“The White Fox was to give himself as a hostage for the delivery of the Paleface witch to the Delawares,” Lone-Elk cried to the Indians who gathered round him. “If the one that is called Little Paleface is not a witch and did not kill Big Buffalo with his witch’s hatchet, let the White Fox say where the Little Paleface is, and come now as a hostage to the great chief, Hopocon, till the murderer of Big Buffalo is found.”
“Even as the Great Spirit knows that Little Paleface did not kill Big Buffalo, so does Lone-Elk know it. He knows it as well as he knows how came that hatchet hidden in the corn,” Kingdom answered loudly, and with a tone of solemn certainty that could not escape the Indians’ notice. “And I, whom the Delawares call White Fox; I, who have been their friend and enjoyed their friendship in return until Lone-Elk came among you, now call upon all who are here, and all the people of Captain Pipe’s town, to witness this statement—that if harm comes to Little Paleface or to me, every Delaware will regret it;-that the Great Spirit hears me when I say that in the end we all shall know by whose hand Big Buffalo was killed, and we shall see that it was not by witchcraft that he died.”
“Much talk! A young buck’s much big talk!” grunted Lone-Elk contemptuously in English; but that Kingdom’s solemn words and manner had much impressed a majority of the Indians the young pioneer himself well knew, and the Seneca must have seen it also. At any rate he started off toward the Delaware town, swinging the blood-stained tomahawk over his shoulder as he went. One by one the others followed.
CHAPTER XII—KINGDOM ALSO MAKES A DISCOVERY
Return Kingdom firmly believed that sooner or later the true cause and manner of Big Buffalo’s death must become known. It must be so, he argued within himself. There had been times in history when the innocent had suffered for the guilty, but the saying, “murder will out,” had been proved a true one always. Ree pinned his faith to it now. He did not so much as question how the truth would become known. In unseeing confidence he was willing to risk anything on his firm conviction that right must win and would win in the end, however slight the chance might seem.
And it is not too much to say, just here, that in after time it came to pass that all that Kingdom believed would happen, did happen; still, could he have looked forward to, and have seen the end, as he stood lonesome and nervous in the cabin door when the last of the Indians,—even Fishing Bird,—had departed, there would have been no more astonished young man in America that night.
Hopeful that Fishing Bird would come back for a talk with him when the Indians had passed into the woods and he could drop behind without his absence being noticed, Kingdom left the door ajar and sat for a long time before the smoldering embers of his fire. It was Saturday night, he reflected. There would be no work tomorrow, no hunting, no trapping. He would set off on foot, as if going for a stroll in the woods, and by traveling two sides of a triangle come at last to the old hollow whitewood and there wait for the coming of John. If the latter had made particularly good progress and had not loitered about the “big lick” too long, he should be arriving by early afternoon. Perhaps he had returned even now.
“And I’ll wager a pair of boots that he’ll be hungry enough, too!” Kingdom said to himself as he concluded his reflections; and being reminded by this that he was hungry, he ate some cold roasted venison, then looked out of the door once more for Fishing Bird, before creeping into bed.
Believing now that he had not been watched or followed after leaving the Indian town on the day of the council, Return concluded that Lone-Elk was too busy with his own affairs to spend a great deal of time spying about the clearing. Yet when he started from the cabin the following morning he traveled in a direction at right angles with that in which he wished to go, and moved very cautiously. He did not doubt that the Indians were searching for John Jerome, but concerning his own movements he reasoned that he would not be suspected of intending to go far, since he went on foot. And at the worst, if he found himself followed, he could gradually make his way home, leaving the spies no wiser than before.
For a considerable distance Kingdom walked along the old trail to the east as if he were but strolling through the woods. The day was bright and sunny and except for the raw north wind would have been of an ideal Indian summer type. Overhead great flocks of crows were cawing lustily. Eddies of the breeze whirled leaves here and there, and all in all there were many sounds abroad to drown the noise of footfalls on the soft mold and the leafy carpet of the forest.