As Lieutenant Fred Godfrey slowly raised his hand, as if it were the
signal for his friends to open fire, Jake Golcher collapsed.
Sinking down on the ground, as limp as a rag, he began begging in the
most pitiful tones for his life. Indeed, he groveled so in the dirt that
all the whites who looked upon him found their feelings of hatred
turning to disgust and pity.
Fred Godfrey was disappointed, and, stepping back a pace or two, gazed
on the miserable craven as he would upon a dog he had caught stealing
sheep, and which was then cringing at his feet.
Instead of waiting until the patriot had proven the truth of his
declaration, the renegade succumbed at once. It is hard to kick the
wretch who clasps your knees, and the lieutenant, who was determined to
rid the world of the man as soon as he had made the declaration of his
purposes respecting the captives, found his resentment gone.
Mr. Brainerd, with an expression of scorn, sprang up from the log and
strode over to his son.
"In Heaven's name, let him go, Fred! Kick him out of sight, for he
hasn't the manhood to stand up and be shot like a man."
"Get up!" commanded Fred, catching him by the collar of his coat, and
jerking him to his feet: "I want to speak to you."
But Golcher was no sooner on his feet than he went to pieces again,
groaning and whining, and begging for that mercy that he had so often
denied to others.
Again the lieutenant yanked him to the upright position, and, finding
him collapsed as before, he cuffed his ears until they tingled,
shouting:
"Stand up, or you're a dead man!"
Finally, after wabbling about several minutes, Golcher summoned enough
strength to keep his feet, though in a shaky condition; and finding he
was not to be executed immediately, he managed to grasp the situation.
"I was going to say--What do you mean, Gravity?"
This sudden question was caused by Gimp, the African, who, with a
chuckle, ran forward from the darkness that was beginning to give away
before the approach of day, and, jamming his head down in the ground
between Godfrey and Golcher, threw his huge feet in the air, and began
kicking with such recklessness that one of them struck the lieutenant in
the breast, nearly knocking him over, while the other sent the Tory
recoiling some distance.
"Can't help it!" exclaimed the happy African; "Jake Golcher's s'prise
party dat was to hab arriv, hab arroven, and me and Aunt Peggy feels
like standin' on our heads, and kickin' de limbs off de trees."
Gravity used his feet rather too vigorously, and, swaying beyond the
point of nature's gravity, came down on his back with a resounding
thump; but he did not mind it, and leaping up, ran to the fallen tree,
where he sat down among his friends with the most extravagant
manifestations of joy.
It is not to be supposed that the six Senecas remained idle spectators
of this extraordinary scene. They were quick to comprehend what it
meant, and had they but maintained guard for the preceding hour or two
with their usual care the surprise could not have been effected.
But, if any warriors could feel warranted in believing themselves beyond
danger of molestation from white men, it was those Indians who took part
in the Wyoming massacre.
When they grasped their guns and glanced around, their eyes encountered
a strange sight. It seemed as if a score of men had sprung from the
ground like so many visions of the night, and every one of the Iroquois
who used his eyes saw a gun leveled at him.
Had the scene occurred in Texas to-day, it would have been said that
Dick Durkee and his foresters "had the drop" on the Tory and his
Iroquois.
The latter saw they were caught, and they preserved a masterly
inactivity, pending the negotiations between the two parties.
There was a threatened complication that might turn the tables again,
and this time against the patriots. Some of the Senecas were absent and
were likely to come back. Gray Panther might be among them, and in such
an event the whites were likely to find themselves between two fires.
"You poor fool," said Fred, when Golcher got into such shape that he
could understand what was said to him; "stand up like a man, or I'll
shoot you!"
"Yes--yes--yes, I--w-w-wi-ll; what do you want?"
"I want to make an agreement with you, and it's got to be done mighty
quick or not at all."
Thereupon the Tory straightened up wonderfully; but, happening to look
about him and to catch sight of the patriots standing, as it seemed
everywhere, with their guns leveled, he was seized with another fit of
shivering, and it was some time before he could compose himself.
"You see," said the lieutenant, "that you are at my mercy, and I'll
treat you better than you deserve. I have but to give the signal, as I
told you a minute ago, and ten seconds from now there wouldn't be a
Tory or red Indian standing alive in this camp. Every one of you is
covered, but I'll agree to let you and them withdraw, on condition that
you do so without a second's delay."
"I'll do it--I'll do it!" gasped Golcher; "I'll give you an escort to
Stroudsburg, or anywhere you want to go."
"I rather think you won't," was the reply of Godfrey. "You have escorted
us altogether too much as it is. Thank Heaven, we are in shape to take
care of ourselves now."
"Wal, I'm ready to do whatever you want; fact is, leftenant, I never
meant one-half I said about you, and I ain't half as mean as--"
"Not another word!" commanded Fred. "We'll attend to business now."