The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1903-12-06


applied TO me. their meaning was not
difficult to read I was to be burned at
the stake In proper savage fashion. But
Richard Jennifer-what had become OF
him? A sound. half sigh. half groan.
told me where to look Hard by, bound
to & tree as was. and so near that with
a free hand I could have touched him,
was my poor lad
''Diclxr' / cried
He turned his head as the close-drawn
thongs permitted and gave me smile az
loving-tender as q woman's.
AYE, Jack; they have US hard and
fast this time 1 have been praying
you'd never come alive enough to feel
the fire"
I'VE were taken together7' So much
I dared ask
in the same onset Twas but ques-
ton OF clock ticks in that back-to-back
business. But they paid scot and lot,
this with an inching nod toward a row
of naked bodies propped sitting against
a fallen tree; nine of them in ALL one
with its severed head between its knees.
and three others showing the gaping
hacks and hewings Of the great broad
sword
They've fetched them here to see US
burn" he went on But by the gods, we
have the warrant OF two good blades and
Ephraim Yeates' hunting knife that the
only flres they'll ever see are those or
hell"
-Yeates?" I oueried- Then they have
taken him and the Catawba- as well?"
Not alive. you may be sure. else We
should have them for company. But 1t
has a black look for our friends that the
flying column we met in the stream
cave came back so soon. More
over, the bodies of the three
peace-pipe smokers were found and
brought in: that will be the Great Bear
holding his head IN his hands at the end
OF yonder bloody masquerade"
Il guessed as much God rest our poor
comradesi"
AYE; and God help Madge! It's no
time for reDroaches. but among US we
have signed her death warrant with our
bunglings-"
'.If IL were only DEATH groaned
IT'S Just that, Jack" said he: mo
better. mayhap, but no worse. When we
were downed by that screeching mob she
YVES out and on her knees to Falconnet,
beseeching him to spare US He put her
OF smoothly at first. saying twas the
Indians afsair-that they would not be
balkcd OF their vengeance by any inter
ference Of his. But when she only beg
ged the more piteously he showed his
true colors, rapping out That we should
have as swift q Quittance as we had
meant to give him, and that within the
hour she should be the mistress OF APP
pleby and free to marry an English gen.
tleman-"
''well?" said I. making sure that now
at last he must know all.
AT that she stood before him brave
". and I saw that all the time she had
had the Catawba's knife hidden in the
folds OF her gown You have spoken
truth for once, Captain Falconnet; 1 shall
be free, she added. Come and tell me
when you have added these to your other
murders"
Then she went back TO her prison wig
wan, walking through the rabble Of red
coats and redskins as proud as the Scot
tish Mary went to the block"
She will do II, think your" I queried.
fearful that she would, but more fearful
lest her courage should fail at the pinch
Never doubt IT Good Catholic as she
is, there is martyr blood IN her on her
mothers side, and that Will help her to
die unsullied. And God nerve her to 1t.
say I'
/ said Amen" to that: and thereupon
we both fell silent, watching as con-
demned men on the gallows the busy
preparations for our taking of.
Again, as IN the late battle, 1t was the
trivial things that moved me most Chief
among them the grinning row OF dead
Indians propped against the fallen tree
in the constant background for all the
memory pictures of that waiting interval,
and I can see those stiffening corpses
now, some erect, as II defying u.s. some
looping this way or that, as If their
bones had gone to water at the touch
OF the steel.
! know not why these poor relics OF
mortality should have held me fascinated
as they did. Yet when I would look
away, through the vista to where the
light Of the great fire in the savanna
camp played luridly upon the Indian
lodges, or. nearer at hand, upon the saw
ages gathering the wood to burn US
with. this CHASTITY file OF the dead
drew me frresistibly. and I must
needs pass the fearsome figures
in review again. marking the star
ing eyes and unnatural postures. and the
circular blood-black patches on the heads
the Catawba had scalped-
While they were making ready for the
burning. our executioners were strangely
silent; but when the work was done they
formed in a semicircle to front the row
of corpses and set UP a bowling chant
that would have put band of Moham-
medan dervishes to the blush.
It's the death song for the slain"
said Richard; and while IL lasted. this
moving tableau Of naked figures, keep
ing time IN a weird stamping dance to
the rising and falling ululation OF the
chant, held Us spellbound
But we were not long suffered to be
mere curious onlooKera. In it's dismalest
flight the death song ended IN a shrill
hubbub. and the dancers turned as one
man TO face us
I hope II may never be your lot. my
deara, to meet and endure such a horrid
glare Of human ferocity as that these
wrought up avengers or blood bent upon
US. Twas more unnerving than aught
that had gone before; more terrible,
thought than aught that could come
after. Yet as 70 this. you shall Judge
for yourselves
The pause was brief. and when a lad
ran up 70 cut the thongs that bound US
from the middle up. the torture play be-
gan in deadly earnest While the In
dian youth was slashing at the deerskin,
Richard gave me my cue.
"'Tis the knife and hatchet play; they
are loosing US 70 give US freedom to
shrink and dodge. Look straight before
and never finch a hair. az you would
keep the life In you one minute TO the
nextr