George Washington said little, but he nodded and gravely smiled.
VIII
WASHINGTON MEETS THE FRENCH
“The Hunter may ride my horse,” proposed Washington, in the morning—and that showed his kind heart.
“No,” Tanacharison replied. “It is not seemly. The English chief cannot march afoot in the mud. His feet will wear out. He is too heavy for his horse to bear double; he is a large man. If the boy cannot walk, we will make a litter for him; but I think that with a lift now and then he will suffer no harm. The wounds of the young heal quickly, and he must learn to endure like a warrior.”
It took five days to travel the seventy miles. In the afternoon of the fifth day, while they were following a trail up along the black Allegheny River, and the gaunt storm-drenched forest was darkening with early dusk, they came to the edge of the trees and Tanacharison, in the lead, said:
“Venango.”
“Gist, do you pitch camp in the cover of the woods,” Washington ordered, “whilst I go in with Vanbraam and find the commander. Keep the party together. We will spend the night here.” Then he looked at Robert and saw that the leg was swollen and painful; so he added: “The young Hunter with the panther-claw necklace shall come with me. These French may have good medicine for his leg.”
“He may go,” Tanacharison now responded, pleased. “The leg needs rest by a fire, indoors.” And he said to Robert, in Seneca: “You will stay with Washington and learn what is done, so as to tell me.”
For Juskakaka and White Thunder, and even Half-King, were still wondering what words Washington was bringing from the Governor of Virginia. Perhaps a bargain was proposed, and the French were to have one side of the Beautiful River and the English the other side, and the Indians would have nothing—just as Captain Joncaire had threatened.