T. C. Harbaugh

“ Of all who participated in that dark night’s work, but three are left: yourself, Turkey-foot, and Joe Girty, the white dog, for in the woods, this night we have met and slain the wolf’s whelp, Leather-lips. Not one has died a natural death—all have fallen by my hand—these fingers have torn their black scalps from their heads. Your time is here, and as you are the bravest chief in the red tribe, I grant you what I have granted to no red-man—time to sing his death-song. ”

“ A cry followed her swoon, and four figures were bending over her, and looking from her pale face into each others’ with astonishment.
“She lives! she lives!” cried Mark Morgan, as he saw the girl’s lids unclose, and while he pressed her to his heart, his companions sprung fearlessly into the fissure, and a moment later reappeared with the senseless form of the British major.
“He’s not going to escape the hangman, after all,” said Kenowatha, as they laid their captive upon the rocks near his almost victim. “He’s badly mangled, but a man who can stand what he has, can stand more.” ”

“ In the center of the underground apartment a bright fire leaped ceilingward, and bathed the entire chamber in a ruddy light. Upon a couch of skins lay the form of a man, whose face the Ottawa at once recognized, and an ejaculation of surprise and triumph, entirely unexpected, bubbled to his lips.
“Not only will Wacomet take the girl,” muttered the Indian, as he shrunk from the glare of the fire, “but he will take the skins, rifles and gold-pieces, that the great red-coat at the fort offers for the pale-face, who struck his young soldier. Ha! how came the pale soldier here? ”

“ An escape was now thought of, and in the darkness the trio left their position. Before they deserted the mount, the bodies of no less than thirteen Indians lay scalpless thereon, and the brows of some bore a red crescent, those of others a bloody cross!
As Kenowatha placed his mark upon the forehead of the last brave slain by his rifle, he took Nanette’s hand.
“Girl,” he whispered, “do you recollect your promise in the cave?”
“Yes, boy.”
“Then to-night I sheathe my knife. Are you not tired of slaying? Have not the dead been avenged?” ”

“ All this Rudolph Runnion poured into the ears of the red girl, whose jealous passions were so aroused that she drew a tiny knife from her bosom, and hissed into the Briton’s ear:
“The Pale Flower shall not nestle on Wacomet’s cheek when he returns; he shall find her withered, beautiful no longer, as cold as the white flowers that grow by the frozen rivers.” ”

“ The Girl Avenger did not press her new success; she seemed confident of ultimate triumph—that every fleeting moment brought the quartette nearer the dark river. She stood with ready rifle, knife and tomahawk, at the orifice and awaited with strange patience for the approach of the doomed band. Around her, easily distinguishable in the light of a number of dying brands, lay the forms of three members of the League of Death, and not far away stood as many more suffering from wounds that laid bones bare. ”

“ The long heron plumes fluttered over his shoulders; he had the keen eye of the Ottawa, and his body was covered with glittering war-paint.
When the sky, at length, began to grow lighter in the east, the canoe increased its speed, under Morgan’s strong strokes, and when the dawn had fairly come the spy guided his little craft up a narrow stream walled by perpendicular rocks.
“There’s a cave not far from here, Effie,” he said, as the boat shot along, now and then grating upon rocks which proclaimed the shallowness of the stream they were navigating. ”

“ I know you are with me, Kenowatha,” and her little hand stole into his, which action sent a thrill to his heart, “and when I swear that I will give my feet no rest until Effie is torn from the snares of the red snake, I know that your heart, beating in unison with mine, responds, amen.”
“Yes, yes, our lives have grown into one existence, Nanette, and we will rescue the girl that she may receive the kiss of pure love when her brave lover returns. But, girl, how long will your vengeance last?” ”

“ They may fill up their ranks whenever we strike, but soon there will be no ranks to fill. See! where are my string of scalps? where the guns I tore from hands cold in death, where all my trophies? Gone, boy, gone! Oh, I’ll have a terrible revenge now: for every scalp the demons burned to-night I will have two, and I swear that the League of Death shall melt away before my rifle.”
“Before our rifles say, girl,” said Kenowatha, clutching her arm as he looked up into her face.
“Ours, then, be it,” she cried. “But, Kenowatha, where’s the White Rose and the bad red-coat?” ”

“ Before the quartette on the bank could prime their deadly weapons the fiendish trader followed the example of his band, and just as he darted into a cavernous opening the Girl Avenger’s rifle cracked, and his arm fell at his side!
Then the four left the trees and entered the ravine. Before the cave they counted twelve dead bodies which attested the desperate nature of the man against whom they had fought. Perhaps a man never battled as Rudolph Runnion had done, for his neck was near the hangman’s noose, and if a man will not fight to escape such disgraceful doom he must be a coward indeed. ”

“ A few moments witnessed Effie’s complete recovery, and in a few words she related her vanquishing of the Briton. When Rudolph Runnion touched her hand in the gloomy cave she must have been in a deep swoon, that admirably counterfeited death, for she knew nothing of his visit, and when she came to her senses, the little apartment was filled with pure air, and a moment afterward she was startled by hearing the major’s defiant words. Presently she knew that the red-skins had been vanquished, and that her lover was beyond the cave. ”

“ Shall the Death League be exterminated ere the dawn of light? Shall none live to meet the Black Snake on the field of battle? Let my brothers answer. ’Tis Turkey-foot, the Ottawa, that speaks.”
By Leather-lips, the sorcerer, the chief’s speech was answered.
“We shall not die ignobly,” he cried. “If we can, let us escape and hunt her down at another time. Now she stands by the small hole ready to strike us down, one at a time, before our arms can reach her. She can not long escape us; we can, we will hunt her down before we meet the Black Snake. Let us escape.” ”

“ How fast they fall before my eyes! When my gun speaks, the Manitou’s lodge opens to receive a spirit. How long will such work last?” and she glanced at her rifle. “How long? Until the last crescent is full of little holes; then—and not until then—the dead will have been avenged.”
With the last words still quivering on her lips, she stooped and wound the Ottawa’s raven scalp-lock around her left hand. A quick sweep of the scalping-knife, and with the gory scalp clutched in her hand, the Girl Avenger rose to her feet. ”

“ Tomahawks and knives flashed above the warriors’ heads.
“Where’s the young She-wolf?” was the universal cry that assailed the renegade. “We will tear her fangs from her head, and her yellow scalp shall dangle from an Indian’s belt. Where lies the slayer whom the red-man has dreaded so long? Show us to her, white Ottawa, that our knives may drink her blood.”
“Calm the howling devils first, Simon,” said Joe Girty. “We don’t want the hull of them to cut the gal to pieces. When they come to their senses they’ll burn her decently. ”

“ After telling Effie that her lover was on his journey to Wayne—for she did not wish to inform the girl of the scout’s peril, she drew Kenowatha aside and communicated the true state of affairs.
“I told him that we would come to-morrow night,” she said.
“We will come!” cried Kenowatha, eager for action. “We will enter the village, and if any red-men cross our paths we’ll mark them to the terror of their brothers. Kai Ja Manitou shall look down upon a new mark—soon to be as terrible as the bloody half-moon. I have chosen my mark, Nanette—a cross!” ”

“ A crimson furrow athwart her temple indicated the course of Joe Girty’s ponderous ball.
“By George! she’s not dead, after all!” exclaimed the renegade. “But I’m not sorry—be hanged if I am. I’ll carry the She-wolf to the village, and when Coocoochee and Leather-lips get through with their devilish orgies, we’ll have a big fire. I know Indians who’ll walk a hundred miles to see this girl sizzle. Snakes! she’s pretty. What a glorious squaw she’d make for my boy, Kenowatha! But she’s not for him, no, not for him! She’s for the fire.” ”

“ He stepped to Effie’s couch, and touched her arm. She opened her eyes with a start, and for a moment did not comprehend her situation.
“Girl, it is I,” he said. “We must leave at once. Ewana believes that Wacomet loves you—that he intends to murder her and make you his bride. See! she whets her already keen knife upon a stone. I have succeeded in freeing myself, and, girl, we must fly at once. Better in the forest, though it swarm with dangers, than in the power of a jealous squaw. ”

“ The white Ottawa will help us hunt him?”
“Yes, yes,” cried Joe Girty, grasping the outstretched hand of the chief; but a moment later his cheek blanched to an icy pallor, in the glare of the torches.
He thought of the deadly bullets that sped from the She-wolf’s rifle.
Turkey-foot divined the meaning of the renegade’s terror.
“Men who fear squaws should wear long hair and tear their sinews from their arms,” hissed the Indian, in a tone of cutting derision. “To-morrow night a league that shall hunt Kenowatha and the She-wolf to the cold waters of the dark river, forms in Turkey-foot’s lodge. ”

“ The girl met the mad onset calmly; her left arm skillfully warded off the blow that the mad squaw aimed at her, and her right hand, preceded by a glitter of steel, shot forward.
It was a deathful blow.
The dirk fell from Loosa’s hands; she staggered back, and Kenowatha, who had bounded to Nanette’s aid, caught her and lowered to the ground his adopted mother, from whose hand he had received many a hard blow.
“Come!” he said to Nanette, in the Indian tongue, when they had equipped themselves with their own arms, “the white Ottawa is liable to return at any moment. Shall we go to the river?” ”

“ You know that I love you, and that is enough. Each succeeding moment is precious to me now. Come, Effie, fly with me to a gorgeous home, far beyond these woods, where man proves a famished wolf to his fellow-man.”
“What! unite my young life to a murderer?” cried Effie. “Never! Rudolph Runnion, and, besides, I never loved you.”
An oath parted the officer’s lips.
“I did not come here to be baffled,” he cried. “You shall become mine: you shall, I say!”
“Back!” cried the young girl, and the pistol—his gift—flashed from her bosom.
The Briton came to a sudden halt. ”

“ Now mind you, watch the girl well; keep sleepless eyes on these persons—Wacomet the trader and Rudolph Runnion. When his wound permits, unless watched, that red-coat will attempt something desperate, for I tell you he has sworn that Effie shall not become my bride—before that happens he will take her life, or worse.”
“We will watch those whom you mention as we watch over our own lives against the Death League,” said Kenowatha. “Have no fears on that score; the first hand that is raised against the girl drops in death.” ”

“ He found the brave girl driving a ball home with the calmness of a brave man, and she smiled faintly as she looked up into his face.
“There’s one Ottawa less, Mark,” she said. “By stepping into the moonlight and displaying a directed rifle, I have kept the red-skins at bay in mid-stream, where they can touch ground; and until a moment since, they have been afraid to advance. Then one taunted his companions, said that the white girl’s arms shook like leaves, and stepped forward. Ah! Mark, he’ll never fight again. See! down-stream, the demons look like buoys.” ”

“ The scout’s answer drove a yell of rage from the trader’s throat; he shot forward, and before Joe Girty could interpose his hand, again griped Mark’s throat, and a pistol-barrel glittered in the starlight.
There was murder in St. Pierre’s eyes.
To prevent the deed, several braves and Simon Girty darted forward; but their assistance was not needed for the White Ottawa had knocked the weapon from the Frenchman’s hand, and hurled its frenzied owner to the earth. And when he rose again, looks told him that his personal safety depended on quietude. ”

“ A multitude of torches illuminated a large space, that might be termed a well-defined square, and around one man, secure in the grip of the renegade, howled fully four hundred mad representatives of six red nations.
Eager to witness what would follow, and confident of the trustworthiness of her disguise, the Indian’s enemy placed her gun against a wigwam and boldly joined the assembly.
In a few words Girty described the spy’s capture, and calmly Mark Morgan awaited his doom. ”

“ A shriek escaped her when she found herself in the grasp of the devil, who dashed the Briton to earth with a blow with his tomahawk, as he advanced, for his own as well as the girl’s safety.
“Wacomet’s squaw at last!” hissed the savage, a brutal expression of long-sought triumph lighting up his swarthy face. “The White Star is Wacomet’s now! He thought to find She-wolf and White Fox here, but ah! he has discovered better prizes than they. ”

“ Turkey-foot, whose eldest son, a chief of promise, had fallen beneath the bullet of the Girl Avenger, sprung toward the renegade’s lodge.
“Shall the braves think, while, perhaps, the She-wolf gnaws her bonds asunder?” he cried. “They who think are squaws; who act, men. Come! we will tear the heart from her body, and burn it over red coals. Turkey-foot’s son wears her moon-mark; the father will slay the young She-wolf!”
Joe Girty tried to arrest the progress of the infuriated Shawnees. ”