The Coolidge examiner., 1931-07-03
CHAPTER XI-Continued


at last the time had come, and
All De Bah went TO the tepee and
held back the flap. He spoke to
TOinette. calling her Sol Yam Max
wun. There was no answer. He
spoke again and entered. After
q brief interval, his voice rose in
a demand for Shindas, and the
young Seneca answered it. All De
Bah was hunting like an animal
in the blackness. The tepee was
empty. TOinette and Hepsibah
Adams were gone.
Shindas did not speak. There
was no light to reveal his face
as he went to the edge of the
river and saw that canoe was
gone. He grunted his wonder
when the Tall Man joined him.
The canoe had been launched
within fifty PAGES of them. and
they had not heard a sound. Words
of reimbursement fell from All De
Bah's lips. He and Shindas were
like two children, and every man
and woman in ChenufsiO would
taunt them because of the ease
with which the escape had been
made. But the missing canoe
could not he far distant. The
fugitives, one of them blind,
could not possibly succeed in their
flight. The night would see the
white man given to the stake, and
now that Silver Heels had proved
herself a serpent in the tribe and
a traitor to TiaOga. she would
probably die with him.
All De Bah made queer sounds
in his chest as they ran to Tiaoga
and the expectant people with
him. He was not as calm as Shin
das when they arrived. II was
ShindaS who announced the decep-
tion of the stranger whom they
had accepted as the true spirit of
Sol Yam Makwun. TiaOga was
coldly and terribly still. His face
changed before their eyes. The
furrOws in it grew deeper, and it
became as hard as stone in the
fields. Then words came weighted
with the decision of death, rising
until they swelled in a passion
that was like fire consuming
everything In its path. He de-
clared that his honor and the
honor of his people lay in his
hands. He called on Shindas and
All De Bah to 60 with him to re-
capture the fugitives. for this was
duty imposed on him first of all.
Before the night was much older.
the fire stake should have its tri-
umph. He had forgotten the blind
man, for man without eyes was
already dead. He would give TO
the flames the white girl who had
betrayed them.
The fires burned down until
they were eyes in the night. Hours
passed, and the Senecas listened
in the stiffness as if oppressed by
fear. At last they heard the chant
ing of a voice coming nearer as
fast as canoe could travel. Ii
was the death song with which
TiaOga had grieved for his daugh-
ter, and the Savages were moved
oy ii as leaves are moved by a
wind. The suspense was broken,
for in the song of grief was also a
note of triumph which brought the
message that Tiaoga had been sue
cessful in his pursuit. Fresh fuel
was piled on the fires. and the
flames leapt high. When TiaOga
and his companions came from
the river. they brought no pris-
Oner with them. Yet fierce
light ShOne in their countenanceS
as they entered the illumination.
and beginning his death song
again Tiaoga snatched a burning
brand and flung il into the midst
Of the pitchy material about the
torture stake. In moment a
winding sheet of flame licked its
way up the pole, and around this
Tiaoga danced, finishing his song
to the cracking of the pitch He
described how they had overtaken
the fleeing ones at the edge of the
Great rocks beyond which the wa.
ter thundered in maelStrom. The
blind man had fought with d
hatcher he had stolen from All De
Bah'S tepee until another blade
was sunk in his brain TO quiet
him. He was a devil in his blind
ness. and TiaOga pointed to Shin
daS, who held back his buckskiu
shirt to show a long and bleed
ing cash. The white man was
dead, and his body, weighted by
the darkness of his soul, was gone
forever in the deep waters be-
yOnd the rocks.
But the unclean one who had
tricked them, the girl whose evil
spirit had come 10 bring dishonOr
upon them and TO deSecrate the
soul of Sol Yam Makwun, they
had taken alive. Tiaoga's face
grew livid. His soul had gorfe sc
black when they caught her that
he could see only death, for he
heard his daughters voice CRYING
10 him for vengeance. SO he haf
killed the treacherous one. He
had killed her at the command OF
Silver Heels, whose spirit was
singing to him. He had killed the
white girl with his own hands anC
had flung her body to disappear
with that of the blind man.
Suddenly TiaOga drew from its
hiding place next his breast q
thing which brought gasp to the
} lips of those about him. All rec
Ognized it as Toinette's beautiful
braid of hair streaming from the
bleeding scalp the savage helC