"It's no use," answered Woodchuck, gloomily. "He had a woman with him, and it will soon be known all through the tribe."
"But for your own safety," said Walter, "yon had better fly. It is very sad indeed--what could make him attack you?"
"An old grudge, Master Walter," answered Brooks, seating himself deliberately on the ground and laying his rifle across his knee. "I knew the critter well, the Striped Snake they called him, and a snake he was. He tried to cheat and to rob me, and I made it plain to the whole tribe. Some laughed, and thought it fair, but old Black Eagle scorned and rebuked him, and he has hated me ever since. He has been long watching for this, and now he has got it."
"Well, well," said Walter, "what's done cannot be undone, and you had better get away as fast as may be, for Black Eagle told me he had left three scouts behind to bring tidings in case of danger, and we cannot tell how near the others may be."
"This was one of them," answered Brooks, still keeping his seat and gazing at the Indian. "But what is safety to me, Walter? I can no more roam the forests. I can no more pursue my way of life. I must go into dull and smoky cities and plod amongst thieving, cheating crowds of white men. The rifle and the hatchet must be laid aside forever; the forest grass must know my foot no more. Flowers and green leaves and rushing streams and the broad lake and the mountain top are lost and gone, the watch under the deep boughs and by the silent waters. Close pressed amidst the toiling herd, I shall become sordid and low and filthy as they are; my free nature lost and gyves upon my spirit. All life's blessings are gone from me; why should I care for life?"
There was something uncommonly plaintive, mournful and earnest in his tones, and Lord H---- could not help feeling for him, although he did not comprehend fully the occasion of his grief. "But, my good friend," he said, "I cannot perceive how your having slain this Indian in your own defence can bring such a train of miseries upon you. You would not have killed him if he had not attacked you."
"Alas for me! alas for me!" was all the answer the poor man made.
"You do not know their habits, sir," said Walter, in a low voice. "They must have blood for blood. If he stays here, if he ever returns, go where he will in the Indian territory, they will track him, they will follow him day and night. He will be amongst them like one of the wild beasts whom we chase so eagerly--pursued from place to place with the hatchet always hanging over his head. There is no safety for him but far away in the provinces beyond those towns that Indians ever visit. So persuade him to come away and leave the body. He can go down with me to Albany, and thence make his way to New York or Philadelphia."
For some minutes Brooks remained deaf to all arguments. His whole mind and thoughts seemed occupied with the terrible conviction that the wild scenes and the free life which he enjoyed so intensely were lost forever.
Suddenly, however, when Lord H---- was just about to give up in despair the task of persuading him, he started up as if some new thought struck him, and gazing first at Walter and then at the young officer, he exclaimed: "But I am keeping you here, and you, too, may be murdered! The death spot is upon me, and it will spread to all around. I am ready to go. I will bear my fate as well as I can, but it is very, very hard. Come! Let us begone quick--stay! I will charge my rifle first. Who knows how soon we may need it for such bloody work again!"