Had the positions of the two been reversed, the prostrate foe could not have been more defiant when he hissed back, with flashing eye:
"Dog of a pale-face, that is afraid to strike!"
The words were meant as a taunt to the ranger to do his worst.
Down deep in the heart of every being, no matter how degraded, how sinful, how wicked, how merciless, is a spark of goodness which, when fanned by the angel's breath, glows or spreads until it burns out all the dross that years of wrong-doing have implanted there. Why it was and how it came about, Simon Kenton to his dying day never fully understood, but he always insisted that at that moment he heard the voice of Missionary Finley, with unmistakable distinctness, in his ear:
"Show him mercy, and mercy shall be shown to you when you need it!"
Impelled by a power which he dared not resist, the ranger rose from the chest of The Panther, and said in tones that sounded like those of another person:
"Shawanoe, take your life; I give it to you!"