A Virginia Scout Part 18

view became quite general. Of course I had known right along that the settlers as a whole did not look with favor upon indiscriminate slaughter of the natives. Dale nodded his approval and said:

"Well, that's something. Only you don't go far enough."

Hughes angrily took up the talk, declaring:

"You cabin-men are mighty tickled to have us Injun-hating fellers come along when there's any chance of trouble. I've noticed that right along."

"Course we are, Jesse," agreed Davis. "But that don't mean we're mighty glad when some of you kill a friendly Injun in the settlement and, by doing so, bring the fighting to us."

"I 'low we've outstayed our welcome," Hughes grimly continued. "You folks foller this man's trail and it'll lead you all to the stake. I'm moving on to-night."

"Don't go away mad, Jesse," piped up old Uncle d.i.c.k. "Talk don't hurt nothin'. Stick along an' git your fingers into the fightin' what's bound to come."

"I'm going away to kill Injuns," was the calm reply. "That's my business."

"Hacker, Scott 'n' me will go along with you," said Runner. "Now that Howard's Creek has got a trader to keep the Injuns off, we ain't needed here no more."

"I can keep the Indians away," cried Dale. "When I offer them my belts, they'll be glad to receive them. You send them a few trade-belts in place of the b.l.o.o.d.y ax and they'll be your friends, too."

"Bah!" roared Hughes, too disgusted to talk.

"What does the white Injun say?" yelled one of the young men.

He had barely put the query before John Ward stalked through the fort door and stood at Dale's elbow. Speaking slowly and stressing his words in that jerky fas.h.i.+on that marks an Indian's speech in English, he said:

"The trader is right. I have been a prisoner among Indians for many years.

I know their minds. Dale can go anywhere among Indians where he has been before, and no hand will be lifted against him."

"You're a liar!" pa.s.sionately cried Hughes, his hand creeping to his belt.

Ward folded his arms across his deep chest and stared in silence at Hughes for nearly a minute; then slowly said:

"No Indian ever called me that. It's a man of my own race that uses the word to me."

"And a mighty cheap sample of his race," boomed Dale, his heavy face convulsed with rage. "A cheap killer, who must strike from behind! Faugh!

It's creatures like you----" With an animal screech Hughes jumped for him.

Before we could seize the infuriated man Ward's arm was thrust across his chest and with the rigidity of a bar of iron stopped the a.s.sault. Before Hughes could pull knife or ax from his belt we hustled him into the background. His three friends scowled ferociously but offered no interference. It was obvious that the settlers as a body would not tolerate any attack on Dale.

Inarticulate with rage, Hughes beckoned for Hacker, Scott and Runner to follow him. A few rods away he halted and called out:

"Dale, I'll live to hear how your red friends have danced your scalp. Then I'll go out and shoot some of them. That white Injun beside you will be one of the first to stick burning splinters into your carca.s.s. He's lived with redskins too long to forget his red tricks. Come on, fellers."

This sorry disturbance depressed the spirits of the settlers. War was on, and there was none of the Howard's Creek men who believed that any change in their att.i.tude could prevent the Ohio Indians from slaying at every opportunity. No matter how much they might decry the acts of Hughes and his mates in time of peace, there was no denying the fighting-value of the quartet when it came to war.

No word was spoken until the last of the four killers had filed away to secure their horses and be gone. Then Davis said:

"Time to eat, Ericus. Let's go back and see how the women-folks is gettin'

along."

"Keep that white sc.u.m from this creek until I can carry a bag of talk to Cornstalk and Logan and you won't need any armed bullies to protect you,"

said Dale.

"We ain't askin' of 'em to look after us, nor you with your white belts, neither," shrilly proclaimed Uncle d.i.c.k.

Some of the younger men laughed.

Dale reddened, but turned to walk with his cousin without making any answer. He all but b.u.mped into me.

"Why, Morris!" he greeted, staring at me in surprise. "You bob up everywhere. Will you go with me to the Scioto villages?"

"Go as what?" I cautiously asked. The men gathered closer about us.

"Go as a trader, carrying white wampum. Go to make peace with the Shawnees," slowly replied Dale, his eyes burning with the fire of fanaticism.

"Not hankering for slow fires, nor to have squaws heap coals on my head, I must refuse," I retorted. "But I'll go with you or any man, as a scout."

"In your blood, too," he jeered. "I didn't suppose you'd been out here long enough to lose your head."

"I'd certainly lose it if the Shawnees got me," I good-naturedly retorted.

My poor jest brought a rumble of laughter from the men and added to Dale's resentment, which I greatly regretted.

John Ward glided to my side and said:

"You talk like a child. I have been long among the Indians. They did not take my head."

I didn't like the fellow. There was something of the snake in his way of stealthily approaching. I could not get it out of my head that he must be half-red. Had he been all Indian, I might have found something in him to fancy; for there were red men whom I had liked and had respected immensely. But Ward impressed me as being neither white nor red. He stirred my bile. Without thinking much, I shot back at him:

"Perhaps they did something worse to you than to take your head. Are you sure they didn't take your heart?"

He turned on his heel and stalked away. Dale snarled:

"You're worse than Hughes and those other fools. You even hate a poor white man who has been held prisoner by the Indians. He comes back to his people and you welcome him by telling him he's a renegade. Shame on you!"

"No call for that sort of talk to Ward at all!" denounced Davis.

"What call had Ward to say he was a fool?" loudly demanded one of the young men.

"I shouldn't have said that," I admitted, now much ashamed of my hot-headedness. "I'll say as much to Ward when I see him next. If he'd look and act more like a white man then I'd keep remembering that he is white. But I shouldn't have said that."

"Morris, that's much better," said Dale. "I'll tell him what you said and you needn't eat your words a second time in public. I admire you for conquering yourself and saying it."

Uncle d.i.c.k did not relish my retraction, and his near-sighted eyes glared at me in disgust.

"Too much talkin'. Scouts oughter be out. Our friends, th' killers, have quit us."

Glad to be alone, I volunteered:

"I'll scout half the circle, striking west, then south, returning on the east side."