“—— my liver, McGillivray,” he cried, “but ye’re a neat one! ‘Opposite direction!’ To the Twilight Western land, eh? Ha! Ha! An’ takin’ along mighty little skin on that fox body of his, eh? Good! I’ll eat an’ git a fresh hoss from ye an’ start back on the hump.” “The sooner the better,” insisted McGillivray. Polcher handed back the outlaw’s weapons and the two departed, Polcher bowing himself out in his best landlord’s manner, Red Hajason giving his back abruptly and shaking the table with his heavy tread. “He doesn’t seem to have much respect for you,” remarked Sevier, smiling as he beheld the flare of anger flushing McGillivray’s face. “The dog! The miserable dog! And he’s all white. Mark you that, Sevier! There is no Indian blood in him. He’s a completed product of your race.” “Once I get back to the Nolichucky I hope to improve the race. We’ve weeded out quite a few of his kind,” Sevier lightly responded. McGillivray tossed his pistols aside and left the table. Standing beside Sevier’s chair, he abruptly began: “We’ve been making believe a bit. We’ve talked at cross-purposes. I’ve no more time to be polite. It’s business from now on. Will you give me your word not to try to escape if I allow you the freedom of Little Talassee?” “No, sir!” “Will you promise not to escape until after the Tonpits arrive?” “No, sir! I propose to escape at the first opportunity.” “But you came here to see them.” “I shall leave here to stop their coming here.” “If that’s your frame of mind I must make you a prisoner,” regretfully decided McGillivray. “I’m honestly sorry to have to do it. I enjoy your company. I get small opportunity to talk with intelligent men. But you’re meddling with big affairs. You threaten to annoy me, to embarrass me. I would be a fool to permit it.” “There’s something much larger, much grander, than the schemes you’re planning, Alexander McGillivray. Your little ambitions to pose as ruler of a Creek-Cherokee federation, under the protection of Spain, will never be realized. Shut me up in your stoutest prison or kill me, but don’t be foolish enough to believe that my dropping out will give you a clear trail. Only after you’ve killed the soul of some twenty-five or thirty thousand people west of the mountains can you place your feet on the path leading to a realization of your mad dreams.” McGillivray picked up the pistols and thrust them under his coat and firmly replied— “Yet I will enter that path and walk to the end even if it requires the death of every settler this side of the Alleghanies!” Sevier sprang up and sternly demanded— “Send for my gaoler.” McGillivray summoned the servant and directed him to bring Polcher and six warriors. While they waited, the two men stood with the table between them, eying each other in silence. Through the window Sevier glimpsed Red Hajason riding into the forest. Then the door opened to admit the tavern-keeper and the Creeks.