CHAPTER XLV.
The shock terrified the whole camp.
Aunt Peggy dropped the piece of meat she was cooking, and sprang back with a gasp. The other Indians, accustomed as they were to violence, stared in blank wonder, while those on the fallen tree leaped to their feet and gazed at the figure of the Indian as he lay on his face, with his tomahawk clenched in his vise-like grip.
Jake Golcher was dazed, and neither spoke nor stirred until Maggie, in the very depths of her agony, ran to him and exclaimed:
"What is the meaning of this? Was he seeking father's life? If he was, it was you who told him to do it!"
The Tory looked in the white face of the girl, and said, in a surly voice:
"I didn't know anything about it."
"Oh, Jake," she continued, talking rapidly, and in such mental distress that every eye was fixed upon her; "if this is your work, a just God will punish you for it. Father has never sought to injure you. We are neighbors, and belong to the same race—"
He attempted to turn away, but she caught his arm, and faced him about.