Perhaps his chief reason was that he wanted to put the young hunter to death himself.
He was aware that Clancy Vere was his successful rival in the affections of Vinnie Darke, or Sun-Hair, as he was wont to call her.
Jealous and vindictive as he was, this was sufficient to make him hunt his pale-faced rival to the ends of the earth, if he could not compass his death without.
Many times when he had seen Clancy go to the hunter’s cabin, had he vowed in his fierce, jealous rage to kill him, but something had heretofore always intervened to baffle him; but now he was exultant. The time for which he had so long waited had come. The young hunter was bound and insensible in his power. He asked nothing more. His triumph seemed almost complete. His discomfitures and rebuffs at Vinnie’s hands that afternoon had more than ever determined him to wreak vengeance on her lover, since he stood in too wholesome awe of the lovely magician to think for a moment of again attempting to obtain forcible possession of her person—at least not at present.
With a sudden movement, Bear-Killer wrenched himself free from the chief’s grasp, and faced him half angrily, at the same time picking up the tomahawk out of the leaves at his feet.
“Why does the chief interfere?” he asked.
“Because,” said Ku-nan-gu-no-nah, “he would slay the pale-face hunter himself. He has cause for revenge!”
“And has not Bear-Killer cause for revenge?” the Indian almost yelled. “Look at his face! Yonder white man did this. The pain is like a thousand tortures. What says the chief? Has he greater cause for revenge than Bear-Killer?”
“The chief has greater cause for revenge than Bear-Killer,” said Ku-nan-gu-no-nah.
“He has not!” said the Indian, decisively. “Bear-Killer will not be cheated out his vengeance! He saved the pale-face from the panther that he might kill him himself!”