THE EVENTS OF THAT NIGHT.
Slowly the hours of that beautiful autumn day wore away, and the
shades of evening seemed a century in making their appearance.
The squaws of the “town” brought a repast to Girty and his band; but
Alaska dispatched several warriors to her own wigwam, the capacious
larder of which was soon empty for the benefit of herself and wolves.
The terrible animals never took their eyes from Girty, whose
distasteful form blocked the doorway of Eudora’s lodge.
“Never fear, girl,” he said, one time, turning upon his prisoner, who
sat listlessly upon her couch of skins. “The wolves shan’t eat you. I
have great influence over Tecumseh, and the chief will quickly drive
the crazy woman to her wigwam.”
A better dissembler than “Jim” Girty never trod the woods of Ohio.
He knew that the great Shawnee chieftain lived in superstitious awe
of the Wolf-Queen, and that, upon his return, his prisoner would
be given over to the fangs of the wolves. And while he spoke to
Eudora he was plotting to get her beyond the village before Tecumseh
returned.
The young girl deigned no reply to his words, but in silence set to
work to arrange the disheveled locks which hung over her shoulders.
She was very beautiful--the possessor of a symmetrical form faultless
in the minutest particular, large, black eyes, lustrous beneath raven
lashes, and a wealth of raven hair, which enhanced her transcendent
loveliness. She wore the coronet of her seventeenth year, though
weeping for the fate of her parents and golden-haired sisters,
mercilessly butchered in her sight, caused her to look beyond her
years.
The words of Oonalooska shot a cheering ray of hope into her heart,
and caused that guiltless organ to beat for joy. “The young hunter
lives,” he had said; but what “young hunter” did he mean? Quite a
number of “young hunters” had been enraptured by her beauty, though
none had she ever bade hope for the dimpled hand that could send
an arrow unerringly to the target, and direct the bullet with an
accuracy unequaled by many well-known frontiersmen of those “dark and
bloody days.”
Among her admirers, Mayne Fairfax had called oftenest at her home,
now a heap of ashes, and she had evinced a partiality for his
companionship, which had driven the others from the field.
Was he the “young hunter” who sought her in the Indian village?
Her rapid heart-beats proclaimed that she hoped so.
The afternoon was nearing its close when Girty summoned Oonalooska to
his side.
The young brave obeyed with alacrity, and was surprised to hear the
renegade make the following proposition:
“Tecumseh must not meet the Pale Flower in the lodge,” said Girty,
in a low tone, that it might not reach the ears of Alaska, who was
within common earshot. “The chief hates me, but he also fears me.
Without a second thought he would deliver the white-faced girl to
Alaska. To-morrow he will decide otherwise. Not far from this lodge
dwell the exiled Mingoes, on whose grounds no hostile warrior dares
to tread. To-night, then, will not Oonalooska guide the Pale Flower
thither, and guard her until the White Wolf commands their return?”
Eagerly Oonalooska promised to grant Girty’s request, and the plans
for the escape were quickly formed.
While the plot was discussed by the warrior and the renegade, dark
clouds were creeping from the west, and soon the whole sky was
overcast--which harbingered a storm. Through a rift in the opaque
masses, the dying rays of the sun fell upon the Shawnee village, and
when night prevailed Girty threw a cordon of braves around Eudora’s
lodge. Alaska witnessed the precautionary movement, but instead of
encircling the cordon with her braves, she moved nearer the aperture
of the wigwam, which she made discernible by torches, thrust into the
yielding earth.
Girty thought it best to keep Eudora ignorant of the destination he
intended for her; but told Oonalooska to say that he would conduct
her to a place of safety, beyond the reach of _all_ her enemies.
The night was the incarnation of gloom, and every waning moment
brought Tecumseh and his braves nearer the village. The chief
had promised to return upon that particular night, and he had
never broken his word. In the rear of the wigwam Girty had placed
several braves upon whom he could rely, and, as the first peal of
thunder reverberated through the forest, and far down the Scioto,
Oonalooska’s keen knife gashed the thin bark in the rear of Eudora’s
couch.
A peal of thunder in autumn always startled the Shawnees, and,
believing it the harbinger of Tecumseh’s approach, the most timid
glided over to the Wolf-Queen.
Girty did not murmur at their late disaffection, for he knew that
Alaska would not move till the arrival of the giant chief.
“Oonalooska is ready,” whispered the brave, turning from the
perforated bark to the maiden, whose eyes had witnessed the operation.
“Then let us hasten,” she said in tremulous accents, “lest Tecumseh’s
arrival doom me to the teeth of the mad-woman’s wolves.”
Tenderly, noiselessly, Oonalooska lifted Eudora in his arms, and
glided through the slit, and past the posted guards in the rear
of the wigwam. Once beyond the confines of the village, he walked
rapidly, experiencing no difficulty in picking his way rightly in the
cimmerian gloom.
Presently he entered the forest, and when he had placed a hill
between himself and the village, he paused, and drew a torch from
beneath his wolf-skin robe.
“Oonalooska does not possess the eyes of the owl,” he said, with a
smile, as he ignited a wisp of bark films with the flints. “The wood
is dark, and unless fire guides Oonalooska, he may wander to the
Mingoes, whither the White Wolf has sent him.”
“But may not Oonalooska’s torch encounter Tecumseh?” asked Eudora,
who feared the worst.
“No; the great chief and his braves will cross the creek into the
lodges. Oonalooska must have fire. It will keep the wolves away.”
The mere mention of the wolves sent an icy shudder to Eudora’s heart.
From the jaws of the ravenous animals she had first been snatched by
the chivalrous red-man, who was once more bearing her through the
labyrinthine recesses of the Scioto forest.
The hermit home of William, or, as he called himself, “Bill,” Hewitt,
was about fourteen miles from the Shawnee village, and Oonalooska
rapidly traversed the dreary miles. The crisp leaves gave forth a
weird sound, as the Indian’s moccasined feet touched them, and the
great drops of rain that pattered down through the giant, leafless
trees, added to the ghostliness of the moment. Sure enough, the
wolves struck the trail, and, at last, Oonalooska saw many a pair of
fiery eyes far in his rear.
He felt Eudora shudder as a chorus of yells smote her ear; but he
assured her that they would reach the hermit’s cave in safety, when
he knew that the issue was doubtful.
At length the warrior uttered a light cry, as he gained the summit
of a knoll, from which he indistinctly heard the roar of a little
cataract that poured its waters into the Scioto.
“The Pale Flower is near the Lone Man’s lodge,” said the Shawnee,
and he dashed down the knoll, the foot of which he reached as the
foremost wolf poked his head over the summit.
Once or twice he was forced to turn and beat the band off with his
torch, and, at last, almost exhausted, he dashed into the limestone
corridor of Hewitt’s home.
He had not time to give the signal--the jerking of a deer-thong in
the darkness overhead--for the wolves were snapping at his lovely
burden, and while his lips uttered a peculiar whoop, he turned and
sent one giant fellow to the ground with his torch. The weapon struck
the animal in the mouth, and, the great tusk closing on it, it was
jerked from his hand.
He shrieked again as his right hand throttled the leader of the
lupine band, and hurled him senseless among his companions. The dying
torch lent a terribly tragic view to the scene. Pale as death, Eudora
reclined upon the left arm of the Indian, as single-handed he fought
the bloodthirsty gang, and her lips parted with a joyful cry, as the
strong door was burst open, and she found herself borne into a warm
apartment.
With clubbed rifle, the giant hermit sprung among the wolves,
and before him they divided and scattered like sheep. They had
encountered the invincible before.
“Fly, cowards!” cried Hewitt, as he reëntered the cave, to find
Eudora kneeling before the couch of her wounded lover.
He had thrown one arm around her neck, and his lips were whispering
something in her ears--probably the story of tender passion.
“We will have the whole Shawnee nation to fight now,” said Hewitt,
when Eudora had related her trials while in the hands of Girty. “And
ere morn Tecumseh will be at our door. The wolves of Alaska will
track Eudora hither, and then for the conflict. It must be near dawn
now.”
As he finished he drew aside a skin, that hung against the wall, and
disappeared in a dark passage.
Oonalooska awaited his return in silence, while Fairfax and Eudora
conversed in low whispers.
Suddenly the skin flew aside, and Hewitt sprung into the cave.
His long beard was filled with tiny particles of decayed wood, and
sparks of fire seemed to dart from his dark orbs. But his voice was
as calm as a midsummer day.
“Fifty-three braves are nearing us,” he said. “They are headed by
Tecumseh and Alaska, who is surrounded by her accursed wolves. Jim
Girty is not with them.”
Oonalooska’s expression remained immobile, and Eudora threw a look at
her wounded lover, but her lips uttered nothing. Her dark eyes shot a
mingled look of determination and defiance toward the door.
All at once a tomahawk struck the oaken planks, and a terrible yell
followed.
It was the war-whoop of Tecumseh!
Leperto, the petted wolf, answered it with a dismal howl.