than, looking both
bewildered and animated, as he arrived at this period of his story, "I
can't tell thee how it then happened,--whether it was a sort of
nervousness in my fingers' ends, or whether it was all an accident; but,
truly, as it happened, my gun went off in my hands, as it might be of its
own accord, and, truly, it blew the two evil creatures' brains out! And
then, friend, thee sees, there was no stopping, there being the third of
thee captivators to look after; and, truly, as I had done so much, I
thought I might as well do all,--the killing of three men being but a
little worse than the killing of two; and, besides, the creature would
have hurt thee, as thee lay at his mercy. And so, friend, I did verily
spring upon him, sinner that I am, and strike him a blow with my hatchet,
which I had taken from my belt to be ready; whereupon he fled, and I
after him, being in great fear lest, if he escaped, he should return upon
thee and kill thee, before I could get back to cut thee loose And so,
friend, it happened that--that I killed him likewise!--for which I don't
think thee can, in thee heart, blame me, seeing that it was all, over and
over again, on _thee_ account, and nobody else's. Truly, friend, it is
quite amazing, the ill things thee has brought me to!"

"Had there been twenty of the villains, and you had killed them all, I
should have held it the noblest and most virtuous act you could have
performed," said Roland, too fiercely agitated by his own contending
passions to note the strange medley of self-accusing and exculpatory
expressions, the shame-faced, conscience-stricken looks, alternating with
gleams of military fire and self-complacency, with which the man of peace
recounted his bloody exploit, or the adroit attempt, with which he
concluded it, to shuffle the responsibility of the crime, if crime it
were, from his own to the young Virginian's shoulders. At another moment,
the latter might have speculated with as much surprise as approval on
the extraordinary metamorphosis of Nathan, the man of amity and good
will, into a slayer of Indians, double-dyed in gore; but at that
juncture, he had little inclination to dwell on anything save his own
liberation and the hapless fate of his cousin.

CHAPTER XXIII.

By dint of chafing and bathing in the spring, still foul and red with the
blood of the Piankeshaws, the limbs of the soldier soon recovered their
strength, and he was able to rise, to survey