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Colonel Shepherd had many trusty and efficient scouts on the watch; but Girty deceived them all and actually brought his whole force of between four and five hundred Indians before Fort Henry before his real object was discovered. On the 26th, an alarm being given all the inhabitants in the vicinity repaired to the fort for safety.
"Three white captives, two of 'em women," uttered the hunter, as if weighing in his mind the importance of this fact. "Were those women on the raft?" questioned Joe, and as Wetzel only nodded, he continued, "A white man and two women, six warriors, Silvertip, and that renegade, Jim Girty!" Wetzel deigned not to answer Joe's passionate outburst, but maintained silence and his rigid posture.
He observed, in a taunting tone, that most of the prisoners had said, that the white people would not injure him, if the chance of war was to throw him into their power; but that for his own part, he should be loath to try the experiment. What is your opinion, doctor? Do you think they would be glad to see me?" Still Knight made no answer, and in a few minutes Girty rejoined the Indians.
Girty remained with the savages and took part in the war which they carried on against our people long after our peace with the British. He was at the terrible defeat of St. Clair in 1791, and he had been present at the burning of Colonel Crawford in 1782.
Deering had stood with bloodshot eyes fixed on Nell while Girty searched the loft, and as they passed the girl on their way to the open air, the renegade looked at Girty as he motioned with his head toward her. His besotted face expressed some terrible meaning. Girty had looked at Nell when he first entered, but had not glanced twice at her.
Ella, downcast and frightened, tremblingly retraced her steps, and could only observe the pale faces and fatigued looks of her relatives and the little girl at a distance; but she saw enough to send a thrill of anguish to her heart; and Girty, who perceived the expressions of agony her sweet features now displayed, at once advanced to her, and, modulating his voice somewhat from its usual tones, said: "Grieve not, Ella.
Many of the men were aware that on more than one occasion the Indians had indeed brought cannon with them, and by their aid had succeeded in destroying two of the stations. All became silent when Simon Girty once more stood up to reply. "It is too bad," began the renegade, "it's a pity that such people should be tomahawked and scalped!
The cruel face of this man, the boastful barbarity of his manner, the long, dark, bloody history which his presence recalled, was, indeed, terrifying without the added horror of his intent toward her, but now the self-forgetfulness of a true woman sustained her. Girty and Deering backed out of the door. Heckewelder closed it, and dropped the bar in place.
"Kill 'em all; kill everybody," cried Deering in drunken glee. He took the club and pounded with it on the ground. Pipe repeated his former performance, as also did Half King, after which he handed the black, knotted symbol of death to Jim Girty. Three had declared for saving the Christians, and three for the death penalty. Six pairs of burning eyes were fastened on the Deaths-head.
He fought with the Indians at Proctor's defeat on the Thames in 1814, and was among those who were here cut down and trodden under foot by Colonel Johnson's regiment of mounted Kentuckians. Of the birth-place and family of Simon Girty we have not been able to procure any satisfactory information.