Again he kissed Ulalah, whispered “vengeance,” and she replied by pressing his hand.
The revengeful pair did not see Coleola until the fight in the cave had entirely ended, and Ulalah was the first to recognize her mother.
With a guttural noise, she sprung to her lover’s side and pointed to the apparition.
For a moment the Peoria could not believe his senses, but when they assured him that the object of his vengeance actually stood before him—when he heard Coleola laugh triumphantly as she glanced from him to her mutilated child—mutilated by her own mad hand—he shot toward her with uplifted knife.
A single bound brought him face to face with his mad red mother-in-law.
“In whose power is Coleola now?” he hissed. “Ay, into whose hands has she fallen? She has hunted long that she might stand within arm’s-length of Swamp Oak, and she stands thus at last. She found the Peoria’s cave, but first she found Swamp Oak’s sister, whose face is almost like Ulalah’s. She bore the Drooping Willow through the forests until she found the Peoria’s cave; she entered it; she slew the Drooping Willow, and tore Ulalah’s tongue from her head. When Swamp Oak returned with the Lone Dove,” continued the Indian, glancing at Kate, “he found whom he thought to be his Ulalah. He caught her in his arms, and her decaying body drove his brain on fire. Then Coleola came, and he darted away. Ah! the Snake Queen could not catch the Peoria, and when he stopped he found that he bore Drooping Willow, not Ulalah. Vengeance then he swore, and vengeance now he will have. Ulalah.”
The speechless girl sprung forward, and, with wild eyes and trembling knife, confronted her unnatural mother.
The Snake Queen faced her executioners with dignified mien, and upon her face still gleamed that devilish expression of triumph.
Without a word Swamp Oak released one of Coleola’s hands, binding the other fast to her body. Then he pushed her against the rock to which she had lately nailed the Yellow Bloodhound, and placed her arm against it.
“Coleola shall see her limbs torn from her trunk,” he hissed, “and then her tongue shall be plucked from her mouth even as she tore her child’s away; and when she has seen all this, then shall her eyes fly from her head as the arrow flies from the Indian’s bow. Ulalah, come—the tomahawk! This hand plucked out your tongue. Cut it off!”