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There was no receptacle at hand in which the dice could be placed. Teganisoris stooped, and without ceremony wrenched from Mary Connynge's foot the moccasin which covered it the little shoe beaded, beautiful, and now again fateful. Sir Arthur smiled as though in actual joy. "My friend," said he, "I have won! This might be the very slipper for which we played at the Green Lion long ago."
Their weapons were snatched away from them, and on the instant they found themselves beyond all possibility of that resistance whose giving over they now bitterly repented. Teganisoris regarded them with a sardonic smile. "I see you are all English," said he, "though some of you wear blue coats.
"Unless my eyes deceive me," said he, "'tis old Teganisoris himself, one of the head men of the Onondagos. If so, there is some hope, for Teganisoris is wise enough to know when peace is best." It was, indeed, that noted chieftain of the Iroquois who now advanced close up to the wall.
If Mary Connynge hated John Law, or if she loved him ah! how must have pulsed her heart in agony, or in bitterness, as she took into her hand those lots which were the arbiters of life and death! Teganisoris looked about him and spoke a few rapid words. He caught Mary Connynge roughly by the shoulder and pulled her forward. The two men stood with faces set and gray in the pitiless light of morn.
From village to village, footsore and ill, they were hurried without rest, at each new stopping place the central figures of a barbarous triumph; and nowhere did they meet the representatives of either the French or the English government, whose expected presence had constituted their one ground of hope. "Where is your big peace?" asked Teganisoris of Pembroke. "Where are the head men of Corlaer?
We could fight forever if we chose, and he can see for himself by the bodies of his young men how well we are able to make war." "It is well," replied Teganisoris. "You have the word of an Iroquois that this shall be done, as I have said." "The word of an Iroquois!" cried Pierre Noir, slamming down the butt of his musket. "The word of a snake, say rather!
If the red die fell flat upon its face at a point near to the line, it was apt to lie close to the spot where it dropped. On the other hand, did it alight upon either end, it might bound back and fall at some little distance upon one side of the line. It was this game which, in horrible fashion, Teganisoris now proposed to play.
He pushed aside the young men, and demanded that he be brought to the chief of the village. Teganisoris himself presently advanced to meet him, and of him Joncaire demanded that there should at once be called a full council of the tribe; with which request the chief of the Onondagos hastened to comply.
"As I said, my friend," cried Sir Arthur, "I have won! The throw is passing close for you." Teganisoris again caught Mary Connynge by the shoulder, and dragged her a step or so farther along the line, the two dice being left on the ground as they had fallen. Once more, her hand arose, once more it turned, once more the dice were cast.
"They say," broke in Pierre Noir, who had been listening to the excited harangues of first one warrior and then another, "that both warriors are great chiefs, and that both should go together. Teganisoris insists that only one shall be offered. This last has been almost agreed; but which one of you 'tis to be has not yet been determined."
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