It is necessary at this point that some attention should be given to the
predecessor of our friends in captivity--Gravity Gimp.
The particulars of his capture will be recalled, it being somewhat
similar to that of his followers, inasmuch as he was pounced upon and
overwhelmed before he could make any effectual resistance, though, for a
time, he kept things "moving."
But he was forced to succumb at last, and was led away by those whom he
had fought so bravely, and into whose hands he dreaded falling aware as
he was what fate awaited him.
"Be keerful," he called out, limping heavily, "I've got a game leg, and
I want yer to play light on it."
Whether they understood his words or not is a small matter; but the
American Indian is accustomed to the language of gesture, and when the
African limped forward, as though unable to bear half the weight on one
limb, they could not mistake what it meant.
The gun of the captive was taken from him, and, as he was such a
miserable pedestrian just then, his hands were not bound behind him, as
was the case with the prisoners afterwards taken.
Ordinarily, the rough usage given his captors during the struggle would
have resulted in serious injury to some of them; but the Iroquois were
too sinewy, lithe, and graceful on their feet to fare ill, and they
gathered about him, with something akin to admiration, when he was
conducted farther into the mountain, where they had a large camp-fire
burning.
"I s'pose eberybody makes mistakes," muttered Gravity, moving slowly
along; "leastways I'm purty sartin I made a wery big one, when I got too
cur'us to know what dese willains was up to."
No indignity was offered him on the walk to the fire, which was burning
a couple of hundred yards away, but he felt that nothing like mercy was
to be expected from his captors.
The negro had proven his coolness and courage in more than one instance
that day, and Maggie Brainerd asked herself whether the loyal fellow
really knew what fear is.
But when Gimp reached the camp-fire, and saw Jake Golcher with other
Indians grouped around him, his heart gave a throb of terror.
He knew that wretch too well to make any mistake concerning him. It was
Gimp who, but a few hours before, had visited the worst kind of physical
indignity on the Tory, who now possessed the chance to repay him.
Jake was sitting on a fallen tree, leaning forward with his elbows on
his knees, and his chin in his hands, looking into the glowing embers,
and apparently only half listening to the guttural conversation going on
among the Indians about him.
He had spent so much time with the Seneca branch of the Iroquois, that
he understood their tongue quite well. But, as he slowly puffed at his
short clay pipe, his thoughts were far away.
Most likely he was recalling the incidents of the day, that were a
source of mixed pleasure and pain to him.
"The overthrow of the rebels was complete," he muttered, his face
lighting up with passion. "It'll be a good many years before Wyoming
will get over this, and I've got even with a lot of them that hain't
used me well. There's Parker, who called me a lazy loafer two years ago,
because I wouldn't pay him a little money I had borrowed. Well, I
settled up with him to-day, and he'll never call anybody else such a
disrespectful name agin.
"Then there's Sam Williams, that I used to go out hunting with, and who
was considered a pretty good chap by some folks. He used to lend me
money, and never cared whether I paid him back or not; but he undertook
to lecture me once on my dooty, and said, if I didn't go to work, I
never would be anybody, I've got too much spirit to stand any such
insults as that, and, when I come on him to-day, I settled with him."
Dreadful thoughts were these to find such expression, and the renegade
was silent a minute, until it seemed as if Satan got still a stronger
hold upon him.
"But there's _one_ man close by that I would give a thousand prisoners
for," he added, puffing spitefully at his pipe, "and it looks as if I'm
going to have him. Providence does favor the truly good," added the
miscreant. "I've got the whole party penned up in a hole, and if they
get away from us it will be the biggest thing of the kind ever done in
these parts.
"I want to get hold of that Gimp, that stole my gun and gave me such a
kicking that I feel six inches taller than ever before, and have to be
mighty careful about settin' down. He's a sort of giant, but if we lay
hands on him there'll be mighty little of him left when we get through.
"There's Maggie Brainerd, the prettiest gal that ever left Connecticut
and settled in the Wyoming Valley. I knowed her when she was a little
one, and then she was so purty that people used to stop her in the road,
to kiss and admire her.
"She always acted kind toward me, and I used to think she was kinder
tender and loving, and I b'leve now I might have got her, if that
half-brother of hers, Fred Godfrey, hadn't come along and set her agin
me."
The brows of the Tory contracted at the recollection of something that
burned in his memory.
"A year ago, he was down here in the valley, and I feared there wasn't
much chance for me with Maggie, so I thought I would shame him before
the town to that extent he would never show his face in it again. He was
talkin' in the store to a lot of our neighbors, and had enlisted, and he
thought every young chap oughter. I said I didn't b'leve he had enough
courage to fire a gun at a red coat, when he said he had enough to fire
me out, if I didn't keep a civil tongue in my head.
"That's just what I wanted, for I had been building up my muscle for two
weeks, with the very idee of whalin' him, and I sailed in.
"Wal," added the Tory, with a sigh, "the fight was over afore I'd fairly
got into it. I come out of the winder with a sash round my neck, and if
I hadn't struck agin Aunt Peggy, who was walkin' by, my neck would have
been broken off short. I didn't get over that lambastin' for a month,
but Fred Godfrey little thought when he jined the crowd in laughin' at
me, that he had sealed his doom."
The face of the Tory flushed, for he was sure that he had the best
reason to believe that he spoke the truth.