CHAPTER XXIV

'TWIXT BEAR AND PANTHER

Ominous indeed were all the faces around us now. For the denunciation was terrible; if true, it could mean nothing but death for Roderick St. Amande. And that an awful death. Near the circle there stood a Cross which we who dwelt in the colonies knew well the meaning and use of. That holy symbol, so out of place amongst a band of savages, was not reared here with reverence, but because, being the token of the white man's faith, the token to which he bowed his knee and poured out his soul, their devilish minds had devised it as the instrument of his execution. And white men, we knew from all hearsay and gossip of those who had escaped, had often suffered on the cross; there was not an encampment of Shawnee Indians, of Manahoacs, of Powhattans, Nanticokes, or Doegs--all of which tribes surrounded Virginia--in which there was not one erected for their torture and execution. Only, in those executions their tortures and their sufferings were greater far than any which had ever been devised outside the colonies. Those whose fate led them to these Crosses suffered not only crucifixion, but worse, far worse. As they hung upon them, their poor hands and feet nailed to the beams, while their bare bodies were tortured by all the insects that abound in the region, they served also as marks for the arrows and, sometimes, the bullets of their savage foes. Happy indeed, were those to whom a vital wound was dealt early in their suffering, happy those who died at once and did not linger on, perhaps from one day to the other, expiring slowly amidst the jeers of those amongst whom they had fallen.

Such was one form of revenge practised by the Indian on the white man, and, alas! there were many others. There was death by fire and death by burying alive, the body being in the earth, the head outside, a prey for the vultures to swoop down upon and to tear to pieces, beginning with the eyes; there was the death of thirst, when the victim sat gasping in the hot sun while all around him, but beyond his reach, were placed gourds of cool water.

It was to such deaths as these that we had feared our men might come if they fell into the hands of the enemy--the women, be it said, were never subjected to such torture, there were _other_ things reserved for them--it was one of such deaths as these that Roderick St. Amande might now fear if the band believed the denunciation of Anuza.

That they did believe it seemed not open to doubt. They muttered and gesticulated, they hurled opprobrious names at him, they even beat their breasts and bemoaned the disgrace which had fallen on them by being deceived by one who had been a "slave." This, to these free, untrammelled creatures of the forest, seemed the worst of all, far worse even than their having been tricked into believing that he, who was nothing but a poor mortal like themselves, could be a god and the Child of the great Sun God.

Senamee alone seemed to still believe in the villain; he alone at this moment raised his voice on behalf of their denounced priest. Rising to his feet, while his cruel features were convulsed with passion and the great scars upon his face stood out strangely beneath the paint upon it, he addressed the members of his tribe thus:

"Children of my race, warriors of our various bands, listen to me and be not swayed too easily by the voice of Anuza the Bear, the chief who ever opposes me and gnaws at his heart-strings because of my rule and authority." Here the Bear cast a disdainful glance at him, while he went on, "Easy enough are these charges to be made; less easy, however, is the proof of them. Because the Bear has learned now that he has attacked the house of one by whose kin his father was succoured, he has readily lent his ear to the tales told him by the pale faces, all of whom are liars, as we and those who have gone before us know only too well and to our cost. Yet, against such lying tales let us remember what the Child of the Sun has done for us--even before our own eyes, which do not deceive us. He has brought our cattle from the mouth of death, he has caused all our herds to increase tenfold, he has blessed our lands and, where before naught but the serpent and the wolf could live, has made the maize and the corn to grow. Yet we, but mortal men, could do naught like unto this. And has he not ruled the heavens! Rain to refresh the earth has come to us at his bidding; when the moon and the sun have disappeared before our eyes, without cloud to obscure them, he has conjured them back again by waving his hands."

"It requires no sharp eye," muttered Mr. Kinchella to us, "to tell when an eclipse is drawing to an end. If he could have foretold its coming it would have been more wonderful."

"He has made trees and shrubs," went on Senamee, "to grow before our eyes, and objects he held in his hands to vanish away into the air."

"Yes, curse him," now muttered Buck, who, unhappily, rarely spoke without an oath, "I taught him to. I would they had looked under his thumb or up his sleeve."

"And, above all, is it not he who bade us go forward on the warpath towards the home of the pale faces, telling us success should come to us, as it has truly come?"

Once more the Indians were roused, but this time it was towards the adoption of the chief's views. Hating ingratitude as they did, they seemed to think now--judging by the ejaculations of many of them--that there was danger of their testifying it to the medicine chief by turning so suddenly against him. Poor, ignorant savages! 'Twas easy to see that they believed, as doubtless their chief believed, that to this mean creature was owing the fact that their crops and their cattle had thrived so. They could not guess, their simple, unformed minds could not tell them, that it was to their own exertions, suggested by him, and not to his mumblings and gibberish over those crops and cattle, that their increase and fatness was due.

But no sooner had Senamee finished than Buck, who could be neither repressed nor subdued, lifted up his voice and, addressing him, exclaimed, "Sir! Chief! Listen to me a spell. What this fellow has done I taught him when he was a bought slave, as I was a transported one, to this our young lady here, whom you call the pale face woman. And what he can do I can do better, as I'll show you if you'll give me the chance. You say he can make objects vanish? Why, look here"; with which he picked up three stones from the earth, placed them on his open palm, clenched his hand and blew upon it, and, opening it again, showed to the astonished surrounders that it was empty. Then he approached an Indian squaw standing near, and putting out his finger drew each stone one by one from her long, matted hair, while her dusky skin turned white and she shrunk away from him muttering. Then he continued:

"Is that it? Well, 'tis simple enough--there hain't a conjuror or Jack Pudding at Bartholomew Fair, nor any other, that can't do better nor that, and they ain't children o' the Sun, nor more am I. No! not no more than _he_ is"--pointing his finger at the now trembling Roderick. "Children of the Sun, ha! ha! children born in a ditch more like; or in a prison." Whereupon, after laughing again, he stooped down once more and, seizing some larger stones, began to hurl them in the air one after the other and catch them as they descended. Yet, when he had caught them all, his hands were empty.

Doubtless the Indians understood not his strange jargon and his talk about Bartholomew Fair. But they could witness his mysterious tricks, at which, in truth, I was myself appalled, having never seen the like. And while once more the simple savages veered round into denunciations of Roderick St. Amande, muttering that he could be no god if this other slave could do such things, and some of them turned Buck round and made him show them his hands and open his mouth so that they might see if the stones were there, Anuza rose again from his seat and spake as follows:

"Senamee, from you, a chief of the Shawnee tribe and of the noble Manahoac blood also, have lies issued forth to-day. Nay, start not, but hear me; I will maintain my words with my arm later. From you, I say, have lies issued forth; nay, worse; not only were they lies, but you knew that they were lies and yet coldly spake them."

"I will kill you," hissed Senamee, "kill you with my own hand."

"So be it," answered the other, "if you have the power, but the Bear is not weak." "Lies," he went on, "lies knowingly told when you said that I opposed you and was jealous of your rule and authority. For you know well such words can have no truth in them. In my wigwam hang more scalps than in yours, the scalps of Cherokees who dispute the mountains with us, of Yamasees who dwell near unto the deep waters, of Muskogees; ay, even of the fierce Southern Seminoles who dwell in the tents of the blood-stained poles. And in my veins runs blood as pure as yours, while I yield not to you as my ruler, but as my equal only, except in years. But let this pass; later on you shall kill me or I you. Now, there is other killing to be done. For not only has this man," pointing to Buck, who was now showing some other tricks, truly marvellous, to the Indians, "who is by his own word a slave, proved to you that the jugglings of the false medicine man are no miracles, but things which slaves can do; but also have I to add my word against him. And, oh! my people," he said, turning round and addressing all there, "you, my kinsmen and friends of the Shawnees, the Manahoac, and the Doeg tribes, what will you say shall be done to the false priest, the pale-faced slave, who has imposed on us, when I tell you all? When I tell you that, in this white woman's house, I heard him speak of us who have sheltered him and succoured him, as 'credulous red fools'--as 'credulous red fools,' those were his words. And more," he went on, putting forth his arm with a gesture as though to stay the angry murmurs that now arose, while Roderick St. Amande sat shaking with fear in his seat, "the dark maiden here, the sister of the white woman, denounced him to his face and before me, though he knew not I heard. She taunted him with having had his lost ear smitten off by his owner--the ear that he told us often his father, the Sun God, took from him so that he should be less than he--oh! fools that we were to believe it! And--and she called him 'thief' and 'lover of fire waters' and 'cowardly, crawling dog'--think of it, oh! my kinsmen; the Shawnee warriors and the Manahoacs and the Doegs to be imposed on by such as this! A slave, a thief, a drunkard, a cowardly dog! Think of it! Think of it! And for me, Anuza, worse, far worse than this, for at his commands have I wrecked the house in which he who gave me life was tended and succoured; at his commands have I made war on and injured the child's child of her who succoured him."

He paused a moment and looked round, his eye falling on the angry, muttering crowd of savages of the three allied tribes; upon Roderick St. Amande trembling there, making no defence and burying his face in his mantle, from which he sometimes withdrew it to cast imploring glances on Senamee. Senamee, who sat scowling on all about him while his fingers clutched the great dagger in his wampum belt. Then Anuza went on again, while the muttering of the crowd rose to yells, and that crowd pressed forward ominously to where the unhappy victim sat.

"For all this, my brethren, he must die. For the inoffensive blood he has caused us to shed, he must die--for the lies he has told us, 'the credulous red fools,' he must die--for all that he has done, he must die. And there, upon the Cross which he himself selected as the death to be dealt out to the white men, he shall die to-night."

With a how! that was almost like to the dreaded war cry, they all rushed at Roderick, while high above even the noise of their fierce threats went forth a piercing shriek from their intended victim, who clung to Senamee's arm, crying, "Save me, save me," in the Indian tongue.

That the chief would have dreamt of doing so--seeing that, since he was head of all, he had been more fooled perhaps than any of them--had it not been for the hatred and antagonism he bore to the Bear, none of us who were present have ever been able to bring ourselves to believe. Yet now, to the astonishment of all, both red and white, he did actually intercede in his behalf.

As the crowd surged up to where the wretch sat, men and women being indiscriminately mixed, braves and warriors jostling their servants and inferiors, while their gaily-bedecked wives--for this was to have been a feast day--pushed against almost nude serving-women, the chief sprang to his feet, threw one arm about Roderick St. Amande, and, brandishing his tomahawk before their eyes, thundered forth an order to them to desist.

"Back!" he roared in his deep tones, "back, I say. What! is Senamee dead already that others usurp his place and issue orders to his people? Who is your chief? I, or Anuza, the rebel?" and he struck at two or three of the foremost with his tomahawk as he spoke.

"You are," they acknowledged, though with angry glances at him, "yet shall not the false priest shelter himself behind your shield. We will have his life in spite of you."

"His life you shall have when we are sure of his guilt. At present we have nothing but the word of Anuza, who has said I lie. But what if he has lied himself?"

"He has not lied," they called out. "He has not lied. Anuza never lies. And his words are proved. The other slave of the white woman can do more than he. He is no medicine priest. Give him to us that we may slay him."

"Not yet," answered Senamee. "Not yet. For ere I give him to you I am about to prove Anuza to be a liar in spite of your belief."

"How can you prove it?" they demanded, while Anuza himself stood motionless, his eyes fixed on his rival.

"My brethren and followers, you speak either like children who know nothing or old men who have forgotten what once they knew. Anuza has told me that I lie. To him I say the same thing. He lies. He lies out of his spite and envy of me. And have you, oh! ye children or dotards, forgotten how, when one of our race thinks thus of another, they decide who is the truthful man and who the liar?"

"We have not forgotten," they all exclaimed; "we have not forgotten. It must be by the death of one or the other. Both cannot live."

"It is well," Senamee exclaimed, "it is well. And of Anuza, the rebel, and of me your chief, one of us must die by the hand of the other. As that death is dealt out so shall it be decided what the fate of this one is," pointing to the impostor shivering by his side. "If I defeat the Bear he shall not suffer, for then it will be known that Anuza is the liar and has wrongly accused him; if Anuza slays me then must you do with the medicine chief as is his will. But," descending from his seat and advancing towards where that warrior stood, "that he will kill me I do not fear. Those of the house of Senamee dread not those of the race of the crawling Bear."

And then, advancing ever nearer unto Anuza until he stood close in front of him, he made a defiant gesture before him and exclaimed:

"Anuza, the time has come."

While Anuza, returning his glance with equally contemptuous ones, replied:

"You have spoken well, Senamee. The time has come."