| Show the plains 0 abraham by JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD Q by doubleday doran co ino I 1 CHAPTER X continued 20 but this happier spirit could not e endure n dure long with the people death h had ad settled on them heavily no word had h a d come from and ills hla warriors rl ors there were whisperings that t they hey had lieen been annihilated in battle and would never return anxiety grew rew into fear fear into certainty the grimness of a tragedy darker than the sable robes of the priest h hovered 0 V over in their happiness jeems and tol nette did not feet eel tile the under undercurrent of change about them their abiding place become became a home whose roots spread so securely that death could not have torn thera them up the cloud of tile the tragedy through which they had passed was a curtain vaguely soft and dist distant nt behind them they thought of it tal they icy tallied talked of it end and dreams bozile sometimes awakened tobnette Tol nette to find comfort la in teems jeems arms hut but its memories did not wound so deeply the spirits of and of jeems mother drew nearer to them pach each day strengthening with invisible chains the love which bound them it was the thrush alio bo first made them see what was happening about them As days unit and weeks passed without word from the fear that was dead clutched her with an evil liand hand she began to avoid tobnette Tol nette and kept to herself the hardness which had settled in the faces about her came into her own she was a changed mary Dagh dagelen Da ghlen lem she was vi as the seneca it was this change in the one she had come to regard as a sister which startled tobnette Tol nette into a realization of the situation which was gathering about her and jeems and she was now destined to witness in all of its savagery that streak in indian character which arouses liate hate and the desire tor for vengeance in the face of adversity at the hands of human enemies teems jeems marked its rising symptoms lie ile was no longer greeted with friendliness men bien were sullen and aloof and women tolled without their usual chatter death and misfortune had ridden too hard and human nerves were at the breaking point was like a handful of powder ready for the touch of gre fire then came the lightning lash flash it was wag on an afternoon late in may when ShI lidas appeared in ne was alone ills arms and iders hera were hacked and cut and some of the wounds were scarcely heated lie aled A sear scar lay across ills his cheek check ills moccasins basins were in tatters and ills his eyes held the ferocious light of a wolf that had been hunted lie ile made no effort to soften the news of which he be was the bearer ile he had come from the border of the cayuga country as a messenger from and was many hours ahead of lilg ills comrades was returning with nine of hla his thirty warriors warr lori iorg the others were dead this tragedy was a cataclysmic one even fur a tribe of the most warlike of the six nations nothing had equaled it in seneca history for generations erat ions twenty were dead out of thirty the flower of the very agnew of Tl thadgas aDgas people 1 waited until his big words sunk like barbs of iron into the hearts ot of the men and women about him lie 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 stain slain by their enemies A white man had killed three of the twenty warriors ile he was a prisoner now with tiao a they had bad put out his eyes so that lie he could not see they had built a fire around him in which it had been their intention to see him die hut but in the last moment when the flames were scorching him had pulled the blazing fuel away with its ills own hands in ili order that the people of could witness ills his at the fire stake after tills this one might have thought that wild mad men and women and not a grief stricken people filled for hours the lament of the women did not die out still tobnette Tol nette saw no tears tier her horror increased as she observed the preparations for vengeance tile the rigging of a hole and the setting getting in it of a tall stake nil all by hands the gathering of pitchy fuel by little children and their moth ers era the transformation of friends she had bad known into fiends whose eyes filled with hatred when they looked at her she tried to tilde from these things in their end and to keep jeems with tier her came to them ile he had a commard com marid from fo for r jeems it was that jeems should go to the village of None stio seventy miles distant and bear news of a war party from that town shin das daa gave him alm tit the message and saw that he departed with it ile he was no longer a brother ile he disclosed no sign of pleasure when he learned that tobnette Tol nette was jeems wife ilary blary dagelen wand found him so grimly changed that he frightened her tobnette Tol nette remained alone no one came to see her except wood pigeon and the afternoon following the day of Sh Indas arrival the child ran in with wile eyes to tell her that was wag approaching they were standing stand lna at the head of the waiting lines when and tile remnant of his band came over the hill and across tile the ile fields I 1 ds had said there was to be no physical I 1 demonstration against the prisoner who was wa to be ba kept trong strong for torture lat at the stake tol nette shivered it was a different homecoming this time tile the people were like tigers holding their passions in leash there was something demoniac mon inc in the faces of the tha children even the eyes of those whose loved ones had escaped death held only tile the deep seated fire of lin hatred tred came ills face was like a mask of rock as lie passed so near that tol ne nette tte might have touched him the prisoner followed ills clothes were torn from the upper part of his body lie ile was a powerfully built man with great hands and wide shoulders on aae each h side aide of him walked a warrior tor for he was blind and needed guidance ills empty eye sockets hidden by drooping lids gave to ills his round red face the appearance of one walking in a ghastly sleep yet lie he was not overcome by the tha enormity of the catastrophe which had befallen him nor did he betray fear of what lay head ahead a ile he sensed the presence of the people and held ills his head high as if trying to see them it was wag a bald head tobnette Tol nette swayed backward and struggled in a moment of darkness to kept keep herself from falling the prisoner was hepsibah adams CHAPTER XI no one but wood pigeon observed the faintness which came cama over tol nette some force had drawn a smothering curtain about her making it difficult to see face or breathe when the shock passed they were standing alone with the mob closing in behind and ills single captive its pent up emotion burst loose in a pandemonium and amid the excitement tobnette Tol nette went back to the cabin which jeems had bad built near tepee at first she sha had regretted the absence of jeems but now she was glad he was gone tor for the increasing tumult in the village the chanting of death songs by the women the screaming of children and the yelling of savages who were working themselves into a frenzy of rage about the fire which would soon boon receive its victim terrified her with the growing conviction that nothing could save his big uncle if jeems had been there site she knew he would not have seen Hep hepsibah albah adams put to death without a struggle fatal to himself this thought together with the reflection that it was a fortunate chance chanca which had bad sent him away strengthened tier her determination to help hepsibah and she watched with wood pigeon until she saw the chief enter his bis tepee then she hurried to him with wood pigeon and odd following her no the seneca folded his arms across his breast and regarded tier calmly revealing no gentle aspect as he be spoke a few words in acknowledgment of her visit that his prisoner bore the same relationship to jeems which he bore to and that the man about to die was loved by silver heels brought no surprise or bes tita tion to his face ile he waited patiently for her to finish then shook his head and pointed through the door to the shadows gathering in the path of the setting sun ile he stated coldly that the prisoner must die ills people demanded that the spirit of the white man who had slain three of his warriors be destroyed in flames they would wait until it was dark dar it which was the tribal custom then the prisoner would be brought from the tepee in which he was ft as lying bound and the fire would be lighted if it were v ere her de deabre ire she might talk with jeems uncle said ile he was looking into the twilight when he made this concession the indian women at the farther end of the all village were chanting more loudly as darkness came on spoke again she must hurry lt it was growing late the captive was in ali ah do de bahs tepee near the river and V th tie T tall man and were guarda guarding n him ile he watched her depart with wo wood od pigeon and odd then she aha raight might have hav seen a change in him a change which came when he ha knew he was alone tobnette Tol nette was breathless when she came to ali ah de dahs daha home which the th hunter had set apart from the others the tall man afan stood motionless before the door with a rifle in the cro crook ok of ills arm and eat bat on the grou ground n d near him both saw tier her co coming ming she paused a few paces from them with her mind struggling against a chaos of uncertainty and dread what could she say to adams how could she help him when tiaona and and ali ah de bah were eager tor for hla his death spoke a word to the tall man alan and advanced toward her lie ha seemed to have expected her and pointed to the tepee ah de bah did not look at her as slie she entered neither appeared to notice wood pigeon or the dog she found hepsibah stretched out like a dead man and knelt on the tha earth at ills bis side ile he was scarcely cons conscious clous of her presence until she sha touched him she felt the buckskin cords at his bis wrists then her hand found ills his sightless face bending low over the doomed maux man she whispered ill hepsibah hepsibah adams I 1 am tobnette Tol nette Tont eur waited with ah dabah de bah as aa th the e gloom thickened about them after a time they saw wood pigeon going toward the circle of fires botn das dan stopped her and in answer to hla his question she told him tobnette Tol nette was weeping beside the white man and that the dog was with lier her A fresn outcry told them that at last the time had come and ah do da bah went to the tepee and held back bach the flap he spoke to tobnette Tol nette nettO calling her sol yan lifa kwun there was wa no answer lie he spoke again and entered after a brief interval nil his voice rose rosa in a demand for Shin shindle dae and the young seneca answered it ali ah de bah was hunting like an animal in the tha blackness the tepee was wa empty tobnette Tol nette and hepsibah adams adami were gone did not speak there ther was wai no light to reveal his face as ashe he went to the edge of the river and saw that a canoe was gone ho he grunted granted his alg wonder when the tall man alan joined him the canoe had been launched within fifty paces of them and they had not heard a sound words of self abase ment fell from ah do da bahs baha lips he ha and were like two children and every man and woman in sto would taunt them because of the tha ease with which the escape had been made but 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 man given to the stake and now that silver heels had proved herself a serpent in the tha tribe and a traitor to she would probably die with him ali ah de bah made queer sounds in his big chest as they ran to and the expectant people with him he was not as aa calm as when they arrived it was shin das who announced the deception of 0 the stranger whom they had accepted as the true spirit of sol yan tan makwam was coldly and terribly still hlll ills 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 tha decision of death rising until they swelled in a passion that wn was like a fire consuming everything in its path 11 lie e declared that his honor and the tha honor 0 of his people lay in his hands lie ile called on and ali ah do de bah to go with him to recapture the fugitives for this was a duty imposed on him first of all before tile the night was wa much older the fire stake should have its triumph he had forgotten th the a blind man for a man without eyes w was as already dead ile he would alire to the flames the white girl who had betrayed them TO BB CONTINUED 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