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Page 44
Directly, however, he heard the voice of Cat-sha demanding of E-chee
why he thus abused the prisoners. To this the young Indian made answer
that he had discovered that this one, who was the most troublesome of
the three, had nearly succeeded in loosening his bonds. This he would
doubtless have accomplished had not he, E-chee, been possessed of the
forethought to examine them as he made his rounds.
Commending his vigilance, Cat-sha, who was in the habit of personally
assuring himself of the safety of the prisoners several times during
each night, passed on. Then E-chee, after stooping to whisper to R�n�
to be of good cheer, also moved away.
Before noon of the following day the canoes were run ashore, and R�n�
was allowed to rise and step from the one in the bottom of which he had
travelled. As he did so, he at once knew the place as the head of the
little lagoon, where he had been left to nurse his snake-bite, while
Has-se explored the trail that led away into the swamp. It was with a
swelling heart that the lad contrasted his present position with the
one he had occupied at that time, and it was with difficulty that he
forced back the hot tears that his thoughts caused to stand ready to
flow.
The brave lad did not permit these signs of weakness to be seen, and he
received some comfort by catching a kindly look from E-chee, and
exchanging sympathetic glances with his fellow-prisoners, with whom,
however, he was not allowed to speak. They were of the new arrivals,
and on account of illness had been left in the fort when the fighting
men marched away to join Admiral Ribault.
As soon as the canoes had been drawn from the water and carefully
concealed, the Seminoles and their captives turned into the gloom of
the shadowy cypresses, and made their way in single file along the
narrow trail that led away from the lagoon. It was often covered with
water, and a misstep on either side of its entire length would have
plunged the unfortunate who should make it into a bottomless morass.
From it, without assistance, he would never be able to extricate
himself, but would only sink deeper and deeper, until he had
disappeared forever. It happened that one of the French prisoners did
step from the trail on this occasion. The brutal savages watched with
pleasure his frantic struggles to regain a footing, but without
offering to aid him. He had very nearly drowned in the horrible
mixture of black water and blacker mud before they hauled him out. He
was in a pitiable plight, but they only greeted him with blows and
jeers at his appearance, and forced him to resume the march, without
allowing him to remove from his clothing any of the filth that clung to
it.
R�n� was able to distinguish the point at which the trail they were
following branched off from that formerly taken by Has-se. He hoped
that E-chee would also note it, but had no chance of assuring himself
that the young Indian had done so.
It was nearly nightfall before they reached the Seminole village that
marked their journey's end. Here they were received by its inhabitants
with the wildest demonstrations of savage joy. R�n� was an especial
object of interest, for, as the "young white chief," his name was
already well known to them, and his capture was regarded as the most
noteworthy one ever made by the band.
The squaws and children, and even the youths of his own age, crowded
closely about him, taunting him with shrill voices, spitting on him,
pulling his hair, and pushing him this way and that. For some time
R�n� bore all this patiently, feeling that to express annoyance would
perhaps only subject him to greater abuses. He knew also that it would
afford his tormentors the greatest delight and satisfaction, and this
pleasure he was not inclined to give them.
At length, however, his patience came to an end. Among the crowd
surrounding him was a lad somewhat taller than himself, and possessed
of hideous features. When he began pricking R�n� with the point of a
sharp knife, at the same time approaching his face close to that of his
victim, and mocking him with frightful grimaces, the boy could stand it
no longer. Regardless of what the consequences might be, he drew back
a step, and raising his clinched and still bound hands, struck his
tormentor full in the face such a blow as felled him to the ground.
A loud outcry arose at this unexpected exhibition of the prisoner's
spirit, and the young savage, regaining his feet, was so enraged that
he attempted to plunge his knife into R�n�'s heart. This was prevented
by several warriors who had witnessed the scene, and who stepped
quickly forward to his rescue. Pushing R�n�'s assailant aside, they
led him away to a palmetto-thatched hut that stood at a distance from
the rest. Here, after so tightening the bonds of his ankles that he
could not stand, but could only sit or lie down, they closed the
entrance and left him to his own sorrowful reflections.
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