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Page 52
At these words Girty started, as if bit by a serpent--the aspect of his
dark sinister features changed to one concentrated expression of hellish
rage--his eyes seemed to turn red--his lips quivered--the nostrils of
his flat ugly nose distended--froth issued from his mouth--while his
fingers worked convulsively at the handle of his tomahawk, and his whole
frame trembled like a tree shaken by a whirlwind. For some time he
essayed to speak, in vain; but at last he hissed forth, as he whirled
the tomahawk aloft:
"Die!--dog!--die!"
Ella uttered a piercing shriek of fear, and sprung forward to arrest the
blow; but ere she could have reached the renegade; the axe would have
been buried to the helve in the brain of Algernon, had not a tall,
powerful Indian suddenly interposed his rifle between it and the victim.
"Is the great chief a child, or in his dotage," he said to Girty, in the
Shawanoe dialect, "that he lets passion run away with his reason? Is not
the Big Knife already doomed to the tortures? And would the white chief
give him the death of a warrior?"
"No, by ----!" cried Girty, with an oath. "He shall have a dog's death!
Right! Mugwaha--right! I thank you for your interference--I was beside
myself. The stake--the torture--the stake--ha, ha, ha!" added he in
English, with a hoarse laugh, which his recent passion made sound
fiend-like and unearthly; and as he concluded, he smote Algernon on the
cheek with the palm of his hand.
The latter winced somewhat, but mastered his feelings and made no reply;
and the renegade resuming his former pace, the party again proceeded in
silence.
Toward night, Ella became so fatigued and exhausted by the long day's
march, that it was with the greatest difficulty she could move forward
at all; and Girty, taking some compassion on her, ordered the party to
halt, until a rough kind of litter could be prepared; on which being
seated, she was borne forward by four of the Indians. At dark they
halted at the base of a hill, where they encamped and found a partial
shelter from the wind and rain. At daylight they again resumed their
journey; and by four o'clock in the afternoon arrived at the river,
which they immediately crossed in their canoes; and, as the water was
found in a good stage, did not land until they reached the first bend
of the Miami--the place agreed on for the meeting between Girty and
Wild-cat.
As the latter chief and his party had not yet made their appearance,
Girty and his band went ashore with their prisoners, and took shelter
under one of the largest trees in the vicinity, to await their coming.
Of this expected meeting, the captives as yet knew nothing; and it was
of course not without considerable surprise, mingled with a saddened
joy, that they observed the approach, some half an hour later, of their
friends and enemies.
Ella, on first perceiving their canoes silently advancing up the stream,
started up with a cry of joy, which was the next moment saddened by the
thought that she was only welcoming her relatives to a miserable doom.
Still it was a joy to know they were yet alive; and as the sinking heart
is ever buoyed up with hope, until completely engulfed in the dark
billows of despair--so she could not, or would not, altogether banish
the animating feeling, that something might yet interfere to save them
all from destruction. As the canoes touched the shore, Ella sprung
forward to greet her adopted mother and father; but her course was
suddenly checked by one of the Indian warriors, who, grasping her
somewhat roughly by the arm, with a gutteral grunt and fierce gesture of
displeasure, pointed her back to her former place. Ella, downcast and
frightened, tremblingly retraced her steps, and could only observe the
pale faces and fatigued looks of her relatives and the little girl at a
distance; but she saw enough to send a thrill of anguish to her heart;
and Girty, who perceived the expressions of agony her sweet features now
displayed, at once advanced to her, and, modulating his voice somewhat
from its usual tones, said:
"Grieve not, Ella. I will endeavor to procure you an interview with your
friends."
The kindness manifested in the tones of the speaker, caused Ella to look
up with a start of surprise and hope; and thinking he might perhaps be
moved to mercy, by a direct appeal to his better feelings, she replied,
energetically, with a flush on her now animated countenance:
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