"Listen. Was it you that cut the bonds which bound the Dead Chief to the tree?"
"It was."
"Good! That is another thing against you. Did you know that the Dead Chief was our prisoner?"
"Yes. That is the reason I set him free," replied Floyd, in an undaunted tone.
"It is well. You speak like a great brave, and had you lived would have been a great chief among the white men. But, the white men must cease from off the face of the Indian country. We love it too well to let the feet of bad men press it, and tread upon the earth where our fathers' bones are laid. The English are friends to us, and will not take our country; the Americans steal all."
"Do what you mean to do, and at once. I can bear any indignity you may heap upon me, as becomes a man."
Willimack stood aside, and the Prophet advanced. His dark face was working with passion, and he seemed to struggle to repress a desire to strike down the young soldier where he stood. His fingers clutched the handle of a hatchet convulsively, and now and then he half drew it from its sheath.
"Let Elskwatawa speak, for he is the great Prophet of the Shawnees. I see before me the dead of my tribe and one warrior of the Wyandots. They had hoped to live to fight many battles against the whites and again possess the land of their fathers. The Manitou came to me in a dream and told me that the time had come for the Indians to drive out the white dogs and take their own again. Therefore you see us in our war-paint to-day."
He paused and cast a wild glance about him which seemed to have a great effect upon the savages, and they uttered a wail of agony.