wished until now that I was a
hunter. I'd go after Girty. You've heard as well as I of his many
atrocities. I'd rather have seen Kate and Nell dead than have them
fall into his power. I'd rather have killed them myself!"
Young had aged perceptibly in these last few days. The blue veins
showed at his temples; his face had become thinner and paler, his
eyes had a look of pain. The former expression of patience, which
had sat so well on him, was gone.
"George, I can't account for my fancies or feelings, else, perhaps,
I'd be easier in mind," answered Dave. His face, too, showed the
ravages of grief. "I've had queer thoughts lately, and dreams such
as I never had before. Perhaps it's this trouble which has made me
so nervous. I don't seem able to pull myself together. I can neither
preach nor work."
"Neither can I! This trouble has hit you as hard as it has me. But,
Dave, we've still our duty. To endure, to endure--that is our life.
Because a beam of sunshine brightened, for a brief time, the gray of
our lives, and then faded away, we must not shirk nor grow sour and
discontented."
"But how cruel is this border life!"
"Nature itself is brutal."
"Yes, I know, and we have elected to spend our lives here in the
midst of this ceaseless strife, to fare poorly, to have no pleasure,
never to feel the comfort of a woman's smiles, nor the joy of a
child's caress, all because out in the woods are ten or twenty or a
hundred savages we may convert."
"That is why, and it is enough. It is hard to give up the women you
love to a black-souled renegade, but that is not for my thought.
What kills me is the horror for her--for her."
"I, too, suffer with that thought; more than that, I am morbid and
depressed. I feel as if some calamity awaited us here. I have never
been superstitious, nor have I had presentiments, but of late there
are strange fears in my mind."
At this juncture Mr. Wells and Heckewelder came out of the adjoining
cabin.
"I had word from a trustworthy runner to-day. Girty and his captives
have not been seen in the Delaware towns," said Heckewelder.
"It is most unlikely that he will take them to the towns," replied
Edwards. "What do you make of his capturing Jim?"
"For Pipe, perhaps. The Delaware Wolf is snapping his teeth. Pipe is
particularly opposed to Christianity, and--what's that?"
A low whistle from the bushes near the creek bank attracted the
attention of all. The younger men got up to in
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