Show the ing by james oliver curwood plains clairn W 0 of abraham lc 49 in by doubleday doran cog co inc CHAPTER X continued 13 led the way to a hardwood country in which he was sure eure there would be hunting that would last through the winter there were plenty of race raccoons 0 ons and the mergansers seri sers or fish d docks would come to the swift running headwaters to feed as soon as ice closed the hie lakes and the mouths months of the streams here they made their heir lodge of saplings it was a new kind of home for wood pigeon jeems built it with a cooking hearth and a chimney and a tiny room set apart for wood pigeon herself the childs eyes glowed with delight at this possession each day jeems told her more about Tol tobnette nette how sol yan cared for her beautiful hair how it was part of her religion to keep herself clean how and why she did this tiling thing and that until thoughts and desires grew in Wano head and she employed the comb and the brush which jeems made for her until her sleek black hair was never untidy heavy snow and extreme cold come came early in the season cy by the middle of december jeems was compelled to hunt on snowshoes and so bitter were the nights that the first of january found even the headwaters freezing out the mergansers sers this was the memorable winter of 1756 1755 and 1756 the story of which the handed down from father to son tor for many generations erat ions a winter in which all game teemed seemed to have gone from the face of the earth and when hardship and starvation killed a tenth ol of the three westernmost of the six great nations the sen acas the cayugan Cay and the onon dagas bagas at first jeems was partly prepared because lie he had killed a buck and with koos shrewd assistance had marked a number of trees in which raccoons were sure to hibernate but late in january famine drew closer about the cabin on the little selus and jeems traveled farther in his hunts until he was gone two days at a time in february he made four our of these hunts and found no game the cold was terrific trees cracked like rifles in the woods bitter winds continued night and day wood pigeons eyes grew larger and her body more fragile as the weeks passed each time jeems came in from his hunts she blazed up like a fire in tier her happiness but he could mark the st steady eady fading of her strength ile he hunted with almost insane energy everything was tor for her when famine clutched at them In hardest ardest torturing fears assal assailed led je jeems ems tobnette Tol nette was never out of his mind for even in his sleep he dreamed of her she too wa was s a part of this fight to bold life lif e together at night when the wind howled and trees walled wailed in their distress he sweated invented in fear and more than once the thought came to him to abandon his family and go in search of tobnette Tol nette ills his visions of the fate which might be overtaking tier her became almost unbearable his 1119 hunts were not long now and seldom took him more than three or r four miles from the cabin tor for his own OD strength was ebbing ills his only hope was to kill an occasional bird and it was in the darkest hour that an answer came to his prayers in a blizzard against which he was working his bis way in half balf blindness he stumbled upon a doe as weak as himself and id blued 11 ed her without this stroke of fortune wood pigeon and koo must have died when the thaws came they were alive raccoons began to appear and fleshy roots could he gathered out of the opening streams E early arly march brought a warm break in which jekins and hla his companions started tor for food was plentiful on the way vay and each night they gathered strengthening sap from the maples the arrived at the people there had lived frugally on their the r supplies eup plies and from the first running of the maple sap had been making sugar only tour four families had biad preceded jeems to the village and of their number which w was as twenty eight five had died no word had been received from tiaona and his warriors the maple sap ran steadily I 1 in n spite of this opening grace of spring there hung over n Q grim specter whose shadow grew darker with each day that passed this specter was death scarcely it a family returned which did not tiring bring grief with it and ali ah de ball bali the mightiest hunter of them all did not come no one hail heard of him no one knew where ile he was fifty seventy a hundred and then a 0 hundred and fifty of those who had gone in the I 1 breakup break up were accounted for by t the he end of march among them V was v as flarv Dil Dagh ghlen Jen of their her ber thirty had find died still ali ah de bab the tall man alan did not come co me then he a appeared one day lie t i wils wag a groeb grotesque que rack of fleshless flesh lesa jjones f hones whom would not i t have recognized behind him trailed lila ills people jeems counted e them before he could tell one front from 4 eleven 1 lie ile ran toward them and toinette tobnette Tol nette swayed sway eil from the line tit at the head of which the i T tall all man alan marched lie ile might not ba tave ve known her at first if she had I 1 not dot met him in this way tor for L those who were behind ali ah de bah bab i walked with bowed heads and t dragging steps like death figures to a weird parade her eyes 4 AL stared nt at him from a race face so BO strange and thin that it clicked choked his joy tier her body was not heavier than a childs when he clasped her then she began to cry softly with her face against his breast lie he carried her to the tepee her clothes were in tatters her moc 1 basins worn to shreds she was so small a burden that tier her lightness sent horror through him and his eyes were blinded by a hot fire when she raised it a cold hand to touch his face ile he placed tier her on the soft skins in the tepee then he be was conscious of wood pigeon near him in a moment mary alary dagelen come in jeems made way for them ue he went outside and in his path was a creature who leapt weakly against him it was odd a skeleton with red and watery eyes and jaws falling apart jeems waited until the thrush came out and told him she was going for warm water and food and that wood pigeon was undressing toinette Tol nette then he sought the others all but ali ah do de bah bab had disappeared and were being cared for the tall man alan could scarcely stand as lie he told his story ile he had brought ills his eleven people back alive the dog and he like the truly great he gave credit to his inferior without the dog he would have failed in his struggle to teed feed eleven mouths and jeems knew why uby odd had not been eaten after a time mary alary dagelen let him see Tol toinette nette again she was in her bed of skins the look which had frightened him was gone from her eyes and they aliey were bright with the joy of ills his presence she held out her arms to him and he knelt beside tier her wood pigeon looked at the two with shining eyes find and a soft mist gathered in mary alary Dagh Dagli lens after this jeems did not see toinette again tor for an afternoon and a night during this time she slept and the thrush and wood pigeon were never far from her side the next day she walked with him about the town what was in Tol heart was also in alary Dagh lens the young girl who had known no other life than that of her adopted people since babyhood but whose mother bad kept god and church alive in her soul watched with increasing anxiety for the re return turn of and she told tot toinette nette that at last she was prepared to yield to her environment and if no priest came that spring or summer she would marry in the indian way this thought now dow held less of horror tor for toinette she had seen the fidelity and courage of an indian family la in its struggle gle against death she had bad seen the tall man alan gnaw at bitter bark that his women and children might have scraps of skin and flesh she had seen a mother hide her portion of food day after day that she might save it for her children she had witnessed a falth faith and devotion which could have been inspired by nothing less than the strength of god in their souls tier her prejudices melted away in spite of their background of unforgettable tragedy and she began to experience emotions which had not come to her before and though she said nothing of it to jeems the conviction was growing in her heart that she would not allow another winter to separate them even if a priest did not come to C cut but lie he came following closely the months of starvation he was a gaunt death faced man on his way to take the place of a brohar who had died among the indians indian of the ohio that was what he said history was to relate otherwise for a later he was the force behind the in their slaughter of the english at fort william henry his ells name was father alerre ile he was a cold terrible man of cod yet he was the church he would have died a thousand deaths death s tor for the cause of which he was the spiritual if not the moral representative senta senti tive ue ile would have eaten human flesh in defense of it ile he did see such euch flesh eaten aate n by ills his savage disciples disciple S at fort william henry he remained in two days on the second of these days be married jaems lind and tot tol nette according to the ritual of the catholic church the gloom he brought with him was dissipated by this event gave itself up to a few hours of rejoicing in honor hono ol of Tl dogas daughter and the go son a of but this happier spirit could not endure long with the people death had set settled aed on them heavily no word had come from and his warriors there were whisperings that they had been annihilated in battle and would never return anxiety grew into fear fear into certainty the grimness of a tragedy darker than the sable robes of the priest hovered over in their happi nelis jeems and tobnette Tol nette did not feel the undercurrent of change about them their abiding place became a home whose roots spread so securely that death could not have torn them up the cloud of the tragedy through which they had passed was as a curtain vaguely soft and distant behind them they thought of it they talked of it and dreams sometimes awakened toinette Tola Tol ette nette to find comfort in jeems arms anus but its memories did not wound so deeply the spirits of and of jeems mother drew nearer to them each day strengthening with invisible chains the love lore which bound thrim them it was the inrush who first farst made them see what shat was happening about them As days and weeks passed without word from alao a the fear that was dead clutched her with an evil hand she began to avoid toinette Toi notte and kept to herself the hardness which had settled in the faces about her came into her 0 on n she was a changed mary alary Da dagelen Dagh ghlen Jen she was the seneca it was this change in the one she had come to regard as a sister which startled Tol toinette nette into it a realization of the situation which was gathering about tier her and jeems and she was now destined to witness in all of its savagery that streak in indian char acter which arouses hate and the desire for vengeance in the face of adversity at the hands of human enemies jeems marked its rising symptoms lie ile was no longer greeted with friendliness men were sullen and aloof and women tolled toiled without their usual chatter death and misfortunes had ridden too hard and human nerves were at the breaking point was like a handful of powder ready for the touch of tire fire then came the lightning flash it was as tin an afternoon n late in tiny may when Sli indas appeared in chen lie he was aas alone ills arms and shoulders were hacked and cut and some of the wounds were scarcely heated healed A sear scar lay across his fits cheek check ills his moccasins were in tatters and his eyes held t the ile 0 0 on the second of these days he married jeems and toinette Tol nette ferocious light of a wolf that had been hunted lie he made no effort to soften the news of which he was the bearer he had come from the border of the cayuga country as a messenger from tia oga and was many hours ahead of his comrades tiaona was returning with nine of his thirty warriors giors the others were dead this tragedy was a cataclysmic one even for a tribe of the most warlike of the six nations nothing had bad equaled it in seneca history for generations twenty were dead out of thirty the flower of the very sinew of ala ogas people I 1 waited until his words sunk like barbs of iron into the hearts of the men and women about him he waited until there seemed no relief from the despair which settled over them and then slowly gave the names of those who had been slain elain by their enemies A white man had killed three of the twenty warriors he was waa a prisoner now with tiaona they had bad put out his eyes so that he could not see they had built a fire around him in which it had been their intention to see him ile die but in the last moment when the flames were scorching him tiaona had pulled the blazing fuel away with his own hands in order that the people of could witness bitnes S h hla is writ bings at the fire stake after this one night might have thought that mad men and women and not a grief stricken people filled for hours the lament ot of the women did not die out still tobnette Tol nette saw no tears ile her horror increased as she observed the preparations for vengeance the digging of a hole and the setting in it of a tall stake all by vo mens hands the gath ering of pitchy fuel by little cliff children and their mothers the trans formation of friends she had known into fiends whose eyes filled with hatred when they looked at her she tried to hide from these things in their home and ad to keep jeems with her Sl sald ld came to them ile he had a command from tiaona for jeems it was that jeems should go to the village of Kanc stio seventy miles distant and bear news of a war party from that town shin das gave him the message and saw that lie he departed with it it lie he was no longer a brother ile he disclose no sign of pleasure when lie he learned that toinette Toi was jeems wife ilary alary dagelen found him so grimly changed that he be frightened tier her tobnette Tol nette remained alone no one come came to see tier her except wood pigeon Il geon and the afternoon following the day of Sh indas arrival the chy ran in with wide eyes to tell tier her that tiaona was approaching pro aching liag they were standing at the head of the waiting lines when tiaona and the remnant ot of hla fits band came over the hill and across the fields Shin clas had said there was to be no DO physical demonstration against the prisoner who ho was to be kept strong for torture at the stake tobnette Tol nette shivered it was a dlf different ferent home coming this time the people were like tigers holding their pas skins in leash there was something demoniac demon lac in the faces of the children even the eyes of those whose loved ones had escaped death held only the deep seated fire of hatred came ills his face was as like a mask of rock as he passed so near that tobnette Tol nette might have touched him the prisoner followed ills clothes were torn from the upper tipper part ot of his body lie he was a powerfully built man with 7 great real hands and wide shoulders on each side of 0 him walked a warrior for he was blind and needed guidance gul ilance his empty eye sockets hidden by drooping lids gave to ills his round red face the appearance of one walking in a ghastly sleep yet he was not overcome by the enormity of the catastrophe which had befallen him nor did he betray fear of what lay iny ahead lie ile sensed the presence of the people and held its his head high ns as if try ing to see them it was a bald head tobnette Tol nette swayed backward and struggled in a moment |