Part 30 (2/2)
”And when the sun rises he will find Wa-on-mon awaiting him there,” said the chieftain.
Waving his hand in a half-military fas.h.i.+on, as a salute not only to the chief but to the leading Shawanoes, Finley turned about and walked away in the forest.
He felt an almost irresistible yearning to go over to Mabel Ashbridge and utter a few comforting words in her ear; but her own welfare prevented anything of that nature. Besides, she had laid her weary head down upon the bark and was sleeping as soundly as if resting on her mother's bosom.
After leaving the Shawanoe camp, the missionary directed his steps toward the Ohio, where he had left his canoe. There was no call for secrecy in his movements, and he tramped through the bushes and undergrowth as a countryman would have done had he held no suspicion of danger. If he excelled in any direction, it was in making more of a racket than such a countryman.
As he antic.i.p.ated, he had not gone far when a familiar signal arrested him. He instantly paused, and the next moment Simon Kenton was at his side.
”I seed you and The Panther talkin',” remarked the ranger, ”and it struck me powerful hard that the varmint was saying something that must be of interest to me.”
”I was confident you were lurking among the trees not far off, and since Wa-on-mon sometimes spoke pretty loud, I fancied you would catch the drift of our conversation.”
”I couldn't catch 'nough to do that, but I am interested in it.”
”No one can be more so; I left the camp to hunt for you; do you know of that rock which lies just above the gulch, on this side of the river? It is a small flat rock, rising only a few inches above the water.”
”I know the spot as well as I do the one where the block-house stands.”
”Wa-on-mon has pledged himself to be there when the sun rises, and I have given him my pledge that you will not be behind him.”
”I'll be there!” said Kenton in a low voice, and with a deliberation that made his earnestness the more impressive. ”It's the chance I've been huntin' for years.”
”The agreement is that each of you is to be armed only with his knife.
No one is to be present--not even myself. If Wa-on-mon wins by slaying you, then Mr. Ashbridge's little child must die.”
”And if I win?”
”I am to take her back to her parents unharmed.”
”You've said 'nough, parson; I'll be there.”
The missionary did not know whether to accept it as a good or bad omen that Kenton, contrary to The Panther, and contrary to his own habit, made no boast of what he would do upon meeting the chieftain.
”No danger of his flunking, I hope, parson?”
”Not the slightest; but, Simon, may I say one word?”
”You may say a thousand.”
”I have arranged for two persons to meet in deadly combat. There is something dreadfully shocking in the idea, and in some respects it is most distressing to me--”
”It ain't to me,” interrupted Kenton, with a chuckle; ”all I'm afeered of is that the varmint may find some excuse not to meet me.”
”I have a.s.sured you that there is no cause for any such fear. What it has been in my mind to say is that when you do meet, remember that a truly brave man is merciful.”
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