Tom raised his rifle and exclaimed in a stentorian voice: The war is not over but still rages in my breast, and peace will not be declared until you die. Die, dog, die.
Tom’s gun spoke and was heard at Decker’s tavern, and at that same instant Muswink went to the Spirit World. Tom silently viewed his corpse for a few minutes and then exclaimed: Vengeance is satisfied. I swore to drive the last red skin from the Delaware Valley. I swore to spare none. I swore to kill the old man with silver hair, the lisping babe without teeth; the mother quick with child; and the maid in the bloom of youth. I have done it. The valley is clear. The Indians have gone west or to the Spirit World. There lies the last of his accursed race. Dog, I will not dirty my fingers with his scalp. I will leave his body to be cooked and dried by the sun, and the scalp to be torn from his head by the wolves. I will now return to the mountains and talk with my father’s spirit.
Tom Quick was not destined to fall by the hand of his Indian foes, nor to be successfully captured by white men.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Capture, Escape and Death of Tom.
After the death of Muswink, the authorities attempted to arrest Tom, and bring him to trial. Not that they thought him guilty of any serious crime, but that he might be the means of bringing on another Indian War. Most of the people justified the killing of Muswink. First, because he was the murderer of his father; secondly, the provocation given by Muswink at Decker’s Tavern justified Tom in slaying him.
But at last he was arrested, tied and put in a sleigh to be taken to Newton where he was to be tried for murder. But with the assistance of some friends, he made his escape, ran to the river, and plunged in, amid ice and snow, and crossed to the west bank of the river, where he was concealed and fed by his friends for two months, and then made his appearance in public again, and died at the house of Jacobus Rosencrance in 1756.