CHAPTER XXV--FAREWELL FOREVE
The killing of Lobb was as nothing to the Delawares in comparison to thewords Lone-Elk had spoken, and the greatest confusion followed hissudden departure. Many Indians and two of the woodsmen rushed out as ifto seize the Seneca, but he was gone. For an instant they caught sightof him among the trees, walking rapidly away, with head erect andshoulders squared. Not once did he look back.
Why no one went in pursuit of Lone-Elk might be hard to explain; butcertain it is that neither Indian nor white man so much as called afterhim. Perhaps what was every one's business was no one's business. At anyrate the Seneca went his way unmolested, and those who had hurried outafter him soon returned to the Council House where, between them,Captain Pipe and Kingdom had succeeded in restoring quiet--the former byordering the Delawares to be silent; the latter by cautioning hisfriends to beep cool.
Sergeant Quayle had sought to lift the unfortunate Lobb up the moment hefell, but found his task useless. The murderer was dead, and no wonder,for the gaping wound in his head was both wide and deep.
Quayle still knelt over the lifeless body when the confusion hadsubsided; but seeing with what horror even the savages regarded the deadman's fallen jaw and staring eyes, truly a most terrible sight, hecovered the corpse with his coat.
An embarrassing silence followed the noise and commotion the tragedy hadoccasioned, and for a few seconds the quiet was dreadful. The Indianswere in no good humor. The woodsmen were ripe and ready for trouble andKingdom understood only too well the gravity of the situation. But hegrappled with it boldly and successfully.
"Captain Pipe," he said, with quiet dignity, "A murder has beencommitted. A white man has been killed while under the flag of truce. Itis not enough to say that he deserved his death. Of course we realizethat the Delawares are not exactly to blame. Still we have all learnedhow Big Buffalo died and we have seen the murderer punished. Now willthe Delawares not agree that they no longer have a reason for holdingLittle Paleface a prisoner?"
"Like the Delawares have the young Paleface brothers suffered for thesins of another," Captain Pipe made answer. "They will yield theprisoner to his friends. Yet do the Delawares urge the Paleface youngmen to leave the lands of the Indians and, until there is peace, comeback no more. They know, as the Delawares know, that it is not safe. Theblood of our warriors is heated. The braves are in warpaint. For theLittle Paleface and for White Fox the Delawares will have only kindthoughts. They have been good friends. The Indians have been glad tovisit them and trade with them.
"Yet is it wise that they travel their separate paths alone. The ways ofthe Paleface are not the ways of the Indian. The Great Spirit has madethem both as they are and they cannot be otherwise. Time and theconflicts that every day take place will at last draw a line betweenthem and there will be peace and happiness. To the west will live theIndians as the Great Spirit has taught them to do. To the east, thePalefaces will cut down trees, drive off the game and build and dwell innoisy towns. It is as they have been taught. Still, only by war can theline of separation be drawn, and it is well for the Delawares and theirPaleface brothers to go in different ways. Today the trail they havefollowed together divides. They say farewell. They hope for friendship'ssake their paths may never meet in war."
With a few words in reply Kingdom hurried to John Jerome, whom thewarriors quickly loosened from his bonds. The two boys clasped hands insilence.
Fishing Bird had already sent Long-Hair and Little Wolf for John's rifleand other belongings and when the lad had shaken hands with Neohaw,Gentle Maiden and Captain Pipe, his property was handed him.
Ree also took leave of the Indians whose friendship he had once enjoyedand, two of the woodsmen bearing the body of the Englishman, all thewhite men left the village.
Silently, their untamed spirits for the time subdued, the Indiansgathered near the Council House to watch the departure of the Palefaces.To the portage trail Ree and John were accompanied by Fishing Bird. Theyasked him to go with them--to remain with them permanently. He shook hishead.
"Paleface brothers heard the words of Captain Pipe," he said,significantly but sorrowfully, and they said good-bye forever.
An hour later, beside the portage path, the great highway of thewilderness, the body of Lobb was buried; and the sun went down anddarkness enveloped the vast forest and all within it.
CHAPTER XXVI--DOWN THE SUN-KISSED SLOPE TOGETHER
Beside their campfire, near the spot where a mossy stone marked Lobb'slast resting place, the two boys and their friends discussed theirfuture movements. All were interested in visiting the murderer's camp inthe ravine, and Jim Small declared his intention of making search forthe Seneca's lead mine. He believed the Indian had some good reason fortelling the Delawares he knew of such a mine, and, though the others didnot agree with him, he held to his theory.
In substance Small's idea was that, inasmuch as out-and-out lying wasnot an Indian trait, Lone-Elk must have had some basis for his storymore than had been discovered. However, time proved that this theory wasnot well founded. Jim was right in his assertion that Indians did notmake lying a practice, but in this as well as in his ambition to be aleader, whatever the cost, the Seneca was less honorable than Indianswere as a rule, before trickery and firewater had corrupted them.
Despite their fatigue and the day's exciting events, the woodsmen andthe two boys remained awake far into the night. They were alert andwatchful, however, for the older men placed no confidence whatever inthe savages, and all screened themselves from sight by lying down amongthe bushes near which their fire was built.
Besting thus, and speaking in low tones, John told the story of hisadventure and in turn heard with great interest the story of Lobb'scapture and confession. There were tears in Ree's eyes when Jeromedescribed the burning of the cabin, and for the first time he felt inhis heart a hatred deep and endless toward the Indians as a whole.
The Sergeant and his men were astonished to learn of the many livelyskirmishes the two pioneer boys had had with the savages at differenttimes, and expressed their wonder that both had not been scalped longago.
"Ye'll desarve it, too, if ever ye come to these hostyle parts ag'in,"Quayle told them. "Whist! It beats all, so it do, that mere spalpeensget through where whiskers a full foot long can't go!"
The morning came, cold and raw, with a feeling of show in the air. Withsome haste the little party ate a breakfast of roasted smoked meat andresumed the march toward the gully. They paused for half an hour in theclearing and Ree and John soon found Neb, sheltering himself from thewind, back of a clump of bushes. Every particle of harness had beendestroyed by the fire, and only a strip of buckskin could be foundwherewith to lead the horse. Neb was very docile, however, and upon hiswilling back a roughly fashioned pack was soon placed. It contained cornand potatoes from the fields the boys had cultivated, and variousarticles of baggage of which the woodsmen were glad to be relieved.
Before leaving the clearing Ree and John went again to the heap of asheswhich marked the cabin site. Together they surveyed the ruins and wereglad of the opportunity to speak to each other some words of sympathytheir companions would not hear. As they did so, John noticed stickingin the half-burned end of a log a blood-stained tomahawk.
"Look! Lone-Elk came here!" he said.
"I declare," returned Kingdom solemnly, "his hatred is something almostmore than human. Venting his feelings by leaving that hatchet at thisspot! I suppose he intends it as a warning!"
Neither boy was disposed to touch the weapon and they left it--left itand the remnants of their fallen hopes and castles among the ashes ofthe cabin. Ree sighed as they turned away. "But still," he said,brightening, "we have enough to be thankful for, after all."
It was nearly noon when the camp in the gully was reached. Apparently noone had been near since the capture of Lobb, and no reason to doubt thetruthfulness of the story the guilty wretch had told could bediscovered, excepting that no gold was found.
"We'd orter g
ot that 'fore we took the heathen away," said one of thewoodsmen, and the others agreed.
Ree and John, however, did not greatly care. With the others, they madecareful search of the vicinity, however. Nothing did they find except afew articles of food, some cooking utensils, a bullet mold and aquantity of lead and powder in the low, shallow cave concealed among thebushes. All the afternoon was given up to hunting for the lead mine andthe gold thought to be hidden near by. But the Seneca's mine, if he hadone, remains undiscovered to this day. Neither was the slightest traceof the treasure sent for the Indians, but who never received it, found.
The searchers made camp at night near the hollow whitewood, whosesheltering trunk protected Ree, John and the Sergeant. The othersscoffed good-naturedly, saying the first three were no better thanbears. Nevertheless the tree was a very comfortable place, andespecially on this occasion, for during the night much snow fell.
The desirability of reaching Wayne's camp as soon as possible wasapparent to all members of the party and rapid marching was agreed upon.A halt of a half day for hunting, with the result that a quantity offresh venison and several turkeys were carried into camp, was the onlydelay in the journey to the east, and the distance of nearly one hundredmiles was covered in a little more than five days.
Gen. Wayne sent for both Kingdom and Jerome the day following theirarrival and from them heard a full account of the salt springs murder,the death of Lobb, and the indisputable evidence that the British atDetroit were extending aid to the redskins throughout the Northwestterritory. He cautioned the boys that they must not think of returningto their clearing, and, thinking perhaps of the military ambitions ofhis own boyhood, the sham battles he had arranged and fought, and thesieges he had planned, asked them if they would like to join his"Legion." It was by this name that he always called the army he wasassembling.
Thanking him, and saying they would like to think of his offer and talkit over, the lads took leave of the great soldier, feeling very wellsatisfied with themselves.
In the end, however, Ree and John did not join the "Legion." They werenot lacking in courage, nor in patriotism. But within the next few daysJohn was taken very sick. The injuries and exposure he had suffered werethe cause of it, the army surgeon said. He was removed to Fort Pitt andthe winter was half over before he was again able to be out of doors. Heregained strength slowly and with the coming of spring he and Ree,mounted on Neb and Phoebe, made the trip by easy stages to Connecticut.
Three years passed before the boys went west again, and along the wholefrontier peace reigned supreme. Wayne's victory over the savages at theBattle of Fallen Timbers effectually ended their resistance tocivilization's advance in the Ohio country, and never again did aserious outbreak occur in the region named. By the treaty of FortGreenville in 1796 the extreme eastern boundary between the settlers andthe Indians was definitely fixed at the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas riversand the portage path. It so remained until the treaty of Fort Industryin 1805 when the Indians sold the lands west of the path and the riversnamed.
The village of Captain Pipe on the little lake had by this time longsince disappeared. As a nation the Delawares were scattered and theirnumbers were small. Eventually they found homes in a far westernreservation.
Although Ree and John never saw the honest, loyal Fishing Bird again,they heard of him as taking a gallant part, on the side of the Indians,of course, in the Battle of Fallen Timbers. Report reached them also ofa most bitterly hostile savage who was among the killed in this battle.He fought with his last breath. Though shot twice through the body, heraised himself on his elbow and sunk his knife into a wounded soldierwho had fallen near him. That this redskin was Lone-Elk, the Seneca,there can be little doubt.
There is a tradition that the beautiful daughter of Captain Pipe soattracted a young warrior, whose admiration she did not like, that hepoisoned himself when she rejected his attentions. Another traditionstates that Gentle Maiden was cruelly shot by two white men, whilewalking alone in the woods. I do not know whether these legends aresupported by fact nor do I know if there is any truth whatever in thetradition of there having been a lead mine in the Cuyahoga valley, theexistence of which was known only to the Indians.
Return Kingdom and John Jerome did not settle again where their originalclearing had been. There was a reason and it was that pretty MaryCatesby, a very early friend of Ree's, having become Mrs. ReturnKingdom, was a party to the plans for the permanent removal west. Shewanted to be somewhere within reach of neighbors. Woman-like, she hadher way, and Ree bought land near Marietta. Where Kingdom was JohnJerome was sure to be, and he owned the adjoining farm.
Both the boys, now to manhood grown, were active in the public affairsof the state of Ohio, organized a few years later, and many a day andevening found them together in conference concerning matters of mutualinterest. They did not always agree, but it is certain they neverquarreled. Their lives were blessed with many quiet joys and even whensorrows came they also were shared and each grief and burden seemed thelighter.
More and more often in later years, as the two went down the sun-kissedslope of lives well spent did they speak of the adventures of theiryouth. Maybe John was inclined to brag a little. Some say so. But bothwere liked by all.
To the end of his days John looked up to Ree as to an elder brother, andif he did brag it was of Kingdom's exploits, rather than his own, andthe latter was wont to smile, "Well, well! They were days quite briskenough, and pleasant now to talk about; but in quite a different way thepresent days are brisker, after all."
THE END.
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