"That
was when I was a little child, and they captured our family. But they
didn't burn me. So what have I to complain of?"

Henry could not repress a shudder, but Girty remained as cool as ice.

"Why shouldn't I be a great man among the Indians?" he said. "I know the
tricks of both white and red now. The Continentals, as they call
themselves--rebels I call them--held McKee, Eliot and myself prisoners
at Fort Pitt, the place they call Pittsburgh, but we escaped and here we
are. We've been joined by Blackstaffe, Quarles, and the boy, Braxton
Wyatt. The Indians trust us and listen to us; we're going to draw all
the valley Indians together--Shawnees, Miamis, Wyandots, Ottawas,
Delawares and Illinois--and we'll light such a flame on both sides of
the river that no white man will ever be able to put it out."

"You've got to reckon with some brave men first," said Henry.

"Yes, I know that the settlers have good woodsmen, Boone and
Kenton--Simon Kenton was my comrade once--but they are too few, and as
for this expedition to which you belonged, that is coming up the river,
we're going to cut that off, too, not only because we'll be glad to wipe
out those people, but because we want the rifles, the ammunition, the
stores, and, above all, the cannon that your fleet carries. What will
the wooden walls in Kentucky be to us when we get those big guns?"

"When you get them!" said Henry defiantly. This man inspired increasing
horror and repulsion. The exulting way in which he talked of destroying
his own people would have been incredible, had Henry merely heard of it
from others. But the man was here before his face, glorying in the deeds
that he expected to commit.

"Oh, we'll get them," said Girty confidently. "You think you can help to
keep us from it, but you won't be there when it's done. Two things are
going to be offered to you, and you'll have to choose between them."

"What are they?" asked Henry, who had resumed his calm, at least, so far
as looks went.

"It's what I mainly came here to talk to you about. Timmendiquas is
young, but he's a mighty man among the Wyandots. All the older chiefs
are willing to step aside in his favor, and when men do that without
being made to do it, there's something great in the one that's favored,
something that everybody is bound to see. He's first among the Wyandots,
and you know what that means when I tell you that the last of the
Wyandots are as good as the first of most people."