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Page 73
[Footnote 18: McKee and Elliot.]
CHAPTER XV.
OLD CHARACTERS AND NEW.
It was toward night of a hot sultry day in the month of August, that
Ella Barnwell was seated by the door of a cabin, within the walls of
Bryan's Station, gazing forth, with what seemed a vacant stare, upon a
group of individuals, who were standing near the center of the common
before spoken of, engaged in a very animated conversation. Her features
perhaps were no paler than when we saw her last; but there was a tender,
melancholy expression on her sweet countenance, of deep abiding grief,
and a look of mournfulness in her beautiful eyes, that touched
involuntarily the hearts of all who met her gaze.
Since we last beheld her, days of anxious solicitude, and sleepless
nights, had been apportioned Ella; for memory--all potent memory--had
kept constantly before her mind's eye the images of those who were gone,
and mourned as forever lost to the living; and her imagination had a
thousand times traced them to the awful stake, seen their terrible
tortures, heard their agonizing, dying groans; and her heart had bled
for them in secret; and tears of anguish, at their untimely fate, had
often dimmed her eyes. Even now, as she apparently gazed upon that group
of individuals, whom she saw not, and whose voices, sounding in her ear,
she heard not, her mind was occupied with the probable fate of her uncle
and Algernon, the still all-absorbing theme of her soul.
While seated thus, Mrs. Younker approached Ella from behind, unperceived
by the latter, and now stood gazing upon her with a sorrowful look. The
countenance of the good dame had altered less, perhaps, than Ella's,
owing to her strong masculine spirit; but still there was an expression
of anxiety and sadness thereon, which, until of late, had never been
visible--not even when on her march to what, as she then believed,
was her final doom--the excitement whereof, and the many events that
occurred on the route, having been sufficient to occupy her mind in a
different manner from what it had been in brooding over the fate of her
husband for months in secret, and in a place of comparative safety. At
length a remark, in a loud voice, of one of the individuals of the group
before alluded to, arrested the attention of both Mrs. Younker and Ella.
"I tell you," said the speaker, who was evidently much excited, "it was
that infernal cut-throat Girty's doings, and no mistake. Heaven's curses
on him for a villain!--and I don't think he'll more nor git his just
dues, to suffer them hell fires of torment, hereafter, that he's kindled
so often around his victims on arth."
At these words Ella started to her feet, and exclaiming wildly,
"Who are they--who are Girty's victims?" sprung swiftly towards the
group, followed by Mrs. Younker.
All eyes, from all quarters, were now turned upon her, as, like a
spirit, she glided noiselessly forward, her sweet countenance radiant
with the flush of excitement, her eyes dilated and sparkling, and her
glossy ringlets floating on the breeze. Curiosity could no longer remain
unsatisfied; and by one spontaneous movement, from every point of
compass, women and children now hurried toward the center of the common,
to gather the tidings.
The quiet, modest, melancholy air of Ella, had, one time with another,
since her first appearance in the Station, attracted the attention,
and won the regard of its inmates; most of whom had made inquiries
concerning her, and learned the cause of her sadness; and now, as she
gained the crowd, each gazed upon her with a look of respect; and at
once moving aside to let her pass, she presently stood the central
attraction of an excited multitude, of both sexes, all ages and sizes.
"Who are they?" cried she again, turning from one to the other, rapidly,
with an anxious look: "who are the victims of the renegade Girty?"
"We were speaking, Miss Barnwell," answered a youth, of genteel
appearance, doffing his hat, and making at the same time a polite and
respectful bow: "We were speaking of the defeat, capture, and burning
of Colonel Crawford, by the Indians, in their own country, in which the
notorious Simon Girty is said to have taken an active part[19]--news
whereof has just reached us."
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