CHAPTER IX--THE EVIL POWER OF LONE-ELK
Perspiring and thirsty after his long, rapid walk from the hollow poplarto the cabin, Kingdom would gladly have rested before going on to thetown of the Delawares, but the day was already well advanced and he musthurry. Stopping only for a drink of water, therefore, and to assurehimself that nothing had been disturbed in his absence, he saddledPhoebe and was away again.
The boy had been thinking much of all that he meant to say to CaptainPipe and his counselors and the subject still occupied him as he drewnear the Indian village. He glanced anxiously about, wondering if hewould be met by any such warning as had come to him the day before, butsaw no one. Going on to the straggling little collection of huts of barkand skins which comprised the town, however, he was soon greeted byCaptain Pipe himself and a score of warriors. The manner of the Indianswas very formal and cool, yet not especially unfriendly, Kingdomthought, and he felt sure that if it were not for Lone-Elk he could winall the friends of the dead Big Buffalo over to his side and persuadethem that witchcraft had not been the cause of death.
Lone-Elk was not present when Kingdom arrived, but scarcely had the ladtied his horse when the Seneca came stalking forth from his lodge, awigwam made of skins, and followed the chief and the other Indians asthey led the way with Ree to the Council House. The latter building wasthe same as that in which the religious exercises of the HarvestFestival were held and has been sufficiently described.
Captain Pipe and his followers ranged themselves in a wide semicircle atone side of the long, low structure and Kingdom sat opposite them.Lone-Elk was at the extreme left of the line of warriors on the chief'sright. He had not spoken to the white visitor, nor did he now deign totake any notice of him. In all respects his conduct and general bearingwere not only insolent but ugly to the point of savage hostility.
When all were seated, Captain Pipe briefly said that the council wasready to hear any message or statement which the Paleface visitor wishedto present.
Kingdom had hoped he would have an opportunity to learn something morethan he yet knew as to the circumstances of Big Buffalo's death beforethe council convened, but there had been no time for this, and he couldbut make the best of his situation.
Rising, Ree saluted the Indians very respectfully and began what provedto be a really able speech, though he had little supposed that so muchformality would be observed in the "talk" he had asked to have. Fromquiet, slowly spoken words, Kingdom advanced by degrees to louder tonesand greater vehemence, and he had, he was glad to see, the respectfulattention of every Indian present, not excepting Lone-Elk.
On the latter's face an expression of indifferent insolence changed toone of very attentive thoughtfulness. He realized that here was a forceand an appeal to the reason and intelligence of the Delawares whichmight very easily prove the undoing of his schemes and his accusationsand possibly end most unfortunately for himself.
Kingdom spoke most plainly, and understanding full well the power ofhard, honest truth, honestly and forcefully presented, he frankly ownedthat John Jerome had been forced into hiding by the danger in which hewas placed, owing to the charge that was made against him. They bothwould be compelled to leave their home and lose it and all the work theyhad done in their clearing if the Delawares could not be made to seethat this accusation of witchcraft was unjust and false, he said. Hereminded Captain Pipe and the others how, in good faith, he and John hadbought their land; how they had refrained from going to the west of theriver on the portage path because those lines marked the boundary of thelands the Indians had never surrendered to the white people as a whole.He appealed to the sense of justice which every Indian had, to the endthat they might see how unfair it was to take the testimony of any oneperson as conclusive evidence of guilt.
Neither did Ree spare the Seneca. He warmly called attention to thecharacter of Lone-Elk and denounced the fellow as an outcast, a fugitivefrom the villages and the haunts of his own people; scored him as onewhose history made him an unfit witness for the Delawares to believe,and especially so since the accusation he made was directed against onewhose friendship for all the Delawares, Big Buffalo included, had beenproved time and again.
Much more did Ree say, and he was satisfied as he finished that,whatever the outcome might be, he had done his best. He had suggestedmany causes for Big Buffalo's sudden death, any one of which he declaredwas more reasonable than this idea of witchcraft. He had asked that theopportunity be given him to examine the body of the dead warrior to seeif he could not then tell precisely what had produced death. He wouldnot say, he stated, that he could positively do this, but it would be nomore than fair to let him try.
In accordance with the Indian custom, when matters of such grave concernwere the subject of a council, Kingdom withdrew after he had presentedhis contention to await a decision when the Delawares had discussed thematter among themselves.
What went on in the Council House while he walked about outside Kingdomdid not know. He easily imagined that Lone-Elk would ridicule thingsthat he had said and ask if he himself had not been as good a Delawaresince coming among them as any warrior present.
Ree's guess was not far wrong. Lone-Elk did appeal to Captain Pipe andeveryone present in the strongest language at his command, reiteratingagain and again that what his eyes bad seen should stand for more thanany denial which the young Palefaces could make. And he promised, too,that if the opportunity were given him, he would find evidenceconvincing to every Delaware that the Little Paleface was a witch andthat he and no other had caused the death of the warrior whose arm wouldbe lifted in battle, whose voice would sound upon the warpath neveragain.
For more than an hour the council remained in session while Kingdomwalked up and down impatiently among the low huts. Most of the Indiansof both sexes were gathered in the Council House and he was quite alone.A step near by stirred him from his melancholy revery. Glancing up, hefound Fishing Bird beside him. The look on the friendly fellow's facewas enough to tell Ree that the council had decided against him.
"Come," the Indian said, telling with his eyes that which he dared notspeak, and Kingdom followed him into the long, bark building and oncemore stood before the council.
Very gravely Captain Pipe motioned to the white boy to be seated, andhimself rising, spoke slowly and with much earnestness in English, whichlanguage he now used quite fluently.
At considerable length the Delaware chief reviewed the whole case whichhad been presented both by Ree and by Lone-Elk, the accuser. Hecriticised the "Paleface brother" for having failed to bring before thecouncil the one who had been accused. He praised Ree, however, for thefrank and open way in which he had laid his arguments before the Indiansand for the friendliness he had shown the Delawares at all times.
About the boundary between the white nation and the Indian nations,Captain Pipe said it was true that a treaty had been made several yearsearlier by the white people and the Delaware, Chippewa and Wyandotnations (at Fort Industry, in 1785) in which it was agreed that theIndians would give up all claim to the land east of the Cuyahoga river,the portage path and the Tuscarawas river, or main branch of theMuskingum, as it was also called. He said further that this same treatywas renewed at a somewhat later time (at Fort Harmer, in 1789) when theDelawares, Wyandots, Chippewas, Sacs and Pottawatomies had made anagreement with the Palefaces.
That the treaties were not kept, Captain Pipe declared, was the fault ofthe white people because they were always encroaching upon the lands ofthe Indians and always seeking to drive them farther and farther to thewest. He could not consider, he said, that the two young white settlershad any rights in the Ohio country except that which came to them byreason of their having traded goods for the certain small parcel of landthey occupied. If they wished to hunt or fish on any other landexcepting the few acres they owned, they did so only because the Indianspermitted it. Therefore if any violation of Indian laws or customs wascommitted, they must answer to the Indians for the violation and notcontend, as Whi
te Fox had done, that a trial by the people of their owncolor and laws was their right, because they did not actually live onIndian soil.
The agreement the council had reached in regard to the charge ofwitchcraft against him who was called "Little Paleface," Captain Pipe atlast concluded, was that Lone-Elk and others should go forth to searchfor further evidence against the white boy. Further, it was agreed thatthe Delawares would grant the White Fox--meaning Ree--permission to tryto show that Big Buffalo died from some cause other than witchcraft ifhe would give himself as a hostage for the delivery of Little Palefaceinto the hands of Lone-Elk, in case it was finally decided thatwitchcraft actually caused the death of the warrior whose voice was nowsilent.
The latter proposition came as a decided surprise to Kingdom. He hadbeen prepared to hear the decision that Lone-Elk have the opportunity toproduce evidence. He remembered vividly now the secret visit the Senecahad paid the clearing the night before. But he dared not speak of it. Todo so would betray Fishing Bird. And not knowing what Lone-Elk would"find" in the way of "evidence," Ree was much at a loss to answer whenCaptain Pipe, bidding him speak, sat down.
Like the ingenious Yankee boy that he was, Ree did not reply at once tothe hostage part of the Delaware chief's proposal. Concerning the searchfor evidence, he could only say, he stated, that full permission wasgiven the Indians to look in every nook and corner of the cabin by theriver and in the clearing and the woods surrounding it, or wherever elsethey chose. If they found anything which could be taken to be evidencethat John Jerome had aught to do with the death of Big Buffalo, it wouldbe something which had been placed among their property by others; itwould be "made to order" evidence, and therefore worth nothing to anyfair minded member of the Delaware or any other nation.
Having spoken thus far, and thinking now of the offer that he givehimself as a hostage, though he did not mention it, Ree asked of CaptainPipe and all the Indians present whether he was to consider thempersonally as friends or foes. He wanted to know whether he himself wasto be free to come and go as in the past, or whether it was theirintention to dispossess him of his land by practically driving him offof it.
"If you do this," said he, "in what way is it better than the treatmentthe Indians themselves complain of, that they are driven from theirforests?"
The thought thus presented interested Captain Pipe a great deal and fora second or two he did not answer.
"The council is over. The Paleface brother knows its decision. It is notthe custom to talk when the time for talking is past," he said at last.
"Yes, but am I to be molested? Am I to lie down at night knowing that tome, personally, at least, the Delawares are friends, or am I to watchlest as enemies they come to kill me?" Ree demanded.
"The Paleface brother gives himself not as a hostage. He has rejectedthe offer made him," Captain Pipe answered.
"I want only time to think about that," said Ree. "I will answer later."
The council was over but the Indians all remained silent, listeningattentively to everything which was said. Inquiringly now they looked totheir chief to know the white boy's fate. Most of them felt friendlytoward him. But at the same time all, or nearly all, were growing dailymore hostile to the whites in general.
"The White Fox may go. He is free and no Indian will disturb him; but hemust come no more to the village of the Delawares if he comes not as ahostage. He must remain near his own lodge and if he goes from his ownland he must go not far. He must carry no tales of what the Indians aredoing to the forts or to the houses of the Paleface people. On the landthat the Delawares sold to him the Paleface brother shall be as safe asthe eagle in its nest upon the mountain tops."
"No other place, though," Lone-Elk grunted savagely and only halfaudibly.
Whether Captain Pipe heard him Ree did not know, for as the latter hadceased speaking he had dismissed the council with a wave of his hand,and now all the Indians were moving toward the open air, some quiet andthoughtful, some talking, some pushing and hurrying, some inclined tolinger.
Gentle Maiden was among the latter. She passed very near Ree as shemoved slowly out and, unobserved by any save himself, gave the lad aglance which was most friendly, the only really friendly look he hadreceived except from Fishing Bird.
With an effort Kingdom suppressed a tear of bitterness anddisappointment which, somehow, the friendly look from the Indian girlhad brought to his eyes. He waited only until he could reach CaptainPipe and shake his hand to show the appreciation and respect which hefelt were really due the chief, sadly misled by Lone-Elk though theproud Delaware was. Ree could not but notice Hopocon performed thefriendly ceremony of shaking hands with far less of cordial warmth thanusual.
"So much," he thought, "for the fact that Captain Pipe needs lead andthat the Seneca knows where lead is."
But he said good-bye to those who were near, untied Phoebe and rodeslowly away. The day was very near its close.
The Trail of the Seneca Page 9