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Show I TTIhie Pllsiiims nfi Atosaltasini By James Oliver Cnrwooil 4 I J C t7 Doableday Dorm Co, In WNU Servtee, II CHAPTER XI Continued 14 A fresh outcry told them that at Inst the time had come, and Ab De Bah went to the tepee and held back the flap. He spoke to Tolnette, calling her Sol Tan Mnk-W'un. Mnk-W'un. There was no answer. He spoke again and entered. After brief Interval, his voice rose in a demand for Shlndas, and the young Seneca answered it. Ah De Bah was hunting like an animul In the blackness. The tepee was empty. Toluette and Uepslbab Adams were gone. Shlndas did not speak. There was no light to reveal his face as he went to the edge of the river and saw that a canoe was gone. He grunted his wonder when the Tall Man Joined him. The canoe had been launched within fifty pares of them, and they had not heard a sound. Words of self-abasement fell from Ah De Bah's lips. He and Shlndas were like two children, and every man gratification of the flesh or the spirit in bis act A greater and more encompassing thing than the Impulse which bad sent him from Matozee's village began to choke blra with a force that was sickening. sicken-ing. It was his slowness. The vastness of the world. The sudden going of the one who had remained re-mained to make it habitable for blra. Without Tolnette there was no reason for its existence, no reason rea-son why it should continue to give him the warmth of life. Tolnette was dead. It was a fate predestined predes-tined from the beginning, something some-thing he had always feared vague-17. vague-17. Nothing counted now; to kill Tlaoga and Shlndas would not cause a rift In the hopelessness which lay ahead of blm. He advanced with a speed which would have exhausted him at any other time. As the hours passed, an explanation for this baste gathered In his consciousness. He v.ns going home. That In all of its significance was the cabin in which and the demand of bis people answered. an-swered. CHAPTER XII AT NOON of the second day of bis Journey Jeems came to the village of Kanestlo, whose chief was Mntor.ee, or lelldw Bear. He had traveled the seventy seven-ty miles In thirty hours, and was determined to return as quickly, for be was troubled deeply by the thought that Tolnette was alone at a time when the sentiment of the Indians was turning against them. Why he and not a tribal runner had been sent to Yellow Bear puzzled him, and the fact that he bore a message of small Importance increased his uneasl-. ness. He had scarcely reached Kanestlo Kan-estlo when his weapons, a knife and hatchet, were taken from him and he was brought to Matozee. This individual, who was killed at Lake George the following year broken spirits, but they did not thrill him. He fought against this apathy.- He tried to hate once more He repeated to himself many times that the English and their Indians were responsible for the tragedies which had befallen bis loved ones. But be could not rise to the passion for vengeance. He wanted to fight he wanted to see the English and their allies overwhelmed, over-whelmed, but his emotions wfje as dull as they were Implacable, They burned with a fatalistic even-ness even-ness which neither triumph nor defeat could raise to great heights or lower to the depths they had plumbed. Death could never stir him again as It had already stirred hlra, no shambles could sicken him and no victory bring to him the remotes re-motes gladness of the song he had chanted in the firelight at Chen-ufsio. Chen-ufsio. He made no confidants, and no one knew his story. An officer found he was acquainted with the country, and he was made a Lake -a. -r tkto and woman in Chenufslo would taunt them because of the ease with which the escape had been made. Hut the missing canoe could not be far distant. The fugitives, one of them blind, could not possibly succeed In their flight The night would see the white rmtn irlven to the stake, and now that Silver Heels had proved herself a serpent In the tribe and a traitor to Tlaoga, site would probably die with him. Ah De i!nh made queer sounds In his chest as they ran to Tlaoga and the expectant people with him. . He wns not as calm as Shlndas Shln-das when they arrived. It was Shlndas who announced the deception decep-tion of the stranger whom they had accepted as the true spirit of Sol Yan Mnkwun. Tlaoga was coldly and terribly still. His fnce 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 a fire consuming everything In Its path. He declared de-clared that his honor and the honor of his people Iny in his hands. He culled on Shlndas and Ah De Bnh to go with him to recapture re-capture the fugitives, for this was a duty Imposed on him first of all. and who was a boy In appearance though the French held him among the bravest fighters of the Six Nations, Informed Jeems that he was a prisoner. He said Tlaoga Tla-oga had defaulted In a payment of corn that was due, and Jeems was to cover part of the obligation. Mntozee tersely explained the agreement between the chiefs. If Jeems attempted to escape and was caught by his worrlors, he would be killed; If by any chance he succeeded In getting buck to Chenufslo, then he would answer to Tlaoga with his life. A dead line wns drawn encircling the tepee In which he wns to live, and he found himself under a surveillance little less strict than that accorded to a prisoner whose fate wns to he torture or riejith. The fourth afternoon he perceived per-ceived an excited gathering of women and children some dlstnnce from him but paid no attention to it. Depressed by fears which had become unbearable, he was determined deter-mined to gain his freedom before be-fore another dawn. Increasing cloudiness during the afternoon and a promise of storm with the beginning of evening added to his hopes for success. Thunder and rain came with darkness, and he feigned sleep at an early hour. It was almost midnight when he snt Tolnette and he had lived. Their home. A thing that had not gone with her body and yet was a part of ber which he would find as he had left It when he came to the end of the trail, unless Tlaoga had destroyed that, too. He reached Chenufslo. The place gleamed with pools of water. Suspicious Sus-picious dogs appeared to Identify him, but the people were asleep. He found his cabin with the door closed as It would huve been if Tolnette were asleep Inside. He could feel her presence when he entered. But she was not there, He made' a light cautiously and screened It so that eyes outside could not see. The floor, the walls, the room were Illumined faintly. 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 bundle ne armed himself with a knife and a hatchet and his bow, then extinguished ex-tinguished the light and went but, closing the door behind him. He sought Shlndas, for his plan wns to kill him first. Then he would kill Tlaoga. Shlndas Shln-das wos not In his tepee. The place was empty and his weapons were gone, evidence that he was away on a Journey. For a few moments mo-ments after this discovery, Jeems stood In the shadow of an onk He Heard the Arrow Strike. George scout In time to be captured cap-tured by Rogers and his rangers on Christmas eve of 1750. He escaped In January and was bock at Fort Cnrllion early in Fehru- ry, when he learned thnt Paul Tnche had been one of the French officers at Oswego, and thnt he had been killed. Jeems felt a pang of regret lately he had been thinking think-ing of Paul Tadie nnd of Tol-nette's Tol-nette's mother, wondering what their attitude would be when some day he told them what had happened hap-pened after the massacre nt Toj-v tetir manor. There Is no letter of Information Informa-tion which covers the lapse In Jeems' military history between February and August of 1757. at which time he wns present at the capture of Fort William Henry, or Fort George, and witnessed the massacre of Its English garrison by uncontrollable French Indians led by the Ahennkls. Here Jeems must have experienced an unusual shock, for soon after the killing, when in their madness some of the Indians were cooking English flesh Before the night wns much older, the fire stake should have Its triumph. tri-umph. He hud forgotten the blind man, for a man without eyes was already dead, lie 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, nnd the Seuecus listened In the stillness ns If oppressed by fear. At last they heard the chanting chant-ing of a voice coming nearer ns fast as a conoe could travel. It was the denth song with which Tlaoga had grieved for his daughter, daugh-ter, and the savages were moved by It as leaves ore moved by a wind. The suspense was broken, for in the song of grief wns also a note of triumph which brought the message that Tlnogn hitd been sue. cessful In his pursuit. Fresh fuel was piled on the fires, and the flames leapt high. When Tlaoga and his companions came from the river, they brought no prisoner pris-oner with them. Yet a fierce light shone In their countenances up ana usrenea .to tne downpour. He was about to rise to his feet, certain that no Senecns would he lying In the deluge, when he heard the soddeu rustle of the skin flap to the tepee as It was drawn back ond some one entered in a moment a small voice whispered whis-pered his name. Cold hands found him as lie held out his arms. He felt a child's drenched form. Then came choking words hulf smothered In the bent of the storm: "I am Wood Pigeon. I ran away from Chenufslo three days ago. I huve come to tell you Sil ver Heels is dead." Lightning flashes which accom panlea the storm that night revealed re-vealed a solitary figure hurrying through rhe wilderness toward Chenufslo, a figure which sped until it wns winded nnd then con tinned at a slower pace with a persistence no bent of rain or blast of wind could halt The traveler was Jeems. Wood I'teeori'imti repeated the message Tolnette entrusted to her a few looking at Tlaoga s dweJIing place. I The urge to destroy was not strong in him. The gentle whispering whis-pering among the trees and the drip of water from their foliage combined In a melody of peace which struggled to turn him from the thought of denth. It might have won If a tall figure had not come out of the tepee he was Hatching Jeems knew It was Tlaoga. Tla-oga. The chleftnln advanced toward to-ward him as If an invisible fute were leading him to his execution. Then he paused. The moon was bright, it lit up his features thirty yards away as he gazed Into a mystery of distance which his eyes could not penetrate. What had brought him, what he wns thinking, think-ing, what the night held for him. Jeems did not ask himself. He strung his bow and fitted on arrow. ar-row. Then he culled Tluogu's nnme In a low voice to let him know that retribution bad come. The how twanged and a slender shaft sped through the moonlight on spits and In kettles, he came upon the hlack-frocked priest who nnd accompanied the Ahennkls and found him to be the Jesuit. Pierre Rouhnnd. who had made Tolnette his wife at Chenufslo. Father , Rouhnnd wns even then preparing Ihnt eyewitness document which was destined to become n valuable part of Jesuit and French-English history, and whose hundred or more age-yellowed pages, written mostly by torchlight amid scenes of horror, one may read In the Jesuit archives at Quebec. The priest saw Jeems, hut so Intent was he upon his tnsk and so great were the changes wrought by sixteen six-teen months that he did not recognize recog-nize him, and Jeems left his presence pres-ence without making himself known. After Fort . WUIInm Henry and the brilliant French successes which preceded It. Jeems began to feel the Inevitable pressure which la bound to crush the life from a country thit Is enormously outweighed out-weighed by its antagonist. The English colonies had put an end to quarrel among themselves, and a tnilllt.n nnd a half people were with the winged sound of a humming hum-ming bird. He heard the arrow strike. Tlaoga did not cry out. His hand clutched at his breast as he sunk to the earth and lay there a motionless blot. Jeems went down the river. For many days he hid along Its shores seeking for Tolnette's body. He saw Senecns puss and repass, put as he traveled almost entirely entire-ly In the water he was successful In evndlng them. When he reached Lake Ontario, he turned eastwnrd, still carrying his bundle. At nlghl he slept with It close to his fuce. breathing the precious Incense of Tolnette's things. Sometimes he held to his Hps the piece of red cloth she hnd worn around her hnlr. No spring of action encouraged him to return to Forbidden valley or the Richelieu, and It was chance and not a definite purpose which brought him to the place on Uike Champliiln called Tlconderoga by the Indians. This wns late in the summer of 1750. The French had occupied a point of land and were building Fort VaudreuU and Fort Carillon. Jeems seized upon these activities with the avldltv of one as they entered the Illumination, and beginning his deuth song agnin Tlaoga snatched a burning brand and flung it Into the midst of the pitchy material Hbout the torture stake. In a moment a winding sheet of flame licked Its way up the pole, and around this Tlaoga danced, finishing his song to the crackling of the pitch. He described how they hnd overtnken the fleeing ones at the edge of the Great rocks beyond which the water wa-ter thundered In a maelstrom. The blind man had fought with a hatchet he had stolen from Ah De Biih'8 tepee until another blade was sunk lu his brain to quiet him. He was a devil In his blind ness. and Tlaoga pointed to Shin das,, who held back his buckskin shirt to show a long and bleed Ing gash. The white man was dead, and his body, weighted by the darkness of his soul, wns gone forever In the deep waters beyond be-yond the rocks. . But the unclean one who hnd tricked them, the girl whose evil spirit had come to bring dishonor upon them and to desecrate the soul of Sol Yan Mafcwun, they hnd taken alive. Tiaoga's fuce set In motion against the eighty thousand In New France, and he-a hind this inundating force were powerful English armies and a still more powerful English nny already al-ready Inspired by Pitt and Wolfe. As Te Demus were sung because of his victories. Montcalm knew that New France wns hovering at Ihe brink of ruin, but at no time did the outcome of his heroic contest con-test press with greater certainty upon himself than upon Jeems. TO BE CONTINUED.) who at lust hnd found something to assuage a killing hunger. He Joiued Montcalm's forces and whs given a musket and a spade In place of his bow and arrows. He entered now an apprentice ship of digging and building in the earth where the forts were going up. The work and Its environ ment, the excitement of war. and the ever-Incrensing news of French victories were a relief to his Tlaoga Became More Than Ever a Fiend in the Flesh s He Danced About the Stake. minutes preceding her flight with Hepslhah Adams, and no blackness was so thick thnt It hid from him the tortured faces of his wife and his blind uncle ns they beckoned him to- vengeance. Even vengeance seemed futile nnd inadequate. Hoe did not rise in his breast He had hoped when he knew his mother wns 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 wns alive. But now It was impossible for him to find thnt saving grace within his mental reach. As he went on. he wns slowly dispossessed of the IHiwei to hnle. though every sinew In his body was bent with Im plucnhle resolution In its mission of death. He would kill Tlnogn He would kill Shlndns. There would be only Justice and no grew livid. His soul hud gone so black when they caught her that he could see only death, for he heard his daughter's voice crying to him for vengeance. So he had killed the treacherous one. He hnd killed, her at the command of Silver Heels, whose spirit was singing to him. He had killed the white girl with lis own hands nnd had flung her body to disappear with that of the blind mun. Suddenly Tlaoga drew from Its hiding place next his brenst- a thing which brought a gasp to the lips of those about him. All recognized rec-ognized it as Toinette's beautiful braid of hnlr streaming from Ihe bleeding scalp the savage held above his head. Tinoga became more than ever a fiend In the flesh as he danced about the1 stake. Hecks of blood from he red scalp struck his face. At; the height of his mnd ness ie dung it Into the heart of the pitchwood fire. Sol an Mnkwun was avenged |