In the meantime his father had been killed and scalped. Tom sought the opportunity and recovered the scalped body of his father and gave it christian burial. His love for the Indians and their society now forsook him, and the uppermost thought in his mind was revenge. He covered the grave with green sod, and taking his knife in his right hand, and his rifle in his left, looking toward heaven, exclaimed:
“By the point of the knife in my right;
and the deadly bullet in my left;
By heaven and all there is in it,
by earth and all there is on it;
By the love I bore my father,
here on his grave I swear eternal vengeance
against the whole Indian race.
I swear to kill all, to spare none;
The old man with silver hair,