CHAPTER XXVI

AS FOEMEN FIGHT

It was when we had climbed the spur, or bluff, one by one, crawling like Indians or snakes ourselves, and when we lay prone and gazing down upon the open space in the encampment that we saw that which astonished us so.

This it was.

In the middle of that open space there stood, or rather fought, two men, each contending for the other's life. Each also was a splendid example of the Indian race, great in height, muscular and sinewy; yet the one who seemed the younger of the two was the tallest and the best favoured, the elder having a fierce and cruel face. Both wielded that dreadful instrument, the tomahawk, the weapon that, while so small and harmless-looking, is, in the hands of those accustomed to its use, so deadly; both were bare from the waist upwards, their breasts painted with emblems or devices--a bear on one, a panther on the other. Yet more dreadful, perhaps, than to know that this was a combat to the death, was to see the manner in which the struggle took place. It was no battle of blow against blow, of one blow struck only to be warded off and another given; it was a fight in which craft was opposed to craft and skill to skill, such as no Italian swordsman perhaps knew better how to exhibit. Round and round what once would have been called the lists, or, as we now term it, the arena, those two stole after each other, first one creeping like a tiger at his foe and then his opponent doing the same; while, as they came within striking distance, the tomahawk would rise in the attacker's hand only to sink again as its wielder recognised that it must surely be skilfully parried or fall ineffectually. It was weird, horrible--nay, devilish--to see these two great types of humanity creeping at one another like tigers, yet never meeting in a great shock, as one might well have looked for.

But those below who sat there caused us as much surprise and agitation as did these combatants. There I saw my sweet Joice with, on her fair face, the greatest agitation depicted while she watched every movement of the contending foemen, her excitement being intense as the one who bore the emblem of the bear advanced as though to strike the other, and her look of disappointment extreme when he drew back foiled. What did it mean? What did it portend?

And there, too, was Mary Mills, her hand in Kinchella's as they sat side by side, while on both their faces was the same eager look, the same evident desire for the victory of the younger champion; the same look of regret when he was forced to draw back. But, more marvellous even than this, was what we further saw, yet could not comprehend. _All_ in the crowd of spectators, save one who sat huddled on a great chair or bench, his face covered with a mantle from which he peeped furtively, seemed possessed with the same desire as they; all their sympathy was with him who bore the emblem of the bear. It was so with the dusky warriors who watched every cat-like footstep that the antagonists took; so with the humbler Indians round; so with the richly-bedizened Indian women, whom we deemed the wives or squaws of the braves, and so with the almost nude Indian girls, servants probably. And with all the other white people it was equally the same. Buck and Mr. Pringle, and Mr. Byrd, as well as the other prisoners--though none seemed like prisoners, being unshackled and quite free--applauded and shouted in English fashion as the younger warrior attacked the elder. One would have thought the former was their dearest friend! They winced when the elder attacked in his turn, and looked black and anxious if for a moment the fight seemed to go against the Bear. Strange! all were for him--all; Indians, white people, even my own dear sweetheart and her friends, Mary and Kinchella--all, all, excepting that one shrouded, unknown creature who sat apart by himself. Who could he be? What did it mean? O'Rourke was able to inform me.

When he had told me that the Indian who was the desired victor of all who regarded the combat was the one who had been the chief in command of the attack on my sweet one's house, and had heard Roderick St. Amande not only exposed by Miss Mills but also by his own tongue, he said:

"And, my lord, remembering this, 'tis not difficult to draw therefrom a conclusion that shall, I think, be near the mark. He has denounced the villain Roderick--see how he cringes in his chair."

"In his chair? Is that creature Roderick?"

"It is, indeed, and I will wager that on this conflict his life depends. And, look, look! The Bear presses the other hard. See how he drives him back. Ah, God! he stumbles, he is--no, no! See, see, my lord, see! Ah, heavens! it is too dreadful!" And he placed his hands before his eyes. Even he, who had fought so well and risked his life a score of times three nights ago, could not witness the end of this fray.

It was, indeed, too dreadful. The end of the combat had come. Even as O'Rourke had been speaking, the Bear, creeping ever forward towards the other, had prepared to make a spring at him when, his foot catching against some unevenness in the baked earth, he stumbled and nearly fell. And then, indeed, it looked as though he were lost. In an instant his antagonist was at him; on high he whirled the dreadful tomahawk, we saw its gleam as it descended, we heard Joice and Mary scream and clasp their hands--and we saw that it had missed its mark. It had overshot the other's shoulder; as it descended the Panther's great forearm alone struck on the shoulder of the Bear, the deadly axe itself cut into nothing but empty space. So the latter had lost the one chance given him in the fray.

But now his own doom was sealed--now at the moment that O'Rourke called out in terror. As the Bear recovered himself from what was in itself a terrible blow given by the muscular arm of the other savage, so he seized that arm with his left hand,--it closed upon that other's limb as a vice closes when tightly screwed!--he wrenched the arm round, dragging with it its owner's body, and then, high, swift, and sudden, his own tomahawk flashed in the air and, descending, cleft his antagonists head in half, he falling quivering and dead.

From us, lying up there on the rise of the bluff, there came a gasp, a sigh of relief that the horrid combat which had caused us all to hold our breath was finished; from the Indians below there arose dreadful whoops and yells. They rushed into the great circle, they shouted and they screamed; their noted impassiveness gone now, for a time at least. They jeered at the great dead carcase lying there, a pool of blood around it, and with the weapon still in its sinewy hand; they even dabbled their fingers in that blood as the cried: "Anuza is now our chief. The Bear shall rule over us. Senamee was unworthy, and he has met his fate."

Now, as we prepared to descend into their midst, we saw Anuza, as they termed him, turn towards the prisoners. Looking principally, it seemed to me, towards Joice, we heard him say:

"White woman, and you, her kin, have I atoned somewhat for the sin that I have done to you! The dead whom we slew in your houses we cannot bring back, but one of those who urged us most to the fray has answered for it. Now shall the other--the cheat, the false medicine man--be punished also." And he turned towards where my cousin had sat but a moment before.

"What!" he exclaimed, rushing towards the bench, "what, gone! Gone! Where is he?"

But this none could answer for, in the few moments of intense excitement that had followed the death of him whom they called Senamee, he had disappeared.

As they set forth to find him, as braves shouted orders to inferior warriors to track and discover him but on no account to take his life till it was offered up before them all, I rushed down the declivity of where we had lain and, heedless of the excitement our appearance caused, approached my darling and clasped her in my arms. Ah! what joy it was to have that fair young form enfolded in them, to hear her murmured words of love and happiness, to be with her once again, even though our meeting took place in such a scene as this!

But, ere we could do more than exchange hurried whispers one with another, the victorious chief was by our side and he was addressing me:

"Beloved of the white woman," he said, "though I know not how you and yours came here so swiftly," pointing to all my companions who stood around, some shaking hands with the gentlemen who had been captured, some regarding the dead body of Senamee which lay where it had fallen, and some talking to the bond-servants who, with Buck for their chief spokesman, were giving an excited description of what had happened to them. "Beloved of the white woman, for such I know you to be, have you come here simply to carry her back to her own dwelling house, or to demand vengeance for the wrong done on her and all of you and your servants and slaves? Answer, so that we shall know."

I cast my eyes down on Joice, who, poor maid, was now sobbing on my breast, while some of the Virginian gentlemen who knew not of our recently avowed love gazed with somewhat of an amazed look at us; and then I replied:

"As yet I can make no answer to you. Amongst all these white men whom you see here I am of the least standing, being but a stranger in the land with no tie to it but this maiden's love. Yet since you address me, and if they will have me for their spokesman at this moment," and casting my eyes around on our friends I saw that they were willing it Should be so, "I say that, ere we reply to you, we must be given some time for conference between ourselves on the wrong which you have done towards those who never harmed you nor yours."

Here to my amazement, though I learnt the reason directly afterwards, the great chief heaved a profound sigh, and, indeed, groaned, while I went on.

"And also must we know in what position we are here within your camp. Do you still regard us as at war or peace? Are all free to go as they desire, or are those here prisoners still?"

Amidst the calls of the Indians who were seeking for Roderick to one another from the thickets and groves, and the continued shouts which told us that as yet their quest had been unsuccessful, the chief answered:

"I, too, speak as the mouth of my tribe, almost all of whom can understand my words; nay, some there are whose fathers and fathers' fathers were of your blood. Even so," he said, hearing our murmurs of astonishment and, in the case of some, their murmurs of disgust. "Even so. But for all of my tribe, whether of the noble Shawnee and Doeg races which hath spread here from the great river to the north, or the Manahoacs, or Monacans, or Tucaroras, Catawbas, or Cherokees, of all of which races we are composed, and also for those of white blood who have become of us, I speak, since he who now lies there is dead. All are free to go, nay, shall be escorted back in safety to their homes. For the war which we have made on you has been a sinful one, ordered by the lying false medicine man whom we believed in. And, or atonement, this I offer, being, though I knew it not then, myself the worst of all my tribe. For the injuries I have done to the white woman whose people were good to my father I offer my life, having naught else to give. Here on this spot I offer it, now and at once."

And to my amazement, as well, indeed, as that of all around, Anuza came forward to where Joice and I stood, and, kneeling down before her, stretched out his arms and went on: "Take it now, either with your own hands or by the hands of this your beloved, or the hands of these your slaves and servants. What more can I offer than this, unless also you desire that I shall die a death of torture? And, if that be so, then that will I also endure."

My love had raised her head from my breast to gaze at him as he spoke thus; around us had gathered the gentlemen of Pomfret who had been taken prisoners; near us, looking on with strange and curious looks, were those who but recently had been her bond-servants. 'Twas a strange scene and one that would well have become a painter's brush had any been there to limn it. The noble form of the huge chief prostrate before the golden-haired girl who clung to her lover--himself a sorry sight in his soiled and stained finery, which he had worn from the evening that had begun so happily and ended so horribly in her house; the dead body of the other chief lying there close by her feet; the forms of Indian men and women all around, some clad in gorgeous bravery and some nearly naked; also the other white men of different degree--all looking on. Nor would the background have been unworthy of so strange a set of characters. The green glade dotted with its tents and wigwams, set off in contrast the blood-smeared arena where the dead man lay; behind began the ascent of the mountain range, clad with the verdure of the white magnolia, the tulip tree and laurel, with, peeping through, the darker green of the bay tree. Glinting through their branches and many-hued leaves were seen the colours of the blue jay and blue birds, the golden orioles and the scarlet cardinals, with, distinct from all and horrible to see, the dusky forms of the foul vultures who had been gathered to the spot by the warm, sickly scent of the dead man's blood.

And now my beloved, drying her eyes, spoke softly to the man kneeling before her, saying in her sweet, clear voice:

"Nay, nay, speak not to me of death; there has been too much already. God He knows I seek not your life--no, not more than she who succoured your father sought his. But, oh! if this last conflict might end for ever the encounters between your people and mine I would ask no more."

From the Indians around there came a murmur that seemed born of surprise. "She forgives," they whispered to each other. "The white woman forgives the evil the Bear has done to her." And still they murmured, "She forgives."

"Oh, yes! oh, yes!" Joice cried, hearing their words, while she stretched out her fair young arms so that, indeed, I thought she looked more like unto an angel than before. "Yes, if forgiveness rests with me, then do I indeed forgive. And you, my friends," turning to those of our own race who stood around, "will you not forgive too; will you not make this day one that shall end all strife between them and us? Oh! if thus we could forget the wrongs that each has done to the other, if the red man will forget the white man's attacks on him and the white men forget the Indian's revenge, how happily we might all dwell together in peace for ever."

I looked round that strange gathering as she spoke, and, doing so, I saw that which might well give good augury of the coming to pass of what she desired. For in the eyes both of Indian and of colonist, of savage warrior and of almost equally savage backwoodsman and hunter, there were tears to be seen. It was not only from the clear young eyes of Joice that they fell.