"You needn't be afraid; shootin' would be too good for him. He's bound to know what the white men think of him afore he dies."
The marching, filing, and counter-marching continued a considerable time, when the commander within the block-house was heard to say:
"Hello! we're going to hear something."
"Just as I s'pected," said Dingle. "McGable's goin' to exhort us."
The renegade made his appearance, holding a white handkerchief suspended on a stick over his head, as a flag of truce. He walked forward, waving the fluttering signal conspicuously, until about half way between the forest and the block-house, when he mounted one of the stumps which were so numerous about him, and then he made a speech. First, he advised them as a friend to surrender; demonstrated the utter foolishness of hoping to resist such an overwhelming force as he had at his back, and pledged his honor that they should be treated humanely. Warming with his subject, he informed them what a mighty man he was; what he had done, and what he would do, and how all white men knew better than to resist him. If his summons to surrender were not heeded, he would blow the whole settlement sky-high, and tomahawk every man, woman, and child!
We regret we have not space to give this remarkable speech verbatim. It was so long and windy that we feel compelled to be satisfied with the above synopsis.
After the renegade had finished, he seated himself upon the edge of the stump, and waited for the commander's answer. The latter, without keeping him waiting, stepped boldly out upon the platform, and shouted in a voice, every syllable of which, Jenkins, who was several miles away in the forest, afterward averred he distinctly heard:
"Tom McGable! You may attack and be hanged!"