Part 21 (1/2)
She was waiting for me to complete my confessional. If the element of danger had been absent how gladly I would have lied to her! How quickly I would have won her approval by proclaiming myself the greatest dolt in Virginia and her father the wisest man in the world! But to accede to everything she said and believed would be an endors.e.m.e.nt of her presence on the creek. I had had no idea of ousting myself from her good graces when I went to find her that morning. Now the test had come, and her welfare was involved; to be true to her as well as to myself I was forced to say:
”I still think it was most dangerous for you to come here. I believe your father acted very unwisely, no matter how much be believes in his influence over the Indians. And I would thank G.o.d if you were back in Williamsburg.”
Her hands dropped to her side. The smiling eyes grew hard.
”Go on!” she curtly commanded.
”I've d.a.m.ned myself in your opinion already. Isn't that enough? Don't make me pay double for being honest.”
”Honest?” she jeered. ”You've deliberately dodged my question. I asked you what you thought of my father's power with the Indians. You rant about his wickedness in bringing me here. For the last time I ask you to answer my question and finish your list of my father's faults.”
As if to make more steep the precipice down which from her esteem I was about to plunge there came the voice of her father, loudly addressing the settlers.
”You people ought to wake up,” he was saying. ”Was it your rifles, or was it trade that stopped an attack on these cabins night before last? When will you learn that you can not stop Indian wars until you've killed every Indian this side the mountains? Has there ever been a time when you or your fathers could stop their raids with rifles? Well, you've seen one raid stopped by the influence of trade.”
As he paused for breath the girl quietly said:
”Now, answer me.”
And I blurted out:
”I don't have any idea that Black Hoof and his warriors will hesitate a second in sacking Howard's Creek because of anything your father has said or could say. I honestly believe the Shawnees are playing a game, that they are hoping the settlers are silly enough to think themselves safe. I am convinced that once Black Hoof believes the settlers are in that frame of mind he will return and strike just as venomously as the Shawnees struck in the old French War and in Pontiac's War, after feasting with the whites and making them believe the red man was their friend.”
She straightened and drew a deep breath, and in a low voice said:
”At last you've answered me. Now go!”
I withdrew from the cabin and from the group of men. Dale's heavy voice was doubly hateful in my ears. The settlement was a small place. Patsy had dismissed me, and there was scarcely room for me without my presence giving her annoyance. I went to the cabin where I had left my few belongings and filled my powder-horn and shot-pouch. I renewed my stock of flints and added to my roll of buckskins, not forgetting a fresh supply of ”whangs” for sewing my moccasins. While thus engaged Uncle d.i.c.k came in and began sharpening his knife at the fireplace.
”Why do that?” I morosely asked. ”You are safe from Indian attacks now the trader has told the Shawnees you are under his protection.”
He leered at me cunningly and ran his thumb along the edge of the knife and muttered:
”If some o' th' varmints will only git within strikin'-distance! They sure ran away night before last, but how far did they go? Dale seems to have a pert amount o' authority over 'em; but how long's he goin' to stay here?
He can't go trapezin' up 'n' down these valleys and keep men 'n' women from bein' killed by jest hangin' some white wampum on 'em.”
”What do the men think?”
”Them that has famblies are hopin' th' critters won't come back. Younger men want to git a crack at 'em. Two nights ago th' younkers thought Dale was mighty strong medicine. A night or two of sleep leaves 'em 'lowin' th'
creek may be safe s'long as he sticks here. Some t'others spit it right out that Black Hoof is playin' one o' his Injun games. If that pert young petticoat wa'n't here mebbe we could git some o' th' young men out into th' woods for to do some real scoutin'.
”If my eyes was right I'd go. As it is, th' young folks keep runnin' a circle round th' settlement, lickety-larrup, an' their minds is on th'
gal, an' they wouldn't see a buf'lo if one crossed their path. Then they hustle back an' say as how they ain't seen nothin'. I 'low some o' th'
older men will have to scout.”
”I'm going out. I'll find the Indians' trail and follow it,” I told him.
”That'll be neighborly of you. If they chase you back an' git within stickin'-distance I'll soon have their in'ards out to dry.”