“By all the fiends, this is double vengeance!” he cried in glee. “Chief, in Chillicothe, thou shalt have the best scalping-knife that I own, in payment for this precious totem.”
Noc-a-tah gravely nodded, and then disappeared within the thicket.
Girty turned to where the two girls stood, side by side.
The maidens wondered at his searching look.
“What a blind idiot I have been not to have noticed it before,” he muttered, “and yet I remember, now, the face of the girl did look familiar to me when I first saw her in the Shawnee village. To think of my vengeance slipping through my fingers, and then, after long years, being put again within my hands! There’s fate in this. And Kendrick, too—he thought, by this dying declaration, to strike a blow at me, even from the grave. He thought both the girls were safely out of my hands. He little dreamed when I should read his ‘totem’—as the savage termed it—that the two he referred to in it would be helpless prisoners in my power. Could he have foreseen that, he would have cut off his hand rather than divulge to me what he has here written.”
Then the renegade laughed long and silently. His captives wondered at his glee.
“You risked your life to save this girl; why did you do it?” he asked of Kate, suddenly.
“Because she was helpless in the power of a cruel monster. My heart told me to save her, even at the risk of my own life,” replied Kate, promptly.
“And you, girl—are you not grateful to this maiden, who has tried so hard to save you from me?” he said to Virginia.
“Yes, I am very grateful,” replied the girl, wondering at the question.