“Why didn’t you tell him so?”
“I was afraid to. He looked so wicked.”
So the subject was dismissed. They supposed that the Indian was gone, and that they would not hear from him again. But they had forgotten that the red man is quick to take offense, and is revengeful by nature. They did not suspect that he was even then planning a revenge which would strike anguish into the heart of all in the household.
The Indian had not gone away, as they supposed. He was still hovering about the house, though he carefully avoided observation. He had been greatly incensed at the persistent refusal of Mrs. Taylor to supply him with rum, or the means of purchasing it. Years before he had become a slave to the accursed fire water, and it{167} had become a passion with him to gratify his thirst. But it could not be obtained without money, and money was not to be had except by working for it, or by begging. Of these two methods the Indian preferred the last.
“Work is for squaws!” he said, in a spiteful and contemptuous manner. “It is not for warriors.”
But John, as he was sometimes called, did not look like the noble warriors whom Cooper describes. He was a shaggy vagabond, content to live on the alms he could obtain from the whites in the towns which he visited. As for lodgings, he was forced to lie down in his blanket wherever he could find the shelter of a tree or a forest.
The sight of the child had suggested to John a notable revenge. He could steal the little child, who had called him an ugly man—an expression which he understood. Thus he could wring the mother’s heart, and obtain revenge. There would be little danger of interference, for he knew that Mr. Taylor was away.
Mrs. Taylor and Carrie went back to the sitting-room where the mother resumed her sewing, and Carrie began to play with her blocks on the floor. Neither of them suspected that, just outside, the Indian was crouching, and that from time to time he glanced into the room to watch his chances of carrying out his plan.
By and by Carrie grew sleepy, as children are apt{168} to do in the hot summer afternoons, and when they are tired.
“Lie down on the sofa, my darling,” said her mother.