rld. Ef I ever did you
wrong, Simon Girty, I don't remember it now; and I'm very sartin I never
did nothing to merit this. You came to my house, and war treated to the
best I had, and here am I in return for't. Howsomever, the reckoning's
got to come yit atween you and your God; and so I leave you--farewell."

"But say," returned Girty, who now seemed greatly moved by the manner
and tone of Younker: "But say, old man, that you forgive me, and I will
own that I did you wrong."

"I don't know's I've any enemies, except these round here," replied the
other, feebly, "and I'd like to die at peace with all the world; but
what you ax, Simon Girty, I can't grant; it's agin my nater and
conscience; I can't say I forgive ye, for what you've done, for I don't.
I may be wrong--it may not be Christian like--but ef it's a sin, it's
one I've got to answer for myself. No, Girty, I can't forgive--pre'aps
God will--you must look to him: I can't. Girty, I can't; and so,
farewell forever! God be merciful to me a sinner," he added, looking
upward devoutly; "and ef I've done wrong, oh! pardon me, for Christ's
sake!"

With these words, the lips of Younker were sealed forever.

Girty stood and gazed upon him in silence, for a few minutes, as one
whose mind is ill at ease, and then walked slowly away, in a mood of
deep abstraction. Younker continued alive some three-quarters of an hour
longer--bearing his tortures with great fortitude--and then sunk down
with a groan and expired. The Indians then proceeded to scalp him; after
which they gradually dispersed, with the apparent satisfaction of wolves
that have gorged their fill on some sheep-fold.

When Algernon's guards returned, they found him in a swooning state,
as previously recorded; and fearful that his life might be lost, and
another day's sport thus spoiled, they immediately called in their great
medicine man, who at once set about bandaging his wound, and applying
to it such healing remedies as were known by him to be speedily
efficacious, and for which the Indians are proverbially remarkable. His
bruises were also rubbed with a soothing liquid; and by noon of the day
following, he had gained sufficient strength to start upon his journey,
accompanied by his guards.

On that journey we shall now leave him, and turn to other, and more
important events; merely remarking, by the way, lest the reader should
consider the neglect an oversight, that, on entering the Piqua village,
Oshasqu