Mark’s suspicions were aroused in an instant. He jumped off the porch, and running around the bushes, found himself standing face to face with Jim, the young wrestler.
CHAPTER XIX.
“MARK TWO TIMES.”
“Hello, Jim,” exclaimed Mark, “you are just the chap I have been looking for! Now I will show you what a white boy can do in the way of giving a rascally Indian a good beating.”
Expecting to meet with a most stubborn resistance, Mark’s attack was furious and determined, indeed; but to his great surprise, the young savage raised his arms above his head, and suffered himself to be thrown to the ground without even a show of opposition.
“No hurt! no hurt, white boy!” he exclaimed, excitedly. “Me no Jim—me Mark; me Mark Two Times.”
Mark, who grew more and more astonished, and who was above striking an unresisting foe, released his hold on the Indian’s throat, and the latter began a long speech, talking very rapidly and sometimes in his eagerness forgetting the little English he knew, and jabbering away in his native tongue.
But Mark understood the most of what he said, and after listening to him a short time, he helped him to his feet, brushed off the mud that adhered to his hunting shirt, and drawing the Indian’s arm through his own, led him toward the house, talking to him all the while in the most friendly manner.
What had brought about this sudden change in Mark’s feelings toward the young savage? I will explain it in my own way, without inflicting Jim’s broken English upon you.
I do not know that the custom exists among other Indians, but the Choctaws had a habit of naming themselves. If they met a white man whom they greatly liked, they adopted his name, discarding the one by which they had formerly been known. This was a sure sign of friendship, and the man thus honored could trust his namesake to any extent.
Jim admired the courage Mark exhibited on the day he stood his ground against Pete and his friends, and out of compliment to him, he had dropped his own name and assumed the title of “Mark the Second,” or, as he expressed it, “Mark Two Times.”