The girl, her head erect, stood fearlessly looking at him.
"What if I love the Eagle?" she cried defiantly. "He is a great chief among his own people; he is no nameless brave like Chawanook." And with heaving breast and flashing eyes, she stood like some wild animal at bay.
The warrior whirled on me quickly.
"Thou shalt not live to boast of this!" he cried. "Die, pale dog!" And before I could turn my head, he had plucked from his belt a tomahawk, and cast it full at my head.
The excited crowd had surged about me in their eagerness to see what was going on, and even as he threw the weapon, an old woman had darted in front of me to shake her fist in my face. It proved my salvation, for as she sprang in front of me, the tomahawk crashed full into her head, and she fell over against me, the weapon still quivering in her skull.
In an instant I had plucked it from her, and with all my strength cast it at Chawanook. The tomahawk sped onward and struck him with a dull thud full in the face, braining him at a blow, and spattering blood upon those who stood beside him. Throwing up his hands, he fell at full length upon the ground. An instant thus I stood, with my hand raised as I had thrown the tomahawk, and then from somewhere back in the crowd there arose a voice, shrill and piercing:
"How long will the Cherokees bow their heads like squaws, while this strange Eagle soars into their lodges, winning their loveliest maiden, and strikes down with his talons their braves? The Cherokees are women and should till the ground. The Tuscaroras shall make war for them."
A low growl of fury went up from the mob as it gazed upon the body of the young warrior, as it lay before them. A brave leaped from among the throng. "Come!" he cried. "The Cherokees will clip the Eagle's wings!" and with a yell he sprang towards me.
The crowd stood still for a moment. They were as a magazine of powder, and wanted but a spark to ignite. The fire had been applied, and with a loud shout they streamed down in one wild mass of men and women upon me. I struck down the first who neared me with my fists, but I had as well attempt to catch the rain with my naked hand, as to break the fury of the attack in such style as this.