“Good. But I can’t make the attack in the daytime.”
“I haven’t asked you to.”
“Yet you say the party will this evening continue their voyage.”
“I will arrange that. They think I’m their friend, you know, and I will go over to the island some time during the day, and make up a story that will induce them to remain an hour after dark, thus giving you ample time to make the attack.”
The renegade reflects a moment.
“Yes, that will do,” he mutters. “Prevail on them to tarry there an hour after dark, and the game is ours. Should they leave the island before we reach it, they stand a good chance of escape, for they have good boats and strong oarsmen, and can outstrip our canoes in a chase. But, do your part and I’ll do mine. Those fellows,” he adds, glancing at his band of warriors, “will hail with joy this chance of adding more to the number of scalps they have already taken. Yes, sir, this thing shall be done, as certain as my name is Simon Girty!”
CHAPTER IX.
NICK ON A TRAIL.
Nick Robbins jumped back as if stung by an adder. Had a thunderbolt rent the cloudless sky above him, he would scarcely have been taken more by surprise than he was by the conclusion of the renegade’s last remark. While listening to the conversation we have recorded, though certain the chief was not an Indian, he had not once suspected that he was lying so near that notorious traitor, who, in the last few years, had become the terror of white settlers all through Kentucky and Ohio. Simon Girty! That name, coupled as it is with some of the most atrocious deeds that ever darken the pages of history, was, at that time, as familiar as household words to every ear on the border. And the hunter, as he thought of it, recalled the incident, as he had often heard it, connected with this man’s desertion of his race. How General Adrian Lewis had employed Girty as a scout for his army, which was then stationed at Point Pleasant—how the cruel General had beaten him so unmercifully with his cane, because this brave and valuable scout had dared to ask pay for his services—how the latter had fled with a fearful vow of vengeance—and how terribly that vow was fulfilled.
All this flashed through the mind of the eavesdropper, as that well-known name struck upon his ear. But, quickly recovering from his surprise, he leaned forward again and continued his listening, now with increased interest.