THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS.
Yes, at last, reason had resumed its throne, and Alaska was no longer
the “mad queen of the Shawnees.”
Torches enabled her to gaze long and deeply into the hermit’s face,
before her lips parted to utter his name:
“William!”
He started, and bent nearer her face.
The renegade’s hatchet had brought reason back to its own, even as a
blow had hurled that peerless queen from her throne.
She had forgotten the wild life she had led; and when her eyes fell
upon her wolves, a shudder crept over her frame, and she motioned for
the animals to be removed from her sight.
“Oh! William, I am so glad that you have returned,” she continued.
“He did not die--my brother, whom some bad man shot through the
window of our cabin.”
The hermit’s face lighted up into a joyful smile, and he murmured:
“Her brother! Oh, God, I thank thee that I am not a murderer!”
“Where is my boy--my Edgar?” and her eyes wandered around, as though
they were searching for a particular object.
At length they fell upon Mayne.
“Edgar!” she cried, stretching forth her hands. “Come to me.”
Unable to speak, the young hunter advanced.
“William, this is our boy,” she said, taking our hero’s hands, and
looking up at Hewitt. “Long I waited for your return, William; but
you came not. At last I resolved to go to Richmond, where I thought
you were detained. I took our boy--a little babe--to Ronald Fairfax,
and told him to keep him till I should return. Then, all alone, I
plunged into the wilderness, but soon the Shawnees circled around
me, and I was a prisoner. While they were conducting me to the
village I tried to escape, but a chief struck me with his tomahawk,
and then all was dark. Oh, William, how long have I been in darkness?
You are so old now, and our Edgar a man!”
“For twenty years, Agnes, you have lived among the Shawnees, reft of
reason,” whispered Hewitt.
A shudder crept to the woman’s heart.
“Twenty years a maniac! My God!” she cried. “Oh, William, speak not
to me of that time. I would forget it. Let us leave this horrid
place.”
Almost unassisted, she gained her feet, and Tecumseh bade the hermit
conduct her to his beaded lodge, while the chief chivalrously
occupied a meaner one near by.
The hours of that night were sacred to the reunited trio; and beyond
earshot a band of warriors encircled the beaded wigwam.
Tecumseh would keep his vow.
During the late war-expedition the knife of a vengeful mother struck
at his heart; but the intervention of a white prisoner, whom he
liberated, saved his life.
When the Indians saw the whites beyond the portals of the chief’s
lodge, they returned to the bloody spot for the purpose of attending
to the wounded and the dead.
The wolves had deserted Jim Girty, and during the absence of
Tecumseh’s band, one of his spies had borne his insensible form to
the river, where they entered a boat, and the spy rowed away. After
much suffering the renegade recovered, and remained from the sight of
his brother Simon the remainder of his life.
While the savages were attending to the wounded, a groan rose from a
dark form on the earth. It grew into a death-song.
“Oonalooska is near the great waters! Oonalooska’s dream was from
spirit land! Now let Oonalooska die, for he has seen the Lone Man
find his long-lost squaw and pappoose. Oonalooska is not afraid
to die. Tecumseh can not torture him now, ha! ha! ha!” and thus,
stoically--proud of having cheated his enemies, the soul of the
bravest chief of the Shawnee tribe stepped upon the “trail of death.”
When morning came Tecumseh tenderly bade the whites farewell, and a
band of trusty warriors escorted them to Chillicothe.
Thence they set out for Virginia, and Edgar Hewitt--Mayne Fairfax
no longer--presented his long-lost parents to those who had been a
father and mother to him from childhood to manly years.
A month after the happy reunion in the wood, Edgar wedded the
beautiful girl who had led him to a father and a mother in the
wilderness, and not far from Fairfax Manor arose a stately mansion,
where the quartette peacefully and pleasantly passed the remaining
days of life.
To this day eleven miles south of Chillicothe on the Portsmouth road
is still to be seen the cave occupied by the hermit for many years,
and over it stands a monument, erected to his memory by the people of
Ross county, Ohio.
The subsequent life of Tecumseh, and his brother, the Prophet,
are too well known to be rehearsed here. Often, in disguise, the
great chief visited the home of the Hewitts, whose salt he ate with
welcome; but suddenly his visits ceased--he lay dead before Colonel
Johnson.
A few years subsequent to the incidents related in the foregoing
pages, Simon Girty met the doom he richly deserved. In Proctor’s
defeat he was literally ground to atoms by Johnson’s mounted men.
James, too, fell beneath the arm of white avengers; while Giangomah,
his tool, fell beside his chief at the battle of the Thames.
After his son’s death, Okolona, the old Medicine, fled to the neutral
Mingoes, where he died a natural death. It was upon his ears, that
Eudora’s shriek first fell, while he and the rescuing party stood,
horror-stricken, before the empty lodge, and its murdered guards.
And now, reader, having seen mystery unraveled, the actions of wicked
men result in good, and the triumph of right, in a startling drama
of the forest, we lay aside the pen, hoping soon to renew it for the
record of other scenes.
THE END.
THE ILLUMINATED DIME POCKET NOVELS!
PUBLISHED SEMI-MONTHLY.
Comprising the best works only of the most popular living writers
in the field of American Romance. Each issue a complete novel, with
illuminated cover, rivaling in effect the popular chromo,
AND YET SOLD AT THE STANDARD PRICE, TEN CENTS.
Incomparably the most beautiful and attractive series, and the most
delightful reading, ever presented to the popular reading public.
Distancing all rivalry, equally in their beauty and intrinsic
excellence as romances, this new series will quickly take the lead
in public favor, and be regarded as the Paragon Novels!
NOW READY, AND IN PRESS.
=No. 1--Hawkeye Harry, the Young Trapper Ranger.= By Oll Coomes.
=No. 2--Dead Shot=; or, The White Vulture. By Albert W. Aiken.
=No. 3--The Boy Miners=; or The Enchanted Island. By Edward S.
Ellis.
=No. 4--Blue Dick=; or, The Yellow Chief’s Vengeance. By Capt.
Mayne Reid.
=No. 5--Nat Wolfe=; or, The Gold-Hunters. By Mrs. M. V. Victor.
=No. 6--The White Tracker=; or, The Panther of the Plains. By
Edward S. Ellis.
=No. 7--The Outlaw’s Wife=; or, The Valley Ranche. By Mrs. Ann S.
Stephens.
=No. 8--The Tall Trapper=; or, The Flower of the Blackfeet. By
Albert W. Aiken.
=No. 9--Lightning Jo, the Terror of the Santa Fe Trail.= By Capt.
Adams.
=No. 10--The Inland Pirate.= A Tale of the Mississippi. By
Captain Mayne Reid.
=No. 11--The Boy Ranger=; or, The Heiress of the Golden Horn. By
Oll Coomes.
=No. 12--Bess, the Trapper.= A Tale of the Far South-west. By
Edward S. Ellis.
=No. 13--The French Spy=; or, The Fall of Montreal. By W. J.
Hamilton.
=No. 14--Long Shot=; or, The Dwarf Guide. By Capt. Comstock.
=No. 15--The Gunmaker of the Border.= By James L. Bowen.
=No. 16--Red Hand=; or, The Channel Scourge. By A. G. Piper.
=No. 17--Ben, the Trapper=; or, The Mountain Demon. By Maj. Lewis
W. Carson.
=No. 18--Wild Raven, the Ranger=; or, The Missing Guide. By Oll
Coomes.
=No. 19--The Specter Chief=; or, The Indian’s Revenge. By Seelin
Robins.
=No. 20--The B’ar-Killer=; or, The Long Trail. By Capt. Comstock.
=No. 21--Wild Nat=; or, The Cedar Swamp Brigade. By Wm. R. Eyster.
=No. 22--Indian Jo, the Guide.= By Lewis W. Carson.
=No. 23--Old Kent, the Ranger.= By Edward S. Ellis.
=No. 24--The One-Eyed Trapper.= By Capt. Comstock.
=No. 25--Godbold, the Spy.= A Tale of Arnold’s Treason. By N. C.
Iron.
=No. 26--The Black Ship.= By John S. Warner.
=No. 27--Single Eye, the Scourge.= By Warren St. John.
=No. 28--Indian Jim.= A Tale of the Minnesota Massacre. By Edward
S. Ellis.
=No. 29--The Scout.= By Warren St. John.
=No. 30.--Eagle Eye.= By W. J. Hamilton.
=No. 31--The Mystic Canoe.= A Romance of a Hundred Years Ago. By
Edward S. Ellis.
=No. 32--The Golden Harpoon=; or, Lost Among the Floes. By Roger
Starbuck.
=No. 33--The Scalp King.= By Lieut. Ned Hunter.
=No. 34--Old Lute, the Indian-fighter=; or, The Den in the Hills.
By E. W. Archer.
=No. 35--Rainbolt, the Ranger=; or, The Ærial Demon of the
Mountain. By Oll Coomes.
=No. 36--The Boy Pioneer.= By Edward S. Ellis.
=No. 37--Carson, the Guide=; or, the Perils of the Frontier. By
Lieut. J. H. Randolph.
=No. 38--The Heart Eater=; or, The Prophet of the Hollow Hill. By
Harry Hazard.
=No. 39--Wetzel, the Scout=; or, The Captives of the Wilderness.
By Boynton Belknap, M. D.
=No. 40--The Huge Hunter=; or, The Steam Man of the Prairies. By
Edward S. Ellis.
=No. 41--Wild Nat, the Trapper.= By Paul Prescott.
=No. 42--Lynx-cap=; or, The Sioux Track. By Paul Bibbs.
=No. 43--The White Outlaw=, _or_, The Bandit Brigand. By Harry
Hazard.
=No. 44--The Dog Trailer.= By Frederick Dewey.
=No. 45--The Elk King.= By Capt. Chas. Howard.
=No. 46--Adrian, the Pilot.= By Col. Prentiss Ingraham.
=No. 47--The Man-hunter.= By Maro O. Rolfe.
=No. 48--The Phantom Tracker.= By Frederick Dewey. Ready.
=No. 49--Moccasin Bill.= By Paul Bibbs. Ready May 9th.
=No. 50--The Wolf Queen.= By Captain Charles Howard. Ready.
=No. 51--Tom Hawk, the Trailer.= By Lewis Jay Swift. Ready June
6th.
☞ BEADLE’S DIME POCKET NOVELS are always in print and for sale by
all newsdealers; or will be sent, post-paid, to any address: single
numbers, ten cents; six months (13 Nos.) $1.25; one year (26 Nos.)
$2.50. Address,
BEADLE AND ADAMS, Publishers, 98 William Street, New York.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The Shawnees called the Ohio river _Kiskepila_ Sepe, _i. e._,
Eagle river.
[2] Simon Girty was often called the White Shawnee by the Indians.
Transcriber’s Notes
The Table of Contents at the beginning of the book was created by
the transcriber.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation such as “mad-woman”/“madwoman”
have been maintained.
Minor punctuation and spelling errors have been silently corrected
and, except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the
text, especially in dialogue, and inconsistent or archaic usage,
have been retained.
Page 89: “He made no pretentions” changed to “He made no pretensions”.