CONCLUSION.
The heart of Missionary Finley stood still when he saw The Panther stride from the wood into the open space where the campfire was burning. He knew that the terrible chieftain and Simon Kenton had met in mortal combat, and what could the return of the Shawanoe mean but that the prince of pioneers and rangers had been overthrown and slain by his implacable enemy?
With a self-possession which surprised even himself, the good man looked straight into the face of the Indian as he approached, and, noting its strange expression, said:
"Wa-on-mon has met the white hunter and conquered him."
Three paces away The Panther abruptly halted and stood for several seconds, looking silently at the missionary. Then he said, in a low, deliberate voice:
"Wa-on-mon has met the white hunter—the white hunter has conquered Wa-on-mon."
Missionary Finley was quick to catch the point of a situation; but, for a moment, he was dumfounded. Then a suspicion of the truth flashed upon him.
The good man was too sagacious to question The Panther. A strange, hitherto impossible condition of affairs existed. It was dangerous to meddle with them.
Suppressing all evidence of emotion, Finley asked:
"What are the wishes of my brother, the mighty Wa-on-mon?"
"She opens her eyes; she has awakened!"
He pointed to the little captive, who just then looked around, with a bewildered air, sat up and rubbed her eyes.
"Where is papa? where is mamma?" she asked, looking from one to the other, and at a loss to comprehend her situation and her surroundings.
"Take the captive," said The Panther. "No harm shall come to her and my brother until after they meet their friends."
It was fair notice that the remarkable truce ended at the moment of the arrival of the missionary and the child among their people.
Again Finley displayed his tact by asking no questions of Wa-on-mon. Nor did he essay to thank him for his unexpected clemency. He did not so much as speak to or look at him.
"Come, my child," he said tenderly, extending his hand to Mabel, "I am going to take you to papa and mamma."
"Oh, I am so glad!" exclaimed the happy one, slipping her hand into the palm of the missionary.
The warriors standing around and seeing all this must have had their share, too, of strange emotions, for the experience was without a parallel with them.
Had the chieftain been any one except The Panther, something in the nature of a revolt would have been probable; but no one dared gainsay that fearful leader, who, like Philip, chief of the Wampanoags, had mortally smitten the warrior that dared to suggest an opposite policy to that already determined by the sachem.
