Then the warrior turned upon his heel and left the wigwam.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
DEATH OR FREEDOM.
While the great Shawnee chieftain was stating to the anxious lover the condition that covered the gift of his daughter’s hand, another strange life drama was being enacted in the Indian village.
Kendrick—the renegade—and his daughter—the Kanawha Queen—stood together by the wigwam that held in its confines the helpless prisoner, Virginia Treveling.
Before the door of the lodge sat a brawny Shawnee brave, placed there by Girty to watch the prisoner.
The dark-browed renegade had taken ample measures to hold his victim, securely, in his power.
First, Kate guarded the prisoner; second, the Indian warrior kept ward and watch.
No thought of the prisoner’s escape ever crossed the mind of Girty. He, too, like the Shawnee chieftain, Ke-ne-ha-ha, chafed at the delay of the expedition against the whites.
The renegade was fully as eager as his red brother for the banquet of blood. He longed to see the smoke of the burning dwellings cloud the face of the sky, and to wet his knife in the warm life-blood.