use
of late years.

"You know me, Nick," he said sternly, "and ought to dread my
displeasure."

"What cap'in mean, now?" demanded the Indian, quietly.

"That the same whip is in this fort that I always kept in the other, in
which you knew me to dwell; nor have I forgotten how to use it."

The Tuscarora gazed at the captain with a very puzzling expression,
though, in the main, his countenance appeared to be ironical rather
than fierce.

"What for, talk of whip, now?" he said. "Even Yengeese gen'ral hide
whip, when he see enemy. Soldier can't fight when back sore. When
battle near, den all good friend; when battle over, den flog, flog,
flog. Why talk so?--Cap'in nebber strike _Wyandotte_."

"Your memory must be short, to say this! I thought an Indian kept a
better record of what passed."

"No man _dare_ strike Wyandotte!" exclaimed the Indian, with
energy. "No man--pale-face or red-skin, _can_ give blow on back of
Wyandotte, and see sun set!"

"Well--well--Nick; we will not dispute on this point, but let bye-gones
be bye-gones. What _has_ happened, _has_ happened, and I hope
will never occur again."

"Dat happen to Nick--Sassy Nick--poor, drunken Nick--to Wyandotte,
nebber!"

"I believe I begin to understand you, now, Tuscarora, and am glad I
have a chief and a warrior in my house, instead of a poor miserable
outcast. Shall I have the pleasure of filling you a glass in honour of
our old campaigns?"

"Nick alway dry--Wyandotte know no thirst. Nick, beggar--ask for
rum--_pray_ for rum--_t'ink_ of rum, _talk_ of rum, _laugh_ for rum,
_cry_ for rum. Wyandotte don't know rum, when he see him. Wyandotte
beg not'in'; no, not his scalp."

"All this sounds well, and I am both willing and glad, chief, to
receive you in the character in which you give me to understand you
have now come. A warrior of Wyandotte's high name is too proud to carry
a forked tongue in his mouth, and I shall hear nothing but truth. Tell
me, then, all you know about this party at the mill; what has brought
it here, how you came to meet my son, and what will be the next step of
his captors. Answer the questions in the order in which I put them."

"Wyandotte not newspaper to tell ebbery t'ing at once. Let cap'in talk
like one chief speaking to anoder."

"Then, tell me first, what you know of this party at the mill. Are
there many pale-faces in it?"

"Put 'em in the river," answered the Indian, sententiously; "water tell
the trut'."

"Yo