Show I 1 the plains of Abra liam 4 CHAPTER VIII continued 17 ne he was lical heavy with doubt when the march was resumed for he ha saw the bitter souls hidden in the breasts of the warriors adams had made him see eee the truth and lie knew tb these e men owed nothing to the people ahl of his s race except loss and shame shaine many times he be had thou thought that if late fate had bad placed his fortunes among g them he would have hated hate d w with I 1 th th the grimness of their hatred the freedom and pride which were once thi the heritage of their wide domains were no longer the controlling factors in their heir existence their wars had ceased to be wars ware which gave birth t to a forest gods and epics of unforgettable heroism their star was setting and with its decline the white man had bad transformed them into common killers and in thi calling it made small difference to them whether they slew enemies or those who posed as friends its as long as the skins were i white ewhite so the nobility which tobnette Tol nette saw in their captors was poisoned for jeems by girat was concealed within theli their bel hearts aits the greatest of all hates ivl wis not the hate bate of aman for a man but the hate of a race for a race and he knew that ata at a word from the men about h him in would be turned into fiends Alo host of all he feared tor for had told him that Tta ogas father had been killed by a white man and his hai son by an english mohawk whatever their fate was to be this day would bring it lie he was sure tobnette Tol nette could not keep up the pace much longer and lie he strengthened bilm self belt for the moment when the seneca chief would find himself compelled to give a decision that had bad claimed her for his daughter gave him hope but if in her frailty tobnette Tol nette was condemned to die he be was determined that she should not die alone it was not long afterward that the warriors observed limping ls slightly lIghtly this sign of physical difficulty increased in ills his walk until furious because of his weakness he drove ibis his hatchet head bead deep into a tree and paused to bind a piece of buck buckskin buckshir shih tightly about the ankle he be had wrenched progress was slower after this it continued to slacken as the afternoon waned until the hand of a spiritual Bpi ritual guidance seemed tobe to be working for tobnette Tol nette it was useless to attempt a concealment of her condition ner her strength was gone her body was racked as if I 1 it t had been bee fi beaten another mile and she would have bave sunk to the ground glad to have an end to her torture but fate and hurt intervened to save her they came at last to a hardwood plain in which was n pigeon roost spoke to Sh Indas we have been a long time without meat broken feather in a few hours there will be plenty here we will feast and then sleep and will not travel again until 11 morning then knew the truth but his bis countenance did not change ile he soon had a chance to speak to jeems for the first time I 1 have discovered my uncle to be a great liar ilar t he sold said ilia ankle Is as sound as mine it Is tor for the little fawn he 14 has pretended a hurt and stops here for meat she Is safe bate ile he will not kill her when jeems translated this tobnette Tol nette bowed her head and cried softly saw tier her crumpled on the ground with deerns firm arm around her the mile looked like silver liver heels fleets with tier her long black braid falling over her shoulder it er no one was conscious of the strain at tits his heart as he came toward lier her warriors wide eyed saw that he be did not limp and in his attitude was a defiance of what they might think lie ile paused before the girl and dropped tits his beav erskin blanket at her feet toinette Tol nette looked up through tears and smiled again as a strange softness stole over the savage baans e face lie he gazed at her steadily as if he were seeing a spirit and sat said the soul of sol yon yan has come to abide in you youl I 1 sol yen yan was silver heels turned away and his warriors ryors knew that his bis decision had been made there would be no haste after this in the direction of hidden town on a couch made of the Leav erskin and of balsam boughs which jeems had bad carried from the creek bottom tobnette Tol nette rested while the indians prepared tor for the evening feast feas t she smoothed and re braided her hair as sho she watched them and although every bone in tier lier body seemed to have an ache of its own she felt a sensation of complete relaxation stealing over tier for the first time since the tragedy at manor the mental cose case which came to soften tier her environment viron ment embraced her in such a stealthy way that she was unconscious of tho the moment when her eyes dosed closed in complete surrender to the exhaustion which was claiming her jeems returned from one of the fires bearing a stick on which a dozen of the cooked pigeons were spitted pitted ile he did not awaken tollette Tot Tol nette but after he be had finished I 1 his meal he broiled another dozen doze n of the pigeons until they were as brown as chestnuts and stored them away with a roasted lily illy root and a few artichokes for two hours the cooking continued and when it was finished with the tha nights kill hill leady for future use warriors wrapped themselves in their blan blankets gets and lay down to sleep the camp was soon in silence and for ft a long time jeems sat meditating rp a tle the changes which had come into ills lue life within the space apace of two dl davs and nights that every pecry by james oliver curwood i 0 by doubleday doran co ino ina service thing was gone and that he and tol nette were the only ones left of 0 those w who he had so recently made mad ae up their world seemed a monstrous exaggeration of fact tobnette Tol nette ale sleeping ep ing quietly forced the truth upon him and from the racking visions of his thoughts he turned to her with wl h yearning to hold her closely to in disarms his arms tier her face was of childlike loveliness in the glow of the stars so complete was her fatigue that dark dreams did not mar the solace of her unconsciousness 13 when the th night was halt half gone he made a pillow of balsams and before he fell asleep he drew hand to him gently and pressed his hid lips against it dawn another day then night ag again aln the journey was no longer impossible tor for tobnette Tol nette when she neared exhaustion camp was made and when she awoke the march lill was resumed called her sol yon van and the warriors regarded her with kindlier eyes As the days dais cc continued and they witnessed tier her courage their hearts grew warm warin toward her and at times their glances revealed a an admiration and arlen all ness which were never neer in Ti these days dais served also as the bridge across which jeems and tobnette Tol nette were passing into a future that was all their own and the poignancy of the loss they had suffered was mellowed by these newer never aspects so vital altal to themselves The world ft orld they had find known was a fabric which had crashed in ruin about ab ou t them thein a desolation out of which another an 0 ther existence was building itself As the deeper solitudes of the wilderness claimed them this feeling became it a bond which nothing could break wherever they went and whatever happened they would belong to each other for death might separate but it could not destroy on the fourteenth day sent a messenger ahead that evening he eat it on the ground near tobnette Tol nette and jeems translated what lie be said tomorrow they would reach hidden town and his people would be expecting pe acting them there would be great rejoicing because they had taken many scalps and had not lost a man they would honor her and jeems accepting se them as flesh of their lesli flesh and bone of their bone would live as his daughter sliver heels feels heart would the live in her song she would be of the forests forever that was the word he had sent ahead to was coming with his daughter ile he stalked into darkness and for a time jeems and tobnette Tol nette were afraid to speak the thought which was vas choking at their hearts your children and your childrens children 11 that night toinette Tol Tal nette lay starina at the sky with sleepless eyes CHAPTER IX guarded like a precious jewel ob all sides a hidden town literally as well as in name came was one of 0 the greatest of the strange social centers of the indians to which prisoners with white skins were brought to be adopted by their captors that such places existed was a fact which had but recently gained credence in both the english and french colonies not until 1701 1761 1 was colonel coquet boquet to tree free the white population in the first of these mystery villages and then the deliverance which he brought about resulted in less of happiness than of tragedy for the lle lif e and associations ciati clat ions ons which he disrupted in the name came and claim of the colonies hall had their roots as far back as the third and fourth generations hearts and homes were broken as well as prisoners shackles was the rome name of a wide domain in that period of its history when jeems and tobnette Tol nette came with and his warriors in I 1 it t were three hundred people and at full strength it numbered sixty fighting men it nestled at the edge of 0 a large in meadow which the river embraced in a horseshoe curve cune and its center was a stronghold with long houses storage buildings cabins and tepees sufficient tor for the entire population in times of stress the had vineyards and fine orchards of apples cherries and plums and they also grew tobacco a and nd potatoes on a considerable scale in the corri cornfields fields and growing from the same hills bills were pumpkins and beans and everywhere were sunflowers sun flowers of a 0 dwa dwarfish i kind grown for or the oil which wn was extracted from their seeds when the season season was good lived in comfort during the long winter months the granaries were full large quantities 0 of dried fruits were in the storehouses and underground cellars were stocked with apples pumpkins potatoes and squashes when the season was bad drew a belt tightly about its stomach for five months of the year for three of these months it starved this was a bad season spring frosts had killed the early vegetation and had bad blackened the buds of apples and plums the corn was so poor that after roasting time only enough was left for the next years planting and beans and potatoes bad suffered unan there was less than a third of a crop hut but the people of wore no appearance of gloom on the day when and his triumphant warriors were to arrive from the east messenger had bad brought the news that nota not a man had been lost in their invasion of the terri territory tor y of their enemies this was unusual and it put fresh courage into the hearts of those who had seen the year go against them Tillo gals homecoming with the spoils of war was an augury which more than discounted empty cellars and granaries As a part of these spoils they knew tinaa ga was bringing a daughter to take the place of silver heels this convinced them that fortune was bound to smile on them again they had loved sol yon yan Bla kwun with her death had come bad times now the spirits would give them an easy winter and next year would see the earth flowering with good things made ready for the feast there thera were still plenty of earthy things and a supply of late green corn car n packed away in husks and kept kep I 1 for this occasion the last day was long for tobnette Tol nette it had begun at down dawn and though tiaona halted his men at intervals to let her rest it had bad not ended with dusk darkness came before they reached a plain on the far side 0 of f which was a hill bill beyond this hill h III was they could see the glow of a great fire lighting the sky shy tobnette Tol nette forgot her exhaustion at this sign of the end of their journey she observed that some one took from jeems the scalp of 0 the man he had killed billed which he had tried to conceal from tier her eyes under a flap of buckskin then she saw all of the scalps taken by the fastened like dangling fish to a slender pole which was carried on the shoulders at 0 two men the hair of one of these scalps reaching almost to the ground with the scalp carriers in the lead they came to the hill at the edge of the plain and looked down on the valley of at command the men bearing the scalp laden pole had gone ahead and now followed with his men in single file tobnette Tol nette and jeems were midway in the line wide slave collars of buckskin had been placed about their necks and jeems was stripped of ills weapons the warriors did not hurry their step was slow and steady and not a man broke the silence with a whisper or a word A sea of torches advanced it rolled in and out of hollows like a flood then came to a level place and formed two streaming lines of fire the scalp bearers reached these a hundred yards ahead of and tits his men tobnette Tol nette could see them enter the light of the torches and in these moments the voices of the savages rose to the heavens paused and not until the scalp bearers had paraded their grisly burden the entire length of the gauntlet of flame did he proceed again tobnette Tol nette felt stealing over her a strange faintness of body and limb stories which she had forgotten stories she had heard of the indians from childhood stories that had sent shivers through the hearts of a thousand homes along the frontiers all crowded upon her at once wild tales of appalling torture and vengeance of stake and fire rind and human suffering she had listened to them from her fathers lips from passing voyageurs voyage voya geurs ura had heard them in the gossip of the seigne urle and she remembered by name this ordeal which awaited them it was lie le chemin de feu the road of fire through which they must pass others had died in it roasted by pitch filled torches blinded killed by inches so she had been told TO BE CONTINUED |