Frontier and pioneer life -- United States -- Fiction; Historical fiction; Lord Dunmore's War, 1774 -- Fiction
Baby Kirst had fulfilled his destiny and would babble his way through the
forests no more. The force which had destroyed his reason had paid the
full price the law of compensation had worked out.
Could I find the girl without returning to the village I hoped the
confusion resulting from the bloody struggle would permit me to steal away
with her. I swung back toward the opening and soon discovered Patricia and
Lost Sister. The latter on beholding me called me by name, the first time
she had ever done so. As I ran to them she fiercely said:
"Take your white woman and go! Cross the Ohio but do not go up the
Kanawha. Follow the Guyandotte or Sandy, into the valley of the Clinch.
You must hurry!"
As if the day had not been hideous enough a bepainted warrior burst
through the undergrowth as she finished, with his bow raised and an arrow
drawn to the head. Beneath the war vermilion, I recognized Lost Sister's
husband. She threw out her arms and smiled scornfully and cried:
"You hide in the bushes to watch me? I thought so."
Then she was down with an arrow buried to the feathers.
I leaped into the bushes and grappled with the murderer before he could
draw another arrow from his quiver. He dropped his bow and endeavored to
hurl me to the ground. As we whirled about I saw Patricia kneeling beside
Lost Sister and striving to pet her back to life. One glimpse, and then
all my attention was needed for my adversary. He was quicker than I, and
his freshly oiled body made him hard to hold; but I was far the stronger.
"His knife, Basdel; Look out;" screamed Patricia; and I was glad to note
there was no madness in her voice.
I had him by his right wrist, my left arm shoved under his chin and into
his red throat. The girl's gaze sent my gaze downward. He was trying to
work the knife from its sheath before I could force him backward or break
his neck. But the sheath was too long for the knife and he could not reach
the handle with his fingers until he had forced the blade upward by
pinching the tip of the sheath. I did not try to interfere with his
maneuver, but settled myself solidly to hold him from escaping.
"The knife, Basdel!" she shrilly repeated. Then she nearly upset my
calculations by trying to thrust a bough between my foe's feet. Only by a
nimble maneuver did I escape being tripped; but it was heartening to know
Patricia could respond to my needs.
"Stand clear!" I panted. "I have him!"
"But the knife!" she despairingly cried.
"He's getting it for me!" I replied.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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