The Scouts of the ValleyAltsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
General
The Scouts of the Valley
Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
Chemung River Valley (N.Y. and Pa.) -- Fiction; Historical fiction; Wyoming Valley (Pa.) -- Fiction
Much food was given to the brave Lenni-Lenape, and he was sent to a
lodge to rest. To-morrow he would be well, and he would be welcomed to
the ranks of the Cayugas, a Younger nation. But when the morning came,
the lodge was empty. The sick Lenni-Lenape was gone, and with him the
boy, Paul, the youngest of the prisoners. Guards bad been posted all
around the camp, but evidently the two had slipped between. Brave
and advanced as were the Iroquois, superstition seized upon them.
Hah-gweli-da-et-gah was at work among them, coming in the form of the
famished Lenni-Lenape. He had steeped them in a deep sleep, and then
he had vanished with the prisoner in Se-oh (The Night). Perhaps lie had
taken away the boy, who was one of a hated race, for some sacrifice or
mystery of his own. The fears of the Iroquois rose. If the Spirit of
Evil was among them, greater harm could be expected.
But the two renegades, Blackstaffe and Wyatt, raged. They did not
believe in the interference of either good spirits or bad spirits, and
just now their special hatred was a famished Lenni-Lenape warrior.
“Why on earth didn't I think of it?” exclaimed Wyatt. “I'm sure now by
his size that it was the fellow Hyde. Of Course he slipped to the lodge,
let Cotter out, and they dodged about in the darkness until they escaped
in the forest. I'll complain to Timmendiquas.”
He was as good as his word, speaking of the laxness of both Iroquois and
Wyandots. The great White Lightning regarded him with an icy stare.
“You say that the boy, Cotter, escaped through carelessness?” he asked.
“I do,” exclaimed Wyatt.
“Then why did you not prevent it?”
Wyatt trembled a little before the stern gaze of the chief.
“Since when,” continued Timmendiquas, “have you, a deserter front your
own people, had the right to hold to account the head chief of the
Wyandots?” Braxton Wyatt, brave though he undoubtedly was, trembled yet
more. He knew that Timmendiquas did not like him, and that the Wyandot
chieftain could make his position among the Indians precarious.
“I did not mean to say that it was the fault of anybody in particular,”
he exclaimed hastily, “but I've been hearing so much talk about the
Spirit of Evil having a hand in this that I couldn't keep front saying
something. Of course, it was Henry Ware and Hyde who did it!”
“It may be,” said Timmendiquas icily, “but neither the Manitou of the
Wyandots, nor the Aieroski of the Iroquois has given to me the eyes to
see everything that happens in the dark.”
Wyatt withdrew still in a rage, but afraid to say more. He and
Blackstaffe held many conferences through the day, and they longed for
the presence of Simon Girty, who was farther west.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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