Nick of the Woods; Or, Adventures of Prairie LifeBird, Robert Montgomery
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Nick of the Woods; Or, Adventures of Prairie Life
Bird, Robert Montgomery
Frontier and pioneer life -- Kentucky -- Fiction
"Ay!" exclaimed the prisoner, and his eyes shot fire as he spoke, "they
fell under his hand, man and boy--there was not one of them spared--they
were of the blood of Wenonga!"
"Wenonga is a great chief!" cried the Indian: "he is childless; but
childless he has made the Long-knife."
"The Long-knife, and the son of Onas!" said Nathan.
The chief staggered back, as if struck by a blow, and stared wildly upon
the prisoner.
"My brother is a medicine-man,--he knows all things!" he exclaimed. "He
speaks the truth: I am a great warrior; I took the scalp of the
Quakel[13]--"
[Footnote 13: _Quakels_--a corruption of Quakers, whom the Indians of
Pennsylvania originally designated as the sons of _Onos_, that being one
of the names they bestowed upon Penn.]
"And of his wife and children--you left not one alive!--Ay!" continued
Nathan, fastening his looks upon the amazed chief, "you slew them all!
And he that was the husband and father was the Shawnees' friend, the
friend even of Wenonga!"
"The white-men are dogs and robbers!" said the chief: "the Quakel was my
brother; but I killed him. I am an Indian--I love white-man's blood. My
people have soft hearts; they cried for the Quakel: but I am a warrior
with no heart. I killed them: their scalps are hanging to my fire-post!
I am not sorry; I am not afraid."
The eyes of the prisoner followed the Indian's hand, as he pointed, with
savage triumph, to the shrivelled scalps that had once crowned the heads
of childhood and innocence, and then sank to the floor, while his whole
frame shivered as with an ague-fit.
"My brother is a great medicine-man," iterated the chief: "he shall show
me the Jibbenainosay, or he shall die."
"The chief lies!" cried Nathan, with a sudden and taunting laugh: "he can
talk big things to a prisoner, but he fears the Jibbenainosay!"
"I am a chief and warrior. I will fight the white-man's devil!"
"The warrior shall see him then," said the captive, with extraordinary
fire. "Cut me loose from my bonds, and I will bring him before the
chief."
And as he spoke, he thrust out his legs, inviting the stroke of the axe
upon the thongs that bound his ankles.
But this was a favour, which, stupid or mad as he was, Wenonga hesitated
to grant.
"The chief," cried Nathan, with a laugh of scorn, "would stand face to
face with the Jibbenainosay, and yet fears to loose a naked prisoner!"
The taunt produced its effect. The axe fell upon tho thong, and Nathan
leaped to his feet. He extended his wrists. The Indian hesitated again.
"The chief shall see the Jibbenainosay!" cried Nathan; and the cord was
cut.
The prisoner turned quickly round; and while his eyes fastened with a
wild but joyous glare upon his jailer's, a laugh that would have become
the jaws of a hyena lighted up his visage, and sounded from his lips.
"Look!" he cried, "thee has thee wish! Thee sees the destroyer of thee
race,--ay, murdering villain, the destroyer of thee people, and
theeself!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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