Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1931-04-10

1 lAlG n ACA(n hCt0
him among the bravest fighters Of the
Six Nations, informed Jeems that he
was a prisoner He said Tiaoga had
defaulted in a payment of corn that
was due, and Jeems was to cover part
Of the obligation. Matozee tersely ex-
planned the agreement between the
chiefs. II Jeems attempted to escape
and was caught by his warriors, he
would be killed; II by any chance he
succeeded in getting back to Chenuf-
sio, then he would answer to Tiaoga
with his life. A dead line was drawn
enclrcling the tepee in which he was
to live, and he found himself under a
surveillance little less strict than that
accorded to prisoner whose fate was
to be torture or death.
The fourth afternoon he perceived
an excited gathering of women and
children some distance from him but
paid no attention to 1t. Depressed by
fears which had become unbearable,
he was determined to gain his free
dom before another dawn. Increasing
cloudiness during the afternoon and
promise of storm with the beginning
Of evening added to his hopes for sue
cess Thunder and rain came with
darkness, and he feigned sleep at an
early hour. It was almost midnight
when he sat up and listened to the
downpour. He was about to rise to
his feet, certain that no Senecas would
be lying in the deluge, when he heard
the sodden rustic Of the skin flap to
the tepee as 1t was drawn back and
some one entered.
In a moment a small voice whis-
pered his name. Cold hands found
him as he held out his arms. He felt
child's drenched form.
Then came choking words half
smothered in the heat of the storm:
II am Wood Pigeon. ran away from
Chenufsio three days ago. 1 have
come to tell you Silver Heels is dead"
Lightning flashes which accom-
panied the storm that night revealed
solitary figure hurrying through the
wilderness toward Chenufsio, a figure
which sped until 1t was winded and
then continued at a slower pace with
a persistence no beat Of rain or blast
of wind could halt
The traveller was Jeems. Wood
Pigeon had repeated the message
Toinette entrusted to her a few min
utes preceding her flight with Hepsi-
bah Adams, and no blackness was SO
thick that 1t hid from him the tor
tured faces of his wife and his blind
uncle as they beckoned him to ven
geance.
Even vengeance seemed futile and
inadequate. Hope did not rise in his
breast. He had hoped when he knew
his mother was dead, he had hoped
as he sought for life among the ruins
of Tonteur manor, he had never quite
given up hope that his uncle was
alive. But now it was impossible for
him to find that saving grace within
his mental reach. As he went on, he
was slowly dispossessed of the power
to hate, though every sinew in his
body was bent with implacable resolu-
ton in its mission of death. He would
kill Tiaoga. He would kill Shindas.
There would be only justice and no
qualification of the flesh or the spirit
in his act. A greater and more en-
comprising thing than the impulse
which had sent him from Matozee's
village began to choke him with a
force that was sickening. 1t was his
aloneness. The yastness of the world.
The sudden going of the one who had
remained to make it habitable for him.
Without Toinette there was no rea-
son for its existence, no reason why it
should continue to give him the
warmth of life. Toinette was dead.
1t was a fate predestined from the
beginning, something he had always
feared vaguely. Nothing counted now;
to kill Tiaoga and Shindas would not
cause rift in the hopelessness which
lay ahead Of him.
He advanced with a speed which
would have exhausted him at any
other time. AS the hours passed, an
explanation for this haste gathered in
his consciousness. He was going
home. That in all of its significance
was the cabin in which Toinette and
he had lived. Their home. A thing
that had not gone with her body and
yet was a part of her which he would
find as he had left it when he came
| to the end of the trail, unless Tiaoga
had destroyed that, too.
He reached Chenufsio. The place
| cleaned with pools of water. Sus-
picious dogs appeared to identify him,
but the people were asleep. He found
his cabin with the door closed as it
would have been If Toinette were
asleep inside. He could feel her pres
ence when he entered. But she was
not there He made light cautiously
and screened it so that eyes outside
could not see. The floor, the walls,
the room were illumined family. He
began to put his hands on things, to
gather them here and there, making a
bundle of his treasures on the table
her things. When he had prepared the
the bundle he armed himself with a