Part 8 (2/2)

”Here is my friend! That is the e_”[H]--he lifted his aresture pointed at it ”Another sun has not risen And yet this day, and before the sun was high, you told ht should co between you and me could not separate us because you knew my heart--and my heart swelled with pride at your words”

He hesitated for a e in the Indian's face ”My heart swelled with pride,” he went on, firmly, ”for I believed you! And I believe you still, for”--he laid his hand on the Cherokee's breast in iesture of Atta-Kulla-Kulla as he repeated Atta-Kulla-Kulla's words--”for I know _your heart_”

There was afor the dramatic effect to be lost, he continued: ”And now, if you say it is not well to shut the gates on this array of braves, I open them! I come here because I am sent--a _unaka_ soldier has no will of his own He is held to a strict law, and has no liberty such as your young fighting row rash, however, and e councils, arrison here Perhaps if you send a 'talk' to the new head-o or stay according to orders--I ht the children of the settlers ion This day is the festival of the Child So the children make merry--you can hear them now at their play” And indeed there was a sharp, wild squealing upon the air, and Stuart hoped that the beat of the dancing feetand the sound of the music for their behoof--for the dance of the Indians often heralds war and is not for sheer joy ”The parents bring them here and share their mirth For this is the festival of the Child Now your warriors are brave and splendid and terrible to look upon If they go through the gates, the little children would be smitten with fear; the heart of a little child is like a leaf in the wind--so moved by fear Do not the Cherokee children flee froreat warrior and have not even paint for my face--when I come to visit you at Nachey Creek Say the word--and I open the gates”

There was so in this Cherokee which Stuart saw both then and afterward, and which also attracted the attention of others, that indicated not only an acute and subtle intelligence and a natural benignity, but a wide and varied scope of ee without education, of course, and without even the opportunity of observing those of a higher culture and exercising sentirace in a civilized appraisenant a huenerous attitude of mind and upbraided with a protest belied as if he had been a Knight of the Round Table, bred to noble thoughts as well as to chivalrous deeds of arms, and had never taken the scalp of a child or treacherously slain a sleeping enemy

Stuart could feel the Cherokee's heart beat fast under his hand

Atta-Kulla-Kulla grasped it suddenly in his own, gripping it hard for a moment, while with his other hand he waved a command for his , surprised eyes and clouded brows

”Go back!” he said to Stuart ”Hold the gate fast You make your feast

Keep it I believe your words And because--” there was a slight convulsion of his features--”of the wicked ways of the wicked Earl Loudon I have forgot to-night ain--and I do not always forget!”

He turned suddenly and went doard the river, the sad, yellowtuft of feathers far along the stretches of white snow Captain Stuart paused for a ate; then as he slipped within it and into the shadow of the wall, he was full glad to hear the dancing feet, all unconscious of the danger that had been so near, and the childish treble scream of the unscalped children

”A little more, and there would have been anotherslowly across the parade; he had hardly the strength for a speedier gait He rescinded the order concerning the hour at which ”tattoo” and ”lights out” should sound ”For,” he thought, noticing the cheerful groups in the soldiers' quarters, ”I could get the then of the agitation and the significance of the interview just past when he returned to the prisht of the great fire, hs and the flutter of banners and the flash of steel froay measure with the fair Belinda Rush, and never looked more at ease and care-free and jovially iray dawn as he stood at the sally-port of the fort and there took leave of the guests, as group by group departed, he was as debonair and sh the revels were yet to begin

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote D: The Indians in North Carolina called the Christlishman's God's moon”]

[Footnote E: It is most true]

[Footnote F: Is it not so?]

[Footnote G: It has been maintained that this exclamation constantly used by the Cherokees in solenified ”Jehovah”]

[Footnote H: Literally ”the sun of the night”]

CHAPTER VI

Breakfast, the rigorous cleaning of the quarters, guard , and inspection, followed in their usual sequence, but the ive the opportunity to recruit froht, protracted, as the soldiers began to suspect, that they es For Captain Stuart ate, since the sentries were already cognizant of it; he always saw fit to maintain before the troops an attitude of extreence, whatever its character, even with the intention of conducing to the public good

In the great hall in the block-house of the northwestern bastion, when the officers were congregated about the fire, in the rude ared without reserve the nehich the express had brought In an instant all the garnered sweetness of the retrospect of the little holiday they had all It even held bitter dregs of reh while you knew this horrible thing!” exclaimed Captain Demere, his voice tense with reproach

”Lord!--it happened three weeks ago, Paul,” returned Stuart, ”if it happened at all! Some of the settlers had already come I did not feel qualified to balk the children and the young people of their enjoyo on after such tragedies It must, you know” He pulled at his pipe, meditatively ”To have called a halt could have done those poor fellows no good,” he nodded toward the south, ”and ht have done us incalculable harm

There had already been a demonstration of the Indians, before the express cauests, and I thought the settlers safer congregated in the fort until daybreak than going hoive cere”

”Was there a deht, Captain?” asked Lieutenant Gilate ”Without the chief's guaranty I don't see hoe could have let the settlers go this ,” he concluded