in +his mind than with the smears of the powder. + +Varney remembered this afterward, and that he himself, diverted by the +accident from the trend of his argument, had launched out in a tirade +against the government as they worked together, the young Briton's +energy, industry, and persistence so at variance with the aspect of his +tufted topknot of feathers on his auburn curls, and the big blue +warrior's marks on his broad white chest. For Varney too had his +grievances against the powers that were; but his woes were personal. He +vehemently condemned the reconciliation which the government had +effected between the Muscogees and the Cherokees, for although there +were more deerskins to be had for export when the Indian hunters were at +pacific leisure, Varney had considered the recent war between these +tribes an admirable vent for gunpowder and its profitable sale; and +since the savages must always be killing, it was manifestly best for all +concerned that they should kill each other. He could not sufficiently +deride the happy illustration which Governor Glen had given them (in his +fatuity, Varney thought) of the values of peace and concord. In the +presence of the two delegations the mediating Governor had taken an +arrow and shown them with what ease it could be broken; then how +impossible he found it to break a quiverful of arrows, thus +demonstrating the strength in union. Varney argued that the Indians +would readily perceive a further application of the principle and turn +it to account, combining against the colonists. In the same spirit he +animadverted upon a monopoly from which he was excluded in common with +the traders in general, and which had been granted to a mercantile +company seeking to establish posts among the Choctaws. The enterprise, +although favored by the government, obviously because, undertaken on a +scale of phenomenal magnitude, it promised to dislodge the French and +their long-established trade among the Choctaws, and bring that powerful +tribe to a British allegiance, had finally proved a failure; and with a +bitter joy in this fact he alternately contemned and pitied the +government, because it could not wrest this valuable opportunity from +the iron grasp of the "Mississippi Louisianians." He had, too, a +censorious word for the French commercially--called them "peddlers," +celebrated their deceitful wiles, underrated the quality of their +cloths, and inconsistently berated them for their low prices, finding a +logical parity in all these matters in the tenets of their religion, +which they had so vainly and so zealously sought to instill into the +unreceptive hearts of the unimpressionable Choctaw.[4] + +With the plethora of interest involved in these subjects, Varney grew +oblivious of the theme that had earlier occupied his mind. It recurred +no more to his thoughts until several days had passed. He then chanced +to be occupied with his new goods in his cavern. It was illumined only +from above; there was a trap-door in the floor of the trading-house, and +thence a pale tempered light drifted down, scarcely convenient, but +sufficient for his purposes. Once he noticed that a shadow flickered +across it. He experienced a momentary surprise, for he had left no one +in the building, and the outer door being locked, he imagined it could +not be forced without noise enough to rouse him. Again the shadow +flickered across the trap-door; then ensued a complete eclipse of the +scant glimmer of light. There was a step upon the ladder which served as +stairway--a man was descending. + +Varney felt a sudden constriction about his throat. He realized an +impending crisis; the door above had been closed; by the sound he knew +that the ladder was now removed and laid upon the ground. He had an +idea--he could see naught--that the unknown invisible man had seated +himself on the ladder on the ground, where he remained motionless, +silent, in anger, in grief, or some strange savage whim hardly possible +for a civilized creature to divine. + +The time that passed in this black nullity--he never could compute +it--moments, doubtless, but it seemed hours, tried to the utmost the +nerve of the entrapped trader, albeit inured by twenty years' experience +to the capricious temper of the Cherokee Indians. He felt he could +better endure the suspense could he only see his antagonist, identify +him, and thus guess his purpose, and shape his own course from his +knowledge of character. But with some acquired savage instinct he, too, +remained silent, null, passive; one might have thought him absent. +Perhaps his quiescence, indeed, fostered some doubt of his presence +here, for suddenly there sounded the rasping of flint on steel, the +spunk was aglow, and then in the timorous flame of the kindling candle, +taken from his own stores above, Varney recognized the face and figure +of the stately and imperious old chief Colannah. The next moment he +remembered something far more pertinent. He called out in an agitated +voice to the Indian to beware of the powder with which the place was +largely stocked. + +"I came for that," said Colannah in Cherokee, with unaccustomed fingers +snuffing the wick as he had seen Varney perform the process, for the +Indians used torches and fires of split cane for purposes of +illumination. + +"For God's sake, what have I done?" cried the trader in an agony of +terror, desirous to bring his accusation to the point as early as might +be and compass his release, thus forestalling the violent end of an +explosion. + +"What do the English always?--you have robbed me!" said Colannah, the +light strong on his fierce indignant features, his garb of fringed +buckskin, his many rich strings of the ivory-like roanoke about his +neck, his gayly bedecked and feathered head, and in shadowy wise +revealing the rough walls of the cave, the boxes and bales of goods, the +reserve stock, as it were, the stands of arms, and the kegs and bags of +powder. + +As Varney, half crouching on the ground, noted the latter in the dusk, +he cried out precipitately, "Robbed you of what? My God! let us go +upstairs. I'll give it back, whatever it is, twice over, fourfold! Don't +swing the candle around that way, Colannah! the powder will blow us and +the whole trading-house into the Tennessee River." + +Colannah nodded acquiescence, the stately feathers on his head gleaming +fitfully in the clare-obscure of the cavern. "That is why I came! Then +the British government could demand no satisfaction for the life of the +British subject--an accident--the old chief of Tennessee Town killed +with him. And I should be avenged." + +"For what? My God!" Varney had not before called upon the Lord for +twenty years. To hold a diplomatic conversation with an enraged wild +Indian, flourishing a lighted candle in a powder magazine, is calculated +to bring even the most self-sufficient and forgetful sinner to a sense +of his dependence and helplessness. The lighted candle was a more +subjugating weapon than a drawn sword. He had contemplated springing +upon the stanch old warrior, although, despite the difference in age, he +was no match for the Indian, in order to seek to extinguish it. He +reflected, however, that in the struggle a flaring spark might cause the +ignition of scattered particles of the powder about the floor, and thus +precipitate the explosion which he shuddered to imagine. "For what, +Colannah?" he asked again, in a soothing smooth cadence, "for what, my +comrade, my benefactor for years, my best-beloved friend--avenged on me +for what? Let's go upstairs!" + +The flicker of the wavering candle showed a smile of contempt on the +face of the angry Indian for a moment, and admonished Varney that in +view of the Cherokees' relish of the torture his manifestations of +anxiety but prolonged his jeopardy. It brought, too, a fuller +realization of the gravity of the situation in that the Indian should so +valiantly risk himself. He evidently intended to take the trader's life, +but in such wise that no vengeance for his death should fall upon the +Cherokee nation. Abram Varney summoned all his courage, which was not +inconsiderable, and had been cultivated by the wild and uncertain +conditions of his life. Assured that he could do naught to hasten his +release, he awaited the event in a sort of stoical patience, dreading, +however, every motion, every sound, the least stir setting his expectant +nerves aquiver. Silence, quiescence, brought the disclosure earlier than +he had feared. + +"When I took the boy Jan Queetlee--why do I call him thus, instead of by +the name he has earned for himself, the noble Otasite of Tennessee +Town?"--the old chief began as deliberately, as disregardfully of the +surroundings as if seated under the boughs of one of the giant oaks on +the safe slopes of Chilhowee yonder--"when I took him away from the +braves who had overcome the South Carolina stationers, I owed him no +duty. He was puny and ill and white and despised! You British say the +Indian has no pity. A man's son or brother or father or mother has +claims upon him. Otasite was naught to me, a mere _eeankke_!" (a +captive). "I owed the child no duty. My love was voluntary. I gave it a +free gift; no duty! And he was little, and drooping, and meagre, and ill +all the time! But he grew; soon no such boy in the Cherokee nation, soon +hardly such a warrior in all the land--not even Otasite of Watauga, nor +yet Otasite of Eupharsee; perhaps at his age Oconostota excelled" +(Oconostota always was preeminently known as the "Great Warrior"). He +paused to shake his head and meditate on difficult comparisons and +instances of prowess. After an interval which, long enough, seemed to +the trembling trader illimitable, he recommenced abruptly: "Says the +Goweno long time ago to me, 'Is not there a white youth among you?' I +say, 'He is content; he has no white friends, it seems.' Says the Goweno +to me, 'Ah, ah, we must look into this!' and says no more." + +Colannah flung back his head and laughed so long and so loud that every +echo of the sarcastic guttural tones, striking back from the stone walls +of the cavern, smote Varney with as definite a shock as a blow. + +"And now," the Cherokee resumed, with a changed aspect and a pathetic +cadence, "I am an old man, and I lean upon Otasite. My sons are all +dead--one in the wars with the Muscogee and two slain by the Chickasaw. +And the last he said to me, with his lingering latest breath, loath to +go and leave me desolate, 'But you have an adopted son, you have the +noble Otasite.' And now," his voice was firm again, "if I have him not, +I go too, and you go. We go together." + +"I will not advise him to quit the nation--never again!" cried Varney, +suddenly enlightened, fervently repudiating his interference. "Since you +disapprove, he shall not return to Carolina. He _cannot_ go without +me--my help; he could not find a place--a home. Bold and fine as he is +here, he would be strange there; he knows naught of the ways of the +colonists. He would be poor, despised, while here he has been like the +first, the best. His pride could never stoop to a life like a slave's; +his pride would break his heart. Let me undo the mischief I have +wrought; let me unsay the unthinking, foolish words I have spoken." + +It was perhaps with the faith that the artful trader could best turn the +young fellow's mind back to its wonted content, as his crafty arguments +had already so potently aroused this wild, new dissatisfaction, that +Colannah at last consented to liberate Varney for this essay, not +without a cogent reminder that he would be held responsible for its +failure. And indeed in recanting his former urgency, when he sought out +Otasite, Varney exerted himself to the utmost. + +"You are satisfied here. You know the life. Like me, you love it. If I, +who can choose, prefer it, why not you?" + +But Otasite shook his head. + +"When I talk to you of the colonies I speak as a man does of a dream," +Varney continued. "It is something true and something false. I add here +and I let slip there to make out the connection, and give the symmetry +of truth to the picture. But did I ever tell you how they love money in +the colonies, how they cheat and strive and slave their lives away to +add to their store; how they reverence and worship the wealth of others +till it seems that a rich man can do no wrong--if he is rich enough? Did +I ever tell you this? The poor, they are despised for being poor, and +they are let to suffer. Here poverty is not permitted. If a man lose his +dwelling by fire, the town builds him another house. You know this. If a +man fail in his winter hunt, the others give of their abundance. Here +one is rated by his personal worth. Here the deed is held to be fine, +not the mere thing. Here you are valued as the great Otasite, and all +men give you honor for your courage. There you are Jan Queetlee, a +penniless clod, and all men despise you and pass you by."[5] + +But again Otasite shook his head. + +It was no spurious flare of ambition, ineffectual, illusory; no +discontented yearning for a different, a wider life that the trader's +ill-advised words had roused. That sentiment of loyalty to the British +government, which had never sought to claim Jan Queetlee as a subject, +seemed bred in his bone and born in his blood. Perhaps it was the stuff +of which long afterward the Tories of the Revolution were made. He could +not lift his hand against this aloof, indifferent fetich. And yet take +part against the Cherokees, whom he loved as they loved him! For with +his facilities for understanding the trend of the politics of the day he +could no longer blind himself to the approach of the war of the tribe +with the British government, which, indeed, came within the decade. The +sons of Colannah, slain in the cruel wars with other Indians, had been +to him like brothers, and in their loss he had felt his full and bitter +share of the grief of a common household. Even yet he and Colannah were +wont to sadly talk of them with that painful elimination of their names, +a mark of Indian reverence to the dead, substituting the euphemism "the +one who is gone," and linger for hours over the fire at night or on the +shady river-bank in sunlit afternoons, rehearsing their deeds and +recalling their traits, and repeating their sayings with that blending +of affectionate pride and sorrow that is the consolation of bereavement +when time has somewhat softened its pangs and made memory so dear. And +Colannah had been like a father--it seemed to Jan Queetlee as if he had +had no other father. He could not leave Colannah, old, desolate, and +alone. Yet the war was surely coming apace, as they both knew, a war +which already tore his heart in sunder, in which he could evade taking +part against his own--his own of both factions--only by going at once +and going far. He could decide no such weighty matter. + +At last he determined he would leave it to fate, to chance, showing how +truly a gambler his Indian training had made him. He would stake the +crisis on a game at chungke; if he won, as he told Varney, he would go +to Carolina, and take sides with neither faction; if he lost, he would +cast his future with the Cherokee nation. + +Varney, thoroughly uneasy, had come to feel a personal interest +involved. If Otasite quitted the country, he felt his life would hardly +be safe here, since the craft of Colannah had drawn from the +unsuspecting young fellow the details of the plan of removal to +Charlestown which he had proposed. And yet Varney himself was averse to +any change, unless it was indeed necessary. When put to the test he felt +he would rather live in the Cherokee nation than anywhere else in all +the world, and he valued his commerce with the tribe and his license +from the government, under duly approved bond and security, to conduct +that traffic in Tennessee Town and Tellico as naught else on earth. He +manifested so earnest and genuine a desire to repair the damage of his +ill-starred suggestion that Colannah, showing his age in his haste and +his tremulousness and excitement, disclosed to him in a flutter of +triumphant glee that he had a spell to work which naught could +withstand--a draught from Herbert's Spring to offer to Otasite. Thither +some fifty miles he had dispatched a runner for a jar of the magic +water, and after drinking of it Otasite could not quit for seven years +the Cherokee nation even if he would. + +It was in the council-house that the mystic beverage was quaffed. There +had been guests--head men from Great Tellico and Citico--during the +afternoon, received in secret conclave, and now that their deliberations +were concluded and they were gone, Otasite, not admitted to the council, +being one of those warriors who did the fighting of the battles devised +by the "beloved men," strolled into the deserted, dome-like place. Its +walls, plastered with red clay, were yet more ruddy for a cast of the +westering sun. The building was large enough to accommodate several +hundred people, and around the walls were cane seats, deftly constructed +and artificially whitened, making, according to an old writer, "very +genteel settees or couches." Tired with the stress of mental depression +and anxiety as physical effort could not tame him, and vaguely prescient +of evil, Otasite had flung himself down on one of these, which was +spread with dressed panther-skins, his hands clasped under his head, his +scalp-lock of two auburn curls dangling over them. + +Through the tall narrow doorway the autumnal landscape was visible, +blazing with all the fervors of summer; the mountains, however, were +more softly blue, the sunlight of a richer glister; the river, now +steel, now silver, now amber, reflected the atmosphere as a sensitive +soul reflects the moods of those most dear; the forests, splendid with +color, showed the lavish predominance of the rich reds characteristic of +the Chilhowee woods; a dreamlike haze over all added a vague ideality +that made the scene like some fondest memory or a glamourous forecast. + +"_Akoo-e-a!_" (summer yet!) said Colannah, his eyes too on the scene, as +he sat on a buffalo-rug in the centre of the floor drawing in the last +sweet fragrant breaths from his long-stemmed pipe, curiously wrought of +stone, for in the manufacture of these pipes the Cherokees of that day +were said to excel all other Indians. The young Briton experienced no +mawkish pang to note that it was ornamented at one end by a dangling +scalp, greatly treasured, the interior of the skin painted red for its +preservation. He had, in fact, a pipe of his own with a scalp much like +it. Indeed, his trophy was a fine specimen, and it had been a feat to +take it, for it had once covered a hot Chickasaw head. + +"_Akoo-e-a!_ the day is warm!" remarked Colannah. He lifted his storied +pipe, and with its long stem silently motioned to a young Indian woman, +indicating a great jar of water. She quickly filled one of those quaint +bowls, or cups, of the Cherokee manufacture, and advanced with it to +Otasite; but the proffer was in the nature of an interruption of his +troubled thoughts, and he irritably waved her away. + +"I am displeased with you," said Colannah sternly, lifting his dark, +deeply sunken eyes to where the "Man-killer" lay at full length on the +cane settee. "You set me aside. You have no thoughts for me--no words. +Yet you can talk when you go to the trading-house. You have words and to +spare for the trader. You can drink with him. You can sing, 'Drink with +me a cup of wine.'" He lifted his raucous old voice in ludicrous +travesty of the favorite catch, for sometimes the two Britons, so +incongruous in point of age, education, sentiment, and occupation, +cemented their bond as compatriots by carousing together in a mild way. + +But this ebullition of temper had naught of the ludicrous in Jan +Queetlee's estimation. He was pierced to the heart. + +"_Aketohta!"_ (Father!) he cried reproachfully. He had sprung to his +feet, and stood looking down at the old chief, who would not look at +him, but kept his eyes on the landscape without, now and then drawing a +long, lingering whiff from his pipe. + +"_Aketohta_! I have no thought for _you_!--who alone have taken thought +for me! I have words for the trader and silence for _you_! You say keen +things, and you know they are not true! You know that I had rather drink +water with you than wine with him. I am not thirsty; but since it is you +who offer it"--His expression changed; he broke into sudden pleasant +laughter, and with a rollicking stave of the song, "Drink with me a cup +of wine," he caught the bowl from the girl's hand and drained it at a +draught. + +"_Seohsta-quo_!" (Good!) cried Colannah, visibly refreshed, as if his +own thirst were vicariously slaked. But Otasite stood blankly staring, +the bowl motionless in his hand. "It is well for wine to be old," he +said wonderingly, "but not water." + +For his palate was accustomed to the exquisite sparkle and freshness of +the mountain fountains, and this had come from far. + +The crafty Colannah stolidly repressed his delight, save for the glitter +in his eyes fixed on the azure and crimson and silver landscape +glimmering beyond the dusky portals of the terra-cotta walls. "_Nawohti! +nawohti_!" (Rum!) he said, with an affectation of severity. "You drink +too much of the trader's strong physic! You have no love now for the +sweet, clear water." And he shook his head with the uncompromising +reproof of a mentor of present times as he growled disjointedly, +"_Nawohti! nawohti_!" + +Otasite nothing questioned the genuineness of this demonstration, for +the Cherokee rulers, in common with those of other tribes, had long +waged a vigorous opposition to the importation of strong drink into +their country; indeed, as far back as 1704, when holding a solemn +conference with Governor Daniel of North Carolina to form a general +treaty of friendship, the chiefs of several tribes petitioned the +government of the Lords Proprietors for a law, which was afterward +enacted (and disregarded), forbidding any white man to sell or give rum +to an Indian, and prescribing penalties for its infringement. It was not +the first time that Otasite had heard unfavorably of the influences of +"_nawohti_," which, by the way, with the Cherokees signified physic, as +well as spirituous liquor, a synonymous definition which more civilized +people have sought to apply. He was content that he and the old chief +were once more in affectionate accord, and he did not seek to interpret +the flash of triumph in Colannah's face. + +For seven years! for seven years! the white "Man-killer" could not, if +he would, quit the Cherokee country. Well might the old chief's eyes +glisten! The youth was like a son to his lonely age, and Otasite's +prowess the pride of his life. And like others elsewhere he had softened +as age came on, and loved the domestic fireside and the companionship +about the hearth, hearing without participating in the hilarious talk of +the young, and looking out at the world through the eyes of the new +generation, undaunted, expectant, aglow with a spirit that had long ago +smouldered in his own; for the fierce Indian at the last was but an old +man. + +Abram Varney, too, experienced a recurrence of ease. He had unwittingly +imbibed much outlandish superstition in his residence among the +Cherokees, and indeed other traders and settlers long believed in the +enchaining fascination of Herbert's Spring, and drank or refrained as +they would stay or go. + +Otasite, however, was all unaware of the spell cast upon him when he +came into the chungke-yard the next day, arrayed in his finest garb, the +white dressed doeskin glittering in the sun, his necklaces of beads, his +belt of wolf fangs, his flying feet in their white moccasins--all +catching the light with a differing effect of brilliancy. + +Varney watched him;--with the two eagle feathers stiff and erect on his +proud head, his two incongruous long auburn curls, that did duty as a +"war-lock," floating backward in the breeze, he ran so deftly, so +swiftly, with so assured and so graceful a gait that the mere +observation of such symmetrical motion was a pleasure. The trader had +scarcely a pulse of anxiety. Indeed, disingenuously profiting by the tip +afforded by Herbert's Spring, he was heavily backing Wyejah as a winner! + +A windy day it was; the clouds raced through the sky, and their shadows +skimming over the valleys and slopes challenged their speed. The +Tennessee River was singing, singing! The mountains were as clearly and +definitely blue as the heavens. That revelation of ranges on the far +horizon unaccustomed to the view, only vouchsafed by some necromancy of +the clarified autumnal air, never before seemed so distinct, so +alluring--new lands, new hopes, new life they suggested. Wyejah's +scarlet attire, its fringes tasseled with the spurs of the wild turkey, +rendered his lithe figure strongly marked against these illusory +ethereal tints as he sped abreast with Otasite along the level sandy +stretch of the chungke-yard. And how well he played! Varney realized +this with a satisfaction as of having already won his wagers, many and +large, for Otasite would leave the nation should he be victorious, and +having drunk unwittingly of Herbert's Spring, he could not quit the +Cherokee country, although he himself was still unaware of having +quaffed of those mystic waters. Therefore defeat was obviously his +portion. Whenever the trader thought anew of his secret knowledge of +this fact he offered odds on Wyejah, and glanced at him with +approbation--at the young Indian warrior's face fiercely, eagerly +smiling, his great flattened ears distended on their wire hoops, his +dark eyes full of sombre brilliance. How well he played! and how hard +the skill of his opponent pressed him! How accurate was the aim of the +long lance of Otasite as he poised his weight on the supple tips of his +white moccasins and hurled the missile through the air; how strong and +firm his grasp that sent the circular, quartz chungke-stone, whirling +along the sand; how tirelessly his long sinewy steps sped back and forth +in the swift dashes up and down the smooth spaces of the chungke-yard; +how faithfully he was doing his best, regardless of his own preference +in the interests that he had adventured on the result! How like a Briton +born it was, Abram Varney thought, for he alone knew of Otasite's +resolution, and the significance of the game to him, that the boy could +thus see fair play between the factions that warred within him for his +future. He had staked the future on the event,--and suddenly it was the +present! + +A wild clamor of excitement, of applause, rose up from the throats of +the crowd in the natural amphitheatre, clanging and clattering in long +guttural cries,--all intensified by a relish of the unexpected, a joy in +a new sensation, for Wyejah had never before been beaten, and Otasite +was the victor at chungke. + +Abram Varney felt his heart leap into his throat, then sink like lead; +Colannah, triumphant, knowing naught of the subtler significance of the +contest, joyful, aglow with pride, rose up in his splendid feathered +mantle, standing high on the slope, to sign to the boy his pleasure in +the victory. The sunlight fell, glittering very white, on the young +fellow's doeskin garb, his prickly belt of fangs, his bare chest with +the blue warrior's marks, the curls of his auburn scalp-lock tossing in +the wind. He had seemed hitherto stoical, unmoved by victory as he would +have appeared in defeat; but Varney, eager to get at him, to combat his +resolution, knew that he was stunned by the complications presented by +this falling out of the event. He visibly faltered as his eye met the +triumph and affection expressed in Colannah's quivering old face. He +could not respond to its congratulation. He dropped on one knee +suddenly, bending low, affecting to find something amiss with one of his +moccasins. + +Wyejah, too, could seem unmoved by victory, but indifference to defeat +was more difficult to simulate. He had in the first moment of its +realization felt the blood rush to his head; despite his strong nerve +his hand trembled; the smile of placidity which it was a point of honor +to preserve became a fixed grin. Several other young braves had come +into the yard, and were idly tossing the lance at the great +chungke-pole--as a billiardist of the civilized life of that day might +pocket the balls with a purposeless cue after a match. Wyejah, too, had +cast his lance aslant; then he idly hurled the chungke-stone with a +muscular fling along the spaces of the white sand. His nerve was shaken, +his aim amiss, his great strength deflected. The heavy discoidal quartz +stone skimmed through the air above the stretch of sand, and striking +with its beveled edge the kneeling figure on the temple, the future of +the victor at chungke became in one moment the past. + +The trader could only have likened the scene that ensued to the moment +of an earthquake or some other stupendous convulsion of nature. In the +midst of the confusion, the wild cries, the swift running figures, the +surging of the crowds into the chungke-yard that obliterated the wide +glare of the sun on the white sand, he made good his escape. He knew +enough of the trend of Cherokee thought to be prescient of the fate of +the scapegoat. Colannah in the first burst of grief he knew would blame +himself that he should have tempted fate by the mystic draught from +Herbert's Spring to hold here that bright young form for seven years +longer. How sadly true!--for seven years Otasite would remain, and seven +to that, and, alack, seven more, and forever! Soon, however, the natural +impulses of the Indian's temper, intensified by long cultivation, would +be reasserted. He would cast about for revenge, remembering the first +suggestion of the departure of Otasite, and from whom it had emanated. +But for the English trader and his specious wiles, the old chief would +argue, would Otasite have thought of forsaking his foster nation, his +adopted father, for the selfish, indifferent British, the "Goweno" at +Charlestown, who cared for him nothing? The trader it was who had +brought this calamity upon them, who had in effect, by the hand of +another, administered the fatal draught. Seek for him!--hale him forth! +--wreak upon him the just, unappeasable vengeance of the forever +bereaved! + +The old trader had evinced an instinct in flight and concealment that an +animal might envy. No probable hiding-place he selected, such as might +be known or divined--a cave, the attic of his trading-house, the cellar +beneath--all obvious, all instantly explored. Instead, he slipped into a +rift in the rocks along the river-bank. Myriads of such crevices there +were in the tilted strata--unheeded, unremarked, too strait and +restricted to suggest the idea of refuge, too infinitely numerous for +search. There, unable in the narrow compass to turn, even to shift a +numbing muscle of his lean old body, in all the constraint of a standing +posture, he was held in the flexure of the rock like some of its +fossils,--as unsuspected as a ganoid of the days of eld that had once +been imprisoned thus in the sediment of seas that had long ebbed +hence,--or the fern vestiges in a later formation finding a witness in +the imprint in the stone of the symmetry of its fronds. He listened to +the hue and cry for him; then to the sudden tramp of hoofs as a pursuing +party went out to overtake him, presumably on his way to Charlestown, +maintaining a very high rate of speed, for the Cherokees of that period +had some famously fine horses. + +Straining his senses--all unnaturally alert--he distinguished, as the +afternoon wore on, the details of the preparations for the barbarous +sepulture of the young Briton. Now and then the cracking of rifle-shots +betokened the shooting of his horses and cattle and all the living +things among his possessions--a practice already in its decadence among +the Cherokees, and later, influenced by the utilitarian methods of +civilization, altogether abandoned. Swift steps here and there +throughout the town intimated errands to gather all his choicest effects +to be buried with him, for his future use. To this custom, it is said, +and the great security of the fashioning of the sepulchres of the +Cherokees, may be attributed the fact that little of their pottery, +arms, beads, medals, the more indestructible of their personal +possessions, can be found in this region where so lately they were a +numerous people; for the effects of the dead, however valued, were never +removed or the graves robbed, even by an Indian enemy. The Cherokees +rarely permitted the presence of an alien at the ceremonies of the +interment of one of the tribe; but Varney in times past had seen and +heard enough to realize, without any definite effort of the imagination, +how Otasite, arrayed in his most gorgeous apparel, his beautiful English +face painted vermilion, would be placed in a sitting posture in front of +his house, and there in the sunlit afternoon remain for a space, looking +in, as it were, at the open door. Presently sounded the wild +lamentations and melancholy cadences of the funeral song; the tones rose +successively from a deep bass to a tenor, then to a shrill treble, +falling again to a full bass chorus, with the progression of the mystic +syllables, "_Yah! Yo-he-wah! Yah! Yo-he-wah!"_ (said to signify +"Jehovah"). This announced that the funeral procession, bearing the +body, was going thrice around the house of the dead, where he had lived +in familiar happiness these many years, and beneath which he would rest +in solemn silence in his deep, deep grave, covered with heavy timbers +and many layers of bark, and the stanch red clay, maintaining a sitting +posture, and facing the east, while the domestic life of homely cheer +would go on over his unheeding head as he awaited the distant and +universal resurrection of the body, in which the Cherokee religion +inculcated a full and firm faith. + +The sun went down, and through all the night sounded the plaints of +grief. Late the moon rose, striking aslant on the melancholy Tennessee +River, full of deep shadows and vaguely pathetic pallid glimmers. A wind +sprang up for a time, then suddenly sank to silence and stillness. A +frost fell with a keen icy chill. Mists gathered, and the day did not +break,--it seemed as if it might never dawn again; only a pallid +visibility came gradually upon clouds that had enshrouded all the world. +The earth and the sky were alike indistinguishable; the mountains were +as valleys, the valleys as plains. One might scarcely make shift to see +a hand before the face. Through this white pall, this cloud of nullity, +came ever the dolorous chant, "_Yo-he-ta-wah! Yo-he-ta-weh! +Yo-he-ta-hah! Yo-he-ta-heh!_" as in their grief and poignant bereavement +the ignorant and barbarous Indians called upon the God who made them, +and He who made them savages doubtless heard them. + +Creeping out into the invisibility of the clouded day, Abram Varney had +not great fear of detection. The mists that shielded him from view +furthered still his flight, for his footsteps were hardly to be +distinguished amidst the continual dripping of the moisture from the +leaves of the dank autumnal woods. At night he knew the savages would be +most on the alert. They would scarcely suspect his flight in the broad +day. Moreover, their suspicions of his presence here were lulled; +craftily enough he followed after the horsemen who fancied they were +pursuing him--they would scarcely look for their quarry hard on their +own heels. He experienced no sentiment but one of intense satisfaction +when, as invisible as a spirit, he passed his own trading-house, and +divined from the sounds within that the Indians were busy in sacking it, +albeit a greater financial loss than seems probable at the present day; +for the Indian trade was a very considerable commerce, as the accounts +of those times will show. The English and French governments did not +disdain to compete for its monopoly with various nations of Indians, for +the sake of gaining control of the savages thereby, in view of supplies +furnished by the white traders vending these commodities and resident in +the tribes. + +Recollections of the items and values of his invoices, afflicting to +Varney's commercial spirit, threaded his consciousness only when again +safe in Charlestown. He reached that haven at last by the exercise of +great good judgment. He realized that another party would presently be +sent out when no news of capture came from the earlier pursuers; he +divined that the second expedition would take the Chickasaw path, for +being friendly to the British, that tribe would naturally be thought of +as a refuge to an Englishman in trouble with the Cherokees; therefore +Varney, lest he be overtaken on the way, avoided with a great struggle +the temptation, mustered all his courage, and adopting an unprecedented +expedient, turned off to the country of the Muscogees. These Indians, +always more or less inimical to the colonists, bloodthirsty, cruel, +crafty, and but recently involved in a furious war against the +Cherokees, were glad to thwart Colannah in any cherished scheme of +revenge, and received the fugitive kindly. Although but for this fact +his temerity in venturing among them would have cost him his life, they +ministered to his needs with great hospitality, and forwarded him on his +way to Charlestown, sending a strong guard with him as far as Long Cane +settlement, a little above Ninety-Six. + +Wyejah also made his escape. Appalled by the calamity of the accidental +blow, he "took sanctuary." In the supreme moment of excitement he flung +himself into the Tennessee River, and while eagerly sought by the +emissaries of Colannah in the woods, he swam to Chote, "beloved town," +the city of refuge of the whole Cherokee nation, where the shedder of +blood was exempt from vengeance. As years went by, however, either +because of the death of Colannah, or because time had so far softened +the bereavement of the friends of Otasite that they were prevailed upon +to accept the "satisfaction," the presents required even from an in +voluntary homicide, he was evidently freed from the restricted limits of +the "ever-sacred soil," for his name is recorded in the list of warriors +who went to Charlestown in 1759 to confer with Governor Lyttleton on the +distracted state of the frontier, and being held as one of the hostages +of that unlucky embassy, he perished in the massacre of the Cherokees by +the garrison of Fort Prince George, after the treacherous murder of the +commandant, Captain Coytmore, by a ruse of the Indian king, Oconostota. + +Abram Varney never ventured back among "the Nation," as he called the +Cherokees, as if they were the only nation on the earth. Now and again +in their frequent conferences with the Governor at Charlestown, rendered +necessary by their ever-recurrent friction with the British government, +he sought out members of the delegation for some news of his old +friends, his old haunts. Not one of them would take his hand; not one +would hear his voice; they looked beyond him, through him, as if he were +the impalpable atmosphere, as if he did not exist. + +It was a little thing,--the displeasure of such men--mere savages,--but +it cut him to the heart. So long they had been his friends, his +associates, as the chief furniture of the world! + +He busied himself with the affairs of his firm at Charlestown, but for a +time he was much changed, much cast down, for he had a sense of +responsibility, and his conscience was involved, and although he had +sought to do good he had only wrought harm, and irreparable harm. He +grew old very fast, racked as he was by rheumatism, a continual reminder +of the stern experiences of his flight. He had other reminders in his +unquiet thoughts, but he grew garrulous at a much later date. Years +intervened before he was wont to sit in front of the warehouse, with his +stick between his knees, his hands clasped on the round knob at its top, +his chin on his hands, and cheerily chirp of his days in "the Nation." +The softening touch of time brought inevitably its glamours and its +peace; his bleared old eyes, fixed on the glittering expanse of the +harbor, beheld with pleasure, instead of the sea, the billowy reaches of +that mighty main of mist-crested mountains known as the Great Smoky +Range, and through all his talk, and continually through his mind, +flitted the bright animated presence of the victor at chungke. + + + + +THE CAPTIVE OF THE ADA-WEHI + + +Attusah was obviously an impostor. Many, however, had full faith in his +supernatural power, and often he seemed to believe in his own spectral +account of himself. + +"_Tsida-wei-yu_!" (I am a great ada-wehi![6]) the young warrior would +cry with his joyous grandiloquent gesture, waving his many braceleted +right arm at full length as he held himself proudly erect. +"_Akee-o-hoosa! Akee-o-hoosa!"_ (I am dead). Then triumphantly, "And +behold I am still here." + +Attusah had gone unscathed through that bloody campaign of 1761 in which +the Cherokees suffered such incredible rigors. After their total defeat +at Etchoee the Indians could offer no further resistance to the troops +of Colonel Grant, who triumphantly bore the authority of the British +king from one end of the Cherokee country to the other, for there was no +more powder to be had in the tribe. The French, from whom they had hoped +a supply, failed them at their utmost need, and now those massive crags +of the Great Smoky Mountains, overhanging the Tennessee River, no longer +echoed the "whoo-whoop!" of the braves, the wild cry of the Highlanders, +"Claymore! Claymore!" the nerve-thrilling report of the volleys of +musketry from the Royal Scots, the hissing of the hand grenades flung +bursting into the jungles of the laurel. Instead, all the clifty defiles +of the ranges were filled with the roar of flames and the crackling of +burning timbers as town after town was given to the firebrand, and the +homeless, helpless Cherokees frantically fleeing to the densest coverts +of the wilderness,--that powerful truculent tribe!--sought for shelter +like those "feeble folk the conies" in the hollows of the rocks. + +Thus it was that Digatiski, the Hawk, of Eupharsee Town, long the terror +of the southern provinces, must needs sit idle, forlorn, frenzied with +rage and grief, in a remote and lofty cavity of a great cliff, and +looking out over range and valley and river of this wild and beautiful +country, see fire and sword work their mission of destruction upon it. +By day a cloud of smoke afar off bespoke the presence of the soldiery. +At night a tremulous red light would spring up amidst the darkness of +the valley, and expanding into a great yellow flare summon mountains and +sky into an infinitely sad and weird revelation of the landscape, as the +great storehouses of corn were burned to the ground, leaving the hapless +owners to starvation. + +His pride grudged his very eyes the sight of this humiliation, for +despite the oft-repeated assertion of the improvidence of the Indian +character, these public granaries, whence by the primitive Cherokee +government food was dispensed gratis to all the needy, were always full, +and their destruction meant national annihilation or subjugation. After +one furtive glance at the purple obscurities of the benighted world he +would bow his head, and with a smothered groan ask of the ada-wehi, +"Where is it now, Attusah?" + +The young warrior, half reclining at the portal of the niche, would lift +himself on one elbow,--the glow of the little camp-fire within the +recess on his feather-crested head, his wildly painted face, the twenty +strings of roanoke passed tight like a high collar around his neck, +thence hanging a cascade of beads over his chest, the devious arabesques +of tattooing on his bare, muscular arms, the embroideries of his +buckskin raiment and gaudy quiver,--and searching with his gay young +eyes through the stricken country reply, "Cowetchee," "Sinica," +"Tamotlee," whichever town might chance to be in flames. + +Doubtless Attusah realized equally the significance of the crisis. But a +certain joyous irresponsibility characterized him, and indeed he had +never seemed quite the same since he died. He had been much too +reckless, however, even previous to that event. Impetuous, hasty, +tumultuously hating the British colonists, he had participated several +years earlier in a massacre of an outlying station, when the Cherokees +were at peace, without warrant of tribal authority, and with so little +caution as to be recognized. For this breach of the treaty his execution +was demanded by the Royal Governor of South Carolina, and reluctantly +conceded by the Cherokees to avert a war for the chastisement of the +tribe. Powder must have been exceedingly scarce! + +Attusah was allowed to choose his method of departure to the happy +hunting-grounds, and thus was duly stabbed to death. He was left +weltering in his blood to be buried by his kindred. The half king, +Atta-Kulla-Kulla, satisfied of his death, himself reported the execution +to the Carolina authorities, and as in his long and complicated +diplomatic relations with the colonial government this Cherokee chief +had never broken faith, he was implicitly believed. + +Whether the extraordinary vitality and vigor of the young warrior were +reasserted after life had been pronounced wholly extinct, and thus his +relations were induced to defer the obsequies, or that he was enabled to +exert supernatural powers and in the spirit reappear in his former +semblance of flesh,--both theories being freely advanced,--certain it is +that after a time he returned to his old haunts as gay, as reckless, as +impetuous as ever. He bore no token of his strange experience save +sundry healed-over scars of deep gashes in his breast, which he seemed +at times to seek to shield from observation; and this he might have +accomplished but for his solicitude that a very smart shirt, much +embroidered and bedizened with roanoke, should not suffer by exposure to +water; wherefore he took it off when it rained, and in swimming, and on +the war-path. He manifested, too, a less puerile anxiety to escape the +notice of Atta-Kulla-Kulla and other head men, who were supposed to be +well affected at that time to the British government. This he was the +better enabled to do as his habitat, Kanootare, was the most remote of +the Cherokee towns, his name, Attusah, signifying the "Northward +Warrior." + +After the capitulation of Fort Loudon and the massacre of the garrison +the previous year, and the organized resistance the Cherokees had made +in the field of battle against Colonel Montgomerie, then commanding the +expeditionary forces, he had felt that the tribe's openly inimical +relations with the British government warranted him in coming boldly +forth from his retirement and competing for the honors of the present +campaign of 1761. His friends sought to dissuade him. The government had +had, as assurance of his death, the word of Atta-Kulla-Kulla, who might +yet insist that the pledge be made good. That chief, they urged, had a +delicate conscience, which is often an engine of disastrous efficiency +when exerted on the affairs of other people. Attusah was advised that he +had best stay dead. Although he finally agreed with this, he could not +stay still, and thus as he appeared in various skirmishes it became +gradually bruited abroad among the Cherokees that Attusah, the Northward +Warrior, was a great ada-wehi, a being of magical power, or a ghost as +it might be said, of special spectral distinctions. Thus he lived as +gayly yet as before the dismal day of his execution, always carefully, +however, avoiding the notice of Atta-Kulla-Kulla, whose word had been +solemnly accepted by the British government as the pledge of his death. + +It is impossible to understand how a man like Digatiski of Eupharsee +could believe this,--so sage, despite his ignorance, so crafty, so +diplomatic and acute in subterfuge, yet he was sodden in superstition. + +"Can you see Colonel Grant, the Barbarous?"[7] he asked suddenly, +lifting his head and gazing steadily at the young Indian's face, which +was outlined against the pallid neutral tint of the sky. The dark +topmost boughs of a balsam fir were just on a level with the clear +high-featured profile; a single star glittering beyond and above his +feathered crest looked as if it were an ornament of the headdress; the +red glow of the smouldering fire within, which had been carefully masked +in ashes as the darkness came on, that its sparkle might not betray +their presence here to any wandering band of troopers, still sufficed to +show the impostor's painted red cheek. He was armed with a tomahawk and +a pistol, without powder as useless as a toy, and a bow borne in default +of aught better lay on the floor beside him, while a gayly ornamented +quiver full of poisoned arrows swung over his shoulder. + +"_Ha-tsida-wei-yu!_" he proclaimed. "I am a great ada-wehi! I see him! +Of a surety I see him!" + +Attusah gazed at the sombre night with an expression as definitely +perceptive as if the figure in his thoughts were actually before his +eyes. + +"And he is not dead?" cried Digatiski, in despair. + +Some such wild rumor, as of hope gone mad, had pervaded the groups of +Cherokee fugitives. + +"He would be if I could get close enough with a bare pinch of powder +that might charge my gun!" declared Attusah disconsolately. Then himself +again, "But I will tell you this! He is waiting for my poisoned arrow! +And when he dies he will come back no more. He is not like me." + +He paused to throw out his hand with his splendid pompous gesture. +"_Akee-o-hoo-sa! Tsida-wei-yu!_" (I am dead! I am a great ada-wehi!) + +Digatiski groaned. It mattered not to him whether Colonel Grant came +back or abode in his proper place when dead. The grievous dispensation +lay in the fact that he was here now, in the midst of the wreck he was +so zealously wreaking. + +There were three women in the niche. One with her head muffled in her +mantle of fringed deerskin sat against the wall, silently weeping, +bemoaning her dead slain in the recent battle, or the national +calamities, or perhaps the mere personal afflictions of fatigue and fear +and hunger and suspense. Another crouched by the fire and gazed +dolorously upon it with dreary tear-filled eyes, and swollen, reddened +eyelids. The sorrowful aspect of a third was oddly incongruous with her +gay attire, a garb of scarlet cloth trimmed with silver tinsel tassels, +a fabric introduced among the Cherokees by an English trader of the name +of Jeffreys, and which met with great favor. Her anklets, garters, and +bracelets of silver "bell-buttons" tinkled merrily as she moved, for she +had postponed her tears in the effort to concoct some supper from the +various scraps left from the day's scanty food. The prefatory scraping +of the coals together caused a sudden babbling of pleasure to issue from +the wall, where, suspended on a projection of rock, was one of the +curious upright cradles of the people, from which a pappoose, stiff and +perpendicular, gazed down at the culinary preparations, evidently in the +habit of participating to a limited extent in the result, having +attained some ten months of age. + +The mother glanced up, and despite the tear stains about her eyes, +dimpled and laughed in response. Griefs may come and pleasures go, +nations rise and fall, the world wag on as it will, but this old joy of +mother and child, each in the other, is ever new and yet ever the same. + +Resuming her occupation, the woman hesitated for a moment as she was +about to lay the meat on the coals, the half of a wood duck, fortunately +killed by an arrow, for larger game was not attainable, the wild beasts +of the country being in flight as never heretofore. The conflagration of +the towns of a whole district, the turmoils of the heady victorious +troops, hitherto held together, but now sent through the region in +separate detachments, each within reach of support, however, had +stripped the tribe of this last means of subsistence. Years and years +afterward the grim dismantled fragments of these buildings were still to +be seen, the charred walls and rafters mere skeletons against the sky, +standing, melancholy memorials of war, on the hillsides and in the +valleys, along the watercourses "transparent as glass," of that lovely +country where these pleasant homes had been. + +The Indian woman doubted if the bit of fat could be spared; then poising +it in her hand under the watchful eyes of all, she flung it into the +fire, the essential burnt-offering according to their old religious +custom. + +Digatiski, bowing his head still lower, once more groaned aloud. He +would not have stayed her hand,--but to hunger even for the offering to +the fire! The woman whose head was muffled had only to repeat her sobs +anew; she could not sorrow more! But the pappoose in its primitive +cradle on the wall babbled out its simple pleasure, and now and again +the tearful little mother must needs lift smiling eyes. + +The great ada-wehi looked out at the night. On the whole he was glad he +was dead! + +He took no bite, nor did Digatiski. The Indian men were accustomed to +long fasts in war and in hunting, and they left the trivial bits to the +women. The muffled figure of grief held out her hand blindly and munched +the share given her in the folds of her veil. Then, for tears are of no +nutritive value, she held out her hand again. Feeling it still empty, +she lifted the veil from a swollen tear-stained face to gaze aghast at +the others. They silently returned the gaze, aghast themselves, and then +all three women fell to sobbing once more. But the pappoose was crowing +convivially over a bone. + +Hunger does not dispose to slumber, nor does war with the sight of a +dozen towns aflame. They slept, but in fitful starts, and the first gray +siftings of light through the desolate darkness found them all gazing +drearily at it, for what might a new day signify to them but new +dangers, fresh sorrows, and quickened fears. + +A flush was presently in the east, albeit dusk lingered westward. The +wonderful crystalline white lustre of the morning star palpitated in the +amber sky, seeming the very essence of light, then gradually vanished in +a roseate haze. The black mountains grew purple, changing to a dark rich +green. The deep, cool valleys were dewy in the midst of a shadowy gray +vapor. The farthest ranges showed blue under a silver film, and suddenly +here were the rays of the sun shooting over all the world, aiming high +and far for the western hills. + +And abruptly said the ada-wehi, as he still lay at length on the floor +of the niche,-- + +"_Skee_!" (Listen!) + +Naught but the breeze of morning, delicately freighted with the breath +of balsams, the dew, the fragrance of the awakening of the wild flowers, +the indescribable matutinal freshness, the incense of a new day in June. + +"_Skee_!" + +Only the sound of the rippling Tennessee, so silver clear, beating and +beating against the vibrant rocks as its currents swirl round the bend +at the base of the cliff. + +"_Skee_!" + +The sudden fall of a fragment of rock from the face of the crag to the +ground far below!--the interval of time between the scraping dislodgment +and the impact with the clay beneath implies a proportional interval of +distance. + +The conviction is the same in the mind of each. A living creature is +climbing the ascent! A bear, it may be. A great bird, an eagle, or one +of the hideous mountain vultures, very busy of late, alighting in quest +of food--which it might find in plenty elsewhere, in the track of the +invaders. + +Attusah does not rely, however, on a facile hypothesis with a triumphant +enemy at hand, and a dozen towns charring to ashes in sight. + +As noiseless as a shadow, as swift, Attusah is on his feet. At the back +of the great niche, so high that none could conceive that it might +afford an exit, a fissure lets in a vague dreary blur of light from +spaces beyond. Leaping high into the air, the lithe young warrior fixes +his fingers on the ledge, crumbling at first, but holding firm under a +closer grasp. The elder man, understanding the ruse as if by instinct, +lays hold of the knees of the other, held out stiff and straight below. +Then by a mighty effort Attusah lifts the double weight into the +fissure, the elder Indian aiding the manoeuvre by walking up the wall, +as it were, with his feet successively braced against it. + +Outside, now and again bits of rock continued to fall, seeming to herald +a cautious approach, for after each sound a considerable interval of +silence would ensue. So long continued was this silence at last that the +three women, now alone, began to deem the alarm of an intrusion vain and +fantastic. The elder of them motioned to one of the others to look out +and terminate the painful suspense. + +The young squaw, brilliant in her scarlet dress and silver tassels, the +pappoose piously quiet in his perpendicular cradle on her back, slipped +with gingerly caution to the verge of the precipice and looked down. + +Nothing she saw, and in turn she was invisible from without. She wheeled +around briskly to reassure the others, and at that moment a young +soldier of the battalion of Scotch Highlanders stepped from the +horizontal ledge alongside, which he had then gained, and into the +niche, bringing up short against the pappoose, stiff and erect in its +cradle. + +"Hegh, sirs!" he cried in jocular surprise, happy to find naught more +formidable, perhaps, although a brave man, for he had volunteered to +examine the source of the smoke from this precarious perch,--which had +attracted the attention of the ensign commanding a little +detachment,--despite the fact that a Cherokee in his den and brought to +bay was likely to prove a dangerous beast. + +The Highlander had a piece of bread in his hand, from which he had been +recklessly munching as he had stood for a moment's breathing spell on +the horizontal ledge beside the niche before venturing to enter, for the +command had broken camp with scant allowance of time for breakfast. With +a genial laugh he thrust a morsel into the pappoose's open mouth and put +the rest in its little fingers. + +Perhaps it was because of his relief to find no bigger Cherokee man +stowed away here in ambush; perhaps because he was himself hearty and +well-fed and disposed to be gracious; perhaps because he had a +whole-souled gentle nature hardly consonant with the cruel arts of war +which he practiced,--at all events he was thoughtful enough of others to +mark the ravenous look which the women cast upon the food in the child's +hand. + +"Gude guide us!" he exclaimed. "This is fearfu' wark! The hellicat +hempies are half starved!" + +For if Colonel Grant compassionated the plight of the savages, as he has +recorded, and shrank from the ruin wrought in the discharge of his duty +of destroying their capacities for resistance and the maintenance of +existence other than as peaceful dependents of the British colonies, the +rank and file of his command, weighted with no such responsibilities, +may well have indulged now and then a qualm of pity. + +The British soldier had been ordered to halloo for help should he +encounter armed resistance, but otherwise to rest a bit at the top of +the precipice before making the effort to descend, lest he become dizzy +from fatigue and the long strain upon his faculties, and fall; the +ensign added a pointed reminder that he had no means of transportation +for "fules with brucken craigs." The opportunity was propitious. The +Highlander utilized the interval to open his haversack and dispense such +portion of its contents as he could spare. While thus engaged he was +guilty of an oversight inexcusable in a soldier: the better to handle +and divide the food, he leaned his loaded gun against the wall. + +A vague shadow flickered across the niche. + +The young Highlander was a fine man physically, although there was no +great beauty in his long, thin, frank, freckled face, with its +dare-devil expression and bantering blue eyes. But he was tall, heavily +muscled, clean-limbed, of an admirable symmetry, and the smartest of +smart soldiers. His kilt and plaid swung and fluttered with martial +grace in his free, alert, military gait as he stepped about the +restricted space of the cavity, bestowing his bounty on all three women. +His "bonnet cocked fu' sprash" revealed certain intimations in his +countenance of gentle nurture, no great pretensions truly, but +betokening a higher grade of man than is usually found in the rank and +file of an army. This fact resulted from the peculiar situation of the +Scotch insurgents toward government after the "Forty-Five," and the +consequent breaking up of the resources of many well-to-do middle-class +families as well as the leaders of great clans. + +The Highlander hesitated after the first round of distribution, for +there would be no means of revictualing that haversack until the next +issuance of rations, and he was himself a "very valiant trencher-man." +Nevertheless their dire distress and necessity so urged his generosity +that he began his rounds anew. + +Once more a shadow. Whence should a shadow fall? It flickered through +the niche. + +The three women stood as mute as statues. The pappoose in its cradle on +its mother's back, its face turned ignominiously toward the wall, and +perhaps aware that something of interest in the commissariat department +was going forward, had begun to whimper in a very civilized manner, and +doubtless it was this trivial noise that deterred the young Scotchman +from hearing sounds of more moment, calculated to rouse his suspicions. +He had already added to the portions of the elder women and was +bestowing his donations upon the young mother, when suddenly the shadow +materialized and whisked past him. + +It fell like a thunderbolt from above. + +Bewildered, agitated, before he could turn, his gun was seized and +presented at his breast by a warrior who seemed to have fallen from the +sky. The soldier, nevertheless, instantly laid his hand on the great +basket-hilt of his claymore. Before he could draw the blade, the warrior +and the three women flung themselves upon him, their arms so closely +wound about him that his own arms were effectually pinioned to his +sides. With a violent effort he shook himself free from their grasp for +one moment; yet as the blade came glittering forth from the scabbard, a +sharp blow scientifically administered upon the wrist by the ada-wehi +almost broke the bone and sent the weapon flying from his hand and +clattering to the floor of the niche. The women had taken advantage of +the opportunity afforded by the struggle between the two men to +substitute the coils of a heavy hempen rope for the clasp of their arms, +and Attusah had only to give a final twist to the knots of their skilled +contriving, when the captive was disarmed and bound. + +He had instantly bethought himself of his comrades and an appeal for +rescue, and sent forth a wild, hoarse yell, which, had it been heard, +must have apprised them of his plight. But as he had not at once given +the signal of danger agreed upon, they had naturally supposed the coast +clear, and while he rested presumably at the top of the precipice they +gave their attention to other details of their mission, firing several +houses at a little distance down the river. Therefore they would have +heard naught, even if Attusah had not precluded further efforts of his +captive to communicate with his comrades by swiftly fashioning a gag out +of the Highlander's bonnet and gloves. + +Perhaps never was a brave man more dismayed and daunted. Not death +alone, but fire and torture menaced him. The shining liquid delight in +the eyes of the women reminded him of the strange fact that they were +ever the most forward in these cruel pleasures, for the ingenuity of +which the Cherokees were famous among all the tribes. Yet the +realization of his peril did not so diminish his scope of feeling as to +prevent him from inwardly upbraiding his ill-starred generosity as the +folly of a hopeless fool, more especially as the elder woman--she of the +many tears--held up the substantial gift of provisions, jeering at him +with a look in her face that did not need to be supplemented by the +scoffing of language. + +"The auld randy besom!" the soldier commented within himself. "But eh, I +didna gie it to be thankit,--nae sic a fule as that comes to, neither!" + +Hoping against hope, he thought that the length of his absence would +inevitably alarm the ensign for his scout's safety, when it should +attract attention, and induce the officer to send a party for his relief +and for further investigation of the precipice, whence the smoke +intimated an ambush of the enemy. This expectation had no sooner +suggested its solace and the exercise of patience in the certainty of +ultimate rescue, than the Highlander began to mark the preparations +among the Indians for a swift departure. But how? The precipice was a +sheer descent for eighty feet, the ruggedness of its face barely +affording foothold for a bird or a mountaineer; and at its base hovered +the ensign's party within striking distance. A resisting captive could +not be withdrawn by this perilous path. The soldier looked in doubt and +suspense about the restricted limits of the cavity in the great crag. +The mystery was soon solved. + +The position of all had changed in the struggle, and from where Kenneth +MacVintie now stood he noted a scant suggestion of light flickering down +from a black fissure in the roof of the cavity, and instantly realized +that it must give an exit upon the mountain slope beyond. The agility +with which Attusah of Kanootare sprang up and leaped into it was +admirable to behold, but MacVintie did not believe that, although +knotted up as he was in his own plaid passed under his arms and around +his waist for the purpose, he could be lifted by the ends of the fabric +through that aperture by the strength of any one man. Naturally he +himself would make no effort to facilitate the enterprise. On the +contrary, such inertness as the sheer exercise of will could compass was +added to his dead weight. Nevertheless he rose slowly, slowly through +the air. As he was finally dragged through the rift in the rocks, his +first feeling was one of gratification to perceive that no one man could +so handle him. The feat had required the utmost exertions of two +athletic Indians pulling strenuously at the ends of the plaid passed +over a projection of rock, thus acting pulley-wise, and the good Glasgow +weave was shedding its frayed fragments through all the place by reason +of the strain it had sustained. + +The next moment more serious considerations claimed his thoughts. He saw +that two men, fully armed, for Digatiski had secured ammunition for his +own gun from the cartouch-box of the soldier, could force his +withdrawal, bound as he was, farther and farther from the ensign and his +party, whose attention had been temporarily diverted from the scout's +delay in returning by signs of the enemy ambushed in another direction. + +MacVintie still struggled, albeit he knew that it was vain to resist, +more especially when another Cherokee joined the party and dedicated +himself solely to the enterprise of pushing and haling the captive over +the rugged way,--often at as fair a speed as if his good will had been +enlisted in the endeavor. Now and again, however, the Highlander +contrived to throw himself prone upon the ground, thus effectually +hampering their progress and requiring the utmost exertions of all three +to lift his great frame. The patience of the Indians seemed illimitable; +again and again they performed this feat, only to renew it at the +distance of a few hundred yards. + +At length the fact was divined by MacVintie. More than the ordinary fear +of capture animated Attusah of Kanootare. Colonel Grant's treatment of +his prisoners was humane as the laws of war require. Moreover, his +authority, heavily reinforced by threats of pains and penalties, had +sufficed, except in a few instances, to restrain the Chickasaw allies of +the British from wreaking their vengeance on the captive Cherokees in +the usual tribal method of fire and torture. The inference was obvious. +Attusah of Kanootare was particularly obnoxious to the British +government, the civil as well as the military authorities, and fleeing +from death himself, he intended at all hazards to prevent the escape of +his prisoner, who would give the alarm, and inaugurate pursuit from the +party of the ensign. + +In this connection a new development attracted the attention of +MacVintie. As they advanced deeper and deeper into the Cherokee country +and the signs and sights of war grew remote,--no sounds of volleys nor +even distant dropping shots clanging from the echoes, no wreaths of +smoke floating among the hills, no flare of flames flinging crude red +and yellow streaks across the luminous velvet azure of distant mountains +with their silver haze, viewed through vistas of craggy chasms near at +hand,--he observed a lessening of cordiality in the manner of the other +two Indians toward the Northward Warrior, and a frequency on his part to +protest that he was a great ada-wehi, and was dead although he appeared +alive. The truth soon dawned upon the shrewd Scotchman, albeit he +understood only so much Cherokee as he had chanced to catch up in his +previous campaign in this region with Montgomerie and the present +expedition. Attusah was for some reason obnoxious to his own people as +well as to the British, and was in effect a fugitive from both factions. +Indeed, the other two Indians presently manifested a disposition to +avoid him. After much wrangling and obvious discontent and smouldering +suspicion, one lagged systematically, and, the pace being speedy, +contrived to fairly quit the party. Digatiski accompanied them two more +days, then, openly avowing his intent, fell away from the line of march. +It was instantly diverted toward the Little Tennessee River, on the +western side of the Great Smoky Mountains; and as Attusah realized that +without his connivance his captive's escape had become impossible, +MacVintie found himself unbound, ungagged, and the society of the +ada-wehi as pleasant as that of a savage ghost can well be. + +There was now no effort to escape. MacVintie's obvious policy was to +await with what patience he might the appearance of the British +vanguard, who in the sheer vaunt of victory would march from one end of +the unresisting territory to the other, that all might witness and bow +before the triumph of the royal authority. As yet remote from the +advance of the troops, he dared not quit his captor in these sequestered +regions lest he fall into the power of more inimical Cherokees, maddened +by disaster, overwhelmed in ruin, furious, and thirsting for revenge for +the slaughter of their nearest and dearest, and the ashes of their +homes. + +Attusah made known his reason for his own uncharacteristic leniency to a +soldier of this ruthless army, as they sat together by the shady +river-side. He went through the dumb show of repeatedly offering to his +captive guest the fish they had caught, pressing additional portions +upon him, laughing significantly and joyously throughout his mimicry. +Then suddenly grave, he seized the Highlander's left arm, giving it an +earnest grasp about the wrist, the elbow, then close to the shoulder to +intimate that he spared him for his gift to the needy and helpless. + +But Kenneth MacVintie, remembering his ill-starred generosity, flushed +to the eyebrows, so little it became his record as a soldier, he +thought, that he should be captured and stand in danger of his life by +reason of the unmilitary performance of feeding a babbling pappoose. + +Attusah, however, could but love him for it; he loved the soldier for +his kind heart, he said. For great as he himself was, the Northward +Warrior, he had known how bitter it was to lack kindness. + +"It is not happy to be an ada-wehi!" he confessed, "for those who +believe fear those who do not!" + +And tearing open the throat of his bead-embroidered shirt to reveal the +frightful gashes of the wounds in his breast, he told the story of his +legal death, with tears in his gay eyes, and a tremor of grief in the +proud intonations of his voice, that thus had been requited a feat, the +just guerdon of which should have been the warrior's crown,--in the +bestowal of which, but for a cowardly fear of the English, all the tribe +would have concurred. + +"_Akee-o-hoosa!_" (I am dead!) he said, pointing at the scars. And the +Highlander felt that death had obviously been in every stroke, and +hardly wondered that they who had seen the blows dealt should now +account the appearance of the man a spectral manifestation, his unquiet +ghost. + +Then, Attusah's mood changing suddenly, "_Tsida-wei-yu!_" (I am a great +ada-wehi!) he boasted airily. + +That he was truly possessed of magical powers seemed to MacVintie least +to be questioned when he angled, catching the great catfish, after the +manner of the Indians, with the open palm of his hand. In these fresh +June mornings he would dive down in some deep shady pool under the dark +ledges of rock where the catfish are wont to lurk, his right arm wrapped +to the fingers with a scarlet cloth. Tempted by the seeming bait, the +catfish would take the finger-tips deep in its gullet, the strong hand +would instantly clinch on its head, and Attusah would rise with his +struggling gleaming prey, to be broiled on the coals for breakfast. + +But for these finny trophies they too might have suffered for food, in +the scarcity of game and the lack of powder; but thus well fed, the two +enemies, like comrades, would loiter beside their camp-fire on the +banks, awaiting as it were the course of events. The dark green +crystalline lustre of the shady reaches of the river, where the gigantic +trees hung over the current, contrasted with the silver glister of the +ripples far out, shimmering in the full glare of the sun. The breeze, +exquisitely fragrant, would blow fresh and free from the dense forests. +The mockingbird, a feathered miracle to the Highlander, would sway on a +twig above them and sing jubilantly the whole day through and deep into +the night. The distant mountains would show-softly blue on the horizon +till the sun was going down, when they would assume a translucent +jewel-like lustre, amethystine and splendid. And at night all the stars +were in the dark sky, for the moon was new. + +So idle they were they must needs talk and talk. But this was an +exercise requiring some skill and patience on the part of each, for the +Scotchman could only by the closest attention gather the meaning of the +Cherokee language as it was spoken, and the magic of the ada-wehi +compassed but scanty English. Attusah was further hampered by the +necessity of pausing now and then to spit out the words of the tongue he +abhorred as if of an evil taste. Nevertheless it was by means of this +imperfect linguistic communication that Kenneth MacVintie, keenly alive +to aught of significance in this strange new world, surrounded with +unknown unmeasured dangers, was enabled to note how the thoughts of his +companion ran upon the half king Atta-Kulla-Kulla. Yet whenever a +question was asked or curiosity suggested, the wary Attusah diverted the +topic. This fact focused the observation of the shrewd, pertinacious +Scotchman. At first he deemed the special interest lay in a jealousy of +artistic handicraft. + +Atta-Kulla-Kulla's name implied the superlative of a skillful carver in +wood, Attusah told him one day. + +"An' isna he a skilly man?" MacVintie asked. + +"Look at that!" cried the braggart, holding aloft his own work. He was +carving a pipe from the soft stone of the region, which so lends itself +to the purpose, hardening when heated. "_Tsida-wei-yu!_" + +There was a long pause while the mockingbird sang with an exuberant +magic which might baffle the emulation of any ada-wehi of them all. +MacVintie had almost forgotten the episode when Attusah said suddenly +that the colonists translated the name of Atta-Kulla-Kulla as the +"Little Carpenter." + +"Hegh! they hae a ship named for his honor!" exclaimed the Highlander. +"I hae seen the Little Carpenter in the harbor in Charlestoun, swingin' +an' bobbin' at her cables, just out frae the mither country! Her +captain's name wull be Maitland." + +This evidence of the importance of the Cherokee magnate in the opinion +of the British colonists did not please the ada-wehi. He spat upon the +ship with ostentatious contempt as it were, and then went on silently +with his carving. + +The mockingbird paused to listen to a note from the hermit thrush in the +dense rhododendron, still splendidly abloom on the mountain slope. The +Scotchman's eyes narrowed to distinguish if the white flake of light in +the deep green water across a little bay were the reflection of the +flower known as the Chilhowee lily, or the ethereal blossom itself. + +Attusah's mind seemed yet with the seagoing craft. He himself knew the +name of another ship, he said presently; and the Highlander fancied that +he ill liked to be outdone in knowledge of the outer world. + +But it was immediately developed that in this ship Atta-Kulla-Kulla had +sailed to England many years before to visit King George II. in +London.[8] Attusah could not at once anglicize the name "Chochoola," but +after so long a time MacVintie was enabled to identify the Fox, then a +noted British man-of-war. + +In these leisurely beguilements the days passed, until one morning +Attusah's fears and presentiments were realized in their seizure by a +party of Cherokees, who swooped down upon their hermitage and bore them +off by force to the council-house of the town of Citico, where +Atta-Kulla-Kulla and a number of other head men had assembled to discuss +the critical affairs of the tribe, and decide on its future policy. + +So critical indeed was the situation that it seemed to MacVintie that +they might well dispense with notice of two factors so inconsiderable in +the scale of national importance as the ada-wehi and his captive. But +one was a British prisoner, calculated to expiate in a degree with his +life the woe and ruin his comrades had wrought. The more essential was +this course since the triumph of putting him to the torture and death +would gratify and reanimate many whose zeal was flagging under an +accumulation of anguish and helpless defeat, and stimulate them to +renewed exertions. For before the Cherokees would sue for peace they +waited long in the hope that the French would yet be enabled to convey +to them a sufficient supply of powder to renew and prosecute the war. + +As to the arrest of the other, Attusah of Kanootare, this was necessary +in the event that submission to the British government became +inevitable. For since he claimed to be a ghost, surely never was spectre +so reckless. He had indeed appeared to so many favored individuals that +the English might fairly have cause to doubt his execution in +satisfaction of his crimes against the government; and the breach of +faith on the part of the Cherokee rulers in this conspicuous instance +might well preclude the granting of any reasonable terms of peace now, +and subject the whole nation to added hardship. + +This was the argument advanced by Atta-Kulla-Kulla as he stood and +addressed his colleagues, who sat on buffalo-skins in a circle on the +floor of the council-house of Citico,--the usual dome-shaped edifice, +daubed within and without with the rich red clay of the country, and +situated on a high artificial mound in the centre of the town. + +The council-fire alone gave light, flashing upon the slender figure and +animated face of this chief, who, although of slighter physique and +lower stature than his compeers, wielded by reason of his more +intellectual qualities so potent an influence among them. + +The oratorical gifts of Atta-Kulla-Kulla had signally impressed +Europeans of culture and experience.[9] Imagine, then, the effect on the +raw young Highland soldier, hearing the flow of language, watching the +appropriate and forceful gestures, noting the responsive sentiment in +the fire-lit countenances of the circle of feather-crested Indians, yet +comprehending little save that it was a masterpiece of cogent reasoning, +richly eloquent, and that every word was as a fagot to the flames and a +pang to the torture. + +Attusah of Kanootare, the Northward Warrior, rose to reply in defense of +himself and his captive, and Atta-Kulla-Kulla listened as courteously as +the rest, although the speech of the ada-wehi depended, like the oratory +of many young men, chiefly on a magical assurance. He had an ally, +however, in the dominant superstition of the Cherokees. Numbers of the +warriors now ascribed their recent disasters to the neglect of various +omens, or the omission of certain propitiatory observances of their +ancient religion, or the perpetration of deeds known to be adversely +regarded by the ruling spirits of war. + +Moreover, they were all aware that this man had been killed, left for +dead, reported as dead to the British government, which accepted the +satisfaction thus offered for his crimes,--the deeds themselves, +however, accounted by him and the rest of the tribe praiseworthy and the +achievements of war. + +And here he was protesting that he was dead and a ghost. "_Akee-o-hoosa! +Akee-o-hoosa! Tsida-wei-yu!_" he cried continually. + +Indeed, this seemed to be the only reasonable method of accounting for +the renewed presence in the world of a man known to be dead. This was +his status, he argued. He was a dead man, and this was his captive. The +Cherokee nation could not pretend to follow with its control the actions +of a dead man. They themselves had pronounced him dead. He had no place +in the war. He had been forbidden, on account of his official death, to +compete for the honors of the campaign. Apart from his former status as +a Cherokee, merely as a supernatural being, a spirit, an ada-wehi, he +had captured this British soldier, who was therefore the property of a +dead man. And the Cherokee law of all things and before all things +forbade interference with the effects of the dead. + +Despite the curling contempt on the lip of Atta-Kulla-Kulla the council +did not immediately acquiesce in his view, and thus for a time flattered +the hope of the ada-wehi that they were resting in suspension on the +details of this choice argument. There was an illogical inversion of +values in the experience of the tribe, and while they could not now +accept the worthless figments of long ago, it was not vouchsafed to them +to enjoy the substantial merits of the new order of things. Reason, +powder, diplomacy, had brought the Cherokee nation to a point of +humiliation to which superstition, savagery, and the simplicities of the +tomahawk had never descended in "the good old times." Reason was never +so befuddled of aspect, civilization never so undesired as now. In their +own expanded outlook at life, however, they could not afford to ignore +the views of Atta-Kulla-Kulla, the advocate of all the newer methods, in +so important a matter as the release of a British prisoner of war on the +strange pretext that his captor was a ghost of a peculiar spectral +power, an ada-wehi, although this course would have been more agreeable +to the "old beloved" theories of their halcyon days of eld, when the +Cherokee name was a terror and a threat. + +Therefore, averse as they were to subscribe to the modern methods which +had wrought them such woe and humiliation and defeat, the dominant +superstition of the race now fell far short of the fantasy of liberating +a British prisoner at this crisis under the influence of any spectral +manifestation whatsoever. The council was obviously steeled against this +proposition, as MacVintie shortly perceived, and equally determined that +the ada-wehi must needs exert phenomenal and magical powers indeed to +avoid yet making good the nation's pledge of his death to the British +government, and becoming a ghost in serious earnest. MacVintie's heart +sank within him as he noted the hardening of the lines of their grave +harsh faces and the affirmative nodding of the feather-crested heads, +conferring together, as the decision was reached. + +It accorded, however, with their ancient custom to postpone over a night +the execution of any sentence of special weight, and therefore the +council adjourned to the next day, the two prisoners being left in the +deserted building, each securely bound with a rope to a pillar of the +series which upheld the roof of the strange circular edifice. This +colonnade stood about four feet from the wall, and the interval between +was occupied by a divan, fashioned of dexterously woven cane, extending +around the room; and as the prisoners could seat themselves here, or lie +at full length, they were subjected to no greater hardship than was +consistent with their safe custody. + +A sentinel with his musket on his shoulder stood at the door, and the +sun was going down. Kenneth MacVintie could see through the open portal +the red glow in the waters of the Tennessee River. Now and then a flake +of a glittering white density glided through it, which his eyes, +accustomed to long distances, discriminated as a swan. Thunder-heads, +however, were gathering above the eastern slopes and the mountains were +a lowering slate-toned purple, save when a sudden flash of lightning +roused them to a vivid show of green. + +The dull red hue of the interior of the council-house darkened +gradually; the embers of the council-fire faded into the gray ash, and +the night came sullen and threatening before its time. + +The young Highlander sought to bend his mind to the realization that his +days on earth were well-nigh ended, and that it behooved him to think on +the morrow elsewhere. He had an old-fashioned religious faith presumed +to be fitted for any emergency, but in seeking to recall its dogmas and +find such consolation in its theories as might sustain a martyr at the +stake, he was continually distracted with the momentous present. + +The two prisoners could no longer see each other, and the little +gestures and significant glances which had supplemented their few words, +and made up for the lack of better conversational facilities were +impracticable in the darkness. + +The silent obscurity was strangely lonely. MacVintie began to doubt if +the other still lived. + +"Attusah!" he said at length. + +"_Tsida-wei-yu!_" (I am a great ada-wehi) murmured the ghost +mechanically. + +He was quite spent, exhausted by the effort to logically exist as a +ghost in a world which had repudiated him as a live man. + +MacVintie, who found it hard enough to reconcile himself to die once, +felt a poignant sympathy for him, who must needs die again. But the +Highlander could not think. He could not even pray. He desisted from the +fitful effort after a time. He had a depressing realization that a good +soldier relies upon the proficiency acquired by the daily drill to serve +in an emergency, not a special effort at smartness for an occasion. The +battle or the review would show the quality of the stuff that was in +him. + +Despite the stunned despair which possessed his mental faculties, his +physical senses were keenly acute. He marked unconsciously the details +of the rising of the wind bringing the storm hitherward. A searching +flash of lightning showed the figure of the sentinel, half crouching +before the blast, at his post in the open portal. The rain was presently +falling heavily, and ever and anon a great suffusion of yellow glare in +its midst revealed the myriads of slanting lines as it came. He inhaled +the freshened fragrance it brought from the forests. He noted the +repeated crash of the thunder, the far-away rote of the echoes, the +rhythmic beat of the torrents on the ground, and their tumultuous swift +dash down the slope of the dome-shaped roof, and suddenly among these +turmoils,--he could hardly believe his ears,--a mild little whimper of +protest. + +The sentinel heard it too. MacVintie saw his dark figure in the doorway +as he turned his head to listen. A woman's voice sounded immediately, +bidding a child beware how he cried, lest she call the great white owl, +the Oo-koo-ne-kah, to catch him! + +The flare of the lightning revealed a pappoose the next moment, upright +in his perpendicular cradle, as it swung on his mother's back, in the +drenching downpour of the rain, for the woman had advanced to the +sentinel and was talking loudly and eagerly. + +Kenneth silently recognized the small creature who had moved him to a +trivial charity which had resulted in so strangely disproportionate a +disaster. Doubtless, however, the squaws would never have been able to +return to their accustomed place but for the food which he had given +them, sustaining them on the journey home. + +It would imply some mission of importance surely, he thought, to induce +the woman to expose the child to a tempest like this; and indeed the +pappoose, buffeted by the wind, the rain full in his face, lifted up his +voice again in a protest so loud and vehement that his mother was +enabled to see the great white owl, whose business it is to remove +troublesome little Cherokees from the sphere of worry of their elders, +already winging his way hither. One might wonder if the Oo-koo-ne-kah +would do worse for him than his maternal guardian, but pelted by the +pitiless rain he promptly sank his bleatings to a mere babble of a +whimper. Thereby Kenneth was better enabled to hear what the woman was +saying to the sentinel. + +An important mission indeed, as MacVintie presently gathered, for she +must needs lift her voice stridently to be heard above the din of the +elements. Some powder, only a little it was true, had been sent by the +French to the town, and a share had been left at the house of the +sentinel that night in the general distribution. But there was no one at +home. All his family were across the mountains, whither, according to +the custom of the Cherokees, they had gone to find and bring back the +body of his brother, who had been killed in the fight at Etchoee. And +the leak in the roof! She, his nearest neighbor, had just bethought +herself of the leak in the roof! Would not the powder, the precious +powder, be ruined? Had he not best go to see at once about it? + +He hesitated, letting the butt of his gun sink to the ground. She seized +the weapon promptly. She would stand guard here till he returned, she +promised. The prisoners were bound. They could not move. It would +require but an instant's absence,--and the powder was so scarce, so +precious! + +The next moment the sentinel was gone! The darkness descended, doubly +intense, after a succession of electric flashes; the rain fell with +renewed force. MacVintie suddenly heard the babbling whimper quite close +beside him, somewhat subdued by a fierce maternal admonition to listen +to the terrible voice of the Oo-koo-ne-kah, coming to catch a Cherokee +cry-baby! + +A stroke of a knife here and there, and the two prisoners were freed +from their bonds. The Highland soldier did not know whether Attusah +looked back while in flight, but his last glimpse of the Cherokee town +of Citico showed the broad glare of lightning upon the groups of conical +roofs in the slanting lines of rain; the woman on the high mound at the +portal of the council-house, with the pappoose on her back and the gun +in her hand; the sentinel once more climbing the ascent to his post. And +the last words he heard were chronicling the adverse sentiments +entertained toward bad children by the Oo-koo-ne-kah, the mysterious +great white owl. + +The escape was not discovered till the next day, and was universally +attributed to the magic of the ada-wehi. Even the sentinel himself +doubted naught, having left a trusty deputy in his stead, for the +devotion of the Cherokee women to the tribal cause was proverbial, and +gratitude, even for a rescue from starvation, is not usually an urgent +motive power. + +Kenneth MacVintie was seen again in the Cherokee country only in his +place as a marker in the march of his regiment, and as he was evidently +exceedingly desirous to permit no one to incur penalties for his +liberation, his officers spared him questions concerning his escape, +save in a general way. + +When the ada-wehi next reappeared in a remote town of the district and +was sedulously interrogated as to how his freedom had been achieved, he +threw out his right hand at arm's length in his old, boastful, airy +gesture. + +"_Cheesto kaiere!_" (An old rabbit!) he exclaimed. "A little old rabbit +ran down the slope. I turned the soldier into a rabbit, and he ran away. +And I turned myself into a fish, and I swam away. Ha! _Tsida-wei-yu!_" +(I am a great ada-wehi!) + + + + +THE FATE OF THE CHEERA-TAGHE + + +Along the old "trading-path" that was wont to wind from the Cherokee +country among the innumerable spurs and gorges of the Great Smoky +Mountains, and through the dense primeval forests full five hundred +miles to the city of Charlestown, was visible for many years, on the +banks of the Little Tennessee, an "old waste town," as the abandoned +place was called in the idiom of the Indians. An early date it might +seem, in 1744, in this new land, for the spectacle of the ruins of a +race still in possession, still unsubdued. Nearly twenty years later, +after the repeated aggressive expeditions which the British government +sent against the Cherokees, such vestiges became more numerous. This +"waste town," however, neither fire nor sword had desolated, and the +grim deeds of British powder and lead were still of the future. The +enemy came in more subtle sort. + +Only one of the white pack-men employed to drive a score of well-laden +horses semi-annually from Charlestown to a trading-station farther along +on the Great Tennessee--then called the Cherokee River--and back again +used to glower fearfully at the "waste town" as he passed. He had ample +leisure for speculation, for the experienced animals of the pack-train +required scant heed, so regularly they swung along in single file, and +the wild whoops of their drivers were for the sake of personal +encouragement and the simple joy which very young men find in their own +clamor. It grew specially boisterous always when they neared the site of +Nilaque Great, the deserted place, as if to give warning to any vague +spiritual essences, unmeet for mortal vision, that might be lurking +about the "waste town," and bid them avaunt, for the place was reputed +haunted. + +The rest of the Carolina pack-men, trooping noisily past, averted their +eyes from the darkened doors of the empty houses; the weed-grown spaces +of the "beloved square," where once the ceremonies of state, the +religious rites, the public games and dances were held; the +council-house on its high mound, whence had been wont to issue the bland +vapors of the pipe of peace or the far more significant smoke emitted +from the cheera, the "sacred fire," which only the cheera-taghe, the +fire-prophets,[10] were permitted to kindle, and which was done with +pomp and ceremony in the new year, when every spark of the last year's +fire had been suffered to die out. + +Cuthbert Barnett, however, always looked to see what he might,--perhaps +because he was a trifle bolder than the other stalwart pack-men, all +riding armed to the teeth to guard the goods of the train from robbery +as well as their own lives from treachery, for although the Cherokees +professed friendship it was but half-hearted, as they loved the French +always better than the English; perhaps because he had a touch of +imagination that coerced his furtive glance; perhaps because he doubted +more, or believed less, of the traditions of the day. And he +saw--silence! the sunset in vacant spaces, with long, slanting, +melancholy rays among the scattered houses of the hamlet; an empty +doorway, here and there; a falling rotting roof; futile traces of +vanished homes. Once a deer and fawn were grazing in the weed-grown +fields that used to stand so thick with corn that they laughed and sung; +once--it was close upon winter--he heard a bear humming and humming his +content (the hunters called the sound "singing") from the den where the +animal had bestowed himself among the fallen logs of a dwelling-house, +half covered with great drifts of dead leaves; often an owl would cry +out in alarm from some dark nook as the pack-train clattered past; and +once a wolf with a stealthy and sinister tread was patrolling the +"beloved square." These were but the natural incidents of the time and +the ruins of the old Cherokee town. + +Little did Cuddy Barnett imagine, as he gazed on the deserted and +desolate place, that he was yet to behold the smoke of the "sacred fire" +flaring up into the blue sky from the portal of the temple, as the +cheera-taghe would issue bearing the flame aloft, newly kindled in the +opening year, and calling upon many assembled people to light therefrom +their hearths, rekindling good resolutions and religious fervor for the +future, and letting the faults of the unavailing past die out with the +old year's fire; that he was to mark the clash of arms in the "beloved +square," once more populous with the alert figures of warriors in +martial array, making ready for the war-path; that he was to hear the +joyful religious songs of greeting to the dawn, and the sonorous +trumpeting of the conch-shells, as the vanished Indians of the "old +waste town" would troop down at daybreak into the water of that bright +stream where long ago they had been wont to plunge in their mystic +religious ablutions. All this, however, the pack-men might see and hear, +to believe the tradition of the day, in camping but a single night near +the old "waste town." + +And so anxious were these gay itinerant companies to see and hear +nothing of such ghostly sort that whatever the stress of the weather, +the mischances of the journey, the condition of the pack-animals, this +vicinity was always distinguished by the longest day's travel of the +whole route, and the camp was pitched at the extreme limit of the +endurance of man and horse to compass distance from Nilaque Great. For +believe what one might, the fact remained indisputable, that a decade +earlier, when the place was inhabited, strange sounds were rife about +the locality, the "sacred fire" was unkindled on the great "Sanctified +Day," the two cheera-taghe of the town mysteriously disappeared, and +their fate had remained a dark riddle. + +One of these men, Oo-koo-koo, was well known in Charlestown. Both were +of influence in the tribe, but often he had been specially chosen as one +of the delegations of warriors and "beloved men" sent to wait in +diplomatic conference on the Governor of South Carolina, to complain of +injustice in the dealings of the licensed traders or the encroachments +of the frontier settlers, or to crave the extension of some privilege of +the treaty which the Cherokee tribe had lately made with the British +government. + +Two white men, who had become conspicuous in a short stay in the town of +Nilaque Great, disappeared simultaneously, and the suspicion of foul +dealing on their part against the cheera-taghe, which the Cherokee +nation seemed disposed to entertain, threatened at one time the peace +that was so precious to the "infant settlements," as the small, remote, +stockaded stations of the Carolina frontiersmen were tenderly called. + +Therefore the Governor of South Carolina, now a royal province,--the +event occurred during the incumbency of Robert Johnson, who having acted +in that capacity for the Lords Proprietors, well understood the menace +of the situation,--busied himself with extreme diligence to discover the +subsequent movements of the two white men, whose names were Terence +O'Kimmon and Adrien L'Epine, in order to ascertain the fate of the +cheera-taghe, and if evilly entreated, to bring the perpetrators of the +deed to justice. + +With a long, unguarded, open frontier such as his province presented to +the incursions of the warlike and fierce Cherokees, who, despite their +depopulating wars with other tribes, could still bring to the field six +thousand braves from their sixty-four towns, the inhabitants of which +were estimated at twenty thousand souls, he was by no means disposed to +delay or to indulge doubts or to foster compatriot commiseration in +meting out the penalty of the malefactors. The united militia of South +Carolina and Georgia at this time numbered but thirty-five hundred rank +and file, these colonies being so destitute of white men for the common +defense that a memorial addressed to his majesty King George II. a +little earlier than this event, bearing date April 9, 1734, pathetically +states that "money itself cannot here raise a sufficient body of them." +The search for the suspects, however, although long, exhaustive, and of +such diligence as to convince the Indians of its sincerity of purpose, +resulted fruitlessly. The government presently took occasion to made +some valuable presents to the tribe, not as indemnity, for it could +recognize no responsibility in the strange disaster, but for the sake of +seeming to comply with the form of offering satisfaction for the loss, +which otherwise the Indians would retaliate with massacre. + +Nilaque Great with this cloud upon it grew dreary. The strange +disappearance of its cheera-taghe was canvassed again and again, +reaching no surmise of the truth. Speculations, futile as they were +continuous, began to be reinforced with reminiscences of the date of the +event, and certain episodes became strangely significant now, although +hardly remarked at the time; people remembered unexplained and curious +noises that had sounded like muffled thunder in the deep midnight, and +again, scarcely noted, in the broad daylight. The "sacred fire" remained +unkindled, and sundry misfortunes were attributed to this unprecedented +neglect; an expert warrior, young and notably deft-handed, awkwardly +shot himself with his own gun; the crops, cut short by a late and +long-continued drought, were so meagre as to be hardly worth the +harvesting; the days appointed for the annual feasts and thanksgiving +were like days of mourning; discontents waxed and grew strong. +Superstitious terrors became rife, and at length it was known at +Charlestown that the Cherokees of Nilaque Great had settled a new place +farther down upon the river, for at the old town the vanished +cheera-taghe were abroad in the spirit, pervading the "beloved square" +at night with cries of "_A-kee-o-hoo-sa! A-kee-o-hoo-sa!_" (I am dead! I +am dead!) clamoring for their graves and the honors of sepulture due to +them and denied. And this was a grief to the head men of the town, for +of all tribes the Cherokees loved and revered their dead. Thus when +other cheera-taghe kindled for the municipality the "sacred fire" for a +new year it was distributed to hearths far away, and Nilaque Great, +deserted and depopulated, had become a "waste town." + +A fair place it had been in its prime, and so it had seemed one +afternoon in June, 1734, when for the first time the two white strangers +had entered it. Mountains more splendid than those which rose about it +on every hand it would be difficult to imagine. The dense, rich woods +reach in undiminished vigor along the slopes covering them at a height +of six thousand feet, till the "tree line" interposes; thence the great +bare domes lift their stately proportions among the clouds. Along these +lofty perspectives the varying distance affords the vision a vast array +of gradations of color,--green in a thousand shades, and bronze, and +purple, and blue,--blue growing ever fainter and more remote till it is +but an illusion of azure, and one may believe that the summits seen +through a gap to the northeast are sheer necromancy of the facile +horizon. + +In the deep verdant cove below, groups of the giant trees common to the +region towered above the stanchly constructed cabins that formed the +homes of the Indians, for the Cherokees, detesting labor and experts in +procrastination, builded well and wisely that they might not be forced +to rebuild, and many of the distinctive features of the stout frontier +architecture were borrowed by the pioneers from aboriginal example. Out +beyond the shadows were broad stretches of fields with the lush June in +the wide and shining blade and the flaunting tassel. The voices of women +and young girls came cheerily from the breezy midst as they tilled the +ground, where flourished in their proper divisions the three varieties +of maize known to Indian culture, "the six weeks' corn, the hominy corn, +and the bread corn." A shoal of canoes skimmed down the river, each with +its darting shadow upon that lucent current and seeming as native, as +indigenous to the place as the minnows in a crystal brown pool there by +the waterside--each too with its swift javelin-like motion and a darting +shadow. Sundry open doors here and there showed glimpses of passing +figures within, but the arrival of the strangers was unnoticed till some +children playing beside the river caught sight of the unaccustomed +faces. With a shrill cry of discovery, they sped across the square, +agitated half by fright and half by the gusto of novelty. In another +moment there were two score armed men in the square. + +"Now hould yer tongue still, an' I'll do the talkin'," said one of the +white adventurers to the other, speaking peremptorily, but with a suave +and delusive smile. "If yez weren't Frinch ye'd be a beautiful +Englishman; but I hev got the advantage of ye in that, an' faix I'll +kape it." + +He was evidently of a breeding inferior to that of his companion, but he +had so sturdy and swinging a gait, so stalwart and goodly a build, so +engaging a manner, and so florid a smile, that the very sight of him was +disarming, despite the patent crafty deceit in his face. It seemed as if +it could not be very deep or guileful, it was so frankly expressed. It +was suggestive of the roguish machinations of a child. He had twinkling +brown eyes, and reddish hair, plaited in a club and tied with a thong of +leather. His features were blunt, but his red, well-shaped lips parted +in a ready, reassuring smile, and showed teeth as even and white as the +early corn. Both men were arrayed in the buckskin shirt and leggings +generally worn by the frontiersmen, but the face of the other had a +certain incongruity with his friend's, and was more difficult to +decipher. It looked good,--not kind, but true. It had severe pragmatic +lines about the mouth, and the lips were thin and somewhat fixedly set. +His eyes were dark, serious, and very intent, as if he could argue and +protest very earnestly on matters of no weight. He would in a question +of theory go very far if set on the wrong line, and just as far on the +right. The direction was the matter of great moment, and this seemed now +in the hands of the haphazard but scheming Irishman. + +"If it plaze yer honor," said O'Kimmon in English, taking off his +coonskin cap with a lavish flourish as a tall and stately Indian hastily +garbed in fine raiment of the aboriginal type, a conspicuous article of +which was a long feather-wrought mantle, both brilliant and delicate of +effect, detached himself from the group and came forward, "I can't spake +yer illigant language,--me eddication bein' that backward,--but I kin +spake me own so eloquent that it would make a gate-post prick up the +ears of understanding. We've come to visit yez, sor." + +The smile which the Hibernian bent upon the savage was of a honeyed +sweetness, but the heart of his companion sank as he suddenly noted the +keen, intuitive power of comprehension expressed in the face of the old +Indian. Here was craft too, but of a different quality, masked, potent, +impossible to divine, to measure, to thwart. The sage Oo-koo-koo stood +motionless, his eyes narrowing, his long, flat, cruel mouth compressed +as with a keen scrutiny he marked all the characteristics of the +strangers,--first of one, then deliberately of the other. A war captain +(his flighty name was Watatuga, the Dragon-fly, although he looked with +his high nose and eagle glance more like a bird of prey), assuming +precedence of the others, pressed up beside the prophet, and the +challenge of his eyes and the contempt that dilated his nostrils might +have seemed more formidable of intent than the lacerating gaze of the +cheera-taghe, except that to an Irishman there is always a subtle joy +even in the abstract idea of fight. The rest of the braves, with their +alert, high-featured cast of countenance, inimical, threatening, +clustered about, intent, doubtful, listening. + +Adrien L'Epine had his secret doubts as to the efficacy of the bold, +blunt, humorous impudence which Terence O'Kimmon fancied such masterful +policy,--taking now special joy in the fact that its meaning was +partially veiled because of the presumable limitations of the Indian's +comprehension of the English language. The more delicate nurture that +L'Epine obviously had known revolted at times from this unkempt +brusquerie, although he had a strong pulse of sympathy with the wild, +lawless disregard of conventional standards which characterized much of +the frontier life. He feared, too, that O'Kimmon underrated the extent +of the Cherokee's comprehension of the language of which, however, the +Indians generally spoke only a few disconnected phrases. So practiced +were the savages in all the arts of pantomime, in the interpretation of +facial expression and the intonation of the voice, that L'Epine had +known in his varied wanderings of instances of tribes in conference, +each ignorant of the other's language, who nevertheless reached a +definite and intricate mutual understanding without the services of an +interpreter. L'Epine felt entrapped, regretful, and wished to recede. He +winced palpably as O'Kimmon's rich Irish voice, full of words, struck +once more upon the air. + +"Me godson, the Governor o' South Carolina," Terence O'Kimmon resumed, +lying quite recklessly, "sint his humble respects,--an' he's that swate +upon yez that he licks his fingers ter even sphake yer name! (Pity I +furgits ut, bein' I never knew ut!)" + +Although possessing an assurance that he could get the better of the +devil, "could he but identify him," as O'Kimmon frequently said, he felt +for one moment as if he were now in the presence. Despite his nerve the +silence terrified him. He was beginning to cringe before the steady +glare of those searching eyes. It was even as a refreshment of spirit to +note a sudden bovine snort of rage from the lightsome Dragon-fly, as if +he could ill bridle his inimical excitement. + +The adventurers had not anticipated a reception of this sort, for the +hospitality of the Indians was proverbial. Credentials surely were not +necessary in the social circles of the Cherokees, and two men to six +thousand offered no foundation for fear. O'Kimmon had such confidence in +his own propitiating wiles and crafty policy that he did not realize how +his genial deceit was emblazoned upon his face, how blatant it was in +his voice. But for its challenging duplicity there would hardly have +arisen a suggestion of suspicion. Many men on various errands easily +found their way into the Indian tribes when at peace with the British, +and suffered no injury. Nevertheless as the wise Oo-koo-koo looked at +O'Kimmon thus steadily, with so discerning a gaze, the Irishman felt +each red hair of his scalp rise obtrusively into notice, as if to +suggest the instant taking of it. He instinctively put on his coonskin +cap again to hold his scalp down, as he said afterward. + +"Why come?" Oo-koo-koo demanded sternly. + +"Tell the truth, for God's sake!" L'Epine adjured O'Kimmon in a low +voice. + +"I'm not used to it! 'T would give me me death o' cold!" quavered the +Irishman, in sad sincerity, at a grievous loss. + +"_Asgaya uneka_ (White man), but no Ingliss," said the astute Indian, +touching the breast of each with the bowl of his pipe, still in his hand +and still alight as it was when the interruption of their advent had +occurred. + +"No, by the powers,--not English!" exclaimed the Irishman impulsively, +seeing he was already discovered. "I'm me own glorious nation!--the +pride o' the worruld,--I was born in the Emerald Isle, the gem o' the +say! I'm an Oirishman from the tip o' me scalp--in the name o' pity +_why_ should I mintion the contrivance" (dropping his voice to an +appalled muffled tone)--"may the saints purtect ut! But surely, Mister +Injun, I've no part nor lot with the bloody bastes o' Englishers either +over the say or in the provinces. If I were the brother-in-law o' the +Governor o' South Carolina I'd hev a divorce from the murtherin' +Englisher before he could cry, 'Quarter!'" + +Oo-koo-koo, the wise Owl, made no direct answer. + +"_Asgaya uneka_ (White man), but no Ingliss," he only said, now +indicating L'Epine. + +"Frinch in the mornin', plaze yer worship, an' only a bit o' English +late in the afternoon o' the day," cried O'Kimmon, officiously, himself +once more. + +"French father, English mother," explained L'Epine, feeling that the +Indian was hardly a safe subject for the pleasantries of conundrums. + +"But his mother was but a wee bit of a woman," urged O'Kimmon; "the most +of him is Frinch,--look at the size of him!" + +For O'Kimmon was now bidding as high against the English aegis as +earlier he had been disposed to claim its protection, when he had +protested his familiarity with the Royal Governor of South Carolina. In +an instant he was once more gay, impudent, confident of carrying +everything before him. He divined that some recent friction had +supervened in the ever-clashing interests subsisting between the +Cherokee nation and the British government, and was relying on the +recurrent inclination of this tribe to fraternize with the French. Their +influence from their increasing western settlements was exerted +antagonistically to the British colonists, by whom it was dreaded in +anticipation of the war against a French and Cherokee alliance which +came later. Oo-koo-koo, complacent in his own sagacity in having +detected a difference in the speech of the new-comers from the English +which he had been accustomed to hear in Charlestown, and animated by a +wish to believe, hearkened with the more credulity to an expansive +fiction detailed by the specious Irishman as to their mission here. + +They were awaiting the coming of certain pettiaugres from New +Orleans,--a long journey by way of the Mississippi, the Ohio, the +Cherokee, and the Tennessee rivers,--with a cargo of French goods +cheaper than the English. They designed to establish a trading-post at +some convenient point, out of reach of the grasping British, and thus to +compete with the monopoly of the Cherokee commerce which the English +government sought to foster. And then, to furnish a leaven of truth to +this mass of lies, he detailed, with such a relish as only an Irishman +can feel in a happy incongruity, that the French, having no market in +old France for deerskins, the chief commodity of barter that the Indians +possessed, disposed of them to ships of the British colonies, from New +York and elsewhere, lured thus to New Orleans, in exchange for English +cloths and other British manufactures, which the French then +surreptitiously furnished to the Indians of the British alliance, +underselling them on every hand. + +"The intellects of the Frinch are so handsome!" cried O'Kimmon, the +tears of delighted laughter in his eyes. "Faix, that is what makes 'em +so close kin to the Oirish!" + +Albeit the Cherokee treaty with the British forbade the Indians to trade +with white men of any other nationality than the English, these +professed aliens were promised protection and concealment from the +British government, and the pretext of their mission served to +countenance their lingering stay. + +Soon their presence seemed a matter of course. The Indians had recurred +to their methods of suave hospitality. The two strangers encountered +only friendly looks and words, while affecting to gratify curiosity by +peering into all the unaccustomed habitudes,--the preparation of food, +the manufacture of deerskin garments, the care of the sick, the modeling +of bowls and jars of clay, in which the Cherokees were notably expert as +well as in the weaving of feather-wrought fabrics and baskets, the +athletic games, the horse-races, the continual dances and pantomimic +plays,--and were presently domiciled as it were in the tribe. Of so +little note did they soon become that when they gradually ceased these +manifestations of interest, as if familiarity had sated their curiosity, +it seemed to occasion no comment. They were obviously free to rove, to +stay, to live their lives as they would without interference or +surveillance. + +Nevertheless, they still maintained the utmost caution. Sometimes, +idleness being no phenomenon, they would lie half the day in the shade +on the river-bank. The Tennessee was shrunken now in the heated season, +and great gravelly slopes were exposed. The two loiterers were +apparently motionless at first, but as their confidence increased and +the chances of being observed lessened, L'Epine, always dreading +discovery, began to casually pass the gravel and sand through his +fingers as he lay; sometimes he idly trifled with the blade of a hoe in +a shallow pool left by the receding waters, while the jolly Irishman, +now grave and solicitous, watched him breathlessly. Then L'Epine would +shake his head, and the mercurial O'Kimmon groaned his deep despondency. + +Once the Frenchman's head was not shaken. A flush sprang up among the +pragmatic lines of L'Epine's face; his dark eyes glittered; his hand +shook; for as he held out the hoe, on its blade were vaguely glimmering +particles among the sand. + +Later the two adventurers cherished a small nugget of red, red gold! + +This find chanced below a bluff in a sort of grotto of rock, which the +water filled when the river was high, and left quite dry and exposed as +it receded in the droughts of summer. + +Whether the two strangers were too much and too long out of sight; +whether attention was attracted by certain perforated dippers or pans +which they now brought into assiduous use, but which they sought to +conceal; whether they had been all the time furtively watched, with a +suspicion never abated, one can hardly say. They had observed every +precaution of secrecy that the most zealous heed could suggest. Only one +worked with the pan while the other lay motionless and idle, and +vigilantly watched and listened for any stealthy sign of approach. They +fully realized the jealousy of the Indians concerning the mineral wealth +of their territory, lest its discovery bring hordes of the craving white +people to dispossess them. This prophetic terror was later fulfilled in +the Ayrate division of the tribe, but to the northward, along the +Tennessee River, they sedulously guarded this knowledge. Traditions +there are to the present day in the Great Smoky Mountains concerning +mines of silver and lead, and of localities rich in auriferous gravel +which are approximately ascertained, but which the Cherokees knew +accurately and worked as far as they listed;--they carried their secret +with them to the grave or the far west. + +The exploration of L'Epine and O'Kimmon of necessity was conducted +chiefly by day, but one night the prospectors could not be still, the +moon on the sand was so bright! + +The time which they had fixed for a silent, secret departure was drawing +near. Their bags were almost filled, but they lingered for a little +more, and covetously a little more still. And this night, this memorable +night, the moon on the sand was as bright as day! + +The light slanted across the Tennessee River and shimmered in the +ripples. One could see, if one would, the stately lines of dark summits +along a far horizon. A mockingbird was singing from out the boscage of +the laurel near at hand, and the night wind was astir. And suddenly the +two gold-washers in the depths of the grotto became conscious that they +were not alone. + +There, sitting like stone figures one on each side of the narrow portal, +were the two cheera-taghe of the town, silent, motionless, watching with +eyes how long alert, listening with ears how discerningly attentive, it +is impossible to divine. + +The gold-washers sprang to their feet, each instinctively grasping for +his weapon, but alack, neither was armed! The pan had come to seem the +most potent of accoutrements, with which, in good sooth, one might take +the world by storm, and the rifle and knife were forgotten, in their +absorption. Doubtless the Cherokees interpreted aright the gesture, so +significant, so obvious to their methods of life. Both the cheera-taghe +were armed with pistol as well as tomahawk and scalping-knife. + +Perhaps because of this they felt secure, at leisure, acquiescently +allowing the event to develop as it needs must,--or perhaps realizing +the significance of the discovery to the young strangers, their +palpitant eagerness to gauge its result, their dread of reprisal, of +forced renunciation of their booty, the Indians permitted themselves a +relish of the torture of an enemy on a more aesthetic scheme than their +wont. + +The two cheera-taghe, the shadow of their feather-crested heads in the +moonlight on the sand of the grotto almost as distinct as the reality, +spoke suddenly to each other, and the discomfited gold-seekers, who had +learned to comprehend to a certain extent the language, perceived with +dismay the sarcasm that lengthened their suspense. For it was thus that +the rulers among the Cherokees rebuked their own young people, not +upbraiding them with their misdeeds, but with gentle satire +complimenting them for that in which they had notably failed. + +"A reward for hospitality we find in these young men," said one, whose +voice was hoarse and croaking and guttural and who was called Kanoona +(the Bull-frog). + +"Strangers to us, yet they requite us, for we treated them as our own," +said Oo-koo-koo. + +"They treat us as _their own!_" the croaking, satiric, half-smothered +laughter of this response intimated an aside. Then Kanoona in full voice +went on, "Open and frank as the day, they keep no secrets from us!" + +"They are honest! They rob us not of the yellow stone which the Carolina +people think so precious!" rejoined Oo-koo-koo, while O'Kimmon and +L'Epine looked from one to the other as the cheera-taghe sustained this +fugue of satiric accusation. + +"Not they," croaked the responsive voice, "for behold, we have long time +fed and lodged them and given them of our best. We have believed them +and trusted them. We have befriended them and loved them." + +"And they have befriended and loved us!" said Oo-koo-koo. + +Then silence. The river sang, but only a murmurous rune; the mute +moonlight lay still on the mountains; the wind had sunk, and the +motionless leaves glistened as the dew fell; a nighthawk swept past the +portal of the grotto with the noiseless wing of its kind. + +"Had they desired to explore our land they would have asked our +consent," the croaking voice of Kanoona resumed the antiphonal reproach. +"They would not have brought upon us the hordes of British colonists, +who would fain drive us from our habitations for their greed of the +yellow stone." + +"Oh, no! never would they make so base a recompense!--to bring upon us +the destruction of our men and women and children, the wresting from us +of our land, the casting of us forth from our homes,--because the poor, +unsuspecting Indians gave them food and shelter and a haven of rest +while waiting for the pettiaugres that are coming up from New Orleans." + +"_The pettiaugres from New Orleans_!" Kanoona repeated with a burst of +raucous laughter. "Hala! Hala!" + +But Oo-koo-koo preserved his gravity. "They would not lie! Surely the +white men would not lie!" + +Then turning to O'Kimmon he asked point-blank, "Chee-a-koh-ga?" (Do you +lie?) + +The direct address was a relief to O'Kimmon. He had often wondered to +see the young braves reduced almost to tears by this seemingly gentle +discipline; he felt its poignancy when the keen blade of satire was +turned against himself. + +"I did lie!" he admitted, as unreservedly as it he were at confession. +"But Oo-koo-koo, we will pay for what we've got. This is all of ut! An' +faix, yez have thrated us well,--an' begorra, we would have axed yer +consint, if we had dramed we could have got ut!" he concluded +ingenuously. + +The two Indians gazed at him with a surprise so evident that a chill ran +through his every nerve. + +"We will never reveal the secret,--the place of the gold," declared +L'Epine. Then perceiving in his turn something uncomprehended in their +expression he reinforced his promise with argument. "We will want to +come back--alone--to get more of it--all for ourselves. We will not be +willing to share our discovery with others." + +The cheera-taghe still silently gazed at the two young men; then turned +toward each other with that patent astonishment yet on their faces. At +last they burst forth into sarcastic laughter. + +L'Epine and O'Kimmon, albeit half bewildered, exchanged appalled +glances. There was no need of speech. Each understood at last. + +Return! There was no chance of departure. They were to pay the penalty +of the dangerous knowledge they had acquired. Already some vague report, +some suspicion of the hidden gold of the locality had been bruited +abroad,--thus the Indians must reason,--or these white men would not +have come so far to seek it. Should they be permitted to depart, their +sudden wealth would proclaim its source, even though as they had +promised they should keep silence. + +This was equally true should they eventually escape. Therefore--hideous +realization!--the actual possession by the Indians of their own country +depended upon the keeping of the secret inviolate. Dead men tell no +tales! + +O'Kimmon, with a swelling heart, bethought himself of his status as a +British subject and the possible vengeance of the province. It would +come, if at all, too late. For the Cherokees believed the two to be +without the pale of the English protection. One had repudiated the +government, declaring himself an Irishman, a nationality then unknown to +the Cherokees. The other was French,--no reprisal for his sake was +possible to a tribe under British allegiance. Death it must +be!--doubtless with all the pomp and circumstance of the torture, for +from the standpoint of the Indians they had requited hospitality with +robbery. Death was inevitable,--unless they could now escape. Had they +but one weapon between them they might yet make good their flight. + +An Irishman rarely stops to count the odds. With the thought O'Kimmon, +heavy, muscular, yet alert, threw himself upon Oo-koo-koo, and in an +instant he had almost wrenched the knife from the Indian's belt. + +The other Cherokee cried warningly, "_Akee-rooka! Akee-rooka_!" (I will +shoot!) Then drew his pistol and fired. + +The next moment, perhaps for many moments thereafter, none of them knew +very definitely what had happened. There was a cloud of dust, a terrific +detonation, a sudden absolute darkness, as in some revulsion of nature, +a stifling sensation. They were penned within the grotto by a great +fragment of the beetling cliff. Doubtless it had been previously +fractured by the action of continuous freezes, and the concussion of the +pistol shot in the restricted space of the cave below had brought it +down. + +The days went on. The men were missed after a time, but a considerable +interval had elapsed. The two strangers had of late kept themselves much +apart, owing to their absorption and their covert methods of seeking for +gold. It was an ill-ordered, roaming, sylvan life they led at best. The +cheera-taghe, although "beloved men" and priests of their strange and +savage religion, were but wild Indians, and their temporary absence +created no surprise. In fact, until sought with anxiety when the drought +had become excessive and threatened the later crops, and the services of +the cheera-taghe were necessary to invoke and with wild barbaric +ceremonials bring down the lightning and thunder to clear the atmosphere +and the rain to refresh the soil, it was not ascertained that the +prophets had definitely disappeared. + +Then it was that excitement supervened, search, anxiety, grief, fear. +There began to be vague rumors of untoward sounds, remembered rather +than noticed at the time. Faint explosions had been heard in the night +as if under the ground, and again in broad daylight as if in the air. +None could imagine that the doomed men had sought to attract the +attention of the town by firing off their pistols, thus utilizing their +scanty ammunition. The strain grew intense; superstitious fancies +supplemented the real mystery; the place was finally abandoned, and thus +Nilaque Great became a "waste town." + +It was ten years, perhaps, after this blight had fallen upon it, that +one day as the pack-train came down the valley of the Little Tennessee, +on its autumnal return trip to Charlestown, the snow began to sift down. +An unseasonable storm it was, for the winter had hardly set in. A north +wind sprang up; the snow was soon heavily driving; within an hour the +woods, still in the red leafage of autumn, were covered with snow and +encased in ice. Only by a strenuous effort would the train be able to +pass the old "waste town" before the early dusk,--a mile or two at most; +but it was hoped that this might suffice to keep the ghosts out of the +bounds of visibility. The roaring bacchanalian glees with which the +pack-men set the melancholy sheeted woods aquiver might well send the +ghosts out of earshot, presuming them endowed with volition. + +Suddenly Cuddy Barnett discovered that one of the pack-horses of his own +especial charge was missing,--a good bay with a load of fine dressed +deerskins to take to Charlestown, then the great mart of all this far +region. A recollection of a sharp curve in the trading-path, running +dangerously near a bluff bank, came abruptly into his mind. Drifts had +lodged in its jagged crevices, and it might well have chanced that here +the animal had lost his footing and slipped out of the steadily trotting +file along the river bank unnoticed in the blinding snow. + +This theory seemed eminently plausible to his comrades, but when they +learned that he was of the opinion that the disaster had happened at the +old "waste town," as he had there first missed the animal in the file, +not one would go back with him to search the locality,--not for the +horse, not for the peltry, not even to avert the displeasure of their +employer in Charlestown. Barnett besought their aid for a time, urging +the project of rescue as they all sat around the roaring camp-fire under +the sheltering branches of a cluster of fir trees that, acting as +wind-break, served to fend off in some degree the fury of the storm. The +ruddy flare illumined far shadowy aisles of the snowy wilderness, all +agloom with the early dusk. Despite the falling flakes, they could still +see the picketed pack-horses, now freed from their burdens, huddling +together and holding down their heads to the icy blast as they munched +their forage. The supper of the young pack-men was broiling on the +coals; their faces were florid with the keen wind, their coonskin caps +all crested with snow; and the fringes of their buckskin raiment had +tinkling pendants of icicles; but although they had found good cheer in +a chortling jug, uncorked as the first preliminary of encamping, they +had not yet imbibed sufficient fictitious courage to set at naught their +fears of the old "waste town." + +Barnett at last acquiesced in the relinquishment of his desire of +rescue. Some losses must needs occur in a great trade, and considering +the stress of the weather, the long distances traversed, the dangers of +the lonely wildernesses in the territory of savages, the incident would +doubtless be leniently overlooked. And then he bethought himself of the +horse,--a good horse, stout, swift, kindly disposed; a hard fate the +animal had encountered,--abandoned here to starve in these bleak winter +woods. Perhaps he might be lying there at the foot of the cliffs with a +broken leg, suffering the immeasurable agonies of a dumb beast, for the +lack of a merciful pistol-ball to put him at peace. Barnett could not +resist the mute appeal of his fancy. + +Presently he was trudging alone along the icy path. The flare of the red +fire grew dim behind him; the last flicker faded. The woods were all +unillumined, ghastly white, with a hovering gray shadow. The song of the +bivouac fainted in the distance and failed; the echo grew doubtful and +dull; and now in absolute silence that somehow set his nerves aquiver he +was coming in with the dreary dusk and the driving snow to the old +"waste town," Nilaque Great. + +More silent even than the wilderness it seemed with the muffling drifts +heavy on the roofs, blocking the dark open doors of the tenantless +dwellings, lying in fluffy masses on the boughs of the trees that had +once made the desert spaces so pleasantly umbrageous in those sweet +summers so long ago. The great circular council-house, shaped like a +dome, was whitely aglimmer against the gray twilight and the wintry +background of the woods and mountains,--only the vaguest suggestions of +heights seen through the ceaseless whirl of the crystalline flakes. No +wolf now, although remembering the casual glimpse he had had he was +prepared with rifle and pistol, and held his knife in his hand; no bear; +no sign of living creature until, as he skirted the jagged bluff of the +river where he fancied the horse might have lost his footing, he heard a +sudden whinny of welcome, the sound keen and eerie and intrusive in the +strange breathless solemnity of the silent place. + +Gazing cautiously over the verge of the precipice, he saw the animal +despite the gathering shadows. The horse was quite safe, having +doubtless slipped down in the soft densities of a great drift dislodged +from the crevice by his own weight. His pack was still on his back, now +piled twice as high with snow. He lifted his arched neck as he sprang +about with undiminished activity, vainly seeking to ascend the almost +sheer precipice. + +Daylight, however, was essential for his rescue. The effort now on these +icy steeps might cost either man or beast a broken limb, if no more. +With an instinct of self-protection the animal had chosen the lee of a +great buttress of the cliff, and could stand there safely all night +though the temperature should fall still lower. The young pack-man +called out a word or two of encouragement, listening fearfully as the +sound struck back in the silence from the icy bank of the river, the +craggy hillsides, and the resonant walls of the deserted houses in the +old "waste town." Himself suddenly stricken to silence, he realized as +he turned that the night had at last closed in. It lay dark and desolate +in the limitless woods, where a vague sense of motion gave token that +the snow was still viewlessly falling in the dense obscurities. + +But in the "waste town" itself a pallid visibility lingered in the open +spaces where the trees were few, and gloomily showed the empty cabins, +the deserted council-house, the vacant "beloved square." Somehow, turn +as he would, this dim scene in the midst of the dense darkness of the +stormy night was before his eyes. Again and again he plunged into the +woods seeking to follow the well-known trail of the trading-path to the +camp and rejoin his companions, but invariably he would emerge from the +wilderness after a toilsome tramp, entering the old "waste town" at a +different angle. + +He perceived at length that he could not keep the direction, that he was +wandering in a circle after the manner of those lost in forests. His +clothing, freezing upon his body, was calculated for warmer weather; the +buckskin shirt and leggings, the garb of the frontiersmen, copied from +the attire of the Indians, were of a thin and pliable texture, owing to +the peculiar skill of the savages in dressing peltry. An early historian +describes such costume in a curiously sophisticated phrase as the +"summer visiting dress of the Indians." The southern tribes were +intensely averse to cold, for in winter they wore furs and garments made +of buffalo hides, the shaggy side inward; this raiment was sewed with +the sinews of deer and a kind of wild hemp for thread, and with needles +dexterously fashioned of fishbone. + +Barnett had now no thought of the ghosts of the old "waste town." His +first care was to save his life this cruel night; without fire, without +food, without shelter, it might be that he had indeed come to the end. +He was induced by this reflection to climb the mound to the old +council-house. For here the walls, plastered both within and without +with the strong adhesive red clay of the region, admitted no wind, while +in the cabins which had been dwellings the drifts lay deep beneath the +rifts in the dilapidated roofs and the crevices in the wall, and the +flying flakes sifted in as the keen gusts surged through. He had had the +forethought to gather as he went bits of wood, now a loose clapboard or +piece of bark from low-hanging eaves, now a fragment of half-rotten +puncheon from a doorstep, and as he groped into the dense darkness of +the council-house with his steel and flint he set them alight on the +hearth in the centre of the floor. + +When he was once more warm and free of the fear of death, other fears +took hold upon him. In the first glimmers of the fire he could see +through the tall narrow doorless portal only the dark night outside and +a flickering glimpse against its blackness of the quivering crystals of +the snow,--these but vaguely, for the blue smoke eddying through the +great room veiled the opposite side, there being no chimney or window, +and he sat in the interior behind the fire. + +He gazed furtively over his shoulder ever and anon, as the flames flared +up, revealing the deeply red walls of the dome-like place with here and +there a buffalo skin suspended against them, the inside of the hide +showing, painted in curious hieroglyphics, brilliant with color, and +instinct with an untranslated meaning; a number of conch shells lay +about, with jars and vases of clay, and those quaintly fashioned earthen +drums, the heads of tightly stretched deerskin,--all paraphernalia of +the savage worship which the cheera-taghe had conducted, now abandoned +as bewitched. + +Sitting here comfortably in the place of those men of the "divine fire," +Cuthbert Barnett, his rifle by his side, his knife in his belt, his +coonskin cap pushed back from his face, once more florid, warm, tingling +from the keen wind of the day and the change to this heated air, and +with perchance a drowsy eyelid, began to marvel anew as to the fate of +the cheera-taghe. Hardly a drowsy eyelid, he consciously had, however, +for he had resolved that he would not sleep. His situation here alone +was too dangerous; he feared wolves,--the fire that would otherwise +affright them might untended sink too low. He feared also some wandering +Indian. Should he be discovered here by means of the unaccustomed light +he might be wantonly murdered as he slept, or in revenge for the +sacrilege of his intrusion among these things that the savages had +esteemed sacred. + +Therefore, when he suddenly saw the cheera-taghe he saw them quite +plainly. Tall, stately, splendidly arrayed in their barbaric garb, +draped with their iridescent feather-wrought mantles, their heads +dressed with white plumes, a staff of cane adorned with white feathers +in the right hand, a green bough in the left, preceded by those +curiously sonorous earthen drums, of which the drone blended with the +notes of the religious song, _Yo-he-wah-yah! Yo-he-wah-yah!_ they thrice +led the glittering procession of the "holy dance" around and around the +"beloved square." + +A blank interval ensued. And then again he saw them, nearer now, more +distinct; they were entering the temple; they were close at hand; +triumphant of mien, assured, so full of life!--he could laugh to think +that he had had a dream, or had heard somehow, that they were dead or +lost or vaguely gone. For here, without seeming in the least to notice +his presence, they kindled anew with friction of bits of poplar or white +oak the fire for the new year, the _cheera_, the "sacred flame," to bear +it outside to distribute it to the assembled people of Nilaque Great. +Without was summer; the trees were full of green leaves; canoes were +glancing along the shimmering river; the "beloved square" was crowded +with braves,--he saw their feathered crests wave and glisten; the wind +was blowing fresh and cool; the sun shone. + +And suddenly it was shining in his face, as it came up over the Great +Smoky Mountains, sending its first long slanting wintry beams through +the narrow portal to the hearth where he had lain asleep before the +ashes of the once "sacred fire," covered with the fresh ashes of last +night's vigil, for they too were dead. He staggered to his feet and went +out into the glistening dawn of this snowy sunlit day, hardly able to +reconcile its aspect with the summer-tide scene he had just quitted. Now +and again he paused, half-bewildered, as if unfamiliar with the pathetic +miseries of the old "waste town"--the scene in his mind savored far more +of reality. + +The necessity of caring for the pack-horse, perhaps better than aught +else, served to restore his faculties. He found it easy now to climb +down the jagged face of the bluffs of the river bank, whence the snow +had vanished, for in the changeable southern climate a sudden thaw had +begun in the earlier hours and now the warm sun was setting all the +trees and eaves adrip. As he stood below the cliff on the sandy slope +whence the snow had slipped down into the river, the volume of which the +storm of last night would much increase after the long drought of the +summer, he carefully examined the horse to ascertain what injuries he +might have sustained; a few abrasions on the right flank seemed to be +all, until the animal moved, a bit stiffly with the near fore leg. This +attracted Barnett's attention to a gash on the knee received doubtless +when the horse first fell on the ground,--a queer gash, long, jagged, +unaccountable, as if it had been made by a dull blade. Glancing down to +search the gravel, the pack-man discerned, half-imbedded in the sand, +the edge of a fragment of a knife, a scalping-knife, broken half in two; +and there, lying not three yards away, was a handle attached to a belt +heavily wrought with roanoke,--only a bit of the belt,--and the other +half of the knife. + +The pack-man's hand trembled and his florid cheek went pale, for these +lay just under the sharp edge of a huge fragment of rock that had +evidently fallen from the cliff above, breaking the blade and holding +the belt fast. + +How long he stood and stared he did not know. For a time he heard +without realizing the significance of the sounds the whoops and shouts +of his comrades, wildly racing back through the old "waste town" in +search of him; but although in the strenuous duty of his rescue they +would venture to pass it in broad daylight, no ardor of persuasion could +induce them to linger there to investigate the locality of his find, or +to aid in moving the rock and exploring the grotto that had evidently +proved a sepulchre. + +On the contrary, they deemed the discovery might be resented by the +Indians as intrusive, and, keeping the secret, they made haste to get +out of the country with even more speed than their wont. Cuthbert +Barnett, however, carried his information to the authorities in +Charlestown, who, promptly acting upon it, solved the mystery of the +fate of the cheera-taghe. + +Since peace with the Cherokees was becoming more and more precarious, +some satisfaction was experienced by the Royal Governor of South +Carolina, James Glen, at that time, in being able to urge upon the +attention of the head-men of the tribe the fact that, although the two +white strangers had obviously been captured in the act of robbing +Cherokee soil of its gold, they had as evidently been unarmed, and the +Irishman, a British subject, had been shot down by one of the +cheera-taghe, for there was the bullet still imbedded firmly in the +sternum of his broad chest. Thus a political crisis, which the event had +threatened, was averted. + +Despite the evil chance that had befallen the gold-seekers, now widely +bruited abroad, stealthy efforts were ever and anon made by the hardy +frontier prospectors of those days, already busy in the richer deposits +of the Ayrate division of the Cherokee country, to pan also the sands of +the banks of the Tennessee; but the yield here was never again worth the +work, and the interest in the possibility of securing "pay gravel" in +this region died out, until the later excitements of the discovery of +the precious metal in a neighboring locality, Coca Creek, during the +last century. + +The old "waste town" long remained a ruin, and at last fell away to a +mere memory. + + + + +THE BEWITCHED BALL-STICKS + + +At no time in the history of mankind, except during that brief +Paradisiac courtship in the Garden of Eden, has the heart of a lover +been altogether unvexed by the presence, or even the sheer suspicion, of +that baleful being commonly denominated "another." Here, however, it +would seem that the field must needs be almost as clear. The aspect of +the world was as if yet young; the swan, long ago driven from the +rivers, still snowily drifted down the silver Tennessee; the deer, the +bear, the buffalo, the wolf in countless hordes roamed at will +throughout the dense primeval wildernesses; the line of Cherokee towns +along the banks represented almost the only human habitations for many +hundred miles, but to Tus-ka-sah the country seemed to groan under a +surplus of population, for there yet dwelt right merrily at Ioco Town +the youthful Amoyah, the gayest of all gay birds, and a painful sense of +the superfluous pressed upon the brain at the very sight of him. + +This trait of frivolity was to Tus-ka-sah the more revolting, since he +himself was of a serious cast of mind and possessed of faculties, rare +in an Indian, which are called "fine business capacity." He was esteemed +at an English trading-house down on the Eupharsee River as the best +"second man" in any of the towns; this phrase "second man" expressing +the united functions of alderman, chief of police, chairman of boards of +public improvements, and the various executive committees of +civilization. His were municipal duties,--the apportionment of community +labor, the supervision of the building of houses and the planting of +crops, the distribution of public bounty, the transaction of any +business of Ioco Town with visitors whom individual interest might bring +thither. So well did he acquit himself when these errands involved +questions of commercial policy that the English traders were wont to +declare that Tus-ka-sah, the Terrapin, had "horse sense"--which +certainly was remarkable in a terrapin! + +His clear-headed qualities, however, valued commercially, seemed hardly +calculated to adorn the fireside. In sensible cumbrous silence and +disastrous eclipse he could only contemplate with dismayed aversion the +palpable effect of Amoyah's gay sallies of wit, his fantastic lies, his +vainglorious boastings, and his wonderful stories, which seemed always +to enchant his audience, the household of the damsel to whom in +civilized parlance they were both paying their addresses. These +audiences were usually large, and far too lenient in the estimation of +Tus-ka-sah. First there was present, of course, Amoyah himself, seeming +a whole flock instead of one Pigeon. Then must be counted Altsasti, who +although a widow was very young, and as slight, as lissome, as graceful +as the "wreath" which her name signified. She was clad now in her winter +dress of otter skins, all deftly sewn together so that the fur might lie +one way, the better to enable the fabric to shed the rain; the petticoat +was longer than the summer attire of doeskin, for although the tinkle of +the metal "bell buttons" of her many garters might be heard as she +moved, only the anklets were visible above her richly beaded moccasins. +She seldom moved, however; sitting beside the fire on a buffalo rug, she +monotonously strung rainbow-hued beads for hours at a time. Her glossy, +straight black hair was threaded with a strand of opaque white beads +passing through the coils, dressed high, and copiously anointed with +bear's oil, and on her forehead she wore a single pendant wrought of the +conch-shell, ivory-white and highly polished. She maintained a busy +silence, but the others of the group--her father, sometimes her mother +and grandmother and the younger sisters and brothers--preserved no such +semblance of gravity, and indulged in appreciative chuckles responsive +to Amoyah's jests, idly watching him with twinkling eyes as long as he +would talk. + +It would be difficult to say how long this might be, for there were no +windows to the winter houses of the Cherokees; in point of architecture +these structures resembled the great dome-shaped council-house, +plastered within and without with red clay; the floor was some three +feet lower than the surface of the ground outside, and the exit +fashioned with a narrow winding passage before reaching the outlet of +the door. The sun might rise or set; the night might come or go; no +token how the hour waxed or waned could penetrate this seclusion. The +replenishing of the fire on the chimneyless hearth in the centre of the +floor afforded the only comment on the passage of time. Its glow gave to +view the red walls; the curious designs of the painted interior of the +buffalo hides stretched upon them, by way of decoration; the cane divans +or couches that were contrived to run all around the circular apartment, +and on which were spread skins of bear and panther and wolves, covering +even the heads of the slumbering members of the household, for the +Cherokees slept away much of the tedious winter weather. + +The fire would show, too, how gayly bedight and feather-crested was +Amoyah, wearing a choice garb of furs;--often, so great was his vanity, +his face was elaborately painted as if for some splendid festive +occasion, a dance or the ball-play, instead of merely to impress with +his magnificence this simple domestic circle. Tus-ka-sah dated the +events that followed from one night when this facial decoration of his +rival was even more fantastic than usual. Like a fish was one side of +the young Cherokee's profile; the other in glaring daubs of white and +black and red craftily represented the head of a woodpecker. The effect +in front was the face of a nondescript monster, that only a gleeful +laughing eye, and now and then a flash of narrow white teeth, identified +as the jovial Amoyah, the Pigeon of Ioco. + +The snow lay on the ground without, he said as he shook a wreath of it +from a fold of his fur and it fell hissing among the coals. The shadows +were long, he told them, for the moon was up and the world was dimly +white and duskily blue. The wind was abroad, and indeed they could hear +the swirl of its invisible wings as it swooped past; the boughs of the +trees clashed together and ice was in the Tennessee River. The winter +had come, he declared. + +Not yet, Tus-ka-sah pragmatically averred. There would be fine weather +yet. + +For the snowfall so early in the season was phenomenal and the red +leaves were still clinging to the trees. + +Had they been together among men Amoyah would not have cared enough for +the subject to justify contention, but in the presence of women he would +suffer no contradiction. He must needs be paramount,--the infinitely +admired! He shook his head. + +The winter had surely come, he insisted. Why, he argued, the bears +knew,--they always knew! And already each had walked the round with his +shadow. + +For in the approach of winter, in the light of the first mystic, icicled +moon, the night when it reaches its full, a grotesque pageant is afoot +in that remote town of the bears, immemorially fabled to be hidden in +the dense coverts of the Great Smoky Mountains,--the procession of the +bears, each walking with his shadow, seven times around the illuminated +spaces of the "beloved square." + +The bears knew undoubtedly, the "second man," the man of facts and +method and management, soberly admitted. But how did Amoyah know that +already they had trodden those significant circles, each with his +shadow? He smiled triumphant in his incontrovertible logic. + +And now Amoyah's face was wonderful to view, whether as a fish on one +side or a woodpecker on the other, with that most human expression of +surprise and indignation and aversion as distinctly limned upon it as if +in pigments, for he loved the "second man's" facts no more than the +"second man" loved his fancies. How did he know, forsooth? Because, +Amoyah hardily declared, he himself had witnessed the march,--he had +been permitted to behold that weird and grotesque progress! + +He took note of the blank silence that ensued upon this startling +asseveration. Then emboldened to add circumstance to sheer statement he +protested, "I attended the ceremony by invitation. I had a place in the +line of march--I walked beside the Great Bear as his shadow!" + +For, according to tradition, each bear, burly, upright in the moonlight, +follows the others in Indian file, but at the side of each walks his +shadow, and that shadow is not the semblance of a bear, but of a +Cherokee Indian! + +Now, as everybody has heard, the bears were once a band of Cherokee +Indians, but wearying of the rigors and artificialities of tribal +civilization they took to the woods, became bears, and have since dwelt +in seclusion. + +The thoughts, however, persistently reach out for the significance of +the fact that in the tradition of this immemorial progress each creature +is accompanied by the shadow, not of the thing that he is, but of the +higher entity that he was designed to be. + +Whether this inference is merely the mechanical deduction of a lesson, +or a subtlety of moralizing, with a definite intention, on the part of +the Cherokees, always past-masters in the intricacies of symbolism, it +is difficult to determine, but the bears are certainly not alone in this +illustration of retrogression, and memory may furnish many an image of a +lost ideal to haunt the paths of beings of a higher plane. + +The picture was before the eyes of all the fireside group,--the looming +domes of the Great Smoky Mountains, where the clouds, white and opaline, +hung in the intervals beneath the ultimate heights; the silences of the +night were felt in the dense dark lonely forest that encompassed the +open spaces of that mysterious city, with the conical thatched roofs of +its winter houses and the sandy stretch of the "beloved square; "--and +there was the line of bears, clumsy, heavy-footed, lumbering, ungainly, +and beside each the feather-crested similitude of what he had been, +alert, powerful, gifted with human ingenuity, the craft of weapons, +mental endowment, and an immortal soul,--so they went in the wintry +moonlight! + +There was naught in this detail of the annual procession of the bears, +always taking place before the period of their hibernation, that +surprised or angered Tus-ka-sah; but that they should break from their +ancient law, their established habit of exclusiveness, single out Amoyah +(of all the people in the world), summon him to attend their tribal +celebration, and participate in their parade, as the shadow of Eeon-a, +the Great Bear,--this passed the bounds of the possibilities. This +fantasy had not the shreds of verisimilitude! + +Yet even while he argued within himself Tus-ka-sah noted the old +warrior's gaze fix spellbound upon Amoyah, the hands of Altsasti +petrify, the bead in one, the motionless thread in the other. The eyes +of the more remote of the group, who were seated on rugs around the +fire, glistened wide and startled, in the shadow, as Amoyah proceeded to +relate how it had chanced. + +A frosty morning he said it was, and he was out in the mountain +a-hunting. He repeated the song which he had been singing, and the wind +as it swirled about the house must have caught his voice and carried it +far. It was a song chronicling the deeds of the Great Bear, and had a +meaningless refrain, "_Eeon-a, Ha-hoo-jah! Eeon-a, Ha-hoo-jah!"_ But +when he reached the advent upon the scene of the secondary hero, the +Great Bear himself, very polite, speaking excellent Cherokee ("since we +are alone," he said), very recognizant of the merits of Amoyah,--the +fame of which indeed was represented to have resounded through the +remotest seclusions of the ursine realm,--fiction though it all +obviously was, the man of facts could no longer endure this +magnification of his rival. + +"The great Eeon-a said all that to you?" he sneered. "The fire-water at +the trading-house makes your heart very strong and your tongue crooked. +This sounds to me like the language of a simple seequa, not the Great +Bear--a mere bit of an opossum!" + +Amoyah paused with a sudden gasp. He was not without an aggressive +temper, albeit, persuaded of his own perfection, he feared no rival, and +least of all Tus-ka-sah. + +"You, Tus-ka-sah," he retorted angrily, "have evidently strongly shaken +hands with the discourse of the opossum, speaking its language like the +animal itself, and also the wolfish English. You have too many tongues, +and, more than all, the deceitful, forked tongue of the snake, which is +not agreeable to the old beloved speech. For myself, the Great Bear made +me welcome in the only language that does not make my heart weigh +heavy,--the elegant Cherokee language." + +The spellbound listeners had broken out with irritated protests against +the interruption, and Tus-ka-sah said no more. + +As the blasts went sonorously over the house and the flames swirled anew +into the murky atmosphere of the interior, a weird, half-smothered voice +suddenly invaded the restored quiet of the hearthstone: "_Eeon-a, +Ha-hoo-jah! Eeon-a, Ha-hoo-jah!_" + +Like an echo the barbaric chant vibrated through the room. One of the +sleepers, a half-grown youth, had semi-consciously caught the familiar +refrain and sang it in that strange uncanny voice of slumber. The tones +gave fitting effect to the grotesque details of the supernatural +adventure, and as Tus-ka-sah rose and surlily took his way toward the +door his departure did not attract even casual notice from the +listeners, hanging enthralled upon the words of the Great Eeon-a, so +veraciously repeated for their behoof. Their eyes showed intent even in +the murky gloom and glistened lustrous in the alternate fitful flare; +the red walls seemed to recede and advance as the flames rose and fell; +the sleeping boy on the broad bed-place stirred uneasily, flinging now +and again a restless arm from out the panther skins in which he was +enveloped, and ever and anon his cry, "_Eeon-a, Ha-hoo-jah! Eeon-a, +Ha-hoo-jah!"_ punctuated the impressive dramatic tones of the raconteur. + +The next instant Tus-ka-sah was in the utter darkness of the narrow +tortuous little passage, but after threading this he came out of the +doorway into the keen chill air of a snowy world, the scintillations of +frosty stars, the languid, glamourous radiance of the yellow moon, low +in the sky, and his accustomed mental atmosphere of the plainest of +plain prose. His thoughts were with the group he had just left, and he +marveled if no influence could be brought to reduce the prestige with +which the immaterial chief of the bears, the fabled Eeon-a, had +contrived to invest the illusory Amoyah. + +Tus-ka-sah's expectations concerning the weather were promptly +justified. A continual dripping from the roofs and trees pervaded the +early hours of the morning, and soon the snow was all gone here in the +valley; even the domes of the mountains so early whitened with drifts +showed now a bare, dark, sketch-like outline against the horizon and +above the garnet tint of the massed sere boughs of the forests of the +slopes. A warm sun shone. Not a summer bird was yet lingering, but here +and there a crisp red leaf winged the blue sky as gallantly as any +crested cardinal of them all. The town of Ioco was now astir, and +Tus-ka-sah noted how the softening of the air had brought out the +inhabitants from their winter houses. Children played about the +doorways; boys in canoes shot down the shimmering reaches of the river; +warriors congregated in the council-house and the half-open buildings +surrounding the "beloved square," and in its sunny sandy spaces sundry +old men were placidly engaged in the game of "roll the bullet." + +It was at this group that Tus-ka-sah looked with an intent gaze and a +sort of indignant question in his manner, and presently an elderly +Cherokee, one of the cheera-taghe of the town, detached himself from it +and came toward him. Despite this show of alacrity Cheesto distinctly +winced as he contemplated the sullen and averse mien of his client or +parishioner, for the relation in which Tus-ka-sah stood toward him +partook of the characteristics of both. The professional wiseacre, +however, made shift to recover himself. + +"I will tell you what you have come to tell me," the prophet said +quickly. "The spell on Amoyah does not work." + +Tus-ka-sah assented surlily, gazing meanwhile at the face of the +conjurer. It was a face in which the eyes were set so close together as +to suggest a squint, although they were not crossed. He had an uncertain +and dilatory tread, the trait of one who hesitates, and decides in +doubt, and forthwith repents; being in his prophetic character an +appraiser of the probable, and the sport of the possible. He wore many +beads in strings around his neck, and big earrings of silver, heavy and +costly. His fur garments reached long and robe-like almost to his feet, +the shaggy side of the pelt outward, the weather being damp, for when it +was dry and cold it was customary to wear the fur turned inward. + +The wise man had been recently unfortunate in his sorcery. The corn crop +had been cut short by reason of a lack of rain which he had promised +should fall in June. He had justified the drought, in the opinion of +most of the Indians, by feigning illness and taking to his bed; for by +these it was believed that if he had been able to be up and about his +ordinary vocations the preposterous conduct of the weather must needs +have been restrained. The fields about Ioco had suffered especially, and +Tus-ka-sah, as the chief business man of that town, had manifested half +veiled suspicions that the art of the conjurer was incompetent; this +rendered Cheesto particularly solicitous to succeed when his magic had +been invoked to reduce the attractions of Amoyah in the eyes of Altsasti +and turn her heart toward Tus-ka-sah. For among the Indians the lives of +the weather-prophets were not safe from the aggrieved agriculturists, +and there are authentic cases in which the cheera-taghe suffered death +by tribal law as false conjurers. Cheesto fixed an anxious gaze upon his +interlocutor as Tus-ka-sah rehearsed, by way of illustrating how +worthless were the charms wrought, the unsubstantial fiction that had so +beguiled the fancy of Altsasti, and posed Amoyah in the splendid guise +of the representative of the great Eeon-a in the shadow-march of the +bears. + +The fate of the over-wise is ever the sorrowful dispensation. The fool +may be merry and irresponsible. Cheesto was at his wit's end. With that +unlucky drought in June to confront him, and dealing with the sharp +business man of Ioco, who exacted his due in the exchange of the Fates +as rigorously as if in a merely mundane market, the jeopardy of the +magician was great and his discredit almost assured. + +Old Cheesto set his jaw firmly. Somehow, somewhere, something must be +wrought that would place Amoyah at a disadvantage and bring ridicule +upon him. No great matter, it might be said, to compass the change of a +fickle woman's mind, to disconcert a giddy young man. But how? Cheesto +was aweary of his own incantations and his ineffectual spells. He would +fain lend Fate a muscular hand. + +This thought was uppermost in his mind for several days, even when he +went with the other cheera-taghe of Ioco to share in the conjurations +and incantations of the preliminary ceremonials of the Ball-Play, +without which success would never be anticipated, for a great match +between the towns of Ioco and Niowee was impending. + +This game was usually played in the mid-summer or fall, but it would +seem that the unseasonable cold weather was well suited for such violent +exercise and the severe physical training which preceded it, and +although Amoyah noticed ice in the river as he dashed in for the +ceremonial plunge which accompanies the incantations, he remembered the +fact for a different reason than discomfort. + +The eighty ball-players of Ioco stood in a row near the bank, submerged +to the knees. They had gone in with a tumultuous rush, and with their +faces painted, their heads crested with feathers, clad fantastically and +gorgeously but scantily, they were holding their ball-sticks high in the +air with an eager grasp,--all except Amoyah. Although still in his place +in the line, he was looking over his shoulder with an amazed and +startled gaze. + +For there upon the bank, as if struck from his hand in the confusion and +turmoil of first entering the water, lay his ball-sticks. He seemed +about to return for them, as the implement of the game must be dipped +also in the water at the appropriate moment of the incantation. But old +Cheesto, the Rabbit, motioned him to forbear lest by this unprecedented +quitting of the line during the ceremonial the efficacy of the spell be +annulled; he himself stooped down and picked up the ball-sticks. Then, +notwithstanding his age and his fierce rheumatism, notwithstanding his +long and cumbrous robe of buffalo skin, the skirt of which he seemed to +clutch with difficulty, he plunged into the icy water, waded out to the +young man, handed him the ball-sticks, and regained the bank just as the +other cheera-taghe standing at the margin of the river began the +incantations supposed to influence the success of the competition. + +This Indian game, which has left its name on one of the watercourses of +Tennessee, Ball-Play Creek, required a level space of some five or six +hundred yards in length but no other preparation of the ground. At one +end, in the direction of Niowee, two tall poles were fixed firmly in the +earth about three yards apart, and slanting outward. At the end toward +Ioco a similar goal was prepared. Every time the ball should be thrown +over either goal the play would count one for the proximate town, and +the game was of twelve or twenty points according to compact, the +catcher of the twentieth ball being entitled to especial honor. It was +of course the object of each side to throw the ball over the goal toward +their own town, and to prevent it from going in the direction of the +town of the opposing faction. + +All the morning crowds of Cherokees of all ages and both sexes had been +gathering from the neighboring towns, and were congregated in the wide +spaces about the course at Ioco. These fields had earlier been planted +in corn, but the harvest had stripped the plain, and now the trampling +of hundreds of feet erased all vestiges of the growth except for the +yellow-gray tint of the stubble, spreading out on every side to the +brown of the dense fallen leaves on the slopes where the forests began +to climb the mountain sides. Here and there fires were kindled where +some spectator felt the keen chill of the approaching winter, and more +than one meal was in progress,--perhaps such groups had come from far. +Pack-horses were in evidence laden with rich garments of fur, various +peltry, blankets, valuable gear of every sort to be staked on the result +of the game, and soon the men were betting heavily. All the various +tones of the gamut were on the air,--the deep bass guttural laugh of the +braves; the shrill callow yelping of boys; the absent-minded bawl of +spoiled pappooses interested in the stir, but with an ever-recurrent +recollection of the business of vocally disciplining their patient +mothers; the keen treble chatter of women,--all were suddenly resolved +into a strong dominant chord of sound as a tremendous shout arose upon +the appearance of the ball-players of Ioco. Fresh from the river, they +made a glittering show with the tossing feathers of their crested heads, +their faces painted curiously and fantastically in white, the bright +tints of their gaudy though scanty raiment, their bare arms and legs +suppled with unguents and shining in the sun. This note of welcome had +hardly died away and the echo of the encompassing mountains grown +silent, when an agitated murmur of excitement went sibilantly through +the throng. + +A cloud of dust was approaching in the distance, heralding a band of +men. A new sound invoked the echoes. The breath was held to hear it. The +throb of a drum--faint--far. And here thunderously beating, hard at +hand, overpowering all lesser sounds, the drums of loco responded. To +the vibrations of these sonorous earthen cylinders, the sticks plied +with a will on the heads of wet deerskins tightly stretched, the +ball-players of Niowee advanced. In a diagonal direction and at a sturdy +trot they came for a space,--a sudden halt ensued, and eighty pairs of +muscular feet smote tumultuously on the ground. Then once more forward +diagonally, at that swinging jaunty pace, and the stamping pause as +before. The sound seemed to shake the ground, the impact of the feet +with the earth was heard despite the turmoil of the drums; the stamping +vibrations were felt in the midst of the stir of the crowds, and now in +the nearer approach the individual faces could be distinguished, wildly +painted; the athletic figures, gaudily clad and barbarically decorated; +the ball-sticks, held aloft in a sort of rhythmic vibration as if +quivering for a chance at the ball; and fourscore wild young voices +howled defiance at loco Town, whose youth in return howled its municipal +pride, failing only with failing breath. + +They were all in the course at last. The judges, elderly warriors and +absolutely impartial, chosen from towns which had no interest at stake +in the match, were seated on a little knoll, commanding a view of the +ground, but at a sufficient distance to be in no danger from a maladroit +handling of the ball. This was made of deerskin, stuffed hard with hair, +and sewn up with deer sinews. The ball-sticks, of which each player +owned his pair, were also partly made of deerskin, the two scoops or +ladles being fashioned of a network of thongs on a wooden hoop, each +furnished with a handle of hickory three feet long, worked together with +a thong of deerskin to catch the ball between the rackets,--it being of +course prohibited to catch the ball in the hand. + +The drums beat furiously; the word was given; the ball was flung high in +the air in the middle of the course, and the next instant one hundred +and sixty young athletes rushed together with a mighty shock the force +of which seemed to shake the ground. Some fell and were trampled in the +crush; others madly clutched one another, friend or foe, with the +ill-aimed ball-sticks, inflicting a snapping hurt like a bite,--a wound +by no means to be despised. One, an expert, sent the ball with an artful +twirl through the air toward the Ioco goal, and in the midst of a shout +that rent the sky the whole rout of players went frantically flying +after it, whirling with an incredible swiftness and agility when it was +caught midway, and hurled back toward Niowee with a force as if it had +been flung from a catapult. Here and there individual players in the +frenzied chase made wonderful records of leaps in their efforts to catch +the ball, springing into the air with a surprising strength and +elasticity, and a lightness as of creatures absolutely without weight. + +A good match they were playing; for more than half an hour neither side +was permitted by the other to score a single point. The ball seemed for +a time as if it were awing forever, and would fall to the ground no +more. The casualties were many; almost always after one of those sudden +rushes together of both factions that had a tremendous momentum as of +galloping squadrons, the ground would show as the moving masses receded +half a dozen figures prone upon the course; one with a broken arm +perhaps; another badly snapped by the inartistically plied ball-sticks +of friend or foe and crawling off with a bloody pate; sometimes another +lying quite still, evidently stunned and to be hastily dragged off the +course by spectators, before another stampede of the ball-players crush +the life out of the unconscious and prostrate wight. Nevertheless only +the normal interest, which however was very great, appertained to the +match until at a crisis a strange thing happened, inexplicable then, and +perhaps never fully understood. + +The ball was flying toward the Niowee goal and the whole field was in +full run after it. The blow that had impelled it had been something +tremendous. A shout of triumph was already welling up from the throat of +all Niowee, for to prevent the scoring of a point in its favor it would +seem that there must be a thing afoot whose fleetness could exceed the +speed of a thing awing. + +Amoyah, the deftest runner of all the Tennessee River country, was +foremost in the crown of swift athletes; presently he was detached by +degrees from it; now he was definitely in advance; and soon, spurting +tremendously, he had so neared the Niowee goal that the ball just above +must needs pass over it if a spring might not enable him to capture it +at the last moment. As agile as a deer, and as light as a bird, he +leaped into the air, both arms upstretched, holding the rackets aloft +and ready. He was a far-famed player, and even now the Ioco spectators +were shouting, Amoyah needs must win! + +A mysterious silence fell suddenly. They all saw what had happened. +There could be no mistake. The rackets parted at the propitious moment +to receive the ball. The netting closed about it. And then, as if it had +met with no impediment whatever, the ball passed through the stanch web +of thongs and over the poles, and falling to the ground counted one for +Niowee. + +The spectators from that town in their astonishment forgot to shout. The +onrushing crowd of players, bearing down upon Amoyah, having intended to +force him to drop the ball, which he had seemed predestined to catch, or +to throw it so ill as to deliver it into the power of Niowee still to +secure the point, could not arrest their own momentum, and went over the +startled and dumfounded player in a swift dash, leaving him prone upon +the ground. He was on his feet in an instant, his physical faculties +rallying promptly, but so bewildered and doubtful that he had but one +definite mental process, the resolve to regain for Ioco the point he had +so mysteriously lost. Twice afterward his fine playing focused the +attention of the crowd. Twice their plaudits of his skill rang through +the vibrating air. Then the ball, hardly checked by the web of his +racket, passed through the ball-sticks, and all realized their +bewitchment. + +Amoyah heard the gossip afloat concerning the matter before he had well +quitted the course. The Great Bear had torn the net of the ball-sticks +with his claw, one brave was telling another as he passed, because +Amoyah had unveraciously boasted that he had walked by invitation in the +procession of the bears during their annual march with their shadows at +their hidden mysterious town in the Great Smoky Mountains. + +Amoyah paused, tired, excited, panting, and critically examined the web. +Surely enough the interlacing thongs had parted in twain in two straight +lines, invisible save on close inspection, as deftly and as evenly +severed as if cut with a keen knife. + +It was late in the day. The sun was now on a westering slant. The +parties of spectators were breaking up, some to journey homeward, others +going into the town with friends. The place that the crowd had occupied +had that peculiarly dreary aspect characteristic of a deserted pleasure +ground. Trampled heavily it was, and the charred remnant of a fire +showed black here and there; broken bits of food were scattered in +places where feasting had been; a great gourd that had held some gallons +of water lay shattered on the ground at his feet; a group at a distance +were doubtfully retracing their steps, searching for something they had +lost; at the farthest limits a wolf like a dog, or a dog like a wolf, +was gnawing at a bone, and snarling as he gnawed. It was all frowzy, +jaded, forlorn. + +Somehow suddenly he had a sense of freshness, an illumination, as it +were a vision, of the early morning light striking through a network of +bare trees upon the shimmering reaches of a river. And there on the bank +lay his ball-sticks,--quite good and sound then, he would have staked +his life. And now a picture was before him,--being a man of fancy, he +thought in pictures,--a picture of old Cheesto the Rabbit holding the +ball-sticks half hidden in the folds of his great fur robe and wading +out into the ice-cold water to restore them. And old Cheesto, he +reflected, was one of the cheera-taghe of Ioco, and could work a spell +quite as well as the Great Bear, who had gone to bed for the winter two +weeks ago, and had not heard of ball-sticks within the memory of +man,--perhaps not since he was a Cherokee himself, and playing with the +rest on the course at Tennessee Town. + +In fact, old Cheesto, in common with many men not Cherokees, cared +little for the public weal when it interfered with private interest. But +he had not realized how much he had jeopardized the success of Ioco Town +in cutting the netting of the ball-sticks. He had imagined the +incompleteness of the racket would merely show Amoyah as incompetent, +render his play futile and ineffective, and discredit him with both +friend and foe. Never, however, had the play of any one man been so +important and conspicuous as his to-day when the bewitched ball-sticks +became the salient feature and the living tradition of the match between +Ioco and Niowee. For despite these points, thus lost by supernatural +agency to Niowee, the bewitchment of the ball-sticks only served to +illustrate the superior skill of the Ioco team, and to embellish their +victory. + +Amoyah had nothing but his imagination to support his theory, but it +seemed singularly credible to Altsasti, to whom he rehearsed it, finding +her seated on the ground before the door of her winter house in great +dreariness of spirit, that he should in playing so well have won nothing +and merely jeopardized the game. + +"I am afraid of that Great Bear," she declared, eying the ball-sticks +askance as he came up. + +Then revealing his theory of the spell that old Cheesto had wrought upon +him in Tus-ka-sah's interest, Amoyah proposed a counter-spell which +would defeat Tus-ka-sah. + +"But Cheesto can still send you trouble if you have a wife," she argued. + +"Ah, no," the specious Amoyah replied. "Everybody knows that a man's +wife makes him all the trouble that he needs." + +To save him from these woes devised by others Altsasti undertook to give +him all the trouble he needed. But he seemed quite cheerful in the +prospect, and as she cooked the supper within doors he sat at the +entrance, much at home, singing, "_Eeon-a, Ha-hoo-jah! Eeon-a, +Ha-hoo-jah!_" + +Tus-ka-sah upbraided the magician with the result of this victory, by +which he was defeated. And the wise man threw up eyes and hands at his +ingratitude. + +"I set the Great Bear after Amoyah for you! I made the Eeon-a acquainted +with his boastful lies, and he bewitched Amoyah's ball-sticks that his +fine play might come to nothing." + +Very little to the purpose, the disaffected man of facts reflected, +remembering the impression produced by his rival's display of skill. +Somehow Amoyah seemed beyond the reach of logic. "Why did you not +instead bewitch the woman?" Tus-ka-sah asked. + +But this wiliest of the cheera-taghe shook his head. + +"If she had been a _mere_ woman," he said. "But a widow is a witch +herself." + +"_Eeon-a, Ha-hoo-jah! Eeon-a, Ha-hoo-jah!"_ sang Amoyah at the door of +the winter house. + +Eeon-a, the Great Bear, made no sign and slept in peace at his town +house in the mountains. + +And since then, as always before, under the first icy moon of the winter +the company of bears with their feather-crested shadows take up their +mysterious march seven times around the "beloved square" of their +ancient secluded town in the Great Smoky Mountains, which it is said may +be seen to this day--by all who can find it! + + + + +THE VISIT OF THE TURBULENT GRANDFATHER + + +It was long remembered in the Cherokee nation. Their grandfather came to +the Overhill towns on the banks of the Tennessee River in a most +imperious frame of mind. + +"Give me a belt!" he cried in irrelevant response to every gracious +overture of hospitality. For although presents were heaped upon him, the +official belt of the Cherokee nation was not among them, and he cast +them all aside as mere baubles. + +Even the clever subterfuges of that master of statecraft, the half-king, +Atta-Kulla-Kulla, might not avail. "_N'tschutti!_" (Dear friend) he said +once in eager propitiation; "_Gooch ili lehelecheu_?" (Does your father +yet live?) He spoke in a gentle voice and slowly, the Delaware language +being unaccustomed to his lips. "Tell the great sakimau I well remember +him!" And he laid a string of beads on the arm of the quivering Lenape, +for their grandfather was of that nationality. + +But what flout of Fate was this? Not the coveted string of wampum, the +official token, its significance not to be argued away, or overlooked, +or mistaken--but instead a necklace of pearls, the fine freshwater gems +of the region, so often mentioned by the elder writers and since held to +be mythical or exaggeration of the polish of mere shell beads till the +recent discoveries have placed once more the yield of the _Unio +margaritiferus_ of the rivers of Tennessee on metropolitan markets. + +A personal gift--of the rarest, it is true--but a mere trifle in the +estimation of Tscholens, in comparison with that national recognition +which he craved and which a tribe of warriors awaited. + +The irate grandfather flung the glossy trinket from him down among the +ashes of the fire, which glowed in the centre of the floor of the great +council-house of the town of Citico, one of the dome-shaped buildings, +plastered as usual within and without with richly tinted red clay. The +flicker from the coals revealed the rows of posts that like a colonnade +upheld the roof; the cane-wrought divan encircling the apartment between +these columns and the windowless walls; the astonished faces and +feather-crested heads of the conclave of Cherokee chiefs from half a +dozen towns as they clustered around the fire and stared at Tscholens. + +The grave emotion in his face dignified its expression despite its +savagery. Paradoxically the grandfather was young, slender, and, rated +by any other standard than that of the Cherokees, an unusually tall +people, would have been considered of fine height. His muscular arms +were bare except for his heavy silver bracelets; a tuft of feathers +quivered high on his head; his leggings were of deerskin, embroidered +with parti-colored quills of the porcupine, and his shirt was of fine +sable fur. His voice was sonorously insistent. + +"_N'petalogalgun_!" (I am sent as a messenger) he declared urgently. +"Give me a belt." + +He turned his flaming eyes directly upon Atta-Kulla-Kulla, himself in +the prime of life now, in 1745, who it seemed must act definitely under +this coercion. He must either refuse to testify to the truth, which he +knew, or involve his people, the Cherokees, in a quarrel which did not +concern them, of which a century was tired, between the Lenni Lenape and +the Mengwe. + +So long ago it had begun! The Mengwe, hard pressed by other nations and +long at war with the Lenape, besought peace of this foe, and that they +would use their influence with the others. Usually women, prompted +always by the losing side, protested against the further effusion of +blood and went with intercessions from one faction to the other. This, +in view of the number and devious interests of the warring forces, was +then impracticable, and therefore the Mengwe besought the Lenape to act +as mediator for the occasion. Only so noted a race of warriors could +afford this magnanimity, the Mengwe argued. It might impair the prestige +of a less high-couraged and powerful tribe. And with these specious +wiles the cat was duly belled. + +But alas for the Lenape! Magnanimity is the most dangerous of all the +virtues--to its possessor! Presently the Mengwe claimed to have +conquered the Lenape in battle, and cited the well-known fact that they +had inaugurated peace proposals. As the Mengwe confederation grew more +powerful they assumed all the arrogance of a protectorate. They sold the +lands of their dependents. They resented all action of the Lenape on +their own account. If the Lenape went to war on some quarrel of their +making, they had the Mengwe to reckon with as well as the enemy. As the +years rolled by in scores, this fiction gradually assumed all the +binding force of fact, till now it was felt that only by the avowal of +the truth by some powerful tribe, both ancient and contemporary, such as +the Cherokee,--who, although allied neither linguistically nor +consanguineously, by some abstruse figment of Indian etiquette affected +an affiliation to the Lenape and called them "grandfather,"--could their +rightful independence be recognized, reestablished, and maintained. +Therefore, "Give me a belt!" cried Tscholens pertinaciously, offering in +exchange the official belt of the Delawares, or, as they were called, +Lenni Lenape. + +Nothing less would content him. He hardened himself as flint against all +suave beguilements tending to effect a diversion of interest. He would +not see the horse-race. He would not "roll the bullet." He would not +witness the game of chungke, expressly played in honor of his visit. He +even refused to join in the dance, although young and nimble. But it +chanced that the three circles were awhirl on the sandy spaces +contiguous to the "beloved square" when the first break in the cohesion +of his pertinacity occurred. The red sunset was widely aflare; the dizzy +rout of the shadows of the dancers, all gregarious and intricately +involved in the three circles, kept the moving figures company. These +successive circles, one within another, followed each a different +direction in their revolutions to the music of the primitive flute, +fashioned of the bone of a deer (the tibia), and the stertorous +sonorities of the earthen drums; and as the fantastically attired +figures whirled around and around, their dull gray shadows whisked to +and fro on the golden brown sand, all in the red sunset glow. + +Tscholens, quitting the council-house, glanced but indifferently at them +and then away at the lengthening perspective of the azure mountains of +the Great Smoky range. The harbingers of the twilight were advancing in +a soft blue haze over the purple and garnet tinted slopes near at hand, +their forests all leafless now, although the autumn had lingered long, +and the burnished golden days of the Indian summer were loath to go. +Lights were springing up here and there in the town as the glow of the +hearths of the dwellings, where supper was cooking, flickered out to +meet on the threshold the rays of the departing sun, which seemed to +pause there for a farewell glance in at the open door. In the centre of +the "beloved square" the fire which always burned here was slowly +smouldering. It flung a red reflection on the front of the building +devoted to the conferences of the aged councilors, painted a peaceful +white and facing the setting sun. At this moment was emerging from it a +figure which Tscholens had not before seen. + +A man so old he was that even the Indian's back was bent. His face was +of weird effect, for amid its many wrinkles were streaks of +parti-colored paint such as he had worn more than three quarters of a +century earlier, when his fleet foot and the old war-trace were +familiar. In common with all the Cherokees, his head was polled and bare +save for a tuft, always spared to afford a grasp for any hand bold +enough and strong enough to take the scalp; but this lock, although +still dense and full, was of a snowy whiteness, contrasting sharply with +the red paint and belying the warlike aspect of the red-feathered crest +that trembled and shivered with the infirmities of his step. A heavy +robe of fur reached almost to his feet, and a mantle, curiously wrought +of the iridescent feathers of the neck and breast of the wild turkey, +bespoke his consequence and added to the singularity of his aspect; for +Indians seldom attained such age in those wild days, the warriors being +usually cut off in their prime. It is to be doubted if Tscholens had +ever seen so old a man, for this was Tsiskwa of Citico, reputed then to +be one hundred and ten years of age. + +The step of the young grandfather, sauntering along, came to an abrupt +halt. He stood staring, exclaiming to the Cherokee warrior Savanukah, +"_Pennau wullih! Auween won gintsch pat_?" (Look yonder! Who is that who +has just come?) + +It was an eagle-like majesty which looked forth from the eyes of Tsiskwa +of Citico, as he seated himself on the long cane-wrought divan, just +within the entrance of the cabin on the eastern side of the "beloved +square." Time can work but little change in such a spirit. An eagle, +however old, is always an eagle. + +The sage lifted one august claw and majestically waved it at the young +Delaware _illau_ (war-captain) standing before him, while Savanukah +turned away to join the dancers. "Lenni Lenape?--I remember--I remember +very well when you came from the West!" + +Tscholens was not stricken with astonishment, although that migration is +held by investigators of pre-Columbian myths[11] to have occurred before +the ninth century! It was formerly a general trait among the Indians to +use the, first person singular in speaking of the tribe, and to avoid, +even in its name, the plural termination. Tsiskwa went on with the tone +of reminiscence rather than legendary lore, and with an air of bated +rancor, as of one whose corroding grievance still works at the heart, to +describe how the Lenni Lenape crossed the Mississippi and fell upon the +widespread settlements of the Alligewi (or Tallegwi) Indians--considered +identical with the Cherokee (Tsullakee)--and warred with them many years +in folly, in futility, in hopeless defeat. + +He lifted his eyes and gazed at the sun. A curve of pride steadied his +old lips. His face was as resolute, as victorious, in looking backward +as ever it had been in vaunting forecast. His was the temperament that +always saw in prophecy or retrospect what he would wish to see. And that +sun, now going down, had lighted him all his life along a path of +conscious triumph. + +And then, he continued, the Lenni Lenape, after years of futile war, +combined with the Mengwe,[12] and before their united force the Cherokee +retired into the impregnable stronghold of their mountains, their +beautiful country, the pride of the world! + +He waved his hand toward the landscape--lying out there in the lustre of +its exquisite coloring, in the clarified air and the enhancing sunset; +in the ideality of the contour of its majestic lofty mountains; in the +splendor of its silver rivers, its phenomenally lush forests, its rich +soil--pitying the rest of the world who must needs dwell elsewhere. + +"And here," he went on, "the European found me two centuries ago." + +He proceeded to narrate the advent of De Soto and his followers into the +country of the Cherokees, embellishing his account with unrecorded +particulars of their stay, especially in their digging for gold and +silver, in which enterprise he himself seemed to have actively +participated--only some two centuries previous! + +Tscholens, listening, looked about absently at the "beloved square," +which was vacant, with its open piazza-like building on each of the four +sides. Two or three men were talking in the "war cabin," painted a vivid +red. On the western side of the square the roof of the "holy cabin" +showed dark against a lustrous reach of the shimmering river; despite +the shadows within the broad entrance, the "sacred white seat" and the +red clay transverse wall that partitioned off the _sanctum sanctorum_ +were plainly visible, but all was empty, deserted--the cheera-taghe had +departed for the night. + +As Tsiskwa paused to cough, the Delaware, suddenly taking heart of +grace, observed that it had always been the boast of the Lenni Lenape +that they were the first tribe to welcome the European, the Dutch, to +the land that they now called New York. + +Whereupon Tsiskwa retorted in a tempest of racking coughs that, whoever +welcomed the Europeans here or there, it was no credit that the Lenape +should be so forward to appropriate it! The white people were not the +friends of the red man. They wanted the whole country. Finally they +would have it. + +"_Mattapewiwak nik, schwannakwak_!" (The white people are a deceiving +lot!) said Tscholens, seeking some common ground on which they could +meet with a mutual sentiment. + +And at once Tsiskwa was all animation and as aggressive as at twenty. +Well, indeed, might the Lenape say that! They were forever an easy +prey--not only of the astute Europeans, but of the simple Indian as +well. For a hundred years they had been the dupe of the Mengwe! As the +mind of Tsiskwa dwelt on the various subtleties of the diplomatic +attitude of the Mengwe toward the Lenape, its craft so appealed to him +that his lips curved with relish; a smile irradiated his blurred eyes +and intensified his wrinkles; his cough, shaking the folds of his outer +fur garments above his wasted chest, mingled with his gay chuckle of +merriment, as young as a boy's, while he cried, "Iroquois! +Iroquois!"--the characteristic exclamation of the Mengwe confederation, +whence they take their modern and popular name, and signifying, "I have +spoken! I have spoken!" + +At the familiar and detested sound the Lenape suddenly smote his breast +with his braceleted arms, and a strong cry involuntarily broke from +him--so poignant, so bitter, so shrill, that it sounded high above the +bleating flute, the guttural drone of the drum, the vibratory throb of +the dancing feet, and brought the pastime to a sudden close. In another +moment the "beloved square" was filled with crowds of the Cherokees and +their huddling shadows, all a medley in the last red suffusions of the +sinking sun. To the tumult of eager, anxious, polite questions, +Tscholens faltered to Savanukah, who had hastily returned:-- + +"_N'schauwihilla! N'dagotschi! Lowanneunk undchen_!" (I am fainting! I +am cold! The wind comes from the north!) + +He looked ill enough, but Savanukah's sharp eyes scanned suspiciously +the aged countenance of Tsiskwa of Citico. Tsiskwa was, however, the +image of venerable and respected innocence. His aged lips mumbled one +upon the other silently. He hardly seemed to take note of the tumult. +When the afflicted "grandfather" was being led away from the scene, +Savanukah loitered to ask, with well-couched phrase and the show of deep +reverence, what had been the tenor of the discourse, and it was with a +galvanic jerk that the old man appeared to gather his faculties +together. + +"Of what did he talk?" Tsiskwa fixed august eyes upon Savanukah as he +repeated the query. "Am _I_ to remember of what young men talk?--the mad +young men?--mad, mad--all quite mad!" + +For not to Savanukah, surely, would he confess; and although because of +this reticence that discerning party believed that Tsiskwa had wittingly +wounded their emotional "grandfather" in his tenderest pride till he +roared like a bull, Savanukah afterward had cause to repudiate this +opinion in a conviction which was less to the credit of the acumen of +Tsiskwa than a full confession of his breach of etiquette in tormenting +his young "grandfather" might have been. At the time Savanukah felt a +certain, malicious pride in the old man's keenness and poise and +capacity, and he said apart to the inquisitive bystanders that, as might +have been expected, the big bird, Tsiskwa-yah, had pounced upon the +little bird, Tscholen-tit--for the name of each signifies a bird in +their respective languages, and the suffixes imply great and small. And +mightily pleased was Savanukah with his own wit. + +That night came a sudden change. A keen frost was falling soon after the +sun went down, for the wind was laid, and such a chill glittering white +moon came gliding out of the mists about the dark Great Smoky domes that +it seemed the winter incarnate. All adown the desert aisles of the +leafless woods the light lay with a flocculent glister like snow, so +enhanced was its whiteness in the rare air and the blackness of the +forest shadows--spare, clearly drawn, all filar and fine like the +intricacies of a delicate line engraving. Something that the daylight +might have shown, blue and blurred, was about the mountains; it followed +the progress of that wintry moon westward. Presently, drawn up from +across the ranges, it proved to be a purple cloud, and despite the broad +section of the heavens still clear and the glittering whorls of the +constellations, that cloud held snow. + +As the loitering southern winter had been long in abeyance, many of the +Cherokees of Citico Town were still in their airy summer residences, but +in one of the conical "winter houses," stove-like, air-tight, +windowless, plastered within and without with the impervious red clay of +the region, after the fashion of the great rotunda, Tscholens, in view +of his sudden seizure and complaint of the gentle breeze of the south as +freighted with the chill of the north, was consigned to rest. Half a +dozen Cherokee braves were detailed to accompany him, nominally as a +guard; but, there being no menace, this was in recognition of his +importance and distinction, his escort of Delaware Indians having been +billeted about in the town. There was no chimney, and although the fire +which burned in the centre of the clay floor exhaled but little smoke, +it hung in the air for the lack of the means of escape, and seemed to +add to the warmth which the fuel sent forth. Now and again the +superfluity of ashes encroached on the live coals. Whereupon one or +another of the occupants of the restricted apartment, silent and +recumbent upon the cane divan, which served now as bed and extended all +ground the room between the walls and the row of posts that upheld the +roof, would reach out a long stick, furnished for the purpose to each +sleeper, and touch off the incumbering ash from the glow of the embers. +As the night wore deeper into the dark hours these intervals of waking +were rarer. + +Tscholens, muffled in bed draperies of otter furs and feathered mantles, +his cane-wrought couch softened with panther and wolf skins, heard the +wind going its rounds, and he realized that the direction of the +currents of the air had veered and it came straight from the north. With +the mere suggestion his heart sank. How should he return whence it +came?--baffled, denied, empty-handed!--from these specious Cherokees, +who yet called the Lenape "grandfather." + +The young war-captain had divined since he had been among them that the +Cherokees were making ready for war against the British government; they +would attack the South Carolina colonists, and for this reason, if for +no other, they would do nothing to anger the Mengwe, the Iroquois, whom, +however, they had often fought: for they loved war--they loved war! + +Gradually the room grew less warm. A sudden stir sounded under the +divan, and a dog presently crept out to the fire, stretching lengthily +and yawning widely as he went. He bestowed himself in an upright posture +by the coals and looked down with drowsy gravity at the glow. His +pendant ears, his long, pointed muzzle, his upright, rotund body, and +his pose of solemn pondering made a queer shadow on the wall. He was no +Cherokee, so to speak, but was the property of a French officer, and, +following his master here from Fort Toulouse, _aux Alibamons_, had been +left in the care of a Cherokee friend to await his owner's return from a +mission to Fort Chartres and other French settlements "in the Illinois." +The dog spoke any language, it might seem; for when one of the braves, +half-awakened by his loud, unmannerly yawn, called out a reproof to him +in Cherokee, he wagged his tail among the cold ashes till he stirred up +a cloud of gritty particles; then he made his way across the room to the +speaker, wheezing and sniffing, and bantering for a romp, till he was +caught by the muzzle and, squeaking and shrilling, thrust under the +divan anew. + +Once more silence, save for the patrol of the wind again on its rounds. +Once more the flare of the fire, dying gradually down to a smouldering +red glow, akin to the smothered red tone of the terra-cotta wall. Once +more the hot, angry eyes of the young war-captain, staring hopelessly, +sleeplessly into the red gloom and the dull mischance of the future, +sequel of the past. + +Suddenly a thought struck him. It seemed at first to take his breath +away. He gasped at the mere suggestion of its temerity. Then it set his +blood beating furiously in his veins. After a space, in which he sought +to calm himself, to still his nerves, to tame his quivering muscles, he +rose slowly to a sitting posture, then stepped deftly, lightly to the +floor. Standing motionless, he glanced keenly about in the dull red +gloom. All silence--no stir save the regular rise and fall of the +breathing of the slumbering Indians. Nevertheless, with his keen +perceptions all alert and tense, he felt an eye upon him. He looked back +warily over his shoulder through the lucid red gloom, like a palpable +medium, as one looks, through a veil or tinted glass. + +It was the eye of the dog! The animal lay under the couch, his muzzle +flat on the clay floor. A serious yet doubtful vigilance was in his +aspect. Tscholens was already at the exit, which was a narrow winding +passage serving as a wind-break, and with a sudden turn leading to the +outer world. He heard the abrupt patter of the dog's feet on the clay +floor, and a drowsy voice calling to the animal in Cherokee, admonishing +him to be still. Tscholens waited without, and, as the dog issued and +with half-aroused suspicions sniffed dubiously around him, he stooped +down and patted the creature's head. It was well, after all, that he +should follow; the noise of the dog's exit and return would serve to +cover his own absence. + +He sought craftily to make friends with the dog. "_Mon chou! Mon +cochon_!" he said, aping the endearments addressed to dog or horse which +he had heard from the French officers at Fort Chartres, where he had +recently been. Then suddenly in agitation: "_Tais toi! Sois sage_!" + +For the animal was indeed no Cherokee. At the sound of his native +tongue, as it were, he demonstrated how little he cared to be in his +skin, for his joyous bounces almost took him out of that integument. +Luckily his gambols were noiseless,--for the ground was covered with +snow. + +Tscholens stood for a moment motionless, his brain still afire with the +imminent emprise, but his hot heart turning cold, and failing; for the +snow--oh, treacherous cloud!--the snow would betray his steps and the +trail disclose the mystery. + +"Oh, _Lowannachen_!" (Oh, north wind!) he moaned, holding up both hands +outstretched to the north. "Oh, _wischiksil! Witschemil_!" (Oh, be thou +vigilant! Help me!) + +Then suddenly lowering his head, he sped like the wind itself through +the town, along the river bank and into the sacred precincts of the +"beloved square." Ah! here he had stood this evening with what different +hope and heart. Here in front of the eastern cabin he had sat beside the +wily Tsiskwa of Citico, who might hardly make feeble shift to sway a +reed, and yet with sharp sarcasms had stabbed him again and again to the +very heart. + +"_Pihmtonheu_! Oh, _pihmtonheu_!" (He has the crooked mouth! Oh, he has +the crooked mouth!) Tscholens muttered between his set teeth as he +crossed the open space and paused before the western "holy cabin." + +But for his rage, perhaps, but for his smarting wounds, Tscholens might +have labored with some deterrent sense of sacrilege. But no! With one +elastic bound he leaped upon the "holy white seat," whence he surmounted +the tier of places still behind and higher; then he lightly swung +himself down into the intervening space in front of the inner partition +formed by a red clay wall. + +A momentary pause--a monition of caution. He looked back over his +shoulder at the pallid world without, visible across the barrier of +seats through the broad entrance of the loggia-like place. With the +reflection from the drifts on the ground and the tempered radiance of +the moon behind the tissues of cloud, the scene seemed more wan, more +illumined with ghastly light, because of the density of the gloom +wherein he stood. The conical-shaped winter tenements had each a thatch +of snow; the great circular council-house, with its whitened dome, +glimmered as stately as some marble rotunda, on its high mound, distinct +against the blurring blue shadow of the night and the gray clouds and +the bare boughs of the encompassing forest. No living creature was to be +seen, save the dog that had followed him, and that had paused to +investigate some real or fancied find beneath the snow,--a bone, +perhaps, flung out from the feastings of overnight; perhaps some little +animal, young or hurt, whelmed in the drift. Now the dog thrust down a +tense, inquiring muzzle, sniffing tentatively, cautiously, and again he +plied alternately his forefeet and his hindfeet, digging out the snow +from the quarry; then once more, with a motionless body and a straight, +quivering tail, he applied his sensitive nostrils to the examination. + +Tscholens with gratification noted his absorption. This was indeed well. +The animal's persistent following further might have hampered his plans +and revealed his intrusion. The next moment, as the _illau_ turned to +his purpose, densest night seemed to have encompassed him. The shadows +cloaked all, save only the blank wall of clay and, down close to the +ground, an arched opening into the _sanctum sanctorum_,--an opening so +limited that it might barely suffice to admit a man's body, creeping +prone upon the earth, and so whelmed in night that it seemed to give a +new and adequate interpretation of the idea of darkness. Could he hope, +all unaccustomed here, to turn in that restricted space to retrace the +way? Could a ray of guiding light be caught from without across this +high, guarding barrier of tiers of seats? And what perchance might lurk +within instead of the object of this search? + +At the mere thought of this object of search all fear, all vestige of +anxiety vanished. Tscholens felt his heart beat fast. His blood throbbed +in his temples. He dropped upon his knees--a sinuous, supple motion, a +vague rustle, and he had passed into the unimagined dark precincts +beyond the aperture. + +Absolute quietude now reigned in the "holy cabin." The darkness filled +it with a solemnity and awe that made a compact with silence and +accounted the slightest sound, the softest stir, as a sacrilege. + +When an owl--a tiny thing, the familiar little "wahuhu" of the +Cherokees--flitted down with its noiseless wings from out the sky and +sat, a mere tuft of feathers and big round eyes, on one of the eaves, +its shrill cry and convulsive chatter smote the night with a sudden +affright--all the breathless listening spaces of the "beloved square" +seemed to shiver at the sound, and the keen sleety lines of snow were +tremulously vibrant with it as the flakes came slanting down once more +from the north. + +For as Tscholens plunged out from the sanctuary his first consciousness +of the world without was the chill touch of the falling snow on his +cheek, its moist, icy breath on his lips beating back his own quick, +agitated respiration. The little "wahuhu," all startled by his sudden +exit, rose with a sharp, cat-like mew from the eaves above his head, +dislodging a drift upon his hair, and fluttered away to a branch of a +tree, still gazing after him as he sped swiftly, joyously, to the winter +house where he lodged,--the descending snow would soon fill the trace of +his light footsteps and none be the wiser. + +All danger of discovery, however, was not over-past. One of the braves +in the winter house experienced a vague intimation of an entrance into +the building, that peculiar chill which accompanies even to the warmest +fireside an intruder from the outer air. It seemed explained when he +roused himself and saw standing by the fire the French officer's dog, +now gazing at the glow with meditative eyes, now diverted to +industriously licking his sides. As the long cane of the waking Indian +threw off the summit of the ashes and touched up the embers to a more +cordial warmth, the dog, always relishing companionship, repaired to the +side of the divan, and the young Cherokee, pushing him off, noticed the +dripping sides of the animal where the snow had melted on the hair. + +"It must be raining," he said to himself, all unaware that aught had +entered except the dog, coming and going after the manner of his +restless kind. The incident recurred no more to his mind save for a +vague recollection of his error when he perceived in the morning that it +was snow that had fallen in the night and not rain. + +A new sensation pervaded the town upon its awakening. The "grandfather" +announced the termination of his visit. + +"_N'matschi_!" (I shall go home) he said. And in explanation of this +sudden resolution, "_N'matunguam_." (I have had a bad dream.) + +Now a dream among the Indians was of hardly less significance than among +the Hebrews of old. It was sufficient justification for the undertaking +of any enterprise or for any change of intention. Thus the departure of +the Delaware delegation was shorn of all surprise or imputation of +discourtesy. The head-men among the Cherokees felt it very definitely a +relief to be freed from the importunities of their "grandfather." + +"Good speed to the journey of the _illau_ Tscholens!" Atta-Kulla-Kulla +said that evening after the departure, as the head-men of several towns +sat discussing the matter around the council-fire in the great +state-house of Citico. + +"A turbulent 'grandfather' has a stormy voice and makes the heart of a +young man like me very poor for fear!" the aged Tsiskwa coughed out, and +they all greeted the great man's jest with a laugh of appreciation, and +felt it was well that one so old could at once be so sage and so merry. +But there came a time when they were of a different mind. + +A most important crisis had supervened in the policy of the Cherokee +Indians toward the British government when their attention was diverted +from their projected demonstration against the South Carolina colonists +by a sudden attack from their ancient enemy, the Mengwe (the Iroquois, +as the colonists called them). It was an altogether unprovoked attack, +it seemed. The martial Cherokees, however, always eager to fight, +demanded no explanations, but at once took the war-path with a great +array of their brisk young braves, and because of this interruption, it +was said, the war of the Cherokees against the British was long delayed. + +When at last the _casus belli_ of the Iroquois was disclosed it struck +the Cherokees of Citico Town like a thunderbolt. The Cherokee nation, +said the Mengwe, had presumed to recognize the independence of the Lenni +Lenape, whom they knew to have been conquered by the Mengwe more than a +century earlier. + +This, of course, elicited from the Cherokees a denial of any such +recognition. Whereupon the Lenni Lenape themselves produced in +counter-asseveration the official belt of the Cherokees, given in +exchange for their own, and brought to the hand of their chief sachem by +their young _illau_ Tscholens, from Citico Town, the residence of the +Chief Tsiskwa. + +A deep amazement fell upon the Cherokees of Citico--the sort of +superstitious consternation that a somnambulist might feel in +contemplating in broad daylight the deeds he had wrought in +sleep-walking. As to the rest of the nation, it was in vain that Tsiskwa +denied; for there were many confirmatory details in support of the +incontestable fact of the official belt openly shown in the possession +of the Lenni Lenape. The gossips recapitulated the long and solitary +audience with Tsiskwa to which Tscholens had been admitted--that strange +wild cry with which it had terminated seeming now a cry of joy, not +pain; and this interpretation was borne out by the obvious affectation +of illness by which he had sought to hide the true import of the +interview. More than all, the matter was put beyond reasonable doubt by +the discovery of the official belt of the Delawares in the _sanctum +sanctorum_ of the "holy cabin" in the "beloved square" among the +treasures of the blended religion and statecraft which pertained to the +government of the Cherokees. That Tscholens could have surreptitiously +exchanged the belts, as Tsiskwa of Citico, dismayed, overwhelmed, yet +blusteringly contended, was held to be preposterous; for there was not a +moment, sleeping or waking, when the Delawares were not in the company +and close charge of the Cherokees, who must needs have been cognizant of +any such demonstration. + +Only one explanation was deemed plausible: the old man, doubtless in his +dotage despite his seeming mental poise, had lost sight of the political +significance of the bauble; he had bestowed it after the manner of the +presents that all were unofficially heaping upon the "grandfather," and +had mechanically, unthinkingly, received in exchange the Delaware belt. + +After one reeling moment of doubt the town of Citico recovered its +balance and loyally supported its prince, but the rest of the nation was +unanimous in the acceptance of the popular interpretation. + +How far extended the influence of this recognition by the Cherokees of +the independence of the Lenni Lenape it is impossible to say, but it is +well known that they acted independently in the American phase of the +Seven Years' War and fought on behalf of the French, and in the +Revolution they took the part of the Americans against the British, +contrary to the policy of the Mengwe. About the time of the treaty of +the United States with the Indians in 1795, the Mengwe, who had been +greatly cast down by the defeat of their allies, the British, came +forward of their own accord and desired publicly to acknowledge the +independence of the Lenni Lenape. + +The masterly political machinations of Tscholens and the mystery in +which they were enveloped did not permanently impair the cordial +relations existing between his tribe and the Cherokees, for so late as +1779 a delegation of fourteen Cherokees is chronicled as appearing in +the country of the Lenni Lenape at their council-fire, to condole with +them on the death of their head-chief; but neither before nor since is +there any record of another visit of the turbulent "grandfather" to the +banks of the Tennessee River. + + + + +NOTES + + +1. _Page_ 6. The annals of the southwestern settlements commemorate many +instances of daring hearts in delicate frames, and the pioneer woman who +perhaps under softer and safer circumstances would have screamed at a +mouse often shouldered a rifle and bravely joined the frontiersmen in +the defense of the stockade against the most cruel, most wily, most +warlike savage foe that ever a civilized force encountered. Courage, of +all the qualities of the moral panoply, is the least to be reckoned with +by logic. Perhaps after all it is not inherent, even in the nobler +organisms, but evolved by a conscientious sense of responsibility and +the dynamic potencies of emergency. La Bruyere says: "_Jetez-moi dans +les troupes comme un simple soldat, je suis Thersite: mettezmoi a la +tete d'une armee don't j'aie a repondre a toute l'Europe, je suis +Achille_!" + +2. _Page_ 114. The chungke stone of this favorite game of the southern +Indians bears a certain resemblance to the ancient discus of the Greek +athlete. This, it will be remembered, fashioned of metal or stone, +circular, almost flat, was clasped by the fingers of one hand and held +in the bend of the forearm, extending almost to the elbow. The genuine +chungke stone is solid and discoidal in shape, beautifully polished, +wrought of quartz, or agate, the most distinctive being concave on both +sides, beveled toward the flat outer edge, and having a depression in +the centre of both surfaces for the convenience of holding it with the +second finger and thumb, the first finger clasping the periphery. Its +usual dimensions are about six or eight inches in diameter. There are +several varieties of these archaic relics, some flat, others lenticular +or of a wedge-shell shape, and others, still, concave on one side and +convex on the other. An absolutely spherical stone, bearing the +extraordinarily high polish that distinguishes these unique objects, +found in an ancient mound and supposed to have relation to the same or a +similar game, calls to mind the globular quoit of the classical athletes +and that "enormous round" described by Homer, "Aetion's quoit"--to hurl +which bowl they vie, "who teach the disk to sound along the sky." + +The exquisite finish of the chungke stone was compassed without the aid +of a single tool, merely by the attrition of one stone upon another, +"from time immemorial rubbed smooth upon the rocks, with prodigious +labor," resulting in an object of such symmetrical beauty that even in +the museums of the present day, out of which it is rarely seen, it +challenges admiration. Antiquaries variously contend that it was hurled +through the air and that it was bowled on the edge along the ground, its +equilibrium being so perfect that on a level space it will roll a great +distance, falling only when its impetus is expended. + +The chungke stone is often confounded with the Indian quoit, likewise +circular and fashioned of smoothly wrought stone, but with an orifice in +the centre, rendering it in effect a ring to be flung over a stake at a +distance, or to be caught on the point of a lance. + +It has been inferred that Adair is mistaken in his assertion that by the +Indian law the chungke stones were exempt from burial with the effects +of the dead, since certain of the most perfect specimens known to modern +archaeological collections were found in the exploration of mounds in +the valley of the Tennessee River. By many these mounds are supposed to +be prehistoric, and the game is doubtless of an unimaginable antiquity. +As late as his day, among the Cherokees; 1736, the stones were kept with +the "strictest religious care," and were the property of the town where +the game was played. + +Adair, despite his roving life, had evidently scant sympathy with +athletics. He may have been growing old and indolent when he speaks of +the game as a "task of stupid drudgery" and opines that instead of a +sport it might "with propriety of language" be described as "running +hard labor." Other eye-witnesses, however, vaunt the great beauty and +grace of the game. Captain Bernard Romany chronicles with relish the +dexterity requisite, the great strength and skill displayed by the +participants in the violent exercise, although demurely moralizing the +while on its perilous fascination to both players and spectators, by +reason of the inordinate temptation presented by its doubtful chances to +the reckless gambler. Lieutenant Timberlake alone calls it +"_nettecawaw_." + +As there are moot points concerning the stones themselves and the +conduct of the sport, so the chungke spears differ in the accounts of +the early adventurers in this region. The length is variously given as +eight, ten, twelve feet. The shape is sometimes represented as a lance +or pole heavy in the centre and tapering at both ends to a blunt point, +and others describe an implement resembling a magnified golf club of the +present day. + +3. _Page_ 114. This choice decoration, popular though it was, could not +be attained without a penalty commensurate with its valuation. It is +stated by early travelers among the Indian tribes that thirty days were +required to properly heal an ear thus distended _a la mode_. The +patient, if one so prideful might be so called, could only have one ear +in the painful process at a time, in order that he might be able to lie +in sleeping on the other side until such time as his embellished ear +should be again serviceable for this prosaic purpose, and permit the +like decoration of the opposite member. + +4. _Page_ 142. An illustration of how the Choctaws profited by these +earnest labors may be given in the fate of a chapel erected for their +benefit at Chickasaha by the French and placed in charge of a Jesuit +missionary. The Choctaws so far accepted Christianity as to be able to +travesty the services and mimic the priest with surprising humor and +verisimilitude when the English came in, and were wont to go to the old +chapel for this profane exhibition to the mingled delight and +reprobation of the military new-comers. The chapel was soon afterward +destroyed, but Captain Romans records that in 1771 he saw the cross +still standing on the site, a melancholy memorial of futile missionary +endeavor. + +All the Indians, however, were temperamentally averse to the services +and tenets of the Christian religion, and Timberlake gives an instance +among the Cherokees in 1760 in which a missionary was balked by a unique +interruption. "Mr. Martin, who having preached Scripture till both he +and his audience were heartily tired, was told at last that they knew +very well that if they were good they would go up; if bad, down; that he +could tell no more; that he had long plagued them with what they no ways +understood, and they desired that he would depart the country." + +The epitome of theology thus deduced was so far a just conclusion. But +doubtless the Indians labored greatly with imperfect comprehension. +Humboldt describes a service among a South American tribe, in which a +missionary preaching in Spanish was at his wits' end to make his +audience differentiate between _infierno_ and _invierno_. They persisted +in shivering with horror at the picture of the hell of his warnings in +which the wicked were supposed to be subjected to everlasting winter. +One is tempted to think that the end might have justified the means if +the good padre had fallen in with the prejudice against the rainy season +and adopted, in lieu of the fire-and-brimstone of Scripture, as a future +state of punishment, the icy Ninth Circle of Dante's Inferno, where + + "_Eran l' ombre dolenti nella ghiaccia, + Mettendo i denti in nota di cicogna_." + +5. _Page_ 151. The cultivation of personal pride was an essential +element of training among the Indians. They held the lower ranks of +white people in great contempt, and Timberlake records that in some +athletic diversions at which he and other members of the Virginia +regiment were present they refused to play or to hold conference with +any of the troops except the officers. + +6. _Page_ 179. The primary and somewhat complex significance of the word +_ada-wehi_ is suggested by the idea of sorcery,--a man, or animal, or +even element endowed with uncontrolled superlative and supernatural +powers. It has been stated that since the introduction of Christianity +and the printing of the New Testament in the Cherokee typographical +character the word has been utilized with its subtleties of +signification to express spirit or angel. In this story, however, the +scene of which is laid in a period long previous to the conversion of +the tribe, or even the accepted date of the invention of the Cherokee +alphabet, the word is used in its early and original sense to denote a +magician of special and expansive gifts of sorcery. + +7. _Page_ 186. Although this officer's name was regularly incorporated +into the Cherokee vocabulary as a synonym of disaster, he seemed to +revolt at the unhappy plight of the people whom in the discharge of his +duty he had succeeded in reducing to so abject a condition of despair +and woe, and has left on record expressions of compassion incongruous +with his deeds and his position as a professed soldier of long +experience. He had served in Flanders and Ireland in his youth as +captain in the Royal Scots before he first came to America as major in +Montgomerie's regiment of Highlanders. + +Some adequate idea of the desolation and destitution of the Indians may +be gleaned from the reports to the British government: "The Cherokees +must certainly starve or come into terms, and even in that case Colonel +Grant thinks it is hardly in the power of the provincials to save them. +He proposed in a few days to send for The Great Warrior (Oconostota) and +The Little Carpenter (Atta-Kulla-Kulla) to come and treat for peace, if +they choose to save their nation from destruction. Till he receives +their answer he will endeavor to save the small remains of the Lower +Towns. In the mean time Colonel Grant intends to put Fort Prince George +into repair, and to wait there or at Ninety-Six till he receives orders +from Sir Jeffrey Amherst." + +The idea of the pangs of hunger and the sight of starvation and +deprivation may have been the more repugnant to Colonel Grant since he +was himself famous as a _bon vivant_ and gourmet. Indeed, even yet, in +turning old pages we come upon records of his dinners. Bartram, the +Philadelphia botanist, whom the Muscogee Indians quaintly called +_Puc-Puggy_ (the Flower Hunter) details the great size of a rattlesnake, +"six feet long and as thick as the leg of an ordinary man" which he +chanced to kill in his bosky researches near Fort Picolata in Florida, +and not the least surprising feature of the incident was a message from +the commandant inviting both combatants to dinner, "Governor Grant being +very fond of rattlesnake flesh." This officer, at that time Royal +Governor of East Florida, was holding a congress with the Creek Indians +hard by the fort, having come from St. Augustine with a detachment of +its garrison for the purpose. Bartram, dining in company with Grant that +day, saw his enemy served up in several different styles,--and he, too, +must turn softhearted!--he could not partake of the dish,--and "was +sorry after killing the serpent, when coolly recollecting every +circumstance of it." However, neither the rattlesnake nor the Cherokees +were in condition to profit by these belated graces of magnanimity. + +Through Grant's scattered correspondence there is a flavor of "vivers." +Frederick George Mulcaster, still with the garrison of St. Augustine, in +a letter addressed to Grant, then in Boston, laughingly alludes to his +constant good cheer. "Captain Urquhart writes to his brother officers +here that '_General Grant lives like a General_!'" And later, in piteous +contrast, "His Excellency (the new Royal Governor) gave a dinner +yesterday to the officers of the Fourteenth and some others. It is the +only dinner he has given since the one he gave to John Stuart (famous as +the survivor of Fort Loudon) upon his arrival here,"--a matter of two +months. He further notes as a point of interest, "Your black man, +Alexander, was with me this instant to inquire after your health, and +has loaded me with _beaucoup de complimens_. He wishes much to come to +make your bread." Doubtless it was well made, for Grant, prospering, +went on from dinner to dinner, from promotion to promotion, attaining +the rank of General in the army and great corpulency, representing +Sutherlandshire in the British Parliament many years, and dying at the +age of eighty-six at his birthplace, Ballindalloch, in the north of +Scotland. + +8. _Page_ 212. The "Annual Register" in giving among State Papers the +text of a treaty between Governor Lyttleton of South Carolina, +Captain-General, etc., and Atta-Kulla-Kulla, "deputy for the whole +Cherokee Nation," dated at Fort Prince George, Dec. 26, 1759, adds in a +note: "Atta-Kulla-Kulla, the Little Carpenter, who concluded this treaty +in behalf of the Cherokee Indians, was in England and at court several +times in the year 1730." + +9. _Page_ 215. The oratorical gifts of this Indian (under the name +Chollochcullah, supposed to be a phonetic variant of Atta-Kulla-Kulla) +are thus described in _The Gentleman's Magazine_ for October, 1755, +chronicling the details of an earlier diplomatic occasion: "The speaker +rose up, and holding a bow in one hand and a sheaf of arrows in the +other, he delivered himself in the following words, with all the +distinctness imaginable, with the dignity and graceful action of a Roman +or Grecian orator, and with all their ease and eloquence." + +10. _Page_ 231. Their tribal name, "men of fire," and their great +veneration for that element have given rise to the conjecture that the +Cherokees were originally fire-worshipers, as well as polytheistic. The +interpolation of the intensative syllable "ta" is, according to Adair, a +"note of magnitude," and the title of their prophets, whose functions +are blended as priests, conjurers, physicians, and councilors,--the +cheera-taghe,--signifies "men of divine fire." But Adair protests that +the theistic ideals of the Indians were wholly spiritual, and that they +had no plurality of gods. They paid their devotions merely to the "great +beneficent supreme holy spirit of fire, who resides as they think above +the clouds," and he argues plausibly that if they worshiped fire itself +they would not have willfully extinguished the sanctified element +annually on the last day of the old year throughout the nation, the +invariable custom, before the cheera-taghe of each town kindled the +"holy fire" anew, this being one of their exclusive functions. It may be +that in their ancient rhapsodies (many of which Mr. James Mooney has +collected for the Smithsonian Institution) addressed to bird or flame or +beast the Indians adopted a poetic license no more significant of +polytheism than the flights of fancy of many Christian poets in odes to +the moon, to Fate, "to the red planet Mars," to the "wild west wind." +Mere impersonation and invocation in apostrophe and paeans are not +necessarily worship. Doubtless these spells and charms often arose from +a superstitious half-belief, an imaginative freak, such as possesses the +civilized visionary who shows a coin to the new moon to propitiate its +fancied waxing influence in behalf of a balance at the banker's, or the +Christianized Scotch Highlander of even the early nineteenth century who +threw a piece of hasty pudding over the left shoulder on the anniversary +of _Bealdin_ (the Gaelic for no other than Baal) to appease the spirits +of the mists, the winds, the ravens, the eagles, and thus protect the +crops and flocks. There is a thin boundary line as difficult to define +as "to distinguish and divide a hair 'twixt south and southwest side," +between true belief and feigned credence. + +The veneration of the ancient Cherokees for the element of fire, in +addition to their name, its careful conservation throughout the year, +their addresses to its spirit, _Higayuli Tsunega, hatu ganiga_ (O +Ancient White, you have drawn near to listen), is farther manifested by +its traces found in the exploration of burial mounds, intimating a +ceremonial introduction of the element at the remote period of +interment,--if, indeed, the construction of these mounds can he ascribed +to the Cherokees. Those on which their town houses were erected at a +later date, the clay-covered rotunda forming a superstructure looking +like a small mountain at a little distance, according to Timberlake, +wherein were held the assemblies, whether for amusement or council or +religious observances, served also as a substitute for the modern +bulletin-board. Two stands of colors were flying, one from the top of +the town house, the other at the door. These ensigns were white for +peace, and exchanged for red when war impended. "The news hollow," as +Timberlake phrases the cry, sounded from the summit of the mound, would +occasion the assembling of all the community in the rotunda to hear the +details from the lips of the chief. How much more the: "death hollow," +harbinger of woe! + +11. _Page_ 323. They are hardly to be regarded as myths perhaps, rather +as dislocated relics of fact. In treating of the "Origin of American +Nations," Dr. Barton says: "These traditions are entitled to much +consideration, for, notwithstanding the rude condition of most of the +tribes, they are often perpetuated in great purity, as I have discovered +by much attention to their history." It is generally accepted that the +first historical mention of the Cherokees occurs under the name of +_Chelaque_ in the chronicles of De Soto's expedition in 1540 when they +already occupied the Great Smoky Mountains and the contiguous region, +but the Indians themselves had a tradition, according to Haywood's +_Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee_, which was recited +annually at the Green Corn Dance, in which they claimed that they were +the earlier mound builders on the upper Ohio, whence they had migrated +at a remote date. They can be identified with the ancient Talega or +Tallegwi if the records of the _Walam Olum_ (painted sticks) may be +believed, the wooden originals of which are said to have been preserved +till 1822 and considered inexplicable, till their mnemonic signs and a +manuscript song in the Lenni Lenape language, obtained from a remnant of +the Delaware Indians, were translated by Professor C.S. Rafinesque "with +deep study of the Delaware and the aid of Zeisberger's manuscript +Dictionary in the library of the Philosophical Society." + +In this, a dynasty of Lenni Lenape chiefs and the events of their reigns +are successively named, and from the first mention of their encounter +with the warlike Tallegwi or Cherokee to the discovery of Columbus there +is necessarily implied the passage of many centuries. Even the time that +has elapsed since the Tallegwi were overthrown by them is estimated as +somewhat more than a thousand years, thus placing this defeat in the +ninth century. Professor Cyrus Thomas in "The Cherokees of Pre-Columbian +Times" states that he thinks it would be more nearly correct to credit +the event to the eleventh or twelfth century. He quotes in support of +his theory from the _Walam-Olum_ as translated by Dr. Brinton, who +giving the original in parallel pages, with the mnemonic signs, does not +use in the English version the Indian names of the chiefs. + +This record of the _Walam-Olum_ is really very curious. After passing +the account of the Creation, the Flood, the Migrations, and entering +upon the Chronicles, the _Walam-Olum_ reads much like a Biblical +genealogy, save that in lieu of scions of a parent tree these are +military successors, war-captains. The following quotations are from the +version given by Squier: + + 47. _Opekasit_ (East-looking) being next chief, was sad + because of so much warfare. + + 48. Said let us go to the Sun-rising (_Wapagishek_) and + many went east together. + + 49. The Great River _(Messussipu)_ divided the land and + being tired they tarried there. + + 50. _Yagawanend_ (Hut-Maker) was next sakimau, and then + the Tallegwi were found possessing the east. + + 51. Followed _Chitanitis_ (Strong Friend), who longed for + the rich east land. + + 52. Some went to the east but the Tallegwi killed a + portion. + + 53. Then all of one mind exclaimed war, war! + + 54. The _Talamatan_ (Not-of-themselves) and the Nitilowan + all united (to the war). + + 55. _Kinnehepend_ (Sharp-looking) was their leader, and + they went over the river. + + 56. And they took all that was there and despoiled and + slew the Tallegwi. + + 57. _Pimokhasuwi_ (Stirring About) was next chief, and + then the Tallegwi were much too strong. + + 58. _Tenchekensit_ (Open Path) followed and many towns + were given up to him. + + 59. _Paganchihilla_ was chief,--and the Tallegwi all went + southward. + +After the earliest mention of the Tallegwi in verse 50 of the First +Chronicle there are about fifty chieftains enumerated, and characterized +with their successive reigns before the entrance of the white +discoverers of the continent at the end of the Second Chronicle. In this +it is stated at verse-- + + 56. _Nenachipat_ was chief toward the sea. + + 57. Now from north and south came the _Wapagachik_ (white + comers). + + 58. Professing to be friends, in big birds (ships). Who + are they? + +And with this dramatic climax the ancient picture record closes. + +What is known as the Modern Chronicle, a fragment, begins with the +answer, "Alas! Alas! we know now who they are, these _Wapinsis_ (East +People) who came out of the sea to rob us of our lands." + +And that the modern chronicle shall be certainly correct the successor +of _Lekhibit_ (the compiler of the ancient story) is assisted by +critical philologists, and Rafinesque takes issue with Holm touching a +Swedish suffix in an Indian name. "Mattanikum was chief in 1645. He is +called 'Mattahorn' by Holm, and 'horn' is not Lenapi!" + +It is difficult to adjust one's credulity to accept as history this +singular Indian picture-record. Its authenticity is supported by the +great scope of the system and the reputed subtlety and close accuracy by +which abstract ideas, the origin of things, the powers of nature, the +elements of religion, could be expressed and read by those conversant +with the mnemonic signs,--as easily, Heckewelder says, as a piece of +writing. The noted antiquary Squier, however, who in this connection has +lauded Rafinesque's industry, scientific attainments, and eager +researches, states that since writing in this vein he has seen fit to +read this author's _American Nations_ and finds it "a singular jumble of +facts and fancies," and adds that it is unfortunate that the manuscript +in question should fall in this category. To praise, even with +qualifications, the author without reading all his work on the subject, +while certainly more amiable, is hardly more conducive to an impartial +estimate than to disparage on hearsay, according to that travesty of +critical judgment: "'_Que dites-vous du livre d'Hermodore?' 'Qu'il est +mauvais,' repond Anthime ... 'Mais l'aves-vous lu?' 'Non.' dit Anthime. +Quen'ajoute-t-il que Fulvie et Melanie l'ont condamne sans l'avoir lu, +et qu'il est ami de Fulvie et de Melanie_?" + +In contrast with this method the caution and critical scrutiny with +which Dr. Brinton, in his work on "The Lenape," deliberates upon the +question of the authenticity of the _Walam Olum_ are indeed marked. He +carefully examines all the details both favorable and adverse, and +finally adduces the evidence of the text itself. The manuscript +submitted by him to educated Indians of the Lenni Lenape is pronounced +to be a genuine oral composition of a Delaware Indian in an ancient +dialect, evidently dictated to one not wholly conversant with, all the +terminal inflections of the words, which occasional omissions form the +chief defect of the curious "Red Score." + +12. _Page_ 324. Some authorities hold that the _Talamatan_ +(Not-of-themselves) mentioned by the _Walam-Olum_ were the Hurons who +allied themselves with the Delawares against the Tallegwi, and that +Heckewelder is mistaken in stating that these confederates were the +Mengwe. This story, however, follows the account of the war and the +subsequent subjection of the Delawares as given by Heckewelder. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FRONTIERSMEN*** + + +******* This file should be named 13724.txt or 13724.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/7/2/13724 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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