CHAPTER XV.--Dorothy Again a Prisoner.
John, after eight months' absence, was home again. The quiet of thevalley was profound and satisfying. Though he brought back in money lessthan he had taken away, he had stored up much worldly wisdom andexperience; and like all men had paid the price.
His guilelessness was gone; the old faith that he could love all men ashe loved everything of the valley was no more. Before, he had looked outand seen that everything was good; now he knew that all were not goodand that not every spoken word was true; and without ever having wrongedany one, he had been forced to flee as a criminal. It made him morbid.
His heart overflowed with love for his mountains; for the deep silentforest and for the Pinnacle--from it he might look forth and see so muchof nature's pleasant face and feel the peace that reigned. How he lovedthe smell of the growing corn, the clover fragrance of the meadow andnature's minor voices; of rippling waters, of summer breezes, of singingbirds, of chirping crickets by night, of harvest flies and katydids byday, of summer daylight showers and on sultry nights the low distantthunder rumbling in the mountains.
How much purer life seemed, how much simpler than in the Settlements.Here, God in nature reigned; there, where man seemed master, the face ofnature was defaced. It was a confusion of ugliness, of new cabins, brushheaps, stumps, the decaying skeletons of dead and belted trees; and theearth was barren and torn.
He would spend his whole life in the valley--if only Dorothy were here;* * * man must not live alone; * * * she alone were needed to make thisas paradise, before the fall of man.
* * * What have you to do with fallen men? "Thou shalt love thy neighboras thyself." * * * Not as you love the stars. Are you to remain herecradled in the lap of nature? A wood nymph of six feet two? Why yourgreat strength?--your broad shoulders? Why a man that can discern? Why avoice? Why a soul?--and one that has visions of the glory of God. Whatuse for a teacher in this solitude? What use for broad shoulders whereburdens are light? What use for vision if you are not a prophet? Visionsbut beget broader vision. Are you not of those whose honors come afterdeath? Since you first began to think and speak have you not thought andsaid: I will go forth to service, in order that the grain ripe forharvest may not perish from my neglect? Wouldst be questioned andcommanded: Wist you not that you must be about the Master's business?Go!
Through the last days of June and into July, John hoed and sweated inthe corn; the weeds came thicker than the year before; the tares grewdenser and closer--and whence the tares? And his mind was on the call togo to the Settlements to serve men--where Dorothy * * *
The corn was laid by, the days grew sultry and hot, it was early August.Then he went into the meadow; with each swing of the blade and each raspof the whetstone he heard the call to service--or to Dorothy.
Each Sunday afternoon and when unfit weather made a holiday, he climbedto the Gap and the Pinnacle; and always his eyes were turned northwardtowards the Settlements; where the harvest was ripe and needed reapersand where Dorothy, if she were home again, * * * but why always was hiscall to service coupled with thoughts of Dorothy? Was it in truth acall--or did he merely wish to leave the valley to be with Dorothy?
This Sunday afternoon on the Pinnacle resolutely he turned his back tothe Settlements, facing the unbroken forest of Powell's Valley, saying:"I fought this out a year ago; my call comes first."
His vision became fixed upon a fleecy cloud way to the southward or wasit the smoke from a burning forest? Did he sleep; or did he see themisty filmy substance take shape? He never knew with certainty. In anyevent he saw a great river and floating upon it a large flat boat, suchas river emigrants used. As he looked the boat rounded a great bend andapproached the mouth of a smaller river emptying into it from thenorthward. Hid in the willows at the mouth of the smaller river, hecounted, one by one, ten large war canoes filled with Indians waiting.
He recognized the location. It was the mouth of the Big Miami; whereJohn Filson and Colonel Patterson, with their men, had held the pow-wowwith the Indians, on their way up river to lay off Losanteville.
Two white men running along the bank of the Ohio, some distance abovethe willows, were calling to the boat: "Come ashore and take us aboard.We escaped from the Indians last night and shall be found and murdered."They were the decoys of the war party.
The boat had heavy bulwarks and was heavily loaded; aboard were morethan a dozen men and several women and children. On the deck fastened toa chain running between two heavy supports were eight horses and severalcows.
The crew, confident of their strength, approached the shore thoughwarned not to do so by Captain Fairfax, who with his daughter werepassengers. The captain of the boat said: "They may be decoys as yousay, but we will not land; merely go in close enough to ascertain whothe men are and if they are in distress throw out a line, if they cannotswim to us. It seems hard to believe that white men could be found todecoy us; and if they are closely pursued and murdered in our sight orrecaptured we would never forgive ourselves for not helping them.Several of you men have your rifles ready in case of attack. The beachis clear of undergrowth until we reach the willows and we will shove outagain before we get that far."
They came within a short distance of the shore, calling to the men toswim to them. One answered he could not swim and they ran along theshore abreast of the boat, all the while drawing near the willows. Whenthe men reached a wash-out they dropped into it out of sight. At thesame time the Indians dashed out in their canoes and the battle began.
The men at the sweeps were killed at the first volley; the boat driftedyet nearer the shore and the canoes were almost upon it.
The horses and cattle frightened by the firing and by the noise began tostruggle and plunge and to crowd and push towards the off-shore or portside of the boat; which was tilted until the water flowed in and theoverloaded boat sank in seven feet of water.
Some of the crew and passengers struggled in the water, the childrenwere drowned in the cabin. Those yet on deck stood shoulder deep in thewater but their rifles were useless; and the Indians coming very close,tomahawked and scalped the survivors.
John saw Captain Fairfax strike with his rifle barrel an Indian sittingin the bow of a canoe. Several Indians with the muzzles of their rifleswithin a foot of his face fired; he sank into the water, but reachingdown they recovered his body and scalped him. Then he saw a young womanswimming from the sunken boat out into the river towards the swiftrunning current, hoping thus to escape. She swam well, and for a whilehe thought she would escape; but one of the Indians pointed her out tothose in his canoe and they gave chase. When almost near enough tostrike, she dived and rose again twenty feet down the stream; but thecanoe was also riding with the current and each time she rose it wasnear. She dived again and when she came up the Indian in the bow who hadfirst seen her, caught her by the hair and hauled her into the canoe.
John saw her face. He had felt all the while it was Dorothy. The Indianswere strangers to him and he grew sick with fear for her. They were fromthe headwaters of the Big Miami. For the first time in his life he waspossessed with an overwhelming desire to kill.
The Indians again landed at the willows; removed from their canoesseveral of their dead and wounded and four captives, two men and twowomen. The men were bleeding from wounds and nearly drowned. A littlelater two canoes came ashore, leading by their halters three horses andtwo cows.
They bound the two half drowned men to stakes and built great firesabout them. They killed the two cows and roasted the men and their meatin the same fires.
A few small pieces of drift and an upturned canoe marked the site of thebattle; otherwise the bosom of the river was as placid as before. * * *And the vision faded.
John, as deeply moved as if he had been tied to a stake and helplesslywitnessed it all, knew that the vision he had seen had just occurred aspictured, though he was more than two hundred miles from the mouth ofthe Big Miami.
He went home in a very frenzy of passion; ate his supper
in silence andas his parents noticed in a sort of semi-consciousness; eating more thanhe habitually did.
After supper he told them of his dream, as he chose to call it, saying:"After I have rescued Dorothy I will take her to her mother; then I willattend a theological school for some months. After I have finished, Iwill come back here and help during the summer; then I shall give mywhole time to preaching."
He made hasty preparation to leave for the Miami country; knowing in anunaccountable way that Dorothy was yet alive. He went to bed and sleptuntil the moon rose over the mountains, which gave sufficient light totravel, then set forth afoot, carrying only his girdle, a hunting knife,hatchet, blanket and several days' rations of parched corn and jerkedmeat.
He took the Warrior's Trail northward, traveling the first sixty milesin twenty hours, stopping only for a drink of water now and then,munching an occasional mouthful of parched corn or dried meat as hewalked. Darkness having come again and, needing rest, he bathed in asmall stream, and in a dry, sheltered spot under an overhanging cliffslept until the gray of morning; then he hurried on, breakfasting uponthe corn and meat as he walked.
On the afternoon of the fourth day, he reached the south bank of theOhio, opposite the mouth of the Miami, and could see the willows wherethe Indians had waited in their canoes. Walking up the stream to offsetthe distance the current would wash him down while swimming across, heselected from a pile of drift two small, dry cottonwood logs and lashedand launched them into the river; having tied his clothing on one endand holding to the other, he swam across, landing on the opposite shoreat the mouth of the draw a few yards above the willows.
Having dressed again, he ate the last of his ration of corn and meat,which was supplemented by a few late dewberries which he found growingon the bluff. Then hiding in the willows at the mouth of the river, hespread his blanket on the soft white sand and almost immediately went tosleep.
Some hours later he was aroused by the grating of the prow of a canoeupon the sandy beach a few yards above him; then another landed. Thoughthe sound may have been made by hostile Indians, it was a break in hisloneliness; as since leaving home, he had not seen or heard a humanbeing. It was too dark to see, but listening intently he was convincedhis neighbors were Indians because they were stealthy of movement andtalked in brief and subdued monotone.
He finally made out they were Mingoes; and thought he recognized one byhis voice as Deer Runner; one of the Indians who had been with him atJenkins' Station the year before.
Greeting them as friends, he called the name of this Indian andannounced his own. There was a moment of absolute silence; then he askedabout the Prophet and several others of his friends. Then he heard onesay to his companions: "It is Chief Cross-Bearer, the strong armed. Letus light a fire so we can see his face and cook something. I am hungry."Then he came over to where John sat, and for an Indian, greeted himcordially; the others followed.
He told them the cause of his journey; and in turn was informed that twowhite women who had been taken from a boat on the Ohio, were heldprisoners at an Indian town about fifty miles up the Miami.
Convinced that Dorothy was one of them he asked Deer Runner to take himin the small canoe to the village and ordered the other four Indians tohasten to Shauane-Town, and tell the Prophet of Dorothy's capture andask his assistance.
At daylight he and Deer Runner left for the village in the small canoe,while the others were yet making preparations to continue up the Ohio tothe mouth of the Scioto, the Mingo country.
Just before sundown, John and Deer Runner beached their canoe at theIndian village; while the Indians in sullen, almost hostile, silencewatched them. The tribe at the time was at war with the whites and theyresented and were curious to know the purpose of this unarmed white manwho dared to come among them.
John would have been made prisoner and tortured except for his adoptionand rank as a Mingo chieftain; which was satisfactorily established bythe girdle and the tattoo marks on his chest, both of which he wasforced to exhibit. When it was understood that by adoption he was abrother of Tecumseh and the Prophet, he was assigned a lodge and givenfood.
When he asked to talk with the white prisoners the request was denied;though the chief took him so near that he and Dorothy recognized andwaved a greeting to each other. He was told that the following morning acouncil would be called and he would be given an opportunity to explainwhy he had visited their village, after which he might be permitted toconfer with the prisoners.
He lay down on the deer skins over which he had spread his blanket andslept through the night. Dorothy was alive and well; and he was near toprotect her; and friends would soon arrive to help in her rescue.
When he awoke the sun was filling the valley with its first light; thedew sparkled on the leaves and grass; his morning prayer was a song ofpraise; his heart was so full of the love of life that he felt attunedwith and understood as his own tongue the songs of the birds thatwarbled so sweetly in the tree tops along the river.
Walking up the river beyond sight of the village, he undressed on a barof white sand and swam across and back again; then returned to thevillage, where he found Deer Runner waiting to begin their breakfast ofmeat, green corn and potatoes, all of which had been cooked togetherwith some seasoning herbs by an old woman, who had been assigned astheir servant.
On the way to the council hall he passed near Dorothy, who waved a goodmorning; and entered, feeling fit to plead with confidence even somomentous a cause as involved her freedom--and his happiness.
The chief asked that he explain in the Mingo dialect, which allunderstood, being members of the Confederacy, the purpose of his visitto their village.
"As you saw, I came among you unarmed, showing that my mission was oneof peace. I am a man of peace and have never yet shed blood of orwronged either Indian or Long Knife. Before coming to Kentucke I livedin the Jackson River Country and my father's lodge was the stoppingplace of all Indians. They were not only entertained as guests buttreated as friends.
"When a little boy I was taken prisoner by Logan, who driven to violenceby the murder of all his kindred, thought for a while to even scores;but he learned before his death that an act of violence followinganother in retaliation, neither righted wrong nor salved injury.
"He brought me to Shauane-Town on the Scioto. I was adopted into thefamily of Tecumseh and the Prophet, in place of Tecumseh's twin brotherwho had died. While they are warriors, I belong to the priesthood; andmy body, which no Indian at peace with the Mingoes dare mutilate, bearsthe marks of dedication to the Great Spirit.
"When I was taken prisoner, a little girl, now a grown woman and yourprisoner, was carried off and she by adoption is a Mingo; the daughterof Logan, himself an adopted chief of the Sciotha tribe. He was murderedat Detroit as you have heard.
"Are you at peace with the Mingoes? If so, what right have you to holdthe daughter of Logan a prisoner? Does she not speak the Mingo tongue?Is that acquired in a day? Has she not told you she is the daughter ofLogan? As I now say and as Deer Runner will tell you.
"Her white father was aboard the boat and was shot and scalped by you;but his daughter did not fight, she killed no one; her hands are notstained by blood. She merely sought to escape as the wild duck fleesfrom the eagle; swimming way out into the river, she was pursued by GrayWolf and his men in a canoe and taken prisoner. By the law betweenallies, and you are allies of the Mingoes, you cannot hold her prisonerunless she has killed one of your people and then her fate is fixed bythe family of whom the one killed was a member. Only three of yourwarriors were killed in the battle, a fourth has since died. None ofthese were kindred of Gray Wolf, nor was he even wounded. What right hashe to hold this woman prisoner?"
(The Chief) "How do you know all this?"
"I saw the battle from the Pinnacle at Cumberland Gap, more than twohundred miles away. If any doubt, let him ask what occurred and I willtell him."
(Gray Wolf) "How many braves were in the canoe when we took the woman?And if any h
ere were present point them out."
"Five, you sat in the bow, and after the woman had dived three times,she came up within reach, when you caught her by the hair and pulled heraboard. You and the brave on your left held her until you came ashore.The fourth one from you on the right was with you and the seventh. Thefifth man is not here; he has gone up the river."
(The Chief) "Who has told Cross-Bearer these things? Have any of yougossipped like old women, either with him or with Deer Runner?"
"No one has spoken. I saw it as it has been told. If Gray Wolf refusesto release the prisoner, he will die tonight by his own hand; it is thewill of the Great Spirit. My brother, the Prophet, comes tomorrow. Heloves you people, but he loves his brother more; nor will he permit awoman of his tribe to be held a prisoner without cause. Let there bepeace. Let the prisoner go. I have no right to demand the release of theother prisoner. You are at war with the whites. She was taken in battle;she is an enemy, not an ally; but as your friend I would advise you notto war upon women and children."
(The Chief) "Chief Cross-Bearer is right; the woman who is the daughterof Logan must be released. It is the law of the Confederacy."
(Gray Wolf) "I will not be frightened into releasing the woman. ChiefCross-Bearer has spoken. He has told of strange things; but he may havelearned them from the prisoner. I have heard of but never seen a personwho could see where others were blind and who could foretell what was tohappen on the morrow. He claims to know too much when he says I shalldie tonight unless the prisoner is released. What is to be will happen.It is not in his power to know the time of my death. Gray Wolf, thoughhe has no cause to kill himself, is not afraid to die. The woman shallgo free at the rising of the sun but not before. Gray Wolf will not thenrelease her because of threats but because she is the daughter of Logan.I have spoken."
He was next in authority to the chief; and as all thought no harm couldcome of the woman remaining a prisoner over night the council adjournedwithout further comment.
Gray Wolf, about four months before, leading a war party had attacked aflat boat floating down the Ohio. After killing all the crew he hadboarded it and found a small shepherd puppy aboard which he had broughtback with him. The now half grown dog was his constant companion and hismost prized possession.
In the afternoon, while John, the chief and several of the braves, wereseated under a great elm near the river, the dog came near them andbefore lying down on an absolutely bare spot, turned about many timestramping with his feet as though to crush down a heavy growth of grass.This started a discussion of the hereditary or birthmark traits ofbirds, animals and men, which lasted some time. The dog, his nap over,left them and began playing in the open some distance from Gray Wolf'slodge. He gave a yelp of terror, just as a great bald eagle, dropping asit seemed from the sky, caught him in her talons and flew away. Theweight and struggles of the dog caused the bird to light after a flightof a hundred yards; and Gray Wolf, snatching up his rifle, startedrunning for the spot. Intent to reach the eagle which was tearing thelife out of his dog, he carelessly stumbled over a bramble. His riflewas thrown from his hand and, striking a stone, was discharged, thebullet passing through his chest. They carried him into his lodge andlaid him upon a pallet of skins. Two hours after sunset he choked todeath, from the accumulation of blood in his lungs.
A few minutes before his death he asked for Chief Cross-Bearer and whenhe came near, in a choking voice said: "You are a true prophet--theprisoner is yours. Take her and go. You will have peace and she will beyour wife."
When he came out the chief met him and calling two of his bravesdirected them to place food and some deer skins in the Mingo canoe, thenturning to John said: "We wish you to leave at once. Take both women.The Great Spirit is offended and may punish others than Gray Wolf."
John, the two women and Deer Runner departed within the hour.
Near daylight, they came within sight of the willows. On the beach acamp fire blazed and beside it by its light they recognized the Prophetand some thirty of his warriors, who were just breaking camp, on theirway to demand the release of Dorothy.
They paddled to the shore and after greetings were asked to land andrest; but Dorothy said no. She wished to leave the place at the earliestmoment.
Their belongings were transferred to a large canoe, then they climbed infollowed by four Indians, who paddled lustily and silently down stream,while their passengers slept; Dorothy beside John with her head pillowedon his arm.
Voices; Birth-Marks; The Man and the Elephant Page 21