T. C. Harbaugh

“ War means death to the Indian and the rule of the American throughout our hunting grounds. Parquatin is not afraid to lead his braves to battle; but where is the use? Who comes here to-night and tells us to bear our bosoms to the rifles of the Blacksnake? Does the White Whirlwind lead his braves in open fight? No! he will tell us to rush upon the Americans, while he trails some white girl through the woods; and make her build the fires in his hut. Parquatin hates the Blacksnake; but he despises the Indian who will listen to the forked words of such a pale fox as the Whirlwind. ”

“ Now,” to Areotha, “tell us if you are the witch he calls you—tell us if you have ever decoyed the boats of our people to an ambush.”
“Areotha will speak boldly, though that man may repeat her words among the Wyandot lodges, and the warriors on the trail. She is the pale faces’ friend. If the bee does not love to gather honey from the flower: if the Manitou does not love his white and red children, then Areotha has decoyed the boats ashore! She has spoken, and since she built the first fire for old Madgitewa, her Indian mother, her tongue has not told a lie.” ”

“ I had one of the best wives in the world, and a little girl who was just beginning to call me ’papa.’”
“You have had revenge?” said Abel Merriweather.
“Ask the woods, the streams, and the Indian villages that lie between the Ohio and the Maumee if I have not glutted my thirst for vengeance. But it has not restored my family. I have killed, but the blows that I have dealt did not give back my child’s kiss, my wife’s embrace. No; there is no satisfaction in vengeance. ”

“ While Oscar Parton was not an experienced woodman, like his friend, the mysteries of the trail were not great ones to him. He had been reared in the forests, and from the very tribes that now sought his heart’s blood he had learned much of the science of tracking man and beast. He felt proud of the notice which Catlett had taken of his woodcraft in permitting him to search alone for Kate’s trail, and he inwardly hoped that he would have the good fortune to find it. The circumstance would elevate him in the eyes of the young scout. ”

“ I know her but too well, and many a poor white man and his little family have tasted death in the Maumee through her treachery. But if you wish to test it, I shall not stand between. When John Darknight’s words of warning can be brushed aside by the lies of a girl like that one, it is high time for him to betake himself away. You will repent soon enough. Trust the witch and get to Wayne, if you can!”
With the last word still quivering his lips, the guide shouldered his heavy rifle and tightened his belt, as if bent on departure. ”

“ He paused as if he was about to reveal something, which he would rather keep back.
“My father, the Manitou, may send for Areotha, and the leaves will fall upon her before she can know who her real father is. Tell her. This may be the last time that she——”
“Tell you? No!” was the harsh interruption, and all the revenge in Girty’s nature seemed in his voice. “There are secrets which the stake could not force from me; this is one of them. There lives one man whom I wouldn’t make happy to save my own life, and sooner than see you in his arms, I would drive this knife to your heart.” ”

“ The light growing stronger as the day advanced, revealed the tenant of the solitary canoe to the young man, and while he gazed intently, the craft suddenly shot like an arrow to the shore.
Instinctively Oscar Parton raised his rifle, but the movement was detected by the person in the stream, and a hand gave the peace signal.
“I cannot shoot a woman!” the guard murmured, lowering the weapon. “Her coming may be our destruction, but I cannot harm her. Bless me, I believe she is a white!” ”

“ It was a talk that made the Whirlwind mad; and there in the council before the assembled braves of seven nations, he drove his tomahawk into our brother’s brain. We have raised our hands to the Manitou like the white men do when they want to make their words strong, and said that we hate the palefaces who have lied the Indian into the fight. We strike at the renegade; we trail the White Whirlwind; and he shall die for the blow which he struck at the council in the long hollow. White man, you are one of us now. You carry the sign of the brotherhood. Wherever you go you will find red brethren. ”

“ Girty smiled as he recalled the theft of Harvey Catlett’s message from the forest letter box, and congratulated himself that Wells and Hummingbird (a famous chief and spy in Wayne’s employ) would find the tree empty when they should reach it. The self-congratulations still lingered in his heart when the report of a distant rifle, faint, but clear enough, nevertheless, struck his practiced ear. ”

“ The Indian is my companion, and when he can’t invent new deviltry, he comes to me. But I have some good traits left. The dog that steals sheep and bites children is capable of loving his master. I have a brother, and though we have together trod the paths of iniquity from the trough cradle—though he has sought to lower me in the eyes of the tribes, I would not lift a hand against him. No, Simon Girty, your brother loves you because your mother was his; but,” and the renegade paused a moment, “but even a brother may wrong too deeply. Keep from me, Simon. ”

“ The renegade’s eyes seemed filled with the heartless merriment.
“Restore you to the boat? Let you go, after I have gone to the pains of getting John Darknight to guide you into my hands? Why, girl, you have not studied the character of Jim Girty.”
Kate’s hope fled away, and she looked without a word upon the forest beauty at her side.
“My father, let the white girl go,” Little Moccasin said, venturing to meet the outlaw’s flashing eyes. “See! I have killed the traitor. He will never betray my father again.” ”

“ At his feet, as it were, was a space of ground over which a hurricane had at some time swept with relentless fury. The results of its work, broken trees and fallen ones, were apparent to the eye. Into this place the starlight fell, and the rays of the moon, soon to bathe herself in the waters of the Maumee, penetrated like shafts of silver.
The scene that presented itself to the outlaw was enough to startle him.
He saw two figures in the light—two living ones, we mean—but not far remote, with face upturned to the stars, lay a giant form, motionless as the earth itself. ”

“ Words were falling from his lips, and his eyes remained fixed upon Abner Stark.
“They did it!” he said. “It was a redskin’s bullet, and Parquatoc’s. No more battles for Jim Girty. Listen, Abner Stark, for I know you. You have hunted me a long time, to find me dying. Where is the girl?”
Wolf Cap started, and glanced at the spy.
“He talks about some girl, Harvey.”
“Is the girl here?” asked the outlaw in a louder voice. “No? Must I die without seeing her? Well, let it be so. Abner Stark, when she comes, take her in your arms and call her your child, for such she is. ”

“ Carl Merriweather did not cease to watch him.
The second of silence that followed was suddenly broken, but not by the sound of the sticks on Little Moccasin’s back.
There came a stern voice from the right:
“Stop! I’ll kill the rascal that touches that girl!”
George Darling started, and the knout fell from his hand. There were more than one white face beneath the tree.
“You ought to be ashamed of yourselves!” said the same voice, and the would-be whippers saw Wolf Cap advancing. “It is a pretty business for two young men to be engaged in—whipping a girl in the woods. ”

“ Parquatin was but a boy; he was wearing his first eagle feathers, and he had never made love to a woman.”
“And he never will!” said Girty with sarcasm which cut its way to the Indian brother’s heart.
Parquatoc raised his rifle with a meaning glance at the Shawnee, and stepped toward the door.
“The Whirlwind has killed his last man!” the youth resumed, as the barrel crept up to a level with the renegade’s breast. “He will never press the grass trails again with his moccasins, and the white women will sleep in peace with their papooses at their side. ”

“ The next instant she stepped toward the gnarled tree, and her rifle covered the renegade of the Maumee.
“You’ve got me!” he said, looking into Areotha’s face without a tremor of fear; “but I did not think that you would ever lift a rifle against the man who has been so kind to you. Kill me here, now, and the secret will be kept from you forever!”
There was a spark of hope in his voice, and all at once the girl lowered the weapon. The outlaw was spared to scourge the region of the Maumee a while longer. ”

“ No little patch of Indian corn grew near to indicate the home of a settler, and no honeysuckles shaded the low-browed door to tell that a woman’s gentle hand and loving taste had guided them heavenward. ”

“ Such sachems as Little Turtle, Blue Jacket, and Bockhougahelas stirred the Indian heart, and not a few words of encouragement came from the British forts on the Maumee.
Simon Girty and kindred spirits moved from tribe to tribe underrating Wayne before the august councils, until a united cry of “war to the knife!” ascended to the skies.
The chase suddenly lost its charms to the scarlet hunter; the dandy turned from his mirror to the rifle; the very air seemed heavy with war.
The older warriors were eager to lay their plans before any one who would listen ”

“ No other paleface belongs to us. In danger, show the mark; our people are many, and after the next great battle, the cold white faces among the tribes will not be few. You are free; but if you go with us we will step upon the trail of the white rose stolen from you.”
To the young warrior’s speech, uttered in that eloquence which now and then adorns the pages of savage history, Oscar Parton listened with wonderment and strange emotions. It is true that Parquatoc’s words, as he advanced, prepared him for the finale, but his transition from thoughts of doom to freedom was yet swift and startling. ”

“ A female renegade is the meanest thing on earth.”
“Areotha will talk,” said the girl, who had waited with impatience for the young Hotspur to finish. “The hot-headed young men may shut their ears; but the Manitou will listen. He never turns away from the sound of his people’s voice.”
“Go on, then,” said Darling. “Spit out the pretty story you have cooked up.”
Little Moccasin gave the speaker a glance of hatred, and then said in her silvery tone:
“Areotha comes from the Blacksnake’s spy. The guide is dead; he sleeps where the storm tore down the trees. ”

“ He appeared to be forming a plan for the safety of the imperilled family, and the young scout watched him with much anxiety.
“I don’t know the Merriweathers; never heard of them,” Wolf Cap said, looking up at last. “They are in great danger. There are women and children among them. I had a family once. We must not desert the little band that is trying to get behind Mad Anthony’s bayonets. God forbid that Abner Stark should refuse to protect the helpless from the tomahawk.”
“And here is one who is with you!” cried Harvey Catlett. ”

“ She is the witch of the northwest territory, and many is the boat that she has decoyed ashore to the rifle and the tomahawk. She doubtless recognized me, for I once pitched her into the rapids of yon river, and if she had her deserts now our rifles would rid the territory of its witch, though I know it is hard to kill a woman.”
“Abel, she must not stay here if she is to betray us to death,” said the settler’s wife, fast upon the guide’s last words.
“Not so fast, mother,” interrupted Kate Merriweather, with sympathy in her dark eyes for the lone girl. ”

“ But we have unaccountable antagonisms, and here in the woods one finds them plentiful.”
“But who can hate that dear girl?” said Kate Merriweather’s musical voice. “I could easily call her sister, and live forever at her side. She is not an Indian, though she calls her mother Madgitwa. She cannot be treacherous to our people.”
“Thanks,” said Harvey Catlett, bowing to the fair young speaker. “I rejoice to hear you speak thus of the girl.”
“I fear that Kate is thus partial because of her pretty eyes. I must confess that I do not like her. Her desertion means no good to us.” ”

“ It was evident that they credited the story, for the young man told it in a plain, straightforward manner, embellishing it with no rhetoric.
“White guide steal girl?” the young Indian—a Seneca—said, and the elder nodded his head in confirmation. “Him bad man. Decoys boats to the wrong side of river for the red man. Parquatoc no like him, for he makes war on women and children.”
For several moments the savages conversed together in whispers, and in the Indian tongue, of which the captive caught but few words which he understood. ”

“ Reassured by the white girl’s kindly voice and looks, the accused maiden stepped boldly forward, and said in a tone trembling but sweet:
“The pale guide does not like to see Areotha here, for she knows him. He is more Wyandot than white man, and where is the boat he ever guided that has not bloody planks? Areotha does not know. Did he not tell the white man in his cabin that the red men would surround it and scalp his family, and then right away offer to guide him to the Blacksnake?”
Abel Merriweather started violently. How did the forest girl know that John Darknight had done this? ”