by John Buchan
CHAPTER XXVI.
SHALAH.
I came out of the wood a new being. My wounded arm and my torn andinflamed limbs were forgotten. I held my head high, and walked like afree man. It was not that I had slain my enemy and been delivered fromdeadly peril, nor had I any clearer light on my next step. But I hadsuddenly got the conviction that God was on my side, and that I neednot fear what man could do unto me. You may call it the madness of alad whose body and spirit had been tried to breaking-point. But,madness or no, it gave me infinite courage, and in that hour I wouldhave dared every savage on earth.
I found some Indians at the edge of the wood, and told one who spokePowhatan the issue of the fight. I flung the broken arrow on theground.
"That is my token," I said. "You will find the other in the pool belowthe cascade."
Then I strode towards the tents, looking every man I passed squarely inthe eyes. No one spoke, no one hindered me; every face was like agraven image.
I reached the teepee in which I had spent the night, and flung myselfdown on the rude couch. In a minute I was sunk in a heavy sleep.
I woke to see two men standing in the tent door. One was the chiefOnotawah, and the other a tall Indian who wore no war paint.
They came towards me, and the light fell on the face of the second. Tomy amazement I recognized Shalah. He put a finger on his lip, and,though my heart clamoured for news, I held my peace.
They squatted on a heap of skins and spoke in their own tongue. ThenShalah addressed me in English.
"The maiden is safe, brother. There will be no more fighting at thestockade. Those who assaulted us were of my own tribe, and yesterday Ireasoned with them."
Then he spoke to the chief, and translated for me.
"He says that you have endured the ordeal of the stake, and have slainyour enemy in fight, and that now you will go before the great Sachemfor his judgment. That is the custom of our people."
He turned to Onotawah again, and his tone was high and scornful. Hespoke as if he were the chief and the other were the minion, and, whatwas strangest of all, Onotawah replied meekly. Shalah rose to his feetand strode to the door, pointing down the glen with his hand. He seemedto menace the other, his nostrils quivered with contempt, and his voicewas barbed with passion. Onotawah bowed his head and said nothing.
Then he seemed to dismiss him, and the proud chief walked out of theteepee like a disconsolate schoolboy.
Instantly Shalah turned to me and inquired about my wounds. He lookedat the hole in my arm and at my scorched legs, and from his belt took aphial of ointment, which he rubbed on the former. He passed his coolhands over my brow, and felt the beating of my heart.
"You are weary, brother, and somewhat scarred, but there is no gravehurt. What of the Master?"
I told him of Ringan's end. He bent his head, and then sprang up andheld his hands high, speaking in a strange tongue. I looked at hiseyes, and they were ablaze with fire.
"My people slew him," he cried. "By the shades of my fathers, a scoreshall keep him company as slaves in the Great Hunting-ground."
"Talk no more of blood," I said. "He was amply avenged. 'Twas I whoslew him, for he died to save me. He made a Christian end, and I willnot have his memory stained by more murders. But oh, Shalah, what a mandied yonder!"
He made me tell every incident of the story, and he cried out,impassive though he was, at the sword-play in the neck of the gorge.
"I have seen it," he cried. "I have seen his bright steel flash and mengo down like ripe fruit. Tell me, brother, did he sing all the while,as was his custom? Would I had been by his side!"
Then he told me of what had befallen at the stockade.
"The dead man told me a tale, for by the mark on his forehead I knewthat he was of my own house. When you and the Master had gone I wentinto the woods and picked up the trail of our foes. I found them in acrook of the hills, and went among them in peace. They knew me, and myword was law unto them. No living thing will come near the stockadesave the wild beasts of the forest. Be at ease in thy mind, brother."
The news was a mighty consolation, but I was still deeply mystified.
"You speak of your tribe. But these men were no Senecas."
He smiled gravely. "Listen, brother," he said. "The white men of theTidewater called me Seneca, and I suffered the name. But I am of agreater and princelier house than the Sons of the Cat. Some littlewhile ago I spoke to you of the man who travelled to the Western Seas,and of his son who returned to his own people. I am the son of him whoreturned. I spoke of the doings of my own kin."
"But what is your nation, then?" I cried.
"One so great that these little clanlets of Cherokee and Monacan, andeven the multitudes of the Long House, are but slaves and horseboys bytheir side. We dwelt far beyond these mountains towards the settingsun, in a plain where the rivers are like seas, and the cornlands widerthan all the Virginian manors. But there came trouble in our royalhouse, and my father returned to find a generation which had forgottenthe deeds of their forefathers. So he took his own tribe, who stillremembered the House of the Sun, and, because his heart was unquietwith longing for that which is forbidden to man, he journeyedeastward, and found a new home in a valley of these hills. Thine eyeshave seen it. They call it the Shenandoah."
I remembered that smiling Eden I had seen from that hill-top, and howShalah had spoken that very name.
"We dwelt there," he continued, "while I grew to manhood, livinghappily in peace, hunting the buffalo and deer, and tilling ourcornlands. Then the time came when the Great Spirit called for myfather, and I was left with the kingship of the tribe. Strange thingsmeantime had befallen our nation in the West. Broken clans had comedown from the north, and there had been many battles, and there hadbeen blight, and storms, and sickness, so that they were grown poor andharassed. Likewise men had arisen who preached to them discontent, andother races of a lesser breed had joined themselves to them. My owntribe had become fewer, for the young men did not stay in our valley,but drifted back to the West, to that nation we had come from, or wentnorth to the wars with the white man, or became lonely hunters in thehills. Then from the south along the mountain crests came anotherpeople, a squat and murderous people, who watched us from the ridgesand bided their chance."
"The Cherokees?" I asked.
"Even so. I speak of a hundred moons back, when I was yet a stripling,with little experience in war. I saw the peril, but I could not thinkthat such a race could vie with the Children of the Sun. But one blacknight, in the Moon of Wildfowl, the raiders descended in a torrent andtook us unprepared. What had been a happy people dwelling with fullbarns and populous wigwams became in a night a desolation. Our wivesand children were slain or carried captive, and on every Cherokee belthung the scalps of my warriors. Some fled westwards to our nation, butthey were few that lived, and the tribe of Shalah went out like a torchin a roaring river.
"I slew many men that night, for the gods of my fathers guided my arm.Death I sought, but could not find it; and by and by I was alone in thewoods, with twenty scars and a heart as empty as a gourd. Then I turnedmy steps to the rising sun and the land of the white man, for there wasno more any place for me in the councils of my own people.
"All this was many moons ago, and since then I have been a wandereramong strangers. While I reigned in my valley I heard of the whiteman's magic and of the power of his gods, and I longed to prove them.Now I have learned many things which were hid from the eyes of ouroldest men. I have learned that a man may be a great brave, and yetgentle and merciful, as was the Master, I have learned that a man maybe a lover of peace and quiet ways and have no lust of battle in hisheart, and yet when the need comes be more valiant than the best, evenas you, brother. I have learned that the God of the white men wasHimself a man who endured the ordeal of the stake for the welfare ofHis enemies. I have seen cruelty and cowardice and folly among Hisworshippers; but I have also seen that His faith can put spirit into acoward's heart, and make heroes of mean men. I
do not grudge my yearsof wandering. They have taught me such knowledge as the Sachems of mynation never dreamed of, and they have given me two comrades after myown heart. One was he who died yesterday, and the other is now by myside."
These words of Shalah did not make me proud, for things were tooserious for vanity. But they served to confirm in me my strangeexaltation. I felt as one dedicated to a mighty task.
"Tell me, what is the invasion which threatens the Tidewater?"
"The whole truth is not known to me; but from the speech of mytribesmen, it seems that the Children of the West Wind, twelve moonsago, struck their tents and resolved to seek a new country. There is arestlessness comes upon all Indian peoples once in every fivegenerations. It fell upon my grandfather, and he travelled towards thesunset, and now it has fallen upon the whole race of the Sun. As theywere on the eve of journeying there came to them a prophet, who toldthem that God would lead them not towards the West, as was thetradition of the elders, but eastwards to the sea and the dwellings ofthe Palefaces."
"Is that the crazy white man we have heard of?"
"He is of your race, brother. What his spell is I know not, but itworks mightily among my people. They tell me that he hath bodilyconverse with devils, and that God whispers His secrets to him in thenight-watches. His God hath told him--so runs the tale--that He hathchosen the Children of the Sun for His peculiar people, and laid onthem the charge of sweeping the white men off the earth and reigning intheir stead from the hills to the Great Waters."
"Do you believe in this madman, Shalah?" I asked.
"I know not," he said, with a troubled face. "I fear one possessed ofGod. But of this I am sure, that the road of the Children of the WestWind lies not eastward but westward, and that no good can come of warwith the white man. This Sachem hath laid his magic on others than ourpeople, for the Cherokee nation and all the broken clans of the hillsacknowledge him and do his bidding. He is a soldier as well as aprophet, for he has drilled and disposed his army like a master ofwar."
"Will your tribe ally themselves with Cherokee murderers?"
"I asked that question of this man Onotawah, and he liked it little. Hesays that his people distrust this alliance with a race they scorn, andI do not think they pine for the white man's war. But they are underthe magic of this prophet, and presently, when blood begins to flow,they will warm to their work. In time they will be broken, but thattime will not be soon, and meanwhile there will be nothing left alivebetween the hills and the bay of Chesapeake."
"Do you know their plans?" I asked.
"The Cherokees have served their purpose," he said. "Your forecast wasright, brother. They have drawn the fire of the Border, and been drivenin a rabble far south to the Roanoke and the Carolina mountains. Thatis as the prophet planned. And now, while the white men hang up theirmuskets and rejoice heedlessly in their triumph, my nation prepares tostrike. To-night the moon is full, and the prophet makes intercessionwith his God. To-morrow at dawn they march, and by twilight they willhave swarmed across the Border."
"Have you no power over your own people?"
"But little," he answered. "I have been too long absent from them, andmy name is half forgotten. Yet, were they free of this prophet, I thinkI might sway them, for I know their ways, and I am the son of theirancient kings. But for the present his magic holds them in thrall. Theylisten in fear to one who hath the ear of God."
I arose, stretched my arms, and yawned.
"They carry me to this Sachem," I said. "Well and good. I will outfacethis blasphemous liar, whoever he may be. If he makes big magic, I willmake bigger. The only course is the bold course. If I can humble thisprophet man, will you dissuade your nation from war and send them backto the sunset?"
"Assuredly," he said wonderingly. "But what is your plan, brother?"
"None," I answered. "God will show me the way. Honesty may trust in Himas well as madness."
"By my father's shade, you are a man, brother," and he gave me theIndian salute.
"A very weary, feckless cripple of a man," I said, smiling. "But thearmies of Heaven are on my side, Shalah. Take my pistols and Ringan'ssword. I am going into this business with no human weapons." And asthey set me on an Indian horse and the whole tribe turned their eyes tothe higher glens, I actually rejoiced. Light-hearted or light-headed, Iknow not which I was, but I know that I had no fear.
