31 A Red Actor

A young officer named Myers came to me in the afternoon, saying that he was Lawless’s second, and would arrange the terms of the duel with any one whom I chose. I had expected Jasper to act for Lawless, but second thought showed me that he would avoid it. So I named as my second Winchester, who accepted at once. I offered to fight Lawless with swords, since every one knew my vast superiority over him with the rifle or pistol, and I saw the look of relief on Myers’s face when I named the weapons, although Lawless himself had felt my swordsmanship. I left the rest of the matter in the hands of Winchester, promising to abide by all his decisions, and after a conference they told me that we could not meet for two or three days, as all of us would not be off duty at the same time until then. So the matter of the date was left open for the present, and, to tell the truth, it was almost driven out of my mind by a piece of news that Osseo brought me an hour later. Our Government was engaged, after St. Clair’s defeat, in several futile and, I think, rather shameful efforts to treat with the savages; but then the Government was light in resources and heavy in responsibilities, and there was some excuse. Now an answer to one of our missions was coming, and Hoyoquim was the chief bearer of it, so Osseo said.

I felt a thrill at the idea of looking into the eyes of my old enemy in such a manner, and I was stirred, too, by Osseo’s report that Mechecunnaqua was no longer the head chief of the allied tribes. He had been shorn of much power by his enemies. This was good news for General Wayne’s expedition, as Little Turtle was a great general, by far the ablest among the savages, but I felt a sense of personal regret, too, at his deposition, as I had received nothing but kindness from him.

The embassy from the savages, composed of five men holding the rank of chief, arrived that afternoon. There is no human being more dignified than the Indian when he comes under the flag of truce on a mission to his enemy, and Hoyoquim and his comrades of a certainty bore themselves as if the world and its whole fruitage were theirs. All the tribes were mightily puffed up over their victory at the Wabash, perhaps not unjustly, and the efforts of our Government to treat with them but seemed to increase this swollen pride, an inevitable result which a President and Congress many hundreds of miles from the border could not see. I was curious to know what reception Jasper would give to Hoyoquim, and I noticed that he kept to his quarters with singular pertinacity. I chanced to be near him when he first heard of Hoyoquim’s coming, and his lips became like ashes. That was the only sign; he held his countenance otherwise, and doubtless it was noticed by none else, yet afterward he invented excuses, some of them very feeble, to remain in his tent.

I was present with General Wayne when he received the delegates with all the formality and courtesy due upon such occasions. Hoyoquim and his comrades were arrayed in the extreme of Indian splendour, gay headdresses, red or blue blankets, hunting shirts, leggings and moccasins of bright-coloured buckskin, adorned with many-coloured beads, and their bearing was both haughty and condescending. It was evident to those who knew the ways of the savage that they came not to treat with an equal, but to announce their terms to an inferior. It made my blood hot to see them assume such an air, although I knew that we had given them good excuse for it. Hoyoquim was the spokesman of his party, and after he and General Wayne had smoked the pipe of peace and exchanged the usual compliments he turned to me, extending his hand.

“It is my brother Lee,” he said. “I offer him my hand in the white man’s fashion.”

“And I take it as it is meant, Black Eagle,” I replied. “You are a fair and open foe, which I can not say of some white enemies whom I have.”

His eyes flashed an inquiry, but I gave no explanation. I half suspected that he guessed the man whom I meant most of all. When I was escorting him a little later to a tent set aside for him he saw Rose Carew. It was only a sudden glimpse. She was walking some distance away with Mrs. Winchester, but not all the bronze of his skin and gaudy paint could hide the gleam of savage delight and anticipation that swept over his face. I knew Hoyoquim’s intent and his ruthless tenacity, and with a momentary faintness at the heart I recognised the danger of Rose Carew, which she herself would not see. But Hoyoquim uttered no word until we reached the tent. Then, when he and I were alone, he said:

“Lee, the white maid who was once my prisoner is again with the army of the Long Knives. ’Tis Manito who brings her back that she may sit in the lodge of Hoyoquim and call him her warrior.”

“Not so, Hoyoquim,” I replied. “You are cunning and swift and strong, but it is not the will of God that she shall ever sit in your lodge.”

He gazed at me without resentment.

“You love the white maid,” he said, “and so does the other Long Knife whose name, too, is Lee, the false dog whom we shall yet burn at the stake, but I will take her.”

He spoke with the most absolute confidence, and I shuddered at the possible fate of Rose Carew. There was nothing that I could do, save to watch over her with redoubled vigilance, and trust to Osseo for the rest.

General Wayne entertained the delegates on the evening of the second day at his quarters, seeking perhaps to impress them with a view of white civilization and its power. All the chief officers in their best dress attended, and the ladies came too, drawn partly by curiosity and partly because any kind of diversion was rare in a frontier town. There was a dinner, some dancing, and a little playing by the ladies upon the harpsichord and spinet to the accompaniment of their voices. Jasper was present—I had seen to that myself, with a little suggestion to the general that, as Jasper had been among the Indians, he might be able to assist with advice; I am not unwilling to confess to some malicious pleasure in the suggestion. I also managed it in such manner that Hoyoquim and Jasper met suddenly and almost face to face, and this time Jasper was so little master of himself that he became deathly pale, and for a moment or two was in a nervous tremble. But Hoyoquim was content with a veiled threat.

“Your skin is white again,” he said to Jasper, “and it is well, for now I know you best.”

Rose Carew’s manner at the sight of the chief was wholly different. She seemed to have no fear of him—or is there a quality in woman which prevents her from dreading any man whom she knows to admire her?

“He is in truth a striking type of the savage race,” she said to me, I chancing to be near her at that moment.

“Ay, of a race that has brought much woe to the white women of this country,” I replied. There was wrath then in my heart against Hoyoquim, and a little, too, for her, because she would not see how greatly she ought to fear him, and instead wasted upon him words of admiration, though I think, in truth, that she spoke in all innocence.

Osseo too came presently, and he had not been less sparing of adornment than Hoyoquim. My Indian comrade had the vanity of dress and that love of colour which is an instinct with the primitive races. To-night he glittered in reds and blues, and the beads upon his garments flashed in a dozen tints under the flare of the candles. He was, as I have often said before, a magnificent specimen of his race in physical development as well as mental endowments, and he and Hoyoquim made a striking pair. But they could be coupled in name only, as I was conscious at once of a deep animosity between the two. They exchanged only a single glance, but it was so full of hate that I was startled. I wondered at the cause of their enmity, but I was not sorry for it, as such an ardent foe might thwart any attempt by Hoyoquim.

When Rose Carew played the harpsichord and all of us gave our applause, I saw again that look of complacent triumph on the face of Hoyoquim, and I longed to have him before my rifle in the forest.

The formal courtesy with which the chiefs had been received reigned throughout the evening. General Wayne and his staff, acting upon the advice that had been given them, never abated a jot from their dignity, nor did the savages. They drank wine which was presented to them with great gravity, not smacking their lips nor giving any other expression of content. But I thought a little later that I saw Hoyoquim’s eyes sparkling, and I believed that, despite his will, the wine had crept into his blood—savages yield much more readily than we to the influence of liquors. Osseo, with superior judgment, touched no wine, and even the youngest and handsomest of the women—my comrade was never insensible to beauty—could not induce him to do so. “White man’s medicine red man’s poison,” he said briefly to Rose Carew, though with no intent of impoliteness. I repeat that Osseo had a keen eye for beauty, and he proved it by devoting himself with all a red dandy’s gallantry to Miss Carew. When next he had a chance to speak to me unheard by others, he said with that faint, almost invisible smile of his:

“Lee should not get jealous and blame me. I can not help it. The white maiden is a sun, and she dazzles me.”

“It is not I whom you have to fear, Mr. Son-of-the-evening-star,” I replied, meeting him in the proper spirit, “but the Wyandot chief and the Long Knife whose name is the same as mine.”

“Let them meet me in the wilderness,” he said with a sudden flash in the eye, and now I knew that he was not indulging in easy trifling. “I pray Manito that the day may come quickly.”

Thus proceeded this singular entertainment, in which the most primitive and the most advanced of our country met on an equal footing, and I saw more than once the mounting fire in Hoyoquim’s eyes. I believed that his surroundings and the wine together were having some influence upon the Wyandot chief, and I watched him with eager curiosity. Presently one of the ladies hovering about him—he seemed to have for them the fascination of the snake for the bird—asked him to illustrate some custom of his race, following the lead of the whites who had sung or played. Hoyoquim was not loath, and while his eyes sparkled he replied:

“It shall be as you wish; our ways are not your ways, and Manito alone knows which are better.”

But it was obvious enough from Hoyoquim’s tone which he considered better. He spoke to his comrades, the centre of the room was left clear, and while they chanted in low, monotonous tones he danced the scalp dance, throwing the blue cloak from his shoulders and drawing from his girdle the tomahawk, through the horn handle of which he and I had once smoked the temporary pipe of peace. The subordinate chiefs never took their eyes from the face of Hoyoquim, bending upon him a look most intense and vivid, while he in torn, with the same concentration of vision, followed imaginary foes.

The scalp dance varies according to the tribe, and sometimes acording to the taste of the dancer. Hoyoquim gave to his all the tricks and adornments of his savage fancy, expressing ferocity, anticipation, triumph, and every other warlike emotion of his savage nature. His shoulders and arms were bare, and all the great, brown muscles stood out upon them as he bent and gyrated. It was no secret to me that Hoyoquim was not seeking to conceal his primitive ferocity. In the disguise of the dance, and with the maddening chant of his comrades in his ears, he let it all come forth. I knew full well, as he nourished the tomahawk, that he was looking forward to the day when he could swing it in deadly earnest over the same heads—this was but the foretaste—and Osseo, standing like a statue against the wall, knew it too.

The lady whose suggestion had been the cause of the dance repented soon of her too fertile mind, and shrank back with a cry of fright when Hoyoquim swung the tomahawk before her face. The others only laughed, liking the jest, as they called it, and applauded Hoyoquim.

The chant of the Indians ceased presently, and Hoyoquim, stopping his dance, stood erect and motionless, and began to speak, also in the monotonous tone that the Indians like.

“Listen, my white brethren,” he said, “and you shall hear a story of a great chief and a white man. The chief lived far in the wilderness, and Manito loved him, for he made him straight and strong and great in war and the chase. The chief took in battle a white maiden who was as fair as the rose, and whom he coveted for his lodge. His comrades took a white officer, a Long Knife like yourselves, and the Indians carried the white maiden and then the Long Knife to their village.”

Hoyoquim’s blazing eyes were fixed upon the face of Jasper, who was white to the brow. Osseo moved not, but both he and I knew well the tale that Hoyoquim would tell. The chief spoke with all the expressive gesture and mimicry of the Indian, his face now and then becoming so ferocious that the women shrank back afraid. But Rose Carew followed him with strained eyes and a dawning comprehension.

“The captured Long Knife,” said Hoyoquim, “loved his life and he feared the torture post. He did not wish to die like a brave warrior amid the flames, laughing at his enemies; the forest and the sky were sweet to him, and he prayed to his gods not to take him away. They heard his prayer, and told him to be no longer a Long Knife, but to become a red warrior, and he heeded. He was adopted into the tribes, and he became a brother of the chief. He put on the blanket and wore the scalp lock, and there was a tomahawk at his girdle. But his heart was false. It was blacker than the black mud of the swamp, and as foul.”

Hoyoquim paused again, and swept the circle with fiery eyes. Jasper tried to shrink back, but there was Winchester just behind him, and the muscular form of the Englishman would not yield.

“The great chief,” resumed Hoyoquim, “would take to his lodge the white maiden whom he had captured, the prize of his skill and courage, but there were other chiefs who hated him, and they said that he must wait. The Long Knife looked upon her and he coveted her too, but another Long Knife, whose skin, like his heart, is always white, that both his friends and his enemies may ever know what he is, came and gave himself for her that she might return to her own people; and the Long Knife with the black heart, breaking his oaths before Manito, slipped from the red men and went back to the whites, telling them many lies.”

Hoyoquim paused for the third time, and then, as if he were a medicine man who could learn the secrets of the future from Manito, began to prophesy.

“But the great chief only waits,” he said in his chanting voice, “for Manito has given to the red warriors both the patient heart and the strong arm. He sees from afar the white maiden who was stolen from him, and he watches her. She is yet his, and he will claim her again, taking her to his lodge, from which none can rescue her; and he watches, too, the Long Knife of the black heart, whom he hates for his broken oaths, and for whom he sharpens his tomahawk every day. When the time comes he will drive his tomahawk through the traitor’s skull, thus!”

He sprang forward, swept the tomahawk in a glittering circle over Jasper’s head, and then whirled it aloft. All the women shrieked, and Jasper stood as if paralyzed, powerless to move. But Hoyoquim, with a low laugh, let the tomahawk fall, unstained, to his side, saying, “A great chief will deal as is fitting with both his loves and his hates,” Then he stepped from the circle, and throwing his gaudy blanket again over his shoulders, resumed his phlegmatic calm. When I looked at Jasper a few moments later his face was covered with great beads of sweat, while Rose Carew was shrinking back as if frightened.

“’Twas a fine bit of acting, Black Eagle,” said General Wayne, “though perhaps savouring somewhat too much of the real to soothe the nerves of the ladies, but we thank you.”

Whether he knew the meaning of Hoyoquim’s words I could not tell from his manner, but the reception ended presently, and we went home.

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