by Zane Grey
“Your white-faced lover. You will find him cold,” whispered Betty. “What did he mean?”
Then came the thought. Miller had murdered Clarke. Betty gave one agonized quiver, as if a knife had been thrust into her side, and then her paralyzed limbs recovered the power of action. She flew out into the passage-way and pounded on her brother’s door.
“Eb! Eb! Get up! Quickly, for God’s sake!” she cried. A smothered exclamation, a woman’s quick voice, the heavy thud of feet striking the floor followed Betty’s alarm. Then the door opened.
“Hello, Betts, what’s up?” said Col. Zane, in his rapid voice.
At the same moment the door at the end of the hall opened and Isaac came out.
“Eb, Betty, I heard voices out doors and in the house. What’s the row?”
“Oh, Isaac! Oh, Eb! Something terrible has happened!” cried Betty, breathlessly.
“Then it is no time to get excited,” said the Colonel, calmly. He placed his arm round Betty and drew her into the room. “Isaac, get down the rifles. Now, Betty, time is precious. Tell me quickly, briefly.”
“I was awakened by a stone rolling on the floor. I ran to the window and saw a man by the fence. He came under my window and I saw it was Miller. He said he was going to join Girty. He said if I would go with him he would save the lives of all my relatives. If I would not they would all be killed, massacred, burned alive, and I would be taken away as his captive. I told him I’d rather die before I’d go with him. Then he said we were all doomed, and that my white-faced lover was already cold. With that he gave a laugh which made my flesh creep and ran on toward the river. Oh! he has murdered Mr. Clarke.”
“Hell! What a fiend!” cried Col. Zane, hurriedly getting into his clothes. “Betts, you had a gun in there. Why didn’t you shoot him? Why didn’t I pay more attention to Wetzel’s advice?”
“You should have allowed Clarke to kill him yesterday,” said Isaac. “Like as not he’ll have Girty here with a lot of howling devils. What’s to be done?”
“I’ll send Wetzel after him and that’ll soon wind up his ball of yarn,” answered Col. Zane.
“Please — go — and find — if Mr. Clarke—”
“Yes, Betty, I’ll go at once. You must not lose courage, Betty. It’s quite probable that Miller has killed Alfred and that there’s worse to follow.”
“I’ll come, Eb, as soon as I have told Myeerah. She is scared half to death,” said Isaac, starting for the door.
“All right, only hurry,” said Col. Zane, grabbing his rifle. Without wasting more words, and lacing up his hunting shirt as he went he ran out of the room.
The first rays of dawn came streaking in at the window. The chill gray light brought no cheer with its herald of the birth of another day. For what might the morning sun disclose? It might shine on a long line of painted Indians. The fresh breeze from over the river might bring the long war whoop of the savage.
No wonder Noah and his brother, awakened by the voice of their father, sat up in their little bed and looked about with frightened eyes. No wonder Mrs. Zane’s face blanched. How many times she had seen her husband grasp his rifle and run out to meet danger!
“Bessie,” said Betty. “If it’s true I will not be able to bear it. It’s all my fault.”
“Nonsense! You heard Eb say Miller and Clarke had quarreled before. They hated each other before they ever saw you.”
A door banged, quick footsteps sounded on the stairs, and Isaac came rushing into the room. Betty, deathly pale, stood with her hands pressed to her bosom, and looked at Isaac with a question in her eyes that her tongue could not speak.
“Betty, Alfred’s badly hurt, but he’s alive. I can tell you no more now,” said Isaac. “Bessie, bring your needle, silk linen, liniment — everything you need for a bad knife wound, and come quickly.”
Betty’s haggard face changed as if some warm light had been reflected on it; her lips moved, and with a sob of thankfulness she fled to her room.
Two hours later, while Annie was serving breakfast to Betty and Myeerah, Col. Zane strode into the room.
“Well, one has to eat whatever happens,” he said, his clouded face brightening somewhat. “Betty, there’s been bad work, bad work. When I got to Clarke’s room I found him lying on the bed with a knife sticking in him. As it is we are doubtful about pulling him through.”
“May I see him?” whispered Betty, with pale lips.
“If the worst comes to the worst I’ll take you over. But it would do no good now and would surely unnerve you. He still has a fighting chance.”
“Did they fight, or was Mr. Clarke stabbed in his sleep?”
“Miller climbed into Clarke’s window and knifed him in the dark. As I came over I met Wetzel and told him I wanted him to trail Miller and find if there is any truth in his threat about Girty and the Indians. Sam just now found Tige tied fast in the fence corner back of the barn. That explains the mystery of Miller’s getting so near the house. You know he always took pains to make friends with Tige. The poor dog was helpless; his legs were tied and his jaws bound fast. Oh, Miller is as cunning as an Indian! He has had this all planned out, and he has had more than one arrow to his bow. But, if I mistake not he has shot his last one.”
“Miller must be safe from pursuit by this time,” said Betty.
“Safe for the present, yes,” answered Col. Zane, “but while Jonathan and Wetzel live I would not give a snap of my fingers for Miller’s chances. Hello, I hear some one talking. I sent for Jack and the Major.”
The Colonel threw open the door. Wetzel, Major McColloch, Jonathan and Silas Zane were approaching. They were all heavily armed. Wetzel was equipped for a long chase. Double leggins were laced round his legs. A buckskin knapsack was strapped to his shoulders.
“Major, I want you and Jonathan to watch the river,” said Col. Zane. “Silas, you are to go to the mouth of Yellow Creek and reconnoiter. We are in for a siege. It may be twenty-four hours and it may be ten days. In the meantime I will get the Fort in shape to meet the attack. Lewis, you have your orders. Have you anything to suggest?”
“I’ll take the dog,” answered Wetzel. “He’ll save time for me. I’ll stick to Miller’s trail and find Girty’s forces. I’ve believed all along that Miller was helpin’ Girty, and I’m thinkin’ that where Miller goes there I’ll find Girty and his redskins. If it’s night when I get back I’ll give the call of the hoot-owl three times, quick, so Jack and the Major will know I want to get back across the river.”
“All right, Lewis, we’ll be expecting you any time,” said Col. Zane.
“Betty, I’m goin’ now and I want to tell you somethin’,” said Wetzel, as Betty appeared. “Come as far as the end of the path with me.”
“I’m sorry you must go. But Tige seems delighted,” said Betty, walking beside Wetzel, while the dog ran on before.
“Betty, I wanted to tell you to stay close like to the house, fer this feller Miller has been layin’ traps fer you, and the Injuns is on the war-path. Don’t ride your pony, and stay home now.”
“Indeed, I shall never again do anything as foolish as I did yesterday. I have learned my lesson. And Oh! Lew, I am so grateful to you for saving me. When will you return to the Fort?”
“Mebbe never, Betty.”
“Oh, no. Don’t say that. I know all this Indian talk will blow over, as it always does, and you will come back and everything will be all right again.”
“I hope it’ll be as you say, Betty, but there’s no tellin’, there’s no tellin’.”
“You are going to see if the Indians are making preparations to besiege the Fort?”
“Yes, I am goin’ fer that. And if I happen to find Miller on my way I’ll give him Betty’s regards.”
Betty shivered at his covert meaning. Long ago in a moment of playfulness, Betty had scratched her name on the hunter’s rifle. Ever after that Wetzel called his fatal weapon by her name.
“If you were going simply to avenge I would no
t let you go. That wretch will get his just due some day, never fear for that.”
“Betty, ‘taint likely he’ll get away from me, and if he does there’s Jonathan. This mornin’ when we trailed Miller down to the river bank Jonathan points across the river and says: ‘You or me,’ and I says: ‘Me,’ so it’s all settled.”
“Will Mr. Clarke live?” said Betty, in an altered tone, asking the question which was uppermost in her mind.
“I think so, I hope so. He’s a husky young chap and the cut wasn’t bad. He lost so much blood. That’s why he’s so weak. If he gets well he’ll have somethin’ to tell you.”
“Lew, what do you mean?” demanded Betty, quickly.
“Me and him had a long talk last night and—”
“You did not go to him and talk of me, did you?” said Betty, reproachfully.
They had now reached the end of the path. Wetzel stopped and dropped the butt of his rifle on the ground. Tige looked on and wagged his tail. Presently the hunter spoke.
“Yes, we talked about you.”
“Oh! Lewis. What did — could you have said?” faltered Betty.
“You think I hadn’t ought to speak to him of you?”
“I do not see why you should. Of course you are my good friend, but he — it is not like you to speak of me.”
“Fer once I don’t agree with you. I knew how it was with him so I told him. I knew how it was with you so I told him, and I know how it is with me, so I told him that too.”
“With you?” whispered Betty.
“Yes, with me. That kind of gives me a right, don’t it, considerin’ it’s all fer your happiness?”
“With you?” echoed Betty in a low tone. She was beginning to realize that she had not known this man. She looked up at him. His eyes were misty with an unutterable sadness.
“Oh, no! No! Lew. Say it is not true,” she cried, piteously. All in a moment Betty’s burdens became too heavy for her. She wrung her little hands. Her brother’s kindly advice, Bessie’s warnings, and old Grandmother Watkins’ words came back to her. For the first time she believed what they said — that Wetzel loved her. All at once the scales fell from her eyes and she saw this man as he really was. All the thousand and one things he had done for her, his simple teaching, his thoughtfulness, his faithfulness, and his watchful protection — all came crowding on her as debts that she could never pay. For now what could she give this man to whom she owed more than her life? Nothing. It was too late. Her love could have reclaimed him, could have put an end to that solitary wandering, and have made him a good, happy man.
“Yes, Betty, it’s time to tell it. I’ve loved you always,” he said softly.
She covered her face and sobbed. Wetzel put his arm round her and drew her to him until the dark head rested on his shoulder. Thus they stood a moment.
“Don’t cry, little one,” he said, tenderly. “Don’t grieve fer me. My love fer you has been the only good in my life. It’s been happiness to love you. Don’t think of me. I can see you and Alfred in a happy home, surrounded by bright-eyed children. There’ll be a brave lad named fer me, and when I come, if I ever do, I’ll tell him stories, and learn him the secrets of the woods, and how to shoot, and things I know so well.”
“I am so wretched — so miserable. To think I have been so — so blind, and I have teased you — and — it might have been — only now it’s too late,” said Betty, between her sobs.
“Yes, I know, and it’s better so. This man you love rings true. He has learnin’ and edication. I have nothin’ but muscle and a quick eye. And that’ll serve you and Alfred when you are in danger. I’m goin’ now. Stand here till I’m out of sight.”
“Kiss me goodbye,” whispered Betty.
The hunter bent his head and kissed her on the brow. Then he turned and with a rapid step went along the bluff toward the west. When he reached the laurel bushes which fringed the edge of the forest he looked back. He saw the slender gray clad figure standing motionless in the narrow path. He waved his hand and then turned and plunged into the forest. The dog looked back, raised his head and gave a long, mournful howl. Then, he too disappeared.
A mile west of the settlement Wetzel abandoned the forest and picked his way down the steep bluff to the river. Here he prepared to swim to the western shore. He took off his buckskin garments, spread them out on the ground, placed his knapsack in the middle, and rolling all into a small bundle tied it round his rifle. Grasping the rifle just above the hammer he waded into the water up to his waist and then, turning easily on his back he held the rifle straight up, allowing the butt to rest on his breast. This left his right arm unhampered. With a powerful back-arm stroke he rapidly swam the river, which was deep and narrow at this point. In a quarter of an hour he was once more in his dry suit.
He was now two miles below the island, where yesterday the Indians had been concealed, and where this morning Miller had crossed. Wetzel knew Miller expected to be trailed, and that he would use every art and cunning of woodcraft to elude his pursuers, or to lead them into a death-trap. Wetzel believed Miller had joined the Indians, who had undoubtedly been waiting for him, or for a signal from him, and that he would use them to ambush the trail.
Therefore Wetzel decided he would try to strike Miller’s tracks far west of the river. He risked a great deal in attempting this because it was possible he might fail to find any trace of the spy. But Wetzel wasted not one second. His course was chosen. With all possible speed, which meant with him walking only when he could not run, he traveled northwest. If Miller had taken the direction Wetzel suspected, the trails of the two men would cross about ten miles from the Ohio. But the hunter had not traversed more than a mile of the forest when the dog put his nose high in the air and growled. Wetzel slowed down into a walk and moved cautiously onward, peering through the green aisles of the woods. A few rods farther on Tige uttered another growl and put his nose to the ground. He found a trail. On examination Wetzel discovered in the moss two moccasin tracks. Two Indians had passed that point that morning. They were going northwest directly toward the camp of Wingenund. Wetzel stuck close to the trail all that day and an hour before dusk he heard the sharp crack of a rifle. A moment afterward a doe came crashing through the thicket to Wetzel’s right and bounding across a little brook she disappeared.
A tree with a bushy, leafy top had been uprooted by a storm and had fallen across the stream at this point. Wetzel crawled among the branches. The dog followed and lay down beside him. Before darkness set in Wetzel saw that the clear water of the brook had been roiled; therefore, he concluded that somewhere upstream Indians had waded into the brook. Probably they had killed a deer and were getting their evening meal.
Hours passed. Twilight deepened into darkness. One by one the stars appeared; then the crescent moon rose over the wooded hill in the west, and the hunter never moved. With his head leaning against the log he sat quiet and patient. At midnight he whispered to the dog, and crawling from his hiding place glided stealthily up the stream. Far ahead from the dark depths of the forest peeped the flickering light of a camp-fire. Wetzel consumed a half hour in approaching within one hundred feet of this light. Then he got down on his hands and knees and crawled behind a tree on top of the little ridge which had obstructed a view of the camp scene.
From this vantage point Wetzel saw a clear space surrounded by pines and hemlocks. In the center of this glade a fire burned briskly. Two Indians lay wrapped in their blankets, sound asleep. Wetzel pressed the dog close to the ground, laid aside his rifle, drew his tomahawk, and lying flat on his breast commenced to work his way, inch by inch, toward the sleeping savages. The tall ferns trembled as the hunter wormed his way among them, but there was no sound, not a snapping of a twig nor a rustling of a leaf. The nightwind sighed softly through the pines; it blew the bright sparks from the burning logs, and fanned the embers into a red glow; it swept caressingly over the sleeping savages, but it could not warn them that another wind, the Wind-of-Death, was near at
hand.
A quarter of an hour elapsed. Nearer and nearer; slowly but surely drew the hunter. With what wonderful patience and self-control did this cold-blooded Nemesis approach his victims! Probably any other Indian slayer would have fired his rifle and then rushed to combat with a knife or a tomahawk. Not so Wetzel. He scorned to use powder. He crept forward like a snake gliding upon its prey. He slid one hand in front of him and pressed it down on the moss, at first gently, then firmly, and when he had secured a good hold he slowly dragged his body forward the length of his arm. At last his dark form rose and stood over the unconscious Indians, like a minister of Doom. The tomahawk flashed once, twice in the firelight, and the Indians, without a moan, and with a convulsive quivering and straightening of their bodies, passed from the tired sleep of nature to the eternal sleep of death.
Foregoing his usual custom of taking the scalps, Wetzel hurriedly left the glade. He had found that the Indians were Shawnees and he had expected they were Delawares. He knew Miller’s red comrades belonged to the latter tribe. The presence of Shawnees so near the settlement confirmed his belief that a concerted movement was to be made on the whites in the near future. He would not have been surprised to find the woods full of redskins. He spent the remainder of that night close under the side of a log with the dog curled up beside him.
Next morning Wetzel ran across the trail of a white man and six Indians. He tracked them all that day and half of the night before he again rested. By noon of the following day he came in sight of the cliff from which Jonathan Zane had watched the sufferings of Col. Crawford. Wetzel now made his favorite move, a wide detour, and came up on the other side of the encampment.
From the top of the bluff he saw down into the village of the Delawares. The valley was alive with Indians; they were working like beavers; some with weapons, some painting themselves, and others dancing war-dances. Packs were being strapped on the backs of ponies. Everywhere was the hurry and bustle of the preparation for war. The dancing and the singing were kept up half the night.
