osite quarter, and, taking him prisoner,
sought to bear him off before the others could reach him. These
were the chiefs Waubansee and Winnebeg, the latter of whom, seeing
the danger of the captain from the moment when the massacre of the
children commenced, had left Mrs. Headley and Mrs. Elmsley under
the care of Black Partridge, and hastened to be of service to him
if possible. But all their efforts to save him were vain. With
rapid strides, and shouts rendered more savage than ever by the
fumes of the liquor he had swallowed, and with the scalp of the
unfortunate Von Voltenberg--who had been killed while returning to
the fort for a small flask of brandy which he had forgotten--dangling
at his side, Pee-to-tum advanced with furious speed, and, stabbing
the captain in the back, put an end to his misery. No sooner had
he fallen, than, like a vulture, the Chippewa sprang upon the
lifeless body, and, making an incision with his knife upon the
strong and full-haired crown, tore the reeking covering away,
and thus added another trophy to his disgusting spoils. This was
the signal for further outrage, Exasperated by the knowledge of
the revenge he had meditated, and the loss he had already occasioned
them, the warriors who had first followed the ill-fated Miami
leader, cut open the left side with their knives, and tore forth
the yet warm and bleeding heart, which, as well as the body itself,
they bore back in triumph to the very spot whence they had set out,
Pee-to-tum carrying his heart, pierced by the ramrod, as it protruded
a couple of feet from the barrel of his rifle.

Squatted in a circle, and within a few feet of the wagon in which
the tomahawked children lay covered with blood, and fast stiffening
in the coldness of death, now sat about twenty Indians, with
Pee-to-tum at their head, passing from hand to hand the quivering
heart of the slain man, whose eyes, straining, as it were, from
their sockets, seemed to watch the horrid repast in which they were
indulging, while the blood streamed disgustingly over their chins
and lips, and trickled over their persons. So many wolves or tigers
could not have torn away more voraciously with their teeth, or
smacked their lips with greater delight in the relish of human
food, than did these loathsome creatures, who now moistened the
nauseous repast from a black bottle of rum which had been found in
one of the wagons containing the medicine for the sick--and what
gave additional