There could be no question about the earnestness of these words, and Maggie, like an obedient child, said nothing, glad to await the time when her aunt should punish her for sparing the wretch who was now trying to hound them to their death.
"I don't know but that I deserve it," said the niece to herself, and we may as well confess that we are inclined to agree with the views of the aunt.
"Oh, that Jake Golcher," she added, with a shiver, "I'd like to get a chance at him!"
And just then she would have made it uncomfortable for the Tory, had he been within reach.
The truth was, Golcher was one of the worst of the invaders of Wyoming Valley. Like many others, he joined a horde of Indians in attacking his former neighbors.
As we have intimated, he had sat at the same table with the Brainerds—he had been given money by Mr. Brainerd himself, for he was a shiftless scamp, hating work like a veritable tramp, and he had never received an unkind word from the charitable head of the household, who sheltered him many a time when no one else would give him room.
With the egotism of his nature, he had ventured to pay court to young Maggie Brainerd, who could scarcely credit his effrontery until he made a direct proposal of marriage.
Even then, the high-spirited girl was so touched with compassion for the man, that she refused him with all the kindness of her nature—showing a feeling, indeed, that would have won the respect of any person claiming to be a man.
But he stumped off muttering vengeance, and here he was, less then a year later, with a company of red men, seeking the lives of his former friends.
Among those who figured in the war of the Revolution, there were none so utterly inexcusable as the Tories, who, like all renegades, were more bitter in the warfare they made upon the American colonies, than were what might be termed our natural enemies.