He broke off suddenly, for that instant the Shawnee chief swept aside the bear-skin from the door of his lodge and stood in the opening, with his council-robe gathered in cumbrous drapery about his imposing person, and his high, dusky brow crowned with a coronet of scarlet feathers, whence a plume shot up from the left side of his head. He was entirely unarmed, and held his calumet loosely in his right hand.
With a single stride he confronted the young man so abruptly that he drew back, catching his breath.
“Young brave,” he said, in pure, stern English, “when the chief of the Shawnees bows his head to a woman, all other men speak low and look on the ground, listening for her voice. You speak fast. Your words come like the mountain brook that is shallow and breaks into foam, which is not good to drink. It is not well.”
The stern grandeur of this rebuke brought the blood into Butler’s face. He muttered something about a cold reception, but threw aside the flippant air which had been so offensive. It was not for his interest, or safety either, to brave the haughty Shawnee in his own encampment.
Catharine Montour came forward. She had several old documents in her hands, title deeds and letters patent, written on vellum, with broad seals, and the yellow tinge of age bespeaking their antiquity. These documents she placed in Butler’s hands.
A keen, hungry greed broke into the young man’s eyes as he read. Once or twice he turned his look from the parchment to Catharine’s face, with increasing wonder and respect.
“And all this you consent to resign in behalf of Tahmeroo,” he said, “or rather, in behalf of her husband.”
“So far as the law permits, I resign it to my daughter,” answered Catharine.
A flush stole over the young man’s forehead; he knew by her voice that she comprehended all his meanness. But he was now more anxious than Catharine herself for the ceremony that gave so much wealth to his control; and this eager wish increased when he saw the casket open in her hand. She raised a necklace and a bracelet of magnificent diamonds from among the gems which it contained, and held them out for his inspection.
“Make yourself certain of their value,” she said, in a dry, business tone, that had something of sarcasm in it, “for they are the security which I am about to offer, that my draft on Sir William Johnson shall be honorably met in a week from this date.”