“Not when he is in the home of his friends,” corrected Sevier. “Come, let us open a bag of talk. I sent you a talk by Tall Runner to say I would meet you in council. I am here alone to do so.”
Old Tassel stared in amazement at his audacity. The warriors behind the old man exchanged puzzled glances and tightened their grip on their axes. Sevier noted the hostile demonstration and read the red minds easily. Never before had they been given such an opportunity. Many times Chucky Jack and his mounted riflemen had struck them and wounded them sorely. Now he was in their midst, far from the settlements and seemingly alone. The last fact they could scarcely believe.
As their gaze turned to suspiciously sweep the forest, John Watts spoke up, assuring:
“Little John rides alone. My young men found him and brought him here.”
“To this white town of peace,” added Sevier. “What could be better than to hold our talk in a peace town, where evil thoughts and bloodshed are not known?”
Old Tassel’s braves glanced at Watts, as if asking if that were the reason the borderer was still alive, and found their answer in his gloomy eyes. Old Tassel shook off his confusion and assented:
“We will hear my brother’s talk. The Cherokees do not want war with the whites. My brother would be safe in a peace town or a red town, as safe as he would be on the Holston or the French Broad.”
The sullen countenances of his followers and the half-masked ferocity of Watts left room for doubt as to the unanimity of this sentiment, but no word was spoken as the two chiefs and representative men filed into the council-house and took their places.
After a decorous pause Sevier rose and said:
“Evil birds have whispered to the Cherokees, and the nation now refuses to keep the chain of friendship from dragging on the ground. It lies in the dirt, no matter how high my people lift their arms. It is the end in the Cherokee country that is allowed to drag. This should not be. White men and women and children going to Kentucky have been killed by the Cherokees. This must not be.