th numerous gifts. All this was a
great blow to Thomas Norman, although he continued to inflame the few
Indians who still remained rebellious as well as the renegade white men.

His wife, a gentle and refined woman, never agreed with him in his
disloyalty to the King. At first she pleaded and reasoned, but at last
gave up in despair, and devoted herself to her simple household
affairs, and the training of her one child, the only comfort of her
solitary life. When at length she left him and he laid her body to
rest at the foot of a big pine tree, he was a heart-broken man. He
understood when it was too late what she had meant to him. Then when
Dane, influenced by his mother's teaching, left him to become one of
the King's rangers, his cup of sorrow was filled to overflowing. For
months after he lived a lonely life within his silent house, dreaded by
the slashers and Indians alike. The latter shunned his solitary abode,
and always spoke of him on rare occasions as the chief with the
"twisted head."

When, however, the English forces were defeated, and the war brought to
a close, Norman's hopes again revived. He became active once more,
feeling certain that the Indians and others would now side with the
conquerors and wrest England's grip from the valley of the St. John
River. The King's mast-cutters had been a source of continual worry to
him. Why should those great pines be used for the royal navy? he
asked. They belonged to the natives and other occupants of the land,
and should be reserved for future needs. The marking of the choicest
trees with the broad arrow filled his heart with bitterness, and his
words so aroused the rebel brood around him that they decided to drive
the mast-cutters out of the country, and put a stop to the business.
The arrival of thousands of Loyalists also stirred him deeply, and he
spread the report, which was readily taken up, that the newcomers would
settle on all the good land, slaughter the game, and force the rightful
owners to leave.

The failure of the attempt upon the Loyalists during the fall, and the
carrying of Flazeet and Rauchad to Fort Howe had only embittered the
rebels who had not taken part in the affair. They roused to action,
and determined to wreak revenge upon the mast-cutters between the St.
John and the A-jem-sek. They had arranged their plans with much
secrecy, but they learned at the last minute that in some mysterious
manner word had reached the rang