Simon Girty lolled on a blanket in Half King's teepee. He was alone,
awaiting his allies. Rings of white smoke curled lazily from his
lips as he puffed on a long Indian pipe, and gazed out over the
clearing that contained the Village of Peace.
Still water has something in its placid surface significant of deep
channels, of hidden depths; the dim outline of the forest is dark
with meaning, suggestive of its wild internal character. So Simon
Girty's hard, bronzed face betrayed the man. His degenerate
brother's features were revolting; but his own were striking, and
fell short of being handsome only because of their craggy hardness.
Years of revolt, of bitterness, of consciousness of wasted life, had
graven their stern lines on that copper, masklike face. Yet despite
the cruelty there, the forbidding shade on it, as if a reflection
from a dark soul, it was not wholly a bad countenance. Traces still
lingered, faintly, of a man in whom kindlier feelings had once
predominated.
In a moment of pique Girty had deserted his military post at Fort
Pitt, and become an outlaw of his own volition. Previous to that
time he had been an able soldier, and a good fellow. When he
realized that his step was irrevocable, that even his best friends
condemned him, he plunged, with anger and despair in his heart, into
a war upon his own race. Both of his brothers had long been border
ruffians, whose only protection from the outraged pioneers lay in
the faraway camps of hostile tribes. George Girty had so sunk his
individuality into the savage's that he was no longer a white man.
Jim Girty stalked over the borderland with a bloody tomahawk, his
long arm outstretched to clutch some unfortunate white woman, and
with his hideous smile of death. Both of these men were far lower
than the worst savages, and it was almost wholly to their deeds of
darkness that Simon Girty owed his infamous name.
To-day White Chief, as Girty was called, awaited his men. A slight
tremor of the ground caused him to turn his gaze. The Huron chief,
Half King, resplendent in his magnificent array, had entered the
teepee. He squatted in a corner, rested the bowl of his great pipe
on his knee, and smoked in silence. The habitual frown of his black
brow, like a shaded, overhanging cliff; the fire flashing from his
eyes, as a shining light is reflected from a dark pool; his
closely-shut, bulging jaw, all bespoke a nature, lofty in its Indian
pride and arrogance, but more cruel than death.
Another chief stalked into the teepee and seated himself. It was
Pipe. His countenance denoted none of the intelligence that made
Wingenund's face so noble; it was even coarser than Half King's, and
his eyes, resembling live coals in the dark; the long, cruel lines
of his jaw; the thin, tightly-closed lips, which looked as if they
could relax only to utter a savage command, expressed fierce cunning
and brutality.
"White Chief is idle to-day," said Half King, speaking in the Indian
tongue.
"King, I am waiting. Girty is slow, but sure," answered the
renegade.
"The eagle sails slowly round and round, up and up," replied Half
King, with majestic gestures, "until his eye sees all, until he
knows his time; then he folds his wings and swoops down from the
blue sky like the forked fire. So does White Chief. But Half King is
impatient."
"To-day decides the fate of the Village of Peace," answered Girty,
imperturbably.
"Ugh!" grunted Pipe.
Half King vented his approval in the same meaning exclamation.
An hour passed; the renegade smoked in silence; the chiefs did
likewise.
A horseman rode up to the door of the teepee, dismounted, and came
in. It was Elliott. He had been absent twenty hours. His buckskin
suit showed the effect of hard riding through the thickets.
"Hullo, Bill, any sign of Jim?" was Girty's greeting to his
lieutenant.
"Nary. He's not been seen near the Delaware camp. He's after that
chap who married Winds."
"I thought so. Jim's roundin' up a tenderfoot who will be a bad man
to handle if he has half a chance. I saw as much the day he took his
horse away from Silver. He finally did fer the Shawnee, an' almost
put Jim out. My brother oughtn't to give rein to personal revenge at
a time like this." Girty's face did not change, but his tone was one
of annoyance.
"Jim said he'd be here to-day, didn't he?"
"To-day is as long as we allowed to wait."
"He'll come. Where's Jake and Mac?"
"They're here somewhere, drinkin' like fish, an' raisin' hell."
Two more renegades appeared at the door, and, entering the teepee,
squatted down in Indian fashion. The little wiry man with the
wizened face was McKee; the other was the latest acquisition to the
renegade force, Jake Deering, deserter, thief, murderer--everything
that is bad. In appearance he was of medium height, but very
heavily, compactly built, and evidently as strong as an ox. He had a
tangled shock of red hair, a broad, bloated face; big, dull eyes,
like the openings of empty furnaces, and an expression of
beastliness.
Deering and McKee were intoxicated.
"Bad time fer drinkin'," said Girty, with disapproval in his glance.
"What's that ter you?" growled Deering. "I'm here ter do your work,
an' I reckon it'll be done better if I'm drunk."
"Don't git careless," replied Girty, with that cool tone and dark
look such as dangerous men use. "I'm only sayin' it's a bad time fer
you, because if this bunch of frontiersmen happen to git onto you
bein' the renegade that was with the Chippewas an' got thet young
feller's girl, there's liable to be trouble."
"They ain't agoin' ter find out."
"Where is she?"
"Back there in the woods."
"Mebbe it's as well. Now, don't git so drunk you'll blab all you
know. We've lots of work to do without havin' to clean up
Williamson's bunch," rejoined Girty. "Bill, tie up the tent flaps
an' we'll git to council."
Elliott arose to carry out the order, and had pulled in the
deer-hide flaps, when one of them was jerked outward to disclose the
befrilled person of Jim Girty. Except for a discoloration over his
eye, he appeared as usual.
"Ugh!" grunted Pipe, who was glad to see his renegade friend.
Half King evinced the same feeling.
"Hullo," was Simon Girty's greeting.
"'Pears I'm on time fer the picnic," said Jim Girty, with his
ghastly leer.
Bill Elliott closed the flaps, after giving orders to the guard to
prevent any Indians from loitering near the teepee.
"Listen," said Simon Girty, speaking low in the Delaware language.
"The time is ripe. We have come here to break forever the influence
of the white man's religion. Our councils have been held; we shall
drive away the missionaries, and burn the Village of Peace."
He paused, leaning forward in his exceeding earnestness, with his
bronzed face lined by swelling veins, his whole person made rigid by
the murderous thought. Then he hissed between his teeth: "What shall
we do with these Christian Indians?"
Pipe raised his war-club, struck it upon the ground; then handed it
to Half King.
Half King took the club and repeated the action.
Both chiefs favored the death penalty.
"Feed 'em to ther buzzards," croaked Jim Girty.
Simon Girty knitted his brow in thought. The question of what to do
with the converted Indians had long perplexed him.
"No," said he; "let us drive away the missionaries, burn the
village, and take the Indians back to camp. We'll keep them there;
they'll soon forget."
"Pipe does not want them," declared the Delaware.
"Christian Indians shall never sit round Half King's fire," cried
the Huron.
Simon Girty knew the crisis had come; that but few moments were left
him to decide as to the disposition of the Christians; and he
thought seriously. Certainly he did not want the Christians
murdered. However cruel his life, and great his misdeeds, he was
still a man. If possible, he desired to burn the village and ruin
the religious influence, but without shedding blood. Yet, with all
his power, he was handicapped, and that by the very chiefs most
nearly under his control. He could not subdue this growing Christian
influence without the help of Pipe and Half King. To these savages a
thing was either right or wrong. He had sown the seed of unrest and
jealousy in the savage breasts, and the fruit was the decree of
death. As far as these Indians were concerned, this decision was
unalterable.
On the other hand, if he did not spread ruin over the Village of
Peace, the missionaries would soon get such a grasp on the tribes
that their hold would never be broken. He could not allow that, even
if he was forced to sacrifice the missionaries along with their
converts, for he saw in the growth of this religion his own
downfall. The border must be hostile to the whites, or it could no
longer be his home. To be sure, he had aided the British in the
Revolution, and could find a refuge among them; but this did not
suit him.
He became an outcast because of failure to win the military
promotion which he had so much coveted. He had failed among his own
people. He had won a great position in an alien race, and he loved
his power. To sway men--Indians, if not others--to his will; to
avenge himself for the fancied wrong done him; to be great, had been
his unrelenting purpose.
He knew he must sacrifice the Christians, or eventually lose his own
power. He had no false ideas about the converted Indians. He knew
they were innocent; that they were a thousand times better off than
the pagan Indians; that they had never harmed him, nor would they
ever do so; but if he allowed them to spread their religion there
was an end of Simon Girty.
His decision was characteristic of the man. He would sacrifice any
one, or all, to retain his supremacy. He knew the fulfillment of the
decree as laid down by Pipe and Half King would be known as his
work. His name, infamous now, would have an additional horror, and
ever be remembered by posterity in unspeakable loathing, in
unsoftening wrath. He knew this, and deep down in his heart awoke a
numbed chord of humanity that twinged with strange pain. What awful
work he must sanction to keep his vaunted power! More bitter than
all was the knowledge that to retain this hold over the Indians he
must commit a deed which, so far as the whites were concerned, would
take away his great name, and brand him a coward.
He briefly reviewed his stirring life. Singularly fitted for a
leader, in a few years he had risen to the most powerful position on
the border. He wielded more influence than any chief. He had been
opposed to the invasion of the pioneers, and this alone, without his
sagacity or his generalship, would have given him control of many
tribes. But hatred for his own people, coupled with unerring
judgment, a remarkable ability to lead expeditions, and his
invariable success, had raised him higher and higher until he stood
alone. He was the most powerful man west of the Alleghenies. His
fame was such that the British had importuned him to help them, and
had actually, in more than one instance, given him command over
British subjects.
All of which meant that he had a great, even though an infamous
name. No matter what he was blamed for; no matter how many dastardly
deeds had been committed by his depraved brothers and laid to his
door, he knew he had never done a cowardly act. That which he had
committed while he was drunk he considered as having been done by
the liquor, and not by the man. He loved his power, and he loved his
name.
In all Girty's eventful, ignoble life, neither the alienation from
his people, the horror they ascribed to his power, nor the sacrifice
of his life to stand high among the savage races, nor any of the
cruel deeds committed while at war, hurt him a tithe as much as did
this sanctioning the massacre of the Christians.
Although he was a vengeful, unscrupulous, evil man, he had never
acted the coward.
Half King waited long for Girty to speak; since he remained silent,
the wily Huron suggested they take a vote on the question.
"Let us burn the Village of Peace, drive away the missionaries, and
take the Christians back to the Delaware towns--all without spilling
blood," said Girty, determined to carry his point, if possible.
"I say the same," added Elliott, refusing the war-club held out to
him by Half King.
"Me, too," voted McKee, not so drunk but that he understood the
lightninglike glance Girty shot at him.
"Kill 'em all; kill everybody," cried Deering in drunken glee. He
took the club and pounded with it on the ground.
Pipe repeated his former performance, as also did Half King, after
which he handed the black, knotted symbol of death to Jim Girty.
Three had declared for saving the Christians, and three for the
death penalty.
Six pairs of burning eyes were fastened on the Deaths-head.
Pipe and Half King were coldly relentless; Deering awoke to a brutal
earnestness; McKee and Elliott watched with bated breath. These men
had formed themselves into a tribunal to decide on the life or death
of many, and the situation, if not the greatest in their lives,
certainly was one of vital importance.
Simon Girty cursed all the fates. He dared not openly oppose the
voting, and he could not, before those cruel but just chiefs, try to
influence his brother's vote.
As Jim Girty took the war-club, Simon read in his brother's face the
doom of the converted Indians and he muttered to himself:
"Now tremble an' shrink, all you Christians!"
Jim was not in a hurry. Slowly he poised the war-club. He was
playing as a cat plays with a mouse; he was glorying in his power.
The silence was that of death. It signified the silence of death.
The war-club descended with violence.
"Feed the Christians to ther buzzards!"