Part 2 (1/2)
”_Marcher_ in shoes! _Mong Dew!_ _Ces souliers_ couldn't have been rier Willinawaugh, who had chanced to observe theest recollections that he resented, and the reminder shared in his disfavor He abruptly wreathed his fierce countenance into a sied his shoulders with a genuine French twist; and anythingcould hardly be iined
”Fonny! vely fonny! Flanzy!” he exclai coenuine a terror as if the devil himself had entered into hih abruptly discontinued his ”fonny” gri froround Then he began to talk about Baron Des Johnnes and his sudden disappearance froay and facetious Frenchman, this all-accomplished Baron Des Johnnes, who could speak seven different Indian languages with equal facility, to say nothing of a trifle or two such as English, Spanish, Gere, where, if he had shed the blood of the native Cherokee on his own threshold, his life would have been sacred even froeance of the Indian's brother! And suddenly caation that had been to Charlestown, and found the French of the Cherokees, and other head- to kill or arrest any Frenchman discovered within the Cherokee Nation And who so appalled as Oconostota, to see his friend, the gay Baron Des Johnnes, lying on a buffalo skin before the fire, swam And when Colonel Sumter demanded his arrest Oconostota refused and pleaded the sanctity of the place--the City of Refuge And Baron Des Johnnes arose very s and bland, and bowed very low, and reminded Colonel Sumter that he was in Chote--Old Town!
And what said Colonel Suht talk--”Old Town--or Nen--I'll take _you_ to Charles Town!”
And what did the Baron Des Johnnes? Not a Cherokee; not bound by the ever-sacred laws of the City of Refuge! Although surrounded by his friends he struck not one blow for his freedole-handed, by this wolf of a Colonel--Colonel Suentle protest, ”_Mais, M'sieur!_”
”_Mais, M'sieur!_” grih, in mimicry Then ”_Mais M'sieur!_” he threw up both hands ”_Mais, M'sieur!_” he shrieked in harsh derision to the unresponsive skies
Alexander knew that the Baron Des Johnnes had been taken to Charlestown and exaainst hiland Perhaps the authorities were of opinion that a uages had best be kept where ”least said, soonest mended”
But for the repeated harsh treatlish settlers, the ingratiating arts of the French ht have failed to find so ready a response Sedate of rave cast of mind theaiete de coeur_, of the French, whoht as a feather, fickle as the wind, and deceitful as serpents”
With this intih's reserves of irritability the pioneers journeyed on, a trifle more ill at ease in mind, which was an added hardshi+p, since their physical sufferings were intensifying with every long an to wonder how they, supposed to be French, would fare when they should h to adhere to the terms of their treaty to kill or make prisoner every Frenchman who should venture into the Cherokee Nation, yet on the other hand perhaps e to detect and resent the fact that they were not of the French nationality
Already Willinawaugh had counseled that they should go further than Chote, to ply their trade in furs, for Chote was dangerously near the English fort for a Frenchman; one of the Tuckaleechee towns on the Canot River was a preferable location, and he promised to contrive to slip thee
They restrained all expression of objection or disco distresses with a fortitude that e Only when an aside was possible, MacLeod besought his wife to loose the burden of one of the packhorses and mount the animal herself
She shook her head resolutely She had already suffered grief enough for the household stores she had left behind To these precious reer walk,” she said, with a flash in her eye which admonished him to desist
They offered no coh it seeo for the express purpose of descending it again, but on the eastern side MacLeod, however, at length realized that the Indian was following souishable to his skilled eye, and the difficulties of the steep descent were rendered uide The packhorses found it hard work filing down the sharp declivities and sustaining the equilibrium of their burden The chief, with his lordly impatience and superiority to domestic concerns, evidently fumed because of the delay they occasioned, and had he not supposed that the contents of the bales of goods were merchandise and trinkets to be bartered with the Indians for peltry, instead of Odalie's sli wares,--sheets, and table-linen and garal supplies of flax and seeds,--he would not have suffered the slow progress
Through the new country below, that they had watched fro sentinel all around the horizon--east and west, and north and south, sometiht, like soher plane of being Now and again the ended along the bank of a river, with the steeps showing in the waters beloell as against the sky above, and one day when they had but recently broken their ca boscage of papaw trees a swift, arrowy thing akin to a fish, akin to a bird--an Indian canoe, in which were three braves
The poor pioneers were exhausted with their long and swift journey; their hearts, which had been stanch within theth Their courage only sufficed to hold them to a mute endurance of a dreadful expectation, and a suspense that set every nerve a-quiver The boatmen had cried out with a wild, fierce note of surprise on perceiving the party, and the canoe was colike paddles could propel it
Willinawaugh rode slowly down to meet them, and in contrast to the usual iitated hail in a tone of tense and eager excitee of news, of a nature which boded little good to the settlers Dark anger gathered on the brow of the chieftain as he listened when the braves had bounded upon the bank, and more than once he cried out inarticulately like a wild beast in pain and rage Perhaps it is rare that a man has such a moment in his life as Alexander experienced when one of the savages, a ferocious brute, turned with a wild, unta his tomahawk from his belt smiled fiercely upon the silent, motionless little band, his deadly racial hatred reinforced by a thousand bitter grudges and wrongs
Haun, but ostensibly no onebut the lish, as if to reassure the pioneers--”Go Chote--Old Town--buy fur!”
The hatred died out of the fierce Indian faces The French in the South, as has been said, had always used every art to detach the Cherokees from the British interest, and even now thedown the Ohio River, were sending e fruitful soil in which to sow the seeds of dissension against the English The assertion that these travelers were French, and the fact that by receiving persons of this nation the Cherokees could requite with even a trivial and diplo which they considered they had sustained froinians, was e they felt against these pioneers as of the white race
With the instinct of hospitality, which is a very ned with a free and open gesture to the boat
”_Beaucoupwith an innocent suavity like a child, ”Svim!”
He did not mean literally ”swim,” and to offer them the facilities of the Tennessee River for that purpose, although this ht have been inferred But the pioneers understood the proffer of the canoe for the remainder of their journey, and a deadly terror seized the heart of Odalie as she h forcibly froned objections, for the canoe could hold but three persons Little choice had she, however Willinawaugh, uest of conscious distinction, was already seated in the boat, and pointed out Alexander as his preferred coarded the wishes of his guide, philosopher, and friend, and taking his wife by the hand motioned to her to step over the side of the little craft
Odalie could only look reproachfully at him; she could not contend with her lord and es of civilization! The Indians, somewhat accustomed by the talk, and on occasion the example, of the French traders, and perhaps by traditions from the white settlements, to the idea of the extrehter, scornfully ht was said The child was lifted to Odalie's arms--the cat strapped pappoose-wise to Josephine's back and acco itself quiescently to the situation
Alexander had never intended to eh his as but a slight thing, so entirely were they now in the power of the savages; he ht mixture of French and Cherokee at his command, intimated to the apparent owner of the boat that he would rather walk by his side and profit by his converse than to be able to sail at will on the water like the swan there--a large and handso the finest exhibition of that ression to be easily found anywhere, with her white neck arched, her gliding motion, and snowy breast reflected in the clear water
And so Odalie had parted frolance of farewell! Perhaps he dared not look at her So far they had co these blood-loving fiends in the likeness of humanity, they were separated to meet when?--where? Perchance no more She could not--would not--leave hio back!
She rose to her feet so precipitately that with the shi+fting of her weight the canoe careened suddenly and waswith all on board Willinawaugh glanced up with a kindling eye and a ferocious growl Ha himself skillfully on the opposite side, adroitly tri and yet sy, steadied Odalie's nerves as she sank back into her place She tactfullythe little girl fro to recover her had shaken the poise of the frail craft