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Page 65
We say Algernon experienced much the same sense of relief as the
awakened dreamer; but unlike the latter, his was only momentary; for
yell upon yell still sounded in his ear; and plunge after plunge into
the stream, followed quickly by a rustling of the bushes around, the
trampling of many feet close by, and the war-whoops of his enemies,
warned him, that, if he had escaped one, there were hundreds yet to
be eluded before he could consider himself as safe. Wildly his heart
palpitated, as now one stirred the bushes within reach of his hand, and,
slightly pausing, as if to examine the spot of his concealment, uttered
a horrid yell, as of discovery, and then, just as he fancied all was
lost, to his great relief darted suddenly away.
Thus one after another passed on; and their fierce yells gradually
sounding more and more distant, renewed his hope, that he might yet
escape their vigilant eyes, and again be free to roam the earth at will.
O, potent, joyful thought!--how it made his very heart leap, and the
blood course swiftly through his heated veins!--and then, when some
sound was heard more near, how his heart sickened at the fear he might
again be captured, and forced to a lingering, agonizing death!--how he
shuddered as he thought, until his flesh felt chill and clammy, and cold
drops of perspiration, wrung forth by mental agony, stood upon his pale
features! Even death, before his escape, possessed not half the terrors
for him it would have now; for then he had nerved himself to meet it,
and prepared himself for the worst; but now he had again had a taste of
freedom, and would feel the reverse in a thousand accumulated horrors.
Thus for a few minutes he lay, in painful thought, when he became aware,
by the different sounds, that many of the savages were returning.
Presently some two or three paused by the rock, and beat back the bushes
around it. Then, dropping upon his knees, one of the Indians actually
put his head to the ground, and peered up into the cavity. It was a
horrible moment of suspense to Algernon, as he beheld the hideous visage
of the savage so near, and evidently gazing upon him; and thinking
himself discovered, he was on the point of coming forth, when a certain
vagueness in the look of the Indian, led him to hope he was not yet
perceived; and he lay motionless, with his breath suspended. But, alas!
his hope was soon changed to despair; for after gazing a moment longer,
the Indian suddenly started, his features expressed satisfaction, he
uttered a significant grunt, and, springing to his feet, gave a loud,
long, peculiar whoop. The next moment our hero was roughly seized, and,
ere he could exert himself at all, dragged forth by the heels, by which
means his limbs and body became not a little bruised and lacerated.
The savages now came running towards their prisoner from all quarters,
in high glee at his recapture--being attracted hither, probably, by the
signal whoop of success made by the one who first discovered him. Among
the rest came Girty; who, as he approached Algernon, burst into a loud
laugh, saying, in a jocular manner:
"Well, my fine bird, so you are caught again, eh? I was most infernally
afraid you had got away in earnest; I was, by ----! But we'll soon fix
you now, so that you won't run away again in a hurry."
Then turning to the savages around him, the renegade continued his
remarks in the Indian tongue, occasionally laughing boisterously, in
which they not unfrequently joined. In this manner, the whole party
returned in triumph to the village--being met on their way thither by
the women and children, who set up yells of delight, sung and danced
around their prisoner, whom they beat with their fists and with sticks,
until he became sore from head to heel.
The gauntlet was soon again made ready, and Algernon started upon the
race; but fatigued in body and mind, from the late events--weak and
faint from the bleeding of his wound and bruises--he scarcely reached
twenty paces down the lines, ere he sunk overpowered to the earth; from
which he was immediately raised, and borne forward to the council-house,
where, according to the Indian custom, the chiefs and warriors were to
decide upon his fate.
[Footnote 12: Lest there should seem to the reader an inconsistency
in one tribe yielding the fate of their prisoners to the decision of
another, we would remark here, that at the period of which we write, the
Six Nations were allied and fought for one common interest against the
Americans, on the British side, and therefore not unfrequently shared
each others dangers and partook of each others spoils.]
[Footnote 13: A practice sometimes, but not always, followed.]
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